King  Gary 

As I announced last Sunday, I bought my MacBook Pro laptop. And today, I announce that BenQ has replaced my broken monitor with a new monitor; it’s also a step up in terms of model number from the last one (not really a big deal, though, as probably the only major difference is the aesthetics.)

This is perfect timing, because now I’ll be doubly as efficient now that I have both my fast laptop AND an extra monitor. Words don’t do it any justice. Photos do!

UPDATE: I’m debating as to whether I should also add in my 15″ LCD monitor as well. It’d be a nice, long desktop. And when you add in the virtual desktops , that’s 4x as much length!

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My laptop, a MacBook Pro, is here!

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I’ve been playing a lot of Civilization IV: Warlords these past few days, and I’ve settled on a general strategy on how to take over the world, which takes advantage of the new features introduced in this new version of the computer game expansion pack. Please note that this strategy is best used for games with many civilizations; if you have 3 or less, then it’s not as effective because you could win much more quickly using other methods. (Make sure Permanent Alliances is enabled in your game’s settings!)

1. Improve your relations with at least one of the civilizations, enough so that your relation with that civilization turns to ‘Friendly’. (Trade resources and technology, and give some free gold to speed this up.) In my game, I was China and my ally was the United States. (I had set my civilizations to Random. Honestly!)
2. Once you’ve reached the relation level of Friendly, form a Defensive Pact with that civilization. This was pretty easy, because the Americans had no State Religion, and so they didn’t have any opinion about what State Religion my civilization was.
3. Provoke a war with another civilization (preferably the one that already wants to go to war with you.) You can do this by demanding technology, resources, gold, or anything else from that civilization. People don’t like getting pushed around, and neither do world leaders! At this point, I had provoked the Romans. (The Roman Empire isn’t supposed to exist in the year 1800 AD, anyways!)
4. Once a civilization has declared war on you, your Defensive Pact with the other civilization will come into effect, and both you and your ally will be at war with your opposing civilization.
5. After a few turns at war, you should be able to form a Permanent Alliance with your ally.
6. Your civilization might get a huge boost from the technology that your Permanent Alliance has given you from your ally; it did so to me, which was absolutely fantastic.
7. At this point, if you can, continue with your war that’s going on. Every time you take one of the opponent’s cities, check the trade window with the opponent to see if they are willing to Capitulate to you. If so, great, and if not, then continue taking cities until it IS available. Once it is, click on it to trade it (it’ll also automatically cause you to have Peace with your enemy AI.) What this does is it makes that civilization a vassalage of yours, meaning that it follows your rule (if you go to war with another civilization, then it’ll follow suit, or if you vote one way in the United Nations, then it’ll vote the same way, etc. - but it does NOT share any of your technologies, resources, etc.) The civilization is basically a protected nation under your command, somewhat like Puerto Rico and the United States, I suppose. They can be a self-governing nation once again if they grow large enough (such as reaching 50% the size of your total nation, including theirs.)
8. Continue the above steps of going to war and forming vassalage nations until you’ve created the United Nations.
9. Now you have a lot of votes and you should be able to win a Diplomatic Victory! (Or even a Conquest or Domination victory, because forming vassalage nations is just like conquering them - and it’s more quicker, too!)

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I went up to Sundridge, Ontario yesterday to a friend’s farm. There were fireworks, camping, and a great big feast
Photos to follow!

UPDATE: I also want to mention, that during the fireworks, one of the dogs there (there were 4) ran up to the fireworks and almost picked one up with its mouth. Someone managed to ran up to the dog in time, while it was within 5 meters of the fireworks, to drag it away.

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2 days ago, I received an email from Waterloo’s Admissions Team, saying that:

“The Admissions Committee for the Faculty of Mathematics has received and reviewed your final secondary school grades.”

and that

“The conditional Offer of Admission to the Honours Computer Science Coop program at the University of Waterloo, you received earlier, included conditions that have not been met.”

(There is more, but these are the main points.)

My immediate reaction? Well, you can imagine the rage, anxiety, and whatnot.

I emailed them back immediately when I read the email. Then I received a reply back:

“It has come to our attention that you have been contacted in regards to having a final average below 75% in one or more of your required courses. I wish to apologize as your grades are ok and your offer to the Faculty of Mathematics is not in jeopardy.” … “Again, I apologize for any anxiety this has caused you and we look forward to seeing you in the Fall. “

Anxiety, indeed!
At least I’m back in now (although I guess I technically never wasn’t), so I’m fine again. A small roller coaster, and I think my heart stopped when I read the email.

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I arrived home just in time to miss the ‘airline terrorist plot‘, which greatly delayed a lot of flights - especially to and from London and England, which was where my airplane was going to and leaving from (Heathrow airport in London.) Thank goodness for that, although for some of my friends that I met in Europe, it won’t be as easy, because some are leaving to go to home sometime today.

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I went to the Chinese Lantern Festival yesterday, in Ontario Place in downtown Toronto. I was still a bit tired from my 8-hour flight from Europe the day before, but yesterday was a Canadian civic holiday so I had the day off. I took a bunch of photos, too, so feel free to check them out.

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The photos that I have uploaded so far are here.

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I just returned home about an hour ago.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming

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Today at a glance:

Woke up at 6:30 am

• the Vienna subway tells the ETA for when the next subway will arrive; there is a TV screen to watch some local TV shows while you wait
• The hotel that I’m staying at is called the ‘Mercure’.
• I met a WTC survivor.
• it’s my father’s birthday, so I’d like to wish him a happy birthday!
• They have a market here that’s similar to St. Lawrence Market in downtown Toronto.
• Went to the House of Terror, honoring the deaths of thousands of Jews in Budapest.
• Went to the WestEnd Center Mall; it’s like any typical North American (yes) shopping mall.
• Went to the World’s Most Beautiful McDonald’s, where I have pictures in my photo album online.
• It’s easier to find North American foods like McDonald’s and lots of TGI Friday’s around here, than local foods.
• I was “randomly” (sure) checked for my subway ticket - twice.
• The city has 26 cows that are all over the place for tourists to find; I found about 10 or so. Toronto has a similar thing but with moose instead; in both cases, the models are shaped and decorated differently for each one.

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