hwan.com

Welcome back. It sure has been a while. Much has happened while you were away, which I'm not sure that I can sum up entirely here. But I shall try. Most notably, I have a new girlfriend, Mary Jean. Things are going well, really well.. what can I say, other than she's awesome and I'm incredibly lucky that she isn't repulsed by my hideous visage. So much of my time has been shared with her, every hour delicious, every day brighter. The birthing of Automa Arena Back in February, Jenning and I participated in a boardgame design contest, Board Game Jam Toronto . Though I wasn't entirely happy with how the event was run (judging process and prize allocation patently unfair), I had a lot of fun and I think we created a damn good game. We somehow managed to stamp out an interesting, straightforward, yet rich mechanic in about a day, and the process brought me back to my university days; brainstorming and talking ideas through, trimming here and adding there. I hav...

Hwan and Reg After Maui I was back in Toronto by Thursday morning before the end of the year, the dim dark morning, returning to a cat-less apartment. My memories of sunny beaches and bright skies were not enough to shield me from the horrors, the disappointment of returning to work. Is this really what I'm doing, I wondered. Friday night I went out drinking with Reg and some of his friends, who wanted to watch some UFC. The pints led to more pints, and by the end I found myself shooting pool and singing karaoke. So I guess 2011 still had a few kicks left in it. New Year's eve I did it all over again at Olga's place, with her friends. The Sunday following I went to my parent's house, way up in the northern reaches of Richmond Hill for belated birthday stuff (my father's); food, TV, with some gift exchange. Mimi is well That first week of January I took in a couple documentaries, Waking the Green Tiger  and Slaughter Nick for President . The former is abo...

I returned a couple days before New Year's day, deprived of sleep but still basking in the memories of Maui. What follows are my notes while there, and my observations that have since emerged, so please excuse the switching of tense. Day one: Denver was an easy enough flight, and the one to LAX was just as uneventful -- had a sandwich and juice in the terminal, briefly tempted by the greasy wares of McDonald's. It's funny that the place always brings Doris to mind, due to the disgust it invoked in her. I am glad to be offline, without the distraction, to really be unavailable to the cares of the daily grind and the holidays. It was a combination of work, life and Christmas that drove me out here, an escape from choices. I'd forgotten how maddeningly loud it is inside the plane, a constantly surging white noise, clouding my attempts at concentration and knocking me into dozing. There's a 5 hour time difference between Hawaii and Toronto -- I wonder how I w...

Hola! Or, perhaps an "aloha" would be more accurate? I am leaving for Maui in a couple hours, having decided to join Jenning's marital festivities after all. A rash decision, made in a fit of desperation, and one that certainly bites on a financial level. It's amusing that even at my age I still have problems sleeping, with the foolish fear of missing the flight. Well, I did miss one major flight, back in Denmark, but that was a simple mistake of dates on my part. Anyway, yeah, Hawaii. I keep thinking of how this might be the last few days of my life -- fall into a volcano, or eaten by a shark, etc. It was a nice life, though I am sorry to leave so many days half-lived. More sorry to those I was a dastardly bastard to, a cowardly scoundrel. I don't know that I deserve anything like forgiveness, but I certainly feel that I am wiser now, eyes more open to my actions. Should I happen to make it, I'll be back by the 29th. No plans for New Years. Not that I rea...

I had considered applying to be a writer for blogTO.com , and it was the process of drafting up an application that I decided that I'd be much happier bringing hwan.com back to life. And so here it is, fresh and clean and much of the weight gone! Fret not, I do plan on bringing those entries back, perhaps when I've the time over the Christmas break. Let's see.. back on the 11th I went to see Unter Kontrolle (2011) , an amazingly detailed documentary on Germany's declining nuclear power plants. I was thrilled to get some rare views into how the plants worked, both as a facility and a business. It was followed up by a brief panel discussion, which to my amusement featured some rather anti-nuclear rallying. I was glad to see that the director himself seemed to not pass any judgment on the technology, or those who saw it as a safe and reasonable energy source. On the 12th I went to a large potluck turkey dinner with Andrea's and Marc's friends. I b...

  Back on the 4th of November Loopy and I went to a Penn and Teller show at Casinorama, which is located just outside of Orillia. The drive up was a bittersweet one, for I'd been up Highway 400 and 11 many times with Monica on one of our trips to her cottage in Bala. Hmm. In any case, the show was great, quite the joy. Any perceived misses were overshadowed by the awesomeness of the hits.  I also lost some money at poker and ate some shitty casino food, but that is neither here nor there; it was a fun Friday. The Saturday following I met up with Loopy again and we hung out at Ryan's place, who is an immaculate host and so much fun was had there too. The preceding dinner at Shoeless Joe's was adequate, though I really must stop subjecting myself to such lazy and uncaring eateries.  I'm uncertain about going again but I thought I'd mention that I went to a Toronto Youth Food Policy Council meeting. I was invited by my friend Andrea, and it's more her thing...

Yiss, yiss, it is I, Hwan. In a new form, newly formed. I've decided to do away with my personal server and host hwan.com on blogspot.com. Things are such that it seems silly to build and maintain everything myself; it was fun for a while, but it's painfully obvious that I simply have neither the time nor inclination to keep it up. So, here we are. And here I hope to update far more frequently. I've begun to feel that my passage through this world will leave no mark, no legacy, other than perhaps this journal, this written account of my take on things, this tiny bubble in a much larger sea. But.. there is still a little marrow left in this bone I've been given. In any case, I'll now recount some of the things I've done since I last wrote, way back on October 9th. I spent much of October watching Peep Show  in its entirety, 7 seasons of hilarious British comedy. It was a feat made easy due to its availability on YouTube and a digestible 20 minute playtime. Th...

Ok, here's me trying to keep the journal/blog/webjo thing going... it ain't easy! There aren't enough hours for all I want to do, or all I want to read, or all the turns in Dungeon Raid I need to make.... anyway, I had an alright weekend. Friday I attended a talk at CFI promoting the book How To Become A Really Good Pain In The Ass , Saturday I got my teeth cleaned in the morning, napped, then met up with Reg and Olga and had ourselves a drinky-drinky night at Marben, concluding with some Swatow. Sunday I rode over to the AGO, did some sketching and exploring there, and checked out two street festivals (the Chinese one on Spadina, then the Cabbagetown one on Parliament). That evening Loopy and I discussed plans for our next project -- a podcast ! Tomorrow I get the Mee-Mees neutered and spayed, which, on top of being a horrendous expense, also saddens me in that I am depriving them of their chance at immortality (admittedly, a highly incestuous one). I guess they are bu...

Well yeah. I've been putting off what to do with hwan.com and .. uh.. life just happens, y'know? TAM 9 was great, so much STUFF, most of it having since dribbled away, the walls my mind not being what they once were. Exciting but also, well, it made me miss going on vacation with a partner. Just a tiny bit; I was pretty busy most of the time. I was able to get a night of poker in, which netted about $260, just enough to pay off the hotel. Of course, I also bought lots of books and the like, and the trip overall, if you include airfare and the conference fee, put a sizable dent in my funds. Speaking of expenditures, I still have my kittens, though they are rapidly morphing into cats. My range of opinions on the little rascals ranges from homicide, to resignation, to adoration. I make it sound a lot worse than it really is... or perhaps I've come to convince myself of this? No but seriously, I don't see the point of cats! I once, long, long ago, considered myself a ...

I adopted a couple of kittens (referred to colloquially, and collectively, as "the meemees", for the sound they make) -- my sister found a homeless, pregnant cat some months ago and the babies needed a home, and, well, it was offered and I, after much contemplation and self-debate, accepted a boy and girl into my kitten-unready home. I am so far likening the experience to adopting two aliens with little concept of language or bathroom manners, irregular hours and a fascination for anything new. Ah, they are not quite that bad but certainly keep me on the fence of whether or not to keep them. Certainly they have their moments of intense cuteness. A couple weeks ago I was at a dinner with Girl and Dangerman! I hadn't seen those two since last year and little Magnus is quickly becoming a little boy. It was really nice to have the gang together like that, it quite brought the smile to my face -- hardly anyone has changed, I find, though when I see myself in the mirror I w...

Woo, it is getting warm out there! Summer doesn't start for another 3 weeks but they're already forecasting 32 degree weather for tomorrow, yowza! Let's see what's been going on... Well, the day on which I last wrote , I ended up going to a Blue Jays game with Stephen and Simone , who were nice enough to provide me with an extra ticket. It was a very fast game, maybe 2.5 hours? The seats were great, in any case -- fourth row, right behind first base. A fun escape, but I could only watch maybe a game or two a year really -- my interest in baseball has fallen way down with age. That was Thursday, and on Friday I went to Bar Wellington to attend a co-worker's birthday gathering. Some drinks and lots of TVO and public television talk. Ah, Force Five , so deeply ingrained in my childhood memories! I love all those shows so much, dearly so. Saturday was the beginning of the long weekend, and I, well, I had a date during the day. More than that I shan't speak of here...