Month: May 2014

Up until this week, I had always eat bowls of hearty and delicious pho indoors. I’ve had pho inside restaurants and I’ve had pho in my own home but I’ve never had pho in the open air, with sunny skies above me. That changed this week with the nice weather outside.

There’s a pho joint a short distance from my work. Like many pho joints, they used much of the decor that was already at the location when they first set up shop. I’ve been to a pho place that was very clearly a former Italian restaurant. This place in two previous incarnations were burger joints. These establishments had a generous patio area with tables and seating. The pho place just left the patio as is.

So a co-worker and I sat outside on the patio and ordered some delicious pho. With a cool breeze wafting the aromas of our broth along the sidewalk, we ate our lunch. On that sunny day, people walked by us on the sidewalk, we watching them, they watching us eat our noodles. It was a nice way to spend our lunch time. If you get a chance, try eating a bowl of pho outside next time.

The last time I worked for United Front Games, I didn’t make it past two and a half months of employment as Activision cancelled the game they were bankrolling. This left the company with no other alternative but to lay off a whole bunch of people. It was an unfortunate development but I understood the reality of the situation. This is my second tour of duty with UFG and I was determined to break through the 2.5 month barrier.

By my calculations, I have now exceeded my previous best. It’s been about 2.5 months since I started working at UFG. Given that my first stint included a long Christmas break, I’m well past the old mark now. It’s not often you can genuinely celebrate staying with a job longer than 2.5 months but in my case, I shall take this small victory.

My next goal is to stick with this until the end of my contract, which happens to be in October!

Over a decade ago, I wrote a post entitled “The Last Person on Earth“. For those astute readers out there, I imagined a theoretical situation where I became the only remaining living human being on this planet through some unknown event. It would happen without a nuclear holocaust, zombie apocalypse, nor through some worldwide epidemic. One second there would be billions of people and then a second later everyone would be gone except for me. I believe in the comments (which were deleted after I moved to WordPress), we came to the conclusion that animals and plants would still exist.

In my post, I discussed about walking around everywhere in my underwear. I also discussed getting food before it all rotted. I mentioned that I might even get lonely. At least for me, it was fascinating thought experiment about how one would spend their time in such a scenario.

Well, that scenario is coming to a TV near you in the near future. Orville Willis Forte IV, or aka Will Forte, is starring in a new Fox series called The Last Man on Earth. The premise of the show is almost identical to the situation I described in my decade old post. Forte’s character finds himself as the last man on earth, without really knowing how everyone else disappeared. In the trailer above, you can see many of the things he does echoes with my own musings in such a world. You bet your ass I’d probably load up on all that free porn. Um, anyways… The show does hint that Forte’s character might discover a woman later on and I’m sure that will provide material for much of the show.

I’m curious to see how this all turns out!

Several weeks ago, a new sushi restaurant opened up directly across the street from my apartment building, making it the fifth sushi restaurant in a short, one block radius around my home. Because I quite enjoy Japanese food, I tried it out last week. I ate my meal at the new restaurant and was pleased with what I had. There was a particular menu item I liked, a selection of tuna done in different ways: ahi, spicy, sashimi, and this nice cone thing. I was impressed enough that I recommended it to a friend of mine who lives near by.

This evening I went to check my mail in the mail room downstairs when I noticed a takeout menu for the restaurant in question on the bulletin board. I wanted to grab it but it was the only one there, so instead I flipped through it looking for a web site address. I didn’t find any URLs but what I did find was a curious quote at the very back of the menu, right at the bottom:

“Jesus is loving us”

I immediately did not like what I had read. Now don’t get me wrong, I believe people in our society should be free to practice religion, as long as they don’t try to impose their beliefs on the rest of the society. I really didn’t like how they just slipped that phrase on the back of the menu, it just seems sneaky. I have no problem with things like church bake sales or Salvation Army stores. In those cases, people are upfront about the purpose of their enterprise. Church members are selling baked good so that the proceeds can support and help their place of worship. Everyone knows if you go buy a cookie from a church bake sale, your money is going towards that church. Everyone is upfront about that.

Now where it gets messy is examples like the new sushi restaurant. The name of the restaurant isn’t “Jesus’ Sushi”. I went and had a meal there and had no idea the restaurant had some underlying Christian faith to it somehow. I just don’t think it’s a good idea to mix business and religion in the manner they did. What is that phrase on the back of the menu supposed to represent? Is that telling me that if I go eat there, my dollars are going towards a church? Is it just a statement of the owner’s religious faith? Again, whatever it is, I don’t think it was a wise move. People in general who are looking to eat sushi, want to do so in a non-denominational manner. I don’t go to Denny’s to read excerpts from the Quran. No one goes to Wal-mart to see passages of the Pentateuch in the flyers.

Undoubtedly in the past, I have given my sorta hard-earned dollars to business owners who are religious. The difference is, these business owners didn’t mix their religious beliefs with the running of their business in some sneaky way. I don’t care if some deli owner who made my clubhouse sandwich went to church earlier in the day. That’s because he or she didn’t slip a King James bible into my take out container.

I’m not really sure if I’ll go back to this sushi restaurant now. I know for sure my friend won’t go. He is a hardcore atheist and this is the type of stuff that gets him angry. I’m not sure if I’m being overly sensitive about this but again, there’s a reason why most restaurants don’t slip in religious phrases on the back of their menus.

I forget what YouTube video was I watching but I was perusing through the associated comments (which are usually of highly intellectual discourse) when I found the particular one above. It’s funny and sad at the same time.

I made some Salisbury Hamburger Helper yesterday and it was delicious. I know Hamburger Helper has a blue-collar reputation and isn’t considered fine dining, but oh man, Salisbury Hamburger Helper is so good. I don’t use ground beef however. I substitute in extra lean ground turkey. In my opinion, it’s a healthier choice. A whole box is good for about three people but I manage to eat all of it in about two days.

So far my car hasn’t been stolen nor towed nor ticketed since it’s been in the temporary parking spot. To be honest, I only checked on Tuesday evening, so it’s quite possible it’s gone and I don’t even know it. I should probably check on it tomorrow morning.

I got a giant chocolate bunny at Easter during the egg hunt we had at work. I hesitated opening the package because I knew I’d just eat the whole thing. I gave the bunny away to a co-worker. That was a wise choice. He has to deal with the bunny now. I see it on his desk now. He’s managed to eat the ears and part of the head. I wish him luck with the rest.

The rain has come back to Vancouver with a vengeance. It feels like fall with the heavy and relentless rain. I discovered there’s a whole in one of my shoes. My foot was wet all the way home.

Over the weekend, the 2014 version of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner was held in Washington (as it usually is). This event has turned into an annual entertaining evening, with increasingly more Hollywood attendees. The host always has a funny speech or at least tries their best to be funny. Over the last couple of years, every host has been great, with the exception of Jay Leno.

This year they got Joel McHale to give a speech, he from the NBC show, Community. I particularly like several of his zingers, including his jabs at bridge closer Chris Christie, drug addict Rob Ford, and easy targets, Fox News. Listen for yourself above.

Did you know May is Asian Heritage month both in Canada and the US? Well, if you didn’t, it is, you uncultured bastard. There is an official government declaration as such, which you can read here.

To celebrate, what better than to see actor Steven Yeun talk about being Asian and being in the entertainment business in the video above. This video is just one of a series from the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE). In particular, actor and comedian Randall Park is featured a whole set of funny videos that star a plethora of well-known Asian entertainers. Steven Yeun’s episode, which also features model Jessica Gomes, is located here.

When I started my current job they wanted to give me a desk in the middle of the studio. Normally, I don’t complain and just sit where I’m told to but a guy on my team said I could sit at any empty desk next to the window. I jumped at the chance because who doesn’t want a window seat? I also had tons of room around me. A great view by the window and lots of room for activities? This was probably the best spot I’ve worked in.

Today I found out our team is going to grow by four new people, three QA testers and a programmer. Suddenly there were two desks shoved up close to mine, with one desk placed such that the person sitting there would be looking directly at me all day. No one wants to be stared at all day while they work so I politely suggested a new configuration and moved the desk by 90 degrees. Now we’re facing the same direction and one of my TVs functions as a bit of a privacy screen. Now the only issue is I’m surrounded by a bunch of people whereas before it was just me and wide open spaces.

I guess I shouldn’t complain since I still have my window to look out of and a great view. Oh, one little thing just between you and me… I’ve been told the new programmer farts a lot. I bet he gets the desk right next to me.

So last Thursday, I returned home to find an envelope shoved into my door frame. I knew this had to be correspondence from strata as all my usual mail gets put in my mailbox. In my experience, getting a letter from strata is usually a bad thing and can only involve inconvenience. As I opened the letter and read it, I discovered I was right.

In my building, our above ground, resident parking is divided into reserved and non-reserved spots. I’m not sure why that is. The first two levels are a free for all for the plebes in this building , while the top two are reserved spots only. Anyways, I have a reserved spot on topmost level, P8. There is definitely an advantage to having a reserved spot. I always know where my spot and it’s guaranteed to be available to me. Also, on my level, every car knows where they are going to, so you don’t encounter random cars looking for a spot.

Anyways, the letter informed me that they need to temporarily take my parking spot away from me. My spot is near a huge overhanging canopy that shields the Skytrain tracks and the mall level below from the elements. They need to repair the canopy and that involves welding which they believe is not good for my car. I’m not the only one as I understand three others are in my predicament. To solve the problem, four spots on P5 have been temporarily marked as reserved for us. We’re free to park in any one of these reserved spots until the repairs are done. Unfortunately, no one can tells us when that might be.

I went and looked at the spots last night. Three of them have some undesirable aspects to them as varying degrees. Two of the spots are right at the end of the parkade, which means that when you back out, it’s a bit tricky to get your car pointed in the right direction. One of the spots has a huge piece of machinery at the end of the spot, which means you can’t pull all the way in, so the ass of your car is sticking out. The last spot is ok, it’s not huge but doesn’t suffer from any of the geometry problems I mentioned. Of course, I moved my car into that spot tonight before anyone else could take it. The letter says we’re to start parking there on the 5th of May but I didn’t wait. The signs were up already so I took the opportunity.

Since this spot is closer to the ground level, it’s actually more convenient to park my car. I don’t have to navigate that dangerous spiral that I usually need to. We’ll see how long this stays in place.