Highlights

Cytoplasmic Writings - Month Archives

Fun times this month. I got to go to San Francisco for a conference (paid for by the RIM) and travelled by plane outside of Canada for the first time in over twenty years. Spent some time after that doing some offsite work as well. There were ups and downs though as I had to finish off my taxes and as expected, owe a little bit of back taxes. Yup, it's gonna hurt soon.

Tuesday, October 30th 2007

Holy Shit, I didn't realize how many entries I was writing and didn't end up finishing and posting the entries yesterday night. So I'm posting today instead. I've put some information about my trip to San Francisco for the CTIA Wireless Enterprise and Entertainment Convention. It's a smaller version of the big CTIA conference that's held earlier in the year.

Jenn and I have booked our tickets to the New York Comic Con April 18-20th! Now we need to book the hotel rooms. We're looking for some really cheap deals if we can find them in Manhattan but not so cheap that we'd be afraid for our lives. We'll see if we can get something good. We've got lots of time for now. More trips to plan woot woot!

DRAGONCRYPT 10/30/2007 11:46:20 PM

Monday, October 29th 2007

Got back to Waterloo yesterday and I was still tired as hell. Luckily I'm participating in an out-of-office session for BlackBerry Certification. Cool stuff. Glad to be able to continue to contribute to the certification process. I definitely want to do this again though it's been mind-numbing trying to put information from the head onto paper. It's been awesome to get free food too. For some reason people commit to coming to the meetings and then don't show up. Gotta love that. So responsible so RIM ends up paying for food for 15 people and maybe 8 show up. Wow.

I listened to the Leafs game tonight and man was it horrible! The Leafs lost 7-1 to the Washington Capitals. It was a pretty gruesome game, especially after the Leafs played two solid games on the road. They've been horrible at home since the start of the season. Let's hope they get things together and make a season out of this year. Go Leafs Go!

I'm so excited this week cuz Jenn is officially moving up to Waterloo! It's gonna be great! We'll finally see each other more than just a couple of weekends a month. We've already cleaned up most of the rooms here and we've planned our space out too. We went to IKEA before I went to San Francisco and got a new lamp and shelf. We'll see how it fits into the room. Yeah, I've sacrificed some of my stuff but we're gonna take advantage of our parents and use them as storage space for now.

DRAGONCRYPT 10/29/2007 10:50:59 PM

Monday, October 26th 2007

San Francisco Part V

Didn't get nearly as much sleep as I wanted to before waking up to get ready for the airport. I ended up hanging around until it was time to meet the others. I was a little worried about not being able to sign in via the web check-in. When we got to the airport, United Airlines was really fast for checking in. In fact, the entire process was really quick including the security check. I was a little more experienced this time around though my belt buckle set off the metal detector.

None of us had breakfast so we ate at the airport. Had a pretty good omelette. It was probably one of the better breakfasts I had during the stay in San Francisco. I was looking for magazines to buy since the US cover price was much cheaper than the CAD cover. However, after searching two stores, there weren't any magazines that I really wanted to get. Dammit. Since we were going to be on the flight for almost five hours, I avoided coffee and large amounts of water.

We boarded the flight and I was already feeling a little sick. I think it's the air inside the airplane. Something about it was making me nauseous. The takeoff didn't help and I felt tired and queasy for the rest of the flight. I think flights in general do not agree with me. However, I should do more flying before making that assumption. Once we landed, customs was fairly simple. RIM had arranged for a limo to pick me up so I went to the pre-arranged limo section. My limo hadn't checked in yet. Well...after 30 minutes I realized that I screwed up and my old limo was with a different company prior to switching over to a drop off in Toronto. D'oh. I ended up taking the Airline Limo instead and had a really nice driver. He had taken several RIM people before so it was fun to talk to him.

Got home and was totally exhausted. Jenn came over straight from downtown and we caught up. I showed her all the stuff I got from the convention and played my seal recording to her as well. We have so many places to go in the next couple of years. San Francisco is just another on the list now.

DRAGONCRYPT 10/29/2007 10:53:43 PM

Monday, October 25th 2007

San Francisco Part IV

My last full day in San Francisco. The show hours were a little shorter and the show was actually fairly quiet. I finally got some time to walk the floor. There wasn't too much chutzpa...well, I didn't go in and ask for it. Some of my other co-workers managed to grab some great stuff. In the end, I ended up trading for a San Francisco snow globe and I found a gumball machine that somebody had left at the BlackBerry booth. Sweet! I also grabbed some BlackBerry accessories that my co-worker was so graciously handing out. Now I have enough holsters for my BlackBerry to match all my outfits! Hehehe.

There was going to be a gathering of the booth staff later that night at the Cliff House restaurant. We were all going to head out at around 6:30. Woohoo! That sounded like total fun and I had time to walk around a little more. I ended up eating lunch at Tad's steakhouse. Nope, didn't eat steak AGAIN. At a burger instead. The food was okay but not the greatest. The weather in San Francisco was getting colder. With the wind coming out, it was definitely more chilly. I walked back to the pier area and attempted to take some pictures of the port. It was rush hour so I stopped taking pictures as I headed back to the hotel. There were just too many people walking about.

Met up with my co-workers and we headed out to the Golden Gate Bridge to see if we could take some pictures. We didn't get a chance with the sun down and the wind made it really cold. The limo driver told us an interesting fact. George Lucas bought out a large part of the land around the bridge area. Wow. That man does have insane amounts of money. Bleh. So we drove around San Francisco a little more until we reached the restaurant. I must say that the neigbourhoods are really nice though I'm not sure I'd want to live there. I've heard some ballpark figures for rent and I just gotta say...wow.

Dinner was at the Cliff House. I again didn't get steak...and once again the steak was HUGE! Gah! I ordered instead the Halibut which was also a great choice. We ended up eating and chilling there until closing time. It took awhile for the cabs to come by to pick us up. The Cliff House was quite a ways away from the hotel. Once I got back to the hotel, I figured it was a good time to try to web check-in for my flight. For some reason I wasn't able to which worried me a bit...well not just a bit...a lot. I figured I just had to go to the counter in the morning. Since a few of my co-workers were taking the same flight, we decided to meet up in the morning and all head over to the airport.

DRAGONCRYPT 10/29/2007 10:53:13 PM

Wednesday, October 24th 2007

San Francisco Part III

No staff meeting today so we had to be in a few minutes before the show started. I decided to go out for breakfast. On Monday I saw a diner called Mel's. Waterloo has a diner called Mel's and it was a regular hangout for my friends and I. Toronto also has a Mel's diner and we used to frequent there as well. It was only logical for me to go to this Mel's Diner in San Francisco. Turns out the menu has a very Mexican twist to it. There were a lot of breakfast burritos or wraps. I had this burrito omelette. It was pretty good! Very different from the sausage and eggs servered at the Waterloo Mel's Diner.

Went to the convention center and it was another long day of standing up and talking to convetion goers. Wow, it's really tiring work at times and I had to constantly drink water to as my mouth was always dry. Turns out that there were mostly handheld and desktop questions and very little server questions. I had to rely on my old handheld knowledge for a year back to answer some of those questions. For the questions I couldn't answer, I took some business cards and I'll follow up with them when I get back to work in Waterloo.

Still didn't get time to walk around but I didn't eat convention food this time around. I decided to try some of the more unique American only fast food chains. Had lunch at a Jack in the Box. No hamburgers but a Chipotle Chicken sandwich that was actually really good. Didn't seem too unhealthy but I still wouldn't eat on a consistent basis. Headed back to the convention. NBC had some booth babes dressed up as Claire from the TV series Heroes. It was odd...in fact a few booths actually had booth babes. We had this huge BlackBerry mascot which was awesome. I was surprised that companies were still using models to try and promote their product. Thought that was out during the COMDEX years. Oh well, sex still sells.

After the convention, I decided to head it out alone for the night. I wanted to do some hardcore walking around the San Francisco area. I headed up to the Chinatown and the stores were still open. The Chinatown was fairly large but most of the stores just had cheap goods for sale. I was tempted to buy some tshirts for 2 dollars apiece but thought against it. I'm definitely coming back with Jenn so I wanted to keep the souvenirs to a minimum. After walking a good 5-6 blocks of Chinatown and reached Little Italy or an area with a lot of Italian restaurants. On the east side were a TON of gentleman's clubs with their bright lights. It was almost like a Red Light district. I headed north instead and found this really really steep hill. The sidewalk had steps! Walked to the top of the hill and then noticed that I was near Coit Tower. Tried to take a few shots of the city but it was already night time. The view was still spectacular and I'm definitely coming back to this point with Jenn.

After the tower, I walked down the other side of the hill on this road that wasn't a road. It was steep an there were houses to either side. It was a regular path with all this greenery surrounding it. It was pretty awesome to walk down. I wished there was something like that in Toronto. No road for parking, just a lot of greenery. After the walking down the hill, I reached the east piers. I decided to walk to Fisherman's Wharf. It was a good 20 minute walk but it was cool to see all the huge piers. I ended up at Pier 39 and I saw the seals. I even recorded them making their noises on my BlackBerry. The smells at time were unpleasant. I swear a few of them farted...

I noticed I was starting to get hungry so I ate at one of the local seafood restaurants, Fish Market. The prices were really good. $15 to $17 for a large portion of fish. I decided to get a duo grill combo with half Mahi Mahi and Tuna. It was SOOO GOOD. The tuna was just seared all around and raw in the middle. It was served with picked ginger and wasabi. It was a huge piece of sashimi! Woot Woot! The Mahi Mahi was tender and flaky and served with this mango dipping sauce. Yummy! I'm glad I decided to eat at Fisherman's Wharf.

Instead of taking a cab back to hotel, I ended up walking back along the pier. It was awesome to look around but I'm sure it's a much better view during the day. The Bay Bridge was pretty impressive during the night and the San Franciso skyline is just beautiful to see. I walked along Market Street, which seems to be the main street in San Francisco and checked out a lot of the architecture around the downtown area. Wow. It amazes me that as old as Toronto is, it didn't seem like it was planned properly. San Francisco looks like there was some thought into how the city should look like. I'm a little biased because I'm used to Toronto, but besides the unique skyline we have, we don't really have an overall image. Just a mix of really authentic neighbourhoods I guess.

Anyways, after 7 hours of standing up at the convention and a good 4 hours of walking I was pooped. Took a shower, watched some TV and went to bed.

DRAGONCRYPT 10/29/2007 10:52:35 PM

Tuesday, October 23rd 2007

San Francisco Part II

Woke up at around 5:00 AM because my internal clock was still on EST. Tried sleeping a little more and ended up tossing and turning for a little bit. OMG, the bed was fantastic! There were these four little pillows that were sooo soft. I wanted to steal them from the hotel! I need to get me some better pillows! Since the staff meeting at the CTIA conference was at 8:30 AM, it included breakfast. I still didn't know what my specific role was at the conference but I would soon find out at the staff meeting.

Most of the BlackBerry people had their own section at the booth. I was the only general tech guy there so I was supposed to help answer any technical questions the other people couldn't. I was also going to be a floater. Kewl. Reminded me of the days when I used to sell FishTales in high school. The conference was about the size that I thought it would be. There were a lot of big name companies there but I spent the entire time at the booth. We were really busy as most people wanted to see what new BlackBerry handhelds were showcased.

There are a lot of interesting BlackBerry products out there right now. Not only do we have BlackBerry Server and handheld products, there are plenty of other areas that are being integrated into the BlackBerry Solution. Great stuff and a good learning opportunity since I'm always stuck at RIM 5. For lunch I had some convention food. Not that greatest food and very expensive, but I can expense it so I didn't feel as bad.

Got off from th convention at around 5:30 and headed back to the hotel. I was pretty tired. I ended up standing the entire day and I was still on EST time. A large group of the RIM guys were going to go out for dinner so I decided to go to Old Navy to buy a new golf shirt. Turns out they had a sale on golf shirts. Woohoo! I met up with Adam and the rest of the RIM folks and we ate at La Scala. It was this somewhat fancy restaurant near Union Square. I had a Lamb Risotto that was really good. I opted not to get the steak again and once again the steak was HUGE and looked SO good! Sigh. After the risotto was I still a little hungry still but in the end, I was too tired.

Everyone was really tired after the first day so most of us headed back to the hotel. I ended up watching TV for a bit. American TV has so many news channels and they all were reporting on the California fires. We weren't affected by the fires, but it looked like all of Southern California was. Crazy. I watched a few episodes of a reality show called Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. Tila Tequila is a import/nude model that decided to do a bachelor-type tv series. The twist is that she's bisexual and that she invited 16 women AND 16 men to fight for her love. Interesting show and enough drama to keep me interested. There were some pretty hot lesbians on the show, though I'm not sure they were all really lesbians...

Lights out prolly at around 1ish and awaited for the next day of CTIA.

DRAGONCRYPT 10/29/2007 10:52:23 PM

Monday, October 22nd 2007

San Francisco Part I

All packed up on Sunday night but I couldn't get to sleep. The airport limo was going to pick me up at 6:30 and I was afraid that I would sleep in and miss the limo and the plane flight. I ended up with around 3 hours of interrupted sleep. Not the greatest feeling but I was alert enough to get everything ready. I had printed my web check-in the day before so I wasn't too worried. I originally had a window seat but it was the emergency exit so I switched to an aisle seat.

Got to the airport and proceeded to check in. It's the first time I've flown outside of Canada in 20 years so everything was new to me. The US customs line up was HUGE but it moved quickly. After that was the metal detectors. I had to watch the guy in front of me to figure out to take off my shoes and to get my laptop out of its bag. I even stood IN the metal detector before I was promptly told to walk through instead. LOL. I suck.

Waited with a few of my co-workers and we finally boarded the flight at around 8:50 am EST. I forgot how small planes can be. I was really tired and didn't eat much in the morning. However, this was a good thing as the flight made me a little nauseous. I couldn't get used to the pressure changes and my stomach was unsettled for most of the flight. It also didn't help that the guy beside me kept drinking liquids and then going to pee. Argh.

Landed safely and took a cab to the Hotel Palomar. Faaannncy. Turns out nobody informed me that I had to pay for the hotel first and then expense it. Big oops. My credit card's limit wouldn't cover the costs. Luckily my co-worker helped out and the hotel was eventually paid for by the organizer of the even. Didn't stop me from feeling like a total Knob. The room was fantastic! There was this huge bed and a quadrillion pillows! I also got a handicapped room so no bathtub but instead there was a seat. Neat! It was pretty hot in San Fran so I changed into the only pair of shorts I brought with me (good idea!)

Met up with my co-worker, Adam, for lunch and we walked around a bit in downtown San Francisco. The place was absolutely gorgeous. Union Square was really kewl and the buildings were all spectacular. The newer buildings blended in well with the older buildings. Not like in Toronto where you have pockets of modern mixed with early 30's architecture. I wanted to take a ton of photos but that would have been too touristy.

I parted ways with my co-worker so I could find a few toy/comic book stores in the area. Went to Jeffrey's Toys and Comics and was disappointed with what I found there. Next stop was the Sony Metreon and Things From Another World. I was excited about this store as they have a huge online selection of toys and products. I was again sadly disappointed with the selection or lack of selection. That was it for nearby stores. The other stores were not reachable by foot within a reasonable amount of time. I went back to the hotel to rest a little and met up with my co-worker for dinner. We ate dinner at a steak house but I didn't have steak. Instead I had some oysters, which were amazing. After dinner there was more sightseeing. With the 3 hour time difference, I was popped by 10:30 PST and we had an early meeting next day. So it was off to early bed for me.

DRAGONCRYPT 10/29/2007 10:50:59 PM

Wednesday, October 17th 2007

Today, my trip was finally offical! I picked up my passport with no issues and man, do I look mean. This is my first passport in almost twenty years so it was really exciting picking it up. Of course, the excitement died off when I flipped through the pages and they were all empty...I need to go on more trips!

I've decided to get my front car exhaust fixed on Friday and then I'll pick up the car on Saturday. Gives them enough time to fix the issue and the garage is only walking distance from me. Also gives Jenn to opportunity to use her Aeroplan card! Woohoo! We all win!

Trying to figure out what to pack to San Francisco. I have a big red duffel bag that I can stuff tons of stuff into. However, I shouldn't have too much to bring but the weather is supposed to be awesome yet I'll probably be required to wear khakis and a golf shirt at the convention. I suck at packing clothes. Maybe I'll buy some clothes over there and then just bring them back. Gahhhh!

DRAGONCRYPT 10/17/2007 11:00:23 PM

Monday, October 15th 2007

Jenn is up here trying out a week of the Greyhound commute. It's been good so far. We spent the weekend cleaning up the house and my room to accomadate Jenn's stuff. My room is somewhat different now but it's still got the Steve feel to it hehehehe. While driving on the weekend, the front exhaust pipe finally broke and my car is now a certified ricer making some of those loud exhaust noises. I'm only going 30 km but my ride is pimped out yo! Need to get this fixed ASAP as it's getting really annoying. Sigh...I guess when I put everything aside, it would all come back to haunt me. Gah.

I'm really hoping I get my passport on Wednesday. There really isn't a reason why I wouldn't but with all that's happening lately, there's the chance right? Call me superstitious but I gotta prepare for the worst. That would really really suck. Sigh. Though it's not like I can spend lots in San Francisco. My budget is like 50 bucks right now. Maybe a few comic book stores to look around and some souvenirs. Guess I'll be walking the aisles to possible get as much free stuff as possible. Just realized I need to brush up on my handheld skills. There are so many new model numbers it's hard to keep track without dealing with them on a daily basis.

DRAGONCRYPT 10/15/2007 11:02:12 PM

Thursday, October 11th 2007

So I think Rogers has started to traffic shape my area for newsgroup downloads. I'm getting some pretty dismal speeds right now and I know it's not my connection. I tested the European Giganews server and I'm getting faster speeds connecting to that one. LOL. I went search on Google about traffic shaping and I'm seeing tons of people complaining about how Rogers is screwing them and limiting their bandwidth. Hmmm...It's a valid argument if you didn't spend ALL that bandwidth pirated copyrighted material. So the top 2-3 percent of downloaders have really throttled the network and are now complaining because Rogers is forced to implement caps to main network stability. Hmmm....I know at least a dozen people at work that pride themselves in download over 100 GB a month. What for? Probably not Linux Distros. Just another example of how a few greedy people have really ruined it for everyone else.

Don't get me wrong here, Rogers (Bell too) both suck as ISPs. Their support is terrible and they have no sense of customer loyalty. This oligopoly just makes money for their shareholders and screw the consumers. I understand that infrastructure is expensive but I don't think it's THAT expensive. Oh well, guess it will take a little longer to download my stuff. Hopefully the traffic shaping is time-triggered and the late night downloads will be okay. For those who are wondering, I probably use 20-30 GB a month. But that's over three locations with three different ISP subscribers...

After a dismal performance against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, the Leafs came back with guns blazing beating the NY Islanders 8-1. Mats Sundin recorded a goal and an assist to surpass Darryl Sittler's club records. Let's not all start screaming "this is the year!" but it was good to see such a performance after the forgettable loss on Tuesday. If the Leafs sucked today things would have looked a little bleak. Now they've shown they can come back from a crappy game. Let's see how they do against a fast and young Penguins team.

DRAGONCRYPT 10/11/2007 11:44:28 PM

Wednesday, October 10th 2007

I've got a terrible headache today. Maybe it's the weather but I feel like crap. Bleh. Work was really really busy. Had my cases to work on which I had some trouble with. Good thing I have co-workers who know what they're doing. Learned a ton of new stuff today but it was also a little stressful. I'm getting a little sick of people asking me the same questions over and over again. I don't mind when new people ask me questions, but if it's the same shit over and over again? Why isn't it sticking in your head?!! Argh! Also, it's stressful when people come to us looking for solutions and not how to solve it themselves. Bleh.

Have you guys noticed that everybody is sick? This weather is killing people! You don't know what to wear from one day to the next. It was funny watching all the university students walking by in skirts\shorts yesterday after Monday's heatwave. I know lots of people at work have been fighting the flu\cold. Hopefully I'll escape unscathed by the viral epidemic.

Tomorrow I found out how badly my corporate tax stuff is going to cost me. It was a pretty big sum to do the accounting portion, let's see what the actual taxes will be. I'm hoping I won't be dinged too badly...but I'm expecting the worse. Thank goodness that I have that holiday week in December where I can work. That should help somewhat I guess. Gah...too tired to think right now. Time to sleep.

DRAGONCRYPT 10/10/2007 7:57:44 PM

Tuesday, October 2nd 2007

Wow, what a great weekend I had! I went to Toronto early and joined Jenn and her high school friends for a little reunion. Jenn has some fairly smart friends! One is studying to become a dentist while the other works at the Coroner's Office (so kewl!). Spent the rest of Friday night just chilling at Jenn's place. We ended up sleeping a little early as we had to go visit my friend Mike in Burlington.

Saturday was really fun as well. Jenn and I have not seen Mike and Corrina since last year at the Taste of the Danforth. They're expecting their first child in the next few weeks so it was exciting to catch up with them before they get really busy! I also got a chance to see their new house! Awesome! I've never been to Burlington before but it looks pretty decent and the area was developing like crazy. Looks like a huge urban sprawl like Mississauga and Milton and so many other places surrounding Toronto.

Saturday night was spent chilling again. We decided to walk along Yonge Street around Finch to randomly eat at a Korean Restaurant. We decided on this little tiny restaurant. It was a good choice by Jenn as the place got fairly busy afterwards. You always know a place is good when it gets busy during primetime. I ordered a dish I had never seen before. Raw Crab. It was raw crab mixed with a really spicy Korean sauce. It was really good but it was a little disconcerting eating raw crab. I never knew you could. I felt better hours later when I didn't have any stomach cramps. Another thing I loved about the Korean restaurant was that it gave all these little appetizers. All these extra freebies hit a home run with me and Jenn.

Sunday was chore time with us shopping for groceries and running errands around town. I had to photocopy some information so I could get my passport done on Tuesday. My plan was to book a dentist appointment and then get my dentist be my guarantor. Turns out that beginning October, Passport Canada has eased the Guarantor rules. Now anyone who has had a Canadian passport for over a year and knows the individual for over 2 years can be a guarantor. Regardless, got the necessary docs signed.

Drove back late on Monday night and died a few errands. Realized I forgot my BlackBerry in Toronto. D'oh. Oh well, one week without a BlackBerry won't kill me. Went to Passport Canada Office in Kitchener first thing in the morning. The line-up wasn't too bad and I was out of there in twenty minutes. Looks like I'll be able to get my passport so I can go to San Francisco! Woohoo! Went to work and found out my laptop broke again. Ugh. Maybe they'll actually replace the hard drive this time around. Too funny. I remember the time I used to work in IT. Jokes.

That's the weekend! Back to the grind of work for a few more weeks before heading to the States. I really hope there will be some time to explore San Francisco and not spend the entire time at the convention.

DRAGONCRYPT 10/2/2007 10:41:47 PM