magic happens here, too.

Disney's Magic Kingdom. What a place...

this is what florida looks like...

So all that marketing was accurate after all. This was the resort we stayed at. Our family friends own a time-share, and has been trying to get us to go with them for a while now. This is partially why we ended up in Florida for this trip (otherwise I have plenty of other spots I'd want to go to...)

Also, I started using the term "Floriday" to refer to here. It's Florida+Friday+Holiday, and totally sums up the general sentiment of this trip.

I took many more pictures of the palm trees, just for the heck of it. :P

Did I mention it was warm down there?

before takeoff...

Leaving Phoenix after being delayed, missing a connection and spending the night there. (Luckily they paid for our hotel).

vacation

We're going down to Orlando, FL for a family vacation. Its the first time in many many years that all 3 of us managed to book a trip together (usually its just my mom and dad, or me and mom, etc). To save on the flight, we got tickets that leave from Seattle instead of directly from Vancouver. This also means for a side road-trip down to Seattle, with a stop at the outlet mall. I'm not a huge fan of shopping for clothes, but it has to be done once in a while (as my mom keeps on reminding me..)

This was at the border crossing, after which we would be in the US for just over a week.

(It was also the last place I could have 3G connection without having to pay for roaming charges :P)

pork overload

ribs wrapped in ham wrapped in bacon. i inappropriately call it "kosher vegan delight".

ribs were slow cooked for about 6 hours. dipped them in my "standard" honey mustard recipe and then wrapped in ham, and then bacon. then cooked in oven until bacon was done.



i also made a batch of more "regular" ribs:

makeshift music stand

I helped out subbing for a big band that practices at the Scottish Cultural Centre. The upstairs room where they practice is used as a kindergarten during the day. I didn't have a music stand with me that day, and made one out of a stack of teeny chairs they had. Making good use of my engineering degree... :P

cooking up ... bass strings?

So Alex told me about a trick to revive old bass strings. Apparently, part of the reason why they sound 'dead' after a while is due to all the gunk that gets caught in between the windings of the outer layer. Therefore, cooking them in water can help! (Obviously it doesn't change how the material itself wears out).

After boiling it in water for a while, and adding a dash of assorted spices, drying it out and restringing, it made a very significant difference in the sound (Not quite new, but much closer to new than before!)

Another term, another convo...

Robin's convo, Nov 2010. Congrats!

Meat N-gons

because we are nerds; because we can. proudly presenting:

meat n-gons! (where N = 1, 4, 5, and 6)

First snow of the year

The first major snowfall for the year. Also happened to be the day I decided to go volunteer at the sailing club. A nice, but somewhat chilly day out.

We cleaned out underneath the kayak racks, and here's the fleet in their temporary holding place while the racks were being cleaned. The UBC lasers and vanguards are in the background

Laptop Orchestra Concert

First concert of UBC SUBCLASS. Recital Hall in the music building. The best part was the colourful stands that Dr Bob ordered just for the event:

There were some puzzled looks as we waltzed them around in the corridoors of the music building... Here's an on-stage shot with the stand in action:

The concert went very well with no technical difficulties (the kind that is well known within this community). Here's a video clip of our piece.

MAGIC Demo Day

Annual magic demo day. The cookies were good :)

Never too old to...

fly a kite!

it was a gorgeous late fall day, and we did not want to let it go to waste. we went to the fields of Eric Hamber Secondary (a block from our place) and had some fun running around the field while high school kids were looking at us wondering if we were old enough to be hanging out there.

Ruffled Feathers, Pumpkin Carving, Handsketch + Keyboard Practice

This was a long and eventful day. Starting at around 11PM the previous night: The Ruffled Feathers at the Backstage Lounge on Granville Island. They were absolutely amazing. Can't believe it was the first time I've heard then after knowing about them for so long!!

Technically the above picture was taken past midnight, so... :P And then, on Thursday afternoon, I dropped by pumpkin carving at HCT. This was Tricia and Ling's creation:

Check out the stop motion video :)

And then, later that evening: first rehearsal with Nicolas and his Handsketch at Ryerson. Did some improvisation, instrument trading, and practiced our first piece: Handle's Violin Sonata VI

Laptop Orchestra Rehearsal

This has been wayyy to much fun for us...

See Dr Bob's zanzithophone in the background :)

Its a book

That is all.

the band, 13

The awesome people in the band for 13. It was great playing with you guys!

An eventful Saturday that involved Longboat race in the morning, bike ride to campus to see the sunset with Gabe, Ian and Bruce, and then The Madwoman of Chaillot put on by UBC Theatre. Perfect day.

13, the musical

Took a short, spontaneous gig with Awkward Production's 13, the first production for this new non-profit company. It was originally put on during the Fringe festival, and then voted for Pick of the Fringe. Then the company decided to do an extended run at the Norman Rothstein Theatre over Thanksgiving weekend. Due to some shuffling I ended up playing guitar instead of keyboard, but it was still awesome! Had the music and lines stuck in my head for a long time afterwards :)

Pots and Pans

My favorite (and only) set of pots and pans. They're over 10 years old but still going strong!

Extractor fan for wormbin

The outdoor bin could use some more ventilation, so we decided to add a fan to it. This old VGA cooler was a perfect candidate:

The attached potentiometer allows speed control (although it wasn't *really* necessary in this case :-)

Here's the fan mounted on the lid of the bin:

Geeks live here...

nuff said.

Intense game of settlers

A game of settlers that lasted about 3 hours. I waited for a winning 12 roll for about 30 turns, but alas, it did not come. I love taking pictures of the game board.

Jello shots

Benny's idea. Peach flavored jello with vodka. Added some gelatin to counter the anti-setting effects of alcohol. Tasted great! Tipped glasses for visual effect :)

Pancakes

Nothing like pancakes made from scratch with fresh fruit and whipped cream... :)

New Wormbin

I started making a 2nd worm bin. The first one was made from blue recycling boxes, the inner one being about 20 litres in volume. It was working out quite well after some initial fruit fly problems, which appeared to solve itself once the worms really started churning the material. Pretty soon I had a full bin of healthy worms, but there was one problem: it wasn't processing the food scraps fast enough. A lot of fruit and vegetables are consumed in our household (even when I was living by myself throughout the month of August), and the amount of waste plant matter far exceeded the amount being consumed by the worms. Therefore I decided to start a second, considerably larger bin:

It's hard to tell without a shot of the previous bin, but the new ones are about 20 gallons (vs 20 litres). I recruited Robin and Gabe to help during the construction process:

Pictures of finished products to follow...

camping, day 2

The lake was amazing:

It warmed up in the afternoon and we went for a quick swim.

On the way back:

Camping, day 1

We finally got around to going camping this year. Destination: Ross Lake. The weather had been iffy all day, and we went through a series of spectacular sunshine, pouring rain and everything in between. This was on highway 1 somewhere near Chilliwack:

The last 50km of the trip was on this dirt road, and in the rain dirt turns into mud:

Having braved the mosquitoes, set up the tarp in the rain and cooked some dinner despite the miserable weather, it cleared up and we were greeted by a beautiful sunset:

egg and tofu curry

A glimpse into my bachelor life: cooking around midnight for next day's lunch :)

If I ever turned vegetarian, I'd be making this a lot. Actually, I make this a lot anyway haha.

It's really easy:

- Chop onions and some garlic

- Fry in pan with olive oil; add some salt. Wait until brown

- Add some water, and potatos and carrot

- Simmer *

- Add Japanese curry cube (e.g. Glico) *

- Add tofu, cooked egg and green veggies near the end; simmer a bit more *

*during these steps I kinda add more water as it dries up to maintain the right amount of moisture. Thats what happens when you don't follow recipes :P

Along side, I steam some plain rice with a dash of butter.

Cute card :)

Received this lovely card from the lovely ASM's of Singin' in the Rain. I generally don't edit photos (even cropping is rarely done), but this is just too cute :)

Thanks Belle, Izzy, Melanie and Tanya!!!

SITR Closing night: The orchestra pit

The place I spent at least 22 evenings this summer, and what a great place it was.

2010-08-17 - car fire in stanley park

On the way back from Stanley Park after tonights show, we saw a bunch of people jumping up and down looking across Pipeline Road and a firetruck turning. Woah...

requiring no introduction...

my twin brother friends Tony and Jack both received their iPhone4s ordered from the Apple Online store. shiny!

Rain at Fireworks 2010-07-31

We had some pretty crazy weather just before the final fireworks show this year. A few clasps of thunder (which could have been mistaken for test shots that are usually fired earlier during the evening) sounded as we crossed the Burrard Street Bridge. As we headed towards English Bay a few droplets of rain quickly turned into a downpour. Luckily we brought a tarp and improvised a human tent (4 people, one being each corner) and arrived on the beach relatively dry (compared to the majority of people on the beach without umbrellas or other forms of cover).

Luckily the rain was extremely brief, and the rest of the night was clear. The sudden turn of weather created some interesting patterns in the clouds, such as:

I took a time-lapse of the actual fireworks show, and am currently figuring out the music to put for it. In the mean time, here is the silent version:

bike co-op beach day #2! 2010-07-29

Another ridiculously gorgeous day at the beach. This time we went to the dog beach at Spanish Banks. The food was one-upped from last time with the addition of whipped cream, blueberries, and Reese's cups. Skinny dipping may or may not have commenced after dark.

One of those moments...... :

Fireworks, 2010-07-29

The Team Mexico performance for the 2010 season. Caught it on the Burrard Bridge on my way back after the show from Stanley Park. Didn't have a radio nearby so no music unfortunately.

The spot wasn't ideal due to the tree that blocked the barge which meant most of the lower effects weren't visible. The good spots of the bridge (near the centre) were full by the time I got there, and lined up with heavy tripods and fancy DSLRs :).

DiVA AURA recording 2010-07-26

The linguistics part of our project involves the study of how performers learn to speak using DiVA and as such, recordings are made at the linguistics lab at certain points during the learning/practicing process. During these recordings, the performer is verbally given a target phrase. They then have to say the phrase, and then attempt to "say" it again using the DiVA.

The recorded data includes:

- The performer's own voice repeating the target phrase

- Voice from the DiVA

- Head position (using an OptiTrack)

- Video frame of the performer's upper body

The data is then analysed by the linguistics folk. (Details mostly beyond my realm of knowledge ;)

Here we see one of our musicians, Erica, in front of the green screen in the ISRL lab calibrating the video frame.

Thanks Cam for bringing the DSLR :)

Stanley Park Open 2010-07-24

Had a bit of time before the musical to see the Chu brothers play in the semi-finals of the Stanley Park Open. An intense match that got more intense after I had to go :(

The day we (didn't) go sailing 2010-07-21

On the first HSBC Celebration of Light evenings, we planned to go sailing. There was no wind, so we hung out on the roof patio instead.