january 2010

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.
"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.
Air Canada all the way! Boeing 777-300 from here to YVR then all the way to HK!
Interiors have gotten pretty fancy now; glowing lights and everything!
I'll say that the Vancouver Airport has one up on us, fancy aquarium and all.
Finally on the streetcar in HK!
Lights! Camera! Shoes.
Shortest 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.
A nice little outside shot by the bay
Old school passenger transports
It's pretty narrow considering all the traffic that the bay gets!
The Jumbo Floating Restaurant... which unfortunately, I didn't get a really good picture of. (I know, I know, ending a sentence with a preposition!)
You wouldn't be able to remove the redeye if you tried, hah!
Anatomically, it's a little off, but pretty cool nonetheless.
Sun is setting at the pier
Look at this guy! He's got his own little island and all!
HK 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.
More pictures to appease the flora gods...
... 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)
It'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.
Another panorama. I love taking these!
Colourful!
Lots of feral dogs in HK
And cats as well. This one fell for my Meow and came out to investigate. Muwhahah!
To think that someone was actually asked to draw a "teddy-bear Mona Lisa" is highly amusing.
A closer look (it's actually pretty good!)
Alrighty, this is starting to go overboard!
There 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.
Oh yes. Temples were visited alright.
Fancy.
Don't fly too close to the sun Icarus!
One of the bay
Totally fake. I can see the wires holding them up! :P
I like the bay, the view would be awesome to wake up to.
These totally look like King-Fisher colors, but there's no way that they're related?
Night time in the bay
The IFC building, the largest in HK if I am not mistaken.
I love the night skyline!
The classic Morning Star ferries -- even my dad took these when he was younger!
Dear god, the pressure's rising!
Macau!
I 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.
A bridge to the other islands.
"Blackhawk down! Blackhawk down!"
One of the tourist-y exhibits, but it was oddly quiet when we went. Seriously. It was like a deserted theme park there that day.
The amphitheatre which was also empty. No workers, no tourists (except for us of course). Nothing!
A wicked Formula 2 simulator which I played. As for how I fared, lets just say I shouldn't quit my day job. :P
A fancy hotel on the island.
A 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.
Zombie girl. Just kidding, this was from a painting in the museum, but I forgot to note what it was of, or who drew it.
There 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).
Even Jesus needs to eat AMIRIGHT??? Just Kidding!
The Macau skyline is much lower than that of HK.
Down the steps from the ruins, into the more popular streets.
FOOD! 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.
A view from the Macau towers. It's a long way down. Incidentally, I probably should clean up my shoes a bit.
A nice glimpse right down Macau.
A better view of the bridge
Damn, 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.
We 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).
Did I mention that THERE IS A RIVER IN THE MALL!? Anyways, I lost $20 at the casino this time. So it goes.
On my way to Taiwan. Though not on this beautiful, beautiful Boeing 747-400. Seriously, why doesn't Air Canada fly these anymore!?
A 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.
A starving tiger. Seriously, it looked like these tigers were unhealthily skinny.
I 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
Another hungry Siberian Tiger
We 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).
Stopped at a night market. Not sure where it was though.
Saw one of these inside. Hilarious!
FOOD! Omlette-like things.
Sausages!
Fishballs!
Too..cute......must...resist..temptation....to...
...make..reply... DAWWWWWWWWW SO CUTE. Damn, I failed.
Merry Christmas, or as they say in Taiwan, Merry Christmas. Psych!
A fancy palace. Cost the taxpayers tons of money, now a hotel.
A memorial.
With 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).
We also went to this place in the mountains somewhere which had all these small shops selling food and whatnot. Very cool.
FOOD! Making some kind of soft peanut brittle.
Roasting mushrooms!
Escargot!
Some kind of rice pudding!
Some 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.
A 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)
Apparently, Pikachu and Sponge Bob are yellow so they can totally swap faces. :P
Another 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!)
Hilarious! This zombie was so weird, she perfected the necessary creepy-ness of the role.
Taipei'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!?
A 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!
Psychedelic!
The 101 mascot in Christmas attire.
If you have to ask, you can't afford it!
The tower from the bottom.
Slightly 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!
And my dad's dish.
Back 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!
One of the many toy shops we stopped at. They lover their toys over there!
Durian cakes. Enough said.
Mango-Tangerine dessert. Yum!
Took a trip up to another temple to pay respects to grandpa.
You 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.
One 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.
It was super foggy that day though.
At the top. They have a bunch of shows, restaurants, and shops that you can peruse. This monkey sketch was particularly humorous.
From the bottom of the Buddha.
You have to walk up a 100 flight set of stairs though to get to the top to see the Buddha though.
More feral dogs
On the way back.
This shot was just epic!
Also 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!
Gundams 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!??)
A lone jellyfish exhibit in the connection area at Vancouver airport, while on my way back to Toronto.
And thus ends my trip. Cheers!


























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





















































































And thus ends my trip. Cheers!
november 2009
Some pictures sitting around on the camera, for your viewing pleasure of course!
I 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.



Pics from an trip back to Calgary:
















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...
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.
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...

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...
Color is overrated.
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...

Seriously, I can't believe summer is already over.
Ah well, hope everyone else had a great summer!
Super quick summer palette pastel test (not sure if that makes sense, I'm tired!)
Ah well, hope everyone else had a great summer!
