in case you were wondering

Here are the photos from my day with Devin two weeks ago. In other news, I am planning to sell my d300s on Friday. If all goes according to plan, I can make the d700 purchase (sick of waiting for nikon to release more point and shoots....grrr.....). FULL FRAME FOR SENIOR YEAR yessssssss! Speaking of senior year...i'll be back in boston in just one week...bananuts....

YSL L'Homme

In a few short days, it will be the start of a new school year, a new lifestyle, a new home, a new wardrobe, and now...a new scent. It's rare for me to put on cologne on days other than Good Fridays, but at my mom's urging...I finally retired the Ralph Lauren Polo Blue and took a journey with her to Sephora. Of course, the trip was intended to shop for my new bed sheets and pillows...but as most stories involving her go, we got a bit sidetracked. I wanted to take a stab at a simple product shot to show off the cool looking bottle and box. I used the pocketwizards radio transmitters, with the sb900 at 90 degrees, tungsten gelled to add a splash of orange in the background. The falloff of the orange is pretty harsh though. I used a reflect to bounce residual light onto the box because it kept coming out underexposed. Flash in manual mode @ 1/64 power. Camera settings were 1/2 sec, f/8, at iso:200. Couldn't figure out how to get rid of the reflection on the right part of the cologne cap...

Enjoying the last few days with my d300s...whose sale will be the ultimate bitterSWEET event. Here's to hoping that the 24th brings about the d800, which will lower the prices of the d700 that i'm eagerly awaiting to purchase. Then, I can add new camera to the list ;)

"dammit, Kevin! get back here and give me a hug!"

promise ring

satay tofu with peanut sauce and cucumbers

shrimp noodles

ew.

it's not weird that Ashton and I both ended up getting this shirt at BB right?

showing off her new Kate Spade glasses

full belly: check! unflattering photo: check!

Oh, Karolina. For someone who lives so close to me, the past two summers i've seen her only twice. We met in computer science, by far the least successful class in my academic career, and we struggled together to say the least. I have this really fond memory from last year of when my friend Ernie and I invited her to join us for a study group, to work on a big JAVA project. We invited her because we sucked at JAVA, and her boyfriend was a computer science teacher. It seemed practically assured she'd be a god. From her point of view, however, Ernie and I were both asians, so naturally we'd be awesome at the subject. The sad reality was that Karolina was just as bad, if not worse, at Java than both of us combined. So when we met up, the three of us stared awkwardly at each other and our computer screens, each scared to admit that we were quite figuratively screwed. Needless to say, we never bothered having another study group again together. So on Saturday, when she gave me a call asking to hang out, I was quite happy to meet with her. We went to one of my favorite restaurants in Edison, this tiny little Malaysian place called Penang. This Penang actually precedes its original site in New York City in fame and yelp ratings, so I'm always coming back whenever I'm in the area. One of my favorite parts about this restaurant is the bizarre interior design, because the second you walk in you notice that there is actually a full sized Malaysian fishing boat that takes up half of the room. Now on paper, this sounds kinda tacky, until you realize that you can actually climb up the boat and there are tables and seats for customers to eat at....AWESOME. Karolina was impressed. We were originally going to get Korean food, but she told me she hated kimchi (wtf??), so there we were...in Penang...catching up and ordering food. She got some kung pow chicken american shit, and I got the shrimp noodles with satay tofu, and we both had big full bellies and talked into the night. Now secretly, I had been hoping I could just drop her off perfectly in time for her train, but she insisted I go up to the platform with her since the neighborhood was super shady. The second the train came, I wanted to bail and check up on my car...but I was stopped short by this hiss/screech, "Dammit, Kevin! Get back here and give me a hug!" Well as happy endings go, my car actually was safe...oh yeah and Karolina got home safely too. But more importantly, my car was safe :) And that was my day! Here are some photos for you to enjoy.

that's MAH hat

Imagine you're a college student and you like flat bill hats. What do you do? As any smart college student witha flat bill fetish would do, you go to SoHo and buy yourself an awesome overpriced accessory. Now your parents might groan and moan that it is expensive for something with whacky cartoons on it, but you know deep in your heart that you are purchasing not just a hat, but the ART of your generation. You proudly brandish your hat, a physical zeitgeist manifestation, around your campus, catching the attention of biddies and bros alike. You've got swag, and now everyone knows it. Next, you think to yourself, where can I get the most attention---maybe even get my picture taken with this hat? Duh. The following Saturday night, you're out the door heading to a college party and you're feeling nice. But then, everything changes. You're approached by some friends and maybe some girls. They've got the cheerleader effect going for them and one of them grabs your hat and does a bunch of duck face portraits with it on. Smiling, you go and grab another drink....but when you come back...they are gone--with your hat! Your hat will never be seen again....before you got to say goodbye to your precious 200 dollar bape limited edition hello kitty x hat

Ashton and I had our final bro-nch yesterday (damn, i'm gonna miss that kid) and we had a heated discussion about this phenomenon. We went to Mumfords, this local catering restaurant near my house. Surprisingly good, but not enough to ease the burning rage over our lost hats. He shares some advice below:

last presentation of the summer :D

Unfortunately, I got yelled at for bringing my camera to the hospital. But after our final presentations and some cash moneyz, Christina and I went to the grove to celebrate aka help her find a new job (we'll both be unemployed after friday). Wow, what a crazy 12 weeks. From studying in the surgery lounge for my MCATs to sleeping in the library to actually doing some work, this summer could not have ended on a better note. Now let's get to the highlight of this post. While we were at the grove, we walked into william sonoma, one of my favorite stores. I like it because it has all this fancy cooking stuff that a budding ramen chef like myself needs to survive his senior year. For example, they had these muffin molds in the shape of super heroes. They even had cookie molds, as you can see in the photo above. Naturally, I saw the cookies out on display and my greedy hand snatched one without thinking. After all...the iron man cookie looked so tasty after a long day of research presenting. What I didn't realize, however, was that the cookies weren't samples...but wax displays.... it didn't hit me right away because i swallowed so quickly. Maybe 10 bites later it hit me that something was very, very wrong...

That's what I get for being fat x) Have a wonderful day *WINK

gee i'm a tree

I wanted it

why am i friends with her?

...melting

"fucking whore"

takes the most flattering photos of me

trying to get an angle where the harsh sunlight didn't blow everything out

it looked like a panda

Gianna. Did you know that is the female italian counterpart to the name "Giovanni"? I didn't either, until about 10 seconds ago. I've known this girl forever, though I suppose she's a woman now? Ew. We've grown up. When we were little youngins, we kinda jokingly made a pact: in our future lives, she would be some hoity toity money monger working on Wall Street and i'd be some fancy schmancy doctor in pursuit of health care reform, and we'd both be having lunch once a month at some pretentious cafe in NYC. Well, she's interning now at Goldman and i'm applying to medical school in the north east. It's silly to think that this dream would come true. At least, that is what the pessimist part of me would say. The realist would say, "Well, you've taken steps in the right direction, but the probability of it actually occurring is low though not impossible". And the optimist part that has recently consumed most of my body these past few months is screaming, at the top of its lungs, "WHAT IF....!?" I want to believe that all my dreams will come true if I keep working hard. With a bit of hope and a dash of magical moral support, perhaps the gag-worthy ramblings of this post might come to fruition. In the meantime, let's keep taking the photos, Kevin. Here are some from Red Bank this afternoon. It sure was fantastic seeing her again, but our reunion came and went. Gianna is off to Europe tomorrow morning; i'm hoping for safe travels and a big memory card full of photos to show me. I especially want to see the photos from Germany....

argh itchy

One of the most amateur photography mistakes is to go to an event without a memory card. Well, it wasn't an event...so does that make me a pseudo amateur? It's been a very long time since I've had a chance to go down to Seabright and visit my friend Devin. Naturally, for such a momentous occasion, I forgot a memory card and had to borrow one of his (which means photos eventually, just not today). When we went to high school together, he was always that computer nerd that understood the insides and outsides like the back of his hand. While we were all busy studying our physics and chemistry, he was building websites and mini databases that wrote their own coding. I've seen him defeat the blue screen of death, and beat me in world of warcraft (this is embarassing...). Though i'm not entirely certain if this is a testament of his prowess or just admittance of my own lack of computer knowledge. Regardless, I paid my friend a visit down at his beach house yesterday, to see how he was doing and to ask him for some advice. For those that know me, you might recall that last semester I purchased a monitor so I could have some sweet dual screen action while I edited photos. Well, long story short, that 200$ price tag wasn't coincidence and I'm dumb. Like the 18-200 lens, the monitor is a jack of all trades and master at none. With my finely trained eye for color rendering and editing, it only took me a short TWO MONTHS to finally realize my laptop's screen was actually reproducing the colors of the photos more accurately. Imagine my disappointment in having bought a glorified mini TV, since I absolutely refuse to do any editing on the monitor now. Devin, loving every moment of the opportunity to take a stab at me, eventually helped me make a new list of monitors to consider for the next time I've got some money lying around. While we waited for the burgers to cook, we also played some monster hunter tri (which I rocked him at....revenge is sweet) and took a walk on the beach to play with the 24 mm. One thing that bothered me: considering how nice his beach front is, and how unpopulated it was that day, it was a bit disturbing to find a syringe in the ground. I'd like to think it came from NY waters though hehe. One thing I loved: the beachfront sunset was breathtaking. No photo or words can describe it. And even though I tried to send my girlfriend a photo of it, the sunset gods stopped me and had me accidentally send a photo of a map instead. By the time I went to take another one, the sunset was gone. wahhhh

Well... that wraps up my day! Oh, have I mentioned I'm DONE with this cycle of secondary applications? Med School applicant? Huh, me??? A toast to the last 2.5 weeks of video games and last week of work. Dying to go back now.

words from the author

Well...not really. But that's what the title would be for my ramblings if I did write a book. Anyways, yesterday my new glasses finally arrived. I wanted black frames since the last pair of black frames met an unfortunate demise aboard an EVA plane last winter (aka putting them on my collar and then having a 20 lb suitcase smash into them, aka i'm dumb, aka new excuses for glasses), and it seemed an appropriate style for interviews. Next thing on the agenda: picking the perfect suit (s). Oh and my haircut is really short so I look really young. Sorry I'm not sorry :)

8/8 chinese father's day

Ever since I was little, my dad has been the main cook in the house. Apparently before that, my mom used to be the head chef but, for whatever reason, my dad took the reigns around the time I was born. He used to always tell me, when times get tough and money is low, there is one thing that we will never sacrifice: the quality of the food we eat. So perhaps there won't always be fancy new suits and trips to exotic places, but we could always count on having a tasty and nutritious meal at home to get us through our lives. So today we celebrate my father, and all of the other dads out there, for always providing their best for us. In my case, it was steak and scallops and solid memories.