A guitar that does what?

A guitar that tunes itself! Here's an article on it, click here. For $2500, you will never have to tune again. Oh oh and a robot that can play the violin. Amazing! Check it out here!

A. Dvorak - Humoresque No.7

One of my favorite songs! I love their expressions, particularly Yo Yo Ma's expression...hehe. :)

American Children living in poverty....

It is a reality. Often time, when we think about children living in poverty, we often think of children living in undeveloped countries. Do you know that nearly 13 million American children live in family with income below the federal poverty level? For these children, their time are not spent on worrying about doing their homework or what toys they want to get, but on whether they'll be hungry when bedtime comes or if they'll be cold because winter is here and they lack proper clothings or enough blankets. What are we to do? And most of us probably think, well, we can get them a Christmas gift or donate some food during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New year. So we feed our poor neighbor and provide them, perhaps a nice Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year, but that is only 3 days a year. What happens after thanksgiving or Christmas or new year? We go back to doing our regular stuff and the stuff about poverty? We kinda forget about it. (I'm saying this because I'm guilty of this.) We can make a difference. We can do our jobs as citizens to ensure that we have effective public policy to make a difference in our neighbor's life. The first step to doing that is to be informed of the different policies out there and vote because effective policy can make a difference. For more info (such as stats) on children living in poverty, click here.

And if you have time, volunteer to be a big brother or a big sister. Click here to get to the big brother/big sister volunteer program.

for your entertainment..

if you're bored and got nothing better to do.....click play... if you think i looked pretty pissed...well i was!!!...as it took me forever because I kept screwing up...don't think that I didn't screw up on this one..just that I got tired....goodnight! and oh..you might wanna turn down your speaker...

napa

Below are some of my favorite pictures from our trip to Napa.

a beautiful night

I believe I have what you call blogger's block because after like 20 minutes, I could only come up, "I had a great time at the piano & clarinet concert yesterday at Villa Montalvo and Jon Nakamatsu and Jon Manasse were great".





See? I have a happy face to prove that I really enjoyed it!

Did u know

that fify years ago, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik..here's more info, click here for the article. wow...another mind boggling thing for me.

Happy Happy Happy

Birthday to me and Regina!

hm......what happens if you can't read chinese?!!!

well.....you lose out on this super deal (3 dishes plus rice for $17.99) at this little chinese restaurant next to the music studio I go to for violin lessons. They have this chinese banner out saying, "3 dishes plus rice for $17.99" and nope there is no English translation on there. Good thing I can read the number 3 and $17.99. Well, so I asked the waitress in my horrible mandarin about this $17.99 deal and she handed me the special menu and guess what?!!!! It was all in chinese. I asked if there was an English menu and there was, except it was the regular menu, not the special 3 items for $17.99 special menu. So in short, the deal was only for people who can read chinese. How...rude...how discriminatory.....so i randomly pointed to 3 items on the menu becaues the waitress didn't want to read the dishes one by one for me.....(can't blame her, I wouldn't want to either) and I don't want to pay $10 for a dish that I could get for $6 on the special menu....

Mind Boggling....

OK, so whenever there's a holiday do environment engineers really get a day off? For example, for us, trash day is Monday and it was labor's day so of course, no waste management service that day. But then the next day we put our trashcans out. So doesn't this mean that they have to work twice as hard to get all the trash that was suppose to go out on Monday done on Tuesday?

Testing out my new lens at Hakone Garden

One of the best things about being a photographer assistant is being able to get your hands on all sorts of photography equipments, body, lens, flash, tripod - you name it. But nothing beats getting first dibs on on them when they being replaced by newer equipments on the market. So, that is how I came to own the Cannon EF 75-200 2.8 USM telephoto lens, an absolutely amazing lens, even if there isn't IS on it.

The Mystery of the Stradivarius

The most expensive violin

The highest price anyone paid for a Stradivarius violin is 3.5 million dollars! Wow! O.o Imagine playing an instrument that is oh so so expensive. Actually, I would be afraid to play it.

I have been reading a non fiction book on this famous luthier, Antonio Stradivari, maker of this insanely priced violin.

I know nonfiction...just a few years ago history puts me to sleep. I've been really interested in history lately (in the past few years that is). Did i mention that that my favorite channel is the history channel? Well anyways, I was in a for a pleasant surprise by the book,"Stradivari's Genius" written by Toby Faber. It is packed with drama. First, Antonio Stradivari married a wealthy widow, Francesca Feraboschi, whose brother murdered her husband. She then sued her dead husband's father for her dowry back!!! Four months after she was remarried to Antonio, they had their first kid! Who would have thought that people do that in the 17th century? Talking about drama! No need for prime time TV show or day time soap. Then after Francesca died, Antonio remarried a woman who was 20 years younger than him. He was 55 at the time. When they had their first kid, a daughter, Antonio named her Francesca after his first wife. See, not your typical non-fiction book. O.o....

What a long Saturday!

I woke up 26 hours ago and it was Saturday August 4, 2007 4:30 am. 26 hours later, it is still Saturday with 2 more hours to go. My plane landed at 12:48 PM. I slept on the plane for about 7 hours. I fell asleep before it took off, woke up for food, went back to sleep and woke up 3 hours before it landed. At around 3 PM, I was falling asleep and finally succumbed to it at around 7 and woke up just now, feel all refreshed and ready for Sunday! Great!

I had the worst experience ever returning to the States. At the gate to the plane, I was randomly selected for further screening. If that wasn't bad enough, at SFO, I had problems with my passport. Apparently, the officer had what you call a "user error". I was standing there at the booth for about 5 minutes with the officer looking at me and making phone calls...hmm..something was up. Then another officer showed up to escort me to what the airport calls a "secondary screening" area. I was being questioned about the authenticity of my passport. Where I got it and questions like if I bought my passport. Um..no? He was looking at my passport very closely, probably trying to figure out if it was authentic. Yes it is, the US government issued it to me! I told him that I didn't have a problem when I came back from Tahiti. After further questionings, he asked me if my passport were ever stolen because when the officer at the gate scanned my passport another person's info came up on the screen. So he decided to give it a try and scanned it again. Luckily it came up with my information. He tried scanning it a couple more times. He then told me that I could proceed to the baggage area to pick up my luggage and said that the glitch was probably a user error. A user error?!!!!

Moving on, while I was waiting for my luggage this cute little beagle kept smelling me. At first I thought oh how cute..what a cute little dog...and then after a little bit I felt a desire to push the dog away because it's a not a good thing if the dog smells you for more than a few seconds. The officer asked me to put my backpack on the floor so that the beagle can smell it more closely. The officer asked me what I had in my bag. I had a dell notebook, a toiletry bag, some chocolates and some books. He asked me to open it and show him. After seeing that it contained what I told him, he asked me what I had it my bags prior to today. I said, well, I used it to carry some fruits (Oranges, apples, and bananas) and sometimes sandwiches during my stay in the UK. The cute little beagle could smell the residuals of the fruits and sandwiches that was in my bag. After that, the officer told the beagle to move on. Dang!!! That beagle had a good nose.

Uggghhh..worst experience ever!!! Glad it's over.

Look right before crossing?!!!!

Yup, look right before crossing the streets or you will very bloody well get run over, mind you!I have no idea how much of a look left before crossing the street habit I have until now..hahaha...oh right, in case you don't know, I'm in London. London!!!! For work only and not for pleasure. Other than going to the office and coming back to the hotel, I haven't done anything.


This is the first hotel (Express Holiday Inn) I stayed at before moving to Hilton because it was in the bad part of London.


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The Hilton hotel is in a better part of the neighborhood. I forgot to take a picture of it. The only thing is, it's much farther from the office than when I was at the Holiday Inn hotel. Now, I have to take the tube to work.

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Below are areas around the TFL office. Looks pretty ghetto don't you think?








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Taking the tube to the office..... I have to switch lines 3 times and then it's a 20 min walk from the station to the hotel but it's worth it because it's got internet and a gym. Although I've been so busy I have no time for the gym. Mind the doors...mind the gap...mind what? Come again?



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Around Hilton:

Oh look, there's Starbucks!






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Oh oh, the best wonton noodle soup ever (either that or i was just craving some wonton noodle soup.)



Isn't this a cozy little chinese restaurant?



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Oh look, it's me!!! All happy because my wonton noodle soup was on its way.

Today is a sad sad day :(

I rear ended someone on the 237. I think it's totaled if not, close to it. My poor car. I love my little corolla.... The first car that I bought and I just paid it off too! It is a sad sad day.

The best part about a wedding is.....

the wedding cake!!!! well, at least that's the case when you're an assistant photographer. Usually, I get to eat a piece but today....they were serving the cake during bouquet and garter toss and I couldn't get to a piece of cake because I had to lug the secondary flash around. All I could do was stare at them and hope that there would be leftovers...but no such luck. :(

It looked so yummy too....I need a chocolate cake!!! I need it now!!!!

I haven't been blogging because....

I'm addicted to being an elf on Vana'diel (a massive multiple player RPG online game - in case you don't know where Vana'diel is, it's a world threatened by monsters and beast in final fantasy xi). I fight monsters and beast to save the helpless!



That's a picture of me, oh I mean of me in Vana'diel! Aren't I the cutest elf you've ever seen?

My plants are happy!

My plants are happy, I am happy! Here are some before and after shots of my garden.

Back in April:

Now:

Back in April:

Now:

Back in April:

Now:

Back in April:

Now:

Griffith Park Observatory!

After 5 years of renovation...introducing the new and better Griffith Park Observatory!!!






Click here for more pictures from last Sunday.

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Look at that, I weigh 2 lbs oh i mean 10 lbs on pluto!!



Oh, man, who broke the scale?!!! Someone must have been unhappy with what the scale told him/her.

How absurd!!!!!

This is so absurd that I need to blog this.

I was done with my list of things to get at Trader Joe's and proceeded to a check out line. There was a 10 items or less line but I decided to use the line next to it because the person currently being ringed up in that line was almost done and the only person queued up had just a handful of stuff whereas the 10 items or less line had a bunch of people. So I decided to line up in the non 10 items or less line. Then out of no where, this lady (I will refrain from saying what nationality as I believe people of all nationality can be like this) pushed her cart in front of me and then pointed to the line for 10 items or less telling me to go to that line instead. How absurd was that?!!! I must have hit my head hard yesterday because I listened to her. I either was caught off guard or was confused (for a moment I thought she worked there or something but apparently, she was a customer). It was just so bizarre. Anyways, so instead of fighting for my position in line, I just went, "oh, ok" and step aside for her. *Bonk*, I'm such a dufus. I have no idea why I am such a ...ugh!

Note to self: next time someone does this ask, "Do you work here?"

Duck Tales - First Intro Theme

Duck Tales, Oo-oo!

Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers intro 1

Sometimes, some crimes....there's no case too big, no case too small when you need help just call Ch-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers!

It's OK!!!

I still love the Warriors!

Asian Heritage Month is this Month...So...

Did you know that ice cream was invented in China back in 2000 BC?!!!! I love ice cream! For some history, click here.

Happy Mother's Day!!!!

happy mother's day! ...i miss my mommy...one bad thing about being so far away. :( over the years (since I moved to the bay area), mother's day has been falling on the sunday of memorial weekend cuz that's when i get to see my mommy. hmmm...why do we use one day of the year to celebrate the what mothers do for 365 days (a 24/7 job)? let everyday be mother's day! ok, i wanna move back to LA now. :( hey!!!! why isn't there a wife day? i want a wife day! having a husband is like having a kid. happy wife day to me! :D

I love the smell of dirt! And, slugs love beer?!!!

Yup, dirt, you know, as in soil, the earth. The smell of dirt is amazingly refreshing and rejuvenating. I'm not kidding! Go try it. Although I should caution that fertilized soil would smell like crap, uh, I mean manure. Go for the non-fertilized ones and watch out for sow bugs (aka roly poly), they are kinda yucky. Although, technically they are not bugs cuz bugs only got 6 legs or rather 3 pairs of legs. But lots of insects are called bugs but are not really bugs. Since that's another topic, I'm not gonna get into it. I don't know about most people but I don't really like them, even if they are good for the soil. Yuck! Yuck! Yuck! It can roll up into a ball and look like a piece of dirt. And um, don't try to sniff it. I was pulling out weeds at the SF Botanical Garden this morning and oh my gosh, there were a bunch of these sow bugs. They all simultaneously rolled up into little balls, which was kinda neat. Anyhow, what was I saying? Oh ya, the smell of dirt was just really nice! Seriously, I'm not joking.

Oh, I learned an interesting thing today! Did you know that slugs love beer?!!! Seriously! They love beer! So, the gardener, she told me that they put little trays with cheap beers by the seedlings so that the slugs can drink it, fall inside and die. LOL That is just hilarious. Can you imagine it? A little slug comes along, minding its own business and finds that there's beer and go, woohooo free beer! Then climbs on and drinks it. It gets drunk and falls in and dies. Well, that's kinda sad - the dying part, but at least the slug dies happily!

Introducing Suc!

Suc or Sucky is my new plant. It is a Crassula Ovata, aka Jade Plant or Friendship Tree. It is a succulent plant. What is a succulent? Is it a cactus? hahaha, just kidding, well, not really kidding, those were my questions. In case you are convinced, it is not a cactus!!! It doesn't have those pointy things that can hurt you. A succulent plant stores water in its leaves, stems, and roots just like a cactus but it's not a cactus!!! According to the person who reccommended it to me, it's very easy to take care of. They are just for people like me who is forgetful when it comes to watering. Did you know that Aloe is a Succulent? I didn't know that..but now I do! OK, back to Crassula Ovata. They are native to South Africa where it's dry and hot (but cannot stand extreme heat) and requires very little watering...very little watering!!!! They can survive with full sun or a with little bit of shade. OK, let see how this new little dude will do on my balcony!!!

Go Warriors!

Go Warriors! I love Baron Davis!

updates...

Could that be Harold & Kumar going to Vegas?


My garden looks pretty much the same. If you look closely though, you can see that the plants have grown!



Looks like William is right, it is getting pretty crowded! But that's a good thing, well, for me, that means I took good care of them!



Hmm..looks like the left side of the window box looks good.

However....on the right side, one plant died :( but that means there's more space for the other plants.


Pictures of Lake Elizabeth.

All ATMs should have a reboot button!!!

Have you ever had an atm machine freeze on you? Well, it did on me!!!! I put in my card, punch in my pin and it froze. I stood there for 5 min thinking it would unfreeze itself. Who was I kidding? It was probably running windows or something. And why is it so hard to get to the option of speaking to an operator? Actually, there isn't a "speak to a person" option and nope, 0,*, or # don't take you there. After exhausting the entire menu, I realized there wasn't an option to speak to someone. To be able to speak to a rep, you have to select an option like, check your balance or something and then when asked to input the account number, enter some junk (because if you enter your account # correctly, you don't get to speak to someone). When I was finally routed to an operator (some 15 to 20 minutes later), she said "it what?" and kept laughing. Was it funny or something? I didn't think so. Anyways, doesn't this make you wanna think twice about putting your debit card into an ATM machine now? Why don't ATMs have "ctrl", "Alt", & a "Delete" buttons or even a reboot machine?

Spring Project Part I

Welcome to my little garden. This is actually my try it again project. Earlier attempts (2005 & 2006) ended sadly. Hopefully this year, it will be different, because if I fail again I will never hear the end of ~I told you so~ from you know who....I really really want to prove him wrong.

Despite what Alan says, I remain very hopeful. They are gonna live!!!! Well, every year I am closer to being able to keep my plants alive so why can't it be this year? This time I made sure I had a proper drainage system (such as adding a layer of crushed pine cones on the bottom and made sure there are holes on the bottom for extra water to flow out), I made sure I didn't cramp them together so they have room to grow, and last but not least, I made sure that I didn't merely just place the new plants on top of the soil in the new containers but actually submerge them in the new soil. Now, as long as I remember to water them and feed them regularly, they shouldn't die on me.

Coyote Hills

Here's some pictures from today's bird watching adventure at Coyote Hills. Spring is here. The trees and the birds told me so.





(Mallards flying in formation.)


(Close up of a mallard.)