Golden Corral – All you can eat buffet

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So yesterday I had the good fortune to experience some of the fine dining down here in Miami, and what a treat I was in for.

When we rolled into the parking lot, the first area of parking we hit, we decided to stay clear of it cause there was a group of people with their hood, trunk, and a few doors open. Can you say a robbery? The next area we drove into there was a couple in a Neon changing their babies diaper. How cute.

Into the Golden Corral. I suppose we should have been horrified immediately by the fact that the lineup for the steaks was about the line up you could expect for a super bowl halftime bathroom lineup, and of the lineup, I think it would have been hard to find two people that were not extremely overweight, yes most women had spandex on and most men had cutoff t-shirts. What amazed me most was the hair most of the women had. Some of the most amazing feats of hair composition I’ve ever even imagined to see. It kind of reminded me of the pages you see like “people of wall-mart” where you see grown men in batman costumes etc. yai.

We squeezed ourselves into the seating, where we had to ask around how to begin eating. Found some plates and attempted the all you can eat buffet. I turned my head as I watched a few people using their hands to poke and pick at some of the food as they waited in line for their steaks, and continued onto the salads to get myself a nice chicken ceasar salad. It was very decent.

Yes, I did wait in the linup for a steak. Yes, the kind lady in front of me called the griller doing the steaks ‘darling’. Yes, I did get a dessert: one slice of chocolate cake, and one slice of apple pie. Yes, there was food all over the ground getting stepped on. Yes, I did see an extremely fat man wearing sweat pants and grease stains included. And yes, I did work out this morning.

What amazes me the most is that people like the lady beside us, she managed to, on her first pass, get one steak on her plate, plus a side dish for another steak, which she lavished over. Her husband also went up to get a dish, and brought himself back a steak and his wife another steak. When we were leaving, she had three steaks, which were each about 10o oz. steaks each, and one on her plate. Seriously? Yes, I’m totally serious. And it wasn’t just her. Everybody around us was going  up for their 4th and 5th plates, drinking their sodas.

You know what though, I feel kind of bad for judging these folks. In the most part, every single one of them seemed to be in a jolly mood, giggling and laughing to each other, having a gay old time at the Golden Corral. Who couldn’t with all that food in their bellies though?

I just wish I could be able to bring a first date to a place like that up in Vancouver!

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Being a Passenger

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So here I am, sitting in SETAC Airport, just chilling. This is how I roll. But when I’m sitting, I’m watching and observing, like the good passenger I am.  Its kind of amazing to see so many folks, all with their own styles and quirks.

A lady across from me has her leopard colored jacket on, the guy whose sitting next to me and I think reading what I’m writing is in his yachting outfit, I also see a group thats made to wear green sweatshirts, old people and young people all in all. Fair enough, thats cool. Its a group thing, gotta keep everybody together. I love how they all wrap their sweaters around their waste. I dont understand how people can think or completely disregard any sense of style. I guess in a way they do have their own style, who am I to judge as my brother keeps reminding me.

So for now, I continue to appreciate the graces god has given me to roll with a little bit of style, and smirk at the funny people.

On to lighter notes, I was stuck next to a lady who would tell her child to stop it with everything he tried to do, and also blamed him for every unfortunate thing that occurred during the whole flight. “The boy needs to tinkle” “The boy was kicking his sweater below his seat, could you pass it forward” .

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Off To Miami

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So, as it goes, I will be heading off to Miami, or Florida area if you will, for a week, and then a week cruise to the Bahamas! I know, this sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Weather that I can wear shorts in, sandy beaches that I can lay down on, sunscreen and sunglasses, and drinks at oceanside cafe’s are just a few of the things that I plan on doing.

You see, in Vancouver here, we have this thing called the 2010 Olympics going on, so everything and everything is shutting down for two weeks, except the pubs, and this includes the fine establishment I frequent. So Two weeks, what to do…. hmmm.

I’ll be taking my camera, so expect to see a couple dozen pics from the excursions down there.

The plan is to get to the Everglades, and take some pictures of Alligators. The folks who are already down there say that the birds are marvelous and come right up to the boat or hiker, which is what I’ll be doing.

I cannot wait for this I’ll be there in 72hrs, so if your down there, and want to hook up, take some pics together or have some fun, contact me and we’ll see what we can do!

Stay safe kids.

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Disgruntled Student

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SO, I just got back one of my midterms, yai. How much fun. It was one of those midterms that you write, and your like, YEA! I killed it! BUT, as it turns out, I didn’t kill it so much. I, more or less, bombed it. Uhm. Ok.

Disgruntled as I was, I packed up my smart cap, and went to the professors office to check out the exam, see if I could find why I’m such an idiot, or snap on the TA for marking my paper so stupidly.

When I arrived there seemed to be some fellow in their asking questions galore, going over question by question the assignment, a few hours before its due, thinking this is a normal thing. Poor professor if that’s the case. They beckoned me in, said it was all good: enter the cave.

I take a seat at the only seat available, for some reason this fellow was on his knees, and wait until the professor asks me if he can help me. “Why yes of course! I’m here to look over my exam that I bombed.” It was kind of interesting because at the start of last lecture, he mentioned that the entire class average was incredibly high, and that we shouldnt expect the exams to be this high for the next two. Ohk, great. I hadn’t looked at mine yet, but I saw high 90’s in my mind.

First thing I find, was that I had about 15 giant arrows pointing at the page to the left, for the extra space I needed to complete the question, and the TA decided to go to the right, to the page at the reverse side and mark the question there. I guess Mr. Marker didn’t’ think it was odd that what they were marking had nothing to do with the question … Had 1/20, complained and got 20/20.

Next thing I find, is that I apparently wrote something a little bit hard to understand. Although, in what I had stated, there was no statement that was contrary to the definition that I was supposed to have, in fact, I stated everything that there was to be stated, just in a weird way I guess. Did I mention that his questions on exams were a little bit hard to understand? No. But, I did manage to squeeze out another 3 marks from him: Had 6/12, got 9/12.

I’d like to take a moment here to point out that in an exam, were allowed to ask the teacher of anything were a little bit unclear of in the question, so why the hell arent they made to ask us about answers we give that they are unclear about? I think this is one major flaw of having classes that range in the hundreds.

Next thing I find, is that a definition called for set theory, where as I gave just variable theory. Which in turn means that set theory is written as P(x) -> Q(x), where just variable theory would be written as p -> q. So, I wrote out the exact definition, just that I used p’s, instead of P(x)’s. Had 8/12, got 8/12. My complaining wasn’t useful here.

Thats bunk if you ask me. Witch hunt. Your telling me that your going to drop me from lets say a A to a B just because I used p’s instead of P(x)’s?  And because, even though I’m fluent in english, and was forced to regurgitate some law or rule that was thrown at us, among with a few hundred more I might add,  I cannot a. remember it verbatim, and b. I cannot spew it out in completely readable english  your going to drop my grade?

I think this is total and complete taking advantage of your power, and laziness in the meantime. I should make a point here that I know as a fact that at least 2/3 of the markers are not very fluent in English.

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Chicken and Sausage Stir Fry

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Tonight I was procrastinating making dinner, so I waited, and waited, and waited, and snacked, and waited, and waited. But! Finally, I decided to go to the grocery store, get some local produce, and make a stir fry, and boy did it turn out good!

  1. To start off, I chopped my chicken and sausage into bite sized chunks, and put them into the pan to start frying with a little extra virgin olive oil.
  2. Next I added a bunch of spices, my favorites are sesame seeds, tarragon, hot curry powder, chilies (stuff like they have at boston pizza in the shakers)
  3. Started the frying pan with sliced onions and garlic with some more extra virgin olive oil
  4. Started my rice, which is white basmati which I match the rice to water ratio(1/3 cup), plus a little more water and bring that to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes
  5. while this is going on, I chopped some : 1/2 green pepper, 1 carrot, 2 large mushrooms, 1 tomato, and 2/3 cup of brocolli into little bits
  6. after frying the meat, and its looking almost done, no more red parts, I add all the vegetables and put a top onto the dish to let it kind of steam.
  7. after steaming for a few minutes, I put in the onions and garlic that were frying (they should be brownish by now)
  8. let this simmer for a little, and voila! presto! yum. full belly.

I serve it on top of the rice and a glass of red fits the bill!

For some more great ideas check out this health website

Hope you enjoy, let me know if you’ve tried it!

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Eating Healthy Day by Day

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Alot of people feel that the word “diet” is something only fat people and health nuts use, but folks, dont be afraid. Its not that bad to use the word. In fact, truly, by definition, diet is just what you eat, not relating to or pertaining to specific food groups.

So, the key is to stick to foods that are healthy, I guess this part is obvious. The real challenge is to create ways to incorporate this into your life, so from exerciseandmind.com, lets break it down meal by meal.

Keep your breakfast simple: fruits and vegetables. no sugars added, no fansy schemes, just a simple meal. The people at exercise and mind recommend a blend, fruits, oats, flax and almond milk. The almond milk has calcium if your afraid for your bones!

For lunch its also simple, keep a sandwich, wrap, salad, or get creative with leftovers! Its not that hard now, come on!

For dinner, be brave and make your own meals. It only takes approx 20-30 min to make most dishes, and they are gratifying once you’ve created your own.

A key to making a delicious dish every time, is to have a good stock of spices. A trick I use is to go to the spice isle every time I go into the grocer, and each visit I pick out one new spice. In a few weeks, you’ll have a nice big selection. Go for the spices that even the non-cooker knows the names of, oregano, tarragon, sesame seeds… etc.

Most of all, enjoy making the meals. Its a great feeling to know your ea

ting healthy. When you go shopping, just simply dont buy the junk food that your trying to stay away from. Instead, spend a few extra dollars for a really nice steak, or a rare exotic fruit to try out. It really does make a difference.

Good luck!

Posted in: Cooking, Exercise and Mind \ Tagged: , , , , , ,

Bloedel Floral Conservatory

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So, today I embarked on a journey to the center of Vancouver to the Bloedel Floral Conservatory in Queen Elisabeth Park at Cambie and 33rd St. I, of course, brought my camera, and took a tonne of great shots. Got so many good pics of beautiful flowers and plants as well as the resident parrots and birds they had around.

I love when you walk into a room and you can just feel the moisture seeping into you. I always loved that about Vancouver when I was a kid coming here, I remember it very vividly. I think it comes back in the summer time. But, thats what it was like in here. Must be just a heaven to live in for a plant, not like the light deprived ones of my bedroom…

I brought a sandwich to share, but turned out I was the only one hungry. Its easy to relax and sit and enjoy whats going on around you when you have something to do. I find its hard to just sit and enjoy things sometimes, maybe thats a fault of mine.

I ran into an old couple with a video camera there. They seemed to just walk around, enjoying everything. They told me that one of the parrots was the comedian of the bunch, so apparently they spend a lot of time there. I’m curious how many hours of footage he has of the birds there. I, myself, in the two hours I spent there managed to get around 400 pics taken, of which I widdled it down to 60 or so.

I overheard one of the ladies talking about how the conservatory might have to sell some of the things to raise some money for it. That to me is just plain old sad news. I did some research on it, and found out that due to city budget cuts, they were going to close down the conservatory. This to me is horrific, to shut down something as beautiful as this, and promote something as… ?fruitful? as the Olympics is beyond me. Just across the street from the Park was a giant brand new facility for Curling for the Olympics.

Question: How many millions of dollars did they spend on that facility, and how many millions of dollars would it take for the conservatory to stay open for another 10 years giving students to elders alike a sense of what beautiful things nature can provide for us if we let her flourish.

I think something is very skewed when we tear down and disregard parks and forest for the sake of business. Actually, it sickens me.

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Caribbean Cruise Line Scam

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Caribbean Cruise Line onboard the SS (MS) Bahamas Celebration is a Hoax

Recently I was contacted by a survey firm, and the reward for the survey was a free cruise. I know, this sounds oddly like a too good to be true story, and I should have realized this as soon as it happened, but the lesson was yet to be learnt.

After completing this quick survey, I gave them my email address where they forwarded me a sample voucher of the free cruise: all things ok so far. I was told that I would be contacted within 72hrs with further details on the cruise and thanked for my time.

So, about 4 days later or so, I got a call from this firm Caribbean Cruise Lines. Again, I should have suspected something was odd when first off, when I was talking with this guy, he would sometimes, right in the middle of me explaining something he asked me the question to, go talk to somebody else, and I would have to repeat myself.

Ok, I can handle that. I asked him all the questions in the world, hummed and hawed, and was told that this offer wouldn’t be available to me in the future, and that I couldn’t think about it and phone them back, I had to put the money down, they quoted me $59.00 for the first two passengers to reserve, and for two it was $118.00 total. They put a limit saying I must have at least 2 passengers, and no more than 4. Ohhhk, this was all fair, I guess, since I was planning on doing this anyways. The money, I was told, was to pay for the port taxes and to reserve a space on the vessel, and also that I had three days to get my money back.  Ok, whatever, they didn’t stipulate this when I was told it was going to be a free cruise. The odd thing, I felt, was that I had to put the money down right then and there. I looked on their webpage: http://caribbeancl.com/index-3.html (www.caribbeancl.com) and ok, they claimed Carmen Electra was their spokes person. Does that make things legitimate then? Shame on Miss. Electra.

I viewed the page, looked at the privacy policy and checked out everything, things seemed to be official. One line I clearly missed “5. Recipient is responsible for actual port charges and government taxes of $59 per person at time of booking. These charges are non-refundable. “ – now started the fun.

So, I put down the money, and they took my visa and address and email and phone number and told me that I would receive my package within three days, and also that I’d get an email with more information on how to book my seat. They told me that there was no black-out dates, except between a few weeks in April that were of no concern to me since I would be using it within a month or so (February).

Three days later, I hadn’t received even a confirmation email, no nothing, so I phoned the number they had given me and tried to see what I could get. They told me when I told them the time I wanted to go, without any hesitation, that the dates I wanted to go were not available for the price class of room I won, and paid for already (not much of a free winning is it?). My only options for the time would be to upgrade for $350.00 to either a better room, or a 4 day cruise package… Right.

I was now getting mad, and disturbed, which further elevated my previous skepticism about this company or ‘sweet deal’ as they kept trying to tell me.

I asked for my refund “please”. They told me the only way to get my money was to a) resell the package to a friend, or b) they could extend the voucher for another 24 months, so I’d have 3 years to give them $350.00.

Needless to say, I didn’t approve of either of these options, was furious at the scam that I had been dragged through, but glad that I wasn’t out the full $500.00 it would have taken me for this FREE CRUISE package. I am hoping that what I write here today will open any one’s eyes up to similar situations, or even other deals that this company tries to offer. I suspect they get enough suckers like me to employ about 6 people, for I was in contact with probably all of them.

By the way, it has been about a week now, and I still haven’t received this package they promised me would be emailed as well as mailed to me.

NEW INFORMATION.

This may or may not be related, but I’ve been getting calls from an unknown number, when I answer, they hang up and call me repeatedly. So, I did a bit of research and found that this company has a history, and its from a Imperial Majesty Cruise Lines, so I thought I’d link you all to this website that explains a bit more: 19543510087 .

God these guys are annoying. Just keep feeding the fire.

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Homemade Gravy

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Well, tonight I had some of my left over Roast Beef from last night, which was delicious then, and just as delicious tonight. But, I decided tonight, I needed to add some liquid or extra sauce to it, just to make it off the hook.

To start off, i boiled about a half cup of water. I also took about a half a cup of hot tap water, and put it into a cup with a cap for shaking along with two heaping teaspoons of regular flour. I shook this, in order to mix the flour in with the water (no clumps) and when the pot of water boiled, I poured the mix in. I then added about 1/4 cup of coconut milk, stirring it all together.

Once this was all in, I turned the heat down, so the mixture just barely simmered, and started adding my spices, which all were about 1/2 a teaspoon each:

  • salt
  • pepper
  • cumin
  • garlic powder
  • oregano
  • tumeric
  • savory
  • coriander

Once those were in, I added 1 chopped into little pieces mushroom, and 1 ring of an onion.

I kept this simmering for 10 minutes or so, stirring the whole time as I steamed my veges and the result was amazing!

I wish I had a picture, but good luck!

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Charlotte Gainsbourg

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So, I just recently read a SPIN article on Charlotte Gainsbourg, and instantly got on my horse to go get her albums.

Apparently she just did her first ever live show in USA I think?

I’m listening to it now, and I’m a fan. She rocks with electronics just enough to make it funky, and yet still folky, with a silent ambient sort of flavor to it as well, and I’m only three songs in!

I’ve been a giant fan of hers for a while, but the one role that is creeping into my mind right now is her role in I’m Not There, a Bob Dylan movie of sorts… you have to watch it to understand. She plays in a scene with Heath Ledger. Love it. Her style is amazing.

Find her here: http://www.charlottegainsbourg.com/

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