hurc still can't do 10 chin-ups/pull-ups...

Years ago, at L&Y's holiday get together if I remember correctly, I had made a resolution that within the year, I would be able to do 10 chin-ups or pull-ups, I don't actually remember which one I had said.

No, I still can't do them. At least, I don't think I can.

For the past few months, gravy and deviline have been trying to recruit people to do the Ottawa marathon, or at the very least, the 10k. At first, I was intrigued, but I just felt that I didn't have the motivation or the drive to stick with the training. Maybe because I only saw them every so often, the encouragements were few and far between, so I lost interest pretty quickly.

Turns out that a few of my co-workers were thinking about doing it for the first time as well. They also tried to sell this to me, and I was very reluctant to accept. But you can't run away from people at work. They know where you sit. They eat lunch with you. They know your desk phone number. Finally, they hounded me enough and convinced me...

So I signed up for the 10k today at the Running Room close to work. Early signup ends tomorrow, so if I wanted the cheap entry fee, this was it. I also took the opportunity to get myself a decent pair of running shoes, and not just Nike's because they look nice.

Granted, this is nowhere near as ambitious as Amy's half marathon but it's still going to take some dedication from my part to train regularly...

14 weeks before the big day...

Anyway, how's that for a first post in months?

hurc *kinda* gets mugged again

so I brought my car in today to the dealer for one of those scheduled major tuneups, at 48000km, where they do a more complete checkup than the usual every 8000 clicks. It had only been about 2 months since the last tuneup at 40000km, so that tells you how much I've driven back and forth between Ottawa and Montreal. I knew right off the bat that this was going to cost me about $250. Ouch.

Anyway, I had also recently noticed that the brakes were kinda "jerky" when stopping, so I told the dealer about it. Leave my car in the morning before work, and pick it up after work.

5pm comes and I get to the dealer. He tells me they found the problem. Without getting too technical, he tells me the front right caliper seized. So because of that, that caliper, plus rotor and pads would need to be replaced. Lucky me, the caliper would be covered under the extended warranty I had purchased. But the rotor and pads would not be, since they were considered consumable parts.

How much does this set me back? Parts and labour, $400. Double Ouch.

hurc *thinks* he got mugged

ok. so I've been neglecting this blog. I've got a lot of little anecdotes I'd like to tell you guys, but for now, here's something that happened to me last night.

I was graciously invited over to Deviline's place for dinner last night. I decided that it was a pretty decent night, a little cool around 8pm but still good, so I would just walk over. Door to door, wearing my trusty iPod, it took a 10-minute brisk walk to get there.

Dinner was already ready when I entered. It's always nice to have a home cooked meal. Thanks Deviline. :) After eats, we watched CSI. It was alright last night, not one of the best I've seen. After the show, it was around 10pm, time to go home. M. had offered to drive me home, but I declined. The time it would have taken to go to the garage, drive out, wait for the lights, etc etc, was not worth the trouble. It's only a few blocks. What could possibly happen?

Halfway home, I was walking past this house when some guy exited the front door. Didn't think much of it.

He walks right up to my left and says: "Yo!"

I take off my iPod to hear him better. "You got any spare change?", he says.

He looked a little agitated, so I figure a little generosity would save me some trouble. I pull out my wallet to give him some change.

As I'm doing that, he says in a quicken pace: "You got any loonies? Twonies?"

So I open the change pocket of my wallet, grab a few coins, and reach out to hand them to him.

Then he says: "You got any bills?"

At that exact moment, I started to get a little nervous. Bills? I mean, pan handlers usually that aggressive, at least not the ones in Montreal. Even the squeegees are happy with a couple of quarters.

He continues with an even quicker speech: "Comon', comon'. Gimme all your change. "

Now, he's no longer really asking me to spare change. He's telling me to do it. Without thinking, I empty out the pocket and hand him all the change I had. I don't even have time to freak out when he turns around and starts chasing after another guy who passes by an alley on a bike.

"Hey you!", he yells at him, as he runs away with a handful of my change.

I'm two blocks away from home, so I continue walking, still not really realizing or even understanding what had just happened. I keep looking over my shoulder, thinking he would come back after me and ask me for the rest of my money or even my iPod. I quickly enter my building and into my appartment. I stop and ponder on the events of the last 10 minutes.

This guy never pointed any weapon at me, nor did he scream or talk to me in a loud voice. But he did look and sound agitated. He wasn't really threatening me, and I don't think I was ever in any real danger. But I did feel threatened. All he took off with was maybe $5 worth of change. I should be glad nothing else happened.

Did I get mugged? Did I get lucky? Am I being paranoid? Still feeling a bit weird today...

hurc is a lazy bum

after weeks of waiting, I finally got Internet at my digs in Ottawa. I promised Gravy that I would blog tonight, so here I am.

Only, I'm so sleepy right now, so I'm going to hit the sack. But don't worry, I will tell you guys about the last few weeks very soon. :)

hurc is a dormant gamer?

Based on a survey of almost 2,000 US online gamers, the market break up into the following segments:

Power gamers--Only accounting for 11 percent of the gaming audience, they make up 30 percent of the revenue drawn by retail and online games.

Social gamers--This self-explanatory group games for the social interactions with friends.

Leisure gamers--This group mostly sticks to casual games (playing as many as 58 hours a month), but doesn't shy away from challenging titles.

Dormant gamers--These people really enjoy gaming, but can't play often due to other time commitments. When they do find time to play, they prefer complex, challenging titles and playing with friends or family.

Incidental gamers--The incidental crowd plays games if they're bored and can spend more than 20 hours each month with online games.

Occasional gamers--Part of the previously labeled "casual" group, occasional gamers rarely stray beyond the genres of puzzle games, word games, and board games.

Source: http://www.gamespot.com/news/6156757.html

hurc is losing his memory

Random rant of the moment:

For those who use MSN Messenger, do you have anyone on your contact list that you just don't remember who they are? They pop in and out of your Online list every so often, and for the life of you, you just can't recall where they came from. It could be a coworker that you used to hang out, or a friend of a friend that you met only once. What do you do in these situations? Do you ping this person and straight up ask them who they are?

Actually, this pretty much extends to CEGEP, high school and elementary school. I hardly remember anyone during those days anymore. I mean, I sometimes remember faces, but I don't recall many names. Even for University, I have trouble remembering people I've met. I'm obviously not counting the people who I see regularly and who read this blog, but I won't always remember people I worked on projects with.

Didn't I just say in my previous post that I didn't feel old? *sigh*

hurc's life in O-town

I guess it's time for an update. It's been 5 weeks since I moved to Ottawa, and 4 weeks since I started at my new company. Let's start this bad ass post...

Work has been alright. Things are picking up considerably, but so far, I don't have to bring any work home with me. So that's a good thing. Unfortunately, I don't think the good times will last. I've already done a little overtime last week. It's not a huge deal, but that's how it all starts. All in all though, the new company is good. People are good, work is a little challenging, definitely different from the old job.

I've been renting out a room in a house for the last 3 weeks, but I'm looking forward to moving into my old place soon. My 1-bedroom appartment will be free this Friday, and I don't have a single piece of furniture to move in yet. This week, I'm probably going to head over to a Sleep Country or something and buy a nice mattress. They say you spend a third of your life sleeping, so you better get yourself a good comfortable mattress. Other than that, we'll play it by ear I guess. The next thing I really need is a TV, with cable and internet access. And a couch. And a desk for my computer. And a dinning table/coffee table. And chairs. Dammit. Not to mention a bunch of other things I need to take care once I have my new permanent address: driver's license, car license plates andinsurance, appartment insurance, ontario health insurance plan (ohip)...

I've been driving back to Montreal almost every weekend since I moved, bringing more clothes with me each time. It's only a 2 hour drive each way, so it's not a big deal for me. The minute I walk into the house, I suddenly feel exhausted. I guess when I'm in Ottawa, I'm always on my guard, always thinking about the things I need to get done. But when I'm home, I guess I feel more relaxed, and only then do I realize how tired I really am.

Did mention I hate going to the movies alone? Before Ottawa, I'd only ever gone to the movies alone once, and that was for Batman Begins, when I had to see it for a second time. But in the past 5 weeks, I've already done it FOUR times! I can see why some people are able to do it. You can take your time getting there, you don't have to wait for anyone, you don't have people whispering comments DURING the movie (although I sometimes will do it), etc. But if I had a choice, I would much rather go with someone. After a movie, I like to talk (re: complain) about the movie, what was good or bad about it, share the experience.

I went to see Pirates, Clerks 2, Talladega Nights and Little Miss Sunshine. Pirates was good, but too long, especially since the story doesn't end there. Clerks 2 was pretty good, what you'd expect from Kevin Smith. Talladega Nights is not that great at all, the more I think about, the more I think that Will Ferrell is MUCH funier is smaller doses (see Old School). Little Miss Sunshine had a lot of hype in the independant circuit. It was good, but I think the hype hurt it. Maybe because I was expecting Steve Carrell to have a much bigger role. I'd still recommend people to see it though. It's not a rental, but it may be a cheapy Tuesday flick. Now that I think about it, I don't think I saw a single movie this year where I thought deserved a full price admission. Last year, I paid full price to see Batman Begins twice, once on IMAX, and then bought the DVD. So far this year, nothing has been that good.

So I'm writing this blog from home in Montreal. I wanted to spend a nice quiet weekend at home for my birthday. That's right. For those who don't know, yesterday was my birthday. I turn 29 this year and I don't feel any older. If you would have asked me last year, I would have told you that I was starting to feel old. But this year, despite some drama (mainly due to my self-consciousness), I feel good about myself and the way things are going. I may not be beating off the ladies with a stick yet, but I'm not worried about that... for now...

It turns out that a couple of my friends, C&Y, were leaving town for Waterloo/Kitchener, and that it was C's birthday the day after mine! So they organized a dinner to celebrate both our birthdays as well as make it a going away dinner party. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant called Lombardi located on Duluth. It's "Bring your own wine", and I had some pretty wine that P had brought. And wouldn't you know it, I got pretty drunk and become the main spokesperson for Red Lobster. After dinner, we had this yummy carrot cake that Y baked for both C and I.

So that's that. Going to have dinner with the family tonight before heading back to O-town.

hurc knows way too much about Transformers...

Sorry Daich. This post has nothing to do with my experiences in Ottawa. Instead, I'd like to point you to the latest update on the live action Transformers movie, coming out next year. They've revealed which Transformers will be part of the movie.

http://www.superherohype.com/news/transformersnews.php?id=4657

It's a lot more than I thought there would be. The choices for the Autobots are pretty good. You knew that they would have at leasy Bubblebee and Jazz. Ratchet and Ironhide are good. But I'm a little confused on the ones for the Decepticons. They took out stuff that was cool with the Transfomers.

Like the Geshalts, Transformers who could combine with each other to form a larger robot. But here we have individual Deceptions without his teamates.

Brawl is part of the Combaticons, which formed Bruticus.
Bonecrusher is part of the Constructacons, which formed Devastator.

Then we have the cassettes. Frenzy is a cassette, but there's no Soundwave! I don't get this. So I'm guessing that Frenzy will be thrown into the story and will be just a short gimmick where some kid finds a tape cassette on the sidewalk and then discovers that there more than meets the eye...

Then we've got some serious time period issues. At some point, Micromasters and Headmasters were introduced, which were not very popular in North America, but apparently huge in Japan.

Barricade, Micromaster
Blackout, Micromaster
Scorponok, Headmaster

This movie is obviously going to be targeting people who watched the Transformers when they were kids. They won't be attracting too many new viewers. At least I don't think. The choice of Decepticons is really weird. I mean, If I see a bulldozer transform into a robot, I better see Devastator. But it's not gonna happen...

hurc's new PC

My sisters tell me that my new PC has arrived in Montreal. I'm excited, but I know I won't be playing with it until at least the next weekend. For that one person who's interested in what I got (zibby, talking to you), here are the specs:

- Asus P5LD2-VM Motherboard i945G 1066FSB mATX
- Cooler Master Centurion 5 Aluminum Front Bezel Black/Blue Case 380W w/ Window
- Intel Pentium D 805 2.66GHz Dual-Core Skt 775
- INTEL Extreme Graphics on-board
- Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 24-bit Sound Card OEM
- Western Digital 250GB SATA-2 Hard Drive 7200rpm 8MB Cache
- 2GB RAM (don't have exact specs right now)
- LG GSA-H10A DVD Writer 16x +/- DVD-RW Black OEM
- Mitsumi Floppy + 7-in-1 USB Media Drive Black
- Logitech Internet Keyboard and Optical Mouse (Black)
- LG L1932T 19" Silver LCD 4ms 1400:1 300cd/m2 DVI

So what OS should I install on this unit?

hurc has left the nest

It's done. 2 weeks ago, I finally moved out of my parents. I've already started at my new job in Ottawa and have an appartment lined up that I'm moving into in September. In the meantime, I've rented a room from a friend of Gravy's (thx dude). So I don't really have my own space yet, where I can start buying furnitute and stuff.

The last few weeks have just flown by... The last week at my previous company... My first week in Ottawa where I'm looking for a place... My first week at the new company... I've driven back home every weekend since, so I haven't really had the chance to get home sick.

But I will say this: I do miss the home cooking. I've had so much junk food in the past 2 weeks, eaten at so many burger joints, I don't think you could name any major chain that I haven't already had: McD's, Wendy's, Burger King, Harvey's, Taco Bell, KFC, Quizno's... the list goes on. I'm kinda waiting for my own place before I start cooking for myself. A. bought me a cookbook for Chinese cuisine, complete with full color pictures! :P

I'm currently using J.'s old laptop, which is more than functional for internet stuff, but still horribly slow. So I gave in last week and bought myself another computer. zibalatz pointed out this great site for computers and computer parts, called Cancomputer.com. So I got myself a nice flat panel (yeah man, the 19" 4ms 1400:1 one) and an Intel Duo CPU desktop with 2GB of RAM. I haven't received it yet, but I probably won't be bringing back to Ottawa until I get my appartment anyway. Haven't really decided what I want to install on the PC yet. Any suggestions? The easiest is obviously XP Pro, but I'm considering 2003 Server, and not sure if I should try Vista Beta 2, or even Linux.

Oh, anyone recognize the bird above? have you guys seen the Pixar short For The Birds? It played right before Monsters Inc and it's definitely my favorite animated short. For years, I've been looking for a plush toy of the little birds. I know one definitely exists. Pixar held some animation/rendering contest where the prize was a plushie toy equipped with a squeaker! Alas, none were available for retail, and I haven't even seen it on eBay. If anyone finds it, my birthday is coming up you know...

hurc's hair

2 months ago, I finally had my hair cut for buddy's wedding. Before that, I had let my hair grow for more than a year. It got long enough to tie into a small pony tail. Personally, I thought it looked pretty cool. I actually got quite a few compliments. It was definitely different from the normal buzz cuts that I used to get. My sisters were probably the only ones who thought I looked horrible. But in general, people seemed to like it.

I was referred to this hair stylist on St-Denis called Coiffure Boyo. They did a good job for my first hair cut, and in the summer time, my hair grows faster than the ones on Chewbacca's back. So I went back to the hair stylist a couple weeks ago, and got a pretty stylin' cut. At the same time, I started wearing my contacts again. With a little gel, I look quite different compared to the hippie hair and glasses.

Now, the reaction people get when they first see me is... they don't recognize me. I'm looking straight at them, and I get the feeling that they're staring at a stranger. It usually takes people a good 3-4 seconds before they say: "is that you, Andrew?" And then the compliments start pouring in.

After hanging out for a bit, the subject will then start to move towards my long hair days. The same people that had previously said my hair looked good, are now suddenly saying how awful it actually looked and how much they love the new 'do.

I wouldn't be blogging about this if this had only happened to me once. This scenario has happened to me at least 5 times in the 2 weeks I've had this cut. I guess it's good that people like it, but then again, I thought people liked my long hair too.

So now, I'm actually wondering what people REALLY think of my current hair. Are they being nice again to not hurt my feelings? Is it a little TOO stylish? Does it REALLY look good?

Screw you guys, I always look good. :P

Oh, here's a recent family jump picture. Enjoy.

hurc's week of madness

This week has been madness.

It's second to last week of work at my current company, so I'm doing everything I can to tie up all the loose ends. Trust me when I say this, there are a LOT of loose ends. It is impossible for me to do everything, but at least I won't feel guilty for not trying.

Not only am I putting in a lot of work hours, I had various get-togethers organized for practically every evening up to tomorrow.

Tuesday: Mahjong night! I always look forward to these nights. Even though one of the usual participants is back home in HK for the summer (sigh), it's still a great way to spend an evening. One of my sisters came along and did quite well. I think in general it was pretty even.

Wednesday: I'm a groomsman for yet another wedding that's coming up soon. The wedding is on the 22nd, so on this night, there was rehearsal at the church. I also got the passage I'm supposed to read at the church... in front of 200 people... in French. Yup. it's going to be interesting.

Thursday: Went to dinner with my not-so-little-anymore cousins and my sisters. Table of 7 people, with myself as the only male. Nice. We went to Zenya where one of my cousins knew the waiters and managers. We got so many freebies it was crazy. And yet, it still cost me my left arm. But it was worth, everything was very good. I especially like the "fish foie gras", I don't remember the exact name of the dish or the fish.

Friday: Went to see a comedy show from the Just-For-Laughs festival, called Asian Invasion. It was amazing! I think everyone else prefered Sugar Sammy, but I think I liked Dr.Ken. But I have to say, Sugar Sammy's bit on "French men being one beer away from being gay" is hilarious. Gotta look for their other routines on the net...

Saturday: It should be a nice day to relax and enjoy the great weather we've been having. I had a birthday beach party to go to at Oka beach, but it started to pour rain, so it was cancelled and the party was held at someone's house instead. It was my friend's baby's first birthday. It ended early for me cuz I'm wiped from this whole week...

Tomorrow, I'm going to play golf in the morning, then dinner with the ole CS gang... And then the countdown really begins for the end of an era...

hurc likes to eat

Here are some good restaurants I've been to recently:

Au Pied De Cochon, 536 Duluth East. I had ordered the deer steak that came fries and homemade mayo. The steak was decent and the mayo was great, but the fries had no flavor and were really bad. But the duck in a can that my friend had was amazing. Imagine a nice slice of duck, skin and fat included, stuffed into a can with a big piece of foie gras (yes, I know how it's made... ) and trimmings, which is then sealed and then boiled. The can acts like a pressure cooker and when it's ready, it's opened right in front of you, served on top of a mound of crusted bread and mashed potatoes. The duck in a case would put you back 36$, but hey, I've paid much more than that just for sushi.

Le Paris-Beurre, 1226 Van Horne. The sweetbread I had was just great. I'd had it for the first time this year at a friend's BBQ, so when I saw this on the menu, I had to have it. It was served with caramelized pears which was soft and sweet, a perfect compliment to the sweetbread. The dessert was pretty good too, a thin apple pie served with vanilla ice cream. Somewhat less pricey than the other restaurant, but still up there, as is most French/Quebecois fine cuisine.

La Banquise, 994 Rachel East. I'd never heard of this place before, but when I mention it to people, they just stare at me as if my face was falling off. Apparently, this is the place to go for poutine. they have over 20 different varieties of poutine. I had the Mexican poutine which was pretty good, but I don't find the cheese to be squeaky enough. The real attraction for me, is that this place is open 7/24. If you didn't already know, poutine is great hangover food. Obviously, this is the least pricey of the bunch mentioned here.

Chu Chai, 4088 St-Denis. This is a 100% vegetarian restaurant, which features traditional Thai dishes. They've got vegetarian chicken, beef, pork, duck... When it's served, it looks exactly like the meat it's supposed to mimic. I believe all the mocks meats are prepared using soy products. I had the vegetarian meat and fried seaweed appetizer. Both were delicious!

Funny how I started discovering all these restaurants once I had decided to move to Ottawa... I hope I'll find some good places there...

hurc's moving to Ottawa

Yesterday, an announcement was made public at work: I am quitting my current position and leaving the company I've been with for almost 5 years. A new opportunity came up a few weeks ago and I've been working on it since. Everything was officially signed this week, but I did not want to blog about it until everything was a done deal. I start at that new company on July 31st.

It's kinda fitting that I'm blogging about my move to Ottawa, the nation's capital, on Canada Day. Dontcha think?! :)

I have mixed feelings about all of this, most of them are positive, but I still feel sad. I've been my current company almost since graduation. I've lived with my parents and in Montreal all my life. Most of my old and new friends are in Montreal. So many changes in such a short amount of time.

Don't get me wrong. I'm excited at all the possibilities. But I guess my "too-nice-a-guy" persona goes hand-in-hand with my usual "play-it-safe" mentality. I don't usually go out on a limb, and I'll usually walk on the safe side of the sidewalk. Well, not counting that little stunt I pulled last October. But anyway...

I want to say that this will be a fresh start, but I know that I won't be cutting Montreal out of my life anytime soon. I mean, it's only a 2-hour drive away. I'll probably be driving back at least every other week. I've got my Sunday hockey games in the Autumn that I'm hoping to be able to come back for. But I guess I'll see when I get there.

Things happen, things change. Maybe I'll start seeing someone in Ottawa and won't have time to come back home so often. Or maybe I'll start seeing "someone" in Montreal and I'd be coming back so often that people will see even more of me than when I was actually living here.

yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking. "stop thinking about her! it's not gonna happen."

hurc something something Spider-man 3 someting something

AWESOME TEASER.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/spider-man_3/large.html

For those unfamiliar with Spider-man lore... here are the characters we get a glimpse of in the trailer...

Sandman
Eddie Brock
Venom
Gwen Stacy
Green Goblin 2 or Hobgoblin

Yes yes. I know I'm leaving some fo you in suspense with my last blog post, but I'm just too damn excited about this movie...

Oh, anyone going to see Superman Returns?