Checkmate

新年快樂

恭喜發財
身體健康
事業順利
心想事成
萬事如意

Yes, I realize that this should have been posted yesterday and that my drawing isn't completed yet but I figure the spirit of it is still there. ^_^

WTF For the THIRD Time!

Okay, first the two child molestation cases... now this. Seriously, WTF?! The freaky part about this case is that I actually knew the two personally (I'll just say that we never got along). I was surprised to find this in the news recently. I know it's not a great way to start off the Chinese New Year but this was just so... shocking!

Before I actually quote directly from the Globe and Mail, I am still working on the drawing. Hopefully it will be completed within a couple of days or less. Anyway, on to the news!

A Canadian Deam Cut Short - By Sonja Puzic and Anthony Reinhart with Reports from Hayley Mick and Joe Friesen

A street race along a winding Toronto road led to a fatal collision of drastically different lives Tuesday night, police say, leaving an immigrant taxi driver dead and a pair of Mercedes-driving teenagers in jail facing serious criminal charges.

Police said the two accused, both 18 and graduates of an exclusive boys school, were racing their parents' luxury cars northbound on Mount Pleasant Road on the edge of downtown when one of them struck a taxi driven by Tahir Khan, a 46-year-old Pakistani man three days shy of becoming a Canadian citizen.

Mr. Khan was attempting to turn left onto Whitehall Road at about 10:20 p.m. when his Ford Crown Victoria was struck broadside and crushed against a utility pole. Witnesses estimated the speed of the two Mercedes-Benzes at 130 to 140 kilometres an hour, Detective Paul Lobsinger said.

Mr. Khan was killed instantly. The driver of the car that struck him suffered minor injuries, while the other driver fled, abandoning the car a short distance away. Two men have been arrested and charged.

Police found a copy of Need for Speed, a popular video game that simulates street racing, in the front seat of one of the cars.

Yesterday, at Diamond Taxi's dispatch centre on Queen Street East, colleagues of Mr. Khan mourned a well-liked man who put in 10 hours a day, six days a week, to build a new life in Canada.

"He was a hard-working individual trying to live the Canadian dream," said Jim Bell, the company's general manager.

"People are shocked, and now anger is starting to develop; the senselessness of it."

Mr. Khan, who immigrated to Canada six years ago, was working to save enough money to send for his wife in Pakistan, Mr. Bell said. He had been driving for Diamond for about three years, at first renting his cab, then buying a vehicle.

Tuesday night was shaping up as another typical shift for Mr. Khan; he had dropped off a fare at Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue and was on his way to another call when he was killed.

The taxi company was trying to reach Mr. Khan's wife in Pakistan and help her "in any way possible," Mr. Bell said. Diamond has also contacted two insurance agencies to see what kind of compensation can be wired to Mr. Khan's family.

The video game police found in the car allows players to select custom-made cars to race in urban traffic, Det. Lobsinger said.

"You have this game that's all about fast cars and racing through city streets. It's actually really ironic," he said.

Alexander Ryazanov, a York University student, has been charged with criminal negligence causing death, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison on conviction. Wang-Piao Dumani Ross, a Ryerson University student, has been charged with criminal negligence causing death and failing to stop after the accident.

The teens, both of Toronto, slouched in the prisoners' box during their brief appearance in court yesterday. Mr. Ross, looking relaxed in jeans and a hooded sweatshirt, spoke occasionally to a more pensive-looking Mr. Ryazanov, who slumped beside him in jeans and a grey V-neck sweater.

They did not glance at the handful of family and friends in the courtroom to support them.

Mr. Ross's mother looked stressed and occasionally shed tears.

"They're good kids. They're all good kids," she said during a break from the proceedings, slowly shaking her head. She would not give her name or say anything more.

Mr. Ross's aunt, who also did not want to be named, said the accused are "exemplary boys." News of the charges came as a shock, she said.

Defence lawyer Edward Prutschi, who represents Mr. Ryazanov, said his client's parents were out of town at the time of the accident and are heading home to Toronto.

"Certainly they're interested in being by their son's side," he said.

Mr. Prutschi said he plans to ask for Mr. Ryazanov to be released at his bail hearing, scheduled for Monday. Crown lawyers told the court yesterday that they want the teens kept in custody.

The two accused graduated in 2004 from St. Andrew's College, an exclusive, private boys school in Aurora, Ont., 50 kilometres north of Toronto.

Courtenay Shrimpton, assistant headmaster at St. Andrew's, said the two men were pleasant, well-behaved students who had no history of disciplinary problems.

"These are not the two boys I would imagine would have been involved in something like this. It's very unfortunate," Mr. Shrimpton said, adding that neither had a car at school.

"They're very nice kids. Very quiet, soft-spoken. They both did well academically. Certainly not the kind of kids you would expect at all to be racing down a highway."

Both were boarding students at St. Andrew's, where the cost for room, board and tuition run to $35,270 a year.

The 107-year-old school is located on a lush 44-hectare (110-acre) campus and attracts students from six Canadian provinces and 24 countries around the world.

Mr. Shrimpton said Mr. Ross played on the school football team, and Mr. Ryazanov played soccer.

openCanvas 1.1e (B72)

A friend showed me this pretty cool graphics program a while back but I recently found the last released version of it. It's called openCanvas; it's made by a Japanese developer but it's simple and easy to use.

I own several graphics programs (Adobe CS2 Premium, Corel PSPX, and oC4.06e) but oC1.1e (B72) is the only one out of those that has networking capabilities! Yep, you're able to have up to four people drawing on the same canvas. Best of all, this version is free! You can get a copy from me here.

I'm currently working on a drawing but I don't know if I'll have it ready in time for Chinese New Year. Can you guess what it is? :P

Anyway, tomorrow will be fairly busy for me. I'll be meeting a lot of people tomorrow for the Korean BBQ dinner. Mmm... BBQ. *lol*

Next time I post will hopefully have the drawing completed. Until then, take care! ^_^

Event Planning

It's that time of the year again. Yes, Chinese New Year's is coming up and I'm one of the event planners. :P

This "tradition" has been going on since my friends and I were still in high school. It's a good chance to meet up with various people and just have fun (and food!). ^_^

Once again, we will most likely be making a reservation at the Korean BBQ place at Commerce Gate (near Highway 7) for the night of January 28, 2006. Anyway, if any of my friends want in, please contact me before January 25, 2006. Exact time and persons are still to be confirmed.

Nothing else to post yet but classes are starting to swing into full gear now. I'll probably be posting a crappy piece of art soon though. *lol*

Rogers *sigh*

Rogers in my downtown area has been acting really screwy lately in regards to connections. In fact, it's gotten so bad that I actually have problems downloading e-mail sometimes (not to mention getting a ping of over 500 to a server that's a few blocks away...). Anyway, it seems I was the only person who called up Rogers to ask about the problem (one and a half months since the problem began). Well, I called them up again last night and because the problem is so wide-spread in the area and they have no exact time-frame for fixing the issue at the momemnt, they've just given me a month of free internet. I'd say that's a pretty good deal but I still have to tolerate annoying connection issues.

Ah well, once they fix it, the whole area will be much better in terms of connections I guess. Right now the issue is over-utilization which begs the question: What are people doing on their connections? o.O Heh, that's an interesting thought.

Recently, I've been doing a lot of computer support "work". *lol* It's actually been taking up a reasonable chunk of my time but at least all that seems to be done. The good thing about having done all that now is that my classes haven't started doing much yet, but that changes next week.

Speaking of classes, the weather here is abnormal. It's the middle of January but when I walk to classes it still feels like late autumn. Even my professors have remarked on the questionable weather. Heh, maybe the whole world fast-forwarded through the calendar without realizing it. :P

I also understand that some people are actually taking tests this early in the semester so to all those, I wish you good luck! ^_^

Lots of Quizzes!

You Are a Traveler Soul

You're a thrill seeker who loves to be active and on the move You love to wander: between places, ideas, and people. A good communicator, you're a nonconformist and interested in the world. You are an explorer, a good storyteller, and a true dreamer. Because you're always on the move, you can be a bit fickle. It's difficult for you to make personal commitments. Don't be so quick to ignore emotional issues and problems. You're much more intuitive and psychic than you think. Souls you are most compatible with: Retrospective Soul and Dreaming Soul What Kind of Soul Are You?

~~~

You scored as Aquamarine. Clever and alert, you know you can look after yourself and maybe others. You are quite confident in your own stability and you know you are capable of doing what you need. Somebody like you are valuable to have around as sharp-minds these days, may be considered a rarity.

Aquamarine		67%
Emerald		60%
Athemyst		53%
Topaz		53%
Garnet		47%
Peridot		47%
Ruby		47%
Celestite		40%

Which Mystic Gem Stone Relates To You?

~~~

You scored as Pain. You hold Pain in your heart. Something or someone happened in hurt you at one point to where you're beyond letting others help. By shunning others, you only are hurting yourself, though you may not see that right now. This hurt may even comfort, though at the same kills you. I pray that you'll see that there's many things/people that could turn your life around, and show you what in life isn't worth holding in that pain.

Pain		75%
Confusion		70%
Depression		65%
Sorrow		55%
Love		55%
Happiness		30%

What Hides Within Your Heart?

~~~

Your power is: Transformation

Explanation: Unlike everyone else you can change your body material and transform into anything (eg. an animal). This can be used in good purposes for infiltrating evil headquarters or adjust your physical abilities by transforming and therefore do better in battle. If turned to the evil side, a transfomer could manipulate the "good guys" by looking like their loved ones and break them down. As a person you are dissapointed with life. You don't have as many interests anymore and have become depressed. Of course you can be happy, but your happiness subsides quickly and doesn't last very long. You isloate yourself from people since you think they would only hurt you, but some part just wants someone equal who understands the pain. When you transform it gives you freedom and you can be anything but yourself. You often pity yourself but don't let people come near and know what's going on with you. But the thought of opening up and risking being betrayed is too strong and intimidating to even try.

Negative aspects: You carry much hate of the world and yourself and in the long run this could lead to dangerous thoughts (suicide/cutting/killing) though the last one is least likeable since you would probably just have too much guilt.

What Power is Compatible With You?

~~~

Your brain: 120% interpersonal, 120% visual, 100% verbal, and 60% mathematical!

Congratulations on being 400% smart! Actually, on my test, everyone is. The above score breaks down what kind of thinking you most enjoy doing. A score above 100% means you use that kind of thinking more than average, and a score below 100% means you use it less. It says nothing about how good you are at any one, just how interested you are in each, relatively. A substantial difference in scores between two people means, conclusively, that they are different kinds of thinkers.

Matching Summary: Each of us has different tastes. Still, I offer the following advice, which I think is obvious:

1. Don't date someone if your interpersonal percentages differ by more than 80%.
2. Don't be friends with someone if your verbal percentages differ by more than 100%.
3. Don't have sex with someone if their math percentage is over 200%.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

	You scored higher than 78% on interpersonal
	You scored higher than 60% on visual
	You scored higher than 66% on verbal
	You scored higher than 20% on mathematical

The 4-Variable IQ Test

~~~

Ranger
You scored 20 Holy, 38 Tactful, 70 Natural, and 30 Arcane!

Hmm, you've got the skills, nobody can deny that. You're a hard nut to crack in a fight, you can hound an enemy like no other, you have a connection to the wilderness that borders on supernatural, and the animals back home love you. Don't be fooled by LotR though, you are not a natural leader. In fact, you're probably a bit of a recluse, and you are reasonably rash. You gave up understanding why humans treat each other so needlessly bad a long time ago, and have just decided to do what you can for the defenseless of us by savaging the people that harm what you love. If everyone were like you this world would be a great place... but since it's not, better get back to hunting evildoers... with uncanny intensity.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:

	You scored higher than 12% on Godliness
	You scored higher than 18% on Tact
	You scored higher than 60% on Harmony
	You scored higher than 22% on Arcane

The Which D & D Class am I Test

~~~

Honour: You are an honourable person who is firm with his/her beliefs and treats others as you are treated. People would consider you humble at times and very respectful, and someone to definitely respect back.

Which Characteristic From the Samurai Code Matches You Best?

~~~

What was your job in a past life?

Playdium and Pocky

I just got back a little over an hour ago from Playdium with Sasho, Sheern, Mith, and Owen (hope I didn't misspell anything ^^; ). Let's see, we went from DDR to Nascar to Time Crisis to ticket games and then all over the place. Fun night, Pocky rush (yes, that's right... POCKY) at the end too. *lol*

Anyway, it was nice to meet up with them again (and meeting Sheern for the first time). As usual, I was pretty quiet... until the Pocky rush - that was just... um... embarassing.

Well, I've had less than four hours of sleep in the last two days so I'm going to crash now. :P

Bleghefhe Dell

I just got back to my own place after setting up my relative's three computers. I have come to the conclusion that Dell really sucks. Took me from around 10:30am until about 4am today to get rid of all the crap that Dell installs and screws up on the systems. Anyway, everything's in excellent working order so it should be okay for a long while.

I'm so tired, but I got to wait up to meet a friend. I wasn't actually expecting to finish that damn late. Oh well....

Classes Have Started!

Actually, classes for me started on January 9 but it's been a pretty simple week so far. As you know, classes in the first week don't tend to do much. I have at least one pretty cool professor but I'm not 100% sure about the rest yet.

Anyway, I don't have tutorials for another two weeks so all I have to do is a bunch of reading. I'm just hoping we don't suddenly get a ton of projects due in a short period of time. That would suck. *lol*

There's a chance I'll be meeting up with Sasho on Friday - just need to confirm the place and time. As for Chinese New Year, well, I have no idea how I'm going to plan that yet. I'll probably do the Korean BBQ thing again.

On a side-note, tomorrow's Friday the 13th. For me, that seems to be good luck. :P

This is just a quick post for today. Not much to say since not much has happened yet - heh, something will happen eventually... it always does.

Back in Toronto

Yay, I'm back in Toronto and with absolutely no jet-lag!

I've been playing around with the graphics tablet and it is amazing! The WACOM Intuos3 6x8 Graphics Tablet is a fine piece of work. Dead-on accuracy and easy to use configurator (small driver too). It's going to take me a little bit of getting used to though; it's not exacly the same as writing on paper. :P

I'll be adding a few more links to the right (art pages) once I begin adding some scrap artwork to my deviantART account but it probably won't be for a while as my skills are severely lacking.

Heh, as of today, I've received four red pockets during the holidays and I have no clue what is in them. I'm assuming it's money but I have no idea how much. Oh well, I'll figure it out later.

I met my relatives for lunch earlier today. I'll be setting up three of their systems next weekend (not this coming one). My estimate of the time it will take is about 4-8 hours depending on possible complications.

Did I mention I have fourteen packs of Pocky of seven different varieties to share with friends...? ^_^

Oh and just for you Dave: "random crap" XD

[And seriously... if you're a friend of mine and you have a personal weblog - please tell me so I can add you to my friend's list on the left!]