Long overdue update..
No, I have not fallen off the face of the Earth. In fact, you should all fear me because I've finally gotten around to attaining my full driver's license. Bwahahaha. The roads are no longer safe. =)
Last term, i disappeared into the dark depths of the sacred Real Time lab. I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with the results, at least in terms of marks. I'm a little disappointed with the actual results of the project. I'm sure we could have done more. The project was initially supposed to be Pac-man-like, with up to two computer trains chasing down a user train. Of course, the computer trains were a little too good at tracking down the user train, so the user rarely got far. In addition, I was greatly amused (or not?) when the computer and user trains ended up being switched. How? Let's just say that our tracking lost both the user and computer trains. When the trains were picked up again, the computer train was also the user train. The nice thing about this is that I no longer have to pick up the bonuses randomly littered about the track. Why? Well, the randomly routing computer train picked them up for me. Woohoo!
To finish off the term of course, there was a pantsless run through campus, later followed by a relatively successful LAN party.
The Holidays
Christmas day was spent in an airplane, flying to L.A. to have dinner with the Grandparents. The following day involved flying to Taiwan, to spend New Year's and the rest of the holidays with the Other Grandparents. All in all, it was good fun.
Two days were spent in Hwalien (No I don't know how to really spell it.. and I don't care. =/ ). It's a quiet, scenic place.. I think that pretty much describes what I saw there -- water, trees, mountains, moo moo moo.. And I'm not kidding either, I did see some cows. And they did smell. Ah well, relaxing enough..
Most of the time was spent wandering the tech streets, or book stores.. and even the fashion streets. And since I was there, I couldn't miss the chance to visit the world's tallest building -- Taipei 101. It is one sexy building to look at, except when it has "Bravia by Sony" ads all over it. Ugh. Aside from that, it seems to be difficult to get a good picture of it. Oh and one last thing, it has been said that the fireworks on new year's eve here were awesome.
One thing that must be said, if anything at all, is that the night life in Taipei is awesome. Where the city seems to die out at around 9, except for perhaps some bars or restaurants, certain streets of Taipei are still packed with people. The streets are usually filled with roadside stands with people hawking their goods. And it isn't complete without the mini-arcade gaming area either. With that comes some other CNE-type games, some of which you would never find around here. An example is the shrimp fishing game. The idea is to hook as many shrimp as you can and dump them into a bucket using only a small stick with a string and hook on the end. If you're not careful, the shrimp will just cut your string and you'll have nothing to hook them with.
Now that I've vaguely described the things I've seen and done outside of home. Let's see what I did when I was lounging about at home during the days or evenings.. I basically played card games with my younger cousin or slipped upstairs to play Total Annihilation. I still haven't completed the entire campaign, but I've completed several missions. Now that I'm back in school though, it doesn't look like I'll have a chance to finish that off for a little while.
Blah.. speaking of school, I think I just finished missing my last class of the day. Woohoo! Unfortunately, I have a group meeting at 16:00 for which I need to do some work.
Last term, i disappeared into the dark depths of the sacred Real Time lab. I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with the results, at least in terms of marks. I'm a little disappointed with the actual results of the project. I'm sure we could have done more. The project was initially supposed to be Pac-man-like, with up to two computer trains chasing down a user train. Of course, the computer trains were a little too good at tracking down the user train, so the user rarely got far. In addition, I was greatly amused (or not?) when the computer and user trains ended up being switched. How? Let's just say that our tracking lost both the user and computer trains. When the trains were picked up again, the computer train was also the user train. The nice thing about this is that I no longer have to pick up the bonuses randomly littered about the track. Why? Well, the randomly routing computer train picked them up for me. Woohoo!
To finish off the term of course, there was a pantsless run through campus, later followed by a relatively successful LAN party.
The Holidays
Christmas day was spent in an airplane, flying to L.A. to have dinner with the Grandparents. The following day involved flying to Taiwan, to spend New Year's and the rest of the holidays with the Other Grandparents. All in all, it was good fun.
Two days were spent in Hwalien (No I don't know how to really spell it.. and I don't care. =/ ). It's a quiet, scenic place.. I think that pretty much describes what I saw there -- water, trees, mountains, moo moo moo.. And I'm not kidding either, I did see some cows. And they did smell. Ah well, relaxing enough..
Most of the time was spent wandering the tech streets, or book stores.. and even the fashion streets. And since I was there, I couldn't miss the chance to visit the world's tallest building -- Taipei 101. It is one sexy building to look at, except when it has "Bravia by Sony" ads all over it. Ugh. Aside from that, it seems to be difficult to get a good picture of it. Oh and one last thing, it has been said that the fireworks on new year's eve here were awesome.
One thing that must be said, if anything at all, is that the night life in Taipei is awesome. Where the city seems to die out at around 9, except for perhaps some bars or restaurants, certain streets of Taipei are still packed with people. The streets are usually filled with roadside stands with people hawking their goods. And it isn't complete without the mini-arcade gaming area either. With that comes some other CNE-type games, some of which you would never find around here. An example is the shrimp fishing game. The idea is to hook as many shrimp as you can and dump them into a bucket using only a small stick with a string and hook on the end. If you're not careful, the shrimp will just cut your string and you'll have nothing to hook them with.
Now that I've vaguely described the things I've seen and done outside of home. Let's see what I did when I was lounging about at home during the days or evenings.. I basically played card games with my younger cousin or slipped upstairs to play Total Annihilation. I still haven't completed the entire campaign, but I've completed several missions. Now that I'm back in school though, it doesn't look like I'll have a chance to finish that off for a little while.
Blah.. speaking of school, I think I just finished missing my last class of the day. Woohoo! Unfortunately, I have a group meeting at 16:00 for which I need to do some work.