I've rummaged through all of my things, and I'm certain I left my wireless network card in the Philippines. Mumble. That's the third now...

I want a wireless card because I'm getting tired of working in my room. I want to be able to work in the common room of Graduate House, at cafes, or even at friends' places.

However, Linux-supported wireless cards are hard to find. I walked all along the computer strip on College with the hardware compatibility list on my laptop. I couldn't find a single PCMCIA card or USB device that was listed as supported. <sigh> That's what I get for needing previous-generation technology. It's just not sold any more.

I need a serious computer surplus / junk shop like HMR back home, I guess. One of those places where they're still selling beat-up 486s. But no, Canada's tech junk has been shipped to the Philippines and other developing countries. Mumble.

Why do I bother with Linux, then? The programs I use are native to Linux and Unix-like systems, and they're updated more frequently than their Microsoft Windows counterparts. Besides, it's just so darn hard to set Microsoft Windows up the way I want it to be. I love scripting. I love programming. Finding and downloading Emacs, Perl, Python, Ruby, and all these other things is a major hassle under Windows. And let's not even start talking about the shell. Sure, I could use cygwin, but it's just not the same...

Maybe I should just update my Ubuntu laptop and use that for hardware compatibility testing. Those Ubuntu folks do strange magic. =)

Anyone who can tell me where I can buy (or even better, anyone will give me) a Linux-compatible wireless networking card will get a bunch of cookies and my gratitude.

Random Japanese sentence: 「このねこは、やっぱりとてもきれいですよ！」と、とても年取った、おばあさんが言いました。 "And it is indeed a very pretty cat!" said the very old woman. [kono neko w, yappari totemo kirei desu yo!] to, totemo toshitotta obaasan ga iimashita.

On Technorati: linux

One of the wonderful things about Graduate House is that the Graduate House Council organizes a lot of social events. Tonight I enjoyed a free Singaporean noodle dinner in the common room. As food goes, it wasn't bad. I was there mainly for the conversation, though, and I wasn't disappointed. =D I had tons of fun chatting with Keynan(sp?) and Elizabeth (both Emily's suitemates). Andrew joined us too - he's the English major I played Scrabble with once. Stefan dropped by to tell me about the vegetarian cooking classes he found, but the only nearby one focuses on Indian cooking, and I'd rather have something more general.

Emily was impressed with my outfit. "You have legs today," she said. I had decided to wear The Miniskirt today because I just find it _so_ much fun to shop for computer stuff all dressed up. It confuses salespeople, particularly when I ask for Linux-supported wireless cards. ;)

Anyway, Emily told me that she almost always saw me in very pretty skirts, but this was the first time she saw me with a skirt that short. (Yes, yes, thank you Kathy for getting me a skirt I'd never have dared get myself. Come to think of it, where _are_ those barkada pics? Hmm...)

After most people finished dinner and left, I played billiards with Stairos (sp?) and Tarun. I'm still not very consistent in billiards, but I managed to sink a few good shots. After Tarun left, Stairos and I played table tennis. He likes smashing, and whenever he does that I tease him about being such a bully. I'm happy to report that I managed to make contact with the ball a couple of times - probably more by accident than reflex. Lusine joined us and we practiced for a while.

I'm not very good at table tennis yet, but I find it a lot of fun. My coordination used to be absolutely terrible, but after a while I realized that I didn't have to be able to think about how to intercept the ball, I just had to actually do it. For some strange reason, playing table tennis makes me feel like a character in a Japanese animation.

And yes, I did manage to get some writing done. Not much, though. I'll have to wake up early tomorrow to do some more work on it before the cooking workshop...

On Technorati: gradhouse, gh, social

Random Japanese sentence: テーブルに猫の足跡が付いている。 There are footprints of a cat on the table. Teiboru ni neko no sokuseki ga tsuite iru.

Lusine was surprised to find out that I'm taking my master's in mechanical and industrial engineering. (I really should drop the "mechanical and" part - it just confuses people.) She said I looked like an art student. Will wear white blouse, pink plaid miniskirt, and fuchsia tights next time I need to pass off as a humanities person.

Am sorely missing other pink crystal earring I bought from Claire's, as the pair would've been perfect for this outfit. Red's just too dark, and the triangular peach-and-gold ones don't quite go either.

I have fun being a girl. Deal with it. ;b I like dressing up. I might be into computers and other 'guy' things, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy wearing clothes I love or cooking food I like.

Random Japanese sentence: 彼はとても満足そうに見える。 He looks like a cat that ate the canary. Kare wa totemo manzokusou ni mieru. (Ah, idiomatic in English, straightforward in Japanese.)