snacky in my stummy.

Ceremony - Curtis Ian and the Joy Division

It's been a pretty hectic and busy week. A bit overwhelming, to be honest. So many important decisions to make, with so little time to make them. I was really hoping to get just one week of rest and to get my shit together before the jobhunt began, but I feel like I've been running really low on sleep, and less energy to do what I want to do: finish my portfolio. I guess it's a good thing.

I've been working from home lately, and sometimes I find it hard to focus until after dinner. Another weird thing... I've never known myself to be a snacky person. I'm a meal person. I eat big meals, and that's it. I may have one or two glasses of water or a drink between meals, but no granola bars, no chocolate bars, no crackers, nothing. But for some reason, working from home is starting to change that... I constantly feel like I need something in my mouth.. (no, you dirty bastards. no.) And because I've never had a history of snacking, I have nothing in the apartment to feed that craving.

So, I've been making mini-meals. Like instant noodles or eating leftovers. I'm thinking a part of it might be procrastination at work; eating just so I'm doing anything but the work I'm supposed to. Maybe I should start doing my work at Second Cup or Williams so I'm out of the apartment...

Joy Division's Ceremony has been in my head all day. Great song. Oh and thanks for the bike ride Kyra. Gotta explore the other parts of High Park when it's not so muddy and cold. It's awesome to finally have a biking buddy.

dreaming of exes and pho's.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Theme - Jon Brion

Had pho today. So good. Couldn't handle a large though. Had to settle for a medium. It's really too bad the prices went up at Pho Pasteur. I'd go more often if they didn't jack up the prices. I don't know where, I don't know when, but one day, I'll find a place that serves a large bowl of pho with the works for the price of a small. I'd go there every day if there was such a place. Maybe I should just move to Vietnam...

I have no idea why in the last couple of weeks I've been having so many dreams involving my past relationships. Well... maybe I do. Probably because of How I Met Your Mother. Gee eff number two has made quite a few appearances, but gee eff number three appeared this morning for the first time in a long time. So weird. Nothing really changes from dream to dream. Pretty much reflects what I hope for in life. Some mornings are a bit more disappointing than others, but hey, what's success without disappointment, right?

A fresh start is in order. Come May, the first steps to major changes in my life will take place. It's time to open my eyes and broaden my perspective on life. I'm going to do all the looking back I can now, but as soon as spring comes, I stay focused on me. I think my new motto will be Take care of your life and life will take care of you. Leap of faith, baby. Leap of faith.

and so the story goes...

To Love Somebody - Live - Damien Rice and Ray LaMontagne

and so the story goes;
tragedies come and go.
yeses turn into noes
and vice versa, everybody knows.

no one is the victim;
they're both to blame.
she thought he let go.
she thought she let go.

Stiff neck, sick, burnt fingertips, exhausted from lack of sleep, and cold. What a way to spend a day... Haha.

I'm posting an improvised meal I had last week some time. I had some salmon and pasta. I thought about Milestones's delicious Seafood Linguine... I tried to make my own, but it didn't taste good... It may look good, and it may be healthy, but my tongue did not agree...

Sunday night, I also made a tuna, rice, broccoli, fish sticks and cheese casserole. It was surprisingly decent! It was also improvised. It was also how I seared my 3 fingertips on my right hand. God. I don't know how I get myself into these hilarious clumsy situations. They should have a show after me. Almost like a Mr. Bean comedy...

Le sigh...

chicken and thriller mix.

Sitting here, eating my Swiss Chalet, listening to some Michael Thriller 25, I couldn't ask for more... Good food into my stummy, good tunes into my brain, awesomeness epitomized.

It's been exactly 2 months since I last shaved my head. It's gotten quite the length! I only touched it once before Thanksgiving to try and even out the strays. The hairs touching and tickling my ears have been driving me nuts! Especially with my glasses clamping them down forcing them outwards. I've been waking up with cowlicks, which I haven't seen in a long time. At least not on my head. I'll probably have to go for a trim this week or weekend to prep it for Rich and Jenna's wedding next week.

As for the facial hair, it only lasted a week. Nobody at home could take me seriously. My mom said I looked like a hahm suhp lo (pervert in Chinese), my brother was thoroughly digusted, my cousin couldn't even finish a sentence without being interrupted by laughter... So off my face it went the next morning. El sigh.

In other news, Suzuki.ca finally launched! Another project I worked on will be launching some time this week also. Anyway. Time to relax. Beat it.


a week's worth of growth. gross.

coming home.

Home again to rain... My 9 day vacation ended with Eshwin picking me up from the airport and hanging out in Markham. Having lived in Little Tokyo for the duration of my trip, hanging out at a Starbucks in Markham and being surrounded by Asians made me feel like I was in Los Angeles still. As Esh drove me downtown, Toronto felt a little foreign to me, if only for that first few minutes. I guess it was the combination of the rain, the highways, and streets I haven't seen in a while.

I've realized that Los Angeles really doesn't have much to see and do. I kind of felt like we did it all and we really didn't need that 9 days of vacation to see L.A. We did Universal Studios, Hollywood, Santa Monica Beach, outlet mall shopping, the Grove and Culver City, and some drinking around town. In hindsight, I wish I would've driven out of the city itself to see the California redwoods and spend some time in San Francisco. A lot of time was spent stuck in traffic and getting lost because the freeways and road signs are so brutally designed.

Don't get me wrong, I still had an amazing time. Hanging out with old friends and meeting new ones was definitely worth this trip. Of all the things we did, I loved Santa Monica the best. The open space, the sand, the ocean, it was all so relaxing. Not to mention the building of Sandy Ho version 3.0. I wish I was ballerific enough to own a beach house by the ocean.

Aside from the sightseeing, I tried to be as diverse as possible with the food. I had a little bit of everything: bento box, Japanese curry, mochi and mochi ice cream, seafood enchiladas, In-'N-Out burgers, Cheesecake Factory, pasta, pho, and lots of beer... Well, not that much beer. Mainly due to the night of my arrival when the Welcoming Committee decided to haze me. It was a rough morning the next day... Oh the memories. Special thanks to Tessar, Yoskay, Scott, Yuta, Nimit, Rachel, Heren and Jason for the great hospitality and bitchin time!!


watch the L.A. experience >

Now back to the cold weather and routine life. Yes. New desk location, at least. I guess that's something to look forward to. Oh Toronto, how I've missed you...

papiroflexia

Ugh. Really shouldn't've eaten that McDonald's... It felt so right at the time. Now it feels so gross. Not eating fast food for another month, at least... Pretty excited to post a couple of banner concepts I animated for this health insurance company in the States. Unfortunately, neither of the concepts were used. As soon as the current ones go live, I'll post the unused concepts.

I have nothing for you this weekend, except for this cool animation from Joaquin Baldwin's portfolio, whose animation I found through Motionographer.com. If only it were that simple to change the world...




view >

clothes, mashed potatoes, and photos.

weekend.
despite the crappy week, i've been enjoying the time alone this weekend. to a certain extent. i did a lot of shopping, biking and shooting, and went to a potluck/barbecue that was too full of potato dishes. there was shepherd's pie, cottage pie, bangers n' mash, scalloped potatoes, and baked potato chunks... it was delicious though. zack's meatballs were amazing. and so was the sangria!! oh god, i could go for another pitcher of that!! i'm drooling just thinking about it all...

bike hike.
went on two bike hikes this weekend. friday night, i went along lakeshore west all the way past parklawn dr and snapped a lot. but the results weren't all too satisfying. then biked all the way east to cherry st to do some grocery shopping at T&T. snapped a few pics there too when it got dark. sunday, i biked west again to the same spot, but took more photos of the calatrava-inspired pedestrian bridge. the photos you can see on my flickr account. that way, i don't have to flood my facebook and blog with test shots. check it.

oh my god... shoes.
not quite shoes, but clothing, nonetheless. i know last year i've been saying that i would never shop from h&m again (reason being that everyone shops from there, and you run into people wearing your clothes almost every day...) but when i dropped by saturday, i couldn't help but drool over their assortment of shorts. i wanted to buy a few pairs of shorts, but i decided to only pick one. i walked out of there with a tshirt, a pair of shorts and a reversible windbreaker! DING! and bought a couple of things at hmv...

i want to be a robot.
having spent the most of this weekend alone, i felt strangely comfortable by myself. but only for the first while. as soon as i got home sunday evening before dinner, the feeling of discomfort hit me like a sac of bricks. i don't know how you solitary people do it.

stop-motion animation.
i dropped by silver snails friday and got a posable spider-man figure. so i got the figure, i got the video, i got the camera. now all i need is some time. in a couple of weeks, i'll do another post of my progress. a teaser, if you will. but for now, enjoy the photo!

saumon très bon, hon hon.

anyone who knows me knows i'm not the healthiest when it comes to eating. we used to eat out at monaghan's a lot. so much so that i knew all their specials every day of the week and the servers knew me by name. on top of that we used to make trips to pho ba ca in mississauga for pho at 3am. i gained about 15 pounds during college from all this madness. my diet hasn't changed much from my college days, but i started skipping breakfast so i could get that extra bit of sleeping time before work.

after getting my bicycle and feeling a bit more healthy getting some exercise, it made me want to start living a healthier lifestyle. and what better time to start than in spring when you're not bogged down by the brutal winter weather? so friday i decided to take a day off and hang out with erin, make her some lunch. the theme of the day was healthy eating. i hear salads are a good start to healthy eating, so salmon steak and side of salad will do. i've never made either, except for salads that consisted of lettuce and choice of fatty dressings.

with nataly's help and advice via phone, the salmon was close to being a success. as for the salad, not so much... i took a few pictures of the salmon, but forgot to take pictures of the meal itself with the salad. the salad photo is whatever was left over from this morning.

with the salmon, i buttered a pan, seared both sides of the fillet and then took it off the pan, onto a baking sheet. i then squeezed some lemon juices on top of the salmon and topped it with a wedge of lemon and some tablespoon of butter. i sprinkled some chopped green onions and garlic and threw it into the oven at 350°C and left it in for 20 minutes uncovered. nataly had told me to cover the salmon with tin foil so that the fish would be juicy. but i forgot... instead it came out a little bit dry. it was still a success though. because of the searing beforehand, the skin became really crispy instead of soggy.


with the salad, i bought some pre-mixed field greens from the grocery store and added tomatoes and red onions to it. i tossed it with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. it was really bland, so i had to ask erin to pick me up her favourite dressing. she came back with a bottle of rasberry and white balsamic dressing. after adding that, the taste was still too subtle. later, nataly told me she had some of the leftover salad and said it actually tastes good, i just needed a lot more balsamic vinegar.

i realized today how much willpower it took to eat healthy, because our healthy eating day didn't last long. we went to see leatherheads at the movie theatres and ordered a nacho grande, and had a quesadilla after the movie. and as if that wasn't bad enough, nataly and i had mcdonald's last night.

going to need quite a few hip hop classes to burn that mcchicken off...