Author: ABG

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Food For Thought

Here is another edition of Tooney Tales and this time I am writing on the topic of food as it is just after lunch here and food is still on my mind.

Depending on the person you ask, they will tell you that either I am very picky when it comes to eating food (that would be from Brian) or I am not picky at all, as I am eating all the time (my immediate family). I think it depends more on what type of available as I am definitely not picky towards South Asian dishes and I have recently opened up my repertoire to include East Asian meals as well – although I still refuse to try sushi no matter what anyone says.

Those who know me, know very well that I could eat kofta, chicken tikka or biryani or any other type of South Asian meal any time of the day without hesitation and there is definitely something to be said of eating a home cooked meal as opposed to the convenience of eating our or ordering in. I’ll be first to admit I’m rather useless when it comes to preparing such foods but that’ll probably have to change soon enough if I am afforded an extended employment opportunity here.

On top of that, I don’t mind the occasional vegetable dish that is usually present at the dinner table but I tend to stay away from broccoli, eggplant and tomatoes. I did however ended up an eggplant dish last week without knowing it was in there, got totally trapped by my aunt for it. So the veggies stuff is fine but as my uncle says, no meal is complete “unless some dead animal is on the table” – my apologies to the animal-friendly people out there (except for PETA) for that admission.

Even though my unhealthy snack consumption at odd times of the day has been significantly reduced in the three weeks here, the lunches and dinners have been awesome here so far, with pretty much a new meal every day courtesy of my aunts. However, I’ve always been a sucker for anything my mom made and she’s still the best cook I know and even all this great food here can’t replace that touch of home. Hopefully my sister will learn a thing or two from her (haha, just kidding).

One last thing: I am still getting readjusted to getting milk in liters and in a bag but such is life here. The different varieties of chocolate available here (such as Mars, Aero and Smarties) that are not available in the States is an awesome upgrade and once again, Halal Popeyes just can’t be beaten.

P.S. (and completely random): I set a personal gchat record in terms of line for a one-day conversation at 1,212 lines – previous longest was at 500-something. I think you have to be a little crazy in the head to talk to me for that long in one day and hopefully therapy over time will fix your nightmares. So if you have a birthday on 12/12 – feel free to celebrate the achievement appropriately.

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Different Behaviour And Other Observations

In my second edition of Toonie Tales, noticing the behaviour (<– notice my spelling) of people here has been a refreshing change from those south of the border. No matter where I have gone – take it from the Passport Office to the Tim Hortons to the Government of Ontario offices to the people at Pizza Pizza – there has been nothing short of gracious service and friendly people everywhere. It’s a complete culture shock even though I have visited here nearly every year since I moved away but moving back has been great.

First experience was immediately felt at the border. I presented the guy there with my proper forms of ID for crossing into Canada and I figured since I had tons of stuff with me, I would have my work contract since he would most likely ask. Instead, the guy asked me about my school and where I graduated from, which state I was currently residing in and whether I planned to still own the car the next time I would visit. THAT was it. My contract lying on the seat next to me went by the way side, no luggage check for someone admitting to move into the country and in under a minute, I was on my way. It’s safe to say, people like me are usually the ones “randomly” selected to be inspected at any TSA line.

I thought maybe I had gotten lucky but I was in no mood to push my luck so I carried on. The rest of the travel was rather short and I only unpacked and called it a night. The next day was my first at work and I had spared myself some extra time getting to downtown because of the train commute. I got there a little early and the thing I noticed, (noticed it when I came for the interview too), was that there is no uptight security like we have back in the States. Any work environment I have been a part of, barely lets you set foot into the building before being forced to talk to a security guard of some sort or brandish your work ID. Here, there is a guy sitting at his desk but he just said “Hi” as I walked in like I had been here before. Interestingly, all the doors on every floor including the entrances from the staircase are ID protected so you can get in the building, but can’t do much else.

The relaxed and refreshing environment of security was also present at the passport office too where a very pleasant officer was greeting people waiting in line going out the door and was suggesting alternative timings to come avoid the rush or different places if you were there just to pick up your passport instead of filing for one. The kind people over at Service of Government of Ontario were great too. I didn’t have an appointment (they accept people from 4-7pm with appointments only) but the lady waived me through as the queue was rather empty. Apparently I didn’t have all the necessary paperwork ready that day but when I did come back a couple of days later, a different lady guided me through all the paperwork, even chatted about why I hadn’t lived in Canada since 2000 and what I liked better.

I put all the government offices first because that’s where you are least likely to find a friendly environment in New Jersey or New York but this behaviour transcends those walls too. The local Tim Hortons next to my work has a packed line at 7 or 8 in the morning and yet they each find a way to laugh about something with each customer. How do people get the energy to do that, this early in the morning? The Pizza Pizza near where I am living apparently goes even beyond that. First, the lady upgraded our order from a large to extra-large because there was a sale/it was going to cheaper on our end and then once the order was complete, they opened up each box to show that we were satisfied with what it looked like. Apparently, they go back and cook more / make you a new pie if it is too burned. Good like finding that kind of service at Pizza Hut or Dominos without putting up a fight.

All that praising aside, they do have a complex with identifying every single person who is Canadian though. For example, there have been repeated updates on the radio of injured “Canadian” first baseman of the Minnesota Twins Justin Morneau. It is quite awkward to hear all Blue Jays, Raptors, Leafs and Argos updates and they include a tiny segment for the Twins vs. White Sox update because Morneau is not playing. Also on the radio, there is a rather bizarre obsession with Lady Gaga music here that has to be classified as some sort of disease.

My biggest adjustment so far would probably have to be not crossing the street on a red light. No one and I literally mean no one crosses the street when there is a red hand up. I am sure everyone has places to go but even on an empty road in the morning or the add break in traffic leave for home, everyone seems to patiently wait until the light turns green and the ‘walk’ symbol appears before they start walking. Succumbing to public pressure, I have also stopped and kindly twiddle my thumbs while waiting for the light to turn green – I guess I need to learn to be more patient.

On a funny note to end this, I did experience one incident of road rage while I have been here but it turns out the license plate of the guy was from the great state of New York. Go figure, right? Good Ol’ USA.

P.S. Popeyes still has the best chicken and biscuits of any fried chicken place.

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MS Excel: Custom Data Labels

In Microsoft Excel, if you ever needed to graph some data but then attach a data label with it that wasn’t necessarily the data value of that point, there is a way to do that. This also a good way to attach notes to the graphs and can be easily customized.

Let us assume this is your data:

You want to plot the first half of that data like normal:

Next you can right click on each of three bars and select Format Data Series. Now select the Data Labels tab and select Values and press OK.

You should now see the graph like this:

Now since you want to associate the second half of the data values with this bar graph, you select each data value individually – you can do this by click the value once, to select all the values associated with that color:

Then click again to select that point individually:

Now press the “=” key and select the cell the new data value that you would like to show. Repeat this last process for each data point and you will be set to go:

I am pretty sure you can write up a VB script for it and I probably will in due time if necessary, but hopefully this helps for now.

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LeBron: Was It The Right Decision?

As tough as it is, I am not going to completely blame LeBron James for the course of actions that he took during these past few weeks of Free Agency. There was so much hype built up about “The Decision” that it would have been foolish for anyone advising LeBron not to take advantage of the opportunity for further advance his brand.  Politicians, players, fans and teams were bending over backwards to try to convince him to come play for their city, all in hopes that he would deliver a championship title. If everyone is able to see just how desperate you are, you will get taken advantage of and one would be foolish not to take advantage of you.

Take the New York Knicks or the New Jersey Nets for example, who saw their mayors making pleas, had politicians in fan-supported videos and people taking out billboard ads – all in hopes of landing what some may call the greatest free agent in American sports history. You would have to think most of the off-the-court attractions were of little significance in helping LeBron determine as to where he wanted to play. A person set to sign a $100 million contract probably will not worry about what is in his backyard as he probably will still have his primary home in Ohio, will travel across the country and do whatever he wants.

This is a 25 year old boy who has already played seven years in the NBA without having a single person in his life step up and say something to his face. He had a hand-picked coach who was basically afraid of him. None of his teammates were remotely good enough to challenge him on or off the court and this allowed a child to develop a very egotistical personality. He never had a mentor to help him develop professionally and even though Shaq did join him for a couple of seasons, he was well past his prime and seemingly did not make much of a difference on him through leadership alone.

He has stayed loyal to his friends from his high school days, something which could be commended as many forget their roots as they hit Big Time. However, you can also say that has also become his downfall. By surrounding himself with a bunch of Yes-Men, he has yet to really encounter a real challenge in his professional life.

Even this entire free agency period seemed like just a soap opera with his mind already determined on where he wanted to go, or at least where he didn’t want to stay – Cleveland. It is a tough break for a city that hasn’t seen a major championship since the mid 60’s but you cannot blame an athlete who was there for seven years and took you to the championship round once. Miami, without a doubt, provides a better opportunity even if they three superstars are surrounded by minimum salary guys. Players will start to flock their way now they know they have a chance to play along side those three, plus a team under the helm of Pat Riley can do wonders even if he is no longer the coach.

It may have been a cop out for him to go to Miami but when you look back on history, none of that will matter if he wins several championships. The last thing LeBron wanted was to go down as the greatest player who never won a championship and this move was more about taking the pressure off of him than anything. He doesn’t have to score 40+ every night now but he can just go back to being the playmaker and with two other premier players with him, you can easily see LeBron averaging a triple-double this following season.

All that said, LeBron is going to someone else’s city, on a team with other talented superstars and on a team where he won’t necessarily take all the shots. I don’t see sharing the ball being as big of a problem as others have stated but sharing the spotlight for someone trying to further their brand can be a major issue. The big 3 all playing together a few games, every couple of years for their nation is one thing, but when you play together for 82 games plus playoffs in an era where everyone tries to further solidify their own legacy, that is completely another.

As for the other teams in the East, it does suck to be a Knicks fan right as they suffered through miserable seasons, cleared out massive cap room – just so say they can say they signed Amare? The Nets also didn’t land anyone big but the Bulls did well by bringing in Boozer with an already solid PG in Rose and a great role player in Noah. I want to see how the Raptors rebuild by losing Bosh, as they suffered last year in the games he was out. It still is relatively easy to make the playoffs in the East but advancing far has become much more difficult. You can lock up the top four seeds with Heat, Bulls, Magic and Celtics in any which order but the bottom four can be a tossup with so many teams being just mediocre.

Personally as a fan, I want to see this team succeed. Maybe this is a new model that teams are trying to follow in order to build successful teams. The Celtics tried this a few years back by bring in Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to play alongside Paul Pierce and surrounded them with low paid guys. People questioned that would “this Rondo guy” develop enough to play with these three big guns and help them win a championship. Well that question was answered and maybe out of this roster mess in Miami, another great talent will emerge.

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First Update From Canada

It has been quite the first few days for me since moving back to Canada on the Independence Day of the country I was previously living in. I will try to give an update every week or so in a segment I am going to call “Toonie Tales.” Enjoy reading these, send me back some comments and as always, let me know if you’ll be in the area.

The drive up was relatively smooth, without much traffic and I only took a couple of stops – and thanks to the people of Cortland, NY who provided the free coffee and snacks at the one rest area I did take a break. The radio channels going in and out was a little bothersome though, at one moment you would be listening to some sports update and a fraction of a second later due to channel interference, it would switch to some religious feed with cry for “May the Lord have mercy on all of us.”

First day of work, I went through the motions of a new employee getting a tour, getting my ID and filling out the proper HR paperwork and was pretty uneventful – until it came time to go home of course. Due to the extreme heat in the area, there was a fire that took out a major transformer in the heart of downtown Toronto leaving much of the city without power at peak rush hour time (at 4:45 pm). I was fortunate enough to only have to take 8 flights of stairs down but I know of others who took well over 20 but I guess it is easier taking them down than trying to climb.

The environment outside was nothing like I have ever seen in the “civilized” West with all the traffic signals and crossing lights out of commission, it was initially an every man for themselves situation. Cars were creeping forward from all four directions until one person stopped and the entire row of cars would just follow suit. Hoards of people had taken to the street by this time and were all moving towards Union Station. Although there were some civilians who had taken to the crosswalks and were guiding human traffic and stopping and directing cars as people crossed, most were just anxious to get out of the glaring heat.

With a first day like that, the rest of the week seems relatively unexciting. First week of employment is always a little slow as work starts to streamline in towards you but I did have a couple of meetings yesterday and the workload will definitely pick up big time as more of my software and application requests are approved shortly.

A couple of things to note however: I had really forgotten how much everyone says “eh” in everyday conversation. You tend to lose that sense of reality when you only hear in terms of mocking back in New Jersey. Also the ease at which people travel not only through public transportation and the way they enter and leave work buildings, is a huge contrast from America. You couldn’t enter or leave the main doors without providing professional ID back in the States but here you just say hello to the person at the security desk and you just swipe in on your floor. On public transportations, you have your monthly pass with you but they don’t check every day, heck they haven’t checked for yet and it has been four days already. It really is an “honor system” but the penalty is so severe if you are caught on board without a ticket, that I don’t believe any everyday rider would risk it. Finally, the roads here are so much wider and a lot more fun to drive on. Once you are no longer in the cramped spaces of the tri-state area, you really notice the difference traveling through 3- and 4-lane local roads on a regular basis.

It is definitely a harsh transition from a smartphone to a regular one but in the meantime, I am enjoying keeping in touch with colleagues from south of the border through Google Voice and even exchange some emails in between. Please, feel free to send a text my way to my new number to keep me occupied during the slow days. Also if you’re somebody important, I might even give you my work contact information in case you need to reach me.