Pre-watch thoughts: Big Hero 6 and Interstellar

So recently Big Hero 6 and Interstellar came out, and I've been hearing pretty good things about them!

 

(I see you there Hans. Wonder how many Easter eggs they've stuffed in this time...)

As of so far I've been trying to avoid spoilers and it's mostly been working. I say MOSTLY as people on Facebook and Twitter have exploded in feels all over my feeds haha. 
Sounds like something heartbreaking will happen in BH6 though, so I may have to steel myself for that.

Saw this BH6 character study on Facebook as well. Really love the differences that you can observe just from a person's movements.

Interstellar looks like it's gonna be a visual feast. *A* A friend kept ranting/raving about the actual science behind it though haha. Of course you can't expect everything to be scientifically accurate, but I read some articles online about how there was a TON of precise calculation for the visuals.
Check out these articles if interested! Here, here, and here.

Double Negative’s CG mapping of a black hole’s accretion disk. Image: digital-tutors blog

SO! It's not just "oooh pretty", it's actually an extremely accurate representation of a black hole. Okok, knowing this, I'm definitely gonna keep an eye out when those scenes come on. >u<b

Random tidbit! Both features are pulling out some pretty impressive numbers tech-wise.
Apparently BH6 was rendered on a 55,000-core supercomputer, and Interstellar came close to 800 terabytes of data. I just thought that was kinda cool hehe. #themoreyouknow
 
Looking super forward to watching these!

...hopefully soon. 8'D

TEA! I love tea.

I think for tea lovers, Vancouver is pretty awesome. There are no shortage of places to go for a tea fix!
Afternoon tea is especially great. Though it can get quite pricy if you go too often...
Recently had a home tea meet up at a friend's place!

 Mmm look at that spread...
The laptop at the end? It's actually a video Skype to our friend in Japan who couldn't be there in person. Our birthday toast to her :D

Close-up on some of the treats:

MY FRIENDS ARE SUCH TALENTED PEOPLE. In case you're wondering, it was all as delicious as it looked. Which is to say, so very very delicious.

Actually I think that day was the most tea I've tried in one sitting. One of the girls created a menu with about ten custom blends of tea that she fiddled with extensively. Amazing! The teas were lovely~

I made cheese scones (extra cheese yesss) and Oreo rice crispy squares!

 Good food, great company, what more to ask for?

By virtue of not being in an outside establishment, we took our time leisurely sipping tea...and maybe fangirling about certain series ahem.  /coughcough

Awesome Crunchy Potatoes...China Style!

While in Beijing, naturally you eat as the locals do.

There's a stereotype that Northern Chinese people prefer wheat-based foods (ex. noodles, dumplings) as their staples, while Southern Chinese prefer rice-based staples. #themoreyouknow

In my classes, there were even text book example phrases like: 

"北方人喜欢饺子和面条. 但是南方人觉得米饭比面条好吃." / "Northern people like dumplings and noodles, but Southern people think rice is tastier than noodles."

Hmm is there truth in this stereotype? Possibly! But as with all stereotypes, completely subjective and take it how you will. :D

Remember, as a Canadian, I wrestle with bears and eat maple syrup with everything. EVERYTHING. Mmm sugary maple goodness.

These are actually quite good btw. 9/10, would buy again

...you know the great part about above is that people really believed it. The maple syrup part I mean. Bear wrestling is part of every healthy childhood eh?

Haha note to self: write a post regarding how international stereotypes are taken in China. It's a hilarious subject and once you get past some of the ridiculous stuff, it's really fascinating. That will probably be a long post...

Anyway while not all of China's cuisine clicked with me, one I particularly liked was a potato dish called "土豆丝" / tu dou si, literally translated as potato shreds/slivers. There are many variations of the dish, but it's most commonly seasoned with vinegar and chili oil.

The thing I liked the most about it was also the weirdest. The crunchyness! The ingredients are stir fried very quickly, so that the potato retains a crunch while still being completely cooked through. 

Coming from a Western perspective, this is a bit odd considering almost every potato dish I can think of is soft and/or fluffy. 

Love both styles of potatoes though. Don't make me choose plzkthnx.

My homemade version. Could use work on aesthetics, but it tasted good.

I tried whipping some up when I suddenly had a craving for the crunchy stuff, and it was not a complete failure whoo~ 

Here are some recipes if you want to have a go at it!

http://www.tastehongkong.com/recipes/hot-and-sour-potato-shreds/

http://www.seasaltwithfood.com/2010/04/potato-slivers-with-vinegar-cu-liu-tu.html

X-Men: Days of Future Past

I finally watched it!

Really great work. I loved X-Men: First Class, so I was really anticipating this...did not disappoint! Especially that kitchen scene with Quicksilver. Wow.

Super props to Rising Sun Pictures for this amazing scene. You can read more about it here!

Spatial Design Study: Vitra Fire Station

Objective: Create a visually appealing presentation on Vitra Fire Station by Zaha Hadid. 

Tools used: Photoshop, Illustrator, Cinema 4D

Brief: Worked with a group to create physical and 3D models of the Vitra Fire Station. The point was to allow audience a clear idea of the structure and space.

Short Production: Descending

A short film with rotoscopic elements.

Tools: Premiere, After Effects, Flash

Film: Animation, Sound Design, Short Film

Rough animation with some matte painting overlays.

Tools: Maya, Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, After Effects

 

Remixed a clip of Inception. Combined layers of music, foley, ambience, and other parts composed by other class teams.
 Tools: Pro Tools, Final Cut Pro

Short Production: Tainted Devils

Short drama film: when emotions affect actions and people become uncharacteristically irrational.

Tools: Final Cut Pro

UI Design: Weather & Forum App

Design for a mobile app that provides two main functions for active and passive use.
Aids users in practical use in determining weather conditions specific to location and sport activity (surfing or snowboarding)

Provides community in a simple user posting board. Members can interact with those of like interest even when they are not actively out participating in the sports.

Designed to follow theme of original surf and snowboard magazine "KODIAK" (pdf download of magazine here)

Sound Design

A complete re-dub of foley sound effects for a clip of the film Inception.
Tools: Pro Tools

Graphic Design: Magazine revamp

Objective: Create a redesign for Yoga Journal for a cleaner, updated, refreshing design.

Redesigned: cover, table of contents, masthead, editor letter, and a full spread (opening pages and 2 follow up spreads)

Tools used: Indesign

Brief: For a revised yoga magazine, my concept was clean and classic style. 

Ideally it would look calm without being overly cheesy ‘zen’. The original magazine also had a clean design, but it was cluttered and text heavy. Therefore the redesign uses more images and white space for easier reading and and overall lighter feeling.

Original full resolution PDF download here.

Graphic Design: Cookbook revamp

Objective: Redesign an old cookbook from pure text to a modern design that would be appealing to a wide audience range. Create recipe spreads that are visually appealing but are also straight forward to follow and easy to understand.

Tools used: Indesign

Brief: My concept was to create a more fun and energetic look that I felt would engage not only coffee lovers, but other readers who find the delicious images and the draw of over 100 recipes eye-catching. By using full spread photos, it became more reader friendly version by breaking up the text clusters without having it look too fragmented or like an empty page.

Original full resolution PDF download here.

Back from the other side of the world!

Hello!

I am BACK! The last six months have been amazing in every sense of the word. For those unawares, I left Vancouver in February to study abroad in Beijing for a semester, then traveled to Korea, Taiwan, then Hong Kong.

Study what? Like exchange?

Something similar to that! Although I've graduated, one of the things I regret the most was not applying for an exchange while in university. So one day I decided it was time to go out and see the world beyond my comfortable city.
While I've traveled abroad many times, studying abroad was a first for me, and wow. I agree with what some people say: the experience you get while living in a city is completely different from vacationing there.

I enrolled into an intensive Chinese language program at Tsinghua University in Beijing. This was really exciting for me since it was a chance to live in a different city and intensively learn/improve a skill I've been sorely lacking.

Being born in Canada, English is my native language. I learned French in elementary and high school as part of the French Immersion program, and Cantonese from my family speaking it at home.
However I never learned to speak Mandarin, or how to read/write Chinese characters. Personally I think it's a valuable skill to have.

Especially when you're dropped in China with no clue how to communicate, the only phrases you know being "I don't understand", "Sorry I don't know", and the only choices are learn or perish.

...needless to say, my Mandarin skills spiked from zero to really, really high in an amazing amount of time.

Anyway I have tons of photos and other stuff to write about, so look forward to that! Still need to edit a bunch of photos and videos though, so that will have to come later.

For now here's a teaser~ :)

Yes I'm wearing a face mask.

Seriously not advisable to go without these.

Tsinghua University's famous 'old' gate

 

My trusty bike

...my trusty second bike after the first was *cough* commandeered.

eek.

the only way to get around