Minna no Nihongo

Well I still haven't gone to get my film developed, so here is some old stuff that I never posted. This is the first roll from my Minolta Anscoset (this camera - I even have the same case!) that I got in a weird little junk store in Nova Scotia. These first three were taken in Corvallis during the summer. They make me wish the sun would come out.








The rest were taken in early September when my dad and I were traveling east with all my stuff so that I could move back to Toronto.








I've started trying to learn Japanese again. I've been wanting to do it all year but it always seemed like I should get all my school work done first, but school just kind of never ends. So I decided that I would be happier if I picked it up again anyway. I am much happier, and also my school stuff now seems easier to do. Sooo. Probably should have done that earlier...






I finally went and saw The King's Speech yesterday, I knew it would be good but I didn't realize that Helena Bonham Carter was in it! That made it at least twice as amazing. I really liked the cinematography too, so it gets an A+. I saw it in Oshawa with a boy. I don't think Oshawa is really as bad as everyone says it is.








I like these photos because I can really clearly remember taking each of them. That's usually the case actually, but with these it's like a personal record of a trip that I enjoyed. I would explain better but I'm not really feeling very good with words today and I think I'm going to go take a nap.

bi-winning

Hi! These are the very last pictures from Hawaii, taken with my Golden Half camera. I hope you like them.















Last week was reading week, so I was in Burford at Oma and Opa's house watching curling. It's pretty out there with all the snow. Now I'm back in Toronto and I'm happy because today it actually got warm enough to rain! I have a bunch of film sitting in my fridge that I need to get developed, but the place I go to is way down Bloor street, mehhhh.

Domestic Goddess

It turns out that what I thought was a whale-shaped cookie cutter was actually a snail-shaped cookie cutter. Phew. This makes sense because all the other cookie cutters were woodland creatures. So a whale would have been kind of weird.
Anyway, I've been holding up my new year's promise to try and cook, and I have already learned a lot. So far the most important thing I've learned is that every kitchen is different, so recipes are more like guidelines than set rules. Also I've learned that I don't have the arm strength to mix cookie dough by hand without working up a sweat. I ordered an electric hand mixer from amazon with my Christmas gift certificate, but I had to have it shipped to the states so it won't be here for a month or so. But I am definitely looking forward to that.
These sugar cookies were the first things I made, with this deceptively simple-looking icing recipe. I had to clean the counter REALLY WELL before I could use it to roll the dough, but it was worth it because it was super fun to use my new cookie cutters. The icing was a lot more difficult to control than I thought it would be, and it turned out real thick so I had to add extra milk and corn syrup. Also I couldn't find "light corn syrup" at the grocery store, only "golden" and "lily white" or something. Golden had slightly less sugar so I went with that one. It was fun to make different colours with the food colouring, and my roommate Bonnie came along and helped. The icing was tough to manipulate but it dried hard and shiny and pretty. Here are some of my favorite ones that I did:

A green squirrel riding a green bear.

A radical 80s fox.

A bad picture of a morphed, icing-challenged moose.

A gradient of hedgehogs.

Closeup!

The cookies and icing both tasted quite good! I was pleased. I was less pleased with the breadstick dip I attempted to make. I got the recipe from the college cookbook my mom got me for Christmas. The book is good but I think I fucked this one up by not draining the tomato after chopping it? I mean maybe I shouldn't have put all the liquidy tomato stuff in, I think that might be why it turned out so runny. Not sure where all the bubbles came from though. That was weird. It was still liquidy and bubbly after being in the fridge for a day. So. I'll try this one again and adjust some things because even though it looked gross, it still tasted pretty good. I will include a photo only because want this to be a thorough report:

Thankfully the roasted tomato recipe from the same book turned out much better. Eventually. Here they are pre-roasting, all set out on aluminum foil on a baking sheet:



When they first went in the oven I was a bit alarmed at the loud sizzling and popping sounds being emitted, but I thought it was probably just the olive oil on the aluminum. After a while I started to notice some smoke so I opened the oven and some more smoke came out. I turned off the oven and took them out and opened the windows and main suite door and ran around with my Totoro fan hoping that the smoke alarm wouldn't go off and make everyone hate me. Luckily there was very little smoke so it was fine. I did some research online and spent awhile reading about the smoke point of oils. It was moderately interesting and I found out that since my olive oil is such poor quality, the smoke point is probably lower than 400 degrees, which is what the oven was set to. Then I read all about olive oil and felt very educated and accomplished! So I went back to the kitchen and set the oven for just under 350 and tried it again. It took longer to roast but they turned out pretty well.



I liked them but next time I will use less garlic, since the garlic was hella strong. Hella strong.
It was around this time that my first knife injury occurred. It actually happened while I was washing the big Ikea knife I got, not while I was using it to cut things up. So a little bit lame, but it was at least kind of bloody.


Today I made peanut butter cookies! They were simple and fun to make (except for the arm-killing time-consuming mixing part) and they turned out really well. I gave a bunch to my friends who live down the street.



I recently bought a $65 wok at Canadian Tire for $19.49! They have good sales and I got the very last one. My hands are suuuuuper dry and weird now from all the dish washing plus the Ontario winter. I want to get some of them dish washing gloves.
That's all! The Weakerthans and Jim Bryson were amazing and a Toronto band called the Sunparlour Players opened for them, and they were amazing too. The concert was in Lee's Palace, which was used in Scott Pilgrim! The next evening I went ice skating in the snow in Nathan Phillips Square and only fell down once, and afterwards we went to Rifqi's to warm up and play Monopoly. I lost horribly. It was fun though! Baaiiiii!

I'll think of a title later (no I won't)

Hi! I have cooking stuff to tell you about but I will do that later. For now here are some old photos. I haven't gone through the last Hawaii photos yet because I've been busy editing some portraits I did for my friend's friend, but I'll post them soon. These are from Corvallis and Portland in the summer (except for the first one, which was taken in September and is the top of the building out my window). They were taken with the "jazz jelly" see-through green camera I found at Goodwill. I don't know if the pictures work so well as a set, but I like them each individually.











Tonight I'm going to see Jim Bryson and the Weakerthans! Yayyy!

An Ikea vlog.

I will learn to cook I swear

Sandwiches, sandwiches.

Hi! My god, why am I blogging so much?!
These are the last pictures from the first Diana Mini roll, and they were all taken in Hawaii.


Yesterday evening I went down the street to my friend's apartment building and a bunch of us watched hockey and ate sushi and shot pool in the club room. The actual reason for us being there was so that I could take some pictures of a girl I met through my friend. She's moving back to Japan soon and I'm not sure what the pictures were for but she wanted some nice photos of herself so Matt asked me if I could do that and I said okay. It was fun to use my digital camera again.


Kara and I have started going out for lunch every Friday, since there are so many restaurants and cafes that we think look cool but never go into. Last week we went to an Italian place in Little Italy and I had an excellent zucchini and red pepper panini. On the way back we stopped by an ice cream parlour that had one-dollar hot chocolate and chatted with the cute guy behind the counter about the decemberists. Then we went to Soundscapes record store and spent all our money on concert tickets. The week before last we went to this place in kensington market called the grilled cheese. It was a tiny place that looked like a log cabin inside and there was one woman working there and they had all these different types of grilled cheese you could get. It was amazing and pretty much my favorite place to eat in Toronto now.


On days that are not Friday I have been eating a lot of slightly expired Starbucks sandwiches that I get from my friend Shane who works there. I like how the wrapping makes the same crinkly noise as the wrapping on the sandwich that Beyonce gives Lady Gaga in the Telephone video. (Actually I'm not sure if that was a sandwich. It might have been something else.) Right now my roommate is having her soccer team over for a potluck or something and they are quite loud. I have to go out to the kitchen to wash a plate but I think I might just wait until they are gone.


My dad's and my brother's birthdays are coming up. As I was thinking about what to get them it occurred to me that I'll be turning 20 this year! Wtf! After that I will never be a teenager again!
......
...YAAAYY!!


(I should clearly be a knee model)

I think that's all. Tomorrow is Monday, so, 9am calculus with the prof that hates us.
Baaiiii!!

A problem that should not be such a big problem

Hi!
Here are some more pictures from my first Diana Mini roll. The first three were taken at the Hawaii airport, and the rest are from the yurting adventure on the Oregon coast. Overall I am pretty happy with how they turned out, and I like how I can do overlapping exposures with this camera easier than with the Holga. Plus it's a very pretty camera to carry around!
Anyway, you may notice that I never post photos of Toronto. (Well I mean I have pictures from going around different areas with Kara and Rifqi and stuff, but never any actually decent photos that I put thought into). Even though I almost always have at least one camera in my bag, I can never seem to stop, take it out, and fire the shutter. WHY?!


One thing I have noticed about Toronto is that most people seem to be either in a rush, or very concentrated on getting where they're going. Usually both. So I think I kind of got into a fast-paced habit like that too. When I'm walking to class I always look around and see and think about the things that are weird or pretty or in any way remarkable, but I keep up my pace and walk on by. Now that I'm used to passing though and seeing things on the move, it takes a lot more effort to stop and think about a still frame. Sometimes I'll turn on my ipod, shove my hands in my coat pockets and arrive at class without even having thought about photography.


Another thing is that there are actually people here. A lot of people! Everywhere!! And it makes me self-conscious and paranoid about taking pictures. I am certain that no one will care or think about it for more than a second if I stop and take out a camera. Even if they did think it was weird or something (why would they?), why should it matter to me? And people take pictures in Toronto all the time, anyway. Plus you are more anonymous in a city than anywhere else! But these reasonable arguments can't stop me from thinking:
"They'll think I'm stupid for taking a picture of a tree!"
"I'll look like a tourist!"
"If I take a picture they'll think I'm stalking them!!"
"I'll look like I'm trying to be arty and they'll think I'm all pretentious!! OH GOD, AM I PRETENTIOUS?!?!"
I love looking at street photography in particular and it's something I would really like to practice, but these thoughts are kiiiind of getting in the way.


I'm also not used to taking photos in such a dense area. Things seem to be all smashed together and it feels more messy and less natural. Also, I know that there are tons of amazing photographers swarming around Toronto, so I feel like everything I could shoot has been done before, and better. Maybe the fear of coming up with terrible pictures is subconsciously keeping me from trying at all, like people who procrastinate because they're perfectionists and so they sabotage themselves so that later they can say "I only did poorly because I left it until the last minute." But it would actually be kind of good if my pictures turned out bad, because you have to suck at something before you can be any good at it. So I'm not taking pictures because I'm afraid I'll suck, but I suck because I'm not taking any pictures?!


It's the people that are most interesting in the city, but I never really got the hang of photographing people. I think it takes a lot of patience and intuition and some luck too. And the best street photographers are the bold ones who can get up close to strangers and, like, not freak out or apologize or anything but just take a picture and move on. That is something I'll definitely have to practice.


This sounds totally crazy and like I'm over-analyzing things! I should just throw all this away and go take some fucking pictures! I've already tried that though and all this shit keeps coming back to me so that's why I wrote this post, so I can stop it from cluttering up my brain and get it organized. Now my anxieties are out of my head and onto my blog. This was probably a reallllly uninteresting post to read but at least it is over now! Thank you for reading, or skipping to the end! Baaaiiiiiii!!