Anthony's World

Latest Photographies

2009-01-25T13:32:00.001-08:00

Here's my latest set of amateur photography photos that I've touched up a little bit. These photos were taken at various locations: Seattle Center, the University of Washington, Dublin, and Prague. Click on the link for larger images and to download. :)

From Photography

Cut from the Team - Top Records of the Last 7 Years

2008-12-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

Here's the almost made it but not quite on the Top 100 Albums of the Last 7 Years. What started as a huge list of albums, I had to narrow down to just over 200. Then I had to make very, very tough decisions on cuts. These were the hundred or so albums that almost made the list.

Handsome Boy Modeling School	White People
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness	Fear is on our Side
Kanye West	Late Registration
Air	Talkie Walkie
Amy Winehouse	Back to Black
And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead	Worlds Apart
Apples in Stereo	New Magnetic Wonder
Arcade Fire	Neon Bible
Arctic Monkeys	Whatever People Say I Am
Asobi Seksu	Citrus
Autolux	Future Perfect
Bang Gang	Something Wrong
Battles	Mirrored
Besnard Lakes	Besnard Lakes are the Dark
Blonde Redhead	Misery is a Butterfly
Blood Brothers	Crimes
British Sea Power	The Decline of the British Sea Power
Buck 65	This Right Here is Buck 65
Calexico	Garden Ruin
Coheed & Cambria	Second Stage Turbine Blade
Cold War Kids	Up in Rags
Cut Chemist	Litmus Test
Danger Doom	The Mouse & The Mask
Delgados	Universal Audio
Depeche Mode	Playing the Angel
Digitalism	Idealism
Dinosaur Jr	Beyond
Drive by Truckers	Dirty South
Elliott Smith	From a Basement on the Hill
Emiliana Torrini	Fisherman's Woman
The Faint	Wet From Birth
Faithless	No Roots
Feist	The Reminder
Flaming Lips	At War with the Mystics
Franz Ferdinand	You Could Have it So much Better
Frou Frou	Details
Fujiya & Miyagi	Transparent Things
Futureheads	Futureheads
Ghostland Observatory	delete.delete.ilikemeat
Ghostland Observatory	Paparazzi Lighting
Girl Talk	Night Ripper
Gnarls Barkley	St. Elsewhere
Gorillaz	Demon Days
Gotan Project	Lunatico
Graham Coxon	Love Travels At Illegal Speeds
Headlights	Some Racing, Some Stopping
Helio Sequence	Young Effectuals
Hope of the States	The Lost Riots
Hot Chip	Made in the Dark
Idiot Pilot	Strange We Should Meet Here
Interpol	Antics
IQU	Sun Q
Iron & Wine	The Shepards Wife
Junior Senior	Hey Hey My My Yo Yo
Keane	Hopes and Fears
Kenny Chesney	No Shirts No Shoes No Problem
The Killers	Hot Fuss
KJ Sawka	Synchronized Decompression
Love as Laughter	Laughter's Fifth
Low	The Great Destroyer
Lupe Fiasco	Food & Liquor
MIA	Kala
M83	Before the Dawn Heals Us
M83	Dead Cities
Mars Volta	De-Loused in the Comatorium
Maximo Park	A Certain Trigger
MGMT	Oracular Spectacular
Michelle Branch	Hotel Paper
Modest Mouse	We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank
Mogwai	Mr Beast
Mono in VCF	Mono in VCF
Muse	Black Holes and Relevations
My Morning Jacket	It Still Moves
My Morning Jacket	Z
N.E.R.D.	In Search Of…
New Pornographers	Twin Cinema
The Pale	Gravity Gets Things Done
Peter Bjorn and John	Falling Out
A Place to Bury Strangers	A Place to Bury Strangers
Polyphonic Spree	Together We're Heavy
Portishead	Third
The Rapture	Pieces of the People We Love
Rihanna	Good Girl Gone Bad
Rogue Wave	Out of th Shadow
The Roots	Game Theory
The Roots	The Tipping Point
Sage Francis	Personal Journal
Sarah Mclachlan	Afterglow
Secret Machines	Now Here is Nowhere
Sigur Ros	()
Snow Patrol	Songs for Polar Bears
Something Corporate	Leaving Through the Window
Sondre Lerche	Two Way Monologues
Sparta	Porcelain
Spoon	Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Stars	Set Yourself on Fire
Starting Line	Say It If You Mean It
Streets	Original Pirate Material
Sufjan Stevens	Seven Swans
Sufjan Stevens	Greetings from Michigan
System of a Down	Hypnotize
Taking Back Sunday	Tell All Your Friends
Thievery Corporation	The Richest Man in Babylon
Thievery Corporation	Radio Retaliation
Tool	10000 Days
TV on the Radio	Return to Cookie Mountain
VHS or Beta	Night on Fire

Anthony's Top Albums of 2008

2008-12-02T01:03:00.001-08:00

I'm going to be honest, I am very out of touch with the latest and greatest music. Most of 2008 for me was listening to my favorite records of years past and catching up on music of the past couple of years more than listening to the newest thing out there. I think there's reason for that; I think that this year's crop of music is a bit lacking compared to other years. With that said, here's my short list of my favorite records of the year... only Top 10 this year... instead of my normal 25 to 50 records of the year.

#10 Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride

solid indie rock album from John Darnielle and company. it's amazing that this band has so many albums...

#9 The Headlights - Some Racing, Some Stopping

another good low key indie album... check it out!

#8 Portishead - Third

a bit disappointing for me as this was a very long anticipated third album from one of my most favorite groups... but it does show that even after an 11 year hiatus, they still can make high caliber music

#7 The Notwist - The Devil, You + Me

this one really grew on me. another huge favorite band of mine, the notwist, come back with an anticipated return following a semi-disappointing 12 record which followed their masterpiece, Neon Golden. Anyway, this record is solid.

#6 Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

British dance group Hot Chip return with another fun dance album that'll get you "ready for the floor."

#5 Mono in VCF - Mono in VCF

Tacoma, WA band Mono in VCF's moniker sounds a lot like VHS or Beta but that's about the only thing they share musically. This band produces some extroardinarily epic music backed by Bond-like vocals from Kim Miller.

#4 Ladytron - Velocifero

One of my premiere indie electro-rock bands and while this isn't any step forward from their previous album, Witching Hour, being on the same level of quality isn't a bad thing.

#3 TV on the Radio - Dear Science

This NYC band continues to improve with every album. Their style has refined quite a bit and each one of their records has its own flavor. This one might be the most accessible of them all.

#2 The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust

This might be a questionable high ranking album for many, but I just love this Danish band's total self-admitted rip off of Jesus & Mary Chain / Sonic Youth / Velvet Underground. While they share so much of their success and musical direction to those great bands, they do have their own unique character and I just love the simple, poppy, yet melodramatic and engaging sound of each and every one of the songs on this album.

#1 The Drive-By Truckers - Brighter than Creation's Dark

Here's my surprise pick. A southern country rock gem from Georgia's Drive-By Truckers. This band has consistently produced good to great records, and they continue that with this album, which I think explores a bit more and has so many different sounds to it that it's comparable to a You Forgot it in People/Broken Social Scene type album, where no song sounds the same, and there's something for everyone. That is, of course, if you can tolerate the deep southern accents of the 3 vocalists on this record.

the sort of real #1 by technicality --- Radiohead - In Rainbows

This was released with no label on the interwebs in October of 2007, however Radiohead released the official CD-format of this album on January 1st of 2008. Whatever the case, this album is fantastic and another worthy record for the greatest band on Earth.

Music Television

2008-12-01T22:11:00.000-08:00

All I have to say is... the best music tv channel is Palladia. There's a ton of great live concerts and all in High Def. It's crazy to think its also owned by MTV because... well... they actually play music!

That's all. Check out that channel if you have it. :D

Commentary on Black Friday

2008-11-28T13:01:00.000-08:00

I'm pretty sure I sound-off on this every year for the past couple of years, but this year takes the cake. I've been looking through these black friday ads and wondering, where's the deals? How are any of these deals worth not sleeping and getting up super early, waiting in a massive long line, to save a few bucks?

Better yet, are these deals even worth it? Almost every deal I saw, I've seen the same selling price on various online retailers, including the massive Amazon.com. Amazon has their own Black Friday sales and they kick the butt out of any of the local retailers. So I ask you, why are people frantic about getting to the malls and shops early?

Exclusive deals? Return policies? What? I guarentee you can order 90% of the advertised specials on the store's website at Midnight Thursday night, or even as early as Thursday morning. I know this for a fact as I've done in the past and I did it this year. In fact, I can sleep in to my heart's content, wake up, roll over to grab my laptop, and press BUY NOW... and then roll back into bed and sleep some more. :D

This and you can avoid the crazies! The perfect, tragic, case... A Walmart employee in Long Island was trampled to death today because he manned the door at store opening. What the heck is wrong with this? Why? To save a few bucks on some crappy china-made products? This is Walmart, they dont sell anything that'll last you more than a few months. A $139 Blu-Ray player? Uhh go look online, you can find Samsung and Sony Blu-Ray players for $149-179 easily, and free shipping and no tax? What more do you want?

Cheap TVs for your family? Mad rush to the stores? Stupid. Just look at amazon.com's specials or their marketplace for the best deals.

What, you want cheap clothes and shoes? Ever heard of just buying the same thing on a website? Macy's has all their sales online. Foot Locker etc, same thing. Better yet, you can use microsoft's Live.com cash rewards program and get even more money savings on top of your Black Friday Deals.

And finally the kicker... Cyber Monday. Check it out, it's coming and the deals there are just as good.

Nutritional Labeling to Appear in King County Restaurants

2008-11-12T07:58:00.000-08:00

Well, King County is going to be enforcing nutritional labels for menus at chain restaurants next year. Pretty interesting idea, which NYC apparently has already adopted. While I wouldn't mind reading a label on certain items I eat, I just can't see it affecting a significant percent of our population in general. They'll just eat what they eat.

I think people already do understand that McDonalds or Taco Bell, or even Claim Jumpers is absolutely horrific foods, but they eat it regularly anyway. I do see some benefits to show how really bad a Starbucks latte or mocha, or even worse, a frappucino is for you, and why you should stick with just americanos and espressos, but people still won't care. It's a good cause, I just think the benefits won't see action for a while.

The perfect example is the grocery store, where there's nutritional facts everywhere. People still line up the junk food aisles and buy to their heart's content. Im not denying that I do the same. But I have been a bit more wary of what I choose now at the supermarket, trying to eat a bit more healthy and whatnot.... anyway, pretty interesting change.

Nutritional sticker shock from restaurants

As of Jan. 1, most chains must post data

By REBEKAH DENN
P-I FOOD WRITER

Starting Jan. 1, customers at most chain restaurants in King County will get a full plate of information along with their food.

TO LEARN MORE
For full information, see goto.seattlepi.com/r1777. For more comments on the new labeling law and links to some restaurants that already have nutritional data online, visit Rebekah Denn's blog at blog.seattlepi.com/
devouringseattle.
- Local chains prepare their nutritional data

They'll be faced with the 1,000 calories (and 85 grams of fat) in their BLT Salads at The Old Spaghetti Factory and the 1,910 calories in the Jack Daniel's Ribs & Shrimp at T.G.I. Friday's. At Starbucks, they'll be able to judge not just whether they're in the mood for a tall latte or a mocha, but whether they want to take in the latte's 150 calories or the mocha's 270. At Taco Bell, they can decide if the benefits of ordering a 600-calorie Border Bowl are outweighed by the 2,120 milligrams of sodium it contains, nearly an entire day's recommended allowance.

The nutritional sticker shock will be prominently displayed at those and other eateries as part of trailblazing regulation passed by the King County Board of Health earlier this year -- and restaurants have been busy getting ready for the change. The law, which goes into effect on the first of the year, requires restaurants with 15 or more outlets nationwide to post calorie counts directly on, or in some cases next to, menus and also to prominently list the grams of saturated fat in each menu item, the milligrams of sodium and other markers of nutritional value.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/387456_menulabeling12.html

Washington Ski & Ride License Plates

2008-11-09T11:50:00.000-08:00

The Washington State Department of Licensing has new SKI & RIDE license plates out now! For more information, check out the DOL website: http://www.dol.wa.gov/vehicleregistration/spskiroad.html

Please Register and Vote.

2008-10-02T22:02:00.000-07:00

2 days left to register for voting for the upcoming ballot.

Washington residents:
https://wei.secstate.wa.gov/osos/secure/pages/Onlinevoterregistration.aspx

Amateur Photography

2008-09-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

Here's some of my recent amateur photographies. :)

EuroBlog 2008 - Wrap-up

2008-09-16T23:06:00.000-07:00

Going back to reality sucks. I spent today cleaning up, doing laundry, mowing the lawn, and other household chores, including paying bills and grocery shopping. I rather be back in europe!

I stopped blogging half way through the trip and that's mostly cause I didn't have time or I was just being lazy. Anyway, we did go to Dublin, Ireland and that's a wonderful city. There, we spent the first day walking around the city trying to get lost and stumbled upon the Dublin Castle and the Jameson Distillery. While we didn't go on the tour, we did enjoy an Irish Coffee in the bar there. It was pretty one great tasting treat.

The next day we spent the majority of the day at the Dublin History Museum, called Dvblinia, and of course, the Guinness Store House museum. Let me tell ya, the Guinness tour is a total must-see. It's 7 stories that are full of interesting things from the brewing process to history of the beer, and so much more.

The next few days back in Prague were more of trying to be a normal Czech citizen than anything. I still went to do sight seeing but ended up mostly just hanging out with Scott, Cecilia, and their friends. Scott and I went to the home opener of HC Sparta hockey match and that was alot of fun. It's suprisingly cheap for beer and hot dogs. Really, really, really cheap.

Other than that, there was alot of walking and walking and walking.

Here's some other random tidbits from the trip:

Coffee Heaven - enjoying a cup of coffee in another country is pretty much the same universally. There are people sitting around on their laptops on wifi, people reading books, and people just conversing with one another. It's a beautiful thing.
Prague itself - for a city that was under communist control just under 20 years ago, it's quite amazing how far they've come and quickly they've been able to adapt out of it.
Food - In both Dublin and Prague, food is heavy! Lots of meat and potatoes and bread. Carbs crazy! It's like thanksgiving at each meal!
Beer - I think I went to the beer capitals of the world. Dublin of course for Guinness, Smithwicks, and the like, but Czech/Prague is also home of the original Pilsner Urquell, which actually is in Pilsen, nearby.... and beer in Prague is dirt cheap! Cheaper than water!
Airport security - Heathrow security sucks, but not sure if its worse than Sea-Tac. On the other hand, Prague and Dublin's airports were reasonably quick and painless.
Disneyland - Prague looks like Disneyland... or should I say... Disneyland looks like Prague. Just take a look for yourself.
They like their sports. I only made it to one hockey game and while the game crowd was fairly tame, they went pretty crazy after the victory, especially on the subway train. I have video / audio clips of the crazyness.
Prague has some of the most technically amazing shopping malls I've ever seen. The Palladium, which has 200+ shops in Old Towne Center area, is a visually stunning and ultra-modern piece of work. While it looks pretty normal on the outside, the inside is just eye-pleasing. The top floor restaurant level is super-swank, and the mall in general has a very modern decor to it.
Our hostel in Dublin had no hot water. That sucked.
KFC is very popular in Prague. On the other hand, Burger Kings were everywhere in Dublin.

More photos are available at http://picasaweb.google.com/ahnguyen or on my facebook.

EuroBlog 2008 - Day 2 / 3

2008-09-07T16:27:00.000-07:00

I think this is Day 2... or Day 3. Whatever the case, I'm now on my 2nd night here in Prague after a very long journey which took me to Heathrow and a 30 minute delay. The first night here was just relaxing at Scott's place outside the old town area, while today was spent walking, somewhat aimlessly, around with Scott and Cecilia. We had lunch at a pizza place that was really good and just walked and walked thereafter.

The city is beautiful, though very well covered in graffiti, which is a bit unfortunate. It rained off and on all day, somewhat like Seattle. :) Anyway, I posted over 320 photos on picasa... so check'em out.

http://picasaweb.google.com/ahnguyen

EuroBlog 2008 - Day 1 - Part II

2008-09-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

I never thought I'd be so happy to board an 8 hour flight, but I am! I have been sitting at Denver Airport for what seems like forever. I tried to do everything extra slow, and I still manage to have way too much free time. I sat around on the internet, then tried to extend my lunch longer with a couple beers and read the rest of photography book I bought and then walked around aimlessly.

By the time the ticket counter opened, I walked myself out of the concourse and took the tram to the main terminal to get the tickets (even though I could have just gotten them at the gate) and then thought I'd have a good time wasting wait at the security gate, except the line was practically empty, so I was back into the concourse a lot sooner than I had thought. So I proceeded to walk around again, and then back on the web, and then umm well repeat that over and over.

Now I'm less than 1 hour from take-off, so I'll be active for about 10 minutes and then followed by absolutely nothing for another 8 hours. Yay!

EuroBlog 2008 - Day 1

2008-09-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

Day 1 - Travel Day (feelin' like the movie, The Terminal)

I left home just after 5AM PST to Sea-Tac Intl Airport and took my Alaska 737-900 flight to Denver. And now.... I sit. I arrived just after 11AM MST and my flight out of here to Heathrow isn't until 8PM MST! Yea, that's right, I have a 9 hour lay-over.

I really was considering leaving the airport and going into the city, but... the airport isnt that close to the city and I really need to conserve money for europe. Speaking of money, I have over 150 euros in hand from previous trips, and the countries I'll be visiting don't use Euro, even though they're part of the EU. Argh, I still have to deal with the hassle of converting cash. I guess if I make it to Vienna, I can spend my euro there.

So... I am just sitting here now. I should arrive in Prague, if all goes well (unlikely given I'm going through Heathrow), at 7:10PM Czech time, which I believe is a total of 26 hours of travel time. Yuck!

I brought 5 books with me to read on this trip over, of all different sorts. Unfortunately I'm half way done with 2 of them -- Into the Wild from Jon Krakauer, Canon EOS Rebel XSi Digital Field Guide by Charlotte Lowrie, The Boat by Nam Le, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, and Prague Day by Day.

The one good thing so far is that Denver's airport has free wifi, and plenty of desk stations to plug-in at. They even have built-in USB chargers. Very nice addition.

So from this point on, I won't be writing about my trip - it'll be about... stuff.

Seahawks start Sunday. Go Hawks!

ok that's really about the only important thing to mention.

That and here's my first attempt of being amateur photographer:

http://picasaweb.google.com/ahnguyen/UnivOfWashington

First Impressions

2008-09-02T23:50:00.000-07:00

First impressions. I never really thought much of them, but I am beginning to realize that they do mean alot. Maybe I never thought about it that hard, but they are pretty important. I'm not going to spew out a million things about the importance of all of it is, but I do want to give a first impression on a few things:

Google Chrome - the new web browser from Google has been out for about 10 hours now and it's almost won me over. It's a very simple, clean cut browser that uses minimal system memory, and runs ultra smooth and fast. This is not to say it doesn't have its fair share of start-up kinks. There are some bugs in it, but like all Google products, it's in beta! :)

Rick Nieuheisal - he's always been a solid college football coach, and he showed yet another reason why last night with a very exciting victory for his new UCLA Bruins team, as they defeated Tennessee in overtime. Talk about a turnaround second half! He did a great job at UW and its unfortunate things happened the way they were, but he basically marks the last good to great UW teams we've had...

Radiohead - not much of a first impression musically, but first impression of their live sonic force. i saw them over a week ago at White River Amplitheater and i have nothing but thumbs up on their performance. they did nothing to make me think any less of them, but only made me appreciate their music more. plus - they're the only band i've seen live that actually made me "move/sway" to the music naturally. no forced movements, or thought induced head bobbing - it was all instinctual and it was great!

Anyway, just a few first impressions I thought I'd share. It's these little things that keep us afloat, and sometimes I wish I could turn back time and undo some of my own first or second or even third impressions I've had on others. Although I try not to have regrets, there are certain things, people, events, etc. that still sit in the bleakest corner of my mind not wanting to leave.

Get rid of Ty

2008-08-31T09:32:00.000-07:00

Bob Condotta's Seattle Times Husky Blog says it all. The Huskies stunk it up.
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/huskyfootball/2008/08/30/oregon_postgame.html

I may not agree fully with his grades, I think he rated UW too highly, I agree that our team stinks. :)

While I wasn't expecting a win, and probably wishful thinking it'd be a squeaker, I wasn't expecting one of the most ridiculously embarrassing games I've ever seen from UW. What happened to the days when UW was a powerhouse? I grew up watching UW battle it out for the National Title and Pac-10 Title every year. Even throughout my college time, we were still going to Bowl games and having competitive teams.

Not all the recruiting has been on Ty's shoulders, but alot of it has, and the coaching definitely has. And it sucks. The only benefit of the doubt is that the UW team is very, very, very young, but the O-line is a group of veterans, and they looked like pre-school kids out there last night. The receivers, as has been the case the past couple of seasons, can't catch anything thrown at them, nor can they run routes, and just seem to give up.

The running game looked horrid, and that, as far as I can tell, is because they have about 1 nano-second to get the ball and find a hole. Jake "Purple Jesus" Locker had absolutely no time in the pocket and all of our team's offense was based on his scrambling and improv and a bunch of lucky pass interference calls. In the passes he did throw, they looked... well inaccurate and poorly executed as usual. He could the be the UW savior, but he's got alot of work to do. He just can't seem to throw a ball over 10 yards with any sort of accuracy. He relies too much on his legs, and I guess, if I had that sort of O-Line I probably would too.

The defense looked superbly overmatched. This isn't as good of a Duck team as last year's but they sure played like it. Their offense was all over the place and any sort of misdirection play would trick the UW team in an instant. Oregon probably could have just ran the ball all day and scored 5 or 6 TDs if they wanted.... Sigh.

Not very happy. Ty needs to go. (btw, the playcalling was just terrible on offense)

Random thoughts on a wet August night

2008-08-25T23:50:00.001-07:00

I'm about to join the SLR club! I am pretty excited for getting an actual camera. I decided on getting the Canon XSi Rebel EOS 450D and am only hoping it'll come sooner rather than later, since I'm heading to Prague/Europe on Sept 5th. It'd be awesome to be able to use it there...

I am pretty assured that the Seahawk QB situation is fine. Charlie Frye is more than enough for a 3rd string QB and his performance against the Chargers today was solid. He had a nice, very nice, pass to Nate Burleson for a TD on the very first drive, and then seemed poised the rest of the game and making some dead plays into something with his feet. It looks like he's starting to get the hang of the system and pehaps Holmgren is working miracles with him here too.

There's a 9 year old kid who pitches, or should I say pitched, on a little league team, that recently got BANNED from the league. In fact his whole team was ordered to disband... why? because he was TOO GOOD. His pitch was clocking at 40mph, which for an 8-10 year old is pretty fast. He was basically unhittable, and intimidating the other kids to the point where they forfeited his last game! Anyway, I find the league to be quite lame for having to kick a kid out because he was just skilled. Here's the link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=3553475

Obama and Joe Biden? Interesting combination.

I recently discovered, through the help of a post from Terry Tan, that Microsoft's new search engine, Live.com, has a function to save you money! They have a rebate program where you can get up to 25% off paypal purchases on ebay and also that much on affiliate online stores, which happen to be very many stores that I purchase on. I used the 10% off paypal promo on the camera purchase so hopefully i'll get that rebate in 8 weeks since it's quite a bit of money. Anyway, it links to your Live account and you can also stack existing coupons or promos to it! http://search.live.com/cashback is the link to the store rebates. To get the paypal one, just go to live.com and search for what you want to buy and look for the cash rebate icon in the ads section. You may have to try a few different things to get it to show... or just refresh..

I am so ready for snowboarding. I keep getting emails for 2009 snowboards and I am craving the snow, and really really want to pick up a banana board this year... like the Lib-Tech Banana 152 or BTX Narrow 151 or perhaps the GNU Rider's Choice BTX, but i really shouldn't spend the money... ugh. Anyway, K2 looks like they'll be coming out with the Gyrator which is another rocker style board. These things look like they'll rock for powder days and then good for getting some extra pop on anything you want to try to hit. Sounds pretty exciting!

...and if the weather is anything like last year, I'll be a happy camper! This year I'll have season passes to both Stevens Pass and Snoqualmie/Alpental so I'll be trying to beat out the 32 times I went last season. Also trying to get to Mt Hood and Whistler again, but I better start saving... another trip to Tahoe would be nice too. :)

who wants to go this year??? :)

oh speaking of which, last week I got my first issue of FREQUENCY: The Snowboarder's Journal, also abbreviated as TSJ. It's a very art/photography influenced snowboard quarterly publication out of Bellingham that I highly recommend! There's a bunch of fantastic photos that are taken all over the world of mountains, snow, sights and scenes. Some of the biggest and most exciting hits are all captured. There's plenty of reading material too, but the art is what makes this thing very nice and its printed on fancy glossy paper so it's a perfect complement to your coffee table. :)

HelloFoto

2008-08-21T23:58:00.000-07:00

A couple years ago, I was all primed to get into doing photography more, but I didn't have the cash to buy a SLR (single lens reflex) camera (they were so expensive back then) so I settled on a Canon S2 IS, which happened to be a really good camera for the price. As much as I wanted to get into it, I never really did, but since buying a home and looking for decor for my walls, I've gotten a little spark into trying to get my own imagery up on the walls.

So I got my S2 out again - I had already gotten a new pocket-sized point and shoot SD750 camera -- and got a conversion adapter for it with a wide angle conversion lens and a 58mm macro lens, as well as polarizers and UV filters... and then... within hours of all of this, my camera dies. Literally dead. Won't turn on. At first the lens which focuses from 15 to 300+ mm got stuck. Not sure if the gears are misaligned or what, but its a well known issue with certain Canon's and this happened to fall into that negative category. The second issue was when I was cleaning my lens earlier today, the "squirt" bottle that holds the cleaning fluid sprayed out way too much and some of it got into the lower lenses and aperture area and my pictures are now foggy/hazy. Well that is, if I could actually take pictures.

Ugh.

So now here's the dilemna. I was gearing up for my upcoming vacation to Prague/Dublin and a high quality camera is an essential. Now that the current gadget is down for the count, what do I do? I've always wanted an SLR and now the prices have dropped to almost reachable amounts. It's also the time when new models are coming out and older ones being clearanced away. Yea, the Canon XS and XSi's are out now, priced at a very attractive $700 including lens and now featuring SD/SDHC card slots... but you can also find the XT/XTi for nearly half that price. Granted, I would have to buy a new compact flash II card and those run pretty steep...

or i could find myself a used S2 for $150, or S3 for $225 or a new S5 for $399 or so?

or do I just live with the Canon SD750 for a while? Of course that's the obvious budget conscious choice... but i'm a gadget freak and I somehow find myself wasting money on this junk... sacrificing other things for it. :|

anyway, so what else can go wrong?

within the past 5 days:
-sunroof shatters on car
-brand new laptop stops charging battery and needs a replacement motherboard
-toilet clogged up
-gas stove gets honked up
-camera sees its grave, just days/hours after i buy a bundle of accessories
-on top of that, it took 3 hours to get home last night for a 2.25 hour radiohead set. of course, it was totally worth it.

Hours until Radiohead...

2008-08-20T15:48:00.000-07:00

I've been waiting a few years to see Radiohead and its only a few more hours til game time. Pretty estatic to see'em!! So with that, I'm going to list my favorite albums in order, i think.

The Bends
OK Computer
Kid A
In Rainbows
Amnesiac
Hail to the Thief
Pablo Honey

...and my favorite tracks, though maybe not in order:

Fake Plastic Trees
How to Disappear Completely
Packt Like Sardines
Airbag
The Bends
The National Anthem
Nude
Paranoid Android
Reckoner
2 + 2 = 5
Anyone Can Play Guitar
Pearly

Ok i'm not going to list this, every song is pretty much awesome. Oh, and they do a pretty awesome job covering New Order/Joy Division on their track, Ceremony, which I think is one of the best songs ever.

Trying something new via facebook

2008-08-19T21:55:00.000-07:00

I am trying something new here... seeing how well Facebook's RSS feed takes my blog posts and converts it into a facebook note. Hopefully this works. Anyway, there should eventually be a link at the bottom that links to the real blog.

Ant

Resurfaced

2008-07-23T23:39:00.000-07:00

I go through these spurts where I post and post and then nothing. Well this time I have an excuse. I was moving into my new house, and had no internet for awhile! I did get it over a week ago now, but have been busy doing other things to really post on this.

But so here goes:

1. the new house is great! its alot of fun furnishing the place and getting it ready. but.. what sucks? bills, the actual cost of furniture, and the over-sized lawn. I am so glad I bought a self-propelled mower, otherwise, i'd be super super sore after mowing the yard.

2. i also don't have a recycle and yard waste container yet. its on back order? how hard is it for a waste company to get bins?? it's been a month now!

3. the sonics leaving is a crime. its absolutely ridiculous. i am outraged, but it paves way for the Seattle Sounders FC!

4. and i have season tickets to the sounders... (and the seahawk!!!)

5. its funny how things could be going so well and then a few moments later come tumbling down. that's about how i feel right now on many fronts.

6. my bi-yearly stock bonus kind of sucks compared to the first one i got 2 years ago.

7. trying to plan a trip to "somewhere" in europe... the whole Munich Oktoberfest idea is basically out now that we can't find a hostel or any sort of cheap hotel to stay at. it also coincides with my UW Grad school orientation sessions.

8. my little cousin is all grown up now and she's moving to India so soon for work! so happy for her and sad she'll be leaving since we started hanging out just in the past year or so since she turned the infamous 21.

9. softball team, the sea-men, got 2nd place in our league! we got an actually large trophy!

10. i love my man-cave.

11. if you have sigur ros / benaroya hall tickets and want to donate to a good cause, please send them to me. i will use them :) -- i am so upset i didnt have internet access during the week it went on sale and it sold out in a hurry! :(

12. i bought a new laptop - dell xps m1330 in red... comes soon. its one of many new toys and furnishings i have.

13. bbq at my place on august 9th. come!

14. more to be continued in a future post....

so anyway, i have had an up and down past few weeks. while the whole ride of purchasing a home and spending time with friends and other great people was wonderful, the past couple of weeks have been hectic, crazy, and a bit lonesome. i dont know, things were high and now they're a little bit lower. for instance, i am so busy at work planning for this and that, i am still working up until i started this post. of course, i took a break to hang out at trivia night, but i ditched out early to go home and work?! ugh. then there's the whole growing up factor. the responsibilities are actually a welcome challenge, but i do sometimes feel like i am held back from other opportunities because of owning a mortgage and being enslaved to the man. i mean, just in the past couple of weeks, my friend left the company to start a new job which is so awesome for him. its a riskier move but it has so much potential. i just dont know if i could do a move like that right now. sigh.

it'll also be harder to travel and stuff, but i am still planning on a couple of trips in the very near future; europe being one, and then maybe a domestic location somewhere. NYC? Chicago? who knows.

and then there's the other stuff which has been in the back of my mind alot lately. what did i do wrong? what happened? ahhh sigh.

i gotta get up in a few hours and for some crazy reason, i have 3 or 4 meetings before 830am. whats wrong here?

Sounders FC Uni's

2008-06-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

A little bit out-dated now but I didn't post on it when it first was revealed. Above is a sketch of the new Seattle Sounders FC uniforms! I'm pretty stoked about professional soccer coming to Seattle! I just hope we can sign one or two of the big names that have been rumored to come here. Henry anyone?

The Beginning...

2008-05-31T13:57:00.000-07:00

What an eventful last week. I must say, I have really kept myself busy. Buying a home is a crazy chore. I can't wait to settle all the paper work and get on with it, and face the inevitable ownage by the man. It seems like the last couple of weeks, if I'm not at work, or dealing with work at home, I'm either dealing with the house stuff, playing tennis, softball, going out with some friends at bbq the park, or the bar, or spending time with a very cool person wherever. I'm constantly keeping myself busy... It's totally a good thing. I really do enjoy the summer time feel of being active. It's nice.

Today I went trail riding on my bike at St Edwards with Dean, Joe, and Travis. It's the first time I've really done that sort of thing, and it was alot of fun, minus the up hill climbs. It's a beginning for a lot of things for me right now, and I'm trying to soak it all in and enjoy it while it lasts.

Ant buys a home

2008-05-28T23:30:00.001-07:00

I just accepted for a new home! It's located in Brier/Lynnwood, which is pretty close to home. I'm pretty excited, scared, relieved and stressed, all at the same time. It's a HUGE responsibility I just put on myself, but it's also an interesting and welcoming challenge. Now I have to deal with a ton of paper work, phone calls, finances, and more and more paper work. And then comes the furnishings....

Ladytron's Velocifero and their live show

2008-05-25T17:56:00.000-07:00

Last night we went to see Ladytron at the Showbox and it was one terrific show. They had lots of lightning effects and played a really good mix of new and old songs. It really helped that their new album is fantastic, as that made up the bulk of their show. They did play some old tracks though, like Seventeen, Blue Jeans, and Play Girl to name a few.

Anyway, I wanted to spend the entry discussing their new record, set to release on June 3rd. It's a must buy! I started listening to it last weekend, and it was the soundtrack of my trip. I couldn't put it down; it was irresistible. From the opening Black Cat and its fresh beat to the closing few songs, Tomorrow, and Versus, the album flat out is a winner. From their original 604 record, which was a collection of synth sounds and funky beats, to their more refined Light & Magic, and to their guitar-heavier and all encompassing step forward on Witching Hour, you can see the band progress to really define their sound. This is next step, and it's called Velocifero.

They've refined their style even more and still have fresh music to put to the table despite using their winning formula of the past. Both Mira Arroyo and Helen Marnie share vocal duties on this record, and Mira even doing some solo tracks in english, which is a rarity (most of her previous songs are in Hungarian - side note, I just read that she has a Oxford PhD in Molecular Genetics?! wow).

I could go on and on but here's my fav. tracks from the record:
Tomorrow, They Gave You a Heart They Gave You a Name, I'm Not Scared, Runaway

And here's an old video, Evil, from their stellar Light & Magic record.

Atlantic City: Day 2

2008-05-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

I'm staying at Harrah's, and from the hotel, I can see the Atlantic City Wind Farm, which is a set 5 new wind blades which power some of the city. It's a pretty neat sight, but one of the few and rare sights. This city is a bunch of senior citizens!! Ahhh!

Today was an OKAY day. After working a 10 hour day at the FAA Tech Center, I was able to get some time to rest and relax, hang out, and TRY to go get dinner with some co-workers. Oh the horror, as Vu would say... we go to my car to find that the car won't start! The battery died, for some reason! argh. We ended up eating at the hotel cafe which was decent, and then went around the casino for a bit, lost a few bucks, and then went to deal with the car.

After getting the car restored, I took a drive around town, but was literally too scared to get ouf o the car. hahaha. This place is not only senior citizen, but totally NOT Vegas or even Reno like. The hotels are totally spread apart, even on the main strip, and between each hotel is totally ghetto and run down homes, store fronts, and abandon buildings. It's a very interesting mix of rich and poor. Those streets in Monopoly don't really fit the "property value" in the game. I drove down Pennsylvania and it was totally like going down a dark alley way. I haven't had a chance to go down the Boardwalk yet, but if I get out of work early tomorrow, I'll try to hit that up. Go outside before it gets too late!