The Longest Grocery Store Lines Ever

Instead of my normal grocery shopping at Costco, I sometimes still go to Market Basket (aka Home of Chaos) for their super good deals. Market Basket's parking lot is insane, as it can take 10 minutes to get a parking spot. Yet, it's just a warm-up/sample of the hectic crowd inside.

Today I witnessed the craziness checkout lines I've ever witnessed. All ~10 check-out lines were so long that they bent in all directions and fed all the way into the aisles!

Every single person in this pile up is actually in a check-out line:

As mentioned, some lines extended far into the nearby, incredibly healthy aisles, as shown:

Yummy Oatmeal Cranberry Walnut Mini-Muffins

Sheley and I cook daily, but usually we don't venture too far from our norm. I always cook breakfast, and usually she or I cook dinner ~5-6 nights a week. But, we're attempting to cook more special, tasty recipes and just ad-hoc, fun items.

This weekend, Sheley spontaneously cooked some very tasty oatmeal cranberry walnut mini-muffins, topped w/ pineapple!

Not unrelated, I just bought a 10-lb bag of oats from Costco. So, I'll be making oatmeal/cranberry/walnut/splenda/cinnamon as half of my breakfast fairly often.

Re-Designing New Year Resolutions: No Deadlines, Only Startlines*

At the beginning of 2011, I made a huge spreadsheet of all of the goals I wanted to accomplish throughout the year, which spanned multiple categories: work/research, playing guitar, painting, photography, weight lifting, jogging, recreational reading, cooking, etc. I detailed concrete, quarterly 3-month goals for every single category. Yet, I still failed miserably.

As we all know, it's very easy to put things off. However, I thought that defining objective deadlines for all of my tasks would help keep me regimented. Sure, I was pretty disciplined in some of the categories, but in some categories I essentially did nothing at all. Why is this, and how did it happen?

The main reason is that other, more pressing matters took higher precedence throughout the year, allowing me to completely neglect some categories.

For example, if something at work starts to consume all of my attention, I often put off doing everything else. I feel this is true for most people. We are good at accomplishing deadlines within our career. Why is that? We need to mimic that for all of our deadlines. I believe most people are good at meeting career deadlines because:

1. we all work towards the deadline very often (~daily)
2. we take it seriously (we don't want to be jobless or homeless)
3. we are ideally passionate about the career work

All of these items help, but I believe the biggest one that separates goals of mine that were accomplished from those that were not is #1; when I look at my failed resolutions, the failed categories are ones that I never got momentum in -- the start was flaky at best.

There will always be some unforeseen task that comes up which I bump up to priority #1. And, if I have ~8 main categories that I'm trying to all work towards through the year, it will likely be the case that at least 3 of them will never be touched because of these unforeseen, pressing deadlines related to work/family/other goals. This leads me to think that setting deadlines is not necessarily ideal.

Sure, it's good to have objective marks signifying where you'd like to be, but even setting more regimented, smaller time-scaled deadlines isn't sufficient.

Personally, I always have some to-do list that I'm often working on. I got into this habit since I was just a little kid, my mom tells me. In recent years, my to-do list often spans a few days or a week. Even with this, I find myself often not getting around to at least 1-3 of say 10-15 items each time. Those items are typically not essential, so they sadly get pushed off and never done.

My point is, even a 5-day list of deadlines proves to be difficult enough to follow, so of course there's no way I/we can 100% fulfill a more grand, all-encompassing schedule of deadlines that span an entire year. List of deadlines, even if they are only span a week, will leave me short, as some items never get started.

So, let's not plot everything with respect to the end and the deadlines, even if they have intermediate deadlines. Rather, let's make startlines. Let's list the days on which we'll start things, and this takes highest priority over everything. In fact, when unforeseen pressing matters come up, let's then force these annoying deadlines to work around our pre-detailed startlines.

For example, say some art show is coming up, and I desperately want to edit, print, and mat a bunch of new photos that I had just taken a few days ago. In this very real example, I often put all other recreational activities behind in order to urgently get this done. Instead, I should keep in mind the big picture, relax my requirements for the photography art show (realizing that it's okay to not have the latest photos), and force myself to revolve my schedule around any previously schedule startlines. If I had previously listed that I will devote 2 hours to trying to learn to play guitar on Wednesday, and the pressing art show happened to be on Friday, well, I should still pick up the guitar on Wednesday.

I'm starting this approach for 2012. We'll see if it serves me well.

In short, let's try to list the actual days on which we'll start and do things, not far-away deadlines by which everything will magically be done.

Along the same lines, maybe I shouldn't think of any my goals in terms of long-term end results; maybe I should define my goals in terms of sheer investment.

To illustrate, well, I'll pick one of my goals which is highly quantifying, tempting to view in terms of long-term end results, and one that is amongst my least embarrassing (one which I haven't been too slack and delinquent): weight-lifting.

One of my weight-lifting goals concerns my body weight and my max 1-rep bench press. I currently weigh 147 lbs and my max bench press is 225 lb. My 2011 goal was to get back to my prime: weigh 156 lbs and bench press 240 lb. I would like to reach this in 2012, too. I know what it takes to get back to this condition (going hardcore on particular exercises, working out 5 times a week, proper nutrition, etc). So, instead of defining my success in terms of some boolean 1-point check of reaching the goal or not, I should make my goal to be the appropriate, necessary investment that's required to meet that goal.

Specifically, my goal should not be:

• By March 30: weigh 150 and bench 228.
• By June 30: weigh 152 and bench 235.
• By September 30: weigh 155 and bench 238.
• By December 30: weigh 156 and bench 240.

Instead, maybe it should be:

• In January, continue to go to the gym at least 3 times a week
• In February, increase to a consistent 4 times a week (17 times total).
• In March, increase to 20 times total.

Similarly, I could define specific workout goals in terms of the necessary investment. For example, "do chest & back workouts 2 times a week." As long as I do this, who cares if I EXACTLY meet some particular bench press weight goal such as benching 240 lbs or not? If I follow this investment schedule, I know I'll be close to my desired results. If I'm a few pounds under or over, so be it. I should be happy with my amount of effort and how much time I dedicate to this hobby that I love and enjoy. That's the most important thing.

Along the same lines, I shouldn't make it a goal to "learn how to play a guitar song by February 1," but "spend 2 hours per week learning to play guitar." You get the idea.

I like this approach. Any thoughts?

* Yea, Startlines sounds cheesy, but I had to call it something.

Tips for buying a new camera and lens

I get asked this question pretty often, so here's my very short write-up.

Disclaimer: I'm just hitting the highlights and providing my own quick, generalized recommendations and tidbits about photography. It's better to exhaustively research equipment for your specific needs.

General Points

• Worry more about your choice of lens(es) than about the body

• Say you have $1.5k to spend. A $1,200 lens on a $300 body will produce better pictures than a $300 lens on a $1,200 body. Try to find some middle ground.

• You truly get what you pay for.

• The popular namebrands all generally make great products.

• Camera bodies:

Canon and Nikon are both excellent. There is no clear superior company. I prefer Canon. Sony is making some serious strides. Pentax currently has some ~$1,000 bodies that are more rugged than anything else at that price point, yet, SLRs are typically much more durable than you'd imagine. Instead of SLRs, mirrorless cameras are really nifty, too, as they kind of combine the best of both worlds: manual controls and lens interchangeability of SLRs, and compactness of point-and-shoots. Panasonic is currently leading this forefront.

• Whatever camera body namebrand you pick, plan to stick with it because you can't expect your lenses to work with other camera namebrands (e.g., Nikon lenses won't work with Canon bodies.)

• Lenses retain their value VERY well (and may increase in price over time), whereas camera bodies are like computers and degrade somewhat quickly (for example, I bought a new $455 lens from bhphotovideo.com. 3 years later, it was being sold for $490, and I sold it used on eBay for $460. At this moment, it sells on the same site for $579!)

• Cameras do not retain their value well: a entry-level camera body for $800 will sell for ~$250 used in 4 years.

• Used lenses are barely cheaper than new ones. So, unless you find some insane deal from craigslist or eBay, buy new.

• Buy from bhphotovideo.com -- they're 1 of the best companies I've ever experienced.

Lenses

• The key to buying a lens is to pick the focal length you want, then aim for the one with the largest aperture (smallest F/stop number). The aperture is the size of the diaphragm that lets in light. You want the biggest hole (smallest F/ number you can get), which means it let's in more light. This is good because it allows you to shoot in poorly lit conditions like when the sun is setting, and it also allows you the option of creating photos such that the background is nice and blurred out.

• Prime lenses (aka non-zoom lenses) are optically better than zoom lenses. This isn't to say that there aren't some amazing zoom lenses. For example, the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L is a very nice and expensive zoom lens. Yet, at any focal length in that range, Canon makes a prime (non-zoom) lens that is optically superior than what the zoom can produce at that given focal length. Zooms are handy for fast-moving, unpredictable environments like wild life and sports scenarios. See http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Canon-Lenses/Zoom-Vs-Prime-Lens.aspx for more info.

• Canon and Nikon/Nikkor make comparable, excellent lenses. Leica and Zeiss lenses are typically the best that exist. Sigma is a 3rd party manufacturer that makes some great lenses that are on par with Canon/Nikon. I haven't tried Tamron, but they're popular. A moderately-priced (~$700) wide-angle lens that is highly acclaimed is the Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8. As mentioned, non-zoom lenses have higher optical quality compared to their counterparts, but for wide-angle shots, zooms can be handy.

• lenses in the 15mm - 24mm range are ultra wide-angle and good for landscapes and interior shooting

• lenses in the 28mm - 50mm range are good for most general-purpose situations

• lenses in the 85mm - 100mm range are good for macro, portraits, and almost telephoto situations

• lenses in the 135mm - 400mm range are good for telephoto, long-away situations

Research

Obviously, you'll read user reviews of the equipment before you buy it. There is no shortage of online literature; however, I find the following resources particularly useful:

• BHPhotovideo's user reviews.
• fredmiranda.com's forums -- incredible community of hardcore photo gear heads.
• the-digital-picture.com's tools -- view actual comparison images taken w/ tons of camera/lenses setups.
• reddit.com/r/photography -- good, diverse community of photographers.
• lensrentals.com -- #1 source for renting lenses. (although, shipping is expensive.)
• calumet -- few locations in the USA. they rent lenses, sometimes cheaper than above.
• pixel-peeper.com -- view sample images that were taking w/ your equipment.
• dpreview -- good review/article site. so good that amazon bought them out in 2007.
• keh.com -- #1 source for buying used equipment. again, buying new is usually worth it.
• table of all canon SLRs and table of all nikon SLRs

Exact Buying Suggestions

To very specifically answer the question of "what to buy with $X money," this is what I'd recommend for the common person (i.e., one who isn't looking to specialize in only food photography or say airplane photography):

If you're willing to spend less than $1,000:

• lens: buy the Canon 50mm f/1.8 for ~$110
• body: spend the rest of the money on the best Canon body you can afford.

If you're willing to spend $1,000 - $2,000:

• lenses: buy 2 lenses: 1 somewhere in the 30mm - 50mm range, and 1 in the 85mm - 100mm range. I highly recommend the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 for ~$450 and the Canon 100mm f/2.8 for ~$480.
• body: spend the rest on the best Canon body you can afford.

If you're willing to spend much more:

• body: buy a high-end full-frame body from Canon or Nikon (they currently cost $2,000+).
• lenses: spend the rest of the money on high-end lenses such as Canon L series lenses. I highly recommend the Canon 35mm f/1.4L and the Canon 135mm f/2.0L, but all Canon L series lenses are great. If you deem 135mm to be too long of a focal length, the Canon 85mm 1.2L and Canon 100mm f/2.8L are also highly acclaimed.  Alternatively, if you prefer wider-angle shots as opposed to telephoto, the Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 II L is a spectacular lens, too.  If you feel comfortable shooting in manual-focus mode, Zeiss makes manual-focus lenses for Canon and Nikon which often outperform anything Canon and Nikon can offer for a particular focal length.  Specifically, the Zeiss 25mm f/2.0 ZE, Zeiss 50mm f/2.0 ZE, and Zeiss 100mm f/2.0 ZE are world-class and unparalleled in performance.  I currently own the first two of these Zeiss lenses and enjoy them immensely!

If money is no object:

• please buy me a Leica body and/or some Leica and Zeiss lenses.

Other Accessories You Might Want to Eventually Buy

• Back-up batteries
• Filters (e.g,. polarizing, UV, ND, etc)
• Remote Shutter Release (they are as low as $5 and allow you to remotely press the shutter, which helps because it shakes the camera less than when touching the button. also very useful for long exposures)
• Good Tripod (at least $150. I highly recommend Benro A-1690 Travel Angel)
• Camera Backpack (I highly recommend the Lowepro Flipside 300)

General Starting Tips

• fully read your camera's manual
• take a LOT of pictures
• think about what you're trying to capture and convey
• learn to shoot in Av and Manual mode
• shoot in RAW mode
• get good/comfortable with a powerful photo editor (I recommend Lightroom)

travellin

i haven't updated in a while, but for record-keeping purposes, here are some highlights from the past 40 days:

1. kazi -- a good friend from the undergrad days -- visited me in boston.

back in 2006, we both visited boston together for what would be the first time for each of us. it won us over back then, and this visit was like the reunion.

• i housed kazi and showed him around boston.
• did a lot and had a good time.
• kazi landed a summer internship w/ my employer, and he'll be conducted research similar to mine.

2. i flew to dc for work purposes, again. i also extended the trip into a personal trip:

• visited my good friend, dan for a day:

• stayed w/ my good friend, g francis for a few days

g francis and i randomly decided to experiment w/ light painting photography one friday night. it ended up being a blast. we learned how to take long exposures and shine light onto subjects in the dark, thereby taking a complete additive approach to the lighting aspect.

this experience has motivated me to try night photography more:

3. visited brown's 3-day open-house event in rhode island.

amazing school and campus. founded in 1764, it's officially "old school."

4. visited santa barbara, california for 5 days for a conference.

on the way to and from airport, i took some pics.

iPhone 4 revolutionizes my life in a mere 5 days

i'm rather slow to adopt new technology -- i didn't get a cell phone until feb 2006, and up until last week, i still had a $20 cheap, camera-less GoPhone from bestbuy. i had never been able to share cell phone pictures, download ringtones, or anything like that.

i decided to get w/ the times, so 5 days ago i bought an iPhone 4 for $80 (cosmetic refurbished, but it looks perfectly fine).

i've already found it to be really useful:

1. FaceTime - i was able to video chat w/ one of my best friends who is currently in law school in indiana. he was in his campus' library and i was able to see it. likewise, i showed him around my boston apartment! (below is not my friend.)
2. Mobile Internet - while at costco, i was curious how good of a deal a certain product was. i knew how much i usually pay for a similar product, but was unsure of the # of servings it contains. using google, i found it within 1 page click, which allowed me to discover how good of a deal it was at costco.
3. Subway/Bus times - instead of driving my car, i take public transportation to/from work each day. it's almost 3 hours total. i only have to wait less than 10 minutes for any subway/bus. but, boston's vehicles now all have GPS, so thanks to an app, i can track them! today's temperature was 1 degree outside. so, saving me a few minutes of waiting outside is very useful!
4. Sleeping - there's an app that monitors your matress' vibrations to detect how soundly you are sleeping. it wakes you up when you are in your lightest sleep within a 30-minute window that you tell it ahead of time. wake up more restful! here's my 1st stats from night 1 of using it:
   
5. Gym - for the past 7 years, i've logged my workouts. during the past yr, i would handwrite my workouts, then would transcribe them online to my private blog during my peak times, this would require 15 extra minutes each day. i found a great app -- Gym Buddy -- which is perfect for logging weights very quickly. it literally takes me less than 4 seconds to log any exercise. the app records histories of everything you could want, and it even includes stopwatches! this saves me SOO much time.
   
6. PDFs - i have copied PDF slides of a textbook and of course letctures to the iPhone, which allows me to read them during my commute. realistically, i'll probably just stick to hardcopies on this one, but it's still very handy to have this as a backup for times that i don't have the hardcopies on me!
7. my todo-list on the go! - i use google tasks from multiple computers. it's good to always have access to it while at a computer. now, i can take it with me anywhere! because the list loads as a webpage, i can even load it before leaving my apartment, go offline while outside, and still view the pre-loaded page. of course, i can contribute to the list anytime i want, too. this is very helpful to me.
8. graphical search - you can take a picture of something that you are unsure about, and google will do an image search for you! this is incredibly useful, although i haven't used it yet.
9. barcode reading - you can scan barcodes of anything, and it'll search for that product. if it's food, you can view the nutritional info. if it's a product like shampoo, you can see others' prices and info. haven't used it yet. definitely will.
10. outings - there are a myriad of apps to use for going out, obviously. from yelp, FoodSpotting, Ubranspoon, google maps, google places (hotpot), etc. this will come in handy for when we want to be slightly more unprepared and whimsical.

after just having the iPhone for 5 days, i pretty much believe that it's the most powerful mainstream computer that exists. when i say powerful, i mean not so much its computational abilities, but its degree and variety of utility. sure, a modern laptop has a faster processor, but you can't take it everywhere so easily. moreover, it can't do everything an iphone can -- from its webcam (which as i said, can be used for things such as scanning barcodes to taking pics to live video streaming) to having built-in gps and calling abilities, the doors are obviously open for a somewhat unlimited range of utility -- hence the plethora of apps.

it's obviously a superset of an iPod too. i could ramble on for a while.

basically, i'm sold. i've set ground rules for my usage of it, for i refuse to let it interfere with my normal-day living. yet, i appreciate its power and ability to assist in my daily life, and i plan to use it well.

the beautiful mess of inexactness and unaccountability

(note: if you're short on time, just read the bold parts)

the computer scientist and mathematician in me often cause me to think about how to make commonplace situations the most efficient and beneficial for everyone. for example, situations such as:

• boarding an airplane -- how to board everyone the quickest w/ minimum hassle
• waiting in lines at a store
• boston's subway -- how to decide how many subway trains to have, where to place them, and how often to run
• placement of products within department stores like target

these types of things naturally cross my mind as i encounter them. yet, lately, i've come to not only accept the fact that the world at large is a massive NP-complete, inexact, sub-optimal system, but that it's often best this way.

for example, while at mike's pastries recently (my favorites there are the chocolate covered ricotta cannoli and german chocolate brownie!), i was thinking about how horribly disorganized that place is: basically, there's one line that forms outside, but once inside the store, there are no lines. you merely force your way up to any of the surrounding glass counters and compete for the attention of a nearby cashier. oh, and they only accept cash.

i've been to mike's pasties tons of times, yet it's always exciting and enjoyable -- even if it does have a huge touristy vibe. while thinking about how long this place has been famous, and how well their system works for them, it then hit me: the seemingly horrible time-inefficiency of their system actually isn't too bad. moreover, their inefficiency actually benefits them and is a vital part of their success! see, the chaotic nature of their store helps facilitate the exciting vibe of being there. if the lines were streamlined and branched off smoothly to cashiers, then the place would be typical. it wouldn't be as fun. this chaotic fun helps make the whole experience better, and probably even influences our perception of how good the food tastes.

lesson learned: what may be seem like an objective benefit to people may not actually be what's best; sometimes the sub-optimal solution is incidentally optimal.

as for unaccountability, lately i've witnessed two tragic events:

• a man die by plummeting down a gigantic waterfall (see recent post)
• a police raid; unseen to me, police shot a man 10-12 times. the victim merely had a water gun.

the waterfall incident went almost unnoticed. i saw the man fall, and the ~4 nearby people heard my screams and participated in the search. minutes later, hikers entering the trail had no idea what had just happened. it was only the next morning that officials found the victim's body. the incident only received a few sentences on local news sites, and the news was wrongly report too -- for they stated that he had fallen into the river. i would have thought that the park would have been encouraged to post more warnings about the dangers of going beyond the railings, and would have possibly constructed a plague dedication to the victim. nope. it was merely wrongly reported and probably only listed as a park statistic at best.

it baffled me how easily such an important thing like one's life can fail to garner proper action. i realize everyone's short on time, and that there are only a limited amount of resources for everything. yet, i'm constantly amazed and constantly realizing how limited these things actually are, and what's realistic to expect. this isn't some depressing message; it's just my coming to understand the inexactness and imperfections that occur in the world -- that not everything's ideal. of course.

as for the police raid incident, my friend brian and i witnessed ~20 cop cars come to one's home. the police constructed battering rams, kevlar shields, and gigantic guns as they prepared to invade this peron's house. we didn't really know what we were witnessing. days later, i looked online and found essentially no information reported. like the waterfall death, it was merely a 3-sentence blurb stating nothing beyond what we already knew. days later, i looked online again and found a slightly more detailed story: the victim apparently only possessed a water gun, and police supposedly didn't provide the man a chance to cooperate; police merely came in and used him as target practice. victim had 20 holes in him, mostly from gun shots.

what's the consequence? i don't know. i assume the victim's family will try to take to court some of the police, or maybe some policeman might be fired, but i don't know. it's just crazy to think of how large a mistake can be made without proper consequence/punishment/justice -- both justice in the form of police being punished and justice with respect to the story getting recognition in the news. i'm sure it's impossible for this to happen ideally. there are way too many people in the world, and there's no way every death can receive news coverage for everyone who cares. people die all the time, and the world is constantly fighting for everyone's attention. our attention is very very valuable and expensive, apparent by ubiquitous ads and just the nature of our very fast-paced lifestyles.

it's just weird to first-hand witness a life perish, possibly illegally, and for there to be so little accountability. oh yea, i was supposed to talk about accountability. basically, it's alarming, and for the same reasons that i've already said. there's so much going on, and there'll never be enough resources (time, energy, care, money, etc) that can properly do justice to everything. that's impossible and too expensive.

i don't mean for this entry to read as a depressing message. it's merely a reminder and a lesson that our world is imperfect, and that it takes a lot of very special effort, time, and care to make something the way you want it... and that for everything you do see, it's often the product of a lot of care and deliberation. thus, we shouldn't take things for granted. from streets being cleaned to newspapers being delivered, it takes a lot to get something done.

basically, we live in a beautiful mess. we should remember this and be more grateful for the things that do work.