Alright, for those who need a bigger challenge, try the original room game Droom. It took me a while, but after "mastering" it, I finished it in 43 clicks.

Then have a bit of fun with this interesting planetary quest.

If you're still bored, here are 2 sci-fi games I haven't tried: Kharon and The Art Machine.

Have fun!

Can you escape the Crimson Room?

We got a telemarketing call tonight during dinner (when else!). It was an Ipsos-Reid (related to Angus Reid) survey about BC post-secondary institutions, wanting to know what was important when selecting a post-secondary institute.

This survey was focused on Kwantlen College. During the phone call, I realised how little I knew about the local colleges - mostly because I completely disregarded them when I was in high school. As he went through his list of questions ("how would you rate Kwantlen on ...."), most of my answers were "don't know". He also read a bunch of statements: "did you know that Kwantlen has controlled class sizes", "now that you know, do you have a more favourable opinion, or no difference?" My answer to the latter was almost unanimously "no difference".

I'm such a post-secondary institute snob.

I am notoriously bad at flossing. The dentist flosses my teeth for me every 6 or 9 months (though I give it a courtesy flossing the night before). I don't know what it is about flossing, but I just won't do it.

Well, I changed all that. Last night was my 4th consecutive night flossing. :) It helps to brush my teeth while in the shower or watching tv so that when I get to the flossing part, it doesn't feel like I've been standing there at the mirror for so long.

After 2 weeks of frustration and anger and depression pent up inside, I had a bit of a meltdown today. The combination of a too-hard bed (having a sore back every morning), the class that I'm probably going to fail, zero motivation, bad volleyball, too much crap food, and an emotionally-exhausting dream, finally got to me.

I was so tired (even after 10 hours' sleep a night) that I couldn't even cry it out, but I managed to let go of some of it today. And S helped me make a mini-plan to work toward some short-term goals. So, starting today, I'm going to try sticking to a schedule, with limited goofing-off time. One day at a time.

Baby steps, baby steps. <deep breath>

Oohhh yeah, baby, 109!!!

Today is my high school friend's birthday. I had a crush on him back in Grade 9. And 11. ... And 12. (Only skipped Grade 10 because he was at Trek.) He wasn't a jock, or popular. I didn't even notice him on my own.

A and I were away at the '92 BC Winter Games for our respective sports, and so, after getting back, we had to pair up for some missed work in class. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the popular girls on the sofa drawing hearts in the air around us, and was embarrassed for him because - well, I wasn't exactly a hot commodity, haha.

From 4 classes together in Grade 11 to none in Grade 12. Come spring, I finally wrote him a note. Letter. Novella. Note. And got my friend to slip it into his locker. And then I spilt my guts to him over the phone. Boy did that catch him off guard. HahAhHAha. (I know one of you out there knows what I'm talking about!)

He found me the week after and we went for a stroll - yep, the "let's just be friends" talk. Which was really funny because after I'd told him over the phone, the crush was no more. :)

Ah, to be young and naïve again.

Happy Birthday, A. :)

I set a personal Minesweeper best time about 8 years ago: 127 seconds for the expert level. I'll never touch my brother's best time (80-something?), but last night, I came back to the game after so many years, and beat my personal best with a 123 seconds. Yay! :)

Hi, Grandma

Feb 22 was the anniversary of my grandmother's passing. I guess this year we had a lot of stuff going on, so it went by unnoticed. (Sorry, Grandma.)

That was 6 years ago, but here are some of the things I remember ....

I remember coming home from [elementary] school and having food on the table.

I remember watered down Campbell's cream of mushroom soup (because that's how my cousins had it at their place) - ew.

I remember Grandma teaching me how to cook (back in the day when it was okay to add MSG to anything and everything).

I remember her coughing in the middle of the night when I just got home from SFU, and I'd have to help her sit up in bed to drink water because she didn't have enough strength herself.

I remember how my room smelled of old people (c'mon now, y'all know what I mean!), plus the smell of fruit (sometimes gone bad) because she liked to keep it in the room.

I remember coming home and being horrified to find her on the [tile] floor of the foyer at the bottom of the stairs, cane knocked over, in a puddle of urine. I still don't know how long she'd been lying there, though she claimed that she didn't fall and was "just resting".

And mostly, I remember being in bed, on the phone, the week after she died. I was telling my friend about missing her, and all of a sudden, a wave of emotion passed through me, and I sat bolt upright, bawling and looking around, because I felt her there. Interestingly enough, she appeared in my brother's dream that night as well, so she was probably making the rounds before leaving the world.

Winter Wonderland

Contrary to what my dad thinks, our house is freezing cold. My dad sets "room temperature" at 15 degrees Celsius. While turning down the heat has an advantage (just one - saving on the gas bill), the drawbacks are many:

1. it's frickin' freezing;
   
2. it's so cold that your body goes into hibernation mode;
   
3. freezing cold -> hibernation -> can't do any work;
   
4. people stay outside to keep warm;
   
5. falling asleep when it's cold is not fun;
   
6. waking up to the cold makes you want to stay in bed longer;
   
7. it's frickin' FREEZING!