April 29, 2008

  • Updates:

    A few highlights from work:
    One of the Sundays... actually I think it was the 13th when I was still
    sick and recovering... Jane calls me up and says they're going out for
    food at Moxy's downtown: her, Michelle, Celina, Ashley, and Amanda
    (Richard was going to go but didn't b/c I didn't).  I didn't end up
    going when they called me because I was still recovering.  It's kinda
    cool; white spot people and gs people are hanging out more together
    now.  Nice to have some new people in the group that get along really
    well.  I think there was a day we went down to Metro too b/c someone from WS had wanted to see a movie, but we didn't end up seeing it b/c it was only playing late at Station Square...

    Friday 18 April:  GS people had planned to go after work with the White Spot people to go see Forbidden Kingdom.  A whole whack of us went - Jane, Anna, Elissa, me from the GS; Lap; Amanda, Richard, and Chris from White Spot.  Amanda and Richard took Lap's car; Elissa, Chris, Jane, and Anna went in mine, I think.  After work, we all went down to Metro, but on arrival we discovered that the 7-something show was sold out... standing in line even more, the 9:45, and then 10:30 shows also became sold out.  Them's the luck of opening night.  So, instead we went over to Sammy J Pepper's for dinner across the street.  Thereafter, we were considering going to my place and playing wii - unfortunately it was snowing like nuts and people weren't willing to risk it, so we called it a night.  I think Lap took Richard, Amanda, and Jane home.  I drove Chris, Elissa, and Anna home through the snow.

    Sunday 20 April:  Met up with Jane, Anna, Tuan, Amanda, Richard, Ashley at Science World and went down to Richmond for BBT.  Richard and Ashley rode in my car, the rest went in Tuan's car.  I forget the name of the bbt place, but it was the one near Deer Garden in Richmond... I followed behind Tuan's car to get there, down Knight, stopping at the gas station, and then into Richmond.  Dinner was fun, we all had food and bbt.  After that, we decided to go to Silvercity Riverport to catch Forbidden Kingdom and there were finally shows open to see it.  I think we saw the 9:30 show this time.  The rest of the movie was somewhat mediocre, but the fight scenes were *finally* filmed properly, and the one initial fight scene with Jackie Chan and Jet Li is a keeper!!  Movie needed more staff vs staff fighting tho, or some swordplay. I drove Anna and Ashley home after; Tuan took the rest.

    Monday 21 April:  Work at the GS.
    Tues 22 April:  Evening event for Crosby Management (strata meeting in the ST).  Went very smoothly despite my still-aching back; they were out by 9:45 or so (earlier than their 10:30 booked ending), got to go home earlier than expected.  There was an evening event going on the same night under Ana; I had Ann working with me on the event, with help from Kathy (who was scheduled for Ana's event in Omni).  We got to finish up relatively early.  I was giving Kathy a ride home - as we were walking to the car and talking about the fish that I'd seen living in False Creek, and the bird interactions that I'd been watching on the peer (canada goose picking at a piece of toast on the floating pier, surrounded by two seagulls eyeing the food, pigeons doing their pigeony business) the previous day after work, we noticed weird drop-like ripples all over the water (it was getting dark by then) and went to see what it was.  I had originally thought it was the fish that live in False Creek, but then we saw one of the ripples swimming towards us.  I got out a flashlight and put it on there, and it appeared to be some strange worm-like thing swimming through the water.  When it got to the log in the water below the pier where we were standing, we could see there were dozens of these worm/eel-like things in the water around the log... it looked like they were nibbling the algae off the log or something.  In my white light, they looked like some were bluish and some were orange, or possibly they were changing colours, or they looked different colours the closer to the surface they got, or perhaps that they were different colours on the top and bottom.  Anyway, we realised that all the little water ripples were these worm-like things.  It seemed like they only appeared at night - I've only ever seen fish in the water, little minnow-sized schools, during the day - and were so abundant.  Anyway, it was fascinating.

    Wed 23 April:  Went down to Lougheed Mall in the afternoon to try out the dress shirts at Tip Top b/c I needed a few more.  They ended up being really great colours, but unfortunately they were all really baggy and not the right cut - and all the decent colours were not $29.95 as I thought, but were $39 or $45.  Sucky.  I went by Bay and bought a few shirts that were adequate.  Also passed by EB Games there...  bought a charger for my wiimotes (which works nicely), Super Smash Bros Brawl (which I still have yet to play - too busy), and this "X-OOM Media Player" thing that I thought was cool and thought I'd give a try.  Big mistake on that last one:  Read the review I posted on for it in my immediately preceding post here (Friday, April 25, 2008 - Review: X-OOM Media Center for Nintendo Wii) after I tried to return this non-functioning pile of junk to EB Games on Thurs 24 April.

    Thurs 24 April:  Went to Lougheed to try and return the Media Center thing, they wouldn't refund it, only exchange it for another copy of the junky program that most likely wouldn't work anyway, but they'd have to wait till Monday to get it shipped in.  Yeesh.  At least I managed to get $5 back from a laser pointer pen I got at Spencers and was overcharged for.  That one was marked $4 but I was charged the regular price of $9 for it the previous day.  I was irritated by the whole thing with EB the whole day - plus by looking at the KF webpage - and I really needed to unwind, so I met up with Jane at Waves for studying and then we went to Teaworks on Victoria and 40-somethingth street for food... didn't get bbt b/c I'd already had a mocha at Waves.  Apparently Anna's younger sister was there with her friends and saw Jane and me there.

    Friday 25 April:  Work at the GS.  Concession had problems closing, Michelle had me stay till about 6 helping clean the gs.  Missed Jordan's dinner thing at the Roxy.  Rented 4 movies:  AVP-R (1-day Rental) which I watched that night and returned Saturday morning, The Water Horse which I watched Sunday afternoon (great movie, touching, beautiful, heartwarming, funny, I vastly enjoyed it! kinda sad tho) and returned on my way out on Sunday, Appleseed Ex Machina which I watched Sunday night after coming back from dinner and returned this morning (Monday) before work, and Legend of the Black Scorpion (a new Zhang ZiYi Chinese flick I hadn't previously heard of [edit: it turns out upon watching the commentaries that this is *actually* The Banquet, or Ye Yan, just the US DVD renamed release, the Tang Dynasty tragedy loosely based on Hamlet]) which I haven't yet watched and must watch tonight and return tomorrow.  Actually, the last three are 2-day rentals and were due 11pm Sunday, but didn't have late fees as per Rogers policy... so the last two were/are slightly overdue.  Finally starting to catch up on all those movies I missed.  Got a huge list.

    Sat 26 April: Met up with Hollie and Lap at SW to go stamp-hunting in the morning.  Anna was considering coming but didn't b/c she started in the GS at 1:30, Jane was going to come but decided not to so she could study for her exam this coming tuesday.  Arrived at 10am, we waited for Lap till 10:30 or 11, got our Science World stamp, then set off to get the double stamps at the Rocky Mountaineer train station.  Lap drove.  Toured the train (Gold Leaf Car) before we could get the stamps... it's nice on the inside - train dining booths and a full kitchen on the first floor, and then on the second floor seats underneath a bubble canopy that was clear to the sides and above the seats... I'd love to be on that train someday on a clear night - bet the view of the stars above would be incredible!  Anyway - after that we set off to the second stamps at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen gardens.  Beautiful as always.  I'd love to hang out there as inspiration writing Confluence Drifter.  After that, we hit either the BC Sports Hall of Fame museum and then the Vancouver Police Museum.  Hall of Fame was again fun - I love that mini-curling game there!  Wish I had one in my apartment.  Police Museum was pretty graphic with all the murder weapons on display, body parts and organs in acrylic blocks & sculls in the Morgue from murder autopsies.  Lap bought a cap that says LAPD, and a little badge to hang from his rear-view-mirror.  lol.  From there, we headed off to Grouse Mountain.  Grouse was picturesque as always at the top... made me want to do the Grind this summer sometime.  I bought this cool chromed glass stein mug at the top.  It's cool.  Next, was the last set of stamps for me for the day at Capilano Suspension Bridge.  It's a lot bigger now than the last time I went - well over a decade ago.  Amanda Chow will be working there this summer.  Anyway, we went through, got the stamps, visited the gift shop there.  I finally found a rubber holder on a carabiner clip for my bottles of water I buy at work (DESS).  Bought two, even tho they were super expensive for what they were.  With a bottle of water in them, they tended to pull off at the end near the clip, so I had to modify and enhance them with some rubber string, three elastic bands apiece, and a little bit of ingenuity - now they work perfectly (i used one at work today)!  I have a black one for use at my RF shifts and a blue one for other use.  After that, Lap dropped me back at SW so I could get ready for my looooooooong evening RF shift.  The event was the dry grad party for York House Secondary School... I started my shift at 5:30pm, the event started at 8:30pm, went to 11:45 (scheduled for 11:30), but I didn't get to go home till 3:30am b/c clean-up by Vibe took till around 3am to complete.  Ray with Vibe did the event again, making Science World's 1st floor quite a sight to see, as was the last event for Rockridge he did (the Masquerade one).  Mario and his crew were there from Genesis Security.  I had Chelsea Taylor and Ruth from Admissions as my CS personnel (They started at 8 and worked till about 12:50am).  I was impressed, there wasn't one incident or one student sent home the entire night unlike the Rockridge event.  It was well-planned with their grade 10's manning the coat-check this time, so there was less chance of people sneaking in alcohol and hiding it in the coat-check (Lab A), plus Genesis did really thorough pat-downs and bag checks this time.  Good kids; they cleared pretty on time too, ended right at 11:30 as planned and were mostly out by 11:45.  I was able to send Genesis home by around midnight.  Anyway, I didn't get home till 4am that night.

    Sunday 27 April - slept in till past noon.  Was still sleepy by the evening when I headed out to meet the GS people (plus Amanda and Richard from WS) for Vivian's going-away party.  She's going to law school at McGill I think, leaving for HK tomorrow (Tuesday 29th).  It was much fun... we were originally going to eat at Shabusen on Robson and Burrard but it got switched to Jiro sushi at Kingsway and Broadway across from Kingsgate Mall.  We had Jane, Amanda Chow, Elissa, Vivian, Anna, Megan and me from the GS and Amanda & Richard from WS.  Good deal for all-you-can-eat... very satisfied with the food... under $20 per person before tip.  We even played "telephone" at our big table... hahaha, when's the last time anyone did that?  I drove Anna home; Jane and Amanda & Richard went to go to Shopper's for lip balm; Elissa and Vivian went with Amanda Chow's car.  We had a little bit of a scare going to Amanda Chow's car... turns out they'd lowered the gate in the indoor lot under Jiro.  We had to run back out to the front to find the door to the restaurant staircase locked, and Amanda finally called Jiro from the number out front to find the last staff member there... he came down and unlocked the door so that Amanda could get to her car and take it through the auto-gate.

    Monday 28 April - worked at the GS.  Got off at 5:30, went home, was so tired I napped till well after 9.  Woke up, figured I should do this update before I forgot things.