Starting Wedding Plans

July 2nd, 2008

Ams and I started plans for our wedding. Ugh. It’s so troublesome! Why does it take so much time and money to have a wedding? I hope everything will go alright and we won’t be too overwhelmed!

We’re thinking about setting up a website for our wedding. Maybe some blog posts and stuff. Could be a chance for me to experiment with Django. I can link it up toe del.icio.ius and flickr so we can make micro-blogs. :P

Firefox 3.0 Released Today

June 17th, 2008

Firefox 3.0 has officially been released today. The Mozilla Foundation aims to set a world record with the most downloaded software in 24 hours. FF 3.0 makes huge improvements to memory usage, and also javascript execution. Go to the official site to download the installation file.

Want to get the most out of FF 3.0? Check out Lifehacker’s full coverage on the release, including top 10 new features!

Enjoy!

Robocup: Humanoid Finals 2007

June 5th, 2008

I just love watching Robocup. This one is especially impressive. I love how the goalie for Osaka dives to block shots. I laughed quite a bit while watching this clip.

My First Manga Coloring

May 31st, 2008

I’ve seen a lot of people coloring manga scans, like Naruto and Bleach. So I figured I’d give it a try to see how hard it is. The picture I’m using is from the latest Naruto chapter (released by Blinktopia). The original is here: http://www.onemanga.com/Naruto/402/17/. Of course I had a higher resolution picture, but you get the idea.

The picture is showing off Sasuke’s newest Sharingan — and for the record I don’t like Sasuke much, but the Sharingan looks too damn cool.

Anyway, here is the result!

Sasuke - Mangekyo Sharingan

Back From My Trip

May 29th, 2008

Well, I’m back from my Asia trip. Actually, I’ve been back for a little over a week now. Been kinda lazy lately about blogging… or just things in general. I’m finally over my jetlag, which is a good thing. Not being able to stay awake past 10 PM was not cool. haha

So how was my trip? It was not long enough! Here are just some quick thoughts.

  1. Hong Kong was way too hot, and I wasn’t even there for the hottest season!
  2. The subway systems in HK, Tokyo, and Seoul totally kicks TTC’s butt!
  3. Japan and South Korea are very different. I thought they would be similar before I actually got there, but nah-ah.
  4. Tokyo is so clean, which is very impressive considering it’s hell trying to find garbage cans.
  5. Tokyo fashion >>>> Toronto fashion. (actually do we even have fashion?)
  6. There is no such thing as pedestrian rights in Seoul. You often see motorcycles driving on sidewalks, and sometimes even cars!
  7. People spit a lot in Seoul… watch your steps!

Landed in Hong Kong

May 4th, 2008

I’m now in Hong Kong! The 15-hour flight was a pretty bad. Not that the services were bad, but just sitting on a plane for that long was unbearable. Anyway, I’m pretty tired, and I didn’t manage to take a lot of pictures yet. I forgot to bring my camera when I was out with Shawn tonight. We did get to eat some yummy food and dessert. Oh, and it’s super humid here in HK.

I’m Off To Asia!

May 2nd, 2008

I’m catching a flight to Hong Kong tomorrow, and will be visiting Japan and South Korea for the next 2.5 weeks. I will try to blog a few times on the trip since I will have internet access pretty much the whole time. If you have me on Facebook I will be posting photos there whenever I get a chance to. :)

Japancast: Free Japanese Lessons

April 24th, 2008

I’ve been listening to the Japancast podcast recently in preparation for my trip to Japan. Japancast, which is run by Hitomi and Paul, is a website where people with varying skills in Japanese can go to and learn for free. There even a social network on their website for people to make friends whom they can practice Japanese with — like pen pals.

I regret not finding out about this earlier. I doubt I’ll remember that much for my trip, which is in a week. But, I’ll try to learn what I can. I’ll have a phrase book with me, so hopefully communication isn’t going to be too difficult.

Javascript is a Programming Language

April 22nd, 2008

I’ve come across a few individuals who still think that Javascript – or ECMAScript — isn’t a real programming language. For example, on Facebook, there is a group called I forgot the semi-colon, which is a programming group, and in the group info it says the group isn’t for anyone who thinks Javascript is a programming language. The problem is that a lot of these so-called “programmers” think of the web as just another view for which applications written in something like Java would “dump” their data into. The is a completely wrong way of thinking about the Web, and people who think this way will never become successful developing for the Web.

Javascript is used in many places outside of the browser. It is used to develop many feature-rich applications on the Web, and a large part of the Firefox GUI is written in Javascript. Not to mention all those Dashboard Widgets you Mac users like, yep, all in Javascript.

The thing I love about Javascript is that it is flexible. Unlike languages such as Java or C++, Javascript variables are dynamically typed (like Python). This means I can define a variable and initialize it to a string, then later on assign an integer or an object to the same variable without getting some kind of incompatible type errors. You can use structural programming, functional programming, or object-oriented programming in Javascript. This allows you to choose what best fits the current application you’re developing without being restricted to one particular programming paradigm.

So for anyone who thinks Javascript isn’t a real programming language, please tell me why.

What Music Do You Listen To?

April 9th, 2008

Seven years after I-Pod was first released, I finally caved and got one. It makes the commutes on the subway more enjoyable. I’m actually noticing a lot more people with an I-Pod, or some kind of music player. I also noticed that I stereotype the kind of music I think people listen to based on their appearance. For example, if I see a black person with headphones on, I immediately think that person is listening to hip-hop. A white girl is probably listening to Justin Timberlake or something. It’s pretty messed up. For all I know, they could be listening to anything! This stereo typing comes to me almost unconsciously, and I’m not sure where the source of it is. The media probably plays a big role in it.

I’m reminded of a post I read yesterday on Racialicious, talking about stereotype casting on Reality TV shows. It’s an open discussion on whether producers of Reality TV shows actively enforce stereotypes on their shows.