If you’ve been keeping up to date with my blogs, site, and/or twitter, then you’ll know that I’ve been spending time everyday working on Project365. Project365, for those of you that don’t know, is the act of taking a photo a day for 365 days. It’s a fairly loose challenge in that the challenger can take photos of anything, in anyway, as long as they complete their quota of a photo a day.

It’s been a month now since I’ve begun the challenge and thought that it wouldn’t hurt to write a blog post on the topic. This way, rather then having to explain it time after time to everyone who asks why I take so many photos, I can just point them to this blog post (though, they’ll likely not bother visiting).

I’ve never documented an extended period of my life before, so the idea of documenting a year of my life is really… well, neat. It’ll be cool to see how I progress over time as a person, and it also provides a medium in which I can reflect on the various decisions that I’ve made. At the end of it all, I cant wait to see what kind of crazy visualizations I can create (programmatically generated collages!?).

In terms of how the first month of the whole challenge has been, well, it’s been pretty decent. A lot of the interns that I know have already come to expect me randomly pulling out my phone and taking photos throughout the day. Almost everyday so far, I’ve gathered 4–6 photos and have had to choose one from the crop to represent that day. In some cases, I’ve even opted to post two images rather then just one. It’s to be expected that since I am working five days a week, I may forget to take a photo until later in the night when I remind myself (iPhone alarm, chyea!).

“Oh damn, I should really take a photo soon” (Sunny, On days with strange photos)

Even though the challenge has a loose set of rules, here are a few guidelines that I try to stick to,

No Photoshopping: Every photo must be unaltered, though resizing is fine.
Maximum 2 photos: I can post at most two photos. Only one of them is considered that day’s photo.
No Posting Deadline: I can upload photoblog posts whenever I want to. This is just to keep me sane :O

It’s not that many, but If I come up with any new guidelines, I’ll be sure to include it in the next Project365 update.

Even though it’s only been a month, there are also a few things that I feel I need to improve on. I don’t really want to get into detail, but if they persist, I’ll be sure to include it in the next update.

For anyone who is interested in photoblogs, I highly reccommend that you check out http://photooftheday.hughcrawford.com/. It is the documentation of Jamie Livingston’s “A Photo A Day” obsession. It contains over 6000 photos, about 18 years of his life. I warn you however, that the last 100 photos of the last year (1997) are quite saddening, so beware! I reccommend checking out at least the first 50 of 1979, and the last 100 of 1997. You won’t regret it.

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By taking a photo a day, I also hope to naturally change my short term decision making technique, to that of an anecdote-based decision making* technique (I’m not sure of the correct terms). The idea is that, whenever I’m faced with a decision to make, I’ll lean towards the choice that may lead to a better experience or anecdote. This technique may end up giving me a great new story but a horrible experience, or it might even end up giving a bad story, but enjoyable experience (lol?). I guess I will find out soon enough, if it fails, I’ll just go back to the normal old way of things.

A trivial example of how a photo-a-day brings this change out is that, rather then staying at home in the evening, I’ll begin to attend new events because I know I need to take a photo. This hopefully leads to better photos, as well as greater experiences (as long as I have fun right?).

* I can’t remember where I read about this particular method of decision making, but I’m really curious about what sort of adventures I’ll get myself dragged into. Hopefully nothing too dangerous!

I’ve spent a good portion of my time exploring the downtown area (some parts of which are really sketchy). Usually I’m able to drag one of the returning interns with me when I go wandering the city, so I can avoid a few of the less desirable areas as well as not get lost.

But yeah, I’m been enjoying Seattle so far. Work at Amazon has been pretty great as well, though I can’t really talk about it :P

In terms of things to do here… err, well, thats been kind of tricky… heh. Since work takes up a good portion of my day, its been really hard to make plans for my evenings. Theres no problems for weekends, since the other interns are really into setting up events (Pubcrawl this Friday, and Boeing Factory on Saturday). Luckily, while I was at a company event, I met a fulltimer who is relatively new to Seattle as well and he gave me two sites to check out,

http://www.seattletechcalendar.com (Tech Related Events: Quite a few events happening everyday)
http://www.meetup.com (Various Events: I’m already planning on attending the MothUP Seattle and The Hacker News gatherings)

There is also a Go club located near the University of Washington,

http://www.seattlego.org

I am still debating whether or not I should actually go to play Go (heh) but I recently met an intern who went to the same highschool as a close friend of mine. Strangely enough, they actually know each other quite well :O! This particular intern is also a 5-dan Go player, so maybe I’ll just ocassionally play a game or two with him.

Anyways, this was only meant to be a quick update, so I should probably disappear and go to sleep or something XD.

Bye!

PS: Oh yeah! Before I dissappear, here’s a photo of a YUMMY chilidog that I got in Seattle. Go to my photo blog (click that camera in the top right corner) if you want to see more photos like this :)

So this past term has been a fairly hectic with school, extra curricular activities, and my social life so I’m kind of glad to see it cool down (the school part anyways, heh). After my last exam ends (CO342: Graph Theory), I’ll be able to relax for a week-ish before leaving to my next destination. The plans for my internship next term (January 3rd - April 27th) have been finalized. I’ll be working as a Software Development Engineering Intern at Amazon.com, Inc.

I’m pretty excited and have already started counting down the days until I leave. I get to live in Seattle, WA for 4 months. I’ve never lived more than an hour away from home, so this’ll be four months where I wont be able to get help from my parents (boo). I’ve already started listing some tourist attractions in Seattle that I want to visit. It’ll be great if I can visit them all within the short time period that I am there. I’ll probably try and hit up atleast one attraction every weekend (unless I find something really interesting to do :P). I heard that it rains a lot during the winter there so that should be fun to deal with, time to buy a rain jacket!

It’s also really great that I have a chance to work for a large software company. It’ll be a great experience to see how large companies operate differently than that of smaller sized companies. Going into the University of Waterloo, I had a few goals that I wanted to achieve while I was there. One of those goals was to obtain an internship at a large software company. In highschool, I was always under the impression that I’d prefer to work in a small startup after I graduate (another goal: obtain an internship at an interesting startup company). Either way, I can’t wait to see what team I get placed into and what new technologies I’ll be introduced to!

Of course, even though I’m really excited for my internship next term, there’s still a few things that kind of dullen the experience. All of my close friends are going to be in Ontario, so I won’t be able to see them until I get back (at which point, some of them might go out of country for their respective co-op terms) :S. I also don’t know a single other person who will be going to Seattle next term, so that means I’ll have to make a bucketload of new friends (lol, this isn’t a bad thing, just means that it’ll be a boring-ish start)

By the way, heres a quick list of things that I kind of want to accomplish next term (consider them New Years Resolutions?),

1. Learn to swim
2. Gain some weight (preferably muscle lol)
3. Cut down showering/shave time by atleast 75% (current average is somwhere in between 30–40 minutes)
4. Don’t spend so much money like an idiot (aka, create a damned budget)
5. More home cooked meals than outside/fastfood meals

By publishing this list, I will either achieve a good portion of these goals and feel good about myself, or fail horribly and feel like a loser for publishing them in the first place.

Until next time, Bye!

It was recently my 21st birthday and with age comes maturity/wisdom (Why else do they keep telling me to act my age?). Now, while that particular idiom may not be true in my case, I’ll be damned if I don’t atleast fake it a bit.

So I racked my brains and thought of the most mature thing a manly guy like me could do. The answer was obvious, I (as a manly man) grow facial hair… and what is manliest thing you can do with facial hair? Why, grow a beard of course! Oh wait… I can’t grow a good looking beard to save my life… =’[

So after some much needed self reflection, I turned to the next best thing. Shave the bastard off with the sharpest blades I can find! (That’ll show em!)

The Gear

I went online to Fendrihan to buy all of my stuff so I could compare reviews, rather then go into a store and buy a heap full of random items.

Stuff I bought

Merkur HD 34C Double Edge Safety Razor
10 Astra Platinum safety razor blades
10 Astra Stainless safety razor blades.
10 Derby safety razor blades.
10 Lord safety razor blades.
10 Dorco ST–301 safety razor blades.
10 Precision safety razor blades. (Made in Israel)
10 Wilkinson safety razor blades (Made in Germany).
10 Merkur safety razor blades (Made in Germany).
10 Black Feather safety razor blades (Made in Japan).
10 Feather safety razor blades (made in Japan).
Vulfix Pure Badger Brush
Some Preshave and Post Shave creams
Col. Conk Bay-rum shaving soap
A shaving mug
Proraso shaving cream

What the… ?

While all of this stuff is a hefty expense to begin with, it actually ends up being cheaper then razors bought from Gillete (and the like) in the long run. Instead of $4.00~ cartridges, I can get about 100 Razors for $40 (each of which lasts 3–4 shaves).

Oh, and the shave! You get such a close shave with double edge razors, its delightful! It makes you want to run around and force everyoneto touch your face… awesome!

How is it so far?

Well, I did get cut a few times… which means blood… all over the place.

Hopefully I get used to the blades soon, I made the mistake of starting with the sharpest blades (Feather blades). Not my brightest moment, It’s kind of tricky to get the blade at the correct angle.

Zzz

Yeah, I might make an update post on this topic later (though, I might just add more to this particular post). I’m sure they’ll be some interesting stories to tell about my shaving <- LOL, accidental death by shave.

NOTE: I haven’t had a chance to look for spelling mistakes in this post, I’ll do that when I get home from Waterloo this weekend =D.

NOTE TO SELF: Stop aligning all of the images to the right you idiot

Mistborn Trilogy

Book 1 : The Final Empire
Book 2 : The Well of Ascension
Book 3 : The Hero of Ages

I had the opportunity to get my hands on Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy and thought I’d give it a chance. I hardly get any reading done during my study terms so it was nice to get away from all the television thats been consuming my time.

Now, I do realize that none of these books were from the list in my last blog post. I didn’t want to read those books yet since they’re all sequels from previous series that I’ve read and I wasn’t really in the mood to read something with a cliff hanger ending. Since the Mistborn trilogy is already finished, I quietly prioritized it.

World

The series takes place in Scadrial, a misfortunate world that experiences a constant fall of ash from the sky and mysterious mists that are said to kill those who enter it. As the common folk harbour a great fear towards the mists, they rarely leave their homes after nightfall. This makes them all the easier to rule.

The majority of the plot takes place in the capital city of Luthadel, where the tyranical Lord Ruler resides. Scadrial has been under the rule of Lord Ruler for over a thousand years after he gained powers from the Well of Ascension. The population is split into two classes. The skaa, who do all of the menial tasks in the kingdom and are treated as slaves and the nobles, who are favoured by the Lord Ruler and may be able to perfom allomancy (a system of magic).

Magic Systems

There are three systems of magic in the world of Scadrial.

Allomancy: Allomancers can ingest and burn certain metals to gain physical abilities (heightened senses, enhanced strength, etc.)
Feruchemy: Feruchemists are able to store attributes/abilites into certain metals (same as those in Allomancy) and use them later. Instead of gaining new energy/powers, they use previously stored energy.
Hemalurgy: The ability to steal both Feruchemy and Allomantic powers by impaling the person with an allomantic metal in the heart then driving that spike into their own body.

Basic Outline of Story (Spoilerless… Kinda?)

The story follows Vin, a seventeen year old skaa thief who can use allomancy. She joins Kelsier and his band of thieves to learn more about her allomantic powers while they plot to stage a rebellion and overthrow the Lord Ruler with his wealth as their primary objective. The Lord Ruler himself is backed by nobles, Obligators and Inquisitors (Powerful allomancers) which makes this no easy task. In order to infiltrate the nobles, Vin is taught to dress and act like a women of the court. There, she meets Elend, an unusual noble who wishes to one day take control of the city and restructure society.

What I thought of it

I ended up reading the first book in two days as I got attached to the story. This might be because the story shares characteristics wit The Lies of Locke Lamora (planning a hiest and what not). The ending of the first book was pretty good with the expected twists.

The second book took me a little longer at about three or four days. I can’t remember if that was because of exams or if it just wasn’t as interesting as before. I do remember it being a bit dull until about half way through the book. It picks up at the end of the book though with another twist or two (you’d think this was an M. Night Shyamalan film).

The third book took me the longest (nearly 20 days) even though it wasn’t dull at all. I read it on an iPad (few pages every day before I went to sleep). I won’t say much about the story or what happens during this book other then that the ending is both surprising and satisfiying. It leaves space for future additions without compromising the existing story.

Verdict?

Sunny Approves.

NOTE: If you found the quality of this post severely lacking, chill out! It’s my first time writing a review for a series and it turned out to be somewhat a failure. Practice makes perfect? =D

Finals will be starting in just over a week. I’ll need to start studying for all the courses that I fell behind in (nearly all). This along with all the assignments that I have due, makes for a killer week.

This year has been great for Fantasy novels. Only 3 months have passed yet nearly all books that I have been looking forward to have either been released or announced. The list below is just a handful of books that I hope to read.

Wise Mans Fear by Patrick Rothfuss, Release Date: March 1, 2011
The Desert Spear by Peter V Brett, Release Date: March 1, 2011
A Dance with Dragons by George R. R. Martin, Release Date: July 12, 2011
Inheritance by Christopher Paolini, Release Date: November 8, 2011

I am going to run out and buy the first two novels as soon as I finish finals, I’ve waited far too long for them. I should be able to read them next term, so I’ll try and post some reviews when I finish. Meanwhile, I’ll continue to read Calvin and Hobbes whenever I feel like reading something (My mom recently phoned and asked if she could borrow them <- LOL)

George R. R. Martin’s Game of Thrones will debut on April 17, 2011 which is pretty exciting. Judging by the trailers available on HBO’s website, the show will follow the book series closely. Looking through the cast of the show, they really chose some good actors/actresses for the characters. Particularly Sean Bean as Eddard Stark and Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister (who doesn’t love witty banter?). Should be good.

I’ve been playing a few games of Go when I have the time and motivation. Improvement is uhh..imminent? I’ll write another blog post for this after I play more games.

I spent last night playing Starcraft 2 and watching the OnGameNet Broodwar stream which was fun. I kind of missed watching the stream while livecasting (fail casting) with friends on IRC. I am going to try playing another few games tonight to slowly get the hang of the game again.

My shift at work is almost finished so I should probably clean up and leave. I’ll go home, try my new tablet and play some Starcraft 2. The next blog post will either be in the middle or end of finals so wish me luck.

The end of my 2B term is approaching and I’ll soon be moving to Toronto for the summer (as long as my friends lease a place in time). I was lucky enough to get a software development position during my first round of co-op interviews so that simplified things quite a bit. It also helped that none of my current courses are overly difficult. I do however, have quite a bit of studying to catch up on in preperation for finals.

I will be working in downtown Toronto creating mobile applications. The company creates applications for iOS (iPhone/iPad), Android, Blackberry (Phones/Playbook) and the Windows Phone 7. Ideally, I would like to either do development for either iOS or Android but we will see how that goes.

Since I have never worked in Toronto before, I am going to try to spend some of my free time roaming around the city. I’ll try to take some photos with my phone to document my random adventures but make no promises. The area which my friends want to lease a house in is around 50–65 minutes away via subway or bus from my workplace so that means I am going to have to wake up early everyday next term (I am horrible at this). I do know a few others from Waterloo who will be living in Toronto next term so I can still play table tennis with them every once in a while (Yay!).

I was planning my 3A term and the courses I am thinking of taking are,

CS341, Introduction to Algorithms
CS350, Operating Systems
CS348, Introduction to Database Management
STAT231, Argh. Statistics is so boring
ELECTIVE/MATH 235, Either an non-math elective or Linear algebra 2

I have a friend who has taken these same three CS courses together in one term (along with two other electives) and he had a hard time with them. All of his midterms were scheduled very close to one another which must have been painful. I am not sure if I can handle such a heavy workload in one term yet but as of now, thats the plan.

My preliminary plans for 3B are also similar (3 CS and perhaps 2 electives) but I wont post that list until later. Good news? I finally get to start some fun topics in CS. It only took 2 academic years to get there! (-_-)

Shortly after the beginning of my senior year of highschool, I became interested in Go (also known as Weiqi and Baduk). I sold a few of my things in order to afford to buy a Go board with stones. The board that I had bought was a standard Japanese sized spruce board (1" thick) with a set of bi-convex Marble stones in wooden bowls.

I unfortunately didn’t realize that very few of my friends were interested in the board game. This left me forced to play on the online Go Server called KGS under pseudonyms (usually some silly name). Of course, I quickly lost interest in playing people that I barely knew. This phase lasted a short two months before I moved onto another game.

When I first came to the university, I tried playing at the local Go club a few times but never got hooked into it again. I am now nearing the end of my second year here at the university and have renewed interest in the game after reading a paper on the complexity of Go [link]. I’ll be playing the game with the goal of achieving a rank of 1-dan amateur (with an aspiration to later work on a Go Bot). I do know that this isn’t a trivial task to complete and am fairly confident that I can atleast make 5 kyu with practice (no idea about after that).

I currently have the following 3 books to help me improve my play,

• Go for Beginners by Kaoru Iwamoto
• Go - A Complete Introduction to the Game by Cho Chikun
• Graded Go Problems Vol.1 by Kano Yoshinori

I will be mainly playing on KGS since I am used to the interface and know a few channels to hang out in. Other sites that I have used in the past and will continue to use are goproblems and sensei’s library. If you have any book or site to reccommend, feel free to either contact me via email or in the comments below =D.

I will leave you all with the replay of a famous Go game,