Momentous Occasions are Momentous

I bring tidings of great joy, and I come bearing gifts! No, it's not Christmas all over again (although there's still snow on the ground in Banff), it's the return of my blog!

Well, sort of.

I won't promise on making regular posts again, but so much has happened in the last little while that an appearance became necessary. We're gonna do this in numbered format to make things more interesting and easy to follow, savvy?

1. I've been accepted to McGill University's Urban Planning programme for 2013! I'll be moving to Montreal at the end of August, where I'll be living for about two years. After that I want to head back to British Columbia, but two years ago I would have laughed at you had you told me I'd be living in Banff in the near future, so we'll see what happens.

2. I actually finished something accomplished a predetermined goal on Protagonize! Over the last few days I've posted both a new chapter and the epilogue to the rough draft of my story Red King Chronicles. It is by no means a finished story, though, hence I amended my above statement to say I reached a goal. Close to the beginning of the year I decided that I needed to do a complete rewrite of the story: new intro, new back story for Jason, new sequence of events, new a lot of things. However, I told myself that I wouldn't start the editing process until after I brought the current draft full circle to the prologue. I have now done that and am looking for critique. So, have at 'er!

3. After a year and a half of collection dust, there's finally a new chapter in Elsie! I had to reread the entire story myself before continuing on, but my the fires of my inspiration have been stoked. I drafted a chapter outline for the latest chapter and the following chapter, possibly two following chapters. I've got the conflict sorted out, so now I just need to figure out how to resolve said conflict and eventually bring the story to a close. I'm being optimistic about this one, for once.

4. Caramel Tim Tams were in stock at the grocery store so I'm doing Caramel Tim Tam Slams! Be excited for me.

5. I still feel that lists should contain multiples of five, so...

And that's all!

photo by me

Ten Thousand Views? Sure, why not!

And another milestone has been reached!

If you're a regular, thanks for caring enough to read my ramblings! And those of you just popping in, thanks for stopping by.

Because my top posts are pretty much exactly the same as when I hit 5K, let's take a look at how people are finding my little space on the internet.

Search terms for those top five posts obviously rank high:

• molly millions, 152 hits
• various combinations of russian firebird tattoo, 178 hits
• true colors personality test, 139 hits
• jonathan rhys meyers tudors, 34 hits

There are also some strange search terms that have led a couple people here. Terms like:

• doing a research paper hours before its due, 2 hits
• hide guns on body, 2 hits
• english things tattoo, 2 hits

Curious.

Well, here's to another ten thousand page views! Thanks again!

photo by Leo Reynolds

Airplanes

So many flights in the next six weeks. A few nights ago I went on a booking frenzy, adding something like five flights to my travel itinerary. It took me a long time to figure out where I would be going over the holiday, what with the flooding in Thailand making my original plans potentially infeasible. Eventually I narrowed down my options to either India or the Philippines. I chose the Philippines in the end, which means I'll be getting a beach vacation before I head back home (I hear it's been snowing in the Okanagan? Yay?). So, here's what my next six weeks look like:

• November 13th, fly to Macau
• November 14th, ferry to Hong Kong
• November 18th, fly to Singapore
• November 23rd, first exam
• November 24th, second exam
• November 30th, third and fourth exams
• December 4th, fly to Cebu
• December 5th, fly to Puerto Princesa, bus to El Nido
• December 12th, bus to Puerto Princesa, fly to Kuala Lumpur via Manila
• December 13th, fly to Siem Reap
• December 15th, fly to Kuala Lumpur, fly to Singapore
• December 17th, fly to Vancouver via Shanghai

AIEAH.


image by √oхέƒx™

5K Recap

I've recently hit a milestone of 5000 page views. Hurrah for me! To celebrate this momentous occasion I'm taking a look back through my most popular posts.

First, though, some thank-you's are in order. Ana Cristina, thanks for sending almost 500 hits my way! Also deserving is Burndtree, who has boosted my traffic with almost 200 hits from his blog. Combined, you two rival Google in terms of traffic sources! Now for that recap.
 
Making Connections - Molly Millions and Quorra receives tonnes of hits daily from Google image searches, with almost 600 page views to date! In it I looked at the similarities between a character in William Gibson's "Neuromancer" and the recent "Tron: Legacy" film. It was a short post, rather hastily put together, and something I will likely expand on when I get back to Canada.
 
Tattoo three, Round two puzzles me with it's place as the number two most visited post on my blog. According to the stats from Blogger, I can once again thank Google image search for this one, with most search terms looking for phoenix or Russian tattoos. Oddly, though, my follow-up post with actual photos of the finished work has little relative traffic. Huh.
 
Zouk is a post from my early days in Singapore, back when I still had lots of time to spend exploring the popular clubs each weekend (not that I don't now, hah). This post is popular because it was posted on the Zouk Facebook page as a look into the Ang Moh (read: foreign) perspective of the popular Mambo Jambo craze. I should probably go back before I ship out!

My True Colours was the third post on my blog, and a long one. Most of the hits come from people looking for the True Colors personality test (durr). It was something we did as part of our RA experience, and the results have proved to be almost creepily accurate. I'm still as green as ever, with little if any blue. If you haven't taken the test before, I highly recommend it. Share it around, too; it's cool to see how your friends (and family!) compare to you.

Well, those are my four most looked at posts, each with at least 100 views. Of course, the stats can't account for posts viewed as a part of the homepage.

In closing, I'd like to put it out there that I've signed up for Tumblr, a micro-blog. I'm not actually blogging on it, but more-or-less just using it for what most Tumblr do: post random tidbits from the interwebs that they found interesting/comical/cute/rad. So it's not a blogging replacement, but rather a companion to this blog. Or something like that.

second image by deadinsane, third image by unknown, fourth image by @llie's @ttic, all other images created by me.

I be Versatile

I've recently discovered that, every now and again, Bloggers like to pat each other on the back. "Congrats!" on blogger friend or stranger might say. "You succeeded in not looking like a middle schooler's Geocities page!" I realize I may be dating myself with that comment...

Well, the other day one such bloggy friend saw it fit to throw one such accolade my way, in the form of a Versatile Blogger Award. The catch is that I now have to do stuff.

Task one: thank your awarder. Thanks, Elo! Task one, check.

Task two: share seven random facts about yourself.

1. After I graduated from high school, my birthday and Christmas wishlists were suddenly full of kitchen appliances. Because I am an adult, or something like that, I guess?
2. I brought Mukmuk to Singapore.
3. Every day I wear two necklaces, one with a coin from some miscellaneous East Asian country that is probably defunct, and another with a charm carved by an child in Kenya.
4. I strongly dislike Glee.
5. One week of Cyrillic cursive made me forget years of English cursive. I now have trouble writing even my own name in cursive.
6. Regardless of age, I call all dogs "Puppy."
7. I re-read books a lot. As in there are some book series on my shelf that I've read three or four times.

Task three: pass it along.

Hmm... I don't wanna repeat what Elo has already done, but I would pass it off to Marc and Burndtree. Well, I guess recognition shall go to Ana Cristina and Dru, then! Congrats!

photo by cdwaldi

Those (Favourite?) Things Left Behind

Despite my oft professed love for Asian food, I miss pizza. Terribly. I've been having cravings for flatbreads from Twisted Tomato, an Italian restaurant in Kelowna. Not sure why my imagination is fixed on pizza, though it is likely a combination of the sharp decrease in both bread and cheese consumption since arrival. To tell the truth, things have become so bad that I purchased a Groupon for half price pie. Ruh-oh.

Don't get me wrong, I love summer as much as the next Island or Okanagan resident, but it wouldn't hurt to have a little bit of temperature variation out here. Day time highs? 32. Night time highs? 28. I don't think I've turned my ceiling fan off or closed my window since arrival. I sleep on top of my sheets. The only respite from the heat possible is the time spent in lectures, where the theatres and class rooms are kept at a frigid 18 or so. Not cool. Not cool at all.

Being a modern city that never really shuts down (the Mustafa department store never closes!) there's quite a bit of ambient light. Combine that with the haze from Sumatran forest fires, and you've got a situation where it is nearly impossible to see stars. A friend of mine spotted one the other night and we all oohed and aahed. One star. I mean, it's not like stars are an important part of my life, but you certainly notice when they are not there.

I'm just gonna come straight out and say I miss wine. There's wine here, even some of the Australian wines I know from back home. But I don't just want wine, I want wine with my wine friends. I want my quiet nights in with a nice dinner and a glass or two of red. Or white, if I'm sipping from a glass of Tantalus Riesling. Also, wine is expensive here, just like every other alcoholic beverage. Gotta love those sin taxes. And yes, that is what they are officially called.

This one requires quite a bit of explanation. I miss the right hand rule. Remember back to my True Colours post, where I revealed that I am a rational and independent green. Now think about driving. Depending on where you live, traffic flows on either the left or right side of the road. In Canada we drive on the right, in Singapore they drive on the left. This rule commonly extends to pedestrians as well: you walk on the right, especially when going up stairs. Naturally, I assumed the same would apply here, except on the left of whatever walkway I found myself. Wrong. So incredibly wrong. There is absolutely no set practice or etiquette for walking. It's a total free for all. You want to get down the stairs? Make your own way up. You want to dodge the incredibly slow walker in front of you? Find whatever route is available. See a spot you can squeeze through? Use those elbows!

I swear I'm not passive aggressive right meow.

first photo by sassyradish, second photo by acidpix, third photo by Dennis Barnes, fourth photo by willy-photographer, fifth photo by otama

Singapore Sweet Tooth

What's a trip to Singapore without a taste of the king of fruit, durian? Admittedly, I really don't like the stuff. It comes in the form of a large spiky oblong fruit, which then has to be hacked open to reveal the flesh inside. Note: this flesh smells like garbage left out in the sun. And it has a peppery after-taste. I am definitely not a fan, but I can now say I have sampled the most infamous fruit of southeast Asia.
Verdict: must try, despite it being terrible. People either love or hate it, there is no middle ground.

An ice cream sandwich at home is simple a brick of ice cream between two cookie-like wafers, usually chocolate flavoured. Here? Find your nearest ice cream uncle and grab a real sandwich with an Asian persuasion, such as my personal favourite of purple yam ice cream between rainbow sweet bread. Yes, bread. As in yesterday we bought a loaf of bread and a bucket of ice cream and made ice cream sandwiches. Life changing!
Verdict: I would have one a day if there was an ice cream uncle on campus.

Right now, Buddhists (and the Chinese community in general) are celebrating the autumn festival. As with all good festivals, this one includes a symbolic food: mooncakes. I'm not sure what significance they carry, and people seem to tell different origin stories, but these little confections are actually not bad. Typically filled with lotus paste and egg yolk, they don't have much flavour and are quite heavy.
Verdict: another "must try" food item, simply for a feeling of full participation in the culture.

Lastly, here is something called ice kachung. No need to say "Gesundheit." It's a little hard to come to conceptualize, so bear with me. First you fill the bottom of a bowl with starch jellies. Don't ask what kind, I have no clue. Next, pile on fresh shaved ice into a monumental heap. Drizzle with flavoured syrups, such as rose. Finally, garnish with corn and red beans. Yes, corn and beans. I speak the truth.
Verdict: worth trying, and quite good as long as you try to ignore the fact that you're eating corn and beans as a dessert.


first photo by ppborla, second photo by me, third photo by ♥ he@rt ♥, fourth photo by CDN Harv

Mini Merlion, Mini Update

• spending my mid-week day off at the beach feels wrong somehow
• I don't think my skin has ever been this dark before
• today when I said I was from BC a Singaporean replied, "Oh, as in BC bud?"
• in discovering a new (and cheaper!) fruit juice kiosk I now find myself wondering what soursop is, besides a miracle fruit of epic deliciousness
• I'm the vice-captain of my faculty's volleyball team, purely because I've played in a competitive league before
• whoever decided to make oxfords and dress pants out of a moisture wicking fabric needs to be canonized, pronto
• breakfast today consisted of chococake and hot soya milk, which I approve of greatly
• Southeast Asian alternative music festival this weekend, whatever that means
• being sick in this humidity is absolutely terrible

photo by me

my Favourite Things, Food in Singapore Edition

Y'know how lemonade is the refreshing drink of choice in the summer? Here, that honour goes to lime juice. I sampled it my very first day here, and have been in love ever since. For a while I was going on one a day. Now I've branched out into all the different juices you can get, most all of which are fresh squeezed and therefore rad.

I'm in love with Indian food. The Indians tease me about having the Indian dinner every single night, but what can I say? It's the most delicious thing on the menu. If I just want a quick snack, though, roti prata is my usual go to. It's not your typical fried roti, and I always take my stuffed with eggs. Then there's the side of curry sauce to dip in, which I end up eating with a spoon when I've inhaled all the bread. Mmm.

This may have originally been a favourite of mine from living in Victoria, but my love for hot pot bibimbop extends to Singapore, too! Korean food is widely available in Singapore, and even in the heat and humidity I don't mind sweating a little more over a hot plate and a side of kimchi. 

Every night I have at least one cup of hot Milo, a drink that is sort of  like hocho but definitely not. During the day I'll also drink it cold over ice, often ordering it as a Milo dinosaur. And just what is this Milo dinosaur, I hear you ask? Well, it's a regular glass of iced Milo with an extra scoop of the powdered mix on top. It be delicious.

Bread Talk is a chain of bakeries, and every time I walk in I am completely overwhelmed. It's all self service, so at the entrance you pick up a tray and tongs. After wandering around the store trying not to spill drool on the baked goods you take you heavy laden tray to the cashier and pay for you spoils. I try to limit myself to four purchases at a time, two savoury and two sweet. Faves include the chocolate cream cheese bun, mushroom hot dog bun, and garlic chicken sausage pizza.

The majority of my vegetable intake comes from lunches at stalls that sell laksa yong tau foo, which is a type of soup. First, you pick up a bowl and fill it with whatever vegetables, cooked eggs, tofu, and meat products you wish, and then hand it over to the cashier. Your choices are quickly boiled and then placed back in the bowl with your choice of broth. I always have laksa, which is a spicy coconut curry much like Thai red curry. I may or may not grab some of that right now, as the photo is of one of the couple stalls at NUS.

Lime juice photo by Charles Haynes, roti prata photo by jeanyim, bibimbop photo by jbcurio, Milo photo by CLF, Bread Talk photo by midthought, laksa yong tau foo photo by 22n.

a Pre-Departure Checklist

...otherwise known as the things I've done and am doing before I leave.

Done

• drive to Kelowna with the cousin
• drive to Mission with the friends
• have a pig roast
• win at "beersby" multiple times
• play fetch with a random dog
• have a massive bonfire
• chug back tonnes of lukewarm Timmys
• have a games night that includes Rockband, karaoke, and dancing
• eat waffles at the Jammery
• go out for pitchers and wings
• watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part one
• eat a Boers breakfast at the Jammery
• drive to and from Sicamous
• buy UBC shirts to bring to Singapore

Doing

• watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part two
• eat more waffles at the Jammery
• go out for pitchers and wings, again
• drive back to Victoria
• watch Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part two, again
• eat hot pot bibimbop at Korean Garden
• go table hunting

Oh, and pack. Packing might help, too.

a Few More of those Favourite Things

Haven't posted any "real" blog stuff in a while, so I might as well do a list post. Here's what's keeping me going right meow:

Tim Horton's coffee and donuts are a Canadian staple. I love my double-doubles, sour cream glazed, chocolate glazed, maple dips, and turkey clubs. Unfortunately I can't get those in Singapore. I'm trying to do the math on how many Tim Bits (donut holes) I'll need to buy in Vancouver for my flight to Shanghai.

McDonald's Dollar Drink Days are one of the first signs of summer. As terrible as it may be, I love going into the drive-thru and coming out with a large Diet Coke for a little bit of spare change. I'm in at least four times a week. I may have an addiction.

Adele, particularly her song Rolling in the Deep, is one of my go-to summer playlist favourites. Even better are the amount of great covers of her material, so I can have multiples of the same song on my playlist and sing to each one. Also, I finally figured out what all the background singers' lines are. Victory!

Roller Coaster Tycoon became one of my favourite games the moment I started playing it. I recently reinstalled it on my family PC and have been glued to that machine ever since. My only problem is that I tend to make the rides "too intense" so no-one will go on them. Boo on you, wussy AI.

Living on an island and being able to hit the beach and the fact that it is finally hot outside. I love beach combing, suntanning, swimming, having bonfires, and all that good outdoor summer seaside stuff. Thankfully my next move will be to a tropical island. I might have plotted this in advance.



images by flamster2468, StayProud, jprice325, Mike Overall, and me

a Few of those Favourite Things

I've been watching my friend Annie Cristina do it for a while now, and, like a good many of the things on my blog, I decided to steal the form of the post from her. Hah! It's a reciprocal relationship, I swear. So, here we are: some of my favourite things at the moment.

Kimchi

I really don't know what to say about it. Describing it to people always makes it sound bad. Well, if you don't know, kimchi is a Korean staple, and is typically cabbage leaves (sui choy as far as I know) pickled/fermented with garlic and spices. I usually use mine to make stir fries or soup, and kimchi soup is a definite favourite thing.

The batch I made today included baby bok choy, spicy pepperoni, shitake mushrooms, onions, more garlic, and tofu. I considered adding some noodles, but there was already too much goodness to handle.

Adidas ClimaWarm Fleece Jacket

It's rare that I go a day without wearing this fleece at least once. While it may officially be spring in the Okanagan, we're still fluctuating between warm-ish 8 degree days with sun and colder -5 degree days with snow. I'm never sure what's going on outside, I just throw my hands in the air and accept it.

What I like the most about this fleece, I think, is that it's somewhat fitted, so I can wear it under a jacket without much bulk. And yes, I will layer jackets over jackets; I'm an island boy, and I still don't cope well with cold. Hence I'm moving to Singapore for a while.

Janelle Monae

Seriously, how many times has this woman appeared on my blog? Answer: not enough.

Despite having only one full length album out, Janelle never ceases to surprise me. I've been following her for a few months now, and I must say that I was thrown into a fit of hysterics when she announced a Vancouver date on her next tour. So I've got my tickets, and I'm counting the days until I get to see something like this live.

Stash Acai Herbal Tea

I always thought myself to be a hocho man, 100%. Turns out I have a bit of a soft spot for tea, as well. Last year I started into various chai blends (vanilla chai tastes like Christmas), but recently I've switched to herbals. My fave right meow? Acai.

I'm still not sure how to say it, but that doesn't stop me from drinking about a cup a day. And this is in addition to my hocho habit. And my double-double habit. And Pepsi habit. So, new favourite thing: caffeine!

Green Metropolis (by David Owen)

This semester I started my studies in urban geography and community planning in earnest, and a lot of what I'm reading and learning about absolutely fascinates me. A lot of it really rocks my boat, too, especially coming from British Columbia.

For example: Manhattan is one of the models for environmental sustainability and city growth. Huh. I'm only one chapter into the book, so I haven't gotten into his arguments quite yet, but my interest has certainly been piqued. Here's hoping it's as good as the cover makes it look!


Finally, and I know some of you have seen me spam posting this on my Facebook page, I'm participating in a head-shave on Friday (gulp!), with the pledge money I raise going toward the Canadian Cancer Society. I'm very apprehensive, as I have never shaved my head, and washed my toques in preparation to cover my near-baldness. So optimistic, eh? It would be rad if you could pledge a little toward my goal, or just write some words of encouragement. Thanks!

photos by Marc Matsumoto (c) [ No Recipes ], Adidas, Janelle Monae, Mexycan, David Owen

the Gaming Post

My main game right now is Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Now, I'm one of the many addicts of this franchise, and I know this. Heck, I bought a PSP for the sole purpose of playing this game. Dissidia Final Fantasy was just a nice coincidence. What I'm loving about KH:BBS is the fact that I don't have to play as Sora or Roxas! There are adult characters! RAD.

That said, my addiction to the franchise is forcing me to take forever to actually finish the game. I'm doing all the side quest things, getting all the weapons and abilities. Y'know the drill. I'm unsure why I bother, though, especially when I'm rewarded with a weapon that looks like the most epic sundae ever. Not that effective, either, as you probably guessed.

Besides that, I've also been playing Soul Calibur 2 casually. One of my roommates brought his Game Cube down, so we fight it out every now and again. Fortunately we're evenly matched, between my frantic button mashing and his attempts to correctly input combo sequences. As a note: long combos tend to not work when your opponent is flailing beside you.

I've also become a big time mobile gamer, now that I've got an iPod Touch and an Android at hand (no pun intended, sorry). While Angry Birds is a paid app on the iPod, it's free on Android. I've got both, but I've been playing the holiday editions on my HTC quite a lot, especially the Halloween one.

On the iPod I'm mostly playing Cut the Rope, and adorably rad and addictive game that's super easy to pick up. I had beaten it once already, but updating the firmware on my iPod erased all that data, so I've been working through it again. No complaints, though. I live to see Omnom make his candy quota.

Back to my Droid. Remember my Kingdom Hearts addiction? Guess what. I installed a Gameboy Advance emulator on my Desire Z, so now I'm playing through KH:Chain of Memories for real. Previously I just wussed out and bought the two volume manga to get me up to speed before playing KH:358/2 Days. Gotta love the power of Androids!

Finally, but not on the mobile gaming front, I'm waiting on Battle Engine Aquila to arrive in my mailbox. It's an obscure Playstation 2/XBox/PC game that I adore above all others. I had it for XBox previously, but my console and games were stolen a year or so back. Figured it was time to fork out for a PS2 copy, a whole $8 including shipping. Yah, really breaking into my savings, eh?
photos by: Square Enix & Disney, Namco, Rovio, Chillingo, and Atari.

my Year in Review

First off, this idea (and title?) was stolen from a friend of mine. I like to swipe things like that. Here's what I got up to the last 12 months.

Is there an equivalent to Wednesdays in university degrees? As of January, I was officially at the hump-day of my degree program: 5 terms down, 5 to go. I'm not sure whether I was relieved or even more stressed because of it.

February brought Olympic good times as I spent part of my reading break up in Whistler with some friends. Mittens were worn, events were watched, beers were consumes, and I was hassled over and over about where I managed to pick up my Team Canada hoodie.

Did anything happen in March? Anything at all? The only thing I can think of is that I ate copious amounts of phở, but I do that every month. Well, did that until the phở place became blacklisted. I'm not bitter. Not bitter at all.

This picture isn't exactly accurate, but in April the hard drive in my laptop decided to die (finally?) after four years of service. However, it chose to die in the middle of exams and term papers, and in Kel where my XP boot disks were not. Long story short, I'm now an Ubuntu convert with extreme loyalty to Western Digital.

Even though my school year had only just ended, in May I began looking at the opportunities that I would have this year. And what should catch my eye but an exchange program to NUS. I've been obsessing over it since.

The Canadian group Thunderheist broke up in June, and I had the privilege of attending their last show in Vancouver. Honestly, it was one of the best performances I have seen, and I am so sad that they won't be touring or even making music anymore. Oh, and I turned 21. Minor detail.

Although I go to school in the Okanagan, I had never been there in the summer, when it is at the peak of awesome. In July I flew out to Kel and went camping with a bunch of friends and was finally able to experience an Okanagan summer. Rad.

August brought many of my RA friends back together, after four extremely long months apart (besides the ones I saw in July, heh). More rad people, more rad camping, and rad memories to boot. Mad rad.

I got my first tattoo shortly after I turned 19, and a week later I decided that I hated it. After many years mulling designs, I settled on a Russian firebird to cover the terrible tattoo up. I started the tattoo in September, accomplishing 3.5 hours of work in a single sitting.

October, of course, brought Halloween. I had a posse. Initially, I was a dragon. Then I was a dinosaur. By the end of the weekend, I was the Ogopogo. There were no costume changes. I'm just that awesome. We're just that awesome.

The most terrible month in the history of terrible months was November 2010. I had a very brief post about it, sharing the musicians who helped me through it all. I'm still not quite over what happened that month, but hopefully this new year will bring some healing.

I was finished with exams quite early in the month, so December became the month of movies. In theatres I saw Burlesque, Tron:Legacy, and Black Swan. Many others were screened from the comfort of my living room, or as movie marathons at friends' places. I really needed the down time after this year.




Garfield (c) Jim Davis, Whistler photo by me, phở photo by m0nyet, Thunderheist photo by wagepeace, Okanagan photo by trainboysd40, laser tag photo by a friend, tattoo design by laludia, costume photo by a friend, Chris Corner portrait by lora8, Black Swan poster (c) Fox Searchlight Pictures