Lei

I will not fly to Houston

I told Lee that our connection in Houston on saturday will probably not be a very good idea. It has been forecasted that hurricane Rita will arrive on the same day and the evacuation notice was just given to the coastal residents of Texas.

We rebooked with Continental airlines on a different flight at a cost of an extra thousand dollars per person. This should be returned to us after all is said and done. The trip is still a go.

On the phone with another friend, Fuzz says to me " hey man, I'm gonna bring my own tennis balls. You should bring your racquet. You know their equipment won't be that good. Everyone uses their stuff and its just recreational."

I thought about this and held my tennis racquet diagonally over the large suitcase. "This isn't going to fit" I said to myself. I was hoping to take two carry on sized pieces of luggage but maybe I'll have to increase the one and bring everything. The full camera gear, some sporting goods equipment and god knows what else I can think of. So much for just one carry on.

Lee and the rest are going to come by my place around midnight tomorrow and pick me up. We'll then drive down to Seattle for a 6am flight direct to Cancun and hopefully around that large swirling mass of wind and destruction.

Everything looks ok so far as I quickly try to go through my first batch of scanned slides. These are photos which were taken during the past three or four months ever since the photography course started and now I will be able to show people some of the pictures which I took.

I also picked up a new lens yesterday. A Canon EF 28-135 IS zoom lens. It was used but appears to be in excellent condition along with the skylight filter which came with it. Now all I need is a lens hood and I'm set to shoot away.

The Obituary

I just got home from the first class of conversational mandarin and it was good. The lesson wasn't boring because they weren't concerned with teaching text, everyone was kept awake learning the dialogue.

A strange thing though. It looks as though almost everyone in the class has not taken the beginners course. The course was described as an intermediate level I and only two courses were shown as being available. The other requiring more prequisites. Apparently, there is a whole slew of other mandarin courses not advertised because of very low attendance. No one was completely lost though. Everyone had some sort of background in mandarin which helped a lot.

After I got home, I felt like making something. Having just done another liver flush this weekend with good results, my conscience is telling me to stick with healthy foods. We had fresh sweet corn on the cob in the house. I also made some chicken vegetable soup using the following ingredients.

1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced celery
1/2 cup diced onion
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp paprika
1/2 cup thin or broad noodles (lo mein) broken into small pieces
4 cups chicken stock
3 cups water

The final product turned out good. You can taste the sweetness from the onions and carrots against the slight bitterness of the celery while the paprika adds another dimension to the base. That's it from me. Your on your own from here. I just remembered that I had planned on adding some fresh pieces of garlic but forgot to at the time.

On a side note, I used a section of an old newspaper as a place to peel some carrots on. Holding the first carrot I began to peel it when I looked down at the paper and there it was. An announcement for the funeral for a woman which I met a few years ago in the obituaries. I met her through a friend that I had met on the first and only trip to Club Med Cancun with Gambit. This is rather ironic given that her funeral will be held on the day that I am to leave for Club Med Cancun this weekend. I have an old photo of her from when a bunch of us crashed at her friends place in Seattle. We had driven down from Vancouver, tried a couple of restaurants, relaxed in their outdoor jacuzzi and hung out in some night club that was pretty good.

Back in vancouver she had a nice corner unit in a tower downtown. It was on the floor above the retail units which gave her a huge patio all to herself. The patio was the size of two whole units all by itself. Unfortunately, the building was destined for failure. Her place had flooded when a water pipe somewhere up on the seventh or eighth floor burst. Even though everything was fixed, it was not fixed completely. I have seen an engineering report from on a core sample taken from the wall at street level and the final grade was a failure. Sublayers of contaminated building material. Similar to all those leakey condo's where the rain screen system was not properly designed.

Without getting too far off topic, in her photo, she was just sitting on her friends small balcony that weekend taking a minute for herself and having a cigarette, not looking particularly happy. She was just smoking. That's all she was doing, just smoking... just smoking...

Wide World of Sports Weekend

Both shoulders are bruised and my legs are tired and sore. I spent most of saturday and sunday riding up at the cypress bowl mountain bike park. Since I bought the Marzocchi Z150 Freeride front shocks for my bike, I've wanted to try more downhill style rides. The old, but still new on my bike Manitou Skareb Comps just aren't enough for bigger downhill courses with jumps and drop offs.

This was the last weekend that the park would be open as the mountain prepares for the coming ski season I think. So I decided I'd better get up there at least once, if not twice.

The park has a lot of nice wall rides, fast burms and table top jumps. Great for learning on. On the first day, I figured out how to jump properly without scaring myself. Believe me, it is quite unsettling to be flying in the air and suddenly not feel your pedals against the bottom of your feet. At this point, you're hoping that you can at least land on the wide cushy part of your seat and that your feet will find their proper places. There are no clipless pedals used here like in cross country and road racing bikes.

I also had to pick up a full face helmet per the bike park rules. And as luck would have it, the only one which would fit my large head at the bike shop on short notice was a Mace CarbonFoil. This happens to be one of the most expensive helmets out there because of the lightweight carbon shell but I managed to get it for only $140 brand new. And buying this helmet proved to be a very, and I mean very good idea as I ended up testing its capabilities on the first day. Now I just need to buy the upper body armour. My shoulders could have benefited from them during my intimate appointment with the mountainside. Hello collar bone. Meet Mr. Rock and Mr. Dirt. Did I introduce Mr. Tree?

I rode with some seasoned downhillers and racers this day. They all pretty much dissappeared down the path as I slowly got the nerve to pick up the pace over various obstacles.

Sunday, I rode for another few hours with some slower riders who were trying the mountain for the first time. Most of them got tired and exhausted within the first two hours. Plus the rough entries into many of the burms was enough to deter them for a bit. Fortunately, all they need to do is get up the courage to ride faster as the bike will tend to skip over all the little dips. Unfortunately, going faster also means getting a bit too much air rather easily in some sections, losing control and falling down harder. Then there's the fatigue factor of trying to hold onto your handlebars as it vibrates up and down and squeezing the brake levers everywhere. I was told that a set of hydraulic disc brakes could fix this easily.

Aftwards, I went to drop in volleyball downtown. I managed to get myself the last available spot for the current session. One problem with this is that the only spot that was available was with the level I group instead of the beginners group. Pretty much everyone can set, bump and spike the ball with moderate control. I think I was the achilles heel on my team but only a little bit I think.

So despite feeling worn out and tired from mountain biking all weekend, I managed to feel alright once the volleyball matches began.

I checked the weather map for the Gulf of Mexico and it doesn't look good. In less than one week, I am scheduled to be on a plane bound for Houston, then Cancun, Mexico. The current temperature there is nice and warm, but it is raining too. Please rain gods, go away!!! Just for one week so I can enjoy my vacation.

Motorbikes, Cars, Smoke and Volleyball

The other weekend I abandoned some friends and went motorcycling instead. It was sunny and a friend had two bikes insured. So he let me ride one. I rode a Yamaha RZ350 while he used his fixed up BMW K75. Both are from the mid to late eighties although the RZ350 2 stroke is gaining value these days. No one makes 2 stroke street or sport bikes these days so the pickings are slim. They fetch as high as $5500 USD on Ebay.

And you can't be a motorcycle rider without getting a really short haircut. Across the street from where I parked my car to get the cut, I noticed this other vehicle. A rather ugly looking vehicle as one can only imagine what the owner was thinking.

You can't really tell but on the back are some canteens for emergency water I think. Notice the horn on top for jousting or whatever. And yes, that is carpet on the outside covering a large area of the body.Yes, Toyota's do last a long time. Maybe a little too long.

These days, the air is thick and you can smell the burnt ashes everywhere even inside the house. Yet there is no fire nearby. In fact, the fire is burning and smouldering many miles away in burns bog. All across Delta, Surrey, New Westminster and other nearby municipalities the smoke sits. I parked my vehicle to take some photos near the highway just before the Alex Fraser Bridge. Sitting there for about a half hour taking shots and watching all the planes fly above me making passes through the huge plumes of smoke rising across the land. The large water bomber was called up for duty while today, the helicopters were used instead.

Tomorrow the smoke will still be there and the house will continue to be polluted.

The first day of volleyball at the Harry Jerome Centre was good. Everything except that we will be struggling and fighting for last place probably being our first time doing this. We have a mixed bag of people that have hardly played this sport before as well as a few being vertically challenged. Then there's one or two that are completely not vertically challenged but are too timid to use their strengths.

So the first evening went like this. In our time slot, everyone played starting from various courts numbered one thru six. Courts one through four are inside a netted area at the centre of the facility. Courts five and six sit outside and at the ends of the oval stadium. For ten or fifteen minutes we play continuously until a whistle is blown. At that point, all the winners move up one court and the losers move down one. By the end, what you get is a self ranking system with the top team in court #1 and the worst on #6. We got stuck with #6. This now become our goal for this fall semester. To at least make it inside the netted area thereby playin in the top four courts and gaining some sort of respectability.

Lei's Music Factory - Compilation CD #1

Yeah so I don't use an mp3 player. Call me a dinosaur. Featured are a mix of new and old starting off with some mainstream like dance tunes before getting into some music which generally only circulates in the clubs. Felix da housecat put out a huge CD a few years ago out of London with a style which was unlike anything many had ever heard of before. As far as I know that is. Some of you may recognize Nina Simone's Sinnerman which was used in the movie 'The Thomas Crown Affair' as Gambit has pointed out. The Kernkraft 400 is a full extended club version complete with live vocals from whatever venue it came from. Anyhow, this compilation CD will find its home in my car system and there it will play for a very long time.

Track Listing

1. Fat Boy Slim - Right Here, Right Now
2. Beastie Boys - Sabotage
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Maps
4. Groove Armada - Shakin' That Ass
5. Sneaker Pimp - Six Feet Underground
6. Fat Boy Slim - Acid 8000
7. Fat Boy Slim - Kalifornia
8. Nina Simone - Sinnerman (Felix Da Housecat Remix)
9. Felix Da Housecat - Sliver Screen Shower Scene(Laurent Garnier Mix)
10. Vitalic - You Prefer Cocaine(Felix Da Housecat remix)
11. Zombie Nation - Kernkraft 400(live remix)
12. Fat Boy Slim - Love Island
13. Beastie Boys - Sure Shot
14. Radionhead - Everythings in its Right Place

This CD sounds good on the home system too. Just make sure you have good speakers to experience the full range of effects. A subwoofer is recommended.

Before the Weekend Ends...

The store is busy with all the back to school shoppers. I'm in the line up waiting to pay for the fifty pack of slim CD jewel cases. In front of me and to my right is the usual assortment of gum, pens and other candy on a rack. On the floor is a big box of strawberry flavoured twizzlers marked with a truly unbeatable price of $1.98 for a half kilogram bag. It is really tempting yet I stand there, pondering, procrastinating, deciding whether or not I should buy one.

As the family in front of me finishes up paying for all their items, the sense of urgency to make that final decision grows and I reach down and grab a pack. Now that wasn't so hard was it? Such a menial event which seemed to have almost become one of such great proportions. Just buy it Lei!

The peaches at the grocery store are in season and really good. All grown to near perfection and not a single bug bite or bruise mark. It looks almost too good to be true but I pick a few out and throw them in a bag. Then it's on to the dairy section. I usually pick up the large container of Soy milk. The asian brand and not the Soy Good brand with all its added nutrients and such. I just prefer it that way except that this time, they are practically out. All that is left are two small bottles of the sweetened variety. After going through the whole health food thing a few years ago, I had curbed the ingestion of numerous sugary foods. Yeah, I did just buy a pack of twizzlers but it was just begging to be bought. So this time I went for the nutrient fortified brand of soy milk. We'll see if I like it or not. If not, then its off to the asian supermarkets instead where I believe they still carry the brand that I usually buy.

This long weekend has been sort of a bust. Half my friends went camping but as I looked at the rain and thunder shower forecast, my desire for the outdoors disappeared temporarily. I could have also gone to Whistler to watch and take photos of the 24hours of Adrenalin mountain bike race but I didn't do that either. An old university friend of mine was racing on a team in the event.

The thursday before the weekend, I went to the drop in badminton only to find that everyone was gone. The gym was being used by BCIT in preparation for class registrations. So I called up my new friend from mexico and joined him and his fellow homestay friends down at the Cambie for drinks. The pub or bar has become a popular hangout for all the ESL students in downtown vancouver. It's also a popular meeting place for clubbers to form their groups before an evening on the town as it is spaceous and beer is cheap.

Heraldo and Eric are from Mexico. Both will be leaving within a month or two to continue their regular lives back home. Heraldo wants to become an industrial engineer and Eric is currently pursuing a degree in international law. He doesn't exactly look like a lawyer now does he as he covers his face with his hands.

Vivianne is from my home city of Taipei. She is hoping to get into the Emily Carr school of Arts on Granville Island. Jorge is a photographer whom I met at a Vancouver Photoclub meeting. His work is impressive and we seemed to have hit it off right away ever since. He was extremely happy to meet me because I was one of the few vancouverites who actually took the time to speak with him.

Afterwards, we all piled into my small truck (Vivianne had to hold the subwoofer box in her lap while I cranked the tunes) and took them for some late night Pho noodles. These guys are so afraid of asian cuisine. Jorge has already told me how he didn't like sashimi so when he found out that there was cow stomach in his soup, he wouldn't touch it. Heraldo ate his without hesitation. Eric ate everything but put on way too much hot chili sauce. I remember watching him dump the sauce directly onto each mouthful of noodles. Vivianne also taught them how to use chopsticks the properway. This became entertaining in itself.

And on a side note, I was surprised today when I found an email from Maui woman. She had been spending the past three weeks on Long Island with her parents and wanted to thank me for the ecards which I had sent to her long ago. We chatted on the phone for a while just to catch up on things. Maybe we'll become good friends now, albeit at a distance.

I turned down a request for a semi-full time spot on my friends co-ed hockey team in favour of other activites. Other trips are in the works including a photo expedition in Utah with Tsubami sometime in January. Reservations are booked for Club Med Cancun at the end of this month. One week of hot sun, warm water and an all inclusive, no thinking vacation resort to help my friend and former groom forget about the whole wedding debauchery. I still have the beach towel card from last time!