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Company Shutdown: Intense week!

A recent company employee survey indicated people were struggling with work/life balance, senior management decided the answer was to give everyone a week off and have us spend it recuperating, spending time with families, and gearing up for the second half of the year. Plus with people taking time off for July 4th weekend, there’d be reduced productivity anyways. GREAT idea!

The thought was to take the week easy, do some easy reading and rest. Most of it was really chill, but man there were intense moments. USMNT soccer’s down to the wire world cup game vs Belgium. Watching that at the San Diego Del Mar fair was quite a memorable experience.

Brazil vs. Columbia World Cup Quarterfinals: goooooooooooooooooooool!

Watching Brazil vs. Columbia in a house full of Brazilians is a whole ‘nother thing! Every save and penalty was pandemonium and this was an amazing picture capture by one of K’s uncles. Neymar’s injury at the end really put a damper on the mood but their in the semi’s with a shot at the finals. These people love their seleção brasileira futbol. DSC01809

Giants vs Padres: This was insane.

Eugene’s wife got him Giant’s tix for father’s day because he’s a bay area nut. They have a 3rd kid on the way and it was a really sweet gift to let him relax his mind before the new one arrives (g’luck E!).

The original seats were great, the lowest I’ve ever been at a baseball game. We went to get garlic fries in the bottom of the 2nd and when we came back a couple was in our seats and it looked like they were talking to their friends. The guy asked us if we’d be willing to switch seats and he pointed to seats a few rows lower. We agreed and he showed us his ticket and they’re row 11…that’s 4 rows from the dugout!!!

It is seriously a whole new experience when you sit so close to the dugout the players can actually hear you. Combine that with an extra innings win for the Giants to stop a long losing and offensive slump and it was FUN!! thanks Eugene!

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On that note, I start a new job tomorrow (same company). more updates on that later maybe. what a week!

Sun in Seattle!

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The knock on Seattle  has stereotypically been that it’s always gloomy and rains. We were extremely fortunately throughout the week to have great weather with bright sun rays. It rained a bit on our last day so we felt like we got a taste of Seattle’s famed weather but this was far from expected. With sun like this from time to time and greenery all around, Seattle’s really an amazing place to be!

I really like the look of lens flares. The first few times I tried it I was looking through the DSLR eye piece and soon realized I was exposing my eyes directly into a magnifier. Whew! glad I wised up instantly and started using the view finder. I guess that’s a tip for anyone trying these kind of shots…don’t be looking into the sun!

from top to bottom: Pike’s Place Market, Olympic Sculpture Park, Gas Works, Space Needle, Chihuly Garden and Glass

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Seattle: Snoqualmie Falls

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Seattle is such a green place. From the moment we came in, flying over downtown, to leaving we were surrounded by green trees. The air is a bit cooler and everything feels so pristine. In some respects, it feels a little like Canada in the sense that it feels so unadulterated. The people seem more relaxed and generally nicer up there too.

After a few days of non-stop eating we decided to go to see some of Seattle’s nature. Snoqualmie falls was really pretty. There were a handful of hiking trails at various points in the region. Seattle definitely lived up to it’s beautiful natural reputation!

Downstream it powers an electric power plant that harnesses the power of the currents. It was a little weird to see such natural beauty interrupted with power lines and a plant.

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Blood moon

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It’s lunar eclipse time! Last time, I was pleased to capture some solar eclipse (here) so here now is the other side. This special lunar eclipse had what was touted as a “blood moon” effect where according to la times, “The dark red hue will come from the light of sunsets and sunrises over the rest of the Earth.” (article). Have to admit the copper red was a little hyped up and definitely more muted in person. Could definitely tell it was red-ish but wasn’t quite blood red.

Photos were not edited in anyway so that you could see pretty much what I saw. Did bump up the exposure a little. You even get a little bit of mars in the 1st photo in the upper right corner if you click on it.

All in all pretty neat.

Double Exposure Photography

 

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Double exposures! Love the look, the first time i saw it was on lynnchyi.com (link) and have noticed it here and there. After youtube-ing some tutorials and having a free afternoon, finally had a chance to give it a go. Not a true double exposure in the traditional sense, but trying to replicate the look produced some pretty neat results. Going to have to try this technique in a video! what do you think?

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double exposure singapore

 

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April Fools: office cabinet shuffle

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It’s been a while hasn’t it? The idea for this came about almost a year ago when we moved into our new offices. We have these little padded cabinets that double over as little seats for people who come around and need to talk. (yes, i misspelled pedestal).

They’re supposed to encourage collaboration and they’re extremely mobile. They’re also begging to be swapped. So I did it!

What I did:

  • swapped 30+ coworker’s cabinets. (only people I knew personally.)
  • only swapped individuals so that person A got person B’s and person B got person A’s. No random swapping so that if someone really needed to find their own they could return it quickly.
  • left a name card of the original owner in the cabinet so it could be quickly returned if necessary.
  • left a small post it note on each cabinet to remind myself whose I’d moved
  • avoided upper management and people who I wasn’t sure would laugh*

What I DIDN’T do…and would have been more mean:

  • could have not left a name card and made everyone figure out whose was whose.
  • could have moved all 30 cabinets into a large conference room and made a sea of cabinets
  • could have moved them all into the male and female bathrooms.

I actually work on a different floor from my department coworkers so I didn’t get to see everyone’s reaction in the morning.

You can click here to see my other pranks at the office: link

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The Aftermath: ResponsesResponse_EllenS

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*I made 1 mistake. Misread the name plates and that caused some confusion when people were returning their desk. I apologized to her. Thought I was taking someone else’s. so close.