Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The Update that was LONG overdue...

Hard to believe but so many things I should have written is delayed till this moment.

Just finished my last of the 50 vocab drill over for the GRE. Have to say, it's insane and hard to manage over the past almost 30 days. Probably increased my vocabularies by at least 1000~2000. However, it's merely on the basis of recognition but not recall or actual usage. To be honest, many of the thing that I have picked up from the book is quite archaic. Sad to say but it is probably more useful for a classic major than for a science major like me. However, nevertheless, I see this as a rare opportunity for me to improve and be new.

So... here are the things I noted down in Todoist that I should have written here before

UWO Bookstore
Have to say that place is a blackhole for money. Just about a few weeks back, was throwing a small private birthday party for one of my friend was having. However, things was quite rushed and I forgot to buy her a card (actually, just remembered the day before reminded by another friend.) So I went in and randomly picked a card and didn't realized the price until checking out. The price tag was actually around $4 for an average card....   O_o feel violated lol. Not just that, the bookstore actually carry about almost 100% margin on some of the books. Can you believe that? I'm not talking about items that cost like $1 but books like this:

BOOKSTORE PRICE:
PHI2020 (002 UW) - Philosophy 2020   Instructor: David Johnston
Logic Book + Cd (Required)
ISBN: 0072944013
Author: Bergmann    Publisher: Mcgraw
On Hand: 155    On Order: 0
Price: $110.70

ECAMPUS PRICE:

Edition: 4th
Author(s): BERGMANN M
ISBN10:  0072944013
ISBN13:  9780072944013
Format:  Hardcover
Pub. Date:  9/23/2003
Publisher(s): McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
New Price  $40.51

I mean, for anyone with a bit rudimentary skill in math, you can probably figure out that the profit margin is roughly 150%! WTF? This is totally ripoff and I have to say that's  rather ridiculous. I am going to start boycotting the bookstore from this moment on if possible and will try to only buy the custom booklet from them if possible.

On the iPhone front, I have to rent a few more complains lol.
About the disappearance and the return of ShowTimes and BoxOffice. Both were excellent apps on app store.  They both disappeared for a while and then returned.  Boxoffice is pretty well known. However, its ability to pull data off London movie theater is very limited. In fact, it only pulls about 4~5 theaters. While ShowTime has much more offer and selections. It even has Western Film, which is a BIG plus. I miss the  App "Tomatoes" though. No one seem to notice it though. It's this little app that pull the tomato ratings of any movies you can search.... sigh. The other apps can only pull the movies that are currenntly in one of the theaters. Sad now... >_<

However, the appearance of the first ever Wiki app for iPhone was invented and damn, it's the first app i bought from app store at $1.  Best dollar spent ever.

Oh... I FINALLY got the Ivyskin CASE for the iPhone 3G. It is more than  a month late!!! Can you believe that? I'll attach a few shots now. You can be the judge. It's not bad... but the reflect screen sandwith  between the case and the actually iPhone is a bit too thick and caused the black case to be bulging out a bit... sigh. Oh well, it's very nice for the back of my white iPhone 3G. It's looking solid. In fact, if you look carefully about the back of the case you can probably notice the tiny places where the case made very tight contact with the actually phone itself. Quite cozy there I imagine. I was gonna go for the reflective front casing but unfortunately, that did't happen and I now have this reinforced look of black instead. Love the transparent back though. Bottom line: their case quality is pretty solid (except for the minor unfitting near the button and near the top speaker. About 1mm out with both the top and the bottom edge.) Hardly noticable but can be felt via touch but doesn't affect anything. However, their service is terrible. Charged me the day I ordered and the goods arrived more than a month later and no appology or what so ever is offered. Man, the least they can do is to charge the plastic after the good is shipped. -_-+

Some more random thoughts that came these days:

I finally learned to look at a 3D graph using parellel vision. This sounds easy to most people and they probably think it's easy. However, the fact is that actually, I have absolutely no problem doing 3D cross vision puzzles but the parallel vision where you have to focus as though you are looking really far far away was a nightmarish thing for me to do... hehe. Happy. One more thing learned in life haha  XD.

Final thought about Shershank redemption which I finished listening to a while back... What I really like about the book is how precise they offer the potential explaination regarding how it is to be "institutionalized" after being in a confinement for a LONG time. I never understood just how that is possible. I never fully appreciate the word "institutionalized". I mean, that kind of mindset and the fear of all the new things out side that drive new releases to commit crimes again just to get back inside and get back their normal life is quite amazing... Now I see that people mean  when they say that they got screwed over by the state... WOW... how sad.... sigh. I'd hate to be in their shoes.... very very much.

Anyway, celebrating my third mirror blog site up. HOORAY! Time to get some rest....  zzzzz

No comments: