4.14.2003
I just realized I'm a terribly unhappy blogger. I should say something positive. I know... Better Luck Tomorrow. Now that was a kick ass film. Way to portray Asians sans the stereotypes -- docile, nerdy, 2 dimensional geeks (who never land the girl) and chicks who like to lay half naked on import cars. Refreshing to see edgy intelligent Asian characters with depth. I wonder where the heck Justin Lin got the budget to do this film, there was not a hint of amateurishness in it.
God damn it happened. The dreaded "Vanessa, can I see you in my office for a sec?", followed by uncomfortable shuffling of paper and the all in one breath like they taught us in HR training, "you know there's some organization changes going on right now. Some positions are being eliminated and one of them is yours". Since this has happened to me before. I've daydreamed about really dramatic things I can do on the day I get canned... like flip over my desk and scream "then why did I work til 11:30pm last night for you unappreciative *&%$?". But then I realize that my desk is attached to a cubical...and so it'd be real tough to flip over. And if I could, no one would see me anyways. hmmm actually thinking about these Dilbert-like situations kinda cheers me up. hahahaha. Job hunting is kind of exciting at first but after 9.5 months it can realy suck. Hopefully it won't take as long this go round.
4.07.2003
First there was war, then SARS and now I'm at risk of being part of the 7% reduction in workforce (AGAIN). Nothing is for certain yet, but the lady processing my green card mysteriously dropped out of the Exchange listings with no warning, no handover of work, no good bye. Ditto for the guy who recruited me. What the hell is next? You know, high tech = large salaries but hard (really hard) work often goes unnoticed, loyalty is nil, and to the company you're just a "headcount". I think I need a job with a little less anonymity, a little more love and work days that end at 5:30pm, not 8:30 plus weekends. Burn out and frustration at age 27 couldn't be healthy. How am I going to last another 30 years? Is academia, perhaps, where I really belong? or is university politics just as bad? Is that possible? Does it matter so much when you get a fat pension and 2 month vacations and a whole slew of students who admire you? Well whatever...still need to pay the bills til I can find time and money to go back for more school anyways. grind grind grind...
3.19.2003
Holy cow, we're at war again. This time I'm living in the US. It's a whole lot scarier on this side of the fence than at home in Canada. There's armed guards at bridges and airports. Super paranoid people were even duct taping their windows. Man, if I even get the sniffles I'm going to go checked out to make sure I'm not the first victim of a bio-terror attack. :(
Back from Orlando finally. I was gone 11 days and it's one of those places you tour and you kinda don't need to go back to ever again. The reality of life in Orlando is a far cry from the artificial perfection inside the gates of Disney -- cars that don't stop for you even when there's a big flashing walk signal, greasy sales people pushing time shares EVERYWHERE (even from our hotel lobby and inside the McDonalds), cab drivers with an open can of some strange Jim Beam-in-a-can concoction in his cup holder -- you get the picture. I'll boil down the vacation portion of my trip to some key highlights and low lights.
Highlights:
- the Medieval times show was surprisingly entertaining and you sure as hell don't go hungry with their feast-sized portions of chicken and ribs (no veggies though unless you count the mush in the vegetable soup). The story of love and corruption was a simple one but it was kinda cool to watch people knock each other off horses. The most exciting part though was watching to see if they could scoop away the horse shit in time before a guy fell in that direction during a staged sword fight. Be sure to get a coupon from their website to get $5 off the $45 entry fee for the 2 hour show. Oh, and the tickets from the timeshare guy also cost $45 so you wouldn't save any money from him anyway.
- The Space Mountain ride at Magic Kingdom. It's not huge, nor does it go upside down, or faster than 30 miles an hour for that matter. But I've never been on a roller coaster indoors in the dark before. You don't know your next turn and that makes it actually kind of thrilling
- Fast passes at both the Disney and Universal Parks. What a great idea. You can pick a ride and take a ticket thing out of the machine. It's time stamped with a half hour range of time that you can come back to get on the ride without lining up. Huge time saver.
- Islands of Adventure rides - These were the best rides ever. My favourite, though, was the Spiderman ride. You get these 3-D glasses and get into this car that takes you through a comic book adventure. Unlike most rides, this thing engages all your senses. Bad guys jump in your lap and shake the entire car. Then they throw fire (and you feel the heat on your face) and ice (yup, you get a splash). At the end you take a really scary free fall (well you're not really but the wind and image of a building firing upwards makes you feel like youre falling) and then Spiderman comes to your rescue. That part actually made me a little motion sick but it was exhilirating, even the second time. Dueling Dragons, Hulk and Jurassic Park were also awesome.
- Shopping. Tax there is 6.5% and the Premium Outlets have a tonne of stuff. East coast stores always seem to have better selection and there were a lot of small sizes(because there sure aren't a lot of small people out in Orlando). We hauled back the most stuff from Kenneth Cole, Max Studio, Banana Repulic, and Nike. Simon and I actually had to buy another suitcase (real cheap from one of the hundreds of souvenir stores lining the highway).
OK now for some low lights.
- So about that Medieval Times show. There was this peculiar sign outside the building that said "If you have allergies please take appropriate precautions". We're thinking, maybe they have peanuts in their food? Well no. As I demonstrated during the show, some people might not realize they're allergic to horses!!
- Magic Kingdom park at Disney World. I don't think they've updated this place since 1979 or so. I thought there'd at least be a couple cool rides but Space Mountain was about the most thrilling one there. Everything else was just a moving story book type ride where you sit in a car and listen to a story as you move past mechanical Disney characters. The Peter Pan one was kind of memorable because you get the perspective of a child flying over a town but that's about it. Oh, and the Asian dolls in It's a Small World still have those exaggerated slanty eyes. If, like me, you've studied any sort of media ideology/deconstruction and the whole Disney thing makes you ill, I'd recommend skipping this and going to the MGM park instead. It's the newest one with some cool rides like Tower of Terror. Remember, each park is $50 a pop unless you get the multi day park hopper pass which costs a big wad of money.
- The promised free shuttle to and from the theme parks. From our hotel, which was further from the parks than it looked on a map, the shuttle took almost an hour to stop at every other hotel on the highway before pulling into the Disney park. And there was no shuttle to Universal. Pick your hotel wisely, it's worth the extra bucks to stay closer so you don't need to take a cab.
- The most memorable lowlight for me happened in the restroom at McDonalds where we ate breakfast before hitting the parks. First of all I must mention that one of the first things I noticed was that there are not a whole lot of non-white or black people in Orlando in general. That alone makes me uneasy but this incident took the cake. I was washing my hands in the rest room when this old white lady turned to me and said "oh, are you performing over at the Splendid China?"!!! I'm thinking, holy shit, are the only Asians you see the ones serving you chop suey at the local Chinese-American restaurant or spinning plates at some cheezy Asian-themed show? I was so shocked by what she said that I simply could not spit back a nasty come back. I guess my really sarcastic "no" was not enough to make any impact on her because after I left the bathroom, I heard her say to her friends, quite as a matter of factly, "see the lady over there. I was asking her if she performed at the Splendid China but she didn't"
Highlights:
- the Medieval times show was surprisingly entertaining and you sure as hell don't go hungry with their feast-sized portions of chicken and ribs (no veggies though unless you count the mush in the vegetable soup). The story of love and corruption was a simple one but it was kinda cool to watch people knock each other off horses. The most exciting part though was watching to see if they could scoop away the horse shit in time before a guy fell in that direction during a staged sword fight. Be sure to get a coupon from their website to get $5 off the $45 entry fee for the 2 hour show. Oh, and the tickets from the timeshare guy also cost $45 so you wouldn't save any money from him anyway.
- The Space Mountain ride at Magic Kingdom. It's not huge, nor does it go upside down, or faster than 30 miles an hour for that matter. But I've never been on a roller coaster indoors in the dark before. You don't know your next turn and that makes it actually kind of thrilling
- Fast passes at both the Disney and Universal Parks. What a great idea. You can pick a ride and take a ticket thing out of the machine. It's time stamped with a half hour range of time that you can come back to get on the ride without lining up. Huge time saver.
- Islands of Adventure rides - These were the best rides ever. My favourite, though, was the Spiderman ride. You get these 3-D glasses and get into this car that takes you through a comic book adventure. Unlike most rides, this thing engages all your senses. Bad guys jump in your lap and shake the entire car. Then they throw fire (and you feel the heat on your face) and ice (yup, you get a splash). At the end you take a really scary free fall (well you're not really but the wind and image of a building firing upwards makes you feel like youre falling) and then Spiderman comes to your rescue. That part actually made me a little motion sick but it was exhilirating, even the second time. Dueling Dragons, Hulk and Jurassic Park were also awesome.
- Shopping. Tax there is 6.5% and the Premium Outlets have a tonne of stuff. East coast stores always seem to have better selection and there were a lot of small sizes(because there sure aren't a lot of small people out in Orlando). We hauled back the most stuff from Kenneth Cole, Max Studio, Banana Repulic, and Nike. Simon and I actually had to buy another suitcase (real cheap from one of the hundreds of souvenir stores lining the highway).
OK now for some low lights.
- So about that Medieval Times show. There was this peculiar sign outside the building that said "If you have allergies please take appropriate precautions". We're thinking, maybe they have peanuts in their food? Well no. As I demonstrated during the show, some people might not realize they're allergic to horses!!
- Magic Kingdom park at Disney World. I don't think they've updated this place since 1979 or so. I thought there'd at least be a couple cool rides but Space Mountain was about the most thrilling one there. Everything else was just a moving story book type ride where you sit in a car and listen to a story as you move past mechanical Disney characters. The Peter Pan one was kind of memorable because you get the perspective of a child flying over a town but that's about it. Oh, and the Asian dolls in It's a Small World still have those exaggerated slanty eyes. If, like me, you've studied any sort of media ideology/deconstruction and the whole Disney thing makes you ill, I'd recommend skipping this and going to the MGM park instead. It's the newest one with some cool rides like Tower of Terror. Remember, each park is $50 a pop unless you get the multi day park hopper pass which costs a big wad of money.
- The promised free shuttle to and from the theme parks. From our hotel, which was further from the parks than it looked on a map, the shuttle took almost an hour to stop at every other hotel on the highway before pulling into the Disney park. And there was no shuttle to Universal. Pick your hotel wisely, it's worth the extra bucks to stay closer so you don't need to take a cab.
- The most memorable lowlight for me happened in the restroom at McDonalds where we ate breakfast before hitting the parks. First of all I must mention that one of the first things I noticed was that there are not a whole lot of non-white or black people in Orlando in general. That alone makes me uneasy but this incident took the cake. I was washing my hands in the rest room when this old white lady turned to me and said "oh, are you performing over at the Splendid China?"!!! I'm thinking, holy shit, are the only Asians you see the ones serving you chop suey at the local Chinese-American restaurant or spinning plates at some cheezy Asian-themed show? I was so shocked by what she said that I simply could not spit back a nasty come back. I guess my really sarcastic "no" was not enough to make any impact on her because after I left the bathroom, I heard her say to her friends, quite as a matter of factly, "see the lady over there. I was asking her if she performed at the Splendid China but she didn't"
1.30.2003
Once upon a time I had more than an ounce of artistic ability. Now I'd be lucky to draw a recognizable cartoon figure. What the hell happened? Now I have to debate whether or not to pay someone to develop a web site for my dad's little entrepreneurial venture, whereas ten years ago I would have taken up the challenge with the energy and determination of a kindergartener about to tackle a jungle gym. Ah shit.
1.12.2003
Procrastination is sure a funny thing. All day I long to crawl into bed, yet as night falls and midnight nears, I develop an attachment to this stupid box that I already spend 10 hours staring at each day. My eyelids get heavy, my body is exhausted and still I cannot force myself to make my way to the bed I so longed for just 3 hours ago. There's really no importance to this post. I'm just procrastinating because I have a lot of work to do before bed but would rather sit here and write about nothing.
Fellow Canucks fans, we lost 3-0 to (I am still in shock) the Sharks. I've never watched my home team win a game and this time I thought it was a slam dunk. People say it's vain to think that your presence as an individual has an affect on the fate of anyone, but call me vain. I think it must be my fault they lost. I've never watched so little hockey due to my lack of satellite cable and look how well the Canucks have done this season. I must be to blame. Sorry guys!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)