The Laptop Problem

Latest update on the laptop situation: It is going to be expensive to fix it because they don't have the parts in Canada and must ship them over from elsewhere. The technician says it might cost about $1000. For $1000 I can buy a new laptop. It is going to take a long time to fix it because the parts need to be shipped over.

What I did: I told them to remove my harddisk and put it into a removable harddisk thingy, accessible through USB.

What I want to do now: I want to cry. But, seriously, I want to send my laptop back to Singapore where, maybe, my father can fix it. And even if he can't, it'll be cheaper to fix in Singapore. And I think I will probably ask him to ship a laptop over as well so I can continue doing my work.

Who I need to thank: Gilbert, for lending me his laptop to transfer data from one part of my newly converted removable harddisk to another. And for helping me figure out how to do so.

Laptop spoyr

One of the worst things to happen to exchange students has happened to me, other than scoring Fs on tests, or losing your way, or getting kidnapped, or getting on the wrong flight, or losing your luggage, or losing your laptop, or getting sick. My laptop is spoilt.

What happened was that Clausewitz's On War fell on my laptop from the shelf on top of a table in the library and dislodged 2 keys, cracked 1 key, cracked my quartz display, and made my screen turn black. Or my harddisk crash. I hope it's not the latter though.

But, thanks to Gilbert, I have been able to google for Fujitsu service providers in Vancouver and I will head there with my now comatose laptop and hope they can revive my harddisk without losing any data. Thank you very much Gilbert!

I sound pretty all right now, but I can assure you it's a delayed reaction. Tomorrow, I'll be crying like a baby about the inconvenience of not having a laptop and at the cost incurred to fix my laptop.

No More Midterms woohoo!

Today on my way to lessons, I saw something amazing. I saw this whole row of trailers-for-the-stars parked in front of Buchanan. It's for Fantastic Four II!! I wish I brought a camera. I might even meet Jessica Alba! But what's more amazing is that I can now monkey around doing readings for my modules. No more midterms! Woohoo! No more papers-for-the-time-being! Woohoo! I am going to run! Woohoo!

My stubbed toe yesterday seems to have become better, just a little better. It is still stubbed and still swollen, but at least now I can walk on it and wiggle it around like wigglewigglewiggle.

But what I really want to boast about today was reading 200 pages in 3 hours. And it was good reading, but when I entered the tutorial, all that talk about poststructuralism just befuddled me. I know poststructuralism, just not very well. Words like "discourse" and "rhetoric" are fine on their own. Then there are bits like "rhetorical discourse", "rhetorical agency", and "relativism of power" which I don't understand. But, I should have a better understanding of it Tuesday after class. Because I have "agency". And because I asked my lecturer to helpch me.

More interesting posts should be coming up in time, because no more midterms woohoo!

Today

I thought this day would be a good day because I woke up in time for my first lesson and proceeded to drag my frigid butt to Geography. It got even better when the lecturer announced that he would be changing the exam date to the 9th of December, instead of the 19th (woohoo!) and now my exams end on the 15th and I have SO MUCH TIME TO DO SO MANY THINGS!

But...then I went for my midterm. It was an open book exam, and I didn't bring my notes. Actually, I did bring them because I brought my laptop, but I didn't print them because printing is )(@*#)#$&* expensive here. So I just did a closed book exam and I was kicking myself all the way because I had extra time left over, and I couldn't answer 1 question, which I could have if I had my notes.

And balls! I stubbed my toe against the little wheel on the bed frame. It went like KER-BAAAAANNNNG and the bed frame vibrated and I went down. The pain didn't stop dissipating until about 2 minutes later and now my toe is swollen and hurts when I try to bend it. I know nothing's broken because I can still move it, but I just hope I haven't torn a ligament (again), and I hope I can get to running ASAP.

Squirl squirl

I have almost finished all my drowning in the quagmire of shit in the toilet bowl called "Midterms". But I haven't flushed yet, because I have one more midterm on Wednesday. Yay for that! But I feel quite stupid because I've been so busy, that I haven't had time to study for a test this morning that was 20% of the grade. And it was so easy had I studied. But I didn't, and it wasn't.

On another note, I realised that I have not mentioned that Gilbert bought me a squirrel when he went to the Rockies. The squirrel is now precariously poised on the edge of the table, waiting to steal my chocolate bars when I'm not looking. His name is Squirl, and he is actually a chipmunk, but it's the same difference to me because they look the same. Bushy tail. Little ears. The ability to hang on trees upside down. Eaters of acorn nuts.

I love the sight of squirrels scurrying around on campus. I used to see one for everyday I was in Vancouver, but when I started walking to campus, the number became something like, oh, a gazillion a day? I think it's nice how they don't really run away from us unless we penetrate their safety zone, which isn't that far. I saw a squirrel one arm's length away, and I wanted to eat it because it looked so deliciously adorable.

Oh, and the midterms are a quagmire of shit because I know that my lecturers will be wiping their asses on my test papers. Perhaps the S/U option was really a good idea after all.

Saving El Presidente

The Blue Guys are the bad guys. The guy at the right, camouflaged in the trees is Major CJ, and that poor dude in brown in the middle of the Blue Guys is El Presidente.

Heehee. El Presidente.

Does anybody remember the game "Cannon Fodder"? Or am I the only primary school boy who played it when I was much much younger? I remember my brother and I used to play it during our school holidays because my dad introduced us into geekdom early. What he did was like kindergarten for the computer age; he deviously entered our names into the Primary School of Geeks by bringing us to Sim Lim Square and buying us loads of shareware games.

The thing about these games was that they worked on DOS, and you don't just click here and click there, you type in something like /install...or something. I can't remember if Cannon Fodder was for DOS or Windows, and I can't remember how I installed it, but I did and I played it. Anyway, at one point in our holidays, we even learnt some really upper-level DOS stuff (which like most of the knowledge I get from lectures...has been returned to their lecturers), which was probably my dad's aim. Most of the time, we failed to install the games. And when we did, we couldn't figure out the keys.

I remember always falling off cliffs. And I remember all the characters I controlled, Jools, Stoo, Ubik and the others were so dear to my heart that it hurt when any of them died. But it was great fun! You could shoot the enemies and see them fly (to their deaths), and you could shoot them and see them writhe in paroxysms of death, and you could also run a tank or skidoo or jeep over them to kill them, or you could...

So many ways of dying and so many ways of killing. No wonder Cannon Fodder was so much fun.

Heehee. El Presidente.

Several things

1) I ran 9km in 45 minutes which is my new post-NS record.

2) I learnt how to cook rosti, and actually got down to cooking it.

3) I learnt, from David my housemate, how to make mint tea.

4) Gilbert is in the Rockies, and I am in Portland. We travelled in opposite directions.

5) I was listening to Timmy in Timbre, and when I heard your voices, I felt homesick all of a sudden. I hope you guys still meet up, or at least, attempt to. If not, I will be execute.

Portland, Oregon

Right now, it is 0035hr, and I am in a hostel in Portland, Oregon typing these words. I brought along my chargers and adapters only to realise that horrors of horrors! I brought the wrong adaptor; the one with three, not two, pins. It seems like every single powerpoint here is two pins, so it's really lucky I'm going to be away for two days.

It's our Thanksgiving weekend now, and it's three days long so we (Laura, Sulynn and this really nice guy, Jonathan, and I) decided to drive down to Seattle first, and then Portland. I found out about Portland later. And Jonathan drove, not us. Poor, brave, tired dude.

Whatever it is, I'm pretty glad to be out of Vancouver. I still miss the place, but I think I've visited every attraction I'd really want to go to. I've done Grouse Mountain, Stanley Park is nice but I haven't been there yet but will have time to do so, I've gone downtown, and I'm really content just doing my runs down to Spanish Banks and back. I seem to be getting fitter because I'm doing something like 45 minutes for 9km. For a post-NS timing, that's pretty good I should think. Anyway, I seem to be on the right track in my half-marathon training.

Back to the trip. We visited a music museum called "Experience Music Project". It was 1) designed by Frank Gehry, and 2) possessing a Jimi Hendrix gallery. I was literally squealing when I entered the EMP and I saw...the KISS axe guitar. I'm not sure if the others had much fun there, but I had heaps. I bought a catalogue (as usual) of the collection, and other things (which I shall not write here because those are my souvenirs for people back home).

We went down to the Cheesecake Factory, this huge....huge. large. amazingly big restaurant with the best cheesecake I've ever tasted. I don't even like cheesecake, but this was real good. It didn't even taste like cheese at all!

And then, we went down to Johnston Ridge Observatory, to observe Mount St. Helen. This part of the journey took us up a whole set of meandering roads cut into the sides of mountains, and we went all the way up to 4000 ft, or more, and we reached there 15 minutes before closing time, got our tickets...and observed that the volcano's peak was covered by clouds. While it was disappointing, it was also amazing because we were in the clouds as well! Either that, or there was fog 4000 ft up in the sky. And the view as we drove along the sides of mountains was just stunning. I have, never in my life, been so in awe of nature. I wish I had the pictures, but I didn't bring a camera.

And we drove and we drove and we drove. Or rather, and Jon drove and he drove and he drove. And now we're here, all settled in Northwest Portland International Hostel, which seems to be a really cosy place, with a very nice concierge, and a very clean toilet. Tomorrow, we tour.

I give thanks

I've been too tired to post anything recently. In fact, I'm going to leave my book-borrowing until tomorrow morning when I make my way from Geography Building to Buchanan. I'll be going to Seattle on Saturday! Actually it's more Portland than Seattle, I don't know why. But I'm looking forward to going to the Experience Music Project Museum in Seattle; Jimi Hendrix!!!!!!

For now, I'm just going to take a rest from my books because I feel I've earned it. Tomorrow, I start again.

It is OK to be rfest

So today in my 2-hour-sleep-for-the-whole-day-rush-essay-until-damn-stress mode, I walked past a piece of paper stuck on a lamp post saying it was OK to be rfest.

"What is rfest?" I thought to myself. "Can it be eaten? Is it Italian? Some Slavic language? Perhaps a colour? Does it wriggle like a worm? Is it a nom de guerre? What is a nom de guerre? Does it mean circa?"

That was at 12pm, but it is 9pm now and I just realised what an rfest is, and why it is OK to be rfest.