F-Stopps by David So

    Man what a year. First WW3 memes with Australia on fire, then a pandemic which quite literally changed life as we know it. Add to that a summer of racial tensions and then a crazy election, life in America has been a mixture of both really exciting, really stressful, and really boring. But tonight, I'm here to talk about my experience with being an American, being Asian, being a Christian, and often just feeling like I don't truly 'fit in'. To start off, let's go all the way back before I was born, back to the 70s. During that decade, my parents immigrated over to the US. Being fairly young (before their teen years), most of their main education was in the US as opposed to other's who came to the US for college or post-grad opportunities. Fast forward to March 19th, 1999, Dennis and Angela had a son, and the world would never be the same.    I'm technically first generation, but part of me feels second generation. I have a lot of first-gen Asian American

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy doing this blog. However, there is something about realizing the importance of regularly making posts, and the minor amount of stress that comes with trying to create content. Today, after work, I was walking back to my car. Now, in my town, the fires from eastern Oregon gave us the present of smoke, rendering the sky and the sun a nice orange hue. However, today, after a brief downpour, the skies opened up, showing the lovely light blues interrupted by the occasional wispy whites. The sidewalk was the nice wet sidewalks that us western Oregonians are so used to, so, I grabbed my smartphone and took the shot. The composition isn't great. The dynamic range is pretty meh (which is honestly why I converted it to B&W). Yet, I kind of like it. Yes, I do wish that the sidewalk was more geometric (the center seam isn't perpendicular with the cross seams which REALLY annoys me), but the photo captures a unique view, and view that I woul

For someone who has lived less than an hour away from the Oregon State Fairgrounds, the past 18 years you'd think that I would have been to the state fair prior to this year. But NOPE! This year was my first year. To be honest, fairs really aren't my thing. My parents have ingrained in me a wise fear of fair rides, and the food is always overpriced (and also incredibly fattening). On that note, I was able to get an elephant ear that was a solid 18 inches in diameter all the way around. But anyway, fairs aren't my thing. The only reason why I went up this year was for KING & COUNTRY was playing and admission was only $2. That's a deal that you can't pass up. Anyway, the concert was pretty great. They were awesome and I think most everyone there had a great time. However, during the entire concert part of my mind was thinking about everything outside the amphitheater. Everyone. I think at least a solid 90% of the people who went were Christians. I thin

This past week, my buddies and I hiked up to one of my favorite places around Oregon: Mary's Peak. The view up there is always amazing. Add to that sunset, and it's a gorgeous view. Anyway, so we hiked up and were sitting there and enjoying the view. After jamming and singing a bit (there's a trend when I'm with friends...), one of my friends brought up a really interesting point. "You know how we can easily sing and play worship songs for a half hour or even an hour? Why does it seem to be so hard to do that when we pray?" We discussed a bit about prayer and faith, and he then suggested that we pray for 15 minutes. He started a stopwatch on his phone, and we started to pray. And boy. That was an experience. To be honest, in preparation for the hike, I thought that I was going end up writing about how the hike is worth it, and how in the Christian life it takes effort but the end result is worth the pain blah blah blah. You know. But, God, in Hi

Left: Original, Middle: Old Editing, Right: New Editing (and yes, the middle one is a different photo, but burst mode makes it almost all the same) So this is strange post... but hey, it's about photography and I enjoy photography. I've done portraits for a year or so, and I've always done them the same way. Shoot RAW, import to Photoshop, adjust white balance, blacks, whites, shadows, highlights, as needed, boost contrast and vibrance, then export to JPEG. Easy, simple, done. Well, today, I figured that I could really still improve. So I sat down, watched a 23 min long YouTube video, and spent the next few hours tackling old portraits and honing my skills. Above, you see Savanna, one of the people from my prom group. When I did my first edit a couple of months ago, I wasn't SUPER happy with how it turned out. It wasn't bad per say, but the lighting on her face was off (she was under some branches which gave in unfavorable shadowing). Yet, at the time, I

Last week, my friends and I jumped into my friends car and took an adventure off into the back roads of Oregon. After taking a break in a random field and jamming out on a guitar and a ukulele, we decided that it was time to head home. Then the fun part began. Rather than just reversing the same route that we took to get there, my friend started going in a completely new direction. We adventured down the gravel roads, kicking up dirt and dust (funnily enough, my friend had just washed his car...). After a bit, we asked if he knew where he was. "Nope, not really." But we kept on driving. Eventually, we hit a road which we recognized and we got back home and that was that. So is that it? Ha ha! NO. Along the way we discovered a lot of really cool new places, places that I think I'm gonna try to visit again. Along the way, we jammed out to Switchfoot, singing at the top of lungs. Along the way, we made memories. I think many times it's tempting to