Eyes half open

Work

This is my idea of a fun evening - working! Don't worry. I'm just being sarcastic. We all need to work to live, but we should all try not to live to work.

So I noticed that Germany lost to Spain in the European World Cup this past Sunday. Poor guys. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. I'm not a big soccer fan, but I did watch some matches during the Soccer World Cup in 2006 in Germany. It was unavoidable. Maybe the German team could learn a trick or two from Italy or Spain.

Graduation celebration

Appetizers

I've just been celebrating life milestones like crazy this weekend. Yesterday was a wedding and today I went to a family gathering to celebrate the graduation of my cousin's daughter. It was a pot luck, so everyone brought something to share. We had more than enough to eat - appetizers, main courses, and then tons of dessert (cheese cake, chocolate rum cake, and cream puffs). I'm simply stuffed. Then we played "Catch Phrase," which is a game that requires you to have your teammates guess the word that shows up on the card. It's similar to charades and was side-splittingly fun. Then to close up the Sunday evening, a dose of Britishness with Mystery! on PBS.

Wedding banquet

Champagne glasses

I went to a surprise wedding banquet this evening for one of my sister's friends.
Weddings are very much cultural affairs. At traditional Chinese weddings the bride will don a red dress usually. There were also some Americanized touches such as the throwing of the bouquet and the garter.

Here you see my try at being a wedding photographer. Above you see a detail of the beribboned champagne glasses and below you see the menu for the evening.

Spring rolls in summer

Spring rolls

Can someone have too many interests? I think I would be a prime candidate for this title. There are so many different things I want to do in my free time. I want to focus on photography, research travel destinations, read up on business topics, read mysteries, make cards, study for professional certifications, read up on technical accounting topics like IFRS, do some art, write in my blog, improve my German, learn more Italian, learn Mandarin, research real estate in SF, keep in contact with my buddies, get 8 hours of sleep, listen to German language audio books, power walk, go shopping occasionally, explore the city to capture more pictures, invest and the list goes on and on to infinity.

When you have so many interests, you have to prioritize them. Which ones are more urgent? I really want to improve my technical photography skills so that I can spout photography jargon and scare everyone off. ;-P Also, I need to study for my CFE so that I can place another set of letters on my resume. Just kidding. It's good to know all the ways people can commit fraud because if you one day become an employer of people, you will be well versed in all the ways they can possibly misappropriate assets from your company. Additionally, keeping abreast of the business world and professional literature can also be very challenging.

Furthermore, I want to improve my German. The only way to do that when you're not living over there is to write emails and listen to German radio which I do at work (I love Klassik Radio). I still learn new things from my German penpals whenever we exchange emails. For instance, I recently learned how to say diabetic, which literally translates into sugar sick. How descriptive! Also, I want to know how to use authentic sounding German particles like "denn" and "mal". If you sprinkle them in the right places, your German will seem more authentic! I don't think you can really learn such stuff at school in German class. It just comes from daily exposure to the language as it's really used by the average Hans on the street.

About the picture above: This is a picture of my favorite lunch food at the moment - Vietnamese spring rolls. These are made with pork and there's a sweet and sour dipping sauce that comes with it. I like it because it's fairly light, as opposed to greasy and heavy tasting.

About the picture below: Critical Mass during Friday rush hour. This is when bicyclists get to ride through the city streets with a police escort to protect them from the drivers. Tempers can really flare up during Critical Masses.

Hazy days

Flag Unfurled

This has been one of those weeks in which it's mostly about networking and not really getting stuff done. This is the third firm sponsored event I've been to this week. Today was Advisory's All Hands Meeting on a boat. We had the first part of the meeting on one boat, which was moored to the dock, but rocking side to side nonetheless. I don't think it was really a smart idea considering many people were feeling nauseous because they were sitting down.

Then we all got off that boat to get onto another for the 3 hour cruise around the bay. The one thing about boat cruise connectivity events is that you can't sneak out early like you can for events that are on land. They served a buffet on the boat and the there was a Hawaiian theme, so everyone got plastic leis. That was kind of interesting. I took this opportunity to build my internal network and met people in other groups. In other words, I stretched myself as they say in corporate speak. For example, I found out that two people in the office are Italian and two are from France. That was perfect since I am considering a vacation in one of those two countries. They were helpful with the info they provided.

Aside from that, I am studying to become a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE). I need to read a bunch of material and then take a test on a CD. I need to discipline myself and just plow through the reading so that I am ready for the exam.

Volunteering

Teamwork

The weather was picture perfect today for gardening and mulching at St. Mary's Square today! Since this was a company sponsored event, everyone had 3 hours off of work to do some community service and a free T-shirt.

As team lead, I was responsible for distributing T-shirts, food and coordinating in general. The people who signed up were personable, easy going and very eager to get their hands dirty and chip in.

I was spreading wood chips, sweeping and shoveling. I wonder if I'll be sore tomorrow. Look closely at the picture. Someone was wielding a chainsaw for the picture. Trust me, it was just a prop. ;-) Quite amazed me how heavy it was.

Manhole cover blown off in San Francisco Financial District

Caution

I've been trying out my photojournalistic skills recently with the two incidents I've covered. On Sunday it was the San Bruno Mountain fire and today it was a blast that happened a hop, skip and a jump from where I work.

This afternoon a loud blast or what sounded like a crash or explosion broke the afternoon lull in the office. We all rushed to the windows to be rubberneckers. There was black smoke coming from the ground. Sirens were howling. Pretty soon police secured the area with yellow tape and rerouted traffic.

No one really knew what happened. It made everyone jittery and brought thoughts of terrorism to mind. Apparently it was just a blast underground. Here's the Chronicle's story.


Whenever you drive your car, be careful not to leave any valuables on the seat. Thieves can break into your car really quickly. See this video.

Cafe Madeleine

So many sweets, so little time!

Today I went to Cafe Madeleine at 300 California Street for lunch. I ordered a grilled turkey sandwich to go. I have wanted to try out this cafe for while now and finally decided to go there today. This being a Monday, I needed a pick me up, so it was a visit to Cafe Madeleine. I really like the way they decorated the cafe with long mirrors and a chandelier.
Everything is really bright, cheery and elegant looking. The glass case containing the sweet desserts also looked sparklingly clean.

The grilled sandwich I had was okay. Nothing earth shatteringly tasty about it and it was not cheap! Maybe they do better desserts. Not sure if I'll go back. I just wanted to try it out to get it out of my system. ;-) I've got another place on my list of lunch spots to try - the Italian deli at the Ferry Building.

Do you have a favorite lunch spot? What makes it your favorite? I welcome your comments!

Guess what? I can't make it to my reunion after all because I'll be on a plane to Oahu that same day.

News Blitz!

Fire on San Bruno Mountain

Plumes of redish colored smoke are rising from the mountain and threatens to engulf the nearby homes. The bright orange flames were spreading in a thin line across the face of the mountain. Hopefully it will be kept under control and extinguished as soon as possible. Finally fire engine sirens are heard in the distance.

Pink lemonade

Pardon for the lack of posting on Saturday. To make up for it, you'll get two today because I'm feeling generous. ;-)

Saturday
Yesterday I went to a summer gathering organized by one of the senior partners in my group. He invited the whole team to his home for sushi and Japanese food. There were actual sushi chefs at his home making various sushi, sashimi and nigiri. His house was nice without being pretentious. We met his wife & son, his two dogs and two cats. We even got a tour of his wine cellar.

Sunday
Boy I am glad the natural air conditioning kicked in, causing the temperatures to drop to more comfortable levels around the Bay Area.

Think deep thoughts

Diagonal

I receive the Smithsonian e-newsletter every so often and sometimes find gems of articles in there, like this one here. It's about melancholy and the English professor who was interviewed believes that Americans are too happy. They should be a bit more melancholic so that they can be more creative. That's his thesis basically.

Being melancholic is not the same as being depressed he said, because depressed people are passive whereas melancholic folks are actively trying to understand their world better and their place in it.

When I was in Germany, I remember there being an exhibition of art that had the title "Melancholie". The exhibit featured artwork that were melancholic in nature. I think that melancholics are romanticized. Melancholy is just a fancy way of saying sad or maybe introspective.

However, I do tend to agree with what he said about Americans being too happy and addicted to happiness. Often Americans think they have the power to control everything - be it other countries, nature, or their own appearance. Just consider all the plastic surgery that is on the market these days. People can fix any little imperfection they have or think they have. You can bleach your teeth so that your smile sparkles, you can get implants of all sorts, and the list goes on an on.

I also agree with this passage on authenticity, which is such a rare find these days.

"An authentic life is an endless interplay between these oppositions in which one tries to put them in a creative conversation with one another, realizing that the light shines more brightly when compared to darkness and the darkness becomes richer and more interesting when compared to brightness. I'm just trying to call people to return to a balance, to consider that part of human experience that many people seem to be repressing, ignoring or flying from."

Swizzle stick

Kettle

Oh no, not another hot and sizzling day! :-(

Yes, unfortunately the weather is heating up in preparation for the first day of summer. Nothing interesting happened today at work. I will be working from home tomorrow. That means I can sleep in. My employer has introduced flexible Fridays this summer, so I will kind of take advantage of it tomorrow. I guess I'll miss the free bagel brekky tomorrow though.

Yesterday my book "The Photographer's Eye" arrived from Amazon. It didn't cost me a cent because I won that AAA Traveler photo contest and reinvested my earnings in the photography book. Hopefully the book will help me improve my composition skills so that I can win further contests. That would be fantastic!!

Sweet taste of summer

No butts

Do you know what defines summer for me? Fresh, cool & juicy peaches. The ones that are redish, orange and yellow colored are my fave.

I came upon these extinguished cigarette butts and thought I would take a picture of them.

Interesting article on interracial relationships with a strong focus on Asian men who marry/date outside of their ethnic group. There are a couple examples of that in my family. My uncle was actually a trailblazer in this area because he was the first one to marry a Caucasian way back when it was not really accepted. Nowadays such couples are no longer worth a second look at because it's become more common.

Monkey business

Switch

This picture reminds me what a luxury it is to have a light switch inside the bathroom as opposed to outside, which is common in Europe.

One of the major differences between Germany and the United States is that professional women can have children and still remain in the workforce. I see more than one example of that in my work group. There's a female partner with two children. She will be rejoining the team pretty soon after maternity leave. Then a senior manager has a young child and has returned to work. It's less of a taboo here I guess.

In Germany, women get called bad names like "Rabenmutter", which literally translates into raven mother, if they decide to return to work. I think Germany should change this type of mentality and seriously improve their child care system if they want to increase the birth rate. Or more German men could stay at home and take care of kids. Perhaps the family network could be leveraged more. Grandparents could take care of the bambini.

Believe it or not

St. Mary's Square

Today I took a picture of St. Mary's Square. Next Wednesday, I'll be acting as team lead for a volunteer activity at this park where we will be weeding and mulching. I chose this project because it's within walking distance of the office, so after I'm done with my 9-12 PM volunteer stint, I can just walk back to work.

Check out this invention here. It really helps mask the pesky sounds that are inevitable in public restrooms. If only this thing could also emit deodorizing scents. ;-) America should install some of these machines.

Dog days of summer

Strawberry

Although it's not officially summer yet, no one really cares. Especially not the dogs. They always enjoy themselves regardless of the season and weather. They are really a joy to look at because they make you smile with their antics. For example, today I saw a white dog wearing a white megaphone-looking-like-thing stick its head out a car window to enjoy the air rushing through its fur and ears. How cute! I don't know for sure, but I think the megaphone thingy prevents dogs from licking themselves.

Word on the street: Today I overhead someone say that San Francisco reminded her of NYC, Hawaii and New Orleans all mixed together. She said that San Franciscans are more laid back than New Yorkers, and we're more health conscious than the citizens of the Big Easy (New Orleans). That's interesting because I've never heard that combo before.

Yesterday evening I started drafting an itinerary for visitors to San Francisco. At first I thought of it as a chore, but then I really got into it and realized that I have a lot of insights to share with visitors. It's turning into a little project.

Happy Daddy Day!

Daydreaming

Home of the Cable Car

Today is Saturday and I am planning a nice and cozy day at home. No excursions, just me and a hot cup of tea. That rhymes! Soundtrack to this is the CD entitled "Debussy for Daydreaming."

The picture above was taken at the Cable Car Museum in San Francisco.

Yosemite Series Finale

Sequoia

On the last day of my Yosemite excursion, I visited Tuolumne Grove where the very tall sequoia trees can be seen. They were gigantic trees, but I actually wasn't that impressed. But then again, it takes a lot to impress me. Ha ha!!! No seriously, I think I prefer photographing European cities to landscapes.

After the little hike to see the trees, we were headed back to civilization. On the way back, we passed many small towns in Central Valley were spotted black and white cows were grazing peacefully and all you would see were rolling hills. There was also one location with a lot of windmills that were supposed to generate electricity. I don't know how effective they were though.

Portrait of an Artiste

Moi

So here's a picture of moi in Yosemite taken by yours truly. It was quite a sunny day, so a wide-brimmed hat was called for in order to prevent premature aging of the skin. ;-)

Anyhow, on Day 2 of my little excursion to Yosemite, I strolled over to the Lower Yosemite Falls bright and early in the morning. That's the best time to go because you can avoid the terrible crowds. I managed to take a couple good shots.

P.S. - An Italian friend of mine will be visiting San Francisco in August, so I need to think of a good itinerary for her. Any suggestions? Please leave your comments.

BTW, thanks for all of your votes in the poll. I may just attend.

Fat & frisky

American Squirrel

After the first day of wandering around Yosemite National Park, we made our way in the direction of our hotel outside the park. We had to take Yosemite Area Regional Transit (YARTS) to El Portal where the hotel was located. I would recommend staying in the park if at all possible because then you can avoid the hassle of taking YARTS in and out of the park.

By the way for you squirrel lovers out there, the squirrels in Yosemite were quite fat and frisky. They're probably overweight because park visitors feed them or they raid garbage cans and eat human food. There was one squirrel with a bald patch of fur that startled me while I was eating lunch. I guess it wanted a little handout from me, the little bugger. Squirrels that I saw in Germany were rust colored and smaller in size. Interesting difference, that!

Mirror Lake

Mirror Lake

On the first day in Yosemite, we were driven around to the three main attractions in the national park - Half Dome, Bridalveil Falls & Yosemite Falls. We got off the bus to take photos and then were herded back onto the bus to head to the next destination. Trying to get snap happy tourists back onto a bus must be as difficult as herding cats.

The funny thing I've noticed about tourists is that if one person starts aiming a camera in one direction, others will often follow and do the same. For example, I was gazing at a very tall tree and then some people mentioned that it must be a giant sequoia tree. Actually, it was just a tall tree, but it wasn't a sequoia. Give it a try sometime if you want to have some fun with tourists. Just stand somewhere and aim your camera somewhere. People will be curious to find out what you're looking at.

Half Dome

Half Dome

This week I will focus on showing some of the Yosemite photos I accumulated over the weekend. Yosemite is so large that one blog post about it cannot do it justice.

Yosemite is a 4 hour drive east of San Francisco. Most people in California have visited this national park at least once in their lives. This past weekend was my first time ever visiting this park. I went with a tour group in order to avoid having to drive myself. The other folks on the tour were from New Zealand, England, China, Japan and Germany. The English people and New Zealanders were really friendly and jolly.

The middle-aged German guy called Ralf was somewhat dour looking. Of course, when I heard that he was from Germany I had to approach him and find out more about his background. Apparently he's from Frankfurt am Main and is spending 4 weeks in California. Two weeks were for an English course and the other two weeks were for exploring Southern California by car. I found it interesting that he was staying with a host family while studying English. Actually his English was really good already, so I don't know why he was taking English lessons.

Since it was a 4 hour drive and there was no toilet in the bus, we made a rest stop in a little rural California town called Turlock. The tour guide/bus driver was funny because he warned us that the people in Turlock are country folk and he reassured us that he meant that in the most positive way.

To be continued . . .

Yosemite National Park

Yosemite Falls

Dear Readers,
I did not post Saturday due to lack of Internet access in Yosemite.
I spent an action-filled weekend in this huge national park. Here's a teaser of one of the many pictures I have taken. More to come in future posts. Right now sleep beckons.
Yours truly,
Frankfurtsanfrancisco

Catch up

Ruffled

I'm playing catch up today. I posted a while back about style and clothing. This is finally a picture of the Gap window where they display the mannequins in clothes that I don't think looks good.

Views

Skylark

This is a picture of the making of the San Francisco skyline. Towers are popping up all over the place. Whenever I feel drowsy at work (mostly in the afternoons when it's so quiet you can hear a pin drop) I walk over to these windows and peer out at the activity in the streets below or at the other office buildings across from our building.

At work, everyone is speculating about who Obama's VP will be. Will it be Hilary or John Edwards or someone else? People are energized and excited about the presidential elections in November.

By the way, one of my photos will be published in a travel magazine! Imagine that! This really made my day.

Corporate America

Office Space

Do you remember the movie "Office Space" with Jennifer Aniston? My favorite part was in the beginning when a nerdy guy is sitting in his card listening to hard gangsta rap and bobbing his head to the music and singing along. However, when he sees a black man walk close to his car, he quickly locks the door. Hilarious!!

Here's a picture of the office space I work in.

Drama!

Taxi

Today I stumbled into a dramatic situation. I went to a Steering Committee meeting for the Young Professionals branch of the World Affairs Council (WAC) just to get a feel for how the officers are and how the meetings are run, etc. Well, apparently there is bad blood between some of the officers and the head of the group and this is where the drama comes in.

Accusations of undemocratic processes and circumvention were flying and officers were taking sides. It was quite the scene. In some ways it was like watching a real life version of the Apprentice. Anyway, I was somewhat turned off by the whole politics and bickering in the group, so I'm not sure whether I want to involve myself further with this group. It's a pity though because I do enjoy the topics.

One of the main reasons I am involved with the group is that my employer is a corporate member of the WAC, so by extension I also get free membership. Hardly anyone at my firm knows about this little secret though. Honestly, I am not sure how many people would be interested or able to attend events.

On an unrelated topic, today I received a little Code of Conduct booklet in my work mailbox. The Code of Conduct booklet contained photos that I seriously think I could duplicate. They were not that spectacular. Things like this just get me frustrated because I feel that I could totally do that. I just need to get it started and submit my photo to some stock photography seller. Maybe I could make a few bucks on the side like this.

P.S. - My paper cutter arrived today. How exciting! Now I can cut pieces of paper and card stock precisely.
P.P.S - My picture of the day is of an intersection in the Financial District

Still waters run deep

Elevation!

My cousin's daughter recently graduated from high school and that has brought back memories, not necessarily all pleasant. ;-)

I went to a high school where the environment was a dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest competition. Everyone wanted to out do the guy or gal next to them. Our class was also very large numbering somewhere in the mid 700's. I would have preferred a smaller class where I had a better chance to get to know my fellow classmates. The cool kids would sit in the hallways next to their lockers and do their homework or chat. In those days, GAP clothing was cool. If you had on something from GAP, you were looked upon as cool. Suffice it to say, I did not own a single item of clothing from GAP in high school, therefore I was relegated to the realm of the uncool. Okay, maybe it wasn't as black and white.

Not that I let that stop me though. Yes, this will be an underdog overcomes obstacles kind of a story. :-) I found my niche in German class. I was interested in it, and had a great teacher who really motivated me to do well.

As graduation day came around, so did the regular kind of end of high school rituals like popularity polls, senior prom and senior picnics. I didn't go to the prom, saved my money instead. I did, however, make it into the popularity poll multiple times. I was quite surprised to tell you the truth. Guess what I ended up being voted for? Most likely to succeed? Good guess, but not right. ;-P

I'll tell you. I placed first for quietest and bookworm and then placed second for shyest. It was nice that I was famous enough to be voted, but then these aren't very complimentary characteristics in an extrovert dominated society. I still think they were all wrong. Sure, a part of me is like that pigeonholing me into those categories was so one dimensional of them. I'm over that though and have moved on. :-) Who needs pop polls? High schoolers can be so cruel sometimes.


P.S. Please vote in my new poll. My 10 year high school reunion is coming up this year. Should I go?

P.P.S.- To hear U2's Elevation song, click the title of my picture today.

Secret rose garden

Summer Solstice

Roses are pretty.
They are the golden labradors of the flower world.
Everyone loves them.
Golden Gate Park Rose Garden was overflowing with admirers of these beauties today.
I must have spent 30 minutes or more there snapping away.
Golden Rule of photographing flowers - Never photograph down on them.
They don't appreciate it. :-P
Instead try out other angles - like the one above.
I love the sliver of blue in the background and the transluscent petals.
A sea of reds, yellows, pinks, whites, and all the shades in between.
There was even a rose that looked like a red and white zebra.
Not all were fragrant though.
Dazzling! Spectacular! Fabulous!
Closing rose is intensely crimson.