Pure HMV
I've been buying from HMV since grade 12 (since I started working) and if you were to sum up the total of my DVD purchases it would be somewhere between $1500 - $2000 since then. That's a shitload of money and I'm positive that it's a conservative estimate. The whole time I griped about how HMV should have a points card or something because I would benefit immensely from it.
About a month or two ago they launched the Pure HMV card, which gives you 100 points per dollar spent. I would have had at least 100, 000 points! So I decided to browse the upper echelons of their points program to see what I could possibly get for that much points.
Step Up 3d Prize Pack: 150 000 points.
Robert Pattinson Prize Pack: 150 000 points.
Autographed Perez Hilton Soft Cover book: 55 000 points.
What the shit is this? It's not even Twilight stuff for Robert Pattinson because, obviously, HMV makes too much money off that to be giving it away. But that's precisely what they should be doing! It's a rewards program, but it feels like they're giving away the useless crap they couldn't get rid of. For 150 000 points fans of Robert Pattinson can get a pair of worn pants from the movie (he wore them himself apparently), but this was from...2008! Yeah. Awesome. Sorry tweenies, you can't smell him anymore.
The Step Up pack includes one large Men's shirt, one large Women's shirt, an XL hoodie, a headband, and the first two movies in the franchise. The only Step Up 3d merchandise is the headband, and the oversized clothes. Seriously. I'm not even gonna get to Perez Hilton's autographed book, because that thing is a waste of paper and ink. Further browsing revealed that for 3,500 points I could get a T3 keychain. Terminator 3?! That movie came out when I was still in high school! Grade 11, if I remember correctly and I have to spend $35 to get that? Fuck you HMV!
The Pure HMV card: great for HMV to get rid of their useless shit, terrible for loyal customers.
Lists Suck
My big pet peeve these days is how people seem to love constructing these numbered lists in articles. I've griped about it before, but it seems to be the trend these days (sadly, that trend means the state of writing is deteriorating). Anyway...I hate lists. It's a lazy why to write, because what easier way is there to create controversy than to mix up the order of things? Most lists don't even argue a point, they just list the items in a certain order and then state the merits of each item. The reader doesn't really know why #5 is better than #2, it just is. But that's arbitrary. It has nothing to do with writing, which includes, *gasp*, constructing an argument. God forbid someone with an opinion will have to do that in an article.
Which brings me to the link I posted above. I'm griping over this article because "ripping off" is taking something else and acknowledging it as your own, ala, plagiarizing. The creator of Metal Gear has come out to say that Solid Snake was modeled after Snake Plissken. So there goes that. If you want to talk classic ripping off, check out how Disney ripped off The Lion King from this Japanese cartoon.
Things That I Hate
I was talking to Krishna tonight and he mentioned something about an LOLcat. I told him how much I hated that Internet meme, when he told me that I should just "make a list of all the things I hate", presumably because he can't keep track of them anymore. So here's the list in all its glory! It's probably incomplete and some of them come with explanations while others are rather self explanatory (or I didn't bother explaining):
The Long List:
-escalators: when people don't walk left and stand right.
-lights underneath cars: why do people supe it up like that?
-artsy fartsy people: they're so elitist
-indie music whores: you know, the people who only listen to bands that aren't signed to major labels.
-nepotism: it's rampant in my company and needs to stop. People need to get fired.
-edge 102: I guess I grew out of it. The morning show isn't that funny and the music sucks.
I'm surprised I could only get to 5. I wonder what else I can think of?
-Chinese people who make other Chinese people look bad.
-humidity. No one likes it actually, I'm not sure why this is on here.
-essays: I used to like them until I got my marks back.
-new Simpsons episodes: they suck now.
-gossipers: who likes them anyway?
I think that's it for now? I'm sure I can find one more in that list. It's like, staring right at me, but my mind is tired and I can't think right now. Acrostic poems? I guess I hate those too. I don't like poetry in general.
Being Asian
So I was asked to write an article about being Asian 2 months ago and have been struggling with the worst case of writer's block since. I think somewhere between the 8th and 9th draft I just said "fuck it" and gave it a rest. All my drafts end up sounding really angry near the middle of the paper because I vent out on everything I have to go through being Hakka and Chinese. It's not the tone I want to strike with people because it sounds as if I hate being Asian which couldn't be further from the truth. I love it! It's just...frustrating. Here is the draft I more or less sent in. It's rough. Really rough. I'm probably going to print this out and edit it soon, or maybe scrunch it up and throw it away. I know that the first two paragraphs need a lot of work to set it up, it seems really out of place. I'll revise this tomorrow if I have time.
Unless you're a member of my family then chances are I'll be speaking English to you. I cannot speak Cantonese, although I understand it, and Mandarin is an even bigger mystery to me. Instead, I speak Hakka, which is a dialect of Chinese that apparently no one uses. That's not true actually, I've met several Hakka-speaking people in Toronto, unfortunately for me, they speak Moyen Hakka, which is slightly different, but enough that I can’t understand it. So, unless you're in my immediate family the only way I can communicate with you is with English. I reiterate this point because I don't bring my family with me everywhere I go, so the first impression that people have is that I am "white-washed” since I’m never speaking Chinese. Not true, although I did go around telling people this when I was still in high school, but that was only because I grew tired of explaining to people that I was Hakka. There’s nothing wrong with embracing another culture, but to renounce your own in the process? That would make you a cultural sellout.
Then there are people who think I should just learn to speak Cantonese. As if it was one of the easier languages to learn. Well, I attended Chinese school for about six years growing up, but the problem with Chinese school is that it’s taught in Cantonese, and was intended to teach people how to read and write, not speak it. It was a complete waste of time for me. I wish I had learned Cantonese at some point in my life though because I went to Hong Kong earlier this year and although it was a very lively place to be, full of fun things to do, my limited understanding of the language marred my experience there. Before the trip my friends told me not to worry since many people in Hong Kong spoke English anyway. This was true, but, they couldn’t quite understand why I was speaking English to them and responded in Cantonese most of the time.
I feel defective. It’s as if I was intended to be Chinese, but didn’t quite meet the industry standards. I’m not good enough, but it’s not my fault because I was raised speaking a language that wasn’t spoken by 2 billion people. Imagine if this was an alternate universe, where Hakka was the main Chinese language and Cantonese and Mandarin have been pushed to the periphery. Not much about me would change, only: I'd be watching TVB shows and movies from Hong Kong without the aid of English subtitles, and I'd be fearlessly conversing with everyone in Hakka. Ordering food at Chinese restaurants would no longer require a menu for me to point at, and God only knows how much more fun I’d have in Hong Kong now that I won’t get dirty looks for not being able to speak the language. Maybe I’d run into some Chinese folk and start speaking to them in Hakka, but they’d sheepishly answer me in English “sorry sir, I don’t speak Hakka” and then it’d be my turn to look at them weird, and say, “oh, but I thought you were Chinese!”
Getting Take Out
At work there's a Spring Roll right beside us. I order from there all the time because it's easy for me to close up the garage and grab my food. What I usually do is phone their call-centre, place an order, then go there to pick it up. The last two times I did this, however, they screwed up my order. I don't know how, it's pretty simple.
Here's how the first one went:
Red: "Hi there I'd like to order for take-out please."
Operator: "Sure, what would you like?"
"One curry pad Thai please."
"Ok your order will be ready in 40 minutes."
Then I hung up. And waited. And wondered. 40 minutes? Usually it takes 20, so I called the restaurant this time and asked them why my order was taking 40 minutes when normally it takes 20. She said "because sir, you want it delivered." What?! Maybe the guy heard me wrong, because I wanted take-out. Anyway I told her something to the extent "no, I wanted take out. I'm right next door, I'm from the parking lot."
Today, I was feeling hungry at work and decided to give it another go. It's been a good 5 months since I last ordered from there, but I still remembered the little misunderstanding so I made sure to really emphasize take-out today.
Red: "Hi there, I'd like to order for take-out today please. Take-out."
Operator: "Sure, what would you like?"
R: "I'll have a vegetarian curry pad thai."
O: "And can I get your phone number."
R: *phone number is given, address is confirmed.*
O: "Ok, your order will be ready in 40 minutes."
R: "Wait! I said I wanted take-out, NOT delivery."
O: "Oh, you wanted pick-up."
R: "It's essentially the same thing. And it's definitely not delivery."
Am I missing something here? Is take-out not a phrase that people use very often? I mean, it's right there on their menu: "416-365-ROLL, call for take-out and delivery." I called for take-out, but, they thought I meant delivery. What?! Twice this happened. I know it's not entirely the same as pickup, since take-out is, technically, when you order at the restaurant and take it out, but pickup is exactly the same, but, without the waiting. So what the hell?! Am I missing something here?