On my way to bed, saw this article that attracts me Computer-Generated Image Looks Exactly Like a Beautiful Woman [Gizmodo]. Our Indonesian friend has such high level of imaging skills, no wonder top prizes for photography competitions came from that country with thousand islands.

http://www.cgarena.com/freestuff/tutorials/max/songhyekyo/

Now... I'm rather tempted to learn. So much to learn over so little time. Aih~ why ain't I committed enough to technology? :(

Labels: Tech

PMA is around the corner, and we can expect to see various camera makers coming out with new gadgets to boost their market. This morning I'm quite happy with both the DA* lens offered by Pentax - The DA* 16 - 50 mm F2.8 ED AL [IF] SDM and the DA* 50 - 135 mm F2.8 [IF] SDM.

Things me likes are their SDM (USM/SWM equi), weather sealed (Nikon, hear me out!), feather weight and specifically designed for Digital. It'll be a perfect match for K10D if i haven't commit myself too much to Nikon. Can't wait for the reviews and MTF charts.

Another interesting announcement is the Canon's 1D MkII. Here are the key features and why I hate them.

Key features

10.1 Megapixel APS-H CMOS sensor ( standard nowadays dun ya think? )

10 fps continuous shooting for up to 110 frames (who would want to shoot the same image for 110 times?)

Dual “DIGIC III” processors (following the CoreDuo concept???)

New auto focus system with 19 cross type sensors, 26 AF assist points (Hm...okey)

EOS Integrated Cleaning System (Can't deny this is good, Nikon...come on!)

ISO 3200 (expandable to H:6400) (Wonder what the noise level would be like)

3.0” LCD with Live View mode (Yeah Baby~!)

Wider, brighter viewfinder ( ...)

Picture Style1 ( so amateurish)

14-bit image (will be interesting if it matches the competitors like Fujifilm)

What about Nikon? So far only P5000 digital compact sounds promising and some L (low cost) series for beginners. New lenses coming soon? Unlikely...

Labels: Photography

Date Picture Taken: 2/10/2005 7:44 PM
Camera Model: Canon Powershot S1 IS
EXIF: F/6.3; 2sec; 14mm


(click to enlarge)

Date Picture Taken: 1/28/2006 11:37 PM
Camera Model: Nikon D70s
EXIF: F/8; 2sec; 120mm


(click to enlarge)

Date Picture Taken: 2/21/2007 7:38 PM
Camera Model: Nikon D70s
EXIF: F/13; 4sec; 40mm (+0.5EV)


(click to enlarge)

3 years, same subject, different shot. Will it be "finally" ??? Nope...will continue to take again next year. But for now, that's the best my kit lens can do.

Labels: Photography

Our Toastmasters club is having our in house contest. Since I'm asked to be the Organizing Chairperson, you know why I am out of action for the past few weeks.

Valentine's day was satisfactory, thanks to my partner for being so forgiving and cute as always. I have a tough time listening to people, and so do I have a bad temper that goes seriously wrong when things doesn't move my way. More on the event on my other posts...

Thanks to everyone who has helped me up in the roles given. Have made the event sucessful thanks a lot to my boss for not giving me much job to do before the CNY.

Our joker Mr Sabri managed to truimph in the International Speech Contest while our VPE received the Championship from the Table Topics contest. All the participants are very well versed, fully prepared, and nicely presented. Congratulations again... see you again in Area S4 & S6 competition in Vistana Hotel on the 10th of March. I'll be there taking pictures with Christopher.

Pictures will be shown later, for now, I'll indulge myself with all the knowledge I have waiting for me to discover in the stack of magazines dating back to January. Promise...more updates coming up.

Labels: Toastmasters

There are bouquets of roses on almost every single lady in my office. I am also very sure that my girlfriend will be jealous and eventually become demanding. What could a poor guy like me offer to her?

Over the phone, she told me that her collegues are asking if I am going to send her any flowers for Vday. Irene confidently replied that she will laugh out loud even if I give her a flower pot. So it suddenly struck me, “Flower Pot ain’t a bad idea after all…”

It was a hot and dry Wednesday afternoon that I am driving.While doing some chores for the Toastmasters Club in my company, I use some time to get her the flower pot she wanted, rush up to Tanjong Tokong to get her ½ dozen of APAC beanie babies. Right after work, rush home put some soil over the beanies and then pluck some paper flowers from my garden as I don’t plant roses.

That evening I pick her up at 1900 hours – a tat too late in her terms as “her friends” have already left the office early and join the flock of romantic lovers stuck in the traffic jam (HAHA!)

Now let the pictures do the talking…


Have our dinner at Ben’s which gets my fire up again. I cycled there to make a reservation 2 days before Vday. They told me not to worry about any bookings but when I’m there, the whole place is occupied, and some tables are “reserved”!!! Luckily, a couple left in about 10 minutes. After placing our order, we make a fool out of ourselves taking pictures with the TY beanie babies I bought. Had a nice meal there but oops, no photos of the plates as I was too hungry by the time the food is served.



The way home is terribly jam. All routes are blocked by cars. “Vday is a celebration of all races”, and hence the crazy jam. Thanks a lot to my less than demanding gf, and I hope that I will not need to celebrate another one with you as your bf. Let’s get M*****D!

Friends, Irene and I.

Which translate loosely to a toast for having some money left from last year’s harvest. Never know about such culture other than Dong Zhi where the Chinese celebrated for a prosperous year. Not like I earn a lot for the past year, but at least I managed to get a decent job and enough to pay for my hobbies.

So...what excites me most is Buffet, yay~!

Me likes: Friendly people, eventhough I hardly speek with them before, we managed to get through the night with some junk talk. nice environment in the busy famous dine in - the place is totally booked up! Sufficient refills - all a buffeter can ask for.

I had 2 plates of prawns, a plate of small corn and a plate of mixed mushrooms. Finished the night up with some fish balls and 12 sticks of various ice sticks.

Complains… no one knows how to handle a camera properly, I’m prohibited from taking too much prawns and this group of people are not fit for buffet. People should train up if they want to eat buffet, if not it’ll be meaningless.

More photos: [Image 1] [Image 2] [Image 3] [Image 4] [Image 5] [Image 6]

Labels: Friends

How frequent do you visit a page again after pressing CTRL+D (Add to Favourites) which has became a habitual task once you happen to see smth interesting and tell yourself, "I'll come back to it again when I'm free".

SELDOM!!! People just dump it there and totally forgot about it. Doesn't even bother to archieve Favourites when they bring their computer to format, or change platforms (eg. XP -> Vista).

Irene was dancing along with some loud music in the middle of town, so I spend some time reading thru my favourites. 78% of those links are already 404 - Not Found. While the other 16% are links i never bother to look thru anymore. There are even sites that store other things as compared to their intentional purpose.

How frequent do web developers maintain their site, changing links, and makes users confuse. I was playing with some Universe depository on Ubuntu, which makes it really tough for me to download or follow instructions properly. The links doesn't work anymore, neither are the stuffs there. Hitting around the bushes ain't smth I do out of bed, so don't try to bring me on a rollercoaster ride!!!

The community (Ubuntu and others alike) should be discipline enough to redirect other users to a new link. Make it look seemless if possible, as for Jasmine, please don't switch blog hosts too frequent, it's hard for me to keep track mkay?

Labels: Myself, Tech

Thaipusam, a festival celebrated by Hindus around the globe. But the culture has so much being faded as it was only celebrated in masses in towns like Penang and KL. Just got back my camera, realised that I need to relearn the whole process of controlling the camera again. Not much nice ones that I've captured byt anyway here are the pictures..

[1] Silver Chariot (View 1)


[2] Silver Chariot (View 2)


These indians are really commited, getting a vegetarian diet before they are allowed to carry the kavadi. Some travel all the way from the other side of the island all the way to the temple 100m above sea level. You can say that this is an indian version of "Kek Lok Si" but as compared with chinese which usually jam the whole Ayer Itam town with luxurious cars, Indians still walk to their sacred temples by bare foot.

[3] Dancers entertaining the crowd (Best lighting I have)


[4] Inside the Temple


It's an eye opening experience for me. My parents never bring me out in such celebrations in worry of the traffic jams, and neither do i know what to aspect. Going there alone with my ever faithful camera is enjoyable. Thankfully my handphone did not submerged in the coconut milk this time.