018 - How far could a Klingon hit a golf ball?

I am famous. The following photo that I took a year ago has made its way to the Cheap Eats Ottawa blog:

You can even see Sebastian's shirt to the far right! It isn't the first time that a picture of mine has been used here and there, but aside from a time when I had stuff up on the Capital Music Hall's website (which apparently has changed how its photos are displayed), this is the most prominent display ever.

Thursdays are proving to be long days for me, including early morning class, afternoon class, and work in the evening. Today being Thursday means that my day will be super long. All summer, I would stay up so late - at times until the sky would brighten; the combination of school and work has pushed my internal clock back into the Eastern Standard timezone. It's unbelievable to people who know me when I mention that I'm in bed sometimes while still in the 10th hour of the evening.

I can rest assured that by next week, once I get a heavier homework and whatnot, I'm going to have very little, if any spare time. Maple Story might suffer the most since I'm 700 zombie mushroom kills away from attaining level 30, which is possibly where the game gets more exciting. Given the chance to earn imaginary mesos versus Canadian dollars (which is quite close with the American dollar. Why aren't videogame prices dropping? Super Mario Galaxy should be $49.99!), I would do with the latter.

One of the things I was looking to achieve for this term was to feel more focused. I think I'm definitely on track to achieve this. Especially when I have side projects with Prashanta's father.

Speaking of which, he had me make a couple of posters for upcoming conferences that the Canada Forum for Nepal will be hosting. I'll put them here because I realise I don't do that often enough.

The first one was based heavily on the one that someone else created last year. It just have more colour and has a cleaner look about it.

The second poster is for the broader conference that's going on. It was originally designed as a teaser poster, given that no information about the conference (ie speakers) had been determined, but I stuck with it.

This is the design that I originally wanted. The flat and bold colours and font choice gave a bit of a classic poster style. The background used to be brighter and more off-red, but it had to be changed to bring out more contrast.

Apparently, the powers that be didn't like the red, citing that it was too representative of a revolution, despite the fact that red is a dominant colour in the Nepal flag. In order to please, a blue version came about. The colour didn't match well with the original direction that I wanted, so I went ahead and changed up the background, making it a bit more interesting with a graded effect, and extruded blocks.

Lastly, a gray scale version was made fro printing reasons, though I still need to work on a higher-res version so that the print versions look reasonably nice. After all that, I think this version has some class to it. I need to think about using black and white more often.

Feel free to check out either of these events when they happen!

017 - K-OTIC

Pictures: Ottawa Rideau Canal at night, in concert: Lioness, You Say Party We Say Die, K-OS.

I had never been to a concert quite like this one. Usually there's a singer with a set list of songs and a word here and there, smaller, less exciting opening acts with a similar music style... This concert had two opening acts, both of which were very good. Their style was nothing if not tangibly in the same spectrum of what K-Os is all about; their music was a mix of electronic/house/dance/punk/everything else. And they were very energetic and interesting; they had everyone's attention, unlike some acts where nobody ends up paying attention. I actually wanted longer sets from both Lioness and YSP WSD (check out their music).

Then, of course, there was K-OS. He just came out with his sonic crew and started playing and singing. Songs and beats just kinda blended into one another until it was time for a break, for him to talk to the audience, and for get us to wish one of his band mates a happy birthday. It was all very energetic. One woman spent the whole time dancing between the security gate and the stage.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to stay for the whole thing! Being a Wednesday night and me having to get up in the morning (an early start to what would be a looooong day) - plus being all the way downtown, I decided to duck out after the performance of Sunday Morning. I like concerts!

A thanks goes out to Karen for getting tickets for Dan and I!

016 - YATAA!

Me, fake sleeping for the world to see.


Nintendo cares a bit about Metroid, as shown with some in-store singage at HMV.


Someone's a little too excited to have a mouthful of orange.


I'm funny, so funny that I cause laughter. HAHAHAHA.


I'm coming after you.


Fire alarm triggers call upon the fire professionals. They were unimpressed with the false alarm, and didn't even stop to pose.


Change that bulb!


Susma is back from Nepal!


GO ahead, ID me.

A huge burden has been lifted for me. My computer is finally running normally again! At least, it's not bogged down to the point that I want to throw it across the room: applications seem to open quickly and run smoothly, I don't have to close everything running in the background to check my email, and msn doesn't freeze whenever i click on a new window! I haven't tested out some web-related issues I've had for months now (that not even Firefox could fix for me), but I'll get to that soon. This is a good thing, simply because I don't want to get bogged down by annoying computer issues as the school year is starting up. It doesn't hurt either that I want to get the occasional Maple Story game in here and there.

And N-Philes! I haven't been able to get in around there in so long, thanks to my web issues. As a result, I've been nearly completely out of the gaming loop for an unusually long amount of time.

How exactly did I finally manage this feat? I uninstalled Norton Antivirus! The program would start out pretty average, but within a short amount of time, it would eat up my memory like a monkey would a bunch of bananas! So the best way to deal with it was to remove it entirely. That may not have fixed the computer - it may end up being just a temporary fix. At some point, I will reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows and all of it's components. Or, I'll get a new laptop. But that option is a costly one and I'd like to avoid it, as much as I would love a brand new gadget.

The important thing is that maybe now, I'll be avoiding online (this blog, for example) less. Even though before I don't really know what I did. Haha.

My next post will have pictures from a concert I went to last wee. Dan and I went and checked out K-Os. The opening acts were really interesting. More on that next time!

015 - August Photo Catch-Up

Final soccer tournament


Everybody wins!


Thumbs up for Superbad!


Driving to the theatre.


Chocolate milk afterward! In a classic glass bottle!


Gas.


The Boogyman.

014 - Claire Bennet should be the newest Disney Princess

My lack of updates lately have less to do with a lack of excitement than it does me avoiding my computer for anything other than basic email. My computer has to die. It's already dead. I'm typing on an undead laptop, running Windows Zombie. There might be a silver bullet labelled "reformat" in it's future... or would that be more of a "bring me to life" pill, akin to Viagra? Do silver bullets even stop zombies, or is that more of a werewolf kinda thing? Either way, my computer has to be fixed soon, or I'll become even more crazy.

In fact, there's been much excitement on my end since my last update. So much so that I can't put too many things on at once, your browser might explode. Like mine does! First things first, I started working part-time at the Disney Store (note the lower-case "the"; it isn't "The Disney Store," it's "Disney Store"). Someone, after a summer of joblessness, has hired me just as the fall swing of things start up. But so far, I'm really enjoying it. The store itself is really busy, and has all kinds of Disney goodness, but I'm picking it all up really quickly (I now know all my Disney Princesses). SO yeah, it's busy and a lot of work, but pretty fun. You hear horrors in retail, but this seems to be pretty horror-free. Though there was the one time i set off an alarm by opening the emergency door in the back. Haha. Oops.

I'll keep it through the fall and do the whole job and school thing that I've been avoiding forever and ever. And if I survive the Christmas shopping season, then I can handle anything. Maybe. Just don't cut my arm or anything... that would hurt. I'm not a cheerleader or anything...

Which of course brings me to my newest DVD acquisition: Heroes season 1. Sooooo good. Rewatching the earlier episodes is a bit of a treat since you get to notice all the little things you missed the first time around. And by you, I mean me. I'm disappointed in the episode commentaries and the cheesy mind reader game, but the deleted scenes are a treat. I really can't wait until season 2.

That is all for now because I have to go.