steve kwan user experience designer

#9

(May 30th, 2005 - 8:12PM)

#9: Massive Attack - Angel

It's just a great song. I first heard it on the Snatch soundtrack. The scene where The Transporter is about to get his ass kicked in a casino.

I streamed this song for my CommAudio project; the heavy bass draws a wicked waveform.

Pink and pretty

(May 29th, 2005 - 1:03AM)

A few people have complained lately that my site has become a little negative. Well, I want stevekwan.com to be a pleasant experience for my visitors, so I've changed the site to a soothing pink with a bunny on top.

Blah

(May 26th, 2005 - 10:50PM)

I have a lot to write about. But I'm not going to.

Going to the cabin

(May 21st, 2005 - 10:35AM)

My folks and I are heading to the cabin for the long weekend, so there (probably) won't be any updates to this site until Monday.

Wesley and I skipped work on Friday to see Star Wars Episode III. I've gotta say, the praise the movie has been receiving is justified; it was a huge improvement over Episodes I and II. Not to imply that it was perfect, but I really got into this one. Read Graham's review of Episode III, as it more or less sums up my thoughts. Seeing as how Graham is a film nut who likes to think of himself as an intellectual (sorry Graham), his review should be far more readable than anything a caffeine-addicted programmer such as myself would write.

The SteveKwan.com Top Ten

(May 19th, 2005 - 7:07PM)

Not to be outdone by my friends' blogs, I will be posting my top ten favorite songs on this website. And not just the artist and track names, either. The MP3s will be provided. That's one of the benefits to hosting your website on your home server as opposed to a BlogSpot account.

But I won't post all ten at once. No, I will create suspense by posting them one at a time. That's what will motivate you to come back to the site.

Now I know some of you are thinking, "Hey Steve, I'm an asshole and I don't care about your taste in music. Why should I pay attention to this little gimmick?"

Good question, asshole. Here's my answer. You definitely care about my taste in music, because the only reason people come to this website is to compensate for their lame lives by living vicariously through mine. Besides, you have crappy taste in music and this is a way to improve it.

There is a rule for my top ten list: each artist can only appear once. Not to imply that some artists have not released many songs I like, but I want the list to be as diverse as possible.

I will also attempt to minimize the number of easily recognizable songs on this list, as I want to expose people to new music.

So the list begins.

#10: Stereophonics - Mr. Writer

When possible, I will attempt to explain where I first heard each song and its significance to me. In this case, I don't remember much about the "when" for Mr. Writer and it doesn't really mean much to me. But that's why it's at the bottom of the list, so don't complain.

Anti-Liberal

(May 18th, 2005 - 8:39PM)

When I left work yesterday, my boss told me to "vote right!"

I voted left.

And although the NDP didn't win, Mike Farnworth - the NDP candidate in my riding - was elected. Personally, I'm not a big fan of the current NDP, and I have a gut feeling that the Liberals are what we need right now. However, I just can't come up with justification for slash ing healthcare and education like Gordon Campbell has done over the last term, regardless of the circumstances.

Carole James is a loudmouth, but I don't really know if she had much of a platform. She's outspoken, so she'll make a good opposition leader. At the same time, I don't think she would have made a good premiere; something about her doesn't fit.

Speaking of something not being right, does anybody else think Stephen Harper looks a little like that cockroach from Men in Black? You know, the giant bug from outer space who killed a farmer and wore his skin so he could pretend to be a human?

The following takes place between 9:00PM and 10:00PM.

(May 16th, 2005 - 9:14PM)

I'm watching 24, and I've realized that there have been moments in my professional life very similar to Kiefer's adventures.

Boss: "Steve! We have a pending crisis! I told a client that we could deliver our software in 24 hours!"
Steve: "What?"
Boss: "This is a crisis!"
Steve: "I know!"
Boss: "Can you make it happen?"
Steve: "...I can try!"

Two hours later...

Boss: "Steve, what's the progress?"
Steve: "I'm working my ass off, but it's coming!"
Boss: "Damnit Steve, get it done!"
Steve: "I'm trying!"

Eight hours later:

Boss: "Did you get it working?"
Steve: "Sort of. Try this."

Three days later:

Steve: "Did it work?"
Boss: "No. This is your fault."

Yet another case of bad management.

Hooray!

(May 15th, 2005 - 12:06PM)

What a great time I've been having!

My readers will know about the consultant at work who has been giving me a hard time. Anyway, my boss finally stood up to this consultant, who has been quite a bit more reasonable since.

So overall, I'm quite happy with the work situation. I still get the impression that my boss doesn't really listen to me, but one battle at a time.

The weird thing is, even though he's made my life so miserable, I don't hate this consultant. Much like Luke Skywalker couldn't kill Darth Vader after he defeated him, I have no malice for this consultant after my boss stood up to him. That being said, the consultant is not my father and is not voiced over by James Earl Jones, so maybe this isn't a good metaphor.

I went out to IKEA and bought a desk for Sarah, who had been complaining that there was nowhere for her to work at my house. I also picked up a bookshelf and unloaded the six or so boxes of school books that my mother dropped off at my house.

I'm working on downloading Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II via torrents; it's taking forever. In the meantime, I've been playing Chrono Cross on my PSX emulator. It's one of a handful of games that received a 10/10 rating on GameSpot. I'm pretty far into the game, and so far I'm not sure if it's deserving of a 10, but it's certainly not bad.

Richard's guest post

(May 11th, 2005 - 6:43PM)

Dear diary,

Today I feel fat, and sassy.

That is all.

-- The Internet's Foremost Dickolas Wang

I'll have to start demanding a certain degree of quality in these guest posts. -Steve

Sarah's post

(May 9th, 2005 - 9:20PM)

If you are going to steal please be polite.

If you steal a purse you likely want anything that you can sell, use to buy things, or cash. Why waste all of the other items that have value to the purse's owner? Speaking from experience let me tell all of you thieves out there that the owner doesn't really care about the three items the thief wanted, the owner cares more about the items of ID and cards it will be difficult and time consuming to replace including drivers license, sin card, library cards, video rental cards, store cards (i.e. safe way, save on foods), medical cards, prescriptions and possibly a cell phone. So once you have the cash and the credit card why not turn the purse into lost and found (most thieves throw things into garbage cans so you can say you found it there no one will question that), or the door step of the owner (since you have their address) that way instead of having a person out there wanting to beat you to a bloody pulp you will have an appreciative anger free person and your own guilt will be less. Side note for cell phone thieves: if the phone has been disconnected just turn it into lost and found or the retailer (telus for example) you can't use it or sell it so why not let the owner have it. It will cost the owner quite a bit to replace when it is not necessary. So I hope if you are a thief and reading this post you will put some of these ideas into use.

Sarah

I finally framed my diploma

(May 8th, 2005 - 4:01PM)

After three years of putting it off, I finally got around to framing my BCIT diploma. It's on the wall now. I can't wait until I get my degree so I can put it up too.

A lot has been going on, and I haven't had the time or energy to post about it. I was out with Sarah and her purse was stolen; she had to cancel her cards and her cell phone was gone. She's since replaced the phone and cards, but it was obviously a hassle.

This consultant from work is still driving me nuts. I inadvertently deleted some data he'd put into a development system and he freaked on me. He told me he'd imported the data into our system so I could test my software with it. He'd imported more than I needed, so I deleted some if it in order to have a minimal working set. I later found out the data wasn't all imported; some had been entered by hand. I don't recall him telling me this, and I've wound up being responsible for the loss of his data.

In general, work is being a pain in the ass because of this consultant. I have more work lined up with him after this EAD module is finished, so who knows when I'll get back to real work.

Despite the fact that my website advertises the NDP, I'm considering voting Green this year. What they say just seems to make sense, and what the Liberals and NDP are saying don't seem to be much different. My mother is big into unions and will probably be voting NDP, as I would be inclined to do. However, I looked over the NDP platform and I really don't think they have much of a plan. For the most part, their plan seems to be very anti-Liberal, and I don't know if it's a good idea to run on a negative platform.

I'm thinking of how much more convenient it would be to have an automatic posting system for this website. Something like a MySQL database. The thing is, I like the fact that the site as it is doesn't require a lot of external software to run properly; it's little more than HTML with server-side includes.

I've been torrenting Splinter Cell 3 for some time now and I'm hoping it will finish relatively soon.

A bad week

(May 6th, 2005 - 10:40PM)

In general, the last week hasn't been a lot of fun.

I've been battling with this consultant at work who has essentially become my boss. My real boss seems to have no problem with an outsider telling me what I need to do. I understand that in the past, this consultant has done a lot of good for the company, but hanging on to the past is never a good business plan.

I went to the bar with Wesley and Stan tonight. I've been drinking too much beer lately, which is a big waste of money and is generally not healthy. If the quality of this posting is low, it's because I'm a little out of it and I don't want to put a lot of effort into the blog.

Politicking

(May 3rd, 2005 - 7:30PM)

I'm watching the BC Election debates. Gordon Campbell doesn't seem to be speaking well and is making awkward hand gestures. Carole James is being really irritating. Her attacks on Campbell remind me of John Kerry going after George W. Bush.

At work, I've been slaving over the EAD (an XML format) export. Our consultant has been a pain in the ass during this project. His designs are arcane and counter-intuitive. It seems I'm more or less under his direction, because everything I suggest is quickly shot down.

The brilliance of Nintendo music

(May 1st, 2005 - 2:00AM)

I've been on a Nintendo kick for the past while due to NES emulation, and it occurs to me how brilliant the composers of the original Nintendo musical scores must have been. Making music is hard enough, but imagine trying to come up with good, catchy tunes when all you have at your disposal are a few monotone beeps. That being said, the original composers for Mario Bros. and other classics still managed to create tunes that most people from my generation have burned into their memories.

So does anybody here not know how to find whistles in Super Mario Bros. 3? I think if I'm ever in a position to hire people, that will be an interview question I ask. No technical questions needed; simply something like, "Say you're playing Super Mario Bros. 3 and you want to warp levels. How would you go about doing that?" I think that would be an accurate way to gauge someone's personality.

I spoke to my roommate James about Super Mario Bros. 3, and he says there are more than three whistles in the game. I was under the assumption that there were only three. Maybe I'll look into this.

And what kind of useless item is the anchor, anyway? A lot of people probably don't know about the anchor item you can get in Super Mario Bros. 3, because it's nearly impossible to get by chance and it's more or less completely useless.

Anyway, it's 1:54AM and I'm writing on my blog about Super Mario Bros. 3. I think that says a lot about me, most of which is probably not flattering.

So I discovered that Elizabeth - a chick I might online a while ago - sent someone to my website to read my NIN review. This person wound up going to Richard's site and has been talking to him. Nice to know that stevekwan.com is a place to meet people. Maybe I should start charging.