Stanford + Cupcakes

Palo Alto, here I come. Not only does the place have the world's top notch University, it also has the world's top notch Cupcakes. (My personal opinion.)

Here are the ladies who enjoyed a good afternoon worth of sunshine along the trip.

From the left, we have Michelle, Michelle's friend - Maxine, and Maxine's cousin - Jennie.

Arriving at the Stanford Mall getting the cupcakes that we all anticipated for.

look how happy they Maxine was.

This is it- Sprinkles. It's the only Sprinkles in Northern California. Total of 7 stores, only, across the Nation. (More will be open in the near future)

It was my first time trying. So did it worth a 45 minute drive from SF to have a taste of this cupcakes? Perhaps, if I loved sweets. It was definitely a fun experience, with the bonus vitamin D's.

I didn't take much picture of the store, but it was classy brown with some sprinkles of vibrant colors. Detail's the key.

I really liked the atmosphere within the shop.

Here's Michelle and her cupcake - Red Velvet.

Sidenote// doesn't it look like I photoshop'd Michelle's head into the picture?

Anyway, after we delighted ourselves the sweet goodness, we dropped by Stanford University.

The glorious Stanford Memorial Church. It stood extravagantly in the center of the University since 1903. The ladies were ants like compared to the massive mural painted in the front.

As we walk towards the Oval garden, we couldn't help but to pose around these sculptures.

They're the Burgher of Calais, by Auguste Rodin. Long story short, these are heroes that sacrificed themselves to save the port of France. And we were just silly people that felt like...posing.

No picture of the Oval Garden because there were simply too many people playing ultimate frisbee or rugby. Either way, we'd be Chinese style pizzas if we got in their way.

However, we did get a picture of my trying to make an illusion of me spitting out the tie like it was my tongue.

..and judging by me-have-to-explain-what-I-was-doing part, I failed. Nice composition, though, so props to Michelle.

Then, this is me trying to get a Michelle.


and Michelle trying to get me. Much more romantic, no?


This is Maxine taking advantage of Michelle on the left.

Michelle being "the man" on the right.

Jennie and her cousin.


Jennie and her imaginary friend.


This is me..dropping like its hot.


and finally, Hoover Tower.

Which wrapped up the day.

Amazing time with amazing people. Palo Alto's a good place and so is my seat in front of my Mac daddy.




-Benson|| Follow me on Twitter || Join the movement|| Check the original website

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Something to think about

Nothing better than some good ol' philosophy on a Thursday afternoon.
If you can't see the video, click here.




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Chinese Calligraphy.

(The letters above came from my comp's font sets) It was how everything's written if we went waaaay back, but today, it's just a recreation to sooth one's mind, calm one's heart, and tell the world how Asian you can be.

I decided to rediscover my Chinese roots.

There are many tools to prep before even starting the writing process. Details' a beezy.
筆, 墨, 紙

We used to grind the ink stone with water for the black ink. Proper paper is needed to soak up the ink adequately. Pens/Brushes vary in sizes and types of hair used to create the pen, which give the pen different functionality from writing to painting. (Baby hair was supposedly the best out there for calligraphy writing.) I use 惠風堂 大長流, a common pen(most noobs use this) for writing.

帖

This is like encyclopedia for styles of Chinese Calligraphy. It has thousands of collections of styles, which includes almost every Chinese letter. It's heavier than a gallon of milk.

Gesture's crucial. Back straight, arms lifted, and the way a pen is held are all elements of proper writing.

Then I went on for a few hours.



After all that time, this is what I came up with.
It's not the most traditional writing, I tried deviating the ink drop to the word imagine, then wrapped it up with a zebra doodle. BEAT THAT.

How fun...and tiring.





-Benson|| Follow me on Twitter || Join the movement|| Check the original website

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Where are my Ports?!

As you may have already known, I've recently converted myself from PC to Apple. I got the 15.4" Macbook Pro. So far I've been digging the change with the speed, graphics, slick interface, but except for one thing - the lack of USB ports.

People say Apple's a design oriented computer, which I find it quite ironic, with only 2 ports provided by a standard model(PCs laptop usually have around 4). Consider a designer that uses a mouse, an external hard drive. Ok, BAM, that was it, all the ports are filled. What about iPods? Printers? DSLR camera that doesn't use SD cards? Anyway, the list goes on and that didn't sound too unreasonable, did it?

Now I've got a few options - Upgrade it to a 17" with one additional hub, buy an EXTRA wired keyboard for 2 extra hubs and a lot more keys, getting a firewire making it an extra port, or purchase a USB hub for many external ports. Either way is to add extra mulah to the already expensive purchase.

I chose the last, most $$ conservative, alternative:

I got the Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 4-Port Ultra Mini Hub. One long name with a decently good price(less than 10 bucks). And here's a quite review:
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I don't recommend buying the hubs provided by Apple.

The design can be perceived differently throughout, but specs are all the same, and the price is almost 3 times as much. 見仁見智.

I received my purchase today.

The sealed plastic case is a death trap when opening it. Hardest packaging to open, ever.

There it is, I think it matches my Mac quite well with the silver casing, black bottom, and a red signal indicator that'd light up when plugged in.

The size is about the 3.5x the width of the USB plug itself, so it's quite MINI like the title of the product.

Here are the specs:

-4 USB ports added to the device.
-The new ports are USB 1.1, 2.0 compatible.
-Transfer data up to 480 megabits per second
-Weighs .24 pounds.

I've tested out:

Here are results:

Pros:
-Uploading about 50ish pictures from my Canon DSLR, as if the camera was plugged directly into the laptop.
-Mouse works fine.
-I hotsync my Palm centro with the device, it worked perfectly fine as fast ,too.
-The best deal I found was 8 bucks at Amazon (Shipping included)
-Slick and simple design, light weight and small size is easy to carry for traveling.

Cons:
-Transferring 32 Gb of music from my Lacie external hard drive, took 15 minutes. Then, the external hard drive started acting a little laggy. ( I recommend plugging the hard drive to the laptop itself)
-The cable connecting the hub to the laptop seems abit short, so it's hard to disguise the device.

Overall:
I'm really satisfied with it. People also used it for PS3 and other USB ports needed products.






-Benson|| Follow me on Twitter || Join the movement|| Check the original website

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See you on the other end

Michelle's back to the States after a good month of touring around Japan and Hong Kong, it was my turn to plan the trip together. I stumbled upon this park when I searched for "beautiful places of San Francisco". It also happened to be 10 minutes away from Michelle's place. PERFECT.


It's right between Seal Rock Dr and El Camino del Mar.

Next to the beach with rocks. A lot of rocks.




Now, I'll let the photos to do the talking. It was poetic..and cold.



















and it's always pleasant to wrap the day up with some sweet cream french bread.



-Benson|| Follow me on Twitter || Join the movement|| Check the original website

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Glowstring

Stars and streetlights are not the only things that illuminate the night.

Still images and drawings of light created by swinging a glowstick in a dark environment in front of a camera whose exposure is lengthened. (iso100, close Aperture as small as you could for best result.)


Sprint is particularly good at bringing this to the market.

And taking this to the next level and bringing it to the dance floor would be - Glowstringing. It's light painting gone berserk. It requires a very particular set of skills to pull it off.

Here's a courtesy demonstration of glowstringing by Kevin Chisaki


What made it even cooler is that he sported the TIZ cloud Tee at 2:01.





-Benson|| Follow me on Twitter || Join the movement|| Check the original website

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