India

Amazingly exhausting.

The Miss Piggy Chronicles.

Yum Cha Overload. The last time I was in Hong Kong was when I was 4  so as expected I have a lot of relatives to meet and greet. That part of it I enjoy but the amount of food I have been consuming  has impregnated me with a Yum Cha baby.  Sitting next to Aunties guarantees that my plate and bowl become a bottomless pit of food. Food would be constantly placed infront of me regardless of if I’m full or not. Now, I remember why I was such a chubby kid. So porky that I was given the nickname Miss Piggy by all the relatives. They still all remember that nickname. I’m off to India tomorrow night. It’ll be a nice break from the Yum Cha. Looking forward to some dosa, dhai vadda, idil sambar and medu vadda.

Goodbye Canada.

A big Hello to Hong Kong and India.

Goodbye Fraserview!

I finished another chapter in my life. I didn’t think I would stay that long or love the job as much as I have. I decided to leave on an incredibly happy note. I know if I stay longer, I might not enjoy the job as much as I do now. It’s time for some new adventures.
I started off as an arts and crafts volunteer and my first days I sort of (okay, I did) let the kids walk  all over me. First lesson I learned is you want kids to like you but you shouldn’t let them know you want them to like you. If you give kids an inch, they will take a mile.
I quickly recovered from that mistake and several more.  Over the years, I’ve let go of my inhibitions working with children. I’m acting as goofy as ever and it feels great. I would break out in spontaneous dance moves with the kids. For the longest time, I would be way too intimated to dance because I’m rhythmically challenged. Most kids didn’t care if I danced like Ginger Rogers or Elaine from Seinfeld. What they cared about was that I was spending time with them. Kids make you live in the present.

This job has taught me so much about compassion, tolerance, patience, perspective, enthusiasm, reflection, humour, confidence, creativity, community and resilience.

Thank you to everyone at the Fraserview Boys and Girls Club. You’ll never know how much you have enriched my life. I’m walking away a stronger, wiser and better person.

BOOM BOOM POW

Last week I was hopped up on happy caffeine molecules.  According to the board game IQ 2000, the colour of a caffeine molecule is white but I digress.

My first website design for a client is almost done.  I pulled an almost all nighter (The slumber fairy refuses to let me operate with no sleep at all. Once 4am hits, Zs dust is thrown in my face.) I overhauled my original design and I’m glad I did.  I’m happy to report my client thinks the layout is Terrific (and that is with a capital T). Thank you D for the chinese name translation. Thank you T for helping me through the recoding. Good grief. Will Technology and I ever become BFF? Technology is pointing its finger and laughing at me. I take that as a No. Take a gander at my dreamweaver skillz at www.newpuitakdaycare.com

I executed my first adult Paper Engineering workshop for some lovely staff and volunteers at Science World. My templates were a bit confusing so I need to fix them up before I post them on my website. Overall, I think we all had fun. A big thank you and plate of granola bars to all who attended.

Festive Tree done. Check out the Fraserview Boys and Girls Club decorated tree on the second floor of Pacific Centre Mall, Downtown. It will be up for 6 weeks. All the decorations were hand made by the children. I think our tree is the best (and so does all the voices in my head). Who could hate a tree with a cyclopes penguin, holiday ferret and other classics on it? We had an awesome popcorn garland but we were told that we couldn’t have perishables on the tree. Boo!  It took the kids and my co-worker a long time to string it up. Oh, well we’ll use it for the club christmas tree. I had to make a dash to Dressew to buy some red ribbon for garland instead.

(first pic – popcorn garland in all its glory before we were told to remove it.  second pic – post popcorn garland. last pic – cyclopes penguin)

Stop Motion Animation Domination viewing party was…wait for it…superfantastico. Some technical hiccups. I told the computer to take a spoonful of vinegar and that seemed to do the trick.  All was fixed. A forty plus audience and one lonely ghost came to see the shorts done by the kids in the Animation program. Three months of making, shooting, editing and a computer crash. Super Duper job to all the animators! You get my thumbs, toes and elbows up.

CD and DVD covers I designed for the animation program.

Attended my last Bad Mitten session of 2009 at Richmond Pro and I had a smashing time. The only birdie poop of the day was I forgot my shorts at home so I had to play in my jeans. J suggested I go pantless. I didn’t have the nicest pair of knickers on but more importantly, I didn’t want to be banned from Richmond Pro. So, that option was tossed into the reject pile along side the banana juicer. Thanks to everyone that helped improve my game.  One of my greatest accomplishments is being able to sweep up the birdie with my racket. Yes, I live a very simple existence.

I happily ended the week with the Gastronomical Holiday Gorging Fest with great friends, great food and great times. The elastic waisted pants were whipped out for the season of holiday overeating. N, you have out done yourself with the delicious main course & dessert and thanks for hosting the event:) We burnt off the pesky calories with some Wii sports, yoga and DDR (that’s Dance Dance Revolution for the those out of the hula hoop) and ended the night with an intense (sometimes inappropriate) game of taboo.

No rest yet. The checklist is half done.

Let the countdown begin.

Website and letterhead design due in 1 week. Teaching a Paper Engineering Workshop in 2 weeks. The Fraserview stop motion Animation Domination viewing party in 2 weeks. Festive Tree decorating competition in 2 weeks. Officially quitting my job in 2 and 1/2 weeks. Temporarily leaving the continent in 3 weeks.

George Carlin.

A couple of nights ago,  I caught the last 45 minutes of George Carlin being posthumously awarded the 11th Mark Twain for American Humour on the Knowledge Network.  I never paid much attention to George Carlin in my younger years. I was raised in a household where I received regular ruler hits on the hand for using the words “Damn” and “Crap”. So, it’s no surprise that I would have been in deep trouble for listening to Mr. Carlin.  His observations and social commentary on the world are sharp. He has incredible insight on the peculiarities of the English Language. He’s good at testing your beliefs and challenging everything.

Here are just two of the tribute clips I caught.

Hot One Inch Action

Free this Saturday, Nov 7?
Come on down to The 6th Ever! Hot One Inch Action at W2 Perel Gallery, 112 w Hastings. The one inch button trading starts at 8pm. I am one of the fifty artist to be part of the show!

Above is this year’s button design.

My “le bon lapin” button was part of the 2007 show.

Bad Mitten

I’m finally getting regular exercise. Our self-named friday morning badminton club is called Bad Mitten. Go figure, we’re a bunch of art school peeps and I have a love for mad gab.  My first few attempts at badminton sucked but with the encouragement and help from some awesome badminton players, I’ve upped my game. C sent me some really excellent badminton instructions. He’s a good teacher but the sound quality could have been better.

If you’re free friday morning, you should join us at Richmond Pro. The morning crowd is pretty friendly.

The Fun Theory.

This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.
The Fun Theory.

Great ideas to inspire change and bring a smile to people’s faces. One of my fun theory idea would be to decorate the Canada Line tunnel into a giant haunted house (with spiderwebs, monsters and all)  to make it fun for people to take transit. However, people wouldn’t be very happy if tax payer’s dollars were spent on that. What’s your fun theory?