This blog redesign was painfully long over due. No more giant Lisa header. Yay!! Thank you so much to my tap tap tap colleagues for whipping this up in a few days.
Designed by the incomparable Wolfgang Bartelme, who did all the amazing design work for Camera, both in-app and all the promo pages. He obviously used my love of bokeh as a theme and I couldn’t be more happy with this design.
WP Theme, coding and moral support by Scott Meinzer, who gave up hours of sleep and trips to the Cheescake factory to finish my blog.
I feel really inspired to start filling this blog with more photos, video and a lot more love than I’ve given it in the past few months. Hope you like it as much as I do!
NYC: A city that is dead serious about yellow taxis, car horns, smoking, noise, fashion, firemen & late night diner food.
As soon as I step out of the plane in Newark, NJ, I am in full sensory overload.
Arriving in Newark, NJ.
The stifling, muggy heat is a shock to my system. It reminds me of Toronto in mid-August during an unbearable heat wave.
Pete Cashmore being hit with the muggy air outside of Newark Airport.
The city is sticky. My flip flops slap against the side walk and actually stick for a fraction of a second, until they get a dunk in something wet. I’m hoping it’s left over rain water. *crosses fingers*
Last night I went to a schmoozy Tourism BC event at the Vancouver Art Gallery (BC Pavillion) and I had an amazing view of Robson Square and the Ignite the Dream light show for the 2010 Olympics. I captured the light show on video with my 5DMKII and it looks super sweet. I’ll put that up in a bit.
I couldn’t help but get a little trigger happy last night. Such incredible photo ops during this Olympics. Wish I had more time to shoot!
I didn’t listen to the doctor when she said, “stop using your computer for 14 hours a day, take breaks every 15 mins, and find a more ergonomic work space. You are going to severely injure yourself!”
I didn’t listen one bit, and now i have a neck spasm the size of the polar caps before humans polluted the earth and made icebergs melt into the ocean… like way before Leonardo died in the icy waters of doom after the Titanic totally snapped in two.
I guess I seriously need to find some other ways of amusing myself for the next couple of days while I heal. What am I gonna do?? I’m already bored.
What can I do without a computer or internet? Any suggestions? Movie/tv show recommendations are most welcome. I would say “books” but let’s face it, unless it says, “Harry Potter” or “XYZ gear manual” on the cover, I won’t read it.
Uhh I shouldn’t even be typing this. cramp. ouch. Stop! Step away from the MB air. Away! Expecto Patronum!
I finally got round to flickring my photos of Chichen Itza, the “large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Yucatán state, present-day Mexico” says Wikipedia. Now, I’ll look it up in my $150 university art history book to make sure that’s right (the very same one that I took for light reading on my first trip to England to seem “cultured”.)
Oh wow. I’m actually reading a book. It feels weird and unnatural. I can’t scroll. Ack! I have to turn these big heavy pages. Ug. So apparently Chichen Itza means “at the mouth of the well of the Itza”, and has nothing to do with the Leaning Tower of Pisa, but rhymes nicely with pizza. Hmm… there are only 3 paragraphs about Chichen Itza in this 1167 page book! What a jerk! I guess we will just have to rely on the web as our guide to this weird and wacky Mayan world.
The massive and awe-inspiring Mesoamerican pyramid in the middle of the site is called el Castillo or the Temple of Kukulkan.
El Castillo was built by the Maya Civilization somewhere between 11th and 13th century AD when *the Decepticons first came to earth.
The massive structure is guarded by these crazy man-eating alligators. Well, actually they are supposed to be serpents, but I called them alligators on flickr, then felt sheepish, so I changed the title to “Mean Slytherin Dudes”. PS. I also spelled serpent, ‘serpant’. Sir Pant! So regal.
Right after the Decepticons came to earth and built the pyramids, an *alien race of evil cats called “los Gatos Malignos” ruled the Mayan empire with an iron fish! I mean fist!
According to *archeologists, Mayan youths were quite rambunctious and would let off steam before the “virgin sacrifices” by drawing rude graffiti on the temple walls.
While visiting this new Wonder of the World, I felt moved to perform a feat of agility.
As a result of performing this feat of agility, I was 8 minutes late for the bus back to the hotel, which angered and greatly annoyed my ever punctual mother. She wouldn’t even speak to me for like half an hour.
To make matters worse, I climbed this pyramid model at the hotel and made Gozilla noises for an embarrassingly long length of time. She was not amused, but I felt that this was an important step in my self-growth as an adult.
Besides failing miserably at putting on suntan lotion evenly, I was attacked by an albino Mexican sand bear! swathhhhhh. After he pawed me, I gave him some tortillas with cheese dip. This seemed to settle him for a bit while I made my get-away!!
My beloved friend, Felix the Cat, passed away yesterday morning. He was 14 and had a very good life. Felix liked sleeping on clean white sheets, eating expensive cat food, dipping his paws in milk, licking up the sugary milk at the bottom of my nighttime cereal bowl, attacking moths, running in the backyard, watching tennis and nature shows about woodland animals, and chasing string, red yarn, and thin twigs. I will miss Mr. Felix. He was a very happy and lovely cat.
Next week, I’m heading back to the greatest land, land of tea, scones, and marmite crisps… jolly accents, dry humour, and the Queen’s English… consistent rainfall, looming grey clouds, and whipping winds that turn your brolly inside out… fish and chips, chip and eggs, and mushy peas…
Yes you’ve got it, England.
During my week long trip in August, I traveled loads and ended up seeing a lot of the country, mostly in passing whilst in a train or automobile.
Here is a Googly Map of my travels in England:
I got to know British Rail pretty well, and though we had a few disagreements over lack of wifi, comfortable seats, and leg room, I did feel a certain novel fondness for the British train system.
I thought I’d take a look back at the planes, trains, and automobiles I encountered during my travels from Vancouver, BC to London, England and then all over the beautiful land that is England.
Plane: from Vancouver to London (Gatwick). If you have ever flown Air Transat you will know that it is not the most glamourous or comfortable airline in the world. If you take enough gravol and squint long enough, you might find “Shrek the Third” to be quite enjoyable on the tiny, fuzzy pictured tv screens located every 5 rows for your viewing pleasure.
Trains: Gatwick Express to London Underground to Victoria Station to Kings Cross to Cambridge to Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. Phew.
And then I stayed in lovely Bury St. Edmunds for a few days.
And then I was back on the trains heading to Leeds to meet up with the rest of the awesome Alton Towers crew: Bury to Cambridge to Peterborough to York.
Peterborough
Enroute to York as the sun sets.
York
Automobiles: from York to Harrogate (near Leeds)
We then spent a lovely evening in Harrogate and headed off to Staffordshire and Alton Towers early the next morning… I’ll save that adventure for another rainy day.
Corporate Fun times at the Coca-Cola PavilionMusic credit: “How You Like Me Know” The Heavy. Coca-Cola is Corporate Olympic Sponsorship at its very best. Free Coke, free interactive games, free picture of you with the Olympic torch and the shiniest, happiest PR people ever. Although, come to think about it they did seem a bit disgruntled when I asked if I [...]
Gaston & Lisa: Skating for Gold in 2012(Shot with a Canon 7D.) It’s been about two years since I stepped on the ice, and almost ten since I competed, but French reporter, Gaston Tartarin managed to convince me to return to the sport I love for one more inspiring performance. We hit the ice at GE Plaza in Robson Square yesterday, and [...]
