Royal Buffet Lunch with Balanced Exposure Students - Royal Buffet in Hoffman Estates, IL

I had lunch with four of the Balanced Exposure students today at Royal Buffet in Hoffman Estates, IL.  We had a great time!

The students that went have the opportunity to win a free class of their choice worth up to $79 by posting one of their best smartphone photos on the Balanced Exposure Students Group within Facebook.  The photo with the most "LIKES" from our student group will win!

With only four students entering this contest, they have a 25% chance in winning! Great odds!

The photos above are of the food I ate at the buffet.  Can you identify all the items on the two plates?   I also had a couple of items for desert (red bean ice cream, two small slivers of a pecan pie, a small coconut macaroon, a small cream puff and a small  raspberry cheese cake square.

Overall, I estimated my total calories to be a tad over 2000 calories (based on the MyFitnessPal estimates).

The students were all impressed with the size of the restaurant.  It used to be a former furniture store, so you can imagine the size!  Many Asians go to this restaurant, so you know it has to be good!

Images taken with my iPhone 6s+.

Shen Yun - March 23, 2018

My wife and I attended the Shen Yun performance at the Rosemont Theater in Rosemont, IL on March 23, 2018.  What a great show!  Our daughter purchased the tickets as a gift to us.  We had great seats about 9 rows back, but off to the right side.

This is classical Chinese dancing at its finest and original Chinese music as well from a live orchestra!  In addition, there were vocalists (a Baritone and a Soprano) who sang accompanied by a pianist and a very impressive woman who played the Chinese Erhu better than I had ever heard it before!  The two announcers also did a great job.

The only issue I found with the show is that they really push the Falun Gong movement in China.  It's almost a religious movement in China and many practitioners are persecuted in China for it.  Organ Havesting is also a reality too in China and many Falun Gong practitioners are the victims of it.  While I do not condone this behavior in China, neither do I follow Falun Gong.  The show almost seems to be a way for the producers to push this idea on the viewers because many of the dances are based on the topic of Falun Gong persecution.  To read more about what Falun Gong is, check out this Wikipedia article.

Still, I highly recommend this show for anyone who can appreciate dance.  Go see it!

Weber Limited Edition Original Kettle Premium Red Kettle - 22"

It all started with the Weber Spirit E-310. Added the 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain smoker (WSM) and then the 22.5" WSM, and then the 14.5" WSM. Now I have a Limited Edition 22" Premium Original (Red) Kettle!  I also have a 65,000 BTW wok burner... not shown. The grill family is growing!  

Volo Auto Museum - Photographing Museum Exhibits Class - March 11, 2018

I went to the Volo Auto Museum again, but this time with several of my students from Balanced Exposure!  We had a great time taking photos of the cars and exhibits there.  One of the best looking cars in my opinion was this Ford Mustang Shelby... $138,000 (give or take a thousand dollars)!

The hood was open, so I couldn't get a shot of the car from the front, plus a lot of people were around the car as well.  But hopefully you can get an idea of how nice this car looked from the few shots I was able to take.  It even has a McIntosh car stereo in there!  If you know anything about high-end audio gear, you'll know that McIntosh is among the best audio gear!

We'll do this museum class again on May 6 from 1 PM to 4 PM.  Sign up for the class and join me!

Back To The Future - DeLorean DMC-12

Like the 1966 Batmobile, the Back To The Future DeLorean DMC-12 is perhaps one of the most recognizable cars around!  While one of the real DeLoreans can be found at the Volo Auto Museum, I decided to get a model of the car just like I did with the Batmobile!

The gull wing doors open and the car rolls on its wheels, but I can't get it to 88 mph, so I can't tell you if the time machine actually works.  Look close and you can even see the "Mr. Fusion" in the back of the car!  Throw a banana peel in there and maybe the car will power up!   This version of the car is from Back To The Future 2.