Coco Cola Mugs

Look what I found at the dollar store! Don't you think they look pretty cool? I think they'll be fabulous for some beer, juice, and of course, cola. Ben, don't you think it'll fit my collection of coco cola bottles perfectly? =D

OPI Nail Polish: Green-wich Village

I bought two OPI nail polishes in January, one purple, one green. I'm going to review the Green-wich Village one day since it's near spring and st. patrick's day. =)

The nail polish has a decent formula, it's a little soft compared to those long-wearing nail polishes, but decently long lasting and durable. You need about three coats to achieve the colour on the bottle, or else it looks more like a lighter lime colour. The green is slightly, very slightly, more yellow than blue. It's not super noticeable and the colour does get darker with each layer you put on. The colour is opaque and without any shimmer or glitter. It's just a nice, glossy, and strong colour. It's not a neon, but it is noticeable and nicely bright.

Overall, it's a pleasant nail polish, easy to use and apply. I would definitely recommend it if you are looking for a green nail polish. It is the true-est green I have found to date. The photos for the nails are below. They were taken by the windows, and there's conveniently some real plants in the background for comparison! =)

Scheduling

Scheduling. Will it be my savior for next term? I'm alright with doing everything I need to do when I'm home on co-op, but I seem to have a knack for destorying any attempts at keeping a sane schedule when I'm away at school. So, with an eye on the future and with my 20/20 hindsight of what happened during the last two years I was at school, I'm going to create a schedule that is hopefully flexible and encompasssing of all that I need to do.

Here's a list of needs and wants that I need to fit into my schedule.

1. 15 minutes to and from class
2. 2 hour of 'me' time a day (it's not excessive at all, because I'm throwing in my showering, teeth brushing....etc time in here)
3. 3 meals a day min.
4. class time.
5. laundry and house cleaning time each week
6. 9 hours of sleep a day (yes, 9 hours. I actually function best when I get 10 hours, and at 8 hours a night, I'm like a zombie.)

I will post what I come up with later. Wish me luck! =)

University of Waterloo's new logo

The new logo is truly...non-inspiring. I was just on the school's quest website, and there was the new logo, staring back at me unapologically for its boldness and plainness. For those who don't know or haven't seen it yet, go to the UWaterloo's main site and take a look at the top banner. Waterloo, I understand that you are trying to rebrand the school as new and innovative, but the new logo is truly not a true representation of our school. Although we are not an OLD university, we are still over fifty years old and an UNIVERSITY. Our new logo makes us look like...an arts college. I kid you not. It is in league with Centennial College's logo and marketing campaign. I assume being seen as an art college cannot be the goal of your campaign; afterall, we are known for math and engineering. The new logo speaks nothing of our heritage, our history, or our academic prowess. It is bland and uninpiring. Please change it to something that incorportates our traditions, we miss our rampant lions and touch of gold.

One small sign of resistance seems to be the website title icon. Teheehehee, it's still the old one with the shield. Did the IT support people forgot about it, the graphic designers still haven't come up with a new icon, or the IT support don't know how to change it? Either way, there it is, one last small remement of the University of Waterloo that I applied for and set my heart on attending.

Hot Chocolate Days

Today's one of those days that's made better by hot chocolate. It's snowing outside, not the fluffy soft snow, but the almost melted varity with a very strong wind kind. Work is well, work. Got hot chocolate from Tim Horten's, and no prize via roll up the rim. I wasn't expecting anything, so no disappointment. Although a new car would be nice...

Right, found a cool site, Great Canadian Rebates, via the blog Give My Five Bucks Back. I have yet to try out GCR, but of course I'll give a review on how it works once I try it out. Seems like a nifty concept. They offer a rebate on stuff bought thru their site at other online retailers. For example, if you were to buy something off Chapters online, instead of going directly to Chapters.ca, you go thru the GCR site and go to the Chapters site thru them. CGR earns a referral commission on your purchase, which they will then pass part of on to you. Sounds like a good deal to me. I mean, if I am going to buy something anyways, why not get some extra rebate on the side? =) If anyone has used it before, let me know how it goes! I will, of course, tell you how my experience with them goes.

Dear Sony pt 4

Oh my, I have a part 4 to my Dear Sony letter? Oh goodness.

Right, to my actual comment on the laptop. I've been getting stray electric shots from the USB ports Sony?! What the heck? I know it's winter and there's static electricity everywhere. But it has been consistent and pretty often. Why does the USB leak electricity?! What happened? I used to trust sony's quality and attention to detail. This is kind of really silly. It could have easily been avoided with a better case/better casing. I am so praying to every god out there that my cousin's laptop doesn't malfunction or anything stupid like that. I had to work pretty hard to convince her the superiority of Sony Vaios.

In other news, still relating to the laptops. I got a keyboard cover for both of them within days of getting the laptops and the keyboard cover for the 15 inch got here today. It's not very pretty (pink laptop with a different shade of pink for keyboard. I'm so sorry yuan yuan! If I find a prettier one, I'll send it your way. Actually, you can probably buy a prettier and cheaper one in China.), but for under five bucks, it does the trick of keeping out food, dust, and cat hair. The black keyboards REALLY show dirt well if you're wondering why I, of all people, would get a cover. I used to laugh at those people with a keyboard cover for their precious laptop, and now I'm one of them. Sony, look what you've made me become!

New Mouse!

I got home today......and there were two packages waiting for me! TWO! It was like Christmas, but better because I knew they were stuff I wanted! =)

I got two pairs of jeans from Gap. Black long and lean jeans. I'm really learning to dislike the cut. Maybe I'll return them. Yes, I bought two identical pairs of jeans. Because I'm desperate for black jeans like that. uh huh. I did however get them for about 35 bucks each, which is pretty decent price wise. Not amazing, but decent.

The other package was....A new trackball mouse! It was shipped directly from TigerDirect. It cost about fifty dollars, plus tax plus shipping. I actually don't know how much shipping was since Ben paid for it...maybe he'll leave a comment with the total price shipped to my door. So no, it's not a cheap mouse, but I was looking for something that would give my shoulder and wrist some rest since I am on the computer all day. I can really feel the strain on my wrist when I am doing CAD work, so I hope this mouse help with the wrist pain. Ever time I think of wrist pain and engineering, I think of my old high school science teacher, Mr. Mehic. He is a Waterloo Mechanical engineer, and he ended up getting surgery for carpal tunnel. So yeah, don't want to head down that particular path. I'm going to try my best to reduce injury and strain to my little poor wrist. :)

I got some pictures in case you wanted to see what it looked like. I'll probably do a review on it once I've used it for a while. But so far (it's plugged in and running already!) it seems very easy to use. No major learning curve. I would say the learning curve is smaller than changing from mouse to trackpad (like the thing on laptops). Very easy to get used to in my opinion. Okie, picture time. (now....how do I insert pictures?! oh the journey to html begins....)

(Oh, button with a picture!)

(Uploading takes a VERY long time during the 9pm internet rush hour.)

I am going to comment on my pictures BEFORE the picture. I usually have a dislike for captions that follows underneath a picture. So here goes my first post with pictures! Wahoo! Aren't we moving up in the technology world? =D

It's from Logitech. It is the Wireless Trackball M570.

When you first open it up....

New mouse's backside....

The mouse's innards. Note the little slot to store the USB receiver when not in use. Very cute and clever design.


Muhahahahaha! And the ball pops out! Don't worry, it is supposed to so you can clean it once in a while (like trackball mice, remember them?).

Pretty shiny blue ball..............


That's all for now. I'll give a review of the mouse once I've used it for a while.

Dear Sony pt 3

Alright, I've been consistantly using the sony laptops for over a month now. I've mainly been using the EB laptop, so please note my comments are in regards to the EB laptop. However, i suspect the EA is going to be very similar to the EB in every aspect. (Dear ThePurpleOne, you are welcome to surprise me and kick your sibling EB's ass).

First off, the speakers are horrendous on the thing. I know i mentioned it in my original post about the sony laptop and i thought maybe it'll improve with some usage. No. no improvement at all. I watched three movies on it this week, (from dvd if you're wondering) and was sorely disappointed. the speakers are really quiet and lack depth. The speakers on the CR laptop is definitely better. Maybe it's because the CR was marketed as a media laptop? Don't know, but I wish sony didn't cheap out on the EB and put in decent speakers instead. One of the movies I watched was Chicago, and I had to bring out my dell portable speakers to make it watchable on the laptop. Truly disappointing, especially considering the dell portable speakers are WORSE than the CR speakers, but still beat out the EB speakers. I'm almost tempted to keep the CR as my laptop when I go to school. The problems/faults the E series have are really piling up. However, I do need a laptop with a battery.....so the E series win for now. But seriously not impressed. Sony, you have disappointed me. Maybe next time I'll go for a Mac (*gasp!*).

Another thing to note, the dvd drive........not super sturdy. if you tilt the computer while it's running, you hear this horrible and scary scratching sound from the optical drive. I first noticed this when i was making backup cd's, but didn't think too much of it. but it is consistently doing that, so it's something worth watching out for.

The EB also heated up quite a bit while I was watching the movies. Not as badly as my CR does (if it did....wow. that's bad. i KNOW my CR has a cooling problem.) But still noticeable. I wonder if it will get worse with use. I hope not. I pray not actually, since one of them (the EB) is going to my cousin as a gift.

Alrighty then. Just wanted to say the speakers are crap on these new laptops and I'm very sad about that. If you're looking for a media laptop, unfortunately, please skip the EB and EA laptops. They are not going to meet your expectations.