While cleaning up a few days ago, I found an old pay statement from the summer of 2000. It was from the third week or so since I had started my job as a games tester at EA. I was making $10.50 an hour at the time. I got paid twice a month just like most of you. Each paycheque after taxes netted me a grand total of $647.94. I made about $1300 a month.

I knew that was low at the time, but I'm surprised at how little that mattered to me back then. I was still living at home at the time, so that helped. I wonder now at how my co-workers were able to pay for rent, food, clothes, and entertainment. Now that I think of it, I'm surprised that some of them even owned vehicles.

Here's another crazy stat, I was able to save approximately $10 000 in the year and a half that I worked there. Mind you I was making about $12.50 an hour near the end and I got paid handsomely for my crazy overtime hours. Still, it was an impressive feat given my base salary didn't go above $23 000 before taxes.

Heady times indeed.

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I miss my bus rides out from UBC to work. The air seemed fresher and the days more sunny. My long-haul commutes out to Vancouver now are decidedly less enjoyable. For one, everyone seems grumpy that they have to commute from Port Moody or beyond out to Vancouver. I could also mention how less attractive everyone is on a suburban bus but that would just make me seem superficial, so let's not go there.

The most striking thing about my bus rides are the amount of old people that bus into Vancouver in the morning. Where are these old people going? What are they doing once they get into Vancouver? When do they go back?

Seniors can cough a lot on the bus. One guy this morning had a really wet, hacking cough. Mmmm.... tasty. He got a tissue out. I think he may have saved it for later.

Once I get downtown though, I feel much better. It's like I'm back into my comfort zone. The commute back home at night is certainly more interesting. The bus goes through the downtown eastside along Hastings. At night, the scene is much more gritty. You can usually see at least half a dozen people pushing shopping carts full of stuff and always against the light. Why is that? It's kinda like bizarro Kits.

Ok, enough rambling for tonight.

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So a few weeks back, everyone at the company I work for got an e-mail about an end of summer BBQ to be held at Jerico Beach. The event is this Friday at around 5pm. We were allowed to bring our families and significant others but we had to RSVP even if we were not going to invite anyone else. Since I'm alone in the world, I e-mailed the office manager that I'd be coming but "my wife, Jennifer Love Hewitt, will not be attending". Gretchen found that extremely funny when she read that.

I'm not sure why I chose JLH as my office wife. While she isn't a horrible person, as far as potential celebrity wives go, I could probably pick a few other women ahead of her if indeed I was forced to married a famous person... someone like Bea Arthur.

Anyways, JLH was on the Late Show with David Letterman tonight promoting her new show. Those press tours take a lot of time. Maybe the boys at the office will meet her at a later date. I think I've worked too much OT this week.

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When you're short on time and ideas, nothing beats an external link when it comes to blog posting, especially a link ripped off from Fark. So anyways, there's this guy who printed up thousands of these blank cartoon speech bubble stickers.

He placed them on ads all over NYC hoping that the public would fill them in. After a while, he came back to them and photographed the results. This web site documents his findings.

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I had one of the most uneventful weekends in recent memory. I did a whole lot of nothing. I worked late on Friday night until around 8pm when I was incapable of thinking straight. No one seemed to have any plans for the evening, so I just drove home. Oh, if only I had heard Joel's call on my cell before I left.

On the way home, I made a little sidetrip to the Lougheed Mall Safeway to buy some groceries. I've been patronizing Safeway stores in the Kitsilano area for the last three years now. I can tell you one thing, the people who shop at the Lougheed Mall Safeway look nothing like the people I see in the Kits area Safeway stores.

When I got home, everyone else was out for the evening, so I had the whole place to myself. I basically watched TV, ate, and drank Coke for the rest of the night. It was pretty low-key.

Saturday was a total waste. Hockey was cancelled due to lack of participants so I didn't get to head out to UBC. I just sat at home and watched TV and surfed the Internet the entire day. It was brutally boring. I'm not even sure if I stepped outside that day.

Sunday was a bit better. I was scheduled to play baseball at West Point Grey Park at 1pm. I didn't have time to make lunch so I decided to hit the Lougheed Mall food court before going out to the diamond. As I sat down to eat my unhealthy chicken sandwich from KFC, I noticed something. People in the suburbs are fat. I would say on average, the people I saw in the mall were 15-20 lbs. heavier than the average person you'd see in Kits.

I spent a delightful two hours playing hardball on the diamond. I pitched again this week and I tried throwing some heat. I had some control problems when I tried to throw harder, so I let up a bit. My pitches began to go right down the middle again, and of course, that's when the home runs started. Overall, it was a good time once more.

Afterwards, I met up with a friend for coffee. As we sat outside the coffee place along W. Broadway @ MacDonald I noticed how much thinner people were in that area. No one had those huge suburban asses. My friend then told me that studies actually show suburban people are indeed more overweight than their urban counterparts. I fear I may get even tubbier now.

Ok, it's time for me to go to bed.

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