Just my week and random stuff

I really like this book, which you can find here:
 
http://www.amazon.com/Dawoud-Bey-Pictures-Jock-Reynolds/dp/1597110434/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1219087527&sr=8-1

It’s a collection of photographs of teenagers and a little essay by them, describing themselves and how others look at them. I like this one the most, especially the last two sentences:

Omar

I know that I shouldn’t but sometimes I wonder how other people look at me. What do they see first? My brown-ness, my beard, my cap, my clothes, the color of my eyes, the design of my T-shirt? I think that people see my skin color first. They probably see me as a brown guy. Then, they might see my black beard and my white kufi (prayer cap) and figure out I am Muslim. They see my most early qualities first. Brown, that’s the very color of the earth, the mud from which God created us. Sometimes I wonder what color my soul is. I hope that it’s the color of heaven.

I recently bought a Lomography Fisheye 2 camera and am very excited to see the results. I almost vowed not to buy anything, or at least not to withdraw any more money…but I don’t know anymore considering I want to buy the colorsplash part of the camera and also a Holga. that would be cool.

What would be even cooler would be a digital camera that has all these features of a Holga, Fisheye, SLR, and an automatic camera. Someone should make that. Unless, someone already did and I just don’t know about it.
Well, they do have a fisheye digital lens..but extremely expensive.

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0506/05063001olympus_fisheye.asp

There is a tutorial to make it in less than $20 though.

http://www.dphotojournal.com/diy-make-a-fisheye-digital-camera-for-20/

And I also found that there is a way to make the Holga effects with a digital camera…

But still! they should combine all these elements without switching lenses and paying more money! Just like a simple digital camera! Maybe in 50 or 100 years. I hope to live to see the day.

I also went to see the opera Aida at Mccaw hall yesterday (sunday). The ticket price was really good because of Teen Tix. $7 only! (including tax) The singing was really good, but I don’t think I appreciated it as much as I could have if I was more awake. It was 3 hours long after all. There was this couple who dressed really modern…or at least spent alot of time on their hair. The only problem is that I was in the second row and I had to stretch my neck to see the subtitles. After 2 hours…my neck began to ache.

I was dying…simply dying on Friday. It was much too hot. I was carrying this humongo piece of graphic tablet and three bags while treking from pioneer square to a couple blocks north of the convention center in downtown. Okay, I confess, the distance wasn’t that bad, but the heat! the heat made me want to faint at some point. I felt my heart pumping blood into my head and I had a pounding headache. I guess my reward for doing all this excercise and feeling horribly achy the next morning, is eating crepes, getting new clothes, and seeing my friends. Oh, what I do for the people I care for. At the same time, I’m so out of shape and haven’t done like zero excercise

Oh yeah, I thought this was funny, it’s from the August 2008 copy of Vanity Fair:

 

 

Matcha Crepes

I made some matcha crepes the other day. I should have added the matcha to the dry ingredients instead of after I put in the milk.  I just added matcha to this recipe from this site:

http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/takehomechef/recipes/episode144_03.html

Matcha crepes

Ingredients

1 cup/125 g all purpose flour, sifted
4 teaspoons/15 g granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of matcha powder
2 large eggs
1 1/4 cups/325 ml whole milk
1/2 cup/115 g heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon/15 g unsalted butter

Directions:

To make the crepes, combine the flour, sugar, matcha, and salt in a large mixing bowl.  Whisk in the eggs and just enough of the milk to form a soft paste.  Combine the remaining milk and cream in a measuring cup and slowly add to the flour mixture, whisking to form a smooth batter. 

Strain the batter into a medium bowl to remove any lumps. Cover the batter and set aside for 30 minutes. This will allow time for the flour to absorb all of the liquid.  Heat a crepe pan or a heavy 7-inch/18-cm-diameter non-stick sauté pan over medium-low heat.  Dab some butter on a paper towel and wipe the pan with a little butter.

Pour 3 tablespoons/45 ml of batter into the pan and swirl to coat the bottom thinly. Cook until the edge of the crepe is light brown. Loosen the edges gently with a spatula. Carefully turn the crepe over. Cook until the bottom begins to brown in spots, about 30 seconds to 1 minute. Transfer to a plate.

Repeat with the remaining batter, wiping the pan with butter as needed, and forming 12 crepes total.

 

Family, Sushi, Matcha cookies attempt #3

I made some sushi the other day with some furikake, unagi, spam, salmon mayo mixture, and avacado.

I also made a third attempt at the matcha cookies and used the carot cutter I bought at Uwajimaya because they had cherry blossom shapes. It turned out better than the first attempt because I actually followed the instructions, but I still think it wasn’t the best cookie… it was more like okay but not great. I loved the hint of matcha flavor in it though.

Oh, some pictures of my grandmother. She doesn’t like it when I take pictures of her.

My grandpa smiling because my mom’s making him something to eat.

Pictures of my dad and cousin watching them play mahjong.

Some pictures of my relatives and grandpa playing mahjong.  Look at his tummy!

Pictures of my dad and Grandpa

 

Daisuki!! and Dreams

I saw this Japanese drama recently called Daisuki!! and it was the first TV show where I cried in the first episode. It was just so touching and sad. It’s about this girl who is mentally disabled and becomes pregnant by another mentally disabled person at the same institution they attended. But her boyfriend dies in a car crash after buying flowers for her. The part that really struck me was how much the mother loved her daughter and that one part where she says “Why am I so stupid?” or something like that and that other part where she tries to fix her hair by herself, but can’t.
 

On a whole different topic:

Dreams
I’ve been pretty busy lately, so I haven’t been able to post very often. Sometimes I have strange dreams, like that one time when I dreamt that I lived during some sort of war and we lived in fancy paper houses, but we were secretly competing against our neighbors.  I vaguely remember being accused of trespassing. It was strange because I remember closets and chandeliers, but everything was made out of paper.

Anyways, my most recent dream was really strange too. I dreamt about alot of whales in the ocean. For some reason I was in the water too. All of a sudden one of the whales made a mistake and summoned a whirl pool to occur. The biggest whale tried to get out and eventually did, but the rest of the whales got sucked in to the whirl pool and fell in. At the bottom of this hole in the ocean, there were alot of pollution and trash and the water was running out. Somehow there were horses and pigs too. For some reason I found an elevator that led me to a building. I tried out different levels, and found one level with two competing Asian grocery stores, like the Seattle Super market in Beacon Hill. (Except that there were guards walking around and standing near the elevator.)

I think somewhere in my mind I had an urge to save the whales by going to an Asian grocery store. I was looking for something, but I didn’t know what. I even saw my friend Vivian in the store. Weird. I went in to another level, and it had different rooms. I found this kid that I apparently knew who was staring at a screen at the back of this room with glowing pink walls like those in a fancy club or hotel. Someone was talking on the screen and it was supposed to be some sort of oracle. The guy told me to take the microwave and use it somehow to save the whales. 

Then I woke up because I had to go to work. -_-;;
Another thought came to mind–I remember my cousin saying that when people love each other, they should be together…but I know that doesn’t always work out. People may love each other, but their conflicting beliefs or personalities or situations might prevent them from being together.

 

Pretty boys overtake the screen… this fall is the season for them

 

 

 

I found this article on hancinema:

 

Pretty boys overtake the screen… this fall is the season for them
2008/07/03

After the female-dominated last year and after this summer filled with men, it will be the season for pretty boys.

The faces are brilliant.

Kang Dong-won, who had stayed inactive after “M”, will come back with “The War Of Flower” Director Choi Dong-hoon’s “Jeon Woo-chi”. He is the first of the pretty boys, and will play a character who is born again into modern times after being trapped in a picture due to his wasteful life.

People look forward to Kang Dong-won’s special comedy, which he showed in “Too Beautiful To Lie” and “M”, and how it will tie in with his innocent appearance.

“Jeon Woo-chi” will air early next year, but it is already popular due to the union of Director Choi Dong-hoon, Kang Dong-won, Kim Yoon-seok, and Im Soo-jeong.

Director Min Gyoo-dong’s “Antique Bakery”, set to premiere this fall, is drawing attention for the union of many pretty boys. Joo Ji-hoon, Kim Jae-wook, Yoo Ah-in, and Choi Ji-ho were introduced recently through movie programs and provoked female sentiment.

“Antique Bakery” is drawing popularity because of the popularity of a Japanese comic of the same name and the love relationships among the pretty boys. Japanese fans even came to see Joo Ji-hoon on the set, for he is popular in Japan for “Princess Hours“. This work is anticipated to be popular in Japan. This work also concluded contracts with a Japanese company at the Cannes International Film Festival.

Jang Geun-seok, who captured hearts of older women from a young age, will join in the wave of pretty boy movies.

“Baby and Me”, where Jang Geun-seok becomes a father, is aimed to premiere in fall. 

Not only Korean pretty boys, but Japanese pretty boys are adorning the screen as well.

Satoshi Tsumabuki, who is popular for “Josee, The Tiger and The Fish”, will be starring in the Korea-Japan joint movie “Boat” with Ha Jeong-woo. Satoshi Tsumabuki has to take care of an object that was smuggled in Korea.

Odagiri Joe, who is famous for choosing profitable works and movies that focus on the writer, is another pretty boy. He worked with Lee Na-young in Director Kim Ki-duk’s “Dream”.

The reactions of the movie industry are varied.

It may be a coincidence, but it may also have happened naturally, for they take the female audience’s interests into heart.

Whether coincidence or not, it seems many female audiences who attend the movies will be happy this fall.

 

Taken from:

http://www.hancinema.net/pretty-boys-overtake-the-screen–this-fall-is-the-season-for-them-14389.html