The Worldwide Newton Conference is being held in a couple of months in Paris, France. I’m tempted to go, seeing that I’ll be in London the last week in August. I should just stick around in England and France that week, go to the conference and head back to the States after September 6th. Super Newton programmer Paul Guyot is organizing the conference with a number of rapid Newton users. I’ve heard that Larry Yeager (Rosetta recognizer) and Walter Smith (NewtonScript) are planning on going.

Lunatic’s going to be in London during that time as well, and we all encouraged him to stop by Paris for the conference. “But I’m going with friends!” he told us, to which I said, “Ditch them! This is a direct order from the President of SNUG! You wouldn’t disregard a direct order from the President, would you?!?”

Read the rest of this entry »

Catching up on some photos from the past several weeks. On June 19, I attended the wedding of my friends, Leslie and Will. I know Leslie from my days over at Palm. If Leslie and Will look familiar, perhaps it’s because you saw them on The Learning Channel’s Perfect Proposal!

The ceremony was held in Sausalito and the reception in the Presidio. It’s been some time since I drove across the Golden Gate Bridge; each time I’m reminded of the Peninsula’s beauty; let’s hope the Golden Gate doesn’t fall into the ocean during the next Big One as it did in 10.5!

Read the rest of this entry »

Rae and I watched Super Size Me a little over two weeks ago. At the time, I was working on my final project for Art 174. Obesum was my attempt at making light of the whole weight-loss craze. I wanted to see how a weight-gain pill might be portrayed in today’s infomercial saturated world. Take a look at the video and let me know what you think! Kudos go out to Dardy for his bang-up job in the role of a typical Obesum user!

Read the rest of this entry »

Facing East Dance and Music performed at the Alice Arts Theater in Oakland in the first annual Oakland Dance Festival. The festival is being produced by Company C Contemporary Ballet under Charles Anderson. Other companies performing in the next two weeks include Capacitor and Savage Jazz Dance Company.

Facing East performed an abbreviated version of the Held So Close production from last year. I was fortunate to be able to photograph the dress rehearsal on Friday afternoon. It’s sooo much better than photographing during the live performance. There was another photographer standing in the hallway during the performance clicking away the entire night. I must admit to being a bit irritated to hear the guy’s 10D shutter tripping every few seconds… late. He returned the next night with a tripod. Even though I sat further away from him, I could still hear the shutter going off during the performance. As a photographer, I’m always concerned whether or not I’m making too much noise working. It’s possible that the audience didn’t notice, but I sure did!

Read the rest of this entry »

This past weekend, Rae and I went to the local Chain Reaction store in Los Altos to pick up a new bike. We were deciding between a 2003 Trek 2300 WSD that was on sale and a new 2004 Trek 2200 WSD. Trek had discontinued the 2300 line to encourage women to “upgrade” to the 5200 WSD. The new 2200 has a carbon rear stay to go along with a carbon seat tube, while the 2300 had an all aluminum frame, Race Lite Wheels, and full Ultegra components. They didn’t have a 43cm 2200 in stock, so Rae had to test ride the 47cm. Feeling it to be too large and eager to walk away with a bike, we decided on the 2300.

Read the rest of this entry »

MasterCard was looking for Asian-American actors for a new “Priceless” commercial they are filming. Auditions were held in Landmark Building C at the Fort Mason Conference Center in San Francisco. They were looking to cast an Asian mother, father, and an 18-22 year old Asian male with long hair! According to the flyer, they were paying $$$$$$$$$$$$ for the part!

Despite Randy and Rae’s insistence that I no longer looked like a freshman — no doubt blinded by the dollar signs — I went to the audition Saturday afternoon. There were dozens of young Asian males in the waiting room, most of whom didn’t have long hair at all! There were a few true families (the mom, dad, and son came to the audition) but more make-believe families (ones that the casting people put together). I was paired up with Flora, Hai-Ning, and my “brother” Vincent.

Read the rest of this entry »

The last time I was in the Stanford Faculty Club was for the Symbolic Systems Class of 1997 gradudation party. 7 years later, I’m back for another graduation, the 2003-2004 Reuters Digital Vision Fellowship Program. Friends and family of the Digital Vision Program convened in the Gold Room for the end-of-year commencement dinner.

It didn’t seem that long ago when we were taking a tour of the Cantor Art Museum or the Intel Museum. When I look back at the over 1600 images I’ve taken over the course of the Fellowship, I keep saying to myself, “Man, those 9 months went by fast!” My experience in the Fellowship has been terrific; I’ve never been around such dedicated and extraordinary people.

Read the rest of this entry »