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Earth Hour 2011: Low Light photo shoot in my room

I took out some artificial lights that I never use and my digital camera a GE X5 pro micro bridge camera.

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.

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Photo gallery after the break:

Movie Awards

Yeah, I thought it might be cool to give me my own movie awards. Reasons for which were selected later.

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

Traversian Diet (a variation on the macrobiotic diet)

I figured that, it’s too strict to be a full time vegan/vegetarian. I’m creating a diet (more like just guidelines) that is based(ish) on the macrobiotic diet.

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.

efficient use of free time

no, not like using free time to do stuff like homework, or cleaning, or chores, but like free time to actually do leisurely things.

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.

Vegetarian by day, carbo-carnivore by night

When I eat out , I go for cheaper, lower portioned foods that are vegetarian and when I’m at home, I eat what happens to be around, mainly leftovers and on sale/clearance meat products. At first, it’s because I was sick of the taste of meat, and wanted to balance out my diet by going vegetarian. I wasn’t too concerned about my diet at the time, since I aimed for tofu or beans as a replacement for meat, instead of a vegetable focus. So, mainly only a taste thing. As time progressed, I could justify this practice of selective consumption more and more.

Anime Secret Santa 2010: Bamboo Blade

I would like to give a shout out to reverse thieves for this opportunity and fnsna (from twitter) for going through with this on his end. This is my first time participating in Anime Secret Santa. Right off the bat, I’d like to mention that I’m technically not an anime-blogger, I’m just a guy who happens to have an anime blog tucked into the corner of the internet somewhere. That said, let’s begin. Just… please don’t expect much.

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.