Transit Blows

With the recent snowfall and today's fresh snow, I've realized how fragile is the Vancouver transit system! Okay fine, on Monday the Skytrain slowed to a crawl because they were wary of ice on the tracks. It took probably double the amount of time to get from Braid to Gilmore. Granted, the trains began going faster the next day (though still not regular speed), but what they failed is that they ignore the massive influx of new riders due to the snow. Trains running during rush hour are now PACKED!

And today... Man oh man... It took an hour for me to get from Brentwood to Production! The damn train stopped for like 15 minutes between EVERY station along the way. The controller on the train--oh yeah, they started putting a Skytrain attendant on each train now; really I don't know what good he is for, other than making silly announcements. He said that it was because a de-icing train got stuck around Sapperton. Some nutty woman called the cops on the de-icing train because the person inside wasn't wearing a Translink uniform and she was shining lasers in the driver's face. WTF is with that!!!

Finally I got up to SFU, got my quiz (aced it btw... hooray for never going to class!), and got on the 143 to go home. It went down Gagladi no problem but the articulated bus got stuck trying to go up Como Lake LOL! The driver was flooring the beast and it was inching up the hill a bit at a time, not to mention the whole bus was swing back and forth the whole time! As luck would have it, the next 143 caught up with us and picked everyone up. It was one of the new, small, New Flyer buses; I guess Translink made a good investment in those new buses :).

McDonald's puts patent on sandwiches

McDonald's puts patent on sandwiches
Tuesday, November 21, 2006

McDonald's wants to own the rights to how a sandwich is made.

The fast-food chain has applied for a patent relating to the 'method and apparatus' used to prepare the snack.

The burger company says owning the 'intellectual property rights' would help its hot deli sandwiches look and taste the same at all of its restaurants.

It also wants to cut down on the time needed to put together a sandwich, thought to have been dreamt up by the Earl of Sandwich in 1762.

The 55-page patent, which has been filed in the US and Europe, covers the 'simultaneous toasting of a bread component'.

Garnishes of lettuce, onions and tomatoes, as well as salt, pepper and ketchup, are inserted into a cavity in a 'sandwich delivery tool'.

The 'bread component' is placed over the cavity and the assembly tool is inverted to tip out the contents. Finally, the filling is placed in the 'bread component'.

It explains: 'Often the sandwich filling is the source of the name of the sandwich; for example, ham sandwich.'

Lawrence Smith-Higgins, of the UK Patent Office, said: 'McDonald's or anyone else cannot get retrospective exclusive rights to making a sandwich.

'They might have a novel device, but it could be quite easy for someone to make a sandwich in a similar way without infringing their claims.'

McDonald's said: 'These applications are not intended to prevent anyone from using previous methods for making sandwiches.'

It's either this story or the China jails porn site operator for life story. I decided this one is more amusing :). Oh what the hey, let's blog both!

Porn Site Operator Jailed in China
The Associated Press
Wednesday, November 22, 2006; 12:11 PM


BEIJING -- The creator of China's largest pornographic Web site was jailed for life on Wednesday, state media reported.

Xinhua News Agency said judges at the Taiyuan Intermediate People's Court in Shanxi province gave the life sentence to Chen Hui and handed down terms of 13 months to 10 years to eight others after they were convicted of profiting from pornographic dissemination.

Chen, 28, and his accomplices started the Qingseliuyuetian (Pornographic Summer) Web site in 2004, and opened a further three porn Web sites, attracting more than 600,000 users.

Xinhua reported that police said it was difficult to know the exact amount of profits the Web site earned. Police found about 200,000 yuan ($25,000) in the bank accounts of the nine.

When the site was closed in October last year, it contained more than 9 million pornographic images and articles, the police said.

China has the world's second-largest population of Internet users after the United States, with more than 123 million people online.

The government encourages Internet use for education and business, but strictly controls content and tries to block access to material deemed pornographic or subversive.

The guy seems like such a small time; he probably just pissed off the wrong guy. Poor fool.

New iPod Shuffle

Mmmm... I saw a girl with the new iPod Shuffle on the bus yesterday. Definitely very small and snazzy.

Son yeh Jin - Art of Seduction

OMG she looks so hot in this movie!!!




The sort of gold I've been missing out on due to things like M :(. Anyone with the flick :)?

Stupidity

I thought today was Wednesday so I went up to SFU after work. Below is a list of alarm bells I missed:
1) See Julie at Production station when I've never seen her there before
2) The assignment box let out a crisp *clunk when I dropped in my assignment, indicating that the box was strangely empty.
3) Class was strangely empty.


*Sigh...

Remembrance Day

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.


Canadian Deaths in Afghanistan to date:
Bombardier Myles Mansell
Capt. Nichola Goddard
Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer
Cpl. Andrew James Eykelenboom
Cpl. Anthony Boneca
Cpl. Bryce Jeffrey Keller
Cpl. Christopher Jonathan Reid
Cpl. David Braun
Cpl. Francisco Gomez
Cpl. Glen Arnold
Cpl. Jamie Brendan Murphy
Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren
Cpl. Keith Morley
Cpl. Matthew Dinning
Cpl. Paul Davis
Cpl. Randy Payne
Cpl. Robbie Christopher Beerenfenger
Cpl. Robert Thomas James Mitchell
Cpl. Shane Keating
Diplomat Glyn Berry
Lt. William Turner
Master Cpl. Jeffrey Scott Walsh
Master Cpl. Raymond Arndt
Master Cpl. Timothy Wilson
Pte. Blake Williamson
Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield
Pte. David Byers
Pte. Josh Klukie
Pte. Kevin Dallaire
Pte. Mark Anthony Graham
Pte. Nathan Smith
Pte. Richard Green
Pte. Robert Costall
Pte. William Jonathan James Cushley
Sgt. Craig Paul Gillam
Sgt. Darcy Tedford
Sgt. Marc D. Leger
Sgt. Robert Alan Short
Sgt. Shane Stachnik
Sgt. Vaughn Ingram
Trooper Mark Andrew Wilson
Warrant Officer Frank Robert Mellish
Warrant Officer Richard Francis Nolan


Lest we forget.
...

Cannery Fish House

Wow is that place crazy expensive or what! If it wasn't raining, the view of the stars would've been magnificent. The waiters were kinda weird though.

Exam M (again)!!!

29/40 on SOA key!!! Passed! w00t!!! But it looks like I guess wrong on every question I guessed and then some. Sucks.

Oh well, time to start studying for C.

Exam M!!!

I woke up today at around 5:15am. It was too early; my alarm haven't even went off yet. I tried to get another 45 minutes of sleep but it didn't work that well. Since my mom wasn't up yet, I just drank a glass of milk and nuked a little rice dumpling thing that I found in the fridge before I left. The stupid Westcoast Express website is wrong! An add-fare costs $3.75--a whole $1.50 more!!! I took the Westcoast Express to downtown and spent 4 hours in a room being tortured by Exam M. I'm pretty sure I passed; at least I did according to the PAK. I'll know for sure when the exam gets released later tonight. I literally LOL-ed when I saw "actuarial idol". Those crazy bastards in the SOA :).

iTunes v7.0.2

I finally decided to go to iTunes 7. I had the slightest hope that it will be able to pick up the album arts of my all my Chinese music, and of course, iTunes failed miserably--though it managed to get Ivana's first album's cover. Hmmm.

So here I am contemplating whether I should invest in the CRAZY amount time needed to put album art on all my 187 albums. Some of them will be impossible because I really have no clue what CD some of my classical stuff is from. Nevertheless, it would be so cool if I can scroll through cover flow with all the album art!!!

Oh wtf... iTunes 7 can't sync Outlook 2k to my iPod!!! It needs 2k3??!?! Damn you Apple!!!