30
Sept
Japanese Class!
Mon
Finally I joined the Japanese class at Uvic! 😘🎉🥳I’ve been saying to learn it hundreds of times but this time was real! The actual reason is my friends are all leaving Victoria recently (Vivian, Karen, and Judy), so I'M BORED!! 😑
The class is exciting, 先生 is nice, and all my peers are passionate. The course is one of 'Continual Study' program of Uvic, so everyone comes here out of interest - we either want to have a trip to Japan or we love its culture and hope to step further.
Goode news is I have a bit foundation because I'm obsessed with Japanese cartoons (Pokemon, Detective Conan, Naruto, etc.) and I learned teeny tiny Japanese before - as I was considering Japan as one of the destinations to complete my master degree, even prior to Canada at that time!
I surprisingly found there's a secret slack channel at FreshWorks where people talk about Japanese! Conrad and Steve are the first-comers, and Yui, a native speaker, joined lately. FYI, You need to know the kanji '日本語' to find it! 😎
15
Sept
Productive Weekend
Sun
Case study of ‘Use Safer’ is published! ☺️
After a productive weekend, the case study of Use Safer was finally published on my site. The design was started nearly 2 months ago but finally wrapped up by the end of yesterday (yeah I was slacking off …). Anyway, take a look here! It’s still piping hot! https://billinyu.webflow.io/usesafer
Watching ‘The Cats Return’
T and I watched the movie ‘The Cats Return’ together 🐱🐱! Such a wonderful time! So nostalgic! And it’s super WEIRD to watch the English-dubbed version! And I’m super obsessed with its theme song!
Start Writing Diary!
Yes, I made this template by the end of the day! 😚 I've been wanting to do this for long time but always took a rain check. Now it's officially rolling out! With this self-designed template, I wish I could write more of my work and life. I miss the old times when I was writing blogs in Chinese, and I had thousands of fans at that time!
14
Sept
Saturday with Judy
Sat
Dim Sum!
Judy and I went to Jade Fountain to have dim sum. Funny thing is most of the staff only speak Chinese and Cantonese. When they introduced the dishes on the cart, Judy was like: 😦😑🤔. I tried my best to translate but ... I bet you know how tough it is!! FYI, I also told her Karen's story of shrimp dumplings :D
Bookstore Window Shopping 😅
We were looking around at Bolen Books in Hillside Shopping Center. We both wanted to buy a stack of books, but we knew we won't read them 😒. We were simply judging books by their pretty covers and juicy titles. But we did spot a few books and put them to wishlist. (I'll double-check them on Black Friday and Boxing Day! 🤓)
13
Sept
Detective Day
Fri
Watch 'The Kindaichi Case Files' all day
Feeling under the weather and stay at home. Recently I'm extremely obsessed with 'The Kindaichi Case Files' (金田一少年事件簿)! It's a Japanese mystery manga series based on the crime solving adventures of a high school student. I'm always a fan of detective story and I'm even following Detective Conan persistently - it's over 1000 episodes now 😓.
Funny thing is, I saw lots of detective fans are debating which one beats the other. My opinion is they shine on different aspects. Comparatively, I feel the cases of 'Kindaichi' are better orchestrated than Conan. Detective-wise, it's a better show. However, Conan is way more popular due to its entertaining content and yearly movie production. More importantly, I believe their target audience are also different: Kindaichi is more for hardcore detective fans who focus on the storyline and its logic, whereas Conan suits a wider range of audience as its cases are less complex.
06
Sept
OK folks, design can make money!
Fri
We won the ICBC contract!
Today, Sam came to my desk and told me in excitement: we got the contract with ICBC! I did the proof of concept months ago. I remember Sam and I talking to ICBC folks over the phone and showcasing my design. They were so passionate about it and kept rambling and brainstorming. Our expected meeting time was only 30 min, then Sam had to hard stop them when the time was up.
To unfold more details, we're renovating the online road-test booking service of ICBC. If you know how to drive, you must have used it. Amazingly, this is a common experience across a whole generation because its design hasn’t changed for a decade 😂! Have a look at the current website and enjoy the ‘primitive’ design:
https://onlinebusiness.icbc.com/deas/WebDeasServlet/DriverWelcomeAction
31
Aug
Hatley Castle
Sat
Site-seeing with Judy
Judy and I came to see the Hatley Castle. It's said this piece of architect has over 100-year history! I never know we have some amazing stuff on the island! 😳
The castle is located inside the Royal Roads University. Tourists need to pay admission to join the tour, and the guide lead us into the castle. The second floor and above are occupied by the school staff and not open to tourists 🙄- so our plan to stand on the top and see the view was screwed, great.
The guide proudly introduced that the castle has been featured by a few movies and TV shows such as X-men, Arrow, Deadpool, etc. In fact, when Judy showed me the picture before we went there, it kinda reminded me of some scenes in Arrow. This castle def was there! 🤔
09
Aug
Poke Team, Go!!
Fri
This is our last team photo as Karen and Judy are leaving. Super heart-broken. Miss the old times. 😭We've been working together for one year. It's such a dynamic team, everyone is animated and outspoken. The team is always my comfort zone and safe haven - whenever I have trouble with work, I would just shout SOS in the channel and my mates would come to rescue in a minute!!
To commemorate the last team-bonding, we took this shot. I brought the Poke balls and Pikachu!! Everyone is so adorable and looks pika pika!
Last but least, it took me one hour to polish the photo by grooming our faces and adding all the whistles and bells. So proud of my hard work. 😎
