Pop Rocks

No, I'm not professing my love for pop music; I'm professing my love for the pop rock candy. Seriously, I must have been deprived as a kid, because only now, when I'm almost 22, have I discovered the joys of pop rock candy. I have never heard of it before, but apparently it has been around for a very long time. I'm now sitting here typing this blog entry out while eating my pop rocks. It's such a novel sensation, feeling the little explosions in your mouth and hearing the loud sizzle and crackle.

I only came across it because Victor and I were at McDonald's and their new McFlurry flavour was pop rocks. I've never tried it before, so I proceeded to buy one. And according to Victor, by the time we got to the car, I was "giggling like a little schoolgirl."

Eye Exams

I'm really should be studying for finals, but I have a nasty habit of procrastinating. So that's why I'm blogging now.

I got virtually no work done over the weekend, because I went back to TO. I find that I can't get any work done in TO. It's strange, but my family is even a bigger distraction than the distractions in waterloo. Actually it's probably because I'm too busy going out to do any work. My dad had his lab's students over for a dinner BBQ on sat, which I helped out with by grilling all the meat. It's scary though, because these students are just a few years older than myself and outside of this setting, they could be my friend. I remember when I was a kid, my dad's students seemed like really old people, but now they just seem a lot like myself. All I'm saying is that it feels weird.

Sunday was a Banquet for my uncle's grandma 80th birthday. I haven't been to one in a long time, and the food was good. The best part? I got to bring some food back with me to waterloo. :)

It sounds a little strange, but on mon, I played a game of chess with a professor of mine. Our ECE222 (Digital Computers) prof. came to our class lunch (where we had invited a whole bunch of proffessors) and there happened to be a chess board in the faculty lounge. I was playing a friend, when the professor started watching. He was like, "yo, i got next." Actually no, he didn't say that, I made that up...but he did play in the next game. We were playing in teams. I don't think chess is much of a team game, but after a really, really close game, the professor's team ended up winning. Ah boo. It was fun though. And it was kinda funny since you could tell that none of us really played a lot of chess. The weird part was later that night, I was at Soeby's (24hr grocery store) with a couple of my housmates at midnight, and the same professor was there! He was buying toilet paper. And then it gets weirder...we saw a TA for the course there as well. He was buying shampoo. We were buying candy. I don't know where I'm going with this story...

Anyway, back to the topic in the title of this post. I don't know if this ever happens to anyone else, but I often get into situations where my eyes just give up on me. It gets to a point where I can't keep them open any longer because they hurt. Then I have to lie down and get some sleep. It usually happens when I do a lot of reading... But it's really annoying - I could be reading something interesting and I can't continue on account of my eyes. A few nights ago I was reading a whole bunch of articles from this interesting site. He's a columnist of the New Yorker (which I added as a link on my page) and he posted his articles up. I've never read anyting from the New Yorker seriously before (probably because I was too young), but, wow, i'm impressed. The writing is of top quality and the topics are often quite interesting. I recommend all the following articles I read that night:

The Naked Face
Can you read people's thoughts just by looking at them?

---This article is about being able to read people's true feeling from their facial expressions. A few scientists have actually tried to quantify this process by studying the muscles in the face and the possible facial expressions that can be generated. It's called Facial Action Coding System (FACS). I found this topic fascinating. I also found out that the researcher is a consultant for Half-Life2 (a computer game, if you haven't heard of it), which is going to be awesome. If you haven't checked out the E3 presentation on it, check it out, because it's pretty cool.

The Talent Myth
Are smart people overrated?

---This one is actually mostly about ENRON. I never realized what the culture at ENRON was like and how their corporate culture was a direct contributor to their demise. It's kinda scary, because I agreed with what the consultants were saying to ENRON. Read to article to find out what they recommended and how it all went downhill from there.

The Art of Failure
Why some people choke and others panic.

---According to this writer, there is a marked difference between choking and panicking. I think I could learn something from this article. I"ve experienced a choke on occasion. And I sometimes panic (especially on exams where I don't know the material!). The thing is, I'm not really sure what to do to stop from choking. Panic can be stopped with experience (ie studying for exams thoroughly).

The New-Boy Network
What do job interviews really tell us?

---A few topics are covered in this article. The power of first impressions should not be underestimated. Typical job interviews are not very useful, unless they are performed in a proper way. So if anyone of you are going for job interviews, this may article may be helpful....either that or discouraging.

The Physical Genius
What do Wayne Gretzky, Yo-Yo Ma, and a brain surgeon named Charlie Wilson have in common?

---Some people have it, and others don't. The reason? Because they practice and "chunk" and they are physically "creative". Unforunately, I'm not one of these people.

Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg
She's a grandmother, she lives in a big house in Chicago,
and you've never heard of her.
Does she run the world?


---The answer is yes. Some people are "connectors". They connect people with other people. If you know one personally you'll become a much happier person. Now, if only I could find one.

The Coolhunt
Who decides what's cool? Certain kids in
certain places--and only the coolhunters
know who they are

---This article is actually is about the diffusion of ideas. From innovators --> early adopters --> early majority --> late majority. Which one are you?

Anyway, I read all these articles in one sitting. And it hurt. Studying for exams also does this to me (because I cram and cram). A quick calculation: 7 New Yorker articles X 8000 words/article = 56000 words. And that was just my reading from that one site during one sitting.

I think I know the reason why my eyes stop working.

But it was worth it.

Official Results from RunTO website:

Bib Number: 2146
Place: 1780
Divison: M20-24
Division Place: 382
Gun Time: 1:03:21
Net (Chip) Time : 51:46

RunTO

Yesterday marked the beginning of my running obsession. Yup, RunTO came and went and boy was it fun! The day started at 6:00, I woke up said a quick prayer and took down my race shirt that I've been hanging on the wall since I got my race kit. While I was brushing my teeth, the song "Right Here, Right Now" by Fatboy Slim was playing in my head. I was soo psyched!

I picked up Carol around 6:50 ish, then went on the highway 27 north to get Ric. Carol and I were talking about something and I had a braincramp and I forgot to exit on Dixon. Oh well, I picked up Matt then doubled back to get Ric and we had a laugh that I almost forgot Ric.

Anyway, I'll cut to the race. I was aiming for a 5min/km pace but there were sooo many people that by the time the first km checkpoint came, I was 30 secs behind. More weaving and passing but to no avail. I tried to keep up with Ric for most of the race, but got boxed in by some slow runners all running in a line. By the time I got around them, Ric was a fading dot in a sea of blue shirts.

Anyway, I finished the race in an unofficial time of 52:03.87. My personal best time! (by default...) I'm hoping by the next race I'll be under 50. The first person to finish the race finished in abou 30 mins. 30 MINS!!!! He could have watched an episode of Futurama without commercials by the time I finished the race. Amazing!

I must comment how pleasantly surprised I was with Nike. They really did a great job organizing and running the event. Granted, there were inconveniences (long wait lines for the time chips, bagcheck and washrooms) overall I'm happy about it. They gave medals to everyone who finished the race which made for a super momento to go with the race shirt. There were tons of free stuff througout this event, and not just on race day. Free training runs, dri fit socks and hat, vector bars, water, gatorade, krispy kreme donuts, pictures, polaroids, "free" posters, oranges, medals... it was an Asian wonderland! Anyway, I'm glad that Nike is deciding to make this an annual event. Needless to say, I'll be there.

PS For next year as well, we're going to have to do RunNY! So keep running!

Grueling Car Rides

Just spent 5.5 hours last night coming back to Toronto from waterloo. Left Waterloo at 10PM and got home at 2:30AM. Apparantly there was some sort of truck fire on the highway and they had to divert everyone off the highway and around the accident. Not much fun for anyone. Thanks to Edmond for driving me through that mess!

As an addendum to my last entry, Mike Diu pointed out to me that manaical studying is alive and well. Our proof? We happened upon a list of the top 3 students in every engineering class in tutorial today. Quite a number of chinese people were high up there. So we're not in trouble yet :)

Aside: those students have averages of 90-95%!!! Unbelievable!!!

Jews & Asians

I got scooped by Kevin on this interesting article comparing American Jews to Asian-Americans. We both had shared a laugh about it reading the same article, and how we both got to it by reading the same article about "Summer Lovin': A teenager's guide to the steamiest—and easiest—summer jobs." When you get down to the bottom of that article, there's an offhand comment about the article author's "yellow fever"; A link I couldn't resist clicking, because i've always wondered about that phenomenon. I didn't known it even extended to the Jewish guys, but I guess this is one phenomenon has no bounds. :)

So what do I think about the article Jews/Asian article? I think that the following is the most important sentence from that article: "A sentiment that emerges consistently is that meritocracy ends on graduation day, and that afterward, Asians start to fall behind because they don't have quite the right cultural style for getting ahead: too passive, not hail-fellow-well-met enough." I think the big difference between the two cultures, is the professions that are sought after. A simple fact is that lot's of asians go into engineering,math,sciences, which all share the same quality of having absolutely NO POWER & NO MONEY. What I wonder is what would happen when that competitive edge is taken away and we abandon our "maniacal studying ways" You can see it happening right now in my department with the influx of middle easterners saturating our Electrical & Computer Engineering Department. My friend Mike Diu wonders what are we going to be left with? His conclusion is that the way it's looking, the result of all this will be nothing....just a middle class, inconsequential, surburban existance.

hmm....Am i being too pessimistic? Do I care too much? Am I leading the wrong life?

A quote springs to mind: "One must be the change one wishes to see in the world." -Mahatma Gandhi

The Bet

Well we got midterms results back about two weeks ago, and I've only now managed to get around to blog about it. I guess I've sorta been busy the last little while....labs, quizzes, assignments, etc....and I'm still behind!

So if anyone remembers, I had my bet on marks with Keith again this year, but this time, the person with the higher marks gets the money. We exchange money based upon the percent differential and we set the cap at $45 this year. This year we actually reached the cap of $45! I was a little surprised that our marks differed so greatly. I had some dumb mistakes....One calculator mistake cost me 10% on the midterm and 3% of my final mark in a course. That hurts.

Anyway, the final mark differential between Keith and I turned out to be +57% for me. This also means that I get to buy Keith an expensive meal. He chose Red Lobster's Bottomless Bucket of Crab Legs. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get out there yet, but I'm looking for to it :) I mean how can I not look forward to a good meal?

Jo and Diana came up unexpectedly this weekend - which turned out to be a lot of fun. We saw Bad Boys II, which I didn't actually like too much. Some parts were funny and the chemistry between the two lead actors is pretty good, but the action was for the most part inane. I almost fell asleep when the Bad Boys INVADED CUBA!!! Yup, seriously, they invade Cuba. Even though that may sound cool, it's not really. This took up approximately the last half hour of the movie of a long 2.5 hour movie. But there were some genuinely good laughs sprinkled throughout.

We also hung out at Richard's place and played some X-box, which he won in a mini-solar car competition. The car he built was really cool. Just put it out in sunlight and when the solar cell charged the capacitor enough, it would discharge to the motor and just scooted along. Engineering should do more cool things like that, instead boring us with so much theory all the time. I think it would be best for everyone if they mixed some design/project work with our school work. Speaking of school work, we're gearing up for our fourth year design project already. We're in the design phase right now and even though we have quite a few ideas, we're still searching for even better ones. So if anyone out there has thought of a Electrical Engineering project, please share it with me. It'll be much appreciated.

PS Mengke Bateer is a chinese basketball player, but a pretty bad one... But it's cool that Toronto has a chinese bballer on their team now. :)

Mengke Bateer a Raptor! Toronto has their own Yao Ming! Another career opportunity opens up for 6-11, 280 pound Chinese guys (well, technically Inner Mongolian, perhaps).

My thoughts:

Reading Tim's last entry, though my situation isn't the same, I can relate somewhat. As you all know, I'm trying to get into med school. Right now, I'm still on the waiting list for Western and since July is almost over, I've got to start thinking about contingency plans. Though I don't have the dilemma of chooseing between professional school and grad school because my heart is set out on med school, my problem is about getting in. And not getting in is what's making me worry about what to do. In the manner of Tim, here are some scenarios/plans:

1) Get an acceptance letter from Western. Now, I know a few friends that are in med school who had to wait till mid August before they got accepted, so that is somewhat comforting. But then again, it's almost August and I'm getting fidgety... I must be losing faith or something. Each week that passes by makes me question my abilities of being a doctor. Am I doctor material? I may have the heart for medicine, but do I have the head? Another friend of mine just got an acceptance letter and I'm all happy for her. However, my mailbox is still empty each day that I check (except for junkmail and bills). I'm at the point of paranoia, thinking what if it's lost in the mail? It could happen right? I mean, they are about to go on strike, what if they go on strike? The university only gives you two weeks to reply and if it's lost/stuck at the post office...... someone get me some Prozac.

2a) Don't get accepted, finish my honours Health Sci, reapply to med schools. This is my first and foremost plan if I don't get in. This time, I'll be hitting most of the med schools in Canada, not just Ontario. It'll be like a dragnet, hit em' all, and then wait and see which one is left standing.

2b) Don't get accepted, finish my honours Health Sci, apply to U of T bioengineering grad school. I told Tim about this idea and he said "cool, Matt's also thinking about grad school, maybe all three of us could be at U of T!" I've been working at the Centre for Studies in Aging at Sunnybrook for the past two years and my director there even asked if I would consider being a grad student because he'd supervise me for sure. Seems like a very good arrangement. I'd keep working on the same projects that I've been working, see them to completion and get my Masters.

Anyway, too make a long story short, I'd have to apply to med schools and grad school next year if I don't get in.

So how does God fit into all this? I don't know/ I don't have a clear answer. What I do know is
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD , "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11. So whatever happens, I'm trying to be content and trusting. Everything happens for a reason.

My thoughts 2:

After reading Matt's blog about the rampant corruption going on at the Ministry of Health, I'm livid. I remember the time we were in Cary's basement and Matt told us about his previous summer job (ironically a company contracted to work for the Ministry of Heatlh) and he told us all about the rampant corruption and misuse of funding that they had going on. And people have to wait 3 hours, bleeding to death before they can see a doctor at the freak'n emergency room. People have to wait years on the waiting list to get an MRI, when early detection and prevention is our supposed mantra for better health care. I'd put a link the Ontario Health and Long Term Care website, but it's a dead link. Those ministry webmasters are probably busy with more important stuff like playing online games. Many critics of our health system complain that with our current system, it's financially unsustainable. Yeah, at this bloody rate, all the money is going to be funnelled into buying new equipment for old ones that gets "lost". "Yeah, I lost it in my basement...." Maybe the ministry should set up shop selling illegal copies of software and computers to recoup some of it's losses. Our current system is fine, the principles that it was built upon has become a national ideal, grafted into Canadian beliefs. The system is not perfect, but we don't need a huge overhaul such as two tiered systems. What we should do is cut the fat and corruption out of our ministries. Then again, maybe we need a huge overhaul such as two tiered healthcare to get these guys off their cushy seats.

Tim's Tales from the Hammer, Vol 2

Nels, last week, I think, you mentioned something about "if only i could make a career out of being a student". I think that's a dilemma I'm facing now as I enter my final year of university. There are two basic options I am looking right now:

1) Go into a professional school (ie law medicine engineering teaching -- the only realistic option right now being law) and make my parents happy, give myself a steady income for the rest of my life -- without having to worry about how I'm going to find a job, pay the rent, put food on the table, etc. In short, a life of safety and security (lets make the unrealistic assumption that law grads have no trouble landing a top job at the firm of their choice, haha) -- something that pretty much every human being wants and needs. Cost: $15 000 - $20 000 per year.

2) Go into graduate school and get ready to become a student for the rest of my life. This represents a much bigger risk. I pretty much have to go all the way into a PhD if I want to go this route, and not only a PhD, but -- after talking with recent Economics grads (like John O's brother, who got a PhD at UC- Berkeley) -- likely a PhD at a top American school if I want a solid academic career. Spending up to 5 years in the States sounds like a really big commitment. It's definitely something I can't screw up, cause there's not really a backup plan. I do think I have the focus and perseverance to make it through such a long period of school, but I'd better make sure I pick something I feel really passionate about, cause otherwise it's just not worth killing myself over it. But in terms of financial costs, it pretty much works out to be nothing, and I could even make a little money out of it. If I choose grad school, I'll likely go to U of T (assuming i get in) for a 1-year masters, and see how far that gets me... it's guaranteed funding too, so pretty much free. That year should tell me how i'll adapt to the rigours of graduate school.

So yeah, a lot of thinking to do. But I guess I'm young, and now's as good a time as any to take a big risk. At least I have good marks and some options ahead of me. I just don't want to look back later and think what if -- and second guess myself. But I do that all the time anyways (what if I chose medicine, what if I lived up to Keith's nickname for me and chose literature, what if...), so it's not like I'm going to be avoiding that by making any sort of decision. Maybe that's why I'm insomniac.

Just a quick blog...

I haven't been updating much recently...I've been trying to keep my computer off for as long as possible to minimize my time on the computer/internet. I think I have some sort of information addiction. It really gets in the way of doing work, because information is so accessible. I don't know why, but I just can't stop reading. I suppose I could have worse addictions.

Speaking of addictions, I spent the last weekend almost playing a computer game. Thankfully, I can't run it on my computer, so when Victor went home for the weekend, he was nice enough to let me play on his computer. And I played a little too much. Probably more than a little. Anyway, at least the game is really good. It's like Day Of Defeat, or Battlefied 1942. It's basically a FPS, set in WWII with different classes, scored with experience points that give you more skills, and mission with definite objectives. And it's a lot of fun. So if any of you have some free time to kill and check out Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. It takes a little while to get used to the gameplay, but once you learn it, it's well worth the effort. It's also a free game!

Anyway, I should really get started on studying for those pesky finals...

Now look at what you've done Tim! I'm out of the woodworks and blogging again.... look out! haha.

Speaking of looking out, Look out San Antonio, cuz here comes Showtime! I'm going out on a lim here and crowning the Lakers champs once again! They've arguably got the two best tandem in the league with The Big Aristotle and KB8, now word of Payton on board with Malone next in line, this only makes the East cry harder.

With the addition of Payton, it really addresses most of the weaknesses the Laker team had. 1) Someone to shoulder the scoring burden when Shaq or Kobe goes cold. Whenever I watch the Lakers play, the scoring is always like this: Shaq and Kobe : 75 points Rest of team: 5. Payton can easily contribute a double double night in and night out.
2) Perimeter Defence. With Shaq clogging up the middle, few pgs are willing to venture into the paint for fear of being swatted out into infinity. It's the perimeter that was a headache for Phil Jackson. With D Fisher consistently being beat on the dribble in the SA series, Payton's going to definitely shore up the defense. He's called the "Glove" for a reason.
3) Intangibles. Payton's an extremely hard worker and alot of it is going to rub off on the rest of the team. No doubt the Lakers already have plenty of motivation to get back to the big dance, but having Payton will keep the younger guys in line when things get slow during the long season.
4) Someone that can create for Shaq and Kobe. Not to knock Fisher, but everyone including him will agree that Payton is the better player. Payton averaged 8.3 assists last year to Fisher's 1.8. Well, enough said.

What would really seal the deal is if Malone joins the Lakers too. I bet there are lots of people in Sacramento and Dallas having sleepless nights..

Other comments: Well, the White House came out and said that they may have been mislead into going to war in Iraq. Heck, we all could have told them that. THey might as well come out saying "We were looking for slick black oily stuff actually". Now they are in Africa, most likely looking for oil since Africa is something like the 5th largest producers of oil.... what a shame.

Talking about basketball is much more easier on the heart than talking politics.

Mike

Kobe

First of all, i didn't even hear about this story breaking until i surfed over to my blog. I must be in some kind of bubble. Anyway, I'd have to agree with Mike....the whole thing seems so out of character for someone like Kobe. He's a familiy guy (already married a few years ago), with a beyond squeaky clean record and seems like a person that is the complete opposite of a thug. So I guess we'll just have to wait for more facts to come out. The one thing that worries me is the "physical evidence." What I first thought about this when it first broke is how it would affect his public perception. Well, obviously negatively, but besides that, is his already image tarnished, regardless of the outcome? I know it hasn't affected my opinion of him...yet.

Anyway, about the Raptor'd draft pick. I think it's a fairly good pick. I was realy disappointed when they lost out in the draft. I would have been very happy with the third pick, let alone the first or second. But with the fourth pick it seems like we got a good player. Unfortunately, they have been comparing Bosh to a Keon Clark, with more offense. That could be trouble. A good sign is that he worked out for Detroit and Denver, the teams with the 2nd and 3rd pick, because he thought that he might have something that would force them to reconsider. I definitely don't think T.J. Ford would have been a good pick, so I'm glad about that. I would have liked to see Glen Grunwald to have traded up and snag Lampe when he went through his free-fall because of potential contract problems.

In other basketball news, a crap player named Anthony Carter forgot to do some paperwork that would have resulted in him getting paid $4.5 million next year. So instead, he's going to have some trouble getting on a team at all, let alone get paid. Sucks to be him. And also, Damon Stoudemaire got caught with drugs again. Apparently, he was the metal detector went off when he was boarding a plane at an airport. He proceeds to empty his pockets and gets out his marijuana wrapped in foil and other drug paraphernalia and puts it onto the tray. Then he got caught. Yup.

One last sports-related topic: Check out this video of some "matrix-like" ping-pong players. Chris Erven passed it on to me and I think it's pretty funny.

Oh yeah, one last thing: Terminator 2 is a classic.

The Truth Comes Out...

See, the plan in starting this topic was to write something so outrageous about Kobe Bryant that you'd just have to respond and defend your boy. and it worked! 2 blogs in one day! Actually Nels made me do it... he complains you don't blog enough and came up with this crazy plan.... haha, just joking. I will contact you soon about this weekend (I'm going to be brave and come out of the closet on this one..... i've never seen Terminator 1 or 2... !! but maybe i'll be up for 3)
Sorry Nels, for stealing all your blog space. You should come back this weekend too.

Two blogs in one day... this is quite the personal achievement!

Hey Tim, don't get me wrong. I wasn't out to sting you for you previous blog. Just defending one of my favourite players. Until he's proven guilty, I'm gonna keep rooting for him. I just don't know why so many people hate Kobe... he's got no street cred, he's a clean boy, he's too polished got no "edge" and on and on and on. I for one, am confused why anyone would hate him! He's upto this point, been off the rap sheet and a model citizen (hint hint Trailblazers) and a pretty good darn tootin ball player to boot. Anyway Tim, for the most part I agree with you and by no means my entry was aimed to offend you.

Yeah, I'm free this weekend. Have you seen T3 yet? Matt said it was pretty good. Give me a shout!

Hey, I wouldn't mind a NFL preview on the Eagles defense Tim. Eagles all the way! (until they are out of the playoffs of course).

Later!

Nel's blog has had more action than it's had in months!

Mike, You're right...

I wrote that blog on monday morning, and I had just heard the story on the radio... before most of the facts came out. But a few points to keep in mind:
-I didn't mean to imply I think Kobe's a rapist, but I blogged regarding how serious the charge is and how devastating this could be on his image, regardless of whether the allegations are true or not. Very often in these high profile cases, it's the court of public opinion that matters far more than what's proven in the courtroom. Just being accused of this sort of thing is a disaster for him, and it's going to take a long time for him to clear his name regardless of whether he is actually guilty or not. So no, he's not Mike Tyson, but I was saying the public could be quick to jump to that conclusion. Think about Sammy Sosa... he used a practice bat once by mistake, and he's still getting booed everywhere he goes. But we're way beyond corked bats here.... I didn't mean to crucify Kobe, but the public's going to do it to him anyways and this taint won't go away for a long time.

- And it's true the Sherriff's department ususally goes through the district attorney to obtain a warrent, but in this case they went through a a judge -- a judge who found probable cause after reading an affidavit from the investigators. That doesn't necessarily mean there's a bias. Obviously Kobe's lawyers want to create the impression of a bias, but we all know how legal technicalities have gotten athletes off the hook before (read, OJ)... that's their job. Let's just say you need a certain amount of evidence for a judge to issue an arrest warrant for sexual assault and demand $25 000 in bail. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what kind of evidence we're talking about in this sort of case. Unless he had really sweaty palms and left a handprint, I don't think he just fondled her.

-But you're right. Everything we're talking about right now is mere speculation, and I agree that I probably shouldn't have written that first blog based on such bad information. We should just wait for the facts to come out. Lost in all this is the fact that we know neither of the two people in this case (aside from what we read in magazines, which is a pretty poor judge of character), and that we're dealing with two human beings who's lives have suddenly been shattered. If she really was assaulted, we're dealing with a victim who's traumatized and devastated, and who's going to be accused of being a goldigger for the rest of her life -- even if he's found guilty. Her reputation will forever be ruined....Some Kobe diehards will even insist things like "she asked for it" -- as if such a thing were possible. But if Kobe's innocent, imagine how horrible it must be to get accused of something like this.... and how his life might never be the same; even if he clears his name, Kobe-bashers will only insist he got off cause he's a celebrity.

But yeah, i agree that all this talk about it before things become apparent only feeds the hype machine, and that I shouldn't have brought it up like that. There are no winners in an allegation as serious as this.

-Anyways, that's it from me on this story... How you doing man? I'm back in town this weekend.... are you free?

Re: Say it Ain't So, Kobe!

Already we've put "Kobe" and "rapist" in the same sentence and this really disturbs me. He was charged with sexual assault, not rape. Under Colorado law, sexual assault could range from fondling to rape. The facts are still unclear on the case and we're already screaming rape.

Also, it now appears to be bias in this ordeal. Quoting from ESPN

Bryant's attorneys accused the sheriff's office of "complete bias" and said it ignored the wishes of the district attorney in obtaining the arrest warrant.

"Contrary to the direct instruction of the district attorney's office, the Eagle County sheriff's office sought and obtained an arrest warrant ... this action illustrates the complete bias of the sheriff's office," said Denver attorney Pamela Mackey in a statement released earlier Monday.

Prosecuters are still thinking if they have enough evidence to even charge Kobe with sexual assault. Note, he's only been accused, not even formally charged!!!!

Putting Kobe Bryant down to the same level as Mike Tyson is a travesty. Mike Tyson is a convicted rapist (though he still claims he didn't and wished he did) and a felon. I'm conjecturing that this entire preceeding is a smear campaign or a get rich scheme to ruin Kobe and already it seems to be working. What's the saying? Innocent until proven guilty? Seems like in our minds we've already hanged Kobe... Let's wait till all the facts are out.

Say it Ain't So, Kobe!

This has gotta be one of the most stunning developments in recent sports memory. Kobe Bryant a rapist? Did he actually do it, or is this the product of some money-grabbin', playa-hatin' smear campaign? Regardless of his guilt or innocence, however, the allegations are serious enough to permanently tarnish his golden boy image. We're not talking about corked bats or steroids here. We're not talking about DUI one night. We're talking about rape. You can't brush that off to "well, I made a mistake one night, but I've learned my lesson and it won't happen again". The public doesn't give second chances when it comes to rape. Think about sports scandals such as Pete Rose or Sammy Sosa -- solid citizens who made a mistake -- or even Allen Iverson -- a not so solid citizen with homophobic rap lyrics -- and multiply them by 1000. We're now down to the level of Mike Tyson. Kobe Bryant and Mike Tyson in the same sentence. Who would have thought that possible?

I've never been a huge Kobe fan, but he's the best player in the game, and one of the league's gentlemen and class acts. Millions of fans around the globe must have woken up this morning and scratched their heads at this story. We all hope it isn't true, but Kobe's got some explaining to do. And his days as basketball's Air Apparent are in serious jeopardy.

Hey Hey

Yes, I haven't blogged in a while, but I've been busy! Actually, I haven't got the chance to just surf around on the internet recently. It's strange, it seems that the more free time that I have, the less I blog and that whenever I have a lot of work, I seem to blog more. I guess it's one of the many things I do to procrastinate.

So why all the free time? Well I never liked doing work after midterms, even though it's the time to catch up. Actually, there have been quite a few labs the past few weeks, and that requires me to be in the lab at school. Otherwise, I was home the whole long weekend, spending very little time on the computer.

So where was I on the long weekend? I was spending money. I could be in one of those Mastercard commercials:

Canada Wonderland's Tickets: $30...
Funnel cake: $8...
Midnight Snack at Congee Wong's: $15...
Taking Family out to a Chinese restaurant: $48...
Ribfest Ribs: $50...

A Growing Gut: Priceless

There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard. Accepted everywhere....except RibFest.

No, I'm just kidding...I don't have a growing gut, but I really did spend $50 on ribs last weekend. I'm working out regularly and playing a lot of sports, so hopefully it's going into muscles and not fat. Especially gut fat.

Ribfest is becoming an annual tradition. I went to ribfest 3 out of the 5 days this year, which is low, because last year, I think I went 3 out of the 4 days. Oh, another thing...when I went with my high school friends on sunday, Keith suggested we go see Bad Boys 2 afterwards. He really wanted to see it quite badly and kept insisting. Good thing we eventually decided not to go, because it's not even out yet!!!! Keith, what a guy.

I did go see T3 last night though. It was pretty entertaining for an action movie. I enjoyed it, partly because I had very, very low expectations for it. There were a bunch of warning signals about the production of the film: James Cameron, Linda Hamilton and Edward Furlong all wouldn't touch the project. They had to pay unbelievable amounts of money to get Arnold back. The commercials made it look really dumb. And the new Terminator was some chick. Now don't get me wrong, the new Terminator is easy on the eyes, but the Terminator is suppose to be scary! She wasn't at all frightening. I remember when I was watching T2 as a kid that Robert Patrick's T1000 was scary. He just wouldn't die! He was invincible and unstoppable! In fact, my most frequently re-occuring nightmare is me being chased by people that are trying to kill me...and I can't run fast enough to get away, but I digress. It was nice to see the Terminator deadpanning unintentionally/intentionally funny lines again.

Tim, I don't think wanting to take 19th C. Russian Literature is that strange...or burying a nose into a book either. I look forward to upcoming courses as well....something that I would probably do more of if I was in arts though. Some EE courses are pretty boring and technical, some are interesting (i like my Digital Computers course right now), but in general, i'd imagine that arts courses are more interesting. Too bad they don't let me take more.... If only I could make a career out of being a student...

Ho's Blog Now

I've decided that Nelson Hu is not taking good enough care of this blog spot. I asked him a question like a week ago and the dude still hasn't responded! Who does that?!?!. For this reason, I am going to take care of it in his absence, and it shall henceforth be known as Ho's Blog.
The unfortunate thing is, however, I really don't have all that much interesting to blog about. It's cool spending the entire summer all by myself, and having the total freedom to hang out with Oriana and other friends all the time.... but it sucks having to walk or bus everywhere... especially when it's so HOT. At least my rollerblading skills have gotten way better.

The most exciting news I've got is that next year I will finally achieve my lifelong goal of taking a course in 19th C. Russian Literature. This might seem like a strange-ass goal, but ever since I was high school, I always wanted to take a course focused on this exact topic. I think a lot of people today probably wouldn't assiociate Mother Russia with being a particularly literary nation, but most agree that the two greatest novelists in history were Russian -- Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky -- while Turgenev probably wasn't too far behind. Admittedly, reading these authors is pretty intimidating -- with works of over 800 dense pages containing upwards of 150 characters with funny names like Raskolnikov or Kournikova -- wait a second... wrong Russian name -- and I know I won't have time during the year to read all these, so I emailed the prof for the reading list, and decided that now's the time to do it... it's my own summer challenge! I'm almost done re-reading an old favourite, Crime and Punishment (which is probably the most accessible of the books, and the only one I've dared touch to this point) and gearing up for another. On an interesting side-note, Crime and Punishment was the book Condoleeza Rice (a noted Russian scholar) gave George W. when he became Prez so he could learn more about the Russian psyche. Yeah, so while many are using this summer to get buff and healthy (good luck guys!) in the Nike run, I'll probably have my nose buried in a book. What a boring guy. What sorta person gets so worked up about an upcoming course...? I must be going nuts..... At least War and Peace isn't on the list. I'll save that one for another summer.