What’s Going On?

Wow, by far this week has been the most exhausting week ever. I’ve had so much fun photographing four wonderful women that I forgot I was photographing them. Capturing photos can be seen as a crazy job, but lately I’ve seen it as a good time to get to know the person that you are with. I mean in all seriousness, business is business, but when you can insert a little pleasure while doing it, that makes all the difference.

So lately, been getting few hours of rest and the Memorial Day weekend is upon us. I didn’t know that the weekend was going to come so quick. Plans for the weekend. None. I think I might try to get some “Me” time. One thing I know for sure is that I need to hurry up and plan my trip out to the Midwest soon. O where does all the time go?

Tonight, I had the opportunity to help out with some volunteers at the San Francisco Food Bank.  Located in Potrero Hill, the food bank is housed inside of a very nice contemporary warehouse where canned, dry food, fresh produce, and frozen foods are stored. According to the food bank about 133,000 people are fed through various programs throughout the city. Mostly funded through contributions from corporations, the food bank also takes public and private donations as well.

Having been a volunteer before at the food bank, I was eager to see what type of work the full-time employees had for us to do this time around. The last time I was here I remember having to sift through boxes and boxes of peaches. Peaches were donated to the food bank and the volunteer’s job was to screen the peaches and make sure that the bruised, moldy, and often deformed fruit get tossed away, while the good peaches got repacked into “good to eat” boxes.

This time around we were given instruction on packaging Chinese pasta. The task at hand was to open up bulk boxes of pasta and individually package 1lb sealed bags and label them. Each workstation had a limit of seven people. What worked most efficiently was to have two people package the pasta, two people to weigh the pasta and audit if more or less pasta needed to be added or taken away from the bags, two people to help seal the bags, and one person to label and repack the bags into a box of 30 packages.

Given two hours as a whole, we were able to get a pallet packed and loaded and ready to be shipped. According to the food bank employees we had packed 2,250lbs of pasta, which was also equivalent to 11 tons+, but according to my math from high school one ton = 2,000 lbs. However, being a geek that I am, I just now am looking up on google what the measure equivalent is: 2,000lbs = one short ton; 2,240lbs = one long ton. No matter how I look at it, I still don’t know how the employee came up with 11 tons, it didn’t make sense. Nonetheless, we accomplished a task and it was a lot of fun. I felt like a robot throughout the whole experience, but I had a sense of pride that I was able to help as much as I could in helping provide thousands of people with food that can be consumed in hard economic times.

If you are interested in helping the food bank, there are many opportunities that you can be a part of. Volunteer days are seven days a week during the daytime and evenings are Tuesday through Thursday only. Specific times to volunteer is located on their web-page. Bring a group if you can, they can accommodate groups of up to 80 people. If you cannot bring a group, you can come individually as well. Being able to volunteer at the San Francisco Food Bank is just a wonderful experience and I encourage you all to take part in giving back to the community and help and serve those that need us.

Last night a couple of buddies and myself went out for some good eats out in the Tenderloin. We then headed over to KFOG’s KaBoom for their annual concert and fireworks event. Trying to find parking in SF while there’s a concert is just chaos. Everyone drives really slow looking for the next spot to open up. After 30 mins or so of driving in circles, we decided to finally park 5 blocks away and just walk. Luckily, we were at the right place at the right time when a chartered Lincoln Towncar limo pulled out. Took a nice stroll to the pier and found a great spot to capture some probably San Francisco’s greatest fireworks display all year. What I mean is that this display of fireworks out beats that of New Years Eve, the 4th of July, and any sporting event fireworks by far. The tradition of watching these fireworks have been going on for several years and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. It is a highly recommended event and just a great event to bring friends and family out.

Mother’s Day this year was a little bit low key. My sister and I took my mom to Taishan Cafe for some good rice claypots. My mom had an awesome time enjoying the great food and just the whole momentous occassion since, as a family, we don’t eat together all that often.  Overall, today has just been a great day and I hope that people all over are able to appreciate their moms and just taking them out for a meal or giving them a call saying how much you appreciate them is all it takes to make them feel loved. So if you haven’t done so, I encourage you to write a letter, write an email, take her out for a meal or just call her to say how much you love her.

The Miss Chinatown USA Pageant is one that marks a production that has been taken place for more than 50 years in San Francisco. This year marked it’s 52nd year of culture and tradition. Fourteen beautiful and talented women had come from all over the United States. They came together and competed for the covetous title of Miss Chinatown USA.

Wow what can I say, today was a beautiful warm day. It was pretty warm to stay in doors all day, so I decided to take a journey around the city. I ended up coming to a coastal point in Daly City and took in the grandeur of it all. Just looking at our beautiful coast just makes me so thankful for just being able to live in such a great place.

Oftentimes, when at school, after a long day of work or just whenever I want to spend some alone time, I like to come to the coast for just a little peace and relaxation. Today has proven itself to be one of those days. So today I just decided to sit down and eat a little bit. Not thinking about it at the time, the sun was about to set and in about 20 minutes I was about to see an amazing sunset during winter. Who would have guessed that I would be sitting on the cliffs without a jacket and staring off into the sunset? Well, I had no idea, but in the end I was glad where I was and when.

Last night a group of my friends decided to go crabbing. It was a cold night, but it was a very beauitful night. The moon was full and shining bright.

To begin our adventure we had to bait some nets and snare traps. We used some squid, shrimp, and fish heads for bait. We  then had to put the traps in the water. Some traps were casted in by fishing rods and some traps were lowered in by hand at the side of the dock. No sooner than when we set the traps, the sealions came. They circled the waters like sharks eager and looking for prey. However, in our case the prey had already been killed and all they had to do was just break into the traps and grab the bait out. We were successful in keeping some bait free from being eaten, but in total we had two fish head casualties.

Throughout the night as we waited for the biggest catch, we all gathered around an old Coleman camping stove cooking up hot dogs and cheddar dogs. In addition to the hot dogs, we had some blueberries, grapes, cheese and crackers. As we were eating we checked the nets and fishing lines every 10mins or so. We managed to capture many small crabs, but they were too small to keep.

Overall, the night was long and cold, but in the end we were able to keep one crab. I think the true reward from all of this was not the one crab being caught, but it was the friendship and bonds that we had built up that night. This crab adventure will hopefully not end here, but will continue for years to come.

Well, today I’ve been up for a long time. I’ve been trying to make my blog and website up to where it should be, but it’s moving a little slow. Been getting some help from a couple of friends and I hope to see this fully up and running. Couple more things that I need to do, which are to be able to design a spalsh page and a few other pages. I hope to get the gallery up soon too, but am not too sure when that will be. Stay tuned for the latest.

Wow! It’s been many years, but I finally started the process of having my own webspace. I don’t know how many times I’ve been wanting to get started, but I finally jumped in and I think it’s one adventure that will have its ups and downs.

What can I say about what I want to do? I feel that I want to be able to share several things with you and those things would be my passions. I have a passion for food, travel, and photography. I hope that through these times, I’d be able to share some experiences with you and perhaps to share some experiences with you in the future as well.