Star Wars watching

Hi everyone! It’s Sunday evening, and I am sad that the weekend is almost over. But it’s been a nice one for sure!

This morning we had a pretty strong rainstorm, starting in the early hours… maybe 3 AM. The rain was hitting our bedroom windows very hard and it kept me up for about half an hour. But then it turned into a nice soothing gentle rain, and I fell back asleep. Hope the weather is treating you well, wherever you are!

As mentioned in the title, we watched a lot of Star Wars this weekend. We viewed Episode 1 yesterday, and today we watched Episodes 2 and 3. The first one was really awful… I had forgotten how bad it was… Episode 2 was a bit better, but still had a lot of goofy scenes, especially surrounding the love story.

"A long time ago" USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/320 sec, ISO12800
“A long time ago” USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.

I really enjoyed Episode 3, though! The special effects were really good and the connections to the later movies were pretty cool. It was neat to see the Rebel blockade runner! Also, the acting improved a lot… maybe it was because the dialog wasn’t as bad? Episode 3 was also where Obi-wan turned out to be a bad-ass (except when he got thrown like a rag doll by Dooku) and took down Anakin at the end. That was a pretty good scene and a good end to a decent movie. But now that we have watched the prequels, I’m really looking forward to seeing the original trilogy. It’s gonna be great!

Today was a Busy Day

Good evening! How’s it going?

Well, today was a busy one for us. Saturdays usually are, but today had even more on the schedule. As usual, the kids had Japanese school in the morning. However, this time I was scheduled to help out with security duty. But before I started, I had a small walk around the neighborhood near the school. I found this cool flamingo! I love it!

"Flamingo Santa" USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/80 sec, ISO200
“Flamingo Santa” USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.

But then I had to report for security duty. It’s pretty easy. I just sit at the end of one of the hallways and make sure kids don’t wander down the halls during the breaks.

"Waiting" USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO6400
“Waiting” USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.

Another thing I have to do is ring the bell at certain times during the morning to signify when breaktime starts, and when it is over. Today I wasn’t the main security officer, so I just had to follow the lead of the main person and ring my bell when she rang hers.

"School Hallway" USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/70 sec, ISO400
“School Hallway” USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.

Sounds pretty boring, right? So I had a few hours to read (The Martian), Instagram, and of course take some photos of the school. And my shoes.

"The View" USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/8, 1/250 sec, ISO2000
“The View” USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.

Security duty was uneventful as usual. For lunch, we went to In-n-Out Burger and brought the food home so we could begin our Star Wars marathon. Yes, we are going to watch all six Star Wars movies in preparation for Episode VII. That meant starting with The Phantom Menace. It was awful! Wow. I couldn’t believe how bad it was. It was tough to make it all the way through. But at least that is over with. There’s nowhere to go but up!

"Watching the Movie" USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/105 sec, ISO6400
“Watching the Movie” USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.

The big event of the day was Bay’s piano recital. He has advanced pretty far in his piano. This time, he was third from the last spot! His performance was super today. I am so proud! I didn’t get a photo of him playing, but the picture below is of him (wearing the jacket) and the other three final pianists.

"Waiting to Perform" USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/25 sec, ISO6400
“Waiting to Perform” USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.

After the recital, we went to an udon restaurant named “Daito” that I had not been to before. It was delicious! Besides udon, we enjoyed donburi, saké, and sushi. Yum!

"Sushi Roll" USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/50 sec, ISO12800
“Sushi Roll” USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.

Now it is about 10:30pm and I am exhausted. But, I wanted to write a little about my day. It was a fun one!

おやすみなさい!Good night!

Friday!

Good evening! We made it to the end of the work week!

Today’s weather was pretty dang foggy this morning… rare here in Austin. Of course it slows down traffic, but so many drivers still like to tailgate. I find it crazy. But besides the added danger, the fog makes the drive in look really cool. A nice change of pace.

Tomorrow there will be rain, which I like once in a while. I’m really a sun/summer person but variety is good! It’s a pretty good mix of weather for me here in Texas. It only gets really cold a few days a year and the summers are blazing hot. I love the heat!

Today I met my friend for lunch at a new place for me, Salata. It’s a salad restaurant! I really liked it! Who would have thought I would like a salad restaurant… but I did. I noticed though that I did start to get really hungry in the late afternoon… but I held out until dinner.

"Salads" USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/125 sec, ISO5000
“Salads” USA. Texas. Austin. 2015.

Now I am ready to start the weekend! Take care with the stormy weather everyone.

New Camera!

"Fujifilm X-T10" USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/15 sec, ISO6400
“Fujifilm X-T10” USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.

There’s a new camera in the family – the Fujifilm X-T10. Mariko really likes the photos that she has made with my X100T and wanted to get her own. I recommended she go with an interchangeable lens camera, but one that used the same amazing Fujifilm JPEG rendering engine. The X-T10 is a great choice for here. The combination of sensor, film simulations, lens selection, and retro style makes it a nice upgrade from her Sony NEX-6. She mentioned that she never really loved the Sony, and I can understand that. There’s something about the Fujifilm cameras that is hard to describe, but you definitely feel a stronger connection with them.

So, we’re looking to sell her old camera and lenses, and I am also thinking about selling all of my DSLR gear as well. I have only used it a handful of times since I bought my Fujifilm, and those times were simply to take a photo of my X100T!

The long-lost iPod touch

"iPod Touch". USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/60 sec, ISO1000
“iPod Touch”. USA. Texas. Cedar Park. 2015.

For a few months I’ve been looking for my wife’s long-lost iPod Touch. It’s funny, but she forgot she even had one! Which is in itself sad since it was a birthday gift from me! Anyways, the reason I wanted to find it was because I wanted to test the image quality of an Instagram upload from an iOS device as compared to my Android phone.

Well, the other night the iPod finally was found! So I quickly got to resetting it and installing some apps. After finding a way to install an old version of Instagram on the iPod touch, I did my test. Unfortunately the outdated version of Instagram only uploads the image as 640 x 640 pixels in size instead of the current 1080 x 1080. So I guess my test for image quality will not be conclusive…

Oh well, at least I have a new (to me) music player!