I got the rest of the patio tiles cut and installed, trying to make it look professional by making sure that they align properly and also wrap nicely around the wooden poles and corners. It was tiring as my handsaw was so crappy (probably older than I am) and some teeth were missing. I cut my finger as well, even though it wasn’t too deep. The result is pretty amazing! Can’t wait to head out more and maybe do some barbeque there!

Today is the worst day ever. Work for the entire morning from 9:30 to 3:30 nonstop. Didn’t even have a chance to take breakfast. Had a headache, and almost a heartattack due to the nature of the task. It’s still not over, have to work on that stuff more tomorrow, I suppose. Life sucks..sometimes.

Good thing I bought these Eon Balcony and Deck Tiles at the Canadian Tire today. They aren’t cheap but they certainly look good! I was planning on doing some barbeque at the patio or maybe just hang out more often maybe to work or to relax, the original cheapass vinyl flooring just wouldn’t do it - it collects so much dust/dirt since due to the coarse surface, and it also looks really dated. I seldom want to get out just because of the dirt on the floor, I can imagine with the new flooring I can spend more time out there! I got 80% of them installed, but the last row of the tiles couldn’t be installed without chopping off a portion of them in order to fit. I’ll be doing that tomorrow.

On another note, I’m having fun posting pictures to my flickr account and posting them to award contests to not only get more views, but to receive more comments and have more exposure to the pros - maybe one day some pros will contact me and hire me as a protographer for the National Geographics! I know I’m dreaming. But it’s fun to see comments and suggestions from people and friends.

I’m on call tonight midnight-4am… no time to take a nap now I guess I’ll just tough it out…

Paperkraft.net kindly posted my work on their site! How happy/lucky I am, consider the popularity of the site. Hopefully more people can see my work, especially all of Miyazaki’s fans! I got to start making my Totoro papercraft soon… got it printed but still haven’t started cutting.

Click here to see my complete set of Howl’s Moving Castle papercraft on flickr.

Finally, after ~3 weeks (~100 hours) of hard work, my paper craft is completed! woooo! It looks super cool (IMO) and I couldn’t stop looking at it, checking out all the details…etc. Spent an hour taking some nice photographers for it last night, set up 3 Ikea desk lamps, with some black cardboard for the background. It’s got tons of moving parts like the turrets, the mouth/tongue, the gears, the door/entrace at the back, and the “eyeballs”. The paper craft is very fragile and therefore it’s kind of scary when moving it around.. I think I need a clear acrylic or glass display case to store it, probably need to custom make one due to the awkward dimensions.. going to be pricey for sure, that is if I am able to find someone to make it for me… I’m going to re-watch Howl’s Moving Castle very soon, as the first time I watched it I wasn’t paying full attention and therefore wasn’t able to fully understand the story. I love you Hayao Miyazaki!!!!!

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.

I’ve been working on my kitchen PC for a while, finally got everything set up and it’s running quite well. Pentium Core 2 Quad, 2GB ram, built in wi-fi…etc with my 7″ Lilliput touchscreen LCD screen that I bought few years ago for my car PC. Rest of the pics are on Facebook.