A: "Hey, how's it going?"
B: "Good, and yourself?"

You see, asking someone "how's it going?" is generally taken as a formality by most people. They reply with a "good", and return the favor. But I don't see it that way. When I ask, particularly to friends over MSN, I am genuinely interested in knowing how he or she's doing. Because if this went both ways, then we'd have a lame conversation that would take no more than 4 seconds (this is where we ask our viewers to try it).

A: "Hey, how's it going?"
B: "Good, and yourself?"
A: "Good."

When I say "Hey, how's it going?", I actually mean:
"Hey, how are you doing today? And how have you been since the last time I saw you? How's the wife /the girlfriend / the boyfriend / the baby / the dog / the job / the weather where you are / your body temperature / your health / your limp / your social life / life in general? What have you been up to (in no less than 10 sentences)?"

Only after that person has given me the full update, is he/she allowed to ask me how I am. I don't need a "good" in response to my question. Heck, it's assumed good until proven bad.

BTW, how many of you *actually* "tried it"?

I lost my wallet following a car accident incident (that didn't directly involve me) a couple months ago. Fortunately, I was relieved to retrieve it from a police station the day after -- everything in tact... except the money. The entire time I lost my wallet, I was only realistically hoping to recover the cards/IDs/etc., and assumed that the money would "vanish". That assumption wouldn't have been any different if I were in Vancouver; but I believe it holds even more true here in Taiwan, because it's all about the money. In fact, I would say that even if a kind Taiwanese samaritan had picked up my wallet and turned it into the police without charging me a Finder's Fee, the police officer(s) surely would have. Let's admit it: free money doesn't fall into your hands everyday.

So, here's my question to you readers:
If you found a wallet with money in it, would you take some? Under what conditions would you or wouldn't you?

Go ahead and post anonymously if you want, just answer honestly.

And just to calm the odd reader, yes, I did report my bank card and credit card when my wallet went missing. So don't worry about it.

AC told me Canada has a new Governor General, Michaëlle Jean. It raised a question in my mind, because I had no idea what a Governor General does other than have TV shows called "Adrienne Clarkson Presents". My only online research shows (from the official website):

What is the Governor General's position in Government?

Canada is a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy. This means Canadians recognize The Queen as our Head of State. Canada's Governor General carries out Her Majesty's duties in Canada on a daily basis and is Canada's de facto Head of State.

Like many other democracies, Canada has clearly defined the difference between the Head of State and Head of Government.

The Governor General
    - represents The Queen who is the Head of State
    - is appointed by The Queen on the advice of Canada's Prime Minister

What does the Governor General do?

The Governor General's role is built on four major themes:
    - Representing the Crown in Canada
    - Representing Canadians and Promoting our Sovereignty
    - Celebrating Excellence
    - Bringing Canadians together

Pretty useless role, if you ask me.

Then I started looking at the past Governor Generals and found some familiar names.

Lord Stanley of Preston: NHL's Stanley Cup
Earl Grey: CFL's Grey Cup, although I thought it was the tea guy at first
Lord Byng: My highschool's rival highschool in Vancouver (Lord Byng Secondary School)

It's interesting to know who the people are behind the names I've heard for years.

I've been out of Vancouver for over 15 months now.

Most of the time, when I talk to friends, I get the update on them -- which is great, and I'm more than enthusiastic to hear about it.

But what's new with Vancouver? What's going on in the city I lived in for the first 25+ years of my life? Developments, news, sights, stories...? I want to see what SFU looks like now that UniverCity has been booming up at SFU. What about all the 2010 development? Any new laws passed?

Tell me, tell me, tell me!

For a brief moment in time, I was a wizard.

This morning, I was "Kevin the Wizard" as I hosted the Washington American School Halloween trick-or-treat. I blogged about this one year ago.

With a dracula cape and witch's hat, I was more of a crossbreed than a wizard, but who could tell? My coworker (whose son's school was the one that came by) told me the flow of the 1-hour show, and I ran with it. There was some miscommunication on the floor, as one of the teachers kept looking at me like "What are you doing? That wasn't in the script." Well, it was in MY script. No one cares about the overall picture. It's all about me. Halloween isn't for the kids anyway. CHRISTMAS is for the kids. Halloween is for the adults who pretend they're not who they really are. Anyway, I think I did a good job hosting the game, speaking loudly, clearly, and slowly. But it makes me realize that I could never teach kids because I can't stand speaking at such a simple level. Anyway, it was fun. Now it's back to work work.

Oh, and like last year, BT sent another Scratch & Win card "Fright Night". But I Scratched & Lost. Dangit.

I was on the bus to Ben's place for the weekend with my laptop today. I started off watching a couple episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond Season One, during which a guy sat next to me plugged into his MP3 player. In Taiwan at least (not sure about the situation in Canada now), it seems like everyone has an MP3 player. There are at least 50 different makes and models at electronics stores, if not more. A lot of the makers are Taiwanese companies, some small some large. Even so, the iPod series of players are still amongst the most popular.

So after finishing up with ELR, I decided to close my eyes for a bit and listen to some classical music. So, I used MY MP3 player. I opened Windows Media Player, queued up a bunch of MP3s, closed my laptop and held it at my side. I chuckled to myself at the thought of my oversized MP3 player in comparison to the guy-next-to-me's tampon-sized MP3 player.

Welcome to the 21st Century.

This frustrates me.

Cursed with radically changing day-to-day weather, Taiwan weather forecasts never seem consistent from one website to the next. I'm trying to decide whether to go rollerblading tomorrow, and I can't plan it with any certainty. For example, looking at the outlook for today and tomorrow...

Taipei: Yahoo! Weather and CNN
Hsinchu: Taiwan Central Weather Bureau and Yahoo! Weather

In my opinion, for outdoor events/activities, partly cloudy and thundershowers are far from the same.

Can't we just decide on one prediction and go with it?

Life is so interesting when you fast forward to only the good parts, isn't it?

It's like watching a movie where two people shar some time in France. The film editors create a 30 second sequence where you see young adults frollick through the sloped cobblestone lanes, laughing as they spin around with their arms out, looking at the Effiel Tower, visiting La Louvre, picking grapes from country vinards, stopping for a herd of sheep crossing the dusty road, and so on.

And yet, somehow, when it's you in that same situation, you'll only realize how much your feet hurt from walking up that cobblestone alley, how crazy traffic was between the Effiel Tower and La Louvre was, and how you stepped in sheep dung. And even if you really did have a great time at all those spots, there are always long and boring waits at train stations and bus stops, and a lot of walking, in between the scenes that the producers didn't show you.

Wouldn't it be great if we could fast forward our lives to just the good parts?

Here's a fun toilet fact:

For guys at least, when you hoist yourself on a toilet with the urge to both pee and poo, you will always start peeing first. I've tried several times disprove this, but to no avail. I try to hold the frontside, and release the backside, but there's always a trickle before the drop. Let me know if your experiment find otherwise.

Or just take it as a thought you can sit on. (Get it? SIT on? ... uh huh)

There are only a few instances when it's acceptable for a man to say about another man: "... and he has those beautiful soft hands."

One such instance is in hockey.