Please call me chef wiw from now on cause I just registered a cooking class today starting January. It is an 8 session class and each class you got to learn to do a 3 courses meal. I heard about this class for quite awhile cause one of my friends took it long time ago and she said it was pretty good. You got to learn all the basic cooking skill that you usually are lack of. I wanted to take this course for quite awhile. I could cook by following recipe and stuff. But I am lack of a lot of basic skill, like how to make a sauce, or even knife skill. I know the course would be good for me, just a bit too expensive. I finally decided to take it this coming year. My original plan was to go all crazy and registered the pastry course too. So for a month, I am cooking 3 nights a week (and not to mention how much money I am spending there) But when I called today, their Monday class is all full already (which is the one I want to register) and only Tuesday class is available. Problem now is I can't take the pastry course anymore cause it is on Tuesday and Wednesday. I guess that is good for me anyway cause I would spend my money slowly instead of burning everything all in once! I am actually pretty excited about it after I registered (though a bit too broke) That is my Christmas present for myself....and probably a nicer chef knife.PS. No, guinea pig is not needed. So you are NOT welcome to come to my house and ask me to cook for you.
Just finish reading 1 Samuel for my fellowship reading and had discussion with my friends tonight on after thought. There was one thing really stroke me when I read. It is how faithful David was. When the giant challenged Israelites to fight them one on one, everybody was scared except David. He, without doubt, went right ahead to fight the giant. He truly believed that God would protect him and never have one second in his mind that questioning if he is doing the right thing. He has complete trust in God that He would protect him. Never worry about whether he may die battling a giant one on one. To him, it seem like a very natural thing to do, no doubt or question about it. Of course you can walk into a battlefield and grab some small stones up against a 9 foot tall giant with a spear. Of course you can fight him. And no doubt you will win. Because God is with you. That truly amazed me. I honestly don't think I could do that. If the obstacle is physically presented right in front of me, I don't know if I could just take a step with faith and walk towards it, fully trusting that God would protect me. I think I would be like other Israelites hiding from it. The other day I heard a pastor said someone asked him if his life affect in anyway after 911. He answered he believed it won't be his time to die until God said so. I don't know if I can ever be that faithful. And no doubt at all!
I can't get this song out of my head today. Actually, it started last night when it started snowing. That is right. First snow in Vancouver. Meaning: painful to drive the next day. I was lucky enough cause I couldn't wake up on time and miss all the big traffic madness out there. By the time I drove to work, it was as smooth as normal day. From what I heard from people, it was a pain as usual. Despite Vancouver does snow couple times a year, people seem to forget how to drive in bad weather. Oh, it is snowing; I should drive extra horribly slow. Last year was sooo horrible. I got out my house, stuck in traffic on E54th Ave for half a block for 15 minutes, gave up and drove to E49th Ave, stuck in traffic for another 10 minutes again, gave up and got down to E41st Ave, saw 3 cars doing zig zag in front of me and got suck longer in traffic, finally gave up and drove home. The usual 2 minute circle around my place took me over an hour that day! This morning I woke up in the hope that traffic would be so bad like last year that I got to stay home. But no, road was clear as ever. Going to lunch was a bit of pain though. It was still snowing when we walked to grab lunch. I can feel everything blowing to my face and I can't open my eyes. And I wore my runner and there were puddle of water here there. I had to jump around to avoid getting my feet wet. I finally missed a jump and landed in a puddle of icy cold water. My shoes and my socks were soaking wet and I can't feel my toes anymore. Tomorrow, I am bring extra pair of socks just in case!
Another friend of mine got engaged on the weekend. She called me up today to tell me the news. I supposed I should be more excited but truth is, I got a bit numb after hearing 3 engagement in 3 weeks. So I sound kind of plain and congratulated her. She told me excitedly that I was supposed to be the first person to know. I still can't get myself excited. I supposed I should feel more honour. Anyway, I asked her more detail on planning. Apparently she is planning around Oct. I told her right away that I may not be there cause I may be in Hong Kong for my other friend's wedding because I am her maid of honour (I know, I know, I am kind of blunt.) She sound even more disappointed now. I supposed I should have kept my mouth shut. At least wait till I know the date for sure or whether I am going to Hong Kong first. What has been said has been said. I tried to make things better by saying that her sister is helping her anyway (which I think make things worse) She said it has nothing to do with needing my help. She just hoped I would be there because we have been good friends for so long. I was quite speechless after that. The fact is, we haven't been in touched much ever since she started dating. We only saw each other on birthdays. And we barely talked much otherwise. I guess we are still friends, just lost the closeness. It didn't bother me too much if I did miss her wedding. I felt a bit bad for my reaction and thought about calling her again later. But I didn't bother in the end cause I don't know how to start. Still feeling a bit bad...but I would still choose to go to Hong Kong.
It was mad out there today. I can't believe so many people woke up on a Saturday morning. If I didn't have a game to play today, I wouldn't want to get up in this weather. It is like the best season to sleep in. Anyway, I was already late for the game and driving along Kingsway. And here it was, construction!!! I got stuck in traffic for 10 min and was only able to move a block. And I was already late for my game. Even got me more pissed is people don't let other lane's car merge in. Oh no no no, I could move half a spot, you are not moving in my lane. Stupid people! So I took the small street to try to get away from the jam. Good that we didn't have enough players for both teams so we didn't have a real game anyway. And then later in the afternoon, I walked in the Safeway close to my place and didn't know they are doing a re-opening. So everything is on huge sales. Result, tons and tons of people. I didn't notice at first, but just thinking it does have more people than usual, may be the renovation really brings more business. Then when I got all stuff I need, I found out the lineup was indeed long! But I don't have time to go to another place, so I figured I would just line up. While waiting in line, I saw all the people walking back and forth trying to pick up as many things as possible. It reminded me of Christmas shopping which I haven't started yet. I felt stressed just looking at them. I don't even want to think when do I have time to do it. And how annoyed I would get with all the people in the mall, the insane parking, the line up. Errr..it would be a nightmare!
I went to see the new Harry Potter movie today. I have been wanting to see it badly ever since I knew a new movie came out this year. I was being extremely patient to wait for a week and let the crowd die down a bit. I heard different opinion on the movie. Some said it was good but I also heard some people said don't expect too much. I was pretty excited about it anyway, so I don't care. It turned out to be pretty good. Well, at least I like it. This is the one I like most so far. The first one was okay but not much story to it. Everything I read from the book just because more visual. The second movie was way better. It was a lot darker for sure. But I was a bit disappointed from the last one cause the director cut out a whole lot of details that I liked. I understand the book is too long for a 2 hour movie. But there are tiny bits that make the story and the characters completed, like the relationship between James Potter and his friends and Professor Snape. This new movie actually did quite good a job on shortening the film. Though there are still some bits and pieces that I hope would be there, but the movie no doubt is pretty complete on its own. One slight problem though, a friend told me something that he found annoying before I went watch the movie, something I won't normally pay attention. But since he mention that and now it stuck in my mind, I noticed it everytime it happen. I was sooo annoyed. I also like the new characters chosen for this movie. Well, a friend did complain that she expect Fleur to be way more beautiful. Since I never really like/dislike her, I don't care much. She didn't show up much in the movie anyway. I also liked Fred and George got to play bigger part in this movie. I really like these two characters from the book. Too bad Sirius didn't show up this time. I also hope to see Bill and Charlie but the director cut them out completely. Well, there is always next movie....in 2007.
Never send an email if you have something important to say. My friend emailed us about her engagement news to make sure everyone got it the same time. But we never heard from a friend in Hong Kong. It has been weeks now and we all wonder if she was too busy or what. I have been meaning to call her last week but I kept having hard time to find time to call her. I usually would call her around 4pm so it would be morning before work for her in Hong Kong. But last week I have been so busy at work that I kept on forgetting to call. Finally we got an email from her today and then I know she really never got the email. She told us how her multi-day hike went but she didn't mention anything about the engagement. And there is no way she has no reaction at all. I finally called her and turned out she got the e-card couple weeks ago after a multi-days hiking, click on the link but the site was down, and never bother to check again!!! So she didn't know until I called her up and asked!!! Lesson learnt here: always CALL!!!!
I felt so not loved by my parents. It is like the xth times they felt like ditching me. Some years ago it was mid-autumn festival. They decided to go traveling during then and my brother was still up in Prince George. So a festival supposed to be family gathering I end up eating at my friend's house. Last month, my parents ditched me for going to Toronto and then secretly planned to go Las Vegas on Thanksgiving. Once again, leaving me all alone of the family gathering day. Then again, my dad told me last night that they got ticket to see a show in the Richmond Casino on Christmas Eve. I was so shocked to hear that. We always do family dinner on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Even my brother knows that he can't schedule anything for dinner those two days. But now my parents decided to ditch me yet again! Errrrr! They thought we only eat on Christmas day, and thought it would be perfectly fine to watch that show. My dad offered to take me to the show too, but I refused cause it is some dance thing that I was sure that I would fall asleep. I told my parents this year I am cooking instant noodle for them as dinner cause they upset me! (Starting few years ago, I made Christmas dinner for my family on Christmas Eve) I could have dinner with some friends, but Christmas usually is a family thing and I don't want to disturb their family gathering. Errrr, I am so not loved!
Someone at church proposed at the end of service today. At the end of the service, my pastor said that one of the guys has an announcement to make. He went up to the stage, said that he wanted to sing a song. My friend who was sitting next to her originally ran away the moment he started singing. And all the camera are out (some of the guys know about it) And there, the whole church was staring at his girlfriend, sitting all alone now. She looked lost the first few second, then when she realized what is happening here, she was stunned. She didn't cry but a few girls were crying (including my friend whom now I pretend I know no such person) At the end of the song, he kneeled down and proposed. None of us remembered if she said yes or not (she may have nodded or something). But we are all really happy for her. Of course all the girls gathered around her to 'wow' at the ring (and all the guys shaked their head when they saw that) It would be the first wedding in my fellowship. It was really sweet of her fiancee to do it in public. And it was really brave of him too. All the guys were not impressed cause that mean they have a high standard to top off. We girls started suggesting bungee jumping, juggling, jumping over fire loop, all sort of weird trick. My other best friend got engaged recently too. Though I was happy for her, it didn't strike me the excitement till today. When I saw the look on the friend from church, I knew my friend must be very happy when she got the proposal. I felt very happy for her then. Yeah, I know, I am slow. But she sent me the e-card and it took me awhile to sink in that idea. Come to think about it, how come all my friends have funny proposal story (want to propose while the girl only want to pee, need to run for bus right after proposed, fell asleep before proposing, etc, etc), but the one I witnessed worked out perfectly accordingly to plan. Aii...all my friends suck!
It is a friend's birthday today and I invited some people from work and some of her friends over at my place for pot luck. Originally I tried to organize a cooking party in the culinary school. So I emailed a bunch of people and asked if anyone interested. I needed at least 12 people to book the place. But after a few days, I still don't have 12 people (of course I found out later some people just being snobby and don't feel like replying!!!) My friends and I were decided to cook at my place anyway if the cooking party didn't turn out. I felt kind of bad to just cancel the whole thing after some of her friends said they would be interested. So I invited people over to my place for pot luck instead. I was kind of excited about the whole thing till when time closed by. I wasn't sure if that is what my friend wanted. Would she prefer to just eat with us instead? Am I organizing it to make her happy? Or to ruin her birthday for her? Seeing her being cranky this morning because of lack of sleep, I really regret that organizing it. I wasn't sure I am putting her through a party she never wanted. I know if I was tired, I don't want to see people. I started kicking myself for organizing it. When she showed up in my place in quite good mood, I felt a bit relieved. Things turned out not too bad. I was overly worried as usual. She seemed pretty happy. I was sooo glad thing turned out well, even my first time making spanakopita turned out quite tasty.
I went to a friend's fellowship tonight. I have always want to go to a different fellowship or church to see how things in other place is. My friend's church is extremely closed to my place. It is almost very tempting to switch church. The fellowship is very different than what I used to. First, it is a Cantonese fellowship. Everything is in Chinese. I don't really know how to read Chinese bible. Like computer, I only know those term in English. The discussion could be a challenge. Second, the format is different. My fellowship is usually in a more cozy environment and it is more sharing and chatting. This fellowship is at a church. It is more to the point study. I guess may be because my fellowship was doing a book study so you can add more personal opinion or experience on things. When it comes to bible study, it seems to be more to the point of studying. There is not much sharing you can do. Though I did learn something, but I don't really like spending an hour on studying a passage. It was more dry than I expected. And they also have song worship before discussion started. I never did that in my fellowship. Not to mention that I don't know any Chinese worship songs, except the one and only that I heard in my friend's wedding. Somehow the Chinese worship song sound weird to me. I guess I am more used to English worship song. It sure is interesting to see how other fellowship work. I don't think I want to commit to it though. I may just drop by whenever they have interesting event instead.
Got suck back to animation again thanks to some evil people. I am always a big fan of Japanese animation. But my obsession depends on my suppliers. If no one gave me anything, my obsession would slow down and I would actually stop watching it for awhile. I was talking to another friend and apparently he is a big fan too. We were talking about the series that we watched and apparently I am a bit out of date. There are quite a bit that I haven't watched or even heard of. He said he would lend me the new Ghost in the Shell series. And then yesterday another friend actually lent it to me without me even asking. I fell back to my obsession all over again. It is very different than the movie. I think I like the movie better, but the series is not bad, except that I really really don't like the main character's uniform. I bet it is to please male fan. My favorite one is still the 
While driving to work today, I was listening to the program 
Never felt more dragged to go to church than today. I actually made up my mind to skip last night. I stayed up kind of late and there was no way I could wake up that early. But as usual, my body obeyed Muphy's Law well, and I end up opening my eyes right on time. I struggled awhile on my way to church. But even during the drive, I was still struggling whether I wanted to go. I don't know if I can go worship when my heart had burden like this. In a place where I should find joy and peace, I feel that I find more struggle than other places. A friend signed me up for worship drama. Though I was never keen on doing it, I never really say no. Now come to think about it, I don't want to get too involved. What if I won't stay? What if I find Christianity in the end is not my thing? What if I don't want to stay in this church? Having more strings attached mean it would be harder for me to leave. More I think about during my drive, the more I want to resist to go. I know that the only reason I kept on driving is that today is birthday of a friend from church and she has been very caring person. I wanted to be there for her. That is. Finally, I arrived and was actually sort of on time (only 2 minute late! it is a record!) The sermon talked about Satan always attacked your weakest point. And you will find that your weakest point is always the same. May be that is why I don't want to go to church this morning. My burden make me feel like running away. I wonder how long it will take for me to release myself from it.
Got an email yesterday that made me so mad. At first, I thought it was a spam cause I didn't recognize the name. I was about to delete it and then I realize the subject sound work related. I opened it and it really is a work related email from a new person. The reason I was mad because the person started the email with 'hey, do you know so and so' My first reaction is who the hell is this. Why on earth would someone email me saying 'hey'. I never do that except when I am closed to the person I am emailing. I would never ever email someone who I never met so rude. Not even 'hey vivian' or 'hey viv'. Though if that person called me viv, I probably would still be a bit upset cause I don't really like people I don't know well called me viv. I once was in a teleconference with a manager that I met for the first time. And when he said viv can do this, I looked a bit annoyed and shocked. My manager who was in the same meeting laughed when we walked out the room. Now it is even worse. Aiii.. young people these days, so rude. No respect!
First day back from vacation always suck. I haven't woke up this early for so long. My body still felt so dead after a whole hour of struggling to get up. Taking shower definitely is no help. Coffee doesn't do it usual magic either. I was still as dead as I could be when I arrived later than my usual lateness. I expect my manager expect that anyway. It is sort of like a jet lag. You can't really expect your employee to work full speed the first day that they got back from vacation. Problem though is when I stepped into the office, my manager told me my VP wanted to see me. What on earth can the VP want to see me? Can't be because of my lateness (Well, a lot of people come in even later than me :P) Apparently he wanted to discuss the stock option with me. Apparently I was the only one in development haven't heard about mine yet. I finally found out how much my junk paper worth if the deal close at this certain date and if Mars aligned with Uranus at this precise hour and blah blah blah. Anyway, you got my point. I am not exactly excited or upset. Well, I sure hope for more so I could really retire or sit on my ass for a little while longer. But nope, I still need to work for my living. And living in Canada, that mean whatever extra money you may get your hand on, government will have their hand on it as well. Apparently this stupid stock option will be considered as taxable income. So no matter how small chunk of money I already getting, government wanted to take some of it as well. Now I could choose to use that money anyway (cause then I could totally use some extra cash) and let government took their share (errrrr!) or pretend this extra money never exist and put it all in RRSP (my new tooooy!!!! errrr!!!)
I finally met my crazy neighbour last night. Yes, the one who complained about how much noise I was making the second day I got back from my vacation. It was closed to midnight and I was reading on my bed. I figured I should call it a night and got ready to sleep. When I was washing my face, I heard this banging noise from my neighbor. I got very upset cause it definitely was late and who on earth still try to hang something on the wall for so late at night. Then, I realize, it better not be my crazy neighbour now complained about me washing my face. If that was the case, there is really nothing I could do to make the pipe quiet. I then heard some noise out there and suddenly someone knock on my door. I saw a lady standing outside. I figured that must be my crazy neighbor and I knew I want to confront her cause seriously, I didn't do a thing last hour except sit on my bed and read. I opened the door and there she was. She said she lived downstairs and could I turn off my TV/radio. I told her I had nothing on last hour and I was basically reading. And half of my place was dark too and I was kind of obvious that I was getting ready to go to bed. She looked surprised and said she thought it would be me. I told I didn't know who it would be but definitely not me. I also asked if she was the one who slipped the paper under my door and explained that couldn't be me because I just got back from vacation back then. She told me she was going to call the strata tomorrow but figured have a talk with me first. I was glad she did. At least save me the trouble to talk to strata. And I sure was glad I decided to do some reading last night then I could really prove that the noise wasn't from me at all. Now the question is who would it be. If the noise is from my floor, no way I couldn't hear it (cause there was some concrete between floor and only wood between wall). May be it was her next door neighbor. My next question is, wonder if I should complain about my upstairs neighbor, he/she is definitely turning on the radio/TV louder and louder. If I didn't turn on my TV, I could totally hear what is going on up there. Problem is that he/she usually do it at normal awake hour. I guess I don't really have point to complain. Just very annoying.
Finally my last day of vacation will soon be over. I know a lot of people are jealous of my lazy ass week. I don't know how I am going to wake up on time tomorrow. I even had hard time waking up for church today (and I was so proud of myself! I was only 10 minute late!). I had never woke up before 11am last few days. Yesterday was the worse. I just woke up when a friend called me at 1pm :P I really like my pigging days. After this week, I came into a conclusion that I am so ready for retirement. All I need is a big chunk of money. I actually did get most of my stuff done last week, except the blood test which I could drop by a clinic anytime next week. I even have people over at my place for dinner two nights in a row. Next time, I don't think I would clean up before they came. It is such a waste of effort. I spent a day before and a day after to clean up (well, more like half a day, my days have been starting at 12 lately). May as well and do only one cleaning after everything. I don't know if I can deal with stress after my vacation. I was in the hope that everything will fix itself during my week away, but apparently not. Though it is a short week this week, four days still a long week consider how much need to get done. And it is 6 more weeks before I see another vacation again. I don't know if I can survive that long. I really enjoying my week of doing nothing. Why didn't I win that 40 million! Then I can sit on my ass as long as I want. Aiii..better sleep early to look less dead tomorrow. AIIIIII.......
One of the things on my to-do list this week is to see my doctor. It has been ages when I go see my family doctor and I was supposed to see him every year cause I am supposed to take my blood test every year. One reason is that I have to wait at least 2 hours to see him. He is always late for his appointment but he is really good. Another reason is that he like to criticize people. That is the problem when your family doctor actually see you grow up. He got more annoying than my parents. And today is definitely the worse. He asked if I have a boyfriend and I said no (big mistake!) He started giving me advice what to do. He criticize my hair, my clothes, my choice of exercise (well, I guess kickboxing wasn't really girly exercise) I was a bit pissed off but I know I can't yell at him. My mom was there too and she kept smirking the whole time. He said I dress too much like those 'good' girl type and it is bad (I supposed to dress I am going clubbing everyday then?). Go to Robson Street and spend like $5000 (WHAT THE!). Get an image designer and get him/her to fix you up. You have to invest in this kind of thing (I kept rolling my eyes and holding my temper) It was like the most horrible half hour I stuck in his office. I never been so mad after a doctor's appointment. By the end we walk out the door, my mom was laughing like crazy and I was soooo mad and kept swearing. I got a relationship lecture twice in a week?! What the heck! I thought my family doctor was getting better last few years in criticizing people, but apparently I was wrong! I think it is time to think about changing family doctor too! Errrrrrr!
It has been awhile since I went climbing. Last time I went may be a year ago. I don't even want to think how much I bad I climb nowaday. I was planning to go climbing with a friend tonight. She just had her lesson last week. The lesson included a free week pass and she planned to take advantage of that tonight. She needed to take her test before she can belay me. When we put on our equipment and ready to try, the instructor said she failed and she had to come back another time. We were shocked to hear that. At first she thought he was joking but he looked pretty serious. Apparently she should have put the beamer below the belay device (I don't know how to explain it better if you don't climb, just one piece of equipment should be on top of the other and now the rope kind of strangle together) and as her partner, I should be able to spot her (which I didn't cause I almost never use beamer) So she can't belay me that night. Since I passed the test long time ago, we could still stay but she is the only one who can climb. We figure we may as well both get refund and come back another day. When we went to the reception and asked for a refund, the girl was shocked to hear that. She asked what do you mean you didn't pass. We explained what we did wrong, but she seemed to be still shocked about it. The guy came over and explained and said we have to come back another day. While my friend waited for the refund, I went to change. My friend told me apparently the girl was still surprised and kept saying what is wrong with that guy. I later explain to my friend that last time I had another friend fail the test too. But the instructor let us climb for the rest of the day to practice. At the end, the instructor passed my friend. It was kind of ridiculous that this time the guy just said we can't climb anymore that night. How on earth she going to practice! Well, at least we got our money back and we went to exercise our stomach instead.
I never have a good track record of being on time. I usually would be late for at least 15 minutes, sometimes more depends where do I leave from. Also, depends on who I am meeting with. Some friends have a usual tendency to be late so I will "adjust" our meeting time accordingly. But I have been trying to be on time lately. Ever since the beginning of this year, I have been pretty much on time most of the time. I may be a bit late here there. But I have been surprising my friends most of the time. Well, until lately, I have gone back to my old habit again. Especially if I went from after work. I always try to do more work, and end up being late. Or I would try to drive faster so I could stay on time, sort of. I don't remember when is the last time I was on time for Sunday service. First I was 10 minutes late, and then more, and now just in time for the sermon part. This week was especially bad. With the clock turned back an hour this weekend, I thought for sure I will be on time. I can finally walk in from the front door instead of sneaking in from the back door every week. But NO! I actually got there even later! I smartly change my clock to the new time but didn't bother to check my alarm. So when I woke up, I was late already! I thought for a bit whether I should skip church and everything. But I figure I already wake up, I may try to see how late I was when I got there. I was like an hour late when I arrived. I was not shameless enough to walk in to sermon then. I thought about going home, but thought since I was there already, I may go to Sunday school. But I wasn't really keen on explaining everyone why I was late. Skipping everything altogether sound like a much better idea. In the end, I did go for Sunday school and I have to repeat my retared alarm story again and again. Errrr!
My vacation started now! Yes! Vacation again! Except this time I am not going anywhere. I just have some vacation days I need to use up this year. Hehehehe, I do have 23 days this year. Even though I went to east coast, I still have 13 days left. Since I piled up a tons of errands, I figured I want a break to do some stuff, like going to see my doctor for regular check up, cutting my hair, checking up my car, etc, etc. Either I do all those every Saturday for the rest of the year, or I took a week off to get it all done. I wanted a break after sitting in for my manager the week before anyway, so I took next week off. I am actually pretty excited about it. That mean I could really relax for a bit. May be catching some friends for lunch. Or do some reading (re-reading Harry Potter!!) Or just be a lazy ass and watch some TV. I really like the idea of having no plan. I felt very relax. Though I have appointments here there, but I don't feel I have to rush anything. But seem like everybody was disappointed at me saying I don't have much to do. It is like every weekend, people asked me what is my plan and lately I don't have much plan. People seem to be surprise how bored I am but I really am doing fine. After five days of torture at work, I just want to relax a bit on the weekend. I may meet up some friends for dinner, but I don't want to plan out everyday to make sure I won't be sitting at home. In fact, I kind of like sitting at home these days. Guess I am a bit tired from work. I totally deserve this vacation!
I was never scared of dentist when I was a kid. Even though it was never pleasant experience, going to one won't make me scream and cry. But recently, I have been trying to avoid to go to see my dentist. I had been kind of frustrated with my dentist. Last time when I went to have my teeth clean, my dentist sent me off to this hygienist instead of doing it herself. And that hygienist really likes to chat. I mean while I was sitting there with a mouth full of equipment that he put there, he kept asking me question. It is not even a yes/no question that I could just make noise to answer. He expected me to do a real conversation! What the! He kept saying I should wear braces cause my front teeth is a bit out too much. I kept mumbling that I was afraid of the pain. Seeing how much my brother suffered during that two years of wearing braces, I am a bit too old to go thru that. And I am a bit too old to wear braces. It is a teenage thing. After that, you look a bit too dorky. I got really annoyed at the end when he kept saying I should do it. And last time when my dentist did my filling. It took soooo long. I was sitting there for two hours. I must be allergic to the drug she used cause I kept wanting to throw up. Or may be I just sat too long without moving my head. I have to constrain myself a lot to not kick her. And she did a poor job too. For a whole month, I felt pain in my teeth everytime when I ate food that is cold. After that, I really hate going back anymore. But I think my teeth is due for cleaning. I guess I will look for the other dentist that my friend suggested.
A friend called me the other day and told me she lost internet connection for no reason. Since I was free after work today, I gave her a call and see if she still wanted me to go over and take a look. I already told her I was never good at fixing computer and most likely, I would go over and "certify" her computer's death. Apparently her boyfriend still hasn't fixed the problem after two day of struggling. So I went over, had my free dinner, and then up to her room and diagnose her computer. 
I sometimes consider myself lucky that my family decided to move to Vancouver. Or else I am pretty sure I will grow up quite a different person. I probably will never take up computer science. Another big part is I don't have to deal with relatives. Most of my relatives are in Hong Kong and since I am never keen on going back, I almost never see them (except that last couple years I have various reason that I have to go back). It is not like I don't like them, but there are always conflict between them. Since things became a bit complicated between them now, you have to be very careful what to say. It was easier back then cause my family was all in Vancouver. We ain't involved in any conflict and we always are the innocent bystander. Not until my brother moved back to Hong Kong, we began to be more involved with my relatives. My brother already knew things were easier in Vancouver cause he only needs to answer to my mom. In Hong Kong, he has to answer to everyone. Living with my aunt is definitely harder than living with my parents. Parents can tolerate you in ways that no other people can (well, may be your spouse) but to relative, you are just another stranger living under the same roof. Since my brother always stay out late for work, my aunt wasn't particular happy with him disturbing her sleep. Things became edgy between them and in the end my aunt asked my brother to move. It took my brother awhile to look for a place too. During that period, things ain't that great between them. My brother started getting upset and hurt. I understood my aunt not happy about her life getting disturbed, but I also felt hurt that my brother got kicked out. It has been hard for him to move back all by himself. And now my relatives abandoned him too. Well, at least he finally found a place and moving there real soon. Things should definitely get better after that.
I was soooo closed to getting a pair of ticket for tonight's game. A coworker of mine was selling his. The minute I saw that email, I thought about calling my dad, but figure I would get my hand on it first and ran downstairs. I arrived at his desk the same time as another coworker. Well, may be a couple seconds earlier. Then things got a bit embarrassing cause we both don't want to be nasty and trying to be polite. But we both wanted it. So we played a round of paper rock scissor and I LOST! I couldn't believe it. I LOST! I should be mean and said I was there 2 seconds earlier and took the ticket. Why do I even try to be fair! Pretending to be nice! Should have just elbow her out of the way and grab the ticket! (actually, I was closer to the ticket! Urgh!) And I should have known I suck at paper rock scissor. My brother can always tell what I am going to do. I should have said best out of 3 rounds. Why do I finish it in one round! And why do I do paper! What on earth am I thinking! Is rock not good for me? Huh?! Next time, I definitely would run to my coworker's desk immediately. Or even should have called right at the moment I saw the email. The game won't even show on TV, except on paid per view. Well, I guess that just mean I can save money tonight. Besides, another friend already told me she may able to get me some ticket later this season since her friend may want to sell some of his. I guess I could always wait.
We talked about prayers today in Sunday school. I think it helped a lot cause I often wonder if I should pray to ask for something. I meant God has a plan for me and he know exactly what I need. So when I pray for something, I am not even sure I meant to have it. But if I end up saying, please let me have that, but if I shouldn't have it, then help me understand. I found that is kind of a weird prayer cause I basically said nothing: "Please let me have it, but if you don't want to, that is okay too." And even if I pray for something and it happened the same way I asked for, I wasn't sure if it was because of my prayer or it was the way God intended anyway. I also read somewhere online that it is not right to pray your wish list. God is not Santa Claus. You have to pray very strategically (geez...no one ever told me this kind of thing.....I should have bought that book "Prayer for Dummies"). If it is asking for something abstract, like health for my friends or safety for my brother, I find it easier to say in my prayer. But if I ask for something more concrete, like a car, then I felt like I am talking to Santa. But my pastor said that he asked God for things all the times. He even joked around with God. All prayers will be answered though God may answer with yes, no, yes but my way, or yes but later. He also mentioned that there is a praying method called the 
"Fly airplane" is Cantonese slang meaning bailing out on someone. And that is exactly what I did to a friend today. Originally, my friend and I were planning to go to apple festival together today. And after that we would come back to my place to make apple pie (mmm...pie) But I need to pick up birthday present before that since we were meeting the birthday boy that night for dinner. I told my other friends that I would do that last week while they were away but I was sick for 2 days and busy all others. So the pressure is on. I have to get something before dinner or I will for sure be killed on the dinner table. I don't want my head to be presented as birthday present. And I am sure his wife won't like to put that their place very much. Another hard thing is my friend has no hobby at all. We think the only thing he really like is his wife. There were tons of times we want to just wrap her up and give it to him as gift. So shopping for him is definitely a challenge. I don't even know which store to go. I think boring person shouldn't allow to have birthday. Or at the very least, no birthday present allowed to save his friend's brain cells (especially when there is not much to start with already!) In the desperation of finding a birthday present, I have to bail out on my friend. I text messaged her and told her I couldn't make it and wonder if she wanted to go the next day instead. But I haven't heard back from her after that (we were chatting a bit thru text messaging earlier but this was the last message) so I was kind of scared she was pretty upset. I knew my time would be tight to go to apple festival and to bake pie and to go to dinner right after. And I kind of don't want to just pick up some crap for my friend. I haven't heard from her the whole night. I felt a bit uneasy not sure what happen. How pissed was she? I know I probably won't be too happy if I made plan with a friend and she bail out last minute. When I got home, I saw her online. Apparently she went to the apple festival by herself. She sounded fine and she did pick up something. She just was going to text message me from the festival but didn't send it. I felt a bit relieved. I know I let my imagination blow thing out of proportion again. But I guess I was guilty about bailing on my friend make me worrisome. I definitely should do better time management next time before I commit to a friend's plan.
It is always interesting how things come together. I just had a discussion with another friend last night about peace. And today, we had this discussion in fellowship. I think the hardest part is to have peace with people. When some strangers did you wrong, you may hold grudge for a short while and then let go of it. When someone you close to did that, you may never talk to the person ever. People who used to be friends, do you or do you not let go of them? I don't really know the answer myself. I have been fluctuated between both. Sometimes I rather we don't ever see each other again and sometimes I would try to make an effort to maintain our friendship. I am not even sure if it really worthwhile. I know friendship require maintenance, but it always come from my heart. Unlike now I have to pull myself together to try. I don't even know how I call such person a friend when I don't trust the person. When I emotionally block out this person and I evaluate every word the person said, how much friendship is there really? I know I am back to same circle now. I seem to always come back to this dead end. May be the bad dream bring it all back. And I don't know how to deal with our mutual friends. When everybody know you two were friends, what would other think when you no longer friend with the other person? Does it mean only one of us stay in the group? Or should I explain to everyone? Sometimes I wonder am I the only one struggling it. Would the other person having the same struggle? If that is the case, may be I should put our minds at peace by leaving the group.
There is a Chinese saying that there is no sworn enemy in the world of business. I always find Chinese are so wise because that is so true. Someone sent an email several years ago on April's Fool saying that my company got acquired by our biggest competitor. There were quite a bit of reaction on that and in the end, everyone found out it was just a joke. Well, well, well, it wasn't a joke anymore. My company and our biggest competitor announced that they were planning to merge together. I think the news came in as a bit a shock to all of us, employee included. I don't know if I should feel "excited" or upset. I actually felt neither. My first reaction is whether I would still have my job. Seeing how last acquisition in my company worked, it probably took quite awhile to merge the two development teams together. So I guess I would still have my job for the next while. Next thought is, all my junk paper, mm..I meant my precious stock option, may worth something now. We still don't know how much it worth cause there is still legal issue to due with before the transaction closes. I was hoping that I could pay off part of my mortgage (well, I know I am being hopeful, but one could only hope). I read some info provided for us and apparently if your position is no longer required in result of the merge, you will be given a big compensation. If you are required to demote or given less responsibility than your current position, you can choose to not accept and quit and still got tons of money. After knowing that big, it actually makes me feel more calm. So I figured worse come to worse, I got my junk paper traded into cold hard cash. And then I will get more from getting laid off. That mean I could sit around and do nothing and have tons of cash for a short while. Wahahahahaha!!! (I know, I should go to bed now)
I once did a psychological test: do you prefer to die of hunger or cold? My instant response is hunger. I know I really really really hate being cold and suffering thru that before I die is definitely a torture. Having said that, I have been taking cold water shower last week cause the boiler in my place broke down. The day I came back from my vacation, I found out that the water in my place was not hot enough for a shower. But I waited and waited and waited until I was about to pass out on my couch and then I took a luke warm shower. It felt nasty. Then the situation got worse and worse. I finally didn't even have any slightly warm water. I had to shower under icy cold water for a week now. I wondered if it was just me or it affected my neighbours too cause no way no one complained after a whole week of no hot water. At first I suspect may be I forgot to pay my strata fee and that is what they punished me for. I checked and I did pay last month. So now I suspect it may be my neighbour who complained about the noise I made and shut off my hot water. If I found out he/she did that, I will sue him/her till death!!!!! I finally gave up and called property management yesterday. Apparently, the boiler broke down while I was on vacation (that mean two freaking weeks without hot water!!! I should consider myself lucky then) and they were waiting for the builder to fix it. The builder came and said it was missing a part and needed to put in an order. I asked when can it be fixed then. He said he was about to call and see if the part arrived yet. And even if he found another contractor to fix it, the contractor still needed that part anyway. In another word, he had absolutely no idea!!!! I didn't know how my neighbours survived two weeks without hot water. It has been very cold lately in Vancouver and I am absolutely not happy with cold water shower, even in hot summer days. My body didn't like it either. It was breaking apart. Errrr....FIX IT!!!!
Like most of my trip, food is the top priority. Here are the places I remember I went.
Thought I almost never run into my neighbours, I got the most "pleasant" gift from my neighbours last night. I went home, opened my door as usual, and saw a paper slipped under my door. My neighbour has left me a note. 
Just when you thought you let go of something and it is all in the past now, it came back and haunt you in your dream. People said dreaming is your subconscious. I wonder if that mean that I never really learn to forgive and forget the whole incident. The piece of memory surfaced in my dream one night. I re-lived the whole incident, the lies, the betrayal. I woke up feeling all painful and hurt and bitter. I feel like I went thru everything again. I thought I put everything behind me. If I still felt like that after my dream, may be I never let go of anything. I just hide it under my consciousness. So during the day, I can't feel a thing about it anymore. I emotionally block that out. But subconsciously, the scar would always be there. It just wait for me being vulnerable and unprepared and haunted me again. I wonder if I would ever learn to forgive...truly forgive. May be my heart is harden and I would never able to. Or until I forget then I would forgive. My mind always selectively forget things. May be I could forget that incident somehow. But if I keep thinking about it from time to time, I think that piece of memory will always stick with me. Why didn't it attack me when I slept! When I thought I was over it! Urgh!
One of the biggest accomplishment I did on the trip was that I finished reading the last two Harry Potter books (hehe..yes, the dictionary size one) I brought along the book 5 hoping to finish reading it. I got it years ago but never finished reading it. Enough people spoiled the surprise for me made me not wanting to finish it. A friend worked that casually into a conversation and made me so mad that I can't even refuse to listen. Another friend used the surprise as password for her team and when she got yelled at by her team member, she told me the story and again, I just can't even shut her up (would her rice tix please smack her now if she is laughing hard?) Since usually I could read quite a bit on my trip (except the Lord of the Ring book which I think is hopeless to finish) I decided to give it another chance and brought it along. Once I started in it, I found that I can't stop. Though a lot of people said Harry Potter became very annoying into book 5, I can see so much of him in me. I could just be as annoying, sensitive, defensive and bad temper as him. Only difference is he would snap whenever, but I would usually control more instead of yelling at everybody. Part of the reason I was so lack of sleep is because I was reading the book late at night. When I finally put down book 5, I really want to start the latest book. I knew it would be insane to bring two dictionary size books with me, but it is not like I didn't bring tons of books with me on my vacation before. I got all the first 4 Harry Potter books during my trip in England. I was reading like crazy one after another. And, since I happen to find a Chapters in Toronto, I may as well pick up the next one. After reading everything in two days, I felt a sense of loss. I don't know what I could do next. My friend said we are suffering the withdrawal. I know I want to watch the movie again cause I want to know who play some of the characters. My friend re-read all the other books again. I was searching online for more info on the upcoming movie and finding out the cast. I also searched for rumour about the next book in the hope will give me some hint what to expect next. Errr...how much longer I need to wait for the next book?! :(
Finally came back from Toronto. It was kind of last minute that I decided to do this trip but it was not too bad. As usual, I didn't do much planning before my trip. I don't have much time to do any preparation. Only thing I could do is to pick up a Lonely Planet from the library the day I am flying out and read it on the plane. It was not a bad trip. Despite a lot of people expect me and my friend kill off each other on the trip, we both survive :P I went to Quebec city, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto. As expected, Toronto bored me to death. I ended up going shopping and did a lot of reading. Montreal, I found it okay, as another friend said, it is a French version of Toronto. I liked Quebec city and Ottawa the best. Here are some highlight of the trip:
Electricity is one thing that you don't realize how much you rely on it until you don't have it. A friend was complaining there was thunder over at her place and electricity was out for awhile. That reminds me one morning I woke up and electricity was out in my building. At least it is good that it was in the morning and I could still see what I was doing. Sitting at home and having nothing to do (no TV, no radio, no internet, no food, no nothing!!!) I decided to go out instead. I first had to take a cold shower and fix myself up in the dark (well, not that dark) Since I wasn't sure if I could get my car out (because of the garage door) I brought my backpack to bring a bunch of stuff in case I have to take a bus to get away from this lack of electricity area. For some reason I could still turn on my alarm (they must be using their own power source??!!) The hallway had very dim light and I had to walk very slow. When I got to the stairwell, I decided to turn back to get extra light source. The stairwell has absolutely no light at all, not even a backup one. And I wasn't ready to fall on the stairs in the dark. Good that my mom planned ahead and forced me to have a flash light at home. So I went back to grab my flash light and started my adventure again: to wander around my building in the dark. I finally got downstairs onto the first floor. Now I started worried that I can't get back into the building because the main gate used a key card to open. Good that again it used a separate power source. (I actually hold the door opened and tried the scanner and see if I heard a "beep" sound) Now the most exciting part, whether I could actually get my car out. When I walked down to the garage and saw all the gates actually up, I was sooooo happy!!! I quickly got to my car and ran away from this place!
A friend talked about definition of a nice person in her blog several days ago. I actually never gave deep thought on it until then. I would normally consider myself a nice person. Why wouldn't I be? I care about my friends. I am friendly (well, most of the time anyway) and pleasant (when I am not tortured at work) But like my friend said, does that really make me a nice person? When I am nice to my friend, do I really not expecting anything in return? Or I am nice to them because I want them to like me? If that is the case, am I just being selfish? I used to think that I could I put more effort into a friendship and don't expect the other person to do the same. I understood you can't really tally who is giving more in a friendship and I am just doing what I want to do: to care for my friends. Not until later when I need my friend 's help and got rejected, then I know I was expecting something more. It was never a one way. Though I understand my friend is that kind of person, I can't forgive my friend for being so selfish and not helpful. If I am as nice as I think I am, I shouldn't expect my friend to help me in return. If I do expect something from my friends, then all this times am I really just keeping tab with my friends so they can return favor in future?
Well, everybody knows anyway, it is my birthday today. A friend asked me if I am happy for my birthday. I really don't know how to answer. I am not excited like a kid anymore when I have my birthday. It is actually kind of sad to grow old (and people around you keep reminding you indeed are old) But I sure am happy to have so many friends with me on my birthday. For me, birthday becomes an excuse for my friends to gather for dinner and a reminder how much I already have. I surely feel blessed to have so many friends. There is no crazy partying and heavy drinking this year. I just want a small and cozy gathering with my friends. When one of my friend asked where to eat, I said I don't even mind to eat at his place. I just want to chat with my friends in a relaxed environment. His wife end up making us dinner (she never cooked for us before so we were risking our lives......hehehehe) and end up cutting her finger. And I got a lot of calls and text messages from friends today. What make me happiest is my brother called tonight. I was sort of expecting him call me last night cause he usually called at mid-night to wish my happy birthday and make sure I am safe and not drunk (that is only because he got drunk on all his birthdays and thought that I would do the same thing!...soooo not!) But I am still very happy to hear from him and we chatted for a bit. Things hasn't been very smooth for him lately in HK but I know he will get thru. And thanks to my best friend, most of my birthday present are wine related. I got a wine opener, a set of crystal wine glasses and a wine stopper. I think she really helped strengthen my alcoholics image. Hehehe..I think I really need to think of a way to change my image.
A friend and I are going to Montreal next week to meet up with another friend and then 3 of us will go to Quebec city together for a weekend. Since I never traveled with these friends before, I tried to be more organize. I am scared they will kill me. My friends who always travel with me know how "off" I can be on vacation. Last time when I went visit my friend in England, she gave me her cell phone to find me. And everytime she called, I was lost. I sort of know where I need to go, and then I let myself wander off. It is all part of travel experience. Besides, I am on vacation. I don't really need to turn on my brain. I could take out my map and look for my way, but I am not in a hurry, I may as well just enjoy wherever my legs take me. I already booked the train and the accommodation to stayed in Quebec. I don't know how dynamic they could be. I was almost sure they would kill me if we find accommodation after we got off the train. In order to stay alive, I would rather do some more work before my precious holiday. I figure I could leave the dynamic part later in my trip. Personally I like finding a place to stay when I arrived, so I can know what area I am staying in, how clean the place is, and what sort of people staying there. But oh well, it could be for a change. The friend traveling with me worried about me being stressed out on planning cause she knew I usually don't plan much. My most organized planning is done on plane. I will quickly flip thru where I should go and then ignore it till I got off and found a tourist centre. I will decide after I arrived. Usually it was because I worked till the last min before I leave so I don't have much time before my trip to plan. My ex-traveling buddy used to do all the planning cause playing is always top priority for her. She could do all the planning and I just brought my body over to the place and go wherever she wanted to go (and I usually don't care much anyway) Now that she is all married and not available, I guess I have to find time to slack and do some planning myself :(
Finally attended last wedding of the year. My wallet can finally rest till next year (may be the year after cause I haven't heard anyone planning to get married next year yet..wheeeeee!!) This wedding is actually a bit different than the rest I went this year. First, it is not Chinese. So everything is a bit different. This is a wedding I was the only Asian in church till the groom's family came. I almost felt a bit uneasy and wasn't sure I went to the right wedding. But I did see his picture on the reception table. Though it is like the 3rd time I heard the passage 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy...) I still felt very touched in this wedding. This is actually the second wedding I want to cry. Everything is very simple, but I can see my friend is very happy. And I am really happy for him. The dinner is a buffet style. It is more quiet compared to the rowdiness in Chinese wedding. Chinese wedding is all about games and noise. Western wedding seem more loving and warmth. I really like his groommen's speech. It is very touching (though I totally disagree, the groom is so not trustworthy, dependable, loving, caring person!!! :P) Though I didn't fool around a lot, I like it being simple and touching.
Had a discussion tonight at fellowship about struggle. One of my struggle is scared to be judged. I am pretty sure that a lot of my behavior doesn't qualify as Christian-like. I felt defensive if someone told me what I did wrong. I would think, "Hey, you are no better than me, don't point your finger at me, mind your own business". A friend once told me I would accept other pointing at my wrong doing if I respect the person and trust the person's opinion. If a random stranger walked up to me and told me what I did wrong as Christian, I would totally feel offended. I felt my friend's church is more conservative and while helping him out at his wedding, I always wonder what do they think of me? I almost regret telling them that I go to church cause they may have certain standard to judge me? If they think I am non-Christian, may be they have another standard. That is another thing I told my friend I don't like about our discussion. Cause there are too many times we said we Christian don't do that, whereas non-Christian would do that. I know most of the times Christians don't think they are better, in fact they just acknowledge the fact that they are sinners as well. But the way we talk we sound like we take pride and think that we are better. But partly may be because I feel offended as if they are pointing finger at me. We Christian don't drink (well, I still do...) We Christian don't go party (well, I don't go often, but I don't mind...) May be because I felt guilty about those and feel offended when someone brought that up. A friend remind me, in the end, everything is between me and God, not from others.
We could get stood up by boyfriend, girlfriend, date, friends, doctor, acupuncturist (in my case). How often your parents will bail out on you? I was planning to be a good daughter and go to Toronto with them. But I also want to go to Montreal to visit a friend. So I decided I will leave earlier to visit my friend, then go to Toronto to meet up with my parents. They were very excited cause my mom has been complaining that I haven't traveled with them for so many years. We even worked out the detail when to meet up last night. So I went and confirmed my vacation and detail of the plan today. I even checked my flight and train connection. I was so excited that I didn't do much work at all today. I was busy checking schedule, emailing my friend to confirm detail, bugging my manager for more vacation. In the end, I had it all work out and just waiting for my parents to confirm on their end before I booked my ticket. When I called my mom at home, she told me she can't go anymore!!! I was so shocked to hear that. It was almost not a problem for her to take that vacation since she worked part time only these days. And my dad already had that week off. It is almost perfect plan. Except my mom said her manager asked her to work that week and she said yes. I was ...!!!! How could she bail out on me like this!!! For once I wanted to be good daughter and this is what I got!!! I can't even change my vacation cause if I don't take that week, I won't have anything till end of October and it would be too cold to go anywhere. After making fun of my friend who got ditched by her mom on Mother's Day for sooo long, I can't believe same faith happened on me.
Sometimes I really don't know how to behave as a Christian. Should I just don't do anything fun? Cause they may be sinful? A friend from church watched the movie 
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
I was away the weekend when Katrina hit New Orlean. I vaguely know the impact was huge and thousands of people died, but somehow, I can't feel anything. I felt so distant about the whole incident. Unlike the tsunami happened in Asia last year, I don't even want to read the news about it. Last time I was watching CNN the whole time to find out more details, but this time, I didn't pay attention much even when it showed on TV. I don't understand why I am so cold hearted. May be because it was US. It was supposed to be economically stable enough to take care of themselves. US was the country who gave billions dollar to Asia last year for tsunami. Why would they need other country's help for some small flood? I talked to some friends and they sort of feel the same way. If it happen in some third world country, we would feel more passionate about the situation, but US, nah. Come to think about it, I don't feel much when I heard about war in Iraq too. I am getting used to people dying over there. I know it is a bad thing but I don't know how to tell myself to feel. I am scared may be one day someone die in front of me and I wouldn't care at all. I wonder would that day ever come.
Out of town for two weekends in a row made my house a mess. My unpacked luggage is lying everywhere. So I decided to deny my friend's invitation to go camping this weekend and cleaned up my house instead. Besides, I had a wedding to go to on Monday anyway. I may as well take some time to rest. When a friend from church invited the girls to stay over at her place last night, I wasn't very keen cause I kind of miss my bed from the previous weekend. And I was kind of sick of packing again anyway so I decided to just go hang out and go home afterward. But poor me, in the end got cornered and forced to stay overnight unprepared, no sleeping bag, no change of clothes, no nothing. Well, only thing I really need is to take off my contact lens and my friend did have solution to spare me. And she lent me her sleeping bag and pajama. So I end up camping in her house. It wasn't too bad cause I would just go home to fix up myself the next day. Four of us chatted till very late. I don't even know what time it was when I passed out. I always enjoy a good conversation and it sure was fun, despite the last min camping experience.
It was indeed another bad day at work for me. A hotfix was supposed to release Monday and it kept slipping and slipping and finally yesterday QA found out that it didn't install on one of the setup at all. I was so frustrated when I heard that. How could they find this out right before we were going to release? But then, the more urgent thing was to fix up the problem. So I found a quick solution last night and hope that it would work fine this morning. But nope, it still didn't install. Since one of the more annoying customers was waiting on this hotfix, support gave us extra pressure on this. But there was only so fast I could work. Good that support didn't bug me, but went bug my manager (and he was not happy at all getting a call every 15 minutes asking for an update, my update was, I am still working on it!!!) I am not very familiar with that part of code and since we are so lack of documentation, it was even harder for me to work on it. I finally got a solution after lunch. So I immediately told release engineer to do a build (which take another freaking 3 hours) I was keeping my finger crossed that it would work. But, but, strike 3 for me! It still didn't work. I was so mad and was so upset. I didn't understand how it would not work. I clearly checked everything carefully. I couldn't test it because it would take me awhile to set up to test. And I didn't even know how to set up. But I was pretty sure I checked my logic correctly. I so wanted to just leave the mess and never come back. Finally, I found a way to let me test the changes. I started playing around and testing which part of my changes failed. In the end, I found out that the installer couldn't detect what type of installation it is and that is why it failed. But...but...that part of code has been around forever and it SHOULD work. So I started staring at the code and suddenly, something jumped out. Someone had a typo in the code. The way we checked the type of set up the installation was to open up a configuration file and looked for the word "cluster". But the code check if we can find the word "cluser". It is missing a "T"! I couldn't believe no one ever use that part of the code!!! It has been there for ages. I couldn't believe I had such bad luck!!
I ran into my friend while driving to work today. It was very unusual for me to run into people like that. I was driving along Marine Drive at my usual time to go to work (well, that mean I was late again) When I passed Fraser, I saw my friend waiting beside a bus station. I was msning with my friend last night and she said she needed to go to work early. I thought, geez, going to work after 10 was so not early. So I called my friend to tease her about it. She answered and said she just had a car accident and if it was okay for me to drive her to work. I was like..no wonder she was waiting at a bus stop that was not closed to her usual route. Apparently when she was parking her car at work, she was absent minded and stepped on the wrong pedal. Instead of backing up, she went straight ahead and fell down a slope in front of her and crashed into an unused railway. She is physically fine, just a bit startled. But her front bumper fell out. It almost sound like she was trying to suicide but not very successful. Since she was okay, I started laughing at her. She even needed to call a cop cause her car may stuck and the tow truck won't able to get her car out. Of course I run late at work. My manager teased me about it. I have to explain but it almost sound like I made this story up. But it is true! My friend did stupid enough to do that!
After my long weekend, I finally got back to work today. When I run into my coworker, first thing he said was, "wiw, you look like you got some sun this weekend." I was like, "no way, you serious? A@#*$(@#*%)@#*" Given that I already a bit dark to start with, I am sure I must be burnt now. My coworker said, "no no no, it was good, you look healthy." I almost start crying. I know I probably would catch some sun on the weekend, but I already extra careful and pile on sunscreen like crazy. I thought I didn't get that dark. Don't get me wrong. I love having tanned skin. But I also have horrible experience attending wedding and I am the darkest asian girl. I look like Philipino at my friend's wedding. I didn't know I was that dark until I stood next to a group of "white" asian girls. While putting on make up make the other girls look extra white, I look like a mossed chocolate. All my friends laughed after looking at the pictures. They said I definitely look like a slave. It was a tramatized experience. I tried to not repeat it again. This year, I thought I was pretty good. Since I sprained my ankle, I can't play any tournament. So I wasn't in the sun that long most of the time. I guess I am an easy to get tanned person. May be I should buy those asian visor to block the sun. Or carry an umbrella. Errrrrr....
