new things

last night rob and i had a serious chat about buckling down on our spending habits. i made him feel very guilty about all the spending when i knew deep down that i was worse than him. the word "weekly stipend" was used during our discussion.

i dropped rob off at work and went to choices downtown (my favourite one) to pickup groceries to keep us on eating in. unfortunately, choices is half a block away from my The Cross which is a home furnishings store that's a white oasis of french country design. i love this store. i wish i could live in the store. of course, everything in the store is atrociously expensive. well, beyond my usual budget anyways.

the store had a boxing day sale that i purposely stayed away from so i thought i would be safe from any great deals if i walked in today. and just like every hollywood movie, you should have already guessed the next scene. i bought stuff. like maybe 5 things. but it only came to $85 with taxes and they are all beautiful things that give me great pleasure to now have in my little place.

the budget begins tomorrow.

the business end of things

i'm just in the middle of sorting out all our receipts for the past year and entering them into a spreadsheet.

i have a few thoughts:
1/ rob and i just finished watching Casino Royale and it kicked major action movie ass. one of the best movies for its genre. and, i'm now wondering... did eva green "get into her role" as an accountant by entering numbers into a spreadsheet, too? or was she doing calculations of the caloric kind?
2/ does buying minidv tapes fall under "production expense" or "office supply expense"?
3/ i'm thinking of creating neat folders using an old map so i can store these receipts in an organized manner.
4/ and **rob don't read this** holy shit is daniel craig hot in casino royale except near the end when he's in 'lovey dovey' land. i could have done without that.

i'll just go back to the spreadsheet now and suck in my gut.

friday

dudes and dudettes: i am already tipsy. i started with white wine at 5:30pm and am officially tipsy. but not drunk to the point where i can't make good wedding video editing decisions.

hence, i am editing.

yaoee!!!!

happy new year.

rob is working both new year's eve AND new year's day. bummer. yes. and i will be home doing more wedding video editing. YES!

ok, time for many glasses of water.

ebay

i'm just waiting for some video render and thought i would throw up a quick post.

i've just discovered ebay. yes, i'm late to the game but no less addicted.
yesterday, i won my 3rd item: a yashica electro 35 from the early 1970s. and yesterday, i picked up the very first item i won: a yashica e3 8mm camera. it is sweet.

the other item i won is a holga camera. it's considered a toy camera because it's made out of plastic. and it's also medium format which means it takes a 120mm film. the camera is poorly made which makes for some fantastic 'accidental' images from light leaks and triple exposures.

so, yah. notice a trend here?

i tried to get into clothing on ebay but it all looks so boring and uninspired like top 40 music.

gotta run and get back to that wedding video editing.

bah

sometimes i'm tormented by the banality of evil in the workplace.

this evil i speak of is the autopilot people go on when conversing with each other. no one cares what your answer will be. their attention had already wandered as soon as they breathed the last word. their duty to ask the stupid question has been fulfilled and the answer is inconsequential.

holidays are especially painful for me. so, i'd already prepared in my mind to be pleasant with my answers and emphasize back to the person asking me the question.

but.
really.

why must people ask every freaking person they see at work: how was your christmas?
my answer was fast and exact: great, how was YOUR christmas?

i hate all the robotic things that people say to each other in the workplace. these things include:
[asked on friday] got any plans for the weekend?
[asked on monday] did you do anything on the weekend?

often i want to run screaming from the building with my hands waving high above my head.

partay

by thursday i thought our party was going to be a dud because only 7 people had rsvp'd. then, by friday it escalated to 21 people but i thought maybe 15 would end up showing.

well, 24 people came by plus a baby (my nephew).

here are some random things that happened:
1/ when the first guests arrived (at 3:20pm), i had just gotten out of the shower and was changing in my bedroom. based on the last open house, people didn't arrive for about 3 hours. not this time.
2/ i broke the hallway mirror.
3/ the signature drink for the night was hot chocolate with frangelico. mmmm. delicious.
4/ rob kept showing people his (what i call) "home movies" - actually his documentary trailers.
5/ there were at least 7 people who were going non-alcoholic. rob had to dash out and buy some juice.
6/ rob played some halo with the last guest of the evening.

thanks to everyone who spent some time with us yesterday. it sure was fun. rob and i were saying that this was our best party yet.

i'm already thinking about our next party, the chinese new year open house. how to ensure that the traditional dumplings are always ready, etc. what the signature drink will be...

rhymes with stew

at top is the cheesecake with pomegranates. to the right (middle) is the chocolate cookie with a wrapping paper cutout cradling the cookie. the bottom is the offending truffle.

they were a hit. all that work was worth it. i think. anyways, lots of brownie points in the office.

yummy fingers

so i thought that i would have a chance to smooth out the truffles so they are more round. yes, that would be a negative. so, all my truffles kinda look like poo.

but thanks to the miracle of cocoa powder all my sins are covered up.

here's what i've produced:
53 truffles
14 little cheese cake in muffin cases (what are they called?)
26 chocolate cookies

let's see, i have about 60 people.... why do i care? why do i think people will think less of me if i don't give them something?

in other news, i've "cut back scope" on the tags. before i was going to cut them out, cut out a red square out of card stock, glue them together, punch a hole into the card stock, thread ribbon thru hole and around plastic i need to cut out that will wrap around each of the stuff.

now it's gonna be: cut out tags, punch up plastic and staple it all together.

i need to lie down.

tired

i am up at this post-consciousness hour waiting for the truffles (that I'm making the second time ever and hoping it'll work this time) to "harden." i guess i could wait until the morning. but i also need to make little cute tags to go with them. this way, people at work will quickly identify each other as lucky recipients of my midnight labour.

oh god are my eyes tired.

why do i do this to myself every year? really, i should just give up and do what someone else (someone high up in the food chain at work) did and buy those cheap ass 'pot of gold' numbers. i hate the pot of gold. i say: pot of shite.

one of my bosses (i'm so lucky to have more than one) gave me a christmas card and when i opened it up, out fell a $100 gift certificate. wow. for a second i thought i was opening a card from my parents. actually, i told my boss about this thought and he thought it was funny. then, another boss (let's call him boss b) who was in the presence of boss a and myself when i related this funny moment, decides to regift a $10 starbucks card he got from a vendor. when he hands it to me he says: i didn't want boss a to be the only one who treated you like a parent. uh. yah. thanks. i regifted that card to rob.

random sightings

during the big wind storm last week, while i was gazing out my window at work, i saw what looked like a pile of black velvet rags flying through the air. they were being pushed and pulled by the stongly armed air currents. the deep black rags were a sharp contrast against the medium grey sky.

then i noticed they were crows.

:::
every year in november i have the strongest desire and intentions to mailout christmas cards within the first week of december. i think: this is an easy task. buy cards, write stuff in them, bring them to post office. it's not rocket-science.

and every year, i'm scrambling to get those cards out a couple of days before christmas. clearly i need to adjust my timelines on this task.

:::
rob and i are having a christmas open house this saturday. hope everyone can make it. i'm having loads of fun researching the recipes.

office cooler stuff

was anyone else woken up by the super sonic loud wind last night? it was so cool to hear the power that nature has. course it seemed neat from the comfort of my heated abode.

...
i've been feeling particularly guilty in the past 3 months about the garbage i generate. i look at my doubled up plastic bags and think "this bag will outlive me. it will sit in the ground and be a testament to my lack of respect for the earth."

yes, happy thoughts these are.

...
Rob and Mona's Christmas OPEN HOUSE
Saturday, December 23rd
3-10pm

be there or be somewhere else not as fun

...
i'm going to seattle this sunday to help out a film friend shoot a concert. i'll be the one asking for people to sign a release form if they happen to step into the camera frame.

...
still working on gord's wedding video.

over and out

stuff

outside my window at work, i look directly at the parking lot that sits across the street from the playland entrance. the same people rent that parking lot space to sell christmas trees. this year they setup the lights and signs but without the trees on december 1st. the trees arrived on december 4th (monday).

today, all the trees were blown down. the lights are still up though.

.....
i was just thinking that i have the most crazy imagination.

my work had it's staff christmas party last thursday and i decided i would wear my silvery long skirt with a top. i didn't really like how i looked after putting on the black top and black boots along with square silver earrings. but it was too late.

and just now i'm remembering how i ended up with this silvery skirt. in february 2000, i had this amazing opportunity to work with some gifted graphic designers on a website for cbc radio 3. i had these amazing visions of myself attending some swank cbc soiree to celebrate the launch of the website. i even thought we would all be flown to toronto to attend this event.

i so believed that this was going to happen even though nobody said anything about a launch, that i decided i needed to buy a great outfit. at the time, my favourite clothing store was kookai in oakridge which was situated right infront of the kids play area.

this long silver skirt with an asymetrical pleat on the side took my breath away. i loved it immediately. so i bought it.

but i didn't stay with the project long enough to see the launch. the first time i wore it was last year, i think, at one of my home parties. last week was the second time i wore it.

i wonder about my grasp on reality sometimes.

addicted

rob and i went to zipang again tonight. we had:
1/ deep friend pumpkin balls
2/ zipang roll (salmon, scallops, radish)
3/ kimchi beef fried rice
4/ prawns cooked in mayo

oh. my. god.
it was so delicious.

best japanese in town

Zipang Sushi
3710 Main Street (at 20th)
Lunch 11:30am-3pm
Dinner 5-10pm
Closed Mondays

Rob and I had lunch today at this place and it is now my favourite japanese restaurant in town. the interior is modern but retro and clean. it's actually owned by japanese people. all the seafood is ultra fresh. and the price is downright cheap.

i had a nabeyaki udon (chicken, udon noodle, broth, veggie, prawn tempura) for $5.95! it costs that much at a crappy food fair but at Zipang the broth was perfectly understated without too much salt, the chicken was tender, the tempura of a high quality. we also had veggie gyoza (5 pieces) for $3.95. rob had the assorted sushi special which was $8.95 but he says all the seafood was melt in your mouth delicious. we decided to also order the black sesame seed ice cream (awesome, not too sweet) and the ginger creme brulee (delicious). it was $2.95 for the ice cream and $3.95 for the brulee. these are unreal prices.

the service was prompt and they refilled out tea cups about 5 times without us having to ask.

seriously, this place has one of the best quality food at pretty cheap prices. go now.

sore and sorer

rob and i came back from whistler around 8pm last night. and boy do we have news.

rob and his partner's doc, futureproof, was a huge hit with the right people. they had about 15 meetings with potential funders like broadcasters and distributors. the meetings went so well, they now have good interest in all 3 of their doc ideas: futureproof, the dubai story and superdogs.

i recorded on my shitty little digital camera their pitch to a packed audience of 200 to a panel of 20 broadcasters/distributors. their pitch was a combination of talking and the video trailer. i think their trailer looked the best with it being shot on HD and was well edited. well, okay, i thought the sound was the best, too. professional without being too slick.

rob and his partner also shmoozed and went to some very cool parties with free booze and food. i was lucky enough to get into one of these parties.

one of the highlights was when we attended the Norman Jewison tribute which ended being an interview but it was a really interesting interview. although i was hoping for more questions about the craft of filmmaking.

on friday, i went snowboarding and on saturday, i got a massage and today... i am one sore person. everything hurts. okay, typing doesn't hurt but getting up, putting on the coat, driving: it all hurts. but i'm not complaining. i'm lucky to be sore.

oh yah, we ended up taking the snow bus.

late night

just finished doing the sound editing and final sound mix for rob and david's documentary demo trailer that they will be showing and then pitching an idea for at the whistler film festival.

all 3 of us leave tomorrow. morning-ish, i think.

yes, it's no lie. it's 2am.

rob is watching a copy of the final demo on a dvd for quality assurance. if it's okay, then we start burning more dvds, baby!!

still don't know if i'm gonna snowboard. i retrieved my snowboarding gear and even packed it but i'll take a look at the forecast tomorrow morning before deciding.

also, i spoke to the co-producer of Sidekicks at the audition today and he said i should have no problems going up to whistler in my mom's car. if i use my mom's car, i won't be telling my dad. i know, i'm such a rebel.

2 more sleeps until whistler

do people over grade 9 still say that?

yesterday i was visualizing myself snowboarding down whistler. i could just imagine the special thrill it is to coast down powdery snow. but today i checked the forecast and there's a wind and freezing temperatures warning.

so now i'm visualizing myself skidding down the frozen mountain with terror griping my lungs.

i think i'll wait until tomorrow night and see what the forecast says.

in the meantime, my dad has expressed grave concerns about my driving my mom's 13 year old integra to whistler. which is his passive-aggressive way of telling me not to drive mom's car to whistler. which is just great.

so i spent a good hour tonight looking and comparing all the alternative transportation options available. i'm leaning towards the one with the best website www.snowbus.ca over www.perimeterbus.com

in other news, i'm gonna leave work as soon as possible tomorrow and speed towards auditions for Sidekicks and Miss Julie. then home to pack and decide if i will bring my snowboarding shit.

holy snows

spent a pleasant saturday being slate girl (and is it the script supervisor that records all the info on the takes? ok, and that one, too) for ken's shoot where he was the assistant director. it was a small but tight crew that walked around in a gorgeous looking ravine in the surrey area.

the ravine had all these steep pathways, a stream (yes they still let those things exist), tall trees, old trees, and lots and lots and lots of leaves.

after it wrapped yesterday at 4pm cuz all the light went away, it took me 1.5 hours to drive from surrey to vancouver. the length was a combination of a)snow b)rolling stones concert and c)canucks game. anyways, it was brutal.

the shoot was supposed to continue today but the snow kinda killed the continuity so it was postponed. wish i had known sooner as a friend had invited me to a comedy show for tonight but i thought i would be too busy a) thawing out from a 2nd day of 'blair witch project' and b) working on the wedding video. well, the second part is still true.

i've been trying to fit in a haircut for, oh, 2 months and finally got a last minute appointment at this cute salon on main called barbarella. my hair is so crazy looking right now. i've never had this curly stuff. and it only took a difuser to make it happen. very cool.

sitting at work

it's just after 6pm on a friday and i'm sitting at work. well, actually i'm waiting for my ride. my gorgeous and lovely boyfriend has taken use of my car today for one of his documentary shoots.

and i'm bored. everyone has already gone home and i'm all alone.

so i'm wandering through the interweb and can recommend two well-written blogs; both of whom are women writers living in the seattle area.
http://breakupbabe.blogspot.com/
http://odiouswoman.blogspot.com/

in other news, i have developed a troubling addiction to ebay. specifically for 1950s russian film cameras called Lomo and "Diana Camera." Oh, man they are so pretty and they take unpredictable and vibrant photos. for the past 2 days, i've been tempted to buy them but i've decided that i shall delay satisfaction and go to salvation army's and pawn shops.

i guess that would require willpower and discipline? anyone have some extra to loan me?

committed

::: producing :::
last night, rob and i spent some quality time with terry and kelly. we talked about film projects and watched some very funny stuff from mitch hedberg who, unfortunately, passed away last year.

as we were about to leave, i remembered (with some embarassment) that i had promised terry i would offer assistance as a producer on his next project. but i couldn't remember which one.

so i asked him in a sly but cute manner "terry, which project did i promise to produce for you?" i hoped that he wouldn't be too mad at me for a)forgetting about the promise and b)forgetting which project. plus rob was there to protect me if terry got out of control. kidding.

we chatted and he's really looking for help on his tv series pilot: sidekicks.
comedy + superheroes = great concept

go to terry's website www.ashleypark.net for more info on this guy. terry's a very creative guy and i'm spending time on this because i believe in his talent. if you are at all impressed with this dude please consider financial support. you won't regret it.

::: production assistant :::
i just got off the phone with ken, another talented filmmaker, and agreed to spend my 2 days off work this coming weekend being his grunt on his friend's set. i don't even know what the film is about but again, because i believe in my friend, i gotta support him.

sound problem on macpro

there's this major problem with the audio manager on our new macpro. it's this: at any given moment, the sound that is coming out of the computer will suddenly (and without warning) turn into massive white noise.

it's totally horrible when it happens and we gotta shut down the application that's running (i.e. itunes, protools or quicktime) and restart it. but the white noise can strike at any time.

i finally had time tonight to do a proper search on this problem and found out that this is a real problem for many macpro users with protools installed. now it's a real problem for me. when you install protools, the apple soundmanager is replaced by protools' coreaudio manager. it's this coreaudio manager that's freaking out.

meanwhile, i hesitate to listen to music on the brand new $3000 computer. oh well, at least it's a handy internet browser.

are all lessons painful?

rob and i usually only need to capture 1 or 2 miniDV tapes for a project. so with the 18 wedding tapes we decided to rent a miniDV deck.

we've been plugging in tapes since 5pm Friday and as of this posting we have 3 more to go.

some things we learned along the way:
1/ if you want to break up your 1 hour tape into four 15 minute segments for easy backup, make sure you're working with tapes that have already been striped. otherwise, final cut will throw a hissy fit and stop capturing.
2/ if you want to break up your 1 hour tape into four 15 minute segments for easy backup, you'll need to spend about 15 minutes setting up the in and out marks. this adds precious time to the whole capturing process.
3/ a deck is a valuable piece of hardware
4/ babysitting a deck isn't the most useful part of your day

so, this morning i thought i would check out ebay and see if there were any decks out there for sale. we saw one that was expiring in 15minutes and it was at $600 US. we bid on it right away and won it. it's a Sony GV-D900 Mini DV Digital Video deck.

it'll not only be great for capturing miniDV tapes but it's good for reviewing tapes in the field as it has a screen and also plays sound.

our debt load continues to rise. i hope rob finds some editing work soon.

(video) decking my resfest

this weekend is all about downloading all of gord's wedding video into the computer using the an actual video deck meant for the purpose of capturing video AND resfest.

well, i also gotta spend an hour or two outputting audio for terry's short entitled "do you mind if i tell you a story." oh, and i really really need to go to the gym for about 30 minutes. oh shit and club monaco has this friends and family 25% off everything coupon. crap, and i still need to:
1/ finish reading this producer's workbook (thanks, terry)
2/ finish reading a project management book (thank you, ken)
3/ knit some scarves
4/ sew 2 skirts
5/ install a 70s ceiling light fixture
6/ do laundry and vacuum
7/ decide on placement and type of new shelves for the den
8/ decide on where our growing pile of business files and film stuff will go
9/ figure out when i'm going to have a christmas open house
10/ and, have my hair trimmed on the ends

shit, maybe i should just go back to bed

film fest geek sighting

the day i saw "do over" i happened to sit behind and a bit diagonal from this total weirdo. this was, of course, situated in the most uncomfortable "pacific cinematheque."

the straw :::
i first notice him because he has a plastic straw in his mouth but it's extending horizontally from his mouth and his hand is 1 inch from the end of the straw. i see that he's blowing out of the straw but it's more than that: he's blowing out the straw with growing force. first he inhales, then as he exhales to blow out of the straw, he starts off gentle and then blows out with growing intensity. and as he's doing this, his hand is on the receiving end of his blowing.

he does this about 5 times and when it appears that he's satisfied that he's blown out any and all particles that might be clinging to the inside of this striped white and red straw, he places it (with precision) inside his front left shirt pocket. yes, the straw is sticking out profusely.

i'm immediately elated that i'm witnessing this. but there's more.

the toblerone :::
next he prepares his toblerone chocolate. when he retrieves it from his faux computer bag (the cheap kind from 5 years ago) i notice that he is using the zipper with uncommon force. he is seriously zipping the hell out of that poor little plastic device.

he brings out the small toberlone and opens the cardboard part. he pulls out the toberlone with its silver sheath and carefully rips the silver away until there's only 1 inch of it clinging to the bottom of the chocolate bar.

he takes all the silver foil and, using all fingers on both hands, crunches them up into a little flat bundle. he pushes the bundle into the bottom of toberlone cardboard container and then slips the mostly naked toblerone also back into the container. he puts the whole thing on the arm rest on his left.

the rest :::
he doesn't do much after this. i feel like i've witnessed some sacred and ritualistic act. i'm waiting for more. in my head i'm yelling "do something else weird guy. come on!!!"

he must of heard me because he brings out his can of pop (it was one of those fake brands) and puts it between his legs. as in, in his crotch. then he leaves it there.

the previews come on and i see that he doesn't crack open the pop can tab until the exact start of the film festival logo is on the screen. he pulls the straw out of his shirt pocket and puts it into the can of pop.

i decide that i paid 8 dollars to watch the film and focus on the film.

when the film ends, the venerable Tony Rayns is there to introduce the taiwanese director. weirdo doesn't stay for this. i'm perplexed. the Q&A is awesome and i even ask a stupid question: what kind of camera did you use?

resfest

this coming up friday is the start of resfest for vancouver. it runs friday to sunday.

i went last year for the first time and my ass was rather numb by the conclusion. i saw a lot of people whom i would definitely slot into the new media crowd. you know the type: mid to late twenties, hate the gap-ification of clothing, listen to indie rock, possibly vegan, might wear an original nintendo controller as a belt buckle, and works as a graphic designer or video game producer.

resfest has a nike opening night party at the century house restaurant/lounge on richards (at pender) this friday. this is one of the coolest places in the vancouver to have a drink and some tapas. it has these murky revolutionary-esque murals on the super tall walls. and it's using the original bank vault as a wine cellar. you can book the cellar for expensive, initimate dinners. the place sure looks better than the days when the bar was made up of white resin female torsos that would morph from one colour to the another.

season's greetings

2 years ago, my dad came home and found that all his christmas light bulbs (just the bulbs) were stolen. he wrote a note to the thief.


here's what the bottom sentence says:
beasese. stealing is. sin.

my dad slays me.

welcome and hello

second attempt* at this blogging thing and i'm feeling pretty optimistic. at first i suggested to rob that i could share his blog (narcissistic fibrosis) but then i realized that was a bad idea. besides, we're 2 totally different people. for instance, he has a penis and i don't. shocking, i know.

i'll apologize right off the bat for posting stuff that's boring. i reserve the right to post stuff that's exclusively of interest to me. as we all do.

so, here's some catch up....

::: vancouver international film festival :::
this year was exponentially better than last year. i even took 4 days off work to watch films.

• walking on the wild side (china) - a gritty drama about listless youth living in a mining town. the story was brutal, there was too much handheld stuff but the story was bravely unapologetic yet depressing for the new china
  
• do over (taiwan) - introduced in person by Tony Rayns with the director in attendance. 4 taiwanese young adults on the eve of 2000 and the people/things/relationships/status that people wish for themselves. gorgeous cinematography, acting that pulled you in and a story with many layers.
• still life (china) - missing partners in a town about to disappear under the Three Gorges Dam flooding. it was okay.
• celestial mechanics (canada) - 8 canadian shorts. they were all shitty and i hated myself for sitting through them.
  
• into great silence (germany) - a 3 hour documentary about the Grande Chartreuse, the mother house of the legendary Carthusian Order. my thoughts: freaking gorgeous cinematography with about 3 sentences of dialogue. i was blown away by the ending.
• i don't want to sleep alone (taiwan) - the latest tsai ming liang. his most accessible work but also my favourite.
• red road (uk) - i don't want to give away the plot so i'll just say it was another awesome film: the story and the acting were powerful and engaging. raw and beautiful. i cried.
• radiant city (canada) - a doc about urban sprawl. fantastic spin on the traditional doc. plus rob and i got to hang out with the director at bosman's after the film.
• the fountain (usa) - this film appealed to my artsy fartsy side. i appreciated that this was a very different type of film that's not endorsed by hollywood. but it's not for everyone. i really liked it and cried at the end.
  

okay, so i don't qualify for film festival geek status but i feel immensely enriched by most of the films i saw.

::: toronto trip :::
so i won this contest at work where i had to describe on 1 page why they should send me to a conference attended mostly by 911 managers across canada. damn if the trip didn't happened during the first week of the vancouver internat'l film festival.

awesome thing #1: i made up for it by attending one of the most remarkable events i've ever experienced: nuit blanche. see link on the side. basically a whole night of art installations, sound installations and participatory art installations. it was all free. i felt so lucky to have landed in toronto the exact evening that nuit blanche occurred.

i walked thru the popular fog installation as well as a sound installation where i handed my driver's license to someone in exchange for a cd player with instructions to follow in the footsteps as you hear them on the cd.


i spent 40 minutes at this one installation that took place in the basement of an old building at the university of toronto campus. the basement had this pool with pillars surrounding it and video images (along with sound) were projected onto a blank wall. i saw 2 people jump into the pool and swim across.


at 6:30am i got up after 4 hours of sleep and went back to the "ladies with the cakes" installation. it was a spectacular commentary on gluttony and waste in our society.


i hope this comes to vancouver but i think our art community isn't big enough to sustain it.


*the first attempt was only for the eyes of 2 former co-workers but it's not suiting me anymore (the blog not the friends) and i feel the need to start fresh without all the historical baggage associated with the first blog.