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tdamji 28 Today! Jul 1, 2008 12:19 AM "I thought my life would be better by now But it's not, and I don't know where to turn" - Aimee Mann (31 today) So - Birthday Week has so far been: Friday: After Greg and I got back from work, we walked down to a new-to-us vegetarian restaurant and had a delicious chinese meal. Saturday: Went to Chinatown and wandered around, looking in all the stores we normally walk past (because we are generally down there buying groceries or looking for appliances, like the induction cook-top we got a while back), then Greg bought me some of the My Neighbour Totoro stuff i've been eyeing...a cute wallet, a pouch/coin purse and also a lovely Totoro bank!! We then bought ingredients for a hot pot. The hot pot was incredible! I've been wanting one at home ever since we went out to eat it at a place in Nanjing last November. We also had cake - white cake with chocolate frosting that can only be described as "birthday" cake. Sunday: Greg made banana chocolate chip muffins for breakfast and we went to the Punjabi Market/Little India and looked around a bit and I bought a new top. In the evening we went to the Richmond Night Market and Greg bought me the bag i've been wanting. Oh, and he made me one of my top 2 favorite soups: Mogo, which is comprised of cassava, coconut milk and spices. I think it might be East African derived?! Anyway, my mom and family make it. The day ended with the real birthday cake - a layered cake with a cream cheese middle layer, a chocolate layer and a marble layer, with a chocolate -like top...all vegan, of course. so incredible. easily the best cake i've ever had! Monday: Greg had to work, so i spent the day watching Monsoon Wedding and wandering about online, then talking to both my mom and brother at length. Greg took me to see Wall-E tonight. That movie is so good!! Tomorrow is Canada Day (july 1st) and i'll spend it doing more birthday week stuff...and we'll be going to Victoria for a night this weekend!! :) i am so lucky. My family isn't really big on presents, which is fine since they are so generous all year round, but i had a great birthday so far! I did get that "what have i done with my life" feeling a few days ago, but whatever.
tdamji Best of the Week June Jun 16, 2008 10:27 PM It was such a nice feeling finishing French last Friday! The final wasn't as bad as the final for either Chinese or Spanish, which was such a relief...i mean, it wasn't a piece of cake, but at least I didn't have the "Execution Day" song (by the New Pornographers) in my head during it (like I did for Chinese). This is the first time since November that I haven't had to think about studying! I will be taking the second part of french through distance-ed later this summer. I watched some great things this past week: Greg and I won passes to see the Get Smart movie with Steve Carral and Anne Hathaway, and were pleasantly surprised! It was definitely the best movie i've seen all year - and the only one I haven't had to pay for! :) Both of the episodes (409, the continuation of The Library and 410 which was something to do with the Doctor on some kind of cruise without Donna) that I watched of Doctor Who were super scary!!! I haven't yet seen the last 2 episode of BSG so I can't comment on those, but I will probably do so tomorrow or so. We rented 4 movies tonight and 2 of them are due tomorrow so I have lots to watch. I am been really enjoying listening the self-titled album by This is Ivy League ...what a great summery album. Reminds me of Jan and Dean. So, what is everyone up to these days? Watch anything good? I am going to join one of those dvd-by-mail things soon and would love some recommendations.
tdamji Mid Week/Last Week pop culture fun Jun 5, 2008 11:45 AM The heat wave from a few weeks ago is long over, and we haven't seen the sun in about a week. It seems like this constant grayness, rain and gloom matches my mood of late. Due to some (unfortunately) not unexpected yet still somewhat shocking turn of events I had to plan out the next 2 years of my university career/life again, recently. I'll get into more of the details closer to September. For now, here are some of the pop-culture fun things I've been doing/experiencing as of late: Reading - I finished Shopoholic & Baby that I got from the library, in a couple of days, last week. It was perfect for when it was sunny out. I liked reading something so fun and cheery. Of course, it made me want to go to London very badly. I am currently reading Rush Home Road by Lori Lansens. I am really enjoying it so far. Anyone else read it? I am also reading A Spot of Bother by Mark Hadden. I picked it up just before we went to Auckland for all of last year and am only now really starting to read it. I am also hoping to read the new book for BuzzSugar's Book Club this month. The book is Then We Came to the End: A Novel by Joshua Ferris. Music - Has everyone heard the new Aimee Mann album @#%&! Smilers ? You can hear it here if you haven't. I seriously love this new album!! (especially "The Great Beyond" and "freeway")I am so excited that she is coming to the Vancouver Folk Festival in July! I have been listening to a lot of other great new music lately, but will post about all that maybe tomorrow or something. Movies/TV - I watched Reign Over Me starring Don Cheadle, Adam Sandler etc. the other night. I expected to dislike it and have to turn it off, but I ended up really enjoying it and thinking about it a lot afterwards. Last night I watched a bunch of Gilmore Girls season 1 episodes while doing some french homework and Greg did some chinese (mandarine) studying. It was nice seeing those old episodes that i've only seen once or twice. It felt like a new show or something. When it is rainy I always feel like watching that show. It would also be nice to watch Doctor Who or Six Feet Under during the 10 month rainy season in Vancouver, but I can't bring myself to watch single Six Feet Under episodes - i'll want to re-watch them all if I start! Other I sent out letters to Anto and Mel, and still have letters to write to Cheryl and Amy. I won some stuff from an art supply store: Deluxe Print Making kit (to compliment the other block printing supplies i have! no excuses now - i have to get back into it!) and a nice-sized portfolio. Well, I can't remember what else I was going to mention, so I'll leave it at that.
tdamji Best of the week May May 28, 2008 10:51 AM Bonjour, mes amis! I haven't done one of these or posted, otherwise, in ages. I was pretty stressed-out for all of April due to final exams and a ton of course work/term papers that took over my life, and then I had maybe 2 real days off before I started Spring semester. I am now going to be in my 4th week (out of 6) for French 101, and so far I am actually enjoying it! I think this is a great way to learn a second language - when you don't have other classes at the same time etc. I am also going into my 2nd week of working with classroom services. I basically arrange tables/chairs in rooms so that they make sense for the space and make sure that the # of chairs matches what I have been given. So far it has meant a lot of lifting of tables since most rooms are completely out of whack. I work with a partner who seems pretty cool so far and i am getting a lot of exercise. :) Things I've Watched: I've been regularly watching episodes of Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty since April, but I haven't been enjoying any of them, apart from Doctor Who, all that much. The remaining episodes (after the strike) of Ugly Betty and Grey's Anatomy have been particularly not-great, and until last episode of BSG, I haven't been too impressed with this final season of the show. Looks like we'll be seeing more of Sharon/Athena at least! I have been wanting to see Narnia: Prince Caspian in theatres, but given the bad reviews, i decided to wait until a cheap ($3) showing of it while I am in Calgary, or wait for DVD. Instead, we decided to watch Indiana Jones 4 (The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). I can't believe all the good reviews for this awful movie! I loved the first 3 movies and really thought this one would be entertaining. Instead, this racist movie was simply too cheesy and nonsense-icle to justify spending the $10 to watch it. Although I do plan on watching Iron Man, X-files 2 and Sex and the City, I will likely wait until they are on DVD since I don't want to spend so much on movies any more this Summer. The next movie I am really looking forward to seeing is the Harry Potter movie this Winter. Please don't disappoint me! ...since it has taken me 3 days to write this, I think I will talk about other things in another post.
tdamji Best of the week Month End: New Music, New electronics! Feb 1, 2008 3:33 PM I have been so busy that I didn't have a chance to post last week, so this is sort of a 'best of 2 weeks' post. I acquired a lot of new music in the last 2 weeks. Some of it is good, but most of it i'll probably get rid of quickly. Here are just a few of the better albums. As I listen to more of the new stuff I'll post more of my favorites. I'll post about my trip later. Not everyone cares to read about Singapore. Music - Top 5 new albums that I've recently acquired: Great Lakes Myth Society - Compass Rose Bouquet. The Great Lakes Myth Society is a band from Ann Arbor, Michigan who I guess I'd classify as Rock/Folk. Here is a link to their myspace page so you can check out their stuff. Cat Power-Jukebox. Admittedly, this is my first real listen to Cat Power's music generally. So far, I really like what I hear, and it makes me want to check out her earlier stuff. You Tube videos . My Space page . Official record company site . Headlights - Some Racing, Some Stopping. This is some pretty typical "indie" stuff. Fun to listen to, but I'll need to hear it a few more times before I can get into any particular songs. Onra - Chinoiseries. I think the title for this "odd instrumental hip-hop" album is pretty perfect. This album samples a lot of Vietnamese pop recordings and instrumentals, and is by far my favorite album of the year. There is an interesting write-up here . my space page . This guy, fwho in the past worked with French producer Quetzal (and on this album?!), are "A hip-hop tribute to soul music. [The Album has] soulful instrumentals that sound like hip-hop remixes to soul songs from late 60's to late 70's." Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend. My space page . BuzzSugar introduced me to this group. I really like their unique sound. Sort of college rock/indie/ska?! I dunno. I just know I like their sound. here's a video on youtube. According to their official site: The name of this band is Vampire Weekend. We are specialists in the following styles: "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa", "Upper West Side Soweto", "Campus", and "Oxford Comma Riddim." I am listening to Adele right now and I am really loving it, so i'll mention a 6th album this week. Adele - 19. Her debut album is out now. She is a soul/pop/jazz singer from England. Some are calling her the new Amy Winehouse. Gawd, I hope not. My space page. New Stuff January Lots of great stuff this past month, since we just moved into our new place from having things in storage for a year and being in New Zealand. Both of our parents bought us the majority of these things, but some household necessities we got ourselves. iBobot Roomba 530 - $100 off at Canadian Tire. We've been wanting one for years and said we'd pick one up when it was on a good sale. Why did everything have to be on sale in January? Looks like we got a lot of new stuff, huh? Antique Yellow Bench - So, the $100(with 30% off) we saved on the Roomba , we spent on this bench . We are using this 130 year old antique chinese bench as a coffee table, but we also move it to the dining table and sit on it sometimes. I think it can be used for so many things though and in so many rooms so it'll always have a place in our home. Samsung 26" LCD tv - my dad bought us this wonderful tv when I went to Calgary this Christmas. It was on a really great sale. This is the first tv we have ever really had in the 7 years of living together. We had a tv in Auckland last year but sold it and it was less than $50 so i don't think it counts. it really quite sucked. I love this tv. i can't believe it is finally ours! I have been going to Future Shop and Best Buy for years, it seems - looking at this guy. I think the size is perfect for our space and our lifestyle. We used to play wii on my old imac (20") but that didn't work so well and the picture quality wasn't great. This is really amazing, though. Airport Extreme Base Station - This is the white box-thing on the shelf in the picture. It has made our wireless environment run so much more smoothly! I love this thing. Lacie 500GB external harddrive - the nice, chrome, porsche-designed one that matches our 200gb one we got a few years ago. (not in picture, but can be seen here).I really wanted a 1TB one, but this guy stacks on top of our older one and was half price. Yamaha Digital Sound Projector YSP800 - It was mostly greg that wanted this - but don't send it back! I love this stereo - 23 speakers in one! You can read about it's amazingness here. Again, this was half price. I was a bit thrown aback with the price initially, but it certainly isn't something I see us replacing for a really long time. We listen to music all the time when we are home and have it hooked up to my old powerbook G4 laptop and one of the external harddrives for listening to music and of course use it with the vcr/dvd player, tv and wii. We have more electronics now than we have ever had. It is all so strange to me. I'd like to get a shelf for the wall above the tv so that we can move this guy there and put the record player at a more reachable height so we'd use it more often. Basketweave Cream/Off-white 65 piece dish set for 12 people - After looking around at so many housewares places for a long time (years) trying to find the perfect set for us that would also not be too expensive, we found this set at much less than half price (originally $200) in the mall nearby. so many of our old dishes have broken and IKEA no longer makes that set - plus we only had a set with 8 of each thing to begin with, so we were down to not that many dishes. With 12 of each dish and extras, like a large salad bowl and serving platter, plus sugar bowl, I think we found the perfect dish set! Wusthof 7 inch Santoku Knife - Another one of those things we've been looking at for a long time and got on a good sale. Here is the info on it. It doesn't totally match the Wusthof Culinar knives we have, but it is a high-quality knife that works well with our black and silver kitchen look for appliances. Also bought this month: some used wii games: Metroid Prime 3, Fire emblem Radiant Dawn (one of my favorite wii games so far! a fantastic RPG with focus on tactical battles), Rayman Raving Rabbids (i don't like it much because i suck at it) and 2 new games: Super Mario Galaxy and Zack and Wiki - both are incredibly fun, especially Zack and Wiki! then there is all the fun stuff from China Town you can see in the pictures and a bunch of other things that i am not going to mention since they are most definitely necessities (like greg's bed and frame, dresser and desk). oh, and the cast-iron square pan which i use almost everyday and love so much.

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