Tag: postaday

End of Spring Break

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Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/15 sec, ISO3200
 Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！ Good evening! How was your Sunday? It’s the end of Spring Break for the kids and that means that the week of sleeping late every morning is over. So, I am hoping that Koa goes to bed soon! (Bay is already in bed and his lights are off)

A couple days ago, the weather turned chilly again, which was a huge surprise to me. I thought we were already into Summer weather! Come to think of it, today is the first day of Spring. That’s great, because I don’t like Winter or the cold. Bring on the heat already!

Today I did a lot of research on new Chromebooks because the laptop I use to write this blog every evening has a hardware problem and is super-slow, and sometimes will just crash in the middle of whatever I am doing. Luckily WordPress does a pretty good job of auto-saving so I haven’t lost too much work. But the computer boots up so slowly that I think it is time for me to find a new laptop.

So… I decided on an Acer Chromebook 11 laptop. I want something that is simple, has good battery life, and a good keyboard. I don’t need a lot of horsepower since I will not be using it for any photo editing or gaming. Just WordPress, Netflix, YouTube and general browsing and the Chromebook should be perfect for those. Also, the price that I found was nice… just $165! That’s a $15 price drop from yesterday…

As you may know, I have been trying to simplify my life and declutter. This new laptop is so minimal, that I am really looking forward to using it! Just like my X100T makes me work within its limitations, I am wondering if the Chromebook will have a similar effect. We’ll see!

Today’s photo is of a new lens that Mariko bought for her camera. It’s the highly-regarded Fujinon 35mm F/2.0 WR lens. It’s really nice because the focus is fast and silent, the aperture ring feels great, and it’s a lot smaller than the 18-55mm zoom. Plus the image quality is excellent and it has a certain look to the images that Mariko really likes. It’s definitely a keeper lens!

Well, I better get to bed. It’s past my usual time!

おやすみなさい！ -B Barron Fujimoto

Kaiju Nite 6

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Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/30 sec, ISO3200
 Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！

Hi everyone. It’s late… 11:45 PM here, and I will write this quickly because I am so sleepy. Tonight we had some good friends over for “Kaiju Nite 6”. We like to watch Kaiju (giant monster) movies every half-year or so, and this was our sixth get-together. Previous themes have been Godzilla, Gamera, Mothra, etc, but tonight’s theme was Tokusatsu TV, with television episodes ranging from 1966-1973. We watched Ultraman, Iron King, Kikaida, Kamen Rider, and others, plus Mikey brought over toys and lyrics sheets so we could sing along to all the tv show themes. It was a lot of fun! And as always, the food and drink selections were delicious.

But, I am fading fast so I will end this here…

おやすみなさい！

-B Barron Fujimoto

Fun Friday

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Austin, 2016
Photo info: SONY SLT-A77V, 10mm, f/9.5, 1/45 sec, ISO800
 Austin, 2016

こんばんは！

Happy Friday everyone! How’s it going? Today was a fun day for me. I went to take some photos of the building that my company will be moving to later next month. I was just planning on photographing the outside of the building, and a courtyard area, but I met the property manager and he lent me a hardhat and said I could go up to the fourth floor (where we’ll have the entire floor) and go check it out.

So I got to wander around and see all the construction going on up there. I also met the superintendent and he said to just be careful… so I got to take a bunch of photos (one of which is above) and check it all out. It’s a pretty great space and the views are really nice! I can’t wait to move in.

Another fun thing was that Mariko bought a new lens for her Fujifilm X-T10 – the excellent 35mm F/2.0! It’s so cool. The sharpness and color are great, and the AF speed is so fast. It’s also silent and weather-sealed. Definitely a must-have if you have a Fujifilm x-mount camera.

Lastly, a new tutorial video was posted by Cynthia Lin. It’s “Moon River” which is one of my favorite tunes! So I have been practicing the chords. It’s a fun song and I like to think that re-learning the chords exercises my brain cells. I want to keep my mind sharp!

So that was my Friday. Not bad, huh?

Take care and see you tomorrow!

おやすみなさい！

-B Barron Fujimoto

New exercise bike

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Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.5, 1/100 sec, ISO1250
 Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！Greetings humans! 👽

As you can see from today’s photo, I’m “enjoying” the new exercise bike. It’s actually pretty good, although my legs are so weak. I get tired after only 10 minutes! I guess the energy drink I had wasn’t conducive to burning calories but I thought it was delicious. 🍺

I mentioned in my previous post that I wanted to try to wake up early and exercise before getting ready for work. Yeah, that didn’t happen. I am taking advantage of the fact that I don’t need to wake up the kids (Spring Break) and make breakfast for them. So I can sleep in! I will enjoy this week as well. 😜

But seriously, we read that if you can exercise more in your 40s, you’ll have a much healthier brain in your 60s. I don’t know if it is true or not, but it is good motivation to get active, which has other benefits. Plus, it’s fun to exercise. And then I can also enjoy yummy foods more, right?

Well, I am going to try to sleep early to counteract the daylight savings adjustment. Talk to you again!

おやすみなさい！

-B Barron Fujimoto

Evening at the baseball field

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Leander, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO2500
 Leander, 2016

こんばんは！How’s it going today? Wow, the days are flying past like crazy… I don’t remember when time seemed to move so fast.

Today I took Koa to baseball practice. I took today’s photos when I was picking him up at around 8pm. As you can see, there was still plenty of light in the sky… it’s already starting to feel like summer!

Only five kids from Koa’s team showed up for practice, but that’s to be expected because of Spring Break. Many families go on vacation this week but we usually stay at home. Our school district usually has a few days off earlier in the year, when other schools are still in session. This works out nicely because the popular vacation destinations are usually empty!

The past couple years, we’ve taken advantage of this to go to Disneyworld and the parks were empty! Well, not like a ghost town, but the wait times for rides were usually around 10 minutes or so. It was so great, with less stress and we didn’t have to have a strict plan. We kind of just played it by ear and just went with what felt good, and we still got to experience all the rides we wanted to go on, some rides multiple times!

But back to today… we bought something to help improve our health: an exercise bike. The model we got was relatively inexpensive, but rated very highly. I assembled it this evening in about 40 minutes… there was only a slight problem with one plastic piece, but it is not a big deal and doesn’t affect the performance nor safety.

What I like about this bike is that the handlebars have a large area that is perfect for a tablet or kindle. So, I am thinking that I will try to read a bit and get some exercise in after I wake up. It seems like I should be able to wake up a bit earlier and get in at least 15 minutes before showering and getting ready for the day. We’ll see how it works out. I am curious to see how it affects my energy levels and mindset during the day.

Leander, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/50 sec, ISO3200
 Leander, 2016

Well, I hope you have a nice evening! おやすみなさい！

-バロン Barron Fujimoto