At the foostable at work, someone always spoil the laughters and fun. Playing games are suppose to be relaxing and joyful, somehow one person in the group take it too seriously. He would trash talk when he score, swear when he is scored and really grumppy when he lost the game. He is one of the best player around, it is absolutely no fun to play against him, even with him. It is not that we are out of luck and lost big time, but rather he create a bad mood around the table. Sometimes I become quite serious during the game, especially when it’s passing back and forth for a long time without any goal. However once the someone scored or the game is finish, we make fun of each other and joke about the game, we won’t wear the tense face for long. That room is setup for creational purpose, we don’t need to give ourself more stress by creating unnecessary competition. I am just thinking, isn’t this lesson can apply to other aspect of life as well? Why stress out yourself with merely a game? Play a game seriously is a respect to your opponents, but it doesn’t mean you have to take the winning or losing of the game seriously. The question is how to distinguish what is for fun and what is not.

Today is the last day of the week long christmas holidays. I feel I am having the holiday syndrome, feeling sad about having to go back to work. My christmas holidays is absolutely unproductive, havn’t touch my school work once, and I am still preparing my toastmaster speech for tomorrow. However, one of my gains in the holidays is I came out from the shell and initiate contacts with my old friends. Other than my best buddies in Waterloo visiting me, I had sent out e-cards to all of my friends and heard many response. It is surprise to receive many warm greetings and updates from old friends didn’t keep in contact. I will try to keep in touch with them by writing them an email at least once a month. Although I feel a bit let down by some of responses, just one simple line with an unsincere thankyou. Some are not smart enough to gave me their email address even I hinted I had lost it. Anyways, a short reply is better than no reply. I can see which person can be written off from my friends list. It is very true that when one grows old, it is harder and harder to make new friends, so we have to treasure our old friends.

Boxup is the source of all my mp3, I have been downloading mp3 from it for several years. Its service is excellent, with large songs collection, prompt updates and reasonable price. However, the good deal finally has come to an end. Boxup is closed forever after shutting down for almost a month. My remaining membership got transfered to a new service Coxoo. Instead of http based download, coxoo use p2p methods and I have to install a p2p cilent. Coxoo has been around for a few months, with links from the front page of boxup. I have been suspecting coxoo is the next evolution of boxup, and it seems my guess is right. It would be more efficient to provide p2p service with reliable seed than hosting all the mp3 in dedicated servers. When I installed coxoo last week, the program is so crappy that it is next to useless. Today I gave it a second try, download and install the lastest release. I found service of coxoo is comparable to boxup, maybe even more convinient. One of my major complain is the song library of coxoo is not as well organized as boxup, although they are fairly up-to-date with most of the new songs. I hope coxoo’s library interface will improve over time or simpily re-use boxup’s. I am wondering what are the links between boxup, coxoo and myttf. It is very obvious they have close ties, but how they are related is unknown to me. It seems problem of finding mp3 is solved temporarily, until I have to find a replacment for coxoo.

Year 2005 is over, welcome to year 2006. In the past, I havn’t made any new year resolution or new year wishes. Therefore, I don’t have any review for my last year’s resolution or wishes. This year, I would like to make a list of things I want to do in the next 265 days. This year, I will be turning 30 and officially become a middle-age man. I have to think about my career plan and the path I want to take in the future. There are a few options I am considering after having my master fully completed and get the P.Eng title. Switching jobs or moving back East is an option, going back to school to switch field is another option. I may considering staying in PMC for a few more years if I land on an interesting project with learning opportunities and prospect to get a promotion. I don’t want to feel like stucking in a dead end at work. If I am leaving PMC, I want to complete my toastmaster CTM certificate.

I have been keeping up well in writing articles and blogs, I will definitely continue this effort, I found it is very rewarding in term of consolidating my thoughts. I have spent too much time watching anime and movies, and end up writing too many reviews. I want to work on more serious articles on religion and social values. I want to read at least a book a month, and finished the books I have purchased but havn’t read. I’ll see whether I have time to pick up learning piano again, that would mean at least 30 minutes practice per day to make it meaningful.

I will keep my promise to Pat of going to church every week with her. In my opinion, I am already a very spiritual and faithful christian, although no one seems agree with me. I will also continue on the ball room dancing lessons, as I have already pre-paid the fee. Playing badminton every week gives me the excerise I need. I want to ski more often in Whistler and if Cypress’s condition is good, I would buy some day pass from Ian to take more ski lessons. I want to know whether I am good enough to take CSIA level 1 again.

I want to move closer to Pat, the perfect location would the rental apartments at Joyce station. I need to refresh my home to keep myself more energized. The only problem is I am not even start looking at places. I will start looking once I get the defense out of my way.

I want to get a new computer to replace my existing desktop machine, then flush it for linux to upgrade my web server. This time, I will document the steps I took to setup my server, probably with minor extra efforts and turning it into a tutorial. If I don’t writing things down, it will take me much longer to recall the memory, or basically I have to relearn the skill. My CRT monitors system is very out of date, I will upgrade to LCD displays. If the price of LCD price drop low enough, one 24″ with two 19″ is the best solution. I may consider buying my first laptop, but I will try to get one form work first. Leon had pointed out a very good point, I have to decide which kind I want. Since I am not using it as my desktop replacement, I will probably get a light and protable one. iPod video and flight sim controls would be nice to have items, but I don’t really see the need of them, so I will probably put them off until I can afford them money-wise and time-wise.

Looks like I want to accomplish too many things next year, probably some items in my list will overthrow to the year after. I only have to set the priority right and try to get as many things done as possible.

Lastly, Happy New Year to whom may read my blog. Thankyou for your patience in following my poorly throught out mubbling every day.

I just drove Andy and Leon to the airport and they are on their way back to Toronto. I realy enjoy spending the past few days with old friends. I found that if someone visit you and staying in your place, not only they are having a vacation, you are also having a vacation at the same time with them. My normal daily routine is changed, instead I have having being a tourist in my own city. It is surprising that there are many things I havn’t seen even I have been living here for 5 years. In this vacation, we went to Whislter two times, and mindlessly tour the city for the other two days. When old friends get together, it is natural to talk about the old days. Old memories tends to clash with each other, somehow my version of what had happened is quite different from others. Me and Leon spent lots of time arguing what really had happened back then, as well as almost every single issues ranging from which LCD monitor is better to renewable energy technology. Both of us enjoy arguing itself, regardless the topic involved nor the outcoming, since most of the time is inconclusive. Now, my life is getting back to normal until my next vacation.