Earlier tonight, I watched the live broadcast of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies with friends here in the dorm (side note: I am temporarily living in campus which is great). You have to admit, the torch lighting part was impressive in its drama and grandiose-ness.

I met with my professor yesterday. My project is due next week. It was sad that the original objectives will not be met due to time constraints (and the fact that it would probably take at least two students an entire semester to pull off what was intended). I am now left with trying to finish the models and rendering them as photorealistically as possible. On the upside, the professor agreed to give a grade based on the outcome of the model renderings.

I am quite disappointed about this project as I was really looking forward to doing some interesting programming work. I would have to deem this one a failure. (Although not totally because I developed some nifty 3D modeling skillz.) I guess I would have to try to learn 3D programming in my spare time - doable, but there’s less motivation to do so.

Back in Hong Kong. Back to schoolwork, back to responsibilities, back to being grown up. Groan… and it does not help that the USA trip was a blast.

Oh well. I am thankful for my parents for, erm, financing the entire thing - I wouldn’t have gone anywhere if not for them. But I am most grateful to them for the experience. I did learn lots of things which would be potentially useful in evaluating my long term plans. And by future plans, it implies, what do I want to do when I grow up?

But not only that - it also brings up the age old existential questions: What is the meaning of my life? What does it take for me to be happy? My brother just migrated to Cincinnati (we helped him set things up), and I bore witness to The American Dream being fulfilled in a span of two days - all the luxuries one could need, materialized in one fell swoop! My brother had it made merely by the fact that he snagged a good job in the US (and I am proud of him!). Amazing country, that.

I’d love to have that kind of success - but I’d like other things too, such as being with my close friends, working with them on things where we share common passions in (music, film, etc.). Unfortunately, they are all back in Manila, and no amount of money could make me move them in one Playboy Mansion-esque community. And there are the things in the middle… it’s a mad juggle between companionship and prosperity. Can’t have one entirely without sacrificing the other.

Happiness is such a compromise, you know?

Just saw I Am Legend again, this time with the alternate ending included in the blu-ray disc*. This ending made A LOT more sense and made the movie as a whole not only much better but now secures its place into my current all-time top tens.

Let me also add that watching the movie on my brother’s 36″ widescreen LCD and Playstation 3 is so wonderfully spectacular that it almost gives the feel of being in an actual movie theater. Just… wow.

Oh, and I also saw The Dark Knight twice now, once in IMAX. All in all I love it, but my thoughts about the movie are too complicated to express in a few words. Sometime I should have the inclination to write a full-blown introspective.

This is Cincinnati, Ohio. It is currently 3:19pm EST - Eastern Standard Time! The last time I was under the CST (Central) in Chicago, and before that, PST (Pacific) in California and MST (Mountain) in Arizona.

Thus completes the Timezone Quadrumvirate, rendering my USA trip fulfilled and worthwhile.

Will be back with UTC+8 in a few days.

Took the flight early yesterday from Los Angeles to Chicago. I am here! Finally, a place I could travel through buses and an efficient light rail system! Chicago… also known as:

1. Gotham City. And having just seen The Dark Knight, I am quite psyched for exploration!
2. Home to Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth. Incidentally, I just received from my aunt (whose place I am staying in) my highly anticipated hardbound copy of the book.
3. 
   (Some might remember this as music from Little Miss Sunshine)

Where I stayed in California and Nevada, it was spacious, clean and serene. In this neighborhood, streets are smaller, some houses are quite old, and graffiti is everywhere - sordid little hints of the presence of gangs in the near vicinities. This is a place with something to tell. What’s not to love?

And by the way, that rhetorical question is written with some trepidation :D