Category: Uncategorized

I finally sold my very first item from Craigslist today. As you might have read previously, I’ve been trying to sell some of my extra computer parts I have lying around. It hasn’t been all that successful but one guy agreed to buy one of my video cards.

We agreed to meet at a Starbucks right next to a Skytrain station in Burnaby which made it quite convenient for me. I’d never sold or even bought anything from Craigslist before, so this was my first time meeting a total stranger to conduct a business transaction. I got there a bit early so I bought a green tea and waited outside at a table for the buyer. I had previously texted him my description but there weren’t many dudes sitting outside with a video card in an anti-static bag.

While I waited, I actually got a bit nervous for some reason. I’m not sure why. I wasn’t worried about my safety because there were tons of people coming and going. Maybe I was just nervous meeting a stranger? It kinda felt the same way when you meet someone on a first date. That’s definitely odd feeling when it was a dude coming to buy computer parts off me.

Anyways, the dude did show up and I gave him the card to inspect it for himself. He gave it a really quick once over and then handed me a $20. I’m about 99% sure it wasn’t counterfeit since it was one of those new plastic $20 bills. We went our separate ways after that.

I don’t think I’d want to make a living sell stuff off Craigslist but I guess it’s a good way to make some extra cash.

I was checking my visitor logs where I happened upon the entry you see above. I’m guessing by the search terms that were used and that a Sony PSP was involved, some young boy was looking for some Playboy boobs. The kid needs to develop his Google-fu if he ever wants to find real, quality porn but we all were in a similar position at one point. Keep at it!

For those who are curious, the post he looked at contained absolutely no naked Playboy breasts.

It wasn’t until someone on Facebook linked to a stock market web page today that I realized that shares of Electronic Arts had been trading above $40 since about Halloween. I’m a fool for not knowing this because as this previous post points out, I had just over 100 shares that were worthless since I bought them at or just above the magic $40 mark.

For most of these shares, I have waited since 2008 for this day (well, I guess I waited until Halloween but I was clueless on that day). I didn’t find out until after the market was closed today so I couldn’t act on it right away. To refresh your memory, I have two sets of shares that were purchased at just over $40 and two at basically $43. The stock closed at $47.24 today. So the question is, what to do?

I always said for these shares I just wanted to break even. Yes, it kinda sucks that I essentially gave away thousands of dollars for about six years or more and I just want it to come back even Steven. I’m ok with that. I’ve already put it in a limit order for one set of shares to sell at $47. I did this because I didn’t want to sell all my shares just in case the stock went up again tomorrow. Yes, after saying I just wanted my money back, which I could have done by selling all my shares right away, I am possibly repeating my original mistake by waiting again.

As I write this, the markets won’t open for another three and a half hours. I can see the “cancel order” button in my other browser window. Part of me wants to cancel my initial sell order and do another one where I sell all four sets of shares. If the share price rises tomorrow I will lose out on some profit but is this the time to be greedy again? That’s what got me into this predicament in the first place! Every single share I have that used to be worthless will now make me some profit at $47.24. I need to take my evening shower and cleanse the various folds around my body. I’ll use that time to think about it. When I return it will on a new paragraph, I’ll be right back.

Alright, I’m back from bathing with clean(er) genitals and a clear mind. I have decided to honour my original intention to just get back the money I put in for these stocks so many years ago (plus a tiny bit of profit). I will cancel the order I put in earlier this evening and do another one where I sell all the shares at whatever the market price is in the morning. Once they are sold, it will complete this long journey.

In the summer of 2012, the stock dipped to down to almost $10 a share. I had no clue I just had to wait another two years for it get back to $40. I was sure it would take at least five years, possibly even a decade. To any of my co-workers who held onto shares at $50 or above, I wish you all the best in the coming weeks and months. I, for one, am getting off this stock market roller coaster.

It’s been a while since we’ve had a Norm Macdonald post. Let’s bring out a clip from his Weekend Update days on SNL.

When I started this latest stint of unemployment, I had a few things on a list I wanted to accomplish while had this luxury of free time. Some things, like upgrading my computer, I got on right away without delay. Others became victim to my weakness for procrastination, a flaw of mine that I wholly admit to. One of my high concept goals was to make my own game. Now that goal could lead to disappointment in so many different ways if I didn’t scope it correctly. A former co-worker of mine had the same goal of making his own game and it took him years and it exhausted his life savings. Oh sure, he’s successful now and made all that money back several times over but that’s not immense undertaking I want to start on.

My more modest goal is to just get a simple mobile game out on the Google Play distribution platform. My impetus for doing so isn’t because I think I have a great idea for a game that will entertain millions. On the contrary, the game design is the thing that I’m devoting the least amount of time to. My focus is on the setup and usage of all the tools and infrastructure to develop and support a limited scope mobile game. I want to use a popular and well-regarded game engine to make my game and then go through the steps of submitting it to Google Play. In my case, the journey itself is definitely much more important than the destination. In fact, I think the game itself will be quite boring to play and likely be lowly rated but that’s ok.

Now, I dragged my feet on this for several long weeks, mostly because it was just easier to stay up late, sleep in, play video games, and eat fried foods. Slowly but surely though, I made small steps towards reaching this goal. Recently, I downloaded and installed Unity3D, a popular game engine and development platform for mobile games. For small independent developers, which I guess I fall into that category, Unity is free to use. I’ve had some experience with Unity at two different companies. I’ve also installed and setup the Android software development kit, which is required if my game is to target Android platforms. Last night, the last piece of the software puzzled was installed, that being Perforce, my source control solution. Perforce allows me to have version control over all the files used in my game development. For those not familiar with version control, it’s like having access to all the revisions of an essay you wrote in Microsoft Word.

So with all the software installed and ready to go, you might be wondering if I have an idea for a game. Well, that part stumped me for a long time. Partly because I’m not really that good of a game designer and partly because I really didn’t care about the design. Thankfully, I thought of something fairly simple and stupid for the basis of my game. I’m pretty sure there are already some existing mobile games that use the same idea. I don’t care because if there are a dozen Flappy Bird clones out there and then I can make own stupid game as well (which has nothing to do with birds).

Of course, the hardest part is next, the actual making of the game. Let the real work begin now.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been putting up a few ads on Craigslist to sell some of the spare computer parts I have lying around. The responses have been fewer than I had liked but two of them are worth noting here.

The latest was sent to me via e-mail today. I’m selling one of my video cards for $80. This potential buyer wanted to know if I would accept a $100 gift card from Subway. He even offered to visit a local Subway to verify that the card was valid and contained the amount he stated. If it was a Visa or Amex gift card, I might have actually considered his offer but I can’t even begin to estimate how long it would take for me to eat $100 worth of Subway products. I used to like Subway quite a bit but they have become very cheap with their products in recent years. They will use the minimum amount of ingredients in their sandwiches. You want green peppers in your sub? The “artiste” will string the thinnest sliver of green pepper they can along the length of your sub. This qualifies as having “green peppers” in your sub. Suffice to say, I had to turn down the dude with his Subway gift card.

Another potential buyer offered me half of what I wanted for a video card. We went back and forth a bit but he didn’t budge from his initial offer. Humourously, he wanted to me consider the fact that it was “Christmas and money is tight” for him right now. You know, such a holiday request would have been more appropriate if he was asking for food or clothes for his children but we’re talking about a transaction for a video card. I’m not a charity here, doling out life’s bare necessities. He’s probably wanting to buy this so his video games look shinier on his computer. His Christmas plea did not move in the least and I did not dignify his last message with a response.

This is my first time selling stuff on Craigslist and so far, I’m wondering if eBay is better way of going about it, even with the hassle of shipping.

I’m not sure why L.A. Beast decided to do this if he is in fact actually allergic to cinnamon. He purports to have used some stuff to change the taste of cinnamon from spicy to sweet but I don’t think that changes his body’s reaction to it. Even just eating a few cinnamon jelly beans turns his face very red. Normally, his eating challenges would seriously injure most normal folks yet here I’d say many would be able to handle a few jelly beans. He goes on to eat some more stuff but you’ll have to watch to see what happens there.

I was out for dinner with a friend this evening and the restaurant was located by the water in downtown Vancouver. On the way home, I had to walk from the restaurant to the transit station. By that time, a huge wind storm had hit the coast.

I only had to walk half a block or so but it was a struggle most of the way. I felt like I was walking in a wind tunnel and of course, the wind was blowing against me. At one point, I thought the wind was strong enough to actually stop my progress as it seemed my next step might not be possible. Luckily, I was able to power through the howling wind and duck behind a wall which acted like a shield from the wind. On the way home, my train was stopped briefly as the wind had knocked some construction materials onto the track.

The power has flickered a few times at home but no outage thankfully. Interestingly, the water in my toilet bowl is moving around like miniature rough seas. I have patio furniture out on my balcony. I hope it’s still there in the morning.

I was coming home from Walmart this evening just before 9pm this evening. I was on the Skytrain and as my car was stopped at one of the stations near my home, I could see a large police presence on the road next to the station. It appeared traffic was stopped in both directions and I guessed there must have been an accident.

The tracks paralleled the road so when my train started moving closer to the police vehicles, I could see more clearly what was going on. Traffic was definitely stopped in both directions and there were a lot of semis on the road. Police officers were out and about, talking to the stopped drivers. I expected to see some damaged vehicles but there were none, at least from what I saw. I was really puzzled because it didn’t seem like there was anything blocking the road.

My train soon zoomed past the scene, so I was left wondering what had happened. About thirty-minutes after I got home, I found out why the police were out on the road. Apparently, a woman was struck by a tractor trailer and died at the scene. The vehicle that killed her drove off. It’s quite possible that her body was still on the road when I passed by and I just didn’t see it.

I have personally driven down that busy stretch of road many times. The road has a lot traffic at all times of the day and night, especially with the tractor trailers. What I don’t understand is that it appears she was struck in between intersections and in that area, there’s a considerable distance between intersections. Obviously I don’t know the details but if she was indeed trying to cross four lanes of busy traffic on a dark and rainy night, that was an odd decision. I found a video that shows the road in question and as you can see, there are no crosswalks and one side of the road doesn’t even have a sidewalk. Did the vehicle that struck her jump the curb to do so? None of the reports seem to indicate this though.

Poor lady, I feel for her family.

For several weeks I’ve been watching videos on a YouTube channel called “Car Crash Compilation“. For my astute readers out there, this channel features videos showing car crashes and accidents. The majority of the accidents documented are from Russia. In that country, dashcams have become ubiquitous as people need the footage to protect themselves from insurance scams. As such, hundreds of incidents on the road have been caught on tape.

After watching almost two dozen of these videos, I’m utterly shocked at how different driving is in Russia. The drivers in Russia are terrible. I know everyone complains about drivers in their own city but I think one needs to look at the state of what passes for normal driving conditions in Russia before passing judgement. The above video is just one of the many videos available but what is shown there is typical of what you might see in Russia. I’ve noticed a few things that definitely distinguish North American driving culture from that in Russia.

A total disregard traffic laws

I’m not sure how drivers are licensed and/or tested in Russia but it appears that many drivers there either don’t know or don’t care about traffic laws or regulations. In many of the videos, I see people running red lights at full speed, as if they didn’t care or didn’t see what the colour of the traffic light was. This leads to some of the more spectacular accidents. I’ve also noticed Russian drivers making their own lanes to pass other cars, using the shoulder or going two-wide in a single lane. I’ve also seen some drivers making their own dedicated turning lane by positioning themselves ahead of someone in an actual dedicated turning lane. In general, if there is a moving violation to be made, I’ve probably seen a Russian driver do it.

Unsafe and dangerous left-hand turns

This point might be fall under the one above but it merits its own discussion. The majority of the accidents you see in these videos occur from people making unsafe and dangerous left-hand turns. Such a turn is probably one of the most risky moves a driver can make. It requires good judgement and a safe driving sense, none of which appears to be in good supply amongst Russian drivers. I’ve seen Russian drivers make a left without even checking to see if all lanes are clear. The classic example is when both inside lanes going in opposite directions have two cars waiting to turn left. Each car is blocking the others view of the far lane. In such a case, the drivers both have to ensure the rest of the lanes are clear of traffic before proceeding. In many cases, Russian drivers just seem to go for it, hoping luck is on their side. Another egregious error they love making is turning left from a lane that isn’t the lane closest to the center. I have no idea why they would do this. Imagine if you felt it was safe turning left from the curb lane. For you and I, that might seem like a wholly dangerous and irresponsible maneuver but for Russian drivers, it’s a very common thing. It’d be one of thing if perhaps they shoulder checked to see if the other lane was clear of traffic before cutting through multiple lanes of traffic but they don’t. The results are some massive crashes where a car going straight in the other lane t-bones the idiot turner.

Following way too close

This is such an easy thing to not do, yet very few Russian drivers seem to understand this. I’m not sure what they teach them over there but I was taught to maintain a two-second gap between your car and the vehicle in front of you no matter what speed you are going. This is to allow you to have enough time to stop should the vehicle in front of you need to make an emergency braking maneuver. I would say in Russia, drivers just tailgate each other in any situation and at any speed. This is why the videos are full of accidents where people rear-ended. I would understand maybe if someone had to stop from 100 km/h to 0 in two seconds that might cause some difficulty for the car behind but the videos are chock-full of examples where people are decelerating normally and getting smacked from behind. It almost seems like any time you apply your brakes in Russia, there’s a 50/50 chance someone is gonna rear end you. I don’t understand why Russian drivers don’t leave more room between their cars.

A complete lack of driving sense

In many of these accidents, I believe most of them could have been avoided. You can almost see the accident formulate before it happens. I think this comes about if you have experience driving and/or you were taught defensive driving techniques. In North America, you are taught to know where all the dangers to your car might come from in any driving situation. If you know where danger is, then you can anticipate what might go wrong at any given time. For example, if you’re approaching an intersection in the curb lane and you have a green light. In this case, I know to look for drivers to my right who might be trying to make a right-hand turn on a red (which is allowed in my province). I can’t rely on that driver to have seen me and to make a complete stop. So I’ll look at that car to see if it appears to be stopping or perhaps even going forward. I’ll be ready to brake if I need to. If for whatever reason that driver pulls in front of me, it won’t be a complete surprise and I’ll be ready for it.

The other classic example is if you’re again in the curb lane and you’re entering an intersection where the center lane going in the same direction has someone waiting to turn left. There’s also another left-hand turner waiting in the opposite direction. I could just sail into the intersection without a care in the world, hoping that the guy turning left opposite of me will know I’m there and his/her vision won’t be blocked by the other car. Doing so would be just stupid but that’s in fact what many Russian drivers do. In this situation, I often slow down as I approach the intersection and have my foot on the brake, just in case the guy decides to do something dumb and turn in front of me.

Many of these accidents could have been avoided if the drivers just were more aware and vigilant about where the danger was coming from. Call it situational awareness or driving sense but many Russian drivers seem to lack this completely as these videos show.

In summary, I would be very afraid to drive, be in vehicle, or even be a pedestrian in Russia. I wonder if Russian people know how bad their drivers are or do they think this type of driving is normal?