Technological ups and downs

Today is a good and bad day.

Good - My camera finally arrived. It is SWEEEEET. I can't wait to field test it. It's charging right now in its cradle. YIPPEEEEEE!!!!!

Bad - My iPAQ ran out of battery and I lost all my data. On the bright side, I do have a backup and most of my data is stored on my CF card, so I don't think I lost all that much. I'm charging it now and I'll worry about my data retrieval tomorrow. Bummer. :(

In love with Anna

She's soooooo... human! How can you not love her?



Images linked from Anna's websit (annanalick.com).

On a side note, I gotta blog this down before I forget...

On the night of the concert:
Carrie: What would you say to Anna if you ran into her at a bar?
Me: Erm... I don't know

Later, I figured out the answer. I never got to tell her, but I should probably write this down. Who knows? It could happen...

What would I say? I'd ask if she can cook...

Giving thanks

Where to start...?

God, thank you for making this wonderful crazy messy world that I live in. And especially for carrying us through the challenges we've faced.

Mum and Dad, thank you for everything you've done for me, and everything else that I forget to mention. Don't even know where to start... Setting me on a good path, encouraging me, kicking my ass... Lots more... Dunno where to start...

Jo, we never see eye to eye, and I still think you're a pain in the ass sometimes, but I love you.

Ah Ma, thank you for everything you did for me. I realize that I will probably never know you any better than I do now. It's funny (and sad) how you only miss what you've lost...

Alwyn... Hey man, you're the brother I never had, and I'll always love you.

Ye Lin, thank you for taking care of me and being a great older sister to me. I'll never forget that one afternoon in school where you solved that math problem and that pissed me off so much that I decided to get good at math...

Yee Chuan and Tien, you guys were rocking roomies! Thanks for all the growing up lessons you taught me. A lot of what I am now is due to your direct influence.

Juli, thanks for some beautiful memories. You'll always be someone who has a very special place in my heart.

Marcia, for baking brownies while the rest of us watched TV. YUM YUM!

Bruce, you're still a dick for being so damn logical and bringing me back down to earth when I start going too crazy :)

Jayles for being the greatest manager a guy could ever ask for!

Shantharam for making me excited about ClearCase

Evan for his entrepreneurial spirit and unflagging enthusiasm for making money

Paul, thanks for all those Starbucks runs in the afternoon! I'll definitely miss that!

Amy, I wouldn't have gotten rid of Crazy Tina without you!

Lance, Grant, Garrison, Dan and the rest of the PU101 crew as well as all my classmates in AOA and AOR, you guys breathed new life into me!

Stacey Gartland, without whose help, I'd find myself without a green card

Hung Chi Ching and Lee Kwong Peng, for showing me how to really love tae kwondo

Jeremy Lim for teaching me how to play killer chess

And to everyone else whose lives have touched mine and left their mark, and whose names I have forgotten to mention, the person I am today is because of you. Thank you!

Live performances

I just realized that my life lately has involved quite a few live performances.

Seen recently...
Wicked the Musical (Sep 2005)
Gwen Stefani - Black Eyed Peas opening (Oct 2005)
Rob Thomas - Anna Nalick opening (Nov 2005)

Seeing soon...
Rocky Horror Picture Show (Dec 2005)
Lestat (Dec 2005)
Coldplay (Feb 2006)
Aerosmith (Feb 2006)
Bon Jovi (Feb 2006)

Anna Nalick opening for Rob Thomas

OMG, it was an absolutely fantastic concert! Anna had a very simple, unelaborate opening set - just her and her band of 3. But she absolutely rocked. She was incredibly genuine and real. She laughed on stage. Not a rehearsed laugh, but a genuine laughter like she was enjoying performing.

Midway through one song, she saw something, and her voice broke slightly as she tried to stifle a laugh. After she finished the song, she walked to one of the guys sitting in the front row and said, "Your t-shirt made me laugh". Then she turned to the audience and said "He's wearing somethign which reads Ronny Rocks. That's Ronny" and pointed to her drummer. Then she continued joking around saying, "Yeah, Ronny really rocks. Anna, she's just ok".

After another song, she turned to a lady sitting in the front row and said "I noticed you had your cellphone out the whole time". The lady said something, then walked up to Anna and gave her the phone. Anna laughed and started talking to the person on the other end who was apparently a big fan but couldn't attend the concert.

She talked for a bit, then said "Actually, I'm in the middle of something right now, I gotta go. Oh wait, say hi to everyone here". Then she held the mike to the phone, and you could hear a very excited young girl say "Hiiiii!".

At the end of her act, Anna gave a few curtsies and then pranced off the stage. Her whole act was so spontaneous and real that it really gave me a warm tingly feeling.

Rob was... Well, he was good, but he didn't have anywhere the same connection with the audience. And anyway, I'm not a big Rob fan... Carrie liked him. But she's ready to jump him and drag him away in her car.

Dissatisfied with Blogger

My wish list...

Have a "next post" and "previous post" link functionality natively supported instead of having to code it myself

Ability to skin the comments page

Post categories

Password protected blogs or individual entries

what else...?

I'm looking at WordPress right now. Will install it on slashview and eval.

Death swirling around

This is a weird weekend. Death has been lurking in the background, just out of sight, but right there, hovering, waiting...

On Saturday, I went to buy some kebabs for Cliff's housewarming party. While the lady was making the kebabs, she got a phone call. She listened for a few seconds, slammed the phone down, and shouted at her assistant "Close up! Now!". She buried her face in her hands and was moaning "Oh no oh no oh no". I asked her what's wrong. She lifted her face. There were tears running down her face, and she said "My father's in hospital. He is dying".

It felt like a stone just dropped on me. And this wasn't even my own dad. I can only imagine how she felt. Actually, I know how she felt cos I've been there (kinda). She wrapped up my kebabs, I helped her carry the tables into the store and get the store ready for closing, and then I took off... I wonder how she's doing. I should go drop by and visit her.

On Monday, I called Katy to remind her to ask her boss if she can leave early on Tuesday for the Rolling Stones concert. (Side note - I had AWESOME lower box front row seats, but decided to sell them...) She told me her grandpa had just passed away on Sunday and she was up in Sacramento and she was real sorry she forgot to call me with everything that was going on. She seemed ok, a little depressed, but I think she's going to feel worse once all the funeral prep work is done, and she has time to stop and think and start feeling the loss.

Then today (Tuesday), Rachel calls me to tell me that karaoke is off because her friend's grandfather (or something) passed away on Monday...

Over the last few days, three people that are somewhat connected to me have been visited by Death. Somewhere in there, there's a message to be heard. Treasure your life on earth? Treasure those around you? Death is always only one shadow away?

Final side note... Joe told me that WWE pro wrestler Eddie Guerrero also passed away on Sunday, but I don't think that really counts.

New Camera - And the winner is...

Introducing my new camera... The Casio EX-Z750 fully equipped with a 2GB high speed SD card. I just placed the order a few hours ago, so my new toys should be here in a week or so. Can't wait...

Injury du jour

How the heck did I hurt my wrist? It's like I sprained it, but I don't remember spraining anything?! And it's not a bruise from TKD cos... well, it's just not a bruise. I know what a bruise looks like. Well, I suppose it could be a bruised muscle or tendon or something. Ah heck, I'll survive...

New Camera - The Hunt Continues

Best deal for the EX-Z750 seems to be from Abes of Maine at about $340 including shipping/tax. Comparatively, the SD550 is going for $375 at Beach Camera

On eBay, I can get a 2GB super duper high speed 150x SD card for around $130+ and a spare battery + travel charger kit will probably run me another $30 or so.

Total cost = $340+130+30 = $500

The EX-Z750 is carving out quite a lead... It's got better features and it's cheaper! Canon's 2 biggest advantages are 1) I'm used to Canons and 2) they have a super cool 640x480 60fps movie mode (cool but probably not too useful for me).

New camera?

It's pretty much official... My A70 is on the verge of dying. It can't even take a proper picture. Instead, you get really weird purplish hazes across the picture. I can't even describe what it looks like. Needless to say, it's time to get a new camera... This little fella has served me very very well for the last few years. We've shared some awesome times and taken some cool photos, and I'll be more than a little sad to see it go.

So what's next? I'm thinking, I want something small and slim that I can stick in my pocket, and yet have the capability of doing long exposures (for night shoots). My top choices right now are

Canon SD550/SD500

Casio EX-Z750

A slight edge goes to the EX-Z750 because as dpreview.com puts it,

In fact I'm going to stick my neck out here and - even with the underpowered flash - put my money on the Casio EX-Z750 as the best ultra-compact 7 megapixel on the market today for the serious photographer

DCRP also throws in their 0.02...

A lot of people are trying to choose between the Z750 and the Canon SD500, and here are some things to consider. For an easy point-and-shoot camera that takes great pictures right out of the box, the SD500 is probably the best choice. If you want manual controls and the ability to tweak camera settings, choose the Z750. For low light shooting I preferred the SD500 due to its LCD that "gains up" in those conditions. The SD500 had a more powerful flash as well, though the Z750's Flash Assist feature makes up for its weaker flash. If battery life is paramount then the Z750 wins by a large margin. In terms of continuous shooting performance the SD500 wins easily, though it has no "fast shutter speed" or shutter priority mode like the Z750 does. Regardless of which of the two cameras you end up with, both are good choices.

So I guess it boils down to what do I want in my next digital camera? Offhand, these criteria come to mind:

Ability to set flash, aperture + shutter speed manually (winner: Casio)

Good image quality (winner by a small margin: Canon)

Good battery life (winner: Casio)

Ultra compact form factor (draw)

Time-unlimited movie (winner: Canon)

Which will I pick? Casio is edging Canon at the moment, but I don't know for sure yet... :)

Another one bites the dust

YC is getting married in April. A little of a surprise, but that's just awesome for him! A little of a pity cos I'm gonna lose another single guy friend, but I guess that comes with the territory...

Definitely gotta go back to hang out with him, attend the wedding, and just generally have a great time. Hmm... Wonder where to stay?! Grew up there but now don't even have a roof over my head unless I get a hotel or crash at someone's place.

Sore butt

Last night's training was concentrated almost exclusively on using the back thrust kick. I was doing back thrusts, jumping back thrusts, double jumping back thrusts, turning kick back thrust jumping back thrust combo etc. I don't think I've ever done so many back thrust kicks in my whole life combined!

This morning, I woke up and my butt muscles (gluteus maximus) were sore and aching.

Sad state of humanity

I sent out an email to ten people. I basically said, it was nice partying with you guys on Halloween, and here are the photos I took that night. Only ONE PERSON took the effort to send a thank you reply.

It's a sad state of affairs when people don't take the time/effort to extend a simple courtesy.

Oh, and I know everyone got the email because traffic to that particular web page jumped shortly after I sent out the email...