Daily Conversation

If you were a mic attached to my shirt, these are two random conversations from today you would've overhead:

While in Strathmore, where it smelled of freshly shatted livestock shat - Tannis: "What is it, national let your cow out for a shit day?!"

Back in the office, toy testing - Lyna: "Elmo thinks your mom looks good."

Urban Jungle

It would be fair to say that I was a little bit obsessed with the awesome beauty of power lines during my time in Tokyo. Much to the chagrin of the wife and the rest of our crew, I would stop to stare at every single post that we would pass by, marvelling at their chaotic yet organized entanglement of wires and lines.

Blank...

Every once in awhile, I feel like I get stuck. There is work to be done, movies to be watched, books to be read, photos to be edited, games to be played, new albums to check out, a wedding shoot to prepare for, and just about a million other things that I could entertain myself with. But I just have this feeling of indifference and apathy... it's been building for about a week and like this vicious cold, I can't seem to shake it.

You know it's gotten bad when the photolab informed me that there were no exposures on my 2nd roll of film taken during my photowalk, and I just shrug and walk away. If I were to remove myself from my body for a second, and emulate what my normal reaction would be: 1) SHUT UP MORON AT THE PHOTO COUNTER - YOU DON'T KNOW SQUAT AND YOU SCREWED UP MY FILM!!! or 2) WTF?!! GOD DAMN YOU YASHICA! I SHOULD TOSS YOU OUT LIKE LAST WEEK'S TRASH! or at least 3) obsessively try to dismantle the uptake mechanism in the camera to see what went wrong.

But nope, there's just complete apathy. Troubling...

-G

Fooding Japan!!

I've really neglected to share any photos of our experience in Japan, and will try to rectify that over the coming weeks. A huge part of any visit to a foreign country is to experience the culinary fare. Japan was everything I had expected and more. The food was delicious, fresh, colourful, sometimes strange, often raw, always packaged and/or presented beautifully, not always identifiable, and in the case of fugu (puffer fish) - potentially deadly.

For you unadventurous fooders out there, enjoy a DERICIOUS food feast in photos:


Onigiri (rice balls)


Beeru! (Sold at 7-Eleven)


Pork Ramen (ordered through a ticket vending machine)


One of hundreds of displays at an upscale-ish deli in Tokyo


Bento from said upscale deli


Pork Cutlet Ramen with Miso Soup


Menu for Sushi Breakfast at Tsukiji Fish Market


McMilk!!


McHotDog?! There was a McPork too, but I forgot to photo it.


Nigiri Sushi (clockwise) - Crab Innards, Shako (Mantis Shrimp), Abalone, a Cannabis leaf(?!) and some exotic clam


FUGU (Puffer Fish) Sashimi


FUGU cooked in a hot broth


No readey Nihongo, Gaijin? No probrem. Prease order finger pointy.


The milk as MILKED. I'm so glad.


Udon! Oooo....don. I miss you.


Some Korean rice dish... there was no Engris on the menu, so I don't know what it was.


FUGU (Puffer Fish) cooked over hot stones.

Hope you enjoyed your visual feast. I know I sure enjoyed eating these things. Especially the abalone nigiri sushi. Wow, was that to seppuku for!

G'night,
-George-san

Photowalk

A few weeks back, I went on a photowalk with a fellow flickrite, Cody, through the streets of downtown Calgary after work, each of us armed with a TLR and a 35mm Rangefinder. I only shot one roll through each camera, and here are the first scans and edits of those from my Ricohflex. The processing is a bit over the top, but I wanted to emphasize what I saw as a common thread on this roll - isolation and alienation despite being in a normally crowded urban setting.























Alright, I'm hacking up a lung from this swine-flu or whatever virus has befallen me. For the 3rd night in a row, I'm going to bed before 11. CRAZY!

-G

Zoology

Our annual pilgrimage to the Calgary Zoo turned up a couple interesting shots. I'd write descriptions for you, but I've caught Anita's cold/ infection/ flu/ 'insert other illness here', so I'm going to pound back some vitamin C and hit the sack.

Off to Medicine Hat for the next few days. Maybe I'll liveblog my wild adventures while I'm there.

-G

The Fruit of Love

Mother , originally uploaded by iHeartDimSum.

As promised, more photos from my cousin's wedding this past weekend. I'm not terribly happy with the photos of the ceremony portion because I opted for the reach of my 18-200mm Nikkor (which I am starting to hate more and more) rather than the speed and unbelievable sharpness of the 17-55mm f/2.8 Nikkor. But then I switched glass after the ceremony, and got much better results that I'm very happy with. Oh, I just realized I missed taking photos of the first dance because I was busy doing a round of prairie fires...

Obviously, I didn't take the last photo as I'm in it. My bro snapped this one for me. Alrighty, the Puk clan should be arriving for the weekend visit any minute now.

Cheers,
-G