Round 1 of a badminton tournament I've been participating in is over. The preliminary round featured everyone into groups of 4, playing round robin style within the group. Ranking in your group determines your respective pool for next round, with top 3 advancing.
In singles action, I managed to finish with a respectable 2-1 record, good enough for Pool B in Round 2! Given the limited number of courts, I hardly ever play singles matches. Man, playing three sets without any breaks is quite draining. My first match was against the group favourite. The guy has a deadly drop shot, which effectively took care of me. Dueling drop shots isn't my forte, and clearing behind him == setting him up for a smash. My second match-up was against someone who is technically more skilled than me. However, my stamina was better, so I manage to tire him out and take the game. The extra weekly squash regiment is finally yielding some benefits. One thing I need to improve on is the ability to finish a person off when I'm ahead. That last point takes so much effort for some reason. Last game was against a weaker opponent, so I didn't have much trouble.
Doubles action didn't go as well, as I lost both my matches. The pairs I went up against were very skilled players, so my partner and I didn't stand much of a chance. It's pretty amazing when some people can play on a totally different level. My third match-up was defaulted, since the other team didn't show up. Team Tochi advances to Pool C of round 2. :)
Overall, I'm really enjoying the competition. Playing where points matter is a different pressure, especially when you are dead tired but have to play on. Round 2's competition looks very stiff, but hopefully I'll be able to pull off some upsets. :)
It was a tough night. The great folks at Global decided to air this week's episode of Heroes at 9pm on Sunday, so the biggest question of the night wasn't what would win best picture. It ended up being whether I would watch people getting little gold statues or save the world. Well, my fellow Americans, as a hero, saving the world is more important, especially when someone goes nuclear. I managed to catch the last 3 hours of the Awards though (the important parts anyway).
The Academy Awards wasn't that bad this year. As usual, there were a few surprise winners, some pretty horrific speeches and no important announcements. Some random thoughts on the night. Pan's Labyrinth started the night strong, but somehow managed to lose to some German film and Little Miss Sunshine?!!? (To be fair, I didn't watch either of the latter films, but still... ). Leo and Al Gore's little act was one of the best of the night. Gore didn't win the White House, but he won his Oscar. Good for him. Ellen DeGeneres did better than I expected. Her little in-the-crowd antics were a little over the top, though getting Spielberg to take a picture for her was quite funny. The silhouette dance troupe was so awesomely amazing. Jennifer Hudson's pure "I didn't expect to win" speech was actually quite convincing. A quick rise in AI, now her own Oscar. Wow. Celine Dion's new song (I forgot what it's called) was pretty good. Celine is a great singer, but I had trouble making out some of her lyrics. Finally, I really didn't get Jerry Sienfeld's joke about leaving garbage in theatres. I bet so many movie theatre owners were cringing when one from their own industry is telling billions of viewers to leave garbage in their seats.
I need to watch The Queen, Last King of Scotland, and Babel now..... and maybe English version of Infernal Affairs.
Went to some late CNY dinner party tonight.... In one of the games, each table had to come up with a "good luck/fortune" phrase using the following words:
- PIG
- FORTUNE
- FACE
- ASPHALT
- VITAMIN
So... I took the bait. Wii-motes and Wii Plays are as hard to come by as Wii consoles themselves, and since I'm getting a Wii sooner or later, I might as well order the Wii Play now. Just like T & R. So at 6:50 am this morning, I somehow managed to land an order of Wii Play from Amazon.ca. When I got to my order confirmation screen after checkout, I saw:
Thanks for ordering from Amazon.ca. Your purchase information appears below.WTF is right..... APRIL... I am so speechless... d*** those b***ards for toying with Tochi's poor little heart.... :-(
Shipping estimate: April 20 2007
Delivery estimate: April 24 2007 - April 25 2007
Year of the Fire Pig is upon us! Wish everyone a healthy and prosperous new year! For the ladies - marry into a rich, famous family. For the gents - promotions and BIG gambling winnings. :):)
Aside from having dinners with family and friends, and eating lots of festive foods, I managed to catch the CNY-eve show from the folks at Toronto's First Radio (AM770/1540). Got to Pacific Mall at 9pm, to make sure we got the best standing room (only VIPs got seats, aye). The official show didn't start until 10pm, but the Dynasty Music Group was here to entertain with some live music. The band was pretty good. Their lead singer, Noella Choi (蔡瑋瑜), was the winner of 1999 Toronto New Talent Singing awards. With impressive command of her voice, she performed great renditions of My Heart Will Go On, 童話, 風繼續吹 and one of those K-mix of pop songs. The group finished off their show by performing an arrangement of 最好的時光 (The best times), one of the mood melodies from the TVB series 火舞黃沙 (Fire dance, yellow sand). Apparently, Noella WAS the singer for that song in the series. I couldn't remember that particular song from the series when she mentioned it, but memories flooded back as she performed.
Next up were some kids performing Shaolin karate. They were a disgrace to Shaolin arts. Enough said.
The show was sponsored by Telus, so the games they played were all Telus-related. In one event, they had volunteers from the crowd play a verbal form of Pictionary/Charades. One person had to give verbal clues to the other person to guess a certain phrase/term. The first pair got a bunch of Chinese New Year words, but the guy giving the clues was so bad that they only managed 3 correct answers. However, the second pair got totally owned, not by the first team, but by the Telus cell-phone related words that came up. How do you give clues for "Call Display", "Unlimited Calling"?!?
Another event was one of those read-the-paragraph-as-fast-as-possible (急口令) games. Despite asking for volunteers who can read Chinese, some kid managed to get selected to go on stage. After realizing what the game required, he was a good sport and decided to give it a try. He was good to go after a couple quick Chinese lessons on stage. Performance was much laughter fodder for the crowd. :)
The highlights of the show were the singing performances of the AM1540 DJ's. 小麗couldn't sing, but her dancing and arse-wagging brought down the house. 廖主輝 sang 張開眼晴 - very beautiful lyrics for the new year, whether you have good or not so good fortunes. Everyone's favouritest DJ, 劉建民 (aka 阿牛），sang three songs representing different eras of his love experience, much to the joy of the crowd. Everyone couldn't stop making wise-cracks after the fung-shui master said that people of Year of the Cow should match someone from a Year of Chicken. 阿牛, only "find" a chicken, don't "call" a chicken (hooker). Anyways, 阿牛 put on his shades and performed 兩隻蝴蝶 representing his first love at 16. Then he followed up with 你怎麼捨得我難過representing his feelings when his girlfriend complained about his fatness, big head, lack of life goals, etc. and decided to break up. Now at his "old" age, all he can do is cry alone with 淚的小雨. (These oldies took me a while to find!)
After 阿牛's performance, it was time for the countdown. 3...2...1....bang, lots of confetti (too bad no firecrackers) and lion dance ensued. I managed to land a red pocket from the "God of Fortune" after the show, so I'm all SET for this new year now.
Cheers to the Year of the pig!
Season's biggest storm hit the Northeast on Valentine's Day. Toronto, once again, got spared much of the blunt of the storm. Total accumulation was only around 15-20cm. Much better than the feet of snow in other nearby areas. Still, to my dismay, there was a fortified bank of snow around my house courtesy of the City of Markham.
Ithaca, on the other hand, supposedly got more snow, forcing Cornell to declare a state of Snow emergency for the first time in 14 years, shutting down classes, buildings, gyms, oakenshields, etc. However, the national guard of students with their trays (both Oakies and Jansen's) and sleds were mobilized to perform rescue duties for those who have trouble getting down Libe slope. That pathway across the middle of the slope is still as deadly as I remembered. Some nice jumps off that near the end of the video. See the action for yourself:
Every few weeks, you'd hear some freaky news of dangerous and cancer-inducing fake foods coming from China. Today's news was just disgusting. Dried fish air bladder (花膠) is one of the traditional Chinese dried seafood delicacies. With Chinese new year coming up, this stuff is selling like hot cakes. According to Mingpao, some ingenious people came up with the idea of using rabbit ears to substitute for the much pricier air bladder. Apparently, after you dry the ears, they turn into the yellowish color. The article emphasizes several times that, at least, these rabbit ears are not harmful to health. Big comfort, eh? I'd puke if I knew I was eating rabbit ears.
Anyway, five tips to tell whether you have the real stuff or some bunny parts.
- If it has fur, it's definitely not fish.
- Has soft bones - only parts like ears have soft bones.
- Can see the ear tunnel.
- Can find holes that you believe might be where the rabbits eyes were.
- No seafood smell...
On related news, they recently studied some Peking ducks from Beijing. All the ducks passed the tests, but the sauce failed miserably. Some banned chemical sweetener was found in the about half the sauce, which can be harmful to your liver and nervous systems. My friends, just eat the duck plain.
Draining week it has been. Tired mentally and physically... anyway, some random tidbits..
Caught up on the much acclaimed Heroes. Easy to see why Hiro-san is so lovable, as he has the best lines and "special power" (aside from Peter's mimic abilities) in the series. Love how the seemingly unrelated characters and lives are really starting to mix in with one another's now. I have a tough time telling which characters are good or bad in this series, except for Sylar. Plot seems to be really picking up too and speeding towards the explosive climax. Looking forward to both 24 (2hrs of Somebody set Jack up the bomb.) and Heroes on Monday. :)
Continued my Wii hunting quest. Been slacking lately, but Toys'R'Us advertised in their flyers that there would be at least 20 Wii's at each store location on Saturday morning. My local store opened at 9:30 am, so I grudgingly got to the store at 8 am in the morning. As I drove into the parking lot, there were only four people in front of the store. Yes! Tochi's Wii is waiting inside to be claimed! Unfortunately, after I put on my winter battle gear and went to the camping spot, I found out that they handed out all 20 "wii tickets" at 7am. WTF. Then I overheard some guy saying he has a Wii already, but just wanted to get an extra wii-mote. Grrr.. Just not my day. Later at Future Shop, I saw a young family with two 7-10 year old kids, buying a PS3, extra controllers, and several games. The salesman carrying their toys was smiling from ear to ear. Nice commission. :)
I totally missed the Vista Ice House and Tux. Went to Dundas Square earlier in the week to check if the house had melted yet, and only found a giant tent for the Aussie showcase that starts this week. Would have loved to see the house, and win the free Bill Gates autographed copy of Vista... -_-;;; Now, I'd settle for a free copy of Vista Ultimate with RC238's autograph. Don't disappoint me, M$!
Truffles. Winterlicious 2007 stop. Rated as one of the few CAA/AAA Five Diamond Restaurants in Canada, I had high expectations for Four Season's Truffles. The restaurant was very small, much smaller than I expected - at most 25 tables. They had the lights dimmed, with a mini stepping tower of candles on each table. Very romantic. I was most impressed by the heavy drapery-like table clothes. Feels very classy, for some reason, when the cloth pushes back on your legs as you move in your chair. The acclaimed service was awesome, as they seriously had a waiter for every two tables. There were always two waiters standing by the kitchen doorway on "standby". The trademark of good service is whether the waiters comb the bread crumbs from the table, and they did!
Tochi's french cuisine for the night was:
- Winter Greens with Beet Croutons - Blue Benedictine, Horseradish Vinaigrette
- Braised Lamb Shanks - Truffled White Bean, Baby Vegetable, Natural Jus
- Blood Orange Cheesecake - Dark Chocolate Sorbet
I was really looking forward to the main entrée, the lamb shanks. When the dish came, I was a little taken aback by its plain and half gruesome looks. Not the fancy presentation I was expecting. Despite its looks, the dish came through big time in other ways. Definitely much different than any other lamb shank I've ever had in my life. The meat was very tender and moist, and just literally fell apart in my mouth. They didn't remove any of the fats from the meat when they cooked it, and compensated for the extra fats by adjusting the sauce perfectly to give the soft texture a very hearty feel. If the sauce was any heavier, the combination with the fat would have just made the dish disgusting, but the chefs somehow managed to make it just right. I had a glass of 2000 R H Phillips Merlot to help revive my taste buds. A slightly more astringent pick would have went better with the shanks. Cheers (for the puzzle fans)!
The cheesecake had a tough act to follow, but didn't disappoint! Orange flavoured cheesecake is so indescribably awesome! The dark chocolate sorbet was also a welcome relief, as my face was a little warm from the wine. I overheard some lady at another table asking for another serving of the dessert. :)
All in all, this meal was a definitely eye-opener. As a five-star restaurant, I was expecting very small, fancy dishes. However, what I got were very simple, common ingredients prepared to offer the most luxurious of tastes. I really want to try Truffle's signature dish - spaghettini with Perigord Black Gold served with a light truffle sauce- someday, even if it costs me an arm and a leg. Tochi Meter reads a definite 5 out of 5.
Went skiing on Saturday at Mt. St. Louis - Moonstone. Departed at 8 am. With lineups and rentals, only got out on the slope at 10:30am. The weather was -10C, clear skies, with fresh snow from the night before on the slopes. The day got off to an awesome start. Halfway down my first intermediate [blue] hill, I somehow lost the edge on my uphill ski and wiped out. Once I got back down the hill to the ski lift line, my left ski got caught on the railing and I promptly fell over again. At least it wasn't as embrassing as last year, when I stumbled while moving into the loading position, and they had to stop the lift for me.
After these two incidents, I got my composure back. During one of the ski lifts rides, I was chatting with an avid snowboarder. She had skied for most of her life, but started snowboarding three years ago, and hasn't looked back since. She mentioned that skiing is easy to pick up, but hard to improve on. Snowboarding is harder to pick up, but once you learn the basics, it's easy to do fun tricks and improve. I should really give snowboarding another try someday.
The morning runs taught me a couple lessons:
- It's impossible to find anyone on a ski hill. Everyone looks the same.
- I wasn't the only one who can't hear a cellphone ring on the slopes. Sorry for the missed calls.
- There were a lot of people carrying walkie-talkies.
- Skiing downhill on cross-country skis looks so weird! Never thought it was possible.
Afternoon session was awesome. We just tackled all the slopes from west to east and then from east to west again. I didn't have the nerves to try the moguls this time. The slope was starting to get a bit icy and I didn't want to take a spill again. I promise to tackle them next time for sure! Tried to focus on my technique some more. Unfortunately, the runs at Moonstone are much too short (the hills aren't mountains here). The Tremblant idea is getting more and more appealing...
Everyone met back at the St. Louis chalet at the end of the day, except for T and his friend H. While the rest of us returned our equipment and lounged around, T&H finally straggled through the door, looking as if they were about to collapse. Apparently, they had missed the last lift from Moonstone base, and so couldn't take the crossover trail back to Mt. St. Louis base. They literally trekked for 20 minutes on the road from one base to the other with their snowboards. I cannot imagine how they survived that ordeal after a day of snowboarding, or why they didn't call us to pick them up.
I've been debating whether to invest into my own pair of skis. I think if I had my own skis, I might go skiing more than two or three times a year. Also, my skiing will hopefully be more consistent, and the boots won't hurt as much! I might dig around the season ending discounts later this year for good deals.
Lower back and shoulders really aching this morning.
Winter has barely started and it's already Groundhog Day! As Kung proudly reported, his PA groundhog today confirmed our very own Wiarton Willie's prediction of an early spring. The Punxsutawney Phil is known to be the original and most accurate groundhog around, but our Wiarton Willie isn't weak - Willie's albino (There's no mistaking Willie for a beaver) and accurate 37% of the time!
CBC wrote up a short article today on Wiarton Willie's history. Quite an amusing read.
How groundhogs got a reputation for predicting weather patterns is a mystery, because they are not the least bit interested in their shadows or the number of winter weeks remaining. The only reason they come out of hibernation is for food and sex.I knew it!!!
The original Wiarton Willie, an albino groundhog died during hibernation during the winter of 1998-99. Willie's death made headlines around the world. On Groundhog Day, they put Wiarton Willie face-up in a small pine casket, bright pennies over his eyes, paws clutching a raw carrot. But it was a fake!All those conspiracy theories confirmed!
Included in the article are some quick groundhog facts submitted from the one and only, Cornell University. Two facts in particular caught my eye:
- Woodchuck and groundhog are common terms for the same animal.
- How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? About 318 kg