Biohazard

One of the biohazard signs from set

Today while working on set I couldn't talk. Not because they were filming and needed quiet on set, today they were not filming at all. I was on set today wiring up monitors so they'd be ready for the day they start shooting. I'm not sure when that is but it's probably soon.

My sporadic coughing that I started having saturday had gotten worse to the point that today whenever I tried to talk I'd experience pain. Sounds like something out of a Star Trek episode minus the me bending over holding my gut from the pain givers. Technically I lost my voice last night during the outing with Linda. Forcing myself to call people after the date was probably what pushed my vocal cords over the edge.

Where did I pick up the coughing in the first place? I don't know but it would be cool if there was a sticker on people that were sick that said "Biohazard". I'd put one on my forehead right now if I thought I was contagious.

Chinese Lanterns

A 3D horse... with lights!

Tonight Linda and I went to Ontario Place for the Chinese Lantern Festival. While it seemed like a price gouge at $25 per head it was still a fun time. The lanterns ranged in size from small single lanterns to large complex dioramas.

One of the more "cute" displays was an area of panda bears. One specifically stood out as it looked like it was doing something lewd. I looked around to see if any other people noticed. Parents seemed okay with letting their kids view the naughty panda so maybe it was just Linda and I with the dirty minds.

I've included a picture of the "bad" panda. See if you can locate which one it is.


A large lit up golden dragon.


A dragon symbol


Bambi?


Some war horses


A panda tyring to get a leaf.


An Olympics 2008 panda


This panda was stroking his bamboo shoot.


A panda Family


Panda climbing a bamboo stalk


Horse pulling chariot

Veggie Lunch

Bo De Duyen, the veggie restaurant on the second floor.

For lunch today I met up with Ted at a vegetarian restaurant on the west side of Spadina just south of Dundas. It's a place I had been introduced to by Darryl a few months ago, weeks ago, not too long ago. I have been hooked on the "Beef Brisket on Rice" dish ever since. Being a veggie restaurant the "Beef" is actually some kind of fake meat made up of tofu or some other textured vegetable protein.

When introducing vegetarian dishes to non-vegetarians I usually try to say something like this, "It's not a meat replacement, it's just different food that tastes good.". Of course there are vegetarian dishes that taste gawd awful but I don't usually recommend those unless there's some proven medicinal value.


Ted hides his badly lit eyes behind cool looking shades


Ted notices the backwards character in Chinese.


The tourist photo.

Bee Near Me

A bee lands on my back yard spearmint

My day started off by me visiting the metro library downtown to do some work. That quickly ended and was followed by a short visit to Monster Records to see next month's merchandise photo then a return trip back home to go to sleep. Why such a short outing? The day had been cut short thanks to some illness I picked up on saturday. Drowsiness and itchy throat.

By the time I got home I was awake again. For some reason had the urge to shoot bees in the backyard with my macro lens (or micro lens as it's Nikon). And so for about an hour or more I stalked the little bees landing and flying off from my spearmint patch.

The erratic wind made it a bit difficult to focus on the insects and in the end I never really got a great photo. (I like the composition of the photo in this blog entry better - click here)

Your very own Terracotta Army

Some replicas of the terracotta army statues.

Michelle, now having her driving license and yearning for dim sum, drove us out to Finch and Birchmount. It was an intersection we were told would have a dim sum restaurant. Not getting a restaurant name or more specific directions we didn't find any thing during our drive by scouting that location. From there we drove directly to the Pacific Mall.

After getting our fill of food in a restaurant on the second floor we walked around the mall. As usual the mall was packed with people shopping and milling about. The Chinese Heritage section on the second floor had an entrance with mini terracotta figures (like the ones shown above). Some were kneeling, some were standing.

Near the back of the mall we saw some for sale. These were full size, five foot something, statues. For a split second I thought of having a small army of them sandwiched into my backyard in some military formation with my garden gnome in front.

For more information on the terracotta warriors click here.

Things to do on a saturday

"Pinch the cheek and die!"

After running into Rob and Jim last night at the AWOL gallery I got to wondering how other friends in the visual effects industry were doing. So today I met up with Ian for lunch at the neighbourhood Lick's. After a few hours of walking around the beaches and catching up we ended back at his place where his wife showed up with the kids.

They have two four month old twins. I laughed as one of them (Aaron) looked pissed off while the other (Joshua) looked very calm and relaxed. Kind of like mini versions of Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde. For me kids are like little alien beings sent to earth to learn as much as they possibly can through osmosis. Starting with blank slates they fill up their little brains by watching and observing.

Given this I was tempted to try to teach them words out of the Klingon dictionary. The result being that they might drive the parents nuts. Unfortunately they are only four months old. I'll have to hit them up when they're a bit older. Hee hee hee.

As a single person the one thing you can do to make the parents absolutely crazy is to be the 'nice' uncle and buy the child some kind of thing that makes noise and doesn't require a batteries. A mini drum kit, recorder, kazoo, slide whistle or a xylophone come to mind. You can say that music is good for kids. It might even catch the parent off guard and they might actually agree.

It is important to visit the kids every now and then in case they've 'misplaced' their instruments or have lost interest. It's your job to make sure they regain interest in the noisy thing or are given a new noise making devices. Oh yeah, parents loooove me.

Now saying this I realize that what goes around comes around. I currently don't have any kids but that could change. I'll have to watch my step.


Some coconut bean drink at Mi Mi's

Later on that evening I met up with Kyoko to go eat at the nearby Vietnamese restaurant. It's about a twenty minute walk west from where I live. If you haven't eaten food at a Vietnamese restaurant and find yourself in one, just jump to the back of the menu or wherever the drink selection is and find a interesting drink to try. Drinks can range from coffee that take the length of your meal to prepare, beans and coconut, and the non-recommended durian milkshake.

Darryl once told me he thought the Durian fruit smelled like excrement. I think I actually tried the milkshake once, being the food daredevil I am, it wasn't that great and obviously required an acquired taste to fully appreciate it.


My Dinner... It's got my name on it.

Whatever Ales You

Line up going around the block for the AWOL gallery space.


Rob Greb (right) and two Mr.X coordinators in line.


Jim, one of the 525 to 600 artists featuring their work.


Anna-Lea poses with a Peach photo while Joelle's camera focuses.


Joelle looks at some art up close.


Joelle sits next to her piece of art work (on her lower left)


Me with a beer... that I'm actually drinking!

While seeing me with a beer may not be as rare as seeing me without a camera, it is still an uncommon occurrence. I can probably count on my one hand how many times I've drunk beer, a full glass or bottle. The first time would have been with uncaringbear at the Only Cafe located on the Danforth. It was my 21st birthday and John had it in him that I was going to get drunk.

Instead of getting hammered by drinking the cheapest alcohol we could find, John systematically ordered various beers of various brands for me to try one after another. We stopped shortly after I started laughing uncontrollably at the TV set that was playing the commercial for the hair club for men. "I'm not only the president, I'm the client." That commercial. Then getting up and running across the street to the park because my center of gravity was two meters in front of me and fell over a number of times on my way home. I'm a clumsy, laughing, drunk it seems. That and the fact that I thought all beer felt gassy and I really never got used to the taste. I stopped drinking it.

There are conditions in place for me to drink beer.

1. I have to be thirsty.
2. The place does not serve non-alcoholic drinks.
3. A pretty girl buys and gives me the beer.
4. The beer is ice cold.
5. The beer tastes okay.

All five conditions were met. I suppose it's really only the last three points that apply. Although the first two are important factors. Like a hamster to peanut butter. Wow, us guys are pretty easy. I'm speaking in general terms of course. In this case the pretty girl was Joelle, a friend of Anna-Lea's. An alluring young gazelle that has action packed features, oozes positive energy, and is an overall nice person. She must be. Afterall she and Anna-Lea bought me the drink).

There have been three times in my entire life where a girl has bought me a drink. This excludes people I worked with or my floor hockey team captain after a game. The first time was at the Fame launch May 18, 2006 (aren't blogs fun?). The second time was during a boat cruise sometime during the two month recap period. Tonight was the third. I must be getting more attractive in my old age... or more sorry looking. "Geez, that poor guy could use a drink." I'll go with the more charismatic angle (because it's true).

The beer I was given was a green bottled Grelsch. Not only did it surprisingly taste okay (maybe due to the fact I was really thirsty) but it also didn't have that filling gaseous effect I normally attribute to beer drinking. As an added bonus the bottle comes with one of those reusable flip on caps which allowed me to put the beer away every now and then without having to worry about it spilling while I took some pictures.

The art gallery event was quite cool to see because there were so many artists (525 of them or more) the art was very diverse. Each piece of art had to be one foot square in size. It made the room look like it had a bunch of various tiles.

That crazy little thing called Love

If you had a friend that needed financial help would you give them a couple of bucks, provided you had a couple of bucks give?

Would it make a difference on how well you knew them? (ie. a love interest, a friend, a relative, an acquaintance, a stranger with an interesting story - not listed in any order)

Some say that giving money is easy, it's giving up your time that's more difficult. But when you think about it making money usually takes up time doesn't it? Unless you're making money on royalties or interest or some such thing.

You're probably asking yourself "Where is this blog entry going?".

Recently on facebook I found that Barry, a friend of mine, is going out to BC. The facebook note is as follows...


>>>>>>>>>>>> begining of facebook entry

Everyone wants Barry back in BC? Now's your chance to show the love!

Sometimes in life all that you can do is jump.

After some long hard years my life is changing dramatically and quickly.

I have fallen in love with a woman in Vancouver. I am about to take a Greyhound bus three days from Hamilton to meet in person. I believe that it will be glorious and overwhelming.

I am also thinking seriously that this will finally be my move back to Vancouver. That has been much on my mind for a long time, and the time has come to be where I belong.

This is where YOU come in.

As good as life is, my illness last year damaged my income incredibly. I am NOT complaining, just stating facts.

This trip is a great leap of faith. There are a thousand reasons not to do it, but I am.

E-mail and phone calls - three or four or five hours every night - are wonderful, but we NEED to meet face to face.

Which is why I have gone ahead and bought a return Greyhound ticket, Hamilton to Vancouver.

I leave Tuesday Morning. Right now, on a long weekend, I am waiting on clients to pay me for work done, but there is no way that those will arrive before I leave.

So I am shamelessly putting out a call to all of those people who want me back in BC to help fund this trip.

Any amount is fine, a lunch, a couple breakfasts, maybe the cost of a dinner out. It will all help me to survive life on the road with less pain and suffering.

(God I sound pathetic)

I have, unbelievably set up a PayPal button for JUST these donations. See the URL below.

I know, I know, soliciting donations on Facebook.

But you know, this is the year that I have learned that it is OK to ask your friends for help, OK to let them support you when times are tough.

So as we say in Community Radio Fundrasing "Give til it feels good."

The PayPal link http://www.community-media.com/comehome.html

>>>>>>>>>>>> end of facebook entry

Call me a sucker for romance and happy endings or maybe it's just the thought of someone stuck in Hamilton while the girl is halfway across Canada. Heck yeah! I donated.

Fit to a Tee

T-Shirt photo shoot for Monster Records

Today,with the help of Brigitte and Leanna, I managed to do a photo shoot for Monster Records. Specifically photos for T-shirts they are selling. This project was on the back burner for the last year. I'm reminded of this as it was during last year at Wakestock I found a potential model but had so much trouble with her modelling agency. They wouldn't give me a rate card or a solid answer on how much it would be to hire her. During the first phone call it was $50 an hour. By the third photo call it was just over $3000 for an 8 hour day plus licensing fees every year to pay for the pictures I would be taking. WTF!

The photos should start appearing on the new and improved Monster Records site in the merchandise section soon.

The Fat Jeans

A strange thing has been happening to me in the last few weeks. I've been getting comments from people (who know me) that are along the lines of "Are you losing weight?", "You seem thinner." This wouldn't be so strange if I was actually actively trying to lose weight but I'm not. So the question that comes to mind is what is prompting these observations?

Am I wearing darker clothing thus giving me the illusion of thinness? Are my clothes stretching? Is my body evaporating or wasting away into nothingness? Are people just being nice to me for some unknown reason?

My diet hasn't changed that I know of I still eat the same crap in the same amounts that I've always eaten. Some things that are good for me and some things, like the odd McMuffin with all it's glorious trans fats, that are bad. Mmmm... trans fats.

Exercise? Haven't joined a gym or gone on some major bike ride. In fact I feel more inactive now then I did two months ago. Not to say I'm a couch potato. I still walk around a bit but I'm not doing anything that seems out of the ordinary (like bench pressing 500 pounds, or even 5 grams). My camera bag is the same size so it's not like I'm lugging more equipment around. It's all very odd.

There's a girl (who will remain nameless) who remarked on my losing weight a few days ago. Of course I just marked that up to "Wow, she's really being nice" (because she is) but then the next day when I went to put on some jeans I noticed... "Hey, these pants actually seem big." The expansion of the pants in the wash idea went away when I threw on the belt and noticed the extra two notches I had to pull to make sure the pants didn't fall down.

Okay, It's official I'm getting thinner.