Coming back from a RM7k trip, I was suppose to control my expenditure for a few of my new toy. While girls shop for new fashion, guys are either into Automobile or like me electronic gadgets. Automobiles are way beyond my range since I prefer not to be swiping too much dept early in my life. But gizmos are so closely linked to our social life that its hard not to keep up with.

First I wanted to get a new handphone with GPS. I was looking at a few models dated back to the Dopod D810, Nokia N810, Nokia E90 and the more recent HTC P3600i. This "want" doesn't grow into a "need" as I don't communicate much over wireless - I prefer to talk in person.

Then, another "want" of mine which is yet to be fulfil is to have a minute laptop - the Asus Eee PC. In Taiwan, the market demand is so high that 1 unit is sold every 2 seconds! That explains the delay it arrives at Malaysian soil. Even then, the retailers hike up the price by > RM200 since the demand is so incredible. A unit which costs RM1000 was sold at RM1800 in Kuala Lumpur. I haven't seen any yet in Penang (except a unit brought by a Taiwanese businessman).

Fine...the money has to go somewhere! What about my most passionate hobby in recent years? Photography. The D200 is known to be a 200% camera, this D300 is definately a 300% camera!!! I have already dreamed of replacing my Nikon D70s with a new camera since 12 months ago. But it arrived sooner than I expected (pre-xmas). The retailers are offering the price much lower than Recommended Price by Nikon Malaysia. I am not sure what happened to me but I swiped my ATM dry just for this camera.

That makes my parents mad, and my girlfriend even more disappointed. Ever since I started working, I've been saving up from food, cloth and transportation. Once I got enough savings, all of those money will eventually pass hands for my hobbies. As I don't want to end up penny-less for my wedding and retired, I've made a promise to put aside RM100 monthly for "photography" and the rest will go into savings. Hopefully this will work, else I'll have to transfer my money to mom's account for safe keeping. :( I'm frugal in nature, advertisements make me lose it.

I've already complete processing 90% of the photos from my Germany trip. Here are the links:-

Germany01 - PEN-BKK-MUC


Germany02 - Munich


Germany03 - Stuttgart (feat YiLing and Kelvin)


Germany04 - Lake Konstanz


Germany05 - Fussen (Newshwanstein Castle)


Germany06 - Salzburg, Austria (Sound of Music tour)


Germany07 - Zurich, Switzerland (Cheese Fondue, Kirch)


Germany08 - Munich (Hauphbrauhaus, The Residenz)


Germany09 - Immenstadt, Passau (Pending)

Germany10 - The Residenz & Oktoberfest (Feat Beer Tents)


While editing the photos, the sweet memories keeps coming back to me. It's such a lovely place, luckily we were there during Oktoberfest. Now 1Euro = RM5. And there's riots happening in France. Thankfully I'm that lucky.

Just put a deposit for a new camera. Won't be revealing that much, but I can tell u that I'm now officially broke.

Hello readers,

I haven't been updating much as I have tonnes of stuffs/ new interests coming in.

Good news is that my Nikon D70s has already came back from servicing. Costs me RM480 for both my camera and flash, but that's maintenance cost required for this hobby of mine. Once received, I've helped my company photograph the Annual Dinner F.O.C. I think that it's not beneficial to me, but yet, it's a good opportunity for me to test out my camera after not using a camera for > 1 month.

In my Toastmasters progress, I've already completed 8 assignments. The time taken to prepare each assignment is shorter, but quality of the delivery is not being neglected in any way. I am thinking of publishing all my assignments for the benefit of other Toastmasters who are looking for a topic. Will find one fine day to work on that.

What else? Ok, I also found out that I never have enough money. Flipped through some books on Personal Finance which changed my life. As I started to draw out my cashflow, I noticed that there ain't no savings for rainny days or marriage. You can say that I can be described as "Kais pagi makan pagi". Since then, I've added PFblogs into my GoogleReader. Some of those articles are really informative, especially by this guy Ramit Sethi. Depends on what you are looking for, generally these sites are has articles which suits everyone's needs.

Technical wise, I've suceed in getting my hp 6515b laptop installed with Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10). I've made it earlier, just need to press "Alt+F1" to prompt the username input. Now the system is updated. Pending installation of Broadcom drivers, SCIM input, and misc other applications to make my laptop an ultimate FOSS power house.

Dad has some trouble working around with Vista, but with Ubuntu...he shouldn't have any problem working around it. You muz see how tech wise my parents are. Mom is searching for travel plans for March 2008 already over the web. My sister also prefer Ubuntu if not for the slight compatibility issue on Feisty earlier. Will install 7.10 for her once I've got mine running smoothly.

This weekend I will most probably be busy with International Dance Competition @ PISA and right after that, will visit Gurney Drive to cover the Loy Khartong festival. Sunday will be Little Penang if nothing else come up.

You must be wondering what I'm doing in the office while I've been doing all these stuffs on my "free time". Well, not everyone talks about their work. Kennysia has been travelling the world, but he insists that he has a 9-5 job. How I wish I'll be able to get paid trips like his. Stay tuned for more updates.

Labels: Myself, Photography, Ubuntu