AND STRAIGHT ON TILL MORNING

It's about 3:30am and most of the people here at the College are asleep. It's quiet. The air is cool. It's peaceful.

Thanks to a can of Coke consumed around midnight, I am wide awake, yet not hyperactive. Given the circumstances, I am somewhat relaxed.

Earlier in the evening, a large group of us from the College went down to Wreck to see the sun set. We brought wood for a fire, some tiki torches, and marshmallows to roast. The sunset was beautiful. The lingering clouds allowed the sun to paint the sky with pastel pinks. A few people started playing cards, but I didn't want to join, I know like two card games, maybe three and they weren't playing those.

Instead I sat with the others and roasted marshmallows with a coat hanger. It took me a dry run to get it right, but I got the hang of it. I will tell you one thing though, melted marshmallows, sticky hands, and sand don't really mix. As I did the roasting, I got to sit next to Miriam. We had a short but really good conversation. We were in the same reflective, quiet mood. We discussed our troubles, we looked at the flickering flames of the fire, and I think we both knew what type of week we had just finished. We didn't say much after that, there was no need.

As the light of the day yielded to the night, the fire turned a mezmorizing orange. I had an interesting conversation around the fire with Arash, Bruno, and Carly. We talked about everything from The Price Is Right to how fun it is to watch marshmallows burn and expand.

We came back up around midnight. After I got back, I played Arash a game of MSN Messenger checkers. We were about even down to 5 pieces each, but then I did a dumb move and it was all over. Strangely enough, I played Tic-Tac-Toe with him after and got two games on him. Isn't it like impossible to lose in Tic-Tac-Toe?

Some TV and more video games and here we are at 4am. I think I'll download some music, do some more web stuff, and see where I'll be. I am looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow.

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THE ARAMARK CORPORATION REVISITED

In November, in a series of posts, I chronicled my dealings with the vending machine company Aramark. Their response to my complaint was quite speedy and acceptable. Today, I had reason again to contact them.

Around 3pm I was feeling a bit peckish, having had only a light lunch. Not wanting to go far, I decided to visit the vending machine just down the hall. As I got there, I decided I wanted a bag of Miss Vickie's Sweet Chili and Sour Cream chips. I put in my twoonie for the $1.10 bag of chips and pressed A6.

Beep!

I looked at LCD display on the machine. It said, "Make another selection". Weird. I pressed A6 again.

Beep!

I looked at the completely filled row of chips. It sure as hell wasn't empty. A friend of mine always says the third time's the charm.

Beep!

Nope. Begrudgingly, I take the bag of plain chips next to my intended target and collect my change. I note the number on the machine and I go back to my office. I call them up and explain the situation to them.

A nice woman takes down all the details and tells me she'll definitely dispatch someone to the machine on Monday. Next, she wants to know where she can mail me the $1.10 to re-imburse me for the chips I didn't want in the first place. I tell her it's alright and it wasn't worth her trouble. She insists. I acquiesce.

She tells me to expect the money in the mail soon. That's pretty cool of them. It's not like I didn't get anything at all, but they wanted to re-imburse me anyways. Too bad you can't buy cars from a vending machine.

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READY TO ROLL

I guess if you're reading this, it's obvious the server move went well and my mail is working again. Everything seems like it was before except there's a bit more hard drive space all around.

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SUPER SIX-FOUR IS GOING DOWN

My mail and web server are both moving today at approximately 6pm PST. At that time, both this site and my e-mail will become unavailable.

The move should be complete by 7:30pm and all services should be back up and running at that time.

That is all.

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GOOD TO GO

I had an hour plus nap after work today. It's 1:40am right now. I'm good to go... I've got no where to go, but I'm good to go. I wish I could go now.

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THE BULLSHIT OF LIFE

Last night, I had a long conversation on the phone with a friend that I hadn't talked to in a long time. We conversed about many subjects, movies, sports, politics, and he came to a new relevation which he phrased as the "bullshit of life". I asked what he meant by that exactly.

"Erwin, the bullshit of life are all the little or not so little random, unexpected, undeserved events that happen to you. It could be anything, some guy dings your car while you're gone, the bank screws up your account, the wait at the store is long, people you know just get mad at you for no reason, your cake doesn't rise... all of that, and some of it is gonna seem totally fucking unfair," explained my friend.

"Yeah, BS like that can be hard to take, you don't think you deserve any of that, yet here it is, dropped right in front of you. Like any shit that's in front of you though, you gotta step around it, and don't let it bother you. Keep going on. If you stepped in every piece of BS that life offered you, you'd spend your entire existence metaphorically wiping off your shoes, bitching about it, and letting life go on by without you," he continued.

"Some BS is gonna be harder to deal with than others. There'll be times when life plops down a huge pile of shit, and you'll be wondering how the fuck am I gonna get past this? I don't deserve this! Well, you just have to stay focussed and be positive and get help from friends."

As I listened intently to my friend for several minutes, I was struck by two things. First, my friend usually doesn't come up with these type of relevalations. Second, I wanted to know how and why he came up with this, so I asked him.

"Erwin, one night I just realized you can live your life stepping from one piece of shit to another, bitching and bemoaning life, yelling at the sky at all the injustices you've been dealt with. Which is no way to live of course. Or, you can be resilient, stay positive, move forward (look ahead! sorry... - Ed. ), and don't let it drag you down. That's how I'm gonna be from now on."

While some of what he told wasn't new to me, I was still very proud of the new outlook he had on life. It certainly refreshed me on what is important in life.

When he was finished his treatise, I asked him if he was willing to put our conversation here. He said yes, and that's what you see above. I hope some of you found it interesting.

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NO MAIL

UPDATE: My mail is working again.

The damn hard drive on my mail server is full again. That means I haven't been able to receive mail from about 8pm on from last night.

If ya gotta send me stuff, send it here. That is all.

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I GUESS IVY LEAGUE SCHOOLS ARE BETTER

I was in dire need of a laugh tonight. I managed to dig out this piece of comedy I found a few weeks ago.

At most universities, when students graduate, they have a commencement address given by (hopefully) a distinguished guest. The more prestigious the institution, the better the speaker. Some US schools get former Presidents, famous authors, or news people. At a few universities, they have what's called Class Day, it's usually a day before graduation. The day is much more light-hearted than the formal proceedings of commencement.

This year, Harvard got former SNL funnyman Will Ferrell to give the Class Day speech. In my opinion, the speech he gave was a knee-slapper. There's an on-line video of his speech. It's in Real Video format and you have to move the time marker to about 1:30:00. If you don't, you'll be watching an hour and a half before he comes on. Try watching right to the end when he receives his gifts from some students. Hi-lar-ity!

Click here for said video.

By the way, I had no Class Day when I graduated.

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ON RESERVES

I feel like crap right now. I am soooooooo tired! I had a horrendous time getting to sleep last night. My room was extremely hot and muggy. Despite avoiding caffeine all night, it did not help. I tossed and turn in discomfort. It didn't help that I was bothered by some weirdness developing in my left ear canal. Either it's an infection, mosquito bite, or live flies are gonna start emerging from there. Anyways, that meant I couldn't lie on my left side, which I tend to favour.

For minutes at a time, I'd lie with my eyes open, watching the lights from passing cars along SW Marine dance along my far wall. I eventually got a little bit angry with the fact it was taking so damn long to fall asleep. I was fearing that I'd be really tired in the morning. I was going to work out my aggression by going on a starlight run, but thought better of it. If you got the Star Wars reference in the last three sentences, give yourself ten points.

Anyways, I must fallen asleep around 4am from pure exhaustion. I got up at 8am and made my way to work, skipping breakfast entirely. Oh well, there goes my streak.

I felt great all morning, even better than usual. I had a meeting at Brock Hall and the brisk walk did me some good. When I got back though, that's when the damn wheels fell off. I feel like putting my head onto my keyboard, closing my eyes, and just letting sweet sleep wash over me. Of course I can't and of all days, I have a playoff softball game to play right after work.

Stimulants. I think I'll be hitting the caffeine hard today.

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THESE AREN'T THE DROIDS YOU'RE LOOKING FOR

It's around 11:30pm and Adrian, Pat, and I are leaving Calhoun's for Safeway. We're on MacDonald when Adrian notices a police cruiser behind us.

We continue along and turn onto 4th Ave. Not long after, the cruiser flashes his lights. We think he's just trying to get past us. Adrian pulls over to side, except that the cruiser doesn't keep going. The police car pulls in behind us and stops. A spotlight then shines onto us.

"Aw man! What the hell did I do? I didn't do anything wrong!" protests Adrian.

"Nothing man, you didn't do anything."

"This is going on my blog."

After what seems like an eternity but in reality was about 30 seconds, a policeman finally saunters up to Adrian's window.

"Good evening officer."

"Hello gentleman, where are you guys going?" the officer inquired. He looks at all of us and around the car.

"We're just going back to UBC."

"Ok, um, I was thinking you guys were someone else, sorry for the mistake, you guys can go now"

The officer walks back to his car. We look at each other and I'm thinking this is pretty damn anti-climatic.

"That guy saw three short nerds and he knew instantly he had the wrong car!" explained Pat.

We drive off and I realize I haven't been pulled over by the cops in years, probably like 20 or so. What a weird traffic stop.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES

I was just digging through some files on my computer when I came upon this photo of my sister and myself. It was taken at my father's staff Christmas party where children were given awesome presents. I think I'm about four or five and my sister can't be any more than two (if that). Ah memories.

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BIRTHDAY PICTURES

We had a huge (by our standards) birthday party here at St. John's in early July. I finally put up the pictures. Take a look here.

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ERWIN TANG!

I was walking downtown today. As I passed the Virgin Megastore, I heard a voice shout out.

"Erwin Tang!"

I looked to my right and saw where the voice came from. It was a former junior high classmate of mine, Rob. He was walking to a Capoeira demonstration. I had last talked to Rob about three years ago. He was heavily involved in Capoeira then and I saw he still was.

We exchanged pleasantries. He then mentioned that he saw my web site. I asked him how he had found it. Rob told me he Google'd his own name and found some Capoeira-related stuff. Then he tried some other names and mine was one of them.

I thanked him for visiting and that he should leave me a message some time. At that point his group had to move on and we said our goodbyes.

What a random encounter. I know from web tracking tools that some people have put my name in Google, but I never knew who was doing that. Now, I know who at least one of them were.

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AND BACK INTO THE POOL YOU GO

Probably none of you realized it, but on Friday, my ownership of the domain erwin.ca expired. I had it for one year and when I registered it, I did so on an impulse. I really had no plan for it and anyone that went there was just re-directed to this site.

I believe over the course of 12 months, perhaps 10 people came looking. I guess it didn't help I didn't submit the address to any search engines. I was also able to receive mail at erwin@erwin.ca. Strangely, I never gave out that address to anyone and continued to use my old one. Several months down the road, I began receiving spam on erwin@erwin.ca. Those were the only pieces of mail I got on that address.

The domain will be held in limbo for about 30 days, after which it will be available to any Canadian resident again. Good luck future owners of erwin.ca!

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