Tag: Personal

Shanghai Dispatch #14: Where I Ramble On

The Kandidate
The Kandidate, Shanghai Midi Music Festival 2012; Takumar 200mm f.3.5 adapted to EOS 60D

My last post was about testing a much needed DSLR upgrade, and now, well, now I’ll start first with the weekend.

I went to the Midi Music Festival again this year (here’s last year’s post), despite the grey skies earlier in the day. This time, I was armed with my late 50s design and built Takumar 200mm f3.5 lens (which I used before here and here), and despite not having the best view, had a handful of decent shows to show. Decent is the fair word, since I’m actually struggling constantly to get the shots I want and never achieve. The full set is here.

#

Despite how much I appreciate the 60D, I had to buy an easier-to-carry National Geographic camera bag knockoff (at 1/10 of the price of the original), so I could carry my already minimal -but still heavy- gear. The sometime bike rides I did with it weren’t at all inspiring, too.

Continue reading Shanghai Dispatch #14: Where I Ramble On

Shanghai Dispatch #9


Weifang Lu

Before I embark on a Sunday night of catching up on work backlog, here’s a blog entry.

I’ve moved somewhere nearer the office, and with that, a couple of new things to experience this second time in Shanghai: there’s now an elevator; there’s also a microwave oven, a living room; and though I mourn the fact that I have less time to listen to music and/or podcasts with my daily commute, 2 to 3 songs will do it, and I’m already turning the key to the apartment.

I’ve also run an experiment of not cooking at all for the past week, and I have yet to make any calculation of it was a practical thing to do. The office is fairly near food establishments -with one recently visited place an easy, instant favorite- and the convenience stores do keep microwavable rice-lunches, but then there’s another realization: I’m getting fat. I recall my doctor/accupuncturist’s side-advice when I complained of an aching foot: shed off some pounds. So before I even give some money to the people at the gym, I’ll be trying out something else first: park jogs. There aren’t any parks near my place, though there’s Century Park, but that’s still two metro stations away. So which park? The one that I am viewing right now from my office desk. Yep, good ol’ Lujiazui park.

Continue reading Shanghai Dispatch #9

When I was a kid

When I was a kid, my default toy was my one and only Lego construction kit. Instead of buying new robots, I made robots out of this for ship-and-trucks blocks. I made my own versions of the Transformers characters (Optimus Prime, Soundwave, etc.), and other bigtime robots of the day. Sure, there was always envy whenever I see kids with fancier toys, but I always tried to compromise.

Decades later, way past school, and able to spend a few bits of cash on the mundane things, I didn’t possess the craving for toys anymore. I find it amusing some friends of my age-range still do, and it is great to know that we all have our own little personal worlds to keep, right when we’re supposed to stop and get into the more serious stuff.

Yesterday, battered from a body massage, I was going around Thumb Plaza to find a solitary place to shove food in me on a Saturday night, and found a small toy nook with the Lego logo prominently displayed. I got in, and convinced myself: If you will, nothing more than 200RMB, please.

Continue reading When I was a kid