On the art of cooking rice

Branches, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Firs, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Forest, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Lumikko, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Cafe, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

On Friday I got stuck in the afternoon traffic jam while commuting to home from work, and listened to the radio. There was a discussion going on about the cooking of rice, the right way of doing it.

According to the radio program, there has been since 2008 a continuous active discussion about this on a forum for families (vauva.fi), and it doesn't show signs of stopping. A magazine had made recently a story about this, interviewing professors and celebrity cooks. And there was plenty of advice. What was funny is that the people in the radio program got into a heated argument... about cooking rice. "Let me finish what I'm saying here!" Apparently, there are some subleties involved.

Yesterday we shopped for some tableware, and I suddenly realized how good some stuff is. For example, plates and saucers made by Arabia, a Finnish company, which says at their web site: "Arabia is a trailblazer in modern Finnish design." Well, it is also a maker of stuff that goes on and on and on...

Quite different from most stuff nowadays, which seems to be of the once-use variety. Well, in any case, here are some photographs taken yesterday. It was a day which also seemed to go on and on and on.

Your worst photograph...

Park, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Birches, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Track, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Blur, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Firs, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Forest, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Well, Matthew Dutile caught my eye with the title Why You Should (Or Shouldn’t) Abandon Your Flickr Account. And there was one thing in the writing which I liked, because I strongly disagree with it: "You’re only as good as your worst image. Eventually you may realize that while you’ve got some good ones, others are pretty bad. You don’t want a potential client to have to wade through the bad ones. All they should see is your best."

I'm not seeking a paying audience, I'm taking photographs for myself. And in this, bad photographs are important, because they are the ones you learn from. And perhaps there are some such ones in this set from today?

But in any case, it was good to be out skiing today, for 1 1/2 hours. Coming back from Belgium I once again have appreciation for the snow of the Finnish winter.

Did I already post a link to this inverview of Maloof, on Vivian Maier?

Goes on and on and on...

Lights, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Playground, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Snow, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

School, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

Road, originally uploaded by jiihaa.

The new battery I bought for the LX3 seems to go on and on and on. I have charged it so far three times, and it always manages to surprise. At first I though the new one equals two of the old ones, but I think it is more like three. I guess the stamina of the old ones has gone down quite a lot because of 200 or so recharge cycles. Also, part of the surprise may be that when the camera was new, I was shooting mostly using 4:3 or 3:2 aspect ratios. Now that I'm using 1:1, there is less pixels to push. Or maybe the new firmware is just more efficient than the first versions. In any case, having several batteries isn't so important any more, as long as I have new one recently charged.

Here are some photographs taken yesterday. Quite snowy as you can see.