Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Random fact #278

Do you know my blog is visited by a porn site?
Out of curiosity, I click the link to my visitor's page. In office no less.
Prices of a cup of coffee and french fries at a local coffee shop, $1.30 and $2.80 respectively.
I thought 2.80 is a ridiculous price for a small plate of fries. So this time I tried McDonalds, I remember they sell fries for only $1.50. The price for coffee there? $2.60

I swear there is a price-fixing practice at play here. Maybe I should write something to our beloved lawmakers?

Monday, August 13, 2012

Enjoying Things

The present generation, at least from Gen X (interestingly, the term coined by Robert Capa, co-founder of Magnum Photos) onwards, suffers from lack of concentration and short attention span. Thanks to the various electronic gadgets like radio, TV, iPod, iPad, and the advent of internet.People tend to multi task, thus dividing their concentration to several things at the same time.

I have this bad habit of eating and doing something else.. usually reading, be it a comic book, newspaper, or a magazine. The drawback of course, is that I cannot fully appreciate the taste of my food. Although, in my defence, its not haute cuisine either (sorry mom).

I thought about writing this post when reading Petite Anglaise's blog posts regarding food. Its dormant now but the archives are there and its highly entertaining especially if you have nothing to do in office. Hopefully I won't get dooced.. which is highly unlikely since I have tendered my resignation last month.. hee hee
The blog world seems to be much more colourful back then, before the advent of facebook, which some female teenagers mistook for a diary of their lives. But honestly, who ever wrote 'I'm in the toilet' or 'I'm going to sleep' in their diary?

Back to the topic, I think the French had it right, the take their food very seriously. They even stare at people eating their food in the streets. Good thing I didn't do that while I was in Paris. The French sit and enjoy their food properly and slowly, they only take proper meals, and don't like to eat snacks in between.
In the years of living abroad, I get to taste some of the better food available, albeit for a price. Don't worry, I still have my arms and legs. I have come to appreciate the taste of pork soup ramen (tonkotsu), local fish soup (yes.. fish! believe it or not), and the delight of a cod sushi, and occasional Subway sandwich.

To some extent... I cannot fully enjoy a beautiful scenery when I'm with a gorgeous girl for example (or vice versa, in case some gorgeous girl reading this post gets offended, I wouldn't want that would I?). And also, enjoying music or radio when I'm doing something else (internet browsing, photo editing, book reading etc) which requires some level of concentration, so now I just turn off the music.

Monday, August 06, 2012

In an attempt to divert my thoughts from life, work, and relationship.. I shall write a post now.. LoL
I've been into printing in the recent year, trying at least to print a picture each week. And these past view days I have reviewed Vivian Maier's work one more time, and somehow I have come to appreciate it more than before. I suspect I will have the same experience flipping the other photobook in my collection. It just dawned on me what makes them special. I will try to achieve that look in the future prints. Or maybe its just this :
Vivian Maier represents an extreme instance of posthumous discovery of someone who exists entirely in terms of what she saw. Not only was she entirely unknown to the photographic world, hardly anyone seemed to know that she even took photographs. While this seems unfortunate, perhaps even cruel-a symptom or side effect of the fact that she never married or had children, and apparently had no close fiends-it also says something about the unknowable potential of all human beings. As Wislawa Szymborska writes of Homer in her poem "Census" :"No one knows what he does in his spare time."
- Geoff Dyer

Anyway.. for someone who has experiencing the bankruptcy of several of my favorites food stall, I now made the effort to legally buy whichever software I find really useful. Granted that Microsoft and Adobe might not be that vulnerable now, but lets say its better to take... some precautions. Just sayin..

Saturday, August 04, 2012

The Photographer's Paradox

Why are there good scenes when I don't bring my camera,
and none when I have it with me... :-I