It’s amazing how behind you can feel after being gone for only a week. It’s short enough where people will wait until you get back to ask or talk to you about something, and it’s long enough that tasks just pile up. So where was I the past week?
10/13-10/16: A few coworkers and I attended the Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing, which is a tech conference for women (though men could attend too). There were 12,000 attendees this year, and it looked like about 90% were women. That’s pretty amazing. I’ve been in the Computer Science field for 12 years (4 in school, 8 in industry) and that was my first time surrounded by so many women in tech!
10/17: Even though it was a Saturday, I went to work! We had a group of interns come to our office for internship interviews, and I interviewed four of them.
10/18-10/20: My husband and I flew to West Point, NY and met up with some of his family to bury his paternal grandmother. Both sides of his family were military families that grew up in West Point, and his grandmother wanted to be buried alongside her late husband there. I had the pleasure of meeting her once for our wedding, and hearing stories about how much she meant to everyone made me wish I knew her more. It was a lovely trip though, especially since I hadn’t been in this area of NY in a while. I talk about visiting NYC often, but little known fact: I actually grew up in Poughkeepsie!
And so, I’ve been playing catch-up since I got back. I’m behind on work, reading blogs, and posting about my Project 52. Let’s start with catching up on the last one!
#37 – Greatest Swordsman
This probably looks familiar because I already showed it in my last Favorite Things entry! Like I said in that entry, Zoro is one of my favorite characters, and this is my most recent figure purchase. To make this photo work, I had to get the lighting and camera angle under him. Otherwise, his bandana would cast a shadow over his eyes.
#38 – Austin
During week 38, I was still post processing photos from AnimeFest and had started my long photographer shifts for my work’s user conference. Taking my weekly photo kind of slipped my mind! This is actually a couple days late. I was downtown to take photos for an event and finished up while the sun was setting. I took a quick photo before I left!
#39 – Moon Cake
Week 39 landed on Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, and it’s when moon cakes are eaten like the one pictured. My mom always gives me one every year 🙂 This one has my favorite filling, which is lotus paste with an egg yolk. I went for a simple and symmetrical composition for the photo.
#40 – Mini Me
Kirby makes another appearance! I already did a Kirby photo for #15 and #29, but I love him, so here he is again 😉 The top figure is part of a Kirby stacking set, the bottom is one of my Kirby plushes, and the background is a small piece of fabric.
#41 – Wedding Memories
We celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on week 41! This is a close up of my wedding dress, my rings, and a few accessories I wore on our wedding day. It’s also my first time taking my dress out of its bag since our wedding day. A shame we can’t do much with our dresses afterwards, huh?
#42 – Wildfire
My coworkers and I happened to drive to Houston for Grace Hopper on the same day that the Bastrop fire started, and we saw it on the way. (This is a phone photo, since I didn’t think to use my compact camera. Also, I wasn’t the one driving. Drive safe, everyone.) This fire has burned 4,500+ acres, and it’s incredibly sad to see it happen again. Only a few years ago (2011), Bastrop suffered a devastating wildfire that destroyed 1,600+ homes and burned 34,000+ acres.
#43 – West Point
One of the things I miss about living in New York is that it actually has a fall season! We don’t really get to see leaves changing colors here in Texas. West Point is a beautiful and scenic area, right by the Hudson River and surrounded by trees. I took this photo right outside of our hotel.
Alright, now I can check off posting about my Project 52 🙂 Next up is to catch up on reading blogs!
Sorry to hear about the loss of your husband’s paternal grandmother 🙁 I’m glad you were able to meet her at least once before her passing!
That photo of West Point is my favourite from this batch. Autumn is a gorgeous season, so I’m glad you got to experience again after so many years! 🙂
I also love the first photo of Zoro! It’s great you figured out the right lighting and angle for this photo to come out this way. I really love it! At first glance I thought it was an anime still!
It sounds like you had fun at the conference! It’s amazing to see how many women are in tech now. The field ratio looks a bit better, but there are more improvement to be made.
I’m sorry to hear about your husband’s paternal grandmother’s passing. I’m glad to hear that you got to meet her once before the wedding. Your wedding dress/picture/rings look amazing!!! Love love love it! It’s a shame that wedding dresses are usually meant to be worn once. But it’s always good to bring it out once in a while :). I didn’t know Poughkeepsie is an actual name of a town ;o. Pretty neat fun fact!
Once again, I will say that your photography skillz are over level 9000. Happy Mid-Autumn! I realized I didn’t have a moon cake this year. PS. West Point’s picture is on point 😉
I love that there is a huge celebration for women in tech. Pretty amazing <3
I don't think I visited West Point, but I would love to when I got back. It's good you got to meet your husband's grandmother before she passed, even if it was only briefly.
That moon cake looks delicious. Kirby is the cutest! Happy wedding anniversary <3 Hope you had a wonderful time celebrating.
My dad lost his father a few months ago and it’s been hard on that side of the family hugs Death is never easy to understand or accept.
I’ve heard of West Point because of military history and its importance in training military officers and the such. Glad you got to meet the husband’s grandmother before she passed. I’m doing what I can to keep meeting my husband’s grandmother because she’s like 80 and I already love her so even if we don’t speak the same language.
I’m appreciating the time I have with her. Never had a moon cake before. Is it delicious? Looks too beautiful to eat. To be honest, never thought much of Kirby because I never played the video games before, but after playing Epic Yarn, KIRBY is deliciously cute! ^^ Happy wedding anniversary. Mine and my husband’s is coming up this next March. 3 years!
And it will be 7 since we started dating too. Such wonderful memories!
Wow it’s amazing to hear that there are so many women pursuing technology these days!! I think a lot of us need to break stereotypes and not let interest define our female identities. When I started attending engineering school my mom said people are gonna think I’m a tomboy. =_= I’m sorry about your loss but it’s the memories that we can cherish, how great it is that you have one of her at your wedding!
WHOA I thought your Greatest Swordsman photo was an illustration! Such pro lighting. Haha I forgot about Midautumn Festival but that’s such a beautiful photo of one of my favorite desserts! I try to eat only a quarter each time though because that entire thing has more calories than needed for two meals. Awww look at Kirby, so cute when you have multiple plushes / figurines of the game character. I think the wedding dress is just for a memory so it’s great that you only wore it one day! I also like that you kept it because I hear a lot of people just rent it. And oh my, that wildfire looks terrible but climate change is inevitable that even we get brushfire warnings during the winter when it’s incredibly dry. I looked up West Point and it’s a bit north so that’s why there are orange leaves! They usually do come along around this time of the year but now that I live in Manhattan I don’t see them either. 🙁
Sounds like you’ve been very busy! Hopefully you’ll manage to catch-up on everything soon.
Sorry for your loss- hope you’re all coping okay. Those things are hard, but they soon get easier.
I love Kirby and that picturr looks great!
You had a busy week but anyway I would like to congratulate you on your wedding anniversary also sorry to hear about your husband’s paternal grandmother.
Your photo of mooncake looks delicious. You’re good at composition! 🙂
Waaii I’m all about that last photo! We live in a hilly area that’s still covered in a lot of trees. The changing leaves are giving me so much life.
I’m sorry to hear about your husband’s grandmother. 🙁 She sounds like an amazing person, and she sounds like she was loved. 🙂
Sorry to hear about your husband’s grandma. It sounds like she was a lovely woman. Hope you’re all okay x
The Grace Hopper Celebration sounds amazing! It must have been very exciting.Also, I hope the interns are good, I’d very nervous about conducting an interview.
I hadn’t heard about the Bastrop fire, I hope everyone is okay. I’ve just searched the news and the latest article I can see says it’s contain, but that was two weeks ago. Has it been extinguished? Is the area okay? I hope so!
Happy 4th Wedding anniversary. The details on your dress look beautiful! As you said, it’s such a shame that people don’t get much of a chance to do things with their dress after the big day, but keeping it for memories is a great thing anyway =]
I can’t get over how cool your Zoro statue is, and you lit him so well! I’m also super envious of all of your Kirby figures. I’ve become a little bit obsessed with king Dedede recently…
I’ve never heard of mooncake before – that is the most detailed cake I’ve ever seen! It’s so precise, I think it looks wonderful, and it sounds delicious too.
I think the Bastrop fire is extinguished now! We just had an insane amount of rain that it has caused flooding in some areas, so I think that finally took out the fire.
I love how moon cakes look, but a lot of people don’t like their taste, haha. They’re very dense inside, but I like them anyway 🙂