the way of nature and the way of grace

my friend robert was so affected by the terrence malick movie, tree of life, that when it finished, he found himself walking from the theatre all the way down to stanley park. that's a fair jaunt. but that's how powerfully profound the movie was for him.

when sean and i watched it a couple of weeks ago, we didn't walk across the cambie bridge and through to the other end of downtown. but that didn't mean it was no less moving for us. we both dislike crowds so we steered away from downtown. but we wanted to go somewhere so that we could process and reflect on the sheer beauty that we had just seen. it was overwhelming and sublime. sean calls malick's movie the closest thing to cinematic poetry. i agree. (and i'm not even a huge malick fan)

but what stood out more for me than the beautifully shot images, was the music. the soundtrack makes my heart wants to cry and leap at the same time. simply amazing.



so where did we go? we followed the old railroad tracks out in the arbutus area. it's a little bit of quiet in the city, i'm sure, unbeknownst to most vancouverites. before that day, i had never even gone there before.




a kindred spirit. we made a new friend on the railroad tracks


whenever i took a pic of beckham the cat, he'd pose with his paw up. a model cat

but it proved the purr-fect place for walking on the deserted tracks, surrounded by foliage and wild flowers. and in that little bit of solitude, we were able to philosophize about the movie, many scenes which paralleled some of our experiences we had as children.

it's the sort of movie that made me and sean appreciate the childhood we both had. and lament on the probability that the younger generations did not and does not know what it means to grow up really being a child from the 70s and earlier. when kids were free from technology and entertained themselves with nature and imagination.

life was much simpler then. and i think this movie brought home for us the importance of disconnecting from the daily stresses of work and responsibilities and the hazards of being adrift in life. to appreciate each other and be cognizant of our actions and their consequences. to live life fully and urgently. and that nature above all things renews us.

monkey love

sha la la la!



i got myself a ticket to the arctic monkeys concert! they'll be playing at the orpheum theatre september 28. row 7 baby!

a walk amongst treetops

okay, maybe we weren't quite tree-top height, a la edward cullen swooping bella swan to the top of the forest, but we were pretty darn high amongst the trees.

last weekend sean and i spent the afternoon at the UBC botanical gardens and their greenheart canopy walkway. the canopy walkway is a 1246 feet (or 380 metre) long ariel trail system, allowing you to view the upper parts of the forest. better looking up (or straight ahead) than looking down the whole wobbly time!



the suspended walkway is attached to trees using 'tree hugger' technology. so says ian, the designer of the walkway, who we happened to befriend when we ran into him at the second platform on the walkway with his niece. ian green is the owner of greenheart conversation company and has built these kinds of suspension bridges in ghana, peru, nigeria and madagascar. oh and also a zipline in old last vegas.

don't ask me how this sustainable 'tree hugger' technology works but the attachments to the trees itself are definitely not invasive. there's no nails or bolts but instead is fastened by a tension system. in fact, the thought could cross one's mind as to however could the walkway be secured so loftily?


forest skybridge

the walkway has 8 platforms that offer a view from 50 feet off the ground in addition to the ninth, 2 story platform. at the highest point in the whole walkway journey, sean and i were viewing the forest (and trying not to get vertigo) at 72 feet in the air. you can bet that i made sure to hold onto the rail coming down on that platform.


72' ft in the air and loving it

we were marveling at how high up we were and yet not feeling so high up. we took pictures and videos trying to capture the height and scope of the walkway but from above looking down is not nearly as impactful as if you're on the ground shooting up. so much forest and vegetation around us.


couldn't wipe the smile off my face

this is how it must have felt like on the return of the jedi set. i always wanted to live in the forest of endor and live like ewoks amongst the trees. or as i joked with sean, we were fulfilling our tarzan and jane fantasy. sorta.

when we finished walking and bouncing our way the entire whole walkway, we couldn't stop smiling. and feeling weak in the knees (the bobbing up and down stays with you for a bit!) we even pondered walking it again. we felt like little kids.

what a great way to experience nature and the forest. who knew there was a hidden eco-attraction right in our city?

for pictures of our canopy day, press play or click here for my flickr:

to see a swan

it was like we were on a school fieldtrip. a weekend of nature and science last saturday. sean and i had been craving green space and fresh air, so we drove over to burnaby lake park. i never been there before and was excited when i found out there was an outdoor archery club located there. watching the couple people take aim, it made me wistful and i longed to shoot some arrows too. it's been way too long.



then on our nature walk, we spied some of the lake's residents.



remember last year i got bit by dirty little mosquitoes when we spent an afternoon at mountainview cemetery? i thought i might just slide by this summer without an encounter but i was wrong.

while taking a picture of the butterfly, i felt 2 bites on the top of my feet. sean also felt bites on his arm. we were not even 100 feet into the walking trail when we were getting bitten alive. serious mosquito magnets. and so it began, a weekend of my feet being on fi-yah.

we got the heck out of dodge and got ourselves some afterbite and antihistamines instead. dirty little mosquitoes.

down but not out as we still had some star-watching to do that night. for the past 2 summers i wanted to check out the gordon macmillan southam observatory at the space centre. and last weekend, we were able to do just that. during the summer, on friday and saturday nights that are clear, the observatory retracts its roof so you could observe the nightsky from their 1000x cassegrain telescope.

we glimpsed the moon up close. it was luminous and so vivid with its details, shadows and outlines, it was like someone taped a hi-res picture of the moon's surface to the end of the telescope. after everyone had a turn to see the moon, the staff set the sights on saturn. so very mysterious looking at saturn with its rings. since childhood, i'm so used to looking at saturn in pictures, that when you view it through a telescope it seems unreal. less beautiful as it's so teeny looking through the telescope but at the same time, more impactful because you're really seeing it with the human eye.



we closed with a look at albireo, a star that from earth looks like a single star, but through the telescope is really 2 stars, one topaz hued, the other turquoise. together they're part of the cygnus constellation or the northern cross. the constellation is known as cygnus, the swan in greek mythology and albireo is the swan's beak.



according to ancient myth, orpheus declared never to fall in love again after the death of his wife. when a group of thracian women tried unsuccessfully to seduce him, they killed him and threw his harp into the river. this swan represents the spirit of orpheus.

now that we got a taste of viewing the late summer sky from the observatory, sean and i may even entertain a drive out to mcdonald park in abbotsford, one of the dark sites in the lower mainland to view stars.

zen garden

sean and i played tourist in our town last weekend and checked out the nitobe memorial garden at UBC. i felt immediately at peace when i walked through the main doors of this traditional japanese tea garden. it was so tranquil and a most needed respite from the hustle and bustle of job and city life. i spotted one person lyiing on their back reading and thought to myself, i would certainly pay the admission price of $6 to come and read here undistracted. now that i know about the nitobe memorial garden, i shall come here to see the next cherry blossoms bloom.

here are some pics:


nitobe memorial garden


stone sculpture


koi pond


reflecting pool

and at the risk of sounding morbid, if one can choose where they would like to spend their final hour before transitioning into the next world, this could be a top choice on the list.

light up the night sky

such an utterly romantic sight.

this spectacular display marked poland's midsummer night festival aka summer solstice. a record-breaking 8000 chinese lanterns were released by the residents of poznan, along the warta river.



i've always been a fan of twinkle lights. when i lived in a loft 10 years ago, i hang some on the wood beam of my 20 foot ceiling. i also draped up a long piece of chiffon from the ceiling, creating a see-through curtain above my bed. and i'd fall asleep with just the twinkle lights on. such a girl.

it was my attempt to create a "night sky" above me. i can just imagine laying down near the warta river and looking up at these glowing orbs drifting towards the night sky. magical.

now i find out there's a similar lantern festival scene in disney's tangled. guess i'll have to add it to my queue of movies to watch.



thanks to sean for showing me this breathtaking video.

smashing zombies

thanks to my job at EA and getting an iphone 4, i am now a casual gamer. especially now that i've discovered zombie smash! colour me addicted.

i love the illustrations, i love the ragdoll physics and i love all the ways one can kill the zombie hordes. you can flick 'em with your finger or use a variety of weapons to kill the undead dead. there are land mines, grenades, wrecking balls, flying windmill blades, giant boulders a la indiana jones, liquid nitrogen containers, falling rocks, rockets, asteroids, meteorites, cinder blocks, high gravity mode, slow motion mode and a whole cache of firearms. even incineration by chimney.





there's just something so perversely delightful in crushing these cartoonish zombies, watching their facial reactions, dismembered limbs or the amount of blood that is splattered. as you can surmise, i got the SFX level on high. the final killshot with option to take a picture was a fantastic idea on the developer's part. here are some of my epic screenshots.

so much undead goodness. so many nights spent on playing when i should be sleeping. oh, zombie smash, you got me good.

wedding of the year

yes, i can admit that i was one of the billions who watched the kate middleton and prince william wedding but i would've much rather been a fly on the wall of the kate moss and jamie hince wedding instead.

i've been a huge fan of kate moss since 1990 when she appeared on the front cover of harpers bazaar. she is every bit the fashion icon, whether she's dressed down or in haute couture. i love her vintage slash rock chick style.

and her wedding style did not disappoint. absolutely beautiful.





i can't wait to see the exclusive pictures in next month's vogue.

although i think american apparel's terry richardson is kinda skeevy, his b/w pictures of the newlyweds below really capture the "it" factor that is kate moss. can you imagine the royal wedding ever being this cool?





yea, kate middleton, who?

jonesy and her BFF

this is jonesy with her stuffy, bear. bear helps to protect jonesy from any rambunctious dogs or kids at the park. that is, when he's not making "rabbit ears" behind jonesy's back.



and when the outside world gets too much for her, this is jonesy and her bear. aww.

science geek day

on what was probably the hottest day in the year so far, sean and i went down to the great northern way campus to check out mini maker faire 2011.

i was intrigued by the science fair-ness of it all. a group of DIY inventors, designer and builders all in one place, showing off creations they made in their backyards, basements or garages. pyrotechnics, kinetic sculptures, interactive musical installations, robotics, steampunk culture and learning how to ride a unicycle were some of the attractions. it felt like we were at burning man "lite" or something.

here are some of the cool things we saw:


a walking, marching couch


this giant solar powered bike looks like it came straight out of a children's book


gramophone bench provides sunshade


a fire-breathing truck


driving the mondo spider

in spite of the sweltering sun, it was a cool beans kinda day. some really inspirational inventions and gadgets that appealed to the science geek in us.

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

we can all be little tramps

i downloaded a fun little app called silent film director. it takes any video that you shot with your iphone 4 and turn them into charlie chaplin-esque vignettes. complete with your choice of kicky little piano numbers.



a fun little video app. all i need now are stumbles, bumbles and pratfalls.

another day at the park

we took jonesy out to the park a few weeks ago, however she was feeling a little shy. especially as she spied a couple of dogs also in the park. that's okay, her humans are there to protect her.

got a chance to play with my iphone and shot a couple of video clips:





check out jonesy's diamond shaped marking on her belly. it's so distinctive and one of the reason why sean chose to adopt her.



on our walk home, we passed under a huge canopy of tree branches and i couldn't help but take this picture.



the boy and his cat. my favourite subjects to shoot.

a touch of vintage

i recently got an iphone 4. and you know what THAT means...

instagram!

and playing with various filters and frames to create old timey feel photos. so here are a couple of pics of my favourite subject:


instagram: earlybird


instagram: brannan


instagram: earlybird

this is going to be fun. (i also downloaded hipstamatic too.)

captain picard report to the bridge

everyday i go to work, i'm always reminded of star trek. our department floor layout is broken out like honeycombs. in my little part of the honeycomb, there's 5 of us: me, 2 of the producers, the game designer and a marketing manager. and we all sit and work side-by-side in a circular shaped workspace.

somewhat like the starfleet bridge of USS enterprise:



only difference is, instead of where captain kirk would sit at his chair, there's a long rectangular sofa bench. comfortable and big enough for 3 guys to sit on and play FIFA 11 on the big screen TV at the end of every workday.



see the black jacket hanging on the chair there and the 2 computers monitors? that's my part of the circular desk. right beside the big honkin' tv. on the other side of the tv sits one of the producers, seen here draped in the ghana flag.

it's a fun little workspace. and yes, i sometimes feel like uhura. not only was she the chief communications officer, but she's the only woman on the bridge.

animal farm

who knew that there was a petting zoo right here in town?

the last time sean and i went to spend an afternoon with farm animals, it was at meadow maze in pitt meadows, about 40 minutes drive into the 'burbs.

this time around, we hit up maplewood farms in north vancouver a couple of weeks ago. for a mere $7 per person, we were able to spend a day out in the sun, walking around the spacious and well kept grounds and checking out farm animals.

there were:
* shetland pony
* sheep
* hereford cows
* jersey cow
* pot bellied pigs
* belgian draft horses
* icelandic horse
* roosters, hens, ganders and a peacock
* new zealand white rabbits
* and goats of all kinds

here's some pictures of us hanging with the animals:


guests are able to go into the goat paddock and find themselves on the webcam


goats and their chin beards


did you know that when goats poop, it comes out in a flurry of round pellets? gumball machine style. i cracked up laughing when i saw that


who could resist big ole' bunny feet?


bunnies chillin' side by side


love it. these bunnies look so unimpressed by our presence

so many animals, so many pictures taken. for a slideshow of our day at maplewood farms, press play or click here for my flickr.