Paris vacation part 1
I’m going to try something a bit different for my Paris photo sets. When I was picking my London photos to post here, I tried my best to choose only one of each subject to minimize repetition. I have too many Paris photos I like to be able to do that, so I saved myself the agony of picking and will be posting all my favorites. For example, that means about half a dozen photos of the Eiffel Tower. Maybe a bit self-indulgent, but overall I’m quite pleased with my Paris photos so I hope you’ll enjoy them.
This is part 1 out of 3. Teaser image:
London vacation part 2
I’m finishing up my London photos tonight, then I’ll be posting my Paris sets probably this weekend. Paris is a very photogenic city so it’s not surprising that those photos are my favorites.
Teaser photo for this batch: walking across the Millennium Bridge at dusk. I absolutely love this sky, so moody and threatening!
London vacation part 1
If you’ve been paying attention to my Twitter feed on my site sidebar, you might have noticed that I took over 6,500 photos while at London and Paris. While that figure is no exaggeration, it’s slightly misleading. My amateur photography skills necessitate that I take a high volume of photos, tweaking aperture and F-stop values and shooting the same photo many times to hopefully capture some quality shots. Frankly, at my low level of knowledge, my attempts at adjusting these manual settings amount to little more than guesswork.
With such a volume of photos, it takes a while to sort through them. I’d estimate about 20% are trashed immediately, and then I go through the repeats of the same shots and pick a favorite. I’ll be posting photos representative of my vacation on this blog, with 2 posts each for London and Paris. As this was my family’s first trip to Europe, we did little else other than sight-seeing and being typical American tourists.
I’m becoming strapped for time with school starting again so I’ll let the photos do most of the talking. In brief, London superficially feels like a hybrid of two cities: Washington D.C. with its similar architecture and monuments; and Hong Kong with its hectic pace of life and streets crowded with double decker buses. In terms of tourist attractions, London had a few key destinations but paled in comparison to Paris. We spent 3.5 leisurely days in London and generally saw everything we wanted in the city. Our 5 day stay in Paris was quite rushed and we could have used a couple more days.
It was remarkable to me how London and Washington D.C were so similar. Particularly around the government building areas, they seemed virtually identical. I can understand now why a lot of people don’t really consider England to be “Europe”.
On to the photos! My favorite out of this set below as a teaser: the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel besides the River Thames.
SNSD concept timeline
It is so great to finally be back in my apartment and sleep in my own bed after three weeks of wandering around Europe and the USA East Coast. I love the adventure of traveling and the escape from responsibility, but the many flight delays and general logistical annoyances were wearing me down so I’m happy to be home. I’ll be posting travel photos soon, but I’ve spent the entire day catching up with my RSS reader.
For instance, in the time I was gone, SNSD (aka Girls’ Generation, my current favorite K-pop group) had announced, promoted, and released their latest mini-album. I didn’t like SNSD’s music until their “Gee” mini-album came out early January 2009. “Gee” is the single most addictive pop song I’ve ever heard and it instantly became a phenomenon, shattering records in South Korea and attracting new SNSD fans the world over. There were rumors that SNSD would be making a comeback this summer after stopping “Gee” promotions a few months ago, and while I was in Europe, they revealed their new military concept for the next mini-album. I loved it instantly when I saw it. HOT!
The featured song “Tell Me Your Wish” isn’t as perfect and catchy as “Gee”, but I like it. Click the link to see the music video and be wowed at their legs. Whoever designed the choreography and costumes are geniuses. I’m always on the fence about Korean celebrities and their plastic-surgery good looks, but you can’t manufacture those kinds of legs!
This military image is just the latest in the evolution of SNSD concepts over their career. Continue reading for a barrage of girl photos
Southwest airline Wi-Fi at 30,000 feet
On my flight home to Los Angeles, I was lucky enough to ride a plane that was equipped with the in-flight Wi-Fi service Southwest is beta-testing. The Wi-Fi is switched on upon reaching cruising altitude at 30,000 feet, and then the fun begins. This was my connecting flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles, so I only had about half an hour to test out the service. Screencaps below with some basic speed tests. Overall I was impressed (click on pictures for larger images).
Harvard Medical School and MIT
After helping my brother move out of his dorm and going apartment hunting, we visited Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). I had already seen the usual sights two years ago on my first trip to Boston, but we went again this time largely to show my cousin around and also to occupy the last afternoon in Boston before flying home.
2009 Harvard University graduation
My brother graduated last week from Harvard University undergrad. It was a sentimental moment for many of his peers, who would be saying goodbye to Cambridge, Massachusetts. However, my brother still has 8 more years to go in the Harvard M.D.-Ph.D program so he was comically ho-hum by the whole event.
I don’t know if graduations are that interesting honestly, but if you’ve never been to Harvard University, think of this as a quick tour.
