Daily Scribble

Greedy Vet

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Today I just pay $400 to have my dog cut open for no reason. My dog, Charlie, has a big lump around his neck. The vet said it could be parathyroid cancer and suggest us to have the lump removed. We made appointment with the Vet for the dog have the surgery today. After the vet cut open Charlie, he found out it is not a parathyroid cancer. The high calcium in Charlie’s body maybe cause by some other cancer. Since the vet already open Charlie, I would expect him remove the lump even it is not a cancer tumor. It turns out the doctor just stitch up the opening without doing any operation. I am $400 short, Charlie has a wound around his neck and suffer from the pain of the surgery, but his condition has no change. I should ask for a refund from the vet for doing nothing useful.

When we picked up the dog, the vet suggest the dog take more test to diagnose the problem. He suggested us to do X-Ray, CAT scan or even MRI and those tests are expensive. More diagnosis means more money for the Vet, I can see why he suggest further treatment. But to us, what is the point of knowing what kind of cancer he has. My dog is 13 years old, it is almost at the end of its life. Even we know where the cancer is, we won’t let the dog to go through the painful and expensive cancer therapy. A dog won’t last forever. If Charlie die naturally in a painless way, it would be already be a blessing for him and for us.

I have been suggesting taking Charlie to SPCA to put him to sleep. Pat strongly disagree my idea. She said she would send me to SPCA before sending Charlie. I don’t quite understand why people are so attached to their pets. It is just an animal. Wouldn’t it less trouble or sometimes even cheaper to simply get a new one. It is kinda like buying a new computer to replace your old computer. All pets have to go at the end, so you can’t avoid feeling sad when losing your pet, it is just the matter of sooner or later. What is the point of extending the ownership when it brings you more trouble than joy? The owner should just bite the tongue, put it to sleep and suffer a brief moment of feeling bad instead of a prolong period of feeling bad.

電影

Batman, Begins 蝙蝠俠俠影之謎

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Batman Begins 雖然我不是蝙蝠俠的擁躉﹐不過我倒看全了所有蝙蝠俠電影。與其他超級英雄不同的地方﹐蝙蝠俠是沒有超能力的普通人。他的能力來自他的財富﹐供他購買各種高科技蝙蝠武器。八十年代第一代蝙蝠俠電影﹐塑造出黑色美學的葛咸城﹐引為一時佳話。可惜蝙蝠俠系列越拍越差﹐第四集雖然星光熠熠﹐請來多位巨星客串飾演奸角﹐但電影卻爛到無可挽救的地步。想不到在零五年這個系列可以重出生天﹐把過去拍壞的續集像粉筆字抹去﹐將故事還原最初由頭重新開始。只是葛咸城不再有哥德式的建築﹐蝙蝠俠的儀器不再是復古科幻的風格﹐蝠蝙俠活在一個非常普通的現代城市。

俠影之謎從蝙蝠俠父母被殺開始﹐慢慢鋪排他入行當罪惡剋星的經過。蝙蝠俠接受忍者訓練出身有些奇怪﹐不過倒解釋了他為什麼可以來無蹤去無景。今集老管家這個重要角色一分為二﹐以住老管家一手包辨所有蝙蝠武器。今集武器的部份改由摩根費曼負責﹐蝙蝠俠的家族企業是軍火公司﹐蝠蝙武器是從研究開發部門直接弄來的測試品。蝙蝠衣的軍用防彈裝甲﹐蝙蝠車是軍用越野裝甲車。在眾多武器中﹐蝙蝠俠的斗蓬的解釋最合理。以前看眼化斗蓬隨風飄揚﹐總是覺得這件斗蓬中看不中用﹐背上多了幅布打架時豈不阻手阻腳。今集的斗蓬是納米記憶布料﹐可以藉著通電流而變型﹐成為滑翔翼或降落傘。最後一場打鬥是蝙蝠俠波戰忍者師父﹐其實蝙蝠俠技不如人﹐不過靠高科技強化裝甲﹐砌斷了師父的忍者劍﹐才可以最後關頭反敗為勝。若果研發部的老主管不供應新武器給蝙蝠俠﹐他就只是個一無是處的有錢仔。

女主角的戲份恰到好處﹐只是裝飾用的大花瓶﹐編劇沒有夾硬加插愛情橋套﹐影響動作場面的連貫性。蝠蝙車在屋頂和公路上追車那一段最精彩﹐單看這一場戲已經值回票價。蝙蝠俠打壞人多似在玩花式特技﹐飛來飛去左一拳右一腳﹐反正觀眾早知道蝙蝠俠不會有什麼危險﹐也沒有所謂的緊張刺激。倒是蝙蝠俠初次上陣有點好笑﹐還未有斗蓬從高處跳下幾乎跌死。以往蝙蝠俠的對手是犯眾集團﹐在法律管不到的地方作出私下的正義制裁。這集的對手換成要毀滅葛咸城的忍者集團﹐儘管他們要殺死所有人的理由很荒謬﹐蝙蝠俠的立場從黑夜判官變成全城的救世者。他沒有了質疑自己以暴易暴的心理包伏﹐可以很義無反顧到打倒敵人﹐少了舊蝙蝠俠內心道德交戰的那份劇情張力。

總括來說這是一套很男性化的爆谷電影﹐ 大慨這就是我這麼多年來﹐追看所有蝙蝠俠電影的主要理由吧。

Daily Scribble

Gangster war

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In the past few months, Vancouver is not longer a safe city. It has shooting after dark and in broad day light almost every day. It has become a war zone in the Gangster’s turf war. It is getting pretty bad when shootings happen on the street where you usually go to lunch or 2 blocks away from your friend’s house.

The Gangster turf war begins with US cracked down of Columbia drug lords last year. After the drug lords are gone, there is a sharply reduce in cocaine supply, so the price of drug on street goes sky high. Every gangster want to get a cut in the lucrative drug dealing business. Their strategy to gain more market share and secure drug supply is taking out the competitors, literally.

I have no objection the gangster killing each other, they are the scum of the society wants to get rid of anyways. However the gangster behave more like a gentleman when taking each other out. They should not go around shooting each other in the neighborhood when the victim is sleeping, eating or driving. Bullet has no eye. They may hurt innocent by-standers. They should they fight like a man in a duel, just like the old western movies. Maybe we can even host the gangster duel in a stadium and sell tickets of the event. I am sure this modern gladiator fight would be quite popular. We can get some good entertainment and get rid of half of the gangsters. Killing two birds with one stone.

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.