I went to the CityTV building today after work to do my little interview with Peter of BookTelevision. Upon arriving, there was a crowd waiting in line apparantly waiting to get into the Much Music room where they were about to start doing something. Peter said it may have something to do with INXS since they were here earlier in the day.

I was greeted by Peter at the front lobby where a security guard watched me like a hawk… well, not really. After signing in, we went to floor 3 where BookTelevision took up a section of the floor. One floor actually had several TV channels occupying it, which was rather interesting. BookTV had their own little mock “studio” made up with bookshelves and fancy chairs, however, Peter suggested we film my interview on the steps, which made it a little more fun and to my style. He asked me if I wanted something to drink. After saying that water was fine, he took me down a level to the cafeteria where he was nice enough to buy me an ice tea.

We chatted for a bit as he set up the lighting, put the mic on me, and made sure I was properly exposed. He prepped me a little bit as to how to start answering the questions and where to look. I told him I’ve never done this before.

After sitting myself down on the steps, he simply started asking me questions with the camera pointed at me. I didn’t even know he was shooting. I merely answered the questions to the best of my knowledge – although I swear I know I’m going to sound dumb when I see myself on TV. While the focus of the interview was on U&I, he wanted to interview with the point of view of it being a magazine with travel photography. I didn’t mind at all since that’s essentially how I came about the concept of this magazine, and I had a dedicated section of Travelography in each issue.

He asked me questions and I answered them. At one point I stumbled on my answer and had to repeat from the beginning, which he was totally cool with. He simply kept rolling and told me to start from the beginning again. I’m sure he’ll need to do a lot of editing afterwards. Since the interview was held on the stairs, there were on occassion when I had to stop talking as people walked up or down the stairs. That actually made it a little less formal and casual. Probably helped in making it less nerve racking.

After the interview – which I estimated to be around 20 minutes or so, he asked me if I wanted a tour of the building. How could I pass up an opportunity to see the ChumCity building in all its glory?! So from the first floor all the way to the 5th floor, he took me through the rooms and doors of every floor, telling me where everything was, what everyone does, and where everything is filmed. From StarTV to Bravo to SpaceTV to CityPulse to Breakfast Television to Fashion TV to Much More Music, I had a personalized tour of the insides of one of the country’s better known TV channels. It was great! I loved seeing the studios and the newsrooms and all. Much Music was filming something so I couldn’t see their studios but it was sure loud in there with the screaming fans.

My interview is going to be on a TV called Word of the Week, which airs on BookTV. The show also airs on CityTV, CityPulse, and on Bravo! I’m still not quite sure when it will show, although he did mention I was slotted for December 18th. He assured me that he would send me a copy of the show afterwards.

He was a really nice guy and easy to talk to that everything went really smoothly. It was fun. I was able to get the word out on U&I, and hopefully something more will come out of this as well.

On a similar note, I was told that Nikka Times – Canada’s weekly Japanese newspaper – had published an introductory article on U&I Magazine. Taking up just less than a quarter of a page, the writer wrote about the concept of my magazine, the printing technology behind it, and what I was after when creating this publication. It was a surprise to me since the staff writer I’ve been corresponding with at Nikka Times didn’t mention she would publish this introductory article.

I have yet to do my interview with Nikka Times. I will likely do it sometime next week. Afterwards – most likely after Christmas – she says I will get a bigger block of the newspaper and in full colour. That’s fantastic! I couldn’t be happier. At least I will be getting more exposure outside of Toronto with this magazine. And boy do I need it!

Now, I have to study for a Mandarin quizz, which I really don’t feel like studying for right now. What else is new?!

It snowed for the first time here in Toronto yesterday. When I got out of work around 8pm last night, I looked up and saw little white flakes floating to the ground. Winter is surely coming.

Just today, the temperature dropped quite a bit, making it fairly cold. When I got out of work today around 8pm as well, I noticed an accumulation of snow on the ground. Even worse, noticed a fairly large scratch on the side of my car. A scratch? Who in the world?! %$@#! When I came in to work this morning, I knew I shouldn’t have parked where I parked. I was on a slope so any car that parked next to me and carelessly opened their door would have a good chance of hitting my car. But the scratch on my car was more of a scratch and slide. It extended quite a distance making it seem like something dragged across the side of my car. I will have to assess it tomorrow morning in the light. Until then… grr…

On another note, today is the third Thursday of November, which for any Japanese person would know, marks the release of Beaujolais Nouveau! Yippee! After work, I made my way to LCBO and bought myself two bottles of reds. One from France for $8.95 and the other from Italy for $15.95. I was told the latter one was really good. I hope so for that price! This weekend I’m going to a little Beaujolais Nouveau wine and cheese party so I made sure I had my fair share!

Backtracking…

Earlier today, I went to Paderno’s warehouse sale. They usually have this sale once a year right about this time. Their doorcrasher specials this time was a huge 14L stock pot or a large roasting pot each selling for $99. I didn’t have a need for either of those so I didn’t buy them. But, I did buy a 9.5″ round cake pan for $5 and 2 loaf pans for $8, and a set of 3 stainless steel mixing bowls for $19.95. I say these were good buys so I’m happy with my choice. Last year I went and bought their doorcrasher item, which was a 4L pot with top for only $49 or so. That was a steal.

Simple things make me happy.

I got a haircut today. A much needed one. I went in to my usual hair cutter near my house and put my name on the waiting list as my regular cutter was busy and had people in line. I really didn’t want to wait too long so when this Asian haircutter asked if I wanted her to cut my hair, I had to think. I originally said no since why ruin a good thing and risk getting a bad haircut? However due to time constraints I decided to go with the new person. I figured since she’s Asian, she may know how to treat Asian hair.

She is Vietnamese. And she speaks quickly and ever so softly that she almost slurs her words. I couldn’t understand half the things she was telling me. I just nodded and smiled. She thought I was in Grade 9 or 10. I chuckled. Is that supposed to be flattering or insulting? I’m not quite sure yet. I think she was trying too hard to impress me since she had to do a good job as my regular cutter was standing right beside her. She took a long time too. At the end of it all, I guess it wasn’t a bad cut. Nothing too spectacular either, but then again, my hair style is pretty much generic and simple to style. I guess she’s ok.

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I was actually free today. For the first time in so many weekends, I had no plans for the day. It felt kind of weird actually. I felt as if I was missing something. Weekends are usually busy catching up on all the things I’ve fallen behind on during the weekdays. It was a gorgious day today too. What was I to do on a day like today? I did my laundry.

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Sarah emailed me – see my previous comment. I got some wrong info. in there last night. My apologies for that. I corrected them. Boy, you do take a lot of pictures! But it’s great to see photos of other people visiting the same exact places you’ve been to in the past. Brings back good memories. We pretty much did the same things as well, like the glass bottom boat tour, starsand beach, eating, and more eating. I like it when I see pics and can say, “I’ve been there!”

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I seriously need to do something with my homepage. It’s been like this for months now and I think half of it’s not even working properly anymore. I actually spent some time today trying to think of a new design for it. What did I come out with? Not a whole lot. I came across lots of interesting designs but I’m finding that it’s getting harder and harder for me to be able to implement a blog while at the same time carry other information on my homepage. Website building has come a long way since 1995 when I built my first webpage. I seriously need to brush up on all this stuff.

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And if you’re wondering why you can’t comment on any of my blogs, it’s because I disabled commenting for the time being. I’ve received so many spam comments that it was no longer getting funny. I’ll enable commenting a bit later once I figure out a better way to kill spam. In the meantime, feel free to post any comments on my shoutboard on the left hand side of this site.

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Anyone heard of BookTelevision?