Hello hello... time for me to make some use of the time I have outside of work... and maybe some time @ work too :p What have I been doing since the last time I was blogging? I guess I'll sum it up.
The wall in our front yard has collapsed so we have to replace that.
My sister has moved into the Strathcona area, and I'm very surprised at how nice her block is... among the projects.
We've recently had a death in the family. My aunt had a stroke and fell into a coma, she didn't recover and passed-on the following morning :(
Games I've played: God of War II Tomb Raider Anniversary DiRT Zelda: Twilight Princess Rayman Raving Rabbids Transformers: The Movie
Movies I've watched: Epic Movie Transformers (pre-screening) The Good Shepherd Hostel II Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman Sicko 28 Weeks Later 1408 (pre-screening) Hannibal Rising Bin Jip (3 Iron) Devil's Playground Jesus Camp Lucky Number Sleven
TV Series Dexter Red Dwarf Robot Chicken (s2)
Since I've been getting so lazy I'm also getting very restless... the summer has finally arrived, as late as it is, and I'm hoping to have enough motivation to go out and enjoy the sun. The other day I went with AK to a park in North Vancouver. It was perfect out... there was a nice breeze & the sun was shining bright, everywhere but the park that we were in :@ Anyway, we tossed a football around for about 2 hours, my arms hurt :/ Before that we ran around looking for a place to purchase a pair of baseball gloves. I found 2 that I had kickin' around in my house. Problem: they're from the 90s, hence, too small. Problem 2: AK is left-handed so he needs a left-handed glove... shite. Oh well, at least we got to enjoy the evening.
Hmm... what else has transpired? Oh... I attended a Company Golf Tournament on Friday! Haha... what a Gong Show! Drinking from noon... attempting to play 18 holes. Mmm, yes... much tomfoolery amok. We played at the course nearby, Mayfair Lakes. Just by looking at the name I'm sure you can deduce that it's a course with water... too much water :D One of my collegues is reported to have lost 8 balls in the drink :P Fortunately for me, my game didn't suck that bad! Well... maybe I'm lying, but this is my blog and I can make up whatever I want. Heh. Ok I sucked, but only after I left the tee... you see, when I go to the driving range I only ever hit off the tee, never from the matt. As a result, I can't hit a ball unless it's sitting on a tee, grrr. I even have footage of someone getting their golf cart hung up on one of the curbs, how great is that. She won't give me permission to post it :( Maybe if I get her drunk enough I can get her to sign an authorization :D
Hey boys & girls... Yes, I'm still here and yes, I still think about how I haven't been posting :(
Work has me very very busy (ya ya.. excuses)... and I've been catching up on my GTA: San Andreas :p. Also, I was in Edmonton the week before. It was nice to catch up with my cousins there. The trip was work related BTW.. and I paid an extra $28 to extend my stay :D weeeeeeeeee!
Anyhoo, hopefully I'll find the time to continue the writeup about visiting M'sia / S'pore. Actually, not hopefully.. I WILL find the time to finish them.
Another thing is that I trashed my Windows XP install while trying to get rid of the Vista RC1 dualboot install... now I'm running Vista Ultimate :D
Since I'm running Vista I haven't reinstalled my Photoshop & everything else soooo... ya, another excuse :p but I'm thinking of installing my XP and dual boot into that... meh...
Hey Folks... yes, I've been 'not blogging' for the last while :( and I'm a little upset about that. On the other hand, I've also moved to another position @ work... no longer do I hold the Technical Support title but now the IT Desktop Asset Coordinator. That is part of the reason that I haven't been blogging over the past couple of weeks... the new position (some say is a promotion) I feel is more of a lateral movement has taken up much of my time... It's nice to be off the phones and doing something different.. but it has also been a little overwhelming. It's a new position that is going to engulf a few of the existing positions... so there is quite a bit more responsibility for me... no worries :) it's a welcome change :P The only thing is... the person training me is only there 3 days a week.. MWF... which means that I don't have her training me full-time. Also.. this week I only have Wed/Fri with her! To top THAT off.. I'm leaving for Singapore on Saturday!!! :D
The 'leaving for Singapore' part is great because I finally get to go on vacation and see Jacq again... BUT, that also means that I won't be practicing what I've learnt for the next 2 weeks. That kinda sucks, it's gonna feel like I'm starting all over again when I get back :(
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
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
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 :(
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 :@
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!
Every year many companies encourage their staff to come dressed up on Hallowe'en. The participation for alot of places, however, is not all that high. Me being the new guy, I was curious, so I 'interviewed' a couple of collegues to see what the usual participation rate is. Our department (IT) apparently has had a 90% participation rate! There are about 50 employees... do the math, that's 45 people running around with costumes ;) This year we had Nacho Aiello! Distant relative of Nacho Libre :p
Continuing on, our company provided us with a catered Hallowe'en luncheon :) There was a choice of rotini, farfalle or fettucine and a choice between 2 sauces + lots of different toppings. They also provided garlic bread, a choice of salads and drinks (non-alcoholic).
We gathered in the recreation room to enjoy the food and socialize... heh, it's always a good time socializing with people @ work. You should hear some of the things that come out of their mouths :p That's another thing I love about my workplace :D everyone is pretty real. Yes, it is a corporate environment... but this company is homegrown :) AND at the top of their industry. They REALLY take care of their employees and encourage us to build a strong relationship with each other. Which, IMO, is probably a large factor in their success.
Here are a couple of groupshots :) there were more poeple dressed up, many of them camera shy...
On Thursday I left work early to attend my appointment with the Eye specialist. Surprisingly enough there wasn't a nervous bone in my body :)
I decided it would be a good idea for me to head home first, my dad was free that afternoon so I thought I'd drag him along just in case I wasn't able to drive safely after.
I drove over to the medical building, which coincidentally is the same building that I used to go to for physio. The sitting room wasn't packed, per se, but it was steady / busy. I filled out the paperwork and sat down patiently waiting for my turn.
A few minutes later one of the assistants called me into a room, asked me a bunch of questions (are you allergic to anything? do you wear contacts? etc...), then had me rest my chin on a contraption and made me look into that machine. The picture inside was that of a hot-air balloon floating over a strip of highway. She made me do the same thing with my other eye but this time the hot-air balloon was out of focus. Then I slid over to the next machine... this one was to test the pressure in my eyes. "It's just going to blow some air into your eye... ready?"
I wasn't really ready... even though she counted down. It was the strangest thing. And I felt like a retard because I flinched :p I thought she was going to walk over an punch me twice :D After that was done I went back to reception to wait my turn with the doctor.
Finally a room opened up and I was seated. The guy was running around like a chicken without a head... he sat down and asked what was wrong... blah blah... sty... blah... cyst... So he flips my eyelid and says it's just a sty.
"What do you want to do with it?" "What can I do?" "Leave it, or remove it."
To make a long story short, I chose remove it... That entailed him giving me an alcohol eyedrop (wierdest sensation... you can feel the alcohol evaporating :p), shoving a needle into my eyelid to freeze it (yes it's as painful as it sounds) "It's going to burn", he says... Fek, did it ever. He told me to put some pressure on it and left the room while my eyelids slowly froze over... when he left I took a peek. W.T.F... I friggin looked like Quazimodo, for real. After that he took some strange contraption that resembled a medieval torture implement and clamped + screwed it to my eyelid O.o uh... I think he flipped it at that point too. I'm really not sure what he did after that... cut it out? Scoop it out? Donno... all I know is he said, "There we go, all done".
I then had to sit in the office for about 5 minutes put pressure on my eye and let the bleeding stop before I washed it out and left :) Easy!
Good thing for me I went to fetch my dad first... I'm pretty sure that if I had driven in the condition that I was in I would have much more different tale to tell :p
Here's what I looked like after that procedure...
Nothing spectacular... but you can see the bruise from the needle :/
My right-eye has been bothering me for a couple of weeks now. Last week I called up my doctor to make an appointment. His receptionist let me know that he was not accepting anymore patients for the day. I asked her if I could make an appointment for the next day and she said he was going to be out of town until the following week (Tuesday). Fek... I was pretty upset. I told her that I was concirned because I am unable to focus properly out of one eye.
"No acceptions", She says.
I've known my doctor for most of my life, his office is literally across the alley from my house, he has taken care of my family and is close with my dad as well. I know if I told her to tell him my name he would have taken me. That's IF I could have convinced her to tell him. Anyway, I made my appointment for Tuesday (today) and that was that.
Later that day my eye got worse, it wasn't able to focus on anything. It's bad enough that everything becomes blurry, but not bad enough that I can't safely drive. So I left work early and headed on over to a walk-in clinic.
Have you ever questioned how safe it is to sit in a room full of strangers suffering from one ailment or another? Emergency rooms, hospitals, clinics... it's all the same. The worst part is when you have someone hacking their brains out sitting next to you.
After about 1 hr sitting on my butt a room opened up for me. I then had to sit there for another 15 minutes before the doctor came in. She seemed nice enough. I remember being able to hear her while she was talking to the other patients in the other rooms. She's the kind of person who really loves her job and likes to make people feel assured. To be honest... it sometimes felt like she was patronizing me :p
I told her about the discomfort and how my eye was bothering me. I told her that I could feel a lump under my eyelid, she even felt it for herself. Her diagnosis - It's most likely a Stye. The treatment - hot compress, baby shampoo wash, and tobramycin eyedrops (antibiotic). I also let her know that it felt like there was something underneath my eyelid scratching my cornea... still, a sty. Oh yeah, before prescribing the eyedrops to me she tells me, "50% of doctors believe that this works and 50% don't". Nice... so why am I wasting my money on it?
Strange thing... when I reminded her again of my problem focussing she decided to get me to read the eye chart... I got down to the second-last row before having problems. What does that mean? It means that even though I am not able to focus properly my eyesight is almost 20/20... wtf.
So here I am almost a week later. The eyedrops and the rest haven't made much difference... and most importantly, my eye is still having trouble focussing. I kept the appointment that I made last week and took the day off to see the doctor. Again I was sitting in a waiting room full of people suffering from god-knows-what. It was well over 45 minutes before I was called on... Oh well, at least I got caught up on my current events :p I managed to read through a few interesting articles in this months Time Magazine.
Finally, my door opened. "Hey kid, what's going on? Are you sick?" :P My physician is great, he's watched me grow up and I never mind visiting him... even though it's never a good thing when you have to visit the doctor. I fill him in on my situation and when I get to the part when the clinic doc said it was a stye I was met with a priceless expression :D his hands dropped down to his sides and he began to shake his head!
"A Stye? Do you know what a stye is? Did she explain it to you"? "Um... ya. It's like a pimple". "Yes, a pimple. Pimples don't affect your eyesight!".
I was trying not to laugh because he was do dumbfounded by her diagnosis. He sat me down, turned off the lights and looked at the backs of my eyes. Nothing wrong with my retina... vitrious fluid is ok... there's nothing obvious. So then I got him to feel where the bump was... and reminded him that it feels like there's something scratching my cornea. I layed down on the table and he inverted my eyelid.
"Oooooooh... I see what you mean". It's never a good thing when your doctor sounds surprised O_o "It looks like you have a meibomian cyst". "Uhh". He then proceeds to make his way out of the room and tells me to follow behind him. "Ok, I'm going to refer you to an eye specialist, we have to try to get you there pretty quick".
The receptionist called the specialist and setup an appointment for me. They said that they had a spot open for Friday, but I'm being squeezed in on Thursday.
At this point I'm getting a little worried but after doing a little bit of research it seems that it's a pretty standard operation. We'll see! ...
Last month I got a call from JM... he called to check on me... and then remind me that I had forgotten about his 30th Birthday :( How crappy is that.
I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to celebrate my birthday... but sometimes I forget that other people do. Also, as a result of my ways... I am probably one of the worst people when it comes to remembering birthdates. Lucky for me I have a great best-friend. He's cool about it, and managed to have a nice quiet night with his wife. AK & I met up with him a week after and had some nice 'catching-up' time... time is certainly flying... *sigh*
Well, Jacq's gift finally arrived at her doorstep a few days back! :D Her brother was home when the delivery guy reached but he didn't answer the door. The package was already belated as it was :( not enough hours in the day to do everything :( and now it was going to be even later.
The fact that her work is being shifted over to a new location / new company isn't helping either. What that translated to is that she wasn't able to pick up or even receive the package. She has to wait another 2 days.
I guess the surprise was spoilt because DHL called her to inform that they tried to deliver but there was no response.
Anyway, Jacq finally received her gift on the 19th
I happened to be online with her when the delivery came in :) she turned the cam so that I could see the guy hand it to her :p that was cool. Finally her gift was in her hands!
2006/09/19 11:07 Delivered 2006/09/19 09:46 On vehicle for delivery 2006/09/17 14:06 Attempted Delivery - Receiver Unavailable 2006/09/17 13:19 On vehicle for delivery 2006/09/17 13:13 Shipment In Transit 2006/09/17 10:17 Left INT'L POINTS INTERNATIONAUX 2006/09/17 05:00 Cleared Customs at INT'L POINTS INTERNATIONAUX 2006/09/17 05:00 Shipment In Transit 2006/09/17 04:54 Shipment In Transit 2006/09/16 18:55 Left INT'L POINTS INTERNATIONAUX 2006/09/16 13:01 Cleared Customs at INT'L POINTS INTERNATIONAUX 2006/09/16 08:41 Shipment In Transit 2006/09/14 20:02 Left INT'L POINTS INTERNATIONAUX 2006/09/14 14:17 Received at Shipping from SHIPPING of CANADA POST 349 GEORGIA ST W VANCOUVER BC
Here's the kicker. Jacq examined the package and told me it looked like it had been tampered with :( After opening the ennvelope she pulled out her card and it was crinkled, then she told me that it looked like the package was wrapped in another envelope inside. At this point I was beyond words. My whole mood had changed... My heart felt like it was in the pit of my stomach... I was almost certain that someone had gone and taken what was inside. Jacq pulled out the package, and the wrapping had been torn open on one side. Wow... the worst part for me is, she was doing all of this just off cam... I could see her, but I couldn't see what she was looking at.
When she finally showed me 2 small boxes I felt a little more relieved. When she opened them up and showed me what was inside I finally felt relief again.
That whole experience has left a bitter taste in my mouth. Why was the package opened? Why did she have to spend almost an hour untying a knot that was put into the necklace? What the fuck?! If it was customs that did this, don't they have equipment that allows them to see inside the package less intrusively? That was the first time that I have sent anything like that overseas, and I'm not impressed. People have no respect for things that don't belong to them... argh.
Times like these are very difficult in LDRs :(. It's difficult enough in that I always want to be together with her, spend quality time together with her... days like today I want to be with her even more... :'(
My dad has been talking about taking golf lessons lately and last week I had the urge to go out into the backyard and whack a few apples around :D
If you're ever bored and happen to have an apple tree in the yard then you should give this it a shot ;) Apple trees like to drop apples all over the place after they have ripened. Alot of the time the apples are over ripe or end up really bruised so you can't pick them up to eat them anyway... what to do? Grab a driver and whack away!
In the back of our house there is a medical building across the alley. If I were whacking golf balls I'd probably have the cops and/or a lawyer banging on my door :P Fortunately, apples just explode when you hit them :D weeeeeeeeee! Enjoy!
X decided that he wanted to play pool w/ me today :) yeee haw! For those of you who don't know, I used to work @ Starlite Billiards recently reopened as Cue Club.
I've been playing pool since I was about 8 yrs old, but only began playing seriously in my late teens. When I was on top of my game I was playing on average 5 hrs a day, about 5 days a week. That was when I could run roughly 5/9 racks. Now, I'm not so good :p I have some good days, and some not-so-good days :)
X and I decided to film some footage, here's our final game :P the sound seems to be out of synch... and ignore our commenets ^o)
That horrendous noise in the background is the huge fan that was blowing beside us :(
Woo.. .sorry for the lack of updates, but I've been busy trying to get everything in working order over the last few days...
As you may have guessed I've acquired a new RIG :D Weeeeeeeeee!
What has transpired since the last post?... hmm. Let's see on Friday, the 21st ASoo and I went out Downtown. That day I was looking to purchase a new Keyboard, I was planning on using my laptop as a closed PC so I needed a keyboard to plug in. I tried using the extra one that we had kicking around. Just a generic keyboard... not even a brand. Unfortunately, the connector was a PS/2 and not USB... most new laptops don't come with PS/2 ports.
We ended up eating in the Pacific Center Mall foodcourt. ASoo just grabbed a Julius and I ordered some Pho (IMO the best fastfood pho in Vancouver). While we were enjoying our food and chatting a couple came and sat beside us. They were both Asian but the girl was FREAKING tall. She was eating something strange out of a can... I managed to take a shot of her, but not a nice one :p I was talking to ASoo and just turned to camera in her general direction, tried to make it inconspicuous :D I still haven't figured out what was in that can... fruits perhaps?
After that we went for a walk down Robson to the Glico store :) I showed ASoo the CalorieMate hehe. Today was SL 500 / SLK / z4 day... there were so many we lost track. We also stumbled upon something very peculiar while in the Glico store... they were selling stuff off at rock bottom prices... reasoning, expiry date past. This is common in some stores... but... this one took the cake. You'd think that the items had only been expired by days, right? Wrong... Have a gander at these...
Expired: 6/25
you think that's bad? Check out this next picture...
wtf... that's more than 2 months ago!!!... Uh... someone call the health department? There has to be some law against that.
Anyway, we left the store and headed back towards the car. ASoo was amused at all the bums that we saw downtown. Vancouver is notorious for our less fortunate roaming the strip asking for cash. I was thinking of going on an outing just to take pictures of all the bums that we have down there... most of them are regulars that you will see EVERYDAY you're down there... and some of them pop up every-so-often. Seriously, there are enough of them down there that you could put together a bubblegum card collection.
There are regulars like the "please, sir, ma'am" guy, the crazy guy with the puppets... the not so regulars like the one-arm push-up guy, and the no-shoes guy... and the rares like harmonica guy, and even the guy that takes your money but makes it look like a charity... :P
That's just the tip of the iceberg too :/
Before I forget :) Here's an example of how our bums are getting lazier and lazier.
By Far, this one takes the cake :D it's not even a real person lmao. Classic.
ASoo and I stopped off at FutureShop.. That's where I was hoping to pick up the new Keyboard. We ended up purchasing a couple of spindles of dual layer DVD-R at one-day-sale price :) instead. They didn't really have what I was looking for (more-bang-for-my-buck keyboard). ASoo also mentioned that there is a decent Benq wireless keyboard & mouse combination that I could get at NCIX (roughly $25)... how could I go wrong with that? :D We should have gone to NCIX today instead :/ Haha... We also went to one of the arcades (MovieLand) and kicked his ass in some classic games :P. OkOk... ASoo beat me a couple of times too... in 1 particular game... I shall not reveal my weakness :D.
We left DownTown and headed back to my house... on the way out we saw a strange sight...
That was something new to me... I wasn't aware that there was yet another reality TV show in Vancouver... but I'm sure I'll be seeing lots more of it in the future (assuming it airs) because my mum is a Reality TV freak :/ As you can see the lineup is around the corner. They also blocked off the rest of the street as well. We eventually made it out of downtown and back on the way home. It was decided that we were going to head over to the Richmond Night Market this evening. That's right, we have a Pasar Malam here, Two in fact.
Vancouver Night Market began as a small affair in Vancouver's Historic Chinatown. That event occupied 2 streets last I went (probably over 5 years ago). The vendors sold the typical Night market goods... the most popular being pirated digital media, of course... wait, maybe it was the 'hawker' food :) you'll notice that I put quotes around the word 'hawker' ya? that's because IMO the food vendors here do not compare to those of S'pore / M'sia.
Richmond's Night Market came a few years after Chinatown's. It began in the parking lot of Lansdowne mall and from the get go was larger than the original. Eventually it outgrew that parking lot (amusement rides, and too many stalls) and moved over to a large lot by Bridgeport Rd. & 3 Rd. The new location allowed for about double the stalls that they had in the old location... and then it moved again. This time to the Industrial area just off the Knight St. / Bridgeport Rd. exit. The new locations provides more than just shopping. It has a stage setup for live entertainment as well :p I have yet to see a performance tho, I never go early enough... wait, I think I have seen ONE performance, some live band. Anyway, I'm sure you can do a search on Youtube / google video and find footage. In fact, I found footage of some Chinese Michael Jackson impersonator :D... and no, it's not the Malaysian Idol guy :D.
The following is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
In Vancouver, night markets take place on summer weekends in Chinatown and also in an industrial area near suburban Richmond's Golden Village; the latter attracts in excess of 12,000 people per night.
-Wikipedia (on: Night market)
On with the story. The main reasons that I wanted to go to Night Market was 1) I hadn't been there in awhile & 2) I NEEDED to find a keyboard for my laptop. Guess what? No Dice... the closest thing that they had was the Flexible USB keyboard. I wasn't about to pick that up... it's not like I'm going to be taking my laptop anywhere anytime soon... not with the busted monitor.
This year Night Market is full of garbage... it was quite a disappointment. Normally I'll come across something, anything that I'll pick up because it's useful / neat & cheap. Nope NADA. I even forgot to get my favorite Curried Fish Balls :o. By the end of the night, we left as we came, empty-handed. Grr... with the amount of people that we had wade through, I was almost willing to buy some random item... just to make it feel like it was worthwhile :@.
Here's a short clip of the crowd.. just to give you an idea:
The next day ASoo called me in the afternoon. He was stranded at Costco and wanted to hook up and head over to NCIX in Richmond.
Finally, I had a chance to go w/ him to a comptuer store. ASoo is planning on setting up a new server so he wanted to go check parts. Me, I was only planning on getting a keyboard, and a quote no how much damage my wallet was going to take. The reason we were in Richmond NCIX is because ASoo is like a crack addict and Richmond NCIX is his dope dealer. Yup, it was pretty much first-name-basis for him. I was hoping that I could get him to help me pick components for my PC, I ended up telling the NCIX guy "What would you recommend?". I told him that I wanted a machine that was decent for gaming as well as working with graphics.
Here is the quote:
Tonight I folded and ended up calling Microsoft Product Activation line so that I could activate my Windows XP (pro 32bit) on my new machine :( I didn't want to. I was actually trying to install Windows Vista Beta 2 64bit but the activation period of 14 days had already expired so I couln't login after installing... in short... I wasted over an hour of my time trying to install Windows Vista Beta 2. Ghey.
After that I tried to do an install of my Windows XP Pro... but for some reason I ended up getting some wierd error. I did some research and it looked like some people were getting this error as a result of HW failure (?) umm... I was not happy to hear that, but I was also pretty sure that that was not the case for me. This was a brand spanking new HD.
Eventually I had to startup in recovery mode and use the console to manually format the C Drive. Everytime I tried to format it using the Windows XP install process it wouldn't wipe out the old Windows (Vista) install.
Some of you already know that my trusty laptop's monitor decided to crap out on me not long ago. I'm not sure how... but I seem to have a gift for destroying electronics (that I own). When I was in the British Columbia Institue of Technology (BCIT) I was in the laptop program. This required that we lease an IBM Thinkpad from the school. Apparently, we all got a bad bunch of laptops so there were 10/13 (if memory serves me correctly) that were sent back for servicing... as if that's not bad enough. My laptop happened to be the LEMON of the whole bunch... hehe, I just remembered that I wrote about it earlier... read about it here.
So anyway... I was came into my room one day and had the laptop on my bed when I accidentally knocked the screen forward. Those of you who have owned a Toshiba Satellite can attest that the monitor's hinges are pretty flimsy. If you get the monitor at a 90 degree angle you can rock it back-and-forth. My hinge (over 3 years old now) is loose as hell so when I bumped it and caused it to shift more than 35-40 degrees it slammed shut :( I opened up the laptop thinking all was well. No... all was not well. The screen was flickering and occassionally it would jump. fek.
I rode it out hoping that this was just some freak thing and that it would go away... surprise, surprise... nope. Eventually, the next day, I got to witness the screen flicker out. I wasn't even using the laptop at that time, I was using my dad's as he's out of town for the week.
I figured that the rest of the laptop was in perfect order cuz I pressed the cPad button to light it up... and the power button to light up the top console, they both worked. Then I plugged the Toshiba into my TV and switched it. It came on with no issue. No flickering, no jumping. So it appears that the back lighting for the screen has decided to give out. Upon closer inspection I confirmed my suspicions. You can see the crystals changing to draw the screen, but there is no lighting from behind. I just looks like a ghost of an image.
Now I use this laptop as my primary computer so it looks like I'll have to purchase a new one. This time I think I'll go for my first PC. Suggestions anyone? It's as if I have a PC but no monitor, wtf. Seeing as I'm going to need a monitor for my fancy new PC I went online and researched as well as got some advice from AS then headed out with AK in search of a new monitor. Futureshop was useless, they had one 20" monitor on display and the one time that I wanted a rep to help me, they were nowhere to be found. NCIX had what I was looking for... but not in stock at the location that we were at. grrr. I paid for the product at that location and AK taxied us over to their other location, in rush hour, none-the-less. Here's the route we took: gmaps. If you're wondering, gmaps lies... it took far more than 23 minutes to get there :P
After finally acquiring the package I went home but didn't have a chance to get it working until after I came back from my jog w/ my cousin.
Even while trying to get things working between the laptop and the monitor, the laptop put up a fight :@. I tried plugging the monitor in and switching the output. No luck. I tried installing the driver and switching the output. No luck. Then I tested it with my dad's laptop... wth, that was fine. I tried again and again until I finally got fed up and rammed the connector into the socket as far as it could go... OMG!!! The angels in Heav'n did sing! The monitor flickered to life... and with the image from my laptop :'( *sniff*. I felt like an addict suffering from withdrawal about to take a dose... wooo, liberation!
Excuse the ghetto setup :p see? it works! :D and 0 (zero) dead pixels!
Hello hello... time for me to make some use of the time I have outside of work... and maybe some time @ work too :p What have I been doing since the last time I was blogging? I guess I'll sum it up.
