Distemper

I guess I'll just throw in a post with some links to my user-created Sporcle quizzes. I've placed a badge linking to the site in the Links section. In short, Sporcle is a site with a bunch of fun trivia quizzes on many topics. Popular ones include:
Countries of the World
NFL Teams
The Simpsons Characters
Periodic Table
Commonest English Words

They enabled the creation of user-made quizzes sometime around September last year. It doesn't have the full capabilities as some published quizzes, but a lot of pretty impressive and creative quizzes have already been made thus far by various users. Ones that are popular enough or really novel may get published by Sporcle as an official quiz.

I am already rather humbled that any of my quizzes managed to garner some level of popularity, but I'm not sure if any of them will be published. The most well-accepted ones so far are:

Shape-Describing Words
How would you describe in a single word something shaped like a cross, or a star? This quiz might help... Definite plus if you know some Latin or Greek vocab, but there are a lot of words whose meanings can easily be inferred.

Look-Alikes: Hidden Objects [pic]
I took a picture from the book Look-Alikes by Joan Steiner (amazingly creative, I read it when I was younger and loved it) and asked you to identify all the everyday objects Steiner used to create the picture. She uses objects in a way such that they "look alike" to something else, such as using slices of bread to create a sidewalk or a lemon juicer to look like a spinning carnival ride, all rather convincingly.

Pokémon Trainer Classes (Gen I)
Pokémon Trainer Classes (Gen II)
Hopefully if you played Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow back in the day, or even the Gold/Silver/Crystal versions, this might give you a nice nostalgic blast. Can you remember all those annoying trainers from the game who stop you in your tracks, walk up to you to say something completely non-sequitur, and then challenge you to Pokémon battles?

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Here are also some of my other quizzes. There is a bias on Pokemon-based quizzes since those were mostly the ones I started making first before branching out to other topics. I do have some more pending release, like "Accidental Inventions/Discoveries" which I'll release soon...

Classical Mythology Lovers
Identify the lovers from famous classical mythology couples. For example, the woman whose face "launched a thousand ships"...?

Common Drug Delivery Forms
You'll find examples of all of these around the local pharmacy or hospital somewhere. What common methods exist to deliver medicine/drugs into the body?

Pocky & Pretz Flavors
If only I was able to try all of these flavours...Mmm Pocky.

Pokémon by Cry I
Pokémon by Cry II
This was an interesting idea to put together. Can you identify the Pokémon based on the sound they make in the game? Too bad it's not what they say in the anime, since that would make the quiz rather easy. ;)

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And now, all the really niche quizzes/rest of the many Pokémon quizzes.

Non-Evolving Pokémon
These Pokémon defy the laws of evolution. Then again, so do the ones that do evolve since individuals do not evolve. Oh well.

Pokémon Supporting Characters (Game)
No single quiz would be able to encompass all those supporting characters from the anime, so I compromised with supporting characters from the games.

Pokémon Without Footprints
Pokémon by Footprint
Ever wondered what it's like to be a Pokémon forensic podiatrist? ...Me neither. Yet these quizzes exist!

Foreign Pokémon Names
It seems English Charmanders say "Charmander!" while French Charmanders say "Salamèche!". Weird.

Digimon Partners (anime)
Strange that all the world-dominating digital supervillains always seem to show up at Japan first.

Word Disassociation Lyrics
This quiz is flouncy, panicky redundant.

D-d-d-d-d-d-d-d-duel

I received the deck of Hanafuda cards from Club Nintendo, which are a type of Japanese playing cards. The cards we're used to has numbered and face cards (13 total) divided via four suits. The hanafuda cards are instead separated via the twelve months instead of numbers and face cards, with each month represented by a certain type of plant, and also containing four cards.

However, the four cards of each month aren't just separated into one of four suits, but into a more complicated configuration. Some of the months are unique from the others. Each month has at least one Special card, which features another element like an animal. The Nintendo deck slightly redesigned most of the Special cards to feature Nintendo characters. Pretty nifty. :)

The Special cards from the hanafuda deck. Some months have more than one Special card so there are more than 12 in total.

There are also Ribbon cards which have a ribbon shown in the picture. Of these there are red, purple, and poetry ribbons. The poetry ribbons look like red ribbons but have writing on it. (see the Jan-Mar cards) The remaining cards are considered Normal cards.

The full deck of Club Nintendo's hanafuda deck. The left column from top to bottom is Jan-Jun, the right column is Jul-Dec.
January: Pine [Matsu (松)]
February: Plum Blossom [Ume (梅)]
March: Cherry Blossom [Sakura (桜)]
April: Wisteria [Fuji (藤)]
May: Iris [Ayame (菖蒲)]
June: Peony [Botan (牡丹)]
July: Bush Clover [Hagi (萩)]
August: Chinese silver grass [Susuki (薄)] (Nintendo has it as Pampas grass)
September: Chrysanthemum [Kiku (菊)]
October: Maple [Momiji (紅葉)]
November: Willow [Yanagi (柳)]
December: Paulownia [Kiri (桐)]



Case the hanafuda cards came in.

They do look much nicer than regular playing cards, and it requires you to familiarize with the deck to remember which cards belong to which month. I'm still trying to learn the rules of the game Koi-Koi so I might be able to get someone to play these cards with. :D

"I'll add you to my travel partner list."

Halfway mark! Unfortunately this semester is much busier than the last, and I'm already worried about some of these courses from the first lecture. I'm also going to the lab in the mornings now so I'm actually taking the GO train. Not used to waking up so early again =_= However, it still feels better at the end of the day when compared to staying at the lab after classes until late. Hopefully my PI will give me a break this semester due to the workload and restricted lab resources...

This Christmas was such a needed break from everything. I tried to indulge in as much gaming as I could to clear some of the backlog before spring semester presents itself. Managed to get some Ogre Battle 64, Ouendan 2, Pokemon Rumble, Band Hero, and Nostalgia. Band Hero's subdued difficuly level is pretty good for GH/RB noobs like me who can only last on Hard difficulty, maybe eke out a few of the easier songs on Expert. Plus the songlist is less boring. Of course, I'm lucky the game supports the RB drum which is the one I had. Somehow I think the RB drums feel a lot better to play on compared to the GH drums.

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New Year's wasn't spent anywhere special, but was enjoyable nonetheless. Have a great 2010, a year which we can finally pronounce again as two two-digit numbers!

First thing eaten in 2010: Turtles chocolate (again, seems to be a theme)
First thing drunk in 2010: Some Chardonnay wine from Pelee Winery
First thing played with in 2010: Band Hero (I didn't manage to get drunk, probably would have been more fun that way)
First thing resumed in 2010 after celebrations: UTAMA foruming, I think

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Just today I finally found a frame for the piece of artwork I got many years ago from Epcot in Florida's Disney World. I think it's called Oriental Letter Art, where you can have someone's name or a message written out in fancy oriental characters which consist of various symbolic elements. They paint using this cool flat-tipped sponge and bright watercolours. I'm pretty sure this purchase was fueled by the tourist's souvenir frenzy but I don't mind having it around. They simply ask you for your name, then you go walk around the park while they paint your name and you can come back to see how it turned out later.

I thought the stand was personally run by the artist herself, but it turns out they have a website where you can even order art online.



There's the design. (Click for larger image) According to the brochure they handed out, the symbols mean:

Sun: hope, faith, and love

Dragonfly: dream

Bird: peace

Ship: perspective (K)

Rainbow: promise, love, hope, and peace

Crane: longevity and noble mindedness (E)

Cactus: patience and hope (I)

Mountain: perseverence and stoicism

Dragon: honour, credit, bravery and pride

I definitely like the birds and the mountain, and I like the Japanese-y vibe of the dragon. My sister actually got one of these done even longer back when we visited Victoria, BC. Her name sports other symbols like dolphins, lighthouse, shrimp (a rather ornate one at that), and some tangle of flowers which I think are orchids. Unfortunately she lost the symbol sheet so we can't know for sure what dolphins are supposed to stand for.

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I'm dismayed to find that BPT is still down for the count. In the meantime I've assembled a few quizzes on Sporcle, and I'm still trying to get some iSketch in whenever possible.

Clairgustance

Injecting lab rats everyday is more stressful than I thought it would be, although the source of the stress is less the actual working with the animals and more the other aspects of the lab. Strange inconsistent equipment and shortage of testing chambers create time constraints which result in me having to wait for everyone else to finish before I can use them. The actual testing session only takes an hour, but I don't get to leave until 6pm or later because I have to wait for the equipment to become available. Juggling 2-3 different experiments at the same time, although each not that bad on their own, gets really taxing after a while. I seriously better get a break next semester seeing as I've pretty much overclocked the hours I need to spend at the lab per week.

In other news, I decided to quickly skim through all the files of Pokemon I've played before and see who my main team members were and if the way I name my team has changed at all. Some of these were on the R4 that I started just to get a certain version exclusive or whatnot. Sadly I found that my file on the Pokemon Yellow cartridge apparently got corrupted and the data was gone.
:(

So I guess, like the meme goes, let me show you them:

Blue - Dude

Charming - Charizard

Flitter - Butterfree

QT - Lapras

Thunder - Pikachu

Puffy - Pidgeot

Silver - Ellix

Cinder - Quilava

Gaiety - Eevee

Whoopah - Quagsire

Fleecy - Flaaffy

Lufia - Lugia

Sapphire - Kev (M)

Gex - Sceptile (M)

Torrent - Kyogre

Blitz - Manetric (F)

Gaiety - Latias (F)

Bahamut - Salamence (M)

Ruby - Gingly (M)

Atash - Blaziken (M)

Masa - Flygon (M)

Jasper - Starmie

Ikshu - Gardevoir (F)

Raiden - Manetric (M)

FireRed - Gingly (M)

Piers - Blastoise (M)

Saxon - Nidoking (M)

Flutter - Butterfree (M)

Zhong - Arcanine (M)

Elysia - Raichu (F)

Tien - Dragonite (M)

Diamond - Ellix (M)

Fervis - Infernape (M)

Ethos - Azelf

Zing - Luxray (F)

Brumey - Empoleon (M)

Larch - Torterra (M)

Tatsuo - Dragonite (M)

Pearl - Exia (F)

Sunny - Infernape (M)

Sai - Scizor (M)

Tesla - Jolteon (F)

Cavall - Lucario (M)

Eddy - Blastoise (M)

Loren - Alakazam (M)

Zoba - Garchomp (M)

Platinum - Exill (M)

Wolder - Torterra (M)

Kenzo - Lucario (M)

Wyvern - Salamence (M)

Arroya - Blastoise (F)

Zener - Espeon (M)

HeartGold - Xei (M)

Tomaw - Feraligatr (M)

Qi - Alakazam (M)

Amber - Ampharos (F)

Shiro - Dragonite (M)

Mushi - Scizor (M)

Agni - Arcanine (M)

EDIT: (May 6, 2010) Update~

SoulSilver - Ellix (M)

Jasper - Typhlosion (M)

Liodora - Ampharos (F)

Lazuri - Vaporeon (M)

Machis - Sceptile (M)

Kyan - Metagross

Uluru - Flygon (M)

EDIT: (May 30, 2012) Update~

White - Ellix (M)

Knick - Haxorus (M)

Li - Espeon (M)

Guilo - Blastoise (M)

Fowler - Archeops (M)

Castor - Chandelure (M)

Meira - Jolteon (F)

Rhizo - Krookodile (M)

Minori - Serperior (F)

Katusdo - Emboar (M)

Ibashi - Samurott (M)

Why

Escarpment

Another photo dump of the nice overnight trip to Niagara Falls shortly before school started. I was happy that I got to go somewhere this summer, and it was pretty fun and at a nice pace for once. Stayed at the Embassy Suites hotel and had dinner at The Keg in the hotel, which surprisingly was also the site of the breakfast morning buffet. Hot breakfast to-order + The Keg seating = very nice. Some generic falls pictures out of the way first:

The Falls

View from Embassy Suites hotel room


American Falls


Horseshoe Falls


Maid of the Mist


Niagara Scow (center right) - the old ship that's now stuck upstream of the Horseshoe Falls


View of some hotels on Canadian side - Embassy Suites at center left


Horseshoe Falls as seen from the Maid of the Mist

Bird Kingdom


Free-Flying Aviary - it's like the Toronto Zoo pavilions where you get to walk around inside where the birds are flying, and there were surprisingly a lot of birds there.






Bearded Dragons and Turtle - Bird Kingdom also had a reptile section where they had a LOT of large snakes and lizards.

Niagara Falls Botanical Gardens



Castor Oil Plant


Tomato Garden - they had a large vegetable garden with squashes, pumpkins, cabbages, rhubarb, carrots, hot peppers and such growing at the time.


Lantana Camara - actually an extremely invasive species and known as a "noxious weed".

Butterfly Conservatory - Part of the Botanical Gardens



Owl Butterfly - seen from the top - the namesake owl eye pattern is seen when the wings are closed up










Butterfree used Gust!

No UPS, you are the demons.

The Logitech mouse I was using ended up malfunctioning, but Logitech gladly offered to replace it as the mouse came with a 3 year warranty. The e-mail exchange with their service rep was short and brief. One week later, they shipped it off to my address via UPS Ground and said I would not need to send anything back. Sounds good to me, thanks Logitech.

Unfortunately, UPS has had extreme difficulty in finding where I live. In fact, it seems they have trouble noticing that I'm not actually living in the US. I've quadruple-checked that Logitech had delivered to the right address, and nothing is wrong with it. Not really sure what is up with UPS. The supposedly one-week delivery is now an indefinite-week delivery...

I admit it is kind of fun to track the package each day too see what kind of antics UPS is up to.

MEMPHIS, TN, US

8/18/2009
8:20pm ORIGIN SCAN
9:51pm BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED
11:43pm DEPARTURE SCAN

NASHVILLE, TN, US

8/19/2009
4:41am ARRIVAL SCAN
8:04am DEPARTURE SCAN

CINCINNATI, OH, US

8/19/2009
1:26pm ARRIVAL SCAN
3:06pm DEPARTURE SCAN

MAUMEE, OH, US

8/19/2009
7:03pm ARRIVAL SCAN

8/20/2009
9:16pm THE RECEIVER HAD NO INVOICE ON FILE AND REFUSED THIS DELIVERY / RETURNED TO SHIPPER

NASHVILLE, TN, US

8/21/2009
10:45pm DEPARTURE SCAN

MEMPHIS, TN, US

8/22/2009
2:30am ARRIVAL SCAN

8/24/2009
6:18am OUT FOR DELIVERY
2:38pm THE RECEIVER'S LOCATION WAS CLOSED ON THE 1ST DELIVERY ATTEMPT. A 2ND DELIVERY ATTEMPT WILL BE MADE

8/25/2009
1:35pm THE PACKAGE WAS LEFT IN A UPS FACILITY / DELIVERY RESCHEDULED
10:37pm THE COMMERCIAL INVOICE IS MISSING AND IS REQUIRED FOR EXPORT

8/26/2009
9:18pm THE COMMERCIAL INVOICE IS MISSING AND IS REQUIRED FOR EXPORT / RELEASED BY CLEARING AGENCY. NOW IN-TRANSIT FOR DELIVERY

8/27/2009
12:31am DEPARTURE SCAN

NASHVILLE, TN, US

8/27/2009
4:22am ARRIVAL SCAN
8:24am DEPARTURE SCAN

CINCINNATI, OH, US

8/27/2009
1:43pm ARRIVAL SCAN
1:49pm DEPARTURE SCAN

MAUMEE, OH, US

8/27/2009
5:37pm ARRIVAL SCAN

8/28/2009
1:02am DEPARTURE SCAN

WINDSOR, ON, CA

8/28/2009
8:54am ARRIVAL SCAN
9:32am IMPORT SCAN

TO BE CONTINUED...?

It just gets sadder with each day...

Also suspiciously, the "Return to:" address is listed as OLIVE BRANCH, MS, US on the UPS site. The package has yet to make it over to Mississippi, but I wouldn't be surprised if it eventually made a trip there too.

EDIT: I think they've done it. It took a second try and a lot of wasted time backtracking, but I think it's going to make it.