Metablogging

Since Davy and brem have lately taken some time to explain certain aspects of their blogging activities, I thought I would talk about mine today. Though I highly doubt anyone actually cares about these points because my own blog doesn't sound serious enough to merit such commentary.

1. I write about absolutely anything. I think this is fairly obvious. My most natural trait is to excessively brood over one topic and then completely change line of thought. On the other hand, there are limits. I don't talk about more personal things beyond feelings and events.


2. Completely unilingual. This is because I don't actually function in any other language. I'm chinese-illiterate and I can't even carry on a normal conversation with my mum in cantonese. Despite living in the middle of redneck Quebec City, I have very limited french interactions with the community beyond going down to the local pharmacy and buying a lotto ticket when the jackpot exceeds 20 million. Really, it's that pathetic.


3. OMG don't even think of sticking this thing on a search engine. Being a class A super-introvert and also a highly traceable professional (high school teacher), I am very sensitive to people invading my privacy. I don't mind the random readers or trusted acquaintances and friends who come by (hi!) but I would rather erase this whole blog than let one of my charges get a hold of any of my entries, and with good reason.


4. Reason be damned! If I think something is stupid, you know I'll say it. If I think something is awesome, then you're free to skip the crude 4-part LOST sketches and follow-ups of why I think Mr. Eko should be crowned as the new king of the LOST island.


5. No posts because of winter solstice, the beans' sprouting, and the crossing of paths of Mars and Jupiter. I don't have a regular schedule. This is because when I do work, I tend to get cranky and I won't have much to say that is newsworthy. Also mentioned before, I skip writing when I'm in Montreal or otherwise travelling. Then I can come back and whine about it, like Cowtown.


6. Above all, I write for myself. Yes, I get embroiled in thoughts of "Waaa Jorgh is the only one who left a comment!" and I admit, I'm not a very good responder because I don't actually answer him. But my blog wasn't initially meant to inform, educate, and entertain my readers. In fact, it was meant for me to vent and sound pompous to myself. I am entitled to such a space, and I'll be damned if I'm not going to exploit it!

This degenerated pretty quickly. Anyway, to compensate for this lack of journalistic professionalism, please enjoy the following sketch.

Confused old man???

Year-End Update

Dear all,

Amid turkey leftovers, guest-receiving, chocolate overdoses, a new washer arrival, and a terrible, terrible mess to clean up from the delivery, I'm having a wonderful holiday. It lasts for another week, or two, or whenever. As it so happens, my long vacation is a result of a good and/or bad thing - being a supply teacher.

Anyway, I would like to start to end this year's blogging by trying to remind myself what happened over 2005. Uh...

January

Continued to work at the school. Constant reminders of why teaching is a hit-and-miss game pop up everywhere. Also, January tends to be the most depressing month due to nothing happening.

February

Ivo comes to visit and cheers me up immensely. :):):) ... Winter is also starting to look less ugly due to my first trip to the tubing place. Stupid shit happens with the landlord.

March

Nagging thoughts over purpose of obtaining two degrees.

April

The Pope dies. Why is this such a big event to me, I'm not even sure anymore... Waves of strike days further disturb the regularity of the school year at the school, not to mention the teacher turnovers during the year.

May

More of my strike escapades. 3/4 of the school disappears to the wild for a character-building camping trip, while the leftovers like myself are stranded at school to fend for ourselves.

June

Exam corrections, and biking diversions pepper my month. The anniversary of my father's death still hurts.

July

Trip to Cowtown and environs. Weddings strengthen the family bonds. Got to see Wesley. :D Also, got to meet the psycho vampire dog Bobo. :|

August

Disappointed with myself not getting a job for the school year. :( Nonetheless, I made a vow to continue working in Quebec.

September

Amazing training to run 5 km! Well, not really that amazing. I turn 25. Does that mean I'm just an old baby?

October

Amazingly completed the run. @_@ Also, amazingly obtained a driver's licence. @______@ Also, the start of a long supply teaching run...

November

Continued the long supply teaching run. Happily, it means that I shouldn't be as worried as the summer to obtain a job, hopefully for the reasons I'm thinking of. The word "pancake" keeps popping up. Eddie's grandma passes away. :(

December

Birth of PJ the 3rd. :) Along the same lines, I learned the virtues of ordering things online. The possible start of crazy buying sprees... Felix and Rachel separately visit for the holiday break. :D:D:D

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Jorgh visits me every month or so. I also go to Montreal every so often to shower him with gifts and/or food. I mean "and."

I met many interesting people and had lots of memorable experiences. I keep reading more and more manga when I should actually try to read real books, but I find pictures and stories more attractive. Might this be the real start of a different path?

I Kick Yo Butt

I want to be able to look at this person and think to myself, "Goddamn I'm going to get the crap kicked out of me by her!" All I can think of when I look at her is, "What the hell are you doing?"

When I'm bored I also take pictures of land development. I was (and still am) pissed off when I found out that they were extending this highway, du Vallon...

The reasons I have for being pissed:

• Most of the recent land development around this neighbourhood disturbed the local flora and fauna for ugly-assed condos (not apartments either) and stupid, useless highways.


• Increased traffic expected on du Vallon, which is already terribly congested, and also has the worst onramp in the freaking city near Charest.


• Urban sprawl. It's pretty gross. The area where you see Walmart in that photo is already the home of a sprawl maul. Right across from that is the Galeries de la Capitale.


• They'll have to either dig the bike path and sidewalk into the underpass at that intersection or make a gigantic overpass. It doesn't seem that they took bikes or people into consideration when they first blocked off pedestrian traffic, forcing them to the other side of the road where no sidewalk nor path existed in the first place... so my guess is that the bike path will be the last thing on anyone's minds when they cut the rope or whatever stupid pat-on-the-back celebration to open the extention.


• Of all the road projects the city could focus on, like fixing the crap up near Loretteville (where I had the bumpiest, most potholey, ass-pounding bike coastings down), or making roads safer for bikes, or putting in sidewalks where there should be some (eg. near schools and hospitals?)... or even putting in more effing trees on that goddamn road near the parliament building or something. Really. The city focuses on building an extention to a highway when better urban planning is needed.

In Calgary, Ed told Wesley and I the most traumatizing thing I think I heard on that trip out west. (And I experienced quite a few things that disturbed me sufficiently.)

Q: What is the sister city of Calgary?
A: Uh... oh goddamn...

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the crazy-assed urban planning of Calgary and the increased urban sprawl of her sister city are related. Fortunately, I don't think Quebec has as much to worry about in terms of suburbia because it's almost 400 years old and the smaller cities here were already established. Calgary, on the other hand, is much younger, and has to deal with the gated communities that sprung up all over the place at the same time.

/I still can't believe that there's a naval museum in Calgary.

A Bunch of Posts!

Damn right!

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Vacation was good and bad in Alberta and TO.


The whole reason why we went to Calgary in the first place. Congratulations, Ilinca and Curtis!

Good: seeing my cousins in TO and Alberta, wedding meal, visiting Wesley, Banff and Lake Louise, Calgary Zoo (hence the sudden red panda craze), no heat wave (thank God), Aki and Betty's "vampire dog" Bobo after it calmed down.


One of four asian elephants at the Calgary Zoo. So cute!

Bad: how sad MH was, crazy urban planning in Cowtown, the misleading provincial-tax-lessness (because of more expensive goods), lack of any actual good chinese food in the two-block Chinatown, homeliness, homelessness, lack of humidity, lack of any plushie cows in the entire freaking city, driving back from MH (I thought I was going to *DIE*), Aki and Betty's "vampire dog" Bobo when it bit Michelle and Brian


Ugly photo of pretty mountains next to Banff. You should go there!

Funny: more pick-up trucks than SUVs in Montreal, "honour system" train, cowboy hats, Albertan accent, crazy freaky people roaming, Aki and betty's "vampire dog" Bobo.


Bobo the "Vampire Dog." Bad dog!

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Anyway, I thought I would just tell you some projects I am (attempting to start) working on.

Firstly, the webcomic is still stuck in limbo, since I had an idea what to do a long, long time ago before I started drawing the damn thing. Then I lazily forgot what was going to happen, which led to a terrible, terrible standstill. I have every intention to complete the project, but it's massive. (Following the BG1 storyline, without all the sidequests and idiotic backtracking.) So I'm contemplating on that while I'm working on finishing the game. No, I haven't finished the game. Not once. No. Dammit.

I posted those BG portraits some weeks ago, so you're always free to use for your own personal games, or just to stare at and worship, or something equally as hilarious. I am working on some more portraits as well, just to fill out the necessary roles. (Like the triple-classed whatnot... eh, who am I kidding. That one'll probably look like a freak.) What I can't do very well is everything having to do with non-person features. Clothes, weapons, props, backgrounds, etc. - these are the things I will be featuring more often in my drawings.

I have been reading many mangas online. This led me to recall a story years ago I wanted to work on in manga form, though I am afraid to start drawing and stop, due to forgetting the story *coughwebcomiccough* ... so I am writing the whole thing out before drawing. I'll present a draft of a few chapters here when I finish. Just to note, the writing is presented in pseudo-manga form, so don't expect an award-winning novel format.

That's all folks!

One of the cuter things in Cowtown: the red panda. Everything else was kinda *bleah.* 

Go West!

My mum just reminded me tonight that there's a wedding in Calgary of one of my cousins this July (23rd) so I have to start planning that now. Fortunately, right now, there's a marvelous seat sale for 1$ to "go west" (with return ticket purchase) from Montreal or from Quebec.

Just wondering, if I go out to Cow-gary, should I stay there for a bit longer than a week and see if I can visit (somehow) my dear friends out West? (Hint hint, Davy?)