My recent trip/adventure

I was recently in San Francisco to shoot the wedding of my friend Pepsi and Mary. I had so much fun working with them and learned a few things about Chinese-American culture in the brief time I spent with everybody in the family. I thought it's neat and full of deliberate surprises that goes along to the time the groom has to come to the bride's house, and redeem her. Do I have to elaborate? I hope not because as many of you might already know what Im going to say, in regards to the symbolisms and age-old traditions, where the bridesmaids dont let him in the door; lest he has a roasted pig or sing a song or two to the bride, it is like a requirement and the groom has to meet it, inorder to make for an approved passage inside the bride's lair. The roasted pig part might sound like a lame joke but I'm not kidding. I thought it's a very noble deed.

After i was done in the Bay area.I headed east on 120 towards Yosemite to check it out. I'm not a writer or anything like that and I cant really say much about the park because I feel like I didnt get to see what it's all about. I managed to take a few shots though

and in the morning, I was in Fresno and thinking to head west to the ocean or; head east to the mountains. I chose the latter and ended up at Kings Canyon and Sequioa National park. Like I said, I'm not a writer or anything like that but I think any trip to California to see the mighty trees is worth writing for.

It's easy to make that decision. My formula is to not think about "it" in the morning and just totally not plan to do anything until you have breakfast. Even then, dont commit to anything until you have to make a decision on the freeway on which ramp to take, to get you TO your destined destination as I like to put it. My formula has never let me down before and never disappointed me as well. What I like about it most is that it never follows certain rules and it makes new ones for situations that presents itself as you go along. That my friends, I recommend that you try.

guitar guru

Today I found out a little bit about my neighborhood. I been seeing this dude going in and out of his house since fall of last year (2010) and when we notice each other, we nod our heads to acknowledge our presence like what's up or, hey.. and that's about it.

I was parking my car and he approached me to ask if I was the one he hears playing guitar. I said yups that's me and my initial reaction was to apologize for playing a little bit too loud at times. He said, oh no.. it's totally alright and he just like to tell me that he's been hearing my guitar for sometime.. then, he told me that he teaches music for a living. He invited me over to his studio in his house and grabbed a guitar, plugged it and played me a riff in the tune of the intro to the song "You really got me" by Van Halen. I wasn't sure if I was impressed or feeling jealous because I was like blown away by his playing techniques. The cool thing was that he offered me guitar lessons for free and I immediately said SIGN ME UP man!! I hope I be able to read notes and play like him soon. Fk yeah!!!

He's like a Statefarm agent.. you know.. a good neighbor?

just another day in history

So Egypt finally got what they asked for, -a change they achieved through an extraordinary means. A few people have sacrificed their lives since the uprising begun 2 weeks ago. It eventually led to the resignation of now ex-president H. Mubarak.

In my life, I've seen two different surge of politically charged uprisings in two different countries.

In 1986, the Philippines went to the same kind of mess like what just happened in Egypt. Only, it would go down in history to be called "people's power" and the inevitable bloodshed didn't happen. Thank God.

Eleven years later in Jakarta, Indonesia. I found myself in a wrong place at the worst possible time. I got literally trapped in an army of radical Muslim protesters inside a company vehicle. The only thing that saved me was the fact that I could pass as one of them, in terms of my skin color. But eventhough, they stomped and shook the vehicle pretty good and that was the single most exhilarating experience I've had.
In the days to follow that, xpresident Soeharto stepped down after 26 years of being in total control and corruption, etc.

I just think that when a nation undergoes a sudden change, it usually takes about another 10 to 15 years of instability and moving forward is an idea which everybody have but factions disagree, new conflicts emerges and fear is back amongst the masses. Change doesn't always mean its for the good.. but dictatorship will always end and oppression is like a time bomb always ready to explode.

Just an opinion.

Feb 11, 2011

It's always a good day when you connected with customers, and they get excited about the product you're selling. I had two wonderful couples today and they mimicked kind of the same reaction when I presented to them their pictures. 

First was this couple from Mexico who didn't really expect anything more than getting married and be on their way to their first day as M+W=1. Okay, if you haven't seen that formula before is because I totally made it up but it looks kind of cool? lol.. 

The groom was actually the one getting all excited about the fact that he never wore a tux before, lest he thought he'd look great in it. 

I told him that we have a great line of tux's & gowns to choose from, and we only suggest the best fittings. A wedding like this would cost about $1,200 or, more at most chapels in downtown Las Vegas, as there are few arrangements that has to come together for a small wedding like this. At our chapel, you won't spend that much.. If you do, you must have broken one of our cameras or must have fed our tropical birds with something and died! 

Not only we have the grooviest limousine in the business but also a service that's unmatched by others in the wedding business. At http://heavenlyblisschapel.com we pride ourselves  in maintaining a balance between afford-ability and class. 

your humble photographer will give you a short but most memorable experience after the ceremony. I consider my work as personal and I use the power of the holy spirit to make me come-up with something.. Are you a believer?

Happy couples equals happy moments..

All the glory be to God

Strange things happen in the desert

I've been to a few strange encounters before but today's will surely get to my top 5. It  was a slow day for weddings so I decided to have my computer checked at a shop on the north side of town. As I suspected, I'm going to get the run around so, it didn't work out.. I headed back to the freeway and decided to keep going north to an unexpected trip outside Vegas. The objective: listen to Pandora til I get to Indian Springs then back. I got to a native American artifact shop and met an old lady who ran the shop, she was quite nice to give me a brief history of the items in her shop. I learned a lot from the quick tour on how different tribes use different tools and patterns and and all that kind of stuff.. I ended up with a cool looking blanket hecho by the Paiute folks just outside Clark county. Before I left the shop, I asked if she know a local spiritual person; kind of like the chief of the Cherokees who knows the laws of nature and use it to feel the vibes off of another person.

She said she doesn't.. I said thanks and head-off.. I missed the u-turn which would have took me back to town.. the next one led me to this..

It was nice and warm so I randomly take pictures of the mountains and stuff. I decided to step out and explore the dirt road I was in.

I got a lil carried away and parked to take some more pics.. I found a natural spring which this nice looking tree thrives from. I thought it was cool and refreshing to find such place in the desert.

And then there was a hippie looking woman who appeared from the bushes with a percussion instrument made out of leather stretched on a round shaped stick, walking towards me  with a smile.
She told me that the structure from about 500 yards away is actually a temple. She invited me over so she could tell me what it's all about. At this point, my curiosity kicked-in and I said let's go..

I forgot what kind this tree was, the woman who said my camera's nice but doesn't like to be photographed told me what kind it was.. and so.. on to the "temple"

And this is their mission statement "For the good of all, and the harm of none" and they end it with "Blessings on your journey" awesome!

and this is the view of the temple from the bushes

inside.. A statue of Buddha

And Hindu god statue 

but wait.. there's also a statue of mother Mary and an altar..

the view from one of the four openings of the structure

this is a real kick-back place !!! but whaat? no  beers allowed???

As I gather more information on how they came about, I learned that a wealthy woman back in the 1980's bought 5 acres of land, built the structure to have a place for people from all belief system to discourse about life and philosophy and beyond. I also learned that its an exclusive membership for women. Also, the temple could be used for wedding ceremonies as they use the place for women entering into marriage to contemplate and reflect (whoa! that's one heluva task for any woman!)prior to getting hitched. I thought its kind of neat.

The ceiling is made out of rings of cast-iron but not enclosed. The woman said the structure opens up into the heavens and through the four openings, embracing all the principal religions on Earth.. As my photo snapping was put to a halt to listen to what's being said, I found the teachings of their group was kind of cool as it could all be boiled down into just Loving everybody.. right?

they encourage and hope for this..

and that concluded my lil desert trip today. It's spiritual.

and by the way, I started the day by going to church to have some quiet time to meditate and pray.
I didn't know I'll be out 50 miles away in Indian Springs having a nice chat with a spiritual stranger.

No title

I hope this first blog will be the first to a series of random observations on things that mattered to me and I was able to reflect and thought of something worth thinking.

Setting up this new blog was relatively easy. However, it took me a few trials whether my previous blog accounts will work on Facebook through a 3rd party thing called NetworkedBlogs which is what I'm trying to accomplish here. Apparently, my Livejournal blog which I had since 2006; doesn't support widgets and badges or, maybe I totally missed the part on how to install it. It's more complicated than that.. since I have a website and a page for my own blog which feeds from livejournal's RSS but I just couldn't figure that part out. I don't have a lot of patience for that kind of stuff so I took the easy route.