Death Valley

{In which I process a photo from 2008 instead of the thousands I should be working on now}

Photo taken on family vacation to Death Valley in 2008, with the Canon SD800 from Uncle Eric.

Diane, Summer 2008

I took this photo of Diane in the summer of 2008 in Taiwan at 野柳 (Yehliu) with my Canon SD800 (thanks Uncle Eric!). 

Since my mom loves national parks and scenic landscapes, our family vacations tend to involve a lot of roadtrips to the middle of nowhere (because those types of places have the best scenery). My sister and I were not big fans of those vacations, but we learned to enjoy those trips more once we decided to treat them as photoshoot opportunities. Whenever we stopped at a scenic location, I'd point at a spot and my sister would obligingly begin modeling for me. It helps that she's pretty and doesn't need too much direction from me, although she says I should tell her what to do more often.

So yes, I have a lot of photos of Diane with beautiful landscapes as backdrop. I'll be sharing more of them on my blog. Can't wait until I can hang out with my sister again and take more photos!

with love,

linda

Why You Should Write Poetry When You're Bored

{In which you get to read poetry I wrote in high school}

One day as a junior in high school, I got incredibly bored at school. This, unsurprisingly, happened quite often; but that day I decided to write a poem about how bored I was (yes, really).

That might have been the end of the story had my mother not found out about some sort of contest at the local library. It was two related contests, actually — one for poetry and one for art. The library was seeking submissions for their annual teenage poetry book. There were cash prizes — $75 if you won first place in either contest, and $50 and $25 if you placed second or third, respectively, in the poetry contest.

Crabbing

I took this photo in Fall Semester 2009 with my Canon SD800 (a gift from my uncle. Thanks, Uncle Eric!). I went to San Francisco for a crabbing trip with friends, complete with giant nets and lots of guts as bait. The tiny crabs we caught were cute, but since we couldn't keep them unless they were a certain size, we would throw them back into the ocean. If the crab was unlucky, a seagull would swoop down and carry it off before it was safely back at the bottom of the bay (poor baby crab!).

We had a delicious crab dinner after we got back to Berkeley, thanks to the people who bought crabs for us from the local grocery store. Although we didn't have an amazing haul of seafood (we caught exactly two crabs of acceptable size), I had so much fun. That was an incredible day of hanging out with Berkeley ICA. You guys are amazing!

Happy Chinese New Year!

{In which I talk a lot about money}

It's the year of the rabbit! Chinese New Year is basically the Asian equivalent of the Christmas/New Year holiday season. It's the hugest holiday of the year and a time for family to get together and eat a ton of food. Instead of Christmas music, there's traditional New Year's music (er, I'm not a fan of the music). Instead of seeing Santa Clause around, there are posters and balloons of the god of prosperity. Instead of Christmas lights, there are lanterns and red banners. Instead of presents for family and friends, there are red envelopes.

How to Get Grandma to Buy You a Car

{In which my grandma reveals she has our best interests at heart}

Many of you may have heard this story before. But since I've been reading lots of fun blogs by doctors/nurses/med students lately that made me laugh as well as think omg I don't want to be a doctor!!, this story came to mind again. So I felt compelled to share it. (And yes, I may have copied it from my final paper for one of my English classes senior year of college. But I promise I changed a few words here and there. Ok fine, I actually changed it quite a lot. That paper kind of sucked.)

Enjoy!

Seaport Sunset

Photo taken with cell phone, December 2009 at Seaport Village, San Diego. Currently my cell phone wallpaper (unfortunately that phone doesn't work in Taiwan, but I still use it as a notepad/watch/alarm clock/mp3 player/emergency camera).

At the Berkeley Marina

My new camera is awesome and I love it to pieces, but I don't think using it means instant awesome photos. I've heard it's the person using it that matters, and while I know I'm definitely a beginner and still have a lot to learn, I like to flatter myself that I took decent photos even before I got a DSLR. So in addition to posts of recent photographs and events, I also want to dig through photos from the past and share a few every once in a while. It's a good way to revisit past events and see how I have and haven't changed in my photo-taking habits. I definitely regret not taking more photos. You can never have too many, in my opinion.

That photo above was taken with my Canon PowerShot SD800 (RIP, dear camera!) in spring 2010. Danny took Michelle and me to the Berkeley Marina, where we ate sandwiches from Bakesale Betty's and talked about God and deep spiritual things. And boys (haha). And relationships. And how messy those can get.

We sat a table at a beautiful spot between trees and the sea. I loved the texture of the old wooden table and the lichen that grew in the cracks. I couldn't resist taking lots and lots of photos, and I'm so glad I did. That was an amazing afternoon.