Month: June 2003

QUIET PLEASE

I have just returned from the set of Robin Williams’ new movie Final Cut. They’re filming half a block away from SJC.

Since this morning, trucks, trailers, and all other sorts of movie related vehicles have been filling up the parking lot in front of SJC. I was wondering what production was here. Then in the early evening, Kent told us that Robin Williams was on campus. That he possibly could be across the street in one of those large trailers.

On our way to dinner, we passed by the lot, but we couldn’t see any sign of hairy funny man.

Around 1am, I got a call from Dana. He said that he saw some huge lights from his window, illuminating the old Com Sci buidling. He wanted to know if I wanted to head on over. I said sure.

Three minutes later, we’re on the set of Final Cut outside the old Com Sci building. There’s a small blue car with European license plates in one of the parking spots. The shot starts with the camera fixed on the car. It then pans up to track three people going up a flight of stairs. You can only see the shadow of the people because the staircase has these glass block windows next to it.

Dana and I get there on God knows what take. We stand watch at least four more takes. Shoot the car, pan up, follow these people up stairs… do it again… and again.

The car seems pretty important. I have one more shot left on my roll of film. When I go out tomorrow, I’m going to try to get a shot of it.

SHAKA, WHEN THE WALLS FELL

When I moved into SJC, I thought to myself, “Wow, I live in a residence for grad students now… I wonder if there will be any people like me… you know… hard-core geeks…”

Well, nine months later, the much anticipated LAN parties and discussions about Kevin Mitnick never materialized. However, on Thursday night, I sat down with some SJC residents for dinner. I’ve sat with these people before, but it was strange, the conversation was totally geeky. We completely geeked out.

Here are just a few snippets from our dinner conversation:

“Shaka, when the walls fell…”

“Do you remember when Optimus Prime gave up the Matrix of Leadership?”

“The Baroness was totally hot!!!”

“Cobra Commander and Starscream are the exact same people”

“Was Chip the son of Spike? Or is it the other way around?”

“Snake Eyes is the coolest…”

“Lady Jaye!!! Rawwwwrrrrrrr!!!”

“I’ve played all the Bard’s Tale games… like last year”

“I had a thief up front to detect traps…”

“I think all this talk is giving me a nosebleed…”

“Whoa, did your glasses just break in half?”

“Did anyone ever notice that when Megatron transformed he turned into a tiny little gun? What’s up with that?”

YEAH SURE, I’LL GO

I need to go to bed earlier on work nights. Last night, I went for gelato downtown and got back to SJC around midnight. Then somehow, I got convinced by Patrick and Adrian to go Calhoun’s. I rolled into bed around 2am.

Tonight, I went to the pub (where we didn’t get to play shuffleboard!!! arrrrrrggghhhh!!!) and then finished up the evening at Country Style getting sandwiches.

Must get some sleep…

THAT WINNING FEELING… OR IS THAT JUST GAS?

I’m looking at a campus map today. Did you know there’s a Subway in the IRC? When the hell did that happen?

So, I had my second day at work. It was better than the first. An IT guy came by in the morning and re-installed Dreamweaver on my machine. It was then I found out my machine is a Pentium I 266. I just realized today that I don’t have any image editing software on it either. I was told I have to go to another lab, which is located 10 minutes away, to use Photoshop. The lab is also access-controlled, so someone has to let me in. I’m not sure what network that lab is on, so I’m not sure if I can just save my files to a network drive. It would be a pain in the ass if I had to e-mail myself all the files. What if I came back to my office and noticed I needed to change a tiny little thing with one file? I’d have to go all the way back to the other lab.

I know that sometimes resources are scarce, but you need the right tools to do a job right. I’m a firm believer in that. I’m tempted to just do that Photoshop here at home and go to my office when I’m ready. We’ll see what happens.

After work today, I took my pants off in my office for the first time. I got changed into my softball gear and headed over to the diamond right after work. We were playing this team called The Infrared Sox. Get it?

Anyways, we were on fire this game. Our D was the best I think I’ve ever seen it. Our batting was huge for once too. I believe everyone scored at least one run and had one hit as well. In fact, the last time we were up at bat, we got seven runs and we had to institute the mercy rule and that ended our inning.

Final score? 15-7. Our very first win that wasn’t by default. I felt so happy for the rest of my team. At the end, I jumped up into the air and my hips did this girlish wiggle.

Man, I tell ya work and sports can tire out a person in a jiffy. I was lethargic after dinner. I just sat in my room, watched some TV and played some video games. I got invited to a movie but I had to decline.

Well, I’m probably going to make a small snack and jerk go to bed. Goodnight!

SOMETHING I’D LIKE TO DO AT LEAST ONCE

I had an ok day at work today. There were a few technical difficulties that needed ironing out and will still need ironing out tomorrow. First days are like that.

In other news, I’ve decided that I’d like to try breaking up a wedding at least once. Like right in the middle of the damn ceremony. It’s probably one of the most ballsy things a guy can do in life. I’d only do it if I honestly thought the bride was making the wrong choice and only if I were the guy she should really be with. I don’t have anyone in particular right now, but I’m sure something will come up. Yeah, I know, this is totally out of a movie. Cheezy. Men, however, will do crazy things for love. There are guys who are logical and smart. Throw love into the equation and they’ll do stuff that makes no sense.

I can guarantee you though, if you were at that wedding you wouldn’t forget it… or me. As I grow older, I’m finding myself taking more chances. Like before I would only drink milk two days before the expiry date. Now, I’ll eat yogurt two days before the expiry date too. Or maybe it’s just that I need to find more exciting things to do on the weekend.

Hmmm… did any of this post make any sense? Oh well, too bad since I have to go to bed now.

WORKIN’ 9 TO 5

I have to go to work tomorrow morning.

Wow. I haven’t said that since late March of 2002. That’s the last time I had a job. I am looking forward to learning new things at work and improving my web design skills.

I am also looking forward to finally going to breakfast on a regular basis at SJC. I think I’ve been to breakfast three times over 9 months here. Of course, going to breakfast means I’ll be getting up early now. No more going to bed at 4am and waking up at 11am.

My last weekend of freedom was ok. I spent Friday cooking dinner with some friends. I have this new cookbook and I’m trying out new recipes from it. I made salisbury steak. Yeah, I know it doesn’t sound very classy, but it turned out better than I had hoped. I am in debt to R for making salad. For some reason, I still suck at that. No one got sick from my cooking and that was my major goal.

On Saturday, I made the long trek back to my parents’ place to pick up the car. My parental units wanted me to pick up my sister later that night. They didn’t want to do it because that would have interrupted their weekly mahjong night. I came back early to make use of the car. In the afternoon, I made stops at Linen ‘N Things, Ikea, and Wal-Mart. I picked up new sheets at, of all places, Wal-Mart. The thread count is only 150, but I dig the cool shade of lavender that now adorns my bed.

After suffering a minor delay with my sister’s flight, I picked her up and took her home. She was kind enough to buy me dinner that night.

On Sunday, we took Dad out for dim sum for Father’s Day. We went to Kirin in Coquitlam which is a nice place for Chinese food if you’re ever in the area. After dim sum, I took the bus back to UBC. I rushed to softball practice, had dinner, celebrated someone’s birthday, yada yada, and here I am.

Ok, to end this post, I’m going to play a little game. I’m going to take a screencap of the most interesting thing that’s on TV right now (excluding pay TV and satellite). And… here it is.



Yo, you feel me?

DAYS OF FREEDOM

I am in my last week of freedom before I have to start work. I’ve been reviewing a Dreamweaver manual in preparation.

I also went to Metrotown today. I haven’t been there in quite a while. The plan was to go buy sheets for my bed and to visit Old Navy. I’ve been using one set of sheets for the last eight months. The wear and tear is starting to show as my bed sheet is starting to pill. Anyways, I went into Zellars, Sears, and The Bay to take a look in their bedding departments. A set of sheets can be expensive, $60 or more for a nice twin set with a high thread count. I did find a beautiful lavender coloured set for only $20 at Zellars. I was going to buy it and then I realized it was for a double, so I had to leave it. Only later, someone told me it would have probably been ok since we have extra long twin mattresses here at SJC. I wish I had known that. So, I still have natty, old, worn sheets. I may pay a visit to Linen ‘N Things on the weekend, though I’m expecting to pay a premium there.

I did buy some stuff at Old Navy, but I won’t tell you what, because how much more boring can a blog get than me telling the world what I bought at Old Navy? I’m going off on a tangent here, but speaking of t-shirts, I’m thinking about making a limited run of erwintang.com t-shirts. It seems that Cafe Press has a pretty attractive merchandising option. I would plan on charging a very small fee for them or give them away for free. The question is, would anyone want to wear them?

So, yeah, I have a few more days of freedom left and I start making the big summer bucks on Monday!

THE LOST ARCHIVES

The archived posts for June 2003 are non-existent, and Blogger refuses to publish them no matter how many times I push the button. Sorry for the inconvenience.

WE’RE GOING STREAKING!!!

I picked up Old School on DVD today from Future Shop. Since I had Mark’s PS2, I set it up in the TV room so that a few others could watch it with me tonight.

I mentioned to the room that I got the unrated version. I was wondering what it meant to be unrated. We pop the disc in and after the Dreamworks logo, we immediately see two chicks take their tops off and display their boobs. This is the opening menu sequence. Unrated. I see.

I would say Old School is pretty good, but not better than the American Pie movies nor Road Trip which was also directed by Todd Phillips.

Besides picking up and watching the DVD, I had a bit of a leisurely day. I got my hair cut. I think there’s some sorta rule that says it’s bad form to mention in your blog that you got a haircut. Oh well.

I had to rush back onto campus for our weekly softball game. It was an interesting game. We were playing the Physiology grad team, which includes my good friend, Rhonda, a fellow SJC resident. I hope her loyalties were a bit divided, after all, it’s us! The people she lives with!

Anyways, I played right field for the entire game. I sucked… big time in the field. I let a few balls get away from me. Luckily, I batted a bit better, but I did pop up a few more times that I had liked.

The game actually went into the last inning with SJC leading by two runs. I’ll be honest and say that I thought we were going to lose. Our D is still pretty suspect and I was expecting the worst. My hopes were lifted slightly when we threw out the first batter. Then some dude got a home run but luckily the bases were clear when he hit it. I think they got another base hit. Then Rhonda came up to bat and then drove in the tying run. I felt our team sag a bit, but we still had to get the final outs. We got another out for the next batter.

The next guy then spanked a rope to left and it hit the turf behind Max. He ran back and grabbed it. In what I can only describe as a laser of throw, Max sent the ball hurtling towards home where Rhonda had been waved in. Karen was waiting there patiently for Max’s bomb. I have to mention that Karen had one of her nails nearly ripped off on her catching hand during warm-up. She sucked it though and here she was ready to catch the most critical throw in the game. And catch the ball she did! With a resounding smack!, the ball found its way into the pocket and thus enabling us to end the game in a tie.

There are no extra innings in GSS softball which I guess was the best way to end a hard-fought game on both sides. Though, if SJC had won, it would not have bothered me that much. 😉