mamafufu Q: how is life? A: mamafufu

i always wanted to take photography lessons but also always able to find excuses not to. no time, too far, too expensive, not the right class, not for my camera, i don't need it, i am doing just fine - along with other bad excuses too. the past weekend i finally convinced myself to take one. it was a private lesson with a pro. we started at 9:00 am on a sunday morning and the 4-hour session went by very fast. we talked about white balance, metering, depth of field, aperture, f-stops, iso, exposure compensation, dust, crop factor and other random musings. his bag seemed to carry every gadgets ever made for digital photography. at the end of the session we went through the features and capabilities of my camera and lenses. at that time i started to realize how little i know about photography, how little i know about my camera and how much i underutilized its capabilities and features.

in the same afternoon i took my dog for a routine walk in the neighborhood. i had my camera with me and took this picture of beautiful flowers from the yard of a neighbor. i may have passed by the same flowers yesterday or the day before but didn't notice how beautiful they were or even their existence - until i paid more attention this time for things around me with my camera looking for picture opportunities.

what i have learned from the photography lesson was more than taking better pictures. i also learned something that i didn't expect. i learned about how to cherish what i have instead of keep chasing what i don't have. i learned about beautiful flowers can also be found in my neighborhood instead of miles away. i also learned to notice the great songs that i have not listened to for years on my playlist, the great books collecting dust in bookshelf that i have not finished reading, the great movies that i bought years ago that are still wrapped, and the "long lost" friends who are only one phone call or email away.

more importantly, with thousands and thousands of lives lost in the myanmar's cyclone, sichuan's earthquake, conflicts, accidents, illness and other natural or human-made incidents around the world, i also learned about cherish the people around me (珍惜眼前人) and learned to cherish life.

it is good that we still live ...

i like taking pictures and believe the more i take them the better chance i will get a few good ones.  got my new macro lens today and couldn't wait to try it outdoor.  the lens is heavy and big but simply amazing.  this is my first true macro lens.  it will open up so many new and creative ways to take pictures.

now i need a new tripod to go with the heavy lens.  the conversation is going to be like this:

"i need a new tripod"
"you already got two tripods.  why do you need another one?"
"but i need a better one"
"well, remember the <fill in the blank here> that you bought last year with all the 'great' features that you never used?"
"but this time ..."

i usually end up putting it on my christmas wish list.   december is around the corner, right?

[update - mar. 2, 2008]

christmas came early this year.  my new tripod came late last week.  it was a manfrotto.  so far so good.

feb. 7, 2008 is first day of the year in lunar calendar which is celebrated by many countries across asia.  this is year of the rat.  so in welcoming the new year, i decided to make some shark fin soup at home and set the controversy discussion about shark fin aside for a little bit.

shark fin is one of the delicacy in chinese menu partly because of its rarity and the elaborated preparation process.  i started with the dry skinned fins (see picture above), soaked them in water for hours, and steamed them for hours in wine and "high soup".  for one dinner with some left over for the morning, i used about 8 fins or about 250 grams.    

while shark fin is a great source of protein, it doesn't really have much flavor of its own.  this is the reason the soup base itself is very important.  i keep my soup simple with chicken (prefer with bone such as chicken thighs and need a lot of them), aged ham and a few other things.  i simmer it for hours into concentrated essence.  this is also called "high soup" and it pretty much goes well with anything including shoelaces.

with all the work and anticipation it turns out to be a very good meal.  in addition to the soup i also cooked sauté "omaha" filet mignon in honey, sea scallop in xo sauce, and braised chinese mushroom with dry scallop in oyster sauce. 

and what goes best with the shark fin soup after all the trouble of preparing it?  i chose the hennessy "paradise" extra rare cognac this time.  both the soup and the cognac were good to the last drop.  to finish up, i brew myself a pot of 15-year old raw pu-erh tea.  it is a new year after all.

happy new year to you all!

wine and video game go surprisingly well together for me.  while i do play wii and ps2 (i opted out ps3 for wii) from time to time, my core playground these days is on-line pc gaming.  as for wine, there are so much to explore in red so i pretty much ignore all others - or at least for now.  both wine and video game are very personal.  in the end, it all comes down to individual preference and taste although some generalizations can be drawn.

pinot noir and MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) such as everquest and world of warcraft share many of the same characteristics and qualities that can be both fulfilling and addictive.  shiraz and RTS (real-time strategy game) make a good pairing too.  imagine sipping on a good glass of aussie shiraz while building your massive defensive terran base in starcraft?

if you continue with the wine and video game pairing path, at some point you will come across the combination of cabernet sauvignon and multiplayer team-based first-person shooter.  this is by far my favorite pairing at the moment.  since most games in this category are so intense that both of your hands will be busy, you will not have time to raise your glass while playing.  however, the time between spawns should provide you amber time to swirl and to take a long sip.  for the wine i suggest most 2004 california cabernet from napa while they are still easier to find in the US and more affordable.  as for the game, go with team fortress 2 (pictured) and ping me if you need an aggressive pyro.  hint: avoid the game servers that offer "instant respawn" :-).  

what is my most anticipated wine and video game pairing experience for 2008?  it has to be starcraft 2 and the bottle of 2000 shotfire shiraz that i have been saving.

what is your most favorite wine and video game pairing?

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sun village (太阳村) is a beijing based non-governmental charitable organization dedicated to providing foster care and education for the children of convicted parents.  i visited there twice this year - july and december of 2007.  i met the children, its staffs, and its founder zhang shuqin.  i was deeply touched by what ms. zhang, its staff and supporters around the world are doing to support these needed children.  they give them another opportunity to life.



we first met ping-ping in july during our first visit to sun village.  she was 13 years old.  she helped taking care the younger children in the village and many of them were as young as 3 years old.   her mother was in prison for more than five years.  ping-ping has been living in sun village during that entire time.  we didn't ask about her father.  may be because we didn't want to know or afraid to ask.   she became our first sponsored child there.

i visited her again in december.  i took her out for lunch in a restaurant close by.  she told me her mother will be released from prison in a few months.  she will be leaving sun village and will be staying with her mother.  i was so happy for her.  although the road will be tough ahead for her, i know she will be strong.  she was sick that day so she went back to her room after lunch and we said good bye.  it was a room where she shared with 4 other children.

i stayed for a while and was talking to the staff there.  when i was leaving the village, i happened to pass by her room without knowing.  she pounded the window and got my attention.  she waved at me and i was able to see her big smiley face through the dusty window.

i know this could be my last time seeing her but i will always remember her smile ...

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i am "particular" about the chinese tea i drink.  how "particular"?  it is bad enough that i bring my own tea when i eat out at chinese restaurants.  although there are art, science and culture in chinese tea drinking, enjoying a good cup of tea doesn't need to be complicated or expensive.

although a single-serving tea bag in foam cup with hot water will do, there are a lot more to experience.  i am not an expert in chinese tea drinking other than a happy consumer of chinese tea.   in the morning i drink long-jing which is, arguably, the most well-known kind of green tea from the hangzhou area.  for the rest of the day i switch to tie-guan-yin.  as for special occasion, i would brew myself a small pot of pu-erh.  this sounds a bit like drinking red wine doesn't it

tea is both seasonal and even time-of-day sensitive for serious tea drinkers.  some tea is meant to be drunk fresh (i.e. long-jing) and some tea improves with its age (i.e. pu-erh).  the pot and cup matter in many ways such as material, size or even shape.  good tea usually doesn't come in big pot and many tea brew better in cup or gaiwan (see picture above).  water temperature and mineral content do matter as well as something less tangible such as the environment that you are drinking tea in and your companionship.

this is my cup of tea.  what is yours?

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