#003 & #004

here's a page i did last week but didn't have time to scan it...

2 of the drawings are originally done by shiyoon and i was trying to study them... the girl reading and the girl with the visor... he's awesome!

The next one is #004! Enjoy!

I think i may colour that barbarian guy... i just need to cg something since it's been such a long time... anyhoo maybe i'll do a real post tonight when i get home from work :)

Almost the weekend!

The wonderful thing about a long weekend is... not only do you get an extra day to sleep in and do nothing... it usually means the week following it is shorter! and that's what this week is... i can't believe it's already thurs. It almost feels like time's going uber duber fast here in PEI.

I woke up somewhat late today for work... more than usual... and had to skip breakfast and rollerblade extra fast to get to work the usual late i get there instead of extra late. I wish i could get up for breakfast... actually i wish i could just get up... period. Why is it so damn hard to get up? I do this thing where i wake up then put my head back onto the pillow and then count down from 60. The intention is to wake up when i hit zero but usually what happens is i fall back asleep before i even hit 30. Which is bad... cuz then when i get up it's already way too late.

Cleaned up boards all day today... really had no time to do my drawing of the day til i got home... which by the way is done.. i just don't have any means to scan the damn thing so you'll have to wait til tomorrow when i'm at work to see it cuz work has the scanner.

Seriously now tho... i wanna get pwnage at art... but it's hard to find the motivation after work! i mean i'm kinda proud of myself today cuz i actually drew at home instead of play... but that's cuz i was inspired to draw since an hour before work ended thanks to Lettie and a coworker. I think i'll be doing some cafe sketches soon too! so stick around for that. But yea... hopefully today will become a regular habit cuz then 4th year film is looming now... and i don't wanna be super unprepared for it... i better whip out concepts every week starting this week. But the motivation like i said is scarce...

Today's weather was decent in the morning... soo sunny and warm and then at lunch it was even better! I went out with a few coworkers to a place called Baba's:









It was awesome weather as you can see.... even when i went back to work and a few hours afterwards it was decent... but then it started raining when i was about to go home... effing rain! raining all the time here on the Island but then it stopped at around 8pm or so... so weird!

For dinner... i knew i had some rice left and bacon which was probably stale by now... some mushrooms and what not... so i decided i was gonna have fried rice... and i wanted chicken again cuz i was recalling how tasty it was when i had the alfredo... so i thought why not!? So then i had some spicy.. yes spicy cuz of the sirachi hot sauce (the pho hot sauce) with mushroom, onions, green onions, garlic, and bacon and soy sauce:












I like taking pictures of my food... but this time it was frigging yummy! Best meal i've made yet... i think the fried rice was made awesomely. Just the right amount of ingredients and hotness and soy sauce... it was spectacular... and then the chicken! The chicken was uber crispy on the outside and soft and moist and juicy in the inside! Wow... and the portion was just right.

Everything just went right... I preheated the oven right when i got home and then put away my stuff... i prepared the chicken and put it in the oven before i did anything else cuz it takes a while to cook. While that was goin in the oven i was preparing all the ingredients for my fried rice... chopping stuff and washing stuff... and by the time the rice was all cooked my chicken was done! Man... it was good times... awesome awesome meal. The weekend should be good for food... i wonder what i'll have tomorrow since i always eat dinner outside on fridays... where indeed??

On a random note... the rain prevented me from roller blading home cuz it's hard enough when it's dry with all the debris on the road and uphill climb so adding wet and slippery would = death. so i had to walk home and then on the way by groceries for dinner... the hilight of the day has to be dinner... and i'm glad it turned out right. Welp... that's my rant for the day!

#002

Today's sketch involves a character my coworker wants me to design for him. Nothing too specific yet except a bulky guy wearing a tie and shirt. We'll see where this goes...

It keeps raining here... i don't know when it'll ever end. I checked the forecast and i think 6 out of the next 7 days are expected to have rain. So... that's kinda depressing. Anybody do their learning strategies yet? cuz i haven't... D:

Oh well... I always look forward to the weekend... more than ever... regardless of the weather.

Drawrings! aka #001

So ya... it's getting hard to find time to post... but i think i'll have a new reason to! I've decided to post a drawing every day for the summer... and hopefully a cg a week. anyhoo here it is:
#001



It may be darker than i intend it to be but that's cuz the brightness is way up on my laptop so bear with it. this drawing was inspired by some guy i saw walking down the street in PEI. Lotsa interesting people to caricature on the island so i'll have plenty of inspiration.


The drawing above isn't part of the draw a day but i drew it at work. he's a good friend of John Williamson named Willie or as the above drawing suggests: Will-E. he's an awesome animator/storyboard artist doing boards down here at trapeze.



Made pad thai today... it was decent... this is actually the 2nd time i made it. the first one was really not good at all. cuz the chicken wasn't cooked. so that's not good. but this time it was decent.

Anyhoo.. it's late... and i'm probably gonna have a hard time waking up for work tomorrow. there are quite a few pics i didn't post up maybe on tomorrow's post.

Hooray for Sun!

Hello my faithful readers... i'm here again with a super duper long post which i had cleverly split in 2 cuz it's long... and i have a lot to write... i wrote the post underneath first in anticipation of this post so that you can just read normally as though i wrote the post below on the weekend when i should've instead of having 2 posts in a day. However, that's not important. The important thing is i'm writing again.

Like the title implies... there's freaking sun again! The weekend was full of clouds and drizzle and wind and suckiness... but monday was off to a great start and today wasn't so bad either.







(above pictures are me on my way to work on monday)

look at how freaking beautiful the day looks. notice... i said LOOKS. It's freaking stupidly cold here. That's the evil thing about PEI... it looks frigging beautiful but underneath it all... is death! and cold... and wind... it musta been like 2 or 5 degrees on monday and today... frig... so cold! How am i supposed to adventure when it's so cold? I only brought 2 sweaters damnit. I swear... if it snows.. i'm gonna be uber pissed.


("off broadway" right next to work - it wasn't that good.. but it looked good)

I make my meals fro breakfast and dinner but i like to try out new places here and eat whatever i don't see in Toronto.... I finally found a good thai place here tho. I went on thurs. to a place that's called "Thai Food".. bahaha that's the name apparently. And it was a like a house and a table... and a chair or something ridiculous like that. But if it's anything like good asian food... the dirtier the place, the better the food. and boy was the pad thai good! The portions here are so small tho... soooo small... but the thai food was decent size.

When i got home i decided to make a meal that'll last me a couple days...


uh oh.. what's alvin making this time??



somethin's a-boilin'


more ingredients bwahahaha


yummmm fly lie


and there it is folks... beef nilaga. (a filipino dish)



the end product served on a plate... looks freaking yummy? well it was pretty good i must say.

Once again that's Beef Nilaga which consists of stewing beef, potatoes, chinese cabbage, (i was supposed to add regular cabbage but forgot i had it in the bottom part of the fridge), salt & pepper, beef broth, fish sauce, garlic, and onions. That's the first time i made it and it was yummmmy. Well it was a pretty risky move cuz i made a frigging ton to last me a few days. I stuffed myself that day. The fried rice was more out of necessity than anything cuz i had left over chicken from the night i made chicken so i didn't wanna eat chicken again so i turned it into fried rice. All in all it took almost 2 hours to make dinner cuz i wanted the beef to be nice and soft but i think i over cooked the potatoes just a tad. still good tho. Cleaning up and dishes are probably the worst most horrible part of cooking. But it's not so bad when you're full and satisfied...

I swear... PEI calls for a lotta sleep. I've been getting maybe 9 hours every night and 12+ on the weekends and i'm always so damn sleepy. How does that work? Geez... On a random note a saw a few brown guys today and car full of black people. I've yet to spot that one filipino guy or family that i can go up to and have dinner with and meet all their cousins who live on the island and play wii on their plastic covered couches... it'll happen in time... On another random note, it was my sister's b-day on sunday so happy b-day! hopefully she got my text. On even more random note, I've realized why my parents are so keen on me eating at home instead of out all the time. It's like... not even cuz it costs money to go out... but there's so much food that's cooked. I feel like i have to go home and eat it all cuz who else is gonna eat it? Holy crap there's leftovers... so whatever.. it's just an eye opener how some of the small stuff gets unseen like... cooking... and cleaning... and groceries... and trying to stay sane and have time for yourself and go out... all at the freaking same time. Kinda hard... but i think i'm getting a handle on things and hopefully... i'll have some freaking art to show! I have stuff... i gotta scan! and bah! oh well... till next time my loyal fans... (tomorrow most likely, I hope.)

And to finish it off........
More pics of PEI! (remember... it only LOOKS nice... it's effing cold look at those flags... stupid wind. stupid stupid wind)

A Weekend Summary

Friday
So then I decided that after work i'd go watch Iron Man and see what all the hubbub was about. It was an awesome idea at the time considering i was starving and the weekend was acomin' but i was still hesitant aka lazy on leaving the house cuz the rollerblade trek home is always draining. So 7 oclock hits and i had to make a decision... so i decided to go mostly cuz i wanted to eat out and try something new so i checked the showtimes online and stupidly, I just missed the 6:50 show and the next available show was @ 9:20... damn it all! But then i remembered my main reason for leaving the house -> food -> so i thought to myself: "if i leave now, i'll get there around 7:30 (actually make that 8:00 because by this time half an hour had passed) so then i'll have an hour to eat before i have to buy my ticket and whatnot so it's perfect!



(there was a party at the neighbour's house or something.... )

Upon leaving and passing the first house i recalled my trip to Walmart where the theaters are and how freaking far it is... it must be a 30-40 min walk... so i went back home to get my rollerblades. On my way to freaking Walmart i get honked at again by some guys who then wave at me... seriously... wth's up with guys honking at me? So instead of 30min walk i arrived at the plaza within 20 minutes and looked around for a place to eat. I saw a Boston Pizza but that's all over the place in Toronto and plus it's not very good so i went to "Mike's" which was like Boston Pizza but not really...

(on the way there...)


(almost there...)


The front of Mike's

So it looked all fancy shmancy but the prices were normal-ish... i find that PEI food is quite expensive well... maybe that's cuz they don't have PHO or $5 Chinese food... but still.





ME!

I decided to have the "Gondala" which didn't look like much but filled me up quite well. Thought about desert but decided against it since i'll be watching a movie and would want some munchies, ie popcorn and we all know how expensive theatre food is... and it was. There's a concept of paying for your bill at the front instead of paying it at the table... it was kinda weird. The same situation happened the 2nd day i was in PEI while eating at a Smithy's or however it's spelled and i had an awesome awesome colossal omelette. Anyhoo I got the bill and sat there for like 10 minutes while waitresses passed by and what not... then i saw the people at another table just get up and i was like what the... and i finally paid at the front.

that's how the picture looks

(and that's what i got... except i started eating before i took the picture)

Well anyhoo i got my ticket but by the time i did it was already 9:15 and there was a surprising amount of people. I guess that's where all the cool kids go since it's right next to UPEI. I decided to go to the 9:40 showing instead. The movie for one thing was pretty damn cool. I liked how they integrated the CG throughout the film especially with ironman. When that big guy came out, it was a little more obvious because he didn't fit in as well, maybe the weight wasn't believable or the texture/rendering. While i was sitting there, it seemed everybody avoided my row. D: oh well i was able to put my jacket on one seat and my rollerblades and hat on another without worrying about people.

By the time the movie was finished it was about 12. Here are some pics:

me putting on my blades


oh ya... it was raining too.. D:


all by my lonesome

So ya... i guess the island doesn't like to have lights out on the road or at least tries to conserve on the amount of lights there cuz i was practically blading blind. And it was pretty late, dark and quiet. Much like a scary movie. And the sidewalk was bad so it was more or less a deathtrap at night which means i was on the actual road. Regardless of how empty PEI is during the day, it seems there's still a steady flow of traffic at 12:00 which only added to my fear of death. So I rollerbladed fast. Lo and behold a stupid car passing by decides to just scream out things i don't understand and frigging startles me. Damn.. what's with people in cars passing by? Needless to say, I got home in about 12 minutes.. :)

Saturday
Mostly uneventful, because the stupid forecast said it'd rain but it didn't.... even so, it was pretty dang cold and cloudy anyways so i didn't bother to go out. I may have bought something in the groceries but i can't really remember... I really doubt it cuz i remember playing a lot that day. Oh waittttt... i did go... I bought some stewing beef for my next cooking project as well as some potatoes, and cabbage... I also looked for tamarind paste but maybe it doesn't exist? can someone explain to me how to obtain such a rare item? Maybe it goes by a few different names? Or is there an alternative?

So what i do now when i go groceries is i take my blades, and carry my shoes with my hands... and i go to the supermarket and get a cart and leave my blades at the bottom of the cart while i wear my shoes! hooray! I get funny looks sometimes but that doesn't matter... with or without me being weird i get looks anyway. What's just as strange is people like to look at what i have in my cart for some reason. They're really really interested in what i'm buying... like REALLY interested. I pass by a number of people and they practically strain their necks to find out what i bought. Why is that tho? Is it that strange to see an asian boy buying groceries?

That night i had to finish the chicken that i bought cuz apparently it was expired for a few days... knowing that however, i put it in the freezer so it was probably okay still... I made rice! woohoo and finished the left over pieces of chicken which was a big feat in itself cuz they're quite big... and left a small piece cuz i was about to explode. It's quite hard to make portions small enough for 1 person for 1 meal... or 2 meals even... when i make rice i usually have to account for 5 or more people so it was a tad unnatural... i thought i put in soooo little rice and it ended up to be so much. So i had a lot left over from Thurs. I think? and i just ate the leftovers with the chicken. Chicken FINISHED. The night ended with a few games of dota and some minutes of NBA playoffs.


my awesome breakfast

Sunday!
Sunday was a day for sleeping in! I woke up probably around 2 o'clock or so. I made some toast, eggs, and bacon... yumm... but by the time i finished it, Lori (my landlady) comes in and starts preparing stuff... hooray for mother's day. I finished my meal and helped clean up a bit but mostly stayed out of her way. She planned a get together with her family and friends for mothers day and she made a crapload of food. I had some frigging fresh steamed lobster... it was frigging fantastic. holy crap. and some mussels which were yummy in my tummy. Ya.. you're probably thinking this was during dinner... no... it was like an hour after i had my toast eggs and bacon... so ya you can imagine how freaking full i was. However, i was hungry again at supper time when Lori made some chowder from the leftover mussels and lobster... and man she can cook. so good. No pictures for you. I was too hungry.

All in all the weekend was quite awesome... i wish it was a little bit more productive in that i could've gone out and explored or something... but it was just too cold... i did jog on sunday but for a bit cuz my hands were frozen. But that doesn't really count. Weekend ova!

Please comment on the post above if you have any comments... danke.

Another Day...

I think i'm finally getting the hang of this... except it really does feel like i have no time for myself anymore. I used my rollerblades to go to work today and realized that it's not such a hot idea since PEI roads and sidewalks kinda smell... the sidewalks are super uneven and have a lotta broken ashfalt and downhills get a little scary and then uphills get frigging impossible.

even tho i said i have no free time i had a little bit today since i didn't have to cook (lotsa leftovers). the only problem is.. storing the baked chicken in the fridge really kills the flavour.. i shoulda ate the skin on both chickens while they were fresh. I had the hardest time finding fish sauce at the supermarket but there was a surprising amount of soya sauce. it also seems that PEI is not free from the worldwide rice pwntage cuz i bought a bag of rice.. which wasn't very big... for $14. D: oh well... gotta have my rice. I wouldn't be surprised if i get sick of chicken tho... i've been having it for dinner and even for lunch today... and will have to have it until it's all cooked cuz it won't be good in a few days...

I'm also loving sleep again... it's so hard to frigging get up in the mornings... especially if you forget to turn on your alarm -_- I think i had about 8 hours and it still wasn't frigging enough. Hopefully i'll get used to an 8 hour cycle of sleep soon or i'm screwed for work. actually scratch that... work is pretty lax... and it seems it doesn't really matter what time i come in... especially when there's not really much work to do. they keep saying it'll get crazy soon but i'm actually excited for that cuz i'll finally have a purpose to my drawing.

Man... i have so many plans of stuff i wanna cook that i can barely wait. I went to the groceries again today to pick up stuff for my next meal mwahahaha! hopefully it turns out good. I think the plan is to use most if not all of the chicken in my next dish and store it in the fridge or freezer for whenever i get too lazy to make anything. My alfredo's really holding up. that's awesome possum.

On another note... i had coffee from timothy's today... apparently it's THE place to go. Not timmy's. go figure.... the cafe mocha i had was so-so... maybe i'll try coffee next time. I really gotta plan a fun day cuz it's been a while since i got to really relax and not worry about everything. not that i actually worry... but like i said... sleep seems like it just gets in the way lately. I think i have to make rounds to the supermarket all week this week so i have a pantry full of stuff and won't have to worry about it for at least 2 weeks.

Anyhoo... i know i said i'd take more pics but i forgot to bring my camera when i went out to lunch and i woke up uber late so i couldn't take pics on the way to work and i was way too tired to take pics on my way back home... maybe i'll take pics tomorrow morning!

Special Delivery

I have awesome awesome news... my luggage arrived today! So now... i won`t have to keep reversing my undies cuz i have a whole crapload of them now. I also have my rollerblades so i won`t have to struggle to get to work. The only crappy thing is... the roads in PEI aren`t well paved and the sidewalks have little bits of rock and broken asphalt so it might be a tad dangerous.

My second day of work was just as uneventful as the first but i did get to talk to my coworkers a bit more and get to know them. cool people... cool place. but i should really start sleeping earlier. it feels as tho i have no energy whatsoever to do any work.

Another good thing about my luggage arriving is that i have batteries for my camera now! and here are some of the pics i took:



This is the front of the house i`m staying in. The weather isn`t super awesome cuz it`s already late (8:00pm or so i think) and it`s beginning to cool down.



this is the back of the house... as you can see... there are no fences. they don`t believe in fences in the island.


my room! nice and messy cuz i got my luggage and i was moving stuff around and throwing stuff out and moved the couch and so on and so forth.




and what is alvin making today??? whooooo knows!?


it's chicken! cajun chicken! but yea i took a piece of the skin before taking a picture cuz i was hungry but there it is! mannnn it's so effing good. i'm still full actually. Anyhoo i'll be eating frigging fetuccini alfredo for a few more days cuz:



there's still much much more to finish... and i actually cooked 2 chickens so i'm covered for a few dinners maybe breakfast... oh yea.. definitely breakfast cuz i didn't even finish my meal today.. so the leftovers for that will go towards breakfast. and the damn chicken i bought needs to be cooked in the next couple days cuz it was on sale and it's not gonna be good in a few days so... that's my eats






left overs once again... in the fridge they go!


my awesome pantry... frigging see all that stuff there... add milk, eggs, butter, mushrooms, parsley, and that's the crap i carried from the supermarket D:


btw... the island's tapwater is uber yummy. i can't believe it. it's like better than evian. i'm already missing chinese food cuz the ones here are pretty much imitations. the servings are smaller, the ingredients are fewer, and the taste is subpar. oh well what can you do... i haven't had the potatoes here yet... but i think i'll be using potatoes in my next meal... which isn't for a while cuz i have so much leftovers. oh ya! speaking of food... i had a lobster roll today... which was pretty much lobster in mayo in a bun. it was yummmmmmmmmy. i'm definitely going to go to those all you can eat lobster things here. as soon as i can find a way to get there cuz it's quite far and remote.

I've been finding that free time is hard to come by... it seems i go home... then have to get stuff to cook... then cook.. then eat... then clean up the stuff i cooked with... and put food away... and by that time i have an hour before it's 12 oclock and writing a blog. i really wish i had time to draw my own stuff... D:. hopefully as i have more leftovers the time spent cooking can be used to draw. I thought i'd be losing weight here but i've been stuffing myself with my own cooked meals so i wouldn't be surprised if i got fatter when i get back. I rollerbladed tho... cuz i wanted to get some more groceries but i decided to cut down on the layers of clothing wearing shorts and a tshirt on the way to the supermarket. upon reaching the supermarket i realized that travelling lightly was a stupid idea cuz i was without my jeans which had my means of paying for the groceries... i had about 20 or so minutes to get my hot sauce and other spices from the groceries and come back cuz my chicken was cooking so it was too late and decided to head home without my hot sauce D: The good thing was my chicken was tasty enough not to have hot sauce.

more pics to come! and i really do promise i'll have some drawings up!