january 2010
Haven't you ever wondered if it could possibly be?


december 2009
Was unsatisfied with the whole Janeway/Dream Big image that I literally threw together months ago, so since I had a bit of free time this morning, I decided to give it another shot.

kathryn janeway"Guess what I'm going to be when I grow up!"

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! It's taken a while to grab and organize the photos on the camera, but here's the latest mini dump of pictures.

hk hong kong trip 2009Air Canada all the way! Boeing 777-300 from here to YVR then all the way to HK!

hk hong kong trip 2009Interiors have gotten pretty fancy now; glowing lights and everything!

hk hong kong trip 2009I'll say that the Vancouver Airport has one up on us, fancy aquarium and all.

hk hong kong trip 2009Finally on the streetcar in HK!

hk hong kong trip 2009Lights! Camera! Shoes.

hk hong kong trip 2009Shortest escalators EVAH! Seriously, why not a ramp? In other news, escalators are much faster than those here in the west, probably a throughput optimization thing.

hk hong kong trip 2009A nice little outside shot by the bay

hk hong kong trip 2009Old school passenger transports

hk hong kong trip 2009It's pretty narrow considering all the traffic that the bay gets!

hk hong kong trip 2009The Jumbo Floating Restaurant... which unfortunately, I didn't get a really good picture of. (I know, I know, ending a sentence with a preposition!)

hk hong kong trip 2009You wouldn't be able to remove the redeye if you tried, hah!

hk hong kong trip 2009Anatomically, it's a little off, but pretty cool nonetheless.

hk hong kong trip 2009Sun is setting at the pier

hk hong kong trip 2009Look at this guy! He's got his own little island and all!

hk hong kong trip 2009HK is full of antiquated buildings that stand right next to the modern marvels that line the bay. I've never seen such a strong disparity in wealth and culture juxtaposed as such in my life. Crazy.

hk hong kong trip 2009More pictures to appease the flora gods...

hk hong kong trip 2009... but there's stuff in the background as well. Sometimes, the background is more interesting than the foreground (though not so much in this case)

hk hong kong trip 2009It's super weird how places like KFC (or as we call it, "dirty bird") and McDonalds are somewhat respectable dining places here in HK (they even deliver! what!). Ironically, McD's are just starting to learn that the perception war is worth fighting here with their own fancy McCafe's.

hk hong kong trip 2009Another panorama. I love taking these!

hk hong kong trip 2009Colourful!

hk hong kong trip 2009Lots of feral dogs in HK

hk hong kong trip 2009And cats as well. This one fell for my Meow and came out to investigate. Muwhahah!

hk hong kong trip 2009To think that someone was actually asked to draw a "teddy-bear Mona Lisa" is highly amusing.

hk hong kong trip 2009A closer look (it's actually pretty good!)

hk hong kong trip 2009Alrighty, this is starting to go overboard!

hk hong kong trip 2009There was a person in this one who would scare people walking by!

... Alright, I lied, though it would have been infinitely more humorous if there were.

hk hong kong trip 2009Oh yes. Temples were visited alright.

hk hong kong trip 2009Fancy.

hk hong kong trip 2009Don't fly too close to the sun Icarus!

hk hong kong trip 2009One of the bay

hk hong kong trip 2009Totally fake. I can see the wires holding them up! :P

hk hong kong trip 2009I like the bay, the view would be awesome to wake up to.

hk hong kong trip 2009These totally look like King-Fisher colors, but there's no way that they're related?

hk hong kong trip 2009Night time in the bay

hk hong kong trip 2009The IFC building, the largest in HK if I am not mistaken.

hk hong kong trip 2009I love the night skyline!

hk hong kong trip 2009The classic Morning Star ferries -- even my dad took these when he was younger!

hk hong kong trip 2009Dear god, the pressure's rising!

hk hong kong trip 2009Macau!

hk hong kong trip 2009I was about two weeks late for the Macau GP2 races... damn! Anyways, it would have been held right on this road. In fact, you can see a part of the makeshift-grandstands in the background as well.

hk hong kong trip 2009A bridge to the other islands.

hk hong kong trip 2009"Blackhawk down! Blackhawk down!"

hk hong kong trip 2009One of the tourist-y exhibits, but it was oddly quiet when we went. Seriously. It was like a deserted theme park there that day.

hk hong kong trip 2009The amphitheatre which was also empty. No workers, no tourists (except for us of course). Nothing!

hk hong kong trip 2009A wicked Formula 2 simulator which I played. As for how I fared, lets just say I shouldn't quit my day job. :P

hk hong kong trip 2009A fancy hotel on the island.

hk hong kong trip 2009A shot from the famous Ruins of St. Paul. Macau used to be Portuguese run, so there was a rather large Catholic influence. The ruins are of a church that was nearly completely burned down except for the front face. There were also tombs inside. Creepy tombs.

hk hong kong trip 2009Zombie girl. Just kidding, this was from a painting in the museum, but I forgot to note what it was of, or who drew it.

hk hong kong trip 2009There also used to be fortresses and such on the island. Ironically, this canon is pointing at one of the towers (that can't be too good for the Feng Shui as my dad points out).

hk hong kong trip 2009Even Jesus needs to eat AMIRIGHT??? Just Kidding!

hk hong kong trip 2009The Macau skyline is much lower than that of HK.

hk hong kong trip 2009Down the steps from the ruins, into the more popular streets.

hk hong kong trip 2009FOOD! Meatballs, corn, and a bunch of other stuff down the side streets. In case you are wondering, food is going to be a major topic throughout this minidump.

hk hong kong trip 2009A view from the Macau towers. It's a long way down. Incidentally, I probably should clean up my shoes a bit.

hk hong kong trip 2009A nice glimpse right down Macau.

hk hong kong trip 2009A better view of the bridge

hk hong kong trip 2009Damn, I wish I had bought one of these bungee jumping bears (you can actually bungee jump from the tower). I would install it by my desk and just have it jump for my amusement all day long.

hk hong kong trip 2009We ended up checking one of the 37 different casinos on the island. Macau is probably one of the craziest places outside of Las Vegas. This one was modeled after Venice, and what you see there is actually indoor lighting (it looks much more realistic in real life).

hk hong kong trip 2009Did I mention that THERE IS A RIVER IN THE MALL!? Anyways, I lost $20 at the casino this time. So it goes.

hk hong kong trip 2009On my way to Taiwan. Though not on this beautiful, beautiful Boeing 747-400. Seriously, why doesn't Air Canada fly these anymore!?

hk hong kong trip 2009A theme park in Taiwan. It's actually kinda run-down, but highly amusing none the less. I ended up riding one of the 4-gee rides, and it was pretty fun. Parrots.

hk hong kong trip 2009A starving tiger. Seriously, it looked like these tigers were unhealthily skinny.

hk hong kong trip 2009I had no better shot to show this since I forgot to take it, but basically, the animal kingdom section of the park had these self-pedal tour carts that sit on this thin little rail (see on the left). When you pedal, the cart shifts from side to side, and it constantly feels like you are about to fall off. In retrospect, riding this deathly contraption was likely the scariest thing I did the whole trip. :P

hk hong kong trip 2009Another hungry Siberian Tiger

hk hong kong trip 2009We stopped at this tomato farm which had several hundred strains of tomatoes (some of which are displayed here), and had a fresh tomato drink which was pretty awesome (didn't taste anything like Clamato or V8, was sweet and you could taste the different types of tomatoes in it).

hk hong kong trip 2009Stopped at a night market. Not sure where it was though.

hk hong kong trip 2009Saw one of these inside. Hilarious!

hk hong kong trip 2009FOOD! Omlette-like things.

hk hong kong trip 2009Sausages!

hk hong kong trip 2009Fishballs!

hk hong kong trip 2009Too..cute......must...resist..temptation....to...

hk hong kong trip 2009...make..reply... DAWWWWWWWWW SO CUTE. Damn, I failed.

hk hong kong trip 2009Merry Christmas, or as they say in Taiwan, Merry Christmas. Psych!

hk hong kong trip 2009A fancy palace. Cost the taxpayers tons of money, now a hotel.

hk hong kong trip 2009A memorial.

hk hong kong trip 2009With multiple buildings. There were a bunch of stands that you can barely see that were kind of out of place though -- they were advertisements for a space program on the Discovery channel (seriously).

hk hong kong trip 2009We also went to this place in the mountains somewhere which had all these small shops selling food and whatnot. Very cool.

hk hong kong trip 2009FOOD! Making some kind of soft peanut brittle.

hk hong kong trip 2009Roasting mushrooms!

hk hong kong trip 2009Escargot!

hk hong kong trip 2009Some kind of rice pudding!

hk hong kong trip 2009Some iced desert that I got. Couldn't finish it though, it had a billion of these little chewy balls (this picture was after I ate the other 3/4) and I was getting sick of it pretty fast.

hk hong kong trip 2009A shot from the top of the mountain. It was really nice there, the kind of place I would like to visit again. (To try more food)

hk hong kong trip 2009Apparently, Pikachu and Sponge Bob are yellow so they can totally swap faces. :P

hk hong kong trip 2009Another night market, had some beef noodles at what is supposedly one of the more famous shops (people line up and just eat standing in the street, it's madness!)

hk hong kong trip 2009Hilarious! This zombie was so weird, she perfected the necessary creepy-ness of the role.

hk hong kong trip 2009Taipei's tower, the 101. They use this 60-ton metal ball to counterbalance movements in the foundation of the building. I hypothesize that it works by slightly lengthening the cables on the opposite side of the shift, allowing for the ball to roll slightly in that direction to stabilize any motion. I don't see how this would work if the frequency of the motion was greater than the momentum and speed of the pulleys though!?

hk hong kong trip 2009A model of the elevator at the 101, the fastest moving tower elevator in the world supposedly. Not recommended for people with heart conditions. Seriously. That is awesome!

hk hong kong trip 2009Psychedelic!

hk hong kong trip 2009The 101 mascot in Christmas attire.

hk hong kong trip 2009If you have to ask, you can't afford it!

hk hong kong trip 2009The tower from the bottom.

hk hong kong trip 2009Slightly unrelated, just shots of some vegetarian food we got at the food court. Everything on the dish is vegetarian, even the stuff that looks like meat!

hk hong kong trip 2009And my dad's dish.

hk hong kong trip 2009Back at one of the more famous streets in HK, the women's street. Formerly, a place for women to go out and buy clothes and other stuff, it's turned into a back-door street for buying pirated things like clothes, shoes, lighters, electronics, toys, and even paintings (I know, I totally got one). What you have to do is actually talk down the price, so I ended up buying a painting (which I thought was really not-too-bad) at a low, low price of $20 CAD. LOL!

hk hong kong trip 2009One of the many toy shops we stopped at. They lover their toys over there!

hk hong kong trip 2009Durian cakes. Enough said.

hk hong kong trip 2009Mango-Tangerine dessert. Yum!

hk hong kong trip 2009Took a trip up to another temple to pay respects to grandpa.

hk hong kong trip 2009You can actually buy a bag of fish food there and feed the fish. It is absolute madness though; even if you don't have any food, if they see your hand go over the railing, they will pile all over themselves for a bite.

hk hong kong trip 2009One of the last few places I went -- the giant Buddha. I'm not a Buddhist, but apparently, this one is the largest in all of asia! You have to take a gondola there though, as it resides on top of a mountain.

hk hong kong trip 2009It was super foggy that day though.

hk hong kong trip 2009At the top. They have a bunch of shows, restaurants, and shops that you can peruse. This monkey sketch was particularly humorous.

hk hong kong trip 2009From the bottom of the Buddha.

hk hong kong trip 2009You have to walk up a 100 flight set of stairs though to get to the top to see the Buddha though.

hk hong kong trip 2009More feral dogs

hk hong kong trip 2009On the way back.

hk hong kong trip 2009This shot was just epic!

hk hong kong trip 2009Also went to Hong Kong Disneyland with my Aunt. It was much more enjoyable than I thought it would be -- in particular, the live Lion King show was pretty well done, and Mickey's 3D magic show puts our Real-3D theatres to shame!

hk hong kong trip 2009Gundams in the MTR. The MTR is the subway system in HK, and it absolutely rocks. It's definitely a model by which other underground transit systems should work. (Are you listening TTC!??)

hk hong kong trip 2009A lone jellyfish exhibit in the connection area at Vancouver airport, while on my way back to Toronto.


And thus ends my trip. Cheers!

november 2009
Some pictures sitting around on the camera, for your viewing pleasure of course!

halloween 09 marshmallowI didn't go trick or treating this year, but managed to score this awesome looking treat from the concierge's desk at Rhys' place!

Front of the BGP001 ...

... and the back, with (earlier) oh-so-controversial double diffuser

Pics from an trip back to Calgary:

Not sure why, but the color of water in the rockies is downright awesome.

Look closer!

Yes, I can't believe I took such an awesome shot as well. :P

Panoramique of the rockies. Awesome. (Original was 4k x 1k)

Believe it or not, there are fish in this picture.

Threadz

Awe. Some. (I like the symmetry in this one)

The road ends here! (This far and no further!!!)

It's like a little forest underwater

Dandelions?

I've always enjoyed how the chaos of fluids and their dynamics can be captured in its moment with such clarity

Pano de la Rockies (as you can tell, I don't really know french)

Bambi!

Impending doom ...

The craziest rainstorm of recent memory. It woke the whole family!

Food. Om Nom Nom.


october 2009
F1 World Champion 2009 is <drum roll> Jensen Button! Absolutely the predicted outcome, especially after his consecutive wins in the start of the season, but it was still awesome to see Button get a car that could match his driving capabilities. People who don't think that he "deserves" the championship should look no further than the consistency of his closest the challengers (and their teams) -- Jensen held the lead through the whole season rather coolly (despite the recent slump) and under Bernie's proposed medal system, would have already been the champion races ago. Congrats to Jensen and the Brawn team!

In other news, I think I may have broken the googlebot because it has been spidering my site for a whole of 40hrs and 21min these last couple days...

Just finished reading 'On Intelligence' (Jeff Hawkins) and while some people disregard it as popsci, I found the book very well written -- not only for his abstract ideas of hierarchical temporal memory as a means of "intelligence", but also his writing and enthusiasm for the neurosciences. It's definitely infective. On Intelligence was a little lacking on exact details regarding how neurons actually work, and how the hippocamus actually stores long term memorys, so I went out and found a gem of a book called 'In Search of Memory' by Eric Kandel. This guy is a genius, and the book is an incredibly thorough summarization of brain research over the last half-century. It goes into great detail explaining how most organisms "learn" through the biological and chemical reactions that comprise our central and autonomic nervous system. Fascinating stuff.

I'm also very much enjoying Defying Gravity, not only because it's one of the few sci-fi shows on tv, but also because it (like BSG) forces you to think about issues that are not addressed in other series. Under the drama-esque surface of the show (it wouldn't be on ABC otherwise, I guess), there are issues like privatization of interplanetary travel, biological/sexual complications of long-range flights, and politics and journalism -- issues that other scifi series fail to address. Though the show doesn't go into them in detail, it's interesting to realize that like any other complex task, space travel isn't solely about building the technology and sending the brave souls off in a glorified ceremony. Whenever there are people involved, the complexity factor grows ten-fold.

In other news, I am super depressed by the whole Crash-gate scandal that hit F1 this last month. Not only does something like this diminish the integrity of the sport, it also invalidates the hard work of hundreds of people who are otherwise innocent. Flavio has gotten a pretty good penalty, while Renault, and more importantly, Nelson Piquet have walked off clean. I don't care that Piquet effectively killed his career. He chose in that time and place to deliberately crash, which shows an utter lack of respect and safetly for the sport, the fans and himself. For shame.

Anyways, the season is winding down and Jensen is heading to Interlagos with 14 points over Rubens, so I hope he scores some points and seals the deal for the Driver's Championship before Abu Dhabi. Brawn have already got the constructors in the bag (they only need 0.5 pts in the next two races), so congrats to them for blowing the competition out of the water in their maiden year under the leadership of the always-cool-as-a-cucumber Ross Brawn. The title challengers have been pretty close this year, unlike (to the relief of all the fans, I'm sure) the years where Michael dominated everything. Good stuff.

If you felt bad for the tribble in the previous comic (like I did), then here's one to show that not even the borg can always get what they want...

Unbeknownst to Janeway, her actions also caused an imbalance in the politics of the cafeteria.
august 2009
Totally spaced out right now -- that's what too much time on the computer will do to you!

In other news, F1 is back after a four week break and Brawn are still on the top of their game (Jensen, not so much) with McLaren posing a highly impressive late-season charge. Sad weekend for RBR and Badoer though...

subway guy black and whiteColor is overrated.
Seriously, I can't believe summer is already over.
Ah well, hope everyone else had a great summer!

end of summer 2009 :(Super quick summer palette pastel test (not sure if that makes sense, I'm tired!)


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