Bugs & Rugrats Walk of Fame Stars by Floyd B. Bariscale (CC-BY 2.0)
Have you dreamt of becoming famous? What would your claim to fame be? Comedy? Acting? Writing? Race car driving? Go!
Fame is a fleeting, spontaneous, and fickle game; what’s hot today may be cold tomorrow.
Fame can be cultivated, and it comes with a price. I do like to share myself in tongue-in-cheek stories Continue reading
“A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.” – Elbert Hubbard
Do you find it easy to make new friends? Tell us how you’ve mastered the art of befriending a new person.
But to put a quasi-scientific spin to the above question: the ease of my making friends depends on the person, the situation, and/or common interests that may link us (that should pretty cover everything under the sun).
As an auto-didact with a strong sense of independence, I see less of a need to befriend a new person than a want. Thus, friendship is a luxury, but one that may reap (unexpected) mutual benefits in the present or near future. (Clearly, I have been watching one too many episodes of The Big Bang Theory).
Breaking the ice with topics that are neutral (the weather) or partisan (politics, economy, culture, Continue reading
Butchart Gardens, Vancouver Island, BC, Canada (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Theoretically, summer will return to the polar-vortex-battered Northern Hemisphere. What are you looking forward to doing this summer? If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, what are your fondest memories of Summer past?
Unlike many parts of the Canada and the U.S., our winter was a relatively warm one with few days of actual snowfall (it’s the spring that’s actually been a bit chilly).
Snow is such a novelty in temperate Vancouver that it’s Continue reading
Look out your back window or door — describe what you see, as if you were trying to convey the scene to someone from another country or planet.
Our backyard is “Tree and Shrub Central” — a haven for the birds, and our attempt to recreate a bit of the forest. A pair of towering, 100-foot Douglas Firs–seeded decades ago near the fences–stretch up to the skies, while an eclectic mix of Viburnum, laurel, spurge, pyracantha, cotoneaster, and Mountain Fire shrubs of varying heights offer a colourful canopy and private retreat for feathered visitors from the rains that the West Coast is famous for.
A fallen feather in the forest.
Math Mark (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Which subject in school did you find impossible to master? Did math give you hives? Did English make you scream? Do tell!
English is the language of poets. When I encounter the word “green”, I think of of Ireland and emeralds and grass. When I hear the word “land”, I think of foreign and exotic, imaginary and mystical. When I write the word “damps”, I think of mushrooms and rotting logs.
Math, on the other hand, was (and still is) my Waterloo, in all its seemingly infinite incarnations (fractions, algebra, trigonometry, differential calculus). Math did not send me Continue reading
Blue flower by @Doug88888 (CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0)
We all feel down from time to time. How do you combat the blues? What’s one tip you can share with others that always helps to lift your spirits?
I think that feeling blue comes from my being such an introspective individual and a daydreamer who attributes meaning and time, and imbues emotion and expectation (sometimes of a lofty magnitude) to everything I see and do.
Mine is the wandering mind: I walk through every minute of the day with one part of my brain Continue reading
What’s your travel style? Are you itinerary and schedule driven, needing to have every step mapped out in advance or are you content to arrive without a plan and let happenstance be your guide?
My travel style? Strict schedules are only to be obeyed with flight arrival/departure and cruise embarkment/disembarkment times. Sure, my itinerary needs to be well thought out with a fair amount of research on key places or attractions to visit, and time to be allocated for visiting them and getting there and back (to the accommodations), but not every single step has to be mapped out. Continue reading
the Trevi Fountain, filled with coins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Have you ever tossed a coin or two into a fountain and made a wish? Did it come true?
It used to be common practice to toss your change into a fountain. Pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters found their way into many a blue tiled bottom of a fountain in Metro Vancouver shopping malls like Oakridge and Metrotown. Sometimes there would also be American coins in the mix.
People used to do this so often that the coins would obscure the bottom completely, and the fountains would eventually need Continue reading
pizzelles by distopiandreamgirl (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0)
What is your favorite sweet thing to eat? Bread pudding? Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies? A smooth and creamy piece of cheesecake?
Tell us all about the anticipation and delight of eating your favorite dessert. Not into sweets? Tell us all about your weakness for that certain salty snack.
There’s this Italian delectable called pizzelles that I won’t pass up. In Chinese/Korean culture, these Italian waffle cookies, as they are also known, are rolled up and called love letters, and laver or coconut (seaweed) may be added during their production. The result is a crunchy and mouthwatering concoction in every bite. Even the bits that invariably break off Continue reading
W.H. SIM PHOTOGRAPHY 
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