Month: August 2003

SO YEAH

My work term ends next Friday. That’s like a week away. In the meantime, I’ve been rushing to get everything done that I promised I’d get done. I think everyone I work with appreciates my effort, but I’d feel bad if I left them with unfinished business.

So, I’ve been stressed about work all week. Which is uncharacteristic of the job thus far. On Wednesday night, Rhonda was kind enough to invite several SJC people to improv with her and her visiting friend Erijka. I, however, was the only one with a wide-open social calendar, so it was just the three of us. We saw the Lord of the Things : The Battle for Middle Mirth, which was put on by the Vancouver TheatreSports League on Granville Island. The show featured my old improv instructor. It was good to see him. I took an improv class about two years ago with him. Well, actually, I started an improv class with him. I dropped the class after just one evening. It wasn’t him, he was a really good instructor. It was the rest of my class. They were all very unfunny people. It was mix of old and young people, but they all had the common thread of not possessing a sense of humour. So, I dropped the class.

Anyways, the whole show was really funny and the hour and a half just flew on by. It’s less than $10 if you’re a student and if you like Lord of the Rings, you’ll like this show. Each performance is unique because they use audience participation. When the show was over, we took the aquabus over to Yaletown. I had forgotten how beautiful the water is at night in Vancouver. We took a slow and meandering route to Yaletown and we got off at the stop at the end of Davie. I’ve never stopped at the one before. I usually stop off at Hornby.

From there, we walked up to the Opus Hotel, which contained our intended destination, the Opus Bar. As we got there though, we quickly saw a large group of people outside. There was some sort of private function going on where people were dressed up in clothes from the 30’s. Oh well.

We wandered around Yaletown a bit and wound up at Milestone’s, a good old standby. The ladies and I had a few drinks and some food. It really hit the spot. At one point, I remarked, “Well, I’m not worried about work now!”

After that we took a short walk up to Granville and caught a bus back to campus. After a long day at work, that was what I needed.

Just one more week of work!

GREG WILLIAMS

So, I get this e-mail yesterday:

Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 15:58:06 -0700

From: “Williams, Greg”

To: “Erwin Tang”

Subject: I’m so upset.

why? you ask? ??

well…

1) no mention of Hooters on your blog.

2) no mention of you sharing a bus with greg williams on your blog

3) the “comments” thingy on your blog doesn’t work for me.

4) no picutres of greg williams on your website

Let me back up a bit. Greg and I go way back to my very first project at EA. I was a rookie in the testing world. We were about 3/4 through the project when we got short-handed and we needed another tester for the final push. It was like the playoffs and we needed a rental player. Greg was that guy. His reputation preceded him. He was an old school tester from the days at EA when they watched pornos at break (not that he did any of that).

Anyways, Greg was a great addition to the team. He was a good tester and funny as hell. He left EA after the project was done, but we kept in touch.

Greg works at WebCT now, which is conveniently located on campus here at UBC. We’ve run into each other several times. The last time was last Friday at the bus loop as I was going to a stag.

I told him I was going to a stag and I needed a quarter for the bus.

“A stag? Dude, you’re gonna need this.”

Greg handed me a twoonie at that point. Nice. On the bus I told him the evening was going to start at Hooters. I’ll be completely honest and say that the best thing about Hooters are their chicken wings. If I ever go to Hooters again, it’ll be for their wings. They are really good. If you can get past the horrendously bad shorts the waitresses wear, it’ll be worth your time.

Hey, if you’re wondering what Greg looks like, wonder no more:

Feel free to make comments, ’cause the thing maybe slow, but it works. 😉

FLY ME TO THE MOON

I’ve arranged it so that my work term ends after the third week of August. I wanted the week off to rest before the school year starts and I get my ass kicked.

A little while ago, an idea creeped into my head that it would nice to get on a plane and go somewhere for a few days during my break. It helps that my Mom is a travel agent. She’s indicated that a free (or radically cost-reduced) flight to anywhere in the US or Canada wouldn’t be a problem. The only problem is accomodations. I’m not sure how much she can help me there.

Well, there’s also one more problem… where to go? I’d like to stay in North America, because it’s closer and well, I don’t have a current passport right now.

I have a few places in mind right now, they are (in no special order): New York City, Las Vegas, Winnipeg, Regina, Orlando, and Hawaii. You’re probably wondering what the hell the ‘Peg and Regina are doing in that list. I’ve never been to those cities and it’d be cheap to go there.

Vegas is good in that there are always package deals and flights are plentiful. The downside is that I’ve been to Vegas before and it kinda sucks going to Vegas alone.

NYC is an attractive choice because it’s Manhattan. It’s a great city with lots to do. I also have a buddy there who just moved into an apartment in the Upper West Side. I haven’t floated the idea of staying with him, but at least I could try asking him. With a free flight and and possibly free lodging, this might the cheapest of the US destinations. There might be a downside to NYC in that it’s a big and bustling city. When I went there the first time around, it was great to be there, but I’d come home some days and feel like I’d been through the biggest urban jungle in the world. I’m looking for relaxation and I’m not sure if this is what I’ll be getting.

I chose Orlando for only one reason… theme parks. I’m a kid at heart and it’s been over ten years since I’ve been to all the attractions. This trip will be expensive for sure. I’d like to stay at one of the many themed hotels that Disney runs, but that’ll be pricey. The tickets to the parks aren’t cheap either. I’m also worried that spending an entire day walking around and lining up isn’t exactly the best way to re-charge my batteries.

Hawaii was a choice that was just mentioned to me today. I was talking to my boss at work about where to go and she mentioned Hawaii. It’s been years since my parents took the whole family to Honolulu. If I was looking for relaxation and rest, then this would be the destination. Nice weather, beautiful views, and endless beaches would await me there. The only drawback would be cost. I’d need to find a somewhat affordable place to stay.

What do you guys think? Where should I go? Feel free to list places I haven’t even thought of.

SO LONG SUNDAY

Weekends always seem longer when you go out and do stuff on Friday night. Wouldn’t you agree? Well, I still wish it was the weekend, but I did a lot of stuff nonetheless.

The highlight of my day was trying out my newly restrung racquet with Matt and Mitchell. After watching Andy Roddick play the last couple of days, I was like, yeah, I can hit like that.

So Matt and I get out on the court first. We warm-up and pretty soon we’re trading bombs back and forth. Well, as big as bombs can get from two grad students in their late-twenties. The disappointing thing was that I was hitting pretty well only on my backhand side. My forehand was going nowhere. I haven’t had a forehand in about two years. I don’t know where it went. Here’s a little tip for ya if you play me… hit to my forehand. The difference between my two sides is night and day.

Well, Mitch joined us soon after, and two hours later, we were ready to call it a day. I love playing tennis. Arash calls it “tennis fever”.

I showered and went to dinner. Here’s a little fact about SJC you may not know about. Dinner on Sundays is usually pretty disappointing. They usually don’t serve meat on those days and we’re stuck with a vegetarian meal. Tonight, we had tortellini stuffed with cheese and spinach. It was far from satisfying.

I didn’t really do much this evening. I got hungry around 10pm and called Adrian (who has a car!). He agreed to pick me up for a food run. Of course my timing was great because Rhonda came by to get her dinner and to chat. I had to kick her out after five minutes to meet Adrian outside. I felt bad.

Anyways, we went to 7-11. I got a sub. I think I’m the only one that likes 7-11 subs. They’re great late in the evening as a snack.

Now, I gotta go work on some web stuff for work. And back to that…

DIM SUM DELICIOUS

I got up at 9am this morning, which was quite a feat since I was at a stag last night and I didn’t get into bed until 3am. The reason for the early morning was a trip down to Chinatown for dim sum. I went with Rhonda to the Floata restaurant where we met up with Jenny, Jenny’s roommate Andrea, and her friend Kristina. Whoa! I usually go to dim sum with my parents. Here I was with four lovely ladies in their twenties. Sweet. Ha ha ha…

Anyways, just about every one of the ladies was a dim sum rookie. I tried my best to give them a good dim sum experience. I’m not sure if I accomplished my goal, but they seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately, the chicken feet dish didn’t come around, so I wasn’t able to initiate them properly. Some dishes were a hit and some were misses, but that’s how dim sum is in general.

Well, tonight, I made a last second decision to see the fireworks. I was in Vanier Park with Rhonda, her visiting friend Erijka, Sarah, Brad, and Nic. I knew that the crowds were going to be quite manageable when on the way down, my bus was sparsely populated. There was a kettle korn booth which I was so happy to see. I’m a big fan of kettle korn. It’s a surprise in every bite. It could be sweet, it could be salty. You just don’t know. I bought a $5 bag. It was delicious. Kettle korn is the type of food that you can continue to enjoy until the end of the bag.

The fireworks were alright, though seeing China’s portion of it made me regret not seeing their performance on Wednesday. Our journey back to campus was relatively painfree. Six chicken wings later, I’m here typing this. I’m really tired right now. I think I’ll go to bed.

NAME THAT MOVIE

Ok, let’s play a new game here at erwintang.com. I’ll give you a line from a movie… you guys try to guess which movie. Got it? Let’s go.

“Well, um, a pretty nice Saturday, we’re going to Home Depot… buy some wallpaper, maybe get some flooring… stuff like that… maybe Bed, Bath and Beyond, I don’t know… I don’t know if we’ll have time.”

BLAST FROM THE PAST

I have a friend Ray who lives in Northern California now. We did undergrad in mechanical together. He’s been in Vancouver for a week or so to attend his sister’s wedding. With that out of the way, he had time to come visit me. Not only that, he tracked down two other undergrad buddies of ours, Eddy and Johnny.

I haven’t seen these guys in years. We all went out to dinner tonight. It turns out that Johnny is back at UBC doing an undergrad degree in Computer Science. His end goal is to get a Ph.D in Com Sci. He just started from the beginning this summer. Wow. We might be taking a class together in second term. Sweet. After nearly a decade, it’s funny to think we’ll be back taking classes with each other.

In other news, I came home around 4:30pm today. I go and check my mail and there’s a slip of paper in my mailbox.

“You have a package waiting for you in the SJC office. Please pick it up between the hours of 9am and 4pm.”

It’s my digital camera. It has to be. It’s waiting in the office. If I had come home half an hour earlier, I’d be taking photos of the lint in my belly button right now. Instead, I have to wait until 9am tomorrow morning to get it. Bummer.

RAMBLE ON

On the weekend, I went to Ikea and bought a dish rack to dry my dishes. Of course, when I went to put it together last night, the damn thing didn’t fit. “Put together a dish rack?” you must be saying. Yeah, don’t ask. Anyways, I borrowed a pair of pliers from Rhonda tonight. After five minutes of bending of metal, the dish rack finally came together.

To test the thing out, I washed a few plates, a pan, and some small bowls I had in the sink. I gotta say, I was impressed. Everything I washed will be dry well before I go to bed. I used to just stack my stuff on a dish towel and it would take like a day for things to dry.

Holy crap, did I just write about me washing dishes and letting them dry? I’m glad I didn’t get any paint over the weekend.

It’s going to be a busy week for me. Yesterday, my sister came for dinner. Tomorrow, my old friend Ray from undergrad is coming to visit me. He lives in the Bay Area now and he’s up for his sister’s wedding. We’re going to meet up with some other old undergrad buddies. I haven’t seen them for years. Should be interesting. On Thursday night, I’m hosting two of my friends for dinner at SJC. On Friday, I’m going on another stag.

I’m looking forward to spending a quiet evening alone on Saturday.

FIREWORKS FOLLIES

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I was back at my parents’ place for a bit of the weekend.

So, after an absence of three years, I went and saw the fireworks on Saturday. Last year, I was just too tired of fighting the crowds to go. The other two years? I was working for EA at the time, and in late July / early August, I was just pulling out of the employee lot at 10pm on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

This year, I decided to go because we knew someone who lived right near English Bay. On Saturday, Rhonda, Bryan, Sarah, and myself trekked down to the West End, and met up with Jenny. Jenny is Rhonda’s friend who has an apartment right near Denman and Davie. We arrived at the beach directly in front of the barge at around 8:30pm or so. There were already a lot of people there. All of us made our way along the crowd for a few minutes and then we found a perfect spot right at the front, directly in front of the water. From where the seaweed had accumulated, it looked like that we were right before where high tide was.

Spreading out mats, we made ourselves comfortable. Jenny had bought cupcakes from the cupcake store on Denman. I had heard about this place from Rhonda, but this was the first time I had a chance to try their wares. I had a chocolate walnut cupcake. It was good, but probably contained 150% more sugar than I really needed. After our feast of sugar was completed, Rhonda broke out the deck of the cards. I was then taught how to play Hearts and Asshole. We played a game of each. I will say that I prefer the game of Hearts.

After we played cards, Jenny went back to her place to put some jeans on. It was getting pretty dark by then. About ten minutes to ten, these three adults and one kid came out of nowhere and plopped down right in front of us. Rhonda and I looked at each other with this look of annoyance.

“Should we tell them that the tide will be coming up right where they’re sitting?” she said to me.

“Nah, I believe in self-learning,” I replied.

Sure enough, less than two minutes later, the tide came rushing up and covered their shoes with water. They all scrambled out of the way, and more importantly, out of our way, leaving us with an unobstructed view again. The kid, though, stuck with it, and started building this sand dam with his bare hands. He kept digging and packing sand in front of him to hold back the unrelenting tide.

By this time, Jenny had come back and the show was just about to begin. The kid kept on digging though. The fireworks finally started and everyone looked skyward, everyone except the kid. He continued to build his sand wall for 25 minutes, only infrequently looking at the show.

When the show was over, there was nothing for us to do but wait for the people behind us to clear out first. This was when the urination started. We watched as a whole line of guys made their way right in front of us and just whizzed directly into the ocean. Meanwhile, a helicopter started patrolling the shoreline, and beamed this huge spotlight on the beach. It highlighted several the urinators for all to see.

The real kicker when this teenaged girl came down to the water with her boyfriend. I wouldn’t have even noticed her except for the fact she announced to everyone within earshot, “I’m sorry, but I have to go to the bathroom soooooo bad!”

We all turned to look at her and without any hesitation, she whipped down her hip-hugger jeans and panties, did this half-squat, and started peeing into the ocean. Now ya might be thinking it’d be better to watch a girl take a leak than a whole line of guys, but you’d be wrong. I was just embarassed for her. With the guys, they’re just standing with their backs to you, whizzing into the wind. With the girl, no one looks good in a half-squat, with their pants and panties halfway down their legs. Anyways, while this is happening, her boyfriend is standing by idly. “That’s my girl!” he was probably thinking.

After that was all over, it took us about five minutes to get back to Jenny’s. We made tea, talked, and flipped through the new Ikea catalogue. Meanwhile, through the open windows in the living window, we heard the sirens, cops, and throngs of people walking up the street.

We waited a while before leaving, grabbed a bus on Granville, and got back around 12:30am. Overall, I didn’t have to fight any crowds and it was a pleasant evening.

That’s the way to see fireworks.

BAD HAIR WEEK

I’ve had bad hair all week. Anyone experience this? One day your hair is fine, the next, it looks like a sparrow’s nest. My haircut is barely three weeks old, if that. I can’t believe I have to get another haircut to rectify this.