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!
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.
- Hong Kong was way too hot, and I wasn’t even there for the hottest season!
- The subway systems in HK, Tokyo, and Seoul totally kicks TTC’s butt!
- Japan and South Korea are very different. I thought they would be similar before I actually got there, but nah-ah.
- Tokyo is so clean, which is very impressive considering it’s hell trying to find garbage cans.
- Tokyo fashion >>>> Toronto fashion. (actually do we even have fashion?)
- There is no such thing as pedestrian rights in Seoul. You often see motorcycles driving on sidewalks, and sometimes even cars!
- 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.
The Forbidden Kingdom
April 5th, 2008
I just saw a trailer for the new Jet Li and Jackie Chan collaboration film. I can’t wait to see it in theatres! :D
Every Programmer Shall Have Admin Access
April 3rd, 2008
Everyone in my team at work (Front End developers) just got administrative access to their PC today. It’s ridiculous to thing about working as a programmer and not have the rights to install things, but that’s what we had. This got me thinking about the post on The Programmer’s Bill of Rights over at Coding Horror. I went and had a quick look to see if it mentioned admin access. To my surprise the post said nothing about such thing. Maybe it’s just too stupid to even mention not having admin access? Or was I spoiled during all my co-op terms?
In any case, giving programmer the right to do their work properly is very important, and it should definitely be include in our bill of rights. ;)
