I2icky's Xanga

Happy new years!

Mon, 01 Jan 2007 06:57:30 GMT

Another start of another year, man I'm getting old. You know you're old when you learn to appreciate Niagara Falls, see some of your friends getting married, have kids, and also when you graduate and go out into the real world. How depressing, it's going to be all downhill from here, lol.

The past two days has been pretty eventful. Went out with a lot of friends from elementary school for a reunion, and I was actually a bit surprised at the turnout and how many people there were, which were 20 people. It was great seeing everyone again and makes you realize how quick time flies. It's amazing how we are still able to gather so many people to meet and how many people actually took the time to come out. Some of them even brought photos back from elementary school, and it really brought back a lot of good old memories. Those were good times.

For new years, we met up with a couple of friends, had some drinks and went to a friend's house for the countdown for new years. It was pretty fun and we had some champagne and alcohol.

Here're a couple of pics from the last 48 hours.

Niagara Trip!

Sat, 30 Dec 2006 04:43:47 GMT

Just came back from Niagara Falls after staying for 2 nights. It was actually quite fun, although we didn't do lots of stuff. We shopped around Canada One, lounged around, played some DS, and went to the Hershey factory. It was really fun though but my bank account is going to suffer since after this trip my VISA bill is around $700 for this Christmas break. Aw well, all that money from grading sure is coming in handy now, haha. We didn't even go across the border since not only was it jam packed and busy, we also spent so much already after our shopping spree at Vaughan Mills on boxing day and our mini shopping spree at Canada One. We did have dinner at the Keg on the 9th floor of Embassy Suites though, and that was probably one of the best dinners that we ever had, since we had one of the best seats in the entire restaurant, which was a window seat that had a direct centre view of the falls at night. To top it off, we were even able to enjoy the fireworks while we were eating our big juicy steak during dinner. For anyone who has never went, I definitely recommend that place. We also took a glimpse of all the Christmas lights that were up as well since they were having a light festival. There were Disney characters too :)

Anyways, without further adieu, here're a couple of pics from our trip. Like I said, we didn't do a lot of stuff (since the stupid casino only gave us $87.50 and we couldn't live our dreams of living like kings), but it was definitely a nice outing just to get out of Toronto. The rooms were really cheap too, since they were $99/night after we lied and told them that we had 2 adults instead of 4, haha.

Some year end thoughts

Wed, 27 Dec 2006 05:00:49 GMT

I don't know if it's cause of the whole Christmas mood or spirit that I'm currently in or something else, but as we get to the end of the year, there's just some things that I've come to realize over this past year and particularly over this holiday that I would like to address.

I've come to the realization that over this Christmas holiday, what I've really gotten during this holiday are not the presents, or any material goods, but the fact that I am a very fortunate and lucky person. I have wonderful parents. Yes, they might be crazy at times but deep down inside I know that they care a lot for me and are always there for me whenever I need them and will always take care of things for me when I need them. They've put up with a lot of my shit over the years and without them, I truly wouldn't have grown up to be as happy as I am now and be where I am. I also have an intelligent and caring brother, which despite the fact that I don't get along with sometimes, is very understanding and accomodating to whatever I ask him for.

In addition to my immediate family, I also feel very lucky to have close relatives that get along very well for the most part, especially my cousin and his newly wed wife, who are amongst the best people I know in the entire world.

I also have an amazing and special girlfriend whom I feel I truly am lucky to be together with and also consider family. Whatever she does she always thinks of me first, and I really don't know what I would do without her.

I also have two really good friends who I've known forever and whom I also consider my family. They're always there for me when I need someone to talk to, and despite our fights, arguments, and the things we say, we would always make up in the end and remain friends. Such a relationship is something that I would always cherish and not something that can be easily replaced.

On top of all of that, I feel fortunate to know what direction I want to go in life, and can see what I will be doing at least for the next couple of years. That gives me a sense of motivation, direction, as well as goal to work towards.

Although it sounds kind of corny, this holiday really made me realize how fortunate I am to have the people around me. I don't see myself as the nicest person, or even necessarily a nice person (although I do try), and so to have all the intangible wealth that I have is truly a gift. Just this revelation that I gained insight to this holiday is probably the best gift in the world that I could ever have.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Thu, 14 Dec 2006 17:44:42 GMT

Man, exams are finally done. 3 exams in a course of 48 hours, including tax. Man, that's brutal. Next term's going to be even crazier, with Advanced Accounting, Advanced Audit, Advanced Tax, and a stupid psych elective. Aw well.... hopefully it wouldn't be too bad.

Can't believe that school is finally ending. Time flies by so quickly and I'm 4 exams away from graduation.... amazing.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Sun, 26 Nov 2006 22:45:00 GMT

Haven't posted while a while now mostly since nothing much happened besides school, school, and more school. My cousin just got married yesterday though which means that I'll actually have something to write about now. It was really cool to finally see them get married and even more cool to have all the relatives together for an entire day working together. This is actually the first wedding that was personally relevant to me and it really makes you realize how fast time flies and how old you are. In total I think I took more than 200 pics, and here're just a few of them.

OMG MY MOM GOT A PICTURE WITH A SUPERSTAR!

New Monitor!

Sun, 29 Oct 2006 02:46:00 GMT

W00tw00t, I finally got my widescreen 1680x1050 monitor to work with my computer! Hothothot. I had to buy a new card but at least it's a good one at a good price and would be useful in the future when and if i upgrade to Vista.

Ming and I are so proud of ourselves today when we "negotiated" a $250 graphics card down to $100. We were originally planning to try and negotiate down to $80, but after seeing how pissed the woman seemed to be when we asked for $100, we didn't want to piss her off more. Her son was in the background saying how she's getting ripped off since she's selling it for so damn cheap but oh well, her loss is our gain.

All thanks to Ming though in hooking everything up and clearing all the garbage from my (and my brother's comp). Damn "doscan.exe" better not run like crazy again or i'm going to be pissed.

And sorry wai about having to wait. We should get you a DS so you can play MarioKart all day long.

Here's my sexy monitor in all it's glory.

Wedding!

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 02:15:09 GMT

What an eventful Friday. Went downtown in the morning to give an office tour of EY to the offerees. Seems like EY is having another good year again (at least from York). Most people accepted and it seems we've already met our target of acceptances. We even had more from York than we really had to hire from what I heard, since they already met their quota after all the summer interns signed back from York since we hired so many for the summer. But hey, who can reject good candidates. All of the offerees were really cool people, but I wouldn't have expected less from the recruiting team anyway . The highlight of the visit was lunch at Jump, where we had a full course meal. Going out for food is always the best part of recruiting. Since there really isn't a budget, we can go wherever we want and eat whatever we want. Surf and Turf for lunch for $47? That's nothing. How about a $35 cheeseburger at Bymark? Oh wait, you need to remember to order an appetizer and dessert too, which would cost another $40 or so.

After the tour, I went back uptown to go to a wedding. We arrived a little past 6 pm, since the dinner was supposed to start at 7 pm. I should've known that that was the expected time, since we didn't really start eating till around 9:15 pm or so. What did I do in between? Just hanging around acting cool I suppose, haha.

Weddings are such a marvelous thing. I don't think there would be really any other occasion where everyone is so happy. There were so many people too, around 450. All in all it was a really nice event. Gotta go to another one next month, and for that one I'm actually one of the relatives of the groom, so it should be fun. Man, there are so many people getting married this year.

Here're a few pictures

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Sun, 08 Oct 2006 16:24:58 GMT

Have been really busy lately with school, all the assignments, and just general work. Good thing is that Paypal actually refunded me the money, not that it really matters since the bank already dealt with that, but it's good to know that the frauder's account got suspended. What an idiot.

On another note, all the offers are out now, and I guess everyone has a general sense as to where they're going next September for those who got offers. I feel kinda jealous though seeing all these people get multiple interviews and multiple offers while I only got 2 interviews and one offer last summer, lol. Oh well. What really surprised me was that the hiring practice for full time seems to be totally different. Each of the firms seem not to look for that "personality" that they want in their candidates, but instead are all trying to get the same people. Weird.

Internet Fraud!

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 00:54:54 GMT

I came home today and checked my email as I do everyday. To my surprise, there was an email from Paypal telling me that I had made two payments (one in USD and the other in Euros) for a total of around $1,200 to the same person today. At first I wasn't that concerned because there have been so many spoof emails lately that are merely taunts to get your password. But then after I looked at the email more closely, I realized that it had actually came from Paypal. So I logged into my Paypal account and sure enough, there are records me of making two payments to some random person.

Getting a little freaked out, I emailed the person who received the payment and told her that I believe that whatever money that was sent to her is a unauthorized payment from my account since I've never made any payment to her. I have a feeling that she's involved in this too but it's probably a "shell" Paypal account or else it would be pretty stupid of the person to send money to their own Paypal account and risk getting traced since you have to provide personal info to Paypal when you register.

Anyways, after that I called eBay and they told me to file a dispute resolution claim and that they will most likely reverse the transaction. Hearing so many horror stories of eBay, I was skeptical in trusting them and so I called RBC right after, and with their amazing customer service, I got a lot of empathy and they told me that they do indeed see two pending charges on my account although it has not been posted it. They reversed them, deactivated my card, and told me that they'll send me a new one within a week or so.

After doing all of that, I got an email from the person who received my funds telling me that she has no idea who I am and that she doesn't know what the hell is going on. Although she could be innocent, my gut tells me that it's highly unlikely because 1) She accepted payment and 2) Both amounts were payable to her within the same day.

The thing that confuses me the most is how my account could've gotten hacked into. I'm thinking about keyloggers but after talking to my tech resource friend, he said it's highly unlikely.

Well, at least i'm not out any money.... for now.

Snake in my backyard! (Part 2)

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 17:44:35 GMT

Alright, so after all the fuss and commotion surrounding the snake from yesterday and telling everybody about it, my parents thought it may be a wise idea to call some sort of municipal department and report it to them to see what they can do or if they want to do anything, such as searching the area.

So I searched on the city website, and the closest related department that I found was the Toronto Animal Services Department. Given that their mission statement was " To promote and support a harmonious environment where humans and animals can co-exist free from conditions that adversely affect their health and safety." I already thought ahead and realized that maybe calling them about an animal that we tortured to death and tore its head off afterwards wasn't such a good idea. Nevertheless, given the lack of viable options, I had to call them. Here's a (rough) transcript of our conversation:

Rep: Toronto Animal Services
Me: Hi, um.... we found a snake in our backyard
Rep: You found a what? A snake? Holy muthfucka!
Me: Err..... ya.... and... ya we were scared.
Rep: What did it look like?
Me: Well.... it was kinda long... and green, with stripes.
Rep: O.....k.... and it was small right despite the fact that it was long?
Me: Well... ya, but we were forced to kill it anyways
Rep: Why did you do that?
Me: Well, cause it was slithering towards our house and we were freaked out and were afraid that it would slither in.
Rep: Silly child, snakes don't slither into houses. They burrow and live in the ground and they may dig holes in the foundation (as if that's not bad enough), but they don't slither into houses. So what you did was wrong.
Me: My bad. So... um, do we have to report this or anything, or does the city want to come take a look around the area?
Rep: Well, these are just regular garter snakes, and they are completely harmless. So next time you see them, just shoo them away and stop killing them.
Me: Aight cool, later!

So ya, I guess we shouldn't have tore off its head either.

P.S. My mom commented afterwards how the mice that was digging into our trash were gone. I wonder if the snake ate them. I guess we killed our benefactor :(