There's not much worth to report so instead, here are a few interesting weapons of mass destruction videos:

• Underground nuclear bomb testing
• Bunker busting bomb
• US military might compilation
• Javelin missile testing - short range surface-to-surface anti-tank

I just had my first fencing lesson today. Actually, I was suppose to start this Tuesday but the teacher kicked me out because nobody told me I couldn't wear shorts.

First, the instructor introduced us to the equipment. We learned about the mask, vest and the practice sword called foil. We discovered the word 'pummeled to death' comes from hitting your enemy with the pummel (weight at end of handle) and how it's illegal in fencing. We are however allowed to aim for the crotch. And as one guy found out, it results in excruciating pain ROFLOL.

Next, we went over fencing etiquettes. Before a match, the fencers must bring the hilt up to the face and salute each other and the audience. This we were told is a throwback to the crusades where knights would kiss their sword as if it was a cross. Following a match, fencers must shake each other's hands with the non-weapon hand. Now, you have to realize etiquette is sacrosanct in fencing. Supposedly, people have been disqualified for such audacity as to refuse to shake hands. Them crazy Frenchs...

Surprisingly, we got right into duelling. It was a mess. Everybody was flailing their foil and jumping around. It was a sight to see. But as we got more practice, we started to realize there is a method to this madness we call fencing. You needed to maintain precise distances and to strike with efficient lunges at the right timing.

The lesson was over after dueling but people were welcomed to stay to fence some more along with the club. Most of them left flushed in the face clutching their fencing arm :lol: I think most of us underestimated how tiring fencing can be especially in the restrictive and hot vest and mask not to mention holding your arm and sword in front of you for a long period of time.

Feeling pretty confident having done pretty good in the duels, I faced off against the varsity team coach. OMG, I could feel the jolting pain everytime he stabbed me but my brain could not comprehend how so I basically just stood there deadlocked. The sword was coming in at me underneath my arm, over my arm, over his head down onto my collarbone... I think he stabbed me in the back too but I'm a little hazy since I'm still recovering from my trauma...

Avast! September 19th 'tis officially Talk Like A Pirate Day lad! C'mon ye scurvy dogs, talk piratey and drink some grog!
GROG!!! GROG!!! GROG!!!


Warning, grog contains one or more of the following:

- kerosene
- propylene glycol
- sulphuric acid
- artificial sweeteners
- red dye no.2
- rum
- acetone
- battery acid
- scumm
- axle grease
- and/or pepperoni.

Things I don't like about the fluid mechanics prof:
- no eating in his class even if you have 6 hours straight of lectures
- course outline is wrong so you can't prepare for class and he refuses to correct it
- writes equations on the board and then don't explain them
- no consistency in use of variables
- use variables that look the same like v and v :nuts:
- we have to buy our homework weekly at the copy shop

During the last civil lecture today, we held an election for 2 students to represent 2nd year Civil Engineering in council. I volunteered along with 3 other students. After each of us gave a short speech, voting began by a show of hands. First up,me. I received 30 votes. Then Lil was up with 38 votes. Now here's where the drama begins. Waco (sp?) who held the position last year received 30 votes as well. So then he voted for himself pushing it over to 31!!! I really don't know why I didn't object. In hindsight, I should of said 'whoa whoa, wait a minute. I'm voting for myself too' or asked for a recount. I was also saying to myself if he wanted it that badly, he can have it but I also realize now that I let the people who casted their vote for me down by not fighting... I guess in the end, I was just too nice :mad:

Final tally:

Me - 30
Lil - 38
Waco - 31
Mike - 6

Before first-person-shooters and its generic clones litter the game store shelves... Before mindless sex and violence replaced wit and originality... There were intelligent and incredibly funny adventure games made by LucasArts between the late 80s to mid 90s that I like to refer to as the 'golden age' of computer games.

During that time, game makers faced two major obstacles. Firstly, personal computers were a relatively new concept. Not many people owned one and for those that wanted one, they were simply too expensive. Secondly, computers were still widely viewed as a business tool and consequently the hardware was more suited for making spreadsheets rather than gaming. It was a market inhospitable to games.

However, the same conditions helped create some of the best games ever made. The small consumer base forced game makers to make wholesome and fun games that appealed to a broad spectrum. Having to cope with inadequate hardware, game makers relied on interesting storylines and humour to attract buyers. One of these games and my personal favourite is LucasArts' The Secret of Monkey Island, a tale of swashbuckling pirates, battles on the high sea, staple removers and a rubber chicken with a pulley in the middle ... somewhere deep in the Caribbean!.

In what would of been a futile effort to achieve realism at a time where most computers could only display 256 colours, LucasArts instead abandoned the idea altogether to hilarious results. What pirate adventures would be complete without sword battles? Not a problem in Monkey Island where players' selection of insults and retorts decides the outcome of a fight. Indeed, insults are mightier than the sword! And where exactly does the character keep all the things he picks up? In his pants of course (unless by chance he left it in his other pant)!

The Secret of Monkey Island is in my opinion the best game ever made. But why take my word for it. If you would like to try the game, you could always drop by my house or I could loan you a copy.

In the meantime, a high school in the States was crazy enough to adapt the game into a school play. You can read about it here.
Videos of the play is available below in either small or large format. The last few parts of the play have not yet been released but I will post the links as soon as they become available.

Part 1: Small Large
Part 2: Small Large
Part 3: Small Large
Part 4: Small Large
Part 5: Small Large
Part 6: Small Large
Part 7: Small Large
Part 8: Small Large
Part 9: Small Large

I'm done with work! I said goodbye to everybody. I'm going to miss the stray cats I befriended most though. We fed them so much food the last couple days :lol: I also got the reference letter I asked from my boss. It's rather short... First paragraph, it says I was trained in earthwork and concrete testing. Second paragraph, it says I was 'skilled' and 'pleasant' and that's it.

A lady at work introduced me to Sudoku recently. It was kind of fun the first couple I did but then it started getting tiresome. I find it to be kind of droneous requiring little imagination and a lot of mental labour. Plus correcting a mistake is a bitch. I'll stick with my crosswords thank you.

Monday, I'm going to head down to Six Flags Darien Lake in Buffalo for some R&R. Hotels were booked solid so we got a campsite on park grounds. It will be fun!

Then oh my, school starts. You know what? I'm kind of excited about school since we are getting into the meaty parts of civil engineering. Hopefully, I can keep my marks up for some scholarship money to roll in.

So Hojo, when are you going to get your own blog ;)

Went to Dave and Busters with a couple buddies from my old workpalce. I can't believe I played Formula 1 racing 5 times. Used up about half of my credit :lol: Also played soccer as usual on Sunday. But man, all the Indian guys didn't show up :mad: Well, we made the best of it.

My monotomous life continues. I did tell my boss I plan on leaving on the 26th *yay*. I am finding myself trying to squirm from assignments. I want it to be over!!!!!

Sights and no sounds during my travels at work:

State Farm Operation Center earlier in Summer


State Farm now


Making culvert head wall footing in Brampton


150 million dollar Hydro One transformer station in Markham

Bah, I had the unfortunate job of failing a concrete load today. It was the third time I dealt with this particular concrete company and each time the concrete had gotten progressively worst. What made it hard for me was this was for a wheelchair ramp meaning you're not going to be driving a truck over it but the contractor pays me to make sure concrete is as specified in the design and it sure ain't today.

On my way back to the office, I stopped for gas. I went inside to pay but this nice chinese lady behind the counter thought I wanted to buy cigarettes so she asked me for my ID :lol: I asked her how old she thought I was and she said 19. I said I was almost 23. She looked at me, shooked her head and said no :lol:

Weekend was pretty fun. On Sunday, I was suppose to go to Dave and Busters with two of my friends from my old workplace but one of them canceled so instead, me and the other guy went to the golf driving range instead. Now I'm scratching my head because I asked for a 9-iron but I was carrying the ball maybe 160 yards which is similiar to what a PGA player might get with that iron (I checked) :lol: So I'm thinking the rental girl (she was hot) must of mistaken the 6-iron for the 9. Anyhoo, pardon the pun but I think i'm hooked now! I want to try the driver now!



Afterwards, I went to play soccer as usual. Took a shot off my face. Initially, I didn't think much of it but when I got home, I found out I couldn't chew food. I must of pulled some ligaments in the jaw. It's a bit better now :0

Boy, it's getting close to school time eh? Time to start shopping for school supplies, get a haircut and get things in order. There's also a few tasks I want to complete before the summer is over. One, get my name sorted out at Ryerson. They still have my chinese name on file. I don't get it. I have gone by Brian since 8 or so up to even at U of T but Ryerson is the only school that remains braindead in that regard. Another thing I have to do is go down to Darien Lake or take a trip [i]somewhere[/i].

I was surfing around the net and found a few animated GIFs that I found funny. Enjoy:

I came home early today and was flipping through the channels when I saw a breaking news report on CNN about the Air France jet that crash landed at Pearson Airport. Immediately, my thoughts were on my colleagues working there at that time. Thankfully, the crash occured on the West end of the airport a distance away from where they were working and the news media is reporting there are no casualties on the flight.

Having gone to Pearson Airport myself several times and standing on the tarmac watching planes repeatedly land on the same runway as today's crash flawlessly, I can only imagine what the people standing in the same spot today felt when they saw the giant plane roll off the end of the runway and burst into flames.

One interesting thing I noticed when I was at the airport one time was that engineers designed obstacles that would prevent out of control planes from travelling unimpeded past the end of the runway and crashing into buildings or highways. For example, for one of the runway taking off over highway 401, there's an engineered hill at the end. However, for the runway where the accident occured today, there aren't any man-made obstacles. This leads me to believe engineers intended the valley where the plane ended up today to serve as a natural obstacle for out of control planes. It worked in stopping the plane but the difficulty the emergency services faced reaching the plane may raise some questions on whether there are better solutions and cause engineers to rethink future designs.

It was a rather unspectacular day. Most construction sites stopped work because of the weather leaving me with not much to do so my boss had me cooking and microwaving asphalt in the laboratory kitchen. I do love the smell of asphalt in the morning!

Went to City Hall in the afternoon to deliver a bid proposal. I was pleasantly surprised City Hall still maintains an open door policy unlike our neighbour in the South where most government buildings have beefed up security in the wake of 9/11.

Today was also the first time I bribed someone although unknowingly. I somehow ended up in a back alley around City Hall trying to find a parking space when I stopped for a moment to check my map. I looked up and saw a man with a baseball cap and sunglasses waving at me. I rolled down my window and he walked over. He asked whether I was looking for a parking spot to which I nodded. After giving him 6 bucks, he pulled aside a few traffic cones blocking what seemed to be a delivery entrance and motioned for me to pull in :lol: He said I could park there the whole day. All day downtown parking for 6 bucks. That's what I call a deal.

Images below can now be enlarged by clicking on them.

Yesterday, I was midway testing concrete in King City when a senior engineer from my company came on site for something completely different. He immediately noticed I was wearing sunglasses and not my safety glasses. In that Obi-Wan to Padawan kind of way, he started lecturing me on the importance of safety eyewear then said he wasn't going to report me this time.

So today, I wore them to work trying to score some brownie points. But with my amazing luck, I ran into the same guy at another site the 5 minutes of the day I didn't have them on... Can you believe that? I was like, "dude, talk to that guy. I had them on just a moment ago!" to which he said I should have them on ALL the time.

Now some random pics:

The day started off good. I went down to the ROM early in the morning to test the concrete. It gave me the opportunity to wander around the site and examine one of the most unique construction projects in Toronto up close. The lattice of steel beams is really a sight to behold. I got some weird looks from the workers when I started snapping a few photos but then I saw the concrete driver doing the same thing.

Pumping concrete to 2nd floor slab-on-deck

Steel beam lattice for 'crystal'

The day started going downhill afterwards. I was asked to go up to Brampton to pick up some asphalt samples another company technician collected and bring it back to our lab. But as I was about to return with the samples, the boss called and told me they needed me urgently downtown to catch a concrete truck for testing ... in 20 minutes. Brampton to downtown Toronto in 20 minutes ... What did he expect from me? I don't know about you but I have yet to gain mastery of manipulating the space-time continuum. I tried anyways and amazingly, made it downtown only a few minutes late. But it was all in vain. I couldn't find the construction site. It didn't help that the only direction I was given was that it was an underground parking garage around City Hall .

I worked today beside Pearson Airport on a commercial land development project testing soil. The workers didn't feel like working in the hot temperature so not much got accomplished. However, I was excited to be there because the project is being run by one of the most famous engineering firms in Canada, Marshall Macklin Monaghan (MMM). Among other superprojects, they were responsible for designing the Skydome and CN Tower. It's one of the civil companies I most want to work for once I graduate. I chatted with the site supervisor from MMM and asked him a couple questions about working there. What I heard was promising. I guess I made a good impression because before long, he was comfortably taking a piss in front of me. You KNOW somebody trusts you when they can comfortably take a piss in front of you.


I'm even more excited about tomorrow. I'm suppose to be testing concrete for the ongoing renovation of the Royal Ontario Museum designed by Daniel Libeskind, the architect behind the new World Trade Center. You can learn more about the project here. There's also a webcam of the construction here. If you look close enough tomorrow, maybe you'll see me! Or maybe not...

So there I was standing under the scorching sun today on the hot pavement looking at an electronic billboard beside the road displaying time and temperature: 31C/10:45AM ... 33C/11:00AM ... 35C/11:15AM!! It was so hot when I lifted a traffic sign off the asphalt, I noticed it left a nice indentation.

Overall, it was a good day; nobody died. However, we do claim responsibility for backing up traffic on Mayfield Road in Bolton. One guy drove by me and showed me his fist. But overwhemingly, the drivers showed a lot of courtesy and gave kind gestures as they drove by.

Came back from work early today. We were suppose to take some core samples along a stretch of road in Caledon but the drill company we contracted cancelled because their machine was broken - or so they said. Our theory is they probably overbooked as they tend to during the busy summer contruction period. Drilling was rescheduled for tomorrow. Hopefully it'll work out.

In other news, Stargate SG1 and Atlantis are resuming this Friday yay! Will Jack and Sam finally get together? Will Atlantis survive the attack from the Wraith marauders? Only time will tell... Now all I need is Battlestar Galactica back and I'd be in bliss.

Hey, I finally got a Blog(TM)! As I like to say, better late than never. I also say last one is a rotten egg but let's not go into semantics.

So why am I starting to blog as of late? First of all, I thought it would be neat to have an archived record of my thoughts to reflect on in the future. A person with no sense of the past cannot subscribe to the future no? I guess that's why I don't have a cellphone yet :bleh: That and holding something that's knocking a few DNA strands out of order beside my head turns me off. Secondly, I just felt like it. Maybe it's because it's hot and humid and I'm sleepless at 1:10AM (edit: 1:18 and counting) with nothing to do. Or is it because I contracted melanchollia because my plan of manipulating my friend Dan to introduce me to some of his lady friends failed. Whatever the reason, it is with great aplomb (it's a word, I looked it up) that I announce that I, Brian, now has a Blog(TM).