Random Observations

Current Gas Prices: $2.26 (premium)
Current Obsession: Raising enough money for my winter break
Currently listening to: Switchfoot- The Beautiful Letdown
Currently worried about: My ME211 homework due on Friday
Currently thankful for: Good company
Currently not thankful for: Freezing cold weather
Current health status: Fine, apart from muscle aches and phlegm in throat


I spent a small amount of my day today trying to tweak my Bittorrent program. I’ve been suffering from painfully slow downloads for the past week. I suspect that it had something to do with them upgrading the network a couple of days ago. Maybe they blocked the ports common to P2P programs.

Another thing that I can stick a finger at is the fact that I tried some download managers to make my bittorrent experience more user friendly. I downloaded BitComet and Ares to allow me to manage all my downloads in one window. The original bittorrent program forces you to open one window for each download. The other programs were supposedly able to speed up download rates. It wasn’t working for me, so I deleted all of them. Now I’m stuck with 1-4kbps download rates.

Here are some random observations I’ve made:
1) Yawning is indeed contagious. However it doesn’t work for everyone. Just yawn while you’re in a crowded bus and see how many people follow suit. Oh, make sure they’re looking.

2) If you want to give the professor a hint that his lecture is exceeding class time, give him some noise cues. The best one is the sound of rustling paper or the clunking of your pencil case. A chain reaction of sounds will soon ensue and eventually the professor will realize that people are packing up to leave. Works like a charm.

3) Spending money can lead to spending even more expenses. It’s a snowball effect. Buy a handphone and you’ll need to pay subscription once a month for the next year. Buy a car and you’ll be spending money on gas, insurance, maintenance and not forgetting the money you’ll spend exercising your privilege. Buy a discman and you’ll be buying CDs, blank CDRs and eventually batteries when your rechargables give way. Buy a pet and you’ll spend money like you’re raising a child.