Monday, May 30, 2011

Massive photo upload.

So yesterday was the Carnaval Parade in the Mission area. There was the procession, stalls selling food and crafts, companies promoting their products, performances, and a huge crowd.
One of the cars from a car hobbyist group.
Not only Latino styles were on parade, but also this one, plus some african groups as well.
Male eye candy. Not enough. Mostly women would be the ones dressed skimpily and dancing, while the guys would be the ones playing music or wearing the monster costumes.
One of my favourite floats.
One of the nice things about the SF Carnaval, even if it's not as grand as the one in Brazil, is that people of all body types come out to flaunt, even the elder and overweight people.







There were quite a lot of stilt walkers. I wonder what would happen if one of them fell.
I like this group because of the sheer size of their group and the way they colour coordinated their team. The next few blue, green, purple and red ones are from this group.



Surprisingly not as many feathery costumes as you would expect. Still quite a lot though.
Check out the guy in the bug costume.



One of the more interesting floats.

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The day before that, I went to the Treasure Island Flea Market. Treasure Island is a man-made island that used to serve as a naval base during WW2.
View of the Bay Bridge from the Avenue of the Palms.
A sculpture near the market. You can see the CW channel crew in front of it. They usually air a humiliating short dance sequence with someone holding the CW sign as an advertisement for their channel, and that's just what they were filming that day in the market.
Some geese that just turned up on the island.
I didn't take any pictures of the stalls, since I don't think the owners would be happy, but there were a lot of stalls selling vintage items (furniture,brass kitchenware), handmade items(dolls, clothes), food, plants and other unique things. There was an entry fee to the stalls area, but it was worth it just to look around and get some inspiration.
I did however, buy 2 vintage belt buckles, which I used to make covers for a pair of second hand headphones that I now own. Not sure if I'm entirely happy with it though. But at least it looks unique, and much less like something a computer geek would use.

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And I finally got down to unpacking my stuff today. This is how the room looked before, very bare and clean.

And after. Ok...due to the size of the room, it still looks slightly bare (but that doesn't mean that I want to accumulate any more luggage)
I used that white piece of board as my notice board, since I don't dare to stick anything on the walls. Even masking tape nearly peeled some paint off my dorm room wall.
I got some freebies when the guy before this moved out (actually a lot of freebies). The brown table is going to one of his friends later on, but I have the rack, which I only discovered today has a fold out table that was hidden under the bed.The fold out table also helps to hide my little mountain of clay and a mess of wires. There were also a few extra shelves that I added under the heavier shelves just in case one of them breaks. So I might not even have to buy a table. I guess it's big enough for computer work, and any other project that requires more space can be done on the huge bare floor or at the kitchen table. The cd player, chair, lights, glass table and a bunch of blankets and comforters were also left behind.
Here's what the view out my window looks like. Quiet neighbourhood with wide roads.

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There was also a lot of food left behind. Including this; natto. It's fermented beans (which become slimy) eaten with soy sauce and mustard. The fist time I tried this was during the student exchange trip to Japan 5 years ago. That time, I more or less gagged, smiled politely, and later discreetly threw it away in the dustbin. This time, I managed to finish the packet, but it's still not something I would buy by myself.
And a new food picture! Linguine with lemon-basil vinaigrette and walnuts. It is a very simple dish that only sounds classy. Sure, walnuts and olive oil are a little more expensive by weight than the usual tomatoes and onions, but you use very little of it, and the dish is almost an empty dish. I've also been eating a lot of zaru soba recently. All the empty dishes, with fruits afterwards. I'm probably just too lazy to cook, want something comforting and fast to prepare.

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