Random pictures from this summer.

Going through my photos, I’ve noticed I have quite a bit of pictures accumulated from the summer. Here’s a bunch that I’ve randomly thrown up

A new MK-II train pulls in to Surrey Central Station on the Expo Line.

New computer build!

Laying out for the build.

I build a new computer every three or four years since by then the previous computer would have been hard-pressed to keep up with the newest things. For this build, I upped to the i7 generation with a 920; for the immediate while anything else would be overkill. Along that line, I paired it with 6GB of DDR3 and a Geforce GTX285, as well as a nice shuttle bare-bone comes with the x58. The computer that it replaces is a mutt that I’ve upgraded every now and then.

ニコニコOFF 1

Nico Nico OFF!

An observation…

Here's an example of what I'm talking about; They call this a chicken teriyaki rice bowl.

In Vancouver there’s an absolute ton of Japanese/Sushi restaurants on every major street, however most of them aren’t run by Japanese people. Korean-run ones tend to serve less meat/substance in their dishes and use vegetables for filler I noticed, as well as generally using pre-made bases or otherwise for their dishes. All the all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurants are also actually run by Chinese groups since it’s more of a Chinese thing to stuff yourself until you can’t eat anymore I guess. The actual Japanese-run ones seem to be frequented by Japanese people and the food is quite good, but the setting is generally a hole-in-the-wall-type affair which turns off other kinds of people from the restaurant reviews I see. Just a few thoughts.

Phở

I always wondered why there were so many pho places in Vancouver, considering most of them aren’t that great. A lot of them have small serving sizes or use pre-made soup bases. For those who don’t know, pho is Vietnamese noodles in beef soup, with random stuff thrown in. Anyways, pho is good when made right!

Went to a pho place yesterday, a lot of you might have seen it right next to Surrey Central Station.

I love this place since their bowls are huge and their soup is good. The service is fast, the prices are good, and in asian style they only take cash(read: no sales tax).

Put the new cars into service faster!

Running MKII 2-car trainsets should be a crime since they are always so packed, even late at night! The design of the cars just makes it worse since they sacrificed standing room for seating. Just a quick snapshot of my commute home between 7-8PM.

Being squeezed against the door corner is *not* fun.

Queen Elizabeth Park

I’ve had these for quite a few days now  but stuff keeps coming up so…yeah.  I won’t caption each photo since theres a ton but just a bit of info on Queen Elizabeth Park: It’s built into an old quarry but it’s also quite elevated so the views are pretty good in addition to the nice Garden and surroundings. It’s also only 10 minutes away from downtown, another example of the natural surroundings of this large city.  Anyways, I took these photos after going to the West End to hit up a ramen bar with a friend before busing to the park. Also picked up something on the way that I’ll go into detail later on. That said, heres the photos:

Beginners Keitai Guide

Been working on this for a while now, but here’s what in my humble opinion a guide that should have all you need to start using a keitai, or at the very least gain a general idea.

General FAQ

What is a ‘keitai’?

Keitai is the word for cell-phone in Japan, and since we’ll be dealing with them, it’s easier to say keitai than Japanese  cell phone every single time, and so it’s what people who use them generally call it. The main providers in Japan are Docomo, Softbank, and KDDI. A big difference between Japan and other places around the world is that the phones are specifically made for a provider by a manufacturer. For example, around the world manufacturers make phones and then a provider will elect to carry it. In Japan, each model is tailored/made for a specific provider. One of the big draws with keitais is how advanced they are in features as well as how rare overseas keitai users are for the most part. The Japanese market is more function-phone oriented than the more smart phone-favoring foreign market. That’s not to say though, that keitais lack smart phone features: they can do email and most data functions on Japan’s world-leading high-speed network.

New Skytrain Cars!

Lucked out and managed to hop onto the new test set for the improved MKII trainsets.

You can tell the new MKII skytrain cars apart from the others by the new paint job that Translink has adopted for their buses as well, in addition to the new destination signs on the ends.

Crystal Mall

Apparently when they developed it, the mall was supposed to be multi-cultural. Guess it wasn’t as planned since it turned into Chinese+bits of other East Asian stuff. Anyways, heres a walkaround:

Okay so not the mall itself. It's the Metrotown Branch of the Burnaby Public Library which is right across the street.