sjamesho.v3

two Saturday’s ago (November 1) on a rainy night, my friends and i went to Fragrance Land vegetarian restaurant only to learn that they were closed for a private party so we went to Merit Vegetarian Restaurant instead. after that we went to Frozo’s Frozen Yogurt in Santa Clara for dessert.

i like to keep my frozen yogurt simple but this time i took a different approach by layering the yogurt and ingredients. i started with blueberry and added nuts, granola, raspberries, strawberries, mangoes half way. then served up a layer of chocolate with the same toppings. that way i have a relatively even distribution of yogurt and toppings from the top to the bottom.

here is Charity with a sampler cup in her hand. if i remember correctly, i think she got some of uncle Dave’s frozen yogurt too! by the look on her face… i think she’s liking it.

then Ruben came and put my frozen yogurt creation to shame. i mean look at this visual wonder! what with the gummy bears, chocolate chips and animal crackers going on.

how creative! using the animal cracker to scoop up the yogurt. observe Virgil’s concentration as he excavates it away.

there is no doubt that this boy is satisfied with the chilly treat. of course sugar had nothing to do with it… riiight.

Charity looked like she was having a good time… maybe it was too good, eh Charity?

at this point in the evening Virgil was giving me all sorts of funny faces which made it very easy for me to shoot off several frames.

not to be out done by her brother, Charity hams it up for me as well. hahaha… priceless!

obviously there were other and “older” people at the table besides Virgil and Charity. so i continued to practice with my new 50mm f/1.4 lens.

i like how these shots turned out… technically as well as the subject matters. of course, there will always be plenty of room for improvement in the technical part.

Andrea, who conveniently escaped my lens, took my camera and gave it a go. i like this sequence of Charity finishing up the frozen yogurt cup.

wow! look how she keeps her eyes on the lens as she spoons the yogurt into her mouth!

Charity is definitely not camera shy. she loves the camera, and the camera loves her.

here’s Coralyn on the opposite side and opposite end of the table from me. go Andrea!

Andrea handed my camera back but Coralyn was still making funny faces.

awww… the poor empty Frozo’s cup! it was soon thereafter that we left the establishment. some of us went to see the crazy 11:15p showing of Eagle Eye and the rest went home. i don’t know where Andrea went but i know she’s always has a plan. that basically ends the evening as well as this post.

click the play button to hear Andrea asking Charity to say “Frozo’s”.

some of you know i commute to work using the Bay Area Rapid Transit otherwise known as BART. for fares you can either buy a paper ticket or sign up for their BART EZ Rider Card which automatically reloads from your credit card account. i’ve been using BART now for a little over a year and the EZ Rider Card is very convenient. however i was still using paper money or change for the parking fee. one buck is not a big deal. but by not being a usual cash user, trying to find ways to break a twenty has been a challenge… until NOW!

calling it the “EZ Rider Parking Program”, BART allows commuters to pay for parking using their EZ Rider Cards. when it was announced i was very excited and enrolled in this program to get my personalized serial number hangtag for my car. on Monday i received and email notification that they had sent my parking hangtag and today i received it!

after opening up the package and unfolding the contents, these numbers boldly greeted me. i was a bit startled at first and then…

did a 180. not that i was freaked out or anything… just a bit startled. i think it is kind of cool to have all the same digits. anyways… i’m happy now that i have my hangtag. the Fremont station is scheduled to begin the program on December 8 and i can’t wait to not have to worry about making change for the dollar parking fee.

i don’t follow politics. it has never interested me. it has never got my undivided attention. and probably to this day i still don’t care much about it. but i will say we are living in interesting times. that this year i have stopped to watch something political (all of three times). and though i had wished to be a part of history prior to this day, that i still am somewhat glad that i am not a registered voter.

it is not that i’m apathetic to my country. it is not that i have utter disregard and disrespect to the democratic process. and it is not that i don’t believe that my vote will not count. it is because i have complete respect of the voting privilege that don’t vote.

because i view voting with such high esteem, i don’t take it lightly. if i were ever to vote, i want to be a completely informed voter. the problem is that i don’t keep up with the nation’s political climate nor pay attention to the laws, bills, measures, props, etc. that are presented. in fact i don’t think i even tell you the difference between the laters. so when an election year comes around, ads for and against fill the television and radio waves for your vote. how then does one keep apprised and clear without the bias noise?

i don’t know whether or not i’ll vote in four years. i don’t know if the times will be more interesting to get me watching something political more than three times every four years. i don’t know if i would even care to change my…

yeah… that’s the operative word isn’t it? “change”. our country has for the most part voted for change and for the individual they believe will bring about change. so i guess what i’m getting at is that although we hope for and strive for change how far are we willing to go? does it end with my part at the voting booth? does the change history of a candidate guarantee change in the future? am i willing to make and follow through with changes in my life in alignment with the ideals i voted for?

until i come to terms with all that, i’m not going to vote. because as Stan Lee once penned, “with great power comes great responsibility.” when i do vote, i’m going vote like i’m wielding a lightsaber… with power and precision as every vote should be casted… not just for voting-sake. and a vote, especially a vote for change, is indeed powerful.

when we had finished to group shot, we headed to a bowling alley around the corner of Thai Delight to see if we could get in a game or two. the night wasn’t too old yet and we figured we could continue the festivities before calling it a night. when we got there we learned that it was about an hours wait before a lane would be available, so we ditched that idea and decided to go back to the “Best Westerns”. Phil and i stopped off at Safeway to pick up some chips and soda.

when we got there Nitro decided to make me the object of attention… or rather, the object of ATTACK! so he got muzzled. it was very amusing to watch him lunge at me because it looked like he was poking me with his nose. so to temper him down i would catch his head like a football and hold him still while giving him the evil eye. we did this several times much to his frustration. when things seemed to “quiet” down we started figuring out what to do with ourselves. at first it didn’t seem to go anywhere but eventually Chrissie brought out some of their many board games.

we decided to play Sequence. i think it was my second time playing it. it is a pretty easy game to learn and was quite easy to remember.

you play teams alternated around the circle. i was teamed up with Mike and Mae and we won two out of two games. go team green!

Nitro is looking rather depressed because of his naughty behavior. he is probably thinking “once i get this off, i’m going to bite of a chunk out of you!”

before i left i hooked the Westerns up with the latest episodes of Bleach and watched a little of that week’s episode. and that my friends was how i ended my evening… well Nitro did make a lunge at me as i was walking out.

after battling my way through the Friday commute, i eventually arrived at Thai Delight in Cupertino where i joined up with Mae, Mike, Mike, and Louie in waiting for Ted to surprise him on his birthday. i learned that Louie also had a dSLR though she didn’t bring hers. she had some questions about different kinds of shots so i was more than happy to explain what i know.

here’s another picture using my 50mm f/1.4 lens. these centerpieces are used throughout the restaurant. i was hoping to use this lens more than i did that evening. however i did get the opportunity the following night.

Chrissie and Phil showed up at the table first while Ted got distracted with the Friday Fry’s ad at the entrance. the “surprise” was a bit lacklustered since there was no surprise vantage point where we could… uh… surprise him. however when friends can get together for a meal and conversation is good times in my book any day.

i love taking pictures of people as someone else is taking pictures of them. so as Chrissie was taking a picture of Erick and Ted, i couldn’t resist to getting a shot in before she finished counting to three.

now this is the stuff! no wonder Ted doesn’t share. it is THAT tasty. Ted and i were the only vegetarians so i ordered and devoured one myself.

for dessert Ted and i ordered coconut ice cream. however, they ran out of coconut ice cream and brought three different dishes: 2 scoops of mango, 2 scoops of coconut, and one of each on one dish. so Ted and i swapped his scoop of coconut with my scoop of mango so we all got some coconut action.

the obligatory group shot. i was thinking about bringing a tripod, but that would push me over from photo geek to photo nerd. so we had the manager take this for us. not trusting his zooming/framing skills with my all-purpose 28-135mm lens, i threw on my wide angle (10-22mm), composed the shot for him and joined the group. i then noticed that he held my camera at a distance looking very puzzled. “i don’t see the picture”, he remarked. oh, duh… i have to remember to mention people that my dSLR doesn’t have “Live View”. some new ones released this year finally do but that’s besides the point and potential future upgrade. so after telling him that he needs to look through the view finder, he managed to inadvertently take two shots which was cool. this second shot was the better of the two!

part two of the evening will be in my next post.