The Sky Collector

New Home

2011-12-12T16:20:00.000-08:00

This blog has moved to http://blog.gailngphotography.com where it will be more photography based. I hope you'll come join me over at my new home! :)

Climbing Big Stuff

2011-08-15T22:45:00.000-07:00

My summer has been going pretty amazingly. I've developed a new affinity for hiking and hit a few trails recently. Something about the rewarding view you get at the end of a hike makes all the hauling ass up the mountain worth it. You feel so accomplished afterwards!

This was a hike in Minnekhada Park in Coquitlam. It was a very easy hike and not a bad view!

This one was a hike to Lindeman Lake in Chilliwack Lake Park. Such a pristine lake in a valley.. the water was like a duotone bright blue and green!

And I just hiked the Stawamus Chief in Squamish with my friends this past weekend. SO MUCH FUN and the experience at the peak was so worth it. I didn't bring my DSLR on this one though.. my camera and myself would not have survived the strenuous hike up there haha. Near the top was the best part: it was practically a stretch of vertical rock that we climbed precariously with some chains to pull ourselves up. It was basically rock climbing except without the ropes. Here are some crappy pictures and a shaky video from my phone instead!

We lay there at the top in the sun for a while and it felt like pure joy. This one was the hardest hike out of the three but also my favourite one. I can't wait to go back and hike the other two peaks (you can see the second and third peaks in the video at around 0:35!).

The True Vancouver

2011-06-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

Friday, my friends and I went to celebrate Julia's birthday and on our way to the restaurant, we went by downtown Granville St. and took a look at the aftermath of the Vancouver riot that I'm sure people all over the world has seen, unfortunately. Everyone has seen footage of flaming idiots setting cars on fire and beating the crap out of people for no reason. I don't need to talk about how disgusted we were and how freaking embarassing that was for Vancouver. But that was not the real Vancouver. Before that night even ended, I already got facebook invitations to the riot clean up from REAL, sensible people in this city. Hundreds of people came out the next day to clean up the mess that the rioters left, smashed windows were boarded up, and passerby's wrote messages on the boards, stuck thank you & sorry notes on police cars, made chalk drawings on the ground, and street performers sang songs about our city. Best part is: the rioters responsible are getting discovered and arrested left and right thanks to photo, video, and stupidly enough, facebook/twitter evidence from the rioters themselves.

Unfortunately, only a small amount of people will see how true Vancouverites put our city back together compared to the millions of people who watched our city burn.

Recipe Maven

2011-06-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

After seeing this recipe for lemon poppyseed bunny cookies and realizing that they used the exact same bunny cookie cutter that I have but couldn't find a use for, I HAD to try it!

Several broken bunnies and sticky but lemony smelling hands later, we noshed on our cookies! We definitely messed up a bit. We rolled out the dough way too thick so that they were more like crumbly, almond patties than crisp cookies. So I can't give a proper verdict on the recipe but it was fun anyway and they're shaped as hella bunnies!! What could make food more fun?!

Totally unrelated food item:

These no-bake date squares. I made these a while ago and I inhaled them in less than a week. And periodically stuck a fork in to just eat it straight out of the dish. The whole batch of them. In mah belly. I take back everything I said about disliking raw nut crusts (but I still think that sounds really awkward) because this almond & medjool crust was SO GOOD! I followed the recipe to a T and the only thing I would change next time would be to swap out the 1/2 cup of water in the date filling and replace it with 1/2 cup of coconut oil. The filling didn't set in the freezer even after a few days and was still mushy and sticky. But other than that.... seriously. Make them. SERIOUSLY.

100 Nights

2011-06-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh. Massively overdue photos. Wilson and I came here to 100 Nights for dinner two months ago! And I'm only posting now.... whoops. I spent yesterday and today catching up on some yelp reviews and figured it was time to update this blog as well. Holy moly. This is the same review I posted over at yelp.

It probably wasn't a good idea to come for dinner at 6:30pm on a hockey night because pretty much every single person there was only there for drinks and to watch the game on a huge TV they rolled out.

I felt like our server judged us when we didn't order drinks (I hate it when servers do that anywhere) and he seemed a bit taken aback when we said we were ready to order our dinner. Overall, very pretentious and not very friendly.

To start, he brought out these two crab crostini-type appetizers that were on the house. It would have been a nice surprise but it's funny because I don't eat meat and my boyfriend is allergic to crab. My boyfriend took one for the team, however, and finished them off so that we wouldn't have to feel bad about sending it back... even though it made him itch for the rest of the night.

I had the ravioli and chocolate torte for dessert. The ravioli was decently good - creamy and cheesy, like a ravioli should be. As for my dessert... I appreciate that they were innovative with it - it consisted of a plate of random things like two raspberry marshmallows (which I thought were pretty cute), the little block of chocolate torte, what looked like some cookie crumbs (I have no idea...), and a tiny cup of some kind of custard sauce. It was really strange. I had no idea how to eat it.

The ambiance seemed kind of confused. I understand that it's supposed to have this artsy, trendy kind of feel but I didn't get it. The decor didn't really go together and it just didn't make sense. The chairs are literally white, folding, wooden chairs from your backyard patio. Not to mention the very loud music.

So basically: pretentious servers, sub par food, and I don't even like the atmosphere of the place enough to come back just for drinks.

(left) They had an awesome bathroom though. But again, it looks nothing like the outside. Makes no sense to me at all.
(right) The more exciting event of the night was the Langara Photography Grad Show at Roundhouse. This was a few days after I got accepted into the program so I really, really wanted to go and see the 2011 grads' work.

Starting with the only food photographer first. Elle. We saw her doing a food shoot with a Hasselblad (completely irrelevent information but geez *drool*) during our tour of the department. She's amaaazing! Her portfolio book, photos, presentation, everything was probably my favourite out of the whole show.

Amanda's the only photojournalist out of the whole grad class. Very different work from everyone else but that's what's so admirable about her. She was the one who led the tour for my group! She's also one of the students who did the program in 3 years instead of 2, which I'm considering doing.

I was super impressed with most of the grad's work. It was almost surreal being there and knowing that I'm going to have my very own wall there in two or three years to display my own work! It was great seeing what they came out of the program with so that I have a sort of standard that I know I want to aim for or exceed.

Emily & Isa

2011-05-14T22:47:00.000-07:00

Prior to my portfolio review with the photography program, Emily & Isa offered to do a shoot with me to add some newer photos into my portfolio. These were from the end of April and they're finally finished now that I have the stress of getting into school off my back. I'm more than grateful that they offered to be my models because my portfolio was horrendously outdated and I hadn't had any new work in months!

A few things I learned from this shoot:

1) When scouting locations prior to the shoot, think of exact poses and composition in the found locations OR scout with a partner. I went to the park to look around a few days ahead but I found that the area looks completely different when you put an actual person in the shot and having someone there would have been much more helpful in getting a better idea of how the shot would look.

2) Have a specific set of poses, looks, mood, and composition for each location and model. Most portrait photographers don't do this and don't advocate doing this and would normally go into a shoot with a general idea but not exact shot ideas (a workflow more akin to fashion photographers). BUT I think this would help me immensely. I tend to get flustered when trying to coordinate location, pose, composition, the settings on my camera, light, and focus all the while trying to make small talk and prevent awkwardness (something I'm not good at normally already).

3) Change up the angles! I didn't realize until afterwards that I had waaay too many close-up headshots and not nearly enough full body shots or shots of Emily & Isa together! I tended to shoot straight-on as well, either with them sitting or standing. With all the crazy ideas floating around in my mind, I definitely could have been more creative.

4) Assistants are ridiculously useful. I bossed Wilson around as our assistant for the day and he was such a help. As I said in point #2, I have trouble coordinating everything at once and so having someone carry all our bags, hold the reflector, hand me stuff, hold things into the shot, and ease my nerves was indispenable. I don't know how else I would have done it! Thanks Wilby!

Gotta learn from experience, right? I learned a whole lot from this solo shoot and maybe those points will help someone else in the same position. Here are some of the photos!

This is the diptych that made it into my portfolio! One of my favourites.

TELL ME Isa/this photo doesn't belong in an AE ad?!

Thanks so much Emily, Isa, and Wilby for all of this!

Armed With Cameras

2011-05-06T22:20:00.000-07:00

GUESS WHAT? GUESS WHAT?

Don't guess, I'll just tell you. I'm happy to announce that I won't be a confused university dropout for the rest of my life. I got accepted into the photo program that I applied to for September! I had my entrance exam, interview, and portfolio review with them Tuesday & Wednesday of this week and I just got my acceptance tonight! They told us there were 128 applicants for 28 seats in the program and that 2 people were already accepted on the spot on the first day of interviews. Pretty depressing odds. But whaddayaknow! They had room for this awkward little girl too.

I'm beyond excited! Before Tuesday, I was starting to doubt whether I wanted to be in the program at all because that just means paying more money for two or three more years of school when I could probably learn almost everything I need to know on my own from books/internet/experience. But after the orientation, I want to be there more than ever. It made me realize that I have SO much to learn and I NEED the connections they lead you to at the school.

These are a few pictures I took out of the roll of film I shared with Wilson on Sam's Nikon F80. It was my first time using a manual film camera and I'm proud to say that I'M HOOKED. There's something so special about film that I think only people who have shot in it will understand. The feeling of holding prints that you made, the action of translating what you see into a physical item on paper, not knowing what you're going to get until they're developed.... it's magical! We used a roll of Kodak BW400CN for these. I'm majorly disappointed that these scans don't represent the actual prints at all! The quality, contrast, and detail is so different and so much better in person! These are not great pictures but because they were my first and because I have the physical prints & negatives next to me, they mean more to me than they probably mean to anyone else. Part of the magic of film, I guess!

Now that I have the stress of getting into school off my back, I'll won't neglect the blog as much. Or at least I'll try! Tomorrow, I'm going out to dinner and going to see the grad show from the photo grads of this year at the same program I'm going into. Should be an eyeopener!

Two Oh

2011-04-04T22:23:00.000-07:00

I turned 20 yesterday! My group of friends and I had dinner at Wild Rice (wasn't a fan) and then played Wii Mario Party and Taboo for drinks for the rest of the night. OH! OH! OH MY GOSH GUYS. No one is going to understand how awful this was for me but I brought my camera, as I do to almost everything, and realized I had left my battery in the charger when I got to the restaurant. It was terrible!! It was like I had left my pair of eyes at home or lost my right hand! I was destroyed! Of all days, I didn't have a camera on my own birthday. I don't think people understand that I have to take pictures of EVERYTHING to have a record of it! Otherwise I feel like I've lost a chunk of my life and no one will ever know about it! Luckily, we swung by my house after dinner so I could grab my battery before we went to Megan's so at least I had the use of my camera for the rest of the night. Do I sound like a crazy person yet?

Crisis story over.

Right after midnight, we had cake! They got Harry, Ron, & Hermione printed on my cake :D Ehehehe, so awesome! I'm not sure if you've ever played Taboo boys vs. girls but I'd like to know if all other guys are equally as bad at Taboo as my guy friends are. I'd like to think that females are just naturally more adept at making meaningful connections and reading minds. ;) It was hilarious though - I'd loved it!

Gave Chris a T-zone mask hahaha.

It was so much fun. I must have laughed my kidneys out as I seem to always do whenever I get together with these people. So much love (or not - insults seem to be the way some of my friends bond - it's not really a bad thing!) to go around!

And then on my actual birthday, I got some take away to share with Wilson for dinner from Organic Lives, one of the only two restaurants in my city that have a 100% raw menu. I was really excited to try it - excitement that was a little hampered when I stepped into the place and saw that it looked like a makeshift cafeteria in a warehouse.

Nonetheless, I ordered the "spring roll". It was a bunch of Thai spiced veggies wrapped in a sheet of dehydrated...something with a side of curried kelp noodles & mango chutney. This description may be entirely inaccurate but it's what I tasted.

And I also got the sea veggie sushi.

I was most excited for the raw desserts and got an apple cinnamon torte and strawberry cheesecake.

To be honest, I really didn't like the food at all. I'm ALL for raw food. I think it's amazing and innovative and can taste amazingly good. But the things I ordered just missed the mark for me. I enjoyed the sushi but that was it. With the desserts, I think I might have been influenced by a bad experience when I made a raw pumpkin pie. I never documented it here because I didn't want anything to do with it afterwards but I was quite proud of it. The pie itself was delicious but I just went crazy and ate waaaay too much of it at once and from then on, the smell and taste of raw nut crusts found in the majority of raw cakes & pies just repulses me. Which really blows because I really wanted to love the stuff I ordered from Organic Lives. I really hope I just chose the less than satisfactory items off the menu and that the next time I go, I'll order something really good and get a real taste of raw food.

On a completely different note, here's a bunny shaped cookie cutter and a giant lint roller. Not your typical birthday present is it.

Anyways, so that was my birthday weekend. It's strange to be able to say that I'm "in my twenties" now. I'm just a baby!

The Second Sign

2011-03-18T19:53:00.000-07:00

BFAST! Flax bagels with ricotta, honey, sunflower seeds, and strawberries! I bought a tub of ricotta for the first time thinking it would taste like cream cheese or feta. Err... I was definitely wrong but it tastes amazing mixed with honey! Looking at it makes me happy.

Now I need to use the rest of the ricotta somehow once I'm out of bagels. Ideas, anyone?! The container says it's good for stuffing into pastries & pasta and I do have a ricotta & peas ravioli recipe bookmarked. Might give that a try.

Second sign of spring: when I start sneezing all the time. I don't even have allergies as bad as a lot of people. Not complaining though. I'm getting so giddy whenever I see signs of life outside - like these berries on some trees near the rabbit shelter. I even saw a tree full of cherry blossoms in full bloom today!

Bun of the day:

Ronnie!! He's SO adorable! Every time I play with him in his cage that he shares with 4 other rabbits, he does this thing where he digs furiously with his front paws into my sleeves or body of my sweater and then pulls at the fabric with his teeth. And he'll do that over and over again the whole time I'm there. Not quite sure what he's looking for so intently but it's hilarious!

Now I'm off to a friend's house for a Harry Potter movie marathon!

Awwwww yeah :D I feel like wearing my Gryffindor/Ravenclaw scarf and bringing my chopstick wand with me. Does that make it too obvious that I have an obsessive problem?

Questions:

What's your favourite movie?

How do you feel about book-turned-movie films?

How are you spending your Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday?!
(on a side note: I think it's kind of awful that everyone's bashing her for her awful song/singing. It's her money-greedy record label that should be getting the hate. They signed her knowing full well that she's not the greatest singer out there and even knowingly wrote her a bad song. She just did what every other 13 year old would do if offered a record deal & jumped on the opportunity. Just my two cents!)

Bubbly

2011-03-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

I've been liking yogurt for breakfast lately. I haven't had oatmeal in weeks!

Just plain yog with honey, banana, and blackberries. It makes it feel like summer.

I've started seeing local grocery stores stock strawberries which only means one thing: warm months are near! It certainly doesn't look like it (my window is currently being pelted by rain) but some trees in my neighbourhood have started growing tiny little buds. I am SO ready for spring & summer!

And gigantic everything-AND-your-kitchen-sink salads. Just chuck it all in there!

Have you ever heard of seasonal affected depression/SAD? I feel like I'm mentally being affected by the gloomy, dark, short days this winter. My body is crying for sun! I recently learned that most people don't get sick in the winter because of the cold. They get sick because they lack vitamin D from sun exposure and they're cooped up indoors all the time where germs flourish. I'm super jealous of everyone living somewhere where "cold" is defined by something ridiculous like 8 degrees Celsius. Although, I feel so ungrateful complaining about rain & cold when terrible natural disasters have been happening on the other side of the world. Watching earthquake/tsunami footage is terrifying. I just can't imagine.

Bun of the day:

This is Mandy. She was the first bunny to let me pick her up! She was so sweet and calm and buried her head into my elbow.

Asian & A Little Egyptian

2011-03-04T20:40:00.000-08:00

Some om noms, finally! I was sort of in a rut for the last few months and never felt like taking pictures of my food but I'm feeling inspired again. I really admire bloggers who can put so much effort into taking pictures of every meal and posting every single day. I don't know how you do it! I would be so burned out.

I made a version of Jessica and Lauren's White Bean Hash for lunch. I just switched out the meat and replaced it with sesame & garlic marinated tempeh and cooked & drizzled everything with sesame oil.

It was so yummy! Buttery white beans, salty tempeh, fragrant sesame oil, and plenty of protein... omg! It was my first time trying tempeh. I'm not really sure what to think of it. It seemed so weird to me at first when I took it out of the package. I was starting to wonder if it was really for eating. I just saw a recipe for a Thai peanut tempeh so I want to give that a try for sure! Let me know how you like your tempeh/any good recipes!

And here's the bun of the day:

Pharaoh bunny is not amused.

Down For The Count

2011-03-01T20:38:00.000-08:00

First thing I noticed when I got to the bunny shelter for my shift today was that a few cages got swapped around to accommodate some new bunnies we received from Victoria. I went around to the other side of the room where Olga was getting some hay to bring outside to the other bunnies and saw that the bunnies that like to huddle moved in with 3 other bunnies in the large cage. I pointed it out to myself out loud and Olga said "Yeah, I moved them in there because Sandy's gone now."

Just the week before, Nicola, the other girl I volunteer with, was saying how she wanted to adopt Sandy. I started getting excited that she must have followed through with her thought and adopted her! I asked Olga where she went.

She stopped at the doorway and turned around. "I had to get her euthanised."

Thunk.

That was the sound of my heart hitting the cold, hay-strewn ground. That thought was sitting at the back of my head but I hoped that it wasn't true. Last post, I mentioned that Sandy had a lung problem and had trouble breathing. Well, turns out it was lung cancer and the vet was surprised that she even alive because she barely had any lung left.

I had no words while Olga explained to me what happened. I nearly cried right there but saved them until I got home. I spent the rest of my shift cleaning cages and thinking about Sandy the whole time. I wonder if her friends, Herbie & Ronnie, know what happened. They were always together. I wonder if Sandy knew what was wrong with her. I wonder if the bunnies talk amongst themselves at night and gossip about why Sandy never came back from her visit to the vet. There was also another bunny who was euthanized at the same time. Simone, I never met her, but Olga told me she had lacerations all over her chest.

The brown one is Sandy.

But enough sad news for the day. Here's some buns of the day instead.

Above and below are Lois and Clark. Or Clark and Lois. I don't know which is which haha. Clever names, right? More than one of you should get the reference.

Long Eared, Chubby Cheeked Friends

2011-02-17T22:24:00.000-08:00

Besides being bored out of my mind without any school since December, I've been volunteering at a rabbit rescue shelter. The Vancouver Rabbit Rescue & Advocacy is a shelter run out of the founder's own home. The rabbits take up residence in her backyard, garage, and basement. It's amazing!

I've been going there to help clean cages twice a week and if you've ever had bunnies as pets, you'll know that they enjoy taking part in recreational pooping. You have to clean their space & litterboxes everyday otherwise it gets really foul. Not a glamourous job at all but getting to see all these friggen cute faces makes it soo worth it!

Noms? This is Stewart. He was very bitey (not just on the cage) the day I was taking photos of him. He also particularly enjoys ripping up the newspaper laid out on the bottom of his cage and making a big mess for us to clean up.

This is Larae. Such a beautiful colour! She lives in her cage with her sister Harlow.

Barnaby. I've been told that he's really silly and does funny things but I've yet to witness his antics!

Ronnie, Herbie, and Sandy. Okay, these three are real characters. Ronnie rarely moves. Herbie is a cute Lionhead who a bad case of fur mites previously and is missing large patches of fur and the other two always have to groom his fur for him. Sandy has a lung problem and often holds her head up in a certain way and makes noises when she breathes. They're all sort of misfits but they love each other & they're ALWAYS huddled together like that. It's so cute.

Gavin has the softest fur EVER!

Cute face.

This girl arrived at the shelter last week. She was found abandoned in East Van. I don't think she has a name yet but everyone compliments her on her beautiful coat. It's like a gradient!

The bunnies live primarily in their cages in the garage and in pens in the basement. They get rotated out to run around and play in the backyard twice a day, which is when we go in and clean the emptied our cages. There are at leaaaast 40 bunnies here! A number that's both amazing and sad at the same time because it means they've all been abandoned in some way.

On each of their cage doors, there's a a little white board that tells you about their personality and how they ended up at the shelter. I can't count how many times it has said that they were neglected due to uninterested children or abandoned because they were too much work. That's pretty much a direct result of buying rabbits from a pet store for a child or as an impulse Easter/other holiday gift. It's so sad :/

Self-Hugs

2011-02-14T22:51:00.000-08:00

Talk about a fail.

Of course I would fill the muffin tins way too high thinking that the cupcakes wouldn't rise much. Of course I was wrong. Of course that meant I would have to cut off all the tops of the cupcakes to de-mutate them. And despite my little oopsie, I'm proud to say that my V-Day cupcakes turned out very well! Not too bad for my first time!

Valentine's Day. The love-it-or-hate-it holiday. One much more important lesson I've learned today - more important than the flowers, chocolate, and cutesy gifts - is the importance of self-love. I've seen it come up a few times today while reading my blog feed and it couldn't be more true. I can't put my heart into anything or anyone else without first being confident in myself, knowing who I am, and accepting everything about myself. Without being the mess that I am in my own head. I think I may have lost myself and my esteem along the way. Now more than ever, I need to rediscover & re-appreciate my lost self-love. I hope that all of you, whether you have special people to celebrate the day with or not, use the day (and everyday, for that matter) instead to give yourself a hug for everything that you are and everything that you do.

There should be a holiday for that.

P.S. my cupcake recipient approved :)

Dream Now

2011-01-10T20:52:00.000-08:00

I went to Medina Cafe with Wilby last week for lunch after having wanting to try it for a while. I wrote about it on yelp so I won't go into detail here but to sum it up: I had the lavender latte and la tartine & both were deeeelicious! I love it when I see simple, whole foods beautifully presented and put together so well! I really liked the place & will definitely go back.

While everyone else is going back to school for the Spring term, I'm going to be sitting here at home because ... I'm not going back to school. Shock horror! Not back to my university anyway. After 2 years of going to SFU for Biology, I've decided that I really can't do it. I still LOVE biology (I could cry watching Planet Earth just because the universe is so amazing!) and I really wish I could do something with it for the rest of my life but I hated the "getting there" part.

I hate the school system at SFU. I hate how the grade you get isn't based on what you're capable of but is instead what mark you get COMPARED to everyone else in the class and if everyone else is getting lower marks then you get scaled up. I hate how the class average on exams is often something like 30% and all the marks are scaled upwards so that people pass the class. The classes don't reflect how interesting the subject is at all. I really can't understand how some professors & TA's I've had got the position in the first place. I hate we're paying $600+ a course to read a textbook front to back. And we're spending 4+ years & dropping $30,000+ for a one-line title to put on your resume. I hate that you're just another mass of flesh taking up a seat in a lecture hall of 400 other people and that you could go through 4 years of school without anyone ever knowing your name. I hate 3/4 of the people in a class don't actually belong there and they're only getting by in the class because of mark scaling (I'm included in this category). I hate how everything is based on luck, not your own hard work.

That's a lot of hate there! I felt like I was wasting away my life! I couldn't see how anything I was learning outside of my biology courses was relevant to me.

So I've decided to completely change the direction of my life. I'm going to a college for a photography program this Fall. That's the plan, anyway. That completely depends on if I get accepted or not. I just applied. Wish me luck! I really need it. And if I don't get into the program then I'm on my own. I'm not going to go back to SFU. I'm going to learn everything on my own, read a ton of books, learn from everything & everyone, and shoot like a madman. You might be seeing a lot more food-unrelated photos here soon.

Saying that I'm scared doesn't even begin to cover how I feel. I feel like I don't have the security of a degree in something that every person seems to have in order to be considered "educated". I don't know if I'll find any work or if this is really what I want to do. I'm not expecting to make much money, if any at all, in the 5-10 years (or longer!) after my program or after trying to teach myself. I'm dreading that people are going to tell me that I can't make it and can't make a career out of photography during those years where I'm trying to gain experience. But I know I have to do this! I have always been a dreamer of big dreams but for the first time, I'm actually going to chase it. I hope you'll stick with me on this journey!

Natural & Not-So-Natural Wonders

2011-01-07T22:38:00.000-08:00

Man have I missed these! I went on a photo trip last week with Wilby, Jeff, and Sam to Cypress. We went to Lighthouse Park on Cypress first where we took a ~~mini-hike~~ walk in the park to find a sweet cove with a great view & neat things.

Sam doing what he does best - jumping off big shit.

Check out this piece of eroded driftwood! Isn't it naturally carved and worn away in the most beautiful & intricate way?! I was in love with it! So inspiring.

LOOK AT IT! It makes me feel like painting a picture or something really artistic that I don't have the skill to actually do.

And then we found the lighthouse in Lighthouse Park. Oh so creative name.

Further up the mountain, we stopped by a viewpoint of the city. First thought: is that SMOG? And yes, it is. I've never seen the smog that bad in Vancouver (but then again, I've never really had a view of the city from this high during the day before). I'm sure this doesn't begin to compare with LA or China but it's still unsettling. Good job, Vancouver. Not to mention, it made these pictures a pain in the ass to edit!

BAM! SNOW!

We reached Cypress Bowl at the top and was greeted by a lot of a certain powdery white substance that we've been lacking in the city. It hasn't snowed here since November when I posted those snow photos last - VERY uncharacteristic of Vancouver.

We were on our way back down during the sunset and we stopped on the side of the road to see this. Breathtaking!

We ended off with Starbucks at the new one on the corner on Boundary that we never knew opened. So nice, comfy, and quiet there. We just talked and talked and played with cameras. It was exactly why I love going on photo trips with these people. It's not even about the photos. The best part is just hanging out with extremely laid-back, unassuming, hilarious friends. :D

Generation A

2010-12-30T03:07:00.000-08:00

I'm behind on pictures as usual.. this is Christmas dinner with Wilby at The Locus. We were originally going to go to Grub but I forgot to call to make reservations until a few hours before we left and they were full until 9pm!

The Locus turned out to be awesome though and just down the street from Grub. Amazing tasting food! I had the risotto cakes and a chocolate mint creme brulee. The risotto cakes were so good, omgash. I can't for the life of me figure out what their seasoning was - it made mushrooms taste like bacon. Weird! But I wasn't much of a fan of my dessert because A) I don't like mint and B) I discovered that I don't like creme brulee. Just wanted to try it, that's all! If you're interested or might come visit Vancouver anytime soon, you can check out my restaurant reviews on my yelp!

Books I've been reading lately:

Why yes, two of those are cookbooks. Doesn't everyone read cookbooks like novels? Generation A by Douglas Coupland is particularly interesting. I seriously just randomly picked it up off the shelf at the library because the cover looked nice (I judge books by their covers). I've only just started it but it's basically about:

1) our world in it's technologically advanced future where all the bees in the world have gone extinct
2) all the food crops in the world have died out as a result of lack of pollination
3) all the crops remaining are genetically modified with "patented genes"
4) everyone is obese
5) 5 people in different parts of the world are stung by a bee (they're supposed to be extinct) at the same time

It's such a coincidence that I picked up a satirical book about food. ESPECIALLY after watching Food, Inc. just a few days before. The book even name-dropped Monsanto and I practically yelled "I KNOW WHO THAT IS!!" upon reading it after learning about it from Food, Inc.

It's a really good documentary. I was disgusted. Disgusted at what happens in the industry and all the deceptive ways major food companies & the government pass pure garbage as food that people ignorantly consume. If you have an hour or so, I'd recommend watching it!

What are you reading?
What's a good documentary you've watched?

Animal Party

2010-12-24T20:56:00.000-08:00

I want to wish you all a MERRY CHRISTMAS! I've been dabbling in the holiday festivities this past week and I've been in such a food coma. And it's not even Christmas yet! I hope you're all having tons of fun because I am!

I had Christmas dinner with my friends at Mary's house two days ago and it was so nice hanging out together. I rarely see most of them during the school year.

They brought salad for me :)

My quinoa stir-fry from Veganomicon. I liked it! But most were cautious about eating the strange squiggly beady things that no one could remember the name of. It probably would been more appreciated had I been dining with people who eat like I do!

Saooo much food! I've eaten so much over the past few days that I feel like my digestion has just stopped! I'm never hungry anymore! AaaaaH!

I haven't built a gingerbread house for as long as I can remember and that's probably a good thing because I'm terrible at it! But Amanda & I still ended up with a pretty darn snazzy house. It was so much fun!

This one's ours! The giant red thing in the front is a doorbell, fyi. It even has gargoyles!

Emily & Megan's. Complete with support beams for the splitting roof.

Mandy & Julia's. There's a dude suntanning on the lawn.

Desiree & Amy's. I should point out that 1) Desiree is practically formally trained to decorate gingerbread houses (her & the culinary arts program in high school built this a few years ago - crazy right?!) and 2) Amy is an art student. When you put those two people together, you're pretty much going to get something crazy looking. They even cut hella fir trees out of Fuzzy Peaches!

And then there's Mary & (the other)Amy's teepee-turned-igloo-after-it-fell-apart. Hahaha, I love it.

Our little gingerbread village!

Which house is your favourite?

Anyways, I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas!

Stillness

2010-11-25T18:55:00.000-08:00

BAM! Snow. We had a bit of a snowstorm today. I don't know about you, but I love that stillness in the air whenever it's cold & snowy. Maybe it's the fact that everyone's taken refuge indoors and traffic slows down & stays on the main streets. Everything is just so still and quiet. All you can hear is the snow squishing under your shoes and the sound of your own breath. It's heavenly. But I probably won't be saying the same thing in a few days when this mess gets slushy.

Happy Thanksgiving, Americans. While you guys are all having long weekends and Thanksgiving feasts, I'm here freezing in my basement and hoping classes are still cancelled tomorrow so that maybe I can have a long weekend too. But I'm just kidding. :) Enjoy your day! Canadian Thanksgiving isn't nearly as a big of a deal here, it seems.

Deathly Hallows

2010-11-20T19:22:00.000-08:00

I just watched Harry Potter.

That is all.
(IT WAS SO GOOD)

Coming Up With Titles Is The Hardest Part Of Blogging

2010-11-17T21:34:00.000-08:00

Lunch today:

Hummus, mustard sprouts, avocado, black pepper, all on this neat little sunflower seed bread I found at Whole Foods. It's all compact and squished into a little package - totally looks like Jessica's pumpernickel with the awkward couple on the packaging. Mine has a photo on the label in the same spot too - but just not of a nuzzling couple haha. I've been kind of obsessed with avocado lately. Most days I'll just have a single mashed avocado on toast. So simple but SO GOOD. And yeah, I totally use my own clothing to lay down as "backdrops". Annnnd I picked up some wheat berries to try yesterday. Can't wait to try sprouting them! I'll share process photos.

Other news: I have been hating on school (WINTER BREAK PLEASE RIGHT NOW) and working on this baby. My photography site! Chchchcheck it out when it's finished. And I (badly) want Rihanna's hair:

OBSESSED.

Clouds? Pillows? Nope & Nope

2010-11-08T15:50:00.000-08:00

Guys....

I think

I just found

the best

vegan pancake recipe

that I've ever made.

With my newest obsession: cranberry sauce. I've been making it to go with nearly every meal. My wooden spoon even turned perma-pink! And a confession: the pancakes in these pictures aren't the actual ones made from this recipe. I just didn't want to take the pictures all over again. I promise they look way better.

I used honey in both the pancakes and the sauce but if you're vegan, go ahead and use any other sweetener you like! The result shouldn't differ too much from the cloud-like fluffiness of these pancakes. Even the batter had a mousse-like texture.

Soft & Fluffy Pancakes
serves 1

1/2 C whole wheat flour
1/2 T honey (agave/date syrup/maple syrup/etc if vegan)
1 T baking powder
1/2 C almond milk
1 T extra virgin olive oil (I used cold-pressed)
tiny pinch of salt

You know the drill. Combine the dry. Combine the wet. Add wet to dry. Mix 'em up. Use a tablespoon to scoop the batter into a pan on medium heat. Two big, heaping tablespoons for each pancake gives you exactly 4 small pancakes. Flip when the edges aren't mushy anymore.

Basic Cranberry Sauce

1/4 - 1/2 C fresh cranberries
2 T honey
enough water to almost cover cranberries

Heat water & cranberries in a deep pan on medium heat until cranberries start popping. Lower heat to a simmer. Squish the cranberries with the back of a wooden spoon & stir occasionally. Add honey & more water if it becomes too jam-y. Simmer for 10-15 minutes or until desired consistency is reached.

Real Food

2010-10-10T19:12:00.000-07:00

I had a pancake phase sometime during the last month and I winged some pancakes on various weekends when I was able to have a leisurely morning to take as long as I wanted to make breakfast. These were some vegan coconut banana pancakes and they were so good I'm not ready to share any recipe yet because after I made them, I looked at some actual legit pancake recipes and I realized I didn't put any baking powder/soda in mine. They still seemed to work though! So I don't know. I should probably try it again the proper way before sharing.

I have also taken a huge interest in raw food. I had a week where I challenged myself to stay 100% raw but I failed. It was hard ONLY because of the large volume of food you need to have at hand. When you're eating raw, fruits & vegetables make up such a small part of your required caloric intake so you have to eat lots of it. I had a lot of trouble keeping enough fresh produce in the house for the week while restricted by my weekly grocery budget. Especially if you're buying mostly organic, it adds up to a lot of money, unfortunately.

That realization was infuriating. The fact that it's so much cheaper to eat unhealthy, processed, and packaged food than to eat a big salad where all its contents grow from a tree.

Another thing brought to my realization while learning about raw food was all the corporate bullcrap going on. The food pyramid is bogus, in my opinion. Wilby asked me if I ever noticed how grains are the largest group on the food pyramid released by the Canadian government (or the USDA in the states). Fruits and vegetables are second. Why are we supposed to consume more processed food than natural plant food? You always hear people telling you to eat more fruits and vegetables. Want to fight illness? Eat more veggies. Want to grow up to be big and strong? Eat more veggies. Want to lose weight? Eat more veggies. Your mother, your doctor, everyone says that. They don't tell you to eat more bread. Or sneak more pasta onto your plate at dinner. So why does the government tell you that? Simple reason: money.

The grain industry holds such a huge monopoly over our food. Chips, bread, pastries, pasta, noodles, rice, cookies, crackers, even oats. They've become such staples in our diets & the manufacturers are raking in the dough. The government doesn't make any money (maybe from land taxes or something but not nearly as much) when a local farmer grows up a crop of fresh fruit or veggies and sells it at the farmer's market. None of that food goes through the government or any kind of facility at all. They don't benefit = they don't endorse it.

Another thing about the food pyramid is the dairy & meat part of it. I'm not even going to start arguing about that one but many of you & me all know that vegans & raw foodists have been living fantastic lives without any of those. They're not necessities. They're big business products being pushed on us to buy. And it's even more angering that the food pyramid is something teachers are required to teach us in grade school! Sure, I guess it's not a terrible diet to live off of, many people do and that's great for them, but it's certainly not the only way to eat so I don't think we should be taught that like it's a set of rules that we must live by or else we'll contract some horrible disease and die.

You know you've made a good smoothie when it holds its peak!

Clearly, I'm still eating grains (re: pancakes). But some raw tricks & recipes I've learned have still stayed with me. I eat mostly raw when I'm at home now and avoid cooking my produce, nuts, and seeds as much as possible. Smoothies have been a huge part of my meals. They are amazing, 100% raw, fast, easy, taste soooo good, have pretty colours, and there's virtually no way you can mess them up! This beautiful yellow (I think I seriously squealed after it finished blending because of the colour that resulted) one had:

1 banana
1 apple
1 navel orange
meat of half a young coconut
& watahhhhh

It's probably the simplest one I've made and yet one of the tastiest. Simplify your life! Food shouldn't have to mean a 15-ingredient recipe followed meticulously. Real food is simple. And the most delicious when it is. When's the last time you ate an orange and I mean reaaally ate it? Like peel each segment apart, look at the brilliant colours nature gave it, observed each tiny dome of juice, held it up to the sun and tore it in half and watched the droplets catch the light, savoured each slice in your mouth like a piece of expensive chocolate, or noticed every single flavour it had - spicy, sweet, bitter, sour, all of them at once? Real food is amazing.

Summer?

2010-10-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

Holy crow, where have I been. I feel like I fell off the face of the earth for a whole month. Ever since school started, I've been swamped in reading, reading, and more readings. Shortly after I replaced my camera, I fried my computer. I literally fried it - it involved a huge white electrical flash and the smell of burning. So I didn't have a computer all month and freaked out the whole time over the possibility of losing all my very important photos & files (they were saved!). So I've just been having the best luck ever, it seems... breaking my camera, frying my computer, passing out, knocking my teeth out.. yep, I've been reaaaal fortunate.

But besides my great luck, I have so much to talk about and I can't wait to show you what I've been eating, what I've been doing, and pictures I've taken but haven't even begun to edit.

I needed to post these pictures asap because they were all the way from the first week of September! Kind of unfitting now that it's way past summer and tomato season is winding down (or over?) but here they are anyway. Some beeeautiful heirloom tomatoes from the farmer's market at Trout Lake. Choosing them was like being in a candy store! They looked amazing and tasted incredible.

You really don't know what a real tomato tastes like until you eat them organic & local. Supermarket ones just pale in comparison. I could've eaten them like apples.

This makes me wish it was still summer. I miss summer produce! But I can't wait to show ya'll the new in-season food I've been trying.

Sunny Days No More

2010-09-02T22:07:00.000-07:00

It's funny that I post this now because just 2 days ago Vancouver had a record-breaking rainfall. We broke our record for the rainiest day in August in almost 6 years. Vancouver is known for it's rain but I don't think I've seen anything like Tuesday's rain before. The skies were literally just dousing us in a really consistent and heavy rain. Like someone up there left the tap running for far too long and it flooded the sink. What a way to end August.

But anyways, before all that, Wilson & I went swimming at the Kits Beach outdoor pool sometime last week. We've been trying to cram all the things we wanted to do this summer into the few days we have left before school. The pool is supposed to be a saltwater pool but it didn't actually taste salty. And I know that sounds really gross because I basically just confessed that I drank pool water with who-knows-what in it... but it happens to everyone, right?! The pool's also supposed to be the length of four Olympic pools. Not sure how accurate that is but it sure tired us out swimming just a single length of it. That's really sad..

Some booty fo you.

This was also the day I broke my camera. Yeah. I broke it. Which is why I haven't been posting. I dropped it while we were taking those silly pictures and it bounced once on my towel but that didn't stop it from making a second bounce on the pool deck ground next to it. ....It didn't bounce anymore after that. The damage: the bottom of the body cracked, the left side right next to lens popped out, the lens release button is jammed in, the shutter sticks when pressed and only releases when pressed again, and because of the shutter problem, it can't take any pictures. The lens that was on it at the time wasn't even mine! I borrowed it from Sam and I'm so damn lucky that it was fine after the fall.

We rushed it to Broadway Camera right afterwards for some damage control but they said it was too serious and just directed me straight to the Nikon office. We went to Nikon on Monday and I just received my estimate for repairs and they actually refused to repair it because it wouldn't be "economical". Instead, they offered to trade it in for a refurbished D90 for $640. Which is actually a great deal and the D90 is my dream camera. Buuuut the problem with that is that I don't have $640 right now.

Plan B: we scoured craigslist for another D50. Found one! We just went to pick it up tonight. I'm down $250 (well, Wilby is because he's lending me the money) but at least I've learned my lesson. Always strap in! :/ Especially important now that I have a sort of quasi-job as a photographer! But more on that next post.

Seawall

2010-08-29T16:37:00.000-07:00

Last week, Wilby & I biked the Stanley Park seawall. I'm loving these long-ish bike rides. I feel so accomplished afterwards! We made lots of little photo stops to take pictures that I'm going to dump below.

There were A LOT of other bikers/rollerbladers/walkers/runners out too because it was such a gorgeous day.

This was not my idea.... But awwwww yeah. ;)

I even drew out our route for you! It was about 12km in total. We hadn't planned on biking the Coal Harbour part but after we came out of Stanley Park, we just happened to be at Coal Harbour so we thought we might as well just bike to Waterfront and get on the skytrain there instead of getting on a bus to go to Burrard THEN get on the train.

There were SOOO many beautiful views along the way.

And so many quirky momuments & structures I've never seen in Vancouver before. Like this random tree on a rock! I'm sure there's a proper name for it...

This is the Lost Lagoon. Spooky name but a gorgeous, totally not scary place. In the daytime, anyway.

This Is Real

2010-08-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you for all your nice comments on my last post. :) I guess I've just been really caught up in a life that's going too fast. So many things have been happening and I'm constantly running around doing one thing after another without having a quiet moment to myself to just observe everything around me and enjoy the beauty of my surroundings. I should also probably try not to take this blogging thing so seriously. This is supposed to be fun, right? And you guys make it just that!

Soooo, here's some brekkiefast!

Pouring agave while taking a picture lying on the floor put me in the most awkward position ever. This was just simple oats with half a gala apple cooked in at the end so that it released it's sugars and got all soft and fragrant. I love doing that now! It makes the apple bits taste so good. Plus some cinnamon, the rest of the apple, natural peanut butter, coconut, and agave. I didn't really need the agave because it was already sweet enough but it was just for photographic purposes haha. Do you ever do that? Add extra food or seasonings in that you don't really need just to make the dish look nicer when photographed?

Something more exciting today is the Versatile Blogger Award that Elaine passed on to me! Thank youuu again!

So now I'm supposed to share 7 things about myself.. Wow, this is hard and I haven't even started yet.

#1: I'm a huge Harry Potter fan and have been since I was in grade 3. I've read all the books several times each and went to get Half-Blood Prince at its midnight release. Oh, and I cried every day for 2 weeks after Sirius died in the book.

#2: I'm one of those people who walk into a clothing store and touch every single thing on the racks as I walk by it.

#3: I have the most annoying, loud, high-pitched hyena laugh you will probably ever hear. That's something you wouldn't know about me through this blog! Ha hahahahahAH!

#4: I'm deathly afraid of horror movies, black holes, and the girl from The Ring.

#5: I can turn myself into a human basket, do the splits, turn my hand around 360 degrees while placed palm down on a flat surface, hyperextend my elbows, wrap my leg behind my neck, annnnnd see my butt through my legs when I bend forwards far enough. How's that for a freak show?

#6: I'm currently pursuing a degree in biology but still undecided about my area of specialization. I'm thinking marine biology, developmental biology, or more recently, I've taken an interest in nutrition (although I think that's more kinesiology/health science? than biology).

#7: My two front teeth are fake. Surprise! I broke my real ones in half when I fainted and hit my face on a bench almost a year ago. I had to get them root canal-ed, cut down, and encased in porcelain replacements. That's why they look a bit funny sometimes when the light hits them at a certain angle.

And 15 bloggers that I'm giving this award to:

Amanda at Seek
Amy at Dokusei Design
Jessica at Healthy Exposures
Jen at Jen Hammer
Kath at Kath Eats Real Food
Angela at Oh She Glows
Nienke at Revel
Heather at Sweetly Raw
Emily at The Front Burner
Lauren at Whole Wheat or Bust
Ms. I Can't Believe I Don't Know Your Name at Teenage Health Freak
Ashley at The Edible Perspective
Camille at Raw Candy
Lisa at Lisa Likes
Courtney at Hungry Yogini

Now get attt it, all of you! :D

Simple Joys

2010-08-20T01:27:00.000-07:00

Last week, I went to Amy's dinner at Ebisu before she went back to LA. The veggie options on the menu was pretty disappointing but that was expected. I find it rare for Japanese restaurants to have a good selection of meatless dishes that aren't lightweight. Maybe I'm just not going to the right ones! I only really had three options so I went with the vegetable yakisoba and one of the two veggie rolls.

The yakisoba turned out very yummy!

Tasty!

They're all crossword obsessed. I've only finished one entire crossword in my life and I'm not even sure if I got it right because I didn't check it in the next day's paper.

We stayed there for quite a while and then while everyone went to watch the meteor shower, I had plans to watch it with Wilby.

We watched this same shower last year on the same lawn chair in his driveway. This year's Perseids didn't impress as much as last year's! We saw 22 meteors last year, while only about 3 this year. S'okay! It's all about the experience. I remember a few years ago when I first "discovered" the wonder that is our night sky and I had this phase where I had epiphany after epiphany about how amazing our universe is. I stayed up until morning most nights and would go out on my porch wrapped in a blanket and just stare. I cried seeing my first meteor fall. I tried to train myself to remember the names and positions of constellations & nebulae. I had a notebook that I would draw that night's sky in and record the exact positions of everything and the exact times I saw something unusual. I watched the ISS circle the skies until I couldn't see it anymore. I wanted to be an astronaut. With serious plans!

How much has changed since then. I'm surprised that I was so passionate about it. I spent so much of my time dedicated to exploring & learning about it even though there was no material outcome to be gained. I ~~kinda~~ really miss that. I miss being so inspired with something that I had learned myself. Not because it was something that I saw on the internet somewhere that everyone else was into. I was truly inspired by it for what it was. I miss loving so many things at once. Geez, I was bursting with love! I felt so much when I saw the colours of the sky in a sunset or when I heard the first bird chirp in the morning after an all-nighter or when sharp, cold winter air hit my lungs. I could cry over those things!

Whereas, now, I'm just trying to get through each day focusing on tiny, unimportant things that only involve myself. I'm living for weekends. Everything I do needs to have an outcome and that outcome should preferably benefit me. I don't know where my love for the bigger picture went. I also don't know why I'm saying all this. Wow, I really didn't mean to. I started by talking about a meteor shower.

That brings me to something else I had on my mind today. I started this blog as a means of sharing photos of little, beautiful things that inspire me. I never intended it to be a food blog or even a diary sort of blog where I keep chronological records of my days. So... now what I'm saying is that I really don't know what this blog is about. I'm just a really confused person. And I'm surprised you're still reading this.

This may have been the most I've ever spoken on this blog. Like, really speak. Mostly it's just some nice comments about a pleasant experience I had. Most of the time I make things sound more positive than they really were. Like that yakisoba I had at Ebisu? It was really oily and the hostesses were wannabe-skanky. At least the servers weren't because I didn't really want misplaced fake eyelashes in my food. ..Again, I don't know what's with me today. I'm going to stop typing riiiiiiggght

now.

Why do you dance?

2010-08-12T15:14:00.000-07:00

Sometime last week, I had this

(green monster with an apple, a peach, blueberries, spinach, cashews, coconut, flaxseed, honey, and rolled oats to thicken)

made these

(honey&agave-prune-oatmeal cookies)

and ate this

(roasted carrot, sweet potato, broccoli, red pepper, zucchini with quinoa & garlic hummus)

Yesterday, I watched Step Up 3D and it was awwwesome. But way too much 3D! It made everything look so fake. I'm so inspired to dance again. I've been urgently looking for ways to do so without shelling out hundreds that I don't have on classes. I miss it so much every muscle in my body is yearning to move in those ways again. AaaaaAah! It's all I want to do at this moment. But what I don't want to do at this moment is study for my physics exam.

New Day

2010-08-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

Friday, Wilby & I biked about 9km there & back to New Brighton Park. Those hills were a pain but it buuuurned so good. For dinner, we went to try this restaurant called The New Bohemiam, as per suggestion of Amy. It was wonderful! This is another restaurant to add to my tried & true restaurants list.

I love their menu. It's not a vegetarian or vegan restaurant but they had a generous selection of veg-friendly dishes.

To start, we had their breads & spreads. Warm flatbreads & foccacia with this spicy spread that I forgot the name of, this spread with olives, and pesto. I'm not a fan of olives at all but I think that one was my favourite out of the three.

Then I had the quinoa salad! I've seriously never seen quinoa on a menu anywhere so of course I had to order that to compare it with the quinoa I make at home. I forget what was in it exactly but I know there was goat cheese, some kind of yellow fruit, olive oil, onions, green beans, and crunchy-yum walnuts.

Wilby had their nachos. It was like a party on a platter! He couldn't even finish it all.

And then dessert! That's the most important part, right? We like to look at the dessert menu first the moment we sit down before we even decide what we're going to have for dinner. I had the summer berry napoleon. And Wilby had a triple chocolate amazing cake thing. It was a chocolate-coma on a plate. Sooo, soo good.

Make It Mine

2010-08-08T01:15:00.000-07:00

Two days ago,

Green Monster enjoyed with carrot zucchini cake with a lot of almond butter.

Then I went to Wilby's house to make lunch together. He had this awesome idea of finding a dish from Cactus Club Cafe's online menu and using the description of it to recreate it ourselves! We recreated their Raincoast Greens salad. This is their description of it: "raincoast greens - grilled chicken, avocado, tomato, feta, egg, pecans, seasonal berries, lemon-thyme vinaigrette". We replaced the chicken with potato croquettes and sort of improvised the dressing.

My tater croquettes before they went in the pan. We had a competition to see who made the better croquettes. I think I won. :)

It turned out deeeelicious! I wish I could say I had that whole dish to my myself! I really want to do this again sometime. There's a plethora of food inspiration in restaurant menus for people like me lacking in meal creativity as of late!

Over My Head

2010-08-08T00:44:00.000-07:00

I'm so majorly backlogged with photos to edit. I don't even remember when I ate these things because the dates on my folders or camera is messed up.

All I remember from this day was this amazing garlic hummus I slathered on in this wrap. Oh my so good. It makes everything taste like heaven. But at $4 for a little tub that I could finish in two days (one if I really wanted to), I've decided it'd be a better idea to make my own. I'm excitedddd!

Oh and in the whole wheat wrap was red bell pepper, baby spinach, zucchini, salsa, parmesan, and garlic hummus, of course. It wasn't until I was halfway through eating it that I realized I forgot to put in my roasted broccoli so I just ate it afterwards with some newly made almond butter! I made Wilby a jar of it too!

That's all. I have no idea where my dinner went.

Going Green

2010-08-04T17:58:00.000-07:00

Last night I made some carrot zucchini bread before I went to bed. It turned out very... VERY dense & moist. Too dense & moist. It feels like I'm eating pudding. I think I used too much zucchini because I got carried away with the cheese grater. But it's still good! And it's a million times better than my failed banana bread from last week. And I really like the recipe!

And for lunch today, I had the most exciting thing I've eaten this week. I was on gorgeous Angela's blog last night and came across her Green Monster Movement site. So that's what Green Monsters are! I had no idea she was the one behind it. I've been seeing Green Monsters on people's blogs for ages and I would scroll over it in disgust because I thought it just looked so gross and must taste so gross! BUT after reading about it, and having bought some fresh spinach yesterday, I decided to go for it today to see what it was all about.

I used:
1 cup baby spinach
1 cup milk
1 tbsp ground flaxseeds
1 banana
1/2 cup blueberries
a drizzle of honey

I didn't even use ice because I didn't make any. And holy smokes. It was so good! It came out so thick and luscious. After it settled for a few seconds in my bowl, it thickened to a custard-like texture and I could eat it like pudding with a spoon! I was blown away by how something so ugly could be so good for you (and taste the part too)! I was like a happy little kid slurping up a milkshake. Except it's really packed full of antioxidants and yummy veggies & fruit! And it was SO quick too. I felt like I literally just whipped it up in 3 minutes tops. Faster than any other lunch I could make. I liked this so much, I went out and bought more spinach so I can be stocked up for more green monsters this week. Lovvveee it!

Kokoro

2010-08-02T21:14:00.000-07:00

"Carrot cake" oats! With a banana, chopped dates, and coconut. Eating veggies sweet! I'm starting to love oatmeal. Normal, (microwave) cooked oats. I can't seem to get overnight oats to the right texture.. but that might be because I use rolled oats. The next morning they still taste raw. Well, I mean, they actually are raw but I just don't like the taste of it.

Saturday
Wilby & I went to the Powell Street Festival. It's basically a Japanese-Canadian festival with a line up of Japanese music, dance, & martial arts showcases, yummy food, Japanese clothing, art, & craft vendors, and lots of people in traditional Japanese clothing.

GORGEOUSSSS kimonos.

There were so many cute Japanese crafts. I LOVE Japanese fabric. I wanted to buy everything there!

On the other hand, my dinners lately have been much less exciting and tasty as my breakfasts. These are just random things (or everything) from my fridge thrown together. I'm seriously lacking dinner inspiration.

Small explosions that are yours to keep

2010-07-31T20:15:00.000-07:00

Can't remember when I ate this. But anyway. That's not the point of this post. The point of this post is about banana bread. I had this fantastic idea to make some cocoa-banana bread. SO, Wilson & I did.

Now, I have this obsessive thing I do where I like to substitute ingredients in a recipe for more healthful alternatives. Mostly it's just typical substitutions like flaxseed meal + water for eggs or honey for sugar. What I don't realize is that my substitutions more often than not don't make sense or work in the recipe. They make things drier, wetter, thicker, take longer to bake, and sometimes taste like cardboard.

Looks pretty good, right? Don't be fooled! It was a massive fail on my part because I kept insisting that it hadn't finished baking so we left the banana bread in the oven for longer.. and longer.... and longer.

Until it was a rock solid mass of terrible. The muffins were goners because they were seriously like little boulders. You could knock someone out with them. The loaf was a bit (only a bit) better because the center hadn't completely overbaked yet so some of it was salvageable. I put them in an airtight container afterwards and the water vapor made it a lot softer and more edible. Despite all this, I still thought they were pretty good or at least had potential had I not overbaked it. But I'm not sure if I'm just thinking that to make myself feel better because Wilson still claimed they were awful.

C'est la vie.. Maybe baking is just not my forte.

We also played with Wilson's new close up filters for all these photos. They're pretty awesome. It's like a poor man's macro lens! You like? I like.

If Stars Shouldn't Shine

2010-07-29T12:52:00.000-07:00

STILL LAST WEEK

Saturday
Our phototrip for this month was to Maplewood Farm in North Van. I vaguely remember going there when I was very little but seeing it again, I had absolutely no recollection of it. I was mostly just looking forward to seeing the bunnies. :)

This was pretty funny. There was probably food in her stroller!

In the greenhouse! It felt like Hong Kong weather in there.

And then, the most exciting part of the farm! We saved it for last. The "Rabbitat"!

They were all so obese. I guess they don't get out much.

After we finished with the farm, and after my eye stopped watering like a garden hose (I may have pet a goat and then rubbed my eye.. oops), we drove to Deep Cove to explore a little bit of North Van. The houses there are huge and probably cost a couple million.

Deep Cove is a lot of water, a lot of mountain, a lot of kayaks, a lot of rich people, a lot of steep hills, and some pricey ice cream.

Foodimicon

2010-07-28T02:00:00.000-07:00

LAST WEEK

Monday
I made almond butter! It was an extremely messy process but tasted omg-so-goood. It smells heavenly and tastes really good too. I was surprised how little almond butter my 2 cups of almonds yielded. It's going to be gone by next week! My mom said it tastes better than commercial almond butter but I wouldn't know because I've never actually tried the store bought kind.

Wednesday
Dinner was leftover quinoa from Tuesday with greens, broccoli, & sweet basil. I tried quinoa for the first time, from Bob's Red Mill. I was kind of disappointed how much it tasted like brown rice, which I love, but I was expecting something more distinctly quinoa.

Friday
Breakfast was chocolatey overnight oats! The base was equal parts rolled oats & milk, a few spoons of plain yogurt, honey, cocoa powder, and cinnamon. I kind of cheated and microwaved it in the morning though. The idea of cold oats is weird to me. Anyways, in the morning, I added a banana, strawberries, agave nectar, dried cranberries, and mixed nuts. The verdict? This was yummmms. Don't think it was enough to convert me to oats though. I will forever love my cereal.

For dinner, I finally annihilated the butternut squash I bought on a whim. It was the most difficult I've ever had to cut! I seriously thought my knife was going to snap or that I'd throw in a few fingers for garnish. Never, ever trying to cube butternut squash again.

I roasted it with honey, cinnamon, olive oil, salt, & pepper and after that was all good and done, I threw some on a bed of mixed greens and added toasted pine nuts, walnuts, a drizzle of agave, and had some (unpictured) dijon mustard for dippage. I forgot to throw in the dried cranberries. This was delicious! I had tons of leftovers too.

I also made Laraballs (a la Camilla and Jessica for the ballz idea). I used a combination of dates, dried cranberries, cinnamon, almonds, and some shredded coconut on top as an afterthought. Incredibly messy & sticky process but it was kind of fun. Like being a little kid and squeezing playdoh through my fingers ..and then licking it off my fingers afterwards... hmm. Like when we used to cover our hands with white glue and peel it off after it dried. Where am I going with this again? Oh yeah, these laraballs were awesome for a quick sweet fix.

Here they are still in their plastic wrap. They look like meatballs!

Whoa, okay sorry for all the long posts. I'm clearly trying to cram my backlogged photos onto my blog so that I can cross them off my list. I have 2 more sets of photos from last week and then I'll be caught up. But by the time I finish those, I will probably be behind on newer photos. Geez, this is starting to feel like a job! I'm going to try to make an effort to post every other day after I catch up.

I'm really bad at keeping up with my photos

2010-07-24T18:15:00.000-07:00

LAST WEEK

Tuesday & Thursday
Played volleyball at Windermere with the guys on Tuesday, the day I went home from Ray's at 5am. Came home with bruised arms & went again on Thursday. This time I just refereed. We also played football until it got too dark to see where the football was. And also when we were already half devoured by mosquitoes. They were FEASTING on us, I tell you! I had to keep jumping and running around to keep them off me. I still scored two mosquito bites that night though. I'm loving these chill sports sessions in beautiful weather & awesome people.

Three of Raymond's friends from UBC came out to play with us and it turns out I went to preschool with them at SFX! They only remembered me because of my uncommon name and I only remembered that there was a Calvin in my class. We would have had no idea otherwise!

Friday
Went to the beach with some girls and tanned for a bit while reading a Martha Stewart magazine but that didn't last long because the sun makes me so drowsy. Everyone else was trying to finish the crossword in the 24 newspaper.

Afterwards, we tried looking for somewhere to eat but failed at that so we settled for Red Robins.

I got a veggie burger that was pretty good but nothing exciting.

We signed Isa's petition against the closure of Bruce elementary.

Amy took this one!

Sunday
Wilson & I biked 9.7km today! We biked from Jericho Beach, through Locarno, and to the very end of Spanish Banks where the bike trail actually ended. The folk music festival was happening at Jericho and so biking through there involved A LOT of weaving through people. I almost ran into a little boy. But there was really laid back music playing throughout the beach and so many bohemiam-looking vendors. I wanted to stay and just look around the festival! The ride along the coast was awesome. There was fantastic, hot weather, great music, great view, and tons of other bikers. This was my first "long" ride since I learned how to bike. Yep, since a few months ago, I couldn't ride a bike! I felt so accomplished by the end of the day!

Golden Hour

2010-07-20T14:27:00.000-07:00

Two days before Desiree left for China, we had a BBQ at Locarno Beach (although technically, it was way past Locarno and also past Spanish Banks). Unluckily for us, it happened to be the windiest day of the year. Not exaggerating one bit. It was CRAZY out there. In the morning, our recycling was being blown all over the backyard, Timmy Bahzle got blown off the porch onto the stairs, the waves at the beach were monstrous, and everytime we tried to eat, our hair would fly into our mouths instead. What a perfect day for a BBQ.

I did, however, arrive there at the golden hour so I got some nice pictures.

By the time it got dark, I was so fed up with being freezing cold, a couple of us sat in Megan's car for the rest of the night. We had butt warmers, suckas! We also had an unsuccessful bonfire on the beach but by then I think most people just wanted to get the hell out of there because it was pitch black outside and crazy windy. Afterwards, we went to Raymond's other house. His family bought the house, sold it, then recently bought it back. It was completely rundown, with broken floor tiles, dead bugs, and everyone had to share a quarter of a roll of toilet paper in the washroom. It felt like we were breaking into an abandoned house. We drank and played cards there and I ended up staying until 5am when it was already light out. We stayed for that long mostly because Chris was wasted (for the 3rd time in 4 days) and Desiree puked out of her car window and we couldn't do anything about them.

You want some Red Puss?

2010-07-12T10:52:00.000-07:00

The day before yesterday, I went to Jonathan's BBQ and it was such a good night! It was seriously the first time hanging out with my friends this whole summer and I missed them so much!

Desiree made grilled bell peppers for me! They were really good.

The whole time, Martin was like "shit, this is so homo!"

The best part of the night for me was at the end when people were tipsy/drunk and we all just sat there and talked and had a real heart-to-heart, yanno know? Haha, well sort of. It was mostly just really funny and laid back and that kind of atmosphere is the best ever. A lot of the time I forget how lucky I am to have friends like these but that night assured me of it.

Billy Miner

2010-07-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Wilby & I celebrated our one year anniversary on Tuesday! It was the second day of our recently godawfully hot days so first we had a mini fruit picnic in the big field at Renfrew. It was in that field where he first told me he liked me so of course we had to go back there! It was so hot and sunny but sooo nice to just lay there on a makeshift bedsheet picnic blanket in a big, quiet field on such a nice day. I gotta do that again, for sure, several times this summer!

Afterwards, we walked around Coal Harbour before our dinner at The Keg. I know, I know.. you're thinking The Keg is a steakhouse, what the hell is a vegetarian doing there! WELL, I thought the same thing. One look at that menu and I was kind of devastated that there were only 3 things in the appetizers that I could eat and the 3 salads that were meant to be sides/starters. The rest of the menu was meat. I thought it would be so embarassing if I ordered only an appetizer and a salad for dinner, totaling only about $13, whereas the meaty entrees were more in the range of $25-30. I settled for the grilled flatbread and spinach salad and when I ordered, our server wasn't even the tiniest bit surprised or condescending at what I just ordered! She was super friendly and later I realized that they still probably have at least several people a week who don't order the entrees, right?

Okay, now this next thing.. was so incredible it deserves two pictures from different angles. For dessert, I had the Billy Miner pie and holy crap, it was THE most amazing dessert I've ever had in my life.

It was mocha ice cream on a chocolate crust with fudge & caramel sauce and topped with almonds and a whole load of AMAZING ORGASM IN YOUR MOUTH SWEETNESS. Oh my god. This was definitely the equivalent of Wilson's blueberry pie from Raw Canvas, although in my opinion, this was better! I would go back just for this. If you ever go to The Keg, GET THIS. You NEED it in your life. And if you do, I really hope it was as good for you as it was for me otherwise I just set you up for a huge disappointment haha.

Happy one year, poopie! ♥

Timmy Bahzle

2010-07-09T10:17:00.000-07:00

I got my first sweet basil plant! Meet Timmy. Timmy Bahzle! He's not doing so well currently.. I think I'm already killing him but I hope his little leaves perk up soon! I'm transferring him to a bigger pot in the next few days.

I currently have 3 cameras in my possession. My D40 (left), a D50 (middle), and a D70 (right). I've decided to keep the D50! So that means my D40 is going away to a better home.. probably to someone who won't drop it as much as I did. The ultimate upgrade would be to a D90 but I definitely don't have the funds for that and I was just really tired of how the D40 couldn't autofocus old lenses. I wish I could keep the D70 but it's kind of a monster of a camera. My thumb can't reach the arrow pad when I'm holding the camera up to my face, which makes changing focus points too much of a hassle! I named my new camera Tobey. :) And I've since borrowed Wilson's 50mm f/1.8 because I finally have a camera that can focus it and it's amaaaaazing!

Ribbons

2010-07-02T12:00:00.000-07:00

For Canada's birfday, Wilby & I went for lunch at Raw Canvas, an art lounge + cafe + restaurant type thing with plenty of vegan & organic dishes. The decor was awesome, the ambiance was super chill, and the utensils were REALLY clever. I'm talking spoons shaped like lightning bolts and knives that are essentially just a single wave, yet they were all way more ergonomic than our conventional utensils. The other half of the restaurant is an art studio where you can buy a canvas and paint something as eccentric as the cafe itself. The whole place is also an art gallery, as I learned after I kept seeing people walk in, tour the place, and then leave without grabbing any nom. Wednesday nights are live nude life drawing night haha.

I tried the fresh thai wraps that were very good and very messy to eat.

Now this probably doesn't look like anything spectacular but Wilson wouldn't stop talking about how good his blueberry pie was. I think he drilled it pretty well in my head that it was amazing.

We'll definitely be returning to Raw Canvas! I want to try all their other desserts. All the fruits & veggies are organic & from a local farm!

Afterwards, we hit up Downtown and walked through masses of people all getting their Canada Day festivities on.

And there was this giant digital orca at the Convention Center!! Willy!

We laughed at all the people in the Convention Center posing for photos with their arms up in the air and we realized that they were posing like that to look like they were holding up the big Earth structure suspended from the roof. Tourist to the max! We also watched a stunning aerial silks demonstration/performance from this girl from the Vancouver Circus School. Someone also wouldn't stop talking about how nice her ass was. Love you too, honey.

Orchidaceae

2010-07-02T11:34:00.000-07:00

I made some pb&j muffins last week! They were sugar (besides the added sugar in the jam), dairy, & egg-free. I just made the appropriate substitions to an almond butter muffin recipe from Jessica@Healthy Exposures. I think they had potential to be good but with some adjustments on my part next time. I'd go with more jam, more peanut butter (I didn't know how to measure it because I didn't want to wait for it to melt so I ended up putting in too little), throw a banana or two in there, add figs, and try Stevia for a better sugar replacement than subbing all the sugar with honey because they didn't come out sweet enough. They were also really doughy and I didn't taste the peanut butter at all but that might have been because my all-natural peanut butter is a lot milder than regular ones. Okay, to be honest, they were really dry and tasted like doughy cardboard. But trial and error, right?! I plan on making more and coming up with a mix I like best.

Did you know that Stevia is an herb?! You can actually grow it yourself - I saw the seed packets at the grocery store! I had no idea. I thought it was just another spinoff of things like Splenda or something aspartame loaded. And it's supposed to be 100 times sweeter than sugar!

That same evening, I went to dinner at Moxie's with the girlies for Julia's birthday. I had a really bad salad (I discovered my hate for olives - they are so gross!) and we had a waitress with a really unwelcoming & hostile attitude. Afterwards, we walked to English Bay (yes, at 10pm and yes, all the way from Burrard) and just chilled and watched the final notes of the sunset. Oh, but not before getting a really yummy blood orange cocoa at 7-11! It was SO GOOD! Sitting at the beach at night was so nice and so refreshing. For the rest of the night, we played Balderdash at Julia's. I don't like board games but this was one was actually really fun. Probably because it didn't involve acting out stupid things or fake paper money.

Pesto Perpetuo

2010-06-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

I'm researching about growing my own container veggies & herbs. I was sort of dwindling on that idea for a while but after reading this article on container gardens in Martha Stewart (yeah, what), I want to do this up for real. I figure, 90% of the food I eat & buy are fruits & veggies and I'm running out of money with no income so why not grow my own, right? The thing with growing plants, for me anyway, is that I don't have any idea how they're feeling and what they want so I'm really iffy about knowing when I need to water them or when they've had enough sunlight, etc. With a dog or something, you'll know exactly when they're hungry or when they want to go outside or when they need to pee because they'll definitely let you know one way or another. Growing plants has always seemed so temperamental to me and I don't know if I'm going to do it right.

I'm certain I want to grow cherry tomatoes and herbs to start out. I'm looking at the Tiny Tim variety of tomatoes and mint, basil, thyme, and parsley for herbs. I'm super excited to do this but first, I need to figure out how to lug 20lbs. bags of soil and pots from Rona to my house without a car.

Misplaced Letters

2010-06-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

I've been on a huge Kafka on the Shore kick lately. It's such a good book. I can't wait until my midterm is over on Friday and can't wait until it gets warmer so I can just sit outside on some big field and read all day.

Cupcake Girl

2010-06-16T11:57:00.000-07:00

I've never posted art here before but then again, I've either never finished the art I start doing or I don't have time to start it in the first place or I don't like it.

One thing you might not know about me is that I used to be a Gaia addict. My friend Amanda (not you, Chu) introduced me to it in 8th grade and I was an avid player until about grade 10. I recently revisted the site for the first time in years! And something about Gaia is that beyond all the n00bs and trolls and internet dickbags, there are some really amazing artists. I've found artists I still follow on deviantart today. Being on Gaia again, gave me a huge urge to make stuff soooOo this was inspired by this Gaia avatar.

Here is the progression .gif because I thought it looked cool when put together.

I also made a new deviantart account here! Visit me! I had two other accounts previously, both of which had really stupid usernames (32fouettes & foulwords... really?). I also found my folder of really old drawings dating back to 2006 that I think I'm going to revisit and finish.

Cuteshi

2010-06-14T12:57:00.000-07:00

You guessed it: a food post. Wilby & I went Oyama Sushi Saturday and we were surprised to find that the restaurant was basically a house! It was a really nice place, the service was nice, and the food was really good. We ordered way too much food and had to get much of it packed to go for nummy dinner the next day. I got the veggie combo which consisted of a vegetable roll, sweet potato tempura roll, and avocado roll. Wilby got a bunch of shit haha. The avocado was my favourite & the potato croquettes were yummy too.

Oh, and this is the bunny I made Wilbers.

The City of Love

2010-06-07T11:10:00.000-07:00

I had bubble tea at Twinkle 2 with the girlies on Friday. I find that bubble tea places have the worst service ever. Maybe I'm expecting too much from 20-something-asian-run bbt restaurants. But seriously, they could at least smile once in a while or ask us what we want instead of coming up to the table and going "Yep." as a cue for us to start ordering.

I'm tired of bubble tea!

Wilson asked his friend who went to Paris to bring me back some things from the city I'm in love with! He gave me Godiva chocolates and a scarf. Hehheee, thank you! <3 I made him a bunny named Bunbun that his mom gave away behind his back haha.

Books I'm reading right now:

The Tales of Beetle the Bard by JK Rowling
No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

Miranda July's stories are so hella weird and make me uncomfortable. I feel like an awkward bystander eavesdropping & spying on someone's secret life when I read them. So far, I've crept into the lives of two 60-year-old gay men who get it on and one of them eats the other's jizz off the couch as well as the life of a girl who works at a peep show who makes love to her lesbian lover in a basement every night until she gets sick from wearing a wig for too long. I can just imagine the look on your face as you read that.

I haven't actually started Kafka on the Shore yet but I'm the most excited to read that one. I hear that Murakami is sort of a love or hate author. Some people think his writing is the most amazing thing ever and some think it's pretentious and boring. I hope I'm the former!

Mahogany

2010-06-05T16:16:00.000-07:00

All-natural peanut buttaah with apple slices & cinnamon on rye bread. Yummy!

Upchuck

2010-06-04T12:22:00.000-07:00

Chickpea, tomato, cucumber, flax seed mush on rye bread & roasted veggies. It tasted as bad as it looked.

I think my blog has turned into a collection of things I eat because it's about the only interesting thing I've been doing lately. Why doesn't it feel like summer yet?! I want to go outside and take pictures.

Night Before Last

2010-06-02T11:52:00.001-07:00

Salad with iceberg lettuce, cucumber, gala apple, kiwi, and ranch dressing. Am I the only one who's tongue feels really weird after eating kiwis?

My internet at home is broken so I've been staying at school for too long, in my opinion, to get all my online homework, internet, and blogging done. Class is actually surprising alright so far. We've been learning about optics in physics and we've had some homework due and had a quiz last week and it's been pretty good. I hope I didn't speak too soon. I just keep forgetting to go to my tutorial.

I've applied to be an animal care volunteer at the Wildlife Rescue Centre in Burnaby. I have an information session this Sunday and then hopefully an interview after that. If I can do well at the interview and they have room for another volunteer, then I'll be volunteering there once a week taking care of rescued & injured animals! I'm really excited and I really hope I can get the position. It would be a huge stepping stone into my future career if I decide to go into animal biology or some sort of conservation or marine biology field. The job descriptions I read for jobs I'd like to pursue more often than not require some sort of animal care experience.

I also applied for co-op. I don't intend to start co-op until next summer or fall but you're required to apply for the program at least 2 semesters ahead of time so I thought I'd do it now. I have a bunch of orientations and workshops in the coming days and I skimmed through some paperwork just now. Aaah!

Night Before Last Before Last

2010-06-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

Sunday's dinner. Roasted potatoes & carrots in olive oil, Italian dressing, & sweet basil with brown rice. I've never tried to roast anything before in my life! They were yummy. But I think potatoes are yummy no matter how you make them.

Rise The Roof

2010-05-31T11:13:00.000-07:00

Went to Mandy & Chris' birthday dinner at Joey's on Broadway night before the last. The service wasn't great.. at all, actually. And the food wasn't great either. The only thing I liked about my salad were the candied pecans which were kind of amazing but the rest of it was really mediocore. And even though the washroom was two floors, that was the only thing that stood out about it, it was nowhere NEAR as nice as the washrooms at the Yaletown Cactus Club or Moxie's on Davie. Those ones are nuts!

The beach salad with soy protein.

Bathroom pics, of course! That should be like a requirement of all girls whenever you're in a bathroom with friends and a camera.

Then, we ditched the guys and went to Amy's house so Mandy could open her gifts and have cake!

Cinnyminny

2010-05-31T11:09:00.000-07:00

I baked another pie! Well, it was more of an apple tart. It looked better than it tasted but I devoured it anyway with some help.

Cocomotion

2010-05-18T14:06:00.000-07:00

I started school last week and I'm taking Physics 102 this term. My professor has hair almost as long as mine and looks like Mr. Castilho from high school. I already missed a day of school yesterday within one week because I was so dizzy and couldn't walk more than a few feet without collapsing on something to take a break. Thus, I spent the entire day confined to the couch, mostly sleeping haha. I'm pretty sure it was attributed to the fact that I decided on a day's notice that I was going to become a vegetarian and my diet has been on a rollercoaster for the past few weeks (eating very little and then getting STUFFED because of eating out or something and then going back to eating very little to make up for the extra food I consumed out of guilt). Oopsies.

I've also been looking for a job (unsuccessfully) for the last few weeks. Ideally, I want to work at the aquarium but I've been stalking their job openings and nothing has been coming up that I'm qualified for or want to do. Next best thing would be to work at Science World or even at a summer camp. I think it might be too late to apply for summer camp jobs though seeing as I haven't come across many. Other than those, I'd want to work at Chapters or a small bookstore or a small cafe type of thing (not Starbucks) but those usually require you to have a foodsafe certification which I don't have.

Saturday

2010-05-11T18:11:00.000-07:00

Went to the farmers' market at Trout Lake. Went home with organic cucumbers and a baguette that has since turned rock hard. I also tried Brie for the first time. The rind was strange and mushroomy and sort of tasted & smelled like dirty dishes.

I've taken an interest in cooking lately and all I can think about all the time is food and what I'm going to eat each day. It's seriously a very pressing concern that has been keeping me up at night haha. I've saved a hundred recipes that I'm going to print off to make a book once I get back to school (which would be tomorrow). I want to make pretty cupcakes next! Once I find out where to buy piping tips!

A Third of Life

2010-05-03T18:55:00.000-07:00

Wilby & I went to see the grad show at Emily Carr the other day which was really impressive. I thought the design projects were especially well done and they looked so professional! Likewise, in the fine arts sections, there were so many pretty and mindblowing things to look at.

My favourite painting in the whole show.

Loved these photos a lot.

Looks like a pile of autumn leaves, right? Well, they're ceramic. CERAMIC!!!

Not pictured are most of the industrial design projects but they were some of the best.

Then we looked around the for La Baguette et L'Echalote bakery because I wanted to try their double baked almond croissants that I heard were great. But when we found the bakery, they were sold out of almond croissants! I guess they're not a well kept secret. So I went with the pain au chocolat instead. It was disappointing though. Wilby had a mango cheesecake.

Keiko

2010-04-29T22:40:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a year since I've been able to just walk around my neighbourhood and take photos of anything. A few days ago, the weather was so nice! We had rain for most of the week so I took the chance to go out on a photowalk. How I've missed these!

We also had a Free Willy marathon on VHS (so old school!!!) at Emily's house, to which I wore my extremely appropriate whale shirt. I think I know what I want to do with my biology degree now.

Oui Oui

2010-04-24T15:26:00.000-07:00

One of those little perfume sample pages came in the flyers yesterday and I was reminded of how much I love the Miss Dior Chérie campaign. Sofia Coppola is a genius and definitely one of my idols. She has such impeccable taste and delicate but empowering style that I adore (think back to her Marie Antoinette, ohmygosh!). Her Miss Dior Chérie commercial is my favourite commercial of all time. These are some images from the 2008 & 2010 campaign + her commercial. They're so wonderful and charming and girly and Parisian! I've been addicted to everything French lately.

That completely describes how I wish my life could be like everyday! Looking at these ads makes me want to buy the perfume just to look at (because it'd probably smell like a wet dog on me) & dream of Paris! ♥

I finished my last exam today! Hooray! Now I'm free to do as I please for the next 2 weeks. Wilby is in China right now, for a week and a bit, so this week is pretty much all me-time. Hmm, what to do, what to do! I think I want to accomplish at least one crafty thing & change my blog layout.

After these 2 weeks, I'm back to school. For summer term, I'm taking Physics 102 for 3 days a week. Not too bad.. but then again, it's physics we're talking about. Any amount of it is enough to make bunnies cry. There are a lot of things I want to do this summer so I hope I'll have enough time to do them whilst going to school.

Sweatshop

2010-04-11T10:56:00.000-07:00

4 days of school left, 14 days until I'm finished my last exam of the term. My lack of updates, lack of photos, and lack of everything fun in general has been attributed to the fact that I don't have time!! Here's a peek into our little sweatshop of schoolwork.

Wilby has been slaving away on the sewing machine doing his soft product project and I've been taking neverending bio notes, among many other things. :(

I can't until summer so I can wallpaper & redo my room!

Nineteen

2010-04-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

I turned 19 on the 3rd! That day, Wilby came over for a bit for lunch and then we went to run some errands around Broadway. For lunch, I ordered sushi from Nikkyu for delivery for the first time. So yummy! I read some bad reviews about long delivery times and lost orders but my delivery guy came within the time they estimated it would take & he was also very, very nice! I love how you can order everything online and within minutes of submitting your order, they call you to confirm. That makes is so easy especially for people like me who take forever to decide what I want. Their smoked salmon mango roll was really interesting! I want to try more of their specialty rolls next time.

Then we went to a bunch of places along Broadway and Main. We stopped by MEC to check out how their hydrapacks were made (for his project), Outdoor Innovations to buy fabric, to his school & Opus to pick up some stuff, and then we went to Broadway Camera so I could pick up my birthday present to myself! I got an ML-L3 remote for my camera! Woohoo! I've been wanting this since last year and I remember making a blog post about it too a year ago.

My crafty set up for this shot: a big piece of white paper on my desk & against my wall, my floor lamp camera right, and a handheld flashlight that you recharge by cranking camera left. Haha, not too bad for ghetto equipment!

Later that night, Wilby came for dinner and we also watched The Hurt Locker on DVD. It was a good movie, really intense and kind of astonishing & disturbing, but well done.

The next day, my friends and I had an impromptu bubble tea hang out that was sort of for my birthday and sort of just to hang out. I wanted to do something for real for my birthday! :< But anyways, I really wasn't expecting gifts at all but they were all so sweet.

Tripod from Emily & Desiree, a beer from Desiree (hahahhaa), a bunny named Superfly from Amanda, and P.S. I Love You & a funny card from Megan! THANK YOU ALL! Superfly's under my arm as I type this and he just came back from a "sleepover" upstairs with my brother because he loves him so much and wants to steal him from me & my tripod is still attached to my camera and I'm making lots of use out of it - it goes PERFECTLY with the remote I got!!

I forgot to tell you what my boyfriend gave me! A new computer monitor!! And a skipping rope from Lululemon for summer cardio & a 5 lbs dumbbell because I'm a big, strong man! :D

La Petite Mort

2010-03-28T20:57:00.000-07:00

This is so stunning I can't even describe it! I'm sitting here watching it while eating my dinner and I feel like I'm skipping every other breath because I'm gasping at how beautiful it is. Oh my god. It's all of strength, beauty, fluidity, and grace combined. I wish I could dance that! Performed by the Netherlands Dance Theatre & choreographed by Jiri Kylian!

The first part to this two part performance is just as stunning.

Amanda says post more

2010-03-27T13:05:00.000-07:00

So I am! Two weeks ago, I went to the photo session by UPhoto. Overall, it was okay. It definitely wasn't as spectacular as I was anticipating and I didn't get very many good shots. I think if UPhoto organized it better and thought things out more, it would have been pretty decent. It was really difficult shooting 2-3 models alongside 30 other photographers. If they had just set up stations and broke us off into groups so each group could shoot a single model in one area and rotated us, I think that would have been much more efficient. Also, why were all the models hongers?! The model selection wasn't very smart and there was very clear bias towards the more attractive model as my photos (and I'm sure everyone else's photos) will demonstrate hahaha.

Winnie & Amy. We were shooting with a reflector but against a less than desirable background.

Then we went outside to shoot in the courtyard. Again, not a very nice backdrop unless you have an f/1.4 or something to work a slushy bokeh out of the unattractive surroundings.

These are all the models. They were supposed to represent the 4 seasons.

This was my only favourite part. Working with the studio lights! Even though I was kind of nervous and didn't get enough shots, it was really cool just to use them and the effect they gave was so different than anything I've ever seen!

That's all from the shoot!

I just finished my last psyc midterm on Thursday, HOORAY! And my birthday is coming up next week and I was planning on having a picnic with all my friends but I think I've concluded that the weather right now isn't very permitting for a picnic so I don't think I'll be doing anything. I kind of want summer now! :(

Raining Bunnies

2010-03-22T21:37:00.000-07:00

I don't think my bunny Bill has ever made an appearance on my blog before. Here he is! When I have a job and my own home, I'm going to adopt a real bunny and name it Pikachu. Just kidding. But I want a bunny for sure, seeing as I can't keep a whale as a pet or cuddle with them either.

I made a formspring today because that's what all the trendy people on the internet are doing. If you don't know what it is, it's pretty much just where anyone can ask you about anything or get in contact with you without using email. I don't know why anyone would want to know anything in particular about me but here it is!

Yesterday, Wilby & I went to Ikea because he had to look at lights for his project. I ended up leaving with a paper desk shelf thing, a laundry hamper, and a lightbulb. I can't seem to stop spending money as of late. :/ But I LOVE Ikea! I wish I could redecorate my whole room!

My post about Wednesday's photo session will be up as soon as I finish editing the pictures and finish this week's worth of schoolwork! My last midterm is on Thursday! Hallelujah! But final exams proceed shortly after. :( Please be over soon, school!

Russell

2010-03-14T19:12:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Wilby brought Rupert's friend home! Meet Russell! He's a cutie!

That same day, I also found a pair of $12 jeans at Forever 21 hahaha.

In other news:
#1: It snowed for the first (sort of, but I like to think the last time didn't count because it was hardly anything) time this whole season a few days ago! The sight of it was totally weird - all the cherry blossoms were covered in snow. We haven't had any substantial snow all winter and it doesn't look like we're going to for the remainder of it, which is completely out of character for Vancouver.

#2: Amy's back from LA! We spent Friday going to Richmond to pick her up, browsing Value Village for my first time, and having dinner at Boston Pizza, also for my first time.

#3: The 2010 Paralympics have started in Vancouver. I don't feel as much of a buzz in the city as with the Olympics but nevertheless, they're here!

#4: I'm going to a photoshoot session at SFU on Wednesday, held by UPhoto, and I'm very excited! I'll be learning how to use lighting equipment & ambient light and be shooting actual models in an indoor & outdoor setup. You'll definitely be seeing the outcome of that soon!

Last of the Olympics

2010-03-11T18:46:00.004-08:00

Here are the last of my Olympics pictures! So sad to be finished with them. These are from February 25th when Sam, Wilby, & I went to check out the pavillions around Science World. We waited for really long time to get into the Sochi Centre, only to be greeted by pretty emotionless & unenthusiastic, borderline pissed off hosts.

Here I am signing the 22nd book of autographs this guy handed us. He said it's for the Guinness World Records for the most autographs received hahahha. I hope he made it!

This Russian mascot (not an official Sochi 2014 mascot, however) made a very well-received appearance while we waited in line. It was SO CUTE! It's name is Cheburashka.

Found via Vancouver Is Awesome.

Overall, the Vancouver Olympics were amazing. I've never felt our city so united and so happy. I encountered some of the nicest strangers from Canada and from around the world who would break into conversation with you like they had known you forever while we waited in line ups. The spirit in the streets, in the air, and even just sitting at home watching the games on TV was exhilarating. You could FEEL the buzz of excitement in everyone. The games themselves were incredible. Hella 14 golds!! The Canada vs USA hockey game was practically worth like 5 gold medals itself. The Olympics knocked me upside the head and made me realize that wow, this city is really beautiful - something that I've always known but never really acknowledged. I'm so proud to be living in Vancouver. We pulled it off flawlessly! I'm so proud to say that I AM CANADIAN!

A Pictorial Representation

2010-03-08T19:42:00.000-08:00

Button

2010-02-28T04:08:00.000-08:00

On the 20th, Wilson, Sam, Jeff, & I went to the Richmond Ozone. We got there super early before Ozone even opened so we killed some time at Richmond Centre & Starbucks. I had introduced him to the green tea frappucino the day before. By the time we went back to Ozone, the line was massive. When we got in, there wasn't a whole lot to do but it was a beautiful day and I would have just liked to lie in the field in sun. We did line up for the BCLC dome though while Sam & Jeff went ice skating because that's where you get those fake athlete card things. Very amusing.

HERE'S THE EXCITING PART. As we were leaving, Wilson spotted two bunnies chasing each other across the creek thing we were walking along. Needless to say, I squealed my head off and we spent a good half an hour going to the other side of the creek where there were SO MANY BUNNIES EVERYWHERE. I was taken by one particular one, a black bunny with one white paw. I named him Button! I spent most of my time with Button and I even fed him with bread that this nice lady gave us while walking by! He was the cutest thing ever! When he heard our camera shutters clicking, he would bolt right up to the camera and sniff around it. ADORABLE! That place is amazing. I've never ever seen wild bunnies in real life before! That was the highlight of my week! Get ready for cuteness.

This is Button! I wanted to take him home with me!!

Later that night, I went to Amanda's 19th. I got to meet Rachel who apparently looks like me (I don't see it). We bitched about speed skating on TV, attempted to play a board game called Dirty Minds, and played hide and seek in the dark around the block. The first time Desiree & I hid in the little space in Amanda's fence, we were found within pretty much 30 seconds. Our second spot was ridiculously awesome and no one would ever find us unless they turned the neighbourhood upside down. Aww yeah.

Mukmukmukmuk

2010-02-24T15:10:00.000-08:00

On the 19th, Wilson, Sam, Jeff, and I went to Livecity Yaletown but quickly learned that the line up would be over 40 minutes to get in because there was a concert going on so we went to Livecity Downtown instead. After a pretty long wait, we got in but there was pretty much nothing to do inside. We started lining up to take pictures with Quatchi & Miga but midway into the line up, they left because they were off work or something. I was so disappointed! So we got out of there and the only other thing worth looking at in there was Manitoba house but even that wasn't very interesting.

So then we went to Waterfront to see the cauldron again because they changed the fence so that there was a slot for pictures. About a day after this, we learned that they had changed the fencing yet again to plexiglass. Which I suppose would be better for touristy shots and for aethestics but not great for photos of the flame itself (reflections!). So it was a good thing we went to see it again before they changed it.

There are cherry blossoms in Vancouver already! It's only February! It's kind of ridiculous. Not that I'm complaining, of course!

On the right is my brother's Mukmuk collection. I've got a bit of a Quatchi indulgence myself. So cute!

We were made for this

2010-02-15T22:21:00.000-08:00

For Valentine's Day, I baked Wilby an apple pie. And if you know me, you'd know that I can't cook for shit. This was clearly evident when I broke the oven door off of the oven the first time I tried to close it. I think that's lol-worthy. In the picture it looks pretty disgusting but I think it was pretty damn decent for a first time ever! He got me Quatchi & flowers! And if you knew him, you'd know that he would never step into a florist shop himself, let alone pick out flowers! I love you!

Afterwards, we went to Waterfront and Burrard to explore the Olympicness. When we first stepped outside Waterfront, we saw this torchbearer with his torch taking pictures with people so of course we went for a picture with the torch too. We were skeptical though because his torch didn't really look burned and he didn't have a number on his uniform. Then we went to see the flame outside the Convention Centre, Pan Pacific for a quick round, and down Gastown for the touristy shops. So much excitement downtown! It was a drag getting on skytrains because they're all packed but I think it's worth it. Come on, it's the freaking Olympics! It's all just part of the experience.

We are the true north strong and free

2010-02-14T19:28:00.000-08:00

Friday marked the start of my 2-week Olympic Break and since then, I've been getting a huge Olympics spirit kick. On Thursday, Megan, Sohrab, and I left Biology early to catch the torch run going through our school. This was my first taste of the whole Vancouver 2010 hype and I loved it. The relay took place at the lower bus loop and the entire school on that side was lined with students & non-students who came up here to see the torch. People were spilling into the roads as buses and cars and cops tried to drive up through the crowds. When the torchbearers finally came following a parade of Coca Cola trucks and security, we managed to be standing at a prime spot along the bus loop to see the exchange of the flame! The torchbearer receiving the flame was a 3rd year SFU student, Obi Vattanawong. As Obi ran by, I also got pushed by a cop for standing too close haha!

That same night, I went with Megan & Jonathan, and later Desiree, Marie, & Irish to see Michael Buble carry the torch. We thought it was on the Burrard Street Bridge but after getting semi-lost for a while, we finally realized that it was in Yaletown, right up the street from Livecity. We nabbed an early spot along the road and I went down to Livecity to check out the festivities. Sooo much excitement! There were sponsor booths all down the block, people giving out free stuff, long line ups, and so many people sporting Canadian pride! When Michael Buble came through with the torch, it was really just a blur of people because he had so much security running alongside him and everyone around him was yelling and trying to get closer. We ran down to Livecity after him where he passed the flame to the last torchbearer of the day before the cauldron. After that, Buble was ushered through the masses of people by security and I was literally like a foot away from him. Haha! Then we all watched the cauldron being lit inside Livecity on the large screen outside the venue, followed by fireworks. It was seriously an amazing feeling to be watching all of that happen right before my eyes. I wasn't really super excited about the Olympics until this day.

On Friday, the 12th, I went down to Granville Island to meet up with Wilson after his class to catch the torch relay through his school. After they came through Emily Carr, we followed the torch to the Granville Island ferry docks where the torch traveled by dragon boat across False Creek to the Yaletown ferry docks. After the torch was out of sight, Wilson & I went to watch Paradise Insitute at Emily Carr's Code 2 Exhibit which was hella weird, creepy, avant garde type of thing that freaked me out. Then we went through the market to look at things. I love the market! It's so fresh & homely feeling.

Later that day, we watched the Olympics opening ceremony at his house. It was pretty amazing even despite the fail of a torch lighting at the end haha. But what can yah do. I really can't believe this is all actually happening in our city.

Party Animal

2010-01-24T02:11:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, I went to Jimmy's 19th party at his house. There were tons of people there in a relatively small space for 40+ people! I spent most of the night sitting away from all the action (puking included) like a loser and hang out with Isa & Rishal & others who came and went. These things always make me feel like I don't know how to have fun. Are they supposed to do that to you?

Loving you is cherry pie

2010-01-11T02:46:00.001-08:00

The only three artists I would want to see live:
John Mayer
Regina Spektor
Lady Gaga

Yes, Lady Gaga. I've developed an affinity for her music & her stage presence lately. That woman has got an incredible voice. The music she makes is her own decision but you'd have to be deaf to deny that she has some serious talent. She's a nutcase and I love it. It's so stupid that she gets shunned for being different. Honestly? Have you actually heard her sing & seen her perform?! She's an artist who would no doubt be even more amazing live.

Must watch:

Lady Gaga (then, Stefani Germanotta) at her NYU Talent Show circa 2005

Lady Gaga's Viva La Vida cover at Live Lounge - what struck me was how she made the song entirely her own & didn't try to make it anything "better" than Coldplay's original, just her own

Her performance of Speechless live - perfect example of her stage presence that I can't stop watching

I dare you to tell me she's not mindblowing after watching those.

Silk

2010-01-10T10:08:00.000-08:00

Here's something for your heart & soul. The Ballerina Project. Meticulate photographs of dancers mashed against the urban backdrop of New York City. I would love to be able to afford their prints because these images seriously take my breath away every single time. You can see a lot more of their work on their facebook page where I was also first introduced to them.

Hemingway

2010-01-10T01:01:00.001-08:00

Since I haven't really been taking any pictures recently because I'm back at school, here's a delectable spread from this month's W Magazine. I'm in love with the colour palette & dresses here!

What I've been up to so far in 2010:

Had New Years' Day dinner with some of my relatives.

Had a "sleepover" at Emily's house where we watched Santa Clause 1 & 2, went for a McDicks run, made fun of people on facebook, and left leaving only two people to actually sleepover.

Was reinforced of my realization of how terrible my computer monitor is and how all my pictures are way too light & washed out on all other monitors. That sucks some major butt because no one is seeing what I see and how I want my pictures to look like!

Went ice skating at Killarney with Wilby which was really fun. I'm going to teach him how to fly!

Lost my student ID/library card & old upass somewhere and had to get my ID replaced for $20! Lamesauce.

Went back to school and discovered that Psychology is very confusing and contradictory to my strictly Biology based mindset. Also discovered that my work habits are a very poor no-no and they must change! It really feels like I've somehow lost my ability to read more than two sentences in one sitting.

Other than that, I really don't like being back at school and would much rather be doing something else but I guess I have to stop being such a whiney kid and suck it up because I have 4+ more years to go.

I also find it funny that someone found my blog by googling "perogies sour cream".

The Best of 2009

2010-01-01T01:09:00.000-08:00

A few hours late but I managed to put together a collection of 2009! While going through all these pictures, I was amazed at how much I actually did this year.

This year, I continued working with Student Council with all our events, notably the clothing drive fashion show, Midnight Masquerade, and the pep rally. We had our really rough times especially near the end of the year, but overall, I think we hyped up the presence of Student Council a lot at our school. I also completed my work experience term at CanTest Laboratories, got my admission letter from SFU, worked with a semi-failure of a Grad Committee, celebrated Amanda's birthday with a birthday-turned-make-up party, and watched Slumdog Millionaire. Not to mention, I got to travel to the most incredible place - Europe! I still can't believe I was actually there. We traveled through Paris, Cannes, Montecarlo, Monaco, Nice, Pisa, Montecatini, Florence, Venice, Verona, Milan, and everywhere in between. We shared so many memories here that we'll never have again. There's something about spending 11 days with the same group of people, 24 hours a day, that builds some strange and magical bonds between everyone in the group. I haven't had enough of Europe yet and I can't wait to go back!

This year, I turned 18 and I still look like I'm 10. I had my first photoshoot with Mary which opened up a whole new side of photography for me. I also sucked it up and did what I had told myself I'd accomplish when I was in maybe grade 10 - I danced in the Grad Showcase. It was definitely not the brightest idea I've had and I probably made a fool of myself but it's what I told myself to do before I graduated so I did it. There. We took Emily out for an impromptu photoshoot where we were really just dicking around and had a lot of fun being our weird selves and having good times! I was reacquainted with Wilson from the previous year and I joined in on their photo trips - the first of which was to YVR and our next trip was to the Grouse Grind. Our Physics 12 class had our annual Playland trip which was mostly a photo op because I'm not a fan of the scary shit-your-pants-fall-off-crack-your-head-open rides at all. And all the girls had more get-togethers at Mary's and at Kathy's.

Amy & Desiree planned a grad get-together at New Brighton Park which was wonderful! And then... we freaking graduated. Prom came hurtling at us and with that, also came the afterparty and our weekend at the Sheraton. Commencement then yielded nervous jitters, a sense of exhilaration, and a wonderful dinner & special spot sharing afterwards. Project Graduation was a mass of fun and definitely something we'll never ever be able to have again. We also celebrated Amy's birthday and prowled the nightmarket like I never thought I would ever willingly want to do. Student Council had their last of get-togethers at the staff luncheon and at Costa's house. We celebrated Julia's birthday and I was introduced to the world of Rockband for the first time. We had another photo trip, this time to Steveston and then around Richmond with Mr. Tam. I had a re-acquaintance with Rockband when our summer crew started hanging out regularly over the summer. You take several of the most unlikely friends, throw them all together to hang out all summer, and you get all kinds of lazy wonderful.

Summer marked the start of awesome. Wilson & I got together and we started a series of adventures. We went to the Yaletown Grand Prix on Canada Day where I panned cyclists for the first time and watched the fireworks from the Burrard Street Bridge. We had awesome photoshoots with Kathy at QE and then Holly around Waterfront. Wilson joined all of us for the HSBC Celebration of Lights Canada fireworks which were absolutely magical, especially because the early birds nabbed us a fantastic spot on the beach. We had another photo trip to the Greater Vancouver Zoo & Pitt Lake which were highly disappointing and held on one of the hottest days too. We went for a round two of fireworks when we watched the China display which was partly ruined by the potheads in front of us and the inconvenient spot we decided to take on the beach. Wilson & I also took a trip to my old love, the aquarium! A whole bunch of us surprised Leanh & Vanda with a birthday party at Kathy's house which became ridden with pukers by a mere 9pm. Our next photo trip was to Whistler & then British Properties by night which wasn't so great for pictures as it was just for hanging out and fun times. The girls started our night adventures to QE Park at night where we scared ourselves silly. Our summer crew continued hanging out over Rockband and Taboo. Wilson & I watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when it came out which can't ever turn out to be a bad thing. We also held a surprise going away party for Amy before she left for LA. Tears!

Wilson & I road the Canada Line, went for a really nice walk at Lynn Valley, toured Emily Carr, went to the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, went to Anita's birthday party, went to Bright Nights where I froze all my body parts off, and had our fantastic Winter photo trip to Olympic Village. Everyone else went for some bowling & bubble tea, a BBQ at Raymond's house where I met Tofu, had Thanksgiving dinner at Swiss Chalet, and went for sushi at Kingsway Sushi with just the girls. I also went for my first haircut since a few years ago. I struggled through my first term of university and then everything became wonderful again once winter break began and Amy & Julia came back home. We had our Christmas dinners and spread love all around.

So many more things this year happened that weren't pictured, including my 3 weeks of dance intensive at Harbour Dance, many more Wail adventures, many more chill times with friends, when I lost my two front teeth, and all the killjoys university brings with it.

I think 2009 was my favourite. I got so much closer with my friends and met many more new ones. I traveled to amazing Europe with great people. I found a boy to love. I watched the best meteor shower ever. I left high school and everyone in it and started a new life at university. I danced my heart out this summer. I conquered fears & accomplished many of the goals I set to be completed before I left high school. I had countless adventures and fun times. I took a heck of a lot of pictures. Yeah, I think I lived this year to the absolute fullest. No regrets whatsoever!

Happy 2010! May this new year bring even more memories and friends and love and joy and happiness!

Lights Will Guide You Home

2009-12-30T21:45:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we had our winter photo trip to Olympic Village/False Creek. Even Mr. Tam joined us on the trip. It was a lot fun, despite a faulty tripod that I eventually ditched and just improvised with things I could place my camera on, the fact that most of Olympic Village was fenced off, and the deathly cold weather. We walked all along False Creek & on Cambie Street Bridge and got some amazing night shots when it got dark. Then we went to Cactus Club in Yaletown for dinner. My butternut squash ravioli was disappointing but dinnertime itself was fun. I decided to shoot this trip completely in manual & only RAW for the first time and I couldn't be more glad that I did. I'm extremely happy with the images I got out of this shoot!

As for the rest of winter break, I've been working on a logo which is frustrating and something I think I'm going to put down for a while until I have a substantial idea & amount of time. I've also been watching episodes of Glee from the most recent season! Hello? Most fun show ever?! Other than that, I've gone to prowl Daiso with Wilson, been less crafty than I had planned to be, and spent copious amounts of time on the computer editting pictures, blogging, and catching up on all the things I couldn't do when I had school. For the rest of winter break, I'm still hoping to go ice skating, finish Glee, and hang out with my friends more (sleepover!).

I also got the last of my grades in from last term. Surprisingly, I didn't fail anything! The only mark I'm actually proud of is my A- in General Biology 102 because that's the only class that wasn't scaled at all so I know for a fact that I got that mark all on my own! It's not much, but looking at how I've done in all my other courses, I think it's quite the accomplishment! Biology can never let me down!

Sleigh Ride

2009-12-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! On Christmas Eve's Eve, Wilson & I went to Joey's for dinner and then to Bright Nights. We bumped into Mr. Tam at Bright Nights with his family which was such a coincidence! Unfortunately, after waiting a while in the ridiculously long line up, we found out that tickets to the train ride were actually sold out already and the line was for people who already had tickets. Oh well! We just walked around the rest of the light's display and left when my fingers froze off.

Oh Christmas day, I went over to Wilson's to exchange gifts, make perogies for his family dinner, and then went to dinner at his grandma's house. The Sweetest gave me the bunny mittens I saw at the SFU bookstore, headphones for next door's "problem", and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince DVD! THANK YOU!! I love them! The dinner was great! We got to hang out with his cousins for most of the time. His cousin Brian was hilarious!

Perogies & Sour Cream

2009-12-21T23:55:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, we had our annual Christmas dinner at Mary's house. The Sweetest came over earlier to help me make perogies for the dinner! :) We had a LOT of food there and then did our little gift exchange game. I ended up with a present from Emily and they were socks & a poster! They are so warm & fuzzy! I'm wearing them right now! Thanks! Desiree ended up with the gift I brought and I don't know how she liked the beanie thing or if she would ever wear it but we joked that even if she didn't wear it, Cory would. It was hilarious how everyone picked gifts based on their weights and how everyone was after this one present that Amy brought because it was the heaviest.

Some of them decided to watch Awake and seeing as how I'm chickenshit, I booked it out of Mary's room when they finally figured out how to play the DVD. All the wusses went to the living room and played Clue! It took us forever to figure out how to play the game and when we did, I ended up screwing the game up because I forgot I had the knife card so that led everyone into thinking that was the weapon because I never showed it to anyone. Teehee. This is why I don't like board games.

Huzzah, cool socks!

Awoo took thisa one and some of the others!

Lovelove. ♥

Boba

2009-12-20T02:00:00.000-08:00

Amy's home! Amy's home! We all got together tonight because Amy just came back for winter break from LA after 4 months. We also saw Julia yesterday after her arrival from LA! Winter break is bringing all our friends back together for the holidays! It makes me all warm & fuzzy inside :)

XY

2009-12-16T15:36:00.000-08:00

CAN YOU BELIEVE I'M FINALLY CAUGHT UP WITH ALL MY PREVIOUS BLOG POSTS?! I am finally blogging to you in real time again. The term finally ended as of yesterday and seeing as I haven't had the time or energy to take any pictures or write these last few months, I'll just give you a summary.

My first term at SFU was probably the most disappointing event of my life. Besides my great Biology class, I felt like I was just cramming more and more information into my head that was already maxed out. Physics was the worst one. I understood nothing and I'm 99% sure I failed it unless some kind of ridiculously massive scaling happens. The prof didn't teach you anything you actually needed to know, the homework was irrelevant and unfair, the textbook was useless, and the TA could hardly speak English. School was just this neverending cycle of consuming information (or I should say, being consumed by information) that couldn't be processed and couldn't fit. And if it didn't fit, well, then you better fucking make it fit otherwise you're fucked and no one can help you on that one. It was sick. I hate the feeling of working just for the sake of having something down on paper to hand in and leaving the fate of your grade to luck & a lot of scaling no matter how much you think you know your stuff. It really made me sick - just disgusted at the system universities function on. I had superiorly better teachers & better organized curricula in high school, free education, than here. I've come to realize that I was not made for higher education at all.

As if learning itself wasn't enough, I also had a little accident in November that involved Chemistry, a bench, loss of consciousness, and some teeth. I should probably spare you the details but at least now I have a great icebreaker story. "HEY, did I tell you about the time I broke my face?!"

I also joined several clubs at the beginning of the year including Ballroom Club which I quickly booked it out of once school started giving me a mindfucking and when I couldn't stand this annoying new acquaintance in the club anymore. Donald & I met Jonathan & Michelle in our Biology lab and I definitely owe it to them for making the labs and lecture and studying not so much of a pain in the ass. We had lots of fun times and priceless funny moments. Thanks guys! We are all unfortunately off in very different directions next term so I'll miss our ridiculous antics very soon!

Here is my tentative schedule for next term:

Now that school is over for a few weeks, I finally have the time to do all the things I haven't been able to do! I'm super excited for this break and I really just want to take it slow and do all the things I actually love. Here are some of the more pressing things I'm hoping to accomplish this break:

Brand my prospective photography business

Design a logo

Make some crafty things from my list of ideas

Re-design my blog

Make & sell some prints

Design a portfolio site (a hefty project!)

And of course, see Willie & all my friends!!!

Siamese Twins

2009-12-16T14:09:00.000-08:00

October 11: Our summer crew went out to Swiss Chalet for Thanksgiving dinner + Amy's belated birthday! Here are some photos of us being asian.

After dinner, we ditched the guys and went to Megan's house and played Wii (for my first time!) and watched gross (& interesting) documentaries. That's the life.

Little Secrets

2009-12-16T04:05:00.000-08:00

September 26: Wilson & I went to Anita's birthday party! Although, technically it's also Wilson's party because he shares the same birthday. We had dinner at Section 3 where there were naked people everywhere. Seriously, the first thing you see when you sit down is this giant topless wall hanging & all the menus have gurls on them. But anyway, I thought it was really cool that they had a live DJ set and the best part was definitely the music blasting that night. It was great meeting Roxie & Anita formally and seeing some people I previously knew by name.

After dinner, we went to Anita's house which was just another photo opportunity and a chance to watch everyone's drunk personality come out. Let me remind you that there are the happy drunks, the angry drunks, the funny drunks, the annoying drunks, and the knocked out drunks. Willie & I left when the first person of the night threw up haha.

Let me explain this photo above. Anita was taking a shot called the Blowjob that you take... well, like that.

If Andrew was in the middle, they'd be LAG, lol.

Hijacked these ones from Wilson :)

Swimming Towards Dreams

2009-12-16T02:16:00.000-08:00

September 6: For our 2 months, Willie showed up at my door with a painting for me that he had been working on for the longest time! Two of my favourite things + something symbolically beautifully! The first time I said he should paint me a painting, I was entirely joking. But a few months later.. the single most thoughtful gift is produced! He titled it 'Swimming Towards Dreams'. THANK YOU SO MUCH, BUMFACE! Then he put it up for me in my new room a few weeks later and now it's proudly sitting on the wall next to me :)

We then finally made our trip to the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre! Unfortunately, we ended up getting there an hour before they closed so we only had to time to watch this show in the planetarium that dragged on and on so we booked it outta the theatre with like 15 minutes left before closing and went to see what else there was to play with. So.. I was majorly disappointed. The "rest" of the planetarium was pretty much this room the size of classroom with a few artifacts behind glass and some computer simulators that didn't work. I've been to the space centre once before and I remember it being a lot more exciting than this. Although that might have been due to the fact that I was maybe seven and the only part I remember was how cool it was listening to the big electronic voice speak out of nowhere in the theatre.

The spinny thing on the right was about as exciting as it got.

After that, we braved a gloomy & rainy walk through Granville Island and then went to Moxie's for dinner. We also have a habit of getting really excited over goodlooking restaurant washrooms. The one at Moxie's was reaaaally nice, but I still think the Yaletown Cactus Club one takes the cake.
♥

Yapanese

2009-12-16T01:58:00.000-08:00

September 5th: Amy, Emily, Mandy, and I went for sushi at Kingsway Sushi! It was lots of laughs, a LOT of food, and fun times seeing as the 4 of us have never hung out like that. We also resorted to hiding a lot of food that we couldn't eat/didn't want to eat (like that Alaskan roll that I ordered thinking it was something else). But onto food pictures! So yummmmy! (By the way, these are from my first time shooting in RAW in forever! I decided to re-acquaint myself with it and now I'm hooked. So good!)

Tofu

2009-11-21T21:19:00.000-08:00

August 28th: Wilson & I went to Lynn Canyon Park! It was really nice there! We went to the suspension bridge, of course, and found the 30-Foot Pool where we saw these crazies jumping off the rocks into the water. I'm just taking a blind stab at this but I'm guessing it was, oh, I don't know, 30 feet up with plenty of boulders to smash your head on along the way. They were so interesting, we watched what crazy things they would do next for a while. Lynn Canyon was wonderful just to be surrounded by nature and not have to think about anything outside of it!

Later in the day, I went to Raymond's BBQ which he planned & paid for all by himself. My gosh, thank you!! We did all the obligatory BBQ activities and later in the night, we jammed & danced around in the dark to Eric's music while the others played cops & robbers around the neighbourhood! I even asked Eric to teach me popping but he wasn't very helpful. I can't imagine ever being able to do that stuff naturally. My body just definitely doesn't move that way. When it started raining, we moved everything indoors and discovered hamster Tofu! Tofu got tired of playing so Desiree tried to teach me how to play the guitar and Megan taught me how to play Chopsticks on the piano! Sadly, I'm not very musically inclined. Thanks for the efforts.

This tough guy on the left here wasn't so tough when it came to crossing that suspension bridge. I think that might even be an understatement.

I now have to bombard you a lot of photos of our cute hamster friend, Tofu, Raymond's hamster!! The cutie was super speedy - Emily & I had to form a barricade with our legs around the area Tofu was running around in. Despite our efforts, he would still try to climb over our legs or squirm through any gap he found! I also had my first encounter with massive hamster balls. No kidding. Tofu's a big guy.

Desiree's reaction to being in close proximity with leedle hammie was also completely unexpected and incredibly amusing. Haha! Come on, kung fu girl!

S'mores!

A Small Misconception

2009-11-21T21:11:00.000-08:00

August 27th: Bowling! I used to think I was good at bowling. I've come to realize that I am not. Not at all. But anyways, after bowling at Rev's, we went to Estee for bbt. Yum! What a nice (albeit pricey) bbt place!

Canada Line

2009-11-21T18:57:00.000-08:00

August 23rd: Wilson & I finally went to ride the new Canada Line since it's opening day I missed with my friends. We took the skytrain from Waterfront to Richmond Centre and then went to check out that frozen yogurt place at Aberdeen & dick around in Daiso! Daiso is awesome. I need to make multiple trips there this winter break! Then we backtracked to where the Canada line splits to go to the airport and then trained to YVR. We had a dining experience in the airport like tourists and then skytrained back home at the end of the day. We took a little while at Waterfront taking some pictures of the streetlights and that was our mini adventure!

Above 2 photos from Wilson.

Bye Awoo!

2009-11-07T11:57:00.000-08:00

August 22: Amy's surprise (sort of) going away party. A few of us early birds got to Jessica's house early to prep for the party. We also went out to the dollar store to grab some balloons and cool stuff. And then spent the rest of the time pretty much eating all the food that supposed to be for the party while waiting for Amy to arrive. After Amy came, the surprise was not really much of a surprise because Amy already had suspicions but when do these things ever work out! Oh well! We spent the rest of the party eating and gossiping and just hanging out until it got dark. Then Desiree & Megan busted out the CARAZY cake they made Amy. It was nuts. People gave me all the little blue whale candies on the sides of the cake because I like whales, teehee. We ended the night at Jessica's house with a group picture (minus the guys who left earlier, 2 guys outta how many girls? I'm not surprised they left haha) and then half of the group left and the rest of us went on another one of our adventures! They're the best!

The friggin' amazing cake Megan & Desiree made Amy. Too pretty to eat!

We decided to drive out to Stanley Park in Amy D's car. But first, we went to Coal Harbour. I was like "Hey! I was just here yesterday!" and I was, with Wilson, albeit in the daytime. But that place is gorgeous at night. Wow! It was so nice to just sit out on the dock with everyone, looking at the lights and stars.

Then we went on to Stanley Park. That drive was so hella scary! The look of high beams on a bleak road of dark forest and turns, not knowing what could pop out at you at any given moment, scares the hell out of me! Amy was terrified to drive by the time we started going through the winding pathway of trees and darkness and empty road so Desiree took over. We stopped a few times where a couple of brave ones (YEAH, THAT'S ME!) got out of the car to take in the sights and take pictures. This one time, we stopped at the lighthouse and a few of us hung out outside for a bit while I took my long exposures. We were just talking and everything and then out of nowhere, Desiree goes " Someone died here." Needless to say, they all went screaming and running back to the car and left me there because I was in the middle of a 30 second exposure and couldn't move! Kind of jerkish and kind of hilarious.

Along the way, Desiree told us scary details about whatever we happened to be driving by. We also drove by the best view of the Lions Gate Bridge! It was a-mazing because it was from the straight on view of it in the direction of the cars - a point of view you never really get to see unless you're on the bridge itself. But I was too wuss to get out of the car to get a picture of it but it was awesome. I would love to get a picture of that view at night sometime (definitely not alone though!).

After we got out of Stanley Park, we had to go through Hastings to get outta there and we joked that Hastings was the last memory Amy was going to have of Vancouver, haha. Then we took Amy home where it was the last time we would see her for several months until winter break. It was the filled with lots of hugs and tears. I didn't think I would cry but it just came and I didn't stop until Des dropped me off at home.

Later on, when we were at home, Emily asked if I wanted to go see Amy at the airport before she got on her flight so of course I said yes! I had a few hours to kill until 4am, which was when we would head off to the airport because Amy's flight left shortly afterwards. We got to the airport too early so we thought we'd go out to find somewhere to eat first. The rest of this story ends badly with coming back to the airport after not finding anywhere to eat, thinking we still had time until Amy came and going all the way to the other end of the airport to Tim Horton's, then walking back to the check-in station for Amy's flight, sitting and waiting for a bit until we realized that Amy had already gotten on her flight and we literally missed her by 10 minutes even though we were in the vicinity. So that's that & the last time we saw Amy really was outside her house. But we'll see her again soon!!! Good luck in LA!

Rupert

2009-11-06T13:18:00.000-08:00

August 21: Wilson & I channeled our inner 5-year-olds and spent a day devoted to playing with toys at Toys'R'Us! This place was the best place on earth and the only store I cared about in the mall when I was five. It pretty much still is.

This is a friend I made. I named him Rupert and I wanted to take him home with me but he said he'd miss his bunny friends too much.

Hey oh

2009-11-06T12:49:00.000-08:00

August 19th: Wilson took me to Coal Harbour today and it was so pretty! It's such a pleasant atmosphere under a canopy of trees, on a bench, on a warm day, watching lovely people go by. It's wonderrrful. & You know what's also wonderful? $2 Costco ice cream.

Night crept in and we all hung out at Jonathan's house again. Night of rockband, taboo, timmy's runs,and mcdick's runs. I love the feeling of night drives with friends. Wilson also let me borrow his 50mm for a few days and my gosh. That thing is the holy grail of low light lenses. SO BEAUTIFUL. I wished it could autofocus on my D40 because manual focusing with it is a bitch, especially at f/1.8. If I were taking pictures that night with my 18-55, I wouldn't have been able to shoot anything without popping my flash.

I don't like playing Taboo because I can't think fast enough (although I do have a habit of calling out random & sometimes correct guesses when I'm not even playing and ruining the game for everyone hahaha) but Rockband is the greatest thing evar. Thanks for the chill nights!

Good times

2009-11-03T00:23:00.000-08:00

On August 18th, the girls had a Korean movie night at Amy's house which turned into something quite unlike a sappy tearjerker fest. While we were waiting to set up the movie, someone had this brilliant idea of playing Hotel 525 (I can't even remember if that's what it's called but I'm too scared to look it up). Yeah, not funny, guys. I had to turn around and face the wall while involuntary whimpering noises escaped me every so often while they played. Every time they screamed, I screamed even though I had no idea what they were actually screaming about. You can imagine how much of a relief it was when they finally finished the game.

The movie didn't end up working so someone else's brilliant idea led us to decide to drive to QE Park at midnight and scare ourselves shitless. Actually, this was a great idea haha. When we got up there, we grabbed a buddy and braved a walk through the pitch black park with only our cellphones and cameras to light the way. Hella scary. And hella hilarious when Megan and I pretended to scream at the same time which set off a chain of group screams over nothing. Hella fun adventure that you could only have with a big group like ours. I wouldn't ever imagine trying to do what we did alone or even with only one other person. I'd seriously shit myself.

We made a small round through one of the quarry gardens and decided it was too intense so we hung out at the celebration pavillion for a bit and had some goOod times.

Obligatory pre-jump picture. I like this one better than the ones where we actually made it into the air.

And then ended the night by going to Timmy's then to Emily's house to do our nails haha. Oh, and make fun of Cookie & her cone of shame.

Bermuda Triangle

2009-09-12T11:41:00.000-07:00

On August 17th, Wilson & I went to SFU to pick up my upass & library/id card. I ended up only being able to get my library/id card that day because the upass machine was down at all 3 campuses. What are the chances! So I ended up having to go back and pick it up the next day. After that, we attempted to look for my classes and ultimately failed. But that's okay because we had lots of fun wandering around my new campus. I love that little area in AQ with the big, blue triangle and a slightly hidden entrance. I never knew it was there but it was so nice and private.

( photo credit )

FAUXHAWK?!

2009-08-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

August 16th was our photo trip to Whistler! We spent a good two hours or so driving up there and getting frustrated with Tomtom (the GPS) and finally stopped at Rainbow Park/Alta Lake before Whistler. It was gorgeous! Too bad it takes so long to get there otherwise it would be a gorgeous summer hang out location. After shooting there for a bit and creeping little kids, we kept heading to Whistler. When we got there, we spent forever figuring out where the bike event was and finding parking space. Eventually we got it worked out and finally started looking around Whistler. There wasn't much to shoot of the bikers unless you have a telephoto and a huge love of shooting the sport. Neither of which I have. We walked around the village, going to Starbucks for Jeff, going to the Olympics store like tourists, and then we came to this nice, quiet creek. We shot around there and then found this really nice clearing/park so sit around in until dinner time. We played around with each other's lenses (I basically hogged Wilson's pretty 50mm like it was my own baby) and cameras and had lots of laughs. Everything from Jeff's surprise abs & treasure patch to the best picture of Wilson going "IT'S LIKE FAUXHAWK?!" after he saw it. This little place where we just hung out was one of the best parts of the trip, rather than Whistler itself. Then we went to Earl's for dinner. And started to head back to Vancouver.

Best car ride ever - the drive back. Backseat dance party to the most epic playlist?! Hell yes. I had the most laughs there and the best time when we got tired of rocking out and just chilled with slow songs. That quote where that person felt infinite at that moment. That's how I felt. We got back to Vancouver by the time it got dark and we decided to go up to British Properties to shoot the view of the city. Sooooo dark, sooo scary, but sooooo nice. It's funny how rich people don't need streetlights. We spent a long time driving up those winding roads and getting lost but when we finally found it, it was an incredible view. And the houses are insanely ridiculous. They're gigantic. What the hell. I need to see that place during the day.

Overall, the Whistler trip wasn't the once with the most photo opportunities but it was the hanging out with these guys and creating moments and laughs with them that was the very best. Thanks for the memories :)

Hooowhat The Hell

2009-08-26T02:53:00.000-07:00

August 15th was Leanh & Vanda's surprise party at Kathy's house. We all arrived at 5pm and planned to surprise them in the backyard where Leanh & Vanda would walk onto on the back balcony and look down to see the big sign and all of us yelling surprise. It was a half-fail because Vanda stepped onto the porch before Leanh did and we couldn't even see her there until a few seconds later because she was hidden behind some flowerpots and stuff.

Everyone basically started drinking waaay too early - before the sun even went down. Consequently, half the party was wasted by 9pm and there was nothing else left to do. It felt like the longest night ever. Everytime we looked at the time, it would only be like 10pm and that's still so early. Basically anyone who got wasted, sobered up again and partied again and it was still only maybe 1am.

Still, it was good times! I had a great time talking and laughing with old friends & new friends, sharing moments, talking about really random & awkward shit for the hell of it, and laughing at other people who were out of it.

22 Wishes

2009-08-24T19:45:00.000-07:00

August 12th was the annual Perseids meteor shower. I watched it with Willie in his driveway until 3am. We saw 22 meteors! This was the shower that I fell asleep during and missed last summer. But this year definitely made up for it big time! Tonight's gonna be a good night ♥ In the morning, he also taught me how to make eggs. Which I consequently failed at when I tried to make them myself.

(Photo Credit)

One

2009-08-24T16:29:00.003-07:00

On August 6th, Willie & I went to the aquarium! I didn't get a chance to ask Ivan or Sally if they could put us on the guest list but that's okay. I was also hoping I'd get to run into them when we were there but oh well! They seem like they're having so much more fun at work this year after I left! Aw :( Anyways! We went through all the exhibits that I've seen about 20 times haha but it was just as exciting as the first time. I finally got to see the dolphin show from the deck above which I never got to see while I was working there. I also got to see the new baby beluga and her mum from the underground viewing area which I never got to see before either. I love how she had these rings around her eyes that made her look like Harry Potter. So cute! We visited my favourites: the jellyfish, axolotls, and butterflies! And my now-favourite: the belugas. We also went to the new 4D experience thing which scared the heck out of me! I wasn't expecting THAT much of an experience haha. Like the parts where started blowing this ocean breeze into the air & the bubbles were really nice. BUT NOT WHEN THEY SIMULATE RATS SCURRYING BETWEEN YOUR LEGS! After the aquarium, we walked & sat around Stanley Park, climbed a tree (!), and then went to eat at Joey's. WHO KNEW THERE WAS A JOEY'S ACROSS FROM CACTUS CLUB. WHAT THE HELL.

Left: "They sound like my mom."

BAMF

2009-08-24T16:29:00.001-07:00

August 4th was our shoot with Holly! We went to Waterfront and hit up the locations that we scoped out the previous day. It was fun although, after this, I realized that "urban" settings aren't my thing at all. It doesn't give me any inspiration and I just don't know how to work it into my photographs! I think I'll stick to nature-y shoots. I'm also glad Holly liked the pictures a lot! That's the best feeling ever when your model gets really excited about the photos you took of them and truly appreciates them.

Scoping Waterfront

2009-08-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

On August 3rd, Wilson & I went to scope out Waterfront and find locations to do Holly's shoot. We went around some parking lots, Waterfront Station itself, the new Convention Centre, and Granville Station. Lots of ideas and lots of fun stuff!