Postseason Baseball: Part II

So who else is watching baseball? Soon after I moved to San Francisco 6 years ago from New York, I noticed that not that many people in northern California are into baseball games.

It is so sad that I don't get to share the excitement of the postseason baseball with coworkers. Well, I guess I sort of understand because the Oakland A's and San Francisco Giants are not doing great job to promote the beauty of the game. So sad. You people are missing out.

I'm just glad that I got Renee into watching baseball... but I didn't expect that she was going to be a fan of the Boston Red Sox...

Postseason Baseball

As a Yankees fan, I would like to see the LA Dodgers play the Boston RedSox in this year's World Series. It would be fun to watch the Sox lose to the Dodgers.

Stupid Yankees...

Doing some math...

financial market: those individuals who are responsible for this market should be jailed. what's the update on federal investigation on these financial firms?

$700 billion: how long would it take for an ATM machine to dispense that much money? if it can dispense $100 every second without stopping 24/7, it will take 222 years to spit out $700 billion. in another words, 222 ATMs would have spit out $100 bills without stopping for one year to dispense $700 billion. on average, a major bank branch has about 2.5 AMT machines (would you agree?). so 222 ATMs is equal to 89 branches. where can you find 89 branches of banks in one place? i assume not that many places... only in big cities. imagine ATMs in Manhattan spitting out $100's every second for an entire year.

now bank robbers don't look as bad as these greedy financial institutions...

Nature photography 101 by JPark

Nikkor 80-200mm f/22, 0.6 sec. Cropped

Last year, Renee and I enjoyed hiking in many different places in northern California. I would say the summer of 2007 for us was mostly about discovering the beauty of northern California. One of those places that we visited was Lassen Volcanic National Park.

I'm still a newbie in photography, but I was newbier last year when I took this photo of the base of Kings Creek Fall in Lassen; it is actually one of very few surviving photos of Kings Creek Fall--the Nikkor lens I rented (80-200mm) was too heavy for my relatively inexpensive tripod, and most of my photos with long exposures did not come out nicely.

So here are some of the stuff that I learned that day. Most of these are obvious, but I thought I'd write them down...

Lesson 1: Make sure that the tripod can hold the weight of your camera body and lens.
Lesson 2: Better yet, don't bring heavy lenses, especially when you are going to hike more than 3 hr.
Lesson 3: Carry lots of drinking water. Make sure you have enough food for all day. For this reason, do not bring heavy lenses.
Lesson 4: Study the area carefully on the first day (e.g., hiking route, the location of the sun relative to the target at different time points, etc.). Now that you have a better idea about the lighting condition, revisit the site at the right moment and take photos.
Lesson 5: Always stay on the hiking trail and be alert (watch out for black bears that may be attracted to the smell of your food).
Lesson 6: Wear comfortable hiking shoes.
Lesson 7: Remember to enjoy the hike!