Well... I finally got my wireless internet working so that I could use my computer in my room. Had to go on a wild-goose hunt to get a wireless router that would work, but thanks to Sam, all is well now. :P But I guess now that my computer is in my room and has internet, and I set up my mini-fridge in the basement with cold-drinks... I have no reason to leave the basement of my house except for food now... oh well.. hehe... it was my parents idea to move my computer down to my room. :P
I apparently missed out on an AWESOME YC this year... and I missed one of my favorite Christian bands in Kutless perform live... which sucks... however, I was able to see an old-friend get married (finally, hehe) so that was a real pleasure. So, Congrats to Mo and Jocelyn and I hope they have a wonderful life together. But I did realize at the wedding that... I really should learn how to dance, haha... or at least... get some confidence to do something on the dance floor... but anyways...
Played some soccer yesterday as well... getting ready for UofC league play over the summer... but right now... I suck, haha. Hopefully, my feet-work get better over time, cause I can't do much right now. :P
And last but not least... finally, FINALLY, watched Episode 3 today with Kenric. And I must say, that it was really good. Much better than episode 1 and 2 combined... but still not as good as Empire Strikes Back (I'd rank it around the same as Return of the Jedi). There were some stuff that made me go... what? that doesn't make sense... or... that was stupid, and or that doesn't fit into the saga properly or even into the theme of Star Wars. But otherwise, it was a really good movie (excluding all scenes with Padme and Anakin together or just Padme... they ruined Padme's character with this movie). And Jon Wong... if you ever read this... it isn't Wedge that is in the movie. Captain Antilles there is the same Captain Antilles that captains Princess Leia's diplomatic cruiser and gets killed by Darth Vader in Episode 4, and he's Alderaanian... Wedge is Corellian. :P So no relation either, hehe. And a fun fact for all you Star Wars geeks out there (like me), the real-life actor for Wedge Antilles (Dennis Lawson) in the original series is the real-life uncle of Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequels).
Monday, May 30, 2005
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Finally Home
So, after nearly 3 weeks of vacation. I am finally back home. Not that vacationing was bad, it was really cool and interesting to see South Korea, Hong Kong and part of Japan... but it was just getting too repetitive and long. And man... I really, really dislike HK now, haha. It's so hot and humid and dirty, and smelly... and busy and over-crowded and everybody's so rude. I think if I had a choice... I'd live in... South Korea. :P Hate HK and Japan is just too expensive to live in (unless I was rich, then I'd live in Japan.)
Hmmm... guess I've already written about my trip to Korea and Japan... and there's not too much to say about HK... so... the only other thing that was interesting was that our flight out of HK back to Canada was delayed due to a freak thunder storm. Delayed for 3 hours. Therefore we missed our connecting flight in South Korea and ended up having to stay overnight there. Though I guess I can't complain too much. I mean, they housed us for free at the Hyatt Regency in Seoul... and man, Hyatts are awesome. They are such nice hotels and the food is awesome, haha, especially the breakfast.. Mmmmm, Smoked Salmon, Honey-Glazed Ham, Personalized Omelettes and Waffles... But anyways, it was interesting, cause we ended up having to transfer through Seoul and Tokyo (both places we had already been to) in order to get back home... Granted we got back home exactly 24 hours later than supposed to.
Oh, and ANYBODY WANT TO WATCH EPISODE 3 WITH ME?? Grrr... everybody seems to already have watched it... twice... haha.
Hmmm... guess I've already written about my trip to Korea and Japan... and there's not too much to say about HK... so... the only other thing that was interesting was that our flight out of HK back to Canada was delayed due to a freak thunder storm. Delayed for 3 hours. Therefore we missed our connecting flight in South Korea and ended up having to stay overnight there. Though I guess I can't complain too much. I mean, they housed us for free at the Hyatt Regency in Seoul... and man, Hyatts are awesome. They are such nice hotels and the food is awesome, haha, especially the breakfast.. Mmmmm, Smoked Salmon, Honey-Glazed Ham, Personalized Omelettes and Waffles... But anyways, it was interesting, cause we ended up having to transfer through Seoul and Tokyo (both places we had already been to) in order to get back home... Granted we got back home exactly 24 hours later than supposed to.
Oh, and ANYBODY WANT TO WATCH EPISODE 3 WITH ME?? Grrr... everybody seems to already have watched it... twice... haha.
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Japan
Well... 7 days in Japan... Ranging from Osaka to Nagoya to Mt. Fuji to Tokyo. I must say that Japan is a really beautiful country with beautiful scenery and beautiful weather. A much needed break from the hot, humid, dirty and fast-paced city called Hong Kong. But being that it was with a Hong Kong based tour... we ended up doing a lot of shopping and a lot of bus-sitting then I would have preffered... but it was still a nice trip overall.
Highlights... bought some small decorative samurai swords... for... quite a bit of moola, but meh... something from Japan at least. Spent half-a-day at Expo 2005 at Aichi (not nearly enough time to check out everything available at Expo) but it was interesting. Spent 2 hours each in 2 separate line ups for some presentations. 1) The Hitachi presentation... a use of some new high-tech devices to view some endangered species presentations... and then a ride with 3d binoculars... to view 3d animals... and the ability to kind of interact with said animals through a device placed in your right hand. Pretty cool... but the 10 minute ride was not worth the 2 hour wait. 2) The Toshiba presentation... some new high-tech device that takes 3D photos of people... and then they used our photos and placed them into a movie... so we were the characters of a short movie that they had made up... it was pretty cool... and it was fun trying to find yourself in the movie. Spent some time visiting some of the country pavilions... but couldn't see the Canadian one because there was a huge line up for it (which is cool), but I was able to talk to one of the Canadian representatives about Hockey, haha... but I found out that we lost to the Czech Republic in the World Championships, sigh... that sucks. And apparently, Craig got booted from the Apprentice because he lacked communication skills.... and Kendra won season 3 of The Apprentice. And the Lowell Lockmonsters (Flames AHL team) lost in the 2nd round of playoff s as well. Mike Vernon and Gary Suter are both up for possible Hall of Fame induction this year as well.
Ummm... saw Mt. Fuji... I guess it was okay, didn't get up close, up close to it... so didn't get to really see a live volcano... but oh well... the best view of it was on the airplane from Tokyo to Hong Kong. :P Hmmm... didn't get to meet up with my friend in Tokyo though... it was too hard to organize... but I gave her a call at least... so that was cool. Ummm... okay... guess it's only 10 in the morning in Calgary right now... but it past midnight here... and I'm exhausted from 2 weeks of vacation... with only 5-7 hours of sleep every night... and tons of walking with little rest during the day. 3 more days... till back to Calgary.
Highlights... bought some small decorative samurai swords... for... quite a bit of moola, but meh... something from Japan at least. Spent half-a-day at Expo 2005 at Aichi (not nearly enough time to check out everything available at Expo) but it was interesting. Spent 2 hours each in 2 separate line ups for some presentations. 1) The Hitachi presentation... a use of some new high-tech devices to view some endangered species presentations... and then a ride with 3d binoculars... to view 3d animals... and the ability to kind of interact with said animals through a device placed in your right hand. Pretty cool... but the 10 minute ride was not worth the 2 hour wait. 2) The Toshiba presentation... some new high-tech device that takes 3D photos of people... and then they used our photos and placed them into a movie... so we were the characters of a short movie that they had made up... it was pretty cool... and it was fun trying to find yourself in the movie. Spent some time visiting some of the country pavilions... but couldn't see the Canadian one because there was a huge line up for it (which is cool), but I was able to talk to one of the Canadian representatives about Hockey, haha... but I found out that we lost to the Czech Republic in the World Championships, sigh... that sucks. And apparently, Craig got booted from the Apprentice because he lacked communication skills.... and Kendra won season 3 of The Apprentice. And the Lowell Lockmonsters (Flames AHL team) lost in the 2nd round of playoff s as well. Mike Vernon and Gary Suter are both up for possible Hall of Fame induction this year as well.
Ummm... saw Mt. Fuji... I guess it was okay, didn't get up close, up close to it... so didn't get to really see a live volcano... but oh well... the best view of it was on the airplane from Tokyo to Hong Kong. :P Hmmm... didn't get to meet up with my friend in Tokyo though... it was too hard to organize... but I gave her a call at least... so that was cool. Ummm... okay... guess it's only 10 in the morning in Calgary right now... but it past midnight here... and I'm exhausted from 2 weeks of vacation... with only 5-7 hours of sleep every night... and tons of walking with little rest during the day. 3 more days... till back to Calgary.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
South Corea - Seoul
Well, I went, I saw and I experienced South Korea. :P And no, I didn't mispell Corea/Korea in the title. Apprently, Korea was supposed to be spelt with a C. However, Japan didn't want Korea to be ahead of Japan alphabetically, so they changed it.
Anyways, I enjoyed my short time in South Korea, mainly just in and around Seoul. And the impressions that I got were:
1) They are Hi-Tech... yet Trashy... (basically, their technological revolution happened so fast that they didn't really upgrade... rather they just patched in all the new stuff over their old stuff. So, you have your hi-tech towers right beside your stereotypical medal sheds and such...)
2) They are Well-Dressed... yet Tacky... (basically, clothing styles are either tacky for North American standards or all suits and dress clothes.)
3) They are really clean. (For such a large city with so many inhabitants, they are really clean.)
4) They are honorable and respectful.
Hmmm... those are my impressions... though it doesn't really explain an entire society and culture.
But I guess the best thing about the trip to Korea was the food (Korean BBQ, Korean Hot Pot and too much kimchi), and the best thing was that we got a lot of it because we were on a tour. :P I guess, briefly, we saw an old Palace of a long-gone dynasty, A Korean Folk Village, the Seoul World Cup Stadium and Everland Theme Park.
And since I mentioned the best things of the trip, I guess I'll have to mention the worst thing. And that would have to be the 11 hour flight from Vancouver to Seoul... Especially since I have a very difficult time... actually, pratically an impossible time sleeping on a plane. So, I ended up being awake for over 22 hours... which made me quite tired during the time in Korea.
Anyways, I am now in Hong Kong, and will be here till Saturday, when we then head over to tour Japan for a week. So, time to shop for some hi-tech gadgets and work on my horrible chinese. :P
Anyways, I enjoyed my short time in South Korea, mainly just in and around Seoul. And the impressions that I got were:
1) They are Hi-Tech... yet Trashy... (basically, their technological revolution happened so fast that they didn't really upgrade... rather they just patched in all the new stuff over their old stuff. So, you have your hi-tech towers right beside your stereotypical medal sheds and such...)
2) They are Well-Dressed... yet Tacky... (basically, clothing styles are either tacky for North American standards or all suits and dress clothes.)
3) They are really clean. (For such a large city with so many inhabitants, they are really clean.)
4) They are honorable and respectful.
Hmmm... those are my impressions... though it doesn't really explain an entire society and culture.
But I guess the best thing about the trip to Korea was the food (Korean BBQ, Korean Hot Pot and too much kimchi), and the best thing was that we got a lot of it because we were on a tour. :P I guess, briefly, we saw an old Palace of a long-gone dynasty, A Korean Folk Village, the Seoul World Cup Stadium and Everland Theme Park.
And since I mentioned the best things of the trip, I guess I'll have to mention the worst thing. And that would have to be the 11 hour flight from Vancouver to Seoul... Especially since I have a very difficult time... actually, pratically an impossible time sleeping on a plane. So, I ended up being awake for over 22 hours... which made me quite tired during the time in Korea.
Anyways, I am now in Hong Kong, and will be here till Saturday, when we then head over to tour Japan for a week. So, time to shop for some hi-tech gadgets and work on my horrible chinese. :P