so we got the furminator cat brush for jonesy. at $45 plus taxes, it's pricier than other de-shedding brushes, but holy moly, does it ever brush out that undercoat!
the above brushing is in one sitting. and that "sweater" we brushed out of her is the size of a bunny rabbit or an over-sized fluff ball guinea pig!
and now jonesy looks even skinnier than she normally does.
on a sunny saturday when i should've been out basking in what's sure to be a mere handful of summer days remaining, i was sitting in a med lab, waiting to get an EKG as per my doctor's instruction.
the procedure took about 10 minutes. twelve electrodes were placed on various parts of my body: both side of my calves, both sides of my upper arms and the remaining six running underneath my left boob up to my heart. the electrodes are then hooked up to an EKG machine as it takes a reading of my heart's electrical activity. i had to lay very still during the whole procedure so unfortunately, i didn't take any pictures of me being all wired up a la frankenstein.
if you want to know how an EKG measures the signals going through each part of the heart, click here.
before i knew it, the test was over and i was left with 12 pink circular imprints on my body from where the clinician peeled off the sticky electrodes. my graph will now be sent to the cardiologist and fingers crossed, everything will come back a-ok.
kate moss almost never grant interviews. especially on camera. so that makes this just the more adorable as she sounds like a typical bride gushing about her big day.
i have no doubt that this little iphone app, mymeditation, helped in subsiding my premature ventricular contractions. it kinda sucks that i have no time, or rather, have not made the time to go to my yoga classes since starting at EA three months ago. it's just that after a long day at work (usually a 9 hour day), followed by gross times on public transit, i'm just so wiped that all i want to do is crawl into bed, turn on the TV and not think. not do anything. just be.
and as a result of not going to yoga, i've accumulated all this stress inside me. and with no outlet to "defrag", it's reached physical manifestation level.
so after i started getting those PVCs, i wanted to look for an app that would help me to relax at work and at home.
the main purpose of this app is to guide you through pranayama breathing. mindful breathing. 4 seconds inhale, 4 seconds hold, 4 seconds exhale, followed by 3 minutes quiet meditation. the guided breath is gentle and soothing and the chimes sounding the start and end time makes me picture tibetan monks striking a bell.
on one particularly stressful day, i used this app 4 times at work. find a quiet corner, close my eyes, tune everything out and just take deep yoga breaths and just be mindful in the moment. and after my sesh ends, i can feel myself feeling human again.
i can't partake in beer fridays/scotch fridays like my colleagues do to unwind from a stressful week, but i'm glad i have this. it's been a real comfort. and a reminder that i must get back to yoga.
it began right before our one year anniversary at work. out of nowhere, i felt a disturbing thump in my chest. one booming heartbeat followed by a suction feeling. like the heart having one strong hiccup. whoosh.
and i would get it throughout the day. on my most stressful day, i would experience a couple dozen or so thumps. hypochrondriac that i am, i imagined the worst, like a heart attack waiting to happen. but there were no other symptoms: no fainting, shortness of breath, pain in the left arm.
but as soon as i got home, the PVC would diminish. i may get a few but not nearly as strong or frequent like when i'm at work. so i thought it has be stress related. i have been going through a higher than normal amount of stress and internalizing a lot of what was going on in my work life. one bad trait i have is that i tend to compartmentalize things because i think, if i fall apart, everything around me falls apart.
i'm working on that.
unfortunately, i have a high tolerance for pain and i can push through any stress i may be experiencing. i can be a machine, that way. that is, until it suddenly backs up on me. and like a toilet, there's spillage everywhere.
it's happened in past jobs where i worked round the clock, for weeks, due to production schedules and under the gun deadlines. and every time, my stress physically manifested itself in different ways.
when i was the associate producer and director of sales of a bridal trade expo, i worked all day and burned the midnight oil for weeks, preparing for our annual show. then one night after work, i looked at myself in the mirror and bam! i became my panda namesake, ling ling. i was shocked because i have NEVER had black circles in my life. and there they were. my boss forced me to go on an extended weekend to recoup.
stress also reared its ugly head when i worked at vancouver opera. during one particularly stressful crunchtime, i suddenly developed a twitch on my right eyelid, followed by a facial rash that took a week to subside. i NEVER had a eye twitch before. it was interesting. and my boss forced me to take advantage of the lieu days off that i had been banking throughout the year.
and now this.
so i visited my doctor on monday and upon trying to describe what exactly i was feeling (how do you say it feels like my heart flashed a beat without sounding all new age-y?), she knew exactly what is was.
my doctor described the feeling as if someone scares the pants off you. that first fight-or-flight heartbeat you feel. the sudden bolt of adrenaline. and as i don't have a family history of heart disease, don't have high blood pressure, don't smoke, do drugs, drink alcohol or caffeine, that it's most likely stress-related.
but she's ordered an EKG just to be on the safe side.
it's a blessing and a curse to be so highly tuned to the workings of my own body. i know straight away if something's normal or not normal. and because i used to read medical books for fun, i'm usually spot on at self-diagnosis.
i DID say that i have a touch of the hypochondria. did i also say i was slightly neurotic too?
on july 8 2011, NASA launched their final space shuttle mission, STS 135. and i once i launched my face into space. but this time, sean went with me on the mission.
i had sent my picture with the previous mission, STS 134 in may and had missed out NASA's first face in space launch in february because i didn't know about it. but this was an opportunity sean and i couldn't pass up. this would be NASA's final voyage . and we wanted to be a part of history, however small. sniff.
The 135th and final space shuttle flight launched on July 8, 2011. Atlantis carried the Raffaello multipurpose logistics module to deliver supplies, logistics and spare parts to the International Space Station. The mission also flew a system to investigate the potential for robotically refueling existing spacecraft and returned a failed ammonia pump module to help NASA better understand the failure mechanism and improve pump designs for future systems.
Atlantis' crew consists of Commander Chris Ferguson, Pilot Doug Hurley and Mission Specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim.
sean and i were 2 out of 9,841 canadians, and 2 out of 367,627 worldwide participants who took part in NASA's 3 face in space program. what a club to be in.
on july 21 space shuttle atlantis touched down for the final time on runway 15 at kennedy space centre's shuttle landing facility in florida. the time was 5:57am.
"having fired the imagination of a generation, a ship like no other, its place in history secured, the space shuttle pulls into port for the last time. its voyage at an end."
it's always fun when you go to a friends birthday dinner and next thing you know, 3 hours fly by. just like that. good food, great conversations, lotsa laughs and fete'ing of the birthday girl.
sean and i didn't even mind going hoarse by the end of the night. (the restaurant was as loud as a nightclub!)
this is EA's onsite soccer pitch. yes, they have their own soccer pitch (as well as an outdoor basketball court and volleyball court with sand).
and last week, when we were all in full-on post-mortem work mode from our one year anniversary, one of the guys proposed a foot race. you know, to add a little levity to what was a very stressful week for all.
azlan was brazen enough to challenge marc, an ex-pro race car driver and scotty, a ex-pro track runner to a sprint. from one end of the soccer pitch to the other. and the whole department took a fiver and turned out to watch from the outdoor patio.
here's how it all went down: scotty on the left, marc in the middle and azlan on the right.
it's not very clear in the video, but as they reached the half way mark on the pitch, scotty knowing he was in the lead, motioned like he was making a call on his cell phone, as if he was calling it in. actually, it's from a list of FIFA 11 celebration styles.
azlan having had his ass handed to him on a plate, called for a rematch minutes later and here's what happened:
still no contest. and hammering the point home, scotty not only flew by them but did so with airplane wings.
this kinda antics, especially on a friday afternoon, is just what we needed to close out the week!
to see a bigger version of the video clips, go to my flickr here and here and supersize it to full screen.
i love that the conference rooms on our floor are named after famous car movies, such as fast n' furious, gone in 60 seconds, starsky n' hutch and cannonball run.
but are we playing with fire if we have a work station, chock a block with computers, that is known as skynet? this area is where our developers test features and capture in-game footage for upcoming trailers.
this may also be the area where skynet will gain self-awareness. realizing the possible extent of its abilities, our developers will attempt to pull the plug. perceiving this as a hostile act, skynet will deploy a virus to our 6 million registered users. after it hacks into everyone's facebook and spam their friends and family.
it was need for speed world's one year anniversary on july 27. the whole department revved into overtime to make sure that we were prepared for the onslaught. i put together 15 contests in the span of one week and gave away nearly 300 prizes. our production guys made sure our servers were able to handle capacity. we introduced email verification to cut down on trolling. and we put together a nice little thank guy package for our community for their support this past year.
as a result, we smashed all previous records and had the highest PCU numbers during our anniversary week. the whole team worked hard and in the end, can revel in a job well done.
but that's not to say we're all super serious people. or that we don't know how to have fun...
for the past couple of months, i've been playing zombie smash when i get home from work. it seems it's the only thing that helps me to decompress. i just have to focus on one thing only, while work demands of me to multi-task and be on point for 8+ hours a day. and there's a certain satisfaction that comes with killing zombies. tearing them limb from limb. and dropping a whole arsenal of weapons on them.
course i'm not looking at them as "zombies" per se. i'm looking at them as all the dillholes i encounter on a daily basis.
i may just be a natural when it comes to zombie smash. hence the swift climb up in the leaderboards. or it could be that i encounter a lot of dillholes lately and channeling my frustrations into a tiny game of pixels has helped me to advance.
anyways, here i am flying up the ranks:
#102 of 198,064 players with 153,211 kills (top 5%)
#48 of 788,672 players with 209,872 kills (top 5%)
#40 of 929,489 players with 233,285 kills (top 5%)
#28 of 951,769 players with 277,578 kills (top 5%)
#22 of 998,030 players with 339,356 kills (top 5%)
and here's me beating my personal best on bonus night #16:
1191 kills
1338 kills
1372 kills
sean says i've officially crossed over to the dark side of social gaming. he's also proud of me for doing so well. top 5%, baby!
pair it with buffy the vampire slayer graphic novels.
slip in the mix some jonesy the cat.
what do you get?
a much needed, relaxing and peaceful day at the park with my favourite person in the world.
reading buffy comics at the park
sean and i have been crazy busy with work the past couple of months. being online as community manager at work has drained me to the point that i have an aversion to being online during my off hours. a once dedicated near daily blogger, i can sometimes barely muster up the time and words to put together a blog post these days.
it's comforting to know that one of my colleagues is in the same boat. the online marketing manager for need for speed has his own personal blog and twitter. and his last posts were nearly a month ago. life at EA is really keeping us that busy.
it's not like sean has lots of free time as well. being in the gaming industry, we both work a LOT. and although the end result, be it making a strict deadline, or fulfilling the community's needs and wants is satisfying, the toll on the body can be quite punishing.
if i can bottle up my whole department's mental energy expended, i have no doubt that we could seriously power something. a city block. or a stealth aircraft.
side profile, or me playing around with my iphone
reflections, or sean playing around with my iphone
jonesy sleeping on my lap. just look at them paws
the sun on my face and a cat on my lap
so a quiet day at the park, reading comics and just BEING was a nice antidote to all that busy-ness. i need a VACATION! i don't care where. i just need to unplug and recharge. being off the grid has such a tantalizing sound to it...
i love this pic of jonesy and the sun rays. kinda lo-fi
but this pic cracks me up. this must be what her side eye looks like before she cuts a bitch down
family portrait
well, for a couple hours anyways, the park and the cat between us helped in rejuvenating our spirits. more days like this please.
remember how i was all wowed by the deus ex: human revolution cinematic trailer last year? that i couldn't wait for this game to hit the market so i can check out its blade runner/matrix/terminator-esque influences?
well, here is the just released live-action trailer, furthering the hype for this game.
the game is being released on august 23. you know what that means.
now that i think about it, has it been that long? wowzers, time flies. but also the fact that the VAG didn't have a special exhibit last summer.
so this year, VAG curated a surrealist exhibition called the colour of my dreams: the surrealist revolution in art. it didn't take much but the name, dali, to get me and sean's ears perked up. we think salvador dali is the bee's knees.
but there were a couple pieces by artist paul delvaux that did make an impression on me:
el viaducto
mujer ante elespejo
one of the exhibit rooms resonated with me with their description of surrealists and labyrinths:
labyrinth, like forests, are places where people can become lost and reason bewildered
surrealist artists associated the disorienting world of the labyrinth and the monster within it, with the forces of the unconsciousness
a labyrinth into which i can venture is my blog title after all.
sean's found a couple pieces he liked:
the oneiroscopist by edith rimmington
lobster telephone by salvador dali
after seeing dali's lobster phone, sean said he was going to find an old timey telephone and a plastic lobster so he can recreate it for the house.
there were 2 more pieces that we liked, unfortunately, i can't find any images of it to post. there were la prière by wilhelm freddie and the alcove: an interior with three women by leonor fini.
after the surrealist exhibit, we went upstairs to explore other exhibits. on the second floor was the ken lum exhibit. he doesn't really fry my burger but sean and i both got a laugh at 2 of his pieces:
ken lum's steve and mounties & indians
lum's architectural installation, house of realization, was also interesting. if only for making funny faces at the other people on the other side of the 2 way mirror. like a fun house.
like our last visit to the VAG in 2009, the best part of the visit was not for the main exhibit but the smaller one. at the very top floor of the VAG was this fabulous exhibit called walking + falling: jim campbell, chris marker and eadweard muybridge. the exhibit presented the work of 3 artists who utilized new media to explore and represent complex notions of time, movement and memory.
i was happy to see the groundbreaking images taken by photographer eadweard muybridge. and so glad that i got to learn all about him when sean took me to the play about his life, move for me.
i hadn't heard of artist jim campbell before but i sure did like what i saw. his time-based works of art consist of analogue pictures that uses algorithms to digitally encrypt processed images into pixels.
here's a picture of jim campbell's library, 2004 with its 768 LED lights and treated plexiglass.
you're probably wondering, so what? well, here's what it actually looks like in motion:
there's a certain kind of spookiness about it when you catch it in the corner of your eye walking around the room. like ghosts in your peripheral vision.
east broadway, 2009
east broadway was creepy too. if you can imagine phantom-like figures going up and down the subway stairs on the diffusion screen. (cuz i can't find a video clip of it)
here's another stunning piece called exploded view, 2010:
i know some might think that campbell's exploded view is nothing more just than twinkle lights, but i find it so innovative and interesting to watch. like a visual haiku of light and electronics. and 1152 LEDs.
will it be three for three? i'm betting the next time VAG brings in a special exhibit, i'd still probably prefer the smaller one on the top floors.
sean's sister and her family made a pitstop in vancouver last weekend, on the way to kelowna, so sean and i met them out in white rock for family day.
this was the second time i met the nephews and was happy to see that they were warming up to me.
after lunch at indian kitchen and hanging out at semiahmoo park, we headed back to molly's hotel in langley. course we heard there was a swimming pool with a double height slide, so we stopped off at the mall to get suitable bathing gear. and by we, i mean sean. because i have 3 bathing suits at home and was not wanting to drop $80+ for another one. heh.
perhaps i should've.
the boys got their swim on right away and were having fun with the "terror" slide. sean was creating such a big splash that i thought i'd capture it. so i went to the side where i thought it would be dry and pressed record:
the hysterical and uncontrollable laughter you're hearing in the background is molly. sean laughed. cooper and casey laughed. and i had tears rolling down my eyes, laughing my *ss off. it's a good thing i don't wear mascara.
anyways, THIS is what i was trying to capture. sean the human torpedo:
and the big splash he was creating coming down the slide:
now picture me standing at that very spot when he came down. hilarious right?
in my tiny fists of fury, i hold the alice: madness returns video game that i borrowed from EA's resource centre. i know what sean and i will be doing this weekend.
speaking of dream jobs, another one that i would've loved to have tried out for is month at the museum 2. that's living at the museum of science and industry in chicago for 30 days and 30 nights.
all access pass to check out all the nooks and crannys of the 14 acre huge museum. exploring the exhibits after hours, partaking in science demonstrations and interacting with museum guests. what's not to like?
a huge science nerd, living and breathing science for 30 days would've also been a dream opportunity.
too bad it's only open to residents of the united states. lucky bastards.
today was the last day for voting for your favourite applicant in the live@YVR contest. to celebrate YVR airports 80th year, they're giving one lucky winner the chance to live, eat, breathe YVR for 80 days. that's living the high life at the fairmont vancouver airport hotel, eating at the airport's restaurants and food fair and publishing vlogs about all the stories that happen at the airport.
oh, and no leaving the airport for 80 days. kinda reminds me of tom hanks in the terminal..
i would've LOVED to have tried out for this amazing once in a lifetime opportunity as their on the ground correspondent. hell, i would've done it for gratis. i would've loved an all access pass to report on how the airport works, the behind-the-scenes and the human interest stories.
ever since i was a little girl, i loved airports. i remember when my dad used to drive the family out late at night to YVR. my parents would walk around and talk while me and my brothers would jump on baggage scales and run around the expanse of the airport. and when we were wiped out from running amok, i'd sit and watch planes coming in and shutting down for the night.
i know i would've been fab for this assignment. i can find a story in everything.
if only i had time to put together a video submission. my job at EA has been keeping me hella busy for the past month, what with ramping up for the game's one year anniversary last week.
but then again, looking at this sure winner, jaeger mah with his tv host demeanor and fancy video skills, he's would've gotten everyone beat. the other 4 finalists' videos were not quite as compelling as mah's.
it's an excellent submission and he did a really super job. i even voted for him.
