Yummy... found a recipe for a rack of lamb.. makes me just wanna crack open the barbeque and ... GRILL. I can get good racks of lamb at the St. Lawrence Market, and it's walking distance from work.. Now if I can just wait until the weather gets really good and warm..

So we finally got absolutely sick of eatting in (because of SARS) so we went out for dinner at a local joint. I used to be one of the o'favorates of ours since their food was.. hmm.. what's a good translation.. cooked with gusto? Bold flavours? Well. we liked it. But today was something else. Where there were lineups and take-a-number-and-wait, now we are like table #3 out of the 25.. and the dishes are all scaled back.. $14 bucks for the fish dish and we have one slice of fish.. it's not funny. Do I sound like I am bitching? I'm not. I am sad. Obviously they are having a hard time staying afloat and cannot offer the same quality / quantity of food.. And you know what? Since's we've been eating in ever since this all started, we've been having exceptionally value-meals at home all the time, so perhaps our wallets have not readjusted to eating out. Well, we did our bit this week to help the economy.. we'll do it again next week as Torontonians grasp and hold tight what remains of our normalcy.

I haven't been blogging too much lately. Not much to say. As I said before this is supposed to be theraputic and so I guess today I feel like getting some therapy. Dunno.. not too much energy today... or yesterday.. or this whole week. Get up, go to work.. get home.. dog tired.. go to bed.. toss like a green salad.. the radio comes on with Andy Barrie.. get up.. go to work. Work's always fun but the commute is not. And I'm not doing too well in the sleeping department. I think my legs got enough sleep and that's it -- I can still step on the gas but I can't think straight. I stopped at the red light and after 3-potato I drove right through it like it was a stop sign.. Is this a sign of depression? Or that I should just get a new bed and avoid drink water before sleep? Or I should buy an Aston Martin, wake up at 5am every morning, and race down the DVP at 150km/h and hear the tires squeal and the engine roar and my heart pump and my ears ring and the sirens wail and... crap I don't like Aston Martins anyways -- and to tell you the truth I like the Eagle Talon... but whatever.

Talking about cars. Toronto is full of them. Everywhere. Cars. Cars that have 4 or 5 seats but with only the driver in it. Drivers with mugs drinking coffee with only one hand on the wheel. Drivers with one hand holding the mirror and the other with the brush applying rouge on her face while using the pinky finger to hold on to the gear shift. Drivers that holds a novel while speeding down the 404. Fuck even drivers that are trying to eat pancakes the proper way with knives and forks. Don't ask me how he is driving.. perhaps steering with his middle leg.

I always wondered what happens if car makers made cars that fit one person. You know.. Suppose you take a sedan and scale it down to the size of an ATV.. You know.. you and the 4 wheels. Wait.. just like a go-kart. Suppose you can have a car the size of a go-cart, but with regular 15-inch tires, slap on a battery-driven engine, or one equipped with a fuel-cell, forget every amenity except the radio and the a/c.. wow.. my kind of commuter car. (readers - man Vince don't have any idea.. do you?! What an idiot..) Or how about community owned car? Suppose I walk out of my house, and instead of walking to the bus or subway station, I walk to the TCAC (Toronto Comunity Automobile Commission) station, swipe my monthly ticket, and grab the next commuter car? I drive it down to a station close to work, drop it off, and head to work. After work, I pay and pick up another car, drive home.. but on the way I get to drive out of my way to the supermarket and pick up groceries.. Hmm..

Ok now I feel better and can continue my shying away from social life and cocoon in my room pretending to work on Caligo.

Well, that was a wonderful weekend I had up in Ottawa with the girlfriend :) Had some good food, sampled some wonderful warmth-brand dessert, and did some serious shopping. Poor Les Ailes in Ottawa is going out of business so all their merchandize was going on sale for 50% off or more. I picked up a bunch of nice clothes for my wardrobe... hmm.. on the side of the colour red I might add.. go figure.

Actually most surprising to me was the drive up and down 401. Perhaps I was lucky or perhaps I had extra-sensory perception (ESP) and chose the time wisely, but there was hardly any traffic to speak of. That was wonderful.. I am sure those that came back tonight on the 401 had the best time getting stuck in Ajax in the rain.. I feel for them. Despite the current SARS scare in Toronto, I still feel sad that Canada does not have a more developed rail system. You see all the cars and traffice jams (man you should be there on the 401 in Pickering/Ajax during the Canada Day weekend) and you wonder if it be better if there are trains that can reach Ottawa in 2 hours from Toronto. It's not that hard: The distance from Toronto to Ottawa is roughly 450km; a train that goes at 250km/h can easily cover that distance in 2 hours or so.. and even if you figure-in stopping at places like Smith Falls and/or Port Hope, 3 hours ought to do it. That is still better than getting stuck on the 401 in Ajax for 45 minutes.

Alas, whenever I have this conversation with anyone who is willing to listing to the rant we end up agreeing that this dream of mine isn't 100% practical in Canada since we lack the population density. The other potential patron of the rail system, cargo and logistics, don't really benefit from such centralized transportation service since they still need to use trucks to move the goods from the rail yard to their store/holding area, and that doesn't really save them time nor money. Add to that, apparently Canadians like to drive -- including me! :)

oh well.. I'll wait until we get fuel cell cars, and then at least I won't feel guilty driving while contributing my share of global warming.

I always thought kuro5hin had better, more thoughful and thought-provoking pieces than /., and today there is yet more prove..

First, there was the piece about the art of packaging to improve package survivability through the rigors of shipping. Mind you, most of the
recommendations given both in the article and in the subsequent comments are common-sense to me, so I won't reiterate them to you. The interesting thing that struck me is the one-liner made by the author, regarding poor packaging vs. damaged shipped goods:


My apathy towards [the] cargo ... is simply this: If you don't care about your package, why should I?


and the "rebuttal" offered in one of the comments regarding the author's distaste towards wooden crates used in packaging (wood = splitters):


My apathy towards my package's convenience is not ... because I derive joy from causing needless splinters. It is simply this: If you don't care about my package, why should I care about you?


I am not sure why it piqued my interest.. I guess in addition to putting a nasty smile on my face, it reminded me of the student / marker dilemma: When answering a question on an exam (especially one that involved either an essay-type answer, or one that is left relatively vague and open for interpretation), a student tend to write as much as possible. On the other hand, a marker of an exam (the poor, underpaid teaching assistant) would much prefer a short, concise, easy-to-tell-if-it-was-right-or-wrong-or-missing-something answer... This struck me when I first started my job as a TA back in my grad-school days -- of course, I was one of the worst offender in the overtly-too-long answers to exam questions. When the tables are turned and I was on the receiving end of such an answer, the most frequent thought was "get to the point..." :)

The second post on kuro5hin was the series written by a person with Schizoaffective Disorder.. haven't finished reading it yet, just thought I'd mention it here because it is certainly an eye-opener for me.

Cool.. I found out that with my GoodLife membership, I get to go to the swimming pool at HolidayInn Markham for free.. wicked...
according to the lady I talked to at the hotel, the pool is open between 5:30am to 10pm daily.. nice hours! :)

So I've found a nice place that offers a free "comments" for my blog entries: http://www.documentroot.com

So I have started to work on my renderer again.. I spent tonight looking at some math libraries.. such as uBLAS from boost.org and Blitz++.. hmm..

Haha. I was notified today that the company wants me to use up all my vacation time before July 2003. Apparently I have 1.3 vacation days left. WHAT?! I thought I used up all my days for my JKH trip. Yay.. and it rounds up too.. haahahahahahahahahahaahahahahhahhahahahahaha.

ok time for coffee^H^H^H^H^H^Htea.

After my chat with Alex I've decided to restart my old renderer for my thesis. I've started a blog for Caligo, so that we can document our progress on our project.. it'd be interesting as a software-development diary I suppose.

So I did my presentation yesterday and it was alright I suppose. I once read a sage advice that people rate one's presentation with the quality of the Q+A at the end and I guess I'm confident that part went well, so ok I suppose.

Finally finished my slides for my presentation tomorrow. Oh right.. I am going back to the CGL at Waterloo with my co-workers as the pseudo-annual A|W-CGL visit, and I volunteered to give a talk about some stuff. I decided to talk about some stuff I am working on now (so it's fresh in my head and I can make myself sound intellengent). Hope the weather is nice tomorrow for my drive into Waterloo!

Due to my cold, I've put my nasal strip experiment on hold. But I must say that when I've applied the strip properly, I could immediately tell the improvement in breathing. Of course that also means that I immediately go into nasal strip withdraw when I take it off in the morning. Also, I've noticed that for me, who get acne often due to oily facial skin, nasal strips aggravates the problem on the nose. Doh.

I just discovered a gem of a game called Shogun: Total War. It is an older game but heck it works on my clunky Celeron 500 at home so no complaints here. Addictive too. For a strategy-idiot like me who routinely sends my troops to their death, I was suprised I got so far.. then the game crashes on me before I can save my successful conquest. DOH. 4 hours of work down the drain.. If it happens again tonight I'll delete the game.

Urgh, this is the WORST time to get a cold. I really didn't want to wade into the whole SARS can of worms because I think readers who get there should get a reprieve from being bombarded by the news of it. Sadly, everyday when one turns on the news its either SARS or the war in Iraq. But.. now that I cannot deny I got a bad cold, it's time to face to music -- people might think I have it and do things differently around me.. Perhaps it's a good social studies exercise. First thing first. I have a cold.. Haven't had one for a LONG time, but nowadays runny noses just reminds me of the dreadful hay fever I get during September... urgh. I think I caught this cold from a co-worker I talked to at work.. Or, just thru the sheer bravado of leaving my windows open at night in my quest for fresh air during sleep. Nevermind. Last Friday in Toronto we had an ice-pellet storm.. Driving with my 91' Civic is impossible, so I resorted to taking the subway. Of course, I had the sniffles, and this time I remembered my Kleenex. It was obvious that Torontonians are gripped by the fear of catching it, there are people who avoided sitting beside me, and one person practically bolted when I brought out the tissue and wiped my nose. Ok, I am being mean here making fun of people who are simply protecting themselves...

This morning on CBC radio there was an interesting panel talking to Michael Enright on The Sunday Edition.. and someone made an interesting point -- as bad as the current statistics on SARS is, worse still is the chance that mischevious people who make use of the fear of the disease and cause mayhem. Imagine a guy running inside King station during rush hour, holding a smoke bomb and yelling that he's spreading SARS around (objectively, I think our fictitious terrorist does better if he starts chucking used Kleenex). The aftermath is not unimaginable. In fact while the medical community and the government are desperately trying to calm the fears of SARS, there are yet more people spreading rumours and misinformation around town. Most of us on ICQ has probably gotten messages that are relayed around warning of the "list of infected places".. lo-and-behold.. most Chinese malls and watering holes are metioned. Personally I've gotten 2 such emails and 1 ICQ message regarding this.. All my friends that do go out for dinner go not to Chinese restaurants, instead they head en masse to places like McD or Timmy's..

So I have a cold, and my friends invite me to dinner on Tuesday, to Alice Fazooli's. I wonder how many patrons I get to scare with my sniffles. I think I'll pop 2 Claritin-24s and suffer with the dry nose. :(

While surfing the web thru various stories featured on Slashdot, I found this company that offers a cute little application that not only reminds you to stretch after sitting in front of your master^H^H^H^H^H^Hcomputer for extended periods of time, it also has a list of exercises (with pictures, no less) to show you how. Perhaps I should get one, and do some real stretching instead of cracking my knuckles.

Now I am reading The Testament by John Grisham.. It's fun so far. I hate spoilers so I won't talk about the plot here, but it's exciting so far! Though, I'm eagering waiting for the paperback verson of Prey by Michael Crichton.

Had this wildest thought about mobile phones on the way home from the gym.. most due to my ..er.. disappointment with my Siemens S40.
First.. start by eliminating the screen and the keypad. Assuming I won't be making any calls where a normal talking voice is too loud, I much prefer voice-activating my phone, either by preprogramming the speed-dial, or just dictating the phone number. This way, the phone unit will only need to be as large as the battery and the circuit-board (remember that the circuit board will be smaller too now that the parts responsible for display and the keypad is gone too). Now, put the power and activate buttons onto the headset. So the base unit is as small as possible, almost wearable, and the headset can be embedded into appareals like a baseball cap for headband. Of course now the headset will connect to the base unit with bluetooth or something, unless you want to have that white phonecord coming down the side of your neck as if you are a member of the Secret Service.

Now take this idea waaaaay farther. Hmm. ok. Take the headset, and implant it inside the skull. Imagine a cochlear implant, but replace the external microphone with the input from an external source, like our imaginary mobile phone. From the back of the ear where the implant is, extend a microphone boom one to two inches from there towards the front, underneath the ear lobe. The phone will ring literally inside your head, and so you never have to turn off your cell phone in the theatre. Remember our small, strip down base unit? Make it an armband and wear it around your bicep, or heck.. make that implantable too, and place it behind the spine on your back, perhaps somewhere between your shoulder blades.

Man, I can't wait for the day when I can wet-wire an implantable PDA to my brain so I will just *know* the time, where I am via GPS, and remember my schedule off the top of my head.

So far so good with my experiment with nasal strips and getting better sleep. I still haven't found out if I snore still (apparently I haven't been able to keep anyone awake..) but I do think I sleep better as I wake up a bit more alert and rested. However, it's only been 2 days and it may well have been the placebo effect. I have 8 more strips so I'll find out soon enough :)

Speaking of the placebo effect, looking for a definition on the web netted me an interesting take of it at The Skeptic's Dictionary.. I think I'll go read more of this site later..

Going thru my wallet produced a 5 dollar bill that has this big red stamp on the top right corner. Says:

"Track this bill's journey www.wheresbilly.com"

(for those who are Canadian-history-challenged, the handsome dude featured on the blue Canadian $5 bill is Sir Wilfrid Laurier, Canada's first Francophone Prime Minister.)

so my bill here has been to Niagara-on-the-lake and St. Catherines.. not bad.. :) I think I'll take it to Ottawa when I visit my girlfriend and spend it there.. ok.. maybe I am cheating, but hey. :)

So I finally mustered the courage to buy a block of blue cheese. Rosenborg Mellow Blue.. and it's not bad! Very mild and still a bit hint of blue cheese taste, good for strong-cheese-newbie like me.
Problem is I picked up the wrong flatbread -- with real dried garlic bits -- and so I am garlic Vince today. Sigh...

Happy April Fools!
While I am unimaginative and cannot conjure up any hoaxes to entertain the masses, allow me to share the fruits of other's labour..

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/top100.html is a collection of "Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time"... I haven't been able to read all of them because I am having stomache cramps laughing at the first 10..

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/looflirpa/igrill.shtml.. Thinkgeek's offering of the networked grill.. I actually want one! The original Foreman Grill is surely better than my Hamilton Beach one, which tends to steam my steaks.. :(

http://compsoc.dur.ac.uk/whitespace/ is a new computer programming languages that is based solely on white space! No kidding.

Hmm..