Being Dave To

Crusty snow sucks but it’s better than ice February 28th, 2007

Roy, an old friend from my days in Toronto, is visiting for the week so I picked him up from the airport today and it being a beautiful sunny day with a purported 43 cms of fresh snow on the locals, we went up to Cypress Mountain. When we got up there, we soon discovered the snow had settled into a thick sludge with an icy crust on the top. I thought today was going to be the day for fresh powder hits under a cloudless sky. I guess I have really high expectations these days and should really get back in touch with the reality of snow conditions on the local hills of Vancouver.

Still, it was a kick ass day. We explored a lot of the backcountry areas around the sky chair and found some good lines that I’ll definitely be back for come another big snow day. To end Roy’s first big day in Vancouver, we took him out to all-you-can-eat sushi in Richmond. We tried a different strategy tonight where we ordered in different stages. Sushi and sashimi first, hot food second, then free-for-all, then for those still not sickened by the sight of food, another round, then finally dessert. It was good. A lot better than how we usually order, which is essentially every item on the menu at once. That’s when we totally stuff our faces shamelessly. Not very pretty. Especially the day after.

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The Departed? Huh? February 26th, 2007

The Departed took home the two big prizes tonight at the Oscars, Best Director and Best Picture. Huh? It was alright. Maybe check out the original Infernal Affairs. Andy Lau is more of a dirtbag gangster than Leo and the boss, the gang boss, whatever his name is is way more menacing than Jack Nicholson. And Sammi Cheng, BABE! And I still stand by my previous review. Way too many dudes get shot in the head.

If i were part of the academy, I would vote for Children of Men and Blood Diamonds. But those are just two films I can remember. I probably saw others earlier this year that I liked a lot too. Is it just me or is Helen Mirren disturbingly hot! ok. I think it’s getting late now.

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My Review of the Departed February 25th, 2007

IMHO Way too many people got shot in the head. There’s really no need for that.

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There’s nothing like fresh powder February 24th, 2007

Headed up to Cypress Mountain today. It had dumped earlier this week but the sun had come out yesterday. However, there were still some deep pockets of snow up by sky chair, in moons, and also the olympic mogul run. We had an interesting hike to get to the mogul run as it is closed off to the public. Sandro and I jumped out of bounds a little early and we ended up trudging through waist deep snow to get to where we wanted to go. But when we got there, it was an open field of fresh powder. ahhhh so sweet. To end the day, we headed over to Memphis Blues for a huge platter of pulled pork, ribs, brisket, lamb, etc. Basically a shitload of meat. Not so good considering today is Friday and Lent but that only applies to practicing Catholics, so i say bring it on.

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Booksprouts is Back and it’s here to Stay! February 23rd, 2007

Booksprouts is an online book community site that I’ve had in the works for quite awhile now. It was shelved back in December unfortunately as projects were re-shuffled according to people’s availability. Just recently, I met up with another like-minded local entrepreneur with complementary skillsets. It was a total fluke as he had a small ad on Craigslist looking for Ruby on Rails devs/partners. We had a meeting today after work at a coffeeshop where we did some scheming (world domination stuff, you know). It’s awesome that this resurrection is happening because I think this project has incredible potential. Plus, we invested a lot of time and energy in late 2006 so I’m very glad to see it not go to waste.

On a sidenote, we decided to meet at the Take5 cafe at Pacific Center because according to WIFIMUG.org, there’s wireless access there. It’s a good site but when we got there, we weren’t able to plug in. I guess that goes to show that relying on wiki’s for accurate information is not a great idea. I think I’m gonna have to stick it to em (take5 that is) on wifimug.

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My night hanging out with Affiliates February 22nd, 2007

Tonight I went to the 4th annual Affiliate Marketing Networking Dinner put on by Ian Lee. I met him a week ago at an Entrepreneur meetup and got to chatting about monetizing websites, SEO, Pay-Per-Click, and traffic generating strategies. The guy knows a lot and has been in the industry for awhile now.

Overall, I’m really glad I went. I was definitely reluctant to go as I didn’t really know anyone, don’t have any big revenue sites, and am basically a total noob at all this affiliate business. I was sitting at the same table as a guy who I later found out generated more than 6 figures a month! As the night went on, I talked to more and more people who are names in the industry and discovered that they’re easy-going and eager to give a starry-eyed beginner like me some excellent pointers.

I also met John Chow of johnchow.com fame. He’s exactly how he is in real life as he is on his blog. But I’ve got to hand it to him. Sometimes you have to be loud and proud to make money and John certainly is that if nothing else.

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It’s late and once again I hate CSS February 20th, 2007

Maybe I don’t hate CSS so much as I really really hate IE’s disregard for standards compliance. IE, you really really suck.

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GONG HEY FAT CHOY February 19th, 2007

This year it seems that more people are getting into the Chinese New Year mood. In the past, it’s just been another weekend for me. This year, it was family dinners, lots of lucky money (ka-ching!), and lots of well-wishing. I think more people have wished me happy new year and vice versa than on New Year’s Eve (the non-lunar one).

Yesterday, my parents cooked up a Parrotfish. It’s a very nice-looking fish with blue scales and multi-colored fins. It’s teeth look like those on the Alien queen, except there aren’t multiple heads that come out when it opens its mouth. Apparently it’s like that because it chews on coral. Anyways, i felt strange eating the fish because it really felt like it belonged in an aquarium. It was tasty though so I got over it. But then when I wanted to turn it over to get at the other side, i found out I couldn’t because that would mean somewhere, a boat would capsize. uhm, crazy chinese new year’s traditions.

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Painting mountains green February 17th, 2007

It’s almost Chinese New Year, which means good food and red pocket money. Not a bad deal. But as a second-generation chinese in Canada, I still feel very far-removed from the festive mood that should be occurring right about now. It probably has to do with the fact that in China, Taiwan, HK, etc., people normally get this entire week off. This is also the time when corporations hand out their year-end bonuses. Furthermore, there’s all out partying and firecrackers in the streets. I remember I spent new years in Taiwan when I was 8. It was awesome. Unlimited bottle rockets aimed at passersby, on foot, car, and bike. Sweet robotech toys, food, and candy (the chinese kind so not that great).

Which leads me to a story I read today about Chinese people painting a mountain green. Chinese people are nuts! Or i think it could just be the Chinese government. It would’ve been cheaper to plant trees! For f*ck’s sake, what are these people thinking? If only I can find a picture of this green mountain now.

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My Valentine’s Dinner Menu February 16th, 2007

For the big v-day, Ally spent all day looking up a four-star menu online while I was at work. She also went out to get all the ingredients, which was no small task considering the menu items. We started cooking around 8pm, while munching on nacho chips. It was definitely an intimidating task considering we usually cook the basics. The meal consisted of:

Appetizer: Habanero Prawn Cocktail Tostada with Avocados and Cherry Tomato Emulsion
Main Course: Lobster Thermidor and Sirloin Steak (our version of surf’n'turf)
Sides: Garlic-tossed rapini (which is like baby broccoli)
Dessert: Tiramisu

We finished cooking around 9:30pm and got to enjoy our meal while watching Lost. The prawn tostadas were excellent, the lobster tasted like motoyaki but better, and the steak was just right. unfortunately, the Tiramisu was a bit too cheesy and had very mushy insides from too much coffee. Ally recycled the cheese by spreading it onto another layer of ladyfingers today. It’s better but still a bit too cheesy for me. All in all, a very good Valentine’s feast.

On another note, was surfing around today and found this site, techPresident.com which for one thing, tracks the number of myspace friends each of the presidential candidates have according to date. It’s a bit surreal that could-be presidents can be on your friend list. Maybe it’s time I started an account. Also, it’s interesting to note that the top Republican candidate, Ron Paul, has 2296 friends, compared to Obama, with 40,597 friends. The top 3 democrats each have more than 4 times the number of friends than Rep. Ron Paul. It seems that the democrats are more likely to understand that the internet is more than a bunch of tubes and pipes.

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