senatorhung's pad
ramblings of an information troubleshooter
ramblings of an information troubleshooter
a day at the cinema ...
Sunday, 22MAY2005:metro'd out to the AMC forum to check out the korean revenge-fest 'old boy'. the flick was a typically violent asian film with all sorts of nice twisty undertones. the movie was well-designed to press all sorts of squeamish buttons in the viewer's head, tho suprisingly restrained when it came to on-screen mayhem.
after that, i had meant to see jet li's 'unleashed', but hit chinatown instead to see if i could pick up some sesame balls (jin dui) for david. went back and forth thru the maze of chinatown for awhile until someone pointed out the jade garden bakery for me. talk about hiding in plain sight - here i was looking for some hole in the wall and the bakery ended up being the biggest storefront on the street ! they had takeout dim sum as well as a huge buffet, so i scarfed down a few shrimp balls on the patio while waiting for a batch of jin dui to be made up.
from there, i wandered up to the cinema du parc to catch a couple more films. first was '3-iron', another korean film that was full of smirking mischief, with 2 lead characters who say hardly a word, yet still manage to communicate so much. a story about appearances, about love, about really rad motorcyles and the pains of golf. lots of fun !
to close out this day of films, i parked myself in the adjacent cinema to catch 'enron: the smartest guys in the room'. this film managed to build the case against enron's higher mucketymucks in devastating fashion. tight editing and insightful interviews allowed this film to surpass the similarly themed 'the corporation' in both informing and entertaining the audience. all in all, a very good compilation of the audacious ideas and mentalities that proved to be the downfall of the enron principals.
from there, it was a long-ish walk back down to the auberge, but i still was able to sneak into chinatown for a late nite supper of sweet marinated bbq pork, chinese mushrooms and broccoli. ah, the joys of city life !
back into the fray
Monday, 23MAY2005:checked out of the auberge early in the morning and caught a cab to the airport. if i had half an hour more before my flight, i would have been able to stop into olive + gourmando to pick up some chocolate loaf that odile had recommended.
saw qajaq at the airport and swapped tales of our respective holidays - she had been on the same flight south that started this grand x-country tour. on the first air flight we were treated to hot towels - great for waking me up since i didn't get time to shower.
when i got off the plane, there were no taxis in sight, so i started dragging my luggage along since i didn't live too far away (or too far uphill). i had to stop at fantasy palace as i spotted joe and cyndi enjoying the sun out on the patio and chatted with them there until they offered to help me lug my stuff to the post office. halfway there, janine pulled up with her vehicle and we loaded up to go the rest of the 2 blocks. this is the kind of thing that *wouldn't* happen in the big burg.
once i got a few things unpacked, david called and we arranged to head back to fantasy palace to meet up. emilie and odile also decided to come out. i showed off action pics from the vancouver aquarium, including the beluga whales, the sea lion and the scampering seals. i delivered the bag of red bean sesame balls to david and he almost squealed with glee.
also, i found out that odile had recommended the restaurant at victoria's butchart gardens from first-hand knowledge as she had actually worked there herself.
as odile took off on her bike for the haul up the hill,
i walked with david and emilie to the road to nowhere
turnoff, taking snapshots of the culvert waterfall. i
then proceeded on uphill toward's malcolm's to drop
off the t-shirt that i had picked up for him at the
conference. ran into rhoda along the way and
strolled with her around the corner before malcolm
sauntered over from the rocks behind his place.
turns out he and sara had been scoping out the sights of town and enjoying a couple of brews in the open air. malcolm had the bright idea of hosting a bbq, so we picked up some sausages and buns from the quickstop. after we had sated ourselves, we hit the astro theatre to check out 'the interpreter'. malcolm and sara didn't much like it and walked out partway. i found the acting enjoyable but agreed with the reviewers that the attempt to create tension by constantly cutting back to the african leader's motorcade arrival failed to do so.
when i got home, i opened the new comics shipment that malcolm had picked up for me. here were the standout goodies:
- 'pvp' 16 pokes fun at the marvel comics vs. city of heroes lawsuit. for those who are unfamiliar, city of heroes is an online role-playing game where subscribers can design their own super-hero characters, and some inspired (read 'lazy') fans of marvel comics have chosen to emulate their idols. now marvel is taking the game developer to court for copyright infringement. half of these claims were dismissed in march.
- in 'true story, swear to god' 13, tom beland recreates his whining about his difficulty adjusting to life in puerto rico where nothing seems to go his way. his lack of a regular paycheck, disconnection with his family in napa and frustrations with language issues cause strain in his relationship with lily.
- in 'little star' 2, andi watson continues his story about a stay at home dad in britain and his lack of creative development painting designs on plates.
- but my favourite of the month was the first
issue of
'death jr.'
by gary whitta and ted naifeh. the fact that
the book is based on an upcoming playstation
portable (PSP) game, doesn't mean that it
can't be fun.
i've grown to love naifeh's art since i first saw his self-created 'courtney crumrin' series, but here he gets to work his quirky magic in full colour. whitta and naifeh team up to present a fun story about the first day of school for the grim reaper's clueless but carefree progeny. he gets to meet the other 'special' kids including pandora (famous for opening boxes) who ends up walking him home to the delight of dj's parents. looking forward to the next issue.
ordering from a catalogue can be fun !
Tuesday, 24MAY2005:oh what a treat to sleep in until 4 in the afternoon. it's exactly for this reason that i took a few extra days off after the southern trip - both to recover and to feed my nocturnal inclinations.
previews order for july:
- emily the strange - don't really have high expectations for this series - i really just want a sample of emily artwork without having to buy something too cheezy.
- silent dragon - a new series that features some sharp artwork by leinil yu that reminds me (in a good way) of chris bachalo's early work on 'shade, the changing man'.
- bonerest - another new series that caught my eye - the 4 pg. preview has the bony protagonist flirting with a waitress in a diner.
- dark mists - this is a series that i somehow missed previously, even tho i spend hours poring over every listing. the 3d issue was listed with a striking sample of cover art by lee garbett, so i've back-ordered copies of the 1st 2 issues as well to get caught up.
- oh, and the northern exposure season 3 dvd set.
a bit of this and a bit of that
Wednesday, 25MAY2005:i slept in until 4 again today. i had set the alarm, but had neglected to turn it on - oops ;).
i was up in time to run up to the high school to get added onto team 'spankon' (formerly spankon rankin) for the rest of the soccer league. met my team mates robert, cyrus, mike, keith and joseph, while luke also joined in as a sub. we faced off against david iou's boozers (who i played with before my vacation), and they managed to squeak out a win by scoring a goal with only 10 seconds left on the clock. final score was 3-2 for them.
i also spent some time sorting out my domain name registration. it seems that CIRA has implemented a new (and better) privacy policy, but is also trying to improve the accuracy of the identification info in its database. so, i sent some of my *personal* information to my registrar to pass on to them - i really hope that i don't start getting flooded with spam snail mail and faxes cuz of this ...
- link of the day: CIRA's new privacy policy
yet another day of vacation in the sun
Thursday, 26MAY2005:ran around town today trying to figure out how to get a spare building key. luckily, the landlord's office was right next to fantasy palace, so i was able to hang out on their patio in the sun for a bit to recover from my running around. i hobnobbed with folks at the neighbouring tables before continuing on to a spot along federal road to read another chapter of my current book.
the evening was occupied with a repeat barbeque at malcolm's, with sara, olivia, dan, tracey, john, shuling and chris. malcolm worked his magic on the grill, turning out scrumptious sausages, beefy burgers and fine roasted char. olivia prepared a salad to alleviate any guilt over the meat-fest.
another friday at the legion
Friday, 27MAY2005:well, i wasn't planning on posting current blog entries until i had finished posts outlining the family trip and the conference, but since i just haven't gotten organized with photos and recollections, i'll just plow ahead and then infill later. this way, maybe i'll stop procrastinating, and keep the posts fresh as daisies :)
today was another beautiful day with clear skies and warm sunshine. i had an appointment at work for a meeting in the afternoon. of course, the people who the meeting was mostly intended to influence didn't manage to make it, so it ended up being mercifully short.
everyone at the office seemed glad to see me, and with the phrase 'i like to chmod' emblazoned on my t-shirt, i had a lot of inquiries as to what 'chmod' meant. i advised all to check the phrase on google. of course, when posting my updates to the blog tonite, i ended up having to use this multiple times, so it was good to be wearing the reminder.
from the office, i hit up the northmart to further re-stock my fridge with pie, pickles and fixings for a curried chicken meal that i've had a hankering for. had a bit of time between grocery shopping and my soccer game, so i fired up my pc to make another attempt at the Poker Kings texas hold'em tourney. after numerous attempts this week, with final table placements in 6th and 2nd, i finally triumphed with my first tourney win on this addictive offline game since leaving iqaluit. i was pretty stoked.
went to my soccer game in the early evening. turns out that cyrus is also named kook and joseph is also named natuk. robert repeated his grand exploits in goal, getting a shutout in the first half. also joining us were connie, keith and mike. the final tally was 4-1 for our team with kook getting 2, and keith and mike each getting a solo. liam scored the only goal for the other side.
after a quick shower and an attempt to colour my hair with a golden-glitter gel, i wandered over to vinnie's for a pre-legion party. robert was there when i arrived and we were soon joined by odile and lori. greg showed up with a bottle of ouzo and i succumbed to the urge to sample a shot. we all demonstrated our true geekiness by quoting favourite lines from 'the princess bride'. once david, lori, emilie, danielle and amanda had joined us, we headed over to the legion.
turns out we would be celebrating emilie's birthday and pre-celebrating odile's. filled with ouzo-inspired mania, i lugged emilie over to a puddle on the way to the legion. i had meant to walk thru the water without actually dunking her in, but she squirmed and i let her drop, and her stomp splattered mud all over her pants. greg and i tried to convince her that it was a fashion statement, but i still ponied up for a drink for her at the legion to try to make amends.
what is the round white thing up there ?
Saturday, 28MAY2005:
accomplished a bike / hike up to the navcan globe past
the dump on federal road. couldn't figure out where the
turnoff was at first, but it became obvious once i climbed
up onto the ridge. once up there, i stopped to read
another chapter, and ran across this insightful quote by
count maurice maeterlinck: "the words which we
pronounce have no meaning except through the silence in
which they are bathed." once the wind starting
kicking up, tho, i had to start moving to keep warm.
my camera batteries conked out once i began my return journey, so i wasn't able to get any shots of the aquamarine lagoons still basking with ice. however, i did explore all of the other trails along the ridge, checking out a high-frequency radio transmitter. on the way down, i kicked up a huge spray from the meltwater-grooved roadways - i imagined that it was what going down a waterslide must feel like.
when i got home, i caught up on salon.com reading. one interview featured rachel dewoskin speaking about her new book that goes over her time in china in the 1990's. she made an interesting comment about poetry:
"this is an important component of good poetry -- if you present an anecdote and then you make it universal in a way that's funny or attractive, you've been successful. if you present an anecdote and you do nothing to make it universal, you've been self-loving, because your anecdote isn't interesting unless it applies to other people. And yet at the same time, if you make it too general, then you're stereotyping."
when he mentioned that he was being joined by john and that they were interested in doing something after their radio shift, i called up david to see if he wanted to join in too. we ended up heading over to the legion, but it wasn't nearly as fun as yesterday, so i headed home early.
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