Lei

Taking Care of Business

"And a happy birthday goes out to Lisa from Andre, Lynette, her boyfriend Doug, Roanne, Leigh, Greg, Ida, Medium Lei... and the rest of the mafia in south burnaby." Yes that's what she heard on the early morning edition of CityTV vancouver. They missed half the group but got those names in. Lisa probably got the biggest laugh when they referred to me by my nickname in the group, Medium Lei. There are three Lei's in this particular circle of friends and we are differenciated by our height. I am in the middle. Little Lei has moved away to Montreal because of work and big ugly Lei is nowhere to be found. Nobody liked him and I'm guessing that the feeling is mutual.

I've noticed that some people get crabby when they become old. Why is this? Have they been hurt enough with life in their earlier years that they've built a ten foot wall of negativity towards everything around them? I came across a site belonging to some old photographer. Read the last section on the techniques page under 'the print'. I had assumed that he would be a gentle older person which is why the bluntness in his description is somewhat amusing.

Searching around for a good rate, I ended up staying with the same bank. The small mortgage on my mothers house is up for renewal at the end of this month and I wanted to get the best possible deal for her. CIBC's first non-discounted five year fixed rate of 5.8% was completely unacceptable. I talked with the account manager and without much hassle, he promptly offered me 4.6%. As I shopped around for the next few days, the Bank of Canada increased its base lending rate enough that no other institution could match CIBC's discounted offer from the previous week. Had the manager not remembered to offer me this rate the week before, I'm sure he would not have continued to offer it to me today. The mortgage brokers could only beat it by 0.05% so I decided that my mother should stay with the current lender. I should have shopped around sooner because as late as this recent monday, I could have received the same mortgage elsewhere fro 4.30%.

My grandmother has also decided to travel to Taiwan with my aunt one last time. But because my aunt is currently suffering from cancer and my grandmother is really getting on in age, we have to rewrite the will. They also wanted to look into funeral home services and fees for just such an occasion.

After speaking with a manager at OceanView Cemetary's in Burnaby, I found out that package deals for service plus a casket typically range from eight thousand to fourteen thousand. Seems a bit high but I guess thats life. No pun intended folks.

I also found this site called FindAGrave.com. The name is somewhat amusing allowing you to search for all types of famous people in various categories. For those who are into historical stuff, this might be interesting.

The Photographer - Adios Jorge

One last photo inside that Club Med Cancun disco hut from an unfinished roll of film. Boy am I glad that I went when I did. Prior to us going, the night lights at their tennis courts were blown from the previous hurricanes. Now the damage must be much worse but as I remember, all their floors are well taken care of with freshly updated concrete paint in the usual bright southern colors. While many of the resorts nearby probably have carpeted floors, Club Med uses tiles.

The small triangle just left of the large music video screen is the foam bubble machine. There's probably enough foamy water there now.

Before our departure, we were told by other guests and staff that the Renault company had booked the whole place for a month. I wonder what has become of them.

Yesterday I said good bye to a good friend and a great photographer. His collections of images of beautiful women was very inspiring and his friendly nature was welcoming. After four months of studying ESL, sharing his gift of portrait photography with me and others, he stepped on a plane bound for home in Mexico. Many of his friends here were fellow ESL students in the downtown Vancouver area. I suggested that we meet at Shenanigans for one last outing together.

I was late because drop-in volleyball was much too fun earlier in the evening. Jorge's homestead mother decided to invite some of her friends over and spend time with Jorge. He sat there trying to be polite before finally excusing himself an hour and a half later. Everyone else was already there.

I chose to show these pictures in black and white like memories frozen in time. Images from my Yashica T4 with Fuji 400 colour film scanned and converted to grayscale.

Jorge and his very close friend from Venezuela, Lilly. Her and two other Venezuelan's are all engineers like myself. My former self that is.

Some friendly joking amongst friends. Here Jorge shows his fishing skills.

The woman behind the man? People always joke about how it is the woman that makes the man.

"Now that I am gone, you must behave yourself Rodriguez." Jorge gives Rodriguez one last punch. Aside from me, Jorge is the oldest of the group. Many of the group are in their early twenties. With Jorge gone, I feel like I will become their chaperone.

"Lei, when I return, I hope you will have a new car" Jorge said with his partially broken english. On more than one occasion, I have packed my small truck with everyone. How many people can one fit in a small pickup? One brazilian, two Venezuelan's, two mexican's and one driver from Taiwan this evening. Incidentally, as the night wore on, Jorge also became shorter losing a couple of feet in height.

One last meal at a twenty-four hour Pho noodle joint. Perfect for some late night eating especially since it is monday, or rather tuesday morning. My foreign born friends have become much better at handling the ol chopsticks. Here the nickel plated napkin dispenser worked perfectly as a tripod for my small point n shoot camera.

We had briefly tossed up the idea of setting up a studio together. That is if he returns. Or a bunch of us may have some sort of reunion in Mexico since the majority of his south american friends here live just a few hours from his home town. As well as his studio is doing there, he does not want to stay there. Talks of him moving to Los Cabos has come up. That would be a great place to visit and do some surfing along the Baja peninsula.

Adios Jorge.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

I played ice hockey for the first time in a couple of months on Friday. It wasn't bad. Still felt great to be gliding around on the ice with my skates.

Saturday, I went to a birthday dinner for a friend in the badminton club. In all, there was a little over twenty people there. Mostly people that I had never met before. A nice bunch I would have to say as we all chowed down on all you can eat sushi at Sui-Sha-Yi in Metrotown.

Afterwards, it was off to a friends house for the great pumpkin carving contest party. Everyone had really good designs and everyone used a pen and/or a stencil. Mine was the only one to be cut completely freehand and it kind of showed as I didn't prepare ahead of time what I was going to carve. Wing it I did and it showed in the form of slight disproportionately sized patterns on each of the four faces. My pumpkin was not very round.

Here I have a scary goblin face carved on one side of my pumpkin. I wanted to make mine more scary than just a neat, clever or intricate design.

On another side of my pumpkin, I carved a tree with a pacman-like ghost hanging off a branch. The top is cut into a starfish shape opening instead of the seemingly standard jagged or round opening found on everyone elses.

Not seen in any of my photos is a large cutout of a witch on a broomstick. Unfortunately, the broom end kind of looked like a fork. Maybe I should have used a pen to draw out the design first afterall? By the time the fourth face had to be carved, I was all out of creativity and just carved a C-shaped moon. It wasn't worth taking a photo of.

Next is Ronni's ghost.

I can't remember what this was called but Marty took first place in the non-stencil category.

A table full of carvings for judging.

An interesting one which had a strobing light inside to match the 'mystical' design theme.

Note in a previous image of a pumpkin with a spiderweb carving. The spider here is the other side of it complete with the cut out spider pinned on the outside of the pumpkin.

More photos from my friend have been uploaded to this site for viewing.

So, this still leaves the question will the great pumpkin rise from the pumpkin patch this year?

Death and Bad Luck

On the drive home, I was tired. I felt horrible and rush hour was just beginning. Nausea was setting in as I sped through traffic wherever possible hoping to spend the least amount of time on the road. Eventually, it got to the point that I just prayed that I would make it through the next fifty minute without throwing up in my truck.

Outside it is raining. Behind the dark silhouettes of the trees along the horizon, the city lights glow in the heavy blanket of mist above. Inside, the light is just as dim. One of the bulbs in the aquarium is blown. As I remove the lamp above the water, their is the half-blurred vision of fish swimming about in all different directions. Bubbles rise from the bottom of three tubes to the surface. Yellow, orange and white scales shimmer but something is wrong though. Amidst everything that wiggles and moves, one lone fish slowly floats downwards. It's mouth is still opening and closing but only a little. The body is bent and rigid. Lying on the rocks which line the bottom of the tank with its mouth twitching with less frequency, I watch as the fish dies before my eyes. The other fish continue to swim about oblivious to what has just happened.

All that can be seen is death everywhere. Hundeds of dead insects at the front door to the house as though a massacre had just occurred. How fitting. Halloween is nearly upon us and I can use it as cheap special effects. All I need are some carved pumpkins along the sides of the walkway.

For some reason, there was a huge population of those arthropod-like creatures there and upon seeing them slowly crawling around everywhere, I went into the garage and pulled out two cans of Raid. I can now personally state that the stuff works as claimed. It kills bugs on contact. It is almost impossible to walk up to the front door without stepping on one of these tiny critters lying on its back with its legs up in the air. I suppose it would be a good idea to take the broom and sweep everything away. What would people think when they see it? The newspaper boy? The mailman? My tenants next door? I just need to keep it there for another two weeks.

My mother has apparently gone to see the fortune teller asking what is to become of her children. Those being my older brother, younger sister and myself. It seems rather ironic in that the fortune teller had seemingly bad news for everyone but me since I am the only one who is 'unemployed' and living at home still. Apparently I will be ok but my other two siblings may run into problems. So the fortune teller gave my mother some sort of compass like device to be passed on to my brother and sister. The center of the device is white and when it becomes dark, it is supposed to be worn out. It's supposed to protect them from bad luck, spirits, or maybe from just making bad decisions? Something to that effect.

My sister joked that because I'm already not working and living at home that I've already hit rock bottom. Nothing worse can happen.

As I type this, I believe that Tsubame is sitting at home just a few blocks away typing as well. I know this because I can see his updates and comments show up in my other window. I would consider picking up the phone to call him but in the past, this has proven futile. His phone line being tied up by the internet connection.

I see that he has found and reposted his entry about the Abbotsford Photo Arts Club Seminar. This means that I will have to go back in there and fix the links again because he probably didn't see my comments about how I fixed them before. This feels like an internet editorial crew busy putting together articles. After the brief interruption in service, the site is back up and running and us being the eager bloggers that we are, we quickly post new entries. I digress. Tsubame got the links in his entry working correctly this time.

I also must point out that this must be an all time low as now I am blogging about us bloggers blogging.

My monday night volleyball team is looking much better. There is a lot less miss hits and confusion plus we're actually able to beat other beginner teams. However, our knowledge of player positions and rolls is rather lacking.

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In other news, my trusted pickup truck surpassed the 300,000 kilometer mark. It will not die. Woohoo! Oh what a feeling...Toyota... (balloons, confetti and streamers fly around the room in the background and Lei jumps up in the air)

Don't Say Good Bye

It's been a while since I've done anything with Tsubame. He's been off travelling with his now departed girlfriend and I've been off on my own adventures and activities. And after reading his current blog entry, I have this sudden realization of what he is going through. Just yesterday, I saw Kozue walking towards Tsubame's house as I drove out to go to my mandarin class downtown. I thought it was weird that this was the first time I saw her in the neighborhood. She didn't look particularly happy but then, who has a huge smile on their face when they are just walking around on the sidewalk with no one to joke or talk with.

It also reminds me of this young japanese woman in my mandarin class whom I just found out will be leaving canada to go back home. She is not sad to leave. Her other close japanese friends have already left for home. So she does not feel too excited these last couple of months that she will stay here. When she returns, she will go through the same thing as Kozue. See her family and friends again and try to find a new job. She wants to get into the business of making or buying and selling movies or videos. Jobs are still hard to come by for young people new to the workforce I was told.

I downloaded episode 18 of Initial D yesterday. It was interesting that this and the previous episode took place in the Saitama prefecture. The team took a break which gave them a chance to develop the romance between one of the main drivers on the team and a young female admirer. They too separate but due to work. Racing that is. The Project D racing team travels to nearby regions in order to race against new opponents yet the main character chooses his relentless pursuit to be successful instead of allowing the young woman to come into his life.

Tsubame and Kozue chose not to show their feelings at the airport and I don't fault them for that is their choice. I on the otherhand would choose otherwise. Life is short, tell someone what you think before it maybe too late. Keeping those feelings inside just creates possible regret and unnecessary stress. What better way to lock in the emotions of someone special than to utter those words few words. But again, that is just my opinion and one could argue the opposite as being just as powerful. But again, you're only human and humans experience emotions unless you're Mr. Spock the Vulcan. Use those tear ducts! You have them so use em!

That cafe mocha really did me in this evening. Sitting there in my photography class waiting for the lecture to start, I saw a sign on the bulletin board saying that no food or drinks are allowed in the classroom. So I quickly drank the whole cup. For the next three hours, my heartbeat raced a mile a minute and towards the end, a small headache had developed. Note to self, never do that again.

When I got home, I took a shower and drained. With the water grounding me, I could feel all the energy from my head travel down to the water at my feet. This went on for a while and eventually, the pressure or headache subsided. Tomorrow is my next appointment with the specialist for my quarterly blood test. Hopefully it should continue to show good results. My head is wired right now. I can't sleep. That humungous pie is completely gone so what am I to do.

Uncle Lei and the Pie

My cousin brought my not so little niece and nephew for a week this past summer. It has been almost eight years since I last saw them when my other cousin had gotten married. They used to be so small. Now I'm being called Uncle Lei yet even to them it seemed weird because I didn't exactly look like an 'uncle'. I seemed more like someone closer to their age.

I chauffered them around and got to know them a bit more taking them to Van Dusen Gardens, Whistler and various other spots around Vancouver.

Yes, they are just teenagers. The perfect models during our visit to Van Dusen Gardens. Better than other models that I've photographed.

Celebrating after making it to the centre of the maze. The complete set of photos taken during their visit can be viewed here.

It's thanksgiving here but I'm not in a turkey mood. Yesterday I passed on an invitation to an old friends house for a turkey dinner in favour of playing volleyball at the roundhouse downtown. Similarly, I passed on roasting a big bird of my own and went straight for the pie. A large 12 inch pumpkin pie first appeared in my fridge two days ago. I acknowledged its presence knowing that it would be safe. Now it is half gone sharing only two small slices with my sister and her boyfriend when they dropped by. I should not let myself overindulge in such delicacies. Unfortunately my strength to resist such temptations is low.

(After some time has passed by...)

Just an update, only a quarter of the pie is left. I threw a portion into the oven to brown the crust a bit more. That's the way I like my pastry. When I told Gambit the other day that I would eat the whole pie myself, he said that I was crazy. My stomach would beg to differ.

Singing Pass to Overlord Glaciers

During the summer, August of 2005 to be more precise, I went with Tsubame on an overnight trip. We started at the top of Whistler, hiked over the three hills which made up was is known as Singing Pass before stopping just before the Overlord Glaciers.

The following are a few photos which I have finally had scanned from my slides.

This glacier cool stream leads us towards the base of the Overlord Glacier. everywhere we walk, is rocks. From small, flat slate-like pieces to large boulders. Small Marmots can be found living within the rock spaces.

Watching the mountain photographer at work. We are actually quite high up and without any climbing gear. Below is the lower portion of the glacier runoff contaminated with dirt.

This photo had all the elements of a classic photo of a climber scaling a vertical rock surface. Unfortunately I hesitated and Tsubame disappeared down the rock face. All that can be seen is the back of his camera backpack. I would soon follow in his footsteps.

In the early hours of the morning, the sun rises from the east to shine its warm light down on the campsite. Our tent is the blue one closest towards the mountain and glacier. The large hut on the left is where we cooked our food.

Which one is heavier? The pile of rocks on the left or Tsubame and all his camping and camera gear? With the mountain and glacier behind us, we leave.

On the hike back down to Whistler Village, we find this large mushroom right on the main path. This picture of Tsubame is a much better picture than his of me in my seemingly drugged up state (Read Tsubame's blog for his photo of me although I wish that you wouldn't because I really do look quite awful).

These and one or two other photos can also be viewed here.

Note below that my previous entry about my week in Cancun has been updated with photos. Scroll down and have a look!

Only in L.A.

Our supposed 'direct' flight from Cancun to Seattle stopped in Los Angelas and because of security, we had to get off the flight and exit all the way through customs, walk outside to a different terminal, go through check in and customs again before waiting to board the exact same plane which we arrived in. The plane had unloaded and moved to this departure terminal. How stupid is that? So much for our direct and non-stop flight.

This little detour was not without its own odd instances. Walking to customs, Sinead O'Connor followed behind us. My friends did not believe me at first but when she stood only ten feet in front of us being interrogated by US customs, her name was easily visible in large letters on her carry-on bag. She wore a slightly oversized red fleece top with her trademark near skinhead bald head. If she had a full head of hair, she'd be very good looking. I used to think she was taller but after seeing her in person, she's just an average height a bit below me. The US Customs officer gave her some trouble as he leafed through her passport filled with lots of stamps from other countries. I wanted our group to belt out her one famous tune "Nothing Compares To You" right there in the airport just for the fun of it. We didn't and the incident passed.

When we got to our gate, we were early. Lee was carrying Fuzz's guitar and the gay guy at the boarding gate started making jokes to him. It was kind of funny as he continued with his remarks although Lee didn't seem to care for it. Fuzz just laughed. After we got on the plane, the guy kept on with his jokes over the pa. It was like listening to Bart Simpson making prank phone calls to Moe's Tavern.

Once we reboarded the plane, we found that the flight crew had changed. Instead of the usual politically correct and equal opportunity demographic staff, there were two beautiful young stewardesses. We made a poor attempt to conceal our exuberance. What a nice flight back.

During the flight, the captain would periodically provide comments about the flight and whatever. The funny thing about this was that he sounded just like the Principal in the Simpsons cartoon.

In the seats in front of us were some young women. They weren't children but they were if you can understand what I mean. After landing and people started leaving, they were giggling and laughing in the most annoying manner possible. We just sat there rolling our eyes. I could see the expressions in the two stewardesses faces as they fought to endure the young women.

Time has been short since my return. I went to Abbotsford on Monday and Tuesday to attend a photographers convention. It was pretty good as I got to meet many 'master' photographers and see work which was submitted into the photo competition. My friend Jorge from Mexico impressed many with his portfolio and even held a small photo shoot for a young woman in our hotel room. Using what was available, he produced a series of wonderful portraits of her while her grandmother who was a master photographer helped with the props. Flipping over the bed spread to provide a textured white background and surface while light was provided by the large patio doors. Some quick touch up's with Adobe Photoshop and voila.

I had to race back from abbotsford and leave Jorge at the convention because I had a mandarin class in downtown Vancouver. Jorge would stay for the evening banquet and awards. He is the upstart. He is the star. Many of the master photographers there are not as literate in photoshop with a digital camera's RAW file as he is and you can see it in the look on their faces when they look at his work.

I missed the first session of the intermediate photography class last week so this week when I showed up at the school thinking that I would be on time, I found out that there was a field trip down at Robson Square. After racing down in my truck to get there on time, I saw the class. Only one person from my beginners class signed up for this class. Everyone else was new and most of them looked like they had no experience with film cameras. The teacher was a young woman with narrow glasses. She was really enthusiastic about teaching as could be seen in her exaggerated body movements. After the class, I introduced myself to her. She stood really close to me while talking which made me wonder if her eyeglass prescription needed some adjustment. This class should be interesting.

If you haven't noticed on the previous blog entry, photos are now available for viewing of the cancun trip. Just click here.

Hands Up! Baby Hands Up!

Give me your heart, Baby Give me your heart...

Everybody stand around the pool and dance! A common sight at Club Med.

Strange how things just seem to work out. On the way to Cancun, some people on the plane said that they saw dark clouds that went way up above our cruising altitude when we passed through the gulf. For the majority of the week, the weather was perfect. Hot and sunny when it needed to be. On the day we had to leave, another system started developing and as we made our way through the Cancun airport in the province of Quinton Roo, thunder showers surrounded us.

The Club Med resort hasn't changed much yet this second time here was great. Everyday I did two or three activities picking up a few new ones along the way. By the end of the week, I had learned how to windsurf, rode the wakeboard,

become a flying trapeze artist hanging by my knees, learned a new song on the guitar, thrown up from too much alcohol on one evening at the Disco Hut, flipped

a Hobie Cat, played tennis, saw the iguana's, won the volleyball tournament, practiced my french with all the montrealers and parisians that I met, visited Cozumel while my friends went scuba diving, partook in a foam party, danced the Club Med medleys and even took in a bit of Nadine's Yoga class and the prelunch water arobics class done in the usual Club Med fashion.

Everyone in our group of four had a great time as by the end of the trip and for the first time in the six or seven times that they have been here had they not felt bored on the last day. Instead, they were contemplating whether or not they should extend their stay in Cancun. I kind of wish we did too except that reality beckons back home in Canada in the form of work.

I can't get one of the Club Med songs out of my head right now. It's as though I was still there somewhere in the compound hearing the song played throughout the sound system.

All the Group Organizers or GO's were cool to hang out and party with.

Even Albert the crocodile that lives in the Lagoon where we water ski and wake board everyday. The kitchen staff just kept him fed so that he didn't go after us club medder's playing in the water. Incidentally, during the five or six years that I have been away, Albert has been busy as we were told that he now has a family. A female crocodile plus two babies. Way to go Albert!

We missed the hatching of the turtles on the beach. I wish I could have gotten some photos of the event but alas we never knew when exactly they would decide to come out of their shells.

Photos of the trip are now online.