歌声よおこれ

歌声よおこれ
O Singing, Rise!

今僕等が誰かに望むのは
多分本当の事を話して欲しいだけ
愛しさなんて僕等が知らぬなら
誰か感動の歌を聴かせておくれよ
涙流れて雲の上
汚れきった僕は今から
あなたに逢いに行く

歌声よ響き合って言葉も越えて
にごった僕の罪を砕いてくれ
愛しさ知りたいだけなのさ
そして夜を越えてあなたと逢って
悲しみなんて今夜で終わらせて
歌声よ響け　今僕に

想い出なんて僕は捨てたハズなのに
なぜか思い出すのはズルく笑った自分
いまだにきっと僕は愛しさを知らぬ
だからきかせておくれよ本当の事を
涙溢れて君の影
走り去って時は後から
僕らを責め立てる

歌声よ響き出してウソをも抱いて
僕等の泣いた昨日を消してくれ
夜風に僕等は歌うのさ
そして夜を越えて二人になって
あなたのために声を震わせて
歌声よおこれ　この夜に

涙こらえて横顔冷たく光って
砕け散った夢は
それでもあなたと探しに行くよ

歌声よ響き合って僕等の罪よ
祈りとなって明日を変えてくれ
このまま僕等は歌うのさ
そして朝になって二人笑って
哀しく歌う世界を止めてくれ
歌声よおこれ　この胸に

What we desire from others these days
Is perhaps just for them to tell the truth.
If we know not of love
then someone let us hear a touching song!
Above the clouds with tears flowing,
my unclean self will now
go and meet you.

O singing, resonate, overcome words
smash the sins of my impure self.
Love, I just want to know what that is.
Pass through the night to meet you,
Whatever sadness, let it end tonight.
O singing, resonate now, to me.

Whatever memories, surely I have thrown them out.
Why is it that I remember my slyly smiling self?
Certainly I know not of love yet
So let me hear the true.
The sight of you running away with tears
from then on still torments us.

O singing, resonate, embrace even the lies
and erase yesterday's sorrows.
We will sing to the night breeze!
And so pass through the night, we are together.
For you, let my voice tremble.
O singing, rise! Into the night.

Fighting back tears with my profile lit coldly,
even if our dream is broken and scattered,
I will go look for it with you.

O singing, resonate, O our sins
turn to prayer, and let tomorrow be changed.
We will sing just like this.
And then morning comes, and we smile.
Let the sorrowfully singing world stop!
O singing, rise! Into this heart!

Kendo's Gruelling 8th Dan Test

This is perhaps the best video I've seen on YouTube.

This is what it's all about. The sweat, the tears, the things that drive men with frenzy, and to endure all to walk down the lonesome path.

Why reinvent the wheel

Not long ago I realized that my site won't scaling very well with the amount of content I want to add. Somewhere along the road my patchy PHP back-end just won't hack it anymore. The solution of course is to migrate it onto a more automatic content management system. 'No problem' I thought, nothing a little elbow grease won't fix. This was before the end of the summer.

I did manage to write up a framework of a simple CMS I called "uCMS" or "microCMS". I worked on it off and on during the work term, whenever I had no cases to work on. By the end of August, the back-end code was completed, and I left the code behind and went to Japan, gleefully thinking that all I need to do was to finish the front end UI.

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I finally had some time to return to the project after exams, and was suddenly overwhelmed at how much I had to do. The Phrame framework that I based my code around was now looking tedious and clunky. The thought of redefining mappings multiple times inside the system just gave me a headache. Extremely unsatisfied with my previous design, I wanted to redo the whole system from the ground up. However the base frame was already working flawlessly, and I heeded the ominous words: "Never revamp unless absolutely needed". However, thinking the road ahead, I realized that there's a lot more to be done. I had no user management system, no gallery management, no search capability, not enough content type, no AJAX ( *grin* ), etc etc.

I decided that it's not worth the effort to develop my code any further. Instead, I turned to existing open source CMS for solution. I did use Joomla while at Autodesk to implement their support docs repository, so naturally I tried to adopt Joomla first. What an exercise in frustration. As sparky as Joomla's multiple awards are, I just found its organization to be awkward at best. Not to mention it's limited menu system that made category automation impossibly difficult. In short, I needed to do substantial amount of tinkering in the system for it to work for my site. A workload that's not unlike what I was trying to avoid at the very beginning. Certainly using the CMS for Autodesk took quite a long time too. Funny how I didn't seem to mind it that much when I was getting paid for it.

Looking elsewhere, I stumbled upon CMS Made Simple. Not the most catchy name to be sure, but it is the most intuitive Open Source CMS out there for me. The admin UI is simple and clean, and all the inner workings of the system are presented in an organized fashion and well documented. There are some areas that left something to be desired for sure, such as the inability to display sub-contents in a section out-of-the-box, and the fact that they save template and CSS code in the database, but the experience has been much better than Joomla.

I finished migrating my site into the new system in less than 10 hours. As I always say after each major overhauls, I sure hope this is the last time that I gotta do something like this.

In Japan: Hiroshima

Hiroshima is a beautiful city, full of trees and rivers, like a city built upon a garden. The atmosphere is leisurely, and the people are few. It's a first for me to feel so relaxed in Japan, and what a relief it is.

Of course, there is the dark past about the city, everywhere I go I was able to spot some charred remains of trees that people had refused to take down, in order to remind others of the bomb. The rivers were beautiful and pristinely green, it's hard to imagine so many people died on their shores.

Kie was not her usual self this time. Having just broken up with her boyfriend, I'm sure she's in no mood to tour the city with me. I am however glad to see her. Somehow she's much quieter around me, it makes me wonder which is the real Kie. The energetic girl I met in Toronto, or the quiet lass that I faced in Hiroshima. Perhaps even she had to cover up her cheerful self in Japan.

I met a nice old lady working in the hostel. She was eager to chat about the war, and the relationships between China and Japan. It was a pleasant chat, so much so that I forgot the time and was late for meeting Kie. Tonight I was able to have a long discussion regarding society and war with a high school boy in my dorm. He traveled by himself to Hiroshima, and is in love with clouds. Japanese are just like any other people, generally good natured, and just wish to peacefully go about their lives. They care little about politics, and are often confused why the rest of Asian dislike them. Even having been to Yasukuni, I cannot bring myself to antagonize them. Is so much hate really necessary?

I spent the rest of my day climbing Ushita mountain after parting with Kie. It was the most pleasant time I had in Japan. There wasn't a soul on the trail except for the singing of the cicadas and the dancing butterflies. I suddenly felt really Canadian, hiking in another country. Ushita mountain was 230 meters high, not very tall, but certainly a lot more interesting than Mt. Fuji and it's truck loads of people.

I'm glad I came to Hiroshima, even if it was just an afterthought. If I ever have to live in Japan, Hiroshima would be my first choice. Here or Okinawa, their food seems to be the only thing that I can stomach in Japan.

In Japan: Day 6

Went to Nara yesterday. Met a nice couple from Vancouver. They just graduated from UBC and took a year off to travel. They've been on the road for 6 months now and have been all over Asia. What is it with people and traveling for such a long time?

We walked around Nara Koen, and fought off the persistent deers. They left for Osaka yesterday night, and left me their contact. Maybe I will be able to meet up with them again, as I'm heading for Osaka tomorrow.

I got to know two Korean guys in the hostel that I'm staying in, and then drank the night away with them and two other Japanese guys from Osaka. The manager lady joined us too. Listening to them chatting in Kansai-ben was a delight. The Koreans headed off for Aomori today, and are going up north to Hokkaido. The Japanese guys are here for a track-and-field competition for medical students. I've found that so far everyone I've met are involved in medical science some how. Melissa was a doctor, the Vancouver couple was in micro-biology, and this Japanese guy is an acupuncturist and a medical student. Either this is a sign from god, or the medical field is very popular.

Youko suddenly emailed me telling me that she wants to meet me after all. This just threw my plans into a jumbo. Now I suddenly can't think of anything else.

Nara was good I suppose, and I spent today visiting some other temples in Kyoto. But really, they are not anything I've never seen before. I'm a little tired of temples now, well starting tomorrow, I will be meeting people in Osaka, Hiroshima and Tokyo, so it should be a nice change of pace.

Paul Newell emailed me to thank me for my help during my work at Autodesk/Alias. I'm a little touched, that he remembered me at all, and actually bothered to write me an email in his position and schedule. My internship has only finished less than a week ago, and yet it feels like years ago, and the life in Canada feels so far away.

In Japan: Day 5 - Osaka

Osaka is a pretty horrendous city. As soon as I stepped off the train I knew that I was not going to like it.

It's a maze of shop upon shops upon neon signs of some kind of dystopia's concrete jungle that came straight out of Blade Runner. Here everything felt run down. At night people prowl the streets in distasteful fashion to seek physical companionships, truly a city of decadence and greed. I'm thankful that I needed only to stay for a day.

Meeting Jenny took a little longer than I anticipated. She too shared much of my frustrations, but decided to like the city nevertheless. I'm sure I'm in no position to make a justified judgment of the place after only a day's stay, but the business nature of the city just turns me right off.

In Japan: Day 4 - Kyoto

I met a girl yesterday in the Kyoto tourist information office. Turned out she's Australian and has been traveling around the world for a few months now. I suppose calling her a girl is inappropriate. She's actually a fully fledged doctor, having recently graduated from medical school. We decided to watch the Daimonji fire together, and trekked all the way east, and found some obscure temple on the top of a hill behind a web of houses and alley ways dotting the far corner of north east Kyoto. Well at least the place seemed to be obscured to us foreigners, all the Japanese seemed to knew that it was a good spot to watched the fire, and showed up en mass.

We split up today and she's off to Shirakawa for beaches and Onsen. I'm on my own again, and went temple hopping.

I wasn't able to reserve a hostel for yesterday before I left Canada, so I had the JR office reserve a hotel for me to stay for yesterday night. The hotel was nice, if not a little too expensive. Today I moved to the hostel that I had reserved, and the place is very nice. The woman managing the place is very nice, and the place is kept clean and professional. She lives alone though, but she doesn't seems to be too lonely, with all the travelers coming in and out. She doesn't seem to speak a lick of English though, and occasionally throws out her Kansai dialect when she gets happy, which always throws me off.

Kyoto is not at all what I imagined it to be. It's a rather small city, humid and is littered with little traditional houses. However at the center of it all is a twisted mess of steel and concrete. Especially the over-sized Kyoto station, which hugs the landscape with its monstrous size, and sprawls out its aging rail ways from the center of the city. It's like a cancer that eats away at the city from its heart. It seems that Japan is full of such contradictions, industrious but full of anachronisms, automated but stuffed with manual labours, with an incredible infrastructure that one cannot help but to admire their engineering prowess, but at the same time showing a lot of questionable designs.

So far I've found all my sight seeing destinations to be average at best. Japan seems to be one giant tourist trap that almost everything they build are designed for tourists. The most enjoyable part of the trip has been the trek between the destinations and the people I've met. I've just walked all day to day to find Gingakuji, finding my way through little alleys and unarmed streets only to be total underwhelmed by the little wooden "temple".

Tomorrow I'll take a day trip to Nara, and see if it will impress me a bit more. I have to admit, I miss the grandness of Chinese architecture.

In Japan: First 2 days

I've arrived in Japan 3 days ago. Ran into some troubles and took over 4 hours for me to find my hotel. Got in contact with Justin and visited Yasukuni with them on the 15th, the same day Koizumi decided to pop in for his visit. It was a very eye opening experience, basically Japanese at their worst. Afterwards we visited the emperor's palace, I then took a stroll through University of Tokyo on my way home. Thus far the trip has been very surreal. I've arrived at Kyoto today, and is staying at a hotel beside the Kyoto station for tonight. Tonight is the Daimonji, looking forward to it. I'm typing this in the Kyoto visitor's information center. The internet rate is a killer right now, good thing I'm writing down a journal on a notebook as I go along. Using a computer really is the last thing on my mind right now. Perhaps I will type up my journal when I get back to Canada.

In Japan - First Day: The Hostel

When I exited from Hongo Sanchome, the sky was already dark. I couldn't read the map that the hostel had provided since it didn't have street names. After asking various passer bys, I managed to find the little alley that leads to the hostel. However walking alone in a dark alley after three screw ups in a foreign country doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a person. Nevertheless I had no real choices but to follow the darkness ahead, clinging on to the words of every sign posts, hoping that the name of the Hostel would jump out at me. Suddenly I overheard the oh-so-familiar English behind me. They were two teenage Japanese girls just chatting away in perfect English. Thinking that they were tourists like myself, I asked for directions. Turned out that they lived right beside the hostel, and happily showed me the way. After a bit of introductions, I found out that they had both stayed for 4 years in England previously, thus explaining their flawless English. I had asked for their names, but regrettably for the life of me I can no longer recall them. They were like angels that came to my aid when I was lost and confused, and led me to light ( well, the hostel ). I am forever grateful.

The hostel people were expecting me for a while. After informing that my actual location of stay is in a separate residence a block away, the overweight woman who came out to greet me showed me the way to th Morikawa residence. She insisted on carrying my heavy backpack, even-though she was sweating and panting profusely. She seemed to feel that it was her duty to carry my bags. Like a soldier, she forged on even-though it's clear that it was too heavy for her. A man from Morikawa *ran* out to meet us half way, and took over the guide duty. He led me to the hostel, and showed me the facilities in broken English. I in turn replied in broken Japanese. Nice people.

The hostel is a traditional Japanese style ryokan. With tatami rooms and futons. It's very clean and orderly, even-though its wooden halls do show its age. The smell of wood permeated the place, it was a very enjoyable atmosphere.

By this time, I was tired and starving. Japan was much hotter than Toronto, the temperature was around 30 degrees C. Personally I found it rather comfortable though. I was too tired to go out and sample the local delicacies, I had more than enough new experiences for one day. Instead I bought some instant noodles and some breakfast for the next day, and called it a night.

In Japan - First day: Arrival

Arrived in Japan. It was a long and uneventful flight. Being cramped in such a small space for 13 hours certainly doesn't heighten one's spirit. When it was over, I was too fatigued from the time differences and my throbbing ass to be excited about the arrival at all. Everything was strangely familiar, but different. People still dress about the same, the buildings are not all that different, but there's a constant feeling that some dark alienness lurks in the shadows. It was a strange feeling, to be somewhere I've never been but yet so intensely familiar with. Everything from the sound to the way people behave are so familiar to me, but so alien at the same time.

The trip from the airport to my hostel wasn't exactly smooth. I arrived at 3:10pm, but only managed to reach my hostel by 8:30pm. First I managed to miss the express train to Tokyo. The train seat was reserved by a polite lady in the Narita JR service center. I managed to miss it because the train was so early that I didn't believe that it was mine. Not certain if I needed to reserve again for the next train, I decided to just get on and pretend all was well, only to have the true seat owners arrive. At this point everyone was staring at me weirdly. I'm sure the idea of an unreserved seat taken was unfathomable. I escaped to the walkways between trains to avoid the stares, and just when I was breathing a sight of relief and started to enjoy the Japanese country side that rush past the window, a ticket checker came up to my face to ask about my reservation. Luckily with some explanation with my rusty Japanese, I was in the clear, and was told to find a seat.

The train ride from Narita to Tokyo took an hour. The whole time I had my eyes wide open to absorb as much scenery as possible. It struck me that the vegetations and geography was actually very similar to China. The bamboo forests, the rows of rice wafting in the wind, the green mountains that dominated the landscape were all too similar to that of SiChuan. So much so, that if people were to remain silent, and take away the Shinkansen, I would no doubt believe that I am in China. The city was a strange 80's land. Drab sign posts and buildings overflew this uniformly gray concrete jungle, extending it as far as the eye can see. As if time had stood still, and Japan still revels in their golden days, with only the occasional rust neon signs and metal frames to give away their age.

I ran into a bit of trouble going from Tokyo station to Hongo Sanchome. I needed to change to the Marunouchi subway line, but my Japan Rail Pass couldn't be used on subways. I was a little stumped on how to get a ticket, as I had nothing but 10,000 yen bills on me. Luckily I ran into a nice girl from San Diego, who cheerfully offered to pay the 160 yen for me, and pointed me to the direction I should go. I was later that I realized that the direction she gave me was incorrect. Since she was going the opposite way as I was, I suppose she went the wrong way too.

Before that, there was another incident. I bought a bottle of tea for change in the station. While I was about to pay, my train ( the one going in the wrong direction ) pulled up. I rushed to take out what I thought was a 5,000 yen bill, and got the change from the sells lady, and hurried into the train. When I checked for change, I realized that the change I got was for 1,000 yen instead. The sells lady did see me chatting with the San Diego girl, did she try to pull one over me -- the hapless gaijin? A little miffed, I decided to go back and confront her. 5,000 yen is a lot of money. She insisted that she was correct of course, so I asked her to check the bills, since the money I paid was old and ripped, it should stand out from the rest. Then my eyes almost popped out when I saw that the bill was indeed 1000 yen. Now with my face blushed with embarrassment, I apologized profusely, although probably not as politely as I should have. All my grammar thoughts went out of window at the moment. When I went on the train again, she gave me a bemused smile and waved me goodbye.

So there you go, I've been in Japan in less than 4 hours, and I've already fucked up 3 times.

八月游

昂头瞻，星空茫茫。
翌日别卯时，
单骑走扶桑。
昂头瞻，碧空苍苍。
男儿志在何方。

Bee's Knees

My Knees are messed up.

I've been having dull discomforts below my kneecaps for a few months now. It's only recently that they start to hurt. At first I suspect that it was injury to my meniscus plates, since I do quite a bit of weight transfers on my legs in low stances when practicing Baji. I thought that I might have twisted my knee sometimes in my practice when I was still doing thing incorrectly, and that worried me quite a bit. Meniscus injuries are no walk in the park, all my researches came into the conclusions that it probably requires surgery. Well my knees don't feel THAT bad, and I seemed to recall that my knees started worsen after my 5 km run June. So I looked up runner's knee, and it seemed to fit my condition. However without a doctor's diagnostic I can't be certain.

So I went and got professional opinion. After I told my doctor that I ran the 5 km on concrete with my only pair of crappy shoes, he gave me a dirty look and simple said: "Those are not running shoes" ( no shit Sherlock ), I'm pretty sure he was thinking "What a bloody idiot!". After he manipulated my knees a bit, he came away with the conclusion: Patellofemoral Syndrome. Patello-what? It's basically irritation below the kneecaps with improper tracking of the Patella bone. Supposedly to be a very common problem, probably from over-use and improper running form and footwear ( ding ding ding! ).

The moral of the story? Footwear is important, especially running. I ran out and got myself an open knee-strap, as well a new pair of shoes. Now my knee feels pain feel with them! I will need to give them sometimes to heal, and then everything should be ok. It's a good thing I caught this before the trip. I can't imagine what I'll do to my knees backpacking around Japan in those shoes for two weeks.

七月风

生为何物，情亦为何物。

方才相识，骤又分飞。

花已谢，忆于风中舞。

We are but puppets

Absolutely surreal clip a the Horseguards Parade.

http://www.devilducky.com/media/46655/

Do we really have more freedom than her? Or is all just an illusion?
She is more free spirited than most who claim to be free.

Ow my arm

I've managed to hurt myself yet again.

It's been a while since I had a relatively more severe injury, so I suppose I've had it coming. My left arm got hyper-extended while doing randori in Judo yesterday. Went against that tall green belt whose name I do not recall. I was trying to close my range so that I can actually reach him for kazushi, so I went and grabbed his right pant leg with my left hand, attempting to trap his feet to off-balance him. Unfortunately at the same time he decided to try uchi-mata on me, and kicked his left leg into the back of my left elbow. There was a nice loud crack and my arm just went limp. I can still rotate the arm, so it's not broken or anything, but there's a constant dull pain in my elbow, indicating that the tendon has been sprained.

I iced it and bandaged it as soon as I got home, and today am walking around with my left arm in a sling, trying to explain to people at work who went through the trouble of feigning interest in my well-being the cause of my misfortune. I'm going to be out of commission for three weeks or so. I need to rest the left arm, there's no much I can do about that. I hope that it won't become too weak after almost a month of inactivity. Meanwhile, this could be a bless in disguise. Since I was able to identify the problem with my baji fajing to the alignment of my lower body just before this injury, now I'll have tons of time to work on it whether I like it or not.

Lessons learned:

1. Getting arm hyper-extended sucks.
2. Don't grab the opponent's opposite leg when not in range, and when the opponent still has balance.
3. Doing arm locks with both legs can be potentially very effective.

Japan here I come

I have received confirmation from my manager, and I'll be taking my vacation at the end of my PEY session starting August 14th. This means I will have almost a month worth of free time before school starts, so it's a go ahead for my planned trip to Japan.

Well the original plan was to stay two weeks in Japan and do some sight seeing. However circumstances have changed, and I no longer have reliable lodging in Tokyo anymore. I'm never one to change my mind easily, so I'm instead going to go for a backpacking trip in Japan. I'm should able to just meet the start of the Obon festivals by the time I get there. The thought of foreign places, culture, and being the lonesome traveler ignites the wanderlust in me. I will also get a chance to check out daimonji gozan okuribi(大文字五山送り火), which I've been dying to see since I was in high-school.

My purpose of taking this trip was to 1. experience for myself what the fuss with Japan is all about. 2. Get a chance to look closely at the only surviving Han and Tang dynasty architectures and artifacts ( read: swords ) in the world. and 3. put my Japanese to the test in its natural environment. However three weeks of free time is quite a lot. I'm not sure if I will want to spend more than a week and half in Japan, after all it's only the size of California. Originally I've never intended to take a detour, but now with all the time I will have, maybe I'll go to China as well to visit friends and family, and maybe even South Korea to meet up with a friend as well.

All this is still more than a month away, but the thought that my wish to backpack through Japan will come true fills me to the brim with anticipation. It seems that a restless July awaits me.

Fortune brings Al Gore?

All of a sudden Al Gore is marching at the forefront of environmental protection.

How did this happen? He came across as an awkward figure that paled in the cowboy-esque charisma of G.W Bush during that U.S. election. Who would have thought that he was capable of presenting an entire documentary, one that is not preachy nor boring from what I heard.

In actuality, this guy has a great sense of humor, and is highly intelligent. ( Unlike a certain someone ). How did it happen then, that the American public elected someone who is less intelligent, and with no more personality than Gore? Would the world be a better place had Gore won? Would he act more swiftly to stop 9-11, thus preventing the current war? Would he really dedicate more resources to fight global warming and "do no evil"?

I doubt it. As a politician I don't believe he would have enough room to do as he please, however good his intentions might be. Large corporations of all types ( oil, pharmaceutical ) are the truth wielder of power, and the politicians will only appease their sponsers' wishes. It is then perhaps our fortune that Al Gore had lost. He now has the freedom to climb the moral high ground and contribute to the greater good.

That is, if he doesn't intent to use his current position for the next presidential election.

5 Kilometers in the rain

5 Kilometers in the rain,
originally uploaded by sinkpoint.

At the insistence of David Lau, I joined the YMCA Corporate Team Challenge on Wednesday.

It was a 5 km run around the Exhibition Place per person. relay style.
This was to be a challenge for myself since I've never ran that far before. The furtherest distance I've ever ran was about 2 km, and that was when I was 9 years old.

The weather seemed great when I accepted the invitation. However the day of the run turned out to be humid and overcast. The rain started to pour as soon as I started running, and I was absolutely soaked.

The rain actually helped quite a bit. I would've drenched my shirt just as much with sweat, and the rain helped to cool me off. I just wish they didn't block my vision so much.

I finished the 5km in 24:58 min. Not bad for my first time I suppose. I have to admit running was actually more exciting than I had previously imagined. I think I will actually start to run more regularly.

This does not sit well with me

There is something wrong with the image of two grown men, and I do mean *grown* men ( as in > 35 ) having a serious discussion about Full Metal Alchemist. Tell you the truth I know nothing of the title other than the fact that 1. It's an anime series, and 2. It probably involves alchemy, may be metal. My mother has been having rather serious problems with her shoulders, so I've started teaching her Yang Taiji as well as Bagua Xiao Zhou Tian. I have my doubts on how much benefit they will really have on her shoulders, but anything that gets her to exercise more is bound to be good.

The sky is falling! IE7 will suck

Category: Webdev According to Eric Meyer, IE7 beta 1's rendering model is final. Which means that all sites that appear to be broken in it ( including yours truly ), will be broken in the final release. Putting the fact that it strangely resembles a broken version of FireFox aside, my site rendered horribly. For some reason IE7 rendered my inline buttons vertically. I will have to fix the problem eventually, but I really don't want to install the ghastly thing on my system again. The install overwrites IE6, it would make compatibility test on IE6 a problem.

Sure sign of Spring?

At work, everyone are dropping like flies from sickness. We had at least 6 guys calling in sick on Friday, and my team had to guard the fort with just the 3 of us. I'm still healthy as heck though, which I attribute to my daily practice of Baji and Taiji. I don't remember ever seeing so many people getting sick in one group before, so I guess it's the flu season now. Hence only next logical conclusion is, Spring is here!. The temperature has shot up to above zero recently, the forecast of this weeks has spring written all over it as well. I'm still cautious though, Canadian winter always dies hard.

Valley of the tire crushers

This is the last time I'm riding a bike down Sherbourn street. My bike's back tire got punctured, again! To think that I had just pumped the tire at 4:40 in the morning, this pisses me off to no end. What do the bums do around there? Smash beer bottles onto the road for fun? What's up with all the glass sheards on that road? It doesn't help that I can't see them in the darkness either. Rant rant rant, vent vent vent, etc.