The Dinner Party

The Dinner Party

I sometimes wonder why I do things and then end up laughing about them after.
Here are two of those things.

The place:   Dinner at a sushi restaurant.
Who with:   People all speaking in Chinese only.

After the dinner
A friend's conversation as she wasn't able to come to the dinner.


Her: "How did the party go?"

Me: "Well put it this way, there was so little going on in English I made friends with a 6 year old".

Her: "How did the conversation go?"

Me: "Not well, I mentioned Thomas the steam war tank numerous times, as that was what interested him".

Her: "Do you mean Thomas the steam engine?"

Me: "Whatever, that blue dude that's on tracks".

Her: "You make about as much sense as the 6 year old."


Her: "Well at least how was all you can eat sushi?"

Me: "Terrible. Tasted like it was run through a toilet".

Her: "Oh, anything beside sushi?"

Me: "Ya, they had some deep fried fish full of eggs".

Her: "How was that?"

Me: "I ate the whole plate. I utterly detested them".

Her: "Then why did you eat the whole plate?"

Me: "Cause no one else was, and the lack of conversation was killing me. I kept mumbling delicious since no one was saying anything to me".

Her: "Nice, how did that go?".

Me: "Not good, they ordered another full plate just for me".


My Japanese blog.
Also somewhat incoherent like this blog, but more weird stuff happened to me in Japan.
Take a gander at it at this link.

http://memoirsgaijin.blogspot.ca/

The Best of My Trip

I came across one of my old hard drive which contained thousands of digital pictures.

Among them I found my trip to Korea in 2002.
I looked through all the photo's.

I thought this one was the best of the trip.
It really gives a good picture of how my trip to Korea was (and no it wasn't North Korea).

Pretty dark, dreary and unclear. Just like my trip to Korea. 


PS I think other people have a great trip, maybe ours was timed wrong due to weather, Fifa World Cup etc.

My Japanese blog.
Also somewhat incoherent like this blog, but more weird stuff happened to me in Japan.
Take a gander at it at this link.

http://memoirsgaijin.blogspot.ca/

An idiotic Conversation

The background

Whilst a friend asked me which I preferred Subway or Quizno’s.

Me: I like Quizno’s more.

Her: Why ?

Me: I don’t like Subway. They ask me too many questions.

Her: Like what?

Me: What bread do I want, some stuff about flavour of the sandwich, harassment about what veggies and then what flavour of salt and pepper I want.

Her: What do you mean flavour of salt and pepper?

Me: I mean they say, "Hey what flavour do you want?".

Her: Do they actually say “Hey”.

Me: No, I’m giving an example.

Her: But back to my point, what do you mean flavour of salt and pepper? Do you mean sauce?

Me: Whatever they ask, same thing. I’m still thinking about the last 100 questions they asked me so by that point I'm confused.

Her: I'm confused by your story.

Me: Me too. You lost me at which one is better. The answer is McDonald’s is better. The one question is "To here or to go?".

You know I’m simple.

Her: Yes. A simpleton.

My Japanese blog.
Also somewhat incoherent like this blog, but more weird stuff happened to me in Japan.
Take a gander at it at this link.

http://memoirsgaijin.blogspot.ca/

Middle Aged People Are Funny

 You don't even have to be that old to be out of the loop.
Usually senility comes with age.

I went to go see the new Batman movie DARK NIGHT RISES.
During the previews of upcoming movies, there were two middle aged women sitting in front of us.
I would guestimate their ages to be between 45-55 years old.
Me, being the nerd I am have already seen pretty much every preview of all the new movies, especially comic based ones. So for me, all I need to do is see the first five seconds to know what movie it is.
As the preview started a voice saying that this person would be a beacon of hope and stand in the light. That the people would follow him, and he would be a leader everyone would follow.
Obvious enough?
A man wearing a red cape and blue tights shot up into the air.
Can you guess who it is? Common! You know it.
The one lady looked at the other, "What does that mean?" she asked.
The other lady looked at her, "It means another Spiderman movie next year".

What's this the symbol of? You must know, even though its a new design.

My Japanese blog.
Also somewhat incoherent like this blog, but more weird stuff happened to me in Japan.
Take a gander at it at this link.

http://memoirsgaijin.blogspot.ca/

MacGyver Extraordinaire!

MacGyver Extraordinaire!

Improvise. No light make one, with whatever you have. 

A few funny things happened last night.

We went to a restaurant in Richmond for the first time. I don't want to mention any names, but the service was terrible.
Anyways, to top it off I wanted to go to the bathroom after enjoying two cups of coffee.
I get to the bathroom and the light doesn't seem to turn on. I was like Umm, wtf!? I asked an employee who appeared not to speak much English "Power!? POWAAA!?". I was like, "Sorry I don't quite understand".
I looked around the restaurant and it seemed the power was on, plus we had just ordered and she didn't say anything about lack of power.

I kept trying the switch, but to no avail.
Finally a girl popped out of the women's bathroom. "Hi", I said. She had her Iphone in her hand with the flash constantly on, like a flashlight. "hahah, ya the power is only out in the bathroom, the worker told me in Chinese, they don't know what's wrong, at least you can use you phone with the flash, there is an app for that". She giggled and walked away.
I realized I didn't have my Iphone with me it was in my jacket. I walked back to the table and grabbed it.
I contemplated just leaving the door open half way so that I could have a bit of light, but it opened up into the restaurant eating area, so I thought too embarrassing.
I went through my apps and realized that I had deleted the flashlight app a few weeks ago, when I re-updated my phone. CRAP!
 I saw the Chinese employee again. "Hi, do you have a flashlight?", I inquired. He just yelled "POWER!! PAWAAA" and walked away. I assumed that was a no.
Then genius hit me. If I used the flash on my phone without the app it could work but I have to keep taking pictures. I hoped I could pee with one hand and take pictures with the other. I hoped I wasn't going to drop my Iphone into the toilet.
I started peeing and taking pictures. My biggest fear was that I was going to miss the toilet and hit the wall or better yet, hit myself.
I took about 30 pictures and flushed. I couldn't judge if there was a bit of water from spray up from the toilet or someone else didn't have the flashlight app and peed all over the flusher.
I cleaned my hands really well (while pressing the take picture button with my knuckles) and got out.
It occurred to me I may want to delete those pictures just incase.
I went through them quickly, all pictures of me mid stream, wonderful.
As I got back to the table my friend told me.
"Dude all you need to do is put the Iphone on video, the light will come on. You don't even need to record the video".

A few hours later we went to a night market.
As we were leaving there was a lady infront of us carrying an infant in a stroller. She carried it a way I've never seen before. I thought it was pretty damn funny so I followed her for a few minutes and took a picture.
She never once turned around to see the child was OK. Maybe that's the way they roll in her family.

Yes, she is popping a wheelie and walking by dragging it! Wow.

Now that's the way to pull a child. You might end up without one if you carry it long enough like this.

My Japanese blog.
Also somewhat incoherent like this blog, but more weird stuff happened to me in Japan.
Take a gander at it at this link.

http://memoirsgaijin.blogspot.ca/

Acupuncture Needles of Pain or Relief?

Acupuncture Needles of Pain or Relief?

If you like I can stick needles and nails in there for you. Just let me know.

So I went to acupuncture the a couple months ago for the first time. I've never tried it before but I've heard good things. My sister raves about it. I saw a show that claims most people who do it, feel pain relief.
Since my neck is still driving my nuts (I snapped it like an piece of wood while doing Judo in Japan years ago), and the doctors have all concluded "Yes, its bad". I figured why not try it.
First off, I went to an acupuncturist school. That means that students are doing it not teachers. Safe? Probably not. I was slightly worried. Puncture a vital nerve, blood vessel and Game Over forever. But, I'm all about cheap deals. And 5 sessions for $15 each is great.
They did a general Q and A with me. How is your sex life? I don't know if that is relevant to neck pain, but good, thanks.
They told me my liver isn't very strong and neither is my spleen. I've heard that before. Chinese doctors in the past in China told me that, and so do all the Japanese ones.
I've also had a few Chinese people read my palm. Lifeline, hmm seems a bit short, brain line, I can't seem to see one they always said. Always something to look forward to I guess.
Is there any merit to acupuncture, I don't know. Although I can say I'm a weak drinker, which may account for the poor liver.
As I arrived there were two students in the room and male and a female. I've always thought of females as the gentler of the sexes, but her needle insertions were more painful. Probably I guessed being pushed against nerves, veins, bones etc  haha. Kidding.
I hope she isn't reading this.
They left the room after they had finished the insertions. Suddenly my nose became completely blocked by some magical force and I couldn't breathe through it. I didn't have a cold and I've had no problems recently with my nose so that was weird. Maybe something controlling breathing was needled?
So I kept breathing through my nose. When he came back I told him but he didn't seem too concerned. I think he thought it was a cold I had. It wasn't.
After they removed all the needles my nose became clear.
I felt some relief already, like I could breath again. Breathing is always a bonus. My shoulders felt like some weight has been lifted off them. Great, I thought.
They started discussing about what area to do next. First the grabbed my hand and pushed a needle through the web part of my thumb. Hmm, felt like a searing hot sword cutting through my body. Must be good I thought.
She asked me if I felt pain. Uhhh, well a little yes, on a scale of 1-10 about a 5. I lied, it was a 10. "OK", she said its working.
They asked me to lay facedown again and both of them started inserting needles into the underside of my wrist and into my feet. I thought for a quick moment, I was being crucified. The pain was probably the worst I've ever had. I tried to bite my tongue as she moved one needle in and out of my foot. My gosh, it was like being electrified in a spot repeatedly.
A teacher came in to see their work. She asked them to leave the room with her. Although they had told me previously they were advanced students, I wondered if I was a practice doll for the last lessons, it just didn't feel right.
I could overheard the teacher "You should never do acupuncture on the foot during the first session, if you are off by even a little the patient feels extreme pain". I was thinking, she can say that again.
As I walked out, a large smile came out on my face, I was thinking to myself perfect since I bought a discount pack, I have 4 sessions left, maybe it will get better.

Update.
It didn't.

How bout I stick a nail in your foot. It might be good.

 My Japanese blog.
Also somewhat incoherent like this blog, but more weird stuff happened to me in Japan.
Take a gander at it at this link.

http://memoirsgaijin.blogspot.ca/

HP Touchpad Buy Or Not?

HP Touchpad Worth all the Hype?

WebOS on HP Touchpad. Android ICS now possible.

So if you haven’t heard HP sold their tablets at fire-sale for an amazing price of $99 for the 16GB version and $149 for the 32GB version.
A friend of a friend who works at Bestbuy bought one because of the amazing price.
By the time I had found out about this great deal, everywhere in town (Vancouver) was sold out.
When I called different Futureshops and Bestbuys I got laughed at. One guy actually responded, “Dude, you are way too late to the party”. I’m not sure that is professional but he was right!
After looking nightly on Craigslist and Kijiji I finally found a guy selling a brand new sealed in box 16GB Hp Touchpad’s for $200. It was $100 more than the firesale price, but I felt that it would be the last slim chance to get a deal.

So why would I, or you want a Hp Touchpad?

1) Price
Every time a company is losing money on a product and costs them more to produce it then they sell it for, you feel good about it. I pride myself with getting the best deal.
The touchpad retailed for $500 US dollars and fire sale price of $99. They say the hardware is worth about $296 and costs $10 to put together. They are losing money, yes!
2) Technology
I think it’s safe to say most people want a smartphone or a tablet these days. Instead of getting  a laptop or a netbook, the convenience can’t really be matched. Although a tablet can’t do everything a netbook/ laptop can, it comes damn close. I love my smartphone, but a tablet is much bigger.
3) Cheap
I don’t mean the price I mean you. You are cheap like me and don’t want to shell out the $650-$700 for the Ipad 3 after taxes. Yes you are used to Apple products like Ipods or Iphones but you don’t like the prices.
4) No Lockdown/ Has HTML and FLASH
Yes, unlike Apple products you are not locked to Itunes! You can simply plug into a computer and drag over. Make your old folders pop your music into them, drag your Ebooks and the OS seems to be able to find them regardless of the directory. Youtube and some other sites are fully accessible as well instead of limitation imposed by Apple.
5) Multitasking
This is great. As you know Iphones and Ipads do not have true multitasking. What this means is essentially the app or game you are playing goes to pause mode and closes until you reopen it.
With the Touchpad the app is truly still going. I love playing a youtube video and read the news on another page at the same time.
6) The Operating System
For me the WebOS operating system is unique and kind of cool. I realize it is not for everyone. It has a card type system where when things minimize they become a card as in playing card shape. You can have multiple cards open at once and they are easy to control, want to get rid of it? Just throw it off the screen (by either pulling it up and it disappears or slingshot style by pulling it down and releasing).
Since I was used to Apple Os I couldn’t understand where the cards were going when I threw them off the screen. I felt like I had 20 cards open somewhere and didn’t realize till after I had closed them. A few of my friends tried WebOs and were disappointed, they said it was hard to control and difficult to understand. Of course since they were all used to Iphones they didn’t understand it. Its a small learning curve, but most people are put off by it after a few minutes of trying to grasp it.
7) Android
Until recently Honeycomb was ported to the touchpad but it was quite buggy. Personally I didn’t even bother to do it. Now, there is a very good, I would say nearly perfect port of Ice Cream Sandwich. After using it for one week now, and downloading plenty of apps I’d say only the camera and A GPS doesn’t seem to work. To be fair the camera is very low quality and I’ve never used it within WebOS except to take a few pictures, and they all look terrible. Or it may have been me. I’ve read there are a few ways to hack the GPS so that it will function somewhat. It seemed to work through wifi on WebOS, but when I tried it on Android it doesn’t seem to be accurate.

Ice Cream Sandwich. Super smooth!

Pros
-Flash. I can watch pretty much everything now. On my Iphone I get some emails delivered I cannot view and it drives me insane. Youtube is not the same experience on an Ipad/Iphone.
-You can dual boot Android or WebOs. For Android fans or most tablet users that is a nice catch. Why be locked down to one Os when you have the option of two operating systems.
-Android Ice Cream Sandwich is very very smooth. I’d say more smooth than Webos that it was designed for.
-Open software. Until recently the software WebOs was not open. HP had it locked down. It has also sent out too updates which have greatly improved WebOs over the two months I’ve owned it. In the future, nobody knows if HP will continue to send out updates, but since they have released code and opened up the system to developers, some programmers will continue to tweak the system.
-The hardware seems good. This is a pro and con. Since Android runs so well that tells me that WebOs not the hardware is at fault. Specs wise the Touchpad is pretty good. Its somewhere inbetween and Ipad and Ipad2. It physically resembles an Ipad as well.
-The homebrew community has done a lot with WebOs and it seems HP is open to it. There are a lot of apps which allow the system to be overclocked, the ripple pointer to stop and other to raise the volume of the speakers. Is it very simple to do this.
Everything I’ve read implies that Android runs smoothly and most people are amazed at how well it runs. Andoid fanboys or I guess fangirls as well, suggest getting rid of WebOs the first chance you can get and put Android on it. Some even suggest just consider it an Android tablet since WebOs is not good and to get this amount of hardware for an Android tablet at this price is amazing.
-The power of Facebook App. I read a few rumours online that claim Apple wanted to have the first tablet to have an App specifically designed for it. However, the Touchpad became the first one to do so. I do enjoy the App and it has a few extra options in the way you view things which is kind of neat, but it’s more a gimmick than anything.


Cons
-The Usb cable. What the heck? Its a cable that you can plug into your computer and you can copy stuff to the tablet but you can’t recharge off of it? That’s ridiculous. What the heck HP?
-WebOS support seems dead. Yes there was an update recently which fixed a few things, but hard to say if there will be anymore support. The future is grim in this respect.
-Slow. The WebOs lags a bit. Yes the updates have improved a lot of things, but it’s no Ipad. If you have used an Ipad you know how fast and smooth the Os is. With WebOs you can feel the lag and notice it even after the newest update.
-It is no Ipad Killer as some people have claimed. It lies somewhere between and Ipad 1 and an Ipad 2 in many ways, but it is still not as smooth on any level.
-Lack of Apps. Supposedly 1,000 Apps are in the store built specifically for the Touchpad. There are 6,000 Palm Pre apps I read that are accessible and most usable I read (which I’ve never tried). They are not made for the Touchpad so they may upscale themselves and not look as good.
-If you run Android, camera, microphone and AGPS will not work unless future updates by the port are fixed.
-Its a magnet for fingerprints. I don't think the Ipad is as bad, but when I look at the screen after a few mins, I can see tons of oily fingerprints.
-Battery Life. I thought the battery life was pretty good on most smartphones and tablets these days, but I guess not. Even my old Iphone 3G after using it for half a year the battery started to die. It would run one day at quite a bit of use. The touchpad seems terrible. Its possible I just got a dud. Some websites report 8 hours of usages.  The percentage by just playing music or leaving it on its draining like its water from a hose. When I used the Ipad 2 I was playing Angry Birds HD and after 5mins the battery hadn’t drained even 1%.

Bottom Line
Did I make the right purchase? For me, yes I did. For you, you need to decide yourself.
If you are looking for your first tablet this may be the one. Especially if you buy it used from someone you may be able to get an incredible deal. Firesale was $99 but I don’t think you can find that deal anywhere anymore.
If you have to pay full price or close to full price I’d say stay away.
A lot of people are put off by the Operating System. You can always replace it with Android. Or according to rumours wait a bit and Windows 8 may, not 100%, but may work on it.
If you can get it for $99 I don’t think you can go wrong, if you need to pay more than that, decide if you are willing to experiment or would rather spend the money on a tablet you know is great.
For me this price, the ability to dual boot and the power of the tablet makes it worth it. Even though I paid $200 I feel like I got a deal since it used to be $500.