Photobooks

A few weeks ago, PhotoBox offered a 2-for-1 deal for hardcover photobooks in conjunction with Mother’s Day. I love photobooks. I think they are a much, much better way to keep and present your photos than traditional photo albums. It’s not that easy to find a photo album in shops nowadays anyway.

With digital cameras we take so many photos all the time but we never get around to printing them. My mother used to keep reminding me to print the photos of my IIUM graduation, my time in the United States, etc. but I never did until I lost them all when my hard drive died. It was a painful lesson. So I keep backup copies now. And I’ve discovered photobooks. I love photobooks. Did I say that already? I did!

So I spent the next few days in front of the computer creating our two photobooks. I’d already had for some time an idea for one photobook—our 2010 album. The hardest part was to pick which among the 1000+ photos we had taken last year to put in the photobook, and then arranging them nicely. It took longer than I expected, but in the end I really like what I had done, YAY! For the second photobook I decided to make another album of our wedding. As a matter of fact, we already have two awesome ‘official’ wedding albums from Shutterspeak, plus one photobook Afi made previously, but we thought why not one more. :D I did the second photobook over two days in time for the offer deadline, though later it turned out they extended the deadline for another week.

Apart from PhotoBox, an online photo printing company, there are two other companies I knew of that offer photobook printing service online: Snapfish and Jessops. Snapfish is similar to PhotoBox but owned by HP, while Jessops is a UK photographic equipment retailer. While researching for this entry, I found out that the CEWE photobook sold by Jessops is actually made by German company CEWE Color.

I prefer PhotoBox over the other two companies because it has the best design tool. You do everything online. There are templates you can choose and drop your photos into. I really like that PhotoBox allows you to resize and move your photos around, which Snapfish doesn’t. However, Jessops requires you to download and install a program on your computer, which I don’t like at all. I don’t need another software on my PC. Alternatively, you can let upload all your photos and have them design the photobook for you, but where’s the fun in that?

Our two photobooks arrived last Tuesday.

Turning Japanese

The Lord of the Sands of Time by Issui Ogawa was in my Amazon wishlist for almost two years before I finally bought it from, er, The Book Depository in late February.

It is about an android soldier from the future sent to the past to help prepare and fight an alien invasion. The story is set mainly in third century Japan, where he joined forces with a pagan shaman queen for a final stand against the aliens. The book is awesome, though at 260 pages a bit short. The original work is in Japanese, translated into English.

Another thing I really like about the book is the cover design, which took me to Haikasoru and more (English-translated) Japanese SFF with awesome covers! Afi said that it’s shallow to buy a book based on its cover, but it’s worked well for me so far. I strongly believe that there’s a strong correlation between a good book and good cover design. Here are some titles I now have on my wishlist, along with their synopses I copy-pasted from the Haikasoru website:

The Next Continent by Issui Ogawa

The year is 2025 and Gotoba General Construction—a firm that has built structures to survive the Antarctic and the Sahara—has received its most daunting challenge yet. Sennosuke Touenji, the chairman of one of the world's largest leisure conglomerates, wants a moon base fit for civilian use, and he wants his granddaughter Taé to be his eyes and ears on the harsh lunar surface. Taé and Gotoba engineer Aomine head to the moon where adventure, trouble, and perhaps romance await.

Dragon Sword and Wind Child by Noriko Ogiwara

The God of Light and the Goddess of Darkness have waged a ruthless war across the land of Toyoashihara for generations. But for fifteen-year-old Saya, the war is far away—until the day she discovers that she is the reincarnation of the Water Maiden and a princess of the Children of the Dark.

Raised to love the Light and detest the Dark, Saya must come to terms with her heritage even as the Light and Dark both seek to claim her, for she is the only mortal who an awaken the legendary Dragon Sword, the weapon destined to bring an end to he war. Can Saya make the choice between the Light and Dark, or is she doomed—like all the Water Maidens who came before her...?

Yukikaze by Chohei Kambayashi

More than thirty years ago a hyper-dimensional passageway suddenly appeared... the first stage of an attempted invasion by an enigmatic alien host. Humanity managed to push the invaders back through the passageway to the strange planet nicknamed "Faery." Now, Second Lieutenant Rei Fukai carries out his missions in the skies over Faery. His only constant companion in this lonely task is his fighter plane, the sentient FFR-31 Super Sylph, call sign: YUKIKAZE.

Usurper of the Sun by Housuke Nojiri

Aki Shiraishi is a high school student working in the astronomy club and one of the few witnesses to an amazing event--someone is building a tower on the planet Mercury. Soon, the enigmatic Builders have constructed a ring around the sun, and the ecology of Earth is threatened by its immense shadow. Aki is inspired to pursue a career in science, and the truth. She must determine the purpose of the ring and the plans of its creators, as the survival of both species—humanity and the alien Builders—hangs in the balance.

I am looking forward to reading each of them!

Beans

Yes, we made some vadeh! Who would have guessed that we share the same favourite pasar malam delicacies? We both love vadeh and taufu fah. The problem is, of course, they are both not readily available around here. So the only viable—and fun—option is to try and make some ourselves.

To make vadeh we need dhal. I never knew that there are so many varieties of dhal. We bought some moong dhal previously, but apparently the proper variety for making vadeh is chana dhal. Yup. Thankfully, chana dhal is easy to find. I couldn’t believe vadeh is so easy to make.

Now, the taufu fah story is a different matter altogether. Looking at the recipes online, there is a hard way to make it—from scratch from soya beans—and a more manageable way using soya milk. Either way, what I need is a coagulant.

co•ag•u•lant (koʊˈægyələnt)
–noun
a substance that produces or aids coagulation.

co•ag•u•late (v. koʊˈægyəˌleɪt; adj. koʊˈægyəlɪt, -ˌleɪt)
–verb (used with object), verb (used without object)

1. to change from a fluid into a thickened mass; curdle; congeal: Let the pudding stand two hours until it coagulates.
2. Biology. (of blood) to form a clot.
3. Physical Chemistry. (of colloidal particles) to flocculate or cause to flocculate by adding an electrolyte to an electrostatic colloid.

–adjective

4. Obsolete. coagulated.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)

That is where the problem started. The best, traditional option is to use gypsum powder, particularly calcium sulphate. Supposedly, it can be found at Chinese/Oriental shops. I looked at all the Chinese shops I know of around Oxford but none of them have it. When I asked, the shop staff reacted like they had never even heard of it. Oxford is so kampung.

The other option is to use glucono delta-lactone (GDL), also known by its EU code E575. Calcium sulphate is a salt coagulant and virtually tasteless, and produces taufu fah (or generally tofu) that is brittle in nature. On the other hand, GDL is an acid coagulant that leaves a hint of sour to a silkier smooth product. Thanks to Wikipedia for all that!

Needless to say the taufu fah project has not taken off yet. Some recipes suggest using gelatine, but I think I’ll wait till I get my hands on some gypsum powder/calcium sulphate.

I am not giving up on this anytime soon.