SUP BITCHES!!! Been awhile. So here is an update

We got a new doggo!

Her name is Feebee and she is a Maltese Poodle mix

Also, I have a computer now, meaning I can actually make posts!

I’m probably not going to do weekly updates, mostly because I am lazy and don’t want to work hard. Also, I don’t play that many retro games. Well… I do, but many are not worth writing about. Witch means “Retro Game of the Week” has now become a severe misnomer witch bothers me to no end.

Expect an actual post about a game… uhhh… EVENTUALLY!

And it will be one of my favorite video games of ALL TIME!!!

Thanks for reading Let me know what you think.

Have a game you’d like to suggest for a future post? Let me know.

My puppy, Lola, was hit by a bicyclist and died on Monday. And I have unrelated stuff that I need to do today. So I don’t feel much like making a post. Sorry.

Rest In Peace

Lola Puppers

Thanks for reading Let me know what you think.

Have a game you’d like to suggest for a future post? Let me know.

This week’s retro game is:

Sanrio World Smash Ball!

For the Famicom

Genre: Sport

Released: July 16, 1993

Ok, so this post was made in a bit of a last minute panic… so here is the quicky: *INHALE*

Japanese exclusive multiplayer sports game with Hello Kitty as God and Referee.

Gameplay is: Frisbee Soccer, but the Frisbee never hits the ground. It is one of those, quick n’ simple competitive two-player games that I tend to enjoy, like Metal Warriors or Niddhog.

There is four characters to choose from

(But not the Neko ruler herself)Each one is slightly different.

And several maps to choose from.

As for rom-hacks, I recommend the Tournament Edition. It just unlocks all the levels and characters and gives you the single-player levels to choose from as well.

*EXHALE*

So should you play it? …

Sure… or don’t… I don’t really care…

Thanks for reading Let me know what you think.

Have a game you’d like to suggest for a future post? Let me know.

This week’s retro game is:

Red Alert 2

For the PC

Genre: Real-Time Strategy

Released: October 23, 2000

I played the shit outa this game, as a teen

And I still suck at it… But FUCK its fun!

I loved playing skirmish and picking the teams and the maps, it was loads of fun. It was like a future cold-war simulation.

I would build an army of a thousand weak guys and send them at the enemy. And watch them REK SHIT on the other team. Or get engineers in the enemies base and take over.

It has had online multiplayer (there is still ways to hook it up) and LAN multiplayer. I remember playing my brother online, and him wrecking my shit over & over again.

The game also had an expansion called Yuri’s Revenge

Which had a new story and enemy faction where you played as Yuri and his mind controlling powers, tools, and goons.

Something interesting when I was looking up the game, I found this:

fukn RA2 VR!!! Now it was just a tech demo but it looks awesome! and GOD, do I want it. A VR RTS looks really really fun.

So should you play it? …

Well the only way to get it now is through Origin, which means supporting EA… Sooooooo I’m uh gunna leave it up to you to decide. (The game is great though)

So, I could not download the game to write this for… reasons… so I lack screenshots sorry.

Thanks for reading Let me know what you think.

Have a game you’d like to suggest for a future post? Let me know.

This week’s retro game is:

Gunstar Heroes

For the Genesis \ Mega-Drive

Genre: Side-Scrolling Run & Gun

Released: September 9, 1993

This game was suggested by: 

Thanks buddy.

Let me start by saying this, we never owned a Genesis, or Mega-Drive or any Sega system. So I am in no way familiar with them. And so far this is my favorite game on the system, it is pretty interesting.

The game starts with you picking your play-style and starting weapon…

Then you choose a starting level…

Then you’re PLAY’N THE FEUD!

If you pick up another weapon powerup you can combine the 2 powers into a different attack. There is also 2P co-op so a friend can join and play along with you.

So should you play it? …

Sure, I’ll be playing it today with my cousin.

Thanks for reading Let me know what you think.

Have a game you’d like to suggest for a future post? Let me know.

My computer was busy assisting Skynet in its uprising by torrenting more RAM. So there was no post for the week of May 19th. But fortunately I force all my torents to download to 3.5in floppy disks. And since no one was there to swap disks for it, the uprising had to be put on hold. Sorry for the inconvenience.

In other news, a new writer has joined the crew:Her name is Lola and she is an 8-week-old chihuahua.

she is also very difficult to photograph…

She will be writing some of the dog related posts and assisting with other tasks. Such as helping me keep back the ever encroaching fear of inevitable death. And chewing up shoes.

Thanks for reading Let me know what you think.

Have a game you’d like to suggest for a future post? Let me know.

The Gardens Between is a time-twisting puzzle game wrapped in a coming-of-age adventure shared between two best friends and it looks absolutely wonderful! Between the art style and gameplay, I’m totally smitten with it. Brought to us by The Voxel Agents, The Gardens Between was shown briefly at E3 last year and is set for release later this year.

In The Gardens Between, you don’t control the kids directly, but instead time itself. Each level is a small island in a surreal world littered with exaggerated mementos and memories. The goal is to traverse through each land mass and its puzzles in order to get all the way to the top. There, the player ignites a constellation and unlocks a new chapter of the pair’s story.

What immediately grabbed my attention was the art style. The game has such a soft, welcoming style and the items strewn around the world trigger a strong sense of nostalgia. I also simply adore the color pallet and tone throughout. It’s just such a joy to look at!

The Gardens Between comes out some time in the third quarter of this year for the PC, Mac, and PS4. Add it to your Steam wishlist here!

This week’s retro game is:

Thats right, a Yu-Gi-Oh! game

For the GBA

Genre: Card Game

Released: February 23, 2006

Yeah so, when we weir kids my brother and I would get up on Saturday mornings and watch Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh on TV. And before long we got into the card game.

And recently they put the final season of the anime on Netflix. As I was watching it I really got the urge to play again. So I booted up our old Game Boy Advance and popped in one of our old games. But the game was massively outdated and I wanted to play a game that still had cards I recognized as well as a few new ones. So I grabbed this one. And I have been playing it way too much.

This game in particaluar started a really cool feature. Every time you duel you get points depending on how well you did. Then you use those points to purchase card packs. Its really fun to try to find the best way to get the most points per duel.

So should you play it?

Nah, There are newer better Yu-Gi-Oh! games out there.

Or you can just use this.

This week and last week are short because I’m actually not home. I needed to quickly make these ahead of time. Also I just cant stop playing this game.

Thanks for reading Let me know what you think.

Have a game you’d like to suggest for a future post? Let me know.

This week’s retro game is:

Super Bonk

For the SNES

Genre: [this game defies all genres] but uh… platformer

Released: November 1994

Holy Shit, This Game:

uhhh ok. In Super Bonk you play as a… caveman? with a massive brain tumor, in the city. And you’re trying to get to… uhh… the right… of the screen. But there are… monsters?… I mean, enemies in your way. So you… headbutt them with you’re tumor-nogin as an attack. You can also grow and shrink by consuming (drug laced) candy. And there are other powerups like… uhhh whatever this is:

wow that is truly terrifying. I do not like it.

Ok I’v made it clear this game is absurd. But its actually a very good game. It controls ok (albeit a little floaty) and there is a lot of stuff to interact with and do. Not to mention its just entertaining to find out whats going to happen next.

So should you play it?

Sure, its absurdly entertaining.

This week and next week are short because I’m actually not home. I needed to quickly make these ahead of time. Also like… what more could I add to Super Bonk?

Thanks for reading Let me know what you think.

Have a game you’d like to suggest for a future post? Let me know.

This week’s retro game is:

System Shock 2

For the PC

Genre: First Person Action-RPG

Released: August 11, 1999

This game is definitely in my top 10 games of all time.

If you liked Bioshock and Prey then this game is for you. In fact, in my opinion I think System Shock 2 is better than both of those games.

Last week I played through the whole game ‘Psi only’. It was AMAZING. I could talk about this game for hours. But let me just bring up the elephant in the room.  Nightdive Studios has put the SS1 remake on hiatus, and that is unfortunate. Mostly because the original game is outdated and a little a awkward to control, even the Enhanced Edition that comes with the game on Steam. But if you want to play a System Shock, it don’t get better than 2.

• WEAPONS
• UPGRADES
• WEAPON UPGRADES
• FUTURE
• FLESH
• HORROR (ish)
• PSIONIC ABILITIES
• LORE
• “YOUR SONG IS NOT OURS”!
• SPAAAAAAAAAAAACE!!

I don’t really want to say more about the game. Just go play it.

So should you play it? …

ABSO-FUCKIN-LUTELY!

Thanks for reading Let me know what you think.

Have a game you’d like to suggest for a future post? Let me know.

This week’s retro game is:

Metal Warriors

For the SNES

Genre: action-platformer

Released: February 1995

And this game has GORGEOUS pixelart

Metal Warriors is a action-platformer mech game and its pretty damn rad. It’s got…

What more could you want! Whats that? Multiplayer?

Its got that too! And to be honest, its the best part of the game.

There are 6 mechs to choose from, each with their own unique abilities and attacks. After one player kills the other you get the option to ‘scramble’ which randomly selects both character’s mechs and changes the map. And on some maps there are empty mechs lying around, so if your’s is damaged you can hop on out and grab a new one. (Drache is OP plz nerf)

This multiplayer is a short fun we-got-nut’n-better-to-do sorta thing where you can do a quick tournament at a party. Its just fast & fun. And I enjoy playing it with people.

So should you play it? …

If you can set it up quick and you have friends who want to play with you than yeah!

(oh the singleplayer is ok too i guess…)

(WoW look at that guys face… how’d I miss that? His mouth is like 80% bottom lip.)

Thanks for reading Let me know what you think.

Have a game you’d like to suggest for a future post? Let me know.

I got back from the Georgetown Law National Security Simulation Invitational last week. While I can’t talk about the content of the things we dealt with, I can at least say, “WOW.”

Wow is the appropriate response, I think, to a bunch of things. Firstly, my colleagues on Team Canada were particularly deserving of a “wow.” I have such renewed respect for my colleagues… our students from University of Ottawa, University of Alberta, Thompson Rivers University, Georgetown University, University of Windsor, and the Department of Justice were all fantastic. I don’t think I’m boasting unjustly when I say I think Team Canada was the hardest working and most impressive of the four teams there.

Wow is also the appropriate response for the scope and scale of this simulation. It is easily the most impressive thing I have ever engaged in whilst in law school. Huge kudos to our professors and everyone who volunteered to come control the simulation… a team of 70ish people who ran us through the gauntlet of national security issues in 48 hours.

“I was blown away by the magnitude and sophistication… We have attorneys who spend their careers in intelligence, and we need them… the training that lawyers get gives them a special talent or knack for helping me, a layman — I’m a political science guy — to understand the implications of the law.”

– Lieutenant General James Clapper, the former U.S. Director of Intelligence

It was a hell of an experience. Plus, I earned my first challenge coin. That’s pretty cool.

According to the article Georgetown published about the event, the control team thought we were speaking in code when we were referring to cities by their airport codes. Is that really only a Canadian practice?

Anyway, apologies for not posting more to the legal blog since I opened this section of the site. There’s a bunch of stuff I want to talk about, but I’m trying to see if I can’t shop it around to some law journals first.

As I work on revamping the site to more accurately reflect the type of work I do these days, I have decided to start working on a new project… a legal blog to reflect on pressing legal issues, especially in the field of law & technology.

This first post won’t have much by way of content, since I’m still working on redeveloping the site.

Just some housekeeping to take care of: I have posted my public PGP key to my site here in ASC format and in TXT format. I strongly believe that practitioners of law should do everything they can to keep their communications as confidential and as safe as humanly possible. To that end, because I am aware that PGP can be difficult and clunky to use, I am also reachable on Signal (send me an e-mail and I can send you my number on Signal).

Anyway, keep watching this space!

It’s officially 2015, I’m over the New Years hangover, I’ve had my requisite greasy food for the day, and spent the evening with friends playing with their baby and chatting the night away before reality sets back in with the end of the holiday season. 2014 was a pretty damned good year.

Photographically, it been a year of 35mm and no autofocus. I’ve never been more pleased with my work, and I’ve settled really nicely into using a fixed 35 to do pretty much 90% of my photos. The other 10% I have my 90mm for, but I so rarely break it out I’m shocked that I actually have to bother cleaning my sensor from time to time, that dust actually manages to get in. I don’t miss autofocus anymore… the pleasure of manual operation is enormous, and not having to rely on another system that might fail (say, grab the wrong eye for focus) is beyond fantastic. My keepers from any shoot have gone up so dramatically, I’m churning out my best work ever.

Work’s been solid and steady, but addition to the usual portraits and other things I’ve gotten back into doing a bit of news. Not much… I never ended up chasing news earlier on in my career because the money just wasn’t there, but it does make me incredibly happy to be doing news again. Having my photo under the headline “Toronto replaces crack-smoking mayor Rob Ford” was an unexpected bonus to my year (Thanks, Australian Associated Press!). It’s nice to be doing news again, especially after being away from it so long.

I think I’m proudest of that development, really. For a news addict like myself who once dreamed of pursuing photojournalism it’s nice to be able to pick up news work in between gigs. (Thanks, Newzulu, and the awesome editors Allendria and Courtney!)

It’s not all been work though. My friend Jack and I finally put together a vacation that has been talked about for years, and made the trip to Scotland, driving from Edinburgh up into the Speyside region, over to the Hebrides and back. Two and a bit weeks of driving, whisky, and the most jaw-droppingly beautiful landscapes I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing. People following my leisure photography will probably have some of my photos from Scotland. It’s a raw, wild, beautiful place, and the people are genuinely the nicest people ever. And this is coming from a red to the core Canadian. They’ve got us beat. Oh and the whisky. Oh lord, the whisky.

I’ve tried to spend as much time with friends as possible this year, which… admittedly, is still not really enough. Life keeps me busy, which is great. The recovery of my father from cancer has taught me to spend more time with the people I care about, though, so I do my humble best. I got to go to some of your weddings this year, not as a photographer but as a guest, so that’s been super nice. If I haven’t seen you recently, please, please give me a shout. Work can always wait a day, or be done in the middle of the night when everyone else is asleep.

Outside of all that I’ve continued volunteering for the Liberal Party when time permits, of course. Most of you know my reasons by now. This country isn’t the same country I moved to years ago. Our commitments to things like peacekeeping and the environment have all gone by the wayside to a party uninterested in the Canada I hold dear. I’d like to change that… and I’m eagerly anticipating the federal election this year. Finally winning some elections that I volunteered for (Helena Jaczek, Adam Vaughan) feels pretty good, the last few years I’ve been too used to losing (by the narrowest margins, sometimes). I feel pretty good about 2015.

The plan for 2015. Well, I’ll be hopping off to Hong Kong for a bit this month and early February, visiting family and doing some street photography (no place like Hong Kong to shoot street, really) and then it’s back to work. I plan on working my butt off until I hear back from law schools, and, if I’m lucky enough to get into one, I might do some travelling. God knows I won’t have a chance while I’m in school. I have a good feeling about this year.

With that thought, I’m off.

– Johann

Cover photo courtesy of Jack Wang.

Oh and thanks to Katerina Lyadova for posting a great 2014 update that inspired me to finally finish my own.

Query: Is the Isle of Skye one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been?

Answer: Yes.

Here’s the gallery.

Some repeats here, since my favourite photos from the trip as a whole were of people, but there we are. I found it hard not to approach different bits of Scotland on their own in building galleries, so I decided Skye would have to stand on its own. It does so with little effort.

The people you meet travelling in a place is what really makes it special. Here’s a collection of new friends, fellow travellers, locals, and strangers from my travels in Scotland. Landscapes and other galleries to come later.

Click here to be taken to the gallery!

Oh yes, the last image isn’t from Scotland, but rather from Newark, on the way over.

I was at the aquarium the other day…

… and while the rest of the exhibits were neat and all, jellyfish sure are especially pretty. There’s something in the fluidity of their movements that isn’t quite like anything else… the eye still follows their movements even when they’re frozen in time.

Below: collection of mostly unpublished personal photos throughout the year.

Those of you who made this year great despite momentous challenges and hardships, thanks.

This year we…

… kicked off the year right…

… and saw some pretty cool shows.

… met some real life Disney characters…

… narrowly escaped the clutches of the Empire…

… and ate some morally questionable but delicious chicken.

… walked down mostly empty beaches…

… and drove down some pretty empty roads.

… bought a LOT of cheese from people in bowties…

… and ate at a lot of food trucks.

… drank some local brews…

… and even more coffee.

… watched some folks get married…

… and went back to hang out with them some more.

… campaigned with Deborah Coyne…

… and tried not to mention pie.

… worked with new exciting talented people…

… and supported others whenever possible.

… accidentally climbed a mountain with very little planning…

… and somehow made the last ride down.

… hung out with the usual crew…

… and old friends far away.

… ate at Marben a lot…

… really. A LOT.

… hung out with my grandma…

… and cousins who’re growing up way fast.

… became uncles and aunties to a tuxedo-onesie wearing bada**…

… who can keep it casual too.

… got yelled at by religious nuts…

… and charmed by young drummers.

… went for long walks in the sun…

… and the ice and snow.

… kept it classy…

… but not too classy.

Happy New Year everyone. Keep being awesome.

Some photos from the ice storm at sunset yesterday. More ice storm photos to come, now that my power and internet have been restored. =)

I’m getting deja-vu. About this time last year, I was in Hong Kong with a rangefinder and a 35mm lens. This year, I decide once again to bring nothing but a rangefinder and a 35mm lens on my trip back to see the old country.

Last year, I brought the Voigtlander Bessa-R with a Voigtlander 35mm f/2.8. It may be a Leica copy, but it was (until it broke) a fabulous camera in its own right, and had the distinction of being my first rangefinder to feed my rangefinder addiction (a bug I caught after handling my friend’s Leica for the first time years ago). This year though, I brought my new baby, my digital M with my 35mm f/1.4 Summilux.

Why a 35mm? I’m pretty adamant that 35mm is the perfect focal length for shooting out and about. I, like most other photographers, grew up with the 50mm as the standard focal length. I’m still a big fan of a fast 50. It gives you a good deal of subject separation and at usual ranges (2-3 meters) gives you a solid portrait. However, what it does not do is give you enough context. The difference between 35mm and 50mm, for the most part, is about two steps further back from your subject. It brings in a lot more of the surrounding, gives you context. When you’re cramped for space (which is often the case in Hong Kong) those two steps make all the difference between getting your shot and not.

A word about Hong Kong as a street photographer’s destination. It’s simultaneously amazing and absolutely dreadful. It’s filled to the brim with people, which means you have a lot of subject matter (though that subject matter is often hard to isolate from the sea of people), but people are shouty and often rude. I’m there often enough that I’m relatively used to it, but it’ll still throw me for a loop sometimes when people respond rudely to friendly hellos and a photo. Another thing is that everyone, and I do mean everyone, is a camera junkie. I think the only Japanese cities could possibly beat out Hong Kong in terms of camera nerdiness. As a result, absolutely everyone comments if you have interesting gear. Rangefinders, enough out of the ordinary, are considered interesting enough. A clerk at a market stall stopped me to ask if I was toting the new M. A man stopped, not even asking any questions, but just to stare while I was in the middle of a long exposure on the street. Sadly, right in the middle of my frame. Just a few examples of how extensive the camera craze is.

I’m not particularly fond of the light in back being in the frame, but there wasn’t much of a choice, considering.

I got to see sides of Hong Kong this time around that I don’t normally see, by sheer virtue of the fact that I was staying outside the city in the New Territories. While I was closer to Shenzhen really than to Hong Kong proper, I was still within the greater Hong Kong area, and still commuted every day to dicker about in the city itself. It did mean, however, I got to spend a lot more time exploring little villages in the suburban/countryside bits of the city. Quite nice, really. Far more peaceful surroundings than I’m used to on my trips back to Hong Kong. It’s a lot easier to connect to the locals, get into their lives a little.

The best cheong fun (rice noodle rolls) I’ve had ever.

Still, I made it into the city (an hour minimum commute by public transit) every day to see family, catch up with friends, and get onto the streets for some shooting. A find myself retreading a lot of the same territory I’ve tread before shooting in Hong Kong. Which isn’t a bad thing. There are new things to discover and new moments to capture each time.

It’s a different approach, shooting film and digital, even if they’re both rangefinders. Having to manually focus means I’m still qutie selective about my shooting, but not having to change film means a lot more versatility. I don’t have to think about using up my roll to change film speeds before nightfall. I can take a few exposures without worrying about having to find a place to restock film (though it’s easier to find film in Hong Kong than most other places), and I don’t have to choose between colour and black and white.

I’m glad I maintain control over my exposure and my focus with my Leica, though. Or I think I’d start feeling the disconnect with my subjects that SLRs are prone to. The rangefinder experience keeps me quite aware of everything going on. It’s fantastic. And shooting in Hong Kong keeps those senses sharp.

All that said, I’m glad to be home. Hong Kong’s fun, but hefty smog and cramped spaces do little to endear me to the old country.

Scroll down for more photos, and stay tuned for more photos to come!

The following are from Macau, a wholly different beast. Most people see the casinos, which are like Vegas, with way more sleaze. Sadly for Bond fans, the casino he goes to in Skyfall is entirely fictional, and the casinos that are there are more your typical Vegas-style copies. But it’s also just a place where people live like anyplace else. The old bits of town has relics and architectural remnants of its Portugese colonial past. I didn’t spend much time there this trip, just a pleasant afternoon.

Weddings.

It used to be that I would book a wedding as often as I could, working them, stressing out over getting the perfect shots. Stressful as it may have been, it was good fun, weddings are swanky parties you get invited to take photos of. Now that I’m in my late twenties, though, it seems I book far fewer weddings than I’m actually attending as a guest (or a member of the wedding party itself), now that more of my friends and family are getting married.

This, of course, is an excuse for me to put away the digital gear, put on a nice suit, and shoot off some rolls of film.

The formula doesn’t change much. I have a list of shots in my head from shooting weddings professionally that I’d like to capture, but there are two caveats. Firstly, don’t get in the way of the photographer who’s actually paid to be there. That’s just simply professional courtesy. No one wants to be that guy.

Secondly, I resign myself to not getting any photos of the ceremony. This is for a couple reasons. Firstly, I’m there as a guest, I should be there to enjoy the ceremony and partake in it. Secondly, camera operation noises are some of the most annoying things in existence. In the middle of a ceremony, the last thing anyone needs is the whirr-click of a winding mechanism, the slap of a mirror and shutter in operation, or worst of all, the electronic beeping of the autofocus confirmation. Multiply those noises by the number of guests, and you have a beep-whirr-click orchestra of your very own.

Even while indulging in professional curiosity, it’s good to maintain a respectful distance from their work space.

Not shooting the ceremony basically means that I am free to enjoy myself and shoot a lot of candids. I get to mingle, involve myself with other guests, dance a bit, drink a bit, see sides of weddings I’m not really able to see when I’m at one professionally. Then shoot photos of them. Hoisting a simple film camera from decades past, dancing, drinking (this is important), with no professional detachment; it’s an entirely different experience. People open up a lot more, get a little sillier. The alcohol helps.

It’s important to note that I’m not there to replace the pro on site. Far from it. I like to think that any photos I take this way are complimentary, like a behind-the-scenes special. The photos are a bit more personal, far less polished, and perhaps tell a bit more of a tale of an incredibly fun night (for me personally as well as everyone else) than a testament to a great romance. It’s also just really fun.

Enjoy the rest of the photos. I’ll be back with more tales in a couple weeks when I get back from Hong Kong.

I love the way arms wrap around people from behind. It’s the side you’re not supposed to see, but it’s an intimate one.

Photos in this post are either from Olga and Richie’s wedding in Schenectady, or Kissy and Howin’s in Hong Kong.

All photos © Johann Kwan