Spring Break: 2008
My Spring Break started this past weekend, and despite it only being Tuesday, it's looking to be a fairly busy week.
Had a surprise birthday party for Simon this past Thursday. Just wanted to say thank you to Louise, Harry, Jen, Peter, Tasnuva, Jurgen, Wing, Luisa and Kevin for showing, especially to Wing and Jurgen for driving us to the pool hall! Also, special thanks to Jack who helped me run out and buy the birthday cake and other stuff, even though he couldn't make it to the the party :P Simon is now the proud owner of Bully: Scholarship Edition, which proved to be loads of fun.
Got back to NYC on Saturday, and am currently living out of a suitcase. A huge, almost-as-big-as-me black duffel of a suitcase, but a suitcase nonetheless. Ate at Carrabba's, which is always good.
Hung out with Devin and Vernon on Sunday. Stopped by BOOKOFF and finally used my $2.50 discount and fed my inner Eurobeat fan girl all at the same time. Can't go wrong with over 200 tracks of Eurobeat. Went into Kino Kuniya to just look at things, then headed to a Burger King for some food. Talked for a while, then headed to a Starbucks where all 3 of us managed somehow to not order any coffee. Go us!
Went into Wenner Media to get some work done on Monday, and got to see everyone at the office again. Everyone was in good spirits, and made me really want to start working again. I got a lot done in the short amount of time I was there, so a big thank you to Paul and Mr. Dragonetti for helping me read over my work and letting me use the office resources!
Met Simon after Wenner Media, and stopped by Nintendo World. Haven't been there in a while (my last visit consisted of more than 24 hours outside of Nintendo World, waiting for Nintendo Wii consoles to go on sale) and it's interesting to see how things have changed. All of the gaming stations are now Wii games, and the entire store was only selling games for the Wii, DS and GameBoy Advance. I guess Nintendo is definitely dropping the concept of releasing games on their previous system (the GameCube) and is concentrating solely on the Wii. At least Nintendo can choose to do that (/coughsonyps2andps3cough)
Traveled to Union Square with Simon in search of S'MAC, a small eatery that is known for serving various mac and cheese dishes, and barely anything else. On the way, we found the infamous Wafels & Dinges truck! Ordered a WMD (yes, it's an item on the menu), which only disappointed me due to the fudge on top. Oh well, still a good waffle. Found S'MAC after a good amount of walking, and ordered a classic style mac and cheese and a cajun style mac and cheese. Both were very good, and I would recommend S'MAC for those with a mac and cheese craving :D
Looking forward to later today, when Simon comes over. Also, goals for the week: eat out at another good eatery in NYC, and get a waffle from the Wafel & Dinges truck without chocolate!
Written at 3:58 AM on Friday, March 18, 2008
I am a consumer whore! And how!
For those of you who don't know, I'm a Woot.com fan. My father, my cousin and a few others got me into it, and I've now taken to staying up until 1 AM EST to ensure I don't miss any opportunity for a Bandolier of Carrots. Shirt.Woot is especially hard for me to resist, I love t-shirts and I love cheap t-shirts even more, so I naturally gave in when I saw the Vandalized Turtle design on Shirt.Woot. I think the Woot stats are trying to tell me something though:
That's right, I'm the first wooter. Took me all of 3.22 seconds to score me a cute turtle shirt. And for the record, I fumbled over a number. Here are the stats forever recorded on the Shirt.Woot forums:
Don't believe me? That's okay. Check out Shirt.Woot and the forum post to see the stats for yourself. And while you're at it, pick up your own cute turtle to wear!
Perhaps I need to not be near the computer so much. Or perhaps these are the exact skills I need to score myself another infamous Bag O' Crap? I guess we'll find out during the next Woot Off. :D
Written at 1:50 AM on Friday, January 25, 2008
New Year's Eve
It's early morning on the day before the new year. Time to recount recent happenings.
I've switched to T-Mobile for my phone service, and I now have my very own Blackberry 8320 Curve! If any of you need to reach me, feel free to email me and I'll respond fairly promptly as my Blackberry picks up my email almost instantaneously. It'll save on texts both ways! :D My phone number remains the same, and if you want to send me emails instead of texts, get in touch with me and give me your email address, so I know who my messages are coming from. Can't wait to go back to campus to test the service out, maybe now I'll be able to use my cell phone in my dorm room! Thanks to my parents for letting me be the guinea pig for T-Mobile service, and getting me a Crackbe-I mean Blackberry :D
For our one year anniversary, Simon got me a beautiful silver Fossil watch. It's a unique circle link design and it wears very nicely :3 I'm slowly getting used to checking my wrist for the time again, and learning how to read analog just a smidge faster. Darn me for only owning digital watches up until now. Thanks to Simon for getting me the watch and my "Simon coupons" :D Since my camera isn't charged, I've taken the liberty of searching for some pictures of the watch, which are seen below.
Went to see the movie Enchanted starring Amy Adams, Patrick Dempsey, James Marsden and Susan Sarandon on Christmas day with Simon. Despite the fact that we were forced to sit in the front row due to the massive amount of people in the theatre, the movie was GREAT. I found it to be hilarious, and the reviews are right in saying that Amy Adams really sells her character. I recommend it to anyone who's going to the theatres anytime soon.
Also, changes have come to my website! I'm doing a lot of Spring Winter cleaning, so a lot of my files are being deleted/organized to become a bit more neat and tidy. I have also claimed the domain stephwong.net! I will now be using stephwong.net as my main url, but reflectedshadow.net will continue to work as usual. Expect some updates coming to the site, such as my updated resume, a portfolio page, and many other things.
Written at 6:21 AM on Monday, December 31, 2007
Sunrise
Seeing one of the first sunrises I've seen all semester reminded me of how pretty sunrises are. And how intimidating they are, as they usually mean some deadline is approaching. Nevertheless, the colors of a sunrise are quite pretty.
During the past 24 hours, I have had to hear 3 different females vomit into the toilets and/or sinks of my wing's bathroom. I can only hope that there was some massive party yesterday and today, and that all three girls had bad hangovers. Otherwise, my hallway is filled with bulemics or girls stricken with some sort of stomach virus. Either way, just means I should probably stay away from them.
I have also, within the past 24 hours, taken a quiz, a midterm, notes for an upcoming midterm, denied some lazy bastard my notes for said upcoming midterm, and written a majority of a research paper.
... And with that, I'll return to writing my paper.
Written at 6:24 AM on Thursday, November 8, 2007
Updates and Goals
I finished 4 out of the 5 midterms I've been set to take over the next few weeks. After taking my Java midterm, I've had an urge to go out and code a bit more. I had heard about a few people getting jobs due to their experience with coding with Python, so I've contemplating dusting off my Python book from last semester and seeing if I've gotten any better at programming since then. Being able to put down that I can code in both Python and Java would be incredibly helpful to me when applying for jobs this summer.
I've been thinking hard about building a computer this summer. I'm not totally sure if I'll do it this summer, to maybe wait it out to see if I can get a new processor for much less after the summer. I guess everything will depend on the price of parts when I get around to searching for them. Part of me wants to make a monster of a gaming machine, but another part of me thinks I should just keep it simple and build something a little better than the desktop I have now. We'll see what happens once the summer comes around.
I'm actually still seriously thinking about putting down the money to invest in a Cobalt Flux pad. Problem? No space for it. It would make me cry if I had a nice $300 pad, and no place to use it in.
The idea of Simon staying at my place more often has been thrown around for a while now, and it seems like it might happen fairly soon. I'm looking forward to seeing my roommate more often (she's fun to talk to! :D), and contemplating convincing Simon to bring over his comforter since his is just so much more comfy (<3). Here's to hoping my roommate is okay with turning the room from a single into a triple.
Written at 3:13 AM on Thursday, October 11, 2007
Uninspired.
For the past few days I've been searching for something to blog about, and have successfully found a few events and moments that are blog worthy. Yet, I can never think of how to phrase what I want to say and in the end, end up not blogging at all. So while I'm semi-inspired, let me mention all of the things I'd like to mention.
This week Queens got to experience train hell. Not only did the LIRR experience delays up to 3-4 hours, but the only trains running in and out of Queens were the ones running on elevated tracks. Needless to say, 74th and Roosevelt had a lot of people taking the 7 train, and I got to experience the pushing, shoving and screaming in foreign languages that remind me why I need to learn how to drive. I truly contemplated beating someone in order to get a seat, just so that I could escape staring at the hairiest pair of knuckles I had ever seen and being pushed up against the pregnant backpack of a Hispanic woman whose incessant chatting grated on my nerves. I hope that it doesn't rain again until after I'm back in Stony Brook.
I'm actually excited to be moving back to college in less than 3 weeks. I'll be seeing Simon much more often (<3) and I'll be able to harrass help the new freshmen move in since I'm helping with Welcome Wagon. Joking aside, I really will try to be helpful and hopefully help some freshmen not feel out of place while moving in. I'm also seriously contemplating TA-ing the Web Design and Programming class, since I think I'd be able to help students with HTML/CSS.
Happy Birthday to Riva and Vernon! Their party was on Saturday, August 11th. I've uploaded the pictures I took while there, and they can be found here. If anyone else has pictures from the party (and I know you do, since about 6 or more of you pulled out cameras during the day) let me know if you want them hosted, and I'll gladly put them up for all to see.
Written at 1:23 AM on Monday, August 13, 2007
An End
I finally finished the 7th Harry Potter book. It was good, and I'm sad that the series has finally ended. It's become so famous that I took it for granted, thinking it'd always be around in the form of movies, books and other paraphenelia. Now that the books are finished, and there are only two more movies to go, it feels sad to know that a good series is coming to an actual end.
Thank you Simon, for buying the book for me. Even though you read yours a whole lot faster than I read mine, I still enjoyed reading it immensely. :D
Written at 3:43 AM on Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Congrats Simon!
...on being gainfully employed :D Have fun coding, and don't get too attached to the kitty in the house.
Saw the new Harry Potter movie yesterday, thought it was pretty good. Seeing the movie made me want to read the new Harry Potter book. Good thing the book comes out soon!
Written at 3:59 PM on Thursday, July 12, 2007
Birthday Party!
On July 7th, 2007, my family held a birthday party for my grandfather. The man turned 94 (we think, we're actually not sure of his exact birthday and neither is he) so we got around 20 relatives together to have dinner in Chinatown. Good idea, but let's remember that we're dealing with my grandfather.
The plan was to have everyone meet at my Aunt Helen's house in Chinatown. My grandfather was supposed to come straight from the association where he plays Mah Jong to my Aunt Helen's place. Instead, he forgets that today is his birthday party and goes home to Queens, which causes all of the relatives to panic and start looking for him. My dad drove back to Queens to bring him into the city, and we eventually had dinner an hour later than proposed.
All went smoothly after that, with a huge dinner at a restaurant on Pell Street, and then cake and coffee back at Aunt Helen's house. We had three different kinds of cake, and for those curious people out there, we had Strawberry Cheesecake, Chocolate Strawberry Cake and Strawberry Shortcake. Simon took photos before, during and after the dinner (he took the photo above). Thanks Simon for taking pictures :D
Written at 11:38 PM on Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Gainfully Employed!
I've been hired as a Web Development Intern for EIC Designs. I work a 50 hour work week (10AM-8PM, Monday-Friday) for $300/month. Hooray! Today is my first day, so wish me luck.
On a different note, I visited NYDS a few days before he sold off his last machine, the ITG2 machine. Met up with Matt, who I hadn't seen in a very long time. His skills continue to inspire me, and make me want to play seriously all over again. Maybe when I find the space and the funds, a cobalt flux pad is in order. Maybe.
Had Simon take me out to the Boardwalk in Coney Island, and take me around Astro Land. Ate Nathan's chilli-cheese fries (yummy :D) and managed to not get huge amounts of sand in my food. Walked a good length of the Boardwalk with Simon, then went to Astro Land only to find out what a swinging car on the Wonder Wheel was, the hard way. All in all, a good day. Thanks Simon <3
Written at 12:19 PM on Thursday, June 7, 2007
Dating Myself.
Today's weather was nice, so I decided to take a walk to my local Duane Reade and then stop by NYDS. The walk to NYDS was much needed, since I haven't exercised for a while. Stopped in, spoke with Mr. Nam for a bit, and slapped down a dollar to play a game of ITG2.
...And promptly started to realize how much older I am since taking up music games. Funny enough, it wasn't the game of ITG2 that made me feel older. Rather, it was the sight of the once 13 year old girl that had dated a 20 something friend of mine a few years back. As she strolled in, jabbering into her cellphone and walking around NYDS like she owned the place, I realized that NYDS was no longer "my" hangout. A couple of guys around her age walked in after her, sat down on the floor and waited for the "foreign" girl to finish her game. After 4 years, I guess it's finally happened: NYDS no longer feels like a second home to me.
Perhaps this is just a sign that I should be looking into other activites as hobbies. Maybe a sport or exercise activity of some sort. Any suggestions?
Written at 10:10 PM on Monday, April 2, 2007
Happy Birthday Simon!
...You're only a year away from being legal to drink and gamble in certain areas! Hope you enjoyed your day (and what's to come!) and your gifts :D Post pictures of everything once the day is through! <3
Written at 7:41 PM on Thursday, March 8, 2007
Procrastination.
So I'm being the bad student and procratinating a bit of work at the moment. Sorry Simon.
My first few weeks back have been interesting. I've cut my Geo class all of three times already (this includes the first class), but have successfully attended all of my other classes. Granted, I still show up late to math, but I guess I'm keeping with tradition? Maybe I'll break the habit someday.
Already witnessed my WRT 102 professor proceed to take out a bag of tobacco and roll up a cigarette in front of Luisa and I (yay for Luisa being in my WRT class! Gotta love coincidences .) right after Luisa finished reading her freewrite that mentioned handball courts that reeked of marijuana. Also witnessed my CSE 110 professor's system of answering-questions-for-the-shy actually come into play, in a joking way. My CSE professor said that if a student had a question, and was too embaressed to raise their hand, to write the question on a piece of paper, ball it up, and throw it to the front of the room. Some kid did it, and asked the professor if he played WoW, and if so, what server/level? Unfortunately, the professor does not play but he did prove to us that he's played some sort of MMORPG, since he figured that the reason he was being asked was so someone could PK him.
Luisa moved in yesterday, which should make for a fun semester. Helped her move in the other day, and we're in the process of cleaning up now. The room is arranged differently now, and there is definitely more stuff in the room (if anyone can even believe such a thing). Bought a new 20" TV over the weekend, and now playing PS2 games is even better than before.
Backed up on reading and work already, and I'm starting to slip back into my old habits from high school. I'm taking 16 credits this semester (basically one more class than last semester), and hopefully I can handle it. I'm going to try and get back on track with all my work. It's been so long since I've done that successfully, but I miss the feeling of accomplishment it used to give me. Wish me luck!
Written at 2:44 AM on Wednesday, February 7, 2007.
SUUDSU! And the start of the spring semester.
Hung out with Vernon today, and Suudsu was the main joke of the day. Gotta love them gummy bears floating in a cup of skim milk. Mmm mmm, sudsy.
Played one round of ITG today, and remembered just how little stamina my legs have. I also got to remember how slippery the pads were over at Smiles. Yes, they've changed the Extreme machine over at Smiles to an ITG 2 machine. So much for getting to play Spin the Disc.
Been hanging out with Simon for basically everyday this past week. Watched Gunslinger Girl with him, went shopping with him, and all sorts of other things. Fun times all around <3
Currently addicted to listening to bad pop. I know it's not quality music, and yet, I can't stop listening to it. Someone help me, or else I'll forever have this Beyonce song stuck in my head.
Traveling back to Stony Brook tomorrow (or later today, technically). I'll finally be back on campus! I'm actually excited about going back to school, something I haven't felt for a good 4 years now. Amazing what college does to a person.
Wondering how everything is going to go, really. New roommate, new classes, new everything. Received a call from my new roommate a day or two ago, didn't get to find out much about her. Guess I'll find out more later today. Not looking forward to taking the history class I signed up for this semester, but I guess it's a necessary evil. I'll trudge through it, somehow.
Added two new layouts, under the Skins section. For those of you sick of the green layout I have up (like I am!), have fun playing with those. Cookie to anyone who can tell me what play the song from the Snake Eyes layout is from. No Google-ing!
And apparently, Mario went to Brooklyn Tech and is 23 years old. Go figure!
Written at 2:00 AM on Sunday, January 21, 2007.
Mmmm, ear candy and SDGs.
I'm officially going to be traveling back to Stony Brook with approximately 2 GBs more music than what I left with. Sweet!
Stopped by CF for all of one game on Extreme, and ended up leaving with one big confidence boost. Completed a set, including Extra Stage, with less than 100 non-perfects. Set was I'm in the Mood for Dancing, Yozora no Muko, My Sweet Darlin', and Twin Bee for Extra Stage. Also SDG'ed Yozora no Muko, 8 greats ftw. Pretty good for someone who hasn't played seriously in god knows how long.
But DDR-ing aside, had a fairly laid back day. Got up and visited my Aunt Helen for a few hours. Ran over to CF afterwards, then traveled back home and proceeded to be lazy and loaf around the house for a while.
Still haven't signed up for my last two classes. Aside from the classes being DECs, I'm really unsure of what to even sign up for. Anyone have any suggestions as to what I should take?
Written at 10:39 PM on Thursday, January 11, 2007.
But he's delicious!
Okay, this one was too good to pass up.
So Ben IMs me around 2:20 or so, showing me this:
That, my friends, is a portion of Phoenix Wright: Justice for All drawn in manga form and using only lyrics from Fergalicious for dialogue. Go ahead, let that one sink in for a second. Now keep in mind, read right-to-left and top-to-bottom.
Never played the game? Neither have I. But here's a portion of the convo between Ben and I to clear up a few things. (FYI, Phoenix Wright is a Nintendo DS game where you play as Phoenix, an up-and-coming attorney. You find evidence, argue in court, and all that jazz. Check the Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney wiki entry and the Phoenix Wright: Justice for All wiki entry for more info.)
WARNING: If you want to go through the second game spoiler free, read this stuff LATER. Spoilers ahead!
Ben: you know what Phoenix Wright looks like, good
Ben: his client is Maggey, she is the cop girl
Ben: she's there because she supposedly killed her cop man lover by pushing him off a ledge in a park
Ben: there are two pictures that are evidence, and they are unchanged in the picture
Ben: the first is of the crime scene
Ben: and the second is a close up of the body and supposedly the guy wrote her name in the dirt before he finally died
Ben: but the thing is that Maggie is written while her name is Maggey
Ben: anyway, the second witness is Dick Gumshoe and I haven't played the first one so I don't know if he's new or not
Ben: but he's got a thing for Maggey
Ben: anyway, you show the judge her profile so he can see the spelling and then he says that she's innocent
Ben: but then the prosecutor says "wait" and brings out a third witness, the really flaming guy with the lock of hair and the scarf
Ben: which he pulls on when he's upset
Ben: and he talks and talks and talks really fast
Ben: and basically they find him guilty because they had found his phone
Ben: and earlier he had hit Phoenix on the head and stolen the phone back only he stole Phoenix's phone and not his own
Ben: and so Maya calls the phone and they hear the ring tone and everything is solved
Hilarious.
Written at 2:51 AM on Wednesday, January 10, 2007.
Feeling nostalgic
So I've been craving, nay, fiending for a good game of DDR. Do you know how sad this sounds to me?
Vernon sent me this picture, which I'm almost positive was taken during DDR club. Despite the fact that the club gave me more headaches then it did playtime, I think it was worth it. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. Yes, I look very dead in that picture. But hey, when was I not tired during my time at Bronx Sci? Hm?
Anyway, I really want to go back to NYDS, just for kicks and a game or two. So far, the word on the street is that Mr. Nam is letting the machines die on their own, and is refusing to let anyone go near them to fix them. Poor guy, must be getting tired of the middle school kids that show up there.
Part of me wonders if he'll offer any of us free play anymore, since I do miss Super Sundays. Sad to say, I have a feeling I'm one of the only people who still remembers those days during the summer, when being inside NYDS was worse than the 90 degree weather outside. Or when you'd go at 8 am on a Sunday, leave when it closed, and only drank liquids for the entire day. No food, because food is for wimps.
I miss ragging on people for missing arrows, or getting greats. I miss spinning the only "spin" in Spin the Disc, doing Midnight Blue just to play Insertion, and trying REALLY hard to pass Sorrow, only have Tears kick me in the face. Hard. Not even L'amour, oh no. Because I can read L'amour, I just can't coordinate my feet for anything Tears likes to throw at me.
... And for all of you that got those references, please, talk to me. And tell me you want to go and play at NYDS with me. (/coughVERNONcough) Yeah, I'm looking at you, Vernon. Don't pretend you don't know about them Moba Moga half spins.
But I digress. Today was interesting; got up at 11:26 and made it to 34th street, showered and all, by 12:20. All because my alarm clock didn't go off. For those of you who know me, you should know that's pretty damn good. Anyways, didn't get to take my learner's permit test, since the DMV was closed. So, I spent the rest of the day just lounging around and being lazy with Simon :P It's always fun when he's around <3
Kind of already getting sick of this layout, which is bad. (It's only been up for a few days!) But hey, I think I have an idea for a new one. If I make it anytime soon, I'll change up this layout. For the record, yes, that's a martini glass. No, it's not mine. I found the picture in the banner on a stock photos site, thought it was pretty, and used it in the layout. Now you know.
Written at 4:06 AM on Tuesday, January 9, 2007.
Sex and Changes.
Changed the way RS.net runs; it will now act as my blog as well as host any general/random info I have. If you haven't figured it out already, navigation is to your left.
Went to MoSex today with Simon (or yesterday, if you'd like to be technical). Despite how small it looked from outside, its exhibits actually had a lot to offer. Spent about 2 hours there, saw loads of pornography and some sex machines, literally. The general gallery in MoSex consists of a few contraptions that are basically a dildo somehow strapped to a seat. It's interesting to find out what some people do with their spare time. Saw what looked like a very old school Merry Melodies porn cartoon, which was amusing. Also went through an entire gallery full of old and not-so-old Japanese porn. Only the Japanese would even touch the idea of cockroaches screwing someone.
Had lunch at Manhattan Mall, ate my first Bourbon Chicken wrap. And have it be known that I ate lettuce and tomatoes (happy now, Simon?). Even though I had to endure through veggies, the wrap was good. Oh, and the fries were great too, I just didn't finish them because of my girly appetite.
Went back to Queens, and proceeded to play handball at the park across the street from Elmhurst Hospital because the weather was so damn nice. Okay, more like Simon played handball, really. Played/watched him play for about an hour or so, then left for my house. Simon missed out on cinnamon flavored beef mac by leaving at 6, which, surprisingly, didn't taste very different.
After dinner, I sat down and made this layout, and changed up RS.net to what you're looking at now. It's a really simple two column layout, and I'm sure I'll get sick of it quickly, but it'll do for now.
Written at 1:30 AM on Sunday, January 7, 2007.