St. Jacob Farmer's Market

We went to St. Jacob Farmer's Market on Saturday along with Joseph and Pia.

This time, we didn't buy any honey, because we still have a few jars around. However, it doesn't mean we don't have soft spots and spurge:

• Tomatoes on the vine -- they looked red and ripe, and they were local!
• Berries -- there wasn't enough sun last week, so the local strawberries looked a bit sour. However, a stall was having a berry sale: 1lb strawberries, 1/2 pint blackberries, 1/2 pint blueberries, and 1/2 pint raspberries, all priced at 4/$5.00! (They all came from the States.)
• Mushrooms -- there were some really fresh and white button mushrooms, and equally fresh cremini and portobello. We ended up buying the baby portobello.
• Herbs -- A gardening stalls had fresh herb plants for sale. Since we weren't very confident (ok, not confident at all) in our abilities to keep them alive, we decided to start small with two plants, one basil and one tarragon.
• Lettuce -- We passed by one stall with a few very fresh-looking heads of lettuce. The lettuce wasn't cheap, but it just looked... fresh!
  
• Horseradish -- We both like good mustard and good horseradish with my steak. In fact, when we were at Vegas, we had prime rib one night and the horseradish served on the side was so bad and so disappointing that it ruined the whole meal for us. (Come on, prime rib has to come with good horseradish. Double points for serving it with a yorkshire pudding on the side!) We saw some Mennonites selling local horseradish and decided to buy a jar.
• Cheese -- I'm not a cheese fan. It's the whole pregnancy-and-calcium thing. But if I'm going for cheese, I'd at least get some good once from a cheese monger, not Kraft singles.
  

Summertime = Release Time?

There must be something about summer and major open source software releases:

• Mozilla Firefox 3 was officially released two days ago (and set an 8 million download record in 24-hour period);
  
• Subversion 1.5 was officially released yesterday/today (source tarball was out last night, but the release notes and the home page didn't point to 1.5 as the latest release until today); and
  
• Eclipse 3.4 (Ganymede) will be out next week.

These are all software I use on a daily basis. I have migrated to Firefox 3 since the first beta and have diligently upgraded whenever a new beta or release candidate was out, so the changes surprised me the least. I am still impressed it uses less memory and is more stable than Firefox 2.

As for Subversion 1.5, I have been longing for the merge tracking feature since it was announced, so I'm glad it's finally out. However, as the 1.5 binaries (and corresponding TortoiseSVN) were not released yet, it will probably be another week before I actually upgrade.

I am most weary of upgrading Eclipse; I have installed too many plug-ins and have made too many preference changes to be comfortable with upgrading. Instead, I might just install a new copy and start from scratch. However, the inclusion of a Subversion client in this release is definitely a plus (finally!).

... so, will our testers finish in time (or on time) to release the new version by end of this quarter?

The Beginning of Headaches

Last week, Daniel and I went to Toys "R" Us to get some idea on what baby stuff we'll need. Since Daniel is going to the States more often, he can start buying from the States once we have actually decided on what to get.

The first things we saw at the babies section were cribs and changing tables. Little did we know we were in a whole lot of sticker-shock: the cheapest crib they carry is $200, and other than colour (choice of white or one of the natural wood colours), we cannot really tell the difference between different models. The changing tables and dressers were even more outrageously priced to us IKEA-regulars.

Daniel: "I'm not buying a crib that's more expensive than my bed. IKEA time!"
Cindy: "I'm definitely getting another MALM instead of their dressers, and I'll make it do double duty as a changing table."

We then went to check out the other big-ticket item: strollers and car seats. After spending a good half-hour looking at various options (umbrella strollers, jogging strollers, regular strollers, travel systems, 3-in-1 car seats, etc.), we found ourselves armed with a little more knowledge as well as confusion. One-hand fold? Peekaboo window? Do they even fit in our trunk when folded up??

Daniel even started to question whether we need a stroller fit for the newborn at all, since the baby's first few months be deep in the winter, and he didn't see us taking the baby out often. (Easy for him to say that, as I'll be the one who has to carry the baby around.)

We then checked out other smaller items, such as bottles, bath tubs, mattress (why don't cribs come with mattress?!?!), and blankets. Oh, and diaper pails.

The next day, I went to Babies "R" Us website and found this "extraordinarily priced" Bugaboo stroller system for only $850! What a deal!!

I did more research online and found our plan busted -- apparently it's illegal to use car seats not sold in Canada, even if it is the exact same model. While I have heard of people attempting to work around the law or even outright ignore it, I'm not entirely comfortable with that idea. Now I have the next-best idea in mind: find a compatible pair of car seat and stroller to form our own travel system, buy the car seat in Canada and get the stroller in the States.

That means a whole lot more research...

西域食府

Having nothing much to do on Saturday, Daniel and I decided to try out a restaurant we have never been to -- 西域食府. Although they have some menu items hung outside the restaurant, we didn't know what to expect about western-Chinese style food.

First impression: Why did I even agree to enter this restaurant??? You see, western-Chinese style food is mostly lamb; that much I know. However, I didn't expect most dishes to be lamb -- I'm talking about a 10:1 ratio here. The next most prevalent dishes are either seafood or vegetarian.

The problem is, I don't eat lamb. The second problem is, I'm mildly allergic to seafood, and I'm having stronger reactions ever since I became pregnant. The third problem? Well, I still like meat in my meal.

I spent about 15 minutes looking over the menu, trying to pick some non-lamb, non-seafood, and non-vegetarian dishes for myself. Daniel saw my struggles too, although he had a much easier time than I do. He is a lamb-eater, so I naturally encouraged him to try some lamb dishes, because they do look good to me even though I don't eat lamb.

We finally settled with a pickled veggies dish as appetizer, a lamb noodle soup for Daniel, a chicken stir-fry noodle for myself, plus one order of lamb kabob. I tried both of Daniel's lamb dishes, and they were very good, except for the lamb-y taste. Daniel happily worked on his dishes, and joked that I probably wouldn't kiss him that night. My chicken stir-fry noodle was delicious too; Daniel, despite claiming he was full, finishing his two lamb and then went on to eat about 1/4 of my stir-fry dish (I wasn't hungry and ate less than half of it).

My comment to Daniel: "Next time you can come with your family or other lamb-eating friends while I happily eat elsewhere."

Sense of Entitlement

Earlier this week, GM abruptly announce the closure of four North American truck plants, including the one in Oshawa. CAW workers immediately cried foul, threatened the company with legal and job actions.

Whatever sympathy I originally had towards the auto workers (very little), it was gone when they started a blockade outside GM Canada headquarters.

You see, other than executives, the headquarter office is filled with office assistants, project managers, and other white-collar people who are most likely paid less, have worse benefits, worse pension and worse severance packages, and are even more likely to lose their jobs without the protection of a union, than the auto workers. These people also have families to feed, mortgages to pay, and kids to raise. If making these average Joes' lives even harder makes you happier, then you need a therapist more than a job.

The Oshawa plant make trucks and big SUVs (what Americans wanted), and there has been a sharp decline in demand thanks to the US recession (gas price spiked, job losses, higher housing costs, higher food prices... it's a multi-faceted assult). Is it really that hard to read the writings on the wall?

Besides, even if you're a GM employee, it is hard to ignore the fact that
American cars are generally pretty crappy to begin with. I know the
Oshawa plant workers were very proud of making the best GM trucks
around (and I'm not doubting them), but bad designs cannot be savaged by best manufacturing.



I am totally fed up with the "it's not fair! I'm ENTITLED to this job!" attitude around the CAW. This is not tramping employees for shareholders' profits. This is simple economics at work. Newsflash: manufacturing jobs are quickly disappearing all over
Ontario, and many workers aren't half as well protected as auto
workers. If my mom, working at an auto-parts factory, gets laid off today, all she gets is the legal
minimum severance pay--and that's only if the company isn't going under
with a workforce of less than 50. She never had pension or RRSP top-up
to protect her retirement. She had to pay 50% of the medical benefits
premium to have family coverage. Her pay is less than half of the
average GM worker. After she gets laid off, all she'll have is EI. My dad? He has the "pleasure" to have an office (read: non-union) job at the sinking-ship known as QuebecorWorld.

Still think the world is against you with 2-year full-pay severance package with pension promised in the future? Ha.

The Hockey (Theme) Fight

(This post won't matter to you if you don't know the "Hockey Night in Canada" theme song, or don't care about hockey in general.)

So, CBC is considering not paying the $500 per broadcast royalty to the copyright owner of the song. Given that (a) the theme song is so etched to (most) Canadians' minds since 1968, and (b) $500/show is not a whole lot of money for CBC, why would CBC choose to risk alienating the fan base (and almost the whole country) by choosing a new theme song?

A few years ago, CBC was in a similar situation when Ron MacLean almost left Hockey Night in Canada due to contract talk breakdown. Public outcry ensued, and CBC eventually gave in.

With the theme song, which I think viewers are even more attached to, it is hard to imagine how they can pull off a replacement without an even bigger backlash.

Generation Gap, Technology Edition

Yesterday, Daniel and I paid his parents a regular weekly visit. Since Daniel was sent to Philly last week, it was the first time we met his parents since our respective vacations -- they went to Alaska with Daniel's brother and his family.

Obviously, grandparents being grandparents, and especially grandma being grandma, Daniel's mom couldn't stop talking about her own trip, with very strong emphasis on their little darling granddaughter.

(I think Alaska is a boring week-long vacation destination for our niece, a three-year-old, especially with four adults and no other kids, but I digress.)

She then decided to show us the pictures she took, and that's when annoyances began. You see, her camera is a digital camera we bought her back in 2005. To this day, her only means of sharing pictures are: (a) involve printing the pictures at Costco and giving them out, (b) show the pictures directly from the camera, or (c) connect the digital camera to a TV and show the picture on the tube. To her, there is no such thing as "sharing pictures online." Heck, I was still lamenting my dad (and other relatives) would only share pictures by sending them by email, but at least I can still view the pictures selectively at my own pace, and not having to worry about what to do with the artifacts.

Anyway, back to the story. So on this particular evening, Daniel's mom decided to use method (c) to share her experience with us. That brings us to another point of annoyance: she still had pictures from Chinese New Year (and after) on the camera, and we had to go through those one-by-one before we actually get to Alaska. While I normally don't mind the practice of keeping older pictures on the card, her reason of leaving the old pictures around was simple: she has no (digital) backup plans. In fact, she "doesn't know" how to save the pictures to a computer. Once in a while (maybe every year or so, or whenever she runs out of space), she would just delete the pictures, one-by-one, directly on the camera.

The "doesn't know" part irked me the most. I firmly believe in "if you don't know something, and you want it done, then learn and remember by heart." However, what I notice about many non-technical people, especially older women, is they prefer the following to happen, in this order:

1. You magically know what they want and do it for them without them asking. Every time.
   
2. After they tell you want they want, you do it for them. Don't bother explaining, because they outright refuse to learn (even if they say otherwise). And do it for them the next time around. Oh, and since they don't know how to do it, they are entitled for your help every time.
   

The above is especially true when it comes to technology-related things, such as programming the VCR. Double-whammy if the older woman happens to be your mom or other older relatives, because when you trying to shy away from helping, they would start on a rampage "I (your mom) raised you, paid for your X years of college (or insert other things they did for you), and you wouldn't even help her program the VCR/set up the computer/[other tasks]!! You're a disgrace to the family!"

Anyway, since Daniel's mom never asked us how to download the pictures to the computer, I'd rather not show her how to do it right then, and just let her fumble her way through the camera's buttons.

Perhaps not surprisingly, she wasn't an expert on the camera's functions as well. When one apparent (to me anyway, but it seems that I just notice these things naturally) video clip showed up instead of a normal picture, she didn't realize it was a video. Even after I pointed out to her it was a video clip, she didn't know how to play it. I played it for her, and noticed it wasn't a video clip of anything particular -- most likely the wrong settings were used. Later on, we came across a few other video clips, and while some of them were legit (although taking a video while manually panning the camera around where a panorama picture is called for is still not preferred), others still looked accidental to me.

That brings us to another point: she is a lousy photographer. While I'm sure the scenery was really great in real life, her pictures failed to capture the magnificence. Many pictures looked crappy. Viewing the pictures on a 13" tube TV (without stereo sound I may add) didn't help. Daniel commented afterwards, "I thought I was a bad photographer... I didn't know someone could be worse!"

To make matters worse, she is also a pretty bad story teller and she never knew. She also (always) fail to pick up clues that her audience (i.e., us) have long since become disengaged. I guess ignorance is a bliss.

Back to the story. One of her major complaints about the trip was the airport. She said at Anchorage airport, check-in can only be done electronically via kiosks, and she hated that because she (and the people before her) are techno-phobic. The passengers (and I assumed they did as well) tried to get the staff to check them in, but the staff only handles the luggage tags. She complained to us, loudly and repeatedly.

Daniel's comment? "Wow, you really haven't been flying lately, have you?" I further added I've seen these machines at airports at least 5 years ago, and I prefer using the kiosk because it's usually faster. Daniel and I then talked about online check-in (which has been around for at least 2 years). I also mentioned WestJet, which we was the airline took to Vegas, even has mobile check-in, which I was tempted to use on our return flight. Ultimately, I didn't, because typing our passport numbers on T9 is PITA, and I don't want to see a $300 roaming data charge added to my cell phone bill.

Well, all these talk of electronic means of check-in (and the glimmer in our eyes -- I love gadgets and I love convenience) were all martian to Daniel's mom. She remains unimpressed. And when it comes to technology, I'm definitely of a different generation than she is (and a different breed from most others of my age).

My Life as a King

Since Daniel had to go to his office and work on Saturday, I had all the leisure to be alone again for the fourth day in a week -- he was on a business trip Tuesday to Thursday.

Without a car (he wasn't serious about me dropping him off and picking him up at work, 20km one-way, was he?), and with all the excessive hiking walking we have done in Grand Canyon and Las Vegas, I was content to stay home after my OB appointment.

(Speaking of my OB... he is apparently very famous among the Chinese community in Toronto and very popular. And expensive -- charged me $300 on my first visit. And, worst of all, very long wait time. According to a friend of mine whom I bumped into at the OB on Saturday, she spent on average 2 hours per visit at the OB's office.)

So... home alone again. What now?

I (plugged in and) turned on my Wii for the first time in about two months. First, I did a system update and downloaded the Nintendo Channel (which has been out since... forever). Then, I browsed through the downloadable games and decided to buy one.

There were many games in Virtual Console to choose from, but most games requires a Classic controller or a GameCube controller, and I don't have neither. Plus, Virtual Console games are mostly for nostalgia -- while I remember I had a lot of fun with, say, Super Mario World, I could not justify spending 800 Wii Points (about $8 CAD these days) on a game I can either dig up my old SNES at my parents' place to play, or (illegally) download a ROM and play in an emulator on my computer.

On the other hand, WiiWare was only launched not very long ago, so the selection was sparse. After reading some online reviews, I decided to choose a game between Pop, LostWinds, and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King. The verdict? The "Final Fantasy" label won me over.

The game itself was not an RPG, but more like a god-game/SIM. Instead of me playing an adventurer to explore dungeons and become a hero, I play a king to build a city and commission adventurers to do the monster-slayings for me. It's like playing Championship Manager instead of Winning Eleven in terms of soccer games.

The slow pace of the game suited my lack of motivation for the weekend very well. After Daniel got home, I told Daniel about the purchase and explained the game to him. It had been a very taxing week for him, and he found the pace of this game just right for him to watch while he relaxed or did some light housework.

Even after two days of "intense" playing, I'm still not done with the game yet. I'll probably finish it in a week, then maybe start looking at the expansion packs.

Delivery [xkcd]

Not a very comforting thought when you're pregnant... [xkcd]