Chris Chen dot See Eh!

Hello RBC. Goodbye TD

Chris — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 02:56:44 +0000

I’ve officially accepted a new job with RBC Dominion Securities as a Business Application Specialist. I will train and support Investment Advisors and their staff on RBC software. While I learned a lot about banking during my time at TD, this move is certainly welcome and timely for many reasons.

I’m definitely excited about the job and my future at RBC. I was itching to work closer with technology again, and this new position is definitely a step in the right direction as I leave behind the world of sales. I’d be lying if I said I was going to miss sales. Really lying.

During my almost 4 years at TD, Thomas has grown fond of “Daddy’s bank” and can recognize a TD branch from 50 feet. So I’m proud to say that I’ve already taught him all about the “Blue bank”, or as he calls it “Woyal Bank”. And yet again verifying his natural gift of intelligence, he recognizes the RBC logo and likes it because it has a lion! And that makes perfect sense – lions are cool! He’ll sometime ask me why I’m working at a different bank, to which I reply, “because they pay me more money to buy food and toys for him and Sarah.”

I’m itching to get started in a few weeks and also returning to the downtown core. My office will be out of the Park Place building, but I’ll all be travelling around town to various offices.

Public transit here I come again. I think I might do the West Coast Express most days.

GM Super Bowl Ad

Chris — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 20:00:04 +0000

The next best thing to the big game itself are the commercials in between. Here’s one with a Transformer to boot!

Little Vader Using the Force

Chris — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 23:03:41 +0000

Normally, I wouldn’t get close to anything that has anything to do with Volkswagen. Ever since since we unloaded Alex’s Jetta, it’s been a relief! I’m not a fan of the cars, but VW sure knows how to make a Super Bowl commercial:

Stay tuned for other 2011 Super Bowl commercials in the coming days.

Bubba at Play

Chris — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 08:00:57 +0000

Now that he’s at an age where he can really get around, Thomas is totally entertaining to watch while he plays. Not only does he motor around the tot lot or the gym, but he says and does some of the funniest things.

I never thought sitting at the playground doing nothing for an hour would be much fun – no Web access, no music, no stock quotes — nada! But watching my little man is better than Sunday afternoon TV.

I wonder how he’ll play with Sarah when she’s able to keep up with him. I’m sure it won’t be all good times and rainbows between the two of them, but watching it will be fun either way.

A Natural Big Brother

Chris — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 08:05:19 +0000

During the final months leading up to Sarah’s arrival, Alex and I were worried as to how Thomas would handle the new kid on the block and what we would do to ensure he didn’t feel like he was second fiddle. He’s always been curious and quite interactive, so we decided that asking him for help with Sarah would make him feel that he was getting the attention he otherwise had focused on him.

Well lemme tell you, it’s working like a damn charm.

He has naturally (or oddly?) embraced Sarah and is extremely gentle and expresses great concern, with his trademark “UH-OH!”, whenever she cries or makes a peep otherwise. He’s quick to drop whatever he’s into, run to her side, and find out what’s wrong. It’s really something. And although he’s a bit shy to sing, we’ve caught him on occasion serenading his little sister with his signature muted-under his breath vocal stylings. I haven’t caught that on video yet, but trust me, it’s RE-DONK!

In this video, Thomas gives his little sister a much needed bottle of ni-ni (milk), while sneaking in a few feels of her head (his signature move first witnessed with cousin Xavier)

Sarah is settling in nicely so far. We were all geared up for sleepless nights and marathon cluster feedings, but she’s quite different from Thomas in this respect. She eats quickly, sleeps for 3 hours thereafter like clockwork, and does this around the clock! Almost makes me think a third one would be fun. Almost.

Introducing: Sarah Alexandra Chen

Chris — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:03:30 +0000

I was right! For the past 40 weeks, Alex was walking around with our baby girl in her tummy, and I called it! It’s nice to be right since it doesn’t seem to happen as often as I think it should

Sarah was born April 3, 2010 (a full ten days late) at 12:50pm, tipping the scale at exactly 8lb, 6.9oz, 53cm long, after few hours of really hard labour and 10 minutes of amazing pushing! Ladies, I don’t know how you pop those kids out, but I take my hat off to each and every mother.

Our morning started off casually as we knew Saturday was induction day. We planned to wake up, have some breakfast, drop Thomas off at Grandma & Grandpa’s, then make our way to Lions Gate Hospital to get the show on the road. But after all the waiting for Sarah to kick the contractions into gear, Alex’s water broke around 3am Saturday morning, and our casual morning turned into a flat out race to the hospital. Our doctor advised us that after the short labour with Thomas, should Alex’s water break this time around, things would likely happen very fast. So we made it to the hospital in record time (about an hour), this included getting Thomas and ourselves ready to go, dropping Bubba off at my parent’s place, then ripping off to the hospital. I felt like my years of watching auto racing and episodes of Dukes of Hazzard, A-Team, and Knight Rider were all for something after all!

After getting setup in the delivery room, it wasn’t long until Sarah came into the world wide-eyed and curious, barely a whimper or a cry, and very hungry — a stark contrast from her big brother Thomas. She took to Mommy immediately and it seemed like she was really checking out the faces of her family present in the delivery room: Mom, Dad, and Aunty Allison. Shortly after, I was on the phone to relatives and text messaging Jeremy, Scarlett and Xavier who were in Philly on vacation.

We hung out in the delivery room for a few hours then made our way to the Maternity ward and our new room for the next 24 hours. The evening and night went quite well, compared to our experience with Thomas. I think this was partly because of our past experience and partly because Sarah is more developed than big brother Thomas who was three weeks early.

We’re now home and settling into life with a newborn again. It was a real whirlwind few days, but we’re trying to find our groove and look forward to introducing the little one to friends and family in the coming weeks.

And as always, future pictures of Sarah and the rest of the family are on our family album at http://www.chendynasty.com

Another Cool iPod Use

Chris — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:43:27 +0000

I don’t own an Ipod (I’m a Blackberry fan myself), but I’m amazed at the cool thing users are able to do with their smartphones. This girl uses three iPods to play Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” while dropping some great vocals on top! Mad skillz!

Let me know if you have any other cool uses for your iPod, or do you have an iPad already?

Thomas at Our Playground

Chris — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:45:52 +0000

Since starting my three month paternity leave, I’ve started to learn what it’s like to spend entire days with Thomas; and I’m still to learn what it’s like to do this for weeks on end, and looking forward to it! He’s a really fun age right now, and I feel like I have a new play-buddy, except he doesn’t drink and I have to change his poop a few times a day .

Bubba is already able to climb the bars and get up to the top level and shoots himself down the slide. It’s a bit nerve racking, but he’s a champ. It feels like only yesterday he was learning to roll in our Maui condo.

With our next one on the way, I really get it when people say “they grow up so fast.” Alex is ready to go at any moment. We’re in the redzone, but my guess is things start happening March 12th. And I think it’s a girl.

I’m looking forward to some serious quality time with T-Bone. We’ve got Imagination Station every Wednesday, story time at the library, and Little Dippers at the local pool when possible. I feel so grown up.

The American Economic Collapse in Brief

Chris — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 09:07:48 +0000

The economy is not much better today than it was in 2007 when the recession began. There’s been many major events from the collapse of Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, to the massive bailout efforts put forth by the US Government, to the seemingly stunning stock market recovery during 2009.

In the past week, we’ve seen some signs of the “recovering” economy faltering and possibly the begin of the long predicted pullback. The Globe and Mail published a great little summary of the events in the US, how the people were screwed by bankers time and time again, and what Obama plans to do to make those bankers pay.

I particularly like the part about financial industry lobbyists returning “home on their private aircraft, where they were served fried puppy for dinner by their personal chefs.”

USA, USA!

Thomas Visits Santa – Year 2

Chris — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:07:36 +0000

Great picture!

We woke up early (which is always the case anyways with Thomas) to visit Santa and beat the crowds. Last year’s visit was a little anti-climactic considering T-Bone was only six months old and didn’t really know or care about Christmas. This year, however, was a little more exciting. We already put up the tree and decorated the house last week, so the little guy knows something is up — did I mention he loves lights?

We made it to the mall before Santa and were only behind one Mom with her kids. Thomas was ready to bust through the rope and run to Santa, kinda like a dog with his eye on a steak 20 yards away. When it was finally our turn, Thomas took off like a juiced sprinter in the 100 metre dash. As he got within a couple metres of the fat man in the red suit, he froze and looked back for us.

Alex put him on Santa’s knee, and we were wondering how he’d react. My money was on a full scale tear fest. But as usual, I was wrong. He seemed really curious about everything around him: the reindeer, the lights, the Christmas buildings with cotton snow, and this dude that was holding him while we all waited for a smile or a cry. Alex managed to tickle him (Thomas not Santa) just enough to get a couple good shots. The end result as you can see below was pretty damn good.

My boy is a champ. What can I say? Merry Christmas!