Teru's Blog

Long time

2011-06-08T23:36:00.001+08:00

Been a long time since my last entry here. I've been using Facebook so anyone interested in getting my updates can add me (my Netvigator account).

Night and Day

2010-09-03T23:26:00.003+08:00

"What a difference a day makes"

Words to live by.

A couple weeks ago, I took the photo below while on the ride home. I was just shooting randomly and fooling around with slow shutter speeds. I got a little creeped out when I got home and saw the ghostly face in the upper right corner:

Here's the same location, shot in daylight.

Like they say, it's all a matter perspective.

Fortunate mistake

2010-08-07T22:07:00.001+08:00

The camera chose the wrong exposure setting, but I like the way it turned out.

Shift is Sh!t with an F

2010-08-06T13:28:00.003+08:00

My unit has been assigned shift duty to run the Command Center. The photo above is the world as seen through the eyes of someone going home at 3:30 in the morning...

On a day like this, getting sun burned is worth it

2010-07-25T00:25:00.003+08:00

3 days of rain, and then this morning...

Days like this don't come often. How could I forgive myself if I didn't make good use of it? 90 minutes under the sun, my shoulders are all red now, but it was worth it.

Again, who wouldn't cherish a day like this?

Shanghai 2010

2010-07-01T21:47:00.003+08:00

It's been 8 years since my last visit to Shanghai. Seeing how this year's World Expo is being held there, I figured now would be the ideal time to visit.

More photos in my album: http://www.fotop.net/teruphoto/Shanghai_2010

Before going to the Expo, I revisited the Time Tunnel:

Some highlights from the Expo:

A parting shot from the air:

112 min

2010-06-01T21:10:00.002+08:00

That's the amount of time it took to get to work this morning. The running time of "Up" is 96 min. I could have watched the entire movie from start to finish - end credits included - and still have time for a 16 minute nap.

To provide a frame of reference on the actual distance and time, the fastest I've traveled from home to work is 48 min (Sunday morning, no traffic).

Can it still be called rush hour if every vehicle is standing still?

Slaves to Post Processing

2010-05-23T17:52:00.004+08:00

When did photography become about spending more time with your hands on a mouse rather than a camera?

Post processing is not a new concept. From the colorizing of prints to cross processing to dodging and burning; adding effects to a photo after the fact is something that photographers have been doing for decades. The advent of digital photography simply made this process more accessible by eliminating the need for a lab or darkroom. While it can't be argued that post processing can be a very effective way to enhance one's photographic experience, somewhere along the way so many of us lost sight of what we were doing. Suddenly, "Photoshopping" became a priority rather than an optional tool.

How many times have you heard or spoken the words "I'm shooting in RAW so I'll fix it later"? RAW is an invaluable tool that allows us to correct and recover from mistakes made during shooting, but to use RAW as the foundation of your workflow seems to be such a waste of time (time that could be better spent shooting more photos). To me, RAW is like the lifejacket beneath your seat on a plane; it's good to know that it's there but it's something you shouldn't have to use unless it's unavoidable.

Most cameras have an array of settings that allow you to apply all sorts of effects the moment you shoot a photo. White balance, color saturation, contrast, exposure control; various combinations of these settings can produce a wide range of interesting effects. I think the problem that many people have is they don't think about how they want a photo to turn out until after it's been taken and they're sitting in front of a computer. To me, there's no greater satisfaction than pressing the shutter button and then seeing that your photo came out exactly the way you wanted it to. That should be the convenience of digital photography; to see the moment you take the photo whether or not you got what you want. Sure, you could shoot something and fix it later in post processing, but nothing beats getting it right the first time.

Maybe I'm lazy, but the thought of spending a large amount of time fixing all my photos after I take them makes photography come dangerously close to becoming a chore rather than a joy (the fact that digital compells some people to shoot hundreds of photos is a topic for another day). So in the coming days, my goal will be to get as much done in-camera as possible so that my time can be better spent doing what I love, rather than slaving away on things that shouldn't have needed fixing.

I love old songs

2010-04-28T22:13:00.002+08:00

When I was young, I'd listen to the radio
Waiting for my favorite song.
When it played, I'd sing a long
It made me smile.

"Yesterday Once More", The Carpenters

I love listening to old songs. Digging up old favorites that I haven't listened to in years is definitely time well spent.

Not all songs stand up to the test of time but the good ones, they really blow me away. Songs can trigger fond/ludicrous memories from highschool that bring a smile to my face, put me into a thoughtful silence or move me to tears.

I love it when I listen to the lyrics and see them in an entirely different light. For whatever reason, either from experiences or a change in thinking, sometimes it feels like the lyrics were ripped from my very soul.

Some things don't get older, only better.

Potty humor

2010-04-17T23:46:00.001+08:00

I normally don't like chain e-mails, but this one contained some pretty good shit

***
A turkey was chatting with a bull.

"I'd love to be able to get to the top of that tree" sighed the turkey, "but I haven’t got the energy."

"Well, why don’t you nibble on some of my droppings?" replied the bull. "They’re packed with nutrients."

The turkey pecked at a lump of dung, and found it actually gave him enough strength to reach the lowest branch of the tree. The next day, after eating some more dung, he reached the second branch. Finally after a fourth night, the turkey was proudly perched at the top of the tree. He was promptly spotted by a farmer, who shot him out of the tree.

The moral of the story: Bullshit might get you to the top, but it won’t help you stay there.

***
A bird was flying south for the winter. It was so cold that the bird froze and fell to the ground into a large field. While he was lying there, a cow came by and dropped some dung on him. As the frozen bird lay there in the pile of cow dung, he began to realize how warm he was. The dung was actually thawing him out. He lay there all warm and happy, and soon began to sing for joy. A passing cat heard the bird singing and came to investigate. Following the sound, the cat discovered the bird, promptly dug him out and ate him.

The moral of the story: Not everyone who shits on you is your enemy, not everyone who gets you out of shit is your friend, and when you’re in deep shit, it’s best to keep your mouth shut.

Boys with Toys

2010-04-11T13:35:00.002+08:00

There's an exhibition at Cityplaza featuring the 1:1 model collection of Louis Koo (古天樂). It's nice to know a cool guy like him is still so much of a child at heart.

Full collection at http://www.fotop.net/teruphoto/Louis_Koo_Collection

The George Clooney Batman, complete with Bat-nipples!

Yoda, in full Bad-Ass mode

This model is so cool. I love how it features Spidey and his main baddies (Green Goblin, Venom, Doc Oc, Sandman and Scorpion). Yes, I'm a total geek...

Chime Long Safari Park

2010-04-06T23:36:00.002+08:00

Spent the weekend in Chime Long, China. Photos can be found in my fotop album ( http://www.fotop.net/teruphoto/Chime_Long ) but here are 2 pics that make me glad that I brought my hefty D700 + 70-200mm f/2.8 combo. I've been itching to pick up an Oly E-PL1 as a light weight solution for travel, but I doubt any micro 4/3 system could have reacted quickly enough to grab these 2 shots from a moving bus.

2 heads are better than 1

But 3-of-a-kind trumps a pair

Earth Day 2010

2010-03-27T22:19:00.002+08:00

Lights off at 20:30. Yeah, I cheated a little by watching TV, but it's an LCD and I had the brightness tuned down to it's lowest setting.

Young at heart?

2010-03-18T23:50:00.002+08:00

Some birthday wisdom: growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional. With that in mind, I decided to pay a visit to HK Disneyland. It's been open for over 4 years but I never got around to visiting.

All in all, a fun time. I'll probably write more later, but here are some pics in the meantime.

1:58:34

2010-02-28T21:57:00.002+08:00

The alarm goes off. It's dark. The sun won't be up for another 2 hours but you're already eating breakfast. Is it worth it?

HELL YEAH!

The number of people this year was insane! It took me 6 minutes after the sounding of the Go siren before I even reached the starting line. The first 3km was basically a relaxed jog (except for the fact that everyone was elbow to sweaty elbow). Didn't get the results I wanted (1:58...9 minutes slower than last year) but at least I came in at under 2hrs.

You know, you can tell a lot about a person by the way they run in the marathon. For example, I saw Half Marathon people walking at the 3km mark. 3km...really?! How do you expect to finish a 21km race when you can't even make it past the 3km mark? And then there are those who keep cutting and pushing through the crowd. There are a couple hundred people in front of you; how far are you going to get?

Kenya won again. These winners are amazing; they run for 42km at speeds faster than 80% of the 10km runners. Respect!

Later in the day, I was on a bus to Central. It was funny feeling looking at all the traffic, knowing that just a couple of hours ago I was running down the same road.

Going through the motions

2010-02-14T23:39:00.003+08:00

Today was the first day of the Lunar New Year. As always, in between all the rush of the day's activities, I found myself thinking about the meaning of the festival.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Chinese traditions, the first and second days of Lunar New Year are usually spent visiting familiy and relatives. We bring gifts of fruits and confections and the elder and/or married relatives give red lucky money packets ("lai see") to the younger generation. During these 2 days, we usually see a lot of relatives that we don't see that often.

And therein lies my quandary.

I guess one's views on visiting depends on whether you're a glass is half empty/half full type of person. One view is that because we don't see these relatives that frequently, visiting on Lunar New Year is all the more important otherwise we'd lose all contact. And on the flip side, some would argue that since we don't see these relatives that much anyways, there's not much point in visiting at all.

Being the pragmatist that I am, I fall into the 2nd category. If the reason you don't see these relatives that often is because of geography (i.e. you require a plane ticket to visit them), then I can understand the desire to see them once in a while to catch up. But if you live in the same city and you still only see them once a year, chances are you don't place much value in keeping contact, and going through the motions to see them seem insincere and superficial. Visiting someone because "it's traditional" is hardly a good reason. If you really thought of them as family, you wouldn't need an offcial holiday as a reason to see them more often.

Probably not a very popular point of view (especially on a day like today) but frankly, sitting around for an hour and making small talk while trying to avoid awkward silences is not my idea of making connections.

The Blue Contagion?

2010-02-07T22:20:00.002+08:00

Is it just me, or does the success of "Avatar" baffle anyone else?

Yes, it was an entertaining movie but I can't wrap my mind around all the accolades that this film has been getting. To me, "Avatar" is like a ride at an amusement park; it's enjoyable while you're on it but the experience soon fades after you leave the park.

Sure, it was nominated for 9 Oscars, but 5 of those are for technical accomplishments and none of them are for Acting or Writing. Which makes sense because the story basically follows the same formula as "Dances with Wolves" and "The Last Samurai". And even though "Avatar" was a leap forward in terms of movie making, from an audience's point of view it's nothing that we haven't already seen in "Beowulf" or "Up".

Again, I'm not saying that the movie was bad. But I definitely fall into the confused minority who can't figure out what the commotion is all about.

1:55:26

2010-01-24T18:14:00.002+08:00

I ran my first Half Marathon rehearsal today (21k). Not too bad for my first full run, but a lot slower than last year's 1:49. Gonna have to put in a lot more effort before the Feb 28 deadline.

Pro-Democracy...when convenient

2010-01-16T23:11:00.003+08:00

It's funny how self delusional people can be.

Just now I was watching the news report on the high speed railway project that's been in the headlines lately. I'm not going to comment on the decision of the government to pass the law but I'd like to point out the irony of all these so-called pro-democracy advocates.

Why is it that they only champion democracy when it's in their favor? The cardinal rule of democracy is "majority wins". All polls indicate that a majority of Hong Kong is in favor of this railway project. So why is it that all the usually outspoken pro-democrats are not strangly fighting against the decision of the majority? You can't champion the democratic cause one day and cry unfair the next when you're in the minority.

And I'm not even going to start about the organizer's claim of "police brutality" against a "peaceful demonstration". Ironic, considering that this speech was made at the same time that a group of protesters were ramming themselves against police barriers.

Their final message: democracy is to be upheld only when it's in one's favor.

2010.01.01

2010-01-01T12:08:00.002+08:00

The start of a new year, the dawn of a new decade. A time to let go of yesterday and look towards tomorrow. Here's to fresh starts and happy discoveries!

Fusion

2009-10-03T23:46:00.002+08:00

Maybe there's something about Mid-Autumn Festival taking place in the same month as Halloween...I kinda like the creepy feel of this photo of the Lantern Festival. If you look closely, you can almost make out the phatom faces...

Preview

2009-10-02T00:02:00.003+08:00

Just got back from my trip to Budapest/Vienna/Ceske Budajovice/Prague. Too busy catching up with work and stuff. Here's a quick preview (it's a pano so you need to click on the image to see the entire photo).

Happy 60th

2009-10-01T23:58:00.002+08:00

Today marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

I was having dinner in CWB tonight and happened to catch the big fireworks show afterwards.

When did that happen?

2009-09-14T22:43:00.002+08:00

So I woke up this morning and heard on the news that there was a chance of typhoon Koppu becoming signal 8. Instead of looking forward to a day off, the first thought that popped in my mind was "Oh crap...I have a joint unit test with our partner bank in Japan tomorrow. PLEASE don't let this typhoon mess up our timeline"

I actually wished against a free day off?! When did I become the worrying manager...?

I love my new Pany

2009-09-06T23:48:00.005+08:00

This is the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ7 (called DMC-ZS3 in the US) . It's a fantastic little compact DC with a 25-300mm lens (with image stabilization) and 720p HD movie recording. What more could you want? It's focal length covers pretty much anything you'd encounter inside and out and it lets you take decent looking HD movies (naturally, it can't compete with an actual camcorder but it still does a good job at casual shoots).

The 300mm is a life saver for shooting photos and videos during wakeboarding. My old Ixy 910IS only went up to 105mm, so after cropping I was left with a tiny image. The Pany's 300mm is more than enough (I find myself shooting at 200mm) to allow for large photos even after cropping. And best of all, it has a Hi-Speed Burst mode, that lets me shoot at 6fps (caveat: the camera limits max resolution to 3MP). This feature makes capturing the right moment a heck of a lot easier than before:

Naturally, it still takes some practice to time it right. Shooting a moving target from a bumpy boat is no easy task. Using burst mode, my friend and I fired off over 700 shots and a majority of them looked like this (that splash you see on the left is me making a landing):

Still, with 700 photos, the odds were in favor of getting a couple of good shots. Amazingly, my wake buddy was able to capture shots of me smiling. That's right: Me...Smiling. People who know me know I generally default to a blank expression. And whenever I wakeboard, I always have a scowl on my face and clenched jaws. So I must have been giddy from all the jumping I did because I was smiling in a couple of photos.

Ah, here we go. Back to Mr. Pouty McScowlington

BTW. I put up a quick and easy review of the Pany on my fotop site: http://www.fotop.net/teruphoto/Panasonic_DMC_TZ7

I've only had the camera for a week but I look forward to getting more acquainted to it.

Uplifting

2009-09-03T23:21:00.002+08:00

If your eyes don't water up after hearing this story, there's something very wrong with you.

Source: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/pixar-up-movie-2468059-home-show

HUNTINGTON BEACH Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old with a rare form of cancer, was staying alive for one thing a movie.

From the minute Colby saw the previews to the Disney-Pixar movie Up, she was desperate to see it. Colby had been diagnosed with vascular cancer about three years ago, said her mother, Lisa Curtin, and at the beginning of this month it became apparent that she would die soon and was too ill to be moved to a theater to see the film.

On April 28, Colby went to see the Dream Works 3-D movie "Monsters Vs. Aliens" but was impressed by the previews to "Up."

It was from then on, she said, I have to see that movie. It is so cool, Lynch said.

Two days later Colbys health began to worsen. On June 4 her mother asked a hospice company to bring a wheelchair for Colby so she could visit a theater to see "Up." However, the weekend went by and the wheelchair was not delivered, Lisa Curtin said.

By June 9, Colby could no longer be transported to a theater and her family feared she would die without having seen the movie.

At that point, Orum-Moore, who desperately wanted Colby to get her last wish, began to cold-call Pixar and Disney to see if someone could help. Pixar officials listened to Colbys story and agreed to send someone to Colbys house the next day with a DVD of "Up," Orum-Moore recalled.

She immediately called Lisa Curtin, who told Colby.

Do you think you can hang on? Colbys mother said.

I'm ready (to die), but I'm going to wait for the movie, the girl replied.

At about 12:30 p.m. the Pixar employee came to the Curtins home with the DVD. Colby couldn't see the screen because the pain kept her eyes closed so her mother gave her a play-by-play of the film. At the end of the film, the mother asked if her daughter enjoyed the movie and Colby nodded yes, Lisa Curtin said.

Colby died with her mom and dad nearby at 9:20 p.m.

"When I watched it, I had really no idea about the content of the theme of the movie", said Curtin, 46. "I just know that word Up and all of the balloons and I swear to you, for me it meant that (Colby) was going to go up. Up to heaven."

A perfect 10

2009-08-30T23:43:00.002+08:00

It's official: Pixar can do no wrong. A perfect track record after 10 movies straight. Not a single dud. Amazing.

If ever there was a movie that you shouldn't miss the beginning of, this would be it. The narration of the first 20 minutes was better than some feature length movies I've seen.

Oh, and try see it with a date. There are definitely some hankie wetting moments in this movie.

(Disclaimer: I haven't seen "Cars" or "Ratatouille" yet, but from what I've read I won't be disappointed when I do).

Nothin' but air

2009-08-30T23:15:00.004+08:00

Ha, I'm finally getting a feel for the Stand Tall manouver. My timing was all wrong in my previous attempts. The key is to crouch low as you approach the wake and then start standing up BEFORE you hit the crest of the wake. You the moment you enter the base of the wake is the moment you need to start standing up.

Oooh, nothing but air beneath my board

Even getting more height on my toesides and ollies

A little move I picked up watching others. Helps me to conserve arm strength while the boat is turning.

Even my wipeouts are looking more impressive. Instead of crash and burn, I glide to a stop. Ooooh.

The shots above were captured from my videos. Here are some nice action shots taken by my WB partner:

"Progress"

2009-08-24T22:32:00.003+08:00

Went to the Computer Festival in Wan Chai today. Hadn't been to the Pumpernickel in the Art Center for ages, so I went there with my favorite lunchie.

Damn...what the hell happened? This is what the place looked like a few years ago. Really cool looking light railed stairs:

And here it is today. Yellow bars? Seriously? And streams of cheesy lights with waxed clothing hanging from them? What on Earth where they thinking?

Sigh...just goes to show, you gotta make every moment count. You never know when things might change for the worse.

Sun shine, surfs up

2009-08-22T23:42:00.002+08:00

Finally some good weather on the weekend. Only means one thing: wakeboarding!!!

Lost at sea...

Ha, got all tensed up doing the jump. Look at my squint and my clenched jaws.

It wasn't until leaving time that I realized that we were so close to Stanley Prison. Seems kind of wicked to lock up an inmate in a prison with a view of people having fun in the ocean.

123456789

2009-08-07T23:27:00.002+08:00

Where were you at 12:34:56 today?

Today is the 7th of August 09, meaning that at 12:34:56 the time/date was:

12:34:56 7/8/9

Neat.

See you again in 100 years.

Ramblings of a hopped up mind

2009-08-03T22:24:00.004+08:00

Too much coffee during dinner coupled with 34C nighttime temperature = Restlessness.

So while I was lying there for hours staring up at the ceiling with unblinking eyes, my caffeine-charged mind started obsessing over the most bizarre things. It's funny how ideas that seemed so thought-consuming last night turned out to be so incredibly trivial in the morning.

Submitted for your approval, ideas to mull over the next time you're stuck in traffic, lying awake or just plain bored out of your skull:

Why is it that the numbers 1 to 10 are all monosyllabic except for "Seven"? Why not something short, like "Sev"?

What is so special about the number 12 that we need a unique naming system for the first 12 numbers? For example, all the 20's follow the same naming: twenty-one, twenty-two….twenty-nine. But for the 10's, we only start the "teen" naming convention with 13. There's "eleven" and "twelve" instead of "one-teen" and "two-teen". Why are humans so obsessed with the number 12 (e.g. twelve months) that it needs all 12 numbers to be unique?

Why is it "Thirteen"? That implies the "3rd teen", but in fact it's the first teen (Eleven and Twelve aren't considered teens). And why is it 'Thirteen" and "Fifteen" instead of "Threeteen" and "Fiveteen"? All the other teens are simply the integer + teen.

And while were on it, why "teen" at all? Look at all the later numbers: 20, 21 = twenty and twenty-one, 60, 61 = sixty and sixty-one. So why not "ten-one, ten-two…ten-nine, twenty"?

Here's a non-numerical quandary: what's the purpose of the letter "Q"? There's nothing "Q" spells that can't be spelled with "K" or "KW" (example: Irak, Kwestion"). If "Q" could act alone and make the "kw" sound then it could be considered an efficient character because you could use 4 letters to spell "qick" instead of 5 using "kwick". But the fact remains that "Q" invariable needs to be followed by a "U" for all "kw" sounds, so there's absolutely no difference between 5-letter "quick" and "kwick".

Speaking of efficiency, why do we use "Ge" in words that can be spelled simply with a "J"? Example: "George" -> "Jorj".

And the Grand Unification of all my thoughts: If you insist on keeping "Ge", then get rid of "J". Then, we can get rid of "Q" as well and have 24 letters in our alphabet, which is a multiple of the wonderful number Twelve. Ooooooo….

TGIF

2009-07-31T23:59:00.002+08:00

July 31, more than half of the year has passed by and yet today was the first day this year that I took a day off from work. Between being a PM for 7 projects and working in the Release Management team, there's basically no time left between projects to take time off.

So it was soooo nice to have a day away from the office. Slept late, did some shopping, had lunch with my favorite lunchie, then went wakeboarding. I tell you, just floating there in the water looking up at the sun and knowing that it was 15:30 on a workday afternoon was an awesome feeling...

Funny Fate

2009-07-22T21:15:00.005+08:00

Seems like this year is a good time for celestial events. A few months back, we got to see the largest full moon in decades, and today was the longest total eclipse in Asia in 500 years, and the longest partial in HK for 50.

Normally, I'd take the day off to capture such an event on camera, but I had some meetings that I couldn't miss. But luckily, upon reaching work Mother Nature saw fit to grant us all a gift. The clouds rolled in at just the right amount so that the eclipse could be viewed safely with the naked eye. As always, I had my trusty Ixy DC with me:

Even with a partial eclipse, the streets were noticeably darkened:

Fate's a funny thing. I saw a segment on the evening news that lots of HKers went up the Shanghai - predicted to be one of the best vantage points - to witness this spectacular site. And yet before the eclipse really began rain came pouring down, blocking any view of the sun. Ironically, conditions here at home were so beautiful that anyone who wanted to could see the event unaided.

Ha, even the best laid plans of mice and men...

Another rainy day

2009-06-28T15:39:00.005+08:00

Another rainy day, another water drop shoot.

Different set-up this time. Not very glamourous: a tripod, a bag, a frying pan and a printed piece of paper (to reflect some patterns onto the water). I used the bag instead of the eyedropper so it was a lot easier to adust for the focus, since the drop pretty much lands in the same place each time.

I used a pencil to pinpoint where I wanted the focus to be, then turned off the auto-focus so that the focus was locked on the correct spot. Naturally, I had to recaliber every now and then, since the location of the drop would switch as the bag got empty.

I did these first 2 shots without the color paper. The blue color is because I set the white balance to tungsten, making everything blue.

These next shots were done with the colored paper. I bounced the flash off of the paper so that the red and blue pattern would be reflected in the water.

Am I crazy, or does this first one look like a clown with a long nose?

Near the end, I poked a few more holes into the bag to give a random slash effect. I love the power of photography. I mean, just think: these beautiful patterns happen everytime it's raining outside and yet we never see them because they happen so fast. But with the magically freezing power of photography, voila!

More in my album: http://www.fotop.net/teruphoto/Water_World

Farewell to icons

2009-06-26T23:40:00.003+08:00

Don't know what to make of it, but today saw the passing of 2 cultural icons from the 70s and 80s. Farrah Fawcett's 1976 poster is the best selling pin-up of all time, just as Michael Jackson's 1982 Thriller is the best selling record of all time.

So weird; last week I was listening to some old songs, inlcuding MJ's "You Are Not Alone". Seems a couple of the lyrics probably reflect the thoughts of his and Farrah's loved ones right now:

You're not here with me

You never said goodbye

Someone tell me why

Did you have to go

And leave my world so cold

You are not alone

For I am here with you

Though we're far apart

You're always in my heart

But you are not alone.

Live Long, And Prosper

2009-06-06T23:56:00.005+08:00

WARNING: SPOILERS!!!

If you're like me and you hate hearing the details of movies before seeing them, read no further. I'm not going to give away huge details, but I can't give an accurate review without giving away key elements.

Good old J.J. Abrams...is there an old series that he can't put a fresh spin on? First he did the awesome "Mission Impossible 3" and now he's single handedly revived the previously flatlines Star Trek.

I'm a total Trekkie (well, maybe not totally since I'm not one of those geeks who insist on being called a "Trekker"). So I guess I fall under the same group that was a bit wary when the details first came out that a remake of the original was in the works. Even worse than remake; a Re-Thinking. Something about time travel altering the established canon of Treklore.

Then I heard the JJ was in charge and a weight was lifted. This guy has an incredible knack for taking old things and offering a new spin to make them interesting again.

Without going into too much detail, his approach on the new version of Star Trek was very refreshing. The first 10 minutes of the film was an excellent mix of action and pathos. The whole scene of baby Kirk being born while Kirk senior "turned certain death into a fighting chance" could have been so cliche and trite, but the way it was presented I actually felt goosebumps all over.

The casting was pretty good. Chris Pine comes across fantastically as a young Kirk, and Zachary Quinto is the PERFECT choice for Spock. Especially the interpretation of Spock in this movie, with his eyes being able to show the seething emotion under his poised exterior. And Karl Urban totally pulls off a young McCoy.

I loved the little pieces placed in just for the fans to pick up on. Visual cues, classic lines, the orgasmic introductory scene of the Enterprise (as well as the kickass-emerging-from-the-ice-clouds shot of Saturn)...all good stuff.

Some hardcore fans have complained that the film has too much action and lacks the seriousness that is a staple in Trek. But I thought it was refreshing to see some fast paced stuff. This is a younger crew for crying out loud. You can't expect them to spend most of their time ruminating about the moralities of the Prime Directive.

If I had to find a negative, I'd say that the movie did fall victim to the usual symptoms of prequel-itis. For example there were just too many coincidences so that the final crew could be assembled together because they were meant to be (like the engineer dying like a jackass just so Scotty could fill his spot). But at least it was much better than the crap that George Lucas pulled in the Star Wars prequels. And the ending, where Kirk is made the captain of the Enterprise (coz that's what he is in the original series) was just a little too much to handle. I mean sure, he saved the earth and all, but that still doesn't justify promoting a 3rd year academy cadet to captain of the Flagship of Starfleet! Excuse me for geeking out here, but cadet, ensign, lieutenant jr grade, lieutenant, lieutenant commander, commander, captain...he skipped 6 grades (we're talking 10~15 years of normal service duty) for crying out loud. No matter how big the accomplishment, the best he could have expected was to be made lieutenant. I"m surprised that there wasn't a mutiny in amongst all senior officers against Starfleet Command for giving such a cherry position to a rookie cadet.

And in the end scene, when Spock comes aboard and offers to be the first officer...that means that there wasn't already a first officer assigned, which is totally ridiculous.

But anyways, great movie overall. Just some minor details keeping it from being totally awesome.

Oooh, and some more goodies inside the theatre (The Grand Cinema, as usual):

Termination Salvation

2009-05-29T23:15:00.003+08:00

Went to see it yesterday. Some people have complained that it's not a worthy successor to the Terminator series (hell, those fanboys don't like anything that isn't made by James Cameron) but I thought it was OK. Is it up there with T1 and T2? Definitely not. But as a summer popcorn movie, it was pretty entertaining and delivered on all the action shots. Too bad one of the trailers gave away a key point in the movie though.

I went to The Grand Cinema in Elements (love those vibrating chairs) and discovered that there was a small exhibition of Terminator models and a 1:1 scale of the T600.

Playing with water

2009-05-24T21:29:00.004+08:00

Nothing but rain this past weekend, so I spent the day, appropriately, playing with water drops.

Wow, water droplet photography is soooo tricky. There's probably an easier way to do it, but given the equipment that I have, it was mostly trial and error. Here's a shot of my set-up:

I set my camera to bulb mode, clicked open the shutter, used a eye dropper to drip a drop of water and triggered the flash the moment the drop hit, then closed the shutter.

Over 200 shots later, here are the results I got (I adjusted the contrast in post-processing):

More photos at http://www.fotop.net/teruphoto/Water_World

Birds

2009-05-03T18:35:00.002+08:00

Another visit to HK Park. Last visit wasn't so great because it was overcast, so lots of the photos came out a bit noisy (because of the necessary high ISO).

What the Hell are you looking at?!

I didn't know parrots were French...

Anyone know what kind of birds these 2 are?

JCCAC

2009-04-26T13:45:00.002+08:00

Visited the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre with some friends last night.

The building was originally the Shek Kip Mei Factory Estate, built in the 1970s as a low cost rental space for light industry. Today, it's home to over 150 local artists and creative groups.

http://www.jccac.org.hk/

We arrived a bit late so most of the studios were closed, but it was still interesting to walk around the building and look at the various art forms.

Nessun Dorma

2009-04-23T23:06:00.008+08:00

It's been 2 years, listening to Paul Potts sing this still gets me every time. Seriously, a cup of raw onion juice poured directly into my eyes still wouldn't make them water up as much as this song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k08yxu57NA

FYI, the translation of the lyrics can be found here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nessun_Dorma

Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate

2009-04-13T17:08:00.003+08:00

Street photography is a tricky thing. You need to take something that you see everyday and somehow make it look interesting.

Last week, I heard a news report on Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate (牛頭角下邨), one of the last remaining old style Public Rental Housing estates left in Hong Kong. It's scheduled to be torn down in May so many people have been flocking there to snap photos of the place before it's gone forever.

Although I've been there before, I've never taken any photos of the place, so I took the opportunity to brush up on my Street photography skills.

Public Rental Housing estates are pretty much the same so I tried to focus on the items that make Lower NTK Estate stand out. One of these features are the stalls that sell street food

Security was beefed up because the residents were complaining about too many photographers walking around inside the buildings (there were actually police officers patrolling the hallways). I finally found an unguarded entrance and made my way inside (without intruding on anyone's privacy, of course).

Some sentimentalists have tried to keep the buildings as historical landmarks, but I'd have to disagree. The structures are so dilapidated that the area is just 1 step away from becoming a slum. Let the estate live on in our memories, but they've served their purpose and should be torn down for something better.

I was actually relieved when I went back outside. The dank halls were too prison-like for my comfort.

On a lighter note, it was nice to see people making memories in their own different ways

Earth Hour

2009-04-02T21:01:00.001+08:00

Some random pics from Saturday night. My friend and I were planning to take advantage of the 60 minutes of lights out during Earth Hour but it turns out that HK (and pretty much every other city that joined) is still too bright even with most of the buildings gone black.

My biggest disappointment was Lan Kwai Fong. If any where, I'd expect LKF to embrace the spirit of Earth Hour. But sadly, not the case. Really, what's the point of individual restaurants turning off their interior lights when all the signs outside are blaringly active?

The thick fog and rain didn't help much either. So while hiding from the rain, I took some snaps of the HSBC HQ and played with some camera movement techniques

Didn't want to leave empty handed so I snapped some shots after the lights came back on:

The April Fool

2009-04-01T22:49:00.002+08:00

Chip Tsao (陶傑) has been making the headlines lately. His controversial article in the March 27 edition of HK Magazine - entitled "The War At Home" - has been received with widespread accusations of rascism, culminating in the Philippine government declaring him as an "undesirable alien" and barring him entry into the country (can't help but wonder if this is some twisted form of April Fool's Day prank...)

I've never been a fan of Tsao. He's pompous and so very much the "Old Oil Stick" in the way he speaks SOOOOOOO slowly and never gets straight to the point. He's always thrived on controversy but in recent years he's been relying on this trick more heavily, possibly because he has nothing interesting left to say. A few weeks back, he argued against the government's Drunk Driving policies because he claimed that they would affect the business of bars & clubs. He compared the government's new random breath test law to chemotherapy; it kills both good and bad cells. OK Mr. Tsao, if that's the metaphor that you're going for, let me counter by saying that while taking chemo may kill good cells, not taking ANY medicine at all will result in death from cancer. So unless you can invent a new wonder drug that only kills cancer cells, I suggest you keep quiet. And not to be harsh, but I sincerely doubt that you'd have the same opinion if someone you knew was affected by an intoxicated driver.

But...in all fairness, his article reads as a Satire rather than a commentary (judge for yourself, I've included the article in its entirety below). Should he have shown better judgement in writing it? Probably. But are people overreacting to the sarcasm? Definitely. And it's funny how quickly HK Magazine has distanced itself from the article. If this essay is so offensive, why did the editors approve it for publication in the first place?

Chip Tsao...he wanted to be a smart-ass but came off as just being an ass.

***************************

The War At Home, by Chip Tsao

The Russians sank a Hong Kong freighter last month, killing the seven Chinese seamen onboard. We can live with that-—Lenin and Stalin were once the ideological mentors of all Chinese people. The Japanese planted a flag on Diàoyú Island. That's no big problem-—we Hong Kong Chinese love Japanese cartoons, Hello Kitty, and shopping in Shinjuku, let alone our round-the-clock obsession with karaoke.

But hold on-—even the Filipinos? Manila has just claimed sovereignty over the scattered rocks in the South China Sea called the Spratly Islands, complete with a blatant threat from its congress to send gunboats to the South China Sea to defend the islands from China if necessary. This is beyond reproach. The reason: There are more than 130,000 Filipina maids working as HK$3,580-a-month cheap labor in Hong Kong. As a nation of servants, you don't flex your muscles at your master, from whom you earn most of your bread and butter.

As a patriotic Chinese man, the news has made my blood boil. I summoned Louisa, my domestic assistant who holds a degree in international politics from the University of Manila, hung a map on the wall, and gave her a harsh lecture. I sternly warned her that if she wants her wages increased next year, she had better tell everyone of her compatriots in Statue Square on Sunday that the entirety of the Spratly Islands belongs to China.

Grimly, I told her that if war breaks out between the Philippines and China, I would have to end her employment and send her straight home, because I would not risk the crime of treason for sponsoring an enemy of the state by paying her to wash my toilet and clean my windows 16 hours a day. With that money, she would pay taxes to her Government, and they would fund a navy to invade our motherland and deeply hurt my feelings.

Oh yes. The Government of the Philippines would certainly be wrong if they think we Chinese are prepared to swallow their insult and sit back and lose a Falkland Islands War in the Far East. They may have Barack Obama and the hawkish American military behind them, but we have a hostage in each of our homes in the Mid-Levels or higher. Some of my friends told me they have already declared a state of emergency at home. Their maids have been made to shout 'China, Madam/Sir' loudly whenever they hear the word "Spratly". They say the indoctrination is working as wonderfully as when we used to shout, "Long live Chairman Mao!" at the sight of a portrait of our Great Leader during the Cultural Revolution. I’m not sure if that's going a bit too far, at least for the time being.

My D700's first living model

2009-04-01T22:27:00.001+08:00

Ironically, ever since getting the D700 I've been too tied up with work to do any meaningful shooting. But the other day, I saw this little critter clinging outside my bedroom window. The glass had an interesting pattern from being wet with rain, and macro lens I used made the background become an interesting blur of mixed colors:

Thanks Gingie!

2009-03-18T22:30:00.007+08:00

A study of something fluffy & yummy:

My homemade Birthday Lemon Meringue Cake! (yep that's right, yummy cake, not pie)

I'm pretty loose about birthdays but there's one thing I'm absolutely adamant about: the birthday cake. I don't consider a birthday to be official without one, so having a homemade one was literally...icing on the cake.

My famous cat

2009-03-17T23:58:00.002+08:00

LOL, I post my my initial D700 vs D80 samples for 30 minutes and already this site in Japan has a link to it:

http://dslcamera.ptzn.com/?p=906

D700!

2009-03-16T23:59:00.004+08:00

The D700 must be the McDonald's of cameras, coz I'm Lovin It!

Haven't had much time to play with it yet, but check out the ISO6400 photo:

I say again, ISO 6400!!! This is a 100% crop, straight from the camera JPEG, no editing. Look at the detail of the fur! Excuse me while I totally geek out!!!

It's so great to have a camera that gives you so much freedom. I going have fun learning how to use exisiting light in all of my photos.

Happy Lantern Festival

2009-02-09T22:23:00.003+08:00

Today is the 15th day of the Lunar New Year, also known as Lantern Festival. According to astronomers, tonight's full moon is the biggest and roundest to fall on Lantern Festival in 52 years. The distance between the moon and the Earth is estimated to be aboput 365,000 km, roughly 19,000 km shorter than the average distance.

FYI, the brownish tint is due to the fact that was a penumbral eclipse (where the earth gets between the sun and the moon and shades some of the sunlight) tonight.

01:51:01

2009-02-08T18:17:00.006+08:00

Didn't have much time to train this year so I just ran the Half Marathon. The last time I ran this (actually, it was also the first time) was back in 2004 and I finished at 2h20m, so I guess this is a pretty good improvement. Ha, all those following years of running the Full Marathon paid off.

Seems that every year brings a new record number of runners. This year's magic number is 54,272. I had 13,928 other people running the Half with me. I love listening to the unison of hundreds of feet stomping to the same rhythm. I mean, a dozen or so people and the steps are all out of sync, but a hundred and suddenly everyone follows the same beat.

Since you mostly only got to see the back of people's heads, after a while you start recognizing some of your fellow runners: Blue Vest with the Red Hair, Green Guy with the purple shoes, Mr. Stompy, Miss Yellow Tanktop, Mr. Out-of-this-world B.O....

You know, I don't want to sound like an elitest, but I'm always amazed at out-of-their-league some runners are. At the 2k mark, there were lots of runners who were already so tired that they had to walk. I mean, sure it's great to challenge yourself to do better, but if's you're running a 21.1k race and you're too tired to run at the 2k mark, chances are you should stick with the 10k run for at least another year. If for no other reason then to avoid injuring yourself (thankfully, this year's were much, much fewer than last year's) coz it's awful to have such a positive event marred by negative news.

Runners, see you all next year.

See you on the tarmac!

2009-02-07T22:36:00.002+08:00

Bigma II

2009-01-10T23:52:00.009+08:00

Tonight's moon was the largest and roundest seen in Hong Kong in 12 years. The moon was 350,000km away from the Earth rather than the usual 380,000km and it happened to be a full moon, making it extra visible.

I've been itching to buy a super telephoto lens for quite some time now, so I took this momentous occasion as the perfect excuse.

Behold, the mighty Sigma APO 150-500mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM (aka the Bigma II):

Took this nasty canon for a spin tonight. This is a 100% crop from my D80 shot at 500mm, f/11 @ 1/125s, ISO 100:

Hope the skies remain clear these coming weeks so I can take some waning gibbous lunar photos (full moons are nice, but the shadows in the waxing/waning phases really bring out the crater detail).

BTW, 3 guesses to what this is:

Kinda reminds me of the poster for "Hollowman". Yep, that's my face you're looking at. That main shape in the center is my nose and the 2 dark splotches in the upper left and right corners are the bottoms of my eyes. Just for fun, I took a self portrait of myself using the Bigma II at arms length and this is what I got. The minimum focusing distance of the lens is 2.12m and clearly I don't have a 7 foot arm length so this is that I ended up with. I got the idea from seeing all those stupid movies that show photographers using huge telephoto lenses shooting at people standing a couple feet away. Something to keep in mind the next time you see a reporter or paparazzi in the movies.

At long last!

2009-01-01T23:51:00.008+08:00

After years of hearing about the infamous Tung Chee Hwa rock in Shek O, I finally found it toady. For those of you who don't know, Mr. Tung was Hong Kong's first Chief Executive after the Handover to China in 1997. Whether he did a good job or not I'll leave to the historians, but most of the public saw it fit to nickname him "Old Confused Tung" (老懵董). This rock very eerily resembles the famous caricature of him:

Here's a sample caricature:

Spent so much time looking for him that I didn't get around to shooting much afterwards. But I did get some nice wave action:

2009

2009-01-01T23:41:00.006+08:00

It's scary how fast time goes by with each passing year.

Here's wishing everyone a great 2009. Savor each day!

Sun Boston

2008-12-14T22:15:00.004+08:00

It's funny, I used to work in Wan Chai but I never tried Sun Boston Restaurant. I mean, I knew of the place and I passed by it a lot, but I never went in. It wasn't until I read an article in a food magazine about the Flaming Beef Steak that I decided to give the place a try.

Turns out the place was worth a visit just to see the waiters sear their eyebrows everytime someone ordered a plate!

And voila, the finished dish. I prefer prime ribs coz the bone and fat bring out a more beef flavor, but as for as filet goes, this place wasn't bad at all. Very tender, and the rum sauce had a delicate sweetness to it.

Lunar Cosmos

2008-12-11T23:20:00.005+08:00

Been doing a lot of lunar photography lately because the skies have been amazingly clear these past few weeks.

Ironically, it wasn't until tonight's sky clouded up that things got interesting. The cloud cover coupled with the light from the near full moon created the illusion of a stellar dust cloud.

This is an HDR photo. The moon was exposed at f/5.6 @ 1/40s and the clouds at f/5.6 @ 1/4s (all ISO 100). Nikon D80 + 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G lens.

So Moody

2008-12-02T21:31:00.003+08:00

Just a single day later, Mr. Smiley becomes Mr. Frowny. So bipolar.
(In case you haven't figured it out, I flipped the photo 180).

I heard on the news this morning that last night's Stellar Smiley won't happen again until July 2036. I'm so happy I was able to see it, and that conditions were good enough to allow me to snap some photos.

Anyhoo, took some close-up snaps of the Waxing Cresent. I hope the sky stays clear enough over the next few days so I can get some good First Quarter and Waxing Gibbous phase shots.

Technical details: Nikon D80 + 70-200mm f/2.8 VR and 70-300mm f/4-5.6G. Mmm, if this great weather keeps up I gonna probably cave in and buy a Sigma 150-500mm soon...

Looney Luna

2008-12-01T21:04:00.004+08:00

I'm no astronomer so I don't know if this is a common event or not. All I know is I left work and the first thing I saw as I looked into the sky was Mr. Happy here staring right back at me.

Another shot from home:

Perception is Reality...or is Reality just a Perception?

2008-11-24T21:01:00.006+08:00

I've been a longtime fan of perception. It's a fascinating thing when you think about it. What is Real? If it's just something the we can see, feel, hear, taste or smell, then reality is nothing more than a series of neural impulses from external stimuli. In a nutshell, we have no way of knowing if we're actually experiencing something or if our brain is simply floating in some jar with a bunch of wires attached to it.

Anyways, I don't want to go into some long-winded rant about existentialism so let's focus on the fun stuff. The human brain works in such a funny way. What it sees isn't actually what the eyes are capturing. The eyes merely send signals to the brain to interpret; what finally comes out of that processor can be totally unpredictable. For example, take a look at these common optical illusions.

Facebook users will probably recognize this animated GIF. Because of the lack of reference points, this dancer can actually be perceived as rotating in either direction (clockwise and counter-clockwise). Most people only see her spin in one direction. The first time I looked at this I could only see her spinning CCW, but now I'm able to see both.

Here's a breakdown of the movement if you want to freeze the motion. Or, you can try blocking the top part of the picture and only look a the 2 legs. It's a lot easier to see the movement in both directions this way.

This is the Adelson's Checker Shadow Illusion. Squares A and B look like different shades of gray, right?

But connect them with the same colored bar and you can see that they're actually the same color.

The Cornsweet Illusion: One side looks darker than the other right?

But cover the middle with a black bar and voila! Both are actually the same color.

These 2 pictures illustrate Anomalous Motion and Peripheral Drift. Notice that thes are JPEGs not GIFs so they aren't animated. The movement you see is caused by your brain's interpretation of the patterns (click on them to see the full sized versions).

The horizontal lines look crooked, but they're not. This is the Cafe Wall Illusion.

The Chubb Illusion: both circles are actually identical

The Ebbinghaus Illusion: the two orange circles are actually the same size, but because of their relative size difference with their surrounding circles, the left orange circle looks smaller.

Simultaneous Contrast: Both of the central rectangles are the same size and color, but because of the different colored background, your mind perceives them to be different.

The Jastrow Illusion: Figures A and B are actually the same size and shape, although A looks smaller:

This one's really cool. You think you're looking at a spiral, but it's actually a series co-centric circles. Just try tracing a line with your pointer and you'll see that it forms a circle, not a spiral. The Fraser Spiral Illusion:

The Kanizsa Triangle: Do you see a white triangle in the center? This is actually a diagram of 3 V-shapes and 3 pie-shapes, but the mind needs to recognize a pattern so it fills in the empty space by forming the more recognizable shape of a triangle:

Lilac Chaser. You'll need to click to see the larger version. Just stare at the cross in the center (try not to blink). The pattern doesn't change but eventually you'll see the image change from a blank space moving between the circles into a single green circle moving in around with all the pink circles gone. Try blinking and you'll break the illusion.

The Muller Lyler Illusion. Look at the first 3 lines. Which is longer? In fact, they're all the same length.

The Poggendorff Illusion: Looks like the the blue line connects to the black one, right? Look again!

The Ponzo Illusion: the sense of perspective makes the yellow lines look different, but they'are actually the same size.

Lastly, my favorite MC Escher picture: Ascending and Descending. I prefer it's subtlty over the more famous "Waterfall" (below); a casual viewer probably wouldn't notice anything wrong with this image.

La Lune, si belle qu'elle me fais souffrir

2008-11-12T21:59:00.003+08:00

Sequel-itis

2008-11-08T22:29:00.005+08:00

"Casino Royale" was a big hit because Daniel Craig gave us a grittier gravitas laden Bond. I was really caught off guard because I wasn't expecting to like the movie that much. I really liked the new approach of the movie because it gave us a less campy Bond.

Unfortunately, the success of the first movie raised my expectations for "Quantum of Solace", the first true sequel in the history of the James Bond movies. Ironically, the movie's ultimate downfall was due to its sequel nature.

Generally, most sequels fall victim to the same problems: bigger budgets equate to bigger stunts/settings, but at the expense of story. "QoS" definitely gave us much more eye-candy than "CR" in the way of elaborate stunt sequences and beautiful surroundings, but the story was flat and the main villain extremely boring. In fact, the plot development pretty much felt like placeholders between the back-to-back action sequences.

"Qos" isn't a bad movie, but it's not nearly as great as "CR" was. It feels more like an epilogue tagged on to the end of the first movie to tie up loose ends.

Daniel Craig is signed on for 2 more movies, so there's still hope that the next ones will be worthy successors to "CR".

Just gotta love 'em

2008-10-30T23:45:00.003+08:00

I know it's a popular thing to rag on America and make them the butt of jokes, but every now and then you're reminded why - at the end of the day - you just can't stay mad.

This is such a simple yet effective little ad; I love the way the humor is balanced so well with moments of poignancy:

http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=5cGvqs-jf_w&feature=related

180

2008-09-18T21:43:00.002+08:00

Whoohoo! My first 180! Actually, doesn't look like much but it's a pretty big step for a newbie like me:

http://www.fotop.net/teruphoto/Movies/MVI_2983

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

2008-09-15T00:01:00.002+08:00

Some lights at Victoria Park:

La Lune:

22 Years

2008-09-10T23:26:00.009+08:00

My buddy Dave and his wife are in town so I took the day off to hang out with them. Geeze, we've been friends since grade school some 22 years now. Twenty-two years! I don't care how old you are; 22 years is a substantial amount of time.

Anyhoo, he's into surfing so naturally we went wakeboarding today. The fargin bastich makes me sick; it was his first time wakeboarding and he was cruising along on his second attempt. And by the end of the day he was already doing heelside and toeside waking with relative ease.

Check out this action pose by Dave:

Impressive, no?

I'll be uploading our runs shortly. In the meantime, here are some vids from the weekend. This was my best run of the day: toeside jump to heelside jump to toeside jump to ollie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfgSk8snt_c

Here's one where a friggin moth comes flying into my face causing me to wipe out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmTW09U_QsU

Afterwards, we headed over to MegaBox to watch "The Dark Knight" on IMAX. Whoa! The movie alone is already pretty awesome, but the scenes that were shot in IMAX just blow you away. Like I said before, I've never seen Hong Kong portrayed as beautifully as it is in this movie, and seeing it in IMAX makes the statement truer than ever. You haven't seen "The Dark Knight" until you've seen it in IMAX.

EDIT:

Some movies from Wednesday:

Oooh...one handed:

http://www.fotop.net/teruphoto/Movies/MVI_2832

This is what happens when you lose focus for just a split second:

http://www.fotop.net/teruphoto/Movies/MVI_2834

The Double Butt Plant:

http://www.fotop.net/teruphoto/Movies/MVI_2799

I can't believe this guy; his first time and he's already jumping:

http://www.fotop.net/teruphoto/Movies/MVI_2838

My favorite Harbor

2008-09-01T22:24:00.002+08:00

Now I don't want to sound biased, but compared to all the cities I've visited, Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor really is a tough sight to beat.

We've been having some pretty good post-typhoon clear skies this past week so I decided to go up to Lugard Road to snap some pics of my favorite harbor. I was hoping for some more cloud cover to make for a more interesting sky, but overall I'm still happy with what I got.

I don' know about you, but I I can't look at IFC now without thinking about The Dark Knight.

Played with the white balance to get a more blueish hue

Wow, compressly packed HK

And now for some fun:

Really nothing out of the ordinary, just another trip up to Lugard's. But it's like going back to your favorite restaurant over and over; even though you keep eating the same dishes, every visit is always a wonderful experience.

An Unfortunate Coincidence

2008-08-27T23:11:00.003+08:00

Call me shallow, but when I heard that Barack Obama had chosen Joe Biden as his running mate I thought to myself "It's not enough that 'Obama' is 1 letter away from America's most hated enemy, he has to take on a running mate who's last name is a contraction of said enemy's surname?"

I dunno about you, but if I was in the US now and I saw a "Vote Obama/Biden" banner go by on a bus, I'd definitely do a double take.

Ha, John McCain vs. Osama Biden...sounds like the premise for "Die Hard 5"

16 Days

2008-08-24T22:17:00.001+08:00

I've never been more proud to be Chinese

Another burger blog

2008-08-24T18:17:00.003+08:00

Finally gave the Freshness Burger chain a try. OK, I guess but I prefer MOS.

It's not really an issue of price but value. I ordered the Hawaii Double buger (that's a slice a pineapple you see in the middle) and it wasn't bad, but for $50 I expected a little more. I'd rather pay $90 for the Gang Bang at Shake Em Buns because it feels like I'm getting more...errrrm, bang for the buck.

Back at it again

2008-08-16T23:52:00.004+08:00

Been so busy at work that I haven't had much time to do anything else. Thank goodness for sunny weekends.

Wow, my wakebuddy is really getting a knack for shooting at the right moment:

Wish I could say the same about my jumping technique

Worth it? Hell yeah!

2008-08-03T21:44:00.003+08:00

My aircon broke down a few nights ago and because it's been so insanely hot I ended up developing a bit of a flu. Didn't stop me from going wakeboarding today.

Finally getting the hang of doing ollies.

Then again, maybe not.

EDIT: Monday morning, fever of 102. Still think it was worth it though.

I wanted to believe...

2008-07-25T23:42:00.002+08:00

I went to see "X-files: I want to Believe" today. I pretty much went for sentimental reasons so I didn't have high expectations. I wouldn't say that the movie was a disappointment (that honor goes to "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") but I will say that lowering my expectations was a wise choice.

The movie felt more like an episode-of-the-week rather than a full blown movie. The ending didn't have much of a payoff and the overall story really didn't try to be anything other than filler material. Honestly, if you took Mulder and Scully out of the equation, the movie would have zero appeal.

Of course, it didn't help that I saw the movie at UA Times Square. I hate this place (sadly, didn't have a choice because of my post-movie dinner arrangements). What kind of idiot designs a theatre where the screen is lower than the seats? As long as the person sitting in front of you is head and shoulders above the back of the seat, you're guaranteed to be blocked from seeing the entire screen.

No gain? Much pain!

2008-07-20T17:26:00.002+08:00

In light of my recent gastronomic adventures, I felt the need to burn some calories this weekend. So after a light breakfast, I went wakeboarding on Saturday morning. The water and weather were kind of choppy, but it was still great to get out on the water again.

Still can't get the hang of the Fakie yet. Everytime I try pulling a left-foot-forward pose, it feels awkward and unbalanced; I can't get my left hip to steer the same way that my right hip can. Feels kind of stupid that I can ollie a bit but can't even pull off a Fakie.

My failed attempts

Anyways, after the waterworks yesterday, I hit the gym this morning trying out a new regimen that I read about: the Dreaded 500. Basically, it consists of completing a circuit of 500 reps over several sets of exercises. The circuit I tried today was:

Upper Pec Cable pulls (10 reps x 5 sets)
Lower Pec Cable pulls (10 x 5)
Dumbbell bench press (10 x 5)

Lateral dumbbell raises (10 x 5)
Front dumbbell raises (10 x 5)
Seated dumbbell press (10 x 5)

Preacher curl bench (10 x 5)
Tricep pulldown (10 x 5)
Standing dumbbell curls (25 x 4)

And just for good measure, I threw in an extra 500+ of situps (30 x 17).

I was ready to inhale an entire pizza after this workout...except for the fact that my arms were so sore that I couldn't even lift a slice. It's 5 hours later and it still hurts to type.

Such is the price we pay...

Yummy stuff

2008-07-20T16:30:00.004+08:00

Just some shots of recent yummies.

The spaghetti bun featured at the Yata Foodcourt in Shatin. This has been out for a while now but I didn't get to try it out until recently. Comes in lots of flavors; pictured below is the chicken yakitori with dried seaweed flavored spaghetti.

After 2 failed attempts, finally managed to get a seat at Burgeroom. First off, Breaded Mozzarella Sticks:

Mmmm...chewy....

Looks like a yummy buger...

...but it's actually a dreaded Portobello Mushroom burger! Ugh, such blasphemy! A horrible piece of fungus posing as a juicy patty. My friend, being a mushroom lover, said it was quite tasty. She let me take a whiff (claiming it didn't have any mushroom smell) and I nearly reproduced my recently digested Mozzarella sticks.

Now THIS is more like it. The awesome Foie Gras Beef Burger.

Look at the size of that Foie Gras. Fatty liver + juicy beef smothered in cheese...if you're going to do something so wrong, make sure you do it right.

Next, on to the sweets. Both of the following are currently being offered at Starbucks. Here's the Crunchy Chiffon cake (super light cake + crunchy toffee)

and on the flip side, the heavy Chocolate Molten cake. Kind of like a souffle but so much better.

Mmmm....gooey chocolate center...

Believe the hype

2008-07-18T23:34:00.000+08:00

In my experience, more often than not a movie never lives up to its hype. The higher the expectation, the harder the disappointment (the Matrix sequels, the Star Wars prequels…). So with all the hoopla surrounding "The Dark Knight", I couldn't help but feel a little trepidation. But considering the amazing job Christopher Nolan and company did on "Batman Begins", I was cautiously optimistic.

I never should have doubted Nolan.

The beauty of "The Dark Knight" is that it doesn't play out like a comic book movie. The drama, the tragedy, the themes; it's a fantastic movie that just happens to feature a man in a bat suit. And the acting…Batman may be the star of the movie, but the hear and soul all go to this man:

The way Heath Ledger loses himself in the role is amazing. The mannerisms - like sucking at his cheek wounds or walking with a strange limp - seem like so little but add so much to the performance. And dare I say it, his take on the Joker not only honors to the comic role; it surpasses it. Instead of the insane criminal that we're used to seeing, this Joker is downright scary. He's a true anarchist with no motives besides creating chaos and mayhem. Calling him insane is a disservice because the fact is that he sees things on a totally different level than most; a mind without filters. Every one of his little speeches contain a truth that's just scary for being so true. And pay attention to the way he tells a different story each time he talks about his facial scars (just goes to show how unbridled his thinking is).

One thing that crossed my mind during the scenes shot in Hong Kong: isn't it ironic how it takes a "foreigner" to shoot HK in such a fresh and original way. I don't recall HK being so exotic looking in any locally made films.

I hate spoilers so I won't go into much detail about the movie. Just go see it. Oh, just one minor thing: the way the Batpod is introduced? Totally kickass…I was giddy during the entire sequence.

Thanks for listening!

2008-07-01T12:22:00.002+08:00

Gee, what a difference a day makes. Yesterday it was pouring, and this morning:

Mother Nature; she is a fickle woman. Not that I'm complaining!

Enough....

2008-06-30T22:26:00.004+08:00

(The scene outside on my way to work)

Today the Hong Kong Observatory recorded a record 1346mm of rain for the month of June, breaking the previous monthly rainfall record of 1241.1mm from May 1889.

Well, point well made. Now can we move on to something else? It's been raining so much that I feel like I'm developing gills.

I mean, I'm all for pretty patterns but I'm getting tired of looking outside the window and constantly seeing the world as an Edvard Munch painting.

Doesn't help that I was in gorgeous Okinawa just 2 weeks ago...

Po Ma Shan

2008-06-22T00:08:00.007+08:00

Woke up this morning and thought I was back in Okinawa. Blue skies and white clouds...it's been a long time since they've appeared in HK.

So my photo buddy and I decided to make our pilgrimage to Po Ma Shan. Funny, it's a very popular spot amongst photogs and yet in all the years I've been in HK I'd never been there. Not that I didn't want to, but between work and bad weather weekends, it's just been a real challenge to find the right time to go.

It's not an easy trek. It's not overly challenging, but between the branches and boulders, it's easy to get scratched up. Took me half an hour to clean up the damage I took to me hands and arms.

Took forever plucking out the slivers from my arm. Look at the size of this sucker!!!

But like they say: no pain, no gain. It was worth the trip.

My abstract for the day: The City of Lights.

Okinawa, Day 5

2008-06-18T22:07:00.001+08:00

All good things come to an end.

Originally, I planned to go light and have a simple salad for breakfast. Then I realized the folly of that logic and went all out. After all, why would I want to miss out on that terrific tasting bittermelon and thick Japanese congee?

Spent the morning going to various temples and such. Nothing spectacular. After lunch, a final go at shopping at Naha Main Place and its surrounding area.

All these wonderful electronic goodies, but sadly all look and no buy:

3m and 10m water resistent DCs! But for sale in Japan only, i.e. no English mode for the menus...

So spending was mainly on food and DVDs.

Ooo...donuts ribbed for your pleasure...

And cupcakes with fried egg topping (yeah baby, uber carbs and cholesterol all in 1 snack)

I opted for the "simple" dark choco green tea donut

LOL! Look at the size of my eyes. I must have been on a sugar rush.

I love the names that Japanese bands come up with.

So touching, a charity box for Sichuan Earthquake victims.

Such a thoughtful design; a place to put the toddler while you're doing your business

One last calorie buster before coming home. Deep fried tonkatsu; surprisingly non-oily. And so tender!

Awesome trip. A great way to recharge myself for the rest of the working year.

Okinawa, Day 4

2008-06-18T21:57:00.002+08:00

Aww...after days of sunshine, the rain finally came down on day 4. So much so that our glass boat outing had to be cancelled. Instead, we visited the underwater observation tower:

Check out the poor fish getting tossed back and forth.

Next stop was the Nago Pineapple Park. First a quick auto-driven ride through the park

Then the gift shop. Everything was good, but this cake was the absolute best in the shop

2nd place: the pineapple parfait sundae

Afterwards, an afternoon at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium

Awww....kawai!!!

...him, not so much

Funny little sandworms. Check 'em out moving here.

The main attraction, the huge Kuroshio Sea Aquarium, 2nd largest in the world and made of the world's largest acrylic glass panel measuring 22.5m x 8.2m x 60cm. Home of 3 large whale sharks.

Moshi moshi kame yo!

The dolphin show

But my favorite part of the show, watching this little audience member posing

For dinner, a simple yaki-style grill

...and another visit to Lawson. This time, chicken cartilage jumbo

Plus, the pioneer Nissin cup noodle + leftover crab in the fridge =

Okinawa, Day 3

2008-06-18T21:50:00.003+08:00

Breakfast. Those 2 black things on my plate are normal sausages flavored with squid ink. Good stuff!

The beautiful beachside lawn

After breakfast, nice stroll on the beach...

...and then PLAYTIME!!!

Afterwards, a more leisurely pace snorkling (wow, I LOVE my new WP-DC17 waterproof case for my Ixy 910!)

I've uploaded a movie of the eel to my youtube page here

No wonder I'd been seeing so much sea cucumber on my plate, the sea was full of them. Couldn't go 10 paces without stepping on one!

Next, a visit to the Ashibinaa Outlet Mall for some shopping. But first, lunch!

More of the sea grapes

Tasty takoyaki (octopus balls)

Look at the size of the octopus meat!

Something I didn't expect to find: tacos!!!

After dropping some major Yen at the Outlet mall, next stop: more shopping at Kokusai Street (國際通).

Some highlights on the neat stuff I saw:

See Mr. Robot moving here.

Seriously...would anyone really want one of these? Yeah, let's hang a dead frog around our neck and go digging in its inards for some money.

Ha, ergonomical undergarments to improve your figure

And in case that's not enough, you can take a drink of BoinBoin! I love a product name that's so descriptive! LMAO!!!

"Drink Bath"? Is this what I think it is? And in 2 flavors...kinky!

I noticed a lot of women wearing these arm covers. I asked and found out that the purpose is to keep their arms nice and white. But if that's the case, why doesn't it cover the entire arm?

Cool flipflops! Of course, no one will ever know unless you take them off your feet.

Kind of inappropriate for summer, but dinner was a seafood hot pot

The main attraction was waiting back in the hotel though...

Fresh Hokkaido crab!!!

Look at the size of that sucker!

To cap it all off:

Okinawa, Day 2

2008-06-17T22:32:00.004+08:00

First thing I see when I wake up in the morning: the beautiful Okinawan sky

Woah, look at how packed together the houses are.

Sightseeing time. Shuri Castle:

How grand, even the faucets in the bathroom are dragon heads:

The ever present good luck charms. Each pair (one with mouth open to draw luck and one with mouth closed to retain luck) will bring you luck in various areas, depending on the color.

Next stop, the limestone formations of Gyokusendo Caves

A cute little drummer boy at the Gyokusendo Cave Kingdom Village

The making of the popular "black sugar"

A fantastic way to end the day: relaxing at the beach (Rizzan Sea Park Resort)

The beautiful sky seen from underwater

Dinner!

"Sea grapes"

And bitter melon. Very tasty, similar yet different from the ones we have in HK.

Even after the great meal, I still had to visit Lawson for a Jumbo:

Okinawa, Day 1

2008-06-16T22:24:00.004+08:00

A great way to start a trip: a visit to Famiglia at Terminal 2

The skies above HK. Quite a nice change from the rain-filled weeks we've been having.

Neat looking lighting in the hotel lobby

Airbourne

2008-05-25T22:36:00.003+08:00

A constructive wakeboarding session yesterday. Got some good air under my ollies and jumps. Naturally, "good" is a subjective word, so don't go expecting any miracles from a newbie like me.

Not my first wake jump, but definitely the farthest jump distance I've done to date; made it to the midpoint between both wakes!

And my highest ollie of the day...except I didn't stick the landing

Also did some 180's for the first time. Next target: 180 jumps!

Posted 2 videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9qeDHr9fnE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2w9DPXzlKY

Who dadee, woo dadee

2008-05-23T21:52:00.001+08:00

I learned a new word today: mondegreen. It's the term used to describe when the lyrics of a song are misinterpreted because they sound like something else (yes, someone actually went a created an official term for this sort of thing; you can read about it here).

Reminds of the Lionel Richie song "All Night Long" which I always thought started with:

Well my friend, the time has come. Grab the woman have some fun.

Hey, the song is called "All Night Long", right? So taking that into context, the 'grab the woman" line makes sense. But actually, the line is "Raise the roof and have some fun". On paper, the line looks worlds apart, but I dare you to listen to the song and not hear my interpretation.

Anyways, it's funny that I should stumble across this word now because lately I've been listening to a lot of old Michael Jackson songs (I picked up the Thriller 25th Anniversary Album last month) and to me, Michael is the King of Mondegreen. It's amazing that MJ managed the level of success that he did when you consider that so many of his songs are incoherent. If you've heard his sing, you know what I'm talking about; only Mikey could away with warbling, hiccuping, howling and Hee-heeing his way through a song.

Thank goodness for the internet because I can finally look up the official lyrics to all the songs I could never decipher:

Thriller
You feel the cold showl, and wonder if you'll ever see the sun

What's a showl, some kind of monster name? Nope, according to the official lyrics, the line is "You feel the cold hand..." Showl...hand, good one Mikey!

Heal the World
Heal the world, make it a better place. For you and for me and the Anti-Human Race

Anti-human race? Sounds like Mikey was calling for the extermination of man to heal the world. But the actual lyric is "For you and for me and the entire human race"

Smooth Criminal
Ah...I won't even bother. I don't think ANYONE can claim to know the words without access to the official lyrics.

And finally, my favorite Michael Jackson Mondegreen song: Man in the Mirror. Let's look at some choice lines.

As I turn up the color phone
My baby's winter cold
This thing is blowing my mind
I see the kids in the street
Without enough to eat
Who am I to be blind
Pretending not to see them eat

(As I, Turn Up The Collar On
My Favourite Winter Coat
I See The Kids In The Street,
With Not Enough To Eat
Who Am I, To Be Blind?
Pretending Not To Seen Their Needs)

A sighless disregard
A broken bottom town
And a one man store
They follow each other on the way to work
Coz they go no where to go

(A Summer's Disregard,
A Broken Bottle Top
And A One Man's Soul
They Follow Each Other On The Wind Ya' KnowCause They Got Nowhere To Go)

And no moustache, could've bend any clipper

(And No Message Could Have Been Any Clearer)
Hell, that'd be a serious case of facial hair it if could bend a clipper

I've been a victim of
A selfish kind of love
It's time that I realize
There is up with no hope
Not a nika to love (???)
Who dadee, woo dadee (????)
Pretending that they're not alone
A widow deepless God
Somebody's broken heartAnd a washed out jeans
They follow the pattern of the windless seaCoz they got no place to be

(I've Been A Victim Of
A Selfish Kind Of Love
It's Time That I Realize
That There Are Some With No Home
Not A Nickel To Loan
Could It Be Really Me,
Pretending That They're Not Alone

A Willow Deeply Scarred
Somebody's Broken Heart
And A Washed-Out Dream
They Follow The Pattern Of The Wind, Ya' SeeCause They Got No Place To Be)

Ha, good stuff. But regardless, I gotta say that "Billie Jean" still kicks ass after 25 years. Listen to the first 20 seconds of that bass line intro and tell me you don't have urge to bust a move. Ow!!! Hee hee hee, hic!

Quandary

2008-05-21T22:18:00.003+08:00

I saw a news segment about Prayer and the Sichuan Earthquake that got me thinking (before I begin, let me say that I'm not trying to disparage anyone's religious views or beliefs here; I'm simply making an observation).

In the report, several interviewed prayer groups said that they've been praying night and day for the earthquakes to stop. It reminded me of an old dilemma that I've never been able to figure out.

Traditionally, there've been 3 schools of thoughts in terms of God and Bad Things Happening:

1) There is no God
2) There is a God but He doesn't meddle in the affairs of Man.
3) There is a God and everything happens according to His will.

So the conundrum goes like this: something bad happens and people pray to God in hopes that it will stop. But looking at all 3 of the above options, prayer seems to be rather futile because:

1) If there is no God, obviously praying won't do any good.
2) If God is strictly an overseer, He won't interfere in our affairs, thus making prayers ineffective.
3) If everything happens according to God's will, then the occurrence of the Bad Event was part of His plan, meaning no matter what Man prays for, the outcome will remain the same.

So it seems that prayers that wish for an action to happen are somewhat hopeless. Yet, it would be wrong to say that praying is completely worthless. Back in primary school, one of my teachers very wisely taught us that we shouldn't ask for a specific outcome or object in our prayers (e.g. praying to pass an exam or praying that it won't rain tomorrow) but rather we should pray for metaphysical things like strength and peace of mind. So taking the Sichuan Earthquake as an example, instead of praying for the earthquakes and flooding to stop, we should pray that the survivors find the strength to face their coming challenges; that the families of those lost will find peace; and that those of us lucky enough to be unaffected will continue our compassion for our fellow man.

Just my humble observation and opinion.

14:28

2008-05-20T22:33:00.003+08:00

Yesterday's 3 minutes of mourning was such a poetic contrast of events. The stillness and silence wasn't just a contrast to the devastation of the Sihuan Earthquake, but also to the joy and celebration that took place here in HK just 17 days earlier during the Olympic Torch Relay.

It's one of life's little ironies that two such extreme events could bind us all together. But also so fulfilling that no matter the situation, we will come together.

Stanley

2008-05-12T22:09:00.002+08:00

Didn't have anything planned for today but the weather was too nice not go out, so I headed over to Stanley.

Although I'd known about this old police station turned Wellcome for a long while, this was the first time I actually visited it.

The main attraction can be found upstairs

You hardly notice it among all the shelves and products

It's this old fireplace.

Anyways, no visit to Stanley could be complete without a stop at the Pickled Pelican for...the Banana Crumble!!!

Also made a pleasant discovery at the Saffron Bakery

Oodles and oodles of different brownies. I opted for the caramel sauce brownie. Tasty but not overly sweet, just the way I like it.

Mmmm, another yummy reason to visit Stanley.

One country, one love

2008-05-02T21:57:00.004+08:00

Wow, what a happily hectic day. I took the afternoon off to chase the Olympic flame from all the way north in Shatin to all the way south in Central. Crazy amount of running and squeezing between a sea of red-clad supporters but well worth it.

Good thing my office is in Shatin. The moment lunch came I took off and ran to the Shing Mun River. I arrived just in time for the Dragon Boat relay. Couldn't get close enough to the action, but the atmosphere was so fantastic. People left and right - complete strangers really - were talking and laughing and having a great time. The few of us with radios acted as human broadcast speakers announcing every latest news update of the relay.

Although the Olympic flame has been relayed by boat before, this was the first time it was relayed by a Dragon Boat. A technicality, I know, but still something to be damn proud of.

After the flame was passed, the cheer from the crowd and the rowers was amazing. The surrounding boats broke into a joyful sprint.

On my way to the train station, I passed through Shatin Plaza.

What was everyone looking at? You got it, the second most significant part of the relay: the Olympic Horse Statdium

The entire plaza actually quieted the moment the final torch bearer approached the flame dish. It's like everyone was holding their breath, waiting for the dish to light.

Eventually, I made my way down to Central. I figured that it would be least crowded area of the final leg of the relay (watching the news reports later in the evening proved me right). Luckily, I found a spot with a huge unblocked view. Still, the runners were so far away that I had to shoot with a 300mm lens.

Yay! The Hon Mrs. Rita Fan Hsu Lai Tai!!

I planned to make my way to Wan Chai but as you can see from the sea of people, there was no way to get there in time to see the finish. Oh well, can't be too greedy; I'm pretty amazed that I was able to see as much as I did.

Overall a fun day. So great to see so many red clad people walking around, showing their support of the Beijing Olympics. There's been so much China-bashing on the news lately but it's clear that although the detractors may be more verbal, they obviously don't represent even the smallest portion of HK.

中國加油!!!

Each night before the evening news the TV stations broadcast our national anthem. I never gave it much thought before, but tonight when I heard the anthem I got goosebumps all over and my eyes nearly watered up. I'm really not a patriotic person and yet tonight, I was overcome with a feeling of satisfaction and pride.

HKFA 2008

2008-04-14T20:57:00.003+08:00

For the longest time, I had given up on watching the Hong Kong Film Awards ceremonies. You often hear people give their reasons for disliking the show (fixed results, always the same people nominated/awarded, boring) but to me the biggest reason for not watching is the simple fact that it's hard to respect a program that doesn't respect itself.

For example, my biggest beef with the show is the way the Nominee Clips are so randomly cut. These clips are supposed to demonstrate why the nominee deserves to win, which means that they represent the best performance in the entire movie. Yet year after year, the most arbitrary cuts are shown. I remember one year, the category was for Best Supporting Actress and the clip that was played for one nominee featured a scene where she was being embraced by another actress. That alone wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the fact that the nominee's back faced the camera for the entire clip, and all the lines were given by the other actress. I mean, do you really think that scene showcases the nominee's talent? Similar clips involving close-up shots of performers' faces for Best Costume Design were laughably irrelevant.

And then there's the horrible writing for the award presenters. Traditionally, the banter between the presenters wasn't just awkward, it was painful to watch. I always thought to myself, If this is the best that professional writers can come up with, then no wonder the film industry is doing so poorly.

So as I said earlier, it's a matter of respect. How can you expect me to respect the awards show when those responsible for it didn't respect themselves?

Anyways, during dinner last night the restaurant I was at televised this year's awards ceremony so I got to glimpse at bits and pieces. The banter was still insanely painful to watch but I did notice some improvements in the quality of the Nominee Clips. Many of the Acting categories still featured the occasional random cut but other categories like Art Direction and Costume showed rather meaningful clips (BTW, why is Best Costume and Make-up lumped into 1 category? Shouldn't it be broken up into 2? Guess it just shows the lack of importance placed on these 2 aspects; it's all about the performers).

Also, it was nice to see 5 separate nominees in each category. I understand that the HK film industry is very small so it's a bit difficult to have non-repeating nominees, but in the past it was just plain silly to have 1 actor nominated for 3 out of the 5 spots in the same category (although I have to admit that I found it rather funny one year when one of such nominee lost; losing when you have a 1/5 chance is nothing to be ashamed of, but to hold 60% of spots and still lose is pretty embarrassing).

So after 27 years, I guess the-powers-that-be have finally gotten off these asses and have begun to make some changes. It's way overdue, but better late than never.

Make the time

2008-04-08T23:02:00.001+08:00

We live such busy lives today and it seems like there aren't enough hours in a day to do everything we'd like to do. But if something's important enough, you make the time for it.

Y'all know that I'm an exercise freak. I used to exercise 6 times a week (3 days of weights and 3 days of running) but ever since switching jobs, I've had to cut down to 2 days of weight training and the occassional jog. The problem is that leaving work late means that there's no time to go running before dinner, and running afer meals isn't the best of ideas. Luckily, my workplace has a nice little gym complete with treadmills, steps and weight machines. My application was finally approved last week and I did my first session today during lunch. Seems that nobody uses the place so I had it all to myself. Ditto the changing room and showers.

It actually felt pretty refreshing to work out in the middle of the day. Getting the blood pumping, taking a shower and having a light lunch really woke me up for the rest of the afternoon (instead of the usual drowsy feeling after an hour-long lunch).

Who says that longer working hours = no time to stay in shape?

Cheung Po Tsai

2008-04-07T14:03:00.004+08:00

Saturday was bright and sunny so I decided to visit Cheung Chau for a quiet getaway. Normally it gets quite crowded but since this was a long weekend and also Ching Ming festival, most people were either away on trips or paying their respects at cemetaries.

The US Navy is in town so I got a few good glimpses at their ships.

Too bad the USS Nimitz was docked far away and in the fog. It would have been nice to see this supercarrier more clearly

The main objective of this trip was to see Cheung Po Tsai Cave. I've been to Cheung Chau many times but I never got around to venturing to that part of the island. FYI, Cheung Po Tsai was a famous 19th century pirate who eventually became a captain in the imperial navy. The Cave is supposedly one of the places where he hid his loot.

The cove where the cave is located:

A quick history lesson:

This is the entrance to the cave. Really just a gap in the rocks; definitely impossible to find without the all signs and maps.

Once (or if) you manage to squeeze through the small entrance, there's a small ladder that leads down into the cave. Word of advice: bring a strong flashlight with you, because it's pitch black inside. There's a guy who rents flashlights for $5 or $15 for a guided tour. If it's your first time visiting, it's best to go for the tour since it's pretty dark and cramped in there and it's really helpful to have someone point out where all the steps and ladders are.

Here's a photo to show how dark it is even with the flashlight on. Always be mindful of bumping your head against the low ceiling.

Just to give you an idea of how narrow some of the passages are:

Finally, the Exit.

A wider shot of the exit. As you can see from the person exiting, it's quite a small opening.

BTW, you can either walk to the caves from the main ferry dock (takes about 35~40 minutes) or you can take a small ferry called a "kai to":

I'd recommend taking the kai to. It's only $3 and for a 7 minute ride to the cave docks (10 minutes from the cave). Might as well save your strength for all the climbing and squatting needed for visiting the caves.

Afterwards, just walked around to kill time before dinner. Doesn't this look like the head and snout of a pig?

A local fisherman with his crop of kelp

A view from one of the many rock formations:

Don't see many sunsets like this in the city anymore

Will the real Scary please raise her hand?

2008-04-06T14:27:00.005+08:00

You know, I was never a fan of the Spice Girls but I always thought that David Beckham married Posh, aka the pretty one? But considering the Spice Girls reunion and looking at Victoria now, I'm wondering if she should adopt the mantle of Scary Spice?

Exhibit A:

The first time I saw this ad was on the side of a building and it scared the bejeebers out of me. I mean, look at her! I know she's pretending to be a doll but she looks more like a malnourished-zombie-robot-tranny. The harsh lighting and awful make-up don't help but ultimately it's the art direction that makes this photo look so, so wrong.

Actually, I just did a quick Google Image search and came up with the pics below. I think Marc Jacobs must have some sort of issue with Victoria, considering the entire look of the campaign:

My only question is: Did Victoria get to look at the proofs before they were printed? Coz it's hard to believe that anyone would let such grotesque photos of themselves go into a globalwide campaign.

Air May

2008-03-31T21:33:00.002+08:00

So I was ordering an almond latte the other day.

Now typically, I'm a patient kind of guy; I'm kinda bothered when people mispronounce things, but I don't make a big deal about it. But on this day, the waiter decided to tactlessly correct me by repeating my order purposefully emphasizing "le TAY" (as is the typical HK pronunciation). To which I replied "that's right, I'd like an almond LA-tay" (it's entirely possible that my snarkiness was due to my morning coffee-deficiency). Looking back now, I guess it was kind of silly to risk getting a loogey laced latte but that guy was just so friggin' smug (without cause!!!)

Anyways, it got me thinking about all the famous designer names that are often mispronounced, despite the fact that said brands are held in such high esteem. It seems to me that designer-obsession basically breaks down to 2 reasons:

1) You admire the work of a particular fashion label
2) You want people to admire you for using the brand

If it's Case #1, then the least you can do is get the name right; it's just a matter of respect. And for Case #2, pronounciation is all the more important because if you're going to be a snob you need to sound like one (unless you want people to think of you as a neophyte).

I think the problem is that too few people (store employees included) bother to learn know the proper pronunciation and so everyone ends up sticking to what they hear. I understand that getting a grasp of a foreign language can be tricky, but it's not like you're actually learning entire phrases; it's just a name. For example, Versace, Gucci and Chanel could easily be pronounced "Ver-sayce", "Guki" and "Chan-nel" if it wasn't for their ubiquitous presence. Still, there are still several brands (Hermes, Agnes B and Moschino come to mind) that are so popular that it boggles the mind why people still can't get the pronunciation correct:

Ana Sui: ana swee
Agnes B: ahn-yes bay
Comme des Garcons: come day gar-sahn
Givenchy: ji-vohn-shee.
Hermes: air-may
Lancome: long-com
Laneige: la-nezsh
Lanvin: lawn-van
Loewe: lo-eh-vay
Moschino: moss-ki-no
Ralph Lauren: Ralph LOR-ren
Uniqlo: u-nee-koo-lo
Zegna: zen-ya

And while we're at it, here are some names/words I wish people would get right:

Angela: Anne-gel-la. Not Angel-la.
Janet: Jah-net. Not Ju-nette (which is spelled Janette).
Julio: Hoo-lee-o. In Spanish, "J" is pronounced like "H".
Katherine/Kathryn: Kath-rin. Not Ka-threen. If you want to use the "een" ending, then it should be spelled Cathrine.

Espresso: Es-presso. Not Ex-presso.
Mechanism: MECK-can-ism. Not meh-CAN-ism.

And my absolute favorite:

The letter "Z" is pronounced "Zed" or "Zee", not "E-Zed". Why HK schools have been teaching it this way, I have no idea.

Time to let go.

2008-03-22T11:28:00.003+08:00

After all these years, I finally visited Tai O for the first time yesterday. Sadly, despite all the claims of it being a rustic, culturally historical place, I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel like a slum.

On the inside streets, it looked normal enough. Pretty much the same as Lamma Island or Cheung Chau. This huge crowd shows that the place is still a popular weekend/holiday spot

You know, I'm pretty sure that a lot of monster creation special effects guys are familiar with sea creatures (or they go to a lot of ethnic food markets):

Yum, tasty. A mummified shark corpse.

And as expected, there were lots of cats running around:

But where it gets depressing is the very thing that Tai O is famous for: the stilt houses. Claims of this being the "Venice of Hong Kong" are sorely misplaced.

Venice? More like Mumbai. Seeing those dilapidated structures, I couldn't help but feel that I was in the slums of some Third World Country. The draining in the houses emptied directly into the "canals" where local boatmen ferried tourists down. Hey, $20 for a ride down dirty stagnant water...what a bargain!

I tried my best to find a more attractive angle and this was the best I could do. I found this quiet little corner in the back, with a reflection of the mountains.

The colors are nice, but it's still hard to escape the squatter feel.

Over the past few years, there's been a debate over the need for reconstruction. Opponents of this argue that it would take away the quaint, traditional fishing town feel that gives Tai O it's characteristic. It may be true that some time in the past (prior to the big fire in 2000), Tai O was a beautiful place but it's become so fallen apart now that it's time to let go of the past and look at ways to improve living standards. I don't think that any reasonable person would claim that maintaining a slum is a good thing.

I'm all for maintaining tradition and historical sites, but there are times when you have to look at the bigger picture and do what's best for every one. Is it right to keep such squalid living conditions just so tourists have a "traditional" place to visit on the weekends?

The little things.

2008-03-19T22:54:00.002+08:00

Sometimes, it's the little things that can make or break a deal. Case in point: my new Dell notebook workstation.

Here's a photo of the docking bay:

As you can see, it comes with a helpful little diagram on how to dock and undock the notebook:

Problem is, when I received my notebook, it was already docked in the docking bay:

Which means I had to undock the notebook in order to see the diagram that was supposed to teach me how to accomplish this...

Now I'm just thinking out loud, but wouldn't it have made much more sense to put the diagram on the bottom of the docking bay instead of the top? It sure would have saved me all the time it took fiddling with every lever and swtich hoping to find one that would go Open Seseme...

All's well that ends well.

2008-03-18T23:09:00.004+08:00

Went to Cafe on the First in Excelsior, CWB for my b-day dinner. It was OK; nothing out of the ordinary or spectacular. I think that the buffet in Park Lane is better, if for nothing else than because of the Alaskan crab.

To be fair, CotF had a big appetizer selection. But I'm not big on cold dishes at buffets. Just went for some salmon and tuna sashimi, smoked salmon, a small salad and 2 sushi rolls.

Nothing special with the entrees. They were tasty, but there was no Wow factor.

BUT...

Just like a mediocre movie that suddenly becomes good because of a great ending, this dinner was worth the visit because of the dessert selection. Good variety and more importantly, very delectable.

Round 1: tiramisu, fruit tart, orange chocolate mousse, sacher and black forest cake, horn custard pastry, cherry crumble (great mix of crunchy and juicy) and waffles (crispy on the outside, soft on the inside).

Round 2: fruits dipped in dark chocolate, mango crepe, bread pudding, some M&M and sour tots and cookies 'n cream Haagen Dazs

And finally, some fresh fruit.

All in all, 6.5/10 for the food but 8/10 for the dessert.

Fun times

2008-03-17T13:52:00.010+08:00

Quite a fun-filled weekend. A BBQ party, night time shooting and then the HK Flower Show.

First the BBQ. Thx to Gingie for making all the arrangements (even though she's going to charge me $109,700 for it…). It was my first time eating in a Correctional Services Department (aka Prison). Great fun (of course, I was allowed to leave unlike the other inmates). It'd been years since my last BBQ.

Actually, things weren't looking to good at the beginning. Gingie was overly confident in my ability to start a fire without the quick-start ignitable tablets. This is how far I got:

Luckily, GG showed up and showed us the proper way to arrange the charcoals. Not that it was any help, because the fire still couldn't get started (but at least it looked more professional). Finally, a colleague of GG from the pit next to ours was gracious enough to toss us a quick-starter and the flame really got going:

My favourite kind of food: MEAT

And best of all, a homemade blueberry cheesecake. With yogurt filling and a cookie crumb crust!!! The yogurt was a perfect complement to the cheese and took away the usual heavy feel.

Afterwards, we drove into Shek O for some Star Trail photography. One problem though: no stars. And the moon was a bit too bright. I should have brought a GD filter with me because as you can see in this shot below, the trees and skies are nicely exposed, but the moon is totally blown out.

Anyways, since we couldn't shoot stars, we tried our hand at long exposure shots of the sea. Pretty cool effect:

Having done the serious stuff, we decided to try some more creative ways to play with long exposure shots. Let's start with Odie:

Then Gingie:

Then Me (naturally, the most disturbing):

Next came some painting with light. My rendition of Mr. Happy & Mr. Stinky:

And Gingie's version of ;} and her favorite letter

Of course, Odie topped us all with her ability to write her Chinese surname!!!

My failed attempt at "Teru"

But as you can see, the following 2 words came out much better. Just my natural talent, I guess. Yes…I realize how old I am. I was having some pre-birthday fun, so sue me!

I wanted to post a photo of Odie as the legless ghost, but my versions all came out bad. I'll post a pic if I can get a better sample from Ginge's camera.

EDIT: Here it is as promised

Anyways, thanks to Gingie, Odie and GG for a great night. Next time, we take on Man Yi Reservoir!!!

2008-03-05T22:54:00.003+08:00

Finally, the weather warmed up this past weekend. It was so sunny on Saturday that I finally visited the HK Wetland Park. Even though it opened around 2 years ago, I never got around to visiting because

A) It seemed so far away
B) It didn't seem that interesting.

Well, turns out that it only takes a 45 minute bus ride from Admiralty (route 967) but the un-interesting part proved to be true. It's a big park and it's meant to educate about nature and conservation, but the fact is there's very little to see or do there. The biggest problem is that it's smack in the middle of Tin Shui Wai housing estates, so every time you look up you see tall apartment buildings in the background. It really kills the Natural Reserve mood.
I guess fans of birdwatching will be happy to have somewhere to go that's more accessible than the Mai Po Reserve; there are lots of mud huts for enthusiasts to sit in and wait for interesting birds to show up, but the urban location of the park probably prevents a lot of birds from migrating there.

Another attraction is Pui Pui the crocodile. Can you see him in this photo?

How about now?
A bouncy, wobbly floating bridge, with no educational or conservational value, but probably fun for the kids to run up and down.

The visit wasn't a complete loss though. I manged to get an S-Curve photo of this nice looking walkway:

BTW, I originally framed the photo so that the walkway extended all the way to the bottom left corner. But I decided to crop a little higher to create a panoramic frame, and to move the walkway a little off-center to create the illusion of being a path that the viewer can step into. Which version looks better?

Version B:

Oh, and in case this looks familiar, it's because I did a similar (and better) shot a long time ago at Mai Po Reserve:

Anyways, HK Wetland Park isn't a bad place to visit, it's just not a "Wow, I'm so glad I came!" place. It's basically the kind of place you go to just for the sake of saying that you've been there. Kind of like HK Disney Land (actually, haven't visited that either...)