2-4

It wasn't the season we were hoping for but at least we ended it off with a win giving us a 2-4 record. Will there be a next year? I don't think so. We could barely spark enough interest for people to come regulary this year so I doubt we would get a minimum of 9 people to come out to each game next year. Though it would be nice to get to the championship once. I guess we'll have to stick to the city league from now on. Therefore I can't wait for the spring/summer to come up! Our next venture? Crazy 88's basketball team. Our goal is to win one season game, hehe.


Crazy 88's Football Fall 2005
-Alex 2005

Drool......

Now that's a watch (Casio Databank EDB610D-8C) that will definitely satisfy the geek/nerd in me!

Ain't so Crazy 88's.....

Well we have suffered our 3 straight defeat in the UC Intramural league today and our record now is an embarassing 1-3. With only 2 games left it looks like we will have to pull one out of our asses to make it to the playoffs. Our division was pretty tough this year and we are stuck being matched up with the best teams for 4 out of 6 regular season games. Our defence is seriously lacking at times and the fact that we don't have enough players show up for each game is also a problem. Our offence is okay, but I think we really need to draw up those plays again as it kept us more organized. It would also be nice to get a practice in but there is never enough interest. Anyways with this season done in about a months time I hope the Crazy 88's venture into another sport for the winter as it would be nice to be active. Perhaps we can do volleyball, hockey or even basketball?

Lost.

Last night I had the most real dream I have had in awhile. There I was just waking up from what seemed like a plane crash. However the plane wasn't anywhere to be seen and there weren't any survivors around me. The only things with me were a few sleeping bags, my laptop and Tuyet. We were in a desert and it was night time and for some reason I had no shoes on so the sand was really cold in between my toes. We seemed to have no injuries and were just a little disoriented. I tried my hardest in the dream to try and remember where I was going, and why I was on the plane. But it was useless, it was like I had something blocking from remember. As I looked around me I couldn't help but feel scared, I looked at Tuyet but she seemed too shocked to even speak. So I started walking with my laptop and sleeping bags in hand while Tuyet followed. It was so dark that I could barely make out where I was going and to make sure I wasn't going around in circles I made sure that I never walked over the same texture of land twice. After awhile I felt really tired and the Sun didn't seem to be coming up any time soon and I knew that when the Sun did come up Tuyet and I didn't have a chance of surviving, as we didn't have any water with us. But I was so tired so I decided to take a nap. I rolled out the sleeping bags and we quickly went to sleep. As I was sleeping in my dream I was digging my hand in the sand, and for some reason I found a bottle. Quickly waking up in my dream I looked in my hand and noticed that I had amazingly dug up a bottle with my hand from the sand! The Sun was coming up and I was able to see that the bottle was clear and was corked. In the bottle was a piece of paper. I quickly opened up the bottle and took the note out to see what was written on it, and to my disbelief it said "You are here....." and then it listed the location and the coordinates. I was ecstatic! I knew with the name of the place and the coordinates I could use my laptop to find out exactly where we were. When I looked it up, the search in my map program revealed that I was in Zambia on the African continent!!!!!! This is when I woke up from my dream.....

Hockey, Hockey, Hockey!!!!!!

Well some of you might know, and some of you might not. But I and a few other friends have started a little blog about hockey. Now its nothing too fancy but it should prove to be interesting if you are a hockey fan. Now the main team we focus on is the Flames, but we also talk about things happening around the league. So if you like hockey come check out the new blog at http://fiveholefanatics.blogspot.com . And tell your friends about it! Feedback is welcomed.

Alex.

Vacation Photos.

Here are some pics that I took while I was vacationing down in California. Enjoy!


Andrew at the main entrance into Disneyland
-Alex 2005


Mom and Brother
-Alex 2005


tuyet and I
-Alex 2005


Mom & Brother @ Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco
-Alex 2005


Tuyet and I @ Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco
-Alex 2005


Some Ship in the Harbor near Fisherman's Wharf
-Alex 2005


Tuyet, Andrew and my Mom at the street vendor eating fresh crab, calamari and chips! YUM!
-Alex 2005


Brother, Mom, Tuyet in San Francisco
-Alex 2005


Lombard Street, San Francisco
-Alex 2005


Coit Tower, San Francisco
-Alex 2005


San Francisco view from Coit Tower
-Alex 2005


Tuyet and I, Lombard St., San Francisco
-Alex 2005]


Bay Bridge view from Coit Tower, San Francisco
-Alex 2005


Downtown San Francisco from Coit Tower
-Alex 2005


Another look San Fran from Coit Tower
-Alex 2005


The good ol' red, white and blue on a ship in San Diego
-Alex 2005


Andrew with a submarine in the background
-Alex 2005


Andrew and I in a Helicopter Cockpit Trainer
-Alex 2005


Top Gun!!!!
-Alex 2005


Andrew on the Deck of the U.S. Midway
-Alex 2005


The main helicopter used in the Vietnam War
-Alex 2005


Check out my huge gun!
-Alex 2005


Whoa Andrew has a huge gun too!
-Alex 2005


Andrew off in the dsitance looking at something, with a bridge spanning the San Diego Bay off in the distance
-Alex 2005


Andrew at the bow of the U.S. Midway.
-Alex 2005


You can see Tuyet walking away underneath the "E".
-Alex 2005

Back from SoCal!

Back from the trip. It was definitely well deserved time off on my part after taking spring and summer Chemistry courses. I left for Southern California early (5AM) on Saturday the 20th of August (a day after my chem final). I was barely awake when I reached the airport with Tuyet and my little brother.

The trip started off pretty shaky as well when we got to US Customs. Every other time we have traveled together Tuyet has come to the Customs desk with me to see the Customs officer. This time he asked if we were related and we said "no, just boyfriend and girlfriend", then he rudely sent her back to wait where another prick Customs Officer ordered her over to his desk and asked question she couldn't answer (such as what is the address of your bf's mother), he really shook up Tuyet and it made me super angry.

Back to my guy. He was a super prick. He asked if I was bringing any food and I told him I was bringing Vietnamese Subs. He asked what was in them, and I said beef, ham, veggies. He then yelled at me and said "You can't bring beef! Either go back and eat them or throw them away!" So obviously I can't eat them there because my flight leaves in less than 45 minutes, so I look around looking for a trash can to throw them away. But there were none in plain view ,I'm guessing so people can't throw illegal stuff in the garbage before they get to the customs desk, and meanwhile the jerkoff is yelling "NOW!", "DO IT NOW!", "HURRY UP AND THROW THEM AWAY". I look at him and said calmly "well I would throw them away if I could find a garbage can". He motions at me to give him the subs and he holds them high over his trash can and lets them drop with a huge "thud!" in his garbage can, then hands over our passports. I then told him in my most calm voice "You have a terrific rest of the day", which completely threw his guard off and he responds with a "uhhh thank you, you too".

Really do they have to be such big pricks? Do you need to yell at me? Are you bitter because you are a customs officer? Do you think yelling will throw off potential terrorists? Perhaps you should re-think your people-people skills over. Too bad there is no "comment card" I can fill out to file a complaint that would be sweet. Perhaps I should video tape my next encounter with these pricks. Is this how you welcome people into your country? I might be a colored boy going traveling but don't treat me like a dog. Asshole.

Anyways with that done, the trip went well for most parts. I had a few more spats with my Mom than usual, but they were all resolved so its all good. I'm too lazy to describe in detail what I did every day so for those of you reading my blog you'll just have to settle for point form.

1st Week
- Ran errands with my Mom, drove her all around So Cal
- Went to Ontario Mills Outlet Mall for some shopping.
- Went to my favourite store, Fry's Electronics
- Went to see my parents new home they are building in Riverside, it was 40 degrees Celsius outside! The house is being built by KB Homes, which are the builders who build all the houses on the Sunday show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition". It's a 4800 sq ft home, and its gorgeous! It should be done by the time I come down again for Christmas, I can't wait!!
- Made a trip to Portos in Glendale to get some amazing bakery treats! I have never had a cheese/guava strudel like that in my life! Plus their meat pies and croissants were to die for! It was our first trip to this place and definitely will be a regular visit for each upcoming trip to SoCal, because I want to try one of their famous sandwiches!
- Went to Disneyland, it was great times. My brother was really gung-ho on going on more roller coasters this time. So we hit up Space Mountain, The Matterhorn, Indian Jones and Splash Mountain. Splash Mountain was the scariest by far with an 80 foot drop at the end!
- Went to San Jose to visit my Grandma Friday Morning. We stayed there till Monday morning.
- While there we did all the touristy things we could, so we went to San Francisco to Fisherman's Wharf to eat Seafood. We found this great street vendor where we had a fresh 3-4lb crab done up on the spot, and you just stand up and eat it beside their cart, pretty neat! It was so delicious! Tuyet and I finished one to ourselves! My Mom and brother had calamari and fries which wasn't as good though (because it was under the heat lamp a little too long. It was a great experience overall and recommend it to anyone who likes seafood and is in San Francisco because the guy who worked the cart was really outgoing and kept us entertained and laughing through our entire meal. After that we went to see the "most curved road in the world" which was on the top of the hill on Lombard Street, and then we went to Coit tower afterwards.
- Went to see the movie Red Eye with Tuyet and my brother at our favourite movie theatre down in San Jose, where they have free re-fill popcorn with no extra for added butter! Mmmmmm fattening, but oh so good.

2nd Week
- Did a bit more shopping when we came back. Went to places in Costa Mesa and such. I wanted to get a le tigre shirt but didn't have time to come back and pick one up,
boourns.

We Went to eat at all our favourite places down in SoCal. Such as:
- Noodle World in Alhambra for their awesome Shrimp Fried Rice and Thai spicy
Beef Salad!
- The Double Cheeseburger (or single cheeseburger) from In & Out Burger.
- Nem Nuong rolls from this place I forgot the name too.
- Banh Mi Lee's, which you get REAL AUTHENTIC vietnamese subs that are made from ACTUAL baguettes, vietnamese coldcuts and pate!!! Not that shit you can get from Banh Mi Thi Thi here in Calgary (who claim authenticity but really aren't, but that's a whole other rant for a whole other blog and thread, heh).
- Pho 79 for terrific Pho Dac Biet and Tra Da!
- Norms for their great deals on great meals! Here is an example of a great meal. T-Bone Steak (14 0z) cooked to perfection with your choice of potato (mashed, fries or baked) plus your choice of starter salad and your choice of homemade soup plus a loaf of garlic bread (1 foot long), and a brownie ice cream dessert. All for $9.99(that was there August special!). And they have specials similar to this for every month and available at any time of the day! It had a similar feeling to Denny's, but the food was a lot better.
- The Sizzler in San Jose. We go here when we are at my Grandma's It has become somewhat of a tradition. It is also a steakhouse.
There are many other places that I can't think of anymore but I spend most of my trips eating! And come back at least 10lbs heavier! But its just so good! hehe.

- We went to the beach on our second last day in SoCal, and we went to Newport State Beach. It's a lot nicer (cleanliness and not as busy) than most other public beaches
in SoCal and so its one of my favourites. I convinced Tuyet to come in the water with me and we had a lot of fun waiting for big waves to jump into. Tuyet was having so much fun nearing the end that she didn't even want to leave but rather wait for the next wave! haha what a cutie! We both got a tan that day since we forgot to put on sunblock before we went out in the ocean. But we didn't tan too much and it gave us a nice looking tan. Gosh I love the beach, and we are definitely investing in a beach umbrella for next summer so that my Mom can hide in the shade while we frolic in the water. Yes I said frolic, deal with it.
- Went down to San Diego and visited the U.S. Midway Aircraft Carrier and did the tour of it. It was pretty cool to be on an aircraft carrier and to see first hand how big it really is. Even cooler was seeing all the jets/helicopters that were on display as well. I left with a souvenir paper that was a reprint from a St. Louis paper of the day that the U.S. Declared war on Japan after the bombing of Pearl harbor. It's really cool looking through the pages to see what it was like in the 40's. It was funny to see Radio show listings instead of T.V. listings and Ads for cigarettes that claim they are healthy for you. Even the comic section was a blast to read since they were filled with war propaganda against the Germans. Also seeing ads for women's suits for $2.99 was neat. It definitely was a different world back then.
- Finally went to the bowling alley which is literally across the street from our place. We always notice how busy it (24 hour bowling!) is every trip and try to make time for a game or two but never get around to it. So this time we made time for it. I went with my Mom, Tuyet and Andrew but my mom didn't play though. When we went in we finally knew why it was so busy. It has an all night diner/cafe, and a bar with karaoke, plus it seemed like it had a program for kids to go to instead of hanging out in the streets. It wasn't too bad for 3 people at $32 for an hour (including shoe rental) for 10 pin bowling. My poor little brother had not played 10 pin before (only 10 pin) so was not used to the big bowling balls (get your mind out of the gutter!). So he didn't do well for the two games we played. I think he scored a 35 and 39 while tuyet had 69 and 85 (I think) and I had 87 and 135. It was a lot of fun and we will definitely have to bowl more often from now on.

That was my trip. Damn we did a lot of things in two weeks. And it doesn't even seem like a "vacation" but mind you we would go to sleep at 12AM evernight and wake up at about 10 or 11AM in the morning. We'd only had two meals a day because we'd wake up too late for breakfast everyday. But we made up for it by stuffing ourselves full of food on the subsequent meals.

Coming back from the trip sucks, cuz school starts in a week. I definitely like going down to SoCal in August as its not too hot like June or July and I think I will time my next trips for August from now on. However I don't think I will take spring and summer courses anymore and will just take 2 in spring if I need them. Anyways back to the grind soon, pictures of the trip are coming soon!

Pieces,

Alex.

Calgary Weather Theory

Now for those of you who live in Calgary like I do probalby know all too well that the weather here is very unpredictable. Even though forecasts might call for a sunny cloudless day, within mere moments black clouds roll in and the rain starts a pourin'.

Now I have stopped relying on going to sites such as http://www.theweathernetwork.com to obtain reliable weather reports because they have failed me at one time or another. And of late I have notice a pattern/correlation between the Calgary weather and the hotness/ugliness level of the online sunshine girl from:
http://sunshinegirl.canoe.ca

What I have notice is that the weather (9 times out of 10) is directly related to the hotness factor of the sunshine girl. For example if she is butt ugly, then it will be a miserable day (rain if its spring/summer, snow/cloudy/cold in winter). If she is relatively good looking then the day will be nice, sunny and warm. And if she is just average than the day is partly cloudy.

Don't believe me? Well lets see this past weeks forecasts and the girl that goes along with that date.



Saturday, August 13th 2005
Mean temp of 11°C, high of 20°C, low of 2°C. Partly Cloudy.


Sunday, August 14th 2005
Mean temp of 13°C, high of 17°C, low of 10°C. Overcast and Rain.


Monday, August 15th 2005
Mean temp of 10°C, high of 12°C, low of 6°C. Light to Medium Rain.


Tuesday, August 16th 2005
Mean temp of 8°C, high of 10°C, low of 6°C. Rain.


Wednesday, August 17th 2005
Mean temp of 9°C, high of 10°C, low of 7°C. Rain.


Thursday, August 18th 2005
Today's predicted forecast.......high of 16°C. We will see.

All the data was taken from the weather underground at:
http://www.wunderground.com

So you decide for yourself. I think its pretty accurate myself :D

Alex!

Maple Leaf Future...

The Maple Leafs Suck!!
-Alex 2005

I can't begin to tell you my contempt for this team. From their buying of players in previous seasons, their stupid coach Quinn (who coudn't buy the cup), Sundin and calling themselves "Canada's Team" makes me hate them. But with the new CBA and their inability to adapt to the new salary cap system I think this upcoming season will prove the incompetency of the general manager/ower of the Leafs. It should be entertaining to watch.

Alex.

Half-Blooded Prince

Harry Potter 6: The Half-Blooded Prince
-Alex 2005

I just finished reading the latest installment of the Harry Potter series on Thursday and I must say I was a lot more satisfied with the direction that this book has taken on as compared to the previous book. The previous one was just filled with annoying EMO Harry who spazzed out every single moment he could. But in this installment he is more calm and collected and it makes for a pleasurable read. I didn't mind the ending as much as others have and I actually think it has finally taken a turn for the best and that this final movement towards the ultimate ending will definitely be worth it. If I were to compare this book to Star Wars, this book would be the equivalent to "The Empire Strikes Back". So basically don't hope for a happy ending but by the time you finish you will know that there's going to be a lot of action going down in the the last few installments of the series, and I cannot wait! Too bad we'll have to probably wait another few years for the next one.

On a different note, but totally related to Harry Potter. I recently discovered that the Harry Potter Line has audiobooks in the form of CD's. They are quite pricey though as each audiobook is about $50 - $80. So it looks like I will be trying to find the torrents until I am more wealthy and can afford it! I want them so I can put them on my iPod. It would be great for trips and when I'm just too lazy to read. Plus they are read by Jim Dale who has won a grammy for his Harry Potter audiobook work. Apparently for this series alone he has over 1000 voices for it. Crazy!

pieces,

Alex.

Finally....

Friday has arrived and I'm estatic about it. This week has been so busy when dealing with school homework/assignments/quizzes/labs. I really thought it would be less busy after the mid-term but boy was I wrong. My online quiz on Tuesday night proved to be very drama filled. It included forgetting to open up a critical data sheet and then logging onto another computer to see if I could open it up without logging me out of the computer I was doing the quiz on. Luckily it worked, but then I ended up having to run back and forth from computers to attain numbers to answer my questions. During this process I stubbed my toe on the couch, ouch. Then with 15 minutes remaining until midnight (when the quiz was due) my internet cut out! I debated on what the problem was so I wiggled the cable for my modem box and the internet came back with 10 minutes remaining on my quiz. Not knowing if it logged me out of my quiz when it disconnected I crossed my fingers and clicked the "next question" button. To my relief it worked. I got a 9/10 on it eventually. Was it worth it? Not for all that drama. The next night was filled with lab writeup. I was almost finished by 1AM when I realized I made a HUGE mistake and I had to redo most of the lab. So I was finished my lab by 4am, gross. Yesterday I had a very easy lab though and we were the second group done and left an hour before lab time was up.....sweet! And today is Friday! All I have is a one hour lecture then I'm going to take my car in for a Type 1 maintnance.....oil change heh. Tomorrow I will be going to Christians for his bbq birthday party, and I'm looking forward to it. Should be good times. Anyways I better get going to class, going to be late!

pieces,

Alex.

You and Me Go Fishing in the Dark......

Andrew, you and I have to DEFINITELY find this fishing spot and get into fly fishing!


mmmm Fishing :D
-Alex 2005

Soccer Anyone?

We are definitely playing this team! hehe.


I vote the Crazy 88's play this soccer team :D
-Alex 2005