Happy New Year

... Everyone! It's the year 2005. *quickly quiets down from leaps of joy and excitement * Damn! Assignments!

But, nevertheless, I've got a dinner date! *leaps cheerfully then sad feelings rushed in* but did not intend to have it today. *sniggers!* I am, really, sometimes a fool for love and affection.

Perhaps I haven't got enough of such (as pimps do) to turn down dates.
However!... I still have to have dinner anyway! *jumping away from you happily! Laughters are still audible!*



May the souls of the Asian tragedy find peace and joy with God.

Stuck with work

...been working on assignments and reading like I have never before. I'm not too sure if my short-term memory will serve me well in my pursuit of a law cert.

May not write until the second week on January. Happy New Year 2005 and God bless!

later.

How can one turn around and laugh at the largest Asian tragedy and say how fortunate that his/her country is not affected? The earthquake alone has taken more than 20,000 lives and left millions of people homeless from eight countries surrounding the Indian ocean. A newly constructed airport in Male is submerged in waters rendering it useless for a period. Water-borne diseases spreading and killing people; no clean water to drink and this alone is a threat to human's health.

How inhumane are you to even afford a laugh at it. True, there's nothing you and I can do about it in terms of charitable resources when we're still students. It could very well be a very carefree temporal transient emotion as it has nothing to do with you, but think again, it has to do with every aspect of humanity. There are lots of people dying everyday, some of which I have never heard about and some of which news channels bombard our minds 24/7. Nobody laughs at tragedies whether or not it involves you.

Don't even memtion about the tragedy if you're in the middle of having fun/partying or in the middle of climax. Not that I care much about what's going on with other people's lives but perhaps we go back to the aged moral story that one should not laugh at the other who tripped and fell on shit. It could have been you swimming in a puddle of shits some days later.

Just moments ago, I was reflecting on the quake with a magnitude of 9.0 on the Ritcher's scale, supposedly to be the greatest quake since the 60's. The effect of this is so great primarily because the quake came from under the sea, where the tetonic plates shifted simultaneously. This caused waves to speed up to 500 km/h from the epicentre. It's like one throwing a stone into water producing ripple effects only it's from under. Mind you, the ripples are moving faster per second than you can imagine. These ripples brought about tsunamis as 'it' climbs up regional coasts forming a wall from 6m - 100m high (depending on the strength and speed of the tetonic movements). As a result, 6-9 countries (not including inhibited islands in the Indian ocean) were swept away and submerged in sea water.

What if, really, we could not stop a speeding meteor/meteorite from breaching earth's atmosphere? The impact on any ocean would be 100x worst than the tragic consequences the recent quake in Sumatra, Indonesia. The 'Ripple Effect' and eventually builds up enormous tsumanis could submerge continents in waters indefinitely as 'The Lost City of Atlantis' (could this be a myth?). There has been myths and rumors around saying that there is one asteroid big enough to annihilate the entire civilisation on earth. The worse part of this rumor is that the said asteroid's trajectory is heading to earth. Truth or myth? We can only wait and see if such disaster would unfold itself. May all sinners repent and asked for forgiveness, and God be with us then.

What if, again really, all the tetonic plates shifted simultaneously? All continents of this planet sits on a huge tetonic plate bordering one another.

The isolated antartica is extremely important and it does affect our lives in many ways. I have to admit there's not much I know about the place besides the wonderful creatures that live there, and snows and ice. The place is very sensitive to climate change and when some parts of antartica melts away, certain creatures will lose its feeding ground, affecting marine food chains, thereby affecting humans. Of course, it will take a long time before humans are directly affected.

昨晚上和郑欣吃了意大利面。 她的圣诞节过的满开心难忘的。我的呢。。。比不上。这几天什么都不想干可能在庆祝圣诞节。 从今起我必要努力写我的作文了。要不然的话就死定！

From around December 22-26, 2004, the undoubtedly most popular search engine today -- Google -- make known to public that they are celebrating the festive season Christmas with the rest of the world despite the fact that they are sitting on the search engines throne.

Usually at the main page where you'd arrive at any Google websites, you'd commonly see the colorful letters of Google (full primary and a quarter of secondary colors).

This time, illustration #1 shows that it's winter (December 22 is the shortest day, and the Winter solstice begins). Polar bears (with its kid [family!!]; symbolically they represents the staffs of Google Inc.) went out to play.

Illustration #2: Made snowballs, built a fortress, and moulded some colorful ice cream from the colorful letters of Google. Hmm, i didn't know those are sugar-coated edible letters akin to a candy house. It's like one saying, "You do everything in Google.com, man! That's the best there is!". and the other in respond, "Sweet! Totally cool!"

Illustrn #3: Polar bears serves all their delicious colorful servings. All are happy.

Google is sending a message here. Even on Halloween if you remember, they have a different logo in conjunction with the festive season. Google has been and will always be with us. Maybe it's expressing many thanks to us all for our undying support?

There's a Google Scholar in beta test version but it's fully functional. You should use it if you're a student looking for articles, journals, published sources for your research(-es).

Cheers to Google! 

Earthquake hit South East Asia

Thank God everyone back in M'sia is okay. Heard from cousin Huiwan who's in Singapore that Klang, Shah Alam, or the Klang Valley was not affected, but somehow felt the aftermath tremors. Perhaps Malaysia is really blessed in a way that Sumatra is shielding the Peninsula from extreme monsun rains that bring floods, and lately tidal waves that reached Penang. It is unfortunated for those who live on the west coasts of sumatra especially the province of Aceh.

Go to BBC.co.uk for the coverage. I think it's quite good. Try http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4126971.stm or for more detailed analysis try to go to http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2004/usslav/

When I read the facts of tidal waves, it's mind boggling to know tidal waves can travel up to 500 km/h from the epicentre and build up a wall from 6m to >100m high. What IF (hypothetically) all the tectonic plates decided to collide at the same time?

I'm already terrified.

It's snowing!!!!!

can't believe it!!! it is happening!!! woohoooo!!

Holy Communion Christmas

On Christmas Eve there wasn't much to do. I was researching and writing my papers on the most part. Watch a little TV (in my room) mostly "The Weakest Link" gameshow but was tempted to watch The Simpsons as Homer was/still is my hero.

Was text-messaging Vivian (黄斐) back and forth and she came to my flat at 6-ish pm. She just got off work and was about to head home to Beckett's Park, where she lives. So, I had convinced her to go to church with me this evening for a late night service at the South Parade Church.

今晚上她穿的粉红色衣服完美的而又提了Prada的手提包。真的好漂亮我看了脸都红起来了。也许我没有那么多的信心尤其和美女一块儿。有一段时间我连话都说不出来和她在一起的时候。这可不是丢脸啦。。。 丢什么脸啦？害怕而已。嘻嘻！
咱们就吃了饭然后聊一聊儿开玩笑后来就看一小时的电影儿(2046)。
十一点差一科咱们四个人就开始走去教堂那。
一边走一边不停的开玩笑儿。 另外俩就走得那么快。我就算了吧不里他们。
拉了她的手过马路说她好话儿，哎~就喜欢看她开心的样子。玩儿的蛮高兴的我。

It was a Holy Communion service. I prayed hard. It's been a long time since I partook in a communion and somehow I know I had to do this this time, and so I did.
我拔了一小块的面包在我手指上。她就从我手抢了一小块想吃。。。贪玩儿。 哎呀~这个时间 (Holy Communion）费要认真补课呀！我就好好地告诉她 "wait for your turn".
。。。（下次再说罗索点儿）

送她回家然后作了一会儿。 要走了就给他抱一下。差一点吻到她。

Merrily Merrily

... Merrious Christmas to all of you, whether you frequently visit here or just a passer-by in search for pornographies or its related words*.

I have an impression that the rest of the world (as much as I dislike generalization this time I have to) wishes everybody "Merry Christmas" but over here in the U.K. it's "Happy Christmas". Not that there's something wrong but it's just a unique way of wishing one another when you come from the "Merry Christmas" norm.

I received a very nice brown-beige woolen scarf from friends yesterday. So sweet of them. It's about 1m in length. 'Michelle ZJ' took the opportunity to put it round me and commented "No one does better than me, there look, you look much better!" I grinned and bored it; that's the way we tease each other some times.

Weather forecast said we will most likely have a white Christmas this year. It's nothing unusual to me but then again it is because UK doesn't snow and to have white Christmas is a big deal to the city. I bet it will even hit the headlines if it did snow. Expected temperature when weekend comes will be no lower than minus 4. (I'm laughing at that figure while thinking of adding 'zero' after the 4; that's how I like it to be)

Oh, I remembered something from 2 or 3 days ago. Went over to Vivian HF at 2:00AM to be with her till 6:30AM just chatting... probably cuddling each other, joking and watch a couple of VCDs of her holidays and a movie. I walked back then. It was dark and winds were very strong (~<45 km/h; somehow my body has turned into an integrated thermometer, barometer, wind-meter, etc.). I thought I saw a ghost. I stumbled upon an old man with white hair wrinkled face and draped in light brown trench coat although the sodium lights from street lamps could have distorted my ability to tell colors correctly. I walked passed him and a few seconds later i turned my head to look back... nobody was there. Freakly. I had to stop thinking about that for a while as I don't wanna frighten myself because I know 5 minutes ahead of me I have to walk across a cemetary. When I arrived the perimeter of the cemetary, the clock struck quarter to seven and the bells went off. If only I could stop imagining that dead spirits raise up from their graves hovering in and around the area when the clock's bells struck, I wouldn't have cold sweated. As I scurrily walk pass through it not wanting to look at the graves, I look into windows of every houses. Then I realized something and look away. It was my imagination again -- I was afraid that something might just appeared as reflection in the windows, something I don't want to see or know.

I told myself not to walk home again alone in the dark especially at dawn when everyone else's asleep. Nothing happened to me. I was just terrified by my imaginations. Who wouldn't? If you were me, I'm sure you can't help thinking of these things too after taking into account of the disappearance of the old man.

A note to the "Lack of Respect" posting, I was told that I have done too much 'reading in between lines' that I should just take the message as it is. Warned, as well, that I might lose a friend because of money matters. Issues related to money can and have caused a lot of havocs not only in my life but lives of others and i'm not surprised. Although $15.55 is not a lot of money (besides, it can only buy a person 3-5 1 foot long Subway sandwiches), still the way mutual friends asked of each other is not suppose to be this way. The email was entitled "MONEY" with block letters. Then the content is what you see. Again, I can say that this is not the issue here. MT went back on her words. There wasn't much considerations when she sent that email.

It's not that I can't pay her back, I can't pay her back without feeling shamefully obliged as though I have done something wrong against her. This is not the way it is suppose to be. True, everything in this world is not suppose to be the way it is suppose to be... and it sucks if it not. So, this sucks a lot. She sucks a lot. Me too, as a result of another.

"Gimme extra if you want!" Okay! If giving extra makes a person happy (as theorized by economists), then of course, she'll be happy to receive 20$ in May for the wait and interest rate and convenience of a round figured bill.

I'm tired of this. MT hereby can expect the sum of 20$ in May. This is between me and MT, nobody should intervene.

* Statistics have shown that Wednesday I have received >55 hits purely based on a search for words like "vagina photos" , "sex on the beach" , "sexy big boobs exposed" , "thongs bare butt" , "vulvology" , etc.

I can't believe myself

... that I actually said it!

十二个小时之前我约了郑欣去Alders的咖啡店喝茶。 我已经感觉到了她有一点烦恼的事情所以才想去和她聊一聊儿吧。

她说了她不开心的事儿然后在我面前都哭了已经。
接下来她和我说了她的朋友一个男生有可能对另外一个女生有意思。我就把这个机会问问她“有意思”是什么意思？我淡然知道那是什么意思啦。她解释得非常好我很满意。我就后来对她说：“我对你有意思”。因为它揭示的是：“当有一个人对对方有意思的时候就是他并不是喜欢对方的而是有一种很好的感情感觉。。。” I used her words. 是的。我就是对她很有意思也许都会去喜欢她。 我现在真地搞不清楚到底要怎么追她。嗨~~ 不知道她对我会怎么想呢？

有时候我觉得我自己都是非常得倒霉；不只是不会追女孩儿 真的不会怎么去表达我的感情。 我还是觉得我们也许是不可能一块儿很长的时间。她明年夏天毕业了就非要回国了但我还会在利兹(Leeds)两三年那。

放弃（？）：我的破中文不会得罪到什么人。It's for me to understand and remember. It's for you to figure out.

Pictures of "Left-over party" at Rebecca's, who is the only one with the 2-colored scarf from Australia. Next to me is Cherie. 

Pictures of "Left-over party" at Rebecca's. 

Pictures of "Left-over party" at Rebecca's. 

Lack of respect

I have never come across a creditor demanding money from his/her debtor the way bloody rude & selfish MT demanded from me. Take a look at what she wrote in demand in email:

You owe ME cause I paid for all your presents for LEL and IH...altogether C$15.55

SO here's my acct number. I really need the money coz i'm fuking broke.
Royal Bank of Canada
Transit no: 07xxx
acct no: 509xxxx

Gimme extra if you want!

That is it. Even friends as we are, still there should be some kind of formalities in all emails. The fact the she started off by generously reminding me that I owed her money is fine but capitalising "ME" (is equivalent to shouting or raising her voice at me) is outrightly uneducated, dumb, chaotic selfish, and shows how lack of respect she has for certain people.

And to substantiate her allegation for being such an uneducated lack of respect for others being such a dimwit and that I owed her an amount that won't make any major difference to whether or not she goes to Boston or New York this December, she had to tell me she's "fuking broke". So what, nothing to do with me.

How did I owed her $15.55? I asked her nicely if I can chip in for the gifts for LEL and IH for their birthdays and that I will pay her in May when I see her (them) then. She, naturally, agreed to my terms. So, in other words, she has to pay for me in anyway and expects to be paid off when I meet her in May. No problems here.

All of the sudden, she's like saying to me that she needs the $15.55 urgently or she'll die of hunger. It's not like 155$ or 2,000$ that I owed her.

I've always knew how and what she is [to me] but this time I can't put myself to be intimidated by her dumb demand and her going back on her words -- that she agreed to be paid back in May 2005.

Fuck that! She disgusts me in this email. I fucking hate the way she asked of me. She's not a big deal. Things would have been different IF she knew the meaning of respecting others reasonably and treating everyone equal in some ways or another.

I know what she's going to do next. If she knows social etiquettes , she would just keep this matter between herself and I, and none other.

In friendships, there is nothing wrong to disgree among friends some times.
I spent so much time and resources to get the video of our last trip to Banff and it's ready to be sent away to MT and friends. They have no fucking idea what I have to go through to make this happen for them. Yet, MT the dimwit can't even... sigh! enough said. I said I will pay her back, and I will in due time.

Disclaimer: Pseudonyms are used to reasonably protect the identities of the individuals mentioned herein. It may be a coincidence if the person mentioned within these paragraphs do resemble to a real person in reality who may still be alive or otherwise.

The weekend in brief

Marco, who made us flammenkuchen (a typical German finger food) pronounced as *fla-r*men*coo*h-en (as in chicken's last syllabus, Alfred and I went to The Lights to watch the incredible "The Incredibles" (sorry for the pun). Pixar Inc. has really done it again.

Sunday: Went to church. They put up an awesome Christmas presentation and the sermon was none-to-best.

Accidently showed Cherie my blog where I wrote about her. It was totally embarrassing for me when somebody is reading about him/herself when the author is sitting beside. I mean, I'm not sure... just thought it was a little awkward. Then I asked if she was still wearing the "Red Thread of Luck"? She still is. She showed me. She's been very lucky since... except with matters surrounding computers and internet stuffs. I'm uhh... sorta the 'technician guy' for her not only her, but her flatmates as well.

Other than that, I slept a lot lately.. trying to reconfigure my biological clock. I've gotta write a summary and plan to get done with it by Monday or latest by Tuesday. Then I've got 3 more papers to write. I guess I won't be going anywhere this Christmas and/or New year.

borrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....rringgggggg!!!!!!

Shot by: me
Leeds Metropolitan University, Beckett Park. Standing on the James Graham building which is also where the main library resides in.  

Shot by: Chris Clayton
We just arrived Bryne Dinas in Snowdonia, Wales. I was caught unaware. Somebody tapped on my left shoulder and said, "Hey Dann, Chris here". I looked up and... he pulled his hand away only later I noticed it was his camera phone. And he showed me his art-work and that is how it looked like.

*lol!!* My eyes... I can tell what is gold and what is not. If you're not sure, brings yours to me and come back in a year. 

Shot by: me-- Nokia 6600 phone camera -- One morning in early October while waiting for the bus (that arrived late), this little black Schnauzer turned up walking and happily following his master into the security room (behind it)

Verrrry cute! It came out a few seconds later, probably it was bored in the Security room, for a stroll around and perhaps to check out the area looking for a place to pee? lol! I distracted it and it stood right there & *click* this photo came into existence. Lovely and cute! I would love to have a Schnauzer one day. I hope Whisky (my current dog) is doing well. 

Shot by: me obviously -- Nokia 6600 camera phone-- I was in town in this store to look around. I've always fancied this winter hat that gave the Russian generals look. Somehow, I still look very Chinese even with that.

It was some time around October when this picture was shot. 

Shot by: me-- Nokia 6600 phone camera -- This is decent-sized room. I love the wooden desk but not the chair though. I had to buy new pillows as the pillow provided (now turned into something to cushion my butt) was too low and thin. I don't think having a neck pain is a good idea.

Opposite the desk about 7 foot is another wall. that's... quite reasonable. 

Friends who misses me... *coughs!* the other way round. These bunch just returned from Regina, without me. Maybe I was too busy... or could be it that Mich knew something would happen if I had come? Hmm... yeah, I won't let her drive. Hnmh? hehe! 

Shot by: Lilly (Ukraine) -- A get-together after Bible study session.

Camera used: HP 570 Digital Camera; Color-adjusted, cropped, & corrected for contrast using Photoshop CS as the pic was shot with flash in incandescent light filled room and it was 10 pm. Heh, looks like day time to me here. 

Overclocked CPU

As you can see, it's a 2.8GHz Intel Pentium 4 with multiple Hyper-Threading technology, a 875P chipset. I went into the BIOS and configured the non-jumper settings and overclocked it by 30% to the current 3.62 GHz.

I've checked and monitored the CPU temperature for 5 days before doing this and it was fluctuating within 5% of its usual 36 centigrade. It's different now but not over-heated. It's now around 45 centigrade and has went up to 65 centigrade and not lower than 41.

Over all performance has sped up noticeably. I used to get a message that tells me I have ran out of virtual memory and need to close some applications to free up some space otherwise those applications may not work properly. I was watching a movie/video on RealPlayer, listening to music on Windows Media Player, working on some pictures on Photoshop CS, had a few Mozilla firefox's windows online, and in my background there were some 58 processes running. Any other computers would be screaming at you with these little messages demanding that you shut them out right away. Sometimes I used to be a victim of these messages, but not too often though.... however, I don't get them anymore. My limit of applications running is up to the CPU's temperature threshold of 70 centigrade. I don't want to burn my machine's brain now, do I?

Cheers!

Who needs Internet Explorer anyways?

That's right, everyone should ask themselves this question these days. Microsoft's Internet Explorer (MSIE) is falling behind in developing the latest and secured web browser for its customers/clients while Mozilla and soon Google have taken the lead.

Mozilla's latest release of Firefox version 1.0 web browser is the best browser there is out there now. It has integrated the most recent development of RSS 2.0 (Really Simply Syndication), which is a dialect of XML (Extended Markup Language). If you're an avid reader of news, daily updated articles or commonly blog journals, then RSS would serve you best. So, what is it with RSS and Firefox?

In simple explanation, everytime you're online and when Firefox is opened, it automatically checks the bookmarked syndcation for latest entries. For example, I read Michelle Tan's blog and I've RSS'ed her and I will know when she has updated her blog with a new posting without going to her blog's web address. I think it's also known as 'Live Bookmarks'. It's that simple and will save you lots of time and bytes (if you're pay-as-you-surf user). Learn more about why you should have Firefox by going to its website.

MSIE has not integrated this feature yet but somehow, with my gut instinct, they soon will.We're talking about pure competitition here and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) can't afford to lose out.

It's been a while now since I heard of Netscape. MSIE must have a period of dominance that it shrinked Netscape so small that it sort of dissipates into thin air. It's version 7 was the last I heard of. But you know what, even with Netscape's browser it's "engine" is built on Mozilla who authored Firefox. So, there you go...

Forget about Opera (although it has some very nice features like mouse-controlled browsing) and MSIE, and other unpopular and unsecured web browsers. Who needs it anyway?

Untitled

('' ) ( '') ('') (><") (^_') (^_^)hehe!

Unusual today that I felt extremely lazy. I just didn't want to do anything and that's what I did. Funny, somehow I thought of Samantha Li, the most gorgeous asian girl in Saskatoon I've seen so far. *day dreaming of her*

*wipe drools away*
Ok, back to reality!
Uh, what is reality by the way? I think reality is that I'm becoming more gay by reading more gay cases like Fitzpatrick v. Sterling Housing Association [1994] 1 AC 507 and Ghaidan v Mendoza [2002] 1 AC 360. Apparently, this two cases are so significant that turned the norms of every conventional society around especially viewing with the eyes of law. Ten years ago people would frown and laugh and ridicule when one mentions the possibilities of gay marriage.
Simply, the judgement of these two cases (significant precedences) the legislators have purportedly amended the gender-specific term "spouse" to "partner" or "civil partnership".

I'm sure everyone is very familiar with the terms "Man and wife" pronounce by a ceremonial priest/pastor in a holy matrimony. What does that mean? "Man and wife" does automatically connotes two specific genders, the male and the female, that will be in union. But "Man and man" or "Wife and wife" ??

Interesting, isn't it?

Created by: me -- Illustrating the basic layout of the things I have in my room/office. Created using SmartDraw. It was a breeze making such things.

Found out that this tool, SmartDraw, is potentially useful in aiding my law studies. Flowcharts and diagrams are essentially helpful to create a photographic memory of certain cases related to certain topics. Genius! 

Look what I just found out what I am...

You are a Mango...luscious, exotic and sinfully
sweet...you inspire passion and lust in
everyone you meet...


What Kind of Fruit Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

My relationship...

Recently, I have broken up with my relationship with time and space within the ambit of the conventional definition of normality. I'd drag myself out of bed at around 2-3 pm daily just as I would drag myself to bed around 4 or 5 in the morning. There's an awful waste of time and I ponder on my new abnormal habit I begin to realize that I'd only be awake for merely 13 hours whereas others would be up for a good 16 hours.

"But I couldn't sleep early" is my only reason. My new relationship I have recently formed with my work, mostly if not all, related to legal studies. I spent so much time and concentration with it and no time to two-timing with time and space. Both are equally important in essence that will eventually help me.

I have tried not so long ago to lose a day's sleep just to break even with work and {time and space} since I love this two ladies as much. Some how over a period of time my mind, heart, and soul seems to show a diminution in time and space.. But I don't want work.

There is a way out to live 16 hours daily and it's the way I've tried with little efficiency. This efficiency, I think, depends a lot on how one manages time. But can I blame exogenous factors as a result of my crappy time management? Lets just say it does have some significant effects... analogous to shock factors.

It's time to see my love how. Work is calling me. I'll shower love with {time and space} later. Dang! I'm a bloody good two-timer!

Three's a good crowd

The Birthday party for Carlos Martin, Charlie (Carlos Martin), and Alfanso in our flat went well turning our kitchen to discotechque smoke-room. The crowd was good -- literally cramped in making hard to move. People brushing each other's bare skin (cheap thrills) and shoutings and chanting in Spanish. Carlos end up lucky with a girl and probably he's going to swing his used condom in the air to show his friends his evidence he got laid. Kristos went up on a girls short skirt when I was standing beside him. Naturally she turned to look at me first as I was closest to her then to Kristos, then asked "Who did that?!!". He pretended as though nothing as happened. I was more oblivious, but Mariana knew it coudln't be me... although I wanted to. lol!

Security officers stopped by just now in response of noise compliants from neighbors and all had to leave for the bar. It's past midnight anyway and quiet hours are enforced at this time for weekends. I decided to stay back and just write a little something about what happened earlier.

Don't be a loony, throw your loonie away

On my previous 2 posts regarding the fall of the loonie (Canadian dollars), one of the reason I attempted to make such statement was because Bank of Canada decided Monday to maintain their interest rate (at 2.5%). This, in fact, has the effect to either weakening the loonie against the currency we're comparing to (USD) or the BoC has intention to increase money supply (M1).

Today's news (see http://www.cbc.ca/story/business/national/2004/12/08/loonie-041208.html), economists (like myself, ahem! hehe) predicted that the loonie will trade under $0.80 (that's = > $1.25) for a short period of time. Heck, if one had bought USD earlier at $1.18, then s/he can then sell at a rate greater than 1.25$!

If you're employed and dont' mind making a few thousands of dollars, then purchase at least US$80,000.

They're just my intuition.

E232

Just received a Lexmark E232 Laser printer bought on eBay. As decided, the cost of this printer is to be shared between Alfred and I, a total of £43.50 each, which I think is quite a deal.

The E232 is retailed from £169.00 to £280.00. Just a couple of weeks ago, we were walking around Staples, Dixons, etc. looking for printers and saw a reasonable functional inkjet to be around £69.00 - £89.00. The latter for a medium-high class inkjet printer?? We spent a total of £88 for a laser printer!

Heaves heavy sigh. There's so much to write about doing law. The number of case studies and analysis would practically be countless by third year. Printing at the university is too much expensive. We calculated if one's going to print everything at the university for 6p per piece, in 3 years, one's gonna pay up to £200.

Gee, that's a nice way to console myself.

Spotting currency...

If you have a few thousand dollars to invest, put it all in the American dollar when it hits the next low against the loonie ($1.18 / USD*)

As expected from last year data during the war, the loonie appreciated from the stable seven years $1.63 (2001) to $1.26 (2003, lowest) and back to $1.3342 and hovering between 1.3%.

This time, you may make a fortune. As it is hard to accept the loonie is ever going to maintain at the low $1.18/USD, therefore, there always exist a high probability the low rate will depreciate back to a normalize rate, which is then deemed to be acceptable and reasonable exchange.

$1.18/USD is the lowest exchange against the US dollar since the 70's. Is the world turning around in such short period? I'd say no.

So, invest for a long term of, say, 8 months and longer. Today, the rate differential (to sell back to the bank) may be 6% from the lowest rate (say $1.18/usd) but heck, if after 8 months (or more) it back very well regress back to trading at $1.3225/usd. you can then sell at 1.3225 x 6% = $1.40185/usd.

My nose sensed that a flu might be coming down on me. My throat confirms it when I start to sound very sexy in a husky voice. I get ear-blocks whenever I gulp down saliva. All said, I think I won't be feeling well for the next couple of days.

It's a mad mad Cow

The Mad Cow Disease, Abs-freaking-lutely funny! 

Re: Bargains.exe

Bargains.exe & CashBuddy.exe are one of the most annoying and intrusive spywares on the net. Others may include MySearchNow or Searchbar, or HotBar, and the like. Names may vary with little difference to another but you would definitely be able to recognize it as spyware.

Speaking on bargains.exe, I have tried many, many methods to get rid of it for good but to no avail. Everytime my machine is rebooted, bargains.exe (and BullsEye Network) folder will be recreated automatically. It's situated in C:\Program Files\BullsEye Network\ . This remains true even though registry keys are deleted and no traces of any files and/or keys related to it.

I decided to run its 'Uninstall'. It, however, needs to get online so I allowed it. I suspected that it has created another folder for another advert agent spying on my machine (I noted the time the folder was created). Promptly, I removed it and rebooted.

It's gone! Hopefully, forever! Looking in disbelief, I rebooted 5 times, and 5 times there is NO bargains.exe running in the processes, NO BullsEye Network folder... when I should. Thank heavens!

The problem is thus, solved!

Reminiscing winter, year 2001 （2001年冬天的会议）

[fields similar as below] 

Shot by: Albert Prasatyo -- In between Voyager Place and Sask Hall residences of the University of Saskatchewan. Frosts had formed last night, hence the branches of trees are white. Abso-fu*king-lutely gorgeous! 

Reminiscing winter, year 2001 （2001年冬天的会议）

Shot by: Edwin Gonosantosa -- Venue: The Bowl, University of SaskatchewanIt was still early November when the first snow fall came. A two hands full of snows. and I'm snow all over. Needless to say, it was my first time. *chuckles* 

Shot by: [unknown] -- Dec 22, 2001, just before Albert and I left for Seager Wheeler Hall where the bus that was suppose to take us to Christopher Lake for a winter retreat camp. Frosts had formed the night before.

This place is just outside the Voyager Halls mezzanine on the University of Saskatchewan's campus. 

Shot by: [name forgotten] -- Toboganning down a little but long slope behind us is the most unforgetable winter thrills we've ever experienced.

I remembered I got onto a plastic rolled-up mat (for toboganning as well) and went downhill and lost control of the mat. I couldn't stop! It swerved to the left shoulder of the slope that are filled with pebbles and little huge rocks, some pointy ones. You have to sit with your knees a little bent. My buttocks (the human tail) struck with one of those point rock that was camoflaged in the snows.

I lay there dead-like-a-corpse for a good 5 minutes, couldn't walk. The excruciating pain in the ass (actually, the tail) felt like as though I was paralysed from waist down.

Got back up limping all the way back to the cottage regretting having got on the said plastic mat while envying speed devils Albert and friends having fun.

Bizzarre! heh! I swore I'd never tobogann again -- once beaten, twice shy as they old adage goes. But now that can be compromised. 

Shot by: [name forgotten; Gerry's wife] -- We're all cross-country skiing novices/newbies. It seems easy but it's difficult than you could imagine especially if you're at the front. You'll have to invade virgin snows (I kinda like this virgin word here) and we'll just step into and follow the trails you leave behind in a rhythmic left-right-left motion.

I recall I fell and had a REAL difficult time getting back up on my feet. A simple task like that became something almost impossible when the skis have to be at least another feet (12 inches) longer from your height.

Before I got onto the skis, I convinced myself that those super long skis can never entangle me (in humuliation as well in a humorous way), but I have, as expected, proved myself wrong. However, cross-country skiing indeed IS a great fun!

From front to back: Albert Prasatyo, myself, Edwin G., Reubin (Yijing), and Tai. 

Reminiscing winter, year 2001 （2001年冬天的会议）

Shot by: [name forgotten] -- Christopher Lake in Prince Albert's National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada. Similar to the picture below, this period was from December 22-Dec 26, 2001. From left to right: Albert Prasatyo, myself, and Edwin Gonosantosa; both of which are from Indonesia. We're on our skates attempting our first ice skating on an already frozen lake. The trees in the background is the other side of the river's bank, covered with at least 5 inches thick of uncluttered snows (really fresh). Look how good looking I was when 21 yrs old.
Today, I have nicknames such has Uncle Dann, papa (爸爸), grandfather, big brother (老大), etc.
Had a great time here, unfortunately, my brother wasn't able to join us. I heard he (his nose) had difficult times adjusting to its first winter. 

Reminiscing winter, year 2001 （2001年冬天的会议）

Shot by: [name forgotten] -- Christopher Lake in Prince Albert's National Park, Saskatchewan, Canada. Spent Christmas here for a 5 wonderful days. The trip was orgainzed by the InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) headed by Peter Block (10th Street East). At this time, I remember it was minus 21 centigrade (without windchill factor).