Poor B.C. Place Stadium...

In case you haven't already heard... BC Place Stadium, one of the most recognized structures in the Vancouver cityscape, has had a tear in panel which has brought down her inflatible roof :(

The tear occurred in the first week of January during the wind/rain/snow storm that we had, but they're uncertain of the exact cause of the deflation.

Since then I've had conversations with different people and everyone says something different. One of the more interesting explanations is... when snow starts to settle on the roof, the keepers at BC Place will over-inflate the roof such that the snow will crack and slide off. It appears, however, that was not the case.

Below is some footage of the roof deflating...

If you would like to learn more about BC Place... click here!

Gingerbread House...

This X-Mas my family and I got to try something we haven't done since we were kids :)

While I was out last-minute shopping with AK he showed me some pictures on his phone...

At first glance I said...

"wth... nice... you didn't make that, did you?"
"Sure I did..."
"Whatever, man... you? The Korean Hulk?"
"Ya"
"Mr. Destructive? Mr. I-have-no-patience-for-anything?"
"YES!"

Anyway, you get the point :P Apparently his parents went out and randomly purchased a gingerbread house making kit from Costco (or Price Club as AK calls it). AK also APPARENTLY put it together on his own in under 2 hrs... sure sure...

Sooooooo... since I refuse to be bettered than him in the random crafts department I HAD to go out and purchase one too!!! An hour before we were to have our X-mas dinner my sis and I headed out to the grocery store in hopes of finding a kit. I was praying pretty hard cuz the day before I was out with AK and I wasn't able to find one at a different store. We went to Superstore and I walked over to the bakery... the nice little Filipino lady told me there was one more on the table!!! Yee haw! I was still a little unsure of what I was going to find... it was, afterall, the last one. As I suspected the last one was cracked :( Not so cracked that it was obvious but still cracked non-the-less. *sigh* what to do? Beggars can't be choosers, right?

I picked it up, obviously... the last one. That night we had the crazy feast and we didn't have time to put it together... it had to be left for the night after.

After indulging for the second night in a row my cousins and myself broke out the gingerbread house kit :) It looked simple enough... everything was neatly packaged


It seemed that I was right about being paranoid for grabbing the last kit... there was 'earthquake' damage :(


I performed some maintenance :p... filled the cracks with the icing and put them back together :) Good as new! ok... not quite...


Next came erecting the main structure... This task was made much easier by the little plastic base that was provided. There were trenches molded to provide guides for placement... the hardest part was trying to get the icing in place...


While I was holding the pieces in place waiting for the icing to set my cousins began on the Tree, Gingerbread Man, and Gingerbread Snowman :)... hehe, the one I did, had claws :D


We worked on-and-on into the early morning, got the roof Iced (more like buttered with icing :p)... decorated.. and soon we realized that we were running low on candies... wtf :@ at the rate that we were going.. we were going to run out before we were finished!!! Not cool...


Finally! After about 2 hours the house was complete :D Et Voila!

We had so much fun putting it together that we're thinking of having a little competition next year ;) If you haven't already you (and your family) should try it too :D

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AK sent me pictures of his house... O.o ... then he told me about the bag of Skittles that came with it!!! :@ I felt ripped off :( Check it out... it looks REALLY nice, BASTARD :P

Merry Non-Denominational Winter Holiday...

X-Mas, X-Mas... the weathermen promised us a white X-Mas... and it didn't happen. I asked for a winning Lotto ticket... that didn't happen either :p

Those who know me also know that I never look forward to X-Mas... I never look forward to any holidays/celebrations, for that matter. Meh, it's just me. As with every other year I spent TOO MUCH time running around like a chicken without a head seeking out gifts. A few years back our family decided that we were spending waaaay too much money on gifts for EVERYONE! We could easily spend $1000-$2000 just on gifts, am I right? We don't have a particularly HUGE family, but I guess it's bigger than alot of others. What was our remedy? It's sorta 'Secret Santa-ish'. We all put our names in a bowl and then we each pick one out. The person you draw is the person that you have to buy a gift(s) for. We also put a cap on the amount of $ we can spend. Usually $50 or so... AND you're not supposed to purchase GCs cuz that's cheating!

I ended up buying for more than just one person (in my family)... it just feels wierd buying for one person only. The end result? Hmmm.. I'm probably going to be crying when I see my next VISA bill... on top of the new phone, bluetooth, and plane ticket to S'pore (will blog about that too) the presents are going to hurt :/

This year seemed not-as-festive as previous years... not sure what it was...

Anyway, we had the usual family gathering on the 24th. This time my cousin and in-law couldn't make it... they're in Thailand) so no crazy Karaoke Revolution or DDR :p My Uncle brought over 2 guests. I'm thinking they're both from the Vancouver Raquet Club where he plays badminton. They didn't speak much English... and I don't speak much Chinese :$ so there wasn't much conversation there, hehe.

My Sis and I ran around doing some last-minute shopping. I had to grab AKs gift plus I wanted to look for a Gingerbread house kit :) By the time we got back the rest of them were waiting for us so they could start dinner. WOOOO HOTPOT!!!

WOW... We had 2 burners going one with Chicken/TomYam and the other with just chicken. I was pretty surprised at the amount of food that was on the table. I guess mum's just used to preparing for a HUGE party! I remember waaaaay back in the day, we used to have an open house during X-Mas. People would come and go as they pleased... and THERE WAS ALWAYS ENOUGH FOOD!!! Imagine that O.o

After a couple of hours stuffing our faces we brought out the dessert :) The highlights were Aunt Sally's home-made cheesecake and the Mango Pudding! There were lots of other sweets/chocolates to choose from too. Among my favorite were the shortbread balls and the Turkish Delight! :D At the same time my sis and cousin handed out the gifts and we all tore in :p Somehow it's not as exciting as when we were children... but it's still fun because my cousins are clowns and are always goofing around while we're together! Oh ya... we did the traditional X-Mas cracker thing and put on our crowns too ;)



OO... Since there was so much food left over my cousins came over again and we had Hot Pot once more :D... then we put together the Gingerbread house!... coming soon...

Hallowe'en @ Work!...

Every year many companies encourage their staff to come dressed up on Hallowe'en. The participation for alot of places, however, is not all that high. Me being the new guy, I was curious, so I 'interviewed' a couple of collegues to see what the usual participation rate is. Our department (IT) apparently has had a 90% participation rate! There are about 50 employees... do the math, that's 45 people running around with costumes ;) This year we had Nacho Aiello! Distant relative of Nacho Libre :p

Continuing on, our company provided us with a catered Hallowe'en luncheon :) There was a choice of rotini, farfalle or fettucine and a choice between 2 sauces + lots of different toppings. They also provided garlic bread, a choice of salads and drinks (non-alcoholic).

We gathered in the recreation room to enjoy the food and socialize... heh, it's always a good time socializing with people @ work. You should hear some of the things that come out of their mouths :p That's another thing I love about my workplace :D everyone is pretty real. Yes, it is a corporate environment... but this company is homegrown :) AND at the top of their industry. They REALLY take care of their employees and encourage us to build a strong relationship with each other. Which, IMO, is probably a large factor in their success.

Here are a couple of groupshots :) there were more poeple dressed up, many of them camera shy...



Our theme, btw, was Superheroes!

Happy Hallowe'en!... (Ken-O-Lantern)...

It's Hallowe'en! and I like carving pumpkins :) During each holiday I try to do something creative... I try to challenge myself and do something interesting each year. This year I decided to challenge myself again... the following is my first attempt at this sort of carving so you'll have to forgive the crappyness :p On with the show!!!

I went to the grocery store and picked up this pumpkin for $2.50 :) Not bad! I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked to be this year... I'm getting forgetful in my old age :p I had to dig around to look for my tools :) The knife set you see there is actually a wood carving set, it serves its purpose when I'm carving pumpkins tho :p To tell you the truth, I don't recommend using wood carving tools to do your deed, since the pumpkin is organic and wet it ends up helping the oxydizing process. You can find pumpkin carving kits if you do some research.

Step 1: Cut out the top of the pumpkin... be sure the point of the knife is going towards the center, otherwies the cover will fall right in instead of resting on top :)

Step 2: Scoop out the guts. Some people like to try and keep clean and ONLY use the spoon... what fun is that? Get right in there! You'll notice if you compare the images below to the image in Step 1 that you can actually scrape out quite a bit of the meat. It went from about 2-2.5 inches thick to 1-1.5 inches. Ideally you want 3/4 inch to 1/2 inch though it's hard to achieve (evenly).



This particular pumpkin didn't have that many seeds. Many people like to use the insides to make pumpkin pie and / or toast the seeds :)

Step 3: Find a pattern you like... AND Carve 'till you're done! :) Actually, you should probably decide on the pattern before you even purchase the pumpkin :p


Unfortunately I didn't have time to complete it in one sitting. I had to continue the evening after. This resulted in a little shrinkage due to the dehydration, thus the smaller eyes and nose O.o

Step 4: Illuminate! Here is the finished product! TA DAH!


Again, considering I didn't take as much time as I would have liked, it's my first time attempting something like this and there was some shrinkage :p from leaving it overnight... I'm satisfied overall :)

For those of you who don't know, I am a regular KennySia.com reader :D

Hey, Kenny! Not many people can say they've had their face on a Jack-O-Lantern ;)

Body Worlds 3...

! WARNING ! The following post contains extremely graphic pictures

A couple of weekends ago AK and I managed to take some time on a weekend to go to the BodyWorlds 3 Exhibition at the Telus World of Science (formerly: Science World). I had heard about the exhibition on the radio... many other people had seen the adverts on the side/backs of the busses around town or seen spots on the news.

The first time that I had ever heard of the plastination process was actually awhile back. I can't recall what show I was watching, but it was sometime in the mid 90s. Since then I had been fascinated but never thought the show would make it into Vancouver. Actually, I wasn't even aware that they were touring.

AK and I headed out to Science World on a Saturday. When we got there we caught a glimpse of the lineup (this was around 1:30-2pm) it was ridiculous. Aside from the lineup trying to find parking was near impossible. We ended up going to the driving range that day :P... And I'm pretty sure that I pulled a muscle in my back O.o But that's a story for another time. I called another one of my friends that day (KL) and he mentioned that he was also wanting to go to the show. He pointed out something that we should have done before we headed out to the show... pre-purchasing tickets online!!!


After golfing I went home and did some research :) Buying the tickets online was easy enough, so I made a purchase and we tried again the next day (Sunday). The lineup was no shorter than the day before (surprise, surprise) but this time we came prepared. I walked over to the far side of the line and saw the pre-purchase line :D There was no one there! Soooo... if you are planning on going to the show my advice to you is to prepurchase your tickets online!

Our package included:
Entrance to ScienceWorld
Entrance to Bodyworlds exhibition
Entrance to 'The Human Body' Omnimax show.
Total: $30

For another $5 we could have had the Audio tour... which is one of those things that you walk around with and dial in which display you're standing at. I'm pretty sure it just reads to you what you can read yourself. anyway, I didn't think it was necessary so I opted out... AK didn't have a choice because I bought the tickets :p

We entered and then made our way upstairs to the Exhibition entrance. The rest of Science World is mainly Kid's stuff so we didn't bother checking out those displays... I'd seen most of them before.

There was a lineup for Bodyworlds and they were letting people in at set intervals; roughly every 15 minutes. I was excited to be going in, I had my camera ready, etc... then the lady checking tickets had to go rain on my parade and tell me that we were not allowed to take pictures in the exhibition :( Ah well. Everyone else seemed pretty excited too. The recommended time to go through the exhibition is at least 1hr. I made sure we had 2 hrs before the Omnimax show because I knew that I'd be taking my time, reading every word that was written and carefully examining all the displays. In case you're wondering all the displays are made using real cadavers. Many people think that they are just very elaborate mannequins, nope, it's the real deal. For this reason the exhibition has also generated much controversy. It's all a matter of personal opinion.

I could go on-and-on about the exhibition but I'll try to keep it brief. You can, of course, look up other (more professional) reviews and articles. After entry into the exhibition there were a few cases with bones/cross-sections a number of them exhibiting disorders such as arthritis. Not far from the first glass displays is the first of many full-body plastinates. It's amazing the amount of time they must have invested in preparing each of these exhibits. The skin has been stripped off all the bodies exposing the tissue and muscle underneath. There were a couple that showed the joints in the hips, knees, jaws... the interesting thing about those ones were that the joints had been replaced with artificials. I wish I were allowed to take pictures :(


The Horse and Rider is an exhibit that I was hoping to see but was not there.
Further into the exhibit there are a couple of cases that contained specimens composed entirely of blood vessels (arteries & veins). That was trippy. There was a fully-formed rooster composed entirely of vessels. Towards the end they had a cross-section of an obese man. The cross-sections are about 3mm thick. Thin enough for you to be able to see right through and see where the fat deposits were. Then at the very end is the room with fetuses. There was an alternate route for those who would rather not see it. I found that 2 hrs was a good amount of time for us to get through the whole exhibition although, personally, I could have spent all day there. We strolled through the little souvenir shop at the end where I picked up a DVD and a book (~$60) a little on the expensive side, but meh... I like reading about wierd stuff.

After that we, both starving, went to watch 'The Human Body'. It was not a bad film, but nothing new. AK fell asleep partway through :D bugger... I paid for his tickets too!

If the Body World Exhibition ever stops into your City I recommend you go check it out. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience and its educational merit is invaluable.

International Sandcastle Competition...

A few weeks back my parents went over to Harrison Hotsprings with some friends... it was an outing to go see the Sandcastle Competition.

This competition is held annualy and draws competitors from all over the world. The competition main event takes place throughout September and the exhibition continues through to early October. Here's a link to the official site. This is going to be more of a photo post... perhaps I should start a flickr account? :p (keep in mind, there were many more entrants than these, AND they are in no particular order... enjoy...