Friday, February 26, 2010

Day 57: Whiteout

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/4, 1/400, ISO 200 + 0.5 EV Post)

And the snow just continues to keep coming down here in the Greater Toronto Area as we continue to get blanketed by the something we haven't seen much all winter.  You'd think that as Canadians we'd all be used to this sort of stuff by now, but it always seems to take us by surprise.  Morning commute today was dreadful since the plows didn't have much time to get out beforehand.  In fact, much of the bus ride was gridlocked or moving at a bit of a snail's pace.  Thankfully the subway ride was largely uneventful. 

  
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/5.6, 1/400, ISO 200, +0.3 EV)

It wasn't much of a surprise that when I emerged from the subway later that afternoon that it was of course, snowing.  It had been raining a bit downtown when I left.  About the only difference with this morning is that it was now a little warmer, meaning there was a ton of slush everywhere.  On top of that it was starting to get camoflauged by fresh snow, leaving for a few slick and nasty surprises.  It tapered off as I came back east.  Below if a photo of a sidestreet that I take on my way home, above is the park I cross.  It's just a sea of white out there.

 
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/5.6, 1/400, ISO 200) 

Tomorrow promises to be busy.  It's my last day of work, and as mentioned in yesterday's post - the RUTV Masquerade.  More to come.

Day 56: Off the Beaten Path

 
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/8, 1/160, ISO 200)

A pretty uneventful day off today.  Got to sleep in a little bit which was nice, considering how little I've slept all week.  I got back to Markham a little early this afternoon so I decided to explore a photo opportunity that I had been meaning to in the last few weeks.  The location for these photos was Sanwood Park in Scarborough.  To be honest, I never really knew this place existed despite how relatively close it was.  It was first brought to my attention in through my buddy Elijah (In red on Day 46)mentioned "a place near your house with a path and a lot of trees" that his brother had photographed in the past. 

  
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/8, 1/250, ISO 200) 

It never really dawned on my exactly where it was, until a few weeks later when my dad and I went to go get our hair cut.  Upon making a left turn, I noticed what I thought was a pretty impressive row of trees with a winding running through it.  Whether or not this was actually the place, I made note that I'd go back one day to shoot it.  Today was that day.

 
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/8, 1/125, ISO 200 +0.7 EV) 

I of course, chose the best day ever to venture there. The weather wasn't exactly pretty - if anything it was cold and there was blowing snow.  Of course it was a good excuse to put my D90 through it's paces.  I figure if my D60 can survive a bit of rain water than the D90 could certainly handle some snow.  It hasn't died yet... so that's a good sign. What caught my attention most after traversing much of the park was a wall consisting of artwork done by presumably students from the surrounding schools.  I'll let the series below speak for itself.

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/8, 1/125, ISO 200) 

 
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/8, 1/200, ISO 200) 


 (Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/8, 1/200, ISO 200) 

 
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/8, 1/200, ISO 200)

  
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/8, 1/100, ISO 200) 

The final photo is not something painted on the wall, but I tried to be a little witty and let the photo frame itself.  Thank godness for Live View, otherwise it would've just been a crapshoot to get this photo.  By this time I was already freezing cold and didn't really have much of a notion to go belly first into fresh snow.

 
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/8, 1/500, ISO 200 +0.67 EV Post) 

That's it for today, but there is definitely more to come.  This weekend I'll be at a Ryerson University Television (RUTV) masquerade event to celebrate their launch for this year, so that'll be exciting! 

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Day 55: At a Glance

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f2, 1/160, ISO 400)

Grrrr! So, much of the day yesterday (and the day prior) was spent studying for my statistics midterm that was supposed to happen at 9 AM.  So what happens two minutes prior to us starting?  Thats right you guessed it!  Computer crash!  So of course the test gets postponed to next week, which happens to stack with my programming midterm that occurs the day before.  Oh joy.

Above is a photo of Lindsay, one of the handful of women in our program.  Considering that this is a quick snapshot, I'd wager that she's quite photogenic.  I believe this was the glance that she shot at me (don't worry, I was one seat away and we both know each other, so you can cease the stalker accusations) before she quickly darted her head right after hearing the momentary click.  Of course, a fraction of a second is all it takes with SLRs.
 
Going to keep it short, since I'm incredibly tired.  Back to school (albeit not for class) tomorrow, but at least the weekly grind is over.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Day 54: Push for Assistance

 (Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/1.8, 1/320, ISO 400)

Took the photo at around 2 AM in the Rogers Communication Centre at Ryerson.  It had been a pretty productive morning, although I pretty much fell asleep through my programming lecture and once I got home.  I have a suspicion that all the hand driers are like this in the RCC.  I recall there being one labeled as such on the second floor; this one was on the third floor.  Nonetheless, I found it hilarious.

Of course, a lot of things are a little funnier when you're dead tired at 2 AM.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Day 53: Out of the Reading...

 
Simon Deng speaking at the Student Campus Centre
(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 120mm , f/2.8, 1/160, ISO 1000, Flash @ TTL + 0.3 EV)

...and into the fire.  Monday kicked off with a midterm.  As for how well I did?  It depends.  It's just that... I don't know.  Inside joke.  Afterwards, headed for a fantastic history class, surprisingly the first lecture this month.

 
Welcome to Air Romania Flight 1-R3P41R
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/1.8, 1/400, ISO 1250)

After class, went to shoot some basketball again in the Ryerson gym.  A bit of a more intense game this time around, in my opinion.  It also began to snow earlier today, something we haven't seen much of all season.  At the time of this post it is still snowing, but it's slowed down a bit.  Much of it is already turning to slush.

A rare sight: Snow.
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/1.8, 1/400, ISO 200) 

Lastly, shot some photos of Simon Deng (headline), a Sudanese refugee who escaped child slavery.  T'was one of those interesting 'reality check' events that really brought everyone in the audience back into perspective, and how not everything was all 'lovey-dovey' in the world. After that, headed to the Rogers Communication Centre to shoot a band that my friend Betty and Gabby were recording for their show.  Joined by a few others, we watched Canadians Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir win gold in Ice Dancing.  We then celebrated with Nestea and cake.  It was awesome.

Sorry for the shortness of the post, but currently operating on very little sleep.  More to come in a few days...

Monday, February 22, 2010

Day 52: Huggies

 
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2, 1/40, ISO 1600)
 
Unlike desk pictures, you can never get tired of Katelyn pictures!  

Every now and then, Katelyn walks into my room.  She's been pointing a lot to my laptops lately, but she usually gets lifted up onto my bed, where she points at my shelf full of stuffed animals.  At this point, I'm not sure if she's just pointing to any one at random, or if I've been goofy enough to not hand her the one she wants.  

Irregardless, I think she's grown attached to some of my stuffed dogs.  The one pictured is the one I usually hand to her first.  She usually hugs it once and then puts him down afterwards, pointing to another one.  Eventually she usually ends up sitting on my bed surrounding by half a shelf's worth of stuffed animals.  Most of which have been hugged or petted by her.  

Kids do the darndest things.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Day 51: Humpin' It

 
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/11, 1/160, ISO 200)

As if I hadn't already mentioned it yesterday, it's going to be a very busy few weeks.  In case you don't believe me, here's a picture to prove it!  Shot this on the way home from work.  

Of course, even speed humps have a story!

These humps were installed several years back, likely to curb any potential drivers speeding down the straightaway portion of our street.  They've since been installed elsewhere throughout our neighbourhood.  Have they been effective?  I suppose.  I seldom hear cars roaring down my street anymore, which is nice considering I'm usually a pedestrian on this stretch of road and given that more and more pedestrians have been getting hit in the Greater Toronto Area.

Day 50: Boardom

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/25, ISO 200)

A pretty laid back day today in comparison to the rest of the week.  Just some studying and Olympics.  Woots to Jon Montgomery winning the gold in Men's Skeleton.  Posts for the next couple of days might be a little shorter than usual - Reading Week is pretty much over and I've got a pair of midterms in the coming week along with a whole bunch of assignments/projects for both the Commerce Times and Ginseng Radio.  

More to come in the following days!

Friday, February 19, 2010

Day 49 Supplemental: Chance Encounter

 
For the record, I laughed too. +1 Maturity.
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/3.2, 1/20, ISO 3200)

Okay, so technically more than just BattleTech happened today, but I figured it wouldn't be appropriate to cram it into a lengthy post about BattleTech since I knew it was going to be lengthy and this bit would end up getting lost somewhere amidst all that text.

So, on my way to Dave's I ran into my friend Elizabeth whom I had not seen in almost a year, despite the fact that our houses and universities happen to both be a few blocks apart.  Okay, suburban "blocks" are like rediculous and don't count.  My bad.  It seemed as though our schedules just never really lined up, until today.

As we caught up on the subway-train ride, I had learned much to my dismay that her beloved cat Charley had passed on.  My entire life I had never known what it was like to have a pet.  My mom didn't really like having them around and being neigh-high I wasn't exactly able to convince her - although I'm pretty sure I tried once or twice as a kid for us to get a dog.  Charley was probably one of the first of people's pets that I had ever met in my life.  Like most cats that I've come across he was pretty lazy, although he was probably the largest of them all.  I like to think Charley liked me, because he had a thing for snuggling up to my leg the few times I was over at the Yoshiki's.  Either that, or he smelled fresh meat and was just waiting for the opportune moment to strike.

Sadly, we'll never know.  I hadn't seen him since I had picked up photography, and was disappointed that I will never get a chance to photograph him.  It's reasons like these that I am so passionate to photography.  It's not just a means of earning income or being another excuse for two 'photogs' to jock around "who's is bigger".  It's about capturing the moment, so that five minutes, five years, or five decades down the road you can still look at it and say "Remember when...".  Of course Elly has a bunch of photos, so I'm sure she won't mind that I swiped a photo off of her Facebook account.  Here's to Charley, beloved pet and feline.

 
A tribute to Charley.
Photo Credit: Elizabeth Yoshiki

After Dave's I met up with Elly and her boyfriend Brandon who - like the majority of non-Asian males that I seem to come across nowadays - looks like he could snap me in two.  I kid of course; more so on implication that non-Asian males have any sort of desire to snap me in two than their ability to, but I digress.

We went to a restaraunt/bar called Gabby's on Bloor St. West.  Yes.  I just named a very long street.  I apologize but do understand that was University of Toronto territory or very near it - somewhere I seldom tread (Ryerson FTW!).  You're welcome to Google it if you're curious.  I had a Pulled Pork Sliders that I neglected to photograph because I was hungry.  On top of that I didn't feel like conforming to what is fast becoming a regular practice amongst some of my peers (at least from what I can tell) with regards to photographing (from a technical perspective, rather dully... is that a word even?) their food.  I would like to note though that it was pretty awesome for my second pulled pork experience.  Of course, anything can top Boston Pizza pulled pork, which is more like pork paste with BBQ flavour.  On the way back we snapped the headlining photo before departing at the nearby subway station.

I got back just in time to watch Canada barely edge out a win against the Swiss in Men's Hockey.  Hooray for us also winning Gold in Women's 1000m Long Track Speed Skating.  Sandwhich in (Winston make pun) some BattleTech, and I think it's fair to say that today was a pretty good day.

Day 49: Once More Into the Cockpit

 
A Blackjack, piloted by one of my lesser-experienced pilots lives to fight another day.
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/4, 1/40, ISO 1000)

Well, at least in miniature form.  Spent the afternoon at my buddy Dave Leaver (who was briefly mentioned a few weeks back when his younger brother Greg was featured on Day 32) and some others in a familiar situation: overlooking a hex grid with mech minis, plenty of dice, paper, and pencils.  The game was Classic BattleTech.  For the unfamiliar, Classic BattleTech (hereon referred to as BattleTech or BT) is a pen and paper combat-strategy game involving the militaries of futuristic 31st century nations as they duke it out over a myriad of planets both near and far to good ol' Terra.  Now isn't that a mouthful?

My forces lined up.  In focus is a Hunchback, a mech known for moving slowly, and carrying a big "stick".
 (Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2, 1/80, ISO 1000)

Of course, the game is deeper than that.  Sure, you can play pick-up games of straight up mech-on-mech action.  That alone is plenty of fun, but what I love most about this game is just how far in-depth you can take your game.  Beyond mechs, you have tanks, infantry, massive naval ships in both space and on surface.  Hell, you can even drop a nuclear weapon on your battlefield.  It doesn't stop off the mapsheet either.  Once the smoke has cleared the technicians, medics, and support staff go to work - you could go so far as to install a beer cooler into your mech's cockpit.  There even exists an entire RPG game in this universe for those more into roleplaying than lasers, autocannons, and good ol' fashioned Rock-em' Sock-em robots.

The opponents lined up on their end.
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/100, ISO 1000)

BattleTech kicked off over twenty-five years ago and excluding a bit of a mid-life crisis involving copyright issues it has picked up, significantly so in recent years thanks to Catalyst Games.  While not as extensive, my own history with BattleTech has been somewhat long and colourful.  I started off never even knowing about BattleTech.  A fluke birthday present from a childhood friend was what got the ball rolling.  My first Mech' game was Earthsiege 2.  I loved it so much, that one day my brother took notice and asked me if I had ever checked out the Mechcommander or Mechwarrior series: I had not.  A couple weeks with the demos of both Mechcommander 2 and Mechwarrior 4 later, I had the purchased the mech-compilation packs containing Mechwarrior 4: Vengence, Mechwarrior 4: Black Knight, and Mechcommander 2.  Several months after the final incarnation of the Mechwarrior 4 series of video games landed in my lap - Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries. 

Getting down n' dirty!
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/4, 1/60, ISO 1000)

It was December of that year (I think it was 2003?) that I then came across NetBattleTech (NBT), an online league comprising of (at the time) hundreds of players largely from North America and Europe playing out their own variation of the BattleTech universe via Mechwarrior 4.  Prior to that I had generally kept away from gamer groups (commonly referred to as "Clans" in Internet jargon), albeit largely due to my age.  I was on top of the world when I easily made it into one of the teams that I tried out for.  It began a long three yearish stint where I played for three teams.  For those in the "BattleTech-know-how" that would be a small Mercenary group (called the 58th Northland Berzerkers), the Capellan Confederation, and the Draconis Combine (the last of whom I also played Battlefield 2 with after Mechwarrior 4 Mercenaries fell out of favour for most of us).  Most of my gaming companions have since scattered, with only a few of us managing to keep in touch.  That said, I will never forget the height of my gaming days.  It's something that I still somewhat yearn for, although I have doubts that I will come in contact with such a close-knit group of online individuals ever again - to get on weekday nights on Teamspeak, get organized, discuss plans of action, and then execute them in-game, with various but often memorable results.  It was far from the usual anarchy that one would find in your typical online gaming experience where you're more likely to die in the first five seconds than anything. 

Mr. Hunchback after the fight; he's been beat up pretty bad, but far from mangled.
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/4, 1/125, ISO 1000) 

Of course, along the way I also came to know BattleTech through Mechwarrior.  It was bound to happen, considering the latter is based on the former.  I started off not knowing very much playing the online version (referred to as MegaMek) and eventually transitioned my way into the local Toronto scene about three or four years back.   I had a bit of a falling out with it though around mid-way through my last semester of High School, and haven't really picked it up again until today.  Thankfully I didn't get royally screwed over by my luck (BattleTech involves a lot of dice rolling to compliment the strategy portion) today; I came through my game relatively unscathed.  Win or lose though, it was great getting reacquainted with an old favourite.  I imagine this will be the first of several more BattleTech-related posts throughout the year.  Thanks to Dave for having me over for some mech-crunching action!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Day 48: Ol' Glory

 
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2, 1/320, ISO 640)

A bunch of us went down to celebrate Annie's belated birthday (pictured below).  We went downtown for some brunch at Frans, a 24-hour (in Toronto at least) all-day breakfast and lunch restaurant.  

 (Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2, 1/30, ISO 640)

Most of the table settled for some pretty standard stuff.  Pancakes, omlettes, French toast.  My friends Michael (pictured top) and Betty decided to order the 'Morning Glory' dish, pictured below.

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2, 1/200, ISO 640)

What is it you might ask?  Fran's describes it as a "jumbo waffle with two eggs, two bacon strips, along with carmelized apples and hot maple syrup".  Really, does more need to be said?  Mmmm, mmm, good!  It's no Krispy Kreme bacon cheeseburger, but man it's somewhat of a contender!

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2, 1/250, ISO 640)
 
Afterwards we loitered a bit in the Eaton's centre and Kosta, like Michael opted to pose with one of the Olympic torches.  My favourite photos of the day, well-lit and great subjects.

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2, 1/250, ISO 640)

Oh, and as for what I had at Frans?  Well, I decided to try and tackle their Big Breakfast like I did before my Accounting exam last semester.  I almost succeeded, only to be stopped by the thicker than usual pancakes, again.  I was one slice away.  Of course, the massive amount of food pictured below seemed to be somewhat overshadowed by the ol' Glory.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Day 47: Rooted in Water

 
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/1.8, 1/20, ISO 1600)

Spent the afternoon with some of the Ginseng Radio folks today.  Shout out to Jermaine, Bronf, Ben, and Aaron, who were all there at various points today.  I probably can't share what we discussed, except for one very polarizing (aka lopsided versus Jermaine) topic.

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/1.8, 1/40, ISO 1600)

So I had learned that Jermaine (pictured above) has a preference for Perrier "water".  Myself and Bronf on the other hand, did not consider it to be worthy of being called water, given its carbonated nature.  Quite frankly, I'd rather drink tap water or heck, even awful tasting Desani/Aquafina.  Quite frankly if there is something special done to my water in such a way that it has a particular taste, or in Perrier's case is carbonated then it shouldn't be considered water.  

Granted, I'm the guy that doesn't drink coffee or other carbonated drinks so I am a bit biased.

Day 46: See You on the Hill

 
(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 105mm, f/2.8, 1/1250, ISO 200, +0.5 EV Post)

"Make Family Day Tobogganing Day".  And we did; and by we I mean my buddies Jonathan (Black) and Elijah (Red).  I got a wake-up call at around 12:30 from Elijah asking me if I wanted to go.  I said no to tobogganing, but yes to hauling my equipment out and recording it.

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 160mm, f/2.8, 1/800, ISO 200, +0.5 EV Post)

Within two hours we were on our way to pick up something to slide down.  Numerous suggestions were made, including a food court tray, shopping cart, and cardboard box.  Eventually we settled on pitching in for a $4 tray from a "dollar mart" (almost nothing costs a dollar nowadays, much to my sadness).

  
(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 100mm, f/2.8, 1/1000, ISO 200 +0.5 EV Post)

Sled in hand, we were off to Milliken Mills Park, only to find (and in my case, be reminded) that the park is currently under construction.  Unfazed, we headed to another park we were familiar with: Beverly Glen.  The hill there wasn't as impressive, but we made the most of it.  Managed to get a few stills, as well as a couple videos.  Hopefully I'll have something together in a few days with some of the raw footage of the latter.

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 70mm, f/2.8, 1/800, ISO 200, +0.5 EV Post)

So who exactly started this?  From what I can scrape together from anecdotes, eavesdropping, and Facebook videos, it kicked off with Samuel Wong, a member of Jon's church: East Toronto Chinese Baptist Church (ETCBC).  Though Sam has since moved to Hong Kong, his tradition lives on.  The first family day there was a sufficient amount of snow.  Last year, not so much.  This year?  Marginally more. 

(Nikon D90, Sigma 70-200 II @ 70mm, f/2.8, 1/1250, ISO 200, +0.5 EV Post)

Afterwards we were somewhat hungry.  Of course it was Family Day in Ontario, so that means that pretty much everything that wasn't Federal or a designated tourist place was closed.  Well, Asian places stayed open, as did fast food places.  So what we did what any sane hungry guys would do.  We went to McDonalds and ordered something ridiculous: 40 McNuggets. 

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2.8, 1/50, ISO 800)

Okay, so maybe it wasn't so ridiculous since it was split between three guys.  Elijah and I got sundaes afterwards for good measure.  All in all?  Another great day.  We'll probably do this again next year, perhaps we'll see you on the hill?

Monday, February 15, 2010

Day 45: Seeing Red

(Nikon D90, 18-55 VR @ 44mm, f/5.3, 1/25, ISO 2000)

The good kind of red.  It was Chinese New Year!  Oh, it was Valentine's Day too, but as you may have guessed, I'm single.  So back to CNY!  It's the year of the Tiger this year and like always the day's events revolved around food and family - two of the greatest things in the world.  Going to keep the text concise today, and let the pictures do the talking.

 
(Nikon D90, 18-55 VR @ 20mm, f/3.8, 1/30, ISO 2000)

While for me it was like any other Chinese New Year, I imagine it was an entirely different experience for my niece Katelyn.  Compared to last year she is now walking and talking, but like last year she remains the focus of everyone in the room; aunts, uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents, and even photographers! 

(Nikon D90, 18-55 VR @ 18mm, f/5, 1/30, ISO 2000)

Pushed the ISO performance on the sensor really hard today, which is why a lot of the pictures look fairly grainy since I often underexposed a little to keep my shutter speed as high as possible (Katelyn likes to move around a lot).  All in all I'm pretty happy.  Probably wouldn't have gotten this with my D60.

 
(Nikon D90, 18-55 VR @ 29mm, f/5, 1/25, ISO 2000)

All in all, good stuff, and to top it all off, Canadian Alexandre Bilodeau won gold in the Men's Moguls event tonight to end Canada's dry spell of no golds on home soil.  Hell yeah!  Talk about icing on the cake.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Day 44: Trouble in the PM(all)

 
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/11, 1/250, ISO 200)
 
Winston make pun.  Headlining + 1.

Walking home from work, I noticed four squad cars racing past me, sirens blaring.  It appeared as though they had been heading towards good ol' Pacific Mall.  I decided to tap into my non-existant photojournalism skills and tried to grab as close a shot as would be possible with a 35mm (52mm equivalent) lens without getting dirty looks or being harassed by the police.  

Apparently though there must've been an altercation because there was a young male and female handcuffed on the curb near the parking spaces.  My mom was probably right; there was probably a fight (as in someone got assaulted) for a parking space.  Am I surprised?  No.  That parking lot is always full - often overcrowded - on weekends, let alone the weekend of Chinese New Year, which also falls on Valentine's Day this year.

My mom told me that my horoscope indicated that I'd be in a leadership position at work and that I should avoid quiet, secluded places in April/August.  The former has yet to happen; I'm leaving my current job on top of that.  As for the latter?  Well, I don't think hiding out in parts of campus studying counts or staring at the warm glow of my computer in my room.  

So much for an exciting year...

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Day 43: On Account

 (Nikon D90, 18-55 VR @ 18mm, f/3.5, 1/60, ISO 500)

Uneventful morning, cancelled meeting.  Took my friend Betty on a little camera excursion in the early afternoon.  Then the big event for the day - covering the Ryerson University Accounting Society (RUAS) case competition.  Overall pretty well handled, although there seemed to be a bit of fumbling in the beginning, which led to me waiting about twenty minutes because my name tag had not been printed (despite my asking for one).

The rest was pretty routine.  Click, click, flash, flash.  Food was... as to be expected.  Of course it generally tastes better when one is hungry.  Despite being having made through the day without paying for my food (certainly an added perk to this whole photography thing), I ended up heading over to the Rogers Communication Centre to meet up with my friend Betty, Gabby, and a new acquaintence - Stéphane.  It was there that we ended up ordering some pretty kickass pizza; pepporoni, BBQ steak, green peppers and pesto (instead of tomato sauce) on one, and chicken, mushroom and I believe alfredo sauce (or something of that sort) on the other.  Total win.  The last slice of the first pizza is pictured below:

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/2, 1/50, ISO 800)

We also watched part of the opening ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 games.  Tap-dancing fiddlers for the win.
Oh and on the way back there was a pretty cool dog on the subway. 
Pretty beat from the day's events.  Losing coherence.

More tomorrow.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Day 42: Extra, Extra

 
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/1.8, 1/30, ISO 200, +1.0 EV Post Processing)

Yeesh.  I'm on a crud streak.  Two photos in a row that I had to up the exposure in post.  In any case, I have yet again ended up being at school on my day off.  I got a text regarding the student newspaper that I do photography for - The Commerce Times - about there being a meeting.  Long story short, it has once again paid off to go to school on my day off.  It was quite informative and has (for the moment) restored my faith in student-run activities.  

Although I'm sure it'll be drained by the end of the month by some terrible scheduling SNAFU.  Keepin' it short today, event coverage tomorrow so hopefully there will be something a bit juicier.

Day 41: Voting Day Redux

(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/1.8, 1/125, ISO 200; +1.0 EV Post Processing)

T'was voting day again - RSU style.  Unlike the RCS elections, this time there was a significant lack of low-budget 'Vote Here' signs.  I love beating a dead horse (metaphorically, a real horse could probably kick my ass).

I had been debating whether or not I should vote this year.  I ended up doing so.  See, whenever I'm on the fence on something I'm usually pretty easy to convince if you've got the charisma and the ability to speak confidently/persuasively.  So it's guys like Chris (pictured top) that are - in my opinion - worth voting for.  We had spoken in the halls of TRSM about week prior and he laid out the things he wanted to do if he were elected.  

Pretty simple stuff.  The fact that he's in ITM and put up with my asshole-ness (I had just woken up from an impromptu nap and was pretty groggy) was worth extra brownie points.  I had pretty much exhausted all of my votes on names that I recognized or people who were more than just letters on a piece of coloured paper.  Of them (I think it was like 10?) I knew four or five personally (as in we had met) and only two bothered to give me their schpeal on what they'd do if they were elected BEFORE voting started.  On top of that some nameless guy tried to solicit my vote today on my way back to class.  He tried to recount all the things that the current group of electees managed to do in the past year.  

Problem is, I don't give a damn.  Your 'track record' means jack shit to me.  It's not like the same group of people run every year, so what good does consistency do?  Having little sleep this morning, I was in "asshole-mode" already.  So I asked him what I asked Chris: What would you would do for someone like me, who doesn't care for attending things like pub nights, or the parade & picnic (that they throw during the first week of school every year).  His response?  "Well we try to do what we can for the majority".  

Is it just me or did he just imply "well that's too bad, we can't do anything for you then".  Seriously, we were taught in Marketing class just a couple weeks ago that that'd be the wrong approach to take.  He lost me after that point.  Chris at least told me what he would do for someone like me, and the other candidate I spoke to did the same without me having to pose the question.

Aside from that, there wasn't much else eventful today.  It snowed, but what else is new in Canada?

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Day 40: One Reflection, Hold the Cream

 
(Nikon D90, 35mm DX, f/1.8, 1/25, ISO 400)

Lazy day today.  Woke up with too little sleep - so much so that I slept on the bus, subway, and in class.  After having a very unproductive session of class I headed over to the Ryerson's main-campus cafeteria (otherwise known as "The Hub") to snoop around the summer job fair.  Being summer student jobs most of them were either pretty generic (property maintenance, camps, fundraisers), but I managed to get a couple resumes out (whether it was promptly recycled, used as emergency tissue/toilet paper, or actually sent on through remains a mystery).  So much for shotgunning it like I had planned; granted I got around more than I did in previous job fairs.

Then of course, highlight of the day.  Coffee shop.