2011 Year in Review

It's hard to believe that another year has almost gone by. It's December 21st, 2011 and there's only about 10 days left until the New Year.

When I look back at 2011, a lot of different things happened in just one year.

I finished two classes in a certificate course; the third and final one will be taken in the new year. I'm taking those courses to hopefully enter into a new field of work, but still relating to computers.

I also started my love for photography this year. We had our DSLR since December 2009, but we just used it as it as an expensive point and shoot camera. I started getting into photography around March and I taught myself how to use the camera. I'm still very new at it, but I think it's one of the bigger steps in my life of the year since I plan to pursue it further in the coming years.

Friendship was an important part of the Year 2011 as well. We now hang out with a close knit group of friends on a regular basis and it's great because we're all at the same stage in our lives of "growing up". Our likes and dislikes are similar, and I'm happy and confident to say that we will be hanging around these group of friends until we're all seniors and meeting up at a local Tim Horton's every morning for coffee.

Everything seemed to be packed in the summer months. We finally went back to a cottage I used to go with my family, and it was a real treat because I had a lot of childhood memories there. The weekends were non stop, and it seemed like we had something to do each weekend, which was great, I had no complaints.

At the end of August, two of our close friends got married! We were part of the bridal party, so we had our delegated tasks to do for those couple of days. We also prepped months in advance to do a surprise music video and performance, so the summer months included that as well.

And the biggest part of 2011 was our trip to the Galapagos Islands and Easter Island! We spent two weeks exploring parts of South America and we loved every single moment of it. This was our first time vacationing in South America so the people, city, food, and atmosphere was all new to us. We had an unbelievable time, had many experiences, and will store all those memories for the rest of our lives. That trip seemed to trigger a want to travel to more places, so hopefully the new year will be nice to us :)

What's going on in 2012?  Only time (and this blog) will tell...

THE year.

I was reading an old post here, which talked about our obsession of opening up presents in advance. It's funny reading the post from a year ago because it says that 2011 will be the year. It's 2011 now, it's Christmas season...is it the year?

Time will tell.

It’s December 09, 2011.  We purchased each other’s gifts already and they’re wrapped.  We don’t have a tree as yet, so there isn’t an official place to put them and taunt us. With just about two weeks left until Christmas, we’ll see if we get tempted J

Darkness

Daylight Savings Time ended about a month ago, and since then, the sun sets at a rapid pace and by the time I finish work at 5:30pm, it's already dark outside. This doesn't give me much of a chance to take any pictures in the day time. There's always the weekend, and I can go out during lunch, but I usually see more interesting things when I'm on my way home.

I've learned to accept the darkness and use whatever light is given to me, and along with the settings on the camera, create a picture.  

I was walking home yesterday and down a street that I'm familiar with. It was cold out and all I could think of was getting home. I looked up and saw this particular house that caught my eye -- I've walked by many times  during the day, but a light shining down was bright and illuminated the door. The rest of the house was dark, so only the door was brightly lit, giving it an eerie feeling. I snapped a couple of pictures, and continued my walk back home...after a few steps, I looked behind me to see if anyone was peering through the window :)

Fine.

Due to an overwhelming demand, I will not retire from this blog. And when I say overwhelming, I meant that one person who called me out on my Retire? post, who by the way should show their face and not be Anonymous! I dare you!

It's actually my own fault for not posting anything. I wouldn't check a blog on a regular basis if it doesn't get updated either. One post I will do this month will be a year in review of 2011. It's been a quick year and lots of things happened, but it's not over just yet!

Talk soon...

Retire?

I think I may start thinking about retirement -- for this blog, that is. As you can see, I haven't posted a blog since the end of September. My other blog/website has become my focus which is a photography blog.

Hopefully I'll have something to blog about soon :)  for those who still visit; thanks!!!

Assignment

I'm hired to do an assignment in the Galapagos Islands and Easter Island, my task: tour these historic and mysterious Islands and photograph my journey. Okay, well, I wasn't technically hired...and I'm not really on an assignment...and I had to pay for this adventure myself...but I can pretend, can't I? And that's what I'm going to do :) I'm going to go on assignment and take the best pictures of my life during this trip, because where else can I take pictures of the great creatures of Galapagos or the mysterious Moai? I'm really going to focus on capturing the best pictures I can to describe my trip to everyone when we get back. Through my pictures, I'll want everyone to feel as if they were there with us and see what we saw. It's been busy preparing for this trip and packing, but I know it will be all worth it and it's safe to say it's a once in a lifetime type of trip (unless National Geographic hires me to actually go on assignment to take pictures)...but until then, I will take full advantage of this opportunity. Sorry for all my blogger fans (all of three) for not uploading lately, but when I get back, I will have lots to blog about! Talk soon!

Patience

I'm far from labelling myself as a "professional photographer"; really far. Although some people like my pictures, it doesn't mean I'm a professional, obviously. I've really only been taking photography seriously for about 6 months now. To be called a professional, in my opinion, I think you'd have to be doing it full-time.

I've read lots of stories here and there about established photographers, and most of them have a long history of how they became a photographer. Others, don't. Others have just started out the past couple of years and looks to be going on a great path.

Only after 6 months of picture taking, I want a new (nicer) camera, more/better lenses, and more gear. I should be patient about this and wait for the time to come along when I have those thousands of dollars to spend on the gear. One can say it's an investment; just drop a few thousand on some gear and go for it. But others, like me, can't really take that plunge and do that.

For the time being, I will try to perfect photography with what I have (as a smart person once told me). I've read many different articles stating just that; because you have the most expensive camera and gear, it doesn't mean you'll produce the best pictures. Hopefully one day, I will get recognized and things will just fall into place, and instead of me looking at what I want to buy, I'll be looking at what I should buy next!

In the meantime, if you happen to have any of the below equipment and would like to donate it to me, feel free :)

EOS 60D

EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

Congratulations!

Our dear friends Linda & Khobie got married last week!  They had their ceremony on Thursday and their reception on Saturday.  Their ceremony was lovely and colourful.  Their reception was classic and bumpin!

We, and the rest of their family and friends, couldn't be happier for them.  They are an amazing couple who are unselfish and would always do anything for us.  Through my eyes, we can relate to them most because Khobie is of the brown ethnicity and Linda is of the asian ethnicity; opposite of us.  As couples, we both got engaged at around the same time, bought a condo around the same time, and got married at the same time.  I can foresee us doing many similar things together in the future.

Congratulations to you guys once again!  Not sure if we'll get to see you guys before you leave, but we hope you guys enjoy the much deserved honeymoon!  Remember to take pictures!

~DD~

Yosemite

I came across this video yesterday through a co-worker who's into photography as well. Now, I don't use the word "awesome" a lot, but this video is pretty awesome!

It's a six minute video of a photographer assigned by National Geographic to follow a group of mountain climbers for a couple of months.  Not only is mountain climbing a hard thing to do, but imagine taking pictures of mountain climbers, while mountain climbing yourself.  Everyone bared the elements of camping out for the two months they were out there.  It was crazy to see all the equipment they had to bring with them to set up different shots.

Although I've only started getting into photography for less than a year, this is the type of dream job that I would love to do in the future.  I would love to have the talents of this photographer and have the ability to go on this adventure.  I will be sure to take our upcoming Galapagos/Easter trip and make sure our camera is always with us.

Enough with my talk, here's the video:

http://vimeo.com/27101039

I'm going to try and find if there's a longer segment on this to watch...six minutes of footage over a span of 60 days?  That's just not right.

Lake on the Mountain

We came back from the cottage on Sunday and it was simply a relaxing weekend. Our two full days there typically went like this:

530am - Woke up, got ready, ate breakfast
600am - Got in a row boat, went fishing
900am - Came back to shore, had a snack
1000am - Got back in the row boat, went fishing
1200pm - Came back to shore, had lunch
100pm - Relaxed, napped, or more fishing
500pm - Prepared dinner, ate dinner
800pm - Walked around, took pictures, relaxed, played cards
1200am - Goodnight!

There's some history with this cottage, and you can read more about it at my other site by clicking: dlography

Wedding

Our good friends L&K are getting married in about three weeks! Talking to them about their planning brings flashbacks to my mind about our wedding last year. It's like digging out an old book from the shelf; all the memories, planning, and effort came back to me. I feel really happy for them because they've been planning for over a year now and it's coming down to the last few weeks. All the planning and preparing comes down to a couple of days. A message to them if they're reading; take in every second of your special days because it's only going to happen once.

Thinking of their wedding prompted me to look back at our older posts from last year, reading what we were doing a few weeks before our wedding. It reminds me of what we accomplished as a couple, and also all the support we received from our family and friends. Although they're our family and friends, I feel our wedding brought us even closer to them.

I've always told Devika that I'd do it again; I wouldn't mind going through that year of planning and prepping, because everything was just so memorable. At least we get a taste of planning through L&K to plan, and also from our other family and friends that got married this past year, and in the future as well!

Pre-congrats L&K! Enjoy planning and have fun with it!

Summer Time

It's been a while -- exactly two weeks since my last post. Since then, I was in Seattle for a work conference for a week, went to Niagara on the Lake for the weekend, and wrote an exam for my course. It's been a busy couple of weeks, but now everything is finished and I have some time to relax and enjoy the summer!

The next month will be somewhat busy as there is only one weekend in August that we don't have anything scheduled (for now). From what I remember, September comes after August, which means vacation time!

We'll be going on a vacation of a lifetime, visiting Galapagos Islands and Easter Island. Two magnificent locations filled with wildlife at one location, and mystery at the other. I credit this trip selection to my Wife as she has always wanted to go to these Islands. I'll be honest, these were not on the top of my list of places to visit, but I'm glad we're going on this trip. After reading up on the facts, looking at the pictures, and reading reviews, this trip will indeed be one to remember. And since I've taken a liking to photography, these two locations will definitely provide me some rich landscape to capture.

Not just yet though! Although we can't wait for the vacation, there are still two whole months to enjoy, which includes fishing, weddings, and get togethers!

Fun while it lasted

Each floor of our condo has a small room for the garbage chute. The chute only operates between 800am-1000pm; after these hours, it shuts off.  There are times when there's something stuck in the chute and it won't work either.  The alternative is going down to P1 and going to the main garbage area and throwing out your things there.  We live on the 2nd floor, so going down to P1 isn't all that big of a hassle.


For the longest time, tenants are lazy and couldn't care less, so whenever the chute isn't working, and even during its down time, they leave their garbage on the floor of the chute.  And even when the chute is working, they leave big items there that they know can't fit down the chute, but leave it there anyways!  We've seen things from boxes for shelves to shower curtain poles.  We even caught a few people leaving garbage there too!  Worst part is, one of the directors of the board lives on our floor, and we saw his girlfriend going to the chute at 11:00pm, so obviously she knows it's closed, but she left it there anyways.


I decided to print out a gentle reminder and stick it on the door. It wasn't the meanest reminder, but it wasn't nice either. It was just to tell people to not be so lazy and be courteous to your neighbours and go down to P1 to throw your garbage away.  I posted the sign Monday evening.  I checked the chute whenever I passed by this week to see if there was any garbage left, but there was none -- until this morning.  Someone left a bag of garbage there.


So, it was fun while it lasted.  The sign's still up, and hopefully it'll stay there just as a reminder to those who leave their garbage there.  It's not the biggest deal, but at the same time, it just doesn't make sense.  Mind you, I'm sure it's only a few suspects that consistently do it.

dlography

My friend and I did an engagement shoot last weekend for a couple getting married in September.  It was a hot and humid day, but the couple braved the elements and was able to be playful, smile, and laugh for us!


Check out some shots here and here.

Food Critic: Bellevue Cafe

We went to Bellevuew Cafe (61A Bellevue, Kensington Market, Toronto) the other day with another couple. It was a Friday morning on the long weekend and the weather was nice outside, so we sat on the patio.

I'll go right ahead with the rating: C

I give it a C because it wasn't anything spectacular. I think because I'm not really a huge breakfast guy, so I'd have to be really impressed with the food.

The food was good, don't get me wrong. Everything appeared to be freshly made, from fresh ingredients; nothing compared to a greasy Denny's breakfast that's for sure. The sausage appeared to be actual sausages, as opposed to (Denny's, or other breakfast joints) regular oily sausages.

The service was on the slower end as everyone seemed to be kind of laid back. Price wise, it was actually not too bad considering the type of food it was (fresh, compared to packaged or frozen).

If you're looking for a breakfast joint in the Kensington area, check this place out. Although there was another bigger breakfaster place directly across, and it had more people there, so maybe check that place out?

Slow Spiral

As you can see, this blog is slowly spiralling into a downward black hole into the middle of no where.

Not that I don't have anything to blog, but I tend to keep my blogging limited to certain topics, and it just so happens that those topics are not happening right now.

I may slowly lean into photo-blogging. I have my various sites where I post my pictures I take but in the past, I didn't tend to do a caption of the picture or write a blurb. I'm starting to now, so depending how that goes, I may just turn into that direction and go straight forward.

...to be continued.

MTL!

Got back from Montreal on the Sunday that just passed. I went with a bunch of friends for our friend's Bachelor Party and it was great! We had tons of fun that words can't even describe it. There were many stories to remember, but they're mainly the ones that will probably end up with "you had to be there". Just things people say at the moment is hilarious.

It was a good extra long weekend for all of us. We haven't been to Montreal for a few years now so it seemed like forever since "the guys" had a true guys night(s) out. It was also fun to celebrate our friend's upcoming wedding as well, which is coming up quick in just over two months and we're all looking forward to that!

We don't have much planned for the next few weeks in terms of outings, but come end of July for the next month, it appears to be busy, which is good as well.

Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Update

Been lacking on the blog entries as of late. I wanted to try to post something at least once or twice a week, but I haven't for a while.

Been studying the past few days for my midterm Wednesday night. That's about it :)

Not that I haven't been doing anything worthy of posting, I just don't like to proclaim my whole life on the Internet for everyone to read -- because SO many people read this!

Soon!

Photogs

It seems like photographers (and wannabe photographers) are bursting into the scene these days. Everywhere I go, I always see someone with a DSLR walking around taking pictures. There are also endless amounts of websites of people's photos that they take on a daily basis, not to mention the many websites talking about photography and professional photographer's websites.

My theory may or may not be true. I've only recently taken some seriousness into photography and therefore I'm noticing more things, and people, around me. I'm also constantly looking through people's site and endless amounts of pictures as well. As technology keeps speeding by, the average cost of a DSLR has declined a bit too. It used to cost a whole lotta dollars to get DLSR camera, but today, there are always sales going on and you can pick up a new DSLR for as low as $500.

Anyone can be a photographer, but it takes a skilled and dedicated photographer to keep afloat and earn the interest of other people's eyes (says me, who just started really using his camera for less than half a year). You can see the difference in the photos taken by a "pro" vs. an amateur. You can also see the different styles of photography each person has. The same goes for any industry; to be noticed, you need to be different from others and provide them with something that nobody else can provide.

I don't even know what to call myself -- there's nothing lower than an amateur. It takes a little bit of time to be noticed as a good photographer; it's not like I can post a video of my pictures on youtube and get recognized overnight. All I can do right now is keep my day job, and keep on shooting.

Movie Review: The Next Three Days

I realized that I'm not really good at providing plot summaries, so I'm going to stop. Instead, I'll find ones on the Internet and post them up!

"Plot Summary: Life seems perfect for John Brennan until his wife, Lara, is arrested for a gruesome murder she says she didn't commit. Three years into her sentence, John is struggling to hold his family together, raising their son and teaching at college while he pursues every means available to prove her innocence. With the rejection of their final appeal, Lara becomes suicidal and John decides there is only one possible, bearable solution: to break his wife out of prison. Refusing to be deterred by impossible odds or his own inexperience, John devises an elaborate escape plot and plunges into a dangerous and unfamiliar world, ultimately risking everything for the woman he loves."

Overall Rating: "A" - It was a slightly long movie at a little over two hours, but well worth it. The story was well written and thrilling. Every scene makes you think what's going to happen next, and makes you wonder if she really committed the murder.

Movie Review: The Mechanic

We wanted to watch The Mechanic when it came out in theatres but never got around to doing so. Luckily these days, movies come out to DVD pretty quick. We picked this up at Blockbuster (yes, we still rent movies) on the weekend as it just came out last week. We didn't hear too many good things about it, and we always check imdb.com for the rating it received by the viewers -- turns out, the reviews were right. The movie was a low end typical action movie. Some action movies get the credit of being an excellent movie, but this does not. It had all the right items for it to be action: guns, a nice car, a woman that had absolutely nothing to do with the movie, explosions, and a regular Joe who becomes an elite assassin in a span of a few days. You get my drift...

Overall Rating: C-

Movie Review: Black Swan

We watched Black Swan the other day. It was a pretty powerful movie, with high expectations from the beginning since the movie and Natalie Portman won the awards. It was a little weird and confusing at some points, but you can have different opinions about the movie and how it played out. It's definitely worth watching if you're up for a good drama.

Overall Rating: B+

Weekly Weather

Last week's weather during the work week was pretty nice, but then the weekend wasn't all that great, filled with clouds and rain.

This week's weather so far is filled with rain, and it appears the weekend (at least only Saturday) is will be nice.

I asked Devika yesterday which weather pattern she would prefer and we both agreed on having a nice work week and a so-so weekend. The nice weather during the week brightens up your day and since you're at work, it gives you that extra boost of happiness. When the weekend rolls around, it's alright if the weather isn't all that great since it's the weekend! The perfect combo would be nice weather all week :)

Style of Cut

I had my class last night; it starts at 600pm so I eat dinner at work before I go [the first class was alright, by the way...it was what it was, the first class, so it was more or less an intro to the class. the best part was when we finished an hour early and the instructor said "you guys get to go home early tonight!" which really means that we're paying her for that hour that she's not teaching. Anyways.] What was I talking about again?

Devika made two egg sandwiches for my dinner last night. I ate the first one, which I noticed was cut the way she always cuts her sandwiches; straight down the middle. I then had the second sandwich, which I noticed was cut the way I always cut my sandwiches; on a diagonal. I'm pretty sure she did this on purpose of cutting one the way she likes it and one the way I like it.

The big debate is which style of cut makes the sandwich tastes better, if at all.

I did a search on the Internet and surprisingly (not really surprised, actually since there's a gazillion topics on the net these days) found multiple sites with the same question. There were different responses, none of which are obviously proven to be true. Some were based on the person's mood. Others say the middle cut is usually for younger kids because it's easier to hold. The most common one was how you were raised, which is true in our situation; Devika's Mom used to cut her sandwiches in the middle, and my Mom used to cut mine in a diagonal. The question is now; when we have kids, how will we cut their sandwiches?

Back to School

Tomorrow is the first class of the next course I'm taking: Leadership in Business Analysis. From the description of the course, I don't think this will be as hard as the first one -- not that the first one was extremely hard or anything. This course will deal with more of the soft skills required to be a BA. The instructor of the first course made the class interesting and upbeat, so hopefully this instructor will be similar.

On another note; we finally made it to High Park on the weekend. I read a "tip" on the main website that on Sundays, the only entrance to the park is from Bloor Street, as opposed to the other two or three entrances. It literally took an hour to slowly inch into the park (via car) and find a parking spot. I later found out that the other entrances were open. Thanks, website.

I took an hour or so in the evening yesterday after dinner to walk around our area to take some pictures. Devika's co-worker was extremely nice and let her borrow one of his wide angle lenses, so I went on an excursion to test it out. The lens obviously captures a wider angle, but I didn't have much time so I couldn't use it to its full potential. I wandered around and was cutting through Exhibition Place when I ran into some cherry blossoms! It was a sight to see as all the flowers were in full bloom. The trees weren't the biggest, but since everything was in full bloom, it made it stand out.

- Dennis.

Blogs Blogs Blogs

Seems like I've overloaded myself with blogs, but I'm trying my best to keep up.

I recently created two more blogs:

http://th36ty5ive.tumblr.com

http://dennislo.tumblr.com

The 365 blog is for my Project 365, which is posting a new picture I take each day for an entire year. I created the other one because I wanted to keep the Project one separate with only pictures I post for the project. The other one will be for other posts. I guess I won't be posting any pics in this blog anymore. Which blog are we talking about again?

Here's a summary:

devikadennis2010 = blog of our lives and deep thoughts

th36ty5ive = project 365, solely for a picture a day

dennislo = other picture blog, for any extra pictures not included in the Project 365

Enjoy!

Food Critic: Terroni

We were walking down on Queen West one Sunday evening a few weeks ago, around 800pm, and we passed Terroni; it was packed with people. We took a look at the menu afterwards and thought it looked alright. We didn't hear anything about it before, so we were hesitant to try it, but with so many people there on a Sunday night, we couldn't go wrong.

We went last night, and it was amazing! Probably some of the best Italian food that we've eaten in a while, or I dare say...ever.

We didn't get any apps, although they sounded really good, and just went straight for the mains. Devika ordered a pizza:

Li Pecuri: Tomato, Mozzarella, Goat Cheese, Sundried Tomatoes, Arugola, Parmigiano Reggiano

The crust was super thin and made fresh, so it wasn't doughy at all. The toppings tasted really fresh as well. It was a pretty big pizza, but since it was so thing, it was easily finished (I had a quarter of it).


I had:

Spaghetti in Canna a Mare: Fresh clams and mussels, calamari, scallops, and tiger shrimp in a light tomato sauce. One of the best pastas I've ever eaten at a restaurant. It's written on the menu that their pasta is made fresh daily, and you could tell, it had the fresh pasta texture. The seafood was extremely fresh as well. It was the right portion as well.

We had dessert as well but forgot to take a picture. It was gelato with some chocolate drizzle on top and they gave a bisquit of some sort, and poured a shot of espresso right before they served it. Tasted way better than I described it.

It's no surprise that I'm going to give Terroni a rating of A+. The service was good and really fast; despite being busy, the food came out just 10-15 minutes after we ordered.

The only downside is that it's super busy! We went on a Thursday, got there at 600pm, and we got a seat right away. The place started getting filled at around 630-700pm, and by the time we left at 730pm, there was a lineup going outside. I would estimate about 8-10 groups of people waiting to be seated. They don't take reservations either.

Photo Album

It's been over six months now since we got married, and about four months since we received our final pictures from our photographer. Our task after receiving the pictures; choose 85 pictures to include in our album from the photographer. Considering we had a two day wedding with a 2+ hour long ceremony, reception, and multiple photoshoots, there were about 1200 pictures taken from our photographer. To choose less than 10% of those pictures of our memories? It's a hard thing to do!

It took us quite a while to actually start the process of narrowing 1200 pictures to 85. We did it in steps and we think we have our final selections. Of course we couldn't choose only 85, because there's no way we could've told a story of the weekend with so little pictures. Our final number is around 160, so almost double the amount.

We're happy with the selections, and I give credit to Devika for choosing the better pictures. We each did our initial selections and planned to collaborate, but my selections didn't really tell a story of our wedding as much. We plan to submit our selections tonight and send it off to our photographer so she can piece it together and create a layout for us. I'm not sure how long it'll take, but I'm going to guess a couple of months from tonight.

Reviewing the pictures and watching a mini slideshow of our selections brought back those two wonderful days that was shared with our family and closest friends. The weather was so great in the middle of October. The whole weekend would be entirely different if the weather wasn't so cooperative. Everything was just perfect!

- Dennis.

Long Weekend

The three day long weekend has passed. It wasn’t until the Thursday before that I realized I had the Friday off, instead of the Monday, so finding that out on Thursday just brightened up the weekend even more!

On Friday, we went back to Whitby with my brother and sister in law to have lunch with my parents and sister/bf. We spent the day at each of our parents house and got back to Toronto later that evening.

Saturday was a filled day, starting with Linda’s bridal shower. We got there early to set up. I was there with Wilson to take pics during the event; I guess you can say this was our first “gig”. It was a good experience as we were there solely to take pictures and not do anything else, so we were focused on that. After the shower, I hung out with Wilson and some other friends for most of the day until earlier in the evening. They dropped me back home and when I got in, I was greeted by my friends for a surprise party! I was indeed surprised, more speechless than anything since I clearly did not expect anything to happen, especially that night since it was already a long day for everyone. It was a nice ending to the day to hang out with everyone and have a drink – thanks guys!

Sunday was a lazy day, which included grocery shopping, cleaning, and just taking it easy.

All in all, it was a great weekend! It’s now Monday and back to work…just four more days until Friday!

365 Project

To get into the photography scene a little more, kre8tef and I decided to start our own 365 Project: we take a picture each day, every day, for a year. We're both starting on May 1, 2011, which will be Day 1 of our project.

The encouragement comes from getting more experience with our cameras and taking as many pictures as we can. This project will force us to take a picture each day for the next year.

I'll post the link to our own blogs where we'll post our daily pictures for the next year!

Post Editing

Our photography class yesterday was about post editing pictures using different software. We got an intro to Light Room and Photoshop and he showed us the possibilities of the programs and what it can do.

I'm not a firm believer of major post editing of pictures that I take. I do edit my pictures, but it's mainly the basics of contrast and colour, or maybe removing something in the background. There are some pictures out there that has so much editing done to it that it simply looks fake.

For example: http://lightroomkillertips.com/files/2011/04/Paris1_large.jpg

It's a nice picture and all, and the editing is nicely done as well, but I just wouldn't do that to a picture that I personally took. A picture is supposed to be natural -- not something that's been changed to look like an entirely different picture. That's just my own opinion though. I don't have anything against the people that do this type of editing to their pictures, I'm sure the editing is only for some of their pictures anyways. Maybe that's their style of pictures.

Food Critic: Famous BBQ Express

I went to Famous BBQ Express the other day (Queen and Peter) for lunch. One of my co-workers recommended the place so I thought I'd try it out. I passed by it a few times before and every time, there were people in there and line ups, which is a good sign.

The menu isn't too large, so I didn't have a hard time deciding what to get. They had a spicy pork dinner as their daily special; for $7.50 + tax, you get sliced pork with sauce on top of rice, regular salad, coleslaw, AND pasta salad. Let me tell you, it's a lot of food. The third type of salad wasn't really necessary, because the rice and meat is already enough.

My overall rating would be between a C+ and a B-. It's not melt in your mouth, tastes like bacon dipped in butter type of meal, but if you want to go somewhere that'll give you a large portion, go here. I saw a lot of people getting burgers and sandwiches too. Their burgers didn't look appealing, but a lot of people were ordering it.

Movie Review: Hanna

We watched Hanna this past weekend. It’s about a girl assassin that’s on her first mission. She was raised by her father in the forest so she’s unaware of life and everyday living, including electricity, music, and television. I’d say it’s a softer version of Bourne Identity. Overall, it was pretty good; good amounts of action and a good storyline.

Overall rating: B-

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I’ve been somewhat busy the past week or so, therefore lack of blogging. OR, I just have nothing to talk about.

This weekend will be the first weekend in a while where neither of us have anything to do! Last weekend I was strapped down and forced to study for my exam, which went well by the way. I’m signing up for the next course that goes with the certificate, which starts in May. We’ll be home this weekend and it’ll be nice because we’re going to have time to catch up on a few things to do at home, as well as just spend some time relaxing. We have plans here and there, but it’ll be more leisure time rather than things we have to do.

We officially booked our trip last week! The waiting time begins…t-minus 175 days! It’ll be bitter sweet because it won’t be until end of September that we go, and we have other plans from now until then that we’re looking forward to. I want the time to go by quick so we can go away, but at the same time, I want spring/summer to last a while this year.

Our photography classes are going well so far. I missed the second class last weekend because I stayed home to study instead, but Devika went. She learned a few new things and is trying to get in more shots as well. Not that I’m pro or anything, I’m actually far from it, but these two classes so far are pretty basic. I’ve already read about the stuff he talks about, but I’m still learning because it’s nice to hear people talk about it because it just backs up what I think is a good way of doing things. There’s going to be a class or two about post editing using Photoshop, so I’m looking forward to do that one. I find a post editing really useful because it can correct or change the way a picture looks.

I’m hoping to take a lot more pictures this spring and summer. I won’t be lazy this year and not bring the camera wherever we go. It only takes a minute to snap a few pictures and one thing that I’ve learned so far is that you need to take at least 10 pictures of the target in order to get the best shot.

Have a great weekend and I hope to update more often!

- Dennis.

Pages

Maybe I should get rid of the pages to the side and just post in the main section, and title it accordingly. I added some pictures.

- Dennis.

Photog Classes

A few months ago, we purchased a DealFind coupon for Lens Factory. The coupon was $50 for five photography classes, regular $200. The class we took was this one.

Our first class was this past Sunday and it was very informative. Since it was the first class, we talked about aperture, shutter speed, exposure, basic things like that. There were about 20 people in the class with almost all of them being beginners to photography. Although I'm aware of the aperture and shutter, I still found it informative because it was explained in full.

The class is located on Queen St East on the very east end, near Victoria Park, so it's about a 45 minute streetcar ride down. The class itself is three hours. In total, about five hours spent on a Sunday evening, which is fine because it's only five classes and it's going to give the both of us some more insight into photography.

We have the intention to take more pictures this year, especially with the weather warming up soon, so look out for some pics!

- Dennis.

More Food Critic

Restaurants should being paying us to go try their food.

Updates

Updated "Food Critic" section.

Lotto Max

I play Lotto Max each week with three other co-workers. We put in $1.50 each every Friday to play one line plus Encore. We pool in our money to the usual guy, and he buys the ticket.

Just last Friday, the $50 Million Jackpot was won by a single ticket that was sold in Toronto. It just so happens that the guy that normally buys the ticket took this week off to spend March Break with his family, so we've been anticipating any sort of news coming from him. On Monday, the newspaper wrote that nobody had claimed the ticket yet, so we jokingly (sort of) sent him the article, hoping that he would come back to us saying that we won!

$50 Million / 4 = a lot of money. Devika and I started imagining what we would do if we had the $12.5 million dollars. So many things came to mind, as I'm sure there has been one point in your life that you thought of the same thing of "what if...".

It's true that we're lucky that we have our health, a roof over our head, jobs, and loving family and friends...but an extra $12.5 million wouldn't hurt :)

- Dennis.

PS - I just read that the $50M has been claimed. Next time...

Birthday

It was Devika's Birthday last week on Thursday.  Devika wanted to have a relaxing day at the spa, so both of us decided to take the day off from work and go to Elmwood Spa.  We booked a couples hot stone massage for 100pm.

We got there before noon and used the hot tub, pool, and steam room before heading to our massages.  This was the first hot stone massage for the both of us, so it was going to be a new experience.  Devika enjoyed hers, and I was content with mine.  I felt more nervous anticipating the heat of the stones each time than relaxing.  

After the massage we went to their restaurant for lunch (full review).  

After we finished lunch, we took a shower and got ready to leave.  Our plan was to head up north for dinner, but ironically, we were a little tired from a day of relaxing.  The weather was a little gloomy and rainy as well, so we decided just to go home and take it easy for the rest of the night.

Happy Birthday!

- Dennis.

iPhone App

A while back, I had an idea about an app.  I tried looking for something similar in the App Store of Apple but couldn't find any, which kind of set off a light bulb in my head.  Either 1) nobody has thought of this app or 2) it's not useful, so nobody created it.

Again, a while back, I started looking into learning how to program for the iPhone...looked at books, looked online.  It didn't really go anywhere at the time.

I just recently started seriously considering developing this app again.  I'm writing out a plan for myself and seeing what's involved in creating this app.  The two biggest issues in my way are 1) To create an iPhone App, you need a Mac computer, and I don't have one and 2) Learning how to prorgram using the language of these apps.

#1 can easily be taken care of with the use of money, and technically, so can #2.  There are tons of developers out there that are willing to charge you per hour to write the code.  I feel like since I have some sort of programming background, that I'd be able to do it myself.  The challenge now is to learn it.  

My first step is getting permission from the place that I plan to do the app for.  Once I get cleared on that, I'll move to my next step of purchasing a Mac somewhere.  Once that happens, it'll be my first inventment into the app, so I'll feel obligated to find out how to program it and keep moving forward so I don't waste money.

You heard it here first!  The date is March 09, 2011; let's see how fast/long this will take me!

- Dennis.

Pages

If you haven't noticed, we added some new pages at the top!

That's it.

- Dennis.

Deals, Deals, Deals!!!

I was first introduced to the online deals a few months ago. Our friends bought a deal online and we used it. From then on, I signed up to anything and everything. I'm currently signed up to six different websites that provide deals:

Dealfind

Kijiji Daily Deals

Deal of the Day

Groupon

WagJag

Delicious

These places usually have a new deal each day, so I get between 4-8 emails each morning about these potential fantastic savings. These deals could save you 50-90% off the regular price, however, the businesses that have these promotions aren't so familiar to the average person. I've purchased one deal of out all of them, and I know of other friends that have purchased other deals.

My point is...I don't really have one, actually. I just like viewing them each morning and hoping one day there's a chance of a really good deal so we can snag it up!

- Dennis.

Food.

Both of us love the Food Network; it's one of the first channels we change to when we turn on the TV.

Devika usually cooks during the week because she's quick at prepping and cooking, and of course, tastes great. I usually cook on the weekends because it gives me time to organize everything and I get to take my time.

I had my midterm last week, so I studied most of the weekend. Devika let me study and she did all the stuff we would normally split up or do together, by herself, like cooking, cleaning, and groceries.

Devika has her midterm tomorrow, so I returned the favour this weekend and did (most of) the cleaning, cooking, and groceries.

This morning's breakfast was Nutella French Toast. I saw it on a cover of a cooking magazine so I thought I'd make it. It was really easy to make! In my opinion, it looked much better on the magazine than it tasted. Here's the final result:

For Sunday's dinner, we decided to make our own sushi! We used to do it this way all the time when I lived back home with my parents. We don't make maki rolls out of it since it doesn't really turn out that well, so we eat it as we would like fajitas.

- Dennis.

New Hobby

I recently made an impulsive decision to join a knitting class at the Knit Cafe. Over the past 5 weeks i've spent 2 hours each week learning how to knit, purl, knit, purl which resulted in a hat and scarf that you will see my wonderful husband modelling. The scarf was my first project and it's not perfect but I love the colour and I put in about 8 hours to complete it. The hat was for my mom and she actually wore it last weekend. I'm currently working on a scarf for Dennis and then i'll be moving onto another knitting class.

I'm surprised at how much I actually enjoy knitting. So if anyone is interested in starting a knitting group let me know :) I'm also up for a book club.

Samsung Focus

I just want to say the customer service and their rules suck. They don't seem to care to satisfy their customers simply because they're big and powerful. Their reception is great though! I'll give them that.

It's been almost three weeks since I've had my new phone. I don't care to tell the story, again. I've learned to deal with the circumstances and starting to enjoy my phone.

Hopefully the first update that's coming out in March will help better the phone. I'll just be patient with it since it's a first of its kind so I should expect minor kinks with it.

I just hope that one day, I win something huge like a trip or TV because there's a random contest that requires someone to pull out their Windows phone! Ya!

- Dennis.

Sweeter Things in Life.

I bring a handful of snacks each day to munch on throughout the day. They can range from cookies to fruit to yogurt. Devika is lovely and sets aside these snacks for the both of us so I'm spoiled.

I tend to eat the sweeter snacks first and work my way to the healthy ones. For example, Devika made brownies last night so she gave me a piece and I also stole another piece for good measure. I ate the first piece at around 1000am this morning and ate the other about 45 minutes later. I have Dad's Oatmeal Cookies and a banana left. The cookies will most likely be the next to go and the banana will be saved for a snack later on today when I'm desperate.

Happy long weekend! Unfortunately I have a midterm on Tuesday so I get to study this weekend! Yay!

- Dennis.

5 Tips for the Users at my Work

1. Unless your mouse is physically broken, clicking harder on the mouse button will not help
2. Take some typing lessons and stop finger punching
3. Read emails from the IT Department, because we're not going to send you anything that's not worth reading
4. If a program isn't opening when you double click it, double clicking it more and more won't get it working
5. Restarting your computer usually fixes things...really, it works.

- Dennis.

We crumbled

Wow, HDTV really makes a huge difference.

We were watching Wheel of Fortune during dinner one night and everything was so crisp! You can see Pat Sajak's face so clear, and everything's sort of brighter too.

We get MovieTime in HD as well, which makes those movies that much more enjoyable. It's almost like blu-ray.

Basketball games in HD is the biggest change from what we had before. Games were literally fuzzy without HD but now it's as if I'm courtside watching the game!

We don't have the extra "HD Pack" of channels, just the regular free channels from Rogers. We wish Food Network was free in HD since we always watch that.

Oh ya. We didn't cancel our cable :)

- Dennis.

Photo Challenge

We started the photography challenge in the office again in the New Year. Each week, we have different people, either the photographers or the judges, choose a theme. It was my turn to choose the theme, so I chose "stairs".

Like always, I waited until the last minute to take my shots. I went with Devika to a building at UofT because she said it should have some nice, old stairs. So we went, and I took various shots. I went back to work and uploaded them, and I had about 20 shots, but in my opinion, only about three were worth submitting as my picture. I ended up choosing this one:

And guess who came in first place? I did! My first first place! Hopefully I can defend my title for this week's theme, which is jewelry.

Here are the other submissions:

- Dennis

Someone call the doctors, because this weather is caaa-raaaazzy!

I would say we had a decent weekend, weather wise. It wasn't overly cold, but just a regular winter day in Toronto. At some points, it was actually nice outside with the sun out and the cool air...

and then there's today. I'm sure whoever reading this has been outside, or has watched the news to feel or see how cold it is outside. Not the coldest day today, but considering the weather was comfortable over the weekend, I would say the weather is pretty crazy.

On top of this, there's apparently a snow storm tomorrow with up to 30cm of the white stuff. I guess we'll have to wait and see if there really will be that much snow.

I don't mind the different seasons we have here in Toronto. Obviously it's a nice break to go somewhere in the Caribbean where it's always warm, but that's only because we have cold weather here. I wonder if we lived in the Caribbean all year round if I'd still like the constant heat. I really don't mind the weather here, because it gives it character with the different temperatures. At least we know when it's summer, or winter, compared to the Caribbean where it's hot the whole year. I know Devika doesn't mind hot weather. Maybe we should move there and see how we'd feel after a year :)

- Dennis.

Blog Less Monster

I've been at a stand still for something to blog about this entire week. I normally try to write something twice a week, but for some reason, I've only been able to do it once on Monday. This is more or less a forced entry, as I don't have much to rant about.

The week has gone by quick. Each evening so far has been eventful. Raptors game on Monday, class on Tuesday, worked late on Wednesday, and visited our "travel agent" on Thursday.

We found out that we'll probably be in the air flying for approximately 50hrs (round trip) on our trip in October, not including layover time, which is between 1-4 hours each layover. It's a lot of flying for a trip, but there's no other way of getting there, so it's just a small part that we have to get over. October is a long way to go before another vacation, especially when everyone around us is planning one soon.

On a side note; I finally got a smartphone! It's been a long time coming, but I finally pulled the trigger. I don't physically have it yet as it's being shipped to me, but I should have my hands on it by next week (I hope!). I'll probably have an entry for that after I get it!

Enjoy the weekend!

- Dennis.

Golden Years

This past weekend, we went out to dinner to celebrate my Aunt and Uncle's 50th Wedding Anniversary, and also my Uncle's 80th Birthday. 50 years of marriage is a huge milestone and great achievement!

They have three successful children, all sons, who are all married and have kids on their own. The best part is, my Aunt and Uncle still look like they're 40 years old! They're both still very active and take part in daily activities. They go on vacation and do gardening, walks, and still drives!

We're all happy for them and wish them many more years of happiness!

- DD

Cable

During the first few days we started living at the condo, we ordered our Internet/Cable package. Our cable is with Rogers, and they had five different packages available at the time, so we went with the middle package called "VIP". With the VIP package, you get 100+ channels! We loved it...Food Network all the time, multiple movie channels, I got to watch all the Raptors games now, plus many more things!

...that time is now over. We decided a couple of weeks ago that we would cancel our cable -- completely. We thought about downgrading to a lower package, but our final decision was just to cancel it in its entirety. This would mean we are probably going to get a few channels, like the very entertaining Global and CityTV.

Cancelling cable would mean $65 a month in savings, which isn't the main issue as we can afford to pay that amount, but at the same time, an extra $780 a year is a pretty chunk of change. The main issue for cancelling cable is so that we can be one with nature. Sort of. I had my first night class last night, which is once a week and will go until April. Devika also signed up to a course as well, which will start next week and go on for three months. Cancelling cable just means that we hope to focus our attention on other things that are going on in our lives. Don't get us wrong, TV is great and we love it, but we didn't think we'd be watching it much for the next little while so we weighed out the options and decided to go that route.

So from now until our cable is no more, we're going to watch tv until our eyes fall out! It's not a huge loss; we still have Internet and all the shows (which aren't many) that we watch is readily available to be downloaded within hours anyways.

Just wanted to warn everybody now, so 1) the next time you're over, you're not surprised when you see fuzzy snow on the tv 2) you can bring other things with you to entertain yourself and 3) we probably won't be good guests when we come over to your place, since we'll be watching YOUR tv the whole time!

- Dennis

Stationary

Here's a weird thing that you probably don't know about me -- I love stationary. For some reason, if I go to Staples, Grand and Toy, or any place that has a stationary section, I love looking at all the different stationary items available.

Key word; look. I love stationary, but at the same time, I don't really buy much of it, partly because it's overpriced. I'm not going to spend $5 on a pen because it glides better on paper, or $5 on a notepad of paper because it has animals on it.

The main reason I don't usually buy stationary is because for the past four years, the place I work at has stationary readily available, as do most companies do. So whenever I need any pens or post it notes for my desk [or home ;)...I really mean my desk], I raid the stationary cabinet! And what a cabinet it is; pens of different colours, different sized post-it notes, markers, staples, tape, folders, binders...you name it!

Anyways...so by the time you're reading this paragraph, re-read my very first sentence again to remind yourself that I personally classified this as weird. I'm sure whoever is reading this has something weird that people don't know about either...it's up to you whether or not you want to share it with us!

- Dennis.

YIR 2010 - Devika

I’m a little late with my year in review but a lot of what Dennis has mentioned in his 2010 YIR are highlights for me as well but I’ll just add a few events that really made 2010 an amazing year.

The year started off with wedding planning and trying to wrap my head around the costs, the type of wedding we were envisioning, and how we were going to survive the challenges of wedding planning. This takes us into March which means our cruise was finally here and I got to celebrate my 27th birthday in St. Thomas with snorkeling, a snow cone and good friends.

In May I was surprised to be called for jury selection. After one day in court and three additional days sitting in the selection room, I was free to go. It’s not as bad as people say it is, I got connect to the internet, read, got some work done and was home by 4pm; I couldn’t complain.

In June while preparing our invitations in the comfort of if our home, parts of Toronto was being transformed because of the G20 summit. We decided to take a break from making invitations and ended up at Queen and Spadina; an area that is normally filled with shoppers was now swarmed with protesters and on lookers. This was something that I will never forget.

The rest of my summer consisted of two amazing bridal showers. One was hosted by my aunt and the other by my now sister in law, Debbie. It was really special to have a chance to see both sides of my family before the big day.

What’s a wedding without a fun bachelorette party? That event took place in September and I that’s all I want to say about that!

Then October rolled around and then the big day or should I say days. I always end up smiling thinking back to the days leading up the wedding, the ceremony and the reception. I could not have asked for more love or support and to me everything was perfect! After a quick but fun honeymoon in Chicago it was back to work which meant two and a half months of 60-70 hour work weeks, training over 70 people on a new database and of course a very exciting promotion.

What a great year to look back on! I’m exciting about 2011 and the year has started off with planning an amazing trip in October, knitting classes, and a little more free time for reading or going to the gym because there’s no more wedding planning (clapping and cheering).

~Devika

Work

I'll admit it; I sometimes have a little free time while I'm at work. It's not too hectic around here and my skills are not needed 7.5hrs of the day.

I work with a bunch of architects and majority of them have worked at the company for 10-20+ years, so they're not exactly the type of people I want run into at the water cooler to have a chat (no offense).

Luckily, I made friends with some of the younger, more hip people in the office (like me) so we often talk at least once a day about random things. One of the guys sent us a comic one day and I thought it was pretty funny. Turns out there a ton of other comics that are hilarious! The comics are based on things that we would encounter, which makes it that much more funny.

Here's the link to the main comics section: http://theoatmeal.com/comics

And here are some links to some of my favourite ones (in no particular order):

*warning* you may literally LOL, so if you're at work and you don't want want to seem crazy, either hold it in or wait until you get home

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/facebook_suck

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/minor_differences

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/working_home

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apple

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/computers

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/customer_service

Enjoy!

- Dennis.

Broken Resolution

Devika and I had a joint resolution of not having any potato chips in the house, because when we do have them in the house, they're quickly consumed. We thought, it's a new year, lets not have any chips and stay healthy!...

10 days into the New Year and our resolution has been broken. We had chips yesterday. To be fair, it was only Lay's Lightly Salted chips. But really, who keeps their resolutions for the entire year, anyways?

Our other resolution was to consistently go to the gym, which so far has been kept. If we keep this resolution for the entire year, we're going to look like Heman and She-Ra come December:

...minus the Jersey tan and arange/blonde hair.

Hope everyone's New Year's resolutions are going strong!

- Dennis.

Twenty Eleven

Since it's the new year, we'd thought the blog could use a mini makeover.

Also, because of the new year, we created a list of items that we plan to do over the next year, which includes a trip, a wedding (not ours, of course!), and maybe a couple mini-vacations here and there. Luckily, a large chunk of these events are in the second half of the year, so we have time to plan for them. Most, or I should say, all of these events involves using money to pay for it, so we did a quick budget for the rest of the year which means we're now officially in saving mode! Our savings plan isn't too intricate, but it's a savings plan nonetheless. We like doing budgets and plans so it gives us an outlook of what's to come. At the same time, we're still going to have fun, but we're going to choose our social gatherings wisely, which means not going out each week and spending (not like we did that before, anyways).

Hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and New Year's! We sure did!

Soon,

- Dennis.