At least E cleaned up and did the dishes. :)
7.30.2006
7.27.2006
Tilt shift
I recently discovered tilt-shift photography - wicked!! Funny thing is, the post-processed fakes are more appealing to me than the pictures taken with an actual tilt-shift lens. The latter is simply a really expensive lens that lets you control the perspective, create neat DOF effects, correct distortions, etc. The former, however, is an art and a skill. An image is processed in a photo editor and given the illusion that it is a miniature model. The secret is in getting just the right degree of Gaussian blur and oversaturation, to give the plastic toy look and make subjects look like figurines. Example: Before | After
Here's a bunch of great examples of fake miniatures. Some of them are crazy good.
Mind-blowingly cool. I'll have to play around with Photoshop this weekend...
EDIT:
It was easier than it seemed - check out my first experiment! (Original pic is from our HK trip this summer)
Original
Tilt-shift fake
Here's a bunch of great examples of fake miniatures. Some of them are crazy good.
Mind-blowingly cool. I'll have to play around with Photoshop this weekend...
EDIT:
It was easier than it seemed - check out my first experiment! (Original pic is from our HK trip this summer)
Original
Tilt-shift fake
7.23.2006
Saturday
In past blogs, I seemed only capable of chronicling my weekends, and nothing more. Old habits die hard, I guess. I think it stems from a childish desire to tell someone all about my weekend, and since nobody really cares, it gets dumped into a blog. (That's what blogs are for, right? Public trash receptacle for your thoughts.) In my defense though, this was a rather good one, worthy of a lame post at least.
First, it rained. It was a merciful reprieve from the sweltering heat and humidity; the past week had been so hot that I would melt like a candle just walking down the street. Now it's cool and breezy, balance is restored and the world is happy again. E went to his Ultimate tourney despite the rain, won, and came back covered in mud. I sat at the piano for hours, happily, though I wasn't patient enough to work through the rest of the Bach fugue.
Made a hearty lunch - spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette, Gourmandise Kirsch and crackers, shrimp cocktail, and cranberry tuna salad sandwiches. Broke out our new PB pitcher for lemonade. Puttered around the house a bit before deciding to go shopping. E tagged along. Had Chicago-style pizza for dinner (gorgonzola = good), where E revealed himself to be quite a pizza snob. Hauled the shopping home and fixed some lychee martinis. Meant to play BZFlag with E (as DaBlasta and MrsBlasta) but ended up surfing the web. Maybe tonight...
Lunch!
Bountiful harvest - denim jacket, stretchy tube, shirt and cute pumps for work
Lychee martinis with sake and gin
Toasty and stylin' the new merchandise with baby
Steak for din din. Cow yummy. Grocery shopping and more piano lined up for the afternoon. Still not done polyurethaning the futon... gah.
First, it rained. It was a merciful reprieve from the sweltering heat and humidity; the past week had been so hot that I would melt like a candle just walking down the street. Now it's cool and breezy, balance is restored and the world is happy again. E went to his Ultimate tourney despite the rain, won, and came back covered in mud. I sat at the piano for hours, happily, though I wasn't patient enough to work through the rest of the Bach fugue.
Made a hearty lunch - spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette, Gourmandise Kirsch and crackers, shrimp cocktail, and cranberry tuna salad sandwiches. Broke out our new PB pitcher for lemonade. Puttered around the house a bit before deciding to go shopping. E tagged along. Had Chicago-style pizza for dinner (gorgonzola = good), where E revealed himself to be quite a pizza snob. Hauled the shopping home and fixed some lychee martinis. Meant to play BZFlag with E (as DaBlasta and MrsBlasta) but ended up surfing the web. Maybe tonight...
Lunch!
Bountiful harvest - denim jacket, stretchy tube, shirt and cute pumps for work
Lychee martinis with sake and gin
Toasty and stylin' the new merchandise with baby
Steak for din din. Cow yummy. Grocery shopping and more piano lined up for the afternoon. Still not done polyurethaning the futon... gah.
7.22.2006
Love is...
This post is dedicated to the little things that make me happy.
* Skyr - I found this new-fangled yogurt-like snack during one of my rounds at Whole Foods. It's the best thing ever! Brilliant idea. I'm a nut for dairy foods, and this Icelandic creation has me hooked. It's thick, rich, creamy, and best of all, nonfat (imagine that! Can anything be more perfect?). Whole Foods sells skyr as a parfait with berries and granola, and I can't get enough of it. More skyr!
* Karrin Allyson's Footprints - Released in April, this kick-butt album shows up all her previous ones. From Paris to Rio had been a favorite of mine, but it's a different style and at risk of sounding like a traitor, I prefer the classic jazz sound of this newest album. It's odd hearing lyrics to well-known jazz classics not intended for song, but I thought it was a classy twist. I remember when I first heard O Baquinho on the classical and jazz station years ago, when she was still an obscure name... now, Karrin is heard almost every night on NPR Jazz. I love every song on this album, and Karrin is definitely one talented scat cat.
(Herbie Hancock was purchased at the same time; my collection grows. Eeeexcellent.)
* My Canon 75-300mm lens - It's a cheap piece of glass, no IS, but it does good work. Took this last week after one of E's Ultimate tournies:
You can see the freakin' craters! Holy smokes! Okay, so it's really grainy... But hey, you gotta admit it's not bad for a low-end basic telephoto and no tripod.
* Mini weekend trips - Our little road adventure to the Finger Lakes has been finalized. We're staying at a bed and breakfast and doing the usual - hiking, hitting the wine trail, exploring the gorges and waterfalls at the state parks... I'm especially excited about visiting the meadery up there, and the possibility of trout/bass fishing. If the insane heat hasn't done them in yet, we might pick strawberries at a farm. This will be a nice getaway; E is psyched too.
* Curious furballs - I made quiche a few nights ago, and E brought baby closer to steal a whiff (smell but no touch - that sadist).
Cutie + pie! Corny, I know :)
Sleepy time. Lots to do this weekend...
* Skyr - I found this new-fangled yogurt-like snack during one of my rounds at Whole Foods. It's the best thing ever! Brilliant idea. I'm a nut for dairy foods, and this Icelandic creation has me hooked. It's thick, rich, creamy, and best of all, nonfat (imagine that! Can anything be more perfect?). Whole Foods sells skyr as a parfait with berries and granola, and I can't get enough of it. More skyr!
* Karrin Allyson's Footprints - Released in April, this kick-butt album shows up all her previous ones. From Paris to Rio had been a favorite of mine, but it's a different style and at risk of sounding like a traitor, I prefer the classic jazz sound of this newest album. It's odd hearing lyrics to well-known jazz classics not intended for song, but I thought it was a classy twist. I remember when I first heard O Baquinho on the classical and jazz station years ago, when she was still an obscure name... now, Karrin is heard almost every night on NPR Jazz. I love every song on this album, and Karrin is definitely one talented scat cat.
(Herbie Hancock was purchased at the same time; my collection grows. Eeeexcellent.)
* My Canon 75-300mm lens - It's a cheap piece of glass, no IS, but it does good work. Took this last week after one of E's Ultimate tournies:
You can see the freakin' craters! Holy smokes! Okay, so it's really grainy... But hey, you gotta admit it's not bad for a low-end basic telephoto and no tripod.
* Mini weekend trips - Our little road adventure to the Finger Lakes has been finalized. We're staying at a bed and breakfast and doing the usual - hiking, hitting the wine trail, exploring the gorges and waterfalls at the state parks... I'm especially excited about visiting the meadery up there, and the possibility of trout/bass fishing. If the insane heat hasn't done them in yet, we might pick strawberries at a farm. This will be a nice getaway; E is psyched too.
* Curious furballs - I made quiche a few nights ago, and E brought baby closer to steal a whiff (smell but no touch - that sadist).
Cutie + pie! Corny, I know :)
Sleepy time. Lots to do this weekend...
7.16.2006
The Ex
The Ex visited this weekend. He was in Philly for business, and decided to stop by. Heh, stop by. (I guess when you live on the other side of the country, driving across the state in a company-paid rental car is nothing.) He looked good. He just earned his Masters from Stanford; between that and his degree from our alma mater, he's set to make waves. Still working for the same gov't defense contractor on stuff he can't talk about.
We chatted about his impending Southeast Asian tour - Singapore, Jakarta, Bali, Kuala Lumpur. When he moved out to Silicon Valley after college, I gave him the contact information for my aunt and uncle, so he won't be all alone. My family can show him around and help him settle in, until he gets acquainted with the area and finds his niche. It was a favor my aunt was doing, because she knew I cared a lot for him even though she didn't care for my ang moh (ex-)boyfriend. Gradually, however, the ice melted and he became the babysitter, the English translator, the incontestable 4th mahjong partner, the surrogate son. Now, 3 years later and after countless subtle attempts to persuade me he'd make a good husband (despite earlier doubts), they're taking him to the places near and dear to their hearts. I think it will be a great trip for him. My mum thinks it's downright disturbing. E is a little jealous, but he 'won' as far as he's concerned, so it doesn't matter.
We reminisced, of course, and laughed about all the stupid things we did. Fraternity stories, spring break at a beach house in Jersey with our posse of 8, timeless quotes and moments, etc. We didn't talk about other things, the memories between us that we remember vividly but know are moot to bring up. E held his own, despite not being in on a lot of the jokes and "remember when"s.
The strangest moment of the weekend must've been when the 3 of us - hubby, myself, and the Ex - were sitting around the dining table, sipping on mojitos, E surgically transplanting one of our plants into another pot, dirt everywhere, the Ex talking about work, cat sitting contentedly on his lap. I had a moment of "whoa", like in the movies where everything suddenly moved like molasses, as I looked at the two men and thought about the choices I made. The well-built, charismatic engineer, who held my hand through college and whom I trusted with my life, and the slender, quiet programmer, my emotional anchor who I promised to love and cherish, till death do us part. They are so similar, yet so different, in too many ways. I couldn't be more glad that our lives crossed paths, but some memories and people are better left in the past. I was so proud of E for being the bigger man and taking everything in stride, and happy that the Ex and I are still great friends in spite of the odds.
He left before dinner to head to the airport, joking about what a bore his first-class trip back to California would be. We said our goodbyes, and as soon as the door closed, I soothed hubby's ego a little before letting the weekend return to normal.
(E rox my sox.)
We chatted about his impending Southeast Asian tour - Singapore, Jakarta, Bali, Kuala Lumpur. When he moved out to Silicon Valley after college, I gave him the contact information for my aunt and uncle, so he won't be all alone. My family can show him around and help him settle in, until he gets acquainted with the area and finds his niche. It was a favor my aunt was doing, because she knew I cared a lot for him even though she didn't care for my ang moh (ex-)boyfriend. Gradually, however, the ice melted and he became the babysitter, the English translator, the incontestable 4th mahjong partner, the surrogate son. Now, 3 years later and after countless subtle attempts to persuade me he'd make a good husband (despite earlier doubts), they're taking him to the places near and dear to their hearts. I think it will be a great trip for him. My mum thinks it's downright disturbing. E is a little jealous, but he 'won' as far as he's concerned, so it doesn't matter.
We reminisced, of course, and laughed about all the stupid things we did. Fraternity stories, spring break at a beach house in Jersey with our posse of 8, timeless quotes and moments, etc. We didn't talk about other things, the memories between us that we remember vividly but know are moot to bring up. E held his own, despite not being in on a lot of the jokes and "remember when"s.
The strangest moment of the weekend must've been when the 3 of us - hubby, myself, and the Ex - were sitting around the dining table, sipping on mojitos, E surgically transplanting one of our plants into another pot, dirt everywhere, the Ex talking about work, cat sitting contentedly on his lap. I had a moment of "whoa", like in the movies where everything suddenly moved like molasses, as I looked at the two men and thought about the choices I made. The well-built, charismatic engineer, who held my hand through college and whom I trusted with my life, and the slender, quiet programmer, my emotional anchor who I promised to love and cherish, till death do us part. They are so similar, yet so different, in too many ways. I couldn't be more glad that our lives crossed paths, but some memories and people are better left in the past. I was so proud of E for being the bigger man and taking everything in stride, and happy that the Ex and I are still great friends in spite of the odds.
He left before dinner to head to the airport, joking about what a bore his first-class trip back to California would be. We said our goodbyes, and as soon as the door closed, I soothed hubby's ego a little before letting the weekend return to normal.
(E rox my sox.)
7.08.2006
How now, Mr. Brown?
It all began with a regular Friday Mr Brown column...
Alarm goes off for govt bureaucrats; scathing response from the press secretary to the Minister of Information, Communications, and the Arts
Mr Brown suspended from newspaper column - the masses react
Article on BoingBoing
Article on Slashdot
A whole bunch of people write about it
Reporters sans frontieres (RSF) are up in arms
What some commenters find this whole situation seeming like
Singapore ranks 140th in worldwide freedom of press survey conducted by RSF
This is disturbing, unsurprising, and heartening all at once. Disturbing that the government's (over)reaction was compared to communist China; that the newspaper may as well be owned by the government (imagine the propagandistic chow that local minds get fed everyday); that the debate brings out the worst in some people, and it's scary to know what they are really thinking.
But I wasn't/am not shocked; nobody should be. While the ministry's response wasn't the most sensible, I can understand why there is a low tolerance for any opposition to the government. (It's one of many unusual strategies in a handbook that might be titled How To Rule A Small, Young, Densely Populated and Incredibly Diverse Country.) If the people are unhappy, the government might honestly not realize this (huge disconnect common of any government), or choose to sweep it under the rug and dress it up with optimism and fancy statistics for the above reason. **Who knows why Singapore's government is so famously stuffy; I'm taking a generous stance here, though it's hard not to appear either ignorant/docile or a conspiracy theorist.** Anyway - so naturally, if someone were to write about the government/our way of life with even a hint of criticism, they will be on you. (Personally, I find it a little humorous that the ministry's defense was calling Mr Brown a liar and a coward - the article a "polemic" and "distortion of truth" while the author "hides behind a pseudonym". His article rings true for many; the letter and the effective shutting up of any further dissent won't help their case.) Unhappy is as unhappy does and of course, the S'porean blogosphere is shaken up and there is a tremendous outpouring of concern, show of support, etc. for the 'fallen hero'. It must not be easy being Mr Brown right now.
Finally, it's heartening that there is such a furor over this. At the very least, it means that people care. Many responses are the run-of-the-mill "this sucks" whining and echoes from lemmings, but a good number also offer constructive solutions and proposed actions. The people are not dormant; they are aware, and want something better. A few provided insightful comments that were a comforting sign that there is hope yet.
Model 21st century state or 3rd world authoritarian rule? Perhaps both, but we are still young and will need to work through more strife before the perfect balance can be struck.
Alarm goes off for govt bureaucrats; scathing response from the press secretary to the Minister of Information, Communications, and the Arts
Mr Brown suspended from newspaper column - the masses react
Article on BoingBoing
Article on Slashdot
A whole bunch of people write about it
Reporters sans frontieres (RSF) are up in arms
What some commenters find this whole situation seeming like
Singapore ranks 140th in worldwide freedom of press survey conducted by RSF
This is disturbing, unsurprising, and heartening all at once. Disturbing that the government's (over)reaction was compared to communist China; that the newspaper may as well be owned by the government (imagine the propagandistic chow that local minds get fed everyday); that the debate brings out the worst in some people, and it's scary to know what they are really thinking.
But I wasn't/am not shocked; nobody should be. While the ministry's response wasn't the most sensible, I can understand why there is a low tolerance for any opposition to the government. (It's one of many unusual strategies in a handbook that might be titled How To Rule A Small, Young, Densely Populated and Incredibly Diverse Country.) If the people are unhappy, the government might honestly not realize this (huge disconnect common of any government), or choose to sweep it under the rug and dress it up with optimism and fancy statistics for the above reason. **Who knows why Singapore's government is so famously stuffy; I'm taking a generous stance here, though it's hard not to appear either ignorant/docile or a conspiracy theorist.** Anyway - so naturally, if someone were to write about the government/our way of life with even a hint of criticism, they will be on you. (Personally, I find it a little humorous that the ministry's defense was calling Mr Brown a liar and a coward - the article a "polemic" and "distortion of truth" while the author "hides behind a pseudonym". His article rings true for many; the letter and the effective shutting up of any further dissent won't help their case.) Unhappy is as unhappy does and of course, the S'porean blogosphere is shaken up and there is a tremendous outpouring of concern, show of support, etc. for the 'fallen hero'. It must not be easy being Mr Brown right now.
Finally, it's heartening that there is such a furor over this. At the very least, it means that people care. Many responses are the run-of-the-mill "this sucks" whining and echoes from lemmings, but a good number also offer constructive solutions and proposed actions. The people are not dormant; they are aware, and want something better. A few provided insightful comments that were a comforting sign that there is hope yet.
Model 21st century state or 3rd world authoritarian rule? Perhaps both, but we are still young and will need to work through more strife before the perfect balance can be struck.
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