I have a much needed 5 days off. I don’t have to teach at any of my other side jobs as well. I am about to venture into Seoul and probably check out Samchongdong (삼청동). I think that I will head back to Jogaesa (조계사). I wasn’t too thrilled with the photos that I took when Damon and I visited a couple of weeks ago. It may be quite crowded, but I will attempt to check it out anyway.

It looks like the weather for Saturday is going to be crap, so I hope that I can get organized at home. I have a ton of things that I need to do, starting with JJ’s visa.

I still am interviewing for the positions that we are trying to fill for late June. I have a couple interviews lined up for this weekend, so I will still have to work during my vacation.

I have received a few emails asking for information about Dongtan. You may be applying for our job or at a different school. I don’t know, but I will try to get back to you in the next couple of days.

P020209PS-0149, originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream.

One of the first comments was “Looking for change.”

P032409PS-1060, originally uploaded by The Official White House Photostream.

Just found out that the White House has a Flickr account that they are uploading to regularly. Here is one of the shots that I really like. Here is a link to their photostream.

Mini Dongtan, originally uploaded by nosaj100.

I have been studying CS4 and wanted to try and do some Fake Tilt-Shift Lens processing for awhile. This was actually a lot easier than I thought. Here is the tutorial that I read.

End of Days, originally uploaded by nosaj100.

Jaeyoun and I had a great lunch with YH, KJ and their families today. They are both in my adult class and have been attending class for at least 6 months or so. We walked over to KJ’s apartment which is not far from ours. He is on the the 30th floor and I was able to take some pretty cool shots of Dongtan. We had Samgyupsal on the roof along with beer and soju. It was a little early for me to drink, but a good time was had by all. More photos to come later. The above shot was just me playing around in Photoshop.The weather was actually great today.

I was gonna stay in and rest all day, but got the urge to head to Namdaemun. I dropped by Namyoung camera. I was trying to pick up a used Nikon SB26. They have one on their website for sell and was hoping that they still had it. Unfortunately, it had already been sold. I did end up getting a Hotshoe to PC adapter from them. They were super nice at the store and let me use their internet to help show them an item that I couldn’t explain in Korean.

I wandered around Namdaemun and ended up getting a good deal on another used SB26 and a cheapo wireless flash trigger. The SB26 dwarfs my Canon 430EX by the way. I have been reading up on Strobist and now just need to pick up some light stands and umbrellas.

If you don’t follow The Boston Globe’s Big Picture Series, you are missing out on some great photos. Their recent post is titled Peering into North Korea and they have some great shots taken from across the Chinese border. Apparently most North Korean soldiers don’t appreciate having their photos taken.