Category Archives: Daily Scribble

My random thoughts of the day.

Daily Scribble

Gapping the generation gap

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Yesterday, Pat’s church choir held a hot pot dinner social gathering event. Although I am not part of the choir, I tagged along as the choir director’s husband and the choir side kick for putting away the microphone after mass every week. I shared a table with several guys from the choir. Most of them are still in university. I almost a decade older than them and I afraid I may have generation gap with them. At the end, I mixed pretty well with them without feeling bored at all for the whole night. The topics of conversation is quite geeky, we talked about sci-fi TV series and movies. We had some in-depth discussion on the history of Firefly, Star Trek, Battle Star Galatica and Star Gates. We also talk about the latest development of Heros. To my surprise, the younger generation is less passionate about Star Wars than my generation. I guess the prequel really trashed the Star Wars brand by leaving a bad impression on those come to know it the first time.

I like watching sci-fi, but sometimes I feel like I am just wasting my time watching TV. It turns out those time I spent sitting in front of the TV is not wasted after all. Other than the enjoyment I get from watching the show per se, the useless trivial knowledge are handy conversation materials with acquaintances. Common interesting bonds people together. If I don’t have general knowledge on sci-fi TV culture, I will totally left out of the chat last night. The young guys may think I am just a weird middle age man.

Daily Scribble

Whistler in trouble

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This year, February is very warm and dry. Whistler is missing at least 1 meter of snow fall compare to February of last year. The snow condition of last few weeks is so bad that even a hardcore skier like me don’t want to go skiing. Finally, the weather is getting better and we got a 80cm of new snow this week, so we have to go skiing this weekend. The Sea-to-Sky highway is busier than usual this morning. The pit-stop, McDonald’s wash room, in Squamish has long line up. I bet many skiers are hungry for ski over the past few weeks just like me. When we arrived at the Creek side, I never seen the parking lot this full. I have to park at P3 instead my usual spot at P1 right next to the elevator.

The line to take the gondola up the mountain is quite long, we waited almost 20 minutes. I thought the mountain must be very busy today and estimated I could make only 6 runs, 3 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. To my surprise, when we are up in the mountain, the runs are empty and there is no line up on chair lift. The parking lot and the Creek side gondola is the only bottle neck. We end up ski 11 runs in a day. Fresh snow, sunny day, empty runs, what a perfect day for ski.

Judging form the lack of crowds on the mountain, Whistler’s business is pretty bad this year. It must suffer a lot from the financial melt down and lost most of the lucrative US skiers. Creek side is a smaller base compare to the Whistler Village. It’s free underground parking is a little secret of local folks who go to Whistler for day trip. The line up at the Creek side gondola are people like us, budget skiers who won’t spend anything other lift ticket and lunch on the mountain. For those who has the stocks of Intrawest, Whistler’s holding company, should look at this sign and sell the stock as soon as possible. I think Intrawest will have a huge loss this year.

Oh! Did I also mention they just open a brand new peak 2 peak gondola connection Whistler and Blackcomb? The gondola is a technical marvel, the longest suspension cable car in the world, but it’s a huge marketing flop. It suppose to cost $10 a ride for stand alone sight seeing ticket. I ride the gondola 3 times since it opened and I never have to line up. I don’t think they can ever recoup the investment of the gondola. It’s just another white elephant for the 2010 Winter Olympic.

Daily Scribble

Own goal

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I really want to kick myself. Today is the final match of the company’s foosball tournament. After a week of round robin playoffs, we beat the other teams to place ourselves in the final match. The match is the best three out of five games. We did not have good start. We lost the first two games in a row. But we didn’t give up. We stayed clam, fought back and won the next two games. On the fifth game, the battle is tense, we were leading 4-3. We only have to score one more point to become the champion. At this very critical moment, I made a fatal mistake. I kicked the ball into my goalie and score an own goal. The game ends a brief moment later when the other team score a clean shot.

We were so close to wining the tournament and yet we missed it. I feel really stupid myself. Although it’s only a game with nothing on stake, except the bragging right at the foosball table, I still feel quite down for losing the game like this. In sports anime or comics, the protagonist always come back after falling behind in the beginning. They always put up a good fight and triumph at the end. How come I never seen any story ends with an anti-climax like mine? In 94 World Cup, Andres Escobar of the Columbia scored a own goal and sent the team home. He was murdered by anger soccer fans shorted after he went back to Columbia. At least my partner didn’t try to kill me, but I am sure he will make fun of me for a long time.

Daily Scribble

Richmond Olympic Oval

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Richmond Oylmpic Oval

Can you imagine yourself being an Olympic athlete? I almost feel like one when I am skating on the Olympic speed skating arena. It is less than 1 year from the 2010 Winter Olympic in Vancouver The brand new $200 million Richmond Olympic Oval is open to the public starting earlier this month. A day pass costs $12.5 but Pat got some free coupons from her friend.

The Oval is the largest ice rink I have ever seen, about twice the size of a standard hockey rink. The rink has a 200m long oval shape skate race track. The center area in the rink is converted to basketball court and badminton court. The spectator area in the balcony is converted to a open gym with exercise equipments overlooking the ice. There was a big crowd tonight. I bet most people use free coupons just like I do. Although there are lots people, it is not that crowd when they are spreading out on the ice.

Skating in a speed race oval is a very different experience than in a hockey rink. In a hockey rink people skate in all direction. In the oval everyone has to go counter clockwise. In a hockey rink, I can’t go very fast or I will end up hitting the wall soon. In the oval, I can pick up lots of speed in the long race track. I can accelerate in the straight road, but I don’t have to slow down for the turns. The turns at two ends are so gentle that I can keep my speed. I never skate that fast before. I hit my speed limit of my current skill level. I feel I couldn’t go any faster without losing my balance. I don’t even know skating can be a cardio exercise. Skating in the oval make me feel like I am running in laps.

The free pass expire next week. For those who are interested, you can download it form here. Skating in a speed oval is definitely one of the must do things in your adventure check list.

Daily Scribble

Valentine dinner

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Every year on Valentine’s day, fine dinning restaurant are much more busy than usual. I suspect they are even busier than X’mas day or New Year. It seems going out to have a nice dinner with your love one is a fixed program to celebrate the Valentine’s Day. There are more dining options for other festival days. But for Valentine’s day, it gotta be a romantic candle light dinner. Due to the high demand and limited supply of dining space, restaurants know how to rip off their customers on this special day. They will schedule the seating into as many slots as possible. Limit the menu to a few fix dishes to streamline the cooking process. They will also mark up the price in menu to squeeze extra money from the poor guys who have to pay for the meal. That’s why this year I have the Valentine dinner with Pat the day after Valentine to avoid the crowd. Just by shifting the dinner one day, I got better service and the same money can buy a greater value of food. Unfortunately, this tactic only works on your wife or long time girlfriend. For the new couple just started or wanting to start a relationship, delaying the Valentine’s day dinner would make you look really cheap. Or even worse, the girl may raise suspicion that she is only the backup lover, so that you can have dinner with another girl on the Valentine day.