Hmmm

I haven't posted much lately. I'm not sure why. I've signed in a few times with the purpose of making a post, but I don't have anything to say. I've just been trying to get by these days. You know, when there's just too much going on and your head kind of spins when you think of everything that needs to be done? Pretty stressed. My photo class on Sundays has been great for stress relief. It got me out of the house and got my mind off of life. Riding the train is great. Chatting with friends is great. Sadly, the class wrapped up yesterday. I have to go to immigration tomorrow. Grace's passport expires this month. I'm sure there are other things.

If all goes well, I should be feeling a lot better after Valentine's Day. By then, the Seollal holiday will be over, and one deadline passed. But there will still be more to do. What I really need is a vacation, but there are none in our near future. I don't think Sejin would mind spending the money on a vacation now, but he would have to quit his job in order to get vacation time. That sounds extreme, but if you're familiar with Korean work culture, you'll know it's true. Last year he got four days vacation (yes, not even a full week). So, no fun for us. Honestly, I can't even look through friends' vacation albums on facebook, I burn with envy.

Hopefully I will return next post in a better mood!

Ynnos Funnypaper

I applied to test a Korean product. The condition was that I have to do a review in as many places as possible. So, I put an album on Facebook, and I'll do a little review here. I will be totally honest in my review.

The product is "Funny Paper" by a Korean company called Ynnos. They make paper furniture for kids. There are many types of furniture available, from desks and chairs, to playhouses and bookshelves. I was given the chair and desk set to try out. I gave it to Grace as a gift on Christmas Day since it had come in the mail just a couple days earlier.

The product was a bit fiddly to put together, but by the time I finished putting the pieces together, I was doing it faster. I think if I were to buy another paper product, I could put it together easier. Anyway, once it was put together, I let Grace do the testing. She really liked it. She doesn't have a table and chair set. I was thinking of getting her one, but since we are leaving Korea soon, I didn't want to spend the money on one, and have to throw out a huge hunk of plastic. The paper furniture is perfect in this regard because when we finally move, I can just recycle it.

Grace is only two years old and she can easily sit on the chair and use the desk. She sometimes sits there to read books, play with her blocks, make phone calles, etc. She gave it a good strength test by trying to climb on it. There is no danger of this set collapsing. The design makes it really sturdy.I think this is a fun product for little ones. It's so different from the same old plastic table and chairs set, and of course, it is more environmentally friendly. This would make a great gift for a little kid, too. I am kind of interested in the bookshelves and might look into purchasing one or two before going back to Canada.

I said this would be an honest review, so here are the cons. There are only two cons I can think of. First, since the table top is made of strips of folded cardboard, if a child is drawing or colouring on a single sheet of paper, the pencil or crayon might punch through since the top is not even. This is easily solved by laying down a large book for the child to put the paper on. The second problem is that it cannot be wiped clean. I do not give Grace any milk or snacks at her desk because if there was a spill, it would soak in and leave a giant stain and probably make the surface wrinkled. Even if your child has slightly dirty hands, touching the cardboard will leave fingermarks. The answer here, of course, is to simply not use it for serving food.

That's it. I think it's a great product and recommend it to anyone with small children. Check it out!

Freezing Fotographers

Yesterday was our second photography class this month and it was scheduled to be our "outside" class. I think we were all secretly hoping our instructor would reschedule class or do something indoors, but no such luck. We were out there shooting away on probably the coldest day this winter. I'm not sure what the temperature was. Around -15. A couple of times my fingers would not funtion to press the shutter button and once I think my brain froze and I was trying to open the aperture with the wrong dial for the longest time. Nonetheless, it was fun, and we really weren't outside for that long. We tried our hand at fill flash for while, went inside for a coffee, and then went out to do some street photography.

Make it stop

I had no idea when I got my camera what an obsession it would become. The worst part about it has been wanting all kinds of extras for it. When I first got it with the 35mm 1.8 lens, I thought that it would be all I ever needed, but that idea faded pretty quickly. I fear I am at the height of the "gearfaggotry" stage seen in the all-too-true graph below. I had a good laugh when I saw this because it is somewhat accurate when it comes to my progress. I am obsessed with thinking about photo gear, I may get a tripod sometime soon, and I have considered trying HDR. Lately I've been doing a lot of research about special effects filters. And I've even been thinking about getting into film! Ugh.

Happy 2nd Birthday

to my little Grace.

The time certainly has flown.

The first year was hard for me. It was hard adjusting to having someone who depended on me every waking moment (even all night long).

The second year was easier as we learned how to communicate. These days she's talking up a storm in two languages. It definitely makes things easier, and more fun.

I look forward to many more years together.

We didn't do anything special today. I had to work, so she went to daycare. I picked her up earlier and we went to the bakery. Then we ate dinner and had some chocolate cake. She had a chocolate lollipop after that, which probably wasn't the best idea, as she was still up at 9:30pm. Sejin is home on Sunday, so we'll celebrate properly then.

Obsessive

I think I have some kind of weird personality disorder. Whenever I start a new hobby, I get completely obsessed...like thinking about it all the time and abandoning all my responsibilities to do it. When I started knitting five or six years ago, I knit around the clock, watched knitting videos on youtube constantly, brought my knitting to work, etc. I even dreamed about knitting. Eventually the craziness wore off, but I kept with knitting and gained skills slowly and steadily like you're supposed to, and now I'd say I'm a pretty confident knitter (and crocheter).

This same thing is happening with photography. I spend way too much time browsing flickr, reading photoshop tutorials, researching camera and lighting equipment. I'm having lots of photography related dreams as well. I have no idea what is wrong with my brain. I just hope the obsession phase wears off soon so I can regain some normalcy in my life. It's going to take many years for me to develop enough skill to take good pictures, so I need to calm down and relax. Sejin says he wishes I was so obsessive about my work. I do, too. January is going to be a long tough month as I have several books to write. Time to log off here and get started with some writing.

K-pop

My friend CedarBough does a good K-Pop review every once in a while. I'm not into K-Pop at all, but I know some of my readers are, so check out her blog for some really interesting reviews.
Here is the latest.

Thoughts on 2011

The new year is less than 1.5 hours away, so why not write a post about what I hope to get done in 2011?

2011 is going to be HUGE for my family. I'm leaving Korea after being here about 9 years. I don't know what I'm going back to. I haven't driven a car in years, I haven't done banking there in years, I've never owned a car or a home...It's going to be a big change, but a change I'm looking forward to.

Since I'll be going through this big move, I'm not going to make a lot of hard-to-achieve resolutions. I am simply resolved to get through the move with grace (ha!) and begin the process of settling in Canada. But of course, there are a few things I would like to do.

- finish my current writing contract by deadline. I really must do this. I'm way behind, but I want to complete this project well and leave Korea feeling proud of this achievement.

- treat myself better. Over the last two years, I have let myself go a bit. Simply getting a haircut regularly and going to sleep an hour earlier would help a lot.

- improve my knitting and photography. Yesterday I crocheted a hat using no pattern. I'd like to do more of this, and if possible, write at least one pattern for publication (even if only on this blog). As for photography, I'd like to continue to see myself improve. I'm really enjoying this new hobby.

- get photos printed regularly. This is really embarrassing to admit, but I haven't had photos printed in about two years. It's so easy to get them printed, so I really have no excuse. I need to make a book of Grace's baby photos.

- spend less time on the computer. This is the hardest one. I do enjoy my Internet time after Grace goes to sleep. I love editing photos while checking facebook, flickr, and ravelry occassionally. But I really spend too much time online.

That's it! Happy New Year!

New projects

I have been in with Grace for the past four days. As I wrote about previously, she's been sick. I love spending time with her, but after the third day in sitting around, fetching her milk and warming up her miyokguk, I start to get bored (and stressed -- my work isn't doing itself). So yesterday I decided she needed a new hat. The one she's been wearing has been giving her a rash on her forehead. It's a tad too tight, and a really cheap acrylic yarn, so I think it's got to go... into a box, I mean. I keep all the stuff I make for her. It was good for a few photos, anyway. This is the one. I don't think I did a post on it.

Grace doesn't allow me to use the computer, so I couldn't look up a pattern. So I got out some old yarn and started crocheting, trying the hat on her as I went. It's definitely not perfect, but I think it's cute, and it's very soft, so I'm sure it won't irritate her skin.

I'm now working on a knitted stuffed elephant. My mom brought me a Knit Simple magazine when she visited me over two years ago. I was expecting Grace at the time and we both agreed the elephant was the cutest pattern in the magazine. I'm sure she'll be happy to hear I'm finally getting around to knitting it. It will be really cool if I can still read the pattern by the end of it, because Grace likes scribbling in it as I knit.

Sick of sickness

Grace is sick again. Ear infection and mild tonsilitis. I'm starting to get really tired of this. Last winter I endured with the thought that she is building up a strong immune system. However, I thought the illnesses would have tapered off by now. It seems she is rarely well for more than a week at a time and then she's coming down with something else. Not only do I hate seeing her sick, but it really messes with my work schedule. I am so far behind, I'm not sure what to do. Let's just say January is going to be a pretty messy month. And then there will be February. And I will buy myself a nice gift. I'm thinking a new lens. But really, why is she sick so much? She does not seem to be unhealthy. She eats and sleeps well. I posted about my frustration in my Facebook status update and a friend had an interesting story to tell. She said that her son was also constantly sick from being at daycare. Then she switched daycares and her son was well for four months straight. So that got me thinking. Anyway, I think I might take her out of daycare in February, a little earlier than planned.Speaking of lenses, I've fallen back in love with my 35mm prime lens. After shooting with my Tamron 17-50 for a few weeks straight and then switching back, the quality is very much noticeable. So much so, that I'm considering selling the Tamron to add another prime to my collection. I'm thinking a 50 1.4 or 85 1.8... or who knows? I think I'm a prime person, that's all I know.