Jenny's Ramblings

Vampires versus Zombies

2010-09-22T00:14:00.000-07:00

While I was driving home from Resident Evil, I started thinking that there's not too many differences between zombies and vampires but zombies get such a bad rap. Just to recap...

Similarities:
Both eat humans
Both are immortal (except for 28 Days Later)
Both can turn a human into their kind

Differences:
Zombies are generally slow - Vampires are fast
Kill zombies with a head shot - Vampires through the heart
Zombies actually look dead - Vampires look hot (unless they are super old or haven't eaten)
Nobody wants to mate with a zombie - Vampires can have vampire babies in some cases

I think that's it? Really it seems to come down to looks mostly. Also killing style -- vampire biting does seem better than being ripped to pieces. Zombies also seem to kill with no restraint, atleast vampires have taste (ha!). I'm trying to think hard of some vampire movie where they were creepy or repulsive, but the only one that comes to mind is the Lord Voldemort bat from Underworld. However, the preview for this had super zombie/vampire cross breeds in it: The Priest. It looks a little too much like Legion though, which puts me off as that was a fail.

Don't Be a Fool, and Wrap Your Tool

2010-06-27T11:56:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things to do is read on the beach. Now that I'm using a kindle and have been trying to finish off Hitchhiker's before I switch to another book, I found myself in a dilemma. As a joke, I had considered saran wrap but then came up with a better idea, one of those plastic pouches you put in a binder with some tape over the top. So here is the protective prototype...

Worked well, there was some moisture trapped inside so I had to air it out every once in a while. But it didn't melt in the sun, didn't overheat, and didn't ruin the kindle. Chris suggested a ziploc bag, I think that's an even better idea. This option is not that far from a trendy ziploc bag:

TrendyDigital WaterGuard Waterproof Case

Although this one actually doesn't look too bad:

OCTOVO Splash Proof Case

Amazon Kindle in Canada - Reactions on the Street

2010-03-31T23:48:00.000-07:00

I got my Amazon Kindle off of Craigslist about a month ago. Before that I had a Sony reader, which I guess I hadn't taken out in public. The Kindle is now coming with me on journies on public transit and is catching quite a bit of attention. Which I can't say I don't enjoy. I even spent 5 minutes explaining its features including how the e-ink display worked at the bus stop to a nice couple. But I've had some semi-hilarious experiences which I guess will only last until everyone starts buying the Kobo from Chapters/Indigo in Canada (which is a great deal for $149).

Kindle Experience #1

Standing at the bus stop, friendly couple eyes my white beauty and asks, is that fun to read on? This is the couple I spent 5 minutes talking to. They hadn't realized there was a difference between e-ink and lcds. They also thought the IPad was under $200 though. Which by the way, is pretty much this. But that's another rant.

Kindle Experience #2

Once on the bus I sat down and soon enough, a sketchy looking guy with a cast and crutches sat next to me. I was pretty sure by the smell of him, that he was a hobo. I didn't want to look too carefully at his dress, but I saw enough to know enough. However he was reading a book so I thought that maybe because of the cast, he just hadn't showered in a week. I know what that's like after my knee surgery. Anyways, more time passes, him reading his analogue book, me the kindle. Then he asks me if this is "the modern book", pretty insightful, I give him points although I was initially thrown off. "Yes, it sure is". Then he asks what it's called. "Kindle". Then time for me to exit and he says "Have a beautiful day, beautiful". Yes my Kindle is now scoring me compliments. Awesome.

Kindle Experience #3

Today was a fun one. Sitting on the bus again, and this older asian lady (50% chance of hoboness) sits next to me. She's obviously pretty stubborn. She actually touches my Kindle (not cool by the way) and asks if it's a magnifying glass, which is sort of like the image above with the iphone I guess. I said no, it's an electronic book. That didn't go over. Again she was asking about the magnifying capabilities. At this point I wondered if I should mention the 6 font sizes or not. I decided that "no" was a better option since she was already losing focus to stand up intermittently for no reason.

That's about all the Kindle experiences I have had so far. I can tell people have been eying it for the whole month I've been taking it out on the town. But only in the last few days have they gotten more vocal. So far I'm really enjoying the attention but I suppose it could get old fast.

For those interested in the Sony versus Kindle. I'd say go Kindle. They will have an app store soon (see KDK or Kindle Development Kit), it's got wireless capabilities and the UI is better. The Sony (I had the PRS-505) was nice, really solid metal casing with a 6" screen which now only the touch model has (for a pretty penny) and had the option of collections which is really missing in the Kindle. Overall I'm happy I made the switch. I'm really curious about the Kobo though, especially for only $149 CAD. I don't like the big blue button on the front, but for the price I'd be able to live with it. Only has bluetooth though, and none of the other features I never use anyways, such as an MP3 player. The expandable memory is a nice gesture (that the Sony also had) although you'll probably never need over the 1GB it comes with. The one thing that disappoints me about all of them is the lack of contrast in the display. It's really light gray and dark gray, not black and white as some of the products pictures would have you believe. I'm hoping with the advancement of the technology, especially with color e-ink, that this will be fixable. As for reading in sunlight, yes, you can totally do that. Actually improves the contrast if anything. Reading research papers however, is not a great experience, the two column layout doesn't do well.

The Bitter Truth: Marriage vs. the Ph.D

2010-03-26T20:49:00.001-07:00

Less Ugly Timmy's Site

2010-03-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

The Tim Horton's site I posted earlier using Google sites was pretty ugly, I'll admit it, you can still go to it and check it out: https://sites.google.com/site/rollupstats/. I just don't love the templates or the lack of being able to customize it every which way. This time around I've used weebly which hopefully will keep people from running away, scared of viruses!

Check it out here: http://rolluptherimtowin.weebly.com/index.html

Reserved Seating at Cineplex

2010-03-24T09:59:00.000-07:00

I have been buying my tickets online for movies every week since the Telus Tuesday movie event started. The worst of that night is that you had to show up half an hour in advance or you have to sit in the front three rows (or as I like to think of them, the IMAX you don't even have to pay for). Then an amazing thing happened, I went to purchase Avatar tickets and there was a seating plan! It was just like checking in for a flight, I could pick my seats and could show up and that was that. I thought surely this meant we would be getting this for all the theatres as I have noticed they have stickers for the aisles and on the seats. I had believed that previously they just didn't have the IT infrastructure yet or that maybe it was only on the IMAX 3D movies. So then when it came to see Alice in Wonderland I was excited at the prospect of using the seat selector again but it was gone! I couldn't believe such a wonderful thing could be taken away, although I admit it's unfair to the people who don't buy their tickets online. In order to find out the deal, I wrote to cineplex, here's the answer:

Dear Jennifer,

Thank you for contacting Cineplex Entertainment.

The Cinema Banque Scotia no longer offers reserved seating in their IMAX auditorium. The reserved seating was a pilot test offered during Avatar's run in the IMAX auditorium.

There may be a possibility of reserved seating being offered in the future, but at this moment the IMAX auditorium operates on first come, first served seating.

Regards,

(left blank to protect the innocent)

So I wonder if the pilot test was a success and what it was based on. I assume that not enough people bought popcorn because they weren't left wasting away in the lineup and it was therefore a fail. It's true that I didn't buy anything that night, but I don't buy anything most nights. The truth is, they will fill the theatre no matter what, so what difference does our experience make? Not much it turns out, and I can't really blame them.

MSG in Knorr Products

2010-03-24T09:48:00.000-07:00

I'm not really one to use ready-made foods (although I have my weaknesses) because I don't like the list of items I can't read in their ingredient list. Plus in North America there seems to be no control over what can be in those ingredients. In fact I'm impressed still with Kraft Dinner, the color may be off but the ingredients don't even seem so bad. In Germany, it seems either the public is more inclined to health, or the government steps in because products there don't have so much high-glucose corn syrup and have less chemicals in general including MSG which brings me to Knorr. They are making efforts in Germany to eradicate MSG from their products and are making a bit of an advertising campaign out of it as well. Andreas has been bringing the soups and stocksß and other products (of which there are some really good ones, like potato au gratin and salmon sauces) to Canada because there is no MSG in them. I thought I would write Knorr and let them know what I think about that and see if there are any plans to remove MSG. Here I will comment on their response:

Hello Jennifer,

Thank you for writing us regarding Knorr.

If monosodium glutamate is added as an ingredient in any of our products, it appears in the ingredient list on the package label.

-> Wow, I had no idea!

MSG must be declared by name when it is added. Always check the ingredient list on the package.

-> This is atleast a relief, because it does go by other names to deceive us.

MSG is also a naturally occurring component of many protein rich foods such as cheese, meat, fish, milk, even vegetables such mushrooms and tomatoes.

-> Ahhh, what? Doesn't seem quite right, MSG is not really "naturally occurring". Glutamic acid (an amino acid) is found in these things, true, which is a building block of MSG. In order to create that amino acid you have to break apart protein and bind it with sodium to make salt. However if MSG is added in its non-naturally occurring chemical form, it's on the ingredient list. From wikipedia: Monosodium glutamate, also known as sodium glutamate and MSG, is a sodium salt of the naturally occurring non-essential amino acid glutamic acid.

Seems to be some tricky wording, but the part that makes it clear is the "of the naturally occurring".

We will be happy to forward your comments to the Brand, letting them know you would like to see such a product.

Consumer dialogue is important to us and evaluated on a regular basis.

Sincerely,

Your friends at Knorr

I'm left wondering if MSG is really as bad as I've been led to believe. However, does it really speak to the quality of their product if it doesn't taste good without a chemically-derived protein byproduct? It does seem to give me a headache in high quantities, that much I know. And I certainly don't like to buy a product with it on the label and knowing that Knorr has the ability to produce without, and they just aren't for the North American market, is a piss off.

Timmy's (Tim Horton's) Roll Up the Rim to Win Contest

2010-03-22T23:46:00.000-07:00

I've never really taken a great interest in this competition before, except at the moment there's a Tim Horton's right at the exit of the metro on my way to the lab. I am currently at 67% free coffee winnings and plan to keep that percentage as high as possible. Of course the free coffee I ordered was an extra large and then I won again! So now the debate is, does an extra large give you better chances of winning? Similar to spending more on a lottery ticket? Common sense would say no. But there's nothing common about my sense. Therefore I set out to find the answer and built the following little web application to collect data and display the responses: http://rolluptherimtowin.weebly.com/index.html

I wanted to use Google App Engine but the learning curve seemed too high for such a task, I'll have to put off learning that until later. In the meantime, it's brought to you by other Google products, such as forms, spreadsheets and sites, which were painful in their own way.

For those people out there who have no idea what I'm talking about... it's Canadian. It goes like this. Timmy's is a coffee and donut shop chain. Currently if you buy coffee in a paper cup, you can roll up the rim and win a prize. Doesn't sound like much, but due to marketing and Canadian spirit, it's sort of a big deal. Here's a picture of the cup:

By the way, is anyone else finding it extremely difficult to roll up the rims this year?

Swiss Chalet versus St. Hubert versus Scores

2009-11-17T21:01:00.000-08:00

I've been going to Swiss Chalet since I was a child, I even had the dress to wear whenever we went. Very Swiss in nature. However it blew my mind when I first found out there was a St. Hubert. I was so excited to try it, and to find out it was actually the original in the rotisserie chicken with odd red dipping sauce department. Now that I've moved to Montreal, there are even more competitors in the ring. Two I know of are Scores (a pretty big chain still) and Au Coq. I will attempt to compare the three I have tried here.

Sauce - The Swiss chalet is almost like a spicy tomato soup style gravy. Probably abhorrent to anyone not accustomed to it. St. Hubert sauce is similar except far thinner. Scores sauce again, has a somewhat tomato taste but much more like gravy. I prefer the Swiss Chalet sauce the most but if you haven't grown up on it, you will probably like the St. Hubert one better.

Price - They are all almost the same price, actually within pennies ($10.50 for white meat), but they include different things. Swiss chalet is just the quarter chicken and one side (and the bun). St. Hubert is the same but you get unlimited coleslaw (at Swiss Chalet this is $2 and not unlimited). Scores throws in the above sans coleslaw but you get unlimited access to the soup, salad and fruit bar. But don't get too excited. The soup is good, salad is average, but the fruit is unwashed whole fruits like apples, pears etc. and then a few sliced ones, pretty disappointing.

Chicken - St. Hubert probably has the best chicken. The breast gets you a lot of meat, the skin is tasty and it's moist. It's a reeeeally close call from the Swiss Chalet. Scores is good too but you definitely get less meat.

Fries - I prefer the Swiss Chalet fries the most. But they are odd, sort of weathered, broken down bits of browned fries, like they spent too long in the cooker. Apparently that's how I like them. St. Hubert and Scores have your average, normal fry.

Coleslaw - Swiss Chalet has the best coleslaw, but you only get one with a creamy sauce. St. Hubert you can get a vinaigrette or mayonnaise sauce.

Overall, St. Hubert is probably the best quality and ambience. But I'm still a sucker for Swiss Chalet. And Scores well... if I was in the neighborhood, maybe...

Montreal Shopping - Chabanel Street (Rue Chabanel)

2009-11-13T14:41:00.000-08:00

I had read about this great, factory-direct shopping available on Chabanel St. and also read some pretty poor reviews. The area of Chabanel is from St. Laurent to L'Acadie. It is cheaper from St. Laurent on and luckily only one side of the road so you can make your way along. I had been under the impression that the deals were had because you got samples etc. directly from the factory in which they were made. It's worth checking this out just for the oddity.

Imagine a deserted office building, where each "office" is a bare room just like a factory. However, every piece of clothing is unpacked from boxes, not created on site, and most often, made in China. It was getting pretty depressing making my way along the street. Some of the items seemed to be throwbacks to the 80's and not the fashionable retro look. However, there were a few gems along the way.

111 Chabanel on the ground floor, there is a nice store with fabulous discounts on luggage. For example, a spinning Atlantic suitcase is $50, whereas at the Bay, it is over $100, I think approaching $200. They are floor models, or ones with a flaws, so you have to watch out. Nevertheless, they had some genuine brand name items at good prices.

353 Chabanel advertises Groggy clothes and the front of the store is rather pricey. However make your way to the back and you will find the sample room. Hoodies for women are $5 and up, but $10 gets you a really nice Dickies brand hoodie. Most are extra small or small, since they are samples so won't work for everyone. I picked up 2 great $5 hoodies there.

Keep going down the road to L'Acadie and on the other side of the street you will see a block of stores. Some are outlet stores, but not all. Here you will find all the big names like Aldo, La Senza, Tommy Hilfiger etc. Also a Costco.

So is it worth it? Knowing what I know now, I would go back if I needed luggage or more $5 hoodies but I wouldn't go to any of the other stores on Chabanel. However it is a really unique experience, so I would recommend it if you have never been.

Boeuf Bourguignon - "Julia Childs'" Style

2009-11-12T22:22:00.000-08:00

Like many people, after watching Julie and Julia, I felt compelled to try the one dish they kept babbling about in the movie. It wasn't hard to find the recipe: http://cooking.knopfdoubleday.com/2009/07/13/julia-childs-boeuf-bourguignon-recipe/
or should I say recipes, as it relies on three. However most people know how to sauté mushrooms. However I usually don't do so with butter AND oil. Extravagant.

Anyways, if you don't know the history, I feel that Julia Childs got a little too much credit for this dish. I spent some time reading the wikipedia entry, which describes in detail the exact way her book indicates (which I don't think is from her book, rather Auguste Escoffier should be credited). And if you've seen the movie, you know she pretty much just wrote her name on someone else's cookbook (after rewriting it over and over again in simpler words) to sell it to Americans. A job well done I might add.

With that out of the way, some comments about the recipe. I didn't have a chunk of bacon, but I did have breakfast bacon so I used that instead. It worked out perfectly. However I read that since meat these days is well marbled with fat, you don't necessarily have to use bacon, but I mean c'mon, bacon makes everything better right? You also don't need to use wine but then the recipe is totally ruined. No bacon, no wine? It's not even a French dish anymore!

From then on, I followed the recipe word for sometimes confusing word. In the end it was upwards of 3 hours before I had a completed meal (and I enslaved my mom and Andreas to complete it). It doesn't look like much but it was really worth it. The meat was unbelievably tender. The taste very complex. I would do it all over again.

La pièce de résistance...

Jailbreak Iphone 3.0

2009-06-21T01:59:00.000-07:00

I tried this for quite some time before I got the tricks down. I kept getting an ITunes 1600 and 1604 error. So here is what worked for me:

Download Pwnage Tool 3.0 (sorry only works on Macs for now)

Go through the stage of creating the IPSW. It will then tell you to close the tool, start itunes and restore from the custom IPSW.

DO NOT CLOSE PWNAGE TOOL!!!! If you do, then you will always get the errors above. Just leave it open once you've entered DFU mode and don't touch it!

Then when ITunes comes up, (btw, beforehand I went to preferences and unchecked the check automatically for updates option, not sure whether this makes a difference) it will say found an iphone in recovery mode. Hold down the option key on the mac and press restore (or the shift key on windows). Then select the custom IPSW and away you go.

Now I simply wait for ultrasn0w to be released so I can unlock this thing!

As a side note, I have an AT&T phone that I use with Fido. In order to complete the 3.0 installation through ITunes, I had to put my AT&T sim back in otherwise I kept getting an incorrect sim error in ITunes. Hopefully this doesn't mean my sim is reactivated and I have to pay AT&T again!

Canadian Intern Doing US/Canada Taxes

2009-03-06T10:56:00.000-08:00

I wish I had been able to find a step by step guide on how to do my taxes, so here's my try at helping out. A bit of background, I did my internship in California and am a BC resident.

Since US taxes are due before Canada taxes, and you have to claim US taxes on your Canadian taxes, you should do those first (and as soon as possible).

What you will need to fill out is your local state taxes and the federal 1040NR-EZ (NR for non-resident and EZ is for easy and will apply to most situations).

I found the easiest way was to use a web program to do the California taxes and then e-file them. I used taxact.com for $7. You have to mail in the federal tax form and they don't support it so you have to do that completely separately.

For federal taxes (1040NR-EZ), I found this site: https://www.visataxes.com/software/forms/Form1040NR-EZ.php, and it's free and will generate a pdf for you. Watch it though because on line 23a, it will not tick that you want it either held for next year or given back. Make sure to check one! (probably that you want it back :) ).

Don't forget that anything you paid on your income form is tax deductible. For example I had to pay a California State Disability Insurance (CA SDI) that I declared on my federal tax and that saved me $40.

Once you mail that back and hear back (from state and federal), then you are ready to move on to your Canadian taxes.

Moving on to your Canadian taxes... I am using ufile.ca which is free for students, and basically how it goes is that you enter foreign income made, and any foreign income tax paid and also any donations you might have made in a foreign country. The program will fill in the accepted exchange rate (about 1 this year) and also calculate a foreign tax credit on your Canadian taxes, so that you're not double taxed.

Hope that helps!

Published on Amazon!

2009-03-05T11:17:00.000-08:00

Now you can buy my thesis!

Amazon

Germans and their Print on Demand

2009-01-27T23:57:00.000-08:00

About a year ago, I was approached by a german printing company (VDM-Verlag) that wanted to create a book out of my master's thesis. It has recently gone to print (or atleast the template has since it's print on demand), and I should be getting my copy soon and it will be on Amazon. Pretty cool, I will post the link. However, Andreas recently discovered a much more compelling print on demand than that scientific mumbo jumbo.

Some of you may know that I was trying my hand(s) at writing a novel myself. I thought it would be easier to get in with romance since it's responsible for something like half of novel sales, and eHarlequin is a pretty good place to start. I have indeed started something but it needs a lot of work.

These tacky romance novels definitely all follow the same format and we even discussed using a generator, similar to the one used to create CS papers: http://pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/

But now it gets really cool, it's not exactly a generator, but it is print on demand and you can edit the results. Check out this site: http://personalnovel.de/py/taggenre?Genre=English%20Books

Great gift for your friend, just change Dr. Troy to Dr. Matthews and you're all set. Even change the names to be something really disturbing, like their name and the name of their boss for a great April Fool's day joke. But what is really enjoyable is reading the synopsis'.

"Heavenly emotions with one love scene at the end"
"Vampire story with phantasy background, two love scenes"

and now... with that being said, what is with this one?!?

"Mysterious events in an exotic location, without love scene, with one dog"

what does the dog have to do with it? Almost makes me want to buy the book to find out!

For Sale - Virgin American $191.40 Airline Credit

2009-01-23T21:39:00.000-08:00

In case anyone who reads this is interested :)

-------------------

I currently have an unused credit on Virgin America in the amount of $191.40

Yes, I moved back to Canada and can't use this and it expires on the 17th of February.

Virgin America flies from to a lot of US cities including Seattle, New York, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Check out the airline here: http://www.virginamerica.com

Feel free to make me an offer.

NOTE: You will have to provide me with your name and address, and flights for me to book the travel, since the credit is currently in my name. I can book it with someone else's name but need the info in order to do it. Once I've booked it, I will send you all of the confirmation etc.

I accept payment only via PayPal and will book the flights when payment is received.

Thank you!

Designing a T-Shirt

2009-01-16T16:00:00.000-08:00

So I've been trying to break into digital art. Right now I'm using Inkscape on my mac but I'm convinced it's not that great.

This is my first attempt at a tshirt http://shirt.woot.com/Derby/Entry.aspx?id=26859. Vote for it if you like! I admit it is not so good. Some of the others are waaaay better. However the theme was "winter" and I was trying to figure out how the program worked, how the tshirt submission worked etc. I have better ideas so just wait! They have a new derby every week.

If you guys have comments on the best vector drawing tool etc., feel free to leave 'em!

Btw, I just found vectormagic.com, which vectorizes your photos for free (although it watermarks). Some really cool results!

Also this site has some cool designs: http://threadless.com/?from=jsnoopyb

And you can vote on some of my slogans here: http://www.threadless.com/profile/876234/jsnoopyb/slogans

Bringing your Car to California (USA) and Getting it back to BC (Canada)

2009-01-13T18:14:00.000-08:00

This was a bit of a long process and much, much worse to do the back to Canada part. Here's some instructions...

Insurance

In order to get a driver's license, you need an SSN etc. so if you're spending some time in the USA without working (for example, a research collaboration) you can get some insurance companies to insure you without a California license. I went with Unitrin through an insurance broker (Kay Paycee), and it wasn't even more expensive. But I did have to have my car registered so here's the next step.

Registration

This is a bit tricky in that BC (Canada in general I think) doesn't issue titles for the car, the little piece of paper on the insurance will not be regarded as ownership. So if you submit these papers, you might get back "golden rod" status which means the car belongs to nobody and then you can't sell your own car!

I had to get a letter from ICBC that said the car belonged to me from whatever date on official letterhead. The cost for this can be $10 but they didn't charge me. I then mailed this to the DMV and got my title, so if you have this to begin with, would be helpful.

Also you will have to pay the difference on tax on the vehicle. For example, I paid 7% tax in BC, and tax in California is 8.5% so I needed to pay 1.5% tax. Ridiculous I know, considering it's a different country. If you have owned it for over a year, you will not be charged. Therefore, I also needed proof that I had paid that much tax (as in the form you have from buying your car).

The driver's license is a whole other story but it's really easy, really ridiculously easy.

It's important that you not get confused with the title, registration and insurance. In BC, it's usually all the same paper from ICBC. In the USA, the title is who owns the car, the registration means it's registered and you have plates for it and the insurance is a whole other matter.

Bringing it Back to BC

Admittedly, I was stupid and thought it would be a simple procedure, they'd just look up the VIN and bam, car admitted. But oh no, no no no no.

First, since I didn't know, they got me at the border. I needed documents to show I had owned the car in BC and that it really was a BC car. Problem? I gave them to the California DMV. All would have been solved if I had known where in the car my photocopies were. Advice #1 keep photocopies of everything!!! They gave me a temporary import form which I then had to take to the customs office in Victoria (thank god there is one there, because you can't do this by mail) with all of the documentation I had (photocopies of ICBC papers and original invoice of when I bought the car), they then issued me a document to take to the insurance office. He also told me I wouldn't need an inspection. This is WRONG!

In my case, I needed to get a provincial inspection, this is about $100 if it passes. Now that you've got this, you'll go to the insurance office to insure your car. However you might need a federal, the customs officer should be able to tell you the right answer. But nobody knows anything, this is key.

Attempt #1

I needed letters from the insurers that I had had in the states to say I was claims free to keep my 40% discount. These letters need to be faxed directly to the insurance office you're dealing with. Since my insurance was expiring that day, I decided to move on to...

Attempt #2

Checked with another insurance office, not a problem here, they did it and I got my discount. I think the first woman was a bit of an a$ clown. However, moral of the story is, you should get letters ahead of time on official letterhead in case this happens to you and for your records.

Summary

On the Way down to California

1. Get a letter from ICBC stating that you own the car.

2. Take your invoice from purchase that shows how much tax you paid on the car (and how much you paid for it).

On the Way Home

1. Photocopy ANY documentation the California DMV takes from you and have it at the border. They will issue you import forms.

2. Before you leave California, get claims history letters on official letterhead mailed to you. They must include the policy number, date you were insured and any claims.

3. Provincial and possibly federal inspection will be required, ask either the border guard or at the insurance office.

4. Go to the insurance office and you're done!

Making Authentic German Kaese Spaetzle

2009-01-07T01:07:00.000-08:00

Decided to make cheese spaetzle from scratch today. Was pretty cool and reeeally delicious. So here's the recipe Magnum and I put together from various sources and his own experience.

Ingredients

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

4 eggs

1/2 cup milk

4 tablespoons butter

2 cups shredded Emmentaler or Swiss cheese (about 300 grams)

1 onion

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 serving of dark gravy (packet)

Directions

Mix together the dry ingredients first (flour, nutmeg, salt and pepper). Whisk the eggs in a bowl and add the milk to them. Pour the wet mixture into the dry and stir until smooth. Let stand at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Boil a large pot of salted water. Next cut pieces of the dough off in strips into the water. You can try to use a colander, cheese grater etc. but the dough is quite sticky so this probably won't work. Cutting it off is traditional (if you don't have a spaetzle press).
Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (350 fahrenheit).
When it floats to the top, they are done so remove them with a slotted spoon to a casserole dish on low heat.
When all of the noodles are in the dish, add the butter and stir until melted. Then add the cheese and stir.
Bake for 15 minutes (til the cheese is melted).
While it's baking, fry the onions til dark and crispy in the olive oil and pat with paper towel and set aside. Also prepare the gravy.
When the spaetzle is done, serve and allow guests to add gravy on top of it and garnish with the onions, as preferred.

Unlocking IPhone 3G with 2.2 Firmware

2009-01-05T22:25:00.001-08:00

In a nutshell, what you have to do is jailbreak your iphone and get a new version of the appstore called Cydia. Through that you can install the unlocking program called yellowsn0w.

This was tougher than I thought, atleast the jailbreaking part was for some pretty stupid reasons. This is why:

1) PwnageTool doesn't work on the new Macbooks (late 2008)

- doesn't enter DFU mode

2) QuickPwn doesn't work on the new Macbooks either

- Freezes on "quickpwn is about to run on your iphone 3g"

3) QuickPwn refuses to even execute on Windows, gives "quickpwn.exe has caused an error and needs to close"

- Need to install ITunes. This won't normally be a problem but I had to use my mom's PC.

Finally using QuickPwn on the PC, it was really easy to jailbreak the phone. Now a new version of the AppStore is installed, called Cydia. From here, install "yellowsn0w". Follow this

http://www.hackthatphone.com/20/quickpwn_unlock_2_2_3G_iphone_2.html

then this didn't work for me and finally, I found instead of just powering it off and on, I needed to reboot it with the home and power button, then remove the sim, put it back in and power it back on and then voila!

Now when I tried to connect to ITunes, I got a sim card is not supported error. Then I disconnected it, put it in airplane mode, then reconnected it and no problem. Of course when I unhooked it and turned it off of network mode, it said invalid sim again. Tried rebooting, didn't say invalid sim but carrier is gone from the list and doesn't get a network connection so THEN I reinstalled yellowsn0w (easy in Cydia) and rebooted. Maybe I'll need to use Songbird with my iphone :)

Skittles Vodka

2009-01-05T21:58:00.000-08:00

I have been planning for awhile to write about how to create Skittles Vodka. It's pretty easy but there's a few tricks.

First of all, you have to decide which color you want the vodka to be. If you want a pretty radioactive red then remove all of the green and purple ones (or you can create swamp water with all of them).

Next, you'll need a 26er of vodka and a big bag of skittles, I got the 1 pound bag.

Next, after you've picked out all the colors you want (I used yellow, orange and red), pour out about a quarter of the vodka, then add the skittles to the bottle.

Next, let the skittles dissolve. I let them go for about 4 hours because I was in a rush but I have read that leaving them for about a week lets the flavor develop (like a fine wine). Shake the bottle every once in awhile to get things moving, then your skittles vodka will look like:

Now you will notice that there's a ton of icky stuff in the vodka that needs to be filtered out. This is the hard part. I tried everything from a tea strainer, paper towel, coffee filter, scooping it out and finally, the only thing that worked, my SAP Research t-shirt (but of course any t-shirt will do). Here's some photos of the progress.

And the final product!

Now that you're done, enjoy! Even though this looks like a martini or juice, beware, it's still straight vodka. I found it really strong but others were able to continue drinking it one shot after another :)

SIRTS - Final Results

2008-07-25T23:11:00.000-07:00

The final results from the exhilirating tampon series are in!

We visited Sun labs, and they had some really cool projects such as https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net and http://research.sun.com/projects/dashboard.php?id=176

Their tampons... free. Awesome start to the day.

Finally, we went to HP labs and just as I had predicted, we finally see the standard rate of 25 cents.

Just to recap:

SAP - Free
Google - Free or 5 cents
PARC - 10 cents
Sun - Free
HP - 25 cents

To be honest, I am glad this is over, starting to seem just a little bit ridiculous.

SIRTS - Day 2

2008-07-16T18:30:00.000-07:00

Today was the second day in the exciting high-tech tampon series. First we visited PARC and I was astounded, totally blown away, by what I saw. Please see the photo below. What is wrong with this picture?

These are by far, the most expensive tampons in the research region thus far. Since my readers are mostly men, I will point out that in the public sector, these items usually go for 25 cents. At 10 cents, I believe they are still subsidized or atleast at cost. Math time.

Let's go for a run of the mill regular absorbency, Tampax cardboard applicator tampons as seen here:
http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100230&navAction=jump&navCount=0&skuid=sku316387&id=prod16387

Therefore, these tampons' street value is 20 cents each. I can deduce that 10 cents each is probably wholesale pricing and not a total rip off.

So I wait with bated breath to find a 25 cents machine on my travels. Only Sun or HP are left to take this prized position.

Next we went to SAP. I have already reported that their tampons are free, however, as Google had some disparity between buildings, I figured I should do an exhaustive study. Alas, SAP prevails and free tampons for all!

SIRTS - Summer Intern Research Tampon Series

2008-07-12T00:13:00.000-07:00

As some of my readers know, now is the time of SIRS, the Summer Intern Research Series. This entails 3 afternoons of visiting other research campuses in the Silicon Valley area. Namely Microsoft, Google, Parc, Sun, HP and SAP. Of course such a gem of a situation only arises... well once a year. But the point is, now is the time to take advantage of lowered security to get access to their tampon machines.

Some of you are familiar with my previous post on the audacious 5 cent tampons from Google. This Thursday we visited Microsoft and Google (building 40).

Excitement was mounting as I approached the women's bathroom door at MSR. As expected, tampons were FREE! A view of the machine and said tampons can be seen below. Well done Microsoft, I love you, and always have.

Next we made the arduous trek to Google. As previously mentioned, in another building, tampons were 5 cents each. Which I find completely ridiculous given the number of other free amenities. But I thought to myself, let's give them the benefit of the doubt and check building 40. WTF!??!! They're free here too! This leads me to believe building 40 is the flagship of tampon awareness or someone is stealing tampons left, right and center from the other building, causing them to offset costs by 5 cents a pop. Photo of free Google machine below (yes, they are basically the exact same).

On a side not, I am told by my female counterpart at SAP, that tampon stealing is a fierce plague. The machine is raided every day by 4 PM. Possibly a hemophiliac? More research is needed.

Stay tuned for exciting news next week on 2 more labs...

YUD

2008-06-25T00:44:00.000-07:00

Yogurt-Urine-Drink. YUD.

Went out for lunch with Arjun today. We were supposed to go for alcoholic beverages but all was forgotten when I faced the alluring "classical taste of quality" promised by the following beverage.

This Estia fluid claims to be the original, all natural yogurt drink. However, it tastes how I can only imagine urine shaken with month old yogurt tastes like. Salty yet creamy and bitter.

No doubt this drink has its place amongst spicy dishes and desert islands. But if you are ever faced with this drink, I implore you to select Snapple, like Arjun. Unless you are a regular urine drinker (good for your skin?) in which case, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the similarities... as well as other things.

In a completely unrelated beverage note, check out this Starbucks drink. I can't be sure, but I think "Jennifer" has become "Jennifly", which is definitely an improvement over the most popular name for girls in 1981.