Well, it’s sort of long over-due, but better late than never! Here’s a quick recap of what happened after going south of Seattle to Los Angeles, adding in San Diego and Vegas to the mix.

1. Warner Brothers Studio Tour
   




It would be such a shame to not visit a studio when you’re in such close vicinity to them! So I picked Warner Brothers on the suggestion of my other cousin, Brian. It was a blast. There’s me, on the preserved set of Friends, which was pretty fun.

2. Seeing family and friends in LA




I haven’t seen my LA relatives since I was like… 6 or something. So it was a blast to finally get reacquainted — American Style! I spend my very first American Thanksgiving, it was quite a blast, not to mention the food. Too bad I didn’t go Black Friday Shopping.

3. San Diego / La Jolla Beach with Dan H.



The sea was just what I needed. Despite being a bit of a cold day, it was still warm enough for Dan and I to go kayaking in the Pacific. It was amazing fun, until I learned that I get motion sickness in a kayak. We ended up getting stuck on a rock when we tried to get back shore, oops. Afterward we went to the gaslamp district of SD to grab some dinner, it was a fantastic day, thanks Dan!

4. Vegas!!!




It’s Vegas, enough said. I ended up only trying the dollar slot machine since I’ve never been to a casino before. My cousin convinced me to cash out when I was up about 45 cents. I ended up betting more and lost it all. It was just a bit of fun, and who actually cash out 45 cents anyways?

Anyways, for the rest of the set, go to my flickr.

Nevertheless, this is an exciting day today, for it is my very first American Thanksgiving… spent in the US of A. It’s quit exciting, we are apparently having a huge feast tonight, and then the cousins and I are going to line up for some black Friday deals, imagine, I can finally experience the joy of elbowing crazed shoppers as we race for the door crasher deals, and the pain of getting trampled over by hundreds of people. Don’t worry, I’ve got my helmet, gloves, and knee pads ready.

Will update more later, probably when I return home from my trip. Seattle and LA are amazing cities that has very different things to offer (I’ll write about them in depth later!). I definitely recommend a visit. San Diego tomorrow, followed by Vegas, then home for the Holiday blitz. Not counting the jobless-ness, life is pretty good right now.

Time for more adventures.

I pretty much just had the most jam-packed weekend of my life! The weather was fantastic, people were out and about in the city, I got to spend time with both family and friends, nothing gets better then some quality time with friends and fams!

Friday night I had the pleasure of attending the Luminato Festival kick off at Dundas Square, it was quite the crowd. I loved seeing people dancing and jumping to some quality music, and it was great to be downtown on a Friday night, the city was just bursting with life! First Nova Scotia’s East Coast New World Orchestra sizzles the floor with their regional folk music that made everyone danced (or at least, tapped their feet).

The dancing continued with a lindy-hop swing dance lesson, I’ve never seen so many people dancing to swing

Then, the fantastic, Grammy winning Count Basie Orchestra blew the night away with their smooth and swin’in jazz. I still can’t believe I heard them for free at a spot right in front of the stage. This was followed by the brilliant 14-years-old Nikki Yanofsky who wowed the crowd with her strong vocal work. I still have “Ol’ Macdonald had a farm” stuck in my head (in a good way).

After all the festivity was over, I ran into my high-school buddy Tim Chong and we had Pizza together and catch up on some good times as well as discussing good o’l photography, it was definitely a fantastic night all around.

Saturday a bunch of us celebrated Howard’s 22nd birthday with a dim-sum lunch, the food was quite delish, and then we went crazy and played mario-cart and smash brothers for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening, my family and I went to see “Evil Dead — The Musical”, which I think everyone in Toronto should go see because it was freaken hilarious. The one-liners and slapsticks were dead on, I don’t think I’ve laughed this hard in a long time. It does use a lot of fake blood for effect though, so those that don’t really like seeing blood might want to skip this one for that reason. Seriously though, if my mom enjoyed it, you will enjoy it too!

Sunday morning I went to see Heather play some tournament baseball with the Lion’s club. They didn’t do so well, and I wasn’t the lucky charm I thought I was. Nevertheless, it was fun being there watching a supporting a friend and enjoy the outdoors and tanning in the sun. In the afternoon I drove to Waterloo to have all-you-can-eat Sushi with Scotty, and then visited Alex for a quick chat (which usually lasts around an hour or more, so much for “quick”).

Jam-packed but fun weekend!? I think so. My cousin is visiting TO next week, plus gatherings here and there, this is going to be a fun summer!

First, BBQ and Standing Ribs night along with watching a few March Madness games at my friend Bryan’s place in Guelph. Next day, I had an awesome breakfast in Guelph with my first RA Sean and one of my first year friend Priscilla at the very Canadian Tim Hortons. Then, I had an episode where my car ran out of battery in Priscilla’s drive way, and I had to knock on her neighbor’s door to grab a jumper cable, and call my friend Gregor and Dana to use their car to jump my car, and call my friend Dan in Toronto to make sure I wasn’t going to kill everyone in the neighborhood by plugging the cables in the wrong way. That’s a lot of people for jumping a damn car.

Then, Pho with my mother, and Ma wins election in Taiwan, and an hour at Dan’s place.

After that, a few friends came over to play some Super Smash Brothers Brawl, and just hang out in general, had beef noodles for dinner, it was the most amazing meal I’ve had in the past months, we then proceed to have cheese cakes, and more irrelevant chatter, and it was oh-so-awesome.

Then I had a fantastic time karaoke-ing my face off with my cousin Dana and Sara.

Of course, now I’m back in Guelph doing work, but oh my gosh, I had such an amazing weekend filled with amazing people. As much as I love this semester, it needs to end!

Nevertheless, I’m excited for 2008 — it has a nice ring to it, and the feeling of anticipation is there like in ’04, except infested with more fear and wonderment for the future. What will happen? Only time can tell.

2007 was definitely, to me, a wild ride. I’ve learned that, despite the best intentions, honesty can hurt a lot sometimes — but dishonesty still hurts a hella lot more. I’ve also learned how fragile and precious a friendship is, how it can easily break, and how hard it is to mend one.

Nevertheless, there were definitely some very good times, here are a few highlights:

• Ringing in the New Years with Heather and Co. As usual! =)
• The gang from 3307/Disney-house-mates visiting Toronto and having a grand o’l time.
• The 83rd College Royal Ball, I had a fantastic time, thanks Noha!
• My first ever Relay for Life. It was such an emotional experience seeing all those that are effected by Cancer, and celebrating those who have won and lost the fight.
• The endless BBQ, hang outs with my dearest friends in Toronto over the summer — my first TO summer in three years!
• The never ending movies this summer, and those that went to watch them with me, thanks!
• Tina’s Graduation
• July 1st at Alex and Dan’s. FIREWORKS!
• Another trip to WDW
• Trip to Heather’s Cottage and boat ride!
• The never ending birthday celebrations, and gatherings, thanks everyone!
• The crazy mini-reunion with my cousins
• And of course, ending ’07 with a bang at my Holiday Gathering.

I realized I haven’t post a song in quite a while, so here it is, enjoy!

Ain’t thinking ‘bout love today
Lost in the sunlight
Walking down memory lane

Ain’t thinking ‘bout you today
People from the past that I knew
Are slowly slipping away
Seems so long ago
Since we were carefree

Photographs lost in time are all I see
A pointless nostalgic-
That’s me
That’s me

Thoughts running round my head today
Times from the past popping up where they’re from I don’t know
Reminiscing my cares away
Wishing I could go back and change the points that were low
Till I’ve realised what life’s meant to be

Photographs lost in time are all I see
A pointless nostalgic;
That’s me
That’s me

Reminiscing my cares away
Wishing I could go back and change the points that were low
Till I’ve realised what life’s meant to be

Photographs lost in time are all I see
A pointless nostalgic;
That’s me
That’s me

It’s all I’ll ever be
It’s all I’ll ever be
Cause that’s me
It’s all I’ll ever be
Cause that’s me

The hustle and bustle was well worth it though, my holiday gathering was a huge success. And New Years was mighty fun over at my friend Heather’s. I also got the chance to meet up with my cousin Dana several time over the holiday, which rarely happens, and well, just overall a busy, but incredibly fun and refreshing holiday. White Christmas, so awesome.

Speaking of my holiday gathering, for some reason all of the photos I’ve taken ended up with my buddy Alex. This is what happens when you have three photography crazed kids taking photos, swapping memory cards, and well, having too much fun to care who’s camera and flash unit belongs to who. The entire thing zoomed by, maybe it’s because being a host of 30+ attendee party takes a lot, but I don’t remember actually setting down in once place for more than 15 minutes max. At least I finished a game of Dirty Mind with some friends. Maybe I should take down-sizing into consideration, so I can actually have a decent conversation with a small group, rather than fragmented ones with a lot of people.

Anyways, you can find the photos over at Alex’s Picasa Web Albums, or view it via the slideshow below. Major props to him and his brother Dan for setting up the equipments, as well as editing the photos!

Happy New Years! May Everyone have a fantastic 2008. Go get ‘em!

But before that, Regina headed out with some of her own Toronto friend to catch-up, so Dana, my sisters and I decided to watch a movies: Live Free or Die Hard. I fell asleep during the movie from the fact that I’ve already seen it as an exam break, and from the shear post-exams fatigue I was experiencing at the time.

The next morning we went to Cora’s for brunch, then we went to shop at Sherway Garden, and then to bowling, which was hilarious watching everyone hitting the gutters. After that, we watched I am Legend, which was pretty awesome. Then we came home and had a hip-hop dancing lesson from Regina, you can imagine the hilarity that ensued.

The next day we woke up nice and late, and found ourselves snowed in, being the crazy bunch that we are, we decided to go out anyways, and ended up going to karaoke for the entire afternoon, after that, Regina went to the airport and went home! It was an awesome weekend, especially after my tiring week of exams, and working for the university.

Photos below, I didn’t take too much because it was just hard lugging my D80 around places, I guess sometime you just need something portable:

More photos can be found at my cousin Regina’s Picasa Photo Album

I did minimal shoveling though, most of the time I was at my cousin Dana’s house having a fine, good time. My cousin Regina visited us from New York! And well, it was a great weekend spent with the cousins. We were out and about despite the snow storm, and it was a great time had by all, hip hop lessons, karaoke, bowling madness…

I still have yet to post my ML-1630 un-boxing, I don’t think anyone cares that much, but I’m going to post it anyways! More to come, more to come.