Detours of a south east asian prairie girl

My perfect start to a weekday: get up at 6 am, go to the gym. Treadmill for cardio, strength workout after. Cat stretch on the mat with cough, ahem, some attempt at sit ups. All the while with fantastic music on the IPod (Pet Shop Boys this morning, nothing too angry, bitter, or mellow).

Then … a luscious bowl of delicious laksa noodle soup for breakfast!

My version has chicken, shitake mushrooms, tofu puffs, and slices of fish cake in the soup base. Rice noodles. All topped with a soft boiled egg, lots of beansprouts and chopped green onions. Hmmm, takes the chill away from this crisp Vancouver morning. Makes me feel very Asian in Canada!

Thanks to Google Video, here are the slideshows from the recent trip to South East Asia. Three in all, titled Faith, Good Times, and Scenes and Life. All shot with a Pentax Optio 3.2 MP digital compact, with hardly any zoom. I am happy with the macro shots, but without zoom, couldn’t get as many “life” shots as I wanted. I try to be discreet and when I ask for permission, invariably, the answer is an enthusiastic yes followed by posing! Next up for me, a digital SLR!

Enjoy!

Song titled Soon Love Soon, from Vienna Teng.

Song from Blue Hearts, a Japanese punk rock bank.

Song from Blue Hearts, a Japanese punk rock bank.

She kicks Arnold’s ass in Terminator, somehow manages to kiss both Pink and Michelle Rodriguez, and tops uber-stud Shane’s socks off in the L Word. Oh my.

Cute as a button as a single mom who actually gives Shane a run for her money, what’s not to like?

Next up for Kristanna Loken, a Sci-Fi Channel program called Painkiller Jane which she co-produced, due out in April. And how cool is it that she grew up in an orchard called LoveApple Farm in upstate New York?

I did it. I shouldn’t have done it, what with fresh back from travelling and in full savings mode, but I did. I went to London Drugs and played with the cameras on my day off, those digital SLRs. Sure, they don’t build them like they used to (vintage cameras are way sexier) but these ones are small, light, and have everything a novice like me would need.

And I lucked out, the dude behind the counter, Mister Jack, was experienced and helpful. He brought out 3 entry level DSLRs for me to try: the Canon Rebel XT, the Nikon D40, and the Pentax K100D. I’d already read up on the former two, but knew nothing about the Pentax. Turns out the Pentax has a built-in stabilizer, which for shooting with slower shutter speed in say, low light conditions, is very helpful. Helps counteract the camera shake from your hands.

Of the three, it was’t long before I ruled out the Canon (lens quality, cheaper body construction, only 1 year warranty) despite the faster shot reload and startup speeds and supposedly excellent image quality.

It came down to the Nikon and the Pentax, both with 2 year warranties. The Pentax is heftier (which is good, just like you want some heft in a good tennis racket), bigger, and felt very solid. The menu system is similar to my current digital compact. Playing with it, the buttons feel fine, nothing too special, but totally fine. My right hand and fingers fit the grip really well. Really nice body construction (higher grade plastic).

The Nikon is very light and smaller. It is fairly easy to grip despite the smaller size, but certainly lacks heft. Quiet auto-focus and snap, quiet lens. Excellent menu system, with graphic views of your shutter speed, aperture sizes, and so on. Overall, I like the LCD better. The diopter control (adjusts the viewfinder information for 4-eyed people like me) on the viewfinder was a slider, which is awkward but not a make it or break it thing. I didn’t even really noticed till I got home and read up more on it. One thing I didn’t like was the lag time on the LCD display when you manually change settings like shutter speed; it took some time to update the info on the display. Not very responsive on that front.

So in the end, I think it comes down to this image stabilizer that Pentax has built into the body. To get the same technology on the Nikon, I’d have to buy the expensive Nikkor lenses with VR (vibration reduction) technology built into the lens. Otherwise, the Nikon is more suited for my usual outdoor and light travel trips. They both come with capable AF 18-55mm lens.

And to tempt me further, the Nikon is now on sale in-store!

Good god, what have I gotten myself into! I came home dreaming and salivating. Maybe I should sell my coveted Boris Becker Estusa tennis racket to raise funds. I’ll throw my lovely cat in for a couple more bucks.

The people in my life are split. For those who have seen the photo slideshow from Asia, you lot have probably noticed how nice I was to exclude my hundreds of close-up food shots, so as to not bore you to death or leave you writhing mercilessly on the floor. Some of you, however, and perhaps to humour me, have kindly asked about the food. So here, by half-popular demand, I present to you, ladies and gentlemen, some of the food:

It has been raining for days and days in Vancouver and I have been cycling to and from work in icy face-splitting downpours. Coming home soaked to my underwear, I ignore the hopeful meows of my cat to pet her belly and head straight to the bathtub down the hall. There, standing in the tub, I grudgingly peel each layer of clothing off, clothing which are no longer waterproof. My cat, used to this routine, patiently waits.

Today, I smell it. The tip of my nose cannot tell me wrong. Spring is definitely, suddenly, joyously, here. In the air! Despite the forecast of more rain to come, the promise has arrived. The trees that line the hilly streets near my apartment think so too, they send forth pastel bursts of pink and white cherry blossoms. Unmistakable. Looking down from Commercial Drive towards Downtown Vancouver, tree after tree is budding and crowned with colors, promises of sunny days, water sprinklers, playing children, ice-cream in waffle cones, and happy puppies.

I pulled my bandana down today as I cycled home, eager to breathe in that fresh warmth. I started thinking about sleeping in a tent and hiking along mountain vistas. I wanted to savour a simple perfect grape tomato from a garden, warmed by the sun, not grown in vast greenhouses. No olive oil, no balsamic vinegar, nothing is needed to dress this tomato. It is fire engine red. Taut skin, juicy flesh, earthy, not too acidic. On a wooden porch in the backyard in the slanted light of a late afternoon, with a glass of soft Pinot Gris, a few good chums, a couple of friendly pets, and Celia Cruz in the background. I think so, yes, yes, I think so.

It’s official: I want an entry level digital SLR, and I would like it to be a Nikon D40 (well, actually the D50 is nice but pricier). And I would like to teach myself how to use it properly and shoot better. Uhhhh, E, can I have a higher allowance?

Check out these pictures shot with a D40.

[update] So it looks like the Canon EOS350D is the counterpart to the Nikon D40. It shoots and reloads faster, so to speak, and starts up in 0.2 seconds or less. The lens that comes with it is apparently not as good, and neither is the plastic body construction. It’s also more expensive, but image quality seems to be better (that’s vague, of course, because it also depends on the photographer and which settings were being used). Hmmm, it will be interesting to see what Canon comes up with this year or next in response to the Nikon. I might have to make a trip to Kerrisdale Camera and try both out to see.

So I’ve finally watched the Oscars on tape. And darn it, when The Departed won for adapted screenplay, they actually annouced that it was based on the Japanese film Infernal Affairs. Hello? It was a film from Hongkong. This is the biggest stage for American film awards and you can’t get this simple fact right? Geez.

3 days before Tet, which is akin to our Christmas shopping in Canada. Everyone is out and busy, so well, if there’s space, why not go on it, even if it’s the sidewalk!

The difference between a techie girl and her non-techie mate (upon viewing the photo slideshow):

Me: Okay, okay, it’s done. The first cut. Wanna see? Preview? Preview?
E: Yes please!
Me: Okay, sit down. Don’t move. Concentrate. It goes by pretty fast.
E: Okay!

(Slideshow starts, first strains of music comes …)

E: Oh no, I’m gonna cry. This is waaaahhhh, sob sob.
Me: Hey, focus man! You’re missing frames!
E: Sob sob, shoulders shaking, sob sob.
Me: Urggggh, concentrate. Aiyah! Stop crying. You can’t possibly see if you’re crying and talking! I spent a lot of time making this, don’t spoil it!
E: This is so sweet blah blah love blah blah … sob sob
Me: Stop it, man! Sit straight!
E: I know this song, it reminds me blah blah love blah blah … sob sob
Me: Stop! (I press Stop). Now stop it. Okay, I have to replay because you obviously missed them!

This, my friends, all in only 10 seconds, no more. I’m such a geek. And E is so sweet, heh heh.