Today's New York City Weather

The Eighth Day, there is light, again.
That's if you consider Flushing as New York City. It should be but then if you don't live in Manhattan, it's kind of not very New York City.

Today's New York City Weather

Still gloomy with a hint of sunshine. The picture is grossly overexposed in the traditional sense. My subconscious way of wishing for a brighter morning. My usual A auto was accidentally switched to M while inside my big bad tote bag and I was busy composing with one hand without noticing the overexposed readout from my tiny viewfinder. 

Does the word appointment mean anything to Doctors and Dentists?

Every year or so, I have to make a trip to see my dentist and my doctor. Invariably, I make an appointment before I go. But that appointment really doesn't mean anything to the doctor's office. Let's say I make an appointment at 3PM, I will be extremely lucky if I get to see the doctor within half an hour, before 3.30PM. More often than I like, it's almost always an hour later or even 2 hours later than the actual appointment time. Doctor's office doesn't understand the concept of appointment at all. Or they simply don't care. Why is it so hard to make sensible appointment? If you can't fit me in at 3PM, just let me know, I will come some other time. My time is important to me too. I kind of like my doctor and dentist. Except the waiting part, in their office, with other patients, flipping old magazines.

Today's New York City Weather

Wet and gloomy. 

Today's New York City Weather

It's soaking wet. 

It's 5:49PM...

where is my ride?
My daily flying carpet runs either local or express. Problem is you never know which is which.
When the train pulls up the 5th Ave station, the conductor either says nothing or says something totally irrelevant to the everyday riders, something to the extent of "5th Ave, transfer is available for number 4, 5, 6, E and F train" and goes on and on, and finally just when the car doors are almost completely closed, he might add, if you are lucky, Flushing bound number 7 express train...I wonder why the conductor would say anything about the transfer, is it for the tourists? For tourists who are prepared, they probably don't need this announcement, and for those who aren't prepared, the announcement wouldn't help a bit. Getting lost in the New York subway system is part of being a tourist in the Big Apple.
For the everyday 7 riders like me, all I want to hear from the conductor is Express Express or Local Local, if it's too little, then Number 7 Express or Number 7 Local, Is it too little to ask?

Another uneventful morning

Perhaps I should do picture of the day thing, just so I can have something new every day. In terms of eyes for a good picture, I consider myself blind.

My morning number 7 train ride

It's about time for a new entry.
I take the number 7 train every day, or actually every work day. There is little to like or dislike the number 7 train. It's crowded, it's even more crowded if you take it during rush hours. You would think with the recent terrorist alert lifted, you would get a better ride, but hell no, there was some delay and the train was crowded, I mean like at the door, people are breathing on each other's face.
Subway Fighters
So a fight broke out between these two guys at the door. They were men of few words. Just after a few nasty exchanges at Queens Borough Plaza, they stepped out and had a bare fist fight. So that's not bad, you got free entertainment on an otherwise mundane train ride. Just imagine you have to pay $40 for a pay per view on cable. You got a live performance right in front of you, no cable bill follows. Perhaps the terrorist alert was lifted, so no police was present on the God police forsaken Queens Borough Plaza. The other train riders stayed indifferent to the whole fight, after all we've seen it all. Sensing nobody is noticeably appreciating their efforts, the two subway fighters stopped and got back on the same very crowded train and breathed on each other face again, man, you wonder if they really liked each other...The actual fight lasted about 15 to 30 seconds, both were standing and were trying to talk tough afterward. That was pretty much the highlight of the ride.
Subway Donts
Don't pluck your facial hair
In my mind, there are things you shouldn't do on the ride.
While the above fight came to an end , another woman got a seat in front of me and started busy touching herself up. She was all busy plucking her facial hair above his her lips and between her eyebrows. It lasted much longer than the fight, and I was like where were those hairs going, must be airborne. What's next, was she going to wax her armpit or bikini area right on the train? Girls, there are things that ought to be done in your privacy, not for your own comfort but for others. I kind of think, applying some lip gloss or powdering your nose is acceptable, but spending the whole ride pulling hairs from your face and discarding them around is not...You got to draw the line some where. We have subway "law" that bars carrying open container, like coffee or water. Against photography. I think we should have laws prohibiting subway riders from:-

• Plucking hairs, facial or otherwise
• Combing or brushing hair continously and extensively
• Clipping nails, fingers or otherwise
• Pole hugging, pole dancing naked is perhaps OKAY
• Standing on the left side of a moving escalator showing no apparent signs of disability
  
• Seating with legs crossed and sticking them out, guys, it's the subway not your living room.
• Seating with legs wide open. Yes, you are BIG, I understand, but still you don't have to open your thighs at ninety degrees or bigger
• Squeezing in their shoulders. Everybody loves a seat, or make it a lot of people. But just respect first come first serve, plus you paid for the ride not the seat, so don't feel like you have to sit your ass down when you see a space no matter how fucking narrow the space is. When you sit down in between seats, don't exercise your right of last in and all shoulder in, there simply not enough shoulder room.

One of these coming cold winter days, I am going to explode if some jerk attempts to park their shoulders in regardless of the space, I am going to fuking kill them.

Kissena Park Photography

Here is Harry. Riding our only German made vehicle, Kettler.
The pictures here were made using a Nikon D70 and a Nikkor 80-200 f2.8D lens. It's an overcast day. I used ISO 400 for most of the shots except a few toward the end of our bike trip. I can see some noise if I open the picture in 100% for those ISO 400 shots. Anyway, shooting bike ride was not exactly easy. The lens performed pretty well. It's heavy that's expected. Focusing speed was slightly better than I thought considering I was using a D70 and the lens doesn't have Silent Wave Motor. The speed was fine with my shooting. I guess it depends on what you use it for. I was just shooting my son riding a bicycle at 5 miles an hour. If you are shooting NASCAR, or shooting for NFL for ESPN or Sports Illustrated then I guess one would need something more responsive.
Happy shooting.

Riding a bike and looking perplexed.

Harry tired of riding his tricycle.

Ranger on the move again.

Nice Helmet hair. All hair cut by father.

Harry in motion

The joy of riding...in Ranger helmet and gloves, no less.

From this jpeg, one can actually see Alex is quite a rider already, pedaling with his bottom off the seat, I am impressed. I am sure Harry was too.

Harry, actually pedaling the tricyle, our only German made vehicle.

Harry on tricyle.

Portrait of a biker as a young kid.

Happy Ranger.

Here is one of the few pictures that actually shows Alex riding a bike, right there, right in the middle of the frame, suspended in motion. He just learned how to ride without the training wheels last week. Thanks to Raul or rather his brother's way of training: starts with "duck walking" seated on the bike, don't start pedal until building up some balance and momentum. That is don't combine moving forward with pedaling in the beginning. The method works well in Alex's case.

Nothing better than snack, except more snack.

Nothing better than snack.

Getting ready to fight the bad guys. Power Rangers SPD GO.

Harry is busy eating. He got all his teeth. That must be some crackers there.

Snack Time.

You got to enjoy falling. He didn't crash riding the bike. He put the bike next to the dolphin and fell down when he tried to get on the tail. Harry couldn't be bothered.

...Power Ranger SPD

Ride a bicyle.

Need I say more.

Backyard Photography

Jin. Nikon D70 bolted with Nikkor 80-200 f2.8D, shot handheld at 200mm @f5.6 aperture priority auto. Shutter speed recorded was 1/160s.

Hurricane Rita

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse, bang, shit hits the ceiling. Rita is bearing down on Louisiana and Texas as a Cat 3 hurricane. Here's CNN pretty boy Anderson Cooper reporting live from Texas as captured by my D70 using a rented Nikkor 80-200 1:2.8D shooting at ISO 800 sensitivity. Still capture from my Toshiba 46HM95.

Camping at Lake George, 2005

Breakfast by master chef...Andy again.

Breakfast by master chef...Andy

inside the tent. It's end of August, the day is hot but the night is cold. We were overwhelmed the first night. The following night was much better, in part because of the weather warmed up a bit, and also we got a 'crash matt' from TaiKam, which helped.

Campfire...again and again

Campfire...again

Campfire

Harrry as supermodel. Now don't I wish I have that $2000 lens that give me razor sharp images. The expression and the composition are there, but I think there maybe some motion blur and lack of sharpness. I am all for sharpness and resolution, albeit I only have a 6.1 MP Nikon D70. You shoot with what you have and long for something better. I am a firm believer sucker for better equipment makes better photographer...to a certain extent. Or else one should shoot with a pinhole camera.

....taken by WeiWei. This is one of those rare pictures taken with all four of us together. I don't really own a tripod, so it's always 4 - 1 in terms of family portrait. This one is taken by Wendy, who shoots Canon. I think it's a good shot.

Catrina

Fishing. Here's Jamie showing me the fishing how-to basics. Very patient guy. This picture confirms I don't have much of a rear-end, which is just fine with me. I like the oomposition of this picture. Great shooting from Jin.

Catrina. Another great shot. Now only if the background is rear-end-free would make it even better. But then it would make it too professional and perfect.

Brian

Joseph and Justin

Harry, the fisherman. Nice expression from our fisherman.

Joseph and Justin. Here's Justin in pain. He somehow somewhere sprained his ankle.

Catrina

Joanna

Brian