Thursday was the Bonenkai, or the annual end of year party, for the Japanese group that I belong to. It was held at the Everest Café, which happens to be the new location for the monthly Ichimoku-kai gatherings. It’s a much larger location than the IV Lounge that we were all so accustomed to for the past year. Howevever the food I hear is only mediorcre, and the same beer costs almost $2 more. What’s the deal?! In any case, I had fun catching up with friends that I typically only meet on a monthly basis. The party was supposed to have lots of food but that was a big false advertising since there was little to go around the entire room. Lots of people – including myself – were still hungry afterwards so I – along with 3 others – went over to Chinatown for some late night cravings. There we chatted some more until the wee hours. Since I was the only one driving, I drove them all home, which led me to go to sleep around 2:00am.

Friday was my company’s Christmas Party. It was an entertaining evening with my coworkers. With a company with more than 750 people, it’s hard to know everyone. I am happy to say that I was able to meet a few more people that I’ve always seen but never actually formally met.

I suppose the most surprising thing of the evening was the sheer amount of prizes they give away each year. The awarding of the prizes must have gone for a good 30 minutes. Prizes ranged from a $250 gift certificate to Yorkdale mall to a PlayStation Portable and 2 games, to a portable DVD player to mp3 players to a 15″ LCD TV!

Sadly I didn’t win anything, but my team leader won an undisclosed amount gift certificate to Best Buy. That’s always nice.

The food wasn’t all that great. Oh well. What can you do. I still had fun talking to people and the such. Another late night as I slept around 2:15am.

The weekend was a little more laid back than usual. I usually have lots of things planned for the weekends but this past one proved to be a little more relaxing than usual, which was good. I had a group presentation to do in my Mandarin class, and I was nowhere near prepared for it. But that was ok since we all just winged it and it turned out OK.

Many people ask me why I’m taking Mandarin classes. I’m taking it because I’ve always wanted to learn Chinese and this is a great opportunity to do so. It’s offered by the local school board so it’s free. What more can you ask for? I’m only learning the basics of Mandarin, along with typical conversational topics but that’s essentially what I’m after anyway. Squeeze in som Pinyin and Chinese (simplified) writings and we’re all set to go! The only problem is I don’t do my homework every week so I don’t retain what I learn every Saturday. I do have fun for that 3 hours every Saturday mornings though.

Many people think I’m crazy for actually waking up for an 8:45am class on a Saturday morning, especially when I’m doing this out of pure interest sake.

I have a midterm exam this coming Saturday. I wonder what’s going to happen? I really have to study for this one though. It covers everything we’ve done since September so there’s no winging this one!

Wish me luck!

I’m writing this as I listen to this relaxation CD that I got from the Aids Charity Fundraiser event that I went to the other day. The CD is telling me to relax, letting go of all my tensions, inhale and exhale. ahh…

The other day, I went to an Aids Research Benefit Gala as I volunteered at toronto.com to be one of their photographers for the evening. It was a black tie affair, where entrance was $100. This gave you access to three separate rooms held at the Univerity of Toronto’s Hart House. As a media representative, I had access to all three rooms, which included an open bar and an amazing dessert lounge that was catered by Dufflet’s pastries. The room, spanning a good 15m or so, had several tables centered in the middle of the room spanning the entire length. The entire set of tables were covered with pastries galore… and each one was fantastically excellent! The dessert lounge overlooked the main hall, where the silent auction results were ever so weakly announced.

I walked around from room to room taking photos of attendees and enjoying myself as people wanted their pictures taken by me. All would have been great had I known how to properly use my speedlight. Somehow or another it wouldn’t cooperate with me that evening thereby making it difficult to get correct exposure for some of my shots. That part I was a little peeved with. In any case, I was a volunteer and not paid to take anyone’s photos, thereby relieving some stress from the evening.

Many people in tuxedos and elegant evening gowns appeared and wandered around each room. It was an enjoyable evening that I was thankful to being able to attend. As I gave my two rolls of film to toronto.com that evening, I don’t even know how my shots turned out. I can only hope for the best. I guess if they’re horribly bad, she will let me know!

In other news…

I took the day off from work today, but I had no shortages of things to do. Mainly trying to sell my U&I Magazine to potential stores in the downtown Toronto area, I walked all around the core area from bookstore to camera store. In between, I managed to squeeze in an interview with a staff reporter from Nikka Times. I will be featured in their newspaper for the second time, come January.

I learned some important and useful information today from talking to a worker at Headshots, a local professional photography equipment rental place. What he told me actually happened to me thereby making me believe that he knows what he is talking about. He recommended me to go after not the big heads like Canon or Nikon, but the other companies like Leica, Rollies, and Fujifilm. That precious little detail right there gave me more hope in this ever so challenging world of magazine publishing.

My enthusiasm is once again fueling – and at a good time too – since I am now accepting submissions for my second issue of the magazine. If you are interested in submitting, go check out the newly redesigned website at http://www.uandimag.com.