shipping

Shipping things here it turns out is a complete nightmare. I had a port replicator coming via Fedex but since the idiots who work in the office of my apartment are never around (they're usually at the other property or just out on super long breaks) my package failed to be delivered 3 times. That means they want you to go pick up your package. Back in Foster City, that was fine. I made a 20 minute drive up to South San Fran and got my stuff. Here, the Fedex warehouse is in fucking Auburn. That is past Seatac, past Renton, past Kent a good 35 miles from my home. In fact, Auburn is not too far off from Tacoma. So I called Fedex to beg them to give me more options and ended up asking them to send my package to my school's department office. A totally big huge no no but when you freakin don't know anyone in this city, you don't have much choice. I emailed our administrator to beg forgiveness which she granted this one time. So hopefully I get my port replicator tomorrow.

OK. So now onto the mattress from JCPenney. We ordered them about 2 weeks ago and they contract a trucking company to deliver them. It took them the full 2 week window to give us a ship date. So they get here and the trucker guy looks all apologetic and waves for me to come to the truck. He explains that the mattresses came in some shitty wrapping all torn up and sort of taped up when they arrived from the JCPenney warehouse in Reno or something. The mattresses are all dirty where the tears are and he asked if I want to keep them. I decided to have him bring them up and so I can complain later. I did this knowing that companies have these stupid policies about customers paying to return merchandise regardless of reason. And the return in this case would cost a hundred bucks. I'm really pissed at JC Penney.

Oh and to top off my day, some preppy asshole gets on the elevator while we're loading up the mattresses and scoffs at the mail he's picked up from his mailbox. "Ugh" he exclaims, "junk mail from the Democrats. I never vote Democrat" and makes a dramatic motion to throw it into the recycling bin. Well I guess I know not to trash W in any small talk with that guy.

Saturday adventure

Determined to make the most of this weekend's sunshine, I started my day with a quick drive to Greenlake for a run. It's funny how, when you see an entire 2.8-mile path right before your eyes it looks more like 10. But when you actually run it, you get around the lake pretty quick. Despite minor dehydration from the 3 pints of beer I had last night at the grad pub run, and having to dodge (many really cute) dogs, strollers, and idiots walking side by side 4 abreast, I finished one loop in 31 minutes. I counted a bunch of people who lapped me but, whatever, I've never claimed to be any good at running. My roomate told me that there is a ring of thieves in Greenlake who collaborate with those who live nearby to spot runners stashing their wallets in their cars, for example under the seat, and immediately move in to break into that car. Doesn't sound like an unlikely circumstance but I'm sure when something like that happens, the story is told and retold and one incident becomes an epidemic. But better safe than sorry, I try never to bring my entire wallet when I'm parking my car to go for a run.

I spent the rest of the day downtown checking out the Central Library and it is really as amazing in person as it is in the photos on the web site. Did some reading in preparation for the class I have to teach, picked up a couple DVDs and headed back home. I watched one of them tonight,
Aishite imasu (Mahal kita) 1941. It was awesome and deserved every festival nomination it got. The story had incredible depth and complexity as did the actors. I wouldn't even know where to start in explaining it so read this instead. Such a nice change of pace from the Hollywood special effects driven America-centered trash.

weekend plans

Last weekend before classes start and I was planning to drive home for the weekend but decided against it because I really need to hunker down and prep for the quarter. Instead my plans include: join the other grad students for drinks on Friday (and trying not to drown my anxieties in beer), finish reading one of the books for one of my classes (there are 4 more to read for that one class and I need a head start), do preliminary research for my papers, review all my teaching materials, course syllabi, and handouts, cook a dish for Monday's dep't potluck, draft a plan of study (all the courses I need to take to complete the Phd), go for a run around Greenlake, visit the beautiful Seattle Library (you have to see the photos on that site), and check out the UW gym since parking will be free. That seems plenty to keep me busy.

I just got back from a 3 mile jog. The sun comes out to say hi in between rain showers so I had to take the opportunity to get out for some air. Oh yeah, with some oil of oregano, many cups of orange juice, and lots of sleep over two days, I managed to kick the cold that was coming on. Hopefully I can go another year or two, illness free.

Michigan

Thanks to Robyn for this link. Minority Groups Protest ‘Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day’ on Michigan Campus (Maya are you reading this, omg!). I have to say I'm happy that I was accepted to a school in a left leaning city. I think something like that happening on my campus would really mess up my focus. I'd be out protesting and organizing and not reading, researching or writing. It's been hard to put away my activist urges to get out and help with or start a campaign in order to focus on me and my education, but in my mind, I'll be more credible and a more powerful activist if I can devote more energy to my schooling first. Hopefully when this Phd gig gets a little more familiar, I can put in a bit of time with the activist folks (*waving hello to Kai*).

So it's Wednesday today and my reliable borrowing of wifi from a neighbour has become very spotty. In fact this is my first time online from home in 48 hours and it's killing me. We signed up for Comcast 3 weeks ago, before we moved in, and they still havent come back with the DIY install kit. The mattresses we ordered online 9/14 from JCPenney, which were in stock, still have not arrived. I'm getting pretty sick of sleeping on this gigantic air mattress that takes up all the floor space in my rather small room. TA training this week has been fantastic, organized, all of that good stuff. School in general has so far been smooth sailing. That's of course because it hasn't started. I still have orientation (dep't specific) until next Monday and classes start Wednesday. Because I'll be teaching two quiz sections of 20 students each, I'm starting to wonder if I need to make my online presence a little less....out there. But the more I think about it, the more I think I shouldn't. I don't post anything overly personal and I don't talk trash about people in my life, so if students find my blog or web site, they'll just learn more about me as a person rather than a teacher and maybe see me as more human. Anyone out there have any advice?

shopping

In just one week I have managed to furnish the whole apartment and did I ever get some great deals. My finds on Craigslist:

Ikea MALM 3 drawer dresser $60
lamp, 3 wicker storage baskets, 2 large scented candles in jars, 1 toaster $35
3 Ikea LACK side tables $18
Ikea POANG chair and ottoman $25
bookshelf $20
microwave/toaster oven combo $35 (purchased after I got the toaster above)
4 Ikea HERMAN chairs $20 (for all 4)
Ikea dining table with frosted glass insert $50

Other new but still cheap purchases

full mattress $209 (incl delivery) JCPenney online
Ikea desk $129
Ikea ANEBODA bed $109
Ikea KULLEN night stand $29
Ikea table top + legs to make a low coffee table $23
Ikea LACK coffee table (used as TV stand) $29.99
really cool modern lamp that I've seen for hundreds of dollars $39.99 from Fred Meyer
Ikea laundry hamper $3.99
foldaway stool $12.99

I have become an expert in Ikea furniture assembly and have also learned the art of stud finding, drilling, and hanging stuff on drywall without a stud.

This week I'm in training to become an expert TA! The sunshine finally went to sleep and it's grey skies and showers this week but the rain here is different than in Vancouver. It comes and goes and sometimes the skies clear. Whereas in Vancouver, the rain comes and sticks around for about hmm 3-5 months.

Seattle sightseeing

So the remainder of my trip north from Foster City, CA to Seattle was uneventful unless you count major traffic in Tacoma as an event. So I checked in Friday afternoon with a third leasing manager on this property. Luckily she was the best one yet. She was even more careful with my move in damage inspection than I was. After that was all done, I decided we deserved to spend the rest of the weekend doing minimal move in work and, instead, enjoying the beautiful weather. I decided that, even though I'm not all that familiar with Seattle, I'd use my Internet research skills to play tour guide for the weekend. All in all I'd have to say I did a pretty good job.

That night we headed to the pier and discovered that the highly recommended Crab Pot had no wait. I knew it'd be good because I'd heard all about it from friends. We got in, they put bibs on us, rolled out a sheet of paper on the table and brought us mallets. Before long the waiter came with a huge pot of crab, mussels, clams, corn, shrimp and dumped it on the table. And yup we finished the whole thing. It was AWESOME. We spent the rest of the night roaming Bell Town and the shopping area downtown before heading home to crash. Saturday I took Simon around Green Lake, drove through Fremont and Wallingford, and then stopped at the Ballard Locks to watch the salmon jump out of the water and swim upstream. After that we had to head back home to help my roomate's sister move in some of her stuff. The stolen shopping carts in our garage sure made that an easy task. Still, we celebrated that feat with yet another huge pot of seafood, this time at The Fisherman's Restaurant. After having tried both restaurants, I'd have to say the Crab Pot was the clear winner.

Sunday was a lot of fun. We started with drive to Capitol Hill to visit Bruce Lee's grave then headed over to Pioneer Square to go on the $11 90-minute Underground Tour. Most city tours I know are kinda corny and stupid but this one came highly recommended and I have to say it was one of the best city tours I've gone on. It starts out with a comedic, yet thorough, 25 minute history lesson followed by a tour of the buildings still left under Seattle's streets. If you want to know why there's a city below the streets you'll have to take the tour. I don't want to spoil it. After the tour finished, we headed over to Alki Beach (good suggestion Egan) which is pronounced alk-eye, not alkee as I learned on my last visit. It was nice and toasty in the sun so we sat on a park bench and watched folks play football and volleyball in the sand. We even saw one crazy guy jump into the frigid Puget Sound waters for a swim. We dined at Coyote's on Alki that night. They forgot to bring Simon's drink even after one reminder, the food was mediocre, and service was very very slow. They never did bring out Simon's drink. Oh well, whatever.

So Monday was errand day. Picked up a lamp and some stuff from a Craigslist seller, visited the Telenav Seattle office, went to IKEA, had dinner with a friend, and spent the rest of the evening putting together furniture. Since then I've been constructing furniture and shopping for household stuff non-stop. Rest of the week will be spent getting this apartment furnished and orderly so I can start focussing on school.

Alrighty, time to get back to unpacking. Sorry I have no photos to show. My card reader went missing in the process of moving :(

made it

No accidents, no speeding tickets and only one traffic jam in Tacoma. Here safe and sound, thanks for all the comments everyone. Lucky Simon has this handy Sprint thingy majajig to get online without wifi. After unpacking we headed downtown for a well deserved dinner at Crab Pots and a walk through Bell Town. Now I'm exhausted and have to hit the sack, I mean air mattress. Will post more probably on Tuesday.

part way there

After a few drinks and a ride on Bucky the mechanical bull last night (45 seconds yeehaw!) we got home kinda late which means we got up kinda late and didn't get packed and on the road until 12.30 today. Packing the car was the hardest part and I had to leave behind 4 boxes, a chair, a lamp and 3 reams of paper. Oh well. Guess I was being optimistic. We stopped in Fairfield for lunch, some place in northern Cali for gas (holy cow was it ever hot up there), Target in Medford to pick up some small but expensive stuff like power tools, DVD player, and electric toothbrush, all tax free, and one more stop to switch drivers before reaching Eugene at 10pm. We checked in and had no choice but to eat at the Lucky Noodle. Expensive fusion but not bad. So I'm back in the hotel now. Time to hit the sack and get ready for another 4-5 hour drive.

tomorrow

I hate packing. The only thing less fun is unpacking. Anyways, I managed to pack up most of what's mine in preparation for the big road trip tomorrow. The plan is to spend 8 or 9 hours on the road and stop off in Eugene to spend a night. A lot of people do this drive in one solid 12-13 hours (16 to make it all the way to Vancouver) but since we wouldn't arrive when the leasing office is open anyways we decided to split it up into 8 hours first day and 4 hours Friday. My short term concern is making everything fit into my car, after that I'm worried about people breaking into it and stealing all I got. Fingers crossed that this whole move, which has not been without its complications thus far, goes off without a hitch.

Tonight I'll be out for a drink at Old Pro, one of my favorite bars. They are newly renovated and I'm looking forward to trying out Bucky the mechanical bull.

image consultant

So I just finished creating a little web site in an "exchange of services" for a fellow Toastmaster who is also an image consultant. I created the site and in return she has created a style portfolio for me. Yay! I would never otherwise be able to afford the luxury of an image consultant. Now I just need to find her a suitable domain since anything that looks remotely like her company name is taken. Check it out http://www.vanessaau.com/joann/index.html

Too many things to do, no packing getting done here. Dammit.

last few days

Today I returned my library books to SFSU and headed up to Mach III to get my alarm looked at. I still had a receipt from my car's previous owner dated April 1997 which is when the alarm was originally installed. Yah, that's 9 years ago. The guys told me to head down to Faxon Garage where their friends handle the installations. They took my car right away. I went down to Java on Ocean to get a caramel machiatto and make a few calls to confirm my move in date up in Seattle. By the time I got back, my alarm was fixed. I mentioned that the stupid alarm used to lock me out because it locked itself after a few seconds. I also have this tacky scanner thing on my windshield (think KIT from Knight Rider) from the previous owner that looked like it drained my battery. He said he could switch it out for a little LED light and take another look at the auto-locking issue. That took about 40 minutes. Total damage = $0 for fixing my non-working alarm, $30 to rip out the scanner and put in a little LED. That is what I call good business. I didn't expect them to charge me nothing even though they installed it originally. I mean 9 years is an awfully long time. I expected to at least pay for labour but I didn't have to. So yeah, if you need a mechanic, alarm install, rims, stereo system etc, go see these guys.

geography

So my roomate and I were granted a conditional approval of our lease application because she'll be a full time MBA on a student loan, ie no income, and my income will not be 3x our total rent. Leasing manager 1 promised that this problem would be solved simply by paying first and last month's rent up front. However she only works weekends so we've have to deal with leasing manager 2 on the weekdays. #2 has demanded that we find a cosigner for the lease, someone who meets all the requirements of making more than 3x rent. Pain in the ass I tell you. I hate managed properties but we have no choice at this point. So anyways, my conversation with her went like this:

Vanessa: My cosigner is my dad who is in Vancouver BC. Can I have you fax him the form and I'll pay the application fee by check which I'll pop in the mail?

#2: Vancouver BC. That's in Canada right?

Vanessa: Uh yes (I'm thinking at this point, how the hell can you NOT know this if you live 2 hours from the border???)

#2: Is Canada part of the United States? 'Cause we can't verify information unless they're in the United States

Vanessa: [long pause and stifled laughter] Did you just ask.... Um, no [more stifled giggling] Canada is not part of the United States.

#2: Oh yeah (trying to sound smart) I didn't think so. He can't be a co-signer then.

So I've heard stories like this from other people about Americans really uh... not all there when it comes to geography. I had another friend tell a DMV agent that he had driver's license in Ontario, Canada. The agent asked him, "Is Canada in the US?". My friend responded no. The agent didn't believe him so she turned around to ask her manager for verification. The manager didn't even flinch. It was as if that were a pretty typical question to ask over at the DMV. How does one graduate from high school without knowing which large masses of land are part of your country, and which are not? I don't get it. I guess that's why the Talking to Americans segment of This Hour has 22 Minutes is such a huge hit.

Anyways, out of boredom I decided to learn a little bit more about the area I'll be moving to. This is what my search turned up. Perverts breaking into women's homes and climbing into their beds naked before escaping with bags of their underwear. Awesome. I can't wait.

bachelor party

A friend is helping to plan a bachelor party in Vancouver and solicited my help. Figured I'd share the info with all the rest of you. I'm not much help in the nightclub area as I never go to these places anymore when I go visit (except for Red Room and that place that used to have '80s night). BTW, in Canada we sometimes call bachelor/bachelorette parties stags and stagettes respectively.

Nightclubs
As I mentioned Vancouver thinks it's LA or some shit so every club deliberately jacks up cover and holds a line outside to make it look good (even if it's empty inside). Best to call ahead and get on the VIP/bottle service or your whole party will stand in line the entire night, I'm not joking.

My friend recommended these two. Granville is a good place to keep the party because most nightclubs are there, there's 99 cent pizza to eat afterwards, and if you get bored with a venue, you can always ditch the club and hit the bars and pubs on that street.

Caprice - on Granville Street - http://www.capricenightclub.com/
Plaza - on Granville Street - http://www.plazaclub.net/

Tokyo lounge is not bad either but not as big www.tokyolounge.ca/ -- it's off robson street
Atlantis www.atlantisclub.net/ used to be pretty popular and might still be but if you get bored there's not much else in walking distance. Au Bar was hot for a while too http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=10746 it's not too far from Granville Street.

I'd also recommend going to this site to see what is happening the night of the party http://www.clubvibes.com/ and then calling ahead to book VIP and bottle service. You can also read the club's description at http://www.straight.com/section.cfm?id=270

Warning, take a cab. Aside from being the responsible thing to do, cops always form "road blocks" so that every artery leading out of downtown has cops stopping EVERY car to check for drunk drivers. You basically can't avoid it unless you hit an afterparty and go home the next morning. Another warning, Vancouver has been notorious for club shootings. Be careful.

Restaurants (good seafood, some with beautiful view) I listed what I think would be best up top.

Bridges http://www.dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=165 (awesome view from granville island with outdoor patio)
C Restaurant - http://www.10best.com/Vancouver/Restaurants/Seafood/index.html?businessID=30756 (also nice view)
The Boathouse Restaurant English Bay http://www.boathouserestaurants.ca/2004/english_bay.htm (view of English Bay)
Monk McQueens http://www.monkmcqueens.com/ (well known place)
Carderos http://www.dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=618 (I think i've been here but cant remember)
Lumiere http://lumiere.ca/ (maybe a bit too stuffy snotty for a bachelor party?)

Also consult the 2006 Golden Plate Awards
http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=16704

Nudie Bars

Brandi's - "classy" place http://www.clubzone.com/c/Vancouver/Adult_Club/Brandi_z_s_Exotic_Nightclub.html
Cecil - off Granville walking distance to clubs http://www.clubzone.com/c/Vancouver/Adult_Club/Cecil_Hotel,_The.html
Marble Arch - great for cheap lunch too. 518 Richards St. 688-ARCH
Number 5 Orange - super ghetto part of town in the east end by Chinatown where I hear the strippers are the raunchiest 205 Main St.687-FIVE

Also see http://www.walnet.org/csis/services/vanstripclubs.html

Survivor

Oh my god, you idiots. Are you fucking kidding me? How much more stupid could a reality show really get? http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/447377p-376563c.html

no more MLMs

I just a message via MySpace (ugh) from a former student (God I hate MySpace) inviting me to a conference call/meeting. Man I could smell something fishy going on right away.This is the third person in the last year to try to get me into their multi-level marketing "success plan". Frankly I'm sick of it. Please people, stop inviting me to your conference calls, lunch meetings, cocktail parties to tell me about how I can make tonnes of money if I just work hard enough (at scamming all my friends and family). I don't want to hear about it, and I don't want my friends to hear about it either.

Here's my letter back to the student:

Hi ______,

Couple links you'll probably want to read. I have a couple friends who got involved in a similar business model and to put it bluntly none of their friends want to hang out with them anymore because they keep using every social situation to "share stories of success" with friends and friends of those friends and pull them into the organization. It's gotten to the point that it's embarrassing to invite them out. Just letting you know this could be a slippery slope. Even if you do somehow end up making money, it's at the expense of annoying and potentially losing your friends.

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2005/276.html (scroll down for the law suit details)
http://users.tns.net/~mpat/scam/
http://arbyte.us/blog_archive/2005/04/ACN_Pyramid_Scam.html
http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=4418

Dear United

After losing my luggage, United has screwed up my delivery address 3 times - San Ysodro, San Ysdoro, Sansierro. It's San Ysidro, just like I wrote in block letters you fucking idiots. And it shouldn't take 3 days to get me my damn luggage back.

Below was the letter I wrote on Monday, followed by the letter I wrote today.

Dear United,

Yesterday (Sunday) I flew from Seattle to San Francisco on flight 571. I checked in one bag and it did not arrive in San Francisco with me. I filed a claim at SFO and found out that the agent in Seattle made the mistake of being logged into the profile of the passenger who was in line ahead of me when he checked my bag in.

I was appalled to find that the claim sticker they gave me read “Sarah Roberts.” This Sarah Roberts was to continue from SFO onto San Diego and so that is where my bag is now. I am absolutely outraged that a mistake like this could happen. Even the agent in SFO with whom I filed the claim commented, “Pretty scary how something like this could happen huh?” Yeah, it’s scary alright. Especially since my bag contains my medication, eye glasses, and file of important documents containing very personal information. That file included a lease application with all my banking, credit, and social security information – plenty to get someone started on stealing my ID. Lest I mention that the lease application was due TODAY for an apartment that I spent the weekend in Seattle looking for. So now I’m without my glasses, medication and now overdue lease application.

The agent in SFO, who did not once utter an apology, processed my application and promised that my bags be delivered to my office by noon today. It’s 3pm now. I logged in on your web site and it says “Unfortunately, your baggage has not been located. However, we do have it on priority trace. We apologize for any inconvenience we may be causing you. Please check back with us in a few hours for any updated information.”

But that’s not the worst of it. From the web page I could see that the agent at SFO had entered my office address incorrectly. Of course that doesn’t matter much when my bag is still lost in San Diego, but it certainly doesn’t give me any more faith in United Airlines’ ability to serve its customers.

Let’s sum this up. My bag was checked in under another passenger’s name. That passenger went to San Diego, as did my suitcase. My suitcase was not delivered by noon as promised because it’s still lost. I check online and my delivery address was entered incorrectly by a very unapologetic and incompetent agent. Now by the time the bag is located and delivered I probably will not be at this address (I’ll be at home) and I will have to contact United once again to reroute the shipping of my bag. If I don’t I will miss two days of medication, endure navigating my house in the evening without my glasses, and possibly lose the apartment I spent my weekend in Seattle looking for. For this, United has promised me a $25 travel certificate. The inconvenience and time this has cost me is worth far more than $25. I am requesting more compensation than a laughable $25. That hardly makes up for the time I spent just waiting in line to file a claim at SFO late on a Sunday night.

Sincerely,

fumbling

And today's letter:

Dear Levi,

I finally got my luggage back Wednesday afternoon 23rd Aug, three days after it was lost Sunday night the 20th. While I appreciate the travel certificate I am still concerned about what was done with the contents of my bag while it was gone for three days.

When I checked in my bag I had hastily stuffed a file with all my apartment hunting/lease application documents into my suitcase. When I got it back, I noticed this file was neatly tucked into the strap inside my suitcase. This is not where I had left it. The reason for my concern is that those documents, as I mentioned earlier, contain very personal information including:

- My social security number
- Account numbers for all my bank accounts
- Driver's license number
- License plate number
- Phone numbers and addresses of all places I've lived the last three years
- My parents' and my landlord's contact information
- My birthdate
- My income

I am extremely concerned about who might have seen/copied that information since my bag was left unsupervised in a public place for 3 days. Even if it had been held in a locked area by United (which I doubt since the last customer service rep I spoke to had to call the San Diego Airport Tuesday just to track down the whereabouts of my bag), I'd still be concerned about my files having been moved and people, including United employees, viewing/stealing my information. As I hope you understand identity theft is a very real and very serious issue and such instances of theft are common and often ruin the lives of those victimized. Other companies who put their customers at risk of identity theft commonly compensate by issuing a year or more of credit monitoring services. I am requesting the same of United and expect that, as a company that strives to take care of its customers, United will comply. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

fumbling

luck or lack thereof

Does anybody believe in luck? We had endless lucky things happen during our Seattle housing search on the weekend. Someone's denied rental application meant an opening for us before the place even went on the market. All our timing worked out perfectly. But at the end of the trip Sunday night my luck ran out when United lost my suitcase. I still haven't gotten it back. I posted on it earlier but I took it down and will repost with more details when this ordeal is over. Let's just say I've been on the phone with United 5 times in the past 48 hours and all they've done is screw it up more each time I call by doing things like trying to correct an incorrect delivery address by making it even MORE incorrect if you can believe it.

I'm so fed up with them. And while I see the need for outsourcing in many situations and fully support the wonderful people overseas who do this work, it really doesn't work for some things. Helping people get their luggage back is one of those things. The folks there can do nothing more than read a computer screen that I can log into myself and then read a script about being sorry for my inconvenience. It's an endless loop that got me nowhere. They don't have local knowledge and are not instructed/allowed to do proactive things like contact the airport directly to track down my bag. After my first 3 customer support calls my calls got routed to someone local. I wonder if that is by design. The last woman I spoke to actually did call the airport where my bag is sitting so hopefully I get it back tomorrow and I'll share my whole ordeal. Let's just say, I'll never fly United again if I can help it. It's been human error after human error and it's simply unacceptable.

In other news, we were witness to a car accident today at Central and Castro in Mountain View en route to Maruichi for my favourite ramen. This white minivan with an elderly couple was stopped at a red light, right next to us. This junky car came careening down the street and rear ended the minivan. The guy barely hit the brakes. The shitbox was pretty much totaled with smoke and water spewing out of his crumpled hood. The scary part was that the guy got out of his car and at first I thought he was dazed from hitting the minivan but I don't think that was it. His shirt was half untucked, the other half tucked into his belt which had missed about 4 belt loops. He seemed sort of unstable, the kind of unstable that most people demonstrate after about 6 or 7 drinks. The man stumbled up to the minivan and attempted to open the rear door to climb into the elderly couple's back seat. I think all of us in the car said, almost in unison, what the fuck?? Luckily the door was locked and so he walked up to the driver's side window which the woman wisely kept partially closed. We looped the car around and I ran up to the van to give them a business card in case they needed a witness to the accident. I heard the guy who hit them say, "oh thank you thank you." I'm thinkin' don't thank me, I'm here to back up the old couple who just got rammed in the ass by you, you crazy fuck.

Seattle pics

View of the Space Needle from my roommate's friend's gorgeous place in Queen Anne


Coffee in West Seattle at a place specializing in cupcakes. What you see there is a "baby cake"


View of Lake Washington from our table at the Blu Water Cafe in Leschi (pronounced Lesh-EYE)


The place we put a deposit on ($1K for a 2/2 with a w/d and 2 garage parking spots, can't beat that)


View of yet another body of water (so many I can't keep track of them all) from the I-5 en route to SeaTac Airport

photos

Been waiting for Simon to leave work and it's meant getting home midnight the last two nights. Too tired to write but not too tired to drag and drop. Check out the new photos in my Flickr.

out of state move

I'm learning quickly that looking for a new place to live is only fun when you're moving someplace within driving distance. This out of state home hunt is killing me. People who live in Seattle are beating me to open house viewings and I'm leaving myself only one weekend to get it all figured out. Luckily I have a plan B because my friend is dating a guy in Seattle who needs a house sitter in September for a couple months but that really is a plan B. If I stayed there, I'd have to find a home while I'm in the middle of school. Not a good situation at all. All I can say is thank goodness for the Internet and email. I dunno how people did this before.

checklist

Checked couple things off my list of pre-move tasks today -- appointment with my mechanic for a tune up tomorrow, new all season tires purchased for installation Saturday, new (used) teeny tiny 700m laptop purchased, 2nd meeting with future roomate planned for Friday night dinner at our place. Still gotta get my tires balanced, car alarm fixed, and uh find a place to live.

Despite all this I managed to haul my ass to the gymnastics gym last night after a 3 week work out hiatus. I semi deliberately came late to miss the cardio warm up from hell complete with joint straining moves from the 70s. It worked out well since I managed to have enough strength left to work up the nerve to do my round off flip flop to layout into the pit and later a cast handstand to layout flyaway, again into the pit. I think I am too old to ever safely land an acrobatic move on anything other than a 6' deep pit of foam cubes. I pay dearly for it though as it takes me several minutes to climb out of the foam after doing a move that takes a couple seconds to complete. I guess that makes up for my playing hooky during the warm up.

count down

Man I'm kinda getting sick of people asking when I'm moving especially when after I tell them mid September, they comment that that is coming up really soon. It's like getting reminded on a daily basis that I ought to be counting down the days. I'm naturally one to get stressed by change and I was doing remarkably well until everyone decided to ask all these damn questions. Now I'm just generally pissed off. Not at any one person or even group of people. Just general pissed offedness. I almost feel like writing a fucking FAQ for the most annoying ones and printing them on a shirt.

Q. Is Simon moving too?
A. No.

Q. Why not?
A. Uh, he has a job that means more to him than just a pay cheque.

Q. Will you be back in a year or two?
A. No, there is no such thing as a two-year PhD you retard. I'm not doing some bogus online program.

Q. Why didn't you just go to school here instead?
A. You don't pick something like a doctoral program based on proximity to home. It's not like a health club membership.

Q. But won't you miss Simon?
A. Holy shit, can I punch you?

guests

Simon's sister and her bf are here for a week before they head to Hawaii, which means we will have had house guests for two consecutive weeks with 4 days out of town in between. That means eating dinner out and drinking a hell of a lot. Oh and no time to work out. It's starting to feel really kinda gross. I'm also juggling a copywriting contract gig on the side so that takes up any spare time I might have used to get my ass off this office chair. I'm almost tempted to try a morning workout but I know that progressing from conceptualization to execution on that front is not likely.

Not sure if I mentioned but after posting another housing wanted ad on Seattle CL, a 32 year old Asian American woman contacted me saying she needs a roomate and my description of myself sounds like her. ie. obsessive about cleanliness and militant about not allowing shoes in the home. Turns out she is currently living in the Bay Area and works literally 5 miles away in Santa Clara. We met a few weeks back and determined we're compatible and sane. So we're headed north to Seattle on the 18th to find a 2/2. She is going to UW to do her MBA. I think this will work out nicely especially if we can save money by giving each other the occasional lift to the airport to visit home, or splitting a cab.

PVR

Just back in last night from our 4 day trip to Puerto Vallarta where we attended a destination wedding of one of Simon's university friends at the Riu Jalisco resort. I was a little apprehensive about the whole trip because we did this exact same vacation at the same resort in December 2002, it costed about 50% more than it did that year, it's hot as hell in summer, and right around the time we went I also found out it was hurricane season and some sort of mosquito season too.

Despite coming home eaten alive by sand flies and mosquitos, the tropical storms subsided for the most part and the worst we got was some thunder, lightening, overcast skies, and light spitting. The food was pretty good as far as resort buffets go, the temperatures were somewhat manageable, the ocean was warm as bath water, and the best part of the trip was the company. We went with another couple, Dan and Sarah, who are Simon's friends from high school, and met up with another couple we hung out with for most of the trip. We kept the staff busy restocking our minibar and we lost count of the number of drinks we had had by mid-afternoon each day. Instead of packing each day with activities and excursions we decided to stay on the beach each day except the day we had to go into town for the wedding at the church and our last evening which we spent strolling the boardwalk.

I think minus the bugs (which weren't there when we went in December), I could've stayed another day or two. More if I could bring my own bedding because I'm picky about stuff like that and the smell of industrial laundry detergent gets to me. But as it is, I got overtanned and overfed and it was probably time to get back to work, working out, and prepping for my transition to Seattle. Hopefully the next trip will be on a cruise with the same folks we partied with in PV plus a few more of my friends. We were supposed to make Hawaii happen this summer too but it looks like I'm running out of time and money. Oh well. Anyways, back to the grind and hopefully some regular blogging.

crazy month

Wow I abandoned my blog for yet another week. We've had houseguests lately which has been a lot of fun. We headed to Sonoma in 116F weather on Saturday and did a great tour of San Fran on Sunday. The rest of the time they've been on their own while Simon and I have been working our asses off to get ready to head to Mexico for a wedding. Between now and September I've gotta find a new home in Seattle, finish up my work for TeleNav and another contract I picked up, buy a laptop, get my finances in order, get registered for school, and pack up. It's only going to get crazier.

I just finished spending some time on this web profile I had to write so I guess I'll share that so you guys have somethin' to read...Hope all of you out in blog land are well.

Vanessa Au (M.A. Broadcast & Electronic Communication Arts, San Francisco State University, 2006; B.A. Communication, Simon Fraser University, 2000) is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication and deserter of the high tech industry. Once a product marketing manager for software companies big and small in Vancouver, BC and the San Francisco Bay Area, Vanessa is now interested in investigating the ways in which new media are enabling and empowering Asian North Americans to find their voice. In her master’s thesis titled “Import Models Online: The Sexual Politics of Web Authorship,” she revealed the variety of ways in which the web sites of young Asian American “import models” gave the young women a space to negotiate their cultural identities, assert a sense of personal empowerment, and challenge dominant stereotypes of Asian women. Vanessa hopes to continue developing an understanding of what Asian North Americans have gained by carving out a piece of the Internet to be seen instead of overlooked and heard instead of silenced as they often are in other media. Outside of school, Vanessa enjoys snowboarding, gymnastics, public speaking, blogging, traveling, and campaigning for fair portrayals of Asian North Americans in the media.

trip planner

I'm having a shitty time finding a decent fare back to Vancouver so I can sort out my future housing in Seattle. The cheapest fare on Harmony gets me there in the mid-afternoon when my parents can't pick me up. I'm going to be pressed for time and don't want my friends to pick me up at Vancouver International and drive me all the ass lickin' stupid way to Coquitlam especially if I need to work immediately after and can't return the favour by spending the time to buy them a meal.

So I figure that since our highways suck and I typically have to drive downtown on narrow city streets, BC Translink would make a special effort to get people around especially from the airport. Airport, main starting point for many travelers right? So I went to the web site and clicked on the trip planner. Here it is in all its glory.

BC Translink Trip Planning piece of shit

I searched both under "popular locations" and "all" for YVR, Vancouver International, Vancouver Airport, Vancouver International Airport. Nothing. It gave me suggestions like York House School and the Vancouver Cancer Clinic. I even looked up the street address of the airport - 3211 Grant McConachie Way, Richmond BC - and put that in, and it came back with Granview Highway and Grant Street in Vancouver. What the stinkin' hell is this crap? I am no stranger to finding things out on the web. I can stalk you all the way to Timbuktu and even find out the name of your grandma's dog, I swear. It took me about 20 min to look at all the categories and finally found Airport Station under "TRANSIT SERVICES/EXCHANGES" (but it's not under "ALL LOCATIONS" or "POPULAR LOCATIONS"). Does it tell me where exactly Airport Station is? Nope. That's a research project for tomorrow evening.

As a point of comparison, I've been using the Seattle metro trip planner to figure out how far apartments are from UW and it gives me 3 alternate routes depending on how far I want to walk among other options. The thing is simply awesome. I don't understand how people new to Vancouver ever learn to get around.

Arg, so many things frustrate me about Vancouver and it pains me so little has changed since I left 5.5 years ago. I mean, there are some impressive builders putting up new business towers and condos left and right but that's about it.

burbs

And this is why you shouldn't raise your children out in the suburbs. Lack of stimulation, lack of excitement, too much gangsta rap music influence. Next thing you know they're flashing guns and pretend gang signs, and wearing gold teeth. Stir crazy kids turn into thug wannabes. That is my theory and I'm sticking with it.

stupid

Most of my friends, whom I must say are very intelligent because that is a minimum requirement of people I call my friends, realize that I have absolutely no fucking patience for stupid people. What pisses me off is when stupid people read my blog and post stupid comments because 1. they're barely literate, misread everything I wrote, and make unjust assumptions about my character 2. they're a bunch of marginally educated backwards thinking racist assholes. And that's why I love the Moderate Comments feature in Blogger. Yes you stupid fuck, flame me all you want. Spend hours crafting your message to me and to the world. I wont publish it on this little piece of cyberspace I call mine.

ticket

So I've been carpooling to work with Simon the last while which means my car stays parked out on the street for days, sometimes up to a week. So on Friday I had to drive my car to work. When I got to my car there was a HUGE orange sticker on my rear passenger window that says my car will be towed if not moved, and there was a parking ticket on my windshield. Bastards in the house I parked in front of must've called the cops for parking more than 72 hours. That's what the ticket says anyways. It's a god damn public street with no parking restrictions. Get a life you assholes! The ticket is for only $25 but nowhere is it posted that you cannot park for more than 3 days. I'm trying to figure out a way to appeal this now. Unfortunately there's not a lot of advice online for violations in the teeny tiny town, I mean city, of Foster City. Dammit.

home

Last night I went to bed at 2am, which is bad but not unusual. What was unusual was hearing the alarm clock go off at 6am. We wake up to news radio because I like to know the weather, traffic, and which country is blowing up another country that day. This morning it was more news about Israel. What's annoying is that I always fall asleep again immediately after the alarm wakes me up and I incorporate the morning's news into a dream. My dream this morning involved packing up in a hotel in Israel and getting the hell out of the country. Our guide was a man wearing a black burka trying to put eye drops into his eye. I have no idea what that was about.

At 6:40 am I had to crawl out of bed and get Simon to SFO to catch his flight to Toronto. I couldn't open my left eye because my body loses partial function when I don't get my 8-9 hours of sleep. He drove there as I tried to will myself into consciousness. I got my eye halfway open by the time I had to drive myself back. I got home and got back into bed and woke up at 10:45am. I decided that I'd work at home today which was actually pretty awesome especially since I'd have to go to work in either pajamas, a halloween costume, or a prom dress tomorrow if I didn't do a load or two of laundry today. Unfortunately Simon's set up of the Slingbox hosed our wireless network so my connection on my laptop has been spotty. Thank you neighbour for lending me your unsecured wireless connection. I think I'll head to the gym and then get some groceries.

gym

Tonight was my first time back in the gym (gymnastics gym) in about 3.5 years. My how time flies. I dragged my friend Nathan along, same Nathan whom Eva dragged to run the Nike Women's marathon. He's good for that sort of thing :P. What I didn't count on was the 15 minutes of hard cardio running down the blue strip you see in the pictures - forwards, backwards, sideways, high knees, frog jumps. By that time I was about to throw up. Not used to cardio of that intensity. I took a breather (literally, like I had to take a hit from my inhaler thanks to this adult onset asthma of mine). After the mat hell, we did continuous jumps - tuck, pike, straddle, 1/1 turn, forwards and then backwards - on the tumble track (long black trampoline thing there) and ran back on the blue strip. Soon after that I had to park my fat ass on that stack of blue mats next to the fence there and silently dry heave while sobbing a bit inside trying not to lose my grilled McChicken sandwich and fries. After I recovered from the cardio warm up, the stretching helped me regain my strength (and pride) and I managed to pull off some aerials and for my finale a round-off, backhandspring (flip flop), back tuck on the 40 x 40 floor (left of the fence). Not bad for an old lady who packed on 10 lbs in the last 6 months. I think I'll be coming back and trying to get back into shape because like one of the other ex gymnasts there said, gymnastics works muscles that no other physical activity works.

BTW, this is unrelated but here is a really interesting article about some folks studying the effects of magic mushrooms. Now, I've had to go through the process of getting "human subjects" approval from my university and all I was doing was interviewing people. It took me three months of going back and forth and rewriting my informed consent form to get approval. I can't imagine how the hell they got approval to conduct that study but kudos to them for doing it. It reminds me of an article I read about the guy who invented ecstacy for therapeutic purposes. I totally agree with scientists who argue that our society demonizes the use of these drugs when there really is good reason to incorporate them into psychotherapy for certain patients under controlled conditions. If you haven't figured out by now I support the legalization of several substances. That doesn't make me a libertarian, hippy, or fanatical promotor of drug use. I just lean left and have my reasons for it.

self perpetuating cycle

I'm caught in a couple of self-perpetuating cycles. For example, there's no food at home, we're working late and since there's no food at home, might as well go out to eat instead of going to get groceries. Since we went out to eat again tonight, we have no food at home for tomorrow. I'm so sick of eating at restaurants. The other cycle involves spending so much time at work (or out eating) that I'm not getting to the gym. When I don't work out I get fat and tired which keeps me from finding the energy to go to the gym. So this is what happens when I live Simon's schedule. It sucks. It's absolutely unhealthy. I need my balance back and I'm almost considering taking yet another car from San Mateo to south bay so I can live my own schedule. I've got a million personal tasks to take care of and a list of personal goals for the summer, none of which I've touched because I spend about 3 waking hours at home each evening and I need part of that to do things like oh I dunno shower, brush my teeth and get dressed. I haven't even been able to do laundry because I don't want to wake the neighbours running the wash at 11pm. I think I'll have to go to work in pajamas on Friday due to lack of clean clothes.

In other news I'm exchanging emails with another landlord who responded to my housing wanted post on Craigslist. I'm getting some good responses from landlords who like to find their own tenants before posting their ad. Works well for both parties. This lady has a basement suite in Ravenna. She sent some photos and it's partially furnished. My main concern is that there aren't a whole lot of windows. Well, I'll see it in person hopefully next month to check it out. I printed my academic schdule and with this 10 week quarter system with breaks in between and long weekends, I can come back here every 2 to 7 weeks. Not bad huh? Probably just enough away time to focus on my studies but hopefully enough to keep my ties and some sort of a life here. I've already sold my big items - a standing mirror, my PDA and accessories, and my too-big not-so-portable laptop. Now I've gotta plan for the move, figure out what stuff I need to buy, and book an August flight to spec things out.

China duty

Holy cow I haven't blogged in a week. It was our week for China duty, meaning we have to take care of the company's employees visiting from the Shanghai office. This involves picking them up from corporate housing, taking them out to eat all meals including dinner, and taking them out on the weekend. Usually we try to get them out to do stuff they don't have a chance to do where they're from. For example, driving (in the company car in the parking lot at night). That was kinda scary but they got a huge kick out of it. One of them mentioned that the first thing he plans to do when he gets home is get a driver's license.

Friday night they also had their first taste of olives and vodka martinis. They were good with the martinis but not so fond of olives. They saw Simon devouring olives like they were chocolate or something and one guy had nothing to say but "I don't understand." That was pretty funny. Saturday we toured Stanford University and then went to Malibu Grand Prix so they could drive the go carts and play some games. That's where I had a first. My first try in a batting cage. In phys ed we never had to play baseball and I only ever attempted the sport once in junior high and I don't remember doing so well at it. This time, I hit 19 out of 20 balls. I was quite proud of myself. That night the guys also tried champagne and French food for the first time.

It's Sunday night and we're finally home. I feel like we've been out of town or something. Everything is as we left it a week ago. I can't wait to burn off all these restaurant food calories. Gonna check out an adult gymnastics class Tuesday night to start.

eating habits

A great article on globalization and the spread of bad anglo-saxon eating habits. Good read. Smaller portions, sit and enjoy your food, don't eat on the run are the tips they give. I wonder if that's the secret of Asians as well. But with our 10+ course family dinners, I'm not sure if we end up eating smaller portions or just healthier more balanced foods. On a side note, wouldn't it suck balls to find out you're one of those anonymous fat people they took a picture of for an article on obesity? The one in that article was really unflattering. Worse yet, imagine if it were video they took of you from the neck down for a news show.

HK films & BBQ

We recently discovered that one of our friends has a huge collection of HK films. Since he's not Chinese we never would've guessed. Friday night we watched two of those movies at our place. Today was Canada Day so we barbequed at another friend's house. After polishing off all the goods at our fusion BBQ, including the spam musubi, deep fried wontons, grilled veggies, kalbee, Filipino style noodles, calamari, drunken chicken, fried cheesesticks and I can't remember what else, we sat on our butts and watched two more HK movies. We thanked the hosts and continued the party at our house where we played Pass the Pigs and then two rounds of poker. Young and Dangerous played in the background while we did that (the ladies dominated with me winning round one and Candice taking round two). After we packed up the cards and chips we watched yet another movie. The last one being the Gods of Gambling. So that is a total of 6 HK flicks in a little over 24 hours. I sure picked up a lot of vocabularly watching those but nothing that you can repeat in front of old people. What a weird way to celebrate the Canada Day weekend. The birds are chirping, it must be time for bed.

Vancouver weekend

I'm going to keep my update brief because I'm past my bedtime again. So Friday we flew Qantas to Vancouver. They surprised us a meal of lamb, potatoes, peas, shrimp salad, cheese, crackers, and a pastry. It was delicious even though I had just eaten because, since when the heck do airlines serve food anymore? That night we went to Alex's pre-wedding BBQ to eat some more, and then headed to Guu Izakaya (Japanese tapas) to eat even more. Of course Guu Robson has a 1 hour wait even at 9pm so in the meantime we walked up to Mondo Gelato to have dessert before dinner.

Saturday we had a half day before Alex's and Candace's wedding so we went to Lynn Canyon. What I love as much as the suspension bridge itself is the warning sign with graphic drawings of the ways people have died messing around in the waters below. This one says, "in 1991 a hiker was trapped in this position for 5 days."

There's a series of these drawings of people who jumped and had their shoes go through their feet and end up around their legs, or people getting stuck in whirlpools and being mixed up in the water with rocks and lumber. It's kinda funny. Anyways, after that we had lunch at English Bay at the Boathouse deck.

The wedding itself was beautiful, simple, free of fuss, and full of fun. Open bar is always good too. That night we stumbled over to the McDonalds on Burrard at 2am to eat again.

The next morning we feasted yet again at Sandbar in Granville Island. It was an awesome weekend especially since we got to hang out with friends Joe and Jane the whole time. Now I'm fat and lethargic

Alex and Candace

Congrats to Alex and Candace! The ceremony was out on the patio on a beautiful sunny day with Vancouver's mountains in the background. It couldn't have been better.

unlikely friends

The reason I like doing things like Toastmasters and volunteering for various organizations is that you get the opportunity to meet people you wouldn't ordinarily encounter through work or those comfortable friendship circles. From my Toastmasters club I've met and befriended people with more life experience than me, who have lived in more continents than I have, and who enjoy such occupations as homeopathy, life coaching, bio-medical research, emergency preparedness, and public health to name just a few. It's been so awesome to listen to people from different walks of life tell their stories and share advice from a very different perspective than my own. I'm really not even sure how I'd be able to find such a unique opportunity again, especially if I transfer my membership to a univerity-based club where everyone's a student and pretty much share common experiences that aren't too far out of the ordinary. It would sure suck. Those of you who spend all your time working and hanging out with people you've known for years and years who share all the same values, goals, and interests, I challenge you to reach out and meet people from different walks of life. I guarantee you won't regret it and it'll make your life so much richer.

last speech

I am doing what will probably be my last speech with my Toastmasters club tomorrow night. It's also officer election night so I need to hand off my post as President and webmaster to some other very capable folks. After that I think I need a little time off from Toastmasters to do some reading (I'm finding myself at a loss for words and I think it's due to spending zero time reading academic uh...stuff. See what I mean?) I also need to work on submitting a rewrite of my thesis for publication which I promised myself I would try to do over the summer even though I don't know who the hell would want to publish my schlop. So much to do, so little time. With this full time gig, I can't seem to do anything else but work, commute, cook and clean. Not the kinda life I want and the reason I went back for more torture, I mean school.

I got home at a decent hour tonight and tried to haul my fat ass around a 3 mile loop in my neighbourhood and it felt like I was dragging a bag of rice (attached to my thighs). It took a pathetic 40 minutes (okay so I stopped to look at the baby Canada geese). Still, it was bad. Tomorrow no time to work out, Friday I'm off to Vancouver to stuff my face some more and milk this open bar at my friend's wedding for all it's worth. I'll get my life back on track next week. I hope. Dammit how do you people train for marathons and tris while working full time? Do you people not sleep? Do you have maids? You guys and gals put me to shame.

HNIC (S)

HNIC stands for Hockey Night in Canada but for us it was hockey night in Sunnyvale. Simon, still recovering from single handedly taking himself down at EZ-5 on Saturday night, got up late this morning. The 5 am call from Germany didn't help things. I will get up late as possible on any given day so I got up when he did, which meant we rolled into work at 11:15 am. Great start. Midday we took a 1.5 hour lunch to pick up his car from my mechanic friend. By 5:15 pm a goal had already been scored by Carolina so Shannph and I packed up our things to head to Bennigans where 7 of the other Canadians showed up to watch the game together. I don't want to talk about the game except to say that Carolina's goalie is from Edmonton originally. Who do your family and friends cheer for if you're playing on the opponent's team? Another hockey season over. I guess I'll be close enough to the border to head back north on weekends to watch hockey on TV next season. We were actually thinking to bring back a Slingbox to watch CBC from here. We've fiddling with one here so I can steal Simon's cable from Seattle and watch TV online.

mini quake

You know it's going to be a weird day when it starts at 5:30am with an earthquake. I felt the bed shaking and heard the TV in our room rattling against the wall. I was pretty excited since it's only the third one I've ever felt. I had already moved down here when the big Seattle one hit and shook Vancouver BC. I feel like it's the earth just cracking its back and preventing a big one. That's totally unscientific but that's my analogy. Of course, being a geek I went to the USGS web site to submit my report.

On the way to work we saw a trailer with a camel inside. No it was not an ugly long haired horse, it really was a camel and it didn't look happy to be riding down the 101. S/he was swaying back and forth in protest. I wonder where s/he was going.

The rest of day was kinda routine. I did manage to book our hotel for Vancouver (so we can get good and liquored up at Alex's wedding) and also booked our trip to Puerto Vallarta for a destination wedding. Sadly it'll be at a resort I went to 3 years ago so I won't be seeing anything new and I totally don't like making repeat vacations. Oh well. Speaking of weddings, if you saw I Do Let's Eat on Food Network featuring Jess and Jason, there was a close up of me in it. Yay I'm a star. Jess is Simon's first cousin so we were there for the whole family part of the wedding and there were a heck of a lot of camera crew and producers running around. I can't wait to see it.

nocturnal

It's been hard to blog now that I'm working full-time (summer thing). I have to fight my nocturnal tendencies in order to do the 9-5 (or more like 10-7) grind like everyone else. I've developed a bad habit of falling asleep on the couch after dinner and then not being able to sleep when I haul my ass up to bed.

I'm also battling my need to eat constantly because I haven't come prepared with snacks and the free Famous Amos cookies have lost their novelty. I visited Google for lunch the other day. That place is the site of an over-the-top feeding frenzy at lunch time. I had to valet my car because so many employees bring guests to their out of control free buffet of nearly every cuisine imaginable, and prepared really nicely too. They even have resident nutritionists on hand. In between meals there are areas better stocked than 7 Eleven and all free stuff too. I think the free food alone would be reason enough to work there. I don't even think sexual harrassment would phase me if I could eat like that every day. I'm so easily bribed by food it's kind of pathetic.

drunk ass

This weekend was my friend Ben's birthday. He's the one on the right below. However, the most memorable part of the evening happened at about 3am when we went to Peter's Cafe in Millbrae for some eats. My bald friend (who will remain unnamed for his privacy) was drunker than the birthday boy and it made for a good time (for the rest of us).

My bald headed friend telling his story (none of us can remember what his long ass story was about but it took a long time to tell).

Soon after, my friend began stomping on the floor. We couldn't see over the table so we asked Candice what the hell he was doing. Apparently he was flattening cutlery. No, we don't know why.

After all his story telling and cutlery stomping he gets all tuckered out and falls asleep sitting up

So we decide to build a tower of food on his head. It was fun, sort of like Jenga. See how many pieces you can add without waking him or having it all tumble down.

At this point there's french fries, pepper and now a piece of toast.

At this point, we've freakin' run out of food to put on his head. I thought the onion and fry behind the ear was a nice touch.

So the game turns from Jenga to Operation where you must now remove all the pieces without waking him.

It wasn't very challenging. My battery died here but after the last fry was removed we decided to use it to do some ketchup and mustard face painting. When he woke up we just told him that he went face first into his plate while he was sleeping to explain all the crap on his face. He seemed pretty convinced.

Top Chef

I'm a week behind in my reality TV watching, thank goodness for Tivo. We caught up on the finale of 24 on Sunday night and tonight we watched 2 hours of Top Chef. I was sad to see the emotional, lovable, all around good guy Dave go but I knew the producers would pit Tiffani against Harold after the novelty of Dave's constant crying wore off. You don't really think the judges make all the decisions now do you? If you think they do, you need to take media literacy 101, seriously. Tiffani v. Harold is the story of woman versus man, sly versus honest, daring versus steady. Of course good presides over evil and Harold wins. That's not to say all is fiction. I think the fact that Tiffani has a rotten attitude and flat out lied about giving Dave all this direction on the dessert, the most favoured dish, when in fact he was saving that recipe for himself if he were to make finals...I'll bet all of that had a whole lot of truth to it. I don't think the producers had to work terribly hard to create the bitch character in this show as Tiffani came out for that part in full force. I was sad that one of my favourites, Lee Anne, wasn't in the final three but I guess America can't handle having an Asian sister winning both of Bravo's big reality shows. In the end though, the story was well told. The moral of the story is simple: Be kind to people, be honest, be humble, be a team player, go with your gut, go with what you do best, stick up for good people and they'll stick up for you, don't backstab, don't take credit for other people's work, don't over complicate things and, finally, what comes around goes around. I cannot wait to try Harold's restaurant in Lower Manhatten and, while each restaurant has only one super star, it'd sure be cool to see Lee Anne and Dave there too. And if you're wondering how a chef spends $100,000 check this out.

weasel puke

I spent the weekend drinking too much and eating too much. Saturday night we went to Peter's Cafe in Millbrae which is open 24 hours. I really did not need an avocado cheeseburger and fries at 3am but it sure tasted good. I also had a taste of my friend's loco moco which was heavenly. Sunday I went to the art and wine fest down the street and it was just more eating. Simon came back from the UK and Germany with about 5 pounds of chocolate and a couple packs of Weasel Coffee, which according to the web site "has been eaten and regurgitated by rare Vietnamese weasels! Honestly! As you can imagine, the weasels' gastric goings-on radically alter the taste of the coffee and the result is a stronger, smoother, heady flavoured coffee that will appeal to serious connoisseurs of the mighty bean." I later found out it's made by the same company that makes Civet Coffee, which comes from Civet poo. "This feral feline prowls Sumatran coffee plantations at night, choosing to eat only the finest, ripest cherries. The stones (which eventually form coffee beans) are then collected by sifting through the Civet's number twos." Awesome. Now I'm waiting for my stupid files to transfer so I can reformat and sell this laptop. This is taking for freakin' ever. I hate doing IT shit like this.

eat

After a week of not seeing a whole lot of people, I decided to go out for drinks last night at Olive and then at Rye. A few too many it turned out. I spent the day today drinking Gatorade and watching Trading Spaces and What Not to Wear. I felt so guilty about doing nothing I decided to enter this Go List contest on TripAdvisor. This week's theme is budget so here's my contributions. Now I've finally got a list of my favourite Vancouver restaurants and sites written down somewhere.

Wen Ho Lee

This won't make up for the suffering he endured, but it helps. I just hope there is money left after paying back his legal fees for that witch hunt.

Photoshop

CIMG3793copy-artistic-sumi-e
Originally uploaded by vau604.

I just spent a bunch of time re-learning Photoshop. I wish I used it more often. Now I've downgraded to Photoshop Elements because I haven't the skills to use CS anyways. Check out the magic of the magnetic lasso tool (used to delete my background including some dude who looked like Napolean Dynamite eating chips behind me) and the Sumi-e filter. With all the blurring you wouldn't notice that I had a stupid infection on my right eyelid that whole weekend. It took great effort to try to open that eye extra wide so I wouldn't look like I'm winking in every photo.

I think if I were better at stuff like doing make up, I could've corrected for that, but I suck at that like I suck at doing my own hair. So before graduation, I got my hair done as a hair model during a class at L Salon. The owner and instructor did most of my haircut since my student designer was a bit new so effectively I scored a $110 haircut for $20. Too bad it looks like shit when you don't know how the hell to blowdry and style it yourself. How come other women know how to do these things and I don't?

weird day

I had nothing to do today. Well not nothing, I have a long list of chores and errands that have been on hold all semester but I didn't really have any appointments other than a little meeting in the evening with the future president of my Toastmasters club. Having nothing scheduled really makes the minutes and hours slip through my fingers. I wrote a long letter challenging the decision to deny tenure to a prof at my school, typed up some class notes, did some Toastmasters stuff, exchanged some emails with a potential landlord in Seattle (fingers crossed) and next thing I knew it was 4pm. And when that happens I screw up my entire meal schedule. I had two soft boiled eggs for breakfast at 10.30am, a bowl of dumplings at 4pm, some Cadbury's chocolate, and a bowl of gai lan (Chinese broccoli) and a mug of hot Ovaltine for dinner at 10pm. Normally I eat a hell of a lot more than that but I just sort of forgot. Good thing though since I also failed to get my fat ass to the gym. But still I hope I don't eat this way when I move out and eat alone. The routine of making dinner every night for Simon kinda keeps us on schedule and away from consuming crap for dinner. When no one's around, like this week for example, I will eat eggs for any meal. If not that then cheese, mac and cheese if I feel like boiling water. Sometimes having a routine is good.

week off

So it's exam week in high school so I have a lightened tutoring schedule and haven't started my summer job at TeleNav yet so I've taken the opportunity to do some hardcore organizing, like the paper that has accumulated over the last 6 years. It took me a solid day to sift through my boxes of paper. I've also started posting to Seattle Craigslist in the housing wanted section in hopes that a landlord will look there first for super clean tenants before posting their unit for rent. So far I've gotten legit emails from a couple with a newborn wanting to rent a room in the SAME suite (that won't help me in my quest to average 9 hours of sleep per night), a 50-year-old bible-thumping Asian woman (I guess my cussing and explicit mention of no bible thumpers went over her head), and a woman managing real estate for another landlord who instantly tried to recruit me into this W0rld Leadership Gr0up scam (aka W0rld Financial Gr0up, W0rld Lending Gr0up etc etc). I'm not sure how people can still be duped into these stupid multi-level pyramid recruiting schemes. They take registration fees and force you to pay to go to stupid seminars and promise you will get rich if you can share the "benefit" with all your friends and family. I did a little bit of Googling and they have their agents or associates or whatever going to all the anti-scam sites to rebut all the explanations of how they are scammers. I'm not terribly surprised that most of the folks who get suckered fall for the "no experience required" bit because they have barely a high school education. Didn't you people learn your lesson from Amw@y in the 1980s?

allergies

I don't know how many trees I've killed blowing my nose now. I don't even feel like going out tonight even though it's a long weekend and I'm sitting around here with nothing to do. Simon mentioned that he heard on John Tesh's radio show that humming a tune helps to clear the sinuses but it doesn't work when it feels like yours are filled with cement. And what the hell is he doing listening to John Tesh's stupid show anyway? The only thing that helped me sleep last night was laying in bed with a bottle of Miller High Life which I used to wash down 2 Benadryls after taking one more huff on the inhaler and rubbing my throat with Vicks Vaporub. I got up to brush my teeth after that and reflected on how fucked up it is to be drinking malt liquor in bed. I'm sure John Tesh would not approve.

tenure for Vergara

photo taken from http://www.myspace.com/egambol
OK one more thing I'll remember about this commencement was the grassroots efforts put forth by the students in the Asian American Studies yesterday. There is a very kind, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and all around wonderful professor who is being denied tenure in that department and his colleagues and students are fighting to have that reversed. You see, professors join on as "assistant professors" in a "tenure track" position. After three years or so, you put together a huge application for tenure which includes letters of recommendation, student evals, lists of publications etc. If all goes well you get promoted to associate prof and you're pretty much set in terms of job security for life. If you are denied tenure, you have to leave the school the following year and in my mind it's pretty much like getting fired. It's a pretty weird process that I'm just learning about as a rookie in the academic world. Anyways, Professor Benito Vergara was denied tenure which is outrageous. The guy really helped me out when I got started on my thesis and was looking for support from the Asian American Studies department. I was floored when I heard of the denial but I was really impressed by the students yesterday who chanted Tenure for Vergara each time our school's president spoke. When it came time to collect our diplomas, they marched with a big poster stating the same message. Way to get the message out to thousands watching the commencement ceremony. I'm going to go write a letter of support for him now. If you are reading this, know of prof Vergara, and want to help, please check out the following links:

http://www.myspace.com/tenureforvergara
http://www.petitiononline.com/vergara/
http://www.maniwalaya.org/

commencement '06

I am soooo ceremonied out. Most memorable piece of advice from my department graduation came from a prof that reminded us to always wear sunblock, floss your teeth and have lots of safe sex. Our keynote speaker at our school-wide ceremony this afternoon was the then assistant to Leo Ryan who went down to Jonestown South Africa to investigate a cult led by Jim Jones. Jackie Speier was shot 5 times and left for dead for 20 hours. Leo Ryan was shot dead on the tarmack as they attempted to fly out. She told the graduates (not in these words but I was too tired and delirious to remember them exactly) to live their lives as if they knew they wouldn't fail. Neil Young (yes the singer who is Canadian by the way) and his wife were also given honorary doctorates for founding the Bridge School for young people with disabilities. The only other thing I'll probably remember was seeing one of the deans hood one of the undergrad hood recipients. It was broadcast on a HUGE screen and it looked like he was going to kiss her on the lips and the whole crowd of students was like HOLY SHIT, HOLD UP! He ended up going for the cheek but it didn't look that way on the approach.

self-diagnosing

I'm going to bitch again about the health care in this country. I used to get strep throat and various flus a lot when I was little and that meant frequent trips to the local walk in medical clinic near my home. All we did was present my BC Care Card and I was in and out of there in a flash, no appointment and often at weird hours of the evening when normal doctors offices are closed. Now I'm sitting here on a Monday morning with an eyelid that has been swollen since Saturday morning. I've had eye infections before that usually just go away but this one got better towards the end of the day and worse in the morning after sleeping. So yeah, it's normal business hours and my medical clinic has no more available appointments for today, so I'm searching both Google and the Blue Cross site for walk-in clinics.

Alas there's no such thing outside of San Francisco. You either make an appointment or go to the hospital emergency with something that better be urgent. There is nothing in between, no after hours clinics, no walk-in clinics, nothing. Self-diagnosis is said to be dangerous and you should see a doctor bla bla bla, but what the hell are you supposed to do if the doctor can't see you? So http://www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/eye-problems.htm is my last resort until I can see someone tomorrow at my medical center which is the only listed "urgent care" facility in town. Urgent my ass.

Bay to Breakers

I was so excited about doing Bay to Breakers. Seeing all the costumes and performances along the way I think would be well worth the getting up before 8am. But now it is raining out and it will rain all weekend. That means I would have to deal with two of my least favourite things - getting up early and being in the rain. I also managed to get in a collision with my coffee table yesterday and my toe is still a bit swollen. Looks like I might not do the run afterall. Dammit.

skills

So I was listening to my friend Till's band Lapin Meta (download their MP3s there). And unlike a lot of little bands, they're actually really awesome and quite unique. I especially like "I Think We All Should Disagree." It kinda got me thinking I sure wish I had developed some musical skills when I was younger. I mean I had one of the best music programs in my elementary school where we learned guitar in grades 6 and 7. Then in junior high we had to take band and I chose drums and flute. Unfortunately, I never really kept with it because band practice was too early in the morning and I quit and now I can't even remember how to read music aside from recognizing quarter and whole notes. I think what I really wanted to learn at the time was piano but it's expensive and I was tied up doing gymnastics. But hey, I guess it's never too late to learn something new. Easier to learn an instrument at age thirty than to pick up gymnastics right? Anyone wanna exchange music lessons for gymnastics coaching?

studio

Here's the reason why I will likely have to live alone in Seattle. I'm just not normal enough.

gown

Oh yeah so I picked up my cap and gown today ($60 rental, what a fucking rip off. I think I need to start a cap and gown rental company). I was delighted to find that I did not get the smallest size robe. Nope. I got the 4'11" - 5'0" robe as the staff at the library laughed because I told them I was "five nothing." The smallest robe, however, is 4'7." Hell yeah, I didn't have to get the smallest one. However, I did discuss with my friend how shafted we get as professionals in America who are female, ethnic minority, and non U.S. citizen. Talk about triple glass ceiling. I reminded her that I get quadruple shafted for also being short. Who takes me seriously and sees me as an authority? Nobody!

semester end

It has been a hellish week even though I successfully defended my thesis last semester. (Yay) One of my two jobs at school is running a writing lab for the undergrads in my department where I help students polish their papers and check for APA formatting and... it's crunch time. Final papers are due and that means I have a line of students waiting for help.

After seeing some of the work students cobble together and call a college level paper, I can see why they're trying to force high school students to pass exit exams in this state. While the first cohort to go through this will suffer the most and it's a particular challenge for new English speakers, ultimately I think it's needed (at least for those who have reached a certain level of English proficiency). There are obviously students managing to graduate and squeeze into university via jr. college transfer who can barely construct a sentence and probably shouldn't have passed high school English. I think an exit exam will help administrators hold schools accountable for ensuring their students graduate with basic math and English skills. I know a high schooler who took the exam already and she claimed it was ridiculously easy. Anyways, I guess I'm just bitching because it's frustrating to see students go through the system having learned squat in English class. A select few would also get an F for effort and work ethic. That student in my friend's class spelled his own name wrong AGAIN for god's sake.

Many of the international students, on the other hand, have flourished over the semester and put together papers with depth and incredible organization. My hats are off to them for coming to a new country on their own, learning a new language, and succeeding in school. I don't think I could've done it at their age.

okay. enough complaining. I'm gonna go watch some more Bobby Lee skits on You Tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYTbpCTphdc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbC2DlC0XDY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE4JSQ1lunQ&search=madtv%20bobby%20lee

runnin'

Just wanted to say congrats to my friend Will who just finished his first half ironman triathlon. His blog has some awesome pics and answers questions that non runners might have about when you eat, pee, and poo during a 7 hour race. I had no idea that some of you get buck ass naked during transition. Very educational. I also read a bit of Merrill's blog. I also had no idea some of you guys pee WHILE riding your bike. Do chicks do that too? What do you do if you get some on the other competitors?

my fun weekend

I had an action packed weekend including our department's year end party and impromptu karaoke after party on Friday night, a beach party at Great America all day Saturday, dinner at Korea House after that and on Sunday we did brunch, roller blading the Bay trail, and watching the hockey game at BJ's(no pics of that, sorry).

Oh yeah, Sharks fans, booing the Canadian anthem is neither classy nor cool. It's disrespectful. Shame on you. In fact, your two best players CheeChoo and Thornton, whom you love so much, are Canadian. You rejects were booing the top players of your own team. Oilers fans, you better take the high road. No booing!


Chul and Brent, a couple of our favourite profs at a karaoke in J Town after Bash. Yes that is a white man from the midwest singing Korean.

And out to Great America the next day

It was a beach party. That's Christopher Lawrence spinning back there, along with Donald Glaude and Mark Farina who played earlier that day.

And Korea House for dinner yummy

Check out this awesome egg sack we found in our seafood soup. Candice found it pretty tasty. This bad boy would be great on Fear Factor.

hold up

Three 13 and 14 year olds from Surrey (hehe) held up 7 banks in the greater Vancouver area. Some balls they got there. We thought shop lifting was a pretty big deal when we were that age. Thing is if I were a teller, I wouldn't want to take any chances but still it's not likely that they'd have a gun even if they are from Surrey. Guns are rather hard to come by up there (it's not Texas). I'm surprised they were able to get away with this many robberies before getting caught. I mean just seeing a group of boys that age at a bank is suspicious enough, you'd think they'd get caught on the second or even first attempt. Every time I go home to visit there are new tales of outrageous crimes, from drive bys to club shootings, hit and runs to home invasions. It makes me wonder if Vancouver's crime rate really is increasing or if it's just selective reporting and that mean world syndrome.

On an unrelated note, I am getting shit for sleep lately and it is driving me nuts. When we are blessed with beautiful weather I also get punished with allergies because apparently God, or whatever, hates me. I am starting to go through the medicine cabinet to grab fistfulls of any sort of pill sitting in a container with a label that says not to take it if I plan to operate heavy machinery. And I still cannot sleep. One night I decided to have a glass of port wine to knock myself out a bit but I'm allergic to most red wines including, as it turns out, the one I drank. The result was even more nasal congestion and some asthma. I sometimes think about doing a DIY tracheotomy just so I can breathe without keeping my mouth open all night.

walking

It seems I can't walk from the edge of my campus to my building without getting approached by a long line of people who want to:

- give me a Gideon's bible
- tell me about the Socialist Party or whatever their organization is
- get me to come to some student party to raise money for whatever
- vote for some student government thing even though I don't know the role of student government or the platforms of any of the candidates

I used to be sympathetic since the shittiest job I ever had was coercing people to sign up for a The Bay or Canadian Tire credit card and it carried a quota. But this was a job in a store where people expect these things to happen. The people above are doing what they do because they want to tell people about their cause. I wish they used less annoying ways to do it though. I have to say "no thanks" or "not interested" about 5 times everytime I'm coming to school or leaving it. I've made a game of dodging anyone holding a clipboard. It kinda just adds to my mental clutter to have to deal with them. I want to be able to walk uninterrupted and hear the birds sing and enjoy the view of the grassy quad in the sunshine.