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Despite the fact that I love seafood, enjoying eating sushi, and live on the west coast, I didn’t eat my first raw oyster until Friday night. At least to me, this is surprising since if you counted up the number of cooked oysters, clams, mussels, and scallops I’ve eaten it would probably number in the hundreds. Yet my first raw oyster was consumed at Rodney’s at the beginning of the weekend.

A friend suggested that I start off with a small oyster as a large, slimey one would be a tough first choice. I grabbed one of the smaller ones. It looked like the oyster had melted in the shell as it appeared more liquid than solid. A grabbed a lemon wedge and squeezed some juice on it. Then I chose one of the milder condiments that were available and put it on the oyster as well.

With my oyster all ready to go, I managed to just about swallow the whole thing in one go, except one last tiny chewy part that required some effort. It tasted pretty good but I mainly just detected lemon juice, the condiment, and a mild hint of ocean water. I think people eat raw oysters chiefly for the texture more than anything else. I had been warned by my friend that it wouldn’t really taste like anything other than the “ocean”.

After consuming my first raw oyster, I began to think it wasn’t that bad after all. Not two minutes later, the after taste hit me. As I described it to my companions, it now tasted like “the ocean had died in my mouth”. Fortunately, it wasn’t anything that a swig of beer couldn’t solve. Soon after, I was chasing the raw oyster with about eight pan-fried ones. By the way, the cooked oysters I had were probably the best ones I’ve tasted.

Since I wanted to continue my seafood delights, I then finished the evening off with their Manhattan clam chowder. It was alright but I have to admit, I think White Spot makes a better clam chowder. It did make me want to try their New England clam chowder though.

Next week, I’m thinking about trying haggis for the first time.

If you follow American entertainment news you might have read or heard about the rumours coming from NBC late today. The rumour (and I sure hope it stays just a rumour) is that Jay Leno has arranged to abandon his 10pm talk show and has got NBC to issue Conan O’Brien an ultimatum: either do The Tonight Show at midnight or take a hike.

If there’s any truth to this rumour it would easily be the most ridiculous thing to have happened in American television for years to come. If this all goes down the way people are saying it will, I put all the blame on Jay Leno. His 10pm show was doing very poorly in the ratings and NBC was put in a difficult position. Instead of retiring though and heading off to enjoy his life in a classy and graceful manner, he’s pulling this absolute BS. How could he ever face Conan again and not feel some intense shame? Leno agreed to give up The Tonight Show in 2004. Sometimes you just have to live with a decision that you make.

I make it no secret I’ve never been a big fan of Leno. I’ve always been a huge Letterman and Conan fan. Leno screwed Letterman out of The Tonight Show in 1992 and now he does this. This does nothing to change my mind about Leno. I wonder what the legendary Johnny Carson would think of the situation if he were alive today. Actually, if you read a post I wrote about five years ago, you can probably guess.

I’m exhausted tonight so I don’t have enough energy nor the ability to write a coherent post. Instead, I will just write whatever comes to me.

For dinner tonight, I had three tacos, Mexican rice, steamed green beans, and coleslaw. The tacos didn’t come with any sour cream. The rice also tasted funny. The meal left me unsatisfied.

Did you know that MGM is doing a remake of the 1980s movie, Red Dawn? I saw the original as a kid and thought it was great, though the ending made me a bit sad.

I’m very confident now that I’ll be able to make it all the way through winter without turning on my heat.

I forgot my cell phone at work last night. In the twelve or so hours I was away from my phone the total numbers of calls missed was zero.

This is the last sentence in this post.

I got my property assessment notice in the mail today from the fine folks at BC Assessment. Based on several factors including local real estate market conditions, they come up with a formula to tell me how much they think my apartment is worth.

My assessment this year is a bad news, good news thing. As you might expect with the current state of BC real estate, my apartment, according to them, is worth more this year. If you want ballpark figures, the value has increased by a little over 10%. That’s good news if I was interested in seeing if my purchase was a good investment so far. It means that if I were to sell my apartment today or in the near future, I’d probably get a small but decent profit. It’s bad news if I wasn’t planning on selling at all because the higher assessment just means I get to pay higher property taxes in the summer. If you read my recent post on my 2010 expenditures, this is just one more case where I’ll be losing more money.

Since I don’t plan on selling my apartment in the near future, I just get to enjoy the pleasure of knowing my apartment is worth more, all the while paying more taxes for it.

In a previous post, I wrote that I was in the process of choosing a new template and look for this blog. The plan was to use the holiday to spend some time to look over existing templates and narrow it down to a few favourites.

I did indeed look for new templates during the holiday break. Unfortunately, not very many appealed to me. I also found a lot of templates look very much alike with just a different colour or two setting them mildly apart.

I’ll continue to look for a new look for this blog and again, I hope to involve you, my loyal readers, in the selection process.

While everyone hopes that a new year will bring good things to them, I already know 2010 is guaranteed to be, at least in one way, very different than 2009. 2010 will no doubt see me spend more money than 2009 and I’m not just talking about inflation either.

A few things are conspiring together in 2010 which will separate me from more of my dollars. First, remember that I have mortgage now. It’s a variable one, so my payments fluctuate with the interest rates. As many of you know, we currently have historically low interest rates. It has never been so cheap to borrow money. The Bank of Canada has previously stated they will hold the rate steady at 0.25% until July of 2010. Others are not so sure that the rates will stay that low for that long. Even in the best case scenario, I can expect have higher mortgage payments by the summer. It’s just a given.

Second, the new year will bring to the people of British Columbia, a new harmonized sales tax, which combines the federal and provincial sales taxes. In a move that only a government could see as a positive, things that were not previously taxed by the province will now be subject to this new tax. These items include restaurant meals and haircuts. Another thing that’s now subject to taxation is the service that professional building management companies provide. That means that if you live in an apartment and your strata uses a company to maintain the building, that fee is now taxable. Guess who’s going to have to pay for that new tax? The new HST will cost me and others money just by going through normal routines of life. I suppose one could eat out less or grow their hair longer but is that a way to live? This new HST has really turned public opinion against Premier Gordon Campbell and his Liberals but I haven’t been a fan of his for a long, long time, way before it was fashionable not to like him.

Last but not least, I’ve been enjoying free Internet and TV service from Telus for almost a year now. I get a whole bunch of standard definition channels and 25 high definition ones. I also get fast and reliable Internet from fibre that comes straight into my building. This perk is a result of being the first occupant of my new apartment. Unfortunately, this perk only lasts a year and for me, it runs out in late March. There’s obviously no way I’d not have Internet at home, so it’s a given that I’ll at least have to pay for the Interwebs. When I check my monthly statements from Telus, they actually charge me about $100 a month but then immediately apply a credit to my account so it ends up being no charge. I’m going to have investigate what I want to do when my free year is up.

So, even if nothing new happens in 2010, between rising interest rates, the new HST, and paying for Internet and TV, it’s a guarantee I’ll be poorer this year. Yay 2010! No flying cars but more expenses! The future is awesome!

In a bit of random surfing, I managed to find a web site which purported to tell me how popular my name is in the US, in all variations: whole name, first, and last. Not surprisingly, not a lot of parents name their kids “Erwin”.

While I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the data, it sure did reveal some interesting items. The screenshot you see above is how “popular” my first name is in the US. I’m a bit peeved that “Smith” came ahead of my name. Who would rather use a common last name as a first name than a real bonerfide first name like mine? Are there parents out there naming their kids “Smith John”?

In a big win, my name came out ahead of “Roosevelt” which perhaps signals to the world that names relating to wartime US presidents are finally on the decline in popularity. I’m also ahead of “Nordbert” which is a name I assume just means you want your kid to get his ass kicked in school everyday. Surprisingly, my name is more popular than “Gus” which I would have never guessed.

Go look up your own name and see what you find.

As expected, with more than a week off from work, my sleeping habits have gone back to their natural rhythms, meaning I go to bed in the early morning and don’t wake up until the early afternoon. At one point I was waking up at around 2pm each day and I realized that going to easily slide into 3pm. As such, I drawn a line at noon and I sorta force myself to get up at that time no matter when I go to bed.

I’m probably going to be a mess on the first day back at work.

I was fortunate enough to receive several Christmas cards this holiday season. They came from all over the world from Canada to Australia. I want to thank everyone who sent me a card, it was nice of you to include me in your joyous correspondence. I especially enjoyed the cards where people wrote a lengthy message to update me on the recent news in their lives. I appreciate the extra time and effort that went into that.

I sheepishly admit that I did not send out my own cards this year, nor have I ever really. I don’t really send out paper correspondence any more as I find electronic correspondence to be much easier, timely, and cheaper. That said, I didn’t really send out Christmas e-mails to everyone either. I guess I just suck at sending out Christmas greetings. Then again, how many single dudes do you know who send Christmas cards? I can’t think of any.

The fire alarm in my building went off today at 11am as I was still asleep. It’s done this before and usually, it goes off for about two minutes and then it stops. I just assume it’s a false alarm since no real fire situation would resolve itself in such a short amount of time.

As I was still in bed, I just hoped this morning’s alarm was the just another false one. Five minutes went by and it still hadn’t stopped. I still refused to get out of bed. Then another five minutes passed and the alarm was still going. By now I was fully awake so I just decided to get up. As I stumbled around in my PJs, I tried to determine if there was indeed a real fire in my building. Then I heard the wail of sirens from fire engines nearby, which made me think this was perhaps serious. Resigned to leaving my apartment before even having breakfast, I had one sock on when the alarm suddenly stopped. I could no longer hear the fire engines. I guess it was a false alarm after all.

I admit that in the interest of being safe, I should have left the building during the first five minutes of the alarm. Since I live near the top of the building, I have less time that those below me should an actual fire be present. That said, we have way too many false alarms and I think that makes me and everyone else complacent. Also, and this is probably the most important thing, the fire alarm isn’t annoying nor loud enough. I’ve lived in other buildings where the fire alarm is near deafening. The volume is so loud that it’s actually painful to stay in your place, no matter what room you go in. The alarm in this place is just a loud but not painful ring-ring. So not only is it not loud, it isn’t even a continuous shriek which would be annoying.

Ok, I promise to leave a bit sooner next time.