Allen.
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Friday, January 29, 2010
Blackberry camera
Allen.
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Sent using BlackBerry
Saturday, January 16, 2010
How much sugar is in a can of Canada Dry?
I bought a case of ginger ale on sale today, and while drinking one just now, I read the label on the side. It said it has 34 grams of sugar in it. It occurred to me that I didn't really know how much "34 grams of sugar" actually was, so I measured it out on a scale. Amazing.
For you coffee and tea drinkers, that's roughly 8.5 packets of sugar, assuming an average 4 gram sugar packet.
That's actually lower than a Coke at about 40g (10 packets of sugar) as googled on the net.
There's blogs out there that have lots of pictures showing how much sugar is in food, such as this one:
http://www.sugarstacks.com
Check it out and shock yourselves. :D
Allen.
For you coffee and tea drinkers, that's roughly 8.5 packets of sugar, assuming an average 4 gram sugar packet.
That's actually lower than a Coke at about 40g (10 packets of sugar) as googled on the net.
There's blogs out there that have lots of pictures showing how much sugar is in food, such as this one:
http://www.sugarstacks.com
Check it out and shock yourselves. :D
Allen.
Friday, January 15, 2010
Private Numbers / Unknown Callers / Phone Scams
One of my pet peeves is when people call you but the call display says "Private Number". I mean, they are calling you, but they don't want anyone to call them. Hypocrisy, isn't it?
Usually, I just ignore the these calls, but this morning, some private number called my home number, and hung up before we could even look to see who called. Then my cell rang with a private number. I ignored it and went back to sleep, they can leave a message. Then it rang again, private caller, and I got kind of irritated by it. So I answered it.
The woman on the line claimed she was calling from the hospital and had some sort of appointment change. I told her that if she is really calling from a hospital, that her caller id should identify her as from the hospital, not "Private Number".
I mean, any yahoo can pretend to be calling from the hospital and reschedule our appointment, esp if its some other patient trying to score our time slot. These things are pretty easily overheard when booking the appointment after all.
Anyways, this person told me that this is how the hospital works, that it should be "Unknown Caller". I think that is terribly unprofessional of the hospital. It should display their hospital main line number if they dont want people calling their extension, right?
Jeez.
Anyways, the appropriate thing to do here is to confirm the appointment myself by calling the hospital and checking if anything has changed.
Never accept what someone tells you over the phone if they call you. Always say you will call their company/organization back to confirm what they are claiming, and source out the company phone number yourself, don't take any phone numbers they offer you.
Here's the classic scam - someone calls you and says they are your bank/credit card company calling to verify a purchase, say $4000 at some website. Since you haven't bought some $4000 item from soandso.onlineshopp.com, you want to know more and get this sorted out. They need your card# and/or PIN number etc to confirm. Once you give them the info, they clean out you account cause you have given them all the keys to access your account, basically.
This is why you can't trust incoming calls telling you to trust them. Always confirm it yourself, independent of the incoming call.
I should just see if I can make my phones not ring on private number calls.
Allen.
Usually, I just ignore the these calls, but this morning, some private number called my home number, and hung up before we could even look to see who called. Then my cell rang with a private number. I ignored it and went back to sleep, they can leave a message. Then it rang again, private caller, and I got kind of irritated by it. So I answered it.
The woman on the line claimed she was calling from the hospital and had some sort of appointment change. I told her that if she is really calling from a hospital, that her caller id should identify her as from the hospital, not "Private Number".
I mean, any yahoo can pretend to be calling from the hospital and reschedule our appointment, esp if its some other patient trying to score our time slot. These things are pretty easily overheard when booking the appointment after all.
Anyways, this person told me that this is how the hospital works, that it should be "Unknown Caller". I think that is terribly unprofessional of the hospital. It should display their hospital main line number if they dont want people calling their extension, right?
Jeez.
Anyways, the appropriate thing to do here is to confirm the appointment myself by calling the hospital and checking if anything has changed.
Never accept what someone tells you over the phone if they call you. Always say you will call their company/organization back to confirm what they are claiming, and source out the company phone number yourself, don't take any phone numbers they offer you.
Here's the classic scam - someone calls you and says they are your bank/credit card company calling to verify a purchase, say $4000 at some website. Since you haven't bought some $4000 item from soandso.onlineshopp.com, you want to know more and get this sorted out. They need your card# and/or PIN number etc to confirm. Once you give them the info, they clean out you account cause you have given them all the keys to access your account, basically.
This is why you can't trust incoming calls telling you to trust them. Always confirm it yourself, independent of the incoming call.
I should just see if I can make my phones not ring on private number calls.
Allen.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Tai Chi's over now
The old year has ended and so have the Tai Chi lessons I've been going to since the fall of 2008. I've learned a lot, though I wish I could have learned more in the time I'd spent there.
The 3 basic Chen courses were really enjoyable I learned a lot and it was fun.
The advanced level was a bit difficult for me though. Not so much because it was difficult physically, it was cause of a language barrier. It was taught in Cantonese, with various students picked to translate the lessons into English for the benefit of us non-Cantonese speaking students. (with varying degrees of success, depending on who was available to do the translation) So I feel that I've missed out on a lot of the context and nuances of the lesson. Sure I asked questions when I didn't understand something, but often, I get the feeling that I've missed hearing or learning something, and I don't even know what.
Anyways, I plan to continue to practice it whenever I have a bit of time. The tricky part is where do I practice? The routine actually covers a considerable bit of space if we're talking about a living room or an office cubicle, which is why I guess so many people will go to the open spaces like the park, and practice there. I'll figure something out.
Allen.
The 3 basic Chen courses were really enjoyable I learned a lot and it was fun.
The advanced level was a bit difficult for me though. Not so much because it was difficult physically, it was cause of a language barrier. It was taught in Cantonese, with various students picked to translate the lessons into English for the benefit of us non-Cantonese speaking students. (with varying degrees of success, depending on who was available to do the translation) So I feel that I've missed out on a lot of the context and nuances of the lesson. Sure I asked questions when I didn't understand something, but often, I get the feeling that I've missed hearing or learning something, and I don't even know what.
Anyways, I plan to continue to practice it whenever I have a bit of time. The tricky part is where do I practice? The routine actually covers a considerable bit of space if we're talking about a living room or an office cubicle, which is why I guess so many people will go to the open spaces like the park, and practice there. I'll figure something out.
Allen.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Gingerbread Cookies
Did you know that savoury spicy taste in gingerbread is not ginger? it's the ground cloves that give it that distinctly sharp taste.
How do I know? I am guessing this because I made a batch of gingerbread cookies without the cloves and the distinct taste is missing. :P
I'll have to make another batch when I have ground cloves, to confirm this guess.
Allen.
How do I know? I am guessing this because I made a batch of gingerbread cookies without the cloves and the distinct taste is missing. :P
I'll have to make another batch when I have ground cloves, to confirm this guess.
Allen.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
"Duel Action" Lightsaber
I was watching some Saturday Morning cartoons when I saw this commercial for a "Duel Action Lightsaber", basically a lightsaber with a hidden smaller lightsaber hidden in the hilt. The second saber can be attached to the main one to make it a double-ended lightsaber, reminiscent of the one that Darth Maul uses in The Phantom Menace.
The product itself is pretty cool, but the name sends waves of irritation through me, as "Duel Wielding" is a common mistake when people are trying to type out "Dual Wielding" To have a product that is called "Duel Action" featuring 2 sabers is just terrible.
Sure the lightsabers are meant for duelling, but "Duel Action" with 2 blades, what the hell were they thinking? Way to perpetuate the mispelling of Dual as Duel.
You can see in the commercial that later on, someone tried to deflect the mistake by printing out "Dual Bladed" onscreen for the 2-bladed mode, but more likely than not, someone up higher thought that Duel Action was the correct version and wanted to keep it, regardless of the implication that no one in the company can spell.
Bunch of corporate yahoos.
Allen.
The product itself is pretty cool, but the name sends waves of irritation through me, as "Duel Wielding" is a common mistake when people are trying to type out "Dual Wielding" To have a product that is called "Duel Action" featuring 2 sabers is just terrible.
Sure the lightsabers are meant for duelling, but "Duel Action" with 2 blades, what the hell were they thinking? Way to perpetuate the mispelling of Dual as Duel.
You can see in the commercial that later on, someone tried to deflect the mistake by printing out "Dual Bladed" onscreen for the 2-bladed mode, but more likely than not, someone up higher thought that Duel Action was the correct version and wanted to keep it, regardless of the implication that no one in the company can spell.
Bunch of corporate yahoos.
Allen.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Blog-Slacking
Just doing the usual routine of going to work, going home, and hitting the computer a bit.
We planted a bunch of tulip bulbs in the front garden so we'll see what the results look like in the spring. This is kind of a reminder to myself to take some pictures of them when the time comes.
I haven't fixed the car yet, but one of our neighbours is a mechanic and kindly offered to look up the cost of a couple of parts for me, which I accepted. He said that bending out a couple of panels would be easy enough too. Hopefully we'll clean it up before the winter.
I was thinking that getting a bigger car would be a good change, maybe with all-wheel drive. Nothing as big as the Jeep we used to have, but I'd probably feel better if we got rid of one of our little cars, after all we have the baby on the way and it'd be reassuring to have a vehicle that won't be crumpled like a napkin in a serious crash.
We planted a bunch of tulip bulbs in the front garden so we'll see what the results look like in the spring. This is kind of a reminder to myself to take some pictures of them when the time comes.
I haven't fixed the car yet, but one of our neighbours is a mechanic and kindly offered to look up the cost of a couple of parts for me, which I accepted. He said that bending out a couple of panels would be easy enough too. Hopefully we'll clean it up before the winter.
I was thinking that getting a bigger car would be a good change, maybe with all-wheel drive. Nothing as big as the Jeep we used to have, but I'd probably feel better if we got rid of one of our little cars, after all we have the baby on the way and it'd be reassuring to have a vehicle that won't be crumpled like a napkin in a serious crash.
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