On rotation: Warning Sign - Coldplay
A warning sign
I missed the good part then I realized
I started looking and the bubble burst
I started looking for excuses
Come on in
I've got to tell you what a state I'm in
I've got to tell you in my loudest tones
That I started looking for a warning sign
When the truth is
I miss you
Yeah the truth is
That I miss you so
A warning sign
You came back to haunt me and I realized
That you were an island and I passed you by
And You were an island to discover
Come on in
I've got to tell you what a state I'm in
I've got to tell you in my loudest tones
That I started looking for a warning sign
When the truth is
I miss you
Yeah the truth is
That I miss you so
And I'm tired
I should not have let you go
So I crawl back into your open arms
Yes I crawl back into your open arms
And I crawl back into your open arms
Yes I crawl back into your open arms
Apr 27, 2004
Apr 19, 2004
Weekend Review
Haven't done this review thing in a while. That's not to say I haven't been out much. A while back, I finally got to go to Chez Panisse, which was great. Charlie Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen was pretty good too.
It's funny how good food is a form of escapism in itself. For a little while, a period of a meal, you can forget about your stress. Or if not, it seems a little bit more manageable. The world seems a little more structured. Things actually go your way, you ask for food, and you get it. For a little while at least. I guess that's why it's escapism, because it's temporary.
This past Saturday, our whole crew went up to Raffles Cafe in Fremont. There were 12 of us. The food was decent, a little more homestyle than Banana Leaf, the other Malaysian/Singaporean restaurant we frequent. However, the service was abysmal. This restaurant seriously needs to rethink its service. It prepares a meal at a time, meaning that after we ordered, we had to wait an hour and a half, watching the food trickle out for our neighbouring table (which also happened to be a large group). Furthermore, the satay appetizers we ordered never appeared, we had to ask thrice before we were finally told that they were out. In the end, we cancelled about a quarter of the dishes because we were tired of waiting, and not having your food come out two and a half hours after ordering seemed rather ridiculous. Food wasn't bad, some dishes were pretty good. But the service gives this place a 2/5.
On Sunday, I had to swing by San Francisco on an errand, which seemed to be excuse enough to try out Cesar's tapas bar in Berkeley. I should have figured it'd be rather upscale since it was next door to Chez Panisse. Most patrons were well dressed, although it was casual enough for a few sweatshirt and jeans types, but most definitely not a college crowd as I was expecting. Food was quite good, but overpriced for the very small plates. I guess you're paying for ambience here.
morcilla & mushrooms: morcilla being a spanish blood sausage. real black and ugly looking, but good tasting.
batter-fried asparagus with lemon allioli: perfect texture, but rather bland, and way overpriced at $6.75 for 4 spears.
orange & avocado salad with orange-red wine vinaigrette: ugly looking green blob, but very good. recommended.
a plate of jamon serrano with almond stuffed olives: sliced dried ham, flavour reminiscent of the chinese ham they put in soups. quite good, but salty.
gambas a la plancha: salted and fried shrimp, like chinese pepper/salt shrimp. good, but way overpriced at $9.75 for six shrimp. Overall quite good, but only 3/5 given the price.
Haven't done this review thing in a while. That's not to say I haven't been out much. A while back, I finally got to go to Chez Panisse, which was great. Charlie Palmer's Dry Creek Kitchen was pretty good too.
It's funny how good food is a form of escapism in itself. For a little while, a period of a meal, you can forget about your stress. Or if not, it seems a little bit more manageable. The world seems a little more structured. Things actually go your way, you ask for food, and you get it. For a little while at least. I guess that's why it's escapism, because it's temporary.
This past Saturday, our whole crew went up to Raffles Cafe in Fremont. There were 12 of us. The food was decent, a little more homestyle than Banana Leaf, the other Malaysian/Singaporean restaurant we frequent. However, the service was abysmal. This restaurant seriously needs to rethink its service. It prepares a meal at a time, meaning that after we ordered, we had to wait an hour and a half, watching the food trickle out for our neighbouring table (which also happened to be a large group). Furthermore, the satay appetizers we ordered never appeared, we had to ask thrice before we were finally told that they were out. In the end, we cancelled about a quarter of the dishes because we were tired of waiting, and not having your food come out two and a half hours after ordering seemed rather ridiculous. Food wasn't bad, some dishes were pretty good. But the service gives this place a 2/5.
On Sunday, I had to swing by San Francisco on an errand, which seemed to be excuse enough to try out Cesar's tapas bar in Berkeley. I should have figured it'd be rather upscale since it was next door to Chez Panisse. Most patrons were well dressed, although it was casual enough for a few sweatshirt and jeans types, but most definitely not a college crowd as I was expecting. Food was quite good, but overpriced for the very small plates. I guess you're paying for ambience here.
morcilla & mushrooms: morcilla being a spanish blood sausage. real black and ugly looking, but good tasting.
batter-fried asparagus with lemon allioli: perfect texture, but rather bland, and way overpriced at $6.75 for 4 spears.
orange & avocado salad with orange-red wine vinaigrette: ugly looking green blob, but very good. recommended.
a plate of jamon serrano with almond stuffed olives: sliced dried ham, flavour reminiscent of the chinese ham they put in soups. quite good, but salty.
gambas a la plancha: salted and fried shrimp, like chinese pepper/salt shrimp. good, but way overpriced at $9.75 for six shrimp. Overall quite good, but only 3/5 given the price.
Apr 17, 2004
Here is an interesting synchronicity. Maybe there is something about July... (cue in Travolta and Newton-John's conclusion of "Summer Nights")
Addendum: someone's blog template doesn't allow linking to individual entries because they're not named. You'll have to manually scroll down to the April 10th entry on the second link.
Addendum: someone's blog template doesn't allow linking to individual entries because they're not named. You'll have to manually scroll down to the April 10th entry on the second link.
Apr 14, 2004
Apr 13, 2004
Back to Reality
Main Entry: pro?found
Pronunciation: pr&-'faund, prO-
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French profond deep, from Latin profundus, from pro- before + fundus bottom -- more at PRO-, BOTTOM
1 a : having intellectual depth and insight b : difficult to fathom or understand
2 a : extending far below the surface b : coming from, reaching to, or situated at a depth : DEEP-SEATED (a profound sigh)
3 a : characterized by intensity of feeling or quality b : all encompassing : COMPLETE (profound sleep)
- pro?found?ly /-'faun(d)-lE/ adverb
- pro?found?ness /-'faun(d)-n&s/ noun
I think everyone desires depth in their lives. Well, I can only speak for myself really. Somewhere deep inside I'm looking for a level of profundity in my relationships with people, the things I do, the experiences I find myself in. I prefer a few close friends than many shallow friendships. A part of me chides myself about meaningless work while the other side of me thoroughly enjoys it. It's the same part that disapproves of cheap thrills while the other half is looking for the next adrenaline rush. Generally, the other half tries to dismiss him as raising a ruckus. Who needs all the drama of internal conflict anyways? Isn't it just easier to have things clean and simple and open to all, rather than buried in one deep mess? One of my friends describes life as being inherently trivial, but even that indicates that there's a desire for something more. Each person wants to be individual and special, but in reality everyone's the same. I think everyone desires depth in their lives.
Toronto was fun this past weekend. The idea of friendship popped up a lot.
Had lunch on Friday with a bunch of old high school friends. It's been a long time since I've seen many of them. We were all pretty similar back then. We each had our own slant, but we really weren't that different from each other. Now it seems like we're worlds apart.
Babysat on Saturday for the first time. Our relationship started off pretty rough, she didn't want anything to do with me. She warmed up eventually. I'd like to think that it's something about me, but I suspect it's really because I was the only guy around. I was the one with the bottle. In the end, when she fell asleep on me, I couldn't help wondering how she'd grow up. I pray that she'd be wise and kind and compassionate and beautiful. Like her mom, but even better. I wonder what it's like to be a parent. It must be tough seeing all the shit in the world and just praying that you can teach this one right.
Besides that there was a lot of time just hanging out with friends over the easter weekend. Time at church together, eating, drinking. I felt just at home, with my family. This is what I'm used to, this is where I fit in, just like everyone else.
On the flight home, for the first time in a while, I drew up a list. People and things to pray for. It was longer than I expected. It had quite a few things I had forgotten about, but I guess I was reminded of this weekend. People and things that I have ignored for a long time, just because I haven't seen them, they might as well have stopped existing. But they were still there. I think that's the point of Easter. It's been 2000 years. To be frank, I don't see God every day. I know he's there. But sometimes He might as well not be until I'm reminded by the bread and the wine, eating, drinking. It's like the open tomb. It's there and empty unless we are reminded what it stood for.
When I got back I found something else to add to the list. Please pray for Renee's dad, his health is poor. And pray her family too.
I had a good weekend. Thanks.
It seemed like I was on the edge of something profound. But something was missing.
Main Entry: pro?found
Pronunciation: pr&-'faund, prO-
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French profond deep, from Latin profundus, from pro- before + fundus bottom -- more at PRO-, BOTTOM
1 a : having intellectual depth and insight b : difficult to fathom or understand
2 a : extending far below the surface b : coming from, reaching to, or situated at a depth : DEEP-SEATED (a profound sigh)
3 a : characterized by intensity of feeling or quality b : all encompassing : COMPLETE (profound sleep)
- pro?found?ly /-'faun(d)-lE/ adverb
- pro?found?ness /-'faun(d)-n&s/ noun
I think everyone desires depth in their lives. Well, I can only speak for myself really. Somewhere deep inside I'm looking for a level of profundity in my relationships with people, the things I do, the experiences I find myself in. I prefer a few close friends than many shallow friendships. A part of me chides myself about meaningless work while the other side of me thoroughly enjoys it. It's the same part that disapproves of cheap thrills while the other half is looking for the next adrenaline rush. Generally, the other half tries to dismiss him as raising a ruckus. Who needs all the drama of internal conflict anyways? Isn't it just easier to have things clean and simple and open to all, rather than buried in one deep mess? One of my friends describes life as being inherently trivial, but even that indicates that there's a desire for something more. Each person wants to be individual and special, but in reality everyone's the same. I think everyone desires depth in their lives.
Toronto was fun this past weekend. The idea of friendship popped up a lot.
Had lunch on Friday with a bunch of old high school friends. It's been a long time since I've seen many of them. We were all pretty similar back then. We each had our own slant, but we really weren't that different from each other. Now it seems like we're worlds apart.
Babysat on Saturday for the first time. Our relationship started off pretty rough, she didn't want anything to do with me. She warmed up eventually. I'd like to think that it's something about me, but I suspect it's really because I was the only guy around. I was the one with the bottle. In the end, when she fell asleep on me, I couldn't help wondering how she'd grow up. I pray that she'd be wise and kind and compassionate and beautiful. Like her mom, but even better. I wonder what it's like to be a parent. It must be tough seeing all the shit in the world and just praying that you can teach this one right.
Besides that there was a lot of time just hanging out with friends over the easter weekend. Time at church together, eating, drinking. I felt just at home, with my family. This is what I'm used to, this is where I fit in, just like everyone else.
On the flight home, for the first time in a while, I drew up a list. People and things to pray for. It was longer than I expected. It had quite a few things I had forgotten about, but I guess I was reminded of this weekend. People and things that I have ignored for a long time, just because I haven't seen them, they might as well have stopped existing. But they were still there. I think that's the point of Easter. It's been 2000 years. To be frank, I don't see God every day. I know he's there. But sometimes He might as well not be until I'm reminded by the bread and the wine, eating, drinking. It's like the open tomb. It's there and empty unless we are reminded what it stood for.
When I got back I found something else to add to the list. Please pray for Renee's dad, his health is poor. And pray her family too.
I had a good weekend. Thanks.
It seemed like I was on the edge of something profound. But something was missing.
Mar 31, 2004
Anime on the Web
Some entertaining stuff from Studio Tanuki. First there's the flash based Pin-pin Le Lapin movie, then there's the Catfish hotel Quicktime movie.
Some entertaining stuff from Studio Tanuki. First there's the flash based Pin-pin Le Lapin movie, then there's the Catfish hotel Quicktime movie.
Mar 28, 2004
Cried Wolf
I don't really know who reads this blog out there. I've purposely not put up any sort of commenting system because I like the mystery of not really knowing. Just one of my quirks.
However, I have had a number of comments about the last entry, and I do owe an apology to everyone who was genuinely worried about me. Something that was intended to be sort of tongue-in-cheek if you know what's going on can come across pretty differently if you don't know what it's referring to. Being annoyingly vague doesn't help.
Great start of the day came from hanging out with a friend I haven't seen for quite a while. We had lunch in San Francisco and walked around aimlessly downtown for a couple of hours before I dropped him off at the airport. I've missed his company without even realizing it.
However, I ruined my own evening with my lack of "mad skillz" (actually, any skills at all). I was, in fact, genuinely angry at myself. Sufficiently angry so that the intended melodrama of my blog came out more dramatic than intended. Unfortunately, I made it sound like my world was ending. Ladies and gentlemen, Exhibit A also known as "Why do we always hurt the ones we love?":
I don't really know who reads this blog out there. I've purposely not put up any sort of commenting system because I like the mystery of not really knowing. Just one of my quirks.
However, I have had a number of comments about the last entry, and I do owe an apology to everyone who was genuinely worried about me. Something that was intended to be sort of tongue-in-cheek if you know what's going on can come across pretty differently if you don't know what it's referring to. Being annoyingly vague doesn't help.
Great start of the day came from hanging out with a friend I haven't seen for quite a while. We had lunch in San Francisco and walked around aimlessly downtown for a couple of hours before I dropped him off at the airport. I've missed his company without even realizing it.
However, I ruined my own evening with my lack of "mad skillz" (actually, any skills at all). I was, in fact, genuinely angry at myself. Sufficiently angry so that the intended melodrama of my blog came out more dramatic than intended. Unfortunately, I made it sound like my world was ending. Ladies and gentlemen, Exhibit A also known as "Why do we always hurt the ones we love?":
Mar 27, 2004
Mar 14, 2004
Mar 13, 2004
Writer's Block
I think for most of my life, Bible reading (apart from group Bible studies, and prepartion for Bible studies) usually amounts to either reading through a few verses for daily inspiration, or reading through an entire book as one would read a novel.
Sitting down and really studying as part of the intern program has been tough but rewarding in many ways. On one hand, having a mandatory study schedule can easily make study a chore. Study can also turn the Word of God into an academic text, the way an academic study of Shakespeare can take the joy away from reading the literature. Finally, it is a constant challenge not to interpret scripture in manner that is suitable for myself.
On the flip side, in recent weeks, I've been finding moments of joy in staring blankly at a Psalm, not knowing what to write, praying in frustration, and eventually over hours or days, seeing a beautiful relationship with God among the lines of poetry.
So as I myself have nothing to write now, here's Psalm 32:
I think for most of my life, Bible reading (apart from group Bible studies, and prepartion for Bible studies) usually amounts to either reading through a few verses for daily inspiration, or reading through an entire book as one would read a novel.
Sitting down and really studying as part of the intern program has been tough but rewarding in many ways. On one hand, having a mandatory study schedule can easily make study a chore. Study can also turn the Word of God into an academic text, the way an academic study of Shakespeare can take the joy away from reading the literature. Finally, it is a constant challenge not to interpret scripture in manner that is suitable for myself.
On the flip side, in recent weeks, I've been finding moments of joy in staring blankly at a Psalm, not knowing what to write, praying in frustration, and eventually over hours or days, seeing a beautiful relationship with God among the lines of poetry.
So as I myself have nothing to write now, here's Psalm 32:
How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered!
How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity,
And in whose spirit there is no deceit!
When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away
Through my groaning all day long.
For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me;
My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah.
I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I did not hide;
I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD";
And You forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah.
Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found;
Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.
You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble;
You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.
I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
I will counsel you with My eye upon you.
Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding,
Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check,
Otherwise they will not come near to you.
Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
But he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him.
Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones;
And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.
Mar 10, 2004
Canadian Traditions
Here's to a man who had a worthy invention. Imagine that, being known as "The Man Who Invented Poutine"!
Here's to a man who had a worthy invention. Imagine that, being known as "The Man Who Invented Poutine"!
Mar 7, 2004
Forever the optimist
Working in the States made me actually proud to be Canadian, and I'm not one for nationalism. Reading the Star lately has been a depressing pasttime, with everything that's been going on in Toronto. Random shootings and murders definitely tops the list, especially since San Jose's been running with the title of the safest large city in the US for the past few years. Sometimes I wonder whether it'll still be a place I'll want to move back to.
But to be honest, even if I was in Toronto, I don't know what I'd do. Would I simply dismiss the problem because it's out in Scarborough and not at my doorstep? Do I tell myself it's just a problem with the projects? Would I actually get off my ass and do something about it? Maybe it's time to write a letter to a politician (or am I too cynical to believe that does anything?)
Even Ellie's tip of the day today was depressing (although I must admit it makes it more interesting than the everyday cheery fluff).
Tip of the Day: Waiting for someone to love you is rarely worth the reward.
Working in the States made me actually proud to be Canadian, and I'm not one for nationalism. Reading the Star lately has been a depressing pasttime, with everything that's been going on in Toronto. Random shootings and murders definitely tops the list, especially since San Jose's been running with the title of the safest large city in the US for the past few years. Sometimes I wonder whether it'll still be a place I'll want to move back to.
But to be honest, even if I was in Toronto, I don't know what I'd do. Would I simply dismiss the problem because it's out in Scarborough and not at my doorstep? Do I tell myself it's just a problem with the projects? Would I actually get off my ass and do something about it? Maybe it's time to write a letter to a politician (or am I too cynical to believe that does anything?)
Even Ellie's tip of the day today was depressing (although I must admit it makes it more interesting than the everyday cheery fluff).
Tip of the Day: Waiting for someone to love you is rarely worth the reward.
Feb 29, 2004
Just some thoughts
If one considers 40 hours as a normal work week, I normally work a lot. This week somehow, has been brutal in comparison. It's been a slowly slipping release schedule with last minute bugs showing up due to last minute features that were crammed in. Three week ago it was "we're almost done, we just need these final features added". You try to get the job done and juggle life on the side. Two weeks ago it was "we're almost done, but we need these bugs fixed by Monday". So you put down everything else, and crank away till it's done. This past week it's been "we just found a new bug, we need it fixed in two hours... oh we found another one please fix it by tonite... oh one last one, we need it fixed first thing tomorrow morning", then when you wake up "ok, can you just add this tweak, we need it before lunch". Drag that on for a week where it's every waking moment and it gets tiring pretty quick.
Anyways, enough bitching about that, I tied it all up on Friday, left after dinner, and didn't check email again. I didn't write a paper today. I didn't write about what David felt as he fled pursuers who were trying to kill him. I don't have people trying to kill me. I don't have a kingship to fulfill. I'm just incredibly tired.
I woke up at 5:30am today and left the apartment shortly after six with my snowboard. It took us 3.5 hours to drive up to Kirkwood in South Lake Tahoe. I fulfilled my sense of tradition by having a bacon and egg bagel meal with orange juice at McDonald's for breakfast. I marvelled at the beauty and grandeur of the snow covered Sierras. We cursed at the 45 min long drive into the parking lot. I marvelled at the beauty and grandeur of the snow covered Sierras. For five hours I was focused on sound of the carve through the groomed packed snow as I leaned into it, the silence when gliding swiftly through the fresh powder among the trees, or the satisfying pfwop as I practiced landing jumps, and the peace and solitude riding the chairlift.
Unlike the drive up, we were all awake on the drive home. We talked about pee and poop and farting. We talked about society and greed and capitalism and altruism and socialism and sex. We talked about relationships and racism and evolution and aliens and family and why America is a f!@#ed up place.
In the end I'm thinking a few things. I'm glad I don't have to be at home writing a paper on a psalm to see God. I'm glad I've been reminded why the world needs Him. I'm glad I've been reminded why my friends need him. I'm glad He's given me my friends. I'm glad some of them actually want to go see this movie, The Passion of Christ. I'm glad that Mel Gibson made this movie as much as I'm glad I didn't have to fulfill my supposedly evangelical duty to market a movie to my friends. I'm glad that the essence of the psalms, worshipping God in art, has not ceased in this century. I'm glad I've been taught faith. I'm glad I've been given grace. I'm glad I've been shown rest.
Addendum: I checked my email. Boss said thanks. That made me glad too.
If one considers 40 hours as a normal work week, I normally work a lot. This week somehow, has been brutal in comparison. It's been a slowly slipping release schedule with last minute bugs showing up due to last minute features that were crammed in. Three week ago it was "we're almost done, we just need these final features added". You try to get the job done and juggle life on the side. Two weeks ago it was "we're almost done, but we need these bugs fixed by Monday". So you put down everything else, and crank away till it's done. This past week it's been "we just found a new bug, we need it fixed in two hours... oh we found another one please fix it by tonite... oh one last one, we need it fixed first thing tomorrow morning", then when you wake up "ok, can you just add this tweak, we need it before lunch". Drag that on for a week where it's every waking moment and it gets tiring pretty quick.
Anyways, enough bitching about that, I tied it all up on Friday, left after dinner, and didn't check email again. I didn't write a paper today. I didn't write about what David felt as he fled pursuers who were trying to kill him. I don't have people trying to kill me. I don't have a kingship to fulfill. I'm just incredibly tired.
I woke up at 5:30am today and left the apartment shortly after six with my snowboard. It took us 3.5 hours to drive up to Kirkwood in South Lake Tahoe. I fulfilled my sense of tradition by having a bacon and egg bagel meal with orange juice at McDonald's for breakfast. I marvelled at the beauty and grandeur of the snow covered Sierras. We cursed at the 45 min long drive into the parking lot. I marvelled at the beauty and grandeur of the snow covered Sierras. For five hours I was focused on sound of the carve through the groomed packed snow as I leaned into it, the silence when gliding swiftly through the fresh powder among the trees, or the satisfying pfwop as I practiced landing jumps, and the peace and solitude riding the chairlift.
Unlike the drive up, we were all awake on the drive home. We talked about pee and poop and farting. We talked about society and greed and capitalism and altruism and socialism and sex. We talked about relationships and racism and evolution and aliens and family and why America is a f!@#ed up place.
In the end I'm thinking a few things. I'm glad I don't have to be at home writing a paper on a psalm to see God. I'm glad I've been reminded why the world needs Him. I'm glad I've been reminded why my friends need him. I'm glad He's given me my friends. I'm glad some of them actually want to go see this movie, The Passion of Christ. I'm glad that Mel Gibson made this movie as much as I'm glad I didn't have to fulfill my supposedly evangelical duty to market a movie to my friends. I'm glad that the essence of the psalms, worshipping God in art, has not ceased in this century. I'm glad I've been taught faith. I'm glad I've been given grace. I'm glad I've been shown rest.
Addendum: I checked my email. Boss said thanks. That made me glad too.
Feb 27, 2004
Feb 23, 2004
Was it something I ate?
Massive insomnia. Was working on my paper for this week (I am SO far behind), but I didn't get far. It's one of those passages where I'm looking at it and I don't actually have much to add that doesn't seem obvious already. Anyways, switched away from that to working on the project I'm working on for work. Before you know it, it's 4am, and I still don't feel particularly tired.
On the other hand, I do have a 10am meeting, and I don't think I'll be particularly awake by that time, so I probably should try to sleep. We'll see how well that goes.
Massive insomnia. Was working on my paper for this week (I am SO far behind), but I didn't get far. It's one of those passages where I'm looking at it and I don't actually have much to add that doesn't seem obvious already. Anyways, switched away from that to working on the project I'm working on for work. Before you know it, it's 4am, and I still don't feel particularly tired.
On the other hand, I do have a 10am meeting, and I don't think I'll be particularly awake by that time, so I probably should try to sleep. We'll see how well that goes.
Feb 22, 2004
Dinner
I cooked for myself today, a rather extraordinary since I never cook. Actually, I had a bunch of leftover vegetables from last week that were starting to wilt, and if I didn't do something with them today, they'd be destined to compost in my fridge until I remembered they were there. Oh, and as an appetizer, I noticed that the roots on onions and leeks closely resemble a bunch of maggots peering out of the end of the vegetables. Yum.
Cooking time 3hrs
1 onion
1 large sorrento pepper
1 tomato
1 package enoki mushrooms
2 leeks
3 cloves of garlic
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 dried bay leaves
1 lb of stewing beef
1/4 bottle of white wine
1/4 bottle of pomegranate juice
soy sauce
small bunch of fresh cilantro
black pepper
white pepper
salt
water
1. Chop up onion, garlic, leeks and sautee in a pot with olive oil until tender
2. Marinate the beef in soy sauce and black pepper.
3. Chop up tomato, and cilantro, and make a lengthwise cut along the pepper. Add all three to pot, along with thyme, cilantro, bay leaves, a sprinkling of white pepper, 1/4 bottle of white wine and fill the pot halfway with water. Bring to a boil and let cook for an hour, or until water level has dropped to about the same level as the vegetables.
4. Stir in the beef and marinade, pomegranate juice, and mushrooms. Add a bit of water to ensure that the contents don't dry out. Cook for an additional 2 hours on low heat. Stir occasionally and add water if it appears to be too dry for a stew.
5. Add salt to taste a few minutes before serving.
It was actually pretty good. You might not want to add the pepper if you don't like spicy foods, but it adds a wonderful kick.
I cooked for myself today, a rather extraordinary since I never cook. Actually, I had a bunch of leftover vegetables from last week that were starting to wilt, and if I didn't do something with them today, they'd be destined to compost in my fridge until I remembered they were there. Oh, and as an appetizer, I noticed that the roots on onions and leeks closely resemble a bunch of maggots peering out of the end of the vegetables. Yum.
Cooking time 3hrs
1 onion
1 large sorrento pepper
1 tomato
1 package enoki mushrooms
2 leeks
3 cloves of garlic
3 sprigs fresh thyme
2 dried bay leaves
1 lb of stewing beef
1/4 bottle of white wine
1/4 bottle of pomegranate juice
soy sauce
small bunch of fresh cilantro
black pepper
white pepper
salt
water
1. Chop up onion, garlic, leeks and sautee in a pot with olive oil until tender
2. Marinate the beef in soy sauce and black pepper.
3. Chop up tomato, and cilantro, and make a lengthwise cut along the pepper. Add all three to pot, along with thyme, cilantro, bay leaves, a sprinkling of white pepper, 1/4 bottle of white wine and fill the pot halfway with water. Bring to a boil and let cook for an hour, or until water level has dropped to about the same level as the vegetables.
4. Stir in the beef and marinade, pomegranate juice, and mushrooms. Add a bit of water to ensure that the contents don't dry out. Cook for an additional 2 hours on low heat. Stir occasionally and add water if it appears to be too dry for a stew.
5. Add salt to taste a few minutes before serving.
It was actually pretty good. You might not want to add the pepper if you don't like spicy foods, but it adds a wonderful kick.
Soreness
Woke up at 8am feeling particularly crappy today, as if I had slept on the couch. Went back to sleep and eventually dragged myself out of bed at 10am. I think I'm getting old. I was still feeling kinda groggy as I showered, and it wasn't until I was limping to my car that I remembered I was blocking this huge 240lb white guy when I was playing football at the retreat yesterday. That explains a lot. Ow.
Woke up at 8am feeling particularly crappy today, as if I had slept on the couch. Went back to sleep and eventually dragged myself out of bed at 10am. I think I'm getting old. I was still feeling kinda groggy as I showered, and it wasn't until I was limping to my car that I remembered I was blocking this huge 240lb white guy when I was playing football at the retreat yesterday. That explains a lot. Ow.
Feb 9, 2004
On rotation: The Scientist - Coldplay
Come up to meet you
Tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are
I had to find you
Tell you I need you
Tell you I set you apart
Tell me your secrets
And ask me your questions
Oh let's go back to the start
Running in circles
Coming in tails
Heads on a science apart
Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh take me back to the start
I was just guessing
At numbers and figures
Pulling the puzzles apart
Questions of science
Science and progress
Did not speak as loud as my heart
Tell me you love me
Come back and haunt me
Oh and I rush to the start
Running in circles
Chasing tails
Coming back as we are
Nobody said it was easy
Oh its such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard
I'm going back to the start
Come up to meet you
Tell you I'm sorry
You don't know how lovely you are
I had to find you
Tell you I need you
Tell you I set you apart
Tell me your secrets
And ask me your questions
Oh let's go back to the start
Running in circles
Coming in tails
Heads on a science apart
Nobody said it was easy
It's such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh take me back to the start
I was just guessing
At numbers and figures
Pulling the puzzles apart
Questions of science
Science and progress
Did not speak as loud as my heart
Tell me you love me
Come back and haunt me
Oh and I rush to the start
Running in circles
Chasing tails
Coming back as we are
Nobody said it was easy
Oh its such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard
I'm going back to the start
Finally done
So I've had this assignment at work that probably would've taken about 3 long days of straight work for two weeks. The problem is I'd be working on a lot of other stuff that comes up on a day to day basis, and the main project might get a few hours ever few days. Been working on the last two afternoons and evenings, even though it's been clear and sunny outside.
Finally done at 11:40pm on Sunday. Makes for a short weekend.
So I've had this assignment at work that probably would've taken about 3 long days of straight work for two weeks. The problem is I'd be working on a lot of other stuff that comes up on a day to day basis, and the main project might get a few hours ever few days. Been working on the last two afternoons and evenings, even though it's been clear and sunny outside.
Finally done at 11:40pm on Sunday. Makes for a short weekend
Feb 7, 2004
Feb 2, 2004
I stopped writing on after Whistler Day 6, and really, since I've gotten back, I either haven't had the time, or haven't been in the mood to get the rest down. It's kinda amazing how it was 3 weeks ago, but it's felt like 3 months. Here's what's remaining in my memory, before it melts away:
January 8, 2004: Whistler Day 7
So a Arislan, Asmodean and I suited up for our fifth day on the hill. Relgar and Marilyn headed out that morning too. They made it out the door before us; we ran into them at McDonald's. I was hopelessly scanning the booth that we occupied every morning for some sign of my Banff gaiter, which I had lost somewhere the previous day, but there was no sign of it. Asmodean got his regular sausage mcmuffin. I got my bacon and egg bagel, since as we all know, bacon is good. I don't remember anyone else' breakfast.
We parted ways with Relgar and Marilyn after breakfast. We stopped briefly at the ski shop to pick up Sinyee's board. It was quick since she had rented the previous day; her bindings were all set up, she only had to grab the board. By the time we got to the base, we'd pretty much decided on doing Blackcomb again, since Sinyee hadn't done it before. Just walking to the mountain, it was much warmer than the previous days, and while the first day was clear and frigid, the last day was warm and cloudy.
The four of us got into the Blackcomb gondola, which, being newer than the Whistler one, was much more comfortable, and you could actually seat 8 comfortably. They stuck another couple in with us, making it a spacious 6. While Sinyee marvelled at the grandeur of the mist-shrouded mountain, Xun and I cast glances at each other as we were eavesdropping on the couples' argument.
Apparently, she didn't like the way he let girls hit on him in the bar, or something like that. She was also going on about how she didn't like it when other guys hit on her, I suppose the subtext was that he was to behave the same, although she seemed rather convinced that all men were pigs. The conversation ended with an uncomfortable silence after she declared something like "I don't think I want to be your girlfriend anymore", upon which Sinyee snapped out of her beholdenment of nature to declare "I don't think I should've had that sausage McMuffin", or something to that extent. Angry potential-ex-girlfriend picked up on the cue to exclaim in a mix of bewilderment or disgust, that one would have McDonald's for breakfast. Accused philanderer chimed in on how McDonald's kills a lot of pigs (which we had actually discussed earlier in the week), and how he didn't eat pigs because they're filthy animals since they didn't sweat and rolled in the mud and thus had flesh full of toxins. Apparently, he didn't eat pork, and had managed to convince his companion to quit the meat since they started dating. I guess it never occured to him that pigs, like all other mammals, would piss and shit. Or perhaps he forgot that, in which case I could excuse him for being constipated. Actually, I did, so I didn't give him the whole "bacon is good, pork chops are good" speil. It's a pity Lancer wasn't there, cuz I'm sure he coulda convinced our abstaining gentleman on the merits of personality. In any case, we had reached the end of the gondola ride, so we never really figured out what happened. The girl was reasonably cute though, I bet if she tried she could find a guy who'd bring home the bacon.
The conditions were pretty crappy all around. The powder on the previous two days melted into heavy sludge. It would have been fine for snowballs, but not too good for riding. It was especially crappy for click-ins, since it'd pack into the bottom of my boots like crazy. I pretty much needed my swiss army to clear em out on a few occasions. I haven't figured out why my bindings were coming loose, but over the course of the day, I had to tighten the screws a few times. The conditions were bearable on the top third of the mountain. Riding up the chair, as the rain plopped against my jacket and soaked my gloves, there's an almost imperceptible change as the splatter eventually turned into a rattle, and before you know it, flakes instead of drops are running over my gloves. As we rode down through the snow, we'd run into big clouds of fog as the snow turned to rain.
Highlight of the day was after our lunch break in a stuffy lodge on the top of Blackcomb. It's a small shack, and given the weather, it's packed and humid. We rest for a while, and since we'd been doing the same chair for most of the morning, we tried taking a different route. We're going around the mountain along a catwalk, and in the fog we see a roped off area with a warning sign, and a gate. "Couloir Extreme" it says, with two black diamonds on orange. When Sinyee gets close enough to see us sitting by the gate, she yells at us, "are we going there!?". I sense fear in her voice. Asmodean is with her, so I yell back "You're NOT going down here, you go THAT way!", after which, Arislan and I make the trip complete off that plunge.
That evening we had dinner at the High Mountain Brewing Company. They didn't really have the pub grub we were looking for, the nachos and burgers. Instead they had fancy stuff, I ended up getting a seafood paella (at a bar? go figure), but their beers were not bad. Afterwards we stopped by at Cows for ice cream. I don't really remember what we did that night, other than the fact that I was really tired.
January 9, 2004:Whistler Day 8
We got up and packed, rather more efficiently than I expected. While we had arrived without snowboards, Arislan and I now needed to fit them into the back of our massive SUV. On top of that, we needed to fit Asmodean's luggage in on top of the four original occupants, since he was on a later flight, and would be hanging around with us for most of the day. At first it was doubtful that everything would fit. It seemed like Asmodean might end up sitting the day away at the airport. But as with most problems, when you just yank it all out and give it another shot, we eventually found a way to pack everything in just right.
Each car grabbed a Talkabout, and the game of twenty questions carried us pretty much all the way back to Vancouver. Our car picked the hippiesque peace symbol, they couldn't guess it. They countered with a palindrome, and we got that. We found our way to chinatown after two hours, and after some wandering (and hobbling on Lancer's part) we found a dim sum restaurant (Park Lok) which had reasonable prices and mediocre food.
After lunch, we parted ways. The Ontarians were in one car, most of their flights left early in the afternoon, so they headed to the airport. Asmodean moved over to our car. I dropped the guys off at the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park. I remember it being pretty cool when I went there as a kid. I drove over to Coquitlam to visit my grandmother, my aunt Jeannie, and my cousin Luke. It took about an hour, but I eventually found the place. I hung around for an hour and a half while my grandmother offered me fruit, and then I headed back to pick up the guys, who discovered that the Aquarium really wasn't as big as we had thought. Ah well.
On the way to the airport, we made a few calls. Did I mention that I had left my phone in the car at San Francisco Airport? Luckily these other guys had phones and were able to arrange rides for us back in SFO. Asmodean was on a different flight from us, so we parted ways. We checked in easily, although Arislan faced some I-94 difficulties going through customs. Eventually he made it through, we grabbed dinner at Burger King, and got on the plane just in time as the last passengers. Almost. The last passenger, who we saw running towards the gate as we entered, was Asmodean. Somehow he had missed his flight and got put onto ours, which was fine, since the plane was empty. We got a row to ourselves, made it back to San Francisco without a hitch, got picked up by 3 cars, and ended up back home in San Jose.
January 8, 2004: Whistler Day 7
So a Arislan, Asmodean and I suited up for our fifth day on the hill. Relgar and Marilyn headed out that morning too. They made it out the door before us; we ran into them at McDonald's. I was hopelessly scanning the booth that we occupied every morning for some sign of my Banff gaiter, which I had lost somewhere the previous day, but there was no sign of it. Asmodean got his regular sausage mcmuffin. I got my bacon and egg bagel, since as we all know, bacon is good. I don't remember anyone else' breakfast.
We parted ways with Relgar and Marilyn after breakfast. We stopped briefly at the ski shop to pick up Sinyee's board. It was quick since she had rented the previous day; her bindings were all set up, she only had to grab the board. By the time we got to the base, we'd pretty much decided on doing Blackcomb again, since Sinyee hadn't done it before. Just walking to the mountain, it was much warmer than the previous days, and while the first day was clear and frigid, the last day was warm and cloudy.
The four of us got into the Blackcomb gondola, which, being newer than the Whistler one, was much more comfortable, and you could actually seat 8 comfortably. They stuck another couple in with us, making it a spacious 6. While Sinyee marvelled at the grandeur of the mist-shrouded mountain, Xun and I cast glances at each other as we were eavesdropping on the couples' argument.
Apparently, she didn't like the way he let girls hit on him in the bar, or something like that. She was also going on about how she didn't like it when other guys hit on her, I suppose the subtext was that he was to behave the same, although she seemed rather convinced that all men were pigs. The conversation ended with an uncomfortable silence after she declared something like "I don't think I want to be your girlfriend anymore", upon which Sinyee snapped out of her beholdenment of nature to declare "I don't think I should've had that sausage McMuffin", or something to that extent. Angry potential-ex-girlfriend picked up on the cue to exclaim in a mix of bewilderment or disgust, that one would have McDonald's for breakfast. Accused philanderer chimed in on how McDonald's kills a lot of pigs (which we had actually discussed earlier in the week), and how he didn't eat pigs because they're filthy animals since they didn't sweat and rolled in the mud and thus had flesh full of toxins. Apparently, he didn't eat pork, and had managed to convince his companion to quit the meat since they started dating. I guess it never occured to him that pigs, like all other mammals, would piss and shit. Or perhaps he forgot that, in which case I could excuse him for being constipated. Actually, I did, so I didn't give him the whole "bacon is good, pork chops are good" speil. It's a pity Lancer wasn't there, cuz I'm sure he coulda convinced our abstaining gentleman on the merits of personality. In any case, we had reached the end of the gondola ride, so we never really figured out what happened. The girl was reasonably cute though, I bet if she tried she could find a guy who'd bring home the bacon.
The conditions were pretty crappy all around. The powder on the previous two days melted into heavy sludge. It would have been fine for snowballs, but not too good for riding. It was especially crappy for click-ins, since it'd pack into the bottom of my boots like crazy. I pretty much needed my swiss army to clear em out on a few occasions. I haven't figured out why my bindings were coming loose, but over the course of the day, I had to tighten the screws a few times. The conditions were bearable on the top third of the mountain. Riding up the chair, as the rain plopped against my jacket and soaked my gloves, there's an almost imperceptible change as the splatter eventually turned into a rattle, and before you know it, flakes instead of drops are running over my gloves. As we rode down through the snow, we'd run into big clouds of fog as the snow turned to rain.
Highlight of the day was after our lunch break in a stuffy lodge on the top of Blackcomb. It's a small shack, and given the weather, it's packed and humid. We rest for a while, and since we'd been doing the same chair for most of the morning, we tried taking a different route. We're going around the mountain along a catwalk, and in the fog we see a roped off area with a warning sign, and a gate. "Couloir Extreme" it says, with two black diamonds on orange. When Sinyee gets close enough to see us sitting by the gate, she yells at us, "are we going there!?". I sense fear in her voice. Asmodean is with her, so I yell back "You're NOT going down here, you go THAT way!", after which, Arislan and I make the trip complete off that plunge.
That evening we had dinner at the High Mountain Brewing Company. They didn't really have the pub grub we were looking for, the nachos and burgers. Instead they had fancy stuff, I ended up getting a seafood paella (at a bar? go figure), but their beers were not bad. Afterwards we stopped by at Cows for ice cream. I don't really remember what we did that night, other than the fact that I was really tired.
January 9, 2004:Whistler Day 8
We got up and packed, rather more efficiently than I expected. While we had arrived without snowboards, Arislan and I now needed to fit them into the back of our massive SUV. On top of that, we needed to fit Asmodean's luggage in on top of the four original occupants, since he was on a later flight, and would be hanging around with us for most of the day. At first it was doubtful that everything would fit. It seemed like Asmodean might end up sitting the day away at the airport. But as with most problems, when you just yank it all out and give it another shot, we eventually found a way to pack everything in just right.
Each car grabbed a Talkabout, and the game of twenty questions carried us pretty much all the way back to Vancouver. Our car picked the hippiesque peace symbol, they couldn't guess it. They countered with a palindrome, and we got that. We found our way to chinatown after two hours, and after some wandering (and hobbling on Lancer's part) we found a dim sum restaurant (Park Lok) which had reasonable prices and mediocre food.
After lunch, we parted ways. The Ontarians were in one car, most of their flights left early in the afternoon, so they headed to the airport. Asmodean moved over to our car. I dropped the guys off at the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley Park. I remember it being pretty cool when I went there as a kid. I drove over to Coquitlam to visit my grandmother, my aunt Jeannie, and my cousin Luke. It took about an hour, but I eventually found the place. I hung around for an hour and a half while my grandmother offered me fruit, and then I headed back to pick up the guys, who discovered that the Aquarium really wasn't as big as we had thought. Ah well.
On the way to the airport, we made a few calls. Did I mention that I had left my phone in the car at San Francisco Airport? Luckily these other guys had phones and were able to arrange rides for us back in SFO. Asmodean was on a different flight from us, so we parted ways. We checked in easily, although Arislan faced some I-94 difficulties going through customs. Eventually he made it through, we grabbed dinner at Burger King, and got on the plane just in time as the last passengers. Almost. The last passenger, who we saw running towards the gate as we entered, was Asmodean. Somehow he had missed his flight and got put onto ours, which was fine, since the plane was empty. We got a row to ourselves, made it back to San Francisco without a hitch, got picked up by 3 cars, and ended up back home in San Jose.
Jan 30, 2004
Some of these things don't go together...
If you're an Italian company making battery chargers, you better be careful about your domain name.
If you're an Italian company making battery chargers, you better be careful about your domain name.
Jan 27, 2004
Jan 12, 2004
January 8, 2004: Whistler Day 6
Although we had decided to start out early and hit the slopes when the lifts opened at 08:00, we didn't actually wake up until 08:30, and then only with much anguish and groaning, dragging our sore limbs and stiff joints from our beds or sleeping bags, whichever applied. As had become custom, the mornings involved some showering and suiting up, mostly in silence, as soldiers to war. Our foe was no mere mortal, it was a mountain. And the silence was not from fear or dread, nor reverence of the mountain. It stemmed from an innate wisdom of the human spirit: that rising before 10:00 on a vacation was no mere task.
I suited up with pretty much the same gear I had for the past few days, a pair of old liner socks, the pair of new wool socks, an old tattered pair of jeans, old Gore-tex pants, a polyester North Face long sleeve T, a thin North Face fleece, gloves, fleece toque, coat, and goggles. In my backpack I packed an extra thick fleece (I actually never really needed to use it, it was really just there as extra padding), sunscreen, my camera, extra batteries, extra compactflash card, old Motorola Talkabouts, and some snacks.
A slight aside regarding the Talkabouts. I got them from my aunt a good 6 or 7 years ago I think, and she got them from Hong Kong or Japan. This was a couple of years before they were available in North America. Now I had assumed that they were the same as the FRS radios that Motorola sold under the Talkabout name in North America, which are compatible with a number of other FRS radios by companies like Garmin, Midland or Cobra. Apparently, this isn't true. Lancer had recently purchased a pair of Midland FRS radios, which worked fine with a North American Motrola Talkabout we had. However, it didn't work with my older radios.
It turned out however, that there's a lot of FRS users on the slopes, making it hard to find empty channels using Lancer's radios. On most channels you'd hear other users, which often got annoying pretty quick. After we switched to using the Asian radios, we didn't have any more interference from other users.
Unlike the previous day, this morning we had five heading out. Sinyee and Averal were joining us after their extended break. We stopped by for our customary McDonald's breakfast and headed for the lifts. Sinyee and Averal had to pick up rental equipment, and Asmodean was planning to join them on the easy runs. Arislan and I headed up the gondola first for a quick run, hoping to meet the others when we got down, since they were planning to do some easy runs for most of the day. We changed our plans when we saw that the Peak Express chair was open, since we had never been up that chair, and didn't want to miss our chance for what powder might be left at 10:00.
There was plenty of fresh snow on the ground at the peak, and even more blowing around. The winds were insane, and pretty much prevented us from going down the really shallow slopes as it blew upwards. We ended up just jumping off the edge since it took so long trying to get down the relatively flat paths. The two of us did a few runs, which were pretty awesome since the clouds and wind cleared up on the back side of the mountain, and the snow was still fresh since it seemed like most people didn't want to deal with the winds at the peak. It only took about an hour but pretty much tired me out, since we were going through the trees. It didn't help that I had went to the edge of a cliff I couldn't see the bottom of, so I had to dig myself out (since I had sunk in when I stopped) and climb back out in the thigh deep snow. As we rode back down to the base and waited, the other guys never showed up. We had expected them to ride down to the bottom, but they must have changed their plans as well. The sad thing was that the Talkabouts didn't help, since they both remained in my backpack.
We did a few more runs on the easier areas looking for Sinyee, Averal, and Asmodean, but never found them. We went back up to the peak in the late afternoon, but the snow had been chopped up while we were gone. As usual, we rode until 15:00, when the lifts closed, and called it a day. I was utterly exhausted and walk back to the condo didn't help much. The outdoor hottub however, was great. For the first time since we arrived it was empty when we got back, so Sinyee, Arislan and I took it over for a short while. We soaked for about 20 minutes, until it got too hot. The guys watched some inane episode of Star Trek: Voyager (yes, pretty much every episode of this series is inane), while Sinyee made dinner (shake n'bake chicken with mushrooms, peas, garlic bread and Chunky soup). Afterwards we spent another exciting evening playing poker, this time with 8 hands. Eventually, as each of us lost all our chips, we packed it in for the night. Being totally exhausted, I wasn't even awake long enough to figure out who won.
Although we had decided to start out early and hit the slopes when the lifts opened at 08:00, we didn't actually wake up until 08:30, and then only with much anguish and groaning, dragging our sore limbs and stiff joints from our beds or sleeping bags, whichever applied. As had become custom, the mornings involved some showering and suiting up, mostly in silence, as soldiers to war. Our foe was no mere mortal, it was a mountain. And the silence was not from fear or dread, nor reverence of the mountain. It stemmed from an innate wisdom of the human spirit: that rising before 10:00 on a vacation was no mere task.
I suited up with pretty much the same gear I had for the past few days, a pair of old liner socks, the pair of new wool socks, an old tattered pair of jeans, old Gore-tex pants, a polyester North Face long sleeve T, a thin North Face fleece, gloves, fleece toque, coat, and goggles. In my backpack I packed an extra thick fleece (I actually never really needed to use it, it was really just there as extra padding), sunscreen, my camera, extra batteries, extra compactflash card, old Motorola Talkabouts, and some snacks.
A slight aside regarding the Talkabouts. I got them from my aunt a good 6 or 7 years ago I think, and she got them from Hong Kong or Japan. This was a couple of years before they were available in North America. Now I had assumed that they were the same as the FRS radios that Motorola sold under the Talkabout name in North America, which are compatible with a number of other FRS radios by companies like Garmin, Midland or Cobra. Apparently, this isn't true. Lancer had recently purchased a pair of Midland FRS radios, which worked fine with a North American Motrola Talkabout we had. However, it didn't work with my older radios.
It turned out however, that there's a lot of FRS users on the slopes, making it hard to find empty channels using Lancer's radios. On most channels you'd hear other users, which often got annoying pretty quick. After we switched to using the Asian radios, we didn't have any more interference from other users.
Unlike the previous day, this morning we had five heading out. Sinyee and Averal were joining us after their extended break. We stopped by for our customary McDonald's breakfast and headed for the lifts. Sinyee and Averal had to pick up rental equipment, and Asmodean was planning to join them on the easy runs. Arislan and I headed up the gondola first for a quick run, hoping to meet the others when we got down, since they were planning to do some easy runs for most of the day. We changed our plans when we saw that the Peak Express chair was open, since we had never been up that chair, and didn't want to miss our chance for what powder might be left at 10:00.
There was plenty of fresh snow on the ground at the peak, and even more blowing around. The winds were insane, and pretty much prevented us from going down the really shallow slopes as it blew upwards. We ended up just jumping off the edge since it took so long trying to get down the relatively flat paths. The two of us did a few runs, which were pretty awesome since the clouds and wind cleared up on the back side of the mountain, and the snow was still fresh since it seemed like most people didn't want to deal with the winds at the peak. It only took about an hour but pretty much tired me out, since we were going through the trees. It didn't help that I had went to the edge of a cliff I couldn't see the bottom of, so I had to dig myself out (since I had sunk in when I stopped) and climb back out in the thigh deep snow. As we rode back down to the base and waited, the other guys never showed up. We had expected them to ride down to the bottom, but they must have changed their plans as well. The sad thing was that the Talkabouts didn't help, since they both remained in my backpack.
We did a few more runs on the easier areas looking for Sinyee, Averal, and Asmodean, but never found them. We went back up to the peak in the late afternoon, but the snow had been chopped up while we were gone. As usual, we rode until 15:00, when the lifts closed, and called it a day. I was utterly exhausted and walk back to the condo didn't help much. The outdoor hottub however, was great. For the first time since we arrived it was empty when we got back, so Sinyee, Arislan and I took it over for a short while. We soaked for about 20 minutes, until it got too hot. The guys watched some inane episode of Star Trek: Voyager (yes, pretty much every episode of this series is inane), while Sinyee made dinner (shake n'bake chicken with mushrooms, peas, garlic bread and Chunky soup). Afterwards we spent another exciting evening playing poker, this time with 8 hands. Eventually, as each of us lost all our chips, we packed it in for the night. Being totally exhausted, I wasn't even awake long enough to figure out who won.
Jan 11, 2004
January 7, 2004: Whistler Day 5
The snow that started yesterday morning had continued throughout the day and evening. Driving back to Whistler last night made the 4x4 totally worthwhile. As we woke, the snow continued. The (exceptionally) cold crisp sunny days had disappeared, this morning was cloudy and grey. Actually, more like cloudy and white. The past two days I had been using the Fire Iridium lens on my goggles. It had been mostly a vanity purchase, but it is a darker lens than the High Intensity Persimmon lens that I had before. The Fire lens was nicer to use on the sunny days, but it was really only useful for a couple of hours, since the sun sinks behind the mountain pretty early in the afternoon.
Although the first two days were much colder, today's weather felt more extreme. Arislan, Asmodean and I went up Blackcomb instead of Whistler today, since the lift pass allows access to both mountains, and we had explored most of Whistler in the previous two days. Everyone else took a break today. By the time we got to the top of Blackcomb, we were in the middle of a snowstorm with extremely high winds. Snow occaisionally swept horizontally through the air, though more often it actually went upwards from the wind. Riding up the lifts, I felt bunkered with my face covered with a fleece gaiter and my goggles. The snow rattled against my hood as I thought how surprisingly windproof my jacket was. There's a warm feeling I get sometimes, looking out the window while sitting indoors or in a car while a brutal snowstorm rages outside. I get the same kinda feeling sometimes when snowboarding, when you realize the amount of shelter you get from your coat and goggles and maybe hiding behind a snowdrift.
The best thing about deep snow is that it gives you guts to push yourself without the fear of pain. You can bomb a mogul run taking the jumps and living through the falls as you roll down the slope. Or as we did, we adventurously followed a bunch of guys who hiked up the hill after getting off the T-bar. What were they doing? We weren't sure, but probably going to jump off a mountain, and whatever it was, it was probably fun. We ended up riding down the back of the mountain on Blackcomb Glacier in near whiteout conditions, where you can't tell the sky from the ground since everything is the same shade of white, and you catch edges and flip out because you're going sideways down the mountain when you think you're actually going downhill. It was the weirdest feeling to think that I was going at speed X, watching Asmodean snowboard towards me, then later realizing he was actually just sitting in the snow, and I was really going at speed 2X towards him. It was a 10.6 km run to the chairlift, and even though it involved a good long hike at the bottom as the trail flattened out, it passed pretty quickly.
The worst thing about the deep snow is that it really tires you out. By the end of the day I was struggling to make it to the bottom, although it had been a wonderful day for riding. The powder in the morning was pretty chopped up by the late afternoon. Arislan and I had try taking the Horstman T-bar over to a section of Blackcomb which we had not ridden before. Asmodean decided not to come, since riding the T-bar on a snowboard is a pain. The T-bar looks like an inverted T. Normally two skiers would sit on the bar as it dragged them up the mountain, with their skiis on the snow. It's somewhat more difficult with the snowboard, since you ride with one foot in front of the other. It's rather difficult to get the T behind your butt while maintaining balance, so they tend to stick it behind your front leg and have it drag you. It's rather uncomfortable to say the least. Bad things can happen, as Arislan demonstrated when he lost his balance in the striong wind, but held on in persistence as he was dragged up the hill on his belly instead of on his board.
By the time the two of us made it back to the condo, Asmodean had already showered, while Lancer, Averal and Sinyee were headed out to a sleigh ride. I was far too tired to deal with sitting out in the cold anymore, so I tested out the jacuzzi in the master bedroom's washroom. I can say a hot bath is something I haven't had in a long time, and bubbly water is neat too (for about 5 minutes, then I started worrying about wrinkles - I know, I'm young, but heck I was getting wrinkles in the tub when I was 3, so it's not like I'm paranoid). The weren't quite in the same places as my sore muscles, but it did feel kinda good, even though as an adult I do feel odd sitting in a small tub of water.
Okay, enough of that. I got out enough of the bath, and the other guys had enough of their sleigh ride. They gave us a call and we met up at a restaurant called the Crabshack, which was advertised on TV. Now I realize I can be snobbish about food sometimes, and one of those snobbish things I tend to do is look down on a) restaurant chains and b) restaurants advertised on TV. In this case, I should have been more snobbish, because I felt totally ripped off by snobbish level prices with quite non-snobbish food. The oysters weren't cheap, but okay at $2.50 a pop, since they had a decent variety of good oysters. At $30 for a salmon filet though (admittedly wild sockeye rather than the recently publicly maligned farmed variety), I expected enough to make me full. And the Chocolate Decadent dessert was ok, but nothing close to decadent.
After dinner, Lancer, Arislan, Averal and Sinyee went to a creperie near the condo for dessert, while I found an internet cafe where I uploaded the previous blogs. It was another movie night as we watched Equilibrium before passing out.
The snow that started yesterday morning had continued throughout the day and evening. Driving back to Whistler last night made the 4x4 totally worthwhile. As we woke, the snow continued. The (exceptionally) cold crisp sunny days had disappeared, this morning was cloudy and grey. Actually, more like cloudy and white. The past two days I had been using the Fire Iridium lens on my goggles. It had been mostly a vanity purchase, but it is a darker lens than the High Intensity Persimmon lens that I had before. The Fire lens was nicer to use on the sunny days, but it was really only useful for a couple of hours, since the sun sinks behind the mountain pretty early in the afternoon.
Although the first two days were much colder, today's weather felt more extreme. Arislan, Asmodean and I went up Blackcomb instead of Whistler today, since the lift pass allows access to both mountains, and we had explored most of Whistler in the previous two days. Everyone else took a break today. By the time we got to the top of Blackcomb, we were in the middle of a snowstorm with extremely high winds. Snow occaisionally swept horizontally through the air, though more often it actually went upwards from the wind. Riding up the lifts, I felt bunkered with my face covered with a fleece gaiter and my goggles. The snow rattled against my hood as I thought how surprisingly windproof my jacket was. There's a warm feeling I get sometimes, looking out the window while sitting indoors or in a car while a brutal snowstorm rages outside. I get the same kinda feeling sometimes when snowboarding, when you realize the amount of shelter you get from your coat and goggles and maybe hiding behind a snowdrift.
The best thing about deep snow is that it gives you guts to push yourself without the fear of pain. You can bomb a mogul run taking the jumps and living through the falls as you roll down the slope. Or as we did, we adventurously followed a bunch of guys who hiked up the hill after getting off the T-bar. What were they doing? We weren't sure, but probably going to jump off a mountain, and whatever it was, it was probably fun. We ended up riding down the back of the mountain on Blackcomb Glacier in near whiteout conditions, where you can't tell the sky from the ground since everything is the same shade of white, and you catch edges and flip out because you're going sideways down the mountain when you think you're actually going downhill. It was the weirdest feeling to think that I was going at speed X, watching Asmodean snowboard towards me, then later realizing he was actually just sitting in the snow, and I was really going at speed 2X towards him. It was a 10.6 km run to the chairlift, and even though it involved a good long hike at the bottom as the trail flattened out, it passed pretty quickly.
The worst thing about the deep snow is that it really tires you out. By the end of the day I was struggling to make it to the bottom, although it had been a wonderful day for riding. The powder in the morning was pretty chopped up by the late afternoon. Arislan and I had try taking the Horstman T-bar over to a section of Blackcomb which we had not ridden before. Asmodean decided not to come, since riding the T-bar on a snowboard is a pain. The T-bar looks like an inverted T. Normally two skiers would sit on the bar as it dragged them up the mountain, with their skiis on the snow. It's somewhat more difficult with the snowboard, since you ride with one foot in front of the other. It's rather difficult to get the T behind your butt while maintaining balance, so they tend to stick it behind your front leg and have it drag you. It's rather uncomfortable to say the least. Bad things can happen, as Arislan demonstrated when he lost his balance in the striong wind, but held on in persistence as he was dragged up the hill on his belly instead of on his board.
By the time the two of us made it back to the condo, Asmodean had already showered, while Lancer, Averal and Sinyee were headed out to a sleigh ride. I was far too tired to deal with sitting out in the cold anymore, so I tested out the jacuzzi in the master bedroom's washroom. I can say a hot bath is something I haven't had in a long time, and bubbly water is neat too (for about 5 minutes, then I started worrying about wrinkles - I know, I'm young, but heck I was getting wrinkles in the tub when I was 3, so it's not like I'm paranoid). The weren't quite in the same places as my sore muscles, but it did feel kinda good, even though as an adult I do feel odd sitting in a small tub of water.
Okay, enough of that. I got out enough of the bath, and the other guys had enough of their sleigh ride. They gave us a call and we met up at a restaurant called the Crabshack, which was advertised on TV. Now I realize I can be snobbish about food sometimes, and one of those snobbish things I tend to do is look down on a) restaurant chains and b) restaurants advertised on TV. In this case, I should have been more snobbish, because I felt totally ripped off by snobbish level prices with quite non-snobbish food. The oysters weren't cheap, but okay at $2.50 a pop, since they had a decent variety of good oysters. At $30 for a salmon filet though (admittedly wild sockeye rather than the recently publicly maligned farmed variety), I expected enough to make me full. And the Chocolate Decadent dessert was ok, but nothing close to decadent.
After dinner, Lancer, Arislan, Averal and Sinyee went to a creperie near the condo for dessert, while I found an internet cafe where I uploaded the previous blogs. It was another movie night as we watched Equilibrium before passing out.
Jan 7, 2004
January 6, 2004: Whistler Day 4
We took a break from riding today, expecting this to be the last clear day before the snow blew in. The estimate was wrong, and upon waking at 10:00 we found that it was already snowing, but we decided to head to Vancouver anyways. Relgar and Marilyn had anniversary plans for today, so the other six of us made plans for cheap dim sum and cheap sushi.
The word plans should be used with grain of salt, since it amounted to cheap dim sum and cheap sushi. It took us almost two hours to make it to Richmond, where we suspected we could find dim sum, along the way we started out with a game of 20 questions, which soon lead to another game, and yet another.
We ended up driving up and down No. 3 Rd. until we saw Kingford Seafood Restaurant, which looked like it had potential for dim sum. We ended up having good dim sum, although we missed out on the cheap. It was one of those fancy restaurants with good chinese food, where you check off your dim sum choices instead of carting food around. Although there wasn't too much in terms of selection, everything we ordered was very well done. Averal picked up the tab to a very satisfying lunch, although I was on the edge of narcolepsy while driving around aimlessly afterwards.
Since it was around 15:30 at the end of lunch, and the Vancouver Aquarium closed at 17:30, we decided against it (at $16, it wasn't quite worth it for the two hours). Instead we went to the local Buddhist temple that was featured as a tourist attraction (with free admission too!). After wandering around for a while we went to look for bubble tea for Sinyee. We went to the Yaohan Centre a bit further north on No. 3 Rd. We wandered around there for a while too, picking up bubble tea and some snacks from the japanese supermarket.
Arislan, a karoake junkie in disguise, proposed that we go find some chinese karaoke place. Not knowing where to go, we agreed to give him a shot if he found a place. He asked the bubble tea store server. She gave us enough information to find Karaoke Box, where we went and got kicked out since it was closing for a staff party at 18:00 (we got there about 20 minutes before that).
We found another karaoke place nearby, where certain events happened that cannot be discussed here. Videos do exist however.
After a karaoke session that was quite painful yet somehow fun without the aid of any alcohol, we moved on back to No. 3 Rd. (it seems like we spent the whole day in that one segment of Richmond) to Daimaru Japanese Restaurant. They had a $16 all you can eat sushi thing after 21:00. We were in somewhat of a "rush", since the snow had been coming down all day, and we wanted to leave for Whistler at a reasonable hour, fearing that perhaps if we left too late, the road might close.
We ended up with 6 sushi boat dinners and way too much food at quite a good price. After being completely stuffed, and having reasonably accomplished our original mission, we headed back up to Whistler. The two hour drive was filled with additional 20 questions. In the end we had things like Mickey Mouse, speech, a pomegranate, sunglasses, windshield wipers, Norwalk virus, and much more. We ended up at home just before 01:00, and crashed pretty soon after, looking forward to the full day of fresh snow on Blackcomb on Wednesday.
I'm about a day behind with this log stuff. Hopefully next day I'll have some pictures to upload too.
We took a break from riding today, expecting this to be the last clear day before the snow blew in. The estimate was wrong, and upon waking at 10:00 we found that it was already snowing, but we decided to head to Vancouver anyways. Relgar and Marilyn had anniversary plans for today, so the other six of us made plans for cheap dim sum and cheap sushi.
The word plans should be used with grain of salt, since it amounted to cheap dim sum and cheap sushi. It took us almost two hours to make it to Richmond, where we suspected we could find dim sum, along the way we started out with a game of 20 questions, which soon lead to another game, and yet another.
We ended up driving up and down No. 3 Rd. until we saw Kingford Seafood Restaurant, which looked like it had potential for dim sum. We ended up having good dim sum, although we missed out on the cheap. It was one of those fancy restaurants with good chinese food, where you check off your dim sum choices instead of carting food around. Although there wasn't too much in terms of selection, everything we ordered was very well done. Averal picked up the tab to a very satisfying lunch, although I was on the edge of narcolepsy while driving around aimlessly afterwards.
Since it was around 15:30 at the end of lunch, and the Vancouver Aquarium closed at 17:30, we decided against it (at $16, it wasn't quite worth it for the two hours). Instead we went to the local Buddhist temple that was featured as a tourist attraction (with free admission too!). After wandering around for a while we went to look for bubble tea for Sinyee. We went to the Yaohan Centre a bit further north on No. 3 Rd. We wandered around there for a while too, picking up bubble tea and some snacks from the japanese supermarket.
Arislan, a karoake junkie in disguise, proposed that we go find some chinese karaoke place. Not knowing where to go, we agreed to give him a shot if he found a place. He asked the bubble tea store server. She gave us enough information to find Karaoke Box, where we went and got kicked out since it was closing for a staff party at 18:00 (we got there about 20 minutes before that).
We found another karaoke place nearby, where certain events happened that cannot be discussed here. Videos do exist however.
After a karaoke session that was quite painful yet somehow fun without the aid of any alcohol, we moved on back to No. 3 Rd. (it seems like we spent the whole day in that one segment of Richmond) to Daimaru Japanese Restaurant. They had a $16 all you can eat sushi thing after 21:00. We were in somewhat of a "rush", since the snow had been coming down all day, and we wanted to leave for Whistler at a reasonable hour, fearing that perhaps if we left too late, the road might close.
We ended up with 6 sushi boat dinners and way too much food at quite a good price. After being completely stuffed, and having reasonably accomplished our original mission, we headed back up to Whistler. The two hour drive was filled with additional 20 questions. In the end we had things like Mickey Mouse, speech, a pomegranate, sunglasses, windshield wipers, Norwalk virus, and much more. We ended up at home just before 01:00, and crashed pretty soon after, looking forward to the full day of fresh snow on Blackcomb on Wednesday.
I'm about a day behind with this log stuff. Hopefully next day I'll have some pictures to upload too.
January 5, 2004: Whistler Day 3
Having basically gotten into the swing of things, day 3 started off much smoother. The wake-up sequence was similar, but some of the guys had picked up breakfast material from IGA the previous day, the rest of us grabbed McDonald's take out. I was pretty much set to hit the slopes - I already had my lift ticket via the Express Card, and my board was all set up. While the other guys went to get their stuff, I picked up a pair of thermal socks since I ended day 2 with numb toes. Everyone else was still pretty quick, since some guys already had their rental boards or lift tickets.
It was around 10:00 when we got up to the top. Lancer, Arislan, Asmodean, and myself were planning to take the Harmony Express lift that we missed out on the previous day. It was closed when we had arrived, forcing us to take a flat catwalk around the mountain. We planned to try it again this morning, but getting there required a short walk up the hill to the start of the GS run from the gondola station. Instead we opted to ride down green run to a nearby lift that would take us to GS run. The GS run would eventually take us to the Harmony Express.
Somehow, on that green run, the first run of the day, Lancer managed to fall badly. We thought he sprained his ankle and called the ski patrol, who arrived quite promptly, and quickly packaged him up in a sled and skied him down the mountain. When we found him at home at the end of the day, it turned out that he had actually fractured his ankle somehow.
We eventually made it to the Harmony express, and tried the backside of the mountain and across the Symphony Bowl, which actually turned out to be more work than expected, dealing with some flat areas of powder and long catwalks. Sometime around 13:30 we made it back up to the top lodge to find Sinyee and Averal for lunch. Unlike the Tahoe resorts, they served poutine up here, which seems to make a pretty good riding lunch. We didn't end up finding Relgar and Marilyn, although we were all supposed to meet up. Since lifts close at 15:00, we were rode a little more after lunch before calling it quits and riding to the bottom (which is a pretty decent ride in itself).
After some bumming back in the condo (and watching Kung Pao, which positively sucked, so I took a nice nap), Relgar and Marilyn cooked up frozen lasagna, corn, and scallopped spuds for dinner, washed down with hot chocolate (why hadn't anyone else thought of that)? The rest of the evening consisted mainly of poker and bumming around. Lancer was out pretty early after taking some Tylenol 3 for his leg.
Having basically gotten into the swing of things, day 3 started off much smoother. The wake-up sequence was similar, but some of the guys had picked up breakfast material from IGA the previous day, the rest of us grabbed McDonald's take out. I was pretty much set to hit the slopes - I already had my lift ticket via the Express Card, and my board was all set up. While the other guys went to get their stuff, I picked up a pair of thermal socks since I ended day 2 with numb toes. Everyone else was still pretty quick, since some guys already had their rental boards or lift tickets.
It was around 10:00 when we got up to the top. Lancer, Arislan, Asmodean, and myself were planning to take the Harmony Express lift that we missed out on the previous day. It was closed when we had arrived, forcing us to take a flat catwalk around the mountain. We planned to try it again this morning, but getting there required a short walk up the hill to the start of the GS run from the gondola station. Instead we opted to ride down green run to a nearby lift that would take us to GS run. The GS run would eventually take us to the Harmony Express.
Somehow, on that green run, the first run of the day, Lancer managed to fall badly. We thought he sprained his ankle and called the ski patrol, who arrived quite promptly, and quickly packaged him up in a sled and skied him down the mountain. When we found him at home at the end of the day, it turned out that he had actually fractured his ankle somehow.
We eventually made it to the Harmony express, and tried the backside of the mountain and across the Symphony Bowl, which actually turned out to be more work than expected, dealing with some flat areas of powder and long catwalks. Sometime around 13:30 we made it back up to the top lodge to find Sinyee and Averal for lunch. Unlike the Tahoe resorts, they served poutine up here, which seems to make a pretty good riding lunch. We didn't end up finding Relgar and Marilyn, although we were all supposed to meet up. Since lifts close at 15:00, we were rode a little more after lunch before calling it quits and riding to the bottom (which is a pretty decent ride in itself).
After some bumming back in the condo (and watching Kung Pao, which positively sucked, so I took a nice nap), Relgar and Marilyn cooked up frozen lasagna, corn, and scallopped spuds for dinner, washed down with hot chocolate (why hadn't anyone else thought of that)? The rest of the evening consisted mainly of poker and bumming around. Lancer was out pretty early after taking some Tylenol 3 for his leg.
January 4, 2004: Whistler Day 2
The second day started earlier than the first. At 06:30, the phone rang. It was the baggage guy. He had the goods. We had our appreciation, which you could simultaneously call a subdued sense of anger, or a sense of relief. Of course, being 06:30, we picked up our bags and went back go bed. It didn't quite sink in that the timing was more or less perfect until we got up at 08:30 and proceeded with the snowboarding plan.
The morning was rather busy. It consisted of a group breakfast at McDonald's, a shopping trip for food at IGA, finding the lost Express Card voucher which I had replaced, redeeming it (rather easily with less hassles than we expected for being California residents), and procuring rental gear for those who didn't own any snowboard gear. By the time we all took the gondola up together, it was close to 11:00.
We made it down about a quarter of a run together before splitting into skill level based groups. It was a bad day for beginners. Apparently there's been very little snow since Christmas. Although what's there has stayed around in the sub -20°C weather, it's been well packed by the Christmas crowd. Any fall made itself well known. For me, it was pretty good. The wide, steep, groomed greens were plenty of fun. I found I picked things up pretty quickly and did much better than I did at Squaw a month ago. I managed to stay with Asmodean and Lancer through the majority of the day. There were generally no crowds or lift lines, since most sane riders were detered by the insanely cold temperatures. It was cold enough for my finger to freeze painfully after less than a minute without my glove, cold enough for my pinky toes to go numb in my boots, and cold enough for the slight fog in my goggles (which normally goes away in a matter of seconds) to freeze and make me curse paying exhorbitant amounts for goggles that still suffered fogging (although they normally work well in more decent temperatures). It got to most of us by the end of the day and we were all relieved to be packing it in around 15:30 (lifts close at 15:00).
Since most of us missed lunch, we had a relatively early dinner. I'd like to say we cooked, but in reality we cheated. Budget dinner day started with a trip to IGA and consisted of two IGA rotisserie chickens ($6.99 each), two boxes of Uncle Ben's wild rice with flavourings, three cans of Chunky soup, a bag of frozen vegetables, and a loaf of toss-in-the-oven garlic bread. About half an hour later, a fairly sumptuous feast, from cans and boxes no less, was served for under $50 by myself and Sinyee.
Dinner was followed up by a Battlestar Galactica marathon, with the DivX video, residing on Arislan's notebook, was played using my notebook (which had TV out and was connected to the living room TV), over ad hoc 802.11b. Cool use of wireless I think, and props to Arislan for setting it up. A skipped out on a good chunk of it to search for a 7-11 (for long distance phone cards). In the process I managed to deposit cheques from November's Tafelmusik concert at the TD, and picked up a gingerbread latte from Starbucks. I was surprised to see that there were actually more shops than I first thought there were, but it was really too cold to check them all out.
We finished the evening with a Japanese DVD titled "Suicide Club". I'll spoil it for you here: the ending was meaningless. It's one of those films where you watch, and at the end you say "what the hell was that all about?". I don't care how artsy you are or you think you are, it still falls in that category of film. I tell you this now to save you a good 2 hours of your life.
Although of no particular importance, other than journalistic integrity, the evening ended with everyone sleeping, and me hiding out in the bathroom to chronicle the events. I think I'll take a shower now and go to sleep. Maybe I'll find some cybercafe tomorrow and post this.
The second day started earlier than the first. At 06:30, the phone rang. It was the baggage guy. He had the goods. We had our appreciation, which you could simultaneously call a subdued sense of anger, or a sense of relief. Of course, being 06:30, we picked up our bags and went back go bed. It didn't quite sink in that the timing was more or less perfect until we got up at 08:30 and proceeded with the snowboarding plan.
The morning was rather busy. It consisted of a group breakfast at McDonald's, a shopping trip for food at IGA, finding the lost Express Card voucher which I had replaced, redeeming it (rather easily with less hassles than we expected for being California residents), and procuring rental gear for those who didn't own any snowboard gear. By the time we all took the gondola up together, it was close to 11:00.
We made it down about a quarter of a run together before splitting into skill level based groups. It was a bad day for beginners. Apparently there's been very little snow since Christmas. Although what's there has stayed around in the sub -20°C weather, it's been well packed by the Christmas crowd. Any fall made itself well known. For me, it was pretty good. The wide, steep, groomed greens were plenty of fun. I found I picked things up pretty quickly and did much better than I did at Squaw a month ago. I managed to stay with Asmodean and Lancer through the majority of the day. There were generally no crowds or lift lines, since most sane riders were detered by the insanely cold temperatures. It was cold enough for my finger to freeze painfully after less than a minute without my glove, cold enough for my pinky toes to go numb in my boots, and cold enough for the slight fog in my goggles (which normally goes away in a matter of seconds) to freeze and make me curse paying exhorbitant amounts for goggles that still suffered fogging (although they normally work well in more decent temperatures). It got to most of us by the end of the day and we were all relieved to be packing it in around 15:30 (lifts close at 15:00).
Since most of us missed lunch, we had a relatively early dinner. I'd like to say we cooked, but in reality we cheated. Budget dinner day started with a trip to IGA and consisted of two IGA rotisserie chickens ($6.99 each), two boxes of Uncle Ben's wild rice with flavourings, three cans of Chunky soup, a bag of frozen vegetables, and a loaf of toss-in-the-oven garlic bread. About half an hour later, a fairly sumptuous feast, from cans and boxes no less, was served for under $50 by myself and Sinyee.
Dinner was followed up by a Battlestar Galactica marathon, with the DivX video, residing on Arislan's notebook, was played using my notebook (which had TV out and was connected to the living room TV), over ad hoc 802.11b. Cool use of wireless I think, and props to Arislan for setting it up. A skipped out on a good chunk of it to search for a 7-11 (for long distance phone cards). In the process I managed to deposit cheques from November's Tafelmusik concert at the TD, and picked up a gingerbread latte from Starbucks. I was surprised to see that there were actually more shops than I first thought there were, but it was really too cold to check them all out.
We finished the evening with a Japanese DVD titled "Suicide Club". I'll spoil it for you here: the ending was meaningless. It's one of those films where you watch, and at the end you say "what the hell was that all about?". I don't care how artsy you are or you think you are, it still falls in that category of film. I tell you this now to save you a good 2 hours of your life.
Although of no particular importance, other than journalistic integrity, the evening ended with everyone sleeping, and me hiding out in the bathroom to chronicle the events. I think I'll take a shower now and go to sleep. Maybe I'll find some cybercafe tomorrow and post this.
January 3, 2004: Whistler Day 1
Arislan checked his PDA around 16:30, and alerted us that our Whistler trip was on the schedule. It was a little late, considering that the day started off at 08:30 when I loaded my board bag and suitcase in my trunk and got two friends to help pick up the other three travellers in San Jose and head out to SFO, to catch a 10:50 flight to YVR that was delayed until 11:00.
11:00 dragged onto 12:00 before we actually took off. We arrived almost an hour late, after 14:00, and while waiting through the snaking non-resident line, Arislan called Relgar, who had arrived at 09:00 and had been waiting in the airport for the past 5 hours. Lancer and Asmodean who were supposed to arrive earlier than us, were delayed in Ottawa for two hours. They had struggled to find replacements for missed connections, and it was still some time before they were to arrive.
Crossing customs took some time, but was a breeze. Picking up luggage wasn't too difficult either, considering we only needed to carry two pieces less than we started out with. It just took us some time to figure it out. Arislan and I were missing our board bags. We had sat in front of the oversized baggage claim for a good half hour, somehow hoping that the door would open and out would slide two more snowboards. As it opened, a baggage handler tossed out two carry-on sized bags, and nothing more. Apprently size doesn't really matter to be considered oversized.
We filed a lost baggage claim, rather frustrated and wondering whether we'd hit the slopes the next morning as planned, and whether it would be worth the cost of the extra rental. Somewhere deep inside, we wondered, like little Joey looking for his lost Whiskers, whether we would ever see our boards again. But since worrying doesn't work like the Pet Semetary, we put our fruitless search aside and pursued a realizable prey.
We found Relgar with, um, Marilyn, on the Departures level between the Domestic and International terminals. They were holed up by an A/C socket, contented with Heroes of Might and Magic III, as was pretty much expected for this couple. Luckily for us, they were extraodinarily patient, and somehow were still in a rather upbeat mood to meet us. After a brief period of chatting, Arislan called Asmodean and figured he had already arrived. We found him waiting for baggage in the Domestic baggage claim. He was also under uncertain circumstances, since he had quickly transfered onto a connecting flight (not his original connecting flight) after arriving in Toronto. We had no clue whether his baggage made it onto the plane.
The original plan called for purchasing vouchers for "Express Cards", which are basically discount cards for lift tickets, at Sport Chek, and making our way up to Whistler. Since we hadn't had lunch, the four of us from San Jose grabbed airport Harvey's (over $7 for a Big Harv combo, sheesh) before heading over to Alamo. We had reserved an SUV with a ski rack, and we expected a Chevy Blazer. Instead we got a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was a pleasant surprise, but it didn't have a ski rack, which made it dubious. Sure, we didn't really NEED it anymore since our boards were missing, but one would tend to err on the side of hopefullness. It's as if the ski rack would magically make our boards appear in Whistler.
They were out of ski racks, so they offered us the Big Mother SUV. It was a Ford Explorer XLT (or something like that). I have a suspicion it's the one that got the recall for rolling over, so I've been driving it rather slowly on the Sea to Sky Highway. Anyways, it's one of those big monster things with three rows of seats and allows you to look down on any other car you drive past. Yes, we got the king of the roadmobile, but I'm sure our gas bill will be all the prettier with it. I was rather glad we did have a 4x4, since it was surprising that there was snow on the ground all over Vancouver, which is generally unexpected.
It took us about half an hour to get to the Park Royal Mall in North Vancouver. It was pretty easy to find, and didn't take us long to secure our Express Cards, although we were somewhat worried by the fact that they were only valid for BC and Washington state residents. By this time we were alerted that Lancer had arrived, and Asmodean had actually got his baggage, and that they were headed out of the airport.
By the time we left the mall it was past 17:30. The next hour and a half passed relatively quickly, we were eager to see the crew back together, although it really was a pity that Billy/Corgan couldn't make it. As old folk tend to do, we reminisced on the old days in the Loo, although good wouldn't necessarily be a good adjective, as the 'incident' in the Albert St. bathroom reminded us. It was around 19:00 when we got to the Twin Peaks lodge in Whistler.
We were pleased to see that the location was pretty good. Although a little further from the main village square, it was still walkable. Even better was that amenities such as a grocery, Starbuck's, McDonald's and TD Canada Trust were in the plaza literally across the street. Check-in was straightford. Our unit met most expectations.
There's a small kitchen attached to a dining area for 6 and a small living room with a pullout sofa. The decoration is a bit dated but still comfortable. The gas fireplace in the living room caused much jumping for joy by Sinyee. The king sized bed in the master bedroom was subjected to much jumping for joy, or something of the like, by Arislan. There were two bathrooms, one off the living room, and another in the roomy master bedroom. There is one other decent sized bedroom with a queen sized bed.
Shortly after arriving, and deciding that Relgar and Marilyn would get the smaller bedroom, Asmodean and Lancer would get the living room, and the rest would split the master bedroom, the second car arrived. I went down and got them a parking pass and brought them in. Although I had seen Relgar earlier in the year, it's been a while since I've seen Lancer. He looks mostly the same, although the double chin seems bigger at times.
After a good deal of settling in and bumming around, we decided to head to Whistler Village, and more specifically the Old Spaghetti Factory, for dinner. By this time it was close to 21:00. The walk seemed long in the cold night air. It was not quite the cold-crisp-evening-air, more like the cold-your-nostrils-are-freezing-shut-with-each-breath-air. Eventually after some wandering, we did manage to find the restaurant. Dinner was generally around $9-$10 for pasta with some type of meat sauce, soup or salad, and tea and ice cream. Clam chowder or Caesar salad warranted an extra $1.50, and a Peller Estates Merlot for the table added around $17 to the tab. Arislan, the toaster of the evening and good times in general, treated the crew as a post Christmas present.
After struggling back to the condo and realizing on the way that the grocery was already closed, we found a hint of good news as calling the baggage claim service indicated that our bags were being delivered. Since the front desk was closed for the night, we left a note, scrounged together with a paper towel and a pen, pasted by the office door with hair gel, with our apartment phone number, hoping beyond all hope that somehow we might be able to see our long lost boards once again.
Arislan checked his PDA around 16:30, and alerted us that our Whistler trip was on the schedule. It was a little late, considering that the day started off at 08:30 when I loaded my board bag and suitcase in my trunk and got two friends to help pick up the other three travellers in San Jose and head out to SFO, to catch a 10:50 flight to YVR that was delayed until 11:00.
11:00 dragged onto 12:00 before we actually took off. We arrived almost an hour late, after 14:00, and while waiting through the snaking non-resident line, Arislan called Relgar, who had arrived at 09:00 and had been waiting in the airport for the past 5 hours. Lancer and Asmodean who were supposed to arrive earlier than us, were delayed in Ottawa for two hours. They had struggled to find replacements for missed connections, and it was still some time before they were to arrive.
Crossing customs took some time, but was a breeze. Picking up luggage wasn't too difficult either, considering we only needed to carry two pieces less than we started out with. It just took us some time to figure it out. Arislan and I were missing our board bags. We had sat in front of the oversized baggage claim for a good half hour, somehow hoping that the door would open and out would slide two more snowboards. As it opened, a baggage handler tossed out two carry-on sized bags, and nothing more. Apprently size doesn't really matter to be considered oversized.
We filed a lost baggage claim, rather frustrated and wondering whether we'd hit the slopes the next morning as planned, and whether it would be worth the cost of the extra rental. Somewhere deep inside, we wondered, like little Joey looking for his lost Whiskers, whether we would ever see our boards again. But since worrying doesn't work like the Pet Semetary, we put our fruitless search aside and pursued a realizable prey.
We found Relgar with, um, Marilyn, on the Departures level between the Domestic and International terminals. They were holed up by an A/C socket, contented with Heroes of Might and Magic III, as was pretty much expected for this couple. Luckily for us, they were extraodinarily patient, and somehow were still in a rather upbeat mood to meet us. After a brief period of chatting, Arislan called Asmodean and figured he had already arrived. We found him waiting for baggage in the Domestic baggage claim. He was also under uncertain circumstances, since he had quickly transfered onto a connecting flight (not his original connecting flight) after arriving in Toronto. We had no clue whether his baggage made it onto the plane.
The original plan called for purchasing vouchers for "Express Cards", which are basically discount cards for lift tickets, at Sport Chek, and making our way up to Whistler. Since we hadn't had lunch, the four of us from San Jose grabbed airport Harvey's (over $7 for a Big Harv combo, sheesh) before heading over to Alamo. We had reserved an SUV with a ski rack, and we expected a Chevy Blazer. Instead we got a Jeep Grand Cherokee, which was a pleasant surprise, but it didn't have a ski rack, which made it dubious. Sure, we didn't really NEED it anymore since our boards were missing, but one would tend to err on the side of hopefullness. It's as if the ski rack would magically make our boards appear in Whistler.
They were out of ski racks, so they offered us the Big Mother SUV. It was a Ford Explorer XLT (or something like that). I have a suspicion it's the one that got the recall for rolling over, so I've been driving it rather slowly on the Sea to Sky Highway. Anyways, it's one of those big monster things with three rows of seats and allows you to look down on any other car you drive past. Yes, we got the king of the roadmobile, but I'm sure our gas bill will be all the prettier with it. I was rather glad we did have a 4x4, since it was surprising that there was snow on the ground all over Vancouver, which is generally unexpected.
It took us about half an hour to get to the Park Royal Mall in North Vancouver. It was pretty easy to find, and didn't take us long to secure our Express Cards, although we were somewhat worried by the fact that they were only valid for BC and Washington state residents. By this time we were alerted that Lancer had arrived, and Asmodean had actually got his baggage, and that they were headed out of the airport.
By the time we left the mall it was past 17:30. The next hour and a half passed relatively quickly, we were eager to see the crew back together, although it really was a pity that Billy/Corgan couldn't make it. As old folk tend to do, we reminisced on the old days in the Loo, although good wouldn't necessarily be a good adjective, as the 'incident' in the Albert St. bathroom reminded us. It was around 19:00 when we got to the Twin Peaks lodge in Whistler.
We were pleased to see that the location was pretty good. Although a little further from the main village square, it was still walkable. Even better was that amenities such as a grocery, Starbuck's, McDonald's and TD Canada Trust were in the plaza literally across the street. Check-in was straightford. Our unit met most expectations.
There's a small kitchen attached to a dining area for 6 and a small living room with a pullout sofa. The decoration is a bit dated but still comfortable. The gas fireplace in the living room caused much jumping for joy by Sinyee. The king sized bed in the master bedroom was subjected to much jumping for joy, or something of the like, by Arislan. There were two bathrooms, one off the living room, and another in the roomy master bedroom. There is one other decent sized bedroom with a queen sized bed.
Shortly after arriving, and deciding that Relgar and Marilyn would get the smaller bedroom, Asmodean and Lancer would get the living room, and the rest would split the master bedroom, the second car arrived. I went down and got them a parking pass and brought them in. Although I had seen Relgar earlier in the year, it's been a while since I've seen Lancer. He looks mostly the same, although the double chin seems bigger at times.
After a good deal of settling in and bumming around, we decided to head to Whistler Village, and more specifically the Old Spaghetti Factory, for dinner. By this time it was close to 21:00. The walk seemed long in the cold night air. It was not quite the cold-crisp-evening-air, more like the cold-your-nostrils-are-freezing-shut-with-each-breath-air. Eventually after some wandering, we did manage to find the restaurant. Dinner was generally around $9-$10 for pasta with some type of meat sauce, soup or salad, and tea and ice cream. Clam chowder or Caesar salad warranted an extra $1.50, and a Peller Estates Merlot for the table added around $17 to the tab. Arislan, the toaster of the evening and good times in general, treated the crew as a post Christmas present.
After struggling back to the condo and realizing on the way that the grocery was already closed, we found a hint of good news as calling the baggage claim service indicated that our bags were being delivered. Since the front desk was closed for the night, we left a note, scrounged together with a paper towel and a pen, pasted by the office door with hair gel, with our apartment phone number, hoping beyond all hope that somehow we might be able to see our long lost boards once again.
Jan 3, 2004
Bipolar disorder
Sometimes it seems like places can suffer from schizophrenia. Take churches for example. Some days they celebrate weddings, other days the mourn funerals. Or the San Francisco International Airport. Yesterday it represented suffering and loss, today it's the portal to new adventures. Go figure.
Sometimes it seems like places can suffer from schizophrenia. Take churches for example. Some days they celebrate weddings, other days the mourn funerals. Or the San Francisco International Airport. Yesterday it represented suffering and loss, today it's the portal to new adventures. Go figure.
Dec 31, 2003
Packing List
1 Snowboard and Bindings
1 Snowboard Boots
1 Pair Gloves
1 Toque
1 Neck warmer
1 Gore-tex pants
1 Snowboard jacket
1 Goggles, 2 extra lenses
1 Sunglasses
3 T-shirts
3 Fleeces
3 Underwear
3 Socks
2 Jeans
1 Swimming trunks
1 Towel
1 Pyjama pants
1 Razor, extra cartridges
1 Toothbrush
1 Toothpaste
1 Shampoo
1 Soap
1 Gel
1 Sunscreen
7 pairs contact lenses
2 FRS Radios
many AA batteries
1 Screwdriver
1 Swiss Army Knife
1 pair Chopsticks
1 Flashlight
1 Cell Phone and Charger
1 Notebook and Charger
1 Notebook Audio out cable
1 Notebook Video out cable
some Laundry Detergent
1 Passport
1 Flight confirmation
1 Timeshare guest pass
1 Sleeping bag
1 Camera, Charger, USB cable
1 Flash
2 CompactFlash cards
1 Snowboard and Bindings
1 Snowboard Boots
1 Pair Gloves
1 Toque
1 Neck warmer
1 Gore-tex pants
1 Snowboard jacket
1 Goggles, 2 extra lenses
1 Sunglasses
3 T-shirts
3 Fleeces
3 Underwear
3 Socks
2 Jeans
1 Swimming trunks
1 Towel
1 Pyjama pants
1 Razor, extra cartridges
1 Toothbrush
1 Toothpaste
1 Shampoo
1 Soap
1 Gel
1 Sunscreen
7 pairs contact lenses
2 FRS Radios
many AA batteries
1 Screwdriver
1 Swiss Army Knife
1 pair Chopsticks
1 Flashlight
1 Cell Phone and Charger
1 Notebook and Charger
1 Notebook Audio out cable
1 Notebook Video out cable
some Laundry Detergent
1 Passport
1 Flight confirmation
1 Timeshare guest pass
1 Sleeping bag
1 Camera, Charger, USB cable
1 Flash
2 CompactFlash cards
Dec 25, 2003
Dec 22, 2003
Alone... or not
I dropped one of my housemates off at the airport on friday, and the other left on saturday morning. Gave me pretty much the whole place to myself, and I took the opportunity to clean up. Although it wasn't totally gross, I do feel much more comfortable now without spots on the kitchen floor and occasionally stepping on pebbles in the carpet. The most substantial change was really just putting things away. The place just looks incredibly cleaner when the magazines are on the bookshelf instead of on the desk, even though that really has no influence on the amount of dust or bacteria hanging around.
So I'm cleaning up when I hear the doorbell ring thrice, which was incredibly strange since we almost never have visitors, and most visitors knock instead of ringing the doorbell, and if any normal person rang the doorbell, once would suffice. It was a scene straight out of a mystery novel, I couldn't see anyone through the peephole.
I opened the door, cautiously, expecting some practical joker to be hiding around the corner, but there was none. There was just a Canada Post package lying on the welcome mat, addressed to me. Now generally I'm a firm believer of waiting till Christmas morning to open one's presents. However, since I couldn't confirm that it was really a present, I opened the package to see what was inside.
It was, in fact, my first Christmas present this year, from Toronto. Now it was kinda odd. I was at the same time pretty much overjoyed with the peace of being home alone, yet glad that I didn't really feel alone. Most everyone values their friends, but in my life, the friends that last, even not seeing each other for months or years, are really blessings from God.
I dropped one of my housemates off at the airport on friday, and the other left on saturday morning. Gave me pretty much the whole place to myself, and I took the opportunity to clean up. Although it wasn't totally gross, I do feel much more comfortable now without spots on the kitchen floor and occasionally stepping on pebbles in the carpet. The most substantial change was really just putting things away. The place just looks incredibly cleaner when the magazines are on the bookshelf instead of on the desk, even though that really has no influence on the amount of dust or bacteria hanging around.
So I'm cleaning up when I hear the doorbell ring thrice, which was incredibly strange since we almost never have visitors, and most visitors knock instead of ringing the doorbell, and if any normal person rang the doorbell, once would suffice. It was a scene straight out of a mystery novel, I couldn't see anyone through the peephole.
I opened the door, cautiously, expecting some practical joker to be hiding around the corner, but there was none. There was just a Canada Post package lying on the welcome mat, addressed to me. Now generally I'm a firm believer of waiting till Christmas morning to open one's presents. However, since I couldn't confirm that it was really a present, I opened the package to see what was inside.
It was, in fact, my first Christmas present this year, from Toronto. Now it was kinda odd. I was at the same time pretty much overjoyed with the peace of being home alone, yet glad that I didn't really feel alone. Most everyone values their friends, but in my life, the friends that last, even not seeing each other for months or years, are really blessings from God.
Dec 18, 2003
Need Exercise
Soreness from snowboarding last Sunday is pretty much all gone now. It was a pretty good day at Squaw, where they had a $29 lift ticket deal. Early season tickets are normally $44, and regular tickets are rather insane at $59, so I think we got a pretty good deal, especially since they got 18" of snow on Saturday night. The drive up was pretty smooth to begin with. We made pretty good time for the first 2.5 hours, until we had to put chains on the wheels. Shortly after I chained up, maybe 20 miles from the resort, my chains broke.
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of using chains, when unwrapped, they look like a ladder. Curl it up around your wheel and connect the two ends, and you've got the idea. So while driving, one of the "rungs" snapped on one end, and ended up whipping around in my wheel well. We had to get off the highway a few times to tie up the flailing rung (we couldn't remove it entirely), dodging snowplows on the way. Added at least a half hour to the trip, probably more.
In the meantime, the clouds cleared up and it was pretty sunny. I got a Fire lens for my goggles that's quite a bit darker than the previous lens I had, which was perfect. Unfortunately, the rest of my gear didn't work out quite as well.
I got new boots and bindings last spring, when the prices of most snowboard gear are significantly slashed. I've used the Clicker system in the past, so I stuck with it. I got the Clicker Transformer BOA boots and the now discontinued Magma HB bindings.
The impetus on new gear was that I was sick of tieing and retieing the laces on my old K2 Sherpas. The laces would stretch and I'd never have a nice tight fit for good control. The ankle strap that boot didn't work well either. I'd have it as tight as it would go and it still wouldn't be tight enough. The Transformer is definitely an improvement. The BOA system works pretty well. I do have to retighten it every so often, but it's much easier than tying laces. I'd buy these boots for the BOA alone. The ratcheted ankle strap is much more secure than the velcro strap on my old boots. On the minus, these things hurt my feet. After the first hour the soles of my feet were in pain. I'm not sure why. The top of my right foot was also in pain from a pressure point. I think I'll need some kinda athletic boot liner for these things, and I'll have to figure out what's killing the top of my foot, since I didn't have the same problem with the left boot.
The bindings were generally improved over the last set of Klicker's I had. They click in with a lot less pressure which is a plus, but the highback made it a bit more of a hassle to get into these things. My old bindings were just flat on the board, you could step into them any which way. Because of the highback, I now have to put my foot in from the front. Furthermore, since it occasionally swings down, I often have to reach down and flip up the highback. I am thinking of just getting rid of it, but I'll give it a few more tries.
The biggest lesson though, was that my stance was completely screwed up. I had put them in with 0°/0°, they were too far forward, and the forward lean on the bindings was too far.
The angles indicate the angles of your feet with respect to the board. The axis perpendicular to the board is the measurement, so at 0°/0°, both my feet were perfectly perpendicular to the board. I had wanted to try riding fakey (which means backwards), so I tried not to angle my feet in either direction. This was a bad idea, it didn't work. There was a lot of strain on my legs as they were constrained in what's really a very unnatural position. The muscle on the right side of my right leg is in fact still a little sore. It also made it hard to turn. I've reset them to 21°/-3°, we'll see how much that improves.
Second thing that was wrong was that I was too far forward on the board. I'm not sure what kinda problems this actually causes, but it doesn't seem to be recommended. Most often the rider is centered on the board, or setback a little. Overall I suspect the difficulty in turning was partially due to the setforward.
The forward lean is determined by how the highback is set. Since my old bindings were flats, I didn't worry about it much. It seemed like the advantage of the HB was for better control, so I set the lean pretty aggressively forward. Bad move, my legs ended up tiring out way too easily and cramping up. With the Klickers, it also made it harder to step in and engage the lock on the heel. Slid it back, it should be a lot more relaxed and comfortable now.
The snow was not bad, but wasn't groomed. There were a lot of bumps by the end of the day, but given there was some fresh powder, the ticket was cheap, and there were no lines practically all day, it was a pretty good trip. My legs were killing me a the end of the day, but learned a good deal about setting up the gear. Can't wait for Whistler!
Soreness from snowboarding last Sunday is pretty much all gone now. It was a pretty good day at Squaw, where they had a $29 lift ticket deal. Early season tickets are normally $44, and regular tickets are rather insane at $59, so I think we got a pretty good deal, especially since they got 18" of snow on Saturday night. The drive up was pretty smooth to begin with. We made pretty good time for the first 2.5 hours, until we had to put chains on the wheels. Shortly after I chained up, maybe 20 miles from the resort, my chains broke.
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of using chains, when unwrapped, they look like a ladder. Curl it up around your wheel and connect the two ends, and you've got the idea. So while driving, one of the "rungs" snapped on one end, and ended up whipping around in my wheel well. We had to get off the highway a few times to tie up the flailing rung (we couldn't remove it entirely), dodging snowplows on the way. Added at least a half hour to the trip, probably more.
In the meantime, the clouds cleared up and it was pretty sunny. I got a Fire lens for my goggles that's quite a bit darker than the previous lens I had, which was perfect. Unfortunately, the rest of my gear didn't work out quite as well.
I got new boots and bindings last spring, when the prices of most snowboard gear are significantly slashed. I've used the Clicker system in the past, so I stuck with it. I got the Clicker Transformer BOA boots and the now discontinued Magma HB bindings.
The impetus on new gear was that I was sick of tieing and retieing the laces on my old K2 Sherpas. The laces would stretch and I'd never have a nice tight fit for good control. The ankle strap that boot didn't work well either. I'd have it as tight as it would go and it still wouldn't be tight enough. The Transformer is definitely an improvement. The BOA system works pretty well. I do have to retighten it every so often, but it's much easier than tying laces. I'd buy these boots for the BOA alone. The ratcheted ankle strap is much more secure than the velcro strap on my old boots. On the minus, these things hurt my feet. After the first hour the soles of my feet were in pain. I'm not sure why. The top of my right foot was also in pain from a pressure point. I think I'll need some kinda athletic boot liner for these things, and I'll have to figure out what's killing the top of my foot, since I didn't have the same problem with the left boot.
The bindings were generally improved over the last set of Klicker's I had. They click in with a lot less pressure which is a plus, but the highback made it a bit more of a hassle to get into these things. My old bindings were just flat on the board, you could step into them any which way. Because of the highback, I now have to put my foot in from the front. Furthermore, since it occasionally swings down, I often have to reach down and flip up the highback. I am thinking of just getting rid of it, but I'll give it a few more tries.
The biggest lesson though, was that my stance was completely screwed up. I had put them in with 0°/0°, they were too far forward, and the forward lean on the bindings was too far.
The angles indicate the angles of your feet with respect to the board. The axis perpendicular to the board is the measurement, so at 0°/0°, both my feet were perfectly perpendicular to the board. I had wanted to try riding fakey (which means backwards), so I tried not to angle my feet in either direction. This was a bad idea, it didn't work. There was a lot of strain on my legs as they were constrained in what's really a very unnatural position. The muscle on the right side of my right leg is in fact still a little sore. It also made it hard to turn. I've reset them to 21°/-3°, we'll see how much that improves.
Second thing that was wrong was that I was too far forward on the board. I'm not sure what kinda problems this actually causes, but it doesn't seem to be recommended. Most often the rider is centered on the board, or setback a little. Overall I suspect the difficulty in turning was partially due to the setforward.
The forward lean is determined by how the highback is set. Since my old bindings were flats, I didn't worry about it much. It seemed like the advantage of the HB was for better control, so I set the lean pretty aggressively forward. Bad move, my legs ended up tiring out way too easily and cramping up. With the Klickers, it also made it harder to step in and engage the lock on the heel. Slid it back, it should be a lot more relaxed and comfortable now.
The snow was not bad, but wasn't groomed. There were a lot of bumps by the end of the day, but given there was some fresh powder, the ticket was cheap, and there were no lines practically all day, it was a pretty good trip. My legs were killing me a the end of the day, but learned a good deal about setting up the gear. Can't wait for Whistler!
Dec 13, 2003
Dec 7, 2003
Gen 5:1-32, Gen 10:1-32, Gen 11:10-32 (for Dec. 3 class)
The three genealogies in Genesis 1-11 serve to establish the breadth of time and space occupied by Adam's descendants. They maintain a historical record of lineage from Adam to Abram, as well as placing the not yet founded nation of Israel in the context of the surrounding nations. The genealogies in Gen. 5:1-32 and Gen. 11:10-32 are very similar in form and function, while the account in Gen. 10:1-32 is quite different.
The listings in Gen. 5 and Gen. 11 both start with the "generations" or "account" of a single man. in Gen. 5, the man was Adam. In Gen. 11, the man was Shem. In both cases we are presented the lineage from a man to his son, and from the son to his son. In both cases there is the relatively simple pattern: "X lived Y years, and became the father of Z; and X lived Y' years after he became the father of Z, and had other sons and daughters". The first differs slightly in that it adds the total lifespan of each person, and adds the phrase "and then he died". However, both of these clearly record a history of the lineage from significant characters to other significant character generations later. In Gen. 5, the history is traced from Adam to Noah. In Gen. 11, the history is traced from Noah to Abram. For early readers this was significant because it recorded the entire history from the first man to Israel's birth. Later readers were able to use continued records to trace the lineage for Adam to David. Finally, in Luke 3 and Matt. 1, there are listings connecting Adam and Abraham to Jesus Christ.
It is clear that these two listings in Gen. 5 and Gen. 11 are highly linear. The words "he had other sons and daughters" serves to emphasize there were plenty of anonymous characters that were irrelevant with respect to the record. Out of the characters that are named, most are mentioned within the above mentioned pattern, downplaying their significance. Each of them is unique, having his own lifespan recorded, but also similar to the others in the rest of the pattern of living, having children, living some more, then dying. The pattern however, is broken when we reach a character who has a significant story. In Gen. 5, the pattern is broken when Lamech gives birth to Noah, saying "This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed." This is further emphasized when the list is broken when it begins Noah's account by mentioning the names of not one but three of his children. Again in Gen. 11 the list is broken when not one but three of the children of Terah are mentioned. Although Terah was not the "hero" in the same sense that Noah was, his account was significant because he set the backdrop of time and place for the hero and his companion, his son Abram and his grandson Lot. These patterns shows a very particular purpose for these sections: to connect the gaps between characters in a narrative that spans thousands of years. In skimming over these listings too quickly we miss out on God's patience when he waits through the generations until the right person comes along.
The other genealogy, in Gen. 10, are similar to the other two in that it sets the scene for a significant story, connecting it with the previous narrative. The list in Gen. 5 sets up the story of Noah from the previous story of Adam and his sons, with the repetition on death reaching a sort of local maximum in the Flood, and his father's prophecy creating an portend for Noah. The list in Gen. 10 continues from Noah's line and sets the backdrop for the story of Abram setting a clear time and place as the beginning of his journey. The account in Gen. 10 paves the way for the story of the Tower of Babel. This is a different type of story compared to Noah and Abram. Instead of being the account of one significant character, it is an account of a mass of anonymous characters; it is the account of the separation of man into many nations. As a prequel for this story, the genealogy in Gen. 10 does not connect us linearly from Noah to a particular descendant, but rather it branches and connects us from Noah to the mass of nations in the story of Babel. As Lamech gave an introduction to Noah, and Terah introduced Abram, so the end of this account also introduces the next story: "These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations; and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood".
Where the Gen. 5 takes us to a depth of 11 generations and Gen. 11 takes us to a depth of 9 generations, each listing father and son, Gen. 10 takes us to a depth of 3 generations for the descendants of Ham and Japheth, and 6 generations for the descendants of Shem. Instead of giving us a particular depth, we get a sense of breadth covering the family trees of not one character but three. For each of the three characters, we are not introduced to only one son, but all the sons. Out of the many sons, we actually find out about a number of their sons as well. Here we are not introduced to anonymous "other sons", but to fathers of nations. Much more detail is given compared to the other two passages. We are told of those who were great, like Nimrod. We are given a sense of place in geographic location. To early readers this may have given a sense of place with respect to their surrounding nations. It sets up the history of the Canaanites with respect to the history of Israel. To later readers like ourselves, we are introduced to nations that have, by their own strength, risen and fallen and disappeared with time.
Each of the genealogical listings in Genesis serves to connect people and events that are separated in space and time, preparing us for the next significant character or event. They serve to carry the pace. Hundreds if not thousands of years and generations are passed over quickly from one significant story to another. It is very easy to pass over this text even more superficially in our reading. However, without recognizing the sheer breadth of peoples or the depth of time in which God acts, we miss the significance in His patience waiting through time, His care in selecting individuals, and the intimacy of His relationship with individuals among the multitudes.
The three genealogies in Genesis 1-11 serve to establish the breadth of time and space occupied by Adam's descendants. They maintain a historical record of lineage from Adam to Abram, as well as placing the not yet founded nation of Israel in the context of the surrounding nations. The genealogies in Gen. 5:1-32 and Gen. 11:10-32 are very similar in form and function, while the account in Gen. 10:1-32 is quite different.
The listings in Gen. 5 and Gen. 11 both start with the "generations" or "account" of a single man. in Gen. 5, the man was Adam. In Gen. 11, the man was Shem. In both cases we are presented the lineage from a man to his son, and from the son to his son. In both cases there is the relatively simple pattern: "X lived Y years, and became the father of Z; and X lived Y' years after he became the father of Z, and had other sons and daughters". The first differs slightly in that it adds the total lifespan of each person, and adds the phrase "and then he died". However, both of these clearly record a history of the lineage from significant characters to other significant character generations later. In Gen. 5, the history is traced from Adam to Noah. In Gen. 11, the history is traced from Noah to Abram. For early readers this was significant because it recorded the entire history from the first man to Israel's birth. Later readers were able to use continued records to trace the lineage for Adam to David. Finally, in Luke 3 and Matt. 1, there are listings connecting Adam and Abraham to Jesus Christ.
It is clear that these two listings in Gen. 5 and Gen. 11 are highly linear. The words "he had other sons and daughters" serves to emphasize there were plenty of anonymous characters that were irrelevant with respect to the record. Out of the characters that are named, most are mentioned within the above mentioned pattern, downplaying their significance. Each of them is unique, having his own lifespan recorded, but also similar to the others in the rest of the pattern of living, having children, living some more, then dying. The pattern however, is broken when we reach a character who has a significant story. In Gen. 5, the pattern is broken when Lamech gives birth to Noah, saying "This one will give us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed." This is further emphasized when the list is broken when it begins Noah's account by mentioning the names of not one but three of his children. Again in Gen. 11 the list is broken when not one but three of the children of Terah are mentioned. Although Terah was not the "hero" in the same sense that Noah was, his account was significant because he set the backdrop of time and place for the hero and his companion, his son Abram and his grandson Lot. These patterns shows a very particular purpose for these sections: to connect the gaps between characters in a narrative that spans thousands of years. In skimming over these listings too quickly we miss out on God's patience when he waits through the generations until the right person comes along.
The other genealogy, in Gen. 10, are similar to the other two in that it sets the scene for a significant story, connecting it with the previous narrative. The list in Gen. 5 sets up the story of Noah from the previous story of Adam and his sons, with the repetition on death reaching a sort of local maximum in the Flood, and his father's prophecy creating an portend for Noah. The list in Gen. 10 continues from Noah's line and sets the backdrop for the story of Abram setting a clear time and place as the beginning of his journey. The account in Gen. 10 paves the way for the story of the Tower of Babel. This is a different type of story compared to Noah and Abram. Instead of being the account of one significant character, it is an account of a mass of anonymous characters; it is the account of the separation of man into many nations. As a prequel for this story, the genealogy in Gen. 10 does not connect us linearly from Noah to a particular descendant, but rather it branches and connects us from Noah to the mass of nations in the story of Babel. As Lamech gave an introduction to Noah, and Terah introduced Abram, so the end of this account also introduces the next story: "These are the families of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, by their nations; and out of these the nations were separated on the earth after the flood".
Where the Gen. 5 takes us to a depth of 11 generations and Gen. 11 takes us to a depth of 9 generations, each listing father and son, Gen. 10 takes us to a depth of 3 generations for the descendants of Ham and Japheth, and 6 generations for the descendants of Shem. Instead of giving us a particular depth, we get a sense of breadth covering the family trees of not one character but three. For each of the three characters, we are not introduced to only one son, but all the sons. Out of the many sons, we actually find out about a number of their sons as well. Here we are not introduced to anonymous "other sons", but to fathers of nations. Much more detail is given compared to the other two passages. We are told of those who were great, like Nimrod. We are given a sense of place in geographic location. To early readers this may have given a sense of place with respect to their surrounding nations. It sets up the history of the Canaanites with respect to the history of Israel. To later readers like ourselves, we are introduced to nations that have, by their own strength, risen and fallen and disappeared with time.
Each of the genealogical listings in Genesis serves to connect people and events that are separated in space and time, preparing us for the next significant character or event. They serve to carry the pace. Hundreds if not thousands of years and generations are passed over quickly from one significant story to another. It is very easy to pass over this text even more superficially in our reading. However, without recognizing the sheer breadth of peoples or the depth of time in which God acts, we miss the significance in His patience waiting through time, His care in selecting individuals, and the intimacy of His relationship with individuals among the multitudes.
Genesis 6:1-8:19 (for Nov. 12 class)
For this class we were asked to prepare a teaching outline rather than to write a paper. In some ways, since it was an outline it was easier. I think however, I also spent less time on it since it was more cursory. I'm not sure I've thought everything through here:
Teaching outline
Title of sermon: Abiding in God's protection
Introduction
Background of sin in mankind, Adam & Eve, Cain and Abel, Lamech.
Downhill slope: it got worse and worse, till God wanted to cleanse the earth.
Section 1: Obeying in Faith (6:5-7:5)
Compare Noah with the peoples of his time.
What kind of faith would it to be a sole believer in a society of unbelievers?
Highlight Noah's quiet obedience.
Note the leadership role he plays for his family.
How do we stand up as believers in our society of unbelievers?
Are we willing to obey quietly in challenging social norms?
Can we lead others (believers and unbelievers) in example?
Section 2: Riding through the storm (7:6-7:23)
Highlight Noah's preparations for the storm.
Mental image of the life aboard the ark as the floodgates opened.
Remphasis of his faith beforehand.
How do we prepare for the storms in our lives, when we can't see them coming?
Do we have faith that God's provisions will keep us afloat?
Section 3: Patience in the lean year (7:24-8:19)
Note the passage of time.
40 days of rain, 150 days of flooding.
Over a year before the aftermath of the storm has faded and they got out of the boat.
Noah was forced to be patient on the cramped boat.
Precautions (raven, dove) before leaving the ark instead of haste.
Are we willing to be patient when God forces us to wait?
After a storm, are we in haste to rush out again, or do we wait for God’s timing?
Do we ever stop and reflect when He has carried us through, or do we move on immediately?
Conclusion
God provides for us so we can weather through storms in our lives.
Do we make the most of that by obeying, trusting, and having patience?
Do we rush past with little appreciation but eagerness for the next storm?
For this class we were asked to prepare a teaching outline rather than to write a paper. In some ways, since it was an outline it was easier. I think however, I also spent less time on it since it was more cursory. I'm not sure I've thought everything through here:
Teaching outline
Title of sermon: Abiding in God's protection
Introduction
Background of sin in mankind, Adam & Eve, Cain and Abel, Lamech.
Downhill slope: it got worse and worse, till God wanted to cleanse the earth.
Section 1: Obeying in Faith (6:5-7:5)
Compare Noah with the peoples of his time.
What kind of faith would it to be a sole believer in a society of unbelievers?
Highlight Noah's quiet obedience.
Note the leadership role he plays for his family.
How do we stand up as believers in our society of unbelievers?
Are we willing to obey quietly in challenging social norms?
Can we lead others (believers and unbelievers) in example?
Section 2: Riding through the storm (7:6-7:23)
Highlight Noah's preparations for the storm.
Mental image of the life aboard the ark as the floodgates opened.
Remphasis of his faith beforehand.
How do we prepare for the storms in our lives, when we can't see them coming?
Do we have faith that God's provisions will keep us afloat?
Section 3: Patience in the lean year (7:24-8:19)
Note the passage of time.
40 days of rain, 150 days of flooding.
Over a year before the aftermath of the storm has faded and they got out of the boat.
Noah was forced to be patient on the cramped boat.
Precautions (raven, dove) before leaving the ark instead of haste.
Are we willing to be patient when God forces us to wait?
After a storm, are we in haste to rush out again, or do we wait for God’s timing?
Do we ever stop and reflect when He has carried us through, or do we move on immediately?
Conclusion
God provides for us so we can weather through storms in our lives.
Do we make the most of that by obeying, trusting, and having patience?
Do we rush past with little appreciation but eagerness for the next storm?
Genesis 4:1-26 (for Nov. 5 class)
The story of mankind's fascination with sin, which started in Genesis 3, continues in Genesis 4. What Adam and Eve introduced, their progeny continue, creating pattern that is emulated in some form throughout the Old Testament. It is a pattern of a lack of proper worship, of not acknowledging His sovereignty, and trying to put Him out of the picture. In spite of this, God is good. In judgement he shows both justice and grace. In this chapter, there are two significant narratives, that of Cain, and that of his descendant Lamech. Cain's story is told with a level of detail, while Lamech's is mentioned in passing, a shadow of the first story.
Cain's story is one of anger, jealousy and murder. While we might not readily identify with murder, anger and jealousy are emotions that most people deal with. For Cain, his anger came as a result of his inability to accept God and his favor for Abel. Perhaps Cain felt that he had worked harder than his brother. After all, as described in the previous chapter, Genesis 3:18-19, farming was strenuous. Clearly Cain disagreed with God about the value of his offering. He refused to acknowledge his own fault in presenting an unacceptable offering. Instead of heeding God's word and ominous warning in verses 6 and 7, Cain acts on his own and does the opposite. He knew that sin was crouching at his door, yet in his anger he still succumbed to it.
God gives Cain the same judgement as was given Adam, but magnified. Where Adam once had free food, it was taken away and he was forced to work the ground for his sustenance. Where Cain once had to work the ground for his food, even that was taken away. Where Adam was driven from the Garden of Eden, Cain was driven from the presence of the Lord. Where Adam was to be punished by death, he was spared his life for a while. Where Cain could also have been punished by death, he was not only spared but protected by God's decree.
Sin often comes in this fashion, telling people that they deserve more than what God has allotted for them. Like Cain, many people feel neglected while they see others blessed. Other people may have an inflated sense of self worth, and want more than what they already have. In both cases these feelings and the focus on their own hurt and and anger, and the refusal to turn from doing wrong to doing right, draw people away from what lies beyond the pain - a close relationship with God.
Cain actually had a speaking relationship with God, yet this was something he did not treasure. While God counselled him in his frustration, Cain ignored God's voice. Instead of worshipping God with a a true offering, he focuses on Abel as the cause of his displeasure. Only later does he realize what he's lost when he cries out in woe "from Your face I will be hidden" (Gen 4:14).
The narrative in Genesis 4 continues through Cain's lineage to his descendant Lamech. In some senses, this was a fruitful lineage, since through it came about music and metal craft. Yet in it is a sense of despondency because God is not there. While God’s voice counselled Cain in that narrative, it is absent in Cain’s lineage and Lamech’s story. Although Cain's lineage did well for itself for a while, we still see a society in turmoil without God. Lamech becomes a murderer, punishing injury with death twice. far exceeding the eye for an eye limitation later deemed just in Exodus. Where God demonstrated his grace in declaring vengeance to protect Cain and end the potential cycle of violence, Lamech called to his wives for his own protection, potentially opening a cycle of revenge. The narrative for Cain’s descendents ends here. Adam and Eve have another son, Seth, and from his line it says “men began to call upon the name of the Lord”.
There is a shadow of this in the history of Israel. Every so often there are a few generations who operate without God. For a time, they may have a period of success. Eventually however, their life apart from God does not succeed. Israel and Judah were both eventually swept away from God into exile until God restored a remanent. The rest, like Cain and his lineage, faded away.
This can be applicable in our lives as well. There are many ways in which we can live without God. The narrative of the lineage of Cain and Lamech shows one possible scenario where sin drives Cain into a apart from God. Living apart from God becomes somewhat of a norm for some generations, but in the end Lamech finds himself in a sad and empty place. We can also distance ourselves from God through sin. That distance doesn’t preclude us from successes; in fact people often get far and become successful while ignoring God and refusing to acknowledge their own sins. The worldview in secular (and often times Christian) America encourages individuals to be self sufficient and ambitious, to be judged by their own merits and nothing else. It is a culture that encourages distance from God and discourages any reliance upon Him. In the end, however, a life without God ends up in despair, emptimess, and ever deeper sin. Like Lamech, people often find themselves in unexpected situations, where their own strength might not be sufficient and with no one to turn to. The only true solution is to call upon the name of the Lord.
The story of mankind's fascination with sin, which started in Genesis 3, continues in Genesis 4. What Adam and Eve introduced, their progeny continue, creating pattern that is emulated in some form throughout the Old Testament. It is a pattern of a lack of proper worship, of not acknowledging His sovereignty, and trying to put Him out of the picture. In spite of this, God is good. In judgement he shows both justice and grace. In this chapter, there are two significant narratives, that of Cain, and that of his descendant Lamech. Cain's story is told with a level of detail, while Lamech's is mentioned in passing, a shadow of the first story.
Cain's story is one of anger, jealousy and murder. While we might not readily identify with murder, anger and jealousy are emotions that most people deal with. For Cain, his anger came as a result of his inability to accept God and his favor for Abel. Perhaps Cain felt that he had worked harder than his brother. After all, as described in the previous chapter, Genesis 3:18-19, farming was strenuous. Clearly Cain disagreed with God about the value of his offering. He refused to acknowledge his own fault in presenting an unacceptable offering. Instead of heeding God's word and ominous warning in verses 6 and 7, Cain acts on his own and does the opposite. He knew that sin was crouching at his door, yet in his anger he still succumbed to it.
God gives Cain the same judgement as was given Adam, but magnified. Where Adam once had free food, it was taken away and he was forced to work the ground for his sustenance. Where Cain once had to work the ground for his food, even that was taken away. Where Adam was driven from the Garden of Eden, Cain was driven from the presence of the Lord. Where Adam was to be punished by death, he was spared his life for a while. Where Cain could also have been punished by death, he was not only spared but protected by God's decree.
Sin often comes in this fashion, telling people that they deserve more than what God has allotted for them. Like Cain, many people feel neglected while they see others blessed. Other people may have an inflated sense of self worth, and want more than what they already have. In both cases these feelings and the focus on their own hurt and and anger, and the refusal to turn from doing wrong to doing right, draw people away from what lies beyond the pain - a close relationship with God.
Cain actually had a speaking relationship with God, yet this was something he did not treasure. While God counselled him in his frustration, Cain ignored God's voice. Instead of worshipping God with a a true offering, he focuses on Abel as the cause of his displeasure. Only later does he realize what he's lost when he cries out in woe "from Your face I will be hidden" (Gen 4:14).
The narrative in Genesis 4 continues through Cain's lineage to his descendant Lamech. In some senses, this was a fruitful lineage, since through it came about music and metal craft. Yet in it is a sense of despondency because God is not there. While God’s voice counselled Cain in that narrative, it is absent in Cain’s lineage and Lamech’s story. Although Cain's lineage did well for itself for a while, we still see a society in turmoil without God. Lamech becomes a murderer, punishing injury with death twice. far exceeding the eye for an eye limitation later deemed just in Exodus. Where God demonstrated his grace in declaring vengeance to protect Cain and end the potential cycle of violence, Lamech called to his wives for his own protection, potentially opening a cycle of revenge. The narrative for Cain’s descendents ends here. Adam and Eve have another son, Seth, and from his line it says “men began to call upon the name of the Lord”.
There is a shadow of this in the history of Israel. Every so often there are a few generations who operate without God. For a time, they may have a period of success. Eventually however, their life apart from God does not succeed. Israel and Judah were both eventually swept away from God into exile until God restored a remanent. The rest, like Cain and his lineage, faded away.
This can be applicable in our lives as well. There are many ways in which we can live without God. The narrative of the lineage of Cain and Lamech shows one possible scenario where sin drives Cain into a apart from God. Living apart from God becomes somewhat of a norm for some generations, but in the end Lamech finds himself in a sad and empty place. We can also distance ourselves from God through sin. That distance doesn’t preclude us from successes; in fact people often get far and become successful while ignoring God and refusing to acknowledge their own sins. The worldview in secular (and often times Christian) America encourages individuals to be self sufficient and ambitious, to be judged by their own merits and nothing else. It is a culture that encourages distance from God and discourages any reliance upon Him. In the end, however, a life without God ends up in despair, emptimess, and ever deeper sin. Like Lamech, people often find themselves in unexpected situations, where their own strength might not be sufficient and with no one to turn to. The only true solution is to call upon the name of the Lord.
Dec 1, 2003
Week in Review
Sat Nov 22
Breakfast: Ko fu sandwiches at home with Mom, Dad, and Amy
Lunch: Pasta at home with Mom, Dad, and Amy
Dinner: Lemon Meringue (Jane/Bloor) with Amy
Sun Nov 23
Coffee: Second Cup (John/Queen) with Adrian, Eva, Jess, and Amy
Lunch: leftovers at home with Amy
Dinner: Potluck at Jas' with Jas, Cindy, Janey, Long, Sissy, Jon, Brian, Sunching, Jessie, Warren, Pauline and Henry
Mon Nov 24
Lunch: Mr. Yang Chinese Restaurant (Leslie/Finch) with Mom and Dad
Dinner: oxtail and fish at home with Mom, Dad and Amy
Tues Nov 25
Lunch: Mochizuki (Bay/Elm) with Amy and dentistry friends
Dinner: Milestone's (Empress Walk) with Matt, Janey, Eric, Janice, Norm, Claud, Cindy, Bill, Jon, Rosie, Alfred and Philip
Wed Nov 26
Lunch: Pumpernickel's (FCP food court) with Al and Densie
Afternoon Fries: NYF (Eaton Centre food court) with Amy
Dinner: Marche (BCE Place) with Victor, Janey, Jessie, Ev and Pris
Thurs Nov 27
Lunch: quiche and salad at Kim's with Kim, Keon, and Mattan
Dinner: Ka Ka Lok in Waterloo (King/University) with Toby, Mui and Yuling
Bubble Tea: Timeless Cafe in Waterloo (University Plaza) with Tams
Fri Nov 28
Lunch: potato salad sandwiches at home with Mom and Dad
Dinner: midget turkeys and curry at home with Jen, Adam, Zanie, Allen, Matt, Lyds, and Amy
Sat Nov 29
Breakfast: Tim Horton's (Vic Park/401)
Lunch: Dim Sum at Rol San (Spadina/D'Arcy) with Mom and Dad's friends (and Derek and Amy)
Afternoon Bubble Tea: Ten Ren's (Metro Square) with Cindy and Jerry
Dinner: Noodles at Amy's with Amy
Sun Nov 30
Breakfast: at home (smoked salmon sandwiches) with Mom and Dad
Lunch: Hung Fat (Spadina/Dundas) with Tams, Joe, Al, Denise, Sunching, Shuling and Rani
Dinner: Cheesecake Factory in San Jose (Valley Fair Mall) with Vinay, Shane, Christine, and Steph
Yes, I've noticed it's all defined by food.
Sat Nov 22
Breakfast: Ko fu sandwiches at home with Mom, Dad, and Amy
Lunch: Pasta at home with Mom, Dad, and Amy
Dinner: Lemon Meringue (Jane/Bloor) with Amy
Sun Nov 23
Coffee: Second Cup (John/Queen) with Adrian, Eva, Jess, and Amy
Lunch: leftovers at home with Amy
Dinner: Potluck at Jas' with Jas, Cindy, Janey, Long, Sissy, Jon, Brian, Sunching, Jessie, Warren, Pauline and Henry
Mon Nov 24
Lunch: Mr. Yang Chinese Restaurant (Leslie/Finch) with Mom and Dad
Dinner: oxtail and fish at home with Mom, Dad and Amy
Tues Nov 25
Lunch: Mochizuki (Bay/Elm) with Amy and dentistry friends
Dinner: Milestone's (Empress Walk) with Matt, Janey, Eric, Janice, Norm, Claud, Cindy, Bill, Jon, Rosie, Alfred and Philip
Wed Nov 26
Lunch: Pumpernickel's (FCP food court) with Al and Densie
Afternoon Fries: NYF (Eaton Centre food court) with Amy
Dinner: Marche (BCE Place) with Victor, Janey, Jessie, Ev and Pris
Thurs Nov 27
Lunch: quiche and salad at Kim's with Kim, Keon, and Mattan
Dinner: Ka Ka Lok in Waterloo (King/University) with Toby, Mui and Yuling
Bubble Tea: Timeless Cafe in Waterloo (University Plaza) with Tams
Fri Nov 28
Lunch: potato salad sandwiches at home with Mom and Dad
Dinner: midget turkeys and curry at home with Jen, Adam, Zanie, Allen, Matt, Lyds, and Amy
Sat Nov 29
Breakfast: Tim Horton's (Vic Park/401)
Lunch: Dim Sum at Rol San (Spadina/D'Arcy) with Mom and Dad's friends (and Derek and Amy)
Afternoon Bubble Tea: Ten Ren's (Metro Square) with Cindy and Jerry
Dinner: Noodles at Amy's with Amy
Sun Nov 30
Breakfast: at home (smoked salmon sandwiches) with Mom and Dad
Lunch: Hung Fat (Spadina/Dundas) with Tams, Joe, Al, Denise, Sunching, Shuling and Rani
Dinner: Cheesecake Factory in San Jose (Valley Fair Mall) with Vinay, Shane, Christine, and Steph
Yes, I've noticed it's all defined by food.
Nov 12, 2003
Nov 9, 2003
Procrastinating again
At the moment, I should be working on the paper for last week's class, not to mention the paper for this week's class. Oh well.
Pet peeve of the Year
It seems far enough along into the year to have a pet peeve of the year. I doubt anything, within the last month and a half of the year could be quite as aggravating (other than perhaps Christmas marketting, but unfortunately, that's an annual frustration). I'm not a big fan of euphemisms, in fact I think they're downright dishonest. Why invent a new word to make you feel better just when the existing terminology doesn't meet your tastes? Here's the old word, you can figure out what the annoying new word is:
Main Entry: dan·dy
Pronunciation: 'dan-dE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural dandies
Etymology: probably short for jack-a-dandy, from jack + a (of) + dandy (origin unknown)
Date: circa 1780
1 : a man who gives exaggerated attention to personal appearance
2 : something excellent in its class
- dan·dy·ish /-dE-ish/ adjective
- dan·dy·ish·ly adverb
Download Free Music Legally!
I like the idea of downloading music. There's no real reason I should need to go to the store to buy a metallic piece of plastic when what I really want is the abstract data on the CD. I also have nothing against paying for music if it's reasonably priced. So I've been trying out Apple's iTunes.
I've been pretty much instantly hooked. I'll readily admit it's not quite perfect - you can't listen and try out discs like you can at HMV - but it's pretty well polished. You enter your credit card data once, after that it's just a few clicks to browse available albums (decent selection, though not as good as HMV). It's just a two mouse clicks to download either an entire album or a single song. Downloads were pretty spiffy, and track order is preserved. It took a few minutes to download an entire album. It took another few clicks and a few more minutes to burn the album to CD.
I haven't tried copying the audio files around. The downloaded files are DRM protected, supposedly limiting you to playing the files on 3 PCs. I haven't run into instances where this has gotten to be a problem, but if I ever get an mp3 player I'm sure I'll have to find some way around it. At the moment, my main concern is to not bankrupt myself given the ease to buy music now.
The perils of impulse buying
So the headphones of my aging discman have been in some stage of dying for some time now. Either there's something loose or there's some excessive capacitance somewhere because anything with a reasonable amount of bass - basically any music at all - causes a very annoying static-y type noise.
I normally don't use the discman often. Practically the only time I do use it is on plane trips, and I have been on a good number this year. I stopped off at Fry's the morning before a flight to find some earbut style headphones. The cheapest ones were $7.99. I figured I could afford a little more than that, I did want some decent sounding buds. I browsed the shelves and my eyes resed on Sony's MDR-NC11 Noise Canceling Fontopia Ear-Bud Headphones. Huge whooshing sounds coming out of my wallet, but unfortunately I liked them too much to return them.
I'll be the first to admit they're wildly overpriced. However, after using them I do find them very useful. The best feature of these headphones are the in-ear design. Unlike most earbuds I've used, these ones actually seal your ear and act as earplugs, blocking out most, but not all outside noise. The headphones come with 3 sizes of earplugs, with the medium size as the default. Initially I thought the headphones didn't do much, since the medium size didn't form much of a seal in my ears. The large size fit quite well, with a little adjustment the seal is good while remaining comfortable. Since maybe 80% of the quieting effect is due to the physical blockage rather than the noise-cancelling circutry, I would say the MDR-EX71SL headphones, that have the same earplug but no noise-cancelling circuit is a much better deal.
Out of the box I realized the headphones need an AAA battery to work. You can use them as regular headphones without, but then that'd be a waste, and the big plastic box that holds the circutry would also be really annoying. Luckily I happened to have some spare AAAs lying around at work. The noise-canceling effect works rather well for low frequency hums. A significant portion of the hum on a plane goes away, making plane rides significantly more comfortable. Normally, I have my discman turned way up on the plane (I'm sure this is a BAD thing for my ears). With the headphones, the volume was turned down significantly. The circuitry does amplify the music, but subjectively, it did feel quieter and more comfortable. However, most of the computer fan noise at work wasn't filtered out. I'm guessing it's too high frequency.
Overall there's too many minuses to make these worthwhile. The headphones stick out of your ears pretty far because of the microphones for the noise cancelling functionality. It means you can't sleep on your ears. Also when your ears are plugged up, you can hear minute noises transmitted physically by the headphone wires, ie moving around. For everyday use, it just doesn't cancel out enough noise to be worthwhile. However, on my last flight, with the headphones on, the baby crying at the front of the plane practically disappeared, and the engine hum faded significantly. I got a *lot* more rest than normal. I'm keeping them.
At the moment, I should be working on the paper for last week's class, not to mention the paper for this week's class. Oh well.
Pet peeve of the Year
It seems far enough along into the year to have a pet peeve of the year. I doubt anything, within the last month and a half of the year could be quite as aggravating (other than perhaps Christmas marketting, but unfortunately, that's an annual frustration). I'm not a big fan of euphemisms, in fact I think they're downright dishonest. Why invent a new word to make you feel better just when the existing terminology doesn't meet your tastes? Here's the old word, you can figure out what the annoying new word is:
Main Entry: dan·dy
Pronunciation: 'dan-dE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural dandies
Etymology: probably short for jack-a-dandy, from jack + a (of) + dandy (origin unknown)
Date: circa 1780
1 : a man who gives exaggerated attention to personal appearance
2 : something excellent in its class
- dan·dy·ish /-dE-ish/ adjective
- dan·dy·ish·ly adverb
Download Free Music Legally!
I like the idea of downloading music. There's no real reason I should need to go to the store to buy a metallic piece of plastic when what I really want is the abstract data on the CD. I also have nothing against paying for music if it's reasonably priced. So I've been trying out Apple's iTunes.
I've been pretty much instantly hooked. I'll readily admit it's not quite perfect - you can't listen and try out discs like you can at HMV - but it's pretty well polished. You enter your credit card data once, after that it's just a few clicks to browse available albums (decent selection, though not as good as HMV). It's just a two mouse clicks to download either an entire album or a single song. Downloads were pretty spiffy, and track order is preserved. It took a few minutes to download an entire album. It took another few clicks and a few more minutes to burn the album to CD.
I haven't tried copying the audio files around. The downloaded files are DRM protected, supposedly limiting you to playing the files on 3 PCs. I haven't run into instances where this has gotten to be a problem, but if I ever get an mp3 player I'm sure I'll have to find some way around it. At the moment, my main concern is to not bankrupt myself given the ease to buy music now.
The perils of impulse buying
So the headphones of my aging discman have been in some stage of dying for some time now. Either there's something loose or there's some excessive capacitance somewhere because anything with a reasonable amount of bass - basically any music at all - causes a very annoying static-y type noise.
I normally don't use the discman often. Practically the only time I do use it is on plane trips, and I have been on a good number this year. I stopped off at Fry's the morning before a flight to find some earbut style headphones. The cheapest ones were $7.99. I figured I could afford a little more than that, I did want some decent sounding buds. I browsed the shelves and my eyes resed on Sony's MDR-NC11 Noise Canceling Fontopia Ear-Bud Headphones. Huge whooshing sounds coming out of my wallet, but unfortunately I liked them too much to return them.
I'll be the first to admit they're wildly overpriced. However, after using them I do find them very useful. The best feature of these headphones are the in-ear design. Unlike most earbuds I've used, these ones actually seal your ear and act as earplugs, blocking out most, but not all outside noise. The headphones come with 3 sizes of earplugs, with the medium size as the default. Initially I thought the headphones didn't do much, since the medium size didn't form much of a seal in my ears. The large size fit quite well, with a little adjustment the seal is good while remaining comfortable. Since maybe 80% of the quieting effect is due to the physical blockage rather than the noise-cancelling circutry, I would say the MDR-EX71SL headphones, that have the same earplug but no noise-cancelling circuit is a much better deal.
Out of the box I realized the headphones need an AAA battery to work. You can use them as regular headphones without, but then that'd be a waste, and the big plastic box that holds the circutry would also be really annoying. Luckily I happened to have some spare AAAs lying around at work. The noise-canceling effect works rather well for low frequency hums. A significant portion of the hum on a plane goes away, making plane rides significantly more comfortable. Normally, I have my discman turned way up on the plane (I'm sure this is a BAD thing for my ears). With the headphones, the volume was turned down significantly. The circuitry does amplify the music, but subjectively, it did feel quieter and more comfortable. However, most of the computer fan noise at work wasn't filtered out. I'm guessing it's too high frequency.
Overall there's too many minuses to make these worthwhile. The headphones stick out of your ears pretty far because of the microphones for the noise cancelling functionality. It means you can't sleep on your ears. Also when your ears are plugged up, you can hear minute noises transmitted physically by the headphone wires, ie moving around. For everyday use, it just doesn't cancel out enough noise to be worthwhile. However, on my last flight, with the headphones on, the baby crying at the front of the plane practically disappeared, and the engine hum faded significantly. I got a *lot* more rest than normal. I'm keeping them.
Nov 8, 2003
Genesis 3:1-24 (for Oct. 29 class)
The narrative in Genesis 3 changes drastically from the previous two chapters. This in itself is obvious, as it has been made clear that God has finished with the creation process. A sense of progression is natural and expected. As the subject matter changes from the initial 'good' creation to the fall of man, we also see a new role for God. Having completed His work as the Creator, He is forced to be the Judge. He issues three judgements within this passage, one for each character. God's role as the Judge is necessitated by the introduction of temptation and sin. Both of these themes are introduced here and expanded upon in scripture. They are also both indicative of man and not God. Hence also unlike the two previous chapters, this chapter is not focused solely on God but also on man, and the relationship between the two.
This chapter introduces a process in sin, one that becomes familiar early in life, even outside any biblical context. The procedure is as follows: there is an initial temptation to do something which we know we ought not to do, we do it, then we suffer some type of consequence or punishment. In the case of Genesis 3, the thing that ought not to be done is clear. God's rather ominous commandment was presented in Genesis 2:17. Ironically, this was immediately before the creation of the woman, who was to play a significant role in the whole fiasco. It is the sole prohibition that he had placed regarding anything at all. The description of the serpent's discourse with the woman shows how he is able to tempt her to eat this forbidden fruit. It is assumed that the thought had not crossed her mind until the serpent has suggested it. He tempts her by portraying it as something both forbidden and desireable. In this case, the thing to be desired is wisdom and knowledge, which, in itself is not negative. In fact, we see later in scripture that "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding" (Proverbs 4:7). The serpent aroused a desire for within the woman - a desire for something beneficial - and twisted it into challenging God's direct commandment. That desire to challenge God's commandment, edged on by the serpent's direct contradiction to God's warning with "You surely will not die!", precipitated into sin. The irony is that the woman, and man, could have demonstrated wisdom in obedience rather than turn to the fruit. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding" (Psalm 111:10).
Though the serpent was responsible for manipulating the woman, she made the decision to eat herself. In the same way the man was responsible for his own disobedience despite being misled - God's commandment was clear enough when it was given. It seems that at some point in time (particularly, when they were eating), the man and woman believed that they would indeed gain only in wisdom and knowledge, and that there would be no reperecussion. However, they do in fact need to deal with the effects of their sin. In this passage the consequences are twofold. There is the direct consequence of their action of eating the fruit, and the consequence of judgement for breaking God's commandment. Again, as children we have learned this. Should we have played with some prohibitted heirloom and broken it, we would have had to deal with both the direct consequence - the broken item - as well as the judgement for having played where we were told not to - which usually comes in the form of parental punishment. As we grow older and more knowledgeable, we often find ways of avoiding or not having to deal with the direct consequences. Furthermore, we hope that by hiding our sin we can also escape judgement.
In this case the direct consequence of eating the fruit was realization of their nakedness. The consequence of their sin was that what was once good was twisted and became shameful. Although they were once able to walk openly with God, the result of sin was that they were only able to talk to God while hidden among the trees. The original direct relationship was replaced with one that had considerable distance. In this case, God's commandment had an ulterior motive - to protect the man and woman from shame. We might infer from the rest of scripture that in time, man would have gained the knowledge he desired in another manner that would not bring him shame, "for the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding" (Proverbs 2:6).
As children, we often learn to fear punishment more than the results of our mistakes. In this narrative however, God shows considerable grace in his judgement of the man and the woman. For one, God's initial warning, "in the day that you eat from it you will surely die", has been eased - at least in the physical sense. Although they were separated from God and removed from the garden, they were allowed to continue to live for a while. By allowing them to multiply instead of destroying them immediately, God made a provision for man's eventual redemption through Christ. Furthermore, oddities in Genesis 3:16-17 suggests that even in His judgement, God has allowed room for grace. Although the woman is to suffer in painful childbirth for what she has done God adds "Yet your desire will be for your husband". God leaves a provision for the continued intimate relationship between the man and woman despite her punishment. The man however, is not cursed for his sin as the serpent was - instead the ground is cursed. Finally, like a good parent, God cleans up the mess that His children have created. He replaces their makeshift coverings of leaves with real clothing, thus partially redeeming them from the shame that they had brought upon themselves with the skins of animals. This foreshadows Christ's role in the future. Instead of covering over man's shame with a skin, God washes the sin away with blood.
The nature of sin that we see here is that it corrupts what was intended for good. It make take the desire for something that may potentially be good and extend it to an inappropriate level. Desire for security and comfort becomes greed. Desire for food becomes gluttony. Desire for intimacy becomes lust. These oerverse desires cause us to challenge the boundaries that God has set for our protection. In our reliance on our own wisdom over His we subvert His authority. The consequences of sin mars once good aspects of our lives. What may once have been beautiful might bring guilt, shame, and pain, affecting our relationships. Our relationships with others might suffer, but our relationship with God suffers more - He must judge us. It is here where God's defining characteristic is shown, "but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Romans 5:20). We can see God's love for us in his judgements, and even more so in His desire to redeem us. Hence by the end of Genesis 3, we see God as Creator, Judge and Redeemer.
The narrative in Genesis 3 changes drastically from the previous two chapters. This in itself is obvious, as it has been made clear that God has finished with the creation process. A sense of progression is natural and expected. As the subject matter changes from the initial 'good' creation to the fall of man, we also see a new role for God. Having completed His work as the Creator, He is forced to be the Judge. He issues three judgements within this passage, one for each character. God's role as the Judge is necessitated by the introduction of temptation and sin. Both of these themes are introduced here and expanded upon in scripture. They are also both indicative of man and not God. Hence also unlike the two previous chapters, this chapter is not focused solely on God but also on man, and the relationship between the two.
This chapter introduces a process in sin, one that becomes familiar early in life, even outside any biblical context. The procedure is as follows: there is an initial temptation to do something which we know we ought not to do, we do it, then we suffer some type of consequence or punishment. In the case of Genesis 3, the thing that ought not to be done is clear. God's rather ominous commandment was presented in Genesis 2:17. Ironically, this was immediately before the creation of the woman, who was to play a significant role in the whole fiasco. It is the sole prohibition that he had placed regarding anything at all. The description of the serpent's discourse with the woman shows how he is able to tempt her to eat this forbidden fruit. It is assumed that the thought had not crossed her mind until the serpent has suggested it. He tempts her by portraying it as something both forbidden and desireable. In this case, the thing to be desired is wisdom and knowledge, which, in itself is not negative. In fact, we see later in scripture that "Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding" (Proverbs 4:7). The serpent aroused a desire for within the woman - a desire for something beneficial - and twisted it into challenging God's direct commandment. That desire to challenge God's commandment, edged on by the serpent's direct contradiction to God's warning with "You surely will not die!", precipitated into sin. The irony is that the woman, and man, could have demonstrated wisdom in obedience rather than turn to the fruit. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding" (Psalm 111:10).
Though the serpent was responsible for manipulating the woman, she made the decision to eat herself. In the same way the man was responsible for his own disobedience despite being misled - God's commandment was clear enough when it was given. It seems that at some point in time (particularly, when they were eating), the man and woman believed that they would indeed gain only in wisdom and knowledge, and that there would be no reperecussion. However, they do in fact need to deal with the effects of their sin. In this passage the consequences are twofold. There is the direct consequence of their action of eating the fruit, and the consequence of judgement for breaking God's commandment. Again, as children we have learned this. Should we have played with some prohibitted heirloom and broken it, we would have had to deal with both the direct consequence - the broken item - as well as the judgement for having played where we were told not to - which usually comes in the form of parental punishment. As we grow older and more knowledgeable, we often find ways of avoiding or not having to deal with the direct consequences. Furthermore, we hope that by hiding our sin we can also escape judgement.
In this case the direct consequence of eating the fruit was realization of their nakedness. The consequence of their sin was that what was once good was twisted and became shameful. Although they were once able to walk openly with God, the result of sin was that they were only able to talk to God while hidden among the trees. The original direct relationship was replaced with one that had considerable distance. In this case, God's commandment had an ulterior motive - to protect the man and woman from shame. We might infer from the rest of scripture that in time, man would have gained the knowledge he desired in another manner that would not bring him shame, "for the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding" (Proverbs 2:6).
As children, we often learn to fear punishment more than the results of our mistakes. In this narrative however, God shows considerable grace in his judgement of the man and the woman. For one, God's initial warning, "in the day that you eat from it you will surely die", has been eased - at least in the physical sense. Although they were separated from God and removed from the garden, they were allowed to continue to live for a while. By allowing them to multiply instead of destroying them immediately, God made a provision for man's eventual redemption through Christ. Furthermore, oddities in Genesis 3:16-17 suggests that even in His judgement, God has allowed room for grace. Although the woman is to suffer in painful childbirth for what she has done God adds "Yet your desire will be for your husband". God leaves a provision for the continued intimate relationship between the man and woman despite her punishment. The man however, is not cursed for his sin as the serpent was - instead the ground is cursed. Finally, like a good parent, God cleans up the mess that His children have created. He replaces their makeshift coverings of leaves with real clothing, thus partially redeeming them from the shame that they had brought upon themselves with the skins of animals. This foreshadows Christ's role in the future. Instead of covering over man's shame with a skin, God washes the sin away with blood.
The nature of sin that we see here is that it corrupts what was intended for good. It make take the desire for something that may potentially be good and extend it to an inappropriate level. Desire for security and comfort becomes greed. Desire for food becomes gluttony. Desire for intimacy becomes lust. These oerverse desires cause us to challenge the boundaries that God has set for our protection. In our reliance on our own wisdom over His we subvert His authority. The consequences of sin mars once good aspects of our lives. What may once have been beautiful might bring guilt, shame, and pain, affecting our relationships. Our relationships with others might suffer, but our relationship with God suffers more - He must judge us. It is here where God's defining characteristic is shown, "but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Romans 5:20). We can see God's love for us in his judgements, and even more so in His desire to redeem us. Hence by the end of Genesis 3, we see God as Creator, Judge and Redeemer.
Nov 4, 2003
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