End of year 2008

It's again end of year. Time to look back and reflect. I have already forgotten the resolution set out for this year, if there has been any.

Age has discreetly made its presence known. (Though LB keeps telling me I've had that line on my forehead since 20.) Resolution is moving into a virtual world where I can look anyway I want, young or old, tall or short, thin or fat. The problem is that the virtual world makes me sick, literally, like motion sickness. I was there for an hour last night and still felt nauseous and light headed this morning.

Virtual world is as cruel, and as pathetic as the real world. With "male" totally outnumbers the "female", still no one talks to an old fat woman. Though I have to say it has been fun watching the reaction of the guys while I change appearance in the middle of our conversation. "WTF" is what I usually get. LOL.

Went to Hong Kong in September and concluded my annual trip to Asia since 2005. Have to move on to a new continent next year.

The summer was a blur. I don't seem to remember a thing from this summer. A piece of memory must have been taken away from me. Puzzled.

Weekend Babble

First week of living alone, I survived on half a pot of soup, left over tofu, potato chips and chocolate. Dark chocolate of course. I still have the other half pot of the soup, and it shall last me another week.

I scrubbed the balcony for the second time this year. Being nice and letting the birds staying there for shelter, when there was rain and snow, in exchange, they left me shit. Tough shit. I scrubbed and scrubbed. Some of the mark seemed permanent and refused to fade, as if they were burnt onto the cement.

Now, sitting on my couch, looking through the window at the scarred balcony floor, a familiar feeling arose. People come, and people go. Everyone is a passer by. Some leave sweetness and some leave shit that you just can't seem to scrub away.

Autumn 2008, through my eyes

Autumn this year is especially beautiful. Haven't seen such fierce and passionate color for quite a few year. I lay in it, letting the leaves scattering over me, letting the serenity pour into me. The air was sweet. All these will soon slip away without a sound. Until next year.

Magic Levation Trick

Santa or No Santa

I was at a friend's place for dinner. It was my first time meeting her 4 year old daughter. She invited me to her room and introduced me to all her toy friends.

"This one is from Grandma."
"This one is from Papa."
"And this one is from Santa."

Santa? So she believed in Santa. And later on I learned that she also believed in the Tooth Fairy. I didn't dare to tell her that I don't believe in either one, because I still wanted to walk out of my friend's place alive.

On the way home I kept thinking. Children don't born with the knowledge of Santa, they were taught by their parents. Why do parents make their children believe in something that's obviously not true, and they know the children will eventually find out that it's not true, (and have a broken heart).

Is it really better to have that dream and then find out it's fake, or just know the truth from the very beginning?

Earth Hour March 29 - Toronto proud to be dark

Image from the thestar.com

The Toronto skyline was darkened to support earth hour.

One step further into the green land

One of my accomplishments last year is that I finally used up all the plastic bags that was collected from many years of grocery shopping. The number of bags they can give you is insane! If you buy a chocolate bar, a piece of chicken breast and a bottle of detergent, you may get 3 bags because they don't want these items to pollute each other.

Using up all the plastic bags in that big bucket under the sink was always on my agenda but it was much tougher to complete this task then it seemed. I started to turn down bags when shopping. I always keep 3 tote bags in my car for grocery. After many months of "hard work", I finally succeeded. All my plastic bags were gone gone gone!

(It was amazing to observe how the attitude of the stores changed over the years too. Just a year back, some stores such as Wal-mart and the Bay refused to NOT giving me the bag. Now you get "thank you"s for not taking the bag. Nofrills even gives you grocery points if you bring your own bag.)

Not too long (a few minutes) after I celebrated the empty bucket under the sink, I realized that I had a problem. I needed a bag for the garbage. Most importantly, I needed a plastic bag. I didn't want to put garbage directly in the can and I didn't think paper bags would work well either.  So I bought bio-degradable bags.

Bio-degradable bags are made from vegetable and corn starch. They look just like plastic bags and are as strong and durable. Besides the fact that they are more expensive, especially compare to all the free bags from the grocery stores, the biggest complaint on the internet are that when in use, the break down process would start in a few days. Well, what do you expect? It's suppose to decompose! I don't have a problem with it at all. It's not a good idea to keep garbage indoor for more than 2 days anyways, or it will start to smell. It is a bit more pricy, but I am willing to make that "green" contribution.

I've been using these starch bags since summer 2007. I feel good.

Note: One thing you should watch out is that some of the "bio-degradable" bags are really "oxydegradable". Meaning they contain additives that cause the tissue to break down into smaller pieces when exposed to the correct light, heat and air conditions. These bags are still made from fossil fuel, which contributes to global warming. When they do eventually break down into miniscule pieces, this invisible, non-biodegradable waste stays in the environment as a pollutant. So definitely do your research before purchase.

Telemarketers

This is too funny!

Chic Geek, and Rich

Macbook Air (Geek) with Swarovski crystals (Chic), $40,000 (Rich)!

See original artical.

Seeing the world

My first attempt of animation using Photoshop.  Pretty cool.

Big Fat Check

On my 4-week "anniversary" of back to work, I realized I wasn't getting paid. This week, on my 6-week anniversary, I finally got a big fat check. Yay! (Of course, big fat taxes was deducted because of the big fat amount. Won't be getting it back until the end of the year. *Sigh*. Oh well.) I so wanted to start shopping, but guess what, Toronto is having the snow of the year this weekend. It has been snowing ferociously for the past 24 hours. I had no choice but delay my shopping spree.

However, I did go out on this fine winter/spring day, in the wind, in the snow (literally), to a dinner engagement. Thankfully, the restaurant is close to home within walking distance. At some places, the snow piled up so high it reached my waist! That was a scene. I had quite a lot of fun walking in the snow.

Magic Kingdom

Magic land, where dreams come true. Though I have reasonably doubt over that statement, it's not hard to understand why it is heaven for children, and some adults who are forever young at heart.

This was not quite my type of vacation, but I still enjoyed it. I think Walt Disney is an amazing artist for he's able to vision and create this piece of dreamland.

It is a place where you can be the princess, the pirate, Micky, Minnie, or Goofy. (I noticed not many boys care to be a prince.) Or you can simply be yourself. Wear any kind of clothes or costume, wear any kind of extravagant makeup, no one would think you are weird.

Maybe I shouldn't be so "clear headed" in this dreamland. I heard the tiredness in the voice of our shuttle bus driver and I saw the boredom on the face of the cast member who had repeated the same scripts over and over again. After all, it is just another job, even if it's in the magic kingdom.

The earth is flat; the sun circles the earth...

The earth is flat and the sun circles the earth.
The pictures taken from the space cannot prove the earth is round.
Why? Because anything that has no indication in the Koran is false.
REMEMBER THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lunar Eclipse - View from Toronto

Crazy Shoes

Original article

This is a crazy pair of shoes.  I wish I can try them on and see how it feels to walk in them.

Top 40 Photoshopped Images

Amazing work. Check out the top 40 photoshopped images.

Working from home

We sure had a lot of snow this winter. Must be the "unused" snow from last year. We had a "bleh" winter last year. Not much snow, not very cold, not much to talk about. And this year is all about snow storms, one after an other.

In such weather, unlike the fearless pigeon in the picture, I choose to work from home, admiring the winter beauty and chaos from inside.

I don't really enjoy entering the crazy work environment in my PJ. It's blurring the line between the intense, unpleasant work and the soothing, lovely life at home. The TV is calling me, the fridge is calling me, even the laundry is calling me.

I think I'm going to do some laundry. May as well...

New Year's Day

It is Chinese New Year's day today, but it sure didn't feel like it. The only thing that kept reminding me of this special day was the google image. Pretty sad huh.

I rarely get excited about holidays anymore. They are not the same as when I was young. The holidays used to mean "fun". No school, hanging out with friends, and if lucky, I might get some money and buy some pretty things. And that made me happy. Now I just want the holidays so I can sleep in. I would feel happy too if the day lasts long enough, but it never does.

Didn't Ontario introduce a new holiday? I think it's called Family Day. Well, Family Day or Lonely Day, it's a day off. Can't complain.

Enough of my rambling. Happy new year everyone.

Back to work

Today is the first day back to work after a fabulous 9 months break.  I figured I'd have to make some money for all the new gadgets and clothes and shoes and purses that's currently sitting on my "need" list.

It was a relatively good day with "welcome back" greetings from everyone.  Ask how I'm doing a month later and see what I say.

Windows still looked and feel the same as when I left it.  I wish I can use Mac at work.

Ice ice baby

See more ice hotel photos on my flickr page.

Staying at the l'Hotel de Glace was an unforgettable experience.  

It was cold, but wasn't as bad as I expected.  Compare to the -30 degree temperature outside, -4, -5 indoor seemed like nothing.  Nevertheless, it was an ice room, and it was cold.  Even though we were provided with heavy duty sleeping bags, I was still dragging moving into the hotel rooms.  

I sat in the warm locker area until I was very very tired, (well... the staff turned off the lights), to ensure I could sleep through the night.

Woke up a couple of times during the night.  It wasn't so bad.  I wasn't very warm, but I wasn't cold.  Hearing people running to the washrooms put a smile on my face.  That gotta be brutal.  Hehe.

The morning came, and unlike the usual me, I didn't feel like sleeping in.  I'm sure you understand why.  All I could think about was the fastest way to get out of the sleeping bag, put on the robe and run to the locker room.

The night at the ice hotel made the next night at the normal hotel room heavenly.

Google's parents leave town

This is kinda funny...

MacWorld 2008 keynote in 60 seconds

The new Macbook Air looks too fabulous. I want one! I need one! $1700 is a bit too expensive though...
Mac products are getting better, and better, and better!

Capon

Went out with friends tonight. We were at this downtown restaurant called "Swan". On the menu, there was an entry made with "capon". We had no idea what capon was and the waitress vaguely told us that it was some kind of rooster. My brave hubby said "I'm gonna try it" and declared afterwards that it was just chicken. Nothing special.

I had my doubt. Why calling it "capon" if it's just chicken? Is it just a fancy name? So when I got home, I googled it. Oh my my MY! Capon is the chicken version of an eunuch! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capon)

That's just awful. The poor chicken. Not only that it is killed because we human wants to eat it, we have to torture it when it's alive! IT SHOULD BE BANNED!!!!!

Second day of 2008

It's the second day of 2008, bitterly cold.

I went out for a walk in the morning.  Not a single soul on the small, quiet street.  Felt like the entire world was frozen.  If not for the vehicles that stormed by from time to time, I almost thought the earth had stopped running.

My eyes were hurting and my nose couldn't feel a thing, but I was delighted to be out there, in the stillness of the bitter cold winter day.  For a moment I stopped and thought, if I turn around, would I see myself, walking towards me from the past?  How old was she?  30? 20? Teenager? Or a little girl?  Was she happy?   Where was she going?

I didn't turn.