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Meditations on the new office

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Mon. January 5, 2009

I think my mind is wanting to write one of those weird train of thought entries. Please bear with me.

Today was my first day back at work, which was something of a welcome relief from all of the vacation time. Yeah, does that make me an oddball? Likely, but it’s been established that a whole lot of you reading this are oddballs in the same way, so…there. Anyway, when I came in, I was surprised at just how open concept the place was. Without the cubicle walls, I could see that the office was still in such disarray. It wasn’t even until midday that out Internet connections were up and running. No matter. Hiccups like these are almost expected during such a move, yes? My desk is pretty nice. It’s kind of prone to minor foot traffic, but the possibilities for social interaction are higher. God, what a relief that is. In our previous place I was relatively removed from the group just due to how desks were positioned. There were many moments I felt isolated. My personality type could handle it but it was still kind of hard. Our team’s area has one of those stereotypical views of Toronto. Just outside of the window we have a good view of the tower. Seriously, the view is really how you’d imagine it to be.

So, anyway, just to kill some time, a group of us went out for lunch on King St. We ended up eating at a gourmet burrito place. It tasted pretty fresh. The beans were certainly potent. I was feeling them well into the afternoon. Yuuuup. There really was a lot of discussion about where to go for lunch because this move seemed to open up a whole new world of possiblities. See, oddly, at our old place it’s not even like we were that far from King. Most of our focus though was along Queen and up to Chinatown and Kensington. King was still some region that was ever so slightly out of range. Does that make sense?

How can I compare it?

Well, a good comparison I can think of right now (if you’ll allow me to indulge my inner gamer) is to compare it to one of those classic Super Nintendo RPGs. Think: Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger. It’s like, at the start you’re limited to exploring certain areas. You get to know those areas well and have probably explored the nooks and crannies for hidden treasures–maybe gold, potions, or OOH new equipment. After a while though, there’s nothing new. You know of other areas but some mysterious force blocks you from really going there. Then, after some plot points are advanced, you end up moving to a new area and previously inaccessible places once shrouded in fog become available. Sure, the new areas have more expensive stuff, but at that point you’ve probably levelled up a bit.

I swear, all of this makes absolute sense to me! I actually have RPGs on my mind because I recently got a copy of the re-release of Chrono Trigger for my Nintendo DS. I’ve been playing through it over the Christmas break. It’s a satisfying game. I remember spending so many hours playing it in high school. Playing it now on the DS really bring back memories. Very nostalgic, you know?

As far as gaming soundtracks go, Chrono Trigger is really good, isn’t it? It’s up there with some Final Fantasy OSTs. Out of curiosity, I went to CDJapan to see if the had any CT Soundtrack CDs. I was looking for an arranged symphonic version to the music. I’m not interested in the bloop bloop versions I hear in the game–I want to hear real instruments, right? Well, I spotted the CD I wanted. It’s definitely under consideration. I trust CDJapan; I’ve actually ordered from them in the past. The last few times I’ve ordered form them were for some Seramyu DVDs from Japan. Yeah, no shit. Marina Kuroki took the lead role when she was 12 years old. How young! By the time the plays ended their run, she was 16. She really grew into her role.

OK so, enough wandering. Time to do some backtracking. Hmm…

Marina–>CDJapan–>Chrono Trigger–>RPGs–>King St.–>burritos–>lunch–>the new office.

Yes. The new office. It’s a comfortable place, for sure. I’m sure I’ll get used to the new nuances as time passes. I mean, it sure beats a place where I’ve breathed in gases from an exploded sewage pipe.

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Hot pot and happy hour

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Tue. December 30, 2008

You know, Kyleen is always telling me that I need to get out and do more fun stuff. I can see why people have to tell me to do so flat out. Some days I’m so busy worrying about responsible stuff like the mortgage, the condo, etc. that I sometimes forget that I’m only a 27-year-old man: I’ve got youth on my side. I need to get out more. So, when days like yesterday happen, I feel like I’m finally finding a bit of balance that’s so sorely needed in my life.

Well, I left work a few hours early yesterday to make it north of the city. I met Yuk Chen and Raien at a karaoke place. I think it took me a while to get into the groove of things but once I got into it I feel like I really let loose. Now, I’m not claiming to be the best singer out there, but I’m aware I’ve got some grasp of pitch, tone, and timing in my limited range. I feel like one of my saving graces is that I’m familiar with a good library of tunes in my mind. I found that last night the thing that gave me the most trouble was actually singing songs I was familiar with but were actually out of my range. I was stuck trying to figure out whether to go an octave higher or lower, and seeing if I could reach without losing control. Anyway, Raien knows a great deal of songs as well and it was fun dueting with her. Yuk Chen was there more to cheer us on, though I did get her to sing background on one or two songs. I felt fortunate to have Hui join in midway through the session, especially since he made the trek to Markham all the way from Mississauga. He too has a good library in his head which is a great tool. By the end of our 3 hour session, my voice was totally worn out. Despite that, I was kind of on a high. It’s not often I get the chance to rock out like that with friends. It’s awesome. :)

From there we met with Jenelle and Henrick for hot pot. If you recall, last year when I was at hot pot I ended up with some GI issues. Knowing that, I had a couple of people watching out for me making sure that I wasn’t eating anything horribly undercoked. So, perhaps if you’ve been following along, you may or may not know that bringing all of these people together effectively meant bringing together two separate circles of friends. In that Venn diagram, I’m the overlap–I’m the crux. I’ll be honest and say that that made me a little bit nervous. I mean, there was the chance that the groups would have little in common and the whole night would be frosty. You can imagine my relief when everyone hit it off. You know what? It helped that for a good chunk of the night I was the target for a lot of the jokes. Well, sure, why not? The girls seemed to be having a field day at my expense. That’s OK. It was obvious that it wasn’t done with malice. This is why I say that I’m blessed to have great friends. I know that people care, you know what I mean? It was during hot pot that I was given the epithet of “sweaty dragon,” though I suppose “perspiring dragon” sounds more honourable.

Well, we stayed at the hot pot place for 3 hours. I went through one plate of meat and that was pretty good. As such I went back to the meats table and heaped on more. Unfortunately, I was greedy. I was really struggling with what I had on my plate. By the end I just dumped it all into the pot. At 10 p.m. they were basically trying to get rid of us. They gave us the bill and turned off the heat. Hah!

We all left and hung out at T&T for a while, checking out the Asian goods. Yuk Chen had to leave at this point. You know, among all of the weird goods I would have purchased a couple of snacks, but I was still too full to even consider food. The girls on the other hand were craving desserts. I was just amazed that they could even think about it. I joked that we could go to Kelsey’s if they wanted dessert. I didn’t think they’d actually want to go, but go we did. They kicked us out though because it was too late. Jenelle thought to check Boston Pizza if they’d still take us, at which point she ran to check. I’ve never seen someone run so fast (on a full stomach, no less) for the purposes of dessert. Turns out that yes, BP was able to take us. The girls were so keen on dessert that they insisted all 5 of us order one of those $6 desserts each. There was some balking at the though, and rightfully so. I mean, we were still stuffed with broth and meat. I think we overrode our good senses and proceeded with the plan. Oh GOD, why in the world did we do that? I ordered an apple crisp and felt gross after eating it. Sure, it was awesome, but holy crap. The girls who were so eager before seemed to struggle the most. In the end though everyone finished.

All of that was awesomely exhausting.

Anyway, here are some pics. At the restaurant, we were again joking about the “fresh off the boat” finger poses that Jenelle mentioned last time we all ate together. Hence the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 fingers. Yeah…we really need to stop doing that. :-P Thanks go to Raien for sending me these photos. What a great way to end the year!

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Drinking the Iron Goddess of Mercy

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Thu. December 11, 2008

About two years ago, instead of ordering a usual sweet drink at Ten Ren my friends and I decided to try out one of those expensive pots of tea. We’ve seen them on the menu and usually just proceed to the slushes or milk teas because, really, who wants to spend $8-$9 on a pot of tea? I don’t know what urged us to give them a go, but we did. I’m so glad that we did. For me, doing so opened a whole new door to a realm of teas that I’m not used to.

For the longest time, my experience with tea was really limited to various brands of orange pekoe. I enjoyed it, but it was kind of plain. From going to Chinese restaurants, I was also familiar with jasmine tea. While I was at one of my co-op placement earlier this decade, I noticed that the kitchen was particularly well stocked with different kinds of tea. I used that stock as a chance to try out several other types of tea. I’m not a fan of chamomile because it kind of reminds me of dandelions and urine at the same time. Green tea is very nice–very distinct. Earl grey is awesome; the bergamot flavouring is really pleasant with a little sugar. In the past year or two I’ve been adventurous and tried out rooibos and masala chai. Roasted brown rice tea is pleasantly nutty.

See, trying all these different kinds of tea has become easy because most of these types have become widely available in grocery stores. This is due to the wide over-reaching brands adding these new tastes. It’s quite awesome. Thing is, if you want to hunt beyond that, you need to start looking beyond the grocery store shelves. And what better place to explore new teas than through Chinese culture? From a dim sum restaurant I was introduced to bo lai/pu-erh oolong tea: it’s quite dark but refreshing. I’ve had daisy tea from a restaurant in Waterloo. When I opened the teapot I was shocked to find petals and stamens. I’ve learnt to recognize that under the category “green tea” there are different types. Dragon well (longjing) green tea is a well known green tea in China, and it’s stronger than the green tea sold by Tetley.

One or two years ago I bought a bag of dragon well green tea from Ten Ren for $18. See, I went to the counter and asked for a recommendation for a green tea. The lady showed me the bag of dragon well as something of a starter tea. I guess she could sense that I wasn’t sure about spending that much. Before I bought it though, she told me about these more expensive higher quality bags of dragon well. Since I was more interested in just trying it out anyway, I decided to pass and just go for the $18 bag. It was well worth it. That’s when I knew that paying a little bit extra for good tea was something that I completely didn’t mind.

Earlier this week, I went to a Ten Ren location on Dundas and picked up a can of Ti Kuan Yin. That can be translated to “Iron Goddess of Mercy.” I’ve been wanting to get this tea for a long time now. My friend and I bought a pot at the tea house a long time ago. We were impressed with how clean it was and how it left such a pleasant aftertaste. How can I explain? It’s fragrant and after each drink you’re left with this feeling in your mouth–like there’s an aura. I know, I’m not making sense, but trust me, it’s good. Anyway, the can was $28. When I picked it up the woman pointed out a higher quality $38 box. Again, like the dragon well, I wasn’t sure if I should be paying $28 for tea so I just went for the cheaper stuff. Well, as soon as I got it home I brewed a pot and yes, I was impressed with it. My mother really enjoyed the tea as well. After dinner tonight, I had three big mugs of it, which is probably why I’m feeling kind of wired right now. If we don’t get completely tired of it by the time our can is empty, I’m considering getting the $38 box just so that I can compare the two. I mean, is the expensive on really that much higher in quality?

Anyway, if you’re willing to explore, try out a $9 pot of tea at Ten Ren. See if there’s a kind out there that you like. You might be surprised and find a new favourite–and you’ll be ahead of the curve with your hipster peeps.

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Sushi and talk radio

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Tue. December 2, 2008

I met with a friend this weekend at an all you can eat sushi place. I can remember back in the day a time when we could really get our money’s worth at these places. These restaurants could sense our approach and the managers inside would sweat from fear. Ah, but that was back then. Things are much different now. After the first round of food we were kind of agape from the apparent gluttony. I’m sure we just had this dumb look on our faces as if we were beaten and unable to move. After the second round we just gave up and asked for dessert. Shameful, I say! We ordered banana tempura and some fruit to cleanse our palates. When they brought it they also brought a deep fried pork cutlet at which our eyes just bugged out. We were shocked and trembling at the thought of having to eat it. Luckily the waitress just made a mistake–the cutlet was supposed to go to another table. Good thing–there was no way either of us could eat anymore meat.

Anyway, as we left we wanted to take a quick walk around to allow the food to work its way down into a more comfortable position. Unfortunately, it was really windy with snow and rain pelting us so we decided to head back to my car and just hang out. While we were in there, she explained to me about how she’s slowly getting into talk radio. She mentioned that she’s really enjoying listening to CBC Radio One in the morning. Well, out of curiosity I’ve been giving it a shot on my morning commutes. I mean, I’m feeling a bit fatigued from the usual Top 40 radio; a change is good.

I can totally see why CBC Radio One is actually “the top station in the Toronto radio market” for this past fall. As I listen on the commute, I feel like I’m learning. When I’m at home, I actually like watching the news, so this is a good fit. I’m surprised I haven’t gotten into the station earlier.

Man, what a time to get into talk radio in Canada. Hoooooly. All of this back-and-forthing is insane. I remember after the last election there was a bit of reflection over how Canadian politics isn’t as sexy or exciting as its American counterpart. Well, holy crap, how’s this? I’ll be honest, this is a very interesting time. I’m learning a large amount about Canadian Parliament. I’m learning new terms.

Prorogation:
When parliament is prorogued, it stays constituted but goes into recess with all active bills and motions killed. It’s essentially a time out.

If there’s anything good to come of this, it’s got people interested. The last election was marked with a mild sense of apathy with only a 50+% turnout (I think that’s right). After this? If there’s an election I can only imagine that turn out will be better because just about everyone’s got an opinion now. These are some interesting times.

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Bringing the diner back with me

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Thu. November 13, 2008

“Aw, man..you guys smell greasy.”

Damn right.

I arrived at work early to help get the ball rolling for the release, just like I mentioned last night. A few hours later, we were pretty hungry so we decided to take a break and hunt for a breakfast meal. I think one of the other guys was intent on doing something destructive, so we were considering heading to the greasy spoon just steps from our office. Yeah, that place. It was rightfully brought up though that we weren’t interested in smelling like we’ve been in front of the deep fryer all day. Instead, we headed to another place down the street in the other direction.

Now, when I went in, one of my first comments about the place was how I considered it to be clean. It wasn’t entirely dingy–hell, the word shiny even comes to mind when thinking about it. I commented to one of the others that I was happy to not have to smell like the other place for the whole day. He agreed.

Now, the three of us ordered the really big breakfast special that the place had. The special included 3 extra large eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, toast, and a small bowl of fruit salad. Oh man, we were so hungry at the time that we just crammed it all down; it was pretty damn decent. Unlike the other place, I knew that I wouldn’t be having GI issues with this meal.

We walked back out into the foggy weather and headed back to office. All was well with the world: we were well fed and the launch was proceeding according to plan. When we got back to the office we went straight back to work. First thing I notice though was that one of the three of us was sniffing his shirt. I joked–”yeah, that smell–definitely you.” That’s when some other colleagues started making comments: “whoo…you brought the diner back with you.” Hahah. Damn, that’s exactly the thing we were trying to avoid.

In my case, I was worried most about my jacket. For the past few days I’ve been wearing my black leather jacket, which I usually break out in colder winter weather–my brown jacket is more appropriate for the season. Anyway, I’ve had to set my brown jacket aside to let it air out because ever since last weekend when I was with my friends, my brown jacket has been reeking of Korean food. It’s not necessarily a bad smell–it’s just that it’s really strong. I often complain about having to sit next to people on the subway that smell like they just came out of a smoky restaurant. I don’t want to become that guy. Now? I’m afraid that my black jacket might need some air as well. We’ll have to see tomorrow morning.

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Hive of nerd activity

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Fri. August 22, 2008

Well here’s a bit of fun news for me. Kyleen and her daughter are in town from Michigan. See, the daughter wanted to attend the really big nerd convention happening downtown this weekend. Kyleen obliged, which means I’m fortunate enough to meet up with her again. Last time I saw her was during the Japan tour in 2006, so it’s been a while now.

Well, while I had to finish work they headed for the convention and attended a few panels that interested them. I ventured over after to wait and while I was waiting I spotted a lot of people in costumes dressed as their favourite anime/sci-fi/comic book characters. I recognized two Sailor Jupiters, a Neku from the video game The World Ends with You, a Tidus from Final Fantasy X, and a group consisting of Mario, Luigi, Peach and Daisy. There were lots of other costumed people, but none really struck a chord with me. I’ve attended in 2005, and really once is enough for now. I haven’t had the urge to head back in and brave the nerd-dom. Although, I have to admit, watching the cosplayers is pretty interesting. Some of them are really intricate and match details really well–I can only imagine how long it would have taken to put some of these things together. In some cases though, I can spot a detail off in one or two locations, and it really detracts from the overall effect (e.g. the boots are supposed to be ankle-high green lace ups! WTF?). I guess most people wouldn’t notice such things, and applaud the effort. What, am I exposing my fanboy side? Pah.

Well, I got out of there and Kyleen and I went to the Korean Grill House to get stuffed and get drunk while the kids were enjoying the convention. Fun times, eh? We had to walk around a fair bit after eating just so we didn’t feel entirely gross.

Tomorrow should be fun. I’m going to drag her to the Ex. I have plans to eat shitloads while I’m there. Whoo!

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Moose head

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Wed. August 20, 2008

me: Hmm…do you have cash?
h: Nope, do you?
me: No. How about one of us covers this one and the other takes the next.
h: That’s fine.
[bill comes]
h: So…who’s paying?
me: Doesn’t matter.
h: Let’s flip a coin.
me: Sure.
[I pull out a quarter]
h: So…heads: I’ll pay. Tails: you’ll get it.
me: OK.
[clink clink]
me: Heads.
h: Uhh…what are you talking about?
me: Heads!
h: Umm…no…
me: Look! It’s a moose head!
h: That’s not heads.
me: …oh…shit.

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About eating destructively

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Mon. August 11, 2008

For breakfast, I generally tend to avoid those really greasy diner type places when I’m in need of a meal of some sort because I have a really bad track record with those places. Inevitably, since it’s the first meal of the day, all of that grease just sends the GI into overdrive leading to less that desirable results. Today though, I was in the mood to eat something destructive. If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know that I use that use that phrase every once in a while.

Anyway, I remembered that the place that sold that triple fried chicken also had a breakfast combo. I decided to take my chances and placed the order. As I watched the items being cooked on the grill, I just couldn’t take my eyes off of this teapot of oil that the cook seemed to continue to pour over the home style fries on the grill. She just kept going and going and going. The eggs were fried in a veritable pool of oil. I knew that it’d be greasy, but even that astonished me.

Well, I brought it all back to my desk and dug in. The food was all right. I mean, for the amount I paid I got enough. I wasn’t expecting a gourmet meal or anything. I finished it all off, but I certainly didn’t feel too good about it–not in the uneasy sense, but in the sense that it just wasn’t terribly special enough to warrant mention. I declared the ordeal over with and went back to coding at my terminal. About an hour or two later though I started feeling uneasy. Rightfully so. Let’s just say that my morning wasn’t pleasant.

Anyway.

What’s the moral of the story?
(Because there usually is one…)
Well, if you’re planning on eating something destructive, eat something worthwhile. Make sure it’s worth every damn bit of suffering that you’re going to endure.

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