James Zhan in real life.
James Zhan in real life.
James Zhan
Hi, I’m James, a full-time videographer and video editor at University of Toronto, a YouTuber, a former audio engineer of 10 years, and someone who majored in English and writing, loaded with opinions. This is my personal blog where I write opinion pieces, personal reflections and articles about rabbit holes I’ve gone down, and share what I’m currently up to.
Latest Posts
main ul.no-multiline > li, main ol.no-multiline > li { margin-bottom: 0; } My blog has a ton of lists, some of which contain only 1 line per item while others can have more than 1 line per item. I find that for the latter, the list...
I published “Thank You, Canada” yesterday morning, on Canada Day, listing a bunch of things I appreciate Canada for, and the first thing on the list was universal healthcare. Well, 6 hours later—thanks to the forces unbeknownst to us—I...
Last year, my citizenship ceremony just missed July 1 by a couple of weeks, so today is my first Canada Day as a Canadian citizen. I moved to Canada in 2013 and have since completed two postsecondary degrees, had three different careers,...
To those reading this on an RSS reader: Since this post is about this blog’s design, I recommend reading it on a desktop browser so you can see the new design. That said, it’s not mandatory as I’ve included screenshots where I can. Blog...
Recently, a clip of a father berating his young son for not being able to speak Cantonese has been making rounds on the internet. Based on the video, both are native residents of Canton (Guangzhou), China—the origin of the Cantonese...
One lesson I learned from the trip my wife and I made to Halifax, Canada, was that I absolutely didn’t enjoy having a huge, 41L backpack on me while walking around all day: It was heavy, hard to handle and very warm. So in preparation...
When people discuss computer displays, they always talk about the refresh rate and LCD vs OLED. I understand that high refresh rates and true blacks are appealing for gaming and media consumption, but when it comes to colour grading for...
It’s been five years since I first got into specialty coffee, and I had just learned that you can have two different coffee grinders of equal calibre but produce drastically different flavour profiles in the cup (while all the other...
Last week, I saw my boss use the Nespresso Inissia she kindly brought to the office to share, and let’s just say that before I even had a chance to feel stunned, she already had her steamy espresso in a cup. 30 seconds—that was how long...
I discovered a coffee questionnaire on Online Goddess (originally from Syl’s blog), and I knew I had to participate! How can I not talk about coffee on my personal blog? I love coffee and I’m what some consider a “coffee snob”—I only...
It’s with a heavy heart that I’m writing this post. Yes, I’m just talking about app icons and yes, I’m being dramatic, but you have to understand that I care a great deal about design. I’ve always loved Apple’s design and that’s one of...
I just finished my first week going into office for three days due to my employer’s RTO (return-to-office) mandate, and it was as pointless and absurd as I had expected. You can read my opinion piece on why RTO is terrible for diversity...
Note: Since this post is about this blog’s design, I recommend reading this post on a desktop browser so you can see the new design. That said, it’s not mandatory as I’ve included screenshots. Thanks to my obsession over design and...
For my entire 20s, I hustled non-stop. Six years of that was studying full-time while working as an audio engineer and being in a metal band. Then, I freelanced full-time as an audio engineer—not only working with bands but also teaching...
Having shared why I quit professional audio engineering after 10 years in the industry, I feel like embarking on a nice nostalgia trip, unearthing some of the memories I hadn’t revisited for a very long time and sharing how I...