I'm on to the final phase of my detox, it's the hardest one as it requires a 5 day fruit and vegetable fast. I was able to eat fruits and vegetables yesterday but for the next 3 days I can only drink them. So far I haven't had any negative side effects from this as some people do, but it's still early. I'm expecting by tomorrow I will have little energy. I am working from home today and Monday just in case. I borrowed about a dozen movies from a friend so that should keep me busy for the weekend. I have no plans on going anywhere.
My fridge has never been so full of fruits and vegetables, I barely have room for anything else. I tried to get a shot of all the fruits and vegetables I have right now and just realized I forgot to put bananas in the pic. I also had oranges but made them into juice and will be going blueberry picking after work today at Life Mountain Blueberries in Gold Bar. They are only $2/lb if you pick them yourself or $3 already picked.
Last night I made some Potassium Broth which I will be drinking for the next couple of days. It took longer than expected to make as I had to peel 50 cloves of garlic so was up late last night making that for today. It also has carrots, beets, celery, potato peels, and onions. It actually smelled pretty good. I hope it tastes as good as it smells.
There's also a morning flush concoction I am drinking every morning for 5 days that contains orange juice, lemon, garlic, olive oil, ginger, and water. I drank the last of my OJ this morning so am going to make some apple juice today and give that a try tomorrow.
More info on the program I'm doing can be found here.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Darkroom
I recently started shooting some film. It all started with an all film meetup event in my photography group. Film cameras come pretty cheap these days so I picked up an Olympus OMG to play around with. I've shot off a few rolls and got a few good shots. Developing my own film is something I have been fascinated with since I was a kid and have always wanted to learn how to do it. I never really thought I'd go back to film after going digital but here I am.
I now have all the things I need to develop my own film. I've been reading about it and watching some videos and have an idea of what I need to do. I'm only planning on doing black & white so I need to get to shooting so I can have something to develop. I'd love it if I could find someone that would be willing to come out and help me through it the first time around so I don't mess it up. I'll make dinner for anyone willing to come out and give me a little tutorial.
I now have all the things I need to develop my own film. I've been reading about it and watching some videos and have an idea of what I need to do. I'm only planning on doing black & white so I need to get to shooting so I can have something to develop. I'd love it if I could find someone that would be willing to come out and help me through it the first time around so I don't mess it up. I'll make dinner for anyone willing to come out and give me a little tutorial.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Cleansing
Some people may think this is TMI but whatever, I'm posting it anyway...
A friend talked me into doing a Colon and Kidney cleanse. Today was Day 1 of the Colon cleanse and when that is done I will move on to the Kidney cleanse. I have had a Kidney infection in the past and numerous bladder infections, too many to even count. For a while I was getting them once a month and the doctor's despite many blood tests and x-rays and other tests I won't go into they couldn't find anything wrong. Obviously something was wrong that just isn't normal. After realizing it seemed to be happening at the same time every month I thought maybe it had something to do with my BC. So I decided to take a break from it and what do you know the infections stopped. How is it I could figure this out myself but a urologist and a gynecologist couldn't put two and two together? After 6 months no infections and I decided to go back on the pill, but a different one. Things were fine for many months until I got another one recently. Bye bye BC. I think it was doing some other things to my body that just aren't healthy so I've decided to stop taking it again and I doubt I will ever get back on it. It messes with hormones and it's just not good for you.
I've started taking D-Mannose which is a natural occurring simple sugar that is supposed to help prevent bacteria from sticking and is even used to treat bladder infections.
Another thing I've been taking recently is Acidophilus Pearls. It's supposed to have the same benefit as eating a cup of yogurt. It's good for your digestive tract and doesn't have the calories, cholesterol, sugars, or lactose found in yogurt.
For the Colon Cleanse I'm using Dr. Schulze's Formula #1 and #2. I have to take a capsule of #1 with dinner and the #2 is a powder which I need to take a teaspoon of with 8 oz of water/juice 5 times a day. I think it also comes in capsule form and at first I was wishing I had the capsule but the stuff actually tastes kind of good. It's like a peppermint tea so I don't think it will be as bad as I thought it would be. These are the ingredients in the #2 formula: Flax seed, Linum usitatissimum, Apple Fruit Pectin, Malus communis, Pharmaceutical Grade Bentonite Clay, Psyllium seed and husk, Plantago psyllium, Slippery Elm inner bark, Ulmus fulva, Marshmallow root, Althaea officinalis, Peppermint leaf, Mentha piperita and Activated Willow Charcoal, Salix alba.
I'm not sure yet what all is involved in the Kidney cleanse. I do know it will require meals of fruit and vegetable juices and no solid foods. It could be tough but I think I'm up for the challenge. I think it's only for 5 days so I think I can do it.
I've also been drinking distilled water which isn't as easy to find as one might think. Especially in the 2.5 gallon water jugs I like to get. I'm thinking maybe an investment in a a water distiller might be in order.
Hopefully I'll be done with all this cleansing/detoxification stuff by the time I go to Sacramento at the end of the month.
A friend talked me into doing a Colon and Kidney cleanse. Today was Day 1 of the Colon cleanse and when that is done I will move on to the Kidney cleanse. I have had a Kidney infection in the past and numerous bladder infections, too many to even count. For a while I was getting them once a month and the doctor's despite many blood tests and x-rays and other tests I won't go into they couldn't find anything wrong. Obviously something was wrong that just isn't normal. After realizing it seemed to be happening at the same time every month I thought maybe it had something to do with my BC. So I decided to take a break from it and what do you know the infections stopped. How is it I could figure this out myself but a urologist and a gynecologist couldn't put two and two together? After 6 months no infections and I decided to go back on the pill, but a different one. Things were fine for many months until I got another one recently. Bye bye BC. I think it was doing some other things to my body that just aren't healthy so I've decided to stop taking it again and I doubt I will ever get back on it. It messes with hormones and it's just not good for you.
I've started taking D-Mannose which is a natural occurring simple sugar that is supposed to help prevent bacteria from sticking and is even used to treat bladder infections.
Another thing I've been taking recently is Acidophilus Pearls. It's supposed to have the same benefit as eating a cup of yogurt. It's good for your digestive tract and doesn't have the calories, cholesterol, sugars, or lactose found in yogurt.
For the Colon Cleanse I'm using Dr. Schulze's Formula #1 and #2. I have to take a capsule of #1 with dinner and the #2 is a powder which I need to take a teaspoon of with 8 oz of water/juice 5 times a day. I think it also comes in capsule form and at first I was wishing I had the capsule but the stuff actually tastes kind of good. It's like a peppermint tea so I don't think it will be as bad as I thought it would be. These are the ingredients in the #2 formula: Flax seed, Linum usitatissimum, Apple Fruit Pectin, Malus communis, Pharmaceutical Grade Bentonite Clay, Psyllium seed and husk, Plantago psyllium, Slippery Elm inner bark, Ulmus fulva, Marshmallow root, Althaea officinalis, Peppermint leaf, Mentha piperita and Activated Willow Charcoal, Salix alba.
I'm not sure yet what all is involved in the Kidney cleanse. I do know it will require meals of fruit and vegetable juices and no solid foods. It could be tough but I think I'm up for the challenge. I think it's only for 5 days so I think I can do it.
I've also been drinking distilled water which isn't as easy to find as one might think. Especially in the 2.5 gallon water jugs I like to get. I'm thinking maybe an investment in a a water distiller might be in order.
Hopefully I'll be done with all this cleansing/detoxification stuff by the time I go to Sacramento at the end of the month.
New Camera
I've had my Olympus E-500 for 2 and a half years now. Olympus has come out with a few new DSLR's since then. There have been a few new Olympus users join the Seattle Flickr Group and a couple of them have the E3, Olympus' professional model DSLR. They've let me try them out and one even let me borrow it for several hours to shoot the low tide a few months ago. I had originally thought about getting the new E520 that just came out which has a lot of the features I wanted but isn't splash proof.
I decided to bite the bullet a few weeks ago and ordered an E3 off of Ebay from Cameta who I've ordered my past few cameras from. I got a couple hundred dollar discount because it was a floor model. I changed my work from home day last week so I could be home when it arrived and take it with me to the Flickr Brews & Views at the Garage. My first shot with it was at a wine store in Seattle. It arrived later than I had hoped so I didn't have a chance to play with it at home. I took more shots at this month's Brews & Views than any other I've attended. I just love being able to shoot a higher ISO and not have it look like complete crap.
I will probably keep my E-500 as a backup unless someone begs me to let them buy it. A friend is borrowing it at the moment to try out.
I decided to bite the bullet a few weeks ago and ordered an E3 off of Ebay from Cameta who I've ordered my past few cameras from. I got a couple hundred dollar discount because it was a floor model. I changed my work from home day last week so I could be home when it arrived and take it with me to the Flickr Brews & Views at the Garage. My first shot with it was at a wine store in Seattle. It arrived later than I had hoped so I didn't have a chance to play with it at home. I took more shots at this month's Brews & Views than any other I've attended. I just love being able to shoot a higher ISO and not have it look like complete crap.
I will probably keep my E-500 as a backup unless someone begs me to let them buy it. A friend is borrowing it at the moment to try out.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Georgetown
I've been wanting to go to Georgetown for a photoshoot for quite a while. They seem to be tearing buildings down over there every day. I finally went last Thursday for a few hours before my afternoon flight to Vegas. There was some interesting architecture, lots of brick buildings (my fav), graffiti, stickers, junk yard, antique shops, bakeries, and some bars and restaurants I'd like to check out some time.
I'm really glad I went when I did, but wish I had gone sooner. One of the most colorfully graffitied buildings was being torn down that day in a matter of hours. We were probably the last people to photograph it. Both the front and back of the building were covered in graffiti art. It's sad to think it's all gone now. There's really not much graffiti left in Georgetown now and I'm sure there were a lot more that has been torn down.
I'm not sure what they are planning to do with the space where these great buildings were, but they will be missed. More photos can be found in my Georgetown Photostroll set on Flickr.
I'm really glad I went when I did, but wish I had gone sooner. One of the most colorfully graffitied buildings was being torn down that day in a matter of hours. We were probably the last people to photograph it. Both the front and back of the building were covered in graffiti art. It's sad to think it's all gone now. There's really not much graffiti left in Georgetown now and I'm sure there were a lot more that has been torn down.
I'm not sure what they are planning to do with the space where these great buildings were, but they will be missed. More photos can be found in my Georgetown Photostroll set on Flickr.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Dark Room
Today these parts will be transformed into a functioning sink in my laundry room. I have a friend coming over today to put it all together. I bought a sink with a table from Ikea and put that together myself even though the directions suggested it be a 2 man job. I enjoy putting crap together and making it into something useful. I did a countless number of jigsaw puzzles when I was a kid. Not quite the same thing, but it kind of reminds me of that. I just like buying stuff that's in a million pieces and then having to put it all together.
So the purpose of this utility sink install is so I can make my laundry room into a dark room. I still need to get all the dark room supplies and I'm most likely only going to play around with black & white. I still need to finish off a roll of color in my camera and start shooting some black and white so I'll have something to develop. Looking forward to playing around with this stuff.
So the purpose of this utility sink install is so I can make my laundry room into a dark room. I still need to get all the dark room supplies and I'm most likely only going to play around with black & white. I still need to finish off a roll of color in my camera and start shooting some black and white so I'll have something to develop. Looking forward to playing around with this stuff.
Monday, July 07, 2008
4th of July Weekend
It was again another busy weekend and am still working on processing all the photos from it.
I took Thursday off from work to shoot the low tide (-4 ft) at Lincoln Park in West Seattle. It was pouring down rain at my house and looked like it was raining pretty hard everywhere around Puget Sound. I was chatting with a friend online before heading out and he offered to loan me his Olympus E3 camera which is the high end DSLR that is splash proof and will function fine even in a downpour. I accepted the offer and stopped to pick it up in Burien on my way to West Seattle. It ended up not raining at all by the time I got to the park. The camera's controls are very different from what I was used to and needed a crash course before taking off with it. It didn't take long to get the hang of it. I also borrowed his FL-50R flash which can be used wirelessly without any additional equipment on the camera or flash. It just made me want one even more. I've got my low tide pics posted on Flickr. After shooting for a few hours, we had lunch at Elliott Bay Brewery where I had fish and chips and a dark hard cider. We proceeded to Cupcake Royale for cupcakes where I tried the lavender cupcake. The cupcake was a little on the dry side but the frosting seemed better than I remember for a Cupcake Royale cupcake. Not as sweet as some of the others I've had.
Later that afternoon I met up with some friends for a wine tasting at Esquin where I bought a case of their summer wine sampler for $79. I just couldn't pass up that bargain. There's a wide range of wines in the case with both whites and reds. I'm beginning to wish I had a wine cellar!
After the wine tasting, I headed to First Thursday Artwalk in Pioneer Square to meet up with a few others. I took a few pics which I still need to get posted. Was going to have dinner at J&M but the service was pretty much non-existant after sitting at a table for about 20 minutes. We decided to leave and ended up at Trattoria Mitchelli, down the street and had a salad and a piece of yummy pizza. Dinner was followed by a Sake tasting which I had never done before. It was pretty tasty. It was all this place sold. I didn't know there were so many.
I decided to get out of the house for a change for the 4th this year and went to a BBQ at a friend's in Fremont that lives close to Gasworks. Didn't have too much trouble finding parking since I got there around 4:30. Most of us went to watch the fireworks near the bridge and ended up finding some good spots. We hung out for a little while afterwards at the nearby friend's place till traffic died down and had no trouble getting home afterwards. Fireworks pics will be posted in the next couple of days.
Sunday, I had a ladies brunch at a friend's. There was a long list of wonderfully delicious drinks and food. Strawberry Mint Sangria, Cucumber Sangria, sliced fruit with creme fraiche, goat cheese tart with mixed greens, grilled chicken apple sausage, grilled asparagus and onion, chedder dill scones, grapefruit sorbet, and mixed berry blitzes. Twas a yummy brunch. Some food pics from the brunch will be coming soon as well.
I also got some utility sink supplies over the weekend to have installed tomorrow in my laundry room where I'm hoping to get a dark room set up. If you know how to process film and would like to come over some time to give me some pointers, I'll feed you in exchange. I'm only planning on developing black & white at this point. I don't think I'll get into color processing.
I took Thursday off from work to shoot the low tide (-4 ft) at Lincoln Park in West Seattle. It was pouring down rain at my house and looked like it was raining pretty hard everywhere around Puget Sound. I was chatting with a friend online before heading out and he offered to loan me his Olympus E3 camera which is the high end DSLR that is splash proof and will function fine even in a downpour. I accepted the offer and stopped to pick it up in Burien on my way to West Seattle. It ended up not raining at all by the time I got to the park. The camera's controls are very different from what I was used to and needed a crash course before taking off with it. It didn't take long to get the hang of it. I also borrowed his FL-50R flash which can be used wirelessly without any additional equipment on the camera or flash. It just made me want one even more. I've got my low tide pics posted on Flickr. After shooting for a few hours, we had lunch at Elliott Bay Brewery where I had fish and chips and a dark hard cider. We proceeded to Cupcake Royale for cupcakes where I tried the lavender cupcake. The cupcake was a little on the dry side but the frosting seemed better than I remember for a Cupcake Royale cupcake. Not as sweet as some of the others I've had.
Later that afternoon I met up with some friends for a wine tasting at Esquin where I bought a case of their summer wine sampler for $79. I just couldn't pass up that bargain. There's a wide range of wines in the case with both whites and reds. I'm beginning to wish I had a wine cellar!
After the wine tasting, I headed to First Thursday Artwalk in Pioneer Square to meet up with a few others. I took a few pics which I still need to get posted. Was going to have dinner at J&M but the service was pretty much non-existant after sitting at a table for about 20 minutes. We decided to leave and ended up at Trattoria Mitchelli, down the street and had a salad and a piece of yummy pizza. Dinner was followed by a Sake tasting which I had never done before. It was pretty tasty. It was all this place sold. I didn't know there were so many.
I decided to get out of the house for a change for the 4th this year and went to a BBQ at a friend's in Fremont that lives close to Gasworks. Didn't have too much trouble finding parking since I got there around 4:30. Most of us went to watch the fireworks near the bridge and ended up finding some good spots. We hung out for a little while afterwards at the nearby friend's place till traffic died down and had no trouble getting home afterwards. Fireworks pics will be posted in the next couple of days.
Sunday, I had a ladies brunch at a friend's. There was a long list of wonderfully delicious drinks and food. Strawberry Mint Sangria, Cucumber Sangria, sliced fruit with creme fraiche, goat cheese tart with mixed greens, grilled chicken apple sausage, grilled asparagus and onion, chedder dill scones, grapefruit sorbet, and mixed berry blitzes. Twas a yummy brunch. Some food pics from the brunch will be coming soon as well.
I also got some utility sink supplies over the weekend to have installed tomorrow in my laundry room where I'm hoping to get a dark room set up. If you know how to process film and would like to come over some time to give me some pointers, I'll feed you in exchange. I'm only planning on developing black & white at this point. I don't think I'll get into color processing.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Caffe Ladro and the Solstice Parade
Another busy summer (if you can call it that) weekend was had. After work on Friday, went to a friend's for dinner and a movie. We watched Waiting on DVD. It was in my Netflix queue, but was surprised I hadn't seen it yet. It was my kind of movie. I love Dane Cook and Ryan Reynolds. They are some funny guys and cute too!
I then proceeded to Sean's to check out the Dandy Warhols at Showbox SODO. We got there in time to hear a bit of the opening bands which were not so good. The band was actually pretty good, but the lead singer seemed to ruin it for them. It was my first show at Showbox SODO. It was nice and cool, maybe a little too cool. It was an all ages show in basically a big warehouse. The main floor had a bar sectioned off. There was another, more fancy bar area on the left at a higher level than the main floor. It was actually a completely separate room with some garage doors and windows that open up to the main floor. There were tables and chairs and they also apparently served food there as well but I never saw the menu to see what they had. The sound was not very good from this other room. We sat through a few of the Dandy's songs there and then proceeded back out onto the main floor for the rest of the concert. It seemed like a rather short concert even though we were there till about 1:00. Maybe because there were two opening bands, but they didn't even do an encore...
Saturday morning rolled around too quickly. I met up with the Flickrites at Caffe Ladro in Fremont for the Solstice Parade. I was thinking I probably wouldn't have even gone if I wasn't the organizer, but I'm glad I went. I got a lot of great shots. Pretty much all my shots were from the staging area before the parade and at Gasworks following the parade. I was a little dissapointed at the turnout at Gasworks post parade. There seemed to be more people in general, but I only saw about 10 Flickrites at the most. There were a lot more last year. It seemed a lot of the plurkers skipped out early and went for drinks in Ballard.
I have my pre-parade pics posted to Flickr and will be posting the remaining pics throughout the week.
I then proceeded to Sean's to check out the Dandy Warhols at Showbox SODO. We got there in time to hear a bit of the opening bands which were not so good. The band was actually pretty good, but the lead singer seemed to ruin it for them. It was my first show at Showbox SODO. It was nice and cool, maybe a little too cool. It was an all ages show in basically a big warehouse. The main floor had a bar sectioned off. There was another, more fancy bar area on the left at a higher level than the main floor. It was actually a completely separate room with some garage doors and windows that open up to the main floor. There were tables and chairs and they also apparently served food there as well but I never saw the menu to see what they had. The sound was not very good from this other room. We sat through a few of the Dandy's songs there and then proceeded back out onto the main floor for the rest of the concert. It seemed like a rather short concert even though we were there till about 1:00. Maybe because there were two opening bands, but they didn't even do an encore...
Saturday morning rolled around too quickly. I met up with the Flickrites at Caffe Ladro in Fremont for the Solstice Parade. I was thinking I probably wouldn't have even gone if I wasn't the organizer, but I'm glad I went. I got a lot of great shots. Pretty much all my shots were from the staging area before the parade and at Gasworks following the parade. I was a little dissapointed at the turnout at Gasworks post parade. There seemed to be more people in general, but I only saw about 10 Flickrites at the most. There were a lot more last year. It seemed a lot of the plurkers skipped out early and went for drinks in Ballard.
I have my pre-parade pics posted to Flickr and will be posting the remaining pics throughout the week.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Wordle
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
New lens is here!
I got my new 30mm lens in the mail yesterday. It will make for a great portrait lens and should be great for concerts and bars and food and pretty much everything! I have taken a few pics with it so far and am looking forward to using it a lot. My lens collection continues to grow, but still have a ways to go before I catch up to Jackie's impressive lens collection.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Dancing with Matt
There was a good turnout at Gasworks Park on Saturday for Matt's final dance for his 3rd dancing around the world video. It was a tough decision on whether to take pics or to dance for the video. As you can see, I decided to take pics.
I ran into several of my Burningman friends that I haven't seen in ages. I thought I may see some there as several are friends with Matt and his girlfriend.
More pics from the event can be found in my Dancing with Matt set on Flickr.
I ran into several of my Burningman friends that I haven't seen in ages. I thought I may see some there as several are friends with Matt and his girlfriend.
More pics from the event can be found in my Dancing with Matt set on Flickr.
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