It’s Time!
The NHL season starts tonight!
GO LEAFS!
Also, how ’bout them Jays!?
GO JAYS!
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What I’m Up To
Reading
So one day, as I’m walking past the Indigo by my work, I stumble in and see that they have a promotional deal on this table near the back. It was $10 for any 3 books on that table, and it was littered with some classics. The first two on this list are just a couple of the nine books that I picked up from that deal.
Crime and Punishment – I just cracked this novel from Fyodor Dostoevsky on my morning subway commute, so I’ll have to let you know how it is in a few days!
Heart of Darkness – The classic novella from Joseph Conrad, I was pleasantly surprised as this classic story was followed by another 4 additional short stories by Conrad. Although the language is a bit dated, the content is still impactful.
Preacher – I’ve had the first 3 parts of this collection for a few years, but never got around to reading them. Now that I hear AMC has made it into a show, I’ve been more encouraged to finish them off before I catch the live-action episodes. I’ve finished the first book of six, and I’m looking forward to getting through the rest of the series.
Listening
My girlfriend and I had been in a long distance relationship between Jan 2015 to July 2016, and during that time we would send each other music that we liked. As her arrival date got closer, we played a game: Since we were going to the Osheaga festival in August, we would send each other artists who would be performing. One such artist was The Arcs. I found them quite randomly, just going through the Osheaga artist lineup and checking out random tunes on YouTube and Spotify. I liked their sound and sent a song off as my contribution to our game. Once Osheaga came around, we went to check them out. Well, I must say, that put on a helluva show. First off, I didn’t even realize it was Dan Auerbach’s (of Black Keys fame) side project, so it was already promising. Secondly, there were two drum kits and an all-female mariachi band. I was sold. They put on one of my favourite performances of the festival, and I had to pick up the album. Give it a listen if you get a chance, it’s got a great classic feel to it.
At work, I’ve been listening to the podcast, Swords & Scales, a great collection of stories and interviews regarding crimes and murders. IT goes into all sorts of details, from interviews with related parties, to the judicial system and its results, to in-depth descriptions of the crimes committed. It’s haunting, informative, and riveting, and it certainly helps pass the occasional monotonous day.
Watching
I’m a sucker for documentaries, and I recently caught two music-related ones that I enjoyed.
First was Artifact“, a film by Jared Leto about his band, 30 Second To Mars’ struggle with the music industry and their label. It was pretty interesting to see the development of an album behind the scenes, and to see the conflict and pressure put on by their label.
The second was I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, a documentary on Steve Aoki. I don’t really follow Aoki too much, but it was great to get a glimpse at his journey to success and the influences he had throughout his life. And Travis Barker makes an appearance, so that’s always a plus for me. The guy one of my top 3 favourite drummers (the others being Dave Grohl and John Bonham), and it’s a beast on the set.In terms of shows, I’ve been watching episodes of The IT Crowd, and I’ve found it pretty entertaining. I’m always a fan of British humour and can relate to the comedy and struggles within the office space lifestyle.
47 Days Until…
…The NHL Season!
As a good Canadian boy, I loves me some hockey. I still remember growing up and watching “The Hockey Sweater”, a quintessential story of the rivalry between those pesky Canadiens and my beloved Maple Leafs. (Funny thing, I just re-read and re-watched the story with my girlfriend, and just realized how abrupt it ends. She thought it would be a feel-good story about a boy learning to cope with adversity and bullying, only to have a priest tell the boy to go to church and pray away the Leaf sweater. What a great rivalry!)
I also remember the many days and nights where a group of friends and I would get together to play street hockey, ball hockey, or foot hockey. I would always be the goalie because 1) I was bigger than most of my friends, and 2) I was slower than most of my friends. I never had the chance to play real hockey on ice, unfortunately, due to a major fork in the road in the form of a Christmas present decision when I was younger: join a hockey league and learn how to skate, or an N64. My parents are thankful that I went for the latter, and my friends and former housemates learned that I can hold my own on a handful of those wonderful 64-bit games.
But I’ll be honest here…as much as I’m excited to see how my Leafs will do this year…I’m more excited for my fantasy hockey teams.
Yes, I know, “fake” sports. The name itself contains a word synonymous with imagination, but I proudly admit that it is my guilty pleasure. I’ve been in various fantasy sports leagues since 2002, but have always loved the hockey leagues. As mentioned before, I grew up surrounded by hockey. One of my first ever memories as a child is watching the Leafs vs. Blues in the playoffs, with CuJo getting beat by Dougie Gilmour and the gang in 7. But fantasy hockey allowed me to watch the game from a different perspective. Instead of just watching the Leaf games and cheering for wins, I was watching other teams and players, seeing who was scoring or assisting, who played on which lines, and even minor details, like who made the most hits or got penalty killing time.
Nowadays, I have two keeper leagues going. One not-so-intense one where we keep 5 players (3 forwards, 1 defenceman, and 1 goalie) and re-draft the remainder of the team. This league is 8 teams, all childhood friends, and it’s always a great way to secure bragging rights (*Ahem* 2015/16 champ right here). The other is more intense: a 14-team league where you keep all players on the team, there’s a salary cap, and a whole prospect draft and development system. Both these leagues keep me excited, but the second, more intense league, is something that I love. Even now, during the off season, I’m looking up stats on kids who are playing on farm teams, I’m checking out historical data, and reading up on news about players and teams. But I eat it all up.
I present to you, the salary cap structure of my 2016-2017 fantasy keeper league. I think I’ve put together a fine team, although it can always improve. I’ll update the blog as the season goes along, but I have some confidence in this lineup this year. But no matter what happens, GO LEAFS GO!
Music Memories
I’ve always been a music fan, and grew up surrounded of music of all kinds. I started playing the piano at age 6 through the Royal Conservatory of Music, so I learned all types of classical music from the masters, like Beethoven and Bach. My mother has a beautiful voice and loves to sing, so our home would occasionally turn into a karaoke studio, where the songs of Chinese opera and the Erhu (Chinese violin) would play throughout our home. And every Christmas, my father would dust off his vinyl collection and play Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”, which would only get us to delve deeper into his collection, where he had some gems like Don McLean’s “American Pie”, and albums from ABBA, The Bee Gees , and The Beatles.
The biggest influence in my musical life, however, will have to be my sister. When I was young and impressionable, I always looked up to my sister and followed her musical tastes. I remember she was right in the middle of the grunge era, and still remember how upset she was the day Kurt Cobain died. I remember her huge crush on Ben Gillies of Silverchair, and how she liked to draw and paint to songs of Our Lady Peace. She also liked other styles, like hip hop and R&B with her love of Boyz II Men and Mariah Carey, while also respecting the classics like Michael Jackson and Motown artists. Then there was the downward spiral into boy band territory, but we’ll forgive her for that! (Though, to be fair, I do have a soft spot and certain respect for pop acts due to her love of catchy songs and top 40 hits). But the biggest influence my sister made was when she passed on her music collection to me.
The first CD I ever bought with my own money was Weird Al Yankovic’s “Bad Hair Day”. And, although it was a great album full of some classics, I don’t think I would have been a successful Polka-parody musician. Seeing as my collection was pretty bare, my sister decided to hand me down some of her albums, which changed my life forever. Within this collection were Metallica’s “Reload”, Nirvana’s “Nevermind”, and The Foo Fighter’s self-titled debut. That Foo album was the biggest one to me, and I still listen to it over and over. I still remember making a joke band with my friend, Bas, called the Food Fighters, and we couldn’t even play guitar or drums at that time. That self-titled album was followed by “The Colour and The Shape”, my favourite album of all time, containing my favourite song of all time, “Everlong”. My first ever concert was to see them at Arrow Hall, and have since seen them over 5 times. Their music has influenced me through every stage of my life, and I have a huge man crush on Dave Grohl.
It’s funny, I initially wanted to write this post as a shout out to The Tragically Hip on their final tour, and it ended up being a rambling trip down my musical memory lane. I’ve written too much already, so I’ll have to save it for another post. Toss on those headphones and listen to some old music you haven’t thought about in a while.
Fresh Start
Well, it’s been a while since I’ve been around these parts of the internet! And it’s astonishing how much can change in one years’ time. Looking back to my last post, I had just finished the last big project of my MBA career and was preparing to graduate. Since then, there have been some major changes in my life: New job, new place, and a new roommate. I’ll get more in-depth on those changes on a later date.
I know I may just be talking to myself here, but I’ve come to realize that this page and its contents aren’t necessarily for me to share with the world or for anyone in particular. What’s started as an MBA project for a marketing class has turned into an archive and reminder of my thoughts throughout chapters of my life and a celebration of the dent, no matter how small, I have made on this planet so far. This site is similar to those auto-saved histories of ICQ or MSN messenger chats, full of moments and messages which can be both cringe-worthy and hysterical, hidden in the depths of your computer files, and are capable of taking you back to memories long forgotten. You don’t necessarily go out of your way to read them on a regular basis, but when you stumble upon them, you can’t help but go through them.
And sometimes it’s fun to take that ride, just to appreciate how far you’ve come and how crazy life can be.
Yeah…I think I’ll try and keep this up for a while…
601 Phase 4, done!
It was a great experience working with these 7 individuals, but it’s almost over. Just finished phase 4 of the Schulich 601 project, time to celebrate.
NHL Playoffs
Yesterday, the 2015 NHL playoffs began, an exciting time for any hockey fan. Well, unless you’re a Leafs fan, like myself. Go Leafs! Even though my team isn’t in the race, or hasn’t been in a while, it’s still nice to watch high-level and intense hockey. This year, no one would be a surprise to win the cup, but I’d put money on St. Louis in the west and NY Rangers in the east. Both teams have great goaltending and solid depth. And I happen to have both starting goalies in my keeper pool…so I may be a bit biased. I’m also loving the number of Canadian teams participating, and caught the Sens vs Habs game last night, that series should be pretty exciting to watch. What do you think?!
Reunion
On April 4, The Crunge reunited for a show at our old stomping grounds, Markham Main’s Mansion. We pulled out all the old Led Zeppelin covers we used to play, along with some original McSon songs, and played three sets to a loving and responsive crowd. Here is a clip of The Ocean:
Books
One bad habit that I have is that I sometimes start a book, read it for a bit to about the 1/3 mark, then completely forget about it. One way that I’m getting around this is to read several books at the same time, in order to keep myself motivated, and to increase the odds that I’ll finish at least one of the books. I also like to read a variety of books, with a mix of fiction, non-fiction, and graphic novels. Here’s what I have on my night stand at the moment:
Tenth of December, a series of entertaining short stories with a bit of dark comedy,
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the graphic novel which the movie is based on,
and Flash Boys, a non-fiction novel about high-frequency trading on Wall Street.
München
If you’re wondering where the picture from my header came from, I’m in Munich, Germany during Oktoberfest 2014, and it is just as advertised. We stayed in a campground with teepees, air mattresses, and unlimited beer for 5 days while we found lederhosen and fellow Oktoberfest-ers. When we finally hit the bierhaus, we were surrounded by 1-litre mugs, giant pretzels, and thousands of fellow tourists and locals. Check that off the bucket list.
Jonny Yeu 