Frugal Friday

I've been lurking around a few forums lately, and from what I'm hearing is that due to the hard economy, many people have been canceling or downgrading their internet subscriptions. Now of course AT&T don't want to lose your business so they're gonna try hard to retain you.

So I decided to give them a call and threaten to cancel my DSL, which is currently $25/month. The lady was very nice and pleaded with me to stay on. She tried to offer me the U-Verse package but I graciously declined. "Um no thank you. I want to lower my bill, not raise it." So instead she cut my monthly DSL rate in half to $12.50 for the next six months. I said OK, that's better. That's a $75 savings for a 15 minute phone call. Not too shabby. You should call too, 1-800-288-2020.

Remind me to call again in six months.

Save Jodie Gee

Today I went to a bone marrow donor drive organized by my friend Joann. Her sister Jodie (in Texas) is in urgent need of a bone marrow transplant and they're trying to get one million Asians into the bone marrow donor registry. Unlike giving blood, it was completely painless, just a few swabs inside the cheek. If you don't have time to go to a donor drive, you can always order a free kit from the links below.

To hear Jodie's story, please watch the four-minute video. If you are on Facebook, you can join the cause, "Save Jodie Gee" for more information about upcoming donor drives. Please keep Jodie's family in your prayers and spread the word.

Joann and her kids at the Jensen Ranch donor drive.

JOIN THE BONE MARROW DONOR REGISTRY
Please order a test kit today for FREE or participate in a donor drive near you to be part of the National Bone Marrow Registry! It could help save a life.

Asian-Specific Bone Marrow Donor Sites.
Northern California - http://www.aadp.org
Southern California - http://www.asianmarrow.org
New York Area - http://www.cllf.org and http://www.samarinfo.org
Taiwan - http://www.tzuchi.org/global/about/missions/medicine/BMD1.html

National Marrow Registry - Language Resources
Info for Chinese native contacts:
http://www.marrow.org/TRANSLATIONS/CHINESE/index.html
Info for Korean native contacts:
http://www.marrow.org/TRANSLATIONS/KOREAN/index.html
Info for Vietnamese native contacts:
http://www.marrow.org/TRANSLATIONS/VIETNAMESE/index.html
Info for Filipino native contacts:
http://www.marrow.org/TRANSLATIONS/TAGALOG/index.html

Lightroom 2.2

This year for the first time, I was able to attend Macworld for three days. Two of the days were spent in a workshop for Adobe Lightroom. The instructor was book author Mikkel Aaland. We were also treated to several guests speakers including the inventor of Lightroom and Leo Liporte, a renowned tech expert (although I never heard of him before). The classroom was huge, with the ability to hold over 100 students. But we only had 16 students in all. I guess with the bad economy, not many people would be able to afford the $825 class fee, but thanks to your tax-payer dollars, I can!!

I learned a little bit of Lightroom from my Scott Robert workshop back in April. Scott glossed over the entire application and mainly focused on his preset filters. Fortunately for me, Lightroom is so intuitive, you can just figure things out by playing with the sliders. But I knew there was so much more to learn, especially with version 2. This workshop promised to be an intensive, hands-on experience. I was not disappointed.

The biggest upgrade from version 1 is the ability to pinpoint specific areas for editing. In the past, I would've had to rely on Photoshop for those abilities and thus create new files with each iteration. Now, everything is all contained in Lightroom. And with it's non-destructive editing environment, there's no additional files to eat up drive space or keep track of. This is a huge benefit if you're organizing a large collection of photos.

So me being an amatuer hobbyist with no professional aspirations – what does this all mean to me? To me, Lightroom 2 allows me to get away with taking even lousier pictures! Yes, believe it or not, the photos out of my DSLR probably aren't much better than the pics in your point-and-shoot. 90% of my photos are either under-exposed, shot with wrong ISO, or have bad white balance. And of the good 10%, half of them are out of focus! Enter Lightroom.

Lightroom helps me adjusts the photos to what I remember seeing when shooting. It also offers some cool filters to make the photo artsy in case I can't salvage them. If the picture is lousy, I'll just purposely make it extra grainy or blow out the highlights and say "Yeah, I meant to do that." – Hey, what can I say? I'm an artist! :)

Furthermore, I can make you look better too. I'll clean up your zits and smooth your skin. Whiten your teeth and sharpen your eyes. Just last week I made one of the chiefs so happy because I made her look 10 years younger by softening her wrinkles. Now she only looks 60!

Lightroom is so amazing, I've transferred my entire iPhoto library into it and will no longer be using iPhoto. Yes, you heard me right. I'm dumping an Apple product for Lightroom. But remember, while iPhoto comes free with your new Mac, Lightroom is $299.

If you do decide to try Lightroom, let me know and I'll be happy to give you a quick tutorial.

Lightroom Free 30-day trial here

I'm sitting at the BART station going to Macworld and that's when I realize
I'm supposed to have some RAW photos available for the class.

Class started on Monday, but the Expo didn't start until Tuesday.
Pretty neat watching them set up. Plus I needed more RAW images.

I've never noticed the incredible architecture at the Moscone Center until now.

Desaturated all the colors except blue. Then used reverse clarity to soften it.

Shot this with camera pressed against the glass.
With all the colors, the photo looked too busy so I used a sepia filter.

What you get for $15. Asian Chicken salad. It was very good!
Someone told me that the latest fad was photographing your food. Is that right?

LOST season 5 premier tonight at 8 p.m.

Like the rest of the Lost fans, I have waited eight months for tonight. Lost is the best show on TV (although I was really upset when they killed off Mr. Ecko). Here's your starter kit for those who have never watched or need a refresher:



More videos here:
Lost-Streams.com

The world is changing

First off, sorry for the long absence. For the last two years I've been averaging two posts per week, but I haven't posted in 20 days. Thanks to my faithful readers for inquiring about my silence. I am fine. Just been busy. I'll try to blog fast and furious in the next couple weeks to make up.

During my absence I've noticed some action in my blogosphere. If you look on the right column, I've added a listing of active blogging friends you might know (and deleted the deadbeats). First, I would like to welcome Oli and his new blog, Inconceivable. Then Patty finally got off Facebook long enough to put in a few entries. And Stu even updated twice since my last blog! Twice! Wow, I've really been gone a long time!

Captain EO
When we were at Disneyland's Tomorrow Land back in August, the first thing I noticed was, "Hey, where's Captain EO?" Upon checking with Wikipedia, I see that Captain EO closed in 1994 :( That should tell you when was the last time I've been there.

With today's inaugural speech, I can't help but think about Jacko singing "We Are Here to Change the World" to Anjelica Huston in 1986. To me, the 80's always had the best music. It brought back great memories at a time when MJ was still likeable. Still normal. And still black. A time when Whitney was still sweet and not a crack queen. And the hardest rappers were Run DMC. Music has only gone downhill after that.

I listened to the speech today. Like many of you, I felt inspired. I felt hope. I know change is coming. But change for the better remains to be seen. Honestly I can't help but feel trapped in the back of a big bus heading in the wrong direction... But that's just me. In these violent times and crappy economical conditions, lets forget about today for a moment and relive the good times with Michael strutting his stuff. Nobody moonwalks any better!

More Holiday Gatherings

People keep telling me to post more photos and to not talk so much. Ok.

These were taken after we woke up from Wednesday's hotpot party: Thursday (Christmas with each side of the family), Friday (dinner with the other other other Fongs) and Saturday (Red Egg/Birthday party) at the Great Wall Buffet.

Three types of meat, three types of starch, countless desserts
and only one vegetable. My kind of meal!

Can you guess why she's smiling? She will soon be a part of our family.

Hands down the greasiest Chinese food ever.

Claypot rice cooker and steamed turkey. Correction: charcoal-smoked turkey.

I know Lil, I told you I wasn't going to post this pic, but you look way too good!

My boys are the mild ones.

Justine LOVES "Ashee."

Ahh, how sweet! How can you NOT let them jump on the bed?

Future rehab patients.

Oli had a red egg party the same time last year! We're already looking forward to next year!

My favorite Scrabble opponent (because I usually beat her).

If it weren't for the DS, these kids would've been running all over the restaurant
and knocking people over and causing injuries and breaking dishes.
See, the DS already paid for itself!

I locked my keys in my car and somehow we ended up at the Mormon Temple.
Strange day indeed.

Happy New Year to you all!!

Hot Pot Party!

Like last year, and the many years prior to that, the Tangs graciously hosted the annual hotpot party on Christmas Eve. I think this is the 6th year we've done this (I lost count), but I'm pretty sure us, along with Chris, Oliver, Steve and Mary have all had perfect attendance! We look forward to this every year!

For all you non-Chinese folks that are wondering what the heck we're eating... we had thinly sliced beef and pork, shrimp, clams, crab, tripe, fun-see noodles, mushrooms (brown, enoki), meatballs, tofu and green leafy veggies. Throw everything into the water and boil it to death. We all share the same two pots so if anyone is sick, everyone gets sick (although all the germs should get killed by the temperature...). Also my mom fried two pans of eggrolls and shrimp chips, and we had all kinds of dessert.

Earlier that day I saw Grace and Owen during lunch and offered to sneak them in to hotpot like I did last year. But she blew me off saying they had better things to do, like preaching at church (Note: they are both pastors).

Anyway, as always, the food, fellowship and fun were all top-notch and we never get tired of seeing the same ole people every year :0

Below are the photos in chronological order. Thanks Ray and Mrs. Tang! Can't wait til the next time we eat and party together... Oh wait, that's tomorrow!

6:25 p.m.

Fend for yourself. Everyone was trying to eat as much as they could before the
other Fongs showed up. This was taken right before the fight broke out.

6:45 p.m.
Like in the old days, the women and children wait while the men go fishing for dinner.

7:56 p.m.
Almost everyone is done eating.
Chris was eating real good all night – except at the MJ table :o

8:56 p.m.
Group photo time before the responsible parents take their children home.

Can you guess which one is Patty's kid?

10:09 p.m.
The sons vs. the moms. The sons lost.

10:45 p.m.
Justine normally won't let any strangers hold her.
But Patty smelled like cookies.

11:35 p.m.
I got tired of losing at MJ so I had to beat up the Scrabble players instead.
WREAKERS, 68 points!

12:42 a.m.
Someone is finally starting to get sleepy.

2:53 a.m.
Colby is starting to get tired. But nobody else wants to leave.
Little do they know, Chris is about to explode and then we would all have to leave.

Last second Christmas card

If you're like us. You order your Christmas cards from Costco. Then you realize you don't have any good family photos as a group. So you just throw up individual photos of the kids because you're too lazy to shoot a group photo. You upload, pickup, and barely get them off in time for delivery before Christmas and breathe a sigh of relief. Then two nights before your family gatherings you realize you don't have enough cards to pass out to your relatives. Doh!

In comes HP with their printable templates for any occasion. Woohoo!

So after dinner we dress up the kids and park them in front of the tree for a portrait session (which is what we should've done in the first place). The only incentive for them to sit still is the promise of super rich junk food afterwards (fudge). But still we had to resort to a constant flurry of yelling at the boys while trying to get Justine to smile. Hard work indeed. (This is how my kids can be the reason for me to both pursue and give up photography all at the same time!)

Then after some creative Photoshop cutting and pasting, we upload and design our card. Download the final file and print out on the color printer. Now doesn't that sound simple and easy??

LINK to HP Printable Cards

Merry Christmas from the Fongs

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hurry and watch it now. Video expires on January 15. Hmm, should I buy it?

Free Christmas Entertainment

I blogged about this last year. And this Sunday we plan to go again. Those who have gone before will agree that it's a spectacular show, bordering Broadway quality. And it's FREE!

We'll be there for the 2:30 showing on Sunday. Hope to see you there!

LINK for MORE INFORMATION and SHOW TIMES