Life Post: Cameras

It's been a while, once again.

The beginning of the new year is always a busy one (: Recovery from Christmas to New Year's, birthday, and then Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year).

Different than the solar new year, Chinese New Year for me is celebrated over several days. For my family, on the 28th before the first day of the new lunar year, we must have an epic house cleaning (年二十八, 洗邋遢), much like spring cleaning, and also like how many Japanese do major house cleaning for the new year as well. This year we were pretty late in cleaning, really felt like we wouldn't finish in time hahaha.

Anyway! Recently I got myself a DSLR -- though I'm still debating whether I want to keep it, I really do like it and hope to keep it, but I've never spent so much money all at once before. With my digital camera, it was very good but I always felt a bit limited; now with the Canon T2i that I got, I feel much more satisfied with taking pictures. I've only done a few tests, and am slowly learning all the functions.

My official first Manual Mode photo:

Warning: the image is really huge x_X sorry ):

I think it came out fairly okay, and.. yes we still have our Christmas Tree up (wtf???) I super super love the DSLR, my boyfriend mentioned to me that I should get a UV filter for the lens before shooting outside -- and I'm worried that I might change my mind and return the camera (am I a bad person for using the camera when I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it ?? I have 14 days to return :X though I'm about 95% sure it won't be going back to the store) 

The PDFs will load in your browser, not save to computer (at least for me it did)

While I was trying to figure out how to use my camera, I was searching for different guides -- and came across GoingManual.com. I definitely recommend it! The guide explains simply the relationship between Shutter-speed, Aperture, and ISO -- also does .. demo-type explanations .. er well I'm not good at explaining - BUT. if you're looking for a good guide to manual-mode I would definitely take a look here. Also, the tutorials are free, so no worries if you don't find it helpful hahaha (though I feel it's absolutely wonderful, I learned pretty quickly reading that)

I'm pretty broke now hahaha, but I'm still a bit iffy since getting a DSLR takes some investing (? investment ?? my english!! what is happening?!?!)

Wishlist if I keep the camera:

• UV filter
• Class 6+ SDHC card (my class 4 won't allow for any videos hahaha)
• 2nd lens* 
• Remote thing o.o!
• Tripod

*2nd lens explanation: 

I realize as a beginner to this, I should learn as much as I can about my camera and what aspects I feel are most important etc etc. BUT. The deal I got for this camera is pretty .. well here's the explanation:

• Staples.com has 15/20% off in store purchase (2 diff coupons)
• Staples Rewards: usually 10% cash back in Staples Rewards on purchases 
• Special: 25% cash back in Staples Rewards instead of 10% until January 25th
• Price matches to competitor pricing (Best Buy!!)

And so! My purchase went like this:

Canon T2i Kit = $699.99

Price Match to Best Buy = $604.99

20% off in store Purchase = $483.99 + tax = $526 out of pocket

after 25% back in Staples Rewards = $363 + tax, about $120 in Staples Rewards

And I figure I could buy a lens at Staples with the Rewards that should be posted in February. The only catch about this deal is that I have to spend the rewards at Staples and only get like 60 days to use it all or something ):  And also, Staples doesn't have a great selection, but I figured.. $363 +tax for a T2i Kit is pretty good, or 526 for kit and 2 lens wouldn't be too bad.

Originally, when I was searching for a new camera, I had been looking at Micro 4/3rds, which are... sort of the in-between of point-and-shoots and DSLR's.  They're much more compact than a DSLR, but are still pretty bulky due to the detachable & exchangeable lenses. My boyfriend mentioned to me though, that if I'm going to upgrade I might as well get a DSLR and that any DSLR would be a huge step up from my point and shoot. I totally agree with him, but despite getting the Canon T2i -- I still can't help but look back at the Olympus Pen I had been eyeing:

Though I will say I'm quite pleased with my DSLR, the price of the Olympus Pen isn't that much cheaper than what I got my DSLR for.  Maybe sometime in the future I'll get myself this camera if I still find myself wanting it hahaha.

Ok well, hopefully blog again soon..

Christmas Part 2 (?)

Hello again, I've updated the previous post (christmas, new years & birthday) with some pictures finally ^^;

While I was adding the pictures, I thought of other things I wanted to share, but instead of just adding to that post and making it super super long, I figured a new post would be easier for me ^^; So here goes..

Disneyland is at it's best during the holidays I believe, especially at night (: Even better if you can experience all the special holiday events

• It's a Small World -- Holiday
• Sleeping Beauty's Winter Castle
• A Christmas Fantasy Parade
• Believe.. in Holiday Magic Fireworks Spectacular
• Haunted Mansion Holiday
• Fantasmic (no holiday version) on Tom Sawyer Island in Rivers of America

As mentioned before, Fantasmic was cancelled, as well as the fireworks part for Believe, but we did get to watch the Christmas Fantasy Parade! Of course, the sky was dark, and it was pretty difficult to take any good pictures (as my camera doesn't do very well in lowlight, unless your hands and the subject are SUPER SUPER SUPER extremely still for about 10 seconds) Also, I'm not the tallest girl out there, and there was a group of children in front of me and some adults that would stick their arms out randomly and get into my picture hahaha.

Cinderella and Prince Charming, was hard to capture the couples as they were continuously dancing, and rotating into the float, while the others danced around them (does that make any sense?)

The parade had many beautifully decorated floats (I couldn't get good shots of each one ><) with all the princesses and their princes, as well as characters from Winnie the Pooh, Pinocchio, Mickey Mouse & Friends (?? how do I call them? Goofy, Donald, etc?), as well as Holiday Characters like Snowmen/women, reindeer, Troop of Wooden Soldiers, etc and of course Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus

Pooh and Tigger were actually 'driving' the sleds they're sitting on! It was pretty cool, they'd do some criss-crossing and "race" and "crash" into each other, as well as stop and pose for pictures (: they didn't go too fast, so no worries! despite how slow the parade was, it was still hard to get decent pictures 

Everyone 'Awwed' when the snowman (woman? girl?) in pink made a super kawaii pose during their little dance. Also my mom's favorite of them all!

My "could have been a great picture" picture lol -- Snow White and her Prince

Ok so I was going to post more, but then I've gotten bored of the parade LOL -horrible-, the other pictures aren't that much better... the reindeer are kind of creepy looking, and the a blurry picture of Chip n Dale in their car, and Santa's back/shoulder - -; yeah so. It was really nice, and beautifully decorated, with wonderful music.

But all the people trying to "Get through to the other side" that were pushing and shoving and making us move for them was really irritating -- this was just before the parade began. We happened to be standing next to a churro-cart, and which was just a SMALL DISTANCE away from an opening in the roped-street (they were creating the path for the parade, and roped off the area for people to watch). I swear the opening was less than 1 city block away from where my mom, boyfriend, and I were standing -- yet they ALL insisted on pushing and shoving the people behind and around us to unhook the rope so they could walk into the cleared street.  A group of girls that had done this even said aloud after we let them through "Ohmygod why are they so angry for? xD..." Yet, I know I shouldn't say this, but the way she said that, makes me feel that 99% she would have been super pissed if she had 382409238408 people pushing her to get through when there's an opening a few paces away ~_~. Also what really irritated me was that, the group standing next to us, and a bit in front of us were mostly children.. SMALL children yet all these huge adults insisted on pushing through -- I'm sure many fingers were stepped on (the children were sitting on the ground waiting patiently). When we told these rude people we wouldn't move for them, they would say "but I have to get through" you don't HAVE to get through right here >_> BLAH. THAT OPENING WAS REALLY CLOSE, Y U NO LOOK A LITTLE BIT HARDER (rage sigh..)

Still blurry.. but it's the best we could get, if you don't look at the enlarged image, it's not too bad I think xD

But yeah ^^; The parade was nice... lolol OH and here is the castle that my boyfriend and I tried to take a picture of 2394823894739287 times since both of us don't seem to have steady hands hahaha

It's a Small World -- there's also a show thing that's projected onto the lighted area O: it's pretty cool, there's music that goes with it too! but it was too difficult to get a picture of it x_x, it would play every hour or so (maybe every 30 minutes?)

There were lots of themed wreaths in fantasyland, they looked much better IRL -- it was really hard to keep my hands steady >< sorry!

Finally, the last of the Disney pictures -- Sleeping Beauty Castle during the Believe.. in Holiday Magic show -- "snow" magically piling up on the roof of the castle, right before the magic snow started (: It's really a beautiful show .. I wish it wasn't so windy that day ): I'm sure the fireworks would have been awesome!

Disneyland was really wonderful, I hope I can go again next year!

For Christmas, my boyfriend got me:

my first ever Christmas Cake 「クリスマスケーキ」♥♥

Special Christmas version : Strawberry Shortcake (Japanese Style)

This cake was so pretty! I was super excited to eat it (: I really love this kind of strawberry shortcake, as it's not as sweet, though I love Asian pastry because they're much less sweet than non-Asian pastries. I didn't want to eat itt! It was too beautiful (But of course I did in the end xD..) 

It was absolutely delicious I hope I can learn to make it one day.

That's all for now (:

Christmas, New Year's & Birthday

It's been a while. Now with Pictures ♥

More presents were around the tree after I took this photo O;

So, Christmas passed recently, as usual we had a family gathering to open presents as well as a giant potluck. My darling nieces, well second cousins, were all there. I call them niece since it's easier to understand, and also as I'm Chinese my cousins are more.. like my siblings? (though I'm sure there will be disagreements, but this is how it is in my family, we even call each other basically brother/sister, and my nieces call me aunt -- cousin-aunt properly) I really love them so much, they make me really happy. I hope that one day I'll be able to have my own children or at least be able to care for some more often. We rarely get to see my nieces, as they live quite far, and so we usually only get to see them once a year.

I'm so happy they remember me, or at least the eldest does -- I like to think, although with conceit, that I'm her favorite relative. There's something magical about seeing her face light up when she sees me.

Though, I must say the happiest of my Christmas wasn't playing with my super cute nieces, but something that happened 2 days earlier.  My boyfriend, my mom, and I went to Disneyland together.

the giant christmas tree in front of Main Street, USA, Disneyland

It was super super windy, which also made it super cold, we had to get jackets at the store (even bad weather is good news for Disney huh? though just kidding) was quite expensive, but made the weather much more bearable. Specially for our trip to Disneyland, my mom let him stay overnight so he wouldn't have to drive so much (: I was super happy xD

We went on many of the rides too! My mom went with us as well, it was unexpected but quite fun, we went on Splash Mountain, regrettably the three of us were placed in the front half of the log in the log flume, my mom insisted on sitting in front knowing she'd get wet. We ended up staying in the bathroom for quite a while, as I hogged the Dyson hand blower to dry my mom's pants ahaha, luckily she wore leggings under her jeans so she didn't have to stay locked in a stall until I was done.  Though I understand why she wanted to be the one to get wet, I wish she would have let me sit first as my hair dries a lot faster than hers and I also didn't have it styled.

Horse trolley thingy, barely got the picture with my ninja hands fufufu... (wtf ok sorry i know it's a terrible picture but good enough!)

All in all it was quite fun, the park was decorated brilliantly, with lots of lights and ornaments everywhere.  Sadly the fireworks events for both the Believe and Fantasmic shows were cancelled as the winds were too strong at the altitude required for the fireworks.  They still played the music and lighting effects for Believe, but it really wasn't as magical as when the fireworks are included (a really pretty shooting star firework over Sleeping Beauty Castle like you see before a Disney movie).  There was also magical snow! Which.. wasn't quite snow, rather just soap foam blown from the rooftops. It was quite well done though, looking straight up into the dark sky I could watch small white bits floating downward. I really wondered to myself whether that was what snow looked like. My mom was really disappointed in not being able to see the fireworks, we felt really bad about that.

Thinking back I thought, maybe we shouldn't have gone on that day, but we had already cancelled the trip three times -- all for the weather too, once after the wind storm, and twice for the rain.

Ah! The windstorm, that was.. really crazy! That night that it occurred, I was up late and I could hear the wind whistling through the trees in my yard and the windows. I could also feel the wind enter the house through the air conditioning unit next to me. It was really strange I hadn't felt something like that before. The lights also flickered a bit, but only once or twice and for but a split second. And as I laid in bed, I remember thinking of this scene in Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro)

well this and the bath scene

I really thought the roof might fly off if the wind blew any harder.  Many trees fell in our area, luckily none around my home, but a lot of the shingles came off from our roof, and we need to get our roof redone because of this. It was really scary going to school the next day, I had to take many detours since many of the streetlights weren't working, and thus many traffic accidents occurred. Along the way, there were streets, usually with four lanes in each direction, were narrowed into single lanes due to the trees and branches strewn everywhere.  Many buildings had dents on the edges of them left from trees that landed there from the 96mph winds. Then of course, as I got to school, there were security guards holding an 8.5"x11" sheet of paper with words printed in maybe size 20 font "School cancelled". Could they have printed it any smaller lmao, swear wasted a whole sheet of paper for with text no one can read. Also there was no notice on the school website.

But all is well, I hope that troublesome time has been overcome for everyone affected by the strange winds, and for those still recovering as we are, to hang in there!

This is last year's present that I gave to my boyfriend -- forgot to take a picture of this years ):

Back to what I was saying, Christmas was quite nice this year, I was very worried about what to get my boyfriend, as I stress out easily and worry too much. Since I was six, I've been very troubled when it comes to getting gifts. My best friend at the time told me sternly to get her a gift that's 'useful'. I was then extremely troubled by what she meant and couldn't figure out what would be best to give her for her birthday. Still I worry a lot, much more than anyone should. But luckily, he loved the present I got him, and I was so relieved.

For New Year's we were invited to my sister-in-law's family home for a New Year's Party.  They're Japanese, and also follow Japanese New Year traditions with the food that they make and eat during the holiday. It was really nice, although we're still quite awkward between our families, at least with her siblings I don't quite seem to exist.  But perhaps it's due to my being too timid to take initiative.. I was saved when my cousins arrived, they alleviated my nerves a bit, and I was very happy to see them again. I really do love my dear cousins.  They had been asking my eldest aunt about social etiquette earlier in the night, and later on my cousin had begun to choke on food accidentally. Mind you, she's been ill since before Christmas, maybe.. since Thanksgiving? And so I'm sure her throat wasn't exactly cooperating with her the whole time either, and so I saw her face turn deep red, almost purple as she coughed.  Her parents offered her but a sip of orange soda, and they told her to drink water but she didn't have any at all. My aunt even said to her "that's one thing you shouldn't do too with social etiquette, don't choke". When I heard that I felt extremely upset, I thought to myself, 'how could you say that to her when she's choking and turning purple, obviously she isn't feeling well and you're saying something to make her feel worse?'  I was so bothered by it. I spoke immediately telling my aunt not to tell her something like that, as .. it's not like my cousin can magically stop, and it's not like she did it on purpose either.  Choking, from my experience at least, the more you worry about choking the easier it gets, and even if you suppress it, it only gets worse.  Due to my stupidity and lack of proper judgement, I wasn't quick to get my cousin a bottle of water, it's regrettable that I hadn't jumped up to get it faster, though you could say it counts that at least I did get her water. I couldn't believe that no one got up or worried as much as they should have, and also that no one spoke up when my aunt said those things.  Her parents were right there as well. 

I still wonder though, was I wrong to have defended her? Did she not need it? Was I  rude to say something like that? I still feel I wasn't wrong, I would feel horrible if I was told that it's rude to choke on my food when I'm already choking and on top of that in someone else's home in someone else's party that I've never been to, and don't know.  But I worry that I'm forcing my own feelings onto people and into situations when it's unnecessary.

Today is my birthday. Last night we had cake, and my first official legal taste of alcohol (it tasted quite like the nyquil I took the night before.. hahaha) I'm still a child, as it tasted quite foul, but I will admit that the sniff  I took later on smelled quite sweet and nothing like grape/cherry medicine. 

I made plans with my boyfriend to go eat, and my mom is making my favorite mushroom dish. I can't wait to eat them.  I'm a bit frustrated though, as my boyfriend is frustrated about dinner as we were originally going to Benihana, and my mom was invited and she kept doing this yes/no switch, and then he was worried about the actual place, and asked if there was anywhere I'd like to go in my area instead but. I have a hard time deciding things and choosing places. I've always let other people choose, since usually there is someone that wants something more than I do? If that makes sense. I know it's not good to be like this, but I always do feel that ... for someone else, there is something far more important that they want, than what I want.

I hope that today will be good too.