Calligraphy Practice

I’ve been doing pretty well practicing my Copperplate script, so I decided to try out Gothic. It was pretty good. It’s a mix between modern and pointed quadrata minuscule. I think because I have been drilling myself to produce the same letters over and over again in Copperplate, the whole process was fun in Gothic. As an expert whom I visited today mentioned, I’ve still got to work on flourishes, which is something that I haven’t tackled at all. It’ll come once I’m satisfied with the regularity of my letters.

Safia Nolin – Limoilou

Quand Safia Nolin a apparu dans ma TL FB, j’ai écouté quelques-unes de ses chansons. Frappé par sa voix et de sa mélancholie, j’écoute Limoilou de temps en temps. Ça me rappelle le Québec. Ça me fait penser en français. La majorité de ma journée se déroule en anglais. Je dois avouer que je ne me rappelle pas pourquoi les québecois dans ma TL l’ont mentionnés.

Je prends des nouvelles de temps en temps, mais je vis dans le moment, pas dans le passé.

Yushan Hiking Trip October 1-3 2016

A few months ago, I saw Richard Saunders posting on Taipei Hikers about an upcoming hiking trip to Yushan, Taiwan’s highest mountain at 3952m. Since I knew that it took time to get the permits and even then, it wasn’t a sure thing, I jumped on the chance to climb this peak. At the time, I was quite fit. As the months passed, and the climb came closer, I actually had no idea what to expect. I had some issues with my previous employer, and had started a new job in September, so I honestly didn’t have much time to get back into the gym and running. Before I knew it, the climbing trip was upon me. I took the time off work, and bought some supplies.

Big in Japan

I had a week off in July, so we decided to go to Japan. Specifically, Tokyo, with a short trip to Osaka. Naturally, Tokyo Disneyland and Universal Studios were on the menu. But first and foremost was the Ghibli Museum, located in Mitaka, Chiba. Unlike some of my other travels, we paid for everything besides transportation and food before we left. This was an interesting difference. After talking with a friend who is currently living in Japan, we decided to use AirBnb for the whole stay. This proved somewhat trickier than I thought, but it allowed me to sort out a Taiwanese PayPal account connected with the only bank in Taiwan that supports PayPal, E.Sun Bank.

2015 AGV Pista GP & Corsa Review

When AGV released the Pista GP, it was pretty spectacular as it’s the only motorcycle helmet that I know that was designed with Finite Element Analysis. This is a technique to optimize and approximate missing data from known quantities. It’s pretty cutting age and processor intensive, but it does give good results. The Pista GP was made of 100% carbon fiber, while the Corsa used a blend of carbon fiber, fiberglass, and aramid.

The Last Cat Dinner on the Storytree

It was a busy week, and it had taken Mr. Fuzzles a lot of time to finish up the year at Cat School. From kitty report cards to marking pet exams, the way that the end of the year was organized at his Cat School was terrible. He had finished late more than once a week, finalizing everything. He had barely had any time at all to get high on some catnip or play with Tigger. He had already one end of year feast planned for the following week. Unlike this one, he knew that his other kitten school would pay for everything. It was a kind of local tradition. They weren’t dogs, they were civilized. It was what was expected.

Kriega R30 Buying Experience & Initial Impressions

I had been looking for a new backpack for the last few months. The rebranded Ogio bags from Dainese didn’t seem worthwhile & I kept striking out with Octopus Bags. The Dainese-branded Ogio bags were 1.5 times more expensive than the Ogio bags themselves, it seemed like a waste. I had looked through many backpacks and decided that Kriega packs looked really good for motorcycle commuting.