Happy Chinese New Year! The Year of the Rat!

Happy Chinese (Lunar) New Year! Gung Hay Fat Choi, Lay See Dow Loyr. :-)
I called my parents early this morning to wish them good health, wealth and happiness. It's always better to do that early in the morning vs. later in the day. They were happy to receive my call. :-)

This year is the year of the Rat (rather than mouse??). It's also the beginning of a new Chinese Zodiac Cycle and the year of the Pig ends it. There's an old fable that explains the "pecking" order of the zodiac signs. Unlike the western zodiac cycle, our zodiac lasts a whole year rather than a mere 30 days. By the way, this year is a good year to get married, so contact me when searching for a photographer for your wedding this year. :-)

Chinese New Year lasts 10 days and is considered a major holiday for us and our neighboring countries... except for Japan which celebrates the Western New Year on the first of January. Although the traditional Chinese calendar did not use continuously numbered years, its years are now often numbered and 2008 to be 4706.

I remember growing up in Hong Kong, Chinese New Year was a lot of fun and I looked forward to it every year. My Mom used to make a big fuss by cooking special sweet dumplings, turnip cakes, which she only bakes once a year. It's one of my favorite foods but I only get to eat it once a year. It's a long laboring process, but my Mom always seem to handle it all by herself. She also make a big fuss by buying new shoes for me. It's the only time of the year I get to buy new shoes. YES, once a year! Unlike the US culture, children get new shoes at the beginning of the school year in September. There were years where I would get new clothes too. I remember not able to sleep the night before and waking up early and get all "snazzy up" in my brand new clothes and shoes and ready to visit my relatives who we only visit once a year... yes, Chinese New Year. It's equivalent to Christmas morning for me. I must confess, it's not that I was looking forward to meet my distant aunts (who pinched my cheeks) and uncles, and cousins... it was because I get "Red Envelopes" filled with money. :-) Yes, married adults give out "Lay See" or Red Envelopes to gain good fortunes for their love ones as well as for themselves. We did however, had to rehearse a song so that we can perform in front of our relatives over and over again from one house to the next. Every year is a different song, and I was so young, I didn't even know what I was singing in English. :-) Also, since the New Year lasts 10 days, we didn't have to go to school for a whole week! Now do you see why I used to get so excited about Chinese New Year.

I was however perplexed that every year is a different day. I asked my Mom "why is it not the same day as last year, it's so hard to keep track of?" I was inquisitive because I wanted to know how many days to the New Year. I was told that our culture follows the moon phase to determine months, and therefore years. Whereas, the western civilization follows the traditional long and short months, and every 4 years an extra day in February to adjust for the misalignment to the moon. Whose system is better, who's to say? For me, just tell me when is it, and I will be ready to receive my "Red Envelope", Lay See, Hung Bao.

On a side note: the Space Shuttle Columbia crashed on the morning of Chinese New Year on Feb 1, 2003. It was a sad day for me even though it was Chinese New Year. I remember watching the first Columbia Launch in 1980 as a young lad dreaming of being on the Space Shuttle some day.

My iPhone Ran Out of Space

Crap! My 8GB iPhone ran out of space today. I was trying to sync up my latest podcast download of Photoshop User TV, when I discovered none of my videos were able to sync nor download due to storage capacity exceeded. I couldn't believe it because my capacity had always been near but never exceeded maximum capacity. It must have been a recent email I received with a large attachment which pushed it over the limit.

The problem with iPhone email is that it's not search-able by size. It's near impossible to find the culprit that rendered my iPhone useless. So, I tried to delete all emails on my iPhone since I have all emails downloaded to my Entourage. But there's no quick way of doing it. I can only delete one email at a time by the tedious procedure outlined in the Apple website. I searched most iPhone user forums and no one seems to know how to do it swiftly and quickly. I even went to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store, they don't have a brief way to delete emails either. I'm really stuck because not only emails in my inbox is taking up space, my sent items are equally just as guilty in killing my iPhone.

So, what I did finally was reset my iPhone to factory settings, and then download my music, videos, and movies again. It cleaned out my trash, sent items, and drafts. I also deleted all instant messages and its conversations. This was a relatively brief procedure (15 minutes) as compare to deleting each email one at a time.

I'm Not a Goldfish!

Anyone of you out there own a goldfish as a pet? I remember when I was young, I was fascinated with them. My uncle lived with us in Hong Kong (actually, everyone lived in one roof in our traditional Chinese culture), and he had a fish tank full of goldfish, angelfish, etc. I remember I kept feeding the little fishees and eventually their belly got bloated and they turned belly up. I did it out of love and affection for the little guys but I didn't know better. I thought I was loving them and doing what's good for them. *Sigh* I was only a little lad without any understanding and knowledge of their limitations. I was thinking from my point of view and didn't pay attention to their feedback and response. This is a prime example of bad communications can result in a bad outcome.

This is the primary reason why I always avail myself and open a 2 way communications with my clients so that I have a better understanding of the needs/wants. This way, I can provide the top notch service that I strive to provide on a daily basis. Most of my clients can attest to that respect.

On a followup story, when I got out of college and decided to move back in with my aging ailing parents. I was the goldfish and my Mom was the little me. She missed having me in the house so much she fed me 5 meals a day. And I was like the goldfish, not wanting to protest and eat blindly until every morsel of on my plate (bowl in my case) was consumed. As a kid, I was told/taught to eat everything in my bowl. The old fable of if I don't eat everything, then the face of my wife will resemble my bowl which is crater-like and scared like the leftovers in my bowl. And also, my Dad kept telling me that the kids in Congo are starving. They would be so lucky to have the kind of foods we had on our table. So very soon, I gained 40 pounds and my heart rate and cholesterol level soar to unhealthy heights.

In retrospect, I should have told myself that I'm not a goldfish and that it's ok to not eat everything on my plate. It's not that I condone wasting food, but when I'm full, I should have the consciousness of saying to myself to STOP EATING!.

I was out picketing with the WGA at Paramount today!

I was out picketing along side with the WGA writers in front of the Paramount Studios this morning. It was a cold windy morning, but I managed to toughen it out. Actually, I had a blast. Yeah, on contrary to most people's belief, picketing was fun. This was an initiative by our new CEO (well, it's been a year, in SAG relative term, it's NEW) Doug Allen, who encouraged all employees to take time out from work and volunteer to be on the picket line for the past 3 months. Today was my turn and I gladly accepted the assignment to break up the monotony of SAG's day to day mundane work.

I met several people including a character actor Victor Kobayashi. Character actors are usually not recognizable until you pay full attention of their background work to support the main character of the story or to enhance the storyline. He told me that the main reason why he participated the WGA strike and picket every morning with them was because he remember back in 2000 when SAG had our Commercial Strike a teamster took time out from lunch and walked the picket with him. He thought to himself that when presented an opportunity in the future, he would pay it forward just like this gentleman did for SAG. So, even though it was cold and windy this morning, he thought it was the right thing to do. What a guy! :-)

14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Award - The Only Award Show This Year?!?!

I was photographing on the red carpet at the 14th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium today. It was more exciting and packed with celebrities than previous years as it may be the only Award Show in 2008!

SAG President, Alan Rosenberg speaking on stage at the SAG Award Show.

WGA (Writers Guild of America) is currently on strike. The close bind between 2 unions SAG and WGA put a bind on last month's Golden Globe Award Show. The Hollywood Foreign Press did not sign at least an interim agreement with the WGA, the Golden Globe Award Show became a big "Golden NOPE"! The show was aired without a red carpet entry because no celebrities wanted to cross the picket line in solidarity with our sister union WGA. Also, no celebrities came to present at the Golden Globe either. The show consists of only a several (non celebrities) people reading off the nominees, and announcing the winners without the usual "Hoppla and Fanfare". It was a sad, sad, sad Golden Globe Award Show. I hope by the time the Academy (Oscar) Award Show comes around, the strike will be over otherwise, the SAG Award Show will be the only Award Show of 2008.

The beautiful Angelina Jolie!

...and hubby Brad Pitt!

Carla Gugino of "American Gangster"

The beautiful and talented Rebecca Romeijn. "X-Men, Ugly Betty"

Teen Hearthrob Zack Efron of "High School Musical" and "Hairspray"

Amanda Bynes of "Hair Spray"

America Ferrera of "Ugly Betty" not so ugly tonight...

Eva Longoria-Parker, looking just as lovely as ever even without hubby
fame NBA superstar Tony Parker.

Jeremy Piven of "Entourage" looking just as dapper as his character, fast talking talent agent.

Silver Beaver Reception

As most of you know and who had been following my blog, I was presented with the coveted Silver Beaver Award last year in March. Since I was the award recipient, I was invited to the 2008 Silver Beaver Review Board in December. We sat down and pounded out on reading and review Silver Beaver Applications, and resumes.

There were many applications, but we were told to select only 10 applicants. It was a difficult process as every candidate was worthy to receive the Silver Beaver Award. I had some disagreement with some of the selection and some that were not selected. I guess, I didn't know these applicants personally as I can only read their proud achievements through their tenure in scouting for the past 2-3 decades. In the end, we were all proud and satisfied with our selection. I think we all slept soundly that night. :-)

Tonight was the Silver Beaver Reception at the Smiser Scout Center in Pasadena. I remember my reception vividly of last year as if it was yesterday. I remember walking in on time, but to my surprise everyone was in the room and had their portrait photographed already. I felt bad because I was holding up the photographer from packing up his equipment. Anyway, this year, everyone was very happy and excited about having their portraits taken. They all borrowed a Silver Beaver Award and had it temporarily around their neck for the picture. Everyone was posed perfectly albeit they all look so uncomfortably like a robot. "Chin up, look here, tilt head, move arm and lift elbow, etc.". Belle n' Beau are famous for their classic portrait, and I guess that's what it takes to look perfect and be capture in time with a still photograph. It was an important moment and event. I guess it was all worth it in the end.

I think I'll contact Belle n' Beau and have a copy purchased so that I can keep it for prosperity. :-)

MLK Birthday Today

I have tremendous respect for Martin Luther King Jr. It's his birthday today. Below is the video of his "I have a dream" speech spoken publicly shortly before his untimely assassination.

MacWorld Keynote 2008

Watching a live MacWorld Keynote 2008 transcript right now on my iPhone. How cool is that! Here's the video of the Highlights of Steve Job's Keynote Speech.

Screen Actors Guild New Website

Screen Actors Guild launched their "New and Improved" website today. It's definitely more user friendly and more intuitive so that visitors to the site can find things easily and not get lost among the many levels, not to mention many tiresome mouse clicks.

Best of all, the main page of the website featured many of my photos I took for the Guild through the years. :-) Yay Me! Please click here to view their website.

Movie Review: "Sweeny Todd"

After leaving the Ritz Carlton (Pasadena), which by the way soon to be the Langham Hotel, Lan and I decided to go watch "Sweeny Todd". I'm a sucka for musicals and I remember when I was a young pup in NYC, I wanted to go watch the Broadway version of this movie. I was vastly intriqued with a demon barber cutting up people and then to dispose of these which he deemd evil people to his friend and accomplice to make shepherd pies. What a gruesome concept! Unfortunately, I was too young to go by myself, and none of my friends back then care to watch a Broadway musical. So, 3 decades later, I didn't want to miss this opportunity and wait for the DVD/Blu-ray version.

Lan is a great sport. Despite her lack of interest to musicals and distaste for bloody horror flicks, she agreed to accompany me. The storyline is great, but no surprise to me since I already know the storyline years in advance. However, the performance by Johnny Depp, both acting and singing, far surpass my expectations. Not to mention, Helena Bonham Carter's portrayal of Mrs. Lovett was superb... she has a beautiful voice as well.

This is Johnny Depp's best performance showing all his talents in one single movie performance. I would be surprised if he doesn't get a nomination for an Oscar in Feb 2008. We gave it a big 2 thumbs up. Don't miss this movie! And if you did, make sure you at least rent the movie in the coming months.

Movie Review: "National Treasures - Book of Secrets"

Well, it's Christmas Day, since all the stores are closed, we really had nothing to do other than watch a movie. I've been anticipating "National Treasure 2 (the sequel to the first one), The Book of Secrets" for about a month now. It came out last weekend, but I was just inundated with so much work from SAG and Tiamo Photography, LLC. I haven't had a chance to see this movie. So Lan and I, along with her brother Thanh ventured to the movie theaters today knowing fully that it would be a mad house.

While this movie will probably not be nominated for any categories in the Golden Globe Awards , SAG Awards, nor the Academy Awards, it was an exceptionally entertaining movie. Usually, sequels can't live up to the original movie because of the exceptionally high expectation of the viewers, this movie did just fantastic.

The lead character Ben Gates played by Nicolas Cage, and Abigail Chase played by Diane Kruger (of Troy as Helen) was sparked an intriguing hook to the audience as this time, they are separated and Ben Gates had to move out of his lavish multi-million dollar estate. The ever witty Riley Poole played by Justin Bartha kept me laughing and fully engaged into the storyline of the movie. Jon Voight who portrayed Patrick Gates joined by his movie wife, Dr. Emily Appleton, portrayed by multi-Oscar winning actress Helen Mirren, added to the original movie with a new storyline that alleviates some of the intensity of the movie. I guess that's how they turn a simple movie plot and turn it into a 2 hour + movie. I guess I'm just a "sucka" for a treasure hunting movie, and the intertwine of history and fictional characters just sucked me right in. Yes, I liked "The DaVinci Code" as well.

This is a 2 thumbs up movie for me and Lan. Don't miss this movie and keep your eyes peeled for the Blu-Ray disc of this movie.

Conversations with the cast of Heroes

SAG Foundation hosted the "Conversations with the cast of Heroes" this afternoon. Among the thirteen regular cast member, Masi Oka who portrays Hiro Nakamura was there. I was fortunate enough to bump into him after the event. Here's a picture of him with me.

Corporate Portrait: Proudfoot & Quach LLP

Tonight I photographed Lan and her business partner Don Proudfoot for their corporate portrait session. Don has been a litigator for the past 40 years. He's a fantastic lawyer with many years of experience as a trial lawyer. Combined with Lan's tenacious style and detail oriented thoroughness, they make a fantastic team. They recently left their law firm to form Proudfoot and Quach LLP. They are located in Pasadena. Visit their website to contact them.

Beowulf - 3D

I went to see a late show tonight with Lan at the Edwards on Main Street. It's the 3D version of the critically acclaimed animated Tale of Beowulf. It's a fantasy set in 5th Century Denmark. The main character Beowulf (Ray Winstone) must defeat Grendel (Crispin Glover), a monster to say the least, who's been terrorizing a nearby Kingdom ruled by Hrothgar (Sir Anthony Hopkins). It's your average Love, Infidelity, Seduction, and Action movie. It has all the elements of a boxoffice hit. Plus... it's an animation with life-like characters. Not only the voices of these great actors brought these characters to life on screen, the animation is phenomenal. It's by far better than say "Final Fantasy" animation because Robert Zemeckis and his DP (Director of Photography) turned this animation into a movie epic with artistic camera angles. During the fight scenes, Zemeckis utilized many creative camera angles through high tech CGI brought this movie to a new level in animation.

To boot, we paid an additional $2 for the 3D version. We have not seen a 3D movie in a long while and they really improved on the glasses. We both wear glasses, and these 3D glasses sit comfortably on top of our regular glasses for 2 hours. I really think the extra $2 was worth the extra money for this movie. It really brought this very well made animation to life. Lan and I gave this a big 2 thumbs up!

Attack of the Pearl Harbor - 66 Years Ago Today

Sixty-Six years ago today, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Here's a really good website recollecting the series of events of that day. The History Place. The picture above is the memorial of the USS Arizona which was sunk on that day.

I remember watching a movie called "Tora Tora Tora!" when I was young. What an epic movie. That's when my Dad explained to me the history of the attack of the Pearl Harbor. I was intriqued at the time because of the violent relentless surprise attack on a early Sunday morning. No one was prepared for this attack, in fact, most everyone was at Sunday worship. I was trying really hard to understand war with my naive childlike mind and couldn't grasp the thinking behind such brutal attack. Kamikaze pilots would actually crash into their target rather than bail and survive a crash just so that it can create a bigger impact on the attack. I thought to myself, why would anyone hate another so much as to terminate oneself than to survive and preserve another life? I wasn't sure I was impressed with their persistent and focused attack without regard for their own preservation, or was I just dumbfounded at the way adults rationalize brutality and violence not to mention attack of civilians and enemies that had no way of defending themselves. Where was the nobility of being a soldier and wagering war against your enemy?

To this day, I still don't understand war. Why would anyone opt to take a lose-lose situation vs. a win-win situation for all parties? Negotiation? Communication? Senseless death? Perhaps, I value my life... all lives very much. Perhaps, I will never understand war, killing one another and for what purpose?

Charles Durning - SAG Lifetime Achievement Award

Charles Durning will be receiving Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award on January 27, 2008. He paid us a visit today and was interviewed by our SAG President Alan Rosenberg.

I remember watching Charles Durning as a kid and my most memorable movies with Charles Durning are "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas", "Tootsie", Scarface", and "The Hudsucker Proxy". I'm a fan of his work. He was so funny when he was chasing Dustin Hoffman around the room in Tootsie. He's also an excellent singer and dancer and received 2 Tony Awards for his musical performance on stage.

He spoke of many things during the interview and quite a jovial guy with a great sense of humor. He’s actually a Silver Star recipient during WWII. At a poignant moment, he was a little choked up when he spoke of having to kill during the war and later captured twice as prisoner of war. He was actually injured but he joined his troop on the day of Battle of the Bulge. What an interesting man.

New Wacom Cintiqs!

I posted several times in the past that I use and LOVE my Cintiq 21UX monitor/pen tablet for my digital imaging and graphic design work. The ability for me to draw directly on the screen speeds up my workflow and provide infinite control of pen pressure rather than from my wacom pen tablet.

Today, Wacom launched not 1, but 2 new Cintiqs... 20WSX (wide screen) at $2000 and the portable 12WX at$1000. The 12WX would be a handy tablet to pack into my laptop bag when traveling, on location shoots, or to a client's house for sales presentation and image adjustment/enhancement. This would be a great Christmas gift under the tree for your special someone. :-)

Navigon 2100 GPS

I got up early this morning to get to Staples and purchased the Navigon 2100 GPS. $149.95 This unit is listed $199 everywhere else. I've been looking for a GPS unit for my Dad for some time now. He's reluctant to drive and afraid to get lost at night because he's in his 70's now and his sense of direction and eyesights is not so good now. This way, he can drive my Mom to more places rather than cooped up in the house all the time. I thought it would make a great Christmas gift as it is very difficult to come up with new ideas and useful gifts for him year after year.

I tested the Navigon and I really love their 3D Reality view on a 3.5 inch display. It clearly shows which lane you should be if you want to exit to the correct freeway interchange. It's particularly confusing here in LA freeways and really useful feature to avoid missing an exit because you're in the wrong lane. Their text to speech of street names and exits is pretty accurate and it would be great for my Dad so that he doesn't have to constantly look at the display to navigate to where he wants to go.

Whenever, I slow down and come to a stop, it displays all gas stations, and restaurants in the vicinity. Some restaurants displays with their logo such as McDonalds and Starbucks coffee. Chevron logo is also displayed for their gas stations.

The only drawback is that it's only a 3.5 inch display, and it comes with only a care charger. You'll have to pay another $20 for an adapter to charge it indoor with a household electrical outlet.

All in all, I'm very satisfied with the Navigon 2100 because it's feature packed for it's price. There aren't any other GPS on the market at $150 can produce the same amount of quality display and information

HKSAF Christmas Ball 2007

Hong Kong Schools Alumni Federation hosted their annual fund raising Christmas Ball tonight at the brand new San Gabriel Hilton Hotel. I was invited to photograph the event. Since this is a fund raiser and for a good cause, I volunteered my service for this event.

HKSAF is a non-profit organization consists of various alumni schools and organizations in Southern California. Their main effort every year at the Christmas Ball is to raise scholarship funds for needy students in Hong Kong to study abroad. Everyone usually have a great time at the ball getting dressed up and meeting old and new friends.

This year, HKSAF invited (hired) Sum Sum, and Ban Ban (sisters) to perform and entertain the crowd. When I was just a little kid in Hong Kong, I used to watch Sum Sum every night. She used to do an evening variety show called "Enjoy Yourself Tonight". She also used to do a TV commercial for TV Guide stating it sells for only "$0.30". Everyone used to imitate her. Wow, that was almost 40 years ago. (shuddup, I know I'm dating myself) Here are some of the highlight photos of the evening plus some personal ones with Lan and her mom.



If you're an alumni from Hong Kong, please visit HKSAF for more information regarding membership application. They also welcome any amount of donation regardless you're an alumni from Hong Kong or not.

APS 1300VA UPS Battery Backup System

After purchasing the Apple Mac Pro for the past month, and loving it so much. I've been spending sleepless nights (ok, I'm kidding... in reality, I have an "off" switch on the back of my head. When it hits the pillow, I'm out) thinking about in the event of a bad electric spike, it can seriously damage my baby. Not to mention, if I run into a blackout during upcoming Summer months, I can lose my files to data corruption, and lose my work which I may have worked on for many hours.

The solution is to get a UPS (Interruptible Power Supply) made by APC. Belkin makes several reputable model as well. However, I'm old school with APC from the years of working as a network administrator which we employ APC UPS to power backup network servers.

Circuit City had a great deal this weekend with the APC 1300 VA Battery Backup System with LCD Display. The voltage capacity is very important when considering a UPS because depending on the number of device, computer, monitor and peripherals such as external hard drives and external DVD burners, it might be too much of a strain on a more anemic version. 1300 volts protection is just about right because it's affordable yet it can protect all the devices I mention above. It's rated up to 136 minutes of power backup which is ample time for me to save my files and turn off my computer, or enough time for power to recover. Plus, it conditions electric current coming out of the wall to my computer power supply and avoid too high of a spike which can permanently damage my baby. This model has a LCD display which show the status of the electric current and the load it's taking on. As a curiosity, I noticed that the electric current fluctuates from 119 volts to 122 volts throughout the day. It has 8 outlets. 6 of which is battery backup for devices such as monitors, computer, external hard drives. And 2 outlets not backup for devices such as printers, speakers, DVD burners, etc.

Now with APC 1300 VA running 24/7... I can now sleep soundly. ;-)

Bought it at Circuit City $129.95 - $15.00 Coupon discount = $125.00

Just a quick update on 12/9, Circuit City is selling it for $119. I guess I'll make a quick stop to CC and get my $10 + Tax back since it's within 30 days price match period.