Fire Island - Ocean Beach

I've heard of Fire Island for quite a while now and have been wanting to go there. We finally did. Fire Island is an island that you can only get to by boat, which is a lot of trouble because then you can't go there any time you want. And because we went on a great weather weekend, the place was crowded. Fire island has many points of destination. Since I've never been there before, I chose to go to Ocean Beach, the unofficial 'capital' of Fire Island according to www.fireisland.com web site. :)


The entire island is filled with these tiny streets that run across the island. Stores are on our side and the beach on the other. Homes are located on both sides of these streets. Kinda interesting.


We saw these two deers running around in people's backyard. Actually, they were running on the street. I think they were looking for food. I wonder how did they get to the island.


Playing hide and seek, eh? Our friends found this baby crab while playing with the sand. Disclaimer: The crab was not harmed. We released it back to the sea after only 3 minutes of looking at it.




Our friends constructing their sand empire.


Before.

And after. Joy's expression is just too funny. LOL.


This kid was trying to break the world record of the deepest hole dug on a beach.


Can you say "crowded"? This is the first time that I've gone to a beach with these many people.


Love the colors and the shadows.


The completed sand empire by our friends.


Had ice cream here shortly before the beach closed. You MUST look at these 3 people's all different face expressions, they are hilarious. It does show that they love the ice cream.


Only 16 stars on this flag which means 16 states. Wow, this flag must be really, really, really ancient, huh? :)


I like.

So I learned that Ocean Beach is more like a beach place (should have known that from the name). Next time, we definitely want to go to other points on Fire Island where there is more nature to be seen. The name "Sunken Forest" sounds good.

2nd and last Concert in the Parks for 2008

We went to one 'Concert in the Parks' on 6/25/08 already but after finding out that Liang Liang (a famous China Pianist) is going to appear in the last concert, we decided to go again. In this concert, Liang Liang was playing on this extremely eye-catching RED piano. Very cool.


Joy made this delicious rice balls herself. Amazing. They were actually tasty but I think that's because she used instant toppings.


We've had around 9 people this time and most us brought something. This is the result.


It looks small from where we sat but can you see the red piano? There are only 2 of these in the world. And on the left of the piano is Liang Liang.


This is blurred as it was hand held but this would be a pretty good photo if it was not blurred.


Notice the 3 light circles above people's head. I thought they looked like the rings on top of angel's head. :)

Man-made Waterfalls

So we heard that there are man-made waterfalls near Brooklyn and of course we wanted to go check them out. Decided to go on a Friday night after work.


Had dinner (burger and fries) at this burger place. It was pretty tasty I have to say. :)


Joy's got this "I'm hungry, when is the food coming." look.


One of the 4 waterfalls that you could see from the Brooklyn Bridge. As you can see, it's tiny from the bridge.



Sunset time.


I like this photo a lot. It's too bad the people here are too dark. :(


Saw a couple doing their wedding photos.


This is the fall that we could see from under the Brooklyn Bridge.

A few photos from May

Posted photos from back in May.
Here are some of my favorite.




What a serious looking expression. Mustache is great. His hair was even more radical on that day. Too bad I don't have a photo to show it. :(

2008 Central Park Concert by NY Philharmonic

On 06/25/08, we went to Central Park for some outdoor concert by the NY Philharmonic.  We were fortunate enough to have a friend who's playing in the concert and he was able to provide us with some lawn seating tickets that are a little closer to the stage and saved us from having to try to find a spot in the more crowded outer lawn.


Much more crowded out there.


Karin, Joy and I got to the park an hour before the concert starts. I was bored and a short impromptu portrait session of Karin starts.


Our entire group except me. :)




Right after the concert, a short fireworks starts.


Hand held shooting. I don't think I can get sharp fireworks photos that way. However, I still like these blurred photos. I think the patterns are intriguing.

You'll be green with envy

Guess what my wife (Joy) and I were doing?

1. Preparing for a Halloween party.
2. We love "Wicked" so much that we want to be just like the witch.
3. Or may be trying to be the hulk.
4. Plain mud fun.
5. Camouflaging to prepare for paint ball.

Correct Answer: plain mud fun.

One day, Joy wanted to do this face mud business. Since the skin of my face is so dry, she wanted me to do the same. After us exchanging some "no", "yes" back and forth, I reluctantly agreed to try.

Being the first time putting the mud on my face, it certainly was a new experience. The mud is originally moist (dark green portion) but when the mud starts to dry (the light green portion), I could feel my skin being tightened.

Because this is something that I might never do again, I decided to take a photo of both us having some mud fun. The reason that we have such a "peaceful" expression on our face is because we have to keep the mud surface not cracked and any movement of the face might destroy the smooth mud surface. But this is a great photo, no? =D

June 17, 2008 - Firefox 3 World Record Day

If you don't know what Firefox is or don't use it currently, I HIGHLY recommend that you go download it on June 17, 2008 and use it. The version 3 that is coming out on June 17 is a much, much better browser than IE (Internet Explorer) is.

And if you download it on June 17, you'll help Firefox set a Guinness World Record. How fun is that? Hahaha~~

Click on the image for more detail.


*** Update *** Official release time starts at 10AM Pacific. Or 1PM Eastern.

*** Update (7/2/08) *** It's official. Firefox set a world record. 8,002,530 downloads in 24 hours. Hahaha~~