google maps – extreme close ups in africa

google maps has extreme close ups in africa. the way that you can zoom in this far is through changing the z variable in the URL to some value (usually at most 23 from what I read).
in the links in that above page that say “images at this zoom aren’t shown”, click on “link to this page” to get the url, and then change the Z variable to 22 (or 21) there. zooming out will work too – but to zoom back in for others, you’ll have to do the “link to this page” and change z to 23 anyway.

if all this is too complex just look at the pretty pictures. crazy…

must we have personality?

comment feed is here

schedule keeping and goals

so, to sum up about a week of schedule keepin.
writing things down helps an enormous amount; i’m considering getting a smal moleskin just for that purpose. (maha gifted me with a notebook sized one which is fantabulous for everything). writing them down online? not much; actually. while i’d like to think you all care and eagerly check my blog wanting to see what i am doing, in reality i know its a really boring list of what am i doing. i can be funny! or try to, anyway.

what i am having difficulty with is how to determine what are my medium-long term goals. i.e. in between 3 months from now to 3 weeks from now
i can see my goals for the next 1-2 weeks, and for next 1/2 year to a year. i find goals to be motivating, and incredibly, err, helpful, in achieving things.

i guess that’s pretty intuitive, but, still, how to figure out whats my goal for 3 weeks from now?

writing down a list of what to do weekly is nice; although i still have a mental and partially physical “general” to do list that i gotta implement. i’ve been considering trying to fully swtich to the GTD method.

GTD is Get Things Done, written (I believe) by David Allen. it seems to be a highly popular way to create structure and organize your life. the only thing i am lacking though is a 13 folder file. i don’t want to make it a physical one, as visceral feedback is far better for me… i think. anyone heard of this before? tried it?

must we have personality?

must we have personality

i can’t remember where i found this, but its tempting to print and hang this in our bathroom. hilarious!

apartment design

i buzzed everyone ears off i think, but i just needneedneed to talk more about this. its like travel. i return thinking “i’ve had enough” and 3 months later i’m itching to go somewhere else!

SO in the 6 months or so that i’ve started living with tim i’ve (first) bugged him enormously about redecorating, improving, renovating, designing, purchasing, arranging, cleaning, until one fateful day he left to california and i renovated a bunch of things without really … telling him. so, now tim has agreed that not only the apartment has potential, that it is this potential that is possible to show and is WORTH showing as we’ll be living there for a while.

so, now my daydreams are mostly about wall colors, lamps and couches. among numerous other things.

the big reno happened end of february. it is not even a month, and we alredy rearranged the living room (there is an actual LIVING ROOM now). and now i itch to paint the living room, office areas, bathroom, kitchen. i itch to find lights for all the nooks that they will be so perfect in. i itch to organize the large closet so that when you walk into it, it feels like a neat space. i itch to get rid of my plastic drawers, and figure out how consolidate all the things that i have in them now into neater, prettier, smaller, invisible containers/shelves/whatever solutions. i can’t wait to get to chinatown and find the baskets for the bathroom shelves, and hang art in it. i can’t wait to find the perfectest shower curtain, and bath mat(s), and finally put the mop into the aforementioned tobe organized closet so that bathroom is just NEAT. i can’t wait for tim to have his own light at the desk, and for reading lights in living room to be convinient for all. i daydream of carpets and pillows and blankets and warmth and fuzzy that it will be SO VERY SOON.

i KNOW how great this feels. after painting the bedroom with maha’s and alina’s help, and organizing all the closets there (which are STILL ORGANIZED, w00t w00t), walking into that room became a 1000 times better experience – even when it is messy!

i want bold color! and light! and a pretty bathroom. and i think those are the things i want first.

so now that i’ve bored everyone away…

i’m getting a haircut tomorrow WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

philosophy of logic

one of the most interesting things that i learned in the last 4 years of university is the notion of flow. no, scratch that. it is THE most interesting thing that i have learned in the past 4 years. the reason i bring it up in this post, is that flow is a state in which you are:

  • highly internally motivated
  • are keenly interested
  • faced with a challenge just at the border of your abilities

among other things. this really deserves another entry on its own, BUT, today i realized WHY it is that the task must be challenging.

philosophy of logic, a class i am taken, is taught based on a book written by ian hacking, a u of t professor (honorary at this point, i believe). the book is incredibly well written, is highly interesting, and incredibly easy. it is easy not because material is easy – it isn’t really THAT easy – but because i have already met all the material presented with in. frequency probability (studied in stats of psych), belief probability (studied in stats of CS – highly relevant to AI!), philosophy of logic (despite that this is the name of this class, i have ran into the arguments presented with in in my other philosophy classes). i’ve touched on all of the math in it.

therefore, i have a terribly hard time making myself sit down and get into the details of the “basics”. i am capable of it, and i did a lot (finished reading the entire book, for example – i am doing all the exercize sets tonight). its just difficult to not get distracted.

chain necklace

therefore, out of a bracelet maha gifted me with years ago, i have made that necklace. it is SO FREAKING COOL. and thanks to my abnormally thin wrist, i am still able to wear the bracelet comfortably. YAY for saving $30.

you can read more about flow there.

ebay surfing

wine poster tim and i were reading the latest LCBO food & drink journal today, and we were talking about one particular ad. the ad showed how much difference the paint can make, where as they actually have not only repainted the room but changed the bed, side tables, added a headboard, absolutely new matching modern set of linens, side lamps, a huge vintage/art deco ish poster instead of the smallish awkwardly framed smaller ones, a new white armchair… and of course they want us to think a $30 can of paint did all that.

regardless.

the poster in particular caught my eye. so i did some brave ebaying, and now i’m drooling over these:

WORLD´S FAIR CHICAGO OLD – POSTER.
ROSSLI CIGARS OLD AD – POSTER.
LOVE this one SO much: POWDER PUFF NUDE GIRL ITALIAN VINTAGE POSTER!
MELE ITALIAN SHOPPING FASHION – great shapes, colors (!)
these are small, but would look fantastic in a kitchen area: 2 VINTAGE ITALIAN KITCHEN PASTA CHEF SPAGHETTI POSTERS

maybe i can shoot something closer to this. but i like the abstractness of that style of drawing! (this picture is not mine:)

wine

welcome back hesi!

water sculpture -my favourite

here, to assist in your time wastage are some awesometastic links.

the 10th dimension – click on “Imagining the Tenth Dimension” on the left and watch the short explanation. mind totally boggled. w00t!
coke advertisement – (no, not that kind, scarf) from collision detection, the amazing thing is not the fact that coke refers to GTA (the all-evil game, etc.), but the fact that they refer to it without stating it explicitly – viewers “get it” effortlessly.

the water photos are of flowing water on the side of a boat.

quoting from overheard

light in the valley

Old Chinese lady: Ex-see-cus-see me.
Old Chinese lady: Ex-see-cus-see me!
Gangsta: Man, what are you excusing me about? Fck you!
Old Chinese lady: Fck me? Ok, take-a off the pant.

Stairway in silence.

Old Chinese lady: Ex-see-cus-see me!
Gangsta: Sure thing, ma’am. I’m sorry.
Chinese kid: And that’s why we respect our elders.

–Canal St station

from overheard

1 essay down (philosophy, was okay i think), 1 exam done (math, i seriously hope i was okay). ended up staying up for about 24 hours. that’s what you get for not having drink coke in like a year and then having half a liter in one night.