happylife

SHAW vs TELUS

When we want a high-speed Internet connection in Vancouver, we have two options; SHAW or TELUS. SHAW is originally the biggest cable TV company and TELUS is the biggest telephone company, both of which offer now a high-speed Internet service. Their service spec is almost at the same level; the speed and the cost. I had been using TELUS for two years until last spring, but I moved to SHAW. Why? The reason for my conversion was solely the quality of their customer support. When I had a  problem about the Internet connection last spring, the response of TELUS was nothing but terrible. I couldn't even talk with the support stuff blocked by their "intelligent voice service." On the contrary, this time, I could recover from the connection failure with the least stress owing to the help of SHAW support. If you are thinking about using the high-speed Internet in Vancouver, I strongly recommend that you should choose SHAW instead of TELUS.

Life line

Late this afternoon, my Internet connection was abruptly disconnected. After a few hours struggle, I called the support center of the cable company. According to the support staff's indication through the phone, I did every procedure for almost an hour; checking the cable connections, restarting the modem and the router, re-connecting the PC directly to the modem, and the result was still bad. The connection hasn't been recovered yet and I'm supposed to go to the retail shop tomorrow to swap my cable modem with a new one. Now I can't use the Internet in my room and I feel a kind of loneliness. As my home phone is IP phone which is based on the Internet connection, I can't even use a phone except for a cell phone. I have recognized that my life depends much on the Internet. As I had something to do using the Internet including this blog, I've come to a cafe with the Internet connection, and I'm now doing the rest of my work. Though I have been trying to do my work as much as possible on the Internet instead of on the local PC, I have to think about the connectivity to the Internet. No one would deny the power of the Internet, though it isn't so stable yet that we can use it as our life line.

JOBY

Joby is a well-designed tripod for compact cameras. It is made of 30 plastic balls, each of those works as a flexible joint just like octopus legs. By using this tiny tripod, we can fix our camera not only on a flat surface, but also on rocks, branches, nets, poles and so on. As the three legs can be twined around even a vertical pole, I think I can take pictures from new angles. According to the spec note, this light weight tripod can hold most compact cameras except for single-lens reflex cameras. (I hear that another type of product is to be released so as to hold heavier single-lens reflex cameras.) I'm thinking about carrying this new item with the digital camera, and taking more interesting pictures.

Airport security

This is the picture of the entrance gate of a typical airport in Canada. It is taken from outside of the airport. The airport site is surrounded by an easy wire fence and a couple of gates with a keypad like this picture is set up. When the airport building is closed at night, we have to use this gate. Everyone can get out of the airport site through this gate with no special method, but you have to know the secret four-digit code and input it to this keypad lock to enter from outside. The "secret" code is written on the back of the keypad so that everyone can see from inside of the airport. Thought the secret code is sometimes changed, you can see and remember it in the daytime while the airport building is open. It means that anyone who wants can enter the airport whenever he likes. As you know or not, most airplanes have no door key, and it's easier to start the airplane engine than usual cars. I think this airport security system is too easy.

Better service

The room rent of my apartment was raised this April and some residents have moved out causing a situation that some vacant rooms, both one-bed and two-bed, still remain in this good season. My apartment had been originally well-maintained, and I feel it is now better-maintained; more often cleaned and painted. I'm not sure whether this is related to the raised rent, I found this letter from the manager on my entrance floor when I came back from outside. The manager seems to have started the service of keeping every parcel which arrived while the recipient was out. It's very convenient because we had to go to the post office or delivery center to pick up the parcel.

Hot, Hotter, Hottest

I visited a Sichuan restaurant in Richmond with my friend from Seattle, and we ordered an "extraordinarily hot" menu item. I've forgotten the exact name of the dish, though it was a kind of boiled beef. Some pieces of thin beef were boiled in a pot of red chili oil with a lot of hot peppers, black peppers and any other peppers. Everything about the dish was hot not only on the tongue but also in the smell. I lost my taste at the first bite, and the rest of our dinner was a fight with spicy taste. My face was pouring with sweat, and I felt happy when I finished the dish. We had to drink some cups of water and a bottle of bubble tea to rinse our tongues after the dinner.

What we want is what we don't have

The weather is now good in Vancouver. I'm happy because I can enjoy the sunset almost every day from my balcony. I think the real sunset scene is greater than any other Hollywood films. To my surprise, there are few residents in my apartment who enjoy this sunset. As the sun sets after 8:30PM now, they could enjoy it if they had work. All they have to do to enjoy the sunset is only opening the window and going out to their balcony, but they rarely do it. Most people usually work hard to get anything they want, but once they got it, they are satisfied with it, and forget to enjoy it. I think we can be more happy if we enjoy with what we already have. I'm now living in a great environment where I can enjoy sailing, flying and cycling, but I can't say I'm enjoying all of them fully. I don't want to regret abut it when I go back to Japan this winter.

Rice World

Vancouver Chinatown is placed at the east of Downtown, which is said to be rather dangerous place. Quite a few junkies are doing something here and there on the street, and most people ignore traffic signals. I don't like to drive through this area but I sometimes visit there because Rice World is there. Rice World is a kind of Asian grocery store where we can get rice at almost the half price comparing with any other supermarkets. In this storage like store, the main language is Chinese, but it's not difficult to do shopping because I only have to point to the exact name of rice and pay for it at the entrance. The sales staff, who doesn't speak English, gives me a receipt which I can exchange for the rice.

ON season

As the summer season is coming close, the weather is getting better in Vancouver. It has been fine for three more days, though the temperature is still low. Some of my Japanese friends, who were out of Vancouver during the rainy and winter season, have come back to Vancouver. Today I met one of them and talked about the plan for this summer. We are planning to sail around the Gulf Islands on a gorgeous charter boat. As I have to play the role of skipper this time, and it was two years ago when I sailed there last, I'm a little bit nervous. I have a lot of things to prepare before the cruising; I have to review my knowledge and skills of sailing, I have to make a sailing plan, and so on. It's a little bit busy but not unhappy.

Round tirp to Victoria

I flew to Victoria as a PIC (Pilot In Command) for the first time. Though my instructor was on my next seat, I was a little bit nervous because the Victoria International Airport is complicate with three triangle-shaped runways. Plus, it was a special day according to the NOTAM which says "RAG 1500 FT FM THR 09 AND 1500 FT FM THR 27, FOR MIL USE ONLY." A rag means a wire which is usually stretched across the runway on an aircraft carrier to stop a jet fighter immediately. It would have been set for a military training, but I didn't understand if I could use the runway 09 or 27, which is the main runway of Victoria airport. No one knew whether the rag or the runway was for military use only. Anyway, after some communication mistakes, I landed the runway 09 and had dinner with my instructor at a restaurant near the airport. We spent so many minutes there that the sun was almost set when we returned to the airport. As I don't have a night rating yet, we had to come back to our home airport before the official darkness. The return flight from Victoria was hurried, but we could enjoy this beautiful sunset over Gulf Islands.