29 December 2009

Budding young writer?



Intently scribbling as an idea forms...
 

Trying hard to remember all those words...
 

But alas, writer's block.
 


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20 November 2009

Old Film Projector

This was at a historic building in Lamphun, Thailand. It was actually my language teacher's old school. I loved the lighting in this room, and this very cool piece of equipment.

 
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18 November 2009

Happy Belated Birthday to MOM!

Back in September we celebrated Mom's October birthday a month early.

We had delicious eats...

 


 


and the guys entertained the kids...

 


 


But I'll be darned if I didn't even get one photo of the Birthday Girl!
(I was a bit busy trying to run everything!)

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30 October 2009

Inspirational Halloween Reading

No, it's not an oxymoron! It's Devotions by Dead People!
Click cover image to watch the trailer.

28 October 2009

Fall in Cincinnati!

I had a lovely stroll the other day at Winton Woods, and caught some of it on film. OK, not on FILM, but I caught it, anyway!

 


 



 





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28 September 2009

北京 (Beijing)

Some of you know that I missed my connecting flight when I left Kunming, the Beijing-Seattle leg. I had to wait 2 days for the next one!

In the meantime, I got to see a few Beijing sights unexpectedly.

Enjoy!

Beijing 2009

26 September 2009

Tibet (བོད་/西藏)

I have not yet posted my Tibet album here.

First, let me share this cute photo my tourmate Annie took when we were at the Deji Orphanage in Lhasa.

 
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Awww, sweet girls!

Now, here's the album.

Tibet 2009

14 August 2009

Nostalgia: Old Japanese Cartoons

Here are some favorite cartoon theme songs from when I was growing up.

Tetsuwan Atomu ("Astro Boy" in America)


Candy Candy


Ikkyu-san


Sally the Witch

05 August 2009

Canvas on The Simpsons

10 years ago I was in a singing group in Seattle called Canvas. We did an arrangement of the theme song to The Simpsons, and it was one of our fans' favorites.

I found out recently that they featured a video of this in the closing credits of Season 20 Episode 18 aired in April of this year (our bit begins at 20:45).

I am not in this video, unfortunately, because I'd left Seattle at that point to be with my dad before he died. This was a video of Canvas' final concert. The girl 2nd from the left was my replacement for that time.

Go to the Canvas/Simpsons site to see Simpsonesque caricatures of everyone, and to hear/purchase our CD (which DOES feature my voice!).

Very fun stuff!

17 July 2009

I'm back!

China blocked Blogger after my first few weeks there! Maybe I will post a few things about the past 3 months. Or not. either way, I'll post something. Sorry for the long absence!

04 May 2009

Hong Kong: Downtown

And finally, a few downtown shots!


 


 


Every evening they have a 15-20 minute light show with those moving spotlight things and a bunch of the taller buildings do fun light things, too! It's set to music like fireworks shows in the US. Pretty cool.

 


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01 May 2009

Hong Kong: Ocean Park

Ocean Park has sea creatures, pandas, some amusement-park rides, and and a cable car that connects the two parts of the park! I even got to ride my favorite ride, those things that take you way up high and drop you. It was especially terrifying because we were on a hill overlooking the bay. So exciting! Here are some other shots.

 

 

 





 
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Hong Kong: Cheung Chau Island

I visited Cheung Chau Island, which is a fishing community. There are no cars on this island!



 


Ruth and I visited a little tea shop with another friend. You get to taste several kinds. This one is aged 8 years, as the man proudly told us:



 


 



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17 April 2009

Tea

Our "school outing" yesterday was interesting... Went to another city, visiting some city building and a school. It started out with a lot of waiting around, not knowing the schedule, and watching a video that would have been quite informative if I understood it...

But the highlight was definitely the tea ritual where we got to be served by students.

This particular tea was poured into a little tall cup, which was then covered by a wider-mouthed.



The part where she flipped it over was really dramatic!


You can see that none of the tea has spilled out... it's all suctioned inside.



After releasing the tea to drink:

15 April 2009

Good World, Good View, Good Food

The buildings that house our office:



The VIEW from the office:


...yep, row after row of big apartment buildings. That's where everyone lives. I don't think I've seen a house yet in this city.

Typical Sunday Lunch:

11 April 2009

Getting lost is kinda fun

Today I didn't exactly get LOST, but I took the correct bus and got off at the correct stop to meet my friend at the Kunming Botanical Gardens... and when I called her, I wasn't where she thought I should be. I eventually figured my way to the entrance and was not scared at all. It's a good thing, because this may keep happening as I navigate my way around the city.

So here are a couple of photos from the picnic and egg hunt I went to today.







And a really interesting flower:

09 April 2009

I caused an accident today.

I live in a nicer area of Kunming.

Went walking today and ended up in what I'll call the "urban countryside"--much different from the fancy skyscraper and storefront district that my apartment is near. I saw zero foreigners in this area, where I became "lost" for a good 10 minutes of fast walking, meandering through alleys looking for a way out.

So I guess I was quite a sight for them, too. Out of the corner of my eye I caught a motorcyclist watching me...and then he crashed into another motorbike in front of him. I could laugh on the inside because they were going quite slow and no one was hurt. So now I can say that I've turned heads! Ha.

27 March 2009

Kunming's "Wild Animal Zoo"

Went to the coolest zoo today, and my previously-working-fine batteries AND my new set all turned out to be used up, so no photos... Boo.

Located way up on a hill on who knows how many acres, this zoo was more like a hiking area--we were thankful for the tram; otherwise we would have walked for miles and miles! We walked quite a bit on the extensive boardwalk system as it was.

There were great close-up experience (need I say photo opps--sigh!) with bears, a couple of monkeys, hundreds of peacocks, yaks, emus, cranes, and much more, including pandas, of course.

You could buy a carrot strung on the end of a stick to feed to the Black bears, and the same for the lions and tigers (only it was meat instead of carrots, of course).

Not only did they have several gorgeous tigers AND lions, they also had white tigers and white lions. And the baby white tiger trying to roar was hilarious--sounded more like a wild bird than anything!

Oh, yeah, and they had orang-utans. There was a tiny hole in the glass that separated us from them, and one of the females passed me a little piece of straw through the hole. I passed it back, and she at it.

The whole thing was pretty amazing.

Once again, I'm so sad I didn't have my camera...but maybe that helped me to really take it all in. It was fun.

23 March 2009

Park

Found this big park not too far from my house... forgot to take more photos, but it had water, lots of walkways, and even little amusement-park-type rides! Tons of people were there, many sitting on the grass, so I did that too, to study my Mandarin lessons...only to get kicked out by the cops about an hour later. I guess there's a sign that says "keep off the grass." Oh, well!

There were some pretty fish, reminding me of Japan...


...and check out this crazy exciting play for the kids!