The Governor of California visited work today to make a little speech. We waited in line, hopeful to get in, but fell about 50 people short of the door. Oh well, I didn’t vote for him (or the recall) anyway.
Here’s some photos from outside (with a few more @ my Flickr page):
Thursday was one of the times I was glad I checked my spam email. I get the weekly email from [Ticketmaster] about concerts. I guess I missed the one earlier about [Esthero] coming to town, and only found out on Thursday when she was playing on Friday?!?!?
I called Farrah to quickly confirm we had nothing plan, and was able to purchase some general admission tickets online. Finally, we get to see Esthero after missing her so many years ago.
Esthero in Seattle. Photos taken by [OptimusCrimeDeux]
Esthero came out full of energy. Her vocals were strong, her manner confident, and her energy contagious. She was chatty with the crowd, taking requests for a song here and there. She was wearing a black strapless number that posed problems for her during the show (having to continually pull it up to hide the goods), but otherwise danced around like there was no tomorrow. A great show.
Her set was a little under 90 minutes. Some of the songs she sang (in no particular order) were:
ENCORE:
“I was born Wednesday, June 29, 2005 at 8:24am. I weighed 7lbs 3oz and measured 18.5 inches. My turn-ons include nipples, balmex and pink onesies."
Congratulations to Mark and Ivria
It’s been a pretty low-key weekend. I have just been trying to recover from this cold-thing. Saturday I spent most of the day in bed, hoping I could go out and about on Sunday and Monday. And so I have been able to do so.
Yesterday, Farrah and I just hit the malls - Valley Fair, Vallco then Fry’s - to do a little window shopping for the most part. Coming back from a late breakfast we ran into Mitsuki and her father on their mid-day walk. You can see pictures either on my Flickr account or soon to be posted on the photo page:
Today we went over Farrah’s house for a BBQ lunch. I didn’t take any pictures, probably because I was upset with the fact that I might have lost a lens. Yeah, I can’t find my 50mm lens. I’m not sure when I had it last - I think during Kayla’s dance recital a couple of weeks ago. But I’m sure I had it in my bag. I’m thinking I simply put it down when I was changing the lens and left it behind somewhere. Luckily it is not a really expensive lens, but it still irks me that I lost it. Ugh.
Oh well, that’s the weekend wrap-up for you.
Farrah and I ran into Doug and Mitsuki on their mid-morning walk. I had the camera with me and started to take some photos of Mistuki, which I haven’t had the opportunity to do. I went to manual and forgot the sunny 16 rule, so few of the shots here have way too much light:
Luckily I could look at the LCD and quickly remedy the situation to get a couple of good shoots as well:
These new albums now available for viewing:
Photos from Yen’s birthday dinner.
Photos from Lotte’s birthday dinner.
Still, there are plenty of early Peas-heads who remain disgruntled about the group's leap to the pop world. But go ahead and call them sellouts. Lead lyricist will.i.am doesn't mind. "It's cool. It makes me feel good because that means they really liked our first record."
I wouldn’t say I’m disgruntled, I just liked their old sound better. Not sure I’m getting into their new album. It’s pretty much pop, with a lot of contributing artists (Jack Johnson, Sting, Justin Timberlake…). It’s can be catchy stuff - which pop is supposed to be right?
For more on how B.E.P. feels about their changing sound, [read this CNN article].
Today we had Father’s Day breakfast/brunch at Aloha Kitchen in San Jose on 1041 East Capitol Expressway.. Uh, the food was so good. I had the Samin with BBQ Chicken and it was delicious!!! Farrah’s dad had Samin as well, her mom Portuguese Sausage and eggs, and Farrah had Hawaiian Pancakes.
Farrah’s dad struck up a conversation with another customer. The talk started off normal - How you doing? Where you from? The guy talked about what street he used to live on. Funny thing was that Farrah’s dad new exactly where that was and the neighborhoods’ residents specifically! So the guy would say, “Yeah, there is this short guy who lived in a house down the street…” and Farrah’s dad would reply, “Oh, you mean at 1084?" Amazing.
Later that day Farrah and I took my mom to visit my dad’s grave. It’s been over ten years, but still…
I went to Kayla’s dance recital practice to take some photos, because there is more freedom to use a tripod or move around during the practice session All of these photos were taken with the aperture wide open to f/1.8 using the 50mm lens. Average shutter speed hovered at 50 so I got some blur here and there. Take a look at the photos and make any comments you’d like.
In order to see photos of Kayla herself you will need to have a Flickr account and be on my Friends or Family list. It’s easy to sign up for an account. Just [go to here]. After signing up do a search for me, sith_kicker, and add me as a contact. If you need help, just email me!
Well, I broke out the 50mm lens - which I’m going to use for Kayla’s dance recital practice - and took some self portraits. They turned out ok I suppose. I think I’m a little too close to the camera. Do they look a little washed out? I’m sure I can fix it in post-processing if I really wanted to - or knew how. I shot them in RAW format so this allows for easier tweaking of the image without degradation. What do you think?
By the way, I’m cross posting this blog entry. It seems that ‘LiveJournal’ has introduced a new feature called tagging. It helps in categorizing postings, which the blog software WordPress did very well. This gives me the ability to separate post by types easier. If the tagging works pretty well, perhaps I won’t have to maintain the [LTF] blog separately after all.
Rating: **** out of 5
Quick shot: The movie chronicles the Batman’s beginnings.
What I liked about the move:
It’s back to the serious Batman. The storyline is very well structured, good acting all around, and Gotham City looks like an actual city. Plus Batman’s toys are pretty cool as well.
What I didn’t like:
Bale’s Batman voice didn’t do it for me, except for one scene where he was very effective. Go catch this movie either in primetime or a matinee. Worth seeing!
Well, I have had the D70s for two weeks. I’m loving the freedom of taken the shot and seeing the results right away, but with an SLR type camera! I know that’s how it is supposed to be with a DSLR but I’m still getting used to the feeling.
I have been messing with [aperture priority] and shutter speed the last week. The reason I have been is I want to take photos at Kayla’s dance recital. Taking photos has been a hit and miss affair. The conditions are:
I have had various success and failure in taking photos. I’ve used high speed film (1600), opened up the aperture, steadied my hand various ways, all with mixed results. This year will hopefully be different.
What I am planning to do is take photos during the practice session. Susana said I can bring a tripod during that session and set it up - as the practice isn’t video taped. The lighting conditions will be the same. From what I understand of the advice given by the [nikonians.org] messageboard I should:
I can adjust the ISO as needed. We’ll see how it works. I’ll post some results later.
This photo of drinks was taken under low lighting conditions, no flash, aperture wide open - using the 18mm-70mm lens. The shot was taken hand held, steadied against the table. Farrah took the photo:
Anyway, wish me luck.
