cab driver

Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. I only have a little bit over a month to come up with 22 blogs.

I think I'll tell an embarrassing story .. of me, once again .. just to make it 21 by the time I go to bed tonight.

Today I took the cab. After about five minutes into the trip, I heard the good looking driver say, "OH.. I forgot to set the mirror".

At first I thought he meant that he didn't have the appropriate mirrors on this car, but a quick glance told me he had all three. So I said, "pardon me?"

The driver repeated, "I forgot to set the mirror" in his exotic accent.

I don't know why I felt so good about myself at that moment, but I thought he was indirectly complimenting me by saying that he should have a mirror beside him that shows him the reflection of me, thereby saying I'm pretty.

.........

My brain thinks extremely fast whenever I feel good about myself.

At first I thought it was a bit awkward, although I was a bit flattered, and so out of politeness and narcissism I told him, "Aww! You're too kind!"

The driver replied, "I will set it now!"

Then I was a bit confused. I straightened up and went, "huh?"

He said, "Yeah I turned it on now," and he pointed to his METER.. METER.. METER..

........

"Oh..... I see.... it's alright, I'll top off a few bucks..."

The moral of the story is, one should always maintain a modest attitude even when you're relaxing in the cab. And also, one should never be too careful with accents from other places.

So that's my embarrassing story of the day. There I go, 21 left!

北歐的蘇珊

週末感冒在家一整天和挪威網友msn. 我說我要帶更多北歐歌曲上公車聽，叫他介紹一些音樂給我。

他很熱心的傳來幾個挪威和瑞典的歌手和樂團（結果沒算丹麥 更別說是芬蘭了哈哈），我最喜歡的是他高中英文老師女兒 （說得感覺像是隔壁學姊）－ Susanne Sundfør 的作品（那個奇怪的O害我找了好久）

不過人家的專輯去年可是在挪威有第二暢銷的成績哩。

今年25歲的Sundfør從05年在挪威各地的演出07年出第一張專輯，並且去年推出這張專輯 “The Brothel" - 那中文就直接翻成 “妓院”。

裡面將近一半的歌曲是用50年代的Rhodes鋼琴伴奏，特別有復古 神祕的味道，我也很欣賞她的絃樂編曲，與大多數年輕創作派歌手習慣用的吉他配爵士鼓的組合相比別有一般風味。她用的樂器其實不多，效果卻很棒。

另外在搭配她的異國-北歐腔調和有點黑暗和 “ominous" 的歌詞，整個專輯聽下來感覺進入了另一個非現實世界，我聽著聽著差點忘記下公車，走路還拌到樓梯 （好危險的專輯）。

很有趣的是，Sundfør的歌曲也帶有些基督宗教隱喻，通常不是在讚美，而是以一個失去希望和心的角度在懺悔和問神何時才救她 － 她把我們時常會體會的無力感和對神的哭求寫出來了。

其實北美英國以外的music scene也很精彩。就斯堪地納維亞來說（原來Scandinavian中文是這樣翻的XD)，ABBA之後也還是有很多值得關注的流行歌手，可惜在自己國家以外很少會被注意到（除非叫演龍紋身女孩Noomi Rapace開始全方位發展 XD）。

The Brothel (妓院)

這個歌名真的有點麻煩，我傳簡訊給朋友簡單交代說，“please download the brothel for me", 他以為我要下載成人電影。然後剛才在FB上大略寫說 “thanks to Daniel for introducing me to the brothel"，打完才感覺有點爆笑。這個時候大寫和引號是很重要的，不然誤解大了。

Turkish Delight (土耳其軟糖）

Morocco (摩洛哥)

Long weeeeekend

Every year around this time, after Halloween, around Remembrance Day, I dig out some Christmas carols to lighten up the gloomy Canadian winter. Back in Vancouver, I spend most of my autumn - winter months alone, with Mimi of course, in my apartment. And I just love the moments when I get up in late morning and start preparing my brunch. Because I usually play my Christmas songs really loud in the kitchen and sing along.

So it's Remembrance Day today. I planned on doing something this morning, like going to Confederation Square to look at the events and pay my tributes. But somehow, I got up at 1:30. And so yes, I missed the 11th hour 11th minute thing. And I'm sick.

And somehow I thought about something really interesting that happened to me this year. And I thought, I must write it down before I forget.

So during early May, I was looking for a co-op placement, and there was a job posting called "film analyst". Basically the film analyst will watch adult films and rate it before it goes to the public. I didn't think too much and I was very anxious to get interviews and a placement. So I wrote up a pretty good cover letter and applied to the job. Luckily, I was screened and invited to an interview. For this interview, I was required to study BC's Motion Picture Act and memorize the regulations to adult films as I would be tested during the interview. I was also warned that I must watch a series of "adult films" to test my knowledge. The whole process would be 2.5 hours.

I was quite excited at first. And so I decided to memorize everything and ace the test. I even recited the Act in the restaurant to Melody while we were having dinner:

Subject to subsection (5), the director must, before approving a motion picture submitted under section 2 (1) or 3 (1), remove or require the removal of, by erasure or otherwise, any portion of it that depicts any of the following:

(a) coercion, through the use or threat of physical force or by other means, of a person to engage in a sexual act, if the sexual act that was coerced is depicted in explicit sexual scenes;

(b) incest or necrophilia;

(c) bondage in a sexual context;

(d) persons who are or who appear to be under the age of 14 involved in sexually suggestive scenes, whether or not they appear nude or partially nude;

(e) persons who are or who appear to be under the age of 18 involved in explicit sexual scenes;

(f) explicit sexual scenes involving violence;

(g) scenes of brutality to or torture, maiming or dismemberment of persons or animals that are portrayed with such a degree of reality and explicitness that the scenes would, in the director's opinion, be intolerable to the community;

(h) sexual conduct between a human being and an animal

And I was told to shut up by her. How rude.

And so I showed up at my interview, and started watching porn that goes with the written test. So I saw 18 segments of adult film that contain "explicit" sexual contents, as they say. And like I told Judy, this was something really ironic. In my whole life, I've never watched adult films, not intentionally at least. I come across of it while flipping through the channels or browsing through a friend's computer, but it's something that I find annoying and I don't go out and search for it. And there I was, going through 18 of them, paying so much attention, not taking my eyes off of the screen, taking notes, and rewinding every now and then to make sure I didn't miss any details. Oh I've never paid so much attention to porn.

Then I had the oral interview. And the interviewer greeted me and said, "so how did you find the films?"

I thought that was the crappiest interview question ever. How could I respond?

"Yes sir, I enjoyed that very much, it's definitely something that I would want to spend 8 months doing and I am sure I can bring a lot of skills forward to this position!"

And I didn't get the job.

But that's okay, because I soon got another offer for a much more normal position that doesn't involve listening to people moan and scream "fu*k yeah!"

I LOLed

Having been working in the office for nearly two months, I think I'm getting used to this 9-5 Monday to Friday routine and the corporate environment, which is good. I thought I would be the type of person who cannot stand this schedule.

The Unit I work in is quite small, and we aren't in the HQ building in Gatineau. So it's a bit like an isolated large family. I can remember everyone's name now and know how they smell like (this sounds really creepy), the food they like, and when they like to come in and leave.

So today at the staff meeting, I wasn't really paying attention and started imagining things. All the people around the table just suddenly turned into the friends whom I spent the summer with. I thought, what would happen if these friends and I work together in the same office...

Say if we run a company called "We Do Watermelons", located on the 4th floor of a renovated 1930s building in Gastown, which imports exotic watermelons from all over the world and sell it to the curious Canadian public. Anyway this is just an arbitrary work setting.

And then we have Jessie doing watermelon marketing (I'm just classifying people by what they do right now)

Melody does the hiring people to sell watermelon part.. what do they call that HR (and somehow this seems like a very weird match for melody AHHAHA)

Heather works with her numbers, counting watermelons

Sarah examines watermelons (that's biology ain't it?!)

Judy makes watermelon artworks

Ryanbo can make programs about Watermelons

Amy (crap I forgot what Amy does in sfu), but for now, Amy can eat watermelons and rate them

Rachel is not making up her mind so Rachel you can be the boss for now. FOR NOW.

and Sherry... Sherry... Sherry can make very beautiful maps about watermelons.

In the morning, Amy and Sarah might be the first one to arrive in the office, because they seem to be very capable of getting up early. And then the rest would come in. And there will be Rachel being her usual self, screaming into the phone in her little cubicle, "NOOOOOOOOOO I WILL NOT SELL MY WATERMELONS TO YOU FOR THAT PRICE WHO DO YOU THINK I AM". Judy will be speaking to her watermelon drawings in her office, "aren't you just so pretty you cutie watermelons!"

During lunch time, Amy has a lot of food packed already, but she will still join Sarah, Melody and Heather to have high tea, Korean BBQ, and maybe what8ver if time permits. Sherry and Rachel might go on urbanspoon to look for a nearby brunch place to try it out. Judy will cook some kind of her invention in the kitchen. Ryanbo will still be very strict about his diet and so I can't say for certain how he will use his lunch time.

In the afternoon, there is a staff meeting. There's Rachel giving an update on Watermelon prices... Melody talking about training people to sell watermelons.. Amy saying organic watermelons tastes very nice.. Judy giving an update on her latest advertisement for watermelons.. And then Jessie and Melody might get into a disagreement on how watermelon should be sold, it could get aggressive unless Heather and Ryanbo do something about it. Rachel might just lose her patience and scream, "STOP IT YOU IDIOTS IDIOTS".

When I thought about this, I could help but lower my head and giggle to myself in real life. But it was getting too loud that I had to cover my mouth and grin quietly, some colleagues glanced at my direction. Thank goodness it was nearly the end of the meeting and I could escape to the washroom to laugh a bit harder.