Grey Friday Morning

It had been a strange morning, and made me think back now that it was a good prediction of the day.  This was what I saw when I walked Lee to the bus stop, and by the time I left for work the Eastern sky was completely dark grey.  The rain clouds had spread evenly across the sky and it started to drizzle.  I looked back in my rear view mirror and saw fluffy clouds and orange hue of sunrise.  It was kind of strange since the sun always rise in the East and not the Northwestern sky.

As for my day I think it is all in the attitude, my perception of things and understanding of the situation, so I think it went well. Life, work and living is not like a picnic in the park anymore, this morning sky portrayed of what is to come and to remind myself to expect the unexpected.

exif data: Canon T2i, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, f/13 at 2.5 sec, ISO 100, 40mm, tripod mounted

The Colors of Autumn

This is my contribution to Scott Thomas Photography Assignment 10: Autumn 2010. I hope you will join and please check his blog post for rules and deadline.

Fall is a harvest season and below is a picture of my co-worker harvesting her rice paddy.

Aperture Priority, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, f/16, 1/40sec, ISO 200, exposure bias 0step, focal length 105mm, pattern metering

I read once that when the ancient Indians looked into the forest they could always tell what leaves were about to fall off the trees because they were yellow, orange or brown.

Aperture Priority, EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens, f/4, 1/320sec, ISO 100, Exposure bias -0.3step, focal length 131mm, pattern metering

There were several religious events at our local temple in the last couple of weeks, and the only time I had the opportunity to capture the Autumn colors of yellow, orange, and brown were at these events.

Aperture Priority, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, f/4, 1/250sec, ISO 100, exposure bias +1step, focal length 80mm, pattern metering

The Buddhist monks also wear yellow, orange or brown robes, the traditional belief was that the color of a monk’s robe can tell you his seniority, dark color means that he is considered wise and a senior monk, very much like the colors of the leaves.  So the color of the monk’s robe is very important, it is  a constant reminder of the importance of not clinging and of letting go.

Aperture Priority, EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens, f/4, 1/200sec, ISO 100, Exposure bias 0step, focal length 200mm, pattern metering

The ancient Indians theory is correct only if we were living in the ideal world, the leaves will fall when the time comes.  But in the turbulent world that we live in, life is more fragile and with the gust of winds, rains or storms the leaves could fall before their time.

Aperture Priority, EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens, f/4, 1/60, ISO 3200, exposure bias 0step, focal length 105mm, pattern metering

The Birds and the Bees

• jewel akens – the birds and the bees

Raising a child is one of the most gratifying jobs and if Bo has anything to add to this, he would take most of the credit, but I would say it is  a 50/50 percent share. I grew up with 7 sisters, and our parents never had the talk with us.  I think it’s even a taboo to talk about it in the Asian culture.  I know time is not on my side, my little girl is growing up and I’m not even sure how to approach the topic.  This part of parenting is no longer a 50/50, the weight is on my shoulders, and perhaps the school will get to it before I do.

When I was growing up, I was a tomboy and my parents never had to worry about me, I had my face buried in a book most of the time.  Lee is very much like me, she is an avid reader and has her nose in a book lately, perhaps she won’t even notice the birds and the bees. I know wishful thinking.

There is More Than One Way to Skin a Cat

• Life Is a Highway by Tom Cochrane

I received 5555 comments, this must be a sign.  In Thai or Lao language, a 5 is pronounced as Ha, and many use 5555 as the sound of their LOL or laugh out loud, and I’ve seen this used by mostly Thai people.

When I saw this 5555 comments on my blog, this must reflect on the conversation that I recently had with the auditor, but I didn’t see the humor in it.  There is more than one way of doing things when it comes to reconciling your bank account, and this I was told that there is only one way, the correct way, and it is the GAAP way. I looked at him in disbelief, he must have thought that I didn’t understand the term that he used, “GAAP”, he must have thought that I was thinking about the GAP clothing store.

The GAAP way? I thought to myself, what? you got to be kidding me, I don’t have time to think about the General Accepting Accounting Principle when ‘Time’ is something that I have very little of these days, as long as the bank balance reconcile to the book balance at the end of the month, that’s all it matters to us here.

Of course I didn’t say any of this. What I said was, we have different people doing different things, and it is very important for us to reconcile to catch any errors right away, and at the time the bank reconciliation was done, there’s not enough information to make it GAAP, but I can redo it and make it GAAP for you, and the balance would still be the same, here I work backward to find the discrepancy between the book and bank.

He gave me that look, “you got to be kidding me.” I stared back at him and think, “I kid you not.”

I think for some, the language that he used can be very intimidating, it is not something that you say to people everyday, most would not know what he is talking about and I’m sure we all have different ways of reconciling our bank statement. I’m glad that I don’t have to show him how I reconcile my personal bank statement, I might be one of those accountants that don’t have an ending balance for their checkbook, my philosophy, if you’ve money in there then you shouldn’t have to worry.

My point, there is more than one way of doing things and I always try to find the fastest and most efficient way of doing it.  The presentation might not be acceptable by some profession, but it is only the presentation, the end result is the same.  And in this case, I was able to convince him that my way also gives him the same result.