spikeyblitz.blogspot.com

rig

2010-08-20T23:44:00.002+08:00

recently built new rig... after days/weeks of research, updating myself with current trends, reading reviews, price monitoring, lots of spreadsheeting to optimise selection of parts, contemplating, pondering... decided to bite the bullet and just build an acceptable, relatively future proof and upgradeable system...

selected modular power supply so that wont have cables sticking out everywhere. I can attach only cables that i need...

lots of goodies (except paper washers, maybe thats too yesterday) with the motherboard, eventhough its a cheapo kind

after processor and memory installed...

something new i thought i'd try is to have proper cooling solution. here's some thermal paste

applied thermal paste over the processor's surface...

then mounted heat sink onto processor. thermal paste helps fill the gaps between heat sink and processor, better contacts mean better heat transfer from the hot processor into the many fins

attached a fan onto the heat sink to help dissipate the heat away... fan has jagged edges that reduces noise when spinning at high speeds

graphics card came in nice black box gold text packaging

managed to get the version 2 card for the same price as the version 1 (because version 1 stocks were gone)... version 2 has cooler design

case stripped of its side and top covers. 3 huge fans at the bottom sucks air from bottom of case, cools insides then single fan on top blows hot air out... 3 in, 1 out means there is positive pressure build-up within the case, keeping dust from entering. fan on top has golfball surface texture that creates micro vortices, reduces air resistance. Vertical air motion (from bottom to top) means that as air gets heated up, its density reduces and it can rise faster; increased air movement means better heat dissipation... thermodynamics put into action... such a sucker for marketing...

3 big fans also come with air filters for dust management

slotting hard drive is like slotting a book into a shelf...

finally after everything installed...

funny thing was that the case has no speakers, so theres no characteristic beep when the system starts up, no beep in older systems usually indicate a problem with start-up... so when there was no beep in this new system, i suspected something must have gone wrong, besides, nothing showing up on screen...

also contributing to the confusion is the touch sensitive control of the monitor... it was not powered on in the first place... so after turning it on, and restarting, i get the 'good' blue screen to set up settings... relieved the hardware installation works...

installed windows, then ran some tests to see if things were working okay...

whoaaa long time no blog

2010-08-13T16:52:00.002+08:00

more than 2 months ago...

why? cos bz flying around here and there

did some work at adelaide, on first day, task was to transfer a piece of equipment from table, to mobile table (trolley), as follows:

100kg equipment too heavy to handle alone, no body around to help (cos everybody went home already)... also trolley was higher than table, definitely need to lift it, so use some technology:

after some sliding about etc etc... managed to get equipment onto the other table, everything neatly arranged, all good to go, just need to slide under the yellow roof... or so I thought...

Clearance missed out by 2 cm... so cannot fit under... w t h

I also made sugarcane juice...

I placed my acids in the cupboard, as told... they were happily sitting there when one day a sign went up saying they cannot sit there... dont understand why cannot tell me in person, I'll happily remove them, have to put up big big sign announce to whole world that I'm breaking the rules

Wanted to melt some wax in a beaker... but suddenly... the beaker decided to drop its pants...

... and so I got molten wax spilled everywhere... zzz

On the way to the airport, spotted this...

the word TRAP can mean so many things...

oom

2010-05-28T00:27:00.002+08:00

on monday, spent 5 hrs writing report - on such a roll...

for the next 5 days, no mood write anymore... consumed too much energy

undecided

2010-05-02T15:59:00.002+08:00

i notice i blog only when sick/bored/sian
wat a depressing blog this would be then

...

body is undecided whether to be sick or well

fri: well - little did i know wats about to happen
sat: sick - sore throat, all out flu symptoms
sun: well - go out breathe fresh air
mon: sick - light sensitive, sunlight hurts eyes, feels like theres a partial clot in head... blood cant flow so throbbing headache
tue: well - although weak
wed: sick - ears, nose blocked, cannot do work at all...
thur: well - can do work abit
fri: sick - keep being careless and disorganised, no mood do work...
sat: well - can go see jazz festival, watch movie
sun: sick - sleep 12 hrs still feel weak and tired

...

starving to save money is not a very happy/wise thing to do
yet...

...

in other news... had to sit for some online test when i notice:

...sick how to do test !?

also...

...this particular company acknowledges intersex gender unlike others

and finally...

many times hv I been told to chill
but i think its the hardest thing to do
is there a 'how to chill for dummies' book?

theres some flu going around...

2010-04-23T21:10:00.003+08:00

try 50, too high
try 25, too low
try 35, too high
try 30, STILL too high... 4 days gone just trying...

-

dota losing streak record 0-17

-

spill water
try grab tissue to wipe
tissue wont detach from other tissues
tissue box fall
spill even more water

-

start calculations
discovered mistake
stop calculations
fix mistake

restart calculations
discovered another mistake
stop calculations
fix mistake

restart calculations
program crash... omg

restart program
start calculations
computer shut off randomly... omg

-

photostat paper
paper jam

-

in other less sad news...

bottle with string looks like friar tuck

opening a bottlecapped bottle of sesame oil

simply aim lights + luck = interesting shiny bits

...

finally i can do off-camera lighting... must be some peculiar interest, using umbrellas etc...

at the supermarket the other day...

2010-04-16T08:20:00.000+08:00

i discovered the awesomeness that is a ONE LITRE preshafruit...

also, instead of just 'orange juice', they've got the actual species of orange...

this box has...

2010-03-28T23:10:00.001+08:00

... cute aspect ratios

waking up...

2010-03-17T20:16:00.003+08:00

... from a decaying dream into a nightmarish reality ...

facing the truth after living a lie...

... not wrong, not bad, but just poor life choices

ppl say shit happens... should also add "all the time and in your face (and up your orifices)"

the force...

2010-03-05T08:48:00.002+08:00

sat down with 2 supervisors the other day,
they were discussing the effect of hydrodynamic forces on the permeability of filter cakes...

in other words, when water is passed through say, coffee grounds, how would that flow of water affect the compactness of the coffee grounds...

when suddenly the discussion shifted to, in their words: '... the force that surrounds us, permeates us and binds us together...'

aka the force in starwars

...

cool/unbelievable/sad thing was i actually understood that

...

were all geeks, swt

what to do...

2010-03-03T17:35:00.003+08:00

i think it started with learning not to do the wrong or bad things
but not doing wrong or bad doesnt necessarily mean someone's doing right or good...

then i guess for some time, doing what seemed right kinda worked for a while...
whether or not it is good, depends on our relative perception of morality, as good may be evil for some

occasionally there are times when doing whateva makes you happy works, but times like these are rare or hard to come by; besides not everyone's happified by the same stuff...

then suddenly, things get interesting when doing the smart thing seems like a better option, although it might mean doing wrong or bad, from a conventional moral point of view

...then theres doing the easy stuff... and also the painful stuff...

hav been editing pics lately...

2010-03-01T10:55:00.001+08:00

much overdue pics from past photoshoots

Photoshoots turned out to be quite a lot of hard work actually! - from everybody involved: model, make-up, styling, clothes, photographer, assistants, lighting, location, etc...

but on my end, photography side of things, alot of the hard work, time and effort was partly due to the lack of pimped out gear like strobing umbrellas ($600), that 85mm lens ($400), that f/2.8 lens ($1700), that full frame camera ($4000), that quad-core computer ($2000)...

excuses... haha

...

was sorting tru pics when smelled v nice aroma of bbq chicken
somebody must be having nice bbq on nice sunny day
then realised its the chicken wings i left in the oven...

black one side

...

also realised that there is that occasional 1 photo out of say 300 to 500 taken in say, one day... where it makes all other pics totally insignificant and of not much interestingness...

worth doing all that work to get ONE good pic? usually yes...

...

also, hv to think about wat am i gonna do with the 299 to 499 pics that didnt make the cut...
delete? -waste
keep? -hoarding drive space
edit? -too much work

...

the wind ate...

2010-02-10T18:12:00.001+08:00

... one grey sock and one white sock

so instead of losing 2 pairs of socks, decided to salvage situation by minimising loss:

this way only one pair lost...

phail

2010-02-09T19:38:00.002+08:00

started with:
timing phail, cant find available computer to use at uni

then when finally started work,
brain phail, cant figure things out

nevermind, lets try something new, which lead to:
programming phail, cant get code to do magik

and then becos of noob coding,
excel phail, overly resource hungry so hang

which also lead to:
computer phail, not enough ram so crash

and by then its lunch time so to give self a prep-up, decided to go buy drink, when:
coffee phail, straw split so cant use properly

back to work, plan to print out some documentation to study, when...
printer phail, not enough ink so wasted print credit

fed-up and hungry so go home to cook, and then...
dinner phail, burned hand on grill

...

phailblog

100 plus

2010-02-07T19:52:00.000+08:00

new packaging design... first thing i saw was a möbius strip... swt

sucker for marketing...

2010-02-04T09:40:00.003+08:00

Tried this fruit juice cos:

the bottle looked cool - triangular shaped and tesselatable into a hexagon with 6 bottles
minimalistic, neat scientific style labelling with sans-serif font
most importantly, acclaimed to be produced via high pressure cold pasteurisation at 600 MPa, using high pressurised cold water - good to know the process technical specifications
logo design incorporates the keywords: fruit, cold, pressure (the converging arrows symbolises hydrostatic pressure - omg ingenious)
apparently the pressuriser machine only accepts bottles shaped in that manner - reciprocate between design and functionality

the bokeh is a giveaway for wat's returned...

i had a dream where...

2010-01-30T23:36:00.002+08:00

i tried using this super long lens, old but presumably powerful, so wanted to test drive...
unfortunately the optics, when aged, amplified the sunlight and then fried my eye

...

that stacking game

2010-01-23T20:56:00.002+08:00

... where theres a swaying crane carrying building blocks, and the player needs to release the blocks at the right time so that they stack on top of each other, attempting to build as high a skyscraper as possible... typical game for civil engineers:

just found out its called Tower Bloxx, available on mobile phones (pix from ign.com)

...

heres my own version called Cake Bloxx, a game for chemical engineers:

... its actually calcite filter cake, some chalky leftover material after having all the water pressed out, I tried to stack them up on top of each other, when the 4th piece missed which sparked this idea

also trying out new watermark, lots of work required

stereotype

2010-01-20T20:29:00.006+08:00

today was attempting to figure out some excel stuff at the computer lab, when there were other ppl making noise, in particular 2 guys chatting. One chinese, one not. The non-chinese was semi-tutoring the chinese math; commenting on the chinese's exam results being less than stellar, and how when chinese ppl dont get exceptional marks, they should go kill themselves... wtf

and also how they should avoid pairing up with female angmoh becos apparently they tend to be less successful with technical stuff... again wtf

had to leave the place cos couldnt concentrate on work, and listening only boils one's blood...

...

cam went for surgery, 'diaphragm assembly transplant'... swt
hv been using old but still reasonably trusty small cam for emergencies, however realised that it doesnt capture as much detail, and the colours arent super accurate, people's skin tend to be red-er, i think its to make ppl appear healthier, glowing.

so hv been digging up old unprocessed pics instead:

london, somewhere around trafalgar square

itch...

2010-01-19T19:17:00.003+08:00

today i had an itch on right shoulder

so i scratched tru the shirt sleeve

it was still itchy

so i went under the sleeve

and out came a MOTH...

omgz i think i trapped it becos i wore in addition to the shirt, a long sleeve hoodie prior...

dear acquaintances...

2010-01-17T15:00:00.001+08:00

(actually had some trouble spelling the title...)

...

tq, soz, gdluck

...

i lost yet another usb drive

2010-01-14T07:41:00.001+08:00

3rd one so far... looks like need to get a new one every 2 months
and also re-do work every 2 months...
the university is a black hole for usb drives
lalala

post number 200

2009-12-31T22:54:00.002+08:00

also coincides with new year's eve/new year... which i almost spent in the air...
although ahead of schedule (was preparing for fireworks photographs already), plane couldnt land due to bad weather, so circled around airport whilst waiting for rain to pass. Unfortunately fuel ran out before that, so flew to to nearby adelaide for refueling then back again. This time around, just enough rain to afford a landing, but still too much for airport personnel to approach plane, risking electrocution. Apparently too many lightning strikes around, and with a massively charged conductor (the plane), v dangerous to be in close proximity, so got stuck in plane... taxi ride back cost a bomb due to off-peak hours...

first pic of the new year nevertheless...

finally i get to play

2009-12-30T14:50:00.004+08:00

and finish halflife2 ep 2... graphics look dated by today's standards but a couple of years back they look spectacular...

i like how the 2 in halflife2 is superscript, becos u play the scientist main character, and in line with science, everytime 2 appears as a squared power its cooler

also, windows 7 looks cool
and 3ghz dual core, 4gb ram, 1gb gpu is v fun to play with
takes about 5 sec to generate a jpg frm raw (as seen in task manager), compared to my laptop which takes 45 sec...

when angry...

2009-12-29T18:10:00.000+08:00

...loses apetite

bottleneck

2009-12-29T04:01:00.004+08:00

with laptop, productivity somewhat low due to slow speeds, frequent lock-ups...

thus with new comp (not mine) however, in theory, productivity should increase, but instead, productivity remains on a low side due to slowness on the human side... omgz i CANT keep up finally!

...

am waiting for an automated watermarking feature for lightroom (lightroom 3, now still beta) so that i can put a name to the pics i upload... an easy thing to do actually atm, but not very keen with that additional step in the work flow

...

by the beach/coast, nice emerald waters, with random colored patches of different hues, could be the depth, or sand cloud, or the waves, or seaweed/corals

so as a typical city person... i was totally amazed when i saw some black seaweed/coral moving in the waters but then when it started moving wayyy too much for it to be a seaweed/coral (corals move less than seaweed) the amazement then became freaking-out because that black thing turned out to be:

A BLOODY STINGRAY... !HOLYSHIT

...

am also quite saddened by the fact that my lens refuses to take pictures whilst zoomed out (wideangle)... and it only takes pictures whilst zoomed in... very strange

...

engineering thermodynamics and energetics kicked in when i saw this water wheel ...

whilst open channel flow and characteristic dimensioning of noncircular pipework came up when i saw the associated 'pipework'

although, here the channel looks emo

...

super tall trees, nature has the most awesome graphics card, rendering all the shadows of complex objects accurately all the time

...

its past xmas, new year's coming... hardly any festivity felt...

busy thursday

2009-12-18T07:35:00.002+08:00

hv been analysing plant data, identifying useful (and useless) data, then compare useful data to 'model' data...
unfortunately the more improvements made to the analysis (which should give more and better useful data), the more disagreements these useful data make with model data...

so now have to figure out whats wrong with the model data (then again, could be the analysis part, or a million other reasons)

making up numbers appear to be far more 'accurate' and easier on the brain...
one of the many, significant take-home-messages i got from uni

...

everybody graduating, seeing alot more parents around the city...
everybody strutting their lv and channel and gucci...

prob too dangerous to do that back in home country

...

had to take pics of frens graduating...
the night before, checked batteries, checked memory card, cleaned lens, cleaned sensor, tested this and that, tried all possible combinations... all good all okay...

on the day itself, the very first shot...
camera once more decided to pms and lock-up, jammed, stuck...

happened 4 times... highly frustrating

...

attended another fren's graduation ceremony... noticed a couple of things:

carrying 2.5 KILO worth of metal and glass, whilst holding still and balancing calls for some significant arm strength
given a list of names of ppl to shoot whilst receiving their certificates on stage, is like given a HIT LIST of ppl to assasinate with a scoped sniper rifle of some sort... except they just wouldnt know what hit em
when youve found a nice spot, v nice angle... ppl who come later, must go and stand IN FRONT OF U, wth... should use the zoom lens to poke the back of their heads...
when u focused v nicely on the smiling target, ready to shoot already, then finally when snap the pic... somebody's head must pass by and COVER the target... blardyhell...
other ppl with zoom lenses love to shoot from far far back (cos can zoom), USING POP-UP FLASH... omg torturing the poor (and small) flash to fire at its maximum... and torturing the ppl sitting nearby with big big bursts of light... can get seizure

and with green eyes... why ppl with porshe equivalent camera... go use basic modes only... omg
whilst i hv to be inconvenienced with inferior tech and temperamental gear... cracking head to figure out best compromise given the unforgiving circumstances (bad weather, limited time, fleeting moments)... frus!

...

watercolor

2009-12-15T06:22:00.002+08:00

had this weird dream where a small kid used crayons/color pencils/chalk to graffiti my pants... presumably an expensive one

so i asked him if he'd like water color as well...

then proceed to take his tools, dump it in a drain and pour water over it so that the colors all dissolve away... (should be concentrated acid/base but dreams hv different chemistry)

pent-up anger...

grey

2009-12-14T22:03:00.003+08:00

ok so these days its been sunnier... but at night its still cold
occasional rain

overediting... abit prone to that recently

weird sticky substance...

year is coming to an end
emo time...

camera PMS is real

2009-12-04T23:04:00.002+08:00

the other day had fren bday
need take pic so, charge cam battery, bring spare...

location - bar/lounge
so, expect dark rooms, moody ambience etc

expect shots with different # ppl inside
so better take zoom
the wide angle will help with group pic just in case
and the zoom for (spy spy) candids

unfortunately the zoom is not the expensive many many thousands zoom, means pics will either be dark or blur

so... flash to the rescue...

make sure got charge batteries also...

direct flash, not v flattering
dont hv cool diffusers either
so lets bounce the flash...

unfortunately when arrive at the bar, the ceiling is complex aircon duct, with a myriad of brown/purple colors
so when flash bounce, will get weird brown/purple lighting
difficult to get consistent colors

aircon ducts makes it difficult to bounce properly, so lets try the zoom function of the flash
but that would probably consume alot of power, so bring backup batteries...

actually can be rigorous and do color balancing, but arrived late, so no chance, sigh

either way, not v practical also...

thennnnnnn...
after about 80 or so shots, when it was getting fun...

this memory card decided to corrupt itself
so all pics gone
big big panic!

lucky theres a spare memory card

so continue shooting

go back lucky can recover pics, but couldnt recover all pics, missed out on the most interesting pics

my bad...

need more reliable gear...
somehow all kinds of error messages keep coming out recently
maybe needs servicing, like car

error messages go away after removing/inserting batteries and pressing many buttons
maybe needs to get warmed up
again, like car

also realise that it happens during extremely important shots
i finally see why 1 camera isnt enough...

i beginning to wonder...

2009-11-25T00:31:00.001+08:00

... why the heck did i take 700+ pics DAILY when i went travelling?
theres so many to sort tru now...

i notice theyre mostly repeats, to increase probability of getting a good shot
...
if only i had ISO 102400, i wouldnt have to take so many pics then

fake...

2009-11-24T16:13:00.002+08:00

recently got a little fond of blue skies again

Lightroom 3 beta

2009-11-14T10:16:00.002+08:00

omgz its here...
decided to try since the splash page looks cool

new import dialog may be confusing... but nice to see the black/grey/gunmetal colours instead of standard os dialog

watermarking feature is nice, but no fine controls

new effects on vignetting (initially vignetting was very 'in' with lightroom 1 and 2, but after a while, when everybody has the same effect, made it boring...) hopefully better control for vignetting, although no noticeable difference between the 2 types offered here...

i think thats about it so far...

some random pictures

2009-11-08T21:31:00.004+08:00

the weather these days... very hot
winter skipped over spring to become summer...

not very windy either, so not much cooling

drinks become warm quickly

mixing orange juice and sprite is nice...

...

random curve i came across... reminds me of mercurial vapor football boots

the blanket and pillow call for me but i have papers in my path...

computer getting hotter, trying out this mini fan

but am struggling to see if theres conservation of energy or not...
computer receives energy to power stuff up, throws out heat at the same time... installing this fan will increase the power consumption hence more heat is thrown out

the fan cools this extra heat - unsure how effectively, but if it cools more heat than is being produced, the computer will ultimately cool... otherwise its not very effective
then theres the heat generated by the fan itself due to inefficient motor
and then theres the ambient temperature which governs the rate of heat removal
and the computer usage rate which may stress the system further, hence consuming more power... ok headache, enough

i think in such hot weather normal fan cooling will not be very effective - need other special ways

break of dawn... still so many lights turned on... waste electricity, no wonder global warming

ceiling lights that stare back at me as i sleep/dream/read/write/take pictures of it

everything's black and white... monochromatic lifestyle...
no body's calling

these were the books i borrowed - record breaking 20 books at one time, not shown below
colourful rainbow collection

decaying light as the sun sets, with nice outlined trees... after deadlines, its either a huge sigh of relief, or an uneasy feeling - decaying like the sun, the damage has been done

room is always hot, so open window to let cool breeze in
the warmth of a few weeks ago... replaced by the scorching heat these days

ok finish... no other random pics lately... random pictures of common everyday things will eventually lead to repeatability and predictability, hence against all notion of randomness...

fog... again?

2009-11-06T01:27:00.002+08:00

almost every year, except the first year of uni, ill get to experience some weird fog day...

why not first year ? cos wasnt around during winter time, and back then winter was during july, unlike now where winter can occur any time even in november... global warming is really messing around with the weather

so in 2007... with the sony N-1 and lots of photoshopping... (photoshop cs)

grainy, lacks detail and shadows clipped...

in 2008... with the 40D and being ambitious with not-so-brilliant panoramas and photoshop (cs 2)

better details this time around... although horizon not horizontal omg...

and finally in 2009, the same fog once more, this time in the early morning becos my sleep times were screwed... with lightroom edits (rather than photoshop cs3...)

cant see the horizon so cant tell if its horizontal or not... easy getaway...
not as ambitious as before... cant rly be bothered anymore seeing the fog for the third time in three years

sleep disorder

2009-11-06T01:11:00.006+08:00

so its been about a week since the epic projek was handed in

sleeping times still screwed due to the 4 hr sleep-2 day awake routine for about a week prior to the due date

am still sleeping at random hours of 9pm to 12 midnight, being blur till 6 am in the morning, sleeping till 3pm in the afternoon... night becomes day becomes night, everything blends but the days go by

ive taken pics of mid-day, sunsets, at night, so finally heres a breaking of dawn pic...

since bored, took pics of random things like the plastic on the flash...

and the wet roads outside due to emo rain...

felt v guilty not being in uni at 9pm, instead was trying some physics on the pool table

tq for posing...

need more subjects/things to snap other than the view from balcony and random academic objects...

mouse fail

2009-10-31T15:42:00.004+08:00

my mouse double-clicks whenever i single-click...

my thumbdrive(s) have decided to corrupt my assignments at the very last minute

my harddrive is full (both harddrives - the physical and metaphysical)

my computer opens up only after 5 minutes (windows explorer)

my computer opens up only after probably half an hour...

...

time for new stuff

reduced to clear food...

2009-10-16T17:29:00.002+08:00

... is sad

been spending more time at uni than at home, couldhv saved some rent...

farewell dinner for final year students will not be free... no budget even for $60 a person out of $100,000 that has been contributed so far... research must be an expensive thing

7 Days...

2009-10-12T18:05:00.004+08:00

I go to lab on Monday
took some red bull on Tuesday
we got not much done by Wednesday
and on Thursday & Friday & Saturday we stressed on Sunday...

today...

2009-10-09T00:06:00.002+08:00

...ultrafine particles masuk-ed my eyes

i didnt do microscopy work so i dunno the surface characteristics, could be abrasive

i washed with water, after that i realise the surface chemistry might make it acidic...

...

when it rains no work is done

paradox

2009-10-04T23:20:00.002+08:00

saw this caffeine medication to get rid of bags under eyes...

which actually makes sense... because when sleepy, drink coffee -> stay awake, therefore no more baggy eyes, which are indication of lack of sleep... logic!

...

so how come i still get baggy eyes with all that starbucks?

...

air asia

2009-09-20T15:01:00.003+08:00

ok this was awhile ago

flight was air asia flight
unfortunately not v budget becaus the promotion started the day after i purchased ticket, wth...

decided to try the highly recommended nasi lemak meal option:

menu looks good

after some hours, food came... the air stewardess handed me the meal on a tray, i didnt know im not supposed to take the tray, just take the food only, swt

food come...

later the kacang and ikan bilis came in separate container...

tadaa... ok la cant complain

had to pay for in-flight movies, so dowan...
this is alternative in-flight entertainmen...

melb uni students chatting about the air stewardess...

ok so after a while, landing already... not supposed to use electronic items, but i dun think mine will affect their telecomms, so take pic

aeroplane too noisy so cant hear me also...

interesting flight

blue

2009-09-19T19:36:00.002+08:00

stuck at home, i hope i dont hv that h1n1 thing...

sleeping with highlighters

2009-09-16T19:24:00.000+08:00

will result in this:

sick...

2009-09-15T22:15:00.003+08:00

after almost 4 weeks of eating take-outs
drinking coffee (thanks to buy 1 free 1)

redbull (it still feels as if it doesnt work, but it actually does by the time u realise its 12noon the next day already...)

oily fried rice

grand finale of an almost 48 hr day...

can almost see the light at times...

at one time my own tears stung my eyes for some reason... i think they became acidic from the coffee...

am finally sick... not v surprised, omg

been almost 4 weeks since posting, supposed to have a pic a week or something, so heres 4 (panorama cheating)

north view melboure, can see the uni

toothpaste

2009-08-11T00:02:00.003+08:00

weather so cold that, when entering hot shower, there is a temperature driving force between cold hands and hot body, causing fuzzy feeling - probably cos theres an induced current running...

kfc for the 3rd time in 3 weeks = bad eating trend

i wanna try use...

2009-08-03T23:34:00.002+08:00

...this new expression

today lost thumbdrive, work gone

fml

swt

current state is...

2009-08-02T20:57:00.002+08:00

not particularly pleasant...
fun becomes guilt
breathing hard from worry
shiver from cold & rain
that old gastric feeling

bad shape

weight, volume

2009-07-11T05:52:00.002+08:00

wat happened to the weekly photo post thing?... aiya

limited internet, no photo software... cant do many things

nowadays phones have internet access and can blog, but thats not enough
next time all phones should come with photoshop too

...

moving house makes me realise that...

everything should be wireless
even chargers...

also, i realise i have too many discs
last time 650mb cds were enough to backup things...
then 4.7gb dvds seemed too big when they first came out

now 4.7gb dvds arent big enough to backup a day's worth of pictures

blu ray needs to quickly become more mainstream

but im guessing by then each picture would be 200mb and even 20 gb bluray disks would only keep 100, not enough!

they need to come out with some 'green'-ray 100 yottabyte discs (since everything's v enviro these days) before pictures becomes 1gb in size each and can move like in harry potter

...

and chargers should be able to transform without conserving volume or mass so that i can fit everything into a small bag and carry it effortlessly

... need the allspark for that

today...

2009-06-16T08:07:00.004+08:00

...the 15th of June, 2009...

i wanted to sleep but underground pump malfunctioned and kept producing hard metal banging sounds from 10 am onwards, initially thought there were people doing repairs, but after 4 hours of non-stop banging, must be machinery

i went to library to return book, but on the way out the same door i entered, the swipe card doors wouldnt allow me through, so had to take super long route

i wanted to send some sms, but phone had problem, restarted, cleaned sim, still problem. went to phone shop, apparently my number got cancelled... swt. supposed to be cancelled on 15/7 but i think the operator mistyped 7 for 6, which is today... so i lost my old number

however... today, the 15th of June, 2009

.
.
.
.
.

I saw life-sized Bumble-Bee!

I saw life-sized Shia Lebouf!

I saw life-sized Michael Bay!

...and finally...

I also saw life-sized MeganFox!

...for a short moment, i felt like nothing else mattered anymore and my life became a bit more complete... aaahhh...

regrets, dont want

2009-06-15T11:28:00.003+08:00

its 4.28am in the morning
i think this is the...
30+ th time already
the library is like a second home (which is sad!)

with equilibrium not achieved between caffeine, nutrition, exercise, sanity, calmness... this leads to agitation, impatience, highs and lows, passivity, frustration etc.

i wan to be forgiven

(omg i sound like cloud... but my limit's almost broken... wheres the omnislash?)

routine

2009-06-15T09:29:00.002+08:00

this is wat i wake up to,

the fluorescent light is cold and sterilizing...

on some days, need this chemical called 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine

that book gave nightmares...

looking out of my window...

i see everybody else going for ball/prom/cruise/dinner/party/club, so happening!

finally dinner would be minimal-effort, pre packed 'summer selection' meats that will be done within 30mins in the oven

add carb+veg, every little bit of wholesomeness is welcomed during this unwholesome time. . .

unhealthy meals

2009-06-14T09:46:00.002+08:00

alternating between chicken wings-kfc-burger king, thats a typical 'exam menu'

tried a new type of burger
really like 6-pack
but eating it will not give 6-packs
6 tubes more like it

O.O

2009-06-13T10:32:00.002+08:00

...is the expression i get when i see exam question...

may be influenced by all the -.-" and -__- and > < 's from K-ON! ... uninspired meals - chicken wings

trying new sauce

went swim, after swim, locker jammed, swt...

fuwafuwa

feel old

2009-06-09T10:45:00.002+08:00

after overnight-ing for more than 2 week's worth of nights (not continuously), feeling a strange kind of tiredness... am I getting old?

expresso frappucino
cappuccino
coke
redbull
vitamin water - guarana

wats their minimum cut-set? (OMGWTF i cannot believe i just said that)

caffein

healing

2009-06-07T05:26:00.003+08:00

recently got a starbucks card from the cashier... its actually free but didnt know it existed

using it like a cash card, allows for free toppings like whipped cream, extra shot

so therefore, my expresso frappucinos are now priced as regular coffee frappucinos because the extra shot in expressos is now free... yay

not particularly the best pic of a frappucino cos the ice melted already and the foam and liquid layers kinda stabilized into 2 phases... swt

the barista gave 2 plastic cups cos it was overflowing (poured too much i think) - from my point of view, it doubles up as thermal insulation ...

after sipping a little, i suddenly felt like i could forgive myself a little for the many shortcomings and imperfections... although just a bit, every little counts...

starbucks can heal

swt...

sad/happy equilibrium

2009-06-03T14:41:00.001+08:00

i am sad becos i have NOT been sleeping at normal hours (2am) but rather at very abnormal hours of ~10am, that's sad...

i am happy becos... SPLINTER CELL CONVICTION looks v v v v v cool!
(as well as metal gear solid: rising, assassins' creed 2, modern warfare 2, uncharted 2 ... all sequels i realise)

some dream gear...

2009-05-27T21:09:00.004+08:00

over the past few months ive had the privilege of using some really good gear...

YES I KNOW THIS TYPE OF GEAR... haha, its the

Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

(finally I can type that red-coloured letter...)

hollow tube...

Thanks to the generosity of Mr. Tony, Ive was able to be as unobtrusive as possible at a recent stage production... so lets see what this lens covers...
Click to launch Sample Gallery:

If only I had a full-frame, high sensitivity, video recording camera...

some 'product' pics (v poor lighting...)

comparing lengths...

just not long enough no matter wat...

the small fry, no comment...
comes with tripod collar, should have used actually, than to undergo a 5 hour hand exercise

overall, i like the great big HOLLOW HOLE that allows alot of light to come in, good since the stage can be poorly lit sometimes... it can be difficult to use sometimes due to its immense weight and size... i think in total i had to carry ~2 kgs and try to 'snipe' with it...

vampire by day, human by night

2009-05-27T06:33:00.004+08:00

sunnier days are more frequent recently, so to be not so sad case, make starbucks the reason to venture out and absorb some radiation...

since was bored the other day, decided to stitch a 10 pic panorama... also wanted to test out how the popout gallery resizes...

accumulating mistakes...

2009-05-26T09:26:00.002+08:00

... is bad

ok, a pic a week... (old pic, so still small size)

antimatter got colour?

2009-05-23T08:43:00.005+08:00

why small pic all of a sudden when ive been doing bigger pic? (click and see... may hv to wait for page to fully load)

watched angels and demons, antimatter is white and gaseous... rly?
and at 99.99% speed of light, how come like negligible lorentz contraction of accelerator route from the reference frame of the antiparticle? ... dunno forgot already...

wat ive been doin?

2009-05-19T08:24:00.002+08:00

sadly, this:

so to break the spell of sadness, decided to go out and absorb some radiative heat ... (sun)
unfortunately it just rained and was still cloudy and wet and cold... as usual

always see these metal things near doorsteps, what are they i wonder?

on the way to a starbucks... (like 'on the way to a smile' from FFVII)

this is computer's heartbeat when i process pictures... giving it good exercise

cloudy, rainy

2009-05-18T01:48:00.000+08:00

yesterday it was

today its

in library at weird hours, with other ppl

2009-05-17T08:55:00.002+08:00

its 2 am on a sunday morning, library still quite full (SWT)

every day wake up, first thing i see is:

v v v sad

dry rain

2009-05-16T05:12:00.002+08:00

one day cloudless sunny skies

another day grey rainy skies

volatile

Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete

2009-05-13T03:18:00.006+08:00

o m g z when first saw FFVII:AC more than 4 years ago... now got director's cut

even the opening title has the word COMPLETE omg omg omg...

what are the other changes/additions ?

lots of spoiler pics ahead...

Show/Hide spoilers

one thing i liked was the concept of fusion swords, 6 swords in total, 5 of which could attach to the main sword to make up a super huge uber cool buster sword-like sword. and the swords can be unattached if u want the versatility of double wielding. In the above pic, there was originally 2 swords attached together, here Cloud's partially detaching them for a super super super cool move to follow which involves 'boomerangs'... wouldnt want to spoil too much, has to be seen to be awed... anyways the whole 'energising' effect looks cool too, along with the mechanical disengaging action of the sword 'teeth' when sword detachment takes place... detail-asm...

ok skip to other action scenes... most of the extra scenes were mostly more plot and flashbacks to flesh-out the storyline better... and many more environmental panning shots to show off the detail and HD-ness of the terrain, rocks, trees, grass, sand, stone, mountains, hills, debri, wreckage, ruins etc...

in an extended final fight scene with Sephiroth, here he's in super charged mode, got electric blue aura

some super fast light saber-ish slashing ensues (cos got the blue aura)

and then he gets pwned like nothing... in the bluriness (due to high compression sad, i want bluray) it looks like some watercolour painting, with a thin white brushstroke for masamune

OMG THERES BLOOD! omg omg omg bloodddddd coming out like ribena

charging up and getting ready for another hit... i like the perspective here that makes the sword (full fusion of 6 swords) look like a big block...

epicccccc clash of titans-ish scene that appeared in trailer omgzzz with all the black feathers flying...

then finally come out with Omnislash limit break waaaaaa... the original omnislash was around 5 hits, this wan has 13! epic epic epic... totally redone with new effects...

after the omnislash (the limit break was too awesome to be described even by pictures, means its worth more than a thousand words huhu)... the new 'energy aura' that Cloud has is purplish blue instead of the old orange...

ok end of spoiler pics, this not really a review, just wanna share the cool scenes... hv to watch many times and later review frame by frame to see all the fast action scenes... epic

pressure

2009-05-12T08:51:00.003+08:00

at the end of uni term, there's usually a small survey regarding uni experience etc.

here's one of the questions:

hell yea! it makes me ill all the time... swt
cool survey

ok lets try larger pics

2009-05-10T23:23:00.003+08:00

since new layout has wider area (on my screen at least)...
this gives room for larger pictures... can give more justice to the details etc.

this is entrance of my hall... spotted nice outlines around leaves, its unbelievably sunny these days... but the sky could have been blue-er like last week

Prince Consort Road

2009-05-10T02:27:00.002+08:00

This is prince consort road, view from my window

v sad cos its sunny lately and all i do is stay at home pretending to do work...
and time unfortunately does the random unpredictable chrono-skip and then suddenly...

dusk and almost night already... wth...

head ramming

2009-05-06T09:08:00.002+08:00

This milky white drink has seafood essence? wth

imagine reading/studying as a process where packets of information travels to your head. But at saturation, it becomes harder for new packets to enter. so they bounce off a wall (head)...

from the frame of reference of these packets, its like seeing the reader hitting his/her own head... studying becomes painful

suppposed to study, but...

2009-05-06T07:29:00.002+08:00

... blog more these days instead...

so sunny outside, but im stuck inside...

will try a 'photo-a-week' thingie to keep blog going...
2 photos or more if lucky, will see how it goes...
no wonder studies slow swt...

first exam in a very long time

2009-04-30T21:33:00.002+08:00

first exam today, after many many months
business exam somemore omgz
mcq style, where a correct answer = 1 mark, incorrect = -0.25 (wtf negative), blank answer = 0
5 choices A B C D E

half way through, realised i skipped many many questions... no surprise
was thinking, would it be better if i left it blank so they'll get zeroes? or should i attempt to answer, risking a deduction in marks? OR if im lucky enough there could actually be a chance of getting it correct...

so what are the odds?

if i answer just by guessing randomly...
probability of getting correct answer is 1/5
incorrect is 4/5

so expected value for a guess would be 1/5 x 1 + 4/5 x -0.25 = 0
i.e. no nett gain/loss if it was just guesswork purely by chance

in the event that i answered all these uncertain questions and got them all wrong, tough luck then, that'll lead to more damage incurred on the marks ive 'gathered' from other questions

if i get all of them correct, then thats some uber guessing skills...

however, if i can somehow, by elimination, reduce the number of potential candidates for a correct answer, down to 2 very similar answers lets say, then, per uncertain question,

expected value would be 0.5*1+0.5*-0.25=0.375
thats a positive score, a good sign

further analysis would show that, statistically speaking, i could actually gain some marks if i reduced the number of potential answer choices, increasing my chances of guessing a correct one...

so in the end, the optimal course of action seemed like i should just give the uncertain questions a shot, try to minimise damage to the (already damaged) overall score by maximising 'yield' from these uncertain questions, by minimising potential answers through elimination

i thought this was supposed to be some business exam, turned out to be some optimisation problem... swt

FFVII:ACC

2009-04-28T06:40:00.002+08:00

advent children complete

the new scenes (not sure if this is new) like to show off graphics, things like,
complicated reflections
fluid dynamics
volumetric weather effects
new sound effects
super detailed environmental textures
scratches, dust
colour tints

more wth-ness

2009-04-27T22:39:00.003+08:00

was browsing through pictures, picking out the good ones when suddenly...

err why the funky outlines... looks like extreme sharpening

by right it should hv looked like:

maybe because using updated program?

then wanted to use lightroom edit some pix when suddenly...

why all the ??????

after quitting lightroom, message still pops out, probably not due to lightroom, but due to the memory card reader... suspect USB port problem? cos thumbdrive was detected as USB1.0 recently instead of USB2.0... whyyy all these problems...

watched advent children complete... omnislash v6 hu hu hu
ran out of net quota... so went library at 10pm... on a sunday somemore... FULL HOUSE omgz

abuse

2009-04-17T01:56:00.004+08:00

lots of new scratches to camera, sad to see textured coating being smoothed to reveal metal frame
'waking up' from sleep mode very unpredictable
autofocus not focusing consistently
lens mount loose resulting in poor lens-camera communication
shutter button not responding, not firing shots, required battery removal hard reset
pop-up flash mechanism jammed, requires several tries to pop-up
error 99 during exposure braketing, resulting in:

wtf?

by right it should look like this:

vampire

2009-03-30T11:24:00.000+08:00

biological clock is malaysian, swt

snow

2009-02-05T09:37:00.002+08:00

this is what happens when lens is not weather sealed and it is used under heavy snow . . .

internal coalescence of water particles causes autofocus to hunt and pictures to 'glow'. cheap and painful way to fake a 135mm soft-focus (coincidentally, ~85mm with 1.6x)

nabla

2009-01-22T09:17:00.002+08:00

this is imperial college central library

lesson learnt - not always good idea to use all features on camera, i.e. highlight tone priority

do work damnit...

no mood

2009-01-21T08:54:00.002+08:00

this is Imperial College's Queen's Lawn + Tower - conspiracy picture - clear blue London skies ?!?

of all times to go Italy/Spain, must go when weather is 20 year freak cold weather record of -4 deg. Return to London seeking some warmth only to arrive at -8 deg, another record... and then 8 deg the next day. Super non-steady-state many many nth order dynamical system with chaotic feedback characteristics...

Some lessons learnt from travelling:

no such thing as enough money
food is expensive
accomodation expensive
bus expensive
train expensive
travelling is expensive
sleeping in airport is not fun
sleeping on plane means missing alot of shots out of the window
babies love zhen
italians and spaniards have dogs as accessories
cold weather likes us
10mm gives license to be bastard (stand in front of tourist, block all, but can still take entire shot with some space to spare - power of ultra wide angle)
no such thing as enough memory space
no such thing as too many batteries
no such thing as no need weather sealing
5D Mark II's screen is very nice
no such thing as warm enough
no such thing as enough dry socks
snow is very very very very very B A D for camera
it is a small world...

coke

2009-01-13T06:54:00.001+08:00

on boxing day last year, alot of cheap stuff, so bought some clothes, much needed white socks especially...

ONLY TO HAV THEM KENA COCACOLA AND BECOME BROWN...

Christmas came early

2008-12-25T11:06:00.004+08:00

wake up go to mailbox find parcel notification, get parcel from security office - security guard said parcel just came and i v fast go collect...

so light... a bomb?

omg iz foam padding and lens soft case

iz massive 84mm lens hood and 77mm HOYA pro1 dmc uv...

massive non-circular hood on surprisingly light body...

big distortion at 10mm

1cm next to mirror but can still see everything... ultra wideangle!

...

xmas eve - go to mailbox again - no parcel notification sad. met security guard, was asked any plans for xmas - no plans, sad. was looking for parcel - guard said some parcels came, so go to office. said got 2 parcels for my name. expect one big one small but gave 2 small ones, shucks... then said there might be a big one - brought out a flat one (omgz my parcel deflated?) - but wrong parcel - finally found correct big huge parcel - yayz

lots of packaging

unpackage

unboxing

fit gear

2x 4Gb for all the shots that count - go RAW, no compromise on quality

...

toobad 10-22mm just rental. so trusting. will rent more to try next time...
deliveries just in time for travel, given xmas everything no open

peppercorn

2008-11-28T06:35:00.001+08:00

doesnt go well in cream sauce...

siao bai

2008-11-25T06:38:00.002+08:00

EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

only £1299.99
(comes with free model?)

keep calling london eye big ben

2008-11-19T06:51:00.001+08:00

drama drama...

australia skies too clear no clouds uninteresting, malaysia hazy skies poor saturation, london skies too many clouds, so theres potential for dramatic skies, but most of the time theres so much that its homogeneously cloudy, therefore no more dramatic skies

i wan GND

old london tour

2008-11-16T11:57:00.002+08:00

(click big pano)
tower of london... looks like castle, not tower

free tour, good skies, but tourguide historian...

...

note to self - 2 batch raw conversion processes simultaneously takes more time than performing one batch after another... probably more threads in former case

notting hill

2008-11-16T11:52:00.004+08:00

i dun understand why wrist watch is not worn on wrist... and i also just found out its called a wristwatch...

nottinghill mini town, not as urban stress as london, lots of misc random stuff
every small town/pasar like this will have crepe shop

...

and sylar is new spock

bri ish museum

2008-11-16T11:49:00.002+08:00

stone woman

all sorts of museums also got,
natural history museum
science museum
national gallery
victoria & albert gallery
national portrait gallery
etc.

some free, some not
some big, some small

some picture allowed, some banned

very difficult to cut reflection off display surfaces due to multidirectional light sources

...

canary wharf...

2008-11-16T11:41:00.003+08:00

... and polarizer

... and security guard

... and slr

cannot go together wtf.

surprisingly clear day (in september)

normal point and shoot camera, its okay to take pictures, but big pro cam cannot.
apparently at every minute you appear on 200 cameras in london, so if cctv see and suspect taking pics for commercial purposes, then kena arrest swt.

i signed form inside museum to say wont post pics up etc etc then get sticker to show my cam got lesen... swt

normal camera no problem can use anywhere... but in museum/indoors, i need clean ISOs achievable only by large sensors, so need slr cant help it...

...

Crispy Aromatic Duck

2008-11-14T08:26:00.002+08:00

... and its variants - been eating it one too many times.

food around south kensington campus is between 6-8 pounds, small serving size, for dinner can be up to 15 pounds, even smaller size... so therefore = expensive
(but high class area, high class restaurant to expected)
(apparently starbucks is higher class compared to elsewhere too but have yet to disprove)

food in chinatown is around 5-6 a plate, for dinner 10 per person so therefore = more reasonable
(biased to oriental food anyways...)

go all the way to greenwich, or birmingham, or nottingham, or super faraway suburbs... dinner can be as cheap as 2.80 pounds so can throw in drinks for satisfying meal = cheap(er)

...

hungry

Greenwich

2008-11-03T00:00:00.003+08:00

...is pronounced gre nich...

market is a mix of cultures - artistry and food from many countries, but expensive, but since tourist, suddenly feel hungry and need to eat regardless - HDR panorama selling for 300 pounds wtf.
there was this woman who painted v cool ninja/samurai pictures - keep staring at me just incase i take pix - intellectual property

meridian line is just a line... no big deal actually...

autumn colours + blue skies complete the spectrum.

big black thing

2008-11-02T12:28:00.002+08:00

bored one day so went to hyde park, big big park... must control trigger when in foreign land as theres this tendency to snap away and not move from the same spot.

fallen leaves at hyde park

canary wharf buildings with CPL

kena sound by security guard for having big camera. wtf. at Oxford, kena sound RUDELY for having tripod. wtf. next time 70-200mm also got problem?

lens = scope
flash = flashbang
10fps = machinegun
battery/memory = ammo

like soldier

journey planner

2008-11-02T12:22:00.003+08:00

in a matter of time, figured out how bus stops work. how tube stops work.

BS = bus stop? coincidental.

bus stops are identified by letters. but finding them is difficult when its dark, or when the bus stop just isnt there... after finding them usually the timing's very good - the bus wouldhv just left... BS... swt

so take underground tube - but $

...

currently averaging 90 pix a day. hope to reach 20k marker by end of year ? spam.

i want quadcore, 16Gb ram, tripple sli, terrabytes, 23", CS4

elephant & castle

2008-11-02T12:06:00.003+08:00

thats the wackiest tube station name evarrr
is there double meaning for elephant ?

...

i am allergic to certain toxins. shivers run when allergy strikes. ive never been allergic before so its cool.

mornings are lazy. afternoons are busy. nights are just sad - why?
take pix, edit pix till sleep. damn sad.

nisen bokeh from howe's window.
i want larger apertures... and higher sensitivities

walking at night in an unfamiliar place is scary.
elephant & castle is in the south. ppl from the north all say its a scary place. so far nothing scary happened. so far so good. lucky me.

living faraway from uni is inconvenient, laziness doesnt help

...

accent is like mountain ^

lon gahhh
bet tahhh
fas tahhh

...

everything $ has to be x2 and then x3...

...

frozen garlic butter looks good. unhealthy but i dont care (for now).

...

public bathrooms are rare.
at 3am, it feels like 12am, feels like 10pm, feels like 8 pm...

clubbing is not fun without friends. drinks are expensive. and atmosphere can actually be dead.

...

a ball isnt dressup and dinner. its rave disco dj drinks.

...

1st year scandals tsk tsk tsk like tv drama series

...

hardcore ppl should try softcore sometimes.

...

pepsi tastes different, coke too. water also.

long time no update

2008-11-02T11:43:00.004+08:00

in London
.

cold.wet.grey.different.

arrived 2 (6 actually) weeks too early. classes start too late. free to explore. but exploring is tiring. but weather was sunny. rare.

admin didnt know i actually exist. my existance was questionable. wtf.

banking is weird. telephone too, maybe.
having an address is too important - why?

Kensington Gore St.
(click for bigger picture)
many buildings have this same look. red bricks, white windows. many stories, narrow units, curved along road. luxury cars. jet planes in sky. cross at your own risk

...

orientation starts in week 1, not week 0. classes start in week 2. timetables evolve weekly. free health checkups - but waiting in rain for 3 hours isnt healthy.

theory - during orientation when no body knows anybody, groups of cliques are formed within first 10 mins of introductions etc., usually.

every event costs $. and no drinks included, they cost additional $. JD coke, snakebite, vodkalemonade, vodkaredbull, jagermeistercrap, tequilashots, smirnoffdoubleblackice. alcohol doesnt work anymore...

freshers like being with freshers.

im not a fresher and im a fresher - complicated freshness.

party just for the sake of partying sometimes.

...

takes alot of effort to be mature.
takes even more to deal with the immature.

...

being stupid is pathetic, damn. but thats just the way it is.

testing

2008-10-08T08:44:00.001+08:00

testing

damn geek la

2008-10-05T09:06:00.001+08:00

...

bz

if my camera was a girl...

2008-10-04T05:28:00.003+08:00

...today she got raped by many lenses, haha twisted!

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM
Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8 XR Di
Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 XR Di II (twice)

waiting for big daddy EF 85mm f/1.2L USM and long daddy EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM

...

poisoned

misc stuff to get, eventually:
remote control for camera
grey card
graduated neutral density filter
warm polariser
infra red filter
memory card wallet
lensbaby
battery grip

price range

2008-09-16T17:14:00.003+08:00

in preparation for landscape shots, besides technique (hyperfocal distance, composition etc.) and processing (panorama, high dynamic range, colours, curves, sharpening etc.), gear needs some pimping too, particularly to reduce sun flare from stray lightrays, prevent external physical contact with glass surface (scratches, smudges, dirt) and as sacrificial shock absorber in the event of head-on collision...

pimp-er

1 Utama, KLCC, Piramid, Ampang Park, Lowyat, Sungei Wang, Curve, Amcorp, SS2

RM 200 no stock
RM 188 no stock
RM 180 no stock
RM 160 no stock
RM 150 (1 left)
RM 149 no stock
RM 145 no stock
RM 140 no stock
RM 131 (online)
RM 129 no stock
RM 125 no stock
RM 119 (import)
RM 110 (2 left)
.
.
.
RM 105 (after bargain)

cheapskate or shop untung

original lens hood has internal black flannel lining to minimise black plastic surface reflections

3rd party < RM 25
3rd party has 'for Canon' wording which is not Canon enough...

excuses...

endoscopy

2008-09-16T02:04:00.002+08:00

nasal kind

can see own throat's swallowing mechanism

...

swt

blood sweat tears

2008-09-14T20:23:00.006+08:00

walk for hours finding shop with best price, then no stock, returned later to purchase, while opening to test if it works, cut my hand deeply with blade, blooddddd
6cm long, about 2mm wide, 0.5mm deep... calculate volume of 'displaced' flesh

now dun dare use...

SanDisk Extreme III Compact Flash 8 Gb... high speed shootinggggg

makan nandos

the ketchup got stuck in the bottle, dunno wat thixotropic/rheopectic fluid

KLCC v scared hold camera over railing

corrected distortion (so that the pillars at the corners dont look curved, straight nicer)

Black and white HDR KLCC

the wire they used to hang lights spoil nia, need to photoshop it out

KLIA at night, tru the window... long exposure, can see the klia train punye trail lights

i wonder why, 5 bladed aperture produces 10 rays for those faraway light sources... 6 bladed aperture should produce 12 then, however in this case i only get 6 thick rays... maybe the 12 got paired up into 6... not niceeee - i want sparkly sparkly

almost full moon

clarity, fill light and recovery adjustments in lightroom managed to bring back more details on the moon's surface - if only i had a telescope then can see even closer to the surface

panorama of midvalley (made up of 6 vertical shots)

(click for full view)

no polariser used, but i still want blue skies... so hv to edit sampai nice nice
used hyperfocal distance
budden in my attempts to make things all sharp sharp - i set too small aperture and ended up blurring things slightly due to diffraction...

all processed via lightroom, some see see like totally fake compared to originals

back from hospital

2008-09-07T13:17:00.002+08:00

send for repairs on tues,
back on wed,
RM15 pretty okay

shutter button erratic after ~4000 shots (so far ~8000 shutter count already) - lots of missed shots, hopefully nvr to be missed again