Random Thoughts

I originally wanted to title this Shopping with Liz, but decided to add more Shopping stuff to the list. Anyway, I did go shopping with my co-worker (and shopping guru Liz) to Metrotown. I have never really went shopping with a girl before. For the most part, I am not a big fan of shopping anyway. Here's how a male Homo sapien usually does shopping, at least in North America: - Research what we want - Find out the cheapest price etc - Find out where to get it - Go there, buy it and leave Now, that is not quite how females of the same species function. Shopping with Liz was an eye-opener. For one, they want to go to every shop there is. I would never do that. I am in and out in a jiffy. But I learned something. There are pretty girls in some of those stores. It is worth going into them just for that. Before you say that is pathetic, think about my life for a minute: I work with a lot of men... and computer geeks. I work a lot of hours. I don't really see a lot of women. So, a...

And I am about as tired as I intend to get with all the god-forsaken advertisements for things you need to buy people for Christmas. You need a mobile phone for Christmas because Jesus was born a couple of millenia ago, you need baby diapers because of that too (okay, maybe that has something to do with the birth of the son of god as it were). You also need dogs that talk about the cool stuff you can get at Canadian Tire and those stupid easy button commercials from Staples. And yet, those bastards wish you happy holidays, so as not to offend the non-christian folk. Who cares? I am not Christian. But its nice that people like to include me in their celebrations. I get a day off, I get presents, what's there to offend? Weird political correctness nonsense. Oh well, it will soon be over. Thank Jesus.

My last vacation from work was on the 22nd of April. That was incidentally also the day I took a flight from Chennai, India to Vancouver. Well, its happened again. I took a day off work. And I had no choice. It was either take the day off or lose it. You see, we have a certain number of days off work and if we don't use all but 5 of them (which I am moving to next year), we lose them. So... I took Friday off. Made a long weekend of it. It was quite nice. I accomplished a lot on my day off. I got a bunch of things that I haven't had time to do for ever done. I was on the phone for an hour for work. I went to work. Well, I took chocolates to my work place and to my former work-place. I got hugged by a bunch of people there... and so forth. Godiva seems to make people do that. I went to the gym, I even went bowling after that. I went to the newly renovated BC Liquor Store on 39th and Cambie (and may I say it was impressive), I even dared to go into the mall... Oakridge was too ...

I went snowboarding for the first ever time to Whistler on Sunday December 4.

Friday (December 2) was the company Christmas party. I have been to one before this for this company. The party was pretty tame the last time around. I was fairly new as well. This time around however, it was a lot better. There were more people I knew and the venue was closer to the office. There was even a fellow in a kilt. That makes for a fun evening. The food was reasonable, the DJ was surprising on account of his age and the music he played, the company delightful. Around 9pm, the developers went to bed. Really. It was as if an inaudible WebCT developers only alarm had gone off; all of them picked up and left. That left behind Support and part of IT. One of the IT fellows was celebrating his birthday as well. One of my managers started to dance. I was thoroughly entertained. There was plenty of video footage to take and I did. They shall entertain me forever. I had to drop some people (including my date, who is a co-worker not invited to the party on account of the fact that she...

Today it snowed at the lower elevations. Vancouver was a spotty white winter wonderland. It looked so pretty and bright. Until you step out and get pelted by the cold water falling out of the sky. Transit was a little on the slippery side, my bus kept lurching to the side every time it came to a complete stop. And it was cold to walk while it snowed. Made me feel very bad for the bums on the street. I saw one fellow with one leg sitting under a traffic lamp begging for money. He was right next to a begging meter as well. On Robson and Burrard. Outside the Roots store, a stone's throw away from the Lacoste store. It is sad that he has to be here. Of course, on the other corner is the fellow with HIV sitting out there in the bitter (by Vancouver standards) cold. Asking for help. Or choosing a lifestyle. But is he really? Are any of them? People tell me that people who are bums choose to do so. I am no so sure they choose such a lifestyle in this kind of weather. You may be a bit on t...

This weekend was a damaging one for the pocket. I have learned the art of shopping. I had to cut up my credit card on account of some funny business on part of my managers at work (I still don't get what they were trying to achieve by annoying me that much). I went downtown on Saturday on Grey Cup weekend. That was a fun time. The streets were packed with drunk people. There was even a 3 man pipe band. Anyway, I have this Christmas thing at work and as such, I like to go to that looking half decent. Its not every day that you see many of your co-workers and other people in a social situation without computers. And, allegedly, I have a date. With a real-live girl no less! Anyway, I spent the better part of Saturday afternoon walking in and out of stores on Robson Street and Pacific Centre. I saw way too many things and came home with all sorts of things I can't justify needing. I had also gone to this place called Caban . They were having some kind of sale and the place looked...

I have been bar hopping. Lots of it. I went to a co-worker's birthday thing Wednesday night, went to 3 bars (including Nelson's Cafe ) and then some, drove them home and then walked home after that (I live close by). Got 2 and a ½ hours of sleep, went to work. Then I went to the bar with another co-worker that evening for "one" drink. A few pitchers later, having had enough fun for the night, I decided to walk home around 1am. Walked for 2 hours. Slept for 2 hours. Went to work. Learned some really neat stuff on my walk home. I learned that electric sub-stations hum very loudly. I learned that wires going out of electric sub-stations make a different but equally interesting noise. Learned that other people are awake at that time of the night. Saw many cars on the streets. Learned that one drink does not necessarily mean one drink. Why did I walk when I could have taken a taxi? Well, I wanted to prove a point to myself. I wanted to see if I could make it home on nothin...

I went to this establishment on Nelson street last Saturday called Nelson's cafe. How did we end up there? Well, after walking through some of the less than savoury neighbourhoods of Vancouver, a group of friends and I ended up in Gastown, allegedly heading for an establishment called the Shine. That was however, not to be. The names were not on the guest list and the night was a cold one. So, off we headed back to Granville Street, looking for a suitable place with a not so long line-up. We saw some spectacular lines at the Caprice , presumably waiting to see the "Rock", saw some sort of line-up outside the Commodore (looked like a Reggae concert) and so on. No luck getting into any place around 11pm on a Saturday night. So, we went to the pizza place next to Stone Temple and then decided to go to Nelson's cafe. Nelson's cafe is this little place on Nelson Street between Granville and Seymour. It is a rather small and comfy place. They have Guiness on tap which ...

I live in Canada. To be a bit more exact, I live in the Vancouver area in British Columbia. There happens to be a bit of a buzz around here these days because of the lottery tickets. The takings? Estimated at 40 million Canadian dollars. Tax free. That's a lot of money. It seems to be growing at every draw. There are people lining up to give up their hard earned money for a chance to win a lot more (not so hard earned) money. I spent money too. Didn't win. My chances of winning are probably something like 1 in 13,983,816 . A ticket costs $2. That's a pretty good chance of kissing your $2 (or $4 or $20) goodbye. Most people know that. They still willingly kiss it goodbye. Why? They hope that their ticket is the winning one. It would be amazing to win that much money. People have these what will I do when I win stories to go over. So far... I have allegedly promised a few vehicles and a couple of houses to various folks. I am not sure why I did that. Because in reality, I wo...

I have been put up to a new task. I am allegedly supposed to find out what makes me happy and start doing it. Those are orders from the boss. Apparently my happiness or more appropriately, the lack of it has an affect on everyone else. I never knew that. There is one slight problem with this. The trouble with finding happiness is two-fold; on the one hand, you have a very hard time describing what happiness is, what makes you happy; on the other, you are afraid that you might actually find it. Then what? Well, be happy right? Really? We are human. I get bored of things quickly. But I think I will give it a shot. So, I embark on my given task. I wonder if I keep saying I am happy if I will buy into it. Likely not. How do I figure out what makes me happy? I don't know. Alcohol? Not really. I collect, but I don't consume. Finish work on time? Well, that could work, but then I would have to figure out what to do once I leave. Sleep? Can sleep make you happy? Money? I think money ma...

After far too few hours of sleep and too much coffee I figured I deserve a blog. I have work to do, but I figure the blog can be worked on too. So, why do I have a blog? Well, short answer: Why not? I realise I just dodged by own question with some snide remark, but what the hell... this is my first foray into this world and I am allowed to say that :) I figure if I need to record stuff, this is a good place to do it and who know where it ends up? Well, time to post this one.