Random Thoughts

I had some decisions to make recently. About where I want to live. About what I want to do with my life. I have made some decisions. I also had another decision to make. Should I buy myself a new toy (Nikon D90 most likely) or travel... and I decided to travel. While I really do want to buy the camera, I think I would be a little deflated with that purchase if I couldn't do much in terms of travelling for the summer. Because my discretionary funding for such things will not accommodate both. Anyway, now that I have decided on travelling, I have a bunch of places to go see. I have decided to stay (for the most part) in the North-eastern United States (though I have been contemplating a trip to Nova Scotia for the The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo ) and see what I can before I leave this part of the world. So, I am planning on going to New York city at the end of the month, Boston, Chicago, Miami, LA and Vancouver. I am sure there will be other places along the way... but th...

There are some things one should never do. One should never cheat on your taxes, one should never lie to one's physician or lawyer. One should not be stubbornly dumbassed about something that the majority of the country and its courts agrees on. The Canadian government has been, of late, doing some unnecessarily dumb things. My concern today is the appeal by the government of a ruling by a federal court in Canada that says they have to appeal to the US government to repatriate a Canadian citizen who is being held at Guantanamo Bay on questionable charges in a reasonable time-frame. As a Canadian, I have some rights. I am allowed to come back to the country whenever I want. I can expect to use my travel documents (my passport) to enter many other countries. On behalf of Her Majesty, the Minister of Foreign Affairs requests that I be afforded all assistance and protection as seen necessary to travel through other countries. I can even expect, when there is no Canadian mission, to a...

I know I say Vancouver is a great place... but there are not so great sides to that lovely city too. Take a look at this CBC video  and see some of problems the city is facing. I am hopeful that some day, we will solve this problem. We as a country have a lot going for us, money, great healthcare, smart people, I hope to see the day where these problems are not just contained, but actually solved. We are no super power, but we should be solving these problems and exporting our innovative solutions to the rest of the world that can use it. I think that is a role Canada is perfect for. 

with the world, its history and its future. I am always amazed at the beauty that is nature and the variety and diversity that is history and the link we all share. Imagine... when some guy named Hadrian was ruling the Mediterranean, some other guy named Kanishka was plying his trade down from the Khyber to the Bay... Along the way, there are places like Merv. Samarkand, Taxila, Gandhara, Peshawar, Mathura... Apparently, the 2nd Century was the happiest time on earth. Some day, as my Muslim brothers would say, Insha'Allah, god willing that is, I will go see it all.

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...