Let me know how you found me, where you're from, why you're here, a little about yourself, recommend a book, recommend a movie, tell me a secret, tell me something, ask me a question, etc. =)

Ad Astra,

The Bride of the First House.
bride (at) livejournal (dot) com

weather	:		partially sunny
outside	:		19.6°C
mood	:		...

Short for Philip Pirrip, of course. =) He's slightly less than 3 pounds, from Osaka and is a Fujitsu Lifebook P7230. Not terribly exciting really. I just wanted something smaller and lighter. Pip has a lot of things that I'm not sure I'll use... like the built in webcam and the fingerprint sensor.

So far, it's a little cramped, but I think it will be okay. It gets interesting if I'm on AC power and need the USB port and I want to eject the CD slot. I much prefer to use my USB mouse over the touchpad, so I plug it into the other side. But that means I'll have to figure out how to plug my memory stick in. =P

I opted for XP. I've finally gotten the environment to a point where I've stopped having the urge to dig my eyes out with a spoon again.

Office 2007 looks like an ass clown shat all over it. Holy cripes, I hope whoever designed that has long since OD'ed on whatever they're snorting, smoking or shooting rather than have to live with the embarrassment of being credited with that piece of shit.

On top of the eye-bleeding ugliness, there's a big fat yellowy-orange Office button that DOES NOT STOP BLINKING and couldn't be turned off easily. There is no way to revert it back to a "classic" UI without buying and installing third party utilities. I uninstalled it, I didn't even want to try it for the whatever duration free trial I have. I would use OpenOffice in a heartbeat, but there are too many quirks with trying to open/edit/view/save the same files between MS Office and OpenOffice. You either can't fix certain things or you have to keep fixing them every single time.

Speaking of pieces of shit (it never ends, does it?), IE 7 is somehow displaying images from domains that I have redirected to 127.0.0.1 in my /etc/hosts file. I've saved changes, cleared the browser cache, deleted cookies and temp files, restarted the browser and even rebooted (shut down, count to 10, power back up). I know it's been done correctly because SeaMonkey behaves as it should with those blocked domains.

Anyway, my Mother-in-Law will be using my Dell.

weather	:		light rain
outside	:		18.1°C
mood	:

If you find [what you think is] abandoned baby animals somewhere, leave it alone. Unless they're in traffic or something equally dangerous, leave it right where you found it.

Leave it alone.

Did I mention to leave it the fuck alone?

Yes, I know baby animals are adorable and look like they're about to die. It's a survival technique. They do that so that they get taken care of. This is also why human babies are fat, have heads that are proportionally way too big for their bodies and eyes that are way too big for their faces.

Mother animals transport their brood in small steps sometimes and can leave some of their young unattended at some point in time. But they have a system and they know what they're doing. And if they don't know what they're doing, if they're too stupid to know what they're doing, then they really should die.

If you remove the baby, the mother will come back, find the babies missing and move on.

In fact, don't even pick it up and then put it back.

Even if you put it back, there is a risk that the mother will come back and not recognize the babies as their own. They will smell different now that you've put your stinky paws all over it. Then the babies are really screwed.

*sigh* RIP two baby birds who actually might have lived. I sincerely apologize on behalf of MY RETARDED SPECIES OF GIANT SMELLY LUMBERING MORONS. Gaaaaaaah.....

[Update - Sunday, July 29, 2007: 1200h]

I stand corrected. The parents wouldn't abandon their nest because of the smell of humans on their offspring. They could abandon their nest because of signs of disturbance.

weather	:		mostly sunny
outside	:		9.8°C
mood	:		pissy

<a href="javascript: DocViewWindow= window.open(' DocViewWait.asp?DocViewIndex=0 &Hash=74a1bf22274e4d157910f304494de904 &OpenWindowType=1', '_blank', 'scrollbars=yes, resizable=yes, status=yes, width=785, height=575'); DocViewWindow.focus();">Link</a>

This is the most phenomenally bad idea.

This is how I'm supposed to get a pre-generated, archived PDF. The first time I log in, I have about 30+ of these PDFs to download for my own records.

Serving them to me this way means that I have to left-click on each hyperlink individually, wait for the PDF to open in Acrobat, then click the Save button. Because they are Javascript links, I'm forced to left-click. I cannot right-click, Save Target As. That also means I cannot go middle-click, middle-click, middle-click, middle-click, down the list and let each of them load while I read or do something else.

Because that wasn't annoying enough, all the files are named "DocView.pdf" by default. So, I have to manually change the file name myself if I want to save them to the same folder.

If there were dynamic content generated on the fly in these PDFs, I can maybe understand. But these are pre-generated, pre-archived, static content PDF files. There's no reason why you can't just give me a link to a uniquely named PDF file so I have the choice of either viewing it online or just right-click, SaveAs, ENTER.

Either HIRE some Quality Assurance Analysts, or START LISTENING TO THEM when they tell you that the usability is shitty and do something about it.

This is exactly the kind of thing that customers don't complain about, but causes them to just stop doing business with you.

-- Me

weather	:		mainly sunny
outside	:		10.3°C
mood	:		contemplative

I want to know that I'm hiring someone who enjoys their work and wants to do it well. There is really no point in hiring someone who doesn't like what they're doing, doesn't want to be at work and isn't going to be self-motivated to contribute.

I want someone who can see what needs to be done and takes initiative to fill in the gaps and holes where they exist in our process and organization. I want someone who can pitch in.

I want someone who demonstrates the understanding that they're not going to have everything handed to them on a silver platter. Yes, you're going to have to roll up your sleeves and dig for the answers yourself.

I need people who can do the leg work, isolate particular circumstances and occurrences, gather as much information as possible before asking questions. There ARE such things as stupid questions. I don't care what ANYONE says.

I want someone who knows how to measure quality and has in their head, timeless, proven strategies that can be adjusted to each project. The specifics of working in our environment should just be fine tuning. We're looking to incorporate fresh new ideas too.

I want someone who has a "Customer Service" philosophy about their work; someone who does what's right for the Customer. Not just do what's easy. Not just do what's convenient for us. But do and advocate doing what's right for the Customer. And by "Customer" I don't just mean the company's customers, I mean everyone you have to work with. Even if you're doing something for a co-worker, for that moment, for that task, they are "Your Customer".

I want someone who not only has learning spirit but teaching spirit, at any level of position. Not writing anything down and being the only person in the company who knows how to do something DOES NOTHING for your job security. You can still be tossed any time regardless of how much you know or do. And far from being revered, the people who have to pick up the pieces after you will hate you all that much more for not making it easier for them.

Know when to give the man a fish; know when to teach the man to fish.

I want someone who is actually interested in our company and our IT group. I've always felt that the candidate is interviewing the employer just as much as the employer is interviewing the candidate. And that's regardless of the job you're interviewing for. I want the interview to feel like it's going to be a successful business deal with between equal partners in a win-win situation.

Because I would expect any good employer to want that from me as well.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		7.6°C
mood	:		...

What kind of a BUFFOON goes over to SOMEONE ELSE'S house for dinner, eats someone else's food with no contributions of food or money, makes a mess of someone else's house in the process AND has the gall to sputter that the hostess doesn't look HAPPY ENOUGH to see them around?

Wow. I'm continually amazed at how these people always top themselves.

Aren't people usually embarrassed to have even thought things like that, NEVERMIND ACTUALLY HAVE IT SHITTEN OUT OF THEIR MOUTHS?

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		8.5°C
mood	:		...

JUST HOW IS IT THAT SOMEONE BECOMES THAT POPULAR WITH NONE OF THE LYRICS TO ANY OF HER SONGS EVER FITTING PROPERLY INTO THE TUNES?

But her new song is really irritating me. It's the one that goes:

Hey Hey You You
I don't like your girlfriend
No way No way
I think you need a new one
Hey Hey You You
I could be your girlfriend

She apparently did eight translations of this song into different languages. It's been said that she actually tried to learn the languages and worked with speech coaches because she wanted to be "respectful".

There is absolutely NOTHING respectful about a third person actively breaking up someone else's relationship, in ANY language, in ANY culture. People fawning all over this song is just VILE.

She did a Japanese and Mandarin version and her pronunciation still makes me violently ill.

And I'm glad she didn't go ahead with the Hindi version like originally planned. In a culture of arranged marriages, I don't imagine the casualness of the word "girlfriend" translates all that smoothly.

MORON.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		4.5°C
mood	:		cynical

Beware of "experts" who don't follow their own advice.

=\

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		17.4°C
mood	:		...

( What is it? )

[Update - 2000h]

I've now included the pronunciations as links to audio files. Hanyu Pinyin on top and Cantonese Jyutping romanization below that.

<rant>

For the record, I hate "Jyutping". I only use it because it has the best support available and at least it has some kind of acknowledgement that tones exist. An initial "j" representing the "y" sound is unnatural and annoying. There was really no need to do that either. I don't like that they don't distinguish between a high flat tone and a high falling tone. Those are two separate tones, they are not interchangeable and using the wrong one can change the associated meaning. I have no idea why they're lumped together.

</rant>

I put a dot after the '1' to signify the high falling tone. No dot after the '1' is the regular high flat tone. The corresponding audio files for any initial-final combination in the high falling tone doesn't exist, so the sample actually still pronounces the high flat tone.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		22.9°C
mood	:		...

Dear Auto Manufacturers,

Please invent an automatic signal disabling feature. This feature will detect that the goddamned blinker is still on and disengage it after a reasonable, arbitrary distance of travel where the steering wheel has not turned past the turn signal cancellation point.

Please make it standard on all vehicles.

Thank you,

          — J. Lin.

Did you know that today is International Everybody-Forget-To-Turn-Off-Your-Fracking-Blinker Day?

Nobody told me that either. I saw no less than three of them. Two left ones and one right one. It figures. The left blinkie ones are more annoying.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		12.7°C
mood	:		puzzled

Thank you for blocking me from that other entry! Good to know! Have a great day!

Wow. Identification removed to protect the stupid... unless they want to fess to having the sensibilities of a loonfrog.

I knew that sometimes people did get upset at that kind of thing (feelings are feelings, afterall), but I've never seen anyone with the gall to actually be that rude about it.

Girlie, if it makes you feel any better, _I_ was locked out of that one too. O_O Maybe she was filtering you out to plan a nice surprise thing for you. Oh... your friends don't do that for you? ... ... ... Y'know? I'm not surprised.

Seriously though. NO ONE has the right to be upset at being left out of an LJ filter. I'm just glad to see that she's around and she's alive enough to post, even if I can't see the actual post.

Because that is how friends treat each other.

weather	:		drizzling
outside	:		6.9°C
mood	:		moody

Democracy and free speech do not come with a condition like that. It never has.

I have every single right to complain about whoever is doing a shitty job managing the affairs of my city/province/country or any other country, for that matter, regardless of whether or not I had voted in the elections.

Yes, I vote. EVERY election I am entitled to. Municipal, provincial and federal. I'm Canadian, I don't vote in the US elections and I am still entitled to complain about whatever administration-dependent ass monkeys are in the White House. Any time. Any term.

Whether they are elected fairly, elected unfairly or the title passed to them when their reigning parent died, however the leader of a sovereign state gets there, they are in the shooting gallery lineup with the rest of the ducks and EVERYONE who voted and didn't, alike, can have a turn at them just the same.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		-0.3°C
mood	:		grouchy

"How should I strut my stuff in Chinese?"

I found this offensive. It must look stupid for me to be offended at something that harmless, but it shows a fundamental lack of understanding of Chinese culture. And that so happens to have set me off today, I guess.

It's in poor taste to "strut your stuff" directly by describing how good you are.

We tell people we're good at something by BEING good at it, not by telling them.

If we're good at something, it's because our teacher or parents did a good job of teaching us. Based on that, showing off means praising our teachers.

We call attention to our positive traits by reflecting on how they can be improved and seeking advice on such. Attitude and aptitude go hand in hand. Those traits that we care most about are most likely our strongest ones.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		0.2°C
mood	:		amused

If the temperature in your local geographical region does not go below 15°C/59F, then I don't think you should be allowed to call it "Winter" where you are. You should be required to call it "Summer Number 4" or something. XD

Don't tell me about having to bring out the longer shorts.

While I'm at it, someone please explain to me why department stores in SINGAPORE (32°C/89.6F, 95% humidity) sell parkas with fur trim hoodies and wool sweaters. Is that just for comical effect? To amuse us tourists? What? We did think it was hilarious. =)

weather	:		partially sunny
outside	:		17.3°C
mood	:		amused

Unless you're a mute, everyone speaks with an accent whether they realize it or not. If you don't think you speak with an accent, answer this question by describing:

• where you're from
• where you grew up
• what language your parents/guardians spoke
• where you lived that you think influenced you the most

That will help pinpoint your regional accent.

Because you're my friends, I love you all, I don't want any of you to sound like the uneducated clods I came across who were totally unaware that they were not the centre of the universe and shat something out their keyboards that looked vaguely like "I have no accent".

That's why.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		15.8°C
mood	:		tired

I only listen to CBC Radio-2. How sad is it that I actually like it better now that the hosts and regular programming are gone? They're random'ing through their classical music selection and it's playing all the stuff I adore, non-stop, no talking whatsoever and no crazy non-classical garbage that they sometimes play. The hourly news is being done by managers and it's not too bad. They aren't stumbling any more than the regular anchors were.

Telus is in a labour dispute with the Telecommunications Workers Union.

Teck Cominco is shut down from a labour dispute.

BC Ferry workers are threatening job action in September if the new payroll system keeps fucking up everyone's pay (from shorting people hundreds of dollars to not issuing a paycheque at all). It's been screwy for months, I hear.

Vancouver Port truckers are striking because of the lack of compensation for the rising fuel prices.

The BC Teachers' Federation is on the verge of a strike vote. Like, when the hell are school teachers NOT on strike around here?

All we need now is BC Transit workers, the nurses and the longshoremen, all the CUPE and COPE locals to call it and we'd have complete anarchy.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		18.9°C
mood	:		bleh

He dies.

It was him.

We still don't know.

If that's all there is to it, if its thunder can be stolen by a simple re-telling (within 100x100 pixels, even!!), then it couldn't have been very good to begin with.

If I can read reviews and descriptions with spoilers, ratings, plot synopses, Coles Notes, essays and analyses and yet still feel like I'm getting more from reading the original text, then it truly is an excellent book.

But for many books, like most movies, the best parts are in the teasers and the actual product doesn't offer you much more.

[Update - October 21, 2005]

YEAH. WHAT HE SAID.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		14.2°C
mood	:		curious

It's bad enough that I'm thinking about consciously making it a personal goal to set out to find and meet a good-hearted person with the same name just to dispell the name-to-asshole association.

Does anyone else notice this? It's probably the case that everyone finds a different set of names associated with people they like/dislike.

Please don't name specific names. I really don't want the name-to-asshole association pre-planted in my head... as curious as I am *bite lip* >KB =)

weather	:		gloriously sunny
outside	:		20.1°C
mood	:		snarky

Crackheads.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		17.1°C
mood	:		disgusted

There was a lady in one of the stalls as I was walking into the washroom. She wasn't a co-worker, just someone who worked in one of the other office suites on the same floor. I know my co-workers' feet and I didn't recognize hers.

She's peeing and finishes up as I'm sitting down.

She beelines towards the door, completely bypassing the sink.

EEEWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!

I get out and WASH MY HANDS. Hospital Rules. Every knuckle. Up to my elbows. With extra soap. And rinse extra long. With the tap turned all the way to the hot side for extra disinfecting. And scrub my hands with paper towel extra hard, just to be sure. Then, I grabbed a wad of paper towels with me to protect me from the two door handles that she would have touched.

JEEZUZ...

weather	:		gloriously sunny
outside	:		16.0°C
mood	:		amused

Increasingly, I'm seeing a lot of insanity with the question mark.

"Could you please do this."

Sometimes, sentences that are commands are phrased as questions without a question mark. People want to be polite and ask others to do things rather than demand that it be done. And "to ask" intuitively means using the interrogative. I understand. But there exists a standard English grammatical structure to accomplish this correctly: "Please do this. Thank you."

"What is the estimated timeframe for delivery."

Sometimes, it's a clue as to the person's tone when they're writing things exactly as they're saying it in their head. They're requesting an answer to an open-ended question and they forget that just because their voices drop, instead of rise, at the end of the question, it's still the interrogative form which still needs to end with a question mark.

I also find it amusing that people will put question marks in where they don't belong, just because their intonation rises.

"I wonder if something is true?"

This is not a question. To wonder whether something is true is a statement, even though you're pondering something you don't know and would very likely ask it as a question.

"When you have a moment? Could you take a look at that other problem."

*ROFLcopter* =D The question mark has now become less of an indicator of a question and more of a voice intonation marker.

It's sloppiness, very simply. Even with all the excuses in the book, the legitimate ones and the illegitimate ones, it's still sloppiness. I have a whole train of thought on my theories as to why people are so damned sloppy, but that's another post.

In any case, please don't punctuate questions with a period and please use a comma to punctuate various auxiliary phrases that belong in the same sentence. Thank you. =)

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		9.1°C
mood	:		bitchy

1) My best friend knows everything. She knows all of your vitals -- from the size of your bank account to the size of your other, um, holdings -- and she knows how both compare with those of every other man I've ever dated.

I thought it was illegal to disclose that kind of information without permission... (?) I was always taught that bank account size, or anything to do with money, is something that is held in the highest confidence. NO ONE is to know ANYONE'S bank account size unless it comes from them directly. Not you, not his family, not your family AND LEAST OF ALL, YOUR FUCKING FRIENDS.

And the rest of it... has been removed from www.menshealth.com, but it's copied ( here. )

Some points are more benign. Others are. Just. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll be really mean here and say that IT'S REALLY NO WONDER that women can't find "good men" to date or marry. I see and meet great guys everywhere and I'm not even looking. I'm not even trying. If you're pulling stupid shit like that, no wonder they're not staying with you.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		11°C
mood	:		*RAAAAWWR*

Look, you big fat fucking bully.

STOP PICKING ON MY FRIENDS ALREADY.

Stop killing my friends' car batteries and otherwise dicking with their cars, laptops, internet connections, etc.

Knock it off with the homework drama with my friends' kids.

Stop making my friends gain back the weight they've worked hard to lose.

You lift that girlfriend curse this instant!!! The last few CUNT BAGS were totally NOT FUNNY!

Stop making my friends cry.

And LET them cry if they NEED to.

Stop sending psychos to my friends' house.

You better hope my Uncle H's back gets better from his fall and that his two children are okay from the divorce that his asshat wife just filed.

For fuck's sake, take it out on people who DESERVE it. You KNOW where they are and there are PLENTY of them to dick with for your amusement.

weather	:		partially cloudy
outside	:		10°C
mood	:		hmmm...

As far as I'm concerned, if I pay a photographer to take my pictures for personal purposes, all proofs and negatives are mine and I have sole ownership of the copyright to the images. I can reproduce them in any format (digital or hardcopy) as I please. Period. Full stop. End of discussion.

The photographer's time, materials, artistic talent, intellectual property and all that blardy-blar are included. It's up to the photographer to quote me a price that includes all of that. I have no time for the ifs, buts, maybes and the strings-attached bullshit.

This isn't something that I've ever discussed with any photographer. But I've always gone to Chinese studios who also have this mentality. Even Johnny, my wedding day photographer who has been in the business for 10+ years in North America. Granted, his clientele is mostly the Chinese community.

The same applies to my wedding video with Bailey. He gave us the original 35mm(?) tapie thingie with all the original raw footage. In fact, I got two tapie thingies. I'm not sure what I'm doing with them, but I'd always thought it was understood that if I had the means (the post-production equipment), I could do whatever I want with it.

We always ask and the negatives are always included in the package. That, to me, says that they are mine to reproduce with no limitations. Because, what else would I be doing with negatives? Stuffing my bra with them?

But the weddingplans thread just reminded me that I really should ask a few more questions and possibly get more detail written in future contracts.

I thought this might be useful to say out loud.

weather	:		mostly cloudy
outside	:		12°C
mood	:		miffed

But crediting anyone but the original creator of a Meme is just retarded. Who bloody cares? Why should anyone be offended that they weren't credited for passing it along? Are we that self-important that we feel the need to be credited for every unimportant flip and fart we make?

A meme is meant to be publicly available and passed around far and wide. There is no creativity, originality or much of ANYTHING involved in propagating a meme. To trace the exact lineage of who got it from whom is giving credit where it is not due.

If I see a book on my friend's shelf and decide to buy myself a copy, you cannot seriously be telling me that I have to credit that friend and everyone else who she got a recommendation from when I write a review.

Am I the only one who is just delighted enough to see someone doing the same meme after me? I'm delighted to be mentioned too, but I'm not upset if I'm not.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		22°C
mood	:		pissy

"Adieu" is the WRONG TERM to use for "goodbye" unless you never intend to contact the person ever again. It literally translates as "to God" which implies a permanent parting.

I'm just a hairline away from saying something superlatively nasty about this, but I'll shut up now.

For crying out loud.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		20°C
mood	:		pissed off

Stanley Park is home to a multitude of wildlife. Recently, there's been a Rabies Caution Advisory. Some of the critters have been found to have rabies. It's theorized that it came from an infected bat(?). People and domestic pets have been bitten in the last month or so.

What really gets me is why they were bitten.

The people were feeding some infected raccoons. FEEDING them! LOOK people. I don't care how cute, furry and cuddly looking these animals are, they're wild animals. Animals will always respond favorably to food offerings, but THEY'RE STILL WILD ANIMALS. They can turn on you for any of a number of reasons that we do and don't understand.

Raccoons are nocturnal animals. For the children and Really Slow People™: that means they sleep during daylight hours and come out to hunt for food at night. The raccoons in Stanley Park come out during THE DAY now. See, THEY WOULDN'T BE INFECTING YOU WITH RABIES IF THEY WEREN'T OUT AND ABOUT DURING THE DAY.

People feeding geese and ducks really pisses me off. YOU'RE FUCKING UP THEIR NATURAL MIGRATORY INSTINCTS. These birds are learning that there's food to be had here, so they won't migrate south for the winter. GUESS WHAT? Those birds were never meant to live in cold climates.

I hate people. Stupid people need to die.

[Addendum]

So, before anyone tells me that picking up the baby robin was a bad thing to do, I should say that:

1. it wasn't my idea to keep it. My personal policy with non-domestic animals is to "Live and Let Die Because Nature Has Had This Shit WELL Figured Out For Millions Of Years Already, Thank You Fucking Humans To Leave Well Enough Alone".

2. I was fairly young then and having never had exposure to animals, I had no knowledge of what to do in that situation.

3. now that I know, I won't ever touch a baby chick or any other animal laying around. If I think it's in danger, I'll call someone who knows better to handle it instead.

weather	:		ominous clouds
outside	:		12°C
mood	:		serious

No, no. The Snopes entry is a MUST READ and it's syndicated on LJ here.

The general consensus is that it's very likely bullshit, but still a(n) [almost negligible] sliver of possibility.

There would be a fair pool of knowledgeable people in the debate community (at least the more intelligent back-and-forth threads should be a good indicator) and snopes_dot_com should be REQUIRED READING.

And wow, lookit, the Lhasa Apso is not a Tibetan snow rabbit. I coulda been hoodwinked. =D

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		13°C
mood	:		melancholy

But it's the listless, hollow and heavy feeling prior that is the hard part. I feel like I should be crying, but I can't. I just have to wait it out. It'll hurt. It'll hurt a lot before it heals... if ever. It could be in my face for a long long time.

It's my own fault. I made my choices. These are my consequences.

No, I don't want to talk about it.

[More cryptic spew, compiled from a few different IM conversations]

I can be distracted and okay for months, even years. But when things quiet down, my mind will go back to the old issues. I happen to be conditioned to remember things. I tend to hang on and dwell on stuff longer than I should. Especially when resolution and closure are impossible, they'll probably keep coming up once in a while to stick me.

It's no use even describing any of my problems to anyone. The only thing I'll hear is "oh, that sucks". There's nothing anyone can do and nothing anyone can say that I don't already know or haven't already heard. I don't even want anyone else to have the extra burden of hearing it.

Therapy just adds another layer of unwanted guilt and stupidity. At $100/session, I'm basically asking someone else to tell me the time with my own watch, when I already know how to tell [analog] time. It's just not dire enough to warrant counselling.

Part of my turmoil is I've learned that my heart has been wrong. This brews a lot of conflicted feelings in a society that puts so much emphasis on "following your heart" and "do what feels right". I don't really know if it's because I'm so out of sync with society's tenets of existence or if it's just naturally very distressing to have your brain completely disagree with your gut.

If I really followed my heart, I'd end up doing retarded things that only fucked up characters from fucked up soap operas do.

I'm afraid of talking to anyone about my issues anymore. I'm afraid of opening my big fat yap and saying too much.

I'll live.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		12°C
mood	:		confused

"to have got" is used in two ways (that I can tell):

1. as the auxiliary (meaning "must") to another verb — "you've got to do something"

2. as a main verb with a direct object to indicate either
   1. possession — "I've got an apple"
   2. state — "she's got style"

You either have it or you got it. You don't "have got" it.

I've caught myself starting to say it recently... *ptooey* >K{

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		12°C
mood	:		philosophical

An academic degree or some kind of professional training distinction is a mark of discipline. There's an understanding that you have done the work, you measure up to the standard and you're more likely to know what you're doing. There's a level of respect accorded to someone with some kind of distinction.

I find that University is not for learning things, per se. It's for learning how to learn. At least, that's the way I saw it and that's the way I've used my degree. How much information from my courses have I really gotten to use in my work? Well, nothing and everything.

I'm not doing the exact tasks from my courses, but I'm using the same skills that I learned while doing those tasks. These are some of the ones I remember:

How to Define the Problem

You can't really solve a problem unless you know what the problem is to begin with. Getting a handle on the problem is not as easy a task as it sounds. What exactly are you trying to do? What is the scope of the problem? What assumptions are you making? Are those reasonable assumptions to make with respect to the scope? What's the worst thing that could happen if you're wrong?

This is so fundamental, yet it's also amazingly easy to forget, professionally and personally.

How to Ask Good Questions

Knowing when/how to get help and how to ask questions is important. People always say, "there's no such thing as a stupid question", but that's just to be encouraging. There ARE stupid questions. If you keep asking stupid thoughtless questions, you'll lose the respect of those around you. But asking well researched, well thought-out questions shows you've done as much as you can which speaks to your integrity and work ethic.

How to Take Tests

You learn the ability to write exams. Is it fair to have three months worth of course work come down to a two hour exam? Sure, it is. Except it could be ten or fifteen years of your professional expertise under the microscope for fifteen minutes. Get used to it.

To have the entirety of what you know be measured in one moment is something that happens in life. All. The. Time. It happens in job interviews and that extends to business meetings. If you are a vendor, your client is going to want to know that they're going to get what they pay for before they award you the contract. You'll be evaluated in a few meetings at most. Instead of just selling yourself, like in a job interview, you're selling your company, your organization and your entire staff behind you.

Pressure of Deadlines

The pressure of deadlines is always there in school. Life is full of deadlines. Time limits are a reality in any line of work. School is a safe place where there are varying consequences of missing deadlines, but fortunately, few of them are that dire.

Interpersonal Skills

People are diverse in a University environment. Being involved in school things gave me the opportunity to work as a part of many different types of teams with different leadership and operation styles. You learn a lot about interpersonal dynamics working with group projects in class. Outside of class, there's student council, department student societies, clubs, etc. Each person has a role and their own responsibilities (President, Secretary, Treasurer, etc.) which is very similar to a corporate environment.

You learn to work with people who have different personality traits and that's important. You may also find lifelong friends and/or business partners.

Leadership is a part of it too. To be a good leader, I believe you have to first be a good follower/do-er. The leader has to understand what each person in their team is doing, be able to guide progress and juggle the project tasks between time, budget and functionality constraints. The three of them are almost ALWAYS conflicting.

These are not innate skills. It takes years and years of seeing examples and experiencing things first hand.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		-7°C
mood	:		struck w/ realization

Self,

Stop touting your own ungirliness. Just quietly stop it now.

Your Girliness is not as high as other females in some areas, but you're much more girly (in good and bad ways) than others in some ways. To tell people you don't or won't do girly things, then turn around and do something super girly makes you look like a fucking ass.

You're. A. Girl.

Do what you have to. Do things your own way. But accept it and shut the fuck up about not taking a traditional path. Be smart enough to take That Fruitcake™'s actions as a warning for yourself. Yes, that's exactly how stupid you look when you do it.

— Self.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		4°C
mood	:		amused/perturbed

If you can't figure out how to "install LiveJournal", you're not going to be able to successfully run a journal site on your own with the LJ code base.

*shakes head* =}

weather	:		raining
outside	:		15°C
mood	:		jaded/cynical

Speaking of malls, some time ago, I heard about a "Guy's Daycare" where your guy can go while you shop. It's based on the setup for children, there are video games and things to keep the dudes occupied. I find the cranium density of some humans just boggling. It's called EB and the Food Court.

Anyway, there's just a lot of stuff I just have to accomplish this weekend because there are only two more weekends in October before Work throws me a huge ass deadline on the 31st. But then, I take a week off for holidays in the first week of November.

*          *          *

I get extra money starting this pay period, which is half a happy thing. It was a whole happy thing, up until I realized that it was really entirely my money to begin with. I've finally contributed up to the maximum allowable for all the deduction things. Like the "GOVT PEN", wherein I give my Government $50 every month as long as I still have a brain wave pattern and when I turn 65, they give me a pen.

Yes, yes, I know it's my stupid pension plan. But the way the legislation is heading, I'll be lucky to get a writing stick of any kind from them. And that's only if they haven't pushed out the Retirement Age to 100 by then.

Nonetheless, they upped the maximum contribution this year... <bitterness>at least for ME because, y'know, they have to support the Welfare Scammers somehow</bitterness>. So, instead of hitting the cap back in mid-July like I used to, I've been contributing up until the end of September.

*          *          *

I still haven't figured out why my bank balance keeps creeping upwards. I'm not double-counting credit card charges. If I were, I think the difference would be much more pronounced. I thought it might be an annual expense that I did the monthly calculation for and my account balance would creep upwards over the year until I paid it. But that thing has been paid and my balance is still higher than I expect.

Yeah, here's me having the opposite problem as everyone else again. Everyone else is trying to figure out why their bank balances are lower than they expect and I have too much money. Not that that's an issue in and of itself. It just makes me think that there's something I've totally forgotten about and, now, don't have enough to cover.

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		16°C
mood	:		pensive

My first instinct is to say that I don't like gossip and I won't participate in it. But what's the difference, then, between gossip, idle chit-chat, news and plain (even necessary) discussion? Is it the positive or negative quality of the comments? Is it the level of truth of the assumptions and statements made? Is it the importance or necessity of knowing? "Sure, but not really..." to all three.

I have a mild disdain for journalism precisely because I think there's a blurry gap between journalism and gossip. Some sources land closer to one side than the other, but I really don't trust any news source on its own.

I grew up in a small, very close family of three (then four, when my brother was born). I was always taught that any speculation I had about other people was not to be shared outside of my immediate family. Lately, some of it has morphed into no sharing beyond my husband.

My husband's family is the opposite. If someone knows something, everyone knows. Inside of an hour. With all kinds of embellishments. I've been bitten in the ass and I've put up my walls. Still, there's only so much I can do, living in the same house as them.

Whenever my Mother-In-Law starts talking to me about Uncle So&so being pissed at Cousin Such&such doing whatever or some such, I giggle and tell her, "I have no idea, I'm always the last to know anything." Which isn't always true; I do know, I just don't like conversing about it.

Generally, my attitude is: it stops with me. If no one is in danger by not knowing or it's not vital to completing a task, then it doesn't go past me. I am a known Chain Letter Breaker and I can't stand that stupid whispering game.

weather	:		mostly sunny
outside	:		21°C
mood	:		confused
music	:	Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op 64, II Andante

You waste gas driving.
You deal with stupid drivers on the road.
You deal with stupid people at the mall.
You deal with stupid people's kids at the mall.
You deal moron sales staff.

You have now wasted good money on crap you don't need.

And to top it all off, you have NOT RESOLVED your original problem.

How good can Retail Therapy feel, really?

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		12°C
mood	:		annoyed

Yes, this just happened to me. Before I looked at the From: line, I thought the Pro-Lifers were doing some freaky offensive spam shit again. Fucking hell.

I should clarify: I thought it was from Total Whack-Job Pro-Lifers Who Are A Testament To The Need For Abortion By Their Very Existence, of which there are many, as opposed to the Sane, Intelligent Pro-Lifers who actually have a point and discuss it well.

LISTEN:

1. Unless specifically stated otherwise, your children's appearance and antics are ONLY CUTE TO YOU.

2. Even if someone specifically states that your children are cute, the opinion solely represents that of the speaker, not every last living organism on the entire planet.

3. People who like you, don't always like your kids.

4. Corollary: Just because people don't like your children, doesn't mean they don't like you.

5. DON'T EVER assume your children are invited to someone else's wedding.

6. No, your children are not an exception.

I love children, in general. I understand you love yours. I also understand you were in labour for 5 days straight with contractions every single second of it. But REALLY. Whatever the hell happened to making sure the things you show are in presentable condition first? With large image and video files, you can at least have the decency to put them on your webspace and e-mail me the link.

You're a fucking PARENT now. Decency, discretion and good judgement are more important than ever before.

What's funny is that I only just read a friend's journal entry from this morning saying something similar, so I'm not the only one who feels this way.

Christ-kabobs.

weather	:		mostly clear
outside	:		3°C
mood	:		*sigh*

I enjoy the holidays. I just hate it when people get all Seinfeld about gift exchanging.

Come January/February, I'm going to try to rally the RL friends into creating personal online wishlists. Amazon, ThinkGeek, HBC.com, Sears.ca, or just a manual HTML page off their personal websites or whatever. Everyone needs to pick things that range in price from $5.00 (or less) up to however much they want. This way, people have a choice to get them something small or chip in with a group to get them something bigger.

I don't have to actually buy the items from Amazon or wherever, but I at least have an idea as to what people want so I have a starting point to look for it in local malls/stores.

This isn't "fishing for gifts" at all. As long as you're not expecting anything and you're truly thankful for whatever you get, no matter how small (including nothing at all), it's fine. It's a courtesy to friends to make life a LOT easier by taking the uncertainty/guesswork out of it.

And what the hell is wrong with our society that we can't be nice to each other unless the retail industry says to?

I've taken to giving people things when they need them. Not just for their birthdays or Christmas. When a friend's shoelaces broke, I got him a new pair. It was only a few bucks, but it was needed and appreciated. A friend's dress ripped just before a gala fundraising banquet. I drove out to the nearest London Drugs, dressed to the nines, and bought her a little sewing kit. I helped sew her into her dress for the evening. I've lost count of the number of friends stuck in the embarassing situation of being short on cash, at a restaurant, with a group, that I've lent money to. I've also lost count of the number of times I've been caught cashless and friends helped me out.

I once gave a friend $250.00 cash because her car gave birth to a muffler in the middle of rush hour traffic and she wasn't going to be able to eat for the rest of the month until her next payday. I told her that she could consider it a gift if she wanted to or a loan if she wasn't comfortable with taking it. She ended up paying me back slowly (by treating me to lunch or paying for small things for me at outings or whatever). So, it really technically cost me nothing at all, but it was deeply appreciated. She tells me so, she tells everyone so.

To me, those things mean much more than deliberate Oh-It's-That-Time-Again gifts. Both to me, as the giver, and the recipient.

weather	:		mostly cloudy
outside	:		7°C
mood	:		mildly annoyed

*crickets chirp*

*sigh* Looks like it.

It's German. It rhymes with "Joyce". He pronounced his own name "Zoyce". There is only one way to pronounce a person's name. And that's "exactly the way s/he pronounces it".

It's the ultimate disrespect to insist differently.

Your head goes on a kebab stick if I hear you say "Dr. Soos" in person.

wintersweet gave me the fantastic idea of retorting with "Sigmund Frood". =)

The other one that annoyed me for a while was "Arnold Schwa_zenegger". But I'm not sure about this one anymore. I could have sworn, someone I knew had dinner with him on a trip to LA. He brought back a personalized autographed 8x10 or took a picture of his cement square in front of Graumann's (I can't remember which now). It had only one 'r' which was on the end. I remember it because we joked that "he spelled his own name wrong" for a while. But this picture is the only good one I could find and it looks like there is an 'r' after the 'a'.

Maybe he did spell his own name wrong just that once. I wouldn't put it past him. *shrug* =D

weather	:		raining
outside	:		6°C
mood	:		meh...

I was reading an interview with Christopher Lee and I thought he was in another movie, so I looked it up on IMDB. But it turns out that I have him mixed up with Frank Langella.

This reminded me of all the other actors that I can't tell apart.

Patrick Swayze, Kurt Russell, Val Kilmer, Bill Pullman, Jeff Bridges and Michael Douglas all look exactly the same to me. I get them wrong every single time.

Then there's Kevin Costner and Bruce Willis which might be understandable, but now, I've found that Alan Rickman, from this angle and lighting, doesn't look that far off. Sometimes, I can get Malcom McDowell mistaken for one of KC or BW and there's just no hope in hell for me in telling Malcom McDowell apart from Gordon Matthew Sumner.

There's also Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan. They even sound incredibly similar. I don't have as much trouble with these two because they usually play very different roles, but when I see promo shots or very quick trailer cuts (especially when PS has a hair piece in his costume), I have to look very carefully to see the difference or look up the movie and see who it actually is. I didn't know if watching X-Men would make my head explode or what.

Dwayne Johnson and Rob Schneider. One's bigger and one's smaller; Rob Schneider is hilarious and Dwayne Johnson... just tries to be... I know. But just looking at faces, I couldn't tell.

I can't always tell Adrien Brody from David Schwimmer or Dylan McDermott. I can't watch "The Practice" without expecting Bobby Donnell to do something stupid á là Ross Geller.

If I saw them more often, I'm certain I'd mistake Max von Sydow for Richard Harris all the bloomin' time. And there was a picture of Richard Harris that I thought was actually Peter O'Toole at first. I can't find it now though...

I also have to look carefully to tell the difference between Dustin Hoffman and John Hurt. And sometimes, I get either of those two mixed up with Robert De Niro. And now, we can add Sean Penn in here as well.

I absolutely cannot tell the difference between Andy Garcia and Al Pacino. Al Pacino and Robert De Niro used to be clones, but I think RDN has changed quite a bit and looks different from AP now.

Richard Gere, Harrison Ford, Liam Neeson, Dustin Hoffman, David Duchovny, Alec Baldwin. ... ... ... I give up.      I.     JUST.     GIVE.     UP.

I talked about this with friends a long time ago. I realized that people in different cultures don't differentiate faces the same way as other cultures might.

Caucasians are used to telling people apart by their colouring in the eyes, hair and skin. But being Chinese, everyone has the same colour eyes, hair and skin, so I'm obviously not looking at that for my visual clues. I'm looking at facial features, shapes, sizes and distances from one reference mark to the next.

... I just like saying, "all White Guys look alike". =)

weather	:		cloudy
outside	:		7°C
mood	:		*roll eyes at ceiling*
music	:	Kiri Te Kanawa - Tosca, Vissi d'Arte (Puccini)

What, exactly, is the point of purposely announcing loudly and prominently that you have strong opinions on an issue, but that you're going to keep it to yourself? We can't express our opinion tactfully like a mature adult?

If you're going to shut up, then shut the fuck up. No need for fanfare. Attention Monkeys^® are so lame.

weather	:		partially sunny
outside	:		18°C
mood	:		in absolute agreement

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way — by Eric S. Raymond and Rick Moen.

This needs to be required reading. Not just for the internet and technical issues, but for everything in life.

weather	:		clear
outside	:		17°C
mood	:		*huff*
music	:	Carreras, Domingo, Pavarotti - Santa Lucia

Don't you just love it when you challenge a moron's actions and they defend themselves by saying, "I didn't do anything!".

YES, THAT'S EXACTLY MY POINT. YOU DIDN'T DO FUCK ALL.

Cripes, the dumbass-ness of people is astounding sometimes.

weather	:		sunny
outside	:		25°C
mood	:		serious

"It's YOUR day, do what YOU want!"

I felt like slapping anyone who said that to me, it got so offensive. What kept me from doing it was that it was people who mean well, but just plain didn't understand.

I don't know about everyone else's family situation, but I feel my family deserves a lot more respect from me than some of the girls in weddingplans are showing their families.

My parents changed my diapers; took care of me when I had pneumonia as an infant; immigrated with me when I was 2 to a foreign country; built a life from scratch while learning a second language; provided for me, made sure I had food, clothes, shelter and books; encouraged me to excel academically, so that I could have a chance at University and a better life than they had.

They're not the best parents, they'll be the first to tell you that. But they did what they could, the best they knew how. And considering their situation, they did damned well.

I'm grateful to my family. I'm happy to be able to make them proud of the wedding I had. I didn't mind at all that a large majority of our guest list was friends of the family that my husband and I have never met. I'm happy that my parents could feel proud in front of all their friends that their daughter married a great man and has married into a good family. I'm happy that my husband's grandparents and parents got to brag about what a pretty and smart girl their son was bringing into the family. I'm happy to hear them exclaim "She does computer work!" to the impressed oohs and aahs of their friends. I'm happy to have been able to contribute to their bragging rights. Even if it wasn't everything I wanted.

I'm sure being stuck with a child and not being able to travel, or having to stay up several nights in a row with an ice bag on your baby's forehead so that she doesn't hemorrhage to death, or having to deal with Chinese School homework wars wasn't exactly everything they wanted either.

Yes, we opted to pay for the whole wedding ourselves for the veto power, but we used it carefully, sparingly and only when it was truly impossible, it became our trump card.

Life isn't always about what you want, money or not.

weather	:		cloudy
mood	:		amused

A while ago, we were talking about adding Idiot Filters to the Random feature.

Well, here's something that's close enough to that. Add magicwoman to your Friends list and then go to your FriendsFriends view. Enjoy =)

[

weather

|

cloudy

]

[

water

|

4 by 1439h

]

[

mood

|

nerdy

]

xinit was saying that the LJ Random feature needed some idiot filters, so that we can hit worthwhile journals.

I said that it probably wouldn't be difficult to integrate a Readability Statistics module into the LJ updates to get something like a Flesch Reading Ease and Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level. Then on my Random search, I would specify that I want to only see the journals with an average Reading Ease of 60-95 AND a Grade Level of 4.0-8.0

The Flesch Reading Ease is a 100-point scale. 100 is the "easy to read" end. It's based on the number of words divided by the number of sentences and the average number of syllables in your words. The Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is based on U.S. grade school levels and is computed based on the same statistics as the FRE.

Straight from the horse's mouth:

They're not very sophisticated algorithms (from an implementation standpoint), but I question the "magic numbers" in there. From experience, they're very error prone in cases where people write like they were kicked in the head by a mule at birth.

My spelling and grammar in my own journal entries are actually quite atrocious. I average a Flesch Reading Ease of 80 (anywhere from 60-90, but more entries closer to 90), and average F-K Grade Level of 6 (anything from Gr. 2 to 8, but most in the 5-6 level). Still, you can do generalizations like: if the Reading Ease is low and Grade Level is low then, more than likely, it's an Idiot Entry. HOWEVER, some of my entries came out with very similar stats (the shorter ones where I'm trying to make things very clear =)

If I could somehow get a count of the number of times the Spelling & Grammar Checker had to stop and prompt the user for input, that would add a third dimension of accuracy =) RE and GL being the same, if the Number of Prompts is low, it's an intelligent entry. If the Number of Prompts is high as well, it should flip the Idiot Flag. =)

Microsoft's NLP group is actually pretty l33t. With that group, the shortcomings aren't really because of Microsoft, it's because natural language processing, itself, is a difficult task, even following set grammar rules strictly.

This entry, for example, has a Flesch Reading Ease of 58.9, a Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level of 10.5 and prompts me twice for changes (both of which are an incorrect interpretation of the grammar rule in question). It has a lot of trouble with prepositional phrases. It can't quite tell the difference between the passive voice and an active, present progressive tense. It's telling me there are things wrong with my entry that, I swear, are correct. That IS how you spell "l33t". And I'm sure there are all sorts of things wrong with my entry that it's not picking up.

*shrug* Food for thought.

[	weather	|		slushy rain	]
[	mood	|		miffed	]

It peeves me when people hang on to my cheques for-bloody-ever without depositing/cashing it - not naming any names here ... *cough*BC*cough*Government*cough*. The longer the money goes untouched, the more likely I'm going to forget about it and use it for some other big, fat, emergency-ass thing that comes up (like car insurance for example). Then when the person finally gets around to depositing it, it bounces. MIL Woman used to do this, but I'd rib her that if she doesn't deposit it, she won't get her money because I'll spend it all. She got the idea after a few times. =}

I know some people back date their cheques so that there's only a week or two for the person to deposit before the bank considers it a stale cheque. I thought it was 6 months before a cheque is considered stale, but someone also told me it was 12 months. And someone else said that they'll make an exception around New Year because people tend to be confused over what year we're currently in.

I also have to figure out how I'd need to do the record keeping for it. I'd need an extra column for "Actual" versus "Effective" date of the cheque.