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, April 05, 2003
.:5:12:00 PM:.
Weirdness
One of my achilles heel is the fact that when a friend needs my help I feel compelled, no driven to help them. No matter what though, when I help them out or try to I'm always slightly worried that it wasn't enough-or perhaps the situation was worsened by me getting involved. I mean just this afternoon Josh was having some computer programs running this program so I sent him a file I found to help him out only I wasn't sure it would work. I helped him through it to get it working and all that and then he had to reboot. It was dead quiet during that reboot period I mean what if his computer crashed? He sounded so relieved when he got it fixed-in reality I was just as relieved as he was. Is that not weird?
.:1:25:07 PM:.
Rules for competitive prayer
Not even in terms of the war, what about playoffs?
Thursday, April 03, 2003
.:12:41:40 AM:.
When aluminum hats turn to crash helmets...
The other day I was talking with my brother about SARS and we had already been talking about this for a bit before the whole media explosion. I made a quip, wouldn't it be weird if it was like a giant plot to take over Asian people... OR what if it was some biological weapon that got out of control. We both scoffed at that last one. Lately I had been sort of joking about an "Asians suspecting Asians" theory whereby we as Chinese and Asian people were allowed to suspect one another because lets face it, there's a pecking order. In all honnesty can people tell a North Korean a part from a Chinese, Japanese, South Korean? I don't think so. I'm not paranoid, but seeing this has made me do a double take... can people really tell?
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
.:11:21:21 PM:.
All hail Microsoft
I went to the .NET Microsoft Academic Seminar today-it was part of their Student Tour. First of all, the people I had been hoping to come with didn't. Greg had a lab final and Ben... well, Ben wished me the best and told me to get him the 'proverbial "'I-went-to-Microsoft-and-I-all-I-got-back-was-this-coffee-mug" souvenir (try saying that in one breath). So here I am working on the 570 lab report checking the time. Thinking, oh since it starts at four thirty, I can catch the LRT at four-twenty and be there just in time. So I thought, I might as well check the webpage see the schedule...
Event Agenda Time Activity 4:00- 4:30 pm Registration 4:30- 5:15 pm .NET Overview 5:15- 6:00 pm .NET Languages 6:00 - 6:45 pm Dinner 6:45 - 7:45pm Shared Source CLI (Rotor) 7:45- 8:30 pm Creating an end-to-end Web Service App with mobile client. 8:30 – 8:45 pm Tablet PC Demo & Academic Programs
It started at 4:30!?! It was already 4:23! Should I go? Should I not? Well I said I would, might as well... so I made the dash off onto the LRT thinking I'll go there, probably not know anyone anyways so it'll all be good. Actually I prayed just a little bit hoping that I would know someone, anyone there. So I get there, and I'm thinking latelatelatelate when I was only ten minutes late (pretty good time if I might say). There was this other girl who also was late so we both arrived thinking we may get rejected. All of a sudden I bump into Ed, he decided to come at the last minute. Then I saw Raj and later on I saw Ron! Wow! Crazy.
As the title may or may not suggest, I'm not actually anti-Microsoft like some people. In fact for certain programs they are actually "quite good" to quote my friend Ben (the poster child for Microsoft). On the other hand I'm not exactly a Microsoft Evangelist either. Particularly I have some problems with Frontpage and Internet Explorer, bloated code meets funky web browser... But I had read a lot about ".NET" and SOAP and was kind of interested in how to actually make it work. I mean if you read the stuff, almost every article talks about how great it will be, but its more difficult to find stuff on how to make it good. Anyways, the short of it, met some people-good, learned about .NET-also good (they actually had sample code!), got some free CDs-good good, but missed the St. Albert bus on the way home-not that good. Ahh well can't have everything. All hail Microsoft!
.:12:52:49 PM:.
The impact of two words
Dan (aka Dan C.) is having some problems renewing his work visa in Canada. Please keep him in thoughts and prayers. Its strange that a person who's working, paying taxes, contributing to society can't be allowed to continue. I hope they will let him stay, I was just getting to know him. Dan was also one of the first people from ECAC to welcome me to his home. Without really even knowing me, he invited me to go do so much stuff with him.
Recently I read about the shortest verse in the Bible, shortest in the English language: "Jesus Wept" (John 11:35). I knew from before it was the shortest verse but the impact didn't really hit me until I read the commentary. I realized that Jesus was emotionally overcome at that point, what I didn't put together was that he knew what was going to happen to Lazarus and yet he was still overwhelmed with grief. I mean like when you watch Rocky get knocked down you don't get overwhelmed because you know he's going to make it back up (insert theme from Rocky IV here) and you go "yeah!". And its not like that at all. What I'm conjecturing is that the emotion and the sorrows that people feel I couldn't help but to think about Romans 8:26
"In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."
Wow was all I could think, if I hurt and I cried, imagine how much more so Christ and the Holy Spirit could express that, how much more powerful is that than me. All I could think was that He knows, He understands, and He's going through it with me and that has given me a lot of comfort.
Monday, March 31, 2003
.:4:42:40 PM:.
Irrefutable proof that Saddam and Osama are connected
From the e-mail depths of Jesse yet again-I haven't seen any of these therefore it has to be true ;)
Saddam was in "Diner" with Kevin Bacon. Kevin Bacon was in "Sleepers" with Jason Patrick. Jason Patrick was in "Rush" with Sam Elliot. and Sam Elliot was in "My Little Pony" with......that's right. Osama Bin Laden.
.:4:33:36 PM:.
What if world leaders were to chat (response)
My friend Jesse sent me this:
"That reminds me of this, it was floated around shortly before the Afghanistan invasion BinLaden9151: hello XprezbushX: who is this BinLaden9151: osama XprezbushX: thats a funny name BinLaden9151: at least its not bush lol XprezbushX: shut up BinLaden9151: did u get my message XprezbushX: whut message BinLaden9151: u know, my message BinLaden9151: it wuz delivered by airmail BinLaden9151: right into ur trade towers XprezbushX: shut up that wasnt funny BinLaden9151: lol XprezbushX: SHUT UP!!!! :X BinLaden9151: r u mad XprezbushX: yah BinLaden9151: why?????? XprezbushX: u messed with my country BinLaden9151: well now u know how i feel XprezbushX: whut do u mean BinLaden9151: other countries and forces hurt my people all the time XprezbushX: hello!!! whut duz that have 2 do with us BinLaden9151: like u give guns and money and missiles and stuff 2 a lot of those people XprezbushX: oic XprezbushX: but ur terrorists, how can u speak out against violence BinLaden9151: jeez u label anybody who goes against injustice a terrorist BinLaden9151: i bet if u were picking on my little brother and i punched u youd start screaming TERRORIST! TERRORIST! XprezbushX: i never touched ur little brother XprezbushX: besides there r other, more civilized ways 2 battle injustice BinLaden9151: ur missing the point XprezbushX: whutz the point anyway BinLaden9151: i love my people like brothers and ur military is all up in our holy land!!! BinLaden9151: its pissing us off XprezbushX: whatever dude XprezbushX: is that all BinLaden9151: no BinLaden9151: another thing is, imperialistic american globalization is a raging torrent thats going to wash away our borders, our cultures and our identities XprezbushX: whut do u mean BinLaden9151: im afraid that tomorrow im going to wake up and see a mcdonalds next to my mosque BinLaden9151: and ur troops will be like, relax yall, just have a happy meal!! XprezbushX: so whut r u wearing BinLaden9151: ??? XprezbushX: sorry wrong window lol BinLaden9151: lol XprezbushX: ok so whut were u saying BinLaden9151: like BinLaden9151: basically BinLaden9151: a lot of all the jets and tanks and gunships that terrorize us might as well be painted red, white and blue XprezbushX: a/s/l BinLaden9151: ??? XprezbushX: sorry wrong window again BinLaden9151: WHY DONT EVER LISTEN TO ME!! BinLaden9151: THE ONLY WAY I CAN GET THROUGH TO U IS BY BLOWING SOMETHING UP!! XprezbushX: hello r u there BinLaden9151: YESS!! XprezbushX: u started all this anyway BinLaden9151: did not! XprezbushX: u did too! BinLaden9151: u started it!! XprezbushX: lalalala XprezbushX: i cant hear u BinLaden9151: i will make ur life a living hell XprezbushX: haha ur acting like a 13 year old girl who just got her phone taken away BinLaden9151: shut up BinLaden9151: ur immature XprezbushX: no u r BinLaden9151: i know u r but what am i XprezbushX: LALALALALALALA XprezbushX: cant hear u BinLaden9151: SHUT UP XprezbushX: NO U SHUT UP XprezbushX: relax, have a happy meal lol BinLaden9151: ARRRGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!11 XprezbushX: i think our blind rage is obscuring solutions--can we set aside our feelings and just talk about this like civilized humans??"
