Earth Hour 09

Earth Hour is a global event organized by the Worldwide Fund for Nature and is held on the last Saturday of March annually, asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change. (from wiki)

Being a student in the faculty of geography, I’m pretty informed about the effects of global warming; so I decided to partake in this global event. The Earth Hour was held at 8:30 PM this year, I started mine an hour earlier. So I decided to try taking a shower with no lights…. the result? Utter GGness: I used conditioner instead of shampoo HAHA.

Anyways, being the curious person as I am, I decided to drive around Richmond (@8:30PM) and see if people are participating in this event. I know… driving around for an hour breaks the purpose of this event, but I was really curious if other people are doing this. So I drove around …. and was surprised with the result: Lights were not turned off! The city was bright as usual.  Ok fine, some houses had their lights out, but it could be that nobody was home. I understand that some businesses (eg. restaurants) are exempted from this, because they need the lights to earn some money/revenue (tell customers that they are open), but public places (such as the city hall, public schools, the library, and Minoru track field) should have their lights out. I know that this was not an obligation, but I feel like that people do not care.  I believe that they should at least dim the lights down or something. I saw this event in the newspaper, so I assumed that the municipal government would partake in this cause, but I guess not. I’m really disappointed with the results. Most (if not all)of public places were already closed too (eg. the library closes at 5 on the weekends), but lights were still turned on; same goes with the malls (RC and aberdeen)… its already past mall hours, but lights were not shut off.

*sigh* I’m pretty disappointed with Richmond …. Maybe I should write a letter to the newspaper haha …. ok, enough ranting from me. This entry is making me sound like an activist haha. k bye.

Jury Duty Exempted!

*This post was supposed to be posted last week but I’ve been rather lazy to write an entry… hehe

I decided to go to the Court of Appeal/BC Supreme court with my friend to apply for an exemption from jury duty. So I went and handed some paper work/proofs showing that I am a full-time student. The whole process took less than a minute. The police officer that helped me told me to go drink some beer afterwards. HAHA. random?

Anyways, since I paid for an hour worth of parking, me and my friend decided to walk around downtown. Downtown (esp. Robson) looked pretty sexy awesome; lots of buildings, monuments, and shops. Its sooooo different from Richmond. The shops and boutiques there looks so fancy and high class; so different from the regular stores. 

I felt such a tourist in downtown. I had a map on one hand, and a camera on the other. *sigh* I should really go out more often. Anyways, heres some pictures…

*some street sign for shopping or whatnot in Robson street. Pretty pretty.

*Vancouver Art Gallery … with creepy mannequins on display

*Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics countdown meter @ Vancouver the Art Gallery

*Some interview/filming happening in front of the countdown meter… Jath the paparazzi! haha

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hmmm … I wonder what its like to live in downtown. I know its expensive and all, but I bet its really awesome. Parking would be a pain in the butt though, I hate parallel parking. I was really lucky to find a parking spot that didnt require me to park between two cars. *phew*

Jury Duty

*I blurred the Staff Sergeant’s name for privacy issues

The weirdest thing happened yesterday. I received a mail from the Sheriff Services/Supreme Court of BC and was summoned to appear in court. At first, I thought I am being sued for something, but apparently I’m being summoned to appear as a juror for jury duties. Major sigh of relief haha. I should really read the whole letter before making any assumptions. Anyways, it feels like such a big chance to experience something unique and different from my dull life. I mean, how often do people get this letter from the government and get the chance to do this act of service? I felt like I won the lottery but without its perks: the glory and money.  Sadly though, the date I was asked to show up in court  is during my exam period, so I am going to apply for an exemption. Let’s hope I will be excused. 

It’ll be really bad if I was asked to do jury duty. I don’t know anything about law or court stuff, so I’ll probably just screw somebody over. I should have probably taken Law back in high school; just to learn some basic understanding and knowledge about Canadian law system. Oh well, too late now!

I’m going to be heading down to Vancouver at Smithe Road tomorrow to apply for exemptions. Apparently, you need to apply in writing to be exempted.  Soooo….  tomorrow is going to be an adventure; I’ve never really driven in downtown. I guess theres always a first for something.

–Edit–

after talking to some people, apparently it is very common to be asked to do jury duty. *sigh* I don’t feel very special anymore! haha jk.