Category: Slice of Life

Tuesday

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"Red 90" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec, ISO640
 “Red 90” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going?

Today was a fun and busy day for me. First off, I worked from home because we had new carpet installed in our living room and I needed to be there while the carpet crew was doing their thing. It’s been 11 years since the house was built, and the super-cheap, light colored carpet has seen its share of wear and tear, spilled drinks, pet stains, and other mishaps. It was looking pretty awful!

So we upgraded with a really nice, soft, high-quality, stain-resistant, and mixed color carpet, and a nice, thick pad with a plastic seal that will make steam-cleaning much more effective. It’s so comfortable!

Work was non-stop but that meant the day kind of went by quick, and before I knew it, the kids were home. Which was good because they could help me move the tv back to the tv stand, and also put the aquarium back. Now everything is back in place and it’s so nice and clean. What a great feeling. 😊

Oh, as an unexpected treat, we had a delicious Korean BBQ meal at home. It was a nice spread… just take a look:

"Korean BBQ" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/100 sec, ISO2000
 “Korean BBQ” Cedar Park, 2017

As you may know, Korean BBQ can have a lot of garlic and onion, so I am sorry for extra bad breath tomorrow. 😬 ごめんね

To wrap up the day, we watched La La Land. I must be the last person on Earth to see this movie, but I enjoyed it very much. The music was great, and the scenes were so colorful and vibrant. Very nice! It made me miss Los Angeles a little bit. 😢

Lastly, today’s photo for Monochrome May. It’s a close-up of a red Radio Flyer wagon that we have in our backyard. I liked the design of the 90 and the rust. I have a feeling there will be a lot of close-ups for this project.

Wow, another long list of daily happenings. Once again, if you made it to the end of this post, thank you! ありがとう！

I hope you had a great day.

またね～

– B Barron Fujimoto

Monochrome May

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"Calendar in Yellow" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/60 sec, ISO2500
 “Calendar in Yellow” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。

Today’s photo is a yellow tint version of a black and white image I took of a calendar in our house. Why would I tint it like that? Well, I am trying something new – making monochrome images.

I guess I was looking for a new photographic challenge. I thought about taking black and white images for May, but then I came across this article How to Use Monochrome Color in Photography by Megan Kennedy and it really piqued my interest. Especially the yellow train photo.

I’m going to try to either take photos of isolated colors or tint black and white photos to achieve the look I want. I haven’t done monochrome images in a long time… but I seem to remember experimenting with it back in the late ’90s in the early days of Photoshop… probably version 4.0 or so. It was so long ago!

But back to the present day. 😃 The month of May will be “Monochrome May” this year. We’ll see if I can make it all the way through!

I hope you had a nice day.

おやすみ

Red Thread Watch Band

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"Red Thread" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/45 sec, ISO3200
 “Red Thread” Cedar Park, 2017

こんにちは

Since getting my Seiko SKX007 a couple months ago, I’ve acquired a small collection of watch straps too. I have some striped bands, but I gravitate back towards the solid colors, namely the plain black or army green. But I had been on the look out for a black strap with thin red stripe, and one finally showed up on Ebay so I ordered it. This strap has become my favorite now!

I wanted this strap for a couple reasons. First, it’s a good combination of the solid and striped bands. I’ve found that some bands, like the “Bond” straps, look great while the watch is on the table, but less-so when on the wrist. The solid colors always look nice on the wrist, but are somewhat plain. This red-striped version is subtle enough as not to be too flashy, but has a little visual interest. A good compromise. The color scheme matches nicely with the watch face too.

The second reason I wanted this design is more fun and esoteric. I was blown away by the movie Your Name (君の名は), and liked the symbolism behind the red braided cord that Mizuha wore. So, thinking about the red stripe in the watch band… I don’t know, I just like the connection (no pun intended) to the movie, even if I am the only one who realizes it. If you don’t know about the long tradition of the red string, you can read more about it in this Wikipedia article. I think it’s a cool and romantic concept.

"Red" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/70 sec, ISO3200
 “Red” Cedar Park, 2017

The only thing I don’t like about the strap is that although it was listed as 22mm width, it’s more like 20 or 21, so there is a small gap where you can see the watch lug pin. Not a huge deal, but still, a little disappointing.

Anyways, now I am wearing this band most of the time, and occasionally swapping out with the plain black or army green bands. Fun stuff for a watch otaku like me! 😆

またね～

"Red Thread" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO2000
 “Red Thread” Cedar Park, 2017

What did I do?

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"Sunday Breakfast" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO1600
 “Sunday Breakfast” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。

What did I do today? Well, first off, I made breakfast for my kids – Portuguese sausage, a hash brown, scrambled eggs, and Portuguese sweet rolls. I raided the freezer for the sausage, lone hash brown, and sweet rolls… but our freezer holds a lot of treasure. 😃

Next, I took Bay to the nearby High School parking lot to do some driving practice. It’s pretty fun, and I think he’s getting more comfortable. It was only his third time, but I am impressed! I can’t believe he’s almost 16 and getting his license. That reminds me that we have to get our auto insurance updated. 😢

In the afternoon, Bay and I watched the Dodger game, and we did some gaming of our own – Bay played Star Wars Battlefront, and I played Diablo 3. Lots of fun! Two completely different kinds of video games but we both enjoyed our games of choice.

Speaking of games, I popped in my Animal Crossing: New Leaf cartridge into my 2DS and started playing it again. It’s such a fun, relaxing way to spend an hour or so. Even now as I write this blog post, I have the game running just playing the start up screen. I can watch my town’s residents go about their daily lives. It’s so nice!

Oh, tomorrow we are getting the carpet replaced in our TV room, so we had to move our TV and aquarium out of the room… that took some teamwork but it’s all ready for the carpet installation team! They actually move furniture, but not electronics (nor aquariums).

Well, that was pretty much my day. Oh, one last thing… I made fish tacos for dinner. They were yummy, even though I raided the freezer once again for the “Ultimate Fish Sticks” from Costco. 😊 But we did have cabbage, avocado, and jalapenos, so there were some fresh ingredients.

Wow, what a long blog post tonight! Thank you if you read all the way through.

I hope you had nice day! Now it’s time to sleep. おやすみ

”Comfy Cat" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO2000
 ”Comfy Cat” Cedar Park, 2017

Saturday Burger

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"Half Birthday Burger" Cedar Park, 2017
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO800
 “Half Birthday Burger” Cedar Park, 2017

こんばんは。How’s it going? Have a nice Saturday?

For lunch today, Koa and I went to one of our favorite burger joints in town, Mighty Fine Burgers. We used to go there quite a bit, but after In-N-Out opened nearby, we haven’t been in a while. Honestly, it’s the price difference that makes In-N-Out more attractive. Burger-wise, Mighty Fine is much tastier, and the fries are excellent, unlike the sub-par (to me) In-N-Out fries.

Well, I recently got a coupon in the mail from Mighty Fine, and the occasion was my half-birthday. And the offer was a free half-pound burger! (Sorry for the awful photo)

I ordered it with everything, including grilled onions and jalapeños, and it was awesome! I have to say, the half-pound burger is too big for me nowadays. It’s just too massive. But, hey, it was free and a Saturday afternoon having a burger with my son while watching the ballgame on tv… it doesn’t get much better than that! 🍔⚾😄