blog.erwintang.com

TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

2010-04-30T03:13:00.004-07:00

After Friday, I won't be able to publish this blog in the manner that I've been doing for about eight years now. Blogger is removing FTP publishing from their service. Though I've had about two months warning about this, I kinda sat on my ass and as the May 1st deadline approaches, I'm not entirely ready for the FTP service shutdown.

Until I get all the details worked out (of which there are many), this is where you should look for my blog going forward:

http://blog.erwintang.com

I'm hoping to get everything sorted out in a few weeks.

LIKE A BAND-AID

2010-04-29T02:56:00.002-07:00

So my gum surgery was done almost a week ago now and recovery is going well I suppose. There isn't any pain at all. There's been very little residual bleeding. The only bad part is trying to keep all my food on the left side of my mouth.

The recovery is very much aided by the fact that there's a large dressing over the surgical area. It's a light coloured putty-like substance that's been pressed around the gums. It's been keeping the delicate area from being exposed to food and other things.

I've been instructed by the specialist to remove the dressing tomorrow if it hasn't fallen off already (it's still there). The last time I had this surgery, the dressing just fell of by itself. I'm kinda hesitant to rip it off myself. I hope I don't rip out the stitches with it. I'm also a bit leery to see what's underneath all that. What if I look like a monster now?

PASSPORT RENEWAL

2010-04-28T02:43:00.003-07:00

I went to renew my passport today. It expires next month after having it for five years. I just discovered today that it's now a lot easier to get your passport application/renewal processed in person. While mail has always been an option, getting your forms done in person was a big hassle since there were only three passport locations in all of Vancouver (at least when I applied in 2005). Shortly after I made my application in 2005, the government of Canada opened up Service Offices across the nation. Rather than have distinct locations where you could only do one specific government service, these smaller offices now provide access to a whole host of services. I went to one such office today rather than needing to head downtown to the passport office. I only had to wait for one person in front of me.

As part of my renewal package, I had to surrender my current passport. I looked at the pages the night before and it was kinda sad. I had only one stamp in it. That doesn't mean I only left the country once. In the five years I had my passport, I only went to the United States (Europe, I haven't forgotten you). Every flight, except for one, I was cleared to enter the US before getting on the plane. In those cases, they don't stamp your passport. The one lonely stamp I have states my port of entry was "NYC".

I get my new passport in four to five weeks. In the meantime, I'm stuck in Canada.

REALLY?

2010-04-27T04:01:00.004-07:00

Last week, track and field officials announced that American sprinter LaShawn Merritt had tested positive for steroids in three separate doping tests. Normally this isn't notable news since athletes are caught with illegal substances in their bodies all the time. Merritt's case, however, is somewhat different.

Merritt claims that the steroids, specifically DHEA, got into his body via a "male enhancement" drug named ExtenZe. Though the makers of the drug can't legally say it, they strongly hint that the drug can make your penis larger. Merritt claims ignorance in that he didn't know the drug contained a banned substance. Of course, excuses like that are not entertained by sport governing bodies. Athletes in the past have been suspended for taking the wrong cold medicine.

It's interesting to note that Merritt, who is African-American, was taking a drug that he believed might make his penis larger. Now I dislike going to stereotypes, I myself have been subjected to a lot of Asian stereotypes, but it just seems odd that a dude of his racial background would need a drug to make his wiener bigger. Isn't his wang supposed to be larger than average by default? Perhaps he was just being greedy and wanted something that could belong in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Last but certainly not least, Merritt himself has released a statement concerning his failed tests. These are his actual words:

"To know I have tested positive as a result of a product I used for personal reasons is extremely difficult to wrap my hands around."

Really? I can't believe he actually used those terms to describe the situation. On the contrary, I think he took the drug for express purpose of making it difficult to wrap his hands around it.

I'm here all week folks and remember to tip your waitress.

AVATAR

2010-04-26T02:14:00.002-07:00

Last week I was one of the few people on this planet who still hadn't seen the movie Avatar. With its release on home video on Thursday, I decided it was time to see this much talked about film. When I was at the video store, the clerk that processed my rental told me it deserved every bit of hype and all the accolades the movie had received. He really liked it. I just politely nodded. When I got home, I tried very hard not to think about what the clerk had said as I slid the VHS tape into my VCR. Oh, one more thing. The lady in front of me was asking the same clerk if from a picture quality standpoint there was anything difference between the DVD version and the Blu-ray version. The clerk said he thought the Blu-ray version might have had brighter colours but it was essentially the same. Really? Really dude? You might want to get your eyes checked if you can't notice nearly triple the vertical resolution. Sorry, I'm going off on a tangent here.

So anyways, as the movie started, I tried to keep an open mind, free of any expectations for the next two and a half hours. When the movie ended, I noticed something quite interesting. I wasn't really wowed by the experience of watching Avatar. This is noteworthy because everything I've read in the media points to this being a movie which belongs in the "epic" category.

That's not to say I found the movie to be bad either. Avatar is a good film, there is no doubt about that. Unfortunately, I just didn't feel it lived up to the hype that other epic films succeeded in doing so. For example, I found all three of the Lord of the Rings movies to be much more satisfying to watch. I remember sitting in the theatre after each one of those films and just being stunned at how awesome it was as a piece of epic of entertainment.

Even measured among Cameron's own films, it's my opinion that Avatar isn't even his best work. I'd put Terminator 2 and Aliens far above Avatar. After I saw Terminator 2 for the first time, it was my belief that Cameron had redefined what an epic summer blockbuster movie should be. I was just so blown away that he had combined revolutionary CGI with a story that dared to be so audacious in nature. The whole movie worked so well in almost every way.

I did not get the same feeling with Avatar. Yes, the visuals were certainly breathtaking. There was a lot of crazy new stuff that went into making the movie from a technical point of view. It's two and a half hours of pretty pictures. I think where I found the most fault was the plot. The story was, at points, somewhat predictable. It also borrowed from other movies. A lot of people have noticed the similarities between Avatar and FernGully, the animated movie from the 1992. Also,Giovanni Ribisi's character as the on-site administrator for the mining company was essentially the same as Paul Reiser's character, Burke (Carter J.), in Aliens.

While Avatar is the most commercially successful movie in the history of the film, I don't think it's critical acclaim will match its box office.

POST-OP

2010-04-23T18:23:00.002-07:00

So I am back home from gum surgery. I'll be honest and mention that I've had a few gin and tonics in the last several hours. You might be wondering who goes drinking after having gum surgery. Let me explain. The skate dev team decided this afternoon was a good time to celebrate a super-late St. Paddy's Day or Skate Paddy's Day if you will. The pub was just a few blocks from my periodontist's office and it just happened that the shindig was starting right after my surgery. The drinks were also free! There was also free food! There were prizes too!

To make a long story short, I drank a bit and used my ice-chilled glass against my cheek. I also ate a bit of bite-sized calamari. I even won a baseball cap in a prize draw. I am now home and in no pain. I am currently on 600mg of ibuprofen every five hours. There is barely any swelling though I'll expect that to change tomorrow. Beside some slight tiredness, I am doing fine. In my experience though, it isn't today that I start feeling effects of surgery, it will be tomorrow when I start to get my ass kicked.

GUM SURGERY... AGAIN

2010-04-23T02:05:00.002-07:00

I'm having gum surgery tomorrow. If that seems vaguely familiar to my long-time readers, it's because I've had it done before, as chronicled in this post, nearly six years ago to the day. It's almost in the exact same area as well, the lower right portion of my mouth.

I cannot express in words how much this is gonna suck. At least for the first time, it was all new so I didn't know what to expect for the recovery period. Now I know what's in store for me, which is a whole bunch of suck. Specifically, my mouth is gonna swell up, I gotta eat soft crap for a week, and I'm gonna be super tired all the time. What a wonderful way to spend the last week of my month off. The most awesome part is that this is gonna cost me well over a thousand dollars, of which I don't know how much my dental plan will cover (which is not likely going to be 100%).

If you happen to look at the clock tomorrow and see that it's past 2pm, know that my mouth will be a bloody mess by then. See you mofos on the other side.

INCOME TAX REFUND

2010-04-22T03:23:00.002-07:00

After doing my income tax return last year I discovered that I had to pay $60 to the government. It was the first time in my entire life that I had to pay taxes rather than get a refund. That was disappointing.

I just did my tax return for 2009 just a few days ago. I was kinda dreading the result because I was afraid I'd have to pay again. It turns out that I'm getting a refund again. It's a pretty sizeable one, well over a thousand dollars. I'm still not exactly sure why it was different this year. I bought the same amount of RRSPs as last year. I also know the federal government made a few changes this year to give citizens bigger tax breaks. It's my belief that the biggest help came from two things. First, I reported some capital losses on some stocks I had to liquidate. I bought shares in two companies around 2000 or so. The shares are now worthless so I lost several hundred dollars with that foray into trading. Second, I believe buying an apartment helped me out too. I was eligible for the First-Time Home Buyers tax credit which amounted to $750 (non-refundable). It's good to know that going into debt several hundred thousands of dollars gave me a one-time, non-refundable tax credit of less than a thousand dollars.

There's a lot I could do with my refund but I've already decided I'm going to use it to pay down my mortgage. That's a very responsible thing to do and it makes me feel like I might be a grown-up in no time.

CAT SITTING

2010-04-21T03:26:00.003-07:00

I am currently cat sitting for a friend while he and his girlfriend are on vacation in Mexico. I really don't mind doing this for several reasons. First, I like cats as they're one of the most interesting domesticated animals on this planet. Second, my friend lives in my building so it's very convenient for me. Third, I have a lot of free time on my hands.

This cat, named Mika, requires just three things from me: food, water, and a little bit of attention. I was told I didn't have to attend to Mika on a daily basis and that checking up on her every other day would be fine. Since it takes me about two minutes to get to my friend's apartment, it's really no big deal for me to spend some time with Mika every day.

When I open the door to the apartment, Mika is usually there to greet me. At this point, about a day has passed since she's interacted with another human being. She meows for like a minute or so, the only time she really meows while I'm there. I immediately go and refill her water dish and her dry food dish. I then get some wet cat food from the fridge and give her some.

At this point, I could just go back to my apartment but since it's taken less than ten minutes to do all of this, I usually stick around. As a bonus, my buddy's cable TV selection is about 10x better than mine, so I wind up just watching a bit of TV.

While I'm examining the schedule to see what's on, Mika is usually eating the wet cat food I've set out for her. It doesn't take her very long to finish it. When she's done, she'll come by the couch where I'm sitting and paces a bit in front of me. Soon she'll decide to jump up onto the couch and on my lap. She'll then proceed to rub her face on both my hands. Mika will also headbutt me in the face a few times as well. It's at this point that things can get painful. Mika will then try to put both her front paws on my chest and sorta kneads all over. This would be slightly endearing except for the fact that she's got her claws out. The first time she did this I just had a t-shirt on and it hurt like a sumbitch. I now ensure I have a heavy-duty hoodie zipped up when I'm on the couch now.

When she's done the kneading, she'll settle down and just rest on my lap. At this point, I can comfortably go back to watching TV. Once in a while, I'll give her a little rub between her ears on her head. When I'm done watching Jersey Shore, it's time for me to go. Before I leave, I give Mika a little treat in the form of some catnip.

The whole process then repeats itself the next day.

ET.COM PROJECTS

2010-04-20T00:51:00.002-07:00

Well, with less than 5% of the precincts reporting, et.com is ready to project that the Kings of Los Angeles will defeat the Vancouver Canucks in six games or less in their first round playoff series for 2010.

This isn't some divination pulled out of thin air, the evidence is really quite clear for everyone to see. The special teams for Vancouver are horrendous. For two straight games, any time that Vancouver took a penalty, it essentially meant an automatic goal for LA. The power play for Vancity is anemic and most of the shots on the PP wound up being blocked by the PK. Also, the Vancouver club pays millions of dollars to a guy named Roberto Luongo to stop pucks and to steal games for them when the rest of the team sucks (like they do now). The problem is, Bobby Lou hasn't stole much of anything since the Olympics, other than millions of dollars in salary.

There isn't much more to it than that. Bad special teams and very average goaltending. I'd like to say there are signs that the Vancouver club will correct these problems but there are none. The Canucks will be done before May! You heard it here first!

A LITTLE GIRL

2010-04-19T02:41:00.001-07:00

Is it bad that part of me wants my non-existent daughter to have the same qualities as her?

ROUND ONE

2010-04-19T02:10:00.002-07:00

The local professional hockey team here in Vancouver is now two games into their opening round playoff series with the Kings of Los Angeles. The series is tied at one game a piece. In a previous post, I wrote that I would write more about the playoffs once Vancouver's opponent would be known.

After two games, it's clear to me know that the series will go at least six games with a strong likelihood that seven games could be in the cards as well. Though on paper, the Canucks would appear to have the slight edge, the reality is that the two teams are quite evenly matched. At this point, the series will really hinge on two things: if the Canucks can stay out of the penalty box and if Jonathan Quick can continue his awesome play in goal for the Kings.

It'd be foolish to predict a Vancouver series victory right now as the teams have demonstrated it could go either way. It's too close to call!

JET LAG

2010-04-16T02:43:00.002-07:00

I've been back from the east coast for two days now but I think I'm just now feeling the effects of the jet lag. I am so tired right now, the kind of tired where I just want to put my head down on my desk and just sleep.

I think I may dream about sleep when I fall asleep tonight.

CONAN IN VANCOUVER

2010-04-14T12:36:00.003-07:00

I made the dash back from Washington, DC just in time to see Conan O'Brien perform his first of two shows in Vancouver.

The above video is from the opening minutes from last night's show. It was an awesome show with a fantastic and appreciative crowd. If you want more video, click here. Actually, with the number of videos appearing on YouTube, you could probably string together the entire show.

OFF TO WASHINGTON, DC

2010-04-09T02:12:00.003-07:00

I'm headed off to Washington, DC tomorrow afternoon. This trip was decided fairly last minute. I am meeting up with a buddy on the last leg of his four city tour of the east coast of the US.

I'll try to post updates while I'm away but no promises. I don't think there will be any official state dinners while I'm in DC but if there are, I'll try to sneak in.

See ya in a few days!

WINDY

2010-04-08T03:29:00.002-07:00

It's 3:30am in the morning as I type this and if you live in the Greater Vancouver area, you might also be awake right now as the wind is howling outside. I only had my patio door open a crack but the wind is so strong right now that it was able to move the floor to ceiling blinds about a half foot.

Just for fun, I slid open the patio door the entire way and was met with a wall of wind. I'm hesitant to actually step onto my balcony as it seems there might be an actual tornado next to my apartment. It's very noisy outside right now and it sure sounds like there are some sizeable "things" being tossed around by the wind.

I'd be very surprised if there weren't a million trees fallen over in the city right now, which pretty much means the Lions Gate Bridge is probably closed (the approach to the bridge is lined with trees).

Well, I better go to bed, I have to go to dim sum with a friend tomorrow (today?).

MORE BIG RED

2010-04-07T03:42:00.002-07:00

In another sure sign that I'm enjoying my time off, I spent an hour watching Alan Kalter videos on YouTube. Big Red will always be a favourite here.

PRELUDE TO PLAYOFFS

2010-04-06T01:49:00.002-07:00

Every year that the local professional ice hockey team makes the playoffs, I try to make an even and balanced prediction as to how well I think they will fare in each round. The 2010 edition of the Vancouver Canucks have made the playoffs. It's still too early for me to look into my crystal ball as the season isn't even over yet and their first round opponent can't even be calculated.

I do have a few concerns though. I hate to be a party-pooper but the chances of the Canucks winning the Stanley Cup this year are not good. I've watched hockey long enough to know what teams look like serious contenders and what teams, while good, don't have all the necessary pieces.

Let's just get goaltending right out of the way. A serious contender has a goalie that will steal not one but several games during a playoff run. Canucks goalie, Roberto Luongo has played inconsistent at best since the Olympic break. He's never strung together more than two somewhat decent performances together since he won the gold medal. There's a chance he might get his act together in the three remaining regular season games but he's given no one any indication why that might actually happen.

The other thing that is worrisome for Canucks fans is their defense. One of the top d-men, Willie Mitchell has been in the past relied upon to shut down the best players on the other team. Mitchell has been out of the lineup with concussion problems for months now and isn't even practicing with the team. It's almost assured he'll miss whatever playoffs the Canucks have. Their current number one dude on the blueline, Christian Ehrhoff, has a wonky knee now as of the last game. Canucks staff say he should be fine for the playoffs but who really knows if they're telling the truth. In the meantime, they have players like Andrew Alberts filling in. No offense to Alberts (he makes more money in one game than I do in a year) but he's gonna look silly out there against playoff calibre teams.

I don't want to be all negative as the playoffs are about to begin but fans have to face reality here. I'll never be one of those guys that every year, without fail, say they're sure the Canucks are gonna win the Cup this time around.

EARLY MORNING

2010-04-05T04:30:00.002-07:00

It's 4:30am in the morning as I type this and that is a sure indication I am well into my month long vacation. I've spent the last few days catching up on some much needed sleep. I also cleaned up my apartment a bit. I had my ironing board sitting in my living room since the Olympics started. I finally put that away.

I really should go to bed. I'm supposed to have lunch with a friend tomorrow and noon isn't that far off now. It doesn't take very long for my sleep schedule to get screwed up.

MOVING ON

2010-04-01T01:51:00.002-07:00

Today was my last official day with Black Box. My employment with them lasted exactly 3 years, 6 months, and 25 days.

Two weeks ago, I was told my services were no longer required. It was a two week heads-up that I would be done at the end of the month. At the time, I wrote a post about it. In that post, I also wrote that they tried present me a "silver lining", that some other team in the sports label was willing to give me a job. I will be diplomatic and say that the job they offered me did not fit my career interests. At the time, I was told this would be the only option presented to me, which disappointed me greatly. Now, I have to be careful here because there were some sensitive and heated discussions going on, most of which I wasn't even involved in. Suffice it to say that even before the day was over, I was then told that I could safely decline the original offer and that HR would try to find me a more suitable position.

It would only take two days for another opportunity to come up, mainly due to people who had an unselfish regard for my well-being. I spoke with representatives with this new team just once before they offered me a position. It was certainly a generous and surprising offer but I needed to be convinced this was indeed something right for me. I arranged several more meetings with technical people and managers over the course of a week. I finally said yes late last week.

At the beginning of May, I will be joining the Fight Night team. Until then, I'm taking some time off to rest up from finishing skate 3. I'll be staying up late, playing many video games, and eating a lot of unhealthy food. I'm looking forward to all of that.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER

2010-03-31T01:30:00.002-07:00

I wonder if it would vex my high school English teachers if they knew that in adulthood, I would mostly read books about vampires and zombies. For every sonnet or play from Shakespeare we analyzed, I would go on to read three books about a world-wide apocalypse brought upon by the undead.

The current book I'm reading is entitled Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. The book is written as a biography of the 16th President of the United States. The biography, however, is fictional (I think) because it includes the fantastical notion that Lincoln was one of the greatest vampire hunters the world has seen. Lincoln's life is told from the time is he a little boy right on through to his untimely demise. The book purports that he kept journals which recorded his most personal thoughts and his most vicious actions against vampires.

I have been quite taken by the book and I've had little time to put it down. I'm about half way through it and I wonder how his last days will be interpreted within the vampire theme. I am also been left in a curious mood about Lincoln. Since the author has mixed in authentic details about the President's life with his own fictional accounts, there are some items that I cannot determine if are historically correct or not (excepting the parts where Lincoln vanquishes the undead). I am almost positive that when I finish this book, I will read up on Lincoln's life in great detail, as to determine what his life was really like. Before this, I only knew Lincoln as the man who freed the slaves in the US and that he was shot by John Wilkes Booth. You know what's odd? The Lincoln and vampire connection is never mentioned in National Treasure: Book of Secrets. I guess Nic Cage's character didn't dig deep enough.

In any case, if you're into that type of stuff, I definitely recommend the book. It's fascinating to discover how Lincoln balanced being a father, husband, lawyer, and ultimately President, with staking vampires in the chest.

IT'S LAZY TIME

2010-03-30T04:10:00.002-07:00

Well, with Wednesday officially being my last day as an employee of Black Box, I have started enjoying my time as a lazy bum. I have no where to be tomorrow, which is why I'm writing this at 4am in the morning. I'm just gonna sleep in and see what the day brings. Being laid off sure has its negatives but I think you have to look at where you can scrabble together some positives as well.

By the time I wake up tomorrow, some of you will have already been at work for four hours. I think that's kinda awesome.

THE DESPERATE OLD LADY

2010-03-29T03:37:00.002-07:00

At beginning of March, I sent my Samsung Blu-ray player in for repair as I was encountering frequent stuttering during playback. The repair process took about two weeks and I had the player shipped to my workplace as there was no one at my apartment to receive the package.

The box, with the player in it, has been sitting underneath my desk for almost two weeks now. I didn't want to take it home on the bus and Skytrain with me. I waited until I had time to borrow a car so I could drive it back home. With the unfortunate circumstances with me being laid off, it took me until this weekend to have enough time to borrow my father's car to bring the player home. Now if you're wondering why I'm still even allowed to be at work, it's because everyone who got booted technically is employed until the end of the month. No one really needs to show up but if you wanna go use your work computer to update your resume, that's ok.

Anyways, so this afternoon I'm leaving my apartment building and driving up 8th Street in New West which essentially takes me straight to the studio. I get a few blocks from my apartment when the car ahead of me stops at a pedestrian crossing. At the crossing is an old lady. Instead of crossing though, she runs up to the car ahead of me. I now suspect this old lady maybe a bit crazy. Instead of stopping at the car ahead of me though, she now runs over to my car. Oh great. Why does this stuff always happen to me?

The old lady had a concerned look on her face so now I'm thinking she might need some genuine help. She's now at my passenger window, so I open it a bit.

"I need some help, I need a ride down the block! I forgot my stuff on the bus. Please?"

My brain is trying to process what's going on. So there's no emergency and no one is dying. She's all excited because she got off the bus without some of her stuff. A very, very tiny part of me thinks she's totally blowing this out of proportion as she shouldn't be running into traffic over some material goods. Then I see it's raining and she's just an old lady, in her late 50s, standing in the road. I instantly regret saying these words as soon as they leave my mouth:

"Fine. Get in."

The old lady gets in the passenger seat. I now realize that I have a strange old lady in my car and she wants me to catch up to a bus that I can't even see in the distance. This could go so bad in so many ways.

I tell the old lady I can't even see the bus. She says it's just ahead of us. I drive another block and I can now see the bus just a block ahead of us. Lucky for her, there are a quite a few stops along this route. The car ahead of us unfortunately decides to turn left though and there's a lot of traffic coming the other way. There isn't another lane for me to go around him though, so we wait.

The old lady tells me she forgot a bag of groceries. What the hell lady?!?!? I'm racing a bus because you forgot a single bag of groceries? I almost told her right then and there that I'd go to Safeway with her and I'd buy her new groceries. Instead, the car in front of us makes its turn and we're off again.

Without speeding too fast, I get within three or four car lengths to the bus. Unfortunately, the light turns yellow, the bus makes it through the intersection but two cars in front me don't, so I'm forced to stop. As we wait, the old lady mentions how it totally sucks getting old as her memory ain't what it used to be. I also find out she just retired recently.

The light turns green again and now I'm wondering how it easy it would have been for the old lady to have a gun or something in that green purse of hers. The thought of being car-jacked by some grandma runs through my mind. Because of traffic and the head-start it had, it takes me a good five blocks before I catch up to the bus again. It's a good thing I was going this way anyways.

I managed to get in front of the bus but now I need to figure out how to the bus to stop so that the old lady can get back on it. The plot of Speed runs quickly through my mind but nothing practical comes up. Great movie by the way. I figure I have two options: get ahead of the bus far enough so that I can I drop off the old lady at a bus stop before the bus can pass us or find any stop with someone waiting so that person forces the bus to stop (thus buying the old lady enough time to get out).

As I speed ahead of the bus, we encounter stop after stop with no one waiting. I'm still not far enough ahead of the bus to drop her off without the bus passing us. I briefly wonder what would happen if I just stopped randomly in front of the bus but that seemed dangerous. Instead, I drive on, increasing my distance from the bus. As we approach a major intersection, the old lady assures me there's always someone waiting at the next stop. As we cross the intersection, the old lady turns out to be right. There's a single person waiting at the next stop. There's even a small lane that I can turn into right before the stop. This might actually work as the bus is now over a block behind me still.

I pull into the lane and stop. As the old lady hops out of the car, she thanks me profusely. I wish her good luck and say bye to her. She runs off to the bus stop next to the car. I'm forced to drive off as now there's another car behind me. I have to circle around to get back on track and because of traffic it takes me a while to do so. When I finally get to the major intersection again, I can see the old lady crossing the road to get to the other bus stop so she can go back home the other way now. In her hand now is a single white grocery bag that she did not have before. I guess she was able to get her stuff back.

I was able to drive the rest of the way to the studio without any further incidents. By the way, my Blu-ray player works great now.

LAST BEER AND CAKE

2010-03-26T00:41:00.000-07:00

Today marks the last beer and cake I'll be attending as a member of Black Box. For over three and a half years I've had the honour of drinking beer and eating cake to my heart's content each and every Friday.

Shortly before I left my previous job to go to Black Box, I was told about the long and proud tradition of beer and cake on Friday. People said it would be one of the many perks of joining the studio. I didn't really understand how beer and cake went together but I kept an open mind.

I remember the very first beer and cake that I went to. I had met a user interface artist named Tony who was new to the skate team as well. He'd started working at Black Box downtown just a few weeks earlier than me. He knew a few more people than I did, so he invited me up to the 19th floor patio to have some beers with everyone else.

I remember stepping onto the patio with a beer in hand. It was a beautiful summer day with bright blue skies and barely any clouds in the sky. The patio was crowded with people drinking beer and enjoying the sun. Music was playing over some outdoor speakers. Tony and I made our way to a table and sat down. As I looked over the patio railing I could see the Lions Gate Bridge, Stanley Park, Canada Place, and the surrounding waters of Burrard Inlet. It was a view that I would enjoy for countless more times after that. That first beer and cake sure was a sign I'd made the right decision as to where I wanted to work.

Since then I've had a chance to go to over 150 beer and cakes. Sometimes, I brought my friends to let them see where I work. Other times, I just chilled out with my co-workers after a long week at work. I even skipped out a few times, when I was just too busy or had to be elsewhere downtown on a Friday. No matter what though, a late Friday afternoon meant always meant I had somewhere to go and take it easy with the rest of the studio.

Beer and cake changed quite a bit when we moved to Burnaby. We no longer had many guests who wanted to drink free beer all the way out in Burnaby. Even the people working at Black Box seemed to have less enthusiasm for the whole event. Back in the downtown location, we'd invariably run out of beer before the end of the evening. Now in Burnaby, there's lot of beer left over.

Tomorrow, I'll have my last drink at Black Box and think about all the people I've shared a beer with over the years. Thanks everyone for having a cold one with me.

DISHWASHER REVISITED

2010-03-25T02:09:00.000-07:00

In a previous post, I wrote about my desire to run my rarely used to dishwasher, just to ensure that it remains in good working order. Since then, I've used it twice and I gotta admit, it's pretty damn convenient.

The second time was less than efficient since the dishwasher only had 4 or so dirty plates, one bowl, and a few utensils to clean. I didn't feel like cleaning them by hand however, so I went the automated route.

I wonder if this is start of something lazy.