Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!

I hope you had a great day full of fun, food and sugar-rushes. I had a great time at work. As a department, we dressed in pirate outfits. Shelby got creative and designed/created a costume for herself and I. Adhering to our pirate theme, she was a pirate ship and I was a treasure chest. The effort she put in was astounding! Many people dressed up at work today. I think it's cause the Social Club (who hosts the Halloween Parade) is offering an IPOD as one of the prizes. :-) We're on our way to improving the club's image and participation levels for events. Hahhaa...they should be grateful to have me on their team! Modesty is not my middle name. I was happy to see many creative costumes as well. Check out the pictures here.

After work I lugged a 5kg pumpkin (someone gave it to me - it was beautifully carved...how could I resist!), my costume stuff, my potluck stuff and my regular (huge) bag back to my car. I park 4 blocks away from work. It was all up hill. I thought my arms were going to fall off. I'm still partially recovering from volleyball. As I panted and took rest stops, I contemplated buying a personal cart (like the one Tanya has). Imagine being able to strap your pumpkin and crap to it and just rolling the car back to the car. I'd be as cool as an airline stewardess. Where's the nearest Staples?!?

uh oh!

OMG! I came home from Superstore tonight and was packing away the groceries into the cupboards when KA says "you have big hole in your pants!" I didn't believe her so I went for a feel - yes...there definately was a draft in my crotch area. I can't believe I didn't notice it today! As my mind scrambled to think of how many times I could have flashed someone, I groaned as the memory of attending the pumpkin carving contest came to mind. There were managers at that contest. Ugh. I think I walked around the room a couple of times and bent over to take pictures of each pumpkin. Oh no...those poor folks behind me! If you want to see pictures of the pumpkins we carved - look here.

I sat most of the day so I guess no one noticed, including myself. I'm pretty sure Robyn would have told me my butt cheek was hanging out (if she saw). No wonder some of the guys were talking about my pants. I figured it was because I was wearing all white today and it was really cold out (winter weather). I was committing a fashion faux-pas, wearing white after Labour Day. :-) Ah - I'm sure they had a hoot. I was wearing a thong too so there was even more butt cheek popping out of my hole! Those guys! I'm more worried about one of the managers seeing - don't want to climb the corporate ladder as "Kim-the-ripped-pants-girl". Plus friends are suppose to tell you stuff like that...ripped pants, green stuff in teeth, farting too loudly, kicking you under the table when the person you've been gossiping about comes your way, etc. Oh well - I don't really care. I had a good laugh at myself and decided to share my amusement with the rest of you (I'm not shy about my own embarrassing moments). If you can't laugh at yourself then life would really suck.

volleyball tournament

Today I played in a 6 hour volleyball tournament. This was quite the feat as I have not played volleyball competitively (I use this term loosely) since highschool. It was a social club event therefore I was some what obligated to be there. Plus my partner in crime (Robyn) was one of the event organizers therefore we have a pack that we attend each other's events.

I was a bit tired this morning having spent the night watching 2 movies (Omen and MirrorMask) till nearly 4am. The tournament started at 9am. Being prepared (sarcastic), I woke up at the wrong time and realized that we're on daylight savings time. I didn't know what time the team was meeting at the dome either. :-) Thank goodness Robyn was on top of things and filled me in.

I knew I was in trouble when I walked into the Harry Jerome Sports Center on Barnet Hwy (it's that big white dome). That's where many volleyball teams or cyclists practice as the floor of the dome is sloped at a 45 degree angle (for the cyclists). Embarassing moments included:

• Running up the net during our practice round to do a practice block and realizing that I can't actually jump high enough to clear my fingers over the top of the net. The net was set at women's standard.
• Having an opponent say "stop the ball with your foot"; I was up at the net and looked down to see a ball spinning around at my feet. I didn't know where it came from as I was busy looking at other people on my own court. So I stopped it and kicked it back to the guy that was talking to me. I was then informed that the spinning ball determines who serves first. Ooops...
• Getting to experience the power of real league players. So scary!!! There were many times when all I wanted to do was curl up in a ball and have them not hit me with their serves. I thought wearing long sleeves would help - it didn't. The ball still burns when it hits you. I was all for mercy treatment from any good player. :-) No kneepads = no diving (for me anyways).
• Taking a service from a guy right in the face. I saw it coming fast and was only able to partially turn my face. I thought he broke my nose. I came off the court for a bit and my sub came on. The guy was nice enough to run over to see if there was damage.
  
• Meeting a (tall) chinse girl that liked to use our team mates as her own little shooting ducks when she served. We each took hits off our faces, chests, legs, heads and backs (as Sonya tried to turn and run the other way).
• Serious players are big on net violations. Basically touching the net and falling into it is a no-no. So is jumping upto block and having your fingers get tangled in the netting on the way down.
  
• My lack of physical endurance made playing more challenging. It's hard to run after the ball and bump it in the right direction if you can barely speak through each gasp of breath. :-) It's all about "calling" for the ball. But the adrenaline was pumping!
• I SUCK at serving. If I'm lucky enough to have my ball go over the net then it's in this beautiful high arch that give the other team time to calculate their volly and target spike zone. I think I lost a lot of points for my team each time I stepped up to serve!
  

As our team peered through the netting at the desirable "blue" courts and dreamed of a day when we would actually win a game and get to move out of the loser's circle, we consoled our spirits by telling ourselves that the other teams were too serious and were not having as much fun as we were. Over all I had an exhausting and FUN time. My team mates were very spirited (we drew a lot of attention as we laughing and goofing off). We may have been the losing team but we had a great time doing it. I have to add that there were no injuries suffered therefore I will probably sign up for this event again in the summer. How often does one get the opportunity to be slaughtered by Vancouver Vollyball league (division A), SFU and UBC volleyball players?! Alright!!!

Generations

On Saturday evening Chicky and I went to Joan and John's baby's one month party. It was held at Kirin in Coquitlam. I think Kirin is a favorite restaurant (different locations too) for Chicky's family and extended family. Many of the big celebrations are held at a Kirin of some sort.

The guest of honor was Colin. He is such an adorable little boy. Lots of hair on his head. Joan looked spectacular. She looked as she didn't even have a baby! :-) Ah - how does she do it?! While in Kirin we mingled with the many extended family members that were there. It was nice to see Brandon and the other kids. I mentioned to Chicky that there were 4 generations represented in that room. Amazing how many of the cousins our ages are having kids, etc. We found out that May and JP are expecting their second child next year as well. So that's 3 of Chicky's cousin's that are due in March and May. The nice part about all of this is that the babies are being born in sequences. So they'll have cousins who are exactly the same age of them to play with. May's little girl Avery is 2 years old and really cute. She's SO interactive and talkative. She tends to get a lot of attention. I want my kids to be verbal/interactive as well - which means we'll have to do a lot of talking and interaction as parents. Seeing all the kids makes Chicky and I discuss our own view of kids. We have differing ideas on how many kids we want. I want a BIG family (as I'm accustomed to having many people live in one house). He on the other hand prefers 2 kids max - he's more practical. We'll have to see what the future brings.

immunized for life

I'm proud to say that as of today I've been immunized against Hepatitis A & B for life. This is all thanks to Twinrix. Six months, 3 injections and hundreds of dollars later, I can now walk along the beaches of asia an not worry about getting a tummy ache from unsanitary (local) food.

the future is still not friendly

There are some things in life that you have a love-hate relationship with. I have that kind of dysfunctional relationship with FutureShop and Telus. Just when you thought the "future is friendly" - it's not!

Telus incident #2. I had come to realize that the feature bundle (Spark 7) has not been working well for me the last month or more. I had activated that bundle on the web after my last fiasco with Telus. Too ashamed to call them back, I chose the web method.

Chicky had tried to text message me a couple of times this week - as I have not spoken or seen him since the weekend. I don't have voicemail but the text messages had to work. So I tried it myself last night and it didn't work. Unable to send message was the error.

Bright and early this morning (before work) I called into the Telus to report this problem. I was advised by the agent that when I added the feature bundle on the web, the feature was not "turned on". It's still showing as "blocked" on their side and that they needed an agent to unblock it. I was confused; what's the point of using e-services if you still have to call in to confirm that your feature bundle was actually "turned on". Apparently adding a feature bundle was different from activating it. My assumption is that if I'm paying for it - it should better work! I was very annoyed by this tidbit. The agent tried to make light of the situation by saying that at least Spark 7 was on promo and free for the first 2 months - therefore they didn't charge me any money for the feature that wasn't working. Like that made me any happier. It only validates my theory that they are all incompetent! So the agent advised me that he unblocked the text messaging and that I should power cycle (turn on/off) my phone and test it.

I proceeded to:

• power cycle the phone
• send Chicky a test message - got an error message "unable to send"
• tried to send Robyn a text message - same error message
• had Robyn send me a message - it went through on her side but didn't arrive at my phone...lost in cyberspace I would suspect
• thinking that the network was busy...I power cycled again and went through sending Robyn a message and having her send me a message -> no messages arrived in my inbox
  
• I gave it 3 hours before calling back into Telus (time to cool off and think rationally)
  
• I was greeted with the frontline agent who couldn't help, she transferred me to "network support".
• I spoke to Karim at Network Support. I've learned through past experience that it's always helpful to document who you speak to, at what time and about what subject.
• Karim assured me that the agent in the morning didn't activate the text messaging correctly and that there were still options that were disabled.
  
• I was skeptical of his excuses.
• Karim said he'd have "data support" enable those options and told me to wait 20 mins, power cycle the phone and it would work.
• By this time I don't believe any of the "techs". I told him that I wanted to test the feature and keep him on the phone. He said he can't wait 20 mins on the phone as he has to take calls. Understandable...I work in a call center too...I know how hard it is to please customers.
• I waited 2 hours, power cycled my phone and tried sending text messages. Same error message.
• My frustration level went up 10 notches. I was ready to slaughter a call agent or network guy. I'd even settle for chewing out an innocent supervisor.
  
• I called Telus back at 8pm (12 hours from the initial call). They kindly put me on hold for 15 minutes due to high call volumes.
• I spoke to Catherine (the CSR) and asked her to patch me directly to data support. Doesn't work that way. I was patched to Network Support. Duh!
• Told Rav the network guy that I don't have time to mess around and that he'd better fix my problem. I gave him a brief description of the problem (unable to send or receive text messages) and told him to read the rest of the problem in Remedy (the data capture system they have at Telus).
• Rav was impressed with my Telus lingo. I was equally unimpressed with his speed of service and inability to run call history searches.
• He assured me that the feature ws turned on and that the problem might be my lack of text messaging knowledge. I was offended and became less patient.
• I had enough of his incompetence and told him that I want an incident number assigned to my problem and that data support should call me back. He asked me how I know the terminology, I told him I work in a call center and also spent a day job shadowing at Telus. So that means: don't mess with me.
• He called up data support and left me on hold. I waited. And waited. Finally he came back and said "it's fixed".
  
• Data support sent me a text message and I received it. Good.
• I was happy that things were working and that I didn't have to escalate the problem to management - as that would have been my next step.

By the end of it all I activated Spark 10 which also includes voicemail. So now you guys can sent me text messages or leave me a voice message. Good luck!

cubicle song

My sister sent me a song that was perfect. The Cubicle Song - listen to it here. The lyrics describes my work environment. I live in a cubicle world. If you have not had the pleasure of working in a cube, then you will not know the trials and tribulations associated with it. By the way - I don't have one of those fancy cubes with high walls for semi-privacy. The walls are low enough so that we can all see each other's 19 inch monitors. Plus I can touch all 3 walls while sitting in my chair! It's not a cube...it's a cell...complete with a warden. :-)

I saw this cartoon - it's funny because it's TRUE! Our Guildford Corporate Center (GCC...aka "Telephone Claims")is our largest call center. All the cubes on the 3rd floor have their own "address" which includes a desk number and street/avenues name. So it would be like telling someone that you reside at 3176 25th Street. What's even more hilarious (or not) is that all the rows have the signs hanging down from the ceiling so that you know which street/avenue you're walking down. I've got to get a live picture of that place for you guys. What is the corporate world coming to?! I like the new concept of pods (low cubes that face each other) - but due to amount of people and lack of space, we'll never have that. There are those at GCC that have no permanent desk. They come into their shift and sit at any desk that is available. This is only possible because this center is open 24/7 (they are the "dial-a-claim" crew). :-) Because of this particular center - my own department has to be 24/7 as well to support them! Sucks to be those who have to be on the graveyard shifts!

mahjong

Do you ever get a bit obsessed with something? I go through this on a regular basis. If it isn't movies, plants, hair products or gadgets then it's computer games. I'm back into playing Mahjong solitaire. Lately I've crawled into bed with my laptop, read everyone's blogs, write my own then play some mahjong. Since it's webbased - I thought I'd download a copy for the laptop so that I can play when I'm not connected to the internet. Another computer game that I sometimes get hooked on is Sims. It's like playing house with computerized characters.

So what am I doing at home on a Thursday night? It took almost 2 hours to drive home from work (again - was the same yesterday) and I was falling asleep in the car (again). There's so much construction in Coquitlam and the movie that they're filming in Port Moody (Aliens vs Predator 2) has a lot of the roads closed down. I took a different route home. My inability to concentrate on the road became worst - I had to pull over to a Starbucks and get some coffee and fresh air. That rejuvenated my senses and I was able to make it the rest of the way home without killing someone or myself. Good thing I'm driving a big car! Lol - watch out all you little-car-drivers! When I got home, I gobbled down dinner and made an executive decision. I prefer being lazy and will pay for the consequences later. :-) It's all about INSTANT gratification with me. Attendance is mandatory in my course therefore I will have to come up with a "creative" excuse to send to my instructor tomorrow. This is the best part about being school that all of you are missing out on - the art of making up excuses for everything! I forfeited an assignment (that I didn't do and therefore reinforced my decision to stay home - why bother going when I have nothing to hand in!). For that I will have to do really well on the next 2 assignments (to make up for this one). Lol - it's a good thing I work well under pressure.

ZFX

So if you have not been tuned into Z95 lately - now is a good time to start. The ZFX contest is now over $79,000. Wow - that's a LOT of free money! The phone lines will open up tomorrow at 8am and they will stay on the air until there is a winner. So if you hear the ZFX sound and know what it is (this is for Frank!), call 604-280-9595 and be a winner. Imagine what you can do/buy with that kind of money?! ;-P I would splurge it all - forget about being a responsible consumer. I would indulge in spontaneous spending and engage in buyer's remorse afterwards. I like the emotional roller coaster ride associated to shopping! I am a product of the media. :-)

friends

I read an article in the 24 paper this morning about friends. The writer was talking about the definition of friendship. She compared people who seem to have thousands of friends (also listing a few celebrities who have ridiculous amount of friends). She then asked what the definition of a friend is. So I went to dictionary.com and here's what it says:

"...a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard."

The article generated conversation between Robyn and I in regards to who we considered friends. Robyn is a social butterfly and makes friends everywhere she goes. I don't engage in that behaviour but tend to be more select with who I show interest in. I'm quite content with the circle of friends that I have. I would rather know more about less people then less about more people. If you are reading my blogs - consider yourself one of my close friends as we share a common interest....ME! :-P

applying my knowledge

Every once in awhile I'm thrilled by the prospect of applying my knowledge at work to home life. I like what I learn but sometimes feel that it's impractical knowledge. We have the new media pc and wanted to activate the wireless connection so that we can surf the web while watching TV. That being said, Michael installed the wireless card and waited for me to configure it. I came strolling by and he asked me to make the wireless connection "work". I laughed and said that he would have to call up the wireless router and get the WEP from it. I don't broadcast my SSID therefore you need all the settings for things to work. He didn't know how to call up the router. I said I'd think about it. As I walked towards the computer room with an armload of stuff to sew (tonight is "fix stuff" night) I remembered that I don't remember the IP address for the router. I sat infront of the computer for a few moments trying to figure out how to activate the router. I didn't even know what the router's name is! I thought about working on my sewing stuff and doing this later. Then the answer hit me. Duh...the router IP is visable through the default gateway. Don't worry if you didn't understand that - I'm just being a geek (and you're even geekier if you understood what I'm talking about!). I ran an "ipconfig /all" and got the information I needed. From there I sent the information to Michael through MSN. We're pretty bad at home. We all IM each other from different rooms in the house. It's like that Robin Williams movie "RV".

movie mania

On Sunday Chicky and I got up later (as we didn't get to bed till 4am). I had lunch while Chicky took some pictures of his car. He had some modifications done on it recently. After that he wanted to catch a the 1pm show of The Prestige. We hussled over to the theatre to watch it. It was a good movie - made me want to go see a real magic show again. I really enjoyed the one in Hawaii.

When we got back from the movies, Carol and them were over. We watched Over The Hedge with Angelina (as Michael wanted to demonstrate the power of a USB key). Carol has the same media pc set up at her house and wanted to see how our system differed from hers. They have better sound quality though as Minh has wired his house souly for kareoke (4 large, 500amps each, surround sound speakers, 5 subs, etc). We think that he secretly wants to be a kareoke king. :-) They even have wireless mics! Lol - some sales guy even tried selling Minh a mic headpiece so that he can dance and sing at the same time (the ones that pop stars use). He was REALLY temped by it but too many people teased him so that's why I think he didn't get it. Watch out Justin Timberlake - Minh is on the move!

After Angelina's movie we had dinner. Chicky wanted to rent a movie - not that we haven't been watching movies non-stop since Saturday. We went out to find Omen but ended up getting the Lake House. Keanu Reeves - not a great actor but this role suited him A total chick-flick. :-) I can't wait for Halloween though - looking forward to watching scary movies!!!

new digs

On saturday night we went over to Charlene and Scott's place for dinner. Charlene cooked some really good mediteranan food. I was very impressed. Our girl is so domesticated now! Scott is an excellent host and was always attentative to our needs - making sure we had something to drink or eat. Their house is lovely and has an interesting piece of art in the eating area. It makes a great conversational piece. Kind of like a Rorschach (inkblot) image. Each of us saw different things - though no one saw what I saw. :-) I've got a vivid imagination. All that movie watching wasn't for nothing afterall!

After Charlene's place we went back to my house and watched Fearless (downloaded). Michael bought us an HP entertainment/media pc. It's like Tivo. Now we can record live TV and play it back later. The remote is a bit complicated but we're getting use to it. My parents could barely load a CD into the DVD player. Now seeing the computer tower next to the TV - they just turn the other way and watch the TV in the other room (or their own room). After Jet Li' Fearless, Chicky turned on 16 Blocks (another movie) but I had fallen asleep then. I was pretty tired as we didn't get back to Chicky's place till 3am Saturday morning (after his company party) and I had to get up at 9am to take my car back to Coquitlam for a maintenance check. Little sleep catches up with me on the weekends and I end up sleeping in as much as I can.

golf course fright night

On Friday night I went to Chicky's company's Halloween party. It was held at Mayfair golf course in Richmond. We didn't end up dressing up but there were many people there in some nice costumes - lots of pirates! Which was great as I got a lot of costume ideas from them. There was even one that looked a lot like Captain Jack Sparrows! :-) How creative. Chicky and I tried our hands at winning 10 grand but failed miserably. The game was to putt a hole in one on this man-made putting green. Of course they didn't make it easy and made the green have slopes, etc.

After that we made our way into the lounge and picked up a few pieces of finger food and chatted with his friends. I couldn't resist taking a look at the door prizes - nothing spectacular. I had my eye on the Disney Princess pencil set though - figure not many people would want it. There were the usualy array of house hold items, liquor and gift certificates. Nothing that really perked my interest. After munching on some food we went into the main ballroom to play some casino games. The company set up a pretend casino and everyone was given pretend money ($10,000 to start). I did fairly well at the poker table and ended up taking out 3 of Chicky's friend's wives. I felt bad so I gave them some of my money to play elsewhere. Then the poker shark, aka Joyce, sat down next to me and smiled develishly. Joyce is Michael's friend that works for Ritchie Bros now. She said she was there to take all my money. I laughed and told her to play at another table. She didn't. :-) I had played poker against Joyce the week before and she won all my money. I pulled out of the game when she proclaimed that she had enough money to go shopping the next day. :-)

It was a fierce game but fun nevertheless. Because the money was fake - some of us weren't taking it as seriously. Joyce had the dealer wrapped around her fingers and she dealt some of the games. We had 8 people at the table - the majority of them were good friends of Chicky's. No matter how many times Joyce lost all her chips - she would go away and come back with a handful to play again. I had an asian dealer play for me at one point. Our table was being pretty rowdy. Joyce was dealing, the dealer was sitting in her chair playing for her. Another dealer (on his break) was playing for one of the other girls at the table and the asian dealer was playing for me. Secretly I think all 3 dealers were seeing who was better at guessing the cards. I was pretty nervous when my dealer-guy threw in handfuls of chips at every turn. I kept asking - "are you sure?!". He laughed and said "don't worry". I trippled my earnings because of that game. Wow - if only that money was real! The objective was to get lots of money so that you could bid on the door prizes - no one wanted the cup and tea bag set. It was cool though - the dealers that lost told their girls to come "see" them at their tables (I think that's where they hand out chips to the girls). If you were a girl - it worked in your favor as all the dealers were guys and they didn't care too much on how many chips they were giving out. Some girls really milked it. Even Joyce pretended not to know how to play so that the dealer would "coach" her on each of her hands (while he dealt!).

After poker and beating Chicky out (that was the most important part) we went for late night dinner at Number 9 restaurant with Joyce. She's so small and eats very little. The great part is that she speaks fluent cantonese. So much easier going to a chinese restaurant with someone who can speak the language.

costume ideas

Halloween is fast approaching and the hunt for a "good" costume is on. I like to make my own costumes as it's more fun and economical. I've already perused the isles of Value Village, dollar stores, Zellers and SuperStore. I wasn't inspired. I'm lending my Marge Simpson costume to a coworker this year. For work we're going as a "group costume". This year's theme is pirates. Not too hard - all the props were at the dollar store.

I talked to Frank tonight and he had the idea of being Jack (from Jack in the Box). After some internet research I suggested we do a whole fast food theme. Since I LOVE Macdonalds - I'd be willing to be Rotten-Ronnie himself! It'd be so funny! Now to convince the crew...

winter preparations

I've been freezing my butt off these last few days. Don't know about you guys but I have low tolerance for coldness. Yes - I did grow up in Saskatoon (land of the snow). On top of that the inside of my house sis freezing too. We all have to sit under blankets when watching TV and my most of us have to wear slippers! Tonight I cruised over to Superstore (in search of a Halloween costume) and ended up buying a space heater instead. Now my room will feel just like Mexico!

Other winter preparations include seeding my lawn wednesday night. I started off doing it old-school with my hand and "sprinkling" the grass seeds. When that novelty wore off, I broke out my trust Rona spreader-cart and poured the 10lbs of seeds into it. I always have a great time with that little cart - adjusting the spreading radius with the lever, etc. I had the day off today and when I let Muimui out to go pee - I saw that the birds were eating the grass seeds!!! All that seeding to prevent weeds and now the birds had a big buffet. Now I want to go out and buy fertilizer and cover the lawn with that. Maybe that will deter the birds from eating the rest of the grass seeds.

Jerry

Do you ever think that sometimes you over look people in your life? Those that do not have a direct connection to you? Or those that you deem to be less worthy in some way? Well - that's what I feel like when I think about Jerry.

Who is Jerry? :-) If you ever drive on Hastings Street. Jerry is the old man that stands on the corner (well - more on the meridian) of Hastings Street and the Cassiar tunnel. He's been a part of my daily commute for the last 5 years. I see him everyday, rain or shine, on the way home from work (North Van). Now that says a lot as it was over 6 years ago that I first saw him. I never really paid much attention to him until this year. Yes - I'd have the same kind of curiosity as any other on-looker. He was a pan handler and usually I try to avoid that type (you know...don't make eye contact...pretend to play with the radio buttons as he walked by, etc). Over time I developed more courage and started waving to him as he walked by. He never came over to ask for money - which reinforced my waving behaviour. The "good" thing about him is that he picks up the garbage on the street and usually waves at the vehicles that drive on and off Second Narrows bridge. When I stopped working in North Vancouver, I didn't see him very much (only once in awhile when I'd have to travel on Hastings in the middle of the afternoon or something like that). But this year I drove more (being bad and not using my bus pass). For Valentine's Day I had made little cookie gift bags for everyone at work. On the way home I stopped as per usual at the light. I saw Jerry doing his usually parade up the meridian and thought to myself: "he's such a nice bum". So I rolled down my window and offered him a bag of cookies and wished him Happy Valentine's Day. He was really happy and expressed his gratitude. The light was still red so we chit chatted a bit. I asked him for his name - as I felt it was rude to be refering to him as the bum on the Cassiar Tunnel. It's a good thing that I don't harbour any inhibitions and can ask strangers all kinds of things. He asked me what nationality I was and I said Vietnamese - so he mustered up a mangled "cam on" (thank you) in Vietnamese; I grinned and chuckled. It was very sweet that he could come up with the phrase, I was touched, and so began our relationship (I'm not saying we're best buddies now but we do talk more often then before). I told him that there were a few times that I didn't see him on my way home from work. I was genuinely concerned as he's old and I've seen my share of cars that have flown over the meridian. Who knows - he might become a casualty of a car accident. He sports a reflective vest on cloudy/rainy days - I think someone gave it to him. Jerry said he has cancer and that he was sick for a period of time so he couldn't come out to say "hi" to everyone. I think in some ways Jerry has very little family or friends so he enjoys the attention he gets from the drivers. Those weeks that he wasn't there - an intruder came. I call him an intruder because he was a punk-ass-kid-pan-handler-with-a-North-Face-backpack (I can't even afford a backpack like that!!) who was pretty aggressive (ie. knocking on my window and holding out his empy MacDonald's cup for "donations"). I really dislike those types as I figure they are all fakes. I've seen the documentaries - where a midclass kid would make tons of money pan handling!

Last week I was passing Jerry by and gave him my big chocolate chip cookie (still in its original packaging) and he happily stuffed it into his backpack. I smiled, waved and wished him a good weekend. Jerry - the not-so-well-known Cassiar Tunnel icon. Now you guys know him. ;-)

paper airplanes

At work today we kicked off the United Way 2006 campaign. Our company thoroughly supports this non-profit organization. In the past the company would coerce you into donating but in the recent years they have been more laid back about it. I always like the annual kick off. It involves a whole wack of people on multiple levels throwing paper airplanes onto a target on the first floor. We have to "purchase" the airplane paper (basically making a donation) then we get to fold them into what might resemble an airplane. I discovered that I have very BASIC paper-airplane-folding skills. I saw some of the people beside me and marvelled at their aerodynamic forms. :-) And that's why I'm not an engineer! I had my handy dandy camera with me so I took some quick pictures of the crowd and of course - the big TOSS. :-) It was really cool to see hundreds of paper airplanes in different colors float down from various floors. I was on the 4th floor and one of my planes (the chubby one with too much wing span and not enough body) floated onto the 3rd floor balcony and got stuck. The good thing is that my other 3 designs made it to the ground on the 1st floor (though miles away from the target).

On a side note. Have you seen the new campaign posters? They're hilarious! It's probably inapropriate to laugh at because they carry a "message". Anyhow - my favorite is GI-Joe standing over Barbie with a bat (message was about domestic violence). I think this years campaign is targeted at kids as all the posters have this sort of theme to them (toy figurines). It's like those porcelien figures on the Life Network (you'll know what I'm talking about if you watch that channel)...the lady with the cats or the guys with his hands sawed off.

no excuse!

I went to a seminar this afternoon. It was a bit of a last minute thing. I'm not sure if I mentioned that I'm being nominated for the "Help Desk Analyst of the Year" award. It's quite ironical as I'm in the midst of trying to escape the department. It's a program that the Help Desk Institute (HDI) has been sponsoring for awhile. What does it all mean? It means that every company that is affiliated with HDI (which is an international company) is allowed to nominate who they think their best agent is. The agent then competes against other agents in the province to win the provincial award. After that they compete against other provinces to win the Canadian award. Finally they get to go to the states to compete for the North America distinction. So realistically the only reason why I agreed to jump through all the hoops is that this could possible lead to an all-paid trip to Vegas (staying at the Madalay Bay) to compete in the North American trials. Apparently it's a pretty prestigious title to win. :-) The thought of the Vegas competition is a bit unnerving though. Nothing like being videotaped during your testing (on both technical and customer service skills) and then having that video blown up across 50 foot screens so that 2500 attendees can "critique" you. :-) Talk about pressure! But realistically I have to make it through the provincials before I can even think about that. I'm dreading the day they call me for the preliminary tests!

So what was I talking about before?! Oh yah - going to the seminar. My supervisor thought it would be a strategical move if I attended one of the seminars put on by HDI. The keynote speaker at today's seminar was Jay Rifenbary. He's a motivational speaker and very dynamic. His topic was "No Excuse! An Action Plan for Success". His key points were core values and personal accountability. Many of the things he said hit home - such as you are the person who decides how you feel/act or feel at any given moment. You can't blame anyone but yourself for your lack of personal or professional success. I felt very alive and energertic after the seminar. Ready to conquer the world!

Thoughts to ponder about from the seminar:

• What do you want to be remembered for?
• Why do people follow you?
  

haunted walk

On Friday night I went to the Burnaby Village Museum for their Haunted Deer Lake Walking Tours. I went with my coworkers and Tanya. I would give this tour a two thumbs down - like under my butt kind of "down". I was quite disappointed in the low budget production. I was mislead to believe that the tour would involve walking around the lake and listening to ghost stories. What we got instead was a historical lesson on 5 old building in the museum. Interesting but not worth $16/person. I'm sure these "facts" can be found in a book or on their website. Some of my coworkers tried to escape the painful narration (by these 2 old ladies) but we didn't let them out of our sight. What I do recommend instead is the Vancouver Haunted House tour - much better narration and better locations too. The funny part was at the end of the walk, the ladies provided us forms in which we can provide feedback on. Unfortunately for them - I'm a pretty critical person who is not concerned about being a polite citizen and providing fake feedback. :-) My coworker and I gave them "truthful" ratings and wrote in the comments section. They wanted feedback - so they got it!