Hearing Impaired...

Everyday I walk to work and almost everyday I have my headsets on listening to music or an audio book… I am not alone. As I breeze by people, nearly touching shoulder to shoulder in the morning urban concrete grid, I realize that I don’t hear them… and they don’t hear me but all of us are moving to a rhythm of some sorts. I imagine some use music to help gather their thoughts, for relaxation, to learn something new, to psyche them up for the crappy day ahead of them, or just to pass the time from A to B. Whatever the case, it is somehow better then hearing what is actually happening in the real world. The mixed sounds of horns beeping, the TTC grinding its metal wheels against needing to be repaired rails, to the dissolving voices of people as you walk by each restaurant and patio; the realness of the everyday grind is being fluffed out for something better between our ears.

There’s no real point to this except a couple of months ago I glanced straight up on the clearest of all days and noticed how wonderful the sky really is; how it resembles the vast imagination we all have inside. And today I wonder if I am drowning out how the worlds sounds as it is changing; or am I becoming part of the change? Will we all no longer hear each other as we walk by one another?

I hope not. I hope I always remember to look up at the big endless sky and listen when people want to be heard when it matters most to them.

Frick' I'm cheese... better next one.

Nothing moments…

Some of the best moments in life come from seemingly nothing situations. Take last night, while I was a sleep (probably dreaming about snipin’ Hitler – read previous blog entry), my girl wanders in late – wait, I mean she drunkingly stumbles in late and plots herself upon my slumbered body. I drowsily open one eye followed by “LM?” – I have found an even shorter abbreviation to “JLM” – “Baby, I Love You.” With that, I am instantly flushed with memories of how or why THIS all began. Everything becomes so clear and I know in my life I have done something right.
For me, it’s the nothing moments when your farting around with your GF, play fighting and laughing so hard you both have to stop and catch your next breath joyfully hoping your appendix stop rattling inside. And then it’s that moment after laughing and the panted breathing when you disappear in the bulbs of her eyes and say in reflex, “Baby, I Love You.” It’s how I know everything in my life is all right.

To the girl that has a million and one worries… don’t stress, it’s all nothing.

What are you trying to tell me?

I’ve always believed dreams to be symbolic metaphors for hidden innuendos for conscious life meanings. A lot of the time I dream that I’m commanding a covert team in WWII. We dig well underneath the war happenings above and work seamlessly, knowing each task at hand. It always ends with my team surrounding Hitler’s bunker with guns aimed at him as he eats his morning breakfast (Sucka' never knew what hit him). Through my sight, I shoot… I never see the finish though… I seem to drift somewhere else in random thoughts.

In reality, I take this as a metaphor meaning what ever it is I do, I want to be working in a precision-like group where our goals are one in the same. We can rely on each other, trusting each person will complete their tasks. It also means, I never want to fail my team and while the battle is on the surface, I’m always trying to find another avenue to hit the target.
This is, of course, pure speculation of a dream.

My most memorable dream was when I was nineteen. Like all charged up hoping to be sexually active teenage boys, I dreamt about an angel of a girl. One of those girls that you would walk ten miles over glass just to look at her once; someone who charms all your thoughts and ruins your daily or lack-there-of daily work.
In my gaze, I spoke one single sentence to her in my dream. I remember waking up and shaking my dad at 3:00 am asking him to translate it in Chinese (I’m a banana, yellow on the outside, white on the inside; never got a hold of the whole Chinese spelling thing). Three days later (it took three days to find another Chinese person to translate; didn’t trust my droggy old man spelling the right characters), I tattooed that single sentence to my arm.

I promised myself that I wouldn't say this sentence to anyone but my wife on my wedding night. Even after 7 years of going out with the most incredible girl, I still have not told her. I imagine she will be the one I tell… I just hope it still holds the same intensity as it did nearly 10 years ago. How time flies and you can still keep a promise to yourself. The power of the mind and a single dream are extraordinarily never ordinary.

Get Shorty
When I was knee high (literally), growing up I was utterly terrified of being short. After carefully reviewing my ancestry and numerous other Chinese families on our seemingly traditional dim sum Sunday afternoon lunches, I figured out early that I better drink a lot of milk and eat a crap load of grade A Canadian beef. I’m surprised I never got Mad Cow with my belly so full of Betsy (why are they always named Betsy?). I even went to the extent of hangin’ upside down from the monkey bars by my feet trying to stretch every bone, muscle and flesh on my body… This was in grade 4.

It’s funny how we go through life with subtle self-conscious mind-games about who we are vs. who we want to be. I’ve had the same self-awareness with friends. In every stage of life, I’ve tried to understand people, listened to them, try to make sense with them; all the while, I think my ulterior motive was to one day confide in them myself as a friend. Maybe I have fears of growing old and watching TV alone with no place to go or being “that guy” that hangs out in the corner of the bar that everyone says hi to but no one can remember my name. I think sometimes we all feel like this… alone with no one to talk to.

Last Friday, however, at JLM and my B-day party, I was cured of all my self-conscious nuances about not having enough friends in my life. With such heartening peeps throughout the night, I felt friendship and love that I believe only couples feel on their wedding night. I’ve enjoyed the night away with friends before but not with soooo many different friends that have contributed to my walk/run in life in one place. Rich in friends beats rich with money any day of the week.
Each one of us goes through levels of hardships no one thinks anyone could understand but having love from others can make any hardship a small puddle.
So thank God for not being short… both in height and in friends.
You guys are beautiful!

Everyone has sex in September...

I know a lot of people with May birthdays, which means it must be a "busy" time in September. It has always been my prerogative to make sure, just as September gets "busy," that on your birthday it is a mandatory "free get busy day." This same notion goes with your partner. When it is her/his birthday, they also receive a "free get busy day." So in the most rudimentary math, you know that you will get "busy" at least twice a year not including special holidays like anniversary's, her best friends wedding, or Christmas (sometimes). Ladies, guys really do think like this…

Now having a shared birthday poses some tricky handy work on the guy’s part. So to maximize my get "busy" period this year, I suggested that we have two separate birthday parties and NOT on our birthdays but on the weekend. This way, I'm guaranteed to have "busy" times at least 3 times this week which would be almost like the "good ol' days." - She's gonna kill me when she reads this...

So my point in this story, all our friends are cordially invited to MY B-Day Party on Friday, May 12th and HER B-Day party on Sunday, May 14th; both at the same place (Therapy Lounge). Please feel free to come and smile for me in the mornings on my birthday and my two Birthday Parties.

"I'm Hungry" - You must be an artist

A House of Cool Character Designer, Robin (Tiger Jeet), created this drawing for one of our original content Feature Film concepts entitled, The Dreaming. I've notice many visitors to our website (www.coolhouse.ca) that comment on our artist’s works. Most comments are from other artist which is a great complement of its own.
In life, I have been fortunate to have my personal world coloured by successful and staving (sometimes successfully starving) artists from all creeds. With my girlfriend performing all her life, I’ve cultured my soul with some great stage performances. Even luckier, I have become friends with her “artsy” performers. There is something about knowing the people performing on stage personally that makes the show so much alive. I'm often more entertained by the audiences emotions than I am with the performance itself; The transition of the people no longer becoming an audience but rather immersed in the story is a wonder to witness. Just like knowing the artist that produced the image above, the connection I have with them makes their singing, dancing or drawing the sweetest tasting watermelon. With all the uncertain situations that can come in life, the escape that comes with art patients the skin and drowns out the time.
Art is the reason why we have senses like sight and hearing. Its the best communication wand we have to let people into our worlds and have them feel the changes happening inside.

House of Cool & My Great Grandpa for a Hundred K

When I was in my early twenties my old man witnessed me struggling with my first entrepreneurial business adventure. Now having a successfully failed business of his very own, I was hoping to get some sound words of encouragement. Some advice on “how to stick with it,” or a metaphor of some tree that has to grow roots before it can grow branches… something uplifting. Instead he says to me, “Son, no one in the Lui family will ever have a successful business because your Great Grandfather is buried in the wrong cemetery.” “Who, what, where?” – Apparently for superstitious Chinese old schooler’s like my pops, we are still having to pay for a two generation mishap. “How much will it cost to bury him in the right cemetery?” “A hundred K.” He said it so nonchalantly like this information was passed down to him and now I have the privilege of knowing so I can pass it down to the next generation… unless, of course, I could pay the $100,000.00… uh, better pass on the secret instead (hope it doesn’t include inflation).

So as I suppressed my entrepreneurial vices, I went through many journeys to see if I could stumble on to anything I would enjoy for decades at a time. I floated from different fields of work from understanding the details of the beauty industry to “dialing for dollars” persuading the rich and wealthy to switch brokerage firms. I even tried my hand at venture capital and managed an area of finance that helped people get back on their feet. I meandered through it all, always thinking, “there’s gotta be more for me.” I was never particularly great at one specific thing and never had dreams of a set career like a dentist or firefighter. I just knew I wanted to play a big part in something greater then myself. I had great mentors and learned colleagues; pay raises and excellent chances of promotions with abstract titles, all the while it didn’t quite fit in the puzzle that was me. Maybe I’m too busy trying to keep up with all the high hopes and pipe dreams.

Then one day House of Cool came; a place focused on dreaming. With more guts then anything else, including knowledge or experience in the entertainment field, I dove in. Armed with only watching cartoons and knowing how to spell Disney correctly in my repertoire, I began to learn. It took a while for House of Cool to get started but eventually creative talents echoed in the exposed brick in the building. It was then I realized everything else before this was a means to an end, just a pit stop to learn and go. House of Cool is a means to a beginning. It’s an idea on a grand scale pledged to entertain the world. Whether we achieve it or not, I want to say I tried. I may not have a definitive skill or ever receive a standing ovation but I believe this is a chance to do something good, something worthwhile.

Now if I can just get my Great Grandfather buried in the right place, maybe House of Cool’s luck will turn around and I can continue to pursue a dream.
You wouldn’t have a hundred K I could borrow? It will be put to good use.

From being slow to finding faith to being married and having a child: WTF?

Watching my sister grow up struggling in many school subjects, being preached like many Chinese kids that they have to do better; I understood the pain and relief she must have felt when she found out that she had a learning disability. It has to be most discomforting to be constantly wondering why everyone seems to be learning faster and seemingly always trying to catch up. It pleased me to know she made it through college but stressed me to watch her study at 6:30 in the morning and not return until 2:00am the next day. This was her daily routine. She worked harder then anyone I knew at the time just to get near failing grades. Ultimately these were her steps to independence which deep down inside I always viewed it as an acute misleading detail in her life. I never believed she could truly be independent with the assortment of personal disabilities.
A few years back, I was home for dinner and noticed my sister closing her eyes and whispering something to herself. “What the Hell are you doin?” “Mom, Dad, Wes, I’m a Mormon now.” For a family that never practiced, preached or even seen the inside of a church in years past our memories, this was a disaster. Not only does my sister have a few mental disabilities but now she’s got split personalities. “Melissa, are you there? Where are you?” This was a common thought in my head. Out of all the faiths to choose from, she chooses the most strict, to the book, you better not swear and don’t you dare drink that beer and oh yeah, give me 10% of your earnings each pay religions. My sister asked me to stay at my place in Toronto for 2 weeks to find a job; 7 months later she was still there… If anyone is getting 10%, it should be ME! At the time, it was clear that I objected the idea of her choosing such a turn in faith.
As time grew on, I had to admit the church gave her strength and courage to believe strongly in herself; an acceptable trade off for the preaching’s and Mormon Chinese bible I got for Christmas I guess. At least I knew she wasn’t having sex before marriage. Oh wait… “I’m getting married… in a few months.” This was last years surprise surprise. The truth is, my parents and myself needed a long time to accept the love of her life; they’ve been going out for 6 or 7 years and that still wasn’t long enough for us to fully digest, so when marriage arose after the religion episode… lets just say time needed a lot of understanding and tenderness.
Flash forward… “Hi Wes, it’s Melissa…. You know... your sister. Nate (Mormon husband) has something to tell you.” “Hi Wes, it’s Nate…. You know... your brother-in-law that plans to change his last name to yours (seriously, he is going to take on our family's last name). Uh, We just wanted to tell you that you are going to be a proud new UNCLE!”
Paralyzed in thought, I think my response was, “a Chinese Mormon baby?” Now that’s mixed up s*&#.
Given a day to really think about it, my sister has gone a long way from being totally dependent to semi-independent to holy shit, I think she can really survive on her own.
You’ve got courage sis’! I’m happy for you and I’ll be there for ya’ always.

Finding Hope…

At my worst moments, I seem to always use Hope as if it were a common necessity I could find at the local convenience store. While it’s more like a free sample you can grab at Costco, sometimes I wish I could buy it so I know Hope has an obligation to me; it knows it has to pay up when the time comes. Of course it doesn’t and many times Hope makes you wait… and wait some more. So why do we all have it or better yet, need it? I think it all has to do with possibilities. The infinite ways we try to make our personal world better and hope they come true in reality or the times when there are no ways, no paths and all we can do is hope for the best. Sometimes hope is all we have… but its better then having doubt.

I hope this whole thing all works out.

When a girl moves in… One surprise after another.

There should be no surprise when you go out with someone for so long that eventually you wind up living together. For a guy, the surprise comes in the form of newly found scented candles placed in seemingly random places other then the washroom. It’s the decorated picture frames of people whom you have never met before placed in the strategic places where a guy wants to leave his many TV and audio remotes, keys, and “stuff.” And it’s always a nice surprise to come home and find everything from pots and pans to all your hair care products moved and “organized” better so we can find things… I’m still trying to find where all my “organized” things are.
Finally, it’s the nicest surprise when you first move in with your boo and she catches you doing something you, in any other normal circumstances, would never show her.
A good example is this picture. While I believe that I have evolved as an individual from reading on the can to listening to a book on my IPOD, I realize the world might not be that advanced yet. “Surprise! Say Cheese!” says my girl.
Too bad I can’t find a candle in the washroom but if you look closely I can find her “feminine products.”— One more surprise for a guy, especially when you’re asked to buy some “Stayfree’s” at the store.

Wedding Parties... you know you are getting old when your summers are spent attending bachelor parties, rehearsals and weddings. I had the pleasure of attending and honour in being apart of many weddings. This is one of my memorable ones... mostly because my face is not as red as all the other wedding pic's I have... When you’re from the EastEAST side, there is a terrible syndrome called the SRFS (Super Red-Faced Syndrome).
It comes upon the consumption of Mr. Al Cohol. I use to get busted sooo many times in high school with SRFS. My pops would see this red-ballooned faced kid whom once resembled his son and say, "You've been drinking (of course in a typical Chinese accent)." -- "Naw pops, just tanning..." YUP, caught red-faced many times.
The only remedy I have found for this syndrome is to drink yourself sober and then try getting intoxicated again. This should make you look like a regular drunk instead of a FOB (Fresh of the Boat) drunk. It works for me anyway. This is me with the SRFS. Can you tell who suffers from it and who doesn't?

This is my “shortie,” JLM. Her real name is Jodi-Lynn but in my initial evil efforts to “make her mine,” I came across many failed attempts so she became the short abbreviated elusive “J.L.M.” It has stuck ever since even though my sinister plot to make her mine ultimately succeeded.

While she is pretty in this picture, she is even more beautiful in real life. I think when you truly love someone, you always appreciate with delight all the moments shared in figuring the vines of life.

She is a constant observer of the human condition, sometimes tirelessly wondering “why she feels the way she does.” In turn, this process has made me a more conscious individual on my self- experiences.

Ironically we share the same birthdays which kind of sucks since I have to buy a present for someone else on my birthday. Most times though, I like to believe its fate and we were suppose to find one another amongst the 6.5 billion peeps inhabiting mother earth. "I like CHEESE..."

P.S. – I originally wanted to post a naked pic of her but then it would be I who will be wondering how I feel once I get put in the “dog house”

Can we have sex now??? Lol. No seriously, can we? =)

The House of Cool Team - 2005

The magic in storytelling...

House of Cool’s expertise is in original content
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in commercial, television and, specifically, feature film projects.

Our growth is organic in nature with word-of-mouth
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offers extensive professional experience, developed
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A moment if you please...

Moments can be short,
Moments can be long.
There are moments of joy;
Moments of sorrow;
Moments of passion.
Moments you'll never forget;
Moments you've already forgotten;
Moments you didn't get.
There are ackward moments;
Senior moments-
Moments of truth and
Momentary lapses in judgement.
People who ask for a moment;
Share a moment.
"I need a moment,"
"You got a moment,"
"Wait a moment."
You can take a moment,
Make a moment,
Spoil a moment.
And if all the stars line in the right moment
That moment can be perfect.
Moments can define you;
Moments can delight you
And moments can change your life.
Here's to the moment and
Squeezing all you can out of every last single one of them.
- Glenn Hunt

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge;
that myth is more potent than history.
I believe that dreams are more powerful than facts;
that hope always triumphs over experience;
that laughter is the only cure of grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death
            - Robert Fulghum
Who is Me Anyway is the grammatically incorrect self to discover whats around me.