Stuff I've been up to...

1. As mentioned, I've been EXTREMELY busy.
On Sunday, I had my three month performance review at work. I got a great review, was rated very well and received a small raise, which I'm not going to turn my nose up at.

2. I attended a meditation service at the Radha centre , where I got to surprise my friend Sarah, who was visiting from Montreal. I walked into the meditation room, and she looked up in surprise and started grinning. That was awesome!

3. I finished my clinical trials for the psoriasis study. My psoriasis cleared up. I'm glad that I participated in the study, even if it meant that I was a bit of a greaseball for a few months.

4. The new issue of Ricepaper is finished and it looks great. Look for it on news stands soon.

5. [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] and I went to the Imperial Chinese Seafood restaurant for Dine out Vancouver. It's an upper scale Chinese restaurant. I'm convinced the space was used in a movie, as it looks like a movie restaurant. We had some yummy food which included crab and corn soup, gailan with scallops (yum!), and mango pudding. I also ate some duck and some pork. Everything was good, but seeing as I'm not used to eating meat, I felt sort of off later on in the evening. I eat meat every few months, but not on a regular basis. I got somewhat used to eating it in Mongolia but meat is still not my favourite thing. Anyway, I recommend both the restaurant, and [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com]'s company.

6. I'm temping for 8 hours today and then I go to work for 4 hours. Yes, I'm working 12 hours today, and Thursday. Yuck.

Writing and publishing news...

My article on the Radha Centre will be appearing in the Vancouver Courier sometime in February.

In other news, I'm doing some contract work for a travel writer who is doing a "Top 10 Vancouver and Victoria" travel book. I met her in Chapters and we got to talking and she gave me her card. So now I'm going to be plotting restaurants, and coffee shops on a map and write descriptions of these restaurants.

I could use all the help that I can get for restaurant opinions. I'm sure that many of the Vancouverites, including [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] and [Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com], will be able to give me some good feedback.

I also plan to check out Roland's blog Vaneats

Oscar babble 2005

The list of Oscar nominations are up. I'm pleased with a few things about the list. First, there are a fair number of foreign films that were nominated including "A very long engagement", "House of Flying Daggers" and "The Motorcycle Diaries." I'm also happy that Kate Winslet got nominated for Best Actress, even though I predict that she will not win. I'm also pleased that "The Story of the Weeping Camel" got a nomination for best documentary. This was a great film about a Mongolian family, and it accurately captured the people and life in rural Mongolia.

My other predictions- Best Actor looks like a toss-up between Don Cheadle and Jamie Foxx. I predict that Fox will win.

I am unsure on Best Actress, and Best Supportings. I predict that "The Incredibles" will win Best animation. "Passion of the Christ" will win makeup. Director SHOULD go to Scorscese and "The Aviator" will probably win best picture.

Keep in mind that I have only seen- "The Incredibles", "A series of Unfortunate Events", "Finding Neverland", "The Story of the Weeping Camel", "Spiderman 2", "The Motorcycle Diaries", "Harry Potter", "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Troy" (shudder) as I write this.
I need to get to the movies!!

Surprises include shut-outs for Mel Gibson and Michael Moore, as well as Jim Carrey's performance in "Eternal Sunshine." I'm also pleased that "Spanglish" was not nominated, as I heard it was supposed to be an Oscar contender. There is a god and (s)he is protecting Hollywood and its lovers.