China.... politics vs. olympics.....

And so... China has successfully ended its 16day goal of maintaining high standards of their Olympic events that was held in Beijing. I was glued to most of the events over the course of this 4-year event, and most importantly - I was highly attracted to the different venues and backdrop that CBD/NBC was showing, even for a glimpse. It reminded me of the times I had been working in China, a very energetic city that seems to shout that it is capable of accomplishing anything. Yes, anything. Despite there were lots of criticism ranging from Tibetian protests, to jeering of rendered fireworks; I felt that China did a great job of delivering its promise of hosting this great event. It may also have set the standards higher than expected since the economic powerhouse was reported to have spent 47billion to prepare and carry out this task. It is sad that over the course of Olympics, I was only able to access CBC and NBC locally; and can only listen to biased opinions from commentators not talking about the sports, but rather on human rights, yadda yadda.... C'mon - Olympics is a time for sports, and not for politics. I'm surprised to even hear that Mr. Harper has decided to skip the opening ceremony because of the Tibetian incident and his excuse is that "he has work to do"... Maybe that's why we have such a weak athelete support structure here in Canada, where future Olympian prospects are required to run around town trying to scrape up sponsors so that they can showcase their talent on world's stage. Maybe we are focusing on things that are less important and should focus our energy elsewhere. Maybe Mr. Harper can build better relationship with China, create more jobs to break us out of this 17yr record high of unemployment rate, ink more deals that will benefit our country and provide more support for our atheletes.
Anyways, that's my 2 cents; and I'm planning to once again visit China next year. This time I'm planning to visit my old team in Shanghai, Beijing's rich cultural architecture, and to Mount Tai. Not sure why, but recently i'm really into Mount Tai which is situated in ShangDong province. It boosts a rich history of being one of the 5 most famous mountains in China and it overlooks a sea of clouds as how one would describe it in JinYung's martial arts literature that I've always been very fond of. Hopefully I will get to see it with my own eyes, and this time; I'm glad I invested myself in a DSLR :)

Spoiled myself again and got a new hobby

And so... I spoiled myself once again, getting a new toy and possibly a new hobby yesterday. I picked up a new Camera - a DSLR...! I kept seeing lots of friends carrying around huge cameras and communicating in alien technical camera jargon before, and now I'm getting infected too... Granted, it's an expensive hobby to have - but I find that as time moves on and never return; a nice camera is a good investment as we can look back and savor the moments with loved ones, friends, and life as time progresses. Of all my recent toys (listed earlier), I think my Takamine (guitar) and camera were the wisest choice of them all.... Hopefully I will get to post some nice pictures on my blog soon with my new camera altho here's one of the pics I snapped earlier today.
Aside from my camera, I just finished a recent TV documentary called "China rises" on CBC which was just shot maybe a couple months ago. It does bring back nolgistic feelings of the times I was back in China. The show was fairly complete, as it shows the life of people from different backgrounds - the successful hip hop youths who has the education/talent and am enjoying the prosperity of the modern life. And on the other side, the forgotten factory workers who were once proud population of Shanghai when it was still a factory stronghold, and now only finding themselves evicted from their properties to make way for new construction sites, and are struggling just to make a living. It's a sad reality, but it does convey a powerful message by showing at the perspective from both sides. I highly encourage others to watch this touching and unbiased show.

Having a breather....

Sometimes it just feels so great to take several days off, not doing anything, and just relax... And that was exactly what I did last week when I took Wed-Friday off, while declining all activities to stay home and relax. Despite there's always that urge to go out, meet people, and to try and accomplish as much as possible in as little time - sometimes it feels good to recharge just to chill at home. Is this part of human nature that we all have this 'comfort zone' and just want to rest, or is it just that i'm lazy...? ha ha... Eitherway, played PS3 and my guitar during this free time off. PS3 is create by Sony and being a HW engineer myself; I find that game consoles are just making its way into everyones' - be it the Wii, PS3, Xbox, etc. Will it evolve into not just a game console; but maybe an entertainment and multimedia console? A compact powerful little machine that can play BR, HD, DVD, CD, VCD, surf the net, online shopping, and pay the bills anywhere in the house. We normally have isolated PCs lying around in specific rooms, but will future consoles set a new trend for humanity moving forward?

On a spending spree...

There are things that one must do, and things that one wants to do. They are drastically different, and I feel that as one grows up - there are more and more things that we are forced to do. Things like fixing up the car that has Christmas lights on the dashboard, that leaky roof, or that old computer by the hallway that gives off tap-tap-tap-tap noise. Having no other option, one starts to go crazy and starts to spend on things that they really want... ha ha ha, at least that's what happened to myself.
And so, I find myself pampering myself for things that I had really had been looking forward to. Here's some new big toys that I found myself purchasing within the past year:
Homegym, Threadmill, a new 1080p 37" TV for my room, a very nice guitar, and the PS3 will come soon... very very soon :') Ok... time to save up and tell myself to buckle down for the next 3 months...

The calling of the heart....

And I am back, don't know even what I should update after around 8 months of blogging inactivity.
I'm glad that I found myself motivated again and decided to start blogging and listing out what's in my mind recently.

In a nutshell, much has happened in these 8 months and I can say that I sometimes can have very ironic feelings, not sure if many other people are like this as well...? For instance, as you all remember - I was on expat a year ago and working in a foreign country (China). The huge difference between China and Canada has been eating into my way of life after I returned; I was deeply attracted to the colourful livestyle and the endless things that I would experience when I was working as an expat.... Yet a small part of myself feels kind of tired and want to settle down for a more stable life. Isn't it ironic.....? Sometimes I still feel these opposing emotions in myself not knowing what I should do, but I guess right now I have decided to stay put in Toronto where my family and the bulk of my friends are and to continue on for my more subtle lifestyle.

Do everyone knows what that really want? Well, there's the obvious answers of that new dig, a car, a career, some savings, a family, etc etc... but what about the things that one really really want to do?

Things are returning back to normal... slowy...

And so, things are returning back to normal... but slowly. All's good as long as it keeps up. Well, nuthing much happening lately - yeah, i still haven't gotten around to the main highlight of my Spain/Portugal trip... But it'll be coming up after i get a chance to sort through all my photos and find time to rejog my memory and thoughts. So, lately due to recent happenings - it's just between work and home for me.
I finally find time to catch back on PS2 (Persona3/ACE3) and finally have the chance to get back to my basement project. Here's some pictures of my progress so far - and yeah; that's a Home Depot rental car to transport all those drywalls back! Next in line? Flooring!

Fragile and insignificant humans

Hell yeah, I was freaked out.
Hearing stories, seeing from TV of things going wrong; and seeing them in reality is two very different things. Never had I feel so powerless and insignificant in my life before. All those things like trying to succeed in class (being so-called rocket man because of getting A grade), being aggressive, trying to stay under control most of the time, and striving to climb to the top regardless of in the office place or elsewhere - all faded away in a second's time. Seeing someone close get sick really hurts, and as mentioned earlier... made me feel very powerless as well. Spending nearly 17hrs in the hospital was like time spent in eternity.
I had once again questioned myself why did I pursued engineering and not medicine before. Maybe I can help, maybe I can do more, maybe I can avoid this from happening were questions that rang in my head. Well, I do understand that there's no 100% curing medicine, nor are doctors godlike figures who can cure all sicknesses; but I do believe that they make a big difference, and I am truly grateful. I am also not a religious person neither, but believed that there's some higher power who guides insignificant little beings like us to a 'better path' ; and today I truly prayed with all my heart. And in turn, I am happy that I did. Thank you.
(Picture taken from Spanish trip).

First leg to the trip - Portugal

After transitting through the messy Paris Charles de Gaulle airport where one would definately see the Laisser-Faire style of the slowly French causing missing luggages, communication problems coupled with angry passengers after flights were delayed due to slow customs work (Frenchies had only opened up 2 lines for 2 planes to go through their gate) - the beginning of the trip started in Lisbon Portugal. Portugal was nice, but somehow it wasn't what I had expected - I had thought that the fishing predominant country would feature small fishing boats dotting the shores and there will be lots of sardines, mackerels fresh from the seaside being sold in wooden houses along the golden coast. Well, maybe we didn't go far enough into the rural area. Nevertheless, the people there were nice and helpful (girls had smiles that can melt you away - esp the hotel stewardess when i asked her for map and directions). The architecture was interesting but not awesome but I still had a great time there; catching a glimpse of where Figo mastered his soccer skills to become best player 2 yrs in a row, lots of interesting countryside stories, roosters (depicting a lucky rooster story) on top of many buildings, and definately feeling the Portugese atmosphere where the traditional old man taking his dog out for a walk portraits we see all the time seem to be reality . We spent 3 days in Portugal and headed out over to Spain which as a long bus ride....... but here's some pics from Portugal first :)

I'm in Spain and Portugal...

Haven't updated my blog for quite a while already now... but latests developments have myself travelling to Portugal and Spain for a highly anticipated vacation. I just got to Barcelona today after touring Madrid, Lisbon and some other smaller attractions along the way. Spain is a very cultural city, and unlike all those fancy lights, glamour, excessive vanity, commercial aspects that one would see if other famous cities like Paris, New York, Tokyo, Toronto, Shanghai, etc... (not saying they're bad, just another style).
Spain boosts a country true to its roots, featuring buildings that one wouldn't find in other parts of Europe; interesting attitude (don't-care style), laid back lifestyle, and very historical architectures that can only be built by geniuses of middle age. The Moorish influence is also very evident and it would take a long time to really understand the historical changes that shaped this city starting with Islamic, Christianity clashes and the start of Crusaders. I couldn't believe how rich in background and relics that this place is... to an extent to more than other parts of Europe that I had toured earlier (England, Germany, Italy, Greece...)
It really got myself thinking once again, sometimes we choose our current paths since we have to; we balanced everything out and compare all the opportunity costs to arrive at our current stage in life. However, is this really what we want? What if I quit my job as a Sr.Design Engineer position; stay in Madrid for 6 months hopping between cities in Spain washing dishes yet learning about all of mankind's history of where a lot of cultures and civilizations originated? Just a thought....

Long weekend

And so, it was a long weekend... a long weekend of work! It started off with myself working until 10:30pm on Friday, but that didn't matter as it was my buddies' wedding was on Saturday which turned out great. Billy and Elizabeth had finally decided to "pull the skylights" (or so they say in chinese) and got married. It was specifically happy since it was someone close, one of those buddies that I had known for a long time. Dating back, I've known this guy since kindergarden in HK, then we went to the same elementary school and high school in Toronto. After graduation in different universities, our companies were also aligned next door until Billy decided to head down to California with Eli. - talk about fate eh? They had dated since high school and it was one of those great moments to see them get together after a long time and with some hiccups (like all relationships do). And so, Sat was a great day; meeting up with all of my closest friends and having fun till very late.
Then comes Sunday, I had to go to work from 10-8pm, and to make things worst? I felt like I didn't accomplish much at all. My brain was spinning fast and thinking what went wrong that nite so I didn't get a decent nites' sleep at all. I headed back to the office on Monday (holiday) at 9am and worked until 1pm, just shortly after i arrived home and had lunch; i got some calls and emails dragging me back to the office until the end of the day. I guess it's alright, considering we finally got a break and got to the bottom of an issue. Oh well, the "long" weekend is still good I suppose; as it was great meeting up with close friends during the wedding, having awesome meals with family on both sat and sun; and the gathering at Ka & Coconut's place. It was a funny get-together as we shared pictures and laughter... thanks Corrie for organizing and letting us the noisy bunch into their home :)