daw jai pei yaht.

Happy belated Thanksgiving! Joyeux Jour de Merci-Donner! Went to Montréal pour le weekend. It was so good to see the gathering of the three generations of the family. Spending the weekend in suburbia was a nice change of pace from living in the city (even though a few hours was spent shopping downtown).

While driving up to Montréal and back, we got to see the colourful scenery of the changing leaves. It was so beautiful. Between Kingston and Belleville, there's a stretch where the trees just run alongside the highway; it resembles a wall of colourful cloud. I wish I took so photos. I've only got myself to blame though, since it was a 9 hour drive afterall. I'll be going northbound this Saturday to go shoot some photos. Hopefully, they won't be dead and brown by then...

On the way back to Toronto, I was listening to Radio-Canada (French station) to keep myself awake and my brain active by translating. And I heard a song que j'ai vraiment aimé. It was an interview about un nouveau artiste. Je pense qu'il est un Québecois. I have yet to do some research on him, but I did find that song on YouTube. J'échoue par Alexandre Désilets. C'est un pretty chill song. Enjoyez-le. Hon hon.


J'échoue par Alexandre Désilets >

fire in the sky.

As I was biking home from oyster dinner at Rodney's, there was a dark purple cloud looming overhead. A storm's a brewin'. But what really caught my eye was the fiery orange clouds glowing from the horizon. I couldn't help but bike faster to get to the Bathurst bridge (South of Front) to get some shots in. Luckily I had the camera with me and got there before the sun set completely. It felt as if the gods were angry. Yet it was so beautiful...

And with that said, that song by Ne-Yo, When You're Mad just popped into my head. I'm really excited to make my August CD. Got some pretty good ol' school songs I want to burn on it. But I just want to wait til the end of the month in case I hear something new or someone intros me to something better. But to name a few: Smashing Pumpkins' 1979 and Disarm, Counting Crows' Round Here and Mr. Jones, John Mayer's Heart of Life, Common's So Far To Go.

There's a couple of unmentioned songs that I know you'll find incriminating. And I'll admit, I'm ashamed to even have it on my considered list right now, but this is my list, not your list. And my list is full of fun and variety. I'll only mention one as a preview of how bad it gets, haha. Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It by Will Smith. That's right. I said it. The Fresh Prince himself. If you think the song is bad, you gotta check out the video. And don't be judgin' me, cause I know you've danced to this song at one point or another!!

Those oysters didn't fill me up one bit. Nor did that smoked salmon. Time to scrounge for food...


Facing West on the Bathurst Bridge North of Fort York Boulevard


Facing West on the Bathurst Bridge North of Fort York Boulevard


Facing West on the Bathurst Bridge North of Fort York Boulevard


Facing North at Queens Quay and Bathurst.


Facing North at Queens Quay and Bathurst.

nature calls.

I've been biking after work to Cherry Beach for the past two days to read and enjoy the setting sun. Really relaxing... It makes me want to make the most of my summer before the nasty ass snow comes back. Something about the sound of water and birds in the background, it's so soothing. Makes you forget about all the crap that gets thrown at you from the minute you wake up.

Every day, we spend the majority of our time inside a room, office, or vehicle. Always confined within some sort of space. And those times when we're commuting, we're listening to the radio, ipod, or talking/sleeping... Always looking in front of you or downwards at the ground. So rare do we exercise our neck muscles to look up at the sky. The clouds. The stars. The vastness of this world. If we took 5 minutes a day to stare up at the sky and truly focus on the space above us, we'll realize how meaningless our daily routines, our possessions, our money, our "sense of individuality" are.

This is just a clip of Cherry Beach and how relaxing it was. Just ambient sounds and a beautiful view, nothing action packed. But hey, maybe it'll inspire you to get off your lazy ass and do some outdoor activities and breathe in some almost-fresh Toronto air... haha.


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uptown-bound adventure

My goal of biking to Richmond Hill/Markham was fulfilled this long weekend. Made it in 3.5 hours from Queens Quay and Bathurst, to 16th and Warden on Sunday August 3rd. Left my place at around 12:30 and got to my aunt's place by 3:45. I took two 15 minute breaks, and because of the treacherous uphills, had to walk my bike up thrice. The three killer uphills for me were:

1. somewhere between St Clair and Eglinton on Yonge;
2. the stretch between York Mills and 401 on Yonge;
3. and on Bayview between Steeles and Proctor.

Rests were taken at Finch station and at Bayview and Laureleaf. The route taken was mainly on Yonge, in case I got tired and couldn't make it all the way up. According to Google Maps, the route I took was 34.1km. That's was about an hour for every ten kilometres? Hmm.. I was pretty damn slow... Boo. Also according to Google Maps, if I were to walk it, it would take about 7 hours and 4 minutes. Any takers?

I documented (by video) parts of the trip with my point n shoot camera attached to my shoulder. Alas, it came loose closer to Finch station and was reattached incorrectly. So all my footage from Finch station on was pointing too low. Boo.



That's one of the clips on Steeles between Yonge and Bayview. That stretch was a fun downhill ride. But the best downhill award has to go to the stretch North of Lawrence aand South of York Mills on Yonge. I must've been going close to 40km/hr... I was almost catching up to cars! Had my bike gave out, I probably would've died if not severely injured...

Next time, I'll probably record where the uphills and downhills were and do a diagram of it. Make the after-trip a little more fun. By time I got to my aunt's, my legs were dead. But amazingly enough, the next morning, I woke up without the soreness. Probably cause of the dim sum eating.

At the end of the day yesterday, my uncle sent me this crazy video of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony. Absolute madness.

why so serious?

dark knight
went to see dark knight monday at first markham after work. rushed uptown to try and make the 740 show. sold out. so we went for the 1010. packed. but oh my god. amazing movie. solid story, intense action, outstanding acting, just pure awesomeness for 2 hours. wanna see it on imax now... heath ledger's acting deserved a standing ovation. him as the joker, untouchable... but as christine mentioned afterwards, if it wasn't for jack nicholson's first joker, ledger probably wouldn't have done as good a job. you can see some influence from nicholson. but i was shocked nonetheless. i won't spoil the movie. if you haven't seen it already, go. NOW!! it's sooo worth it. oh and i noticed that edison chen made a cameo in the movie too, if anyone cares.. haha.

cn tower on a foggy day
my aunt from van city came down for the weekend. took her out around town and went up on the cn tower on a foggy day... it was pretty bad, cause the rain was on and off and it was really cloudy out. but i still managed to get some decent photos. i hadn't been in the cn tower since high school, when i came from kingston to toronto to check out the autoshow. i barely remember that visit. the interior of the cn tower for some reason really reminded me of the rochafeller centre in new york. weirdest thing. check out the photos.

oh my god. shoes. again.
new shoes!! lacostes from townshoes at eaton centre. they're kinda like my old lacostes, but a lot nicer! i love em! so fresh and so clean clean!



progress on spidey
still working on it, but here's another preview of what spidey's been up to on his free time...