Thursday, June 28. 2007
Well, I'm off to the Young Adults camp at Nanoose Bay Camp this weekend. In addition, I've been drafted as a counselor for the Kid's Camp in the following week, so I'm going to be away for 10 days.
The draft was interesting. On Monday, my Youth Pastor calls me up and asks if I could be a camp counselor for Kid's Camp because they were desperate for volunteers. Unfortunately, he knew that I was unemployed, so it's pretty hard to lie about being busy.
There was one problem though, all counselors were required to pass a criminal record check. And no, the problem isn't that I have a criminal record. The problem was that a check would require at least 5 business days before it was complete, so it was unlikely that the check could be completed before the camp started.
We were trying to figure out how we could resolve this, and then it hit me. I remembered that Yahoo had already started a background check on me in early June, so they should have some documentation showing that my background was clean. I got off the phone and contacted Yahoo about this. Then, the strangest coincidence happened.
Continue reading "A Series Of Coincidences To Camp?"
Tuesday, June 26. 2007
Great news everyone, I just got hired by Yahoo! After three months of job searching, I have a shiny new job as a Web Developer. I'm quite happy about this job because it demands the programming languages and technologies that I prefer to use.
Here are some of the statistics from my job search:
# Distinct Companies Applied To: 7
# Job Applications Sent: 19
# Interviews: 18
# Job Offers: 3
I will now answer some of the frequently asked questions about the job.
Q: Where will you be moving to?
I will be moving to Santa Clara which is about 10 minutes outside of San Jose.
Continue reading "Moving To Silicon Valley"
Monday, June 25. 2007
This weekend was the first time I had ever played on a Nintendo Wii, and I have to say that I was quite impressed by it. I was over at Jordan's place on the weekend, and one of his friends brought over a Wii, and it's a lot of fun when you have a group of people playing. It had that wow factor to it because it's so different from other gaming systems.
A lot of people have dismissed the Wii because its graphics technology isn't nearly as sophisticated as an XBox 360 or a PS3, but I don't believe this was Nintendo's focus. Their focus was to create new gaming experiences that focus on being fun. I believe that they have accomplished this.
I was playing a boxing against Jordan on the Wii, and even though the graphics weren't stunning, it was very fun. Controlling the Wii was extremely intuitive because if you want to punch someone, you punch with the controller. If you want to block, hold the controller up near your face to block. Needless to say, it was really fun throwing punch combos against your friends. How many video games makes you break out in sweat (other than Dance Dance Revolution)? In either case, I was thoroughly impressed, and I think the Wii has ushered in a new era in gaming. It's really fun to physically interact with the game.
I think one of the greatest strengths of the system is its focus on the casual gamer. I mean, have you seen the latest Nintendo commercial? It shows grandmas playing video games with their grandchildren. These games are really easy to learn and fun, and they're perfect to play when you have a group of friends over. It's a great party gaming system. The biggest tell of this is that even girls were playing games on the Wii. From my experience, games that require a huge tutorial and many hours of time invested are generally huge turn off for parties and female gamers. The Wii does a very good job of engaging non-gamers. (The stereotypical view of the gamer is that it is largely dominated by males.) Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that gamer girls don't exist, but they are more rare. Consequently, single gamer girls, please inquire within
Continue reading "First Impressions Of The Nintendo Wii"
Thursday, June 21. 2007
Today, I saw this provocatively titled article from Reuters, " Firstborn Sons Have Higher IQs, Norway Study Finds."
Firstborn sons have higher IQs than their younger brothers, and their social status within the family may explain why, researchers reported on Thursday.
A study that used military draft records for more than 240,000 Norwegian men found that firstborns had an edge of 2.3 IQ points on their next oldest brothers, who in turn beat brothers born third by 1.1 points on average.
Men who had been raised as the eldest, whether they were born first, second, or third, had IQs to match their first-born peers. The same was true for those raised or born second, Petter Kristensen and colleagues at the University of Oslo report in the journals Science and Intelligence.
"This study provides evidence that the relation between birth order and IQ score is dependent on the social rank in the family and not birth order as such," Kristensen's team wrote in Science.
Their studies confirmed what many scientists had suspected for more than a century -- that firstborns have an edge.
Continue reading "Firstborn Sons Have Higher IQs"
Monday, June 18. 2007
In the on-going Israeli and Palestinian conflict, it has been agreed that a two-state solution is the end goal; that is, the Israeli state living side-by-side a Palestinian state in peace. Unfortunately, this weekend, a two-state "solution" has just imposed, but it's not what we were expecting.
The Palestinian government has two main factions. First we have Fatah which is considered the moderate party who are backed by the Western powers, Jordan, and Egypt. They are the ones who ultimately want to negotiate peace with Israel. The other faction is Hamas which consists of radical extremists who are backed by Iran and Syria. Hamas believes in the destruction of the Israeli state, and it does not recognize Israel's right to exist.
If we look at the following map, Fatah is most powerful in the West Bank, while Hamas is most powerful in the Gaza Strip.
This weekend, Hamas launched a massive campaign against Fatah in the Gaza Strip, and in 3 days, they control everything there. We have witnessed the birth of a terrorist state. What I find most disturbing is the sheer brutality that Hamas has committed against their fellow Palestinians.
From the National Post article entitled, " Hamas and Fatah have killed the Palestinian state."
Hamas looked set to complete its conquest of the entire Gaza Strip. "Muhammad Swairki, 28, a cook for Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard, was thrown to his death, with his hands and legs tied, from a 15-story apartment building in Gaza City on Sunday."
"Muhammad al-Ra'fati, a Hamas supporter and mosque preacher, was thrown from a Gaza City high-rise apartment building."
"Fatah gunmen began firing mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City."
"Hamas gunmen attacked the home of a Fatah security official with mortars and grenades, killing his 14-year-old son and three women inside, security officials said. Other Fatah gunmen stormed the house of a Hamas lawmaker and burned it down."
"Jamal Abu Jadian, a top Fatah commander, fled his home in the northern Gaza Strip Tuesday evening dressed as a woman to avoid dozens of Hamas militiamen who had attacked it. When he arrived at a hospital a few hundred meters away from his house, he was discovered by a group of Hamas gunmen, who took turns shooting him in the head with automatic rifles. They literally blew his head off with more than 40 bullets,' said a doctor at Kamal Udwan Hospital."
Hamas has now completed its conquest of Gaza. The last Fatah fighters were captured and then machine-gunned to death in front of their wives and children. The Fatah compound in Gaza City will be turned into a mosque; Gaza itself into an Islamic state.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has struck back against Hamas in the West Bank, where Hamas is weak and Mr. Abbas's Fatah is stronger.
On Wednesday, Mr. Abbas declared a state of emergency. His forces have raided Hamas offices in Ramallah and Nablus and arrested some 1,500 Hamas activists. Mr. Abbas is now appealing for more American and Western military and economic aid. And he has requested an international police force for Gaza.
Good luck with that last request. Gaza looks like an Arabic Somalia, a beachfront Fallujah. No Western government will volunteer to deploy forces into such an environment.
But if Mr. Abbas is refused troops, he will certainly now receive massive new infusions of money. The big idea sweeping Western capitals is that Fatah must learn to compete with Hamas as a provider of social services. Over the years, billions of dollars of aid have been donated to the Palestinian Authority. In 2006, the Palestinians collected more Western aid per capita than any other people on earth: US$300 per year, as compared to US$44 for sub-Saharan Africa.
Much of that money has been stolen or wasted.
Even worse, because UN relief agencies have allowed themselves to be penetrated and captured by Hamas, much of the Western aid has ended up reinforcing exactly the people we supposedly want to defeat.
It's not very realistic to imagine that Fatah can suddenly change its ways and learn to run aid programs honestly. Fatah is a criminal gang, and it inevitably acts like one.
Hamas has also captured a number of armoured military vehicles, intelligence files, bulletproof vests, and weapons, all meant to aid Fatah. What terrorist army do you know of that controls armoured units? What's next? Hamas capturing some jet fighters?
Continue reading "This Isn't The Two-State Solution We Were Looking For"
Friday, June 15. 2007
Wired Magazine has an interesting article about a training guide that was issued to soldiers on the eve of the invasion of Iraq. Each soldier was given the " Soldier's Guide To The Republic of Iraq." The article covers some of the interesting cultural differences in Iraq. A 1943 edition of the guide is also available, from the Allied invasion of Iraq during World War II.
- Arabs do not believe in upward mobility or social status; they gain status by being born in the right family.
- It is said that the Arab likes to feel your breath in their face. As you back away, the Arab will continue to shuffle forward. This is known as the "diplomatic shuffle."
- If you see grown men walking hand in hand, ignore it. They are not queer. (1943 edition)
- When an Arab meets you for the first time, he must know your social, professional, and academic background, as well as age, before he conducts any business (so he can know your influence, and how well connected you are).
- Never use the "A-OK" or the "thumbs up" gesture, for they have obscene connotations in the Arab World.
- You can usually tell a mosque by its high tower. Keep away from mosques. If you try to enter one, you will be thrown out, probably with a severe beating. (1943 edition)
Tuesday, June 12. 2007
Last month, I was walking home from downtown and I ran into one Mr. Hank Nienhuis. He was the drama teacher at my high school, and my sound crew used to do sound and lighting for all of his major plays and productions. I always looked forward to organizing sound and lights for the annual dinner theater because it was a catered buffet event, and we all got to eat for free.
Anyway, he seemed to be doing quite well. He's done a lot of travelling in his retirement, and I believe he recently came back from Europe. Also, he and his wife volunteers at the Thrift Store on Government St. and Bay St. (next to the foreign car dealer) every Monday, which is where I bumped into him. He was talking about how great of a salesman he was because he sold a lot of furniture that day. He tried to peddle some used furniture on me too.
We reminisced a bit about the past. Some things never changed though. I was still doing well in academia, still into web development, and still doing sound and lighting for shows. The foundations of all of this can be traced back to high school. Good times.
Suddenly I feel older.
In either case, go visit him at the Thrift Store on Government St. and Bay St. on Mondays. Make his day and buy a couch from him.
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