Don’t get me wrong. I love all the actors who were in this TV show, but I think the premise is simply too stupid. Just look at the introductory credits. Enough said 🙂
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tdgIPma5Jg&hl=en]
If you live in Vancouver, own a laptop, are a consultant/writer/academic professional or have studied/are studying something, I can almost bet my whole yearly supply of chocolate that you’ve done some work at a coffee shop. This phenomenon is pervasive throughout the Vancouver area. I am working on a couple of abstracts for conferences and some commentary on a friend of mine’s writing, and this place is packed.
My friend LB2 (I have two LBs, both female and both beautiful and smart) is here with me working and there are lots of other people doing the same. I have just walked through the coffee shop and some people are studying for their exams, some are doing homework, some are editing their books or papers, and some (like me) are doing some work AND people-watching.
I think that one of the reasons why we do this is that we feel accompanied but at the same time, we’re all doing our thing. I love doing this with friends… going to a coffee shop and working. Each one of us is doing his/her own thing but at the same time, we have a chance to chat and make small talk.
Some people have asked me which coffee shops I think are the best for each thing. While I don’t have time to do detailed reviews of each coffee shop, I have to say that for night owls, I’d seriously recommend any of the Waves coffee shops. They’re open 24 hours, the wi-fi is fairly reliable, they’re spacious and well-lit and the coffee is fairly decent.
If you are looking for a comfy coffee shop to read a book or just enjoy a nice afternoon, I’d seriously recommend Our Town Coffee, Lugz, Higher Grounds. If you are working during the day, I’d suggest the Blenz chain as it has reliable wi-fi and it’s nice. If you want to edit that pesky paper, book, thesis or simply be off-line, JJ Bean is your choice. Their coffee is amazing and I don’t think they have Wi-Fi.
All of this being said, I am 100% sure you’ve done some work while at a coffee shop, so feel free to drop me a comment and give me your suggestions for good coffee shops to do work.
I had been wanting to walk through Crab Park for a while (being so sensitive to people’s pain means that I have a really really hard time spending any time within the Downtown East Side, DTES). Up until today, I hadn’t been able to walk through the DTES for more than 3 minutes. I am not kidding you… if I spend any substantial amount of time (e.g. more than five minutes) in the DTES I start shivering, having goosebumps and I’m almost reduced to tears. Those friends of mine who have had the misfortune of having witnessed this know very well that I should not be allowed within the DTES.
However, this afternoon I wanted to challenge myself and see how much could I take it, since I know that Crab Park is a beautiful walk as it is close to the Port of Vancouver. Unfortunately for me and my unusual sensitivity, it is also very close to Main and Hastings, so walking around this area I risk feeling really sick to my stomach. Anyhow, JT and I went for a walk there this afternoon. It was a very nice walk despite the fact that I shivered through about 70% of the entire time I spent there.
I wanted to explore a bit (and test my resilience further) so we walked from Main and Alexander to about Railway and Dunleavy. I joked with JT about the fact that this area looked secluded enough to come at night and perform non-pure acts in a car. He laughed at my comment and said “well, how did you know? maybe you saw the two already used preservatives lying on the street?“. I was shocked. I hadn’t seen those, and they were clearly used.
Now, knowing that I’ve lived in Vancouver for over a decade, you might be somewhat amused at the fact that I was so shocked. In fact, the DTES has a reputation for being one of the locations where most of the carnal trade takes place, so being as it was that I was walking in the DTES, I shouldn’t have been surprised.
But bear in mind – I walked through this area at around 4.30pm. I didn’t expect to see that stuff that early during the day. And truth be told I probably wouldn’t venture in the DTES later than 6 pm anyways. But seeing that stuff on the street and witnessing poverty and pain so close made me reflect on how much more work needs to be done in the DTES.
I do feel as though I contribute a tiny, tiny bit to addressing this problem (I volunteer my time and support a number of charities that provide meals to HIV positive people and homeless persons in the DTES) but I wonder what else can I do to help. I realize that in trying to protect myself and my unusual, unique sensitivity to pain and suffering, I sometimes have been shielded from seeing the realities of the DTES first-hand. I am, however, happy because I challenged myself to see how much pain I could take and that gave me at least a bit of a better picture of the sad state of this area. I hope that through my blogging, raising awareness and other efforts, I will be able to help some of these people, I really do.
SIDEBAR – I actually live in Mount Pleasant, and even though I had argued before that this neighbourhood has changed quite a bit and it has improved a lot, I also found a couple of used preservatives half a block from my house. The movie Mount Pleasant, which I reviewed a year and a half ago, is a depiction of how this neighbourhood used to look like. And apparently, even though I thought much had been evolved, not so much… you can still walk around here and find used preservatives and sometimes, syringes.
FOOTNOTE – You may have noticed that I linked to the Wikipedia description of the DTES. The neutrality of this Wikipedia entry is heavily contested, and if you are interested in issues on the DTES, I find the discussion page a very telling source around the controversies. I find that sometimes people are so overwhelmed that they don’t take enough time to look at all sources, so I find that this discussion page has provided me with another perspective on the DTES.
ADDENDUM – And if you want to hear another story about this troubled area, you can mosey over to Keira’s post. Her account of her experiences while walking her dogs around Crab Park is quite touching.
I just woke up to the great news that Jeffrey Buttle has won the 2008 World Figure Skating Championships. Well deserved for Buttle, who had been snubbed even by his competitors (the defending champion Brian Joubert hadn’t even thought Buttle had a shot at winning here). So I think it was a perfect result.
Wonderful results also for ice-dancing silver medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir, and one of the best comebacks in the sports (in addition to that of Buttle) was that of the bronze medalists in pairs, Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison. Some of you may recall that Davison and Dube had a horrible accident where Davison’s blade hit Dube’s face in a side-by-side camel spin, last year. They recovered and rose to the podium in 2008!
I’m just an adopted Canadian, but I felt really proud of these skaters, particularly Buttle as he had been just about been written off as a world-class figure skater. That’s common in competitive sports, unfortunately. The same happened to Shizuka Arakawa after her worlds’ win and there you go… she won an Olympic medal.
UPDATE – I just learned from Darren Barefoot that his wife Julie has a figure skating blog. Go check it out! She is looking to get media accreditation to the 2010 Olympics, and hopefully SEO will help her get there.
Not sure why I am still awake at the ungodly hour of 3.10am but well, here I am and definitely not bored, as I’ve been watching “Blade: Trinity” on Channel 50. If you remember, I’m not really a TV freak, but I do appreciate the fact that I own a TV and have cable.
I kind of had forgotten about the fact that the movie had been filmed in Vancouver, but as I noticed a few sites (including the Hotel Vancouver, the City Hall clock tower, the Granville Street clock tower and a few others), I just simply had to finish watching it.
The movie “Blade: Trinity” is quite gory and if you’ve got a weak stomach, I would not recommend it at all. There were portions of the movie that I avoided. But I loved seeing Jessica Biel, Dominic Purcell, Ryan Reynolds and Wesley Snipes do awesome fighting sequences. And there’s eye candy for everyone, including lots of shirt-less scenes with Ryan Reynolds and Dominic Purcell and one shower scene with Jessica Biel (whom to be honest, I didn’t know was so good at martial arts fighting).
While there were three endings prepared for this movie, I only ended up seeing the one I preferred (won’t spoil the movie for you though). In addition to Vancouver locations and Ryan Reynolds, there’s additional Canadian content in a co-starring role by Callum Keith Rennie, who happens to be one of my favorite Canadian actors.
Here’s the trailer as found on YouTube.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isUy0RRTmkk&hl=en]
As I have done in previous years, I’m planning to organize a group to go out Dining Out for Life. Anyone who knows me even a little bit knows how much I support worthy causes such as programs to prevent HIV/AIDS and programs to provide food to people who are already suffering from this deadly disease. Two of these Vancouver-based programs include A Loving Spoonful and Friends for Life, both of them beneficiaries of 2008’s Dining Out for Life.
You can find here a PDF list of the 2008 participating Vancouver and Whistler restaurants. Many of my personal favorite restaurantes are participating, including The Cascade, Crave, Havana, Bistrot Bistro, Incendio West, Clove, the Sunset Grill, Quattro, Burgoo, Yaletown Brewing Company, Jules Bistro, Martini’s… wow even Public Eatery (up by 17th and Main) is participating! I have to say that I am quite happy that many East Vancouver restaurants are going to be a part of this. I have thoroughly insisted that a lot of people are unaware of the night scene on Main Street and the rest of East Vancouver, including Commercial Drive.
Holy smokes, it’s going to be a gong show trying to coordinate all my friends’ tastes to choose a participating restaurant! Well, since I’m organizing I probably should be the one deciding. I have to say that I am thoroughly tempted to try The Charlatan on Commercial Drive and/or Boneta.
Whatever the restaurant you choose, I strongly encourage you to go and Dine Out for Life. And once you do, come back to my blog and leave a comment. 😀 … By the way, if you’re on the edge about any particular restaurant on the list, shoot me an email (you can find my contact details on my About page) and I’ll try to the best of my ability to make a suggestion or provide a recommendation. Or simply check my dining out category or my Urbapoon page.
I love the show “The 4400” (which by the way is apparently cancelled). There are numerous reasons why I love this show: It’s about people with powers, there is LOTS of eye candy to look at, and since it is filmed in Vancouver, there are numerous locations that they’ve used that I do know very well.
It’s kind of sweet seeing your city on TV (for those of you who are born-Vancouverites this may not be that relevant, but for me as an adopted Vancouverite, it is really cool – I feel the same way with other cities in the world where I’ve lived).
The theme song, “A Place in Time” is sung by Amanda Abizaid. If you go to her website you can hear other songs, pretty good voice and great music. Although I found a live performance on YouTube (first video), I actually prefer the studio-recorded version (second video).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QntkASZ8dJI&hl=en]
Through Darren Barefoot’s blog I learned about this coming Tuesday’s gathering about how to link sustainability with Web 2.0… Darren is going to talk about DeSmogBlog.com, and other speakers will talk about HappyFrog and The Green Pages. I actually want to get a job doing similar kind of stuff, or at least I want to be able to link my newfound understanding of the blogosphere with my passion for sustainability.
Oh, and I concur with Miss604 – I, too, *love* GMail and Google Calendar. From the Upcoming.org website I was able to sync my Google Calendar (which saved me a substantial amount of time by downloading the event on to my GCalendar).
Hope to see lots of bloggers there – heck, even if you’re not a blogger, there’s a lot to be learned.
So, finally my brain decided to start working again and my body decided to stop feeling super weak. I’m still coughing and still feel a bit of a congested nose and chest, but do not feel as bad as I used to this past weekend. I am fully aware that the next few days are going to be challenging, particularly because I *have* to get a real job (this academic stuff is unfortunately mostly non-paid or under-paid, so I need a real job – perhaps consulting is calling now!).
Something related to sustainability, urbanization, regional planning, wastewater or solid waste, who knows – I am even willing to jump on the climate change bandwagon.
Fired off a couple of abstracts for conferences I needed to present at, I’m currently revising one of my students’ papers and will probably remain focused for the next few hours (which is good) but I also need to start firing resumes left, right and center.
Gave some serious thought to NOT blogging at all in the next few weeks so that I could focus on job-hunting and academic stuff (that despite the fact that is mostly non-paid or under-paid, is still stuff I *have* to do – you can’t really tell a journal “sorry, I am on a mission to get a real job, that preferably pays big bucks“… reduces your credibility). And somehow I am not 100% sure that environmental jobs pay big bucks.
But hey, if I were in this for the money, I wouldn’t be doing it. I *love* what I do, and despite how much I complain about academia, I love it too.
I loved Monica Seles for her tennis skills, so it’s kind of odd for me to see her as a contestant on “Dancing with the Stars”. I just hope she does well – but she did really crappy on her first dance. It’s kind of not surprising. She was awkward before, when she attempted to model, so why would she be graceful as a dancer?
It’s kind of stupid that the judges say “oh with such a strong core, you should be able to dance really well, after all, you’re a great tennis player”. As a professionally-trained dancer and a fairly competent tennis player, I can tell you – THAT’S A LIE.
My legs look the way they do because of the volleyball, tennis and dancing combined, but my movements are in no way associated. I dance well because I’ve got training, technique, and I am passionate about dancing (plus I’ve danced LOTS), not because I hit a mean double-handed backhand (which I do).
The scores were ENTIRELY UNFAIR. She danced better than I expected her to do, and the judges were totally wrong. But I am hoping that she’ll do better soon.
And here is the Dancing with the Stars segment with Monica.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLugQsz_oWc&hl=en]
UPDATE – She has been voted off of Dancing with the Stars. That is awful. I’m sorry Monica. The judges were mean and clearly, people watching DWTS weren’t thinking straight. But you can continue dancing I’m sure. Or better yet, please come back and play competitive tennis again. God knows we could use you again in the tour.
I normally write much longer and detailed movie reviews. However, I was sick while I watched this movie (JT had been wanting to see it, so he took me to the Station Square theatres to see it – although I was surprised at how underwhelmed he was after we’d watched it), so bear with me for not providing details. Check Wikipedia if you want some more.
While the movie is somewhat formulaic, it had some interesting twists. You’ll find some surprises. But what I found most interesting is that the main character said something that I always say about myself, and that I am very grateful about — I can’t say it here as it’d spoil the movie for you if you intend to see it but send me an email if you want to know what that phrase is.
The movie does a good job of keeping you entertained. And MUCH to my surprise, I actually found James McAvoy quite handsome. I know that lots, and lots of people love this kid, but I had not ever paid attention to him. I don’t predict that I will pay attention to him any time soon, but I found that his eyes were extraordinary.
A trailer courtesy of YouTube.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq6Lq5p9Fck&hl=en]
I started hearing about the Mark Zuckerberg interview (awfully conducted by Sarah Lacy) from Coleen (who guest-wrote a post on Rebecca’s blog). For some strange reason I have become obsessed with this particular issue. While I have very short attention span for stuff that I find absolutely irrelevant, I Googled blogs on this issue for hours (bear in mind I’ve been really sick and thus have had some time to do things that don’t require thinking.
Apparently debacles do it for me. The fact that Lacy did such a lousy job in a very important interview with the designer/creator of Facebook (which by the way I hate profoundly) just highlights that being in the spotlight is dangerous. I concur with many bloggers in that she looked like a klutz, that she tried to use her feminine wiles, that she gave women geeks a bad name, that her interview was absolutely inane and irrelevant.
But the thing is… not only did Sarah Lacy do a lousy job at interviewing Zuckerberg, she did an even poorer job at reacting afterwards. If you look at her response after the interview (available on YouTube, here), the vulgarity of her words is beyond my wildest imagination. Using the S word and the F word and saying “you know, I’m still employed” and being despondent… WOW.
As a non-geek (but as someone who has done plenty of interviews, given dozens of talks to a variety of audiences, and who understands that you really have to understand your audience when interviewing anyone – AND NOT MIX YOUR PERSONAL LIFE WITH WORK) I firmly believe she did a crappy and lousy job. And she did not earn my respect. Which is regrettable, because I have an absolute admiration for women, particularly tech-savvy women (look at my blogroll and see how many female bloggers I have, just as a small indicator). So, for Lacy to do such a bad job at interviewing Zuckerberg (who clearly is not Matt Mullenweg – I admire Mullenweg to a fault, whereas Zuckerberg…. hmmm, not so much) it was really bad.
I am hoping that writing this post will get this obsession out of my system, because frankly I didn’t even go to SXSW and I am not in the tech world. I think that what happened is that I was shocked. Hopefully this will get the shock out of my system :-D.
UPDATE – Just as I was finishing writing this up, I thought about the fact that maybe if they had chosen someone who I think is WAY more articulate than Lacy (danah boyd, who actually is finishing up her PhD and has actually researched Facebook, MySpace and blogs) and who is still a woman (and a geek), the interview would have been much better.
I usually advertise numerous environmental events, but I rarely have the time to attend all of them (not because I don’t want to, but recently I haven’t attended because I have been sick). Anyhow, there are a number of events you might want to check out in the next few weeks.
(WordPress question – how do I create a bulleted list?)
Green Drinks Vancouver March 2008 is happening tomorrow night (March 19th, 2008 – after 5.45pm @ Steamworks). I am almost betting that they’ll have the Green Drink tomorrow. Meet environmentally-minded folks in a relaxed environment. Brought to you by Green Drinks and Connecting Environmental Professionals. I *might* attend this one, but just for about an hour and very early (e.g. around 6 pm) because I am still sick and I am not really in the mood to socialize.
Metro Vancouver wants your input on their Solid and Liquid Waste Strategy. As those are two areas of specialty of mine, this is one meeting I will not be missing (I shouldn’t have missed those Eco-Density ones nor the Regional Planning Breakfasts and stuff, but hey my dance card is extremely full!). Brought to you by MetroVancouver, who seemingly still use the GVRD server. Don’t ask ME why, go and ask THEM!
Next month’s Sustainability Breakfast will be on Living Buildings (aka Green Buildings taken to the extreme), April 10th, 2008. Even though these events have free food and are organized by someone who is an actual real life friend of mine, for the life of me I’m almost *never* able to make it to these. I will really try to show up to this one, though.
Once I find out how to create the “bulleted list” I might update this post. If you know of any environmentally-related events coming up and you want them advertised, let me know.
A lot of the traffic I get comes from people who Google a certain restaurant and find my UrbanSpoon link (they call them a Spoonback) for the restaurant review. Since 2007, I’ve had a nice collaboration with UrbanSpoon and when I transitioned from Blogger to WordPress, they graciously offered to update all my Spoonbacks to now link to the new site.
I was really pleasantly surprised that they would go through the trouble of updating all my links (I have at least 40 restaurant reviews linked back to UrbanSpoon). Thanks to their hard work, I can now direct you to my UrbanSpoon page where you can see a detailed map with the geographical location of the restaurants I’ve reviewed, and links to each restaurant review.
I still have a few restaurant reviews due for this week, and luckily, I now will be able to insert the gadget directly on the WordPress page. Now, please do me a favor… if you happen to see a broken link, would you please be so kind as to e-mail me or leave me a comment and let me know?
I had been thinking for a while about writing this kind of post, and coincidentally came across one of Rebecca’s 2006 post with the list of five things you didn’t know about Miss604 (although slightly different to what I had in mind). The following list is actually a list of things that even very close friends of mine don’t (or didn’t know) about me – or at least I think they don’t – these are *very* obscure things.
1. I often sleep on my couch. Don’t ask me why. It just makes me feel … I guess less lonely? Don’t get me wrong, I love my queen size bed. But ever since I fell asleep on my couch one night after having one too many drinks, I just simply enjoyed it. And often times, I am just watching a movie and simply turn off the TV.
2. When I am sad and need a pick-me up, I make grape Jell-O. I consume this gelatin dessert with such a pleasure and end up feeling so happy that it usually takes me a few weeks to feel sad again.
3. Up until May of 2007 I had never turned on my TV. When I moved back to Vancouver in early 2006, I purchased a really cheap TV. I bought an entertainment center to go with it. I had everything connected and ready, but never got around to turning it on. And when I did… YOWZA! I had cable 🙂
4. I dream in 5 different languages (usually the ones I speak more fluently) but the only nightmares I have and the ones from which I have always had a hard time waking up are the ones where I dream in English.
5. Even though I have a photographic memory and can usually remind every one of my friends of whatever they did in the past week with uncanny accuracy, sometimes even better than what they recall they did or told me, I frequently misplace my keys in my apartment. I always manage to find them though.
Usually with these memes one tags another blogger to go and write a similar one. I will be generous though 😀 just follow the meme if you feel like sharing five *really obscure* things about you.
Having been feeling crappy for the past week and a bit hasn’t really helped me get anywhere. I have tried (somewhat successfully) to combine my being sick with some sort of chest cold/flu/something with socializing. This hasn’t been all that good, because it’s not easy to rest *and* have a normal life.
Doing things while still sick has made me relapse about three times in the past week, but I think that part of it has to reside in not having made an internal decision to be healthy. This morning I had a very nice chat with Phaedra at Our Town Cafe (admittedly, very close to my place and thus, not too much of a physically exerting effort). It made me feel really good, and while I coughed and felt a bit of a stuffy nose, I could chat and laugh for a while. However, as soon as I got back, I just threw on my pajamas, turned off every light in my apartment and curled on my couch, having frequent (but short) naps. But something that Phaedra and I discussed this morning made *click* in my head: sometimes we need to de-toxify ourselves and just decide to be healthy.
So, I snapped out of it. Yes, I still feel ill and weak, but have made a decision to try and conduct my everyday life and get well gradually. For example, going out for coffee this morning was a short but effective way of getting out. I still skipped on two other meetings, and didn’t push myself. I’ve rested and will continue to do so throughout the week, but I’ll gradually try to carry on my day-to-day life instead of whining and complaining about how sick I feel. I still feel awful, but I’m deciding to get well soon.
I won’t be going out with every good friend of mine at every chance I get, will have to decline a few offers (or take one a day, for example). I will probably not return a lot of phone calls and will hold on inviting friends whom I absolutely adore to come over for dinner until I am 100% healthy. And I won’t be pushing myself as I usually do. When this happens, I’m the only one to blame and the only one who will get myself out of it. I *have* to learn to take care of myself.
After just having completed our recent Bowling for Big Brothers event (where some local Vancouver bloggers -yours truly included – participated), and still feeling a bit physically weak because of my week-long illness, I didn’t really feel much like I wanted to blog. However, I figured I would start getting a feel for what will be my next (and last, for the year 2008) charity event.
Phaedra asked me about the format of Blogathon, and about my experience. If you want to read all my Blogathon posts, feel free to do so. The short story is: you blog every 30 mins for 24 hours, and it is a gruelling experience. Both Rebecca (aka Miss604) and I Blogathoned last year, and I was really out-of-whack for a solid week and a half afterwards. But it was a good experience altogether, for many reasons. Many of my friends sponsored me, a lot of people accessed my blog while doing Blogathon and it provided a worthy charity with much-needed funding. Sharing this experience with Rebecca was also extremely fun and I thank her for tipping me over the edge after I had been sitting on the fence on whether I should Blogathon or not.
This year, I am much better prepared I think. I know what I’m going to do to fill the Blogathon with enough interesting content (one of my strategies – I will recruit guest-bloggers – most likely I will be guest-blogging for others too). I also plan to advertise widely about my Blogathoning. Furthermore, I have a much stronger platform (WordPress) and thus can plant trackbacks and link back to other bloggers with much more ease. And overall, I think I’m a more resilient person than I was last year, so I am hoping it will be fun. Phaedra is thinking of doing it, I think Rebecca is planning on doing it so the question is – who else will be Blogathoning?
To read a re-cap of the bowling for Big Brothers event, read Keira-Anne’s related post.
I’ve relapsed twice from a chest cold, so I’m going to be out of it for a few days. Sorry! Will be back with some fresh content soon-ish 🙂
UPDATE – This stupid cold medication is making me not-sleepy so I’m awake at 3:03 am. Go figure. Supposedly cold syrup is supposed to make you drowsy! 🙁
Inspired by Keira-Anne’s recent post on the dearth of good music (and without making any claim to special knowledge about music, despite the many years and thousands of dollars my parents’ spent on my piano training), I wanted to compare two versions of the same late-90’s song sung by two totally different singers. Chris Braide is indeed the original writer of the song “If I Hadn’t Got You”, which apparently he then adapted for Lisa Stansfield to sing (you already might know that I’m a die-hard Lisa Stansfield fan).
Anyhow, here are the two versions (videos from YouTube). Would love to hear your reactions. Which one do you like more? I have to say that the very first time I heard Braide’s version I really didn’t like it all that much, but now I’ve gained an appreciation for it. The Stansfield version? I love it, of course.
Chris Braide’s version here
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl_q50sW29k&hl=en]
Lisa Stansfield’s version here
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qT2q1bpS7A&hl=en]
UPDATE – I think I forgot for a few hours to post the Stansfield version. Sorry if you read it earlier. I just realized the err of my ways. Ooops.
Rebecca sent me an email informing me about this meetup, and although I am *not* a podcaster, I couldn’t resist the temptation to join. I’ve found bloggers and podcasters alike very welcoming, friendly and really interesting to talk to. Besides, it was going to be held at The End Cafe, which as some of you know is one of my favorite coffee shops, and Rebecca told me she was going so I said “for sure”.
Had a chance to meet a few new folks (though I regret not having seen Derek Miller, aka Penmachine), someone whose blog I have read before and whom I respect a lot. Derek had blogged about the VPM too but he’s undergoing chemotherapy so he wasn’t going to show up. Amongst the folks I met for the first time was Nancy Zimmerman (aka The Money Coach). I’ve agreed to guest-blog for Nancy, so stay tuned for some environmentally-focused money discussions 😀
Two other bloggers whom I had read in the past were also there, Matt from Onomatopoeia.org and Maktaaq (who like me, just recently switched platforms from Blogger to WordPress – welcome to WP!). And of course the Bollwitts, Rebecca and John.
After the meetup, the Bollwitts, Matt and Maktaaq and myself headed down to Memphis Blues for some late-dinner (and yes, if you were curious, Matt and Maktaaq are married, and if you need proof, you can check Matt’s About page). Had a fabulous time with these folks. The walk from the End Cafe to Memphis Blues and back and the dinner themselves were highlights of my evening. There are few things more precious to me than hanging out (and walking around) with friends. And as I told these folks tonight, through my blogging and reading theirs I feel as though we’re old-time friends. Instead of just thinking that they’re online strangers, these folks have become friends to me, genuinely interested in who I am outside of the blogosphere and not only in the Internet world.
The actual food wasn’t bad. I’ve reviewed Memphis Blues before – this particular location, actually – and while I did like it, I wasn’t all that impressed with the pulled pork sandwich. Don’t get me wrong, it was very tasty and not that expensive, but I expected a little bit less grease on my sandwich. It was an awesome evening and I would definitely love to hang out with these folks more often. They’ve got great sense of humor, fabulous conversation and endless stories to share. 😀
I’m testing whether I get the same issues that I had on Blogger now that I’ve managed to link my Flickr to WordPress (for a geeky blogger, this may not sound like a big deal, but to me it is!)
So the idea is to upload a bit of text and the photo, and then I’ll play around with it on the WordPress dashboard. Here I go! And the reason for using this particular photo? I found a similar version on a Beyond Robson Guess Where Vancouver post, and I loved it, so I wanted to know where it was.
While apparently it is officially closed, it remains one of the nicest reminders of what must have been old Mount Pleasant. If anyone knows the owners or a way to get a hold of them, please e-mail me or drop me a comment. I’d love to talk to them. I should get going though – I’ve been invited to a blogger/podcaster meetup tonight so I got to get ready.
UPDATE – WordPress and Matt Mullenweg: I love you both! I just modified the code around the photograph caption and WordPress preserved it (ouch, that sounds awkward – anyhow)… It looks as though the more I explore WordPress, the more I regret having taken so long to switch my blog over. Not that there’s anything wrong with Blogger, but I have found more versatility here. To be frank, though – I am glad I started with Blogger and THEN switched over to WordPress. I now know the kinds of things I want my blogging platform to do (wow, no wonder why some of my friends think that I’ve been taken over – I’m starting to think like a blogger!)
No, I’m not going to stop writing on my blog. I am referring to the almost eerie feeling I got today while I worked at home and was not interrupted ONCE by screaming kid or irresponsible parents (see my previous entry to get some context).
I just got home from a quick stroll downtown (i’ve been feeling better and I think the haircut actually had to do something with it) and I have again noticed… SILENCE. There is peace in my house and I can write whenever and/or can invite friends over for dinner without worrying that they’re going to be bothered by noisy neighbours.
And on that note, it’s time for me to get some zzzzs.
Being a guy, it sometimes may sound weird for people to hear me say that I love my hair. The thing is, I really do. It’s straight, thin and silky. My mother has beautiful hair and I think I inherited some of her best traits (although my Dad’s hair is also quite nice). So, anyhow… despite how much I love my hair, I know that the longer it grows, the more unmanageable it gets. Since I was feeling quite awful today, I decided to overdose on cold medicine, vitamin C and an “all-greens” smoothie and went to get a haircut.
OMG! I feel like a new man… My fellow Team Blogger bowlers will get a chance to see it this weekend, but if you happen to be one of my Flickr friends, you’ll see it earlier (I’m planning to upload a photo today or tomorrow). One key detail of my haircut is that I usually require the use of a # 1 blade (that leads to basically a buzzcut).
I saw myself on the mirror and I felt like I was born again… what better way to get well than to spoil yourself? To me, haircuts are one of many ways to spoil myself. Staying at home and working in my tiny home office while it’s pouring rain outside is another. So, the question to you is – how do you spoil yourself when you’re feeling down (or ill, like in my case?)
Normally, it’s hard to make me angry and upset. I have a very high tolerance limit to numerous things that would normally drive anyone crazy: stupidity, bad drivers, irresponsible people, etc. But my upstairs neighbours have that quality that *just* drives me insane.
It’s not really the fact that my apartment has no noise insulation whatsoever. It’s not the fact that they have no respect whatsoever for my or my neighbour’s sleeping patterns. It’s not the fact that they chat on speakerphone at 6.15 am in the freaking morning when I have not had a good night sleep. It’s not the fact that they start doing laundry at 8.15 am on a Sunday morning.
The part that really sets me off is how bad their parenting skills are and how much they reflect on their kid. Starting in my late teens, I have had cousins (and then brothers and then close friends) who have begun having children. Their kids have been at times noisy, sometimes misbehaved and on occasion thrown tantrums. The key phrases being “at times, sometimes and on occasion”.
My neighbour’s kid has had this routine for the past 10 months: He wakes up at 5.45 am. Walks to his mother’s bedside and starts trying to wake her up “mamma, mamma”, repeating the word mamma not less than 657 times (normally, until I shout ‘shut up!!!’). He then proceeds to start crying until his Mom wakes up (making a lot of noise) and then, he proceeds to start arguing with her for a good 45 minutes over some stupidity. After his Mom doesn’t agree to give him whatever his whim is, he proceeds to scream in such a high pitch that I actually have feared that he is going to break the glasses in my apartment.
This is every day’s routine, only interrupted when I shout “SHUT THE %@# UP!!” and/or knock furiously on my ceilings. Peace only arrives when they (finally!) leave the house around 8.40 am… By then, I am obviously awake and probably on my way to the office (unless I decide to work from home). Since I’m so tired from trying to stay asleep in the morning, I end up taking a quick nap that often is about 2 hours long. So, sometimes (and totally against my will) I end up starting my day at around 11 am.
The truth is, I compare my neighbour’s kid to my friends’, cousins, brothers’ and acquaintances’ kids, and I can’t really say that he is like them. This kid’s inappropriate behavior is totally the reflection of bad parenting. Since I have been reading a lot about child’s behavior in the past few months, I can tell you that repeated tantrums are often the result of inappropriate parenting. This kid throws tantrums on a regular basis, and his parents try to reason with him as though he is 30, and not 3.
You might be asking ‘why do you live here with such evil neighbours?”. Well, for one, the rent and location are amazing. Second, the truth is — I don’t think that I should let them win the battle either. This is my home, it’s been for a while, I really enjoyed the process of decorating it, finding the furniture, setting it up, and I do feel comfortable in it (warranted, provided that they aren’t home).
For the extended periods of time they’re not in (and at night — which is when I actually work better), I really enjoy being at home. Despite its small size (450 sq ft) and inconveniences, I am proud enough of my place to invite friends over for dinner. I had my Mom and brother stay here two summers in a row. I *love* my small tiny apartment.
So, one of the things I do is to let it all out on my blog (I have tried, unsuccessfully, to speak with them and reason, and I’ve also talked to my landlord). These battles, according to a website that provides advice on the Tenants Act and noisy neighbours, are the most difficult to win. So, I will have to tough it out until (a) they leave or (b) I find a better place within the same Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. But at least, writing about it makes me feel much better. I rarely rant about this, but now that I’ve been sick for the weekend, it was just necessary. 🙂
The Backstage Lounge is one of my favorite bars. It overlooks the water, on Granville Island. The view is amazing, during the day and at night. They usually have a fairly good beverage selection, good specials (they had tequila shots on special last night) and great live music, plus a really wide dance floor.
I went there with a group of close friends of AF to celebrate her birthday last night, and despite the fact that the starter group wasn’t all that good, we had a good time. I started feeling really sick and had the beginnings of a fever around midnight, and by the time I got home, the fever was full blown, so I really didn’t stay for long.
However, for the period of time I stayed (and to be fair, every time I go to the Backstage Lounge), I had a fantastic time, not only because it was AF’s birthday (someone who is very near and dear to my heart) but also because it seemed like the right venue for this type of celebration. Besides, there were LOTS of eye candy! 😀
I would definitely recommend the Backstage Lounge for birthday celebrations, although most likely, next time I go I will be wearing jeans instead of dress slacks, because with the cold temperature snap and my legs being not really warmed up, I think that had to do with how quickly I fell prey to the cold.
