Netphotography Journal

I grew up wanting to be Captain Nemo from 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. To build the largest most equipped atomic submarine and rule the world, and play the massive Pipe organ anytime I feel bored. My submarine was even better too, since it could fly and travel through the space as well as the oceans.

Then I ended up in Dentistry School; at first I really had fun playing with the dentist’s drill, tray of tools and of course the x-ray machine!

But then I hated it, because I’ve always wanted to study electronics and computers, so I left 3.5 years of dentistry school and studied Computer Science instead.

Later on I realized my fascination with Captain Nemo as a child was in fact towards Science, Sophisticated tools and equipment, which is why I went to dental school to begin with.

Right now I think I have the coolest job in the world, which requires science and sophisticated tools.

Captain Nemo my Arse!

Rastin

Where is Rastin? What is he doing? His blog hasn’t been updated for a while? …

I’ve been taking some time off from my laptop. I bought a whole bunch used books from Amazon and the last few weeks I have been lounging in different coffee shops reading books. I really needed some time to relax, the last few month we had a crazy work load, and I needed to go easy on myself for a while.

For the new year I have decided not to take my laptop to coffee shops anymore. I’ve realized that I have been portraying the image of a workaholic, geek all this time, although I changed that perception once I took some of the West Van Starbucks barista girls out for a dance; now everybody knows that I actually have a life too! But I can’t afford to do that in every coffee shop I go. I just don’t have the power to go against the false image that pop culture has created about People in the Technology Market.

Besides that; taking a laptop to coffee shop is no longer considered cool! Now every lemon brings in his wireless pizza box and surfs the net while sipping on chai lattes.

From now on I only do freelance work on Saturdays and Sundays from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm ………… ok maybe 9:00 am to 1:00 pm and that happens in my office only. When I go to coffee shops I’m just going to read books or take my scrap books and pencils and practice drawing.

I have also joined the Northshore Photography Society and it is quite fun actually. There will be more on that.

Now I have more balance in my life,

Rastin

Is to play your favorite inspiring music in the Car and imagine the whole world is dancing to your favorite tune.

Rastin

Now that’s a good video!

There is so much hype about Windows Vista and how wonderful it is going to be. For those of you who think Mac OS X has the best UI checkout Windows Vista and be amazed.

Windows Vista Preview

Happy New Year, welcome to the 2006 version of Rastin’s Vanity Press!

I finally got the chance to download and sort out the photographs that I took in Food for Jazz Sweet Basil Jazz festival on November 26th 2005. I was volunteering as a Photographer in this fundraising event located at St. Andrew’s-Wesley Church; we were collecting food for Vancouver’s Food Bank. As I told you before it was my first time in my life stepping inside an actual church building, and I must say it was a pretty positive experience.

Red looks really good in a church

And this my first time seeing a genuine Pipe Organ. What a beautiful instrument.

St. Andrew’s-Wesley Church Pipe Organ

Our sound engineers

Music sounded just about perfect inside the church building. It must have been the interior’s acoustics.

The following 2 images are Michael Pan. He is the director of Sweet Basil Jazz festival. He is an Electical Engineer and a great Jazz musician.

This is Nancy Ruth. She performed the song To Say Goodbye ( Pra Dizer Adeus ). She’s got a heavenly voice, and I was so fortunate to be her audience. She gave me an autographed CD.

Unfortunately not all pictures of her turned out the way I wanted, mainly because I was still warming up and getting use to the ambient light. If only I could get a second chance to attend another one of her performances, I’d gladly put all the efforts to make great pictures of her.

The person in the background is Gabriel Mark Hasselbach who played, trumpet, flute, and flugelhorn.

Gabriel Mark Hasselbach - Sweet Basil Jazz 2004

If you purchase Gabriels new CD Swinging Affair, inside the cover you’ll see the picture I took from him in the last festival in 2004. He has kindly chosen the photograph for his CD and gave me an autographed copy of it. I feel so honored. Listen to this CD it has rich sophisticated Jazz on it.

I think Nancy is perfection all in one!

This is Judy, she is one of the most amazing base players that I’ve seen. She is also very Photogenic. I first photogrpahed judy back in 2004 Sweet Basil Jazz Festival.

Sweet Basil Jazz 2004

That’s me ( far left ) in the Techvibes Christmas Party holding a Chocolate Martini. Dude in black next to me is Elliot and the cute young lady is Christine. We partied all the way till midnight. What a great evening!

They other guy is not really Santa!

Rastin

Software Engineering is a love affair to me and I admit sometimes I get defensive and emotional over my projects specially if they have taken few hundred hours.

Straight from John’s blog. Today we had a 90 Minute high temperature discussion about some usability aspects of a current project with Bernie our department Manager and John K my former Boss. In the end we reached a common ground yet it left me feeling uncomfortable and ashamed for the rest of the day ( right before Christmas ).

I apologized both Bernie, and John. They are 2 people that I truly respect in the company.

Feeling horrible for the day taught me to act more professional in the future. Well there comes the experience and each day I become more seasoned and mature.

Bernie is one of the nicest people I know in premier and the first thing one would notice about him is his Patience and great Sense of humor. John has always been very appreciative and respectful for the work I’ve been doing in Premier, and now he is one of my best friends at work place.