I was shopping for shoes today. I want to get a hiking boot for World Youth Day, but couldn’t find the one I usually wear. I have been wearing the Nike ACG hiking boot for many years, changed 4 pairs in the same series. Somehow I couldn’t find it in any shops, I heard from the sales that the selling season of hiking boots starts in fall. I got remember to buy a pair next time I see it. So I have to order one online, I think it could delivery on time before I leave Vancouver. I couldn’t get a hiking boot today, but I got my first sandals. It’s also a Nike ACG series and it’s on sale. On top of that, I got myself a pair of new sleepers. The one I am wearing is so wear off the lower half came off. Since I am not a girl, I don’t need shoes as fashion. Man only wear shoes for its functions. I was thinking how many shoes do I actually need. Here is a list: Nike ACG hiking boot for daily wear, Sandals for outdoor use, Nike Sneaker for causal wear, Nike in-door court shoe for badminton, Dr. Martin black boot, Clarkes for formal wear, Soccer shoe, Golf shoe, All-star clothes shoe for summer and steel-toe just in case. That’s it.
All posts by hevangel
Harry Plotter
Today the 6th book of Harry Plotter is released. It is a big media event worldwide. A bookstore in Vancouver start selling at midnight and the police had to close the road to control the crowd. I got the the 5th book on the first day of sales and finished it in 2 days. Now, I am no longer such a crazy Harry Plotter fans. I will still read the book, but probably wait until I see Chapters had it on sales. I was a bit disappointed by the last installment, the plot just doesn’t make sense. It seems J.K.Rowling had run of her imaginations. Harry Plotter is now pretty a hype these days. The latest Harry Plotter is selling very well around the world, it is estimated over 10 millions copies are sold on the first day. That makes J.K. Rowling’s net worth surge to a new high. With huge royalty collected from first year of sales, how can the publishers and authors justify the 99 years copyright law? The law of diminish return should also apply to intellectual properties. The government should tax the royalty generated by copyright with a progressive scheme. When the revenue of the copyright reach a certain threshold, the copyright holder has to estimate the total net worth of the copyright and pay a pro-rated registration fee to secure his right. Once that piece of copyright had generated the estimated reveunce, the material will automatically released into public domain.
Free iPod Shuffle, Bridge
TD bank is giving out free iPod shuffle to any customer switch from another bank. The 512MB iPod shuffle cost about $120, and it is attractive enough for us engineers to go thru the troubles setting up a new account. Since most of us has a main account with lots of payments, credit cards, investment and obviously we don’t want to touch it for merely a hundred buck. We defeated the original purpose of this promotion scheme by first creating a new account in a third bank, then let TD close the newly created account. So this afternoon I first created an account in BMO, and walked over to TD to setup yet another account, while my true main account in CIBC is untouched. I feel sorry for the poor guy working in BMO, wasting his time serving a non-customer. The good thing is I even get a 100 air miles points with the new BMO account. At the end of the day, TD didn’t get real market share, but I get a free iPod. I really doubt anyone actually fall into this promotion and switched their main account. Maybe a 60GB iPod photo could move me to do so, maybe.
Tonight after dinner, Jackson and I try to teach Chris and Jason how to pay bridge. It seems that Jackson had tried to teach them before and they said they are scared by the complexity of the game. I was wondering how hard it is to teach someone bridge and get they start playing right away. I said 5 minutes should be enough, and start explaining the rules. While I was explaining, Jackson had a lots of says and I realize why Chris and Jason had the wrong impression of bridge. Jackson tried to dump too much information in one go. Instead of teaching them the basic rules and start having fun, Jackson go into details on the bidding and playing strategies. No wonder they thought bridge is boring. My method of learning is always by playing to gain experience. The more you play and the more times you lose, you will then realize you need to learn some orthodox techniques. In this way, you are eager to learn more in order to win, instead of forced to absorb lots dry materials that you half understand.
Weed
There are some nasty weed growing in the drive way of Pat’s house. They grow so big that some really long branch with thorns are hanging over the drive way. Everything I drive by, the branch will touch my car and make some very unpleasing sound, although I haven’t notice any scratch so far. Tonight after I walked Charlie, I finally can’t stand the weeds anymore. I went into the garage and take out the big scissors. I chop off every branches I could find. Unfortunately due to the body of the plant is hidden behind some berry bushes, I couldn’t kill its root. Some of the branch has flower buds on it, I wonder what kind of flower would that be. I couldn’t pick up the branch with bare hand since it will poke my fingers. I have to wait a few days until the branches dry up then I can easily fold them into the bag. What’s the use of this kind of weed to human and to the nature? Someone should genetic modify this plant to make a new release to fix up the problems.
Bridge
I had learned how to play bridge in F.1, but when my partner immigrate, I stopped playing. I had play casual games during lunch in Waterloo, but didn’t get very involved since I can’t always commit to the game, so I am the substitute player when others are busy. After putting down bridge for almost 6 years, I had chance to play it again today. We were trying out a new Korean restaurant and their service is really slow. While we were waiting, Jackson suggested play cards to kill time. By chance everyone in the table knows how to play bridge, so we opted for the sophisticated game than playing big-2. I had forgotten most of the bidding convention, all I still remember is 13 points to open, 7 points to answer, and 1NT opening means strong hand. I tried so hard to recall the meaning of 1C, but without success. Anyways, bidding is really easy for me today, since I had no hand with more than 7 points, I can only pass. I hope I get more chance to play bridge, but have to establish a stable partnership first.