Oh, My Shingen!

Hmmmmm. So I did not post at all in April. Time just flies, and here it is May already. 2012 is practically half way over. How could that be! It just seems like yesterday that 2012 was an innocent young new year, and now it's already middle-aged!

Well enough ranting and raving about the passage of time... There's nothing we can do about the passing time, but at least we have photography to help us keep our tenuous connection to the time past. So I am happy I am taking lots of pictures of my kids for the 365 project.

However, I'm a bad photographer, and I really don't do a very good job capturing my kids' time, so I was lucky to have the chance last Saturday (04.28.12) of getting Shingen's pictures taken by a professional photographer, Micahel Duva (http://www.duvaphotography.com/).

Mike was looking for dog models for his portfolio, but in e-mail, he told me he'll welcome kitties too, so I took Shingen.

It wasn't easy -- Shingen was not very cooperative, but Mike was very patient and kind.

Shingen looking very handsome. He is very popular with the ladies.

He looks like he's stalking someone. (Maybe Kamu!?)

Shutterfly Photo Book 3

I made another Buhinyan photo book at Shutterfly. If you become their member, they often have a very good deal. For a limited time, 8x8, 20 pages hardcover photo book that's normally 23.99 was available for free, (plus shipping, of course, which isn't exactly cheap, but still it was a great deal!) Plus, it doesn't cost anything to make one of these books, if you don't have it printed, and you can post to other sites.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Photo books are the perfect gift for any occasion.

House Hunting

This has nothing to do with the theme of this blog, which is all about the buhi-nyans, but I just agreed to sell the condo I live in.  Well, it is not completely unrelated since my animal kids will also be greatly affected by the move. My condo has been on the market since last November, and I having animal childrend did not make the process easy.

Living Room. The cases contain my mother's doll collection. 

The Smaller Bedroom, now arranged as a study.

The condo is a duplex, and the upstairs (ground floor) is the main living area. Last October I had the floor redone, and the walls repainted upstairs. And ever since, the children have been banned from the upstairs, and we have all been living downstairs on the basement/garden level. So it's been quite cramp. That's also the reason all my recent pictures haven't had much variety.

But someone has finally come along who wanted my apartment, and now it's my turn to look for a new place to live. I have an arrangement to stay here for 2 month after the closing, but I must act very quickly once we close. Unfortunately, I don't have adequate fund to make a down payment, so everything must be done quickly in that 2 month that I have after I close.

Well, there are still lots of hurdle. Finding a new place is sort of exciting, but there are lots of uncertainties too. I hope I can move to a place that will be a good home for my animal kids.

Now changing the subject entirely...., here's some of the recent pictures that didn't make it onto the 365 Project:

Shingen & Asha.These two are ever the pair.They are like bookends on the windowsill. 

Shingen: A rather spotted character!

Dasein, she always have a scheme. 

Socrates: A Philosopher or a Fool? Or maybe, Foolish Philosoper/ Philosophical Fool?

Captain Wu-Wei. The nominal leader of the Righteous Cats Brigade. We must keep the universe safe from Dasein's evil
paws!

Relatively decent picture of Promise -- he who is difficult to photograph.

Buhi-Nyans Today (March 8, 2012)

Today was very warm for early March in New York. I think it was in mid-60s in the morning, and during the day maybe it was in the 70s. It's been a exceptionally mild winter this year. Probably that was a good think for us because from Nov. last year to now, we have been living in the basement floor, where it can get quite cold. 

I took these pictures this morning, and I thought that, for me with my lousy photographic skills, they turned out quite well. Since I can only  post one to the 365 Project, I thought I will post some of them here.

Asha

 Asha likes to survey the world from a higher vantage point. You often find her on top of the tall bookshelves. You can't tell in this picture, but she's looking down at me from the top of a bookcase.

Kamu

 I'm pleased that this picture of Kamu actually look like her. She's so hard to photograph because of her dilute colors, her pictures usually turns out very fuzzy.

Promise

 Another unusually clear shot, this one of Promise. Too bad he has something on his head...probably, a piece  of his breakfast.

Asha & Shanti

 These two are not friends, but this morning Asha was in a very friendly mood. Shanti is usually so sweet, and quite submissive to other dogs, but she's not too fond of the cats. I wish she would be nicer to the cats.

Kamu & Tempo

 This picture was taken just after Tempo was grooming Kamu. Tempo's allo-grooming must be what's keeping The Righteous Cats Brigade together.

Tempo

 Picture of Tempo in which you can actually see his eye color.

Shingen

Shingen, our trouble maker (not counting Dasein)

The problem with the 365 project is that you can only post 1 picture per day. (You can post more picture, if you become a paying member, but for fee, the rule is 1 a day.) But because I've been trying to take some picture everyday for this project, I naturally take more than one. That means I have to choose. Sometime it's easy because all the pictures are lousy, and I have to chose the one that's the least out of focus. Other times, however, I have a harder time choosing.

Long story short, I'm decided to post some of the pictures here. These were taken on 2/28-2/29, 2012.

Dasein & Shanti.

Dasein is always dominant over Shanti, but in the situation like above, where they are playing tug-of-war, it's Dasein who usually gives up first. It's not like Dasein has any qualm taking Shanti's stuff or beating her up, so it's kind of weird. Maybe she finds it beneath herself to compete with an underling.

All 5 members of the Righteous Cats Brigade

There's 5 of them,  though it's hard to see Asha in the shadow; she's behind Tempo.

Shutterfly Photo Book 1

This is the first photo book I made with Shutterfly. The customization options of the site is much richer now, then when I made this first book, plus I didn't know what I was doing,  so compared to the 2nd book, this one is simpler, without deviating from the template provided by the site.

Not that the 2nd book is that much better, but I was able to play around more with different options. Doing that is kind of fun, but it's also time consuming, so I don't know which is better.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Start your own Shutterfly Photo Book today.

Shutterfly Photo Book 2

This is the second Photo Book I made on Shutterfly. Most of the pictures in it was taken in Jan-Feb 2012, but it also includes some older pictures.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Photo books are the perfect gift for any occasion.

365 Days of Buhi-Nyan

Dasein likes to sleep all wrapped up in sheets.

There's a website called 365 Project; it's a photography site where people try to post a photo a day. The goal is to have pictures for every day of the year. I found out about this site recently, and I opened an account to keep photographic records of my daily life with my animal kids. 

It also works a bit like social network site, so you can look at other people's pictures, and follow particular photographers, and comment on their works. There are many really stunning and beautiful photographs. I get the feeling that the majority of the people there are pretty serious photographers unlike me, who's a pretty lousy photographer. My page at 365 Project is rather embarrassing, really, in comparison to people who really knows what they're doing with a camera.

I would like to learn more about photography, and get better, since almost all my pictures of my kids disappoint me. I wish I can capture their individuality, quirkiness, and all the funny, entertaining, and wonderful  moments, but most of the time my pictures are out of focus or blurry, and they just don't do justice to their subjects. 

These are some of the problems:

1) Most of the pictures are taken indoor, and the lighting is inadequate, yet using the flash does not provide a solution. 

2) My subjects (the furry-blurries) wouldn't sit still. And they are very fast when they move, unlike me, who is pretty slow. 

3) My hands are not that steady. 

4) The furry-blurries are low on the ground most of the time, and I would need to grovel on the floor to get to their sight line. 

A better camera with higher shutter speed may solve some of these problems, but with my limited photographic abilities, I'm not sure whether it's going to be worth the investment. It's a dilemma.

Tempo & Shingen, this morning (Jan. 27, 2007)

Portrait: Dasein (1)

Dasein has very expressive ears. 

This is continuation from yesterday.

So let me write about Dasein. I met her first at a pet shop in Brooklyn. Actually, I was interested in black pugs, and the search online told me that there was one available at a pet shop in Bayridge. I had no intention of buying a puppy, but it was raining that day, and I felt restless, so I made the trip to a part of Brooklyn that I've never been to before to see the puppy. No harm in seeing.... so I thought... hahaha.

Of course I should have known better. Back then I only had a vague knowledge of puppy mills, and their evil, and all the dirty secrets about the pet trade, but that is no excuse since I think of myself as a researcher, and I normally would have done much more research before I would make an important decision like bringing a new puppy into my life.

Well long story short -- Dasein was an impulse buy. I went to the store just to look at a black pug boy, but ended up with a boston terrier -- a breed that until that day, I've never even heard of.

A picture of Dasein couple of days after she first came home.

Dasein was already about 4 month old when I first met her. Usually pet store puppies get separated from their mothers as early as 8 weeks old, so now I surmise that she was either at the store or somewhere along the pet trade pipeline for couple of months. And now I also know that that's not a very good place for a puppy to be for so long. I will never know to what extent her birth circumstance and early life experiences have negatively impacted her development, but I am sure that it must have had a profound impact.

To be continued...

Second Post -- oh, uncertainty, oh, so soon...

Picture of Dasein , Wed. Morning, Jan. 25, 2012.

Since I've started this blog just this week, I think I should write something everyday, at least for a little while. But just on this second post, I'm already feeling discouraged. (Yes, you can assume, I am easily discouraged.)

I want to write a series of portraits of my companions, starting with Dasein. I can probably go on and on, about this girl. But today, I'm afraid I don't have enough time, other than to say that:

She's a Boston Terrier. And she's weird. 

To be continued...

About This Blog

Socrates, Shanti, and Dasein, aka badass trio, on Jan. 1, 2012.

This is my first blog, (well, the first blog in English), and I don't quite know what I'm doing. It would be mostly about my life with my cats & dogs. "Buhi" in the title refers to the Japanese nickname for flat-faced dogs, especially French Bulldogs. Actually its a onomatapoeia word based on the snorting, piggy noise that these dogs make. The "Nyan" part is also an onomatopoeia, "nyan" is the Japanese equivalent of "meow."

I don't really expect anyone to read this -- although  the reader is always posited. Of course it would be nice if the blog gets me rich and famous.. Buwahahahaha. But the odds, I believe is negligible. Any way, I just wanted somewhere to keep a record of my animal kids, and also a place to jot down some of my musings, hopefully amusing, but most likely not.