Merry Christmas! Hope you're all enjoying the holidays. I might be back again later today; we're having Christmas dinner I think, and I'll be posting about that as usual.




Yesterday's Christmas Party for the folks at my family's restaurant. Who was invited? Employees and their families, as well as long time customers and family friends. Loads of food. Turkey, a whole roasted pig, sushi as well as some Vietnamese dishes that are served every year.

A whole, roasted pig.

This was up on display before the party started. A bit grim, yes, but it's quite the common sight when you pass by a Chinese butcher. It got hacked up in the kitchen, away from the party.


Today's feast. Basically just leftovers from yesterday, with a few new things. On my plate, in clockwise order:

• what I believe is pork, marinated in something quite spicy
• the roasted pork
• what I think is part of the turkey
• mashed potatoes and gravy
• Vietnamese Chicken salad (Gỏi gà)
• some Starfruit

Everything was delicious, and it got washed down with a glass of sparkling Apple-Berry juice.


My cousin got me this for Christmas. Always the musician, I've gotten another instrument. This one, just a little bit weirder than the melodica of last year. For those who have never seen one of these, it's an Otamatone, the brain child of Cube Works Company/Maywa Denki/Novmichi Tosa. Modeled after the East-Asian fiddles, like the koyku, erhu and haegeum, you produce a tone by lightly pressing on the stem of the instrument. The 'mouth' opens up to change how the sound resonates. I haven't figured out exactly how the notes are laid out, but I'm pretty certain it goes from an A (A3) to the E or F above middle C (E/F 5), and is set chromatically. Using the switches at the back, it has 3 octaves, a low, mid and high, as well as two volumes. Interesting instrument, but not exactly practical.

While they're really easy to pick up and 'play', they're ridiculously hard to get a consistent pitch if you haven't figured out where notes are on the stem.



Here's an example with a guitarist with delicious 絶対領域 (Zettai Ryouiki).

Anywho, that's how my Christmas went. Tell me about yours! Leave it in a comment, and I'll see you...whenever I post again!

This morning's breakfast. Pulled pork sandwich, except I stuffed it inside of a croissant. Delicious. Pulled pork is a shoulder that's been in the slow cooker with a bunch of other stuff for like 20 years (half a day would be closer) and then drenched in a barbecue sauce we made.


Picked this one up last week. Story wise, it's about as generic as you can get. The voice acting...well, let's just say I'm putting up with it for now. It's a direct sequel to the first game, and even includes a remastered version of the first game on the same disk.

I'd love to be playing it right now, but our TV died yesterday. After a good 10-14 years of service, it finally kicked the bucket. The screen had been flashing white and being a bit messed up as of late, but I didn't think it's time had come. This thing is an elephant of a TV. It's huge and equally as heavy. Not even sure it'll fit through the door when we get a new one. Got to find the nearest electronics recycling center...

Well that's more or less my week and a bit in a nutshell. Tune in next time when I find more stuff to talk about.

Clear blue skies. Sun's shining bright. Gorgeous day.

DO NOT TAKE A PHOTO LIKE THIS USING THE VIEWFINDER. You have been warned.






We'll start from a few days back. It's mapo tofu and rice. I've finally gotten my hands on some Szchuan pepper corns; found them at a specialty spice store up at Lonsdale Quay. Definitely adds to the taste, but I still couldn't get that signature red colour that all the recipes call for.


In the process of making the mapo tofu, we (me and my brother) also made a large (really big) pot of chicken stock. Using said stock, I made this: green peas, short ribs and shell noodles. Fun fact: I was killing the Blue Dragon in Demon's Souls while I was cooking this.


How about some of that curry? Curry with what's essentially left overs. Made using Glico curry blocks. We didn't have potatoes, so we added a butt tonne of onions and carrots. Also added hot dogs to make up for the lack of protein. It was delicious. Can't remember if I was killing something in Demon's Souls or not.


Rocky basking in the sun. Would very much like it if he did this more instead of lounge around inside being lonely, like he is right now. No one's home except me and my brother, and my brother doesn't like the dog in his room, so he's pretty much only got me to hang with. And I can tell you that I'm not exactly the most fun to be around.


Shot of the backyard from high angle. Little smudges a little off the right of the center of the shot are from when Rocky got too close to the camera. Didn't think he stuck his nose right onto the lens until I took a look at it. And yes, I'm using a different camera from usual. I'm trying to get the hang of this one for when I do figure shoots.

Planning on doing a biographical post sometime before the summer ends, so keep yer eyes peeled fer that one.

It's been a mighty long time since I last did one of these.




The view from the 3rd flood of the Birch Building. Below the glass is the cafeteria. Birch is one of the biggest buildings on campus.

Let's start with a recap. I've just finished summer classes (Japanese and English), and I have to say that it was incredibly difficult. Japanese wasn't that bad, but the course burned through material like a Hummer uses up fuel. English as well, but there was less material in English to cover; the time we had to do the assignments , however, were affected quite a bit.


Those who read those 'Minute with Kenn' posts will recognize this. Coffee with a piece of a chocolate orange melted in it. You might see more of those kinds of posts, as it's easier on me, especially when I don't really do anything in the summer.


This was a delicious drink. It tastes like one of those Asian jelly-cups with the fruit inside it (I think they're konnyaku). The drink is a 'sparkling malt soft drink', mango flavoured. I think the most interesting part of the drink is that it's from Egypt...and I found it at a Korean grocery store.


Yesterday's breakfast. Scrambled eggs with pan seared...I'm not sure what it is anymore. I think it's pork loin. That and buttered ciabatta bread. Was probably a bit too much.


The family (my dad, sister, cousins, aunt and uncle) left for Houston yesterday, which left me, my mom and brother to hold down the fort. I more or less handle the house, and my brother...well let's just say he has his own roles. Anywho, I'm watering my uncle's plants. He's got lots of them.


Luckily, the weather is a bit wet, so when I rains I can skip watering most of the plants. He does have a greenhouse where he keeps more fragile plants. There's quite a few of them in there, mainly exotic Asian plants that require warm, humid temperatures.


Example. Like this. Haven't the foggiest at what it is, but it looks pretty cool.


The inside is quite nice; it larger on the inside than it looks on the outside. The green house replaced our gazebo, which we drilled into the ground to keep from flying away. However, because it was drilled in, when it snowed, it'd collapse. Was quite a pain.


For more delicate plants, the watering can is the tool of choice. I'm quite adept at using this; all those hours in Harvest Moon and Rune Factory paid off, not.


For most of the other plants, like the trees, the hose with the shower head does the trick. The hose line is pretty heavy, hard to swing it around when I'm trying to move it.