Ah-Drew's Space

My boss's son is a nice guy, but the way he does things is quite odd at times. He told me back in Dec 07 that he is giving me a raise. He didn't tell me the amount and kind of let this drag on for a month. March 15, 2008 is the 2yr anniversary, I am expecting my raise to be effective at that time. As it turns out, I got a tiny raise, but here is the odd thing, the raise was made RETROACTIVE to July 2007. This little adjustment have a bigger impact to actual dollar going to my bank than my whole year's bonus. I don't know why he did this, I mean he would have made me a happier man had he just give me a raise back in July. Then most likely I would not have stop OT-ing for the company (for free). Otherwise, he could have just give me a Bigger raise and made it effective March 2008. A bigger salary /yr figure would stop/discourage me from searching for new job and/or move to HK. O WELL whatever. I got the news + adjustment cheque today, I am happy and that is all that matters.

I was not expecting much, I know quite well the company wasn't doing too well financially. Well, not well financially compared to my previous employment in the same company when the company had the best year ever in the last year I worked there. Now, the success had nothing to do with me, the sales keep coming in and I am just one of the employee who keep the money coming. I suppose I made everyone's work easier by forcing people to move from paper records, hand written calender to computerized methods. The boss liked me a LOT back then, always take my idea over others Wink

. Many things started to fall apart after I left and we have never really recover. Even after I came back, it is problems after problems. I still remember the first day I came back to this company, we got a law suit letter. What a way to welcome me back to the company. The first day I walk into the office, the boss came out from his room to greet me, I think he even gave me a hug. "Welcome home Andrew, guess what I got, Company XYZ is suing us. Here you go, I am going home now." He hands me the letter and went home to continue his semi-retirement. The amount of trust my boss placed in me is what kept me in this BORING job. The law suit was the first of the many MANY problems I faced and solved over the past 2 year and as the company start to go back on track, the job got more and more routine and boring.

I really wanted to leave this company, but reality is such a cruel thing. All along I keep thinking about finding a different job, take a pay cut for a dream job...etc, but today I discover a truth about myself. Money alone is enough keep me in a boring job. The cruel part is not that I am stuck at a boring job, the cruel part is that I discover I am person that will allow myself to be stuck in a boring job for sake of a tad more money.

Just last week, I am whining about my parents being jobless, I am stuck with a boring job and can't aford to dump my current job for a better more enjoyable job. Today, I realize I should just set a very expensive GOAL/gift for myself then I can take my mind off the fact that my job is boring. I need to be working hard no matter how boring my job may seems. I need to be working hard, playing hard, thats my style, so this year I am going to find ways to make money in my spare time if I need to. The moment I start going half-heartedly in my job, the job gets more boring and the vicious cycle begins and I will lack motivation to do anything.

So after N years of not setting any goals, here is my goal for 2008.

- HD TV (forget 32 inch, 42 inch + nothing less) + some sort of DVD/BR player/PS3 + HD cable box + MAYBE (2 speaker + sub set).

- upgrade to 2G ram for my computer

- shin guard, hockey glove

I will just keep adding to this list as the year comes along and use buying gargets as my motivation to work harder.

January 02

Boxing Day

This year was suppose to be a big year, because I had buying a HD TV in mind and that is like the biggest purchase for me $ wise since I brought my car. I went thru a petty big pile of flyers and nothing caught my interest. It seems most shops are trying to get rid of the first generation 720p HD TV and there was not much 1080p tv that were on the doorcrasher list. The ones that were door crasher 1080 either is not the brand I want or not the size I want.

So with no incentive what-so-ever, I wake up at like 1pm, which means in theory I missed all "good" sales, but thats ok, there was none that interested me.

I went to Visions, A&B sound then future shop. I had budgeted ~1800 for a 32" or 42" HDTV + accessories and know how much I can go over.

Vision is the best shop out of the 3, they have petty nice setup in the shop that allows me to do side by side comparison between TVs.

My dad still cant drive, so my parents tag along. They were way more excited than I was and they were pushing me REALLY REALLY hard to make a purchase (you will see why later)

I liked one particular panasonic plasma, it looked GREAT and basically is cheaper than all LCD of same size. Too bad I petty much decided against plasma as I want to hook up my computer to the TV and It would really suck if the windows start menu burn into the tube. The salesman said Plasma are almost as good as LCD nowadays in turns of life span and they addressed most problems in the first generation such as image burn-in. Now, I believe him regarding plasma making great leap to address earlier problems, but in turns of life span of the TV, I have my doubts. Cheaper, "pontentially" shorter life span, better color.

For those of you who are looking for a HD TV, know this. Plasma looks better than LCD hands down.

I still would like to have a LCD. Of the LCDs, Toshiba, Sony, Sharp, panasonic looked the best, with samsung closely behind, followed by LG, Hitachi. Other brands like dayteck, RCA are CLEARLY not as good. For example, Futureshop has a Sharp beside a LG, the sharp was clearly better in color. Better contrast that is specially clear when you look at a dark grey sky. (Both TV is playing the same movie on HDMI signal) I say spend the extra 50-100 and get the better brand.

I cant tell 60hz from 120hz no matter what I try. I guess it is a marketing gimmick at this point. With 120hz ones costing ~500-800 more, I think I will go for 60 hz ones. In fact on video that had less action/movement the color seems to be more stable and more vivid in 60hz model.

So after all the looking around I come to decide between a few models.

Toshiba 42" HDTV Widescreen LCD Television 42HL167 - $1400

Toshiba 42" HDTV Widescreen LCD Television 42HL117 - $1200

Sharp 42" AQUOS HDTV Widescreen LCD Television LC42D62U - $1300

LC42D64U - $1500

LC42D72U - $1500

Now, I am NO EXPERT, all 5 model above are 1080p and under $1500 in price. I have no idea what is the difference between them spec wise at the time I was at the store other than that they looked as good as the LCDs that cost above $1500. Now, since they all looked the same to me, clearly better than the LGs and subjectively better than the samsung, naturally I pick the Toshiba 42HL117 - $1200.

How here comes the cost. 1200 + 50 shipping + 450 for HD cable box(a must, since one of the main feature of HD is that watching Hockey is like a totally different game with HD.) + $30 HDMI cables + 100 HD DVD 1080 upscale player = 1830... + tax => 2100. About 300 over my targeted budget and I have to add ~19/month cable fee for HD package.

It is over my target, but well within what I can afford if I wanted to. So just when I am wondering if I should buy, my dad and mom who have been pushing me to buy things all day told me "I work so hard, I need to reward myself"..."enjoy life, no point hugging money"...etc. THEN the turning point, my dad offered to chip in $500. Specifically MY DAD suggesting he will chip in $500. Now, I have been living with my parents all my life, I KNOW something is WRONG HERE. I AM SUSPECTING my DAD THINKS I am buying this as a gift to him for his recovery from cancer or something... HAHA FAT CHANCE buddy... You dont need a HD TV to watch CNN NEWS channel. Soooo I test them. I said "humm, maybe 42" is too big for my game/computer room, Maybe I should just go for a 32 inch.

The MOMENT I SAID THAT, BOTH my parent's face just 360 degrees changed. The last time I saw something close to this look was when I threaten to take my share of the house and move out when my dad had an itchy butt moment (chinese phase meaning can't sit still in one spot) and suggested to move house again. Then both my parent called me ridiculous to even suggest putting a brand new shiny TV in the computer room. WELL DUH... the computer room is where I spend MY TIME using computer AND watch TV at the same time?? The only time I spend any time in the living room is when there are guest over or when I am eating + watching Hockey. The living TV is actually petty good, I dont see a need to upgrade that TV. The only TV that needs upgrading is the computer room TV where MOM watch TV there like 99.99% of the time. So I ask my mom WHY WHY WHY put the TV in living room. She gave me a very simple answer. "Buy TV of course is to showoff la, how are the guest going to see it"... talk about failure logic. Now to my surprise both my parent wasn't thinking I am buying the TV for them, but both of them just naturally expect the TV to be in the living room. Now I dont mind sharing TV, I dont mind watching movie and hockey in Living room, but consider I do most of my TV watching in my compter room and that I want to hook the TV to the computer it just doesn't make sense to me. So I called it off and just throw the money at house as extra payment.

I came within a hairline of spending ~2100 on HDTV + HD DVD player + HD Cable box + ~19/month month fee and thanks to my dad's "offer" I called it off :P

Last time, I will ever take my dad shopping again...hahaha.

And that is how I wasted a half a day of my life. Stupid boxing day.

I still need to buy a HD TV, I jsut need to remember to not bring my parents along.

August 20

My dad has Cancer :(

Ok, I will just make it simple and drop the bomb. My dad has prostate cancer. My family knew something might be wrong for years, but we were never able to 100% confirm as the specialist wont authorize my dad to do a biopsy (take some cell to test). The process took forever and finally the family doctor had to write a petty serious toned letter attached to the request form for a biopsy for my dad for the Nth time. When it was finally authorized, my dad had to wait in the long hospital queue like everyone else. The medical system here SUCKS.

This cancer is supposed to be one of the easiest cancer to cure and one of the slowest cancer. MOST ppl makes full recovery. In fact, a lot of ppl die with this cancer rather than die from the cancer. Now due to this damn medical system and this Mr “I know everything from numbers in blood test” specialist, my Dad now have a cancer with a Gleason score of 7/10 to deal with. A simple 15 mins biopsy a year or 2 back would have taken so much worry out of our family, but nooo, the Mr “I know it all” specialist thinks it is better to have blood test every few months only to tell my dad the numbers are off the chart EVERY SINGLE time.

Enough of my rant, back to work.

August 02

Fishing July 31

I caught a huge rock cod, it was so big!!!! Everyone in the boat wanted to take a pic with my fish law.

Overall the fishing trip is ok la, not much fish where we went. Gone are the good old days where u just drop anything down and u get a 10lb + lingcod.

June 27

Misc stuff happening

June 14 - Car got broken into for the 4th time. All 4 times occur in the same work place. I tried parking everywhere.

Not as much damage as my last time, but still a huge dent to my door.

June 16 - Dr told me my Thyroid scan results came in and confirmed that I dont have cancer and then to his surprise I also dont have Grave's disease. Scan show my thyroid is just on the high side, but just within normal range. By process of elimalation, he concluded there is a virus infection near my thyroid which trigger its over activity. The virus will go away in 2-6 months. He said 100%... Ok, so I guess that is good news. I get to keep the source of my youth

June 30 - Skipping church picnic for Kaegirra meet, because I know K meet will probably be 917392732190% more fun

July 4-25 - Kayak "beginners" lesson @ some lake in Burnaby. I so don't belong in beginner group, but whatever, the other ppl who are going dont much experience wor. I would much prefer Deep Cove, but the lesson is only $45 for 4 so I can't complain.

May 30

No injection

So I went to the nuclear Medicine department in the hospital today.

Saw a really cool golden retriever leading a blind man around. The dog was very smart and very well trained. Such contrast to "Darwin"...

Anyways, to my surprise, the specialist told me I have a choice of injection or drink. So naturally I took the drink. I cant eat anything till 11:30am and have to hold still for 6 mins/scan X 4 scan. Other than that I feel normal. No sign of hair lost yet :P

The nurse told me the radioactive stuff will be pee-ed out over the next few days. Contrary to my believes, my pee didn’t have a green radioactive grow nor does it grow in the dark. What dissappointment...

May 16

as so many Hospital appointments...

May 30, one in morning, one in afternoon.

May 31, one in Morning

ewww ...

I hope the radioactive injection + scan dont make me too sick

May 12

I need to go to hospital for radiation treatment... ya... and like Happy Mother's day...

Did the title get your attention?? Haha, it is not as serious as it sounds, but if you bother to read my blog, you probably know me well enough to know I can be an attention whore sometimes

Well, 4 Dr. visit and 2 lab test, 4 tubes of blood taken, 1 breath test later, it is confirmed that a gland in my neck is producing too much of a certain chemical and it is 99.99% because of my immune system attacking it. So, what is the complication?

Me “So this chemical makes me skinny and have diarrhea?”

Dr. “Yes, on top of that, if you leave it untreated, when you are older, you will feel tired all the time and your bone will be weak. But don’t worry, even if you leave this untreated, it won’t directly shorten life expectancy”

Me “If I am weak and tired, I might as well be dead…”

Dr. “err”

Me “Hey, is that the reason I have trouble getting up early in the morning (specially Sunday)? And feel tired at work??”

Dr. “No, not for another 12-15 years and that is IF you leave this untreated”

My head “awww”

There are 2 common causes.

Me “So… what is the common cause?”

Dr. “Bad luck”

Me “Not something I eat/didn’t eat, do, bad habit…etc??”

Dr. “Nope, no known cause other than bad luck, either u have it or u don’t”

My head “ $^%)^@#^(@)#&() ”

Me “What is the cure?”

Dr. “You take a medicine for 9 months” (According to my research, I might have to take a one time treatment of IODINE, a poisonous radiative chemical)

Me “So the medicine will reduce the chemical and I will be fine for the rest of my life??”

Dr. “No, the medicine actually kills part of your gland, so with a weaken gland, it wont be able to produce as much chemical.

Me “I can’t just tell my immune system to stop??”

Dr. “Not unless u have Aids or something that cause your immune system to malfunction…You will die faster if I kill your immune system instead of the gland”

Me “What the heck, no other cure??”

Dr. “In the past, ppl have to have surgery to have part of their gland removed/cut, but I assume u wouldn’t opt for someone putting a knife on your neck.”

Me “ok, fine…”

Me “So what is the other not so common cause”

Dr. “U have a virus in the gland area.”

Me “What, THAT is the un-common cause?? and how is that different than the common cause”

Dr. “In this case, there is an actual reason for your immune system to attack, so we can leave it and check your chemical level again 6 months from now”

Me “So it is good news if I have that??”

Dr. “Ya, but you have been skinny and having diarrhea on and off for a while now and you don’t have a sore throat, so it’s very unlikely.

My head “@(*&#(@&#()@&#%^@#*@”

So how do I find out the cause? I have to go to the hospital, take a radiation chemical injection into my blood, then have a scanner record the “activities” in my neck area. In theory, the specialist will be able to tell the cause from the movement of the radiation chemical.

Mother’s Day…

Well, for the first time since like elementary school, I made a craft item for my mom as a gift.I think I did a decent job, see pictures below.

May 02

Home alone week!!!, McDonald Diet

Spiderman is out this week!!! Anyone wants to watch it with me?? I AM SPIDERMAN MOVIE FANS!!

Day 1 - Monday

Got up at 5:45am

drive my parents to airport, sent them off to a cruise for 5/6 days

drive to my friend's house, while waiting, eat a Chinese BBQ pork bun for breakfast without water (stuff it in dry LOL)

blah blah blah, drive my friend to airport

, at work by 8:30

Got my first zip of water @work...blah blah blah... Started work again at 10:30

Eat Sunday's left over lunch for lunch

Parker place food court food for dinner

Day 2

eat a Chinese BBQ pork bun for breakfast with chrysanthemum tea

Mcdonald lunch

Cooked my own dinner, tomato + egg fried with rice (from Sunday night) and a side dish of choi sum

Consumed a bag of Car Lok B while watching the canucks LOST

Day 3

I got up in the morning, sneeze, nose bleed for 15 mins +...

Is the side effect my McDonald lunch diet already surfacing???

Plan to have McDonald for Lunch again today!!!

April 24

Game 7 Thoughts

The jumbotron was the best thing ever, the light show before the game was great. I actually quite enjoy taking photos at the warm-up, it is MUCH MUCH harder than I thought.

The glass and the pole between the glass really screws up the auto focus.

I was on the lowest row on upper deck, just above where the cameramen are in the rink corner. At first I thought was eww what crappy tickets, I am at a corner. Sure I got the corner above the camermen, so there is nothing that obstruct my view, but it seem very far from the other side of the rink... BUT ……Guess which corner I GOT???

The one which has the best view on Linden’s game winning goal!!!!

AND THAT made everything alright.

Dallas goal: too far, too fast, NO IDEA what happened other than the red light came on. Praise the lord for the Jumbotron so I can watch the replay.

BTW, Luongo was NOT at his best for most part of the game, I am so glad he finally showed up when the canucks needed it. Turco seemed way more calm and much better rebound control…etc.

Sedin’s winning goal, the setup was clear, most of the ppl there know if the puck can get to H. Sedin he had a clear shot. I had a very good view on that goal.

The ppl at our corner started to whine about goals all happening on the “other” side.

Then third period…

Linden’s goal – Priceless, to see the puck SLOWLY rolls in and then the dallas defenseman POKE IT IN SOME MORE…that is where I lost whatever is left to my voice. I was going to take a pic, but I was high 5-ing random ppl around me <_< no time to get a pic…

1st empty net goal, the BUILDING WENT WILD, but I already lost my voice and I was already deaf

2^nd empty net goal, most of us were dancing already.

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