This is the first time I joined the softball game at Kasian, and we lost again. There are couple architectural firms in Vancouver against each other every week, and this is not playing in serious rule, just trying to get people relax and have some fun, …….and yes it was quite funny during the game. I was doing ok since I haven’t play softball for awhile. What was the score? …..Never mind~

I don’t like hotdog, actually I thought it is worst food in the world. However, a friend of mine recommended me that there is a different taste of hotdog at downtown I might want to try. I am always interested in testing any kind of food, so I went down to Burrard and Smithe to find out how much different between regular hotdog and JapaDog.

They actually selling regular hotdogs and three different flavors of Japanese hotdog. I had an Oroshi JapaDog as my supper yesterday, so I bought a Miso flavor today, which was sold out when I got here yesterday. Miso flavor is the most expensive JapaDog that they selling but I don’t feel it tasted better than Oroshi flavor. Anyway, JapaDog was good, but I don’t think everybody will like it.

Apple Inc. just released the public beta version of Safari. The new Safari comes both Mac’s and Windows’ version, so it is another option of web browser for many Windows users. According to Apple Inc. that the “Safari is the fastest browser running on Windows, based on the industry standard iBench tests, rendering web pages up to twice as fast as IE 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2. Safari joins iTunes in delivering Apple’s legendary user experience to both Windows and Mac users as well as full support of open Internet standards.”

Finally Safari comes to Windows. I am so sick of Internet Explorer because it follows only its own internet protocol and ignored the W3C. If you are Windows users and wanting give a try, you can now download the Safari Windows version from Apple’s website. But remember it is just a beta version, very beta.

I used to have a cup of coffee in the morning. It was interesting that the Starbucks in Vancouver services honey instead of sugar. I normally don’t add sugar in my coffee, but I like honey.

Stanley Park is an urban park bordering downtown Vancouver, and it is the largest city-owned park in Canada and the third largest in North America. I’ve been to this lovely place so many times, but I never stay that late like last night. Actually, I was planning to take some night shots of downtown Vancouver from Stanley Park, but the daytime in summer just toooooo long, so I have to wait to after 10pm until the sky getting dark, although it was still a cold and gloomy day. Unfortunately, when everything got set up, the sky starts raining again. Considering I don’t always have time to come here and stay like this late, so I sacrificed my camera equipments to take a nicely shower, and just quickly took some photos. It wasn’t too bad because the rainy night gives the pictures a bit purple tone.

EXIF Summary: 1/60s f/8.0 ISO200 56mm (35mm eq:84mm)

EXIF Summary: 3s f/8.0 ISO200 48mm (35mm eq:72mm)

It was another rainy day, and it has been raining for two days already since I got here. Due to the weather condition I can only practice some macro shots in the back yard. The DOF (depth of field) of macro shot is extremely shallow, so if you want the subject in the focus, you have to use small aperture (larger number) to achieve the wider range of DOF.

This picture is taken by the Voigtlander Macro APO-Lanthar 125mm f/2.5 SL lens (pretty decent macro lens), plus extension tube to get the closer focusing distance. And the unknown tiny purple flower is only about 1cm big that means the enlarging ratio of this picture is more than 1:1. I supposed use smaller aperture to get the entire flower in focus, but it was too dark in the rainy day that smaller aperture will slow down the shutter speed and blur the image.

EXIF Summary: 1/40s f/2.5 ISO200 105mm (35mm eq:157mm)

Rocky Point Park only about 10 minutes driving from the place I stayed in Vancouver. I was planing to take sunset pictures here yesterday, but too bad the heavy cloud block the sun at dusk. Though it still looks quite pretty when night falling to the inlet, so I stayed a bit late to take some night shots because I don’t usually have this kind of chance when I was in Winnipeg.

EXIF Summary: 1/30s f/8.0 ISO200 35mm (35mm eq:52mm)

EXIF Summary: 3s f/29.0 ISO200 35mm (35mm eq:52mm)

How many animals killed on the highway every year? Why can all drivers drive slower and safer? It was early in the morning and I am driving on the highway, a poor deer got hit on the road few hours ago (because it still looks fresh!) and turned into pieces. Actually, it is hard to distinguish that it was a deer, but obviously it was a some kind of large animal. It is the dirge of deer, but it also could be the feast for scavenger (I thought wolf is a predator). A gray wolf was wandering around and enjoying its breakfast …..uh…… I am eating my breakfast in the car too.

Calgary, I’ve never really been to Calgary, always just passed by when I traveling from Winnipeg to west coast. In the past few years, the traffic condition in Calgary is became worse because I was stuck in the traffic jam for almost an hour. I think this is probably the drawback that it has to overcome when a city getting bigger. Actually, I was thinking moving to Calgary because it is so close to Rockies.

Rockies, I don’t have much to say about it because it is always good.