organized?

The last 2 days of posts from my east coast trip are written... *and* I finished organizing all the pictures from that week as well... yay!!

Next organizational task... updating my address book. The last time I went through and updated was 2003... so sad. It seems that I can never find a lack of things to organize. I still have in the chain: my anime collection (transfer from CD to DVD, finish downloading series that are left half-done, etc), my harddrive (backing up things, burning and clearing things off), my pre-digicam photos dating all the way back to pre-1998 (scanning them in and sorting), all my momentos stored up since 1998 (this is going to take years, probably)... and many others.

I finally "formally" introduced myself to our neighbor the other day. Our previous neighbor was a really nice old lady (I'm pretty sure she was retired... but "old lady" just sounds wrong for some reason). We usually talked about inconsequential things, but I did find out that she had worked as a nurse on a cruise ship for several years at some point in time. That sounds like a cool job... constantly traveling to pretty places. Anyways, our new neighbor is on the other extreme age-wise. She's about our age, ie. just finished her Masters. K went to say 'hi' very soon after we moved in, but I just kept delaying. And then I saw her when I came home the other day and we waved to each other; so, I thought I should actually go by. She seems really nice. She's Korean and somewhere along the way, we talked about Korean dramas. She even offered to lend me a couple that her friend gave to her ^o^

Drama...

All About Eve Started: July 17th Finished: July 28th MBC 2000, 20 episodes Cast: Jang Dong Gun (Yun Hyong-chul) Chae Rim (as Jin Sun-mi) Kim So Yeon (as Huh Young-mi) Han Jae Suk (as Kim Woo-jin)

This one was much slower paced than others we've watched... almost to the point of being relaxing (is that possible?). I did feel frustrated during quite a bit of it though... people being deceived over and over again is just disheartening to watch. The ending is one of the better endings I've seen... I mean, it makes logical sense and is 'good' in most ways. K complains about really abrupt or short endings and this was the exact opposite with plenty of time to close it all (fits in with the overall slower pace I suppose). Oh, and Chae Rim is the only actress I've seen that I can describe as "cute"... it probably has a lot to do with her character in this drama though.

Huanzhu Gege II
Started: April 3rd
Finished: Aug 9th
48 episodes
Cast: Alec Su, Vicki Zhao, Ruby Lin

This was looooooong. 48 episodes of Qiong Yao is maybe just a bit too much... and it's of course always tough to make a good sequel. I really felt like this was drawn out and some of the things she has the hzgg getting into were just too crazy/wacko. I guess K's right about the "over-acting", too. I watched it in bits over the course of 4 months... plenty of time to absorb it all!

On to new dramas...

pictures galore

So there are 2 more days of postings left for the "east coast trip" and I wasn't planning on posting anything else until after I did those... but...

Incorporating picture images from 11 different cameras has been quite an interesting task. It took me almost a week to do just 4 different cameras containing 1-2 days worth of images... that was last month for my Ohio trip and my cousin's wedding. I thought, hey, it's the same thing as then, but just with more cameras and more days. Plus, I guess I'm the only crazy one who brings a 12-in-1 card reader with me and will actually organize all the pictures I get.

The process is taking about 2 weeks [with plenty of breaktime and other things interspersed]. (People seem to be patient so far.) I do a bunch of different things with the images, but 2 main things I always do...
...time-tagging them so that if you sort by time, the images will be in order time-wise. Originally, I was just doing this manually... ie. use my camera time as the standard and everyone else's cameras are relative to that. I would manually figure out the "correct" new time and use that as the time-tag. Of course, now I'm towards the end of my processing, and I just discovered a great piece of oss to easily modify exif headers.
...editting each image to be "ok"... mostly adding lighting using picasa's "fill light" edit... sometimes the auto contrast and auto color and shadowing... and turning some pictures into "sepia" because it was too dark to do some easy editting to get the colors right

I started looking for programs that would allow one to edit exif header information. I did find a few freeware/shareware ones, but they didn't allow batch edits (e.g., add x minutes to the time for all the pictures in y folder). And then finally today, I ran into jhead... a great piece of OSS. Even for people who are on the other extreme (ie non-crazy), you can use it do some quick things to organize pictures better... like rename all your picture files to have the date & time (as stored in the exif) and some description... like "20050805_hhmmss_mh-wedding". And something like that is just a one line command. Certainly it's better than having all the images remain "IMG_1234".

Looking at camera time differences is intersting...
... time off by one hour... person is from EST time zone but forgot to correct time when switching from daylight savings
... time off by 3 hours... person is from PST time zone
... time off by 4 hours... person is from PST time zone but forgot to correct time when switching from daylight savings
... time off by 12 hours... camera was bought in Taiwan
... time off by 13 hours... camera was bought in Taiwan (daylight savings?)

back

So no one gets confused... the next few entries I write over the next several days will most likely all be back-dated to last week, just so I get my memories straight and stored somewhere.

Let the fun begin!

time to return

J dropped us off at the bus terminal in Providence (byebye J), where K, E, C, V, and I caught the 12:30pm bus to Boston South Station. We parted with C at South Station and took the Silver Line to Logan Airport. The four of us remaining ate a small, expensive airport lunch, and then a goodbye to V.

The plane ride back was alright. I watched a show on the discovery channel about predators, which was pretty interesting (one segment concerning dolphins, sardines, birds, and sharks, and another segment about penguins and leopard seals). K and I were going to watch "My Tutor Friend" on his laptop, but he didn't have the software to read srt's. Ah well. So we ended up watching a few episodes of Yakitate and then I napped.

Home sweet home. But I miss my friends.

post wedding day fun

The Breakers, Aug 6 2005
Everyone got up just in time before the end of breakfast (10am). After the morning bits and pieces, we drove out to Newport and started with one of the 'must do' things while in Newport... tour a mansion. The mansion we selected was "The Breakers", a summer "cottage" (with 70 rooms) built for the Vanderbilt family. How much money can you spend...? For the ceilings, you could have them be gold adorned, a tiled mosaic, or covered with hand-painted tiles. You could buy a whole quarry so that the stone you have on one of your room walls cannot be found in any other building in the world. You could have a room extracted and shipped over from your house in France. And of course, lots of antique furniture, marble, precious stones, etc. The "house" was constructed for approx $7 million... in 1890-some. (What's the conversion to amount of money now?)

After our tour, we drove closer to downtown Newport and looked around for a place to eat lunch (late-lunch, considering it was 3pm). I wanted to walk the 3.5 mile Cliff Walk, but no one else besides K was so inclined. 3.5 miles is *not* long! Ah well. So instead, we walked around the downtown shopping area, checking out the quaint little shops (while J took a nap in the car... poor tired J =()

Some of the shops had interesting items...


I can't leave without taking a pan of a good view, of course...
(1024 x 768 does it much injustice)


We left Newport 6pm-ish because the NYC people were going to drive back at night. Back at the hotel... cheesecake and wine tasting courtesy of V. V had made and brought a cheesecake just for us... as well as 4 wines: riesling, malvasia, tawny port, and sherry. The only 2 I remember well now are the malvasia, which was like raspberry soda with a touch of alcohol, and the sherry, which reminded me of cinnamon raisin bread with a texture akin to honey. Accompanying the merriness was Irene's stories of good pick up ___ (actions?)... catching fish, good parking spots, and how did the rabbit cross the river.

Sometime after Chia, Dave, Nini, and Chen left to return to NYC, we drove out to the strip mall nearby to get dinner... at a supermarket, Panera, and McDonalds. Then came a good game of poker with V and me left in the end (yay!) and V tried to teach swing dancing. We both realized at the time that what he was teaching was somewhat off count... but just couldn't pinpoint it until much much later. A 'sorry' goes to E, C, IL, K, and J.

More cards... 6 person spades game with K, V, C vs. E, J, and me. Poor C to lose yet again. Then J vs. C in Spit... C was just plain lost on this. Then J vs. E in Spit. I don't really remember when I fell asleep, but I think it was while J and E were dueling in Spit.

MH's wedding day

MH's wedding reception setup, August 2005
Woke up at 9am... and got everyone else up at 9:30-ish... oatmeal and leftovers for breakfast. We got out the door at 11:15 (only 45 minutes later than my planned 10:30 ^o^) to drop off E at South Station, which was [thankfully] much less eventful than our attempt the previous day.

Drove down to Providence... stopped by J's work branch to say hi to an ex-co-worker of hers. The branch contained 3 (!) people, but they said they were adding 3 more. Continued on our merry way to Vince's god-grandparents house to pick him up... and then finally to the hotel. It all worked out quite well in that everyone arrived around 2pm-ish and we had lots of time to get ready. We divided up into a room for guys to get ready and a room for girls to get ready, then left the hotel at 3:45pm for Newport.

Newport... touristy... but beautiful area. The ceremony was very pretty and there's something about being a bride that just makes whoever she is shine magnificently that special day. The reception was fun... best part of the food was the raw bar (tho I think my stomach wasn't prepared for it -_-) and the choco fondue fountain. Music... mostly hiphop-ish... I did dance a bit... only a bit.

The Castle Hill Inn location that MH picked had some great views.
at sunset...


the bridge into Newport at sunset...


the bridge into Newport at night...


By the time we got back to the hotel, it was midnight. Chen, Nini, Chia, and Dave went to sleep soon afterwards. E, C, K, and V+IL played a short game of spades until 2-3am.

In between getting back and the spades, J, K, and I were hanging out in the room of E, C, and V (412). E showed us some pictures of his dog Carter taken the week before... with something white and poofy on Carter's head. On the tiny LCD of the digicam, it's tough to make out what it is...

us: Why is there a white thing on his head?
someone: A shower cap? Why is Carter wearing a shower cap?
us: What is it?
E: What's that on his head?
...
... more pondering by us ...
...
E: What's that on his head?
E: Why does he have a pillow on his head?

J and I glance at each other, and I jump up and go crazy. Big hug, of course. It doesn't matter that I knew it was coming soon, nothing takes away from the intense joy you feel in those moments.

(Timeline:
March 2004 - E says he's going to propose, help in ring search?
December 2004 - Hmm... it's the end of the year already...
March 2005 - E begins ring search
July 27 2005 - E's proposal... "I think the dog has another lump on his neck" J rushes downstairs to see... what...?)

Congratulations, E!

icky boston roads

Woke up... ordered Bertucci's for lunch. V was going to leave at 1:30 to make the 3pm bus down to Providence to visit his god-grandparents, but after remembering we had a car, we thought to drive him instead of him taking the T... and, somehow the 3pm became 4pm. (E was also going to leave and take the bus back to NJ.) E, C, V, J, and K played a "quick" 2v3 game of Starcraft... interesting for me to watch, considering no one died due to rushing. (J - Protoss, V - Terran, K - Zerg)

We made it out the door a little after 3, but annoying Boston construction, badly-placed (or missing) street signs, and navigating in unknown territory made us miss the 4pm bus (poor V -_-'). So, he took the 5pm... and got caught in rush hour traffic down, making the trip 2 hours rather than just 1. We did manage to convince E to stay an extra day though.

J, K, C, and E played some 2v1 games of Starcraft... seeing how long the 1 person could last. Then I napped while they played a game of 80 (well, 40). We drove out to Boston to eat dinner at Fugakyu... with C constantly comparing the meal to Oishii. (I guess that's what we get for not choosing Oishii.) The place was supposed to be good, considering it got all these awards and rave reviews. K called Alisa to join us... she couldn't, but told us that the place was overpriced (which was indeed true) and had a Japanese mafia look (eh?).

I went to sleep around 3am (early... yay!), leaving C, K, E, and J playing 80 and Starcraft.

ew... moldy cherries

K and I awoke at 10:30... for a 11:45 lunch meet with Jeremy, Paul, and Vic at Vanu at their new location in Kendall Square. As it turns out, V showed up at 11am (reminder to self: get actual flight #'s rather than just flight times... it was supposedly a 11:40am arrival?). The 3 of us journeyed out... to discover J's car missing from the great parking spot across the street from C's apartment. Ouch! Towed away due to 1st Wednesday of the month street cleaning. K had read the sign for the *other* side of the street the night before... which was 1st Thursday of the month for street cleaning. In retrospect, we should have known to check both sides... but in retrospect, everything seems like common sense, of course.

So the 3 of us journeyed out... to Kendall, but didn't manage to get there until 12:20 and missed JPV, who waited for us until 12:15 and then sneaked into a lunch meeting. So instead, we stopped by the COOP for some college spirit goodies and then picked up lunch at Thailand cafe. V and I also stopped by Star to pick up cherries for C and J, but alas, every single bag of cherries there had mold in it (~20 bags!).

After C, J, and E awoke and ate, somehow StarCraft took over. Even *I* played a couple of games (with the help & direction of V as commander, of course).

Cody met us for dinner at Dali (yum!) and afterwards drove K, C, and J to the tow people out in Alewife to get J's car. J got her SUV back without too much headache (I think)... aside from an expensive $70 tow + parking fee (would be interesting to see how much the city makes off of this per month).

More gaming... Cody vs. E in Go. E managed to win with a 4-stone handicap. Then, more cards. K, J, V, and I played a short game of spades while Cody taught C and E poker. K dropped off to sleep after the spades game, but the rest of us stayed up, playing Texas Hold'em. Cody watched the five of us, and then played 2 hands in place of C before leaving at 3am. He lost a bunch to V in one hand and then gained most of it back in the next. In the hand vs. V, V thought he had nothing the whole time and Cody read him correctly in that... but after V revealed his hand, we pointed out that he, in fact, was holding a straight... hmmm.

V won the game by far (considering we borrowed chips from him to continue playing even after we lost ours). Sleep... 6am.

car trip back up to boston

I woke up at 7:30am to start another sleep deprived day... forced to eat some watermelon and steamed buns by my mom (of which I am thankful considering 'breakfast with E' wasn't until almost noon) before my dad drove me to up to New Brunswick to J's hotel. J and I took off in her great white SUV rental (Ford Explorer) to meet E at the American Eagle diner up in the commercial Korean section of north Jersey. I guess it was 'brunch'... pancakes with ham for me, french toast for J, and an omelette for E. We walked around the hot & humid day looking for the cafe / ice cream shop which E couldn't quite remember the location, and we ended up in some other random cafe. E ordered a coconut slushie type drink and I got mini bits ice cream (like dots)... half cookies & cream, half mint choco chip. We finally got a picture of E and me in the cafe after ~10 tries... my blinking in the mist of a picture is becoming quite a problem.



J & I spent a bunch of effort during all this trying to convince E to join us on our trip up to Boston. After a final 'no' in the diner parking lot, J and I drove away. To our delight, we received a call from him not too long after leaving... saying "ok, I'll go". ^o^ So we drove back to the diner and followed him to his house to get his things. By the time we were finally on the road up, it was 2pm. We made one stop for a pizza snack along the way and arrived at C's 7-8pm-ish. A 5 hour drive might seem long, but with E and J in the car with me, it seemed to fly right by.

After some milling around, we left for dinner at Penang. Post Penang was cards... K & J teamed against E & C for spades until 7am. I dropped off to sleep at 3-4am though.

wedding in nyc chinatown

I don't really remember what happened after A's last night... we got back to C's around maybe 10 or 11 and then...? Well, I'm all blanked out. I do remember going to sleep around 4am-ish... and then waking up a little after 7am and taking the 9am bus from South Station out to NYC Chinatown, arriving after 1:30 and waiting for N until 2:30-ish (btw, from past personal experience, NYC subway + walking a several blocks takes a long time!) The chinatown bus ride was uneventful, thankfully. We grabbed lunch and yummy drinks at a noodle shop and then met Q at her wedding "studio".

When Q said to me over the phone that she would be at the studio to get her hair done and everything, I didn't really imagine what she meant by "everything". In the "traditional" (as far as my limited knowledge goes) American way, everything is individually hand-picked... the salon to do your hair, the photographer for your wedding pictures, the caterer, etc, etc. From what I gathered, 3 groups were basically picked to handle Q's wedding.

The wedding "studio" handles a lot of the odds and ends. With the package comes... rented outfits (wedding dresses, bridesmaid dress, tuxes, everything), rented jewelery, the photographs (complete with touched up album and wall scroll), wedding video, and makeup and hair for all your wedding party.

The restaurant handles all food-related stuffs... the 10-course meal, reception setup and decorations. And then, the entertainment group (for loss of a better name) handles the entertainment. During every single portion of the reception dinner, there is some form of entertainment on stage...
...the bride & groom and bridesmaid & best man dances
...the chinese tea ceremony, with the main announcer describing the formal relationships the relatives that come up on stage have with the bride and groom and the gifts given (jewelry and/or cash)
...a magic act
...random coreographed dancing
...random karoake (all hired singers)

And during all of this, the guests just eat... eat... and eat some more. Of course, one must be fond of seafood to attend these weddings. Oh, and there really was no wedding "ceremony" apart from the "reception". I suppose the few of minutes of bow to ancestors, bow to heaven, bow to each other before the tea ceremony would count as the "wedding ceremony". One other common thing... Q changed into 4 different dresses [with 4 different hairstyles] during the wedding.

The sheer amount of jewelry given during the tea ceremony is amazing. N and I both wondered what one does with so much jewelry after it's all over. I brought the topic up with my parents and they said that most of the jewelery is rented! What happens is you rent a piece of jewelry for maybe $1,000 deposit [from jewelery rental stores... many in Chinatown]. You then return the jewelery after the wedding and that $1,000 goes to the bride and groom. So in reality, a lot of jewelery [in modern day] is just for show. What the bride and groom really end up with after it all is lots of $$. How much jewelery? See dress #3...


We caught the 11:40pm train back to NJ and N gave me a ride back to my house from the train station. The crazy one that she is, she drove back to her PA apartment (over 2 hours) after dropping me off (1am). It seems that whenever I go home these days, there's always tons to talk about with my brothers and this instance was no different. I finally got to sleep at 5am.