event and photography30 Aug 2010 12:35 pm

Art is my life
It’s my air, my food
I’m not happy, or sane, or fulfilled, if I’m not creating
It’s everything
~Indigo

Last night I attended Indigo’s first solo show at the Verve Hair Lounge. It was a fun occasion and gave me an opportunity to witness her creativity and talent with oil on canvas firsthand.

Towards the Light - Indi Go Art Show
Amber George (Verve owner) and Indigo – “weighted, I remain”

Towards the Light - Indi Go Art Show
“She’s gone away”

Indigo Solo Show - Verve Hair Lounge
A quiet moment before her show – “seven years later”

Towards the Light - Indi Go Art Show
Food by Nuba Restaurant

Towards the Light - Indi Go Art Show
Megan Mutch of Cerelia Winery

Towards the Light - Indi Go Art Show
Beats by DJ Kilocee

I wish Indigo success with her future shows.

anime and photography26 Aug 2010 04:25 pm

Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars - Sailor Moon Photoshoot
Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mercury, & Sailor Mars

This year I attended Anime Evolution 2010 which was held August 13-15 at the University of British Columbia.

Anime Evolution is Vancouver’s premier event celebrating Japanese animation, manga, gaming, and every kind of related fandom. Our featured activities include interactive panel discussions with industry guests, cultural demonstrations, 24-hour video rooms, cosplay contests, an AMV contest, a charity auction, evening dances, and creative workshops. We also offer LAN, tabletop, LARP, and console gaming rooms.

Sailor Moon Photoshoot
Tuxedo Mask & Princess Serenity

It was a phenomenal learning experience at an event that has grown to over 6000 registered attendees from its early days at Simon Fraser University in 1998.

Sailor Moon Photoshoot
Sailor Jupiter & Sailor Mars

During AE 2010, I discovered J-pop (Japanese Pop), met members of Loading Ready Run, watched Anime Idol, and observed someone excel at Robot Unicorn Attack (still got the song in my head).

Princess Serenity - Sailor Moon Photoshoot
Princess Serenity

In addition, I made new friends and have become more integrated into the local anime and manga community.

Sailor Chaos & Sailor Iron Mouse - Sailor Moon Photoshoot
Sailor Chaos & Sailor Iron Mouse

My experiences are shared in a series of photo essays beginning with the Sailor Moon photoshoot.

event and photography22 Aug 2010 08:21 am

On Saturday I attended the annual Vancouver Zombie Walk. Many people were very creative with their look and had the walk or pose to match. I used the opportunity to take a few photos of the event which I posted to flickr.

Vancouver Zombie Walk 2010
You’re next

Vancouver Zombie Walk 2010
School is not in session

Vancouver Zombie Walk 2010
She won’t protect you

Vancouver Zombie Walk 2010
Thriller on repeat

Vancouver Zombie Walk 2010
Even Zombies get married

Vancouver Zombie Walk 2010
Zombie jr and mom

Vancouver Zombie Walk 2010
What do we want? Braaaainnsss

Vancouver Zombie Walk 2010
Ooh! Text message

See you next year!

ubc11 Aug 2010 08:07 pm

This summer I began my term as the founding editor for the Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program journal. It will be open-access and student-run and we anticipate a Spring 2011 launch.

We are in the early stages and are networking and seeking advice from the open access journal community at UBC and around the world in order to develop a solid foundation for our peer-reviewed journal.

To that end, I have submitted a solo proposal to present at SXSW 2011 entitled How to create an open access journal. It would be very cool if you would vote for me. I attended SXSW 2008 for the first time as an attendee and I am excited to return as a presenter.

It is a 2-stage process: First you need to sign up, then you need to vote.

See you at SXSW 2011!

Crowd @ Mark Zuckerberg Keynote - SXSW 2008
Memories from SXSW 2008 courtesy of Kris Krug

event and ubc09 Aug 2010 04:07 pm

On August 7th and 8th I returned to Art in the Garden at the UBC Botanical Garden to listen to music, interact with passionate artists, and learn about their creative techniques.

Art in the Garden is organised collaboratively by Janet Lee of Janet Planet Designs, Friends of the UBC Botanical Garden (including Gudrun Hancock), and the UBC Botanical Garden. This is the second year at the UBC Botanical Garden as Art in the Garden was annually held in Janet Lee’s private garden from 1999-2008.

Art in the Garden 2010Cory Lee of CoCoBo Designs and Janet Lee display CoCoBo fashion accessories

Art in the Garden 2010
Crystal Deshaies showing off her Home & Garden Portrait

Ken McRae - Art in the Garden 2010
Ken McRae with Tulip, one of his fine art photography prints

Douglas Walker - Art in the Garden 2010
Douglas Walker of Waterworks Garden Sculpture

Art in the Garden 2010
Greg Michalski and Kim Urhahn of Ka Huila sing acoustic blues

Art in the Garden 2010
Nathan Scott of Living Stone Studio poses with the gardener

I look forward to returning next year.

update: I want to thank Ka Huila for their complementary CD.

ubc04 Aug 2010 03:51 pm

Remember how your friends would wander through the library looking for you and wondering why you aren’t answering your phone?

Well, the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre (IKB) here at UBC has solved this problem building on a cool idea from the Claire T Carney Library at U Mass Darthmouth.

This tool allows people to mark their location in IKB with an avatar (circled) and then easily share that URL with friends.

Find me in IKBLC!

I like how innovate my university is. Has anyone used this type of application before?

event and ubc18 Jul 2010 11:47 pm

UBC Blueberry Fest 2010
Breakfast at the UBC Blueberry Fest

The 2nd Annual UBC Blueberry Fest (July 13-16th) was created to promote local food to the UBC community and Vancouver residents. Over four sunny days, live music played as people experienced blueberries in a variety of forms – e.g. blueberry pancakes, blueberry cream blintzes, and blueberry creme brulee – building on the success of last year’s inaugural event, which I also attended.

The BC Blueberry Fest was organised by UBC Food Services and sponsored by the BC Blueberries Council, UBC Bookstore, and ethical bean coffee.

The full set of photos are available on flickr.

UBC Blueberry Fest 2010
How blueberry pancakes are made

According to the BC Blueberry Council, eating 125ml (1/2 cup) of Blueberries is enough to meet the recommended 7-10 servings according to the Canadian Food Guide.

Some additional facts about BC Blueberries

  • Blueberries are one of three fruits native to North America and have been around approximately 13,000 years (Concord grapes and cranberries are the others)

  • 650 farm families are harvesting close to 80 million pounds of blueberries this year

  • British Columbia is the largest producer of highbush blueberries in Canada and the second top producing region in the world and still growing.

UBC Blueberry Fest 2010
Would you like some blueberry cream blintzes?


UBC Farm @ UBC Blueberry Fest 2010
Local produce from UBC Farm


UBC Blueberry Fest 2010
Loving some blueberry pancakes


Fiddlestix @ UBC Blueberry Fest 2010
Music by FiddleStix


The Irish Wakers @ UBC Blueberry Fest 2010
We’re The Celtic Scholars

event and ubc13 Jul 2010 11:06 am

Jose Aliangan - UBC Blueberry Fest
Jose Aliangan, 2009 UBC Blueberry Fest

From July 13th until the 16th, the 2nd Annual UBC Blueberry Fest takes place. It is a great opportunity to experience tasty BC blueberries in a variety of forms such as pancakes, muffins, and scones at reasonable prices.

  • Location: UBC Bookstore Plaza – University boulevard and East Mall
  • Dates: July 13-16, 9am-1pm
  • Menu: BC Blueberry Scones and Muffins, Breakfast Parfait, Blueberry Creme Brulee, UBC Farm Salad, Blueberry Polantta Cake, Blueberry Cream Blintzes and more

The UBC Farm will be there on Wednesday.

Local talent featured – FiddleStix, Don & Abby, and the James Rogers Band

For further info: See UBC Food Services or email Juliana Campbell

Blueberries are reported to have nutritional value and I’m hoping to bake some Blueberry muffins once I acquire some skills. This Truly Simple recipe looks enticing.

Blueberries
flickr photo by FortGirl

See you there!

games22 Jun 2010 11:13 am

Last night I discovered a link to an ARG called We lost our gold.

According to the website, there is $10 000 in gold hidden somewhere in NYC. Clues are provided by puppets via YouTube and need to be deciphered in order to locate the gold. If you find it, it’s yours.

I wish I lived in New York City so that I could participate. There is already discussion on an ARG forum.

Any plans to play?

ARG: We Lost Our Gold

games24 May 2010 10:49 pm

Northern Voice 2010 Day 1 - Phillip Jeffrey

On Friday March 7th, I presented a talk at Northern Voice, a social media and blogging conference entitled: Why I play Alternate Reality Games (and why you should too)!.

I was nervous as I hadn’t spoken in a public forum in a little while, but I was happy to talk about my experiences playing The Lost Ring in 2008 and Urgent Evoke in 2010. I enjoyed responding to the questions that were asked and it was cool to meet a fellow Evoke player – Rachel Smith (@ninmah) from NMC. She made this sketch using Autodesk SketchBook Pro.

4589316126_d49bbc3c24 Sketch by @ninmah

It was also super cool that the Bryan Alexander (@bryanalexander) did a shout out for my talk during his keynote. Unfortunately I was in a meeting with my supervisor Friday morning so I missed it.

I hope to be back next year talking about games. Here are my slides and thanks to everyone that attended.

Next Page »