Where's the Beef?

Ok, if you did not know the title give props to an old 80s commercial--you are too young or way too old.

It's one of those weeks. You know, where as soon as you get home you want a nice chunk of dark chocolate. Better yet, a grilled steak, medium-rare, with a glass of shiraz served to you in a hot tub by a hunky delish man. (Save room for dessert...)

I settled for organic multigrain soya-mozza grilled cheese with Simply Organics ketchup and a strawberry black tea. No, really, it *was* satisfying.


So funny, Flight of the Conchords' Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor



I cannot stop listening to Michael Mind's remix of Christopher Cross' Ride Like the Wind. I noticed it in BToxic's Electrograde mix (electro-house remixes of retro songs).

Listening to: Michael Mind - Ride Like the Wind (Klaas Remix)

 

Turning Japanese

Well, it's official. I am traveling to Japan mid-March for two weeks. I am flying into Tokyo to meet Dani & Mike. They are currently in Thailand and will meet me in Japan. The flight only cost $1,100. In 2003, I purchased a ticket on JAL through Tokyo to Australia during SARS for only $1400. I *love* Japan Airlines. Best airline on earth. Amazing service, comfy seats, video insets, lots of hot towels, pocky, green tea and delicious meals.



We are meeting at Tokyo airport and staying in Tokyo for a few days. Then we are taking the train north, south and back to Tokyo. Needless to stay I am ecstatic. I cannot wait to be in completely awe of Japan's art, culture, history, cuisine and customs.

In one week, I have learned how to count to 10, say yes, no, thanks, no thanks, good morning and good afternoon.

I am currently watching Lost In Translation for research.

 

Illuminate Yaletown

I went to Yaletown's first annual Illuminate Festival on Saturday. There were about 25 art installations including an ice living room, ice bonfire, light spheres, wall projections, shadow theatre, and light panels.



The highlight of the festival was Radiant Heat's fire performance shows. Radiant Heat performed three shows with a grand finale in front of EQ3.

I was surprised the event was not car-free. Pedestrians were everywhere with children and toy dogs. It was one giant car park. I thought it was strange the Roundhouse Community Centre did not have an open house for the event either. Apparently, the festival was such a hit, it will be back next year for the Olympics.

Listening to: Oscar the Grouch - I'm Sad Because I'm Happy

 

Ecofriend and Fabulous!

Imagine fulfilling your consumeristic desires guilt-free. Well, not completely guilt-free, but pretty darn close.

The Green Depot has opened its doors in Brooklyn. It is a green hybrid of Ikea and Home Depot full of organic and sustainable products for your home.



Also nifty, is the new West Elm store in Emeryville, CA that has a green and solar power roof, not too mention reclaimed hard-wood floor and low-VOC painted walls.



Listening to: Michael Mind - Ride Like the Wind

 

Love Like Blah

Like this Rat. I am not a huge fan of rats, but this is one cute bugger. Apparently, she chatters when she's content and snuggles stuffed animals. Cute. Bugger.

If you are a big g33k, you'll enjoy the History of Video Games. Reminds me of a few weeks ago when my niece and I were playing Pac-Man and Dig-Dug.



My cousin K sent me this music video for Fatboy Slim's The Joker. Bizarre. I love seeing the cat herders' hands in the camera shots.

I am not sure I want an iPhone enough to pay $60 a month on top of my cell phone plan. My unlimited Fido plan is grandfathered. I do not have digital cable because it costs $60 per month. I doubt plan prices will be going down any time soon.

Listening to: Beck - Timebomb

 

Laughter Is Always Good

I love British humour. BBC's Women Know Your Limits is very funny.

The Onion has its own YouTube Channel.



Hotmail stopped working on Mozilla today. Argh. I have to use IE to use it.

To iPhone or not to iPhone. Simple consumeristic, technologic whorish luxuries.

Listening to: The Pretenders - Don't Get Me Wrong

 

One of Those Days

It is one of those days. You know... the ones where you just want to put on lounge wear when you get home, eat some dark chocolate and drink some vanilla earl gray tea.

I started a profile on Urban Spoon. I saw that there is a Urban Spoon iPhone application, so I decided to check the web site out. It is actually very well organized and reviewer driven. Funny, I had this idea several years ago. But, Urban Spoon truly delivers. I have reviewed over 114 restaurants and voted on 218 in Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle. I definitely like to eat out.

Now I am thinking about a bubble or salts bath. Another action-packed weekend starting with Friday at work. I am looking forward to catching up with a friend visiting from San Francisco, whom I have not seen since end of summer. I am excited to play host to a tourist.

It is the official one-year countdown to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. It is even more controversial than ever.



Thrifty Foods is promoting Romance In the Aisles, where you can shop and mingle with other singles. Make a date over spending a buck or two.

Listening to: Holly McNarland - Numb

 

Trader Joe's Song

The fabulous Trader Joe's song. When is Trader Joe's coming to Canada?



I love Trader Joe's. Natural amazing fusion and International foods: dried fruits, trail mixes, teriyaki beef jerky, wasabi peas, healthier chips, mango and peach salsa, $2 wine, strawberry juice, garlic linguine, real soaps, and the list goes on. Most of it is chemical and additive free.

I also love Talking Rain sparkling water. It consists of natural water with only 100% natural fruit essences. The flavour kiwi-strawberry is amazing. Now there is pomegranate-lime? I am thinking about a Costco card just to purchase flats in Washington.

I am debating purchasing an iPhone for the cool applications. I am such a geek. Not really interested it as a phone because the Rogers plan in Canada is the second highest priced in the world (behind Italy). But the applications to organize my daily life, podcasts, games and gallery are cool. I already picked out colorware colours in blue, orange and chartreuse to change it from black.



I want to sing "I Wanna Be iPhone-sturbated" to the Ramones' I Wanna Be Sedated.

Listening to: Coldplay - Clocks

 

Back Burner

Well, I was chatting with my boss the other day about Earned Days Off (EDOs). I thought that you worked over time to bank up an EDO. So, this year I worked an extra 4 hours so far. Usually, I would just adjust my time when I wanted and work less on a day(s) to reduce the extra hours earned.



Apparently, this is incorrect. I am suppose to work extra as needed, but I get an automatic extra 5 EDOs off (regardless if I work less or more). So, last year I did not take these extra 5 EDOs. In fact, during the Xmas holidays, I took three Leave of Absence (LOAs) with NO PAY. Argh.

I am still awaiting my 6 month and annual performance review and a potential raise.


Oh, and 30 year old Frat Boys are dumb.

Listening to: Madonna - Sorry

 

Damn Skippy

A newly born baby lemur clutches a teddy bear as if it was its mother.



I recently read the article about Governors Island Envisioned as an Eco-Park on inhabitat.



Lately, I have been hearing Kermit's Rainbow Connection in my mind. But the duet with Debbie Harry and Kermit the Frog is lovely.



More banjo please.

 

Laundry Lifted

Weird. Someone stole my graphite 300-count queen-size fitted and flat bed linens from the laundry room.



I hope this person returns them. I kind of liked them.

Listening to: Enigma - Age of Loneliness

 

Gorgeous Chicken No Less

I went to a new hair salon to faithfully follow my hair stylist. He now works at Essensuals on Richards near Robson. Great salon and fantastic staff. I went to Rainbow Flowers on Main Street to pick up some flowers and stopped by work. At work, Saturdays are Pub Day. I visited with some clients, requested Johnny Cash from the band, and drank ginger ale with the ladies.

I went to Shiro for sushi on Cambie Street with D&M. No short of awesome. The place is owned and staffed by wonderful Japanese people.

We started discussing traveling to Asia. They want to travel through Asia for a few months. I started thinking about going to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

D&M showed me the Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show.



Apparently, I passed some kind of test.


We also watched a Japanese aerobic English Learning instructional video.

 

Love Like Blah

Love this polar bar drain stopper.



Like all things bacon--including but not limited to this bacon scarf, bacon bra, bacon diet coke, bacon band-aids, and mall art.

Like that I just signed up for an account at LastFM. You can listen to your favourite artists and recommended similar artists. I like it so far, but easily become bored of stations. I like how you can skip artists and songs you dislike.

Listening to: Planet Funk - Rosa Blue

 

Kodak Gallery Review

Blah. Well, I ordered some calendars as gifts for Xmas and I made one for myself. The binding coil that holds the pages together comes out all the time. I have to constantly rebuild it every time I turn a month page. Argh.

I also printed a batch of photos at their sale price of $0.15. Great deal. On the second batch, someone noticed my friends print their name or logo on the bottom. So, Kodak Gallery refused to print this batch unless I had signed waivers from every photographer.

I canceled my order and decided to buy a Costco card. Costco lets you print photos at the regular price of $0.15.

I think January is officially off the calendar.

Community Is Everything

This past weekend, I went up to Whistler with 21 other people to celebrate a friend's 40th birthday. We rented two 4-bedroom townhomes at the top of a winding road. We soaked in hot tubs, dined on french toast, bacon, ebelskivers, Indian curries and rice, and prime roast, danced, laughed, and sang. It was a great, relaxing weekend amongst some really great people. I think I am finally out of my winter fog. I have the sparkle back in my eyes.




In Burien, the Seattle burners and Ignition Northwest have created a public art space featuring The Passage from Burning Man. B/IAS (Burien Interim Art Space) was officially opened and celebrated this past weekend in South Seattle. The art structure will be open to the public for one year.

Listening to: Eurythmics - Miracle of Love

 

Foggy Dew

There has been a lot of fog hovering over Vancouver for the past few weeks.




Last week, I watched BBC's Blue Planet first disc Ocean World and Frozen Seas. It was immensely good to watch while doing yoga.

I also watched an Lebanese film Caramel, and a fantastic British dramedy Death At A Funeral.

I started watching Weeds. I was hooked after the first episode. Mary Louise Parker is incredible as a Suburban widow trying to support her family as a pot dealer.

My Canon S400 bit the dust after five years. It keeps giving a Memory card error. I replaced the battery thinking it would fix the problem. But it hasn't. I guess it is time to buy a new digital camera.

I got a funky new Tokidoki Messenger Bag designed by Italian artist Simone Legno. My pattern is way cooler. Ha! If my camera worked, I could take a picture of it. Pft.

Listening to: Don Henley - Boys of Summer

 

The Woman

A Softer World




Listening to: Electric Six - Infected Girls

 

Hello Goodbye

Long week, although I was sick at the beginning of it. I feel exhausted and I am not even taking a class this semester. I am eating leftover cold organic steak and thinking about steamed edamame. My new favourite thing is Tetley Summerberry & Rosehip tea with Chilliwack River Wildflower Honey.

We went for a nice walk at lunch to Main & 26th Avenue with JD. We went to Sawasdee Thai for lunch for yummy Phad Thai. This is my favourite Thai restaurant hands-down. Great lunch specials and service that is authentic.

Most of the snow in Kitsilano has melted, but there still are grayish peaks all along mid-Main Street.




I finished reading Prozac Nation. I thought it would be more hipster-contemporary. It was more like reading a young woman's journal while she copes with manic-depression. Not an enthralling book.

I really enjoyed Christopher Moore's You Suck. A tragedy with sarcastic under tones about two young vampires in San Francisco. The book was hilarious and I could not put it down.

I tried to find some used second-year Psychology texts to read for fun. Knowledge is Queen you know. No such luck. I could not sell my old text books either (even at half price).

Not sure what to do this weekend. I usually have to teeter-totter between chores and homework. What ever will I do? Sushi and The Spirit anyone?

Listening to: Frou Frou - Breath In

Happy End of the Year

Well, welcome to 2009. I spent New Year's with a small group of good friends to ring in the new year. We gathered at a friend's place, made dinner, and then joined the Skytrain Party. We just missed the train by two minutes, so we had to rendezvous with the party train in Burnaby.

The party filled up two joined Millennium Train cars. The Carnival Band played as we danced and sang. We sang Morning Train, counted down from 10 and yelled Happy New Year at each stop, and finished our finale at Waterfront Station.

We returned to the house to continue the festivities. It was great to connect with everyone, some of which I had not seen since the end of summer.

I would like to wish everyone good health, prosperity and happiness for 2009!

 

Have I Told You Lately

I love this music video?

Naive New Beaters - Live Good




PS: F-U Warner Music for demanding YouTube pay you for production views, not getting your way, and pulling all your content. When we view it online, we keep it alive.

Guess what? We are going to boycott you official posts.