October 18th, 2014

The making of apple pie

I love pie, but I really don’t make it enough. The problem is the amount of food. My husband and I shouldn’t eat a whole pie (I almost said “couldn’t” but then I realized that wasn’t true), and it’s also not enough to share with my coworkers (I double my cookie and cake/cupcake recipes for work). Having people over is pretty much the perfect time.

This morning when we went to do yard work, we saw that apples had grown in on our apple tree! Today also happens to be when we’re hosting a football watching party, so it was the perfect time to make some apple pie 🙂 This is a recipe my mom has been using for several years, with a few modifications by me.

The first thing I make is the dough because it needs to be refrigerated for at least an hour before it’s used. Homemade dough may seem intimidating, but it’s actually quite easy and uses very little ingredients.

apple_pie_01

When it comes to cookies, cakes, and frosting, you usually start with room temperature butter because it allows more air to be beaten in. For pies and tarts, you typically use cold butter, and it’s easier to use when cut into smaller pieces and slowly added into the mix. My mom does this part by hand, but I like using my stand mixer with a flat beater. (A large food processor would work as well.)

apple_pie_02

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14 · Posted in Baking, Food, Photography, Tips / Recommends
September 25th, 2014

My photography journey

It’s been an exhausting week since my company just had its annual user conference. It’s a 3-day event, and I worked as a photographer the entire time. I used to photograph our events for fun (I’m actually a software developer for the company), but starting last year, I began helping out on the photography team.

There’s 3 of us that walk around to take photos, and each of us have our own style. One of my coworkers mentioned last year that he’s better at candids while I’m better at talking with people and asking them for a photo. When I look back on how I used to be, it’s kind of funny to me how I ended up like that.

Oct 2013: A photo I took at last year's conference.

Oct 2013: A photo I took at last year’s conference.

When I was young, I was incredibly shy. My parent-teacher conferences always ended with the feedback of, “Catherine doesn’t talk enough”. I was even like that when I did a photoshoot for the first time ever.

I bought my first DSLR at the end of 2009, and I chose the Canon 50D. It’s considered a semi-casual/semi-pro camera, which has a cropped sensor and was targeted at serious (but not pro) photographers. At first, I was super excited about it, but after a few months, that turned to regret. I wasn’t confident in my skills and felt I wasn’t good enough for the 50D. What the hell was I thinking? Starting with a serious DSLR when I was a total newbie?

Dec 2009: One of my earliest DSLR photos.

Dec 2009: One of my earliest DSLR photos.

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10 · Posted in Photography
August 28th, 2014

The Rift

Gaming has come a looooong way from when I first started. Though I played some games on the computer early on, the NES was when I really started my gaming hobby. This was when I was very young (I don’t even remember how old), and I’ve been keeping up and watching games change since then.

I remember how loading up Super Mario 64 for the first time on my N64 just blew me away. If you look back on it now, the graphics are pretty bad, but prior to that, I hadn’t played a game with 3D graphics. City of Heroes was another big one for me because it was my first MMO. I had to get used to the fact that I was surrounded by random strangers whose faces I’d probably never see.

Now there’s another milestone in my gaming life. We’re now the owners of an Oculus Rift, DevKit 2!

rift_01

My husband put in an order several months ago, and we just got ours recently. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a virtual reality (VR) headset. There’s multiple parts to it. It connects to your computer, which is what’s actually running the game. There’s a camera to track your head movement. Then there’s the headset itself, which has a small screen for each eye.

rift_02

Your head acts as the game’s camera. If you’re playing in first person, when you move your head, you are actually moving your character’s head. Walking around is still done by keyboard/mouse or gamepad.

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13 · Posted in Gaming
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