More on Minaz and other Tourist Stuff

So, Minaz just came back from Las Vegas (isn't that Spanish for 'lost wages'? and what's that 'v' doing there?) and he had a few stories. I must really live vicariously through him now that I am laid up for a bit.

Seems he and his buds spent an hour chatting up the bouncer at Justin Timberlake's new club (did you know he started as a Mouseketeer?), much as he did Duke at Hodge Podge in Seoul when he visited me. Well, he got in and managed to give a compliment to Marlon Wayans and got within 1.5 feet of Paris Hilton...and if it wasn't for that restraining order...just jokin'. He did consider sidling up to her and saying, "You have a great butt!" but decided against it...good call; although I have to think that she could have taken it the right way and given him her extra room key (who knows??). Man, she was born 10 years and 5 days after I was...man, I'm such a geezer.

After Vegas his crew drove to L.A. without taking into account the holiday traffic. 7 hours later they arrived fully ready to take a breather from each other. Hey Minaz, in Korea people are sometimes in the car for 12 hours for the normally 4-hour jaunt down to Pusan from Seoul...and they are family and don't get a break from each other for 3-4 days! You got it good.

You want to know where visitors to Canada increasingly come from? Can you guess? Korea: up 45.8% to 21,000 of the 356,000 non-American border-crossers. Next is Hong Kong, up 13.6%; Japan up 9.4% and Britain up 7.8%. Fewer people came from the Switzerland (down 10.5%), the Netherlands (down 6.6%) and Australia (down 1.7%). No idea why those ones are down, but I know that Koreans are all over the place here in Vancouver and many are immigrating here or just visiting for work or play (most of them go to the Rockies, it's like Mecca for Koreans).

I'll probably be posting more over the next few days...ordered a book from Chapters (this one) but it'll take 3-7 business days to get here. I saw it in the store but it's $34.95 + 14.5% in taxes compared to under $33 online (33% discount + taxes and shipping) so I figure I can wait a bit for it. Pretty odd system, if you ask me. I can get it now for over $40 or pay about $1 less per day that I wait for it by going online. In Korea the prices are the same usually (at least for English language books) and shipping is extra (here and in Korea there is free shipping for about $40 orders). Oh, all that $ was CAD, not USD. Getting a little lazy.