Re-Hacktionary Report

Monday, December 27, 2004

Shaken, Not Stirred

Well, there was an earthquake in Southeast Asia. Kind of scary as I was just there last year at this time. As well, we've got a team in Malaysia for Worlds. They're apparently ok though.

In sporting news, while I still don't much care for American football, it is unfortunate that the Ravens lost (and are probably now eliminated from the playoffs). Even though they represent everything that is wrong with sports (a relocated team full of felons [though, Ray Lewis was acquitted of his murder charge, so I suppose the Ravens aren't quite "full" of felons] with a belligerant coach that plays boring football) it would have been nice for Deion Sanders to get another ring. I'll have to come up with another team to pull for in the playoffs (what with the Bucs being out as well).

In related news, it's also sad to hear of the passing of the Minister of Defence.

Thursday, December 23, 2004

We're Not Turning Around In A Shanty Town

Took a quick trip down to Calgary today for an interview. I think it went ok, but I'm never able to tell these things. Hopefully it turns out well. After the interview, I bumped into Kathleen in the general mall portion of Eaton's Centre (she had an interview at another place). Craziness. Sounded like her interview went ok though.

After the interview I also got a chance to have coffee with my friend Helen, who was in town for Christmas. Helen's in a PhD program at Penn and in spite of the fact that we now live on opposite sides of the contintent I still consider her one of my closer friends. We've had lots of crazy adventures risking life and limb in 5 countries and 3 continents, so there's always lots of fun stuff to reminisce about. At any rate, it was good getting a chance to catch up with her.

After coffee, got to hit Peter's. Those burgers are still the best (Though it was a bit too cold to have a milk shake. Too bad).

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

Do Not Enter Your Name On The Sheet

Alright, I've been gone for a while. I'm starting to get the sense that I'm getting too old for the sleep deprivation, food deprivation and overall mental anguish that exam season entails. Scary that for 5 exams that could amount fo 50% of my mark for this year I probably got a total of 6 hours of sleep. At any rate, I wrote my last exam today. It was pretty cool in that the fact scenario was based on The Apprentice.

Speaking of which, what the hell was that last episode? Ask the audience? I'm going to ask the people that I've already fired who they think I should hire? The episode was going well up till that point, but the part that was the climax of last season's final episode was when it all went down hill for me (part of it may be because I've never particularly cared for Regis). Additionally, while I predicted a while ago that I thought Kelly would win, I was pulling for Jennifer (gotta pull for the lawyer) so it was a bit of a downer in that sense. I think Trump placed a bit too much emphasis on the team winning record, given that theoretically one could be useless and get pulled along by a good time, while someone else could be a strong candidate pulled down by weak teammates (though I don't think that was the case here). At any rate, on the whole I think the candidates this time around were not as good. The challenges may also have been tougher. As well, I think there's a tendency over the course of a reality show's lifetime for the quality of contestants to decline as you get more people wanting to be on the show in the interest of being famous, as opposed to winning whatever the prize is. At any rate, I still thoroughly enjoyed this season and am eagerly anticipating the next one (I shall be cheering for the College Educated team).

Having a Study Group Reunion with some of my first year cronies (Kathleen, Jen, Roman and Harlow) at lunch tommorrow, then the last leg of Roman's birthday festivities (he shouldn't really be calling them a Triumvirate, for reasons which should be clear to anyone with familiarity as to the etymology of the word).

Monday, December 13, 2004

You Don't Have It In You

Well, while I've been critical of it all season, I think the last episode of Survivor was quite good. Particularly I found the final Tribal Council to be the best that they've had in a while. I was sort of pulling for Chris, given how he overcame what looked like near-insurmountable odds. At the same time, I found Twila quite endearing, so this was a situation where I would have been happy with the result regardless.

The next season should be interesting as well. It looks like they're expanding it to 20, and they implied that lots of the rules will be changing. I'm not sure how I feel about that. While I recognise that certain elements of the show are no longer quite as fresh as they once were, and that contestants are coming in with 9 seasons worth of examples to model their strategies on, it seems to me whenever they've deviated from the usual rules on Survivor it's been rather lame. That being said, I'm confident if the game is different from the outset it may be better. Most of my problems with innovation in the game have been due to the fact that a number of the innovations have been introduced as a "gotcha" in mid-game. As long as they aren't changing the rules in the middle of the game, things should be alright.

Friday, December 03, 2004

Well, Was It A Full Strip?

Thankfully Ami is now gone from Survivor. I was a little worried she'd stage a last minute rally. My personal highlight of this season (which perhaps speaks more to this season than anything else) was when they panned to the jury last week after Leann got kicked off and Sarge and Chad were yukking it up. At any rate, while I hope Eliza doesn't win, pretty much any of the remaining contestants would be acceptable to me.

As for The Apprentice, I think Ivana really let her Jenn obsession get out of control. For the past few weeks every time they quote her she's saying something about Jenn. At any rate, I can't disagree with the verdict of this episode. You can't drop your skirt to sell a chocolate bar and expect to head a corporation. Besied, I think Ivana probably should have been fired in the second episode were it not for Bradford being an idiot. At any rate, I'm curious as to how they do the final four (if it's like last time or if there's a new twist). Likewise, I havent' been keeping track but I'm wondering if they've got an extra episode in there (in addition to the review one we'll probably get next week)to make up for the one where Trump fired two people. Oh well, time will tell.

Apart from that, this semester is starting to wind down. Time flies, as it always does. I'm really looking forward to the break, though it's scary that once I'm done finals my time in Law School will be exactly half over. Frightening.