Technical – My Top 5 macOS X utilities

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Technical – Top 5 Utilities You Should Have For Your Mac.

   I cannot believe I’m doing this!  I loathe the internet’s fascination with creating top 5 lists for anything!  Next, I will be reporting that dogs and cats are in fact living together.  In our last article, I recommended buying a bigger USB thumb drive than needed for your rescue USB stick where you could create a second bootable partition containing useful troubleshooting utilities. What utilities do I actually recommend you putting on this partition or on your Mac for normal use? In this week’s quickie article, I will rate, and briefly describe my top 5 macOS X utilities.  All the utilities listed here are 3rd party utilities, so they must be purchased separately.  So let’s get started!

Paragon NTFS – While mac OS X gives us the ability to read NTFS formatted drives and partitions, it does not allow us to write to them. There is a way of enabling writing to an NTFS partition, but it is slow, buggy, and you may lose data.  Neither APPLE nor myself would recommend that method for anything other than an emergency solution.  This is where Paragon NTFS comes in.  Paragon NTFS allows reading, writing, and formatting/partitioning NTFS drives.  You may download and try Paragon NTFS for 10 days, after the 10 day trial you must pay $19.95 to continue using it.  Paragon’s website is found here: https://www.paragon-software.com/ufsdhome/ntfs-mac/

Carbon Copy Cloner – This next utility in my arsenal also highlights an annoyance I have right now with Apple. Did you know that Apple’s own Disk Utility does not like you image devices that are formatted with the new Apple File System (APFS)? Seems hard to believe. Right?  So what are we to do if you need to image a disk that has been formatted or converted to APFS?  This is where Carbon Copy Cloner ‘CCC’ comes in and why I recommend that you put this on your rescue utility disk.  Carbon Copy Cloner has full APFS support for disk images. Great for transferring or making backup copies of your system disks!  Carbon Copy Cloner by Bombich Software is available with a 30-Day trial license, and costs $39.99 for a full license.  You can download directly from Bombichs’ web site here: https://bombich.com/.

 

Stuffit Expander – If you have been a Mac user for a long time, you would know that Stuffit Expander is the Mac equivalent to Winzip. Stuffit ‘.sit’ archives was the predominant file compression standard before .dmg.  Stuffit could also uncompress .zip archives before mac OS X had the ability built in.  So if the most common format of compressed files in the wild today are now .dmg or .zip files, why would I need to concern myself with Stuffit Expander?  Stuffit Expander has the ability to decompress a wider range of formats than mac OS X can by default, one of those archive types is .rar files.  Which I have a time or 2 had the need to uncompress.  Since Stuffit Expander is free, why not add it to your tool bin? Stuffit Expander can be downloaded from SmithMicro at http://my.smithmicro.com/stuffit-expander-mac.html, or the Mac App Store

Sophos Anti Virus – I would include Sophos Anti Virus to protect yourself from malware, and to run a virus scan on drives without Sophos installed that you may not want to boot off of.

While not exactly a utility I highly recommend installing the Homebrew repository, which will allow you to add additional functionality to your shell environment, such as htop shown below. Additionally you might want to think about installing telnet which was removed from macOS X 10.13 due to security reasons (telnet is a non-encrypted protocol and sends everything in clear text, including passwords.  However it can be very useful for testing ports and protocols, as I am demonstrating below connecting to Google.com’s SMTP server.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to visit Brent’s World, Please come back next week for another great article about Korea.  I visit the Mr. Toilet House Toilet Museum in Suwon!

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San Diego Restaurant Review – Shogun Japanese Restaurant

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San Diego Restaurant Review

Shogun Japanese Restaurant

  Welcome stalwart followers of Brent’s World, except for a possible wrap up blog, this will be the final article in our “There Is No Place Like Home” series.  It is a great feeling to be able to put this series to bed!  I really enjoyed sharing our experiences visiting San Diego after being gone 5 years!  If everything works out schedule wise, I am looking to go back to visit sometime in 2018.  I cannot wait to get some more great content, and catch up again with friends and family.

  From almost the moment, we landed in Los Angeles, Mi Jung wanted to get Asian food, which we all found quit humorous, traveling all this way, and a whole bunch of new food options. Mi Jung wanted Asian food!  I was finally able to keep my promise by taking Mi Jung to Shogun, a Teppanyaki style Japanese restaurant in Kearny Mesa that I have been to a couple of times in the past. We have tried a couple of Teppanyaki style restaurants in Korea (Teppan –  https://www.catracing.org/hendrb/seoul-restaurant-review-teppan-hongdae/, and Dae Han Min Guk Han – https://www.catracing.org/hendrb/대한민국혼-republic-of-korea-horn-teppanyaki-korean-fusion-restaurant/). So, I was looking forward to hear Mi Jungs opinion after comparing our experience in Korea.. Shogun did have the advantage from the beginning with the fact that they served Sushi..  Mi jung loved the Ahi Tuna, and Salmon.. The presentation here is awesome.

Following the sushi we were served traditional Miso Soup, and some Chicken Yakitori.

After our soup and Yakitori our Teppan chef arrived, and began cooking our lunch, with the traditional Teppanyaki show. Here is the classic onion volcano.

 Tossing around the egg for our friend rice just takes way for coordination and manual dexterity than I possess.

Our final lunch entrée was the spicy chicken.

I really enjoyed our lunch experience, the food was great and the teppanyaki show is professionally done and humorous.  The show is much more refined then what we have seen in Korea.. A great dining experience.. We had no trouble walking in without a reservation for lunch, but if you are planning on going for dinner making a reservation is highly recommended.

Menu:

https://www.allmenus.com/ca/san-diego/29332-shogun/menu/

Phone #, Address, and web site:

(858)560-7399
5451 Kearny Villa Rd San Diego, CA 92123
Website: https://www.restaurantshogun.com/shop02.html

Hours:

Lunch
Monday – Friday: 11:30am – 3:00pm
Saturday & Sunday: 12:00pm – 3:00pm

Dinner
Monday – Thursday: 3:00pm – 9:30pm
Friday & Saturday: 3:00pm – 10:00pm
Sunday: 3:00pm – 9:30pm

How to get there:

Take 163 to Clairemont Mesa BLVD
Go East on Clairemont Mesa BLVD and make a left on Kearny Villa Rd.
Make a right into the parking lot at 5451 Kearny Villa Road

There Is No Place Like Home – Mission San Juan Capistrano

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There Is No Place Like Home

Mission San Juan Capistrano – Traditional Catholic Mass.

 

  It’s hard to believe that I grew up in a Catholic family and in 42 years have never seen let alone attended a traditional Latin Mass.  Since I have been trying to become more active in my faith by attending Mass with Mi Jung in Korea.  I thought it would be a nice Sunday outing to go up North and attend the Latin service in the old mission church the Serra Chapel. 

 

  We had an option to either take the train from Downtown San Diego, or drive in the rental.  We opted to drive so we could stop and sight see on the way back.  If you have the time I would recommend the train trip as it is a nice ride up the coast via the Pacific Surfliner.  The most difficult part of the trip was getting to the mission once getting off the freeway. It looks as if they have done a lot of road word because even the GPS got us lost.  The train would have alleviated a little bit of stress.

  Mission San Juan Capestrano  was was built in 1776 by monks of the Franciscan Order, named after  San Giovanni de Capistrano,St. (John Of Capistrano), a Franciscan friar and Catholic priest from Italy who was famous for leading a crusade against the invading Ottoman Empire in Belgrade.  The Serra Chapel built in 1782 and named after Father Junipero Serra has the distinction of being the oldest building in California still in use. 

  The Latin mass was interesting and the format very different from what I am used to, the most amazing thing was attending mass in such an historic building.  Here is the main altar area before mass.

  This elevated pulpit, where the priest reads the gospel and delivers the homily.

  One of the things I found really different from the traditional mass was that to receive communion you went an kneeled in from of the altar vs simply walking up and receiving the Eucharist from the priest or Eucharistic minister.  Here is the ornate altar and communion rail.

  The Walker Digital Organ (I thought this was a real historical pipe organ.  However, after doing some research, that is not the case.  You can read about is here in a blog by MSGR Aurthur A. Holquin who had this beautiful but more high-tech instrument installed here. https://rectoremeritus.org/blog/2017/5/9/serra-chapel-organ-at-mission-san-juan-capistrano

I apologize for not being able to get a better picture, when I rushed up into the choir loft after mass and asked permission to take a picture of the organ, I was given permission if I was quick about it!

Here is the full Choir Loft with digital organ.

Here is some of the historic artwork inside the Serra Chapel.

  We had a little bit of time after mass to walk around and take pictures,  though they really try to get you out quickly afterwards.  If you wish to keep exploring the Mission grounds, you will need pay and enter as a park guest.  The Mission was founded 30th of October 1775 by Father Lasuen, and was the 7th of the 21 Missions built in California.  The Missions were built to expand the territorial boundaries of the Spanish Empire, and spread Christianity to the native population of California.  Once the natives who agreed to move to the missions were baptized and given Christian names.  They were forbidden to leave the Missiosn without permission.   Mission San Juan Capistrano flourished and grew between 1778 and 1812, expanding it livestock and buildings. Here is a mold used to make the adobe bricks.

  Here is a kiln used for firing bricks, and blacksmithing tools.

  After 1812, the population at the Missions began to decline, after California was ceded to the United Stated at the conclusion of the Mexican American War, the Missions were given back to the Catholic Church in 1850.

  After touring the Mission grounds for a couple of hours is was time to take some portraits.

 

 

    I have always enjoyed San Juan Capistrano, and experiencing the Latin Mass was as added bonus.  If you are looking to learn more about the history of California I would definitely recommend a trip to one of the Missions.

  Information:

How to get there:
Take 5 North to the San Juan Capistrano exit.
Parking in free, but I would recommend getting there early.

  If you do not want to drive, you can take Amtraks Pacific Surfliner train from Downtown San Diego, or Old Station Stations to San Juan Capistrano Station.  The station is within walking distance.

  The Latin Mass is free of charge, you can get times and details here.  https://www.missionsjc.com/religion-spirituality/churches/basilica-mass-times/

  As mentioned above, you will need to pay to enter the park after mass.  Ticket prices and details are listed on the website below.  https://www.missionsjc.com/

  I would like to thank my frequent visitors who patronize Brent’s World!  Be sure to visit next week for our final San Diego Restaurant review Shoguns – Japanese Teppanyaki.  Which will conclude our series on our 2017 visit to San Diego, Ca.

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macOS X – Creating a High Sierra 10.13 USB Install Disk

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MacOS X – Creating Bootable Install Media For High Sierra

 We all know how to get to the OS X recovery partition, in the event we  need to reinstall Mac OS X High Sierra.  In case you don’t know or have forgotten, you simply power up or restart your Mac and hold down the Command and the R keys at the same time.  This tells the operating system to boot into a special hidden recovery partitions giving you access to a limited (And powerful set of utilities). What do you do if your recovery partition has become corrupted, or you have replaced your existing hard drive with a new hard drive?  Such would be the case if your hard drive failed, or you found it necessary to upgrade your existing drive.

  Today I am going to show you how to create a bootable USB installer for OS X 10.13 (High Sierra), as well as “useful utility” partition.  The only thing you will need is a USB thumb drive with a capacity of at least 8 GB of storage, however I would recommend getting one with 32 or even 64 GB, so you can have a bootable partition with your favorite utilities for emergencies.

   So, let’s get crackin!

  The first thing we want to do, Erase the USB thumb drive, and reformat it with the “GUID” partition scheme, 9 times out of 10 your thumb drive will come either formatted with the “Master Boot Record” scheme with a single “ExFAT or “NTFS” to work on Windows computers.  We will want to reformat the device to be used and bootable from your macOS computer.

  Open your utilities folder by selecting Go > Utilities, or pressing SHIFT – COMMAND – U.

           

           

 

 

 

 

 

Open Disk Utility

 

NOTE: By default Disk Utility will only show disk volumes.

I find it much more useful to display them in a hierarchical fashion, displaying the Volume and Partitions.  It provides additional visual references that make it easier to know exactly which device I am manipulating.  Very important when we may potentially lose data.  It would be a very bad day if I accidently erased my hard drive containing over 2GB of photo’s.

First we want to Erase the USB stick, and format it with the GUID Partition Scheme.

Select your USB Device, in this case it is named ‘General USB Flash Disk Media’

Click Erase

When Erase “<Disk Name>” dialog box appears.

                        Name the disk whatever you want, I will name it “OS X Rescue Disk”
                        Click the Format selection arrows and select “Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
                        Click the Scheme: selection arrows and select GUID Partition Map

Click Erase

When the formatting is completed, click Done.

Next, we will split the disk into 2 partitions., The Mac OS X install disk needs at least 8GB, as this is a 16GB drive we will create a new partition of equal size.  One will contain the Mac OS X High Sierra install media, the other will contain a bootable partition that we will keep useful utilities and documentation.

 

            Click on the drive, again this is the “General USB Flash Disk Media”

 

            Click on the Partition Icon.

            Click the + Icon.

  You will now see the drive broken into 2 equal partitions of 7.89 GB.  You can increase or decrease the size, but for this demonstration we will leave things as is.  Only changing the name of the new partition.

 

            Change the name of the new partition to “Rescue Utilities”
            Leave everything else unchanged, and click the ‘Apply’ button.

\You will now see a dialog box outlining the changes to be made to the drives structure, and are informed that No partitions will be erased.  This should NOT erase any data already present on your device.

DISCLAIMER!   This demonstration assumes you are using new media, or media that has already been erased.  As a precaution if you are performing these steps on a device that already has data on it, I HIGHLY recommend that you stop and take the time to back up the partition that has data.  I will NOT be held legally responsible for ANY data loss from you following these instructions.  By pressing the ‘Partition’ button as outlined in the demonstration you assume all risks of intended, or unintended loss of that data!

             Click on the ‘Partition’ button.
             Click the ‘Done’ button.

  You should now see the two newly created partitions.

   Quit Disk Utility.

  Now we must download the Mac OS 10.3 (High Sierra) installation utility.  This is done through the App Store.

           Launch the App Store.
           Click on the macOS High Sierra icon.
           Click on the ‘Download’ button.

  Depending on your internet connection speed, go grab a cup of coffee, or get lunch, or use the time to read some of the other great articles on Brent’s World.

  Once the installer has downloaded, we can now create the install media.  Verify that the installer has been downloaded it will be located in your /Applications directory.

Note: You need to be using an account the has permissions to administer the macOS X computer, or has been added to the sudoers file.  Open terminal.app by going to to /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app or Command-Shift-U then double clicking terminal.app

Type the following at your shell $ prompt.

 $ sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High \Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/OS\ X\ Rescue\ Disk

The \ is used in Unix/Linux paths when you need to add a space.  You may also surround the entire path in quotes.  Like this.

 $ sudo “/Applicatons/Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/Resouces/createinstallmedia” --volume “/Volumes/OS X Rescue Disk”

Press Enter.

You will now be prompted to re-enter your password to run the installer with elevated privileges.

WARNING: Creating an install disk will erase the volume you are using the create the install disk, answer Y to the next prompt ONLY if you are sure there is no data you wish to save on this volume.

Type ‘Y’ then ‘Return’ to continue.

The install disk is now being created on the OS X Rescue Disk partition.

Once the process is complete, we can now test our newly created install disk.

Restart your Mac, and after the startup chime, hold down the option key (Alt – If you are using a standard PC Keyboard).

You will now see the following screen where you may select a bootable device.

Click on ‘Install macOS High Sierra’ and click the up-arrow icon below it.  You should now be booting off your OS X Install partition.  Once the installer loads you will see a screen similar to the one below.

Once verified the disk is working, you can quit the installer, and your Mac will reboot.

Keep the USB stick in a safe place where you may use when needed.  In a later article we will install a fully working OS X High Sierra insall on the second partition ‘Rescue Utilities’ with some useful utitilites to Image, Restore, or repair a broken macOS X volume. 

Thank you for visiting Brent’s World, and please stop by again for more great articles!

You may also join our forums and discuss macOS X and other topics at www.catracing.org/hendrb/forum.
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Korean Movie Review – The Accidental Detective

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Brent’s World Movie Review

Korean Movie Review: The Accidental Detective.

 Another weekend, another blog!

Sorry for the delay getting this review out, I have been busy creating more content for Brent’s World! This week I will share a Korean crime/comedy film I rented from the iTunes Music Store. 

 

  The Accidental Detective, is a 2015 crime comedy loosely based on Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers On A Train. The Korean film is directed by Jeong-hoon Kim starring Sang-Woo Kwon who plays Kang Dae-man, a busy Korean family man, who because of his passion for criminal investigation and true crime stories seems to neglect his wife, 2 sons, and the comic book store that he owns.  His best friend Detective Joon Soo (Played by Hae-Joon Park) is accused and arrested for the murder of his wife.  With his friend in Jail and certainly to be found guilty Kang Dae-Man must now  work with a seemingly lazy and burned out Korean Police Detective Noh Tae-soo played by Dong-Il Sung to find the real murder’s and clear his friend.

 The completely mismatched pair struggles to work together and Kang Dae-man must juggle normal family life.  Which lead to some good humor throughout the film such as the necessity to babysit his young daughter while working the case. Which completely infuriates the grumpy, older Noh Tae-soo, who mostly resents the fact that he must work with an amateur to solve the case.  There are the light moments that you would expect from this type of faire.  However the comedy seems forced and out of place.  As with other Korean action films, I felt the story a bit too fast paced in places, and incongruous.  It might not have been as hard to follow the storyline if I was not having to pay such close attention to the subtitles.

  I would not go out of my way to buy or rent this film, instead I would direct you to Strangers On A Train that this file was based on.  However if you have already seen Strangers on a train or you are looking for a foreign crime drama to occupy your mind for an evening, I recommend giving The Accidental Detective a shot.

  You can rent or buy The Accidental Detective from the iTunes Music Store.

  Strangely enough this movie is not available on Amazon in either downloadable form or physical media.  I think this is one of the only times Amazon has not carried a title either digitally or in DVD/Blu-Ray format.

Thank you for stopping by Brent’s World, if you would like to share your thoughts on The Accidental Detective, please stop by our forums, and reply to the post in the Korean Movies forum.  You can access the forums at www.catracing.org/hendrb/forum

Be sure to come back next week for another installment of There Is No Place Like Home – Mi Jung and I attend a latin mass as Mission San Juan Capistrano!

There Is No Place Like Home – Balboa Park Part 2

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There’s No Place Like Home

Balboa Park Part 2

 

  In our last installment of There’s No Place Like Home, Mi Jung and I headed out to Balboa Park, where we rode the famous San Diego Carrousel and miniature train.  Later we took in some of the world famous museums. 

Here is the skull of a California Grey Whale.

I believe this was a bit before my time!

 Our next stop was the museum of photographic arts, which was of particular interest to me.

  Mi Jung is taking a close look at the exhibit.

I found this fascinating, the picture shown here is made of thousands of other peoples head and shoulder portraits.

Here is a portion of the photo zoomed.

  Our next stop was the Timkin Museum Of Art, and once again here is Mi Jung enjoying the exhibits using one of the audio devices available for rent which describes the museum pieces.  There is a free iOS and Android app that you can install but we did not have our smart phones with us on this trip.   The art exhibits were nice, and there was only one area in the museum where we could not take photo’s.  I would definitely put thhe Timkim Museum Of Art on your places to visit list.

 

   We then went to the Museum Of Man, and spent a good hour checking out their exhibits.  One of the defining characteristics of this museum is that it is built in the style of a Spanish Church.

  They were hosting an exhibit on cannibalism, here Mi Jung is stranded on a raft, and must draw straws to determine who will be killed to be used as food to sustain the rest of the survivors.

 

  The park is also known for its street performers, This dancing mime was one of my favorites. 

 

Here is a man playing the Didgeridoo.

  The botanical gardens were already closed by the time got here, so we just took a breather by the large fish pond.

  As it was getting on 5pm and the museums were closing, it was time to take a final photograph by the fountain outside the Ruben H. Fleet Science Center call it a day.  You really do need a couple of days to really enjoy the park.  Something I plan on doing my next visit.

We parked in the zoo parking lot, which is free, and entered the park by the miniature railroad and carousel.

Balboa Park 

Address for GPS or Google Maps
1800 Zoo Place
San Diego, Ca

Walk towards the zoo entrance and turn to the left.

 Thank you for visiting Brent’s World!  Next week will be a special article as I have purchased our tickets for Star Wars – The Last Jedi!  I will not be reviewing the film per se, but blogging going to movies in Korea!  When was the last time you were able to buy deep fried squid at a movie theater in the states?!

ALERT!! – Major Security Flaw Discovered in Mac OS X High Sierra (10.13.x)

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ALERT!! – Major Security Flaw Discovered in Mac OS X High Sierra (10.13.x)

 

 

 

  I was originally going to blog with instructions on creating a macOS X High Sierra boot USB with utility partition but decided to blog instead of the MAJOR security flaw that was discovered in Mac OSX High Sierra (10.13.x).  If you have not enabled and set a password to your root account, someone may authenticate as the root user without providing a password. 

 Additionally If you have the Login Option ‘Display login window as: Name and password’ selected an unauthorized person may be able to bypass the lock screen, logging into your system as the ‘root’ user!  To make this even more scary, once the exploit has been sued, it leaves the root user enabled (If it was previously disabled), with no password assigned.  Leavening the system open to future attacks both at the computer and possibly remotely.

  Apple released an update November 30th, that should have already installed with no user intervention required.   If for whatever reason you are not able to install the patch for this security flaw, you may temporarily secure your system by enabling the root account and assigning a strong password (See below for instructions.)

  There is a caveat you should be ware of.

  As the security patch affects ALL versions of High Sierra, the security patch will be installed even if you are still running macOS X 10.13, when you update to 10.13.1, the patch will be removed and your system will be vulnerable again.

To verify you have the patch installed.

Open your terminal.app
At your shell prompt type

$ what /usr/libexec/opendirectoryd

If you see the following output you have the security patch installed.PROGRAM:opendirectoryd

PROJECT:opendirectoryd-483.20.7 <FOR OSX 10.13.2>
PROJECT:opendirectoryd-483.1.5 <FOR OSX 10.13>

  Another thing to be aware of, the security patch will disable the root user account, if it was enabled prior to the patch you will need to re-enable it.  I find it to be ironic that one of the things the patch does is disable the one thing that prevented this flaw to begin with, having the root account enabled with a password set.

 

To Enable/Re-Enable Root User

  • System Preferences > Users & Groups.
  • Click the lock icon and authenticate as a privileged user.
  • Click the ‘Login Options’ button.
  • Click the ‘Edit…’ button to the right of Network Account Server:
  • Click Open Directory Utility.
  • Click the lock icon and authenticate as a privileged user.
  • Click Edit > Enable Root User.
  • Enter a strong password.
    1. 8-15 Characters
    2. Containing at least 1 capital letter.
    3. Containing at least 1 numeric character.
    4. Containing at least 1 special character.
    5. Do not use names, birthdays, or dates/places of special events.
  • Close the windows that were opened.

 

 

Hopefully this patch will be included in the 10.13.2 update whenever it comes out!

If you have any comments or questions about this blog or macOS X in general please stop by our forums at www.catracing.org/forum.

Thanks for following Brent’s World!

San Diego Restaurant Review – Country Waffles

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San Diego Restaurant Review
 Country Waffles

There is nothing constant but change, truer words have never been spoken, especially in a big city like San Diego.  One of the great breakfast establishments my mom took Mi Jung and I to was a breakfast and lunch restaurant in the Midway area called Country Waffles.  This building has changed owners at least 3 times since I can remember.  Starting as a Sambos, then becoming a Carrows Family Restaurant.  My mom promised they made a great breakfast and they certainly delivered!  Mi Jung discovered she found another favorite breakfast spot!  Sorry IHOP.

  Mi Jung ordered the Hillbilly Benedict, which she just loved. 

I ordered the Panhandle Scramble which came with Hash browns, and huge omelet, and a sausage patty with biscuits covered in seasoned gravy!

Here is the Fresh garden omelet my mom ordered.

The food was great, and the portions more than filling.  A great way to start your day.  San Diego has two Country Waffle locations, one in Point Loma, and one in Claremont on Balboa Ave.  I highly recommend you give Country Waffles a try!

Address:

2323 Midway Dr., San Diego, CA 92110
Phone # (619) 223-2225
Hours: 6am – 3pm

Website:   

https://www.countrywaffles.com/

Other locations and menu can be found here.

 

 

There’s No Place Like Home – Balboa Park – Part 1

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There Is No Place Like Home

Balboa Park – Part 1

  It’s great to be back writing blog articles again!  In today’s article, I write about still having jet lag but put it to good use taking long exposure photos of Mission Bay.  Mi Jung experiences swimming in the ocean, and visiting Balboa Park.  So, without further preamble (Or pre-ramble as the case may be).  Let’s dive into the blog!

  Still suffering from jet lag I found myself waking up quite early most mornings, this morning was no exception so I decided to grab the camera and go get some low light photos of Mission Bay.  The beach being only a stone’s throw from our hotel room, provided this great view of the Sea World Sky Tower, taken with my EF 50mm F/1.2L at f16 with a 57 second exposure using the bulb mode.

   A couple of hours later Mi Jung awoke and we once again walked to Mission Beach, Mi Jung was itching to try swimming in the ocean for the first time, and we figured it was either now or never!  I thought this would be a great time to use my Tamron SP  150 – 600mm f5-6.3 Di VC USD (yes, it’s a mouth full).   I even got to play peeping tom, and captured a couple who had fallen asleep on the beach.

 

 I got super lucky and the San Diego Life Guards were conducting training this morning!  I got a front row seat to the action. 

  The trainees would swim out with the rescue float. Then 2 team members who remained on the beach would pull the would be rescued person back to shore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  The train takes you on a 3 minute ride around Balboa park on antique model G16 train.  

Here I am, going for a train ride!

Keep a sharp eye out for animals and the signs depicting real San Diego County cities!

After the train it was time to take Mi Jung on the historic San Diego Carrousel, which was built in 1910 by Herschell-Spillman, was made in New York and shipped to Los Angeles.  It originally opened in Coronado and moved to Balboa Park in 1922.  It features a player calliope using original pheumatic rolls, moving and stationary animals.  Per the Balboa Park website it features 1 Camel, 2 Cats, 1 Deer, 2 Dogs, 1 Dragon, 2 Frogs, 2 Giraffes, 1 Goat, 1 Lion, 2 Mules, 2 Ostriches, 2 Pigs, 2 Roosters, 1 Stork, 1 Tiger, 2 Zebras, and 3 chariots.

 I got in trouble for this picture of Mi Jung, as I was not supposed to move around while the ride was moving.  Sometimes you just have to take the shot!

 

  Here we are trying some off ride photos, I think if I learned one thing heret, it’s that I really need to learn how to use my flash!  Most of the photo’s came out blurred because the flash forces the max shutter speed at 1/200th of a second, which was just too slow.  Until I learn how to freeze motion with the flash I should have just bumped the ISO up.  It is really disappointing looking at some of the pictures I could have taken.  I will have to do an entire blog on “The photo’s that could have been.”.

  After the carousel, it was time to explore some of Balboa Parks famous museums, but as this blog has already reached almost 2 pages of text, I will stop here and dedicate part 2 to just the museums.  Be sure to come back to read part 2, and our next San Diego restaurant review, Country Waffles!

Balboa Park Miniature Train and Carousel information.

Address for GPS or Google Maps
1800 Zoo Place
San Diego, Ca

Where to park

It is best to park in the San Diego Zoo parking lot, as the train and carousel are located right next door to the San Diego Zoo, and the parking is free! Walk towards the zoo entrance and walk to your left.

Hours:

Summer months – (Daily 11am – 5:30pm)
Non Summer – (Weekends and Holidays 11am – 4:30pm)

Price :

Train $3 per person
Carousel: $2 per person

Movie Review – Cars 3

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Movie Review : Cars 3

Cars 3 proves the franchise still has some tread left in those tires!

 

  It’s great to have a three-day weekend, but not so nice when you can’t really get out because of inclement weather.  Though it does present a great opportunity to get a chance to work on the blog, and then sit down to watch a new release.  Sadly, it has been 4 months since I have last posted a movie review.  Sorry to have kept you all waiting!

   This month I have chosen to review Disney/Pixar’s latest addition to the popular Cars franchise, Cars 3.  I enjoyed the original film, as well as the lighter comedy of Cars 2, even though it received mixed reviews from critics. 

  Cars 3 promised a return to the more serious in-depth story, more similar to the darker tones set in the original, introducing new characters while bringing back our favorite characters, played by the same voice actors.  The movie focuses on Lightening McQueen’s (Voiced by Owen Wilson) struggle and failure to remain competitive in the ever-changing technology in competitive auto racing.  After a stunning loss to a rookie race car by the name of Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer), using cutting edge technology and science to win.  Lightening McQueen pushes himself harder the next race but continues to lose to the newer, faster, and more agile rookies.  Resulting in an accident that takes him out of the race due to pushing himself beyond his limits.

  While recovering from his accident, and fearing he will be forced into retirement, his owners Rusty and Dusty (Tom Magliozzi, Ray Magliozzi) send him to a state of the art training facility run by Sterling, to be trained to beat the newer technology by personal trainer Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo).

  I really enjoyed the movie!  Brian Fee delivered as promise a feature animation that felt more like the original, while intruding us to new characters.  The storyline also felt like a very natural progression in the franchise touching on something that isn’t often talked about during a sports hero’s time in the limelight, the knowledge at the back of their head that just like their rise to glory and taking someone else’s spot in the winner’s circle.  Someday someone, a rookie will come up from below and take their place.  It is the nature of being competitive.  I think both children and adults will enjoy Pixar/Disney’s latest release.  I give it 4 stars!  It currently holds a critic rating of 68% on Rotten Tomatoes, and 4 ½ stars at the iTunes music store.

  Will Lightning McQueen be able to regain his edge against the rookies, or will be be forced into retirement only so spend out his last days doing product endorsements for Sterling?  I highly recommend renting Cars 3, from the iTunes music store or Amazon today and find out!  The DVD and Blu-Ray will be available to purchase from Amazon November 14th, 44.00 for the Blu-Ray and $34.99 for the DVD. https://www.amazon.com/Cars-3-Blu-ray-Owen-Wilson/dp/B071Z1D23B/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1510329871&sr=8-7&keywords=cars+3

  NOTE: Brent’s World is not monetized!  I make no money from your purchases at either the iTunes music store, or Amazon!

EVENT NOTICE!

The anual Seoul international Lantern festival is taking place right now until November 19th 2017.  I had an opportunity to blog the festival back in 2015 https://www.catracing.org/hendrb/repost-seoul-lantern-festival/ If you are going to be in Seoul I highly recommend attending.