Summer Spectacular @ Cameron Park

Cameron Park Lake: Great place to spend a summer evening

From a local colleague's recommendation, a few of us spent last Saturday evening at a pre 4th of July festivities at his community in Cameron Park called Summer Spectacular. The annual event is held at the park lake and has the usual assortment of stalls selling crafts and food which is supposed to be capped off with a great fireworks display.

The fair was nothing much to write home about, so after a cursory look at the stalls, we went to grab the best available spot for the evening finale. Most of the good locations were already taken but we managed to find an empty spot that we thought was pretty decent (We later found out that we sat under a lamp post... that explains why no one wanted the place. Fortunately, it did not distract from the evening display).

The fireworks started around 8:45pm once dusk came and it was just awesome. The fantastic light show lasted more than 20minutes and was the best I've seen yet. The New Year fireworks display at Sacremento absolutely suck and this one more than made up for it.

Here's a sampling of shots I managed to snap with my newly bought tripod. My digi cam was set up for a 5 second exposure with an aperture of F8.0. I didn't focus too much on fiddling with the settings as I wanted to pay attention to the show. In hindsight, I could have use a shorter exposure, which should produce better shots by having less diffusion in the light streaks.

Enjoy. I know I did. :) (Click on any pic for a larger view)

Rebates

Today I finally received my last rebate from last year's Black Friday mad shopping spree. It took this Canadian company 7 freaking months (Black Friday fell on Nov 25 last year) to send me the measly $10 check; I actually wrote off any thoughts of getting this but what a surprise. This made last year's Black Friday a complete success as I managed to get back all the rebates, totalling $423. Hahaha, yeah, I spent a bomb on electronic toys... but quite a few were FAR (Free after rebates), so what the heck.

The rebate bought back memories of the fun times spent coordinating the spree. 5 of us met a few times to find the best bargains and coordinate activities at my place a few days before the event. The basic idea was each went to a particular store and grab the stuff for everyone based on the list we made up. This way, we managed to get over 90% of the stuff we wanted ( most of the really good stuff were extremely limited in numbers). Oh, the good old times:D We were actually lining up at 2am waiting for the stores to open at 6am in the freaking cold....and it even drizzled a bit...

My haul: lots of FAR stuff. The receipts are in the front. :D

The crowd at Fry's Electronics @ 5-6am Nov 25 2005. And more were coming by the minute.

Shrooms

Always loved the taste of mushrooms; shitake mushrooms are a particular favourite back home. Over in the states, the widely available variety are button mushrooms and they're heavenly.....

My mind's foggy but I can't seem to recall the button shrooms back in Msia tasting so good; the ones over here are whiter and larger compared to the canned pathetically small brown ones we find back in Msia.

Been using sauted shrooms in most of my cooking in the past month and it's one of the things I can't get bored of consuming.....

Did you know that in the old days, Egyptian royalty were the only one who could eat shrooms? Commoners couldn't even touch them. I wholeheartedly support with the Egyptian pharoahs who had such foresight to corner the market......

Enough blogging; time to plan my next shroom feast.......

-Burp. Excuse me.

To continue on the culinary vein, here's some shots of the sinfully delicious treats I had the fortune to try.....Denny's Pancakes swimming in maple syrup
Roadside clam chowder

Chicken Teriyaki dinner setyummy Gelato
Typical diner breakfast Seafood anyone?

Applebee's Pork RibsPink's famous chili dogs

ESPN the Zone's Back Back Back RibsHonourig the Italian flag

Sushi feast

Dragon roll

Chilli's Monterey Chicken & Baby Back Ribs

One of those days

Lethargy sets in; the inclination and motivation to be productive seeps away as the day goes on. Counting moments, passing time with attempts to focus interspersed with frequent breaks of surfing and chatter. Mind's half awake and the inner child is screaming his head off for a change. Welcome to my world.

-Sigh. Snap out of it.



As I toil through the day, my mind takes flight and it made a nostalgic stop down memory lane....

Took these shots of the river bank at Negro Bar, Folsom. According to a friend, the 1st African Americans set up a thriving community here before there was a town in Folsom. It's now a State Park and a popular site for recreational activities like BBQs.

The expatriates had a BBQ here last October. Didn't know half the crowd and the dialogue progressed smoothly in mandarin throughout the evening, leaving me lots of time to experiment with my camera as soon as I grabbed the tripod someone bought along.

Am I still me?

A friend asked me if this year long trip has changed me. Have I? It's kinda hard to judge yourself; somethings are just clearer when seen from the outside. Let's not talk about the superficial stuff; we were referring to the intrinsics that define you. Your principles and outlook in life; not your hairstyle, weight or the way you talk (though that could be a sign of deeper things....)

Granted, the experiences and the exposure to the workstyle, culture & life here has widen my perspective. It's been a great eye opener and I've grown in so many aspects that I doubt I would have had I stayed back in Penang.

Having said that, I somehow feel that I'm essentially still the same impatient clumsy guy I was a year back. I still have the same habits and interests, I still get worked up about idiotic behaviour and I have still have yet to achieve the level of fitness that I always wanted. In other words, I'm still the same lazy slacker you all know and love. Grin.

What do you think dear readers? Am I different? Of course I am, but how much so?

-Must be one of those introspective days..... Tales of death and endings tend to have such an effect on me.

Brentwood

Although recently we had a 3 day weekend with Memorial Day falling on a Monday, I decided against joining the rest who were heading to either Vegas or Yellowstone National Park. Been to Vegas twice and the 16 hour drive after work to reach Yellowstone did not really appeal to me. Must be getting old......

Anyway, the few of us left in Folsom decided to do something that's easy on the wallet as well as the body. On a friend's suggestion, we took a leisurely drive southwards to Brentwood to try our hand at cherry-picking. There's various fruit farms in the county and it's supposed to be cherry season amongst others.

The 2 hour drive down there flew by but the 1st 2 cherry farms we came to were closed! The 1st farm was packed with people swarming the cherry trees and the 2nd told us that we came too early in the season. Due to the late Spring this year, most of the cherries were not fully ripened...They were selling picked cherries at the fruit stands but we wanted to actually choose and pick our own cherries.

Since we were in the vicinity, we decided to check if there were other farms opened for self-picking. Luck must be on our side and we found that the Lopez Ranch was open for business.

The Lopez Ranch: Rows upon rows of trees brimming full of juicy cherries!

The locals call this U-pick and we were each given a basket to hold the fruits that we selectively picked off the trees. There's no entry charge and you only pay for the fruits that you want to bring back. In other words, we can sample/eat/gorge ourselves on as many cherries as your stomach can hold while in the farm.

Eagerly, we dove right in and starting picking. Fresh, ripe cherries are absolutely heavenly delicious! Throw away those preserved, sweetend canned stuff you typically find on cakes/pastries; that ain't cherries. They don't even come close to the sweet juicy crunchy texture of the real thing...

Ripe Rainier Cherries....excellent!Mouth watering ain't it?

I never appreciated cherries before this. Past encounters with the preserved kind and "Cherry" flavoured drinks like Dr. Pepper and Cherry Coke didn't help change my opinion; in fact, it just killed any lingering desire for this fruit. Now, call me a believer:)

In the end, we didn't really picked all that much. Guessed we sampled enough to sate us. Grin. I think for every ripe cherry I picked, I must have consumed at least the same amount in the search for ripe sweet cherries. Guessed we just got tired of walking on our full bellies with the sun on our backs. :)

Our haul. Another couple and I combined for the bottom bucket of the 3.

Compared with the amount the locals typically buy back.....

Catch of the day

Here's some interesting read that I came across in my daily trawl of the net:

• How much will it take for you to have a child? Love is no longer the only consideration when you decide to raise a child.

• On a similar note, China might actually have an underpopulation problem in the near future.

• Malaysia's top 40 Richest: Guess who's #1 in South-East Asia?
  

Cognitive Dissonance

Just the past weekend, we had this discussion about Chinese and Asian culture in general and our ability to find pleasure in consuming almost anything that's edible. A large portion of other races will take a pass on such culinary delights like Pig Intestine soup (it's really delicious!), Chicken feet in black vinegar, curry goat's intestines to mention a few that's easily found in Malaysia. South Koreans consume dog & cat meat; snake meat and even iguana curry dishes can be found within Malaysia if you look hard enough; and you can always head north of the border to Thailand if you have a craving for deep-fried insects as a snack.

A sampling of what's sold on Khao San Rd in Bangkok. Crunchy grasshoppers anyone....?

.....How about some juicy silkworms?......Or fried scorpions?

Heck, anything that has more than 2 feet is fair game to some people!. At first, this trait striked me as a survival instinct that's not all that bad.... It shows we're able to survive and even thrive on what's available in our surroundings....besides, why limit yourself to just specific poultry or cattle body parts? On the flip side, there's no way anyone's gonna persuade me to sample dog meat or even the feline variety. There's a limit to what I'm willing to consume; the thought of eating your pets just turns me off.

This morning, I came across this article that touched on the same topic. Interesting term, cognitive dissonance. It goes on to discuss biotechnology and our genetic nature relating to our carnivorous tendencies.

Food for thought eh?

Dreams

I always envied people who could remember their dreams upon waking up. During the daily breakfast sessions back in Penang, some colleagues will relate the weird things they exprienced and it fascinated me. Most of the times, all I can recall are small fragments which are quickly lost in the midst of getting ready for the living hours. I have an inkling that sometimes my dreams are vivid; strange mental pictures stick in my mind but rarely can I make any sense of it.

Surprisingly, the moment I was conscious this morning, the last dream I had was still fresh in my mind; I could picture what I was doing in Morpheus' domain. Started backtracking mentally and found that I could remember how the dream went; I actually could find a weird continuity to what occured.

Strangely enough, this cheered me up right from the get-go. While I'm blogging this entry from my cube, most of the recollection has faded into the background but the euphoria lingers....

-deja vu

On the spin-table: "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield. Great song; even better when I paid attention to the lyrics.

Silverworm corner: Still on "Motley Fool Investment Guide" .Spending less time reading these few days; the basketball sessions though invigorating induces an earlier sleeping hour.

p.s: I noticed I had loads of pics from my travels that I have not shared/spammed with most folks. Think I'll sprinkle some entries with random shots....Might write up a few entries based on the more memorable trips I had in the past year.

Memories:

A shot of the sweeping coastlines at Point Reyes National Park in California. The winds on that Spring day was surprisingly strong. If you ever had the chance to visit Point Reyes, remember to pack food; there's only 1 restaurant that does a thriving business at marked up prices.

Breath-taking

Boy, the day trip to Shasta county was an over-due break in the routine. It was a fun-filled semi-relaxing trip. We had a large group this time around, 15 of us split into 4 cars (3 Corollas/Altis and 1 Elantra)

As usual, the start of the journey was delayed. The lead car drove like a maniac to compensate and the rest of us basically had to step on the pedal just to keep up with him. On a 70mph highway, we averaged 80-90mph. The poor Elantra that I was in struggled just to keep up with the other Corollas initially, though once we hit cruising speeds, it held up pretty well. The 3 hour drive to the 1st vista point was sure fun when you're speeding along.

The first stop was the Sundial Bridge in Redding. It's name describes it well and it spans across a bend in the river known as Turtle Bay. The bridge actually reminded a few of us of the bridge and lamp posts design back in Putrajaya :) Based on some fast googling for this blog entry, the footbridge is actually designed by one of the world's best bridge designers, Santiago Calatrava.

There's only one supporting pylon for the bridge, at one of the bridge ends

Close-up of the pylon

We then made a quick stop by Lake Shasta. A few of us previously passed by the Lake (it's actually a few lakes inter-connected) on our way to the Crater Lake National Park in Oregon last year and the lake view was actually quite enchanting. This time round, the lead car (by virtue of accompanying GPS) bought us to a spot that frankly pales in comparsion to the view by the highway. Though the more-mundane view caused a colleague to comment that Lake Shasta is the "most real" view yet seen in California (she opined that Lake Tahoe's sapphire hued waters bordered by snow covered peaks of the Sierras is soo beautiful, that it's almost fake.... Cynicism at such a young age..). Naturally, we didn't spend too much time and continued Northwards to Mount Shasta.

Lake Shasta: Too real?

Though summer's officially just around the corner, Mount Shasta's peak is still snow-covered and will stay that way until early Fall. We drove uphill till we reached the marker called Bunny Flat and literally the end of the road.

Road side view of Mt. Shasta

End of the road at Bunny Flat

The sight of snow in Summer means only one thing.....

SNOW FIGHT!

The fun was cut short when it started to drizzle. As we hit the road, the downpour worsened and made the descent a mini obstacle course as a few rocks littered the road sporadically. The rain eventually petered off as we reached lower elevations.

The next stop on our list was the Fowler Falls in the nearby district of McCloud. The waterfall consists of 3 stages and we arrived at the Lower Falls. To reach the middle and upper falls and back to the starting point takes 3 miles of trekking.

Lower Fowler Falls @McCloud

Personally, I found the trek to the Upper falls extremely pleasant. The trees along the natural but well-maintained path provided great shade and the viccinity of the falls made the ambient temperature agreeably cool during a hot Summer's afternoon.

The mist at mid Fowler Falls is a great refreshener

Upper Fowler Falls...wish I can come here more often

This is the kind of trip that really perks you up... Great sights, a fun drive in a comfortable car and good, non-work related conversations. Smiles. As beautiful as Fowler Falls is, the final destination of the journey is reputed to be awe-inspiring. This fact easily drove most of us on even though it was touching 6pm and the trek nicely built up an appetite.

The last leg is the McArthur-Burney Falls, around 40miles from Fowler Falls. As we reached the entrance of the State Park, we were surprised we had to pay an day free of $6 per car...when the other stops along the way were without any charge..... As we made our way to the nearby vista point, the sight of the falls took away any thoughts and left me speechless.

Breath-taking

Closer view

The mists from the falls felt like you're in a shower even from a distance. Even the foilage around the falls seemed to benefit; they appear to be more vibrant and greener than usual......