Rediscovered Pleasures

The other day my sister voiced her longing desire to play the Sims for PS2, a game she thought her boyfriend had lost. Almost immediately after the words left he mouth, I quipped that the disc was in the CD binder with all the other game discs. Of course, she didn't believe me. Long story short, I was right, and we've been playing the Sims for a few days now.

If you don't know, the Sims is an Electronic Arts property based on guiding a single person or multiple people, called Sims, through life. I don't really care for that part though. What I enjoy is the short part that comes before you take over the role of god: building and furnishing the house.

I love building things. This love probably resulted from a childhood filled to bursting with Lego, but that's another story.

Architecture and building design in particular have special places in my heart. When the family takes a trip to France or the Czech Republic and tours around the old castles, I'm not reading the information panels on local history. No, I'm staring at the walls and ceilings and staircases and the entire built form of whatever it is we're visiting. I guess that's why I've started to lean toward urban planning and community design as a career path.

I also have a casual interest in interior design, the way spaces are made and composed. A good portion of my high school years involved back-to-back episodes of Trading Spaces and While You Were Out, two design shows that were television and cultural phenomena in their day the same way cakes and cupcakes are now (I still don't understand that).

Again, long story short, I now have a design itch. I want a house to put things in. I want an unlimited budget, or unlimited time and skill to DIY anything and everything. I want to be a greater part of consumptive society!

That, or I want the first couple seasons on Trading Spaces on DVD.

both photos by Andrew Dupont

a Photoblog: Island Living

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

Under... Construction?

Yah, I've been inactive again. I know I promised posts about my recent trip to Turkey. Dropped the ball on that big time, yes. But I'm prepared to move on to what I really think the purpose of this space should be: me, rambling.

I fly to Singapore in just over two weeks, where I'll be living for about four months before setting out to travel once more. Hopefully I'll be good about updating this blog while I'm gone.

In the meantime, I need to change a few things around here. I'll be adding some pages to de-clutter the place, which is what that nav-bar below the title will eventually become. First, though, I need to figure out how this page thing works, hah. So I'm'a get to that.

Cheers!

a Taste of Turkey

Pun fully intended. And it's a whole lot more appropriate that my friend shouting "Cranberries!" after I said I was in Turkey.
Anyway, I'm back, and I've posted about half of my photos to my Flickr account. Only half? Yah, half. That's still 111 photos, so there's quite a bit to look at.

If you haven't jumped to that gallery already, then I'll explain these three photos a little. But just a little.
The first one is from an abandoned Greek village, uninhabited since the first world war. Except for the sheep. And the goats in another series of photos. And the tourist trap restaurants and such. Otherwise, totally uninhabited. The second photo is just a piece of street art from Istanbul. I like it. That's all.

Finally, the photo on the left is of the library at Ephesus, one of the biggest (the biggest?) tourist attractions in all of Turkey. Ancient city, Biblical importance, yadda yadda. Pretty cool stuff.
For the rest, hit up my gallery. Go!

all photos (c) me