Homeward Bound

Lone Star

If all goes well and I can get a seat on a flight, I might be headed home for the weekend. Yay! It's not that bad over here if it weren't for the occasional snow that covers the ground, but I just need some time to unwind in the comfort of my own space. When you think about it, I never had a chance to enjoy that after vacation feeling. More importantly, I haven't had a chance to edit my vacation pictures!

Here's another picture I snapped on my way back to the hotel. Nope, I'm not in the lone star state, although this picture suggests it.

Old Western

The Saloon

Today is the first time we've left the office when it was still light outside! I even had a chance to snap a photo of the town saloon. Rumor has it that this place serves the best steak and ribs in town and is pretty expensive too. I don't care much for slabs of meet, but I wouldn't mind trying one of their baked potatoes.

Speaking of food, I don't think I can stomach another sandwich! During my two weeks vacation in Europe, sandwiches were common fare. After 2 weeks of that and then more sandwiches this week, I'm yearning for some soup and noodles or at least more variety in my diet.

Here in Small Town, I'm staying in a hotel on Main Street, which is just a couple blocks away from the place where I'm working. Everything is so quaint here. It would be nice if I had time to explore the town more with a real camera, instead of just a camera phone. Weatherwise, Small Town is not for me because it's still snowing this time of year despite the fact that we're almost in May! It snowed lightly when I walked to work and it snowed again this afternoon.

Small Town

Main Street, USA

Talk about baptism by fire. I arrived Sunday afternoon in a small town in the US that I'll call Small Town, USA after only a couple hours of sleep the night before because I just landed from my flight back from Germany. I had to take 2 planes to reach Small Town. One was a regular sized plane, but the second one was a tiny Embraer plane. I was originally seated in the front row, but the flight attendant had to reseat 2 of us in order to "balance out" the plane. That was kind of scary. In total we had only 10 people on the plane approximately. Plus, because the plane was so small, I could feel the turbulence much more. By the time we landed, I was gripping the arm rests and making sure my seat belt was on as tight as possible.

Anyway, I landed quite jet-lagged, tired and cranky and checked into my hotel. That same Sunday I found out from my manager that we would have to work until 10 PM that night as requested by the client. Can you imagine that? Jet-lagged, coughing and extremely tired, I suffered with the rest of the team until 10PM. They did not even arrange for dinner! We were all starving.

The past couple of days, they have been more realistic about all of our needs and have arranged dinner orders. However, because they eat so late, I just go and buy something from the supermarket earlier. The hours have been pretty long. Yesterday we worked 14 hours approximately. That's why I haven't been able to post much. Check out this picture though as taken from my cellphone camera.

Must stop typing and sleep now!

Home sweet home - for a night

I'm back from frolicking and merry making in Europe and have the dubious pleasure of flying out again tomorrow albeit domestically, Sunday morning. Trust me, it's not my idea of fun. More to follow in the next days about the trip.

Happy Easter!

Smiley

Apologies for not blogging yesterday. I was working till 1 AM, so was too tired to write anything afterwards. However, I'm back today.

I just saw a snippet of the "Sound of Music" on TV. Julie Andrews was leaving the convent and singing about having confidence to become a governess to the Von Trapp family. No matter how many times I've seen it, I can still watch it again. It's simply timeless!

About those pirates off the coast of Somalia - what a nuisance to the world community! Here was a US ship trying to deliver aid to another African state and they go and take the captain hostage. I googled "Somali pirates" and found a BBC FAQ article on them. I wish they could all just be rounded up and put to some productive use.

P.S. - I'm on vacation the next two weeks and hopefully will come back with some interesting stories and pictures to share. Happy Easter!

All Work & No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy

The Tools of Torture

About the picture: I shot this picture from the perspective of the dentists' chair. The scraping sound in my head when they use the scraping tool is really disturbing.

About other events: Unbelievable, but true - I actually had work today, which will spill over into tomorrow!

Snap happy

Wishful Thinking

About the picture: Once again, this was taken with the camera built into my phone. I'm learning to like it more everyday. For one thing, this built in camera allows me to take pictures more discreetly than if I had to haul out a dSLR. With a small camera I would be able to snap more impromptu pictures and it would reduce the weight I have to lug around with me. I wonder what that woman in the picture above is thinking about. The photo has a melancholic feel to it because the sky is gray and she is wearing all black.

About other things: I need to research external storage options for my laptop because all of my picture files are burdening my laptop. In addition, I need to back up my pictures or risk losing them to hard drive malfunction. It's not a fun part of the digital photography process, but I just need to bite the bullet and do some research. External storage can be so expensive!

Obamania

On Top of the World

About the picture: Unintentionally, the pattern this week seems to be pictures from my phone camera. The one above is a picture of a team building activity we had this morning. The objective was to draw a picture that represents one characteristic of each person in the break out group. Each little group consisted of 3 people. The one unifying trait for all of us was that we like to travel, hence the globe. Guess which stick figure I am?

About other events: For his first trip abroad in the role of US President, I think Obama did a pretty good job. Thus far, he seems to be a rock star wherever he goes. At least he hasn't done anything to seriously embarrass the country. I still shudder at the thought of Bush giving German chancellor Merkel an unwanted neck massage.

Instead, it seems like the clown at the G20 summit this year was Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi who hammed it up for the camera when he posed for a picture with Obama and Medvedev. Berlusconi must be seen as a joke within his own country. If you look at it positively, you can call him lively, fun-loving and spontaneous. If you see it negatively, you would call Berlusconi cheesy and unprofessional. Too bad about the earthquake in Italy though. Some of those structures were centuries old and irreplaceable, not to mention the human toll. I hope someone smart invents an earthquake predictor tool soon!

Be a Rebel

Leather

About the picture: I shot this with a camera phone. Not too shabby eh?

About other topics: I received my first issue of "Outdoor Photographer" recently and it had a nice little article I'd like to share with you. In order to get memorable pictures, you have to be a photographic rebel. To do that, follow these 10 guidelines:

1. Shoot at night
2. Go with the flow (ie - motion blurs)
3. Embrace the surreal (move beyond a literal representation)
4. Look for extreme angles
5. Shoot into the sun
6. Light up the world (use flash for special effects)
7. Go beyond the trophy shot (Don't take pictures of cliched shots. Get off the beaten path)
8. Seek conflict (Include contrast in your pictures)
9. Learn to love adversity (photographing in adverse conditions such as right before a storm for dramatic clouds)
10. Go your own way! (Break photo rules to your advantage)

Daffodil Hill

Today's photography adventure entailed driving to Daffodil Hill in inner California. In fact, I've never been this far into the interior of California.

A friend of mine rented a car and drove 2.5 hours to reach this location and invited me along for the ride. Yay! I really should have brought my GPS device because it was somewhat tricky getting there. We were following mapquest directions, so we had to keep our eyes peeled at every green highway sign that showed up on the side of the road. At some point we must have made a wrong turn because we ended up in a corporate business park area. However, after using an old fashioned atlas, we found our way back on track.

This being a long road trip, we chatted about this and that, shared stories, etc. She brought some CD's along for the ride because radion reception would be poor at some point. The first CD we listened to was the soundtrack to Slumdog Millionaire. It was pretty cool. Not sure if I'd buy it though. Then came Rihanna's CD "Good Girl Gone Bad," and then James Taylor.

When we finally got to Daffodil Hill, the first thing on our minds was to look for the restroom. Unfortunately all we found were portable toilets. Being desperate, I used one of these toilets for the first time. Actually, I was surprised that it didn't stink as badly as I had expected.

Happy yellow daffodils were sprinkled all over the hill. Interspersed on the hill were these old wooden shacks. I was anticipating more daffodils, but it was nice anyhow. There were many families there and people with cameras enjoying what the area had to offer.

Overall, Daffodil Hill is pretty, but I think it has to be much more compelling for me to want to drive that far to see it.

Sausalito

View from the Ferry

My personal experience in Sausalito today was a mixed bag. Weatherwise, it was picture perfect, but Sausalito is so compact that I'm not sure there is much to do there aside from taking pictures and eating.

I took the Golden Gate Ferry from the Ferry Building departing San Francisco at 10:40 AM and arriving in Sausalito at 11:10 AM. A one way adult ticket on the ferry costs $7.45. As I approached Sausalito via the ferry, I was impressed by the beautiful green hill dotted with homes. Sausalito has a quaint small town feel to it. Also, it reminded me of Monterey and Carmel and bit because of the proximity to the water and the boutique-ishness of the city. Sausalito has small shops, expensive looking homes facing the bay and SF skyline and many people pampering their dogs.

After landing in Sausalito, I met up with other photography enthusiasts and wandered along the Bridgeway along the water to take pictures of whatever caught our fancy. After about 1.5 hours of shooting, we had a lunch break, after which we then headed to the marina to photograph the numerous yachts bobbing in the water. Food in Sausalito can be pricey. We walked along the Bridgeway until we found a place selling sandwiches and hotdogs. I had a hot dog, which cost me a bit less than $5.

My overall review of Sausalito using the scale - (1 star decent, 2 stars kind of good, 3 stars very good)

Overall ambience: 2 stars (I liked the walkway along the water and the small town feel)
Views of San Francisco skyline: 1 star (views are better from Alcatraz!)
People watching: 2 stars
Food: N/A I had a hot dog
Shopping: N/A I didn't buy anything
Museums: N/A I didn't visit any
Must-see level: 1 (Visit Sausalito if you have a free afternoon, but don't sweat it if you don't have time)

Translating machine

Criss-cross

I am a translating machine.
In goes German, out emerges English.

I count myself fortunate because I can use both my areas of study simultaneously - Accounting and German. How many people can do that? It's rare and I'm thankful for the opportunity. Sometimes there are some difficult passages or words to translate, in which case my former colleagues in Deutschland have been very helpful. I hate to bother them, but also want to get it right. It's a delicate balance.
However, it would be difficult to translate into the other direction - English to German.

Tomorrow I will be finally going to Sausalito! As an SF native, it is truly remiss of me that it's taken this long for me to visit. It's just a stone's throw away. Most people I've spoken to have already been. Now it's my turn. I hope to be able to report back tomorrow with some nice pics.

A bientot!

Binder clip

Binder clip = Foldback-Klammer?

How do you say binder clip in German?

Fools

A wild haired man dressed as a caveman, people holding signs, naked old men, etc. were just some of the characters seen marching in today's St. Stupid Day parade through San Francisco's financial district.

It was supposed to kick off at Justin Herman Plaza at noon, but I missed it because of a conference call. As soon as the call ended, I raced outside with my little camera to see if I could capture get a piece of the action. For my daily blog pics, I usually use my Canon Powershot G6 because it's more portable than my dSLR. Ideally I would get even a slimmer camera that I could slip discreetly in my pocket. Photography is an expensive hobby. You can always find new toys to buy and your hunger will never be stilled. Call it an addition if you will. Anyhow, I digress from my tale.

After noticing that they had not made it to their third stop in their parade route, I decided to walk back towards the Embarcadero. There they were - a motley crew of zany/weird/colorful/crazy/fun-loving folks carrying signs and dressed up in their most bizarre costumes and mismatched clothes. I thought I saw police escorts, but I hope not. That would have been a royal waste of taxpayer money, but once again I digress! This was similar to what you probably would see during Bay to Breakers, especially the naked old men.

I'm a little disappointed that I didn't have more time to take some good pics. These are the only ones I managed to get of the crowd because I needed to scurry back to work. Today I actually felt busy going from one conference call to the next and then going to another meeting.