Me and my camera - Part 2

As per my previous post, I uploaded pictures from trips that I have taken this year. When viewing the pictures, I recommend avoiding the slideshow view, instead click on the picture. I have chosen not to upload pictures of myself since I like to maintain an anonymous identity, but hopefully my amateur picture-taking skills should be enough proof of my presence.

• Los Angeles: I spent the day in Universal Studios theme park. In the evening, went down to Santa Monica beach, a non-swimming beach with an amusement park.
• Pictures
  

• Las Vegas: I attended a conference here for work and managed to find halal things to do ... Even for a person like me, there is enough touristy things to do to keep you busy for a few days.
• Pictures

• Chicago: Spent a day walking in downtown Chicago. I saw the United center, Soldier field, Opera's studio, and various buildings in Chicago.
• Pictures
  

Me and my camera - Part 1

I have been meaning to upload pictures that I have taken from trips this year but have been too busy to find anytime. It is a real busy not the "busy" because I am too lazy busy. I have noticed that nobody ever admits to "not being busy" rather people are either "chilling" or I get the "busy busy" with the shaking of the head and sighing. No one admits anymore that they are really doing nothing.

This situation reminds of a Seinfeld episode, where George pretends to be busy everytime his boss walks by so that he does not get any work.

Jerry: I thought that new promotion was supposed to be a lot more work.
George: Yeah, when the season starts. Right now, I sit around pretending that I'm busy.
Jerry: How do you pull that off?
George: I always look annoyed. Yeah, when you look annoyed all the time, people think that you're busy.
Think about it... (acts annoyed for 3 seconds).
Elaine: Yeah, you do! He looks very busy!
Jerry: Yeah, he looks busy! Yeah!
George: I know what I'm doin'. In fact Mr. Wilhelm gave me one of those little stress dolls.
All right. (gets up) Back to work. (acts annoyed and leaves)
Elaine: (laughs)

I was going to talk about my photos here, but this post has become too long to serve my main attraction, so I end here and will continue in a subsequent post.

All you can eat

These days when eating out at a restaurant or family gathering, I am noticing that it is difficult for people to control their meal portions. When eating at "pricey"” restaurants, the portions that I get are too large for me to finish, it seems these restaurants purposely give you large portions to justify the cost of the meal. Furthermore, when eating in the United States, I find that the portions are sometimes twice the amount that I would usually get in Canada.

When trying to explain others my dietary restriction of Halal foods succinctly, I usually tell them that I am vegetation when I eat out. One would think it would be easier to eat healthier if your vegetarian, however, you will still find lots of calories in a salad, veggie burger, or pizza.

I also find that meals at a family gathering or weddings are quite often dominated by meat dishes. It is difficult to pass up on a portion of meat and people often sample all of the meat dishes. This result in you taking on more food than you normally would.

I remember this Simpson'’s episode in which Homer would not stop eating at an "All you can eat"” restaurant. The owners threw him out and Homer sued them because they would not let him continue to eat (classic Simpson episode).

It seems the standard for a quality meal includes an abudance of meat in large portions. I know if this was not the case, people would complain about their meal. I guess the old saying that "You do not know how good you got it until you don't have it" can be related here, however, I wonder if it is really that good for us, well I know Homer would like you to believe so.

TV critic

I wish I had the time to write a thoughtful entry but like most people have been unable to find the time in-between work, weekend classes and the FIFA World cup. I even forget the current date until Canada day a few days ago. I had a few thoughts on my mind in the past few weeks to write about, but never got the chance to transfer my thoughts into a blog post. I wonder if I should start a podcast to fill in those empty days. To complement my blog, I shall call it A podcast about something.

Most of my thoughts have been centered around the FIFA World cup. I have been following the games quite adamantly for the past month. The British announcers calling these games are quite different than our North American counterparts. They are very dramatic in the language they use. For example,

Beckham scores ... oh!, this is a glorious moment for England. They must be dancing in the streets of London.

or

Here's Beckham and there's an authoritative strike by an authentic artist.

They should also avoid making conclusions about a game before it completes. Once a goal has been scored, the announcers make a swift judgment about the results of the game and potential matchups.

I am totally sick of all of the soccer commercials, especially the Rogers Wireless commercial about three kids who cannot get World cup tickets and then realize the best place to watch the World cup is where you friends are ... that is just loser talk.

Then there are the Jose + 10 and Budweiser (yes, bad, because its about beer) commercial that are quite creative. My favourite commercial to watch these days is the Future Shop commercial about the customer excited by the low prices. The employee responds that they save money by re-dubbing the commercial for each new sale. The enthusiasm showed by the customer is priceless.