Semi-Annual Engineering Dinner Summer 2007 Edition

Vince, Greg, Debbie, Anthony (Debbie's fiance), and Andrew

Vince, Andy, and Florence

Vince, Vanessa, and Erlyn

Alfred, Alice, Becky, and Alvin

As per tradition, a couple of us engineers that went to undergrad together got together for dinner yesterday. This time, the crowd was quite different than usual and I saw several people that I haven't seen since we graduated! I think we had a new record this time with 11 iron rings! We would've had more, but a number of the usuals (Chris, Rob, Kevin, Fan, Nusraat, and Rostecki) couldn't make it for various reasons (out of town, fiance's birthday, baseball, illness).

It all started maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago. Debbie, who I haven't seen since undergrad, found me on facebook (everyone's on facebook now!) and we got to talking and it just so happened that I was gonna be in Winnipeg soon and I told her of the semi-annual engineering dinners that I have been organizing. We combined forces this time and got together a good crowd of 16 in total. We had some issues with the restuarant, Joey's at Polo Park, b/c they didn't take reservations (though they said ahead of time that they could handle us) and the tables were small and not together. People were even cliquier than usual b/c of the small tables. People just sat with people that they see all the time (a natural tendency). The one exception was my table where no one, aside from the couple, had barely even seen or talked with anyone else since undergrad. That's how it's supposed to be, reconnecting with people. It's not much better when we have a big long table b/c you can't talk to very many people. I think next time, I'll host a dinner at my house or something. Maybe do a potluck and get people walking around more. It'll be tougher though b/c it'll be near Christmas and I'll only be able to properly host it on a Saturday...

Today's amusing quotes

...and how old are you now? (as if talking to a 12 year old)

-- New girl at the dentist's office

Is this for a gift registry? (was it that obvious??)

-- Cashier

I have no idea what it is or what to do about it.

-- Periodontist

Can you review 4 conference papers for me by the end of the day?

-- Prof

What happens in Grand Forks, stays in Grand Forks, except what gets posted online :)

Chris, the stag

Rob, the driver and best man

Justin, the onion enthusiast

Vince, the light weight

Golf carts made it much easier to find balls

Cactus Blossom!

10:30pm

Second wind: Chris and the ladies. Too bad one was married and the other was engaged. I somehow got the married one to buy us like a dozen drinks :)

More pictures

We went on a road trip to Grand Forks, North Dakota (USA) for Chris's stag (bachelor party).

Things overheard during the weekend:

• Rob: "Don't you know you're not allowed to take pictures at a stag?"


• Rob: "What happens in Grand Forks, stays in Grand Forks"


• Vince: "This is going on my blog"


• Chris: "Baja Rosa?"


• Chris: "Did you know your Mom and sister were gonna be here?"


• Rob: "No..."


• Vince: "They're the entertainment"


• "Let's put Gatorade-vodka in our Nalgenes and bring them on the golf course"


• "Golf... or something like it. The sequel."


• Chris: "Maybe you are left handed"


• Vince: "Stop driving over my golf ball."


• Vince: "Where's the key?"


• Hotel desk: "This is the group that may have problems tomorrow morning"


• Justin: "This is my 3rd Nalgene"


• Chris: "Mystery shots!"


• Vince: "I've never been so drunk in a restaurant before"


• Justin: "Cactus Blossom!"


• Chris: "Sandy will be very disappointed"


• Rob: "I can't believe you fit in that shopping cart"


• Chris: "Hit me"


• Vince: "I won 5 bucks!"


• Rob: "I won 50 bucks!"


• Chris: "Lost $45"


• Justin: "25"


• Chris: "The guy could've given me 1's and I wouldn't have known"


• Girl: "If I buy your friends shots, will they drink it?"


• Vince: "I somehow got a married woman to buy us like a dozen shots"


• "What's in a Chuck Norris shot?"


• Chris: "She made me do it!"


• Vince: "Are you on facebook?"


• Mr Clean: "I'll show you a picture"


• Rob: "Sleep on your back"


• Vince: "The bathroom door was locked, I don't know how you got in"


• Chris: "I really had to get in"


• Vince: "I was half naked going into the shower"


• Rob: "Transformers is the best movie ever!"


• Chris: "My heart hurts"


• Rob: "Too bad all the women we met were married or engaged"


• Vince: "I've slept with the bride and the groom"


• Justin: "With copious amounts of alcohol, you all turn gay"

Losing my Winnipegness

I'm back in Winnipeg for the next week and a half for Chris's wedding, as well as to visit family, friends, and pets. I discovered that I'm losing my Winnipegness. I asked Jill whether she was getting Internet for her new home from Rogers or Bell. First, she pointed out her allegiance to MTS, which is the telephone company that provides DSL service in Manitoba, not Bell. Not sure how I missed that considering that I worked for them back in 2nd year (well, Bell and MTS have affiliations). Second, Shaw provides cable service in Manitoba, not Rogers. I would've fared better if I had said Videon :p. Jill said that I was "sooo eastern now". I've been in Toronto too long...

Things in Winnipeg are the same as always. Mittens hasn't fully warmed up to me yet. It usually takes a day for her to re-accustom herself with me, and then she is glued to my bed.

Going to Grand Forks tomorrow for the stag. My schedule's pretty free otherwise, especially during the day since I'm a bum and other people have "work". Let me know when you're free and we'll meet up.

Transformers the Movie

Of course, I had to wear my Transformers t-shirt to watch the movie :). I had to resist the temptation to wear my Transformers wristbands.

I watched Transformers today! When I first heard that it was going to be a live action movie, I was a bit hesitant, but I knew that I would watch it (and love it) regardless. It was awesome! It was actually quite well done. It wasn't just a crappy movie using the characters to boost the movie, the writing was actually rather clever and funny and the acting was actually good! They even managed to stay away from cheesy lines, like "more than meets the eye", well, of course they used the line, but it was a slight variation of it and it was as a joke. They had all the lines they needed to have ("Autobots, roll out!", "Decepticons, attack!", etc.), but didn't overuse them and didn't use them in a cheesy manner. The special effects was pretty awesome and the transformations were amazing! I missed the transformation sound from the cartoon though. I also missed the Transformers song. The voices of the Transformers didn't sit very well with me. While Optimus Prime had the same person do the voice as in the cartoons, I'm not sure if it's the 20 years of aging or the fact that they made the voice more mechanical, but it didn't quite sound right. Same with the others. The worst was Starscream in that he didn't have the same whiny voice as in the cartoon. The Transformers cast was pretty small. I was hoping to see the Dinobots and the Constructicons, and have them combine and transform into the big giant robots :). The amount of product placement was kinda annoying.... *cough* GMC

The story itself was alright. It was a bit of a departure from the cartoons (where the Decepticons went to Earth to mine it for energon). The beginning had a lot of development and background stuff and was a little slow and then the end was a little fast and predictable. It can't compete, storyline wise, with the original Transformers movie from 1986. Spoiler alert!!!!......... (Optimus Prime dies!! Of course, he comes back in a later episode)

The movie's a good watch and if you're a fan, you obviously have to go watch it! The theatre was packed and there was a lengthy line-up outside for the next showing, so the movie is doing well. I wonder if this will initiate a series of other movies based on TV shows of the past. I want to see a Thundercats movie!!!

Whoa, I just looked up the Thundercats Wikipedia page and it says that there's a a CGI-animated Thundercats movie in the making!!!!!

Canada Day 9-Man Tournament Day 2

Playoffs: Warriors vs Phoenix A

Men's finals: Connex "B" vs Phoenix A

Various clips of the Warriorettes

More Pictures

The tournament ended on Sunday, but I have been too lazy to upload the pics and videos and write about it until now. Most of my pics are of the girl's team b/c it's difficult to take pictures while playing :p

The guys didn't play as well the second day. We couldn't get fired up during the first game and had to split sets, when we should've taken both. We finished 8 out of 12, which just qualified us for the championship playoffs (instead of the consolation playoffs). The way that the rankings were done were kinda strange since it only counted the 2nd round robin after the re-pooling and was based first on the number of sets won, and then the point spread. I feel that we could beat teams that were ranked higher than us. For instance, we beat Outtahand the day before and they were ranked 4th. I think they had an easier pool than we did. Anyways, being 8th, that meant we had to play the 1st place team, which was Phoenix A and we didn't fare too well. They're a good, seasoned team. It was single elimination, which meant that we were out.

The finals was Connex "B" vs Phoenix A. I say "B" b/c it was really a mix between their A and B team. Note the numbers of the Connex players in the picture at the top: 4, 4, 8, 2, 2. There are duplicates b/c there are players from both the A and B teams playing. The backcourt had A players as well. Connex won. Yes, the same team that we almost took a game off. Not bad for a new team :)

For the guys, we felt that we did pretty good overall in the tournament. It was a good learning experience for the team, we managed to beat some seasoned teams, and made it into the playoffs, not bad for a new team. There are things we need to work on and playing real games helped show us what we need to focus on and watching 9-man games shows us what we should be doing. I'm confident that with our hard work and consistent practices, we'll be in good shape for the big tournament in San Francisco! Here's my list of things that I personally want to concentrate on:

1. Pass more with my hands. I'm doing more than I used to, but could be doing more.


2. Serve more accurately, more difficult, more consistent, and adjust better to wind conditions.


3. Stay fired up backcourt and really dive for the ball (yes, diving on concrete). Need to learn how to roll better as well.


4. Learn to read the hitters through the 3 sets of hands blocking my view. I noticed that the players on other teams were better readers than I am and were in the right position at the right time.

The girls did really well in the tournament! They went into the playoffs in first place! They basically rolled over anyone in their path after their first game of the tournament. Unfortunately, they lost to Connex B in the semi's, a team that they had beaten in the round robin earlier that day. The finals was Connex B vs Phoenix A, coincidentally, the same as on the men's side :), except that Phoenix won.

The club is off to a good start and things are only going to go up from here!

Canada Day 9-Man Tournament Day 1

Toronto Warriors temporary tattoo using a permanent marker

Transformers elbow pads! (well, wristbands...)

Our camp site

Warriorettes playing on concrete (no pics of the men's b/c I'm playing :p)

Today was my first 9-man volleyball tournament! It was the annual Canada Day tournament. It was a blast! Good volleyball and good times. My hands are a bit scraped up from diving on concrete, but no serious injuries.

For a team of guys that just formed a team this year where 9 out of the 14 guys have never played 9-man before, we did pretty good. We went in as a bit of a wildcard in that we didn't know how well we'd play and if we'd get our act together, but we exceeded our expectations and shown that we can play with some good teams. We almost beat Connex (which was mostly their B team, but with some A players), which is one of the top teams in North America. In the second set, we were up 19-16 and then finished the game 27-25 (games to 21, win by 2 points) and we had a couple game point chances. We also split with Outtahand and Phoenix B, which are both seasoned teams, and beat Ngun Lam II in straight sets. We have definitely been practicing much longer than any other team this year (since Februrary), which we had to do for the men's team so that we could learn how to play 9-man :p. It definitely paid off today and we'll only get better as we get over the jitters, work out the kinks, and learn how to really play 9-man, and not play like a 6's player :)

The girl's team did really well as well. They took a set off of Phoenix A in their first game and then went undefeated for the rest of the day! The club as a whole was really doing well and was making a splash for the club's inaugural year!

The coach has a tattoo of the Warriors logo on his left shoulder, so to toy with him, I drew the logo on my left shoulder with a permanent marker to act as a temporary tattoo :). I printed out the logo on a transparency and using an exacto knife, I made a cut-out that I could then tape to my shoulder and colour in with my right hand :). It ended up looking pretty cool actually, but left a tan :p. There were some other bad tans too, like from taping up hands and fingers:

Helen and Donny's tape tans

Tattoo tan

I was also wearing my Transformer elbow pads, which are actually wristbands, but my arms are small enough and they are stretchy enough for me to use as elbow pads. They definitely helped prevent some scratches on my elbows during some dives and rolls. One guy even came up to ask me where I got them (online) :)

Anyways, tomorrow's the second, and last, day of the tournament, so I gotta rest up!

The return of the number 3!

Shaftesbury High School Uniform

Toronto Warriors Uniform

After a nearly 8 year hiatus, the number 3 jersey is coming out of retirement!

I have my first 9-man volleyball tournament this weekend! It's the Canada Day tournament held annually in Toronto. All the Toronto teams participate and sometimes teams from Montreal. We're playing Saturday and Sunday in the parking lot of Rick Hansen Secondary School out in Mississauga. There'll literally be hundreds of Asian guys and girls playing volleyball on concrete. It'll be good times :). Come out and watch if you're in the area!

Why don't they make them like that back home?

You know, you see stuff here and you think to yourself, why don't they make them like that back home?

Use the friend key. You'll likely get it if you ask.

Show encrypted text

Minneapolis after an 18 hour drive

So I'm in Minneapolis for a conference. Whoopeeeee.... (that's sarcastic if you didn't notice).

We left at 5:45am EST and got to Minneapolis at 11:45pm EST (10:45pm local time). 7 guys in a 7 seater van. Fun times. We were stopping every 2ish hours to take a break, change drivers, and rotate seating, as the back seat fit 3 across and was not well suited for 3 adults. Being the last one in the van, I got sandwiched between two not-so-small guys in the backseat right at the start. That wasn't very pleasant. We had to overlap shoulders in order to fit. Oh, and I didn't know any of them beforehand, though a few look familiar from various talks and stuff.

We would have arrived sooner, but we got held up at the US border for an hour b/c of the Mexican in our party. Plus we hit some bad traffic and construction around Chicago.

The drive wasn't too bad though. I basically slept the entire time :). My knees are kinda shot though from being cramped in a small space for so long.

I didn't sleep the night before, so that probably helped my sleeping, but I tend to sleep quite well in moving vehicles anyways. I can't believe that even not sleeping, I just barely had enough time to pack and get ready. I may have been doing laundry from 1 - 3am and I may have been in my office at 4am printing out copies of my paper :p

We're staying in a hostel. The place is actually pretty nice. We've got a large room with 7 beds and I'm the only one up right now (just finished showering, so I'm waiting for my hair to dry and am continuing with my Internet addiction). The snoring level is reasonable...

Anyways, gotta get up early tomorrow for the conference.

Mishmash of stuff

This always happens. I go on vacation and then want to blog about it, but am too lazy to do so, and I don't want to blog about new stuff when I haven't blogged about the vacation, so then I just don't blog, until I have the need to blog and then I blog and then the vacation post just gets less and less probable of ever getting written. I'll try and write it. Maybe on the way to Minneapolis...

Anyways, here's what's happened in the last little while:

• Volleyball
  • Started practicing outdoors on concrete. Let the scraping begin!
  
  
  • Played my first ever 9-man game! It was fun! Not as much of a difference as I thought it was gonna be. It was still volleyball. Plus, we've been practicing a lot, so I was prepared.
  
  
  • Saw Gizelle leaving Scarborough Town Centre in her car while I was in the parking lot and we stared at each other, half recognizing each other, but not 100% sure it was the other, especially since we were way out of our usual environment.
  
  
  • Saw the Columbians (or some sort of Spanish speaking people) play on the 10' high volleyball net with a soccer ball again. I need to bring my camera to practice to snag a picture for you guys.
  
  
  • Finished my second week in a row of 20+ hours of volleyball. That's without playing beach... I've been going to the girls' practice to help out and get some extra practice.
  
  
  • Learnt how to fist serve and serve with a lot of top spin. Working on fixing my arm swing when hitting and snapping my wrist. Chris was very observant.


• School
  • Bio is not inspirational
  
  
  • Finished my poster! My first poster for a conference. I would have rather had a talk. You can't do posters too last minute b/c you have to get it printed and crap. It's an ok poster. Not a great one. At least it was pretty easy b/c I just needed to pull stuff from the paper.
    
    
  
  
  • Patent pending. All I had to do was sign some documents and now I have a patent pending. Neb filed it for us for the work above. We had to get it filed before the conference otherwise prior art would have been an issue.


• Procrastination
  • Procrastinated by coding. Hacking facebook to be exact. Details to appear later.
  
  
  • Tribal Wars. Justin and I are addicted. I need more wood!!!
  
  
  • Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
  
  
  • Usual dicking around online
  
  
  • I get the National Post now. I'm not a big fan. I'd rather have the Globe & Mail, Toronto Star, or Winnipeg Free Press. But, it was free b/c of my Citibank credit card for 90 days.


• Outings
  • Serena Ryder in concert. Jeremy Fisher opened. The guy in front of me was really annoying b/c he was tall and he kept moving his head. It was obvious that he wasn't really paying attention and was there just b/c his boyfriend dragged him.
    
    
  
  
  • Clubbing last Friday
  
  
  • North by Northeast and FCUK fashion show with Tina, Donna, and Newton.
    
    
  
  
  • I was on the subway and someone was reading a Russian newspaper. I was able to read some of it over his shoulder :)
  
  
  • Lunch with DT fancy pants.
  
  
  • Seeing Chris Bosh at Holt Renfrew in Yorkville
  
  
  • Dinner with Cris and Teresa b/c I didn't want to break the streak of seeing Warriors everyday for the past week. Random event of the night: being served by Marieke at the restaurant.


• New music albums
  • Kelly Clarkson - My December
  
  
  • Missy Higgins - On A Clear Night
  
  
  • Mandy Moore - Wild Hope
  
  
  • Maria Mena - Apparently Unaffected
  
  
  • LeAnn Rimes - Whatever We Wanna
  
  
  • t.A.T.u. - Dangerous and Moving

Most random encounter ever!

Overheard at the club tonight:

Random girl: Do you have a blog at veenix.blogspot.com?

Russianified

I'm back in Toronto! By some miracle, I managed to catch all my flights and even my baggage made it with me! I can't say the same for my family, who is still stuck in Munich. Still not sure what went wrong or who to blame, but we can be sure it was the Germans...

The trip was very tiring, but I saw a lot and I learnt a lot.

My abstinence from my addictions didn't last long. My plane landed at 3pm and I was back in my apartment and online at 4:30 and on the volleyball court by 6 :)

--Винсент (Vincent in Russian)

Offline until the end of the month

I'm taking off in a few hours for my trip and will be offline until the end of the month. I'm not bringing my laptop and hope to not touch the Internet. It's gonna be great :). It's also going to be the longest that I haven't played volleyball since probably 2 years ago. It might be good though. It'll give me time to refocus, re-energize, and spark that craving for volleyball again :)

In the meantime, expect this space to be stagnant for the next 3 weeks and entertain yourselves.

I'm ready to invade Russia

I just got my passport back from the Belarus Consulate and now with my Russian and Belarusian visas, I can go on my trip and come back with one of those Russian brides :p. I'm also mentally prepared for my trip after playing at Antibes yesterday when the gym we had booked was cancelled without our knowledge. It's garbage ball at Antibes, but the low net and the Russians make things interesting. I felt right at home with the Russians, as I recognized most of the people there and they remembered me :).

My Northern Europe and Russia trip is a bus tour with my family and we're going May 11th - 29th. Here's the itinerary:

1. Denmark


2. Sweden


3. Finland


4. Russia


5. Belarus


6. Poland


7. Germany

We're doing Northern and Eastern Europe this time after doing England, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France, and Spain back in 2003:

The guy on the right was not part of our bus tour.
He was trying to sell us souvenirs :p

I had planned on being in Toronto this summer instead of doing an internship, but I'm still going to be out of town quite a bit. Here are my summer travel plans:
Toronto -> Europe -> Toronto -> Minneapolis -> Toronto -> Winnipeg -> Toronto -> San Francisco -> Toronto

I'm the 'V' in OVR!

OVR: Oliver, Vince, and Reggie. The birthday boys!!!

Me with my "Out of Towners": Chris, Vince, Jon, and Jill

Me and the Ladies!
I'm always on the left b/c I can only take good self-photos right handed :p

Me and the Boys (I was being omnisexual)

More pictures

If you had told me back in high school that Jill and Chris would fly to Toronto for my birthday and that I was having my birthday bash at a club, I would've told you to stop taking drugs. For those of you who didn't go to high school with us, I wasn't friends with Jill and Chris back then (they weren't cool enough for me ;)). We were ok with each other, but we didn't talk or hang out b/c we just had different social circles. It wasn't until after when I was in undergrad with Chris and Rob did I become friends with them and then by association, Jill and others. Weird how things turned out the way they did, but I'm glad that we all had a second chance with each other. I'm still amazed that they both just came on a whim (they made independent decisions to come) and it was awesome having them here to celebrate with me!

Anyways, Saturday was the big party! It was a club night hosted by my racist volleyball team and a joint fundraiser for the volleyball club and a birthday bash. We had it in a private lounge and we filled it pretty good. Thanks to everyone that came out for my birthday and to support my club!

I had an amazing time! It helped that between the friends that I brought, the people on my team, and friends I knew but came with people on my team, I knew like 40-50 people there! Plus, I could basically get my way into any group as I would know the person that brought them to the club and then I could use my "I'm the 'V' in OVR" line :)

I was a bit concerned going in as I had probably a dozen people tell me that they were gonna get me hammered and wanted to see me puke. People seem to want to see me wasted. This is a trend that has gone on for a while. Probably b/c I usually come across as quiet, shy, and controlled to those I don't really know. It reminds me of the "Just shy, not anti-social (you can talk to me!)" t-shirt from xkcd.

Knowing that my alcohol tolerance is low and wanting to last longer than Vic and Nelson at their birthday party, I started avoiding people that were trying to buy me drinks around drink #9 and also passing drinks along to Chris and others :)

I had reached a sufficient amount of alcohol quite early in the night as you can see from the progression of the redness of my face in the photos. In my defense, it was really hot in there, so that didn't help my redness. I then proceeded to float around to say "hi" to people that I knew and to take a photo with them. My way of saying "hi" when drunk is to grind up against the person from behind and wait for them to turn around :). Girl, guy, I didn't discriminate! I was being omnisexual (reference to a tv show that I'll be blogging about soon). The jury's still out as to whether I grinded with more girls or guys :p. Oh, and I managed to cause one fight to break out :p

Can't wait for the next clubbing night!

Birthday / Weekend / Winnipeggers' Visit / GReunion 3.1 Recap

Just wanted to recap the past few days.

Thursday

• "Bong'ed" it up for "DV"
  


• Jill flew into Toronto from Winnipeg

Friday

• Lunch at Korean town with Jill. Mmmmm... red bean walnut cakes and red bean shaved ice!
  
  


• All-you-can-eat sushi with CCF'ers. The waiters were amused by the loud Happy Birthday singing. I got the full 26+ birthday beats outside.
  


• Phantom of the Opera movie at Innis where we had to change rooms half-way in after getting kicked out of the TV room

Saturday

• 4 hours of pick-up volleyball with my racist volleyball club


• Chris flew into Toronto from Winnipeg


• Cake! (it couldn't handle the necessary # of candles)
  


• GReunion 3.1: Jonny joins the Winnipeggers for dinner at Marche (aka Richtree Market)
  


• OVR Pass. The reason Jill and Chris were in Toronto and it needed its own post ;)
  


• Grub at Gold Stone at 3am
  


• Chris and Jill slept together... ok, well, they shared my futon :p

Sunday

• Stumbled out of bed around 11 and was not in a great condition after 4 hours of volleyball and 4 hours of clubbing the day before


• Brunch at Over Easy with the 'Peggers


• Wild goose chase for a bike store and a windbreaker for Dayna


• Centre Island
  • Not much open, but the view was nice and it was a nice escape from the city
  
  
  • It's a bit ironic being there with the Winnipeggers. People in Toronto view Centre Island as a bit of a getaway and a taste of rustic/country/small town living. But from a Winnipegger's view, it's just a fake version of cottage country around Winnipeg :p
  
  


• Finally sat together in the subway
  


• Cinn-a-ma-bun


• Drinks and food on the patio of Jack Astor


• Chris left for the airport and apparently didn't have a good trip back (see Chris's comment)

Monday

• The Hour
  • Jill got us (free) tickets to go watch The Hour, well, actually to go watch the host, George Stroumboulopoulos (of Much Music fame)
  
  
  • Took me 10 min. to blade down there from my apartment
  
  
  • I had never seen the show before, but figured it'd be interesting and I'd keep her company. It's a news/interview show.
  
  
  • Guests were Ishmael Beah (pre-taped) and Peter Krause (live). We also got to see the interview with Ian McEwan, which will be aired sometime in the future.
  
  
  • I was surprised that George took the time to talk to the audience during commercial breaks and after the show. He stayed for at least an hour afterwards to talk to us and to get photos with people. I chatted with him for bit and he's a pretty cool guy. Really down to Earth. Apparently, any time he mentions Wikipedia from now on, he'll think about me :)
  
  
  • There were a good half dozen or so Winnipeggers in the audience
  
  
  • I saw someone else with my ipod sock camera case!
  
  

  Me and George

Jill's covered this story as well

My pictures
Jill's pictures

Happy 3rd Blogoversary!

3 years ago, this blog was born! (Can't say that my first post was all that exciting or original...)

Here are other exciting things that have happened on April 25th:

• 2007 - Boris Yeltsin's funeral


• 2004 - Alan Kay, co-inventor of the Smalltalk programming language, receives the 2003 ACM Turing award


• 1990 - The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed from the space shuttle Discovery.


• 1983 - Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit.


• 1972 - Paula the cat, a ten month old tabby, survives a fall from the 26th floor of an apartment building in Toronto.


• 1964 - Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Detroit Red Wings 4 games to 3 for their third consecutive Stanley Cup. This is their second last time winning the Stanley Cup.


• 1961 - Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit.


• 1953 - Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid describing the double helix structure of DNA.


• 1950 - BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and PEI sign an agreement with Ottawa to build the Trans-Canada Highway.


• 1945 - Nazi occupation army leaves Milan after a partisan insurrection. This day is taken as symbol of the liberation of Italy and is an annual public holiday in Italy.


• 1945 - Fifty nations gather in San Francisco, California to begin the United Nations Conference on International Organizations.


• 1719 - Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe is published.


• 1507 - America got its name from German cartographer Martin Waldseemueller, who first used the term on a world map to refer to the huge mass of land in the Western Hemisphere, in honor of Italian navigator Amerigo Vespucci.

Also born on this day:

• 1981 - Chris Graham (Winnipeg triathaloner and OVR Pass attendee)


• 1976 - Tim Duncan (NBA player)


• 1969 - Gina Torres (actress - Alias, Firefly, Angel)


• 1969 - Renée Zellweger (actress)


• 1940 - Al Pacino (actor)


• 1917 - Ella Fitzgerald (singer)


• 1900 - Wolfgang Ernst Pauli (Nobel Prize laureate)


• 1284 - King Edward II of England


• 1214 - King Louis IX of France


• 32 - Marcus Salvius Otho (Roman Emperor)

Sources:

• Wikipedia - April 25


• Wikipedia - April 25, 2004


• New York Times


• Sympatico

Annoying light pollution

The ROM and U of T Varsity Centre are sources of light pollution

Taken later that day showing the stadium lights

Two recent developments here in Toronto have led to some annoying light pollution problems.

U of T Varsity Centre
U of T recently revamped it's stadium, which includes the dome I went to a few months ago. They deflated the dome in the last few days and I guess they were testing out the stadium lights because during the sudden rain storm yesterday, they had the lights on full blown and it was really annoying. It was really dark outside because of the clouds, but the stadium lights were blazing and was annoying me b/c I could see it in my peripheral vision through my window while on my computer and it was the brightest light I could see. Let's hope this doesn't become a habit for them, otherwise I'll have to write an angry letter. There wasn't even a game going on; the field was empty.

The ROM
The ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) is getting a makeover/expansion right now. The new design consists of a very reflective aluminium sides at angles that are not perpendicular to the ground. As a result, between 2:07pm and 2:12pm today, one side of the building reflects sunlight directly into my eyes while I'm on my computer in my room. It's like a little kid is using their watch to reflect the sun into my eyes, wait that doesn't happen because I do that to little kids :p. Hopefully the position of the sun changes enough that this won't continue to be a problem. I guess I could close my curtains, but I like the view and the natural light.

Love hitting the beach in April!!!

It went up to 25 today and it was clear and sunny. I obviously hit the beach to play volleyball :). It was a week later than last year. I wanted to smash that record by going in mid-March and I almost went. It was 16 one day and it was gorgeous; I just didn't have a net and I had some work to do. Anyways, today was amazing out. Great conditions. Something like 25ish people showed up in our group and we had 4 nets set-up just for ourselves at Ashbridge's. Most of the 90-something courts were set up and there were quite a number of people playing. I played a game of 3's at the beginning and then played 2's the rest of the time.

I actually didn't feel like an uncoordinated retard on the sand for once! My timing was actually decent. Usually, I'm a bumbling fool on the sand b/c I can't jump as high, I can't time the sets properly, I don't do the proper approach, I underrun the ball like crazy, and I get thrown off by the wind. Beach frustrates me generally b/c I can't do things I can do indoor. But, it was fun today and I actually played decent. I played from 12pm - 7pm :D. That's a total of 17.5 hours of volleyball in the past week :D. 10.5 hours of indoor and then 7 hours of beach :D.