Flu Season

Hey wait a second, it's not flu season anymore....so why do I have the flu? F*ck.

I feel terrible. At first I thought I was going to get better quickly, but apparantly not. I think I'm going to feel this way for about a week, which puts me yet another week behind in work. Attending school really blows when you're sick....I've only skipped one day so far, because I've been required to go to school for all the other days. Hopefully I'll be able to get better over the weekend.

Well on the bright side, I'm not vomitting anymore.

cough cough.

CAISA Fashion Show

I checked out the CAISA fashion show at Western on the weekend. It was a huge event, with well over 1300 people attending. The show was really great and I could tell that lot's of hard work was put into it (jo was the 2nd in command)!. It had different themes from different time periods and the models were closer to being dancers than just being a model. It had quite a few funny parts as well. The funniest bit was a William Hung impression that can be seen here. I was a huge success, good job jo!

I stayed over at Mike's and it was good to see him again. We had a blast playing Mario Party on Gamecube and reliving memories of euchre. Thanks for letting me stay over at your place, yo.

On another note we drop in on the Phoenix but didn't end up staying for very long. That club looks hype. Gotta go back and check it out sometime in the future.

One last thing...I caught a cold. Everytime I go visit someplace overnight for the weekend, I invariably get sick. That really sucks.

cough, cough.

FED

I went to FED (Federation Hall, our on-campus "club") the other night with Kitty and her friends. I haven't been out to FED in such a long time. So long in fact, that I didn't even know that they stopped charging cover to get in! I don't think I went last term, and this is the first time I've been this term. And I had a lot of fun - more than I expected. I saw a whole bunch of people that I haven't seen in a long time, my cousin and his crew, miscellaneous friends and even Whanger! And somewhat surprisingly, I got treated to quite a few rounds, which is always nice for a change. Originally I wasn't going to stay until closing time, but I eventually did...I had an 8:30 AM lab the next day, and thankfully got up in time for it. That's the annoying part about engineering, there always seems to be something due on friday, which you have to spend thurs working on it. Anyway, I'm about to go up to Western for some more fun. I'm going to be behind, and finals are just around the corner :(

Don't really feel like blogging...

My life is actually kinda boring right now...got a stack of work to catch up on. I'm going up to Western this weekend to check out a fashion show. In jo's invite, she mentioned that "You can either get tickets from myself, or to kevin quan (for all you guys that know him)." Hey, I know a Kevin Quan. But the Kevin Quan I know (my roomate) doesn't have tickets to this fashion show.

I'm a lazy bastard, so here are some links:

A piece about maiden names. I learned a new word when i read that article:

Word of the day
Frisson: : an almost pleasurable sensation of fright; or A moment of intense excitement; a shudder

Here's a cool nike ad. It has a bunch of sport superstars in an alternate universe where they pick up another sport.

For all you cell phone users out there, wouldn't this be cool? Or maybe you'd find it annoying.

That's all for now...

Links Theme: America

Don't have much to say. I slept a whole lot this weekend and it feels good. I've got lot's of labs coming up and it's going to be very time consuming. I have to pick courses for next term soon as well, and I'm not sure what areas I would like to specialize. There are quite a few interesting areas, but this has always been my problem: interest in too many things, which results in a desire to try to do everything.

Does anyone remember Google buying up Blogger? I thought that google would soon implement something like this. This link goes to a webpage that ranks the most linked to sites that appear on blogs. It's like a current meme-o-meter or memeter (the reason that name is cheesy, is because I made it up). Also a good place to find cool links.

I got this link from the aformentioned website. It's about a person's journey through the Chernobyl accompanied with photos. You get a feel for how much of a utter and complete disaster this was.

On to the theme of this post:

Only in America. Come on...a sponge "designed for reaching between folds of flesh"? ugh.

Also in America. Although, that one might be kinda fun...

America's money

America's Leader

It's been one year since the beginning of the war in Iraq. The news/media are covering this event. (As well as Martha Stewart....actual jail time for her? damn.)

Also another thing to note is something called input bias:

Your bias is what or whom you trust as an accurate source of information; sometimes called an input bias.
Dictionary definition: A strong leaning or propensity against or in favor of someone or something; to distrust or trust.
We surround ourselves with media and people supporting our prejudices. The words and images presented to us reinforce our views.

It's very similar to something we learn in psych101, confirmation bias: a tendency to search for information that confirms one's perceptions.

Three of the four links about America are from the same source. Maybe I should watch out for that....either that or stop procrastinating by reading Slate.

Oscar Pick'em Official Results:

Well, Rob, my cousin emailed the people running the site and found out that there were 4 standing ovations. This breaks the tie, and here are the results for the people participating in our pool (there were 576 people who participated on the website):

1. Nelson Hu (1020)
2. Robert Wang (1020)
3. Jeff Wentworth (1005)
4. Vincent Shiao (996)
5. Matt Chan (848)
6. David Clement (776)
7. Kitty Chan (620)
8. grace hu (620)
9. Kevin Quan (551)
10. Keith Mo (510)
11. Mike Lim (465)

Thanks to everyone who participated! I can't believe the final result came down to the tie break question. Rob guess 9, while I guessed 4. Jeff Wentworth very nearly won it completely, but lost it on Best Actor. He put all his points into Bill Murray, while I put half mine in Murray and half into Penn.

We'll all know for next year that splitting your points into all the categories isn't a very good strategy.

PS I'm quite happy that LOTR swept. I didn't expect that to happen, but the movie was quite the cinematic achievement. Congrats to Peter Jackson et al. Can't wait for the DVD.

Next on the list: Lost in Translation.

Unofficial Final Results

59. Robert Wang (1020)
59. Nelson Hu (1020)
66. Jeff Wentworth (1005)
72. Vincent Shiao (996)
156. Matt Chan (848)
199. David Clement (776)
268. grace hu (620)
268. Kitty Chan (620)
289. Kevin Quan (551)
297. Keith Mo (510)
309. Mike Lim (465)

So how do we settle this tie?