Hermie's convo... My First... His Third...

Arriving on time and in style the day before, today was the day to attend Hermie's convocation. Having missed his last two, there was no way I would miss this way (given I'd imagine this should be the last one afterall).

<-- the perfect university ad campaign look :)

Come to think of it, this is probably the first convo of someone else's that I've been to. I remember mine 4 years ago where I was falling asleep in mine (and being completely hungover didn't help keep me awake at all). On that note, I think it's pretty awesome to have a last name that starts with a 'Z'... because they usually get the biggest applause.. hahaha.

But nevertheless, it was worth the outing, that and they had free food and beverages after too. I guess MBAs are MBAs... The weather was really hot though, very humid days! I literally was melting within 15 minutes of walking outside. How did I survive this Toronto weather in the past!?

One more degree to add to the list. Congrats Hermie!

Nadura! Spotted and Bought

No specials today at the duty free.

But the Nadura was there! So I bought one :). Slowly completely my taste test of all Glenlivets!

The adventure continues.

Soccer on a Saturday!

Trying to play soccer more these days. Not only because I want to get in better shape, but also to not suck as much during those indoor games.

I am pretty horrible these days. Can't hit the ball properly, out of breadth < 15 minutes, my passes are no where near where I want it to be, and I can't score. I guess the best way to put it is I am a 'cardboard man'.... lol.

So with that, today I played. It was pretty fun. There was a good mix of people that I could do some practicing of different skills.

Got pissed off at one kid who kept dribbling the ball and not passing... so I took the ball from him... lol. (and yes, he was on my team). After that, he passed alot more - and we scored! Pretty douche move on my part, but oh well, I think it was more fun overall.

Did get decked early on in the game though (this guy didn't mean to, but still did a few sommersaults). So as part of it, landed awkwardly and sprained my right ankle. Though I still played for another 1.5 hours after that. Hahaha. Needless to say it was pretty painful afterwards once the adrenaline wore off.

Ouch!... But its okay, since I am going back to T.dot for a few weeks, I won't be doing anything active. So it will be good rest time for me ankle.

All done - summer time

Last assignment submitted at 2:21am - I am officially done all my assignments.

Summer time!

Hermit Mson

This weekend begins the hermit weekend - even blocked it off on Outlook.

Goal: Finish two assignments (or most of it)... do all my readings... finish all colloquias... Look up some info on trips.

Hopefully I make some progress on all of these things (especially these assignments)

On the word Tomolo

So I've been typing 'tomolo' quite a bit (in place of tomorrow) since I am just very used to typing this (and I claim it's alot faster to type).

I still remember that some time last year, I had someone send me a mail asking what 'tomolo' meant... haha.. I thought that was funny.

So our team was having lunch today, and our awesome PM decides to look up the definition of tomolo in Urban Dictionary...

In Urban Dictionary:
1. tomolo (27 up, 13 down)
...
Definition: literally 'tomorrow' if you're mentally retarded
Example: See you tomolo KEKEEK LOLLERZ ^_^
Source: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tomolo

It was pretty funny I thought. But at the same time I don't know if I should really be laughing. Now, will I stop using it?.. probably not..

So mentally retarded I guess I am ... lol.

Bought $50 worth of socks...

So at lecture, as I was listening to the wonders of biology, my eyes at one point ended up on good ol' Amazon. I started poking around randomly, looking at lens, then ended up looking at socks...

So I've been looking to increase my black socks collection for awhile now. But when I go to a store, they always seem to never be on sale (and being a 'bargain shopper' .. lol, I kept holding out). But today, lo and behold, the wonders of internet shows me that socks were on sale!

So with that, I look up various reviews, bought 3 different brands... and a few clicks later... $50 worth of socks!... Weeeeee!

I think I am slowly starting a tradition for myself where for every course, I would have to buy at least one thing online.

Update: Them socks arrived one week later... feel sooo good

Omakase for $60! - Soooo good - Mashiko

Now during the Chamber Choir volunteering, because there was so much free time, me and little genius talked about what's for dinner. Craving Japanese food in spite of the earthquake, under little genius's recommendation, we went and tried Mashiko.

This was a restaurant I had wanted to try for awhile now (it was in the top 10 Japanese restaurants to try on my list in S.town).

Arriving at 9pm (I was half an hour late as I lost trace of time working on my assignment), I saw the Omakase and when the server said it depends but last time someone had it it came out to about $70, so I went.. I want one :)

The Omakase was simply put, amazing. It was amazingly good and unique, and for its price, really worth it.

I don't remember all the dishes because there were so many, but some of them included:
- Geoduck sashimi with this really tasty sauce
- A kunimoto oyster on half shell (Seattle grown, not from Japan)
- daikon + tobiko dish (they put a slab of daikon, then top it off with tobiko. Sort of like the 'season melon' with dried scallop dish I thought.
- Albacore Toro Sashimi (This was yummy, it really does melt in my mouth)
- Tuna poke
- Sashimi of these really tiny mackerel tasting like fish
- A mackerel dish
- Rice with fermented soy beans (very sour)
- Clams cooked in a clay pot (this was on par with Matt's)
- cooked mackerel with kaze kasu sauce (pretty good, the sauce was yummy too)
- standard ice cream for dessert
... and a few others that I don't remember. In hindsight, I should have taken a picture of each - maybe next time I go I will do that.

So the kicker was, I thought this would easily be a $100+ outing (which I was totally prepared for given what I was eating). But then the bill came, and the omakase portion turned out to be ... only $60!!! If one were to think about it, this averages to < $6 a dish! compared to what the others on the table ordered, mine was easily the best tasting and most bang for the buck... hahaha. (It was only $60 because towards the end, I was starting to get full and I wasn't a big fan of mackerel and sour stuff, so I called off the remaining dishes)

3 hours later, $60 Omakase in my tummy, I head home, very satisfied.. Mmmmm...

We also got this corner table, so it was really nice and chill. Definitely will be coming here again.

Volunteering at Chamber Choir

Today the last of Seattle Works volunteer event of the session has us going to help set up a fundraiser for a local chamber choir. Though probably not the most enjoyable, this is the lightest of all the assignments I have ever done.

The main thing that bothered me was their efficiency. It was horrible. So this 4 hour event turned out to be 1.5 hour (with half of us arriving late). Really wished they told us in the beginning what all the things they wanted us to do were. Had they told us, we probably could have finished in an hour. Probably would have been done in an hour.

One classic example:
Goal: Put 300 display items on tables. The tables would thus have 300 numbered cards, 300 labelled sheets, ~300 items.

So first they asked us to put the numbered cards down... Then after we were done, they tell us to put the bid sheets down. ...er.. Why couldn't they just give us both of these at the same time???

Now to add to this, now because they somehow decided to print the odd and even stacks separately, the lady somehow decides that she would sort them in order first before giving it to us, only to lay them out again. #!*%^&&*%$. After I realized she was doing this, I just went and asked her to give me odd/even stacks and I will sort them as I go along when I lay them down. Then she goes... wait wait, there are empties...

I felt like a sixth grader... you'd think we can probably figure out to not put empties down right (let alone knowing what odd and even numbers are...)... What this lady was thinking was beyond me.

The good thing though was that they gave us cake, and it was an awesome sunny day. And had a great happy hour with fellow Seattle Works folks.

But oh well, it did sound like we helped them enormously. So I did do a good deed afterall...

From 0 LCD to 2 LCD.. Yay!

So my phone has been without a working LCD screen for almost 2 months+ now. Thinking that the launching of the mythical awesome phone is approaching, I kept holding off on finding a replacement, but instead, learned how to receive calls, and also how to call people blindly (note: this phone's LCD worked as a keypad). It was short of magic in which I was able to operate this LCD-less phone. An additional magic trick is when the sun was bright enough, I could actually check my texts or any messages by angle-ing my phone in a certain angle to see enough contrast to sorta make out the messages.

However, with the recent fail of setting the alarm clock probably and the inevitable delay of the mythical phone for Verizon, I decided it was time to just get a new phone. I had held off on this thinking that if I get a new phone I wouldn't be able to get this mythical magical phone (which still has no official launch date.. aiiii...)... but it seemed like I might still be able to, and having a phone that actually works properly is sorta useful (especially since it's my main phone line and way to reach me).

So I talk for an hour with the sales rep, learned about pre-certified phones... and found a pretty decent feature phone for $0 that has a full keyboard, TWO LCD screens, and is extremely light. Yay!

With that, I can receive texts and reply to them again! And I have 2 LCD screens on this phone... so even if one breaks, there is still another one... wuhahaha