My time at Vancouver’s Winter Games
The Winter Games has rolled into dear Vancouver, BC Canada.
There is a LOT of stuff and events to see.
I have decided to attempt to visit one event, pavilion, or place a day and try to go to as many LiveCities as much as possible.
Lines are getting longer and longer.
Expect to wait at least 1.5 – 2 hours to enter any free pavilion.
I’m excited to visit all the different Canadian pavilions all over Metro Vancouver.
So far I’ve been from Richmond to Surrey, and dashed someplace in Downtown Vancouver after work since the Opening Ceremonies on Friday the 12th.
This is once in a lifetime for most of the world to come visit your city instead of yourself visiting every country.
I’m going to try to snap photos and stick them up on my Flickr album.
I’ll see if I’ll make it to any live sports events, or else I’ll stick to watching finals on TV or at LiveCity venue.
I’m going to cross my fingers for Canada, and for more snow at Cypress.
Go athletes and GO CANADA!
Biting into the Chocolate competition- EAT!Vancouver 2009
From 2008 EAT! Vancouver
Last year I was so excited to come across the results of the two competitions at EAT! Vancouver.
B.C. Chefs’ Association chocolate competition and B.C. Chefs’ Association culinary salon cooking competition.
I was so amazed by the colours and detailing of the details of the chocolate, butter, and food preparation.
My photo set from 2008 Eat! Vancouver can be viewed here >
Broken flames of chocolates
I guess I should have waited until the last day.
I went on Saturday May 23rd, to check out new products, do some sampling and enjoy the sites.
I forgot I went on a Sunday, where I got to see the results of the two different competitions.
We arrived later in the evening, and I couldn’t find the right area of the chocolate works.
It turned out that people were starting to eat off the results of the chocolate competition, so by the time I got to the area to take some photos, the majority of the entries were broken apart.
Inukshuk tray of chocolates
Oh well, there’s always next year.
I’m definitely going earlier on the last day.
Here are more of my photos taken at the EAT! Vancouver festival this year >
Canstruction ‘09 Vancouver
Whole world in our "can"
Between April 23rd- May 3rd, 2009, cans were arranged in such amazing structures at the new Vancouver Convention Centre.
From Canstruction Vancouver site:
“Canstruction Vancouver is a spectacular competition and exhibition that showcases local teams who compete to design and build the ultimate giant sculpture out of canned food. After they’re exhibited to the public for a week, all the cans from these 2-metre high sculptures are donated to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society for hungry families.”
I took a short break from tending to the Metrotown Media Productions booth on the second day of the Spring Vancouver Wedding show during its last hour on Sunday April 26th in the convention hall next door.
Scrabblum
At the entrance, there was a giant Scrabble board to play with.
Each tile was actually a covered box of “nutrious pablum for infants in need” with a letter on it.
I slid S-T-O-R-A-G to the top of the E on the board and checked out the rest of the public exhibit.
The structures were incredibly well built…
However while I was passing by the PNE coaster made of food.. a bit of it fell apart..
At least the whole thing didn’t collapse!
Wall-Y?
I saw a cameraman grabbing some B-roll with his broadcast camera on a tripod.
Honestly I was constantly trying to stay out of his shot.
For some cans, I squatted or even laid on the floor to get a different angle in my “shopaholic” dress…
Eek, John emailed me the next morning saying he saw me on a Global morning broadcast for Canstruction Vancouver 2009….
I rushed back to the Wedding Show next door to wait the announcement of the Grand Prize winners and to help pack up.
Let’s just say, we need two vehicles or a larger truck to rent next time.
Another Disney influence!
Happy Vaisakhi Day 2009 on Main Street Vancouver
I had none of Naan (I wanted to use that joke somewhere...)
Tents were set up amongst on SE Marine Drive, and along the southern streets of Main and Fraser.
Nila and I felt like we were in another country.
It was crowded on Main Street around 49th Avenue.
We took Bus #003 south, heading toward Main and 41st.
I thought perhaps we would grab another bus.
Turned out all transit buses were stopping for the large festivities.
Chai me!
There was such a variety of East Indian eats and treats to have.
I became full after the fourth tent.
Today was really a day for chai.
Chai here and there. Mmm.
We passed through the parade coming along Main to check out the rest of the tents.
I’ll be back for more next year.
: )
Mi Jung Lee and Pamela Martin TV parade float
Happy Vaisakhi day!
Thank you everyone who was involved and gave away such delicious food and drinks!
More photos are part of my Vaisakhi day photo set on Flickr >
Livin’ it up in 3D for a day
I didn’t want to miss the final week of the “Wild Ocean 3D” IMAX performance, so I dragged Travis to downtown Vancouver for an afternoon viewing at Canada Place.
The only way I am able to drag Travis to a movie theatre is if there is a movie playing currently that he cannot replicate the sheer quality in high definition or surround sound with his home theatre system.
I agree in some aspects of being “anti-movie” theatre:
- Can’t choose your seats (unless you’re willing to come early)
- No pausing in movie (risk missing a crucial part of a movie for a “potty break”)
- Can’t laugh out loud (unless you laugh on cue with everyone else, or else you’ll be that weirdo who laughs too early or too late.)
Hm, I guess there are not many good reasons to leave the comfortable setup of your own living room.
However, after our home 3D-movie-viewing fiasco a few months ago (we didn’t get quite the same effect by buying the 3D version of Polar Express with the included glasses), we return to the outside world to watch three, 3D movies on a slow Monday.
Wild Ocean 3D movie site screenshot
First up: Wild Ocean 3D
This was the main reason for going to the IMAX theatre in Canada place, because the last showing was on April 9th, 2009.
I think there were about less than a dozen people at this 3PM showing of Wild Ocean 3D.
I loved how they told the story of Man VS Nature.
Well, the focus seemed to be more on the sardines off the coast of Southern Africa.
So I guess it was Sardines VS Every-other-animal-in-the-food-chain VS Man.
It was so cool to see the crazy sardine run, with people running from the shore with crates and crates of sardines, and under water with all the creatures hunting to eat the sardines.
The ugliest creature I have ever seen move under water- Cape Gannets. The most ungraceful creature underwater, yet when they’re diving from the air, it’s such an astonishing site and such a strange sound experience. It felt like I was watching a war movie, with water animals.
IMAX Under the Sea 3D movie poster
Next: IMAX Under the Sea 3D
Do you think Walt Disney has brainwashed me completely?
Every time I hear the words “Under the Sea”, I picture that crab orchestrating sea creatures playing “Under the sea, under the sea…”
Anyways, quick break and we went back into IMAX to watch another 3D flick, this time narrated by Jim Carrey. (Sorry ladies, this edition was not narrated by heart-throb Johnny Depp.)
Travis and I were glad to have seen Wild Ocean 3D first, Under the Sea was so much more bright and colourful. For the promo, he yelled “Holy F*ck” when one of featured creatures snapped out and grabbed lunch. Just remember, there are likely going to be children with their families around, especially with summer break coming really soon….
For some odd reason, we thought perhaps they “layered” and retouched Under the Sea for 3D viewing differently. A lot of elements seemed to pop out at us more.
Before the movie, I viewed sea turtles to be such gentle and slow creatures…
I was such in shock to see one eat a jelly fish ever so slowly.
Ow, that poor jelly fish.
Monsters vs Aliens
Last: Monsters VS Aliens
(warning: make sure your system sound is down low when you visit the site)
Yay!
We squeezed three 3D movies in one day.
Technically, two viewings in the afternoon, a walk around downtown, and raced to Richmond to view the last showing of Monsters VS Aliens in 3D around 10PM.
We watched the “behind the scenes” promo on TV about a couple weeks ago, so I was so stoked to go see Monsters VS Aliens.
Okay, maybe it was also because of the star power behind it.
Who doesn’t want to go see a movie featuring the voices of Reese Witherspoon (tooooo many movies to mention… sadly Legally Blonde is the first that comes to mind), Seth Rogen (Knocked Up and others), Hugh Laurie (House), Will Arnett (Arrested Development), Kiefer Sutherland (24), Rainn Wilson (The Office), Stephen Colbert (The Colbert Report), and Paul Rudd (I Love you, Man).
Could you tell I liked it?
I broke the rule of not giggling out loud… too hard.
Travis rolled his eyes when we left the movie.
Gee- I’m just THAT INTO puns.
: )
Luckily there were just a few people, like around ten of us in the theatre.
We thought there would be more people, who knows whether there were more people in the other “viewing” areas: regular, digital, IMAX, and Digital projection 3D.
For those wondering what were the differences between the types of viewings:
Regular viewing: costs regular ($11.95), looks regular. Sometimes I’d rather wait to see movies on DVDs so I can see extra behind the scenes stuff.
Digital viewing: costs a little more… depending. Again, I’d rather wait.
IMAX VS Digital Projection for 3D: Apparently, IMAX is a much larger screen in height so you would feel like you’re IN the movie, and Digital projection offers the viewer a much more crisper experience. It’s about a couple dollars difference (IMAX was around $14, where Digital 3d).
I like watching all three of the movies.
The way the promo hyped up the Monsters VS Aliens movie made us expect the 3D viewing to be such a mind blowing experience.
Travis summed up what we both thought about Monsters VS Aliens:
“Maybe we shouldn’t have gone to watch the real-life showings of animals in 3D first.
MVA was good, but I couldn’t really buy into the whole experience because this is an animated flick.”
Until consumers have the ability to install and setup their own quality 3D home theatre experiences, in the meanwhile it’s fun to go out once in awhile to check out the latest in the theatres.
Favorite snaps during VanFashionWeek March 2009
Medi-awe (KILLA runway show)
Whooey, first time volunteering with Vancouver Fashion Week 2009.
And like the other first-timers, might be my last.
Preparing in chaos (Behind the scenes makeup)
So much drama, chaos and disorganization… I wouldn’t blame them for not wanting to come back.
We’ll see about the next one…
Anyways, the following are my top five favorite photographs taken during VanFashionWeek during the last week of March 2009.
You can see the rest of the photos on bothVanFashionWeek’s and my Flickr set.
View VanFashionWeek Flickr feed >
View my VanFashionWeek personal set >
Design and Conquer designer and model (Opening Gala at Leones)
Organized rack of Joseph Domingo designs (Behind the scenes)
Justine Brooks necklace (Opening Gala at Leones)
Orange Day
Just taking a quick break from Vancouver Fashion Week to do my best to finish up product videos for a client due at the end of the month…
I love tweeting.
I’m not obssessive about it. Really, do you expect me to read every single tweet?
Whenever I can, I login and check out the latest.
Twitter doesn’t exactly have a filter or an ability to categorize what’s
“news”, “localnews”, “rant”, “comment”…
Plus I don’t want Tweetdeck to be taking up some of my memory when I have to work on stuff with Photoshop and After Effects… I gotta keep “conservative” with my resources. My Superdrive just died, so I have to wait when things quiet down to take it in to the Apple Store to get it fixed (go AppleCare!).
Hopefully Twitter will give us the ability to categorize our tweets besides using hashtags. Sometimes I need something a little more general, because honestly I scan the whole page first anyways…
How much can you squeeze?
Orange Day, originally uploaded by Union Gospel Mission
Anyways, the latest Tweet from Miss604 caught my eye about Orange Day.
There are three steps to Orange Day:
1) Get outside! Go “squeeze as much as possible” out of our free parks and attractions of Vancouver between March 27 – April 10, 2009, and try not to spend any money.
(I hope the weather cooperates so I can participate in No.1)
2) Help the Homeless. Donate online to feed as little as one person or as many as you want.
(Wow, one nice night out for me means I could feed ten other people instead.)
3) Share your experiences about Orange Day. Tag your photos taken, tweets, blog entries, etc online so they show up on www.ugm.ca/orangeday
(Tweet! I don’t see guidelines on what I can add on the Orange Day group on Flickr. So far it looks like only “orange” pictures… )
See you outside!
Mellow Yellow I fear not
POW!
I going to do my best and continue to go through and process my photos from my visit to LA and Anaheim last month. All three days of Disneyland are posted, now comes my visit to Universal Studios and Downtown LA in the next few posts.
I had some fun with “punching up the yellow” of this yellow taxi cab that is part of the “New York-themed” set in Universal Studios. Whoo, that’s bright!
More to be posted.
Northern Voice 2009 Kick-off dinner
Viva Las Vegas!
Viva Las Vegas indeed.
or Vivaaaaaa Northern Voice… viva northern voice…
The clip is my first Flickr video upload with my Canon G10.
Pretty sweet, eh? I just only wish that iPhone could read Flash embeds or content. Oi.
Thanks again to Eagranie Yuh for passing along her kick-off dinner ticket to the Northern Voice 2009 Kick-off Dinner at Federico’s Supper Club on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. Get well soon!!!
I wish everyone an awesome weekend, especially to all the attendees to Northern Voice 2009 this year on UBC Campus. By the time I found out when this was going to happen, all the tickets were sold out.
I’ll keep an eye out for next year’s gathering, and on content tagged with “northernvoice09″ on Flickr and blogs for this Friday and Saturday.
Cheers!
Viva Las Vegas 06/01/08 Stuffed me like an animal
It’s tough to sit down at the end of each day on your getaway and just write about what happened that day.
So I’m just going to blog about each occurring event at my own time, just so I can recall the best details of that day.
Continuing on with my Vegas trip.
Since the scheduled boxing match starring Zab Juda got cancelled before we arrived, we decided that we were still going to visit Las Vegas and look forward to seeing what I wanted to see: my first Cirque Du Soleil production.
Travis scarfed down a giant hot-dog from Slots-o-fun at Circus Circus and we “Deuced” (the bus) it over to the Mirage.
It was funny how we sat right in front of a couple from LA, who lived in Vancouver during the 60s. The gentleman asked about Downtown Vancouver, and reminisced about when he used to live on Barclay and Denman. He misses the mountains and told us Robson was known to be hugely populated with Germans. I laughed because now there are more tourists and exchange students than Vancouverites downtown.
I was starving as we entered the Secret Garden by Siegfried and Roy.
I thought, oh hey, this outta be a short walk through the sanctuary.
The animals were gorgeous, and somewhat active in their play.
Well, I couldn’t blame them for just laying around trunks and the water.
Or their temper.
It was pretty hot as usual in the Las Vegas weather.
I think the fact I’ll remember most from this Secret Garden visit is the fact about tigers and their tails.
If you’re one up close and he/she flips their tail at you-
After saying my final farewells to the playful dolphins, Travis and I finally went on our own food hunt.
I was really hungry and wanted to check out the “Cravings” buffet in the Mirage.
So much variety, and there was sushi too!
So much seafood. Mmmm.
Travis was so fascinated that donairs can me made at the buffet.
The manager at the time kindly cut some donair meat for Travis when he saw that he was waiting at the carvery.
This was my first visit to a very-well-run and impressive buffet in Las Vegas.
I was impressed by every team member in that Buffet.
From the cashier, to the attendants, our hostess and server, and especially the manager.
However, next time I visit Cravings, I’d better watch the amount I put into my stomach.
I think from not eating breakfast, I overindulged on the gelato (they had gelato?!) and other amazing items.
We wandered over to TI and crossed the strip to get to the Venetian to pick up our tickets early Monday for the Blue Man group. There were many jewelery conventioneers filling the hallways of the Palazzo and the Venetian. Tickets were not available that Monday, so we decided to go with Tuesday because we were leaving Wednesday.
Off to New York New York, expecting a relaxing time waiting for our main event of our trip: Zumanity.
Was this wait pleasant?
Try waiting three hours in a hotel with broken air conditioning >
