Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

Went out for a lovely dinner tonight with The Yaletown Vancouver Meetup Group at Alpha Global Sushi and Bar , where I had the 'Natto Bomb'. It's got that infamous natto goop and some other stuff which didn't seem to matter much because the whole concoction was strangely tasteless (and very slimy thanks to a raw quail's egg). The mix is all chopped up, and I was recommended by staff to put soy sauce -- a lot of soy sauce -- then use the provided seaweed sheets to wrap it. The seaweed turned out to be tricky to use because it was too tough to bite through, and in any case promptly sticks to the roof of my mouth. It was worth the experience for $8.50, I suppose, but not much else, IMO. And without the soy sauce, I wasn't sure if it would have had any taste at all.

After a long hiatus, I finally went back to playing Heroes of Might and Magic V . I used to play it on the highest difficulty (Heroic), and could make it through most of the missions at that level. But there were a couple of maps that I just couldn't do at Heroic, and after several wasted days, I decided to give it up and took a break. I wrestled with it for a while. Succeeding at Heroic difficulty felt great: Even the developers warn that they didn't test the game at that level and there was no guarantee the missions were winnable. But the time! All that wasted time! When I came back to the game, I decided to play at Normal difficulty, and, sure enough, the game was very easy. I suppose having played on Heroic helped me find the strategies and tactical combat tips to make it easy. But now there was a new challenge -- tedious missions. Sylvan Campaign 5 Mission 5 was one such tedious mission. It's a huge map and endless fighting. I could certainly see that it was winnab...