Elimination of the pennies

On February 4th, the Canadian mint will stop manufacturing pennies. Stores will still accept them as tender, but a new rounding system will be implemented. Think back to your basic elementary school math when you learned how to round to the nearest 5.  This only has an impact on cash transactions, so people like me who use their Visa for everything don’t really need to worry about it.

Last week, I received an email at work regarding this matter. The subject line said “Elimination of the pennies”. But when I read it, at first I thought it said “Elimination of the penis”. That would have been far more tragic. Although I’m curious to know what an email like that might have entailed.

Two Asian guys buying bed sheets

Guy 1: Get the zebra one.

Guy 2: That’s kinky, man. I’m getting all hot and bothered just looking at it.

I hope they were joking.

Best question I’ve ever been asked at work

Customer: Where’s the bookstore?

Me: This is the bookstore…

I’m so good at understanding what people want

Customer: Do you have that paper with the squares on it?

Me: Graph paper?

Customer: Yeah.

My dream job

A few weeks ago when I came home, my mom tossed the Richmond Review newspaper to me and said “Here’s a job for you”.  I didn’t know what it was.  I thought maybe it would be some sort of joke thing, you never know with my mom.  But this is the article that she was referring to.

Of course I was intrigued, read the whole article and looked it up online and checked all the qualifications and instructions and deadline for submissions.  Tourism Richmond is hiring a food blogger to eat at various restaurants around Richmond and blog about it.  This is pretty much my dream job.  The only thing better would be if someone would pay me to blog about watching TV or riding public transit.

When I went to the online ad, it said they were looking for someone who was passionate about food and was constantly on Facebook and Twitter.  If those were the only requirements, I’d be a shoo-in for this.  But it looks like they might prefer candidates who already have their own established food blogs.  While my blog here isn’t solely dedicated to food, it seems like food is a topic that seems to come up pretty often.  I am passionate about food and it is one of my most popular blogging topics.

I update my Facebook and Twitter several times a day.  And everyday there is at least one status about food, usually more.  Either about food that I’ve bought, seen, eaten, or want to eat.  Or something witty about the various national food days.  For example, today happens to be National French Bread Day.  How do I know that?  I make it a point to keep up with all the national food holidays throughout the year.  My friend asked me if I have a food calendar.  I do not, but I would like one.  Do those exist?  If not, can I start making them?  I mean a calendar that lists the national food days, not a calendar made of food.  Although that sounds even more amazing.

I haven’t applied for this job yet.  They give you all of March to do so.  I don’t want to rush it.  From what I’ve seen, there’s A LOT of competition.  And a lot of them are total foodies who have well established food blogs and lots of followers and experience.  Experience with what?  I don’t know, writing?  Eating?  But I think I have a lot of experience writing and eating as well.  And I have a lot of experience living in Richmond, so I know areas and restaurants and history.

When thinking about applying, this is what I came up with for the reasons I should be the food blogger for Tourism Richmond.

1) I eat food.

2) I’m a blogger.

3) I live in Richmond.

You can’t argue with that logic, right?  Although some would say it’s a bit of a weak arguement, I suppose.  But it’s true.  Then again, a lot of people can probably relate to items 1-3.  I guess I shall have to come up with more than that.  What about the fact that I really want it and it’s my dream job?  No?  Not good enough?  Fine.  I’ll think of something better.

The perks of this job are insane.  I had to read it several times in order to believe that this was an actual position.  They pay $50,000 for a year of work.  They pay you to eat out at restaurants.  They provide you with housing.  They give you a gym membership to help you work off the calories from eating out everyday.  What more could you ask for?

Of course with an insane job, there will be insane competition.  If you check Facebook or Twitter or just Google 365 Days of Dining, you’ll see how much hype and interest there is in this.  Obviously.  But I won’t let that discourage me.  I’ll accept it as a challenge.  One thing they want is someone who’s “open-minded and willing to try new things”.  There’s a lot of food that I’ve tried, and a lot that I haven’t tried.  And I think that’s a good thing, because it would give a new perspective for some things.

I love blogging and I love food and it would be so great to be able to combine the two and get paid for it.  I wish there wasn’t only the one position.  But alas, that’s the way it is.  And whether or not I qualify for this, I will continue to blog about food and I will continue to constantly overuse Facebook and Twitter.  It would just be a whole lot better if I was getting paid to do so.

 

How not to hit on a girl at a bookstore

I work at a bookstore.  In case you didn’t already know.  After graduating from UBC last year, I longed to get away from university life.  And so naturally I continued working at the UBC Bookstore and am now on campus more often than I ever was as a student.  Because you know, that makes perfect sense.

Last Saturday, I was working a the information desk.  It was fairly quiet, as Saturdays in February tend to be.  I question why people even come in on a Saturday.  If you live on campus, maybe, but even then.  Don’t you have better ways to spend your weekend?  I think anyone who hangs around there on a Saturday has to be at least a little weird.  I work there, so at least I have an excuse.

I was sitting at the desk looking up a book on the computer.  I had the fan on beside me because despite being cold outside, it was very hot inside the store, especially in my area.  It felt like I was in a sauna.  Or hell.  Whichever’s hotter I guess.  I had it on a low setting, so it wouldn’t blow away the papers at the desk, or bother me if I was too close to it.

As I was working, this guy walked up to the desk and started to say something.  At first I wasn’t sure whether or not he was talking to me.  But he came over and said “You know what?”.  There was a slight pause as I looked up at him, and he continued, “The way the wind is blowing against your hair like that, it looks really sexy”.  Or something to that effect.  I’m not sure if I responded or just looked at him stupidly.  And then he asked, “How is that happening?  Is it from the computer?”.  And then he looked around confused as to where this wind was coming from.  I pointed out to him that there was a fan right beside me.  Yeah, if you couldn’t tell from his first comment, he wasn’t exactly the brightest person.

He also asked me what my name was, where I was from, and then shook my hand and said it was nice meeting me.  And shortly after, he wandered away from the desk.  I think he could tell that I wasn’t interested in any further conversation, unless it was to help him find a book.  Maybe if he was young and hot, my reaction would have been different.  But he wasn’t.  They never are.

There are a few people who will tell you that for some reason weird people tend to be drawn to me.  I don’t know why this is.  But at least I end up with stories that other people can laugh at.  And I guess a compliment is a compliment.  At least now I know that my hair is working for me.  I just wish I didn’t have to hear it in the form of a bad line from a creepy guy.

The fan that made my hair look sexy.