Fobbert's thoughts

Time is ticking....

2007-04-11T04:59:00.001-07:00

And the 3 month count-down begins...

Things are going to get crazy!

Sydney: The centre of Australia's world?

2007-02-07T08:20:00.000-08:00

Before I arrived, I had heard lots about this wonderful city. Depending on who you talk to, it is either a great multi-cultural city that is world-class, or it's just another urban jungle with all the problems of the big city. After spending a few days, I can say that it's a bit of both.

Sydney's population is officially listed as 4.2 million but driving around, it seems to be more than that as the city just sprawls out over about 50-75km west of the downtown core. I stayed right in what is called the CBD (Central Business District), a fancy word for downtown.

The first thing I noticed about this city was that the streets are not straight. It is one of the most confusing places to drive in if you're a visitor. This strongly contrasts to the relatively easy navigation around Melbourne.

Sydney is located in a protected harbour and there are ferries that run to all the subarbs from the CBD. These ferries go right by the famous Sydney Opera House. This structure is truly worthy of all the attention it gets and it's just a spectacular piece of architecture to look at. It is the most photographed icon in Sydney. The second-most famous architecture is the "Coat Hanger", aka the Sydney Harbour Bridge. To be honest, it's quite ugly, but it's a symbol for Sydney. I found it real tough to creatively photograph these places as they have been shot in just about every angle you could think of.

Walking around Sydney, it was quite obvious that I was no longer in a small town and people are definitely in more of a hurry and are also quite dressed up for the business world. Amongst the rest of Australia, Sydney has the reputation of being the large, dark, big city that the country needs but that everyone doesn't like. Exactly like Toronto!

Within short ferry rides are several spectacular world-class beaches like Bondi and Manly. I visited Manly and it really was amazing. Only 1-2 hours west of the city are the Blue Mountains. They're called this because from a distance, they appear with a blue haze due to the eucalyptus oil vapours given off from all the gum trees. The park is spectacular with the main attraction being the "Three Sisters" rock formation. I went to the interior of the park to do canyoning. Canyoning is rappelling down into limestone canyons, often through waterfalls. Don't feel bad about not knowing what that is, I didn't know either but it was a lot of fun!

Sydney, like Melbourne is in draught and in real danger of running out of fresh water. The reservoir capacity is expected to drop to 30% and may dry out soon. Scary! The draught might be due to the 300+ days of sunshine that Sydney gets. I guess no place is perfect.

Sydney was ranked the 6th most expensive city to live in; ahead of London and New York City. It is extremely expensive to buy a home in Sydney, I thought Toronto was bad....Traffic congestion is also a concern in Sydney, though not as bad as Toronto.

Overall, my impression of Sydney was that it's a nice place to visit with lots of things to do and places to see. If you like the big city and night life, yet still love the outdoors, Sydney is the place for you. Personally, I would find it much easier and less stressful to live in Melbourne!

Highlights from Sydney:

- Seeing the Sydney Opera House
- Photographing the less-photographed but spectacular Anzac Bridge
- Seeing a chinese commercial/music video being filmed
- Going canyoning and stubbing my toe (losing the toenail)
- Seeing a brown snake while hiking, the most venomous snake in the world
- Seeing the Sydney Aquarium
- Being told to take a day off to go sightsee by managers in Sydney
- Taking a ferry to Manly to see the great beaches
- Eating Kangaroo!
- Shopping at an outdoor market (The Rocks market)
- Witnessing Australia day in the heart of Sydney Harbour
- Watching Australian Open Tennis on an outdoor big screen in front of the Opera House

New Zealand: Inspiration for Lord of the Rings

2007-01-26T22:41:00.000-08:00

I'll save you the time of reading this whole post. New Zealand is one of the most spectacular countries you can ever see and should be high on everyone's list of countries to visit. Period. That's it, if you want more details read on.

New Zealand is just incredible. It has rolling lush green valleys that sheep, horses and cattle graze on and these fields lead up to tall green forested hills in the north and dark, barren towering mountains south. The ocean is always nearby and where it meets land, the views are just incredible. You name the scenery you want to see, New Zealand has it. There's a reason why Peter Jackson chose to film Lord of the Rings here...

The total population of New Zealand is only 4 million. That's right, less than the population of the Greater Toronto Area. It's no wonder the country has a peaceful, laid back feel to it that's immediately noticeable from the moment you step off the plane.

The country is divided into a North and South Island. The North Island contains the biggest city, Auckland, as well as the capital, Wellington. The South Island is less populated and has all the beautiful mountains and Fjords that we've all seen in movies. Unfortunately, I was only able to see the North Island with only a brief one-day trip to the South.

Auckland has a population of 1 million and is considered the business center for Auckland. It's a nice city with several volcanic hills spread out over the city. There are also several explorable islands that are only a ferry ride away.

Wellington is the capital, and as such, has many of the government buildings. It's also considered the cultural center and has the spectacular Te Papa Museum. The harbourfront is just amazing and you could walk around the boardwalk for hours without reaching the end. Only 15 minutes out of the downtown core the city disappears and you'd think you were in unexplored terrain.

I spent 1 week in Auckland, 1 week in Wellington and 1 day on the South Island. Here are some highlights from my trip:

Highlights of New Zealand:

- Hanging out with my cousin Dan in Auckland
- Eating the best, biggest, most filling mussels I've ever had in Auckland
- Renting scooters on nearby Waiheke Island and falling off (got a few scrapes and bruises)
- Renting a Mazda Miata Convertible on Waiheke Island
- Watching a Budweiser Commercial being filmed in Wellington
- Seeing Comet McNaught light up the sky on the South Island
- Renting a sea kayak and going to a remote seal colony
- Having coffee at the Chocolate Fish Cafe, where the cast of Lord of the Rings regularly hung out
- Sleeping in a youth hostel for the first time
- Driving the Queen Charlotte Drive, the most spectacular road I've ever driven on, even more so than The Great Ocean Road in Melbourne

Next time I come back, and yes, I will one day come back, I will spend more time in the South Island...

Melbourne: The Green City

2007-01-20T23:45:00.000-08:00

4 weeks into my 6 week trip and I haven't given a real update on my thoughts other than some small blurbs on my photo blog which can be found here

Melbourne:

I started the trip with 2 weeks in Melbourne for holiday. Melbourne is one of the best cities that I have ever spent time in. I knew it was a great city to live in before and this trip just reconfirmed that it's so easy to fall in love with Melbourne. It's green, it has the ocean, it's multi-cultural, it's temperate, traffic isn't bad, people are friendly and there are tons of things to see and do. Also, the transit system is lightyears ahead of Toronto, even though Melbourne's population is only 3.7M, about half that of Toronto!

That pretty much explains the city itself. As for my time there, it was great. Firstly, it was real nice to spend time with my mom. It had been 4 years since I last saw her so it was a good reunion and we had a chance to spend ample time with each other. She worked most days for several hours and I would drop her off and afterwards, I was free to roam the city and explore.

All in all, it was a wonderful 2 weeks and I was sad to leave but also curious to see how the other cities I was going to visit would stack up in comparison to Melbourne....Stay tuned and I'll tell you about my next part of the trip: Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand.

Highlights of Melbourne:

- Seeing my mom
- Seeing cousins/relatives and their cute kids!
- Great Ocean Drive trip (12 Apostles!)
- Day trip to Phillip Island (Koalas!)
- Petting and feeding Kangaroos in Ballarat
- Making $500 at the Crown Casino!
- Walking around southbank, the main harbourfront of Melbourne
- Learning to drive on the left
- Photographing the city!
- Eating the biggest shrimps I have ever seen
- Eating some of the best chinese food I've ever had
- Doing a hook-turn (like making a left-turn in Canada from the right-most lane)

2006-12-15T20:45:00.000-08:00

www.tsaiphotography.com

My new website is live. Right now it's just a simple photoblogger but I'm working on making a full-featured website. Until then, I'll try to update pics every day. I'll likely update pics everyday when I'm in Australia so check the site often!

Update: I was having some problems with the site, but I think I got the basic functions working properly now. Some of you have asked about shooting data for my pictures. Just click on comments and the data is there. It's not in a pretty format (yet) but it's there!

2006-12-01T00:21:00.000-08:00

I've been so blessed with my job over the past 2 years and the icing on the cake is that I will be going to Australia and New Zealand this coming Christmas. It begins with a 2-week holiday to spend time with my mom in Melbourne, Australia, and then I'll be travelling to New Zealand and Sydney, Australia, for 4 weeks of work. I hope to come back talking like an aussie, but we'll see!

I'm really looking forward to spending time with my mom. Just too bad that the real reason for the trip (Christina coming to meet my mom) fell through as she couldn't find a flight back to Canada in time for the January school start.

Anyhow, I plan on taking LOTS of pictures down there. Part of my travels will take me into Wellington, New Zealand, where Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings production was based out of and where much of the footage was shot. I can't wait!

I might be forced to wear long sleeves though. Christina's orders are that I don't tan too much otherwise by the time the wedding rolls around, I'll be african-american.

Go Leafs Go!

2006-11-12T06:47:00.000-08:00

I love hockey and I love the Toronto Maple Leafs. I'm a realistic fan I know their chances of going deep into the playoffs, or even making the playoffs are slim but I will still cheer them on this year and I like what I see in the team this year.

Teams I like:
San Jose Sharks
Calgary Flames

Teams I hate:
Philadelphia Flyers
Buffalo Sabres (I respect them as one of the best teams in the NHL)
Ottawa Senators (mostly feel sorry for them)

2006-11-10T21:02:00.000-08:00

Taken during a fall hike through the Bruce Trail in Milton some time in October. I'm planning on blowing this picture up to about 24" x 36" and framing it.

And the winner is:

2006-11-10T02:10:00.000-08:00

Ok, since no one else has decided to make a guess about the concrete structure in the shots below, I should just tell you.

Sam is technically correct. It's a drain-hole from a man-made lake at the top of a mountain near Atlanta, GA. Water drains into the hole, comes down 600 ft. and drives a hydroelectric generator turbine and exits into a bottom lake. This drain is roughly 30 ft. in diameter and 600 ft. straight down. It was blasted out of solid limetone/sandstone.

The question is, how do they get the water back up to the top!? Well, during the day, power is expensive, so they run the generator and water comes down. At night, power is cheap and in excess from nearby nuclear stations so they take that power and drive the turbine generators in reverse as motors and push water back up to the top lake. By the next morning it's ready to go again. As they run these 343,000 hp motor/generators in reverse, the 16 storey, mostly underground concrete bunker structure shakes from all the energy dissapated from the turbines.

The drain is capped like many are in bathtubs to avoid creating cyclones in the water as water goes into the drain.

Cyclones = excess air in water = destroy turbines

Although Sam was right, Cal, wins the prize as I'm sure that:

1. Cal can eat that much food

2. Cal can clean his plate like that

2006-10-31T19:07:00.000-08:00

Anyone who can guess what this is will get a special prize. Anyone who I've told already is disqualified and if I did tell you already, don't say a word!!

P.S. That isn't me standing in front, that's my friend Mike

P.P.S. If your guess is creative enough, I might just give you the special prize, even if you're wrong!

2006-10-31T19:05:00.000-08:00

What is this??

2006-10-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

Downtown Toronto

2006-10-03T18:53:00.000-07:00

Another shot from the photo shoot!

2006-09-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

2006-09-28T19:24:00.001-07:00

2006-09-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

2006-09-28T19:21:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Sasi and Arthur for the shots above and big thanks to the rest of the Nikon gang for taking engagement pics of Chris and I. We had a great time at Centre Island last Sunday and the above shots are just a small sample of the great pics we got!

2006-09-15T05:29:00.000-07:00

Karyn and Joe's wedding last weekend.

2006-09-15T05:28:00.000-07:00

Cynthia and Paul's wedding earlier this summer. I think there's a bit of a trend here..

2006-07-30T07:04:00.000-07:00

Taken in New York last Christmas/New Years with Christina, Jasper and Darana. Click on the picture for a bigger version. (It looks better bigger...)

Cuba!!!!

2006-06-29T04:47:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving for Cuba in 2 days....

I've been kind of lazy and slow in editing all the pictures I've taken at various events this summer:

Brian's Wedding
Paul and Cyn's Jack and Jill
Jesse's Engagement Party
Paul and Cyn's Wedding

I'm just about done with Brian's Wedding. Hopefully I'll finish the rest in the next month...I know I'm slow...

I want to post the pics somewhere but I haven't come across any photo websites I really like yet....any ideas!?

24 Hour Worship

2006-06-12T11:52:00.000-07:00

This coming Saturday is another 24 hour worship.

These worship times have been going steadily once a month for the past several months and involve many, if not all of the churches that initially started Toronto's Global Day of Prayer event.

Last month the 24 hour worship was at Karyn's church, Castlefield Community Church. This month it will be at my church, Toronto Lifespring Christian Fellowship.

If you or your church are wanting your church to become more involved with what is happening around Toronto, this is a great way to get connected. Come out, worship and if you like, even volunteer to lead an hour or two of worship next month! My church building is labelled as Willowdale Pentecostal Church and it's located on Cummer Avenue between Yonge St. and Bayview.

The worship team from my church will be closing off the worship event this saturday from 7-9pm. If you want to come, you are all more than welcome! Come out, worship God and find out what He is doing in our city!

Where are the chinese!???

2006-06-06T14:15:00.000-07:00

I've had some time to think about this past weekend and the Global Day of Prayer. God really mobilized His people to pray for our city and our country this past sunday.

I was overjoyed and at the same time, heart-broken. Let me explain. I was so happy that so many people came and so many people prayed. At the same time, I realized there was something missing. Almost every nationality was represented except for one, chinese people.

WHERE WERE ALL THE CHINESE CHURCHES? The planning committee phoned TWO HUNDRED chinese churches trying to get them to come out and what happened!? Hardly any came. How could they pass up on joining the rest of world in prayer? I was so disappointed to hear the responses they gave when asked if they want to participate:

"We're doing our own thing"

"The airport church is involved? I don't think we should join"

"We'll hand out the flyers but we won't really push for it"

What lame excuses.

"For I know their works and their thoughts; the time is coming to gather all nations and tongues. And they shall come and see My glory."

Isaiah 66:18

The chinese churches need to wake up and smell the coffee. I can't wait until God comes and rocks the boat in these churches, they need it. I say that lovingly, believe it or not!

Post GDOP thought...

2006-06-05T18:18:00.000-07:00

Many of you reading this do not believe in God and do not believe in Jesus.

One of the reasons I believe in Jesus is because I see a world, city and society that is dying. Society is becoming more advanced and yet the quality of life is rapidly deteriorating. Families are distant, crime may be on a slight decline, but is becoming more violent and involving younger and younger people. I could go on and on. I've seen it, experienced and lived it. This world needs answers and no one can give them.

I challenge you to pick up a Bible and see for yourself what Jesus says. The Gospel of Jesus Christ just might change your life.

Reminder! GDOP!

2006-05-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder, the Global Day of Prayer is next Sunday, June 4th, 2006.

Doors open at the Air Canada Centre at 2pm.

If you are coming, leave a comment!!

Check out www.gdoptoronto.com and watch the videos, they're CRAZY!!!

2006-05-12T04:56:00.000-07:00

Shot at the Guild Inn in Scarborough on one of my monthly photo trips. The inn is completely abandoned. We got inside and it's still fully furnished and it looks like it could still be occupied but it's completely empty. Kind of spooky!

Shot with Nikon D70 and 12-24DX at 12mm, f13 @ 1/750s, levels and color adjustment in Nikon Capture/Photoshop

Global Day of Prayer Update!!

2006-04-19T04:28:00.000-07:00

What? Global Day of Prayer

When? June 4, 2006

Where? AIR CANADA CENTRE!!!!!!!!!

How many? 500,000,000 worldwide!!!!!! (That's 1/2 BILLION people!!!)

Why? To pray for God to heal our City, our Country, our Nations....

What can you do? $150,000 is needed to make this event happen. $100,000 has already been raised and they need $100,000 more. If you want to help out financially let me know. Also, there are weekly prayer meetings every wednesday to start praying for this event!! If you're interested, let me know!

Resources:

www.gdoptoronto.com

www.praygta.com

www.missiongta.com

EXCITED!!!!!

I Believe It

2006-04-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

Is it true today that when people pray
Cloudless skies will break
Kings and queens will shake

Is it true today that when people pray
We'll see dead men rise
And the blind set free

It's true today that when people stand
With the fire of God, and the truth in hand
We'll see miracles, we'll see angels sing
We'll see broken hearts making history

- Excerpts from "History Maker" by Delirious

With these lyrics in mind, a group of Toronto pastors embark to have 60,000 people from across Toronto come together to pray for this city on the Global Day of Prayer, June 4th, 2006. Last year, Toronto had 150 people. God's going to change that.

What's happening today in Toronto is bigger than just me.
It's bigger than any one church.
It's bigger than any one neighbourhood.
This is Toronto wide and even bigger.
God is moving across this nation, our nation.

If you haven't heard about it yet you will.

I've been dormant since I've come back to Toronto but lately, I've been stirred and excited again about Toronto. God's people have seen enough hurt in our city and in our country. It's time to get on our knees and start praying.

To those of you in school and ACF, with the school year coming to a close, don't waste the summer middling in trivial things. Open your eyes to what God is doing, you have the opportunity to be part of something bigger than ACF and bigger than Western this coming summer, don't let that go to waste!!!

Check out www.gdoptoronto.com

Here's how the Global day of Prayer started....

Arising from AfricaIn 2001, one stadium in Cape Town, South Africa was filled with 45,000 people to pray. In 2002, it expanded to eight stadiums and 350,000. A year later 2.5 million gathered in 130 stadiums. On May 2, 2004, the movement exploded to nearly ten times the size. More than 22 million rallied in prayer at more than 2,000 sites throughout every single country on the continent of Africa (56 nations). Leaders from most major traditions of Christian faith called their people to join in this historic act of united prayer.

On May 15, 2005 more than 200 million Christians in 156 nations united in a day of repentance and prayer for the world. Christians came together in large stadiums, open fields, market squares, churches and other public venues to pray. It was broadcast by hundreds of radio and TV stations around the world. Many prayer networks, Christian organizations and prayer leaders support this initiative.

Christians all over the world are invited to take hands in a Global Day of Prayer. This initiative will continue for the next five years, until 2010. Every year on Pentecost Sunday there will be a Global Day of Prayer.

The two key verses that are guiding our planning around the Global Day of Prayer, are 2 Chron.7:14:

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land"

and Hab.2:14:

"For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."

More news to come about Toronto's Day of Prayer ....Big news.

Colours, colours and more colours!!

2006-03-06T05:36:00.000-08:00

I finally got a grasp of how to manage colours in photoshop. For those of you who are new to it, basically it's all about making sure colours appear as they should on my computer screen so that after I do my editing on a picture, colours show up properly on my final print from my printer and, when I post the picture on the web, shows up properly on your computer monitor. Ever wonder why after you post pictures on the web they look washed out and just plain bland? Read on...

In photoshop, keep your working colour space as Adobe (1998)!! That's it! Easy!

If you're going to post the image to to the web, once you're done editing, the final step should be convert to sRGB. Most web browsers are unaware of colour space so any picture left in Adobe (1998) shows up washed out. Adobe (1998) has a wider colour gamut then sRGB so you still want to make sure your original pics are in Adobe (1998) to retain all that colour depth. Of course for the colours to show up properly during processing in photoshop you'll need to have your monitor calibrated properly. (I got a used calibration system for $100 to do this).

If you're going to print your picture, leave it as Adobe (1998), get a colour profile for your printer/paper combo and use that. Adobe (1998) has a colour gamut wide enough for most printers so leave it there.

Simple stuff.....amazing what you can learn from the internet. See below for example pictures of what I'm talking about. Both pictures are the same photo with the same colours. One was left as Adobe 1998 and the other I converted to sRGB before saving. Open them in new windows side by side and the differences will really stand out.

On another note, I've made it my goal to make my own personal website by the end of the summer.

If all goes as planned, I'll do it all myself from scratch and it'll include a flash intro and definitely an image gallery.

I'm currently learning:

Dreamweaver
Fireworks
Flash
Photoshop (I know it, but always learning!)

I'm enjoying learning this stuff! Taking the picture is only half the battle, knowing what to do with it after is a whole different story.

2006-03-06T05:33:00.000-08:00

sRGB JPG

2006-03-06T05:32:00.000-08:00

Adobe (1998) JPG

Headaches already!!

2006-02-01T05:47:00.000-08:00

Getting engaged is fun. Planning a wedding is not fun.

Rob & Christina's Engagement Story

2006-01-08T15:35:00.000-08:00

As many of you have heard, Christina and I have finally gotten engaged. Due to sheer number of people asking us how it happened, whether I screwed up (hehe) and whether or not the performance was worthy of her saying yes, we've both decided to sum up our experience in this short story.

You may or may not know that I'm not the most careful schemer when it comes to planning surprises for Christina. She has ruined many of my previous attempts to surprise her. That made planning this engagement that much more difficult. The idea I finally settled on was to go with her to New York City and propose to her while skating at the Rockefeller Center in front of the giant Christmas tree. I didn't really have a date or a plan set for this, I just knew "skating" and "Rockefeller Center". Great idea right? Read on!

The trip to New York went as planned and we even got Jasper and Darana join us! On Friday, December 30th, our third day in New York, we decided to that we'd definitely skate somewhere in manhattan and maybe at the Rockefeller Center. Even though I was planning on asking her at the rockefeller center, I would have been happy with proposing at central park or any other skating rink in Manhattan. The day started badly with miserablely cold weather. Througout the day, We made our way to several ice rinks, and EVERY single one was completely PACKED with people. The Rockefeller Center was the worst, with people lining up for hours to skate. Needless to say, we didn't get to skate anywhere. Christina was soooooo disappointed because she suspected I would propose when we went skating. She doesn't like crowds so she was in a pretty bad mood once we decided to leave. I don't like crowds either so I was also annoyed. To top it off, my mind was in a frenzied panicbecause I had absolutely no backup plan!! I really had no idea what to do. Walking away from the ice rink, I prayed to God that somehow, the opportunity would arise where I could propose.

Riding on the bus back to our hotel in New Jersey, I noticed that the waterfront in New Jersey overlooks the Manhattan skyline. A light went "click" in my head and I knew that was where I wanted to take her. As soon as I got back to the hotel, I looked up the directions to the waterfront with Jasper. I then told Chris to bundle up because we were going out. She reluctantly agreed to go.

The waterfront was everything I could ever have imagined. After parking, Chris and I split from Jasper and Darana and immediately we walked through a path littered with beautiful street lamps and even walked under a small wooden arch that looked like it belonged in a wedding ceremony. It was quite romantic. We continued walking and we eventually came to an abandoned pier. I made Chris climb a fence to get there (she HATED that part). Once over, we had the quiet dark pier to ourselves. Chris was so afraid we'd be busted for trespassing by cops. She kept looking over my shoulder, expecting a big cop to show up and arrest us..haha. I brought along my MP3 player with headphones and played our song "Amazed" by Lonestar as we danced. After the song I professed my love to her (very cheesy). At first she laughed at me, then she cried. I guess Chris likes my cheesy lines! After the chesse, I was about to propose....standing up. Luckily, before I could ask, Chris said "wait!" and gently pushed me down on one knee and then I popped the question. Even though she doesn't remember it, she did say "Yes Rob, you're the man of my dreams"...haha...ok, she just said "yes". After slipping the ring on her finger I asked her if she liked it and she said she couldn't see it because it was too dark.

After proposing, we joined Jasper and Darana in a seafood restaurant called "Arthur's Landing" that we passed by walking to the dock and we all had possibly the best dinner of our entire trip. The restaurant also overlooked the manhattan skyline, providing a breathtaking view that we will all remember.

This entire proposal was not planned. I just happened to see the waterfront. We just happened to find the romantic path. We just happened to find the abandoned dock. We just happened to find the amazing restaurant. The plans I had to to propose to Christina fell apart but in return God blessed us with the perfect place and perfect circumstances for our engagement. It's almost as if God said "No, my way is much better" and from the happy look in Christina's face whenever you talk to her about our engagement, God was right.

God Bless you All!

Rob and Christina

I asked.....

2006-01-02T20:25:00.000-08:00

and she said yes!

More details to follow (I'm still in New York/Boston until Jan 20th)

2005-12-08T13:56:00.001-08:00

From Black Creek Pioneer Village.

2005-12-08T13:56:00.000-08:00

Shot at the carpenter shop in Black Creek Pioneer Village

2005-12-08T13:55:00.000-08:00

Shot at the carpenter shop in Black Creek Pioneer Village

2005-12-06T07:53:00.000-08:00

Shot at black creek pioneer village

I hate being sick AGAIN.

2005-10-12T18:53:00.000-07:00

2005-09-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

For Sale: NIkon 24-120mm f3.5-5.6 AF-S VR Lens
Price: $480
Condition: Excellent! Slight wear on the lens cap

I hate being sick.

2005-09-20T15:15:00.000-07:00

Stuck in Las Vegas.

2005-08-20T10:21:00.000-07:00

I knew I wouldn't make it. I had only 30 minutes to connect from my flight out of Atlanta to my flight to Vancouver in Vegas. Aircraft problems and paperwork delayed the flight out of atlanta by an hour and lo and behold, I'm now stuck in Vegas for a day. I guess there are worst places...

I'm going out to the casinos in a few minutes...

Here's how I spent my birthday yesterday, starting at midnight to today, all time is in ET:

12:00 - 1:30am At the hotel bar, celebrating the last day of training with 30 others...
1:30-2:30am Packing
3:00am - 7:15am sleeeeeep
7:15am - 8am road travel to our training facility
8am - 12pm final exam (ugh)
12pm - 1pm lunch
1pm - 3pm final conference
3pm - 6pm road travel to airport with a stop at wendy's for a crappola dinner
6pm - 10pm check in and wait at the gate
10pm - 11pm flight delayed
11pm - 2am travel to vegas
2am - 5am missed the connecting flight, booked hotel for night and rebooked flight
6am - 11am sleep.....
11am - 12pm breakfast in the hotel
12pm - 1:30pm relax, internet
1:30pm - going to casino....

2005-08-16T18:25:00.000-07:00

Me looking geeky in a fire suit

From Toronto to Boston to Atlanta to Rome

2005-08-16T15:35:00.000-07:00

At the end of it all, I can't believe i got paid to have fun that day....I also have the utmost respect for firefighters. Putting on all that equipment in 40 degree heat, then running towards a fire when everyone is running away demands appreciation from all of us. So to all you firefighters out there, thank you, you guys are crazy.

I can't wait to go to Vancouver this friday to see Chris and go camping. I love holiday...

2005-08-16T15:32:00.000-07:00

Side view of our team at work!

2005-08-16T15:31:00.000-07:00

Shot of us putting out the fire...

2005-08-16T15:30:00.000-07:00

Close-up shot. The only thing stopping a fireball from killing us is the thin sheet of water mist we're spraying...

From Boston to Atlanta to Rome

2005-08-16T15:14:00.000-07:00

It's been forever since I've blogged. I'm in Rome, Georgia right now and there's absolutely nothing here. We're staying about 30 minutes away from the firefighting training facility and it's that far only because there's nothing closer. I swear, I'd go crazy if I had to live here...

I was in Boston last week and this week, I'm in Rome, Georgia for practical training. On monday, I did firefighter training!! Crazy isn't it!??? Pictures of me and others fighting a propane tree fire are below. After fighting the propane fire, they put us into a closed room with one sprinkler head and started a fire. Man, when that sprinkler head went off, it pushed 400 degree heat down towards the floor where we were and you could just feel the heat through the firefighter gear. Visibility was 0, I couldn't even see my hand right in front of my mask. Crazy!!
At the end of it all, I can't believe i got paid to have fun that day....I also have the utmost respect for firefighters. Putting on all that equipment in 40 degree heat, then running towards a fire when everyone is running away demands appreciation from all of us.

I can't wait until friday to see Chris and to start a week's holiday camping out in Vancouver....

2005-06-16T09:05:00.000-07:00

So I'll be in Vancouver again in August. Our camping trip in BC has been planned! We're going to hike the Juan de Fuca trail. It's a 48km four day hike along the west coast beach of Vancouver Island. It should be beautiful and I already can't wait!

I'll also be spending a few days in Vancouver! The best part about all this is that I'll be going straight to Vancouver from my business trip to Boston and Atlanta. That means I'll be away from home from August 8th until the end of the month! Woohoo! Another holiday to look forward to. Samurai Sushi here I come.....

Coming on the trip: Joe, Karyn, Rob, Christina, Cheryl, maybe Matthea???

D70 vs. F80 (indirectly film vs digital comparison)

2005-06-04T21:55:00.000-07:00

A few people have told me they're surprised I bought a digital camera and they wonder how good my D70 is and if it's worth it. This blog entry will be a comparison of my D70 Digital SLR and my F80 film camera. Many of you won't care, so don't bother reading, but if you're interested, here's a short comparison:

Benefits of F80
- In general, better quality pictures are possible with proper technique, film, etc.
- more reliable
- amazing bright and large view when looking in viewfinder
- able to use AA batteries with add-on vertical grip
- so easy to use, almost intuitive controls
- will never go out of date
- no menus to fiddle around with. Changing settings is quick, direct and easy.
- I love the sound of the shutter when you push the trigger. It sounds solid and professional

Drawbacks of the F80
- film is expensive in the long run compared to digital
- cannot meter with manual lenses
- not the colour 3D matrix meter that D70 uses, only 10 segment matrix meter (not a big deal)
- need filters to change look of pictures
- Flash sync is a slow 1/125 sec. Big drawback compared to the D70

Benefits of D70
- immediate viewing of pictures allows for correcting framing, exposure, etc.
- Uses Nikon's Colour Matrix meter. This is the most advanced metering system in the world, my camera can actually distinguish colours! It measures reds, yellows, green and blues to make them appear as they should
- 1.5X crop factor makes telephoto lenses longer (eg a 200mm lens becomes a 300mm lens for free!)
- ability to change appearance of pictures to simulate all sorts of filters, film types, etc.
- Best flash system in the world. Wireless flash capability when used with Nikon's newest flashes - Can sync to 1/500 of a second with Flash. This is a huge advantage over the F80 and over almost every other digital SLR out there, even the $5000 Nikon D2x
- I can hold 1,200 shots at basic quality or 179 shots in RAW mode on my 1Gb card. That's like 50 rolls of film!!
- unbelievable battery life. I think I can shoot like 2000 shots or some crazy number like that before the battery drains. Lithium Ion rules!
- most important settings are changeable without having to go into menus. (eg. iso, white balance, quality)

Drawbacks of the D70
- doesn't feel as good in my hands as my F80
- learning curve. White balance, colour mode, iso, quality, shutter, aperture...settings go on and on. If you don't understand photography, it'll take you a long time to learn to use the D70 to it's fullest potential
- 1.5X crop factor makes expensive wideangles, not wide (eg. breathtaking 18mm becomes boring 27mm)
- cannot meter with manual lenses
- will be out of date in a year
- post processing necessary to get best quality pics
- no vertical grip available from Nikon (3rd party is available but not an ideal solution)
- some settings are buried in menus. (eg. switch from continues autofocus to single is an option found only in the menus. Can't change it directly.)
- seems to be more susceptible to electronic problems sometimes (not mine, but i've read of some people having problems requiring repair)
- The shutter doesn't sound as refined as the F80

Conclusion
In the end, both cameras are great and they are intended for different uses. If you want to learn the intricacies of photography, go with the F80. it will force you to pay attention to composition and lighting. Digital makes us lazy because if a shot isn't what we want, just press delete and reshoot. If you want to shoot lots and lots of pictures but aren't happy with your dinky point and shoot digital, the D70 is great. I'll explain in a later post why it's so much better than point and shoot digitals.

In my opinion, the D70 is still the best low-end digital SLR on the market. The only other camera that is close is Canon's 20D which might even be better. However, the canon is also significantly more expensive than the D70.

For me, I use both the F80 and D70. For an important stationary scene, the D70 takes the initial shot, allowing me to see how it would look on film and then the F80 takes the money shot.
I like variety and tend to use both cameras a lot.

Women...

2005-05-28T11:54:00.000-07:00

Christina's family bought a kitchen-aid yesterday and now they're baking up a storm in the kitchen as I'm typing this. Seriously, the whole house smells like sweet bread and cakes. If I liked sweets it would be heaven!

It's funny how Chris and her mom were so excited to get the montrous mixer. Seeing Chris' eyes light up as she assembled it made me realize how different us guys are. I got excited the same way the first time I picked up my Nikon D70! Women...I guess we are just wired differently, because i could never imagine getting excited about something that allows you to watch as it beats eggs at lightspeed.

Whoever invented the kitchen-aid is a genious. Not because it's a cool machine, but because he could fetch hundreds of dollars for it. Think about it, attach a motor to piece of clean bent steel and voila, you have a kitchen aid. I swear the first one was probably made from junkyard motors and metal....

Genious...Mr. Kitchen-aid is just rolling in his millions of dollars.

2005-05-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

I just posted a whole bunch of pictures from my holiday in Vancouver. All these shots were taken with my Nikon D70. Enjoy!

2005-05-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Adrian and congratulations on the mini-adrian that's coming!

2005-05-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

I couldnt resist taking a pic of this girl. The red hat, pink balloon and shoes and the pigeons...ahh, what a perfect model to shoot.

2005-05-17T20:33:00.001-07:00

Previous shot modified in Photoshop

2005-05-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

I think this is chinese but then again, what do I know....

2005-05-17T20:31:00.000-07:00

Mmm....Strawberries! Taken in Granville Island's Market

2005-05-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

Group shot at Widgeon Falls

2005-05-17T20:24:00.000-07:00

View from Granville Island. Matt, we're gonna be neighbours right? haha...one day maybe!

2005-05-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

Widgeon Falls

2005-05-17T20:19:00.000-07:00

Shot near Widgeon Falls

2005-05-17T20:18:00.000-07:00

Taken near Widgeon falls

I miss holiday...

2005-05-17T07:54:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I posted those NY pics. Thank you to some of you for your kind comments about the pics. I must say, for every one good pic, there are tens of bad ones. Hopefully as I shoot more, that ratio gets better...

Some of you know, those pics were taken with a Nikon D70 DSLR. Yes, that's right, a digital SLR! I got it when I was down in Boston for training. So far, I'm extremely happy with the camera. It's fast, easy to use, gives me complete control and takes great pics. If any of you are ever going to spend $500 on a camera, forget the point and shoots and move up to Digital SLRs. I promise your picture quality will go up tenfold and so will your creativity with it! Man, Nikon should hire me to do their PR or marketing.

I'm revamping my photo equipment and i'm getting rid of one of my film bodies and a couple lenses to make room for the D70. If any of you are interested, I'm selling a Nikon F70 body, a manual-focus 135mm lens, a AF-d 28-105mm lens /w macro, a 18-70mm DX lens (came with the d70 but don't need it) and some filters. There's probably some other stuff too in my kit that i'm getting rid of...i'll put those up here later.

Anyhow, can you tell that I've been involved with photography lately? I can't seem to get enough, I love taking pics, reading about cameras and places to shoot!

Moving on, Vancouver was a great trip. I couldn't believe my eyes when I got off the plane. There are MOUNTAINS around the city. MOUNTAINS! We went kayaking/hiking only 30 min from Vancouver and I swear, it was just as nice, if not nicer than Lake Superior here in Ontario which is like 8 hours away!

I think I'd move to Vancouver if Chris wants to. My only concern is my job. We have an office out there but the nature of the work in BC is travel. I'd be flying out of town for 3-4 days a week. It's fine now but if I want to have any sort of family, it doesn't sound so appealing. Neither does hearing that living costs in vancouver are 10-15% higher than Toronto. Can you believe they charge for new houses PER FLOOR? I heard in some areas it's like $200,000/floor. Ridiculous. No mountain scenery is worth that money! I guess it's boring T.O. for the next while.

I'll be working from home all week. Actually I'm working from home right now as I'm typing this, hehe. There are some perks to this job. I better get back to report writing though.

I want to create a picture gallery instead of posting each pic individually here so if any of you can help me with making one, i'd really really appreciate it!

2005-04-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

Busy New York

2005-04-20T09:58:00.000-07:00

darn pigeons!

2005-04-20T09:57:00.002-07:00

Famous yellow cabs

2005-04-20T09:57:00.001-07:00

apartment near central park, look at the detail in the building, so crazy!

2005-04-20T09:57:00.000-07:00

from a NY street vendor

2005-04-20T09:15:00.001-07:00

A listing of the victims from 9/11. Taken at ground zero

2005-04-20T09:15:00.000-07:00

The World Trade Center, Ground Zero Memorial

2005-04-20T09:14:00.001-07:00

times square pic

2005-04-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

times square!

2005-04-20T08:58:00.000-07:00

American flag on Wall Street

bawston, massachussets

2005-04-05T03:29:00.000-07:00

Americans eat way too much. I can't believe how much food there is down here! I know I was warned but still, it's almost to the point of ridiculous. I've been here for less than 48 hours and already I've had all-you-can-eat fresh boiled lobsters, an amazing seafood casserole stuffed with countless scallops and jumbo shrimp, seafood ravioli, beer (open bar yesterday!) and an endless supply of all the snacks you could ever want all day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all buffets. They said i'd gain 10 lbs in 3 weeks, I bet I could do it sooner....

It's kind of neat to have so many different international ppl around. We have spanish, korean, portugese, italian, german, japanese, singaporean, malaysian, american, canadian, african, swedish, dutch, french, mexican and columbian representatives in our class. It's just neat to sit around dinner and learn about what it's like to live some place else.

Speaking of dinner, I think I might have had too much to drink before dinner last night. It was my class's first dinner all together and I decided to make a toast:

"Here's to another 3 weeks of hell!"

haha, it's going to be a fun 3 weeks!

Nervous

2005-04-01T11:39:00.001-08:00

Some sudden nervousness about sharing at ACF tonight...What should I share about? Will people even care or relate with what I'm wanting to share? Do I really believe what I'm going to share? Oh Lord, help me....

Finally, some time to update

2005-03-29T08:16:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to update the blog for the past week but it seems that everytime I start typing, something came up and I'd have to leave the computer. Well, now that I'm back at work, I finally have the time, haha. The irony.

Well, last time I wrote, I was looking forward to London and once again, I'm going back to London this weekend. Last time was to see people and to catch up with some old friends. This time, it's mainly for a grad and oldy night. I've been asked to share something on friday and reluctantly agreed. I have an idea about what I want to talk about, but I'm still not sure how to go about doing it....

Things are going great with me. I've been doing well here at work, God's blessed me so far in all the work I've done. This weekend, I'll be flying to Boston where I'll be training for 3 weeks. From there I'm going straight to Vancouver for a week of holiday so I'm going to be away for awhile. I'm really looking forward to it. I've never been on a business trip before and I hear it's fun, especially when you don't have family responsibilities yet.

I feel kind of bad about two other people that work with me. One of them met with my manager and kind of got crapped on for not doing so well on the tests we've been given. I did well because I had more time and no pressure to finish them but I know this person's had a lot of pressure and less time than I did. It's unfair, yet in a way, I also feel bad for doing well. I know I shouldn't, but I do feel that maybe it was partly because i did well that my manager crapped on the other people for not doing so well. Politics of work....it's all new to me.

I can't wait to use my camera gear in the next month. I plan on shooting A LOT of film....
Speaking of which, i think i need to stop at Henry's to buy a few things before my trip....

Another update

2005-03-08T06:27:00.000-08:00

So, over the past 3 weeks, I've rented seasons 1,2 and 3 of smallville and I'm pretty much up to date now with the show....sad eh?

I've had a change of heart. I know I ranted about CCSA softball awhile back on this blog but I've decided to play senior this year. I just want to be clear as to why I'm playing. I'm playing for the game of softball and to help my team do well. If my team decided to join a non-christian league, I would have joined too, CCSA just happens to be the league we're joining. At this point, I don't expect much from CCSA in terms of evangelism and spiritual growth. However, to be fair, I'm going to try to keep an open mind. If there's something I've learned, it's that God can do anything. So, from this point on, I'll keep my big mouth shut about CCSA and see what happens this summer.

Since I'll be playing again, it's time to fix my busted up shoulders. I played volleyball this past weekend and both my shoulder rotator cuffs were pretty sore after. Ever since I dislocated my throwing hand index finger in a a heroic but ill-fated attempt to catch a football, I've had injury after injury. I've had physio on my left shoulder rotator cuff which never fully healed properly and now my right shoulder is giving me the same problems. I've rested from softball for 2 years, so hopefully with some activity, I'll be able to throw like i used to again.

Work has been good. I'm pretty bored nowadays as my next visit is Friday in Windsor. I'm really looking forward to my training in Boston. I saw the list of people in my class and there are 28 people going down from all over the world. 4 from Brussels, 1 from Tokyo, 4 from Singapore, 4 from Frankfurt, 1 from France, 3 from the US, 5 from Canada and the rest I can't remember.

2 days until London!

Random thoughts

2005-03-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

Lately, I've been thinking about London and my friends there. I actually took the time to read through everyone's blog that I have. To you guys out there in London, keep updating them, I love reading about how you're doing and also about the things God is doing with you and with ACF...

I'll be going up to London next thursday to sunday, mainly because I have to be in windsor for work friday so I thought I'd stop by to see some old friends. So, you ACFers out there, if you're free next weekend, I want to see you guys!

Last sunday was the first time I've lead worship at my church in a long time. In fact, it's the first time i've lead worship period in a long time. I feel so...unworthy to do it...but times I feel like this, I know God loves to come in and use me because it's not about me anymore. God is so good and amazing to me and I don't deserve it...

The past while, I've been watching Smallville! Jesse, I know you'll laugh at me....but yeah, my sister got me hooked and so I went out and rented seasons 1, 2 and i'm waiting to rent season 3. I wish I could have super powers....

There's so much more to write but i'll save it for another day.

Mmmm....Congee Wong

2005-02-14T19:00:00.000-08:00

It was good to see some ACF people last night. It all worked out perfectly. I usually eat dinner at normal times but last night I was watching TV and was going to eat after. Jesse called right when I was gonna cook up some dumplings. Congee Wong! Great timing! Tossed the dumplings in the fridge and left.

Good food, good company and lots of laughs. It's been awhile since I've seen some of the guys and it was nice to see some old faces and new. I do have to admit that I felt a bit old but I guess that's normal once you're done school. Hey, at least I wasn't the oldest there (jesse..haha).

So, it looks like us grads are coming to ACF april 1st to share...I thought it was gonna be small thing in Pam and Roger's house or something but nope, it looks like I'll have to brush up on my public speaking skills again.
Thanks Caleb..haha....

I saw Anacondas: The hunt for the blood orchid. It was an alright movie. It's entertaining and fun to watch, that's all it takes to make it a good movie for me. Though whoever thought of making a movie about 60ft long and 3ft thick snakes must have been smoking crack.

2005-02-09T14:28:00.000-08:00

I got my new car on monday and I took a few pics of it today after work. The Chrysler 300 is a great car (never thought I'd say that about an american car) and i'm extremely happy with it so far. It's nothing like a typical american car, in fact, it's got a ton of mercedes E-class parts in it. Way to go Chrysler!

2005-02-09T14:27:00.000-08:00

Another Pic

Being home's a bummer sometimes...

2005-01-31T18:17:00.000-08:00

I've been home for 9 months now and though there are some good things to being home, I'm getting really tired of it...

You see, my stepmom is a real neat-freak, to the point of insanity. A good example happened just last night. Every sunday evening at around 11-12 at night, my stepmom will go around cleaning, vacuuming and tidying up the kitchen and ground floor rooms. She likes to do this with the kitchen TV on. My room is right above the kitchen so I hear EVERYTHING. When I used to sleep at 1am, I didn't mind but with the job now, I sleep around 11pm. The obvious solution is a) I move to the guest room to sleep that night b) she move her cleaning schedule to daylight hours

So last night I decided to sleep in the guest room across from my room. No big deal right? Wrong! Today I get in trouble because she doesn't want me sleeping in the guest room....sigh....says she doesn't wanna clean it. I offer to clean it up but it's a no go. Sooooo frustrating.....and if you're wondering, she wouldn't move her vacuum schedule either. Her solution? She wants me to pack all my stuff and completely switch bedrooms with the guest room...ridiculous! I feel like her argument today defied all logic and common sense. Why would I break my back for a full day to move my entire bedroom including all furniture to the guest room, and then move all the guestroom stuff to my room for the sake of 1 night a week of sleep. Does anyone else see logic in this?? Sigh....

So there you have it, my rave of the day, I feel like i'm an outsider in my own home sometimes...Anyone else ever have problems like this? It seems so dumb to me that this is a problem but I guess not everyone is easy to live with....I miss being on my own!!

Random update

2005-01-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been awhile since I've written anything here...

I have a laptop from work and they've locked me out of my laptop so I can't install anything, check my email, play games, etc etc....until now. I have an extra hard drive and just ordered a case for it to fit the laptop. Now I can swap work/play hard drives pretty easily. Yay! I know, I'm a geek. I'm installing windows now as i'm typing this.

My church friends can't decide where to go for holiday. Here was the progression of our decision:

1. Cancun - warm, presidential suite, all you can eat...$1200
2. Vancouver - cheap, good food, cheap....cheap
3. Nova Scotia - lobster....expensive trip
4. Chicago - expensive....probably get shot
5. New York - even more expensive, get shot and mugged
6. back to Cancun - poor students in school can't afford it...
7. back to Chicago - boring...expensive....
8. back to Vancouver - FINAL DECISION! yay!

So Vancouver it is...from April 23 to May 1st. This should be fun. Too bad we won't go camping though...ah well, maybe later in the summer I'll go back to Vancouver to go camping.

I've already planned out some holiday for this year...

April 23-May 1st - Vancouver
August 22 - Atlanta, GA
Aug 31-Sep 2 - Backcountry camping trip
Dec 28-30 - Christmas holiday

I still have 6 or 8 more days on top of that so probably another trip to Vancouver with Christina. This will be a fun year....

2005-01-13T16:48:00.000-08:00

A pic of Christina's work in the kitchen...

2005-01-11T13:56:00.000-08:00

another U of T pic

2005-01-10T17:32:00.000-08:00

A little girl and her grandpa from Christina's extended family...

2005-01-05T19:55:00.000-08:00

I'm currently learning photoshop and this is the previous pic with some work done on it. Notice the missing fence shadow that I took out...photoshop is awesome! Unfortunately, I have to crop it to make it fit 8x10 for printing and I don't like the crop but nothing I can do about that. I'm still not done editing this pic yet...I'll post the finished product soon...

2005-01-05T19:51:00.000-08:00

I went downtown on a photo trip and took this pic at U of T. Shot with a nikon F80 on TriX400 film, developed at home and scanned in with my film scanner. Unedited photo.

Softball

2005-01-05T13:01:00.000-08:00

A friend just asked me if I'd coach my church's senior softball team for CCSA.

For those of you who know how I feel about CCSA, you'll know that it's kind of a strange request. For so long I've always said that CCSA has tried to become two different entities. On one hand, they are a Christian organization and thus, embrace all the morals and standards of the Bible. On the other hand, they foster sometimes fierce competition that casts an ugly pale on the league. So, what's the solution?

I've said it many many many times. ELIMINATE PLAYOFFS. Why have a playoff if you are really there to have fun? It would fix most of CCSA's problems. It wouldn't fix my problem though. Should I join or shouldn't I? On one hand, I love softball and have been retired from it for several years now. On the other hand, I really don't believe that CCSA is really meaning what they say when they claim that

"The primary goal of the league is outreaching to seekers and nominal Christians in order
to incorporate them into existing fellowships and churches"

As far as I know, in all my years of being in CCSA and seeing other CCSA teams, none have become Christians through softball. Yes, there might be some or even a few that I don't know of. There are 1,100 participating in CCSA and a few doesn't cut it. I've seen people throw away their valuable summer free time just playing softball. It's not worth it. God can do better, I've seen Him do more with my church when we didn't have softball for 1 year than in the past 2 years of softball.

I know many of you are in softball. I don't want to discourage you from joining it. Just be aware of where your time is going and know how valuable it is to the Lord. I know I'm not one to talk as I waste lots of time too, however, I can't stand seeing so many young people who can do so much in our city throwing it away to playing softball for all the summers of their youth.

Anyhow, that's my rant. Looking over it, makes me wonder why I even am considering coaching. I think i answered my own question....

relief help!

2005-01-05T04:41:00.000-08:00

I just found out that my company will double match any donation by an employee. If I donate $50, it will be tripled to $150!! If any of you want to donate to ANY charity and want the most money to go to helping, give it to me and I'll give it to whatever charity you like and it will get tripled by my company!!! Let me know ASAP!

Holiday is over =(

2005-01-04T04:47:00.000-08:00

Well, the holidays came and went so fast. I had a great week and a half!
Having nothing to do makes me not want to come back here to work but I guess this is what the working world is like...

The new years party at my house was a blast and I'm really glad to have had everyone over.
I have something to say about another party that was happening at the same time as mine but I'll save that for my next blog entry.

Anyhow, I read the newspaper this morning and again, there's more coverage and more news on the tsunami devastation. I feel really sad for these countries that already are impoverished and now have to deal with this. At the same time, and I know this will stir up controversy, the affected countries are also the ones where a great deal of religious strife occurs and where much spiritual darkness reigns. Is there a coincidence? I don't know...we can only speculate.

Back to work for me!

Ocean's 12 SUX

2004-12-21T05:41:00.000-08:00

Removed

Bored!

2004-12-20T13:35:00.000-08:00

I'm so bored at work. I'm done all my studying and I'm ready to start
following around some field engineers but there's one problem. It's the holidays.
Lots of manufacturing facilities are closed or just don't want to be bothered so here
I am doing nothing for the next 2 weeks. yay.

Since I'm doing nothing, I've been looking at replacing my credit card with a better one.
I read that the citibank enrich card is pretty good, any of you have any ideas?

I'm going to go watch Ocean's 12 tonight! Chris can't come though because she's at her
grand parents for dinner. Should I wait for her to go see it or should I just go with my friends?
She told me to go but if there's one thing I've learned it's that girls never mean what they say!
Wish me luck! decisions decisions...

2004-12-17T14:28:00.000-08:00

Well, today I didn't have to go to the office for work, I was out in mississauga visiting an aluminum extrusion facility. Kinda neat to see them turn aluminum logs about the size of firewood into long bars for construction and cars. Ok ok, i'm a geek, maybe I'm the only one who finds it interesting..haha, dumb engineers right? (That's what Christina always says when I say something engineery)

Anyhow, it looks like my plans for the holidays are getting more and more full...Chris is back in town so we have our own plans (not yet but I'll think of good plans soon...) I saw my high school friends and they're planning stuff...I'm sure ACF will have stuff....Church friends are planning stuff....
So where's my holiday again? Oh yeah, I'm the newbie at work so I don't get much holiday either...

2004-12-15T19:18:00.000-08:00

Picture of a crane across the street from my work. Taken from the lunch room when I was supposed to be working..haha

Welcome to the REAL city Brian

2004-12-15T18:54:00.000-08:00

Good to have dinner with some people I haven't seen in a long time. Brian, welcome to the center of the universe: Toronto.

I ate way too much and am going to have an awful time sleeping those 8 fajitas off.

Anyhow, someone emailed me mentioning that I didn't really talk much about my job in my last email. To be honest, God has really blessed me with a lot in this job and as much as possible, I don't want to sound proud of it because I really don't deserve everything that I have so I was vague in my last post.

With that in mind, I'll be a little more descriptive of what I actually do. My title is a loss prevention consultant. I visit all sorts of facilities in every area industry and analyze the property's risk of fire, flood, equipment damage, production bottlenecks, etc. I'll be working out of home and because of that, they've provided me with everything I need to work from home (car, phone, internet, etc etc.). So in a nutshell, that's what I'm doing. My training won't be complete until about this time next year so I've got lots to learn!

On another note, as you can see from the pictures posted below, I've been busy with my photography. I got some black and white film, a tank to develop and some chemicals and voila, cheap easy-to-develop pictures. I also decided to splurge on a film scanner and man, I'm impressed by its quality! I printed out the guitar pic on my HP cheapo all-in-one printer I got from work and the pics came out way beyond what I expected so I think I have a good system working now:

1. roll my own film
2. take good pictures <- to be improved
3. develop myself
4. scan on film scanner
5. learn to photoshop edit <- to be improved too
6. print out on printer
7. valuable picture that will be
worth something someday <- I can dream can't I?

Someone at work today asked for a copy of one of the crane pic I posted above so I'm already one step closer to being a good photographer!

2004-12-14T16:30:00.000-08:00

If any of you know who this girl is, tell me! I took it at church and have no idea who this is.

2004-12-14T16:27:00.000-08:00

This is a pic I took of Audrey as she was playing guitar

1st update

2004-12-14T15:56:00.000-08:00

So my first update. Here we go!

Most of you probably already know but I guess I should start with my new job. Yeah, I'm working now and have been for the past month. I'm working for an insurance company. Don't bother asking how in the world an electrical engineer ends up there because I have no idea. I just know that it's a great job with perks and that I can only explain getting it because of God. How do I know it's because of God? I tried so hard to find a job for 3 months and got nothing and when I stopped trying, God dropped it in my lap and gave me everything I wanted and 100 times more. God is good.

Inaugural Ceremony

2004-12-14T14:40:00.000-08:00

I said I'd never get a blog but I guess after reading everyone else's for the past few years, I realize that it's a great way for people to see what i'm up to without actually trying.

I guess that's how our society is nowadays: talk to someone on msn but not really put the effort into calling or webcam with someone but not actually go visit them. And now with me, you can read this and not wonder what I've been up to. The joys of technology.