Lei

Weekday Evenings

So many hours wasted. Tuesday was the web class and I probably spent as much time helping others as I did working on my own stuff. I should be the teachers assistant.

The beach volleyball team is puttering along. Again we win just one out of the three matches for the evening except this time, we win it legitimately. Previous weeks saw us take matches by default or forfeiture: our opponents being late, pulling a no show or not having the minimum number of guys and girls for coed.

My sister invited me to the new Sync exhibit produced by the folks at Nettwerk records. She thought that I might like it since it was also thought that they would have equipment for me to play and mix music with, knowing the small dj course I took some years ago. So we signed up on the guest list along with my friend the cakemaker and went to the opening reception. Nettwerk is the record company that has brought us the likes of Tiesto, Delerium, Skinny Puppy, Stereophonics, Sarah McLachlan, Grapes of Wrath and many others for our listening and viewing pleasure in Canada.

We thought the place would be big but when I got there, it was tiny. Just a long room with many of Nettwerk's music memorabilia including original proposed artwork for record and cd covers. They had free wine to enjoy while you walked around and look at all the various pieces of music history up for auction too. There was a rack of cd's and records containing various unreleased tracks from numerous artists which we picked up; Volumes 4, 7, and 8 of Reel to Reel, Autour de Lucie, Luce, The Parishers, Tiesto set from the Greece Olympic party. Some we never heard of since, well I've been kind of out of the loop lately. We wondered who were some of these new acts out now like the parishers for example. My friend had picked it out on pure curiosity. As I have already mentioned, the event was not what my sister and I had expected. I think she thought it would be like going to a record store and playing with their turntables or something. Instead it was like an event for the people in the music industry. Various Nettwerk people and performers. Everyone was so nonchalant about who was there since it wasn't the type of thing that groupies and fans would be at. The only popular artist we recognized was Sarah McLachlan with her husband and baby. When we realized this, we started to scour the room for other performers by comparing the picture of the band on their cd covers and the people in the room. We found the Parishers standing beside us chatting amongst themselves. The lead singer is this tall guy who didn't really say much but their music isn't that bad. Kind of a take on Coldplay after having listened to it afterwards in the car. My sister and friend were bored and didn't want to stand around talking with industry folks so we left.

Of the cd's we grabbed, I liked the following. The mix of electronica, rave and house in Reel to Reel, the cool french tunes of Autour De Lucie and Sway by The Perishers.

Afterwards, I went with cakemaker to Bin941 for tapas. A Cool trendy restaurant with a great menu. Again we are in a long and narrow room and they pack the place like sardines. It really is tiny. If you're ever in town, its worth it.

lemon Merange Pie

One of my friends is leaving for Winnipeg and staying for three weeks. She has no job right now and can't work due to a temporary disability. Having not much to do, her parents suggested that she visit and look after her grandmother. So her, another friend and I went out to the cactus club for a small sendoff meal. We've gone there twice in the last few days. My friend likes the apple pies and I second it. I love the crust as its not wet and soggy. They top it off with caramel, a sprinkling of icing sugar and a dollup of vanilla bean ice cream - mmm mmmm.

I love pies. Blueberry and cherry are my favourite I think. Then there's good old pumpkin pie but the best of all has to be lemon merange. I bought one last week for myself. And every night I had two slices or so. It's all gone and I am already paying for my excessive indulgence. It was a farmer's market pie from superstore. I have some friends who studied at DeBrules cooking school and they said that these pies are not that great. It's all gelatin and artificial flavouring. They recommended a place called Savoury Island that makes the best fresh pies in the lower mainland. I think I'll try to go there sometime today or tomorrow.

Oh and another thing, did you know that gelatin is made from cow bones? Think about that the next time you eat jello.

Lineup

"Daddy... daddy... can we have a tv in the bathroom?" cried the little girl in the store. This sounded funny when I heard it. The father didn't respond as the whole family kept marching along towards the checkouts. I however, was walking in the opposite direction to pick up some curtain rods for the nursing home. When I came back I found myself standing in one of the moderately long lineups at the checkout stations. I can't stand these line ups. They always seem to take so long or maybe I'm just impatient. So I stood there waiting and waiting. Meanwhile, the woman in front of me had instructed her daughter to stand in the line up next to us. In a few minutes, the mother would leave the spot in front of me to join the other line. This is the luck I have at stores as when I move up, I find that the couple in front of me is having a problem. The cashier clerk has to make a phone call and of course like everything else there, no one can come and help right away. The phone call seems to go on forever so I continue to stand there looking around. The people behind me have now piled there goods onto the clerks table. I look at their stuff and notice that they too have a pair of curtain rods like mine. Except that the plastic packaging on one of their rods is open and the end cap is missing.
"Excuse me, is this your curtain rod?" I asked. A man in a pinstriped blazer stood behind a cart while the young girl whom I saw putting the items on the table was now standing behind him. I didn't know if they were together.
"Is there something wrong with it?" he responds.
"Yes. See the end here... the plastic wrapping has opened up and the end cap is missing."
"What should it look like?"
"The plastic caps should look like this." I hold up my curtain rods for him to see.
"Oh thank you. We'll get the cashier clerk to send for a replacement when we get up there."
I turn around and they are still on the phone. Soon the clerk finally comes up with a good idea.
"Excuse me ma'am, but do you mind if we just finish off the payment for these items first? When the person from the office comes down they'll ring this last item for you separately" he asks.
"Oh of course" replies the woman's husband.
Finally, I get to make my purchase. All I wanted was to be able to pay my six dollars and get through there but before I could start another woman who had been arguing with a plain clothed staff person at the end of the clerks station was almost crying.
"But ma'am, we can get someone to get you what you want." he says.
"No, I don't want it. I don't think we need it anymore" she exclaims while walking in my direction. At that point I realized she was with the man and the little girl behind me. The plain clothed Ikea person began talking on the phone at our checkout station.
"Yeah, you got someone that can come down? She just kind of lost it in front of me for no reason." Putting the phone down he starts to ask the woman again.
"Someone is on their way from that department ma'am."
"I don't care. It doesn't matter anymore." she says out loud.
The couple whom the clerk was originally dealing with is now waiting at the checkout line next to us.
"Is this all sir?" says the clerk to me.
"Yes."
"That'll be $6.29."
It is now closing time and the small 'bistro' has done the same. I didn't get my ice cream.

Wilson and I

Your heart is like a cars engine. It doesn't matter how fast it beats, it won't last any longer. You'll eventually reach the end so take more breaks.

I'm on my island. There's just Wilson and I. Monday I played indoor volleyball at the rec centre. Wednesday I played beach volleyball with my team. Thursday I had a challenge match between my beach team and my fall indoor team. Friday I went to the urban beach train and play for volleyball. I used to never play volleyball nore am I any good. But now I am practically playing it full time.

After the train n play on friday, the urban beach staff had a get together at a restaurant nearby. Alot of people went and it was great socializing with the bunch but soon after, I started to feel sick. I wonder if it's a blood sugar thing as I had gotten up late and didn't eat properly that day. Next day I was feeling almost good enough that I went to work at the nursing home before joining some friends to see MI-3. Great movie. I recommend it for those who haven't seen it.

For mothers day we had dim sum where my fellow siblings presented another piece of the Swarovski chinese zodiac collection to my mother. We're halfway there and the other half of the collection sits in my room. One by one we release a piece as a special occasion comes up requiring gifts of any kind.

My sleeping habits are getting worse. During the week I've been staying up really late playing around with Dreamweaver and Photoshop. Then getting a bit sick hasn't helped causing me to sleep in late more. I need to break out of this pattern. My head still feels off.

WordPress

WordPress Beta test with the weekend update can be found here. It seems like there's so many new things to try technologywise right now. And I couldn't have picked a better time to become semi-obssessed with some kind of work with the way emotions have been. In the web photo class, we learned how to do roll overs. It was rather trivial to be honest and once again the class continues to be as in depth as I had expected. Note the sarcasm. I spent half of todays class trying to help other students with technical problems and using the schools film scanner to digitize my slides from the weekend trip. Regardless, I can not fault the school completely because I needed some sort of class to get my butt into gear. I'm one of those types that need a class or workplace environment for any progress to be made. I and a few others in the class find ourselves being stuck on the artistic design of our websites rather while others are still having problems just getting things running at home on their own computers with Dreamweaver.

Nonetheless, it is a great program to work with and very easy to use. I hope to have some sort of design completed. Thoughts of buying my own film scanner or actually picking up one of those rather expensive digital SLR's has been on my mind again. All in an effort to speed up the whole artistic publishing process I suppose. We'll see how long this lasts. For now, it keeps my interest.

Where did the ground go?

*revised*

A couple of unexpected things happened with volleyball girl which I had temporarily recruited for my beach volleyball team. After the initial rejection, I found out that she had problems with her english classes. I ended up helping her with her schooling as she decided to write an essay for me to mark up. Then the other day, I also happened to see her standing at a bus stop along marine drive just by coincidence. So after a week or so, we finally agreed to meet early before monday night volleyball so that we could discuss how she did on her essay.

She came and I went through all the errors with her. It wasn't all that bad I think but still, there was quite a few. She was disappointed but knew she had problems. As the court time approached, she said that she was really tired from doing stuff with her friends. They had spent the afternoon at the wharf in richmond.

Standing there she looked so lovely. I wished I could have just kissed her right there but she was leaving. Originally she had agreed to play volleyball the other evening after our short english tutoring session. However, she told me that she was really tired so I opened my big mouth and suggested that maybe she shouldn't play. She jumped on that and I was forced to watch her go.

That evening I sent her an ecard expressing my feelings for her expecting the same response as the last time I did the same. And that's exactly what I got. I knew it would happen but I don't regret doing it. That's just the way I felt and I wanted to let her know - strike two. So where did the ground go?

The ship is sinking and I don't have a life jacket. Thank god I know how to swim. So I will swim back to the island and back to an island I will go. This weekend its off to vancouver island with a couple of friends. Woohoo... On another note, I also found out through the grapevine that I will become an uncle soon. September I believe. Hmmm, uncle Lei...

Right now I have a humungous headache. The kind I used to get every so often a year or so ago. I wish it would go away.