a chance of rain

Vancouver is photolog form! (but more photos are on facebook)

But first some general impressions:

• Proximity to mountains and sea is great. 
• There's a lot of trees. Also the "lawn area" beside roads/sidewalks (what are they called? I recall those being referred to as right-of-way but that seems wrong) are less manicured grass and more hodgepodge of various grass species, which I actually prefer. Been trying to convince my mom to diversify her front yard.
• Not as beautiful as the hype, it really looks like any other North American city. A lack of a distinctive skyline could be why I'm less than impressed.
• Skytrain > TTC in terms of scenery and cellphone signal. 
• The reputation of rain is true. And when it's sunny, it's still windy so doesn't feel as warm.

Stanley Park, second photo is my favourite scene along the sea wall.



Hiking up the Grouse Grind.



At Dr. Sun Yat-Sen park. I really like my camera's macro-mode.


Richmond night market.

swiss chard

First bounty from Sky Garden!
(ignore the pixel of purple, I messed up crop)

Also realized that my preferred flavour profile is just enough saltiness, with a little spicy and a kick of sour. Vermicelli also makes for really quick dinners.

lavender chocolate

What happens after a vacation is an inevitable period of catching up to missed work. 加油！

Something interesting I've learned about myself is that cherries are a perfectly suitable meal substitute.
Also enjoying Magic a lot more since Gilly told me about Chris Martin's split. Makes the song that much sadder.

westward

Off to Vancouver, where it's forecasted to rain the majority of the time I'm there.

consumption

Been working through my summer reading list, read 2 other Murakami books (I have more to say about his books as a whole, but I'll read one more and see if my opinions change) and is currently reading Cooked by Michael Pollan.

Pollan is my favourite food-issue author. His writing isn't overly aggressive and he covers a broad range of perspectives. It's also humorous, which is a huge bonus. Although I'm not done the book yet, here's one quotation that really resonates with me:

Or it could simply be that he subscribes to the general view in a modern specialized consumer culture that "leisure activities" should involve consumption, whereas any activity involving production is leisure's opposite: work. Put another way, a leisure activity is one you can't conceive of paying someone else to do for you. (Watching television, for example, or reading a book, or doing the crossword puzzle.) Everything else - everything that the market has figured out a way to do for us - becomes a species of work, something that any rational actor would presumably outsource just as soon as he or she could afford to.

Sidenote: this fits right into Vanderburg (speaking of which I totally am going to work through APS302, I will make time!).

Before reading this quotation, I've been vaguely dissatisfied with how I spend my down time. Somewhere along the way of growing up, my hobbies changed from making things (eg. playing with lego, drawing, crafting) to consuming things (eg. reading blogs/forums, buying clothes/makeup/skincare). I really regret stopping art class (tbh it wasn't the most enjoyable thing, but in retrospect I was just being lazy) but still keeps most of my supplies in case "one day" I decide to pick it up again.

Last night while searching on Etsy for peony prints to use as wall decor, I toyed with the idea of painting my own (save money too!). And now that this is out on the interweb, I will very much do so (go public accountability). Will also try to focus effort (temporal and monetary) into cooking and hopefully gardening.

maxwell

New house, new game~

Weekend spent equally on plowing the garden of mom's new house and getting started in Xillia. First "tales of" game.

image via.

The tales of xillia tag on dandooru makes me ship Jude x Milla, tempted to read plot spoilers now @_@" This is not good since I plan on milking as much time out of the game as possible and playing through both characters. Picked Jude as my first play-through, and in the interest of time, trying to resist the urge to explore every field map and opening every treasure chest. It's so hard.

Combat system is pretty fun, linking is a good mechanism. It's unfortunate that my controller's circle button is half broken, which makes proc-ing artes extremely difficult. Came super close to dying during both boss fights because of this.

Graphics is not as HD as FFXIII, but the settings are still beautiful. The starting area's design is especially stunning. Character design is good as well, though I find Millas outfit slightly questionable. Additionally, the optional dialogs are funny and is a good way to introduce some more back story.

Sad that I won't be able to continue playing until I move, but Vancouver is next week and I'm so excited for that.

liege

Sweet, chewy, dense. I approve of this waffle.

Unfortunately quite pricy.