I Love.....the Camera on My Phone?

I was sooooo late to the smart phone party. I got my Samsung Galaxy SII about six months ago. And of course, as soon as I got the phone charged up, I quickly downloaded the Instagram app.

Yup, I'm late to the Instagram party as well. It quickly became one of my favorite apps and I pretty much took pictures of everything.

The cameras on phone these days are pretty cool. I had one in my old phone and man, that thing sucked like there's no tomorrow. Every single image had a blue tint and forget about using it when it's dark...you're not gonna get a damn thing.

My Samsung is not bad at all. I really love the convenience of being able to whip out a teeny-skinny device out of my pocket to capture something really cool within seconds but yeah, it's not the same as holding an actual DSLR.

I miss my camera. I'm going to start using it as soon as things settle down in our household (We got a lot of stuff on our plate right now and I don't want to talk about it yet because I don't want jinx it so I'll explain later.).

Anyway, here's a few pictures I took with the camera phone and edited on Instagram. I know, bad bad bad, lazy, lazy, lazy amateur photographer me.

But come on, they look pretty cool.

 

 

I told you....I love my cats waaaaay too freaking much. :)

Goals for Twenty-Thirteen

I was actually going to start a new blog but after looking at this one and revisiting everything, why start a new one right? (Plus, I'm beginning to think it was too much work to start a new one anyway.)

So, let's talk about goals/New Year's Resolution. To be honest, I hardly stick to them but this year, I think I'm going to try my best to keep them.

And this year's missions are:

1) Stop shopping too much. - I admit it's getting kind of out of control. I found some clothes that still has tags on them. That's not good.

2) Wear everything in the closet. - Maybe shopping the closet will help me kick the shopping addiction to the curb.

3) Stick to a $50 shopping budget a month. -  Baby steps, people. BABY STEPS.

4) Work out for at least 30 minutes a day. - Not just for losing weight but for the sake of being healthy and preventing myself from having some sort of heart disease someday.

5) Travel more. - Experiences are worth much more than tangible and material things.

6) Finish a project first before starting a new one. - Ugh, I have so many projects to do right now.

7) Be closer to family. - Call my Dad and my Grandma every weekend even for a few minutes. Send birthday cards.

8) Stop. Being. So. Damn. Lazy. - Because being lazy is the reason why I get overwhelmed.

9) Keep writing this blog. - Consider it as another project; it needs to be finished.

10) Take more pictures! - What kind of an idiot buys an expensive camera and not use it? Um yeah, that would be me. Must stop being an idiot. :)

Okay 2013, bring it on!

Fun in Brinnon, WA

We spent the entire day at Brinnon, WA yesterday and we had a blast!

It's a very lovely and sleepy town. It's about a two-hour drive away from where we live but it was worth the drive. My husband's uncle and aunt owns a house along the banks of Hood Canal.

And of course, I took some pictures. They look really cool in black and white too but I'm posting the colored ones for now.

Out and About in Tacoma (B&W)

Taken outside the Tacoma Union Station/Washington State History Museum.


Yup, there was a camel right outside the museum in honor of a featured exhibit titled "Wrapped!: The Search for the Essential Mummy.".


Taken outside a cupcake shop called "Hello Cupcake.". We bought red velvet, pink champagne and strawberry cupcakes and ate them while taking pictures. They were soooo good that we didn't even get the chance to take pictures of them. Maybe next time.


Taken inside The Swiss Pub while my husband was having a glass of beer.


Well folks, that's all for now. Thank you so much for reading and looking!

Holy crap, this blog needs some updating!

I can't believe it's July already and the sun is already shining before the 4th of July! Usually, summer does not officially start until AFTER the 4th of July here in Washington state!

Anyway, I haven't been blogging lately because of work. I started on the 22nd of June and my schedule has been hectic since. Seriously, I felt like all I did was wake up, go to work, get off work, prepare my husband and I's lunch for the next day, play with the cats, and go to bed.

And yup, the same shizz again the next day. The first week was total hell but I think I'm getting used to it already.

I just hate that I don't have time to take pictures anymore. =(

Anyway, here's some new pictures of Hermione. She's growing and she's crazier than ever lately.


Well, that's all for now.

I'll post more pictures later. Thank you so much for reading and looking!

Peonies in Black and White

I actually took this pictures in color but I love the how the images look in black and white.

I freaking love black and white photographs. I miss working in the darkroom. I miss the smell and the sound of flowing water. Seriously, a photo darkroom is one of the most relaxing places in the entire planet. Everyone should get the chance to work inside a photo darkroom.

Now, my "darkroom" consists of a laptop sitting on a coffee table in the living room. That's pretty much it. Hah.





So yeah, our new cat Hermione is settling in pretty well. Sophie still hates her, hisses at her and eats her food. They can coexist as long as Hermione stays out of Sophie's way and leaves her alone. Hopefully, they'll be good friends in a month or two.

Oh and yeah, I haven't even started on painting the living room wall. I really suck at finishing (or getting started on) projects sometimes.

Anyway, that's all for now. Thank you so much for reading, looking at the pretty (and not-so-pretty) pictures and giving a damn about my boring life. (HA HA HA!).

Shooting with Macro (Kinda)

Okay, I don't really shoot with an actual macro lens.

Those things are sooooo freaking expensive and honestly, I would rather save my money and buy a faster zoom lens. I want one with a 2.5 aperture and the one I want cost more than $1,000. I know, YIKES.

Anyway, I actually shot the images below using my Canon Powershot SX120 IS. I switch back and forth between the SX120 and the Canon S5. The Canon S5 has a supermacro setting but I haven't compared the two so I'm not exactly sure if there's any difference as of the moment. I'll let you guys know when I figure it all out though.

I don't think they look bad at all. I'm actually pretty happy with the results.

A white peony from a peony bush (or tree?) outside our building.


Some random stalk(?) or stem (?) of a rhododendron bush outside our building.


Another peony, up close (and personal). I love peonies!


Rhododendron up close.

Well, that's all for now.

It would be nice to own a macro lens someday but I'm not so sure if I really need one. I do photography for the love of the art and for fun; I don't earn any money from doing it.

So yeah, no money = no funds to buy EXPENSIVE stuff I don't need, ha ha.

Well, that's all for now. I hope you have/had a good day today. Thanks for reading and looking!

New Familly Member!

Meet Hermione, our new cat!

(Finally, I have a cat named after a Harry Potter character! YES!)

She's approximately 8 months old and according to her medical records, she's a Maine Coon. Not really sure if she's purebred or not (We don't really care if she is or not). We adopted her from a local animal rescue team. We adopted Sophie from them too.

So far, she's been awesome. She's a purr and headbutt machine. She chirps when she plays. She's exploring the condo as of the moment and trying her best to stay out of Sophie's way. Sophie on the other hand, keeps stalking her and keeps eating her kitty kibbles.

Excuse the messy background in the pictures. Hermione is living in our messy office right now. I'm trying to do the whole "cat introduction" thing but it seems pointless because Sophie just barges in the office and crashes the party. Oh well.


Can't you tell I freaking love cats?

I wish I can take a couple more cats into our home but it's going to be super crowded in our condo if I did. There's a couple older cats I fell totally in love with too. My husband said he doesn't mind taking another older cat in if we have a bigger place. Right after he said that, I kinda wished we're still getting the house! Oh well.

I hope the older cats find a loving home soon.

Anyway, this is all for now. I took a bunch of pictures during the weekend and I'll be posting them as soon as I can. Thanks for reading and looking!

In Memoriam

"For love of country they accepted death..." ~James A. Garfield

I'm a bad blogger but I have pictures and updates.

I was doing really good with the blogging too but this month, I hit a wall!

I mean, I try to think about what to write but nothing comes to mind.

Okay, let's get on with the updates.

Update on the House: Well, we decided not to get it. It really sucked at first and I think I was little bit depressed (hence I haven't been blogging and doing much). I think it's for the best. We're perfectly fine with our condo for now anyway.

I'll probably update a few things around the condo though. We never really painted the walls because we thought we're not going to stay here that long. I'm pretty sick and tired of the white walls. They have to go.

I might work on maximizing the space in our walk-in closet and the laundry room but we'll see.

Update on the Job: I have been in touch with the HR department and I got selected for the job so technically, I got the job. They're just waiting for the director to sign the paperwork so they can call me and officially offer me the job but shit, it's been almost a month now. I guess that's how it is when it comes to federal jobs. The process is just super-slow. It is how it is.

But you know, I'm not in a hurry since we're not getting the house anymore. I really don't need to work but if I don't work, we're staying in this condo forever and my husband and I are not too fond of the idea.

PICTURES: Well, I have been slacking in the department too. I've been super lazy. The weather is improving and we're going to start traveling again so hopefully, I'll start posting more.

Here's a few pictures for now.

I'm pretty obsessed with cherry blossoms this year.

Let's give it a try in black and white.

A trillium.

I really need to get the hell out and take pictures of other stuff besides flowers and nature.

That's all for now.

OMG, I neglected my blog!

Life has been crazy hectic lately and I really don't feel like going into details when it comes to stuff because I don't want to jinx anything.

Yeah, we're still dealing with the house. We are in the process of re-negotiating the price because of the horrifying stuff we found during the inspection.

I was selected for that Seattle job and I'm waiting to HR to call me. So far, no call yet.

Anyway, I have a couple of pictures! I've been slacking off in the picture department lately.

My husband and I baby-sat our friends' cat for a couple of days and I took some pictures of them.

They're so awesome and I miss them already.

Here is Luna. She chirps when she plays! I can't handle the cuteness sometimes!

And here is Mikan. He's so chill. I freaking love him!

Well, that's all for now. Please send me some good vibes. I really need it. There's going to be a lot of changes ahead and I am not sure if I am ready for them.

SOTD(s): Images from the Photo Vault

Hello everyone! So many exciting things going on with my life right now. My head's been reeling from all the craziness!

Okay, first, I would like to share some of my early work. These are some of the pictures I took for my first photography class. I've been super busy trying to get our condo ready for sale that I don't have the time to take new pictures right now. I hope you guys don't mind!

Okay, let's get on with the updates.

House Update: The bank countered our offer and the counteroffer sounded pretty fair to us so sure, we'll take it. Paperwork is not being generated and we pretty much locked in the house. Let's hope for smooth sailing from here!

Job Update: I actually did an impromptu phone interview yesterday. It wasn't so bad but I'm not so sure about the job. Today, the hospital I want to work for gave me a call to see if I'm still interested in interviewing for a position. Um hello, of course I'm interested!

So please, if you can spare some positive vibes, please send them my way. I really, really, really need them.

Thanks and I hope you guys had a great day today!

P.S.: Is anyone having problems with Blogger using Internet Explorer 9? For some reason, I can't publish and edit my post using IE. I had to switch to Firefox in order to publish and edit this posting. This is frustrating!

SOTD: Latest Food Addiction

ORANGES! Yum-moh!


I've been eating at least two oranges every single day. In some days, I eat four of them. Every single time I'm craving for something sweet, I eat oranges instead instead of eating those damned Godiva truffles my husband bought the other day.

Yup, healthy eating. I'm trying my best.

Okay, back to watching episodes of "Criminal Minds". I'm behind.

You all have a good day now. =)

SOTD(s): Random Crap on My Desk

I don't really know what else to take pictures of lately. I can't wait to start traveling again. I need a change of scenery.

Anyway, I've been cleaning the house. I created this list but for some reason, I find myself roaming from one room to another. Instead of finishing up the kitchen (the first room on the list), I end up organizing the dining room, then putting crap away in the living room...then organizing my desk. What the hell is wrong with me? I can't seem to stick with one task!

I got bored from cleaning and organizing so I took pictures of some random stuff on my desk. I had these things forever! Normally, I throw away anything that clutters my desk but I held on to these things.

I think this R2D2 plastic figure had candy inside. I meant to give it to a good friend but I didn't get the chance to do so. The candy inside was pretty crappy from what I remembered.



My German slang book. I remember my high school German teacher hated it when I used some of the phrases in class. Ha ha ha ha ha, good times! I wish I can take more German language courses. It's such a fun language to learn.



My beloved San Jose Sharks (Generic) Bobble Head. I think I got this for free and I can't remember what I did to get it.

Well, this is it for now. I need to get back to cleaning this damn house. I can't believe it's taking this long. I'm actually second-guessing the idea of getting a bigger place. House cleaning sucks!

15-Day Picture Challenge: Day Twelve

"A picture of your favorite book."

Hmmm, book as in singular? No such thing. I don't really have a favorite book because I freaking love books.

It's hard to pick just one so here are pictures of some of the books I love.

One of my favorite book series is the Harry Potter series. I remember my cousin Katherine was astounded when I finished "Goblet of Fire" within a few hours. I'm a pretty fast reader.

Here's a picture of one of my favorite classics, "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck. I love this book so much that I have three versions of it, one classic paperback edition, a hardbound edition and the one in the picture is the Steinbeck Centennial Edition. It looks like a really old book.


I really need to get back to reading books and reading classics again. I only read book when I'm traveling and it shouldn't be that way.

15-Day Picture Challenge: Day Eleven

"A picture of someone you miss."

I figure I might as well try to finish this challenge.

I miss my grandma. To me, she's the best grandma in the whole entire universe. She cracks me up all the time. I wish I can see her as much as I can.

Gah, I miss my entire family. I wish it's easy as 1-2-3 to move back to California.

Here's a picture of her holding my little baby cousin.

Kitty Portraits: Sophie

Happy Friday everyone!

Anyway, I don't have kids so who do I take pictures of on a daily basis?

Sophie the kitty.

She's so easy to take pictures of. Some cats move around too much but Sophie is... I guess, a natural? Most of the time, she just sits there and uh, makes love to the camera? I think sometimes she does get annoyed with having a camera up in her face because she actually turns around and looks away. I have to bribe her with kitty treats and hold up a toy sometimes in order to get her to strike a kitty pose. She can be such a freaking diva. Anyway, I took some pictures of her this week and here's some of them.

Ooooooh, I have some updates on the house-hunting debacle!

Well, we're going to be putting up our condo for sale or for rent so it's going to be crazy for me in the next few weeks. I need to work on cleaning up the house, staging the rooms (a.k.a. moving crap and clutter from one room to another) and take pictures to go with the MLS listing online.

We're going to be looking at houses too this weekend....AGAIN. Ugh, it's not even exciting anymore to me.

Oh and one more thing, this blog got 14 hits from Germany yesterday. I know, I know, 14 hits is not a big deal to a lot of bloggers but to me, that's a big deal!

To my reader from Germany, vielen Dank um meinen Blog zu lesen!

Anyway, I hope you all have a good Friday and a great weekend. Thanks for reading!

Messing Around: Shutter Speed

Happy Wednesday! How's everybody doing today?

Playing around with a camera is really fun. I particularly love playing with the shutter speed sometimes and I'm gonna show you something I learned from my photography class.

It's pretty simple. We're gonna be using the LCD screen so go ahead and turn it on. I always use the camera's viewfinder but for these shots, instead of looking through the viewfinder, I use the camera's LCD screen.

Then, slow down the shutter speed (or set the camera to Tv if you have a Canon camera or whatever setting that lets you pick the shutter speed), focus on the subject and spin the camera while pressing the shutter at the same time.

Here are the results:

Rocks outside our patio

The carpet inside our place.

(Damn, it looks kinda dirty in the picture but really, we don't have dirty carpets!)

Some calla lilly bush growing outside next to our patio.

The rocks on some rock garden in the hallway of our building.

Some Valentine's themed gift wrapper. I'm not really a fan of this shot.

Pretty cool huh?

See with these shots, PATIENCE IS KEY. Sometimes, you won't get the results you want so just keep trying! I got pretty lucky with the shots (like the first image and the calla lilly shots) where there's a focused subject smacked-dabbed in the center (or almost in the center) of the image. Most of the time, the camera focuses on random spots.

Anyway, that's all for now. Thanks for reading!