Buddhafied

Magic egg

I few years back during a gift exchange of a Christmas party, I got this little gift called the "Magic Egg". On the instruction, it said if you water the egg for a few days, something will hatch out of it. I was meant to take it to work so I can monitor the hatching process during the day. However, I left it in a drawer and completely forgot about it. While I was packing on Sunday, I found the egg again, so I took it to work, poured some water over it yesterday and see what will happen to it.

This morning when I came to work, the egg cracked a little bit on the top! I can vaguely see there's some form of purple membrane that looks like something that has a heartbeat is coming out... so clearly, something is growing out of the egg but I have no idea what it is! What is scaring me right now is that the expiry date said it expired on 2006. So, whatever that is coming out might be a deformed and/or discoloured. Or even-worst, something else might be invested in it! If it's just a purple chicken stuffed toy or something it probably would be fine, but I'm not sure how my co-workers will react when maggots and cockroaches start to lurk out from the egg.

Well, at least I can tell them that's my contribution to the Halloween party this year.

Stay tuned...

Pumpkin patch

 
Though living in Canada for pretty much most of my life, not being here when I was a kid had me missed out on some stuff that most people taken for granted in their childhood. The past weekend, I went to a pumpkin patch for the first time.

I'm sure I've drove by many patches before (in fact, I think there's one just 5 minutes away from my work), but I never knew there are actually other activities than selecting pumpkins. There were a little petting zoo areas where we saw Cleo's relatives: the black pigs. Scott and I love animals, so just seeing the rabbits licking one another was entertaining enough for us (this sounds a lot better in my head than actually typing it out.) There were also this walk way thingie with interesting characters that are built out of woods. It's by all mean not for adults, but I still got a kick out of them. I even milked a fake cow! Hit the jump for more photos.

 

Vancouver Skyline Panaromanic

 

I can't believe I almost didn't go and take this shot tonight.

I've been trying to find a night to take photos of the Vancouver skyline for a while. The problem that I have is it's difficult to find a night that has clear sky during this season. Tonight happened to be one of those nights. However, there is another concern. In order to get a good view of Vancouver Downtown, I'll have to be in the infamous Stanley Park at night. Stanley Park is the largest inside city park in North America (yep, bigger than Central Park, New York), and there are barely any street lights in the park.

I got ready, put on some lube and went out shortly after dark with my borrowed tripod from work. I used to drive inside the park at night all the time when I was the event security supervisor at the Vancouver Aquarium, so it was great to experience that again. The moment I turned and I saw the building lights shining across the Coal Harbour, I knew I came at the right time of the night: it was breathe taking.

I parked the car as close as I can to the shoreline, set the tripod and start taking shots. It was surprisingly cold and I truly understand why people said there's a different between good tripods and bad tripods. The one that I was using was very heavy duty and if it's not because of the weight of the tripod, my shivering would've been enough to cause all my photos to be blurry. Every 30 seconds I looked back and make sure no one was going to attack me or trying to steal my gears or was unzipping his zipper. I tried a few different angles and at different shutter speed. At the end, I took about 15 shots, and the above was my favourite. Taken at 4 seconds shutter speed.

While leaving Stanley Park, I found a few other locations I would really like to do some night shots as well. Seeing the weather report said Monday is going to be a clear night, I think I'll drag Scotty with me to the park.

This camera honestly is probably my favourite present I have ever received.

PS: Thank god I downloaded this shot to my computer. I was going to bring my memory card to work and download the rest of the photos as my work computer is faster. I lost my memory card during a few chores I did this morning... *sigh*

Moving to Canada?

For all my lovely American blogger friends, just in case... you have options.

Just a small mistake

I had a panic attack last night.

I have been doing graphic design for a local gay nightclub called the Odyssey for the past 6 years or so. They have given me plenty of exposures and contributed a significant amount when I first build up my portfolio. Unfortunately, they are forced to move to a new location by the end of this month. With the help of some politicians, their lease got extended and they now have a bit of time to get the new place renovated before moving in. They decided to do a small ad in the local gay newspaper to thank the two politicians for their help. Naturally, I'm the one who got the job. I got a phone call with the names of the politicians and was told to double check the spellings of the names because nobody seems to know how to spell them correctly. I were suppose to get the ad out by yesterday and since it's so simple and it's urgent, not final proof is required.

When I was working on the ad, I went to google and search for the correct names and did the cut and paste. Simple, easy, done.

A few hours later, I have this strange feeling that something was not right. So I checked over the note I have with the names. To my horror, something was wrong... terribly wrong: I copy and pasted a wrong name. And it's not just any name, instead of the Liberal MLA candidate, Arthur Griffiths, I've got Conservative MP candidate, Lorne Mayencourt!

By this point, let's us be real, I was shitting my pants.

For those who don't know, Lorne Mayencourt was a Liberal MLA who switch to the Federal Conservative party during the last election. It's save to say that he's not overly popular to some people, and I think anyone who's running for the Conservative party in a gay riding is usually less welcome.

I spent the next 30 minutes sending three different "urgent" emails to the newspaper to let them know something went horribly wrong and I need their attention immediately. This was an urgent ad and I know the newspaper is usually distributed on Wednesday morning, meaning that either it's going to be printed on Monday night (last night) or Tuesday morning, so I don't have much time.

I didn't get a response from them before I go to bed.

I woke up this morning with the feeling that it will be the end of my relationship with the nightclub. I can literally hear Lorne Mayencourt laughing at his free publicity while Arthur Griffiths hounding the nightclub for the mistake. While stuck in traffic, I checked my iPhone constantly to see whether there's email coming in from the newspaper. Still nothing. After stuck in the traffic seemingly forever, when I finally get to work, I decided to call the newspaper to hear my final verdict. I got the advertising designer on the phone and he said they got my email and he did caught it before sending everything to print. So everything is fine and nobody needs to die. I thanked him and told him I can offer my body for him as a token of my thankfulness. He said he needed to go and hang up immediately.

Let's just say I will never work on any urgent ads for anyone that doesn't require final proofing of the work I've done.

Now, I need to lie down somewhere.

Carving

    
I got my haircut!

Remember a month back I said I wanted a mini-full-hawk? I ended up still have a little bit of that but not too noticeable the way I did my hair today. But to add some spice to the creative department, I got carvings!

The first time I start to really appreciate carvings was when I saw Biddell on Project Runway Canada.

I thought the way he did his hair was very creative, and I noticed he changed it a few times during the show and he looked very good with them. Of course, I could never get away with being so dramatic with my hair now (actually I think I can, but I will play nice and stay mainstream once in a while), so I decided to go for just a couple of asymmetric lines from the side to the back of my head to start with. Hit the jump for the result.

Blogging

I am fully blaming Long Story Longer for getting me addicted to Blogography. Ever since she introduced the blog to me, I'm like a crackhead who feel uncomfortable not to have some blogography in me everyday. Not only that Dave update his blog everyday, it's funny, picture loaded and often has his own illustrations, it's the mother of all blogs! Yesterday, he posted one of the best entries I have read for a very long time, one that was rather emotional. If you have a bit of time, please go read it, it was honest and raw. He outlined an "encounter" he had with a reader of his and how it changed his life/view, and even more how Dave might have changed the reader's life thereafter.

Scott sometimes ask me why I blog. I honestly don't have a good answer for that. I guess it's a mixture of a lot of reasons, but ultimately it's because this is a platform where I can voice my pessimistic personality in a sarcastic way, and in hopes of finding some kind of resolution in my head so I can deal with upsetting situations/thoughts. I am a natural pessimistic person where I always think the most negative first. My dog had died in my head in so many different ways that I think when the day finally comes, I won't feel anything. A simple incident I observe on the side of the street can upset me for days because I simply think humans are rotten and is poisoning this earth. To deal with things like this, I developed sarcasm. Instead of telling people how upset I am, I crack a joke in the expense of some situation. It makes everybody laugh, and I get a kick out of people's reaction, in return, I laugh a little as well. The blog makes me feel like I have an audience to speak to, also let me think a little bit before I type, so I see how ridiculous I am sometimes.

I think I'm getting emotional now... I should stop and start think of a few of my favourite things...

Raindrops on Cleo and whiskers on Scotty
Playstation for lunch and raw fish on sushi
Tall dark and handsome with a full grown beard
These are the few of my favourite things...

The left field

I decide to type something today even though I have nothing meaningful to say or nothing witty and funny to laugh about. Just be rabbling about non-sense. I'm sure by the end, there's something I can draw conclusion so I can name this post something weird.

Proposition 8

• If by now you still don't know what Proposition 8 is, you should really read more news or at least visit other people's blog more often. Nevertheless, Blogography had a great post on the issue. Please take a look and support if you can.
• I have only one thing to say about equal marriage rights:
  
  
  If you tax them the same, you better treat them the same.

Carvings

• I decided what I want for my next haircut. I'm going for carvings.
• Despite most of my friends telling me I'm too old for that, I am doing it. I think it is very halloweenish and the concave parts will provide me the perfect spot when I need to hide my mini M&M's away from Scott and Cleo.
• I having the aircut tomorrow, the result will determine whether I will be looking into the mirror for the next 4 weeks.

Delimma

• My best friend's Jennifer wedding is in Hong Kong next January. It's a wedding that I really wanted to go.
• Ten of us made a promise when we were in highschool that whoever gets married first, no matter where we live by that time, we will all go to the wedding. Ten years later, one of us is finally getting married (thank god, we thought we were cursed). This will be the last time before another long period where we will all be together again.
• However, with Scott and I buying a place, cash is a tight for me right now. Furthurmore, if I go to Hong Kong, we should also going to see Scott's parents this Christmas, as it won't be fair.
• To furthur complicate things, the all-so-funny Kathy Griffin is coming to town, which I have been begging Scott to take me to her show if she ever comes to Vancouver. And guess when she's coming? On the same freakin day as Jennifer's wedding. Out of all the jokes Kathy Griffin have ever made, I find this one to be the least funniest and the most offensive.
• I still haven't got a clue what I should do.
• PS: the word "delimma" sounds a lot like "*beep* your mother" in Cantonese, which is somewhat of a delimma itself.

Canada's election

• So, we voted again. As much I like to display my right to give my opinion at an election booth, this election was such a waste of time and money. First of all, nobody really care about the election this time around since we just had an election merely two years ago. Besides, compare to the hype and "fun" down at the US election, the Canadian election this year is like the opening act of a Madonna concert: who cares, just go away so I can watch the freak show!
• Nevertheless, I still voted (I demand my voice being heard!), and luckily my riding, Hedy Fry of the Liberal Party, won again who knows how many times by now. Scott and I think she will be there till the world ends. To be honest, all I really care is to not have a Conservative majority in the government, as I can't bear to see a former Reform party member to be the leader of a majority government.
• One thing surprised me this year with the election is that in the Chinese community, the Conservative party won a seat. I know the Chinese share some values with the Conservatives, but they (the former Reform Party members who combined with the Conservatives) were the ones who were against the immigrants. Seriously? Do people even do research before the vote anymore?

Re-blogging

• I am planning to redesign the blog. Probably not dramatically, but I want to add a few elements here and there. The first step was to added a flickr gallery, which you can see on the right sidebar.
  
• I caved in to get a flickr account, it's just so convenient. And that I am trying to get myself to take more photos even while I'm on the road, I thought at least I can share them.

That's it. I told you it would be a boring post. Just a bunch of random topics in my head that are not good enough to become posts.

Good-deed, the sequel

It hasn't even been two weeks since the "good-deed" incident, and something similar already happened again.

I won something on the radio a week ago. I was on my way back home from work and the radio host asked people to call-in and win a $100 gift certificate for snowboarding equipment. As snowboarding is pretty much the only sport I enjoy now adays (I haven't even snowboard in over two years... that gives you an idea of how in-shape I am) yet I don't have my own gear. I thought that $100 would be nice, so I called. A few questions later, I won. (I sounded like an idiot on the radio, too. One of the questions the radio host asked was "who was the person who hang upside down at Times Square a few days ago?" and I was like "oh oh, I know it I know it... DAVID BLAINE!!!!!!!!" I'm sure he thought I'm one of those people who never win anything in my life. Which is somewhat true of a statement.)

Anyway, when I went and pickup my prize a few days later, the lady at the reception looked through her paperwork and said I had two prizes to pick up. If you remember, a few months back, I was at the live location from the same radio station and won a $60 gift card from Bestbuy. They appearently made a mistake and thought I hadn't got my prize yet. After the good-deed incident, it took me no time to tell her that I have already got my gift from last time. She said "oh, you are such an honest guy." I grabbed the prize, said thank you and dashed out the place like it were covered with lices.

If there really a higher being out there, ENOUGH OF THIS TESTING CRAP! Just let me pay whatever the amount is on anything and stop trying to give me free stuff! Now, email me the numbers for the next lottery winning ticket. I'm not greedy, just a few millions is good.

Happy to be here

Eighteen years ago today I stepped onto Canada's soil for the first time. Eighteen years later, today, I am a proud property owner! Yes, we've signed all the paperwork last night, Scott and I are officially house owner! w00t!

This is actually quite an emotional day for me, especially coming to Canada really have changed my life. If my parents never had made the decision of immigrating here, the course of my life would've been dramatically different. I don't see myself fitting too well with Hong Kong's educational system, so I probably would've had a tough time going through highschool, let along going to one of the best university in the country here. My personality would've been more reserved as the society wouldn't allow me to be the crazy self that I am now. My value system would be focusing on making money and be completely materialistic. And more importantly, I don't think I could've came out of the closet and be honest to myself and the people around me: I probably would've never found love (well, that and it's almost impossible to find bears in Hong Kong.)

All these things I could have been that is so opposite of what I am now. I am greatful that I am not that person. And as much as I complain that my parents had left me to live in Canada by myself to pursue their own dreams, I couldn't be happier they didn't take me with them.

Life is beautiful.