Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Automatic White Balance

Can you tell which of the above pictures was from using the camera's automatic white balance and which was from using custom white balance? If you guessed that the one on the left was from the camera's automatic white balance, you got it right. When it comes to white balance the camera gets it right most of the time and this is usually when you're taking pictures outside. When you're indoor, like in this example, the artificial light creates a color cast. Your brain, using references (what you know to be gray or white) will automatically adjusts the color you see to what you know to be correct. The camera, which doesn't have such a reference, will try to its best capture the color. So it's best to either use custom white balance or some of the camera's built in white balance (most camera has tungsten, cloudy, shade, etc) to offset color casts than to rely solely on automatic white balance.

What are some of my favorite things from today's wedding? The view and the Raspberry Sorbet! Wow!





and and my favorite favorite, most favorite part was...the vegetarian entree of course! It's so nice when the bride and groom remember to take care of the vegetarians. I forgot what the name of the entree was, but it was delicious!

Being a vegetarian...

Being a vegetarian is hard. But being a vegetarian at a Chinese Wedding Banquet as a photographer's assistant is harder. Why is that? Well, if you're a guest, you can simply let the bride and groom know ahead of time and can take care of that for you. Anyways, so what happens when you're a vendor? You're pretty much on your own. That was the scenario today. What did I do today? Starve myself? Hell no! I ordered steamed veggies ($9!) and ate that instead. So I sat there with my steamed veggies while courses after courses (of meat and seafood) were brought out. Then when the waiter brought Stir-Fry Abalone with Bok-Choy and set it down, he said to me, "this is vegetarian, no meat". Whoa, a vegetarian dish? Are you kidding me? Being a vegetarian is hard, but having to explain to a Chinese waiter that abalone is not a vegetable? That is super hard!

Congratulations to Lisa & Sen!

oh, look, the florist decorating the wedding cake! hehehe

And here's what it looked like afterwards.

The center piece

some pictures from the trip...

My favorite picture


That's me trying to look like a photographer!


That's me feeding..feeding a deer!!!! Fun!!!


adorable deer!

bejitarian

5.22.2008
bejitarian muke menyu wa arimasu ka? That translates to "Do you have a vegetarian menu?"



Some cute stuff..

wakari masen

wakari masen...it translate to I don't understand and to say it politely, it's "sumi masen ga, wakari masen". And, "eigo o hanashi msau ka?", which means, do you speak English? These are probably the most important phrases. And the next important thing is body language, and bow bow and bow. The Japanese are so polite! Image hundreds and thousands of polite people swarming around the city, that's what Tokyo's like. It's kinda scary since I come from a country where the majority of strangers are brutes!

5/21/2008

View of Tokyo from Tokyo Tower


Imperial Palace - Kyokyo


Sensoji Temple


Ginza at night

recital

I was so nervous about the recital. It was my first recital ever. I think I only played like 60% of the song because I got so nervous, I blanked out. And on top of that, my hands started shaking and the bow kept touching other strings. It was a disaster! Hopefully I'll do better next time.

Birds are funny animals...

...they are such clowns. I've been watching Scratchy from work over the webcam to monitor her since she is sick. Watching her makes me laugh, they are so funny. Her new treat/food tray has a mirror on it and it looks like she's staring at her face all day long. hehe... well, Scratchy is doing better but not completely back to normal yet. Today's the first day that she can perch. Yay scratchy! The vet said Scratchy's a miracle. He said rarely does he see a bird get better after being in so sick. Keep your fingers crossed!

Poor Scratchy.....

Poor Scratchy has lost 20 grams. We first noticed something was wrong Wednesday night. We brought her to the emergency room that night and was told that she might not make it and that they would call us if that happens. That night, every time the phone rang, my heart would sank. I was mad at myself for not noticing sooner that scratchy wasn't feeling well. I didn't notice that she was losing weight, fluffed up, and was always sitting in the corner. Since she was laying eggs, I thought she just wanna sit by her eggs. The vet said that Scratchy most likely has pneumonia because from the x-rays, it showed that there were fluids in her lungs. We're still waiting for the results from the blood test.

nerves.....

I stumped over the G major scale and G arpeggio during my level 1 test! Actually, I stumped over lots of other parts of the test. You see, I have this problem, it's call nerves.....I got so nervous. I've been preparing for the level 1 test since late January. 3 months of hard work. I think I might have failed it.....waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!! Now it makes me wonder if I really should have a recital... I might get on stage, and freeze.

my goldfish lantern

Did I wake up and that spring has past and summer has arrived? Then did I wake up again and spring has returned? The weather hasn't made up its mind. Hot one day and cold and windy the next. If the weather has a gender, I would say it's a she, so fickle!

Well, the other night, I believe it was Sunday night, it felt like a hot late summer or early autumn night. I flopped myself down onto the bed, which was next to the window with a fan running. Feeling a bit of a cool breeze and hearing people talking outside, I suddenly remembered a night many years ago, if my memory was correct, it was the night of the mid autumn festival. Across the pacific, on the other continent, mid-autumn's day was a big deal. I don't even remember how old I was, probably not more than five. I remember me holding my goldfish lantern with a candle inside. I remember staring at the candle flickering, making the red-orange goldfish bright. I wonder if they sell them here in the US....It was a night like Sunday's, hot and neighbors were talking....

New Spring Project

Ever cooked something and needed a tiny teeny bit of fresh herbs but ended up with a bunch of them? Happens to me all time. The store forces me to buy more than I need!!! What to do with the rest of herbs? Well, 1 of 2 things happen, I either put in too much, way more than the recipe calls for or I start putting the herbs in everything I make for the rest of the week so I won't waste it. Options 1 & 2 are both no good. So option 3 it is! Option 3 is plant your own herbs! So this spring, my project is just that! Look, it's sprouting!

Some minor road blocks at restaurants

Majority of the time, when I'm at a restaurant, there're usually some vegetarian options. This however, isn't always the case when you're at a Chinese or a Vietnamese restaurant, err rather these hole in the wall Asian restaurants (the only exception are Thai and Indian restaurants). "Veggie-terian?", they repeat after me as if it's a word they've never heard of, hmm...maybe not... as most of them don't speak English very well. "Oh you want only veg-git-able, no problem", except that of course, they use chicken/pig broth or they use sauce with chicken or pig flavoring. So, I try to be careful and I ask them what's in a dish or if the dish has meat or dairy or eggs in it and most of the time, these waiters/waitresses get irritable with me, which upsets me, I mean what's so wrong with telling me what's in it and what if I have food allergy? So, to go around this problem, I simply don't want to go to these Asian restaurants (usually these hole in the wall place that I used to love so much cuz they're so good) unless the menu has vegetarian options and that's that!

What a tragedy...

This morning as I turned into 24 Hour's parking lot and going down my usual aisle to find my usual spot, 2 pretty new Mercedes were blocking my way. Apparently, they had rear ended each other while backing out of their spots. It's too bad I missed the action. Well, they were arguing over whose fault it was. These 2 people, they could have been a couple, one driving a 340 series and the other a 540 series (??) and both wearing designer sportswear outfits. I really couldn't see any scratches from where I was. But seriously though, if there were some scratches, they should still just stop arguing and suck it up and move on. They can stop buying designer outfits and use their own money to get touch ups and move on with their morning. That way they can stop wasting each other's time and oh, ya, my time as well.

A cold shower

I am still shaking and my teeth are clattering as I am typing. So 2 mornings ago, I discovered that there was no hot water. I remember coming back from the gym and jumping into the shower and finding the water to be lukewarm. Strange, I thought since we weren't not doing the laundry and the dishwasher wasn't not running, why was the water lukewarm? Then later Mr. P thought that I used up all the hot water. Then yesterday morning, we realized the water heater wasn't working. No no, don't worry, I didn't skip showering yesterday but I won't vouch for Mr. P. I showered at work yesterday! So anyways, an hour ago, I just couldn't stand it anymore as I can't stand not showering for over 24 hours. I believed I jumped into the shower at work yesterday at 10:30 am so naturally I had to shower when 10:30 came (OCD? perhaps). I guess I coulda gone to the gym and shower there, but....eh, it's cleaner at home. Then I thought, oh it can't be that bad (a cold shower that is) after all, I went swimming at an outdoor pool in the winter when it was in the low 50's in the late afternoon before. What a fool! I mean hello?!!! What was I thinking? The pool was heated?!!! Anyways, not only did I want to lather some lavender soap on my body, I wanted to wash my hair too! I came up with a plan. Wash my hair first at the sink and then go into the shower and blast myself with the ice cold water. Surprisingly, washing my hair using ice cold water was kinda pleasant, it wasn't too bad, I kinda liked it. Then, i got in the shower, and ....OH MY GOD!!!! Damn it was ssssssssssooooooo cold. I think I cursed the entire time, screaming some insane profanity that I didn't know I was capable of saying. It was probably the quickest shower ever, record time! No doubt about it. Am I glad I showered? Well, ya, I love that CLEAN feeling! Will I ever do it again? HELL NO! Mr. P better get that water heater working! hehe ^-^

Whoo-hooo vegan ramen!

Vegan Ramen? Not unheard off but very uncommon. Tonight's dinner was based on the vegan ramen recipe in Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner's Japanese cookbook, Japanese Cooking: Contemporary & Traditional. It's pretty close to the real thing. It's a little bit on the salty side, not sure it's err on our part or cuz it's of the recipe. We did add quite a few things here and there to make it the way we like it. I'm gonna try to make it few more times, tweak it here and there to my liking. Once I get the soup to taste just the way I like it, I'll post the recipe at Aud's veggie tale.

Happy Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Happy Valentine's Day! I don't think we should have a Valentine's Day because it only makes those single people out there more sad! But, since we do have a Valentine's Day, happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Hot Braised String Beans

This is my best attempt at trying to make Hot Braised String Beans. It kinda looks too healthy to be Hot Braised hehe. Did you know that the typical Hot Braised Strings Beans aren't very healthy? That's cuz to make it, you have to first deep fry the beans and then stir fry it -- GREASY. Anything deep fried is, in my opinion, unhealthy! This is the healthier version of it. To be honest, it wasn't that good, kinda bland.

Baby Corn and Tofu with Cashew

This is made from a recipe in Nancie McDermott's cookbook, The Real Vegetarian Thai. It was yummy but oh so spicy!!!

Nabemono

Nabemono, it means meals in a pot or one pot dish. Tonight's dinner was "Daikon, Atsu-Age (Fried tofu) and Spinach in a Miso Broth from Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner's Japanese cookbook, Japanese Cooking: Contemporary & Traditional. This nabemono was mmm...so yummy! Simple and flavorful! Another one of those recipes that I will make again and again and again. Hmm....although, I think I'll add some mushrooms next time umm..well...because I love mushrooms!

mmm......yummmy thai noodle dish!

I love trying out a new recipe. Tonight, it was vegetarian Paht-see-yu (pan fried rice noodles with broccoli and mushrooms) from my newly bought cookbook, Real Vegetarian Thai by Nancie McDermott. It was mmmmm yummy! The only thing I changed was not putting in the eggs as directed. Nope, no eggs, boycotting eggs remember? Oh and, ummm being a fan of spicy stuff, I added a Thai chili pepper hehe. It turned out really well. This is one recipe that I will make again!

Pet peeves

I was sitting on the toilet this morning when I finished a roll of toilet paper and was suddenly reminded of my pet peeves. My pet peeves is not sitting at the toilet and finding out that there is no toilet paper (that is more forgivable because it can mean that the last person simply forgot), but to find that there is 1 or 2 squares of toilet paper left, that is wrong! I mean come on!!!! What can I do with 1 or 2 squares of toilet paper? I can't even blow my nose w/ 2 squares of toilet paper without getting some snot and boogers on my fingers (sorry for the vivid picture). 1 or 2 squares of toilet paper left means one thing, that the last person (I'm going to use he from now on) who used the toilet last knew that if he uses all the toilet paper, he would have to refill it but if there's some left, then he wouldn't have to refill it. Evil!!!!!! See why it's my pet peeves?!!!!

Our Environment

The New York Times has a good article on the impact meat consumption has on our environment. Click here to read why eating less meat is good for the environment.

28 days later (Alive and kicking and motivated!)

I'm sure you're thinking about the horror flick, 28 days later but I'm referring to my progress as a vegetarian. It has been 28 days! Woo hoo! Every once in a while though, I would crave for some of my old favorites, the stuff I used to eat when I wasn't a vegetarian. It is hard because meat is tasty. This is where I have to be strong and not let my cravings over power me. Not eating anything with eggs in it is particularly hard because I'm a big fan of pastry and noodles. I've been doing pretty good with not having stuff with dairy in it. Speaking of dairy, I had my first cheese-free pizza last night. It's actually pretty good! All in all, I have failed in my attempt to not eat anything with dairy and/or eggs in it. I have, however, reduce my overall consumption of food with egg and dairy. So I'm pretty happy with my progress. :)

Farm Sanctuary

I want to go to the 300 acre California Farm Sanctuary located at Orland! It looks like a fun and educational place for little kids as well as adults. Their doors are open from April to November. They have overnight cabins and dining options (vegan selections only). Imagine waking up to the sounds of crowing roosters and pitching in with farm chores. Sounds fun doesn't it? Click here for more information.

I love to eat (my version of Benihana's) fried rice!

Fried Rice is my specialty. My fried rice is good (it's the healthier version of Benihana's fried rice hehe)! I love good food. It must be a surprise to those who know me that I've become a vegetarian. Saying I love to eat and saying that I love being a vegetarian must sound kinda contradictory to most people because in many ways these 2 statements are kinda the antithesis of each other, especially to all those non-vegetarians. One must think that the love of eating good food means eating/trying everything and everything encompasses food with meat in it. I would like to delve deeply into how there is a variety of vegetarian dishes but that'll be another day. And I would also like to share how being a vegetarian has open up my taste buds, but that'll have be on another day as well. Today, it's about my fried rice!

So, I learned to make fried rice from Benihana (I'm not kidding)! You can learn a lot from watching someone cook. A little over 10 years ago, I was introduced to Benihana's style of fried rice. I was obsessed with making my fried rice just like theirs (minus all the gimmicks and tricks of course - i won't be tossing stuff into my hat or throwing the bowl of rice up and stuff like that). Over the years, I've improved on it and made it healthier. And now, I, yup, you guessed it, I made it vegan (even healthier, although I must add that it now no longer resembles Benihana's)! And to my surprise, I like it even better than when I used eggs, and chicken/shrimp. Click here for the unbenihana vegan fried rice recipe! If you want the meat version, email me.

Consumers be wary of the Egg Industry!

If I'm going to pay more for eggs because the farm (agribusiness) promises better living conditions, then it better be cruelty-free. Dumb dumb me, I went ahead and bought eggs from Horizon Organic because it says cage-free and roaming-free without first doing some research. It's about $6 a dozen! Then I thought about checking up from on them. From their site, it looks like they really care about the animals and the environment. Very deceptive indeed! Well, everyone, don't be fooled! Don't buy from them! Click here for why.

Eggs & Hens

America is really really lagging when it comes to the welfare of their farm animals. Just to show some comparisons, Switzerland banned the battery cage system of producing eggs and required the suppliers to provide their egg laying hens free space and a nesting box and that was in 1991. The European Union hopes to, by 2012, require egg producers to provide at least 120 square inches per bird. Now, where do we stand? The typical living space for each hen is 48 square inches! You see what I mean by "lagging"? So, what's my point in this? Well, I'm not trying to convince you to boycott eggs, but to think about what consumers can do. This is where supply and demand comes into play. As consumers, we can choose whose eggs we buy from. When there's enough people wanting to buy eggs from humanely treated hens, then the industry would be more inclined to produce it. When possible, choose to buy from organic certified.

Did you know that 4 years ago, McDonald's started requiring their egg suppliers to make living conditions better for their egg laying hens? They required their egg suppliers to provide 72 square inches for each hen. Compared w/ the European guideline, it isn't that great but compared w/ the rest of the egg farms in the US, it's much better. Also, McDonald's considering requiring it's processors to use more humane methods of slaughtering poultry. Click here and here for more on this story. So, there is still hope in this country.

Eggs & milk?

There's this yummy, really really yummy waffle recipe in The Newlyweds' Cookbook, which you can buy at either Amazon or Crate & Barrel. I converted it so that it's vegan. All waffle and pancake recipes are vegetarian. So I'm just a vegetarian, why do I need to convert my waffle and pancake recipes to vegan? So what's my problem? This may sound strange but I would eat stuff with eggs in it like pasta and noodles and once in a while, I wouldn't mind buying some pastry from like Starbucks, which will contain milk, butter, and eggs as long as I'm not doing it all the time. I cannot get myself to buy eggs or milk at the grocery store. Milk is so much easier to substitute. Egg is a different story. I know I know, it doesn't make any sense. I guess all I want to do is lower my consumption of eggs and if I buy a dozen or even 1/2 dozen eggs, I wouldn't be lowering my consumption. The vegan banana almond waffle actually came out pretty well! For the recipe, click here!

I'm preparing for 2 things!

They are my violin recital (first recital ever) next month and my grade 1 exam in April! Now, I have a problem and that is stage fright. Every time I play in front of anyone other than my violin teacher, I screw up because I get so nervous. As an adult beginner, I tend to be more critical about my playing and I get embarrassed easily as I always feel like people expect me to do better or do more because I'm an adult. Now to get over these fears, I think I have to practice playing in front of people.I'm thinking, maybe I'll go play a few songs in the park once the Sun comes back or maybe invite a few people over and play for them. Now you may wonder why am I doing so much, after all, most adult beginners learn for fun and don't bother with recitals or tests. Well it is because my goal, musically, is to in 4 or 5 years be able to join a community college orchestra or a community orchestra and doing these (recitals and tests) will prepare me or pave the way to that goal! Wish me luck!

the unauthorized biography of tom cruise?!!!!

HoHoHo...HeHeHe!

Click here for more info.

Pre-order yours at Amazon today! hehehe

Flaxseed oil

So a little bit about my family's medical history. On my mother's side, my grandfather died of a heart attacked while he was in his mid to late 40's. On my bio father's side, my grandfather died of a stroke and my bio father has had 2 strokes. So what does that tell me? It tells that either I have a family history of heart problems and high cholesterol or bad lifestyles (fatty food and lack of exercise). My guess is that it's a bit of both, but I'm leaning more toward the bad habit side as the root of their health problems. Oh, so why am I giving this little piece of information and what's it got to do with Flaxseed oil? Hmm...., well as most of you remember, about a year ago, I was complaining about my high resting heart rate (always around 90's and sometimes even higher) and how my heart rate would shoot up to 180 (sometimes even higher) when I run at a measly 5 mph for my 1 or 2 mile run. And as most of you know, I'm a pretty health conscious person. I try to eat healthy and I workout regularly. For months, I did what I could but I was unable to bring my resting heart rate down. About a month ago, I went to see an ophthalmologist for dry eyes and she recommended that I take flaxseed oil. A week ago, I went running (and as usual, got my heart rate monitor strap around me) and I was blown away when I saw that my heart rate was between 146 to 156 while running at 5 mph. Seeing the improvement, I measured my resting heart rate and it was at 72!!! What am I doing differently? Exercise wise, I am pretty much still doing the same thing. It's either because I'm taking flaxseed oil supplement or because of my new diet. I think it's the addition of flaxseed oil in my diet!

For more information on flaxseed oil, click here. It turns out, flaxseed's got a whole lot of other benefits!

I can't live without...

Ice cream and Sriracha! The first item mentioned, ice cream, is why it's next to impossible for me to be a vegan. I'll resort to being a near vegan, that is I'll occasionally have to splurge and eat some ice cream. Hmmm... maybe i can replace ice cream with fruit bars...one day. I bought some soy ice cream the other day, it's just not the same. Perhaps there's a farm somewhere that treats it's dairy cows humanely. Oh and while I'm on the subject, why does everything has eggs in it? Being a vegan, that's too tough, perhaps next year. One step at a time right? Right now, I'll just stick to being a ovo-lacto vegetarian. Speaking of which, thank goodness Sriracha is vegetarian. I looked at the label the other day and there's no animal products in it. Whew!

Going Vegetarian

Huh? ..eh? What? Why? That's what I've been getting from people when I tell them that I'm gonna be a vegetarian. When I first thought of it a month ago, I was thinking of only doing it for a month. I thought that it would be healthy after dining out 50% of time recently. I thought that it would force me to cook more and thought that it'll be a one month period. After doing more research, I'm going to make it a lifestyle. It'll be a challenge but well worth it.

There are many reasons to become a vegetarian. For me, it's for better health, better environment, and most important of all, for not partaking in the cruelty of animals.

Happy New Year

Happy Happy New Year!