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After spending less than an hour at a potluck dinner tonight, it took me an hour and a half to get home because I missed one of my buses by less than 20 seconds. The fun never stops when you’re me.

As I watched my bus sail off into the distance, I knew that I had half an hour to waste before the next shuttle to Tatooine. I wish there was a bar close by to W. Hastings and Hornby where I catch my bus. All I’m asking for is a small, less than busy watering hole where I can saunter up to the bartender, and order up a Shirley Temple. Twenty minutes is a perfect time to nurse a drink and before you know it, it’ll be time to ride off into the boonies again.

There was the Jolly Taxpayer pub on Hastings but it closed down at the end of December. My other options are the bars in the Waterfront and Pan Pacific hotels one street down from Hastings. They’re probably nice but perhaps pricey for a twenty minute drink.

That is all.

This post is going to be all over the place, so hold on and try to lean into the corners.

A few months ago, I read online about one Scott Martin in the UK who ate nothing but mainly potato chips and toast. I can’t find the article now but at the time I read that his doctors said he was in relatively good shape surprisingly but stressed he should eat more healthy.

Now when I read that, and I know this is hard to believe for some people, I did not take that as a green light to increase my fried chicken comsumption. Even I thought that his diet was too extreme.

Martin died not very long ago at the age of 20. His liver was failing and his blood would not clot. He bled to death after a procedure to remove three infected teeth. You can read about it here.

I’ll probably stop eating chips for about two days. The important thing is to realize is that moderation is the key, even with fried chicken.

In other less depressing news, the much talked about PEI expansion of our company is going ahead. No one from our Vancouver office is going to PEI. Instead, 6 to 8 programmers are coming to our office for a few weeks of training. I just found this out today. I mentioned to a co-worker that I was hoping a few of the programmers would be women. Our office is a sausage-fest. My co-worker looked at me like I was crazy.

“Erwin, we work for a video game company.”

And with that, my hopes were dashed. Next Monday, 6 to 8 guys will be joining us.

Oh, one last thing. If anyone missed Kari Byron on Letterman last night, I think I can digitize her segment and host it on my server. Please let me know.

I hardly watched any TV this fall. I know nothing of new shows. Nothing was relegated to the status of “appointment television”.

It’s the new year, however, and with that, comes new shows. Last week was the season premiere of Beauty and the Geek. I found the torrent on Friday night and I downloaded the first show before I went to bed. I watched a bit of it on Saturday morning. The first ten minutes or so recapped the first season and introduced a few people from the second season. They even have a brother on the show this time around. He’s the dude who can finish a Rubik’s cube in less than 20 seconds. I didn’t have time to finish watching the rest. I hope I can catch up before next Thursday.

The season premiere of 24 was tonight. It was two hours tonight and another two hours tomorrow. I didn’t have time to watch it, so I recorded it on my VCR. I’ll probably have to do the same on Monday night. I briefly thought about not watching the entire season until it comes out on DVD in December of 2006 but that’s a hell of a long time to wait.

I’m now of the opinion that if I had a choice between downloading a show or recording it on the VCR, I’d take the Internet version. Virtually every show that winds up on the Internet is recorded at a higher quality than any VCR is capable of. Most of these shows are also recorded off an HD source meaning that your computer version will be in widescreen.

It looks like I’ll be watching a lot more TV this month and into the spring. You can’t beat free entertainment.

Oh what? One more thing? You want to see Will Ferrell do his George W. Bush impression again? Yeah, I think you may find that here.

If you were looking for car chases and explosions, none of that happened in my day unfortunately. I got to work kinda tired, had a bento box for lunch, and went shopping after work. I did not purchase anything and I had a burrito for dinner.

This guy, on the other hand, will have an awesome story to tell his buddies.

Only once have I ever used baby animals in a post and even then, it was kinda science related. Here we are again.

The Vancouver Police Department has an eight week old puppy that will soon be on his way into training as a police dog. The VPD needs a name for the puppy and has started a contest for the public. Here are some details:

“This contest is open to anyone under the age of 14 years and the lucky winner will receive a Vancouver Police Dog Squad t-Shirt, a hat, and their picture will be taken with the newly named puppy. The winner and their family will also receive their own personal dog show and tour at the Vancouver Police kennels.”

Ok, so maybe none of my readers are under the age of 14 but maybe you have a little sibling, niece, nephew, grandchild, or upstairs kid that might want to enter. A personal dog show is pretty damn cool and to be honest, I’d pay money to see a police dog shoot his service weapon.

Full details can be found here.

In a previous post, I shared with you the numerous (and humorous) Chuck Norris facts that were being spread across the Internet. Here’s one if you’ve missed out on this so far:

“Contrary to popular belief, America is not a democracy, it is a Chucktatorship.”

Well gosh darn it, all this talk about Chuck on the Internet has got the attention of the man himself. On his official web site yesterday, Norris made a statement regarding these “facts”. Unfortunately, he also made use of the statement to clumsily plug a few of his books.

I hope Chuck doesn’t give me a roundhouse kick to the head for writing that.

This actually happened on Friday but I’ve only had time now to write about it. So let’s all get into the wayback machine and take us to the last day of work before the weekend. I’m easing into my workday with my first half hour. Surprisingly, I am actually productive as I smash away at my keyboard with my fingers.

I look away from my monitor over to the game designers’ area. Andrew is standing at Dave’s desk but his back is facing Dave. Dave himself is standing behind Andrew. Andrew has a very serious look on his face. I can hear him wheeze slightly from across the room. Dave starts talking.

“You’re seriously choking? You want me to give you the Heimlich manoeuvre?”

Andrew nods yes. He starts to wheeze louder now. I now realize this could get very serious very quickly.

Dave puts his hands on Andrew’s abdomen and pulls up firmly. A few people have started to gather around the area now. Andrew is still wheezing and he motions for another try. Dave gives him another pull. This does the trick. A huge chicken bone comes flying out of Andrew’s mouth. Actually, it wasn’t a chicken bone, it turned out to be a piece of granola.

With his windpipe clear, Andrew sits down to catch his breath. People check on him. I can hear him talk. He sounds like nothing happened at all. It’s all over in less than twenty seconds.

Fewer than ten people witness the incident. Later, when all the excitement dies down I go over to Dave’s desk. I tell him that I thought he did a great job and that he should be proud of himself. Dave quietly admits to me that he was uncomfortable during the incident. I tell him that most people would be uncomfortable as well but the important thing was that he got the job done.

The day finished as it normally would. When Andrew left, he wished us a good weekend and he thanked Dave for saving his life.

Ha, I bet you didn’t expect a post in the middle of the day. Blogger has finally fixed a long-standing bug that made posting a pain in the ass, especially if I wasn’t at home.

With the problem gone, I am free to post whenever and wherever. Get ready for more crap, more often!

On Friday night, after returning from an evening out, I came home to find that Picky, my beloved Betta fish, had passed on sometime during the day.

I could tell he wasn’t healthy for several weeks prior to his passing. He was very lethargic and would spend most of his time resting on a plastic plant in his tank. He ate very little. For the last two weeks, I tried giving him “Betta medicine” which was a few drops of tea tree oil in his water. I was going to give him some anti-biotics tonight but it was too late.

I would have had Picky for two full years next month. He was two years old or at least very close to that age. I have never had a fish last that long in my care. As a kid, my mom used to buy me goldfish which seemed to live for about a week before dying. After a year with Picky, I began to marvel at the longevity of a fish that was barely three inches long.

Picky was a very thoughtful gift given to me by Carolyn B. on my birthday in 2004. I wasn’t expecting a gift from her and I certainly wasn’t expecting a living creature. Carolyn made it easier on me though, she got a whole starter kit which included a tank, gravel, a plastic plant, some food, and water conditioner. Picky was in a bag of water, much smaller than he would grow up to be.

Picky acquired his name after I discovered he was a very choosy eater. He barely touched the flakes that came with his kit. I eventually discovered he liked his food in pellet form. His favourite treat were blood worms which Dana would periodically get for me.

To understand how long I had him, consider I got him while I was still living at St. John’s College. He survived the cold of the winter and then stuffy heat in my room when it was the summer. When the first eight months had passed, I had to move out of SJC and back home with my parents. He got through the hour long car ride fine, travelling in a Tupperware container.

When I finally got my T-Bird apartment three weeks later, he had to stay with my parents because I wasn’t ready for Picky yet. I had a major case of food poisoning and I was really busy with school. My parents aren’t really the best caretakers in the world so I had a bit of apprehension about leaving him with them.

About mid-October of 2004, I got him back when things were settled in my apartment on-campus. His tank was placed on a bookshelf in my bedroom and there he stayed for close to a year. He was in the care of some SJC folks during the 2004 Christmas holiday but that was only a three day event.

Picky was a particularly feisty fish during my last year of school. If you approached his tank, he would swim furiously at you trying to get past the plastic wall of the tank. I was amazed at his eyesight as well. Though he had tiny eyes, he would be able to notice me wake up in my bed from several feet away. I would open my eyes and see a storm of activity in his tank as he tried to swim towards me.

After the year at my T-Bird apartment, we came back to my parents place. I know this sounds corny but Picky was very reserved after I moved him here. He very rarely tried to meet you at the edge of the tank. Instead, he spent most of his time perched on top of a plastic plant. The only good sign was that he was still eating regularly. He did, however, seem depressed if that’s possible for a fish.

In the end, I’m not sure what Picky succumbed to. Was it old age? Was it an infection? I will never know. I was hoping he would make it to my next birthday, so I could say he’d been with me for two years. We came really close though.

I am still amazed that something so tiny lived so long. All I did was give him food and changed his water.

I am not sure if I’ll get another Betta right away. Picky’s tank will remain dry for a while.

UPDATE:

According to the maintenance guy, a representative from the elevator company arrived on-scene not long after my 5:30pm departure. Lynn was apparently rescued from the elevator car not long afterwards. The elevator dude left the building at 5:50pm according to the maintenance report. There is no indication there were any repairs made or parts replaced. The elevator was in service the day after the incident.

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Sometime after 4:30pm today I was at my desk writing some code when I began to notice a faint ringing sound in the background. It wasn’t loud enough to be a fire bell but it was intense enough for me to notice. It also seemed to be ringing at random intervals. Weird.

I ignored for several minutes when a co-worker sent me an instant message… “I think someone is trapped in the elevator”

Of course! It was the bell you ring when you’re trapped in an elevator. We both rushed to the elevator where several people had already congregated. Near the elevator bank someone was trying to talk to whoever it was through the doors. Our office manager was trying to call the security guard and elevator company. It turned out the security guard wasn’t on duty yet and elevator company wasn’t answering.

Whoever was trapped managed to yell out that she was Lynn or Lyn from the 4th floor. Then someone yelled back down to Lynn that we were having trouble getting help. I was thinking that wasn’t a smart thing to do. Don’t tell her that! Just tell her we were working on getting help to her. Anyways, we were herded away from the area, leaving just one working elevator for the entire building.

Shortly after I got back to my desk, an office-wide e-mail was sent out detailing the situation and that we were to use the remaining elevator at our own risk. Using the stairs was now the preferred method of transit. These elevators have been flaky for several months now. Sometimes they’ll go up before they’ll go down even though the arrow indicates the car should be on the way down.

Twenty minutes later, I went to the washroom and I could see no one had arrived to help this poor woman. Walking back to my desk, the office manager told a few of us that the man now in front of the elevators was Lynn’s husband. He was talking on a cell phone which I hope had his wife on the other end. He seemed quite calm.

Almost an hour later, I left work at around 5:30pm and no help had arrived yet. I threw caution to the wind because, you know, I’m a risk taker, so I took the elevator down to the ground floor. I arrived without incident and on my way out of the elevator, the security guard was on his way up.

I have no further updates on this incident but I will ask around tomorow. I need closure on this incident!