Tochi's Hut

The Toronto Star reported some guy's quest to find the location the following default Windows XP background titled 'Serenity' was shot. After an exhaustive search, he found it in Burlington, a stone throw from Toronto.

While the $300 Windows XP background is certainly a nice picture, I didn't have to go all the way to Burlington to find 'serenity'. Just last week, the most beautiful snowstorm swept through Toronto. The snowflakes were so big and fluffy. They just floated down slowly from the sky and settled. A stark reminder of how how beautiful winter can be. The following 'serenity' photo was shot from Tochi's street.


Ahh yes. Despite the beauty, the roads were very very very slippery.

Round 1 of a badminton tournament I've been participating in is over. The preliminary round featured everyone into groups of 4, playing round robin style within the group. Ranking in your group determines your respective pool for next round, with top 3 advancing.

In singles action, I managed to finish with a respectable 2-1 record, good enough for Pool B in Round 2! Given the limited number of courts, I hardly ever play singles matches. Man, playing three sets without any breaks is quite draining. My first match was against the group favourite. The guy has a deadly drop shot, which effectively took care of me. Dueling drop shots isn't my forte, and clearing behind him == setting him up for a smash. My second match-up was against someone who is technically more skilled than me. However, my stamina was better, so I manage to tire him out and take the game. The extra weekly squash regiment is finally yielding some benefits. One thing I need to improve on is the ability to finish a person off when I'm ahead. That last point takes so much effort for some reason. Last game was against a weaker opponent, so I didn't have much trouble.

Doubles action didn't go as well, as I lost both my matches. The pairs I went up against were very skilled players, so my partner and I didn't stand much of a chance. It's pretty amazing when some people can play on a totally different level. My third match-up was defaulted, since the other team didn't show up. Team Tochi advances to Pool C of round 2. :)

Overall, I'm really enjoying the competition. Playing where points matter is a different pressure, especially when you are dead tired but have to play on. Round 2's competition looks very stiff, but hopefully I'll be able to pull off some upsets. :)

It was a tough night. The great folks at Global decided to air this week's episode of Heroes at 9pm on Sunday, so the biggest question of the night wasn't what would win best picture. It ended up being whether I would watch people getting little gold statues or save the world. Well, my fellow Americans, as a hero, saving the world is more important, especially when someone goes nuclear. I managed to catch the last 3 hours of the Awards though (the important parts anyway).

The Academy Awards wasn't that bad this year. As usual, there were a few surprise winners, some pretty horrific speeches and no important announcements. Some random thoughts on the night. Pan's Labyrinth started the night strong, but somehow managed to lose to some German film and Little Miss Sunshine?!!? (To be fair, I didn't watch either of the latter films, but still... ). Leo and Al Gore's little act was one of the best of the night. Gore didn't win the White House, but he won his Oscar. Good for him. Ellen DeGeneres did better than I expected. Her little in-the-crowd antics were a little over the top, though getting Spielberg to take a picture for her was quite funny. The silhouette dance troupe was so awesomely amazing. Jennifer Hudson's pure "I didn't expect to win" speech was actually quite convincing. A quick rise in AI, now her own Oscar. Wow. Celine Dion's new song (I forgot what it's called) was pretty good. Celine is a great singer, but I had trouble making out some of her lyrics. Finally, I really didn't get Jerry Sienfeld's joke about leaving garbage in theatres. I bet so many movie theatre owners were cringing when one from their own industry is telling billions of viewers to leave garbage in their seats.

I need to watch The Queen, Last King of Scotland, and Babel now..... and maybe English version of Infernal Affairs.

Went to some late CNY dinner party tonight.... In one of the games, each table had to come up with a "good luck/fortune" phrase using the following words:

1. PIG
2. FORTUNE
3. FACE
4. ASPHALT
5. VITAMIN

The phrase my table came up with was rather lackluster. The most amusing one was "Remember to walk your golden PIG on the ASPHALT and take your daily VITAMINS or else its FORTUNES will be on your FACE." This entry didn't end up winning - likely by the lack of "good luck/fortune" aspect....

So... I took the bait. Wii-motes and Wii Plays are as hard to come by as Wii consoles themselves, and since I'm getting a Wii sooner or later, I might as well order the Wii Play now. Just like T & R. So at 6:50 am this morning, I somehow managed to land an order of Wii Play from Amazon.ca. When I got to my order confirmation screen after checkout, I saw:

Thanks for ordering from Amazon.ca. Your purchase information appears below.

Shipping estimate: April 20 2007
Delivery estimate: April 24 2007 - April 25 2007

WTF is right..... APRIL... I am so speechless... d*** those b***ards for toying with Tochi's poor little heart.... :-(