j * m e

[The People on the Bus]

I made a friend today. His name is Mike. At least I think his name is Mike. I feel horrible for forgetting peoples' names. We were both victims of an evil bus driver. Either evil or a scardy bus driver. I ran to catch the bus and so did Mike. We got there JUST in time for the doors to close and the bus to drive off. So mean eh. But I guess perhaps they don't want to wait and end up having people trying to get on. Makes sense. Well... I made a new friend! We ended up talking all the way to Ai. Yea he goes to Ai. He said he's pretty sure I've served him food at the cafe many times.

[A day at work]

I close with Mark now coz the cafe just gets ridiculously busy sometimes and one person can't handle it. I usually don't enjoy being there at night when I could be other places so I rush to clean up and I do things really quickly. Mark hates when we all do that.

Jamie washes dishes really quickly and tosses knives, spatulas and plastic containers into drying rack.

Mark: Jamie... don't rush like that... all of this *points at rack* will go all over here *points at sink and floor* And then I will come by and be like "Jamie.." and you'll be like "MARK!!" *shrieks*

Lol. It's a lot funnier when you hear me explain it. But yea. He's been a victim of all the girls' stress that goes on around the cafe since he's the only guy working there now. Ah funny.

Another Mark moment was when he took a piece of paper towel and was scribbling in the corner. I didn't ask him what he was doing. When he was done scribbling, he walked up to the fridge and pasted it up. He made himself a list of things to do! Our supervisor always makes him lists coz he just seems to function better that way. And it's so cute when she forgets the lists, he gets upset. Supervisor says maybe it's a boy thing.

[Joey Dances]

Again with my test shoots with Joey. She's the only one who will act and dance for me.

[Canada: The World]

So as we now, Canada has a very multi-cultural society. People come from all over the world to live in Canada.

When the Olympics opened, they were accompanied by these ADs that Bombardier came up with. I love them.They're so simple but so cool. Basically in each one, we visit different cultures and races in their own countries but they are all singing "O Canada" in their own language. I love it. The very first one I watched was the Indian man driving a taxi in India and he's singing away. Then he stops to answer his cell phone and screams in indian. Then gets back to singing. I love it!!!

[Art Theraphy]

Like most schools, mine hosts student activities so that people can wind down and just relax and have some fun on campus. So far, most of the events and activities I've attended have been pretty lame. It's nice to be around people but I don't know for some reason A.i doesn't really do too good a job with them. I think it's probably just the fact that it's a very intensive program that the people who attend school are mostly the types who either know exactly what they want and their life basically revolves around work and school. They're the types who spend nights at school and have no time for relaxing.

So I went to check out the Art Theraphy Workshop yesterday. It was alright. There were around.. mmm.. 6-7 of us. We had water colour, oil pastels, collage stuff and pencil crayons to work with and the main topic we had to think about was "Emotion". Go figure.

It was interesting. We talked about postive and negative hot and cold colours and had to think about the feeling we were feeling at that very moment and explore the opposite. I guess that makes sense to find balance. I can't really explain what I was feeling (which is why I painted it). I guess I was thinking of the word "Greed" and how it can be both bad and good. Bad in the sense that being greedy and wanting too much is a bad thing. And good in the sense that even too much of something good can be bad, like wanting to always be the best. Best is good but not all the the time.

We were supposed to talk about our paintings. The lady said it's our choice, we don't have to. But it's a therapy class, I figure that's what we're supposed to do. I don't get to really express myself the same way with film. With film there's tons of visuals of course but I guess because I'm not much of a writer, I tend to concentrate more on writing so I can get better and it's very stressful trying to write a script.

Well. Here's my drawing:

All the fishies are swarming to the top where the food is. Greed. They're all sorts of colours because it can be seen in anyone both good and bad.

Here's a picture of Uberspan that Bno drew on my board. He is Uberspan.

[Freedom Ship]

So I've decided that in my life, I am going to make lots of movies and work lots and meet lots of people and earn tons of monies so I can go live on this Freedom Ship and work on this ship. It travels across the world and stops and I guess different ports where you can get off. Basically it's an entire city on a ship. There's probably a movie theatre, a gym, a pool, a mall.. food centres.. There's even a run way on top where planes can take you to wherever in the world you want to go. So I guess if you wanted to go visit your parents during the winter you could. I'm guessing it's probably pretty darn expensive to. So maybe staying on this ship would be something I'd do during my retirement days. Aw that sounds so far away and by that time, my life would almost be over. =( That makes me sad. Hmm. Lol IBut I'd get to see the world!

[Don't Panic]

[Ice Kachang]

Or Ais Kacang...

OR....!!

We had ice kachang for dessert tonight. I asked Brandon if he wanted some and described what it was:

Jmerz: "It's shaven... shaven.. ice....."

Bno: "Shaved you mean"

Jmerz: "Shaved ice. With red bean.. and jelly.. and sweet stuff at the bottom and syrup on top"

Bno: "Snow cone with fruits?"

Jmerz: "Yeah.."

[Dinner at Malaysian Hut]

We had dinner at Malaysian hut yesterday. Last time we went there I felt sick so I guess I didn't think the food was all that great. But it's alright. We had Mee Goreng and I think that's Penang Loh Mee? Yea. It was really sweet. =P

[Cell phone blues]

What's the point of having my cell phone with my 5 favourite people when they can't even call me!!! lol Actually Brandon's the only one I call really but for some reason sometimes when he tries to call, it won't even ring. It's been frustrating us quite a bit and perhaps it's just a sign that we're calling each other too much. Nevertheless!!! I need to fix it! I talked to the Telus guy and he's like.. Did you see 5 bars? Yes I saw 5 bars! I'm not dumb! Well it's something really strange. It works sometimes and doesn't sometimes. And I'm calling from home. Well this guy called my cell and it worked. And I told him. No... it works SOMETIMES and SOMETIMES it doesn't! And he's like ok... well.. I will call Telus to check up on it and fix the.. network?? And they will contact you. If it works then.. umm. I don't know.. wait for the same problem to happen again? And if it doesn't work.. umm.. send my phone in for surgery? And then get it back and home it works better? Truth is, I really want a different phone but he managed to talk me out of getting the phone I wanted to get and said there was some problem with it. But really it is frustrating when Bno and I try to phone each other a bazillion times and it won't even go through.

He was so cute today when I visited him at SFU.

He goes.. Jmerz!! Wanna see what I made!!! He pulls out a big ziplock bag from his backpack. It's got this dark purply soquid in it. Jam!! He squishes it around and I can't stop laughing. He goes .. It's all that I have in my backpack!! And that was even funnier. I probably shouldn't be laughing coz he SHOULD have textbooks or his computer in his backpack since he's SUPPOSED to be studying. I don't know.. it was just so funny. He then further explained how he wanted to eat blue berries but they were frozen and then they melted and got mushy and got all over his fingers so he squished them into jam instead.

[School in the Summer time]

Feels like it's been an awfully long time since I've held a camera and been in the super duper filming mood. It's probably because I actually took a break over our 2 weeks off. And we haven't really had any shooting exercises to do. The big projects are definitely gonna come crashing in come next week though. I'm still prepping for this big commercial thing I'm directing. Locations are going down and I still haven't gotten enough actors. =S Like Paul said, the projects usually sound/look great during the pitching stage. But come screening day, there's just not enough in each project that gives it the "Umph!".

So anyways. I'm thinking it's because it's the summer time and my brain is used to slacking off in the summer which results in very slow days and work being done over long periods of times. Either that or I'm actually over-working myself. I can't really tell anymore. I'm out pretty much every day. And I mean I do need time to myself as well. I'm not too sure if my time is very well balanced. But what to do? I have to go to school and projects like these will take up a lot of my time. What I fear is my future being this busy as well. I do not want to turn into those freakin' rich people who work all the time to make lots of money to have nice things and not even have time to enjoy what I've put my hard work to. Life ain't about the money! But money is survival in this world I suppose.

So anyways! On to what's been going on in the past few.. days? Weeks? I realize I haven't blogged in a while and I have lots of pictures on my camera that I haven't uploaded yet.

Here's Taylor and Julie cuddled up in the corner of the class posing in front of sleeping Cody. We thought it was funny. And cute.

And here's Bno and his new hair cut. His stylist moved to a salon in Brentwood which is uber close to my school and so I might go down there to try him out.

That fourth picture in there has absolutely nothing to do with Brandon and his haircut. But we HAVE been chillin' at Pearl Fever lots so.. =). That's a Banana/Mango layered... bubble tea.. =) Julian made it special for us. There really is a Banana/Mango drink but he decided to be creative for us.

[What I want to do with Film]

So I'm here in school right now. It's oo.. just about 4 am.. Friday night/Saturday morning. I'm sitting here in class blogging and catching up with my video watching. We had to film a show for our corporate video and so our group was downtown doing that until around 1am. We figured we'd come back to class and start capturing the footage however found out we couldn't because security doesn't allow that anymore. >=( I have to return the camera and gear that I took out and so I HAVE to be here until 8. What sucks more is I have class tomorrow.

Well since I'm unable to sleep, I might as well take this time to share some thoughts I haven't had time to share.

I guess I shall start talking about the show we shot tonight. A guy in my group has a friend who owns sort of like a big empty house? Well..a room. What he does is rents it out to people. They can jam in there. They can use the room for artsy stuff. They can hang out. Have parties. Have film shoots. etc etc. It's a pretty nice space he has in there. It's a basic rectangular room with a bathroom, a room to put stuff in. Near the entrance is a corridor and before you get into the main room, there's sort of a little dressing area kind of like a backstage set up where you do hair and make up. It's really sweet. The place was a real mess and it's basically got that really ruggedy look which is probably what they want. I like it. The walls are red and grey. The floor is just concrete. Same with the ceiling. It's really retro but at the same time modern.

I sort of have an idea what I want my place to look like now. When the day comes where I have a job and enough money to get my own place, I will be getting a room like that. No need for kitchen and many different rooms. I just want a big room like that. My bed will go in the middle. If I ever had to separate rooms, there'd be curtains. Originally, I had thought of getting a place with a loft (coz lofts are cool!) but that can probably wait until I'm a lot richer.

Anyways so the purpose of having this space is so that talented artists can gather and show case their work for others to see. And of course I've thought about this before. Of course I'm in film to get out there so I can get a good job that will pay the rent and put food in my tummy. But there has to be more than just that. In the next couple projects t come, I have put more thought into what kind of things I want to show case and what kind of an audience I want and what kind of reactions I want from them.

I will be filming a commercial as well as a PSA later on in the quarter. Much planning to be done and it hasn't stopped. @_@. I think I'm starting to get tired!

[Storyboarding Job]

So my job at the Satay Garden has been a no go. I'm a bit disappointed probably because I got my hopes up so high and I thought I was ready to take on a huge challenge to get all these things done. But the more I took on, the harder it got (duh). And well this lady thought that she could get me to do anything she wanted for free. Jeez silly asians and their cheap minds. Yes, I know she has no budget for these types of things. I was not going to charge her for the video but when I saw how picky she got when it came to the AD, $0 was just unacceptable, especially when I had to fix tons of things late into the night just to fit her schedule. I have yet to be paid for the days work I did as a server too. Never got a phone call back to talk about my wages coz super minumum wage was just not going to work for me (6$) and not even legal so.

On the bright side!! I don't have tons of work pouring down on me like I did the past few weeks coz of that. I also was offered a job to do a storyboard for a commercial. It's nothing too big. It's for a commercial for Richmond Certigard which is part of a bigger company Petro-Can. So it's not TOO big but at least it's for a real company which is pretty cool.

The pictures I have up there aren't in order just coz I didn't want that arrow to feel out of place lol.

But yea it was pretty good. I was paid a pretty good amount for the amount of time it took for it to be done and I guess for the deadline I had to meet.

[Driven by Madness]

Whenever I hear of things like these happening, shooting, killing, all the messed up things that are going on in this world and near home. This world is basically our home. And our home is not safe. And I'm not too sure it's ever been.

Perhaps it's because I haven't been too close to all this violence and have never seen it first hand that it hasn't deeply affected me. Should I live my life in fear? Like everyone else in this world?

Many times the question has come up: Are there really bad people in this world? Are there really bad people at all? Or are we just confused and frustrated and lost to the point of madness.

Before I go on I should explain what I'm referring to. Last week, a chinese man stabbed a younger caucasian man on a greyhound bus. I believe they were on their way to Winnipeg. Not only did he kill the guy, he mutilated his body parts. I won't go into further detail. It was a pretty gruesome read when I saw the article in the Metro paper today.

There are so many shootings everyday. So many gang fights go on everyday. So many people get angry at each other to the point of actual killing. But when you look at all these killings, they all had warnings. They all happened for a reason even though those reasons could never be good enough. Perhaps investigators will find a reason to this recent murder. I know at the back of my head, I'm thinking that I could never ever be safe wherever it is I am. I could be sitting next to someone who seems perfectly normal and then find out the next minute that he or she has psychological problems.

Maybe he grew up in a harsh environment (Mainland China). Maybe the people around him treated him like crap. Maybe they just didn't care about him. Maybe they made fun of him. Maybe they cast him out. Maybe he moved to Canada to find a better life but still felt out of place in this world. Maybe he fell in love with someone when he was younger. Maybe his love treated him like dirt and ran away. Maybe it was something he could never forgive himself for. Maybe it slowly drove him mad.

Sometimes I feel like I'm in the Batman movie.

[Rise Above This - Seether]

Take the light and darken everything around me
Call the clouds and listen closely I'm lost without you
Call your name every day when I feel so helpless
I've fallen down but I'll rise above this, rise above this

Hate the mind, regrets are better left unspoken
For all we know, this void will grow
And everything's in vain, distressing you though it leaves me open
Feels so right, but I'll end this all before it gets me

Call your name every day when I feel so helpless
I've fallen down but I'll rise above this, rise above this
Call your name every day when I seem so helpless
I've fallen down, and I'll rise above this, rise above this doubt

I'll mend myself before it gets me
(I'll mend myself before it gets me)
I'll mend myself before it gets me
(I'll mend myself before it gets me)

Call your name every day when I feel so helpless
I've fallen down but I'll rise above this, rise above this
Forty eight ways to say that I'm feelin' helpless
I'm Falling down, falling down, but I'll rise above this, rise above this,
Rise above this, rise above this doubt

[WWF]

No I'm not into wrestling. I've recently joined the WWF team, World Wildlife Fund. I joined Green Peace as well but I'm in love with the WWF Panda. =)

I don't know what I have done so far that will impact the environment. I don't drive so that's a start. I don't litter. I could probably reduce the amount of paper and water I use. And start planting more. That would be good eh? Planting something. I've tried planting daisies. I doubt they'll see through the end of the summer. Well.. they might but they're still little tiny babies.

[Celebration of Light 2008]

After squash, Corey decided why not go to the fireworks instead of sitting at home doing nothing. I was like YES. Finally someone wants to go. I had asked everyone and no one seemed very interested or they were busy.

I called up a bunch of people and eventually I found Raf and Adam. Corey, Raf and I drove down to King George and met Adam downtown.

We had dinner at Dennys. =) Mmm breakfast for dinner! I had pancakes, rosti, scrambled eggs with bacon, peppers, potato and onions, more bacon and sausages (I know I told myself no more hot dogs and what not. but.. hmm.. I dont know!! As long as it's not often I guess)

I love being downtown especially in the summer. There's so much going on and there are people everywhere and everyone's happy. I also love gay people simply because they're so happy! It's pride week. They're having the Pride Parade today. Kinda wish I could have gone. I think it'd be a lot of fun.

We made it down to the beach at a very good time, 6:45. It wasn't too too crowded just yet and so we managed to get a good spot. Not too many people. The best spots are the filler spots. When you're right smack in the middle, you're surrounded by the filler people and that's what we've done every year. This year was fine. We didn't have anyone trying to get through and stepping all over us.

Time also went by pretty quicky (Probably because it was less of a wait since we were there in the evening as opposed to noon).

It got dark pretty quick. Our conversations seemed to have sped time up pretty quick.

Apparently this year was the safest. They had cops in every corner downtown.

It got pretty chilly after the sun set.

10 o'clock came around pretty quickly and it was magic just like every year. The entire beach of thousands and millions of people went from screams and laughs and music and busy-ness to silence. And when the fireworks went up, it was like we were all the same. We were all together. 1 big group of people, 1 big family.

Of course the second the fireworks were done everyone just broke into loud, annoying, stupid people who don't have the sense to exit the beach in a organized manner. There were people everywhere pushing and shoving like sheep. And even sheep all walk in the same direction. At the intersection where Davie meets Denman, people were just all... walking in different directions which of course resulted in an uber collision. Big groups all afraid of being split up, so they form chains which blocks other people. Single people filling in the gaps here and there. People with bikes and dogs and kids and strollers. Lots of old people this year. And they just.. keep.. pushing. Like pushing will help people move forward faster. Yes we were caught in that. The smart people were the ones sitting on the side waiting for the enormous crowd to leave. So in a way we were part of the stupid group of people.

I love walking downtown at night! There are so many people around! I have yet to go clubbing but it looks like fun. Everyone dresses up on a Saturday night which makes absolutely no sense to me unless if it's for a special occasion. But people do it. And they look like they're having tons of fun so. Why not!

We walked from skytrain station to skytrain station (simple because the lines were too long). And obviously the lines were going to be long everywhere. But I guess we enjoyed the walk around and around downtown. We visited all the major stations (Granville, Waterfront, Burrard)and then back to where we came from where we got a ride from Adam's parents who were on their way out as well. =P

[Squash]

I got up in the morning yesterday not knowing what I wanted to do. It still shocks me that I have the entire weekend off as well as monday (BC Day). Makes me worry that I'm forgetting to do something when I'm this free.

Everyone was out; figured they went shopping or something. I called and texted Joey to see if she wanted to come to the beach with me but the phone is still something strange to her. She finds it awkward answering it when it rings and when she gets texts from me, it scares her.

Corey caught me at the right time though. He asked if I wanted to go play squash with him, his sister and Steven. And I thought, why not eh?

So we headed out to Langley to smack some balls around in a square room. It was actually very very fun. The ball's really tiny and so if you get hit by it I don't think it'd hurt very much. And it's quite surprising how much running you do in that little room. I was actually working a sweat. But not to the point where my heart was going to die. =) It was a good work out.