You win, Karma

I've been trying to figure out what bad Karma I accumulated last year to be punished with a bout of back-itis so soon into the Lunar New Year by Choi Sun (the God of Fortune, or in my case, Misfortune). And I think I've found it. Recently, I was grocery shopping when I saw a toddler sitting in the handle bar slot portion of a shopping cart, swinging his feet back and forth. And when his foot firmly junked his very surprised father with an audible thud, I remember distinctly giggling and then walking away thinking, oh that's going to come back and haunt me.

Sure enough. You win, Karma. I hate you.









And if the back strain isn't bad enough, I can't even take the narcotic painkillers the doc prescribed, cause they're making me nauseous and pukey. Hooray.

_My back goes out more often than I do_

An ode to my pathetic 95 year old lower back:

Another trip to the doctor.
Another 'scrip to the physio.
That's how I roll, yo.

Yep, I managed to strain my back yet again, this time doing the intense activity of setting my niece down onto the couch this weekend. Instant pops, spasms, and searing pain. And my niece isn't exactly monstrous heavy either. How pathetic. Perhaps the most fitting thing I read yesterday was a cartoon captioned, "My back goes out more often than I do." Truth!

Anywho, here are some random iPhone snaps I took this weekend while my bro and said niece were visiting for CNY. Proving once again that the best camera you own is the one you have with you.


Inverted colour image of a faux fish fossil.




Frost/ ice crystals that formed on my deck railing.

And more importantly, here's a wicked double exposure of my brother and I, as shot by my 7 year old niece using a Diana F+ medium format toy camera and Kodak T-Max 400 film. I'm hoping that out of all my bad habits, film photography will be the one she actually picks up from me.


The Two Machs!

恭喜發財 - Gung Hei Fat Choi - Congratulations Get Rich!

Chinese New Year for Dummies, by G.Mach. Chapter 1: If some random Asian dude starts wishing you well in Chinese, here are some common New Year blessings he may be saying, and their literal translations into English.

恭喜發財 (Gung Hei Fat Choy) - 'Congratulations Get Rich!'
身壯力健 (Sun Jong Lik Geen) - 'Body Strong Strength Healthy!'
心想事成 (Sum Seung See Sing) - 'Heart Want Come True!'
一帆風順 (Yat Fan Fung Sun) - 'One Trouble Wind Smooth!'

Yes folks, today marks the start of the Lunar new year, and it's the Year of the Sheep/ Ram/ Goat in the Chinese Zodiac. Get ye down to the temple, burn some incense, and kowtow to the pantheon to curry favour with your favourite deity.

















And if you pop down to Chinatown or any Asian themed place over the next few days, you may hear this song playing over and over. It's essentially the Cantonese equivalent of "Santa Claus is coming to town." Except instead of St. Nick giving out toys, it's about Choy Sun (the God of Fortune) coming to bless those who have been good peeps with ingots of GOOOOOLD!



I'm going to stray from stereotypes, and not wish you lots of wealth, but instead focus on the two things that are far more important. I wish you and your families good health and happiness in this coming year!

#CNY2015 #Yearofthesheep #Dontbeasheep #beashepherd #WongTaiSin

Thicker than Cheez Whiz... it's Valentine's Day!

We don't do Valentines Day in the commercial sense (no flowers, chocolates, rom com/ BDSM flick at the theatres). But it does give me an excuse to break out the craft scissors, and glue stick to make Anita a card. All that's missing is some blood from me cutting myself - that would've been even more perfect ... because SHARK, duh!

She giggled endlessly at the replays of Left Shark drunkenly dancing out of sync during the Superbowl halftime show, so this was the perfect drawing and pickup line for her (credit to the anonymous person that started this internet meme).


I take no credit for this cheesey line.


But this right here... this cheesiest of bad grade 6 poetry? That was all me. That's right folks, I'm laying the gauntlet down and challenging any grade 6-er to a poetry slam.

The Intent: between the free flowers I grabbed yesterday from some dude on the street (?!), and this "thicker than Cheez Whiz" poem, she's gonna melt. Like chocolate (the milk kind, not dark)... while in a hot car... while also in my hand... Because obviously, melty chocolate in a car is kinda gross. But chocolate melting in one's hand is apparently a good thing? Who comes up with these figures of speech?! Anyways, moving on...

The Reality: Anita's not awake yet, but I'll update this with her actual reaction after... Stay tuned for part 2 of 'Will it melt?'


Link (there's a pun brewing here, you'll see when you click) to last year's V-day card.

Ironic Throwback Thursdays

In tonight's edition of Ironic Throwback Thursdays, we go back to that time I was in a vehicle that got rear ended... while we were in the midst of a 'Collision Avoidance' training. True story. And by 'back to that time', I actually mean yesterday. Now before you make sweeping generalizations about us Asian drivers, 1) I was not driving, and 2) it was most definitely the fault of the young kid that hit us. Poor dude's insurance is going to be through the ruh-oooooof!

In the vein of throwbacks, here are some shots from a meal we ate in HK at a very old school style Dim Sum joint called Lin Heung Kui. From the abundance of cranky servers, push carts full of bamboo steamers, tea pots replenished from fire heated kettles, and a complete lack of wifi (hence the number of regular patrons reading newspapers), you were in for a classic style treat.








This server fries up turnip cakes (Lo Bok Goh) table side.

Il fait froid, mais c'est beau

The son (me) sees the beauty in yesterday's lightly snow dusted trees. The dad (mine) will likely only see bone rattling cold weather. Which camp do you fall into?







Photos shot on my day off, with the Fuji X-T1 and Rokinon 12mm f/2 lens.

#hiver #yesitwascoldbutohsobeautiful #stopbeingawussdad

Street Scenes from Vietnam

Some random telemarketer speaking Vietnamese called our house recently, and Anita answered the phone. I was upstairs at the time, but all I heard was her yelling into the receiver like a crazed Alec Baldwin. Hilarious, but only because she's normally the "not crazy" half in our relationship. ;)

Speaking of telemarketers, you know you're doing something right, when you to get them to hang up on you angrily. I had a scammer phone me last week, and instead of hanging up, I started asking him questions about his personal life. He hung up on me instead. It's a small victory, but satisfying none the less.

Photos: some bicycling street scenes from Vietnam. Enjoy!