You know what I love?  Black Pepper.  But about two years ago, someone (some idiot!) told me that black pepper was indigestible, which lead me to abstain from it for two years. 

But for whatever reason, I decided to look it up because the whole idea suddenly seemed utterly stupid.  And it turns out that black pepper actually HELPS YOUR DIGESTION, contains anti-oxidants, reduces flatulence (something I desperately need though you didn't need to know), etc.

I'm sure it has some negative properties like any other food on the planet, but the lesson is, if you listen to everything your friends say, you might end up not eating pepper for two years. 

 I guess I should blame my own stupidity.

Field Test

On my way back from work, I decided to take couple pictures. Here's what I saw in 10 minutes:











These are all straight from camera (no post-editing, since the camera already edited 'em for me). I love my PEN.

Renee Byer - A mother's journey

This picture is a from a project called "a mother's journey," by Renee Byer.  It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007, covering a single mom and her son, Derek, during the last stages of his fatal cancer.

If you would like to know more, click on a short video here.

...

This video is tragic yet beautiful - not in aesthetic aspects but because the photograph reveals love in its purest form

New Year's Resolution

I was so busy that I forgot to make new year's resolutions, so I shall make them now.  Instead of making 10 and completing 3 (for a good year), I'll make 3 resolutions and try to accomplish them all.  Here they are:

1.  Be Healthy:  (Both watching what I eat and exercising)

2.  Read 2 books a week:  I only read 20 books last year, so I need to catch up.  Kindle should help a lot since I don't need to spend as much money on books.

In addition to reading 2 books a week, half of these books shall be in English.  If you didn't know already, I read much faster in Korean, so I often procrastinate and 'cheat' by reading 10 short Korean books in December.

3.  Learn another language.  I really want to learn Japanese, but Spanish is the language I ought to be learning.  May be I'll study both.  No, study what you need Fred, Spanish.  No, study what you like, Japanese.  ahhhh.

4.  Expand my vocab.  I have a notebook where I write down words I don't know.  I shall write on and review this daily.

okay that's four, but oh well.

New Camera

I should be ashamed of myself for only posting once a month these days, and for posting only pictures instead of writing, though I think people would much rather see my photographs rather than read what I have to say.

Anyways, I bought a new $600 camera called Olympus PEN.  I've wanted this camera for years, and I finally have it now.  Here are some test pictures (They are really just test pictures.  I was learning how to operate the camera and its limitations. 









Olympus PEN is slightly bigger than a regular point & shoot camera, but it takes DSLR quality pictures, as you can see.  One of my favorite functions of the camera is the in-camera filter, where they automatically edit the photo.  For instance, the above picture has been photoshopped a little bit, but here's how it looked when I took the picture (no edit):



So the picture doesn't really need the extra touch.  This function will save me a whole lot of time since I can concentrate more on taking pictures and not editing them. 

Another function you may have noticed is the 4:3 aspect ratio.  The pictures I posted here have more square feel to it than my normal pics.  I still prefer the 16:9, but it's nice to have options. 

I also took shots of my baby nephew, but I refused to post his pictures on a public webpage.