Shape Collage

Some collages of Tiki made using Shape Collage

Shape Collage is the latest side project that I've been working on. It is an automatic photo collage making program that can make collages in different shapes. Just look at the collages above and at the end of the post to see what it can do. There are a lot more examples on the Shape Collage web page.

It's really easy to make a collage. You can make one with just 2 mouse clicks and in as little as a couple seconds! It's quite customizable as well, as you can change the shape to really, anything you want. You can even draw your own shape! You can also customize the border, background, etc.

Arranging photos into a collage

The photos are automatically placed in the desired shape of the collage using a machine learning algorithm that I came up with that is simple, but fast and effective. Basically what it does is put the photos on a page and jiggle them around so they are arranged nicely. This is a much harder problem than you may think. My readers with some knowledge of computer science will be familiar with NP problems. My algorithm isn't perfect, but it does a pretty good job most of the time. If you're really anal about it, you can save the collage as a Photoshop PSD and edit the collage in Photoshop if you don't like the automatic placement of the photos.

I started working on this project b/c I read a paper that automatically created a photo collage and thought that it was really cool, especially since it took me so long to make my Californian photo collage. Since they didn't actually release a program or their source code, I decided to just implement their approach, but it was overly complicated and rather slow - it took several minutes to create a collage with just 30 photos. So, I tried something simpler that was much faster - my program can easily create a collage with thousands of photos. Then I realized that my algorithm didn't have to only create rectangular collages and could also create collages in different shapes, something that I had never seen before, and so Shape Collage was created!

Anyways, check it out and let me know what you think! It's available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and anything that supports Java.

Snowboarding snowman collage

Volleyball collage

Day trip to Banff from Toronto

I realized that it's totally possible to make a day trip to Banff to go snowboarding from Toronto! I did half of the day trip yesterday, I just missed out on the part about going back to Toronto :)

Here's the itinerary:

06:45 AM EST - Depart from Toronto airport
09:05 AM MST - Arrive at Calgary airport
10:00 AM MST - Leave Calgary airport in car rental
11:30 AM MST - Arrive in Banff
12:00 PM MST - Snowboarding! (on the slopes for the first run at Sunshine or Norquay)
04:30 PM MST - Leave snow hill (later if you do night skiing as well)
05:00 PM MST - Have brunner (breakfast/lunch/dinner) and relax in Banff
09:30 PM MST - Leave Banff
11:00 PM MST - Arrive at Calgary airport
12:00 AM MST - Depart from Calgary airport (no earlier flights that are possible)
06:00 AM EST - Arrive at Toronto airport

Total cost: ~$550 (including car rental and lift ticket, but not food)

It'd be slightly cheaper per person if there were multiple people to split the car rental. It's a shame that there's no flight at 7pm from Calgary, otherwise you'd be able to make it back to Toronto by 1am.

Happy Singles Appreciation Day!

In celebration of Singles Appreciation Day (SAD), I'm going to Banff to go snowboarding... errr... I mean a conference.

Inappropriate communication etiquette

Exhibit #1: Martha Fucker

My long time readers know her as my face of evil in this world. I forgot my iPod at home and the bus organizer forget to bring DVDs, so I had no ambient noise to drown out the excessively loud, non-stop talking, annoying voice of Martha. She was sitting at least 5 rows behind me, yet it was if she was screaming right into my ear. Of course, she and her other annoying friends were the only ones talking in the entire bus. Everyone else was trying to sleep.

She was lucky that my board was stored under the bus, otherwise I would've taken it out and slit her throat with it.

I'm grumpy b/c I have low tolerance for annoying, inconsiderate, and incompetent people, especially those that rob me of my sleep.

On an unrelated note, why do bus drivers feel the need to crank up the heat in the bus to literally make it a sauna? The problem is compounded by the fact that we were going to a ski hill, and as such, we were all decked out in WINTER GEAR. Save some energy, save the environment, and turn down the heat!!! This is a problem across seemingly all bus drivers and I always have to ask them to turn down the heat.

Anyways, this was the last trip for the U of T Ski and Snowboard Club, so I won't have to deal with these problems anymore. It was an ok season. I conquered the mountain, gained confidence on the snowboard, learnt how to somewhat ride switch, did some small jumps, and tried out the glades. The snow conditions were pretty good except for today, which was all icy and grainy b/c it was 15 earlier this week. I'm pretty bored with Blue Mountain now and am pretty sure that I won't be joining the club next year.


Exhibit #2: The Eager Biology Post-Doc

I don't remember under what circumstances that I gave him my home and cell number, but it was the worst idea ever. I'm pretty sure that I only supplied it to him so he could contact me for that one time or in an emergency (eg. presentation in a few hours and a figure needs to be changed).

Here are situations when it is inappropriate to call me regarding work. Note that in all of these situations, it was a non-emergency and we did not arrange to have a phone meeting.

• At 10am. Seriously, I'm not awake. Don't call me.


• When I'm on the ski slopes and repeatedly send your call to voice mail.


• At 8pm on a Friday night. Shouldn't you be home taking care of your newborn?

If it's work related, there is no reason you should be calling my cell or home phone every day without first trying to contact me through e-mail. If I'm not responsive via e-mail, then it means I'm not available. Calling me should be reserved for emergencies or set-up ahead of time through e-mail.

Boarding is only half the fun

My slaves, I mean pupils. Here's a video of Christine falling off the chairlift.

Hand slapping drinking game

Punishments for losing included taking vodka shots outside

More pictures and videos

Frankly, after conquering Blue Mountain on snowboard, and still going up every week, I'm pretty bored with the mountain. I've been to Blue over 30 times in 3 years and I've long since memorized all the trails. I'm still working on my confidence on the board and going faster as well as doing some small jumps and riding switch, but when I go to Blue now, it's all about the socializing and relaxing aspect. I have no need to rush and try to do every run on the mountain every time b/c all the runs are the same and I go all the time. I'd rather ride greens and blues with good company, take nice leisurely breaks, and take it easy.

I went up on Friday with the club and if it wasn't for the fact that this was the weekend trip with the DVD crew (beach volleyball people), I probably wouldn't have gone. It had snowed/freezing rained the night before and it was a mess outside. It was warm and the snow was melting and there were huge puddles in intersections and it was just miserable walking to the bus. I had anticipated that the road conditions were going to be crap and it was going to take us 3 or 4 hours to get there, it was going to rain on the slopes, and it was going to be all slushy, but surprisingly, we got there pretty quick (~2 hours 15 min.), the sun came out, and the snow conditions were bearable. There weren't many people on the bus, I think only 15, and most people generally do their own thing. Erik and a friend of his came on the bus from the Friday bus, so I rode with them and Serena who I met during the whole "bus didn't come back" fiasco. Erik and I joked that we're the first graduating class of the club, as we learnt how to board through the club last year :)

At 4, I grabbed my stuff from the bus and took the shuttle to the North side of the mountain and then proceeded to walk with all my gear and bags ~1.25 km to the chalet that we rented. That was a fun walk, especially in my snowboarding boots as I was too lazy to change into my regular boots and carry them. I think I can attribute the popped blister on the back of my left Achilles tendon to that walk.

I was the first to arrive after Son and Dawn, who were organizing the trip. I showered and took a nap in one of the bunks. I didn't bring sheets, so I just wrapped myself in the provided comforter like a sleeping bag.

The rest of the people slowly arrived. Christine and Hannah left at 4:30 and got to the chalet at 8:30. In comparison, Vic left at about the same time, but got there at about 6:30. They claimed to have done some errands in town during that time, but they did call us to ask for directions. We ended up with 13 the first night and between 10 double beds in 8 rooms (there were 2 bunk beds, and both the top and bottom bunks were doubles, which was strange), we fit everyone comfortably. The couples (incl. some girl-on-girl action) coupled up and the singles got their own beds. A few people couldn't make it b/c their flights into Toronto were canceled b/c of the weather and Michelle's parents didn't want her going up on Friday b/c of the roads, which was an unnecessary worry since the roads were actually pretty good. The night consisted of Swiss Chalet, poker, uno, and xbox (who knew the original xbox could be modded to play emulated games!). A few of us didn't see the bedrooms until past 5 am.

Saturday was boarding day. My 5x7 season pass doesn't cover the day during the weekends, so I had to pay, which sucked, but whatever. Most hit the slopes around 9, but I slept in and b/c of the late night, started at noon instead. I spent pretty much the entire day on the bunny hills teaching "banana nut muffin" (Hannah, Christine, and Michelle) to board. This was an interesting experiment, as the first time I ever touched a snowboard was just over a year ago and even then, I just got 2 short informal lessons. I'm not sure if I'm doing things right or not, and I'm not sure how to really teach it, but things went decent. Others helped as well and everyone was getting tips from everyone :). All 3 of them made really good progress! By the end of the day, all 3 were able to do both heel and toe turns and could string some of the turns together! That's pretty amazing for pretty much their first time out. Michelle was even able to make it down the whole (second bunny) slope doing turns the whole way without falling!

Christine had bought a board (and coat) right before the trip b/c her Dad boards and she figured that she would pick it up so that she could go with him. In an extremely impulsive mood, probably highly influenced by peer pressure, both Hannah and Michelle bought boards the next day on the way home! That was pretty crazy! They're thinking of going again on Friday.

That night, our numbers inflated to something like 20, and consisted of dinner made from all the random food people brought, beer, wine, poker, xbox, phase 10, uno, drinking games, Zoolander, Casino Royale, and girl talk. More fun off the slopes than on :). Everyone was pretty buzzed and exhausted from the slopes. People *cough* Hannah *cough* started passing out just past midnight. Somehow I didn't get to bed until past 6. With the additional people, including some that didn't intend on staying over, there were people on the couches and most people doubled up on the beds. The guy on the bottom bunk in my room was a huge snorer, which was annoying. At one point, I had 3 girls on my bed and I was pretty sure that the bed was going to collapse and kill the guy underneath us. The guy was a really deep sleeper b/c he didn't wake up at all, or at least faked snored a lot...

I think I might have had my first hangover (not hangarover). I had a minor headache most of the day. I didn't drink that much (maybe like red level 8), but I had been really sleep deprived for the last couple days. I donno, I generally deal with headaches pretty well. They don't really bother me and for the most part, I just ignore them. I might have had a hangover before, but just attributed it to lack of sleep. We hit Pizza Hut for brunch, where I got my patented cheese-less pizza, which even Hannah said wasn't weird at all after trying a piece, and then we headed home.

The newbies were complaining of being sore, as to be expected. I wasn't though as my body's been conditioned to it already. I joked about playing volleyball when we got back into town, except that I actually did as CCF had their last game of the season. The popped blister is kinda annoying right now though as I can't really walk without pain since a scab has formed and walking stretches it.

Next year we're going to Quebec! Hopefully more people have learnt how to board by then!

In retrospect, the helmet was a good purchase

Figuring that if I didn't have a massive fall, I didn't push myself enough, I decided to do some jumps on the bunny hill. I got some decent air on the top one, but on the small one at the bottom, I figured that I'd need to jump extra hard, but that just resulted in the back of my head slamming against the slope. At least I managed to entertain the crowd riding the chair lift over me as I heard gasps as they passed.

I'm glad that I was wearing a helmet, as even with it on, it gave me a good jarring. I figured that I would start wearing one this season as I was gonna be doing double blacks and jumps and stuff. Good call.

You would think that I'd learn by now

It's just after 10, I just got up. The bus left for Blue Mountain at 8.

Serves me right for going to bed at friggin' 3 am....

Sound familiar?

I'm gonna try and hop onto the bus that leaves at 2 pm. There should be space...

I'm feeling lucky

Waiting for an hour and a half for the bus

Luck was definitely on my side yesterday.

My typical Friday is as follows:

1. Wake up at an ungodly early hour (7ish) after just a couple hours of sleep


2. Get on the bus to Blue Mountain


3. Immediately fall asleep


4. Wake up and snowboard


5. Return to the bus and sleep until the bus arrives back in Toronto

The problem yesterday was that between steps 3 and 4, I missed an important announcement that we should take all our stuff with us, as the bus will not be staying at Blue Mountain and a different bus will be returning to pick us up. We always get to leave our stuff on the bus and I figured that if it wasn't the case that the point would be emphasized several times. In my groggy state when I woke up, I did recall hearing some sort of announcement by the bus driver, but he said it in a humorous tone, as if he was a flight attendant, and I thought he was joking.

Apparently not.

I left my bag (with iPod and glasses), shoes, and snowboard bag on the bus. At step 5, the bus wasn't in the parking lot as it had left and the replacement bus hadn't arrived. I found out the hard way by going around the parking lot like 5 times. This was especially fun half-blind, as I snowboard with contacts, but I take them out before going back onto the bus so I can sleep without my contacts sticking to my eyes. I figure that it's just a short walk to the bus from the lodge that I can manage without any visual aids.

I had most of my important stuff with me (wallet, cellphone, keys). My shoes were old. My snowboard bag was ripping. My iPod doesn't play videos. My glasses would be nice to have though, but they're replaceable and I've just switched to the U of T health plan, so I can get new glasses covered.

I was all prepared to write all the stuff off b/c I didn't have much hope that I'd be able to get it back from the bus company, at least not in a timely manner.

After a while, of all people, my face of all evil in the world announces that a snowboard bag was left on the bus. It was mine! What luck! I managed to recover my snowboard bag, that would at least make carrying my stuff back to my apartment easier.

It was actually good that the bus was late, b/c with all of us waiting in the parking lot, people started talking. On the bus, no one talks, except the people that already knew each other before hand. It's made worse in that everybody has their own seat. We've also been playing movies in the bus, so people either watch the (very loud) movie or sleep. On the slopes, everyone just goes their separate ways.

After an hour and a half, the bus finally arrives. Someone says that it's the same bus b/c he/she was sitting in the same seat before and the seat adjuster thing was broken. I looked around briefly, but didn't see my stuff. I figured that I'd wait until we get back to Toronto and everyone leaves before I look more carefully.

I wake up and in the first overhead bin I open, I see my bag and shoes!

Amazing!

My luck still didn't stop me from having yet another "of course" moment, but I still wouldn't have bet against me yesterday.

Sporty weekend

4 different sports this weekend: snowboarding, curling, volleyball, and dodgeball.

• Friday: Snowboarding with the U of T Ski and Snowboard Club
  • Pretty much pwned Blue Mountain - greens, blues, blacks, and double blacks. The only run I didn't do was the glades run, which goes through the trees, but it was closed anyways, not that I would've gone. I value my neck too much.


• Saturday: Hart House Curling Bonspiel
  • Random team of individuals that hadn't met before and we won the whole thing!!! Our skip was good, having played since high school and on the U of T varsity team. The skips on most teams were good, but usually the rest of the team is inexperienced. The difference with our team, was that while I've only played a handful of times (just at these random bonspiels over the past 3 years, which usually boils down to about twice a year), I think I've caught on pretty quick. I'm pretty good at throwing what's being called and I can do take outs and throw draw weight pretty consistently. We should not have won though. The team we played against was good (they won their first game 20-2 in 8 ends) and we won only by pure miracles. We were down and then managed to steal the last 3 ends to win the final game by 2. Every end, we were like, "oh, we're screwed", as the last rock was being thrown by the other team's skip, but by some sort of miracle, the rocks just rolled our way. We won 4 $25 gift certificates as a team to HMV, Indigo, Roots, and LCBO. I got the LCBO one ;). The other team won as well for being the highest one game winner (it's a score bonspiel with points given out for wins, ends, and points, with a cap of 12 for points), and they got the same prize. We figured, either way, both teams probably would've won since we both had good first games (ours was 12-2) and then the second game was close. I continued my curling prize streak. My shoulders, back, and triceps are still sore 2 days later from sweeping so much!


• Sunday: CCF Volleyball Intramurals
  • I'm not really allowed to play, since I play for Skule in Div 1, but I snuck on anyways :)


• Sunday: SGS Dodgeball Intramurals
  • Yes! Dodgeball! It's quite a sophisticated game when you get to as advanced a level as ourselves. We've developed some killer tactics. We had problems getting out this one girl at the end of the first game. She would just hang around the back, and with the balls we were using, it was hard to hit her. What eventually did it in was Eric going up without a ball, and me hiding behind him. She threw and got him out, I came from behind and pegged her off :). Next week we practice with wrenches.

Happy Birthday and (Belated) Anniversary Mimi!!!

At the top of the Waterfall run at Blue Mountain

It's hard to believe that it was just over a year ago that Mimi and I were forced to sit together on the bus after Crystal ditched us on the ski and snowboard club trip. It was definitely against both of our wishes, as we found the other to be annoying, but by the end of it, we had overcome our initial impressions of the other person and were friends.

Today was this season's first outing with the U of T ski and snowboard club and it was much better than last season's. We had a short charter bus this time instead of a school bus and it took us just over 2 hours to get there and so, even after getting the season passes, we still had about 5 hours on the slopes. Most of the runs were open, the first time this season for many of the runs. None of the runs were groomed, but there was a decent amount of powder, but it was spotty as I did come across some ice and grass patches. I started off at the North base, having jumped off the bus after getting my season pass and rode all the runs to the South base, and then traversed back to hit the Northern most side for the blacks and double blacks, and then back to the South end for the bus. I did my first double black diamond on snowboard today! Ok, aside from that time I accidentally went down that double black moguls with Manuel at Crystal Mountain and just edged it down. Anyways, it wasn't that great b/c it was pretty much all ice at the top, but I managed to mostly stay in control. I was quite impressed with myself, having almost conquered the mountain on almost exactly the 1 year anniversary of when I started snowboarding.

It's surprising how perspectives change over time. I have gone snowboarding 5 times (Seattle and North Dakota) since the last time I went to Blue Mountain and the runs seemed a lot easier this time. Dr. Doug, my most feared blue run as a skier, is now a joke even as a snowboarder. Black diamonds weren't very challenging today, when they were last time I was there, and double-blacks aren't even that intimidating now, aside from being pure ice.

On another note, of course with my luck, fuckin' Marsha, my face for evil in the world, was on my bus. When I saw her come on the bus, I had to restrain myself from screaming and pushing her off the bus. And being the bitch she is, she was late to get back onto the bus and was the last person to get on. I was hoping that we would leave without her. The only redeeming thing was that I didn't hear her on the bus as she was at the front and I was at the back, though I don't think she knew many people on the bus this time. Everyone who knows her probably switched buses. I know I would have had I known she was going to be on my bus.

With traffic, we got back to campus at 6:30 pm. By the time I dropped my stuff off at home, got changed, and bladed to Sid Smith for fellowship, it was a little after 7. The back door was locked and I really didn't want to enter in the front nearly 2 hours late. I text messaged Michelle to open the back door for me. I didn't think this had much of a chance of working, as I figured she would either have had her phone off or wouldn't have heard it. Surprisingly within a few minutes, she came and opened the door for me :). I was also able to successfully reverse stalk Yuan.

Snowboarding in the prairies?

My rental

Frost Fire

It's funny how you don't speak to someone for 6 or 7 years, and even back then you didn't really speak, and then suddenly you're going snowboarding together! Similar stories has been told several times over for me. I didn't talk to Rob, Chris, Jill, Nusraat, and others back in high school. It's not that we didn't like each other (ok, well, I was predisposed to not like Chris, but that's a whole other story). We were all civil to each other. It's just that we had different social groups (I was obviously in the cooler group ;)). It was only after high school did I become friends with them, mostly b/c Rob, Chris, and Nusraat were in engineering with me.

I went snowboarding at Frost Fire with Christy just across the border in North Dakota. It was actually better than I thought it was going to be. The runs were short, easy, and there weren't many of them, but that was to be assumed. The vertical drop was about half of Blue Mountain's, which itself is about 1/4 the size of a real mountain. The "blues" were actually "greens" and the "black diamonds" were "blues". Despite all this, I still had a lot of fun! The snow conditions were pretty good and the runs were groomed well. It's funny that we weren't actually snowboarding on a mountain. The prairies don't have mountains. We were snowboarding in a valley!!! I donno, I found that funny. It was weird b/c when we got to the slopes, we started at the top of the runs, as opposed to the bottom of the mountain whereby you would then have to take the chair lift to the top :)

I got my ass handed to me time and time again. At the end, I was taking a head start and Christy still beat me to the bottom! In my defense, I haven't been snowboarding since high school :p. I also haven't ridden with anyone even half as good, as I have been going with people that just learned recently, so I haven't been going fast as it's boring to have to wait at the bottom. It's good to go with someone better than you so you can learn.

I tried jumping for the first time, which was fun :). I landed my first jump, which was more of a hop. The second time, I was a little too aggressive with my jumping and didn't land flat and took a bit of a fall. I just needed to test my limits. We also rode switch (other foot facing down the mountain) a few times, which was interesting. It's like trying to do anything with the other foot/hand. You end up having to relearn how to do things. Try brushing your teeth with the opposite hand. Riding switch obviously involved falling. After about 3 tries, I did manage to do a few turns and that was the only time I beat Christy down the slope (I'm refraining from using the word "mountain" or "hill", b/c it was neither). Let's not argue about how long I was riding switch vs regular, etc., etc. :)

I was able to get in and out of my bindings much faster than Christy (and beat her to the lift) b/c the rental I had had "flow" bindings, which with just one switch, my boot could go in or come out of the binding. I rented from Gord's b/c I didn't bring my board to Winnipeg as I didn't think I'd be going snowboarding. It was good though b/c it gave me the chance to try some good equipment. It wasn't however, good enough to convince me that I need new equipment considering that I just bought mine. The boots were a bit more comfortable than mine and the board felt pretty good, but not substantially different than mine, despite it being 156 cm instead of my 151. It was hard to really compare the two b/c the snow conditions were good (not bumpy, hard, crunchy, or icy) and I've ridden in a lot of crap. It was also a brand new board b/c all their rentals were out :)

NO PST, BITCHES

My new snowpants and a look into my bedroom, a place where unfortunately, few have seen. My previous offer still stands.

Finally got a pair of waterproof snowpants! That should help me in times of rain, like last year and my recent trip to Snoqualmie.

I had the hardest time finding a new pair as Men's "small" is too big! MEC and REI didn't have a substantial kids section either, and the women's snowpants were just too fitting :s. I found myself in Eaton Centre today and in SportChek. I tried on like 10 pairs of snowpants, and finally settled on this one:

I still wear kids clothing

Even with a "youth" size, I have to make use of the elastic waist adjustment band :s. I tried one size lower, but it was too small. Using the adjustment thingy makes the back all scrunched up. I may have to find a belt instead...

I found the attached sizing chart rather humorous :). Europeans wear XL (18/20) when they're 14, but people in Japan and Korea wear it when they are 19!!! Heck, I'm still wearing it! I know that growing up, I would typically wear the same size as my age, as advised by this sizing chart for Asians, and I guess I just stopped at 19, which is about right, as that's about the age people guess that I am :p

Asians are small

Not only was the snowpants on sale ($80), but since it was kids, there was NO PST!!! Unlike in Manitoba, in Ontario, all kids clothing automagically gets the PST (provincial sales tax, 8% in Ontario) off, and you don't have cashiers asking you if you are under 14.

NO PST, BITCHES

Seattle wrap-up

I'm sure that this is going to be a long post, so here's the executive summary for those of you who have exams and don't have time to read the entire entry. Wait, people with exams need to procrastinate :). Ok, this summary is just for you lazy working folk then. Except those of you who read at work. You know who you are :)

My trip was quite good overall. Interviews went well (I think and hope), wrote and submitted a good paper (I think and hope), snowboarded twice (Stevens Pass and Snoqualmie), played volleyball twice (Pro Club and Kamiakin), GReunion 2.0 (Jonny!), saw most of the people I wanted to see, and had the most amazing dragon boat practice.


Dragon boating with Hot Sake

Being on the water on Saturday was simply amazing.

Bright shining sun. Clear blue skies. Still glass water. Fresh cool air. Magnificent mountain backdrop.

The most fascinating thing was putting my bare hand in the nice, cool lake water and watching the steam come off my warm hand.

I still remembered how to paddle and my technique improved with Charlene coaching me. Dropping my shoulders when the paddle enters the water made it so my arms were way less tired. My endurance and power were way up. My ass got bruised from the hard plastic seat of the boat, but I'm told that's a good thing b/c that means I'm rotating instead of just using my arms.


Chinese restaurant tradition

I've noticed that I've been privy to several Chinese restaurant traditions.

• After dragon boat practice, we always go to Jade Garden in Chinatown for dim sum.


• It's always Jeem's for dim sum with Nebojsa


• UTCCF always goes to Kowloon on Baldwin after fellowship


• I don't even have to ask where we're going for family Saturday dinner when I go back to Winnipeg, b/c the answer is Marigold

Tradition is good, but some variety is good as well.


GReunion 2.0

By freak coincidence, Jon and I were both in Seattle at the same time.... for interviews.... for different companies (MSR and Amazon)! Crazy. I always knew that we'd meet again, but I figured it would be here in Toronto since I'm here for school and his family lives here.

I was meeting up with Dmitry, his wife, and Sarah for dinner, and Mr. Deyo blessed us with his presence. We went to Bluwater Belltown Bistro in Belltown near Sarah's place. Nice place.

Sorry, no pics b/c I forgot my camera in Toronto. I had the battery charger and USB cable, but no camera :(


Snoqualmie

I went to Snoqualmie by myself on Monday. Pretty close, like a 1 hour drive. I wasn't impressed. Only a small portion of the mountain was open and there was only 1 good run. And it was raining / freezing rain. I got my bindings ladder fixed, now all 4 of the straps have been replaced and they don't match - 2 grays (instead of black from Blue Mountain), 1 ugly beige (from Stevens), and 1 shortish bright red (from Snoqualmie). The guy said that he wished he could give them away for free, but he couldn't and asked me if $3 sounded fair and I said 'ya'. I went to go pay, but the cashier was just ignoring me. I was obviously standing in a place to butt in (like you'd do at McDonald's) to just do a quick payment, plus I was next in line anyways, but in the wrong direction. Anyways, I got sick of waiting and just left.

The best part of the trip was when my fuel gauge hit empty on the way there and I took the next exit to get gas, only to find myself driving for a few miles into the town of Snoqualmie. I saw signs for Snoqualmie Falls and decided that I'd go take a look as I had heard about it previously and it was close by. I was impressed. The water flow was quite low when I went, but it was cool to see the huge drop. Again, no camera, no pictures :(


Volleyball

Volleyball at the good 'ol Pro Club was fun. Good to see all the familiar faces. Not as many as I had hoped to see though.

I went with Alex and Stacey to Kamiakin, which was a bust at first b/c there was no open gym, but they didn't change the hotline. We had to wait until the league playoffs finished. I ran into Reiner (Rodney Blanco's older brother) there who was playing in the league, which was pretty random.

Alex and Stacey have definitely improved since I last played with them in March.


Flight entertainment

Flew direct back to Toronto on Air Canada. They had screens on the backs of each seat with on demand entertainment. I was watching My Super Ex-Girlfriend, and it was fine for a while, but then it started to get freeze every few seconds and it was so annoying that I just had to stop (they should really do some buffering or something). Sleeping was a better alternative anyways since I only had 4 hours of sleep the night before.

At least my luggage wasn't overweight - 46 lbs, only 3 lbs heavier than I went, but that's only b/c I moved a stack of papers into my carry-on and stuck my gym shoes and some socks into my snowboarding bag. I went shopping at Redmond Town Center and Bellevue Square on Monday and Tuesday, and dished out like $300, which translates into a couple pounds of clothing...


Clothing rant

Clothing is expensive. My credit card bills were much lower when I didn't like shopping. Recently I've been thinking about the (approximate) amortization cost of clothing. If I buy a (relatively cheap) $30 sweater and wear it once every 2nd week, for 4 months out of the year, for 2 years, then that's ~$2 / wear. If I wear a pair of jeans 80-100 times, then it's about $1 / wear. Shoes are probably the best deal. I've been wearing my new pair of Sketchers (the infamous pair where I was asked if I was under 14) since Aug. pretty much every day, so that's already $1 / wear even if I were to throw them out now. I always thought underwear was cheap, but it's not. I have enough to last me about 2, maybe 2.5 weeks, so that's about 26 wears / underwear / year. Some of the boxer-briefs (yes, that's what I wear, and if you're a girl, you're invited to my bed to check them out for yourself ;)), are like around $26 (after tax, etc.), so that's like a dollar every time I put one on! 50 cents if the pair lasts 2 years, 33 cents if they have holes in them. Socks, I'm not sure about. I have a bunch and I don't know the price and I don't know how long they last, but I'm guessing around a quarter per wear. Coats are very seasonal. $100 coat, 3 months out of the year? If I wear that coat every day for those 3 months (unlikely) for 2 years, then that's still more than $1 / wear. So, given that it's fallish, every time I walk out that door, it's costing me more than $6. Say I'm wearing a few layers, and put on a toque and gloves. It starts adding up! Summer I suppose is cheaper though.

I think this is a good argument for walking around naked. Again, cute girls are encouraged to explore this option in my bedroom. I am able to accommodate multiple visitors simultaneously.

I was told that it doesn't snow here

First snow sighting this season and it's in Seattle of all places. I was told that it doesn't snow here. It snowed quite a bit esp. in Redmond and it was just a mess. People here freak out with snow. There was some hail today as well. Weird weather. Still skies, and then all of a sudden downpour of snow, and then it stops. Then it hails, then it flurries, and then it stops.

It was good for snowboarding Sunday though. Went to Stevens Pass with Alex, Stacey, and Deepak. Funny thing was the last time I went snowboarding was at Stevens Pass with Alex and Stacey back in March. That was their last time too. The chains on the car tires was fun, esp. when the chains starting ripping off. Snowboarding was pretty good. Tons of snow. Lots of powder. A bit on the cold side though. I was being pretty careful b/c I was a little concerned about my knee, so no moguls for me this time. I might get a knee brace to go snowboarding as a preventative measure. I'm not a huge Stevens fan b/c it gets very moguly. I don't like moguls. I fall in moguls and I'm pretty sure that repeated falling for 6 hours of snowboarding last time at Stevens is what caused me knee pains for like 6 months, though volleyball didn't help.

Oh, I got my luggage just before 1 am the night I landed. I also forgot some key things: camera, maps, and snowboard lock (though we didn't really stop b/c we got there late, like noon, and so we just kept going until it closed at 4).

Oh, another thing. I broke another adjustment strap on my stupid cheap bindings. This time it was the lower one on my back foot. I rode down the hill without it and it was ok. I went to the repair shop and got it fixed ($3ish) and got a hot wax while I was at it. OMG, the wax made a HUGE difference. All of a sudden my board could slide on the snow much better. Went faster, had more confidence, and other good stuff. Then, when I was putting my board away in the car, the other lower strap broke off!!! I didn't even see where it went! Stupid cheap bindings with brittle plastic straps. Grrr...

Gonna go to Microsoft Research again tomorrow to work on my paper. Have to leave by 8 to move stupid car. Sarah loves that I was at MS longer than she was today.

Joined the U of T Ski and Snowboard Club again

I caved. I joined the U of T Ski and Snowboard Club again (maybe the link will help them in the search rankings). $300 for a season pass and 8 bus rides up to the mountain. Bus leaves every Friday morning at 8 starting in January, and gets back at 6 pm. Way better than last year when we left at like 1 pm and came back at 11 pm, b/c it means that we get to do day skiing/snowboarding (while all the runs are open) and we get back in time for any Friday night activities (or sit at home alone on a Friday night).

Nick, the pres saw me leave the AC right after I signed up and he was really happy that I did. Not sure why. That might be a bad sign in that maybe not enough people have signed up. Or maybe he just wanted some free advertisement on my blog.

I really want to go snowboarding now.

(Yes, I know it's 3:31 am, and I'm going to bed. I'm done blogging... for now :))

Why snowboarding is better than surfing

I went to Pacifica this morning to go surfing by myself (everyone else claimed that they had to go to "work"). The conditions weren't great, but I managed to entertain myself and get up a bunch of times on the white crumbly stuff. It's actually quite scary to go by yourself. One time I got my ass kicked by a wave and while I was tumbling around, not sure which way was up, I remembered that there was no lifeguard on the beach.

I realized while I was out there, that I like snowboarding a lot better. Here's why:

• Chair lifts
  • None of this futile work trying to get past the waves, only to be pushed further back from where you started at every attempt you take


• Snowboarding is warmer
  • Yes. You heard me right. Frickin' ocean in "Nor-Cal" is freezing, even with a wet suit. At least with snowboarding you can put on more layers.


• You get to wear a tuque


• You don't have the constant taste of salt in your mouth


• You get to stand up for more than 5 seconds


• There is food mid-slope
  • mmm... beaver tails :)


• You don't have to wear a frickin' wet suit


• It's possible to go to the washroom
  • You try getting out of a wet suit


• You don't have to lug around a massive board
  • In fact, you can just skate with it


• Your board doesn't try and knock you unconscious


• Mother Nature doesn't continuously try to drown you


• You don't have to plan your day around the tide and you can board all day long


• You don't get sandy


• People don't say hella
  • As in, "dude, that wave was hella good"


• It's an Olympic sport
  • 2010 baby!


• You don't get showed up by 12 year olds
  • You get showed up by 5 year olds

With all that, I still think surfing is fun, just that I'd enjoy it more if the surf was good and I was in say... Hawaii, where the water temperature is actually above the freezing point. Oh, and if there was a volleyball court on the beach ;)

Seattle recap

Thursday - arrived and volleyball
3.5 hours after landing, I was on the volleyball court at the Pro Club for some pick-up volleyball and to say "hi" to all the people I played with when I was there. Most of the regulars were there, so it was good :)


Friday - MSR
Moved furniture


Saturday - Crystal Mountain


Convinced Manuel (a post-doc with Nebojsa) the day before to come skiing/snowboarding with me (he was very easily convinced :)). We went to Crystal Mountain. Got a freakin' $132 speeding ticket on the way :s. 47 mph in a 35 mph zone.... in the middle of NOWHERE on the highway in the boonies! 35 limit on the highway??? C'mon! Not that I was going that fast, it was just b/c I let the car roll down a hill. I'm so used to speeding like 10-15 over down there b/c everyone speeds like crazy on the freeways. Plus, it was like 8 freaking AM on a Saturday!!! First speeding ticket ever. Fortunately, it shouldn't affect my merits and insurance/license fees b/c it was down in the States and not in Manitoba.

It was a great day - sunny (for most of the day), warm, and great snow conditions. The runs were great, though the signage kinda sucked... We got lost in our first 3 runs and somehow on our second, we ended up down a black diamond when we wanted blue and in our third, we ended up down a double-black diamond with moguls when all we wanted was an easy blue run down to the base...

The runs were harder than Blue Mountain. Greens had parts that looked like blue, blue was more like black diamond, and black diamonds were steeper than Blue Mountain's black diamonds, though I think a tad easier than the double blacks.

Manuel was pretty good on skis and we were both having fun and being challenged on the same runs. Black diamond runs from nearly the top right to the bottom, almost a kilometre down was a lot of fun :)

Beware of the burgers from the grill there. I think mine was a little undercooked, but I was too lazy to do anything about it. My stomach felt a little funny for the next few days and I felt bloated. No diarrhea though!


Sunday - Stevens Pass

Hit Stevens Pass with Alex, Stacey, Minnie, and Ernie. It was busier (Crystal Mountain, even with a snowboarding competition going on had barely anyone on the slopes and lifts), but not too bad. The lifts were busy, but not many people on the runs, not like at Blue Mountain where you have to constantly watch out for people.

The runs were more like Blue Mountain in difficulty. The best was when Alex (the more tentative snowboarder out of all of us as he just started this year), led us down a trail that he said looked good from the chair lift. Started off as blue, then we went into the trees and some narrow areas that weren't too bad. Then we hit this really steep section with moguls and a post from the chair lift in the middle of it! I managed to make it down decently, turning a few times and then falling. It was great! Deep snow, so it was fun! The rest of them edged down, except Ernie, who on skis, took a diversion.

It was that run that made me love ungroomed trails. The soft powder was SO nice to snowboard on! Makes me want to go back to Snowbird and go down that ungroomed black diamond that I tried to ski on and killed myself b/c I didn't know how to ski in powder and I literally flipped head over heels and rolled down the hill.

The rest of the day, while we went down blue trails, I would take diversions onto the short black trails and looking for powder. The problem was that all the black trails there had moguls. It was pretty bad to learn there actually. The trails were either blue and too easy, or black with moguls and too hard. I went on most of the blues and blacks and fell many times on the moguls. I just have a hard time turning fast enough to get around them, but now I'm at the point where I can do a few of the turns, edge a bit, maybe another turn, and make it down without falling.

I had people on the chair lift laugh at me when I was trying to make it down one of the mogul runs as it was right under the chair lift route and I was edging down for a bit in order to get the courage to point my board down hill and attempt to carve around the moguls. I'm not a big fan of an audience when I'm trying new things on snowboard. When we were on that small trail with the post in the middle, some people were like "YA! DO IT!!!!"

Right at the end of the day, Minnie and I were the last to leave the mountain (trying to cram in a few more runs) and on the way back, we went through one of the small terrain parks. It was actually pretty fun. There was this rail made out of snow, but didn't really know what it was and thought it was a jump or something and I tried to go over the side of it :p. I went in the half pipe, which was cool, and I went over some small jumps, but I didn't really catch any air. I'll have to check out the terrain park next year.


Monday
Flew home


Recap
I managed to cram in pretty much everything I wanted to do in the short time I was there and had a blast! I guess the winters in Seattle would be bearable despite the rain and lack of sun because of all the mountains close by (Crystal and Stevens were like 2 hours away, Baker is a little farther than Crystal, and Snowqualmie (which isn't as good apparently) is only like 45 min. and then Whistler is just over the border). This whole snowboarding thing is really gonna damage the bank account as I can see myself making at least one snowboarding trip a year...

I was pretty pooped after my trip as I was active like every day that I was in Seattle. I think I need to rest for a little now b/c my left knee is hurting a little bit. I'm a little concerned considering that a lot of volleyball players have bad knees, but I've been fortuante enough to not have any problems. I think it's from snowboarding two full days in a row (falling may not have helped much) and then playing volleyball soon after.

Today, I realized that the best thing would be if they just left Yonge Street unshoveled so that you could snowboard to school (if you lived uptown).

I need to go to a "real" mountain

After complaining to Mimi that it's raining and almost double digits (Celsius) at Blue Mountain and that it's gonna be shit conditions tomorrow and that I want to go to a "real" mountain, I remembered Stacey saying that if I was in Seattle, she'd bring me to a "real" mountain. It suddenly donned on me. Why don't I just go and visit! It'd be perfect, I get to visit friends AND do some good boarding!

I'm looking into heading over there in 2 weeks to visit. I really want to go snowboarding and use my board, but I don't want to board in slush at Blue Mountain.

I'm also considering Whistler and Eric Yau is pushing for this choice. I haven't spent much time in Vancouver and gotten to know the place...

Sports tape is the new duct tape: Engineering design at its best

 

Engineering design
The best possible solution within the available resources

-- First year Intro to Engineering, U of M, 1999

Usually I get stares when rollerblading, especially in winter. I get even more stares rollerblading in snowpants with a snowboard strapped across my back while also carrying a duffle bag with my boots, etc.

Snowboarding was great today. I hopped onto the Saturday bus b/c they have space. In many ways, Saturday is so much better than Friday:

• get your own seat on the bus


• a lot less noise (i.e. no Marsha)


• people are considerate of others and are punctual


• good company


• bus driver drives fast (we even passed cars!)


• we don't make a pee stop for a 2 hour drive


• we get dropped off and picked up right at the lodge so we don't have to walk


• not having to rush b/c I'm meeting with Brendan right before and have to stop the meeting so I can make it onto the bus

Did pretty much every run that night skiing offered, except the double blacks. Erik was there again. This time I was also joined by John, Ian, and Winnie (the VP). I managed to convince John to try snow blades, thinking that that would slow him down for us, but it didn't really.

I came home and saw that one of the screws on my rollerblade had fallen off and my wheel was like mm's from falling off! This has never happened before. Screws have never been loose on my rollerblades. I checked the rest and they were all tight. The missing screw was nowhere to be seen.

Seeking a temporary solution, I remembered that I had a replacement brake in preparation for replacing my worn out one. I took the screw from there and surprisingly it fit, though it was too long and the axis would then be able to partially pop out, which would be bad.

So, I tied some string between the screw and the aluminium base to prevent the screw from being pushed in. Reinforced the ends of the string with sports tape and taped the other side so the axis wouldn't pop out.

If you look at the bottom of the left image, you can also see that I've used sports tape to reinforce my laces. They were fraying from being repeatedly pulled against the lace loops and was about to break. I've been using the tape reinforced laces for a few weeks now and they're working great. Rollerblades aren't quite in season and I haven't been able to find laces in stores. I'm going to need a new screw soon though...

Sports tape is the new duct tape. It looks better, is more flexible, sticks great, and doesn't leave as much crap behind when you peel it off.

Broke before I even got the chance to use it

I'm at the top of the hill. Excited to try out my brand spanking new virgin snowboard. Go to strap my boots into the board and the adjustment strap on my bindings snap off!!!!! I'm like "FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKK....."

C'mon, not even a SINGLE run????

I strap in as best as I can and try to use my snowboards to help keep my back foot in. Fortunately it was only the bunny hill. I make it down carefully, thinking what the hell am I going to do.

Fortunately, the ski and snowboard repair shop was close by and this was apparently a very common problem with the Lamar bindings, but even the repair guy was surprised that it didn't even make it to the first run. The problem is that it's made out of really, really, really cheap, brittle plastic, which is retarded for something that's supposed to be outside in the cold!!! I decided to replace the strap on both bindings, b/c let's face it, the other one was gonna snap off soon anyways. The replacements are made out of a much more flexible plastic. Only set me back about $10.

Aside from that, my snowboard is awesome! Feels great, rides great. Considering that I changed the board (new height, new flexibility), bindings (instead of step-ins, which gives you less control), and stance (from duck to forward), I managed to adapt to it very quickly. Everything felt really natural and balanced, unlike others who had recently bought boards and seem to have to continually adjust them. Smoother and faster (esp. on the flat areas which is amazing) than the rentals and more control, plus no more gross rental boots!

I didn't wipe out today!!! Ok, well, a partial one, but I didn't hit the snow - I managed to recover. And another one, but that doesn't count b/c it was on a flat area and I was looking back to see if my crew (Erik and Johann) was keeping up. Oh, and that other one, but there were like bumps/horizontally stretched moguls.

I did all the blues again and did one black diamond (memory lane), and actually did it, didn't just ride the back edge. It actually didn't seem steep at all. Maybe b/c I desensitized myself by going down the double blacks the previous week (on skis). Pretty bumpy though, but at least not icy.