How exactly do you do Low Light Shooting?

There are 2 main ways

• The Automatic: Nighttime Scene mode setting
• The Manual: pump the ISO up and above 1o00

Here are my findings:

1. Always use a tripod – You need a tripod, since the system will compensate by slowing the shutter speed down until it takes like 5 seconds to take the photo. At that point any movement will compromise the exposure.
2. Auto Focus assist beam is crucial if your camera cannot autofocus. If manual focusing, then you’ll most likely need and external light source before you enter low-light mode
3. Unless you’re desperate or want to alter the lighting for affect and don’t have the cash to buy fancy lighting equipment, then there’s almost no reason to go into low-light shooting. Personally though, I hate flash (not adobe’s flash but camera flash).I’d rather increase the ISO number when I can.
4. Zoom doesn’t work well at low-light mode, so keep everything zoomed out.
5. If you’re close then try to keep the aperture low, though 3.0 – 3.2 may not always be possible.
6. I was playing around with a light source when a linear purple light appeared. Do not try to do anything cool with this, for the line of light does not appear in the picture.

Photo gallery after the break:

At first you’d be all like “oh man, this picture’s so good” but then once they’re uploaded to the computer, it turns out that the high ISO makes any consistency in the colors all grainy, because noise is added to the high exposure, or something.

for the photobucket go here

Best independent film:

White on Rice

Best Sci-fi:

The Fifth Element

Best Tim Burton (Style):

Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Best Kubrick:

Full Metal Jacket

Best Old Film:

Seven Samurai

Best J-Horror:

Rinne (Reincarnation)

Best movie about monster(s) that kill everyone:

Sci-fi channel’s: Swarm

Best B-movie:

The man with the screaming brain

Best Movie involving marine mammals:

Le Grand Bleu

Worst Film:

Operation: Endgame

btw, I’m watching The Cove right now, and I’m not “against” whale and dolphin fishing.

But you might’ve already heard that fish consumption is at an all time high. 12% of the world’s intake of protein is coming from the sea.

The Buddha said (I’m pretty sure this is somewhere in the Pali Canon) to refrain from taking the lives of large animals that live long.  Usually the trend is that larger animals will live longer.

What’s fair game:

• Insects (Crickets, Larvae, Grasshoppers)
• Small Fish (Anchovy, Herring, etc)
• Less “desirable” fish as well as fish heads
• Squid (but not cuttlefish)
• Rabbits
• Shark Meat (not including the fins)
• Cockle, periwinkle, rope-grown mussel
• Eggs. Especially Quail Eggs.
• Bird’s Nest (try going for the sustainable kind)
• Bone Marrow
• Ostrich Meat

What’s encouraged:

• Faux Meats (Seitan, Soy products)
• Fruits
• Vegetables
• Legumes
• Nuts & seeds
• Beans
• Grains (preferably whole)
• Algaes (seaweed, chlorella, spirulina)
• Kombucha and Teas
• Technically Mushrooms, I don’t like them personally, though
• Chiles and peppers

Try to stave off:

• Dairy
• Meat & Poultry
• “Delicacies”

and when they do manage to make lab-grown meat, and it does take off as an industry. Definitely choose it over real meat, but still, try not to eat it.

Blah Blah Blah varied diet ye de ye de yaddah

Also, this diet doesn’t work if everyone starts eating like this, the purpose is to form a group of ovo-vegetarians that take into consideration aspects of sustainability and food budgets by looking at the trends and scavenging for meats that are considered “less desirable” or cheap left-over meats.

I’m so jealous of people who have either played all the good games in their childhood, or have the time to get caught up in playing and beating the newly released games.

I see myself as a casual gamer, and that’s alright, but there’s something about either my attention span or maybe my skills in the various types of games.

I recently became acquainted with a fellow gamer in one of my commutes. He owns a PSP and we both enjoy Japanese games. He plays fighters and rhythm games, but the thing is he’s actually good at them given the amount of time he puts into them. I enjoy them, but I don’t have the first thing I spend my block of free time on games. I wanna be good at games too…

I don’t know where the bulk of my free time goes, I’d be sitting down, not even in a state of meditation, but time just flies when it’s free time (or some sort of deadline).

But I guess there’s one thing I can count on. If I’m really hyped up for something, I can be sure that game will be something I actually go and beat (maybe).

Oh boy, this was really poorly written. Oh well.

”The World Bank has predicted that by 2030 more than a billion people in the developing world will belong to the “global middle class,” up from just 400 million in 2005. That’s a good thing. But it will be a hard thing for the planet if those people are eating meat and driving gasoline-powered cars at the same rate as Americans now do. It’s too late to keep the new middle class of 2030 from being born; it’s not too late to change how they and the rest of us will produce and consume food and energy. “Eating less meat seems more reasonable to me than saying, ‘Have fewer children!’” Le Bras says.”

Here in the West, we capitalize on freshness, well-being, health, wealth.  My parents work in the food service industry, and they bring back stuff: leftovers that are normally thrown away. Large corporate parties would order more food than what is needed, and then the excess would be thrown away. Disposed of, not shipped off to a local soup kitchen.

This brand of overstocking happens all the time, especially with perishable goods. How can it be that so much food is both produced and then either wasted or thrown away? Don’t answer that, it’s rhetorical. Albeit, admittedly non-perishable goods when past the sell-by date (sell-by, best-by, and expiration dates are all quite different) are donated to welfare.

I was having a chat conversation over skype with my friends today. I was rating /evaluating a  teriyaki place, and brought up the topic of over-portion. That’s when for the entree, the restaurant would give a multi-serving dish. This teriyaki place was easily 3-4 servings. The peeps argued that being marketed towards college-students, the meals offered a “bang for the buck” quantity appeal.

Okay, so if they give too much, people can easily pack the rest up and go. There’s a flaw here, for the theoretical probability that they’d take the leftovers is one in three. There are two other options: eating the the rest and then disposing of the rest.

However, many are ignorant of the impact and continue to feast and consume unsustainably through the eating of meats and over-portioned meals.

There’s a growing niche in the dining population that embraces this concept along with mainly the lower-calorie trend.

Diner companies like T.G.I. Friday were quick to accommodate these calorie-counters. Boosting profits along the way.

“Cutting portions is a cheap and easy way to lower calorie counts while also boosting profits, said Mintel’s Giandelone.
“If the portion size is 50 percent less, chances are the price is not half. It’s probably 30 percent less,” he said.”
(Reuters)

Unfortunately, the reverse is true. If everyone sustained themselves on smaller portions, then diners would capitalize on larger portions. Thus boosting their profits and making it the trend.

The sad truth is that there’s not much we can do as a collective besides cooking at home and increasing vegetable intake. Even in urban food deserts it’s best to try to limit eating out, and when doing so try to pick options that lack meat products.

Even if we do manage to make the choices, we would have to wait for the food industry to turn around and market themselves towards export, in which case would not be sustainable in it’s own way. (Geez, when will we get those solar powered barges). If we can’t get the export of food to become a viable option, then the capitalistic nature of developed countries will never get behind the idea, although they wouldn’t go down without a fight either (by fight, I mean more advertisements and ‘brilliant’ marketing campaigns) .

I’m endorsing a lifestyle choice here. Not for the sake of ethical treatment of animals, or so that people can become for fulfilled or lower the obesity, but for the sake of sustainability.  If we use less of our arable land for our needs, we can provide food for the world, boost our exports and end hunger. It may be far-fetched, and I certainly don’t believe this will ever be accomplished in our lifetimes, but it’s a start. Become a pioneer by making sustainable choices.

Addendum: As we’ve seen with the green revolution, along with the views presented in the Reuters article. The deciding factor is cost. Meat products are about on parity with vegetable products, and I think that’s what influences consumer choices. People will buy electric cars, change their lightbulbs to CFLs,  install solar powered water-heaters, change their single-pane aluminum frame windows to the new polyvinyl triple-pane Low-e’s if they’re convinced that they would save the money to be worth the investment, time, and effort. It’s different here, though, because if the consumer wills it, then meat will be whatever price the consumers collectively wish for, because crops can be used to feed livestock, and water can be used for both the crops and livestock. If the demand for meat goes down, and the demand for vegetables and crops go up, then the prices for those would be driven down as a consequent.

What I had expected Bamboo Blade to be about was an all high school girls kendo club, and essentially only kendo matches. The only thing that I knew for certain is the ED song “Star Rise” is awesome. Oh look, here it is right now!

I’m convinced you can find a great synopsis elsewhere, so I won’t be providing one. Personally, I try not to look at them when I go into a series.

Things this anime does well include:

• Animation changes to the sillier kind for comedic effect.
• Catchy ending song.
• Wide variety of characters, definitely more relatable than K-on!
• Not bad humor. Humor that pretty much dies out near the end.
• Fun facts thrown in, more so than the average series.
• Plot comes together nicely.
• Nice handling of the soundtrack to manipulate the atmosphere for comedy as well as melodrama.
• It begun and ended on a note that was welcoming and friendly to people who aren’t familiar with kendo.
• Tokusatsu/Anime in the anime as a sort of microcosm.

Good to know:

• It teaches a bit about kendo, not as much as one may expect, but it’s easy to understand by watching the process.
• It had elements of a hero’s journey/coming of age story, but since there’s no “main character”, the anime couldn’t follow through with that. Instead, the anime tried an approach where everyone got something different out of their experiences in the kendo club.

Overall, I think the anime appeals to all audiences. Normally, I find series that revolve themselves around sports and music to be unaccommodating. Especially because I’m very much removed from those circles. Bamboo Blade, however, was able to present itself in a more universal fashion.

This is possibly due to that “coming of age” and “hero” cycles that one guy who taught my senior English class kept on talking about. Coming of age stories are present in many famous myths of yore, and span until some of the more recent Hollywood blockbusters. Bamboo Blade grounded itself in this. Kendo and and kendo club were just vehicles that made the backdrop for the plot, not the driving force behind it.

For the most part, the Coming of Age archetypes are true for the “main character Tamaki, whereas with the other characters it’s just plain character development (possibly a more subtle coming of age).

Anyways, if you’re here just for the recommendation, then yes it’s worth the watch. For me, it sets the standard for any sports(ish) anime (don’t think I’ve truly watched one before). Also, I heard the manga’s good. Didn’t sample the dub, but the original CV’s were great.

*WARNING!* Possibility of Spoilers beyond this point.

For no apparent reason: Character analysis!

I feel like I’m allowed to do this for this series, because there’s a whole bunch of interesting characters that the show features. Of course, some of them hog all the spotlight. This is for the unsung characters.

The Three Characters: Sayako Kuwahara, Iwasa, Satori “Satorin” Azuma

Sayako Kuwahara: Generic, Highly Enthusiactic, Good friend of Club Leader Kirino, and somehow my favorite character. She’s the only one who I don’t see get any character development. Perhaps she started out as the most mature? I’d say so.

Iwasa and his younger brother Makoto Iwasa: Yeah, I’m a sucker for those “bad guys” who are competent and not really a bad guy. Iwasa was just that. Makoto Iwasa felt like a reincarnation of his older brother when he joined, although one of the members said “they seem completely different”. The relationship made it so it ended on a good note for me. (No picture of Makoto Iwasa)

To the right is Iwasa, left is what's his face.

Tokusatsu/Anime in the anime:

The main one: Sword Squadron "Blade Bravers"

Noted Hero/CoA Cycle stuff:

There are a couple of things, but here is the most notable: The mother figure that the Tamaki has to come to terms with. Textbook definition too, since it’s normally a dragon. We have no idea who she is or what she does, I think she practices kendo. Apparently anyone who uses the “high stance” comes off as Tamaki’s mother.

Skillfully executed plot, like-able side characters, relevant “fillers” all help to push this series above average. It even did well in the ending department.

Well, this concludes my post. Looking forward to participating next year, it’s been fun.

*Disclaimer* You may see a Funimation watermark, images are property of Funimation.