Random Thoughts

I've been talking about cooking duck for a while. I got some well packed Canadian duck from the local Giant recently. Well, I finally cooked it... and ate it... and it was great! The skin was crisp, the meat tender. I like cooking. Here's the duck... with veggies and all.

Dear birds, now that spring (or summer if you believe the temperatures today) is out, I understand that you are out to enjoy the weather, the trees and what not. I am glad you are out. You make, for the most part, very sweet noises and provide welcome distractions while I wait for the bus. However, I do have a gripe to bring up with you. I do not appreciate you emptying your bowels while I am walking below you. As it is, I feel bad that I get to work so late... I don't need you letting loose on me on my way to the bus stop, thereby making me walk back home, wash my hair and be even more late for work. Do me a favour and stop crapping while people walk under you. Try using one particular corner of your world (nowhere near my place of residence, place of work or anything else) as most humans do. You might find the rest of your world more enjoyable. I agree with you that seeds need to be dispersed and all, but they are not going to germinate on my head... or on the concrete below. Try...

So, not that I am a chef or anything, but I think I did better than I have done in a very long time. I made an awesome dinner tonight. A nicely brined pork chop, a blueberry gastrique to go with that, steamed asparagus, crunchy sourdough and a glass of orange juice. I finished that off with some lovely caramelized pears from last night. No whipped cream though. Not that I ever hope to be bored out of my mind... but now I can at least entertain myself with decent food. Next on my list, duck!

Fifteen years ago, I lived on another continent, in a land that was (and is) home. Ten or so years prior to that, I lived on yet another continent. Counting back that far makes me feel so old. The former of course was Asia, the latter, Africa. Fifteen years ago, a man named Bill Clinton was President of the free world. Jean Chretien was Canada's big shot in Parliament. John Major was the Prime Minister in the United Kingdom. Maggy Thatcher's dear friend Mitterrand was President of the Fifth Republic. And fifteen years ago, on that continent of Africa, something started. Something so vile that the word used to describe it ( legally as per the IGO called the UN and colloquially) does not quite convey its cruelty and indiscriminate nature. What happened in Central Africa by those great lakes was truly horrible. Genocide. A word made up from a couple of Latin words. An estimated 800,000. In about 100 days. Do the math. That's about 8,000 a day if you assume a uniform distrib...

My former co-worker and awesome person in general, Kirk, had a giant pair of wireless headsets for a long time. Those things were massive. And I think he thoroughly enjoyed using them to listen to music while he worked. Ever since I saw that, I've wanted something similar. From what I recall, he had a set of Sennheiser RS120s which used RF to communicate between the base station and the headsets. My requirements were a little more involved though. For one, it needed to be able to transmit voice as well. The main reason I wanted a wireless headset was to not be tethered to my laptop when making calls on Skype. Well, most technology out there isn't very conducive to transmitting sound wirelessly though (at least for computer accessories). Enter bluetooth. The bluetooth specs have been around for over a decade, but I feel like it has never quite taken off for computer based technologies. About the only thing that uses it are the wireless mice and keyboards that various vendors ha...

I have worked with some very interesting people over time. From the strange long bearded fellow who slept under his desk surrounded by plants, lived two hours away (a bus, a boat and god knows what else to get to his place) and signed all his emails with 'love and light' to the incredibly intelligent (like the fellow who got his PhD at like 22 and now works for google) to the geiger himself... but, I have rarely met someone like Denman. Denman, otherwise known as the high five guy is a blend of a bunch of things. From a software developer to a chef specialising in pork, a brewer, a beer connoisseur, to a fairly capable musician and singer who plays a mean mandolin... he is something else. Denman, now sporting a hippy beard, is heading off to San Francisco to work for another part of the company I work for, live on a boat and keep urban chicken! I first met Denman as he went around the office giving high fives. He seemed to be committed to doing that on a fairly regular basis....

The world is sometimes a great place. Sometimes though, you just have to shake your head and wonder. It is strange sometimes when a nation forgets its past so easily. South Africa seems to be having an episode of amnesia right now it seems. You see, this old withering man who ran away from oppression to seek refuge elsewhere and make a political case for his people while in exile wanted to enter South Africa to talk about Peace. And South Africa said no. Because his presence in South Africa "would not be in South Africa’s best interests." What was that again? How could the presence of a Nobel Peace Laureate, a religious leader, and lets not forget, someone who many believe is a living god, in your country not be in your best interests? What kind of crap ass grass are you people smoking out there? And, in case you forgot, this man won a prize for PEACE for god's sakes. Whatever god you believe in, whether he looks like his holiness, whether he or she had 8 hands or whethe...

I haven't blogged for over a month now... that sucks. My aim at the start of the year was to blog once a week at least... you know, hit the magical 52 posts per year number. Unfortunately, things got in the way. So what's been going on in my world? Well, lets see. Work: work is work. No raises on account of the recession or depression or what have you... so that sucks. No promotion... not that a promotion would have given me raise, so I am not sure what's worse... getting promoted but no $$$ or not getting promoted and not getting $$$. Health: I've been working out a lot of late. I've lost a whopping 4 kg! Even that snarky little wii fit was concerned about my weight loss. I hope to keep going. I can run 45 minutes on a treadmill and not feel too bad after. Now, that may not sound like much to the hardcore types, but I think I can do some awesome stuff with that. Some day, I hope to run another 10k, a marathon and a triathlon. And when I go back home, I am going to...

As some of you know, I dabble in technology from time to time. I've been using a few new things that I thought I would mention. First off, I installed Ubiquity on Firefox. Its supposed to be part of Firefox 3.2 according to this site. So far, I find the interface a bit clunky and I haven't had my Oh wow moment, but it still is pretty cool and makes Google and Wikipedia searches a lot faster. The other really awesome thing about this is the ability to change tabs etc without using the mouse. I know you can use Ctrl-Page Up and Page Down to do that and there are extensions to cycle through to the most recent tab via the Ctrl-Tab extension (which I use as well), I still like to type the tab names to go to where I want. I would still like to see cool things like... me being able to link to something I search for (sort of like a link to chumbawumba tubthumping on youtube) or plugging into facebook. I am sure some of those kinds of features will come online soon. On the whole tho...

I am curious as to whether people find the following normal, acceptable and such. Ever since I moved to the US, I have been going to a physician here. I don't have anything abnormal going on with me (thankfully), but I try and go see the doctor to get an annual check up. The kind where the guy makes you fast and takes your blood and urine and what not. He then calls me up later on and tells me I will die by age 35 if I don't control the cholesterol, lose weight etc and I go on a health binge. Well, I liked that doctor. He met my requirements: close to work, I didn't have to pay anything more than the co-pay (which was $15 I think) and he seemed competent, compassionate and decent. He also used fear to motivate me well. I work well when fear is the motivating factor. Now, my employer decided to change health care insurance providers as of 2009. I tried to book an appointment with the guy yesterday, mentioned my change in insurance and viola, was told that they don't acce...

On February 12, 2010, the cities of Vancouver and Whistler will welcome the world to participate in the 21st winter Olympics. Personally, I am stoked that it is happening in my adopted home city. I fully intend to be home for the event; hopefully, by then, other things fall into place, so that I live there once again. I am hoping that the games will be awesome, will showcase Vancouver in a positive light (if you're reading and haven't been, by all means, come!) and I hope all the construction and what not will benefit the residents of the city. I hope there will be plenty of snow as well. Finally, I hope Canada tops the medals standings.... or at least I hope we have the best medals haul ever.

He has the 'bring it' attitude... and will defend his political legacy like a mother grizzly defends her cubs. Watch and enjoy. And god bless this man. Even if he was a philanderer.

I've always wondered what it was like to be there when history happens. Those great moments like when Charles Lindbergh showed up at Le Bourget in the Spirit of St. Louis or when Nehru gave his speech about making a tryst with destiny Or when Alexander the Great sacked Persepolis or when the wall that divided East from West fell, unifying West Germany and the GDR into one Germany once again or at Juno Beach on 6th June 1944. Sometimes, the participants scarcely know that history is in the making... but other times, it is well known and keenly anticipated. This week, I got to go hang out and watch history being made. I am of course talking about seeing the inauguration of the first non-white man to the office of President of the United States. It was probably the largest crowd I was ever in. They estimated around 2 million people on the mall to see the inauguration. And I was one of them. It was incredibly cold standing out there for over 6 hours waiting for history to happen. I was...

I am a lucky person. I live in as a legal alien in the United States of America. That's what they call me, check Wikipedia or the INS website. Not only do I live as a legal alien in the US, I live in its capital. The District of Columbia is unique in some respects. It is not a state, it does not elect voting members to the House of Representatives (the lower house in the bicameral legislature) or the Senate. I don't think it has the ability to raise funds the same way states can and the highest ranking authority here seems to be the Mayor of the District of Columbia. Anyway, guess what's going to happen in 8 days? We are of course going to swear in the most powerful man in the country and some would say, even the world. Washington DC is abuzz with inauguration type activities. People are excited about it, there isn't a hotel in sight that has available rooms around that time, the roads are full, there is construction all over the place, the police are everywhere and so...

I heard today from some news site about US president-elect, Barack Obama picking CNN health reporter, Dr. Sanjay Gupta as his new Surgeon General. I've found American democracy interesting but I couldn't help but wonder what next. They seem to have the Tamil gene in them. If you're wondering why, go look up what Tamil politicians did prior to becoming politicians. So does that mean the president-elect might choose Judge Judy to be Attorney General? Apparently, the president can pick whoever he wants to be in charge of various government agencies; defence, health, finance, foreign affairs etc. That is in sharp contrast to most Westminster type of democracies where it is far more common for someone who is actually elected, to head a portfolio in cabinet. Don't get me wrong, our prime minster does nominate the odd TV celebrity I suppose... why, look at the last two Governors General of Canada. Prior to that, they were from radio :). And before anyone nominates the teletub...

I intended to go get Dim Sum with a bunch of co-workers on Saturday. We've had somewhat reasonable success finding decent DS out in Wheaton at a place called Hollywood East Cafe. I looked it up on google and if you go by their maps application , as I did on my phone, the first hit is in Beverly Hill California... but if you use their search engine the place is listed as 2 312 Price Ave , Wheaton , MD ‎. I looked that up and it was near the Wheaton metro. Somehow I get lost on the way there (trusting google maps and cell phone tower triangulation based geo-location isn't always the best) and ended up in a mall. After some looking about, I got my bearings right and headed to 2312 Price Ave. I end up there and it looked nothing like the place I went to the last time. I looked at the sign and guess what, the place is called Hollywood East Cafe. The rest of the people I was meeting meanwhile ended up at Hollywood East Cafe... elsewhere in freaking Wheaton MD. Keep in mind that its q...

Its the new year and I thought I would write what I thought so far of it. Its cold outside. And windy. Put the two together, and it makes for not so fun times waiting for public transit after a night of revelling. New Year's Eve wasn't anything special. I went to work, I worked... and after work, I hung around the office for quite a while, took a nap and then went to a co-worker's house party. It was pretty decent, with beer (home brewed and otherwise), sparkling wine and one very large red headed and red bearded person who shook up and poured sparkling wine over everyone's coats. Nut. Anyway, Happy New Year dear reader(s). Lets hope it sucks less than the last one. And god willing, I'll be home.

So I woke up Saturday to a headline that hundreds of people were killed in Gaza because of Israeli bombing raids in Gaza. Apparently, F-16s are dropping shit from the sky at people on the ground. Nothing new here, those two (or maybe 3 now?) sides have been at it for a while now. Hamas sends rockets at border towns, Israel retaliates. Fair enough. But the response from the World's solely remaining super power is a but messed up if I may call it that. Here's what the outgoing Secretary of State had to say about the whole thing: "We strongly condemn the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and hold Hamas responsible for breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence there. The ceasefire must be restored immediately and fully respected." How's that again madam Secretary? Hamas bombs Israel. Check. Israel retaliates. Check. Qassam rockets? Check. Big freaking bombs from F-16s that kill lots of people? Check. Well, how the hell does it make sense t...

It was a decently warm day today, around 15 degrees. I had been cooped up in the house for a couple of days now, so I decided to go out. I've been wanting to go to the new Lululemon store in DC (there are a few now apparently) to check out what they had... and I was feeling like I needed a hoodie and some pants to bum around the house in. So I went to their new store on P and 15th in NW DC. I ended up buying a couple of things (no hoodies unfortunately) and also ended up going to Whole Foods across the street. It also got me wondering about the clothes and fashion items out West that I was used to and to some degree, miss. It isn't that much of a stretch to say that the folks out West dress differently that the people out here. I used to go to work in t-shirts and shorts or jeans. To some degree, there are people dressed like that here too. But, I get the feeling that is in the minority. Every morning on the bus you see well dressed men and women heading to work here. I feel l...

I've railed about Christmas before ( here and here ) and what I think is wrong with the way it is celebrated in this part of the world... so let me try and explain what I would really like to do for Christmas this time around. Its Boxing Day already in DC and I don't have to go to work because of the generosity of our company (they said... no work this (and only this) December 26 for US employees... and that is awesome). If I could, some day, I would like to be in Bethlehem on Christmas. I would like to see what the modern day people of Bethlehem celebrate the birth of the son of god, a prophet, someone perhaps hundreds of millions believe in to be their lord and saviour, I would like to see how they celebrate that most blessed of events in the city where he is purported to have been born. I hope that they do not have to worry about sweaters for great-aunt Susan or diamonds for your wife because every kiss begins with the letter 'k' or why they should buy a car with a...