Today is Chinese New Year and even though I'm living on the other side of the globe from my family, we still get to spend time together, online, through iChat. So here it is, my big happy family - my mom and dad, my sister, my brother-in-law, their 3 boys and a girl, and my brother who's there on vacation, and me, up in the corner... it is ALMOST like we're all in the same room.
Last Sunday, Kevin threw a Sushi Party and invited us over. The party will be featured in the April/May issue of Kansas City SPACES Magazine. There were a photographer, the editor of the magazine and a writer interviewing some of us. Here are my own pictures. I hope there will be some with me in it on the magazine. I think the party was a success. The food turned out beautiful and delicious! It was especially fun to roll the rolls with the colorful mamenori or soybean paper. They're fabulous for photography.
At around 2pm today, the lights at work flickered a few times. This usually happens during stormy day, but today wasn't one of those days. However, it did seem rather gloomy outside. As I walked closer to the window, I realized that the was a huge plume of black smoke Northeast to our building over downtown. At a glance it looked like a big tornado. However, what seemed to be black cloud turn out to be the smoke from huge fire ignited by several exposions at the Northeast Bottoms. Later we found out that it was a chemical warehouse that burst into flames and apparently the nearby 5 block area had to be evacuated. Many businesses let their employees go early right after the incident in fear that the air could be toxic. Later I also learned that pieces of debris had fallen from the cloud of smoke, and we were urged not to touch the debris. As I was leaving today, I saw a mysterious black spungy object in a zip lock bag sitting right next to the mouse of our log out computer. It didn't come across my mind that it could be the debris from the explosion until now. Not funny! This is a snap shot from my office of the sky over downtown. Okay, I tweaked the color a little bit for drama, but it was pretty scary.
Here's the another Olathe South poster that I designed - Hello, Dolly!. Since Dolly is such a key character in the play, I just have to include her face in the poster, so we arranged a photo session so I could photographed the student who plays Dolly; and then I treated the photo with a watercolor filter for the final effect. We had a lot of fun during the photo shoot. The costumes are very elaborate!
Here's the poster I designed for the second part of Angels in America. I photographed the Angels of the Waters at the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park when I was in NYC last year. It could not be more perfect for the poster. Eric plays Joe Pitt's character and I'm going to the play this Sunday. It'll be a marathon of Angels starting with Part One at 2PM, and then Part Two at 7:30PM, a total of over 6 hours of play!
The Quicktime I posted here is a video and photo montage of the recent images I took during the holidays season, edit to the melodious carol of Maureen McGovern, The Christmas Tree.
There are too many wonderful pictures of New York for me to post them here, so I uploaded them to Flickr.com. Check it out.
Nearby was the Jay Pritzker Pavilion, designed by Frank Gehry. The proscenium was definitely Gehry's signature style - brushed stainless steel ribbons. It looked beautiful at night when it was lit up with colorful alternating lights. However, the most amazing part of the pavilion was the gigantic trellis shaped like a big bubble, made out of crisscrossing pipes, over the Great Lawn. The function of the trellis acted as grids for speakers and lights during concert events. The pavilion seats over 10,000 people.
We parted at Dean & DeLuca in SoHo, hugging and saying goodbye knowing that we will not see each other for at least another couple of years. When I left, I didn't turn back. I didn't want to make this goodbye a big deal, so as if we're going to see each other more often. I got onto the N train at Prince St Station right at the corner, heading towards Times Square. The ride was a little melancholy. Three weeks ago, my high school best friends Joshua and Derrick flew all the way from Southeast Asia to come celebrate Thanksgiving with me and Derrick's partner joined us later and we all traveled to Chicago and New York City. The whole trip was very memorable because of the change of sceneries, the change of pace and the change of weather. Time flies when we were having a great time. However, the trip was packed with all sorts of happenings. Three different hotels, one snow storm that caused us 6 hours of delay at Midway Airport, and three Broadway shows later, the vacation ended, and our memories were captured by three digital cameras and over a thousand shots. It was a privilege that we get to spend time with each other, and teased each other like when we were in high school again. It is amazing that after so many years, whenever we get together, it felt like we had just parted yesterday. True friendship can withstand the test of time. Ours has been 15 years since I left.
Almost everyone at the table had a digital camera that evening, and these are the images from the second camera. We're such a bunch of visual people, and I'm sure the good times that we will remember of the evening are as beautiful as these images.
It's Eric's birthday today and Naeem, Suba and I took him to Peach Tree restaurant on 18th and Vine to celebrate. The place is a very well-know soul food restaurant, and we really enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. None of us have been there before so it turn out to be a very pleasant experience. Of course, on the day after the mid-term election, all of us at the table have more than just Eric's birthday to celebrate!
I remembered we started talking about my parents' visit about one year ago. Mom and dad always wanted to go on a cruise and we just decided that the timing was right and John and I would go with them to Alaska. A year later, they came and two month after that, they waved their hands and said goodbye to us. They left on November 2nd and have arrived safely in Malaysia a day and a half later. It was a bitter sweet farewell, as we live so far apart from each other and only get the chance to visit each other every other year. However, it always lead us to the planning of the next visit. There's always something for us to look forward to, and when we finally get to see each other again, we know we're going to have a great time because we simply don't have time for other mundane things if we get to see each other more often. I'm glad that my parents are blessed with good health and hope they will continue to be blessed for many years to come so they can visit us more often.
These are among the first few pictures taken as test shots by the DSC-T50. The cool typewriter photo was taken by Bruce. I'm very pleased with the picture quality so far.
This is the pumpkin that carved at Tom and Marks annual pumpkin carving party. The weather was beautiful after a few dreary rainy days. There were six of us and we went to the nearby pumpkin patch to pick our own pumpkin. Then we went to Mark and Tom's backyard, and started carving our pumpkins. Later, we all went to dinner and then came back to light our pumpkins. Then we invited the neighbors to come judge which one is the best. Tom won. But I like mine, so I'm showing my pumpkin here. It's simple and cute, and I was the first one to finish.
Here's the poster I just designed for Olathe South High School. The mask was the creation of the costumer of the play Tam Osgood.
Whale watching...
Playing giant chess out on the deck...
Ping Pong match...
Lounging by the pool...
All dressed up and take family photos...
Bundle up to see the glacier...
Gorge at the Midnight Chocoholic Buffet...
Enjoy a show at the theatre...
Eat and eat and eat and eat...
Or, take a little nap in between meals!
Mount Rainier, WA. Photographed from our plane to Seattle.
Peugeout Sound, WA. The beginning of our 7 days cruise through the Inside Passage to Southeweat Alaska.
Skagway, Alaska, taken from the train on the White Pass & Yukon Route, looking down at a Class 6 rapid.
At the Inlet of Johns Hopkins, Glacier Bay, photographed from our ship. One of the most beautiful site I've ever seen in my life.
Looking at the breathtaking Johns Hopkins Glacier -- the jewel of Glacier Bay!
Margerie Glacier, right at the boder of Canada. It was exciting to witnessed a few glacier calves, which accompanied by its thunderous sound of cracking and plunging into the bay.
The mesmerizing color of the glacier. A closer look at Margerie.
