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Some senior citizens take a smorgasbord of pills and medications on a daily basis to help manage existing conditions and to stave off the onset of other conditions. When I was younger, I didn’t take any pills at all, no vitamin supplements, nothing. As I grow older now, I find myself taking several pills a day on a regular if not a daily basis. Luckily, I’m only taking them as a preventative measure but it sure makes me feel like I’m getting to be an old man.

I’m taking Omega-3 supplements as I’m willing to believe that the fatty acid does in fact help in preventing heart disease and helps improve brain function. The proven effects of Omega-3 are somewhat inconclusive but the side effects are rather minimal. Keeping that in mind, if there’s even a chance it helps your heart be healthy, it’s worth taking every day.

I’m also taking a vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D can be synthesized by your body given sufficient sunlight but give the nearly year round grey skies of Vancouver, I don’t get a lot of sunlight for most of the year. Also, keep in mind even on sunny days, I’m usually indoors in front of a computer all day. It’s also possible to get vitamin D from foods but I feel the supplement is the easiest way to ensure I have enough.

Finally, though I don’t take this on a daily basis, I sometimes take melatonin before I go to bed to help me get a better night of sleep. Man, I’m losing sleep just by the amount of time it takes for me to ingest all these pills!

 

On my way to work every morning I cut through a parking lot to shorten the walking distance. One morning this week I was walking through said parking lot when I heard a huge splat just inches away from my outstretched foot. There were huge splatters of white on the pavement in front of me. I looked up and several seagulls had flown over my head. I had just missed being pooped on by birds by literally inches. Had I been walking just a bit faster my morning would have been a messy one.

In all my years of riding on public transit, I finally did something I’ve never done before; I missed my stop because I was asleep. I was quite tired yesterday after work. I managed to get a nice comfy single seat on the Skytrain on my commute back home. Fatigue set in and I let sweet sleep wash over me like a soothing wave. I was full on asleep and I may have even started snoring, who knows since I wasn’t conscious. Anyways, I’ve done this plenty of times before but I usually wake up at regular intervals to take note which stop I’m at. I remember yesterday being half asleep but alert enough to know I was at a station that was somewhat close to my stop. That didn’t stop me from going back to sleep. The next thing I remember was opening my eyes and seeing the doors close at my station. Lucky for me, the next stop is very close by, only a block away. I easily could have taken a train going back the opposite way but I chose to walk back which only took about five minutes.

I’m lucky this didn’t happen when I used to take express buses back from downtown Vancouver. Those buses had stops that weren’t exactly close together. If you missed a stop, you’d be walking several long blocks back to where you wanted to go. Taking a bus back the other way would also be problematic since the frequency of buses is way less than the Skytrains.

Well, let’s hope that doesn’t happen again!

Last evening I attempted to update the software that this blog runs on and it took many more hours than I had predicted. This explains why this post is appearing several hours after the time in which you might normally expect a new post. Sorry for the delay. We’ll be back this evening with a regular post. Thanks!

Loyal readers, you’ll be happy to know I just paid the bill to renew both my web site hosting and my e-mail account for another year. That means you’ll be able to look forward to another year of quality writing and inane drivel from this blog. I know, I’m excited as well. Thanks for sticking with me all these years.

For those who live in Vancouver, you might have patronized one of the more popular food carts that have been popping up around town. Re-Up BBQ has been offering goodies like pull pork, brisket, chicken and other BBQ delights for a while now. A few months ago, they announced they were going to open up a permanent retail location at the River Market, which is located less than five minutes from where I live. As many of you know, I love to eat and BBQ is certainly one of my favourites.

Re-Up just recently opened their River Market location and this weekend was my first opportunity to sample their goods. I chose a two meat platter for my first foray. Pulled pork and brisket were my meat choices. For my two sides, I decided on buttermilk mashed potatoes and a freshly made biscuit. Once I got this meal home, I eagerly dived into the pulled pork first. It did not disappoint despite my high expectations. The pulled pork was soft and melted in my mouth. It had just the right amount of BBQ sauce on it. The brisket was good as well. It was the perfect amount of medium rare, still pink and red on the inside. The sides were great too. I finished the mashed potatoes before I was done with the brisket. I have to admit, I broke open the biscuit and slathered on butter on both sides before consuming it. Was that healthy? No, it wasn’t but it sure tasted good.

The eating is getting good around where I live. Did I mention Wally’s Burgers is right next to Re-Up as well? They have a five-dollar shake I wanna try soon.

A good friend of mine sent me a link to site entitled “Listen to a Movie“. As you might expect, this site allows you to listen but not watch a movie. Technically, the site contains audio files for TV shows and standup comedy but the movies are the main draw. The site is perfect for putting it on the background while you do other things like work or other tasks. I recommend you listen to movies that you’ve already watched since hearing a movie that you’ve never seen before would really be confusing. Also, listening to a previously watched movie allows you to visualize the scenes in your head. Dialogue heavy movies are a good choice, like Pulp Fiction. Oh man, I can just see Jules pointing out the blood soaked towel that Vincent Vega used in the bathroom. Strangely enough, the site does not feature any silent movies.

The above video was almost assuredly shot recently in Vancouver as the grey skies and somewhat moist looking pavement indicates that this indeed our summer. The baby raccoons seem to be extremely peeved at the cameraman. If their mother wasn’t there to take them back, I’m not sure what would have happened.

As I am a very simple person, I like looking at shiny things and things that move. Someone over at deviantART, where everyone who is a goth or emo artist posts all their art work, wrote a very cool visualization tool. It shows the real time activity that is occurring on their web site. The data is technically two or three minutes behind but that’s pretty close to real time. It’s pretty neat to see where all the activity is coming from and going to.

A few days ago I promised to write a letter to a friend. Instead of using modern communication via e-mail, Facebook, or instant message, I thought I’d do it the old fashioned way. I then realized I hadn’t sent a personal letter in many years, even a typed and printed one.

I was going to write the letter by hand in cursive. I can’t even remember the last time I wrote in proper cursive. In this day and age, we still print by hand but when was the last time you wrote flowing cursive? Do they even teach that in elementary school anymore? Call me a relic of the past but I think we should continue to teach children how to write by hand. It gives them a link to the past and gives them less reliance on a machine to do their writing. Also, should civilization end as we know it (by zombie or other means), people will still know how to document their brutal and meager existence without the use of fancy computers.