PODCAST - EPISODE #1

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"The Best Part in Waking Up Is 2 Girls & 1 Cup"

Okay the first time I heard the song Folgers Coffee commercial with the lyrics as "The Best Part in Waking Up Is 2 Girls & 1 Cup" I pissed myself laughing! And then earlier today I showed Larissa's sister, Natasha, the 2 Girls 1 Cup Song. I forgot how funny it was! I've always wanted to learn how to play the 2 Girls 1 Cup theme song on piano. Lucas you should try do it on finale or something. OOOOOOO how about flute version?!? Too many ideas.....anyways...

Another day full of events! So today I had a doctor's appointment for my physical! The most feared day since I was 5 years old! Every other year or so, it comes around lurking on my calender. They hand you a sheet to cover up and let you wait half an hour by yourself looking inside the room. Not to mention they crank on the AC so your freeeeeeeeeeezing cold! But actually this year wasn't bad at all. I am as healthy as a pig in shit......

After I finished my physical, my mother and I visited my Nana at Hospice where they recently installed a donated water fall that is worth $5000. It was quite impressive. I took a picture to share.

Later on in the evening, I went out for a nice dinner with Larissa at Applebee's restaurant in the mall. We walked around the mall, then started walking to William's Coffee. But we got distracted inside Big Al's Aquarium! We took a peek inside and now I want a fish. lol They are sooo coool.

Went to Williams and had a blended iced cap. Very nice and creamy! During my last visit they screwed up my order so I complained and the manager sent me a free $15 gift card in the mail to make up for it. So I used that. I tell ya, it pays to complain!

As I mentioned earlier, I made a nice home for Chad the Rat! I took a picture for all of you. I also give the update o his house in my "In Production Podcast" so I won't ruin what we did. But here is the latest picture of his house beside the compactor at Valu-Mart.

He has lots of furniture in his home and the garbage provides additional shelter in the case of rain.

That's all for now! PS: Podcast will be up soon. Just need to fix some things!

MINI BLOG - Chad the Rat

Good morning everyone! I just wanted to comment on how amazed I am that I am getting international visitors. People from Gloucester England, Mountain View CA, Manhattan KS, Toronto ON, Whitby, Tilsonburg, and Cape Coral FL! Thank you guys for reading my blog.

Secondly I will announce that we have a new family member at Valu-Mart! His name is Chad. He is a rat. He lives underneath the compactor and sometimes comes out to visit. I recently built a small little home for him out of cardboard boxes. I will try and post a picture later on.

I also thought about just making one podcast episode and letting you guys hear it first and then let me know if I should continue. But still vote if you want to!

That's about it! please comment on other posts! I like to hear some feedback.

"Good Things Grow in Ontario"

Good things groo-oooooow, in Ontar-iiiiioooooooo (CLICK TO HEAR)

One of the most amazing and annoying little jingles in the world. I can't stop singing it. But anyways this is a short one. I just had a bone to pick with some people. And yes its probably about you.

Number one is Christina! I know you hate my blog, because you've said it straight to my face.

"Oh..I'm sorry to be mean but I don't like your blog." - Christina, July 2008

Well to be honest you were just a tad mean. Why would you say sorry if you knew it was something insulting to me. If you don't like it then just don't read it. But I might have convinced her to start liking my blogs by doing something Lucas and I were talking about. Which leads me to my next topic.

Podcasting is an idea I suggested to Lucas for his blog, which apparently he thought of minutes before. The problem is having the time to make one. But I have some good ideas! I'm thinking about doing it COMPLETELY IN ASIAN ACCENT! Complete with:

• Segments on how to speak Chinese (Cantonese)
• Valu-mart updates
• Reviews on websites, products and services

So please let me know what you think.....

I also must comment on Lucas' blog. A brilliant peace of work that truly gets right into the nitty gritty details. His style is like no other, and over-use of the indenting reminds me of the classes I had with him when he would do everything possible to make something look very long. I give his blog a 4/5 stars. 4 stars because he sometimes leaves me out. Also, Lucas has asked me who this Sum Yung Gie is...and I'm actually curious?? So who are you?

Lastly I leave you with some words of wisdom. Actually it is just something that a couple of us hate! Confucius say that "To piss someone off during argument, girlfriend say 'Never mind - Whatever' ". Honestly it is the most annoying thing a person can do to try to end the argument/problem so that they win. You don't understand what it can do to a man and his co-workers. Alot of boxes have fist sized hole in them now in the storage room. Please do not do this to us....it is insensitive and immature! Thank You.

If you are a "Whatever"er in these circumstances, there is help. Call "Whatever Anonymous" at 1-800-WAT-EVER and a helpline counselor will be with you to help you through your crisis.

The Valu-Mart Soap Opera - Flashback

Since I have to work tomorrow (11-7) and I probably wont write in my blog tomorrow because of the time, I think it is appropriate to share some of the past experiences of the life at Valu-Mart! So sit back and enjoy....

I am a part-time employee at Valu-Mart in the loving Wortley Village. I work in three departments including, grocery, bakery and garden center. I have worked over a year now and I enjoy working there. For those that don't know, I started off working in garden center in May 2007. I actually found garden center to be the best department to work in out of all three because you basically work alone and outside. But at the end of garden center season, I was moved indoors to work in grocery on Wednesdays and Bakery Saturdays and Sundays.

The wonderful world of grocery is probably a mix between the second easiest job in the world and the hardest job in the world. But for the most part it is easy. I work with James on Wednesday nights doing some odd jobs in order to prepare for new shipments coming in later that week or for the Friday sales. James made up a nickname for me, and now everyone calls me it. I am actually proud of my name......"Asian Pockets" which was derived from "Pocket" (ie Mark) because of how he used to face aisles with one hand in his pocket. But since 50% of the blood that flows in my veins is half Chinese, I am titled as Asian Pockets. We even named the 2L pop wall in the back - "The Great Wall".

The worst job in grocery would have to be doing MILK LEAKERS because of the mold growing on the bucket and the smell of rotting milk (skim, 1%, 2%, homo), cream, eggnog, chocolate milk and sometimes the occasional orange juice. Every carton/bag of milk that is leaking or is off code goes in that bucket and i have to count them all.


Working in bakery is actually not that bad, once you get the hang of it. The only problem is the manager. The only problem is her inability to spell words. Hilarious examples include:

• When she couldn't remember Alyssa's name so she called her "GIRL" on the weekend task note.
• The changing of present tense to past tense to future tense.
• Her over uses of the comma, exclamation mark, caps lock, and periods.
• "Remember to throw away the cord of the onion" ---> onions have cords?

And the list goes on and on.... James has a record of every weekend note she writes. lol

Then there are my friends in produce and deli. Theresa and Richard are among the high ranked friends at Valu-Mart. On Wednesdays, Theresa and I have our weekly "LOTTO WEDNESDAY". This was started when we both turned 18, and to celebrate we both scratch a $3 lottery ticket. So far we both have only won once during an official LOTTO WEDNESDAY scratching. But due to some issues that Theresa caused, I had to make formal strict rules. She scratched with someone else other than me! But i forgave her because she argued that it wasn't on a Wednesday. and just to let everyone know---> This week Wed July23, 2008 we didn't win on 2X "Deal or No Deals".

Sundays is our biweekly "Pencil Sunday" where we drop pencils on people. Random eh? one week Theresa, Monica and I were in john's office looking at customers when I noticed a very small hole in the floor. I investigated by dropping a pencil and then we decided to drop it on someone. I think we really confused some of the cashiers.

Then there are always the shop lifters.... Ahhhhhhh the shop lifters. I've always wanted to chase one down...but I never seem to be working when we get them. Except for this one kid. The floor watcher calls him the "CHOCOLATE BAR BANDIT" because he steals 5 chocolate bars and gives them to his friends. Pockets, Theresa and I want him to come back because we want to catch this 12-year old skater punk kid. Hes stared me in the eyes a couple times. I always get Andrea to page "Security to Zone F". I really want her to page, "Jordan to the Interrogation Room" or "Mark to the Torture Room of Death". How awesome would that be. Theresa actually saw him recently at South.....wonder if he goes there........or Tecumseh!!

The life at Valu-Mart is not for any ordinary guy. It is for the person that can handle the crazy, the weird, the dyslexic, the bizarre, and the most annoying of people. You have to fit in in order to stay in. To conclude I leave you with the top ten tips to survive at Valu Mart!

1. If your female prepare to to be scared shitless by Richard in the cooler.
2. Careful when opening the Compactor door because you just might get a concussion.
3. If you are mental and somewhat young prepare to be hit on by Monica and Andrea.
   
4. If you work Saturday evening, please bring money so we can buy some Chinese food or pizza.
5. Do not mess with TK because she WILL beat you up. This includes not mocking her of love for the Maple Leafs.
6. Make sure you are not trained by Robot Sandra.
7. If your having a bad day, all you have to do is read Nancy's weekend notes.
8. If your writing on a cake and you've run out of piping bags, make sure you don't use the bread bags cause they will explode on the cake! (See photo)
9. Relationships between Valu-Mart Co-Workers never work out.
10. Nothing is a secret! Anything that you say or do will get around to everyone in the store.

A Store of Everything - Dollarama

This evening I took a trip to the dollar store. But this was no ordinary dollar store. This was Dollaramma! I have noticed a huge increase of products that they carry. You name it they have it! And the best thing is everything is one dollar or less. Tonight I learned that they surprisingly have brand name stuff. For example, they had KFC picnic bags with the colonel's face on the bag! They had brand name shampoos and conditioners too!

I went into the store with Larissa and Braedan, and Larissa was looking for bottles to hold her shampoo for her trip to BC. We all went down this aisle and I notice the very large assortment of Dollar Store Pregnancy Tests. They had soooooo many of them. I started laughing in the store and the people at the end heard me. Although i don't think they could speak much English. But seriously, would you honestly trust a Dollarama pregnancy test? It even said on the box: "99% Accurate". I am curious to see if it is or not.

Continuing down some of the aisles, I have to comment on the wide variety of arts and craft supplies. A very large selection of dollar store paints. And they aren't the small little bottles of acyrlics either; they are the big bottles which can go far.

I have noticed that the selection of wooden craft products is limited to small wooden bird houses and medium sized jewelery boxes. I would have liked to have seen more of a selection.

The pet products were such a great deal. they had a large wall of pet toys and collars for cats, dogs, hamsters, and birds. Not to mention the food was a great bargain! I believe it was 3 cans of cat food for $1.00. Not bad, although I personally wouldn't feed my pet that kind of food. But if you were low on money, and you had to feed a pet, it wouldn't be that bad.

--------------UPDATE ON $1 PREGNANCY TEST----------------------------

I just recently searched up "Dollarama" on the internet and the second link that came up was about the $1 Pregnancy Test. Here is the link for further reading. Basically they are warning people not to use them because the product is not licensed for sale in Canada. They are called "New Choice Pregnancy Test". But this was said in 2005. Apparently now they are licensed now in Canada. The article shares both sides of this product; is good or not.

After readign some of those comment, i want to share a comment that I can agree on....
"New Choice early pregnancy tests are sold for $1 at Dollar Trees in the US. They have tested positive as early as 12 days after ovulation for me. It’s similar to a litmus test - there’s nothing complicated to screw up. It’s cheap, just as accurate as a test that costs 10 times as much, and if you test negative and want to check again, you’re saving even more. Personally, trying to get pregnant, I’m not running into a clinic every week. And I prefer to test more often than that anyhow. And a formal qualitative hCG test at the doc is still spends more money (yours or taxpayers) and is more time consuming. What’s not to trust? The little line turns color when the hormone’s detected. No doctorate required." - Erin


I can see now that it doesn't hurt anyone to use these. If it was injecting something into you that could harm you or a baby, then I could see the concern. But honestly.... I hope they aren't gonna start selling $1 Condoms.....

Number 1

This marks the first entry of "The Secret Diary of a Half Asian"! I've never written a blog before but now is a good time to start. I recently reorganized my room around, and my PC is now in the corner and I feel professional with my new filing cabinet. For those who do read this and are interested in what I do, I do have a website for my art. You can view it here. So let it begin!