Rate My Space!

Pretty exciting day for me.  After 6 long months of living in a virtually empty apartment, I have finally (semi) furnished the place.  Today, Room and Board delivered my super comfy Dublin couch (my criteria was a couch I can nap on) and two chairs all the way from Minnesota.  I have been trying to assemble a “classic contemporary” look with big comfy furniture and combination dark earthy colors (You can tell I’ve been watching HGTV).  What you see in the picture is a leaning desk from Room and Board, a coffee table and desk chair from West Elm…and I think that’s it.  Plus my bike in the living room. 

What I still need is a TV of course, TV stand, bed frame, a small side table, some leaning shelves, and some accent pillows and that’s pretty much it.  I don’t want to over-furnish the place to keep things nice and simple.  Apparently this place will serve as the new low budget happy hour and “man cave” for some friends around here who need to escape the wife and kids. 

Test Post Using Windows Live Writer

I’m trying out Microsoft’s Windows Live Writer that can edit and format an the major blogs including blogger.  So far I have to say that I’m impressed at the ease.  I don’t need to do a 2 stage process of first uploading a pic to flickr and then embedding it using html editor on blogger.  This is just a one step process that even has some cool special effects like this reflection…even a watermark.  How cool is that?  Thank Khiemy for the recommendation.

This picture is of Lily, my friend Chip’s daughter I took on Halloween.  It’s not the most technically the best photo due to the wrong focus area.  It was done on my old pal the D70s.  Speaking of which, that’s the same camera Jeff got.  So yup, that was really easy…so easy I almost want to post another picture.  You know what, I think I will actually!Me @ the Modern Art Museum | Ft. Worth, TX Summer, 2008

*Presses the Easy button.  Bam!  How you like that?!  Very cool.  I can even crop, resize, and add some effects like sepia ton.  If I didn’t have so many archived pics on Flickr I’d cancel it.  But oh well… This thing can even embed video too but only low res.  I’m still looking a WMV to MP4 or other HD res file compatible with Youtube’s High Quality mode.  Doh!  Where are the Blogger tags?  I guess you can’t do it all here.  Oh well still impressed….OH WAIT…they show it right before you publish.  Ok this thing rules.

UPdate:  ok the first picture is pixelated and I can't get it to be not pixelated.  So much for being cool.  Boooo!!!

This picture of me and Khiemy cracks me up - we were in goofy moods.  It was taken when I was back home after our group ate at Lucille's in Brea.  Come to think of it...we shared the dinner...then this picture.  What is going on here?!!

Just to mention photos - I've noticed that more and more people are buying some nice DSLR cameras, which is great.  They usually ask me which one to buy and my answer is:

1.  Stick with Canon or Nikon because there are a huge selection of lenses and accessories that are easily available, ranging from beginner's stuff to high end fancy stuff.

2.  If your budget is under $1000, get a Canon Rebel __.  It has great picture quality and is compatible with all the new Canon lenses.  The Nikons D40/60 can't use older mechanical lenses.

3.  If your budget is between $1000-$2000, get a Nikon.  Big high resolution screens and manual controls built for serious photographers will allow you to learn your camera, making the next step up very easy.  I was very comfortable with the D3 after the D70s.  

4.  $2000 and up - either brand is great.  At this point, it's really your own skill rather than the camera that's limiting you.  

Finally, I will say that the camera only matters so much and having a nice one makes your life a little easier.  Unfortunately, having the best camera without the knowledge or artistic sense will lead to boring pictures, even if they are sharp.  The best pictures technically don't necessarily mean good pictures.  Some of my favorite pics are grainy, a little out of focus...it's ok as long as people find it interesting.  Anyway, that's my 2 cents!   More soon.

Retouching

Someone's mom was asking where her picture was so I had to throw one in there. But to make things interesting, this is a little before and after action. What I did was a little cross processing, added a border, and sharpened a little. I was going for a cooler look. There are many ways to make a picture have that special look. Images coming out of Nikon cameras tend to underexpose a little bit and under-sharpen. This allows me to tweak these things and bring out the detail. For variety, I like to do some photos in black and white, with a bluish tint, sepia etc. Lots of photo purists don't appreciate the photoshop work but I definitely support it as long as it's not overdone.  

Anyway, I'm back at the ranch and I noticed that I'm constantly missing being at the other place.  When I was back in Socal I missed Texas believe it or not and vice versa.  I really need to make some time to get the photo stuff started here...that'll be my project for the next month.

A Trip to the P-A-R-K with Sienna

Someone has been taking a lot of pictures while I was away.  

Sienna has grown quite a bit since I last took some pics of her.  This time she's running around, jibba jabba'in away, climbing on stuff and just being all around hyper.  We took a quick trip to the park to play and she was workin the camera by smiling on que.  Looks like back to Texas in a couple days which shows a freezing rain advisory right now :(  But I do miss the folks over there so it'll be nice to get back.

Happy 2009 Everybody!

My friend Neha was pregnant!  She's due in 6 weeks.

AC, me, and Jenny (AC's official girlfriend)

Me hanging out with the Pinoys Phil and Jeff.

Me, Mochi, 3 months without a haircut, and a week without shaving.


Anisa visiting the stockyards - that's a real longhorn. 

I've been gone for a while and judging from the number of posts I posted in 2007 versus 2008, I'm down around 50% - which is not good. Anyway, last night I attended Elisa's wedding (Yes, I'm back in California) and it was very strange seeing all the people I've lost touch with in college. Everyone was looking great - but it reinforced a couple of things: I am getting old and I have a fat face and double chin. As the cliche goes, it's back to the gym for this year's resolution.  Also, these were taken with my good ol broken screen Canon SD500.  People don't realize how important the LCD screen is - one time I went a whole day taking pictures to only realize afterward that I didn't put a memory card in there :(.  Plus it's a guessing game on how much battery you have left and frankly, it's quite embarassing handing it off to people to take pictures because they can only aim it in the general direction.  So definitately a new camera in 2009 - I'm looking at the black SD990 but I need to save up first.

A little look back on 2008

The Good:  I had an excellent year rebounding from 2007, which was the worst year ever. Finally graduating, getting a job and moving to Texas, getting the D3 and shooting a wedding, gaining new friends, my friends are all doing well, no one that I know is sick, getting a great deal on a washer/dryer....probably more.

The Bad:  Moving to Texas and missing home and all my people, fewer blog posts...hmmm nothing major, so yea...2008 ftw!

The Ugly:  Stepping on my glasses and continuing to wear them with tape nerd style for a couple of months. (See pic above)

I'm heading over to Sienna's house later today so definitely more pictures soon.