Connect the dots

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 09:03:28 GMT

I never once saw a sign for SunCome (a chain store in Northern Guangxi) with a 100% correct English sign

This one was close though

I swear to god this was just on the other side of an "entance"

This sign was just after I passed through an area of agressive monkeys

This sign was above a cliff

This sign was above a urinal

This sign was in a clearcut

I'm pretty sure this was the only sign I saw in China that was grammatically correct and conveyed the proper meaning

And this was the poorest attempt at English I saw. I think someone just mashed a computer keypad towards the end

Guess which way I went?

Much better than recycling

How is Portuguese not the best language ever?

And finally, a chocolate bar in Macau that failed at getting me "crunk"

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:53:56 GMT

Hong Kong is famous for its dense urban core and expensive real estate.
Even the turtles seem to take advantage of what little land they find.

In Guangxi, a bull that just wouldn't give me the right of way on a steep hike

The peaceful coexistence of chicken and motorcycle

Some dogs just wouldn't leave me alone

The chicken that crossed the road

A man and a big pig

Late at night, cows roam the back alleys eating out of dumpsters

A weird fly-bee thing that was flying perfectly still

Evil monkey

They act cute, but spend their days stealing from monks

Two males from different families during a brawl

Stolen from a monastery

Yak, in downtown Litang

Panda: the laziest of all the animals, sucking the funds of the WWF in order to survive

Spends the day eating,

bathing,

and eating some more

Outside a Macau fort

Katydid

Giant (and I mean huge) stick insect.
He was originally on my shoulder and when I turned around to look at something and saw him there, I - for the first time in my life - screamed at the sight of a bug

And finally, kittens for no reason! (nCHINAc)

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 08:24:33 GMT

My roundabout route brought me back to the wonderful city of Kunming

I did the opposite of sight-seeing

And also went to a Chinese disco!

The market 2 blocks from my hostel

Little boy running a meat shop

Sidewalk Mah-jong!

Huangguoshu Falls in Guizhou Province

A waterfall that you can go behind!?
YES PLEASE

Cacti in the jungle.

A touristy cave below the falls

Another smaller, but just as intersting fall that nobody seemed to know about in the same park as Huangguoshu

Heading back into Guangxi Province on a bus

Market in Yizhou

The Long Jiang (Willow River) where "The Painted Veil" had been filmed before I arrived

My awesome hotel room for only $4 CDN

The city of Liuzhou, on a bend of the Long River

Looking East from the top of a hill to the south of the city centre

Zhaoqing, in Guangdong Province on the mighty Pearl River

It was hot

More caves. This was called the hand of Buddha.

I don't know why he's giving humanity the finger.

Puts my topiary skills to shame

The most pointless bridge of all time. And a section collapsed.

Drunkenly scaling old city walls

Onward to Macau, the amazing formerly Portuguese colony opposite Hong Kong at the mouth of the Pearl River. Definitely a highlight of the trip. A very western feeling city with Portuguese architecture, Cantonese language, primarily Filipino residents, and a Mandarin government. And food was a mix of all of the above. Drool.

The oldest Christian church in Eastern Asia. But only a facade remains.

New Casino in distance

The ultra-tall Macau Tower. Also the location of the world's tallest bungee-jump. I didn't try.

Curbside mini-temple

Lantau Island from the air

THE END

...OR IS IT?

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 08:32:35 GMT

Lugu Hu is a spectacular lake located on the border of Yunnan and Sichuan provinces.

A view of my hotel on a perfect little presqu'ile.

It was here that Kublai Khan crossed into Yunnan province to destroy the fleeing Emperor's army

Bus troubles on the way to some shitty little town in southwestern Sichuan. The ride was supposed to take 4 hours but ended up taking the entire day thanks mechanical failures, road re-pavings, 2 lanes of traffic traveling boths ways on a TWO LANE ROAD, and goats.

I did, however, miss the last bus out of town which I found out the next morning had plunged over cliff and 14 people died.

This is Jimmy, the accountant at the bus depot of the shitty town (the name of which I never could figure out) who let me stay with him after I missed the bus. He liked American Hollywood films, mostly teenage-oriented comedies like American Pie.

The ride to the next town ended up taking the entire day too thanks to construction, controlled avalanches, heated debates, and again, goats.

Everyone out of the bus to yell at a bulldozer driver blocking the road.
He was doing this to protect us from a controlled avalance but everyone yelled anyways.

Everyone out of the bus a few hours later to yell at someone else. I don't know who this was but I suspect he was the head of construction in the area because the yelling was slightly more intense.

At the edge of the Sichuan Basin, I climbed Emei Shan, one of the most important sites in Chinese Buddhism.

The hike took two days because the trail... no, continuous staircase... went up and down every single ridge that extended from the mountain.

View from the top of the foggy Sichuan Basin.

At the base of the mountain I had been hiking in a dense and humid rainforest, but at the top it was cold and desolate.

I'm actually freezing, you can't tell... I was prepared to be hiking with parrots and jungle.

Later that day, in the foothills again.

Dafo, which literally translates as "Big Buddha" stands at the conlfluence of the Dadu and Min Rivers.

Looking back towards the city of Leshan from the tiny sandbar I was on (that cost 2RMB to get to instead of the 60RMB it costs to get to the Big Buddha itself... I love saving money.)

Chengdu, the bustling capital of Sichuan

I climbed Qingcheng Houshan, simply because the hike follows a trail of picturesque falls.

I headed into western Sichuan province, which is primarily Tibetan as it was once the ancient Tibetan province of Kham.

Looking down at the city Kangding, nestled in a tight mountain valley

Heading further west, and higher up the Tibetan Plateau

The bus, of course, was stuck

In Litang, a town at the bottom of a valley, at 4000m above sea level

The temple. (I didn't take any photos inside because it offends the monks but there was actually a chanting session going on when I visited.)

Hiked up behind the temple and looked out over the valley. After a 5 minute walk I was completely out of breath... I'm not used to hiking at altitudes above 500m.

I was stuck in the town for a couple days since all the mountain passes were blocked by snow (this was at the end of April). I finally caught a bus south, this is a photo from climbing towards to the top of the pass... it was not what I would have called clear.

Now in the city of Zhongdian (also known by the fake touristy name of Shangri-La) celebrating Chinese National Day.

Hiking the Tiger Leaping Gorge. The Yangtze River below, the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (Yulong Xueshan) above.

Sunrise, at around 11AM

The narrowest part of the gorge

The peaks

From the bottom of the valley to the top of the mountain it's about 3000m... impossible to capture that amount of vertical height from less than 1km away.

A broken irrigation pipe provided a scenic waterfall

A trail, somehow built alongside the gorge

I stayed overnight at somewhere between the gorge and Zhongdian, but I never figured out where. It had a gorgeous pond though.

...And interesting calcium deposits (?)

The temple at Zhongdian

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:38:59 GMT

Above is a photo of the South Gate of the walled city of Old Dali.

I went south.
Far south. The rainforest-covered prefecture of Xishuangbanna is located along the border of Laos and populated by the Dai, ethnically related to the Thai. Despite being here for a considerable amount of time, I took the fewest amount of photos here. Basically, the humidity made me too lazy to bring my camera out and take photos.

Jinghong, the capital of the prefecture.

The Mekong River

I traveled north to he mountains and stayed in Dali. There are two "Dalis", the new city (Xiaguan) and the old town. This is the old town.

The famous three pagodas predate Chinese settlement in the area. Built during the Nanzhao "Dali" Kingdom.

The Chongsheng Monastery complex stretches up to the base of the Cangshan Mountains behind the pagodas.

The above sculpture seems based on a nearby tree/root/vine? system:

A very large Guanyin statue. It's hard to tell from the photo but I'm on the second floor looking up past the third floor.

The Room of 1000 Buddhas (no hyperbole here, each was tagged and numbered)

The next day I hiked up the Cangshan Mountain overlooking Old Dali
Note how the town is still contained within its city walls
That is Erhai Hu Lake in the distance

I found a number of springs and small waterfalls where I rested and spent the day reading the Journals of Marco Polo

I also found myself dangling from the steps of an abandoned temple built into the cliff face.

Erhai Hu, literally: "Ear-shaped Lake"

Xiaguan (new Dali)

Tengchong, near the Myanmar border

The courtyard of a wonderful guesthouse I found

Sunrise, back in Xiaguan

I climbed Jizu Shan (literally: "Chicken Foot Mountain"... ...)

Determined not to stay on the main path, I end up beautifully 'misplaced'. I did manage to stumble upon an abandoned temple that was, believe it or not, in operation up until Mao's 'Cultural Revolution' in the 1960s. It looked as if it had been gone for centuries though.

At the top of the mountain was a temple who had a more fortunate fate.

Swastika-chested statues would sadly be banned in Western culture

The longest staircase in the World. I made that up. But I refuse to believe there is a single longer one.

This is Lijiang, an extremely touristy town nestled in the 'foothills' of the Cloud Mountains.

I climbed Elephant Hill to get a better view

Coming down the other side I found myself at Black Dragon Pool and managed to enter via the back where the expensive entrance fee wasn't charged.

Yulong Xueshan (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain) in the distance (more to come of this beauty later)

And the road that falls into one of the deep valleys the Yangtze River has cut through the mountains.

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:18:53 GMT

Outside of Kunming there is a large natural formation called Shilin, literally: "Stone Forest". As an avid fan of geography, I had to visit such a forest. This ended up being one of the only big 'tourist sites' that I enjoyed.

Within this forest was the most overstocked fish pond ever created.

Path through the forest of stone pillars.
No fat people allowed.

Here is a lone pillar to give an idea of the size of these stones

One of my favourite pillars

There was a pond at the bottom of the forest

I climbed to the top of one of the pillars to get a better view

At the bottom I found myself stuck between pillars so close together that it felt like I was in a cave. The pond was also creeping in between the rocks giving a very claustrophobic feel. Being Caleb, I just couldn't stay on the obvious marked path.

The landscaped section of the forest

In a town somewhere south of Kunming

White people were an attraction here

The Mongol-founded town of Tonghai

Ancient city of Jianshui

Typical Chinese TV show: a soap opera set in the 15th century

Swallow Cave

I'm not exactly sure, but I think this is a new high-speed railway line under construction.

City of Gejiu, built around a collapsed tin mine (this lake is not a natural one, it filled after the mine collapsed)

Old town of Yuanyang, high in the mountains above the Red River near the Vietnamese border

bone pile

typical rural scene in the fields around Yuanyang

Just for the record, I am hopelessly lost taking this photo. Just the way I liked it.

Back in Yuanyang, sunset at the town square.

The next morning I headed about 15km east to a small town not on any maps (whose english name I don't know) where I met a school teacher who told me he was the only person in the county who could speak english. He was the most valued teacher at the local school where he taught english to all the children. He took me to a classroom where I hung out for the afternoon, helping with English lessons. After class, the children took me to the most spectacular rice terraces I'd ever seen.

Jackie, the school teacher, and I

Wandering back to Yuanyang, I stumble upon another vantage point of some rice terraces

Once again completely lost, two snot-nosed children guided back to a road from a village where I was picked up by a motorcyclist pulling a load of tea leaves. I had to hang off the edge of the trailer as the cyclist was more concerned about the quality of the leaves than my safety.

Yuanyang County was a great place

Sat, 26 Apr 2008 07:18:49 GMT

Between Yangshuo and Longsheng is the city of Guilin.

This kid spoke about as much English as I did Chinese.
We got along great

I went to Longsheng (Dragon's Backbone) rice terraces in the hills of northern Guangxi Province. I had to hike up a trail from the valley bottom which ended up just being a staircase that took a few hours to climb up.

At the top of the stair was the village of Ping'an

Instead of staying there for the night, I began wandering aimlessly through the terraces in the hills above the village.

The clouds moved in

Looking back down at Ping'an

I am a big fan of the irrigation system here

At this point, I am helplessly lost and am following a small girl from a safe distance with hope she will lead me to a village where I could stay for the night.

And this she did

I stayed with a family in a amazing three storey wooden house.

Here I am boarding a train in Nanning (the capital of Guangxi Province) to Kunming (capital of Yunnan)

Morning in Kunming

A temple north of Kunming founded by a rogue prince

The patio of a very nice hostel I stayed at

URBAN PLANNING

Here I am, once again hopelessly lost, trying to make my way to the nearest sign of civilization (in this case, a pagoda) across a forest of cedar and thick brush.

The pagoda, it turns out, was located at the top of a steep cliff.

Taoist monks somehow carved paths and temples into this cliff hundreds of years ago

Although this photo isn't that exciting, I was quite happy at the moment it was taken because I was riding on the last kilometer of the infamous Burma Road, which has obviously been paved at some point.

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:03:56 GMT

Welcome to the People's Republic of China.
This is Shenzhen, on the border of Hong Kong.
Up until the late 70's it was a sleepy fishing village, but thanks to being designated a "Special Economic Zone" it has grown wee bit.

Shun Hing Square, one of the top ten tallest buildings in the world.

Next went to Guanzhou (formerly Canton), the sprawling capital of Guangdong.

I wasn't impressed with the city save for the small island of Shamian (Dao) where western powers were allowed to colonize and trade in the 19th century. Remnants of nations as diverse as Portugal, England and Russia can be found in the architecture of this tiny island where I stayed for a couple nights.

I found a street somewhere in Guangzhou where every store sold nothing but arcade games.

CITIC Plaza, the tallest concrete building in the world.

Yangshuo is located on the Li River in eastern central Guangxi

This man fished with cormorants

Got lost in the woods and rocks.
Sketchiest staircase.

Birthday cruise on the Li River

Nine Horse Fresco Hill, on the Chinese 20 yuan bill

Moon Hil

The edge of Yangshuo

A trail I hiked along for a day next to the YaLong River

A village at the end of the trail with an amazing bridge

Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:37:16 GMT

So yeah, I went to China.
A year ago.
And now I'm posting the pictures on livejournal.
Old school, I'm like 2004 all over again.

Osaka Japan, from plane

Hong Kong

The meat packing district

The old Bank of China building

Bamboo, used for scaffolding

HSBC Headquarters

View from Victoria Peak

The interior of Hong Kong Island

Sweet urban planning

I believe these are called the "koalas climbing up a tree" buildings

I took the Star Ferry

Skyline view from Kowloon

Nathan Street in Kowloon

No fours... they're bad luck

Temple Street Night Market

I stayed with a family in a gated community that had a population of twenty thousand

The village of Stanley, on the south side of HK Island

Repulse Bay

A junk, in a bay

Highcliff, craziest narrow skyscraper in the world

2 International Finance Centre

Friday night laser show

The Hong Kong marathon

The reclaimed land of Kowloon West, showing Union Square phase seven (International Commerce Centre) under construction

A busy temple on a Tuesday afternoon

Rows, and rows, of fortune tellers

Fri, 12 Jan 2007 07:04:26 GMT

I remember it well. the first time that I saw. your head around the door. cause mine stopped working.

yeah, so these are the last of 2006 photos...
I have finally caught up (having taken no photos in 2007 yet, my camera is in the shop)
ENJOY (?)

Swirling.

I watched many sunsets from the Hillside Mall parking lot this winter

I also had to go to the dump a lot over the winter with my other job dumping branches and other things that had been ravaged by the you know what...

...:

My backyard was gorgeous

And so was the rest of the city

Only in Victoria

The view from my bedroom window

And from my kitchen window

And from my perch

I shovelled lots of snow. My boss spent a lot of time at work completing this snowman. I was proud of him.

This photo was taken only because I was on the 18th floor, and I like heights.

I wish this photo had turned out better, it would have been one of my favourites

The Crisp

Also, I made a compilation thread on an urban development forum of my 100 best photos of Victoria (mostly Victoria buildings). I believe many of the photos I've already posted on this blog, but if you want to check it out, it's here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=123444

Goodnight.

Sun, 07 Jan 2007 19:10:59 GMT

Welcome back to two and a half months ago.

Autumn is here.

This is my hardcore photo:

And of course...

Old stuff.

This is from the Islands show. I don't know what's happening here.

Oboe!

Bass!

Rap! ... !?

Later that night:

M00Nz

Sun, 24 Dec 2006 05:40:22 GMT

Most of these photos are from at least a month ago, but finally on my computer.

Degu:

We went on a road-trip to Nanaimo for Thanksgiving.
Nancy:

Them rocks were climbed

We were at a lagoon:

This is a pretty fucking romantic photo, considering it was 100% candid. Even Lewis' hands are shaped like a heart.

Where the reeds greet the sea:

Thanksgiven'er

Sarah and Kezia accidentally had joint birthday dinners

Alex watches his television

I went over to the big city

...to see Sufjan Stevens

(not pictured)

This is the building where Sauron lives I believe

I took the boat back to our island

Rainclouds pranced and danced over the Gulf Islands allowing brief glimpses of the setting sun.

A house on Belmont:

And I was visited by an old friend

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 23:23:35 GMT

Fish. Dead. Stuck to water filter.

Bitchin' sunset

Mount Doug

I, of course, had to go into the cave

The next day I biked to Blenkinsop Lake

From there I biked to Mattick's Farm

And onwards to Elk Lake

this makes sense

Humboldt

The preserved west wing of Saint Joseph's (right across from St. Anne's) is a very underrated building. I love it.

And of course, Christ Church is just grand

"Why Is There No-one Around When I Am the Coolest? Pt. II"

My breakfast.

I don't know why I'm in front of Cedar Hill

The largest (and most beautiful) spider web I've ever seen. I threw a leaf on to give it some perspective, but it doesn't really help.

Getting on the roofs of buildings at night is a safe hobby

ENCOUNTERS WITH LES ANIMAUX

Yeah, so raccoons? It's the middle of the day, and a swamp, WTF ARE YOU DOING!?

I think they were lost in space and time.

This is where you belong! In the forest! AT NIGHT

Don't make funny noise at me bitch!

Anyways. I chase a lot of deer recently. It's more fun than you would think it would be. I feel as if I'm connecting with my hunter/gatherer past self. Oh, and only as long as they are female deer, male deer don't run.

Oh yeah, and Matt has a helluva lot of pet animals. Including the spawn of satan bird, "Valdor, Pretty Bird".
Also notable, a squirrel that lives on his front porch.

Ah, &hearts teenage life

Yay, I think I'm making more posts these days than Cody. I WIN.

"Butter at Tim Hortons"

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 20:03:00 GMT

We don't know anything about love
But we are nothing without love

Oh, the wise Ferdinand de Saussure / Stephin Merritt

A modern rock band, "Acres of Lions" played their debut concert at Centennial Square on September 8th.

The band features Lewis Carter on percussion:

And Aden Collinge on bass:

Following Acres of Lions was another modern rock band, "theset".
They were popular, seemingly.

I passed the nights of September at Tim Horton's

Cody loves his job there

The Falls are being built, it is official. Ads are everywhere.

Sunset, IRL!

"Why Is There No-one Around When I Am the Coolest? Pt. I"

Caleb's Expedition to Goldstream Provincial Park, with Hopes To See a Waterfall (or Two).

The Langford Parkway is under construction.
At the moment it is nothing more than a sketchy bike ride.

Forests of Vancouver Island

I didn't do it

Goldstream Falls

Goldstream Park does not have bike-designated trails.

God's Tree

There was a map at one of the trails that said "you are here" at the wrong location. I didn't realize this until it was 30 minutes too late.

I had to push my bike up a tiny path up the side of the valley for maybe 45 minutes. By comparison, it seemed I was up half of the height of Mount Finlayson.

20$ to whoever can find this! Only hints are that it is in Goldstream Park and that it is somewhat visible from a trail.

At last, I finally found a route I can successfully bike along.

But no, my path is invaded!

Ah well, I went onto the railway trestle.

And then, after a quick downhill bikeride, I reached our Niagara Falls

So I celebrated!

"Sanober's Foot and I"

Anyways, the next day I made a similar expedition, this time to Witty's Lagoon Park, and instead used. (A smarter choice than a bike I think.)

Metchosin!

The lagoon eats things

And yippee! Sitting Lady Falls. Falls directly into the lagoon. Good times.

Tue, 26 Sep 2006 02:54:02 GMT

So this Labour Day weekend I went to see the Dave Matthews Band at the Gorge Amphitheatre in central Washington State. It was my only trip this Summer so I of course I loved it.

The concerts themselves were spectacular, and the one on Sept 3rd was by far the best DMB concert I've seen (out of 9) and is now regarded as one of the bands best shows in 5 years.

Over the 3 nights of concerts I heard the best mix of musical styles I could hope for. In the 3 shows there was a hoedown, a salsa, and the themes from 70's TV shows. Smooth jazz, funk, distorted bass solos, trumpet/saxaphone battles, All Along the Watchtower, country rock and topless black fiddle playing men were also all included.

I met with Nathan the night before at Swan's. We stayed up all night hanging out at QV and watching Jaosn flirt with waitresses at Swans. The next morning we caught the 6:10 ferry from downtown to Port Angeles.

The Sun came up, and I hadn't slept yet.

After a nap cruising through Kitsap County, I awoke in time to see us reach Tacoma City Limits.

THE TACOMA DOME!

We didn't stop.

This is Snoqualmie Falls, near the base of the Cascade Mountains.

Approaching the Cascades.

Eventually, we crossed into the badlands of Central Washington.

I-90 crossing the Columbia River

We stake camp in a field along side another 20'000 DMB friends and fans.

I settle in.

Finally, we make our way to the amphitheatre for the first night of concerts.
I stand in awe at the top of the field, as I do every time I come to the Gorge.

View of cliffs on the side of the Columbia River Gorge from the amphitheatre.

The campground, as seen from the amphitheatre.

The upper level (field, general admission).

The lower level (pavilion, reserved).

It's a party.

I didn't bother taking any photos of the actual concerts, except for this one.

Twenty thousand people all filing to leave along a single path at once makes for an interesting traffic jam. Nathan and I amuse ourselves with photos on the way out.

Bog?

Beer games. So many beer games. I think I took this photo at 9AM.

View from my tent.

Who the fuck needs beer? *DROOLS*

Where the Columbia River cuts through the Saddle Mountains. Geography excites me, obviously.

An oasis in the desert; Getty's Cove on Wanapum Lake.

And of course, drunken bridge jumping!

This is what everyone does all day.

Wanapum dam on the Columbia River.

Iron sculptures of some wild suicidal horses.

I ran to the top of the hill to ride a horse.

This was supposed to be a photograph of a cool little lizard, but he was gone before I could take the photo.

And, our trip back.

We decided not to take the interstate back over the Cascades, and instead took a scenic highway.

...It was sure worth it.

Mount Rainier looms.

Lost somewhere in Puyallup.

We didn't feel safe.

Tacoma Narrows Bridge, twin span under construction (still). Neato.

Waiting at the Coho terminal in Port Angeles.

Foggy harbour. (Yes, harbour).

The ship entered some extreme fog on the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

Coming out the other side of it.

Sunset.

Bye motherfuckers. &hearts

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 04:45:01 GMT

It was a teenage wedding
And the old-folks wished them well

Oh yeah, August.
And blackberries.
I'm not sure what Status Quo songs have to do with this post, but I'm sure it's all meaningless.

I think lewis is actually sober here

I cannot remember where or when this photo was taken

I believe this is Cody's birthday party...

Oh yes, definitely!

Will didn't want his photo taken.

Neither did Devlin, I don't think.

Good times.

I love how every photo from this night turned out so awkward-looking

Stop looking up my shorts you creep

Killing people is fun

Sunset. By the way, this photo was not altered in any way, those were the actual colours hanging in the evening sky. I was stunned.

This heron was orphaned 2 years ago at Goodacre Lake. The residents from across the street who feed him named him Henry.

I was happy I got to work in the building for a little while

I sat in people's apartments on the 19th floor, trying to concentrate on getting their census information without being distracted by the view.

Anywho...
Here's a quail

Two quail

Melissa, enjoying the emergency blanket

Ian and I, enjoying our lazy afternoon

Not as much as this man though, the obvious life of the party

ATTICUS

The emergency blankey returns

The happiest Cody EVER!

Lost somewhere on Saltspring

Katz

Katz, an hour later

"I'm not drunk, I'm Mormon!"

The next few photos will not be posted in order to protect the innocent / Katz.

So instead, here's an owl!

It was my friend for an hour.

Kyle Dark plays music!?!?!

..nah

Jason blends into the crowd.

...sort of

I can't get over how much I love the Terasen gas building and how it compliments the neighbouring old Bay Building instead of trying to rip it off in some cheesy faux-hertiage style.

Joshua is sparrowing!

oi

AW SHIT

my wound

my favourite house in James Bay, sadly surrounded by townhouses where it can't be seen from the road

And here's another sunset, seen from Mount Doug high school.

uh

BUBBLES R.I.P.

And finally, yet another sunset, this time from the Empress Hotel. Awww yes.

oi

Tue, 05 Sep 2006 22:26:55 GMT

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY PLAYA DEV

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 23:18:06 GMT

I spent most of July working 60 hours a week at the landscaping job. Still, I found time to get out and do things, as documented here:

I went to a few outdoor concerts, most of which aren't pictured.
Vic High R&B

Neko Case

Jets Overhead

Sam Roberts Band

fest of the folk!

not really a concert, but Feist's band and Gene Hardy I think

I is cool
\

???

sky

spiderwebs

ETERNITY'S END: Moss Street Paint-In

bug

gonzales hill,

view from

I have lips

kaitie, and nathan's multiple chins

the perfectly framed executive house hotel, taken while adventuring with katz and laura

the view from Bryan's ridiculous house

The Cat Jeri Found

CARL DENHAM PRESENTS:
Chirs Hambly

...

oh hey, a duck!

Vancouver. &hearts

These deer on Ten Mile Point liked me

One wouldn't stop following me

Caleb Stuck in a Tree as Max and Alex Observe

Rock?

Clover Point

poo!

moss rocks

Buildings:

Corazon

Shutters

And Downtown, as seen from the roof of Harbour Towers in James Bay

I pride myself in blunt and obvious photo captions.

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 23:40:34 GMT

Okay, that is one of my favourite photos I've ever taken, I don't know why.

Anyways...
here's Summer!

Urban planning AT THE BEACH.....

This is my construction job:

Sun setting over FolkFest and Shutters

Yeah, all of these pictures have been sitting on my camera for over a month so I think many people have seen them.

THE MANY FACES OF CANADA DAY

Tim!

Katz!

Sarah!

Devlin!

Josh!

Alex!

Ed!

Canada!

Aaron!

Andrew and Zenitram Afar (Rafa)!

Will!

Drunk Kezia and friend!

Kaitie!

Lewis! (and beer)

Jarryd and some drunk native american!

gull!

Five Alarm Funk! (best funk band I've ever seen)

Their second percussionist, ALI BABA!

Exploding things!

Church!

And everyone else...

Wed, 12 Jul 2006 03:18:41 GMT

'

GRADUATION

either THE NIGHT BEFORE or THE NIGHT AFTER GRAD (i can't remember)

Edmonton Oilers game, stressful for all

GO CAROLINA!!!

Lewis celebrates my graduation

At ye olde George & Dragon

Lewis enjoying his best grad EVER

^note trailer park boys on TV in background

Our waitress for the evening

Is that a lime? Why do I have a lime? I want a lime. I didn't think I ate lime.
BRING BACK THE LIME!!

Finally, Lewis gives up

yep

PANTS
errrr, NANCY

CAT-SITTING

Cleo (pictured below), the spoiled bitch-cat ventures outside

Atticus comes to investigate

Atticus falls in love, and presents himself to Cleo

Cleo politely declines, in disgust

Back into the jungle Atticus goes!

CAMPING

Seen here is a dump truck (to the right) and trailer filled with pallets of wood

We did what any grown adults would do, and covered the pallets with gasoline and oil

...then set it on fire!

At this point you can see we are desperately trying to put the fire out

Meanwhile, NORMAL THINGS happened:

Oh, and I had an exam

I did terrible, but in reward for trying, I found a toonie on the ground!

Crow vs. Eagle

and life, etc.

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 00:13:54 GMT

Before.

After.

Alright, here's Part II...

Before. 86 Douglas Street:

After. Mac's!:

Before. Brunswick Hotel:

After:

Before. Grotto's Bar:

After:

Before. Clarence Hotel:

After:

Before. Atlantic Hotel:

After. The comic book block:

Before. Kresge's:

After. One of the many casualties in the construction of the Eatons Centre:

(In all fairness though, the building was practically ruined anyways when it was converted into a Marks & Spencer sometime earlier.)

Before. Beverly Hotel Apartments:

After. Top four floors torn down, remaining building abandoned:

The Belmont Building
Before. Just a couple years after it had been built:

After:

Before. The Bank of Montreal Building:

After. Building preserved, Irish Times Pub on ground level:

Before. Here is the Kaiserhof Hotel:

This photo was taken sometime after the beginning of WWI and Victoria citizens wanted to vent their anger on something German. Bad news for the Kaiserhofs.

After:

Before. Hotel Wilson, over 100 years ago:

After. How beautiful, tall, and vibrant it has become! Located just behind Mac's on Yates.

w00t

Thu, 22 Jun 2006 00:42:54 GMT

This post will be nothing more than an assortment of random photos from last month. I named a beautiful beetle "P.I.M.P."

Bailey, the most beautiful dog in the world

Molly, the, errr, second most beautiful dog in the world

Aaron has a nice silhouette

and I just look plain retarded

This is what I do for fun

Atticus upsets Molly

Atticus causes trouble

Exciting day at Vic High

Molly celebrates Kaitie's birthday

I played video games one day

...and mistakenly let Nathan play with my camera

He took about 100 photos in 5 minutes, all of himself.

Katzzzzzzzzzzszzzzz

(^photo by Cody)

I deep-fried cheese

and ate it!

Mount Tolmie is always mandatory

Eyes Bright.

O.

Somehow, this photo ended up being bigger, and of much lesser quality than every other photo.

Went crab-fishing one day, drew some interest from the birds

the catch of the day

End.

Mon, 05 Jun 2006 22:11:42 GMT

...and of course with the determination of early settlers and thanks to the western terminal of the CP railway. Vancouver, of course. The city still strives on ROCK&ROLL though, as I discovered recently.

Vancouver City Hall is art deco's best kept secret in Canada. Because it is not downtown, it gets no recognition. But this may also have lead to it being one of the best preserved buildings from the era in BC.

Funky south shore building

This pretty much sums up why I love Vancouver

You can't turn a corner downtown Vancouver without encountering some sort of "public art".

SUNSET IN SUBURBIA

Ian!

railway in white rock

tee-hee!

The Mirror, PART I

The Mirror, PART II

View of Burns Bog from Ian's North Delta neighbourhood

THE BOG

Thu, 25 May 2006 01:39:13 GMT

I am now into May, catching up with photos. Enjoy!

A whole lot of heron's nests

"I fell off the skimboard"

I'm a creep and I love it!

Mr Zozula helping Rafa (Zenitram Afar for short) with math

ROCK & ROLL

ghey!

safety first!

This is what happens when you leave your camera unattended at a party:

kegstand lolz

ummmmm, I'm SO SORRY FOR EVERYTHING

Mon, 15 May 2006 16:44:06 GMT

"Bench = emo"

The view from Cairn Hill in Highrock Park on a mysteriously foggy April 20th

I stalked this woodpecker for a good 20 minutes

And later urban planned a mountain pass

One day, while wandering the streets of Rockland, I noticed something was wrong with the road....

Oh, this makes me feel safer now!

A red rose.

Moss Rock would be my favourite hill if it wasn't so far from my house

Apparently I can't hold a camera straight

My photo-taking buddy

Let it be known that Cody does NOT steal from non-profit organisations

How I'm enjoying Math 12 so much is beyond me

No one can crash a party like Aidan Knight. Seen here with Laura and The Guy who Grabs his Crotch:

OMG CUTEST CAT EVAHR

OMG UMM... sorta cutest cat maybe in that room