Android Candoid

Oh man....

2010-04-17T21:04:00.001-07:00

I'm going through a phase again. Feeling unloved, unintelligent, "un" a lot of things. Why do people do this to themselves? Can I blame it on purely on hormonal reasons? No, probably not. In fact, I know I can't.

I think I'm going through mid-life crisis at mid-20s. Feeling a little out of place, haven't quite achieved what I am hoping to, and that dream of retiring at 30 is definitely not happening. I'm feeling a loss of passion for life and for love, hopefully going back to school will help provide some guidance.

Time to do some re-alignment...

In the words of Engelbert..."Please release me and let me go..."

Why are people so rude?

2010-02-20T14:52:00.000-08:00

Ok, so as a Torontonian, we've had our share of compliants against the TTC, but what about the riders themselves? Look, we're all trying to get to work or get home as quickly as we can, but does that mean we do not have to concern ourselves with the other riders who are sharing the subway/ buses with us?

So many mornings I have waited in a line for the bus, only to see a few others who come along to start his/ her own line (or sometimes lines). Quite honestly, what did you think the rest of us were doing? What gives you the right to start your own line and then rush onto the bus?

And once you're on the bus, why won't the people move down the bus? Look, if I'm correct, you were probably standing at the stop waiting for the bus just 5 - 10 minutes ago. You KNOW how cold it is out there, so let's try to fit as many people onto the bus as we can. If you're not getting off until the final stop anyway, why are you so concerned with standing right at the door? Everyone has to get off when the bus arrives at the terminal regardless.

Here's one more thing that I do not understand - if you see an elderly person or a pregnant woman, why won't you get up from your seat? Ok, so maybe a few of you have twisted your ankle recently and you can't put too much pressure on your leg, but I would be dumbfounded if you're telling me that's every single person who has a seat on the train or bus. You have no idea how much extra weight the poor little pregnant girl is carrying. Or how much more difficult it is for an elderly person to maintain his/ her balance around those crazy curves on the road. You're young and capable, so why don't you give up your seat for someone who really really needs it?

So it seems that, we, as riders, have a fair bit of work to do too.

How do you know if a guy likes you?

2010-02-02T18:08:00.000-08:00

Ever wonder that? You know, you're kind of suspecting, but then you're not so sure either? I find myself pondering that these days, probably more often than a healthy dosage.

Technically, I'm not so sure I'm even interested in the guy, so why should it even matter right? I guess at the end of the day, we all have that little speck of curiosity we're looking to fulfill.

Of course, I could totally be oversensitive. I mean, I barely talk to this guy, it's just that I find him more quiet around me than around other people. Who knows, maybe he just finds me boring. Maybe we don't talk much because we don't share any common interests. Wow, if that is the case, I don't think I want to know because it'll totally crush me. And man, I'm a happy person so I do not want to be crushed emotionally.

Then I wonder to myself, if, if in fact he does like me, and we go on dates, what would we be talking about? Maybe it'll just end up being all awkward and we'll never talk to each another again after one date. That would be funny.

Hmm...maybe I just have too big a void to fill, too much time on my hand these days. Oh boy, I'm rambling on now. Oh well, better go to sleep and concentrate on something else!

TTC Fare Hike...yet again

2009-11-29T08:19:00.000-08:00

As a Torontonian, it is disturbing to see the continuous fare hikes at TTC. Year after year, the fare is increased to compensate for the large deficits they incur. As much as the TTC would like to blame this on the government and their lack of financial support, this certainly isn't the sole cause of the situation.

This year, the TTC proposed a new fare beginning in January, 2010. Hearing this news, many riders began to, what the TTC called, "hoarding" tokens. At one point, the TTC representative explained that by hoarding tokens, it would potentially cost them $5 million in revenue. Unforunately, he did not explain the reasons as to why. On other blog sites, people are speculating that he was referring to future revenues (after the fare increase).

The funny thing is, even though there is a potential shortfall of $5 million in future revenue, he did not consider the extra revenue that is going into the TTC EVERY SINGLE DAY since the hoarding began. If riders are purchasing as much as the TTC claims, there should be a sudden influx of revenue every day. This extra money can be used for investments, dump it into a short-term money market fund and make some extra interests off of it.

There are a few things I don't understand:

1. The TTC had to issue temporary tickets as a result of the severe token hoarding - yet they have a few control measures in place. Once they are sold out, there is usually a sign that says "Tokens sold out". Second, there is also a limit on how many you can buy each time. Lastly, there is a certain number of tokens going back into circulation every day.

The worst thing is, after like 3 days of issuing the tickets, they were all sold out! With tickets, it's not a matter of taking them out of the fare box and putting it back into circulation. Once they've been used, you can't recycle them for sale.

2. They claim the Metropass was giving riders "too good of a deal", so they have to adjust the price on that too. Firstly, there is no longer free parking offered on the Metropass. And second, in a normal 4-week month, you have to make at least 8 additional trips to break-even (A token fare will be $2.50, and the cost of the new pass will be $121. So to break-even, you at least have to make 48 trips on the pass). Think about it, 8 extra trips in a month? How is that a good deal?

One of their concerns is that the Metropass is now transferrable, and that is why they're losing a lot of money. To be honest, if I bought a Metropass to go to work, chances are I won't be able to let someone else use that pass for the 10 hours I'm at work.

They're putting an 11% increase on the cost of the pass, while most of the population will be stuck with a salary freeze or a very very minimal increase in salary. While their workers threatened to halt all operations if they did not receive their salary increase. How is that fair to the riders?

It's unfortunate because they basically know they are a monopoly in the city. There is not other public transportation system to compete with. The saddest thing is we call ourselves a "world-class city", and yet if anyone from any other world-class city was to come here, they would scoff at our dilapidated system, the mostly rude transit operators who aren't helpful with directions, and the little tokens we still use.

Come on TTC, grow up already.

*Visit ttcrider.ca to find out what you can do. It's a small glimmer of hope, but at least it's a start.

**Funny, when I was editing this post I just noticed a post from April 2008 where the TTC was threatening us with a strike. *sigh*

Beautiful SXM

2009-04-12T17:33:00.000-07:00

I just recently came back from a week vacation in Sint Maarten/ St.Martin, and boy, what a beautiful country it is. We stayed on the Dutch side at a place called the Pelican Resort. It's conveniently located near Simpson Bay with a wide array of restaurants, cafes, and even casinos.
We flew on Air Transat, a flight that left bright and early at 6:20am in the morning. We left home around 3:45am, it sounds early I know, but the excitement kept me up most of the time anyway. I was surprised there breakfast was included in-flight, especially with all the cost cutting these days. Had I known, I also wouldn't have spent the $3.75 on a cream cheese bagel.

In any event, we got on the flight and I fell asleep shortly after. By the time I woke up we were close to Sint Maarten and the flight was preparing to land. Of course I was all perky by then waiting to see our plane fly over the heads of the swimmers on Maho beach.

We arrived at SXM around 12pm. My wonderful man got us a rental car (a little white Daihatsu) and we were on our merry way to the resort. After checking in and dropping off our bags, we drove over to Philipsburgh and checked our some jewelery stores. By that time it was late in the afternoon so we stopped at Get Wet Beach Bar and grabbed a poutine and some beers. Beer prices were awesome in SXM...see below:

We returned to the resort shortly after and grabbed a Reine pizza from the on-site bakery as dinner. All the eating and beer drinking turned me into bed pretty quickly thereafter.

The next morning we grabbed breakfast at the same bakery, called Au Pain de Sucre. This place is a bakery/ cafe in the morning and in the evening a young French guy turns it into a pizzeria. We walked down at the marina to enjoy the scene and just spent the day lulling around the beach side. Later on, we went down to the Bucaneer beach bar by Kim Sha beach (another beach near the resort, within walking distance) and had a couple of shooters and ribs. It was a relaxing kind of day, and we picked up some groceries from Le Grand Marche to cook dinner.

Monday morning we picked up some baguette and croissants from the bakery for breakfast. We tried out this peach jam from France and it was amazing! I've never had a jam that contained more than 50% fruit in it. :)

Later in the day we drove over to the capital on the French side - Marigot. The architecture was distinctly different from the Dutch side and full of vibrant colours. We stopped at the docks to take some pictures of Fort Louis and ventured around town on foot. During our adventure, we came across a little herb/ gardening store called Au Comptoir du Jardin. I loved the little boutiquey feel of the store, and the store owners were extremely generous. They clearly explained each and every item to us with interesting stories. Look at all the goodies I scored!

We celebrated our 3 year anniversary that night at a restaurant called The Boat House, which served wonderful grilled seafood at reasonable prices.

On the following day we headed over to the beach early in the morning and enjoyed the beautiful sea. After a couple of hours at the beach (and about 10 mosquito bites later), we drove over to the buttefly farm and were surrounded by butterflies from around the world. I was really freaked out at first but the guide gave a wonderful explanation and calmed my fears. We drove around town for the day and visited our favourite place (okay, MY favourite place) Le Grand Marche again to prep for another delicious spaghetti dinner.

On Wednesday morning we had our giant papaya for breakfast. We lazied around the suite for a bit and finally got around to go out. My boyfriend took me to Grand Case for lolos (something I had been desiring before we even left for the trip), and we had so much fun! It was one of the best places to eat (in terms of food AND price) and they let us bum around long after we were done eating.

We walked around the beach some more and collected sand, and we drove over to Orient beach. It was one of the busiest beaches in SXM but it was such a looooooooooong stretch of beach the amount of people didn't bother me at all. We also spent a good part of the day being lost around the island (I got so confused with the turnabouts...), but we eventually found our way home.

On Thursday, we had more baguette and cheese for breakfast, and made some omlettes with more cheese. My boyfriend then took me to Philipsburgh and bought me some "shinies" (I love you hunny!), and we got a couple of freebies from the tourism brochures. We ate some more at Get Wet beach bar (and yes, I was drunk once again) and hit the beach again when we returned to the resort. For dinner we cooked some Korean vermicelli and instant noodles, and finished off the papaya for dessert.

On the last day we just chilled again. We had some more omlettes and cheese for breakfast, and then we went back to Margiot and bought more French goodies from the gardening store. Because it was Good Friday pretty much everything was closed, so we just hit the resort beach some more and gathered our thoughts before heading home on the following day.

I love this island, I really do. The people are nice, there's a lot of beaches, the weather wasn't overly humid either. I really look forward to going back one day!

Wasabi Japanese Buffet

2008-12-21T11:39:00.000-08:00

Last night we had dinner at the Wasabi Japanese Buffet up at Hwy 7 and Leslie, and it was definitely not worth the money we paid. The restaurant was set up like a fusion Japanese buffet + Mandarin, they had a good selection of hot foods and the sushi/ sashimi were the only items you had to order. You pick up the hot foods and desserts at the buffet area, just like the Mandarin.

The food wasn't bad so to speak, but the cost of the dinner was a hefty sum. The three of us paid close to $100 for the buffet. At that price, we could have eaten at a nice pasta or fish at Il Fornello, got a glass of wine, and shared a dessert.

If anyone is thinking of going, I definitely do not recommend it.

Zune me baby!

2008-07-01T18:37:00.000-07:00

I know people often get very skeptical about online surveys and how likely you'll see results, but man, I am no longer a skeptic!

First off, thank you so much to Microsoft and Matchstick for hosting this online survey, which, due to my qualifications, rendered me a brand new 8GB Zune!

After a very tiring battle with FedEx, I finally got my Zune at the office. I was more than excited to tear open the package and found some goodies - including my awesome player, some nice headphones, and the adapter that goes along with it.

This thing can sync to your computer wirelessly, between Zunes so you can easily swap music and cool vids with friends, and does lots of other cool stuff. There is a whole online community dedicated to this player. This thing also plays FM video (yes! no more FM adpaters), and has a full colour screen.

I am super-excited and can't wait to charget this thing up and try it out.

For those of you who are interested in an opportunity to do some good, or enter for a chance to win a $500 gift card at amazon, you can do the following:

1. log on to chatthreads.com and enter conversation ID 102 986 0204

2. follow the steps and tell them about your conversation (or how you learned about Zune)

3. then you can enter for a chance to win a $500 gift card or ask them to make a donation to your choice of charitable organization

I'll definitely post some more once I've begun trying this player out. Woohoo!

TTC strike looming

2008-04-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

This really gets me. Apparently a ticket booth operator makes over $50,000 cdn a year, and he/she gets paid overtime pay, potentially making up to $100,000 a year. You know, most of the population in Canada have to work their behinds off, and won't make anything near the base salary of $50,000. I think there is a time to be vocal and fight for your rights, and then there is a time to recognize and appreciate what you have. Look, by striking, you're making it even more difficult for those who are making less than you to begin with to get to work. Some of them may be unable to get to work, hence losing a part of their already minute salary as a reuslt of your desire to increase yours (which might I reiterate, is already higher than theirs to begin with). Perhaps it's time to wake up people.

And you know what else? Instead of counting the number of times they had striked, why don't we count the number of times they threatened to strike?

Personal care workers (PSWs)

2008-02-16T09:39:00.001-08:00

Look guys, PSWs are NOT freaking molly maids. So stop treating them like one. These are professionals who offer assistance with our daily lives, and the daily living activities of our loved ones. Stop treating them with little respect, or assume they're here to clean your house. They're here to provide you with personal support and relieve. Understand that, and start treating with more respect and as a professional.

Video game induces violent behaviours?

2008-02-16T09:35:00.000-08:00

Right. Whatever. I was riding the bus today and saw a mother with her son, who looked no more than 11 or 12 years old, holding a copy of GTA Vice City. He was 12 at most! (You may be wondering how I manage to figure that out, but I'm assuming most kids over 12 won't be wearing a Batman backpack.) Look, if you parents want to complain about how video games induces violent behaviours and all, that's fine, but perhaps you shouldn't be buying them a copy of those games. That's why there are ratings on those games now. And even if there aren't any ratings on the front cover, you probably shouldn't be buying your child a game that shows a guy with a gun in his hand. So...whatever.

Rule of Rose

2007-12-26T16:22:00.000-08:00

My brother bought me a new game for Christmas, it's called Rule of Rose. This game was actually banned over in the UK and Australia (and I heard Italy as well), specifically because it promotes the themes of lesbianism (is that a word?) and child violence. After playing it for about an hour, I was absolutely sucked into the world of Rule of Rose. The plot line is rather fascinating, you start off as the main character - Jennifer, who basically finds herself in the middle of nowhere as a result of following a little boy off a bus she was riding. As you wander around, you find a large mansion, which actually is an orphanage. You run around a little bit and eventually you are brought onto an airship, which is where most of the story takes place.

I'm still a level 3 right now, but I must admit the story is amazingly spell-binding and has captured my attention. There was a point where the other characters left rabbit dung in Jennifer's room and my brother had to remind me that it wasn't "my" room.

I won't talk about this too much, to avoid spoiling the story for anyone else who may be interested in trying out the game. I may eventually start off some posts discussing some theories for this game, but if I do, I will be sure to warn readers in advance.

Back to my game!

Red bull and alcohol?

2007-11-11T07:22:00.000-08:00

Now I know we North Americans love energy drinks, but I never knew people actually mixed Red Bull in with their alcohol until today. Red Bull with alcohol? Really? As far as I understand, one is a stimulate and the other is a depressant, so why would you actually mix the two together?

And I'm not the only one asking this question.

The stimulant in the drink causes the person to feel more energetic, and deceives him/her in his/her alcohol-intake level. Since you feel more energetic, you're tempted to think that you can consume more alcohol than your body can handle. What ends up happening in the end? Well, you feel more difficult in making correct decisions, you're more likely to get into accidents or injure yourself, and may exemplify agressive behaviours more frequently than a "normal drunk".

Hmm...negatives in the mix? Lots. Positives? I am yet able to find one.

So for the safety of your own body and those around, please don't mix energy drinks in with your alcohol.

Fat shocker

2007-10-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

You know how you aren't in the greatest shape, but you think you aren't doing so poorly health-wise? Well, I was there at one point, but recently that image was shattered into a million pieces.

Like most North Americans, I decided it was time to engage an active lifestyle and finally motivated myself to join a gym. Like all gyms, they do a fitness assessment to measure how physically fit and educated you are when it comes to exercising.

First off, I'm not particularly fond of the whole "fitness assessment" idea. Having someone measure every inch of my body in every possible way makes me feel like...well, like a pig. No, litereally. As the trainer writes down the measurement, I can hear farmer John's voice in my head, "Let's see here, 15"...that's a good size. You're almost ready for consumption."

Besides that, what I learn about myself can be quite frightening. You think you're doing fine and dandy, and you don't look overweight, so how bad can it be? Well, that's where the "fat-measuring thingymajig" will come into play. I rest my arm on the table, waiting for that (I expected to be relatively small) number to appear on the screen. It comes up, and I can't help but look at the monitor twice. 27.7%! A whopping 27.7% of my body is composed of fat. Eww! Thank you very much, I probably didn't want to know that (though I must admit this is very different from needing to know). My world just simply shattered. The whole "I'm not doing too bad" image? Poof! Gone! Outta here!

Now the up-side to that story is, yes there is an up-side, I better learn about this now than later. Why? At least it's easier to build up that metabolism now than 20 years down the road. I just need to watch that Royal Agricultural Fair commercial a little more frequently (for those outside of Ontario, the commercial depicts a piggy running on a treadmill) to keep me motivated. When I grow old and look back I can say, "Hey, I once had a pretty fit figure!"

I think that's something both myself and my organs will be pretty proud of.