TamenoBlog

sayonara, internet!

2007-11-21T21:11:00.000-05:00

So I think I'm gonna shut this puppy down, due to many factors: I'm busy, I'm lazy, nothing to blog about, the whole blogging fad has gone dry... anyways it was fun while it lasted, and its a good time to end it as the infamous tamenobu domain will expire next month, probably to be claimed by some domain squatter selling viagra or debt consolidation... but don't feel bad, I may return to blogging in some other form, someday.

Long Overdue

2007-08-01T11:08:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone?? So what's up with me... where to start? OK so I finally finished school!!! [does happy dance] So now I'm just enjoying the rest of the summer off, until I start work in September. I haven't had this kind of time off since before I started school, so its almost weird that I have nothing to do! Well, I do have lots of stuff to do because I put off so much stuff while I was in school. For example, I cleaned my room for the first time in a year, went to the dentist recently, cleaning/fixing up my parents' cottage, and have been doing tons of family-related things etc. I don't have any vacation plans this summer, I think I'll just be within T.O. for the next while, which is fine because there's always tons of stuff to do here!

Other news (as you might have guessed from the photo) is I gots me a girlfriend! Somehow I was lucky enough to be able to start dating her during my busy/stressful school schedule, and its been over three months so far and all's well. She's Japanese, a hair stylist, and looooves Gachapin, a japanese kids tv show character who looks like a green marshmallowy...thing and has energy balls on his hands that give him superpowers AND courage! Check out Gachapin's blog! (its in Japanese but pictures/audio tell all you need to know) He's so cool that he was even featured in the Killers video Read My Mind:

Anyways, I'm also kind of busy working on some freelance web projects, so I may have to ignore this blog a little while longer. I may surprise once in a while with a post or two, we'll see. I also blog on a Japanese social networking facebook-like site called mixi.jp which is also keeping me busy. So if you're a mixi user, let's be friends!

やったぁ～！！

2007-05-26T21:25:00.000-04:00

This is my congratulatory cake for getting a developer position! It's not exactly a web developer job, in fact from the job description I'm not exactly sure what the job will be, but it will involve some form of programming. It's only a 4 month internship, but at least it gives a decent salary and it usually leads to a permanent or contract position so I'm excited! I guess I didn't do as poorly in the interview as I thought?

Anyways I'm still annoyingly busy with school work, but it should all be over with by the end of June. Then I'll have two months to finally relax, before starting to work in September.

Interview

2007-05-22T23:40:00.001-04:00

Today I had a job interview with a major bank, for an internship position as a developer. The interview was over an hour long! There wasn't any testing either, just straight questioning, behavioural-type questions, which I answered OK, but not great, and then came the technical questions, which I had little knowledge about, since most of them were about JAVA, which I haven't used much in the program I'm in right now. I wasn't feeling so good after the interview, but luckily others who did the interview as well also didn't feel good either. So, anyways, I'll find out about the job by Friday! At least my preparation for the interview is over, and now I can just worry frantically if I have a job or not, and try to get my assignments done in the meantime.

P.S. If you want to see some of the stuff I've been working on in the past year, click on the banner link above to my online portfolio!

I'm Not Dead! (sweeps the dust bunnies away)

2007-04-05T10:04:00.000-04:00

OK yeah it almost seemed like this thing was done like dinner. This blog isn't dead, but haven't had much motivation to post since my nice restful winter break and then back into hardcore schooling. It's still snowing, hockey playoffs are about to begin, and this semester is only 3 weeks away from completion. I'm looking for internship positions for the summer, and trying to have more of a life this semester than I did last semester, which was pretty much all school and no play.

Things are looking good as I finish up this semester, the weather (despite today's) is looking much better and verging on spring-like. I'll be going out for Korean food tonight, some bibimbap or gamjatang, something hot & spicy! (^.^)/

Other news: for those of you who know my dad, he has gone off again to Myanmar, to mediate for who knows how long, he's said it could be as long as 3 years. I want to show some of his photos he took while he was there last year, but they're all film prints so it'll take some scanning time to accomplish this. They are amazing, and makes me wanna get out there and start shooting again...someday. I gave my Nikon D-SLR to him for his trip, so it'll force me to use his film equipment, which I hope to prove that film isn't quite dead yet. Maybe once Toronto's hanami rolls around, I'll try using my dad's Leica. Paul is still working hard at school studying wireless telecom. My dog Shiro is still alive! しろはまだ元気に生きてる～！He'll be 15 years old come September.

It's Over!... For Now

2006-12-15T20:24:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't written in a while. I was just a bit pre-occupied with a little something I like to call 'school of torture'. In the past few months, this masochistic torture school has given me many a long night while frantically working away on projects, and since this week was exam week, I've since stopped sleeping, and have learned how to just take 2 hour 'naps', if necessary. I've also drank more coffee than ever before, which has given me some stomach pains, I've been waking up from the power naps with massive headaches, and over all, stressed and burned out beyond belief.

But now, I can finally rest!!! I can do things like sit down and not rush through eating my food, take my dog for a walk, maybe even watch some TV. In fact now is the first time that I've had free time with nothing important to do to keep me on my toes. In fact, I don't even know what to do with my time right now.

Although, this xmas break is going to just fly right by and as soon as I blink, I'll be back for another long, tortuous semester at this 'hell' school. It doesn't help that I'm sick of the school itself, and I spend all day and night here working for classes and my job. It's been quite an experience so far, and will be starting a great career come summer time, but just wish it didn't require soooo much of my time that I can't have any kind of a life. This has been the hardest I've ever worked, at anything, in my life!

Well, I hope to make up for my lack of posts, by updating this site a bit more often during my holidays, as well maybe even spruce up this site that has been due for an upgrade. Now that I'm a PHP master, I should be able to do that in no time... the problem is I might not want to even look at a computer screen for the next while :P

The Dog Days

2006-11-16T15:30:00.000-05:00

Always tired..... typing and typing.... and typing.... uploading... testing.... staring at computer screens..... must meet deadlines..... stressful times..... team member drops out.... workload increases..... other classmates drop out... competition higher.... group tensions rise... bags under my eyes.... 2 hrs. sleep.... must go to work.... catch the bus.... eat something..... no time.... coffee intake increases..... caffeine loses effect.... what day is it today? ... how many days until xmas vacation?.... want to be lazy again.

Every moment of rest cherished.... but where are they?

....

Got 110% on a project today.... its not all bad.

Duh-duh duh duh duh DUH! (Super Mario theme)

2006-10-27T21:28:00.000-04:00

Right now I'm working the graveyard shift at my school's computer lab, and there's very few people here for me to 'help', so I just sit in front of a computer and usually try to do my homework, but once my limited attention span fails me, I need to stimulate the ol' noggin sometimes. So being glued to my desk with full access to the internet, I've found the perfect way to get my emulated-Nintendo fix, with this web-based NES emulator. Click the pic above to see how you too can have some Super Mario 3, Blades of Steel or Super Tecmo Bowl fun, all with just your web browser (and java)! Hopefully this site will be around at least until the end of the school year... but I doubt it.

P.S. I was at a party last weekend and met people who actually didn't know what a blog or YouTube is. These kind of people DO still exist!

Projects

2006-10-20T19:10:00.000-04:00

Here's a link to a graphic design project I had to do for school that I slapped together in about 2 days. It's for my Javascript class, but there's no Javascript used in it. It also doesn't use any server-side programming. So, it's pretty much useless. Let's just say we were forced to do this project because there's maybe 10% of people in the class who have never made a website before, and they needed the experience.

I based the site on what I wish I could be doing RIGHT now, snowboarding in Aomori! But I'm not sure when I'll be able to do that again.

Anyways, sorry I know this may seem just like 'filler' content for this site, but I'm sooooo busy as you know; finished just half of my midterms, and REAL web projects like shopping sites and intranets due soon. I need a time-stopping device so I can just sleep in and relax without having anything due soon...

No Rest for the Wicked

2006-10-03T20:31:00.000-04:00

So I'm becoming busy "2 da EXTREME", with no end in sight beyond piles and piles of school projects and midterms, on top of the twice weekly 'quizzes' I have to cram for that are more like tests. I dunno, I think if a quiz lasts 40 minutes, and has 25+ questions in it, it shouldn't be called a quiz! But so far I'm enjoying the classes and am doing pretty well, basking in my first 100% score on an ASP 'quiz', and doing excellent in all other courses.

But I am feeling the time crunch in having 20 hrs. of class a week, study time, having a part-time job, AND have something of a life. This is probably the busiest I've ever been in my whole life, and coming off of the slacker mode I was in beforehand has not helped one bit. I guess its the karma of laziness coming back to get me, and then some.

Arrgh, I guess this means my never-ending procession of Euro-photos will be delayed even further, but in a few weeks I should have a tiny ounce of time to devote to this webspace. OK back to churning out code....

Prague-tastic!

2006-09-24T20:25:00.000-04:00

Prague, Czech Republic

I spent 6 days in Prague, Czech Republic, in this hostel which wasn't too bad, except that it wasn't in a downtown location, and the area it was in was ghetto-ish. They did give me a complimentary beer as I checked in, and it's true what they say that the beer in Czech Rep. is both cheap AND great-tasting. It's very frothy, so usually pours from the tap take a long time, but its worth the wait.

My German friends Nina and Ingo eventually came to Prague as well, since Nina was meeting up with her Canadian cousin and his friends... good timing! But the first part of this trip I spent on my own, taking hundreds of photos a day it seemed. I fit right in though as there were so many other tourists here, for the World Cup, presumably. Nina had lived in Prague for a short time, so she took us to some great restaurants and pubs, and I had more than a good time!

I also made a bunch of friends in the hostel, mostly Brits and Mexicans it seemed. One British couple I met, told me a nightmare of a story where they were accosted by a 'ticket cop' on the metro. You see, in many places in Europe, you are supposed to buy a ticket to ride on a bus or train but you don't have to show it to the driver. All you do is get it time stamped in a machine that's on the bus. But if some ticket cop asks to see your ticket, you'd better have one or else a heavy fine is levied. So anyways, the Brit couple got stopped and showed their tickets, but the cop said that their tickets were invalid even though they knew they stamped it. They got their British embassy involved but they couldn't help them, and the cop took away one of their driver's licenses... luckily they didn't have their passports on them or else they'd be SOL. Nothing like that happened to me but I was checked for having a ticket multiple times, so I think if you look touristy (i.e. non-Yugoslavic and/or backpack-toting), don't try to ride the bus for free cos you'll be pressing your luck!

But even though I had a good time in Prague, six days might've been a bit too long of a stay, considering I needed an entire day off just to get over a hang-over and still saw just about everything in my guidebook. But this part of my trip was really memorable, probably one of the top 3 places I went to in Europe. I'll always remember Prague's retro-futuristic subway stations, looooooong escalators, and good beer! I was disappointed in the myth that Czech Rep. has the most beautiful women - not that they didn't have any, but I was far more impressed with Budapest's selection! More on that in a future post.

Click here to see the Prague photo album!

Back To School

2006-09-12T20:33:00.000-04:00

Just like my 80's comedy hero Rodney Dangerfield, I've officially gone back to school. Last week was mostly introductions to courses and getting adjusted to the early class starts and such. So far the things taught in class have been a bit slow for my level of web design and programming, but the courses should pick up speed in the next few weeks. I'm pretty glad that this college program uses recent, practical technology as opposed to stuff I used in university. In some of my computer science courses at uni, I had to learn useless programming languages from the 1970's just because the 70's was when all professors stopped learning anything new and just stuck with what they knew. COBOL, Fortran, Assembler, C and Pascal ring any bells anyone? Now I'll be learning how to make practical applications with all of the .NET languages, PHP 4/5, JSP, Ajax, MySQL 5, SQL Server 2005, Oracle 10g, i.e. languages/programs that companies actually use and which are on the cutting edge of web technology. University was good for studying about algorithms and theoretical programming, but I should have done a practical post-graduate course like this one right after university! Although I think if I did that, then I never would have experienced living abroad and the whole teaching thing so of course I still have no regrets ;) But the practical knowledge I'll gain and portfolio I'll build from attending 1 year of college will outweigh many other alternatives.

So for anyone considering returning to school after a lot of bumming around the world, and going for a Master's degree of something you're not sure will amount to anything, give college a look!

Germany: Berlin / Dresden

2006-09-03T10:21:00.000-04:00

Berlin, Germany: Inside the Reichstag

Continuing on with my European photo journal; from Dortmund I travelled to Berlin, which is about 5 hours east by car. I didn't take a train or bus to get there, instead I did what the Germans do by using the mitfahrgelegenheit.de car-pooling website. Its a free site that allows you to search for anyone travelling from A to B, and gives you their phone number and e-mail to contact them and hitch a ride for a small fee. This might sound a bit weird and unsafe-sounding, but it worked out for me (at least for this time), and I was told that many Germans use this system for travel with no problems. There were other travellers along for the ride to chat with as well; a German girl, a Cameroon guy, and a very stoner-like teenage driver. Although the car was jam-packed, it was a fun experience. The Cameroon guy didn't like the driver though in the end, as he dropped us all off in a
suburb of Berlin rather than downtown, which is where the Cameroon guy needed to be in order to catch a flight that evening and we were running very late. Basically this carpool service is unreliable - the stoner punk arrived at the meeting point 1/2 hr. late in this case, he accidentally over-booked for one seat so he had to turn away one girl who needed a ride, and basically ignored the Cameroon guys' need to be dropped off a little closer into town, even though he said he was driving into Berlin. I booked another carpool to travel to Dresden and though I arranged everything with a non-english speaking German, I know I was in the right place to meet but he never showed up! I called his cellphone but he wasn't picking up. So a warning to those who wanna use this service: don't count on it if you're catching a flight! It was very cheap though, I probably saved more than 50% of the cost of a train ride.

Anyways, Berlin was a really cool and happening city to be in. I was only there for 2 full days, which definitely was not enough time to see everything. 3-4 days would've been worth it. I ended up only scratching the surface of tourist sights like the Reichstag, Brandenburg Tor and the Berlin Wall ruins. The transit system was VERY efficient and clean, rivaling anything in Japan. We can only dream of having a similar transit system in the T-dot.

Dresden (in East Germany) is in stark contrast to ultra-modern Berlin, is very traditional and keeps its old style architecture and personality. You can see cobblestone roads, antiquated Soviet-era cars that are still running, and the old town district was really nice and not heavily crowded with World Cup tourists. I stayed for only one night, and that was good enough for me but I'm sure I missed out on a lot that the city had to offer.

Click the photo above to see what I saw in Berlin and Dresden! Or else click here if you've had enough scroll wheel exercise today.

Germany: Bochum / Dortmund

2006-08-15T21:30:00.000-04:00

@Goldkante in Bochum, Germany (click on image for the photo album:)

After my 2 days in Amsterdam, I was ready to go to Germany and see some of the World Cup craziness first-hand. I took a 5 hour Eurolines bus into Dortmund which was much cheaper than taking a train and wouldn't have been much faster anyways. I arranged to stay with a German girl named Nina, who is a cousin of an old high school friend of mine. I'd never met Nina, but we corresponded through email and it worked out perfectly in the end.

She showed me around the Bochum region, which used to be a working-class area of primarily coal mining and steel mills, and although the region is not as active in mining these days, the people still strongly hold onto their working-class culture. Most of what I saw wouldn't be considered very touristy: abandoned steel mills, coal mining areas, large silos, etc. but that's what I appreciated about this part of my trip, which was that it wasn't touristy at all. I mostly spent time with Nina and her family and friends, and getting to be a part of her day-to-day life. I played soccer and table tennis in the park, watched soccer games at the bar Nina and her friends worked at, and drank good German beer everyday while in Bochum.

In the photo album I made, you probably won't see too many exciting things, but I really had a good time in Bochum and made some good friends there so hopefully you'll be able to appreciate that in the pics. It was all thanks to Nina and her kindness to someone she'd never met before. I would meet her again in Prague a week later, as she planned to go there at the same time as me. But the next destination for me would be Berlin, where I had an excellent time! (the next album will come shortly, promise!)

Amsterdaaaaam!!!

2006-08-01T11:54:00.000-04:00

Schipol Airport, Amsterdam (click on image for the photo album:)

I've processed the first batch of photos for you from my trip to Europe, starting with this first album from the two days I spent in Amsterdam. Or should I say Amsterdaaaaam!!! This is indeed Europe's Sin City, with marajuana being 100% legal, easy access to other forms of drugs (I was offered cocaine, exctasy, and even viagra by various street people). Coffee shops are not for coffee, but for smoking your joints, and their 'cafes' are what they call their pubs. I have no idea where the Dutch go for coffee and a donut though. The red light district was by far the most interesting part of Amsterdam, and surprisingly very touristy. In fact, the whole town was full of tourists, so I didn't quite feel like I was in Europe yet. And, since I don't do drugs, and wasn't going to pay for sex shows, the place got quite old after two nights. Amsterdam is very small and walkable, and very flat so bicycles are the primary form of transport there. So if you like seeing bicycles, and canals, this is the place for you. Personally, the town was cool, but I was ready to get out of dodge by the 2nd day, mostly because my hostel was pretty ghetto, and had some weirdos staying there, so not condusive for socializing. The only social thing going on in that hostel were bible study sessions (it's a Christian hostel). Everything was expensive there too, with a slice of pizza costing 6 euros, and pretty much every toilet in the city costs 0.50 euros to use, which got annoying after a while. So if you're an innocent boy like me, I'd recommend to stay there just for a night if you've got better places to be. I just flew there just because it was the cheapest way to Europe from Toronto.

But being in Amsterdam during the World Cup was very cool, with tons of outdoor big screens set up and everyone dressed in neon-orange to support their Dutch squad. It was extra special to be there when the Netherlands won a match and watching the neon-orange celebration in the redlight district was exciting, and entertaining to see all the drunks party it up. I got a lot of great photos here, which was what made up for the crappy hostel. I just walked around, got lost and wandered until I'd see something interesting, so in some of the photos I had no idea what it was that I shot. My Lonely Planet Europe on a Shoestring guide book was too heavy to carry around all day and really didn't read it, so I may have missed some great sites, but oh well. Better to go on an aimless wandering adventure than let a guide book tell me what to do, I say.

Anyways enjoy the pics!

I Survived 30 Days in Yurp

2006-07-18T18:00:00.000-04:00

So, my European vacation is now over! After 30 days of riding buses, trains, carpools and planes (the carpools bit will be explained later) all over the European Union, I can say with certainty that the solo backpacking adventure was a success and although what ended up being a pricey one, was an unbelieveable time. Many people I met during the trip asked me where was the best place I'd been, and the answer was that it was too difficult to pick just one place. The thing that made for a good time in any place though was the people I met and hung out with, not just the sights.

I started in Amsterdam for 2 days (but one night would've been enough), then to Bochum where I stayed with my high school friend's cousin Nina (who I never met before) for 5 days, then to Berlin (3 days), Dresden (1 day), Prague (6 days), Vienna (3 days), Budapest (3 days), Ljubljana (3 days), Trieste and Venice (in 1 day), flew to London (1 day), then flew to Dublin (2 days).

But, to narrow down the best places? Bochum (Western Germany) for my assimilation into Germanic life thanks to Nina, Berlin - just a really cool city, Prague - very old, beautiful city, although heard a lot of tourist horror stories from there, Budapest - for their awesome thermal baths, outdoor nightclubs, and beautiful Hungarian women, Ljubljana (Slovenia) - a quiet, artistic town (and a relatively unknown location to the tourist hoards), and finally Dublin was awesome, indeed! I wished I could've stayed longer... And, being in Deutschland, and even in Europe during the World Cup was incredible, I didn't go to a match but it didn't matter. I didn't see enough of London to comment, but the pound is killer so I was glad to stay only for a night, and Venice was waaaaaaaaay too touristy to even seem like a real city, more like a themepark so I was also glad to stay there just for a night.

For photography, Europe was a dream location to be in. I ended up taking more than 3000 shots, so you can imagine how long it's gonna take to sort through and post the best ones. All I did was look around and there were a dozen potential pics to take, so a lot of times I was even being conservative with taking photos, at least I tried to be. Anyways, now I'm back in the T-dot, sweating to 35 degree heat, and have a cold due to the sneezing idiot beside me in the plane. Photos and some more detailed commentary on the trip to come soon, after I recover!

I-TAL-IA!!! (Day 25 of the trip)

2006-07-09T17:16:00.000-04:00

Well, I am NOT in Italy now (unfortunately due to my bone-head move of not going to Venice today) but watched the final Worldcup match just outside of my hostel at the outdoor bar, where Italy won against France in penalty kicks. The game's highlight wasn't the shootout though, but Zizou's swan song head-butt to the Italian player's chest. The French are indeed dirty. I'm sure that video clip will be replayed on youtube forever. Man, I would love to be in Venice right now, but oh well. It's still a treat to be in Slovenia, where the ice cream stands are as common as water here, and the great scenery with the Julian Alps backdrop have made for some great photo ops. And, not many tourists here, surprisingly (maybe they're all in Venice though).

Anyways, I'll be in Trieste for breakfast, then in Venice tomorrow (maybe not too late to soak in some worldcup winning atmosphere, perhaps), then jaunt off to jolly-ol' London for a day, then to Dublin for only a day point five, then home. I'm rushing through this last stretch due to spur-of-the-moment i.e. bad planning, but it should still be a good last few days. The trip's almost done!

3.46 a.m.

2006-07-06T21:50:00.000-04:00

It's 3:46 a.m. here, at my new hostel in Ljubljana, Slovenia. I've been to lots of places since the last post: From Prague, I went to Vienna, which I'd give a so-so rating as far as touristy things to do, but anyways had a good time there. The highlight of that part of the trip was taking a photo with a cute Estonian girl who worked at a fast-food joint near my hostel that I'd eat at every day. Then travelled with a newly-made hostel-mate to Budapest, where I had a LOT of fun and would go back there in a heart-beat. What can I say about Budapest; cheap, fun, safe, alive! I stayed there for 3 days, and twice went to their famous thermal baths. In comparison to Japanese onsens, it's at another level, so I'd suggest that the onsen lady make a new onsen book for Hungary. Anyways, I took a night train here from Budapest, and arrived at an empty train station at 2:30 a.m., and hoped that the hostel I tried booking came through, which was a former prison converted to cell-dorms. It's way too popular though, so they were booked up for 2 weeks, but the guy was nice and arranged for me to stay at the hostel I'm at now, which is pretty nice and centrally located, plus free internet! O.K., time for bed.

Ahoj! from Prague

2006-06-28T13:42:00.000-04:00

In the lovely city of Prague, Czech Republic now. I may have to stay here a bit longer, its way cheaper than Germany, and the beer is indeed great! Some things I have noticed, its very westernized here, today I walked around a big shopping mall in the downtown area, and it was just like the Eaton Centre in Toronto. And, people here really love to root through garbage cans. Who knows what they're looking for exactly, but they have no problem putting their hands deep in the filth. And, buses/trams/subways are free! Well, if you have some luck and don't get caught by the ticket police who randomly check if you have a ticket. Most people seem to never get checked, but I was checked twice yesterday, and nearly was asked a third time. I guess they figure the foreign tourists try to scam this strange honour system for transit, and since I'm very non-Czech-looking, I'm a big target. Racist bastards!

Guten tag!

2006-06-21T04:33:00.000-04:00

I'm writing this from a town in Western Germany called Bochum, and I'm alive and well (well as good as can be having drank beer for a whole week straight). I've made some good friends here, thanks entirely to my friend's cousin Nina who's letting me stay at her place and hanging out with her friends. There's too much to write about my trip so far, so I'll save it for when I can clearly compose my thoughts.

Amsterdam was cool, especially the red-light district, but 2 days there was more than enough for me. The everlasting clouds of pot in the air got sickening after a while. Anyways, I'm off to Berlin today and will try to write again soon.

Beans and Toast

2006-06-13T20:27:00.000-04:00

I went to Scallywags with some dude friends in the early morn' to watch the England vs. Paraguay match, but because of the time differential between Germany and Toronto, I had to get up BEFORE 7 a.m. on a Saturday to be able to make it there and get a seat. Lots of English fans were there decked out in red and white to cheer them on, but other than Paraguay's own-goal, there wasn't much else to cheer for as the game ended 1-0. This excitement just a VERY miniscule taste of what I can expect to see later this week when I'll be in Germany during the World Cup! I leave tomorrow!!!

Since it was early, most of us had the 'soccer breakfast', which contained your usual eggs, bacon, toast, and the ever-popular breakfast item in the UK, beans. My portion of beans was kindly donated to the compost heap though, as those mushy beans aren't a part of my regular diet. I'll never understand how the British can eat that crap and think it tastes good.

We stayed to watch Sweden get nil-nil'ed by Trinidad & Tobago, so the Swedish vikings at the bar spent the rest of the afternoon being... Swedish.

The Toronto Marlies (that OTHER hockey team in Toronto)

2006-06-05T01:21:00.000-04:00

I went to a hockey game in Toronto on Good Friday, at Ricoh Coliseum for the Marlies vs. the Hamilton Bulldogs game. The Marlies are the minor league affiliate to the NHL hockey team in Toronto, the Maple Leafs. Maple Leaf tickets are pretty much impossible to get by conventional means, so you'd have to pay hundreds of dollars for tickets from a seedy scalper standing outside the Air Canada Centre. If you do want these tickets, then these guys are easy to spot, with their dirty dirty ape drapes, pencil moustaches and all-round seedy demeanour.

So going to a Marlies game was great because the seats were affordable ($10), quality of play was nearly NHL calibre and made me realize that if I ever went to a Leafs game and paid $200+ for a ticket, there's no way it would be worth it (especially since the Leafs sucked this year and couldn't even make the playoffs). Anyways I brought my digital SLR camera with me to the game and tried to see if I had any hope of becoming a sports photographer... but in the end I'm not gonna hold my breath. If it's not a mountain or tree I'm shooting, it's just too damn fast for me. For most of the shots, I either just missed the action, or the action was blurred beyond hope. But, I was able to get some decent action pics with the 18-55 kit lens as well as a Tamron 70-300:

Attacking the goalie

Fight! Fight!

Being Good Friday, this guy brought the Easter Bunny for luck - it worked, as the Marlies won the game.

Afterwards I went out drinking with some various asian friends. A great night indeed!

Toronto -> Amsterdam -> (many places) -> Dublin -> Toronto

2006-05-22T00:38:00.000-04:00

The progress since the last post: I bought the tickets to Euro-land (finally). This happened a week ago through some hurried phone calling to some budget travel agencies, when on the first place I tried, they gave me a very good price but I waited a few days to mull it over and the price jumped up by over $100! I decided not to go with exitnow.ca's price at that time since I figured I could find something better, and also the lady on the phone was painfully, irritatingly unhelpful and also put me on hold twice. Luckily I did find something better with another agency (with much better service I might add despite their cheap-sounding name) called Selloffvacations.com, so the ticket-buying mission is complete. I'll fly into Amsterdam in mid-June, then return to Canada 30 days later from Dublin. No other details are confirmed so I won't talk about them just yet, but from talking with several other travelled friends and reading up on websites, I'm getting sound advice - including this nugget of info: France: The Bad, Ugly and Smelly article tells of what I can look forward to in France, with the refreshing wafts of B.O. and urine in the midst of the summer heat while trying to avoid dog poo on the streets. Hopefully the French won't mistake me for an American and receive the rude treatment. I'll just have to wow them with my amazing French-speaking ability that I learned in days of yore and say, "Je ne suis pas un cochon americain!" or something along those lines.

Yikes, only 3 weeks away until I leave! Better do some more serious planning and research... Oh and happy Victoria Day!

Little Help?

2006-05-09T12:27:00.000-04:00

An intriguing idea has popped into my head recently, which is that it would be a great time to visit the "Old Continent" and do the solo-adventure backpacking thing. I'm hoping to be in the footie-loving, dart-throwing hooligan-filled areas of Europe during the World Cup of soccer tournament, while indulging in my favourite hobbies of photography and beer-drinking.

I'm in the midst of actually planning this trip, but I really don't know anything about Europe other than the European Vacation movie, and I've almost completely forgotten everything in that movie, other than the Griswold's winning the trip from a gameshow where they wore pig costumes. So a message for any readers: any advice? recommendations? accomodation offers? I've been scanning over travel websites, blogs etc. for info, but they lack the finer details I so desire. I know that World Cup time is gonna be the peak time for tourists, so booking lodging in advance will be key especially in Germany, but how do I deal with money issues? Can I use my debit card in Europe, or else must I rely on VISA? Is the Euro used everywhere now? I'm sure there's many other things I'm missing. Of course I'll keep blogging about planning for this trip as we move along. Ciao!

Some Recent and Random Snaps

2006-04-24T22:52:00.000-04:00

Well actually this particular photo is a pretty old one, and doesn't tell you very much other than that I went to a small concert. The band in the photo is of the Arctic Monkeys, and it was taken way back in November '05, when I went to the $10 concert at Lee's Palace with some other Brit band-loving friends. They didn't even have an album out yet at the time but were already being massively hyped up in the UK as the next 'Oasis' or something like that. They are indeed pretty big now, so I was glad I was able to catch this show while they were still 'un-big'.

Paul moved back to Toronto, and soon after that one of his friends from Hirosaki came for some sightseeing so we did the obligatory Niagara Falls trip. Good weather, albeit still cold as there was still snow/ice in the falls area. We went into the casino and I won $20 from a slot machine, and then ate at the Franken Burger King pictured after walking around the entertainment/tourist-trap district. Some more recent and random photos coming soon.

Photography notes: The first pic had to be heavily Photochopped, because shooting in a very dark hall with a few brightly-lit band members is not an easy thing to do. Using black and white can sometimes make a slightly blurry photo look alright. As for the falls pics, the falls area was (as usual) very misty and I couldn't get a much more clear pic. The mist coming off of the falls feels like a light rain, and fogged up and wetted the lens, so a lot of ruined pics.