If tomatoes are a fruit, isn’t ketchup technically a smoothie?
1 year, 4 months ago
House Show II
8
I’m still catching my breath from the awesomeness that was the second House Show. So much planning, preparation, and practice went into one night that I felt like I’d given birth when it was over; I didn’t know how to feel, or what to think.
Darren came up the day before to hang out, and along with Shane, Blais (his son), and Chris, stayed until Sunday. After the show we stayed up talking, picking Shane’s brain about his composition process and influences. Everything went better than I could have planned, and I’m thankful that so many of my friends were there to share the experience with me.
Meet the cupcakes (from left to right):
Black and White (Belgian dark chocolate cake with vanilla frosting and chocolate sprinkles), strawberry (pure strawberry cake with sweet cream cheese frosting and red sugar flower on top), hazelnut chocolate (hazelnut-chocolate cake with Belgian dark chocolate frosting decorated with a toasted hazelnut on top), vanilla (vanilla cake and frosting, flavoured with Madagascar bourbon vanilla with sprinkles), and key lime pie (lime-infused cake and cream cheese frosting with lime zest).
The fully zipped up hoodie: http://twitpic.com/2zcrlg
1 year, 4 months ago
Found my dream guitar today. The fact that it’s double what I was willing to spend means I’ll have to save for a few extra months.
1 year, 4 months ago
Been trying to get a decent amount of sleep, but I’ve been waiting for this day for seven months. #houseshow #mostimportanteventoftheyear
1 year, 4 months ago
29 11/12: The Work in Progress
He who is not satisfied with himself will grow; he who is not sure of his own correctness will learn many things.
—Chinese proverb
As much as I think I’ve become settled in my character and my mindset, I still surprise myself with how much these continue to change.
Me and my Plushstache (handmade with love by Shannon Gerard).
I used to think I’d finally be happy if I was a certain person — some idealized version of myself who was indestructible, infallible, and flawless — but I recently realized that I shouldn’t see this as the goal. Instead, I should be happy with the fact that I’m not there yet, because change means evolution and growth.
It would be folly to believe that an arrival is also an end. One should continue to struggle, and to doubt, and to hurt, and to be a work in progress.
I turn 30 in a month, and I still don’t know who I am.
The Turning 30 Series
Today, I ate an entire loaf of ciabatta bread. And ONLY a loaf of ciabatta bread. #colitis #flareup
1 year, 4 months ago
skies they opened up for us
It’s been a good weekend, full of resolution and epiphanies and hugs and delectable food and wonderful surprises.
I’m running on autopilot again. Sleeping well and feeling good. It still hasn’t sunk in that I’ll be in France in less than a month. There are so many projects I’ve put off until I get back.
Three destinations, three albums. This is not a coincidence.
1 year, 4 months ago
FUCKASS. Well I guess this keyboard isn’t dry yet.
1 year, 4 months ago
Washed out my keyboard, and now it’s typing out random characters by itself. It’s like I have Tourette’s.
1 year, 4 months ago
go on
I had a fever dream one night. When I woke up, everything was clear. I finally snapped back to reality. Thank fuck.
Hitting rock bottom was the only way for me to gain some perspective. When you’re at the edge, you tend to get a better look at yourself. Now my recovery is as meteoric as my fall. To be honest, I don’t know if I’m any stronger or better for it. If I ever end up in the same situation again one day, will I be able to handle it better? For some reason, I don’t think so. All I know is that I held on, I’m strong enough to go on, and I had to figure it out by myself.
cheese
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My music has been a mix of stuff lately, generally warm and chill, and most of it being too personal for me to post here. Or maybe I’m just being greedy. By a stroke of luck, I found this song after two years of scouring every possible music venue (I even had my card out, ready to buy it on iTunes, but they aren’t popular enough to be on there). I almost cried when I heard it for the first time at 320kbps.
I’m leaning towards the purchase of a classical guitar (as opposed to a steel-string one). I’m sure it’s because Cohen always used a nylon-stringed guitar in his early albums, and this has influenced my palate to prefer a rounder, mellow sound. Even though this decision will be in the far future, I can’t help but listen to as many classical guitarists as possible to see what kind of tone they can muster from their strings. Unfortunately, it’s really rare to find contemporary music (the only genre I’m interested in playing) being performed on a classical guitar, unless it’s a gimmick tune like the theme for Super Mario Bros.
The weather is turning lovely the only way Autumn can, as crisp as it is fleeting.
I have so many ideas going through my head, and I wish I could follow through on all of them. Or give up writing/photography/cinematography/web design/music and focus on one at a time. But I always get bored of a medium, or feel the need express myself with a particular one because it may better lend itself to being a voice in a certain situation.
Is LightScribe an obscure technology, or is every person who works at PCCyber a complete tool?
1 year, 4 months ago
Crystal + Jae-In Wedding Day
Shot with a Canon 5D Mk II, mostly using my new 70–200mm f/2.8 IS II. Be sure to watch in high definition, and let the video load completely before playing because the pacing and momentum are crucial.
Editing took about 25 hours, and I’m super happy with the way it turned out. There were so many great moments, and the footage has a wonderfully visceral feel to it. The most challenging part of post-processing was colour balancing all the footage, which I had to do shot-by-shot. When you’re filming for an entire day, you tend to get a huge variety of light sources and temperatures.
A note about the tea ceremonies. The first one was the Chinese version, which allows relatives to hand red pockets or jewelery (usually gold and jade) to the new couple. The second one was Korean, named Paebaek, and is much more elaborate. Relatives line up for a formal bow, tea serving, then throw a handful of dates (representing girls) and chestnuts (representing boys) to be caught by the bride and groom with a blanket. The number of dates and chestnuts caught signifies how many children they’ll have. No surprise that grandpa only grabbed chestnuts.
Then the bride is given one of the dates they caught, and the groom has to take a bite out of it from her mouth. The person who ends up with the bigger piece is the one who will wear the pants (which is why you see the bride tenaciously trying to keep the bigger piece for herself). At the end, the groom has to carry his mother and mother-in-law around the ceremony table, then carry his new bride out of the hall.
Also, this:
