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724 minutes

A couple of weeks ago, some idiot stole the intercom panel from my building’s front door. Not only did that mean that nobody could beep me, but it also meant that the

postie couldn’t get in to deliver any of the mail. Sure, I didn’t get any bills for two weeks, but I’ve also been deprived of my DVD movie rentals, which come by Canada Post.

Finally, today the mail started flowing again, and I found two weeks of envelopes packed into my mailbox. That’s two weeks of movie rentals, plus the director’s cut of The Return of the King.

So there’s nothing to do but accept the challenge and catch up on 724 minutes of movie-watching — and that doesn’t include the DVD extras. I’ll be a wreck when I’m done later today.

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Coffee, sushi, and no particular point to this entry

On my way back from the coffee shop at the corner, I decided on impulse to pick up a little sushi combo to go. It was as I walked out of the sushi shop, coffee cup in one hand, take-out sushi bag in the other, bundled warmly in my polar fleece, that I wondered if I was a stereotypical Vancouverite. And then I wondered if sushi and coffee actually work together.

And you know what? They do.

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Rebuilding it… better, stronger, bubblier than before!

My time online in the last couple of days has been all about tearing down my old shop and building the new one. It’s a poopload of effort, but I think it’s going to be good.

The problem with my last shop, and every shop I had before now, is that it was just a row of display models. Boooring. Why bother to log onto SL, if you can’t have a little fun?

That’s why my new shop has a fully functional hangar deck (no, not “fully functional” in the Lt. Commander Data sense of the word). The hangar door and roof open (just click it) and you can test drive any of the aircraft on display on that deck. The demo vehicles last as long as you sit on them, then disappear.

Next door to the hangar is the sub room, where you’ll find a bubbly underwater theme and all of my subs. No demos in there yet, but I might be able to work on that soon.

Come and play for a bit.

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Splitting hairs

There’s a beauty school nearby, where they train people to become “aestheticians” (but not aesthetologists or aesthetonomists, apparently). Inside, they run a salon where students get to practise on real heads. Out front, their sign lists the prices of various cuts, but has this footnote: “*Long hair may vary”.

What exactly does that mean? After a cut, is long hair hacked and slashed so badly, that it varies from one side to the other? Or does it mean that long hair becomes shorter after a cut? I assumed that would be taken for granted.

I’m confused.

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What’s all this white stuff?

Yes, on rare occasions, it does actually snow in Vancouver. Not much, usually, but enough to shut down the entire city, which means at least two or three centimeters. In all fairness, unlike perpetually snow-bound cities like Winnipeg, Vancouver is almost completely without snow-ploughs or salt trucks, so the slightest bit of our especially damp variety of snow just turns our roads into a skating rink.

It just isn’t winter in Vancouver without the snow umbrella.

Update: I see a “snow-plough” in the alley… it’s a private company’s pickup with a plough strapped onto the front. He’s helpfully pushing the harmless 2-inch layer of melting snow into a gigantic pile that blocks several parking spots.