Christmas

It was our family's turn to host christmas this year, so we had to do mega-cleanup and cleanout of the basement to make table room for 16 people. One cousin didn't come cause she was with her husband's family, but Cory's wife, Kim's boyfriend, and Carmen made up for them. It's nice to get together at christmas since we hardly see each other throughout the year. A little disappointing that people started leaving at about 8:30, whereas when we were kids everyone stayed till like 11 or 12. Carmen stayed till the end for me, leaving shortly after 11. Overall it was quite a happy evening.

Credit card bill

for Dec 12 was only 15 cents different than for Nov 12. That's kindof weird. The bill in Jan is gonna look funny.

Detox

While walking by a health foods store I saw some detox plan. I've heard of these before... the idea is there's toxins getting stored up in your organs, and then you can take this strict diet with various herbs or whatever for a couple weeks and it cleanses you (I'm sure there are variations on that idea). You probably feel crappy for some of the time you're taking it, but then you're supposed to feel better afterwards, have more energy, less cravings (esp for bad stuff), etc. I've been curious about it for a long time. I've heard from some people that it really works, but I'm still a skeptic and have discussed it with other skeptics before. I wonder. Maybe rather than just asking others if they've tried and know if it works, I will give it a try and people can ask me for my opinion on it. I'm sure I'll write some blog entries if I do do it. Though of course it'll never be as entertaining as the Monkey Chow Diaries

Hand dryer

If you're ever at the canyon meadows cinema, check out the hand blow-dryers in the washrooms! They're like 6000 horsepower, it's like a jet engine starting up, they make the skin on your hands go all woobly distorted! It was so funny, I'm glad Carmen pointed it out to me!

Intermap christmas party

I discovered strangely I didn't blog about last year's christmas party. I was lucky, it was just a couple weeks after I had started. It was at a hotel at the airport. Bryan (my internship supervisor) played in a jazz band, then we had buffet style dinner. I was at a table with Irene and her boyfriend Danny who I ended up getting along with really well and having a bunch of fun with. Tom and his wife and Tin and Li and Hao shared our table. So it wasn't quite the 'asian' table. We talked about my Ghana trip and stuff. After dinner there was a magician who came around to the different tables. It was funny, cause of course, engineers are all puzzling over it and trying to work out the secrets. I thought it was pretty fun at least. Danny and I practiced an elastic band one we had seen for a while. Once that was done though, most people immediately left, leaving only the cool people. People like Natalie and Jon slowly disappeared until at the very end it was Kathy, Ernie and Barb, and Erin. Once Erin's ride arrived, the rest of them headed off to their rooms in the hotel (convenient location!) while I headed home. I had a really good time.

This year had some similarities and differences. It was just at a restaurant this time, rather than a booked hotel event room type place. Like last year, Bryan's band was starting off the evening. Again I didn't bring a date, but that's cause Carmen was already coming. Carmen brought two dates, her mom and sister. We rearranged the seating at the table, then mingled a while. Occasionally people noticed Carmen and I holding hands and teased us a little, but not much. This year, Tin was again at our table, but otherwise it was me and Carmen, Carmen's guests, and Jason and Christine (Carmen's close friend, Jason's girlfriend). Bingchen was also at our table, but ditched us after a bit, I guess he wasn't having fun with us. We weren't the 'asian' table cause there was another that was 100% chinese. We couldn't quite even call ourselves the 'kids' table, cause another was pretty young with Irene and Danny, another intern and his date, and Steve and Krista. Anyways it was pretty fun/funny, like when Jason and I both moved to intercept our girlfriends hands as they reached for each other. (they call each other yee fun yan). Dinner was pretty good for the most part. I was happy that Tin and Carmen's mom were able to talk so she wasn't completely isolated. I tried to keep bugging Carmen's sister once in a while so she wasn't too bored. This year, there wasn't any special entertainment like last year. So as soon as dinner was done, most people immediately disappeared. Carmen had to leave pretty soon to take her family home. Soon, it was the same few people left at the end as last year, plus Steve and Krista who weren't in town then. Hearing Ernie and Jon talk about traveling makes me really want to go somewhere. Anyways, Natalie eventually left, then Jon, then Steve, so again it was Kathy, Ernie and Barb, and me who closed the place down. Like I've said in other blog posts, I like staying till the end. Overall, again I had a really good time, but I think the party itself was a bit more fun last year.

Cowboys and Endians

As I stood in the kitchen tonight, deciding what I wanted for dinner, I suddenly felt like having some corn on the cob! As it was defrosting in the microwave, I was pondering the age-old question of whether corn is a vegetable or a grain. Suddenly I noticed that there were corn cobs in the compost bucket, meaning my parents had also had corn on the cob for dinner! Was this coincidence? Or some sort of psychic link? Or is it possible that I saw the compost bin previously without noticing it, but my subconcious noticed it, and had the idea ready when I needed it? Subconcious is pretty crazy sometimes.

With my corn I had some scrambled eggs. I used to be a little-endian (I don't mean I need to be byte-swapped, I mean the original definition). But I'm not a very dedicated one, and have recently tried being a big-endian. At first it was great! Everything seemed to work so much better. But as time has passed, it quickly lost its glory. I'm starting to feel that big- and little-endianness are essentially equal.

And now for some leftover ice cream cake.

Discoveries this past weekend

Cleaning up always yields some interesting discoveries.

"I just don't think that I can stand the thought of losing a dear friend like you, at least not now." Pretty damn smart huh, keep an escape clause in there so I can't say it wasn't true.

Amazing race turned out well. I should start joining these amazing race gambling things, both last season and this season the team I chose from the very beginning (glanced at profiles on website) ended up winning. Though this season none of the teams seemed that strong, race-wise. In some other seasons there were some very smart very strong teams, but this time they all seemed fairly mediocre. (the beauty queens were pretty impressive for a while but didn't make it.)

Work is sucking this week. Hard to say why. Guess I'm just doing boring stupid stuff that I feel will be useless in the end. I think believing it is useless makes all work less satisfying.

"This isn't the monsterometer, it's the frog-exaggerator!"

Seems I don't have much to blog these days... no interesting thoughts or whatever.

Oh someone from Intermap phoned me. Regarding radar operator job. It was voice mail, I just email replied cause I don't actually know how (and shouldn't really be allowed) to call long distance from the office. But I don't think it matters much, things are pretty different now compared to several months ago when I was applying for that job.

Intermap christmas party is this friday. What to wear, what to wear?! Oh wait, I'm a guy.

I discovered a $25 gift certificate I had expired recently. Annoying.

Donation

cleaning up the basement a bit, cause it's our turn to host christmas, and it's hard to fit 15-20 people in here. Decided to get rid of an old chesterfield. Was going to take it to the dump. Suddenly I had a brainwave, decided to phone the Drop-In Centre, found out they would take it! I feel so happy. I didn't like the idea of having to throw it away, seems like such a waste. Now someone else can use it instead! Also, it's closer to take it to the drop in centre instead of the dump.

Paper

Carmen made a joke about the Campus Security alert without even realising it, so I'll post it here and maybe embarrass her a bit :P

"Exposing his genitals?! That's nuts!"

Job update: the UTEC (houston) offer has been officially turned down. The employer understands and likely the offer would stand for a future date. Good to know no bridges were burnt, they're not offended that I lead them on for a while for eventually nothing. Maybe I should have taken them up on their offer to fly me down for a second interview though, free little trip! :)

So I'll be in calgary a while, we'll see how that goes. My supervisor here is pretty happy about it, and still suggests I try to become a full time employee. Guess I'm still some kind of master of deception. I think I should make myself look into other jobs around here too, supposedly the market's so hot that I'd be in high demand because of my piece of paper even if I'm incompetent.

Another person at the office knows about me and Carmen. Jason knows cause he's Carmen's close friend's boyfriend. Charles knows cause he saw us holding hands in the plus 15s. Today Li also saw us, and so her husband Hao will know too. A few other people probably suspect. I dunno, it's kindof weird, I don't really like people at work to know. But oh well it doesn't really matter. And I guess people will see at the christmas party anyways.

I need to think/act faster. There have been a few times where doing so would have been really cool. A while back I was heading from my office to the washroom and Jon was at reception asking for a box, "preferably a big one", and if I had acted as I thought "Jon likes big box and he cannot lie, no other brother can deny!" it would have been hilarious! But I hesitated then it was too late. Or, at a chinese restaurant the waitress asked in chinese if we wanted separate bills and I responded yeah we should, and she said "oh you understand chinese?!" and I could've said "Hai! Ngoh sik gong jung man!" (yeah not quite right, but enough to have been funny). Or, today as I was in line to buy a bus pass, someone ahead of me was returning one I think and they were going to charge a $14 service fee and I should have said "Wait! I'll just buy it from you!" but again I hesitated. So, going to try to be more spontaneous. Of course, eliminating the "think before you act" could definitely have some downsides too!