After the last day of Festival 500, some friends and I decided we to see the sun rise the next day.
We met and rounded up people who were interested at 4:30 am and took cabs to Signal Hill. The entire hill was covered in fog. Frankly, I have never seen fog that thick in my entire life. We couldn't even see the ocean. We waited there, hoping the fog will clear up and catch a glimpse of the sun rise, until it was obvious that the sun had risen completely without any of us witnessing it. I guess the sun always comes out whether you see it or not.
nano nano
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Festival 500
After spending 12 days in St John's Newfoundland attending Festival 500, I have finally arrived at my friend's place in North York, Ontario, where I have time and access to internet.
The last 12 days was the greatest time I ever had in my life. We get to meet many different choirs from all over the world and share performances with some of them. We stayed in the residence of the local college. Everywhere we go, we see people from the festival. It feels like the whole town are all there for one purpose, music.
The name tags that were given to us also serve as a free bus pass in the city, although we chose to walk most of the time. Close to the down town area stands many old church buildings. The houses near down town all look like they have a story to tell.
I really wish I can go back there some day.
It was extremely hard yesterday when I was leaving. Many groups have left the night before and the cafeteria that has been packed during breakfast in the last 12 days became a huge empty room. All of a sudden, I am by myself again, but not part of the greater, magical, music ensemble that shares and inspires anymore. I wish the festival goes on forever. I can't wait for choir to start again.
nano nano
The last 12 days was the greatest time I ever had in my life. We get to meet many different choirs from all over the world and share performances with some of them. We stayed in the residence of the local college. Everywhere we go, we see people from the festival. It feels like the whole town are all there for one purpose, music.
The name tags that were given to us also serve as a free bus pass in the city, although we chose to walk most of the time. Close to the down town area stands many old church buildings. The houses near down town all look like they have a story to tell.
I really wish I can go back there some day.
It was extremely hard yesterday when I was leaving. Many groups have left the night before and the cafeteria that has been packed during breakfast in the last 12 days became a huge empty room. All of a sudden, I am by myself again, but not part of the greater, magical, music ensemble that shares and inspires anymore. I wish the festival goes on forever. I can't wait for choir to start again.
nano nano
Thursday, June 30, 2005
4 hours before my flight!
I will be in NFLD at 2315 tonight!!! I'm so excited and i haven't slept yet, haha! I think I have everything packed. At least I hope I do....hehe.
By the way, I have just posted tons of pictures we took during the road trip to Yellow Knife. Feel free to check them out here.
See you guys on the east coast!!
nano nano.
By the way, I have just posted tons of pictures we took during the road trip to Yellow Knife. Feel free to check them out here.
See you guys on the east coast!!
nano nano.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
It's been a while...
Wow. I haven't posted anything for a real long time. Anyways, I'm going to St John, New Foundland for Festival 500 this Thursday. It's going to be really exciting. Hopefully I can take some cool pictures.
On top of that, I will be going to visit my friend in Toronto until July 18th. It's going to be fun too!
By the way, I will be making a music video for my cousin when I come back. Feel free to let me know if you want to help. The song is called "Cover Up" and their webpage is http://www.purevolume.com/usthem. Go check them out.
nano nano.
On top of that, I will be going to visit my friend in Toronto until July 18th. It's going to be fun too!
By the way, I will be making a music video for my cousin when I come back. Feel free to let me know if you want to help. The song is called "Cover Up" and their webpage is http://www.purevolume.com/usthem. Go check them out.
nano nano.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Monday, February 28, 2005
Teddies and Toys
I went to the Provincial Museum yesterday and took some pictures at the "Teddies and Toys" exhibition. Check them out in my photo album.
Nano nano.
Nano nano.
Saturday, February 19, 2005
d16, reloaded
"Die is not a big sell, but we have a lot of cues and pool tables."
-the guy from the south side River City Games.
"I have never heard of d16."
-customer #1 from Mission: Fun and Games.
"Just use 2d8!"
-customer #2 (or was it still #1) from Mission: Fun and Games. [the problem with replacing d16 with 2d8 is that d16 has and even spread of 1/16 chance of getting 1 to 16, 2d8 don't. Please consult your Math 30 teacher for further details.]
"We can order it in for you, if you can find it in the catalogs."
-very nice store keeper from Mission: Fun and Games.
"I'm going to a game convention in a few weeks, and I'll keep an eye out for you."
-told you he's nice.
D16, Reloaded
coming soon to a gaming store near you (or not)
Nano nano.
-the guy from the south side River City Games.
"I have never heard of d16."
-customer #1 from Mission: Fun and Games.
"Just use 2d8!"
-customer #2 (or was it still #1) from Mission: Fun and Games. [the problem with replacing d16 with 2d8 is that d16 has and even spread of 1/16 chance of getting 1 to 16, 2d8 don't. Please consult your Math 30 teacher for further details.]
"We can order it in for you, if you can find it in the catalogs."
-very nice store keeper from Mission: Fun and Games.
"I'm going to a game convention in a few weeks, and I'll keep an eye out for you."
-told you he's nice.
D16, Reloaded
coming soon to a gaming store near you (or not)
Nano nano.
Thursday, February 17, 2005
The hunt for d16.
For those of you who don't know what a d16 is, it's a die with 16 sides: the following program may contain offensively-geeky material for your taste, viewer discretion is advised.
I recieved a game called Button-men a few days ago. It's basically a duel game where each character is represented by a button (pin) with the amount and number of sides of the die each character uses printed on the button.
Since I don't have a lot of dice in my possession, I decided to go buy a bunch of these fancy poly-sided dice (I'm sure there is some geekier proper term for them), which I always saw people used and never had an excuse to acquire.
I went to a few mainstream games store in town and bought a total of 29 dice, including 11d20 (11x 20 sided dice), 3d12, 3d10, 4d8, 5d6, and 3d4. It wasn't much of an adventure getting all these except that the radio was playing the Maren Ord song and until I noticed that they don't seem to have any d16.
I asked the girl in the River City Games, "Do you guys carry any 16 sided dice?"
Without much hesistation, she answered me in a blink of an eye, "No, we don't, sorry."
Now, this may make me sound very judgemental, but she really doesn't look like a person who is so familiar with board games that she could comprehand the concept of d16 in such a short time and answered me that quickly. Mainly because she's pretty, and we all know pretty female geeks do not exist. Anyways, I went on asking her if they may have some in the larger store in southside and she said that she doesn't think so, and she knows this because lots of people have come and asked about them. At the moment, I understood. Right am I about the lack of pretty female geeks, for the pretty girl standing in front of me does not know about the d16s because she's a geek, but because many have inquired before me.
With much disappointment, I left River City and went on to Comex, Game Workshop, the General Store, Kite and other delights, and some other CCG places, yet none of them have what I'm seeking. Who would have thought it's so difficult to find a d16?
Finally, due hunger, I gave up on my quest for the day and went home for supper. When I search about d16 on the internet, I found some online stores that carry them, but they charge ~$5US for each and that's just too expensive. Today, I will go check out the games store on Whyte and hope they have some for a more reasonable price. If all fails, my last hope will be Mission in St Albert.
Stay tuned.
Nano nano.
I recieved a game called Button-men a few days ago. It's basically a duel game where each character is represented by a button (pin) with the amount and number of sides of the die each character uses printed on the button.
Since I don't have a lot of dice in my possession, I decided to go buy a bunch of these fancy poly-sided dice (I'm sure there is some geekier proper term for them), which I always saw people used and never had an excuse to acquire.
I went to a few mainstream games store in town and bought a total of 29 dice, including 11d20 (11x 20 sided dice), 3d12, 3d10, 4d8, 5d6, and 3d4. It wasn't much of an adventure getting all these except that the radio was playing the Maren Ord song and until I noticed that they don't seem to have any d16.
I asked the girl in the River City Games, "Do you guys carry any 16 sided dice?"
Without much hesistation, she answered me in a blink of an eye, "No, we don't, sorry."
Now, this may make me sound very judgemental, but she really doesn't look like a person who is so familiar with board games that she could comprehand the concept of d16 in such a short time and answered me that quickly. Mainly because she's pretty, and we all know pretty female geeks do not exist. Anyways, I went on asking her if they may have some in the larger store in southside and she said that she doesn't think so, and she knows this because lots of people have come and asked about them. At the moment, I understood. Right am I about the lack of pretty female geeks, for the pretty girl standing in front of me does not know about the d16s because she's a geek, but because many have inquired before me.
With much disappointment, I left River City and went on to Comex, Game Workshop, the General Store, Kite and other delights, and some other CCG places, yet none of them have what I'm seeking. Who would have thought it's so difficult to find a d16?
Finally, due hunger, I gave up on my quest for the day and went home for supper. When I search about d16 on the internet, I found some online stores that carry them, but they charge ~$5US for each and that's just too expensive. Today, I will go check out the games store on Whyte and hope they have some for a more reasonable price. If all fails, my last hope will be Mission in St Albert.
Stay tuned.
Nano nano.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
512 mb ram
I went and bought my computer an extra 512 mb ram today. Wow. I never expect it to make it so fast!!!
Nano nano.
Nano nano.
Friday, February 11, 2005
Quotes of the month #1:
"Did I get laid?"
--Jon Teschke, refering to the note he was singing on the word "laid", Feb. 10, 05
"It goes one, two, three, and we stomp at whore."
--Alexis Hillyard, attempting to say "four", Feb. 10, 05
Seems like it's not only my birthday, but also the International-Choir-Kids-Innocently-Say-The-Wrong-Thing-Day today.
Nano nano.
"It goes one, two, three, and we stomp at whore."
--Alexis Hillyard, attempting to say "four", Feb. 10, 05
Seems like it's not only my birthday, but also the International-Choir-Kids-Innocently-Say-The-Wrong-Thing-Day today.
Nano nano.
Thursday, February 10, 2005
"other traditions" -- the hypothesis
During an MSN conversation with my friend Amy tonight, I came up with a hypothesis as in why my family like to gathering in my relatively small room. I suspect that because they're so used to back in Hong Kong where everyone lives in tiny apartments, they don't know how to handle the abundance of space; therefore, they enjoy spending time in my room which is almost 1/4 the size of our entire apartment back home.
We will pretend this is the theory until I come up with something better.
Nano nano.
We will pretend this is the theory until I come up with something better.
Nano nano.
Chinese new year and other traditions
Today is Chinese new year, or you may say yesterday, depends on how you look at it. I usually consider 1 am part of the previous 24 hours. Merely an extension. Being in Edmonton with my immediate family who doesn't care too much for festivities and having two gazillions rehearsals for the concert on Saturday really take away the atmosphere and spirit of Chinese new year.
It has been 10 years since I last experienced Chinese new year in Hong Kong, and despite of my very well know amnesia, I remember it to be a week of relaxation. Sort of like reading weeek, except that everyone and every stores are on vacation. The entire city, which is usually as busy as you can imagine (think those video clips you might have seen in music video where they show you sped-up activities in Time Square x10 and it will be pretty close), for those few days, comes to a complete stop. It's almost like the whole world has stopped: the Earth has stopped spinning, time has stopped moving, and the universe has stopped expanding (or shrinking, depends on what you buy). It is quite neat, though minorly inconvinient.
Of course, my memory can be lying to me for all I care, and some of you maybe able to paint a better picture of how Chinese new year is like in Hong Kong. Feel free to give your 2 cents, or more, if you want to.
At least my parents have kept one of the more valuable traditions of Chinese new year: the red envelope. Simply put, it's a red envelope with money inside which the married or seniors give to the young and the singles. It symbolises fortune and well wishes.
Another Chinese tradition, one that is not limited to Chinese new year, that they excercise is the lack of respect for other family member's privacy. This rule is simple:
I really should stop now and go to bed, for I'm going to A-Channel tomorrow at 7:45am with the choir. Yay! Going on TV on my birthday!! Maybe they'll give me a free camera, one of those big ones.
Until next time.
Nano nano.
It has been 10 years since I last experienced Chinese new year in Hong Kong, and despite of my very well know amnesia, I remember it to be a week of relaxation. Sort of like reading weeek, except that everyone and every stores are on vacation. The entire city, which is usually as busy as you can imagine (think those video clips you might have seen in music video where they show you sped-up activities in Time Square x10 and it will be pretty close), for those few days, comes to a complete stop. It's almost like the whole world has stopped: the Earth has stopped spinning, time has stopped moving, and the universe has stopped expanding (or shrinking, depends on what you buy). It is quite neat, though minorly inconvinient.
Of course, my memory can be lying to me for all I care, and some of you maybe able to paint a better picture of how Chinese new year is like in Hong Kong. Feel free to give your 2 cents, or more, if you want to.
At least my parents have kept one of the more valuable traditions of Chinese new year: the red envelope. Simply put, it's a red envelope with money inside which the married or seniors give to the young and the singles. It symbolises fortune and well wishes.
Another Chinese tradition, one that is not limited to Chinese new year, that they excercise is the lack of respect for other family member's privacy. This rule is simple:
- you can go through any of the belongings, or enter the properties or rooms of your immediate family as long as such belongings, properties, or rooms are accessible and you have an appropriate reason.
- If the door is open: consider it a welcome and feel free to venture in.
- If the door is closed, but not locked: consider it a welcome and feel free to open the door and venture in.
- If the door is closed and locked: there's no way you can get in anyways, just wait til they unlock it.
- Appropriate reasons include, but are not limited to the followings: curiosity, simple nosiness, obssessive compulsive behaviors, and convinience.
I really should stop now and go to bed, for I'm going to A-Channel tomorrow at 7:45am with the choir. Yay! Going on TV on my birthday!! Maybe they'll give me a free camera, one of those big ones.
Until next time.
Nano nano.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Just got the Blog.
I have decided to entertain with the idea of having an online journal type thing after seeing Brad's page. Don't expect me to really keep this up though, for I tend to drift away from things like this, which require regular attention.
On the other hand, it maybe a good way for me and my friends and some of my relatives to keep in touch. We'll see.
Nano nano.
On the other hand, it maybe a good way for me and my friends and some of my relatives to keep in touch. We'll see.
Nano nano.
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