My Celebrity Lookalikes

So I finally did that silly Celebrity Lookalikes thing that everyone is posting to their Facebook accounts. :) Turns out I look like Jack Black. Awesome. A few people have told me that in the past... and it's kindof an awesome situation, really. :)


My Celebrity Lookalikes!!


Same but with a different photo of me

Jocelyne, this one's for you

Man, I love the Tea Shop. I've been there 4 times this week. Nick and I went tonight after we both finished our UI Assignments (sweeet.) I stayed up until 4am last night getting the Undo/Redo stuff to work and then spent ages trying to figure out how to modify the values in the Data model (part of the AbstractTableModel) - it took a while and I finally figured it out this afternoon. Turns out that I messed it up a bit originally as there is a method in AbstractTableModel with the signature:

public void setValueAt(Object obj, int row, int col);

I for some crrraazy reason assumed I could cast the Object to a String in the method signature... not sure why. Probably cause it was 4am. Anyhoo... I had the following:

public void setValueAt(String string, int row, int col);

This was the problem as Java assumed this was just an overloaded method and did NOT treat it in the special way that the method that has the Object in it's argument list. That method is called automatically when the data model changes, so it's what I wanted to use instead... bah. Anyway all sorted out now, and I managed to totally finish it tonight. Nick and I then went to the Math building at about 10:30 tonight, and made sure it worked on the Solaris machines at school and then submitted it and went back to the Tea Shop to hang out.

WHAT AN AWESOME DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Today was awesome for like 500 reasons, and it got even better when we went to the Tea Shop, mostly cause I love that place and the people there.

So Jocelyne, famed Tea Shop tea maker, official "Minister of making me Bubble Tea" in the "Jutan Clan" facebook group... said that she was bored and decided to read tons of my blog for the fun of it, and that she doesn't get much props on this blog. She said that she had only been mentioned once!! Insane. Also my roommate Nick said he'd only been mentioned once too. Crazyness. So... NICK AND JOCELYNE you guys are AWESOME. Done and done. Just gotta give a bit of props when props are due... and they most certainly are due. :)

In other news, today was awesome. I gotta start reading a book for History and also I should probably watch last week's episode of The Office again. I have 8:30 class tomorrow and back to the Gym after reading week so I gotta be ready for rockin' that out tomorrow.

Oscars and Java Assignment

Oh man, the Oscars tonight were awwwessooome. I was really psyched when Michael Arndt, the screenwriter for Little Miss Sunshine won. That was totally awesome. He works at Pixar now and if you see some of my previous posts I talk about when we got to hear him speak, and he is totally awesome. So I am really happy that his hard work was recognized. Fantastic!!

We were all hoping that Ryan Gosling would win since he's from London, Ontario, where I grew up. Lots of good movies this year though. It was awesome (and expected, I think) that ILM won the Oscar for Pirates of the Caribbean 2, the effects in that film were just out of this world. It's too bad that Pixar didn't win any of the 3 that they were nominated for: Best Animated Short, Best Animated Feature and Best Song... but there was lots of very good competition this year. The Departed was really well done, and it's good to see that they got some props... especially Martin Scorsese finnnaally getting an Oscar.

We watched the entire Oscar show (Ellen was hilarious) and then Jer went home and I got back to work on my UI Assignment in Java. I finished up the Undo/Redo stuff for the Send to Back and Move to Front functionality. This is great as now I just have a small piece left, it shouldn't take too long and then I am done. Good times.


MVC Drawing program in Java

Pan's Labyrinth, Java and Friends

We're coming up now on the end of reading week, it's been good and now (on the last day, hehe) I am getting a lot of work done on my UI assignment so I can have it finished, or at least mostly finished, for next week. I've got most of the coding done which is sweeeeet. Just gotta add in some more details for Undo and Redo queues but I'm mostly there, which is great. It's only been about a 10 hour assignment so far, pretty light in terms of the usual style here at Waterloo!! :)

Ans and Tim from London came down for a couple of days which was really fun and it was great to see them. Ans came Friday and we rocked some Mr. Sushi (it was actually open for the first time ever, hehe) and then of course got some Bubble Tea action goin' on. On Saturday night. Jer, Ans, Tim and I went out for a while, got some fantastic Indian Food (Chicken Tikka Masala roooocccks) and then finally got a chance to see Pan's Labyrinth. Man, it was awesome. I wasn't sure what kind of story to expect, and it definitely met my expectations. The story was very interesting and the effects were fantastic. I bet it's going to win some Oscars tonight for sure. The story was very imaginative and I really liked the historial back-story, and how they tied it to the Labyrinth world. Very cool.

So right now I'm taking a break to blog up a storm and then back to Java for a while. The Oscars start at 8pm so I've got a few hours until they start. Pixar has 3 nominations... awesome. I bet J.L. will be on stage again tonight!!

Series Finale of The O.C. was awesome

Yes, I know it's totally ridiculous that I am posting about the end of "The O.C." What a great show. :) The series finale was on tonight and I really think they ended it nicely. Everyone finished the series with a new direction in their life, the Cohens moved to Berkeley, Julie graduated college, Summer toured the world and followed her passion for social activism and came back to Berkeley and married Seth. So awesome. Ryan looked like he'd started a successful construction company and there was a really nice scene at the end where he reaches out to a troubled kid, and they tied it back really well to when he was that kid, someone who just needed someone to offer some help.

Oh man. What a great ending to the show. It's pretty nice, as I am just about to finish up here at University, it's been a long 5 years and now it's time to take the next big step. I started watching this show in 2nd year, and throughout my Co-op terms so it sortof feels like it's been something that has been a part of the whole University experience (hehe, we'll ignore the fact that Season 3 kinda sucked for the moment) :) Anyhow, it was a good, solid, awesomely sentimental ending, it ties into how I am feeling about getting ready to leave Waterloo and finish University... and it rocked. Fantastic.

Java Model-View-Controller and Challah

Tonight I finally got started again on my next UI assignment. It's a simple drawing program in combination with some cool Model-View-Controller architecture stuff on the backend.

We have to separate the data model from the view and use Java events and listeners instead. It's a much nicer approach than we used for Assignment 2 so I am really enjoying it so far. Just about 4 or 5 hours of programming tonight but I'm already a decent way through the assignment.

We have to set up a Table on the right hand side, which shows you the view of the data model, and also lets you change the Widget types. We also need to add Undo/Redo stuff in here which should be pretty sweet.

Before I got started tonight, Norm invited me over to her house and we made some Challah. I got to make my own loaf and it was good, and we're going to eat a bunch more tomorrow.


Model-View-Controller assignment

Toronto AutoShow 2007

On Sunday, Alex and I went to the Toronto AutoShow and as expected, it was totally awesome. I sat in a Honda Civic Hybrid (AWESOME, tons of room and feels exactly the same as the usual kind of car I have driven), and a Toyota Prius (also pretty awesome, INSANE gas mileage 71mpg City, 67mpg Highway?!!! Yes it has HIGHER mileage in the City!!) So that was pretty amazing. I saw some cool new Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology, BMW and GM had some cool concept cars there. Also the usual Lamborghini, Ferrari, Maserati, and Lotus-related madness. But first, a picture of Alex's Dad's new dog.


Cute, eh?!


How come gull-wing doors are the coolest thing EVER?!?!!


I'lllll take it!


Lamborghini Gallardo (translation: "Hooottttttttt")


Lamborghini Murcielago


Gallardo from the back


Awesome


This is so awesome it hurts


Sweet Maserati


Some nice raytracing on the Aston Martin :)


Sweeeet blue Ferrari


Some crazy Bentley


Cool BMW "Heads-up Display" system where the car speed is projected on the windshield


Amazing new BMW Hydrogen-Gasoline Hybrid vehicle


Ammmaazing


2 Gas Tanks!! 1 for Gasoline and 1 is a "Cryogenic Hydrogen Storage Unit"


The Hydrogen tank


Another pic of the Ferrari


Alex squeezing into a Miata


Haha


An explosion of cookies


Rockin' the Prius


Toyota Concept Car


Mercedes SLR with a McLaren Engine


Sweet


Porsche Cayman


Lotus Exige (I waaant thhhaattt)


Awesome


Sweet deals


This rocks


Another cool Lotus


GM Fuel Cell car


Petroleum Free (i.e. excellent)


Fantastic


Another picture of the same thing


"Zero Emissions"


Possibly the craziest car ever, it has like 20 video screens


Whhhaat?!??!

Office and AutoShow

Last night Matt had some crazy party he was at, and we were going to go but we were really tired from skiing. So instead we watched a good 8 episodes of The Office. Yeah, it just keeps getting better. Today I think we're going to the AutoShow so I'll have plenty of pictures if we get there today.

Skiing in Horseshoe Valley

Last night Alex and I came up to Alex's Dad's house here in Horseshoe Valley, Ontario. We are rockin' up here for a day or so and went skiing today to Horseshoe Valley Ski Hill. Awesome!!

It was a great day of skiing, nice powder and not too icy. It was -12 to start but "warmed up" to -5 which wasn't too bad. Some sun and not too much snow flying around so it was pretty legendary.

Here are some sweet pics.


Gettin' my snowpants on


The car was covered in snow


Digging the car out of the snow


Shoveling like a madman


Alex and his wussy snowbrush


Brr...


How Canadian is this??!?!


Horseshoe Valley


Lunchtime


Alex rockin' a hot dog


Me stealin' Alex's goggles


Workin' it on the hill


Skiing like a fiend


Whooooooooooooooo!!


The classic one eyebrow up, one eyebrow down


Alex doing the Stephen Colbert


Mmm... Coffee


Doing my hair


Workin' it


Alex on the quarter-pipe


Alex getting some air