Dine-Out Vancouver: Book your reservations now!

Dine-Out Vancouver is here again, and restaurants are getting booked fast! Make sure to book your reservations soon.

What is Dine-Out Vancouver
Dine-Out Vancouver is when Vancouver’s fine dining restaurants showcase and sample their best dishes for such a low affordable price. Restaurants all over the lower mainland serve a set of 3 course meals, including your choice of appetizers, main course, and yes… dessert.

Cost
Cost for a set of 3 course meal varies from $25 – $35 per person. Some restaurants even take special requests for an additional $5 to $10 per person.

Food
What are you in the mood for? Seafood? Steak? Pasta? Dare to try something different? Doesn’t matter what you’re in the mood for, try it all! Try something new! Indulge yourself!

Based on last year’s experience, here are my personal faves and recommendations:

• Nu: Last year, they served the best salad – so far my favorite! Pear filled with blue cheese, on top of a bed greens, and a house special dressing that’s to die for!
• A Kettle of Fish
• Lumiere

Book Your Reservations
Visit the official website at TourismVancouver.com. Select your restaurant of choice, then view their menu. You can then either call the restaurant for reservations, book online, or why not do both – to be on the safe side. But wait….

Wanna know a secret??
Book online and earn free dinners! Once you’ve viewed the menu and are ready to make a reservation, there’s a little icon on the top of the page “Reserve Online”.  Some Dine-Out Vancouver restaurants take online reservations via Open Table. Everytime you book a restaurant through OpenTable, you earn a minimum 100 dining points. So if you eat out a lot, might as well take advantage of it!

Here’s the point system:

• Redeem 2,000 pts and get a $26 OpenTable dining cheque
• Redeem 5,000 pts and get a $65 OpenTable dining cheque
• Redeem 10,000 pts and get a $130 OpenTable dining cheque

This is one of Vancouver’s busiest time of the year – where restaurants are usually fully-booked. So be sure to book your reservations quick! Enjoy and savour Vancouver’s restaurants at its best!

Don’t miss out!

Canon High-Definition MiniDV Camcorder (HV20),

So I’ve been shopping for a video cam lately for class. An instructor recommended the Canon HD MiniDV (HV20) – firewire capability, shoots HD, and it has external mic connection. Of course, the stubborn me would think that may not be smart spending. So I went ahead to research on video cam.

Here are some things I considered:

1. Hard Disk vs. DV tapes/ DVD: It seems that the latest cameras now have this hard disk feature – some of up to 60Gb!
2. High-Def vs. regular/normal: Well, I thought it would be nice to have high-def since most TV and computer monitors are HD.
3. Name Brand: Okay, so there’s JVC, Canon, Sony. They’re all equally strong brands, but which one’s the best?
4. Price: Of course, I have to go with something reasonably priced and smart!
5. OS compatibility: Is it compatible with both the MAC and PC environment?
6. Special Features: Each camera has different features. It’s kind of like their competitive advantage. For example, some may have remote controls, touch screen capability, large viewing screen, image stabilizers, etc. Know each features and what YOU want.

So I was shopping online for a video cam. The best site I’ve been to were:

1. Future Shop: I was able to compare features between 5 cameras (you can compare 5+ of course)
2. Forums: One being HV20.com. It’s always good to hear what others have to say about a particular video cam.

Then I visited 3 stores (2 Future Shops and 1 Best Buy). Sorry Best Buy, I wasn’t impressed with their sales rep’s lack of knowledge. At Future Shop, however, I was lucky enough to meet reps that knew what they were talking about. One of them even has a background in the film industry, and another, in photography.

Anyways, here are some of the top reasons the sales reps said about the Canon HV20:

1. It is the most preferred video cam by rookie videographers
2. It is used and preferred for documentary filming
3. MiniDV is better that hard disk (although hard disk seems to be the new “wow” thing in video cams). See, when you break a hard disk cam, your data is lost. With a miniDV, you’ll always have a back up
4. I can use the battery from the Canon XTI Rebel (digi cam). I still have to test this one out. Lucky for me, a close friend of mine owns the camera!

Now here are the reasons why I bought the Canon HV20:

1. I bought it on sale at Future Shop for $769.99. Original price was around $1049. That’s almost $300 on savings. So now I have room for a case, and miniDV tapes. Somehow, the website is still posting a $799 sale price.
2. It has external mic input/connection
3. Firewire capability
4. It’s hi-def
5. Compatible with both the PC and MAC environment

For more info, check it out the Canon HV20 website.

What do you think?

I have 14 days before I can do a full exchange/return. Would you know of any flaws that this camera has? Got any recommendations? Feel free to post and share your thoughts!

Invest In Friendship

Most people consider expensive tangible items as their prime investment such as homes, car collection, or even someone’s small business in Vancouver. However, most people seem to oversee WHO they should invest in as opposed to WHAT.

Imagine buying a car $5,000 off of the MSRP, or purchasing a brand new top of the line computer system with a 40% discount (even though it’s not on sale).

Some people would think this is not possible. This is why it is important to invest in others. Investing in people is just as important as investing in a tangible item.

When you invest on someone, it does not come with a monetary value. In fact, it is so much better that it cannot be measured.  Instead, you create a positive relationship with them, leading to a friendship. Creating a relationship means maintaining and keeping them in your network. In the long term, your network will then increase in size, and you will have a good number of friends you can turn to.

Imagine having a car dealership owner in your network? Maybe you can purchase your dream car after all.

Quick Tips:

1. Keep them as your friend. But they don’t necessarily have to be your best friend
2. Create a positive relationship, and maintain it
3. Use them to your advantage
4. Filter out those who you can’t benefit from

What if you have nothing in common?
Well, no 2 people are exactly alike. Everyone have their own flaws. Always look at the positive side of that person and use it to your advantage. Don’t focus on the negative side. Think of it this way, what makes you and best friend to be “best friends”?

Investing in others has its own rewards.