My Gambling Problem

Before you all go and stage an intervention, I'd just like to point out that my gambling problem isn't that I'm addicted. My problem is that I never win- I'm sure that I can stop at anytime. As those who knew me during high school know, I love to make bets. I don't bet for money, since doing that makes people take it too seriously and it's just no fun that way, so I bet actions/promises instead. My current bets:

Bet with Sharon- Sharon getting married before she graduates (it was extended)
If I win: She has to play Starcraft with Amanda
If she wins: I have to wear a dress to the next anime marathon. (She'll probably graduate before me so I'll still be a member of wwwa [Weekly Watchers of Wonderful Anime] as long as it's still there.)

Bet with Jing- Me getting falling in love by the end of this year
If I win: Jing has to dress like a goth for one day (this day has to be a day that she has at least one class)
If she wins: I have to wear a dress and high heels (what is with people wanting to see me in a dress?!)

Bet with Jean- Jean getting a boyfriend by the end of this year
If I win: Jean has to cook me something Italian
If she wins: I have to go without games of any kind for 5 days

I figure that with Jing's bet, there is no way that I can lose. So maybe my problem will be resolved by the end of this year, and we can all see Jing as a goth in 2006. ^_^

Oh, and if you haven't heard about it yet, the Ting/Ting bet! I made a bet with Ting (girl) that I could get Ting (guy) to ask her out to Commerce Ball 2004. If I won, then she'd have to say yes and go with him- not that she'd refuse anyway. If I lost, then I'd have to tell a lecturer that I loved him, wear a minskirt and perform She Bangs William Hung style. Neither Ting ended up going to Comm Ball anyway. Thankfully, Ting (guy) let me out of the bet- since if he found out about the bet, it would be called off. It was pretty close though. I should have learnt my lesson from that, but I didn't and I think I'm going to keep betting until I win one. Is that an addiction?

I Found One!

Before I get too involved in WoW and forget that I have a life, I'll post about something amazing that has happened. I've found a new gay best friend! Well, he told me that he'll alternate between being my gay best friend and my non-gay best friend every few weeks. I don't mind that since now I have a new gay best friend- though he's currently in non-gay best friend mode.

The name of my new gay best friend is......


*drumroll and dramatic pause*




*and cough for effect*



... SAMAN!



I don't know how well he'll do with being gay, but it'll be interesting to watch. Though considering my past record, he'll probably get a girlfriend and I'll lose another gay best friend. Well, that'll mean that I indirectly helped someone else get a girlfriend and that's a good thing, right? Anyway, patch has finished downloading now. Mata, ne.

Tennis Stole My Daniel (oops)

I opened the newspaper to make sure that Stargate SG-1 was on today, and to my shock I see that tennis is on instead! I don't hate tennis, but when the last episode had someone die, I don't like being left hanging! I know that she's in the SG spin-off Atlantis, but how can that be if she's dead?

I just wanted that there as my personal protest to Channel 7's programming.

About the bet with Sharon, during lunch with Lucien and Tom, I had a spark of inspiration. Stefan, a guy that trains with Tom, made a bet with Tom that he'd have a mobile phone by the end of second year. I decided to make the same bet with him. If he loses, then he has to propose to Sharon. I don't know what I have to do if I lose though. His birthday is on the 4th of August, and Sharon's birthday is on the 13th. So if he gets a phone for his birthday, then he'll have to propose to Sharon and she'll be engaged. [Ting just pointed out a hole in my plan. She can refuse. Well, I have 7 months to make them good friends.]

It's day 13 into 2005 and I've already bought my first game. Well, it's sold out at the moment, but I've ordered a copy.

Overdue library books: 0 (v.g.)
Kanji learnt: 0/0 (well, Japanese hasn't started yet!)
Money spent on games: soon to be $89.00, and since it's an MMORPG, I'll be spending more each month(v.v.v.b.)
Time spent watching TV: 3 hours (v.v.b.- but Azumanga Daioh is just so funny!)
Time spent doing constructive stuff for community: 0
Time spent writing a script: 0

I am looking forward to playing World of Warcraft though, it looks like so much fun. It may be the cause of my failing digisys. I want to go a priest and an orc, but the orcs don't have the priest class. So the closest thing I could find was an orc shaman.

Oh, and about the word vomit guy (who I'll nickname Mark in honour of Mark Darcy. 'Word Vomit Guy' is a really bad name!). He's disappeared! I haven't seen him in ages. Very sad, because I usually see him at least once a week. I wonder what happened to him? He didn't mention going anywhere- not that he tells me his life story every time I see him. I wonder what happened. Maybe he found out that there's a gold mine under Brunswick, and the council has been hiding it all this time. In order to stop him from talking, they tried to bribe him, but it didn't work, so they kidnapped him. Oh no! What should I do? Heh, maybe I should stop making up weird scenarios.

EDIT (10th April 2005)I just realised that I posted the same thing twice. Oops. I've delete the first post but here's Wayland's comment from the bottom of that:


WOW! No pun intended ;).ANYWAY (those who didn't get the above joke can ask me). I want to play World of Warcraft but I fear I won't get enough time to play...so I;m not getting it...but it looks so good...I spent a day or two reading up on it...ah well...Wayland out.
By Wayland, at 8:36 PM, January 19, 2005

Welcoming Back Summer Fun

I mentioned a while ago that I was going to fail Electrical Circuits and have to do it over the Summer Semester. Well, thankfully, I passed it, but I decided to do Digital Systems 1 over Summer Semester so that I could do psychology and philosophy and decide which I want to major in. My first class was on Tuesday, wasn't as bad as I expected. It was held in the same theatre as Electrical Circuits, I thought that was a really bad sign, but it was pretty interesting. I'm going to go into some weird stuff now...

Binary numbers- I'm sure you've all heard of binary numbers (you know, there are only 10 types of people in the world- those who know binary, and those who don't). Well, did you know a shortcut to convert decimal to binary is this division thing?

Take the decimal number 57:

57/2 = 28 remainder 1
28/2 = 14 remainder 0
14/2 = 7 remainder 0
7/2 = 3 remainder 1
3/2 = 1 remainder 1
1/2 = 0 remainder 1

And so you take the remainders, starting from the bottom 111001 to get the number 57 in decimal. Cool, huh? And that works with any base, you just divide with the new base instead of 2.

And if you wanted to convert from binary to octal (base eight), then you just group them into groups of three:

(using decimal 57 again)

111 001 (in binary)

111 in binary codes for 7
001 in binary codes for 1

so 57 (decimal) = 71 in octal.

And, if you were really demented, or really loved numbers, you could convert from binary into hexadecimal (base 16- has numbers 0 through to 9, and then A = 10, B= 11 up to F=15)! Just like for octal, only you group them into groups of four.

(using decimal 57 again)

0011 1001 (in binary-added two 0's to make groups even)

0011 in binary codes for 3
1001 in binary codes for 9

So 57 (decimal) = 39 in hex. 1111 1111

[Oh, and just to illustrate the letter thing, 15 in dec = F in hex. 16 in dec = 10 in hex. 255 in dec = FF in hex.]

But wait, there's still more! There's BCD (binary coded decimal). Where instead of converting the whole number to binary, you code each individual digit.

So 57 becomes 0101 0111.


Well, that's it for number systems. I have to admit though, that even though I wrote this kinda sarcastically, I'm actually interested in this subject! I'm still finding it hard to stay awake in the lectures, but that's mostly due to the fact that it's in the morning.

I think there was something that I was going to write about, but I forgot what it is. Oh, I finally checked out the engineering library. It's scary in there, not anywhere near as friendly as the Rowden White. I picked up a few books and looked inside, and there were so many acronyms that I doubt there were any real words in there! They also happen to have old copies of The Engineer, which is a magazine for engineers. I thought it'd have articles about how many pens to have in your pocket, and what to eat if you want to code all night, but it looked pretty normal.

Well, for those of you who passed the boring number stuff and the engineering library stuff, I managed to remember what I was going to post about, other than Summer semester. You know how when you have a crush on someone, you get this weird feeling whenever they're around? Well, I got that feeling today, and it was when I saw someone that I didn't expect to see. So I was kinda in shock for a moment and speechless, so that when he started talking to me I panicked. And Bridget Jones style word vomit came out. I think she would have been proud. I also found out that he's graduating next year - well, if he passes everything this year, so after this year, I won't see him! T.T That should be reason enough to talk to him, right? But I don't know him that well, and it feels weird. Oh well, maybe something strange will happen during this year, it has only just begun after all.

How to Get A Guy In Eight Months?

I haven't made a bet in a while. I haven't won a bet in an even longer while. Oh, and hope everyone has a safe and happy new year! Anyway, I've made a bet with Sharon. She commented that Nick's, guy that we work with, brother got married at the age of 20 and that it's early. i was bored, she was bored, so we decided to make a bet. I bet that she would be married, or at least engaged, at the age of 20. The things that I have to do if I lose don't look too good:

-Go clubbing
-Wear a dress to the next anime marathon
-Run to uni and back-to home, I mean (being a horribly unfit nerd, I'd probably die)
-Ask Tom out on a date
-Dance somewhere along Sydney Rd.
-Hug Salem (one of the managers at Safeway- he can be very creepy at times)
-Be Amanda's slave for a day (Amanda is my seven-year-old sister)
-Spend an hour on the phone with Victor (Victor is Sharon's younger brother; phone conversations with him mostly consist of, "Hi Anna" repeated over and over)
-Cook for the next party that I have
-Listen to Elvis all night (all night being from dusk 'til dawn)

I don't have to do all of those things, but Graham is going to choose one of them at random, and that'll be thing thing I have to do if I lose.

If I win, however, Sharon has to do one of these things-also chosen at random by Graham:

-Sing at her wedding
-Play Starcraft against Amanda
-Choose one language, and speak it for the whole day
-Go and watch a play
-Do some tabletop dancing at her wedding (courtesy of Wayland)
-Do a Geroge of the Jungle type call (courtesy of Jing-I personally want to see her to this! ^_^)
-Walk around the city with a sign saying, "I'm married now- you missed out, buddy" for an hour -Dress up as a teddy bear
-Go shopping for clothes for 6 hours, but don't actually buy anything
-Tell everyone that Michael Shanks is the hottest guy in the world!