Rebranding Lotusland?

I read this article today about how the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD) wants to re-brand the area name to "Metro Vancouver". While I understand and agree with their point of view (after all, I've gotten blank looks before from people when I've mentioned the GVRD to them), I still think Vancouver and the entire GVRD should become a "mega-city". A Mega-city in my definition is a city that incorporates their suburbs into one main city. Toronto, Ottawa and Calgary are all mega-cities under my definition. After all, the entire region share a lot of resources already, why not just go all the way and incorporate everything properly into one city? It certainly would cut out a lot of inefficiencies.

I did some poking around on Wikipedia. According to this list, Vancouver is actually eighth on the list of the 100 largest cities in Canada. (I think there are way more than 578,041 in the city of Vancouver itself, but let's just say it's true for argument's sake). I've been to Ottawa and Calgary, and trust me, these places are not at densely populated as Vancouver is.

However, when you look at this list, Vancouver comes in third in terms of population size. And this is what everyone, including the media, quotes. But then they would be incorrect. The city of Vancouver is actually smaller than the city of Winnipeg.

Are you starting to see my point of view? Okay, maybe not, cause I have very "unique" ways of seeing thing and don't always articulate myself very well. Or maybe it's a pride thing. Whatever.

For me, it makes sense economically and demographically to do so. However, I don't think this will ever happen. I feel that the natives here like their borders too much and trying to get buy-in for a mega-city will be near impossible with a hurtle like that. Plus, the unions will not like having their members' jobs obliterated, because, well, we don't need job duplicates in one big city like we already have with a bunch of smaller regions. I love the fact that BC has such a stupidly strong unionized mentality. My tax dollar being used more efficiently apparent means squat in the eyes of the unions.

So Vancouver will remain Vancouver, and the areas around Vancouver will remain their own entities, unless they share Metro Vancouver resources. Same, same, but different. Not unlike the place where I work at. Gotta love it.

The nice man who is pictured in this blog is Robert Burnaby, the man whom the City of Burnaby (where I live) is named after. In my elementary school, they used to have his picture up on the wall and I would stare at it all the time. I know, I was a strange kid.

KOOKY: Meet Errol

Today I got my Crackberry, it's the Curve model. I named my Crackberry Errol, after the Weasley family's pet owl in the Harry Potter books. Hey, it delivers me my mail (okay, my email).

I've been realizing since starting this Team Lead position that I've been dragged into more and more meetings. This means that I'm not at my desk putting out fires, er, dealing with issues as they come in. This week alone, I had one all day meeting, and another day with about 5-6 back to back meetings. This is becoming a too-common occurrence for me. So in order to feel like I'm at least I tiny bit on top of things, I caved and got Errol.

Errol makes me accessible to my email and calendar. Errol also makes me accessible to other people 24/7/365. And while I am told otherwise, there will always be an unwritten expectation that I will be answering the phone when it rings at 3 am. Sigh.

Oh well, off to go figure Errol out. He's my new best friend.

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

(For those of you reading this, the cover on the left is the UK version, which Canada gets, and not the US cover).

Warning, there be spoilers below!

I got home yesterday at about 2pm, and the new Harry Potter book was sitting on my doorstep. So I pretty much dumped all good intentions on doing homework (I'm already a week behind where I want to be), and had a 12-hour marathon read.

Here are my impressions. Things I didn't really like:

• JKR (as some other book writers have complained), isn't a good writer. And she isn't. She's a very good story teller, but her scenes and chapters could have been tighter and better plotted out. Sure, she tied up her loose ends, but she also crammed in too many details. The whole looking-for-the-Horcruxes and the Battle at Hogwarts both could have been compressed plot-wise, and a lot of details could have been left out or combined.
  
• When Harry et al found out about the Deathly Hallows, I was thinking, oh boy, JKR is once again is introducing another idea, and since this is the final book (so she says), she has to tie things up quickly. That annoyed me.
• Convenient plot devices:
  
• Harry seems to conveniently "forget" about things all the time. For someone whose always so curious, he tends to be non-curious at the right time, especially around Dumbledore. Of course, when he does ask the wrong questions (as opposed to the right questions), he gets non-answers from Dumbledore. That just makes Harry look stupid, and I don't buy the "Harry-regrets-the-questions -that-he-never-asked- Dumbledore-because- he-was-being-a-selfish -and-self-centred-git" reasoning. It's just too convenient for JKR.
  
• Speaking of convenient amnesia, why didn't anyone point out that even before Harry got to Hogwarts, that they had a different DA teacher every year (well, before book 6 anyways)? The adults certainly should have mentioned it. Fred and George I believe would have mentioned it.
  
• Snape's secret: Well, a lot of people had figured that he was in love with Lily, so it wasn't a huge surprise there for me. I agree with JKR's reasoning for killing him off, but unrequited love is one of the oldest plot devices in the world, and I couldn't stop myself from rolling my eyes during the reveal of Snape's secret. I really like Snape as a character, but I wished that there was a different reason for his reason to turn to Dumbledore. But even that aside, I wish Harry felt a little more empathy towards Snape, particularly since Harry represented to Snape the persons he loved and hated the most. I didn't feel that Snape was redeemed in my mind. When Snape asked to look at Harry's eyes before he died, that was sad, but at the same time, I thought it was pathetic of JKR to plot it out that way.
  
• The last couple of chapters and the epilogue was too cheesy. Yes, I know that people died, but it was still cheesy. And over-the-top dramatics. I can't imagine it unfolding like how it did with all the dramatics.
  

Things that I did like:

• The whole mood of the book. It was a depressing read, but it was meant to be depressing. Even the moments of levity didn't lift my mood. The themes that JKR brought out was very adult in nature. Yes, a lot of people died, but life isn't fair that way. This series stopped being a kid's book by book 4 in my opinion
• I didn't get where Neville got the sword from until this morning. He got it from the Sorting Hat (duh!). I really like how JKR developed his character.
  
• JKR had the balls to kill off good people as well as the baddies (and she let a lot of the baddies live). Life doesn't always work the way you want it to.
  

My other comments:

• I get how when Lily sacrificed herself, she had inadvertently put a charm on Harry protecting him, so the Killing Curse bounced off of him the first time. I'm still a little fuzzy about how this affect Voldermort and the whole circular reasoning that Dumbledore was explaining to Harry, that was confusing (it was 1 AM, and I was tired!). Someone please explain this to me!
  

Overall, I give this book a 6.75 out of 10. JKR really had to tie up a lot of things and it was evident in the book. Probably my biggest complaint is that JKR tries to cram too much in the the overall plotline, and because she gave herself restricting parametres (7 books in combination with revealing bits of information over time), the books aren't as well written as they should be.

But that doesn't stop me from being a fan. I'm waiting for the soft cover book box set to come out so I can buy it =D

I sold my car

Sigh. Today I sold my car. Well, to be exact, Hubby sold my car, and I was only there because the car is was in my name, and I had to sign some papers. Big kudos for Hubby for setting everything up, going through the process of responding to people and completing the sale.

I would love to get another car, but we've found that 95% of the time, we're using only one car at at time, so there was no point keeping and paying for two cars. I will miss my car a bit cause it drove very well and was a fun car to drive. Ah well, life goes on. The money certainly will go towards a good cause: paying down debt!

My car was a 1998 model, and I was quite surprised that it retained such a high value when we checked the black book value. We managed to get $300 below asking, which was awesome, I was expecting to get way less. More money is always good, so I'm not complaining.

Seattle to Portland Mania

As I type this, Hubby is biking his way from Seattle to Portland in the Group Health Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic. The length of the trip is about 200 miles, and while he will be doing it over a two-day period, some will cover the distance in one day.

I think he's nuts to do something like this, but it does sound like fun. He went down with a group of guys that he normally road bikes with and there will be about 9,000 people! Good times.

Movie: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

(I went to go see Harry Potter late last night and didn't get home until 1 am. This is a brain dump of my impressions, before I forget it all. I also may have some details mixed up from the book, I'm only halfway finished reading it again. Those of you from H! who read my comments there, what is typed below is pretty much the same)

Warning: Lots of spoilers below, and even if you've read the book but not have seen the movie, there's a lot that was changed around and/or left out in the movie, so at least watch the movie first if you don't want to know what happens.

I think David Yates did a good job, especially setting the tone of the movie. There were a few laughs, but overall the book was quite dark, and the movie reflected that. Because the book is sooooo long and full of detail, the script writers had to make adjustments and either gloss over certain plot points, change them around or eliminate them completely. All in all, the script itself was mostly plausible, but things will never truly make sense unless you've read the book at least once.

However, I really wished they did a two-parter or made the movie a bit longer, as there was so much detail that I would have liked to seen. As much as David Yates tried to restrain the pace, there still was a feeling that there was so much going on that the movie felt a bit rushed.

Things I liked:

• Dorlorus Umbridge was really well casted. Imedla Staunton had her "hem hem"s down to T, and I felt like punching her from the beginning. I also loved her pink cat room.
  
• I think they did a pretty good job with Luna Lovegood. She's always described as talking with a dreamy-like, sing-song voice, and I always felt that Luna never was quite there mentally. That came through well for me.
• Bellatrix, also well casted. She's one nasty piece of work
• How they portray the Extensible Ears, much better than how I imagined it
• I'm glad the fight scene was short; it was well played out in the movie. That part was particularly tedious to read in the book and I always felt that JKR should have taken some details out of this section of the book.
  
• The Department of Mystery was how I imagined it to be. The Ministry of Magic set was better than how I had imagined it
• I liked how they made Cho the snitch, it does help show their relationship fizzle (I also was never a very big Cho fan, so didn't see what Harry ever saw in her besides a pretty face)
• We saw hints of Ginny's true magical power capabilities. I think we'll be seeing way more of that from her in Book 7.
• Dudley's costume, that was hilarious! Harry Melling looked like he was having way too much fun playing the role, even after he was kissed by a Dementor
• Even in the brief flashback, I thought Young Snape was hot! and not a greaseball at all
• I'm glad they decided to develop Neville's character more in the movie. I also think he will have a large part to play in Book 7
• I was really impressed with the special effects in the Ministry fight scene. Kudos to those people.

Things I didn't like:

• They took out Mrs. Black's shrieking portrait. That's one of the things I did want to see
• I'm hoping that they do something with Ginny dating life in Movie 6, she shouldn't have been shown still pining for Harry, but should be "over him" already. And her characterization in the book was much stronger, but that wasn't shown at all in the movie. I particularly wished that they kept the Dungbomb scene in.
• They did a poor job of not explaining why Harry was able to see thing through the eyes of the snake when it attacked Mr. Weasley
• Not showing that Petunia got that Howler from Dumbledore. There's more going on with her than meets the eye, I think, and will probably be reveled in book 7
• That they didn't show Harry not building up his anger at the beginning because he felt left out of the loop and was kept wondering why no one did anything about Voldermort (he didn't know what they were saying about him in the Daily Prophet until they he got to Grimmauld Place)
• They cut out Quiddich completely from the movie
• The scene where Hargid was explaining his trip to go see the giants was weak, not how it was scripted, but how it played out
• Snape was totally out of character when Umbridge was questioning his teach abilities. What happened with the snarl? I get what David Yates was trying to show, but I wished Snape stayed in character for that scene.

Other comments:

• I think that changing the scene in the movie where Voldermort does enter Harry's brain, the script is trying to gloss over the fact that Voldermort doesn't understand love, and hence covers in the book the whole speech that Dumbledore gave at the end to Harry
• I did catch one continuity error. Hermonie had no trouble saying Voldermort's name at the beginning of the movie, yet at Hog's Head, she had to force herself to say it. (She should have been saying You-know-who up to this point)
• No mention of how Kretcher went to Bellatrix and Narcissa to tell them abou the OoTP. Not a big sticking point IMO. How they ended up working around it was plausible.
• I'm a loser. I love London, and loved recognizing the city in the movie. I like Westminster Station's look (it's one of the nicer Tube stations that I've seen), and was wondering what scene they were filming there when I heard that they did film there. I actually passed through London a month before they filmed that scene.
  

Well, that's all I remember for now. I'm certain that more will come to me later. All in all, a good movie, and probably the best one so far.

Movie rating: 8 out of 10

KOOKY: Leadership Training

Last Friday, I went to a professional development workshop on leadership that's put on by HR. It was aptly titled "Moving From Peer to Supervisor to Leader". The moment I was promoted, I wanted to take a leadership workshop to help train me to be a better leader. I already heard about this workshop, so I promptly asked my manager if I could sign up.

I've always felt that being a leader in the workplace isn't always an intuitive thing for many people. I got the promotion through my hard work as an IT person, but I understand computers, not people. Hence, understanding how to positively communicate, supervise and motivate people can be an elusive notion to many. I thought it would be a good idea to try to get some training before I made too many mistakes or started going down incorrect paths. After all, how many of us has complained, griped or resented decisions or actions that management makes? I know I have in the past.

One thing I was looking for was how to motivate people who were under me. I know that everyone has a different way of doing things that are not my way. However, I didn't know how to move beyond that point. I didn't know how to motivate people properly. What may motivate me may not motivate others in the same way. And I certainly didn't want to be a nagging mother to those whom I supervise.

Two ideas were presented to me:
1) Personal Coaching Styles Inventory - This is "a self-inventory where people designate how they want to give and receive feedback and advice". Basically, it's a tool that tells you what your communication style is. While I don't think any one person fits in to one particular style, most of us tend towards one or two particular styles more so than the others. We did a self-assessment to determine what our styles were, and did a presentation of each one (there are four).

The main style that I fell in, describes about 80% of how I communicate and think. And going through the other styles, I can definitely see where my manager falls as well as one of my subordinates. What was really nice was that there were people in the workshop who fell into each category. I got to see how they approach things, and learned to appreciate better their good points instead of just focusing on their weaknesses (which is something I tend to do, according to this tool). This definitely gave me a lot to think about.

2) Legacy Leadership - The image at the top is a basic summary of of the model. Our instructor said that most leadership/management books/models/theories out there will fall underneath at least one of the five Best Practices. You basically need all five to have a balanced leadership. There were discussions around these principles to illustrate how we can action each one out.

All in all, I felt that it was a very worthwhile workshop. Unfortunately, Friday was a bad time to take off from work (but when is it ever a good time to take off from work?). There is a part two to the workshop, which is in a couple of week. I'll let you know how that goes.

Bad Food Weekend

Well, it was really good food, but having all that good food at once can be kinda gross. Plus, I've must've gained 10 pounds or so.

Saturday for lunch, we went to Saffron for their lunch buffet. They have a $10.95 all you can eat lunch buffet every day. I hear during the weekdays, the place is absolutely packed with office workers and you normally need a reservation. Very yummy Indian food, definitely one of the better places that I've tried so far.

Saturday night, we had people over for dinner, so Hubby decides to pick up Memphis Blues' sampler platter. There's enough food for about 5-6 people. We had 3 adults and 1 kid. Needless to say, we will be eating leftover pork for a bit. They have the best tasting ribs around.

After that, we went to La Casa Gelato for ice cream. Yum! And yes, they really have 212 flavours at any one time. I had Chocolate Chocolate Chip.

Sunday lunch - Memphis Blues leftovers

Sunday Dinner - It was my best friend N's birthday dinner. We went to the Cannary Seafood Restaurant. I really like this place because the food's always consistently good, and they've been around for years, so they know what they're doing. I had the Free Range Chicken (picture at top). What can I say, I'm not a seafood person. But if I did ever feel like fish, I would definitely go there. Hubby and N both had the Chef Special, which was a halibut and salmon combo with shrimp on the side.

Then it was back to La Casa Gelato again. Strawberry Fudge this time around.

Monday lunch will consist of Cannary leftovers. I couldn't stuff any more food into me tonight. For dinner, we will finish off the rest of the pork. See what I mean by a bad food weekend?

For those of you who have never been to any of the above places, or find yourself in Lotusland, GO! You won't be disappointed!

Live Free or Die Hard

I've been itching to watch a movie for a while now. All these movies have been coming out, and I haven't seen a single one.

So anyways, we decided to go see the new Die Hard movie. It wasn't too bad. Here's what I thought:

The Good:

• The action was really good
• Timothy Olyphant played an awesome bad guy. It's a shame he's not in bigger roles.
  
• Typical cheesy lines you've learn to love from the Die Hard movies
• Tim Russ made an appearance (although I can't say that this was his best performance, or even good).
  

The Not-So-Good:

• Typical cheesy lines you've learn to love from the Die Hard movies
• Really, the plot was a bit thin and the script not the best written
• The acting was so-so
  

Hubby's biggest complaint about the movie was that we didn't find out what they real reason behind the whole "firesale" disaster, not until near the end. I felt that a lot of the plot, up until they reveled the reason behind everything, was just an excuse for all the great action, and entertaining as it was, made me wonder if there was anything more to the story. But everything did tie together in the end, just not very well. In short, I blame the script for mediocre plot-line development.

My verdict: 7 out of 10.

New time!

Whoo hoo! My new time up the Grouse Grind is now 1 hour, 5 mins!

Hubby thinks I could shave off a couple minutes still, as I had more than once had to fix my sock or retie my shoelaces.

Hopefully next time I can do it under an hour (and not swallow bugs en route, I think I must have swallowed at least 3-4 today alone. Yum, protein).

Happy Canada Day!

My trip to Cowtown

The picture to the left is Upper Kananaskis Lake. Apparently they had filmed a part of X2 here (yes, it's the scene where the plane goes into the water). You can't really tell, but the water's a lighter blue colour, and that's because the water's glacier fed. We hiked along the edge of the lake. It was 15km, not too much elevation, but still a loooong walk nonetheless. (Photo stolen from my friend RO who suggested the hike).

Shopping booty (BTW, PST-free shopping can really go to one's head; I really wasn't saving that much!):

• 3 tops and 2 two dresses from H&M
• Lots of underthings from La Senza (hey, they had a sale!)
• A Tempurpedic travel sized pillow (for Paris and other trips, now I don't have to pack my regular pillow!)
• A cute pair of really light and comfy sandals made by Naot, from Gravity Pope
• A pair of Foxy Jeans from Unlimited Blue (for those of you who live in Calgary, this place rules!)
• Body lotion from Origins
• Lip Glass from MAC
  

What I won't miss about Calgary:

• mosquitoes
• sleeping on a lumpy futon mattress
  
• the dry air
• the fact that it always seems windy there

All-in-all, not a bad trip. I got to hang out with my good friend L, and Hubby did his male bonding thing with his friends, and visited his family. My mom came along, and although she was staying with a friend of hers, the logistics got a little bit complicated. But it certainly was interesting shopping with her. She even found something at Purr (another trendy store on 17th, love their stuff!)

H&M

I love H&M.

That is all.

This 'n that

Right. So this is what's been happening so far in my life.

1. Heath
Okay, I won't kid you. Finding out I have high cholesterol unnerved me a bit. Coupled with finding out that Sarah had died from her battle with cancer (and I think I was also battling PMS mood swings), I became a tad paranoid and ran to the doctor for... mild tendinitis in the wrist, aka wrist strain.

I noticed that I had an itchy spot on my wrist, and after a bit of prodding a poking around, I thought that I had a small lump in my wrist. Well to make a long story short, the lump turned out to be a bone, and now my doctor thinks I'm a hypochondriac.

I've been trying to find ways lower my cholesterol. I do feel that my high cholesterol is a result of genetics, but that shouldn't stop me from trying to be healthier. So far, I've found out that almonds help lower cholesterol, so I've been eating a small handful every day. We also trying to figure out which type of soluble fibres I should be eating more of, like oat bran. I don't anticipate changing my diet drastically, but I aim at lowering my consumption of saturated fats and salt, and eat less junk food while still maintaining a healthy diet.

If anyone has any bright ideas to help me lower my cholesterol, pass them on to me.

2. School
I've been feeling a little bit depressed lately because I didn't feel that my project was moving forward. However, I had a good talk with my client in Toronto yesterday, and a lot of things became much clearer for me. I now feel like things are back on track, and my motivation has returned.

3. Work
This thing about being in a leadership role is tricky business. I don't always feel that I'm doing the right thing, or that I even know what to do. Frantic prayers to God have become a daily thing, but I'm slowly plodding along and learning as I go. I'll be taking a couple of management workshops next month, so that should be interesting.

Other than that, I'm pretty busy as I have a couple of really tight deadlines coming up before my bit trip to Par-ee!

4. Family
Yesterday was Father's Day, and I did my due diligence and took my dad out for dinner. We had actually commented to friends of ours how whenever we go out for family dinner, one of us (me, my mom or my sister) always invariably ends up arguing with my dad in the car. It's a time honoured family tradition. Fortunately, last night was fairly peaceful.

Later this week, we will be going to Calgary to visit hubby's family. Notable things on the agenda include making a trip to H&M, and a 5 hour hike in the mountains. Hubby's just informed me that it snowed again, so the trail will be nice and muddy and wet when we go.

A couple of articles

This post is more for me than anyone else, but please feel free to comment on the articles I've posted.

Ever since I've been promoted to Team Lead, I've been trying to make myself into a better leader. I'm not perfect, or anywhere near it. But I'm trying. And I need all the help I can get.

How to Be a Good Boss

The hardest thing for me to do on this list is "12. Learn to be an effective listener."

Other people are not broken

This really speaks to me as I know I tend to have a condescending attitude: "Forget your desire to alter other people’s behaviors to suit your own prejudices, wishes, and beliefs."

Rest in peace Sarah

I've been reading Sarah Toller's blog for the past year. She had chronicled her battle with malignant melanoma, a type of skin cancer.

Today, at age 30, she passed away wither her husband and mother at her side.

Sarah was a beautiful person, both inside and out, and a very brave woman in spite of her illness. Please take a moment to read her blog. I'm hoping that someone may learn from her story. I certainly did.

High Cholesterol

Yup, apparently I have high cholesterol, according to my doctor anyways. It's not so high that I should be worried, but I do need to start watching my food intake a little more closely. My doctor was a bit puzzled that a mid-thirties, healthy female should have high cholesterol, but fact are facts. Fortunately, my levels are just above the maximum healthy levels, so I'm pretty confident that I can get them back down to normal.

From this site, I found some screening criteria for high cholesterol, and I suppose I do fall into a risk category:

If any of the following apply to you, talk to your doctor about having your cholesterol tested:

• You are a woman over the age of 50. - Nope
  
• You are a man over the age of 40. - Nope
  
• You have cardiovascular disease. (You have angina, have had a heart attack, coronary bypass surgery, a stroke, angioplasty, atherosclerosis or peripheral vascular disease). - Nope
  
• You have diabetes. - Nope
  
• You have a first-degree relative (i.e. mother, father, sister or brother) with heart disease or high cholesterol. - Yup

Also talk to your doctor if you have two or more of the following:

• You are overweight. The best way to determine if you are "overweight" is by calculating your Body Mass Index (BMI), or by measuring the fat around the waist (abdominal obesity). The waist circumference should be less than 102 cm for most men, and less than 88 cm for most women. - Nope
  
• You are physically inactive: You perform less than 20 minutes of vigorous exercise three times per week or less than 30 minutes of moderate exercise per day. - Nope, I go to the gym about 3-4 times per week
  
• You smoke. - Yuck. Nope.
  
• You drink excessively. Moderate alcohol use - up to two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women and older people is not harmful for most adults. (A standard drink is one 12-ounce bottle of beer or wine cooler, one 5-ounce glass of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits). - Nope, not a drinker
  
• You have high blood pressure. - Nope, normal.

So this is going to be a bit interesting. Before, I more or less ate what I wanted to eat, although I never ate a lot most of the time. I exercise. I have a fairly healthy diet. Okay, I eat a bit of junk, more than I should, but I don't think it's that bad. And except for one question, I responded negative to everything. So I think I'm fairly healthy.

Yet I still have high cholesterol. I sort of suspect that it maybe somewhat genetic. However, that's not a good enough excuse for me not to watch my diet a bit more.

Sigh.

Watermark Restaurant

Tonight hubby and I went to the Watermark Restaurant on Kits Beach for hubby's birthday dinner. Today isn't hubby's birthday, it's a few days from now, but we decided to go tonight.

For starters, we had Lobster Dumplings. It tastes like lobster stuffed in a dumpling shell, with a bit of chili sauce. Pretty good. The New York steak that I had was very good, and done just how I asked it to be (medium). Hubby also enjoyed his sablefish dish. For dessert, we had a Strawberry Charlotte, which was some strawberry cheesecake layered with ladyfingers. Very yummy!

I give this place 8 out of 10. The food was very good. The only real complaint I had about this restaurant was that:

1. They didn't serve any free bread. If I'm going to spend $100 on a meal, I think we should have gotten free something.
2. Because it's right on the beach, you can see people on the beach in their bikinis and shorts, playing ball and paddling in the water. I don't know, but somehow this just felt like to me to have cheapened the ambiance, especially considering that I felt that anyone could have just walked into the restaurant straight from the beach. If I'm going to spend $30 on steak, I would have wanted the ambiance to be a little more sophisticated and a little less like a hot dog shack. (Just my two cents, take it or leave it)

Picture of the birthday boy:

KOOKY: Golf!

Someone at work had arrange a golf outing for the people at work. So yesterday, we all trekked to the local public golf course and played golf.

I have to say that before yesterday, I was a golf virgin. I wasn't the only one; there were many others, and even one was in my group (he for some reason kept on hitting trees). The groups of 4 were arranged so that there was at least one person on each team who was deemed the "golf expert" and kept track of the score. We played a variation of Best Ball rules so that we'd continue to move along the course.

No one had showed me how to hold the golf club properly, so I ended up with a few scrapes and callouses and manged to take some skin off of my right thumb. But regardless, it was fun and the company was great.

Afterwards, we had a meal with the other groups and some more members of our team at work, so it was a real nice gathering, despite the less then stellar food and service. So a fun night all in all.

Some general odds-and-ends from yesterday:

• After observing how some others do it, I managed to sort of figure out how to grip the club (although I still don't think it's entirely correct) and managed some decent shots. Well, I managed to move the ball forward, so big achievement in my books
• My ball actually caught air once. I was chuffed about that
• My teammates were amazed that I hit straight most of the time. Go figure
• My best ball made it about 50-60 yards down the fairway.

Despite the fun, I don't think I'll ever take up golf as a hobby. It took us 4.5 hours to finish all 18 holes, and that was with cheating rules. It was warm and sunny out, and by the 14th hole or so, I wanted to just stop and go in, it was very fatiguing. I had to go pee, and I wasn't going to use the conveniently-placed Jiffy Johns. Plus, golf requires skill, and I have no patience nor talent for that sort of thing generally, which explains why I don't play sports.

Women in Art

This is kinda cool. It's 500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art. However, it doesn't have the John William Waterhouse's Lady of Shalott, my personal favourite female art, but I guess this isn't a portrait per se.

(I got to see the Lady of Shalott at the Tate Briton in London a couple of years ago, that was such a thrill for me!)

Par-ee!!!

(I thought I'd never live to see the day when I put up a picture of Paris Hilton on this blog. Well, that teaches me to never say never!)

So we've finally booked our flight and hotel for our Paris trip! Whoo!

We booked our flight through Zoom Airlines, and believe it or not, we found it to be the cheapest, even cheaper than flying out from Seattle. Zoom came highly recommended to me, so I thought I'd try it out. The only apprehension I have is that we're not allotted a lot in terms of luggage weight, but I'd just rather pay a bit more if I go over. At least we're flying out from Vancouver.

And believe it or not, the $119/night, 4 star hotel that I found on Hotwire.com was the Hilton in Paris! LOL! I'd managed to guess correctly before making the purchase that it would be that hotel, and read a few reviews on TripAdvisor. My main thing is that the hotel is clean, not smelly (especially of cigarette smoke), everything in the room works properly, and in a quite location. According to Google, it's not too far from the Metro.

Can't wait for August! Whoo hoo! Now to go practice my French...

Grouse Grind Redux!

Today hubby and I went up the Grouse Grind again. I was going to post my rules, but after a quick search through my old blog posts, I found that I had already posted this last year.

Today's time: 1 hour, 9 mins.

It seems that I can't break the 1 hour mark, but I really want to try. Hopefully I'll have a chance to go up again this year.

We got there at 8.30 (it usually opens at 6.30), and although I was afraid that the trail was going to be really packed, it wasn't. The trail only opened just last weekend, so I suppose that not a lot of people knew that the trail was already opened. That and they were afraid that there may be snow.

Yes, that really is snow behind me. There was a fair bit of run off near the top of trail, but it wasn't too bad. Still, it made the trail a bit tricky to maneuver.

KOOKY: Professional Development

For the past three days, I've been at the UBC downtown campus taking a Project Management course. The reasons why I decided to take this course were:

• I do a lot of small/medium/large-ish projects at work and I thought this would be a great way to learn how to do things properly
• Management expects that I take PD courses, after all, they put aside money for me to use, so I'd better use it!
• My boss strongly hinted that I should be taking PM courses

Needless to say, I really liked the course. My instructor, from my calculations, is in his early 70s. He's not retired by choice. He still teaches these courses several times a year, and he still does consulting work.

What really impressed me about him was that he's a very smart guy, his mind was still sharp, his memory is excellent, and most importantly, he's very tech savvy. He mentioned that he goes through a new laptop every couple of years, and during the course, he had a nice shiny black Mac Book that he used with no problems. He puts together his own power point slides, video and email are not stranger to him, and he Googles with practiced ease. He's more tech savvy than a lot of our users!

What I really liked about our instructor was that he's been in the PM field for close to 50 years, so he had a lot of experience to draw upon. When he taught the theory, he always had at least one or two stories from his past experience that he told to illustrate his point. I particularly like this as it showed me how the theory can be applied in real life practice and made the subject must less boring. I particularly liked his stories about the Sky Train project back in the 80s. He was the main PM for that project. That really blew me away!

Another nice thing about the course was that they fed us breakfast, lunch and lots of snack foods. At my last training course, I didn't get much of that. Granted, eating a lot of sugary and high-fat foods isn't always good for you, but it saved me from hunting down and paying for food, and that in itself is a bonus.

All in all, it was Faculty of Medicine's money well spent! =D Two thumbs up for my course!

(For those of you who know me in real life or through Internet-land, this guy also teaches this course at McGill and U of Toronto, so I can pass along his information if you're interested in taking the course.)

Paris?

So after a lot of thinking, we've decided to go to Paris for our big trip. For reasons that I won't get into now, this could possibly be our last big trip for a very long time, so we decided to splurge and just do it.

I've been there once in 1994 for a couple of days, hubs has never been. We've been looking around for cheap flights and hotels, and let me tell you, my brain hurts.

Yesterday our friend T lent us his guidebook and phrasebook, so we are definitely prepared. Hubs and I also went to Chapters yesterday to look at the phrase books that they had there.

Until we get everything booked, nothing is for certain still, but I'm beginning to get stoked. Hopefully everything will fall into place soon! Stay tuned!

I have joined the dark side

My curiosity had gotten the better of me: I have created a Facebook account.

Let's see what happens next...

Some Excitement

Or not.

Yesterday, my dad had decided to make some soup. The Chinese way of making soup is to make your own soup stock by boiling some sort of animal bones for at lest half a day or longer (I've seen my mom boil things for a couple of days), then throw in your ingredients and boil more.

You can already possibly guess what's going to happen next.

My dad then went out with our neighbour and was gone for a good long while.

Sometime during the day, the other neighbour sees smoke coming out from my dad's place.

Fortunately, after two fire trucks, a smashed in window, bent window bars, a charred stove and pot and lots of smoke, nothing was too much damaged. I certainly didn't notice that anything was wrong when I got home, and until my mom pointed it out, I didn't even notice the smoky smell that was in the air.

My dad huffed and puffed about how he's getting Alzheimer's. Yeah, he's been saying that since he was in his 40s. I think he's just plain forgetful as this has happened a few times before in the past, just never something this extreme.

Sigh. At least everything's okay.

Mother's Day

So trying to be the good daughter, I asked my mom where she wanted to go for mother's day. My mom suggested that we call up my grandmother and ask if she wanted to go as well. Good idea, after all, Grandma is a mom too.

Well, I left it up to my mom to figure out where to go, since she knows better than I do what my grandmother likes to eat, and more importantly, what she can eat. Grandma is 94 years old, and I think all but one of her teeth are fake. Plus her digestive system ain't what it used to be. And realistically, I haven't a clue where the good Chinese restaurants are.

I was already prepared yet again for Cantonese food. Now don't get me wrong, I wanted to appreciate my mom and my grandmother, but please, Cantonese food again? And even better, at the same restaurant that we always go to?

I always find that Chinese people, especially the older generation (although it still runs rampant with people in my generation and the generation after me), tend to choose Chinese food over other types of food. Why choose that for every single frickin' meal out? What's wrong with Italian? Or Thai? Or Russian?

Perhaps it's comforting and familiar for them. Okay, I will give them that, but why not be adventurous and try other types of food once in a while? Why does Chinese food always has to be the first choice? Argh!

You know, eating the same things over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again gets pretty boring. The same type of food gets ordered every time we went out for any family dinner since I can remember, certain since the dawn of time. It's no wonder why I can't see why other people get so excited about eating Chinese food, I certainly can't muster up the enthusiasm myself. In fact, over the years, the desire to have Chinese food has mostly been beaten out of me because of the sameness of it all.

So, being the good daughter that I am (and after ranting to hubby), I sucked it up and ate Cantonese-style Chinese food. Again. At the same Chinese restaurant that we normally frequent for family meals.

At least my mom paid for it. I was all ready to pay, but she insisted, so in the end, who am I to argue?

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and moms-to-be!

Slinkies

Someone at work sent this to me:

Some people are like slinkies.

Not really good for anything but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.

KOOKY: Promotion

So the big news I was alluding to is that, as of May 1st (that was this past Tuesday), I'm now "Weed, Team Lead and DBA, Web Team" (DBA == Database Administrator). Yup, I got promoted.

Not a lot of details really. My boss had been wanting for many months to have a team lead for my team so he can dump stuff off of that person instead of having to deal with the entire team. So on Monday, he sat me down and asked if I wanted to be Team Lead, and after asking him a few questions, I said "Yes!"

There isn't a lot of details to tell. I know that I get to move up a pay level (that doesn't mean I get a raise in pay, very complicated to explain, that). And he mumbled something about me doing performance reviews. Yikes! I'd never done actual supervisory stuff, well not at a paying job at any rate. So I'm going to start looking around for management courses. This will be interesting. In any case, I'm certain that I will hear more of what my boss expects of me in due time. That's me for not asking questions when I should have. Oh well.

The rest of my day was pretty much a waste. We now have 7 desks (not 8 as I first thought), in our room. And once one of the guys come back, we'll have 6 people squished in our room. It will be interesting in a couple of ways: 1) I finally have another female in the group, and even though she's not a techie, I need someone I can talk to girlie stuff to once in a blue moon. 2) Our room's become a little international. There's someone from Ireland, England and Australia. My co-op's from China, but he's been here since he was 11. Then there's me and my original co-worker. While I like the people who are in my room, at least two of them are very talkative (not to say that I'm not), but it's not always conducive to getting stuff done.

Someone commented in my last post that upper management should see how they like being squished in like sardines. While I appreciate the sentiment, my own Director has to share an office with someone else. You would think that someone at her level would have her own office, but no, that's not how things work around here. And trust me when I say she didn't have a choice.

KOOKY: Sardines

Yes, they are packing us in like sardines. In my room, we currently have 3 people (okay, 4, but one guy's away on a family emergency). Tomorrow they are adding three more desks into the room, and at least two new people will now be living with us. That's a total of six, but they plan to squeeze 8 people in all together. I've already asked if we could get portable dividers for the room, not so much for privacy, but to absorb the increase in noise in the room.

I will not get any privacy whatsoever. There will be one person facing me directly, and another person directly to my left. I really don't know how long this will last. There are a couple of rooms across the hallway that is empty 99% of the time, but apparently, someone has claim over them, even though they weren't suppose to in the first place. And because these people belong to a different unit, we can't share.

Office space is always at a premium for us at the university. Because of the intense decentralization, if something isn't your, you can't share. Yup, what's mine is mine and what isn't mine, isn't mine. Even though we both belong to the same organization. Craziness. Tomorrow should be interesting...

However, if you think my situation is bad, it's not as bad as some other people's situations. Oh the stories I can tell about that alone. Sigh.

(I also have some awesome news, but I need to wait another day before I can let the whole world know about it. Stay tuned...)

Shopping Booty

State-side shopping was really good to us! I've become a huge fan of DSW, and we were introduced to Ross, TJ Maxx and Kolhs. My sister describes Ross as a step above Winners and TJ Maxx and Kolhs as a step above Ross, but all these stores still sell ridiculously discounted items.

My main frustration was that there weren't a lot of shoes in my size (still!). I'm a 5-5.5, and a lot of shoe manufactures start at size 6. Booo on them!

Both hubby and I spent just under $200 USD each, and we were a bit worried that we would have gone over the 48 hour limit (which was $200 CAD), but we discovered (at the Duty Free shop of all places) that it's now $400 CAD. Whoo hoo! Hubby landed some really nice Bostonian dark brown shoes from the Clark's store in Bellevue Square, an Addidas running hat that he's been looking for (in a shoe outlet store of all places), and a square bamboo cutting board which he is very proud of. My mom got some Royal Dalton for dirt cheap.

Here's a list of my stuff, in order of price:

I got this at the Nine West outlet store for $13.99. We were all shocked as it was marked higher. There were even two sales girls checking the price. But I'm not one to complain!



Also a Nine West purse, but got this one at Ross. This isn't the actual purse, but it's close enough to what I have. Mine has an additional size zip pocket on either end-s of the bag, and the buckle's slightly bigger:



From the Kenneth Cole outlet store:



From DSW, so cute! (Sorry pic is so big!)



From the Sketchers outlet store




And my most expensive purchase, at $49.99USD, I couldn't find a picture for. Booo! They're plain black leather ballet flats with a string bow at the toe, pretty simple looking.

The patio table has landed in Seattle

Well, after all the worrying about US Border Crossing Guards stopping us and searching our car, when we reached the border, that never happened. I think a lot of it is:

1. We've crossed the border with the same car several times before
2. We didn't fit their typical profile of a terrorist and/or drug dealer
3. We gave the guard our passports
4. We didn't lie when we answered the questions.
   
5. All three of us looked him directly in the eye and didn't act nervous or suspicous
   

We spent a total of 30 seconds talking to the guard. He asked us about the patio table and the bike (they were in plain sight for anyone to see), but then waved us through! I suppose that when he scanned our passports, our personal records probably came up, and there wasn't anything suspicious about us. We were nervous cause we sat forever in the lineup even though there were only a few cars ahead of us.

Anyways, mondo shopping tomorrow. Whoo!

The next few day...

Wednesday:

• Go to Chiropractor
• Go to work
• Go home and finish packing
• Go grab something to eat on our way to Seattle
• Crash at my sister's place

Thursday:

• Shopping! Probably at Bellevue Square, my favourite Seattle-area mall

Friday:

• Shopping at Seattle Premium Outlets
• Come home

A couple of notes:

• We will be going down with my mother (help me!), a large patio table and an old bike in the back (don't ask)
• We will be coming back sans large patio table and bike, but with my mom and my sister.

Confused. Welcome to my life. This quick trip down took a bit logistic juggling. I had already booked my days of for Wednesday and Thursday, but after talking to my mom and my sister, we changed it to Thursday and Friday as my sister wanted to come back up for my dad's birthday.

Even though I really shouldn't be spending more money, I discovered that I really need a bit of a break, so we decided to go stateside for couple of day; retail therapy is definitely in order. Hubby wants to look for a pair of brown shoes. I'm looking for a couple of cute pairs of shoes and a new bag/purse. I will post booty when we come back.

Right now, I'm more worried about getting that stupid table across the border.

Billy bounces balls.

Someone with too much time on his hands. I kept on gawking at how nice his (parent's, I'm assuming) house is. I also wonder how many takes they had to take to get all those clips. Like I said, someone has too much time on their hands.

Harry Potter, the next movie

Squeeeeee! I can't wait for July! I've been reading Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Price in preparation for the next and final book, also coming out in July. These stories stopped being children's stories a long time ago.

Darth Vader hits the skies

I'm more than a Star Wars loser than I thought. This is so cool.

[Source]

KOOKY: Multitasking

I noticed today that when my co-op student went to the loo, he brought his laptop with him. When I asked him about it, he said that he likes to "multitask" when sitting on the porcelain throne.

My co-op is a very strange boy.

Vacation Planning

So for the past little while, we've been trying to figure out holidays for this year. I had quite recently realized three things: 1) my summer's going to be very busy with work 2) I have 5 weeks of vacation, of which I have to use up at least 3 and 3) a lot of my co-workers have already booked time off. So I need to get my butt moving with the vacation plans.

Here's what we have planned so far:

• Shopping trip in the US end of this month
• Calgary visit end of June
• End of August - unknown location for 5th year Anniversary!
• October sometime (not Thanksgiving) - trip out to Toronto/Ottawa to visit friends (mostly hubby's)

One of the big things that we're working around for trip #1 & #2 is the fact that we have to cart family around, namely my mother and sister. That also requires working around work their work schedules. Mum is coming down with us for the Seattle trip, and on our way back up, we are bringing back my sister so we can do a birthday bash for my Dad. Then on trip #2, Mum's coming back with us to Calgary, but she's wanting to stay longer. Fine with me, but we have to book the tickets before the end of day tomorrow.

Let's see how everything eventually pans out....

The Ultimate Canuks Fan

This guy actually appeared on the front page of the local newspaper.

More Art!!

Between 11 and 25 March, Swiss artist Felice Varini and his team created an unusual piece of public art that is set to baffle and fascinate visitors to Cardiff Bay barrage. The piece, entitled 3 Ellipses for 3 Locks, was commissioned by arts agency CBAT for the Cardiff Harbour Authority and cost £25,000. A series of three yellow ellipses have been painted onto the working locks, gates and even the outer sea wall to create a piece that took a year to plan. The artist used photography, projection and painting to plan the piece which is his first in Wales and also his first work in the UK. Professional mountain climbers were required to access the barrage's difficult high structures. The piece was designed to highlight the main working parts of the barrage. The Harbour Authority approached CBAT to commission the piece, which compliments another 30 open air art projects dotted around the bay area. From virtually every angle the marks look like splashes of yellow colour against the backdrop of the Penarth headland and the Bristol channel. But on closer inspection visitors to the Barrage are treated to a visual spectacle featuring three perfectly formed yellow ellipses. All you have to do to see Felice Varini's 'anamorphic illusion' properly formed, like in the above picture, is find a precise vantage point somewhere on the barrage.

[Source]

Art!?!

The picture above is a four-story version of Donkey Kong. Made entirely of Post-It Notes. Someone has way too much time and money on their hands.

[Source]

Rest in peace Gramma

I never knew Augusta "Billye" Maver in real life, but I got to know her in cyberspace. I first "met" Gramma through someone on Hitched; it was this lady's grandmother whom she took care of at home.

Through the last year or so, I got to learn a lot about Gramma, especially through her blog that her granddaughter put up. This lady last December turned 100, definitely a huge milestone for anyone. I even sent her a birthday card.

I found out this morning that she had passed away in her sleep. While I never knew this woman personally, I found myself very affected by her death. I actually spent the morning fighting off tears and trying to concentrate on my job.

Please do read through her blog, she certainly was a spunky lady and she has certainly left an impression on me.

Pride and Prejudice: Barbie Style

Bawhahahah! I almost died when I saw this, although it took a second viewing to figure out who was who. The blonde is Bingley and Jane, the Ken doll with the beard is Darcy, and Aladdin is Wickham, who ends up with Lydia at the end. Good times!

Hello, I'm... Linux

Hubby's more or less gotten Ubuntu set up and he's loving it so far. I also noted that one of my co-workers also put Ubuntu on his spanking new laptop (same model as mine, but without the wide-screen). Here are some spoofs to keep you entertained...

[Source]

AWOL

I may not be posting for the next week or so. Life has suddenly become amazingly busy, and I don't know how much time I can even devote to my personal life. Going to the gym has already been thrown out the window for the rest of this week. Bah.

Some things that had happened so far this week:

• We had a new guy start at work (finally!)
  
• I almost melted at the gym last night. The air conditioning unit died during my step class. My instructor kept telling us that we didn't want to know how hot it was
• After several false starts, hubby's finally managed to download the Ubuntu iso and will be playing around with it for the next little while. He's going to wipe off the W2K on our 7 year old laptop and install Ubuntu. (He's also a little fed up with MS). This will be an interesting experiment. More to come later.
• We're trying to sell our coffee table

Things that are happening this week and next:

• My big project at work is finally starting up. I'll be in meeting most of Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, so I will be getting very little work done. Plus I don't know how busy I'll actually be until they start setting time lines late this week. We have2 months to make thing thing work, so it'll be tight. Lucky for me, they are feeding us, breakfast included. Whoo!
  
• I really need to continue on with school work, that's kinda stalled this whole month for various reasons
• I'm going to the car show. Whoo!
• We have visitors staying at our place all next week. I need to clean my house. Joy.
  

Movie Review: 300

Today, hubby and I went to go see 300. As I didn't know much about the movie, here are some impressions that I had.

Things I liked:

• Lots of really buff half-naked men wearing what looked like black Speedos and red capes. What I noticed was a lot of the actors were in their late 30s and early 40s, so there was an impressive amount of man-meat to drool over.
• The CGI was awesome and very well done. If you can watch this movie in IMAX, do so. I heard that they spent about 6 weeks filming in front of blue screens and 1.5 years doing the CGI. They managed to blend the CG in with the real people very well, and it was visually quite stunning.
  
• David Wenham. I've now seen him in Lord of the Rings and Van Helsing, as well as 300, and he's really impressed with the range of his acting skills. And he looks hot half-naked in black Speedos. Ha.
• The battle scenes were very well done.
  

Things I thought they could have improved upon:

• The script. The movie had too many battle scenes. About halfway through the movie, I checked the time. That's always a bad sign for me. And the plot was not very well developed and certain times I had to ask myself, why they did that with the plot, it did nothing to the storyline. Or something went over my head.
• Gerard Butler's accent. Don't get me wrong, I love Gerard Butler's accent, and he was very drool worthy flinging his half-naked body across the screen, and my beef isn't with him, it's with the director. Gerard Butler is Scottish, but I noted that pretty much everyone else spoke with a British accent in the movie. It may not be a big deal to some but I picked up on it and it grated on my nerves. Even David Wenham, whose Australian, managed a British accent. I suppose a part of this rant came from last night, when I watched most of Beowulf & Grendel on TV. That movie wasn't spectacular, and I was a bit disappointed as I really was looking forward to watching it. Not only did Gerard Butler's Scottish accent appear when everyone else had put on a British accent, but even worse, they allowed Sarah Polley, whom I love as an actress, to use her native Canadian accent. Another good example is The Phantom of the Opera, yet another Gerard Butler movie, where Christine and Raoul were very good, the actors were allowed to use their natural American accents, while the rest of the cast used English accents. I found this really jarring and it made me enjoy the movie less. Gerard Butler was very good in this role, and I think he made me fall in love with The Phantom all over again. My main rant is, unless the story allows for varying accents, please be consistent with the accents, as having conflicting accents when you're not expecting it really diminishes the over all effect that you're trying to make. It's the director's choice for doing stuff like this, not the actors, so I blame them.
  
• Lena Headey, who plays the Queen, slouches. I've picked on people in the past who slouches because I have really bad upper back problems due to computer work, so I suppose I'm hypersensitive to stuff like this.

So all in all, I give the movie 7 out of 10. The generous marks go to the awesome CGI work and the half-naked men.

Happy Birthday to Meeee!!!

Today is my birthday. I'm now coughthircoughtycoughfivecough. Um I'm 29. For the seventh time. Heh.

Not a very eventful birthday, but still fun. Hubby and I went to go see 300, review forthcoming. Afterwards, we went with my parents, my best friend N and his friend S to Baci Ristorante. The food was yummy. Anyone that lives in the area, you must go to this restaurant. Not only is the food really good, but it's not as expensive as some other places.

All in all, a good birthday!

Birthday Hair!

Yes, it's that time again folks, my yearly Birthday Hair Colour indulgence. Here are the before and after pictures:

Before (note that this was taken earlier in the week at my Grandma's birthday dinner. You are looking at a slightly drunk Weed. Heh)







And after! (I don't think that side of my face is the most photogenic, but you get to see the wicked colouring job. Plus, I need to get a better camera phone, my pictures somehow turn out all red!). I really am loving the red, although it's hard to see.

KOOKY: New toys

New toy for work. A Lenovo T60 15.4" wide screen, duo core Pentium processor laptop, with a huge hard drive and 3 GB of RAM. This thing is sweet! What you don't see is the dual 20.1" monitors (yes, I have two external monitors), a new Logitech wireless mouse and a big ass top-of-the-line docking station that I also got. All compliments of work. I had some fun trying to rearrange my desk yesterday with all the new toys. Heh.

We had some money left over in the budget, so a few of us got new laptops. My boss said, "Get whatever hardware you need to do your job, because I rather you be more efficient with your job with the equipment you need than doing your job poorly because you're not properly equipped. So go forth and spend the money."

I'm not going to argue against that. Spend money he says, and so spend money we did.

KOOKY: The Adventures of Weed

I wrote a really long post, then upon reflection, felt that it was one of the lamest posts that I've written, so I decided to delete it and give you the shortened version instead.

The highlights of my day:
- I had to deal with dog-pee on our office room carpet (it's still there by the way)
- My co-op student's landlord is a 57-year old single man who doesn't do much except watch B-rated slasher movies into the wee-hours of the morning. Apparently, he has hundreds of VHS tapes of B-rated slasher movies in every nook and cranny in his apartment, including my co-op's bedroom. Oh, and he's noticed that my co-op owns a meat cleaver.

I think I'll leave the rest up to your imagination, heaven knows it's probably going to be more interesting than what I wrote originally. And I work in IT!

New Ultimate Ultimate!

I've been playing this song to death. I like it for several reasons:

1. It happy sounding;
2. I like the synth/pop sound
3. It's got wicked bass riffs, and I would love to see if I can copy it one day on my bass (which I don't even have right now, my friend has it sigh).

I love this video, it's so goofy, and the 70s shorts are a great touch. Here's the new ultimate-ultimate, Here In Your Arms by hellogoodbye

Computer Woes!

*** I apologize in advance for all the techie talk ***

So we've been experiencing computer woes for at least several weeks.

First, Shaw's service was less than stellar. I guess the grid that we're on was getting overloaded. Some of the speed test that we did with the tech guy showed that the download speed really sucked, maybe 100Kb/sec. They finally fixed that, and we're now we're getting 4-5 MB.

Second, the router that we've had for a while finally crapped out. It was always flakey to begin with. When I did ping tests, it either timed out, or the data packets took a very long time to come back. Boo. After calling twice today, hubby managed to get a receipt for a replacement. However, we still need a wireless router as I need to stick my web server out in the DMZ for my school project (I don't know how else to do it, I don't do networks or firewalls =P), and my parents need their Internet. Hubby's friend hopefully can lend us a temp router until we get the replacement.

Then I called hubby today to see how he was doing (he stayed home and spoke to two different tech support people in different parts of Asia). He told me he couldn't boot my computer back up. I almost had a heart attack. I was hoping it wouldn't be my hard drive, because, like every good techie, I backed everything up, not! I seriously had visions of having to restart my project (of which I've been working on for 1.5 years) from scratch, so you can understand my concerns. It didn't sound like it, and lo and behold, when I got home, hubby was in the middle of switching power supplies with another box that we have (I was thinking about putting Ubuntu on that box at some point, but until we get a new power supply, I guess not). So it was the power supply that was the problem, and my computer's happy again. The guts are still sticking out (ie, hubby hasn't put the panels back on; apparently, I don't do hardware either), but it's happy. For now.

Sigh.

Marriage Checkup

Last Saturday, hubby and I attended a marriage seminar. This is the second marriage seminar/conference that we've gone to since getting married 4.5 years ago.

When I told my co-workers on Monday what I did over the weekend, they questioned as to why I would do such a thing? My answer: My marriage is in pretty good shape, and I want to keep it that way.

You go to the doctor to do a regular checkup to see if you're healthy. If there's something wrong, then you take steps to fix it. In business, you continually check upon your customers to see if they are happy and that you have a good relationship with them.

So why not have a regular marriage checkup? Why wait for you to be unhappy about your marriage before doing something about it? Marriage is hard work, and no one I know is ever given a user manual to figure out how to get through with it. We can only learn by example and trial-and-error. I am certainly no expert, and I can't say I'm really an expert of my own marriage, so why not get as much help as I can? I'm not perfect, and neither is hubby.

Going to these seminars has given me good ideas as to how develop my relationship with my hubby. The great thing is that hubby is also there, so he hears the same things I hear. I know that we have challenges coming in the next 5, 10, 15, 20, 50 years down the road, so I want to continue to build a strong foundation now.

I find that going to these seminars so helpful. I've been to counselling once in my life (for non-marriage issues), and this is different. I've been given practical tips on communication, sex, and how to deal with issues when they arise, stuff that you don't normally hear in counselling sessions. The first one we attended even had homework for us, but it forced us to talk about and answer questions that we normally (as well as most couples) don't talk about. I suppose you can view it as a user manual for marriage.

The main speakers of these seminars are marriage counsellors, and have been for many, many years, so they've seen it all. They've also seen people heal their marriages, so their advice is certainly worth their weight in gold. What I particularly appreciate hearing is stories about their own marriages. It goes to show you that everyone does deal with the same issues and even those who are the "experts" are also human and just as fallible as we are.

So I strongly encourage any one of you, no matter how long you've been married, or what stage your marriage is at, to try one of these seminars. They have claimed that there were people who attended pretty much as a last resort, and if this didn't work, they would have gotten a divorce. Many have said that it has saved their marriage (not to say that they didn't have a hard road afterwards to fixing their marriage, but at least now they have a focus and a common goal).

Whether or not you believe that, I can believe it because I've come away with positive tools and ideas that anyone can use to continue to strengthen their marriage. Believe it or not, a lot of stuff is pretty common sense, it sometimes takes someone else to point it out.

Please note that the ones that I'm listing here are Christian seminars, although many non-Christians do attend. If you're not comfortable with the idea, don't click on the links.

The one we attended on Saturday: Dr. Gary Chapman
Family Life Canada

Method Products

I'm posting this mainly for my friend T, who is an avid reader of this blog and who works for Evil Telus (you know who you are!).

Several people have told me about Method Products. Method is a company that makes environmentally-friendly, biodegradable cleaning products. Since there was so many people raving about them, I decided to give it I try.

So far, I've tried the Daily Shower Spray and the Cleaning Cloths (Cucumber scent). I have to say I love it! The shower spray, although I don't use daily (because it's still relatively expensive), works great and I don't have to use as much elbow grease when I go to scrub the tub. I also use it on our bathroom sink (again, less elbow grease).

I also bought a bottle of the Cleaning Cloths, and this stuff rules! The clothes are thicker than the Lysol cloths that we currently use, and I found that these cloths clean better than the Lysol ones. Plus the cloths are biodegradable (however, hubby did point out how would it degraded when you wrap it up in a plastic garbage bag, ha!)

Two thumbs up for Method!

Star Wars Mailboxes

Attention all Star Wars geeks! The United States Postal Service is celebrating the 30th anniversary of Star Wars with R2-D2 wrapped mailboxes.

Now how long do you think these things will remain on the street before someone nabs it for their mailbox collection?

How not to exit from a parking garage

Quote

I found this quote in my Study Bible. It was part of an introduction to the book of Philemon

Everyone says that forgiveness is a wonderful idea, until he has something to forgive. -- C. S. Lewis

Two surprises

Yesterday was an unusual day. The day started off with a wedding. Now normally, weddings, while pleasant affairs, usually aren't big surprises as there tends to be a build-up months in advance leading up to the event.

However, I got the invitation to come to the wedding Friday night after 11pm, after I was already in bed. The wedding was set for Saturday, 1pm. I had less than 14 hours notice, freaked out because I had nothing to wear, I ironed my clothes (something I never do, too much bother), and we rushed to the mall to grab the gift.

My friend married a girl who was not a Canadian Citizen, nor was she a landed immigrant. So to expedite the immigration paperwork, they got married. The bride had come back for a visit to do some wedding planning (they're still having a formal ceremony in June) and of course to see my friend. Little did she know that she was was going to get married. She didn't even bring any dressy clothing with her, so they had to go buy some.

So after everyone arrived, some last minute furniture shuffling and a quick trip to the florist, my friends were hitched. Everyone was surprised, but pleasantly so. The bride and groom had big stupid grins on their faces which mirrored ours. I'm so thrilled for him. It was totally evident that they loved each other. This is one wedding ceremony I won't forget for a long time.

The other surprise was for another friend later that night. Tomorrow is her birthday, and we wanted to do something nice for her. She couldn't make it to the wedding, so we'd asked if she wanted to go for dinner with the rest of us. She would only show up if the newlyweds were going to be there. We let her think that (the bride and groom had an extended family dinner, half the family didn't even know that the wedding had taken place yet!). Anyways, she showed up with a nice bouquet of red roses, ha! The joke was on her. But in any case, we had lots of fun stuffing our faces with yummy Greek food.

Today I feel like a total blimp, too much food from yesterday, and it was a pretty tiring day, but so much fun!

The Not-So-Evil-Homework

Many of you who know me have heard me mention "Evil Homework". What the heck is it? Well, hopefully this will make some sense. I know even hubby doesn't fully understand what's going on, but here goes nothing.

I'm currently finishing my Bachelor of Technology in Computer Systems at BCIT. It's essentially equivalent to a Computer Science degree, but a little more technical and a little less theoretical. (But of course if you ask the illustrious academics at the big universities around town, they'd turn their nose up to it). Two reasons why I'm doing this degree is so this will make me more employable if I should go looking for a job in town or within the country, but also, it opens the door for me to gain employment in my field should I wish to work in a different country. I'm not planning on leaving the country any time soon (or possibly ever) to work elsewhere, but it'll be nice to have that option opened to me.

Anyways, a component of my degree program is to do a large project. I'm not going to get into the details as to why I couldn't do the project through work, it's too complicated, and a lot of it is silly rules that BCIT have built around project eligibility. Bah. Hence, I had to go look elsewhere for a project.

BCIT managed to hook me up with the clients that needed some coding done. Yes, I'm building an enterprise solutions for free. My clients (one is here and another one is in Toronto), are typical clients, despite one claiming that he's "technical". I don't think he's built an application outside of school before, and so he really doesn't understand my frustrations with users that don't know what they want.

The best parallel that I can come up with is that they are asking me to build a house, only they give me a part of the blueprint at a time. No one builds a house with only seeing a small part at a time, but that's what they are doing. Not only that, but the blueprint is incomplete, because users really don't know what they want and hadn't thought through some items well enough. Which required me to fill in parts of the blueprint for them. And build a part of the house with incomplete blueprints that I still haven't seen the whole of yet. So you can possibly imagine what problems I've been facing and why I've been frustrated.

This project has already stretched for 1.5 years. I do have an end date, but it was later than I had first anticipated (more drama, this time with BCIT, long story there as well). I had more than once felt like I was in a dark tunnel with no glimpse of light at the end of it. It got depressing more than once. And it's affected my health (ie stress and back problems)

Well, something happened last weekend. My clients had decided to cut out 1/5 of the final product. You don't know how insanely happy that makes me. I've been constantly stressing about how I was going to be able to finish everything on time. Now the light at the end of the tunnel's getting brighter.

Not only that, but these guys want to start looking for venture capital to fund the product. If they get the money, I was actually offered a job at the end of it. I actually said no, for a few reasons. 1) I'm at the point of my life where I've discovered that, as much as I love development, that part of the world goes way too fast for me to keep up any longer, so I want to move away from it 2)I really need to stop sitting in front of a computer so much because of my health 3) I've already worked for a start-up once, no thanks. 4) My job, while not as technical, give me paid vacation, benefits, regular, non-crazy hours (for the most part) and a kick-ass pension. I'm not wanting to give these things up anytime soon.

However, they did say that they wanted to compensate me somehow if they did get their hands on some money. I was honest. I knew going in that I wasn't going to get paid a red cent, and I was okay with that. However, I'm not one to turn down money should someone offer it to me, I'm not that stupid.

So that's the story of my Not-So-Evil-Homework. Cross fingers that I'd actually finish the darn thing before the end of this year.