Gear obsession is a disease that I have seen affect every person I know. It certainly has affected me. To me, gear obsession is the obsession with a physical object that causes the the owner to lose sight of the true purpose of the object. This could be obsession with the aesthetics of the object, the potential uses for the object, what people might think of the object or the specifications of the object.

I frequent many communities that are dedicated to my hobbies: photography, cars, running, computers. I find that there are too many posts in these forums, subreddits, etc. that ignore the art altogether. Photography communities are full of posts and reviews of gear. Car forums devolve into discussions of 0-60 times and power to weight ratios. Running communities are full of posts about the best shoes or the best gels. Computer related communities are the worst. They are just full of arguments about hardware.

Have we all lost our minds? Have we forgotten what we purchased these items for? If everyone spent as much time on honing and practicing their art as they did obsessing over their gear, then the world would be a more vibrant place.

Sometimes I find myself reading reviews of the newest mirrorless camera, or the latest L lens that Canon has released, only to realize that I am forgetting the true purpose of photography gear. I realize that I already have a great set of photo gear. It may not be what the pros use or the newest, but it easily gives me the potential to capture award winning photos. In the time that I spent watching videos and reading reviews, I could have experimented with the ND filter I made (post coming soon) or I could have taken a photo walk in one of the local hiking trails.

Having a car with a slightly faster 0-60 time isn’t going to increase your happiness by much. You know what will? Driving up a beautiful driving road and enjoying a scenic vista will.

Having the most sophisticated computer with the latest components won’t make you happy. Using that computer to create the next hot webapp or a piece of digital art will.

Don’t forget the true purpose of the things we buy. No one including you will remember how great your gear was. Go use the tools you have purchased to make yourself happier. Go create something and change the world.

Last Sunday, Amelia, Jeffrey, John, Katherine, and I drove down to Monterey to see the aquarium. When we arrived at Monterrey, we parked and tool a leisurely walk toward the wharf for lunch.

Chatting, while waiting for our crepes to arrive.

Some of the local wildlife.

After lunch, we walked the other way to the aquarium.

This tree looks like an explosion.

Kelp forest exhibit at the aquarium:

Various shrimp and colorful fish:

Brittle Stars!

Interesting flat fish:

My favorite section by far was the jellyfish exhibit.

The open water tank. John and I sat and watched the sharks, turtles, tuna and other fish at this tank for at least 20 minutes.

The last section we saw is the seahorse exhibit.

I loved our trip to the aquarium. I feel like aquariums have a relaxing effect. They are intellectually stimulating, but are also entertaining in a purely aesthetic way. I definitely want to visit another aquarium soon.

Last Sunday morning, Katherine messaged me about a last minute plans to visit the de Young Museum in San Francisco. I scrambled to finish my morning run and caught a ride with Amelia, Keito and his roommate, Ben.

When we arrived there, we spent almost all of the time up until closing at the Jean Paul Gaultier special exhibit. I don’t know much about fashion. So, I’ll limit this post to pictures and a few captions.

Jean Paul Gaultier’s signature at the entrance to the exhibit.

Interesting embossed metal.

The first room. All the mannequins had faces projected on them and could talk.

I really liked this chariot-inspired tête-à-tête chair

Some anatomy inspired pieces for stage performance. I really like the built-in holsters for the battery powered mic system.

Some interesting gowns.

By far the most time consuming of the pieces we saw. The leopard print is composed entirely of colored beads and took more than 1000 hours to make.

Some of the interesting materials and details.

I really liked this cigarette holster.

I ‘ve only posted a handful of photos in this post. Check out the rest of my photos in the complete Flickr set: 2012 Jean Paul Gaultier Exhibit @ de Young Museum

Early this month we threw another party. We followed the same equation we used for Brohauswarming: food and drinks at the beginning, drinks and music after. I think the party went well and everyone had a lot of fun.

The food:

Everyone hanging out outside.

My favorite part of the party was the glow stick/dance party we had inside. I set up a tripod with my 30D and EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 wide-angle lens in the corner for long exposures. Here are a few of my favorites.

Some shots from the end of the party:

The next day, the weather was amazing. So, we opened the doors to the second floor balcony and chilled in JJ’s room.

Last year, I processed the first photos from my Olympus XA film camera from the early 1980s. I finally got around to processing my second set of photos. First up are some photos I took when Vishnu visited my in New York.

Penn Station:

Princeton:

Grimaldi’s

A sign advertising a subway line that no longer exists:

Liberty Hall, Philadelphia:

Sights around Columbia:

Dinner at Totto Ramen:

Hanging out in E.C.:

The view from my room. I miss it so much!

Picnic on the unusually warm day in March:

Back in Plano:

Farmers market and hike with Katherine in Palo Alto:

Hike with Mark, John and Katherine in Ano Nuevo State Park:

See my Flickr set of all my XA photos and the slideshow below:

I received a package yesterday from Hong Kong.

I opened it up to find two copies of the most recent issue of the Asia Literary Review.

Late last year, I got an email from one of the staff at the magazine. They had found the photo below on Flickr and wanted to use it. I said it would be fine as long as the attribute the picture properly.

I was only expecting the picture to be used in an article.

To my surprise, it is also featured on the back cover!

This year I received some awesome holiday gifts!

First up is Monty Python Fluxx. My roommate John gave it to me. I can’t wait to play it.

Next is the gift I received in the annual secret santa that my group of friends from Columbia do together. Sean was my secret santa this year and he gave me this awesome DIY twin lens reflex camera kit. I already built it and hope to try it out soon.

Last year was the first year I participated in Reddit Secret Santa. My secret santa was really awesome. He did some stalking on the internet and found my flickr page. He then framed and matted the photo that he liked the best. It was a great gift. This year’s secret santa again didn’t disappoint. He bought me a load of stuff from thinkgeek.com. My favorite item is the remote controlled LED bulb. I think it is going to make great mood lighting for my room.

Last week, Sean, Vinny, Meixin, and Phil came to the bay to hang out and sight see. Since a bunch of us from the same group in Columbia were already living in the bay, we had a holiday potluck and white elephant exchange. I first picked an angry bird plushie, but that was stolen from me. In the ensuing chain of stealing, I ended up with a Lego set!

Caroline sent me a great travel journal. I wish I could travel soon so that I can use it. ^^ She also sent me a load of candy. She explained that the flat rate box wasn’t full and that she sent the chocolate to fill it. I’m pretty sure she actually sent it to try to make me fat. ;P

My parents sent me a huge K’NEX roller coaster set. It is actually the first K’NEX set I have ever owned. As a kid I was a huge Lego fan and never bought into any of the other construction toy systems. When completed, the set features two mirror image tracks, plenty of inversions and curves and a motor to drive the chain. It also came with a speaker to connect a music player to.

The biggest surprise was the gift Chithra gave me. She bought me a KitchenAid stand mixer! I always dreamed of having one, but I never expected to have one before I settle down and have my own place. Time to do some baking!

The first thing I noticed when I moved from Plano to Palo Alto is the beauty of the area. The streets are lined with colorful trees and the houses are all painted in cute pastel colors. I started documenting the beauty in photos and this is the first of probably many posts featuring them.

The first three photos are of my street after many of the trees all started losing their leaves.

At the end of November this year, there was a day when most of the bay was blanketed in fog. It was too cold and I was too hungry to venture out for a long time to capture some shots, but I did manage a few.

Finally, a self portrait.

Back in October, Caroline made a visit to California for a week. I didn’t take too many photos when she was here, but I did carry my 30D and 28-135 along when we visited the Natural Bridges State Beach. The state beach is famous not only for its rock formations on the coast, but also its population of Monarch Butterflies. The eucalyptus grove on the grounds acts as a sanctuary for migrating butterflies.

The first butterfly we saw wasn’t a monarch, but it was beautiful nevertheless.

We spotted a few chrysalises in the caterpillar nursery.

Caterpillars were munching away and becoming fat in preparation for their transformation to butterflies.

The sanctuary was packed with butterflies. I have never seen so many in my life. Next time I go, I’m going to go with a lens with longer reach so that I can capture much bigger photos of the monarchs.

The views off the coast.

Looked like mother was teaching her baby how to fish.

After some time at Natural Bridges, we made our way over to Año Nuevo State Park to take a short hike and to get a look at the Elephant Seals.

This guy was fearlessly resting on the hiking path. He looked battle worn.

The hiking terrain varied from gravel paths to sand dunes.

At the end of the hike, we finally reached the seals. Unfortunately, most of them were sleeping. -_-

Before heading home, we rested and made zen gardens in the sand . ^^

I recently installed Skype on my work PC. When I tried to exit, I found that I had to jump through hoops to close Skype. It isn’t the most favorable experience. Here is how it went:

In most Windows applications, pressing the large red X button on the top right closes that window. If that window is the last window left of that application, the whole application exits and you don’t see it in the start taskbar or in the notification area. You can assume that Skype on windows should behave the same way. Right?

Wrong! Pressing the X just collapses the window into the taskbar. That is the exact same behavior that is observed when you press the minimize button. I don’t get it. Whey even have the X up there if it does the exact same thing as the minimize button?

At this point, I am tempted to just ctrl+alt+del and kill the process, but instead I give Skype a chance and right click the icon on the taskbar to see if it gives me any options. And there it is! The elusive option to actually quit Skype.

I click the option and guess what! Skype pops up a dialog box asking me if I actually want to exit. Really? You think I right clicked the icon on the taskbar, and then clicked “quit skype” all on accident?

This sort of stuff really bugs me. Why is Skype ignoring already established patterns? Why is Skype making it so annoying to use their product?