Philip Brink

A Sad Discovery

2006-04-25T12:55:00.000-04:00

All my lovely comments have disapeared. They're lost! Gone forever!!! Oh what, what, what shall I do?!

I shall never again see them.

Goodbye comments. I shall miss you forever.

Formally Adjourned.

2005-12-11T17:26:00.000-05:00

I've decided to halt any post until further notice.

On Montreal: A Long and Rambling Post

2005-10-22T01:39:00.000-04:00

My room was filled with the soft, slow sound of Fiction by Belle & Sebastian. The speed of my wakening matched the song, but eventually I attained a status of semi-alert and managed to get up. I groggily dressed, flicked the power button on my computer monitor, and hit CTRL-C as the wonderful song faded.

Or maybe my my dad just woke me up. I can't remember things from that time of morning. I know I looked at the clock. Slightly after 5 am. It was dark out. You're not supposed to get up when it's dark. I'm sure it must be bad for your health.

I ate my typical half bowl of granola with milk for breakfast. Granola is good for your health. My dad and I quickly packed our red Escort, said goodbye to my mom, and began the trip to Montreal.

We accelerated onto the 403, and I managed to stay awake until slightly after Hamilton. The next thing I knew we were already stopped at a gas station in Pickering, and my dad was asking me to go and buy coffees and timbits from the Tim Hortons 10 meters away. I did so. My French Vanilla was extremely powerful, and I didn't fall asleep again.

...Vroom Vroom...

We stopped at the Quebec information building at the border about 5 hours later.It was extremely good to not be sitting. We browsed through the racks of pamphlets, and found much non-interesting information. My dad went to the receptionist, and inquired how to get to the Airport Holiday Inn while I finished browsing the non-interesting material.

We hopped back into the car. Ouch. Quite sore.

The buildings on either side of the road gradually became more dense for about forty five minutes, when we entered Montreal. We drove to the hotel, got out of the car, grabbed a bunch of our bags, and headed to the doors. The rain drooled down, and my foot splushed into a shallow puddle. Wet feet already.

We checked in. After unloading the rest of our bags and having a considerable amount of trouble with the locks, I mentioned going downtown. Neither of us really wanted to drive anymore however, so we unpacked in the hotel room. I took my dad's laptop from its bag, called for a uid and pass to access the wireless network, and logged onto the net to get directions to Bois-de-Boulogne (the school where our Blender conference was to be held), and also did other extremely enjoyable activities.

Afterwards, I decided to check out the exercise room. It was rather small, but had just what I needed - a bike. A rather crappy exercise bike, but oh well. So I hopped on, and promptly began to spin many times faster than the ancient gentleman in the recliner next to me. It felt nice, until I realized that the seat wiggled back and forth, brutally murdering my pedal stroke. I pedalled and pedalled. Unfortunately, there were no fans. Horror of horrors. An exercise room without fans!?

My dad and I left for the school, both to find out how to get there for tomorrow, and in order for some place of eating to catch our attention. We stopped at a gas station, filled the tank, and stared in shock at the sudden increase of traffic. My dad questioned how to get back onto the road, and I pointed at a taxi. "We could just drive round on the sidewalks like everyone else..." We didn't drive on the sidewalk. The three lane road was inundated with 6 lines of traffic, many at 45 degree angles attempting to change lanes. We were one of those.

It took at least fifteen minutes to cross from the right hand lane to the left hand lane over about 500 meters of road to the nearest highway access. And the highway wasn't terribly faster. After numerous waits and several wrong turns, we eventually arrived at Bois-de-Boulogne.

We left Bois-de-Boulogne, and started looking for somewhere to eat. We were forbidden from eating at the restaurants, so we had to find a food court in a mall somewhere. It took quite a while, but eventually we found one. At least they had quite a decent variety. We both bought teriyaki, and it was surprisingly excellent for food-court fare.

Walking round the mall, we wandered into a large exhibition of antique oriental furniture, wall decorations, and carpets. Extremely cool. Some very nice designs. Oriental art can be incredible. I especially liked the pictures. So terribly elegant but quite striking at the same time. Unfortunately, even the least expensive transcended my current financial status.

Navigating new cities with incomplete maps is fun.

Arriving back at the hotel, my dad and I 'wound down'. I grabbed his laptop once again, and typed away while he watched a documentary on why Hitler wasn't killed by the bomb placed by Count Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg.

The evening was finished, and exhausted, we fell asleep.

And I shall repeat the process right now. More another time. Soon, I assure you.

BTW: Check out Last.fm. The radio there is fantastic; I've finally found something with a semi-acceptable variety!

Suction

2005-09-06T20:47:00.000-04:00

Tried something completely different...

Mmm...

2005-08-24T12:42:00.000-04:00

GoogleTalk is finally available! And it even uses Jabber...

lifestraw...

2005-08-18T16:00:00.000-04:00

Was looking through an Inkscape development blog when I discovered this article.

And btw, it's not the same as the filtered water bottles...they filter mostly chlorine and "bad smell". And this one is _much_ cheaper.

Captive Soul

2005-07-21T09:49:00.000-04:00

Clarke's Card

2005-07-15T14:58:00.000-04:00

Go.

Died...

2005-06-28T13:21:00.000-04:00

Went searching for help, but found a description of my network instead. :-(

Gah.

Grasses

2005-06-18T22:28:00.000-04:00

(Needed a new wallpaper...)

Another pic...

2005-06-13T23:36:00.000-04:00

(Much thanks to MakeHuman for a base mesh)

Peace?

2005-06-05T23:48:00.000-04:00

(clickie for bigger...)

The Taming of the Shrew

2005-05-18T08:28:00.000-04:00

Last Friday evening my drama team performed The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare. It went extremely well! The description from the playbill...

“The Taming of the Shrew” is one of Shakespeare's earliest comedies
and is based upon a variety of Italian farces about shrewish wives. The
play begins with an ancient societal norm which drives the entire plot:
fathers would not let their younger daughters marry until the older ones
were wed first. Baptista Minola has two daughters: the younger an
amiable and soughtafter young woman (Bianca) and the elder a
violent, shrewish and passedover woman (Katharina). While Bianca's
many suitors (Lucentio, Hortensio, Gremio and then Tranio disguised as
Lucentio) vie for her hand in marriage through disguises and
deceptions, they also contrive to find someone who will marry her
shrewish sister Kate and free Bianca to marry one of them. But who can
be found equal to the task of taming and marrying Kate? Enter
Petruchio, a rather wild character himself who sets out to teach
Katharina a lesson: it is miserable to live with someone who is
miserable! Will Kate be tamed? Which of the suitors will marry Bianca?
Will they all live happily every after? Alive with wit and colour, this
romantic comedy is a lighthearted look at love and marriage.

And for everyone that couldn't make it...have some pics. Unfortunately, they're rather low quality, but they'll have to do.

The cast...

Petruchio, Hortensio, and Grumio

Petruchio convinced to marry Katherina

Katherina and Bianca

The suitors surrounding Baptista, while Petruchio introduces himself

Petruchio literally hitting on Katherina...

Me and Hortensio fighting to teach Bianca. Heh, almost got a bloody nose there...;-)

Cut-throat competition...

Petruchio's nice yellow wedding attire.

Proposing

She said yes...

Grumio, Hortensio, Petruchio, and Katherina on the way to the wedding

Cutting the cake, while Gremio gets drunk

That fateful toast...the downfall of my marriage.

Lost 100 crowns.

Katherina's looooooooong ending speach.

Gremio stumbles off.

Our new career as rockers.

The final bow.

The promised post...

2005-05-04T01:50:00.000-04:00

Hm, well finally an update...

AAHhhGhGGhhhhGgg...just finished my geography book... Just two more projects and the course will be OVER...

This past weekend (as everyone knows...) I went to the All Ontario Choir. It was great!

I got to the church Thursday evening at around 7 for registration. After getting my purple name tag and dark green shirt, everyone played a couple of the typical get-to-know-other-people games. The first was a gather-signatures-from-people-that-have-done-cool/odd-things game. I almost completed my list, but unfortunately, just could not find that weird person that had slept in a cave. The second was a run-and-kick-a-soccer-ball-to-your-team-against-the-wall-when-the-leader-calls-out-something-that-describes-you type of game, which was rather enjoyable. Unfortunately, I wasn't quite paying attention at one point, and mistook "alto" for "uncle"...err...whups...:-P After a couple more games, there was some time to just hang out and talk, until the band started playing and we sang some songs.
When everything had finished I found my brother and I were going to be staying at the Verbinnins that night. I knew them a little bit before hand, but not very well, so that was cool. The night was very long. The pillow I brought along sucked. An ancient dog racously wheezed and snored. And I woke every hour when the ticking of the old clock on the wall turned to a loud *clang*. But hey, it was all cool. ;-) That morning Mrs. Verbinnin (I really hope I'm spelling that name correctly...) made an excellent breakfast of bacon, hash browns, toast, yogurt, and tea. Tea...I hadn't drank anything remotely like it in ages. I wonder why, I rather enjoy it...
Friday started off w/ group devotions. Steve Pypker, Candice Vandenhaak, and Daniel Zwart led the discussion on idols and idolatry. And I must say...the purple group was amazing. ;-)
Sectional practice followed...we sang, sang more, and sang. It was cool stuff.
Later that afternoon sign-up sheets for various sports were placed in the gym, and naturally my name was the first on the soccer list. We ran (well...me and a couple others did) down to Princess Point, split into two groups, and set up the nets. Unfortunately, this was my first time this year playing soccer, so needless to say, my game sucked. :-P I had a great time playing however. :-D
Coffeehouse was that evening. The enforced-seating-by-sticker-type idea wasn't so nice, but hey, there were a bunch of cool people at my table anyway. ;-) The actual program was great however! Highlights included a dramatic reading of the "Battle o' Hastings", a piano-harp duet, a couple celtic peices, some excellent sax playing, and an incredibly fast fiddler. At the end, there was a tribute song to Mrs. Goheen which was very good...
That night...was not good. The same rock-like pillow. The same wheezing dog. The same clanging clock. Plus a throbbing head and dreams/delusions/hallucinations of odd events. Heh, they didn't exactly combine terribly well. Thankfully, I was feeling perfectly fine by that morning, which was rather surprising considering I had barely any sleep...
Saturday we started off with devotions again, then sang, sang some more, had lunch, sang, and then got locked down. I still don't know exactly what was meant by locked down, but hey. My group decided to get its picture taken in a tree outside the church, then played Mafia outside. There was then a bunch of free time where we could either go swimming or hang out at the church, and naturally the vast majority decided to hang out. ;-)
The concert that night was amazing. The audience loved it. (Never mind that the audience was almost all family...:-P)
Unfortunately, AOC seemed to end faaar to quickly... Heh heh, can't wait for next year's. To which everyone that didn't go this year MUST go btw...:-P

Aaanyway...enough of my long and rambling post...;-)

Got Perpendicular?

2005-04-09T09:38:00.000-04:00

Ha, Hitachi demonstrates their new "perpendicular" hard drive idea... :-P

You're invited...

2005-04-08T02:01:00.000-04:00

The "retarded cousin from Australia"

2005-04-05T23:20:00.000-04:00

Always dreamed of having something like this!

Here it is...

2005-04-02T01:27:00.000-05:00

Today I FINALLY finished my geometry course!! W'hoo!! Definately feels nice not having to do it anymore...at least...not in highschool... :-P

Went to a play that Rachel planned, organized, directed, AND narrated tonight... It was pretty cool! She and the actors did an _amazing_ job. Thankfully I was sitting in the balcony when they took out the supersoakers however.... ;-)
The play was a fundraiser for a missions trip that She and a bunch of other peeps from her church are going on later this summer to the Athens Refugee Center.

Ha, example of the dangers of biometric security systems... Article at the beeb, some commentary by Schneier.

Heh, got a forward from a friend of mine...the first _interesting_ forward I've gotten in aaaaages! Try it out... :-P

IN ONE TRY ..type your name with your... Fingers: Philip Chin: pyhui8oip One finger eyes closed: pho;io[ elbow: philip lips: py8o980 (my nose is too long....:-P) back of hand: philip tongue: -0yu89999oppppppp9880- (BEGH, wasn't about to lick my keyboard so i put a peice of paper in front...didn't work too well...:-P) heel: phil9p-

grins

2005-03-29T11:35:00.000-05:00

Saw this "Unused Audio Commentary by Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, Recorded for the Return of the King" over on James' blog. Hehe, it's good stuff. :-P

<---

2005-03-25T13:08:00.000-05:00

Hehe, yesterday Summer made a great list of music for her blog...then told me to do the same. So after working for like 2 hours till 1.45 this morning on it, here it is! :-D
I like it... Nice and long... And alphabetical. :-P

Quick post...

2005-03-16T00:09:00.000-05:00

Aiight, I'm posting...
Been having a great last few days... went snowblading at Snow Valley fri w/ a buncha friends, and it was amaaazing. :-) Tons of fun! :-) Unfoooortunately, at the end right while I was attempting to pull off my boots Mr. Hill (the person who had driven us all) came down and asked whether I had a blue and grey backpack... So I'm like yeah, and he's like "oh, ok...Well just so it doesn't shock you too much when you see it, someone hurled on it." Heh. No dinner for me after that. ;-) And meh, I had a horrible time getting my keys and wallet out of it later on.... ;-)
Later that evening I went to see a play called The Imaginary Invalid...it was amazing. :-)
Mon night....blogger party thingie, where almost everyone reading this was...:-P It was cool stuff! Thanks Summer/Andrea for planning/hosting it! :-D Almost ran out of gas on the way home however...had to drive for like half an hour w/ the big friendly LOW FUEL light before getting to a gas station. ;-)
Today I went w/ my dad to the University of Waterloo for their Campus Day. It was fairly interesting. Spent about half of the time listening to various presentations on computer sciences and the university in general. They had a few of the profs speak on it, and then a panel of 6 students talking about what they think of the courses and the school... When that was over, we went to a variety of research labs to talk to either grad students or the profs about what they did specifically. Didn't manage to make it to any of the teaching labs, which is kind of too bad, they would probably have been fairly interesting.
Tomorrow is an early morning again... Have to get up at 6.15 (!!!) to go w/ my dad to his work, and then to the University of Guelph-Humber in Toronto for their open house by 1.00.... So yeah! I'm going to bed. ;-)

Music...uhmm.. Big decision. :-P Gipsy Kings, Emir Kusturica & The No Smoking Orchestra, and Yann Tiersen... Can't pick just one. ;-)

The headlight.

2005-02-26T00:42:00.000-05:00

Tonight I went to a youth rally thingie from one of my friend's church. Listened to a speach on prayer and discerning God's will for our lives, had snacks, played a couple games, and hung out. Talked to a buncha people I haven't seen in ages, so that was cool! After it was over, I drove my friend back to his house, and then started going home...
It had started to snow quite nicely, all the roads were completely blanketed in snow, and I was having a great time blasting the W's. Then when I was _almost_ home, just coming into Brantford on Powerline Rd, I saw a single headlight in the centre of the road. I slowed down a bit, and eased over a bit to the right to make room for whatever it was to go by...but, unfortunately, the headlight swerved to directly in front of me. I hit the brakes, and ended up sliding, but was going fairly slow by the time I collided with the headlight. There was a big craaack sound, and I was finally able to see that it was a snowmobile...
I got out of the car, and the snowmobiler was fine, though his sled was rather smushed up. The bumper on my car was split in half, but that was about it. We exchanged info, I called my dad down to look at it, and it was eventually settled that he would just pay for the bumper...
So yeh! That's my story for the night....:-P

Oh right......and the obligitory musique-de-jour is---Lhasa. Amazing stuff! Goto Amazon for clips from the albums, or Impresaria for one of her songs.

Not dead yet...

2005-02-20T23:10:00.000-05:00

Eyyyy, finally another post!

The snow camp thingie I went to last week was great! Left Fri afternoon from a church in Simcoe, and got bused for about 3.5hrs to the Word of Life camp near Owen Sound. Had a bunch of speaches by Gary Speck (sp?) on a variety of topics, and some competitions between the different churches that were there. I went in something modeled after the Amazing Race thingie, which was kinda cool. Searched for clues, did a couple relay races, and had a race on the high ropes. Unfortunately, my team ended up coming in second... There was also lotsa time to just hang out and do some crazy stuff (ever tried playing hackeysack with a 20lb dumbell?:-P). Then on Sun we had a church service, and left for home... The bus ride was rather dull until someone got the idea to have a mosh pit in the back of the bus, and go luggage surfing...We decided to substitute dancing to Japanese rock instead when we found there were rollerblades sticking out of the luggage....;-)

I rebuilt Enlightenment DR17 from CVS a few days ago. It's looking amaaazing. :-) It's a window-manager-in-progress for *nix, with some beeaauutiful features. Won't really be usable as my default wm for a bit, but I can't wait. :-P

Today I've been rather sick, so I stayed home all day, and ended up worked on one of my Blender projects for quite a while. It's kinda a futuristic vehicle thingie... Modeling and texturing is basically done (though I think I'm going to add a bit of a grimy feel to it later), and I'm starting to work on animating it now. This is my first time doing _actual_ animation, so it's taking a while. :-P Pictures when I'm done, but don't expect them soon. ;-)

Found some _more_ great music today (thanks Summer!) from Ali Farka Toure, it's kind of an African blues. It's pretty cool!

Buses should be outlawed...

2005-02-09T00:47:00.000-05:00

Or at least go through emissions testing. I left at about 10:45 tonight for a short, fast run. It was gorgeous outside, at just under 0 degrees. The first time so far this winter I've been able to go for a run w/o a parka and gloves! :-) After about 20min, I was almost round the block (it's a big block, ok?) and was just starting my sprint home. But of course...right then came the bus. With its huge cloud of diesel exhaust. Fastest way _ever_ to completely kill a sprint! This one was REALLY bad...still felt like hurling after finishing my run, cooling down, AND coming back inside...meh.
Just discovered a band called Les Negresses Vertes. It's sort of French rock, w/ a fusion of tons of different genres. Great stuff! :-)

Meh. I finally fell for it.

2005-02-03T00:31:00.000-05:00

Yeh, it's true. I gave in. And made a blog... So, after a bit of writing and editing css and html, here it is. Go crazy--even with the lack of content. ;-)