I’m being less communicative lately because I’ve been writing. That’s a good thing. No, in fact, that’s a great thing. It’s really nice not only to have a concrete project to work, but to be doing it with one of my oldest friends. I know I keep teasing you with these extremely vague hints about this thing I’m doing, but you’d better get used to it—it’s still another three weeks and counting ’til launch.

Personal:
- Woke up this morning with Mrs. C back in town for the first time in several days. Took our time getting up and finally got our asses out the door and down the street for some pho and Vietnamese iced coffee. I’m sensing the start of a new winter tradition. Seriously, if you need a weekend pick-me-up on those grey Vancouver Sundays, coffee with condensed milk and a big bowl of steaming hot soup will do you just right.
- After that we went to T&T and bought Asian junk food (green tea chocolates! who knew?!) and Chinese New Year decorations. Now a magnificently gaudy golden fish filled with candy graces our coffee table. I have no idea what we’re going to do with it after the New Year’s rung in. What do you do with a giant plastic gold koi? Oh, we also got little drip coffee filters so we can make our own Vietnamese coffees without having to go up the street. So we can get wired in our own home. Ahhhhh.

Books:
- I usually really like the Culture Shock series. It’s a series of travel guides that’s pretty much only concerned with the culture, customs and etiquette of the various countries in question. And usually they’re pretty unbiased and even-handed—great for research and getting a feel for a place if you’ve never been. I’ve got to say though, the guy who wrote Culture Shock: China not only has his head lodged WAAAAAAAY up the Communist Party’s ass (please, please stop kissing Zhu Rongji’s backside—I understand you think the sun shines out of it, but honestly it’s getting tired) but he has some pretty odd conceptions about Asian history in general. Like the passage about Chinese Buddhism where he states: “From China, it passed over the eastern Seas to barbarous Japan where it civilised the unruly islanders and became known as Zen.” Riiiiiiiiiiight. So Chinese Buddhism is responsible for civilising the barbarous Japanese, huh? I’m glad there’s no bias in there. And I’m sure the Japanese would have nothing to say about your trite assessment of their culture.

Music:
-I had an awesome time the other night when my friend Billy came back to town. We went out for dinner (ohhhhh, minibrew beer) and drinks (ohhhhhh, single-malt scotch) and then wandered over to Pub 340 to watch her play a quasi-impromptu set. Billy and I go back several years—she played my 30th birthday party, which was totally the only way to get old—and I hadn’t seen her since she moved out east from Vancouver, so it was awesome to catch up. In addition, that night I also got to meet Devon (who was quite cool) and see Rio Bent, who are FUCKING AWESOME. Seriously, when you can rock that hard for a crowd of 30 people… wow. Anyway, yeah, Billy is one of the hardest working punks in show business, so be her friend on Myspace and watch her video:

Obituaries:
-Ian Richardson died this week. This will probably mean something to you if you watched a lot of BBC dramas and Shakespearean productions; it certainly means something to me. He is right up there in my esteem with Ian McKellen, maybe even a little higher thanks to his amazing performance as the one of the most Machiavellian bastards ever to hit the small screen—Francis Urquhart—in the House of Cards trilogy for Masterpiece Theatre. His Richard III was nothing to sniff at either. And, yes… *cough* … he was the Grey Poupon man. He will be missed.