All posts by hevangel

Daily Scribble

fun run

Leave a comment

Thirty six minute for running 5 km. I’m sure that’s definitely one of my personal record. Since a little kid, I’m never good at running. In highschool P.E. lessons, I’m always one of the slowest few in the class. Running for 10 laps and around the school run was like torture to me. After so many years, out of totally unknown reason, I signed up for the Science World Fun Run sponsered by the company. The registeration for the run is free, include a free T-shirt and high-tech shoe tag for individual time keeping. I guess it’s partly due to peer-pressure. Not only Pat started running to keep fit and wanted to come, several other friends at work also signed up. I was so worried that I would be the slowest one again. Fortunately, not including the girls, I am still faster than Louis and Jackson. Pat’s time is pretty good, only about 100 meters slower than Jackson. In the first half of the run, I stay besides Pat, so it was not very tried.

On the second half, Pat let me “runs free” and I keep up without walking all the way until the finishing line. The final 1km is the toughest, even though I was able to see the dome at the end point, there still a long way to go. It takes some self control for my exhausting yourself too soon by dashing prematurely. I think in long run, psychology plays as an important role as the body. There are times that I wanted to slow down and take a break, it is the mind force myself keep running. Actually I feel happy finishing the run, partly is due to the sense of accomplishment, and partly is due to chemical released in my brain from the vigorous exercise. I am planning to take part in the 10km run next year. Maybe in a few year when I’m not that busy, I’ll really start training to run a Marathon. Complete a Marathon race is now official added to my life time to-do list.

Today is really a busy day, it has been non-stop after the fun run in the morning. Right after the run, went home took a quick shower, then go to Richmond to have the farewell lunch with George. The guy go back to HK for good and got a job offer in the HK science park. Then it’s the weekly dancing class. This week is learning cha-cha for the 2nd time. I can feel my moves are better than last time, still I have problem counting beats. After that, we have to help out Krispy Kream distribution in the church. The fund raising for World Youth Day is a hugh success, I can’t imagine we had sold over 300 hundred dozens of donut. We were so careless that we forgot to order a box for ourself. Luckily, someone didn’t pick up their donuts and we could take that box home. Now as I’m writing about donut, I can feel my hunger and I know it’s time for me to stop writing and have a donut.

Daily Scribble

haircut

Leave a comment

I finally had my long due haircut this afternoon. I can feel my head is much more comfortable now, the hair is lighter and cooler, won’t get into my eyes all the time. I went to a man only salon that I had visited before. For the last few haircuts, I got dragged by Pat to company her to salon for both gender. I actualy like going to the man only salon. Not only it has computer and male oriented magazines in the waiting area, TV on each hair cutting station. The most important factor is that the hairstylist really understand the decision making process of man. All I have to say is the length and thickness I want, no need to answer weird questions about which style I prefer, or even worse had to pick a style from the magazine. Most man can only see the difference between having hair or not having enough hair. We don’t really care much about hair style, and would feel uneasy on questions about hair style because the lack of knowledge. Especially for male engineers, we really have a problem in making subjective judgments. I can never understand what makes one style better than another, unless someone show me statistics on the popularity of the difference styles. I had read some philosophy on aesthetics, I can understand beauty defined in classical sense, which is based on objective or utility values. Just the beauty defined by popular culture, such as hair style and fashions, doesn’t make any sense to me. Why one way or the other, they are all arbitrary decisions.

Daily Scribble

home sweet home

Leave a comment

After a week long business trip, finally I can sleep comfortably at my own bed tonight. Saskatoon is really the most boring city I had ever visited, although I haven’t visited many cities really. I think I had left foot prints on all shopping area in Saskatoon, where isn’t that many. It took only half hour to drive the circular highway surrounding the city once. The flight back is pretty smooth. Although lack of meal provided, I like Westjet better than Air Canada. The flight is more comfortable. The plane has leather seats with individual LCD screen of live TV broadcast. Anyways, my brain couldn’t really function normal after a whole day of travel, it’s time to go to bed. The only thing I learn from this trip other than technical details related to the project is that I hate work travel. The evening is so boring and unproductive in the hotel, I guess it would help if I have a decent laptop. Moreover, I start to see the beauty in building a routine work and life schedule.

Daily Scribble

Saskatoon day three

Leave a comment

Today is yet another busy working day just like yesterday. After work I went to tour the Campus of University of Saskatoon. The school buildings is nicely built, all outer wall are covered with bricks to give a similar look. There is also an exhibition of dinosaur fossils in the geology building. The collection is quite impressive, including a complete skeleton of a T-Rex. I was wandering in the campus looking for food, unfortunately all the cafe are closed in the summer term. As I keep walking, eventually I was lost in the maze of corridors between buildings and couldn’t navigate my way back to my car. That force me to do a very un-manny act, that is ask for direction. The student I met is really nice, he even walked me back to the parking lot. After that I headed towards the downtown area continue my search for food. The downtown mall has the exact layout of the Coquitlam center, even the shops are quite similar, the usual name brand stores. Since there was not hing interesting to see inside the mall, I head off to the street. I came across another used book store, which is as big as a Chapters, and naturally I went in and treasure hurt old books. Saw several interesting titles, but I have to restiate myself from buying any books or my luggage will be overweight. After got kicked out from the store when they are closed, I had dinner at the bar and grill at street corner. Food here in Saskatoon is cheap, about cost 20-30% less than Vancouver. Tomorrow I will be flying back to Vancouver, and definitely I won’t miss this boring town. Pat had asked me to take some pictures, too bad that I didn’t bring my camera with me. Even if I had my camera, there is nothing much worthy seeing in Saskatoon anyways.

Daily Scribble

Saskatoon day two

1 Comment

Got to work really early this morning, arrived in the office at 8:30a.m. That’s the time people go to work in Saskatoon. It has been a long day, full day of work, not as relax as in Burnaby. Close to the end of the day, Burnaby had a power failure and our servers are affected, so have to go home early. After work I drove around in town to look for gift for Pat and dinner place. I had pretty much seen every major shopping area in the city. The road is Saskatoon is pretty wide and straight, kinda like when I first came to Mississauga. There is one major highway called the Circle Drive goes around the city. I wish Vancouver had such a nice road system. I just had dinner at some local bar and grill, nothing special on the food. I’m glad that I successfully bought the gift for Pat, I’m sure she would like it, and I better keep it secret for the time being. I also spent quite some time in a 2nd hand book store and bought two old books. What kind of person am who will go to old book store in a foreign town? Anyways, the night is as unproductive as usual, watched several episodes of Science of Starwars in the Discovery Channel. I really have to revise my Germany before heading back home this week. I missed home, and it’s quite boring here by myself.