Only weirdos ride transit: The noseblower

An oldie, but a goodie.

Date: Some time in winter
Transit line: Skytrain eastbound, between Stadium and Main St-Science World stations
Description of weirdo: Alternative girl, I'm guessing in her late teens-early twenties
Weirdo behaviour: The weirdo was noticeably sniffly, probably suffering from one of the numerous colds and flus that got passed around in winter. She grabbed her scarf and blew her nose into it, then dropped her scarf to hang there off of her neck.
Conclusion: Gross! I shuffled to the next nearest exit to wait for my stop.

Weirdo rating: Three-quarters of a pickle in a pill bottle.

Am I losing my muffins?

As a start to this sunny Saturday, I walked up to JJ Bean for a weekend coffee and sweet out of the baked goods case. I used to be a sporadic regular when I lived only blocks away from their pretty Main St location store, but haven't been in at least a few months now.

When I asked if there were any cream cheese-filled muffins left (because they used to sell out by about 10 am on Saturdays; slightly later on Sundays), the girl responded in a shocked voice, "No! We don't have any of those here." I was surprised at her response and didn't know if I was remembering badly where I used to buy cream cheese-filled muffins from or if I was making up the whole idea of cream cheese-filled muffins. I was certain that I used to eat them at JJ Bean.

Ryan's new music: A freshman, the sophomores, and the senior's Pocket Symphony

Mika - Life in Cartoon Motion. Omg, how I love this album. I have waited a long time to finally get a copy of the entire album. This is pop music that I don't have to feel guilty for listening to. Well, maybe only slightly guilty.

The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible. Nothing is going to surpass the ginormity that Funeral was; however, Neon Bible is a really good album from a great band.

LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver. I love the previous double-disc by this band. I think that Daft Punk Playing, Tribulations, and Yeah are great great electronic/dance singles. When I read some reviews saying that the earlier work was good, and Sound of Silver was classic, I ran to the music stores to buy the album. They were sold out, so I had to wait to get home to buy it through iTunes. It's taken me a while and I am only now starting to agree that this may be as good an album as the previous. This is my normal sushi effect: 1st taste="This is kinda funky"; 2nd taste="There are some cool things here that I get nowhere else"; 3rd time="I can't get enough of this stuff."

Air - Pocket Symphony. I was hoping for a return to Moon Safari, but I got more atmospheric, "easy to listen to in the background" music. Not bad, but not a go-to disc.

Stella!

I should have had a Stella tonight! $1 would have been donated to the fight against AIDS.

I ate out tonight at Noodlebox with Alyssa and Andrew tonight. Though we weren't overly impressed with the food, it was encouraging to see the high traffic in the restaurant and know that 25% of the profits being collected would be directed to organizations that help raise awareness and support for those living with HIV/AIDS. This was part of Dining Out for Life, an event in the past few years has allowed me a fantastic opportunity to try a new eating option in Vancouver and feel good doing it. Some previous dinners as part of DOfL here and here.

I enjoyed the Red Devil Pale Ale with my meal, but it could have been left for another evening. Tonight I should have ordered Stella.

I'm a winner

This past weekend I entered a draw at Blenz coffee for a trip to Vegas. The draw is next week. I won a prize in the early bird draw (which I hope winning does not take me out of the running for the grand prize) - a 7-day free membership to Gold's Gym at UBC.

This is a prize that I don't really need. I have a membership to old Elevation fitness centre, but it will be nice to see what Gold's has to offer. I know from an earlier tour of the facilities when they initially opened that they have a big area which is full of natural light and latest model equipment. Their treadmills and other aerobic equipment is complete with personal television screens. Maybe everyone that has suggested that I join a gym closer to my "workplace" is wiser than I am. And having a month-to-month membership will mean that I won't pay a penalty for withdrawing.

Another point for consideration is that I know how to win contests, but never receive the prize (though I have don't have any doubt that Arjan sent out the t-shirt (twice) and that I will blame US Post). Maybe when I get to Gold's, the pass that "will be waiting at the desk" won't actually exist.

Why get your kitchen at Ikea?

Ikea lists "Planning Help" as the top reason why you should get your kitchen at Ikea. Not for this reason, but because I expect to be able to create a mix-match set of cabinets for my kitchen at an affordable price, I am planning to buy cabinets from Ikea. I went to their Richmond store this evening to get some advice on my design and some estimates on pricing.

First, the kitchen section of Ikea is busy. Really busy. Because of their current "Kitchen Event" sale, there are a lot of people going whole-hog on their kitchens, equipping it with shiny new cabinets and appliances. Because of the number of people trying to get in on the sale prices, I was left skulking around the kitchen section waiting to see if one of their Kitchen Planning Experts would become available.

In my skulking, I discovered that these "Experts" were not giving me warm-fuzzy feelings about getting their "free tips, ideas, and advice to take my kitchen to the next stage." They seemed to be asking more questions between each other than really answering questions for their customers. They were throwing out measurement numbers that didn't seem too accurate to me and my limited knowledge of Ikea cabinets. They seemed really pleased when they were able to create a design online. And some of the plans that I got a glimpse of on their network stations weren't overly interesting - more like stock kitchen plans.

By 8:00 pm, they had started telling customers that if they were not already working with an Expert on a plan, that they would need to visit another day. Though some were walking away disappointed, I walked away content that I didn't have to work with the dude with the gotta-be-dyed patch under his lower lip, the girl with the gotta-be-dyed eyebrows, or the girl that reminded me of someone I worked with at McDonald's when I was in high school -- all Ikea Kitchen Planning Experts -- and having learned a few things this evening:

(1) 48" wide is too wide for an island unless you have a cooktop or change in counter heights. I am going to have to look at having a set of full depth cabinets backed with a shallow set (or open shelves) to keep the length-width measurements reasonably proportioned.

(2) 63 cm high stools are short. The Julius stool looks funny in this short version. The Henriksdal looks somewhat better.

(3) (from the drive home) There is a monster at the corner of King Edward and Knight. Apparently this is "where Vancouver is moving to."

It's a beautiful day in my neighbourhood

On this much-deserved sunny day in Vancouver, I wandered around my neighbourhood. I took some liberties expanding the boundaries of my neighbourhood so that it included the False Creek section of the Seawall, Yaletown, downtown, Main St around Little Mountain, the Rocky Mountaineer Station, Broadway Ave, South Granville slopes, Granville Island, the eastern edge of West 4th Ave (@ Burrard), and the "suburbs" that I call home.

Some snaps from today are of some decoration around Artworks, new signage being installed on Granville St at Dunsmuir, cherry blossoms at Burrard Skytrain station, and a lost monkey.

Adventures in Chromatography

Geeking out here with a story from today's experiments for developing a bioanalytical method for measuring fluoxetine (Prozac) and metabolite in human plasma.

I was puzzled why I could not see the signal response for my analyte that I was expecting. I checked, rechecked, and checked again my method to ensure that the HPLC was set up properly. I calculated, recalculated, and calculated again my procedures to ensure that I had spiked in the correct amounts of drug. I confirmed, reconfirmed, and confirmed again that all of the parameters were being properly transferred from the computer to the HPLC. Then I noticed that a pool of mobile phase was collecting in the column heater. After connecting the end of my column to the detector, I saw my analyte peak.

Lark at the great stuff

Lark, home of so much stuff that I want to buy, is on the move. It appears that they will be moving from their off-of-Main St location to an on-Main St location. I think that they are moving into the current location of Aion gallery.

From March 28 to mid-April, Lark is having a moving sale. You can be sure that I'll be popping by to check out if the prices of any of the things that I want to buy have been reduced enough that I can take these threads or accessories home with me. And no, I am not on Lark's promo staff, but if they notice a spike of business and they want to thank me for it, I really like the locally-designed wood-backed money clips and I can use a crisp new collared shirt, size small. Thanks!

The Name Game

I'm not that good at remembering names of people and places, right? Well, for tonight:

• Donald,
• Chris,
• Megan,
• Carrie,
• Sarah,
• Dean,
• Fuse,
• Hapa Izakaya,
• and a girl that lived all over the US, relocating with her MLB boyfriend, before moving to LA, then Montreal, then Toronto, then Vancouver. Her name I never got to forget.
  

"Ryan"

I had a very pleasant purchase transaction this evening. It went something like this: "I'll just get you to sign here for your credit card purchase, Ryan." I really liked the personalized service that the sales clerk provided by taking the time to recognize my name on the card and then use it when he was dealing with me. It probably won't work for every salesperson, but this guy had a great conversational way of dealing with customers, so it was almost natural that you would want to be on a first-name basis with him.

Now, the poopy part of this story is that this transaction was at the downtown liquor store - the same store where I was (very) wrongly mistaken for one of that store's "regulars."

Good-bye Tuesday; hello Wednesday

On Monday night, I fell asleep watching the Black Donnellys. I am disappointed with myself. Now, I have to wait for the recap next week to find out if the older brother Donnelly had another run in with the Irish mobster, and if the younger brother Donnellys were able to collect money by filling in for the other mobster's booking agency. Apparently, I am not very good at staying awake when tired or remembering names.

On Tuesday night, I piddled away my evening by shooting up aliens (Caution: Do not follow the preceding link unless you have tremendous self-control and/or time to spare), watching this, and smoothing out the filler that I'm repairing my apartment walls with. I was too caught up with all of that to make dinner and instead, had the idea dropped into my mind that I could order food in and therefore, I did.

Tonight, I am seeing the Namesake with Alyssa at the Park Theatre.

St. Patrick's plumbing

My bathroom sink was draining very slowly, so yesterday I poured one-half bottle of liquid drain cleaner down the pipes. This cleared the clog, but it also caused a slow leak in the drain pipe below the sink. I believe that it caused a gasket seal to unseal or something. A trip to Home Depot, some plumber's putty, and a new gasket closed off this leak (though in addition to this shopping trip and all of these parts, it took over an hour of frustrating, slightly wet time to get this DIY project done). At the same time, I repaired the pop-up mechanism on the drain.

I had a plumbing problem with my kitchen sink on Thanksgiving 2005 with the drain getting clogged while preparing the dinner, and then replacing out the garbage disposal (which never worked from my move-in into the apartment) the following day. I never plan too much for the various holidays; however, home plumbing seems to be becoming an important part of how I celebrate.

Vector watch

Jumbo (850 g) packages for $6.98 each at Buy-Low Foods.

Only weirdos ride transit: The drinker

Date: Friday, March 16, 2007, am
Transit line: #84 westbound
Description of weirdo: Small Asian woman, middle-aged, with a red purse
Weirdo behaviour: When the bus came to a stop at Cambie St, the weirdo first paused, then dove into her purse in what appeared a frantic decision. I thought that she heard her cell phone ringing and wanted to answer it before her voicemail clicked in. Instead, she brought out a 1-litre water bottle, full, and drank the entire contents of this bottle in not quite a frat-boy chug, but in a controlled, high-speed drink. The weirdo exited the bus on West 4th Ave @ Fir St.
Conclusion: She was really thirsty or she is preparing to provide a urine sample.

Weirdo rating: One-third of a pickle in a pill bottle

Lazy dinner

The only descriptor I can use for tonight's dinner is "lazy."

One can of Chunky Chicken Noodle soup with a handful of egg noodles and a handful of spinach added, eaten with a bunch of crackers.

Ow!

Some of the material in this post may not be appropriate for all readers, especially those that are squeamish about eyes.

Last night, I threw out a piece of my eye into the garbage. Seriously. When I woke up this morning, I knew that something was not right with my right eye. It felt like there was an object on my eye. I couldn't seem to flush it out with water. I could see a strange shadow on the surface of my eye. I figured that I ripped my contact lens when I removed it last night and that a fragment was left on my eye. However, it was not coming off. That's when I decided that I better see a professional. What the doctor told me is that what was causing the pain wasn't something on my eye, but instead, the lack of the surface skin on my eye. This skin came off with my contact lens. Apparently, this is a known problem with single-use soft contact lenses - they stick onto the eye really well, making them very comfortable to wear, but they can stick so well that when removed they can rip off the eye surface!

The skin on my eye will regenerate within 24 hours. To prevent the constant scrubbing of the owie by my eyelid, I have a protective breathing contact lens in and I am applying eyedrops throughout today and tomorrow. On Monday, I will have my eye re-examined, but there isn't much concern at the eye clinic that this is a serious injury - just one that causes a dull bothersome itchiness, makes my eye look very bloodshot, and is disabling some of my sight this weekend.

YouTube Idol

I will admit that I'm a sucker for American Idol. I was hooked after seeing Kelly Clarkson beat out Justin Guarini to become the original Idol. I didn't pay that much attention to the Ruben/Claiken season, but was hooked to see Fantasia get crowned (and was hugely intrigued by that season's three diva showdown). I watched Carrie do her country-girl schtick to the end, but had no interest in the season that saw Taylor Hicks become the newest Idol. My favourites along the way that never won were Chris Daughtry and La Toya London.

In this newest season of American Idol, I haven't been regularly tuning into the broadcasts; however, there are two standouts in the one girls' night episode that I saw (and from what I've heard and read, the girls are far outclassing the boys). So, every Wednesday night or Thursday night now, I pop over to YouTube and check out the latest performances by Lakisha Jones and Melinda Doolittle. Lakisha's Whitney hit was great; Melinda's My Funny Valentine was fantastic.

Celebrate Research

Today I attended events being held for UBC's Celebrate Research. "Celebrating research touching lives and communities" was this year's focus for these celebrations.

A symposium presented by my Faculty was entitled "Controlling the Spread of HIV/AIDS: The African Challenge." A lot of intriguing ideas were brought forward by a diverse group of guests. Ms. Toun Ilumoka, a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Law, spoke about how making inroads into the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa requires giving those nations the power to make decisions for their people. She suggested that power at a national or civic level is not helpful due to the struggles of the developing world, but that at the community level people need to be empowered to make the decisions that affect themselves. Dr. Deborah Burgess of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation spoke of the challenges of developing and making available reliable and applicable diagnostic equipment, specifically for use in developing countries. Dr. Julio Montaner of the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS closed the symposium that ran severely overtime. He presented a compelling set of data that showed HAART therapy to be effective and if implemented more extensively would lead to controlling the spread of the virus and its eventual eradication. He likened the investment to fund the widespread use of HAART in BC to be the mortgage down payment that needs to be made; to not make this investment is the unethical refusal to control HIV/AIDS, leading to unnecessary victims and extraordinary healthcare costs far into the future.

In the Celebrate Reseach Gala this evening, the over 400 researchers from or associated UBC that have received awards or recognition over the past year were officially celebrated by the university. The long program of award presentations was broken up by performances by the UBC Opera; an excerpt from the CBC documentary profiling Jasper Wood, "The Maritime Violin"; and the University Singers.

My, that is a thin frittata that you've cooked

Tonight I had my first feed of asparagus for the season. It was cooked into a frittata with tomato and cheese, mostly according to Giada's recipe with a few substitutions - there was no fontina in the fridge (not even in the far back corner!) so I subbed in asiago, and the egg carton only contained five eggs so that's all that went in. The other difference in my frittata versus Giada's frittata is that I cooked mine in a larger frying pan. That meant my frittata was thinner. No problem in terms of taste, but it didn't look quite the same as the photo. (Btw, the photo in her book makes it look much more appetizing than the photo posted online.)

Btw2, I like eating brunch at dinner-time.

Btw3, other things that I have done and want to do again with asparagus are to top salads with it, prosciutto wrapped and non-prosciutto wrapped.

Hawaii Five: The Reunion

A flu bug kept one at home resting, but the remaining Hawaii Four gathered on Sunday night for a potluck dinner. A great selection of food -- beer-soaked prawns, spicy poke ahi tuna, kale salad, a black-eyed pea and short-grain brown rice dish, a spinach-mango salad, with pecan pie to finish -- and great company made it a fun evening. Thank you, Jo-Ann, for hosting!

I also got my hands on copies of Ryan's (900+) photos from the trip. Browsing through these photos brings back lots of great memories of warm air and lots of relaxation. <Sigh...>

Where is Custard?

Poop, I left my iPod at home today. Rather than listening to tunes on my busride into campus, I had to listen to the louder-than-conversation-volume girl seated behind me talk at her friend about her brother and his new car stereo, the number of times she presses the snooze button on her alarm, and her favourite snacks.

I typically will gawk around the bus with a superiority attitude thinking that myTunes is a mix of pop music that is as sugary or more sugary, indie music that is as indie or more indie, and electronic music that has as deep a groove or a deeper groove than that of my fellow busriders. Today I gawked around with greedy eyes, wishing I was one of the people that was plugged in with the white earbuds.

Lolita's, Joe, and Mika

Had dinner at Lolita's tonight with Joe. Then I went to HMV and bought Mika's album.

Jule's, Tom, and Fred

Had dinner at Jule's last night with Alyssa. Tom Selleck was in the house. Alyssa made the ID on the looking-as-though-he's-had-a-recent-facelift actor. Then we went to look at the photos of the Herzog exhibit at VAG.