Hehehe one of the top internet memes of 2008…still entertaining!
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Botanical Gardens
A nice little shot of a banana tree I think at the Botanical Garden in Berkeley. I definitely think that the in the age of digital photography, the “spray-and-pray” approach to taking fotos yields a couple decent shots here and there. Without the cost of film, its much less painless on the pocketbook….though I may need to get a new hard drive soon =)
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Bookshelves of Bunnies
This was taken at the Bunny Museum. It is amazing how much bunny kitch is produced in this world!
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At The Farmers Market
So I finally went through all my photos on the computer. Since the “webcomic” thing has petered out, I thought I’d use the site to upload random photos on a regular basis – at least until the stash runs out! The really good stuff will also be uploaded at flickr
Well see where it goes – I think I will actually make it go chronologically way from the beginning (2003 or so), but let’s start with my girlfriend at the Farmers Market which was taken just this January outside of Tafia.
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One Year without a Car
These images that are really remarkable – and not so much for the image quality or composition, but just the fact that we were in this car and that neither of us had long term effects – even without the airbags going off!
It’s been a year of not having a car anymore…amazing how quickly time flies!
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Shoes in Seattle
In front of the Liu’s home for Ben and Angie’s wedding pre-party Hey! I found a cord for my cell phone and so I was finally able to rip out all the pictures from my little phone — and they are surprisingly decent! They look so aweful on the little screen, but they are legit 640×480 pics so I thought I’d upload a couple photos from them. This one as you can see was from my cousin’s wedding, Ben Liu and his wife Angie. We were at his parent’s house and I went outside for a walk. being a good asian household — there were a bunch of shoes outside mirroring the bunch of folks inside!
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Portfolio posted
I’m official =) well…I finally got my portfolio posted. I started this weekend using an automated function in Photoshop to collect all the dwgs into web galleries and then worked on the overall navigation and stuff. As when I set up this blog site, it amazes me how much free information there is on the internet when it comes to putting up websites! In any case, check it out and ding me if there are any problems, portfolio.grizzlypear.com
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So I’ve been gone for a while
Between visiting New Orleans and starting up the new year – updating my portfolio and shopping for a new camera). Unfortunately it means that poor GP has been languishing.
No guarantees it won’t continue to languish, but I now have one less thing to do! It turns out my friend Dong had gotten a camera a while back as a gift and he never uses it. When I told him about my current obsession with camera shopping (I won’t dignify it with calling it photography until I actually go out and take some =) He offered to send me the camera for my use.
Even though its a bit scary to get someone else’s Christmas present (even if he says wear and tear is ok), this “rental” period will be good for me to know if I am the type who will be interested in the nicer form factor or if I just got caught up in the moment due to too much websurfing. Its easy for feature creep to happen when you run into a community of obsessives! Its been an interesting exercise in desire and fear, especially in these uncertain economic times and our plans to move back to the Bay Area.
On other news, the portfolio is more or less updated (everything except my grad school work(!), and I’m going to start messing with a simple online version this weekend. That and start making contacts with some people out in the Bay Area!
PS I did go to the aamera shop the other day and I must say I did like the feel of the Rebel more (and it does have DOF preview)…but now that is a moot point since if I do buy anything (other than a nice camera case) it will most likely be in the Bay Area now!
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asparagus carrot stirfry
I stir-fried some carrot and asparagus today and it turned out to be a pretty good combination. Put some peanut oil in pan and set on medium high until hot. Put a few cloves of crushed garlic in the pan along with some green onion. Let it sizzle in the pan on very low heat while you chop asparagus. Chop the tough parts into thin strips and leave the tops. When the carrots are coated in oil and wilted, dump the asparagus in. Put in some salt and a dash of chardonney and chicken broth. Keep stir frying. Turn the heat back to medium high. Cook until done.
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Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely, 2008
My friend recommended Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions and it turned out to be an absolutely great read. The basic premise is that people do not act rationally and certainly not as the rational agents that one assumes in classical economics. Instead, we act in ways that would be considered “irrational” but are often quite consistent (hence the title).
Mr. Ariely is a professor in Behavioral Economics in MIT so his case studies are tested through experiments conducted on various college campuses. For example, one of his case studies examined the appeal of “FREE!”. In the experiment, they put up a concession stand selling chocolates – Hershey’s Kisses at 1¢ and Lindt Truffles at 15¢ a piece (you could only buy one). 73% chose the Truffle over the Hershey’s Kiss, even when they raised the prices a penny. They then took the prices and dropped them a penny. With the Hershey’s Kiss as “FREE!”, only 31% of the folks chose the Truffle. According to rational economics, this total reversal in behavior makes no rational sense (the price difference between Kiss and Truffle remained the same), and yet it does make “common sense”.
The book is filled with other such studies of “common sense” behavior tested empirically through different experiments. He closes each chapter with takeaway concepts which could be applicable in more substantial situations (i.e. if you want people to get preventative health care, it would be much more effective to make it FREE! instead of “really cheap”).
Well written and very readable, it is well worth picking up — not a classic that I must have on my bookshelf (I got my copy at the library) but is worth the time for a read.
