February 19th, 2009 by AT16
I am a new driver, and that implies that my driving is not perfect. My driving is still too F1 inspired, since I cannot properly drive (perfectly) I don’t feel right criticizing other drivers about their driving. What I posted last month was just my observations. However this month ( sorry for the delay in posts) I would like to make a suggestion. It is that all drivers should under the renewal of their license (every 5 years like the current), and upon renewal one must take the G2 exit road test over again to prove that one is fit to drive. In addition, every time a person is charged with a traffic violation, they must take a defensive driving course. Though this may be a hassle, it would encourage people to regard the law because they need to uphold their good driving in order to keep their license, and also improve the general public driving skill. However I will not write any letters to the MTO until some of my readers support my idea. I will consider any comment that shows sufficient reason, and make my decision upon that. Now, discuss if you please.
-AT16
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January 18th, 2009 by AT16
On my first day of getting a license I encountered many deficiencies the public’s overall driving skill. I encountered a woman in a Range Rover (shudder) that tailgated me for over a kilometre. A man in a 350Z with a very hyperactive right foot and no care for pavement marking as he cut over 3 of the the 404’s lanes without signals (which I did not drive on, but was a passenger), and paying no attention to the solid lines on the ground. A cell phone chatting (now illegal) woman who drove at 140km/h on snow/ice on the paved shoulder of the 401(again which I did not drive on, but was a passenger), and almost ruined her gold and under-cared for Mercedes Benz C class, by almost smashing into the side barrier. And lastly a man with no patience for waiting for me to take a right, there was no clearance to make a safe turn, though he thought his horn would remedy that.
I can only say that my trust in other drivers is very shaken and I hope that I do not turn into one of these people. Hoping to learn defensive driving, I hope I can avoid these problems.
Telling it like it is,
- AT16
Posted in Automobiles | 1 Comment »
January 9th, 2009 by AT16
Well I’m in the new year so I think my school -Richmond Hill High School- should use a new version of William Tell Overture to get the students going in the morning. See Below.
Since I’m a drummer, I would just love hearing this in the morning right before music class. It’s like inspiration right before school.
The video is here on youtube.
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December 25th, 2008 by AT16
Hey all! I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year. I just can’t wait for 2009, it’s just like… newer. So many new things are gonna happen, like the new Fast and Furious Movie! And hopefully 2009 brings out some cool cars too! Anyways posts will resume as regularly as they can after the New Year has come in. Again HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND BRING ON 2009! Now for some more coffee. OFF TO STARBUCKS!
Wishing you all a happy holidays/new year ,
- AT16
Posted in General | No Comments »
December 21st, 2008 by AT16
Always shoot for the brightest star; even if you miss you’ll still be among them. This was a quote I heard from a person I know, the person in specific does not matter. What that person said is.
Shoot for the brightest star? What does that mean? Man has always looked at the stars for inspiration, whether it was finding their way home or trying to land on the Moon. We as a race have always had an affinity for the stars. When I say the brightest star I mean it as the brightest star is the most perfect. We as infants are nature’s attempts to create a perfect being. While you may say that perfection is unattainable, however we all aim to be perfect in one aspect of our lives. We see that in our jobs, a math teacher aims to teach a class where no one makes a mistake. An engineer aims to create the perfect machine, by using his knowledge. You see our attempts at perfection surround us, even when it does not seem so.
As we try to attain perfection we may achieve it or not, that depends on your drive. I would like to share a story of my friend’s own attempts at ‘perfection’.
Last summer I entered a local mountain bike race, as many heats went ahead we all tried to beat the lead lap time of 2 minutes 4.2 seconds. My heat went ahead and I finished a respectable 2 minutes and 8.02 seconds, I moved on to the finals. As many people went ahead, I saw no one beat the 2:04.2 time. I said to myself over and over again I’m gonna beat that, I’m gonna beat that. My turn came; as I lined up on the starting line I imagined getting that impossible 1:50 lap time. As the whistle blew I worked my legs and my gears furiously attempting to get up to speed. The rest of the track I spent trying to perfect each corner, and never use my brakes. I was completely focused on the apexes of the corners, and pedalling as hard as I could to keep my speed up. I hammered the pedals as hard as I could and my mind completely set on the 1:50 lap time, I didn’t care for the brakes and safety I just wanted that time. With the finish line in sight, I pushed the pedals with so much force; I felt the wheels losing traction as I accelerated hard for the finish. I crossed the line and ripped my brakes. My legs feeling like jelly and my body aching for rest, I made my way to the official’s table. After what seemed an eternity I got my time, the card said a clean time of 2:00.6 minutes. I jumped up and down in happiness; even though my original goal was not reached I still beat the 2:04.2. Even though my time was beat thrice by other riders, I didn’t really care. I had achieved as close to perfection as I could that day.
You see when you reach for an unattainable goal, you push yourself father than you ever would with a hard but attainable goal. Your body and mind awaken to the challenge and I think the harder the challenge the harder we work. Why can’t we do this with all of our goals? There is no reason not to. So for everything you do, every challenge you take. Set an outrageous goal, see how far you get. When you aim for the brightest star, you might just hit another star; not quite as bright but it’s still a darn bright star.
- AT16
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December 18th, 2008 by AT16
Sorry for the lack of posts for about a month. However this time I bring some bad news.
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October 21st, 2008 by AT16
A new rant for all!
You walk in to you local EB Games and watch a person playing a Halo 3 demo,
the person who just walked in comes up beside you and watches, next he blurts out: “Look at those graphics, sure beats the crap out of the Wii.” If I was the first guy, I would want to either turn around and knock him out, or start the debate of Graphics vs. Game-play.
Many people including myself praise “Crysis” for being so realistic, and visually appeasing. However, because of this reason certain people (not including myself) automatically think the game is great for it’s great visuals. An example would be the PS3 vs. the N64. Many games on the PS3 look amazing, yet most of the games that look amazing fail to immerse me in their game-play as much as the prehistoric N64 game “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” which relatively bit the dust in terms of graphics. Specifically “Lair” for the PS3, the hype for the game was amazing, boasting real-to-life graphics, but turned out to be a “beautiful disaster” (Gamespot) because of horrible controls, cataclysmic camera which zooms everywhere you don’t want it to be, and most importantly shallow and unimpressive game-play. This would be a prime example of a beautiful looking game which fails because no effort has been put into game-play.
So we’ve established that gameplay is number 1 in importance in a video game. However when do bad graphics make a negative impact of the quality of the game? There is a very dimple answer to this question, graphics make a distinct negative impact on game quality when they make the game unplayable. Example: When you play an FPS with such horrid graphics when you cant tell where his head begins and it ends or where the heart is. Or when you play a game where you must find a specific object, and the specific feature of the object cannot be displayed because of horrible graphics. However there are games where graphics do not matter per se, such as Pong, when would you need high definition where you are hitting a square over a straight line and using rectangles are rackets. Therefore, horrible graphics make a negative impact on the game when the graphics interfere with the objective of the game.
In conclusion, game-play is extremely important as it is the game, and the underlying purpose of the game. However graphics are not as important as gameplay but they are a necessity depending on the objective of the game.
Now discuss, you are allowed to disagree and also when you make an argument on the comments explain your opinion. NO PROFANITIES (comments containing such material will be removed).
Discussing age old topics,
-AT16
Posted in Gaming, Rants | 1 Comment »
October 19th, 2008 by AT16
As you all probably know Apple has announced their whole new Macbook line up, and they are better than ever! The processors are faster the hard drives are larger, they give you even more RAM, and most importantly the graphics cards have been updated! They have a whole new look as well the Macbook has now adopted the aluminum chassis of the older Macbook Pro, and both their displays have been changed to sleek glass to bring them visually closer to the already popular iMac.
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October 13th, 2008 by AT16
Apple will be announcing new details about their notebook lineup at a press conference tomorrow in Cupertino, the only words on the press invitation to the press were: ” The spotlight turns to notebooks”. Many critics are predicting things such as changing the black and white colour scheme of the MacBook to the aluminum chassis from the MacBook Pro. Many also believe Apple will drop the use of Intel integrated graphics chips in favour of more powerful Nvidia chips. Some also speculate that there will be a new lower cost MacBook, in the $800-$1000 range.
The press invitation
What will become of tomorrow’s conference? Lets find out as “the spotlight turns to notebooks”.
-AT16
Posted in Technology | 1 Comment »
September 18th, 2008 by AT16
Sorry for the long wait guys I needed to get adjusted with school, and also several personal problems have popped up recently, but the wait is over and my first “come back” article is about my hatred of Ricers.
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