The Billionty-Oneth Geek: Older Than 8 Since 1991

This past weekend, a bunch of us at FT went camping on the grounds of Grafton, Ontario. It was a great weekend for camping as the weather was perfect; sunshine all around. It was hot but thankfully, never unbearably hot. It was a good time of relaxing, connecting and reflecting. We played a lot of this party game called Werewolves (also known as Mafia), which I think is my new favourite party game, or at least up there. If you've never played it, then I suggest you gather a group of friends and try it. It is a game of trust, deceit and manipulation... but all in good fun! Anyhow, I had a great time. Check out the slideshow at the bottom. Later geeks!

I've finally uploaded and captioned (sort of) all my pictures from my trip to New York. If you're interested, you can find them in the following link ( here ). I also made a short slide show video that you can see below. It basically summarizes the trip if you don't wanna go through 300+ photos :) Later geeks!

Day 6: -when I left the house this morning, my aunt handed me $100. I'm confused. But maybe it's a sign that I should get that jacket. -6 train to 53rd St. for MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). -well this is disappointing... MoMA is closed on Tuesdays. -gonna explore midtown instead. -there are a shitload of cops, securities and barriers on the street. Streets are totally gridlocked. -no wonder. There's a UN conference, apparently Obama is lurking. -stumble across 666 5th St. It wouldn't surprise me if Satan set up office in the heart of midtown. It's a posh, chic and rich area, the perfect disguise. -I'm at Madison Square Gardens. Massive line-up stretches around the block. Thought a pre-season Knicks game was going on. It's not. They're lining to get in a job fair. 10% unemployment here. Shit. -back at Century 21. The jacket is gone. Today is full of disappointments. Looks like the jacket regret will continue for another year. Day 7: -10:00am bus ri...

My second last day here: -visited grandma at nursing home =/ -morning dim sum with aunt, Millie, Stephen. -headed to Broadway to pick up where I left off last week. -zigzagging through streets, I find Soho. -at the famous Pinkberry for yogurt. -the first time I've ordered yogurt before (not a big fan, but this was good!) -I tried their original w/ strawberries and raspberries. -after weaving through Soho, I end up in East Village and NYU. -found my favourite place of last year: Union Square. -hopping on 5 train to check out Ground Zero. -stopped by Century 21. Found a jacket I wanted but it's $70... NO BUYS~!

I'm a day late, but hopefully not a buck short. Day 3: -outlet mall shopping at Woodbury Commons (outlet mall). -this place is a sinkhole for your money. -women beware of their fabulous prices. -went to Uncle Sik and Aunt Gigi's home. Huge like a mansion. Steep hilled backyard. -went to local Italian restaurant for dinner. Waitress caught someone trying to dine and dash. Culprit caught by waiter and chef. He threatened the chef afterwards. Scared my cousins. -1.5 hour drive back home. Day 4 (WEDDING DAY): -wedding of my cousin Eileen and Dr. Victor Yim. -venue: country club on Long Island (I forget the name), 1.5hr drive from Brooklyn. -...so this is what a 6-figured wedding looks like... $1,000 centerpieces. Shit. -Eileen looks drop dead beautiful and both seem extremely happy. -early reception @2pm. -video montage of their engagement... it took place underwater while scuba diving! -so sleepy. -wedding ends super early, 5pm. -I'm not hungry, but apparently we're...

More manual tweets: -I guess I was tired. Ended up sleeping for 12 hours... longer than anticipated. -dim sum lunch with family. -headed for Guggenheim -I feel like Clive Owen in The International . -place is big, but The International made it seem bigger. -feature artists is Kandinsky. Today is the first day of his exhibit. Packed place. -interesting to see how his work evolved over the decades. -my non-artistic interpretation: literal -> abstract -> scientific/geometric -> poetic/romantic -heading to Broadway for a short stroll. -got lost for 5 minutes after the train skipped a stop. Found my way not too long after. Thank you sun. -spotted a store made for Vicky: Shoegasm.

I don't have a Twitter account, but if I did, the following would have been my tweets for the past 24 hours: -bus ride will be long, 11 hrs. -trying to sleep, but hard. Dude in front of me has his chair all the way back... my poor knees. -arrive earlier than ETA, 7:00am. -dim sum for breakfast with aunts and uncles. Mom seems lively and happy. -aunts and uncles said they could drive me to Woodbury on Sat. for shopping? Maybe. Cheap shopping for cheap man? -tired as shit, but sticking to the plan: American Museum of Natural History. -this C train is being very M.F. -okay. this place is big. -marine life exhibit. so many fishes. so many fears. -5 hours in and i concede, this museum owned me. -walking through Times Square before heading back. -only walked thru Toys R Us. I tap out. Too tired, maybe I'll come back later in the week. -hung out with my 11 year old cousin Travis. He teaches me to play Halo 3. He's such a kool young dude, I need to pray for him more. -cousin ...

Last year, my friends planned a trip to Ottawa in hopes of seeing the sights and sounds of the Winterlude Festival held every year. It worked out well because my pastor and his wife who lives there would have been out of town, and they had offered us their home for us to stay in for the duration of our trip. However, one thing we didn't plan on was mother nature's own intentions. There was a massive snowstorm that weekend, thus curbing our mini-vacation plans. I remember being sorely disappointed that we couldn't go, but it was not a total loss because I was buried in piles of work for my 4th year design project (that gives me an idea for a future post actually), so I headed back to Waterloo. The frozen Ottawa River and tons of people skating. Fast forward to 2009, it is February, and once again, it's time for the yearly festival in Ottawa. We (and by we, I mean my friend Vicky) had the trip all planned out and the weather looked to be pretty fantastic for the week...

This is last in a series about my trip to New York, this time focusing on my family there. As noted in one of the previous posts, I have a lot of family living in New York, notably, all of my mom's side of the family. When we were younger, our family used to visit New York a lot. These days it doesn't happen as often, not because we don't want to, moreso that as we're getting older we're getting more busy with work and what not (our side and their side). And so more recently we all visit separately when it's not too busy; my brother's been down a few, and my mom goes there at least once a year. Regrettably, there's been a large gap of 11 years since my last visit. Many important things have happened since then; people graduating from schools, people getting married, people having 1st or even 2nd children, and so forth. I even have a few new second cousins that I couldn't tell you the names of because I don't know them myself (many apologies)...

Part 2 in a series, this time highliting some of the things we did. New York is a big city, and in a big city there's lots to do. With so much to see and do, where do you start? One of the problems with going to such a large city is that there's so much you want to do, but it's nearly impossible to do it all in a weekend (or a week for myself). The thing we probably did together the most was shopping. Keep in mind that my travel party was 4 girls and 2 guys (effectively me, the oriental, and my friend Rajiv, the token brown guy... collectively, Harold and Kumar). We went to a lot of the more decently priced fashion stores, with a double trip to the world's largest department store, Macy's. We went to Chinatown on Friday in hopes of finding cheap goods. Chinatown was a lot different than I remembered in days past. For one thing, there were a lot more tourists. The girls were hoping to score some knock-off bags which was a challenge to find sellers. We noticed...

Two weeks ago I went to New York City with a bunch of friends for some sightseeing, partying, shopping, and other touristy-type things. I have much to say about the six days I spent there, and I figure the best way is to split it up into 3 separate posts: observations and misconceptions, things we saw and did, and family. As mentioned above this post is about my observations and misconceptions. The first thing that you geeks should know is that half my family resides in New York (and its surrounding areas). Basically the whole side of my mom's family lives and works in the City. Our family went to New York a lot during summers to spend pseudo-vacations there when I was younger; the last time I was in the City was about 11 years ago (unfortunately it was for my grandpa's funeral). Because these trips were always family trips my vision of New York was reduced to a small window. Simply, New York = Chinatown + my cousin's house. Yes, most of our time was spent at Chinat...

I had the distinct pleasure of visiting Goshen, Indiana, and its surrounding areas two weekends ago. It was a trip planned by the Community Cell Group at my church and I was invited to join them despite my non-membership. It was a good time of fellowship, of meeting new friends, and learning more about the Amish and Mennonite history. The Cell Group knew a fellow named Jeremy who from time to time would attend the cell group meetings in Toronto. He suggested to the group to visit Goshen (his home town) and over a short while, this trip came into fruition. Jeremy would serve as our personal tourguide over the weekend. We stayed at this place called Das Dutchman Essenhaus Inn (see here ). At $104 per night, I was expecting it to be something akin to a Super 8 Motel or some reasonable facsimile. To my surprise, it was quite the opposite. It was a Mennonite operated facility which includes the afforementioned inn, a bevy of shops, a mini-golf course, a large buffet restaurant, a bakery, am...