sha v 4.0

Australia Trip Report, Day 4: Taronga Zoo and Vivid Sydney

Sha Sha — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 06:23:56 +0000

Relatively short report because this day was mostly about pretty pictures. The only plan for the day was the Taronga Zoo, which, if you know me, means I was really excited because I LUV AMINALZ. I visited Taronga Zoo in 2006, but they’ve made a number of renovations and improvements since then, so it felt like a pretty new experience. I saw a few animals I’ve never seen before, like the fishing cat, which I was convinced was a mythical animal that zoos invented to see how long people would stare at an empty enclosure. Like last time, the tiger was super active and paced back and forth in front of the glass, much to the delight/horror of the many groups of young children there. I also really liked the nocturnal animals enclosure, which they keep dark during the day and light up at night, so that the animals are really active when the zoo is open. Finally, probably the biggest highlight was the wallaby joey. There was a section full of kangaroos and wallabies that weren’t in cages, so you could just walk around and pet them. Amanda noticed that one of the wallaby’s pouches was wriggling around, so we figured there was probably a joey inside. After a few minutes, a teeny bald pink head poked out of the pouch, and it was basically the ugliest, cutest thing I’d ever seen.

We spent most of the day at the zoo, but after dinner we made a point of going back out to see Macquarie Visions, part of the Vivid Sydney festival. Lachlan Macquarie is credited with bringing a lot of development to New South Wales, so Macquarie Visions were several light and sound displays celebrating his accomplishments. By far the most amazing was the display at St. Mary’s Cathedral, which really had to be seen to be appreciated, but I attempted to capture it in pictures. Besides the beautiful images being projected on the face of the cathedral, they were also playing a recording of a cool cello composition that was being played on Mrs. Macquarie’s cello, which was restored for the occasion. It was around this time that I realized that I should have brought a tripod, but Amanda was happy to lend me a shoulder to steady my camera on. We made our way down Macquarie Street and ended up at the Opera House, which also had displays projected on the ‘sails’. I didn’t think the pictures were particularly beautiful, but I did appreciate the technical prowess required to project images onto such an oddly-shaped canvas. It was really cool to be walking around at night, just enjoying these amazing displays with hundreds of other people, and Amanda and I both really appreciated that the city would put together something like this. We had no idea the festival would be going on when we planned our trip, so I feel really lucky to have been able to experience it.

Australia Trip Report, Day 3: Blue Mountains

Sha Sha — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:31:53 +0000

The Blue Mountains (which are kind of more like hills), are a mountainous region near Sydney. It’s considered to be a must-see in the Sydney area, so Amanda booked us a tour with Oz Trails. They picked us up at our hotel, and we met our bus driver/tour guide Dave, who grew up in the Blue Mountains area. On the way out of town, we made a brief stop at the Sydney Olympic Park, which was cool to see. Apparently they deliberately built the park with very little parking to encourage people to use public transportation, which is why there was a lot less congestion there than other Olympic sites. After that stop and another quick stop at the Nepean River to pay, we were off. Dave gave us a pretty good summary of the history of the ‘discovery’ of Australia (most of which I promptly forgot), and then we entered a camping area that is known to have wild kangaroos that don’t have a lot of fear of humans. We were driving slowly around, when Dave suddenly stopped in a parking lot and pointed out to a grassy area where there was a small group (‘mob’) of kangaroos! There were a few adult kangaroos lounging around, but the highlight was a little joey and his mother. They let us get surprisingly close (probably < 50 feet), which is unusual for kangaroos, but the ones in this park are used to being around campers, so they don't have a lot of fear of humans. Earlier in the day I was debating whether I needed to bring my bazooka lens (the 70-200), but being able to take closeup pics of the joey convinced me it was the right decision to bring it.

After the Cute Explosion of seeing the kangaroos, we went to a couple lookouts to get some nice views of the whole wilderness area. The first was at a lookout called Flat Rock. Dave warned us that it was pretty windy (he had a bluetooth headset blow out of his ear there) but I didn't really believe it until I stepped out of the bus, and was almost blown over, and my lens hood was immediately blown off my lens (I hadn't attached it quite right). Fortunately, it got caught in some bushes and I was able to rescue it before it careened into the valley below. The group snapped a few pics before taking shelter from the swirling winds back in the bus. Our next stop was Wentworth Falls lookout, which gave a gorgeous view of the valley. From there, we took a quick walk down to another lookout which gave a view of the actual waterfall. It's not a very large waterfall (it's bed by a creek), and the wind was strong enough that a lot of the water was actually being blow upwards before reaching the bottom. We stopped for lunch in Leura, a town that as far as I can tell, consists exclusively of restaurants. We had Thai food at a restaurant called Thai Square, which thankfully had a wood-burning stove in the dining room, so we were able to warm up a bit.

After lunch we made our way to Katoomba, where we got our first view of the famous Three Sisters, rock formation. Dave told us the Dreamtime story of the Three Sisters (three daughters of a shaman who turns them into stone to prevent Bad Things from happening to them), but according to Wikipedia, the story was actually invented in the 1920s, so who knows. I mean, if I read it on the Internet, it must be true, right? From there we visited the terribly-named Scenic World, where we took a cable car down into the valley and took a walk through the rainforest. Dave told us to keep an eye out for the lyre bird, which you see sometimes. While we were walking, Amanda and I hung back and I spotted one scratching at the forest floor, and pointed it out to Amanda. About a minute later, one of the other kids in the group saw it, and called out to Dave, who doled out congratulations for spotting it. I’m still bitter about that one. We also learned about the mining history of the valley, and Dave told us a very cute story about how his parents once got trapped in the valley and had to climb out using the slats of the railway tracks. To get out of the valley, we used that very railway, which was really steep, and a lot scarier than I was expecting. I didn’t take any pictures while we were on it because 1) I was afraid I’d drop my camera, and 2) Amanda had my arm in a death grip while repeating, “I don’t like this…” Fortunately, we made it to the top in one piece, where we were greeted by some beautiful parrots and cockatoos. Dave got us bird seed to feed them, and twice, a particularly enthusiastic parrot landed on my head. (No pictures, unfortunately.)

Our last stop of the day was to see an Aboriginal kangaroo carving. It was kind of odd because it was basically in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Dave told us he initially had some doubts about the authenticity of the carving (when he was a kid, he and his friends made fake ‘convict graves’ in their neighborhood, which later got reported on the news as authentic), but based on the relatively accurate anatomy of the kangaroo, he’s now convinced it’s real. After this, Dave dropped us off at the Sydney Olympic Park ferry stop, where we took one of the Sydney ferries down the Parramatta River back to Circular Quay. On the way home we passed by some of the Vivid Sydney light exhibits, but decided to come back the next night because we were freezing. Next day: Taronga Zoo!

Australia Trip Report, Day 2: Sydney

Sha Sha — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 07:50:13 +0000

Since we went to sleep at geri-o’clock, we were up by 6-ish. To feed Amanda’s general coffee addiction, and my flat white addiction, we headed a couple doors down to a cafe to get coffees. A couple random semi-related notes: 1) Australia is a lot more expensive than I remember. For example, a flat white at this particular cafe was almost $4 AUD, and it was smaller than the smallest size at Starbucks. And we rarely at lunch for less than $12, or dinner for less than $20. 2) There are a lot of Chinese immigrants in Sydney and some of them, including the owner of this cafe, have fantastic hybrid Chinese/Australian accents. It made me happy. Anyway, after our coffees, we went on a run through the Botanical Gardens, which was pretty cool. We made it back in time to catch the 11:40 ferry to Watsons Bay.

Watsons Bay is a suburb of Sydney that Amanda’s friend had said is a nice day trip. It’s a quick ferry ride over, and we got to see some nice views of the back side of the Opera House. As the ferry pulled into Watson’s Bay, I took a look around and realized I had been there before, but I had forgotten. Hee. We grabbed lunch at Doyle’s on the Beach, which is famous for its fish and chips. I ordered the fish and chips and a ginger beer, and Vegetarian Yeaton-Massey had a Greek Salad, and we ate it in the park near the pier. Afterward, we took a walk along the the coastal trail along The Gap, which is a coastal cliff overlooking the ocean, which had some spectacular views of the ocean. There are a lot of old gun batteries along the trail, which used to be for defending Sydney from enemy ships in the ocean. While walking around, we also happened upon a huge anchor, so I of course took a stupid picture with it before turning around and reading the plaque, and discovering it was the anchor recovered from the wreck of The Dunbar, where 121 people died. Oops. After walking around for a while longer, admiring the views and the parrots, we took a ferry back to Circular Quay.

For dinner, we met Amanda’s friend Carrie and her fiancé in Surry Hills, another suburb of Sydney. As an aside, apparently the names and borders of Sydney’s suburbs are constantly changing. Carrie said that in the couple years they’ve been in Sydney, they’re constantly learning about new suburbs that are popping up. Surry Hills had a very Mission-y feel, with a lot of little shops, pubs, and restaurants. We even passed a burrito place, but neither of us were brave enough to try it. We ate at Toko, a popular Japanese restaurant. Surprise surprise, it was quite expensive. The place was also packed with 20- and 30-somethings, so it was really loud and didn’t really lend itself to conversation. But the food was really tasty and the decor was nice; I’d probably go there again if I knew it would be less crowded. After dinner, they kindly gave us a ride back to our hotel, and we turned in so we could get ready for our Blue Mountains tour the next day.

Australia Trip Report, Day 1: Sydney

Sha Sha — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:32:02 +0000

Our plane left from SF around 11pm on the 5th. It’s a 12-ish hour flight, and surprisingly, I was able to sleep a lot, so the time actually passed pretty quickly. Because of some magical thing called the ‘International Date Line’, we lost the 6th, so we landed in Sydney early on the 7th. Given that I had a lot of time to think on the way over, I started to get worried that our layover in Sydney on the day we leave wasn’t long enough (we would be coming from Perth), so before leaving the airport, we visited the Qantas desk and were able to change our Perth -> Sydney flight for a (relatively) small fee. After grabbing a flat white at one of the cafes at the airport, we were off!

While I’m on the subject, for those of you who haven’t heard of it, the flat white is one of the most delicious beverages ever created. They’re sort of like a hybrid between a cappuccino and a latte, and I discovered them during my first trip to Australia after I ordered coffee with dinner. The waiter asked, ‘What kind?’ and I said, ‘I don’t know how to answer that…’ So he rattled off a whole list of coffee drinks, and the name ‘flat white’ stood out, so I ordered one. And it was good. During this trip, I had at least one a day, and I normally don’t drink any coffee at all. When I’m a billionaire, I’m going to open a cafe in the US that serves flat whites, and I will be a hero to all.

We stayed at the Hyde Park Inn in the Central Business District, which is usually really expensive, but Amanda found a 50% off deal online. Go internets! Since we had arrived so early, our room wasn’t going to be ready for a few hours, so we checked our bags at the hotel, and decided to take a walk around. We made our way to Circular Quay, which is where the Opera House is. For whatever reason last time I was in Sydney we didn’t check out the Opera House, so it was nice to finally see it up-close. There was also a Tai Chi class going on outside, which was pretty cool. We walked around for a bit and checked out the Harbor Bridge before making our way back South via Darling Harbor. Darling Harbor sort of reminded me of Pier 39, in that it’s sort of cheesy and touristy. I was ready to write it off until I noticed a sign painted on the roof of the aquarium that proclaimed in HUGE letters, ‘SEE OUR AMAZING DUGONGS’ I spent the next few minutes trying to remember if dugongs were extinct, which, looking back, was probably a stupid thought. Why would the aquarium have extinct animals? But I feel like I’ve been deceived by aquariums and zoos before, so I was wary. After a bit, I just gave up on the wondering and got really excited, and told Amanda that we had to come back later to see them.

By this time, it was around when the hotel had said our room would be ready, so we headed back to the Hyde Park Inn to change, shower, and rest a bit. (Those of you who are keeping track will realize that we had gone over 30 hours without a shower. Mmm…) After grabbing lunch at a highly mediocre Japanese restaurant, I made good on my promise to force Amanda to go back to the Sydney Aquarium. Amanda was horrified at the price ($35 AUD/person), but oh, Sydney Aquarium, you had me a ‘dugong’. I have been there before, but I still really liked it the second time around. The building itself is kind of small and shabby, but they manage to pack a ton of cool animals inside. Among the highlights were cuttlefish, the disapproving sea turtle, and an octopus cuddling a dog toy. And of course, the magical dugongs. Since doing a report on manatees in the 3rd grade, I’ve been fascinated by manatees and dugongs, and they didn’t disappoint in the least. I spent a really long time just watching them swim around and eat lettuce. I also taught Amanda the dugong song, and we sang it through the rest of the trip.

We were pretty tired after visiting the cow of the sea, so we headed back to the hotel, and emerged only briefly to get pizza for dinner, before crashing at the geriatric time of 9pm. I was excited to be back in Australia!

Disapproving turtle

Sha Sha — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:09:12 +0000

Uploaded to Flickr on 23rd June, 2010.

Did this to amuse myself while processing my photos from Australia.

Taken at Sydney Aquarium.

Mae Mae and Gino’s Wedding

Sha Sha — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 23:18:42 +0000

Here are a few pics from Mae Mae & Gino’s wedding extravaganza: the City Hall ceremony, the rehearsal dinner, getting ready, and the brunch the next morning. No pics of the actual ceremony because I was in it!

Find the Bear

Sha Sha — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 02:31:53 +0000

Uploaded to Flickr on 31st May, 2010.

Other people lose change in the couch cushions; I lose my dog.

My Maid of Honor Toast

Sha Sha — Mon, 17 May 2010 20:39:08 +0000

As most of you know, my sister got married last Friday (hooray!) For those of you who are curious, here is my maid of honor toast. I will be posting up some pictures soon, but none of the ceremony, unfortunately. Although I have been Officiagrapher (Jan & Yar), Witnessographer (Naomi & Reza), we decided that MaidOfOgrapher would have been pushing it. Anyway, without further ado:

Hi everyone! I think I know most of you, but for those of you whom I haven’t met yet, I’m Sha Sha, Mae Mae’s younger-but-taller sister.

So I’m younger by 2 ½ years, and now that I think about it, I’ve spent most of my life chasing Mae Mae. When she played violin, I had to play violin. When she joined the swim team, I did too. When she got a crazy mushroom haircut in elementary school, so did I. (And we have the horrible school pictures to prove it.) In fact, our Mom told me that my first words were “me too.” And I wouldn’t have admitted it at the time, but I did all these things not to be annoying (although I was,) but because of how much I admired Mae Mae and everything that she did.

After I stopped trying to be Mae Mae, I realized what a good friend she could be to me. When she left for college, I didn’t realize how much I would miss her, and not just because my parents suddenly remembered that they still had a 3rd kid at home, and redirected all of their parental attentions to me. There is nobody who understands me, tolerates me, and can make me laugh the way that Mae Mae can, and when we’re not trying to kill each other, she is the best sister I could ask for. And she’s also the only person in the whole world who really understands what ‘woogy’ means.

Now as most of you probably know, Gino is one of Arthur’s best friends from college, so I’ve sort of been aware of his existence for a long time. But when he started dating Mae Mae 5 years ago, I started to get to know more about him. The first thing I found out was that he is really smart. Like, really. Two of the smartest people I know, both of whom happen to be in this room, my brother and Adrian Longland, (who is the first engineer I ever worked with at EA,) have both independently told me over the years that Gino is the smartest person *they* know. The only thing that disappoints me about this is that Mae Mae and Gino’s kids are going to make my kids look really, really dumb. Hopefully my kids will at least be taller.

But as smart as Gino is, I know that married life can be tough, especially when you’re marrying into the Chu family, so I thought I’d give him a head start by giving him some tips about life with Mae Mae that I’ve personally gathered over the last 30 years.

1) If you poop in the bathtub, don’t lie about it and say you didn’t. When you get up to reach for the soap, she’ll know.

2) If you ever get really sick and have to stay in the hospital for a week, our Mom will make her do your homework for you. Don’t abuse this privilege.

3) If you find a wild turtle in the front yard, don’t let Mae Mae prove to you how strong its shell is by dropping a massive rock on it. It doesn’t end well, especially for the turtle.

4) If you’re snorkeling in the Caribbean together, no matter how hilarious the idea seems, don’t cover up her snorkel with your hand. That one won’t end well for you.

Finally, even if things get bad, all you have to do is love her as completely as I know she loves you, and everything will turn out all right.

So congratulations to the two of you, and Gino, welcome to the family!

Aminals

Sha Sha — Tue, 04 May 2010 02:27:32 +0000

Here are some pics from a visit to the SF Zoo earlier this year. Apologies for the funky colors on some of the shots; I’m on a funky color kick.

Lightroom Virtual Copies

Sha Sha — Tue, 04 May 2010 00:07:42 +0000

Nerdy photography talk ahead. Look away if you’re not interested.

If you’re like me, you use the ‘Create Virtual Copy’ feature a lot in Lightroom. This allows you to create a any number of copies of a master photo which you can apply separate edits to. I do this, for example, when I can’t decide whether I want a particular photo to be black & white or color. Either way, I do some amount of processing, so I’ll just create a virtual copy and process one in color and another in b&w.

It probably should have been obvious based on the name ‘Virtual Copy’, but I didn’t realize until this weekend that no data is written to disk for a virtual copy; it’s only data stored in the Lightroom catalog database. I discovered this because I removed some photos from Lightroom and re-imported them, and my virtual copies were gone. This caused me many sadnesses, but fortunately I had a backup of my catalog from just a couple days earlier, so I was able to recover them.

Unfortunately, there’s no way to just write out XMP files for the virtual copies (which would be my preferred solution), but you can export virtual copies to DNG files, so at least you’ll have a ‘hard’(-ish) copy of the file saved in a non-destructive format in case your catalog gets corrupted or something, or you just do something dumb like I did.

Make sure you are in Grid mode.
In the ‘Catalog’ box, click on “All Photographs”.
Show the Library Filter toolbar by going to View -> Show Filter Bar, or pressing the ‘\’ key.
Next, click on the icon on the far right of the Library Filter toolbar to show only virtual copies.
Hit Ctrl+A to select all photographs.
Right-click on any photo and go to Export->Export…
The Export settings I like to use are: ‘Export To: Same folder as original photo’, leave the filename the same as the original, and be sure to choose ‘Format: DNG’. You can check the ‘Embed Original Raw File’ if you like, but I didn’t see a need, since that’s more for passing around files between people.
Click ‘Export’, and you are done! Now you have actual files for each virtual copy, which can be re-imported into your catalog if necessary.