Somewhere in the Middle Life Crisis

While carpooling with my neighbour one afternoon last month, she had to to make a detour to pick up her five year old son from daycare and I tagged along.  He was super reluctant to leave because the daycare was right next to a school playground AND a park.  It was a beautifully warm and sunny start to the evening and since no one was in a hurry to go anywhere, my neighbour allowed her son to play on the playground for a a few minutes before returning to the car  And since I had all this pent up energy from sitting at a desk all day at work, I too took the opportunity to swing on the swing, climb the monkey bars, and zip down the slides.  I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  Upon returning to the car, the little boy proceeded to beg his mom over and over again to invite me for dinner so that I would play with him after.  After seeing me act like a giant kid on the playground, I think he didn't view me as an adult anymore.

It was funny.

A few weeks later I was again in the presence of some cool kids lesser my age.  It was during a meal at my church leading up to the evening's Youth Alpha series we were running and somehow the discussion centered around cool apps on smartphones.  Some of the teens tried to explain Instagram and elaborate on other apps that I'd never heard of and so when I responded, I started going off on this amazing biking app, Cyclometer, which I had just discovered during the week and was using to track my commute.

"All of the details of your ride are there.  It doesn't just trace your route on a map, but it tracks your average speed, max speed, distance traveled, and even shows this cool little graph of the hills and elevation that you've cycled!" I exclaimed.

"....wow, you sound just like my dad when he first got his smartphone," one of the kids noted.  I think he was about nineteen or twenty.  He was not impressed.

Overall, I suppose it was funny.

But, seriously though, how cool is that bike app?!  8^D

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Gas has still been in the low to mid 140s for a while, but I saw it for 135.9¢/litre today.  GasBuddy is another one of my favourite apps. 8^D

Pointless Post #97 - Kindred Spirits Edition

A conversation I had this morning (I am the white message bubbles - @tsbutton):

 

Zack Shornick (@HotelsIPoopedIn), you da man.

Pointless Post #96 - Que Saran, Saran (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)

I can't find a roll of saran wrap that I cut in half that I use to wrap and tie things up with and it's really bumming me out.

o_o

EDIT: February 26, 2015 - Found it! It was hiding standing up on its end, disguised amidst a group of bottles underneath a sink.  Yay 8^D

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Gas has been in the low to mid 140s for a while (143.9¢/litre yesterday). 

Pointless Post #95 - Because Jesus Didn't Tap Edition

My friend asked me if I knew how to interpret the meaning of dreams and proceeded to regale a dream that he had about the two of us recently.  We were wrestling/fighting each other and he got leg hooks in and was starting to choke me out, but he was trying to warn me that I should give in so that I wouldn't lose consciousness.  Apparently I was being incredibly stubborn and in the end, he choked me out.  He was upset that he had to submit me, but more upset that I didn't tap. 

After telling me this dream, my friend told me that he hoped his dream didn't mean anything in regards to our real life friendship.  I thought it was amusing.

In other Tim-news, why do I have a pimple on my knee and on my leg? WHY?!??

Pointless Post #94 - Tim's World Cup 2014 Anthem

For the next month, this is what's going through my head:


There are too many games I want to watch, aaaaagh!  Especially Belgium! Man, I've been rooting for them for over two years now.  It's so footballing exciting.

Sigh.

EDIT: April 14, 2016 - I realize that the YouTube video initially posted doesn't work so here's another:

Changing My Pants in Public (Underwear, Under There!)

Last summer, I biked to a job interview. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I didn't want to take the bus because 1) I hate Translink's inefficiency 2) I didn't want to spend money 3) It was sunny and 4) I was specifically told not to dress up for the interview.  The job in question was for a local company that organizes sports recreational leagues for adults and it was supposed to be very informal.

Anyways, I biked to the general neighborhood about an hour before hand so that I could get an ice coffee, prepare some of my answers to potential questions, work on some questions that I wanted to ask them about, as well as cool down and stop sweating.  I sweat just from walking up a flight of stairs so a 45 minute bike ride in the summer sun does wonders for my sweat glands and appearance.

When I was ready to head over to the office as my interview time approached, I soon found out that the washrooms of the fast food place were not only disgusting, but also too tiny for me to change in.  This would have been an appropriate time to panic as I was wearing a sweaty tshirt and shorts, but instead I decided to wander around outside to see if there were any other places nearby I could change.

There were not.

However, the parking lot adjacent to the fast food restaurant had some parked vehicles scattered here and there and with a wooden fence on one side, I just gave up and sat down on the curb in between two very tall trucks, and changed into a clean pair of dress pants and put on a collared shirt, tucking it in and everything.  Across the street about two blocks away was a tall office building and if anyone was by the windows, they would have had a clear view of my absurdity, but hey, I got changed, looked decently business casual and made it to the interview on time.

The interview went really well, the two interviewers both said that I was overly dressed, and I got called back for a second interview, where I shared a pint with one of the owners of the company.  I didn't get the job, but at least I have a reasonably amusing story about it.

Worst case scenario, someone wandering by would have seen me in my underwear in the middle of a Vancouver parking lot in a nice summer day, but with the way Vancouver is now, I'm sure it wouldn't have been the weirdest thing they've seen.

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Gas has been in the high 140s and low 150s since April (147.9 - 151.9¢/litre). Gasoline companies, you suck.

Sometimes, WIND Mobile really, really sucks

I followed through with my obtaining a new smartphone intentions and upgraded to a Nokia Lumia 521.  A budget smartphone that does everything I need plus more (and it cost me under $80).  I'm a simple guy; extravagance is overrated.  There's no need to dump my money into an object that can get lost or stolen in seconds (although if a thief did take my phone, I would assume they would bring it back to me out of disappointment).  I would be grateful for that.

Cell phones I've owned in my lifetime.  That's it.

So with a new phone,  I decided to dump SpeakOut for a new wireless telephone plan and after much research and cost-benefit analysis, I decided on a $30/month plan from WIND Mobile (unlimited local text, talk, data, blah blah alskdjfalksdjf).  Compared with what other companies offer and what you could get with WIND, this is a fantastic, or I daresay of the HIGHEST excellence of plans regarding the service and features offered with price paid.

BUT (...think huge, of the Sir Mix-a-Lot variety) there is a good reason.  Their wireless coverage is of the MEDIOCRE averageness (or depending on your experience, really SUCKY, like the Sir James Dyson variety).  When I'm out in the open, I can usually get full bars no problem, but as soon as I go into a building, depending on what room or level I'm on, I can easily get one bar or no reception at all.  At my current place of work, I'm near the top of a twenty-one story building and until I calling tech support numerous times to inquire about it, I would get no reception at all.  I visited several WIND retail stores and each time, sales reps told me that the more I complained about a location of poor reception to the corporate tech support number, the more focus it would get from network management so in the end I did that.  For now, my reception is stable at one crappy bar, but if I move a few feet (and sometimes if I just pick up my phone) I'll lose all reception for a few minutes.  It's dumb.

WIND's customer service is pretty lame too.  I don't think it will improve until the company grows more and then they'll be able to get better resources, but that's just me trying to be optimistic.  Every time I called, the agents answering the phone would always politely take information and details regarding my "issue," but always failed to tell me what the problem was and when it would be resolved, apologizing non-stop the whole time (I'll bet they were trained in that). My issue was always in a queue.  I actually took the time to hand write a two-page letter detailing my reception problems, but no one replied me.  NO ONE.  Amateurs.   

The TL;DR version of this story is that WIND sucks, but I'm willing to pay for their service because it's cheaper than the others.

The End.  8^(  <== sad face

Addendum EDIT,  June 4, 2014:  Before my contract ended at that work building, I discovered another co-worker who was also on WIND and she had the exact same problem as I did.  We determined that there was just a dead zone on that side of the building because if we walked to the opposite side of the building, we both got reception.  However, there are still times when I have absolutely no reception for no good reason.

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I update a new album on Flickr almost everyday, called "Chalkboard Mug."  I dressed up in tights as an elf at a Christmas party last December and I won a chalkboard mug for best costume.  I try to draw something stupid everyday and this album is the result:

Album contains 53 photos as of today.

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I found a pond where ducks frequent and some of them are really mean:



And yet they're still so cute.

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Gas was in the 130s about a month ago, but in the past two weeks has jumped up to the 140s and I've seen it as high as 142.9¢/litre.

Pointless Post #93 - Oatmeal Musings

I eat instant oatmeal really, really often now. It looks like and reminds me of cat vomit.

Here's a video of Lance eating celery:




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Gas has been in the 129 - 131.9¢/litre for the past week and a bit.

Pointless Post #92 - New Calendar Edition

I don't have a 2014 calendar yet to put on my wall (I NEVER buy calendars and don't intend to start now), and I've found this past week having to squint a lot at the tiny "January 2014" preview portion of my old  December 2013 page just because.

So tonight I decided to remedy that by doing this:

Problem solved!

In other Tim-news, my Twitter feed is up and going strong for the past five days.  As promised, it is completely useless and of little value to.......the entire freaking universe.  But as this is the internet, I see fit to add my garbage into the mix, again, just because.  The thing that amazes me the most so far is that I'm actually gaining followers and haven't lost any yet.  What's wrong with you people!?

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EDIT: January 17, 2014
A few days after posting this, a super nice lady I know bought a calendar, but only wanted the pictures and gave me the numbered month sheets. WIN

Blogger's remorse

I feel so bad in that I have idea after idea that I want to write about, but I usually don't get around to doing it.  Or possibly even worse, I'll start a post I'm very enthusiastic about but in my earnestness, I never get around to finishing it.  Case in point, I have a post that I started two years ago and it's still in the draft stage. Sigh.

Anyways, as this year winds down, I'd like to take this time to announce that I will be tweeting on my Twitter account regularly.  However, it's nothing to get excited about.  I've had Twitter for a few years now (and I have followers, though I've never tweeted anything or told anyone about my account...strange), but it was more for just reserving my name.  But as long as there's useless crap on the internet, I'm going to add my fill to it and that's what my Twitter is going to be about. Uselessness.

And just to end on something random, these are my favourite socks at the moment:

I bought them in a pack of six.  Initially, I was just really keen on wearing the blue and green ones, which I did, and they are actually very, very worn out now (thin material along the business areas and holes developing), but lately, I absolutely LOVE the pink, orange, and yellow coloured socks.  I try to dress as plain as possibly, in neutral to dark colours most of the time, and I think deep down it's a thrill to me when I'm wearing a shocking bright colour on a part of my body that is for the most part hidden.  And then, if I'm sitting down or squatting or something and my pant leg rides up a bit, then BAM!  Multi-coloured ankle surprise!  Man, I am so weird.


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Gas has been in the 132.9¢/litre range.  Bugger.

Pointless Post #91 - Pop Culture with Grandparents Edition

Back in June 2009 when I was visiting family in Malaysia with my sister, we were at my great-aunt's home and she semi-randomly suggested, "Hey, let's call your grandmother in Australia! We're from the same village you know. I haven't talked to her in ages."  My sister and I agreed. We hadn't talked to our grandmother in a long time too.  And for the record, I'm doing this from memory so most of this is paraphrased and translated from hokkien, the regional Chinese dialect.

[dialing phone and ringing on the other end]

"Hello?"

"Hello? ...um, hey, hi Ah Ma! How are you? This is your grandson, Timothy.  I think Dad already told you, but Older Sister and I are in Penang right now.  We're at Great-Aunt's house. I didn't know you two were from the same village!"

"...ehhh? Aaah, Timothy? Did you hear? Michael Jackson just died today!"

I was completely caught off guard.  And then, I burst out laughing, not at the fact that a great musician died, but at the fact that this was the first thing my grandmother decided to say to me after not having talked to her for a few months.

[covering the phone]  "Ah Ma just informed me that Michael Jackson died!"

[family also laughs at the absurdity of the way the conversation just turned]

"Hahaha...um, I'm doing fine, thanks Ah Ma!"

[turning to my sister]  "Here, she wants to talk to you now."

I doubled over laughing.  I did end up speaking to her a bit more after that, but man oh man, for some reason I never ever thought that my at the time 81(?) year old grandmother would ever give me current news like that.

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Gas has gone down to 125ish and I even saw it for 123.9¢/litre tonight.

Upgrading to a smartphone before 2014

I've had my Nokia 1208 hockey puck dumbphone since December 2008.  I had just dumped Virgin Mobile for hiking their rates and cutting back on the expiry of air time credit and switched over to SpeakOut 7-Eleven Canada.  It's been a solid five years that I've been on their pay-as-you-go plan and I've been really happy, both with the phone and the service.  SpeakOut piggybacks off the Rogers wireless network.

Here's my phone as of tonight:

My good ol' Nokia 1208, bought from a 7-Eleven.

Side by side with a Kinder suprise egg capsule for comparison.

I've been thinking of upgrading my phone more seriously ever since coming back from Romania last year, where I met senior citizens from the countryside who had better phones than me.  Also, there are a few key things that a smartphone would have that would make life a bit more convenient, namely a camera and maps/GPS.

Once upgrading to a smartphone however, I will miss being able to brag about having the crappiest phone amongst a group of friends.  Every now and then, different people will pull out their phones to compare cases or something trivial and I'll pull out my trusty, sad looking 1208 and throw it in the mix (sometimes literally).  The comments are always amusing, usually more so with teenagers who barely remember phones like mine.  I will miss the flashlight that's on the top of the phone.  I use that a lot.  I will miss the battery life, as a single charge (2 hours or less..maybe faster? I'm not sure) can last me several days (~5 or so, but it used to be longer, though it's gradually been decreasing in the past year).

I will also miss the cost in savings.  It has been costing me 25¢/minute to speak and 10¢/outgoing text messages and because I more or less still use my phone like a pager, I've been averaging a total cost of about $100/year (before tax) in the past two years.  I've challenged kids at our church's youth group to throw my phone across the gym to show how durable it is, I've dropped it countless times on cement/hard flooring when my friends make comments about accidentally dropping their own smart phone and cracking a fragile screen, and I've stick handled my Nokia 1208 during ball hockey, just because.  It's been a good run.

Nokia Lumia 520 courtesy of:
http://allaboutwindowsphone.com/reviews/item/17315_Nokia_Lumia_5201.php

Nokia Lumia 620 courtesy of:
http://www.symbiantweet.com/nokia-lumia-620-wins-mobile-choice-consumer-awards-2013-for-best-value-phone/

I've been leaning towards getting a Lumia 520 or 620 because I feel loyal to Nokia, as their phones have served me well in the past 8 years and I also have fond memories of playing "Snake" on my cousins' Nokia phones way back in 2000, when it seemed like everyone ONLY had Nokia phones.  The Lumia 520/620 have been called budget smartphones and entry-level smartphones and with the cost of the phone being ~$150 or less, depending on where you get it from, it looks to be very reasonable with the features offered.  I don't need anything fancy.

I am undecided on what plan and provider I will be using as there are SO many choices and combinations to look at.  It's been slightly overwhelming because I want to get the cheapest plan possible, with the most value.  The only thing I know for sure is that I don't plan on paying for data because I don't want to turn into the person who's always checking their phone.  I don't want to be constantly reliant on my phone either, but I guess I'll only know that about myself once I upgrade.

EDIT - November 30, 2013:  So after much consideration, I have tentatively planned to go with WIND Mobile on their $30/month plan where I would get unlimited province-wide talk (airtime/minutes), unlimited Canada-wide text (including picture and video), and unlimited data, without a contract.  However, both the Nokia Lumia 520/620 are not compatible with the WIND frequency in Canada.  There is however, a US-specific Lumia 521 (under T-Mobile in the US) which IS compatible with WIND and sells for for $99 USD (without contract), but if I bought it, I'd have to unlock it to be able to use it in Canada for an extra estimated cost of $40, plus the purchase of a new WIND SIM card (another $25).  Interestingly enough, Future Shop, as a part of their Black Friday sale, is selling the Lumia 520 (under Telus, without contract) for $90 and the 620 for $80.  The Lumia 520 and 521 are essentially the same phone.  Fun fact: I originally paid ~$100 for my Nokia 1208 way back in December 2008.  Sigh. Too many choices and variables now.  Also, Canada once again getting shafted by the wireless telecom industry.

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In other Tim-news, a few weeks ago I started ending off my showers with a sudden switch to cold water.  Just before I'm about to finish bathing, I'll switch from a warm, luxurious hot to an ice cold rinse for about 30 seconds and then shut everything off.  I find that my extremities and face tend to get cold fastest.  It's so invigorating.  Apparently it's good for the skin and for improving circulation.  It's quite fun.

Lance, the Taco Dog

I feel slightly guilty for not posting anything in so long.  Firstly, gas has been down in recent weeks to 129.9¢/litre and I saw it going for 128.6 yesterday.

I put up five new Spider-Man pictures a while back, and here's two of them:

Crossing the Second Narrows Bridge

At Playland, at the PNE. yeah!

When my dog sleeps in his bed, I like folding the bed in half because it makes him look like a taco. It always cracks me up.  It's a TACO DOG! XD

At rest, in his bed.

Now we fold the bed over in half...

...and BAM! TACO DOG!

Mmmm, delicious... 8^D

In other news, I went to the Salvation Army Thrift Store a few days ago to find costume ideas and I found two Herb Alpert records that I bought for $2.  Whipped Cream & Other Delights and What Now My Love. Oh man was I happy, and they sound great!

Oh yeah, I`ve picked and bought a costume that I'm going to be wearing on Halloween. This has got to be the first time in my life that I've actually thought out, planned in advance (over two weeks now ), and am looking forward to wearing a costume on this unofficial holiday.  I used to hate Halloween as a kid, but more on this in another post.

And now to end on something truly random, this has got to be my most favourite commercial on TV right now.  It's a DANCING BEE! XD