my mind has been rearranged

oh lordy me, i can NOT stop listening to this song. i heard it last week on absolute radio and it may just become my soundtrack song for the summer (if summer ever comes to vancouver!)

who knew that the last of the shadow puppets' miles kane would grab a hold of me like this? normally, i would've fallen under the other puppets' frontman alex turner's musical spell. i am, after all, an arctic monkeys' fan. or couldn't you tell from all my fan-girling here, here and here?



although miles kane is the co-frontman of the last of the shadow puppets, alex turner was always the more visible one. (although miles kane does finger pick a mean guitar).



but both were on equal footing with a favourite song of mine from my trip to london in 2008:



but now with this rearrange song, i might have to reconsider. even if the bass/drums/cymbals sound a wee bit reminiscent of peter bjorn and john's young folks. still, colour me wowed.

the museum of me

bravo intel for coming up with this brilliant interactive video exhibition: the museum of me. giving permission to the intel app to connect through your facebook allows the mining of your images and words and curates them into a gorgeous exhibit worthy of any museum. what an imaginative way to visualize your life online.


entering the virtual museum


my name in block letters


the welcome message


how did the app know? one of my favourite people in the world


the wall of me


listen to my words


robot hands gathering friends' photos


laying those photos down...


...to make a mosaic of me


we are all connected

okay, it could also feel a bit digital "mausoleum-ish" but still a fascinating way to look at one's life. well done intel!

happiness on a book

my friend patrick got a kick out of the cover and sent this over to me. it's a spiritual slash metaphysical slash philosophical book by carlos aleman that can be purchased on kindle. i've never read it but the cover's certainly got my attention.

here's the descripto from amazon:

In the depths of the human heart there is a place, like the bottom of the ocean, where one can look above at the sun sparkling on the surface. The sky seems like a faraway world, stirring the heart and causing it to create a multitude of dramas, both real and imagined. And within these dramas, there are parables, as well as lies that teach us truth. One such simple truth is that perfect love transcends worlds and alternate realities. And one such reality lies with a man named Diego, who aches with love for a woman named Ling.

i may have add this to my summer reading stack.

linkedin with EA

this probably doesn't mean anything to anyone else, but it kinda gave me the thrills.

i saw my name as one of the recent new hires by EA on their linkedin profile.



*ear to ear grin*

who'd you rather be?

the beatles or the rolling stones?

metric's emily haines is canada's coolest rock chick.



the first time i heard of metric was at the 2007 virgin festival on toronto island park. i left new york to come back to vancouver but pit-stopped in toronto to visit friends and catch the 2 day outdoor fest. it was rad. and i normally don't do outdoor music festivals. this one was too hard to pass up though.



the line up on day one was pretty fan-frickintastic:
* paolo nutini
* M.I.A.
* arctic monkeys
* interpol
* bjork

on day 2:
* the clientele
* the cinematics
* editors
* tokyo police club
* metric
* the killers

oh yea, and the smashing pumpkins closed out the festival. meh.

at that time, metric had a hardcore canadian/toronto following. i remember catching their performance and thought to myself, wow, at a festival dominated by male performers, this chicka has stage presence. glad to see that metric is still around.



here's a picture of me standing right outside the dj tent where i was surprise to find my vancouver dj friend working the wheels of steel. on the left is a picture of toronto island park where the virgin fest took place.



and although i think that vancouver is more beautiful in every way compared to toronto, i gotta admit this view of toronto was pretty gorgeous. that is, when you're on the ferry leaving the city centre and heading to toronto island park.

i am an avatar

illustration by roy husada

for landing a job at EA, my old boss christopher asked our friend, manga artist roy husada, to come up with a custom avatar for me. one that i could use on my personal profile in the gaming world. i was totally surprised and absolutely delighted that they went through all this effort to celebrate my new job.

thank you christopher and roy!

i can't believe i have my very own avatar. this is me!

miss weeble wobble

here are things i know:

i can't read in a moving vehicle

i can't sit in the back of a car if the driver is all jerky stop-and-go or if the brakes are super sensitive and the traffic is bumper to bumper

i can't watch movies employing hand-held camera/camcorder effects like the blair witch project or quarantine. the same goes for whizzy action scenes like the quidditch scene in harry potter. amplified by an imax theatre.

and as for spinning right round, baby right round, forget it. no playground tires and no pirouetting for me.

all these things will give me motion sickness. although, i have no problems traveling in an airplane or by eurail trains.

things i learned about myself the past couple of weeks:

i have a problem not only watching someone play first person video games, but also playing it. looks like i'm also susceptible to simulation sickness.

i get stricken with landsickness aka reverse seasickness, where my body has adapted to the pitches and rolls of the sea, but when i get back on land, it's like i'm drunk and can't stop swaying on the inside. not quite the "drunken sailor walk", but alarming still cuz i'm trying so hard to not feel discombobulated. funny, that i've never gotten sick on water. just when i'm back on terra firma.

damn that disconnect between the eyes and the inner ear. the fluid in the ear senses the movement, but the eyes may not. therefore, bodily conflict sets in and as a response, you feel like you want to hurl. or in my case, the feeling of instability.

the first time that happened was after the simplicity sailing for sean's birthday. everything was fine. sean and i went to mother's day dinner afterwards and in the middle of eating spotted prawns, i felt like i was going to fall off my chair. i spent the rest of dinner, with a frozen smile and a psychotic look on my face, trying my damndest to concentrate on all the conversations going on while aiming to be absolutely still.

the second time was after coming off the one-day re-positioning cruise. the fact that it was a luxury cruiseship with massive stabilizers did nothing to prevent the woozies. the cushiony vans shoes that i was wearing added to that "i'm going to fall over any minute" feeling. i took it like baby-steps, walking around and taking lots of sit-down + water breaks before meeting up with steve and tam.

it takes a good sleep for my equilabrium to get back to normal. i'm lucky cuz for some people, it could take up to a week for the debarkation sickness to subside. or worst case scenario: the brain never seems to re-adapt, which can mean years of that rocking motion. i don't EVEN wanna imagine.

long-haul flights and jet lag makes me feel similarly so, especially if i've deprived myself of sleep. i remember going to london my first time and staying up to the evening to sync my schedule with local time. and i didn't sleep on the plane, so i was probably going almost 30 hours without sleep. i was in the shower when that tipping feeling suddenly came over me. i hustled out of the shower and got into bed immediately, fearing that i would "timber" face-first and ass up onto the bathroom tiles. a few hours later when i woke up, the world had stopped spinning.

and now, i've discovered spending 4 hours on the amtrak can also get me feeling loopy. i don't understand why, as it's never affected me on any of the eurail trains or the chunnel that i've ridden on. could it be that the amtrak was more windy, running along the coastline and super heavy on the rocking from side-to-side motion? the eurail trains were for the most part on a straight-away. or maybe i was still not totally recovered from being on the boat the day before and the train ride just messed me up more? i got home and even laying still, i couldn't stop the rocking motion. sorta like not being able to stop the spins after a drunken night.

so what to do? i may have to invest in some sea-bands or ginger pills. (no drugs please) or being the masochist that i can be, try going on the amtrak again (without any motion sickness aides) and see if that reaction was a one-off or if i do have to add that to the above list.

big time suckage.

given my track record and that it's common amongst astronauts, i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say i'd probably be susceptible to space sickness as well.

sea-town weekend

waking up the next morning after the ms amsterdam docked, i was greeted with this view:



a nice view, right?

after the back-to-back cruise fails, i was happy to get back onto land. then i found that i was stricken with landsickness. (more on that later). hoping that the "swaying on the inside" would subside soon, i taxi'd downtown to spend the day there before meeting up with my friends, steve and tam after work.

first stop was riding the monorail to the nearby experience music project|science fiction museum (EMP|SFM). not to worship at the altar of nirvana and grunge music's permanent collection, but to see the battlestar galactica exhibition. oh yeaaaa.



the exhibit, which runs until march 4, 2012, features:

* 3 full size spaceships: viper mark 2, viper mark 7 and a cylon raider
* 15 costumes
* dozen props, concept sketches and storyboards
* exhibition films and interactives

it wasn't very crowded on the friday afternoon, so it was fairly easy to see everything close up. i'd totally recommend going if you're a BSG fan.

another exciting little tidbit to mark on the calendar: avatar exhibit is coming in june!

after the EMP|SFM, i headed over to chinatown. well, specifically maynard street to check out the seattle pinball museum.



a museum that features pinball machines? this absolutely thrilled the teenage girl in me who used to go to the arcades after school. admission is $7 but that gets you unlimited pinball play on all the machines. the owner was nice enough to let me take pictures as i didn't have time to play and was on my way to meet steve and tam.



there was a very cool twilight zone pinball machine that i would've loved to play, as well as one on space invaders, the simpsons, flash gordon, the rolling stones and yes, johnny mnemonic (to name but a few)

so many pinball machines, so little time! i felt like a kid in a candy store.

i have GOT to come back here next time i'm in town.

press play to see pictures or click here for my flickr.

the love boat it's not

cruise virgin no more, here are my thoughts from the one day cruise to seattle i went on last weekend.

the good:


the ms amsterdam is a beautiful cruiseship


a suite with my very own private verandah


watching tv from my queen sized bed


turn down service


in-room dining of bay shrimp cocktail with cocktail sauce, smoked atlantic salmon with pickled red onion, capers and cream cheese, caesar salad and seared salmon steak with broccoli florets, carrots and country mashed potatoes

the bad:

* missing bathrobe from my stateroom. i had to hunt down a steward in the hall to get me one.

* no access for the passengers to any of the books in the library cuz we were overnight passengers.

* 8pm cut-off time for their complimentary shipflicks (1000+ dvd rentals) cuz we were overnight passengers. no notice of the restriction whatsoever. i only found out about that "rule" when i called at around 830pm.

* missing a blanket from my stateroom. i had to call guest services twice to get a blanket. the first time to put in the RQ and the second time cuz half an hour later, i still did not receive it. (they had lost my RQ in the queue)

* a mess-up of on my midnight snack order of apple tart with whipped cream, an apple and crackers. not only did they not bring me an apple tart, but it took 45 mins to arrive. when i called back to advise them of their mistake, i was on hold for nearly an hour because their lines were jammed beyond belief and they were completely overwhelmed with midnight orders.

* massive delay in getting me the in-room breakfast which i had pre-booked the night before. i was suppose to be service breakfast before disembarkation between 8am-830am but it did not arrive until 8:50. i was in the group which was scheduled to disembark between 9am-930am.

although the cruise staff were all congenial, they were completely unprepared and halpless for the 1000 or so people that boarded in vancouver for this one day re-positioning cruise.

a big huge fail.

i'm not a cruise expert, but i would hope that this is not the usual cruise experience. as a first time cruise passenger, i have to say that this definitely fell short of my expectations. i'm not saying that i would never cruise again, but it may be a while before i try it again.

the ship and my room were definitely swank though. press play for the slideshow or click here for my flickr.

sail away with me

for sean's birthday gift, i had booked a charter boat and invited some of his closest friends to join us for an afternoon of sailing. it wasn't until last sunday morning before he came to pick me up for brunch that i told him what i had in store for just the two of us. neither of us had sailed before so i thought it would be something sean would enjoy. perhaps even more so when he would find his friends, who helped keep it super secret the past couple of weeks, there too.

when we got down to coal harbour to meet the S.V. simplicity, sean was surprised to see dustin, kristina, blackwell and jen sitting in the boat.

"what are my friends doing here?!"

i loved that i psyched him out, letting him think it would just be us on the boat and when we were walking down the gangplank, i could sense a wee bit of disappointment in his voice when he saw the other people from afar, realizing maybe it wouldn't be so private after all.

i got him good.

the one thing i was nervous about was if the weather would hold. days before it was pouring buckets with no end in sight. i was even worried that sean's surprise gift would have to be re-scheduled. and if it was jut us, that would've been fine, but there's 4 people's schedule to think about. in the end, it worked out fine. yes, the day started out cloudy and cool, but ended up sunny.



we set sail on a 3 hour tour around, sailing from coal harbour, under the lions gate bridge, around stanley park and into english bay. when we got out to english bay, our skipper jeremy taught us how to put up the sails and how to steer. it was amusing that blackwell thought that our skipper bore a resemblance to arrested development's will arnett. yes, he was a little gob bluth-ish in looks and demeanour now that we think about it. not dissing, we all love arrested development.


come on!

blackwell also joked that if something should "happen" to the skipper, we could sail the boat to hawaii. cuz we could get there on a 28 ft boat, right?

and now for some pictures:


sailor sean


kristina and dustin taking the wheel


blackwell and jen keeping warm under the blankets


see sean doing the steve zissou. see me attempting not ever having seen the life aquatic before. i look more like baseball players doing the homerun point.


the obligatory group shot

it was indeed a fun day filled with waves, friends, great conversation and cornball laughs. happy birthday sean!

for more pictures, press play or click here for my flickr.

i'm the king of the world

i never fancied myself as a cruise type person. i'm way too active when travelling, preferring to go this way and that, whenever and wherever i please and not feel like i'm confined to a cabin on a ship. in the middle of an ocean. with thousands of other people. dining with hundreds of people. watching some "love boat" type entertainment with hundreds of people. playing shuffleboard or other promenade games with hundreds of people. with no sign of land for a couple of days between port.

yet here i am, going on a ship this thursday. granted, it's only a one day pacific coast re-positioning cruise from vancouver to nearby seattle. which is the very reason why i'm giving cruising a try. i'm not resigned to be trapped on a boat for days at a time.

my friend kimli did the reverse one day cruise last year and absolutely raved about her experience. and at the cost of a one night stay in a hotel, the price was fairly reasonable for an adventure.

my cruise cherry will be lost to holland america. the ms amsterdam will set sail from canada place at 6pm and embark in seattle the following morning. for $130 plus taxes, i got myself a suh-weet verandah suite. for my first time out, there's no way i'm going to get stuck in an inside cabin with no windows. even if it is just for 13 or 14 hours.

at approximately 340 sq. ft., the verandah suite offers floor to ceiling windows, 1 queen size bed, whirlpool bath & shower, sitting area, mini-bar, refrigerator, oversized bath towers, fresh flowers, complimentary DVD library, personalized cruise stationery, a variety of firm, medium and soft pillows and a PRIVATE verandah.


where i'll be laying my head


living space with my own private verandah. and deck chairs

but it's just not the suite that i'm impressed with. the rest of the ship looks just as gorgeous.


the atrium brings to mind the titanic movie


main dining room. i wanna dine at the captain's table


queens lounge. lounge singers or vegas type showgirls?


the lido pool. almost too pretty to swim in


the sea view pool. swim and see the ocean at the same time


i just may have to indulge myself at the thermal suite


i'm not really a hot tub person, but if it looks like this, then hell ya

there's also a movie theatre, a casino, a fitness centre and a number of restaurants, lounges and bars for my enjoyment.

yes, this does get me excited. but will it make me a convert? the verdict's still out on that one.

once in seattle, i'm going to be doing the touristy thing. i've been to seattle countless times: checked out concerts, shopped at westlake mall, walked pike place market, caught a mariners game at safeco field, hung out around broadway or around UW. but i've never been to the museums, so that's what i'm going to do. then i'll meet up with some friends and their kidlets and spend the evening with them.

sounds like a plan! i'm looking forward to some adventures. and if celine dion's 'my heart will go on' invades my head like an earworm, then so be it.

photo credit: holland america

unemployment by the numbers

everyone's different but here's how it went down for me:

position at the VO eliminated in mid-february. and the reason why

10 weeks of (f)unemployment.

landed a 2 month contract consulting gig for an arts organization.

enrolled in 1 more course needed to complete my communications certificate.

approximately 40 resumes sent out.

made 7 new contacts to keep under my hat.

7 interviews (2 of which were informational)

2 competing job offers.

one decision.

as of next monday, i will be a community manager with electronic arts.

and i couldn't be more excited.

the lovers of the heart

a loverly cover of rod mckuen's the lovers by the arctic monkeys for this sunday morning. i do seem to have a thing for these arctic monkeys, don't i?