city times

Spring Break--late March--I went to New York for three days. 

Fifth Avenue clouds.

Times Square at night.

Park Avenue, my absolute favorite street in the city.

Vintage Manhattan.

Mmmmm, buildings on the Park.

Grand Central.

This is not sponsored.

    /\ taken with Nikon D3100 in Monterey, CA. \/ taken with phone in my house. 

For a while, I've been seeing photos pop up on my Instagram newsfeed with the hashtag "vscocam". I soon realized that "vscocam" was an application you can download to pre-edit your photos for Instagram.

Today I downloaded the VSCO Cam app. And it's wonderful!

Since I first got my Instagram I've been really against the idea of editing photos with third-party editors. Also I disliked how people would post photos taken with a professional camera on a network meant for capturing quick moments with a cellphone. While I still stand by my later statement, I take back the former.

VSCO Cam allows you to put natural looking edits on photos, and then post them directly to any social network. I can't wait to take a nice picture soon, and then post it to Instagram...not before editing it on VSCO Cam before though.

PS: this post was written over a month ago, and I've actually had VSCO cam for quite a while now.

Documenting My Day

6 pm. Wednesday. 17 April 2013

5:30 am: Wake up, shower, eat cereal, get dressed.
6:43 am: Leave home, get on bus.
6:55 am: Arrive at school. Walk downstairs to location where I like to sit before school really starts. Talk to people n' stuff.
7:20 am: First bell rings. Walk to locker room because I have PE.
7:35 am: After using up as much time as possible to change into my gym clothes (even though I just got dressed an hour before, ughhh), go outside and do silly PE activities.
8:10 am: Leave locker room late after being let out from PE late.
8:15 am: History class. Easy but boring. Watch film on Cuban Missile Crisis. Eh. Eat half of my lunch during movie. Mmm.
9:05 am: Time for French. My teacher sucks. Of course she doesn't know any of the verbs. Why would she? Did I mention we don't actually start doing anything until 9:35? 30 minutes of teacher trying to get the slideshow up.
10:00 am: Walk to Tech room.  Nope, computer lab today. Walk to computer lab 250. Work on Chernobyl/Katrina project. Finish project.
10:50 am: Lunch time. Go to turf field and eat outside. Leave slightly before the bell rings so I don't risk being late to my next class.
11:40 am: Biology. This teacher scares me. This teacher confuses me. Lab on dichotomous keys. Easy breezy beautiful.
12:25 pm: Leave Bio room and go downstairs to English. Finish annotating Atticus' closing speech to the jury. Timed writing. Oh no.
1:20 pm: Exit English room after a stressful timed writing. Now onto math. Unit test tomorrow. Re-take on Friday. I hate Geometry.
2:10 pm: Leave school, get on bus.
2:30 pm: Arrive at house. Walk upstairs and get changed into pajamas. Eat yogurt.
3:00 pm: History homework. Finish Science lab. Frequent internet breaks.
4:00 pm: Treadmill.
4:30 pm: Shower.
5:00 pm: Read Hemingway book. Study for Geometry test.
6:00 pm: Currently.


PS: the times I give are approximate; they may not be 100% exact, but they're pretty close.

through the clouds

This past summer, as you know from reading this blog, I took a trip to Northern California. In order to get a cheaper flight from the east to the west, I had a quick layover at LAX before flying to SFO.

When you're soaring miles above the ground, it's always sunny. Even if there's a rainstorm, the sky is blue and bright just meters above the clouds. So for most of the six hour flight to LAX, it was sunny.

As the plane started it's descent, a jumble of clouds appeared below. Soon the plane was cutting through a thick, never-ending selection of heavy clouds. I use the word 'cutting' since it wasn't at all smooth like I've experienced with past plane/cloud interaction. In the case of the arrival to LAX, the plane--and the passengers--felt as though it was trying to cut a piece of frozen cake with a plastic knife.

Two minutes went by, and land was finally visible. Except it wasn't the sunny city I was expecting from the view out my window just minutes before. I realized that the plane had just flown through what I'll call "overcast" clouds.

Landing in Los Angeles and seeing the overcast weather I couldn't help but become instantly fascinated with the thought that the sun was always out.

Next on my travel wish list: Outer Space.

final noms- Food Photography

A cold winter's eve. Watching something on Netflix.

Preparations for all the baking that we do in winter. Exciting stuff.

Successfully made meringues.

After Argo. Lunch at Le Pain Quotidien. In addition to the rolls, I consumed some smoked salmon and nutella-esque spread.

Le jams of Le Pain.

One morning I decided to make myself a fancy American breakfast.

Finished product! The corn tasted bad, but the rest of the meal was pretty American and good. And salty.

I got suprised with a huge sticky bun from an organic bakery. IT WAS SO GOOD.

We made pecan bars, and they were pretty spectacular. In the basement fridge there are still a few bars left, actually.

This is the final post of my iPhone pictures! Bon appetite!

sweets and falafel- Food Photography

Whole Foods, picking up lunch.

Mmmmmm. So in Pittsburgh there's a bakery that makes the most delicious cinnamon bread in the universe.  (You can actually see the brown sugary cinnamon oozing out for the bread!) When I'm visiting family there, I have this usually every morning.

Macaroons at a cute café. Pittsburgh.

This is a bar of chocolate purchased at Godiva's Black Friday sale. And this picture was taken in the car coming home from Pittsburgh. There was snow!

As part of the required culture lessons in French 3, my teacher decided to have us bake crepes.

Christmas cookies!

Chocolate muffins made with cake mix and a can of pumpkin.

One morning I woke up to a plate of Parisian pastries laying on the kitchen counter. The pastries in the middle were the best--apple tarts.

carbs, candy, and protein OH MY- Food Photography

Food Photography time. I have three posts worth of reluctant carbs, candy, and protein for my dear readers. 

Whenever my parents pick up a baguette, I turn it into garlic bread. Salty, chewy, AND crunchy!

I followed a recipe for one chocolate chip cookie, and ended up with that huge cookie pie, featuring Reese's Pieces.

The first time I bought lunch at school--by myself! I got this delicious sandwich at the grocery store. Then I went to eat it outside. I miss October just a tad bit.

<3 this picture, mainly due to its contents.

Cupcakes! If you're curious, the occasion was a French party before winter break. Although you never need an occasion to make cupcakes. Just make 'em.

Fro-yo at the mall.

This is one of my FAVORITE dishes at a local high-end Asian restaurant. It's Tokyo dashi broth with egg noodles and beef. My guilty pleasure food is 100% good Asian dishes.

Altoids; a staple in my room and in my mouth.