from the "Grass is Greener on the other side" Dept
Hey guys,
Got back Yesterday afternoon.
I writing about the stuff I did in Vancouver, some thoughts on each, etc....
However, I've taken the liberty of archiving the messages to the date, so to see what I did last Saturday, scroll down the list (or click the links below) and take a look at the August 24th, 2002 entry, and for Sunday look at the 25th of August, etc.
Take a look at then entries...
- Thurs: Interview
- Friday: Take off from TO to Vancouver
- Saturday: Aquarium, Return to Nerdom
- Sunday: The Grouse Grind, My cousin Redeems himself
- Monday: Fly Back, Flat Tire on the 407
From the "Cam is Dreaming about me?!" Dept.
On Thursday, Cam messages me on MSN and says, "Tai, I had a dream about you."
A lot of things went through my mind like, "I hope it wasn't erotic..." or "<grin> Was it as good for you as it was for me...."
I polite and asked, "Really? What was your dream about?"
So cam goes on to tell me how she dreamed about a party at her house (I think that was the location), and how Byron and I were invited. Apparently we both brought our girlfriends; except my girlfriend wasn't Jen. It was another girl!
This lead Cam to wonder, "Are you and Jen okay?"
I said, "Yes, all things considered, we're doing quite well."
We then started talking about preminatory dreams, and I told her about my dream back in grade 5 about the movie "Nightmare on Elm Street 4: the Dream Master"
It's interesting, I remember it all very clearly. Back in Grade 5, some other students in my class made a homemade video compositer (a piece of AV equipment) for their science fair project (I was part of a gifted class....). Their example of the compositer was a clip from the Nightmare on Elmstreet series, which really freaked me out.
So one night, I had this dream about my two brothers and I watching TV, and all of sudden my focus is centred on the TV, where a new trailer for Nightmare on Elmstreet is playing.
Two weeks later, it actually happened.
The weird thing is that I actually dreamed the "Theatrical Trailer Release".
Freaky.
Tai
It was an adventure trying to get home.
The flight was delayed over an hour, and the cab I took blew it's tire on HWY 407.
Geez...took me a long time to get home. I even helped put on the spare tire--because the Taxi driver was incompetent.... We haggled at my house and I paid him $45 CDN for the trip (for what is normally a $60 dollar trip)
I'm beat.
I must say, I had a great time in Vancouver. Still looking for that "great" Japanese cuisine I keep hearing about, but what can you do?
-T
From the "I'd rather do the CN TOWER Stair climb anyday" Dept.
Jen and I woke up at 7:30 am Sunday.
We changed, ate a light breakfast, packed our Gatorade, water, and TREK drinks into my North Face Galileo day bag.
The drive up to Grouse Mountain is beautiful. You drive through Stanley Park, over the Lions Gate Bridge, and past the region of Capilano. The entire time you're driving, you're surrounded by mountains, water, fresh air, and tall trees.
The climb is 1250 metres high (according to the brochure) and 1100 metres above sea-level.
The route that people take is called the "Grouse Grind". I was expecting something similar to the HardeKlum that Jen and I climbed in Switzerland. I figured it would be a trail that zig-zagged up the moutain with many look out points, etc.
What I got was a straight climb of 1250 metres up. Not side to side, but up.
Gosh, that was brutal.
Half way up, I felt my legs giving out on me. I even seriously considered stopping (fearing injury), but Jen convinced me to go on. It took us just over an hour and 50 minutes to climb to the peak. The best recorded time for doing the "Grouse Grind" is 27 minutes.
Damn.
At least a 75 people passed us, I think.
So I know what Byron meant about how he felt climbing up Mount Fuji. I didn't even have to deal with thin air either. Damn, brotha--I know what you went through now.
Jen and I stayed on top for about 30 minutes. We finished the 1/2 litre bottle of Gatorade, but barely touched the TREK drink. It was absolutely disgusting. It tastes like Pocari Sweat, bit it's super bitter.
Jen and I took the gondola down, and then drove to the Capilano Suspension bridge..but it was too busy, so we drove back to the condo and had lunch at a nice Italian restaurant.
From the "Blood is thicker than Water" Dept.
Jen and I were beat, but I had promised Jen that we'd go and pick up some things for her condo.
We went to Eatons and Sears and picked up some stuff (coat hangers, corningware, a Brita Filter, etc.). Then Jen and I took a nap.
Victor called me and I was like, "Yeah, what do you want?"
He wanted to apologize about the RPG convention and we decided that him and Janice and Jen and I would have dinner somewhere in Grainville Island.
We talked, had some good eats and the Bridge Restaurant. It was the first time I've seen Victor in about 3 years. So there was a lot of catching up to do. His girlfriend Janice is cool. Her parents are from Barbados, but now live in London, England. She lived in London until she was 12 years-old, and then she moved to Toronto to study. She run's a Day Care Centre.
Oh yeah, she's black too.
That's totally cool with my generation, but my parents and his parents are going to freak.
-T
Jen and I were suppose to hike up Grouse Mountain, but we decided to sleep in.
We got out of bed at 10:30, showered, changed, and looked around for some food. I was in the mood for a hearty breakfast, you know, like an all-day breakfast special. Jen suggested we go to Earl's. I can't complain about the food or service. It was great. However, it wasn't even remotely close to a diner. Told Jen what was happening in the world (Canadian Politics, Ontario School board issues, Toronto Transit Comission, world politics, etc.). I had smoked salmon (which was cooked oddly enough), and Jen had a chicken club sandwich.
We decided to head to Stanley park, and that's the best part about Vancouver--natural surroundings are just a 15 minute walk away from the downtown core. Amazing!
I can see why many a Torontonian fall in love with Vancouver.
Let me say this: There are a whole whack of orientals in Vancouver. More than I expected, really. Most seem to be of Japanese or of Korean descent if that matters.
So yes, for you guys out there--There's a lot of Asian eye-candy. Not that I was looking....just an observation.
Anyway, Stanley park was really nice. Jen and I went to the Vancouver Aquararium, which was neat, because I've never been to an aquararium before (unless you count Marine Land). Unfortunately, my camera died and I lost a half-roll of film. Hopefully it will still develop properly.
From the "I wish I could that" Dept.
Jen and I saw a funny thing while looking at the Sea Otters.
Mr. and Mrs. Sea Otter were floating on their backs side to side. They were using the surrounding water to clean themselves. Mr. Sea Otter begin's by washing his hands, then his face and then his chest. Mrs. Sea Otter did the same.
Then Mr. Sea Otter bends forward and cleaned his, uhh, you know, his wanker.
He did this with his mouth.
Another couple was standing near Jen and I. The girl exclaimed, "Look, they're cleaning themselves."
Then Mr. Sea Otter began to give himself some "oral pleasure".
Girl: "What's he doing?"
Guy: <Laughs> He's sucking himself off, dear.
I told Jen that it was obvious that Mrs. Sea Otter wasn't doing her job in keeping Mr. Sea Otter happy.
From the "Return to Nerdom" Dept.
I was suppose to meat my cousin Victor (he's 32 years-old) after the aquararium between 3 pm and 6 pm. It's funny, I tried calling him all day, but I kept getting his girlfriend, Janice.
So guess where my Cousin, my own flesh and blood was?
Janice told me that he was at a Role-Playing Game Convention playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Geez, he forsaked his own Flesh and Blood for an RPG. That's my cousin folks.
So Jen and I chilled a bit between 5pm-7pm. We went to SHABUZIN, a Korean BBQ place with AK (Andrew Kim), Tiffany, and some other Accenture People.
Now my last outing witn Accenture people wasn't too stimulating; if anything it was kind of fascinating. I admit, the outing was better--still a lot of work talk--which to be honest, doesn't really put me in the mood for dancing (or anything for that matter).
The food was okay, not outstanding, not bad.
Went out to a lounge that was pretty packed called the "Urban Well". Again, more work talk.
I just got bored.
Plus, Jen and I were determined to do the Grouse Mountain trail tomorrow morning.
Before I went to bed, I received a message from my cousin Victor. He wanted to know what I was doing that evening. Too little, too late.
My flight from TO to Vancouver was really uneventful. In fact it almost felt like "easy and convenient" air travel.
I saw "Men with Brooms" for the in-flight movie and I enjoyed it immensely. Sure the acting wasn't Oscar calibre, and all of the "Canadiana" propoganda was directed towards the "white, male/female Canadian" demographic--it was a fun movie none-the-less.
The only thing I can say is that I missed the last scene of the movie. Paul Gross is about to throw his last stone, and right when he releases, the flight attendent drops a tray of food all over the floor. It distracted me for just a few seconds (it was right by my seat), and when I looked up, Paul Gross and his team are celebrating the win. For the life of me, I can't figure out how they won... The needed two stones in the circle to win, and If I remember correctly, the best they could do was tie. Hmm, I don't know.
Arrived in Vancouver at 9:05 pm PST, about 1/2 an hour early. Walked around the airport waiting for Jen, when she came I pointed out to here a Telus phone card vending machine. It was very poorly designed.
I took a picture of it. I'll post it when I get the film developed.
Jen and I had dinner at Nikko, a Japanese restaurant. It was good, very authentic (Jen, having been to Japan said so). The serving was very generous, but the fish was either old or very fresh (I don't know). It was softer than I expected. It didn't taste fishy, but I don't exactly know what Salmon tastes like fresh....
Then we went looking for Ice Cream.
I had wanted to get a carton of "Haagan Daas" for Jen and I to share back at the apartment, but the London Drugs (BC's Shoppers Drugmart, I guess) was on the other side of the street, necessitating us to cross the road.
Guess what? It was closed.
So Jen went up and asked a person where they got their ice cream cone. Turns out that the place, Mondo Gelato, had just shut it's doors.
Boo! Boo on Vancouver retailers for closing at Midnight.
So Jen and I went into an all-night variety store that sold a whole bunch of Japanese foodstuff. They had Pocari Sweat, and Calpis Water too.
We bought a bottle of Gatorade, a bottle of water, and an energy drink called called TREK.
-T
From the "going to Vancouver" Dept.
Going to Vancouver for the weekend.
I'll try to finish off a roll of film.
BTW, the Interview went okay, I was good, but I wasn't great.
I find out next week.
Tai
From the "man, what an interview" Dept.
Hey Guys,
I'd love to write more about the interview, but all I'm willing to say is that the interview went well. I was good, but not great.
I'll find out by Next week.
-T
From the "Anxiety - Just like Co-op" Dept.
I have a job interview for a full-time position tomorrow.
Longview Solutions (since 1994) is based out of Markham. They make an centralized integrated product suite called Khalix--a financial analytics tool that does:
- Analysis,
- Budgeting,
- Forecasting,
- Consolidation,
- Planning,
- Reporting,
- and more...
Runs off a Unix Server and supports many platforms for it clients (they have a native Win32 client and support other platforms through Java).
There competitors include: Comshare, Hyperion, Adaytum, Alcar Group, Oracle 9i, etc.
Some pretty big players in on-line analytical processing (OLAP) server technology.
The position is for a "User Interface Design Manager".
The roles include:
- Subject matter expert in usability, visual design, and interface development
- Ensure consistency regarding the user experience and overall usability of the product by establishing\maintaining standards and usability conventions
- Translate business requirements into functionalities and usable interfaces
- Lead and coordinate the prototyping and design of the application user interface
- Raise usability issues and work with business and technical resources to resolve them in a collaborative manner
- Provide technical support to engineering in integrating human factors engineering principles and evaluation techniques
It gets's more interesting when you read the requirements:
- Advanced degree in an HCI related field or equivalent
- Three years direct industry experience
- Excellent communication (written and oral) skills
- Experience with products built for international markets
- Experience working with financial management software
Hmm...
To be honest, I'm puzzled why they would even ask me for an interview.
Granted, I think I'd be pretty successful at a position like this. It's the role requirements that surprise me. 3 Year's Experience? Advance Degree? Experience with Financial Management Software?
Two things come to mind:
1) They didn't read my resume (eek..)
2) They don't have any good applicants (which bolds well for me).
I hope this isn't a waste of time.
Tai
From the "Is it my breath? Do I smell?" Dept.
Well, yesterday marks a new day in Byron's life. He moved to Ottawa yesterday and starts a new full-time job with the WSIB.
All my guy friends are leaving me.
<sigh>
Perhaps it's a sign.
From the "Geez, I hope Jen doesn't find out" Dept.
My friend Allison Salter just got engaged!!!
Here's a picture of the her and her fianc�e , Scott:
Look at the beautiful couple.
Look at the ring on her finger.
Geez, If only you girls could hear the story about how he proposed.....It makes a significant amount of the male population look really, really bad.
Man, [inside joke] he even said, "You complete me."[/inside joke]
Jen: I can play a mean trombone.
Click the more link below to read about how Scott proposed to Allison [copied from an email sent by Allison].
TAKEN FROM A EMAIL, AUG 18, 2002.
ALLISON SALTER WROTE:
--------------------------------
Hi Everyone,
GUESS WHAT!?!? I'M ENGAGED! opps...I mean...we're engaged!
Can you tell I'm a little excited? Here is a photo of Scott and I taken by my Dad on the Beach in Southampton two days after the big event which happened on August 2nd, 2002. (Notice the ring on my finger!!!!)
Here are the particulars so far!
Date: September 20th, 2003 (that's next year!)
Place: Southampton, Ontario
For those of you wanting to hear the engagement story of a life time....read on!
Men reading this story - CAUTION - it's really romantic so hide if from your girlfriend if you aren't married ...and if you are married...you might want to hide it from her too! :)
***************************************************************
Scott & Allison's Engagement Story
After an exciting week at the Olympic Academy of Canada, my Dad, boyfriend Scott and I went up to my cottage in Southampton for the weekend. Momma Salter was already there.
Now, we had to get up to Southampton before 7pm because I had made dinner reservations at a fancy restaurant to surprise Scott and to celebrate our one year anniversary. This was a surprise to Scott and he acted surprised...but little did I know that it was his idea and that he had enlisted the assistance of my parents to make ME think that it was MY idea (not yet married men...are you taking notes?).
So we have dinner....7 course meal...all fancy shamansy. I suggested we walk home along the beach in order to watch the sunset. As we approached the stretch of beach in front of my cottage, I saw some lights on the beach and remarked to Scott "oh, it looks like someone is having a campfire on the beach!" As we got closer though, I realised it wasn't a campfire but a ring of candles and around a log on the beach that is my most favourite spot in the world. Inside the ring, lying on the sand, was Scott's guitar case, a dozen roses and some other things that I couldn't quite make out.
Scott led me into the candles...by now I'm thinking "What's going on?"
He told me to sit down on the log and presented me with a book to mark our one year anniversary. Inside he has put together all of the emails, cards and letters we had written back and forth to each other, all of the pictures and special momentos from our dating life together. It was beautiful...and now my mind was thinking...ohhhh, this is JUST for our anniversary....
Then he grabbed his guitar and sang a song he had written about our past year together. (Again, unmarried men...I hope you are taking notes). It was beautiful. The main chorus goes like this:
You build me up
More than bad breaks me down
You light up my life
More than the sun ever will
(tee hee hee!)
Phew...what a NIGHT! But it wasn't over yet!
Then Scott walked towards the water and urged me to come with him. I'm thinking..."Okay�what is this guy doing now?" As we got to the waters edge, he started lifting something out of the water. I asked him "what the heck is that" and he replied "it's a lobster trap!"�.my response "Why the heck would there be a lobster trap in Lake Huron�.don't people know that lobsters only live in the sea?"
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Sorry, just a quick break in the story to explain something to you. If you have ever watched the TV show "FRIENDS" there is an episode where Ross and Rachel are getting together. Phoebe explains Ross and Rachel's relationship using the analogy of the lobster. Since lobsters mate for life, they spend their days swimming in the ocean looking for their respective lobster/partner. Once a lobster "finds his lobster" ...he has found his life partner...or, he has "found his lobster." After watching this episode a few years back, I took that lobster analogy to heart and have used it whenever one of my friends gets married or something like that, I comment "oh, he/she has found his/her lobster"
END OF BACKGROUND INFORMATION
So, Scott is hauling this HUGE lobster trap out of the water and brings it back up to the beach. He tells me to sit down and picks up something in a blanket and says "this is what I caught in the trap". I remove the blanket to find this HUGE stuffed animal lobster (that he had sewn all by himself�without a pattern!). Scott continues "This is "Lobby Lobster, you can take him out with you to BC to remind you of me." AND THEN IT CLICKED.
My response�."that's awesome Scott, but you are my lobster"
THEN IT HAPPENED
HE WENT FROM SITTING BESIDE ME TO BEING ON ONE KNEE IN FRONT OF ME.
The thoughts going through my head at the time� "oh my God, oh my God, oh my God�this is it!"
He took my hand and said "Allison, I know that you have been thinking about our future together, and even though I have been brushing off your comments, the truth of the matter is that I have been thinking about and planning our future together for a long time. You complete me"
THEN HIS HAND WENT FOR HIS POCKET�NOW I�M THINKING
"this is it, this is it�this is REALLY IT"
Scott took the ring out of his pocket, looked at me in the eyes and said "Allison Salter, will you marry me!"
With out a doubt, my response was "Scott Curry, I would love to be your wife."
We hugged...he took me over to the candle light so I could see the ring...and slipped it on...perfect fit.
AGGGHHHHHGGGGHHHHGGGGHHHHHGGGHHHHGHGHHGGHGHGHGHGHGH!
Then I ran around the beach a few times screaming�."I'm engaged, I'm engaged�We're engaged!" You probably heard me in CALGARY!
BUT�he wasn't done yet!
He had a second verse to the song�and it focused on our future together.
After we had our, moment, we cleaned up the beach to head home. But before we did, Scott said we have to call his parents (who live in Tennessee). So we called them from his cell phone but the line was crackly so I said we would call them back when we got back to my house.
So we headed home and there were a million cars at my house. I think my mom invited the whole town! We had an egagement party! I ran into the backyard and saw my mom and started crying. As I was hugging everyone else and receiving congratulations, my mom said "Allison, we have some special guests here for you." I turned around to see Scott's parents there. Yep, the ones we had just spoken to on the phone. They had driven 20 hours to be there for that night�.and then they left the next morning! Can you believe how lucky I am!
The ring is everything I could ever want it to be.
My soulmate is EVERYTHING and MORE than I could EVER want him to be.
Sorry everyone, but I am the LUCKIEST WOMAN ALIVE!
What made it all the more special was that Scott involved both of our parents in the engagement plans and preparations (they were the ones who set up the beach).
The night ended with a bang with specially made Poppa Salter fireworks. It was amazing...absolutly amazing.
Do you want to meet Lobby Lobster? Here he is!
Lobby Lobster
How crazy and wonderful this thing called life is...and just how much more crazy and wonderful it will be with Scott to always share it with.
Much love
Allison
--------------------------------
End Quote
Wow! What a story. It put a tear in my eye.
-T
It's 2:45 PM EST.
Jen called.
She's safe.
ZZz ZZz ZZz.
From the "Up late and worried" Dept.
2:00 am -- waiting for Jen to call. She was suppose to call when she arrived in Vancouver.
I'm sure everything is fine.
Why can't I sleep?
Tai
From the "My family is sooo removed from Mother Nature" Dept.
For the past 5 days, my father has been convinced that the air conditioner wasn't running properly.
Hmm...house cooler inside than outside....
Okay.
So I called the a repair-man Friday morning and turned off the AC (if it isn't working, might as well save some energy, right?).
Turned it back on when my mother returned from work...house was cooler.
The repairman never called back.
My family (well, my mother, really) likes the house cold. Visitors are usually amazed at how cold my house is (at least Jen and Jean always mention it).
<For me, I wouldn't mind if it were a degree or two cooler...>
To my father's credit, there IS something wrong with the air conditioner.
It get's cold, but it doesn't blow any cold air to the house....rather it prefers to just sit there until it freezes its pipes solid.
So I think that running the Air Conditioner 24-7 has somehow blocked the main air channel (with ice, I presume) into the house.
The solution: Defrost the Air Conditioner--turn it off.
I have to admit, it isn't humid right now, so it's pretty comfortable.
I don't know if the air condition is broken, or if it even needs to be serviced. We'll find out tonight when we turn it on. [Weather reports say that it will be 12�C tonight, so turning on the AC is unlikely].
Funny thing: At around 6:00 pm, my mother is in the kitchen and she asks me, what is making that ringing noise.
They were crickets.
Yeesh....
From the "Jen is back" dept.
Spent the weekend with Jen. She was back from Vancouver to pick up more clothing and stuff.
Saturday was really lazy, just her and I driving from place to place.
Get this: I was actually doing the driving. :D
Jen picked up some gear (Trekking poles, water bladder system, etc.) for the Algonquin trip in two weeks (22 Km over 3 days days). I'll write more about the Algonquin trip next week.
Rented Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest (starring Eva Marie Saint, James Mason, Martin Landau and Cary Grant). It's an old movie, but a classic.
There were some great lines.
I admit, I've become pretty fascinated with Alfred Hitchcock's works ever since I found this site dedicated to Saul Bass. Saul Bass was the graphic designer who designed most of Hitchcock's graphics and titles. He did some real cutting edge stuff back in the day, which I admit, seems pedestrian to what we see now. However, I'm sure many designers would admit that he was way ahead of his time -- and probably up there with the likes of Paul Rand.
-T
My resume is up and running:
http://pixelsandwidgets.com/resume/
More to come.
(finally.)
Tai
From the "I sleep all night...work all day" Dept.
So my brother, Win, and I were cleaning out the back yard. It was a sight to see.
Imagine a sea of dead grass, with green islands peppered here and there.
The islands are weeds; the only thing that can survive during the summer without proper lawn care.
I also used a chainsaw and cut down a tree.
The tree was planted 8 years ago by my aunt. I have no idea what type of tree it is, but it grows like a weed, the neighbors complain, my mother complains....
So it had to go.
Too bad.
At least my apple tree can flourish now.
I have to give a lot of credit to lumberjacks, even though I had a chainsaw, cutting the tree down (7 inch trunk) required a lot more effort than I expected.
Prior to last years pruning, the tree was almost as tall as the house. After we pruned ALL the branches last year (8 hours hacking at it with a kitchen cleaver--no chainsaw), the tree still stood well over 12 feet.
Like I said, the thing grows like a weed.
I feel kind of bad...destroying the environment and all...if my aunt hadn't chosen such a hair-brained location for the tree, it would probably still up. Maybe I'll go to the nusery and buy a small maple tree or oak....
The cycle continues.
-T
From the "I hope my luck is changing" Dept.
Applied to 4 jobs today.
Cross your fingers people.
-T
From the "Oh, so Techy" Dept.
Installed Movable Type 2.2.1.
Note to self. When FTP uploading, make sure you set your FTP-client to overwrite files with the same name.
Tai.
From the "Found the Gum" Dept.
I found the missing pieces of gum. They were stuck to the walls of the dryer after the load was finished.
Great.
Fortunately, Jen has this great substance called "Goo Gone" that dissolves gum and glues.
Unfortunately, Jen is in Vancouver (she's safe and sound). She's living alone in a two bedroom condo (with no bed sheets or linens). She has the master bedroom at the moment (her roommate will be arriving in September). Unfortunately the second room is a really, really small kiddy room. So they'll probably move out.
However, back to the gum story. I'm very fortunate to know something about chemistry so I realised that "Goo Gone" is just a hydrocarbon-based solvent, and that something similar would probably work as well.
So I got a rag, and a cannister of white-fuel (for lanterns and gas stoves) and cleaned the inside of the dryer.
Worked like a charm.
From the "Tech Speak" Dept.
I'm crushed to find out that Aneil's computer is still not working.
Every time he brings it over, I manage to fix it, and then it stops working again.
I finally upgraded to Win2k Service Pack 3.
I finally upgraded to Internet Explorer 6--only to find out that there were about 6 critical security updates that needed to be patched after I installed it....
From the "Saving Water" Dept.
The Municipality of York is sponsoring a water saving program. They're going house-to-house and replacing old toilet flaps (these are the flaps that open to release water from the resevoir to bowl when you flip the lever/handle) and old shower heads with water efficient ones.
We opted out of the new shower heads (seeing we have water saving "wand" style shower heads and they were only giving away the "stand up, non-adjustable" shower heads), but we replaced all the flaps on our toilet.
They work really well. I estimate that the save about 6 litres a flush; a very significant savings. New toilets use approximately 6 Litres. Our toilet, use to use 20 Litres a flush. Maybe it's time to replace the toilets out right.
Hell, maybe it's time we installed a urinal...that would have a lot of water savings...
Better yet, I could dig a hole in the ground, and we can use that....
Just Kidding.
-T
From the "Shit" Dept.
Come to think of it, there are 7 pieces of gum in a pack of extra.
I ate one piece at Jen's House last night.
So that's 1 and 1/2 pieces that are unaccounted for.
SCHIZER!
-T
From the "Laundry Nightmare!" Dept.
I hate it when I do things like this:
I left a pack of gum in the pocket of my shirt and then proceeded to wash it in a full load of laundry.
Damn. That sucks!
The funny thing: I checked all the pockets before I loaded the washing machine---all the pockets on my pants, that is. The only shirt to have a pocket in it, turns out to have an almost full pack Wrigley's Extra . To add injury to insult: Since it was a large load...I set the indicator for "heavy" to add an extra 5 minutes of agitation to the cycle.
I am so lucky that I clean all my clothes in cold water.
There's nothing like opening your washing machine and having it smell minty fresh, then only to realise in horror that the detergent you used was lemon-scented.
That really sucked.
In doing the autopsy, I was able to find 4-and-half pieces of gum. What the hell happened to the last half?
I don't know.
I crossed my fingers, said a prayer to the laundry gnomes in my basement, and turned on the dryer.
-T
From the "Easy like Sunday Morning" Dept.
Woke up at little bit before noon today. Cooked some breakfast/lunch for Kev and I (and my family) and said our good byes.
Thanks for the Chinese buns and egg tarts Kev. You're too generous.
Bloody hot today. I started removing what's left of the weeds on my drive way. After manually removing many of the weeds about 2 weeks ago, and having sprayed the driveway last week with herbacide, it was time to move on to Stage 3 of my assault against the weeds: Touch up.
So with a trowel, and a little elbow grease....
However, it was too hot, and stopped shortly after that.
Tomorrow morning, perhaps.
From the "Back in the Long Distance" Dept.
Went out to dinner with Jen's family. It was a pretty decent meal.
Helped Jen pack for her stint in Vancouver.
Okay, to clarify: Jen gets weekend fly-backs from Vancouver to Toronto. Another option that she has is that she can choose to fly any one person [I hope that it will be me, more often than not] to BC and back to ON again. Finally, Accenture will also pay for an airplane ticket anywhere that is equivalent to the cost of a flight between Vancouver and Toronto.
Cool?
Yes, very cool indeed.
It's not ideal for our relationship, but it's better than nothing.
The only thing I worry about is whether Jen's Circadian Rythm will be able to take the 3-hour shift in time-zones.
That's going to play havoc on her system....
Given that fact, I honestly don't think that she'll be able to do the weekend fly-back as often as she would like. Fortunately she won't have any shortage of friends (co-workers, actually) there, and I will definitely fly to her side of the country if necessary.
I'm sad that I won't be able to spend more time with Jen (weekends are never long enough). I'm also fearful of her safety too. I don't know how safe Burnaby and Vancouver, BC is, but you can never be too vigilant.
Am I worried that Jen and I will drift apart? Yes I am. I would be lying if I didn't think that that's a possibility. However, it definitely isn't in the top of my lists. I trust Jen, she trusts me; we love each other. I do realise that this type of situation can breed bad things (which I won't name)...but I know nothing is going to happen.
And who knows? Maybe it's time I got out of Toronto.
Hell, all my guy friends are leaving here, and there's a real cool Masters program at UBC that has perked my interests recently.
Am I a west-coast person? I don't think so. I'm probably a little uptight for that lifestyle, but who knows?
Maybe I'll find myself back in Waterloo.
Tai
From the "I am not Tiger Woods" dept.
Up at 6:00 am.
Played golf at Dentonia this morning, but get this: We're there early, sign in, go to the tee off, only to find out that our names were never in the queue.
We're like, "WTF?! We made the reservations on Tuesday for Saturday 8:08 am."
Turns out that the mofos signed up in for Sunday, and not Saturday.
Fools.
Anyways, we ended off teeing 8:30 am, which isn't bad, but still...
We made a bet: "The worst golfer pays for lunch. The best golfer buys drinks."
I know, there's no real incentive to win (who want's to buy drinks?), but it was all good.
Final scores are as follows for an 18-hole course, par 3:
1st: Kevin Ng - 90 2nd: Eric Tchao - 92 3rd: Tai Toh - 101 (damn it! Couldn't get below 100!) 4th: Florence Chow - 105
True to her word, Flo bought lunch at Ming's Curry at MetroSquare.
Kevin had the most wicked putt on the 17th hole....damn.
I think I take the cake for best tee off. I actually hit for par. Amazing shots...you should have seen the putt. I judged the lay of the land correctly, and aimed my putt with the right angle to get this amazing curve on the roll, right in to the hole.
Amazing.
Unfortunately it was all downhill from there.
From the "Wonders and Disappointments of Cirque du Soleil" Dept.l
Saw Varekai in the afternoon. To be honest, I wasn't that impressed. I think I built it up all in my head. From a technical standpoint...amazing acrobatics, set design, costumes and live music, but I felt that the entire piece was missing something.
It didn't seem fresh enough.
Perhaps it was the fact that I was dehydrated through the 1st half (pounded back a 750 ml Lemonade in like 30 seconds during the intermission...ahh, refreshing). Another reason was mish-mash of music and thematic styles. Varekai was suppose to be a "Romanian"-based peice, but the music was all over the place; Chinese, Romanian, Spanish, African, etc. Then there was the story: it made no sense--or perhaps I missed something...
Angel (man with wings) loses his wings and falls to earth, his wings are stolen, he meets a forest princesss, they fall in love, she is kidnapped. Next thing you know they're both getting married. Umm, where was the part about the "daring rescue" or "recovering his wings"?
Perhaps it was the heat within the tent, or perhaps it was the fact that it was dark and I had woken up at 6:00am this morning, but I started to doze at the second last performance (Flying Wonder Twins).
From the "Did I watch that much TV when I was young?" Dept
About the "Flying Wonder Twins"--Two men, dressed in mirror images of each other. They touch hands together:
I want to shout: "Wonder Twin Powers, Activate! Form of a..."
Nobody, and I mean nobody, understood the joke. So I've taken this section to illuminate some of those who are not as well versed in pop-culture....
Do you remember the wonder twins, Jayna and Zan from the Superfriends?
They used to work with the Justice League of America (Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonderwoman, etc.)
They're powers were "activated" when the twins linked hands and shouted:
Both: "Wonder Twin Powers, Activate!" Jayna: "Form of a (animal name)!" Zan: "Form of a (water formation)!"
Jayna (the female) could turn herself into any animal that she could pronounce (vulture, giraffe, etc.), and Zan could (in my opinion, he got the short end of the stick) turn into water and any of it's forms (snow, ice, fog, etc.). They also had a pet monkey with a bucket (to carry Zan when he was in water form) called Gleek. Perhaps Zan wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer: He could have turned him self into "super hot steam" or a "Tsunami" or something....
Stupid.
From the "Old timers evening" Dept.
After Cirque du Soleil, we drove up to Bay Subway station and took the subway to Chester Station for the Taste of Danforth.
I had some corn-on-the-cob and some mussels.
My feet were tired, my body sore from a work out that I had done on Friday, and my wrists were tight from golf.
We ended going to Spring Rolls on Yonge for a late dinner (instead of buying dinner at the food festival; too much of a hassle.
Then we sat in traffic on the DVP to get back home at 12:45am.
It wasn't even 1:00 am, and I felt zonked.
-T
Hey all,
Today, Kev, Florence, Eric and I went to Pho88 for dinner.
Tomorrow: Kev, Florence and Eric and I are playing a round of golf at Dentonia, a City of Toronto public course. In the afternoon the four of us plus Jen and Cristine are going to watch Cirque du Soleil--Verakai at Ontaio Place. It's suppose to be inspired by the music of Romania; gypsy music (not to be offensive though). For dinner we're heading out to the Taste of the Danforth for some good eats.
Sunday: ?
Monday: Jen leaves for Vancouver. :-(
I wrote a more detailed blog, but I lost it...this will have to suffice.
Tai
From the "How on Earth did that get there?"
Hey guys,
Just want to relay to you a nice event that happened today.
Jen was over and we were talking in my room. I asked her if she knew how to spell the word "Facetious".
Jen didn't know, so I pulled out my Oxford English Dictionary.
Lo and behold, tucked away in the dictionary's pages (in section C actually) was a crisp $20 bill.
Cool.
Wonder how that got there?
Tai
From the "Did every Oriental kid have hair like this?" Dept.
Hey guys.
This is for laughs.
Here's a picture of me that was taken during Grade 2 picture day.
It was the last school picture that I ever took.
More out of personal choice than anything.
Tai
From the "Damn, I'm so insensitive" Dept.
I just remembered.
August 6th is the anniversary (not joyous though) of the bombing of Hiroshima [1945]. Three days from now the bombing of Nagasaki. Over 150,000 people died inferno and the ensuing months (and years) after the event. Karen has a good write up about this.
Here are some more "devestating facts" taken from a Toronto Star Article, written by Kevin Black, entitled Lessons from Hiroshima.
Here is an excerpt:
The ongoing declassification of U.S. government documents and officials' diaries have fairly recently revealed evidence that the history lessons that we were taught after the end of the Pacific War were false. To wit:
- The Joint Chiefs of Staff and every other high military official, as well as all Truman's key advisers, save one, were against the use of the A-bombs against the Japanese. Many were particularly concerned about the impact to America's moral stature for using bombs that they considered barbaric, especially upon a nation that they knew was beaten. After all, the U.S. military had already gained complete domination of Japanese airspace and waterways. They were simply waiting for the terms of surrender to be formulated between the U.S. and Japanese governments.
- Truman repeatedly delayed acceptance of the Japanese government's conditional surrender attempts until after both types of A-bomb had been used.
- Truman's physical target for the A-bombs were the Japanese, but the political target was his ally, but ideological opposite, Joseph Stalin.
- Hiroshima's city centre was targeted because its high population and building density would maximally display to the Soviets the killing and destructive power of America's new weapon.
- The story of a million American lives (and many more Japanese lives) saved by the A-bombs was a complete fabrication designed to eliminate public criticism of the president's decision.
Thus, the twin destructive forces of "Fat Man" and "Little Boy" were of political, but not military, utility. In other words, the nuclear holocausts were used for the purpose of "atomic diplomacy" with the Soviets rather than to bring a swift end to the war.
End excerpt.
Absolutely awful.
If people had known the truth, I wonder what would have happened?
Back in grade 10, I was recommended a book by the my English teacher, Mr. Hugh Leznoff. It was called, simply enough, Hiroshima. It was written in 1945, shortly after the bomb was dropped, by John Hershey, a Pullitzer-Prize winning journalist.
It's not fiction. The stories and people, as I understand it, are REAL. The survivors detailed in this book include a housewife, her son, a German priest, two doctors, and a young working woman. A short epilogue, written 40 years later, recounts what happened to each of the people (I'm struggling not to say characters).
If you're interested, you should read the book.
In Grade-13 Writers' Craft, my class and I went to an art exhibit at the Harbourfront Centre commemorating the 50th anniversary of the event.
I'm not Japanese. I don't pretend to understand anything about this.
-T
From the "Look at my hair" Dept.
Hey guys,
When I cleaned my room I found an old picture of a group of us.
It's a picture of (starting from the top, left to right) Arthur, Byron, Tai (that's me), Miriam, Ha, and Chung (or does she prefer Marie now?).
We took this picture for Ha's Birthday that summer. It was only coincidental that all the girls wore blue.
Time were a lot simpler back then. Didn't have to worry about things like debt and employment.
Memories are priceless as they say.
Jeez, look at my hair.
Tai
From "Long Distance, yet again" Dept.
At 2:49:14 PM Jen told me that Accenture was shipping her off to Vancouver, BC.
She leaves Monday, next week.
The project is until March at least.
I'm bummed.
She'll be back on the weekends, and I could be there on the weekends.
But Still.....
-T
Hey All,
Just wanted to run through some stuff before I go to bed. Got to keep you all updated (basically Kev and Flo, etc.).
From "There is a fly in my Soup-Dumpling" Dept.
Earlier in the week, Jen had told me that we were going to go out on Friday night with her friend Andrew. Well, I'm not sure if he's even a friend, actually. One weekend in Boston bunking in the same room with him and 5 others would not really qualify him as a friend in my book, but people are different.
So I admit, I wasn't thrilled. I basically got the low-down on this Andrew guy from Flo, Kevin and Jen, so I kind of knew what to expect. In short, my presumptions of Andrew were slightly negative; he's kind of goofy.
I wasn't too hyped on going out with him on Friday. I was whining to Jen about having to "entertain him for the entire evening," and "not wanting to go clubbing."
After meeting him though, I'm definitely was way out-of-line. He's a swell guy. The only bad thing I can say about him was that he praises everything.
- He would say things like: "This is soooo good!"
Or: "This is just excellent!"
And how could we forget: "This is just sooooo sinful!"
It kind of got annoying. I swear, you could server this guy a plate full of cow manure and he'd like it.
We had dinner at a Shanghainese Restaurant called "Ding Dai Fung" in First Markham Place. They specialize in "Soup Dumplings". Soup Dumplings are steamed, pork-filled [or any meat] dumplings that when eaten release a lot of juice [soup]. They're actually overflowing with soup/juice. Very Yummy.
Andrew brought over two friends too, Steve and Eva. They were cool.
Flo and I ordered:
- 18 Pork-filled Soup Dumplings [steamed],
- 6 Pork-filled Dumplings [fried],
- 2 servings of Preserved Pork and vegetables in marinated mustard with egg, a bowl of Vegetable Rice, and soup,
- 1 Pan-fried Turnip Cake,
- 1 plate of Chinese Broccli with Garlic,
- 1 plate of stir-fried Chicken and Cashews,
- 1 plate of Shanghai Noodles,
- 1 plate of stir-fried Rice-Cakes,
For Dessert:
- a bowl of Mango pudding for Steve, and
- a serving of penut and black sesame dumplings in syrup for us.
Jen, Flo and I each ordered a glass of chilled "soybean milk".
We ordered way too much. It was crazy. We could have done without two dishes, easily. With Andrew's motivational pep-talks however, we actually finished everything.
We then went to Chapters across the street to walk off our belly full of food.
And then we saw Signs at the Cineplex Odeon.
I liked it.
It's a movie about recovering one's faith/spirituality. It is set beneath an alien-invasion backdrop in a rural community. It could have been set in New York with a terrorist attack, and it would have been the same. The alien-thing is just a catalyst for character development.
There were some really tense moments in the movie.
However, answer me this: "Why would aliens attack a planet that is covered by 70% of the substance that is their weakness?"
It would be like Superman attacking a planet made out of 70% green Kryptonite.
Stupid.
All of us liked the movie.
Eric saw it and he liked it too, but most of his friends were disappointed.
Kevin was disappointed as well.
From the "Saturday Walk in the Park" Dept.
Saturday evening, Jen and I went down to Unionville Main Street to walk along the trail in Toogood Pond. It was a beautiful evening: no humidity, comfortable temperature, clear skies. It was a beautiful twilight.
We had some gelato at the gelato stand. Jen got Lindt Milk-chocolate, and I got Pistaccio.
It was a nice evening.
We held hands most of the time.
Earlier in the day we hand went to Loblaws and picked up some ingredients for Chicken Pesto Linguine with Fried Red Peppers, and an salad with fresh tomatoes , pine nuts, goat cheese, and advocado slices.
We also found this nice little Italian restaurant called "The Groto on Main". Can't wait to try it out.
Sunday I tuned out and didn't do much.
From the "Monday Chores" Dept.
Did a lot of chores all day. Bagged some clothes for donation. Cleaned out the guest room of University stuff that I had been collecting over the years.
Lots of junk, but there were some memorable finds:
- An unopened box of Colgate Toothpaste that had expired in Feb of 1999,
- Some pictures back-in-the-day with my old "aerodynamic" hair cut,
- A letter to a friend that I had written back in the summer of 1998,
- Some short-stories that I had written back in 1st- and 2nd-year University [1996-1997]
Now the guest room is clean.
I'm planning to set up a bed in the morning. At least Kev has a real place to sleep now.
If I have time, I'll throw in a network cable too and a fold-out table. Then Kev and I can MSN each other from across the landing.
Just like old times back in 379 Erb St.
Went out with Jen for coffee and conversation at the Second Cup near her house.
-T
From the "Weed" Dept.
Like I mentioned before, I actually wrote up a nice blog about the some of the prior events...
Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoon I was pulling weeds from my interlocked driveway.
It's really bad...
Almost done though. One more day and I'm finished.
My brothers are lazy bastards.
This type of menial work really makes you humble.
From the "What am I getting myself into" Dept.
Jen messaged me on Wednesday and told me that her mom had purchased a condo. It's at a plot of land near the Scarborough Town Centre. It's a one-bedroom condo. Jen messaged me, because her mom wanted to know if we wanted a Den/Living area with the condo, for an extra $15 000 CDN. The condo isn't ready for posession until late 2005/2006.
'Umm, that's a little presumptious,' I thought.
Talk like that makes me uncomfortable. I kid you not.
I was talking to Jen--apparently the bedroom is 10-feet by 11-feet in area.
I'm like, "But my bedroom at home is 16 feet by 13 feet."
Then the "paranoid delusional" side of me kicked in:
"You're trying to trap me," I accused.
And then that dry sense of humour came up:
"So I guess I have to marry by 2006, eh?"
LOL.
Ah.. life is too funny.
I'm a bit uncomfortable about this. Then again, I already know a handfull of people who have already bought houses and they're no older than I (25-years old). I'm also glad that Jen's mom can see Jen and I together in the future. So that is a vote of confidence from her.
So all in all, it's a positive thing.
While it's not hard to believe that this will be our first place together, I think Jen's mom has other plans. She probably plans to sell the condo for profit. Condo living here in TO is a hot realty sector to be in at the moment.
By the way, Jen and I decided to go with the den.
From the "Life in the GUI Lane" Dept.
That's G.U.I. for Graphical User Interface.
I found some interesting blogs on-line written by two of the main UI coders from the Mozilla Project, the opensource browser that is the basis for Netscape 6.x/7.x and others (Chimera, Galeon, K-meleon, etc.).
Mozilla is probably the fastest browser on the OS X market (although that prize is highly questionable), but it definitely is a lot better than IE 5.1.2 for Mac OS X. However, it suffers from poor GUI design and "feature creep" (they made a browser that did too much).
It's far from elegant in my opinion.
I have always wondered who were the people who designed the UI for Mozilla ( I had suspected that it was just a developer with no UI experience ). I think these guys know they're stuff, but it's obvious (by their blogs and by the product itself) that no one really listens to them.
Here are their links:
Interesting stuff.
I actually submitted some data to the GNOME Desktop Project, back in Aug 2001. Linux was riding high, and they had just published their first Usability Report [920K PDF].
I've always flirted with Linux (back in the Day when Mandrake 6.0 was hot off the press). I've also tried Mandrake 7.0, 7.1, 8.0 and Slackware 8.0. I'd get into these phases where I dream of a life without Microsoft, I install Linux, play around with it for a few weeks, and then boot into Windows to play my games and surf the net.
What makes linux hard to use? Is it a bad UI? A lack of useful Apps? A lack of games?
All of the above and more. If I ever get a spare computer, I'll turn it to a Linux box, hell, I should just get rid of my 4 GB Win98SE partition....
Now I have a real Unix Desktop: Mac OS X.
From the "A little bit of Info can mean a lot" Dept
Hi All,
Just wanted to write about something that happened to me today.
I had written a really nice blog last night about what had occured over the first part of the week, but I accidentally lost it.
Anyways, I'm on the bench right now, trying to drum up some more work with my favourite employer, Critical Path Inc.
I'm in the midst of writing a proposal for testing of a new product. Actually, this is the third time I'm writing it.
"Third time? Why are you writing it a third time?"
Good questions.
You see, I want to talk about how not having all the facts straight really makes life difficult. Here goes.
My first proposal for work was based on stuff from the corporate intranet. It featured a demo using TellMe's VoiceXML parser and speech recognition software solution.
The general outline followed this flow chart:
Simple enough right?
No problem.
So Wednesday I'm chatting with my Mike, UI guru (and my boss). I was on my PC, so I don't have an exact log of what was said, but this is the basic gist.
- Tai: Hey Mike, I have a few questions about the vXML demo.
Mike: What demo are you talking about?
Tai: The vXML demo on the Intranet, and the flow diagram. I'm using it for the proposal.
Mike: You are? That stuff is ages old.
Tai: Oh.
Tai: Well, could you send me something current, then.
Great. Scrap one nearly done proposal and start another with the updated porfolio.
This first time, I feel I was partly at fault. The flow diagram was way to simple. Here's an edited copy of what the real flow diagram looks like.
And that's only for a small component of the login procedure.
Eek.
No problem. So I start writing a new proposal for testing. Things are going smoothly, almost done--just need to clear a few more questions with Mike.
- Tai: Hey Mike, you there?
Mike: Hiya.
Tai: Got a few more questions...
Mike: Shoot.
Tai: Will TO have a working version of this when I'm there?
Mike: Working version?
Tai: Yeah.
Mike: There is no working version....
Tai: What?
Mike: Yeah.
Tai: Oh.
<LONG PAUSE>
Tai: So the flows [flowcharts] are it, eh?
Mike: Yippers. We're getting usability from the start.
Tai: I guess that's good. Great really
<LONG PAUSE>
Tai: Uh, Mike
Tai: I need some more time with that proposal.
Life is certainly an adventure when you're a contractor.
STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!
Sigh.
And that is how I miss dinner with some friends.
So I learned an important thing today:
Get the facts straight.
Cheers,
Tai