mom's been out talking to lots of people. my dad told me tonight that he and my mom are most likely going to go up to toronto this coming weekend and stop by niagara-on-the-lake. i guess when my mom went up to niagara-on-the-lake yesterday with a couple of her friends she met some girl who worked in one of the art stores or something and somehow became best friends with her... and my mom told my dad the girl was "very beautiful." or something to that extent. so now... she's suggesting that i go along cause she thinks this girl wants to meet me? i don't know how the hell that happened. now normally... i think it'd be cool to meet a girl who was canadian and is going to u toronto for her masters... who is cute, hot, whatever. being canadian gets automatic bonus points in my book. still though... i'm not so down with the parental hookup that's just blatantly obvious... and lately... i don't know what the hell it is... but the pressure is seriously on. not just for me mind you... jon as well... every other frickin day... i hear them talking about jon and scheming with the other asian parents. it's terrible. perhaps not living at home i was in the dark... and maybe they were always like this... but even still... the pressure has been relentless lately... especially since there've been people... old friends of my parents visiting the area... and the gossip has been flying around... you know... the "who's married" conversation, the "who's a doctor" conversation, and the "who is running a multinational company" conversation... i'd say the standard asian back and forth between parents. only now it seems to be really focused on the "who's married" topic. i'll be out at lunch... with these people... and i'll try to be as quiet as possible... i'll let them do their talking catch up etc. all of a sudden... and this only takes one person... "jason (or ren san-mandarin or yun san-cantonese)... i want to introduce you to... ". it's at that point that i give a little smile and try to transition to another topic... but it's already too late. everyone joins in... and i just listen... and it goes on for a good 45 minutes at least. ok... maybe... and hopefully it won't come to this... if i were like 36 years old... and i was in danger of becoming a true dirty old man... then... maybe help would be ok. but i think the cut off is at the least like 33. i don't even know what i'm doing with my life yet... everything's contingent on if i get into a pharm program right now... and if that doesn't happen... well... i don't know. if i can't rely on myself... how is anyone else going to rely on me? we'd be done in about 10 minutes. of course... if you want to be my sugar mamma... the position's still open!

ok enough with that. new news... good news for the most part. i bought 2 new hard drives... 8 meg cache... totally makes a difference. i was able to pull off some data from my dysfunctional hard disks. i got back dreamweaver mx and flash mx which i had desperately needed for a possible web design job... and i got back some mp3s... and my most current palm data (i had not synced in awhile and the batteries ran out to my palm). it's not total good news... cause i think for the most part i've lost all my south park stuff... and i'd say 70% of my mp3s. the method i used to recover was interesting. you stick the hard disk in the freezer for 2 hours or more (wrap it in an anti-static bag and put that in a ziploc)... have your new hard drive handy... take out your frozen drive... and transfer you old stuff over to your new one. this method only works if your drive's read heads are damaged. sometimes through use, the heads end up expanding from the heat over time. when you freeze the drives... it shrinks the heads back to a size that they can function at again... though it will only be functional for a short period of time. this method worked great for 2 of my drives. i was able to keep these 2 up for 30 mintes... enough time to transfer the contents of my old c drive, and my /var/httpd, /home/jchow directories, and some misc linux config files on my linux disk. my third disk full of mp3s and iso solaris files, odd todd cartoons, and south park seasons did not fare as well. so that was disappointing... since this was the disk with the most info.

oh well...

now i must sleep. petition coming soon... promise. night.

nato talks.

it was brought to my attention by my good friend kristi and co-softee afficionado late last night that there's a campaign to silence mister softee in new york.

nytimes story

A couple of weeks ago, Mister Softee became the cream-cephalic public enemy for the Bloomberg administration's proposed crackdown on unwanted noise. Along with boomboxes and barking dogs, city elders seemed concerned about protracted exposure to the jingle emanating from the 250 Mister Softee ice cream trucks that lumber through the streets of New York.

that's totally ridiculous! wtf is THAT?! you can't just tell mister softee to shut up like that! it's preposterous! i am outraged! i am angry! i'm not going to take it from the man anymore! THE MAN MUST GO DOWN!

the one main reason that mister softee should NOT be silenced is... because of the jingle, you can tell the difference between softee and a softee imposter. there are trucks out there that are painted the same colors as an official softee truck... they are tricky like that. without the classy tune... you might run down the street chasing one of these imposters and when you finally catch up... find out that you had been had by a fake! with the song however, you can rest assured that you are getting the real thing. on the flip side... with the softee song, you KNOW when he's in your neighborhood... and you can run around the streets (as i have done on many occasions) trying to track him down.

so... not only does the jingle signal the beginning of summer... but it serves as a public benefit for those in search of this TASTY BITCH. besides... half the fun is trying to track him down.

in response to this attack on my good warm weather friend mister softee... i am going to create a petition and submit it to the bloomberg administration. i am going to ask for the support of all softee lovers past and present who have bought from a mister softee truck in new york city. please check back here in the next week or so, as i want to get the right wording, grammar, spelling, etc., down before i put it up on petitiononline.

thanks for your prompt attention to this matter. we must resist!

btw... did you notice in the upper right hand corner of the nytimes link it says... "printer-friendly format sponsered by"? i clicked on the printer-friendly format for the article... cause it's easier to read. but even printer-friendly formats have sponsers now apparently. anyone find that at least a little disturbing?

spot coffee is so good. i just got back from spot with kate. she's in town for the weekend for a wedding. last time i went to caffe espresso... i didn't see the mochachino shake on the menu. i found my replacement though... spot has the mocha shake... which is just as good... though it doesn't come in the nice large glass that espresso uses.

does it bother anyone else or is it only me that the political & religious right is pushing this defensive marriage act as an amendment to the consitution? i think before they can push it to bar gays from getting married... they need to examine their own marriages first. if you're going to defend marriage... wouldn't you think you'd try to work out your own marriages instead of getting divorced... or cheating on your spouses (newt, rush, the list goes on). it's kind of hypocritical to say that you want to defend marriage when you're not even practicing the idea that marriage is a so called "sacred" union between a man and woman. i'll bet you some of these gay or lesbian marriages last longer than hetero marriages. this issue i guess is up to the people to decide... but i personally do not think that we should futz around with the consitution. besides, marriage is a personal decision, much like religion. you cannot force someone to believe what you believe. i'm so sick of the right using religion as a cover for everything. church and state SHOULD be seperate. again... it's a personal decision to follow rules of any religion, we have something good here, freedom to choose, don't allow these people to take that away. i think God works in different ways... when you're ready to see him, he'll show up and change you and circumstances around you in ways you never thought possible. it won't happen unless you're ready and willing though... so it's very personal, which is why no matter what law(s) we make aside from the basic laws that we all adhere to cross cultures, i don't think they'll do any good in the end. laws don't change people's minds, they just end up complicating things and cause more distrust, dislike, and hatred between groups of people... which we can surely do without. i'm also tired of feeling like christians have to be pro these actions... and i'm tired of people thinking that all christians are pro these actions. so i guess being me is just bad on both fronts. it doesn't matter anyways... in the end it's not up to me to know what's right and wrong and what happens when people die. i'm just gonna do my thing the best i can... and try to live my life according to God's will.

well... i'm gonna sleep. i start the next summer session tomorrow. chem frickin 2... woo hoo! (not really).

ben folds & guster this saturday!

out!

today was my last day of bio... final went ok... lab practical was impossible. i'm just glad it's done... coming into today... i was doing pretty well... hopefully the final and practical haven't changed my standing much in the class downward curve-wise too much. i should be in good condition if that's the case.

yesterday was our last bio lab... i had to take apart a pigeon... it was pretty nasty. i hate pigeons... nothing worse than a nyc pigeon with greasy feathers and a mean streak. i think the whole plucking feathers thing was the worst part... with the skin and fat ripping off. you had to be careful not to pop open the crop... lest you want barley covered in preservatives and pigeon juice on you. i've done rats and sharks before... the pigeon is probably the hardest in terms of chordates since they don't have a nice lateral line. you have to cut through the curved muscular breast area and that's pretty hard if you don't want to damage the internal organs. anyways... that's over now... i'm happy.

on to chem 2 next week... i hope i don't get a crapload of work for the long weekend.

no articles just a bit too spaced out right now. das ist alles.

marlon (the one that runs with the monkeys) sent this story to me. it's quite a long pdf document, but it's worth reading. i find it funny... it's an actual account of a scammy scammer getting reversed scammed by the scammee.

i'm just looking forward til thur... i'm not doing quite as bad as i thought in bio even after that last test. hope i don't totally mess up the final. i'll have a free weekend with nothing hanging over my head finally... and then i start up again next week (ugh). however... lots of people are coming to buffalo for the 4th... we got the ben folds concert and all. bern's brother greg decided to bail on nyc... so bern's heading here. tc's coming, and hopefully kris will have time to meet up, if only for an hour and a half... i must take her to get some real wings (yes... it's THAT important. you cannot just come here and be all not getting wings).

and i found out yesterday that jon got into suny downstate med school. my parents are thinking about going down to see him on the 4th... but i'll have to wait til august when my classes are done.

caught a showing of dodgeball last night with some friends. it's a total stupid funny movie. if you like stupid funny like me, go see it... it's an all around fun movie... put you in a good mood. ben stiller is always good as the bumbling idiot type... but in this movie he's a total dick. vince vaughn on the otherhand isn't the d-bag... and he does a good job with it. sometimes his parts go a little overboard when he's being that real annoying guy in other movies (ie. "made") and it just distracts you from the good parts of those movies (at least for me)... but he plays this part really well.

if you're one of those people that looks down on these movies, have no sense of humor, and never laughs or doesn't enjoy laughing... don't go see this movie. but DO frickin lighten up a little jeez! nothing worse than people that can't laugh at things and give D's to these kinds of movies in their reviews. who says movies have be serious all the time? laughter is GOOD!

courtesy of josh... says here rochester was holding some festival where the organizers were giving free beer if you register to vote. i guess the event is over... sorry i got the link late otherwise if any of you buffalo peeps really wanted to spend the 50 min driving to rochester for 2 oz. or beer you could.

”It’s just a fun way to get young people interested in voting,” Clifford said.

uhhh... if you watch tv, read the news, are struggling with finding a job, sick of the government spending YOUR money on illegitimate wars, sick of this administration hiding behind and using religion as justification for their actions, tired of things like the patriot act tax cuts for the top 1% income earners while shifting the fiscal responsibility to the rest of the nation... and you DON'T want to kick these a-holes out by making sure you vote... i don't know what to say to you... just make sure you don't tell me you're one of those people cause if i run into you, i may well house your ass.

here be a post by tansal regarding music (classical, popular), and how in certain situations you can just tell how a performance is on a completely different level... interesting cause i've experienced it.

ok... hopefully this will be my last hockey post for awhile... some of you are sick of my hockey rantins. hasek is a selfish self-centered bitch, and iginla rocks out hardcore.

this cracked me up. there are some real d-bags out there... steam rolling a kid for a stupid baseball. good job buddy.

there needs to be a consolidation of wireless networking standards and frickin flash memory. it's getting ridiculous, throw out the bad standards and develop the good ones. nowadays you have to buy things like 50 times cause standards aren't interoperable. speaking of which... i'm trying to decide if i want to go with lg or samsung for my new phone. the lg has a better screen something crazy like 200k colors vs. the 65k for samsung, but the samsung is lighter and smaller with better battery life and future video capability with future firmware update (so i've read). the thing with the new verizon phones i don't like is they're trying to phase out AMPS 800 on their network (analog signal), so the new phones don't come with it in them... they're only true CDMA phones. since the AMPS signal reaches almost everywhere in the US it's a good backup to have.

eh.

so i broke out "twice removed" today. it's been awhile since i've really listened to it and just not used it at background music. i forgot how good the album is.

Bells On, Sloan

While I'm at this funeral
You're in New York
I've been dividing my grieving
You're sleeping with a mutual friend

I dreamed that I kissed your mouth
And you thought about me
Over Christmas
Oh, you might know who I am
But I know who you are
Your heart is in your art
And mine's in New York

I'm wearing my heart on my sleeve
You're sleeping with a mutual friend
And I want to be with you again
And again
And again
I've thought about you a lot lately
So flash me your metal smile

I'm thinking about you
You're thinking about
New York
Though to you your friend was hurt
To him I owe him money
Will you pay back the thirty dollars
That he thinks I owe him?
But I don't owe him anything

If you had a funeral
I'd be there with bells on
La la la la la...

If I had a funeral
Would you even care?
Would you wear your silver dress?
Would you actually wear lipstick?
Would you lie upon my grave?
And be there with bells on
So you could ring me from this life?
From this life
From this life
So you could ring me from this life

people of the sky is i think one of the few andrew songs that's on my favs list... and it's on this album. as sloan has progressed... i think andrew songs have become more wordy and annoying.

hey... aug 7th @ 1pm... sloan playing "hot august night" concert on olympic island in toronto with a couple other bands. $40.50 CDN includes ferry ride over to the toronto islands from the harbourfront.

ok i'm out.

only 1 more week left in the first summer session... then i start the second session the week after. so i'm running on 3.5 hours of sleep. i think i'm gonna take a nap and then study a bunch more for a test tomorrow. i probably won't be updating much this next week... but... i wanted to get this out... especially to the nyc crew cause it seems fun.

Dear rider -

The Straphangers Campaign urges you to enter its First Annual Subway and Bus Photo contest!

As the MTA considers a ban on subway and bus photos, film and video, let's give them an eyeful of how transit images enliven our lives and make the system safer, better and more accountable.

Click here for how to enter the contest! http://www.straphangers.org/photoban/contest.htm

send good vibes if you got em... or pray... or sacrifice an animal or plant or something... or whatever... i'm gonna need all the help i can get to get through the impossible bio lab practical and exam!

when i was small and my brother jon was smaller we were eating watermelon and he swallowed a seed. i told him a watermelon would grow in his stomach. his eyes opened up really big and he said, "really?" all worried. then i got in semi-trouble for making stuff up to him.

that just popped into my head while i was eating watermelon.

i think i am the king of buying malfunctioning computer hardware.

so my hard disk is officially dead. it was only 2 years old and the warranty expired already! there's only a slight chance that i will be able to recover the data by unorthodox methods, i need to get a new hard drive in order to try it. if i was a millionare i'd send it in... but professional data recovery will usually cost $1000+ for one disk, and it's only at most 30-40 gig of info composed of mp3s, crackz, and appz. even still, all the stuff that i've built up for the last 4-5 years will be gone if i can't get it back during my last effort to recover it.

the only positive... my documents and financial stuff is all on my other drive and backed up onto other media. i can't believe a 100 gig drive from western digital would die that fast. i guess i'm not gonna go back to wd. my list of hard drive manufacturers that i trust and can vouch for is slowly going down the tubes. the only one that has made it back on my list is maxtor after their purchase of quantum's hard disk unit. even with that purchase though, i still can't bring myself to completely vouch for maxtor based on past experiences. so... seagate you're the only one left... don't f*ck me.

it's making some awfully weird sounds... and as i type this entry on another computer... mine's still in the process of booting... and has been for some time. there seems to be some disk activity... i can hear it... hopefully it's windows recovering something as i had to hit the power button to shut it down last cause the disk locked up.

i should've bought a new computer when i still had a job. now... i'm @ a "no $ = no toys" stage in my life again... for what?! so i can take some natural science courses?! who's idea was this career changing thing anyways!

eh. stupid computers.

ok... i guess in the end this will be good for hockey... the hard part is maintaining interest. classic example... US soccer. it got huge in 94 when the men's team did fairly well... but died back down. same with women's soccer... all hyped up for the world cup... then not much of a splash otherwise. i guess i just don't see hockey as a sport that will take hold in warmer climates. you can still be outside playing football in february weather with shorts on in florida if you wanted (well... us buffalo kids could at least). not only are there climate barriers to establishing a healthy market... but hockey is thus far an expensive sport. equipment for a defensemen or offensemen can easily start out around $500 a player... and for goalies? forget it. see... it makes sense for us northerners to invest... since winter's long... it's the only other team sport besides basketball that's going on. elsewhere in the south, you're still playing outside... you still have a multitude of choices on what you want to do with your time.

eh... so in conclusion... fine... the cup goes south to a new market. hopefully it won't be for nothing... hopefully there won't be a letdown like what happened with the florida panthers... but jeez... couldn't it have been a little further north? carolina? even atlanta... i would've accepted that... at least they used to have a team in the nhl before the thrashers.

so i got an email from straphangers which is a nypirg awhile back. they are in the process if they haven't already of attempting to restrict camera use in the subways (flat out banning it). the subway experience is a rite of passage for any newcomer or tourist. you SHOULD be able to take pictures for yourself, family, whomever. on top of that... there are so many interesting things to take pictures of while you're underground. some of the ads that've been drawn and written over depicting new movies coming out etc are totally classy and classic. i remember this one on where it was promoting the movie blue crush in the lorimer station on the L line. someone drew a penis and scrotum coming out of the bikini... the blonde haired girl was missing teef and her eyes were all messed up. some dialogue was written on it... i've forgotten what it said... but all i can remember is looking at the picture and cracking up... wishing i had brought my camera. anyways... here's the email i got... join the pirg if you want and live in nyc... tell the mta you understand they're trying to make things safe... but you don't want to be in complete lockdown everywhere you go (which is where it seems we are headed patriot act version 2 anyone?).

Dear rider:

The MTA is now accepting comments on its proposal to ban photographs, film and video in the subway and bus system. We strongly urge you to express your views by commenting at: http://www.mta.info/nyct/rules/proposed.htm (The option for sending an e-mail to the MTA can be found at the bottom of the MTA's description of its proposals. Don't be discouraged by the MTA's confusing e-mail form.)

For information and arguments against the ban, you can visit: http://www.straphangers.org/photoban/

==============================
NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign
One Click to a Better Commute - http://www.straphangers.org

obviously he would say this. he's the head of a multinational energy company dependent on non renewable energy sources as his profit. can you imagine what would happen if the solar economy had an advance and developed overnight? there would be no way to transition a company like exxon-mobil. they're too big and they've invested too much in their infrastructure. think of all the billions of dollars they've spent on industrial equipment and distribution network! energy independence will need to be reached at some point if we're going to continue to use fossil fuels as our main energy source. fossil fuels will run out... then what? we might as well start now... and i think we should concentrate on it a lot more than we are... trying to develop more efficient ways of using renewable energy. the quicker we find something that works... the less oil we will use and the less environmental damage we will cause. that has to be worth far more than any pain we incur in the short term.

it's sad that the cost of higher education is getting more expensive. now with the economy still down from it's late 90's peak (yes a couple thousand jobs were created recently... but remember how bush went out to reclassify mcdonalds jobs as manufacturing jobs? we can't solely rely on numbers as they're almost always skewed to benefit the administration that releases those statistics) states are cutting their education budgets putting more of a burden on students. i've always felt that education is one of the only places where your race and your background don't define you... well... it's turning out to be less and less true. if things progress as they are now, higher education will be out of reach for many people if they aren't already. pretty sad for a country that is supposedly the "land of opportunity". education has always been the easiest way for anyone to get ahead. if you know more than the next person you're hired for a job. that's how it usually goes at least. whether you experience discrimination in the job place is a different issue... but during your time in school... once you get into a school... i would argue that anything other than school work is not a determining factor in how you do... thus i think it's an equal playing field for all. it would be a shame if in the future we have less tremendously bright students limited in how they can pay for education to be the factor that keeps them out of a college or university. as with individuals... having a population that is educated is the easiest way of keeping our own country in good shape. it may be our only defense when china really comes online and its economy wakes up when it leverages it's 2 billion plus people. so... the point is... education... important... we must make it more accessible instead of making it prohibitive.

and here's some funny (also ridiculous you decide what proportion it is to you). what's this with renaming all the airports? the OC? what the hell is that? i mean... i thought the george bush intercontinental airport, and ronald reagan national airport was bad (reagan was a charming guy and all... i'd have loved to have had him as a grandad or something... but i thought his economic policy, defense spending, and budget control were terrible! i mean... it took us 3 presidential terms after he left to get out of the hole we were in... and since have gotten back in thanks to dubya). now seeing how airports are just being renamed for people that haven't done phenomenal things... naming an airport after a stupid tv show is just well... stupid! can you see why other countries laugh at us? see how ridiculous we are? for an elected official to even bring it up? it just makes me mad... and that's a problem for me... cause i feel like dark helmet in spaceballs... but instead of being surrounded by a-holes... i feel like i'm surrounded by dumbasses. being mad isn't healthy... so they say... and i get mad everyday multiple times... i'll probably have a heart attack and die when i'm 30... i'll just get so mad i'll spontaeneously combust from the anger at stupidity inside of me. ever watch lewis black? i think that's going to be me when i'm older!

i've also been visiting this site which i've heard about but recently visited. it's pretty damn cool (content AND style wise). here's something he published about the death of the q diamond train in new york. i wish i was there... it sounded fun. if it was only a week later on my bday... i could've made a trip for the weekend.

reading the site and short fiction stories posted made me think back to stories that i told so i wrote a one drawing from my own format. you ever notice that when you first become close/attracted to a girl and you're younger (though it still might happen when you're older but it's less frequent i think)... your friendship/relationship develops to the point where they want you to tell them a story? of course you oblige and try and be cute about it cause you wanna get action or continue playing the game or whatever. well... it's happend on a couple occasions... and you start out with "once upon a time there was a boy and a girl..." well most of my friends will tell you that i like messing with people... not because i'm mean... but mostly to see their reactions to things said or done. anyways... my stories would always follow a certain format... mostly as a joke and to see if the person was paying attention and throw them off a bit. i guess i'll post it below this post so you get the explanation first before you read the story... it might make more sense with an explanation of what i find funny than if you'd just read the story (maybe not). the thing that happens at the end... would always happen at the end of all my stories. the details given in the beginning are crucial to draw the person in... make them connect somehow... i'll leave it at that. g'night!

Larry looked around the room and noticed the numerous posters of stamps clinging to the walls covered with faded paint. Looking down at the floor, he let his eyes wander a bit before focusing on two exquisitely shaped feet in light blue flip-flops. They looked like they had been recently washed, not having the dust or soot that envelope most toes exposed to a humid summer day in the city. As he was about to shift his attention he noticed that the woman was stretching her toes out and relaxing them. Larry smiled a bit as he thought how strange it was that someone would randomly be stretching their toes; then again he thought, not many people would take notice of these insignificant happenings in life. He looked up at the woman and saw that she was happily talking on her cell phone. Larry wondered if the woman knew what her toes were doing while she was conversing.

The bell sounded and the number 11 started to blink. Larry quickly walked over to window 11.

"Can I have one stamp?” Larry asked as he flashed a smile.

"Sure, that'll be thirty-seven cents.” replied the postal worker returning the smile.

As Larry put his change on the counter with one hand he picked up the stamp with his other.

"Thanks so much.” said Larry.

As Larry was about to turn around and walk away, the postal worker pulled out an AK-47 attack rifle and shot Larry.

Larry died instantly.

The End

imagine the most anguished cry you've ever heard... that was ME!

WTF!? WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME IT SNOWED IN TAMPA FRICKIN BAY?!

i need a vacation from posting, it's going to take me awhile to recover... i'll only have bad angry things to say for the next week or so anyways. BREAKIN-MAH-BALLS... SERIOUSLY... YOU GUYS ARE BREAKIN-MAH-BALLS.

i finally checked out the chapel's sunday service. it's pretty cool... i may make some more visits.

bettman need to go... they need to review their review policies in the nhl. this is getting ridiculous.

Know goal? The NHL apparently doesn't
By BUCKY GLEASON

6/6/2004

C ALGARY - Hey, Calgary, we in Buffalo feel your pain. We, too, are familiar with phantom goals, or in your case, one that should have counted but never did and wasn't adequately reviewed. Now, it's off to Game Seven with the league getting saddled with yet another controversy in the Stanley Cup finals.
We need not rehash Brett Hull's foot in the crease in the 1999 finals that handed the Stanley Cup to the Dallas Stars. At least that one was open to debate, a judgment call that didn't go the Sabres' way. And of course there was the six-hole in Philly in 2000.

This one could turn out to be a bigger mess because Oleg Saprykin should have been awarded a goal that would have handed the Stanley Cup to the Calgary Flames, rather than forcing them and the Tampa Bay Lightning to travel across the continent and settle things Monday.

History will claim Martin St. Louis' goal 33 seconds into the second overtime gave the Lightning a 3-2 victory in Game Six on Saturday night in the Pengrowth Saddledome, forcing a seventh game in the St. Pete Times Forum on Monday. Calgary should have won the game much sooner, setting up the biggest celebration since the Flames won the Cup in 1989.

ABC replays showed Saprykin scored with just less than seven minutes remaining in regulation after charging past two defensemen and sending a shot into the crease. Nikolai Khabibulin tried kicking it away, but the puck squirted under him and crossed the goal line. Of course, it wasn't reviewed. The Flames became another victim in a league known for making serial mistakes at the worst times.

And they wonder why people say this league is a joke.

Fans were chanting, "We want the Cup!" in both overtimes.

Folks, you should have had the Cup. How would you like to be Rhett Warrener, the former Sabres defenseman who was twice a victim. He said going into the series that No Goal was still wrenching his stomach. Now he gets more acid.

The good news was Calgary has another chance, even thought it shouldn't need one. There are few things better in sports than Game Seven, especially in hockey. You think these two teams have been going at each other now? Wait until Monday night. And make sure you're rested. Overtime is expected, if not encouraged.

The Lightning were lucky. They thought they had things under control when Brad Richards scored on the power play from behind the goal line. Everybody knows what happens when Richards scores. The Lightning wins. They're 30-0-2 this season, 8-0 in the playoffs, when he finds the back of the net. And he did it twice.

Apparently, the Lightning win when Saprykin scores, too.

The Lightning's confidence skyrocketed through the saddle-shaped roof when Richards again on the PP later in the period. Certainly, given the previous statistics, the series was certainly headed back to Tampa with the winner hoisting the Cup, no? Well, it doesn't happen quite so easily against the Flames.

They never, and I mean never, give up.

The Flames have been down several times throughout the series, and they were trailing twice Saturday night, but they tied the game both times to set up a nail-biting, heart-pumping third period and 20 minutes, 33 seconds of overtime.

Chris Clark popped one in from the doorstep after Ville Nieminen's blind, spinning feed bounced off Stephane Yelle's stick and landed on Clark's. Marcus Nilson's was even easier after Saprykin weaved through two defenseman and handed Nilson a gimme.

Monday will be a fitting, if not necessary, ending.

It has been a fantastic series, and Game Six was better than Game Five, which was better than Game Four. The hockey gods figured the league will be shutting down next season, so why not extend this one? It's seems the only way to decide a series in which two teams couldn't be better matched if the league called Dial-A-Date.

The best-of-seven series for Lord Stanley's trophy was billed as a battle between Tampa Bay's speed and skill and Calgary's rough and tumble, pretty against punishing. What we've learned over the six games is that the Lightning's toughness was underrated, and so was the Flames' talent. Together, they treated fans to the best series in years.

Now it comes down to one game.

Yes, we get more.

The finals aren't usually a test of hockey so much as a test of survival. Look down the list of Cup winners over the years, and you'll see one team overpowering another, a string of four straight sweeps in the '90s, a necklace of anticlimactic finishes. This year, we watched two teams push each other to exhaustion and beg for more.

The series already had everything. Great goals. Big hits. Breakaways. Cheap shots. Overtime. A suspension. It had a fight between two of the game's best players in Jarome Iginla and Vincent Lecavalier. It had a match of wits between two porky coaches, Calgary's Darryl Sutter and Tortorella. It had short-handed goals and incredible defense, odd-man rushes and unbelievable goaltending.

Iginla and Martin St. Louis, two finalists for the Hart Trophy given to the most valuable player in the regular season, went head-to-head with the same level of play. Iginla positioned himself for the Conn Smythe Trophy by dominating in Calgary's first three victories. St. Louis countered with a goal in Game One, scored a big goal in a victory in Game Two and tied Game Five with another.

The Flames and Bolts crammed more into six games than some teams do into 60. Now it's 82 games and four rounds of the playoffs crammed into one.

And another major blunder threatening to corrupt the finals.

=[, calgary just lost game 6. 30 some seconds into the third overtime. monday's the big day... they HAVE to pull through. their record on the road gives hope... but it'll be hard getting over this letdown... when it was so close. refocus guys... win one for canada and true hockey lovers! the panthers won a cup already... we can't have one team from florida winning one when minnesota, buffalo, vancouver haven't won one yet.

1999 reared its ugly head again. they were showing a stat about guys who won the cup in overtime for their teams the last couple years. the name brett hull came up... and the year 1999 came up... and i wanted to punch someone. skate... crease... as cartman would say... screw you guys... i'm going home.

night.

so here's the music breakdown so far for the interesting concerts this summer. i'll start off with something i can't make but you new yorkers should try and get to. i know this is short notice and all... but the buffalo philharmonic is playing @ carnegie hall tomorrow and sunday. concert's @ 2pm both days i think. the saturday concert has balcony tix left for $5 last time i checked, the sunday concert has the more difficult pieces so it's more expensive. i'd recommend the saturday concert if you can get to it. i would love to go and see 2 of my private lesson teachers play in new york on the caregie hall stage! look for douglas cone and andrea blanchard-cone. both of them sit in the first violin section, they are the nicest people ever, and are super good violinists.

next weekend and the weekend after is the roycroft chamber music fest in east aurora. the festival was started by my first real private lesson teacher nancy gaub and her husband eugene awhile ago before they moved to teach at grinell college in iowa. they still run it every year though. i haven't seen them in years and years... i think i'm gonna make a surprise visit. i learned took lessons from mrs. gaub for a really long time... and during that time is when i learned the hardest material. i think before she had moved... we were talking about me starting on the bruch violin concerto... and maybe even the tchaikovsky violin concerto... which if you've never heard either of them... you really should. the bruch is one of the most exciting concertos i've ever heard... and the tchaikovsky is perhaps the most well rounded and difficult i think because it takes so much emotion to play it and it is a physically grueling piece. oh yeah... if anyone's interested in going... let me know... i'll even cover for tix for the first person to respond.

then on jul 3rd, ben folds and guster are playing @ niagara square... FREE frickin concert! on jul 4th, the goo goo dolls are playing @ niagara square... another FREE concert! now i'm not so big into the dolls' new stuff... but they rock out buffalo. i'm tellin ya... it's gonna be a good show. plus... they haven't released the sched for the US side of the friendship fest (FREE) that buffalo has every year with fort erie during which we celebrate our respective country's independence days. kim mitchell's playing in fort erie on the 4th... i feel bad for her to have to go up against the goo goo dolls. mainly cause she's a really good and established musician.

then for the one i've been waiting for for the longest... spirit of the west is playing on jul 15th for the thursday @ the square concert series @ lafayette square. they're gonna pack in the square and we're gonna have a jolly old time. oh and it's FREE! we also have blue rodeo with universal honey opening up for thur @ the sq on jul 1st, and the juliet dagger who i'm just starting to get into on sept 2nd.

plus the buffalo phil has got some concerts @ artpark in jul this summer... and we've got shakespeare in delaware park (FREE)... a multitude of art, ethnic, and food fests going on... this is gonna be a great summer. just what i needed... i've been missing out on this for 6 years.

the only other thing i could possibly want... maybe they'll get the low to play the marina again!

ok... i'm gonna go... send good vibes if you've got any... i'll need them for the rest of the first summer session classes. and new york crew... i shouldn't even have to give you reasons to visit me (haha!), but if ben folds, guster, and the dolls can't convince you... and or spirit of the west can't convince you... well... i might as well just disown all of you!

GO FLAMES!!!

i've been waiting for a long time for a true hockey TEAM (ie not full of stars and with and unlimited budget) from a city where it actually gets below 32 degrees F (0 degrees C) in the winter to win the cup. the flames need just one more game saturday in calgary... and they'll bring the cup back up to canada. it sure has been a long time.

tonights game was intense... calgary was the better team for most of the game. they didn't do as well in the third period, but came back strong against a determined lighting team in ot. jerome inginla had another brilliant game, and yet again, someone who hasn't reached the scoring sheet in some time (saprykin) stepped up with the sudden death goal. both goalies made some gorgeous saves but unfortunately for khabibulin a spectacular game for him ended in defeat. game 6 should be fun to watch with so much on the line for all of the great white north. i'm sure the calgary bench realizes it, so it'll hopefully give them extra incentive... hit a little harder, skate a little faster, play their grind-it-out transition style and wear down the lightning's game of pure speed.

nothing quite like the smell of ice in may.

cause you can't really do problems and see if you know it. you can do that with chem and physics... bio is probably the most easy to initially process... but you just have to have a good memory in order to do well. bio's kinda like a science that's more social science almost in how much you have to memorize. i think my brain is full... at least it seems that way.

eh... so here's a post on the message boards on orkut that i got.

I am writing a kernel module for Linux kernel 2.6. I am currently dynamically allocating memory in the kernel module using the "kmalloc" function call. I am basically DYNAMICALLY creating an array of structures in the kernel module. I then plan to fill this array of structures with data and export it to the user space. I tried using the "do_mmap" function to map the kernel virtual address to the user virtual address. However it fails i.e when I try accessing this memory region in the userspace I get a segmentation fault. Can someone please enlighten me about how do I map the memory area dynamically allocated in the kernel space to the user space.

the person wrote to the linux community on orkut... i thought it was pretty cool... i still like how orkut gives people a more professional outlet instead of being only social like the other networks out there.

this is pretty interesting. i wonder if elected officials and powerbrokers in buffalo have read this. we seriously just need to get our crap together and clean house. there's still too many people who think we're in the 1960s and 1970s around here. our city is dying... we have to find a way to keep young people here, otherwise we'll keep on going the way of hartford, ct. becoming a shell of a city. i think it's quite interesting how marketing and branding has increased its scope to emcompass cities and places. it's not just for toothpastes and products anymore. you have to play towards the people you're trying to attract. "They come here for the architecture, history and gritty atmosphere." if you market that to the right people, they will come. it's the same reason why there was a migration to the village, to the east village, to chelsea, and onto astoria/lic, williamsburg/greenpoint, and dumbo in nyc. if you catch the attention of enough people to attract a critical mass, people will move and bring with them income which can revitalize neighborhoods. of course, this happens in hyper-time in new york since there's already so many people in the region who are always looking for cheaper rents. the markets can't adjust as quick so that smart (re)development takes place and in many cases it destroys the feel and character of some neighborhoods. it can cause great distress for families that've been in a certain area for awhile. rents can go up as landlords exploit their resources namely the housing stock, which at times leads to established families having to look for housing elsewhere. in a sense this is and advantage for cities in the northeast and around the great lakes. since there isn't quite the demand for space, if they have a good plan to implement for growth, and they have a progressive government, they can grow smartly and at a slower pace. i think growth pace is important, you need to grow steadily and fast enough to attract people, but slow enough so you can resolve any problems before taking on some more. it helps to have a master plan, a vision, so at least work can be done to achieve a certain goal. this is something that is still being hammered out here, there's some semblence of heading in a direction, but there's still a little too much fragmentation in the grand scheme of things. hopefully that'll continue.

secure your networks! especially you new yorkers! i mean it's cool and all that you provide free access to your neighbors and all... but... it's probably more trouble than it's worth to keep your network open. spend a couple minutes reading the manual and enable wep or better yet wep and mac address ip matching.

last but not least... tc sent this to me. a post on craigslist that was funny. i don't think i'd go out of my way and complain about gettin some from someone normal... it's hard enough finding someone normal uhhh... normally? i guess if you are looking to find weirdos through an alternative route though...... =].

ja... das ist alles.