bennybox

I’m having a little too much fun right now. I don’t think it’s supposed to be so entertaining taking pictures of ones self. Then again, isn’t that the whole camgirl appeal? Don’t worry I’ll keep my goofing off offline.

A big part of the chic of the new iMac is the built in iSight with Photo Booth and Front Row. Both are seriously tons of fun.

Psst… I don’t have an iMac. But my Bluetooh phone works great as a remote on my iBook.

TheStar.com - Group upset over head tax `deal’

The Canadian government has agreed to pay $12.5 million into a Chinese Canadian Community Foundation. Families of those paid the head tax to enter Canada between 1885 and 1923 want the government to issue a formal apology and provide compensation. At one point, the head tax as $500, about 2 years of pay for a labouring worker.

Some 81,000 Chinese paid a total of $23 million to enter Canada under the head-tax scheme between 1885 and 1923, when the Chinese Exclusion Act was enacted to bar Chinese immigrants altogether. It wasn’t lifted until 1947.

The CBC article spells my dad’s name wrong. I had written about the head tax when I recapped my Canada Day events this year, where James Pon spoke. His grandfather worked on the railroad for four years, and it took him 17 years to pay off the head tax debt when he came to Canada to join his father and grandfather.

And yes, I did just link to the Toronto Sun.

It’s been a while
Yeah… this isn’t supposed to be a link blog… there are supposed to be more posts than links here. Well, at least half and half right? And none of this, ‘when I have a life, and things to talk about I don’t have time to blog’ crap. I should be maintaining this thing. I haven’t even had time to make a new layout (which really does cause half a week of all-nighters).

Gadget withdrawl. My name is Chris and I’m an addict
Rather, there’s so much going on, that I don’t think I even know where to start… My baby camera, the Minolta Dimage X, died in Kobenhavn and it’s made it tough to want to post without having some photoboxes to accompany some boring writing. I bit the bullet, and picked up a cheap HP point and shoot to tide me until I can afford something with a bit more meat. bennybook has been renewed, and aside from a perpetually filled hard drive, and my need to keep an eye on the RAM sucking, he’s made me quite happy. bennypod is doing well too. he’s become something of an external hard drive for me.

The blogging is strong with this one
In non-incredibly-dorky-gadget-blogging, other blogging has been trying to stir up some intelligent thought at hiyo.org, and to a much greater extend at studentlifecentre.com - sites I love very very much. I enjoy taking 20-30 minutes out of each day to write about my university - I think otherwise I might beleive the hype that the school is hella boring. And it’s starting to catch on, on word of mouth _alone_, I’m averaging 500 readers a day. There are some 27,700 undergrads, grads, faculty and support staff at my university.

99 days until IRS
On Monday marked the first day there were just two digits to count the day when my graduating class receives our Iron Rings. I think I’m quite excited to graduate. I keep saying _yadda yadda because I’m an engineer_, but I know it’s a lie. I won’t feel like an engineer until I slide that ring on my right pinky. And yes, I should get my P.Eng. designation first, but to me the ring is much more symbolic. School has been hectic… I’ve already written 3 design reports, a presentation, a research essay, a work term report, a lab or two, an assignment, and five midterms. And that’s nothing compared to what I’ve got to do for the next 3 weeks before the lecture period ends. _faints_

iTunes rating news
From a library of about 4000 songs, I’ve systematically erased 600 songs, rated another 2300 as per my iTunes organizing system I wrote about before. It’s getting there! Though the too many podcast subscriptions are to be the death of my hard drive. I just can’t delete songs fast enough.

And that thing about interacting with other people…
I think I was wrong in my prediction that I would be living in the library this term. I’ve been there lots, but having a Mech Eng 4th Year Room and not using it would be a crime. I’ve been trying to keep tabs on all the friendliness that’s been going on… without a camera it’s hard. There might be some photos on the Flickr that you haven’t seen before. I think I’m really enjoying this dating I’ve been doing over the last week. It’s nice.