is it weird that i am squabbling over paying $3 for a whistle but i will not hesitate to spend hundreds of dollars for photography equipment?
Monthly Archives: March 2005
try outs
i’m playing in a practice night at IVL tonight and the team has been instructed to downplay a little so that we don’t get bumped into a higher division for the season. as such, i’ve decided that i’m going to be playing left handed.
so sad…we’re a bunch of sandbaggers.
gingerbread house
i was really, really looking forward to going to the gingerbread house today for a farewell lunch for a co-worker today. but NO! a stupid interview was scheduled so i have to go and interview someone instead of enjoying the delicious joy of the gingerbread house.
i’ve only been there once, but i remember the place to be quite charming. oh well…some other time, perhaps.
pacey, dawson, and joey
a little while ago jenny was telling me about how why she truly thought that pacey was a better boyfriend than dawson. i’ve always felt that dawson and joey should have ended up together, but alas, such was not the case.
jenny tells me that the reason why so many girls probably tend to love pacey as the boyfriend more so than dawson is because he loved joey the way that all girls want to be loved. pacey was completely devoted to joey. he loved her so profoundly and unconditionally and it is that kind of love that girls can look for in a boyfriend.
on the other hand, as a guy, i feel that pacey isn’t worthy of someone like joey and instead dawson should be with joey because he’s the stand up guy with the great vision and has always been able to give joey what she needed most. sure pacey loved her and all, but he has always had self-confidence issues. he always felt that he was not good enough for her and that was his detriment.
anyhow, i still think joey should have ended up with dawson.
doh
i forgot my memory card for my camera at home, but i brought my camera with me. luckily i still have the backup 4GB CF card in my bag, so i dodged a bullet there.
heh…backup 4GB card.
it’s still funny whenever i say that.
path of least resistance
i remember talking to a friend of mine a while ago about people that we know in life. there’s a certain type of person that we know that we describe as those who choose the path of least resistance. they usually just go with the flow or wait for things to work out for them. they aren’t particularly aggressive about the things that they want and sometimes they end up doing things that they don’t really want for themselves, but they end up doing it because to have to do things that they want for themselves just causes too much work or trouble and they’d rather not deal with it.
for those people who live this kind of lifestyle, i guess it must be a pretty nice life because you don’t really have to confront issues that bother you and if you are content with getting what’s thrown at you then i think that you can end up being pretty happy.
but what kind of perception does that give of you to others, then? nothing worthwhile in life comes easily, you have to work at it. i firmly believe this. and so i think that if you always choose the path of least resistance, you end up limiting yourself and the potential futures that could have been yours.
some lament over the fact that they don’t get the same opportunity as others. some do something about it, some are content to just lament about it. for those who are happy to be content, i’m happy for you because you will always be happy with what you’ve got.
i’m the total opposite, though. if there’s something that i want, i will strive to get it. i’ll do what i can to get what i want. i can’t just sit idly by waiting, hoping that it’ll come to me. i just can’t be that passive. i would regret it if i didn’t try something because i would feel like i could have done something else, but didn’t. the worst feeling for me is the feeling of lost opportunity.
sometimes i wish i could be like those other people, who can just sit there and things would just come to them. sometimes i wish i could just choose the path of least resistance, even if it was contrary to what i really wanted and just be ok with it. life sure would be a lot easier that way.
top woman shooter and the grace lee project
over the weekend, i decided to go check out top woman shooter and the grace lee project at the asian american film festival in san jose. before we saw the films, we bumped into adam and rae as well as dardy who went to see the year of the yao.
top woman shooter is a documentary by nelson’s brother who we went to support. it is about the world’s top woman shooter…heh. it was kind of cool to see what goes on at these various shooting competitions.
the grace lee project is a film that explores the lives of various people named grace lee. it was an interesting story and i’m glad that i went to see both films.
there is something to be said about independent films. they definitely have a different perspective on telling a story compared to the hollywood blockbuster hits. maybe i ought to add some movies to the netflix queue.
webcam fun
you know you’re obsessed with a new camera when you want to take a picture of a computer screen instead of doing a screen capture. anyhow, my sister and i were using our webcams and chatting with each other over IM. pretty entertaining, i had forgotten how much fun the webcam was…mostly because i don’t really know anyone else who has a webcam.
cheap hot studio lights
i already have a multi-flash studio light setup for my portrait work, but i’ve always sort of wanted to have some hot lights so that i don’t need to do so much guess work sometimes when taking pictures. i’ve always been torn about whether or not to get some dedicated lights or softboxes. the problem has always been cost. i don’t anticipate using these lights often, so i didn’t really want to spend hundreds of dollars to get a setup like this, especially when i have close to what i need already with my multi-flash setup.
but then i read an article about cheap home studio lighting and was intrigued with the possibility of adding lights to my setup that are always on. the problem i saw with this first article’s use of work lights is that the light thrown on the subject is pretty harsh and you’re going to need a lot of extension cords to power this setup.
but it was this article by dan that really made this a reality for me. he has a very similar setup in terms of equipment and so i decided to check it out a little more and try it out. i never thought about using my umbrellas with work lights and this seems to give a much more diffused light.
i have 2 umbrellas, 2 light stands, and 2 photoflex multiclamps for my flash-based setup already so all i had to do was go to sears and purchase the halogen work lights on sale for $10 each.
after getting the two work lights, the only problem i had was that the bolt that came with the work lights were a little too long and the threaded stud that fits into the multiclamp only was threaded about 1/4″. i had about 1/2″ of play and so i went to home depot and got a few washers and a nut to fill in that gap. then it all screwed in pretty easily and i’ve now got a diffused light source that’s always on. these things run pretty hot, though, so if you do choose to use them, be careful when handling them.
i plan to use the tripods that the work lights came with as a reflector holder. all i need is a clamp to hold the reflector to the tripod and i think i ought to be set.
love/hate relationship
my birthday is this week. i have sort of a love/hate relationship with it. in the past, i used to love my birthday because i had always associated it with good, happy times. but in the last several years, my birthday has been marked with some bad experiences. so i’m trying to look at this year, the last year that i can say i’m in my 20s in a positive light, but sometimes it’s hard.
i look back ten years ago at what i had planned for myself and so much hasn’t gone the way that i thought it would. back then i thought that i’d be married by now…and maybe even have a kid. funny how things work out. instead, i’m single with no sign of getting close to the plan that i had. it’s not something that i really regret, though. life has a certain way of working out and though it hasn’t gone as i had planned a long time ago, i think that my goals are different now. some things just aren’t as important to me as they used to be and i’ve come to realize what is really important.
but still, i can’t help but think that i’m starting to get old. playing volleyball, i get sore more easily and don’t recover as quickly as i used to. even going hiking, i get sore. it’s silly, but it’s a sign that my body just isn’t recovering like it used to. the fact that i have to do strengthen exercises to keep my shoulder and ankle ok is yet another sign of my aging. so sad. maybe i should stop being active, then i won’t be hurt all the time. =P
but i was talking to jimmy the other day, and he told me that he was thinking about making a wishlist on his page and it reminded me of when dardy added one to his page as well. i’ve always had a wishlist on my computer, but i’ve been lazy about moving it online. it’s more a list for myself so i remember all the things that i want to get. some of those items are actually rather pricy and they’ve stayed on the wishlist, never to see the insides of my apartment. but one of these days…
so i took a look at my wishlist and updated it a little. i never realized how much of a magazine junkie i really am, but i’ve pruned the list down a little bit. i wonder how much of this stuff i’ll buy for myself calling it a birthday present to myself. i’ve already gotten two things and i’m about to head off to gilroy with my roommate to do some outlet shopping. i’m very scared.