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!!!