Friends are forever :)

Had an awesome night with a few buds, would like to recount it all here for future reference for they've helped me through some tough spots by just being there and hanging out and cheering me up.  Too tired to type atm, but this is a reminder to myself to write this down tomorrow morning after the hangover of course :).  There's nothing a little alcohol can't solve especially in good company.

UPDATE : Dec 31st partying it up with Rob, Maggie, Steve and many other wonderful people celebrating the beginning of another year on the calender :).  Major hangover XD

UPDATE: Jan 1st, hanging out relaxing with Jen, Xin and Joe.  Love you guys :)

Thanks buds,
J

Fish-getarianism already has a word :((

Well, merry Christmas and Happy New Year (in a week).

For 2013, my new year resolution this time around is to forgo my favorite steaks, hamburgers, all the goodness that is BBQ pork, chicken wings !!! OMG and my favorite pork bone soup for 3 months (90 days) of being a vegetarian that eats fish.

Here I thought I was being so sMrT by coining the term Fish-getarian, but apparently that's already been classified as a pescetarian.  Suppose to gain more energy and be less sluggish, so if it's true I may stick to it for a long time.  But after the 3 months I will sometimes still indulge in steak or pork bone soup in small portions for special occasions :).

Along with me for the ride are two close friends who wants to remain nameless so I will leave it at that :).  You know who you are, and honor system on crumbling and eating meat!  $20 for each violation.  We've yet to decide the purpose of the pot as everyone's too cocky to admit they will be the one paying into it haha.  Good luck and good eats to all :), time to research how to be an vegetarian (that eats fish).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pescetarianism

What we take for granted everyday, take care of each other!

Tonight I spent the evening hanging out with my good friends Joe, Jenn and Xin playing some good old fashion board games.  It was extremely entertaining when we added punishments/rules into the mix especially during the classic game Monopoly.

We each wrote down three "dares/rules" on papers and put them into a bowl and every time a player passed "Go", they'd have the option to collect $200 and perform a dare from the bowl or pass "Go" without the customary $200 bonus.

Now here's where it got interesting.  Someone had written a dare/rule that the person must go outside for 30 seconds barefoot.  That one was quite nasty as it's freezing cold and snowing outside.  The worse part of this dare is in that 30 seconds, your opponents are inside collaborating and not paying rent to you.  I had hotels on Boardwalk and Park Place and apparently a few people stayed at my luxurious hotels for free while I freeze my butt off for half a minute numerous occasions.

Another rule that made life difficult and cruel was "keep eyes closed for two whole turns".  We take our sight for granted everyday.  It's what we have, now I much appreciate the fact that I can see, all the wonderful colours, the smiling faces of my family and friends.  Even the pissed off faces of my loved ones when I screw up.

The third rule one that hindered the player was no use of the right hand for the rest of the game.  It really made me appreciate my right arm much more when I lost the use of it for such a long time.  And compounded with the "do 20 push ups rule", that eventually made it more strategically/economically viable to pass "Go" and forfeit the $200 bonus in order not to draw a dare/rule.  Luckily, Jennifer kept landing on $1500 Park Place when I wasn't blind or outside and made me very very wealthy with in game money.

We all learned to be more grateful for all the everyday things we take granted and are just part of our lives.  Our sight, our limbs, sense of smell...  Some people are born without one or more of these senses or capability.  Some people through accidents lose one or more of them.  It's sad, and we all got a small taste of how life would be difficult even for just a few hours without the use of an arm or the ability to see.  I remember a recent client from Red Cross that had difficulty seeing, I now know what's it's like to be like that, even though it was just for a short while.  The uncertainty, the helplessness in the darkness.

It's inspiring that people with disabilities strife to live their life to the best of their abilities, so we the able body should strive to do more for each other because every moment is precious.  You never know what's going to happen tomorrow or the day after.  One of my favorite T.V. shows who's protagonist suffers from a life changing degenerative disease.  She keeps on living her life to the best of her abilities even knowing that some day, she will fall into a coma and slowly slip away.  She never gives up, and writes down her struggles in a diary which gets published and to this day continues to inspire, give hope to patients and families who are affected by the disease.  It's called "One Litre of Tears", check it out :).

Ciao.
J

3 game sweep! Thankful :)

My Thursday night volleyball team has finally won 3/3.  On paper, individually we were all good players, but as a team we still needed to gel.  As the season went on, we improved as a team bit by bit and tonight we played like one, a winner!  I look forward to more competitive vball with my new vball friends in the coming winter season!   Like every aspect in life, it takes time and hard work / practice to become better.  Lets all apply this simple idea to all areas of our lives and make this world better.  I am grateful to be able to spent my time with leisure activities when many in this society have not enough food or shelter.  Millions and Millions around the world are hungry, sick, running for their lives.  I want to thank the universe for giving me all that I have and I want to share this thanks with everyone and hope their lives will improve for the better.

Jack

Bruno Mar's Lazy Song

I love this song, for it rings true with me these days.  But.. can't be lazy and easy going forever.  Time to haul A$$ and get it done.  On the bright side, the wonderful group at Toastmaster 312 has accepted me as an new member :).  Looking forward to improving my public speaking skills and conversational skills.

Dead now after 3rd night of vball this week.  Should be good zZz tonight.  Good night world, may tomorrow be a better day for all of us.  Especially those less fortunate than me.

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply! Willing is not enough; we must do!”

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Hurricane Sandy(sp)

Seems everyone's worried about this one hitting us here in Toronto.  I suppose it doesn't hurt to be prepared.  3 days supplies suggested to be stocked.  That seems excessive since it will only be a category 1 storm when it reaches Ontario.  Best wishes to Eastern USA, be safe and evacuate!

Change

Wednesday night is now Toastmaster's night for me, this was my 2nd guest attendance.  Tonight's table topic was "Change" from table topics to the speeches.  I was able to participate in the table topics portion of the club meeting.  I was asked "if you were given the official title of "tax master" where you set all the rules on taxation, what would you change to our current system?".  The question caught me off guard, there's so many things that needs to be changed and implemented in not only on the local city level, all the way to the federal level here in Canada to build a sustainable society with sound economics based on equality and social justice.  

Of course, I went over the 1 minute time limit, I could of gone on and on all the things I would do to make Canada even more great.  Even the world.  Humans as a species have the capability and resources to live peacefully with our environment and with each other.  Yet the current system is made for a few to have a lot and many to suffer for that.  We as a global entity can eliminate many difficult issues such as war, famine, disease, poverty etc. but the efforts to accomplish such monumental tasks are being diverted for vanity and vain pursuits.  This brings in mind to the future painted by the recent movie Looper all too possible, a grim world filled with crime and the status quo is continued into the second half of this century.

Back on topic now.  Change, I've been going through a lot of changed recently and it at times are all overwhelming.  But I go on with hope and a positive attitude to work hard and when the moments present themselves for happiness and laughter, seize upon them and enjoy.  When sad moments visit, take time to reflect and look within myself, learn from failures and mistakes, so in future challenges and difficult times, an effective way of dealing with them have already been figured out by past experiences.

Time for ZzZ, good night.

OmG half of October is gone!

Soon to be Halloween eeeee!  Where has the time gone?  Too busy to even notice, a good thing :), been doing a lot of concept work.  Time to transfer the ones I like into actual 3D models.  Gonna be a indoor fall/winter this season, hope to get a few snowboarding trips in though!  Ciao for now.

RIP - Reality Check - 2wheels no airbags

Been a rough week for motorcyclist in Toronto.  This morning, some 30 year old died on the Gardiner, somehow managed to smash into the center railing.  I don't know the facts, but the description before the crash sounds like he was breaking in an engine by hard rev'ing different gears and slowing down after.  Speed was a factor as he lost control.

After reading about it at thestar.com, a link to the article below also has speeding as the cause.

I know of this intersection as our softball team played there a couple of times this past Spring and Summer.  It has a stop sign, so the most likely cause of this crash is (in my opinion) the rider was speeding, too fast to stop in time.  It's too bad, he was 24 and at his prime.

So lessen of the day.  Don't speed, I know I do, but I only do it within my comfort zone and according to the conditions.  I know it's never a good idea to go above the posted speed limit, especially since I'm on 2 wheels and 0 air bags, but it can also be argued the other way around.  Safer to go with traffic than impeed it.

RIP - condolenses to their families.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/1255382--motorcycle-driver-dead-after-morning-crash-at-glengrove-and-marlee-aves

No work done today, congratz to Alan and Joanna Kwok on their big day.  Best wishes and have a great honeymoon :).

Today is Labour Day in Canada.  Cheers to all the hard working people out there making this country what it is.  A place of free speech and religious freedom!  O Canada!  Rock On!

Spent the evening at the CNE with a bunch of friends.  Good times and positive energy all around.  I must say, after so many seasons of going to the EX, it's still has it's charms.  Too old for the rides but the games are still lots of fun especially when you share the moments with people that matter.

That's the ending odometer for August 2012, lets see if I can crack 10k this season with some long distance rides up North, especially for mid September to see the leafs change colours :).

Back in action!!

London 2012 was fun.  Now back to business!  Top gear go! :)

18hours till take off.  London 2012 here we come!!

4 more days till I fly across the Atlantic with my friend Frankie to watch some Olympic level badminton and indoor volleyball.  So excited!  Can't wait.  It will the be first time ever I visit Europe, and it won't be the last time!

Been a whirlwind of two months and it's still coming.  Camping next weekend, finally some time away from the city.  And then the week after that... London 2012!  July is packing it on in terms of time away from Toronto.  Will bring my sketch book everywhere and draw anything that catches my eye.

Been a slow week, I feel I should get my 2D drawings into 3D since I've had a block coming up ideas for new design elements for the game project.  Rather I've had a block in motivation on picking up the sketch book and pencil.  There's only so many hours one can look at the pad and add details.  On the bright side, I've gone through an entire pencil and have lots of material to model and show Steven and Rob next Wednesday when we meet up to discuss the progress on art and programming.  Little at a time, momentum is building.  Just have to chip away whenever inspiration comes to me!

J

Gearing up

Making a schedule and sticking to it.  This I must do to accomplish my goals and dreams.  Bought a wall calender to remind myself of weekly goals to achieve and the larger picture 6 months down the road.  A year from now.  Two years from now.  Every journey begins with the first step.  Lets keep walking :)

-J

Easter Badminton

Got out to play this morning with Frankie, Winston and Brian.  Feels good to hold the racquet and break some birds haha.  We must of went through a whole dozen at least.  The best part was AYE Sushi after!  Yummmmy.

Found my sketch books and pens, will do some sketches after dinner. 

Jack

A long detour to realising what I must do with my life

Less is more, lets just say I went on a long journey to discover myself and I finally realized what I must do to make my family happy, my friends happy, and most important of all; myself happy.

As a first post, this blog will be a way for me to keep track of my progress of remaking my 3D art portfolio.

The GOAL is to apply to UbiSoft Toronto by fall 2012.

-zee