AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 5/08/2003 03:19:00 PM ----- BODY: Movable Type I've finally moved to Movable Type, so you can find my new blog at www.muellerk.ca -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 5/05/2003 10:01:00 AM ----- BODY: X-Men Phil won a pair of tickets to the X-Men premier on Thursday night, so we made the trek to Burnaby for the show. All around it was a great movie, but the ending was a little disappointing as it set the scene for a sequel. In the scene after Wolverine fights off the army commandos in the school he drives off in a the new RX-8. First time I've seen the car outside pictures on the net. Probably a little out of my price range for the next few years, but a nice little toy. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 5/05/2003 09:40:00 AM ----- BODY: Crimes against nature law a crime "Oral sex remains illegal in North Carolina, or, how to create a state of scofflaws. And you thought your girlfriend was just making that up. Yesterday's column details the failed attempt to overturn a law more restrictive than the Texas statute now under review by the Supreme Court." [Ed Post] -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 5/05/2003 09:38:00 AM ----- BODY: Commodore Update Messy doesn't begin to describe the night. Once I'm up on movable type I'll post some of the pictures. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/29/2003 09:49:00 PM ----- BODY: Finished. Mission for tuesday night, commodore. It's going to be messy. Check in tomorrow for the hangover update. Bringing an instamatic camera, should be a worthwhile roll of film. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/25/2003 12:49:00 PM ----- BODY: no post -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/25/2003 12:19:00 PM ----- BODY: Warehouse Sales Roxy, Quicksilver and Hawk Sample Sales at 1167 Grant St. (That is one block past 1st Avenue just off Clark Drive) Thursday May 1st - 4pm - 8pm only Cash Only Sales There is another sample sale beside the Home Depot on Terminal ave. Fluid send out the email, but it's a whole complex, with everything form skate clothes to more business attire. It runs Saturday from 10-3 and then Monday to Friday 9-5 (it think) -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/24/2003 05:47:00 PM ----- BODY: RSS News Aggregator Just downloaded News Gator. News aggregators are where it's at and this one just happens to integrate with outlook, which is awesome. If Grant ever gets around to setting me up with Movable Type I'll be joining the world of those with an XML feed. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/19/2003 12:31:00 PM ----- BODY: The Matrix Reloaded Trailer -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/18/2003 06:37:00 PM ----- BODY: Mastercard Spoof Commercial -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/18/2003 06:23:00 PM ----- BODY: Subviral marketing "It is a topsy-turvy trend that's said to be being pioneered by brands including Budweiser, Ford, Levi's and Mastercard. While traditional viral attachments feature short, slapstick video clips stamped with the brand's logo and web address, subviral campaigns are carefully shot to seem like they were produced by an internet prankster.' [Media Guardain] Had this picture emailed to me a few days ago and I started thinking about all the different spoof advertisments I run into while surfing the net or through email. This article gives some more info on the puma adds, and led me to the idea of subviral marketing. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/15/2003 10:14:00 AM ----- BODY: Arts County Fair ACF was last week, and for the first time in three years it wasn't raining. The best part of the day were all the preparties in Commerce, Gagé and even at the Beta house. The event itself was awesome as usual, but the venue felt empty, maybe people were scared away as everybody expected it to rain. Hey bebe, get in my belly -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/13/2003 09:14:00 PM ----- BODY: Cats Cute Cats Mean Cats -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/12/2003 04:05:00 PM ----- BODY: International High IQ Society Intelligence Tests [Randy] -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/12/2003 01:53:00 PM ----- BODY: Dix I headed down to Dix on Beatty street yesterday with a couple of friends to play some pool and drink some beer. $11/pitcher tax included means we'll be going back in the future. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/12/2003 01:51:00 PM ----- BODY: Tony Blair 'to appear in Simpsons' -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/12/2003 01:35:00 AM ----- BODY: Tricycle Who spends $850 US on a titanium tricycle for their kids? -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/06/2003 11:42:00 PM ----- BODY: Stratfor "Stratfor is one of the world's leading global intelligence firms, providing clients with geopolitical analysis and industry and country forecasts to mitigate risk and identify opportunities." I was watching Venture on CBC this evening and they did a special on Stratfor. They pull in information from all different sources and try to forecast world events before they actually happen. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/06/2003 11:35:00 PM ----- BODY: Scary "An estimated 12 percent of African-American men ages 20 to 34 are in jail or prison, according to a report released yesterday by the Justice Department. ... By comparison, 1.6 percent of white men in the same age group are incarcerated. .... The Bureau of Justice Statistics has calculated that 28 percent of black men will be sent to jail or prison in their lifetime." [NY Times] - Hopefully Bill won't mind but I've borrowed his style of referencing articles. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/06/2003 04:40:00 PM ----- BODY: Breakfast update... Battle of the breakfasts was way beyond anything we could have expected. The girls had a great menu, cafeteria style with a huge variety of food. Our menu was more restaurant style, with the girls ordering from a selection of plates in three different courses. Great times all around, in the end we took it by a hair so the girls are making us dinner then coming out for a good night at the ballet. (The girls did wore bikinis, which bolstered their presentation marks, big plus) -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/04/2003 05:21:00 PM ----- BODY: USA Horary! The Ubyssey (UBC newspaper) ran an April fools edition last week and it had to be some of the best spoof writing I've ever read. The articles on the war were amazing! I had to borrow a copy from a friend because they've already put out the new issue. I'll search around for another copy and if I ever get myself transferred to movable type I'll have to post a scanned copy. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/04/2003 05:14:00 PM ----- BODY: Colossal Squid Sound much more impressive then giant squid doesn't it. Something about these creatures has always intrigued me. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 4/03/2003 11:49:00 AM ----- BODY: Battle of the Breakfasts This weekend my group of friends is getting together for battle of the breakfasts. The guys and girls make each other breakfast then we vote to see who wins. Personally I think these girls are underestimating us, we've had a couple of planning meetings (at the kings head) and we're hitting up a rehearsal breakfast tomorrow morning. The won't know what hit them. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/31/2003 07:44:00 PM ----- BODY: 2 more days Wednesday will mark my last university paper. Wow, almost done, kind of scary. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/31/2003 07:43:00 PM ----- BODY: Blackalicous - Blazing Arrow Todd gave me a copy of this album in the summer and I listened to it all day, every day at work. Well atle ast until Mike "borrowed" while camping and decided it was to good to give back. Started listening to it again last week and just like the first time I'm hooked. It's music that sends tingles down my spine and always puts me in an awesome mood. Their concert in the summer was also amazing. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/31/2003 07:39:00 PM ----- BODY: Party party party... Had an awesome party saturday night. Way to much food and maybe not quite enough alcohol, but it was an incredible night. Of course I should be writing an anthropology paper right now but I'm in mid-procrastination so I thought I'd better post these pictures before James takes them off his site. Nothing completes a night like an offensive t-shirt, thanks for the great b-day present kyle/derek. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/27/2003 12:14:00 PM ----- BODY: 23 and 2 days old Had my 23rd birthday on Tuesday. Good times. Randy took me out for lunch then Hina picked up a garfield ice cream cake, so so tasty. Everything is staying pretty low key until Saturday night when I'm having my first birthday party at home since I was about 12. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/19/2003 03:27:00 PM ----- BODY: Two papers, one assignment and four exams until the end of my Undergraduate degree at UBC. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/13/2003 10:39:00 PM ----- BODY: "Terrorism forces us to make a choice. Don't be afraid... Be Ready" These are a series of pictures from the Department of Homeland Security webpage, pretty funny with the new captions. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/11/2003 09:00:00 PM ----- BODY: Snoop Dogg - The Shizzolator Ever wonder how your site would read if it was written by snoop? -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/11/2003 10:58:00 AM ----- BODY: How about I host your face Word on the street is muellerk.blogspot maybe moved to MovableType and Hosted by Grant. Sweet, time to upload some pictures. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/09/2003 01:08:00 PM ----- BODY: Rick Mercer Aplogizes to the USA Care of Dono -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/09/2003 12:39:00 PM ----- BODY: What the Internet Is and How to Stop Mistaking It for Something Else "It is an excellent attempt to explain what the Internet really is, why it works, and what it means for our behavior." Care of Megnut -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/09/2003 12:30:00 PM ----- BODY: Make your cat unuseless! Wow, time to get some dusting slippers for Fritzy (scroll down for a pic) 101 Unuseless Japanese Inventions: The Art of Chindogu looks like a great bathroom reader -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/09/2003 12:06:00 AM ----- BODY: Enterprise I spent last weekend at the Enterprise Entreprenural Conference, held at the Wall Center in downtown Vancouver. Universities from accross Canada sent delegations to present business plans to a panel of business people. The group from the Universtiy of Manitoba had an amazing presentation on a handheld ultrasound device and everybody was througherly impressed. Another group's presentation was terrible, they hadn't done any market research and their product was a bust. A venture capitalist on the panel was incredible, he had really done his research and had an indepth knowledge of every product and it's related market. The group from Toba nailed every one of his questions, while the less then sucessful team got ripped apart. It was pretty uncomfortable for everybody, that's how bad this group was. It's events like this that really add to my degree, I learn so much more in this environment then sitting in a class studying theories of Labour Relations. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/08/2003 11:37:00 PM ----- BODY: I double posted enterprise, and I can't seem to find a way to delete this posting... -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/08/2003 11:23:00 PM ----- BODY: Beyond dangerously cheesy CNN reports on a huge chee-to. Times must be tough if the people of Algona are relying on this to bolster their local economy. Thanks to Grant for the link -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/08/2003 10:33:00 PM ----- BODY: Treehouses I just read an article in the NY Times(sorry you have to log in) on treehouses and I started thinking about how I always wanted one. Turns out there is an Annual World Treehouse Conference. I guess treehouses aren't just for kids anymore. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/08/2003 12:18:00 PM ----- BODY: More great videos -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/04/2003 04:28:00 PM ----- BODY: Great Commercials Bugger Me Great Toyota Commercial John West Red Salmon -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 3/04/2003 04:15:00 PM ----- BODY: Avoid the Meadow -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/27/2003 11:03:00 PM ----- BODY: Mister Rogers' passed away today at the age of 74 It's amazing how much television has changed since the days when I would watch Mister Rogers' with my sister. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/26/2003 04:53:00 PM ----- BODY: handy tool "for you joggers/runners out there, this is a really cool tool that you can use to map out your routes." It also lets you calculate your taxi fare, but the maps are pretty small so it's only good for those rides in the $10 range. Thanks to Randy for the link -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/26/2003 04:20:00 PM ----- BODY: Stress Relief Paintball Thanks to Orvin for the link -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/26/2003 04:18:00 PM ----- BODY: Who comes up with this stuff? It's the stadium pal for guys and girls. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/26/2003 04:02:00 PM ----- BODY: Pee Test Thanks to Dono for the link -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/24/2003 07:21:00 PM ----- BODY: Coffee and Kits Beach Once or twice a week Erin and I grab a coffee and go for a walk. This is one of my favourite places. I am truly privileged to live in such an amazing City. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/22/2003 08:24:00 PM ----- BODY: Google Buys Blogger.com Google has bought the company which helped make weblogs a worldwide phenomenon. Does this mean blogs will now really hit the big time - or could going mainstream destroy their cult appeal? -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/22/2003 05:37:00 PM ----- BODY: International Fashion Trend? Maybe I'm old fashioned, but prints on skirts that make it look as if a person’s panties are visible, just isn't my cup of tea. The thing I really don't understand is why would somebody choose a skirt with of a pair of saggy full backs on an equally saggy ass? I'd have thought people would prefer something a little trimmer and more flattering. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/21/2003 05:43:00 PM ----- BODY: Reading Week Needless to say there was no reading during reading week. I Spent Valentines Day sailing with Mike, then headed up to Sakinaw for a few days of relaxation and bbq treats. Monday/Tuesday were spent at work leafing through resumes for people who didn't even come close to meeting the job requirements. Something about being a manager at Wendy's doesn't really scream "extensive base of executive level contacts in Europe" or "Superior knowledge, and experience in the bulk shipping industry" Wednesday through Thursday I was in Whistler snowboarding. Being President's day in the US and reading week for those from UBC the mountain was packed, as were the clubs. Whistler clubs now all charge cover, so by the time I was through the door, had checked my coat, and bought one beer I was already out $20. Outch, not so good on a student’s budge. The rest of the week should be quite relaxing, b-day party tonight and then some family events on the weekend. Who knows, maybe I'll even crack a book Sunday afternoon. Thanks to Orvin for lobbying UBC to keep the weeklong break, U-VIC and SFU only get a few days. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/21/2003 05:26:00 PM ----- BODY: Jailbait or Legal The person who sent this to me will remain unnamed. Careful, it's tied to the date of the picture not the person's actual age. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/12/2003 09:16:00 PM ----- BODY: It must be a cultural thing -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/11/2003 10:07:00 AM ----- BODY: NASA Memorial To Columbia Starscapes, a moving NASA memorial, with stunning photography. The third picture is amazing. Thanks for the link, Bill -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/02/2003 11:10:00 PM ----- BODY: Kazaa without the spywear, who knew I haven't downloaded this yet, but it like the webcam link comes from James so it should be good. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/02/2003 11:07:00 PM ----- BODY: Jericho Beach Live Webcam This is awesome, but it's already after sunset so I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning for live images. I've also added a link to link section of my blog. Thanks to James for the link. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/02/2003 10:41:00 PM ----- BODY: Reebok Superbowl Add -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/02/2003 02:16:00 PM ----- BODY: The Flu For the first time in probably about a year I've spent almost the entire weekend at home drinking hot tea in bed. Something about reading textbooks just isn't so appealing when you're not feeling well. On the bright side, I do live at home and there is nothing more comforting then having your mom bring you a bowl of home made chicken soup. Maybe I should have gotten a flu shot afterall… -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 2/02/2003 02:07:00 PM ----- BODY: Bulk Mail Blues Today I came to the realization that about 90% of the email I receive is spam. When I first got the Internet I would spend hours emailing friends all over the country, but as with all things the novelty slowly wore off and the flood of emails dried up. Now when I check my email, msn tells me how many new messages I have and I just hope at least one of them won't be junk mail; unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Hotmail is notorious for large quantities of junk mail, and although they offer a mail filter that I have set to high, it only filters about half the spam to a junk mail folder. I've had my email address for about seven years now, and I've grown quite attached to it, but if the stream of junk mail continues to grow I will have to move away from hotmail in the hopes of slowing the constant flow of daily smut. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/28/2003 10:50:00 AM ----- BODY: H.O.T hot We all have our good days, guess this wasn't one of them -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/26/2003 10:11:00 AM ----- BODY: The Race to Kill Kazaa "The servers are in Denmark. The software is in Estonia. The domain is registered Down Under, the corporation on a tiny island in the South Pacific." -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/26/2003 09:57:00 AM ----- BODY: The Next Step In Advertising As usual, the Superbowl's TV adds are a big draw and everybody is curious to see exactly what is in store. How about billboards on busses that "change in a matter of seconds according to demographics, time and location...." -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/25/2003 09:28:00 PM ----- BODY: Typing Test Looks like all my time spent on msn has actually helped my typing, although I'm slow with punctuation and quotations. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/20/2003 10:06:00 PM ----- BODY: Len Henriksson Tonight I just came across a memorial site for a Len Henriksson, a Commerce Prof. who passed away January 30th, last year. I had Len for two classes and he was by far my favourite professor; his dedication to teaching and his caring for students was unsurpassed. I can only actually remember three instances when I have actually cried. The first, when grandfather passed away. The second, Len's ceremony. The third, tonight. I came across his memorial site while searching for my own name online. Reading all of the letters from my friends and other classmates, and seeing pictures of Len was just too much. Len was votes “Most Popular Teacher” 2000-2001, not because his classes were easy, but because everybody honestly enjoyed his lectures and had a great deal of respect for him as a professor. He is greatly missed. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/20/2003 08:21:00 PM ----- BODY: Overrated Sixty-eight million US just doesn't buy what it use to. I mean, where's my helicopter? -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/19/2003 09:06:00 PM ----- BODY: Sunday's in Whistler Slowing getting settled with school. My goal is to finish all my work during the week so I have my weekends off. So far no luck; although, Sunday is officially Whistler day. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/19/2003 08:57:00 PM ----- BODY: Where do they come up with this stuff? Manties, as posted by Randy -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/18/2003 01:32:00 PM ----- BODY: The Talent Myth "It never occurred to them that, if everyone had to think outside the box, maybe it was the box that needed fixing" Thanks to Ole for this posting. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/18/2003 10:16:00 AM ----- BODY: Drinking and Eating just got Easier idrink.com lets you enter your inventory of drink ingredients and it shoots back drink recipies. The best part is it saves your information, so next time you visit you don't have to re-enter your stock. Cookin' With Google is a similar idea, but allows you to enter what you have in the fridge and it comes up with ideas for dinner. This works well for people like me who have about three or four dishes they cook on a regular basis and if the ingredients aren't available, it's time for take out. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/15/2003 05:49:00 PM ----- BODY: Kevin Mueller, Network Specialist Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it. Finally finished networking my parents place so I now have the Internet in my room. Here's what Frank had to say about it: "just cuz you got internet in your room doesn't mean you should spend all day polishing the bishop" -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/14/2003 02:51:00 PM ----- BODY: SnackWatch™ Yesterday "Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache in 24 Hours" arrived at my door step. I am now well on my way to becoming a web developer. Look for a roll out of SnackWatch™ in the coming months. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/13/2003 10:11:00 PM ----- BODY: Oil Slick vs. Whale "If this boat hit a slick of heavy fuel oil at 20 knots, the damage would be the same as if we’d hit a whale. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/06/2003 08:46:00 PM ----- BODY: First Day of Class After a very relaxing Christmas break I was back for my first day of class today, wow does everybody ever look young. I took some time to reflect on my past 5 years at UBC, the great experiences I've had, the amazing people I've met and how much I've grown as an individual. These next four months are sure to be memorable. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 1/05/2003 04:09:00 PM ----- BODY: Pictures from Sakinaw Thanks to James for these great pics. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 12/30/2002 05:12:00 PM ----- BODY: Wine Class cont. Well it's official, at 65% FNH 330 was my worst University class ever. I only find this frustrating as I actually worked pretty hard in the class. Guess I'll just have to stick to the world of beer, bbq's and meat products instead. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 12/30/2002 05:02:00 PM ----- BODY: Sakinaw We headed up for our usual retreat during the Whistler Student Pass blackout time. For the second year in a row Steve put together an amazing video of the years events. It was awesome, it's one of those things I know I'll enjoy watching in a few years time. Once again it was a bit of a meat fest, Friday night/Saturday morning were dedicated to pork products while Saturday evening/Sunday morning were more focused on beef We were fortunate enough to have the use assistance of a Napoleon P600RB to take barbequing to a whole new level. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 12/30/2002 04:41:00 PM ----- BODY: End of My Coop Term My eight month Coop term ended a little over a week ago. It was an amazing experience where I had the chance to work closely with an incredible group of people. I will be working one day a week for the spring, but given how quickly the company is growing it is sure to be a different place when I return full time. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 12/30/2002 04:25:00 PM ----- BODY: Boxing Day Usually I spend boxing day roaming up and down Robson Street shopping for discount clothing, but this year whistler had 106 cm of new snow. It was probably the best day of snowboarding I've ever had, my only regret is I didn't bring a camera. The discount UBC pass wasn't valid from the 27th-30th, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to head back up. I can't wait. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 12/25/2002 11:19:00 AM ----- BODY: IT at Prada This is a great article on how Prada is using IT to support their brand and add to the whole shopping experience. I find this particularly interesting as I am doing a degree in Transportation and Logistics and we spend a great deal of time analyzing case studies related to logistics. If the cases we studied were more closely related to the companies and brands students are familiar with, I'm sure everybody would take more away from the classes. I emailed one of my profs a link to the article so hopefully it will help make the curriculum a little more interesting. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 12/25/2002 10:20:00 AM ----- BODY: Personal Jet Pack Saw this on slashdot this morning. "This guy has spent mucho time and money building a ducted fan 'jet pack'. No faking for this guy, it looks like there is some real technology there. Now he just needs a sponsor." -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 12/20/2002 04:25:00 PM ----- BODY: Blog Insults. Care of Justin Harcourt "Mueller. . . . . Foul language is okay . . . . but posting your web page is just plain wrong. Oh by the way. . . that link to the martial arts stuff is sweet. . .and I love to hear about your wine exam. and the update on the trip to lumiere... oh wow! So enthralled." Funny that I'm being lectured on ettiquite by a guy who uses the "reply all" function for every email he receives. On the other hand it looks like he read most of my postings, and even too the time to download a video from one of my links. Maybe my blog was a little more enthralling then his initial sarcasm suggests. Yours Truely, Kevin (the guy who actually has a real job after he graduates) Mueller -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 12/07/2002 05:06:00 PM ----- BODY: Wine Exam Well as I expected the wine exam was terrible. Out of 11 questions on the first page I only answered 5 with any real confidence. I was concerned that I hadn't studied enough for the exam, but the questions were so detailed I doubt it would have helped. Check out the ratings for the prof here. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 12/05/2002 10:07:00 AM ----- BODY: Gymnastics or Martial Arts? Thanks to CD for this link. What this guy can do is amazing, and I still can't get over how effortless it all looks. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 12/05/2002 09:49:00 AM ----- BODY: Quote from Mike Jekyll "some people are good at passing exams, some are good at living" I have my wine exam tonight, and I don't really know what to expect. My marks on the midterms were anything but stellar, even though I thought I was prepared. I'm starting to get to the point where I am pretty excited to be finished school. Just another 5 months and my undergrad years will be over. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 12/05/2002 09:41:00 AM ----- BODY: Write your Own Bush Speech This is amazing, probably one of the best things I've ever come accross on the net. You build a speech by dragging words to form sentences, then press play and bush reads your speech. Check out he sound effects and accompanying facial expressions. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 12/04/2002 02:59:00 PM ----- BODY: Business Cards I now have Navaric business cards, it's isn't really a huge deal, but I've never actually had legitimate business cards before. At a past job I pasted my name over somebody else’s to make cards (slightly less then classy) and I have some cards through commerce, but it's just not the same. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 12/01/2002 01:21:00 PM ----- BODY: Bowling for Columbine I've been meaning to see this movie for quite some time, but I never actually got around to it until last night. It's definitely a worthwhile movie to see, some of it doesn't really reflect reality (i.e. they show a block of row housing and call it the Canadian Ghetto instead of filming on the downtown lower east side). Check out Bill's blog for his review and thoughts. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/29/2002 10:12:00 AM ----- BODY: Beer and Wings On Wednesday night we headed to Bimini's for some 15 cent wings thinking it was a great deal, but when u consider $15.50 for a pitcher and wings of a grade I thought was only suitable for livestock it isn't so peachy keen. Even if they were giving these wings away for free I wouldn't go back. We shifted venues after a short stay and headed down to our usual hangout, the Kings Head. Even though it isn't as cheep as it use to be (dozen wings for $4 and a pitcher for $11) the KH just has an aura of cheapness that makes it so comfortable. If you ever have a hankering for some cheap ribs, check out Fatzo's on Broadway on a thus night for $1 ribs and $2 pints. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/29/2002 10:05:00 AM ----- BODY: Last Wine Class Yesterday was my final wine class. I'm sort of sad as the people in the class were amazing, but on the other hand Dr. McArthus was so frustrating it's nice to be done. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/29/2002 10:04:00 AM ----- BODY: Foggy nights The past few days have been super foggy in Vancouver, and last night as I was riding across Burrard Street Bridge (although no snow...yet) the bridge deck was just below the top of the fog. I wish I'd had a camera because it was amazing, the fog settled in between all the trees, houses and docks and the lights were gently glowing through. I've lived in Vancouver my entire life, but only now I'm starting to pause and appreciate how beautiful our city really is. Riding to work this morning, the fog was so thick at the top of the bridge I couldn't see a thing, from the middle of the span all I could see was grey fog in all directions. The sun has now started to burn through, and it looks like we're going to have another fabulous day. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/27/2002 02:05:00 PM ----- BODY: Lumière On Friday night after a beer with work I headed to the bar at Lumière with some friends from my wine class. I always figured that this place that would be out of my price range for at least another couple of years, but turns out they have a bar that offers some less expensive options. Items on the bar menu run around $12, and fancy drinks are $8, so it's by no means cheap, but the food is amazing and if you don't eat/drink to much it can be pretty affordable, even for a student such as myself. When I’m all finished with school and my finances are a little more solid, I'll have to go back for dinner. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/27/2002 01:59:00 PM ----- BODY: Dad's b-day Party Who ever knew I could have so much fun with my parents friends. It's rare that we have a large birthday party for either of my parents, but as this was my dad's 60th they decided a get together was in order. Good times had by all, people strolled in from about 4:00 on, and many didn't leave until after midnight. Great food, great friends and my dad really enjoyed himself, it was a great way to mark off the big six O. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/27/2002 01:57:00 PM ----- BODY: Whistler opened last Saturday Unfortunately there was almost no snow; maybe things will be better this weekend. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/27/2002 01:55:00 PM ----- BODY: Finances Finally Finished Well ok they're not quite done, but I'm getting closer. I run everything trough quicken so I can track my spending, but due to my initial laziness my account isn't set up very well which makes sorting everything out a little more difficult. Grant is telling me it's time to seal the files and start over; this might just be the case. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/27/2002 01:51:00 PM ----- BODY: MJ Update A Photographic History of Michael Jackson's Face With blithering, yet witty commentary -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/23/2002 08:27:00 PM ----- BODY: UBG Tryouts Well I’ve been pretty bad about keeping the blog updated lately. It's sort of like my finances, I keep up to date for a while, then I fall behind and try and remember what happened in the last week to bring things back up to date. Last Friday was tryouts for UBG (The Undergraduate Business Games), it's similar to WBG, but instead of 5 schools and 125 people, it's closer to 25 schools and 1000 people. I've been for the past two years and I was planning on going again, but after I thought about the financial aspect, I’ve decided there are other places I'd rather spend the money. i.e. Traveling or snowboarding. Tryouts were amusing to say the least. No bikini's this time, but a group of the girls did wear cardboard boxed with "lick my box" written in rather large letters across the back. For the first time this yeah I brought out the leather pants (which are a little snugger then I remembered), if I wore them out on a normal night my friends might start to wonder, but for UBG they were just part of the fun. Mike had the video camera out again so there should be some interesting footage. We're actually starting to take bets as to when he's going to release his own College girls gone wild movie -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/15/2002 11:39:00 AM ----- BODY: Welcome to the world of ass nasty Michael Jackson Supposedly he was in court and was wearing a surgical mask, well the judge made him take it off and this is what was underneath. (Thanks to Todd for the info) -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/14/2002 09:18:00 AM ----- BODY: Learn how to dance, learn how to date and best of all, learn how to lip off a cat zeFrank is one of the best sites I've ever been to. There are so many stupid short movies, and online toys to play with it's unbelievable. Also check out his cat. I wish my cat was more like this instead of just biting everybody who tried to play with him. Take a look around this site, it's definetly worth your time. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/14/2002 09:12:00 AM ----- BODY: God finally gives shout out back to all his Niggaz "God's the ultimate playa, so naturally He's going to have some haters," rapper Ice Cube said. "But these haters need to realize that if you mess with the man upstairs, you will get your ass smote. True dat." -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/06/2002 12:46:00 PM ----- BODY: FNH 330 The class I took as a fun and somewhat easy elective is more tedious then expected. The expectations of the professor are way beyond what is resonable for an entry level class, that everybody is taking as an elective. I have no problem working hard, but the detail of information the prof is looking for is absurd. The Prof emals out a "study midterm" a week or two before the exam, the only problem is many of the questions from the study guide are on the midterm. I find this rediculous as it doesn't prove that students know the information, as much as they can memorize the study guide and reselect the multiple choice answers on the exam. In the past I have had classes where prof's hand out sample midterms the use the same thing for the actual exam. This only leads to little spread in the class grades, as those that prepared for the exam properly have no advantage over those who only reviewed the practive midterm. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/06/2002 12:31:00 PM ----- BODY: Grad Pictures It's starting to feel like graduation time. I've had an amazing time at UBC, and I still haven't really admitted to myself that it is going to be over in a little over 6 months. Today I am having my grad pictures taken, sort of reminds me of high school. In some ways it makes me sad, as I have such a great time at school and I have met so many incredible people, but on the other hand it is time to move on, and the friends I have made will always be with me. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/04/2002 08:54:00 AM ----- BODY: Randy's Birthday Saturday night was Randy's gala birthday at the Up and Down, on Richards and Pender. Randy was a little concerned about the location, but it was perfect. There was a great turn out and Randy got heavily intoxicated, so i think he can consider his 30th a success. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/04/2002 08:50:00 AM ----- BODY: Biking The past few months have been pretty pathetic. You see, back in June I bought a new bike, with the intention of riding it as much as possible, well unfortunately this hasn't been the case. Since September I've only ridden it twice. This is SAD. Well yesterday I rounded up my friends and we headed up to Seymour for what was going to be a high-speed run or two down Neds. Too bad I forgot my helmet at home. What was going to be an awesome ride down what would have been a wet and muddy trail became a trip to Wendy's for a Mozzarella Chicken Supreme -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 11/04/2002 08:46:00 AM ----- BODY: Halloween So this yeah I actually finished my costume the night before Halloween. I was the every classy Oscar the grouch. I am still pretty excited about my costume. I bought a large garbage can, cut out the bottom, painted it silver and wore the lid as a hat. Then I had a pair of green spray painted shoes, green pants, and a green sweatshirt to which I sewed cut up pieces of my old green cords. Ahh it was glorious. I ended up at the Commodore, but only after having my picture taken with just about every Asian tourist in Vancouver. I was trying to walk from the bank machine to the bar, and every person I passed wanted a picture. Either they really liked my costume, or just thought I was stupidest looking person they could find. The Commodore didn't disappoint, it was a good crowd and tons of awesome costumes. One guy was even Mitch Buchanan, and he built a boat, complete with flashing light and a beer holder. I have some pictures but unfortunately I can't post them to this blog. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/29/2002 11:22:00 AM ----- BODY: Sample Sale Last time we went everything was 50% off and from the current season. GAIA, Orage, Billabong, Nitro and Volkl have teamed up for their annual fall sample sale Save on: ski wear, snowboard wear, surf wear, bathing suits, bags, accessories, shorts, tee shirts, casual wear, athletic wear, skis and snowboards Where: 556 Beatty St, Vancouver (GAIA headquarters) When: Friday November 1 (2:00 pm to 8:00 pm) and Saturday November 2 (10:00 am to 4:00 pm) Bring: Visa Card, Master Card, Debit Card or Cash -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/28/2002 06:03:00 PM ----- BODY: Nanotech Paints Imagine a vehicle that could change colour at the flick of a switch, or detect paint flaws or corrosion and report it back to your mechanic. Well the US military has proposed the use of nanotech paints, check out the this article for more info. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/27/2002 10:37:00 PM ----- BODY: Mountian Coop. Well MEC is pretty much the same as Home Depot. I went in for a new bike light so I don't get run down on my way home from work, and I came home with two lights, some bike brake cables and a new bladder for my camel back.. Atleast it's all stuff I needed. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/27/2002 10:35:00 PM ----- BODY: The Home Depot Experience This place kicks ass. I love Home Depot, the only problem is each time I go, I always end up finding things I forgot I needed and I end up spending a lot more then I anticipated. For the past few years Home Depot is where I have bought my haloween costume materials. It took me a while to decide on a costume, this year it's going to be somebody from Sesame Street. Should be good times. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/27/2002 09:08:00 AM ----- BODY: Jackass the Movie I have never laughed so hard during a movie in my entire life. I admit watching people pull off stupid stunts and hurt themselves shouldn't be funny, but it is. The highlights were the rent a car demolision durby and golf cart off road challenge. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/27/2002 09:03:00 AM ----- BODY: Warren Miller Friday night a group of us headed off to Warren Miller for Storm, his 57th ski movie. As usual it didn't disappoint. By far the best scene was when the film crew went riding/skiing with the US Marines and they used on of the full size US military helicopters for heli skiing. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/23/2002 09:57:00 AM ----- BODY: Randy just pointed out that in a pervious post I spelt out company Navaric, although it's actually ends with a 'k'. I decided to do this as I didn't want people searching for the company to stumble accross my blog, and make and judgements on the company bases on any of my personal postings. If anybody is interested here is a link to our corporate website -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/23/2002 09:51:00 AM ----- BODY: Haloween Every year I vow to have the greatest haloween costume ever, and most years I get on the task of finding a costume around the 29th, and of course most years I end up with somethign stupid. This year proves to be no exception, although I have a week until haloween things are quite busy so I don't see myself finding a costume until late next week. For a few original costume ideas check this out -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/23/2002 09:42:00 AM ----- BODY: New office Navaric moved into a new office over the weekend. The new office is about four times the size of the old one, it's hard to get use to the walk to go talk to somebody who use to be only a few feet away. At times the office feels a little lonely, but I'm really enjoying the space. I am now sharing an office with Bill, and because of this I got a great big desk (like this but not quite as mahogany) This thing is huge, I almost get lost in it sometimes. I feel pretty privileged to share an office with Bill, the next two months are likely to be busy, but I'm sure to learn a great deal. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/23/2002 08:50:00 AM ----- BODY: Visual Thesaurus Vocabulary is somethingI've always needed to work on, and tools like the Visual Thesaurus will only make this easier and mroe enjoyable. Type in a word and the tool manipulates it and it's related words in a molecular like structure. The user can then click on realted words for a definition or other related words. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/23/2002 08:43:00 AM ----- BODY: Internet Backbone DDOS "Largest Ever" "It seems that yesterday the root servers of the internet were attacked in a massive Distributed DoS manner. I mean jeeze, only 4 or 5 out of 13 survived according to the WashPost. Check out the orignal Washington Post Article here." -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/23/2002 08:31:00 AM ----- BODY: Networking Presentation Tomorow I am doing a presentation on networking and job search techniques at UBC. Right now I"m trying to decide what to say without making it to casual, or on the other hand to formal and boring. Chances are it will end up being mostly question and answer, unfortunately Commerce students don't ask questions, so we'll see how it goes. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/21/2002 05:39:00 PM ----- BODY: Snoop is cleaning up his act, no more weed -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/17/2002 09:24:00 AM ----- BODY: Bling Bling U want gold caps? U want em iced out? Well this is where you go. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/17/2002 09:08:00 AM ----- BODY: MIT tries free Web education The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has decided to publish online all its course materials -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/17/2002 09:07:00 AM ----- BODY: Check out this music video. It's sort of MTV-meets-information architecture -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/17/2002 09:06:00 AM ----- BODY: Feeling a little less the chiper today. How about some Automatic Flatter to brighten your day. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/17/2002 09:05:00 AM ----- BODY: Banner Adds, this isn't what they advertise, but maybe it's closer to reality then what actually being said. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/17/2002 09:04:00 AM ----- BODY: Derek has a great post yesterday about the trials of the music industry in tackling the internet - the base is this article in the Globe & Mail (How to fail in e-business with a record effort). Derek notes: "Waste of effort To understand how colossally media companies are screwing up their approach to digital music, movies, and downloads, read Jack Kapica's article in Globe Technology (despite its almost criminally long and complex Web address), via Doc Searls. I am in the process of converting my entire collection of more than 200 CDs into MP3s on my computer. It will take days, maybe a couple of weeks, and consume (probably) more than 20 GB of space. It is, incidentally, entirely legal -- but record companies would prefer it were not. That's why you can't very easily convert a DVD (technology developed more recently than CDs) into digital video to watch on your computer, or even transfer it to videotape, even though, for your own use, that would be legal too." Link here. *note - this post was stolen directly from Bill's blog -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/16/2002 09:25:00 PM ----- BODY: If you're looking for porn, teens, nasty stuff, nakedness, illlegal pictures, nudes, celebrities, and all that good stuff. This link is definetly for you -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/16/2002 09:23:00 PM ----- BODY: Randy just helped me install some user tracker software on my blog. Pretty interesting stuff, and Randy was right, he's not the only person reading my blog. Turns out people searching for "hot teen" in certain search engines were given a link to my site. Wow, now Randy and a bunch of perverts are readiny my page. How comforting. Kidding. Anyways I'm going to make another post and over the next week see how it affects the hits on my blog. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/15/2002 04:55:00 PM ----- BODY: Found Thong If you visited the Mueller residence in the past month and are missing the above pictured thong, please call 604-710-3379 to claim it -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/14/2002 10:54:00 PM ----- BODY: The America's Cup The America's Cup has been won by Americans every time it has been held since the 1800's, except for once in the 80's when it was won by an Australian team, and the past two in which the New Zealand team has taked the first four races in the best of 7 finals. The Louis Vutton Cup is where the challenging teams race to see who will have the right to face the New Zealand Team (as they won the last America's Cup) in the finals. Last time the American's didn't even make it to the America's Cup as they were beaten by Prada (the Italian team) who went on to face the New Zealand Team. Last Cup was Prada's first, although it is rumoured that they spent close to $250 million on their campaign. It will be interesting to see how the Louis Vutton Cup progresses, I haven't spent much time following the races so I'll have to ask around and get a summary of the events. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/14/2002 10:48:00 PM ----- BODY: New Zealand On Friday night my mom took off for a month in New Zealand visiting family, and in true mueller fashion my dad spared no time starting the renovations/house work. As my mom might be reading this blog I"m not going to say what he's been working on, but I"m sure she'll be happy to see the changes when she gets home. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/14/2002 10:47:00 PM ----- BODY: Bali Bombing I didn't hear about the bombing until saturday night when Bill told me about it while we were heading to Randy's show. At the time I thought Bill said 52 people had been killed, it wasn't until the following day that I read an article on the bombing and realized in fact 182 people had been killed. I find this especially scary as my friend Jesse has been living in Bali for the past month. I talked to my mom who is in New Zealand visiting family, and she told me that the Australians are quite concerned as Bali is very close to Northern Australia and a lot of Australians vacation in Bali. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/14/2002 10:43:00 PM ----- BODY: Star Wars bootleg leads to 13 felony charges This is the first I've heard about somebody being charged for leaking a movie before it's release date. I remember even a few years ago a friend of mine would download theatre rips of movies the day the film was released. The movies were usually very poor quality, but it you gave it a month or two a DVD rip would usually surface giving anybody the opportunity to view the movie in pretty high quality. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/14/2002 09:09:00 PM ----- BODY: Randy's Show Saturday night was Bravo Pilipinas A Cultural Extravaganza Showcasing Best of Philippine Dance and Music. Randy talks about the show quite a bit, but I never realized how large it actually was, turns out there were about 30 dancers, plus musicians and technical staff. The theatre was packed and from what I heard people talking about after the show, everybody was impressed. Check out Randy's blog for more info -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/14/2002 04:40:00 PM ----- BODY: Cell Phones Earlier this year I finally purchased a cell phone. I'd been holding off as I'm not a big fan but with work and going away it was becoming very difficult for anybody to get a hold of me. I decided to go with Fido, as it offered the best package of minutes, a phone I liked and no contract. At $30 a month plus $6.95/month service charge it was in par with all the other carriers. Given this pricing I budgeted around $40/month for the phone, unfortunatley this wasn't the case. It seems that all the little extras like text messaging, extra minutes and the odd long distace call have consistently pushed my bill towards $70/month. I guess this only breaks down to about a twoonie/day but getting the bill every month defenitly stings a bit. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/14/2002 04:13:00 PM ----- BODY: Whistler Bike Park This weekend marked the end of the whistler bike park for 2002. I feel somewhat disappointed that I only made it twice, especially since I bought my new bike. Each year I tell myself I'll do more riding, instead I seem to do less and less. This is mostly due to other activities and trips that take up my time, but as I said last fall, next year I'm going to do more riding. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/14/2002 04:11:00 PM ----- BODY: Whistler On saturday I headed up to whistler with Cheryl, Ashley and Lindsey to check out the annual Turkey sale as I've been looking for a new pair of snowboard boots for some time now. The amount of high end gear on sale was incredible, especially since almost everything was about 50% off. Being the true nerd I am, as soon as I got home I strapped myself into my board and hopped around the living room. I"m so stoked for this season! As I am working I should be able to get more day in late Novemeber and December then last year so it shouldn't be to difficult to pay off the $400 student seasons pass. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/13/2002 12:07:00 PM ----- BODY: WBG Tryouts WBG stands for the Western Business Games. It is a confrence where 20 delegates from business schools from Western Canada come together for a weekend of "networking", and general tom foolery. The first part of the tryouts was a cheer competition during poits on tursday night. Every year somebody comes up with an ingenous cheer that is added to the great book of vulgre commerce cheers, this year I missed out as I was writing my Wine Science midterm. This year our tryouts were held at the ever classy Wild Coyote. The Yote as we like to call it was recently shut down for haing to many underaged patrons. It was sort of a running joke that the average age in the club hovered somewhere around 17, but if you ever went it became quite obvois that this joke had some footing in reality. Since the Yote was shut down business has been very slow, so they were more then happy to host a few rowdy commerce students for our tryouts. Once again the tryouts were a bit of a gong show, with everybody trying to prove they had more school spirit and partying energy the next person. Definetly good times had by all. At 7 am Saturday morning we all (ok more like the 10 people that were about to get out of bed) met infront of Angus (the commerce building at UBC) for the final part of the tryouts, a game of hungover soccer. WBG takes place the weekend of November 9th in Banff -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/13/2002 11:59:00 AM ----- BODY: FNH Midterm. Outch, this definetly wasn't one of my best. I've become pretty good at filering out what information is and what isn't important in my classes. Turns out in Wine Science everything is important, no matter how small or insignificant a statistic or how obsuce a viticultural region. We're supposed to get the marks back on tuesday, we'll see how it goes. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/13/2002 11:57:00 AM ----- BODY: Cathedral Lakes Lodge WOW. This is without a doubt one of the most beautiful and more natural places I've ever been in BC. I headed up with a few friends from my wine class on a friday afternoon, after a 5 hour drive we arrived at the Cathedral Lakes base camp just out side Keremeos. From there it was a one hour truck ride up a dirt road to the Lodge which rests 6800 ft above sea level, making it the highest full service lodge in Canada. The location is amazing, the lodge and cabins are situated just below the tree line in the middle of a provincial park, and are surrounded by lakes, mountians and alpine fields. Unfortunately I was not able to experience all the hiking and outdoors activites the lodge had to offer as on the first night while swimming in the lake I stepped on a piece of glass and had so spend the Friday evening and most of Saturday tending my wound and traveling to the hospital for a couple of stiches. On satuday morning while i was heading to the Keremeos hospital the rest of our group headed out on a 9 hour hike around the rim of mountians that surrounds the Lodge.I hear it was an amazing adventure and next time I go I will have to make the trek. By the time sunday rolled around I mustered the energy to head off for a short paddle and hike up to a waterfall about 30 minuites from the lodge. As we boarded our canoes it began to snow, it started lightly when we headed off from the dock, and by the time we were in the middle of the lake it was a complete white out. It was amazing! After about fifteen or twenty we reached the other side of the lake and the snow fall began to lighten. The hike was relativly short, but on the way we ran into a family of deer eating by the side of the trail, aparantly they were more interested in eating then running away from the 10 UBC student staring and taking pictures. As it was late in the season the waterfall was less then spectacular, but the views from the top of the hike were unreal. The only signs of people were a small whoft of smoke coming from the lodge hidden in the distance and the constant clicking of cameras as everybody tried to capture the moment. Hiking on my stickes was probably not the brightest thing I"ve ever done, but it was definetly worth it. All in all it was a great weekend away, hopefully next summer I'll have a chance to head back up and this time I think I'll stear clear of swimming in the lake. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/08/2002 11:17:00 AM ----- BODY: Colour Match Dressing yourself in the morning just got easier with colour matcher -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/07/2002 02:42:00 PM ----- BODY: Got to much time on your hands? Then check out googlefight. Fight your friends, fight your coworkers, even fight your whole family -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/07/2002 11:13:00 AM ----- BODY: This to that If you like glue for anything other then sniffing, check this out -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/03/2002 09:02:00 AM ----- BODY: Catch up. The past two weeks have been pretty busy between work, going away and studying for a Wine Science midterm. This weekend I am going to take some time to bring everything back up to date. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 10/02/2002 04:24:00 PM ----- BODY: Super Bowl XXXV The event--where law enforcement captured the images of everyone entering gates of the Raymond James Stadium and compared them with a database of criminals' faces--ushered in the largest union of face recognition and video surveillance, according to civil liberties experts. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/24/2002 03:07:00 PM ----- BODY: Sakinaw This weekend I headed up to Dave's place at Sakinaw for some good times before school started catching up to all of those who are still living as if it were still summer time. It was an amazing weekend, the weather was perfect and we had a really great group of people. We spent the weekend, swimming, sitting in the hot tub and sauna, wakeboarding, playing pool, drinking and cooking basically everything we ate on the bbq. Roger recently invested in a new Napoleon P600RB bbq. Wow. This is the Bentley of bbq's, it's incredible. Unfortunately I had the task of cleaning it on Sunday, but it was by far the nicest bbq I have ever seen. Thanks to Dave and the Kestel's for letting us use their place, I can only hope we make it up there again before the boat comes out of the water. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/24/2002 02:54:00 PM ----- BODY: Backed the Vangina into a concrete median today over lunch, definitely not one of my brightest moves. The median was standing all by itself on the side of a back alley where i was attempting to park illegally so I could go pick up my film. I guess that will teach me to park in shady back alleys. Lunch ended with all you can eat sushi and Korean BBQ at Shabusen, but this still didn't make up for the van scratching incident. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/19/2002 03:08:00 PM ----- BODY: Words of Wisdom from a close friend bathing regularly is like responsibility, it's for suckas. More tears, more beers, man. That's it, that's all. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/19/2002 03:06:00 PM ----- BODY: Note to All As it stands, plan B is to just keep on givn'r -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/19/2002 01:24:00 PM ----- BODY: Responsibility One thing that I have learnt through my university career is that things aren't always as they appear, and this is definetly true when it comes to the media. I always wonder how much of the truth I am really hearing about, and how my opinions would change if I had all the relevent information. With regards to the US attacking Iraq, I am undecided. On one hand I would like to think there is another way to solve the problem, but I wonder how much additional information on Sadam and Iraq the US has but is not sharing. Is it in my best interests to trust the politicians as they have a more comprehensive knowledge of the situation then I do, or do I question their motives and assume there is a hidden political agenda. The following is care of Ryan at Penmachine Lessons Unlearned. "...We cannot forget that. The U.S. is not to blame for September 11, any more than the Allies at Versailles were to blame for Hitler's genocidal Jew-hating and Aryan expansionism. Neither could have been predicted in advance. History is contingent, yes, but that doesn't mean we can't learn from it. The best way to fight terrorism is to drain the swamp -- to help alleviate the feelings of powerlessness, despair, and resentment that come from corruption, decay, and oppression and lead to indiscriminate ideological killing. Had Germany been rebuilt in 1919 instead of 1947, things might have been very different. Jean Chrétien was not blaming the victim. Like all of us, he was asking, Why did this happen? What can we do to stop it from happening again? The answers are not simple. There may have been no direct western responsibility for the September 11 attacks. But that doesn't mean we have no responsibilities now. We had them before too, and we neglected them. Now it's time to pay attention." -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/19/2002 01:09:00 PM ----- BODY: SkyDriving Personally I"m not such a big fan of my current driving option as my parents are the proud owners of a purple minivan (nammed the Vangina). Not that the Vangina doesn't treat me well and get me wherever I need to go with all my gear, it's just that it's not a lot of fun to drive. It definetly doesn't get my adreneline running the way Kelly's car does. When the time to dispose of the Vangina eventually comes along, I now have the option of driving her out of the back of a plane for a mere 15k. "Autoweek has this article about a group of guys in Arizona who will drop your car out of a cargo jet. Their ultimate goal is to drop a Greyhound with forty people inside. More pictures here and here)" Pics and more pics -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/19/2002 01:03:00 PM ----- BODY: Self Cleaning Glass Consumers across Europe can now purchase self-cleaning glass that promises to keep windows free from dirt. The key to Activ glass is an ultra-thin coating only 40nm thick applied to the glass surface during the manufacturing process. The coating, which is based on titanium dioxide, works by combining the two beneficial effects. First, the ultraviolet wavelengths in sunlight react with a photocatalyst to break down organic debris on the glass. The second feature is that the coating is hydrophilic, meaning that when rain hits the glass, it doesn't form droplets. Rain water flows down the glass in a sheet and washes the dirt away." -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/18/2002 09:46:00 AM ----- BODY: FNH 330 Part II Wine Class is starting to sort itself out. Last night's lecture as dry as usual (talked about the different types of soil vines grow in.... not to stellar) but the tasting component was a little better this week, I'm having a little more success identifying the various aromas and flavours of the wines. There is a wine tasting event at the Sutton Place Hotel tonight, so I'll see how that goes and keep you informed. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/18/2002 09:42:00 AM ----- BODY: Ice Cream and a Celica After a busy day at work and wine class I headed out to Della Casa Gelato with my friend Kelly last night. We try and do this once or twice a month, but we've both been pretty busy lately so it's been a while since we last went. This ice cream store is amazing. Every flavour you can imagine! Personally I draw the line at wasabi, garlic and worst of all Curry (I couldn't even finish the curry it tasted so bad) Kelly is the proud owner of a 2002 Silver Toyota Celica, and is kind enough to let me drive it pretty much everywhere we go. Wow is this car fun (especially since my usual vehicle of choice is a purple Dodge Minivan (named the Vangina)) I would love to have a fast sporty car but it's sort of hard to justify as I ride to work and bussing to school takes about 5 min longer then driving. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/16/2002 05:27:00 PM ----- BODY: POITS becomes Club Euro Thursday night was the first poits of the year and it was all 80's. Daryl won the best costume award with his rocker 80's duds and I won ugliest clothes that I actually wore when I was young. My hot pink Nike half zip windbreaker sort of clenched the deal, and I guess my home made acid wash jeans didn't hurt to much either. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/16/2002 05:26:00 PM ----- BODY: Welcome Back BBQ Friday was an amazing day. Took half a day off work and headed up to UBC. Picked Bridget up and headed to my place for a snack before bussing to UBC. PLayed frisbee and met a bunch of new people. Derek needs to practice his frisbee throwing as he almost took off erin's head on a number of occasions. As always I started drinking and cruised around the field talking to all the people I haven't seen since school ended in may. It was a glorious day and almost everybody was out. Great times. By the time the event ended everybody was sufficiently hammered and looking for some fun. So we migrated to gage towers for the boxers party. Unfortunately it had to be reclassified the sausage party. We diverted to Kyles. Welcome back BBQ is always one of the my most favorate events at UBC. This year was exception. If I get my hands on any pictures I'll see if I can post them for all of your to see (by all of you I think I"m only refering to Randy as I don't know of anybody else who reads my blog) -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/16/2002 05:21:00 PM ----- BODY: Wigwam Inn Sort of an old picture of the inn, but still gives you an idea of what it looks like. Wigwam in is an RVYC outstation, and this weekend was the first (hopefully to be annual) intermediate cruise organized by Leah Costella and various other people. This was probably the first time this summer that I"ve headed away for the weekend and not had a major part in the events organization, and I liked it! I had to forward Leah's email to my friends (Phil, Julie, Alex, Sarah and Carolyn) but that was pretty much the extent of my involvement. Saturday morning I was picked up and we headed down to the yacht club where the boats were waiting for us. We headed out around 9 and powered all the way up the indian arm. Memorable land marks were a dead fish floating beside the boat, the McDonalds floating restaurant from Expo and the sewage treatment plant, and how could I forget the waterfall and hte old BC Hydro power plant. Wigwam is located at the end of the indian arm, about a 4 hour trip from Vancouver, so we pulled in just after 1. Wigwam is great as there is a seemingly endless supply of outdoor activities. After unloading the boat and saying hi to the other people on the cruise my possee and I headed up the dried out river bed towards the waterfalls. It's abit of a hike with amazing scenery, although the waterfalls were a little disappointing, more of a dripple then true falls. By the time we made it down to inn we were all pretty overheated so it was time for a swim. A few of us were diving off the pier, but I couldn't gather the nerve to do a backflip from that hight ~15 ft. I've been wanting to do it for a while, but it was just to high. Now dinner was fast approaching and it quickly became obvious that we had a definate exess of food. Steak, chicken, salad, potatos and various other snacks left me feeling a little sleepy so I headed off for a quick powernap. the only problem is, by the time I awoke (at 10) pretty much everybody was friggin hammered, I tried my best to catch up. but by the time I'd downed a few beers the crowd was dieing fast. They all headed for a quick skinney dip and then went off to bed. Leaving us "youngins" to play pool on a skaky pool table and have a ping pong tournament with a dented Ball. Jer had the great idea of running the ball under hot water to pop out the dent, only problem is the water was too hot and he mistakenly squished the ball. End of game, so I packing it in. For me sunday morning was great, slept in and had a relaxing breakfast and cup of coffee on the deck enjoying the view and silence by myself. Some bright tart decided it was time to start up the music with a little morning metal, but fortunately I was able to convince them that David Grey was more approperiate. I spent the rest of the morning Canoeing up the river at the end of the inlet with phil, good times. Anyways this is starting to drag on... so if you're still reading along I'll speed things up. Headed out around 1. Sailed for about the first hour Got frustrated as I couldn't read the winds accuratly. My skills are a little rusty. Got soaked by boat powering past with water guns Attacked friends boat with brocili. Food fight continued for 2 hrs until one boat was soaked with BBQ, sauce, jam, yogart, tomatos, bagels and cesar salad dressing, and the other boat was covered in butter, bagels, potatos and assorted vegies and dip. Next 2 hrs spent cleaning. Got close to the dock and I was leaning on the boom. BOat heels a little and due to the butter on the deck I slide off the side of the boat and take a little dip. Head to dock, clean up boats, go home and sleep. Done Done and Done. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/16/2002 04:52:00 PM ----- BODY: Pitch and Put at Queen Elizabeth Park Let me start by saying that the two sports I have never had much luck with are golf and tennis. This time was no different. My game started out pretty well (although I kept on missing the ball) and I had par on the first hole. From here on in things went downhill fast. By the sixth hole I was 13 over and there was no signs of my game improving. The other thing I forgot to mention is all I had were my two iron and a putter. The #2 wasn't really approperiate for the course, and was a bit rusty and the putter was slightly bent; although I doubt this really had much effect on my game. On the bright side I had a chance to hang out with Todd and Hallie, both of which I hadn't seen for quite a while. Queen E is a great place, I've never spent much time up there but I'd really like to play a little more pitch and put and maybe try out the frisbee golf course. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/16/2002 04:45:00 PM ----- BODY: It's been a busy cople of weeks between work and the fall term starting at UBC. LIfe is running pretty smoothly but it's become difficult to find the time to do all the things I really enjoy, biking, sailing, wakeboarding, frisbee at the beach etc....... As the school term starts back up I'm realizing that I'm almost finished my 5 years at UBC, and how it has flown by. In the past two years I have become much more involved with commerce and have met a lot more interesting people who I spend a lot of time with outside of school. I took last week pretty easy, trying to focus on catching up on all the people/things I've been neglecting for the past few weeks. Unfortunately I didn't get as much done as I"d hoped as Tues/Thurs nights are taken up with my Wine Science class and Thursday/Friday nights were the first Commerce Beer Garden and the Welcome back BBQ up at UBC. Wine class is a lot of fun, although the lectures are a little on the dry side. The Prof pretty much reads over the text book as if it were a grade 12 social studies class. This is only the third time the class has been offered so it's understandable that things may be a bit rough, but at times it gets pretty hard to keep my eyes open. A quick visual of the survey of the class often reveals I"m not the only one dozing off. I'm sure as we move deeper into the cirriculum things will start to lighen up and become more interesting. As for the tasting component of the class, I suck. Where other people are tasting undertones of vanilla or white peach I taste white wine, and with the reds they taste black cherry and fig, while I taste only red wine. I can taste the difference between the wines but have a difficult time isolating the different flavours/sents and identifying them. My next class is tomorrow evening so we'll have to see how things go. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/10/2002 09:23:00 AM ----- BODY: Todd says: The $2 bet yesterday was for Josh to ask a salesperson at the Gap if they sold male thongs. Todd says: She suggested that he try a store at the corner of Granville and Davie -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/09/2002 08:11:00 AM ----- BODY: Google Mirror Beats Great Firewall of China An anonymous reader writes "The New Scientist has an article about a Google search mirror called elgooG that apparently beats the Chinese firewall to the outside world. It displays all of the text backwards, requiring you to use a mirror to read the text." No big shocker- but imagine how many such mirrors could exist ;) -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/02/2002 10:17:00 PM ----- BODY: Microsoft beefs up Passport security The software giant began notifying Passport users Monday night of changes that would give them more control over their accounts and increased privacy and security. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 9/02/2002 10:07:00 PM ----- BODY: Tattoo to monitor diabetes Infonography notes that the "BBC is reporting about using tattoos to monitor the state of a diabetics' health. While TV's the Invisible Man series had this, this is actually real. Designed by Gerard Cote, of Texas A&M University they are made of polyethylene glycol beads that are coated with fluorescent molecules. Likely this will start to change the attitudes of parents who have been resisting the urging of their kids to get Tattoos." -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 8/31/2002 08:43:00 AM ----- BODY: For people like Derek and CD who like their electronic toys, and people like me who really like them but never spend the money... there is a Gizmoz Blog to keep us up to date (could I have said "like" more in one sentence" -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 8/31/2002 08:40:00 AM ----- BODY: Now this is cool - eWashing machines - "The souped-up washers and dryers also let students check a Web site for empty machines. From the comfort of their desktop or laptop, co-eds can add soap and fabric softener that is dispensed by the washing machine. Finally when the wash is done, kids can get an e-mail telling them to come and get it." -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 8/31/2002 08:27:00 AM ----- BODY: This weekend is commerce frosh and I can't wait, it's gonna be some good times. When I first came to commerce three years ago the only social events run for the faculty were POITS (beeer gardens held every Friday). Since then the CUS (special thanks to Mariko) has set up a wide spectrum of events from Frosh, to becoming involved with the Undergraduate Business games which are held annually and hosted by different canadian universities. Commerce is a great place to be, I don't think there was much question about the quality of education in Commerce, although the social side of things was definetly lacking when I first arrived. Frosh is a great place for the new students to meet other people in their facutly that are older or that they might not have met otherwise. There was a great deal of very positive feedback after Frosh last year. The students who participated showed up for the first week of school already knowing a lot of really cool people in their faculty, while the students who didn't do frosh had to start from scratch, and probably never really had the opportunity to meet the third and fourth year students outside the classroom. Thankfully the CUS has heavily subsidized the event, so it costs students a mere $45 for food, hotel accommodations and a boat cruise, as well as a portion of their alcohol. Well Frosh starts in an hour so I should go pack, I'll be back on tuesday and I'll tell you how it went. -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 8/30/2002 10:00:00 AM ----- BODY: For those of you using Hotmail or another web based email system at work, this article will be of interest -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 8/30/2002 09:57:00 AM ----- BODY: Savage Love has almost moved on from the talk of Furries and is actually quite funny today. TheOnion is always a good read. If you have time, check out Point CounterPoint -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 8/30/2002 09:42:00 AM ----- BODY: Grant's Blog -------- AUTHOR: nivek DATE: 8/30/2002 09:40:00 AM ----- BODY: Yeah well I was having such a good day, until now. My frickin blog just ate it and I lost the post about my new pimp ass blue highback chair. Got To Hell Blogger.com bla bla bla, shitty cause now nobody gets to hear about it...... Anyways, I started this blog because everybody else is doing it and I was starting to feel left out. Well ok, in reality I'm just doing it because I want to up my "professional" writing skills and share intersting articles/stories with people that will hopefully be interested. For those of you who are looking for something a little more indepth and intellegent please check out Bill's Blog For politics check out Martin's Blog For The life of Randy Romero check out Randy's Blog Last and definetly least we have Grant Rhode's Blog. This piece of work inhabites the 12th floor of our office building, for instructions on making Kraft Dinner or nifty math tricks check it out. --------