Acura GPS Fail

We were driving my sister's Acura MDX to Whistler when the on-board GPS navigation system stopped working. Evidently we've driven off the end of the earth.


Driving along the Sea to Sky Highway


We noticed that the map cuts off shortly after Squamish


Message from nav display right before it shut itself off

I realize the car is a few years old but Whistler has been around for many years. I'm surprised that it was not included in the US/Canada database. Maybe if you buy the MDX in Canada, it would have the full Canadian street database but probably missing a few US roads.

Blame Canada

10:10 p.m.: Suspicious people were reportedly doing something with flashlights by the side of North 5th Street in Custer. A deputy checked and found the people were not suspicious, but merely Canadian. The out-of-towners were enjoying an evening stroll.

Last Trip to Toronto

So I think this may be my last trip to Toronto for the near future since my parents are moving back to Los Angeles. The first time we moved from Canada to the US, I didn’t visit from 1987 to 2004. Maybe my mom will still visit my aunts and I can go back with her; I need to use up 100k of AA miles before they expire.

We visited a few relatives during this trip and I got to eat lunch with Cyrus. Other than family, I think I’ve known him for the longest period. We were in the same class in sixth grade and since we both joined the instrumental music class, we were also in the same class for seventh and eighth grade. We both then ended up going to Applewood Heights for high school instead of TLK, which is where most of the people went after The Valleys (junior high). I treated him to lunch so he has to buy me lunch next time in California.

I think my parents’ move is pretty much planned out. I need to go back and find them an apartment starting early July. All they have to do is to finish tossing stuff and pack everything for the moving company. They’ve decided to drop off the Camry in Buffalo to ship to California instead of driving it themselves. I thought I would have to meet them in Chicago in July to help with the drive. They’re still looking for a house/townhouse. Ironically, they found one they liked this morning on Redfin.com in NW Fullerton and it’s right next to the condo Shirley just purchased. Maybe my mom can cook for her… ok, maybe not. I’m still looking for a house too and it’s more and more likely I need a three bedroom house instead of a smaller condo. I really like the live/work lofts in downtown Santa Ana except that I don’t really need the storefront-like workspace and there aren’t enough bedrooms. I’ve been narrowing my search to houses built after 1980 and listed for less than $600k. Almost everything available near work is a short sale or bank owned.

The pilot just announced that we’re about 20 minutes out of LAX. All the flights on this trip have been pretty good. The exit rows are much roomier than regular seats though I’ve never had too many problems with AA. The old Cathay 747 seats are the worst, especially when the person in front of you recline their seat right into your lap. I watched one and a half movies on my netbook (no TV screens on a MD-80) and still have >2 hours of battery life left. I probably couldn’t have finished even one movie with my power hungry Sony Vaio or the huge Dell D820 I have a work now.

Canada Trip #3 - Home

The return trip yesterday was pretty uneventful. The only delay was in Dallas; I think the crew for the DFT to SNA flight was delayed on an incoming flight so we had to wait for them. For this trip, all four flights I was on were completely full. Not sure if AA is scheduling less flights to save money or if just a lot of people are traveling. The upgrade wait list was 18 people long at DFW and there are only 12 business class seats on a 737.

Another thing I've noticed was that every flight was full of carry-on luggage. I read on AA's website that since July, the 1st checked bag is $15 and the 2nd check bag is $25. I haven't noticed this since travelers with AAdvantage elite status are exempt. In fact, each of the four flight on this trip were delayed due to too much cabin luggage. The worst flight was from Toronto to Dallas-Fort Worth. About 15 people had to gate-check their luggage. Since almost everyone had a rolling bag, it was total chaos.

Canada Trip #3 - Wednesday

Nothing exciting... just more snow.


I'm staying at Residence Inn. It's right next to a Courtyard/Marriott. I think Residence Inn is owned by Marriott as well.


It was pretty windy last night. This is a long exposure shot of a Canadian flag blowing in the wind.


My rental car this morning. I'm really against the auto bailout. If they can't build good cars, they shouldn't be in business. The last three cars I rented in Toronto were all American: Pontiac G5, Ford Escape, and the latest is a Chevy Impala. They were all new cars yet I'd rather drive my old 1999 Toyota 4Runner. I doubt I'll ever buy an American car, not counting the Jeep Cherokee we bought for off-road racing.

Canada Trip #3 - Tuesday

The past two days have been uneventful (boring) at work. I'm still mostly doing my regular FP&A job from Markham which means I'm only 50% productive since the network connection is so slow. During lunch yesterday, I went to First Markham Place with two engineers. It's another Chinese mall, nicer than Pacific Mall, and it has a bigger food court.


Place where I got lunch on Monday. There was a pretty long line and most were white people which should have tipped me off. Even worse, I got a lunch special on the English only menu (sign on right) so it didn't taste that good. Should have ordered from the Chinese menu.

For lunch today, I decided to try my luck again at the food court. This time I picked a "Shanghai" place and had their stirred fried rice cake dish. It was a bit better than yesterday but not by much. I think I'm experiencing the same cultural bias as in China, except this time it's in Cantonese. Markham is full of Chinese people but most are Cantonese. At every restaurant/food court vendor, they would talk to me in Cantonese. After seeing my blank stare, most then switch to English, grudgingly. Some are pretty persistent though with the Cantonese which I don't get since they manage to speak English to all the white people. Sigh...


"Chef" making my rice cake lunch. The lady at the counter asked if I was from Taiwan since I ordered in Mandarin. I told her I was American. She replied that a lot of Taiwanese people order the stirred fried rice cake dish. Then she asked me whether I like the US or Canada better, to which I replied that the weather here (Canada) sucked.

I just got back home after visiting my cousin Alice in Markham. Each time I visit, it seems like she has another baby (4 in total now). Her father is staying with her currently; this is the uncle I met during my first trip to Chengdu last year. My cousin (she is a nurse) noticed my cough and gave me some Tylenol w/Codine and it seems to work. She told me to break the pill in half; I was too lazy so I took the entire pill. Not sure how many milligrams that was. On the way home, it started snowing again. It's supposed to accumulate 15cm (6 inches) tonight. Good thing I'm only staying for two more days... how did I manage to grow up here without freezing to death?!

Playstation 3

For some reason, the PS3 is the same price in Canada as it is in the US (~$400). With the recent drop in the exchange rate, it's cheaper to buy the console in Canada, even after adding all the different taxes. I stopped by a Future Shop on the way to my parent's house and bought the 80GB system plus two games: Metal Gear Solid 4 and Fallout 3. The total, with tax, came out to CAD$543 which is about $435 US. The same stuff would have cost me ~$500 on Amazon. Now I just have to carry it back home on two flights this Thursday.

==========

I went to Best Buy in Markham and bought one more game: Resistance 2. It was only CAD$50 so it's cheaper than buying it in the US. All three games are rated "M" so I had to enter my birth date on all the websites. I wonder how many 40 year old gamers there are.

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Looking to buy three more games: Little Big Planet, GTA IV, and Gran Turismo 5.

Canada Trip #3 - Sunday

Heh, I decided that I had enough clean clothes so I didn’t do any laundry last night. My flight was at 8:00am so I had a taxi pick me up at 6:30am. I live really close to John Wayne Airport but not close enough to walk. There were a lot of people at the airport this morning but it still took only 20 minutes to check-in and clear security. The SNA to DFW flight was complete full so I didn’t get an upgrade to business class.

At the security check, there were two guys in front of me who held up the entire line. I’m not sure whether they’ve not traveled for the pasts several years or if they were retarded. Both had packed all their toiletries in their carry on and by the quantity, they were either gay or metrosexuals. The TSA lady was pretty nice as she helped them unpack and bag their stuff in zip-lock bags. I would have tossed all their stuff in the trash. The other type of airplane passengers I hate are the ones that have seats at the back of the plane yet they stick their huge carry-on luggage in first class or near the front of the plane. People who get on the plane later are screwed since they have to roam all over the plane looking for luggage space. This also causes a traffic jam after the plane lands as people scramble to deplane.

Anyway, I was a bit worried about this flight connection since it was only 40 minutes between flights. It turned out that one of the passenger seats was busted and we had to wait for maintenance to come and fix it. The flight finally took off at 8:30am so I thought I would miss my connection in Dallas. However, the flight only took 2 hours and 12 minutes and we ended up arriving 5 minutes early. I’m not sure how much slack is in the published flight schedules for us to make up 35 minutes, or the pilot flew really fast.

Right now I’m on the DFW to YYZ flight where I did get upgraded to business class. I thought I had the row (2 seats) to myself but right before take off, a large white male sat down next to me. If I was in economy, he would have definitely encroached into my space.



I always try to take a shower before flights so I feel more comfortable and also as a courtesy to other passengers. This guy however had very bad BO. I have two vents on full pointed at me to keep the smell away. Ugh.



Once again, the food is so so. I still feel the food I get in economy on Asian flights is better. I couldn’t finish the sandwich; there was too much cheese. I did eat the salad though. The guy next to me didn’t touch his salad but ate everything else really fast, while reading his Men’s Health magazine.


Sunset

I'm checked into the same hotel as last time. It's a different room but the layout is exactly the same.

Canada Trip #3

I'm flying to Toronto again tomorrow morning. This time I'm connecting through DFW and only have 35 minutes. I'm carrying everything with me so as long as the SNA to DFW flight leaves on time, I should be okay. I also got upgraded to business class on the DFW to YYZ flight so maybe they'll wait for me. Right now I'm debating whether to do laundry tonight. I guess I can always bring dirty laundry "home" to my parent's house and wash it tomorrow night. It would be like college all over again. :)

I've been watching Toronto weather and it's been consistently in the -10°C range. Ugh. At least this will be my last trip (not counting the Christmas trip to Portland) and I probably won't travel to Toronto again until next March.

Sick

The Canadian weather finally got me. I woke up Saturday morning with a terrible headache. We were planning on driving to Kipling station and take the subway downtown to walk around. During lunch though, I felt worse so we only stopped by the Chinese market and went back home. I ended up spending the next two days in bed with a slight fever.


Frozen food section at the Chinese market in Mississauga. There's pork stomach soup, pork lung soup, and silkie chicken soup with conch.

I got up this morning at 4am to finish packing and leave for the airport. My flight is was at 6:50am but we weren't sure if the roads would be covered with snow. I also had to cram 4 bottles of ice wine into my luggage; hopefully they will survive the trip. I managed to get upgraded to business class on my flight from Toronto to Dallas/Fort Worth. It's the first time I flew business class on a domestic flight. It was weird sitting there with everyone staring at you as they walk by.


Cheese omelete breakfast. Not sure if it was the food or the medicine I took this morning but I had to go to the bathroom real bad after eating the omelete. :(

Right now I'm sitting in DFW airport waiting for my flight to John Wayne airport. They have these stations that have electrical plugs, USB charging port, and a free wired internet connection. I'm not sure why US airports don't just offer free wireless internet connection like everywhere else in the world (and Portland). Good thing I had my CAT-5 cable on me. At least it gives me something to do while waiting.


I never get to see the front of the engine.


Coming in for landing at DFW airport (not the airport in the picture).


Skylink trains at DFW airport.

Snow - The Movie

OK, it's about as exciting as watching grass grow. That's the old ATI headquarter building; now it has AMD signage. In the middle of the building, there is a huge four story open area with an indoor waterfall. Other BRCM people told me that the pools of water also have gas jets that shoot flames, kinda like the Mirage. Must have installed that when times were good. Now that I have an AMD badge, I should sneak in and take some photos.

Snowing Again

It's more rain than snow. I hope it's not too cold tonight, otherwise everything will be covered by a layer of ice tomorrow.

-9°C

:(

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A tip:

When it's that cold outside, don't use the washer fluid to clean your windows. The wipers will spread the fluid all over the windshield and it freezes immediately, reducing your visibility to zero. No fun when you're pulling onto the freeway.

Friends and Family Day

Today was a day spent with family and friends. I drove to Oakville this morning to have lunch with my parents. I had a craving for a Chinese breakfast and my parents said there was a new restaurant in Mississauga called 油条大王. However, it turned out to be a Cantonese place so they eat their fried dough with congee instead with soymilk like in Taiwan. :(

After lunch, we went to visit uncle Charles in Mississauga. Auntie Amy (his wife) passed away in September. After that, we went back to my parent's house for me to do laundry. I felt like I was in college again, coming home on weekends to do laundry and pick up food.

Later in the afternoon, I drove to my friend's house to watch football. This is someone I met in the sixth grade and we went to school together for the next six years, until I moved to the U.S. Other than family members, I think I knew Cyrus the longest (~30 years). We watched most of the Giants vs. Cardinals game then switched to the Grey Cup (Canadian Football League championships). The game was between the Calgary Stampeders and Montreal Alluettes. Nobody really watches the CFL, even in Canada. There are only eight teams in the entire league. BTW, Calgary won.

Ontario Science Center

Having worked until 8pm yesterday, answering work questions from people in Irvine, I decided to get away from the computer and take a trip to the Ontario Science Center today. Since parking is $8 and a TTC day pass is only $9, I parked at Finch station (free parking) and took the subway/bus.


Inside a subway car. The subway system in Toronto is pretty small. There was only two lines when I lived here in the 80's and the system hasn't grown that much. They've added two short spur lines and added one extra station on the west end of the east-west line. On the subway (and bus), they announce the next stop so you know when to get off. In Taiwan, the announcements were in 4 languages: Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, and English. I think in Beijing, the announcements were in Mandarin and English. In Toronto, it was English only... no French, even though it's one of the official languages of Canada.


TTC bus route 34. I took the subway to Eglington station and got on the bus to go to the science center. I think it added an extra hour to the trip versus if I just driven there.


The science center is built on the side of a valley. The entrance is at the top of the east side of the valley and the remaining center is down below, connected by corridors and escalators.


On Level C, there was a huge metal contraption that had a lot of tracks for rolling balls. It was pretty cool.


One of the exhibits about the vastness of space. There is a planetarium inside the science center. They just replaced the mechanical projector with a digital one this year.


What?! M&M and Smarties in the same vending machine? There were a lot of vending machines and everything was quite expensive.


An exhibit where you build stuff with old computer/printer components. I thought this was poisoning villages in China?


Tall columns with air blown upwards. You can put paper cups and other stuff in the tube and it would blow it out the top. There is a cone cup at the top that was just blown out.


Bobsled simulator.


A projected koi pond. If you step on the ground inside the "pond," it causes ripples in the projector. Again, pretty cool.


Van der Graff generator and "making hair stand-on-end" demo.


Pedal power! I remember playing with this and other exhibits in the Science Arcade 25+ years ago. Actually, it looks exactly the same... pretty good maintenance.


Tornado generator.


Rainforest exhibit inside the science center. It was hot and humid, not like Canada at all.


Large cockroach exhibit. I hat cockroaches.


Stand behind the yellow line! Reminds me of "My Sassy Girl."


Some guy playing guitar in the subway station at Bloor-Yonge. At the Finch station, there was a long-haired guy with an electric guitar singing Led Zepplin songs.


After taking a different bus (route 25) from the science center to another subway station (Pape), I went all the way to Union Station to check out the CN Tower. From here, you can take trains to Ottawa, Montreal, and even New York.


A view of downtown Toronto from the Skywalk connecting Union Station to the Convention Center and CN Tower. I think it's looking north on York Street.


CN Tower. It used to be tallest building in the world. I was going to go up to the observation deck to take a look but the tickets were $22 so I skipped it. :)

Harvey's

I had a sudden craving for a Harvey's burger. We used to go all the time while growing up; it's the only burger that my dad liked. I think the one we went to was near Lakeshore Road in Mississauga; I can't find it on the store locater though. Anyway, I found one nearby on a map and drove out at 10:30pm to look for it. In the end, I couldn't find the one I was looking for but did find another one that was closed. Bummer. On the way back, I stopped by a Burger King and got a chicken sandwich and some onion rings. Add that to my Chinese dinner earlier, I'm still not spending very much of Broadcom's money on food. I'll have to look for a Harvey's later this week.

I'm thinking of going to the Ontario Science Center this weekend. It's not that far from Markham. The admission is $18 and parking is $8 so it won't be that cheap.

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I found a Harvey's, inside a Home Depot for some reason, and had a burger and fries for lunch on Friday. Eeeh, it wasn't as good as I remembered.

Working in Canada, Day 2

OK, last snow photo. This was my rental car this morning. Under the snow was a layer of ice so it took awhile to clear the windows.

Today was another day working on mostly FP&A stuff at work. I'm getting used to working on two computers since the network connection is so slow. Most of the work is being done by remote access on my other computer back in Irvine. I also tried contacting AMD's help desk (by calling HELP on the phone) about connecting to a networked printer. After 30 minutes, we decided there is no way for me to print. The printers are still on an old ATI (pre-AMD acquisition) print server and the only way for me to see the printers is to get an userid and password on the AMD domain. That probably won't happen. I wonder what a new Broadcom hire will do if they're hired at the Markham site.

I had to get a visitor badge again this morning. I wonder if I can just sneak in tomorrow. The receptionist asked if I need an escort in. Sigh... I told her twice that I have my own cubicle here. There's also another problem. After 6pm, the doors are all locked from both sides and you need an AMD badge to get out. I was lucky that another employee was walking out at the same time. Not sure what I will do if I need to stay late or need to come in on nights/weekends.

After work, I decided to find a Chinese market to get some groceries/snacks. I looked on the web and found a website to Pacific Mall, the largest indoor Asian market or something. It turned out to be a huge barn-like building with hundreds of tiny stores, pretty much selling the same things: cell phones, boba milk tea, books, computers, counterfeit DVD's, and ugly clothing.


South entrance.


One of the "streets" inside. There are several long corridors with stores on each side. Both store clerks and customers seem to be pretty young.


Rims!


Food court on the 2nd floor.


Each food vendor had lots of photos of each dish. They all looked very similar... probably hired the same photographer.


I ended buying dinner at this place. I was swayed by the sign stating "Hong Kong Chef Management."


$4.75 including drink (not the can of Pepsi). That's only US$3.90! Not China cheap but pretty inexpensive. It was pretty good, better than the $40 dinner I had with my parents last night.

On the way back to the hotel (I got dinner to go), I saw a 350Z with snow tires. The stock Bridgestone Potenzas are terrible in rain or snow.

Still Snowing

Arg, I think I have mini-jetlag or something. It's 1:30am Eastern time and I'm still up; it's only 10:30pm back "home" in California. Looking out the window, the snow is still falling. The hotel I'm staying in does not have underground parking so I'll probably need 10 minutes to clear all the snow off the car. I knew I should have brought my hiking boots instead of my dress shoes. Also, there must be a lot of Indian/Pakistani families staying in the hotel and cooking dinner. The hallways have a strong curry smell. The apartment we lived in 30 years ago in Mississauga had the same smell.


Snow covered tree outside my window. It's pretty dark outside so the shutter speed was 1 second long. I was holding my breath so the camera wouldn't shake.


Parking lot with one lonely car. There was a bit more light so the shutter speed was 1/2 second. I shot this through a window with a mesh screen; I wasn't about to go outside to take photos.

Working in Canada, Day 1

Today was my first full work day in the Markham office. They set me up with a small cubicle. Last time I was here, I asked for a monitor. I think the admin was going to give me a old CRT but my buddy Larry, the help desk manager, set me up with a new LCD panel (Dell 22" widescreen); a new hire didn't show up so it was reassigned to me.


My little cubicle

As I was setting up the LCD panel and docking station (I brought that up from Irvine myself), the mail room delivered another LCD panel (same model) to me. Both were FedEx'ed from our office in Richmond, British Columbia. Earlier this evening, I got a call from the help desk in Richmond, asking me to ship the other LCD panel back to them. For a moment, I thought I was going to have a dual widescreen setup.

I spent most of the day working on my normal job stuff. The network connection back to our Irvine data center is horrible. I would double-click on Excel files and it would take minutes to open. I ended up connecting remotely to my 2nd work computer, normally used for presentations, so I can get work done. They're also using the old AMD phone system until moving day next year. To call long distance, you need a special passcode. I think each person has a code; the finance manager gave me his code to use but told me not to call any 900-numbers (mostly phone-sex hotlines). I think he was just kidding. I also haven't figured out how to connect to the network printers yet so I can't print anything.

At around 4pm this afternoon, it started snowing and it's still snowing six hours later. Good thing rental cars come with snow brushes. My parents were in Scarborough visiting some friends so they came by to have dinner. We went to some Chinese restaurant nearby; there must be hundreds of Chinese restaurants in this area. After dinner, I stopped by a supermarket to pick up some sodas and water. Groceries are more expensive compared to the U.S., even after converting the currency. The average salary is lower and the weather sucks; I wonder why so many people live here... :)


I tried taking a picture of the snow as I was leaving work. It was already too dark and the flash just reflects off the falling snow.


AMD parking lot. The building we "kept" doesn't have an underground parking garage whereas the AMD building next door still does. Since their old badges still work, some ex-AMD people are still sneaking in and parking in the underground garage. My Broadcom badge doesn't work at all here and they won't give me a temp badge to open doors. In addition, the receptionist is making me sign in each morning as a guest since my badge doesn't say "Markham" on it. I've been to our offices in Vancouver, San Jose, Singapore, Taipei, and Beijing and never did I need to sign in as guest as long as I had my work badge. Lame.


Parking lot outside restaurant. It's only -2°C outside so the snow is fairly wet. Only the large roads are salted before a snowstorm so driving in the parking lots is a bit slippery. I fishtailed the SUV a bit coming out of the hotel driveway on the way to dinner... fun!