hello blog

To say I’ve been lazy recently may not be entirely correct. I have, however, put off doing lots of things; blogging is one of them. So I’ve got a bit to catch up on. I’m gonna try and make it fairly brief, as I want to go to sleep soon.


back in north van
First off, I’m back in North Vancouver! Had a good time staying with my friend, Jesse, at his place downtown, but I’m sure we’re both glad I’m no longer there! haha. One room is not enough for two single guys. Now that I’m back home, I get (including, but not limited to): my own room, a real bed (I slept on various pieces of shit for 4.5 months), way more space, a stocked fridge, and nice deck to relax on, a blender and other essential kitchen items. But there are lots of things I miss about downtown… like being able to walk anywhere… and that walk, no matter if you’re going to a place you’ve been many times, is always different.


reading
Been doing quite a bit of reading in the sunshine, recently. I got The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time from Shirley, and read that. The story was about a boy who has autism, and was actually written from his point of view. It was interesting to see what things he valued in contrast to what normal people value. For instance, he decides how he will behave depending on how many yellow or red cars he sees on his way to school; yellow’s bad, red’s good. My mom has had quite a bit of experience with autistic children, and she’s read the book before, so I asked her if the behaviour of the character was accurate, and she said yes, quite convinced. If anyone wants to read it, I now have a copy….

Non-fiction-wise, I used my shiny new membership at the VPL to sign out two books. I’ve almost finished Programming Linux Games, and find it very refreshing compared to other game-programming books. It’s got a lot of information other books never even mention, and skips over the stuff they usually do. *ahh* It’s so nice! I’ve already renewed it. Hopefully I can finish it before I have to take it back. And hopefully, I actually do make a game… or something for my “portfolio.” I need something… hrmmm.


windows
I recently wanted to use the family computer (which runs Windows XP) for something, and was assaulted with a pop-up upon login. Frustration Level: rising. I then opened IE (the whole reason I wanted to use the computer in the first place was to try viewing a site in IE). Oh, that’s right. IE can pump out pop-up ads (such as the former) but it doesn’t think I’m connected to the Internet and is therefor useless! I forgot about that problem. Can’t do Windows Updates, either. Frustration Level: Time to Re-install Windows! yay!

(VERY) Long story short(er), “re-installing windows with updated setup files” turned into “invalid CD key” which turned into “formatting C” which turned into “installing ubuntu temporarily” which turned into “try installing windows again” which turned into “Error loading operating system.” which finally turned into “Welcome to Windows.” For some reason, after formatting the MBR with GRUB, the 2nd stage of the Windows XP install would not boot. It’s a really strange problem, as I tried installing Windows 95, and there were no problems. Anyways, the only way that worked was booting with a Windows 98 boot disk and using that fdisk to partition the drive, then formatting it during the install of XP. Go here for more discussion.


linux
I’ve recently tried out some programs that I simply must mention:

Leafpad Until the new Gedit is released, I recommend making this your default basic text file program in Gnome. It’s basically like Notepad – simple and fast; great for viewing.
Graveman I think I may finally uninstall K3B!
Anjuta2 It still needs a lot of work, but it’s looking good.
Inkscape Wow! This program is awesome! And playing with vectors is FUN!

I plan on eventually making a list of useful programs, and some general tips, I think. But not now. 🙂

On a less happier note, I think I may have finally broken Portage on my Gentoo box. A couple programs have just stopped working. :'(


ubc computer science logos
Everybody and their dog is designing logos, these days. This is what I was using Inkscape for. My school asked for logo submissions for a computer science logo. At some point, I would like to acquire a peice of clothing that says my school and faculty… but I’ve had a genuine dislike for most of the designs I’ve seen. Hopefully, this time will be different. I took this opportunity as an excuse to start learning to work with vectors and try out Inkscape. Well, I stayed up most of the night (until 7:30 am?) playing around with vectors and attempting some logo designs. Went to sleep, got up at 12pm, made some finishing touches and created a couple more logos throughout the day, and ended up submitting a whopping 14 designs! Some aren’t very good, and others are just minor alterations, but I figured I’d submit them anyways. The chosen designer get $150 at the UBC Bookstore… not near as good as Alex’s competition, but whatever. I just don’t want another hideous CS logo!


Hmm… So much for brevity.

almost forgot…
Have a great trip, Shirley! 😉

5 comments

  1. there comes a time when one can wait too long between updates that there is so much information to be shared in the next post that it’s becomes a jarbled mass of inconsequensual information. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, but surely work on more prompt updates, c’mon man… you’re dealing with a generation of people who would of all been medicated for ADD 40 years ago. haha… I kid…

    Cube misses you… maybe.

  2. Wow, my name’s mentioned twice in this post! One step closer to being famous!
    Japan is hot as hell, I think I have already lost weight from sweating.

  3. hobby: Sure, both can be hobbies, but installing windows are often driven by necessity, whereas installing Linux are driven by luxury (wanting better stuff).

    And I think the end result of installing Windows gives a mere “relieved” feeling, like a job finally done, whereas Linux gives a “Yay, I am GOD” feeling. 😀

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