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Tech

Return of James the Photographer

After some professional photo gigs for Erick and Huey’s weddings, I took a leave of absence from the world of photography (I took a break from the world of blogging too, but that’s a different story).  Right before Christmas, I decided to vent out the photo bag when I discovered that my family room is filled with snow!

Oh wait… no… my camera just kept overexposing shots!  For the Fuzzy shots, I had to resort to using Full Manual mode, taking 427 tries to get 2 good shots!  I suppose to look on the bright side, we were planning to go to Europe, and finding this problem out in Italy would have been… most unpleasant.

So I headed where everyone else would when they encounter problems like this–the internet.  After a little research, it was apparent this is the precursor to the BLOG problem.  Wait?  BLOG?  No, BGLOD.  It stands for “Blinking Green Light Of Death”.  Apparently all Nikon D70’s shipped in the first 4 months of the product was prone to this issue, even if the camera is sitting untouched collecting dust in its original box.  There’s a recall service advisory for this, but with a catch–to qualify for the free service, the green light has to be blinking.  Unfortunately mine wasn’t blinking.  I had all the symptoms leading up to it, but not the problem itself.

Knowing that this will eventually deteriorate into BGLOD, I placed it back in its bag and went on our Christmas vacation with our old Canon S400.  Of course, having used a D70 for so long, this was like getting used to driving a BMW and then being forced to drive a Corolla (no disrespect to you Corolla owners…  I’m sure it’s a… um…  respectable car).  When I came back…  lo and behold!  Blinking Green Light of Death!  Yes!!!

I promptly sent it in for service, and that was two weeks ago.  I just got my camera back today and we’ll give it some time to see if everything is fixed.  However, for how much I paid for this thing, I expected a little more than a timebomb…  oh well.  At least it’s working now.

Sports

Overnight Bowling Star?

Bowling has been one of those sports that I have had mixed success. On Friday, my team had a morale event at the bowling alley where I showed off my exceptional skills by handily beating the other three players in my lane.  Now had I broken a hundred, it may have been a more satisfying experience, but I’ll take the win.  The second game I did better, scoring about 156.  However, in the third game I once again entered a (very) cold streak, but half way through the game, a coworker who was on a perpetual cold streak told me, “I’m now trying the spin.  It’s really fun… you should try it!”  Because I’m always up for a challenge (and because it would cover up my subpar start), I decided to take the plunge and learned “the bowling secret”.

Talk about night and day!  Not only did I fare better the second half, but before I left, I barely missed getting a turkey by getting “X X 9/” !  Just to check that it’s not a fluke, the next day Kari, Tim, Karen and myself went bowling, and using only spin shots, I played three games and never a game below 110.  Ok, I better stop before this starts sounding like an infomercial.  “If you call in the next 10 minutes, not only will I share this secret, but I’ll give you a free pair of bowling shoes, absolutely free…”

The game of bowling would never be the same again.  Anyone up for bowling?  😉

General

Who Won The Apprentice Tonight?

(warning: spoilers below)

Up to this point, Randal had been a class-act.  In all episodes, it seemed like Randal spoke highly of his peers, was full of integrity, and was full of heart.  He also seemed genuinely founded in his faith, making references to his church.  So tonight, when Trump asked him which project he would like to head, Karen and I fully anticipated him shying away from the Casino.  Wrong.  He fully embraced grandeur of Atlantic City, taking us by surprise.

However, it wasn’t until the final 5 minutes of the 2-hour finale that he had gone from one of my most respected candidate to the least respected.  Half way into the episode, Karen already suspected that Trump will hire both, especially when he foreshadowed it when they chose different projects.  So when Trump seeked Randal’s opinion on Rebecca’s hiring, I thought “here we go”.  Based on his past relationship with Rebecca, I fully expected the response to be, “You know, Mr. Trump, I’ve worked with Rebecca and she’s smart and capable. She will be a great asset to your organization.  I highly recommend her.”  As you know, the episode unfolded with Randal denying Rebecca’s employment by requesting to be the sole Apprentice, and Trump respected his wishes.  Unbelievable.  I understand that Randal wants tonight to be his night, but he has already been declared the winner!  It’s as if Randal grew horns and fangs and transformed into an evil grinch overnight!  I had no choice but to roll my eyes and sigh in disgust.

Who are you?  Where’s Randal and what did you do with him?!?

Home

New Rodent

After this whole rodent-catching and disposing situation, we were left with a fish tank, a mouse wheel, two food dishes, and a bunch of bedding and mouse food.  I suppose it also left us with a rearranged pantry, a disinfected fireplace, and the idea of owning a pet.  Finally we caved in and paid another visit to PetCo.

He’s a Siberian Dwarf Hamster.  He’s white, has a small ear, red eyes, and a bunny-esque tail. We have yet to name him, but he’s a handful already.  When the expert store manager, who claimed to be the proud owner of several hamster privately, made an attempt to extract the mouse from its cage, he leap out of his cage and dropped 5 feet onto the floor.  Ouch!  The word “exchange” crossed my mind, but somehow we’ve already made the connection with him in the long two minutes we spent with him.  Thankfully there are no noticeable impairment from that fiasco, as he is gleefully racing in the mouse wheel next to me heading toward some imaginative destination.

Welcome the new member of the family.  This time, I believe he is here to stay.

Home

Deer Mouse Returned for Refund

After identifying the mouse as a “deer mouse”, we’ve looked into the perils of such a wild rodent, and in the end, we decided to ban its presence from the premises.  I carefully transported it to a grocery bag, went to an undisclosed location (and no it’s not my neighbor’s backyard), wished it a good life and dropped it off.  It immediately rushed to the nearest blackberry bush and disappeared.

Now it’s time for some cleanup…

Home

Night Stalker

It all started one day while Karen was blissfully preparing dinner when suddenly… she opened the pantry and uncovered chewed peanuts and broken candy wrappers ll over the place!  Certainly a strange phenomenon.

Then one night when Karen walked downstairs to get a drink, and she heard some noises in the pantry.  Immediately I ran downstairs to the rescue by surrounding the perimeter with cushions and proceeded to remove the items from the pantry, one by one.  Suddenly, the mouse jumped out and I let out a scream that remains a permanent part of the Karen’s blackmail arsenal.  The mouse hid in the corner as I contemplated a course of action.  At one point, Karen handed me the electrocuting fly zapper, but when she noticed how “cute” it was, she became protective.  After some futile attempts at grabbing the mouse, it lept over some feeble obstacles and darted into the fireplace.  We had found the breach in our perimeter.

So Karen and I visited our local Home Depot and tour the pest removal section.  We quickly dismissed rat poison as we only buy organic products.  We also dismissed the glue paper as the adhesion would cause the mouse to be permanently bonded–a cruel arrangement.  The traditional mouse trap would snap its head in half, leaving a disturbing sight.  Finally, we settled on the perfect tool: the Victor Live-Catch Mouse Trap.

Just place cheese or peanut butter in the opening, and when the mouse enteres the trap, the lid closes…

We placed some sliced, hardened Jack cheese in the trap and placed two traps head to head next to the fireplace.  After a few mouse dreams and nightmares, Karen and I woke in the morning and anxiously checked the trap.  Nothing.

So we switched to plan B.  Karen had bought peanut butter from Trader Joe’s (no trans-fat!) which smelled really good, so we spread some on a peanut and used it as bait instead.  After some more mouse dreams and tossing and turning, we woke up in the morning, ran downstairs and found that one of the lid was closed!  However, a quick inspected revealed nothing inside.  In fact, even the peanut-butter covered peanut was gone!  So we tried again, with a smaller peanut.

Nothing happened on the first day, but on the second day, Karen noticed that one of the traps was rotated 90 degrees!  I picked up the trap and took a quick peek–yup, mouse tail.  Karen excitedly headed to PetCo to pick up a cage, and we proceeded to put the mouse inside the cage.

Except…  the mouse was so small it squeezed between the bars, jumped out, and squeezed under the washer/dryer.  Finally I moved the washer and grabbed the mouse and placed it in a box.  Karen returned to PetCo and bought a fish tank, mouse food, pine bedding & litter, exercise wheel, and the works, which is the new place of residence for this little guy.

Welcome our new member of the family!

Family and Friends

Another Wedding

I took a little break from blogging to take a little breather, but I think it’s time to resume the action.

Today I attended a very unique wedding.  During the part where the pastor asked, “If anyone has any objections, let him speak now or forever hold their peace”, the uncle raised his hand.  So the uncle gave a speech about being troubled for not meeting the wife earlier than a day before the wedding, and proceeded to read a letter in the form of Chinese poetry from the father in China, saying (translated to English by yours truly):

The rain is coming
Mother is remarrying
It’s all destiny
Let him go

Then the uncle said that despite the despair, he has to give his blessing–after all, the groom is still family and he made the decision.

After his speech came the rebuttal from the groom.  He thanked the family and bowed, then also produced a letter from the father giving him support for the wedding.  The scene was so dramatic it seemed like a Chinese drama unfolded before our eyes.  The tension in the audience was high, as no one has seen this before, and there were tears in the audience both sympathetic and awestruck.

I commented to a pastor afterwards, “Bet you haven’t seen this before!”  and he replied, “Sure, but you know what?  This is the best wedding I’ve been to.  It really demonstrates true love between two people.”  I suppose I can only agree.  It’s when you persevere in these situations that you truly see the love and commitment you have toward one another.

For these two newly weds, I wish them the best in their journey of life together.

Home

Dedication

Just to show how much Karen insists on enjoying the summer, here’s a little peak at her new-found habits from this stealth shot…

In case you missed it on the thermometer, let me give you a 1:1 crop of the interesting portion…

Anyone question her dedication of enjoying every summer’s day?  😎

(btw, as good as I may be at digital manipulation, I certify the authenticity of this picture)

Home

White Pine No More

This was our dying white pine…

We have waited an entire year for it to recover, but it kept deteriorating. With the right side completely dead, during days of storm we kept cringing in our seats hoping it wouldn’t come tumbling down on the house.  Finally, we decided we had enough excitement and decided to go the route of euthanasia… 

It hurt to do this, but it had to be done… and now we were left with a bunch of pellets… 

While it opened up a lot of space in the yard, it also exposed our house to more sun.  We’ll need to plant some tall-growing trees near the fence…  just what we need, more yard work!