Kweh! Kweh!

Baton received

2006-07-20T18:55:00.000-04:00

[1, What is your name?]
My name is Kendrick. Chocobo is my favorite character in Final Fantasy. (My favorite game!)

[2, What did you eat last night for your supper?]
Noodle with organic vegetable and egg in soup.

[3, What is your job?]
Computer programming. Getting very very tired doing it. X_X!

[4, What do you like to do?]
Trying new cuisine, going on vacation, taking pictures, rock climbing, and playing PSP.

[5, What is you favorite type?]
Someone who enjoy doing the stuff I like to do.

[6, What is your special ability?]
X-ray vision, flying. (oh wait, those are superman's abilities, not mine..) My special ability is that I can sit and place both my thighs flat on the floor, meanwhile have both feet facing outwards. (Hard to explain)

[7, Do you have any license or qualification?]
Driver's licence only.

[8, Do you have concerns?]
Yes, can I actually finish my work before the end of August deadline?

[9. What is your favorite food and dislike food?]
My favorite food is peking duck. Favorite snack is takoyaki. I hate raw tomatoes, but the organic tomatoes I am eating lately are quite good, so this might not be the food I dislike most anymore.

[10. Say a word for person you love]
Serendipity. I don't know why, I just like the word.

[11, Write 5 people you want to give this baton message]
I'm keeping this baton and no one can get it from me! ^_^

It's summer!

2006-06-18T22:13:00.000-04:00

Summer has not officially arrived yet, but the warning sign is definitely evident. It was 34C on Saturday, so what better way to spend a hot humid day other than to go for a swim at the beach? There isn't any ocean around Toronto, but what we do have, however are lots and lots of HUGE lakes. The largest fresh water beach in the world -- the Wasaga beach, just happens to be less than 2hrs away from where I live.
It's the perfect weather for the beach, so it was absolutely filled with people. Joyce and I had a super relaxing day on the beach. So relaxing in fact, we forgot to keep track of time. By the time we realized it, we've already spent 5 hrs on the beach. I think we are well toasted now. :D

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New York #3

2006-06-04T20:29:00.000-04:00

A trip to New york wouldn't be complete without enjoying some local food. New york is famous for their deli sandwich as well as the "New York cheesecake". And they are also known for serving big hearty portion of food.
This is the pastrami sandwich from "Stage Deli". My goodness, it's huge! The portion is definitely enough for 2 people. They put so many layers of the meat in two tiny little pieces of bread, making it impossible to eat it like a burger. I guess that's why they gave us forks and knifes. Taste wise, I must admit, these are some of the best pastrami meat I've had in a long time, it's no wonder why so many people come to eat in this restaurant everyday.

This is the bagel I had in the morning. It costs $10! Probably the most expensive bagel I've ever had in my life. But this is no ordinary bagel. Inside the bagel are gravlox, or swedish cured salmon. I have never had gravlox before, but it tasted very much like smoked salmon with dill. They also put a lot of cream cheese into the bagel, it's super delicious!

The hotdog stands in New York is very different from the ones found in Toronto. In Toronto, hot dog stands sell hot dogs only. But in New York, they sell a lot of other food like roasted chestnuts, falafels, pizzas and even dumplings! The picture on the left is a Jalepeno pretzel (also sold in a hotdog stand). This is the first time I've had this, and it doesn't taste all that bad. The Jalepeno is not too spicy, but provides enough kick to stimulate my appetite. But it is definitely not as good as my favourite Pretzel Maker soft pretzels.

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New York #2

2006-05-29T23:07:00.000-04:00

They say New York is a walking city, and they are absolutely right. We got a hotel in mid-town manhattan, and we planned to go for a semi-circle island cruise in the afternoon. The pier is roughly 5km away from the hotel, so under normal condition, it would only take 10 minutes to get there by bus. With more than an hour before the cruise departs, we waited for the bus. It was 2pm, and the traffic is already super congested. We've decided to walk towards the pier and catch the bus if we see one. Along the route, we caught a bus in front of us. When we got on, I asked whether this is the bus to the pier, and she told me it would be much faster if I just walk it. :) Good advice, I must've passed at least 3 buses as we walked towards the pier. I didn't want to miss the cruise, so we were walking super fast. By the time we reached the pier, my feet were super tired.
The cruise was very nice, but the weather was a bit chilly. So after 2 hours of "chilly sea breezes", we both wanted something warm in our stomach. Thankfully, we passed by this nice little coffee shop on our way to the pier, so we decided to rest there for a bit. The coffee shop, or should I say sandwich shop, is called "Starwich". It has very modern looking decors, and despite the size of the coffee shop, the furnitures are arranged in such a way that they don't seem too crowded. You won't find the standard tables and chairs here, but you will find very comfortable sofas and couches. We found ourselves a nice little sofa to get cozy in. Joyce ordered a cappuccino, while I ordered a coffee. When the server brought us our drinks, I was surprised to find the size of the cups! They were huge! I needed to hold them with both of my hands. But it sure felt good holding that cup with my hands, it literally defrosted my body. The coffee is also very fragrant and tasty. We stayed there for 15 minutes, and it completely washed all our tiredness away. I wonder if I can find something similar in Toronto?

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New York #1

2006-05-24T22:28:00.000-04:00

Joyce and I went to New York during the Victoria day long weekend. We stayed there for two nights, so we had to make full use of our time while we were there. Here are some highlights!
This is the brand new Apple store that was just opened on Friday. As you can see, there were many people lining up to get into the store. The entrance is very unique, there is a single elevator in the center of the glass structure, and it transports customers down into the store. It looked very futuristic! But since we don't want to waste too much time lining up, so we didn't end up going into the store. I hope I didn't miss anything special in the store!

The picture to the right, is of course, the statue of liberty. Since this is the first time Joyce went to New York, so this is also the first time she has seen the real thing. The funny thing is, she has actually seen the statue of liberty before. Where? In Japan! Yes, you heard right, there is a statue of liberty in Tokyo! I don't know why it's there, but we were very surprise to see it when we visited Tokyo last time. Do you know why there is a statue of liberty in Tokyo?
Unfortunately, I couldn't really get a good look of it in New York though. It's really tough to get a good picture of it because it is situated on a small island. When you are on the island, you are too close to it, so it's hard to take good picture of it. We took this photo while we were on the ferry, but the ferry moves a lot, so it's hard to take good pictures on it as well. We were able to take much better pictures of the statue when we were in Tokyo. :D Isn't that funny?
Stay tuned for more highlights!

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Wild deers

2006-05-14T13:25:00.000-04:00

Just outside my work place, there is a large natural habitat area. When I go to work in the morning, I can always find some geese strolling around the parking lot. But besides geese and ducks, it's rare to find other types of animals. Last week, when I am about to leave work (around 8pm), I saw two deers in the field near the parking lot! I tried to take some pictures, but I couldn't get too close to them because I don't want to scare them away. In this first picture, there is a deer on the right side. Can you see it? If you look carefully, there is also a yellow sign on the left, it's a sign of deer crossing! hehe.. It's funny to get them both in the same picture.
On the second picture, you can see two deers. They were both staring at me when I was taking the picture. Maybe they are curious as to what I am doing? Unlike the deers I saw in Nara, these deers seem to be afraid of people. So as I was walking towards the parking lot, they just kept staring at me, try to keep a safe distance from me. What an incredible sighting!

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Learning Japanese

2006-05-07T23:55:00.000-04:00

Joyce and I have recently started to pick up Japanese again. We are starting from scratch since I believe in building a strong fundamental first. In fact, she has started her blog again! Please visit her, and give her some encouragement!

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Japanese

Cute and Delicious

2006-05-05T20:58:00.000-04:00

If someone asks me to use one sentence to describe Japanese products, then I would say: "They always come in nice packages and they all look very cute and pretty." The same even goes for food! I took this picture in a restaurant called Ninja Akasaka. It's located in Akasaka, Tokyo, and it is a ninja-themed restaurant. The food is pricey, but the atomsphere and service is great! If you haven't been there, I would definitely recommend you to go at least once. Can you guess what this little frog is made up of? Yup, it's ice-cream. And the lotus leaf under it is made of chocolate. It is both cute and delicious at the same time. What a combination! To tell you the truth, I almost didn't want to eat it, because it looks so cute!

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Food I enjoy

2006-04-30T19:04:00.000-04:00

Tasty food doesn't have to be expensive, sometimes, cheap food can just taste as good, if not better. There are actually many simple food that I like and pretzel is one of them. I got one of these pretzels while doing some shopping this weekend. The store selling them bakes many different flavors of pretzels, including cinnamon, parmesan cheese, chocolate, etc.. But I like them plain with sesame and just a bit of salt. When I got them, they were just out of the oven freshly baked, so they taste even better! Yumm.. the pretzel is so soft and fluffy inside, it just makes me so happy eating it. Do you also have a favorite food?

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food
pretzel

Chinese REALLY do eat everything!

2006-04-27T16:54:00.000-04:00

Jeff recently sent me a couple of pictures on some chinese "delicacies". Due to the disturbing nature of the photos, I will let you decide if you want to see them by clicking on the "Read More" below. The pictures are taken in a famous shopping street in Beijing named Wang Fu Jing (王府井). The area is pretty big, and they have a section dedicated to 'snacks'. The pictures below are taken in the 'snack' area.
There is an old chinese saying that roughly translates to -- "Chinese eat everything as long as their back points upward". I think I am pretty adventurous when it comes to eating, but these critters below are really something else. So, if you feel adventurous then read on.

Sea horses and scorpions on skewers.Jeff told me that they are still alive on the skewers! X_X But the stall owner will still fry them before serving them to you. Can you imagine walking around the street eating something like this?? People will think you are freak! Oh, and a bit of trivia, did you know male sea horses get pregnant, and not the female? They are the only animal that do that!

Grass hoppers, and ?? and Cicadas on skewers.The sea horses and scorpions I may still be able to take. But grass hoppers and Cicadas, that's just gross.. I don't even want to know what the ones in the middle are. Yikes, I guess chinese REALLY do eat everything.

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Hollister -- buying clothes in the dark

2006-04-23T00:08:00.000-04:00

It has been a while since I last shopped at Eaton Center. Most of the stores remained the same since the last time I was there, but there is this peculiar clothing store that appears to be opened only recently. The name of the store is Hollister, and since I have never heard of this store before, I assumed it must have came from USA. Why do I find it peculiar, you ask? Well, most clothing stores are very well lit, because after all, you need to see the clothes before you can buy them, right? But this store is the exact opposite! There is not much lighting in the store; they do place a few halogen spotlights in strategic areas, but I still couldn't tell the color of the shirts on the shelves unless I put them under the spotlights. I saw quite a few people groping the shelves, they must be trying to figure out whether they are looking at a shirt or a pair of pants. =D The change rooms are also quite dark, I guess they don't want you to see how you look with the clothes on neither?
Who would've thought that a store like this can still be jammed pack with shoppers!? Look at the picture, there are a lot of people shopping here! The question is, do they really know what they are buying??

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The "long distance" apple pie

2006-04-16T19:55:00.000-04:00

Taking advantage of the Easter long weekend, Joyce and I decided to go on a little trip outside of Toronto. The weather forecast looked good on Saturday, so we thought it would be nice to go to Sandbank provincial park. After 2 hours of driving, we realized the hard way that the weather in Toronto and the weather 200km outside of Toronto can be very different. The sun did not make an appearance, and there is strong wind, so the beach area is really chilly.. :-( We walked around for 30 minutes, and decided to head back.
On the way back, roughly 100km outside of Toronto, we noticed this huge apple beside the highway. Curious, we took a detour and went into this place. To my surprise, there were quite a lot of people there, and there is even a little petting zoo! The main attraction to this "Big Apple" is the restaurant/factory that sells freshly baked apple pies.

They sell many different kind of apple pies. Each pie costs $10, so it's a bit more pricey than the ones you can get in supermarket. There is also a little restaurant, so we tried 2 slices of pies: "Apple crumble pie" and the "No sugar added apple pie". The apple crumble pie is nice, but the crust is a bit too sweet. The "No sugar added apple pie", on the otherhand, is sweetened only with the natural apple juice, which tastes great!

We liked it so much we bought one home. It's yummy indeed. Although Sandbank was a bit of a disappointment, but the "Big Apple" experience made up for it.
Jeff, we know you love apple pies, so I will eat a piece for you while you are in China. ^_^

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BMWhat?

2006-04-13T14:46:00.000-04:00

While I was in my car, on my way home, a speedy car zoomed by. The car made this very powerful thumping noise as it went by me, and it's one of those sound that you know only a decent car can produce. But the noise startled me, and in fact, I found it quite annoying at the time, so I thought: "Why bothered? There is so much traffic ahead, it's not like you can go anywhere!!". And of course, it couldn't really go very far, and had to stop in front of me eventually. It is a cool looking A4, with really dark tinted window, so I couldn't really see who was driving it. After I stopped behind the A4, its license plate caught my attention, it said "BM What?". Haha.. I find it funny because I know a friend who drove a BMW and loved it. I guess this A4 owner didn't appreciate BMW all that much. :D

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Bye Bye! Mr. Nothing

2006-04-02T12:17:00.000-04:00

It has been a week since Mr. Nothing went to China to study Mandarin. He isn't able to update his blog much because China had apparently blocked blogger.com at the national gateway.. boo!! But I think he figured out a way to access the page using some program, hopefully, we'll get to hear from him soon.
Hey, Mr. Nothing, if you are reading this, how are the food in Beijing? Did you figure out how to order any good stuff yet? How about Peking duck?? Let me know if the Peking duck in Beijing taste better than the ones in Toronto.
Life in Toronto is pretty much the same old thing. I wasn't able to do anything this weekend because I got a really high fever last night (40C). Thank god Joyce took good care of me, so I am much better now. I am still feeling powerless and light-headed right now, but hopefully I will be good enough to go back to work tomorrow.

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Deathnote

2006-03-31T19:00:00.000-05:00

I have been doing some readings lately, ranging from "Matrix theory" (Matrix -- the movie, not the math one) to "Natural cures for common disease". They are not the typical books that I would consider reading, since they are all non-fictions. But the "Matrix theory" is actually a really interesting book, a great conversation starter, I will probably talk about it in the future.

Not surprisingly, there is always some manga in my reading list, and I am currently following "Deathnote". I am pleasantly surprised to see a sudden surge of manga translated to English recently. I stumpled across this manga when I was at Indigo couple months ago. According to the Japanese official JUMP website, they already have 10 volumes! Over here, they only have 4 volumes translated. So it'll be a while until they can catch up.

"Deathnote" talks about a high school ace student -- "Light Yagami" (A really cool name when written in Japanese), who by chance, picked up a black notebook -- "Deathnote". The owner of deathnote is granted a special power -- he can kill whoever he wants, all he needs to do is to write the person's name into the notebook (There are a few rules, but I won't go into it here). I wonder what I would do with such a power? Anyways, Light decides to try it out on a few criminals he saw on TV, in an attempt to rid the world of evil people. It didn't take long for the police to realize a common trait between all the "murders", so they are quickly placed into a special investigation to find out who is behind it. A super intelligent investigator "L" is thus pitted against "Light" in a very fierce battle of the minds.

Don't think Light is necessary the good guy because he's the main character, he killed a lot of innocent people while trying to cover his tracks. But I couldn't really say he's a bad guy neither. Without spoiling too much story, you just have to go read it yourself. This manga is one of the best that I have read in a long time, so I am highly recommending it.

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Long time no see

2006-03-30T08:53:00.000-05:00

It really has been a while since I last blogged. I am going through one of those phases where I just don't feel like doing anything after I go home from work. But, if you keep track of Mr. Nothings' blog, you will know that he has gone to study in China! That kind of motivated me to do something too. Well, I would like to go to China too, but I am not courageous enough to leave my job yet. I guess I will start by picking up my blog again.
I took some pictures of him leaving for China, so I may post them up soon. I think he's having trouble accessing the blog right now, but hopefully, he'll resolve all the technical issues soon. Can't wait to read his experiences.

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china

Hana Yori Dango Finale

2005-12-19T23:37:00.000-05:00

This short drama series ended last Friday. As I have expected, it ended on a happy note. I haven't seen one of these happy drama in a while, so it is a nice change of pace. I remembered watching "Itoshi kime e" a while ago, and I felt really bad for the main characters after the last episode. <Warning, Spoiler ahead!>

A lot of interesting events happened in the last episode. I still can't believe Tsukasa's mom turned into such a nice person all of a sudden, maybe her kids and Ayano's words finally convinced her that Tsukushi is a better person than she thinks? Nevertheless, it's cool to see her being nice for once. Tsukushi's English speech was so funny, Joyce and I tried to imitate her way of pronouncing "children", but to no avail. ^_^ But seriously, she spoke better English than most other japan dramas I have seen, so I have to give her full marks for trying. (On a side note, I was really surprised when Akira spoke perfect Mandarin in the previous episode!!) In the end, everyone gets to celebrate christmas in pairs, including the unlikely couple Akira and Sakurako. (I thought Akira is going to end up with the crazy store owner, but I guess that would be weird too). I really like the cookie Tsukushi made for Tsukasa, it's so funny looking but so heart-warming at the same time. I would love to receive a gift like that! As the ending credit was rolling, I noticed that big sis Tsubaki got a christmas present from someone, I'm very curious about what she got, because she seemed so happy opening it.

It was a great ending to a great drama, I would definitely recommend everyone to watch it! But I really hope they don't make a sequel to it, because sequels usually end up ruining the show.

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A luxurious dinner

2005-12-12T00:03:00.000-05:00

Before I watch Iron Chef, I have always thought truffles are just chocolates (i.e. chocolate truffles). Little did I know, they are actually a type of mushroom. I remembered an episode, where the iron chef shaved a little piece of black truffle onto a soup, and the commentator was saying how the soup is now going to cost a few hundred dollars because of the amount of truffles that was added (he added 1 whole truffle, but it was tiny). I knew then, that truffle must be ultra expensive.
Anyways, Joyce did some digging, and found a little market called Pusateri selling truffles. We went there this afternoon, but to our disappointment, their truffles were all sold out. But I did find out their price, they cost $10 for 1 gram!!! Wow, that's expensive stuff. Since I have never tasted truffles before and I didn't want to go home empty handed, I bought some truffle oil instead. They are not cheap neither, a little bottle cost $20, but it should last me a long time.
The very first thing I got home was to open the truffle oil to smell it. I wish I could describe what it smell like, but I can't. I guess it is one of those things that you just have to experience yourself. Joyce said she had smell the same thing before but she couldn't remember from where.
Well, I didn't really know how prepare anything with truffle oil, but I know they go well with foie gras based on the Iron Chef episodes. So I cracked open a can of foie gras my mom got me when she was in France, and I dribbled a bit of truffle oil onto it. I also baked some bread, and cooked some pasta I bought from Pusateri.
The whole dinner sure tasted luxurious, but I am not sure I really liked it. The foie gras is very heavy (fatty), and the fragrance of the truffle oil is very overpowering. I find the dinner tasted too rich for my taste. Either I didn't really cook them well, or maybe I just didn't have an "expensive" tongue. ^_^ But it was quite an experience nevertheless.

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Zapped back to Koyasan

2005-12-11T23:31:00.000-05:00

I bought these koya-tofu when I was in Japan April this year. I have left them in the kitchen cabinet for quite a while now. I didn't use them because they take quite some time to prepare. Since I didn't have to work on Friday, so I have decided to take some time to prepare them for dinner.
These tofu takes a long time to prepare because they have been dehyrdated. Before I can cook them, they need to be rehydrated in warm water, squeeze the water out, soak in warm water again, squeeze the water out, and repeat until the water squeezed out is clear. So I repeated the process 3 times, which took me almost half an hour.
When I ate these tofu in Koyasan, they were served in a delicious soup. I thought I should do the same, so I made a pot of nabe with the koya tofu, kombu, cabbage, shitake, carrots, and some fried tofu. The result is excellent! I love these tofu because they absorb so much liquid. I don't really know how to describe them, but it's like eating an edible sponge filled with delicious soup.
I only have half a package left now, I wonder if I can buy them in Toronto?

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Lian Wu in Toronto!?

2005-12-05T21:23:00.000-05:00

This is one of my favorite fruit. It ranks way up there with the super juicy Japanese peach that I had when I was a kid. Before today, I have only seen this fruit in Taiwan. It is called “Lian Wu” in mandarin which roughly translates to “Lotus Fog”. No, it has nothing to do with lotus or fog, and I have no idea what the English name is. In Taiwan, I have seen them come in red, white and black.
I am so surprise to see them being sold in the Chinese supermarket today, that I got them despite the expensive price tag ($2 each!). If you do see them being sold, I would definitely recommend that you give them a try. If you happen to pick a good one, it should taste refreshingly sweet, and full of juices. The juiciness should be like biting into a wet sponge, and the texture is like biting into a very crunchy star fruit. Eating one brought back so many good memories for me, I am so happy!

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Is it so wrong to break a few rules?

2005-12-05T21:20:00.000-05:00

Joyce and I were watching a talk show on Friday night, it was about a female teacher (29) having a sexual relationship with one of her student(17). All the parents were furious, but the teacher held a strong believe that there is nothing wrong with her action. She argues that their relationship is no different from any other couples. My initial reaction, probably the same reaction as most of the population, was that it is "morally wrong" for a teacher to have this kind of relationship with a student, especially when he is still a minor. Joyce, on the other hand, didn't like the term "morally wrong", and argued that two consenting people should be able to have any relationship regardless of their profession and age. It seems we are standing on opposite sides of the moral line when it comes to this issue, but is there really a right side or wrong side?

There are times when I find myself choosing the "wrong" side as well. For example, killing another human being is generally recognized as morally wrong. But I don't see anything wrong with "assisted suicide", where a doctor helps a dying patient to end his life (with the patient's permission, of course). Is the doctor wrong? Can we label the doctor's action as "morally wrong"?

If moral standard is simply a list of rules defining what the proper behavior should be in our society, then who gets to define these rules? Who gets to draw the line between right and wrong? And if moral standards change over time, then is it really okay to punish people base on these moral standards?

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Big Fluffy snow

2005-12-04T16:02:00.000-05:00

I love these fluffy snow. Surprisingly, the weather is usually much warmer when the snow flakes are this big. The weather has been hovering around the freezing point for the last few days, but there isn't much snow accumulating on the ground. Maybe I will go skiing when there is more snow.

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snow
winter

Shrimp Paella

2005-11-26T22:19:00.000-05:00

The weather is getting colder and colder each day. When I went to work a couple days ago, it was -10 degrees! I have to walk 15 minutes to catch the bus to work, and I usually enjoy the walk in the morning, but doing it in this chilly weather is just not very fun. Luckily, it's a bit warmer today, around 1 degree, so Joyce and I went out to do a bit of shopping.
A few days ago, we got a flyer about a Persian food store Tavazo. They sell a lot of nuts and spices we don't usually find in the local supermarkets. I was especially interested in a spice called saffron, so we decided to go check it out today. Saffron is a vital spice in making a spanish dish called Paella. Saffron comes from a special flower and they are very expensive because there are only three strands of saffron from each flower. I bought some today, and they cost $3 for 1 gram! But let me say this first, they are definitely worth every penny.

Since I have already gotten some shrimps at home, I have decided to make shrimp paella for dinner tonight. This is my first attempt at making paella, so I was prepared for failures. But surprising, my paella turned out pretty well! Maybe all those risotto making has improved my cooking skill. Look at the final product here:

I have only used a third of the saffron (1/3 gram), but it is already strong enough to coat a whole pan of rice with the bright yellow color. Doesn't it look appetizing?

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Let is snow!

2005-11-23T23:30:00.000-05:00

It started to snow tonight on my way home from work. This is the first real "snow" we have had this winter. There were a few small flurries in the last couple of weeks, but they all melt as soon as soon as they hit the ground. This time around, I can see the snow starting to accumulate on the ground, which means winter is finally here.
I love it that it is so easy to tell different seasons apart in Toronto. The fresh green grasses and breezy wind in the spring; the colorful flowers and hot weather in the summer; the red maple leaves and crisp air in the autumn; and of course, the naked tree branches and powdery snow in the winter. It feels as though the nature is hard at work moving forward, and that motivates me to move forward as well.
But many people got sick because of the temperature changes, and Joyce got a cold too. (>_<) Hopefully, she'll get better soon.

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Swan Lake

2005-11-20T20:47:00.000-05:00

On Saturday night, Joyce and I went to the Hummingbird center to watch Swan Lake. Joyce had been longing to watch it for ages, and this year, she got a pair of tickets from her good buddy for her birthday. Needless to say, Joyce was extremely excited about it. I have never seen a live ballet performance before, so I have to admit, the only thing I knew about Swan Lake was a couple of really famous music pieces by Tchaikovsky.
There is something magical about watching a live theatre performance that you just can't get from watching TV. As soon as I sat down in an all sold out theatre, I knew I was going to be treated to something good. The curtain rose, the music began, and I was immediately taken away by the movement of the ballet dancers. I didn't know the story of Swan Lake, but as the dancers moved on the stage, I began to understand what the story is all about. Apparently, music and dance alone is enough to tell the story of Swan Lake.
It started simple enough, with a prince (Siegfried) who received news from his mother asking him to get marry soon. One day, Siegfried went hunting and found a beautiful lady (the white swan, Odette). They soon fell in love with each other. And that's half of the story. As soon as we entered intermission, I can't wait to find out more about the story. I started to read the swan lake story printed on the pamphlet that was given out to us at the start of the performance. After reading, I found out this story has a tragic end. :( An evil dude (Rothbart) brought the black swan (Odile) to Siegfried. Odile looked exactly the same as Odette, so Siegfried thought she was the same women he fell in love with during the hunt, and they were soon wed. Odette found out about their marriage, and her jealousy caused a big storm that destroyed Siegfried's castle. Siegfried survived the storm, and he and Odette later found out the evil dude was the true evil mastermind behind all these. During a climatic fight between good and evil, both Rothbart and Siegfried died in the battle, leaving Odette alone beside his dead prince. T-T (sob. sob..)
It was a beautiful ballet performance. I once saw a magazine article "Why theatre will never go out of style", I think I can now understand why.

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Artichoke Pizza

2005-11-12T23:09:00.000-05:00

This is the best looking pizza I have made so far. It's not too wet, not too spicy, and got the perfect crunchy crust just the way I like it. The pizza has got artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, prosciutto and goat cheese. I bet it's hard to find a pizza in store with this combination of toppings! That's what I called a good dinner. Uuuumai!

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Takoyaki - attempt #2

2005-11-11T23:10:00.000-05:00

Tonight, I have decided to make takoyaki for dinner again. This time around, I don't exactly have all the required ingredients, but I do have the most important stuff: flour, egg, tako and chicken stock. My goal today is to figure out how to properly turn the takoyaki to shape them into perfect spheres. Learning from the mistake I made last time, I started the cooking process with medium-low heat. And what do you know, that did the trick! Because the batter did not cook too quickly, I was able to turn them nicely into nice round balls. Just take a look at this picture:

YUM.. Even though I only use tako and nothing else, it still tasted pretty good. Next time when I make it, I'm going to put more stuff into the takoyaki. Can't wait to do it again!

This is the recipe I used for the batter:

150ml chicken stock
300ml water
200g flour
2 eggs

I will probably try making some real stock with kelp next time.

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Playing with macro mode

2005-11-10T00:05:00.000-05:00

I felt a sudden urge to take some photos today. So I looked all around the house, trying to find some interesting objects to shoot. I ended up taking bunch of macro photos at the rose bud tea Joyce had made in a french press coffee pot. This is one of the photos I took today. The image looked a bit depressing, probably because of the way the rose bud bruises. But I still think it is quite pretty.

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Hana Yori Dango

2005-11-04T09:15:00.000-05:00

I have recently started to follow a new Friday night Japanese drama: Hana Yori Dango.
Anime fans will immediately recognize that this drama is an adaptation from the manga of the same name. There was actually a chinese adaptation of the same manga a few years ago called "Meteor Garden". It was a really popular series, and brought fame to the 4 actors that portrayed F4.
So far, I have seen 2 episodes of this new series, and I liked it quite a bit. I like how they advance the plot so quickly, so there is no boring moment. I like the 'over-acting', because it makes the whole drama feels very manga-like. And of course, I like cinderella type story, because no matter how bad things get, there is always going to be a good ending.

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"Golden Spring" bath crystals

2005-10-30T23:22:00.000-05:00

My mom came back from Taiwan this morning, and brought back a lot of my favourite snacks like shredded dry squid, and bite-size pineapple cakes. She also brought back some hotspring bath crystals from my aunt.

I have no idea what the Japanese words mean. But I certainly don't quite believe what the English words are saying:

Make your skin rosy and your body curvaceous

If it really works, I bet it will make a lot of fitness club go out of business. =) But I'm not here to complain about the product...

In fact, what I really want to talk about is how good it felt to soak in these hotspring baths! First thing that caught my attention is how bad the bath smells after you put in the crystals. It smells just like the sulphur you would smell near the natural hotsprings. The color is muddy green, which is unlike any of the other hotspring bath crystals I've used. After soaking in the bath for a few minutes, it felt absolutely refreshing, but I noticed something I didn't expect, my silver necklace turned into this:What happened?? It turned into copper color! Luckily, Joyce was smart enough to use some toothpaste to restore the original shine of my necklace. (How did she know these stuff?) I can still smell the sulphur as I am writing this blog, these bath crystals are some strong stuff!

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Funny translations

2005-10-26T16:14:00.000-04:00

I got this webpage from a comment left by 蛋治(egg sandwich) in a previous post. (Thanks!) It can translate text from Japanese to Chinese/Korean/English and vice versa. It's pretty neat, and works quite decently. But just for fun, I tried to translate the following into english:

たこ焼きはとてもおいしいです。

and I got:

The kite grilling is very delicious.

haha.. Maybe I can add some kites to my takoyaki next time. =)

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yummy Boca Negra

2005-10-25T12:47:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I was attempting to make a flourless chocolate cake with the recipe I found on bakingsheet: Cooking School: Boca Negra. But as with most of my first attempts, this one also ended in utter failure. :( I bet if I follow the recipe to the letter, I could make it successfully too! But I always try to make the same thing in half the portion with less sugar and butter. That's probably not a good idea for first attempts. :) But I do wish they can create recipes for 2 servings rather than 12.

P.S. If you like baking, you must visit this blog, it's filled with fabulous recipes.

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Takoyaki - attempt #1

2005-10-20T21:42:00.000-04:00

What do you think of my first attempt at making Takoyaki? It looked pretty good, doesn't it? I tried the recipe that came with the takoyaki pan, but I think the recipe is wrong. It said to use 1/4 cup water, 1 egg with 3.5 oz of flour to make the batter, but that's way too dry! So I added more water to make the batter more watery. I then heated the pan on high, and pour the batter into the pan. I then added some cooked tako and shitake mushroom into the ball. And then quickly turned each of them over with the pick that came with the takoyaki-ki.
When I was in Osaka, the cooks were turning over the takoyaki so quickly, they made it look so easy. But it isn't as easy as it looks, I made very ugly looking balls with my first batch =p. I made the mistake of letting the first half cooking for too long, so when I flipped them over, the remaining batter became too cooked and doesn't form the bottom half of the takoyaki. When I was making my second batch, I tried to flip them over more quickly and they turned out a bit better. Unfortunately, they definitely don't taste as good as the ones I had in Osaka. My recipe still needs much improvement. Next time, I will make the batter even more watery and don't heat the pan too hot, and try again! Do you know any good techniques in making takoyaki? Please let me know!

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Barrio - a little restaurant on Queen East

2005-10-19T21:47:00.000-04:00

It's Joyce's birthday today, so it's a great opportunity to try out new restaurants. I googled around, and found this restaurant called Barrio, judging from the descriptions I found on the web, it sounded like a cool place to eat. It's located on 896 Queen Street East, not exactly in a neighbourhood we hang around in. And after seeing the exterior of the restaurant, I can't say that I went in with a lot of expectation. But little did I know, I was about to embark on a taste adventure... (BTW, these pictures are taken with my new camera, but I didn't bring a tripod, so pictures taken without flash looks blurry.)

It's hard to describe the food they serve, there isn't exactly any "main course" on the menu. Every item on the menu is in "dim-sum" portion, and is meant for sharing. This is a very clever idea, Joyce and I ended up tasting 4 different dishes.

We start off with three different kind of bread. There is the plain white french bread, a multigrain bread with a sweet crust which I like, and Joyce liked the olive bread. The breads are served with garlic dip and eggplant dip. The garlic dip (top) is very strong and fragrant, if you like garlic, you'll love this. I prefer the eggplant dip (bottom), it is very soft and flavorful.

This is Venison loin. We didn't know what it was when we ate it, but I checked the dictionary later and found out it's deer meat. (And we thought it was beef!) Whatever it is, it tasted real good. It is cooked oh so tender, and juicy on every bite. The sweetbread (yellow cube) is also very nicely done, and compliments the meat nicely. This is the best dish out of the four that I have tried.

This dish has chicken and gnocchi with hazelnuts on top. Joyce didn't like this one so much because she doesn't like chicken, and I didn't like it so much because I like my gnocchi to be more chewy. This one is a bit more salty than I would like, but nevertheless, the combination of the ingredience is nice, and the texture created by mixing chicken and gnocchi together is very interesting.

Lastly, we have seared scallops on top of a sweet and sour sauce. I love scallops, and they are cooked so nicely. The sweet and sour sauce provides just enough acidity to the scallops to enhance the taste. The scallops are nicely browned on the outside, and tender inside, I wished I can have more!

Of course, it wouldn't be a complete meal without desserts. We have some creme brulee and Boca Negra. The creme brulee is nothing special. Boca Negra, on the other hand, deserves special mentioning. It is a flourless chocolate cake, which means it will literally melt in your mouth. The chocolate is so rich and concentrated yet the texture is very delicate, it tastes absolutely heavenly! How good it is you ask? As Joyce puts it, she can practically eat the fork she used to scoop the cake.

I have to stress the fact that this is not the traditional dinner type restaurant. The experience is similar to eating a series of appetizers. If you like to experiment with different types of food, you'll like it. But if you want to eat a big slab of meat, this is not for you. Regardless, I would definitely recommend the restaurant to my friends.

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My new takoyaki pan

2005-10-19T21:35:00.000-04:00

The takoyaki pan I purchased last week has arrived! Can't wait to make some takoyaki tomorrow. Oh I so miss the taste of takoyaki from Osaka. I will post pictures of my version of takoyaki (if I can make them succesfully) :)

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takoyaki

Got myself a new camera!

2005-10-17T00:06:00.000-04:00

Thanks to a co-worker's free tickets, I went to Henry's Photographic and Digital Imaging Show today. The show is a great place to learn about the different digital cameras that are available in the canadian market. Naturally, I was excited to see Sony's M2 camera, but when I actually held it in my hand, I was a bit disappointed at the feel of the camera. The outer shell seemed to be made of cheap plastic, and in comparison, the M1 looked much better.
But all is not lost, the Sony booth was trying to get rid of some discontinued models. So I did find a pretty good deal for a DSC-T33, and got it for $375. Now I am very happy that I have a decent camera again.

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camera
sony

Color of my blog

2005-10-16T23:59:00.000-04:00

I knew there was a good reason why I picked this color scheme for my blog. :)

Your Blog Should Be Green

Your blog is smart and thoughtful - not a lot of fluff.
You enjoy a good discussion, especially if it involves picking apart ideas.
However, you tend to get easily annoyed by any thoughtless comments in your blog.

What Color Should Your Blog or Journal Be?

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test

LOST - Season 2, Episode 4

2005-10-13T00:02:00.000-04:00

I shouldn't blog about LOST anymore. With the way things are going, they are introducing more and more mysteries every episode, but they never tie up any loose ends. There are so many unexplained things going on in the show, I can't keep track of them anymore. (spoiler ahead!)

I did notice today that the six numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 all add up to 108 (Number of seconds before the numbers needs to be entered into the computer). I find that very neat, but again, it doesn't really explain anything. For the entire episode, I was wondering where Desmond ran to, and was he really in the hatch the entire time? Hurley said the food in the hatch can only last 3 more months, but Desmond has been in the hatch for a very long time already (the scratch marks on the wall). So if no one goes to find Desmond, what's gonna happen to him? On the other side of the island, the survivors found another hatch-like room with the Dharma Institute sign. It looks like the whole island belongs to the institute. It seems the island is just a location for conducting experiment, except this time, the lab rats are human. Well, again, lots of mysteries but no answer to be found.

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LOST
TV

Focaccia bread

2005-10-10T23:28:00.000-04:00

It's thanksgiving today, but Joyce and I didn't have any turkey. Instead, I felt like making focaccia bread. It's not exactly a thanksgiving kind of food, but why not? I used Joyce's focaccia recipe and made some modification to the bread dough. The result is a super delicious focaccia bread! I am so impressed with the taste, I thought it would be nice to share the recipe here.

	To make the dough, prepare the following: 1 cup warm water 5g dry yeast 350g flour 1 teaspoon salt 2 teaspoon honey (My secret! works better than sugar) 2 tablespoon of olive oil First mix a little bit of the warm water into the dry yeast, let it rest for a few minutes until it gets foamy. In an empty bowl, mix the water, honey and salt together. Add the flour to the honey mixture, and mix thoroughly. Add the yeast to the flour mixture and knead for 3 minutes. You should get a dough similar to the first picture on the left. Now add the olive oil into the dough (picture #2). Knead the mixture for 5 minutes to get a well oiled dough (picture #3)

Put the dough into a large bowl, and cover with saran wrap. Let the dough rest for 45 minutes, or until it doubles in size like the picture here.

Transfer the dough onto a rectangular baking tray. Punch down (literally, see picture on the left) the dough to let the gas out. Spread the dough onto the baking tray.

Prepare some herbs. I am using rosemary (left) and Basil (right). Joyce grew them in our little balcony garden. They smell absolutely wonderful! Chop them up into small pieces, and grind them into some olive oil, this allows the olive oil to absorb some of the flavor of the herbs.

Use your fingers to make little dimples on the dough. This allows the olive oil to well up in the dough, so the dough can absorb all the flavor from the herbs and the olive oil.

Lay the herbs and drizzle some more olive oil onto the dough. Before baking it, add some salt and pepper to enhance the taste. Set the oven temperature at 400F and bake for 35 minutes.

Final product! It smells absolutely wonderful! If you happen to like the recipe too, please let me know!

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Top 10 most livable city

2005-10-09T21:27:00.000-04:00

An article on Japan Times listed the following top 10 most livable city:

Vancouver, Canada
Melbourne, Australia
Vienna, Austria
Geneva, Switzerland
Perth, Australia
Adelaide, Australia
Sydney, Australia
Zurich, Switzerland
Toronto, Canada
Calgary, Canada

Other notable mentions includes Tokyo (16th) and Osaka (20th). It's cool knowing that I'm living in the 9th most livable city in the world. ^_^

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Quest to find takoyakiki

2005-10-09T16:35:00.000-04:00

I have been searching all over the web to buy a takoyakiki online. Takoyakiki is a pan with half spherical moulds used to make takoyaki. Takoyaki is a popular snack in Japan made with batter and octopus bits. While I was reading other people's blog on this subject, I found many different ways of making takoyaki. There are different ways of making the batter, and some people even add different fillings such as rice cakes and chocolate! I wish I can make some too, if only I know where I can buy a Takoyakiki.

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Fill in the missing numbers

2005-10-08T23:46:00.000-04:00

A co-worker of mine gives out a mensa puzzle every week. Below is this week's puzzle, I found it quite well constructed. Give it a try, the goal is to fill in the missing numbers.

6 3 4 7 5 8
8 7 5 8 2 6
3 6 1 4 8
4 8 5 8 7
7 2 7 3
5 6 8 4 7 6

(Click below for answer)

6 3 4 7 5 8
8 7 5 8 2 6
3 6 7 1 4 8
4 8 5 8 7 5
7 2 6 7 8 3
5 6 8 4 7 6

There are one 1, two 2s, three 3s, and so on. No two identical numbers are adjacent to each other.

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puzzle
mensa

The brilliant scientist and the clone

2005-10-08T00:54:00.000-04:00

A brilliant scientist invented a machine capable of replicating objects. The machine can analyze the molecular structure and chemical composition of an object and return a full report of its findings. The scientist can then use this data to supply the machine with all the necessary chemical elements and energy to clone any object. He is very proud of his creation for he has already had countless successful attempts on cloning simple inanimate objects like chairs to more complicated objects like computers.

The scientist had no doubt in his mind that he could clone living objects as well. But he still proceeded with extreme cautions. First he tried small bugs. After several successes, he tried smaller animals like rats and cats. And after even more successful attempts, he tried larger animals like cows and horses, all of which he had great successes at replicating.

He felt that it was time to finally take the next step -- cloning human. In fact, his heart was filled with so much confidence that he had decided to clone himself. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out the way he had foreseen, the clone can eat, and walk just like him. But no matter how hard the scientist tried to converse with the clone, the clone could only mumble and talk gibberish. The scientist tried to teach the clone how to speak, but all attempts ended in failure.

For the longest time, the scientist could not understand why. But then one day, he came to the only logical conclusion to explain the whole situation: There must be something in a human that can not be expressed in terms of molecules and chemical elements. The clone he created is missing this something, but he did not know what this something is, but he knew it must exist.

This something, is what we called a 'soul'. It can not be seen, touched or felt, yet its existence is very real. No amount of physical material can be used to substitute for a soul for the soul is what defines us as human being.

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First Hockey game in 2005-2006

2005-10-05T23:53:00.000-04:00

Go read Mr. Nothing's blog on tonight's Leafs game. I completely agree with his comments. Leafs should've won this game and I just hate it when Ottawa came back and tie the score with less than 2 minutes in the game. Come on, that goal is pure BS, in fact, Alfredson is all fluke. God! hate it when Leafs loses..

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hockey
leafs

LOST - Season 2, Episode 3

2005-10-05T23:05:00.000-04:00

You want your damn $30 back?! Well I want my kidney back!

Locke has the best line in the episode. I can't help but feel sorry for him. At the same time, I am impressed that he can live to this very day after being conned like this. Granted, there is still a lot of things I don't know about him, so the future episodes about him should be very interesting. (Spoiler Ahead!)

We finally learned how Desmond got to the hatch. The reason is very stupid, but at least they explained it. The mysterious logo that is seen everywhere (in the hatch, on the shark), belongs to some kind of organization. But I still don't know what the heck they do. That orientation tape they showed is completely useless, it reminds me of the scientology commercial I was sucked into watching a long time ago. Locke is right, "we've got to watch it again."

Back on the island, we finally meet Anna Lucia again (first time was with Jack in the airport). She seems to be with the "others", but I think they are just the survivors of the crash from the tail part of the plane.

Still lots of mysterious with no answers, so I will compile a list here:

What is the purpose of the organization?
What does that electromagnetic thingamajig mean?
What would happen if they don't enter the code before the timer expires?
Why did the "others" took Walt? What's so special about him?
How did Locke become crippled?
Why is Jack so upset when he was marrying his ex-wife?
Where is Desmond running to? Meet the black smoke?
How the heck can Sawyer get shot in the shoulder, hit on the head, and still have so much energy?

There are probably more, but these are the ones I can think of right now.

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LOST
TV

Enhanced Recent Comments

2005-10-05T14:40:00.000-04:00

This is an enhancement to the Recent Comments hack provided on Blogger Hacks. Go to my blog to see what it looks like (located in the sidebar). The enhancements includes the following:

Display post title for posts with comments only
Click on post title to jump to the post permalink
Since there may be many comments, the entire section is scrollable
Display comment date when mouse pointer hovers over comment text

Here is the code:


  <MainPage>
  <h2 class="sidebar-title">Recent Comments</h2>
  <ul style="HEIGHT:400px; overflow:auto">
  <Blogger>
    <BlogItemCommentsEnabled>
    <script type="text/javascript">
    var num_of_comment = <$BlogItemCommentCount$>;
    <BlogItemTitle>
    if (num_of_comment)
      document.write('<li>' +
                     '<a href="<$BlogItemPermalinkURL$>">' +
                     '<b><$BlogItemTitle$></b></a></li>');
    </BlogItemTitle>
    </script>

    <BlogItemComments>
      <li><$BlogCommentAuthor$>: 
          <span title="Comment made on <$BlogCommentDateTime$>">
            <$BlogCommentBody$>
          </span>
      </li>
    </BlogItemComments>
    </BlogItemCommentsEnabled>
  </Blogger>
  </ul>
  </MainPage>

Copy this code into the sidebar area of your template, and that's it! If you are interested in what the code is doing, then read on.

<ul style="HEIGHT:400px; overflow:auto"> instructs the browser to create a window that is 400 pixel high. If the comment section contains more text than this region, a scroll bar will appear to make the content scrollable. You can modify this value to your liking.

The javascript is used to check if there is any comment for the post. It would only display the post title if there is at least 1 comment.

<span title="Comment made on <$BlogCommentDateTime$>"><$BlogCommentBody$></span>
displays the comment date when you hover the mouse pointer over the comment text.

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blogger
hack

Firefox is way better than IE

2005-10-04T21:37:00.000-04:00

Normally, I use firefox to browse the web, and I have used it to create this blog. However, when I was showing some friends my blog on their computer today, my page looked totally messed up! Well, it turns out they are using IE6 and IE handles some of the CSS elements incorrectly. I guess I could've just told them to upgrade to firefox, but then again, there are probably a lot of people out there who are still using IE. So I've decided to fix up my page instead. I spent a couple hours making everything to my liking. And in the process, I also learned this little trick to tell the web browser to add a scroll bar if the html code can not fit into a user defined space.

It's really easy to do, all you need to do is to mark off the section of the code where you want the scroll bar to go and add the following attribute:


<!-- you can define your own height -->
style="HEIGHT:200px; overflow:auto"

So for example, the following code:


<p style="HEIGHT:100px; overflow:auto">
  Visit<br>
  Bunch<br>
  of<br>
  nothing<br>
  blog<br>
</p>

would result in:

Visit
Bunch
of
nothing
blog

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Saunas - Good or bad?

2005-10-02T21:49:00.000-04:00

After swimming for an hour, I did my usual thing and spent some time in the sauna room. A friend asked me if sauna is good for the body but I couldn't come up with a good answer at the time. All I know is that it felt great, and because I sweat so crazily in there, maybe I'll lose some fat in the mean time? Now that he got me curious, I just have to google for the real answer. And this article came up:

Saunas, apart from their relaxing and soothing benefits, are proven to be one of the easiest and most effective ways to get rid of the body’s pollutants. Saunas stimulate sweating by subjecting the body to a high temperature, from about 100 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit depending on whether one uses the conventional sauna or the much lower temperature of the Far Infrared Sauna (FIRS).

With this kind of benefit, I've gotta go to sauna more often!

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sauna
swim

Shanghai women

2005-10-01T23:55:00.000-04:00

I was in a chinese book store with Joyce this afternoon, and one book caught my attention. It talks about some common traits shared by shanghai women. Joyce took a quick glance of the book, and showed me one paragraph, I read and immediately laughed, because what it said actually happened to me in real life. Here is how it went:

It's dinner time, and she just came home from work. She suggests that we should eat out, so she asks:
"Where should we go for dinner? I'll let you decide."
"How about wings?"
"Nah.. don't feel like wings today."
"Hmm.. what about Pho?"
"No, it's too bland."
"How about Thai food then?"
"Too spicy."
"Okay, what about Korean?"
"Nah.. had that last week."
"Chinese?"
"Okay! Let's go to XXXX restaurant!"

Well, it's obvious that she knew exactly where she wanted to go before she even asked the question, but she would still insist that I do the deciding. Not that there is anything wrong with that, in fact, I kinda enjoy guessing what's on her mind. I don't know if this is a common trait shared by shanghai women, but the fact that the book mentioned this is actually quite amusing.

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Shark fins above water. Truth or myth?

2005-10-01T21:46:00.000-04:00

While I was ranting to my friends about the shark scene in LOST, we somehow ended up discussing whether sharks would really stick their dorsal fins out above the surface water like how "JAWS" portrayed. At the time, I was convinced that this is not the case, because I recalled seeing some discovery channel type show saying real sharks just don't do that. Well, being a seeker of truth, and also to satisfy my own curiosity, I have to find out whether what I have seen is actually true. I googled a bit, and came to this article:

But -- in truth -- sharks in the wild very, very rarely swim with their dorsal fins exposed above the surface. Most shark species swim fairly close to the bottom or in mid-water (the large expanse of ocean between the bottom and the surface). Left to its own devices, however, most sharks will not approach the surface at all. Sharks can be lured to the surface with floating bait and, in investigating such hand-outs, sometimes their dorsal fins break the surface of the water.

So this is the real story, which provides further proof on how stupid the whole shark scene was in LOST. Okay, enough ranting, I promise this will be the last time I trash that episode.

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SPAM on blog?

2005-09-30T12:40:00.000-04:00

What is it with these spammers? Fine, I can live with getting spammed on my e-mail box, and I am slowly accepting the fact that there is no way to avoid that. But on blog!? That's just pathetic. Fortunately, I still have the power to delete those spam comments..

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blogger

Sony Cybershot M2

2005-09-30T10:25:00.000-04:00

Ever since I tried the Cybershot M1 at the digitial camera convention last year, I have been waiting for Sony to come out with the next model for this series. It's not that I don't like the M1, but given its flaws, I didn't think it was worth the expensive price tag (~CDN$600). For example, the pivoting screen looks quite fragile, and felt like it would break after a few use. So needless to say, when Joyce showed me the next generation of this camera last night, I was excited! The camera spec looked pretty much the same as the old M1, which is more than sufficient for my use. But who really cares about the spec if it doesn't look cool? I really liked how the new one looked, the aluminum shell, the ergonomic handle, I can already see myself taking pictures with this camera. If only it can go underwater too... (Come to think of it, are they ever gonna come out with a new model to replace U60?) Now, I just hope the price tag on the M2 is reasonable.

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sony
camera

LOST - Season 2, Episode 2

2005-09-28T23:33:00.000-04:00

Why is Desmond in the hatch? I’ve been longing for the answer to this mystery since last week, and I was hoping they would provide the answer in this week’s episode. (SPOILER AHEAD!)

But am I disappointed! Instead of telling us the good stuff, we learned:

Michael’s boring flashback
Stupid shark a.k.a. “JAWS” made a cameo appearance
Sawyer can operate on himself and endure incredible amount of pain
Jin got kidnapped by the “other” group of people on the island

How could they spend a whole hour on these insignificant plots!! Tell me something about Desmond, like perhaps, how he got to the hatch? What really bothered me though was that the preview for the next episode actually showed more details about the hatch than this entire episode! But I have a feeling that I am not going to get much more detail in the next episode than what I have already seen in the preview.

Such a disappointment. <sigh>

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TV
LOST

Aurora Borealis

2005-09-28T16:37:00.000-04:00

Joyce and I went to a cottage during Sept. 9-11, 2005. On the night of Sept 10, we were doing the usual thing -- gathering around the campfire late at night, talking and waiting for all the firewoods to burn out. To our surprise, we noticed some unusual bright lights in the night sky. Joyce quickly took a picture of it, and the picture turned out quite nicely. The light changes color as it moved across the night sky, it was a spectacular light show. Even though we are not that close to the north pole, but I believe we have just witnessed aurora borealis, a.k.a northern light.

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