I have been eating at my local Panda Express for years. I started the day it opened, and I make at least a monthly trip for some good eats. The grand opening was pretty memorable to me, with a person chilling in a panda costume waving at cars driving by, my family and I decided to stop there for lunch. I even remember what i got! White rice, their famous Orange chicken, and a side of Beef and broccoli. I went home full as can be, and still hungry for more even though my stomach couldn’t fit it. A few hours later, i decided to grab it for dinner as well. Thats right. Grand opening, i get lunch AND dinner.

It is right down the street from where I live, and I loved their orange chicken so much I started going in every time I had the time for it. Dinner breaks at work, I would be there. Weekends for lunch, I would be there! Summer time, nearly every day. I was obsessed! Sadly. They changed chefs, and that irresistible orange chicken changed flavors slightly and I was no longer hooked. I still love it and all, but its just not as good as it was. Oh well!

So I am pretty simple when i go there. All i want is their orange chicken, and some white rice to go along with it. Cool thing is once you get your receipt, their is a survey you can take to improve your local Panda Express and get a free entree the next time you come in when you buy another 2-entree plate. Unlimited times you can do that, I save my receipts and do it every time.

I don’t go nearly as often as I used to, generally the only times now are whenever Eidred and I decide to hang out. Which just so happens to usually be around lunch time. Here is an old picture I took a few months back from my phone of mine and Eidred’s plates. We both get the same thing, and this is just the 2-entree plate. Pretty damn massive for the price we pay, which is just under $7. To walk away full and satisfied, its worth it. No way can you get the same feeling from some other fast food place like McDonalds. Those type of “fast-food” services just make you feel sick when you eat too much.

Yesterday I was sitting in my car between classes. I pulled out my convenient pocket camera and decided to make my first vlog! I recorded 10 mins of talking, but it wasn’t that entertaining. I need topics for my vlogs! They will get better. It starts with the first one anyways. Well. Here you are!

I am pretty excited, I just learned how to ride a motorcycle last night. What originally was plans to go rock climbing again, ended up not happening as I got shot down at the door being told I am only allowed to return as a guest every 60 days. Sucks! I went back to my friends place, who happens to own a motorcycle, and we took the free time as an opportunity to go down to an open parking lot/runway type area and practice.

We started with of course the basics. How to turn it on and off, where the breaks are, explained the clutch (I have never driven a manual before… but now that I have in motorcycle form I might just be able to in car form too. *ahem* Dev) and how to accelerate. I started with simple drifting, which is just slowly releasing the clutch and walking the bike forward. Then I lifted my feet up to drive forward with a little bit more power and get rid of the “training wheels.” Practiced turning, practiced changing gears, and just general driving it around. Played around on it for about 40 minutes before there wasn’t too much left to be taught.

At first I was kinda iffy about the whole clutch, accelerating, and braking thing. (Yes, I know. That’s like the whole function of a bike) but it is pretty simple once you make a few attempts. Its tricky because you have to do it all roughly the same time and its all in different spots on the bike. Tricky for a first timer at least. I dropped the bike once when I was trying to stop, they are a lot heavier than they look so if you don’t put your feet down when you should… you just kinda start leaning and whoops! Your no longer sitting on a bike, your standing next to it.

At the end of the training though, I felt pretty comfortable riding it around. I won’t be ready for actually driving it outside of a parking lot for a while of course, I would have to take the class and put in a lot of practice, but getting that solid ground of understanding the basics is really nice. It is a lot of fun. It is also going to be a few years before I buy one. I am waiting until I graduate from college and pay off my current car so I won’t have to worry about fees overloading my wallet.

Here is a picture of the bike I rode.

Yea I know. I took a week off, I meant to make a post this past Wednesday showing you the cool lighting I did for my 3D room, but I left the files on the school computers and this weeks project is just an adaptation of last weeks assignment, I figured I would just wait and show you the finished finished product.

Saturday I went rock climbing for the first time. I was really excited to finally get to go because I had to time it well with one of my friends since I am under a guest pass so it was about 2 weeks into the planning of it before we actually had time. It is a lot of fun, really works the upper body. I climbed on and off for about an hour and a half, only reason we left was because they were closing.  I am not very good at jumping distance between the rocks, and I lost my grip (or didn’t even make it) on the rocks and fell several times. It is a cool feeling. You think going in, “man.. those are high up there, I don’t do well with heights, this isn’t going to work.” But as soon as you start climbing, height isn’t even an issue. Your mind is seriously stuck just on the next rock, and how your going to go about getting there. Doesn’t even feel like your getting high up either, your just climbing. Fun!

That night I also had huge motivation strike me with what I wanted to do with this blog. I am going to make it more technology related with product reviews, tips and tricks, tutorials, and also finally get into that vloging scene. I did buy a portable HD camera (Kodak ZI8) specifically for doing that… So you might notice a few changes here and there with the design of the site, the pages, the functionality. It is going to be good.

I am going to post more regularly again, I found that if I let myself not post for one or two days, I just wont post at all. So I will at least have a new post every 2 days, but I might have several posts in a day. You never know.

Today is Monday, *sigh* and that means my weekend is over. But.. my weekend is generally the time I do the most work? I have Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays off from work so I can focus on my college classes, and that is a pretty nice little vacation from work I look forward to every Monday evening.

This past weekend, as I mentioned in my previous post, was pretty packed with things I had to do. The main one of course being the wedding. I got ready and arrived right around 5pm, even though it didn’t start until 6pm (I wanted to be early.) Not many people were there, I never met anyone involved before, and I felt really out of place. The wedding started on-time and the actual ceremony lasted about 30 minutes. I shot a continuous shot the entire time and I regret not bringing a tripod for this particular segment. I was a little shakey, maybe some image stabalizing editing will do the trick though.

After the ceremony, it was time for the reception. It was at the same place so I just walked around. The music was really loud and I wasn’t able to really hear people and I knew the people I would interview wouldn’t be heard on the tape, so I decided not to get individual guests speaking into the camera as I was originally planning. I got all the good parts, the first dances, the speeches, the slide show, the cutting of the cake, the entertainer, people dancing, traditional wedding things. I basically had the camera on and recording the entire night. I used 4 tapes, getting about 3 hours worth of footage. (Man, that is a lot!) So I got a lot to work with for editing it into a DVD for the family.

As the night continued, I got more comfortable being around the people and getting closer during the important parts, so I am feeling pretty confident that I will be able to have a good product once I am done with everything. The only issues I have that I am worrying about was the lighting. Whenever dancing or center events that didn’t require any speaking, they had the lights really dim. I am not sure if I will be able to mess with the digital exposure to make this more visible or not, but I got enough footage maybe it won’t matter. (Hopefully.)

All in all, I enjoyed doing it. I know where I messed up, I know where I can improve, and I think the next time I do something similar, I will be more prepared and it will go a lot smoother. I would do it again.

I missed a blog post. Only by like an hour or so.. but this is now Friday’s blog post! One post every day, although originally seemed like a good idea, I am starting to think it isn’t. I will of course try for that, but no reason to make a post when I don’t necessarily have anything interesting to post about, right? No worries though, there will still be plenty of posts to come.

This Saturday, I am filming a wedding. It is my first wedding videographer job and I am actually pretty excited about it. At first i was iffy about doing it because originally, months back, I was going to be doing photography. Photography I suppose is the safer bet, in terms that I can be a little more relaxed about the whole event, and that is probably why I have been having doubts about doing the video. I have never recorded a wedding, how am I going to do a good job? I sure hope I don’t ruin their day, or have a flop video. What if I can’t get any shots and I miss the vital parts?

I have been reading up on how to do wedding videography, and I already missed tons! (Mainly just meeting people, scouting the locations, discussing what is desired, etc) Then again, I am doing this as a learning experience and to expand my portfolio for future jobs (Hey, you never know. I might get some customers tomorrow just from doing it?) and I am doing this particular job for free. I start my Saturday at 4 AM, as I go to my real job and work till 1 PM. Right after, I gotta be quick because the wedding starts at 6 and I need to be there early.

What psychs me up most about this is I remember back in the April/May time period when this was just an idea for me. I was excited back then just speculating of the potential this can result in, and now that it is literally only a day away, I am anxious to do it. To be involved and to have an important job in such an important day, to create a piece of art that will be viewed by the friends and family of this couple for years to come as they experience their life! Maybe it is only because I am young, and the more I do this type of work, the more numb I will become with these sort of feelings… but I will embrace it while I still have it.

Anyways, that is what was on my mind this Friday morning.

This week in my lighting and texturing class I am supposed to take an already made room and light it. I have to create realistic lighting for two settings, night time and day time. The night time is easy because we have a reference image of how it is supposed to look and we are supposed to match it as close as possible. The day time is where we are supposed to get creative and try our own methods out. This project is due next Wednesday. Here are some images of what I have to work with (Top) and the reference image for what I am supposed to try and achieve (Bottom).

That is what I will be working on this week, I will post the final result images next Wednesday to show you my variations.

I am a terrible procrastinator. I know when things are due, I will think about them all the way up to the minute I decide to do them, but I just can’t help but wait till the last minute to start. It is really sad. I tell myself every week, “OK. This time, I will do it the moment I have some free time, just get it knocked out and done with.” But I never do.

I haven’t missed any deadlines (nor will I allow myself to) but it just becomes stressful when there are only hours left to do a handful of tasks. I mean, this blog is one of the things I am slacking on! I can’t even dedicate some time in to fully develop this how I want it to be. I got it all in my mind, I just need to take action on that.

I have to break myself of this habit, and I suppose this post is mainly me just making a promise to myself. Tomorrow I will get organized and manage my time better than I have been doing. I will start my projects the day I have them assigned, I will do my required reading, I will put more effort into all my work. No reason for me to just chill when I could definitely be doing something productive. No more!

I am excited. Saw VI is coming out in a few weeks, and I just love those movies. Now you might say “Oh, those movies have no storyline and its just gore and people dying.” Well… I take interest in the storyline they do tell, and the gore/people dying just makes it all the more intense to watch. Check out the teaser.

I would show the trailer, if it was a good trailer. But it isn’t that great. The SAW trailers never really were. I have been watching these movies since the 2nd one came out in theaters, and it makes my October just feel.. right. I’m all fuzzy inside. The main difference between this movie and those other “Halloween” movies, is its not about a killer, the “killer” presents the victims with options, and the victims ultimately are their own killers. Haha..

Anyways, I will likely go see it the weekend it comes out, and you can expect a blog post telling you my opinions of it. I hope it is good!

Also, I added some pages to the top of the site, I’m working on filling them with content, but its a start, right?

My original theme looked pretty cool. But i feel it got old pretty fast. It was too.. “unique” and I found it to have been very popular amongst other Wordpress bloggers, as it has been downloaded over 7,000 times! So, to make my little spot here on the internet more genuine and a reflection of my own taste, i downloaded this one! I like its simple and dark feel. It is also pretty easy to customize, and I will likely be doing that over the next few days.

I will be filling in the site more when I get home, but for now I gotta head off to work.