Nu Restaurant and Lounge served as the last stop on my Dine Out Vancouver 2008 adventure. Located underneath the Granville Street Bridge in the same building as Stonegrill, Nu Restaurant and Lounge definitely had a casual atmosphere about it. The seats were very “loungey”, so to speak, and the portions were nothing like what I’d expect from a higher end restaurant. If you just walk one block down the street, you’ll arrive at C Restaurant, which is much higher class in its presentation.

The portion size was the biggest thing that hit me about Nu. The Caesar salad was quite big, the soup came in a large bowl, and even the entrees were quite a bit bigger than FigMint or even an incredibly casual place like Sip Resto-Lounge. That’s not to say that the quality was poor either, because while it wasn’t the best I’ve had, it’s far from being the worst either.

I partook in their standard $25 Dine Out Vancouver menu, accompanied by the $17 wine pairing. Susanne opted for their special $35 four-course menu, which adheres to the 100 mile standard. This means that all ingredients involved in her dishes were brought in from no further than 100 miles away. This ensures optimal freshness and is more “green”, because there is less shipping involved. Susanne and I were accompanied by our friend Angela.

Classic Caesar Salad: The dressing tasted different than most other Caesar salads that I have had in the past. There weren’t any anchovies, but it almost had that “fishy” taste to it. Toppings included asiago, popcorn pork belly, and buttered croutons.

Pemberton Potato Poutine: This was the first starter for Susanne’s menu and I was quite pleased with the result. The flourless gravy was quite thin, but the sea salt (I think) on the fries provided more than enough flavour. The Qualicum cheese curds were, thankfully, not overbearing either. This is a strangely casual dish for Dine Out Vancouver.

Glenn Valley Farms Butternut Squash Soup: The Tourism Vancouver website mentions shredded duck, but the version served here — which was both Angela’s appetizer and Susanne’s second course — had candied black heart spring salmon bellies instead. The flavour was very subtle, so if you want a more robust soup, this most definitely is not it.

Pan Seared “Larry Albright” Trout: My main course had a very crispy skin and salmon-like meat. The vegetable ratatouille wasn’t as fancy as in the movie, but I did enjoy the Pemberton potato croquette. The size of the fish was bigger than I was expecting.

Maple Hills Chicken: Susanne’s main dish almost seemed like stuffed chicken. Quite tender and accompanied by North Arm Farms root vegetable pave and forest mushroom cream sauce. Again, large portions and a delectable taste.

Braised Lamb Cheeks: Angela’s lamb was not what I was expecting, getting presented more like a stew. I guess that’s what happens when you order your lamb braised. The wild and cultivated mushroom couscous was quite nice.

Matt’s Famous Sticky Toffee and Date Pudding: My favorite kind of dessert is exactly this kind of creation. I’ve said before that I love bread pudding and this sticky toffee pudding is much the same. Despite its dark appearance, the pudding wasn’t too rich. The warm butterscotch really made this dessert a hit. Oh, and that’s whipped cream you see and not vanilla iced cream.

Caribou Apiaries Honey Creme Brulee: The top layer was thin and crispy, while the creamy base was silky smooth. A nice light dessert to top off a wonderful evening.

Although some other online reviews say that Nu Restaurant and Lounge is over-hyped, I was quite pleased with my experience. The seating was definitely on the stranger end of things though, because they felt like they belonged in someone’s lounge or den rather than in a dining room. You could almost fit two of me in one chair.

Total bill for the three of us, including my wine pairing, two cocktails, taxes and tip, came to a very reasonable $145.

I said last week in my contest update that if any lovely folks in the blogosphere chose to mention my free video game contest on their respective blogs that they would likely receive some link love in return on What’s Up Wednesdays. Only three people took advantage of this offer, to my knowledge, so the offer will stay on the table for one more week.

The first guy to mention my contest on his blog was Jorge, who also happens to be the top commentator thus far for January. (Here’s his post about the contest.) His blog might not be in English, but he has a handy translation button in the sidebar that’ll switch that up for you. Not that you need to read anything in his recent post comparing celebrities with Dragon Ball Z characters. I don’t know. I’m not digging Leo DiCaprio as Trunks.

The root of all evil himself, John Chow, mentioned the video game contest as part of his miscellaneous ramblings. Like me, he’s going around enjoying the Dine Out Vancouver festivities, recently enjoying a romantic dinner at Elixir (presumably with Sarah). Looks deliciously trendy!

When he’s not too busy designing awesome Wordpress themes, Nate Whitehill dishes out some mentions in the ’sphere, including a note about the Pirates of the Burning Sea contest. He hasn’t been updating his blog as often as he should be, but one of his most recent posts is also one of the most revealing: Why I Started Blogging…From Motivation to Game Plan.

CES buddy Stephen Fung is learning how to take pictures all over again, and one of his biggest goals to avoid using the flash for better-looking pictures, particularly indoors and under less than ideal lighting conditions. After tweaking the ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and exposure compensation on his point-and-shoot Canon, he’s quite happy with the results.

Although I’ve never met him in person, Carl Nelson sounds like quite the interesting fellow. He’s got to be looking for attention from the ladies, because he has devised a weightlifting plan that focuses on hypertrophy specific training. He wants to PUMP you up! OK, that reference to SNL just doesn’t work on the Internet.

 
Head into just about any bookstore and you’ll inevitably find an unfathomable number of books in the self-help section that talk about finding the key to happiness. To some people, the greatest source of happiness may be derived from vocational or monetary success. Truth be told, we all get a pretty big kick out of getting a promotion at work or having a blog post hit Digg’s front page. When you manage to achieve a certain success, you feel pretty good about yourself. At the same time, some people may also say that you have to choose between success and happiness. So, what makes you happy?

For me, the single greatest source of happiness can be broken down into just one word: novelty. Think about that for a moment.

Different personalities obviously seek out different levels of novelty, but its the freshness, the new-ness of an experience that brings about our happiest moments. It is perhaps this mindset that brought me to my current career as a freelance writer. I didn’t like the idea of being pigeon-holed into a single position, taking on the same monotonous task each and every day. If I were to write for a single publication, there’s a good chance that they would get me to cover a single topic area and there would be very little opportunity to spread my wings into other areas.

As a freelance writer, I’m able to write about a variety of subject areas, ranging from blog monetization to video games. The scope of my work is only limited by the clients and projects that I take on. Thankfully, I have a good level of control over this too, because if I don’t want to write about insurance, I can turn down a project offer. If I suddenly take up an interest in fishing, I can seek out freelance writing gigs that talk about lures and bait.

Consider how far-reaching this concept of novelty being the key to happiness can go. I can think of at least five areas where novelty can bring a huge sense of joy and happiness.

 1. Food and Fine Dining: They say that the best way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, and I’m inclined to agree. I can’t possibly imagine eating the same thing each and every day, so when an event like Dine Out Vancouver presents itself, I jump all over it. Munching on a $60 burger was pretty novel too.

 2. New Friends: This doesn’t mean that hanging out with some old high school chums isn’t fun, but one of the most exciting times in your life is when you are meeting new people and new friends. Do you remember the excitement and jitters you got when you first met your significant other? How about the arrival of your first child? That’s pretty new.

 3. Video Games: I’ve been playing video games for as long as I can remember, so it’s always refreshing when I get to try something a little new. After the initial novelty of the Wii, the glossy white system started to collect dust. That is, until I picked up Guitar Hero III and the Wii Zapper. New games are so much fun, simply because they’re new.

 4. Gadgets and Toys: Even though I get to play with new gadgets on a fairly regular basis, every time that I receive a new product to review, I smile a little. This is especially true if the product isn’t as mundane as a USB flash drive, and is rather something that is particularly innovative and unlike anything I’ve seen before. Playing with the Jawbone Bluetooth headset was pretty fun.

 5. Travel and Vacations: Perhaps the best way you can spend your money is on travel. There are so many cultures and countries that I’d love to experience, along with all the fun activities and unique food that I’d get to enjoy. If it weren’t for vacations, I wouldn’t have been able to eat black eggs or buy a luchadore mask.

If you’re feeling a little down in the dumps, treat yourself to something new and exciting. By keeping it fresh, you have a much better chance of improving your mood and your outlook on life. Don’t worry. Be happy!

Yes, the guys at College Humor do more than Street Fighter spoofs. Although comments that add nothing of value to the discussion don’t happen all too often here at Beyond the Rhetoric, they are far too common on bigger blogs and sites like John Chow dot Com, Joystiq, and so on. People rush to the comment form to say that they are the first to comment. For what reason, I have no idea.

College Humor addresses this issue in the clip above, showing how some of these inane comments would sound if they were shouted out during a business meeting. Yeah, not so good. Before you make a comment on anyone’s blog, think about how it sound if you were to say the same thing in real life. I’m sure you’re as tired as I am of people leaving stupid comments.

And here’s a second vid…

Earlier this month, I commented on the fine line between ambition and greed, noting that this distinction is not necessarily restricted to the world of financial gain. Sports in one such arena (no pun intended) where the lines can get quite blurred, but with the Australian Open wrapping up this past weekend, we saw at least two players who were heavily driven by ambition and not by greed. As a result, both men were able to accomplish more than they ever thought possible.

One of the slogans for Adidas is “Impossible is Nothing”, so it’s only fitting that both of these competitors were attired in Adidas gear as they faced off in the men’s singles final. If you look at the path taken by Novak Djokovic (pictured) of Serbia and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, you’ll see that no one would have possibly expected them to be participating in the final against one another. The odds were heavily stacked against them and yet they prevailed. Comparing themselves to others only motivated them further. They believed in themselves.

Novak Djokovic managed to eliminate the seemingly invincible Roger Federer in straight sets. Although Djokovic was the third seed in the tournament, most analysts predicted that Federer would stomp all over the 20-year-old, just as he had done with everyone before him. In fact, prior to Federer’s loss to Djokovic in the 2008 Australian Open semi-finals, Roger Federer had appeared in 13 straight Grand Slam Finals. That’s a streak that spans over three years, a feat unheard of in tennis. Federer looked unbeatable, but Djokovic saw right past this impossibility. Even if his extended ball-bouncing sessions get a little annoying.

Perhaps the bigger story was that of unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Over the course of the tournament, he managed to dispatch four players in the top 15, including the 2nd seeded Rafael Nadal in straight sets (semi-finals). Again, everyone fully expected Nadal to stomp all over Tsonga, but the Frenchman would have nothing of it. Beating Nadal may have seemed impossible, but so did beating three of the other players in the top 15. The player he couldn’t beat was Djokovic, despite pushing the latter to his limit. Tsonga even had the crowd behind him during the final.

I know that I can come off sounding pretty pessimistic sometimes, but that’s because I tend to ground myself in reality as much as possible. That said, in order to achieve astronomical success, you have to set the bar high and refuse to give in to the odds, refuse to acknowledge the near-impossible path before you. Look at what Djokovic and Tsonga managed to achieve. They have a lot to be proud of.

Life can seem pretty tough and that’s partially why goals are the bane of my existence, but without these goals and aspirations, all of us would be stuck in stagnation and mediocrity. I don’t know about you, but I don’t strive to be average; I strive to be the absolute best in everything that I do and it is exactly because of this competitive spirit that people like Bill Gates, Tiger Woods, and Shigeru Miyamoto have achieved the level of success that they all enjoy.

Nothing is impossible. You just need the drive, determination… and a little luck on your side.

As you may already know, I’m currently hosting a contest wherein I’m giving away a copy of Pirates of the Burning Sea for the PC. It’s a hot new MMORPG from Sony Online Entertainment, playing in a similar kind of way to World of Warcraft, except it has a definite swashbuckling theme, including the ability to participate in a mercantile economy and get involved in intricate ship battles. To enter the video game contest, all you have to do is subscribe by email to Beyond the Rhetoric.

The contest is slowly bringing in a few more subscribers, each of whom receive a single email from Beyond the Rhetoric each day that contains the blog post(s) from that day. Some people say that by providing such a service, I may be limiting the amount of traffic that the blog would normally receive, because people are more inclined to just read whatever is in their mailbox rather than coming over to the site itself. This may partially be true, but folks will still need to come to Beyond the Rhetoric if they want to watch any of the videos or comment on any of the posts. And we all know about the shout-outs that I give to top commentators each month.

One question that has been on my mind lately is when I should set the email to go out each day. With the email subscription service, powered by Feedburner, I can choose when the email is compiled and sent out. As it stands, I have it sent out right around midnight PST, because this ensures that any post(s) that I wrote that day would be included. I’m not really sure if this is necessarily the best strategy, because other blogs send out their email posts early in the morning or perhaps some time in the afternoon.

What’s your take on this subject? When is the ideal time to send out the email message as part of the feed subscription service?