on the Grid - Tending the Urban Forest in Vancouver and Toronto

On opposite sides of the country are two of Canada’s iconic cities: Vancouver, British Columbia and Toronto, Ontario. In this age of green building practices and sustainable development, both cities are pushing forward to be leaders in environmentally conscious city planning and design. Toronto has adopted a green roof strategy and passed bylaws to require new developments to include green roofs. Vancouver has declared an intention to become the greenest city by 2020.

Both cities are making strides to expand the urban forest, though in very different ways.

Read the full post on the Grid.

Poco Loco

I am a crazy person. This has been confirmed by my behaviour the last week, and especially what went down today. More on that later, though, when my mind has some time to catch up with what exactly is going on.

Anywho, you might have noticed that I missed Music Monday. Oops, my bad. But, there is a reason, a perfectly valid reason! Y'see, I spent the weekend in Vancouver pretending I was in Singapore. I ate all my favourites, namely Hainanese chicken rice, Singapore laksa, sambal ayam, prata, milk tea, and kopi. And shaved ice cream. Oh, and sour mango cake. I think that's it? I also went out for Peking duck and sushi (on different nights, people!).

But those aren't the reasons I missed Music Monday, nosirree. I missed my Monday post 'cause I was on a boat. Sunday night I attended the Asteroids Galaxy Tour tour's final show in Vancouver before heading home to Denmark. Danish people are from Denmark, right? I know I'm a Geo minor, but I sometimes forget these things. Anyway, mad rad concert, had a great time, and was too busy singing along to the Safety Dance to blog about it. And yes, I know it's a cover. Men Without Hats did it better, frankly, and I even have a shirt with part of the song written on it. Seriously. I'm that cool.

Now if you'd excuse me, I have a very important meeting with Mr Boss Man tomorrow afternoon. G'night!

photo by moffoys

Oh Summer, where art Thou?

The end of term can't come fast enough. I already know that I'm going to come out of the summer broke, but it will be entirely worth it with what I have planned. And just what do I have planned, you ask? Travel. Lots and lots of travel. Here's quick peek at what's to come.

Moving back to Victoria, for a couple months at least. I can't wait to get back home, because Vic is such a great place to be in the summer. Depending on my job situation, I could have a tonne of free time on my hands, so island exploration could happen in bulk. I'll only have about two months there, though!

Shortly after moving back to Vic I'll be jet setting to Turkey with my family on a two week vacation. I've never been to this part of the world before, so I'm using Greece as my most approximate measuring stick. The last family trip we took was to the Czech Republic, and it was a blast. Hoping this will be even better!

Only a few days after I return to Vic from Turkey I'll be hitting Vancouver for the double-header Janelle Monae and Bruno Mars concert. So much anxious anticipation! That said, my summer will likely be peppered with visits to Vancouver and Richmond. That's the joy of living on an island with amazing transportation service.

Summer Seattle Trip will be happening again this year hopefully. We didn't get much of a chance to explore downtown Seattle on the last excursion (someone took a few hours too many in Nordstrom Rack), so that will be top priority this time around. Besides, I'll be trying to keep my wallet tightly closed at this point because of what happens next.

In July I'll be moving to Singapore for at least four months. While there I can assure you that I'll be making trips to the surrounding area. High on the list? Thailand, Bali, Kuala Lumpur, and Borneo. I'm hoping that NUS and UBC will throw some more funding my way to make all this indulgence possible, hah.


Victoria photo by CodyMaH, Turkey photo by kanikey, Vancouver photo by ericr33914, Seattle photo by photoboy1002001, Singapore photo by superdupersumo

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