MIDDAY POST?

Ha, I bet you didn’t expect a post in the middle of the day. Blogger has finally fixed a long-standing bug that made posting a pain in the ass, especially if I wasn’t at home.

With the problem gone, I am free to post whenever and wherever. Get ready for more crap, more often!

REST IN PEACE PICKY

On Friday night, after returning from an evening out, I came home to find that Picky, my beloved Betta fish, had passed on sometime during the day.

I could tell he wasn’t healthy for several weeks prior to his passing. He was very lethargic and would spend most of his time resting on a plastic plant in his tank. He ate very little. For the last two weeks, I tried giving him “Betta medicine” which was a few drops of tea tree oil in his water. I was going to give him some anti-biotics tonight but it was too late.

I would have had Picky for two full years next month. He was two years old or at least very close to that age. I have never had a fish last that long in my care. As a kid, my mom used to buy me goldfish which seemed to live for about a week before dying. After a year with Picky, I began to marvel at the longevity of a fish that was barely three inches long.

Picky was a very thoughtful gift given to me by Carolyn B. on my birthday in 2004. I wasn’t expecting a gift from her and I certainly wasn’t expecting a living creature. Carolyn made it easier on me though, she got a whole starter kit which included a tank, gravel, a plastic plant, some food, and water conditioner. Picky was in a bag of water, much smaller than he would grow up to be.

Picky acquired his name after I discovered he was a very choosy eater. He barely touched the flakes that came with his kit. I eventually discovered he liked his food in pellet form. His favourite treat were blood worms which Dana would periodically get for me.

To understand how long I had him, consider I got him while I was still living at St. John’s College. He survived the cold of the winter and then stuffy heat in my room when it was the summer. When the first eight months had passed, I had to move out of SJC and back home with my parents. He got through the hour long car ride fine, travelling in a Tupperware container.

When I finally got my T-Bird apartment three weeks later, he had to stay with my parents because I wasn’t ready for Picky yet. I had a major case of food poisoning and I was really busy with school. My parents aren’t really the best caretakers in the world so I had a bit of apprehension about leaving him with them.

About mid-October of 2004, I got him back when things were settled in my apartment on-campus. His tank was placed on a bookshelf in my bedroom and there he stayed for close to a year. He was in the care of some SJC folks during the 2004 Christmas holiday but that was only a three day event.

Picky was a particularly feisty fish during my last year of school. If you approached his tank, he would swim furiously at you trying to get past the plastic wall of the tank. I was amazed at his eyesight as well. Though he had tiny eyes, he would be able to notice me wake up in my bed from several feet away. I would open my eyes and see a storm of activity in his tank as he tried to swim towards me.

After the year at my T-Bird apartment, we came back to my parents place. I know this sounds corny but Picky was very reserved after I moved him here. He very rarely tried to meet you at the edge of the tank. Instead, he spent most of his time perched on top of a plastic plant. The only good sign was that he was still eating regularly. He did, however, seem depressed if that’s possible for a fish.

In the end, I’m not sure what Picky succumbed to. Was it old age? Was it an infection? I will never know. I was hoping he would make it to my next birthday, so I could say he’d been with me for two years. We came really close though.

I am still amazed that something so tiny lived so long. All I did was give him food and changed his water.

I am not sure if I’ll get another Betta right away. Picky’s tank will remain dry for a while.

TRAPPED

UPDATE:

According to the maintenance guy, a representative from the elevator company arrived on-scene not long after my 5:30pm departure. Lynn was apparently rescued from the elevator car not long afterwards. The elevator dude left the building at 5:50pm according to the maintenance report. There is no indication there were any repairs made or parts replaced. The elevator was in service the day after the incident.

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Sometime after 4:30pm today I was at my desk writing some code when I began to notice a faint ringing sound in the background. It wasn’t loud enough to be a fire bell but it was intense enough for me to notice. It also seemed to be ringing at random intervals. Weird.

I ignored for several minutes when a co-worker sent me an instant message… “I think someone is trapped in the elevator”

Of course! It was the bell you ring when you’re trapped in an elevator. We both rushed to the elevator where several people had already congregated. Near the elevator bank someone was trying to talk to whoever it was through the doors. Our office manager was trying to call the security guard and elevator company. It turned out the security guard wasn’t on duty yet and elevator company wasn’t answering.

Whoever was trapped managed to yell out that she was Lynn or Lyn from the 4th floor. Then someone yelled back down to Lynn that we were having trouble getting help. I was thinking that wasn’t a smart thing to do. Don’t tell her that! Just tell her we were working on getting help to her. Anyways, we were herded away from the area, leaving just one working elevator for the entire building.

Shortly after I got back to my desk, an office-wide e-mail was sent out detailing the situation and that we were to use the remaining elevator at our own risk. Using the stairs was now the preferred method of transit. These elevators have been flaky for several months now. Sometimes they’ll go up before they’ll go down even though the arrow indicates the car should be on the way down.

Twenty minutes later, I went to the washroom and I could see no one had arrived to help this poor woman. Walking back to my desk, the office manager told a few of us that the man now in front of the elevators was Lynn’s husband. He was talking on a cell phone which I hope had his wife on the other end. He seemed quite calm.

Almost an hour later, I left work at around 5:30pm and no help had arrived yet. I threw caution to the wind because, you know, I’m a risk taker, so I took the elevator down to the ground floor. I arrived without incident and on my way out of the elevator, the security guard was on his way up.

I have no further updates on this incident but I will ask around tomorow. I need closure on this incident!

INCOME TAX

I am very eager to file my income tax return this year. I am brimming with anticipation. Why? Well, let’s discuss my income tax history. I’ve never made enough money in my entire life to have required me to pay taxes to the government at tax time. I’ve always received a refund. I’d like to see how the other half lives but there’s little I can do about that for now.

I am now making more money than I’ve ever made in my entire life. That’s not saying a lot for a guy that used to make $12.50 an hour but I digress. The government takes about 30% off every paycheque of mine. Because of the huge tuition and education credits I accumulated through grad school, I expect to get most of my money back come tax time. It should be the largest refund I’ve ever received. Most, if not all of it, will go towards my loan payments.

I can’t file my return just yet since I don’t have all the proper forms. None of my T-slips are in. Also, the CRA tends to make last minute changes to the tax forms. I usually wait until mid-March when the tax folks finalize the forms.

Since 1996, I’ve used Quicktax to help me prepare my return. It’s getting pricey at $40 now but I like how it carries forward all my financial info from year to year. Maybe I’ll get my family to pitch in some bucks since I’ve done all their returns since 1999. Seems fair enough doesn’t it?

On a related note, billionaire Mark Cuban gives his three investment tips for 2006. Now before you dimiss the link as some financial hooey that will make no sense, two of his tips are actually common sense type tips. It’s worth a read no matter if you’re a broker or a guy that stuffs his money into his mattress.

BEDDY BYE

I really didn’t get enough sleep on Sunday night, so when I arrived at work on Monday morning, I was kinda tired. The commute, however, was awesome. There was barely any traffic so we zoomed right into downtown Vancouver in just under 25 minutes. I even got a whole row of seats to myself. I got to work nice and early.

When I arrived home that evening, I was exhausted. I felt like going to bed around 9pm and if you know me, that’s amazing. I managed to stay up until midnight and that’s when I crawled into bed. I was thinking that I’d get a whole eight of hours of sleep and wake up fully rested.

I awoke at 4:30am to find myself lying on top of one of my arms which had fallen asleep. After restoring bloodflow to the appendage, I tried to go back to sleep. I heard sirens though and it sounded like a few of them were going off. I was thinking it might be a police chase of some sort. I tossed and turned for a bit. Then I had to go pee. Upon returning, I did more tossing and turning. Then I started thinking about random stuff. I began to wonder if I was thirsty or not. I finally fell back asleep sometime around 5:30am (I think).

I woke up at 8:30am and I was tired. I hate that feeling when you wake up and you’re already thinking about the next time you get to sleep.

I was tired all day at work but I managed to get a decent amount of work done. We even went to Denny’s for lunch.

Thanks for sticking with me on this post. Click here for a fun Flash-based tennis game.

HOLIDAY THANKS

I received more Christmas cards this season than any other year that I’ve had a mailing address. This is completely impersonal but I’d like to use this forum to thank each and every one of you for spending postage on me and sending me your special greeting. As soon as I grow up, I will reciprocate. The card that came the farthest to me was from Hobart, Australia. Nenagh (Nen-nog) wrote me a wonderful little note. She is truly a 100% top chick in everyone’s books.

In completely different news, Grandma’s Boy, the movie loosely based on my life as a video game tester, opens this Friday. Click here for some clips from the movie. Be sure to check out the Dance Dance Revolution clip.

PROBLEMS LIE AHEAD

As you may know, I go back to work on Monday. If I don’t make some adjustments to my sleeping schedule immediately, I will be a complete mess on the first day back.

I went to bed at 5am last night and didn’t fall asleep until probably 6am. I woke up at 3pm today. I felt amazingly refreshed for the first time in a very long while. It’s 4am as I write this now and I don’t feel tired at all. I need to start going to bed earlier or else Monday is gonna suck.

So common sense says that if I just go to bed one hour earlier per day starting tonight, I should be fine by Sunday. Here’s the thing though… I just rented disc one of the fourth season of 24. This disc contains four episodes. I’m not sure how but it seems like I just started watching it five minutes ago and I’ve finished the first three “hours”.

I could just go to bed and watch the last episode tomorrow morning but I’m not going to do that. I’ll end this post here so that I can finish the disc and get to bed sooner.

HOLIDAY ROAD

It’s Thursday, which means my time off from work is coming to an end. After the weekend, I’m back at work on Monday.

I having neither a bad nor an exceptionally wonderful holiday. I live with my family anyways, so it’s not like I’m seeing them after a lengthy time apart. They say the holidays are a time to see friends as well. Most of my friends have gone away so I’ve actually seen my friends less during this festive time. I did see my buddy Nate though, who returned home from his work in Japan. He’s the second friend to have seen where I work, the first being Ray.

Because I haven’t being go out that much, I’ve saving a bit of cash, which is a good thing. The savings have probably been offset by the cost of Christmas gifts unfortunately. I’m getting more sleep than when I’m working though it seems I’m still tired at times. I’ve been through two video games since the holidays started. I’ve blazed through the first two Splinter Cell games in mere days.

I still have on the schedule my 24 Season Four DVD marathon. There are seven discs in the set. The seventh disc contains an exclusive season five prequel so I guess I actually only need to rent the first six discs. Each disc contains four or five episodes though strangely, disc three has only three episodes. The thought of renting all six discs and starting my viewing at 7am (season four starts at that hour) and watching it all has crossed my mind. I wonder though how awake I’d be around hour 20 or so.

I do value this time off but to be honest, the prospect of returning to work on Monday doesn’t seem so scary as it might to other people. Oh sure, I’ll miss sleeping in until noon but after a few more days of this, I’ll be ready to get back into my old routine.

HOLIDAY HIKE

The summer before grad school I used to go on hikes quite frequently. One trail led from my parents’ house in Coquitlam all the way up Burnaby Mountain to SFU. Another favourite of mine was the trail that encircled Buntzen Lake in Port Moody. It says it takes 4-5 hours to finish the hike but I can usually do it in two and I don’t think I’m going that fast. The elevation change is about 100m which doesn’t seem much but believe me, it’s a workout.

I used to do this hike about twice a week for about three months during the summer of 2002. I stopped visiting the Buntzen Lake area once I started school again. Today, for the first time since then, I did the hike around the lake.

Three years is a longtime to be away from something but the trail is exactly as I remembered it. Even the same logs which served as landmarks along the trail were precisely where I thought they would be. As I walked through the familiar forest, it was interesting to think I had returned three years later with a lot more living underneath my belt. I had met a lot of people, learned a thing or two, and acheived a few life goals. The trees were still green though and the climbs just as tough.

I took a few pictures with my camera if you’re interested. The piece of metal on the ground is from one of my hiking shoes. Half way through the hike, it just fell out from the sole. Also be sure to look for the floating and suspension bridges which are located at the opposite ends of the lake.