Category: Slice of Life

Coffee shop writing

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Leander, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO500
 Leander, 2016

こんばんは！ Hello!

Today’s photo is one that I took this evening at the coffee shop. I dropped Koa off at baseball practice and then went to the nearby Starbucks to write my A-Z blog post. I enjoy hanging out at a coffee shop, reading or in this case blogging and it’s fun to people-watch even though this particular Starbucks is relatively quiet.

So, I’ve been thinking about what to do with our old laptops. We have three of them that we don’t use any longer. They’re very old, and aren’t 100% healthy. Two of them have hard drive errors, which makes them unreliable and the third is over 10 years old so it is just super slow! It runs Windows 7 just fine, but modern browsers run like molasses on it! But I don’t know the best way to dispose or recycle them. Of course I want to make sure all the data is completely wiped too… I guess I need to do some research!

Well, it’s almost time for bed. I think I’ll listen to the end of the Dodger game (yay, Maeda!) and then read a bit. おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

Wow, I’m tired

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Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/300 sec, ISO400
 Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！ Hello! As you may have noticed, I’ve been working on the A-Z Challenge, and thus, I am actually wondering what to write about in today’s regular blog post. I put a bit of thought into “D”, and spent a decent amount of time editing and rewriting it. It’s actually a lot of fun to do that! I know that I am not very skilled when it comes to writing, but I enjoy doing it anyways. I just didn’t know that it is tiring, but it makes sense. I mean, you are using brain power and oxygen in thinking, and that must cause some mental fatigue, right?

But, just like the exhaustion you feel after a good run, the mental exhaustion feels kind of good. As long as I know that it’s almost bedtime! If I had several hours left in the rest of the day, I probably wouldn’t have such a positive mindset! 😆

Today’s photo is of Lani waiting to go outside. We are trying to get her to not bark so much if she wants to go out, so now if she is loud, we stop in our tracks until she quiets down. I think she is learning slowly that in order for us to let her out quickly, she needs to not bark. But she’s so full of energy it must be difficult!

A couple other things about this photo is that I am trying to use a consistent look to my black and white photos, and have started making some presets in Lightroom so that I can produce the same look. This includes film grain, tone curve, and slight blur. Also, I’ve been getting into the 4×5 format. I’ve normally used a 2×3 format, or the square format, and never considered 4×5. But I kind of like it!

Well, it looks like I did find a few things to write about tonight, huh!

おやすみなさい！ Take care!

– B Barron Fujimoto

Birthday boy’s dinner

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"Mountain of Karaage" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/100 sec, ISO640
 “Mountain of Karaage” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！ Happy Monday!

Today is Koa’s 12th birthday 🎂… just one more year before he becomes a teenager. He’s still a little kid in so many ways, but he’s growing up too fast! It’s really true what they say about how they become grown before you know it. Actually, it seems like they were young boys for a long time, but suddenly at about 6th grade they change and are little adults. The time really flies by! I still can’t believe Bay is a freshman in high school. 😮

Today’s photo is of a mountain of Japanese fried chicken , which is called “karaage”. We like to call it JFC. 😋 It is so yummy, and Koa requested NO VEGGIES. But we did have grilled asparagus as well, although I don’t think Koa ate any. We let him pass on it on his special day.

The karaage was so good that now I am thinking that I want to request it for my Father’s Day dinner. This year, my family will be with me for Father’s Day, which hasn’t happened in a long time! Usually they are in Japan for over a month in early summer, so I am alone on Father’s Day, but this summer they are making their Japan trip a month or so later than usual.

Time flies so quickly these days that I know that summer is just around the corner!

Take care, and good night for now. おやすみなさい！

– バロン Barron Fujimoto

End of the tournament

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Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/420 sec, ISO200
 Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！ Hello! How was your Sunday? Our day was pretty good, starting off with a 10 AM little league baseball game for Koa. Today was the day that mattered in the tournament, with yesterday’s games determining the seeding for today.

It was too bad that the kids couldn’t keep the high-level of play going, though, and they fell big-time to the opposing team. They didn’t play too badly, but the other team was on fire, scoring five runs in the first inning. Koa’s team put a couple of runs on the board, but it wasn’t enough. However, they did play pretty good, and Koa came in to pitch in the final inning. You can see him throw one inside below:

Koa got out of a jam when the opposing hitter lined into a double play. But it was right at the end of the game, when the outcome was already decided. Still, Koa was pumped after that great outing.

After the game, most of the team went out for pizza and frozen yogurt and had a lot of fun. Koa told me that he’s having the most fun this season, and I can tell from the way everyone gets along that the team enjoys playing together. It’s good that they can support each other, especially because the team doesn’t have a great win-loss record.

FJKO7923Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/100 sec, ISO2000

Well, it’s almost Monday and the work weeks continue to be busy. The upcoming week promises to keep that trend alive!

おやすみなさい！ See ya tomorrow!

– B Barron Fujimoto

A sci-fi classic

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Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.2, 1/30 sec, ISO3200
 Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！

I hope you had a great Saturday. Mine was pretty good! This afternoon Koa played two games in the baseball tournament, and although they lost both, they played well. Probably the best they have played as a team so far this year! However, the teams they went up against were very good… a “select” team, and then the team with the second-best record in the season so far.

Koa did great at the plate, knocking a double over the left-fielder’s head, and then coming round to score later in the evening. He later walked, but got stranded on third. In the next game, he had another hit into the outfield, getting a couple RBIs. He did great! Tomorrow, they have one more game, and I hope they continue with their great play.

After we came back home, I watched 2001: A Space Odyssey with Bay, as you can see in the photo. It’s amazing to think that this movie was release on this day back in 1968, which is the year I was born. The special effects were incredible for the time, and still look great. If you haven’t seen the movie before, or if it has been a while as it was in my case, I recommend watching it again. It’s a true classic.

Well, it’s almost bed time for me, so I’ll sign off for now!

おやすみなさい！

– バロン Barron Fujimoto