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An actual blog post with pictures- the start of fall.

Posted by ellisaurus on September 23, 2018

H and I went to the new dinosaurs exhibit at the Telus World of Science- it was surprisingly pretty good. Besides the typical skeleton displays, there were lots of life size animatronic dinosaur models as well. I particularly liked the different species they had- many were new to my eyes and not the typical Jurassic Park fan fare. Many of them seemed to be Asiatic species. Here a therapod and stegosaur relative duke it out.

By far one of my favorites was the Dakotaraptor. It looked absolutely fierce in this black and white coloration and the animatronic details were intimidating.

H telling me the Dakotarapor is scaring tyhe bejeebers out of her. She seems to be calmed by the mantra that daddy is strong and will mess up the raptor if it tried to hurt her. I said that, but the Dakotaraptor looked like death incarnate and I would poop my pants if it came at me.

H really enjoyed this gigantic life size animatronic T rex. It was really impressive seeing this up close and we happened to go when it was really quiet in the museum so it was mostly fun. I really wanted to see the new theater but we missed the showings. The sounds in particular were really immsersive and made me think how fun that would be if they were real and chasing me and I was going to die. I had a dream like that last year and it was amazing trying to hide from a predator dinosaur. I imagine less exciting if I really was going to die.

Here is a good size comparison of the dinosaur models with people. Notice how quiet the floors are. Perfect. Enough people to make it sort of fun to be there, but not so much that you can’t move, which was when we left.

Space exhibit at Telus- not too shabby at all. Learned a few things today. Still miffed not seeing Pluto on the diorama.

W and I went for date night out- it was a really fun filled night with bowling without the kiddo. It turns out both of us are terrible bowlers but not so terrible that we could not enjoy some strikes at times. Rare times.

We happened upon a chance Korean hole in the wall restaurant that had incredibly nice service, but a little too home cooked style for me- the food was mostly sort of bland and meh- pork bone soup, seafood pancake, and bi bim bap. Company with my wife was good though.

So I tried to see if the Sigma 70-200 F2.8 was still for sale for a ridiculous low price of 300….but it was long gone. Too bad. Even though it lags behind its name brand counterparts the center sharpness was good wide open and the price was amazing. I do have my eyes on the 70-300 G SSM II though and I really enjoyed shooting it on my A99 (seen here with my darling CZ 24 F2), Although I am enamored by recent offerings by Sony including the new 24 F1.4 FE G Master lens that is a fairly friendly 1900 ( the Nikon and Canon counterparts are around 500-600 dollars more), I really think I made a good gamble with A-mount. Yup I have way less bodies to choose should I want to upgrade from the Mark I A99- as in one model, the Mark II (which is ridic expensive). However, building my glass collection is hella cheaper because everyone is fleeing ship (the London Drugs lady told me they were asked to send back all A-mount glass and it was a done deal for the mount in stores). I have not seen A mount glass new in stores anywhere (one random CZ 16-80 once). Anyways, haggled a potentially great price but still debating if I really need this range or speed. The upgraded SSM motor and good lens sharpness (based off the great reviews from OpticalLimits for the Mark I and like no reviews for Mark II) and really great handling make me want to shoot pics with the lens just like the CZ 24 F2. Anyways I really like it. We will see. The Mark I is a tad cheaper and has all the box/hood/case but I really like the upgrades on the Mark II. The 75-300 SAL I have right now is so terrible feeling and slow that I don’t even like holding it. Hmmmm. I’m also a suckker for the G moniker, even if its not Zeiss or G Master level.

A cozy dinner at Ikea with the family- although really spartan in nature, it was really fun hanging out with the fam and eating some sort of comfort food- the fish and chips and vegetable medallion are both really good. Also ran into an old junior high friend and that was kind of nice. He had recently been dealing with Norwalk virus though so that was not nice, right after we were recovering from Hand/foot/mouth disease for H. Nobody caught it thankfully.

H mastering the rock climbing wall at the playground. She seems to have taken a liking to my lats training day in particular and this seems to have taken some of the fear out of her climb. Pretty proud of her.

Recently went to Nhon Hoa in Chinatown and the banh mi was knockout good. The price was right, the volume was great, and the flavors excellent. Also, customer service was stellar. I got extra pate (good choice) on the combo meat classic, and it was just so good.

Recently enjoyed a northern China restaurant that was mostly really really spicy and salty. The ambience in the restaurant was just great. Very very cozy. The food….I dont think I will be coming back here again. The salt was just overwhelming, remembering that I am a sodium fiend (I know bad bad habit), and the spice was overwhelming at times. Not quite the slam dunk like Noodle Fest was for me (also mainland China food with spice).

The soup on the right was a fish and preserved vegetable broth that was more sauce than soup. As in salty enough to pour over rice (which I did later with rice when I went home and it worked out great). The dish on the left was chili pepper, dry beef, and lotus root. It was decent flavor, but not quite knock out good.

H is doing pretty well in her gymnastics class. I am really excited seeing her gross motor and strength developing. I also am pretty stoked that I have been pretty leaned out recently and my strenght and aesthetics are feeling pretty pumped these days. We are making gains together. She is getting pretty good at balance in particular.

Braving the long weekend rush at the Nike outlet. I am pretty much full of runners and don’t really need any. H however burns through them (like the current protests! ha!) with her growth spurts.

REALLY enjoying the Sony XB41. I still am not convinced it has the mind blowing sound of something like the JBL extreme speaker that wows me with its low end. I do like the overall package though. Really great design and material choices, FUN light patterns, good enough sound, and convenient to plug in with micro usb to charge (usually these large bluetooth speakers need wall warts- this is optional on this model).

One of my first big BT speaker, the BTX500. Generally sound is not really that much different despite the older model having a dedicated subwoofer and two passive radiators, on top of that weird liquid magnetic speaker technology.

I have come to really like the BTX500 design, as it is quite classy looking and the profile is deceivingly thin looking. It does not look out of place with a blazer/tie. More Bose than anything. But the XB41 is fun and yet not cheaply designed. I think the XB41 is a big step up from the previous XB40 (although it lost a passive radiator).

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