Gingerbread House...

This X-Mas my family and I got to try something we haven't done since we were kids :)

While I was out last-minute shopping with AK he showed me some pictures on his phone...

At first glance I said...

"wth... nice... you didn't make that, did you?"
"Sure I did..."
"Whatever, man... you? The Korean Hulk?"
"Ya"
"Mr. Destructive? Mr. I-have-no-patience-for-anything?"
"YES!"

Anyway, you get the point :P Apparently his parents went out and randomly purchased a gingerbread house making kit from Costco (or Price Club as AK calls it). AK also APPARENTLY put it together on his own in under 2 hrs... sure sure...

Sooooooo... since I refuse to be bettered than him in the random crafts department I HAD to go out and purchase one too!!! An hour before we were to have our X-mas dinner my sis and I headed out to the grocery store in hopes of finding a kit. I was praying pretty hard cuz the day before I was out with AK and I wasn't able to find one at a different store. We went to Superstore and I walked over to the bakery... the nice little Filipino lady told me there was one more on the table!!! Yee haw! I was still a little unsure of what I was going to find... it was, afterall, the last one. As I suspected the last one was cracked :( Not so cracked that it was obvious but still cracked non-the-less. *sigh* what to do? Beggars can't be choosers, right?

I picked it up, obviously... the last one. That night we had the crazy feast and we didn't have time to put it together... it had to be left for the night after.

After indulging for the second night in a row my cousins and myself broke out the gingerbread house kit :) It looked simple enough... everything was neatly packaged


It seemed that I was right about being paranoid for grabbing the last kit... there was 'earthquake' damage :(


I performed some maintenance :p... filled the cracks with the icing and put them back together :) Good as new! ok... not quite...


Next came erecting the main structure... This task was made much easier by the little plastic base that was provided. There were trenches molded to provide guides for placement... the hardest part was trying to get the icing in place...


While I was holding the pieces in place waiting for the icing to set my cousins began on the Tree, Gingerbread Man, and Gingerbread Snowman :)... hehe, the one I did, had claws :D


We worked on-and-on into the early morning, got the roof Iced (more like buttered with icing :p)... decorated.. and soon we realized that we were running low on candies... wtf :@ at the rate that we were going.. we were going to run out before we were finished!!! Not cool...


Finally! After about 2 hours the house was complete :D Et Voila!

We had so much fun putting it together that we're thinking of having a little competition next year ;) If you haven't already you (and your family) should try it too :D

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AK sent me pictures of his house... O.o ... then he told me about the bag of Skittles that came with it!!! :@ I felt ripped off :( Check it out... it looks REALLY nice, BASTARD :P

Song Of The Week: My Chemical Romance - Welcome To The Black Parade...

It's not often that I come across a non-hip hop/r&b song that catches my attention. Disregarding its political message this song is pretty impressive... I've been listening to it for the past week :p

Merry Non-Denominational Winter Holiday...

X-Mas, X-Mas... the weathermen promised us a white X-Mas... and it didn't happen. I asked for a winning Lotto ticket... that didn't happen either :p

Those who know me also know that I never look forward to X-Mas... I never look forward to any holidays/celebrations, for that matter. Meh, it's just me. As with every other year I spent TOO MUCH time running around like a chicken without a head seeking out gifts. A few years back our family decided that we were spending waaaay too much money on gifts for EVERYONE! We could easily spend $1000-$2000 just on gifts, am I right? We don't have a particularly HUGE family, but I guess it's bigger than alot of others. What was our remedy? It's sorta 'Secret Santa-ish'. We all put our names in a bowl and then we each pick one out. The person you draw is the person that you have to buy a gift(s) for. We also put a cap on the amount of $ we can spend. Usually $50 or so... AND you're not supposed to purchase GCs cuz that's cheating!

I ended up buying for more than just one person (in my family)... it just feels wierd buying for one person only. The end result? Hmmm.. I'm probably going to be crying when I see my next VISA bill... on top of the new phone, bluetooth, and plane ticket to S'pore (will blog about that too) the presents are going to hurt :/

This year seemed not-as-festive as previous years... not sure what it was...

Anyway, we had the usual family gathering on the 24th. This time my cousin and in-law couldn't make it... they're in Thailand) so no crazy Karaoke Revolution or DDR :p My Uncle brought over 2 guests. I'm thinking they're both from the Vancouver Raquet Club where he plays badminton. They didn't speak much English... and I don't speak much Chinese :$ so there wasn't much conversation there, hehe.

My Sis and I ran around doing some last-minute shopping. I had to grab AKs gift plus I wanted to look for a Gingerbread house kit :) By the time we got back the rest of them were waiting for us so they could start dinner. WOOOO HOTPOT!!!

WOW... We had 2 burners going one with Chicken/TomYam and the other with just chicken. I was pretty surprised at the amount of food that was on the table. I guess mum's just used to preparing for a HUGE party! I remember waaaaay back in the day, we used to have an open house during X-Mas. People would come and go as they pleased... and THERE WAS ALWAYS ENOUGH FOOD!!! Imagine that O.o

After a couple of hours stuffing our faces we brought out the dessert :) The highlights were Aunt Sally's home-made cheesecake and the Mango Pudding! There were lots of other sweets/chocolates to choose from too. Among my favorite were the shortbread balls and the Turkish Delight! :D At the same time my sis and cousin handed out the gifts and we all tore in :p Somehow it's not as exciting as when we were children... but it's still fun because my cousins are clowns and are always goofing around while we're together! Oh ya... we did the traditional X-Mas cracker thing and put on our crowns too ;)



OO... Since there was so much food left over my cousins came over again and we had Hot Pot once more :D... then we put together the Gingerbread house!... coming soon...

That Time Of The Year Again...

It seems like such a short time ago that it was X-Mas! Now... here we are again. One year later...

There are only 4 short days left and I'm STILL not done my shopping! :'( we'll see how it goes. As for the lack of updates... sorry sorry... work has me tired :(

On Call...

I have recently acquired the on-call pager, blackberry and laptop. After having them passed to me I asked around to see what the experiences of others were. It was mostly, "You'll almost never get paged."

On Friday AS decided to stay back after his shift. We had a nice chat, time flew and then we decided to head over to Richmond Center to walk around then grab some grub. there we were enjoying our KFC in the foodcourt when he hears a beeping sound. I'm not sure why.. but when I hear strange sounds I tend to ignore them... for him it was different... it was a sound that he's familiar with. I thought it was funny because his facial expression changed, then I heard what he said, "omg... is that the pager?"

below: now you know why I didn't buy a BBerry earlier

Crap... anyhoo, we made our way back to his car, fished out the BBerry and I called the number back. We made bets as to who we thought it was.. I guessed Singapore, he guessed Australia... we were both wrong :p it was Dubai! Heh. Since we were close to the office we went back so I could jump on my PC. It would have been easier than trying to find an internet connection somewhere else and then VPN'ing into the network. After about an hour of on-call OT we both went home.

Not but 1/2 hr later as I was pulling in front of the house the pager went off again! I thought for sure it was Dubai... nope, it was a local number. When I called back I discovered that it was 2nd level calling to let me know that one of the mirror drives had failed... wtf. So I had to call someone else and wake them up :D lol. I opened a ticket and passed on the message. He said he would call me if he discovered it was something serious. I wasn't expecting to get a very good rest, lucky me :) no call! Yay!

Sooo.. the first day that I get paged I end up with 2 calls and 1.5 hrs of OT/on-call pay :p

Having the pager sucks... I'm always worried that someone's going to interrupt me if I'm out... oh well. I'm sure the pay will make up for it :/

Oh ya... the Support laptop blue-screened on me... we later discovered that it's a HW failure. Nice, support needs support :p So now I have to configure a new one. At least it's a brand new IBM T60 :)

Dead Battery...

Yeeeeesss... I had a dead battery today... it wasn't as simple as a dead Blackberry battery or a dead watch battery. It was the car battery O.o

In my old age ;) I find that I'm forgetting more and more... simple things like turning off the car lights are eluding me. Thanks AS for turning my lights off... unfortunately for me, it was too late. I got into the car and put the key in... nothing. I got the buzz from the seatbelt warning but I could tell that something was wrong because the radio wasn't working, and the heating coil light was not on :( grrr.

The last time that I had to use my CAA card was loooong ago so I didn't even have that on me. Good thing the dispatch can look you up via address. All I had to do was verify with photo ID... *sigh* the crappy week continues... If my head wasn't attached I'd forget it somewhere too :@

Movie: Turistas...

Synopsis: A group of backpackers narrowly escape a bus accident in the mountains of Brazil. Around the corner they discover a little cabana/bar on a white-sand beach with crystal clear water... the perfect getaway. After a night of partying they wake up on the beach only to discover that there's more going on than meets the eye. They have been robbed of all their belongings... who can they trust? Where can they go?

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I have to say that I was going into this movie expecting waaaaaaaaay more out of it than I got. It felt like Turistas was just trying to feed off the success of an earlier movie... a movie that featured backpacking tourists... a world away from home... visiting unknown land... strange things happen... people get cut up... sound familiar? *drumroll please* HOSTEL!!!

The only difference is HOSTEL was good. Good as far as Horror movies go anyway :p There was more action, more of a plot, more gore :D very good special-effects and visuals.

Don't get me wrong... there were good parts in Turistas too... beautiful scenic shots of Brasil, Mountains, Jungle, Waterfalls, Caves... Bikinis :p but there were too many scenes that were drawn-out and lots of other little inconsistencies. One of the most annoying scenes was towards the end... a never-ending underwater chase. GRRR... Blah... wait for DVD, don't waste your money watching it in the theaters.

What A Week...

Photos from JohnHarveyPhoto.com

The week is finally over and the weekend is here...

It has been a long time since I've looked forward to the weekend as much as I have this week. Monday started out blah. The only thing interesting about that day was having to dig the car out of the snow and then make my way to work. The whole city was buried in snow, but the plows DID come out. However, the side streets near my work had not been plowed yet. To top that off there was a flatbed truck stuck on the left side of the road. That made it hard for me to achieve a good angle of approach to get into my work parking lot. Which, incidentally, was the only parking lot in that area that had not been plowed yet, WTF. So I ended up driving around the back streets all the way to the exit with the stoplight... BUT I couldn't turn right because the plow had gone that way and made a left turn (pushing the snow to the right side) :@! I had to make a left, go under the bridge all the way to the next traffic light and turn into the sidestreets there. I had fun rallying around the backroads there before coming back 'round to the main road and making my way back to my work lot.

I was praying that the truck would not still be there when I got back, but lo-and-behold it was. I ended up driving that same route around the lot, under the bridge, and back around @ least one more time while I was contemplating whether I should attempt to drive into the lot full of snow.

Third-time 'round I drove past the truck, into one of the plowed lots, circled around and attempted to drive in a different ramp. Weeeeeeeeee! I made it in. *sigh* stupid... I arrived to work on time and still ended up being 30-45 minutes late. grrr. Oh ya... only 1 manager made it into the office that day... nice.


Tuesday and Wednesday had to have been the crappiest days I've worked since coming to this company. For some reason on Tuesday everyone's computer seemed to be breaking down, argh! I don't mind so much when that happens... it's just that I have to open up a ticket and then log it under my name and wait for the hardware to come in... I have the memory of a goldfish :/ it's going to be hell to remember what computer belongs to who, and what went wrong with it (why they sent it in).

Blah... I don't even wanna rant about work anymore... it's too depressing...

Samsung Bluetooth WEP200...

Yup, yup... another new toy for my Pearl :) This is one of (if not) THE smallest bluetooth headsets on the market today. I'm not usually one for gadgets 'n' such but I've had my handsfree plugged into the Pearl and I'm tired of having that wire dangling everywhere. Half the time it's being yanked on by accident and it's not a nice feeling on my ear. When I went to purchase the Pearl the salesman (also from Malaysia :D) tried to upsell to me. One of the things he brought out was the Samsung WEP200 bluetooth headset. I didn't buy it during that time because (like I said) I'm not one for gadgets... plus he said that if I decide to buy it within the next week he would give it to me for $75 as opposed to the retail price of $100. Nice pitch, huh? 2 weeks later I went back to pick it up... I still got the 'discount' price... no surprise there. Honestly, I was hoping that I would be able to listen to tunes (via the Pearl) but as of yet... I'm pretty sure I can't O.o ah well...

Regardless, I must say this is one fine piece of technology. It functions VERY well and picks up most sounds coming from the same room :p enough that the person on the other end can hear everyone's voices.. but not all the other ambient noise. The ear-piece is surprisingly comfortable and at 9grams the unit is feather-light! I'm still getting used to the timing and functionality... I ended up accidentally calling AK when I was trying to turn off the power :p Samsung came up with a combination charger/carrying case that comes with the headset. It's one of the most innovative / useful / functioning creations yet :)

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Details from Samsung's site:

Bluetooth Wireless Headset

Samsung's WEP200 Bluetooth headset is soft as a sigh, light as an undertone, slim as a murmur and as mobile as you are. The Samsung WEP200 bring Bluetooth to your ear as none other. Talk for hours with the ergonomically stylish design. Wear the Samsung WEP200 Bluetooth headset and keep communicating. It is compatible with Samsung and other non-Samsung Bluetooth enabled phones.

Features

* Up to 4 hours talk time
* Up to 70 hours standby time
* Weighs only 9 grams
* Bluetooth specification: Ver 2.0
* Voice Dialing
* Call rejecting
* Call waiting
* Volume up/down

Kit includes:

* Bluetooth Headset
* Charging Case
* Travel Adapter
* Headset Hooks (M&L)
* User Manual
* Quick Start Guide

vNES on Pearl...

That's right folks... I'm uber dorking out now that I have my Pearl :P Since I dumped so much money into this wonder of technology I've decided to do as much with it as I can. Jacq's convinced that I'm going to spoil it by dumping so much crap good stuff on it :D Who knows? She may be right ;) Either way, I'm still going to push it to its limits and see what it can do! heh. For the last week-and-a-bit I've been searching high-&-low for games to download... then I came across a forum that had a discussion on a Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator for handhelds!!! I felt like I had struck gold.

I acquired, installed, activated and I fired it up. The list of games available was not extensive... there were quite a few but not all of them worked.

Here are some screenies that'll bring back some memories...

The problem with the emulator is actually not a problem with the emulator... I think it's more of a problem with the handheld itself. The Blackberry pearl has a 312 MHz Intel XScale cellular processor + 64 MB flash memory... amazing for a handheld, but still not enough to run the vNes at a decent speed. The application runs at around 12 fps (still playable) but probably too slow for most people. It took me over 10 minutes to complete the first level in Super Mario Bros. 2. Still fun to have ;)

White X-Mas...

Yesterday, AK and I went downtown just to do something... anything. It was already nippy by the time we left my house but it was still dry. In Pacific Center mall, surprisingly, it was not too busy. We were both expecting a little bit of a X-Mas rush but we soon found out why it was so quiet. On the north side of the mall where the food court is located they're renovating. There were NO fast food counters so we had to head outside to eat.

Hungry, we ate at Kitto Japanese restaurant just taking our time, catching up on stuff and complaining about work & life in general :p To our surprise when we got back out onto the street it was snowing! Up to this point I'm pretty sure we haven't had any snow. Maybe some ice rain, but not snow. Futureshop was a short half-block away so we walked over to see what new gadgets have been made available. When we came out it was snowing even harder. AK and I then decided to take a walk down Robson... it had been awhile so why not? We ended up going into Starbucks to grab some hot drinks :p Lucky me, I was dressed for the weather... Thick corduroy jacket with furry collar and scarf. AK had a singlet and light jacket :D I took a pic with the Pearl, but it pretty hard to see how nice it looked downtown with the snow coming down.

Later on we took a drive over the bridge into North Vancouver, there was snow up there too, but it wasn't too overwhelming. There was enough for AK to have some fun though lol. Finally we went back to Burnaby... we had planned to go watch Casino Royale but realized when we arrived that the theater was busy as hell... it was ridiculous. X met up with us too and we took a walk around the mall... wow... going to the mall was a bad idea. I ended up spending close to $200 O.o grrr. ~$100 on a wool zip-up from Guess and ~$80 on a new Samsung Bluetooth headset (which I'll write about next).

After the mall AK & I dropped by Bubble World for some BBT to go. On the way back to my house he decided to goof around in the snow... I was sms'ing Jacq, but I knew was was happening. We were sliding towards a sidewalk and there was no way that we were going to avoid it :p CRUNCH! Ah well, he was pretty choked cuz it wasn't his car lol, it was a rental... For the most part I don't have much of a reaction to those sorts of things (ask AK) if it's going to happen it's going to happen, as long as everyone is unharmed and we're not stranded then things are going ok. Anyway, he assessed the damage and it wasn't too bad. No bodywork will have to be done, just a new rim replacement. I surprised myself by not being an ass and rubbing it in :p I'll leave that for another day ;)

AK ended up crashing @ my place for the night just because the snow was really piling up. Before we went to sleep I took a couple of shots outside the front of the house... just to give you an idea of how much it had snowed during the course of the day. After I woke up I took some more shots... it looked like we had over a foot of snow overnight. AK spoke with his dad in North Vancouver, they only had about 3 inches... wth.


We checked the roads this evening and it looked like it was ok for him to make his way back home :p He apparently drove all the way home in 2nd gear :D Here's how NOT to clean snow off your car :p And YES I just stood around and watched while he dug the car out :) What? There was only one shovel... =]



I always say, "If it's going to be this cold, it might as well be cold for a reason". But when it comes down to it... snow is a byach!

Movie: Déjà Vu... (pre-screening)

I have the good fortune of working for a great company and having an awesome supervisor :) As it turns out, his wife works for the Vancouver Sun and frequently has access to pre-screenings of select movies. They had an extra pass and were kind enough to offer it to me, of course, I couldn't refuse! Even though I had to wake up for my early shift the following day :p

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Synopsis: Denzel Washington plays Doug, an ATF agent who has to figure out the series of events that led up to an explosion on a ferry in New Orleans. During his investigation he comes across strange clues some familiar, some not. Val Kilmer an agent from the FBI (I think) is appointed as head of a task force assigned to an assignment with unusual time constraints. Doug, recruited for his knack of spotting things out of the ordinary and superb attention to detail, must help them piece things together using the government's new technology. In a race against time he has to piece things together and... try to prevent it from happening (?) ;)

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I really don't know how I can review this movie without giving spoilers. What I can say is once again Denzel Washington pulls through with a stellar performance. The pace from the outset was steady and the humor was distributed in nice doses. Throughout the movie I found myself looking for small details trying to figure things out before the finale. After a certain point I managed to, but was still pleased with the ending and the movie as a whole. As the plot progressed I started to worry a little bit, it seemed like the movie was going off in a direction that in past has proved disastrous for other movies. Surprisingly, they managed to pull it off well. I can't say what direction they were heading in without giving away a key detail in the plot so I'll leave you with this. Go watch this movie in the theater if you get the chance... I'm considering a second screening ;)

** I may edit this review later on... I'm already lying in bed as I'm typing this out **

Blackberry Pearl...

OO... Guess who's got a new Blackberry Pearl?

Those who know me well also know that I could care less what model mobile phone I have as long as it's sturdy and reliable. For example, back in the 90s I kept my old Sony Ericsson for a good 5 years... I believe I brought it into the new millennium with me. :P OK, I'm not going to lie to you... it has to look somewhat appealing.

I picked up the Blackberry pearl for a number of reasons. My dad has been tossing around the idea of acquiring a Blackberry for awhile now. The only thing holding him back was... he "won't know how to use it". Let's put it this way... he's still using his old Star TAC from donkey years ago... and his PDA is a Palm V (backlit w/ monochrome screen). He might as well be using a stone tablet with a chisel :D shh... don't tell him I said that. More importantly, my Samsung A670 is dying. Remember the problem I was having with my laptop? Ya, it happened with my mobile phone too... wtf. The screen doesn't light up unless the flip is in a certain position...

The Pearl is a thing of beauty ;) RIM finally decided to streamline the Blackberry and move away from the hideous traditional BBerry. I never really gave BBerry a second thought until I saw the Pearl. Though I've always loved the functionality... the design never appealed to me... anyone who has ever seen one will surely agree with me. Granted, with screens up to 320x240 pixels displaying up to 65000 colors it's hard to resist, right? As nice as it is to have a screen that size, it also played a role in making the handheld very awkward to use as a phone.

Up 'till now the BBerry has been strictly business! With an integrated address book which allows you to choose what task to do next, email, sms, place a call... and the capability to synchronize with Domino, Exchange, GroupWise, what business can turn it down? The BBerry also includes a calendar, organizer, wireless internet, instant messaging, maps (yes, even GPS!), phone capabilities, the list goes on!

With the pearl also comes new technology. The interface is fundamentally the same, a desktop with intuitive icons. The innovation (and, I'm guessing, source of the name) is the Pearl-looking trackball that has replaced the scroll wheel. This new feature makes navigation a cinch allowing users to move in 4 directions.

My favorite features are:

Sleek design (all black with chrome side bevels). The Pearl has an all-black glossy finish and nifty two-tone keys where the number pad is.

MP3 support. I can store all my favorite songs and listen to them whenever/wherever I want to. It has choice between single playback, folder playback, queuing, repeating & shuffling. Essentially full MP3 player capabilities (with stereo sound).

Video playback. I can catch up on anime :p, movies, tv shows, music videos... etc, when I'm waiting for someone... the only downside of that is having to encode to the supported formats. There is a post Here if you're interested.

1.3 megapixel camera. Ok.. I lied... it's not what drew me to this product at all :p on the contrary I'm pretty upset that there are not video capturing capabilities. The camera does have a flash, 5x zoom and a self-portrait mirror.

Storage capacity only limited to the size of the microSD card. I applied for my free 1GB MicroSD card but couldn't stand the 2-3 week wait so I went to an OEM dealer and picked up a 2GB card for $115... as far as I know 4GB cards are also available. :D I love that I can use my Pearl as a removable drive, heh.

Trackball. Even on first use the trackball feels very natural. It responds well and REALLY makes navigation much easier than the scroll wheel. On occasion I'll find that the trackball will move as I'm clicking on the icon of choice. I'm sure it's more of a user-error factor though.

Suretype keyboard. The keyboard is still QWERTY layout but using suretype technology. Since I was never a regular Blackberry user in the past (with full keyboard) I found the transition from my old phone to the Pearl effortless. Even though the keys are small, so far, I've only 'fat-fingered' a couple of times. :P

Honestly, there isn't much I don't like about it... I'm sure I could go on (but I won't). The one thing I DO have to mention is something that alot of people don't know about... AND probably the coolest feature about the PEARL...

Since the Pearl uses EDGE technology it also means that it can be hooked up to your laptop (via USB cable) and used as a modem for internet connectivity!!! I haven't manged to achieve that myself but then again I haven't made a wholehearted attempt yet. I've gone as far as setting everything up on the PC-end and attempting a connection, but failed because the source that I was referring to didn't seem to have a valid number listed. What do I need a number for? Well, the Pearl essentially acts the same way a dialup modem works, BUT the rate of data-transfer is much higher than a traditional phoneline!

HOW COOL IS THAT? or am I really that much of a dork? t('.'t)

I still have to go back in and figure out whether they charge extra for using it as a modem... I'm on the $60 light dataplan right now.. but hopefully I can upgrade to the $90 dataplan and have my employer pick up the bill :p They have a corporate plan with the same provider.

The price I paid ($249 on a 3yr contract) I was expecting it to make me breakfast too :@

Encoding Videos for BlackBerry Pearl...

The Blackberry Pearl is a powerful toy. That being said, many people still think it's just that, a toy.

After purchasing the 2GB MicroSD card I now had to find stuff to fill it with. mp3s are the natural first choice. But with video playback capabilities I went straight for the gold! Now I can watch videos / anime where ever I go! If I'm just sitting somewhere waiting for someone, or waiting for my movie to start I can pick up my Pearl browse for a file and go nuts!

Unfortunately, the pearl only supports:

audio formats: MP3, MIDI, AMR-NB, AAC/AAC+/eAAC+
video formats: MPEG4 Part 2 Simple Profile, H.263

I spent a bit of time trying to encode my own videos, I'm no professional... but it's not like I have absolutely NO idea what I'm doing. After spending waaaay too much time and having about as much success as a blind person @ a shooting range I jumped on the net and found a post in this forum!

I tried followed the instructions and it worked like a charm, I now have video on my Pearl ;)

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Since this is a commandline application that takes a smackload of switches I took the liberty of writing up a simple batch file (compiled to exe) that you can double-click on... If you're interested here's what you need to do:

1) Download the Mencoder.
* look for the one labeled: MPlayer 1.0rc1 Windows

2) Extract the Mencoder to your HD.
* I recommend extracting it to the folder where you store your videos. Doing so will save you some hassle. The video to be converted must be in the same folder as the application.

3) Download my MMX Convert4Pearl application.

4) Extract Convert4Pearl into the same directory as the Mencoder.

5) Run Convert4Pearl :)

6) Copy converted videos onto Pearl.

Please read both Mencoder and Convert4pearl readme before use. Convert4pearl was written by me so I didn't have to type the commands and switches everytime. If you have any problems feel free to email me.

ENJOY!

It's Shitting Rain...

That's right, shitting not pissing! Yesterday the heavens decided to open up and dump down on Vancouver. In this city when it rains everyone forgets how to drive. Last month or the month before we had our first downpour in awhile. What happened that day? There were accidents on all the major routes AND all the bridges! What's up with that? Does the low pressure swell your brains?! Is it that much harder to drive when the roads are wet?

Yesterday was a disaster. I'm lucky because my shift starts at 5am which means that I'm on the road by around 4:30-4:45am == NO TRAFFIC. Regardless, I could tell that traffic was going to be retarded that day. On the way to work the roads were already beginning to flood... there were spots on the highway where water had pooled and made hydroplaning hazards.

Later in the day the winds picked up and the rain was going sideways... THEN there were power outages ALL OVER the city. Traffic lights were out everywhere so everyone had to use the 4-way stop procedure. You can imagine what the arterial routes looked like...

At one point the police were advising that people avoid taking HWY 1... one of the main routes for people commuting out of Vancouver back to their homes in the suburbs. I had to laugh... I thought to myself, "Those people with flying cars sure are lucky!"



By the end of the day it had rained 38.8mm, trees had fallen all over the place, today we have a warning informing us to boil our water... and this morning we also had a Tsunami watch as a result of the earthquake in Japan...

Uhm...

O_o If you are one of the few subscribers... sorry for the false posts. You might be getting a few more over the next little while. I've been going back to label my old posts :p Ciao for now.

Grand Honour Restaurant...

Last week my family went to The Grand Honor Restaurant. They mentioned how it's supposed to be a really expensive seafood restaurant and that they use REAL Shark's Fin... wooo. That being said, I was still a little skeptical. I was expecting it to be one of those pristine Chinese restaurants, you know the type... huge fish tanks, nice big bar, white table cloths with the plastic cloth underneath :D Anyway... from the outside, it looks like any typical restaurant... but... I suspected that it wasn't going to be too nice inside. What gave it away? The fact that I couldn't see inside the restaurant.

I didn't take any pictures of the inside of the restaurant, unfortunately, but you're not missing anything. Honestly, it looked like one of those ol'school Chinese cafes where everything costs $2 and they stir your drinks with their fingers. We were promptly seated, nothing special considering the restaurant was fairly deserted.

Everyone arrived slowly and after some small talk and catching up the first course arrived.

Course# 1 - Appetizers (Cold-cuts & stuff).


Right away I could tell that this wasn't an ordinary restaurant. Normally the appetizer plate is just simple cold-cuts (pork, beef and the like) but this one had Ungai (BBQ eel), stuffed tofu skins, rolled salmon sashimi (can't remember if they were smoked or not), Jellyfish AND cold-cuts. Everything was made just right.

Course #2 was Abalone in soup.


The abalone was frickin' huge... just like rubber :p but tasted nice. The soup was a little starchy for my taste but very flavorful... the vegetables, not too soft and not over-boiled. I'm a big fan of veggies and that hit the spot (for now).

Course #3 - Shark's Fin soup!


Here's where my skepticism kicked in. Most restaurants serve "shark's fin" soup :P You know what I mean. The kind that is made with clear noodles that they try to pass off as REAL SHARK'S FIN. That night, it was the REAL DEAL! Wooooooooo! On top of that, it was REAL Shark's Fin Soup with REAL Crab Meat too! Bonus :) Nice texture, but not so much flavor (typical) which kinda makes me wonder why everyone longs for it O.o Good thing they had lots of red vinegar on-hand.

Before I forget to mention it... the service up to this point was exceptional. Between each dish the waiters took our used plates and had new ones set for us.

Course #4 - BBQ Pigeon.


Now, I'm not a big fan of pigeon... maybe it's due to the fact that pigeons are carriers. And I don't mean the type that ferry notes from one place to another... I mean carriers of disease. LOL, yea, yea.. I know... these ones are bred for consumption, blah blah. So the truth is, pigeon is too gamy for me. The taste is too irony (blood) and I can't stand fighting against all the little bones. Ya, I'm lazy :p heh. Our family friend, who is a connoisseur of pigeon, said that it was some of the best pigeon she had tasted. You'll have to take her word for it.

Course #5 & #6 - Prawn thingies with Walnut & Bok Choi (spelling?) with Conch.


I don't remember much about the prawn thingies... they looked waaaaay too unhealthy at first glance, so I just ignored them for a bit. There were quite a few left-over by the end of the meal, not-to-say they weren't good. They were too rich / creamy. The veggies were Bok Choy (spelling?) with Conch... not too shabby! That dish disappeared pretty quick :)

Course #7 - Choice of Almond Soup with Black Sesame Ball or Mango Pudding.


Usually you don't get a choice of what you want. But since my mum knew some of the staff we got special treatment :D How great is it to have a hairdresser for a mom? :P I'm not a huge fan of Almond extract so I opted for the Mango pudding which came out of a nice heart-shaped mold. The pudding was mediocre, even with the condensed milk it wasn't that great. I also tried the Almond soup just for the hell of it... someone pushed theirs away so I picked it up... it tasted as typical almond extract tastes almost like almond milk... the sesame ball was nothing to write home about either.

Overall, the food was pretty good... flavorful and nicely presented, also helped along by the superb service. The atmosphere definitely didn't match the quality of the food / service... I still felt like I was in a little cafe in the Chinese ghetto. All-in-all... I'm still not sure if it was worth the $600 among the 8 of us... oh well, c'est la vie!

Crap.. I just realized something... there are only 7 courses in my list... O_O I'm soooo sure I'm missing something... there aren't enough veggie dishes either :( argh! I'll update if I figure it out :(