Lei

Batman!

Human Bat Prank

At night! Everything Comes to life!

Real Dinosaur

testing

1 2 3

Fix This Replace That IX

The hot water tank at the nursing home started spewing out water from the relief valve. The technician couldn't find anything wrong with it. So I just left it and told the staff to keep an eye on the hot water consumption. Status is pending. This is a Rheem Professional tank and the warranty just expired. I am somewhat disappointed by this as the tank is not very old at all.

When I went to do my dishes I found that there was no hot water. The hot water tank at home was also malfunctioning except that the problem was rather obvious. A small perforation through the outside wall near the top revealed a leak inside as water slowly dripped down around the base of the tank. I relighted the gas burner but set it on low to keep the stress to a minimum and still have some warm water. I am disappointed by this tank because it also is not very old. It is a John Woods Professional residential gas model. It should still be under warranty. So here's my one piece of advice. Make sure you buy one with the longest warranty. At least eight, preferably ten years or more.

The radiator on my truck is leaking now. At first I couldn't find any holes but after topping it up with coolant and running the vehicle until the thermostat opened, I found that the coolant was somehow seeping right through the metal. This was very strange but nevertheless I think I will have to replace this tank as well. If I can't find the original warranty paper and the supplier doesn't agree to honour the lifetime warranty, then I will try one of the new aluminum radiators instead. The original was copper. Aluminum is also cheaper these days. Soon I after, I may have to replace the whole vehicle. It is getting rather old. I just wanted to reach 400k. Right now the odometer sits at 379k. Another year or two should do it. It's a Toyota. Oh what a feeling...

So what else can go wrong? Well I got a flat tire after driving home the other day and putting the spare on was a pain. My sister's boyfriend had lost the original jack which came with the truck and gave me a small replacement set. For a truck this tiny little thing can barely lift up the truck high enough for me to get the rear tire off without the truck falling over. I had to use some safety blocks behind the other wheels so the truck wouldn't roll around on me.

Then a sink drain pipe got clogged up at the nursing home. The snake wouldn't work as it couldn't get by a 90 degree pipe bend too far down the line. In the end, I had to use a drain liquid called Rho-tyme. It dissolves hair, paper and grease. The Zep brand at Home Depot only dissolve each kind of particle separately. Why would I want to waste my time buying all three kinds individually when I could just get the all-in-one liquid and not worry about it. Especially when I don't even know for sure what is clogging the pipe.

At the same time this happened, the faucet for that drain began leaking as well. It's a Moen faucet which one contractor claims is the best. I disagree as I've switched almost all the faucets in the nursing home over to non-Moen units. The majority are single lever American Standard faucets. I chose this brand because of the warranty program they have. A lifetime replacement just one phone call away. With Moen its much more of a pain as you have to bring the broken part in whereas American Standard will just ship you the part and you're off to the races.

Stuffed Tummy

Uuoohhhhhhh.... Uuoohhhhh.... Tiny needles poke the top of my stomach releentlessly rendering me couchbound. I ate too much this evening.

At noon I woke up and saw that someone had called me. I ignored the call, closed my eyes and went back to sleep.

Last night I went to Relish in vancouver for a friends birthday. After one rum and coke my evening was done. Well not really but it sure made me really tired. Today I got up late and dropped some supplies off at the business. I also checked the hot water tank as the staff had been telling me that they had been running out.

Afterwards I went back home to complete the EBay transaction for a washing machine motor. At half the price of the local distributor, how could I pass it up? The electric motor on one of the washing machines at the business was starting to have problems.

Then I drove down to Broco Auto to return the free rental car and pick up my truck. During the deep freeze snow fall over xmas, the windshield split from one of the three rock chips when I had the heater on high. The temperature gradient between the inside of the car and the freezing outside might have caused this.

I'd have to say the people working at the south surrey location did a great job of replacing the windshield. At first the guy at the desk was surprised at all the different windshields which were available for my 93 toyota pickup truck. He had never seen so much. In the end, they chose to stick with the same one which was on the truck already. One with a green tint and a blue sunscreen band across the top.

They replaced the molding strip around the exterior as well as fixed a small rust spot. The last time I had the windshield replaced from a rock chip the shop didn't replace the molding strip and it showed. The old one was peeling and didn't sit properly in its place. Finally they cleaned the inside of my truck and it looked great. All this ended up taking a few hours longer but I didn't mind.

This is when I made my first meal of the day. I was starving. I stuffed myself and fell a sleep soon after. Then afterwards I decided it was time to make another meal. I stuffed myself again just hours after the previous meal and now I find myself in my current predicament.

30 Degrees of Freedom

The heat blisters and the sun is bright. Everyone is outside playing in the hot weather but where am I? These past few days I find myself wondering what I am doing. Am I doing anything at all? Like some sort of drunken bum, I sleep in many mornings and my day starts late. One of the many so-called priviledges of being your own boss and a person on contract.

Saturday afternoon was spent working at the nursing home. I couldn't make it out to beach volleyball due to timing and logistics. Too much driving all over the place and not getting enough things done. The same group of friends wanted to have a bbq as well except that they had no bbq as I soon learned after calling to say that I may not be able to make it out. I think it was hoped that I would be the bbq person as I was all last summer. The knee injury is taking much longer than I had hoped forcing me to put volleyball on the backburners still.

Later that afternoon I went to salsa class. Alberto had asked me to join the intermediate level III class even though I wanted to retake the level II class. It was just that no one else wanted to take it over with me and there was no group advancing from level I. I had missed a number of classes and forgotten a lot of the lessons which is what compelled me to want to take the class over again.

No Diavolos or HoJo's this weekend. Everyone took a break from dancing and did their own thing.

I watched my Initial D anime movie again this weekend. I had forgotten parts of it and really liked seeing it again. Then I remembered that I had not seen the real live version which came out in asia last year. So today I went to a videoshop in Parker Place, one of those all asian malls in richmond and picked up a copy on vcd.

At first it took a bit of getting used to having certain expectations of what the characters should be like. If I were the producer, I would have cast it differently and shot it differently. Now I know how people are like when they see movies after reading the book and disapproving of the movie. Always things that are left out or changed. Give me a shot at it! I'll redo it! This movie did win a number of awards in Hong Kong. Despite originating in Japan, the movie was made for more of an all asian crowd consisting of Hong Kong and China. Cast members being the current popular young Hong Kong stars. Why didn't they cast it with japanese actors and actresses?

The tiling job continues at the nursing home. I went and loaded up my truck with everything I needed today. All the tiles, mortar, grout and self leveling cement from the Rona store in richmond. The other Rona store in vancouver had ran out of the tiles that I wanted.

The self leveling cement is wonderful for anyone with an uneven concrete floor. Just pour it on the floor, spread it around and let gravity do its thing. The staff at the home seemed happy to finally see the old stained carpet removed.

Moving

The hole in the wall is pretty much fixed as I put the second coat of paint on. Now all that is visible is a faint outline of where the baby went through along with the protrusions on the sides indicating where my hands had held the baby. I think I will stop lift weights for a while.

I swam all the way home today in a huge lake or torrential rain. This weekend it poured. At times it felt as though someone was constantly throwing whole buckets of water at me. It has been sometime since I have walked in rain of this magnitude. The last time was when I was in mexico caught in one of those roaming bands of rain (storm) which lasted just ten minutes or so. It comes and goes so quickly you wouldn't have noticed that it even happened another twenty minutes later with the hot weather they have down there.

But today, it did not let up. I had to replace one of the wiper blades on my truck which was worn out. One of my rear tail lights had blown so I quickly fixed that in the rain as well. Afterwards, I drove downtown.

It has also been a number of years since I've been to Boomtown records. That place where I learned how to play with turntables and vinyl records all in a tiny sound insulated room at the back of the store. DJ Leanne had been operating her dj school called the rhythm institute and Tyler Johnson was the instructor assigned to me. A younger guy who was the dj at what was know as the drink night club. I've frequented this place many times before in its previous reincarnation as 'Madisons'. Now it is the Red Room. DJ Leanne has moved her turntable school a different location downtown. I think possibly zulu records on Pender street but the room still sits at the back of Boomtown records. Tyler Johnson still remains at the old record store being the lone instructor for his preference for house music. I went inside and looked around at the old sound room. Most of the original equipment was still there. Most likely just similar equipment owned by the record store instead of Leanne herself. On the wall is a schedule of the room bookings. It is sparce with only a few lessons booked. It seems a bit empty and bleak in the back area of the store.

Up front are still the vinyl records of various styles of music which many local dj's come to purchase for their gigs or private use. I flipped through a bin which has been marked 'new and current releases' recognizing some artists. Listening to some of them I can hear how the style has changed over the few years that I have left the scene. But one favourite still stands out. A track called 'tweak' by Felix da House Cat. I listen to each record on the turntables which the store has for listening and am tempted to buy it. but when i think about it, why would I? With only one turntable, a few records and no real mixer or a second turntable, there's not much point to collecting any more albums. I'd prefer the digital version of the song and control everything from a computer like I did once before for a wedding. I put the record back in a pile with the rest and leave it at the front counter. There I begin to make my purchase. DJ Sasha of the former duo Sasha and Digweed is performing in town on December 29th. Some friends I met at Lotus are organizing a small group to go see Sasha live. Unfortunately the venue he has chosen is Celebrities. A gay bar which I'm not too keen on. Apparently the original venue was the commodore as has most popular dj's that I have liked have performed at ie Tiesto. However, this time the organizers found a friday night available at Ccelebrities so they made the switch. Nonetheless, our group of faithful followers are still going.

The clerk in the record store punches in the order for the three tickets which I am purchasing for me and two friends. The others in the group have already bought their tickets.
"That will be a hundred and thirty five dollars please." he says to me.
I pull out my visa. He sees it and says "sorry. for event tickets, we do not accept credit card."
I decide to take out my interac card which I hardly ever use given that I prefer to charge everything on my credit card. As I hand the card to the clerk I suddenly realize I can't remember the pin.
"oh god. I think I can't remember the code. My mind has just gone blank on me."
"You don't remember your pin?" The clerk gives me a puzzled look. He swipes the card in the machine and I try three combinations not even sure which account I'm supposed to use for an interac debit purchase. All three attempts fail and he closes the transaction.
"There's an RBC cash machine at the gas station at the intersection there." pointing to the esso gas station. "you can get a cash advance there."
"Thanks. I'll be back." I didn't want to use a cash advance because it costs more and interest is charged from the day you make the withdrawal but I wanted to retry my bank debit card at the machine thinking that it would be faster than waiting for the slow and very audible dial up at the record store.
At the gas station, I put in my debit card and try a couple of different pin codes. I've complete forgotten it. None work and soon the message "all codes are being declined until you come into a branch to reset your pin number for your protection."
I need to get these tickets because I know the event will sell out. At the record store I could see that they only had a handful of tickets left. I decide to try my old bank debit card which is from a different institution. An account which I hardly ever use since I transferred to a new bank but kept this one open anyways. I put this old debit card into the cash machine to test it. The pin code works and the machine prompts me for an amount to withdrawal. I press cancel and retrieve the card thinking it will work fine at the record store.

Walking back to the store, the clerk is standing outside in the doorway having a smoke. He barely recognizes me in the low light but when he does, "you still want the tickets?"
I nod and we go in. I give him my old debit card and he swipes it. The pin pad device prompts for an account type to use. I select one and enter the pin. The pin pad responds by telling me that the account is not enabled for debit transactions. I try it again selecting the other account. This time it is fine. I enter the pin code and it is fine. Then the pin pad screen flashes the messages 'transaction declined. Limited use."
I can't believe this. None of my credit cards are accepted and my two debit cards don't work.
"I guess I'll go and get a cash advance with my credit card." I leave the store in the rain once again and go to a bank nearby. There I remember the correct pin for my credit card and get a cash advance close to the amount needed for the tickets. Quickly I go back to the record store to find the clerk standing in front of the store once again smoking another cigarette.
"You're back" he says with a temporarily startled look on his face before going back to his usual non-chalant composure. I have now given him the impression that I must have a wallet full of stolen bank cards which I must be trying to use. But now I am back with real hard cash.
"So that will be a hundred and thirty five dollars for the three tickets please" he says from behind the counter. I hand him the cash and the transaction is finally complete. Now I need to go visit my bank first thing in the morning to clear up this mess.

Helping The Whole World Move One Person At A Time...

Cakemaker and volleyball girl are now roommates. Sharing a two bedroom basement suite, I helped them move some belongings and furniture. Saturday was the first meal we all shared at the new place also using the new cookware which I helped cakemaker buy. Her relatives had given her an incomplete set of semi-useless pots and pans. The non-stick surface on the frying pan was old all scratched up. Just like volleyball girls old frying pan. Their small television set is partially non-functional. The satellite dish needs to be set up so I gave them a spare dvd player I had. A replacement unit from Toshiba which had already been replaced twice before. Now they don't have to just sit there and stare at each other when they have nothing to do in their new place. I guess they'll just have to chat and converse like normal human beings or become bored of each other.

Earlier we had all gone to Ikea so Cakemaker could pick up some kitchen goods. Fatboy, as his closest friends call him has recently returned from his honeymoon. Him and his new wife Sarah went to Japan for five days followed by another week or so in China. Now they are busilly starting their new life together a new condo in Burnaby. They picked out a bed which I carried in my truck.

Today I tried to move Gambit's stuff which he has in storage. The place is closing down so he needs to find another place. We found one except that I forgot about the paperwork. This move is temporarily postponed until Gambit can get the paperwork settled first.

On the way home, I stop off at the nursing home. It dawned on me earlier this evening that I'm just about done upgrading a number of the old dresser tables. I think I've bought and modified about five dresser tables and another five or so night tables. Each one getting an additional two coats of polyurethane to protect the tops with general everyday abuse by the patients. What is good for a gym or hardwood floor is also good for the furniture. I can finally start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. For awhile it felt like an endless array of furniture assembly and modifications amongst the other regular emergencies at the nursing home around my regular day time job. That vacations looks less like an dream and closer to reality now.

This is how the world moves one person at a time.

Please Stand Still

I started working out a month or two ago to show my friend how to use the gym equipment in his condominium complex. Yesterday while leaning against a wall, my hand went through it all the way up to my left shoulder. When I went to open the door on my truck, the door ripped off. At work, I was moving some computers around and accidentally tossed one in the air over my head when I went to lift it up. I stole some time during lunch to do some shopping at mall nearby. While trying on a pair of pants and attempting to keep my balance, I put my foot through one pant leg and tore the pants right through the crotch.

Thanksgiving is over and I've just finished one Costco sized pumpkin pie. For some reason my mother decided to get two and little ol me is the only person eating it. The second pie waits to be consumed for transformation into stored energy inside me.

My coed soccer team has been fun. No one knows what they are doing and every game we get our butts kicked. One team told us it would take us about three years before we would start to show significant improvement. Thanks for the encouragement.

My big brother had a baby last week. Or rather my sister n law did. He just helped start the whole process. The baby was three weeks early. Tiny little guy weighing in around seven and a half pounds. I didn't dare hold him for the first week since I had a small cough and cold. This week I was much better and they put the baby in my arms. At first it, I guess I should call it by 'its' name instead,

Samuel started to cry before I adjusted his position. He then began to fall asleep despite all my relatives talking loudly around me. And for the next thirty minutes or so, I was stuck there with my brothers new baby in my arms while my brother and his wife brought out the little guys birthday cake. They all ate the yummy cake while I sat there and Samuel slept.

One thing of note. The little guy looks just like his dad.

It's fall and time for movies. I haven't gone clubbing since the wedding. Instead I've gone to the theatres two times in the past week. Last night I rented Big Fish. Cool movie. Lots of symbolisms in there and great imagination. I will attempt to watch it again this week when I have time. These are the days for sitting at home on the couch and staring at the tube, being lazy. If only it could be true. Time does not stand still.

I wish I could have some time to just stand still.

Michael Jackson and the Devils House

He looked at me with cold dark eyes over his shoulder. In his arms he tried to contain his smaller brother as he cried out for his mother. With the distance and the sound from the other people in the park, she could not hear his plea for help. There was another older brother standing beside the two who did nothing. I looked at the young boy as an evil grin began to form on his face and after some time had passed, the younger boy finally broke free from his older brothers arms running to his mother. It seemed like an eternity when the older brother just stood there staring at me as though I knew what bad deed he was doing. Some kind of taunting or mean trick on his little brother. I will never forget the evil look in his eyes. That boy will grow up to play worse tricks. He is the devil.

I received a project this week which I did nearly everything on for the first time. Creating the project title, setting up the letter of assurance, generating the structural drawings for every level of the building and selecting the project number. As I looked down the long list of project numbers I came to the end where no project names appeared anymore. The next number to use was 2006-666.

This project is for a new home in the Shaugnessy area. A somewhat complex design, there are three levels plus a giant three bay garage on the ground floor. Even still, I managed to get most of the project done in quick fashion. The last part was to get the beam sizes spec'd out by my coworker.
"Hey Lei." she quietly asked me through the parting in the cubicle walls.
"Nancy?"
"Come here, I have something to tell you" she said.
"Whats up?" I left my seat and walked over to her cubicle. Standing behind her and looking at her screen I recognized the files I had created which she had already started working on.
"Look at this file. You drew all the walls from the floor right on this file."
"Ohhhh, you're working on the devils house."
"Huh? Oh... hah haha" she laughs. "yeah, six-six-six... now I'm stuck working on the devils house."
"I'm glad I'm not working on it anymore. I wonder what the family living there will be like."
"That's like Michael Jackson across the hall!" she says to me. Across the hall from our office is a notary public. On their door are the names of two people, 'Michael #### and #### Jackson. She looks at the two names and only see's "Michael Jackson."

So Michael Jackson works across the hall and we are busy designing the devils house.

Fishing Season

First I cut the head off. The large stainless steel mixing bowl is filled with fresh sockey salmon heads, guts and blood. Then I take the small knife and insert it into the belly near the tail end. With a slicing motion I cut along the length of the belly towards me until the whole underside is open right up to the base of the chopped off head. Some organs slide out and I can see what looks like the liver. With my fingers I pull it all out. In another fish hundreds of round red eggs spill out. A female fish which had hoped to lay its eggs in some riverbed instead now lies on my cutting board in my kitchen. I bought six fresh sockey salmon from my brother for ten dollars a piece. Each one was a fair size and caught that morning to be sold by the natives on a reserve near my brothers workplace. He called me earlier that day asking if I wanted to buy some and I said yes.

The days go by quickly and I wish there was more time available. More time to sleep that is. I went on a real date with Kyoko on tuesday. Everything went well. She didn't get drunk this time which is a good sign. I wanted to see what she was like around me without being intoxicated. We had dinner at a nice restaurant before going for a walk and watching the sunset. We even saw a shooting star after the sun had gone down. Summer nights are wonderful. Unfortunately I still don't see her and I as any sort of long term thing. She will be off travelling soon and before long, will be heading back to her home country. It is still fishing season.

The day before I got a really bad headache. This past year its gotten worse and to the point where it makes me feel sick, nauscious and completely drained of energy. If this keeps up, I'm going to have to check myself into a hospital I think.

All week its been catch up as far as sleep is concerned. This is no good and I do not foresee a break anytime soon. There has been a number of invitations to go on some sort of vacation. Exotic locals and far away places, it's all very enticing. One option is to go on some kind of surfing trip somewhere with some buddies. Costa Rica is one or maybe somewhere in the south pacific. Hawaii is also another possibility but the cost may be a bit prohibitive to some of my friends.

I missed the salsa lessons last friday so I'm hoping to get back to it this evening. However I still have to get some work done before I can spend all day saturday at the beach for a volleyball tournament. Then back on sunday for more volleyball skipping the option to spend the weekend in whistler with some other friends.

My team played awful at urban beach last night. We lost every game and I showed up late because of work. Claude seemed very non-vocal and unenthusiastic. Same with Jennifer's bf Cam who is playing with our team for the first time. Only the girls showed any sort of energy except for Kate. She left early in the last game. There's really only two weekends left for this summer and I'm not sure when I will have my last bbq at the beach now.

Lineup

"Daddy... daddy... can we have a tv in the bathroom?" cried the little girl in the store. This sounded funny when I heard it. The father didn't respond as the whole family kept marching along towards the checkouts. I however, was walking in the opposite direction to pick up some curtain rods for the nursing home. When I came back I found myself standing in one of the moderately long lineups at the checkout stations. I can't stand these line ups. They always seem to take so long or maybe I'm just impatient. So I stood there waiting and waiting. Meanwhile, the woman in front of me had instructed her daughter to stand in the line up next to us. In a few minutes, the mother would leave the spot in front of me to join the other line. This is the luck I have at stores as when I move up, I find that the couple in front of me is having a problem. The cashier clerk has to make a phone call and of course like everything else there, no one can come and help right away. The phone call seems to go on forever so I continue to stand there looking around. The people behind me have now piled there goods onto the clerks table. I look at their stuff and notice that they too have a pair of curtain rods like mine. Except that the plastic packaging on one of their rods is open and the end cap is missing.
"Excuse me, is this your curtain rod?" I asked. A man in a pinstriped blazer stood behind a cart while the young girl whom I saw putting the items on the table was now standing behind him. I didn't know if they were together.
"Is there something wrong with it?" he responds.
"Yes. See the end here... the plastic wrapping has opened up and the end cap is missing."
"What should it look like?"
"The plastic caps should look like this." I hold up my curtain rods for him to see.
"Oh thank you. We'll get the cashier clerk to send for a replacement when we get up there."
I turn around and they are still on the phone. Soon the clerk finally comes up with a good idea.
"Excuse me ma'am, but do you mind if we just finish off the payment for these items first? When the person from the office comes down they'll ring this last item for you separately" he asks.
"Oh of course" replies the woman's husband.
Finally, I get to make my purchase. All I wanted was to be able to pay my six dollars and get through there but before I could start another woman who had been arguing with a plain clothed staff person at the end of the clerks station was almost crying.
"But ma'am, we can get someone to get you what you want." he says.
"No, I don't want it. I don't think we need it anymore" she exclaims while walking in my direction. At that point I realized she was with the man and the little girl behind me. The plain clothed Ikea person began talking on the phone at our checkout station.
"Yeah, you got someone that can come down? She just kind of lost it in front of me for no reason." Putting the phone down he starts to ask the woman again.
"Someone is on their way from that department ma'am."
"I don't care. It doesn't matter anymore." she says out loud.
The couple whom the clerk was originally dealing with is now waiting at the checkout line next to us.
"Is this all sir?" says the clerk to me.
"Yes."
"That'll be $6.29."
It is now closing time and the small 'bistro' has done the same. I didn't get my ice cream.

WordPress

WordPress Beta test with the weekend update can be found here. It seems like there's so many new things to try technologywise right now. And I couldn't have picked a better time to become semi-obssessed with some kind of work with the way emotions have been. In the web photo class, we learned how to do roll overs. It was rather trivial to be honest and once again the class continues to be as in depth as I had expected. Note the sarcasm. I spent half of todays class trying to help other students with technical problems and using the schools film scanner to digitize my slides from the weekend trip. Regardless, I can not fault the school completely because I needed some sort of class to get my butt into gear. I'm one of those types that need a class or workplace environment for any progress to be made. I and a few others in the class find ourselves being stuck on the artistic design of our websites rather while others are still having problems just getting things running at home on their own computers with Dreamweaver.

Nonetheless, it is a great program to work with and very easy to use. I hope to have some sort of design completed. Thoughts of buying my own film scanner or actually picking up one of those rather expensive digital SLR's has been on my mind again. All in an effort to speed up the whole artistic publishing process I suppose. We'll see how long this lasts. For now, it keeps my interest.

Uh oh, Someone Spilled Something

*crunch*

*snap*

*ptanggg*

A piece of pasta cracks under the weight of my foot and shoots sideways into a bin. As I walk down the aisle at a local supermarket, It is seemingly almost impossible to walk without putting my foot down on something. There's split green peas, lentil, organic dates, baking chocolate, chicken soup base, smarties, croutons, the list goes on. Maybe there was a huge sale which ended just minutes before I got there? Maybe some couple couldn't agree on what to buy and got into a big food fight? Maybe some kids went crazy and well, just went crazy. I myself grabbed two plastic bags putting one inside the other. To make it more spill proof. Holding the opening up to a bin, I filled the bag up halfway. There was about three kilograms of pearl barley. Resting the bag on some other self serve bins, I put the twist tie on to close it with the bin number already written on it. As I lifted up the bag, the plastic had got caught on the hinge and lid of the bin it was on and soon there was pearl barley everywhere. Two people stood beside me speaking a foreign language and were soon watching me as I stopped the leak with one hand and lifted the bag up to pour the what was left back into the original bin. I went back and got two more bags to try it again. Maybe they shouldn't allow people like me to operate self serve food bins.

A number of years ago I went to a place called Crankpots with my sister. She was making a ceramic plate with a sailor moon anime picture on it. I walked around the store looking at all the other projects on display from other customers in various states of progress. On one wall was a half done tiled plate by the girl who plays Lana on the hit tv show Smallville. Then I spotted a tumbler with a simple design that I liked. And so I made the same thing except I didn't use pink or as feminine colours as what was on display. I coloured mine green and painted small images in the form a stars, saturn, and the moon all in black. On the bottom of the cup was a fish. That being my astrological sign. After having the cup fired in the oven to get the glaze, everything was, shall we say, set in stone. And during the multiple times that I went back to the shop to work on the cup, I always saw that half completed tiled plate from the Smallville actress. It always looked the same with the tiles scattered around the edges and I never found out if it was ever finished.

I only made one of the tumblers and had ordered three more of the cups to paint. I wanted to have a set of four but never got around to starting on the other three. Today I accidentally knocked my cup over the counter and it broke into three pieces after hitting floor.

"Hi. This is Ron from the Surrey House. Yeah, the sink in the laundry room is leaking underneath. Could you come and take a look at it?" I deleted that message from my voicemail and went to the rental house next door that day. After a quick inspection I found out that the aerator had been removed and with the way it was designed, water ended up running down the tap inside the body and through the gaping hole at the base of the faucet. It was old so I decided to replace the whole thing. As I did, another person walked by.
"Hey... you the landlord?"
"Yes, what's up?"
"Umm, the sink in the washroom over here is leaking underneath. I think it needs to be looked at."
"Hmmm. Ok. I'll look at it after I get this one done."
The sink in the laundry room didn't take long. Just fifteen minutes or so but enough time that someone else in the house passed by.
"Hey... Lei? Has anyone told you about the leaking sink in the washroom here?"
"Yep. That other guy just told me."
"Oh... how about the water from the bathtub? We tried really hard to make sure the shower curtain is pulled over enough to keep the water from running out but it still does all the time. I think the pipe or bathtub faucet needs looking at.
I paused and gave him a half-concerted look before replying.
"I'll check that out too."
So what else is going to go wrong? I went over and looked at the washroom sink first. The aerator on that one had been removed and put back improperly. I cleaned it out and put it back the right way stopping the water from leaking like the one in the laundry room. Then I looked at the bathtub. The tenants had installed a handheld wand and cross-threaded the hose onto the pipe coming out of the wall. Whenever it was turned on, water would spray back towards the wall and out onto the floor.

While sitting on the chairlift heading back up the mountain, it was just me and two Blackcomb officials with their radios on.
"Is anyone riding up Solar chair right now?" Followed by static.
The two mountain workers just sat there and continued there conversation.
"...on a day like today, we can't do much. We're supposed to keep the jumps and stuff in the terrain park in working condition but with all this fresh snow coming down, its impossible...." said one to the other.
"This is a perfect day for us. We don't have to worry about doing maintenance and can just board on the hills..." replied the other. Then the radio broke in again.
"If anyone is near tower eleven, we have a skier down. Could someone get to them?" asked the radio again.
The two mountain workers continued to sit there and chat away. We were on the Solar chair and at tower seven fast approaching tower eleven. Not much later I could see a small group of people sitting on the slope. One person was lying on his back and not moving.
"I'm on my way down to the person. Which tower was that again?" said the radio.
*static*
"Tower eleven, thanks" replied the first voice on the radio.
Then I saw a mountain rescue worker skiing down pulling an empty stretcher and wearing a red jacket with the red cross symbol.
"A lot of accidents today on the slopes" I said to the two officials beside me.
"Yeah, its the end of the day and everyone tired. But they still try to do crazy stuff and end up hurting themselves."
He was right and I knew this already. I too was busy trying to get as many runs in before the lifts were shut down and every run was back in to the terrain park. Despite this, the staff comments did not deter me.

On this day, I seemed to notice more people falling than usual. While on another chairlift with some other people, we had all watched a man for some reason just fall down sideways. It was a slow fall and we couldn't help but laugh. While waiting to get onto a different chairlift, I looked up at a run and saw another skier lose control and wipe out. Legs spread out and skies flying in opposite direction. Another funny looking fall.

In the terrain park, I saw a person down with rescue people helping him. Farther down just outside the terrain park, I noticed someone else splayed all over the hill not moving. Then to add to this, during that chairlift ride up with the two maintenance guys, close to the top of that lift was another person being helped by rescue workers. It was a day for thrills and spills and that included me. On one of the large jumps, I came down and sprained my left wrist on the hard packed landing. That was my spill. I bought a set of wrist protectors afterwards. This was the same wrist that I hurt skating boarding as a kid.

Weekend Wonderland

After almost five days of being sick, I finally shaved and got out of the house. And get out of the house I did. Friday it was the cake makers birthday dinner at a great little mexican restaurant owned by a friends uncle called Andale's.

The cake maker was so happy that day. A birthday dessert with a sparkling candle to blow out! But where's the cake?

After a few watery sangria's and marguarita's, she was right in it enjoying herself. Here she pay's respect to the mexican-chinese sun god. The rest of her birthday photos can be found here.

Happy birthday Cake Maker!

We went to SpeakEasy on granville street afterwards for drinks with the Philipino clan. That proved to be a mistake as I ended up getting only two hours of sleep before leaving for Whistler on saturday.

I went with Tsubame with taking photos in mind. However, as luck would have it, the skies did not clear up until we had to leave. So no photos as I carried Tsubame's SLR in my backpack as I slid around the mountain. Going over jumps felt a bit strange with that extra weight. Luckily I fell down on my stomach instead of my back. The following photos are from a previous day on the mountain.

Taking the plunge!

Woohoo!

These and other photos can be found here.

I went on three dates with the blind date. So by then it couldn't be called a blind date anymore as Tsubame has pointed out. The end result is that it's a no go. There was no spark and we both admitted that we thought that something would develop if we just spent more time with each other. So we move on.

Time to Hibernate

It's quiet outside. And cold. slowly I fill the small scoop with moss like material which has filled up the gutters on the house. There is so much water that it overflows down onto the conrete below. With each push, more gunk comes up and water spills over. From atop my ladder, I can see down the street. The wet road partially covered in a thin layer of slush. A car approaches four blocks away before turning off into another part of the neighborhood.

Small drops of cold water continue to fall all over me. On my hair, my jacket, the gloves on my hands. But I don't look up. I just keep scooping the stuff out of the gutter until finally, I hear the water running down the pipe along the side of the house. The plug is gone.

At the corner of the roof I see an opening where the frame has been partially knawed away. There are still one or two squirrels running around this neighborhood even though I had killed or relocated four of them.

I was at Home Depot yesterday and through their speakers I swore I heard the song which was used at Club Med before the evening show. The familiar and upbeat trumpeting. I wish I could go again. My friends rebooked for Turks and Cacoise but I couldn't. The resort is fully booked.

Instead, I am left to deal with this snow, the hot water tank which needs to be replaced, the gutters which need to be unplugged, the accounting which needs to be looked after, the driveway and sidewalk which need to be shovelled, etc. etc.

My throat is feeling dry and scratchy now. It's a good time to hibernate with some movies and some Breyers ice cream. But wait, *pause*... oh... oh...

*ACHOO!*

Models, Lights and Little Stars

The light from the strobes shine down on our model from four points around her. Each meant to highlight a certain part of her body with one main one to the side in the front and high up.
"How about a smile? Give me a smile" Dave says to the young croatian woman. She is wearing a stylish red long sleeve shirt with a sewn in pattern on the front, a crimped skirt and a pair of shiny tall black high heeled boots. Very cool looking. The fan is on blowing her hair for extra effects.
"I'm from eastern europe. We don't know how to smile."
"Hmm. So what can we do?"
"You need to make me do something. Something wild or talk to me and make me laugh that way." The model continues to shift parts of her body just a little to give us a continuous stream of different poses.
Dave clicks away slowly occasionally stopping to preview the shots on the screen of his digital camera.
"Oh can I look? I need some of these pictures to build my portfolio." The class had agreed to give her one or two photos each because our photography teacher had suggested it. Even though she was a very good model, she had started late and didn't have a complete or up to date portfolio.

Dave was finished and sat down in his chair. The room went quiet and no one moved. The model just stood there waiting for someone to get up. Everyone in our group just sat there because they were either too afraid to get up and do something out of shyness or because they wanted to go last so that they could see what other people did to give them ideas for their own shoot. The model didn't care. Luba didn't want to be loved. "She just wants someone to shoot her" I said to the class. "So somebody shoot her!"

We all took turns taking shots with her until the models swapped rooms. The big haired Andrea came into our room with the white model background while our croatian went over to the black room which now had a hollywood lighting setup. Everyone was given a choice of which of which room they wanted to take pictures in.

I gave the sync chord adaptor to Elenita and started to make my way out of the studio to go to the other room. As I did so, Andrea's eyes followed me towards the door. I could read exactly what they were saying, "why aren't you staying to take my photos?" I was surprised at this but didn't think much of it. There's still another four or five student photographers waiting to take Andrea's photos with the rembrandt lighting set up and I only had six frames left on my roll of film. I preferred the hollywood lighting in the other room.

Our female teacher was probably the most enthusiastic of anyone in the class. Always pointing out something about the lighting, the background, the set in general, the way the model stood, moved, held and positioned themselves. It was non-stop comments that eventually started to annoy some of the students as in previous studio sessions during this course. I've never met anyone so into photography. It was a bit much I think for some but didn't bother me. She'd get excited about everything. Even the theory. The good thing was that she knew it. This way she could joke her way out of it by saying something like, "ok, I'll be quiet now." or "I'll stop talking now."

In one of the December issues of the local papers, one of my photos will be used in an ad. Once a month Salon Firouzi has a small blurb about their Yaletown shop and this time, they will be highlighting a friend who just started working there. They needed a headshot of her and I coincidentally happened to be there when this request came up. I didn't have any head shots of my friend on my film camera so I took the best shot I could with her small digital camera at her place nearby. The lighting in the shop was horrible for a her camera. Using some dark blue curtains as the background, I took a number of flash filled pictures which were all overexposed. Even with the exposure setting set at the lowest, the camera always put out the same light output unlike the flash of an slr. I took a bunch of these photos home and fixed them up on my computer. My friend isnt' that young any more so I got rid of some lines, added some more lip to her thin upper lip, blotched out some wrinkles and dark spots, whitened her teeth a bit and got rid of the excessive light on her skin from the flash. The final picture was completely different from the original one. It made her look younger having smooth and blemish free skin. Frank was happy with the results and quickly submitted it to the papers. My first soon to be published photo although it wasn't exactly what I had in mind. A plain ol headshot.

Last week I went to the last mandarin class. We had decided to go to a chinese restaurant downtown called the Snow Garden. It used to be the place to be because of the chef. That was some ten to twenty years ago. Tonight, last tuesday that is, the place was rather empty. Our small class of seven pupils sat at one table with one of the two instructors and her husband. The food was good and our instructors husband told us stories of his travels in china. He is a canadian born citizen who married the instructor from china and is now fluent in mandarin.

During our last two classes, we learned to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star in mandarin. God was that embarassing. Then the instructors husband taught us another chinese song which he performed for us complete with chinese sound instruments. Little bamboo things which you hit together to make noises. I'll stick to playing with my guitar.

Fix This Replace That V - A Day in the Life of a Bum

I woke up. It was late. A spot on the wall was lit up by the sun seeping through the blinds. Slowly I stumble out of bed to go to the washroom. At the sink, I bend over and turn on the hot water. I hold my hands under the tap to cup what is just luke warm water before splashing it on my face.

The cereal is bland. No sugary stuff as I've binged on all of that already. Those boxes lay empty on the table. It has only been recently that I've gotten back into eating cold cereal for breakfast. Maybe because its fast and convenient, yet it never fills me up and I am soon feeling hungry again.

My sister drops by. She has just returned from a week in San Francisco with some friends. Nothing terribly exciting has happened and now she's back here to dump off a weeks worth of laundry. "You know, Debbie said that you could do some work for Clint. His office is busy and he could use another CAD Design person." I ponder this for a moment before responding. "Maybe. Maybe later. I'll think about it." That's my attitude towards work these days. Engineering work especially. Even with the courses I'm taking, it just seems that I've fallen back into the rut of not knowing what I want to do.

At my desk, I decide to make a few phone calls overcoming my fears of social contact. Facing or communicating with other people with the possibility of backlash or confrontation. It is monday morning and about a week since the last payment to me from my old company was due. Four days since the email which was sent to them requesting that they fulfill their legal obligations to pay me out. I didn't ask about the share stock options. No response has been received since.

I call and my old boss soon picks up the line. "Hi there" he says. I respond in kind, "hi. I was just wondering what was happening with the last payment."
"Oh well, I was witholding it because I didn't know if you wanted to continue to get the share stock options."
"Can you gaurantee me that if I agree to it, that I'll see those share certificates at my door in 48 hours?"
"No, and we will not give you the whole payment and allow you to give us a cheque in return for the share stock options when the certificates are produced."
"I see" I told him. "You know, the issue here is not whether I'm good for my money, its whether the company can be trusted with its end of the bargain. So far it looks like you and the company are continuing to just shrug me off."
In a demeaning and 'I got you' tone of voice, he says to me "so what's it going to be? A full cheque and forget the stock options or put in the request for the stock options with no guarantee that they will be produced and the balance afterwards?"
"Ok. Lets go for the stock options and balance afterwards. In 48 hours, if there are no certificates at my door, then I'll just take the whole cheque."
"Okay then" he says.
"I'll talk to you later." The phone clicks and there is a pause.

He thinks he has me. I know he does and for the moment I think so too. They'll just sit on the next 48 hours and just give me the cheque. They don't want to issue me the stocks because they know that I'll just dump it on the market and at this point in time, they are doing everything they can to keep the stock up. The AGM is just over a month away and they need every cent they can get in what remains to be a cheap penny stock.

I decide to send an email off to him and the CEO down in Texas. In it I write something to the effect of,

"As per my conversation this morning with the company, I see that the company continues in its old ways of ignoring my requests or putting me on the back burner. I know that the issuing of the stock certificates will be delayed as it has been all summer since I first requested it. I am reminding you that the majority of the companies products have been made with pirated software. Deleting your files at the office will do you no good. In addition, the penalties for such acts are far greater than what the company owes to me presently.

I have requested that the shares be couriered to me within 48 hours and you have responded by telling me that you will look into what is required to get it processed. I had already done that for you two months ago when I last visited you at the office. At that time, I had contacted the share transfer agent directly and found out everything that was required.

So the choice is yours. I leave this in your capable hands."

I think I got him and if not, there's more...

-------------------------------------------------

Aftwards, I took the 'new' used van out on some errands. First to return the tools I jimmied to fix the dishwasher at the nursing home. Someone had jammed the large metal drain plug so tight that no one could pull it out. I used two bearing separators with a screw inbetween to easily force the plug out.

Then it was back to the used car dealer. The van has been good except for one thing. I found that whenever I make a left turn up onto a small hill or at speed, there is a grinding noise on the outside. This never happened on the original two test drives because during those rides, I just circled the block(s) in a clockwise direction never having to make a left turn. The dealer was nice about it. He took me to a mechanic nearby which he uses who would look at it. Too bad they were busy and recommended that I come back early next morning when they open.

Following this I drove up to a nearby strip mall. I pull up at a small bank at one end. My American Express bill is over due and I need to pay it off. It's just a tiny amount though. A measly nineteen dollars and thirty cents. As I walk up, I notice it is dark inside. Great! They're closed on mondays. I also don't have my cheque book with me to write a cheque out for the payment via machine. I hop back in the van and drive over to the other end of the mall. I get out and walk into the mall to one of the first few stores. In the key shop, I stand behind two other men while a woman is busy cutting keys for one of them. As I stand there, I wonder if they will even have the key blanks that I will need. A fuel cap and general car key. Then I wonder if they will take a credit card. I open my fake Louie Vuitton wallet and leaf through one five dollar bill, an american dollar bill which I had my friend Jorge sign before he left at the airport and some loose change. On the wall, I see a small sign that says 'sorry, cash only'. I don't think I have enough cash.

So back outside I go, deciding to walk the length of the parking lot back to the teller machines at the bank. I get the money and walk back thinking this will be the most exercise in fresh outside air I will get in a long time. I return and the two men are gone. I get the keys cut and I'm done. However, the total cost is only five dollars and fifty two cents. I didn't need to go to the bank after all. Now it's off to London Drugs to buy a new battery for one of the cordless phones.

I return home to plant myself in front of the computer. Surf, blog and chat with Gambit via Gizmo. Yesterday he had H and P over for dinner. So with Gizmo up, I could hear everything they were saying and talked with them a bit as well. Today I tried to play some guitar songs through the net for him to listen to. With no amp hooked up, it was barely audible coming from an electric guitar.

Meanwhile over at the nursing home, I am told that the pest control guy has just accidentally ripped out one of the wall sockets in the kitchen which the fridge was plugged into. Wonderful...

Death and Bad Luck

On the drive home, I was tired. I felt horrible and rush hour was just beginning. Nausea was setting in as I sped through traffic wherever possible hoping to spend the least amount of time on the road. Eventually, it got to the point that I just prayed that I would make it through the next fifty minute without throwing up in my truck.

Outside it is raining. Behind the dark silhouettes of the trees along the horizon, the city lights glow in the heavy blanket of mist above. Inside, the light is just as dim. One of the bulbs in the aquarium is blown. As I remove the lamp above the water, their is the half-blurred vision of fish swimming about in all different directions. Bubbles rise from the bottom of three tubes to the surface. Yellow, orange and white scales shimmer but something is wrong though. Amidst everything that wiggles and moves, one lone fish slowly floats downwards. It's mouth is still opening and closing but only a little. The body is bent and rigid. Lying on the rocks which line the bottom of the tank with its mouth twitching with less frequency, I watch as the fish dies before my eyes. The other fish continue to swim about oblivious to what has just happened.

All that can be seen is death everywhere. Hundeds of dead insects at the front door to the house as though a massacre had just occurred. How fitting. Halloween is nearly upon us and I can use it as cheap special effects. All I need are some carved pumpkins along the sides of the walkway.

For some reason, there was a huge population of those arthropod-like creatures there and upon seeing them slowly crawling around everywhere, I went into the garage and pulled out two cans of Raid. I can now personally state that the stuff works as claimed. It kills bugs on contact. It is almost impossible to walk up to the front door without stepping on one of these tiny critters lying on its back with its legs up in the air. I suppose it would be a good idea to take the broom and sweep everything away. What would people think when they see it? The newspaper boy? The mailman? My tenants next door? I just need to keep it there for another two weeks.

My mother has apparently gone to see the fortune teller asking what is to become of her children. Those being my older brother, younger sister and myself. It seems rather ironic in that the fortune teller had seemingly bad news for everyone but me since I am the only one who is 'unemployed' and living at home still. Apparently I will be ok but my other two siblings may run into problems. So the fortune teller gave my mother some sort of compass like device to be passed on to my brother and sister. The center of the device is white and when it becomes dark, it is supposed to be worn out. It's supposed to protect them from bad luck, spirits, or maybe from just making bad decisions? Something to that effect.

My sister joked that because I'm already not working and living at home that I've already hit rock bottom. Nothing worse can happen.

As I type this, I believe that Tsubame is sitting at home just a few blocks away typing as well. I know this because I can see his updates and comments show up in my other window. I would consider picking up the phone to call him but in the past, this has proven futile. His phone line being tied up by the internet connection.

I see that he has found and reposted his entry about the Abbotsford Photo Arts Club Seminar. This means that I will have to go back in there and fix the links again because he probably didn't see my comments about how I fixed them before. This feels like an internet editorial crew busy putting together articles. After the brief interruption in service, the site is back up and running and us being the eager bloggers that we are, we quickly post new entries. I digress. Tsubame got the links in his entry working correctly this time.

I also must point out that this must be an all time low as now I am blogging about us bloggers blogging.

My monday night volleyball team is looking much better. There is a lot less miss hits and confusion plus we're actually able to beat other beginner teams. However, our knowledge of player positions and rolls is rather lacking.

--------------------------------------------------------------

In other news, my trusted pickup truck surpassed the 300,000 kilometer mark. It will not die. Woohoo! Oh what a feeling...Toyota... (balloons, confetti and streamers fly around the room in the background and Lei jumps up in the air)

Only in L.A.

Our supposed 'direct' flight from Cancun to Seattle stopped in Los Angelas and because of security, we had to get off the flight and exit all the way through customs, walk outside to a different terminal, go through check in and customs again before waiting to board the exact same plane which we arrived in. The plane had unloaded and moved to this departure terminal. How stupid is that? So much for our direct and non-stop flight.

This little detour was not without its own odd instances. Walking to customs, Sinead O'Connor followed behind us. My friends did not believe me at first but when she stood only ten feet in front of us being interrogated by US customs, her name was easily visible in large letters on her carry-on bag. She wore a slightly oversized red fleece top with her trademark near skinhead bald head. If she had a full head of hair, she'd be very good looking. I used to think she was taller but after seeing her in person, she's just an average height a bit below me. The US Customs officer gave her some trouble as he leafed through her passport filled with lots of stamps from other countries. I wanted our group to belt out her one famous tune "Nothing Compares To You" right there in the airport just for the fun of it. We didn't and the incident passed.

When we got to our gate, we were early. Lee was carrying Fuzz's guitar and the gay guy at the boarding gate started making jokes to him. It was kind of funny as he continued with his remarks although Lee didn't seem to care for it. Fuzz just laughed. After we got on the plane, the guy kept on with his jokes over the pa. It was like listening to Bart Simpson making prank phone calls to Moe's Tavern.

Once we reboarded the plane, we found that the flight crew had changed. Instead of the usual politically correct and equal opportunity demographic staff, there were two beautiful young stewardesses. We made a poor attempt to conceal our exuberance. What a nice flight back.

During the flight, the captain would periodically provide comments about the flight and whatever. The funny thing about this was that he sounded just like the Principal in the Simpsons cartoon.

In the seats in front of us were some young women. They weren't children but they were if you can understand what I mean. After landing and people started leaving, they were giggling and laughing in the most annoying manner possible. We just sat there rolling our eyes. I could see the expressions in the two stewardesses faces as they fought to endure the young women.

Time has been short since my return. I went to Abbotsford on Monday and Tuesday to attend a photographers convention. It was pretty good as I got to meet many 'master' photographers and see work which was submitted into the photo competition. My friend Jorge from Mexico impressed many with his portfolio and even held a small photo shoot for a young woman in our hotel room. Using what was available, he produced a series of wonderful portraits of her while her grandmother who was a master photographer helped with the props. Flipping over the bed spread to provide a textured white background and surface while light was provided by the large patio doors. Some quick touch up's with Adobe Photoshop and voila.

I had to race back from abbotsford and leave Jorge at the convention because I had a mandarin class in downtown Vancouver. Jorge would stay for the evening banquet and awards. He is the upstart. He is the star. Many of the master photographers there are not as literate in photoshop with a digital camera's RAW file as he is and you can see it in the look on their faces when they look at his work.

I missed the first session of the intermediate photography class last week so this week when I showed up at the school thinking that I would be on time, I found out that there was a field trip down at Robson Square. After racing down in my truck to get there on time, I saw the class. Only one person from my beginners class signed up for this class. Everyone else was new and most of them looked like they had no experience with film cameras. The teacher was a young woman with narrow glasses. She was really enthusiastic about teaching as could be seen in her exaggerated body movements. After the class, I introduced myself to her. She stood really close to me while talking which made me wonder if her eyeglass prescription needed some adjustment. This class should be interesting.

If you haven't noticed on the previous blog entry, photos are now available for viewing of the cancun trip. Just click here.

Motorbikes, Cars, Smoke and Volleyball

The other weekend I abandoned some friends and went motorcycling instead. It was sunny and a friend had two bikes insured. So he let me ride one. I rode a Yamaha RZ350 while he used his fixed up BMW K75. Both are from the mid to late eighties although the RZ350 2 stroke is gaining value these days. No one makes 2 stroke street or sport bikes these days so the pickings are slim. They fetch as high as $5500 USD on Ebay.

And you can't be a motorcycle rider without getting a really short haircut. Across the street from where I parked my car to get the cut, I noticed this other vehicle. A rather ugly looking vehicle as one can only imagine what the owner was thinking.

You can't really tell but on the back are some canteens for emergency water I think. Notice the horn on top for jousting or whatever. And yes, that is carpet on the outside covering a large area of the body.Yes, Toyota's do last a long time. Maybe a little too long.

These days, the air is thick and you can smell the burnt ashes everywhere even inside the house. Yet there is no fire nearby. In fact, the fire is burning and smouldering many miles away in burns bog. All across Delta, Surrey, New Westminster and other nearby municipalities the smoke sits. I parked my vehicle to take some photos near the highway just before the Alex Fraser Bridge. Sitting there for about a half hour taking shots and watching all the planes fly above me making passes through the huge plumes of smoke rising across the land. The large water bomber was called up for duty while today, the helicopters were used instead.

Tomorrow the smoke will still be there and the house will continue to be polluted.

The first day of volleyball at the Harry Jerome Centre was good. Everything except that we will be struggling and fighting for last place probably being our first time doing this. We have a mixed bag of people that have hardly played this sport before as well as a few being vertically challenged. Then there's one or two that are completely not vertically challenged but are too timid to use their strengths.

So the first evening went like this. In our time slot, everyone played starting from various courts numbered one thru six. Courts one through four are inside a netted area at the centre of the facility. Courts five and six sit outside and at the ends of the oval stadium. For ten or fifteen minutes we play continuously until a whistle is blown. At that point, all the winners move up one court and the losers move down one. By the end, what you get is a self ranking system with the top team in court #1 and the worst on #6. We got stuck with #6. This now become our goal for this fall semester. To at least make it inside the netted area thereby playin in the top four courts and gaining some sort of respectability.

Before the Weekend Ends...

The store is busy with all the back to school shoppers. I'm in the line up waiting to pay for the fifty pack of slim CD jewel cases. In front of me and to my right is the usual assortment of gum, pens and other candy on a rack. On the floor is a big box of strawberry flavoured twizzlers marked with a truly unbeatable price of $1.98 for a half kilogram bag. It is really tempting yet I stand there, pondering, procrastinating, deciding whether or not I should buy one.

As the family in front of me finishes up paying for all their items, the sense of urgency to make that final decision grows and I reach down and grab a pack. Now that wasn't so hard was it? Such a menial event which seemed to have almost become one of such great proportions. Just buy it Lei!

The peaches at the grocery store are in season and really good. All grown to near perfection and not a single bug bite or bruise mark. It looks almost too good to be true but I pick a few out and throw them in a bag. Then it's on to the dairy section. I usually pick up the large container of Soy milk. The asian brand and not the Soy Good brand with all its added nutrients and such. I just prefer it that way except that this time, they are practically out. All that is left are two small bottles of the sweetened variety. After going through the whole health food thing a few years ago, I had curbed the ingestion of numerous sugary foods. Yeah, I did just buy a pack of twizzlers but it was just begging to be bought. So this time I went for the nutrient fortified brand of soy milk. We'll see if I like it or not. If not, then its off to the asian supermarkets instead where I believe they still carry the brand that I usually buy.

This long weekend has been sort of a bust. Half my friends went camping but as I looked at the rain and thunder shower forecast, my desire for the outdoors disappeared temporarily. I could have also gone to Whistler to watch and take photos of the 24hours of Adrenalin mountain bike race but I didn't do that either. An old university friend of mine was racing on a team in the event.

The thursday before the weekend, I went to the drop in badminton only to find that everyone was gone. The gym was being used by BCIT in preparation for class registrations. So I called up my new friend from mexico and joined him and his fellow homestay friends down at the Cambie for drinks. The pub or bar has become a popular hangout for all the ESL students in downtown vancouver. It's also a popular meeting place for clubbers to form their groups before an evening on the town as it is spaceous and beer is cheap.

Heraldo and Eric are from Mexico. Both will be leaving within a month or two to continue their regular lives back home. Heraldo wants to become an industrial engineer and Eric is currently pursuing a degree in international law. He doesn't exactly look like a lawyer now does he as he covers his face with his hands.

Vivianne is from my home city of Taipei. She is hoping to get into the Emily Carr school of Arts on Granville Island. Jorge is a photographer whom I met at a Vancouver Photoclub meeting. His work is impressive and we seemed to have hit it off right away ever since. He was extremely happy to meet me because I was one of the few vancouverites who actually took the time to speak with him.

Afterwards, we all piled into my small truck (Vivianne had to hold the subwoofer box in her lap while I cranked the tunes) and took them for some late night Pho noodles. These guys are so afraid of asian cuisine. Jorge has already told me how he didn't like sashimi so when he found out that there was cow stomach in his soup, he wouldn't touch it. Heraldo ate his without hesitation. Eric ate everything but put on way too much hot chili sauce. I remember watching him dump the sauce directly onto each mouthful of noodles. Vivianne also taught them how to use chopsticks the properway. This became entertaining in itself.

And on a side note, I was surprised today when I found an email from Maui woman. She had been spending the past three weeks on Long Island with her parents and wanted to thank me for the ecards which I had sent to her long ago. We chatted on the phone for a while just to catch up on things. Maybe we'll become good friends now, albeit at a distance.

I turned down a request for a semi-full time spot on my friends co-ed hockey team in favour of other activites. Other trips are in the works including a photo expedition in Utah with Tsubami sometime in January. Reservations are booked for Club Med Cancun at the end of this month. One week of hot sun, warm water and an all inclusive, no thinking vacation resort to help my friend and former groom forget about the whole wedding debauchery. I still have the beach towel card from last time!

General Recap

I've been trying to upload some new entries except that this site is having problems. So no new photos or written entries for some time now although I have sort of got Tsubame off and running.

For a view of all the photos from the past week or so, click here.

I took an extended long weekend much to the dismay of my non-paying employer. As a result, I left the company upon my return to the office yesterday when they refused to pay again as the one manager would not commit to anything until the other manager returned.

I have no regrets for doing so having been with the company for approximately nine years. My immediate feelings were that of relief as the strain of management throwing their weight around was getting to be a bothersome hassle especially with their lack of funds. So now, its thumb twiddling time...

An old friend of mine came back from San Francisco for some rock climbing and I had the pleasure of tackling the rocks of Squamish again. Doug and Jennifer did not come up this time choosing to jet away on a last minute special to the Archipelagos Islands. Kent and Brandon were going to take us up on a multipitch climb. The only problem was that it rained as we left vancouver in the morning for Squamish. For the most part, we just hung out at Pause-cafe and played texas holdem. Ro was able to purchase a cheap set of cards and chips at a Fields store across the street. When the sun finally came out and the rain had dried off the rocks sufficiently, we started climbing. The multipitch routes were abandoned due to the shortened time left. Burger n Fries was empty so we climbed it first before I took them over to Ronin's Corner. This is the same place my coworker took me last year.

I went out and bought some new camping gear for a weekend trip with Tsubame and his girlfriend Kozue. The rest of the group postponed the original Garibaldi/Black Tusk trip and either stayed in town or went to Paradise Campgrounds in Squamish. We chose neither and drove onward to Owl Creek where we camped on saturday night. The following day was spent at Joffre park. For more info, please read Tsubame's blog entry details. Callaghan Lake was nice except for all the mosquitos. When I showed up for softball, some teammates immediately noticed the bruises all over my leg. Damn bugs. Despite the rain and the small mishaps, the camping was fun. All my allergies dissappeared in the clean fresh air and none of my clothes got wet when it rained on us overnight in the tent. I wish I could say the same for Tsubame and Kozue.

Thursday the 12th - Death From Above

And a day before. One of the residents in the nursing home was found dead at approximately 1:30am Thursday morning. He had fallen off the large stone ledge in front of his third floor room window of the old Victorian home. No one noticed. Cars drove by. People probably walked by on the sidewalk too as it was dark and a dead body does not make a sound once it has fallen. There was no scream or cry for help. It wasn't until the night shift worker did a routine walk around through all the rooms did they notice that one bed was empty and the window was open.

Pleshkin would have landed just before or on the wide stone wall which runs along the house. It is only about four feet from the house so a person pushing themself off the ledge without making a leap of any sort could easily hit it. The paramedics said that there was no blood stains but that he had died due to massive trauma to the head. He must have hit his head on the stone wall or the rocks on the ground beside it after landing partially feet first. I'm guessing that this is what happened because there was no visible signs of a direct blow or strike to the head.

Mental Health officials came down the next day and requested that we put locks on all the windows. Permanent bars were ruled out because it is against fire regulations.

When I got to the house later in the evening, the staff seemed pleasantly calm. The day had been quiet and the mood was solemn. Everyone smiled at each other when we met and we just carried on with things. I installed the last two locks on the top floor windows which my brother was not able to do because he had run out of locks. Then I spent a bit of time looking around at the place where Pleshkin had died being able to see the view to his room window from below outside.

Two of the day staff came out to talk and I was told that Pleshkin had previously tried to kill himself at another nursing home. And on top of this, another former resident of ours had tried to commit suicide from the exact same wide granite ledge as he was staying in the same room. Ed was a really annoying fellow. I couldn't stand him despite his attempts to be open and friendly towards everyone. Too open unfortunately but like Pleshkin, both were highly susceptible to sudden mental breakdowns. Ed made it as far as sitting on the ledge before someone in the apartments across the street noticed him and called the police.

I hope this isn't some sort of haunting trend for any patient who happens to live in this room. Some previously lost soul possessing those partially unable to control their conscious selves to commit this act of suicide. The house was built sometime between the years 1908 and 1911 so there is a lot of history inside it. There is a book on heritage homes of the Greater Vancouver area which has a photo of it.

I had just seen Pleshkin the evening of the incident. He was his same happy self speaking to me with that eastern european accent. "Hello Leimon. How are you?... That is good... I am fine thank you." No one could see it coming.

Fix This Replace That V - Xmas in May

*Note - revised blog at 5:07pm same day*

So I just sit around and go about my daily life doing whatever. Juggling two jobs trying to keep one alive while barely managing the other. By thursday after a combination of multiple failures, set backs and things just breaking down and being too old, the kitchen in the nursing home will have a new stainless steel gas cooktop, dishwasher, and kitchen faucet.

We had to buy the new cooktop because Maytag stopped supplying the broken part needed on the old one. Plus we found out that the gas shut off valve was not working.

No it's not an airplane. That's just how the company likes to call their products. The new dishwasher has been a headache to say the least and continues to sit in the box waiting for the Jet-Tech technician and the plumber to get their act together. I would have attempted to install it myself if it weren't for the fact that I don't have the specialized tool for the plumbing. It's been at least three weeks we've gone without one and the stress is showing on the kitchen cleaning staff. Everytime an appointment is made, something else is forgotten or the technician couldn't make it. If I was running a restaurant I would have quashed this whole deal, told the technician to take a hike when he finally gets around to showing up and gone back to the Hobart SR-24H machine. I got into a bit of a tiff with my brother over this because at this point, who cares how much less the Jet-Tech costs and more water and energy efficient it is, there's lots of dishes to be cleaned and we can't keep dumping it all on the staff to do. The savings have all been lost now due to the lengthy delays in my view. Plus if this machine breaks down, the Jet-Tech north american service system is no where near what Hobart corporation provides. So there's a tip for all you would be buyers of these products. While the Jet-Tech machine was about a thousand dollars less on paper, the fact that their technician's are only setup to fix the machines and not install them, you have to contract both them and a plumber to do the job. And the lack and quality of service is completely unacceptable given the type of clients that would use these products.

The kitchen faucet(there are two for use with three sinks) mounting came loose. The hardware beneath the counter had been somewhat wornout and the plastic seal was broken. Moen doesn't support this model anymore so I couldn't buy a replacement for the seal even though the actual fixture is still working and functional. So I quickly replaced the whole unit with a new American Standard faucet. It was pretty easy only taking me between fifteen and twenty minutes to do as I was in a rush.

Afterwards I went to meet up with a couple of friends to head down to the Commodore ballroom. Moby was performing and I was given a free ticket. Two people couldn't make it so myself and another were last minute fillin's for another friend. The concert was great but now I can barely hear anything. No more booming music in the car or anywhere for a while. A review of the concert plus photos will follow. Hopefully at least one of the pictures will turn out ok.

I just picked up The Tea Party's Interzone Mantra's CD. Mainly because of the song 'Angel' which I like. They were already in town at the Commodore but I missed it. And with my ears the way they are, I can't really listen to the CD in all its splendor. Cool band though.

On the weekend I received two more episodes of the japanese anime Initial D to watch. Stage Four is the current series airing in Japan. Episode thirteen features Takumi and his Trueno AE86 battling a professional rally racer driving a Cappucino in the rain. In episode fourteen, he starts a new 'curriculum' in his fathers teachings by having to alternate between the new car and the old AE86. The Subaru wrx has greater horse power, more modern technology and vastly different handling characteristics. Here's a question for all you Initial D manga fans out there. Do you think that Takumi will give up on his AE86 and move into a newer vehicle to race with? I was searching around the net for a home sight but my inability to read japanese has tended to limit the results to fan based english sites. However I did find one for the movie which is currently being made in hong kong or china I believe.

And today we finally got another cheque from the company. After finding out that the wire transfer from the CEO in Texas was botched up, they resent the money and it showed up within hours in the canadian account. The sales manager went to the bank office downtown to convert the money to our currency as we just got a call from the bank asking for him. They didn't know where he was in the bank and asked for his cell number which I had.

Note: LeanPorkLei did not receive anything for the product placements in this blog entry, unfortunately.

Fix This Replace That IV

They were beautiful. Like those which I have seen before. Ugh. My dose is all duffed up and so is my edd. Resulting in me only spending about twenty minutes of actual time doing work at the office before leaving. I sped off to Lansdowne mall to buy a new tea/coffee urn and a large roasting pan for the nursing home.

After dropping the items off I went to rogers video to rent 'SAW' as per Gambits 'exact instructions'. Butterfly Effect and Napolean Dynamite will have to wait. I was originally going to do some laps at the pool but with my sinuses feeling the way they were, forget it. And by the way, whoever came up with the concepts in 'SAW' may be slightly disturbed...

We decided to go for the Jet-Tech F18DP commerical dishwasher and my brother found a different dealer out in Langley. We didn't feel like going back to the first dealer because the saleswoman got all defensive on us. All we did was ask if we could speak to any of their customers about how happy they were with the product. She responded by saying to us "'Don't you trust us?" All she had to do was give us the name of a restaurant or some large food services operation. How bad could it be? ...salespeople. At least she wasn't selling used cars.

Yesterday I reinstalled the canopy on my truck replacing the polyethylene foam seal. At the same time I got rid of the mounting screws which the canopy company originally used because the mounting holes were rusting. I bought some new aluminum clamps to fasten the canopy to the truck bed instead. Now I can go ahead and fix the rust without worrying about it coming back.

Peanuts

I wasn't feeling very good all last week especially after I ate some not so healthy food. So on Tuesday I did the liver flush again. The almost two days of fasting has helped alot and the results have been felt immediately. I've also been getting more sleep. About eleven hours that evening and eight last night. Earlier this week I decided to get back on the health food bandwagon forgoing the coffee, desserts and rich foods in restaurants. So while my friend ordered the singapore style vermicelli for lunch today, I passed up all the tasty offerings at the asian food court and had a large cup of fresh carrot and apple juice. I sat there, listening to Carmen's Fantasy being played on the mall PA - the water fountain show was on.

I noticed that two of the fresh vegetable and juice stands also use the same juice machine as the one that I have. It's just that I haven't used mine as it has just sat there on the counter for about three months now. The intentions were good but not carried through - a critical step if anything is to get done.

The usual small crowd of coworkers is standing around my cubicle talking about whatever and eating snacks. One is eating an orange while I'm snacking on some seasoned peanuts. My desk is a mess as the dried skin from each nut slips off easily and crumbles everywhere. The package for the nuts reads as follows.

----------------------------------------------------
May the breeze bring you The
tenderness and warmth from me Far from
each other we may be. Yet still you
are here, At the ....bottom of my heat.

Yuan Yuan peanut
'Series Foods for leisure time. Exotic'
----------------------------------------------------

Before you comment on this. You must know that there are no typo's. I think I should look for a job as a translator so that I can help asian companies produce properly translated text for their products sold in Canada.

It's late in the afternoon and we are bored and completely unmotivated to do anything. Then the two managers come walking towards us. One says "Hey. What are you guys doing? ...You should be working on the projects with all the money we're payin ya." There's a brief pause before everyone starts to laugh. The situation is just so silly beyond comprehension.

The Week in Pictures

Last sunday, I went with some friends to help coach the womens hockey team. It was at Queens Park in New Westminster just a stones throw from home. This rink is great and is supposed to have one of the nicest ice around. Yeah you're probably wondering whats so great about the ice. How can it be different? Well some rinks are not as cold and the ice becomes too soft and easy to cut up with your skates. Other rinks are really cold and not as forgiving. Weaker skaters don't like it because it may feel harder to dig their blades in to stop or turn. Queen's Park ice has the perfect medium. It's also a nice stadium for just a community rink and was home to the former New Westminster Bruins team.

These are some photos of the group playing after us. Just some old timers.

Notice all the scratches on the plexiglass along the boards? Probably from all body checks and fighting. Those Bruins...

This guy is a bit out of the play.

Large wide open walkway around the rink. Say hello to my friend Dre. He didn't want to smile for the camera.

There's the large electronic score box hanging above center ice.

When we left, it was pouring down buckets all over my truck.

After our office had the attempted break in, the locksmith came to fix the door. The lock cylinder had been removed but the locksmith didn't have anything to block the gaping hole left behind. I was then asked to make something up. Well lucky for us we had some scrap sheet metal in the back and with some good metal shop equipment, I made up this metal plate with a coat of paint in a half hour.

I actually made two different metal plates as we changed our minds and modified the design after the first one was done.

This is another photo of us getting into the goal carts from the previous week. That's my coworker looking at me through his helmet. You can't see his face inside but I think he was saying "Oh my head feels like its going to explode. Just look how big it is!" That's William trying to figure out how to strap himself into cart number 14. He's a newbie.

I got to work around 11:20am on Friday. At 1pm, I went to IKEA for lunch. By the entrance were two motorcycles. An old Honda something and a newer Kawasaki ZX6R. As we looked at it, A staff employee came out and asked us what we were doing. We told the older woman that we were just looking at it. A few minutes later another woman came out and asked the same thing. We replied the same and she told us that the bike had been tampered with previously. She also told us that a few of the staff's own personal vehicles had been stolen too before going back in. Then a younger woman came out. This time it was the owner of the bike. My coworker and I were surprised. She was one of the women who worked in the restaurant upstairs that we always saw and she recognized us right away.

It was bought used with 34,000 k's on it and now has 52,000 k's. There was a few scuff marks on it. Signs that it had been dropped at least once. The bike is really nice and it looks like we could have another addition to our riding group if we ever decided to start one. She gave us one recommendation other than to get a bike and that was not to buy a bike over five years old. Apparently the parts start to fall apart after this time.

Yes we got our paycheques late in the afternoon. It wasn't the whole amount as everyone was given exactly one thousand dollars minus deductions which still leaves us about two and a half month behind. I think what happened was that in the morning, my coworker asked one of the managers if we were still to expect some money today to which he replied, "I 'think' the company will be issuing some money". I then looked at him and said "you mean the company 'will' be issuing some money today", referring to what was told us by the CEO in the meeting on Monday. The managers decided to go ahead and gave us some of what was in the company account even though the owners down south never made any money transfer as they had said they would. They are now hoping that it will be coming next week.

Below is a picture of how much money the company now has.

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Victorian Garden

The empty plastic packages of M&M's easter candy litter the coffee table and my desk. I don't feel so good...

The sun is out, the grass is green and the sky is blue. It's practically spring and I've been out shopping today and yesterday. Last week I received a letter from the Fraser Valley Mental Health Office saying that they had some money to allocate before the end of this current fiscal quarter. We had sent in a request for money to buy items for the nursing home and they came back with two thousand. All receipts had to be in by nine in the morning but we got it stretched to noon.

The staff at our nursing home had expressed an interest by the residence for a piano to play with. The electric one they were using had died. The old upright piano is also dead. I don't know when it was built but it isn't tunable anymore so it is somewhat worthless. I found a piano shop which rebuilds pianos so hopefully they may see some value in it and take it off my hands. So to spend this money, my brother and I purchased a used piano through a dealer. Tom Lee's on Granville street I believe. It's being tuned and will be shipped in a week.

The other evening when this whole purchasing thing came up, I was playing with our own piano. It is a standard tall upright yamaha piano with a polished black finish. It's been awhile since I last played it but I decided to spend some time trying a piece. There was one which was kind of interesting. I found it in the Royal Conservatory Celebration Series book for levels nine and ten. The piece is labelled as Study No.5, Dance of the Gnomes by Edward MacDowell. It's been years since anyone has played anything on our piano yet the keys seem to be in good shape still. Most of the tones sound right with the odd note on the verge of needing a hairline of an adjustment. I remember the woman across the street once telling my sister that she would sit on the bench in their front yard and listen to us when we were practicing.

I drove around last night looking for some garden furniture. The residents and staff wanted one of those swinging chairs or sofas, some park style benches and some single plastic chairs. Given that the piano used up over three quarters of the money, I decided against the swinging chair because of its size, cost and maintenance. The two Home Depot's in Surrey had none. The two Canadian Tires stores in Surrey had none either and same with the Rona store in Newton. Feeling a bit dejected I started driving home and noticed a bus driving in the opposite direction. It had my number displayed on the front and was heading for White Rock. I decided to call my brother and ask him where he had seen these benches to which his reply was that the Canadian Tires in White Rock had three maybe four in stock. He had checked earlier and left a message except that I never got it. So I turned around and drove out to White Rock to pick up the three left in stock including the display model.

This morning I went to the Richmond Home Depot near my office and bought six large 4'x4' slabs of concrete to use as base pads for the benches. Then I drove to the Canadian Tire store also in Richmond to buy six plastic garden chairs. They look like the standard stackable white ones you see everywhere except that they are green and have a fancy molded flower pattern on the back. I figured that they would match well with the Victorian style house and garden it would be used in. Speaking of the garden, it needs some work. Some of the bushes are overgrown and the weeds have infested a section of the lawn. Then there's the moss. I think I'll leave this for the gardening company. By then it was around 10am and I went to the office where my brother was waiting so that I could give him the receipts to submit to Mental Health's accounting department.

After work, I drove to New Westminster to drop off all the items I had purchased. When I bought the material, I had four people at Home Depot help me load them onto the cart and into my truck. Here I was alone and these things were heavy. I put the six heavy slabs of concrete on the front yard arranging them in groups of three side by side. This was for the one preassembled bench which I had already put in the garden the previous evening. My arms began to feel tired at this point. One of the residents was on the open porch and said thank you to me for bringing the furniture. I still have to figure out a way to fix them down so that no one can just walk off with them.

A New Haircut

I found out that a friend of mine broke his arm last week playing hockey. It seemed to have involved hitting the boards or something like that. I hope nothing like that ever happens to me on the ice.

My manager had a big talk with a bunch of us at the office today. I say a bunch because that's about how many of us there are left. When I first joined the company almost nine years ago, I was the ninth employee there. The total body count peaked around twenty one before tumbling. We currently have eight.

The talk he gave us didn't really say a whole lot as I had already figured out most of what was happening for quite some time. But it was good to finally hear it from management directly instead of just speculation on our part. Morale will be at an all time low for quite some time now.

After the long talk, I left to go to Parker Place mall for a quick lunch. I needed a hair cut so I decided to try this place in the mall which looked kind of interesting. The windows are completely covered with pictures of asian stars and models. You can't even see inside which is why the two doors are always left open. They weren't very fancy like some of the places which try to look trendy and hip. It's actually a bit of a mess inside.

While getting the cut, on the mirror in front of me was a small piece of paper advertising something in chinese. I couldn't read it except for the numbers ten and eleven. The people also speak mandarin so I could at least understand them verbally but not completely. When I was getting my hair washed, on the ceiling directly above me is the heating fan duct. And there in my line of site was another copy of the same little advertisement taped to the ceiling for me to read. They didn't use the expensive shampoo but the woman washing my hair used some sort of scalp massaging brush and proceeded to rub this thing all over my head. And really hard I might add. Afterwards when I stood at the cashier's desk to pay for the cut, there on top of the machine was the same handwritten little piece of advertisement again. Three times too many.

The cut was alright. I think I should have gotten the sides cut thinner because relative to the top, my head looks wide without using any hair product. Damn this thick asian hair...

Lunchtime Maintenance #2

I went to the mall again for lunch with a former classmate yesterday. Another two plus hour lunch. He came with a stroller filled with one 18 month old daughter and I felt like the guys in the movie with the three fathers and one baby. His parents had gone to Hong Kong for a few weeks and his wife was working. So he took a couple days off to take care of the kid. It was good to chit chat with him and basically get caught up in each others lives. The last time I saw him was when I visited them in the Vancouver Childrens Hospital when the little one was born.

Meet Natalie. Cute little girl and basically trouble free with not a care in the world. Other than having to follow her around the mall to help her satisfy her curiosity. Taking that sucker out of her mouth was sometimes next to impossible but she could at least say a few words. Getting her to smile here was a bit difficult.

Today she would hardly eat anything as my friend tried to feed her Hong Kong style rice noodles with beef and vegetables. She wouldn't even try the steamed vegetable buns and at one point wanted to turn her small plate of food upside down. She had no problem sitting on my lap though. No crying or squealing. And when she didn't want to sit on your lap anymore, she would slide her hips forward and go limp to fall off your leg and onto the floor. Wouldn't that be funny if adults did that if we wanted a hug to end. Hold your arms straight up in the air to let go of the other person and just go limp.

One of the shops we went to was Broadway Camera. I've had my eye on one of those Contax 645 medium format cameras except that they are just way too expensive. Instead, I looked at various film and digital SLR's and couldn't believe how big the digital ones were. The woman behind the counter handed me the Canon EOS 20D to look at. I held it, looked through the viewfinder and tried to focus on various objects around the store including Natalie running towards me, and then gave it back to the saleswoman. I had not idea what to look at or do with it as I didn't know how to operate it.

Before leaving my friend, I realized that this is what the typical housewife that stays home to raise the kids does. Go to the mall, shop, gab with friends, shop and push that stroller around. Two of my friends are currently doing this now. Oh yeah. Then there's the house chores...

I didn't bring the truck back for the coolant flush. Instead, I brought it to my sister's boyfriends garage where I found out that what I suspected was true. The water pump was leaking. Thats the bad news. The good news is that I have the Acura TL to drive around again. Just keep the road in front of me clear and cops in the donut shops, there's some driving to be done. Did I mention how well it corners after it was lowered?

Thursday will be what I call the official world doctor day. As in doctor's appointment day that is. I know of four people including myself who have an appointment. One with a dentist, one with a general physician, one with a psychiatrist and my own with a hepatitis specialist. So why is this happening? Is there some larger power at work today? Did the planets line up just right to make everyone want to see their doctor for something? What does this all mean? Is this purely coincidental or maybe my friends are just a bunch of really sick people?

Timeout

There was a sharp pain just underneath my sternum. It felt as though someone had just inserted a knife into me and left it there for a minute or two before it slowly dissipated. A moment later I rolled myself away from my coworkers cubicle and slumped down at my own. I used my finger and gently prodded the spot and felt that it was still very painful beneath the surface. I left the office.

When I walked out to my truck, I noticed a small pool of liquid underneath the engine. My engine was slowly leaking coolant.

We received a letter from the CEO at the end of the week. It was somewhat poorly written and nothing in it was unexpected. No paycheque for the end of February and they are still working on the midterm financing. I wonder if the absence of my coworker and my unannounced absence on Friday had anything to do with the letters. A second letter was sent to the CEO prompting him to reiterate the companies situation. I could imagine the stress management is going through worrying if the employees are going to abandon the company. This day I slept in. Took a few phone calls and decided to get the missing fender trim installed at the bodyshop. Gary had time so I dropped the truck off for an hour and explored the shops in New Westminster. This was the first time that I had ever walked down Columbia street and didn't realize how many wedding shops there was.

I saw three separate groups of brides and their partners or bridesmaids walk into this store.

This seemed somewhat ironic as I spent an hour earlier talking with my friend and his postproposal jitters. Things don't look too good and the wedding reception may be rather empty.

The walking tour ended at starbucks. A first for me in a while like the many coffee addicts of today to just sit around and waste time away on a cold, sunny winters day. Accompanied by a hot cup of green tea, a giant piece of coffee cake and the latest edition of NewHome Buyers Guide.

My buddy called and it was off to the Japanese Pride Fight Payperview party. Similar to the UFC events but with different rules. For instance, a fighter is allowed to kick his opponents head when they are down but they are not allowed to elbow them in the face. Equally dangerous aren't they? Yes there is some bloodshed and the odd strike might be quit vicious but these japanese fans and the likes of those down at my club just eat it up. Aside from the occasional ooohs and awwwes, another thing about the crowd there is that they are quiet. You could hear a pin drop in the stadium. On the other hand, the american crowd in Vegas have no sportsmanship. They boo loudly if the fight wasn't 'spectacular' enough even though many of the fighters are like pawns with animalistic personalities. Giving it their all for the cheque, the glory of the match and the hope for a title match while the business people just rake it all in. Regardless, the main fights were good and some were bad. American Mark Coleman fought the younger and very lethal Croatian, Mirko Crocop. The outcome of this fight was somewhat predictable in my view. Coleman with the typical brute force tactic and big, slow muscles getting on in his age while Crocop had excellent technique and speed. One punch and Coleman went down in the last fight of the evening. As everyone started leaving the arena, he stood in the ring alone. At some point you just have to stop fighting.

As for a few of the other fighters, man I don't know where they get these guys cause they sure have weird styles or could use some lessons in basic punching.

Aliev Makhmud looked like a small but muscular monkey jumping in and out and all over the place against his bigger and steady opponent Tamura Kiyoshi. The excitement started when both fighters jumped simultaneously and threw flying knees at each other. Unfortunately for Makhmud, his legs were shorter so Kiyoshi's knee made contact first right where it really counted. You could see the anguish in Makhmud's face as he paused for a moment before collapsing to the canvas clutching his most precious jewels. For the next ten minutes the network replayed the knee to the balls move from every angle possible over and over again while Makhmud attempted to recover. It became really funny at this point.

Afterwards it was on to some late night ice hockey. It was good even though my side lost and the score did not reflect how lopsided the game really was. Still it didn't matter. All in the name of fun. My defensive partner was Lawrence. He works on the set of the new series Battlestar Galactica on the space channel. If you ever watch the show (which I have missed every weekend despite Gambit asking me to see), Lawrence sets up all the monitors you see in the spaceship's control room I think. Plus, one of the female characters used to go to highschool with Gambit and also was the girlfriend of an old friend of mine. I'll have to make a note of taping it, again. And I'll have to remember to drop in on another game to get my stick because Lawrence mistakenly brought mine home. He had a bad game.

Viruses

The war against spam has taken a turn in our favour. I came up with an idea for getting rid of the evil spambots asking Liferaft for help with the regex definition and voila. It's done. Instant shield against all the unwanted comments for IQEXCHANGE. After just a few hours, it seems to be working beautifully. This is a huge victory for us bloggers as Liferaft says, blogging isn't as much fun without feedback by the readers. ;)

Today I heard the familiar noise of the squirrel scurrying about on the aluminum faced eaves in the attic. Another one. My trap has proven to be effective in the past after the modifications to the overall design and so once again it will be put into use. The main course for tonight will be peanut butter covered animal crackers.

A little while ago, a surfer found my blog on my coworkers mother who had hepatitus C. He has his own website dedicated to his experience with this virus and I have found it to be interesting given my own trials with hep B. Recently, I have been thinking back to the last week of December when some of my surface symptoms had disappeared suddenly before reappearing a couple of weeks later. I emphasize that I am not a trained medical doctor but then from what I've seen, I don't think that matters very much. I have a new theory now on my condition. At the time that the surface symptoms disappeared my liver enzyme levels were extremely high. After they had been brought down back to normal, the surface symptoms reappeared. So the direction that I'm heading in is that despite the fact that I am taking the giant pharmaceutical companies drugs now, it has not stopped the surface symptoms. To stop the surface symptoms, it may be plausible to find some sort of substitute for the high liver enzymes. Possibly pancreatic enzymes or an array of digestive enzymes. This idea is not new as I have found some books on doctors and/or researchers in the past who have worked on the use of enzymes against cancer. Supposedly, one readily available formula had worked with great effectiveness against some cancers but was taken off the shelf after corporate america objected to its use. The move was purely driven on monetary reasons as opposed to objective scientific and humanitarian views.

The elk velvet antler compound may be helping my immune system by strengthening it thus allowing me to withstand the side affects of the antibiotics. The reason I believe this is because when I first took the drugs a year ago, it did not seem to have much of an effect with respect to how well I felt. Instead, it may have only served to regulate the liver enzyme levels down from being slightly high making one believe that they are getting better. And the other part of my theory is that my problems may possibly be brought on by some other sort of infection which my general practitioner is not aware of. It is not uncommon for individuals with a weakened immune system to contract other infections.

So everything is starting to look much better. At work, I gave the tiny fake mouse/rat figure back to the coworker that made it in the first place. I don't know much about voodoo dolls and all but I told him I didn't want it around anymore. Here's to no more viruses or anything of that sort. Whether it be something inside me, internet spam or just a squirrel infesting the attic, no more.

Fighting to Stay Alive

Oh man, I can hardly move so swimming was cancelled for tonight. My back is sore. My abs hurt. My legs and arms are stiff. Yesterday was the first day of Muay Thai kick boxing training in over two months ever since I got sick. I almost over did it at one point feeling a little bit dizzy but managed to make it through anyways. Kicking and punching, doing all the sit-ups, crunches and push-ups, it felt good not having to experience total lactic acid build up as before. But still, I wasn't 100%. I have noticed an improvement in flexibility. Ten to fifteen minutes every couple of days has helped.

The school owner, Dave was glad to see me after such a long absence and in that time, they changed their schedule. Monday and wednesdays are women only kickboxing classes while tuesday, thursday and friday are Muay thai with friday being a fighters class. The jiu-Jitsu classes still run almost every day. Many people attend multiple classes at the school as I have met some of the students in the other classes which I do not take. A couple of weekends ago, I went with my friend to a UFC party to watch, you guessed it, UFC on pay per view. Dave is also in talks with a former pro boxer to come in and start some boxing classes as well.

We received what I believe will be the last paycheque for quite some time now. Last evening the CEO sent a company wide email stating that they would be issuing cheques to cover just half of what is owed for January. Nevermind February. Despite this, I know that the company will not be able to pull in any significant amount of revenue for at least another one to two months. All assurances from management regarding the filling of any sort of long term financing is purely hypothetical. Management continues to keep us in the dark regarding these details. I'm sure that the partial payment was a bit of a blow to some of my coworkers who were not expecting it.

The engineering backup was finalized yesterday and delivered to the lawyers as far as I know. The company is free to collapse.

The Weekend & Plans

At 5:30pm, I left the office. The parking lot in the industrial park around me is rather empty. It appears that everyone has left early to race off to prepare for their valentines evening. I'm not.

I went with some people to the chinese new years parade in chinatown on sunday. This was the first time that I have ever seen it for as long as I can remember so I guess it was a treat. It was cold but sunny and my fingers almost froze as I tried to take photos.

It has now been over two weeks of involuntary free work and I'm busy compiling a CD with all the files needed to build a subset of our products. Source code, PCB design files, electrical schematics, development and users info, manufacturing files. Ugh. I didn't realize how much stuff we provided and the level of detail needed for every piece of equipment used. We have agreed with our biggest and primary customer to allow a lawyer to keep the top secret information in the case that the company should go belly up. Alot of business is at stake for them. My feeling is that maybe, as soon as the CD is handed to the lawyer, the company will be free to fall apart without any legal obligations to anyone. And maybe, it will. This is all hypothetical of course.

Meanwhile, vacation plan ideas are abound. I'm not sure when or where but this is the list of places being considered. Sunny destinations with crystal clear water and white sand beaches will generally be favoured as well as places which I have not been to. Some rules may need to be bent to make things possible.

1. Dominion Republic, Australia, Cuba, Costa Rica. The Turquois Club Med is one option. This morning I chatted with the car rental driver who was from El Salvador. I asked him about tourism in his home country and although it was a very nice place to visit, he recommended Costa Rica because it has everything El Salvador has without the gun toting rebels everywhere. I concur as I had a former coworker who came from the same place and the stories he told me.... That is why he lives in Canada now and can never return home to his mother.

2. Trip to Vegas with the boys in April. Just like those commercials - what happens in vegas, stays in vegas. Everything but my money in the casinos I hope!

3. Gambits suggestion - A trip to Hawaii to chase the woman again. If I went back to Hawaii, I would prefer to see the other islands which I have not been to yet but surfing would definitely be on the agenda.

4. Tokyo - the exception to the group being a city in a cold climate.

5. Another cruise in September. Probably to Alaska this time with the all inclusive feast.

All ideas are only ideas at this point since the job situation is floating.

Friday I finally caved in and played ice hockey with the co-ed team again. They were short two or three people I think. When I saw the other team I became worried. They were good. I didn't want a hard game the first one back but luckily, their goalie didn't show up so they forfeited. We ended up playing a game of shinny anyways at a somewhat relaxed pace to my relief. The first goal of the game went into our net off my skates. The last goal of the evening was off my blade and square onto the post with a dead ring. With no goalie on the opposing side, we went for posts and crossbars. Although I felt fine playing, I was wiped out for the rest of the weekend having stayed up late to hang out with the team.

Help! It's the Winter Blues!

I sent an email to yahoo to report one of our blog comment spammers. If any of you other bloggers are having problems with spammers using a yahoo email address, you can report the details of the spammer to this link here.

At the beginning of this week, I was ready to put away all my sweaters for the winter. After watching the local mountains almost melt overnight with all the above average warm weather the previous week, I thought that the cold weather was over. Then that pesky groundhog Phil came out and saw his shadow. Ever since that day the ice scraping ritual has resumed every morning.

I'm hoping for more snow this weekend. I need to make use of the edge card pass I bought this year. One or two rides per winter isn't enough. Despite the occasional pain inside my back, probably the ol liver telling me that it doesn't like me, it isn't enough to deter me from some much needed recreational activity.

And ironically, the owner of the small body shop that worked on my truck is scheduled to go into the hospital today to remove some rather large kidney stones. The first time I brought my truck to his shop he had been tentatively booked back then but never got the call.

The Current State of Affairs

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*Ah frick!*

If the people who created all the spam comments were standing in front of me right now, I would shoot them. Really. I'm that evil and I admit it.

The endless stream of spam is like the virus which infests my very soul. The rust on the truck. The squirrels in the attic. The mold in the wall. The worm on MSN. It all seems like a never ending battle draining me of my resources fighting everything constantly. Yet things are not as bad as it appears. The autobody shop replaced both front fenders and repainted the whole front end. Most, if not all of the squirrels have been caught and disposed of(Sorry, I could not help it!). The contractor helped me rebuild the wallboard in the rental building and the worm failed to corrupt my computer for whatever reason.

In a few hours it will be day four of involuntary free work. Everyone at the office is still there despite no word from management on when we could expect to see last months pay. We've all been through this before and it probably couldn't have happened at a worse time. The credit card bill filled with christmas shopping, autobody repairs and vehicle insurance payments arrived today. Again, despite this, I am not phased with too many things to occupy my mind. I just need to stay focused on the many jobs at hand and it will work out in the end. And besides, my security is already in the making. I can't wait until June when the next batch of vacation days become available. Or if the things should collapse, the vacation time may conveniently come sooner...

Previously I wrote about the furtune tellers reading. There was one thing which I forgot to add. She said that I would do well working for a company involved in commerce in some way. This is interesting because I originally wanted to take accounting until my cousin told me how boring it was sitting in a bank or some accounting firm all day crunching numbers. Even the current company I work for is somewhat related dealing with electronic cash cards. My coworker has been having dillusions of us having our own office downtown where all we do is research investments and read the latest events on on the world markets and visit friends in nearby buildings.

All the problems at the nursing home seemed to have resolved by themselves or were fixed. Thank you Home Depot for the free replacement parts on the kitchen faucet. This evening was the first break all week to seek solitude and relaxation. After watching Gambit lose two online poker tournaments in my presence, I went swimming at the Canada Games pool. It's been a week and a half since the last time I swam for any sort of exercise. Regardless, there was a noticeable improvement. Eleven or twelve laps without feeling as dizzy or tired as before.

I've become disillusioned with my theories on alternative health versus the giant pharmaceutical company versus traditional chinese medicine. Each faction putting forth an argument for me to not use the other. What seemed to have helped the most in the way I feel was when I started taking the elk velvet antler compound. The effects were almost immediate from the very first day and ever since, the energy levels have improved substantially.

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Fortunes & Misfortunes

I went to see a fortune teller last weekend at the recommendation of my mother. I had to get the fortune tellers daughter to translate for me as my mandarin wasn't good enough to understand. These are the main points of interest.

1. I will always have some sort of trouble with my family relations.
2. In general, my health should always be good. No serious problems. (Tell that to my body right now!)
3. The best years of my life will be between 36 and 49.
4. I'm always busy doing something. (Lets go stock portfolio! Early retirement please!)
5. I will fail or have problems if I decide to run my own business.
6. There's always someone around to help me.
7. I'm always looking for something better.
8. I will be prone to being taken advantage of by business partners.
9. I will always be greatly appreciated by foreign bosses/my managers.
10. I will get married between 2007 and 2008.
11. My wife will be pretty. (heh)
12. The relationship with my wife will be filled with ups and downs. A bit argumentative. (doh!)
13. My son will like me.(Is she saying that I will have a son?)
14. I will always have money and even be quite wealthy too. Though the road will have its ups and downs.
15. My wife will help me or be supportive of my endeavours.
16. I am impatient.
17. I would do best to move to or live someplace south of where I was born.

This reading wasn't too far off. All except for the last item and all the ones referring to future events which have yet to be materialized. It would suggest that I would do better to move out of Vancouver and head south since Taipei is farther south I believe.

Things seemed to be changing rather quickly as of late. Signs of impending wealth in the not too distant future. Driving around the TL last month, getting a flashy new cell phone today. Actually two. One very expensive one and a pretty freebie camera phone as part of a new cell phone plan which I happened to stumble across at Costco. Expect to see more photos now...

I've been trying not to do things which required me to stay up really late like going out with friend after midnight. I barely have enough energy to stay up until eleven pm. I passed on a friend of a friends birthday getaway last weekend because of other commitments. A Vancouver Dineout at a restaurant called Circolo in Yaletown. mmmm steak.... tiramisu... tuna sashimi salad... mmmm....

After the fortune reading on Saturday, I went for some great stuffed chicken wings at a thai restaurant called Lai Thai in burnaby. I was really late as I didn't expect the reading to take as long as it did. My friend waited at the restaurant for over forty minutes but I had told him to go ahead and order without me beforehand. The tiny hole in the wall of a restaurant was packed with its own waiting time of twenty minutes. Note to self. Go back to restaurant for more stuff ed chicken wings. An interesting thing about the restaurant. My friend told me that it was where he had met his last girlfriend. She was a waitress there but doesn't work there anymore. I can tell that he still likes her despite the fact that they've been apart for a couple of years now I think. Every now and then, he kind of looks for some sort of reassurance from me that he did the right thing to not take her back.

Sunday morning I got up early to drive to Canada Place downtown for the Resource Investment Conference. Or rather, the Gold show. It is organized by the Cambridge Investment house and many of the resource stock and trade analysts have presentations or panel conferences. Anyone that registers can go and listen to what they have to say about the current and upcoming markets as well as specific things regarding stocks which they are promoting themselves. The hall is filled with lots of small exploration companies trying to raise money. Some have their geologists there to represent them. Some have their PR. Some have hired attractive people and setup gimicks to attract the mostly male crowd who attend these events. Yet many of these companies will never make it to the big board. They will continue to toil on the small exchanges as a penny stock hoping for that huge find. The multi million ounce mineral deposit or the next Falconbridge nickel deposit.

The Hunter

Carefully I spread the large blobs or peanut butter on the crackers. Animal crackers that is. A giraffe and a lion. I carried them over to the step ladder and put them on the top step. Once I was on the top step, I pushed up on the ceiling panel and laid it to the side. The only light came up from the room below. Small dark droppings lay everywhere on the insulated floor. Immediately to my right stood a long wooden box which I made. Inside it was an animal trap for catching squirrels or anything of that size. I modified it by building the box so that the squirrels could not touch any part of the box without going in through the main door. This way they couldn't trigger the trap door on the cage from the wrong side while trying to get at the bait.

I didn't hear any noise of a squirrel trying to get out so I thought that the old bait wasn't working. When I pulled the cage out of the box I found a large dark brown squirrel inside. It was dead and there was no hope of relocating it somewhere else. This will be the fifth one caught in two years.

Things to do in 2005

1. Buy the house or condo. Not sure which one to get but I think prefer the house. It gives me the ability to keep all my toys (mtn bike, snowboard, etc.) and have a place to wash everything. Can't do that in a condo. I like the places near my brothers neighborhood but they're all sold out. Only things left are units along the main roads with lots of traffic. Hate those townhomes.

2. After months of putting it off, I'm gonna get my truck fixed up. It needs some body work. I was referred to a bodyshop that specializes in trucks and accessories like body kits. I may even get rid of the canopy in favor of a removable toneau cover. It's this or finally decide to trade up. Out with the old and in with the new. A sport sedan? Another truck?

3. I've been running on fumes. I don't know how to describe it but it's like I've been in an insomniactic state without being sleepy. To health and prosperity! Yesterday I actually got up at a descent hour for a saturday. Went to the rental property to go over some house repair plans before driving to the Nursing home to shovel the snow on the sidewalk (damn bylaws).

4. Ride that half pipe up on Blackcomb more than once without killing myself and maybe get some photos. I had this crazy idea the other day of taking pics while I was up in the air.

5. TBD

The End of Last Year

Leaves fall and the hair turns grey.
Dreams of people and places since passed away.

Every second, every minute, the moments are lost,
A new one is here, replacing each one.

Appearances are strong, bold and beautiful.
Transformations will come, or death is abound.

The face is warm, the face is steady.
light grows short, the darkness is cold.

The air is not easy, confused too much,
Layers are thin, brittle and hazy.

Ho Hum - Merry Xmas

The former CEO of our company dropped by earlier this week. We chit chatted and told me how he doesn't buy the tree for his family until after xmas day when it's much cheaper. Now if he was struggling financially I would think, okay, yeah you're saving money. But in actuality, the guy is a multimillionaire. What a cheapo. So anyhow, every now and then, he drops by the office trying to see whats happening. Trying to dig up whatever dirt so that he could use to take control of the company again. He's a like a wolf in sheeps clothing.

The office closed at noon today. I left earlier having only worked for about two hours. The medical lab was also closing early and I needed to give my two vials of blood for testing. Time to start the next component of the herbal treatment.

For the rest of the day I just relaxed and waited around for a driver from the drug recovery house to come and pick up the turkey I was donating. They have quite a few mouths to feed and know they could use it. Shortly thereafter, I dropped off the groceries at the nursing home and wished the staff and all the old folks a merry xmas.

Windows

Windows. Microsoft Windows... Another day crossed off the calendar. Another day lost. Wasted. I spent so much time trying to fix the virus problem on the computer last night that I realized it was just not that important. As a result, I got into work really late. I'm sure everyone noticed but my main office machine is pretty much still dead. We'll deal with it in the new year.

The operating system on the second machine at the office is barely adequate. I needed to install the programming software and eventually did so. Not by fixing anything but by repeatedly running the installation CD. After about ten attempts it eventually made its way through. Once this was completed then it was off to the races. Another potentially happy customer.

Windows. The windows on your wall. The windows on your car. You see things in all its detail. Bright colours of the day. Shadows and darkness of the night. Like glasses on your face, your view is clear and without hinderance. It is up to you to decide what bias there is. A thin piece of glass is all that stands between you and whats on the other side. Something wonderful or something horrible? White flakes falling from the sky or a burnt steak on the fry.

Open it and make it bigger. You'll see and maybe understand more as well. Just your perception.

We Will Meet Again

What a disaster. All the computers around me are failing. I've spent the past two days trying to reinstall windows 2000 on my main computer at work until finally figuring out that the motherboard or RAM is hooped. Bus speed is barely tricking by at 33MB/s instead of around 800 MB/s. Everything is painfully slow. At the same time a customer submitted an order for one of the products which I work on except that now I can't generate the code for them without my computer. The backup computer runs windows 98 and isn't compatible with the development software. Meanwhile, my mothers machine at home is currently under heavy attach from a virus. I used my other home computer to detect the virus but it blocked me out after a short while. At the last check, it was up to 744 infected files and the CPU processor usage was nearly maxed out at a hundred percent. The memory on the main system drive was being thrashed out pretty good. In the defragment window, any space that was green or blue was red. Time to get out 'BitDefender!'

I've only completed part of the first lesson online. And it was enough for me to send an email to a old friend who has been living in Japan for a number of years. The half japanese message surprised him and prompted the response "Who are you and what have you done with my Lei?" I'll probably meet up with him to catch up on life.

Didn't sleep well last night. Tossing and turning. After the two days of glutonous eating, I had to cut back to the healthy food. For a day or so I was feeling pretty good. Then the sickness came back but not as bad as the other week. The dull pain down my arm from the shoulder. The random spots of pain above my abdomen and heart. Or so it would seem. Some light exercise helped. The plan was not a complete success because I couldn't stick to it. So now I've modified it and added the western approach as well. I filled the subscription to the giant pharmaceutical company with the hopes that I will be able to significantly shorten the expected program duration. There's only a few more days before the next big meal. Healthy food with sporadic days of stuffing oneself silly. Listen to me now or hear me later, we will meet again chocolate mouse.

As the World Turns

It's 4:26pm. Another hour or so and I'll be able to leave. I feel so bored and uninterested. Thoughts in my head echo that of a discussion I had with Gambit a week ago - the meaning of life.

I'm barely halfway through the experiment and can't see any signs of a conclusion yet. I am the guinea pig but I won't try to grow a new ear on my back or a hand on my neck. Actually, I get these little spots of mild pain felt randomly above my stomach. In the middle of my back, towards the left and towards the right. They go away as fast as they come yet through it all, I just sit there. Taking notice of each one. This whole experiment is typical, they can be long, boring and tedious. Sitting at my desk, I stare at the monitor aimlessly. Work? What work? Yeah, there's work to be done here still. Code to program, papers on projects to read through. Let's just say that progress is slow. Every so often I'll search the net for information on liver disease. It seems that lately when I flip on the tv, there's always some show or movie about someone dying.

My friends asked me to sub in their hockey game tonight but I turned them down. I played a game last Friday for another team where I bonked ten minutes into the game. We still won with a short bench. At the kick boxing club I almost passed out from overexertion. Exercise is good but in moderation. So this week, I cut back on all the activities. Instead, I went to Chapters downtown and browsed through some books. There was one good one called "First Year for Hepatitis" or something like that. In it the author explains everything from his personal experience to where you can go to get help and what you can do. His description of peoples reactions to finding out about his affliction was interesting. Basically he got the whole range. In another book I was looking for, there was a chapter called "Learning to say No". Saying no to things which you shouldn't be doing without feeling guilty about leaving your friends or whomever to do in your absence.

I also came across some CD's for learning different languages. The japanese looked interesting. I could use a bit of relearning of my mandarin as well or maybe spanish. Now that I have a tiny bit more time having dropped some sports, I can work on the languages maybe. And as luck would have it, I received a twenty percent Chapters discount coupon today.

With the release of Ocean's Twelve and Return of the King on CD, my interest in movies has recently been renewed. That's a relief. I'll have something to watch over the holidays too.

So what is the meaning of this thing called life again? It's too complex and simple at the same time. For now, I just want to sit here and close my eyes.

Results and Time

After I drank all the liquid out of the can, I could still feel some dead weight at the bottom. The light is barely bright enough for me to see the aluminum bottom inside and small clump of dark matter stuck to it. I hold up the can again and with a small gesture, try to get the small mass to fall down and into my mouth. It's useless. All the tiny bits of grass jelly have stuck together so even if I use a chopstick or straw to try to break it apart, there's no more cane sugar sweetened juice to carry the jelly pieces to the opening in the can. This was a lesson learned in drinking grass jelly from a can. I wonder how long it sat upright from the time it was sealed in some factory in china to when I actually opened it for consumption.

This morning I managed to get up really early to go to the doctors office. When I arrived, no one was there. The lights were still off and two other vehicles just pulled into the parking lot as well. One young woman who turned out to be a receptionist and a middle ages man driving a truck almost like mine. He was another patient. I waited a bit in the car listening to some music before one of those new Nissan 350Z's drove into the lot. It gave out a low rumble as it stopped to my left. The driver side door opened and the doctor came out. A relatively young man but geeky looking nonetheless. Acne riddled his face. He walked in front of the vehicle to open a large chainlink fence which had barbed wires across the top. He was parking his car in a private section so that people wouldn't try to steal it. At this point, I turned off the stereo to go into the medical office.

The young doctor gave me the results of the bloodwork and it was somewhat of a shocker. My ALT level had skyrocketed to the highest I had ever seen. The AST was also way over. The ultrasound exam in the middle of the week had not been received yet but the doctor didn't seem to be anxious to see it. I told him that the people at the lab didn't see anything after they had rolled the little scanner all over my abdomen. A second set of blood tests was ordered to be done in two or three weeks time.

I received the first seven episodes of the current Initial D series in Japan this week. It's awesome. Probably the only thing I want to watch on my tv right now until The Return of the King comes out on DVD later this month. There's nothing interesting in the movie rentals or the theatres at the moment. The theme song for this series is really cool too.

The office gave everyone the whole christmas week off. Now I have a weeks worth of time to fill with who knows what.

Plans for the Weekend

My head and my chest feel strange and deranged. It's like there's a bunch of tiny pin pricks all over my liver and kidneys and right beneath my sternum, it feels like its trying to expand but someone is pressing down on it.

It's a little past one in the afternoon and I've already finished my lunch. I brought some steamed broccoli with butter and roasted chicken breast. A bit on the dry side though. I didn't pack much but I think I erred in judgement and need more. I wonder what todays soup special is at Ikea. They've got the cheap 99 cent hot dogs too I think.

On the phone all I get is the busy signal at the doctors office. Please let me through and give me an excuse to leave the office early. It's a Friday!!!

My tasks for the weekend.

1. Shop for one $10-$15 gift exchange for friends
2. Shop for one $15 gift exchange for office
3. Buy a duvet cover.
4. Shop for a new pair of hockey gloves.
5. Shop for a new pair of hockey pants.
6. Order one group sized serving of spaghetti from Loui Garden for the saturday birthday dinner.
7. Order a couple of crabs with cream sauce from Loui Garden for the saturday birthday dinner.
8. Help friend setup new automotive garage if he needs the help. Currently, I'm fine with lending him my truck and driving his Acura TL around all day.
9. If I get my truck back this weekend, then try to clean the engine compartment.
10. Spend a couple of hours at the nursing home.
11. Donate my vcr to the nursing home.
12. Try to see the doctor and get blood work.
13. Squeeze in a hair cut, maybe.
14. Get healthier by doing as little physical stuff as possible.

The week in Review

The tension seems to have subsided. On Tuesday, my coworker and I received a warning for coming in late the previous week. My coworker used his relationship woes as an excuse which was actually legitimate. His girlfriend is pushing for him to settle down despite his reluctance. In the past year, they broke up once for a few months before getting back together and during that time, he found numerous ways to set himself 'free'. He took a motorcycle course and registered for flying school. After receiving both licences, he went on to actually buy a small airplane and is currently in the middle of negotiations to buy another. I've been helping him with the deal a bit. The purchase of the first plane may seem odd at first but has actually become a half decent investment. The reason is that his flying school leases the plane back from him for their students to train on. After he had upgraded some of the instruments to a new digital GPS system, his plane was booked solid.

I seemed to have been one of the few people which he has spoken to about his relationship problems now where I finally just asked him what exactly it was that he was looking for in a relationship and if he left her, what would he do in the next relationship. What caused the breakdown and is he willing to work at it to fix it. This way there is less time wasted procrastinating and sitting on the fence while his partner is desparately trying to pull him onto her side. While discussing this with our boss after the warning, our boss began to tell him about his path towards marriage. He had left his girlfriend in Australia but around eight months later, she came to Canada where he then decided to grow up and commit.

No relationship is perfect and there's always something that you'll have to put up with or just accept. I told him something which was once told to me. That was that there are three types of relationships in your life. The first one is for love, the second is for the family and the third is your companion. Someone you grow old together with. Plus if you were lucky, you'd get one that covered two or three of them. Which one would my coworker choose to tackle?

In the real estate course which my coworker and I have been taking, one of the motto's which the head instructor always says is 'reading is not learning, doing is learning'. Basically, you have to take action and do something. Whether it's right or wrong is of no importance because just sitting there will not get you anywhere. My coworker could choose to end the relationship and move on or stop fighting the inevitable and put some effort into fixing it. After listening to my boss and myself, I found out yesterday that he chose to fix it. They will be moving in together at the end of this month and he signed them both up for some spanish classes. So somewhere, maybe the things which I have been telling him or that of our boss has sunken in.

All that I asked of him at this point was that I'd could partake in the hooliganisms of his bachelor party and attend his wedding. I needed a reason to wear a suit because I hardly ever get to. Even though I actually like wearing them once in a while.

As for my excuse to the boss, I just told them that it was health related and that I did not want to discuss it before sending them a proposal to have some of my banked holiday time reinstated. They had taken it away citing lack of funds on their part but I still have some leverage with the legal system. I eagerly await the response from the board of directors. The extra days will hopefully be used for a road trip to San Francisco in October.

A restaurant called the Elephant Castle which my coworkers and I have frequented often held an anniversary bash last night. We received invitations for the event which came with some free english style food, beer and a live band called the 'Frayed Cats'. Everyone was made to wear name tags as though it was some sort of networking or dating convention. My coworker and I went there to toast the day when we both would finally leave our company.

Tonight I had dinner with some friends to discuss plans for the days spent in Los Angelas. Seven of us are going on a one week trip, half of which is spent on a cruise down the coast while the other half is in L.A. Disneyland being one of the destinations and possibly Universal Studios or a tour of NASA which my cousin works at. The itiniary for the cruise, is that it will be a non stop eating fest. At least, that's what I am told. Pictures should be plenty as I found out that one woman in our group came back from Disneyland with eight hundred photos last year. All that from just one week. And before I forget, I cancelled the film scanner order. After waiting two weeks, I called them to find out that it was on back order until the end of this month. I think I may reconsider buying a digital camera again as I look elsewhere.

Zoning out on my own.

My mind is a blank as I sit here at my cubicle staring at the screen. Or maybe I just have writers block. I scroll up and down the window looking for something to type but the work is uninspiring. Blog or code?

It reads,

if this,
then that,
state equals this,
break;

My boss came back to ask for a whole bunch of last minute things of which I refused to comply with before the trade show next week. He has a habit of doing things in the last minute and trivializing everything to the point where if things are not finished on time, then he has a hard time believing why it wasn't done.

For a manager, he also tends to delve too much into the inner workings of all the engineering problems. So much so that some of us end of sitting there wondering why we are even discussing this level of project details with him at all.

During the past few weeks, he has seemed a little bit crazy as well. After listening to him discuss details of something with some coworkers in his usual informal meeting(never a group project meeting), he quickly wisked by my cubicle towards his office. A second later he came back and appeared beside me and blurted out if I had heard of some specific kind of chinese tea. I had never heard of it before and gave a half hearted attempt at some idle chit chat about tea before he walked away. I could probably free up one bed at the nursing home with all the other mentally handicapped patients...

It's driving us up the walls these days and for the last year or so. My coworker has been continuously looking for work elsewhere for quite some time. Many times has he gone through multiple rounds of interviews only to lose out in the end. No one remembers who came in second right? This morning he was absent as he had told me but I believe that it was for another interview with a new company. He found a new head hunter who was trying to set him up for a company in Burnaby.

In the meantime, I sit here. At my cubicle. All by myself. With only the hum of the computer at my side and the faint roar of cars and trucks driving by outside. No one comes by to bother me. They just let me work away on my own. On the other side of the cubicle wall is the network administrator. He is probably chatting online with his other tech friends about anything that has to do with network programming.

I have read on the stockhouse website all the bickering going on between the past and current senior managers at the forum for our company. Almost everyone uses an alias to hide their identity but we've figured out who some of them are already. This company has a long history of fighting over ownership between the major shareholders. For the past two years, I began going to the annual general meeting and what a display it was. Groups or factions voiced their feelings and fought with the board of directors. From Texas cowboys exclaiming how they would shoot each other to drunks ranting over every little piece of dirt they could dig up or conjure, the fists were flying. But once the votes were decided for all the directors seats, everything was all fields of roses again. It's as if they were all friends and the arguments had never even occurred. Things people do for money, power and just plain ol greed.

Yesterday after work, I drove to the rental house next door and loaded up all the construction waste from the gazebo. It is ninety eight percent complete except for some paint and the capping for the roof shingles. At the same time, I helped the charity clean up the driveway by also taking away some of their other garbage to the local dump site. When I returned to take the second load, everyone at the house had disappeared. There was a couch that needed two people to lift so I wandered into the home and looked for anyone available. When I walked to the living room, there was just one person laying on a sofa watching sports in the dark.

When I asked him if he could help me and he said no. I looked around elsewhere in the house before going back to him and asking for his help again. It was getting late and the dump site would close soon. This time, the man on the sofa snapped telling me that he was sick before yelling out at the house for the house monitor to come. I shrugged it off and continued on. An older man appeared from the dimly lit basement who I had spoken to the other day. I told him my situation and he agreed to come out. Everyone else was gone for the regular evening meeting. One of many talk sessions as part of their drug detox program.

I started moving the rubbish from the abandoned couch in the driveway as the old man was slow to come out realizing then that the couch wasn't that heavy at all. I could have loaded it up onto my truck by myself rather easily along with all the other garbage. Quit often, someone will leave the detox house because they can not stand it or they were caught 'using' and was shown the door. There are no exceptions. And when they leave, they often leave many of their belongings behind from clothes to furniture or even stolen goods.

To them, I look like a retired millionaire with an easy life.

Fix That, Replace This.

I went to the nursing home on Saturday for the usual rounds and found the old microwave at the bottom of the staircase to the basement. I had forgotten that it was out of order. In the meantime, my brother had gone out and bought a slightly smaller replacement. At the same time a staff member began telling me about a bathroom faucet not working properly and a leaking front tire on the company van before confronting me with why I thought her driving was not very good. In the end I told her that her driving wasn't as bad as it sounded and that she shouldn't worry about having to drive slowly when it was full of people. All large vehicles carrying passengers must be driven slowly. But then I did tell her that we would not be buying a brand new van due to the history of the drivers in the past. Every vehicle has been dented in some way or another by staff.

I went about taking apart the bathtub faucet instead of the sink faucet as it turned out that the reason the hot water was not working was because someone had turned the hot water off to prevent it from leaking in the bathtub faucet. After removing the cartridge, I went to Rona to get a replacement as it was jammed only allowing cold water to circulate. Most major faucet parts have a lifetime warranty for their parts thankfully. Interestingly enough, I'm finding that Home Depot is starting to fail me in terms of finding specific plumbing items thus forcing me to go to the regular canadian suppliers instead.

I went to RadioShack and purchased a ceramic fuse. After replacing the old one in the broken microwave, it worked as well as it had ever and the new one would be returned back to the store. The microwave is only four years old but should be able to work for another eight to ten years at least.

An update on the old stove in the rental house next door - the new one has been working great and I have had no electrical problems in the house ever since. Yesterday, I took the old one to the recycle yard and parted ways.

Now for the small shed door and my truck...

Yesterday, I had an early morning pickup game of ice hockey. I needed it as I haven't touched ice for a couple of months. Plus at the end of this month, I am supposed to play in a weekend hockey tournament. God help me. One of the other players didn't show up though. In the morning, he went outside and found his lawnmower in the middle of his yard. In his backyard shed was just his broken Sears Craftsman drill and nothing else. All of his tools and equipment had just been stolen over night while he and his family slept soundly. They even stole the family bicycles underneath the deck. It was tough luck as he was in the middle of starting a new concrete business and building his house during the past eight months or so. Everyone in his neighborhood knows that he has all the tools so he has suspicions of one or two people who live nearby. Upon hearing this, I offered him a simple home alarm system which he could use for his garage and house as well for free. It consisted of seven door/window switches, one motion detector and a buzzer and control unit. He was one of the people which I didn't know that well beforehand but I think his new business will be of use to me in the future. I need to build up the karma points again.

It is 5:25pm and the anticipation is excruciating. My first league softball game is set to start at 6:45 at a park near Jericho Beach. I'm both nervous and anxious to play yet all the while knowing that we will probably get slaughtered anyways. The team has still been losing and my abscense as well as a few others who were away on vacation may or may not have been a factor. We will see tonight as I believe that it will be the first time which we will have a complete lineup. Please let the softball gods smile upon us tonight. Time to sneak out of the office...

Fix This, Replace That.

After eight months of casually looking around for replacement parts for my truck, I finally found an aftermarket supplier out of Taiwan. A canadian couple was operating a distribution company out of their home in Langley. While standing inside their living room waiting, their home reminded me of my brothers new house. Similar interior decor and pigs everywhere. Stuffed, porcelain or just pictures. It turns out that the Langley couple used to own a small farm and raised pigs as pets. My sister-n-law was born in the year of the pig and so was I. That is why her house is also filled with pigs.

I was able to buy a brand new chrome bumper and valance at less than half what Toyota wanted. Next I got my friend to order a new rear mud guard for my truck with his automotive discount. It's time to fix all the little things that have been in a state of disrepair for such a long time and consciously fixing my vehicle is like saying that you are going to fix yourself.

This weekend I'm going to drive down to Portland, Oregon to visit a friend who just bought a new house. At the same time, I've been buying things off the net and shipping the items to his house. A new pair of HID style headlamps for my truck and a package of lithium batteries for my camera. The ten batteries were roughly the same price as what I would have paid for two brand new ones at retail. I'll have to see what the quality is like. Incidently, my camera has been dysfunctional for a couple of months. The other night I played around with it and finally got it working again. All I had to do was rub off the oxide layer from the battery even though it was getting weak.

I got a report that a number of the toilets in our nursing home had loose seats. Sunday I went there at looked at them all. Yes, loose hardware and one partially cracked seat. A short trip to Home Depot and I had a new one to replace the one with the cracked seat. At first I thought I'd replace some of the other ones as well but after looking at them closer, I found that they mostly had steel screws with cheap plastic nuts. No need to throw the whole seat assembly out if I can just replace the nut with a steel nut just like the new seat which I had just purchased. This just saved the business a few dollars as there are seven in the whole building.

The stove blew a few sparks again at the rental property. This thing has been giving me headaches for the past year ever since I accidentally shorted some wires trying to replace a ceiling lamp. I guess I should have turned the power off at the fuse box. As a result, power to the whole basement was flaky whenever a huge load was put on. Like when you turned all the major appliances on. I had the electrician come in to check things out and all he could find was one seemingly faulty wire in the service panel. I replaced an outdoor sensor light which was on the same circuit and 90% of the problems went away. All that was left was the stove. In the past month I've replaced a few fuses, a connector block for an element and one of the large oven elements. Replacing any of the other components in the stove would have been much more expensive and not worth the cost. I went to FutureShop near my office during lunch on Friday and bought a brand new stove.

My satellite dish stopped working a few weeks ago. I won't go into details regarding its operations but funnily enough, I've been receiving video's from various people ever since. I use my Playstation Two(PS2) game system for everything. Watch movies, play games the odd time, listen to cd's. Unfortunately it stopped working last week. So yesterday I searched the net for PS2 fixes and decided to try one. At close to midnight, I had the device partially disassembled as described by one web site and toyed around with their fix. It helped in getting the device to be able to read different media formats but didn't fix the other problem. I was still getting no picture to the tv. At this point, I began to take the whole system apart. Fifteen minutes later, I had two halves of a shell, five PCB's, a transport drive mechanism, power switch module and a heat sink plus a multitude of protective plates and grounding plates. I couldn't find anything obvious to adjust like a dashpot or potientiometer so I put everything back together again in a only a couple of minutes. As I sat there with the wires plugged back in, there was one phosphor coated screw left over. Where was it supposed to go??? The device still worked as much as it did before with no picture output to the tv. Time to abandon project.

London Drugs had a great deal on a Panasonic 5 disk DVD unit today. I went to one location during lunch but they were all sold out within the first two hours. I then called another location nearby and they had the model in the color which I wanted. I put a hold on one unit so that I could pick it up after work.

Thoughts and a Parallel Universe

The sun burns onto my skin as I stand on the grass. Two feet further and the ground falls away to rocks, stones and water. My board is medium in size. Perfect for my height and weight as suggested by the man at the board rentals. He comes here everyday with a van full of boards offering lessons and gear for tourists such as myself. Looking out over the water, the waves are small compared to most. Five to six feet in height and good for learning to ride on. A young girl had lost one arm due to an attack not too long ago on one of the other islands. Many say that she will continue to go on to become an adult pro surfer. The other day a man suffered a fatal attack near the beach where I was at. Yet fear of being attacked by a shark is the farthest thing from my mind as getting sea sick causes greater anxiety. Regardless, I step down onto the stones and into the water. At a depth of only two and a half feet, I drop the board and throw my body onto it gliding forward and out towards the swells. My instructor and a californian couple paddle outward until we are at a suitable distance away from the shallow water. With our boards pointing out of the water and into the air, we wait and watch. Row after row of swells come in. They look ominous in size and the power can be felt. It's time to put the theory to test. I sink into the valley and point myself towards shore. It is not hidden from me by a passing wave as I quickly begin to paddle with my arms. The instructor is telling me to paddle faster as the next swell is practically on top of me. I can now hear it splashing on my board as I suddenly pick up speed and drop down. I'm in!

I woke up this morning listening to the news on the radio. A new Krispy Cream donut shop has opened on Maui and many locals are flying in from the neighboring islands just to try some. Apparently they are having problems as many are wanting to bring back boxes and boxes of donuts on their flights back to their homes. A Krispy cream opened a number of blocks down the main street from my neighborhood. I went there one evening and had to wait in a lineup. The donut making machine broke down and the store manager gave everyone a coupon for a free box of the traditional glazed donuts. I haven't used it yet.

The other day I went to a local sports wear store looking for some shorts for softball. As I finished browsing and started heading out the door, I noticed an asian woman and her small child at the cashiers desk paying for their item. Was someone else doing the same thing that day far away? When I went to the automotive shop the other day, I saw a vehicle of the same make, model and generation of the woman in Maui in the parking lot. Some people were trying to fix it. Was someone else having car problems as well? Two weeks ago when I went rollerblading with my friend downtown, my other friend had done the exact same thing in almost the same place and time and day. Last Monday afternoon I thought about going to the golf driving range. I decided to go the day after with another friend but at the same time, I found out that my coworker had gone to the driving range with his girlfriend that same afternoon.
I sometimes wonder about the occurance of parallel lives without direct communication. Is it possible? Could I be seeing signs of other people far away and their current activities without being told directly what is happening? I'm going to try to watch Magnolia tomorrow.