When we got to Nichole's place the girls were getting their hair and makeup done and were still pretty much...not ready, but that's cool, we started shooting anyway.  We catured the ladies transformations from shorts and t-shirts into the stunning bride's maids that they became.

The ceremony was outside at Edwards Gardens and it was a HOT day.  As usual at they ceremony, I put a wireless mic on the groom so that I get really good sound of the priest, Nichole and Stephen, and I don't get all of the background noise.  As I was scouting my shooting locations I heard someone calling my name and the voice sounded oddly familiar.  To my surprise my sister-in-law was a guest at the wedding.  Actually her boyfried is the groom's cousin.  Small world huh?  Well, there was now another reason for me to shine today, I had to provide my best for the couple of course, but now I have family and friends watching me work as well.  I know they'll love their DVD!

Congrats!

Where are the flea markets?

Yokohama and Tokyo are famous for flea markets. In these people come to sell first and second hand goods from their homes. So, it is supposed to be a city wide garage sale. They are organized each sunday, and their locations are announced "some where". Which I am unable to locate!!! I did find some site which pin-pointed three locations of these markets in Yokohama:
1. Marine Tower
2. Shi-Yokohama
3. Napoon memorial park

Since I had been to Marine tower and didnt find any flea market there one sunday.. so this time we planned to visit Napoon memorial park, which is right outside our office. So, we went there as planned using subway.. reached the nippon memorial park, but there was no sign of any markets there. Another lead busted. So, looks like I will still have to find a confirmed source of info for the market..

Octoberfest

We were here on the island behind Nipoon.. so to spend the 2 hours we decided to visit the island here, And the first noticable thing here was the on going Octoberfest. No idea what that is.. and I had no intentions of going inside the booth.. because apparently it was just a "Drinking Festival"... Lots of people just sitting on benches and tables and drinking .. As we crossed the street, there were a group of Americans who passed by us.. and I heard them say:

"Hey! Take a pic of those guys... They look like Osama bin laden"

The comment made me laugh.. and also realize.. maybe I can put a ticket on taking a pic with me! hmmm! or maybe just go back to them and say "Booo!" .. that will scare the hell out of them hehe!

Red Brick Warehouse

The main attraction on this Island is Cosmo World and Red Brick Warehouse (RBW for short). RBW used to be a brick warehouse in past as apparent from the name, but now it has been converted into a big plaza from inside. The plaza remains true to a little rustic look from inside.. with gloomy lights.. and dark cafes.. just to set the atmosphere right and not become "just another mall". And from outside it is well maintained.. with lots of Japs visiting this place. There is very big open space and grass patches on the back side along the harbor. We spent around an hour or so roaming this area, before we left.

VIDEO: Roaming around Red Brick Warehouse

VIEW PHOTO ALBUM

Boating at Nipoon memorial park

Nipoon is the big old sailing ship right outside my office. You can visit inside the ship to see how a ship works, as well as the piston engine fitted inside it to show how it runs on diesel power too (much like the scene from Titanic). there is a small maritime museum around it. But I was more interested in boating. Pedal boats were available there on rent. It was 1000 Y per boat, and since we were three people so that would make a share of 333 Y per person (luckily the maximum capacity of the boat was also 3 persons). Wearing Inflatable jackets was a must (yeah japanese really are wimps). And the boating area defined was not too huge... but then we had to show that we are pakistanis.. so most of the time we boated just "outside" the boundary line.. just to rebel :P... not to mention we did intentionally also steered the boat right into the yellow floating placemarket (whtever its called in real world)... the hit is captured in the video so u can watch it. The boating time given was 30 minutes.. which is ample, so sometimes me and furqan pedaled and sometimes know-me at the steering pedaled... till it was 4:30 PM and we then went back to shore. We still had 30 minutes to rendavouz with Khan.. so till then we just layed in the Nipoon memorial park and rested for the next big recreation.

VIDEO: Boating in waters near Nipoon park

VIEW PHOTO ALBUM

The residents of Settles Bridge and Barrington subdivisions have the added benefit of being right next door to this beautiful park with sidewalk access from their neighborhood entrance areas. All of the residential neighborhoods along Suwanee Dam Road northwest of Peachtree Industrial will benefit from their close proximity to this new park and many neighborhoods are within easy walking or bicycling distance. Residents can enjoy the opportunity to picnic in the park or just watch their children play in the playground and along the trails. This is just one more reason to consider Suwanee when looking for a great place to "play hard, live well and smile more."

Photos taken Sunday (10/5/08) Sims Lake Park in Suwanee, GA Community Video - Suwanee, GA 30024

Original post at SuwaneeDwellings.com

You might say, "Well Nicole it's there for the birds". I might say, "But who has a surplus of five loaves in four varying loaf-shapes of bread? It's not a bakery- they'd have a bigger surplus. Is it a lady who bought nine different loaves of bread and was only able to use four of 'em? It's weird, I tell you. Weird."

Weird.

... und wenn ein Sturm dich in die Knie zwingt,
halt dein Gesicht einfach gegen den Wind.
Egal, wie dunkel die Wolken über dir sind,
sie werden irgendwann vorüberziehn.

Steh auf, wenn du am Boden bist!
Steh auf, auch wenn du unten liegst!
Steh auf, es wird schon irgendwie weitergehn ...

(Text aus "Steh auf" von der Gruppe "Die Toten Hosen")

Photo ©hsm

]]> http://dejavugo.wordpress.com/?p=90 Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:31:04 +0000 Dako Déjà Vu http://dejavugo.el.wordpress.com/2008/10/06/bendita-marginacion/ Trailer Park Boys no es la típica serie de TV. Rodada como si fuera un auténtico reality show (eso sí, ficticio) narra el día a día de unos personajes marginales que conviven en una barriada de caravanas llamada Sunnydale Trailer Park, a las afueras de Halifax (Nueva Escocia, Canadá)

La trama gira entorno a las vidas y desventuras de Julian y Ricky, ambos carne de presidio, se pasarán las temporadas de la serie entrando y saliendo de la carcel,  y también de Bubbles, un peculiar personaje que fue ganando popularidad en la serie hasta convertirse en uno de los principales.

Luego están el resto de los marginales habitantes de tan curioso lugar... el Sr. Lahey (encargado del barrio, ex policia alcóholico que se comporta todavía como si fuera policía), Randy (que siempre va sin camiseta, es el ayudante del encargado y algo más...), Bárbara (es la dueña del barrio de caravanas y ex mujer de Lahey), Cory y Trevor (dos colgados, cabezas de turco de las desventuras de Julian y Ricky, se mueren por ser sus colegas pese al continuo desprecio por parte de estos), Trinity (la hija de 8 años de Ricky, fumadora y alcóholica), Lucy (la madre de Trinity, novia o ex de Ricky según las temporadas), Sarah (amiga de Lucy, en la vida real es la hija del actor que hace de Lahey, hace como un poco de narradora en algunas ocasiones, explicando algunas escenas), etc...

Los personajes suelen llevar las MISMA ropa en casi todos los capítulos y Julian siempre va con un vaso con cubata de la mano, ya esté en el supermercado, conduciendo, cocinando, atracando, ...

Pese a su aspecto, Bubbles es el cerebro filosófico del trío, le suelen pedir consejo, suele citar a Aristóteles o Platón. Fanático de los posters de unicornios, los gatos (dice que son su única familia, fue abandonado junto a una máquina de pompas a los 5 años por sus padres), y del grupo RUSH (en un episodio aparece el guitarrista haciendo de si mismo, Ricky lo sucuestra para Bubbles, al final de capítulo Bubbles aparece en el escenario de RUSH saludando en un concierto de verdad, por cierto durante todo el capítulo lleva una camiseta de la banda). Bubbles se gana la vida robando carritos de supermercado, arreglándolos y vendiéndolos a otros supermercados.

Los títulos de los capítulos son también bastante curiosos... "El perro de la señora Peterson se coge un buen pedo", "El Sr. Lahey es un puto borracho", "Si no puedo fumar ni decir tacos estoy puteado"...

De momento hay 6 temporadas y un especial navideño, además de la película, rodada por el propio Mike Clattenburgh.

Lo mejor de la serie es el dinamismo de la misma, la improvisación de los actores constantemente, sin un guión definido, la cámara móvil en plan reality, confesiones a solas ante la cámara de algunos sucesos o sobre otros personajes...

Nikon D3       Nikon 70-200 VR        ISO 200

Lens @ f/11
2.5sec shutter speed

Das ist der Beginn einer Reihe, in dem ich unsere Chucks auf der Reise durch dir Welt begleite.

Hier waren wir in einem Park in München beim chillen.

Friday I managed to leave work early to hit up Oktoberfest in Sacramento. The German partying was ridiculous. After a few beers at Tony's work and hanging with his co-workers, very cool people by the way, we took a quick walk to a party hall where Oktoberfest was being thrown.

The German fun was a blur after a couple of Spaten pitchers to myself. I remember ending up with a couple girls at Ink later on that night. The bar fun dragged on and I wanted to go home, I called my faithful roommate Tony and he came and rescued me from the endless fountains of beer and liquor. It was nice not to have anything planned on a Saturday morning. Usually I'm full of hustle and bustle to go climbing or get to the coast. Instead at 8 AM I got up and spent the morning having a great and huge breakfast with a friend while the rain dripped from the redwoods outside her sliding glass doors.

The afternoon was dedicated to reorganizing my room and going to IKEA to deck it out with shelving and some mirrors to give the illusion of having space!

Chicken wings and whiskey were on the menu Saturday night but we all played it pretty chill and I got some rest for a beautiful day of surfin' Marin's elegant coast.

I blasted to Bolinas Sunday morning for a warm up surf and got just that. The first wave I tried for I rode in. I swerved and carved my way around logs and other debris that were washed ashore from Friday's storm.

An older man on a wood long board caught every wave I saw him go for. He must've passed by me surfing with his giant old grin about 15 times. He must've been 65 and still riding hard!

I had my fill of Bolinas and headed for Stinson Beach. I made a quick stop to see large waves but only a couple surfers going for them. Instead of staying there I made a jolt for Rodeo Cove which is in the Golden Gate Recreation Area. A surf spot I had only heard of and had never been.

I rolled down Highway 101 toward San Francisco. I made it to the exit and shot up a large windy hill that looked over the Golden Gate Bridge. The pearly white city of San Francisco glowed behind the bright red megalith. It was the best view of San Fran I had ever seen. After I pulled away from a lookout I headed down an immense hill that dropped straight down to the ocean. The one way road pulled me toward Fort Cronkite and into a giant cove.

I could see the small specks of surfers out in the distance. They were riding giant waves nearly 15 feet tall at some points. I was nervous to get into the water with a huge break like that so I took some photos for a while.

It was 6 PM and the sun started to set over the Pacific. The smell of Ocean and the joy of surfing reflected in the eyes of the riders that I was shooting. I took a deep breath and said "lets go for it."

I ran to the car and threw my wetsuit on. I grabbed my board and headed for the beach. The waves were huge and scary. I, along with another surfer, ran toward the break as it fled from the beach and we jumped on our boards. We were carried quickly out to sea, toward an amazing breaking wave.

Once I was in the water it was a lot easier to make it through to the edge of the waves than I thought it was going to be. I got out into the line up and waited and waited. I caught the first wave I could and the nose of my board dropped so fast and so steep down the crest. I biffed it hard! The rolling wave washed me around but I was OK. I tried again and again but couldn't get down the steep face only, to ride the top.

Embarrassed, but pleased that I actually had the nuts to get out and try huge waves, I headed into shore. I had some trouble getting in and once I was on the beach I tripped over my leash a couple times. A couple girls sitting on a log giggled at me while I walked by. I made some stupid joke about being the retarded surfer there for their entertainment. They laughed again and I headed for the car.

A surfer that was parked next to me handed me a water and said "here man you want one?"

I was grateful. The surfer had a brand new huge blue van filled with boards, his wife and his baby girl. I thought that was neat, to be able to grow up with surfing in your family.

I packed my gear and took a couple more photos. A raccoon ran by me and stood on two legs saying "hello", and " wheres your food!" I laughed and took a couple pics of him.

I looked out toward the coast and the beautiful dusk that filled the sky. I wished I lived near there. I wished it wasn't so far away to Sacramento. I knew that I had a job and life waiting for me back in the valley. I said goodbye to the crashing waves and sped home.

Scantrad par Mangakun Scantrad

Titre: Madofuki Park

Type: Shonen

Statut: Terminé ( sur mangakun scantrad )

Auteur: Murata Yuusuke

Où le lire en scantrad ?: Mangakun Scantrad

Sypnosis:

L'histoire est fixé en l'an  2050, dans un endroit appelé Sky  City Tokyo. Le personnage  principal,
Park, est un laveur de vitres. Si  vous avez déjà expérimenté les  laveurs de pare-brises des rues
qui descendent sur votre voiture lorsque vous vous arrêtez à un feu  rouge....

I got up late...not quite really...had breakfast at 2.30 in the afternoon

Went to my friends...forced them to take a bath so that we could finally go for lunch as my breakfast was toooooooo lite. after a lot of nagging and dragging, when all those lazy lumps got ready, we went to KP after what seemed like ages...lunched at German bakery. the Chocolate dough nut was awesome to say the least and so was the mushroom omlette with the the toast...I just tried and ignored the amount of butter they served as it was pinching me down with guilt spreading it so generously on my bread.

I finally went to the famous OSHO park with my BF. It is a pretty little romantic place for couples but because of my boyfriend's great quality of being Shy, he wouldn't even look at me as he felt most of the singles out there were waiting for us to do some couple thing which they could enjoy visually. We just sat there for around 20 minutes when our friends gave us a call saying that they were going back home after buying a shisha as mochas was more than overcrowded. I was really reluctant to leave as I had barely started enjoying the place but my boyfriend was definitely the happiest person on earth that time, to say the least.

As me and my boyfriend are not into smoking, drinking and shisha, we decided to give my unsatisfied shopping life another try...and it was a success!!!! yeah!!!!!!! I bought a 4GB sandisk pendrive for INR 529, a much needed wallet...two kurtis, one churidar. The whole thing took around 2 to 2 n a half hours I felt truly amazed and felt utterly blessed at my boyfriend's patience...thanks a ton sweetie!

And finally I was lucky enough to convince the person from whom I had bought an ugly wallet out an earlier day out of a desperate need for a wallet to exchange it for a few trinkets.

Only the ending to the day could have been a bit better but then I guess you you cant have everything at one go right????

We chose to celebrate by grabbing our sick baby and hightailing out of our sick-baby house to the nearest park.  Funny how the second we escaped the Kleenex-infested atmosphere, her cold improved remarkably.  Sittin' around is not a good antidote for colds, I think.

On the way to the park, Moo tried to guess where we were headed.  "Nana's house?  Oma's house? Hayooween store?  Find punkins?  Library?"  "We're going to the park," I kept telling her.  She looked confused.  After all, we haven't been to the park since last April, when you could go outside in Phoenix without bursting into flames - she could barely even walk back then!  What the heck is a park?

She seemed pretty delighted when she found out - although she found the whole walking-in-sand thing to be a rather offensive proposition.  But it seems a universal truth:  Swings + Slides + Cool Breeze = Happy Baby

Here are some pictures of our park adventure:
 

I was visiting Gothenburg City, but this time I wasn't staying in the city - Martin lived on a farm about half an hour out of the city.  We boarded the closest train. I had no Swedish money and couldn't afford the ticket but not to worry Matrtin told me, foreigners never get in trouble for not having a ticket because there is nowhere for the authorities to send the fine. And anyway, we might not even get checked.

We got checked.

I played my part like a historic shakespearian actor, denying Martin and Lisa as people I knew, acting confused as to where I was going (I really didn't know the stop name), and generally just causing such a fuss that the woman  - who most probably though I was some idiot from New Zealand -  gave up and told me that "next time" I would need a ticket. Okay! After the train ride, we took a short bus trip which carried us out of suburbia and into the wilderness, forests and farmland of Sweden. From the bus, it was ten minutes of walking, in some of the most beautiful landscape that I had seen so far in my travels, and we had arrived at what Martin called "The Commune". I was about to live the hippy dream!

First things first, I needed to check out the nature of the farm and it's surroundings; I decided to check out the farm's lake. Now this was beautiful. Martin had originally said that we could go swimming there, and as beautiful as it was, it looked freezing! I doubted I'd be taking a dip. I spent about an hour or so walking around before returning to the house, nay, commune. There I met another of the members, Thomas. This guy was crazy, he had a computer-science masters, worked for Volvo as an electrical engineer, and spent the rest of his time being a vegan, reading an assortment of books on psychedelics, and listening to crazy 60s and 70s music.

The next thing I knew, I was part of an intricate sheep hurding operation to retrieve a small number of wayward sheep to had managed to remove a part of their paddocks fence and wander off into the dense forest. Running back and forth with a crook in hand, we slowly managed to get all the sheep back home, Thomas fixed the fence and we headed back inside.

That night we just chilled out, listened to crazy music, talked crazy talk and slept a crazy sleep.

The following day I decided that I would leave the farm for a life in the city. Just one day of life in the city. I headed into Gothenburg city, found the tourist information centre, gained a map, planned my walking, and set off into the jungle. Lisa had given me a list of place to visit, mainly interesting shopping streets. I first visted an area of the city called Haga, this is the oldest district of Gothenburg and was complete with colourful buildings, cobbled streets, and interesting shops.

The next place I checked out was not on my list. I had seen it from Haga, a large round tower up on the top of a hill which I figured would be a pretty cool view over the city. It turned out to be one of the oldest defense forts for the city which had, in the last one hundred years, been turned into the city's military museum.

The view was not too bad either!

After leaving the fort, I checked out yet another European church. Yes they are all old, but in all honesty, they are all merging into one - except for the epic cathedrals of course. So I soon moved on, making my way to what Lisa had written on the list as "Big Park". And it certainly was a big park. I am thinking that in New Zealand we would barely even call it a park, it was more like a forest with paths, and bang smack in the middle of it was a free zoo. Although it wasn't really a zoo, more like a farm with viewing spots. I did, though, encounter this big guy:

He was snuffling at me in all his hungered glory. The zoo also contained sheep, goats, ducks, ponies, and peacocks. I walked around this park for quite a while, making the most of the beautiful sunny day which may have been one of my last and then headed back to the train station to meet up with Martin and head back to the farm.

The next few days I spent hanging around the farm:

• Eating awesome vegan food and organic stype apple cake
• Exploring the forest with it's many varieties of mushrooms
• Walking around the local rural roads in search of the unknown
• Listening to crazy music

One evening we watched Wall.E which I thouroughly enjoyed. Another night we watched a documentary called Koyaanisqatsi. This film was an absolutely amazing look at nature versus the built environment with an exceptional soundtrack soundtrack by acclaimed composer Phillip Glass.

The other intersting thing about Martin was his interest in conspiracy theories, particullarly those of a certain man called David Icke. This guy is crazy, and you, my friends, will be watching one of his lectures with me upon my return. His content is so crazy that I can not believe that anyone actually goes along with what he is saying.  Check out his website!

So yes, for a few days I just hung around the farm. On the final day, just before I had to leave, Martin pulls out a  big bag of wild Swedish mushrooms which Lisa's father has picked from the forest and proceed to make me a very tasty open-top mushroom sandwhich for breakfast. Yum!

And after that, it was off to the train, and onward to Oslo!

I was invited into someone's home to photograph these lovely trees from a window. It proved to be a challenge - couldn't set up a tripod so had to hand hold, pushing the camera up against the open sash window for the three HDR exposures. Processed 'straight' the flaws would have been glaring but Orton comes to the rescue. Oh, and I had to remove some brick wall in Photoshop too. The end just about justifies the means. The folk who invited me to take the picture were pleased with it anyway so it doesn't really matter what anyone else thinks, eh?.

Like many new playgrounds, it's very brightly colored and looks like it was designed by Dr. Seuss.  This one is primarily red with big blue beads attached to random tubes and poles.  Many random colorful items are attached by thick black nylon ropes.  They look like they're caught in an immense spider web.  The whole look could be described as whimsical.  Unfortunately, like most things that can be described as whimsical, it's not very practical as an actual playground. 

I watched the kids underwhelmed when jumping on the lily pad looking bumpers set into the ground.  Others tried swinging on the plastic pieces tied down by ropes.  They were tied down pretty tightly; they didn't swing much from vertical.  Two little girls did like the tall blue metal poles and they hung and spun around them again and again, apparently playing "stripper".  Daniel tried climbing along the outside of the hoops holding the spider web mesh together.  I didn't worry about him falling; the playground contains no ground, but rather six inches of Nerf colored alternating red and green.  There is a single slide at the playground and several kids argued over who was going to be in charge of it.

In the end, the kids did find a way to enjoy themselves at the new playground.  They gave up on the equipment and played tag all around it instead.  The red Nerf was "hot lava" (of course) and off limits.  The spider web ropes were "goal".  Daniel must have had a pretty good time.  He fell asleep at his actual bedtime without any argument.