Food

On Wednesday afternoon, I went to Red Robin. I didn't go with anyone and it's rare that I do because I don't like going to eatery places alone. Sometimes, I go to restaurants alone during lunch break at work, but this is because I have no choice. It took me awhile to eat alone during lunch break at work because I would rather order fast food and bring it back to the break room at work. I need to learn that it's ok to do a lot of things alone because I don't need to be with someone to do fun things. The Red Robin was at the mall in West Covina, CA


Here was what I ordered from Red Robin:

Bleu Ribbon Burger with Mint Chocolate Brownie Shake (the meal was delicious!)
 

Last night, I went to a photography meeting in Costa Mesa, CA. My photographer friends from the meeting and I went to dinner at Avila's El Ranchito. I always enjoy spending time with my photographer friends. Most of the time, we talk about photography during dinner when we should be having fun and talking about any random things, but I always learn new things about photography.
 

Here was what I ordered from Avila's El Ranchito:
 

Have you been visiting my 365 Day Project blog? Click here to visit and please follow that blog!

Pay It Forward

Last month, I went to a photography business meeting. The meeting was on "Business Essentials" and the photography speaker was Marc Weisberg. Wihle most of the meeting was about how he ran his photography business appropriately and legally so that other photographers could get a general idea to start their own, he also mentioned that he did volunteer photography and he recently worked with The Boys & Girls Club in Santa Monica. I was inspired by this and joined a few volunteer groups on meetup.

"You get back more than you give." ~Marc Weisberg

So as you've noticed, I recently started doing volunteer work. I have done some fundraisers before (and I'd like to more in the future), but since this month, I have been more interested in finding ways to help others. So far, I most enjoy helping out people in need and I find pleasure in seeing the joy on people's faces. To me, it's a lot of fun doing any kind of volunteer or assistance for people.... be it through fundraisers, food banks, mentoring, or assisting an elderly/handicapped person. With the economy the way it is now, people need more help than ever. Eventually, I will do volunteer photography for an organization, but for now, I do enjoy other hands on volunteer work. People should do volunteer work sometimes because it is very rewarding.

P.S. I Love You Foundation: Day At The Beach 2010

Today, I participated and volunteered in the "Day At The Beach: Adopt A Child For A Day" for the P.S. I Love You Foundation (PSILY for short) in Manhattan Beach, CA. This was their tenth annual "Day At The Beach" event, although this was my first time participating/volunteering. I heard about this event/foundation through the SoCal Volunteers United meetup group and it was a wonderful foundation to volunteer for.

My kid for the day was nine year old, Kassandra, and we had a fun day, playing in the sand, playing in the water, playing games, and attempted to fly a kite. We also saw a sea lion 60 or so yards offshore. It jumped out of the water to play with a fish. What a sight!

For more photos, click here to view.

SoCal Volunteers United

I met some people from the SoCal Volunteers United meetup group for dinner this evening. I haven't done any volunteer work with this group yet, however, the organizer thought that it would be nice for the members to meet and get to know each other outside of volunteer work.

We had dinner at Phans55 in Fullerton, CA. The food was really good. Today was the first time that I met anyone, including the organizer, from the group, and they were great. Even though there were only four of us, we had a lot of great coversations going and there was never a dull moment.

I ordered the "Royal Fried Rice"

The group

Lunch

This afternoon, I went to lunch at Ding's Garden restaurant in San Gabriel, CA with the Asian Animal Lovers meetup group. We had met for dinner several times before, but this was the first time that I met the group for lunch. I think the group met for lunch before, but I didn't attend. The food in general was good, but the people in the group were always nice and we never run out of things to talk about.

This was one of the dishes that I enjoyed the most

You can see more photos by clicking here.

Orange County Food Bank July 2010

I did some volunteer work at the Orange County Food Bank located in Garden Grove, CA today and it was for the OC Volunteer meetup group. It was my first time doing any kind of volunteer work, so I had a really good experience and a lot of fun for my first time! It was nice to help out those in need. I was allowed to take photos, but my main job was breaking down the used boxes that the pre-packaged food came in. At first, I thought that this would be an easy job, but I was wrong...it was hard work! Who knew!

Click here to see more photos.

Rainbow

We had some interesting weather today. What's up with random showers/rain in the middle of July? This is California, not Hawaii! I took a picture of a rainbow on my way out to see my musician friend perform tonight. It started to pour out of nowhere ten minutes later after I took the picture!

365 Day Photo Project

I have decided that I need to start over with this 365 Day Photo Project and start it on a separate blog. I need a specific theme because doing a daily random photo theme is not helping me and I'm basically always getting stuck or running out of ideas to photograph. This blog will still be used for personal photography and other personal subjects. It's just getting too complicated for me to do both the 365 Day Project and share other personal photos and subjects on the same blog.

http://anastasia365project.blogspot.com

The theme on my 365 Day Project is on "people" including self-portraits. If you're following both blogs, sometimes I may have something similar between both, however, I will be sharing more photos here from the same event or social gatherings, including photos of food, pets and other random stuff. I'll try to cross post too often. After all, one of the rules to 365 Day Photo Project is to share ONE photo PER DAY...even though the real challenge is taking picures of people every single day for a year!

Light Painting

Now back to our regular schedule.

I went to a meeting for the OC Photo Club (facebook group). The main purpose of the meeting was manual flash and retouch up on portraits photos using Lightroom 3. After the meeting, the members took photos of "light paint". This was for fun and has nothing to do with business part of photography.

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To see more photos from this, click here.

By the way, I updated my other blog with a wedding. Click here to view.

Pretzel M&Ms

I was at Target today doing some shopping. I remembered one of my photographer friends mentioning pretzel M&Ms in the check out line when she was at Target one time and she thought these candies tasted really good. I added a bag to my stuff for check out. I like anything M&Ms, but I like peanut butter M&Ms the best.

I'm not getting paid for advertising any products that isn't branded by me and I don't plan on selling my pictures of such products.

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Beach Day

I went to a dog beach in Huntington Beach, CA this afternoon for the Asian Animal Lovers meetup group. I didn't bring Kiko with me for various reasons. She doesn't like water and she gets very carsick during a drive that lasts over 20 minutes long. The beach is a 45 minute drive from my house when the freeways are clear and free of traffic.

However, the highlight of my day was going to a birthday party for a Karate classmate in Bolsa Chica after going to the dog beach. Bolsa Chica is a small beach in Huntington Beach and it is very close to the dog beach. We don't do much together outside of Karate training. We probably do fun stuff together like once or twice a year that has nothing to do with Karate.

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Chili Spaghetti

I'm usually not a fan of restaurant-made spaghetti. Probably because I don't get enough sauce. I'm a big fan of homemade spaghetti, however it's made and any versions there are, however I seem to like mac and chili (instead cheese) and chili spaghetti that a restaurant makes.

I went to Bob's Big Boy for dinner with a friend this evening. I actually had the mac and chili (from Pizza Hut) before, but not the chili speghetti until today at Bob's Big Boy. It was so good! I mixed up the sauce with the spaghetti to make it look more appetizing. The way it was originally presented/served to me didn't look so appealing.

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Golf Ball

There had been a lost golf ball sitting in the gutter in front of my house for awhile. No one bothered to pick it up since it didn't seem to belong to anyone who lived on the street. Kiko found it yesterday while she was in the yard waiting for me to pick up the mail.

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Birds In Flight

I have always wanted to take photos of birds either taking off or already in flight. My timing is always off, so the bird is either not in the picture or is blurry. I'm decent at taking birds that are at a stand-still though.

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Earthquake and Sushi

Did you know that Yoshinoya now serves sushi? Usually they are known for their chicken bowls and beef bowls. The selection isn't great, but they have a few sushi selections! Dave likes Sushi.

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On a completely different note, we had an eqarthquake this afternoon. According to the news, it was 5.4 on the richter scale. We had several minor earthqauakes in Southern California this year, yet I never felt them until today! Several people took videos during the earthquake and many of them showed either the water splashing around in the pool or splashing around in the fishtank, or the chandelier swaying. I have nothing to show, except I took a screen shot of my tv showing where the epicenter was. I'm about an hour and a half from it. It's about 30 miles from Temecula/Hemet/Perris.

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Territorial Animal

While I was walking Kiko on the trail this morning, I noticed a dog staring at us from its backyard. It had seen us a few times before on the trail that went alongside its backyard and it only barked at the first sight of us. This black dog can hear noises and usually likes to investigate what the noise is. Today was one of the days that it didn't bark, but it stared at us instead. I'd like to think that I have a way with some dogs because my friend's dog didn't bark at me as I walked by the balcony, but would bark at everyone else. On the other hand, I have no affect on some dogs. The neighbor to this black dog has a yellow labrador. It snarls and growls at us everytime we walk by. This reaction is funny and scary. Kiko doesn't react to dogs barking from the backyard/fence line. She used to, but I trained her to ignore them.

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U.S. Independence Day

Exceprt from Wikipedia: Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Independence Day is commonly associated with fireworks, parades, barbecues, carnivals, fairs, picnics, concerts, baseball games, family reunions, political speeches and ceremonies, and various other public and private events celebrating the history, government, and traditions of the United States. Independence Day is the national day of the United States.

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Happy Independence Day and I hope everyone is having a safe and fun holiday! There was a firework display at the local high school near me. I took photos of it, however, I had a bit more fun taking photos of my family and cousin having their own fireworks in the backyard!

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Tiny Houses

I think I have a fascination with tiny objects because I like them very much. I think these tiny little houses were part of the decor, so I took a picture while I was an event.

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By the way, check out my other blog for an update from another workshop I recently attended.

Road To Seoul

My family and I went to "Road To Seoul", a Korean BBQ restaurant, in Korea Town-Los Angeles. We went here for my mom's birthday after my brother's recommendation.

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To see more photos from the restaurant, click here.

By the way, visit my other blog to see an update on a workshop I recently attended.

Starbucks

I met up with some people today...at different Starbucks. So I'm a bit Starbucks'd out for awhile. All these meetings that I had been going to are for personal reasons, however, they also have some important value.

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