steve kwan user experience designer

Creed 2

(June 30th, 2004)

So the ex-members of Creed have a new band now. Well, that's just great. Just what I wanted, more Creed. Ugh.

Liberals

(June 29th, 2004)

So the Liberals won the election last night...and not by as narrow a gap as everyone thought. It seems that the Conservative opposition didn't have as strong a showing as was predicted.

This is, of course, in large part to stevekwan.com, where I urged everybody to stay away from the Conservatives. Once again, stevekwan.com has altered the course of history with its clever opinion articles.

I have to say, it's a bit scary running a website that has this much power over current events, but I think I'm responsible enough to use it for good.

Yum

(June 28th, 2004)

Mmmm, democracy.

Thanks to Fark for the link.

Iraq is sovereign now

(June 28th, 2004)

Looks like the Americans have pushed the Iraq hand-off a day forward and have declared it a sovereign nation. I guess this means they'll be leaving now.

How long do you figure the new government is going to last? The Americans have invaded, killed civilians and soldiers, transplanted the government, and now they're leaving. Iraq is in a state of chaos. Their government probably won't hold up long under these circumstances.

I hope the Americans learn that you can't replace one kind of evil with another kind of evil and expect good to come of the results. If you replace a cruel and ruthless dictator via a bloody invasion and install a shadow government, don't expect that government to be popular.

DON'T VOTE CONSERVATIVE.

(June 28th, 2004)

I don't get why anyone in their right mind would vote for the Conservative party. It's looking like they've got a shot at winning the election this year. What kind of logic motivates a person to vote Conservative? "Wow, it looks like the Americans are doing great with a Republican government; maybe Canada should go right-wing too."

The last thing Canada needs now is its own Dubya. Guys, consider voting NDP or Liberal this year.

Fahrenheit 9/11

(June 26th, 2004)

I went to see my folks last night. After some home-cooked food (much better than the supermarket fare I eat most nights), we saw Michael Moore's latest controversy, Fahrenheit 9/11. I don't think I need to explain the premise of this movie to anybody; you've probably all heard about it by now.

It was pretty much what I'd expect; a two-hour informercial attacking Bush. Sort of like a Daily Show marathon, if Jon Stewart were a ridiculously large, unshaven dude. That being said, it's definitely worth watching if you're already a left-wing Moore fan. This movie isn't going to win many new people to Moore's cause, as the majority of his audience will be Democrats or Moore supporters, but it makes an interesting argument about the causes and effects of the Iraq war.

Speaking of which, June 30th is the date when Bush says American troops are going to pull out of Iraq. I have a suspicion that once the Americans pull out, the government they've set up will be torn apart. Sad, really.

Firefox

(June 24th, 2004)

After a bit of skepticism, I switched from Internet Explorer to Mozilla Firefox. Overall, it's a pretty good Web browser. I wonder if it'll get rid of some of the popup problems I seem to have in IE. On my home machine, ads keep popping up and I can't get rid of them.

SYN,SYN/ACK,ACK

(June 24th, 2004)

I have Internet at home again. One of my roommates moved out; the Internet and cable were registered in her name, so she cancelled the services. I was without Internet access at home for a day or two. For a computer dude, this is like having no air.

My courses are coming to an end. I managed to convince my teacher to raise my midterm mark; now I just need to write a research paper, two finals, and then I'm done my courses. I also have a ton of coding to do for work before I can leave on my vacation to Greece. The next few weeks are going to be pretty busy.

Jet Set Satellite

(June 23rd, 2004)

Jet Set Satellite is finally (FINALLY) releasing their new album!

For those of you who don't know, I've been eagerly anticipating this release since its original date, summer 2001. Unfortunately, JSS had a dispute with their label and wound up switching; this resulted in a three-year album delay.

But come September of this year, they'll be releasing their second album, Vegas.

F-Day

(June 21st, 2004)

I had a busy Father's Day (otherwise known as the day where you honor the less-responsible parent). I did Grouse with Michelle and got my butt kicked by the heat. Still made it up in good time, though: 55 minutes. Afterwards, I went to dinner with my folks and grandmother to Prospect Point. My mom was yelling at the manager over a coupon; it was quite entertaining.

I also heard that my mother got into a bit of an accident by backing into my dad's car. Not bad, mom! She wrecked her own car and my dad's at the same time. Two birds with one stone!

Additionally, I'm pondering changing my stance on the whole voting issue. As much as I hate getting off my butt to do things, I really don't want a Conservative victory in BC. Maybe I'll go vote NDP after all. Or Green. Yay Green.

Going to the Polls

(June 18th, 2004)

Christopher came into the office the other day to remind us that we are legally allowed to take three hours off work to vote in the upcoming elections. I informed him that I wouldn't be going, which he found quite amusing.

Is it really that odd not to vote? I thought non-voters were a majority. Besides, who would I vote for?

Normally I would support the NDP, but they were in government only a few years ago and were wracked by scandals.

The Liberals have had their fair share of scandals as well, and I don't agree with their cuts to health care and education. I understand that money doesn't grow on trees, but these are two things which really should be a high priority.

I just can't understand why anybody would vote Conservative.

That more or less leaves the Green Party, and although I find them interesting, I'm not going to waste three hours of my time to throw away a vote.

So there; that's why I'm not voting. Why should I waste three hours of my time choosing between three parties I don't want to vote for, and one party who won't win regardless of my vote?

White Light Rock & Roll Review

(June 16th, 2004)

Matt Good released his new album, White Light Rock & Roll Review, yesterday. I couldn't wait to go to the store to pick it up, so I downloaded it off of PureTracks.

The album wasn't exactly what I expected...it has a touch of country to it. Matt seems to be shying away from his typical moody rock style. A shame, because I like his mellow, smooth songs, but White Light Rock & Roll Review's still a good album, and worth listening to if you're a fan.

And no, I'm not going to put the album up on this site. It's only $8 on PureTracks. Cheap jerk.

I thought that song sounded familiar!

(June 14th, 2004)

I don't think this needs any description:
http://www.thewebshite.co.uk/nickelback.htm

The Girlfriendometer

(June 13th, 2004)

Well, it's 5:00AM and I just finished creating the Girlfriendometer. It's stupid to stay up this late when I'm supposed to be doing Grouse with Michelle in the morning, but I was having fun writing this little bit of entertainment.

Click here to view the Girlfriendometer. Trust me, it's worth your time.

Good, long rest

(June 12th, 2004)

I just woke up at 5:00pm on Saturday. This is great. This is the life. Now, if I could convince Chris that I should only work between 7:00pm and 10:00pm, I could do this every day.

Morocco!

(June 11th, 2004)

So MINISIS is trying to send me to Morocco...and I don't want to go. Actually, I wouldn't mind going, but it will get in the way of my classes, my vacation, and my health if I'm kidnapped. I need to get out of this trip...I'll have to talk to Chris about it sometime.

Not having fun.

(June 9th, 2004)

Just not having a lot of fun these days. Work, school, work, school...there's nothing else to do. I just wrote a midterm yesterday - that should keep my teacher busy for a while - but I have a feeling that the work is going to start piling up again quickly. I'm very much looking forward to going to Greece this summer. Ahh, three weeks. I haven't taken that much time off since I took the job at MINISIS back in 2002.

Speaking of MINISIS, I'm doing some cool stuff there these days. A really large, boring project concluded, and I've been working on more interesting things as of late. I don't know how much of this I should divulge on my website, so I'll leave it at that, but suffice it to say that work is interesting.

This heat is driving me nuts. I don't function well in warm temperatures. I should ditch the suit and tie; I think t-shirts are more appropriate in this weather.

I also made some minor updates to the site; there was a display glitch in certain browsers such as Firefox. If you're one of those idiots who uses Firefox or some equally dumb browser, you might notice that the page looks a bit different.

Tampa Boo

(June 7th, 2004)

Well, I'm used to having my hopes shattered, but usually it's by a woman and not a gang of thirty hairy toothless men.

For those of you who haven't been following sports, I'm not talking about an Iraqi prison torture incident. I'm talking about the Tamba Bay Lightning beating the Calgary Flames for the Stanley Cup in game seven. How could this happen? Calgary was doing so well at first, but they lost in game six and proceeded to get trounced in game seven. They must've been drinking lots of suck juice tonight! Tampa took them to school. The Tampa Bay Lightning woke them up in the morning, had them brush their teeth, made them breakfast, packed their lunches, got in the car and took them to school.

This was supposed to be a sure thing for Calgary! They're a Canadian team who'd beaten every other division champion (except Tampa). They hadn't been in the playoffs for years, and this was a young team, so it had every making of a sappy hockey story. This was supposed to be Canada's night, but somehow, Calgary was beaten by a team from Florida. What do they know about hockey in Florida? It's Florida. They grow oranges there. It's a retirement state. Calgary, on the other hand, is a frozen province. It's so cold in Calgary that even your toque needs to wear a toque. And yet, the Flames still managed to lose this one.

It was bad enough that Calgary beat the Vancouver Canucks (who are my local team, obviously), but at least I could comfort myself knowing that it was a Canadian team that would go on, and would likely win the cup. But I was let down again. Oh well, next year is another year, and maybe we'll win this time. Maybe if we got rid of Bertuzzi...

Women suck.

(June 7th, 2004)

Just a general observation. I don't think it needs explaining.

The madness is over!

(June 5th, 2004)

I'm finally getting some much-needed rest.

Christopher was demoing some of our software to an organization whose name I'm probably not supposed to reveal. Anyway, I had to crunch to get some features in for him, and wound up pulling an all-nighter. I was so tired by the end of it that I was almost tipsy as I was walking home. But after some rest - I slept through most of Friday - I feel much better, and am psyched about tonights Flames vs Lightning game.

It's Odina's birthday - she's one of my roommates - and she's throwing a party with about 20 people or so. We're going to watch the game and have some beer. I'm predicting a good time! Chelle has been invited, and says she'll come. Shereen opted not to because she hates me.

I might (but probably won't) post some post-game reactions on this site, so stay tuned!

TIRED.

(June 4th, 2004)

I would enjoy a nap right now.

It's 7:44AM on Friday, and I've been up since Thursday morning. I worked on Thursday, went to class Thursday night, and pulled an all-nighter to work an a major project for work. This is not the sort of life I want to live. I want to find a nice girl, settle down and live peacefully (and sleep lots). I don't want to be up coding all night simply because I work for a company that thinks it's reasonable to expect that of me.

But maybe I'm just grumpy because I've been awake for so long. I'm trying to cut back on the coffee, which is a shame because a cup would be nice right now. I'm drinking some tea (which could have more caffeine than coffee), but I don't enjoy it as much.

I downloaded songs from AllOfMP3.com the other day. This is a great pay-for-download site that is far cheaper than PureTracks.

If this note seems disjointed, it's because I'm quite exhausted right now and I'm having trouble keeping awake.

Having a degree in Arts is worse than having no degree at all.

(June 3rd, 2004)

I recently set my MSN name to the above and got quite a bit of attention from a co-worker of mine. "I have an arts degree, you know," he snapped. "So does your boss."

Unfortunately, the sad truth is that I'm right: an Arts degree is absolutely worthless. A lot of people get degrees simply because they think they need them...either to gain respect or better employment. Now, I could very well argue that that's no reason to pursue education...but if you want to get respect or better employment from a degree, at least get a degree that's worth something. Get a degree in Computer Science or Engineering. Don't get a degree in arts. When someone tells me that they have a degree in Computer Science or Engineering, I might think they're a chump, but at least I understand that it takes a bit of brains to make it through four years of university with majors like those. On the other hand, if you're going to brag about a degree in Arts, I'm going to assume that your parents paid your way through university, but you didn't succeed at getting into a decent major because your grades were too low, so you wound up in the catch-all school known as the Arts...or as I call it, TEH AARTS.

I guess you can't help creating controversy online with a line like that...call me the Eminem of MSN. But I think there is a resounding truth in what I've said; after all, who majors in Philosophy because it's what they want?