Went with Wendy to The Cannery seafood restaurant by the Vancouver Habour waterfront. The place was quite hard to find, and it had securty gates where I had to speak into a mic to let some guy know that I was heading to the restaurant. It’s beautifully located right next to the water, at a slightly elevated cliff, so beautiful when we got there at the blue hour. I brought my new Panasonic GH1 camera for a test drive, took a few pics inside and out and then the battery died on me! Huge =( … Didn’t get any pictures of the food but it was awesome. I had a swordfish and Wendy a halibut. We both had non-alcoholic pina colada. She got a balloon too as the server recognized her. I was surprised to see a dining menu that was prepared by Wendy with our names on it that says “the cannery wishes wendy & herman a happy anniversary” =D . We had a complimentary dessert too, I think it was called strawberry crumble and it was very tasty despite the strawberry paste was a bit sour.

I spent most of my time making my Howl’s moving castle model. I’m having a pretty good progress, finished all the 7 chimneys during the last 3 days of hard work, also finished making a couple of the castle’s exterior addons, and its ears (I didn’t know it’s got ears until I made them). Now I’m going to have to install the chimneys, and after that, it’ll be the many houses and also the gears and stuff. Can’t wait to finish it ASAP.

I went out with a group of amateur photographers last Thursday for a “photowalk” in Downtown. It was a flickr group but I was expecting more people. Those guys were nice, very friendly and knowledgeable on camera/photo stuff. Plus it really feels great when you get to know people that share the same interests with you. I didn’t get a lot of great photos out of the walk as I’m not a urban shooter, but I did PS a few of them and they turned out pretty well. Thinking if I’ll be joining them up for the photowalk at Granville Island on the 27th.

Aside from that, I’ve made up my mind to do the “difficult version” of the Howl’s Moving Castle papercraft. It’s supposed to be an illustrated book and you can cut out the shapes from the pages, however that book is apparently discontinued and very limited of them are available on Amazon Japan selling for $400USD - crazy. I downloaded a PDF version scanned by some guy, got 5x pages printed for ~$30, and started from there. I bought Elmer’s glue for adhering the sheets and got my x-acto blade replaced (it’s super sharp, can slice through paper so easily) I’ve spent 3 nights, got the head part in shape, and the tongue as well. Some parts like the hinges on the side of its mouth are SUPER tiny and therefore difficult to cut and glue - it’s smaller than a penny. It’s fun though. I don’t know how much time is needed to get the whole thing completed, the other guy Ben Millett apparently got his done in 72 hours. I’m not going to beat his time, will take my time to make the perfect model to the smallest detail.

Have been spending some time doing more trip planning for the upcoming Yosemite National Park & Death Valley Nationa Park trip. I love Microsoft Streets & Trips! Without it it’ll be 80x harder to do any planning, if it’s even possible. In fact I’ve been using it since so long ago that I can’t even remember when.

Went to Chapters to search for books that are helpful for the trip. Chapters on Broadway has way more books than their Richmond counterpart. I picked 6 books or so from the shelf, spot a comfy seat, sat down and read for an hour. I picked three of the books to buy.

The Rough Guide to Yosemite
by ROUGHGUIDES / Paul Whitfield
This book will be my general-purpose book for general information, where to eat, hike, tips, some small guides, maps…etc. I usually get Fodor’s or Frommer, but this one seems to be better.

Day Hikes In Yosemite National Park
by Robert Stone
This is a pure hiking guide. It has ALL possible hikes in Yosemites, detailed information about each trail, trailhead, maps, elevation gains…etc. I’ll keep this book in my backpack at all times.

The Photographer’s Guide to Yosemite & the High Sierra, where to find perfect shots and how to take them
by Harolad Davis
Even though I’m not going to the High Sierra, this book is worthy enough to buy just for all the incredibly useful picture taking techniques and tips about where/when to take any picture at the parks. I have to start reading it real soon, have to finish it before the trip.

I actually just ordered another book online (from BuyCDNow.ca) that I wasn’t able to find in Chapters, or the Travel Bug bookstore: The Photographer’s Guide to Death Valley. It’s published by the same company as the photographer’s guide to Yosemite book mentioned above. Can’t wait for it to come in my mail…

Figured out last night how to get Garage Band on the Macbook to accept output from my Kalimba, also got the effects working in real time! So I can hear in real time the effects being applied to the Kalimba sound while playing on it! Super super cool. Now I just have to figure out how to do the same thing in Logic as Logic has wayyyy more effects and stuff. It shouldn’t be too hard I suppose. I tried to play E1M8 song in Doom with the “Wave Bass” effect switched on, and here’s the result:

 

 E1M8 (Doom) on Kalimba: Play Now | Download (24)

Failed at doing a proper art so made it into a kitty.

Played more on the Kalimba. I tuned it to D major now instead of the original G major by changing the C to C#. Pretty straightforward, just needed to push/slide 3 of the tines upward a bit. I wanted to play the Pachelbel Canon and it was in D major so the original G major tune was missing the C#. Also after the tuning I found that it sounded really cool playing it in B minor. Here’s a recording with the cheapass Macbook built-in mic, using Garage Band. The bass was like non-existent Maybe I’ll figure out a way to record it using the pick up built into the Kalimba…

 

 B minor on Treble Kalimba: Play Now | Download (27)