» Miscellaneous - Simon Lau

Toronto Winds Take Out Backyard Tree

The morning of April 25th started out to be quite nice. It was 20 degrees Celsius around 10AM when I went for a run. By the early afternoon we had hit a high of 27 degrees. It’s amazing how quickly things can change. No more than an hour after lounging in an outdoor the pool the clouds rolled in and the winds howled as rain wicked across the windows.
100 KM/h gusts of winds ravaged the city knocking out power lines and even taking out a sign which hit a man in Scarborough, The Star.
For the second time that I could remember, my family’s home was affected by the weather. About 10 years back a storm split the tree at the back of the property and this year a different tree was uprooted. It’s no small tree either, my guess is that it’s over 24″ in diameter at the base and probably 30 odd feet tall. Looking at the base of the tree, it appears it was rotting from the inside. While it contributed to the tree’s sudden collapse, it’s still a remarkable feet for the wind to topple it.
Here’s a picture from my room on the second floor. The clean up begins now.

Tags: high winds, storm, Toronto, tree

. 26 Apr 09 | Miscellaneous, Toronto | Comments (0)

A Sparkly Present For Her

I celebrated an early anniversary with Karen last weekend; our official 5 year going out anniversary is Oct 31st. As a gift I picked up a set of diamond earrings on 18k white gold. The earrings were 0.25ct total weight from Bluenile. The diamonds are rated as color grade I with a minimum clarity of SI2. The cut is rated as a good and done in a princess cut shape. To top it off, they use a screw back instead of the butterfly.

This is my first diamond purchase and the earrings look fantastic. Needless to say, Karen loved them.

I’ll share some pictures of the dessert we had a dinner once I get the pictures.

Tags: anniversary, dating, diamond, gold

. 08 Oct 08 | Miscellaneous, Photography, shopping | Comments (0)

Dynamic Headers at Overclockers Online

After much fiddling and getting help from our server administrator, I have finally managed to get dynamic headers to appear on all reviews at Overclockers Online. Here’s the one for the Samsung CLP-610ND.

header

It boiled down to me missing a few quotation marks to separate PHP code and regular text. Silly me.

I’ll be working to bring more dynamic pages to you over the next few weeks.

Tags: Overclockers Online, PHP

. 08 Apr 08 | Miscellaneous | Comments (0)

House Cleaning – Computer Garage Sale

I have a bunch of stuff I want to get rid of before I graduate. I’ve posted it at my favourite deals page – RedFlagDeals. All prices are in Canadian dollars and I’m willing to ship worldwide. Ping me back if anything interests you.

http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?t=235337

PowerColor 512MB X1550 SCS PCIe – $50
Silverstone SST-TJ04 Black – $50
Cooler Master iGreen 500 – $45
Asus P5WD2 – $75
Intel Pentium D930 – $75
SuperTalent 1GB T800UX2GC4 – $15

System Package (includes all of the above for $250)

HIS X1500 IceQ 256MB PCIe – $40
D-Link DI-524 – $30
X-Micro 108Mbps Router – $25
Apevia X-QPack 2 – $25
Bean Tech Acrylic Case – $25

Email or leave a comment if you want pictures!

Tags: For Sale, Redflagdeals, RFD

. 02 Apr 08 | Miscellaneous | Comments (0)

Spreading the Olympic Spirit

Not too long ago, on February 11th, Vancouver celebrated the 2 year countdown to 2010. This morning I received a letter from Petro-Canada giving a brief history about their role and the Olympics. Petro-Canada has been a sponsor since 1988 with the Olympic Torch Relay, carrying the Olympic flame from coast to coast. For the Vancouver 2010 games, Petro-Canada is the exclusive national oil and gas partner. They are sponsors of the Canadian Olympic and Paralympic Teams in Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012. You can read more about their Olympic sponsorship on this website.

2010

So why did I get a letter from Petro-Canada? Their financial reports show that they are making money, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be mailing every Canadian a letter. I will be starting work at Petro-Canada’s Mississauga site this summer and as a welcoming gift in additional to the letter, they sent me an Olympic jacket.

It’s a rather nice jacket and appears to be quite warm. It’s 100% polyester, bounded 2 layer fabrication with Microfleece on the inside for warmth. Zippers on the pockets and double stitched for stretch. It feels like it will be slightly water repellent. It should make for a good second layer when I’m out and about.

Tags: 2010, employment, Olympics, Petro-Canada, Vancouver

. 21 Feb 08 | Miscellaneous | Comments (0)