Samomatic

It has been a pretty hectic week but the weekend is coming so I can catch up on some sleep and assignments.

Rishi and Charlie had taken Horace out for dinner last Friday while we gathered in the house. We setup the surprise by hiding in the pitch black storage room while Horace came in to get a coke for Rishi. We shouted surprise the moment the lights went on and then Kenny came from behind and pie Horace in the face!

The rest of the evening we played Smash Brothers, chat, and fly the Air Hog Helicopters.

The past weekend was the Santa Clause Parade in downtown Toronto. I remember going to the parade several years ago with my parents waiting out in the frigid weather to do my brother’s photography assignment (Ohh how ethical!). I had no idea how to use the purely-manual Canon FT and so my dad told me to do this and that to get the needle to hover in the middle.

The TTC going south was packed, though not as bad as Boston on St.Patrick’s Day. I got onto the street level only to find that the crowd is about 8 person deep and I could only catch glimpses of the parade on my tippy-toes.

Well I got creative and decided to break some rules. I hopped some fences, dodged some security cameras, and managed to find a spot where I can watch the parade from up-top. I had initially wanted to get more up-close shots but this new perspective was also a lot of fun.

The parade was filled with marching bands and fancy floats, but I think I prefer the randomness of the Boston St Patrick’s Parade! The children really enjoyed the parade and I can see how there is still the magic of Christmas working through them.

It is bad when I have several scenarios ready for when I get caught by security, but none of them seem very convincing.
1) Me no english (do the peace sign with my fingers to be more convincing)…..probably get busted at some point and get in even more trouble.
2) “I didn’t know I can’t climb that fence and sit on the edge of your roof”….probably won’t humor them with my lack of common sense.
3) RUN….probably end up on the newspaper with me falling on top of a bunch of children
Just realized that there would be no one to bail me out since everyone else is in Hong Kong at that time.

So I have been hacking and coughing for the past 2 weeks and . The most depressing thing was losing my sense of smell, all the food tasted the same and n.

The benefits of working for a toy company is that I get to try out different toys. Before Horace leave for Hong Kong we had played with some Air Hogs Storm Launchers.

These guys fly are a lot of fun but you do need some packing tape and hot glue gun on standby since they crash pretty hard as well.

PDEng Assignment 3 is due next Wednesday and I still haven’t done the second one. The assignment instructions is 9 pages long! I can’t even get past the first paragraph until it is the day before it is due. I just want to finish this last course and never have to worry about these assignments again.

On Sunday, I volunteered with others from Spin Master at Jacob’s Ladder Giving Gala, an event to raise funds for Neurodegenerative Diseases and also provides children lots of acitivities and learn to give to others. The event took place in Liberty Grand, which is a beautiful building.

We started setting up and unpacking from 7:30AM. This is the Spin Master Giving Gallery where toys are sold to raise funds as well as provide toy donation stations.

I was part of the Air Hogs demostrators and I had a chance to play with indoor R/C planes, helicopters, etc. Later on it was more like trying to keep everything charged and make sure the children are sharing the play time.

Other volunteers also supervised stations for different age groups.

It was a pretty rewarding to see generosity shown by the children when they suggest donating some of their new toys to less fortunate children.

Parents and Horace are all at Hong Kong visiting so I am home alone for the next 2 weeks. I wish I could join them too.