Winter Assignment

On a business trip/project assignment last winter... some shots.

 hotel room w/ travel buddy

fjord? (cellphone pic)

Red It

These guys' shoes are more fashionable than mine. :P

While on the bus, I just had to take a pic of these hip Asian guys' get up.  Lol.

Spring Hikes

Been hiking on weekends at different locations this spring.  Some lazy shots below.

Shots from cellphone below

Olympus EM10 Unboxing and Test Shot

Just a few shots.. The package arrived: one EM10 body only, and one Zuiko 25mm f1.8 lens.  Pancake lens 14-42 mm to follow in May.  Gah.  Oh well.

the warranty card

my curious pet by the package

test shot of the Portrait scene, awesome!

My 2014 Olympus EM10 Camera Purchase

I'm now updating my camera and purchasing a micro four thirds system SLR instead of a full frame DSLR.  Mainly due to size and cost concerns and also finding sophisticated point and shoots limited still for the image quality I want.  The smaller it is, the easier it is to bring with me, and thus the more photo opps I can get.

I've opted for the Olympus OMD EM10 for value for money, over a predecessor -- the Olympus OMD EM-5:

 

screenshot of the OMD EM10 from the Olympus website

• I believe I really don't have much need for the weather sealed feature of the EM-5 and the most expensive Olympus OMD EM1
• nor the 5-axis stabilization of the EM-5 and EM-1.  3-axis is a good compromise with the EM10.
• EM10 has features of the premium EM1 that the EM-5 doesn't.  Wi-fi among them.  Wi-fi must be standard in technology offerings where it can be used and EM-5 didn't have that on its release in 2012.  Which is why I held off purchasing the EM-5 when it first came out.  Seemed half-baked to get the EM-5 at a time when competitor cameras were being released with wi-fi but didn't seem as good as the EM-5.  I waited instead.
• EM10 has a built in pop up flash.  I don't like shooting with flash but small though it is on the EM10, convenience matters a lot to me for times when you need flash as a fill in mechanism.  I don't wanna rummage around for one to attach onto the camera nor keep it on the camera always for portability as it adds to the bulkiness since it's not a pop up flash.  This is the case for the EM-5, no built in flash, just one you can attach.  So another reason for me for waiting instead and not buying the EM-5.

Because of the lack of weather sealing and a 3-axis instead of the 5-axis stabilization on the EM10, the EM10 then costs less than the EM5.  Plus the built in flash on the EM10 is sweet too.

My Sanrio Fix Today

Just bought a bunch of Sanrio stuff again, this time online, from the sanrio.com website and ebay.  I was initially looking for some cute Sanrio stickers for my camera but wound up staying on the Sanrio site and putting the products below into my shopping cart.  Ack.

The funny thing is, when I checked my order history at the Sanrio site, it's exactly a year to the day of my last order from them.  Same date, but a year later.  What a coincidence.  Lol.  And good thing that the site has a 20% off promo off the order total amount.  Nice!


So from sanrio.com I got the following:

1.  6 plush dolls,

- the 3 Goropikadons
- a classic Hello Kitty
- a Kero Kero Keroppi
- and a blue Hello Kitty Lucky Cat

Goropikadon is among those Sanrio characters I remember back when I was a kid and haven't seen for a long time.  What a pleasant surprise to see them cropping up again at the Sanrio site.


2.  a Goropikadon pen,

Updating My Camera This Year

I'm considering updating my camera this year.  And discussing a tiny bit re design here.

For my photography/camera needs, aside from wanting a camera that outputs DSLR-quality images, it has to have:

• a built-in viewfinder
• wi-fi
• art filters
• pic size can print to poster size prints
• built-in flash would be nice to have
• with a kit lens

And most importantly, be not bulky like a normal DSLR.  I don't enjoy lugging heavy gear and lenses with me.

I like street photography, candid people shots, portraits, macro, travel and culture, and not just landscapes... almost documentary-like.


Anyway, my current cameras are:

Busy 2013

Been a while since I last posted anything on this blog.  Hmmm, lotsa things happened in 2013 I suppose.

Got busy 'cause of a new job

and moving so as to be closer to new job.

Flew to another city for a temporary work assignment,

hotel room

Then had guests staying at my new place and we went to an island, did some hiking

and hung out at some beaches.

but we also dropped by my uncle's place in the country after coming back from the island.

And finally got a new pet as well after moving.  Whew.

Now things are more settled.  I have finally done a proper scoping out of my new neighborhood (walked about 5km for an hour).  This is so I'd know the best running route so I can continue my running routine.  Apparently there's an urban trail behind my neighborhood stretching all the way to the other end of the country, wow.

I passed by views of mountains and waters by the mountains, a recreation centre, as well as a few little parks including an off leash park for dogs on the way, and homes in my neighborhood on the way back.  Not bad.

I look forward to running again, after the dark wet winter last December. Perhaps will join a big 10k run some time this year, organized for the city.  My office fields its own team annually with this running event.  We shall see. 

My Pet in the Snow

Brought out my pet when it snowed for a few days.  I put her on a leash/harness as she's an indoor pet.

Beach Shots October 2013

Books & TV

Good stuff I watched recently on TV:

- Australia with Simon Reeve (BBC)
- Indian Ocean with Simon Reeve (BBC)
- World's Most Dangerous Roads (BBC)
- Broadchurch (tv series)

- The Bridge (tv series)
- Lonely Planet Road Less Travelled - Kazakhstan/Turkmenistan episode

Just finished reading some books:
- Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane by Andrew Graham Dixon --> good read, a biography of the artist/painter Caravaggio

- The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova --> wouldn't recommend

The Hundred Foot Journey by Robert Morais - like

And now reading Van Gogh The Life by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith, a biography of the artist Vincent Van Gogh.

Reality Bites

And I don't mean the movie.  It's like that Marvin Gaye song "What's Going On?"

When we were younger:
- we didn't know about BPA, and people I know, including me, grew up ok
- we didn't know about non-pure whatever it's called milk and we turned out ok
- we didn't know about gluten-free stuff and we still turned out ok

*shrugs*

And also, when we were younger:
- we didn't have rains that would devastatingly flood a whole area in one day that never got flooded in such short amount of time as it does in these past few years
- (post-Holocaust) we haven't heard of normal governments gassing their own citizens (children, men and women alike) like it's par for the course and another country behaving as if it never happened.

Sometimes it feels kinda strange living in a place so far removed from the tons of misery going on elsewhere (genocide, child slavery, unending cycle of poverty, etc).  It just all the more makes it all a bit more starkly real even if it's not in your face.  Makes one think that hell then begins to seem like not an idea but is actually already here all along, you don't need religion to know it exists.

In the meantime the financial markets await the changes ahead with the US Federal Reserve, Ben Affleck is going to be the next Batman (huh?), you have people named Kardashian and Cyrus not really contributing anything of substance never mind artistic value despite however much they earn/are paid, and Samsung and Apple continue to fight it out with Microsoft playing catchup, etc.

The world is not what it was or I just watch/read too much news/current events.  hehe!  Just sayin'.

Lord of War

Just finished watching Lord of War starring Nicholas Cage.  I thought it'd be an action-packed film but turns out it was even better than I had expected.

I never knew of this film 'til I saw it this past week or so on the TV guide list (Bravo channel) on my HD TV service and decided to have it recorded by the PVR.

Anyway the opening sequence alone was pretty nicely done.  I also liked the montage at the end.  Both are stunning.  I find this film is a deceptively intelligent and creative delivery of a simple but relevant story and this is what makes this film rather brilliant.  It's quite a satire.  And the fact that Nicholas Cage's character Yuri was in his business suit the whole time even when in the desert dealing arms is quite an effective tool to emphasize just what he is relative to the whole story.  It's kinda genius.  hehe.

Kudos to the writer/director Andrew Niccol.  And it's only after I watched Lord of War that I learned that it's the same director behind one of my favorite movies -- Gattaca.  Geez.  lol.

I love the soundtrack/score too. Gosh. Especially the choice of song for the end/credits -- Warlord by Antonio Pinto.   See/hear youtube link below.  I like the sound especially by 1:28 and how it was used in the end credits.  *shakes head*

Carnivále

I just finished watching two seasons of HBO's Carnivále.  My gosh.  I'm glad I finally got around to it.  Thank goodness for torrents.  Lol!

Years ago when it was playing on HBO back home, a friend mentioned the show and really encouraged me to watch it. But I never got to watch any episode because I always end up catching it when it was playing right in the middle of an episode already, while I was browsing through channels.

Anyway, years later (this year in fact), I still remember that recommendation and decided to try it.  Well what do you know, it's now my favorite show.  Better than Rome, Game of Thrones, Lost, etc., if not the best.  I can't believe it.  If this show was broadcast at the time of Twitter and FB, etc., I think it may have had enjoyed more popularity.  But then again maybe not.  Many good shows today get the ax and the not so good ones remain.

And the actors were all good - especially Nick Stahl, Michael J. Anderson, and Amy Madigan.  Wow.  It feels kinda bad that Nick Stahl doesn't seem to be too active these days.  It's a pity.  (I also liked Terminator 3 where Nick Stahl was in, vs the second one).

The set and production design alone for Carnivále was worth buying the DVD sets for the two seasons for which the show ran.  It's like I just collected something historical, almost factual, but in very good art form.  My goodness.  I'm just so amazed by it.  HBO's Rome's set design/production effort paled next to this one.  Gosh.  *shakes head*  I liked Rome, Game of Thrones, Lost etc but none of them made me buy their DVDs.  I may have thought it but I never did/decided not to.  But for this show, I did.  Especially when it's probably getting harder to find original DVDs for it as time goes on.  It's a great show.  I wish it went on for more than 2 seasons but it's all right too that it stopped where it did.  Great ending. 

These Made My Day

I saw some robin's eggs one weekend two weeks ago at a friend's place in the country.  I never thought I'd see any, let alone 4 in a nest too, but I have.  Seeing them certainly made my day.

 

the robin's nest in an overturned canoe stored in the garage,

image that's closer to how it looked (without flash)

 

 w/ flash

there they are

Colombia and the Philippines...No Reservations

I'm just now watching Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations as I get ready to leave later for some little neighborhood shopping (it's soooo sunny hot outside...).  The episode is set in Colombia.  Amazing how many things are similar between Colombia and the Philippines.  It's crazy!

Even the streetside restaurant where Anthony is having his lunch with a local coulde be a streetside restaurant in Manila, in a semi-residential street in Manila's Malate district.  It looked like that part of Manila except the people look different.  Lol!

Then they have these colorful little buses for public transport that's pretty much like Manila's jeepneys except they're buses!  Complete with the barker or guy that shouts the routes out for commuters looking to get on the right bus, the markings of the routes on the buses' windshields, etc.

And then of course, the food.  They went to a local market where there were many different sorts of tropical fruits.  One of which was a caimito that Anthony tried.  Caimitos are also available in the Philippines.  One wonders if the Philippines got those from South America originally or vice versa during the heydays of the Manila-Acapulco galleon trade... a version of globalization for that time.  Amazing!

Another food they have which the Philippines has too is the chicharron, and the chunchullo (Colombian term).  The Philippines also has chicharron, and chunchullo would be the Philippines' chicharon bulaklak.  The latter are fritterlings of pork intestines.  They are yummy but more of a guilty pleasure sort of food, mainly consumed as a snack.   I wonder if Anthony knew just how much bad cholesterol he was chowing on when he had those.  Lol!  I remember some of my older family/relatives trying to shy away from consuming chicharon bulaklak because it's really unhealthy... a pig's internal organs deep fried to lip smacking crackling goodness! Lol!  :D  And dipped in vinegar in the Philippines as you eat them like chips.  

Colombia has empanada as well.  I love empanada!  Gah!  It's kinda obvious we probably got these pork recipes from the Spanish or perhaps once again, because of the galleon trade and the exchange of cultures and goods between Latin America and the Philippines that surely transpired along with it.

The people might look somewhat different but it's amazing how many things are similar between the Philippines and another place thousands of miles away.

The Rainbow Fish

I just got a new pet.  And it's kind of a spur of the moment purchase.  Lol.  A friend and I were out shopping and dropped by a pet store because my friend wants to have fish as pets.  I ended up going home with one for myself.

Meet Harry, my new pet fish.

 just splendid!

That's him in these pics, a male half moon betta splendens fish.  Because he was an unplanned purchase that day, I ended up having to buy a small aquarium for him right away too.  The little tank would be temporary.  If he lasts two months, I'll get him a better-sized tank with heater, a filter, and possibly some new companions like neon tetras.

He was just so cute when I saw him because he wasn't a dark blue nor a red-colored fish.  He's like a turquoise, teal, or indigo fish.  Sometimes blue.  Or whatever color the light reflects on him.  Actually, his color's like the rainbow's.  Lol!  So cool.  So don't forget to click on the pics to see them in lightbox format and larger too.

 

 Harry in turquoise

Harry in other colors

 

the rainbow fish

So now he's just in his little tank.  I'm planning on changing the stones in his tank.  I got a couple of turquoise and frosted white glass stones meant for vases.  I've now put him in the kitchen and away from sunlight.  He goes crazy with sunlight reflecting himself on his tank walls.  Like any betta fish, he flares his fins and becomes quite territorial seeing another like-sized fish in his domain, even if it's just a reflection of himself.  lol.  Decided not to stress out the poor thing the whole day so now he's in the kitchen where I go when I get up, getting ready for work and when I come home from work.

Harry in his little tank

Ski-Doo

On break from work for two weeks.  Spent part of the time travelling, including cross-country skiing.  I loved it.  Lol.

 

 my skis

scenery along the trail