The time I lost my wallet...

It was on a normal day much like August 21, 2011. I ate breakfast outside at some Hong Kong style restaurant like a typical weekend. We ate till we were full then set out to shop since none of my family (my brother aside) had work. Since we were a techy family, we went to Futureshop down on Kennedy Road and Lawrence Ave. It was there we had a nice little encounter with Microsoft. I thought it was going to be a fine day... But...

I had no idea what was going to happen.

It was afterall, a very long and interesting day.

The day before this day, I had received word that HP's TouchPad had gone from $399 retail to just $99. We went to FutureShop to try to grab a copy. Needless to say, our attempt were futile as it were sold out at the store as well as any other FutureShop or BestBuy.

Then we continued to our other routine tasks of grocery shopping. This time around, we picked Walmart, since I am into building Yugioh decks, Walmart was a great place as I can sometimes pick out cheap packs of cards (when those 30-70% stickers are on the merchandise). It didn't take very long until we finished and the shopping continued.

My mother doesn't really like technology so we dropped her off at Winners in the Eglinton Square Shopping Centre. Afterwards, my dad and I went to check out another FutureShop, since we were skeptical. Of course, nothing.

Disappointed, we went to the dollar store, Dollar Giant, to get some cheap tools and utensils for some event he was planning. While there, we also picked up 2 BB guns for $1.25 each. It came with bullets and we shot a few rounds around (not aiming people and picking up the bullets after firing). The projectiles didn't fly very far, but a good toy for a little over a buck.

Since my mother can shop at Winners for a surprisingly long period of time, we decided to drop by a flea market which was very close by. We spent about 10-20 mins in there doing nothing more than window shopping then went back to Winners to pick up my mom.

Our last planned trip was to drop by a card/hobby shop at the Agincourt Mall before going home. I stayed there for about half an hour to an hour looking at what single Yugioh and Magic the Gathering cards they had. It wasn't as cheap as Dollys but there were many cards not found in one but in the another. While there, heavy rain and lightning storms were seen and heard everywhere. To avoid accidents, we stayed in the mall for a while longer. To spend time, we shopped at No Frills to see if anything else were cheap.

Everything was fine at this point... until we reached our car after shopping. It was then I noticed my wallet was missing... Sh!t.

With my forgetful brain, this crisis was a bigger crisis than it could have been. If I was able to accurately recall when was the last time I had my wallet, I could create a time range in which we would backtrack and search. However... I had no idea.

First we had to go home to drop off our groceries. It was then that I also called my credit and debit card companies to let them know I had lost my wallet. That way, they could disable my cards before I would be charged for things I didn't buy.

Then we backtracked the whole day's event starting from the most recent. So that meant going to all these places in order;

- No Frills
- Agincourt Mall
- Flea Market
- Dollar Giant
- FutureShop #2
- Walmart
- BestBuy
- FutureShop #1
- HK Style Restaurant (Where we had breakfast)

And after all that... nothing. No one reported a lost wallet... Sh!t...

Now broken and defeated, we went home to call the police to file a report. And so I did. They said they would call me back in an hour and told me to prepare some information to help me file a report. During that hour was long and rough... I kept thinking what would happen to me. After all, unlike most people, I carried my SIN (Social Insurance Number) card with me. They would also have my Health Card and Drivers License which had my address. And the entry card to enter our townhouse/apartment complex. It was very frightening for me indeed.

My parents at this point was very optimistic, they kept telling me that maybe someone has already turned it into the police and that everything will be fine. I'm sure they know deep down that I messed up so bad. They just don't want to say it.

I was so worried I didn't even notice I had a voice mail on my phone. I listened to it. It was our gatehouse speaking. Told me that a lady came to ask if I lived here, claiming to have my wallet. !!! Was I hearing this correctly? I rushed down to the gatehouse. And sure enough, she had left me a sheet of paper with an address and a note stating exactly that she had my wallet. There was also a contact info. Ecstatic, I called the number when I got back to my townhouse. She picked up and I scheduled a meeting time (in the next half hour). I got there and thankfully recovered my wallet. I thought it was awfully nice of her to drive all the way to my address to let someone know so I brought over a can of egg rolls as gift. My wallet was also lighter by $45... but I didn't say anything at that point. I was just glad it was back in my possession.

I asked where she picked it up. And it was at Agincourt Mall. Outside the card/hobby shop. I kind of knew it was there, but when we didn't find it, we couldn't just stop looking. While I couldn't say I was sure, I knew I frequently feel my pockets to make sure everything was fine. Surely today couldn't have been an exception. My bad memory made today just a terrible experience. I'll probably have to change where I place my wallet, or maybe not to put the wallet and my phone in the same pocket. I don't know yet, I'll think of something.

Oh, regarding the police, I left them an email saying I retrieved my wallet, although lost $45, I chose not to followup on it. If they need me to file a report, I'll let them know whatever they need me to know. But I won't search for compensation. It was my fault afterall.

Yes, I indeed lost my wallet today, on August 21 of 2011. Luckily I got it back. Just short $45. But nevertheless, no hassle to reapply for new cards. Maybe the gas was a bit of trouble too. Afterall, we went all over the place.

I'll have to repay my dad good in the next few weeks. Thanks for listening. If you ever do lose your wallet, don't panic too much. We do live in Canada and the people are generally nice. Do remember to temporary or permanently disable your credit/debit cards though. The police will also lend your assistance if you give them a call. And if you need extra comfort, my mom always tells me to pray when there are things outside your control which you need help in.

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Writing on the go: Windows Booth

On Aug 20, 2011, outside the Futureshop north of Lawrence ave on Kennedy road, was a Microsoft booth to educate the general public about Microsoft Windows. I originally went to futureshop to buy the HP tablet for $99. But unfortunately it was sold out. Read on for a more comprehensive of what was there.

The tent had several laptops and TVs for displaying some features. One of the displays were about windows Internet explorer 9. The only thing there that I have yet to know anything about. The TV showed a comparison between IE9 and Google Chrome. The webpages were identical, a html5 webpages of an aquarium with fishes. IE9 had 1000 fishes running at 16 fps. Chrome had 10 fishes and 11 fps. While I don't know if it's 100% legitimate but I will definitely try out IE9 when I get home. I also asked then about new features of IE9. They are;
- Drag-able tabs to window 7 task bar on bottom
- Drag-able tabs to edge of screen and maximize them like any other window explorer
- Uses computer processing power to shorten load times (unable to comprehend, just stating what they told me)
- Simple GUI with little clutter

I also asked about their windows live messenger but nothing much was new. Only;
- Supports skype
- Link with Facebook

There were a couples of mid to high end computers present to let you feel the windows experience. All in the $1000 range computers.

Lastly if you talk with those people for 5 minutes, you get a free pair of sunglasses. Also there's food. Free hot dogs or hamburgers with water and chips. Great stuff.



Yummy!

Come drop by sometime if you're close. It probably won't stay open for long so hurry!

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

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Photos from Vacation to California USA

Its been a while, since I got back from California on July 3, 2011. After going through all the photos from several cameras I am finally able to upload the photos. Great place in California, a bit too hot for my liking though, especially when the sun is scorching you nonstop. After this trip, my arms got "burnt", my dad was even mistaken for a Mexican. Lol. Read on for links to photo galleries and a summary of the vacation.

Summary:
Very good trip, lots of new things to see, my cousin's son, "Nathan" was alot of fun. We played games together, goofed off together, lots of laughs every moment. Maybe I do act like a kid. Meh.
When I got there, I found out that in California, it was a law that all restaurant and fast foods show the calories of each food on the menu. Atleast thats what a cashier at a McDonald in Walmart said. She also said that not everyone obeys it though. But to me, it was interesting to see in big numbers, the calorie for say... a big mac.
It was alot of walking though, more than what I would have liked. But since it was with other people, I couldn't exactly just complain. Since my daily routine would be, play, sleep, eat, play. LOL ! Also, my GPS on my iPhone 3GS refused to work... had to read a map like a pro @_@. Sucks, but exciting. Getting lost can sometimes bring you to neat, unforeseen places !
Next trip will be where I wonder... I can't wait ! ^_^

Galleries and Description:
June 24 - Once we got off the plane at Los Angeles, we went to Thrifty to rent our car, then drove for 2 hours until we got to San Diego where my cousin and his wife and son lived. Together, we visited the Old Town of San Diego and ate Mexican food. We stayed at Motel 6, probably the worst hotel of this trip. NO FREE WIFI... WHAT THE H*LL ! D8

June 25 - We started off by going to a district by the beach with houses in the millions because of its location and not size. We had some interesting sweet cookies because we haven't seen them before. Everyone complained it was too sweet, I loved it. We went to another beach afterwards and that was when my cousin had to leave us to pick up her wife. So it was just my dad, mom, big aunt (whos the cousin's mother), Nathan, and myself. Since we were with a child, we went to Legoland ! OMFG LEGO !! Its amazing, all the things that could be built with lego.

June 26 - Breakfast was at a pancake restaurant, they serve many different types of pancakes. Some were big, others not so big. I had the apple pancake, it was huge. I couldn't finish it. After our filling breadfast, we went to Balboa park. There, because Nathan really wanted to go to the science center while everyone else had something different in mind. I was chosen to go to the science center with him to make sure nothing bad would happen. The science center was an interesting experience. I always enjoyed those more than museums or sight seeing (what my parents had in mind) since science centers had interactive yet educational games. While we were there, my parents went to some cactus garden taking photos of cactus. Ew. When we met up, there was a weird parade. Music and dancing with people dressed up as things I couldn't recognize. HOWEVER ! I saw someone dressed as Naruto, but with all the people and chaos, I couldn't get a picture of him. We parted ways after with me and my dad going alone and my mom, and the cousin's family together. They went to outlets to shop and sight see while we went to the Midway Museum. What is that you ask? What about USS Midway Museum? Thats right! Its a warship. An aircraft carrier at that. While the ship wasn't left in an original state (it is probably rendered inoperable), there were still many fighter planes (which may be working or not) to take pictures of. Some even let you ride inside it (of course it doesn't move or work). We also went into the control tower with a guide explaining the roles of the different crew. Lots to learn about.

June 27 - We started the day with Seaworld. Another amusement part. This one had shows with sea animals such as dolphins, whales, and sea otters performing. Oh, there were people actors too of course. We stayed there basically the whole day from 9am to 6:30pm. We went through basically every exhibit. The last few pictures were me chasing a pigeon with my camera, kind of pointless. I just realized how pigeons don't like to fly.

June 28 - Today, we leave San Diego, so my cousin, his wife, and Nathan did not follow us. Only my family and my big aunt continued towards San Francisco. Most of the day was spent traveling. Afterall, it was around 6-8 hours road trip to get from San Diego to San Francisco. We did stop by Google Inc along the way and I got to hug the cute android. (^_^)V We had dinner at the Japan town eating Japanese cuisine. The hotel we lived at was Presidio Inn, they finally had free wifi and I started all my torrents of ANIME ! This place had the fastest wifi connection of all 3 hotels we lived at.

June 29 - We went to the crooked downhill road, forgot the name. It was like a zig-zag downhill, and there were even houses on either sides. Imagine how hard it would be to get out of the house during busy times (in the afternoon or evening). We went early so there were few people. But when we went back later (passed by on streetcar), it was packed. We drove to China town afterwards, neat buildings. Some looked like ancient China. To my surprise, fake Yugioh cards! Yippe! Now I can distinguish real and fake ones (aside the obvious change in price, maybe I'll make a post later). After that, we went to Pier 39 which is a famous pier with restaurants, shopping, and boat tours. Of course, we didn't miss out and got on a boat tour for the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz. After the boat tour, we got on the streetcar, the wait took almost an hour. The streetcar brought us all the way to union square in downtown. They had something similar to our Eaton Center in Toronto, huge mall. From downtown, we walked to Japan town where my mom and myself went there while my dad and my big aunt went to get our car back at the pier 39 parking lot. Of course they went back by bus so it wasn't too time consuming. Lastly at night, we thought we'd get another close up view on the Golden Gate Bridge before our return to Los Angeles early tomorrow, so we went at night to take a few pictures at the closest point that cars were allowed to go.

June 30 - Today, we set off to Los Angeles, another 4-6 hour drive. Our airport was at Los Angeles. We passed by Apple Inc in Cupertino along the way. Unlike Google, there weren't many places to take pictures off and inside any building was out of bounds for visitors. So we only got photos from a car. Their street name is interesting though, "Infinity Loop". Except it was small and the infinity was finite... What a shame. Due to the long drive, we stopped occasionally for my dad to rest, we went to Trader Joe's to buy souvenirs for relatives in Toronto. Apparantely, Trader Joe's was a well known super market in California with its own brand of products. The scenery was nice, there were several pictures of that along the road. The scorching heat however was not nice. The first thing we did when we arrived at Los Angeles was to see the Hollywood walk. I found some famous names and was astonished to see names like "Godzilla" and "Winnie the Pooh". Crazy. There were also many people dressed up to take pictures with, however it was a custom that if we got a photo taken, we'd have to pay. So we juts took pictures of other people who took pictures with them. Or flat out, take picture when hes not looking. Yay for stalking skills !

July 1 - The hotel we stayed at was Guesthouse Inn & Suites. The nicest of all the hotels on this trip, however the free wifi was not very fast, 80kbps was the most I could get out of it from my torrents. It was over 200kbps on Presidio Inn. But thats fine, as I only torrented while we slept. We first went to Beverly Hills, the rich and wealthy area where celebrities are said to live. We got honked by this Infinity 35Z because we wanted to slow down to take pictures. Arg, I don't like them rich people... We also went to the shopping district of Beverly Hills where we saw a very unique car. The Bugatti Veyron (atleast thats what I think it is). Its also the fastest car available at the moment (I might be wrong now, my news is outdated). The spoiler rises automatically when going fast enough, the woman driving it (yes, its a woman) opened the spoiler probably because she knew people would take pictures. Sure enough, it wasn't just me taking pictures, others were too. After Beverly Hills, we returned to the Hollywood Walk because we didn't finish all of it yesterday cause part of it was closed, and it was getting dark, rendering my camera lesser and lesser capable. Lastly, we went to the China town and Japan town for a visit. We ate at China town in a familiar Chinese restaurant as it had all been some foreign food for the past 4 days. When we returned to our hotels, we went to a supermarket to get some water and found very cheap breads, 3 for $0.99 so we bought those along with some of our instant noodles we brought and ate it for dinner. Yummy.

July 2 - Today was our last day. Our flight was at 10pm while my aunt's was at 7:30pm. We already finished basically all of our plans so we decided to go a bit further and went to Manhattan Beach in the morning. It was sunny x_x but the view was nice. Many very nice houses with unique styles unlike the ugly houses I see around my area. We then went to a mall to pass time, my dad was so tired he paid a dollar to those massage chairs to relax for 3 minutes. He said 3 minutes definitely wasn't enough. Afterwards we went to return our car and took a shuttle bus to the airport. We signed in much before the scheduled departure time, at 5:00pm or so. Then waited until my aunt got on the plane. We waited a bit more then we got on our plane. When we arrived back at Toronto, it was 5:00am. So I took a nap on the plane as if I slept from 10:00pm to 5:00am. Currently, I do not feel any jet lag.

So that was my trip. Hope you enjoyed the read and pictures. See you all again soon !

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Greetings from San Francisco

Hey there, I've arrived in San Francisco 2 days ago and will be leaving today to Los Angeles for the final 2 days. Our little vacation ends on July 2nd but we're making the most of it.

We saw many new sights and tried many tasty foods in both San Francisco and the previous city, San Diego. You can be sure we'll do all sorts of things in Los Angeles as well !

I will be uploading the whole picture album after I return to Toronto and sort through all the photos.

Er... That image looked stretched, but if you click it, its alot better.

Cheers.

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Written on the go: Leaving for Los Angeles

At the airport will be leaving for Los Angeles in an hour on the 8:30am flight.

Today I woke up at 5:30am to get ready. So excited!! See you soon!

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

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University of Waterloo Convocation

At last, its over ! ALL OVER ! On June 15 of 2011, I had my convocation at the University of Waterloo. Celebrating my achievement of a bachelor of science in honours chemistry. A full gallery below, so read on and celebrate (with me)!

June 15th was the convocation date for all of sciences, applied health sciences was in the mornings at 10:30am and natural sciences such as biology, chemistry, and others were in the afternoon at 2:30pm. I was in the latter group. Most of my friends were there to pick up their diplomas except a few. You will see them in the gallery below if I decided to write caption on the photos.

I also brought a good from from my highschool with me to UW because he was free. He had never been to UW before and to our surprise, while there, we bumped into some of his friends too ! This world is so small.

We returned home at around 7:00pm in time for dinner. No parties unfortunately, was grabbed by my parents before I could escape. Boohoo.

Gallery below.

UW Convocation June 15, 2011

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Anime North 2011

Between May 27 and 29, 2011, Anime North 2011 was hosted at the Toronto Congress Centre, which had been the location for atleast 4 years now. I don't really know what I can say about Anime North at this point, it feels just like every other year. Though this year, unlike the last, I went with a different bunch of people so we saw different things. Read on for a comprehensive summary of my life on May 28, 2011.

We arrived there at about 11:00am. And we were greeted with this line.

BAM ! The line is to the left and it is an oval around the area where cosplayers were being photographed (around the right side and center)

We waited in line for about an hour before finally getting into the convention centre. Inside was another line but much shorter and took maybe 10 minutes.

The inside line. Registration desk is to the right.

Once we registered, our first sight was the artist corner. There were a fair amount of good artists in my opinion who created professional looking artwork.

A sample artist booth at the artist corner. Many of the booths were swarmed with customers and spectators when we were there. I hope I won't get in trouble with these pictures...

We bumped into a friend of a friend of ours who had her own vender table. We chatted for a bit and moved on. Throughout this day, we bumped into a handful of acquaintances. From vendors, to cosplayers, to normal attendees.

The next area we looked at was the dealer's room where all the vendors who weren't artists were selling merchandise. This included everything from DVDs, to mangas, to posters, to figurines, to gundam models, to even erotic pillow covers. The atmosphere is like the artist corner except artwork is replaced with merchandise. Also the vender tables are larger for their inventory and they usually have their store name somewhere in the back.

The atmosphere of the dealer's room area. Just like the artist corner but with more people (and less room).

Because I recently started buying Yugioh cards, I bought a few packs from a vendor here. It was from a vendor who also has a card shop called Card Masters.

Both of those areas were pretty cramped as seen in the photos. Cosplay photos taken in there were a bit of a pain for both the photographer, cosplayer, and other people. As everyone had to adjust slightly to provide a free space for the photoshoot. Therefore, I would advise to take cosplay pictures outside. Preferably infront of the main Toronto Congress Centre entrance right by the intersection between the convention centre and the Double Tree Hotel. That area has a huge traffic of people going between the two buildings.

After shopping, we proceeded to get food. Since based on previous experience at Anime North, the Harvey's at the intersection would be extremely full, so we went to the Double Tree Hotel to eat food. There we saw many people playing card games with one another. Mainly Yugioh cards. However as I didn't bring my cards, I couldn't join them. Also, I would feel bad if other people had to watch me play and do nothing.

Where we ate. I brought my own food, my friends bought food from there.

For the remainder of the time at Anime North, we checked out panels, video show rooms, and other events. The panels and video rooms were dull and uninteresting as either someone would talk about the topic of the panel or a video would play for the anime in question. Neither of which interested me much to write about. I will say this however, if you were thinking of going to a panel. Don't. And I have a reason, if you don't know anything about the topic of that panel, you're probably not interested in it. If you were, you would have looked into it already. If it was about an anime, you probably would have watched it, and therefore, you will already know what the speaker will be talking about. Of course, to be fair, you should go once just in case. Maybe you'll find some hidden enjoyment from me. If you do, please post in the comments below.

An unique, interesting event at Anime North 2011 for me was the Idol competition, since I went with another group of friends previously, there were different tastes and I hadn't seen this before. The idol competition was like a singing competition. Each contestant would sing a Japanese song. Also there were 3 judges who would give constructive criticism. And at the end of the presentations, there would be the awarding ceremony for the winner.

The idol performance stage. The masquerade which I wanted to watch but didn't have time would also be held here.

We left at about 6:00pm because our driver had other plans later that night and had to get ready. It was all in all a great day. Bought some stuff, took some photos for memories, and even saw something new. Would definitely be up to go again next year if other friends are going.

I even considered cosplaying, except I'm terrible with a sewing machine and buying cosplay clothes easily cost $100+. Perhaps I will reconsider when I get a job.

Please visit the gallery below for many more pictures.

Anime North 2011, May 28

Hope you enjoyed reading this article. Any comments of questions, please post them below.

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Blackberry Playbook Review

Today I have something to share with you all. A close friend of mine recently won a Blackberry Playbook from an event and I had the privilege to test the machine over the course of a few days instead of at a store such as BestBuy. Read on if you're interesting to hearing what how it worked out for me. The price is $499.99.

*Warning, walls of text to follow*

My testing was just based on the casual usage of the system using relevant features that were available to me. I will not be comparing to the iPad2 or other tablets as they are different systems as a whole. But by simply stating what was done well and what was not.

Home screen, applications on the bottom, the middle is the programs that are opened.

Firstly we'll talk about user interface and first impressions of the machine. What the system feels like when you first turn it on and the first few minutes action. Its good. For real. While some may think that Blackberries without a physical keyboard would be a disaster (ie storm). But with this size of a tablet, physical keyboard would destroy its thinness or the large screen size. The typing is very easy with just the thumbs anyway (atleast for me). The UI seemed intuitive, swiping the fingers from the left and right switches applications, swiping from the bottom bring you to the home page. And swiping from the top opens up the options of the current app. I have been an Apple user for a long time now, about 2 years. So this Blackberry device was my first ever. I picked it up and was using it like a pro within minutes. That’s how easy to use it was.

The size is nice and portable. With both hands holding the tablet sideways, one could easily reach half of the screen with each thumb for total accessibility of the entire screen. The tablet feels somewhat heavy and feels solid. As one should expect when purchasing something in the hundreds of dollars range. Its small size will fit basically all bags. The device came with an official Blackberry sleeve. It was made of those elastic material so the fit was perfect. Too perfect for me, so I didn’t like it nor used it because of the hassle to put it in and take it out. It fits into those pockets in the front of hoodies. When I needed to put it away quickly, I just stuffed it in there. Good stuff.

Blackberry Playbook and Cover sitting on my lap.

I didn’t try the HDMI out. As we didn’t have any of those cables at my home. The microUSB slot also caused tons of problems for us as we didn’t have those either. Luckily my brother’s android phone charged with a microUSB cable so I borrowed it to transfer files over from my computer to test on the Playbook. As well as transferring out some pictures from the Playbook to the computer to upload for this post. The screen on the Playbook was great, videos and photos were very clear and crisp. However the Playbook lacked a lot of codec for videos. I may not be a pro but only .avi files were detected from the .mkv, .avi, and .rm files. That was a little disappointing as all my anime videos are in .mkv format. When connected to the computer the Playbook acts like a portable hard drive with pre-created folders and files for the device to function. Creating folders with Chinese or Japanese characters did not cause problems for the device to locate files.

For what you pay surf the web or do documents or play some light games, this blackberry is fun to have. Its small, quick, and easy to use. It feels more rigid than most laptops. Considering this has no keyboard or hinges for folding, the increased toughness makes sense. On top of all this, the blackberry play book is sleek.

However at the time of this writing, that was the limit of goodness this machine had to offer. On the down side of intuitive controls and smooth operations, it lacked a large choice of software compatibilities. And while everyone has been saying this already, as a comparison with the Apple ipad. Yes, the ipad has a ton more apps. But the question is, do people need all those apps?

So since I am a typical user, I will assume that the apps I wanted were of a typical user. So lets get on to what the Playbook did have and not.

Firstly, we'll need to go over the purpose of the tablet so we can filter out the necessary from the desirables.

For a tablet to have a purpose, it needs to do certain things better than a laptop and a smartphone so it is viable to carry an extra device.

Ok. So what do we not like about the smartphone? The small screen. And the laptop? Slow boot up time, poor battery life, etc.

Keep in mind that I am not a Blackberry user and therefore, I did not have any access to Blackberry Bridge.

For me, when I am outside and need a computer, I do some of these things;
- Surf the web
- Check emails
- Watch videos
- Check maps/addresses
- Write notes
- Play games
- Take photos of interesting things
- Blogging

So lets go over each of these things.

Surfing the Web
The browser works great, user interface adds even more to the overall experience. The browser also has the option to turn Adobe flash on and off. For those who require it. However I found that flash generally caused the browser to slow down.

On the other hand, I was not once able to get the Playbook to connect to the web through tethering to my iPhone 3GS. This is probably the deal breaker for me to even consider the Playbook. I tried Bluetooth and wifi (through cydia app) but neither worked. My brother tried tethering with his iPhone 4 and while it worked, the connection was extremely slow. To the point that it could be called “not working”.

The Playbook would be amazing for surfing the web on public wifi at coffee shops or restaurants, except it never worked for me.

Checking Emails
BAD. In order to check your email, you have to open a browser then go to the corresponding email provider webpage (gmail, hotmail, yahoo mail, etc). There was no program for the email service (again, not sure about Blackberry Bridge). You have to sign in again and again since it doesn’t remember passwords. Basically a lot of hassle. I checked the app store but couldn’t find a email fetching app. So currently, its extremely tedious to check simple email. Kind of like a laptop.

Watching Videos
Youtube works well, like you would expect. Video quality is clear with the brilliant screen. This could totally replace the laptop in this department. The bigger screen size than phone also makes it much more comfortable to watch a movie (imported from computer). Definitely a plus.

Checking Maps/Addresses
Not that great on the tablet as 1, unable to to my iPhone so I couldn’t use it unless wifi was nearby and 2, the map database was bing and not google. The con about bing is that their maps aren’t as complete as google (some smaller roads inside campuses or malls aren’t shown). Aside from that the map program runs as expected, same with locating addresses so you don’t get lost. I use this feature mainly on my phone when traveling somewhere to make sure that I was going in the right direction.

Writing Notes
There is the Document to Go app on the Blackberry Playbook. Which is good. However, no exporting by upload or email. Which is bad. It has all the font, paragraph, etc options. Which is good. However I’m just writing a note, not an essay, which makes it pretty meaningless for me. Which is bad. The load time is fast. Which is good. But can’t export out of the device except by USB to computer. Which is bad. It goes down to, lack of exporting options which is the weakest point for this usage. Aside from that, more functionality for its word processor is a good thing.

Playing Games
The current game library is lacking in both quality and quantity. Even the “best” game, the Need for Speed game which came with the release of the Playbook was pretty choppy. The game felt “laggy” and not refined. The Playbook processor should be far superior, I blame the game and not the device as even though the game is laggy, when you swipe up to go back to the home page, it is extremely smooth. This was seen in other games I tried playing. Looking through the game section, games were either not interesting or poorly coded. Bottom line is more developers need to start/better code for this system before it could be capable of playing games.

Taking Photos
Brilliant. Nothing much to say here. Camera works like a camera. No focusing on a point though, atleast I couldn’t make it work. Also, taking picture process seems funny but turns out ok. When you take a picture and move, the picture looks blurry on the screen, but then when you go to the picture app and look at the picture, its perfectly clear. Its just weird, but doesn’t affect performance. I wouldn’t pay too much attention to it though, afterall, it does a good job taking photos. But the device is much bigger than a phone.. so whether that feature is any use, will depend on various people.

Blogging
No blogging program at time of writing.

Final Decision
For me, I would not even consider getting this tablet based on what is available right now. The reason is because I cannot get online with the device through tethering with my iPhone 3GS. It also lacks games and an email fetching service which I have on my iPhone. Lastly, my eyes work well enough not to require a bigger screen to read emails and text on a screen. At this point in time, less weight on my back to prolong back pain is more important than bigger screen to prolong my eyesight… Or something like that…

While the Blackberry Playbook does have many great features, I currently do not see its existence for a normal consumer not running on a Blackberry phone. If you do use a Blackberry and use the Bridge software, write in the comments below if it works well for you.

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Henry's Photo Show

Today, on May 13, 2011, I went to the Henry's Photo Show held at the International Centre in Missassauga. The show was intended for photography enthusiasts. There were alot of things to do there. Follow the link below for a more complete coverage of the event (not very).

The show was held for 3 days, Friday May 13, to Sunday May 15. However I only went on Friday. The show was similar to the other events that I've been to (Anime and Car).

There were a list of things to do there, like in the other conventions. They include;
- Buying photography tools such as cameras, lenses, bags, tripods, photo paper, picture frames, and many more
- Testing out lenses and cameras brought by vendors such as Canon, Nikon, Sony, etc
- Listen in on lectures from professionals on photography techniques
- Inquire about products of the new (coming soon) and old (present)
- Communicate with other photography enthusiasts

I'm not too much of a photography person but I won't say I don't appreciate nice photos. Im especially intrigued with light painting images or empowering landscapes and scenery. I think photography terms and ideas are kind of flowing into me now. I can kind of follow people's talk over at booths about whats a good lens or what material makes a good tripod, and etc. Though from what I could see, photography is an expensive hobby ;-; Probably worse than collecting figurines like I do. Except they can be used... darn it...

Basically all of the event was summarized up above. The atmosphere is very similar to the other conventions I've been to, lots of people, shops and booths of enthusiasts and vendors. Unlike anime conventions, no cosplayers. Also, not as crowded as the car show or Anime North either. The space was not too large, just hall 6 at the international centre, but the space was well used and laid out to prevent congestion. Needless to say, there was no chaos. And there were security officers and checkpoints to make sure no stealing.

Some photos included below, since this is a post in a long time, I'll mention a little bit about how I've been doing. Also, all pictures are taken with a Blackberry Playbook.

An overview picture of the event hall (excluding some lecture rooms).

The checkout desk, since this event was sponsored by Henry's, you see their logo in alot of places.

Discounted stuff, there were tons of it.

Woah, crazy lens from Sigma, 200-500x zoom O_O

My brother trying out expensive, hard to obtain lenses on his Canon 5D Mark II.

One of the several lecture areas, this was one of the smaller ones.

Lecture room. this one we went to was a talk about techniques to take pictures at night.

Of course we can't forget the eating area. Can't have people starving.

Gallery: Here.

I just graduated from University of Waterloo and now job hunting for a chemist position at some company, preferably for a research position or assistant. My field of work had been in the GC or gas chromatography field and hope to get a job there to present what I know and expand on my knowledge in the topic. If any employer manages to read this, I have my resume which I can email to you if you are in search of an employee. I can be contacted at pakhinlaw@gmail.com

Thank you.

PS. I haven't had much news to write about hence the lack of updates. I should be getting some anime figurines soon. I'll try to write a review about them when I get it in and taken some pictures (with some tips from this show) =D

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UW Graduation Composite Photo Get!

The end of my 5 years education is ending before my eyes.



The photo pickup was free along with this bag of goodies.


- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

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Writing on the go: Congratz !! New ipad2 owner

My helpful lab instructor, named Jake Fisher, bought an ipad2!! 32gb 3G black model! Lucky!! He teaches the physical chemistry laboratories at UW and is the most senior lab instructor now ! Hes great to get along with. If you do see him, just mention my name ! (Pak Hin Law) You'll get a great reaction. ;)

I missed out ;-;
Just 4 more people or so before me when it sold out.

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

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Writing on the go: Ipad2 lineup at waterloo!

The line for ipad2!! Store starts selling at 5pm on March 25, 2011.

We got there at 5:05pm.

Let's hope we get one.

Freezing here!!!!

- Written on the go from iPhone 3GS

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2011 Canadian Internation Autoshow

On Feb 21 of 2011, the 2011 Canadian International Autoshow was held. This year I had the privilege to go and see what was there. It was held in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto. It had many exhibits from every car company that you can find in Canada. If you're interested in what the show had to offer, read below!

I have never thought that much about cars. As long as it gets me from A to B with the best competitive rates and a stylish exterior, I'm sold. What else can you talk about in a car..? It appears that is not the case at all.

First things when you walk into the show rooms with the different manufacturers. They have already laid the whole floor with cars. Of different models, different packages, some different colours. Finding your car isn't just picking one which gets you to point A to B.

Look at all the cars (and people)!

But keeps you comfortable, be reliable and efficient, lastly and most importantly, keep you safe. And when you take a look at the booths or talk to the representatives, they will explain all brand new features available in their models. They basically talk like sales representatives. That is because you can actually place orders for cars.

I personally love the stylish cars. I want to drive down the road in style. But Lamborghinis are way out of my league. I got to see some pretty sleek cars at the show.

Hyundai Genesis

Honda CR-Z

Honda Civic Concept (Maybe next generation?)

Which leads me to the next point. I love seeing their concept vehicles from each manufacturer. They are either very unique and won't be making it into the marketplace anytime soon, or they look sporty in the way that makes me want it. >W< ! Aside from just concept cars, the old concept idea of using electricity for cars have finally grown. At the show, there were a noticeable amount of hybrid technology cars. Of course, the Chevrolet Volt was there.

Fully electric cars, that is the kind of charging station they will have

Subaru Concept, it looks sporty :D

Kia Concept Car, more room to enter the car, but no support in the middle o_o

Hyundai Concept Car, several concepts there had these kinds of doors. Maybe its becoming reality soon?

Concept cars, normal cars. What about SUPER CARS? Of course they had them.

However unlike the common cars, these did not let you ride in them, there were fences around them so no one could enter. Boo.

Lotus Brand, small and light cars, very sporty looking and unaffordable for me :P

Lamborghini Brand, most people know about them, extremely expensive and seem to like straight lines more than curves like most brands

Lexus super car, LFA, very nice looking (and Im sure performs extraordinary too)... but no money ;_;

Hmm... so concepts, common and exotic cars are all present. What if I'm rich, I can afford exotics. Were there any collector cars?

In fact, there were. I don't know if there were going to be auctions, but I wouldn't even think about attempt to obtain one of those.

1972 Fiat Dino (Oh, Fiat made an appearance at this autoshow, it was my first time hearing that name, but apparantely, it has been around alot longer o_o)

1976 Lamborghini Countach

If those weren't old enough for you... how about this one?

Its small...

LOL ! It was just brought in to show that that Mercedes was the fathers of automobile and that was their early vehicles.

That basically covers the whole show. There were other smaller things. They had an area to drop off your kids. They had vendors to sell toy cars. Several food courts were around the building. Oh, they also have a room where they show you the cars which won awards.

Lastly, there weren't much freebies. Just bags to hold your brochures or books that you can get at the booths. Sadly. Well, thanks for reading till the end.

Entire gallery below.

Auto show Feb 21 2011

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English is so special

I was writing a report for one of my courses, when I ended up writing "...an universal...". To my surprise, auto correction brings it to "...a universal...". Since this was strange to me (I was sure I was told, if word start with vowel, use "an" instead of "a"), I had to look it up. Results and reasoning after the jump.

Apparantely, I was taught wrong, or taught right and remembered it wrong.

English isn't something you just memorize, which makes it one of the harder subjects to master.

Instead of memorizing vowel beginnings then replacing "a" with "an", you should pronounce the word first. If it SOUNDS like a vowel, then you do the replacement. Otherwise it stays the same.

Here are some examples, since it caught me off guard myself.

Ultimate
- Sounds like "a"ultimate
So its "[an ultimate] human being"

University
- Sounds like "y"university
So its "[a university]"

Heres the problem though. If you aren't fluent in english and have no idea what the word sounds like, then what do you do?

Source: Here.

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Happy New Year!

Akimashite omedatou gozaimasu!

With that, marks the end of another wonderful year of 2010. Hope we continue to have a good and enlightening new experiences in the time to come. My present to you is after the jump.

I have finally recorded a piano piece from the visual novel "Clannad". The song is called "汐" in its native Japanese name, and when translated to romaji through google translate, it gave "Shiodome". When I used google to define that word, it says that its a place in Tokyo, Japan.

My friend translated it to Shio, meaning wave, current, or opportunity. Not sure what it is anymore. =x

Second friend translated to Ushio, which would make sense, so lets go with that. Spoiler alert. (highlight to see)
Ushio is the name of Nagisa's and Tomoya's baby girl.

This video was completely recorded from my iPhone3GS, if that means anything.



The source for the music sheet is here. The site is called Picoscores. Japanese person. Great music. I love it for its simplicity because I haven't played piano in a long time so I can't do complicated songs anymore.

My previous song, Kotoko - Allegretoo music sheet was also from there.



Happy new year!

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EssenceRO Christmas Loading Image Submission

Whether I win or not, atleast I've put the wacom to good use. LOL !
The image is after the jump.

I have renewed respect for artists now. Drawing is HARD! I mean, seriously. Not even the thinking and planning part. That was kind of easy for me. But to put the stuff in my head onto paper. WOAH SLOW DOWN ! Even though Im submitting it, I think its full of problems. But I'm disregarding those since I might stop playing essenceRO soon anyway.

I wanted to try to use this as a motivation to draw. But I see from this experience, drawing isn't for me. It took me way too long to do and the result wasn't that great. I wonder how people can draw so well?

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Japan 111R Twelfth Class

Last class !!
We had presentations and learned just 1 lesson from the textbook. But somehow still took the whole class time...

We began by learning the last lesson. It was on the 3 verbs, ageru (to give), morau (to receive), and kureru (to receive). We were taught on its usage and when is it grammatically incorrect.
Of course, we learned how to conjugate those 3 verbs, but the same rules were used from previous lectures. (All part of putting it together)
eg/
I received candy from my friends.
I, from friends, candy received.
watashi wa tomodachi ni okashi wo moraimashita. (Is grammatically correct)
watashi wa tomodachi ni okashi wo kuremashita. (Is grammatically wrong)
tomodachi wa watashi ni okashi wo kuremashita. (Is grammatically correct)

Thats all we learned in this class. Then we had our presentations.

There were 5 presentations in total. The first one was a gameshow. Second was a puppet show except the puppets were paper drawings. Third was skit for news. Fourth was my group's skit, a comedy gameshow where unsuspecting victims are pranked. And 5th was a recorded skit with a questionnaire at the end.

In general, I think the presentations got better as it went from the first to the last.

The teaching assistants (TAs) also did a skit of their own. They portrayed a japanese person living a hard life in Canada because of some of their words. The skit was performed in a restaurant setting where the japanese person would use words like "hamachi" for some fish which I can't remember. But it sounds like "how much?". And so the english speakers would give them the bill when they really wanted to order some food. There were other words besides that one.

After that, the professor gave us her thanks for interest in Japanese and said she had a good time teaching our class. She also told us that the exam will be 2 hours in duration and 6 pages in length.

I personally enjoyed the class. It was the only class at university I've been in where I actually enjoyed it. I felt like it wasn't much like a university class, more like highschool. Where you could speak out and no professor or anyone would be shouting at you. In any of my other chemistry classes, if you spoke (other than raising your hand and asking a question), the professors would scowl at you. Here, I could just say some whatever is on my mind (supposing its appropriate for the situation), no one would care. Heck, sometimes people would laugh or the professor would make a follow-up remark.

I will be trying to enroll in Japan102R. Since Japan111R is in direct conflict with the technical elective I need to take. I hope it will be just as fun. If I get in and you're enrolled in it already. Please do say hi to me. Name is Pak Hin Law.

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Japan 111R Eleventh Class

Today was our second last class. Next class will be just an hour or lecture then presentation!! I'm worried sick !

At this point, our script isn't done, we haven't rehearsed, we have no idea on our props. We pretty much haven't done anything!

But looking at it another way.
We have the script made, just need to translate it from english to japanese. And then we just need to memorize the lines and get together and practice. We should be able to do that over the weekend. So it should turn out fine.

On another note, the midterm was disastrous LOL. I knew I missed a few questions but LOL. 81%? WHAT? *SHOCK*

Whats done is done. Just gotta do better for final. Nothing much I could say about it. Careless mistakes and just a few questions which I got it wrong.

Today, we learned how to conjugate the 2 types of adjectives to their past tense forms.
For "i" adjectives:
ookii desu (present tense)
ookikunai desu (present tense negative)
ookikatta desu (past tense)
ookikunakatta desu (past tense negative)

For "na" adjectives:
shizuka desu (present tense)
shizuka dewa arimasen (present tense negative)
shizuka deshita (past tense)
shizuka dewa arimasen deshita (past tense negative)

For "na" adjectives, they are nearly treated like nouns. ie. kuruma desu (its a car).

But thats all we learned. We played some game where I forgot the name. Something similar to slap jack. TA calls out a hiragana character, we gotta find it on the table (scattered).

Things learned:
- Conjugation of adjectives for past tense and past tense negative
- for both "i" and "na" adjectives

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Japan 111R Tenth Class

We had our midterm !! And with it came lots of tears.

Hopefully I breezed through it. I did mess up something, so I'm sure it wasn't perfect. Forgot what "cleaning" it was "souji" D: !

Aside from the midterm, alot of new material was taught. Actually the only new material was adjectives. A whole sheet of them. We also learned how to conjugate those adjectives to their negative forms and "adjective" forms.
eg/ kirei (pretty) [exception 1 (even though it ends in "i"), type na adjective]
Declarative form
sono neko wa kirei desu ne.
(that cat is pretty, right?)

Negative form
ano hito wa kirei dewa arimasen.
(that person over there is not pretty.)

"Adjective" form
kono kireina e wa totemo takai desu.
(this pretty drawing is very expensive.)

Likewise, we learned the same for the "i" adjectives.

Another fun class. I think.

Kyou no kurasu ha tanoshii deshita.
(Today's class was fun.)

Things learned:
- Adjectives
- group "i" adjective
- group "na" adjective
- Conjugation of adjectives (both types)
- "ha dou desu ka" (question that usually result in adjective response)

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Japan 111R Ninth Class

As far as I know, today we learned nothing fundamentally new. Just continuation of the previous class.

We got a few more verbs in our knowledge bank now. We also learned more nouns as well. But thats all. A boring lecture (atleast in terms of knowledge).

What we learned:
- Nothing much
- more verbs and nouns, no new fundamental rules

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