Sentimental Value

I cried once in front of a lost and found attendant, not because I was frustrated at that attendent but because I lost a gift that I've been using for quite a while.  Anyhow,  since then I've been following the founder's keeper rule!

Today I'll let you know how I turned a small bag of marbles into a huge bag of marbles.

The story probably starts off like this,  some person's granny or grandpa or mom or dad or auntie and uncle bought such person, a child, a nice bag of marbles.  Such person leaves stuff around all the time.  One fine day, the bag of marbles was left behind by that fortunate child and (this is where I come in) I, being another lucky child, discovered that lost bag of marbles during my walk home from school. 

Finally, I could compete with all the other kids during recess! After a whole year of recess marble playing, I won a nice variety of marbles and even got one crazy bone (FYI Marbles > Crazy Bone... imho).   Losing was NEVER an option.

Later on my marbles broke my gum ball machine :(.  I wish I kept my broken gum ball machine.

Noreply@whatevermail.com

Went through some old letters and wrote this reply.  See picture.

You think I am this... think again!

If you have been following my blog, you will know that I bought a chair recently!  Secretly, it's a drum or part of a piano.

Yesterday, I was making music with my new chair.  I was the hammer and my chair was the keys I was hammering.  It's a sturdy chair for a teddy bear.

The Tale of Goldilock retold? Sorry about my rambling.

As I was drumming away on my cute little chair, I thought of the story of a girl who ventured into the home of three wild bears.  I heard this story before and even looked at the illustration of a book I had picked out as a child a few decades ago.  No one ever properly read the story to me but I am old enough to read it to myself now.  It is a children's book after all.

Before I re-read this story, I am going to write down the story that I roughly thought of while drumming away on my cute little chair.

The girl was lost in the forest and stumbled upon a cute little house.  Well, not little, but cute.  It's for three wild teddy bears after all!  There was no lock on the door and no one answered the door so the girl just took her time exploring the entire house and broke many things.  The only thing that didn't break was a chair that was cute as a button.  She had too much fun making sound with it.

Unfortunately, years later, another girl came and broke that chair too.

--end of story--

You can actually practice drumming by hitting your jaw bone through your skin lightly, I used to do that.  I still do sometimes.  When you lightly tap or pat a wood, it makes a very soothing sound.  At least to me anyways.

My parents always let me choose a book or two during planned outings,  I tend to just look at the pictures and I get a rough translation reading or no reading at all so I have many books to go through.

My First Tin Box

I don't know who gave me my first tin box but for some reason I still have it.  It has been scratched and rusted a little.  I bought a new one recently, not a used one. Same size and all but with a different art design.  My old tin box featured a character who was very very popular, I believe this character is still very very popular.  I never had much feeling toward this character.

I am not sure if the tin box I purchased featured a popular character or a bunch of popular characters or just some pictures of human-like things.  I am currently using this still in fashion tin box to hold my never been used playing cards which came with the tin box.  I added other playing cards into the tin box.

Electronic Trash

Last night, I read the definition of the words "phone" and "pager".  This morning, I read the definition for the words "phone" (yes, again) and "communication.  Just now, I read the definition of the word "computer".  I was starting to be confused with what a phone is and its purpose.  In case you are wondering, I also looked up the word "android".  Android based on my reading of the definition in my dictionary only exists in science fiction books and films.

You use the phone to speak with someone in another place.  Before the phone, you would have to yell to speak with someone in another place and hope that they can hear you.

You use the pager to let someone know you are trying to phone them.

Communication is a message that you send while Communications is the broadcast of information.

Finally, the computer is the master of information but it can only retrieve what is stored.

The phone and pager serve great purposes.  Technology has improved so much that a lot of science fiction are no longer fiction, like flying.

Sometimes, I wonder if, at certain places on Earth, the things that are possible are still fictional.

My First 5 Minutes Speech in Canada

My first five (5) minutes speech in Canada was about the Chinese language.  As my English was poor, I had to bring in handwritten/drawn pictures to assist with my lack of speech and illustrates some of my points .

Thinking back to my presentation, the pictures assisted with my speech greatly because I was speaking about the written Chinese language and not the spoken dialects.  Specifically, I was speaking about what I know of the traditional Chinese characters.  To explain my point about how the characters were created based on appearance, I shown the evolution of the word Sun, water and some other characters that I cannot remember.  For example, at the beginning, the Chinese character for Sun was simply a circle with a dot in the middle.  Eventually, it became how it looks like today.

I taped my drawings all over the blackboard and went over them picture by picture. I wonder how someone else will give this speech today with all the new or improved technologies.

If I was a teacher, I wonder if it is mundane or very interesting to listen to speeches every year.  I always dragged the annual speeches because I disliked public speaking very much; however, I loved hearing other people speeches on the day that I am not presenting.

Family Day

Used to be every Sunday.  Great family day for us today.  Look at our smiles!

Garage Sale 101

Today is Saturday.  Garage Sale Day!

I went to two today and there were many things I wanted to buy.  I brought  about $60+ but I didn't want to spent.

Whatever you buy make sure you love.  I got this lovely calendar that's going to last a lifetime!   I can even make changes to it :).

From my years of garage sale shopping.   I usually offend the seller with my low ball offer.  It's really nice when I actually get away with it.

Some sellers mark their price really low to begin with but they still allow for bargain downs.  

That's why it's fun.

If you love what you bought,  it's always worth it no matter what the price is.

Vacation Time

This post is intended for first time travelers who are feeling nervous or anxious about their up and coming trip.  If you stumble upon this article, chances are you have already read whole bunch of lists and etc.  You are probably way too prepared.

Just remember to breath, relax and have fun.   That's what a vacation is for.   There will be help if you need them.   No need to panic.

Someone else's dream

I don't know what you thought of when you read the title to this blog post.  Much like I won't know what someone else's dream is.

It's lovely to dream.   The impossible only become possible because someone somewhere dreams.   There's no such thing as a dream that's too small or too big.   A dream is a dream.

Lately when I watch dance or singing competitions,  I think I can understand why choreographers, composers and other creative people appears so grateful and thankful after a performance.   Perhaps they see what they want to create in their head yet they cannot perform it themselves or they cannot find people who can do what they need them to do.   That's why it's really touching when you see someone making someone else's dream a reality.

Upgrades, Changes and Requests

There has been a lot of changes to the community where I resided for most of my life.  It has been upgraded from a town to a city, its population has increased and undergone quite a number of changes.  One of the changes I've mentioned in an amateur poem was our changing platform.  Today, I would like to reflect on some of our roads/streets "upgrades".

The first funny upgrade I would like to mention is the replacement of a stop sign with a crossing light.  It was funny when it was first changed because I was so used to stopping at the stop sign that I would still stop even when the light was green.  When it was first installed, I thought it was a great idea but I sort of miss the stop sign.  It's a different type of driving.  I guess I'll just have to wait for a flashing red, meaning I am now a stop sign again because I am not working.

An ugly thing installed would be some ugly park signs.  Our park signs used to look very very pretty.  Recently, I saw some very ugly park signs.  It is not an upgrade, change or request.  I would be very sad if they take away our pretty old signs and replace them with ugly new signs.

Speaking of parks, we have some pretty interesting new playgrounds some of which replaced old ones.  While they are interesting, I also find them boring because many of them look similar.  Some are obviously more fun than others.  However, what I found sad is the disappearance of some nice element of old playgrounds like wooden pieces, big tire swings, etc.

Our old water tower, which used to be a landmark for me to walk home to has also been replaced with a tiny little sign.  Why couldn't we keep the old structure and make it into a play area that's open once a year or something?  I used to imagine that the gigantic water tower was filled with poop or something.

I am not going to mention anything that's seemingly working great but I will mention a change that has failed and was taken away.  They tried to install some very easily removable poles to stop drivers from butting/cutting ahead.  The poles were there for only a short period of time so I guess it didn't work probably because it caused an annoyance for people leaving the highway.  The distance between the highway and the poles was very short.

Some of the roads have also been widened, I am still driving as if the roads have not been widened so I stay in that one lane which used to be the only road available.

Our fire hydrants have grown a lot taller, they elevate from the ground, I am not sure if they are going to be soiled over afterwards or if they are going to stay elevated like they are levitating.

Maybe I should have gone to that construction city museum exhibit that stayed for an extended period of time due to popular demand.  I wonder if the construction city museum exhibit actually featured about the constructions that were going on around the city.  I guess I can always head to the library or the internet to look at all the "plans" and be even more confused.  In any event, I have been walking, running, biking and driving around the city pretending I am taking a tour at the construction city museum exhibit only mine is "live" with working equipment and people and things.

Anyways sorry about the rambling.  It's the middle of the week.

Light Bulbs!

There's some initiative going on right now to encourage people to make their homes more energy efficient.   One way of doing it is by changing light bulbs.

I just changed a whole loads of light bulbs.  It's sorta funny because our household already had energy efficient lightbulbs but we never installed them because the old ones were so long lasting.

My next step is to look into fluorescent light.

I'm not bulking up.  What if they invent some light bulbs that uses even less energy.

Easter Monday

Beautiful morning!

Yesterday morning

This was yesterday morning.  Wonder what I may see today.

Private Server

It was raining for half of the day today so instead of planting grass seed, I went to explore the virtual world instead.

It was pretty awesome because the private server is very old so no one plays there anymore.  There are all these places to explore and no one else hogging space and all.

It almost feels like I'm playing a beta online game or something where like you can only play by invitation or something.

Love it <3!

I must go back to play now, so no image today.  No time.

Good Friday! April 14, 2017

Special posting because this posting doesn't count! 

No garbage pick up today. Used card and gift?   Why did the giftee never receive them?

Never return gifts to the giftor.  This is not the answer.

Bumper Car Arena

As of the drafting of this blog post, I have not conducted research on the common/standard size of bumper car arena nor have I researched on the world's largest bumper car arena.

One unvoiced complaint I often have for bumper cars is that the wait is forever and the ride is short!   If you have people who has no armstrength or who does not know how to get out of a jam, you end up with an entire chain of bumper cars stuck and clogging the tiny arena and you can't even move!  

The solution is to make the arena bigger or to take away bumper cars so that there's more room for bumper car drivers to maneuver.

You can even have a bunch of bumper car arenas with one waiting area,  you never know which one you will be going into until it is your turn.

Amusement Park Date 101

Taking your girl to an amusement park she has never been to is priceless!  I hope I have demonstrated this point with my photo montage.  See how surprised I was by each ride.  Btw my date was my dad and I was in grade 7 (aka form 1, 1st year middle school, etc.).

There are a few prerequisites, the girl has to like going on rollar coasters and you have to like it more than she does.  Obviously, it will not be cool if you don't want to go on any rides.

Taking a girl to an amusement park she has been to a gazillion times basically means she can be your tour guide.  She won't be surprised by any of the rides.  In fact, she knows which rides are the funnest,  scariest or most painful.  Lastly, she will be prepared to pose at all photo spots.

In addition to the above,  you better win or be close to winning if you are going to attempt a game and declared previously that you will win her a lovely prize.  Participatory prize are for toddlers and grade school kids not when you are trying to impress a date.  Keep in mind that she might be counting the amount of money you spent before you got her her prize.  If you spent a hundred bucks and still nothing.. its really sad.  Don't try to buy the doll either,  that's lame too.

I am reporting a bot!

When I was online gaming which was at least a decade ago,  I'm occasionally  mistaken for a bot.  Basically I would return to the same dungeon everyday by myself and hunt at a well pay off area.   Hardly anyone goto where I go so occasionally when someone venture into my little dungeon,  they would ask if I was a bot.

Other people would make money by hunting or making rare item.  I just grinded and looked for price errors or a desperate seller.  I made my own items from time to time.   It was a lot of fun since everything was doable online.

In the real world,  I won't be able to make money or goto certain places by myself.   Afterall, I do not have all the skills my characters have in the game world.

I was a helpful person in quests but not very helpful during GW because my device would lag.  I can't even see what's going on.

I just had to get out when they brought in 3D.  My graphic card was going "7 gods".

I agree with some of the older gamers,  I miss games that looks like games.

If I was... casting director for Parody Bachelor or Bachelorette

I would probably get fired if I was the casting director for the Bachelor franchise; however,  if I was working on a reality dating show for people who are all here for the wrong reasons, I'll probably do a decent job.

Basically,  the show is the exact replica of a Bachelor/Bachelorette show, the fun mansion,  the amazing dates, the breathtaking location except the entire cast was discovered from Madison something.  Obviously, this show will have to be on some unknown channel! 

I'm a happy ending girl so it will be funny if the relationships found on this parody show end up working out and they live happily ever after.  Wouldn't it be funny if the success rate of romantic relationships formed on the people who were here for all the wrong reasons show is higher than the Bachelor or the Bachelorette. 

There you go another Mundane Monday!

Spring

Love how my neighbour's tree is growing like this.

Saturday Breakfast

Saturday is my favourite day to have breakfast because I can eat whatever I want and eat as long as I want and eat as much as I want.

There's a saying "eat like a king for breakfast".

You can't have a playful Saturday without a great breakfast!

Snow

Went for a leisurely run with my beloved today on the empty pedestrian route.  Winter is back!  <3 Snow

Rain

It doesn't rain much in Ontario so when I first came to Ontario,  I noticed that people doesn't carry umbrellas.  One of the hot selling items at a university campus is umbrellas on a rainy day.

It's been raining all day today, I love it.  It's cool but not cold and the air feels fresh.  The sound of the rain drops is also very soothing.  It's still raining right now,  maybe it will be misty tomorrow.

Rainy days are dreamy because nothing is clear and you can sing "I'm singing in the rain!" (With or without an umbrella).  Don't listen to rain drops on an application,  it's not the same.  

Punctual

Unless I got lost or I'm stuck somewhere,  I'm usually early or on time.  Much like the train that I used to ride to and from work everyday.  It came about every half hour during rush hour.   It's almost annoying that it's always on time because there is no reason to be late for work and I usually miss my ride home by 5 seconds.

The train time was an inconvenience to me because the train departed 10 minutes before the end of my day at work.  The following train didn't come until 40 minutes after that.  I usually lose track of time at work and have to make my 13 minutes walk/stroll into a 5 minutes run/speed walk.  I was the frequent person running in flats across the street, down some stairs, esculators and two food courts and finally up a long flight of stairs only to see the door closing in front of my face and the train leaving without me again.   If I was lucky, I would actually get on the train as the warning sound of the door closing came on.   This situation changed as they started renovating the station, completely blocked off my shortcut and assigned my train to a platform even further from me, I could no longer sprint to the train in 5 minutes.   Good times!

Toothbrush

When I was little, my teacher or parents or a book told me that the first toothbrush was made of a bone and coarse hair.  Before the invention of toothbrush, your finger was it!  Nowadays, toothbrushes are made mostly of plastic.  See photo.

Technology had made it more efficient and effective to brush teeth by providing us with electronic toothbrushes.   It even time and count your brushing for you.   You can even get singing electronic ones.   It rotates and serenades while brushing your teeth for you.   The singing toothbrushes are not very popular for obvious reasons that's why you can get them for $1.99 at the clearance bin from time to time.

I digress.

While the advance toothbrush provide you with a more effective and efficient brushing experience,  it takes away a slow start to your day or a relaxing end to your day that you can experience with a basic toothbrush.  You are in control of your own strokes and rotation.  Don't forget to brush your gum too!

An apple a day keep the dentist away!

Human Resources #1

Human Resources to me are two simple words.  Human and Resources; however, they become a it when you place them together.   I don't exactly know what human resources (aka HR) entails, I just know it is a very broad term.

My negative encounters with HR or lack thereof are plenty.  I actually haven't had that much encounters with HR but it's almost always negative so I'm going to say my negative experiences with HR are plentiful. 

Recruitment is tricky for the recruiters (R) and the potential candidates (PC).  Job postings are either so long or so short that PC don't want to apply.  R fish for PC by cold calling, cold social networking and cold professional networking.  Meanwhile, R also have a bank of applications that PC may have already submitted to.   After waiting forever and fishing forever,  PC just want to give up and forget R all together.

Once R manage to make an appointment,  R will disappear from the face of earth.   Don't expect them to validate your parking fee for you.   If they are nice and do not have too much work, they might contact PC and officially reject PC.

Now, PC return to some other HR people fully prepared to tell them what PC can do and what PC want but HR don't want to listen or read.

PC go to some other HR wanting to obtain information before diving into "work" again but PC had such a negative experience with  representatives from HR already that PC doesn't even want to go to such services.

With all that bad taste in the mouth so many times,  PC is doing close to nothing and, thus,  HR is no longer bothering PC.

To be continued...

Lazy River

Great day for a row down some rivers

How to have a successful playful Saturday

It's quite simple to have a playful Saturday.  Five requirements for a successful playful Saturday:

1. Not Sick (ie. Cold) - Chronic disease are ok.

2.  Good mood

3.  Well rested

4.  Food including water

5.  Clothes

See very simple.

My Saturdays usually starts off with an intensive workout, shower, sauna if I feel like it,  breakfast, wing it for the rest of the day.

My morning workout provides me with energy and mood for the beginning of a good day :D!