The Misadventures of Dan
Peer into the mind of Dan as he tries to build an MP3 Player for his PDA and searches for the next thing in his life be it an electrical engineering job or graduate school.
Saturday, March 08, 2003
.:9:45:29 PM:.
ACK! Don't do this!!!
So in case you haven't heard, I'm working on a new project for a Mec E friend of mine. She and I are like the proverbial Yin and Yang but we get along really well which is why I think we were such good partners when we worked together. Anyways like all friends, you get a few free favours (the first few are always free ;) ). She saw my "jaw-dropping" presentation for my final project class. Which, at the time, I was happy with but felt I could do better (as usual), powerpoint can eat my.... Anyways, even though I'm an EE and she's a Mec E, everyone has to do final year classes. Which means everyone has to do final presentations (this is the part I'm helping out with). As long as I know what I'm doing, and (more importantly) I understand it, I love doing presentations.
I can't tell much for now, but it does involve heavy 3d, more 3d than I've ever 3d'ed before. Thank God I had my brother's laptop so I could render the files, port them over to flash, and tweak them as well. Meanwhile on "The tower" (aka my computer) I was playing literati (aka scrabble), googling for fire (which I found:), helping a friend out with a backdoor.sdbot virus he got whew all that in the span of a few short hours.
I'm deeply afraid (among other things) with this presentation, I hope it turns out ok. I'm worried that it might not be long enough: so far the stuff I've rendered is about three seconds each. Then I thought about doing a fade from "real" to 3d but I haven't found that clip either. I know its not a giant deal if her group doesn't like it, but it still means something when someone likes your work. Thank you God.
Went to fellowship yesterday, then for coffee (hot chocolate) at Tim's with a relatively new friend. Stayed up pretty late, but the talk was really good so it all worked out.
I borrowed "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin De Becker which was recommended by one of my friend in Calgary. Its not the type of book I normally read... actually I'm not even sure what I normally read but this isn't really it. "The Gift of Fear" talks about situations in which people's intuition could have or did help them out of dangerous or threatening situations. I'm about a third way through it so I should be done pretty soon :P
Wow that was a lot....
server not working,
so much other stuff to do,
must get back to work ;)
Friday, March 07, 2003
.:12:54:03 AM:.
Another fellow blogger/tetrineter/cbc/canadian... you get the idea
So I was playing tetrinet with my brother in a room I created. I usually call it cbc just because that's what we are, and what I feel like. Anyways along comes two other (presumably) canadians and we start playing tetrinet. After some tetrinetting and mutual desertion we get to trading websites and talking about mutual cities. Its funny how everyone thinks that their own city is pretty boring and yet if they were to visit someone else's city it'd be all different. I think it would be neat to see Edmonton and St. Albert as a tourist; although having lived here for most of my life, that might be difficult.
Tuesday, March 04, 2003
.:9:08:56 PM:.
Thinking...
I don't know why, but I sometimes get intimidated by seeing other people's designs. I'm drawn to them like a kid to a japanese toy store-I want to find out how it works, what it looks like, play with the design. Then I look at my own and think, "wow that's [my design] pretty crappy". Yet I feel like if I change it, it might look... bad... or maybe its just procrastination speaking. Imitation is never enough for me, I like to adapt and integrate (both figuratively and mathematically speaking) things and whenever I ask my brother for his view on new spins and devices and whether there's a 'wow factor' he promptly tells me that he's seen too much of my stuff now to give the right answer.
So, lately I've been mapping out some standard menu and content designs. Hoping to find a new "right" combination. One that would "speak" and say yeah, that's "Dan". So what exactly is "Dan"?
.:6:31:10 PM:.
Firewall and FTP
So before we got our firewall I had a nice FTP server running. This thing was massive-huge, WARFTP had so many features it was hard to keep track off, and way much more than I needed. Its still a good program, its just gigantic. A friend of mine recommended that I try G6 FTP Server, I nice and light ftp server. Goes directly to the point no need to do other stuff. The problem is, even after I've set up all the port forwarding, it seems like no one from outside the house can get in. Its the firewall on the router!! Now my friend is helping me to figure out what went wrong, or rather, what I set that I shouldn't set, and what I should have set that I didn't. Make sense?Update:As of March 23rd, this problem has been fixed :D
We rented the "My Big Fat Greek" wedding over the past weekend and watched it. It's hilarious. The whole cross-culture thing makes me wonder what may happen. I mean, even if its Chinese to Chinese, there are still a lot of different family traditions. Stuff that makes everyone... you know... quirky. For me, I think its all about attitude and how you come out across, you treat people comfortably they usually respond comfortably. I'd like to think I treat everyone as family, it makes things so much easier. Weird things I remember, one time, we were at this family's place for a New Year's supper. This was our family's first time dining a "big event" meal in a caucasian environment. Before we usually celebrated with other Chinese families, or had the a western/Chinese meal (turkey, with soup). So anyways, being our first time, there were a lot of dishes we didn't recognize... like yams. Now usually, we eat our yams whole, or in a soup, but this time it was like a mashed-potato with marshmallows on top. I remember my family hesitated slightly before I went forward saying something like "Great!" dollop a giant spoonful on my dish, and then placing on the provided "party hat". I think we had a great time after that. And now... I'm hungry.
Sunday, March 02, 2003
.:9:01:07 PM:.
Uh-huh...
See for yourself:"You are among the fortunate few who can balance self-interest with indulgence in meaningful closeness. Because your realistically-based self-confidence shows (without any showing off), you will attract all sorts of partners who want to somehow participate in your calm authority. Some will be passive and infantile, looking for a super-parent to live a proxy life on their behalf. Others will want you to share their exalted view of themselves and prove it in everything you do. Stick to those who light up because whatever their specific interests, they look at the world the way you do."
