Since around mid-August 2005, I started to use "KevinXXX" in my MSN name. Here's the list of names (in order of appearance) I've used over that time. Some turned out better than others.

Kevinessence, Kevinopoly, Kevinosaur, Kevinicious, Kevinalogy, Kevination, Kevinitis, Kevinaria, Kevinalysis, Kevinacity, Kevinarium, Kevinesque, Kevinadum, Kevinatorial, Kevinacious, Kevinapple, Kevinexus, Kevinada, Kevineo, Kevinator, Kevinuple, Kevinessent, Kevinotar, Kevinopa, Kevin-eleven, Kevinatus, Kevinaphobia, Kevinatrix, Kevinia, Kevinichiban, Kevinarcism, Kevincible, Kevinactor, Kevinalopolus, Kevinci, Kevinexant, Kevinary, Kevinocity, Kevinotorius, Kevinite, Kevinipple, Kevingineer, Kevinoxious, Kevinjamin, Kevinoria, Kevinasm, Kevintrapment, Kevinatory, Kevinocious, Kevinology, Kevinphoria, Kevinichi, Kevinacus, Kevintry, Kevinelly, Kevinistry, Kevinility, Kevince, Kevinosis, Kevintasy, Kevinaria, Kevinasal, Kevinella, Kevinichiwa, Kevintation, Kevinistic, Kevindipity, Kevinality, Kevinatorium, Kevindo-China, Kevinyoface, Kevinertia, Kevinski, Kevino, Kevinano, Kevinanoless, Kevinini, Kevinger, Kevinita, Kevinomics, Kevinade, Kevinconceivable, Kevinastic, Kevinaigrette, Kevinolly, Kevindian, Kevincompetent, Kevindom, Kevinegar, Kevinivek, Kevineer, Kevindoors, Kevintricacy, Kevinplicity, Kevinsane, Kevinotion, Kevindonesia, Kevinasium, Kevin-n-outburger, Kevindeisel, Kevinism, Kevinsomnia, Kevincomprehensible, Kevinteger, Kevinasty, Kevinteraction, Kevinio, Kevinoffice, Kevinish, Keviny, Kevincarceration, Kevinnicle, Keviness, Kevinauseous

Those Canadians, eh?

Here's something you don't see every day. A guy named Adam Scott, from our nation's capital, put himself on a primate meal diet whereby only eating monkey food for one week. The test is to see whether a human could get by eating "a complete and balanced diet for the nutrition of primates, including the great apes." His experiment has garnered quite a following (not a following of people eating Monkey Chow, but a following of his experiment updates). It's interesting. Really.


The website.
The blog.
The videos are accessible through his website.

Mismash posting.

Over the weekend, I attended a Canadian Alumni Network event. The "Homecoming" event was held at the Apollo Restaurant at the Agora Garden, a fairly classy venue. The gathering turned out to be better than I had expected, and it was nice to be put in a social environment again - handshaking and handing out business cards. There'll be an SFU Taiwanese Alumni ice-breaker at the end of the month, so I'll try to attend that too.

Last night, it was raining like I hadn't seen in a while. Just pissing. I spent my day (yesterday) at a customer site, and I saw one car-meets-scooter accident on my way back to the office (~5 mins away), and another on my way home from the office (~10 mins). Scootering in heavy rain sure is dangerous.

Right after I finished yesterday's dinner, I sneezed hard, causing some leftover food fragment to lodge near my nasal cavity. I've had this before, usually a grain of rice or something, and the discomfort is astounding. With enough nose-blowing or back-of-the-throat movement, it comes out the nose or through the mouth. My attempts to blow it out my right nostril was to no avail, but it later freed itself in my mouth on my scooter ride home. I never saw it before I spit it out, but I can say that it was bigger than could fit through my nose... and was covered in mucus. A piece of meat, I think. Ick.

My washroom seems to have been overtaken by ants. I only noticed a couple of days ago, but when I did notice, they were already all over the place - though not in great numbers. It's strange because I don't have any food around my place; and besides that, I only see them in the washroom. If it's not raining this evening, I'll make a trip to purchase some kind of anti-ant solution.

While searching online for "Kane and Abel" to learn its story (should I be ashamed about not already knowing?), I came across this website: varsityessays.com. Built to make money off slacking or overworked college students, this website offers a plethora of papers crossing a variety of course topics.

Back in university/college, do you think you would have ever taken advantage of such a resource? Truthfully.

Truthfully? Probably not. For 2 reasons:
1) They aren't likely to have useful Engineering "essays". While I did take a Criminology 101, that was probably the only non-science-related course I took in my 5 years. But in all fairness, under their "Technology" section, there are a few papers that are probably interesting reads.
2) I would have been too cheap to pay for it.

While watching the NBA Western Conference Finals (Suns vs. Mavericks, Game 4) yesterday, I was surfing YouTube.com just going from video to video. I came across a series of videos I'd like to share with you. Ask A Ninja.com is a source of answers to questions asked by the everyday wonderer. You won't learn anything, but you'll probably be at least mildly entertained by its sheer ridiculousness. Enjoy.

Update on my last couple of days...

On Sunday, I helped out with a capoeira workshop organized by CAPT - a group with which I am not affiliated, but that isn't too far off from CCPN. They hired an instructor from Axe Capoeira teaching in Taiwan now, who happens to be someone I trained with back in Vancouver. It costs 3150nt (about $110 cad) per month to train here, with access to training 5 times a week. Even then, it's far too much. In any case, I'm not considering training again, but I might join for a roda or two in the future. The workshop was held in the covered walkway area around the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall, sheltered from the heavy rain. We were asked to be more quiet a few times due to disturbing the library and a dance class inside. Eventually, we just did without the drums.

After the workshop, A&I taxied to a tow lot where my scooter was taken due to an unfortunate illegal parking violation that had nothing to do with me. After picking that up, we went to Nostamos Cafe - a Greek restaurant we found online. Only that, despite the traditional blue-roofed top and sterling white walls, they didn't have a single Greek item on their menu. The owner said that they changed their menu a few times because Greek food hasn't been too well-received as the flavours don't fit the Taiwanese tongue. So, instead, they became a Mediterranean restaurant with a mixed assortment of European food (even from countries not around the Mediterranean). The food was fair, but not all that cheap, and I'm still craving Greek.

Fastforward to Monday. I didn't sleep well last night (Monday night). Just had a lot on my mind. To start, I watched the last 2 episodes from the Desperate Housewives Season 1 DVD set (I can't believe they killed him off!), and that took me to 2:40am. I spent the next hour just lying in bed thinking about a myriad of things. Add those thoughts to the growing hunger developing in my belly and the noise of the rain outside, I gave up on the shut-eye plan and turned on the TV. Then I made some instant noodles to fill the void. At that point (4:15am), I decided to take Tuesday morning off, so I emailed my coworkers to let them know. And... since I had Tuesday morning off, I let myself watch Shuan of the Dead, a witty and comical British zombie movie that was on TV at that hour. Finally, having drained myself, I crept back into bed and slept from 6am to noon. Well, Wednesday's a holiday anyway, so no worries.

I must admit, peeing is much more fun when there's a target. Perhaps a mint in the urinal that makes a greenish cocktail as you douse it; or the urinal cake's plastic web cover that channels pee into various directions as you hit it at different spots; maybe its the ice that reminds you of the coming of spring in the way it melts away when showered in warm yellow fluid; it's just someone's gum that just sits there so innocently; or someone else's forgotten pubes. Perhaps it's the bubbles formed when you pee into a toilet, which give meaning in a decorative design. And these are just daily examples, aside from those when peeing outside (think snow and in forest).

Pee isn't just for physical relief... It's for comic relief.

Would you rather lose the pen or the pen cap?

Previously, I blogged about reading Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. Now they've made a movie - Fast Food Nation: The Big One starring Greg Kinnear which seems to integrate many of the findings from the book. Here's the trailer.

"Hey, don't give me no lip."

When I have a dry lip that is already starting to crack, I immediately discard any hope for fixing it with chapstick. My natural reaction is to start picking away at it, ripping little patches of dying skin off my lower lip. People like to see immediate results; and with these "lip-fixes", the reward is immediate. The feeling of a smooth under-lip beneath the drought-that-was is wondrous.

I use a slow Pick-and-Pull^tm technique. It's effective. Seldom done with only fingers, I usually pick with my top teeth - pulling the lower lip in to get a firm grip between the top and bottom incisors (occasionally assisted by the tongue) - and then activating the slow pull sequence. Finally, I take the liberated piece into my fingers, and flick it off like a booger.

Actually, it's funny that even though the piece of lip is only between my index finger and thumb, the flick must be performed through rapid movements of my thumb, index, middle, and ringer fingers - with my pinky standing relatively still and out. I digress.

Once in a while, I don't sense the pull correctly, and it results in a bleeding lip. This happens when the dried patch doesn't feel its ready to leave the motherland, or holds onto the lip and says to its comrades "hey, let's go together!" But you can't stop in the middle of a pull, because you'll end up with a little flap of lip which teases you every time you close your mouth - and then you're compelled to play around with it with your tongue. Now, when a small wound opens, my eyes give that look that says "shit.", and the lower lip automatically disappears into my mouth where I can taste the blood and assess the damage.

But when it's done right, the feeling of a raw underlying layer is almost erotic. Soft, smooth, and moist like the back of a salamander.

Just wanted to leave you with a nice note over the weekend, so have a good one.