Category: Uncategorized

In early December of 2018, I purchased a new laptop. I’ve been looking for a new laptop for a couple of years now. The last one I purchased was from 2011 and a seven year-old laptop is a relic. The old HP I have has run slow for years, even for basic things like web browsing. As such, I’ve been looking for a replacement but since it’s not a critical item for me, I’ve been waiting for something that was a reasonable price.

Along with a reasonable price, I wanted specific requirements. I wanted a 13″ screen, 1080p resolution, and not a crappy mobile Celeron or Pentium processor, so an i3 or above. I found such a laptop from Dell in December, post-Black Friday, all for less than $500. In my mind, the Dell Inspiron 13 5378 was a good deal.

I didn’t realize how useful having a new laptop would be. I was afraid that I wouldn’t use it that much since I have a powerful desktop that can do everything, including gaming. In the month or so that I’ve had my new laptop, I’ve used it quite a bit though. I have it on my dining room table and it’s become the computer I use to do productivity tasks, like filling out paperwork, sending out e-mails (to the property management company, insurance brokers, etc.), paying bills, and other financial matters. When I’m on my laptop, it feels like I’m more efficient and more productive.

I think I do better work on the laptop because I don’t waste too much time on it. On a 13″ screen, you can’t really have too many windows open at once. There’s no YouTube video to distract me from my tasks. On my desktop, with my 24″ monitor, I can have many windows open and my attention is divided amongst several things. My laptop is not powerful enough to game, so when I’m on it, I know I can only do non-gaming things.

Anyways, I hope this new machine will run a lot better several years down the road compared to the budget HP I still have. What to do with that one now?

Like clockwork, my property assessment arrived in the mail just after the new year began. As you can see above, I experienced the second largest increase in the last five years. My apartment is now within striking distance of being assessed at twice the purchase price I paid back in late 2009. I wouldn’t even need a percentage increase of double-digits next year for this to happen.

I’ll parrot what I’ve said in years past. It looks good on paper and validates my decision to buy, but it’s practically useless unless I’m selling. In the meantime, it just means my taxes are potentially going to go higher.

If you know my exact address, feel free to look at the actual numbers on the official BC Assessment web site. While you’re there, look up your friends and families as well! See how they’re doing!

When changed themes for this blog a few months back, I neglected to add a search bar. That has now been remedied. On non-mobile devices, the search bar should be on your left. On mobile, it will be located in the menu pop out. Now you can find your old favourite posts from yesteryear!

The holidays have left me soft both figuratively and literally. I have consumed to many sugary and carb-laden goods. I feel heavier than before. I have stayed up too late on so many nights, waking on in the early afternoon. I have not been conscious during the morning hours since before the break.

Alas, I know when my alarm abruptly tears me from my slumber tomorrow morning, it will not be a good feeling. I now envy my co-workers who took the rest of the week off and curse myself for not doing the same.

Oh, by the way, I hope everyone had a good holiday break.

One of the best things about the holidays is turning my weekday alarm off and not having to turn it back on for more than a week.

I can now go back to my normal sleep and wake cycle, which isn’t really in tune with modern society at all. Though ironically, I am so tired from the weekend, I’m going to bed “early” tonight at 2am. I am, however, going to sleep as long as I want and need to tomorrow morning. What a wonderful feeling that will be.

At work, we usually get served drinks and small snacks on Fridays around 4pm. Tomorrow the drinks and food will be served at 12:30pm, which pretty much tells me everyone at work is expected to leave super early to begin the holidays. I’m sure most people will leave at lunch and just go home. Since I get into work at 10am, that should be two hours and a bit of work and then I get to go home.

Unfortunately, I have a ton of work to do, so I’m thinking I may need to stay a bit longer than that. Sure, I could leave early too but that work will still be waiting for me when I get back with that holiday hangover. Perhaps it might better for me to get as much as possible before going on break.

I’ve complained about the quality of the food being served at the studio cafeteria for a while now but a meal this week has forced me to vent again.

One of the options earlier this week was a traditional “Christmas” dinner for lunch. It was roast turkey with gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and steamed veggies. For food professionals, this shouldn’t be a difficult meal to make. All those items are classics and shouldn’t be a challenge to make in large quantities. How many decades has such a meal been prepared in countless kitchens?

I selected that for my lunch because I thought it would be difficult to mess up. I was wrong. At first, everything seemed ok. It looked great on the plate, generous amounts of gravy on moist-looking turkey, generous helping of mashed potatoes and made in-house stuffing. Then I started eating it. To be fair, the turkey, even the white meat, was pretty moist. In it itself should be applauded since the cafeteria loves drying the shit out of every single piece of meat they prepare. Unfortunately, the turkey was bland as a white piece of paper. It had no taste to it at all. It was as if they didn’t season or marinate the turkey with anything. Not a single salt crystal nor a flake of pepper. The meat was also covered in gravy but the gravy didn’t seem to have any flavour to it at all either. When was the last time you encountered a gravy that didn’t have salt in it?

The whole pile of turkey was just a hot gloop of tasteless and bland meat. It had nutritional value but it had no joy to it. The mashed potatoes were alright, at least they didn’t manage to screw that up. The stuffing, however, didn’t have any flavour to it either. It was like they just took pieces of bread and just baked it.

I didn’t finish my plate of food and when I went to dump the rest in the organics bin, a co-worker saw what I had and said, “Pretty damn bland, eh?” I replied it was shockingly bland and I was hoping it was just my portion of turkey but it turns out it was not. The whole mess of turkey they made that day was terrible.

The cafeteria finds new ways to disappoint me.

Let’s just listen to Saoirse Ronan speak for about six minutes. So pleasant!

Your body doesn’t care what it is doing when it wants to sneeze. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten the urge to sneeze while eating. If you don’t get a napkin or tissue in front of you, you’re essentially going to spray your food out with incredible force.

This morning I had to sneeze in a new situation. I was brushing my teeth. I tried to hold it off but it wouldn’t wait for me. Knowing that I had mouthful of foam, I tried to sneeze directly into the sink, thinking it would contain the spittle, foam, toothpaste, and other mouth nasties. I must have not aimed correctly because my mirror got covered in a wide and large swatch of toothpaste foam. The sink fixture, which is super narrow, barely an inch wide, got covered in the remaining toothpaste. What an amazing shot. All of the toothpaste, right on the fixture.

It took me several minutes to clean up the mess. In hindsight, I should have sneezed into the tub. It would have been much easier to hose down the area there. Anyways, I’ll know for next time.

Wow, it’s Christmas in seven days. I really don’t have much to do to prepare for Christmas, so I’m not in a rush or anything but it is amazing how fast it snuck up on me.

For the first time in a long time, I actually have Christmas Eve off. It’s a paid day off. So this is my last week of work before getting eleven straight days off. I’m most excited about that.

Anyways, time for bed. I hope you all are ready for the holidays.