How I Spent My Birthday

I'd like to give you all a rundown on what happened on my birthday. This is a cross post from my hosiery blog.

Today was kind of interesting.

It started off with very little sleep from the night before.

I woke up late, and ended up being very late for an appointment. I resolve to do better.

Anyhow, I went to a research project at UBC. They tested how I would interpret behaviour of an animal shaped robot. I had to determine how it was feeling, and how happy it was, and how relaxed it was. I like participating in UBC projects, because we get paid, and also because I get to see what kinds of things are being researched before the results are released. In short, it satisfies my curiosity.

After that, I went to watch a training video for volunteer teaching at an ESL place. It's a place for people to come in and practice, with the help of a teacher. It's worth my time, because the commitment is low, and I can keep my teaching skills in active use. I also want to use the opportunity to try innovative techniques to see if I can help the students to learn faster.

After that, I needed to meet somebody else, who wanted me to try his product. Unfortunately, I had hours to kill, so I went to the business library, at Waterfront Station. It was cool to be able to browse all their material, and get some help on how to do market research. I learned a bit about conducting surveys, and finding information in educational institutions, and looking things up at Stats Canada. The future looks a lot brighter, now that I know a bit more about starting a small business.

I finally made it to the fellow's home, and looked at his product. I can't say what it is, nor do I even want to. I was a bit stunned by what he came up with. I decided to decline the opportunity to try it out. A sad thing is that I hate keeping secrets, :^D so I so badly want to tell you! :^D

Anyhow, I decided to go to Central City Shopping Centre, in Surrey. I'm trying to watch it closely, to see how it is going to be developed. It seems that they shutdown an entire hallway, for redevelopment, so that a big box store can move in. It's interesting. Buck, at Craving For a Game, was a bit concerned, because he was forced to move out of there, into a bigger store. That would mean that his business would need to bring in double the sales. Apparently, the move went well, because of great organization, and because of volunteers. Also, July turned out to be the best July that he ever had. It seems that the move was a positive for him. I'm very happy for him.

1 interesting thing that happened during this mall walk was me treating myself at Orange Julius and Yogen Fruz. I wanted to have a Strawberry Julius, 1 of those Julius smoothies, and a strawberry frozen yogurt. Not only did I want that stuff, I wanted to make sure that I enjoyed it to the end. Normally, I'd go for a large, but I decided go for a small of everything, to keep costs down, and to make me finish these treats, wanting more. I think that I succeeded. I really enjoyed it. That might not be interesting to most people, but it is important to me, that I get the most bang for my buck.