FINE DINING

I was out for a Sunday drive in the vicinity of Coquitlam Centre when I saw something that nearly made me drop my Super Big Gulp. For about two years, there’s been an empty restaurant space where a failed Popeye’s Chicken used to be. Today, on the roof of the building a sign proclaimed what future tenants would be taking over. Coming soon is a combined KFC and Taco Bell outlet!

KFCs are plentiful in BC but free-standing Taco Bells are a rarity. For some reason, they’ve only opened them up in Surrey and Maple Ridge. Now, I’ll be able to get the awesome taste of Taco Bell only ten minutes away from my home. Oh yummy steak gorditas!

NOCTURNAL LEG CRAMPS

Let’s take a moment to talk about nocturnal leg cramps. Do you get these? If you don’t, count yourself lucky. I get them once in a while. I had it happen to me last night.

I was half-asleep. My left leg was bent across my right one. I remember thinking, “Oh hey, my calf muscle is contracting, I hope that doesn’t cause… oh crap.” The calf muscle then attempted to contract itself through my knee cap. I went from being blissfully half-asleep to feeling a pain I would register a nine on a ten scale in a matter of a second.

I could only grip my now rock hard calf muscle, hoping it would stop contracting. Meanwhile, it felt like a nuclear explosion had gone off inside my leg. I could only breathe in short, sharp puffs as I gritted my teeth. I don’t know how long it lasted, it seemed like ten seconds or maybe it was as long as thirty. The muscle then suddenly relaxed and it was all over.

As I laid there on my Thundercats sheets, I found myself completely awake and now my calf was extremely sore. After some indeterminate time later, I fell asleep again.

They (and I mean doctors) say night time leg cramps are caused by dehydration and too little potassium in the system. I think I was kinda thirsty all night, so it that was most likely the cause.

Thank you for reading a post about a part of my body getting rock hard at night.

RAMBLINGS

I’m too tired to post anything coherent tonight, so I’ll juts stream some consciousness onto the keyboard.

I gotta a craving for crunchy foods at this exact moment. I want something like kettle chips right now. A really satisfying crunch. It’s too bad nothing in the house even comes to close being crunchy in texture. I got a bag of Mexican microwave popcorn but I don’t want to go through the hassle.

You know what I’m eating instead? A muffin… from T&T Supermarket. I’m not sure if they make their own muffins or buy from a wholesaler. The muffin came from a box of assorted muffins. Out of the three kinds in the box, two kinds have raisins in them. I hate raisins. Who the hell puts that many raisins into a muffin? Why am I even eating this muffin? Almonds. I would like crunchy almonds right now… or a macadamia nut… surrounded my milk chocolate.

I did my taxes on Monday night. I’m getting a $2K refund. It’s probably because I made an RRSP contribution this year. I think I’m going to put the refund money back into an RRSP. It’s the start of the opposite of a vicious circle. Like, a fluffy, cute circle. Example usage: “After I started dating a swimsuit model, it was the start of a fluffy, cute circle where all I dated was model after model.”

Ok, it’s time for bed. I hate raisins.

XBOX 360 GIVEAWAY

Actually, I’m not giving away an Xbox 360. I am, however, giving away my copy of Project Gotham Racing 3 and a trial membership for Xbox Live Gold.

I don’t play PGR3 very much since I don’t enjoy accurate race sims. It is supposed to be one of the best driving games out there, I’m just more of Burnout type of guy.

Be the first to send me an e-mail and the game and the trial membership card is yours (via the postal service). Please note, I have the NTSC version of PGR3, so it won’t do you any good if you’re from another region.

I HAVE MADE THE RAIN GO AWAY

I think with the exception of two days, it’s been raining continuously in Vancouver for about over two months. There’s no need to look at the weather forecast because you’re going to wake up with rain, followed my more rain. Oh the day after that? Yeah, you guessed it Kreskin, it’s more rain again.

This fall and winter, I’ve been facing this torrential downpour with the crappiest of umbrellas. In an earlier post, I wrote about how lost my much beloved Backbone umbrella, given to me by the last company I worked for. My replacement umbrella was this piece of crap that I found lying around. It didn’t have a push button mechanism, so you had to manually open and close it each time. Also one of the arms detached from the fabric so it flapped around in the wind. The kicker was the catch at the top of the umbrella was broken which meant the umbrella didn’t fully stay open.

Well, I went shopping at lunch today and bought myself a proper replacement. I purchased a lightweight, fully automatic umbrella that takes a standard 5.56 x 45 mm NATO round. I might be lying about one of those features. Anyways, this baby clocks in at only 138 grams and about 25 cm. With a one- button press for opening and closing, I’ll be living the high life again.

Now with this kickass new umbrella, I can’t wait to try it out in this inclement weather. Knowing my luck though, now that I’m all excited for the rain, the weather will be nice and dry for the next few days. That’s just how my luck works.

So disregard the latest forecast, it’s sunny skies for all of us.

SKATER DOWN

The video game I’m working on, skate, features over a dozen pro skateboarders. One of them is Ali Boulala. Two weeks ago, Boulala was involved in a traffic accident in Australia. He was on a motorcycle and the accident claimed the life of another skateboarder on the bike. Shane Cross was killed but Boulala survived.

Boulala was left with a skull fracture and was put in a coma to help his recovery. Just a few days ago, he brought out of that coma and it looks like he’ll pull through. There’s no telling when he’ll be back on his board. At least in our game, he’s still pulling off crazy tricks. Let’s hope he gets better soon.

QUARTER MIL

On Monday night I met with my financial advisor. Now if that seems like I have lots of money to invest and grow, you’re sadly mistaken. My advisor is a friend of mine who I knew before he even was a financial advisor. He basically tells me where I should put the four pennies I have in the bank.

As we were finishing up some paperwork, he told me that engineers that he has as clients that are around my age are worth, on average, a quarter of a million dollars. That is, they have assets that total $250 000. I was amazed… but then I got a little sad. I’m not even worth a tenth of that. I’m like worth… a quarter in total, $0.25. In fact, a year ago, my net worth was in the negative.

I can see how some people could accumulate that wealth though. Say you work hard and graduate with an undergrad degree in engineering by 22 or 23. You immediately get a decent paying job. It doesn’t have to be spectacular pay but decent. You work steadily and receive regular promotions and pay raises. You don’t blow your money on frivolous things but make decent investments with your cash. Ten years down the road, yeah, that could mean a cool quarter million.

I know a few people that might be in that boat, all of them my classmates in engineering. One of them is a dude named Al. Al hailed from Kamloops I believe. He came to UBC to get his mechanical engineering degree. He had a job lined up even before he wrote his last exam. In fact, he wrote his last exam on a Friday and started his new job and career on the following Monday. He took the weekend to recover from five long years of study. Within two years he was married and had a kid. He’s kept on working. Al was balls to the wall and I bet he still is to this day. Quarter mil right there.

I, on the other hand, was balls to wall in getting my degree but had nothing left or didn’t want anything left after I circled my the answer on my last exam. Forty-eight hours after my last exam I wasn’t reading over the new employee handbook, I was on a plane to Hawaii.

I graduated from UBC when I was 23, which should have given me seven good years of income. I only worked full-time three years of out that seven and two of those were at $12.50 an hour or less. Two years were spent travelling and dicking around. The other two were at grad school (which I do not regret).

That is not to say I’m disappointed with my current situation. I have a great job that many people would knock down old ladies to get. I’m lucky to be where I am but it’s hard not to think where I might be if I had figured all this out when I was 23 and not eight years later.