59/365 Shoes off
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
My suede-soled Vans apparently match the carpet at Springstep in Medford, MA.
The dance tonight was part of the "Sweet Molasses Blues" weekend and was heavy on the slower tempo songs. Had a few good dances, but also a few... not... which gets kinda frustrating.
57/365 FAIL
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
I've had better days.
I was feeling all good about myself for having my car inspected before the inspection sticker expired at the end of this month. So, of course, it failed the safety inspection and I ended up spending over $1500 replacing the struts, strut mounts and lower support arms.
On the plus side, the ride seems smoother, so I guess they really did need replacing... always so hard to tell whether you're getting screwed or not.
55/365 Beaten, but not defeated
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
First real run since the injury -- 2 miles on the treadmill averaging slightly more than 9 minute miles. It feels good to be back, even if it's only baby steps.
Although the need to ice afterwards kinda sucks a bit. (and this the day after the first night out dancing for real. which also needed some serious icing. And ibuprofen.)
Noodlefest: second serving
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
Totally stuffed. Just gotta mention that this year's soup was the best we've done so far. NOM.
Ok, gotta get to bed so I can be up early tomorrow morning, by which I mean before 9.
51/365 Pre-Noodlefest: Star Anise
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
[2009Feb21/02:11]
Late start for Noodlefest this year.
Things have been kind of crazy the past few weeks, so we weren't really able to lay in supplies (this year, from the Kam Man Market in Quincy) until late this evening. (Friday) It didn't help that we made a wrong turn trying to get there.
We finished the first pass of the process sometime around 1AM. (yes, I back-dated this post. I think I've warned people.) We'll kill the burner in a few minutes and let the residual heat cook it down overnight and then give it another hour or two in the morning before we strain the broth and pull out the meat.
Oy. So much for getting my sleep cycles back in sync. I did pretty well last night and was on track today. Oh well. At this point, I'm willing to be skewed late so long I don't get sick. I seem to have fought off whatever was giving me that mini sore throat yesterday.
50/365 reactive lights
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
The table had lights (and apparently light sensors) built into it so that when you moved things over the surface, the intensity of individual lights would increase. Cool, although occasionally uncomfortably bright given the relatively low ambient lighting.
47/365 A New Day
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
It gets a little fuzzy what counts as a "day," especially when you're flying across country through multiple timezones. My usual rule is to define it as a continuous period of being awake, up to the light of a new day. Naps are generally excluded. Nap versus true bedtime boundary conditions are generally established by a change of clothes and hygiene protocols (toothbrushing, showering).
This one squeaks in on a few tight rulings, being a photo of dawn breaking this morning, after a sleepless flight home from LA, after getting home from the airport and after showering, but before crashing in bed for a few hours.
46/365 Layers of Cat
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
[Update 2009Feb16/14:00] Back home, showered and napped after arriving around 5:30 this morning on a red-eye. Virgin America wasn't too bad -- the channel selection isn't as good as JetBlue, but they do have a pretty good music selection and AC power at all seats. (and wifi, if you're willing to shell out $13 for the flight -- probably a little more than I'm willing to spend on a redeye.) Standard legroom, but the flight wasn't full so I could stretch out in my row even though I still seem to be unable to sleep on planes.
45/365 Adjustment
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
A dancer makes some last minute adjustments to her ballgown at the California Open ballroom dance competition in Irvine.
There is a whole micro-economy around competitive ballroom dancing -- from the instruction and competition, to makeup and hairdressing, to costumes and footwear, to the photography and video services.
I don't personally believe in dancing for competition -- for me, it's all about the joy of moving to the music -- but I'm still often impressed by what these competitors, from pre-teens to octogenarians, are doing on the dance floor. (Although I did witness at least one collision during every dance of the amateur division qualifying heats that I saw.)
* * *
And hey, I guess I should acknowledge that it's Valentine's day. I'm not really a fan of the holiday, myself -- I don't like the idea of conforming to some societal (and frankly, commercially driven) notion of when I'm supposed to do something special for that special someone. Even now that I have a special someone. (And boy did I hate this crap when I was single.)
But all that being said, I'm kind of sad that I'm away from the SOOTTAD today. I was in L.A. for work all week and am spending the weekend visiting my folks because things were too crazy to visit over the holidays. And family time is good, especially when you live 3000 miles away. (The decision was even given the SOOTTAD stamp of approval.) But the SOOTTAD has so much awesome that every year this time comes around, as much as I dislike the holiday, I want to at least have a nice quiet evening at home together.
44/365 Skylight
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
Rainy most of the day, but some blue sky broke through in the early afternoon. I think it was 46°F and gray all day.
People think of L.A. as a place that's warm and sunny all the time, but I remember days like this.
43/365 Traffic at Sunset
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
Not too bad for Los Angeles during rush hour, but we took mostly surface roads and stopped for dinner before trying to head north on the 405. This was taken on Century Blvd, just east of Sepulveda.
41/365 Courtyard Railing
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
Staying at the LAX Marriott for work. They have some sweet architecture and they know it -- there have been portraits of the building in every room I've stayed in so far. Will try to capture some of it in the next day or two if I get up early enough.
Also, figured I'd ask, in case anyone else has had problems and discovered a solution: has anyone else out there had troubles getting Flickr to post photos directly to Blogger?
39/365 Ubiquitous Reflections
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
Pretty clouds driving into Cambridge this afternoon for a Balboa practice session at the Dance Complex. Sky, reflections, and reflections of reflections.
The SOOTTAD asked, "why ubiquitous?" I just feel like you see this type of picture a lot: photo taken from the car, reflected in the side mirror. But... pretty clouds and sky. I couldn't help myself.
37/365 Pause|Break
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
what do you do when you spend most of your day sitting in front of a computer?
You take pictures of the stuff on your desk.
On the plus side, there's better light at the office than anywhere in the house at night.
25 Random Things #1
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
I wasn't willing to play this on Facebook, yet here I am sending it out to the vast interwebs. I assume it's mainly because of the illusion of anonymity.
36/365 Ice Roll
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
The shot didn't come out this morning -- not enough contrast, didn't like the framing. And it was too cold to want to keep trying to get a better shot.
So I took some more shots after dinner. When it was dark. And colder. (8°F instead of the balmy 14°F this morning.)
*sigh*
Couldn't sleep, so had a snack and did a little drawing. Obviously I'm still up, and apparently now I'm also feeling nauseous. Awesome.
35/365 Snow/Tire
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
...as opposed to "snow tires." (these are "all-season" tires.)
First day this week driving up to the office. A bit slushy in the parking lot but overall the roads weren't too bad today after yesterday's light, but unrelenting, snowfall. (Woo! Only 15 minutes of shoveling this morning!)
We just got a copy of the photobook we made for our trip to Italy.
We used Blurb, mostly because they had a slightly better selection of page layouts than your standard KodakGallery and Shutterfly options. (And they claim that the layout options will continue to improve.) The downloadable user application is somewhat clunky: fonts don't render correctly unless you're in preview mode, some mouse-click/movement actions don't follow convention, there are few keyboard shortcuts, font sizes behave strangely... Y'know, little things. But, it gets the job done.
Overall, we were happy with the results, with most of the glitches arising from user error. (although possibly avoidable were the UI a little cleaner) The images were generally a little darker than we expected. The aspect ratio of the images also seemed a little different, although this often resulted in a pleasant surprise. And it's just as likely that these two points were monitor-related.
The only real issue we had was that the binding broke as soon as we opened the front cover. I don't know if it's because we chose the large 13"x11" format hardcover, the number of pages (around 250, which I'm not sure is a lot or a little for the format, but sure did run on the expensive side) or if it's just a testament to lower production quality, either by Blurb themselves or print-on-demand publishing in general.
Anyway, we'll keep playing with it, and hopefully have better luck with the next project.
33/365 Oakland Oatmeal Raisin NOM
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
Best oatmeal raisin cookies ever. Obtained from the Arizmendi Bakery in Oakland, within walking distance from our friend's apartment.
I've always been partial to (shockingly) the Shaw's store-made oatmeal raisin cookies, but I've had to swear off them because they're made with nasty trans-fatty partially hydrogenated oils. (plus, they're kinda hit or miss.)
Spendy (we spent $13 on a little under 2 pounds -- maybe 12 cookies -- to take home with us and for the long flight home), but dericious.
And entirely organimagical. That's a word, right?
32/365 Reflected Lines
Originally uploaded by tallasiandude.
[2008Feb02/17:28] Still recovering from the red-eye home. Maybe time to write things up tonight or tomorrow.
