red text space

So everyone is playing with HDR images these days, I might as well share my recent HDR “masterpiece.”

First, 3 images were shot with auto-bracketing. It was very cloudy out, so the pictures kinda sucked. By the way, it’s the Brooklyn Bridge.

After PhotoShop’s “Merge to HDR” automation:

Then adjusted with Topaz Adjust’s filter. Done.

Click, click, click and done. Quite impressive, considering the source pictures were completely trash!

What the hell? Since Monday I had bitter taste after eating anything, whether it’s sweet, sour, salty or spicy; and of course, bitter. My saliva just got bitterer after sautéed mustard greens. And that’s not just the after taste. It’s almost as if I have this constant flow of bitter saliva right after eating. It’s so weird.

I have been searching “bitter taste” but I couldn’t find anything. Until I searched again with the terms “after eating” then I found out it may be related to pine nuts. Pine nuts?

I rarely eat pine nuts, but I did have some pine nuts in my salad on Sunday when we ate out. As there’s definitely a number of people out there who are experiencing the same thing, I had to wonder that this is no coincidence.

I, too, thought I was going to die! Seriously. But what the heck? Now, the question is, when the hell is it going to go away? Do you mean those pine nuts continue to stay in my body after a few days? Whatever the heck is in the pine nuts, it’s simply freaky.

According to the entry of pine nuts on Wikipedia:

Risks of eating pine nuts
A small minority of pine nuts can cause taste disturbances, developing 1–3 days after consumption and lasting for days or weeks. A bitter, metallic taste is described. Though very unpleasant, there are no lasting effects. … Also, it has been hypothesized that this bitter side affect is caused by an allergy that some people may have to pine nuts, but this does not explain the recent appearance of this syndrome. Metallic taste disturbance known as metallogeusia, are reported 1-3 days after ingestion, being worse on day 2 and lasting for up to 2 weeks. …

A post on UK’s Mail Online last year has also mentioned the phenomenon.

Get your Portable ID!

This is a completely insane model. I am wordless.

“レゴで世界遺産の金閣寺を作りました。飛び出る絵本の様に飛び出します。 ”

Via The Brothers Brick

First a soumen shop for home…

…then a skill-free gyoza maker…

Photo credit: Pina Bausch (Photo by Atsushi Iijima)

My first experience with Pina Bausch was her 1997 piece Der Fensterputzer (The Window Cleaner) which was created in collaboration with the Hong Kong Arts Festival Society and the Goethe-Institut Hong Kong. I saw the premiere in Hong Kong just before the handover. A couple of years later, I was lucky enough to live New York and see every one of Tanztheater Wuppertal’s performances at BAM since then: Danzón (1995), Für die Kinder von gestern, heute und morgen (2002), Nefés (2003), Sweet Mambo (2008) and Bamboo Blues (2007).

It’s hard to believe that I will never see her new work ever again. It saddens me to think that I’ll never have a chance to take a brief glimpse at her timid and introvert self at the end of every performances at BAM. Each the piece that I was lucky enough to see had a very special place in my heart. They all moved and touched me tremendously. It makes me weep just by remembering the bodies have moved…

Guardian: Pina Bausch, German choreographer and dancer, dies

NY Times: Pina Bausch Dies

You can totally use it as a urinal at the same time. Brilliant!

Via Gizmodo

On December 18 last year, we went to a restaurant for dinner in the village, we eaves-dropped, trying to figure out who the party sitting next to us were: they were celebrating this familiar-looking older guy’s birthday. We knew he’s the guy we see around the city selling potato peelers, and the guy, who was obviously very interested in him, has to be a writer.

On the way home, we were extremely obsessed and tried Googling their names on the phone. And voila, we were right: writer Howard Kaplan was celebrating Joe Ades’ birthday that evening. It was Kaplan who wrote the article about Joe Ades’ amazing story for Vanity Fair.

Last Sunday, Joe Ades passed away. Obviously I don’t know Mr. Ades, I haven’t even bought a potato peeler from him. I might have seen him a few times in my years living in New York. Nonetheless, I feel sad. Sad because knowing I was right behind him when he celebrated his last birthday not even 2 months ago. And he seemed really contented that evening.