Downtown & Stuff...

Jacqueline's take on makeup:

JACQUELINE says:
they like patching their face like those contractor patching the cement on the wall

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Today AK called me up and asked if I wanted to go join him for some dinner, we ended up in DownTown Vancouver. It's been awhile since the last time I took a walk down here and some things have already changed. One of the most noticable changes for me is the fact that public traffic is allowed on Granville street between Robson and Smithe... it used to be reserved for city vehicles only. Meh... another thing that REALLY blows me away is the fact that the McDonald's on Granville and Smithe is now a Footlocker, WTH... have you EVER heard of a McDick's picking up and leaving from ANYWHERE?

Anyway, we ended up eating @ Kitto Japanese restaurant, one of our usual spots. It seems that this place has changed too... I'm pretty sure it's been awhile, but I've decided to rant about it today. It used to be that this restaurant was authentic... how authentic depends on what YOUR definition of authentic is. But, it used to be owned by Japanese and run by Japanese. Now if you go in, you'll hear Mandarin and Vietnamese... that kinda ruins it for me. There are a couple of employees who are Japanese, but it seems like the original staff are all long gone *sniff*. Is it just me or do Chinese / Vietnamese chefs in a Japanese restaurant NOT make it feel authentic anymore? Especially when you're sitting at the Sushi Bar and the Vietnamese woman who's handling the asparagus for the asparagus rolls picks up a noodle container (vat, bin, whatever) while STILL holding the asparagus which is now touching the outside of the bin rubbing against it... not only does that not feel authentic, it's frickin' disghusting. If you're going to do that, do it somewhere out of sight... no no, wait... how about DON'T DO THAT AT ALL!!!

Blah... we had our food, then we went for a walk.

Today I was on a mission to get a picture of the Darth Spirit Bear and the Batman Spirit Bear :). Apparently there are 200 of these things kickin' around all over Greater Vancouver. If you're wondering what they're all about, you can read about them here.

Darth Bear I had come across awhile back when I was walking downtown w/ AK... unfortunately, at that time I didn't have my camera on me (heaven forbid). As you can imagine this bear gets alot of attention... IMO, I this is the greatest :D. AK seems to like it too... but I'm sure if we found an Incredible Hulk Bear he'd prolly soil his pants :p

Batman Spirit Bear I had no idea existed until I saw a piccy of it in Nando's Avatar :D It's actually on Burrard street as well, just 2 and-a-half blocks North (across from Burrard Skytrain Station). This bear is another one of my favorites too (obviously) although upon closer inspection AK had to point out that, "It looks like it's got Dookie in its drawers!" ... I had to admit... he's not lying :p

From there we walked back to Robson and headed over to the Kombiniya on Robson (past Bute). Dunno... I had a hankering for some Japanese stuffy-stuff. We ended up exploring the WHOLE store and discovered alot of junk... they even have an internet cafe in the back, one which I've never noticed before regardless of the fact that I've been in the store numerous times. It looked kinda like a little Japanese sweatshop :D. When I went to the counter to check out I stumbled upon...


Inset is a picture of a CalorieMate 'in-game'
The first time that I had heard of Calorie Mate was in Metal Gear Solid 3. I figure if it's good enough for the main character 'Snake'... then it's good enough for me :D. Anyway, it should be interesting...

Here's the script from after you consume a CalorieMate and then call Para-Medic (Snake's Medical Correspondant):

Para-Medic: "I see you have a Calorie Mate."
Snake: "Calorie Mate?"
Para-Medic: "The thing you're holding now."
Snake: "Oh, the little block that looks like a cookie?"
Para-Medic: "Try it. It's pretty good."
Snake: "Okay. But what is this thing? I've never seen anything like it."
Para-Medic: "Calorie Mate is an energy supplement that contains all the
proteins, liquids, vitamins, carbohydrates and minerals needed for
a balanced diet. It is a well-balanced food. Because of that, it's
just perfect for giving your body the nutrition it needs in
combat."
Snake: "It sounds like a space-age food."
Para-Medic: "Real astronaut food is not very good, but that should taste fine."
Snake: "Yeah, and it will help balance out all this jungle food I'm eating."
Para-Medic: "It's easy and quick to eat, so it's perfect for when you are
running late for an important mission in the morning."
Snake: "I've never been late for a mission."
Para-Medic: "Really? Aren't you always keeping people waiting?"
Snake: "?"
Para-Medic: "It's easy to keep track of your calorie intake and receive the
nutrition your body needs, so it's good for losing weight too. All
of the geisha girls in Japan use it for watching their calories."
Snake: "Is that why they're all so slim?"
Para-Medic: "Right. And any diet where you eat nothing at all is bad for the
body."
Snake: "I see. You seem to know a lot about Japan don't you?"
Para-Medic: "Yes, I love Japan."

Time to see what it's all about O.o... At the Kombiniya there were 3 flavors of CalorieMate Block to choose from: Chocolate, Cheese & Fruits. I chose Chocolate. Upon opening the package I found 2 baggies and inside each of those 2 CalorieMate blocks... they reminded me of the ShortBread or ButterCookie sticks that I used to get during X-Mas time... interesting. I sniffed the block just to get an idea and uh... it smelt kinda like cardboard with a hint of chocolate. euh. *sigh* oh well, now for the moment of truth... Not surprisingly, it tastes like it smells... and it has the consistency of, um, dirt? Ok, not that bad, close to a butter cookie, but not... maybe dry playdough? You get the idea. I'm a little disappointed because in the game it says: "It was unbelievable tasty!". Maybe I shouldn't be so hard on Snake, after all, in the conversation that he has with The Boss he reveals that he can't smell a thing... which would then lead me to believe that he can't taste anything either... wth. Now I'm confused... grrr.

I'm still curious as to what the other flavors taste like (minus the cardboard taste, of course).

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Before I forget... on the way back to the car we saw:

Ferrari F450

Lamborghini Gallardo

BLING BLING!

BTW, that yellow Porsche (first picture)was parked behind the Ferrari... if I were him, I would have parked somewhere else :p zzzzzzzing!