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Warren Shea

Archive for the ‘Friends’ Category

Singing Contest

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 at 9:46 pm

I recently tweeted:

No1 at the office means I can sing aloud w/o fear of sounding terrible, which I most certainly do. If the monitors could shatter, they would

I love to sing. But I’m also quite bad at it. Not terribad, but bad.

Anyways, my friends in highschool and I used to have an N’CHYNK group (…like N’SYNC…but chinese). Like, it wasn’t an “official” group, we never officially preformed, but there were 6 or 7 guys who enjoyed singing occasionally.

Anyways, I lived with 3 of them in UWaterloo first or second year. One time, we had our old highschool friends come visit from Toronto and we were kinda bored and trash talking each other, and decided to have a singing contest.

It was best of 3 songs, me VS my friend. I chose a song, he chose a song, and the judges chose a song…I lost 1-2 and while I don’t remember what songs I lost to, the one I won to was:

Don’t Wanna Lose You Now – Backstreet Boys

As I’m singing to myself, quietly, I was just reminded of this moment and thought I’d write about it.

On another note, the song above has always been a favorite of mine. It’s probably my favorite non-single from the good ol’ pop days.

/back to work but might write more tonight and this wasn’t my intended post for today…

The Mixed Tape

Saturday, November 6th, 2010 at 12:39 am

Jack’s Mannequin – The Mixed Tape

Where are you now?
As I’m swimming through the stereo
I’m writing you a symphony of sound
Where are you now?
As I rearrange the songs again
This mix could burn a hole in anyone
But it was you I was thinking of

I don’t know, something about this song and it’s discussion of a making a mixed tape has reminded me of various songs which I associate with people I’ve liked or have liked me (or both). And I’m wondering “Where are you now?”. I have no idea where the majority of them are or what they’re doing. There are few I keep in touch with, some I have as friends on Facebook but don’t talk to ever…and it’s odd because again, spending/talking to someone, enough that there’s a one-way or two-sided attraction….and then down the road, there’s nothing except a memory. I mean, people change but at some point, there’s a moment in both these people where a romantic relationship exists. Is it that difficult to have and maintain a lifelong romantic relationship with someone? Some people find that connection early, some people find it later, and some never find it at all. But at some point, I hope everyone in their life experiences that potential for a lifelong romantic relationship. The feeling of liking someone and having that feeling reciprocated…is awesome.

Wow, I just started randomly listening to another song…which happens to relate specifically to what I’m writing about….well, the start of the song:

Backstreet Boys – I Still…

Who are you now?
Are you still the same
Or did you change somehow?
What do you do?
At this very moment
When I think of you
And when I’m looking back
How we were young and stupid
Do you remember that?

/remembering the past…and smiling at how young and stupid i used to be…

Friends & Karaoke

Sunday, October 10th, 2010 at 1:50 am

My high school friends are still my closest friends. For them, a lot of them have been friends since elementary school. It’s pretty crazy…they’ve been together as friends for probably 5/6’s of their lives. For me, it’s been about 1/2 my life (meeting most of them in the beginning of high school).

I’m fortunate that I’m still close with them, given my antisocial nature, “boring” life, and in recent years, often blowing them off to either hang out with Z…or play WoW. But mostly the latter.

I definitely would not be the person I am today if not for these friends. We’re all different, all similar…many of them into sports, Basketball, outdoor activities, clubbing….and equally as many into video games, computer stuff, comics and anime. They’re all intelligent, doing well and successful in their respective areas, many of my close friends with engineering backgrounds, CFA and potential MBA titles, masters in life sciences. Many of them raised well, very nice (a whole level of selflessness above me), and polite. I’m fortunate to be a part of a group like this, one where every single person has some exceptional qualities that I admire.

But what I really love about my friends is how much fun I have with them. We don’t hang out too often anymore, some of us have moved away from Toronto…as a group, we have our annual 20+ people get togethers during Christmas. We have summer backyard parties and recently, we have weddings. Lots and lots of wedding. But I see my closer 3-10 friends a bit more frequently and I would say without a doubt that I would never laugh as painfully hard with these people as I do with anyone else or at any other time.

Yesterday:
Got up to go to work (around 7:30am)…left work around 4pm, met up with one of my friends and hung out with him until 8…then drove to Twister for some Karaoke. There were about 10 people there, 8 of them dudes…and all night, from 9:30-3:30, all we did was sing. And drink. And laugh. After Karaoke, the 6 of us still awake went to my friend’s new house, we were gonna drink more…but at 4:00, it was probably a good idea to call it a night. We left their place at 4:30am…went home (got some McDonalds first) and I ended up sleeping around 6:30am. Best night I’ve had in months.

And for some reason, I drank more than I’ve ever had before….drinking at least 4-6 beers myself and feeling fine :O I don’t quite know why, for someone who can barely handle 2 drinks w/o getting a headache or getting sick of the taste of beer….I, and everyone else, was majorly shocked as well as impressed.

It’s funny, we’re all very different but we all seem to have music in common. We all really like pop/slow songs…and that’s all we sang for 6 hours, leaving our trademark boyz ii men, backstreet boys, nsync to the end. For a bunch of dudes, we’re just all really sappy…it’s awesome.

I have a bunch of videos…but I don’t know if I can post them…damn. I want to.

Out of the 10 of us, we have 3 or 4 really exceptional singers…Z included. I wish singing was a strength or talent of mine, given my love for music and that everyone expects me to sing certain songs, I wish I could perform up to their and my own standards…boourns to not being able to sing to save my life. Though I can sing on key I think…and do low stuff……

My voice is still recovering from yesterday…it was pretty deep by the end of last night, strained…and my sleeping schedule is slightly messed up…sleeping at 6:30 am, waking up at 4:00pm…and then napping from 7pm-10pm :S

/off to write more…haven’t written in a while

Finding a good partner for a website…

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 at 6:39 pm

Note: This is an old draft but with a recent development, so I’m going to post my old draft and add to it.

There are several factors that I look for in a web partner:
1. He/she must be interested in developing in the same language as you.
2. He/she must be of relatively equal skill so that you both learn from each other. You may not be equal in terms of development skill but I believe your skills have to compliment your partner’s so that you both have relatively equal value in the relationship.
3. He/she must be have relatively equal passion regarding the topic the website being developed is for.
4. He/she must be have relatively equal motivation to work on the site, otherwise you have a person doing too much and a person doing too little.

What I believe is that, much like a give and take relationship, things must be fair. It does not mean that every task must be fairly or equally shared but as a whole, both people should compliment each others strengths and weaknesses.

Throughout my entire web career, since the middle/end of high school and still ongoing, I’ve been looking for that partner. Given the requirements above, I imagine it might be harder to find a good web partner than finding a significant other! Or maybe I’m not looking in the right places…

In high school, my friend and I wanted to work on a website together. He was sort of into web, much like me. We talked frequently about it but nothing ever happened. I stopped waiting and eventually did my own stuff.
In university and the same thing happened (with another friend). This time, the guy actually had his own web stuff, he migrated his content over to my already existing hosting…and then, never touched the stuff again O_O
Note that both of these are my good friends whom I’m still close with. The first one moved in to something unrelated to web, the second one is currently doing Microsoft SharePoint stuff.

I guess the first guy didn’t have 1, 2, and 4. The second guy didn’t have 3 and 4.

I gotta say, it’s tough. I’m still looking…there have been a few potential candidates recently but nothing seemed to work out. Maybe I didn’t sell that I was looking well enough…

Anyways, I’m posting this because the first guy, from high school, wants a website built. And as of today, I’m going to work with him on it. He’s not interested in the design or development, he will be the relationship between the business and I. I just found it kind of interesting that about a decade after we originally wanted to work together, we finally are. The stakes are higher this time though, it’s not just children playing, we’re both doing this professionally. But I’m honestly really looking forward to working with my friend professionally on something like this. It’s like doing a high school project together…and I know he’s lacking in 1 but he’s got 2, 3 and 4 and in this dynamic, that’s all I want/need. And because he’s a close friend, I’m eager to really do my best and not let him down and I’m sure is opposite is true.

So I officially have a side project now.

I hope things go smoothly…I might ask this guy for a ride but will asking him for requirements work out? He might ask to borrow a game but will his asking when something will be done sour the friendship? While I agree that mixing professional and unprofessional relationships is a bad idea, we’re both aware of our respective working skills (from high school) and I think we both have that working trust in each other. What really sucks is mixing professional and unprofessional relationships when the unprofessional aspect doesn’t measure up to the professional. Going out for drinks with someone and working with someone are always two completely different things.

/4 (LFM): Sheaman: LF1M WEB DESIGNER/DEVELOPER
/4 (LFM): Sheaman: Must develop in PHP/ASP.NET. Know XHTML/CSS2. jQuery/HTML5/CSS3 a plus. Good Group. U Fail = Boot. /roll for loot. Mainspec > Offspec

(that’s my World of Warcraft version of Looking For 1 More)

Heat. B.O. Deodorant. Hygiene.

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at 8:43 pm

This weather sucks. I hate the summer. It’s brutally hot. Too hot to do anything. I remember trying to study for exams in Waterloo w/o AC. I’d crash at my friends’ place in Mackenzie King rather than sleep in my own bed at V1. I always did slightly worse in spring terms…the heat just makes me…not wanna do anything.

Not much has changed at this point…I hate the summer. Specifically, I hate the heat. I like the longer hours of daylight, waking up to the sun. But heat makes me miserable. You know what also sucks? People that get hot…and don’t wear deodorant. And then they stink. You know what sucks? Walking behind someone and smelling their B.O.
Smelling a stranger’s odor. Ugh.

We nerds are known for it. Cons are full of big guys. And sometimes that’s okay. But sometimes they’re full of big guys…who are just…dirty. Their hair is long, unkept, and it looks like they haven’t showered in months. Or they’re huge, sweaty, and terribly stinky. Or they’re alright…until they open their mouths and you can smell that “morning breath”…but you know it’s not their morning breath, it’s their every day 24/7 breath.

I, and I hate to admit it, have a friend who doesn’t bathe like…ever. Or brush his teeth. Ever. I can’t sit beside him because he stinks. I can’t talk to him because his breath will melt my face. And…he wonders why he’s striking out with the opposite sex. It boggles my mind.

I’m fortunate. Besides that guy, I’ve been blessed with friends who are cool as well as intelligent. I’d hate to think what would happen to me if I grew up a social outcast. I’d be that which I despise. *shudder*

/it’s hot. but not in my condo :D life is good…