There’s been a rainfall warning in Vancouver for the last two days. It rained quite heavily tonight. It didn’t take long for me to discover there was a hole somewhere in the sole of my right shoe. The unmistakable feel of a sock sopping up the rain water from underneath my shoes was the indication my commute home wasn’t going to be fun.
I always am forced to buy a new pair of shoes because of this and for no other reason. Some tiny crack in the sole lets water in and the materials above it sucks the water up. I’m left with wet socks and an uncomfortable feeling. These were a pair of loafers so I’ll probably switch to a pair of skate shoes tomorrow.
I could hope for the rain to stop but it’s going to wet and dreary for the rest of the week and even possibly all weekend.
You know your city has reached a certain size when people with mental health issues start showing up on a regular basis on public transit. Of course Vancouver passed that mark decades ago. I use public transit frequently so I’ve seen my fair share of characters on buses and Skytrain.
It’s gotten to the point where I’ve started to recognize a few of them, for better or worse. One particular lady stands out to me for a few reasons, one of them being I’ve seen her the most. I’ve only seen this lady in the morning and she usually gets on the train about four or five stops. It’s hard to keep track of her because she never stays still and will wander the length of the cars.
Like most people with mental health issues on transit, she talks to herself. Actually, it’s more like she lectures people. She doesn’t yell but just speaks aloud on different topics that really make no sense to me. Everything she speaks about is done in a lecturing tone. Most of the time, I can’t really figure out what she’s talking about. I think one time, she was telling people about the dynamic between a husband and a wife. It was hard to follow. She doesn’t seem to be addressing anyone in particular and will walk up and down the car as she’s doing it.
Of course, she makes a lot of people uncomfortable because they just want to get to where they’re going in peace and having a raving woman prevents that. One of my friends encountered this woman one time and he was having a bit of a bad day so he just yelled at her to shut the hell up. She never stops talking so I can see why my friend did that. Whenever I see her, I just put my headphones and listen to some Katy Perry. Since she never confronts anyone physically, that’s problem solved right there.
She’s on the train a lot, enough that many people instantly know who she is. In fact, the short video above shows one of her ravings. To be very clear, I did not shoot that video.
I wonder who this woman is. Where does she go at nights? Why is she on transit anyways? Where is she going? How can I avoid her in the future?
You know that common practice of taking a day off to extend a long weekend so you get four days off? I’m sure many of your co-workers and even yourself have done that. In all my years of working, I’ve never done that, not once. Sure I’ve taken vacation days before but I’ve done it just to extend a long weekend. I always figured I need every vacation for a trip or something.
Well, I’m about change all of that for Easter. For us non-government employees, we only get three days off for Easter. I believe if you work for the guberment, you get four. Anyways, my current job gives me four weeks vacation each year which is more than any other job I’ve ever had. I don’t think I’ll use it all so it’s time I start taking days off. The question remains, should the day off be so that I start the long weekend earlier or so that it goes one day longer at the end? I’m leaning towards putting it at the end, that way when all my co-workers go back to work, I can have satisfaction of sleeping in that day. What do you think?
Ellen DeGeneres had John the Sprinkles Kid on her show last month. Where does Ellen get the money to fly these people to her show? Her show must be very profitable. Technically, the kid was right in the video, the sprinkles container was not empty.
Despite the shortened NHL season is just about half over, I am ready to give my predictions on how the local ice hockey team will fare for the rest of the year. Based on what I’ve seen, the Vancouver Canucks will barely make the playoffs. When I make that statement, I am giving them a huge benefit of the doubt as I could easily see them missing the playoffs for the first time in many years. Should they make the post-season though, there is no doubt in my mind they will lose quite handily to whoever they face in the first round.
The season doesn’t end until the end of April but you read it here first. The Canucks limp into the playoffs under a best-case scenario and then go out with a whimper in the first round. There will be much hand-wringing in Vancouver over the summer.
In a previous post from the summer, I detailed how I worked on an iPad game before coming to PopCap. I’m pleased to announce that Capsized+ is now out on the Apple app store. I stopped working on the game in late July so I don’t know what has been changed or improved since I left. From what I see of the screenshots it still looks to be the same general game that I remember it to be.
This is a noteworthy title for me personally as this is my first iPad game that has been released to the public. Since I don’t own an iPad, I haven’t been able to see the finished product. At $2.99, it’s not going to break the bank but I guess I’ll have to wait for the Android version. If anyone who does own an iPad and wants to show me the game, I’ll be more than happy to reimburse you for the $3!
A couple of weeks ago I was at a suburban shopping mall in the greater Vancouver area. I was on the second level and above a large open area on the first floor where the mall usually sets up a stage if they have something going on. I noticed a lot of parents and kids near the railing and looking down to whatever was happening. I was curious so I casually walked closer to see what was there.
As I got to the railing, I looked down to see a small presentation area had been set up. There two lines of parents and kids. At the front of each line was a young woman sitting on a chair. Each child seemed to get about a minute or so with either of the young ladies. The kids seemed to range from two to possibly eight years old. Every child seemed to be genuinely excited and awed to meet either woman. I saw one little person high-five one of them with gusto. Most parents took a quick photo of their child during the meetup.
For all the excitement from kids and the parents, I admit I stared at the scene for several minutes and had no idea who any of those young women were. I realized that as a single man in his 30s, there are things out there that don’t even come close to my sphere of interaction or knowledge. This was one of those things. These women were obviously popular and known to the children and their parents but I had no such knowledge of them. It bugged me that I didn’t know who these people were. I made my way downstairs to get closer to the meet and greet. There was a sign there that told me the two women were Bobs & LoLo. They were obviously children’s entertainers but knowing their names did not advance my knowledge of them one bit. I went home and looked them up on Google. It was there I learned their origins and that they are popular for their kid-friendly songs.
On that one day, I peered into a world that I usually don’t have exposure to. I wonder what other things I don’t know about.
Despite living over a large supermarket, I came to the realization about an hour ago that I have no real food in my apartment. I had a small dinner consisting of a six-inch sub from Subway. For some people that would be enough to hold them over until breakfast. I am not that type of person. I spent most of the evening working a personal programming project and by the time I finished up with that, I discovered I was hungry and that I nothing to eat. Everything downstairs also had closed up for the night.
This is currently what’s available to me that feasible as food: two Twinkies, Almond Roca candy, and two peanut butter cookies. I also do have a few cups of microwave macaroni and cheese but the packet of powdered cheese contains a wealth of chemicals that I’m trying to stay away from.
It looks like I’ll probably finish the Twinkies and cookies and hopefully that will be enough to get me to the morning.
