That Was Unexpected

I just peeled an orange because I'm starving. I expected it to be super sweet and delicious...but instead it was sour and bitter, like eating a lime. That's it. It was a lime in orange's clothing.

That's not really why I decided to make a post though, it just happened to...well...happen just as I opened the blog.

Don't you hate it when something isn't what you expect?

And in completely unrelated things, another list!

I miss Japan. That is pretty obvious if you know me. Andrew and I think we finally have a date for returning to Japan. Trying to put together a budget for a trip like that is pretty daunting, but if you are Andrew and I, it's actually quite simple. Plane fare, hotel, lots and lots of money for food. All we want to do is go back to Japan and eat.

Add to this, the fact that I've been looking at foodgawker.com all day, I'm SERIOUSLY craving some Japanese food. So here is a list of foods I miss most.

I want to eat:

1. Ramen-a must, though I have a recipe that looks promising. It's filed under the "someday, it is probably not going to happen" category
2. Agemanju- And oh snap...until this very moment, this was the only recipe I couldn't find any semblance of. But behold, I have found it this day!!!
1. AGEMANJU RECIPE!!! (I couldn't get it on its own line without giving it a number...)
3. Yakiniku-something that sadly, I've not been very able to recreate in America due to the lack of an indoor grill. That would be a GREAT birthday present. =P
4. Okonomiyaki-honestly I've only eaten this once in Japan, but I've tried to make it at home...it doesn't work as well.
5. Shabu Shabu-I CAN do this at home...but the butchers look at us weird when we ask for sirloin sliced as thin as deli meat. And while the restaurants here are priced similarly to the ones in Japan, who can afford to eat there when they aren't on vacation?
6. Japanese fruit-peaches, nashi (pears...kinda...but better), apples...all about 10 dollars each but worth EVERY penny. Just trust me on this.
7. Indian Curry-No, this is not really Japanese...but there is this one restaurant that I used to eat at all the time in Japan and their curry is amazing. Plus, the naan was all-you-can-eat. And also, I've yet to find a place  try a place in America with Butter Chicken Curry...believe me, there are 3 on my list.
8. Tonkatsu and Katsudon-by far the most replicable dish I've made yet. Katsudon is just a variation of Tonkatsu so I put them together.
9. Gyuudon-oh, I lied. This is the easiest to replicate...as long as you don't mind the butcher giving you weird looks when you ask for paper thin beef.
10. All manner of conbini food- Conbini means "convenience store" and unlike in America, they don't take these things lightly. You can get pretty much anything you want there and its pretty much a one-stop for delicious snacks. In the winter I'm particularly fond of Anman, in the summer I'm partial to a refreshing parfait and a katsu-sando (katsu sandwich). Basically, Andrew and I intend to eat breakfast and lunch at conbinis while we are there, and spend the real money on dinner. But there is so much to eat, we might just eat 2nd breakfast...and lunch...and dinner. =P

Oh man. This was a BAD post to make. I'm so hungry now...I might collapse before I get home. But if I don't, I know what I'M making for dinner!

....Spaghetti

Is there something you miss terribly? Food, family, family's food?

Taking Up An Old Hobby Makes One Greedy

My photography career has been spotty. I bought my camera back in '06 for a sizable sum. With that money I did get the camera body and 2 decent lenses with a range of 28-300mm, which is actually really good as these cameras go. However, the funny thing about photography is that you always want MORE.

....aaaaaand then I don't touch my camera for months, even years at a time. =P

Obviously though, I've picked it up again. I've been watching a wedding photography workshop all day and now I'm looking at speedlights (flashes), softboxes, etc.

Side note: when you're looking at a photographer and they say "I'm a natural light photographer" what they are REALLY saying is "I'm poor and can only afford the sun". =P That line on photo sites always makes me giggle.

Anyhow, I'm a bit away from actually needing all that fancy equipment. For now, I can rent it if I REALLY need it.

But all the same, I had to curb my desires SOMEHOW. So I bought this.

Variable Neutral Density Filter

I know hardly anyone knows what that is so I'll just tell you. It does the exact opposite of a flash. It takes AWAY light.

Why would I want to take away light? I mean, I can only afford the sun, right?

Well, has anyone ever gone out at high noon without sunglasses on? It burns doesn't it? Well, I basically just bought sunglasses for my camera. With this, I can theoretically cut out so much light at noon, that it will be like shooting at sunset. I can take those pretty water pictures where the water is all blurred, in broad daylight.

Yeah. I'm pretty excited.

That's all theoretical, I mean, it was only 16 dollars so I'm not sure how well it will work...but I had an Amazon gift card ok? Just let me be excited. =P

Procrastination = Pixelation

So there is a photo contest going on at the Bean Museum this week.

I TOTALLY forgot.

Entries are due by 5pm...TOMORROW.

If I hadn't forgotten (read: procrastinated) I could have printed my picture as a lovely 8x15 image and had the bookstore mount it for me.

But no. Now I have to go print it at WALMART and I can only print it as big as 8x10 and I have to hope and pray the framing center at the bookstore can mount it for me by 5 or else I'm going to have to mount it myself. Gross.

So that's it. Let's hope and pray that my walmart print looks decent.

A Place to Call My Own

I found this house on Zillow the other day and I TOTALLY wanted it. It was an adorable little cottage-style, red brick house, not far from where we are living now. It had adorable little window boxes with tulips in them and daffodils growing below there. If you couldn't see the surrounding area I might have been convinced the house was in Holland.

Of course, the house had a larger kitchen and a sizable yard for gardening. There were also hardwood floors throughout and a fireplace!

And the best part is, this house was only like 110K.

Don't get me wrong, Andrew and I aren't house shopping. We can't afford even a 10 percent down payment and we're not permanent enough to actually seriously shop. Zillow is just one of those sites that I visit now and again for the fun of it. It's kinda like visiting model homes.

However, that is totally the kind of place I'd like to live in when we ARE permanent. But the house won't be in Utah. I long to live in the Pacific Northwest. I was eating a cup of Tillamook Yogurt (Northwest Berry Patch...AMAZING!) and I thought to myself, "this yogurt is FAR superior to Yoplait...oh if only I could live in the land it came from, I'd eat it every day!"

Not to say I long to live next to the Tillamook cheese factory, but I do want to live someplace where I can grow a garden full of fruits of all kinds. Since one of my companions on the mission was kind enough to teach me how to make yogurt, I could pick berries from my garden and make my own delicious yogurt! It would be heaven.

Another thing that draws me to the Pacific Northwest is the coast. Rocky, cold, and beautiful. I could definitely live in a place where the water is covered with a mysterious fog in the winter and sometimes even in the summer! I don't like seafood but I would go clam digging and make fresh clam chowder for my family anyway.

That is the kind of life I would lead in the Pacific Northwest.

Of course, now that I have that dream...Andrew is going to get a job in Texas...I just know it.

Does anyone else like looking at model homes or at Zillow just for the heck of it? What interests do you have that people might think are strange? Where do you want to end up when you're "permanent"?  Has anyone visited the Tillamook Cheese Factory?

A List of Sorts

Is it ok if I drop my whole episode title? Will anyone even notice? Are there any OCDers that will freak out that I'm dropping it on the less than round number of 103?

Cuz I am. I have so many more creative titles anyhow and by the way, I'm changing this blog up a bit. (again, I know I know. I flip flop more than a politician.) I just want my entries to be more readable so I'm going to try a new method of posting whenever it strikes my fancy, and keeping to one or 2 topics per post. Shorter posts, means easier reading. Theoretically.

So in Japanese class we've been reading about the great Japanese literature. You've all heard (possibly) of The Tale of Genji. It was the first published book, ever. Or so I recall. Anyhow, there was another book about that time called the "Makura no Soushi" or "The Pillow Book" <----takes you to wiki so I don't have to explain it much.

This book is mostly a book of observations. To further simplify it, we called it a book of lists. At the mention of lists, I wanted to make some because I find them fun. I dunno, maybe I'm weird. So here it is, one of my lists!

10 Things I want (listed in the order I'm likely to recieve them)

1. A Volleyball
2. Lightroom
3. A Benchscraper (who actually knows what this is without googling it?)
4. A Beautiful (and delicious) Garden
5. An iPad 
6. A Bigger Kitchen
7. A 27 inch iMac
8. 11 inch MacBook Air
9. Lots and Lots of Snow (like a foot or more)
10. An All Expense Paid Trip to Japan

There you have it. The last two are more like imaginary things/things I couldn't decide when they would happen.

Anyway, now when its Christmas time and I say "I don't want anything" I can come back here and remember I'm a liar. =P

I think you can tell a lot about a person from a list. So what do you think this says about me? What are some things on YOUR list? Do you even like making lists (grocery lists don't count, unless you actually enjoy that)?

Episode 103: In Which Sometimes A Shoot Yields Little Fruit

Sometimes, you go out shooting for an hour and you come back with 500 pictures and about half of those are good. Most of the time you go out shooting for an hour and you come back with 500 bad pictures and 2 good ones. That was last Sunday. I went out to try to catch the aplenglow on the mountains because they are finally white...but despite clear skies in the east, it was cloud cover in the west and we all know the sun sets in the west, even if you are dyslexic.

So instead, this is the picture I got.

But the other photography lesson here is that sometimes, you set out with a goal in mind, and you find something equally amazing, even if it wasn't what you had in mind.

And here is another picture. I took this one on Saturday so I couldn't technically lump it with my Sunday shots. Same basic principle though. 200 some odd shots and only 1 good one. I had intended to go outside and shoot but as you can see, the weather kept me in. I probably got a way better shot inside anyway.

I submitted this one for my assignment in Photography this last Monday.

Episode 102: In Which Jessica Sits on a Street Corner for 45 Minutes...in the Snow

Yep, you can call me what you like. I just sat on a street corner for 45 minutes in a snowstorm. I probably would have looked like a snowman by the end of it except that most of me was under an umbrella.

What was I doing on a street corner in a snowstorm? Taking pictures of course. I probably could have waited until the snow was done before I headed out there because the shutter speeds were so slow that you can't even tell that it is snowing...and by the time I got my perfect shot it was practically NOT snowing anymore...but whatever.

Anyhow, here's the shot I took!

Part of the reason I sat out there so long, was that I was trying to get a shot where all three lights showed up. It was tricky to time it and I oftentimes missed the red or green light. Ironically, after I got that last shot with all three lights in it...I decided that I liked this one better. =P

And for your viewing pleasure, here are some more long exposure shots I took with my new tripod. Hooray for tripods and hooray for wonderful husbands who give them to you for Christmas!

The first picture is one of the first ones I took, I was just messing around but it was kinda fun so I thought I'd show it off.

The second picture is one I took for an assignment in my class. It's pretty self explanatory but in case you wanted to know, that's my house, and my tree, and my husband looking through the window at me. :)

The last picture is actually handheld so you may have to forgive some camera shake. I took it on my way home tonight, it was one of those scenes where you have to take out your camera but you really can't bother with all the other equipment. I have some other things to say about that but I'll wait for you to comment, Kaylynne. =P

Oh yeah, and aside from cropping to straighten, there hasn't been any editing done to these. 

Edit: So I cropped this photo to come in closer and I like it, but I don't. I like it because now the focal point isn't that huge glaring light at the top...but now I don't like it because I can't figure out WHAT the focal point is. I guess the leaves and the falling snow lead you to the benches, but I guess its the camera shake that is throwing me off, it lacks focus. =P

Episode 101: In Which Jessica Has Some Goals

So it was brought to my attention this last week that if I let this blog sit much longer, it will have officially gone untouched for a whole month. *gasp* Not a whole month!

Actually, I was acutely aware of this fact and there are quite a few reasons I have not posted up to this point; not the least of these reasons being that...I have nothing to say.

I could tell you about school but watch how I sum that up in a succinct sentence. It's school.

I could tell you about new recipes I've tried...but that count is currently at zero (or it was when Kaylynne brought my lack of posting up)

I could also tell you about my new years resolutions but...ok I will.

I'm not doing terribly fantastically on my new years resolutions. I had rather a large number of them but the severe lack of weather in Utah has rendered me completely useless as I have contracted a massive case of SAD (seasonal affective disorder). The truth is, I've been in such a slump that not even going to the temple last week brought me out of it. Seasonal depression tends to drain much of your energy and then you haven't much left for things like resolutions...then you of course feel like a loser because you already dropped your resolutions and it is just a vicious cycle from there.

Well, in order to break the cycle, you just have to gather all your energy and charge forward. Once that barrier is broken, then you can take things one small step at a time. I broke the cycle by going grocery shopping so we wouldn't have the "there's nothing to eat so let's eat out" excuse anymore. It was a small victory, even though I've done little with that food thus far. =P

If you've ever seen "What About Bob?", just imagine me chanting "baby steps" every time I do something.

I did finally make a somewhat nutritious meal yesterday that consisted of grilled chicken, coconut rice (via this great recipe from my new cookbook), and a spinach salad (prepackaged...but who's counting?)

Side note: That coconut rice recipe makes a mean fried rice the next day. I just added about a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan and a dash of sesame seed oil; threw in some frozen peas and carrots, spam, minced garlic (I used 1-2 cloves to about 3 cups of rice (add this just before the rice so you don't burn it)); sauteed them until they were all nicely browned; added the rice and fried that for a little bit before adding about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce; stir it all around; let it sit for a little while so it develops some nice crunchy fried bits; salt and pepper to taste and viola! It was amazing.

So anyhow, I'm taking the second half of D&C this semester, with the same teacher I had last semester because I really liked him. Conveniently, my reading today included the Word of Wisdom. If you want to review it with me, you can find it here or in D&C 89.

Several of my resolutions this year revolve around the health category, not the least of these is "eat better" and "exercise". Lucky for me, the exercise part is being covered by my volleyball and flexibility classes at school.

For someone like me, "eat better" is about the worst goal you could have. I'm not overweight or in any danger of being so, nor am I concerned about allergies, high sodium intake, cholesterol, or anything else. That means, if I'm going to "diet" if you will...I don't really know where to start.

Enter D&C 89.

I'll skip over all the "don't drink alcohol or smoke tabacco" stuff because that's not my problem either. So let's go to verses 11-17.

To spare you all the workings of my mind, I'll just give you MY takeaway from this chapter.

1. Lots of fruits and veggies
2. Some meat, but don't overdo it
3. Wheat is good (and even though oats are supposedly for horses, I don't think God intends to deprive me of my oatmeal) but don't overdo it on those either.

Pretty simple. I'm not perfect, and vegetables are still a much smaller portion of my plate than they should be, but I'm determined to include some kind of vegetable or fruit with every meal. I'm also working on snacking on carbs that are going to give me some kind of lasting energy...instead of snicker's bars. (Sad day, goodbye snickers, we shall now only meet on rare occasions. oh wait, you cost like a dollar for not very much food, we only met on rare occasions anyhow)

My favorite snack right now is a couple of clementines, and a handful of chopped pecans. Pecans are amazing. And as long as you chew them long enough and really savor them, they emit a pleasantly sweet flavor that you can't acheive with sugar (not that I'm in any way against sugar). Someday, I'll make my own trail mix since I can buy lots of stuff in bulk at Winco.

Anyhow, I haven't been doing this long but already, I can tell my body is recognizing what it really wants. I crave nuts and fruits now more than I crave snickers bars and ice cream. It's sort of helping my mood too, but I can't tell if that's my food intake, or if I'm just being spurred on by smaller successes.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a bag of Tim's Salt and Vinegar chips to eat before Andrew eats them all. :)