Category: Uncategorized

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.

I had ramen for dinner last night. If you’ve been following along, you know that ramen frequently gives me the poops. This was the first time I’ve had ramen in over a year, so I was a bit apprehensive. My dining companion knew about my history with ramen so she was totally understanding that I would not linger long after dinner.

I ordered a fairly standard ramen with pork broth, bbq pork, an egg, and delicious noodles. It was very tasty and I ate it all up in short order. Once my meal was done however, I stayed for a polite amount of time before paying and going straight home. I didn’t experience any problems on the way back and felt quite satisfied actually. About an hour after eating and while I was at home, I felt a need to pass gas, which resulted in a large movement of air. I was afraid this was signaling something more sinister to come but surprisingly the rest of the evening was uneventful.

This was the first time I’ve had ramen in about two years that did not result in explosive and urgent poops. Did I just get lucky? Dare I try testing fate again? Ramen is pretty tasty, so maybe it’s worth the risk.

Yesterday at work I raised the shades on the window next to my desk slightly, just enough so I could see the soccer field and some of the sky. My co-worker didn’t lower them again and she didn’t mention anything about it. I think we may have reached a compromise here.

About a week ago we had a big team move at work. People moved desks as we re-organized to accommodate more people on the team. Luckily, I did not have to move as I love my current desk. It offers privacy and a window view. Also, my desk isn’t connected to another desk, so there’s no sharing of space.

The people around me did shuffle around. The guy behind me had to move and in his place another engineer took his desk. The new occupant moved her stuff in and then, without warning, lowered the opaque shade on our shared window. I can only guess she did that so there isn’t any extra light shining on her monitors. Well, if that’s the case, I can see my monitors fine and the guy that sat there before was fine with it too. I essentially don’t have a window anymore and our area is noticeably more dreary.

Not wanting to be a dick, I didn’t raise it back up without discussing it with her. It does suck that I can’t see outside anymore. It’s a great view too. I have a view of the entire soccer field plus the mountains in the distance. In the winter, I can see the snow-capped peaks, it’s amazing.

Surely we can come to some compromise. Who doesn’t like a desk with a view?

I’m not a dude that really goes out to concerts but I will get tickets to go see comedians. Bobby Lee is in Vancouver next weekend for a few shows and I have tickets for one of them. I saw him do a set in Los Angeles last June and he was great. I’m looking forward to seeing him again.

Look, I’m not telling you to use Wix to make your web sites but at least listen to Cord tell you about his.

So I didn’t bother transferring my old text messages to my new phone. I will eventually do that but I haven’t so far because Android doesn’t have an easy to way to do that currently. It’s really curious actually. There are many third-party apps that can do it for you but as part of the native migration process, texts are included oddly.

I have to download and install such an app on my old phone, back up the texts to an archive, and then save the archive to my computer or the cloud. Then on my new phone, download the same app, then get access to the archive and then extract the old messages to the right place. It’s tedious but I kinda want my old messages.

So YouTube star chef Andrea Rea has recreated Rachel Green’s infamous English trifle from that classic Thanksgiving episode from Friends. In that episode, Rachel mixes up the trifle recipe with a shepherd’s pie one. Amazing!