It's confirmed! 2 weeks in China with the following itinerary:

Jan 27 leaving Vancouver on a 767
Jan 28 arriving in Shanghai, then taking a train to Hangzhou
Jan 29 - 30 working in Hangzhou
Jan 31 - Feb 1 playing in Hangzhou
Feb 2 - 3 working in Hangzhou, then training to Suzhou
Feb 4 playing in Suzhou, then training to Shanghai
Feb 5 - 9 playing in Shanghai
Feb 9 leaving Shanghai
Feb 9 arriving in Vancouver

Woohoo!

The City of Vancouver has planted some new trees on my block. I'm not sure when it happened, as I rarely look out the front of the house, but eight new treelings have sprouted, increasing the end-to-end total from ten to 18. So long as they don't grow to block the view from our bay window, I'm okay with them. Otherwise, they will have to say hello to my little friend. BBBZZzzzzzzzz....

I'm not a big coffee drinker. Let's face it, I can't really stand coffee... but I'll enjoy a mocha every so often. Today I was at Starbucks with a friend and ordered the White Chocolate Mocha and it was blissful. Much better than a regular mocha, in my humble opinion.

I just finished watching American Idol Season 3's second episode. So far, New York and Atlanta. You know, it's funny... even after two seasons of A.I., auditioners STILL don't get the point. They still do stupid dances, still can't sing, and still sound surprised when they get rejected harder shooting a J with Kevin Garnett in front of you in the paint. Randy and Simon continue to be rather rude, laughing at auditioners' singing... although sometimes it is pretty funny. Waiting for the rest of the season to unfold.

In the meantime, I'm going to keep practicing for Canadian Idol Season 2. La la la la la Mi mi mi mi mi....

Amongst some of the most basic windows games is Minesweeper. Back in highschool, I used to play this more than regularly and was pretty pleased with my results (4, 18 or 19, and 89 seconds for beginner, intermediate, and advanced). Then I played this recreationally in university just to waste time on nights before midterms and finals. I thought I took Minesweeper far enough...

... but these Minesweepers seems to have brought mouseclicks to a whole new level. The scores (e.g. 1-12-43) seem to show their scores for Beginner-Intermediate-Advanced. What scares me more than their low times is their dedication to the game. Nerds.

What's funny about this site is the amount of strategizing that goes into each game for these players. They even have videos, although I wasn't able to watch them.

The fact that I'm browsing sites now, and no longer playing the game, makes me void of nerdom. Either that or envious.

Prestige. I got an update on my Aeropoints (with Star Alliance airlines and associated companies) in the mail. Surprisingly, my Aeroplan Miles balance surged from 46,040 to 67,670. All my new Aeroplan points were associated with my trip to England, but I didn't expect to get as many as I did (in comparison, my business trips to China usually get about 12,500 miles). The new miles came from:

2,500 Miles = Prestige 2003 1st Flight Bonus
9,420 Miles = Double Miles - London
5,000 Miles = Prestige Requalifying Bonus
4,710 Miles = Air Canada London Vancouver

So now with 67,670 Aeroplan Miles, I have enough for a trip to Europe (again)! Woohoo!

How much of TV is scripted or cue-carded? During the lead-up to a televised Canucks game, I was trying my best to watch commentator Dan Murphy's eye movement which I think were scanning a teleprompter. It's fairly difficult to tell whether someone is reading off a teleprompter, but sometimes you know it's there. For music and award shows, we know there's a teleprompter, and the presenters (musical artists in particular) occasionally slip up when they present in pairs or trios. Late-nite talk show hosts generally seem to have cue cards, which appear on camera from time to time.

What about the Evening News? Does the newscast use a script or just prepared material?
Other TV shows? Game shows? Alex Trebek (did you know he was a news reporter on CBC)?

It makes me wonder whether or not there are any natural un-aided presenters out there. When you hear a speaker or a lecturer, and they're good at what they do, you know. You are there with them, you know that they aren't reading off a machine feeding their lines, and you can respect their trade, on top of their message/content. On the other hand, what could make you say that a TV personality is a good presenter?

Anyway, maybe not a very intriguing subject.

I'm finding it extremely difficult to work these days. Today was The Day most people around the office found out whether they would be on their way out or part of the structuring company. Even though this round of layoffs had nothing to do with me, having known my situation for a week now, the desire to know who was let go was still distracting. That and the fact that I really had no concrete work to do, aside from read about what's been on the go in the Telecom industry.

It's a real shame knowing that our company, which held the #1 spot on BC Business's Top Employer list, will fall victim to the troubles of the high-tech industry once again. The layoffs seemed to see so many of the great employees that gave the social feel go, and I wonder whether the people remain will even see their "survival" as a blessing. I am aware of a few people who question whether they still want to stay at the company after the changes, as there will be a huge cultural overhaul, not withstanding morale issues.

Nevertheless, sometimes change is good and it usually doesn't happen unless it's forced. I'm looking forward to new opportunities, whichever way they should appear.

As I watch tonight's Canucks game at Anaheim, I witnessed one of the most amazing things I'd seen in a hockey game:

Copied from www.canucks.com --

"This had nothing to do with the game, but it's just so weird it merits mentioning. About a minute after Martin Gerber took over for Giguere, the Twins pulled a stunt that will never be repeated. Daniel walked over the Ducks' line and into the face-off circle before unloading a slapper that beat Gerber and rang off the near post. The puck bounced straight out to the opposite dot where Henrik sat with stick cocked. He rifled it and it caught the other post and rang out.

Two twins, two consecutive shots and two post. Heck, the tone of ring was even eerily similar."

I had a posting the other day about the WJH Championship that I wrote right after the game ended. But blogger died, and my long post disappeared. Bummer.

Anyway, I'm back at work after more than 1 month off for recovery. So far, it's been a quiet day. We'll see how things ramp up.