Codex of Dreams

That was awesome.

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:41:00 +0000

That was an awesome trip.

We left Toronto via EYCI on a bus at about 9 Friday morning. We loaded on our luggage, and boarded the bus.

At the border, there was a bit of a delay: one person on our bus wasn't a Canadian citizen, and had to be processed, slowly.

We arrived in buffalo about 45 minutes later. This "downtown" was lame. The buildings were unimpressive (save for City Hall), and the sidewalks mostly empty.

We headed to Pearl Street Grill for lunch. Considering that DECA Ontario picked up the tab (love free meals), it was surprisingly decent. I did regret getting the chicken salad though: those quessadilas looked awesome.

Back to the hotel we went- boy, Buffalo is chilly. Adam's Mark hotel is a bit dated, but pretty nice, and right downtown. I was on the fifth floor, end of the hallway. The guys in my room were great. The provincial officers were genuinely funny, and all amicable.

We had a whole bunch of workshops to attend Friday afternoon (unfortunately, in fully business attire). The first one I went to was kind of lame. It was run by the New Hampshire state executive, and truth be told, they weren't very prepared. My wallet (with all my money and ID) fell out- but thankfully, a girl from Danbury, Conneticut returned it, money intact. There are angels everywhere. Thank you, whoever you are.

The delegation from my school decided to wander Buffalo, hoping to find a place to have dinner. I must say, Buffalo after dark is rather sketchy. I had this disconcerting feeling the entire time. A creepy twentysomething (probably inebriated) actually stopped his car to watch us walking by.

We asked a random stranger where to eat, and he told us to walk a few blocks north, to the Chippewa Entertainment District. I think he thought that we were older than we were (wasn't that an awkward sentence). We ended up in a neon-lit few blocks of shady, dark bars, and adult video stores. We ended up eating at Subway.

We came back- and went to a Sabres game. The home team lost, which was rather disappointing, but we had kind of crappy seats anyways (again, free)- so I wasn't overtly angry. After all, it's just Buffalo. The Leafs never win.

Headed back, hung out in someone's room 'til curfrew, and hit the sack. Love free toiletries.

Woke up early the next morning (7), so we could make the first workshop. I seem to remember it was decent, but the exact content eludes me, so it couldn't have been that great.

Then off to competitions. We did a Sports and Entertainment oral, then a 50 question Travel/Tourism cluster exam. I was horribly unprepared: but I really wanted a medal- so I just made some stuff up during my oral. More on that later.

After competition was another free "Taste of Buffalo" luncheon- this time provided by DECA International- at the hotel. It was better than average banquet food, but still mediocre.

I boarded another bus to attend a workshop at Niagara University, which sucked. It was a thinly veiled pressure pitch to convince us to attend their school. I must admit though, despite the lack of prestige, the grounds were beautiful.

Again, back to the hotel. I was getting sick of bus rides by now.

We had pre-planned a chapter dinner, and we decided to do the Cheesecake Factory. We took a cab to Galleria, and entered the crazy line. For a group of two, the average wait was 2 hours. Our group of ten, even with a private arrangement with a manager, still waited an hour. But oh man, the food was phenomenal. I had a Burrito Grande: a giant burrito with all the fixings.

Oh man, I love that place.

We came back at ~830 to see the hypnotist show. It was pretty funny, but the performer shamelessly interrupted his show (multiple times!) to do self-promotion. It was still good though.

Back to our rooms for the final night. SNL was on, I should watch more often. The cameos are hilarious.

The last morning, we packed to leave. We went down for the closing ceremonies and keynote address. It started off with award presentations. To my great shock, I won for my oral. Our chapter did really well, with 5 of our 7 executives winning something. Hopefully, we'll/I'll do as well at the real thing this Saturday.

Amy Gallimore, the speaker was engaging. But when we went back to our room, one of my room mates checked out her story. One of the tales she told was greatly exaggerated. I don't have time to cover it here, but watch this.

And then we left.

We stopped off at an outlet mall, where I bought almost nothing. Just some soap and sanitizer from Bath&Bodyworks.

We arrived back in Toronto at 430. I slept 13 hours last night.

NARCON! And a new phone.

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:08:00 +0000

I'm off to Buffalo for DECA.

NARCON is the mid-year conference attended by executives from all North Atlantic states, and Canada. It's three days this year. Three days of conferences, workshops, ceremonies- all in suits. *sigh. At least I can wear my poppy. :)

I'm rooming with some interesting people. There's one other guy from my chapter attending, but we got seperated. Interestingly enough- I got placed in a room with the three provincials executives.

Essentially, they're the three most senior/powerful members of DECA in Ontario. Hopefully I can make some connections if I decide to run for provincial executive next year :)

It's an excellent opportunity- and I'm extremely fortunate I got placed in the room I did.

Now that I'm employed, it's time for a new phone. I've been tracking the developments of the Bold 9700 release for some time now, and it finally released yesterday. I'm getting my paws on my own next week.

I'll blog at the conference. We're headed to the Cheesecake factory- I'll snap some salivating pics.

National Post

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:04:00 +0000

Is it gone?

Any readers out there that still care?

More on work...

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:12:00 +0000

I think I'm slowly getting used to this working thing. It's become so repetitive, it's getting monotonous. The work is long, greasy, hot, and always the same.

Punching in orders doesn't exactly work the brain. It sometimes feels arduous, but the time tends to blend together, making it feel that you haven't really been working that long after all.

And please, if you visit a fast food place soon- do your server a favour.
Don't pull out the pennies.

No one likes to count 35 pennies when you clearly have a dime and a quarter. :)

Oh well. I have to go to work soon. This post is done.

This. is. awesome.

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:25:00 +0000

Check out my lower post if you missed it.

This is a "cloud" of all my facebook statuses :)
Click for bigger!

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:41:00 +0000

Check this out.
It's a "word cloud" of the words used in my posting. The larger the word, the more occurences it has in my blog. Click for bigger.

Things are a little crazy 'round here.

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:56:00 +0000

Man- DECA, School, and work, combined, is hard work.

KFC is pretty cool. The people are great, I live close, and they pay better than they need to pay me.

But I don't like people who:

- Can't decide on their orders. C'mon. You're debating whether you're having a beef gordita, or a taco supreme- not your future career.

- Forget their Debit PIN #'s. I mean, it's 4 digits. Four. It's not that hard to remember. And it saves me a lot of work when you can get it the first time.

- People who find they don't have enough money. We make you the food. Please pay for it.

But other than that, working, is well- work.

Happy Thanksgiving!

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:50:00 +0000

Why do turkeys make a “gobble” sound?

Check it out.

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 23:21:00 +0000

Wow, this is hilariously morbid.

Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:42:00 +0000

Woah.

Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
I'm a fan, but still- isn't this a bit premature?

President's Conference

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:05:00 +0000

I went to DECA Ontario's president's conference today.
Every president, from every chapter in Ontario attended. It was pretty awesome.
Keynote speakers, free food, feeling woefully under dressed- it was awesome.
It's kind of like a high-powered provincials, but with the top 100 people, instead of 6000.

It's so hierarchical- I love it. I met a few members from the provincial exec too. Yay for meeting influential people :)

NARCON is in Buffalo next month. Maybe I'll meet some more high-ranking DECA members there :)

I'm back! Kind of.

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:55:00 +0000

Sorry- I've been neglecting this recently- life has gotten a little bit crazy.

I start work this week- which coincidentally, is also probably one of the busiest DECA weeks of the year. I've got projects piled on top of projects- and a healthy dose of extracurricular stress to finish it off.

I'll do some topical stuff soon- I promise.

I've got to get on top of everything first :)

Taco Bell

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:45:00 +0000

Finally, officially employed.

Thanks for the prayers.

Taco Bell

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:02:00 +0000

I have an interview scheduled for Thursday afternoon.
Pray for me:)

If you printed the internet...

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:56:00 +0000

Makes you think.

Another year older...

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:43:00 +0000

But not much wiser.

I gotta go post a thank you for everyone who wished me Happy Birthday on fb (with a personal anecdote of course)

Monopoly City Streets

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 00:19:00 +0000

I'm playing Monopoly City Streets, basically, the classic board game on a worldwide scale. Pretty cool stuff.

I tried purchasing The Bridle Path, but it's taken.
Servers are super laggy- apparently, demand is more than initially expected.

09/09/09

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:09:00 +0000

Hopefully, if I got this right- the timestamp on this post will be 9:09. Cheesy, I know- but oh-so-awesome.

School started today, coinciding with the awesome date. It'd be better if I was in Grade Nine, but I'm not. Oh well.

I got my horrible schedule, which I tried to change- but guidance won't even see me. They're particularly tempermental today- probably something to do with the perpetually long line outside the office.

The lines were insane for the entire day, and they're only seeing people with "real" problems. My friend with four spares, for instance. Now while I understand the thinking behind that- I still don't think that the rest of my semester should be dictated by the outcome of the timetable lottery on Friday.

I want into AP English, and considering that half the class didn't even sign up for it, and still got it- I don't understand how I didn't get in. The English teacher wanted me to blog about it- so there.

Welcome back to school everyone.

Already?

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:45:00 +0000

Oh man. School is back.

Believe it or not, even though it doesn't officially start 'til tomorrow, I'm already swamped.

Since I'm the president of a committee now, I'm expected to go in prior to the real first day of school. I've been reading and sending emails all evening. There's a major conference in Buffalo coming up that I have to organize, and we're not even close to done. There's interviews to conduct, money to be raised, and publicity to be stirred up.

And I don't even have the pressure of school yet.

It's frustrating when you're trying to send a time-sensitive email, and the recipient doesn't respond for days. Phones are primitive :D, but sometimes very necessary.

Oh well. I have work to do.

Have a good year. I can't wait until I'm writing my "Beginning of Summer" post again.

Obama's Back to School Speech

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:00:00 +0000

Obama has prepared an eighteen minute back to school video for students across America, to be played tomorrow.

There's been a lot of controversy surrounding these remarks, with conservative parents afraid that the President will push a partisan agenda to their children. In light of all the trouble around Health care Reform- things have been tense recently.

To quell these fears, the White House released the full text of the remarks today, which I've included here. I've read it, and I really like it.

It's not an awe-inspiring work of oratory, but its eloquence is in its simplicity. It's a politically neutral speech, worded to be accessible to all students, regardless of age.

It's good stuff, especially if you're headed back to school this month.

Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event

Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009

The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, "This is no picnic for me either, buster."

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

Ikea

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:35:00 +0000

I put together two new MALM dressers for my room yesterday.

I love Ikea. It may sound strange, but reading their annual catalog is almost a summertime ritual at my house. I love the simple style, I love the cheap prices, and I especially love the dollar breakfasts in their upstairs cafe.

Ikea has a winning business formula on their hands. Take expensive looking furniture- make it cheap, and sell it to the masses. Self-assembly significantly reduces their costs, as does DIY home delivery. Having customers assemble their own furniture though, risks poor construction, and in turn, an association of the brand with shoddy workmanship.

But despite the on-the-cheap designer looks, I hate putting the furniture together.

There's a reason Ikea is so cheap. While it looks good, the quality of the material is hopelessly low-grade. Behind that fancy looking veneer is cheap particleboard and thin sheets of plastic, barely held together by inadequate hardware.

It bothers me to no end that Ikea includes the precise number of screws and nails needed to finish the project. There's no room to make mistakes here- and if you lose a piece, you're done. To their credit, Ikea provides additional hardware in their stores, free of charge, but it's an inconvenience to go back. Why can't they just include extras?

The two drawers together took me nearly three hours to complete. The first one had a bit of a learning curve- and attempting to decipher the cryptic instructions (devoid of words of course) wasted two hours of my time. Once you're used to it though, you fly through- and the second set took me a mere forty-five minutes.

Each cabinet has three drawers. I got so used to building them, it became near automatic. My thumb is still sore from pushing wooden pegs into too-small holes. A hammer would do the job faster, but considering the poor build quality, it'd probably crack the wood in half.

But the finished product looks great. I just wish it didn't take so long.

Michael Bryant- an end to a Career?

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:16:00 +0000

I'll assume most of you have already heard about this somewhere on the various newschannels that are broadcasthing it as their top story. For those who haven't, please read here.

Michael Bryant, former Attorney General of Ontario, and recently appointed the CEO of the newly formed InvestToronto was a prominent star on the political circuit. MPP, Cabinet Minister, AG- he was on the fast track to the Premier's office.

Is it all over? Only time will tell.

Bryant is going to have a tough time defending himself. Even if totally innocent, he'll feel the reciprocal effects of this for a while to come. This likely spells the end for any political aspirations he might have had.

I remember listening to 680 News last night, about eleven, when this story first broke.

Yes, there was some coverage, but nothing compared to the post-Bryant revalation that was coming in a few hours. It was tragic perhaps- but still just another victim of a freak road accident. It's nothing we haven't heard about.

A 3 minute segment on the evening broadcast, some politicians rambling about a soon-forgotten piece of legislation, but nothing more. Surely, it would be forgotten within the week.

But after Michael Bryant became involved, then the networks went crazy.

The accident was suddenly hit the headlines of every Toronto media source. A high profile, rising political star, involved in an accident with a fatality? That's what you call a ratings booster.

Shots of the former Attorney-General in the back of a cruiser quickly surfaced, an eerie juxtaposition if one ever existed.

Intersection blocking rallies, live interviews, "In depth team coverage": the media latched on and never let go.

It's not as if it was unexpected, but this story is an especially salient reminder of how celebrity totally changes perspective. Reinforcing my point was CTV's 6 'o Clock coverage of this story. 15 minutes dedicated solely to this story, then less than 10 seconds about just "another cycling accident", this one- without a dead body.

We've become so accustomed to having personal tragedy exploited for our reading/watching pleasure, we think nothing when another murder, or another accident pops up on our screen. We go "oh, that's horrible", and then keep on eating our dinner, undisturbed.

Now, I can certainly attest to doing this. But that doesn't make it right.

So next time you hear something on the news, actually think about it.

Still using IE6? You're stealing from the hungry.

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:11:00 +0000

The title is jesting, of course.

For every Internet Explorer 8 downloaded here, Microsoft will donate $1.15 to programs that fight malnutrition in the US.

Upgrading from ie 6? They'll double that.

So even if you're switching to a better browser immediately after, go download it.

My favourite time of the summer... Ex time!

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:09:00 +0000

I know, it's weird- but I love the end of summer. Not because it's ending- that sucks.
But the weather is typically pleasant (barring things like tornados, but those never come here, right? :P), everyone's back from vacation, and most importantly, the Ex opens.

It's that time of year again. There's no surer indicator of the end of the season (and the height of allergy season achoo!), than the opening of the ex. The CNE has finally re-opened, bringing with it, the sweet smell of syrupy multi-coloured cotton candy, funny tasting 99 cent spaghetti and the promise of another year of overpriced food, unwinnable carnival games, and musical acts that no one's ever heard of.

But in spite of all the Ex's annoying quirks, there's something about it that's unmistakably wonderful.

The "Old lady of the Lake" celebrates its 131st anniversary this year. It's interesting that this event has stood the test of time for so long, considering the major changes that this world has undergone. It's the 175th birthday of Toronto, so tickets in on Friday were less than two bucks.

But as usual, the line-ups for the 511 from Bathurst were insane, but I braved them out. It's better than begging a ride off of someone with a license, and handing over a twenty for parking.

I've never been to the CNE pre-2003 (I'm sure I have, I just don't recall), so I don't really have a point of reference, but the Ex is so quintessentially Torontonian, that I can't imagine it any other way.

Sure, the acts might be lacking talent, and the rides overpriced, pathetic and apparently- dangerous, but those things give it character (well, maybe not the dangerous part).

The entrepreneurs pushing their products in the Direct Energy Centre are so diverse, and so unique, that buying their useless, often-fake merchandise is almost enjoyable. After all, where else can you get Axe deodorant for 3 bucks? And the sham-wow demonstrations are even better live.

There's something that feels kind of melancholy about seeing the Prince's gate year after year. Even though the Ex has been rather commercialized in the past few years, the old standbys still exist, albeit in modified forms.

The RCMP's Musical Ride, Foot Long Dogs, Mel's hotdogs, the daily parade and Tiny Tom donuts, are all still there.

So little has changed, and for once, that's a good thing.

Full disclosure: I borrowed some of last year's material in the creation of this post. Hey- I'm short on time, and last year's post about the Ex was surprisingly decent. Don't worry though, all the information is up-to-date, and it's not as similar to my original post as you might think.

"If it's not fun, you're not doing it right."
-Bob Basso

Review: District 9

kevinwong913@gmail.com (Late Night Laundry) — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:30:00 +0000

I had some extremely high expectations for this one. When I checked prior to the first showing yesterday, it had a stunning 100% from the top critics on Rotten tomatoes, and a still-impressive 92% from all T-meter critics.

Since then, it's dropped somewhat, to 87% and 88%, respectively- but those are still respectable scores.

So unlike G.I Joe- I expected greatness.

And in a way- I guess I got it.

The online marketing of this movie is superb. The websites are brilliant.
There's an mock MNU website, a decent game, an augmented reality version of MNU "training", and a few other affiliated sites.

The official site D-9.com, is "run" by MNU, and has a few safety tips for humans to follow. It's an interesting mock-up, and it leaves you with an eerie feeling. There's both human, and non-human sections of the site- and it's worth visiting both.

Taking place in Johannesburg, the entire thing feels like an allegory of apartheid. Visiting the site from the non-human perspective, almost the entire Satellite map is covered in the red "prohibited zone". Humans though, can wander freely across nearly the whole city. The maps are dotted with interactive markers which indicate investigations taking place nearby.

MNU spreads lies is a fictional blog- written by non-human rights advocate Christopher. It's worth a quick glance- just to see the stuff the marketing team came up with.

And finally, on to the movie.

The entire thing is written from the tired "documentary" view, but it's not bad.
The first thirty minutes acquaints the viewer with some history- and I was genuinely intrigued. It's interesting to see how this movie's humanity treated foreign visitors- and the result is one I could totally imagine.

Despite the movie's modest budget, the slums of D-9 were realistic, looking like something straight out of your local news channel's coverage. The movie was violent, but not overtly so. But I can see why it garnered a "R" rating in the States.

The plot was disturbing, but not for the reasons you'd think. Yes- there was brutal violence, and fairly explicit human modification and self mutilation- but that wasn't it. There was torture too, but it was tame stuff, considering the flicks showing in cinemas recently.

It was disturbing, because it seemed so real. One could only imagine how the real world would react in the same circumstances. And you could only hope that a similar disaster could be averted.

I had a few gripes, in spite of D-9's merits.
The action was pretty standard fare- even with the addition of the halo-esque alien weapons. Some of the characters were pretty lame- but I won't spoil anything here.

And I didn't especially like the ending- although you'll have to see it so you can judge for yourself.

All in all though, I think D-9's merits outweigh its shortcomings. This is a worthwhile use of your ten bucks.