Day out with Kristie & Monopoly WORLD edition.

So kind of a continuation of the previous blog... I went out with Kristie after mouse catching and doing my laundry to eat dinner. She also said she needs gloves for her friend, so to Eaton Centre we go. During this times in Eaton Centre, I wanted to take pictures so many times, but my camera was out of batteries *sad face*. After dinner and getting the gloves, we went to this game shop and I found out that they are selling jig-saw puzzles. I love jig-saw puzzles so much!! They even have pieces over 2000 exactly what I wanted. I was so tempted to buy it until I saw the price. 3000 pieces was $60. 9000 pieces was $180, and 13200 pieces was over $200. We went to Indigo (also known as Chapters) afterwards to look at anything that's not a book (my intension anyways :P).

The front of the box.

At the boards game section, I saw Monopoly World Edition, which I had voted for last year. If you didn't know, during a time last year, you could go online and vote for the cities you want the board to have. You can vote for as many cities as you like, but you can only for that particular city once per day. I voted for Vancouver, Toronto, Taipei, Montreal, Tokyo, Paris. Vancouver because I was living in Vancouver. Toronto and Montreal because they're in Canada. Tokyo and Paris because I like Japan and France and finally, Taipei because Taiwan pride. =]

I actually waited for this game to come out for quite some time now because I knew which cities were on the game and I finally saw it; it was 30% off, too. That didn't really made me want to buy it... until I saw 'batteries required'. I was wondering why it needs batteries, THEN I saw the 'ELECTRONIC BANKING UNIT' sign, and it changes everything. Yes, I saw the small text first before the large text. Sue me =__=

The Board

Yup! So I bought it. There are some cities that I just liked to point out.

First there's Taipei: my hometown!! Though it's only worth 600k nothing compared to other cities, Taipei still made it into the game unlike some other cities which I will not name.

Next city is Montreal. I never been there before, nor is Montreal is a special place for me. It's simply because it's the most expensive place on the board game, and it's in Canada!!!

Then there's Vancouver, where I've lived for the past 9 years or so. It's worth half of Montreal, but still beating a lot of other cities (it's orange~).

Last, there's Toronto. It's the current city that I'm living in. Toronto is not bad at all (except the cold), but like I've said countless times, residence is ruining my experience here in Toronto. I also like to point out that Vancouver is worth more than Toronto. Lalala~ *runs away*

I'm glad that I bought this game even though I already do own a copy of the Nintendo Monopoly. They actually put a lot of effort into making this game; it's not just another randomly thrown together version of Monopoly. First there's the electronic banking unit that I was talking about. Then there's the game pieces, there are around 16~20 game pieces that they made, and 6 of them are randomly selected to put into a game. I didn't the the one that I wanted the most, but I still got some cool ones. =] Last there's the houses and hotels. This is the first monopoly game that I saw that didn't use regular house and hotel. They have different shapes modeled after the cultures in each continent. It truly reflects the cultures today, such. Good investment.

Electronic Banking Unit

All the Game Pieces one could get

Game Pieces

Houses and Hotels.

~Daniel Chou

Boss Battle - Mouse?

Can you see how uneven both sides are?

Yup! That's my setup to make sure that the mouse won't be able to run around in my room. Though far away it looked like saran wraps, but they're tape -- layered tape...?

Kristie taped this side

My side.

Tape to keep it in place

Well anyways, Kristie came over to help me catch the mouse, and after setting that up and blocking the door with towels(should've used tape), we started taking items out of the closet one by one. Laundry, Suitcases, Empty Boxes... but no mouse. We looked for holes in the closet and such, but found none. It just disappeared. We did however found evidence that a mouse must've lived there. This tissue paper was badly bitten by mouse, and there was a mouse poo stuck on there. Basically, in response to the title of the blog, the boss has escaped.

Bite marks all over the tissue paper.

~Daniel Chou

Unexpected day -- another proof that everything never goes the way you wanted

Today's plan was originally to watch Legion with Atsushi and hand in our resume to McDonald. The movie was cancelled because none of the theatre near us are showing Legion, which is a huge disappointment, but what can you do. That's life. Instead, I just hung out at Atsushi's house, hence the previous post. Met his mom, seems pretty nice. Anyways, we went to McDonald that near his house to drop off our resume, and he's like 'Go apply online', and gave us the code and instructions how and such. So basically the movie and the resume both failed.

Not long after that, I got msn-ed at his house, and it was Lisa disguised as Kristie. She asked me if I wanted to go eat at Cafe Crepe for dinner, so I agreed. I got there at 6pm, which is when we're meeting up, but they weren't there, so I just waited. As I was waiting, I heard the waiter talking about a reservation for 20 tonight... When Lisa & Co. came, I told Lisa about reservation for 20, and her reply surprised me 'Oh, I think that's us; we came with the French Club'. Huh? I didn't know anything about this; I thought it was going to be a very awkward dinner since I don't know anyone at all AND I speak no French! Turns out there are more outcasts than expected, and we had fun talking to each other. I tried taking artsy pictures today, but I failed so badly due to the restaurant having bad lighting -- that's why I am not posting them on here. Too ugly.

This next bit of the story is going to be presented in the form of a rant because it's very rant-worthy. The Crepe was good because it's Cafe Crepe, so that was no surprised. While looking at the menu, however, we noticed this really interesting item called 'Italian Soda', and there are around 7~8 different flavours you can mix with each other. At that time, it sounds very tasty, so I ordered a Large size of Strawberry & Lemon Italian Soda($2.60). I was going to imitate Red Robin's freckled lemonade, but it just tastes like cough drops. It has a really weird after taste stuff. It's not just my Italian Soda(IS), everybody's IS has a taste along the lines of medicine... $2.60 for medicine tasting drinks? Total rip off.

The waiters and waitresses are nice, but kind of stupid. When you see 20 college/university people waking into a restaurant, don't you think it's going to be separate bills? Even if you don't know, shouldn't you ask? But NOOOO they're all like 'We're gonna put it all in one bill because we felt like it' and gave my table a bill of $137. Usually when this happens, I'd offer to pay for now, and they can pay me back later, but... I don't know them at all. Our table(the outcasts) were just gonna pitch in our cash and pay, but the hosts of the event decided to do it the slow way. They asked everyone what they ordered and WROTE THEM DOWN, and double check that every item on the receipt was claimed by someone. It's like they don't trust people at all. Some hosts they are, so not trusting at all. And it looks like it's like their first time doing this or something, it took them over an hour to sort out what 20 people have? Real smooth. Go back to high school. =__=.

After finally getting out of the restaurant, Lisa , Kristie and I decided to go eat dessert at Marble Slab -- an ice cream place. By the way, did I mention it was -15 degrees today? Marble Slab was good regardless of how cold it was because we ate it indoors!! I need to take people there next time; pretty good place.

While all this was going on, I was trying to organize a Karaoke Day... and it wasn't working very well. I blame Lisa. =]

Tomorrow, I'm going to have the battle with the mouse... look forward to an update on it! And maybe even more~!!

That's all for today,

~Daniel Chou

Super Mario Bros. Wii & Mouse.

So I said last time that the mouse went into my closet. I know I said that I'm might 'keep it as pet', but it out this morning, so I got annoyed. I taped my closet shut, and now it can't get out.

I have to open it tomorrow when I do laundry... and then I'm going to have a fun battle with the mouse =__=... I don't know what I am going to when I catch it though... If I let it go, it's just gonna come back or something. Arg. WHY MY CLOSET D:

*hates complicated crap*

By the way, I'm currently at Atsushi's house blogging about mice, and mario, which I just played for the first time.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii (on the Wii. DUH) is well, how should I say this.... Fun, and funny. It's fun because the levels are none like I've seen before AND it's multiplayer!!! I get to use TOAD!! It's funny because you get to do a lot of things when you get to play multiplayer; kill each other and stuff. Really fun and worth it. I'm gonna buy it when I finally get out of residence and away from the mouse.

I think I'm gonna name the mouse... Meese.

~Daniel Chou

Quick Update - NEW POKEMON?!?!

So as a daily routine, when I wake up in the morning, I ALWAYS check serebii.net for my daily Pokemon news.

Today, they said the official Pokemon site announced a new Pokemon RPG to be released this year(2010). It might be the fifth generation of pokemon, or it might not. Either way, I'm really excited for it =]. Loves RPG games!!!

~Daniel Chou

Some quick things I forgot to blog about.

The Shiny-glittery cover

1. Pokemon: I asked Atsushi to buy me ten volumes of my favourite manga ポケットモンスター Special(the Japanese version) like... back in November, and I finally got it recently because I keep forgetting to get it when I go to his house, and he keeps forgetting to bring it when he comes to mine. I just like to point out that the Japanese and the Chinese version of the manga(Yes, I own both) has a really big difference. The cover of the Japanese version is a lot smoother and shinier than the Chinese version; it's like of like adding the 'glitter' feel when printing photos. The paper that the Japanese version used is a lot better, too. It's a lot softer, so it feels better when I turn the page. The Chinese version for the paper is not bad, too -- they just went for the 'sturdy' kind. You know... thick...

Since I'm talking about Manga qualities, I'm just gonna bash a little about the English manga, and when I said a little, I meant a lot. English version SUCKS. First of all, unlike the Japanese and the Chinese version, there is no protective covering for the manga. If you don't know what a protective covering is... (I really hope you do), look at the picture below. The paper the English manga uses, it's like recycled paper or something -- so ugly and rough. Don't even get me started on the translations, but good thing it's not dubbing...

The Legendary protective cover.

2. Birthday: Atsushi's birthday was last week, and I gave him a present just recently because stuff happened (blames on the birthday boy, or should I say man since he's legally an adult now). I bought him Katamari Forever on the PS3. If you don't know what Katamari is, you're missing out. It's a really popular series in Japan where the Prince of all cosmos rolls a tiny ball picking up everything it rolled through. From candy to pencils, from cats to humans, from schools to bridges, and even from stars to planets, our little prince rolls them all up! What's the objective you say? You have to roll your ball to a certain size within a time limit, and the King of all cosmos will grade you on your performance. The amount of things, the different kind of things, and such. The little ball that you rolled up will be then turned into 'something' that will let you advance into the story. Pretty addicting if you ask me. Hope you enjoy your present, Atsushi(I know you'll read this someday :P)

Katamari Forever on the PS3

3. Doctor Who: I watched Doctor Who, the animated series(two of the episodes) today, and it was quite interesting. I don't really know how to explain it, and I won't since none of my blog readers actually watch Doctor Who. Still, I want to just talk about it a little. By a little, I really mean a little, so I will end it now.

4. Youtube: I have an idea for my next youtube video, and I will start filming it soon once I finalize my plan. 'Course I'll blog about it when I upload it, so look forward to it!!

5. Music/Video of the day: Today's music of the day is the opening from Tales of Eternia the animation. It's called '空にかける端' (Sora ni kakeru hashi). It's really nothing special; it just brings back a lot of memories of when I watched the anime. The anime is not even that good, too. I still like the song and such though =]!

Video of day is by WongFuProductions, a channel on Youtube. Video's called 'Yellow Fever'. It's not really a video, but like a short film. I know it's pretty long, but it's pretty funny and has pretty good message behind it.

The corner of Treasure/Junk

By the way, this is what's happening to my bed. I am running out of room to sleep on. Haha

That's all I can think of for the moment, that's all. Bye!

~Daniel Chou

Just wondering....

You know... since I'm kind of too lazy to get rid of the mouse in my closet, maybe I can just have it as a pet...

I wonder if I feed it enough it'll star to like me... then maybe I can use it to scare away the annoying people in my residence. It's not like the mouse is causing me a lot of trouble; at least less than the people in my residence.....

Just throwing the idea out there... I should try it someday.

~Daniel Chou

WTF WTF WTF WTF ARG!!! D:

=___= guess what I saw today....

Yup! ANOTHER MOUSE. This is getting really stupid and annoying. I like mice and all, but I don't want to see them every day. This one came from the door, and I can't really tap my door shut because well... I still need to use it... I know it's not from my closet because there's when it tries to escape it went out the door instead of going into my closet.

Does my room smell that nice that mice think that there are food in my room? What do I need to do to make it not smell nice anymore... I'll um.... poo... on the floor... maybe that'll scare them away... Do they eat poo?!?

This mouse is a different one than before. How do I know? Last time when the mouse tried to escape through the door, it got stuck.... The mouse had to squeeze its way out, but this time... the mouse just went right through without any trouble. Though it might be because the mouse went on a diet and all, who knows. Either way, I'm kind of sick and tired of seeing mice in my room. =__=

Update: I saw it came back into my room and into the closet....... I need to clean out my closet and set a trap. I want to set a trap for the mouse, but the trap won't kill the mouse... any suggestions?

~Daniel Chou

Lots of planning!

I've planned a lot of things that I am going to do/accomplish in the next few years. Just thought I share them with you =]

1. iTouch/iPhone application: Atsushi and I are doing this together; it kind of fun to make games, plus we get to make money. We can also put it on resume when I apply jobs in the programming fields.

2. Traveling: Europe! (though just verbally, Cindy and I are going to Europe!) When? No idea. We said we must go to France, England, Italy and Belgium(maybe Germany). To travel across 4~5 different countries, I think we'll need at least one month. We have no idea what we're going to use for transportation and such (that's why I said it was only planned verbally)... I think I'll need to save up 5~6 thousand for this trip, but I'm still excited for it!!

3. PEY: Also known as Personal Experience Year, where the school arrange you to work in your field. You can go out of country for this, and I want to go to Japan. Because I haven't went to their office and ask the questions, yet... I have some unanswered questions. I don't know what I am going to do with housing... I hope they'll arrange that for me, too. Oh the money I'm going to spend in Japan.....

Yup, a lot of money spending plans, so I gotta save up a lot of money!

~Daniel Chou

I guess mouse aren't that shy.

Wow, it's been 2 weeks total, and my encounter with a mouse has already increased to 4. Today I found out why the mouse keep coming to my room even though there are no food. Turns out the hole on my heater is what it uses to go in and out of the building. I video taped it -- you can watch it here

Of course, I had to fix the problem, so I put cardboard over it. But... mouse eat cardboard/paper/tape... a lot of things, so I can't really block the hole permanently. Hope it'll at least last until I get out of my residence.

~Daniel Chou

Music & Video of the day

This song called 葉子(Leaf) by 阿桑(Judy) has got to be one of the most emo songs I've ever heard. Its chorus is

我一個人吃飯　旅行　到處走走停停

也一個人看書　寫信　自己對話談心

The english Translation is...

I eat, travel and walk around all by myself

I also read books, write letters and talk to myself

Yea... that's kind of emo if you ask me. But it's still a pretty good song if you ask me.

Video of the day is Vlogcandy! It's a collaboration youtube channel, and that video explains it all. Click the link to go to the introduction video of their channel; the video will tell you what their whole channel is about. Great Stuff.

Enjoy the emo/happy stuff I recommended! :P

~Daniel Chou

Oh, the reasons why people travel...

People travel for many different reasons -- the wonders, the people, the culture, the history and of course, my favourite, the food.

Yes, if I were to travel, I'd totally do it for the food. I love food so much that I don't care how much I spend on it (as long as it's good food). Here are some places I just have to go...

1. Taiwan -- Most people will think 'aren't you from Taiwan?' Yea, I am... but I've never really been outside of the Taiwan capital, Taipei(where I grew up). I want to travel all across Taiwan eating all the delicious food. I'm not sure if I'm going to do it by train or something... But I will do it!!! Taiwan food is so good. My only worry is the cockroach that I will have to face... D: *shivers*

2. France -- I always liked eating french food, and that's why I will go to France to eat REAL french food!! I think I'll enjoy their living style very much. =]

3. Japan -- I don't think I need to say any reasons why this is in one of the places I want to go.

4. Rest of Europe -- German, Italy, Denmark, England... I'll just spend like 3 months traveling in Europe then I'll be satisfied. I don't really know how I will get to all the places without spending so much money though. Oh well, I'll think of something!

So why do you guys travel?? Comment below! :P

~Daniel Chou

Quick Upate - Person with too much time on his/her hands

So I was surfing youtube... and I found a video about Pokemon Puzzle League, one of my first N64 games. I loved this game so much, but apparently not as much as this guy...

First of all, if you have NO idea what the game is, google it. Or just click the link above... OR you can just youtube search some game play. It's not a hard game to understand.

If you know how to play this game, then just watch the video here, and you'll see how crazy this is.

~Daniel Chou

Music & Video of the day

Music of the day is a song by Atsushi's favourite Chinese singer -- 孫燕姿(Stefanie Sun). The song is called 我不難過(I'm not sad). This song is about person A betraying person B to be with person C(sung in person B's point of view). On surface B is like "No, it's okay. I understand, so just don't say things like 'I'm sorry' or 'at least I loved you before' anymore.", but inside, B is really sad and blaming him/herself for not being with A when A needed the most. What I like about this song so much is that, the lyrics and the emotion put in this song doesn't only work for 'love', but also 'friendship'.

Video for today is a really famous Youtuber HappySlip. She made a video called 'Slip into Bubble Wrap!'. Her videos are so creative and funny, makes people happy. (And I really like bubble wrap). There's really nothing much I need to say about it -- if you just watch the video, you'll understand what I'm talking about =].

~Daniel Chou

Rant - The world?!?!

I spent the whole day reading Objective-C and worked on my assignment for my SLOG course(I hope you[you know who you are] are working on it, too and not just flirting :P)... That's really nothing interesting to talk about, so instead I'm gonna rant about something that happened to me when I went to the cafeteria to buy food. It happened today, by the way. (That's how the blog started, then I started ranting about everything else...)

Before I start talking about what happened to me in the cafeteria, I want to generalize and say how I really * 100 hate people with no manners. I'm not talking about farting in public or swearing. I'm not even talking about how 'guys' have to open the doors for 'the ladies' or how 'guys' are not suppose to hit 'girls' because it's not gentlemen like. Though I do have something to say about the expectations people have on how guys treat girls, which I will do after I rant about manners. Back on topic... What I am talking about is more like discipline.

You know how people don't say sorry when they bump into you, or don't say thank you when they're being helped? That's what I am talking about!! This is also why I despise all 'gangster' wannabes. They try to be 'cool' by 'throwing away' their manners, thinking that's the definition of 'cool'. Just wait like ten years, and they'll know what's 'cool' and what's not 'cool', when they're on the streets begging for money because they failed to get any jobs. I hope they all die. And no, I don't think that's mean. My policy is if you don't want me to be mean to you, then don't be mean to me -- I can also tell you that when I want to be mean and sneaky, I really CAN be mean and sneaky. I don't really mind friends doing that because I know they're just doing it as a joke. A lot of people mix up stupidity with lack of manners. Lack of manner is people who doesn't 'give a shit' about the world except themselves. Yes, that's like selfishness; they kind of tie together. Stupidity is more like being ignorant about the world. In a simpler term, it's just lack of common sense.

So I went to the cafeteria and bought today's special -- pasta & garlic bread. There are two kind of boxes when you want it to go. A small one(like the picture) or a big one. I asked for pasta(which by default, should fill up to 3cm below the line in the box), so using the small box will be correct. But that's if I ONLY asked for pasta. I clearly said 'Pasta and TWO garlic bread', but he still chose the small box. He fills the pasta & sauce to 3cm below the line, and then just ADDS THE GARLIC BREAD ON TOP. You know, there's a reason why people ask for TO GO; They want to take it TO GO. They still want to CLOSE THE BOX after the foods in it, so they can take it TO GO as in like OUTSIDE IN THE COLD. Apparently he doesn't think the same way. He just put my two garlic bread on top, overfilling my box. A little common sense here? That's not the only complaint I have about him. He's working there, and I'm a costumer, but I don't feel any costumer service at all. He face is all grumpy and squished together like a meat bun. It's their responsibility to smile to the costumer and be happy. They're the one choosing to work there. I don't care if broke up with your girlfriend or if your broke your leg or even that your mom just died. When you're working, you can't put any personal emotion in there -- even when you're sad, you still have to put up a fake smile. I don't care.

I had to do it when I worked in McDonald. There are times when I was the only one taking orders when there are like 50 costumers. I was swearing inside(what did I do to deserve this, etc), but I still kept my smile when talking to costumers because it's my job to smile, and the costumers didn't do anything wrong. There are many more incident when I had to fake my smile(feeling sick, etc etc), but you know, my point is that I SMILE AT COSTUMERS UNLIKE SOMEONE.

Yea, that guy is like lack of manners and full of stupidity combined. In other words, hopeless.

On to next little rant I want to do, which I mentioned above -- 'the expectations people have on how guys treat girls'. I believe in equality, which means that all the expectations DO NOT EXIST for me. I hit girls if I want to, at the same time, they can hit me back (They have to make me really mad to make me hit them though). I don't want to be 'expected' to hold doors open for girls or 'pull chairs' for girls. I can do it if I want to, but it's not an expectation. I am not REQUIRED to do anything for girls at all. I do it if I want to. There are so many things that guys are not allow to do to girls, but it's okay for girls to do to guys? What kind of fucking logic is that?

And if there are girls who are not happy about it, then let me ask you this. You girls say 'the man overpowers the females, it's not fair', but at the same time you expect the males to hold doors and pull up chairs for you? Are you so weak that you can't even do it yourself? Are you so stupid that you can't even open a door yourself? But at the same time you want more power? So let me get this straight -- you want power, but you're too weak to do anything. Kind of ironic don't you think? And don't give me any reason that has to do with equality. If you really support equality then you wouldn't be asking the guys to do all the bullshits for you.

The world is so messed up. There are connotated(is that a word?) images for everything; The men HAVE to be muscular and buff while the women HAVE to be pretty and white. It's because those images are imprinted into our heads that we can't get away from it. We can't break away from the curse of the society -- a never ending curse. Here's another ironic thing, how can anyone 'stand out' and be 'unique' when the images of the society is set in stone? Sure, you can THINK differently, but that's all in your head. How can you be unique and different physically? Look at all the celebrities. They're all the same physically -- all wearing make-up, flashy clothing, etc. And that's the 'images' of the society. If someone tries not break away from that -- people classify them as 'ugly'.

So is that how the society works now? If you're different, or doesn't fit into the society's image, then you're 'ugly', and get isolated? Some kind of equality this is.

(I just read my blog, and wow, this is so deep and dark. Not like me at all.

Umm.....

Yea..............

HAPPY MUSIC!!!!

Enjoy your day! :P)

~Daniel Chou

Best movie of 2009!!! Music & Video of the day

I suddenly thought of all the movies that I watched this summer(and I watched at least 5). Anyways, there's one movie that I thought is really good. From acting to plot, from costumes to settings, there is nothing wrong with the movie. That movie is 'Julie & Julia'. I usually don't like documentaries, but this one is so different. As the title suggested, it's the lives of Julie and Julia. The movie is about how Julia Child discovers the art of French Cooking, and Julie's attempt in French Cooking.

In more details about the movie, Julia wrote a cookbook called 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking', and Julie is going to attempt to cook everything in that book in a 365 days, while blogging about her daily process. Because the movie needs to cover the lives of two people, they can only pick out the important part, and they did that perfectly. The scene transitions from one life to another is flawless. Everything about this movie is perfect(doesn't really want to spoil a lot), except the ending. It ended kind of abruptly; there is one thing that the movie didn't explain well. BUT I am not going to say what because you all need to watch the movie if you haven't. If you did, you'll know what I am talking about!! It's seriously the best movie I've watched all year, topping the animation film Up!, Transformers, and even G.I. Joe. Just look at the awards that they won -- well Meryl Streep won. She's an amazing actress.

I noticed that when I say this song is good... ALL I am saying that it is a good song -- that's it. I never really talked about why it's good, or the lyrics behind this song... or any reason why the song is good. So starting today, I'll talk about the meaning behind the lyrics, basically analyzing it in a... non-boring way. (Or other reasons why I like it)

Today's music is by a singer 陶喆(David Tao). The song is from his first album ever, which is like 3~4 years ago called '愛很簡單'(Love is easy). The song is about how love is easy(like the title suggested). You don't really know how it started, but it just happens, and you're willing to do anything for your other half... you know those typical love song lyrics. Sure, the lyrics is nothing special, but together with the melody, it's a new feeling. The lyrics talks about how 'easy' it is to fall in love, so the melody for this song is also very simple -- a little bit of everything. Just the right amount of Piano, Percussion, Guitar.

Video for today is by a Youtuber named TheWineKone -- it's a parody video of the hit videos on youtube at that time. That video was about... a year ago. Basically you need to watch a lot of random youtube videos to get the parody, but if you don't know what he's doing the parody of, there are the links to the original video in his description. Video is called 'Viral Video Failure'. Check it out.

~Daniel Chou

Quick Update - Third encounter with a mouse.

Woah, three encounters with mice in just a week... This residence is getting worse and worse.

It happened around 10 minutes ago, a saw a flash of shadow(oxymoron?!) going towards behind my desk -- bad move from the mouse. I can now see exactly where it is going, so I watched it very carefully hoping that the mouse will run back to its hole... so that I know where the hole is(if any).

So like last time, when the mouse noticed that I'm watching it, it ran towards the direction of my door/closet. First it ran towards the closet, and I thought... oh crap there really is a mouse living in my closet, but 5 seconds after that... I saw it came out of the closet and ran out the door.

I can now safely say that the mouse hole is not in my room!! because if it were in my room/closet, the mouse wouldn't have came out. =]

~Daniel Chou

Objective-C, more Rats & Music, Video of the day

I spent most of my day today reading about Objective-C -- a computer language. This book is actually not bad... gives a lot of useful information 'efficiently'. Yes, the key word is efficiently. Most textbook has a lot of good information in there, but they top it of with endless examples and bullshits -- while some textbook... are just plain useless.

So as I was reading the book, I heard a scream coming from the hall way. Turns out, there is a mouse in her room. Apparently, the mouse hole is also in her room. Maybe the mouse that was in my room was from there? Gonna hope it is.

Today's music is 五月天's DNA. 五月天 is a band in Taiwan, also known as MayDay. DNA is their newest single which came out a few months ago.

Video today is a trailer to a documentary that 4 youtubers are working on. They are davidchoimusic, HappySlip, Daxflame, and TayZonday. Just read the description of the video for more details!

~Daniel Chou

Quick Update - Some game info.

There are three games I want to quickly talk about.

1. Edgeworth Game -- totally forgot the real name, but the NA release is February 16, 2010. CAPCOM is hosting a contest. I just thought if anyone is interested, they can join the contest.

2. Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver is coming out on March 13, 2010 -- the NA release. The JP release was a long time ago... If you pre-order a copy of either HeartGold or SoulSilver, you will get either a Ho-oh or Lugia figurine depending on which version you pre-ordered(at EB Games/GameStop). You can get both of course!

3. Nintendo said they have been working on the newest Zelda game for 5 years, and some of the game's information has been leaked. They're trying a lot of new things for the game; I hope it's a good change.

~Daniel Chou

Atsushi's Birthday

This was suppose to be posted yesterday, but I fell asleep writing this blog...

A few entries ago, I said the plan was a failure, but in reality... it was just moved to today.

Crystal texted or phoned(I don't know which one) Atsushi one day before asking him to come and fix her computer, though nothing was actually wrong. Atsushi... being him, didn't really think twice and agreed to go after his math class (1pm).

On this actual day(today), Atsushi finally tells me that he needs to go to Crystal's at 1pm... I've been waiting for him to bring that yup since yesterday.

Well anyways, after he told me... I just make up a reason for me to go with him -- took care of that easily! =] Something unexpected happened though, Atsushi suddenly decided not to go to math... which meant that he's going at 12. Crystal get off class at 11, so basically she has one hour to buy cake and get everything ready. Of course, Crystal, at that time, doesn't know anything about this, so I quickly text her... and this time, I made sure I text the right person this time!! Crystal told me to stall for time...

After class, I tried to stall for time by saying that I want food first(he also wants food, too). We went to my favourite restaurant -- McDonalds. I got a text from Crystal saying that we'll go at 1:30pm, so just eating McDonald wasn't enough... So we went back to my residence because I said I need to get something. Finally we head to Crystal's.

The Cake looks good and taste pretty good(a lot better than Pickle Barrel's dessert). While eating cake and stuff, we watched 'Summer Wars', but Atsushi fell asleep. He said it's because he slept at 4:30am, but so did I! I woke up before him, too!!

Atsushi and I had class not long after this, so we left for class... And you know math class is boring... so a picture like this happened. It started with a smily face, but Atsushi just had to add glasses to everything =___=. Anyways that's the picture... lol

~Daniel Chou

Video & Music of the day

Today's music is the ending song to the movie 'Summer Wars'. The song is called '僕らの夏の夢' (Bokura no Natsu no Yume). English translation is 'My summer's dream' -- very suitable for Summer Wars. I just watched Summer Wars for the fifth time today, still enjoy it very much!!

Video of the day is a video by gunnarolla -- a youtuber. It's titled 'what colour is slacktivist's bra?' It made me laughed pretty hard, but also made some really good points. His videos are pretty nice, you should check it out!

Go watch/listen!

~Daniel Chou

Quick Update - Rats...!?!??!?!!??!?!??!

Um... yea, this morning... right before I was about to head to class... I saw a live rat/mouse. I tried catching it, but it ran away. I think it's in my closet, so I'll go find it when I get back.

Wish me luck??

~Daniel Chou

Quick Update - 花札(Hanafuda)

Ever since watching 'Summer Wars' during winter break, I always wanted to play the card game Hanafuda. In the movie 'Summer Wars', Hanafuda is the card game which Sakae, the awesome grandma, teaches/trains all her children/grandchildren. It then played a big part in the storyline. Both Cindy and Atsushi don't know how to play the game, so I don't really know who else to as. Looking at the wiki page is too confusing... If you know how to play Hanafuda, teach me!

During the great Hanafuda battle, this soundtrack called '一億五千万奇跡'(150 Million Miracles) was played, ad I find it so effective. I get the goosebumps every time I hear this track. I can't find the link to an online player, nor can I upload it, so if you want to listen to it, I'll send it to you.

Go watch 'Summer Wars!!!' ----> here's the trailers ... sorry I can't find ones with english subs.

EDIT: I found a flash game for it. Here's the link

~Daniel Chou

Surprises never work -- never go the way you planned.

(A variation of the title for Atsushi: 'Surprises will never work unless things go the way you planned ')

This 'plan' of surprise is kind of a failure...

It's Atsushi's birthday, and so Crystal and I thought we give him a surprise cake & present. You know, something small -- It's scheduled on Thursday January 21, 2010. Because Atsushi and I have our 'weekly study session' every Thursday from 5~8pm after our lab(though I'm pretty sure he doesn't remember). Crystal was going to come during 5~8 with a cake to my residence to surprise him then we tickle him to death -- you know, really simple things like this. =]

Today, Atsushi was at my place trying to work on this assignment that was due tonight at 10pm, and Crystal msn-ed me. She said 'is atsushi really going to stay on campus till 8? wouldn't his family want him back?' and... well... I quickly closed the chatbox, but it was too late. Atsushi saw it and asked what that was all about, but I didn't really answer him. I then quickly text Crystal in case she spills more info... but this is where more embarrassing moments happened. I texted 'Come earlier then! He's beside me by the way!' to Crystal.

Suddenly, Atsushi's cellphone buzzed. Yup, I failed texting to Crystal. Instead, I texted Atsushi. I really don't know how'd that happened, but it did -- kind of embarrassing, too... I'm sure he remembers his birthday, so after seeing all that... it's not hard to tell what was going on. I had to quickly said that Crystal was planning to come later and doing what I do best -- making excuses(I only do that for situations like this).

If I were in his shoes, I'd probably figured all this out... but it's Atsushi... so... probably not, or rather, I hope not. Either way, I'm blogging about it now, so he will know if he reads about this, but it's not like it matters anymore. This plan is kind of ruined, so we're not doing this anymore.

Operation Surprise Cake = Harsh Fail.

~Daniel Chou

Quick Update - Video & Music of the day.

I youtube(yes, it's totally a verb) every day, so I thought I'd post a video that I think is really awesome/artistic/meaningful every day! Since I'm doing a video of the day, I might as well do a 'music of the day', too.

Starting today.

Today's video of the day is from a Youtube Channel 'WongFuProductions'.

Today's music of the day is from an artist Sam Harts, who sang the 'Mario Kart Love Song'.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. =]

~Daniel Chou

Rant - world's weirdest 'Logic & Reasoning'

Today in CSC165(the course where I am required to keep a SLOG), the professor talked about some logic and reasoning.

He gave us an example where if both statements are False, the implication will be True(if the format is 'If P, then Q'). An example of 'If P, then Q' can be 'If you don't want to die, then run for your life'.

So basically, he is saying that if P is False and Q is False, then the whole implication is True. His example was 'If I am 7ft tall, then it's -30 outside'. His reason for this being True is because you can never find a counterexample to prove this False. He then gave us a lot more weird examples using math or computer terms (it's a math&computer course after all), and they all made no sense. Most of us are going 'wtf is he talking about??'.

I understand his 'logic and reasoning', but I just don't agree with it. Like the example with 7ft and -30, it's true that you can't find a counterexample, but my argument is that you can't find an example to prove this True. There are things in the world that just has no answer to, and it just seems to me that he's forcing that answer out.

Maybe it's just that my Logic and Reasoning is not that well-developed, that's why I couldn't agree with his, but I don't really think so. My logic and reasoning is beyond most people, the only thing I am missing is more experience -- I can't add something I don't have into my logic and reasoning... Right now, I just hope that I'll be able to take in his Logic and Reasoning soon...=___=.

~Daniel Chou

This is why you (don't) get sick.

Like I've said yesterday, Atsushi's sick, and he didn't get any steak. To make up for that, Crystal and I decided to be nice and go visit him (not a surprise visit though)! He said to phone him at 12, so I did. And I woke him up. Then I phoned Crystal to finalized the plan, and I woke HER up.

In the end, nobody was ready because they were all sleeping still. I walked to Atsushi's house to pick him up... you know in case he suddenly faints or get really ill again. Then we went to Crystal's place and pick her up(takes her longer to get ready because you know... girls). Destination, Chinatown -- for Congee.

Congee = good for sick people.

Anyways, Congee was pretty good, but there's ginger in there. Picking them out was hard work.

After food, we went to the supermarket to get the sick person some fruits because he said he has none at home. Suck fail. Then we walked him home again for the same reason. On the way back to my residence, Crystal and I passed by a crowd -- either a parade or a protest, not quite sure. They were all holding Eastern Asia flags(I think Iraq and this other country) and playing some Eastern Asian music. Not quite sure what that was all about though. I had to spend the rest of the day in my residence doing homework, and that sucked a lot.

~Daniel Chou

Quick Update - SLOG

For one of my course (CSC165), I am required to keep a SLOG. According to my professor, Danny, it stands for Course Log(CLOG! Joking). It's basically a blog about anything that has to do with the course. It's 8% of my grade.

Either way, it doesn't affect any of you, but here's the SLOG if you want to check it out.

~Daniel Chou

Mansion of KEGs. & Rant - Pickle Barrel

As planned, I went early (at 6:20) when we're meeting at 7pm because we have 11 people. And it's the KEG, always a big line up. I thought usually it would be around 1 hour wait, so would be get our table by 7:20 at the latest... Oh man, was I wrong... They said "It'll be 2.5 hours to 3 hours wait." 6:20 + 3:00 = 9:20. That means We won't be able to eat until 9:20!! It was horrible. Still, we decide to wait...

We just camped in their lobby and started playing Taboo for an hour or so. ANGEL! SAM-AM-I! TOWER OF PISA! etc. We were pretty loud; therefore, we got some stares here and there. An hour passed, and some of us decided to stray. Seriously though, that place is like in the middle of nowhere plus KEG Mansion. We had to walk ten minutes to find a Starbucks -- a place to sit, and get away from the cold. I ordered a Banana Loaf and my all time favourite drink (Black Tea Lemonade), came to around $6.50. We just sat there and chatted until they kicked us out. Because they're closing, not because we're too loud. Not long after that, the people who stayed behind phoned us and told us that we got a table. Kevin G RAN back to the restaurant while the rest of us just strolled. Fun times. =]

At the diner table, this waiter came and said something, but he was pretty far from me, so I didn't hear everything... I got part of it and they were "Because....over 10 people... 15%... don't be surprised...". In my head, I was thinking "Because there are over 10 people at a table, there will be a 15% discount, so don't be surprised." Yup, I finished the sentence for him, but in fact, he was saying "Because there are over 10 people at this table, you will be automatically charged 15% tip, so don't be surprised." It was a total let down. D:

We ordered, and the food came. Oh man, they were good. We ate, talked. I spent $41. It was worth it, I LOVE the KEG, and this time it was KEG MANSION!! =]

That totally says Mansion and not Ansion.

For dessert, we decided to go to Pickle Barrel. I got some complaints for that restaurant. They seated us pretty fast -- the first time. Yea, this waiter tried to get us seated, but the table wasn't clean, so he said to 'wait there'. He pointed to this corner in the restaurant, so we did. We stood there for 10 minutes, watching other people get seated, waiters/waitresses passing us, customers eating. Yea, we were totally ignored. Does cleaning a table take 10 minutes? Lisa was thinking, so she went back to the front desk and got us a table. Go Lisa! XD

We ordered dessert & drink. They looked really nice to eat, but that's only looks. 6 desserts for $10.99... If they were to make a profit out of that, they'll need to cut down on the ingredients, and I can totally taste the that. All their dessert was too sweet(happens when you use cheap ingredients), especially mine. I had the chocolate slam -- Rocky Mountain because none of the girls want something that chocolaty. It was a layer of brownies on the bottom. On top of that was chocolate mousse, with marshmallows on the mousse. Then it was drizzled with chocolate syrup... yea. Way too sweet. I also had a Strawberry Shake -- it was pretty bad, too. It just taste like milk, no strawberry. I thought I ordered a STRAWBERRY shake... To make everything worse, I don't think they washed the cups properly. The handle of my cup was sticky, same with other people's. Kind of disgusting if you ask me... I got some good pictures out of it, so I guess it's okay. No thanks to them though! I spent $7.00 at this place.

Our dessert and drinks.

Artsy Picture. I tried.

Artsy Picture. I tried.

Overall, today was a good day minus the fact that Atsushi couldn't come. D:

6.50 + 41 + 7 ... I spent $54.5 on food today. Fun.

Check out the rest of the album on my facebook!!

Good night! =]

~Daniel Chou

Quick Update - Surprises?!

*feels bad*

Atsushi can't go to the dinner gathering today because he has a fever this morning. I kind of feel guilty because he wanted to go Friday(yesterday) instead of tonight, but I refused. He would've gotten his steak if it we went yesterday.... He doesn't get any steak in the end, and he was so excited for it, too... *sad face*

I guess I'll do something to cheer him up later.

Hope he'll be good by tomorrow!!

~Daniel Chou

Twiggy Co. - a small twig slowly growing into a big tree. (not possible biology-wise, but whatever)

My friend, Atsushi and I decided that we're going to make iTouch/iPhone games, but we are in need of a few more teammates with 'special abilities'(not really) for our so called 'Company' is named Twiggy - Twiggy Corporation. The name, by the way, is totally not derived from Turtwig.

1. We need a graphic person/artist. Both of us fails at drawing; stickmen's probably all we can do. That said, CG-ing is most definitely out of the question for the both of us, so we really need an artists who is experienced with computer graphics.

2. We also need a musician who knows how to create music on the computer(damn, I should've taken music tech in high school >_<''). Anyhow, because both of us also lack the ability to create decent music with computer programs, we'll be needing help. If you have some music background and knows a thing about creating music on the computer or two. You're the one!!

So please, if you're an artist or a musician who is interested in this. Feel free to contact me, and we'll discuss everything in detail. (what to do, your share in the profit, etc)

Thanks!

~Daniel Chou

Rant - Interlag & residence. (reader discretion is advised)

I hate my residence's internet so much no words could describe my hatred. If it's not one thing it's another.

All internet lag, fine, I understand that. Actually, let me rephrase it. All WIRELESS internet lags sometimes. But you know what? I am using a freaking ETHERNET CORD - CONNECTING MY COMPUTER TO THE INTERNET DIRECTLY WITH WIRES!!! If they're going to force us to use ethernet cords that NOBODY uses anymore, which, by the way, wasn't provided for us, THEN THEY BETTER MAKE THE CONNECTION GOOD. I mean, who uses ethernet cords anymore? Those are only used for modems, and that's it. You know how a laptop loses their "portable" function if it's wired like this? It's like a leashed dog, or a bondaged person. If they're going to NOT allow my own wireless connection, restricting us to ONLY the ethernet cord, then it's their fucking responsibility to make sure the connection is stable. Fuck you residence.

I wouldn't be this angry if it's just lags all the time, but you know what, sometimes it just disconnects. Yup, just sudden POOSH, no more internet. If it's just once a month, fine. Whatever. I understand internet might go wrong sometimes, but this is ridiculous. The disconnecting rate is like once a week. What if I have an important homework I need to submit? What if I am talking to someone about something very important? and POOSH! Internet's gone! Are they going to pay for the fucking damage? No! because you know what? Their residence contract states...

"University College and the University of Toronto cannot guarantee that the Resident’s system will be able to access the Network. It is the Resident’s responsibility to acquire the appropriate hardware and software for this. University College and the University of Toronto are not responsible for damages and/or losses to the Resident’s equipment and data. There may be planned or unplanned Ethernet outages. Planned outages will be advertised in advance. "

Wow, what the fuck is all this crap? So even if they ruined my life, they're not going to pay or anything? They're not going to take responsibility for it? Really, fuck you residence.

Since I'm complaining so much about residence already, let me quickly remind you of all the other things I hate about this place. Food, Noise, Washroom. My conclusion? Here it is.

REALLY? I PAID FUCKING TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS ON RESIDENCE TO GO THROUGH THIS? REALLY? I rather live in a hotel for a YEAR. It's probably cheaper than this, and I get my own washroom. I won't have fucking noisy people running around screaming, booming their music at THREE IN THE MORNING. Oh, and you know what? The quiet hours for MY FUCKING COLLEGE IS TWO IN THE MORNING. Yea, SERIOUSLY? Is that an act to promote GOOD STUDENT BEHAVIOUR? I THINK NOT. That's basically inviting them to party every night. What about the people(like me), who doesn't want to be annoying by those fucking retards. FUCK.

Please excuse my language and have a nice day =]

~Daniel Chou