Month: December 2017

I went to a work related holiday party last Thursday. It was exactly one year to the day from the last party. This party was just for my team and another team, since we’re both in the same business unit. It was at a bar downtown. There were lots of raffle prizes, cheese, and at least for me, enough drink tickets that I didn’t have to pay for my alcohol.

A few people probably drank a little too much but that’s ok since it seemed like everyone made it to work the next day (even if they didn’t feel all that great). Someone who I won’t name took a taxi home, felt hungry, opened a package of baby carrots and a tub of ranch dip, then decided it was a good idea to bring all of that to their bed. As soon as they laid down they feel asleep and this person woke up to ranch dip everywhere, on their sheets, blanket, clothes, face, and beard. Gross.

I didn’t even have all that much to drink but I did feel quite tired the next day. I got to work about an hour later than usual. All in all, I had a good time and didn’t embarrass myself.

For the last while I’ve been playing a game of solitaire on my phone or tablet before going to sleep. Google suggested this after I got my new phone. The Google app had a few suggestions for wasting time or fun things to do and solitaire was one of them. You can play it on your browser, phone or tablet, right on the Google site. Try it out yourself!

It’s funny since some of these films are classics.

It’s been a few weeks since I received my new phone and in that time I’ve had a chance to really see how it performs. I realize no phone is perfect so I kept my expectations realistic.

I’d say the biggest thing I’ve noticed is the great battery life. My Nexus 5 will always remain one of the greatest phones I’ve ever owned but pretty much everyone agrees that its battery life was a huge strike against it. Previously, if I used my old phone on the train while going downtown, kept it in my pocket while say shopping, and then used it on the way home on the train again, I’d be down to 30% when I’d get home. The Nokia 8 under the same conditions is still in the mid to high 80s. This is due to a battery that is almost 33% larger in capacity compared to the Nexus 5 and a newer processor that is more efficient. I can go about a whole day without needing a charger now.

There are a few things that I’m still getting used to however. The first is the taller dimensions of the Nokia 8. It’s about half an inch longer than my old phone, which makes one-handed usage a bit trickier. I’m managing but it’s still taking some adjustment. On the plus side, the Nokia 8 is thinner.

The other thing I’m adjusting to is the lack of an LED notification light. I don’t miss it as much as I thought I would but it’s definitely that something I still wish I had. Instead, the phone has this “glance” feature which keeps the screen on in low power to show any notifications. I’m not a big fan of that and it doesn’t show all your notifications. I’ve since turned this feature off. To check for notifications, I instead use the “double-tap to wake” feature which is super cool. To wake up my phone, I just have to double-tap anywhere on the screen. It’s very convenient.

Anyways, so far I haven’t seen anything that would make me want to regret my purchase. That’s good considering it cost me several hundred dollars.

I saw comedian Bobby Lee do a set live on Saturday evening. This was my second time seeing him live and he did not disappoint. Bobby has an incredible stage presence and he owned the room almost immediately after walking on stage. His first joke had everyone laughing and it was clear his comedy and performance so was much better than anyone else we’d had seen that event. No offense to the comedians that opened for him.

I think he might have repeated just one short joke from when I saw him in June of 2016. All of his other material was pretty much new. He wasn’t afraid to interact with the audience either. If you’re sitting close to the stage, Bobby is likely going to talk to you. Being an Asian comic, he touched on race a few times, mostly in a politically incorrect but also hilarious manner. He called a gentleman in the front row “one of those fancy Asians”. Near the end of the show, Bobby did a lapdance for a volunteer in the crowd (he always selects a male) and stripped down to his leopard print underwear for that.

For what it’s worth, Bobby says he really enjoys Vancouver and plans on returning every year, at least for the near future. This is great news since I’d love to catch him again next year.

I’ve been intending to cash a cheque for several weeks now but I kept putting it off. Yesterday I finally decided to grab it so I can deposit after work. I looked at the date and it’s now over six months old, which makes it a “stale-dated” cheque. I could try to cash it but a financial institution is under no obligation to honour it.

Now I gotta go back to the person who wrote the cheque in the first place to explain why I was dumbass and need them to re-write the cheque again. Here’s a pro-tip from me, deposit your cheques in a timely manner.