there was a mens soccer match on the grove street playground field. i noticed all the parked cars before i even saw what was going on. after arriving at my parents' place, i grabbed my camera and went down to take a look. i find it funny seeing grown men "playing" sports. maybe they were athletes when they were younger, and want to relive those glory days despite the ravages of time. these guys seemed pretty serious though, it wasn't just a pickup game, they had uniforms and there was even a referee. the few i heard talking sounded british, which would make sense since most american men aren't that into soccer. after a snapped off a few photos, i walked back home.

the canon XS230 has a creative filter option called "color accent" that retains a single color but shoots everything else in black & white. i played around with it late last night and some more today. it's kind of gimmicky and the effect can be achieved post-processing like in photoshop. it sort of trains you to look for compositions where a particular color can really stand out. i'm not sure how useful it is out in the field, because it takes a little bit of work to capture the retained color.

another great thing about the XS230 is the size. it's so compact that it's easy to great some creative angles. i was in the garden shooting the vegetables from the ground up, like a rabbit's point-of-view.

i did some watering today and pruned off a few diseased branches from the plum tree. spraying with the horticultural oil had no effect since the hard scale infestation has returned. maybe tomorrow i'll try removing them manually with my hands and a water hose. the tree itself is so compromised that almost all branches carry some sort of fungal rot. little plum buds appear but they fall off before maturing. i also planted a few more radishes as well as some more cocozelle squash and pickling cucumber seeds. this is my 3rd attempt with the cocozelle/cucumbers. most sprouted from my 2nd attempt, but about half did not.

the samsung HDTV in the living room is broken. it was broken 6 months after we got it, but we never bothered getting it fixed and now it's almost 2 years and out of warranty. the original problem was the television would just randomly turn off on its own. now it's doing something different: it turns off automatically, but then turns back on seconds later. it's like the tv is possessed. apparently this is a common problem that a lot of people have been having, but samsung hasn't done anything about it (like issuing a recall). i did find a number to call to possibly get a free fix if our tv model is one of the defective batch (how can it not be?). i'll try calling them tomorrow.

my godmother came by briefly and dropped off some mochi cakes she made using glutinous rice. they tasted pretty good, reminded me of turkish delights (but just bigger pieces). i'm inspired to make some of my own hopefully soon (rose-flavored).

bram returned home soon after i got back. he went out with friends and also went to the gym (he joined an expensive one that has a jacuzzi bath). i noticed the bathroom floor was dry. he told me later that he managed to fix the shower curtains by interlocking some of the rings. hey, whatever keeps the water off the floor! around 9:30 he went out again. he just looked at me and waved as he left, didn't say anything. after he came back around 11:00 i found out he went to diesel's in davis square.

tonight was game 3 between the mavericks and the heat. miami ended up winning the game but it was close and nowitzi could've sent it into overtime if he only made the final shot. i don't know if the heat have anything to be proud of, because the game could've gone either way. but statistically, in a 1-1 tie, the team that wins game 3 ends up winning the series. i'm hoping the numbers are wrong this time.