Got My Ring

There is still a bit over a month left until I’m finished with this school term and my undergraduate career, and I have to wait until June to get my degree, but today I (along with many other graduating engineering students) took a step towards my graduation and got my Iron Ring. For those who don’t know, the Iron Ring is a tradition for Canadian engineers and it comes with accepting an “obligation” to do good work as engineers. It’s not required for graduation or professional practice, but most of us get it because it is a tradition and it’s something to show for (other than our degrees).

The ceremony for taking the obligation and getting the ring was a formal occasion. Since it’s supposed to be “private”, I’m not going to reveal any details about what went on. Instead, below is a picture of me wearing my new ring. For a big guy, my hands are kind of girly, but my hand seems wider and less feminine in this photo :lol: .

TJ's Iron Ring

Movie Review: “Avatar” (2009)

I finally saw Avatar. Actually, I saw Avatar about four weeks ago, but didn’t get around to writing about it until today. I actually wanted to see it in January, but I wanted to see it in IMAX 3D and the theaters were packed back then. As almost all of you probably know, Avatar is James Cameron’s latest mega-budget blockbuster that is now the highest grossing film of all time. This post is just a collection of my thoughts on the film, so it’s not really a movie review per se, but I’ll put it in my review category for organization’s sake.

Avatar Movie Poster

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2010 Winter Olympics Wrap-up

Canada!!!

The 2010 Vancouver Winter Games is finally coming to a close after two weeks of world-class competition. Despite the shaky start with the protests and the unfortunate death of the Georgian luger, plus the persistent weather problems (it was more like the Spring Olympics), it’s been a good Olympics games. Canada has done a good job as a host and also in the games. We didn’t exactly “own the podium” as the Americans and Germans have more medals in total, but Canada did win more gold medals than any other country this time. Canada’s 14 gold medals set the record for most gold medals won during a single Winter Olympics by any country. The total haul of 26 medals is also Canada’s best showing at any Olympics, summer or winter. Canada really came on strong during the last few days, capping it all off with a dramatic 3-2 overtime win over the USA in men’s hockey. Congratulations Canada!

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Olympic Break and School Term Impressions

I turned this website into a blog a month and a half ago in order to encourage myself to write more, but that hasn’t worked out so well. Anyways, for next two weeks, I’ll be spending nearly all my time at home. This is because of the Winter Olympics, which prompted my university to extend our usual one week break to two weeks. The break is by no means vacation though, since I have three projects and a couple of assignments to work on. Still, not having to commute to school and go to class should free up some time for me to watch the Winter Olympics… on TV. Having lived in Canada for so long, of course I’m rooting for the Canadian team, and also the Chinese team as well since I’m Chinese. I certainly hope Canada’s “Own the Podium” program will produce great results, but if that doesn’t work out, many of us Canadians will probably be happy if Canada wins the men’s hockey gold. GO CANADA!

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2009 Fall Term in Review

I finally received the marks to all of my courses in the past term, so it’s time for me to write another term review post. I used to write these posts back on my *old* personal blog which eventually transformed into an anime/manga blog. Since this site is now my personal blog, I’ll be writing these kind of posts here instead. As always, below is a list of courses I took, my mark for each course, and what I thought of each of them.

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Review: Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows

I don’t watch anime films very often, but once in a while something will catch my attention. This time it’s Eureka Seven: Pocket Full of Rainbows, which is of course the film adaptation to Bones’ much beloved anime series about sky-surfing mecha and teenage romance. I was looking forward to this movie given how enjoyable the Eureka Seven anime series was, but unfortunately Pocket Full of Rainbows turned out to be a disappointment.

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Review: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

Since most ongoing anime series took a break, I thought this would be a good time to change things up a bit and write an anime movie review. This review is for The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, a film that has received glowing praise (and some even think it’s the best anime movie ever). Given that reputation, I had to see the film myself, and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time turned out to be a very enjoyable and charming movie.

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Umineko no Naku Koro ni – Final Thoughts

It’s the end of another anime season, and one of the series that concluded this season is Umineko no Naku Koro ni. It’s a good thing that I gave up on writing organized, paragraph-form reviews, since I have trouble organizing my thoughts for Umineko. I’m not really what to say about Umineko other than that it didn’t suck nor did it impress. Anyways, here is my random list of thoughts about the series.
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Nintendo Wii and Wii Sports – Two Month Impressions

Having not bought a video game console for more than seven years, my family finally caved in and bought a Nintendo Wii two months ago. Originally it was my mother who wanted the Wii because of the good things she heard about it, but as expected I ended up being the one who uses it the most. We only have the console and Wii Sports for now, and here are my impressions after playing for two months.

Nintendo Wii

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