Signs

Why are the signs are always so mysterious? You never know if you read them right...

Feelings

Are feelings quantifiable? Can they be measured?

Once again, all questions and no answers...

Cookies

Desperado

Don't your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine
It's hard to tell the night time from the day

Really meaningful song. Something for me to think about. Me and all the stupid mistakes that I have made.

After all, I only want the one that I can't get.

Such is the depth of my utter foolishness.

Dream

Sándor Ferenczi, a Hungarian psychoanalyst, once proposed that a dream may communicate an idea that is not being said outright. If that is right, I must have a lot of ideas not being communicated.

Paradigm

Leonard: "Oh God, I am the bad fish!"

Cinnamon

Love

I was recently asked if I loved a certain individual. The first thing that I thought of was this poem.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of everyday's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with a passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.

This is such an elegantly written poem, speaking volumes of what true love is all about. But hidden in the recesses of my mind, there is this thought... but at the moment, it is merely a thought. And if things continue the way it has been, that is all that it will ever be...just a thought.

Wish

Its 11:11, make a wish!

Untitled

I shall change the title when I think of one...

How do I go about it without fucking it up again? I wonder...

Actually, most of the time, I do not fuck it up, it fucks up around me....though the last one was entirely my doing through a very thoughtless act. Stupid stupid me.

But yes...all questions and no answers....Feels just like my econs exam.

Opportunities

What hurts the most is not having the opportunity, but having the opportunity presented to you on a silver platter but you not taking it. The regret is immense...

But what to do? Such is how life plays out. Such is how the roller coaster of life will carry you. Through the up and downs of life, we all just gotta stay positive. Look forward and capture all opportunities that we have from now on.

Unemployed

Well, I'm now unemployed. Taking a short rest before starting uni.

Coincidentally, I'm down with conjunctivitis. Means I really need to rest. Finally some sleep after all these months of late nights and early mornings.

Rest

Due to a recent spate of injuries and FOC that I have just attended, I have taken a 12 day sabbatical from any form of gym work. Tomorrow is the day I will test myself, though I already know that I have lost a lot of muscle mass.

On a side note, FOC was insane!

Zeiss

This is really cool! Zeiss on an iPhone 4.0!

Its not about whether it makes sense or not. I would want to do it just because I can.

Effect

Its amazing the effect you have on me. But its only you...

Inefficiency

So we suffer because of your inefficiency and inadequate, substandard planning?

Screw you!

Indifference

The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference

Work

只要功夫深，铁棒磨成针!

Work at it!

Squat

"Yes, if you squat wrong it fucks things up. If you squat correctly, those same fucked-up things will unfuck themselves."
-Mark Rippetoe

Conundrum

Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Decisions.

Idealism

I wanna know...have you ever seen the rain.

Talk about fading idealism and dying dreams. Dreams of glory. Passionate goals.

Strive!

We must achieve!

PacMan

Read an article here which states that the number on man hours wasted on the Google PacMan logo amounted to $120m US Dollars. Interesting read.

Backup

Saw this on a website that I frequent. Seems really useful. Much better than the IDE-to-USB connectors, albeit more expensive. But this would solve the heat problem with a standard hard disk, along with the lack of messy cables running round

Revelation

Was reading random articles on Wikipedia and I suddenly saw it. It was like a revelation.

Pythagoras Theorem is a derivative of the Rule Of Cosines

Efficiency

Its amazing how some people think that using Ctrl-C & Ctrl-V is doing things efficiently.

Using a built-in command to compile...THAT is efficiency.

Market

Excellent comic found here. Kinda explains how irrational the market can be.

Blink

Just finished reading "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell. It brought forward a very interesting concept. It explains that humans make split second decisions that are actually very accurate. Sometimes even more so than long tests and expert opinion.

But the most interesting concept that one that our subconscious affects how we function. And it affects to a larger extent than most of us ca comprehend. I took a test that was mentioned in the book and below are the results.



Interesting. Considering that I thought I treated slim and fat people equally.

Search

Would doing a search on two single quotation marks yield the same result as doing a search on a double quotation mark?

Courage

Faint heart never won fair lady....

How

Till now I always got by on my own
I never really cared until I met you
And now it chills me to the bone
How do I get you alone
How do I get you alone

How? Like the lyrics of "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" say, "So many things to tell her, but how to make her see". How?

Emotion

Think I have too much pent up in me.

Been having very random dreams with lots of emotions involved.

Looking at you makes me wonder if it could be me.

On another note, Alison Lee! Where art thou?

Thoughts

They say its better to know and be disappointed, than to never know and always wonder. But what if finding out could cause the end of the friendship? Is the minute chance worth this huge risk? We'll never know. Such is the complexity of human emotions.

Passion

Its extremely important to be passionate about what you do. If the passion is there, the desire will always be there. Obstacles are nothing when you have passion.

Below is a picture depicting two of my passions. Photography and gymming.

Losses

What do you do if you know you cannot win? If what you want is unobtainable?

You cut your losses early, and drop the idea totally.

Screw.

Resistance

Citigroup has finally broke through the $3.70 resistance levels and closed at $3.87 post market. Hopefully this means a support level at around $3.85 and it can try to push the $4.00 barrier.

March 16th should be interesting when the Treasury can start to sell its 27% stake in the company. Any revivials in stock price should come after that.

Jim Cramer placed a very very optimistic $12 expectation on the stock. I honestly think that its too much. Using the high end of the estimates, it still only goes to slightly more than $8.00.

Crab

Grease

You're the one that I want!

Quake

Came across this link.

Its quite amazing that a quake can shake the earth off its axis.

ACS

Sing ACS forever more
Our ACS forever
God save our land and heaven bless
Our ACS forever

124 years and the passion is still burning. We will always be a part of ACS and ACS shall always be a part of us!

The best is yet to be!

Interocular

Word of the day: interocular

Thoughts

At night, I lie awake and think of the present and what I have, the past and what I lost, and the future and what I will gain.

Assuming all goes well...

Assuming is doesn't go to shit....

Scouts

Happy Scouts Day to all!

Not a day that means a lot to many, but it brings back tons of memories. Scouts taught me tons. Almost on par with what I learnt in the army. And at the young age, it was experience that became very very useful later in life.

Do a good turn daily! Be prepared! And go and change the world!

Quote

"The vastness of space and time and I ended up here"

Lorry

For the uninformed. This site explains it all.

Portrait

Hollow

How to put the glass down? I would just need to pick up the same glass the next day.

And to put the glass down for good? It wouldn't work.....it just wouldn't.

Dawn

Apple

Apple has done it again. Check out the new Apple "tablet", known as the iPad, here. Competitively priced, this could change the whole playing field.

The iPad is basically an upsized iTouch. With a 10 hour battery life, it looks like a promising venture on Apple's part, especially after their previous failed attempt to enter the PDA market with the Newton. Personally, I wouldn't say that this competes with other tablets on the market. I think it competes more with eBook readers like the Kindle from Amazon and the Nook reader from Barnes and Noble. Its a more interactive reader that offers a larger range of featutes and connectivity options. The ebook store will also do for books, what the iTunes Music store did for records, it will shift the focus from conventional books to ebooks.

Look at the possibilities for a photographer. The ability to bring his portfolio along with him at all times (shown on such a brilliant display), the ability to shoot tethered from an iPad. Wow!

On another totally seperate note, the world makes sense again. Manchester United beat Manchester City 3-1 to enter the final of the Carling Cup Final 2010.

Whose that twat from Argentina???

Naming

I have to say that the Nissan Bluebird probably has the be the largest naming farce to grace the planet earth.

Fiction

Inspired by Shuning's post, I shall attempt to conquer some of the books that are listed on the following list.

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here.
How do your reading habits stack up?

1 Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11 Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch – George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House – Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
27 Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
34 Emma – Jane Austen
35 Persuasion – Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne
41 Animal Farm – George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
45 The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies – William Golding
50 Atonement – Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi – Yann Martel
52 Dune – Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night – Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
62 Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History – Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road – Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick – Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
72 Dracula – Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses – James Joyce
76 The Inferno – Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal – Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession – AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple – Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web – EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
94 Watership Down – Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet – William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

Just listing it down as a record of sorts. Will try to conquer it in order. Which kinda sucks as most of those that I want to read a further down the bottom.

Serenade

Listened to the above album and thought that I would give a mini-review of sorts.

The title of this album is "Painted Desert Serenade". Written by Joshua Kadison, this album has a very laid back feel. Through this album, Kadison mainly explores the theme of love.

In the title song, Kadison sings about his relationship with an old lady. It sings volumes about how love trenscends boundaries set by traditionalist. His voice matches the lyrics perfectly, bringing out all the hidden emotion of this song.

I would also recommend "Jessie" and "Mama's Arms". The former speaks about his longing for a girl that left him, but wants him back again, and the former is about a mother's love.

In all, I think this album is an awesome album and one that everyone should listen to and learn to appreciate.

Watson

Been listening to Russell Watson recently. Chanced upon this song "Catch The Tears". I think the chorus is very meaningful. And speaks true of many life situations.

Who's always there to catch the tears
When they fall
Who do you run to
Who do you always call
Who's there with the shoulder when you're feeling sad
When will you see me as more than that

Planimal

Came across this.

In short, the article writes about the discovery of a new creature that appears to be half animal, half plant. It appears that the slug has "stolen" the genes needed to allow the creature to photosynthesize.

They are even able to pass the genes to the next generation, although the babies will need to eat enough algae to steal the chloroplasts needed for photosynthesis to take place.

Imagine if we had chlorophyll in us....we would look like Na'vi's from the movie "Avatar" albeit green and not blue. And if we were broke, we would just lie in the sun to photosynthesize. Amazing!

Pop

Its pretty sad that after 22 years, Michael is still learning how to rock.

Cufflinks

Happy New Year!

No resolutions again this year. They are overrated and forces you to feel disappointed when you eventually realize that you aren't going to keep them.

Poetic

Words are flying out like
endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass
They slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow waves of joy
are drifting thorough my open mind
Possessing and caressing me

Really poetic lyrics. I feel its one of the best songs ever written by The Beatles.

Plushie

As requested by Janice, I'm updating my blog.

Finally, a portrait of my favourite photo subject...my lion!

Alhambra

Tinge

Fly away 无穷无尽是你深邃的眼睛
看著你 就可以让我茫茫人海里感到安定

You never know do you?

Comfort in my time of need....

Random, unconnected thoughts....unconnected to you anyway.

Cheers!

Child

What brings about such a nature?

Why the pettiness of a seven-year-old?

Its amazing that you miss it when it perfectly describes what you are.

And i'm not talking about the child-like innocence.

But the petulance...the sheer behavioral nature of your actions.

Much like a school playground scuffle.

You carry the wounds with you through life....and possibly to your grave.

You are driving such a vessel, propelled by your severe insecurity and pathetic nature.

Hiding behind a shield of worldly pleasures.

Scared to face reality.....scared to face the world.

Failure.

Unbelievable...Purely, utterly unbelievable.

But I don't care. If anything, my overseas tour has taught me to effective block out emotions when things need to be done.

Woots! (Ok, that was pretty random. But who cares? Avogadro! Haha!)

Competition

Was reading the papers this morning can came across this letter on the forum page.

The writer is obviously writing this letter from the perspective of the consumer, without looking at this matter from the other side.

Why should Singtel accept Starhub's offer? I believe that Singtel paid a lot to secure "exclusive broadcasting rights" to the EPL. Why should they accept Starhub's offer? It doesn't make any sense no matter which way I look at it. The amount that Singtel earns from each customer paying for the sporting plan is marginal; maybe even at a loss. My guess is that their profits come mainly from customers subscribing to other channels at the same time, as well as the main, primary package. This razor-and-blade kind of business model would only work, if consumers purchase more than the main package. With such a huge fee being paid by Singtel, its hard to see how they would be making a substantial profit solely through sporting channels.

It is also likely that hardcore EPL fans will switch service providers in order to carry on watching the sport that many hold dear. So why give up this potential goldmine? No reason whatsoever...

Utterly ricidulous in my opinion.

Ouch

I feel like my gluts exploded

Liberation

Total liberation this time.

ORD Lo!!!

Shooting

Finally got down to shooting. Been kinda out of form recently. Need to get the spark going again. But hey, at least I got down to doing something.

Concert

Woots! She is finally coming! Haha

VLC

VLC is perfect sans for one small problem. The lack of controls in full screen mode. In most other areas, it performs well with little bugs.

Pensieve

It’s not very often that I reveal emotions on a public domain such as this. But I think this occasion certainly warrants such a post.

I have just returned to Singapore after an overseas stint.

Spending this amount of time away has led me to make many gains. I have learnt tons; much more than I would learn anywhere else during these two years. Learnt about the world, about human relations, about leadership and above all else, learnt more about myself.

But that is just a side story. This post is for the seven other dudes that helped me along the way. Of course, many others have shared my pain along this journey, especially friends in Singapore. But no one else has endured what we have. So here goes…

QX, don’t be so depressed yea? It will all be over soon. Remember what Ervin told us when we first got there? I have queued for my meal and have started to eat. Yours is coming soon. Hang in there.

Poon, thanks a billion for your help man. It really helped to have someone that I knew (albeit briefly) to go through shit. Been nice to know you better which I never had the chance to do so after I got out of kayaking. Cheers!

Chiam, my fellow Ninja buddy. I think we never give you enough credit for the work that you do and the help that you contribute. To top it off, we tease you and shit. But no hard feelings ya? ORD Lo!

Colin, hang in there. As I told QX, you turn is coming soon. Just suck it up and do it. You’re almost there. Still on for dinner on your ORD day?

YC, we have never had a terrific relationship. But life is like that. You will never go through it without conflict. Regardless, thanks for your help too! No hard feelings too

ZR, didn’t spend as much time with you as I did with the others due to your late arrival here. But I’m very happy that you came up here. See you for 鸡扒面 very soon.

Lastly, Ernest. You have always done the most shit work out of all of us. It has been nice working with you in the office when we had to push out multimedia stuff. Keep up with the exercise and you’ll tone up very well. You really looked very sad when you sent us off at the airport. Almost there yea! Hang in there!

Got through this unscathed, we have. Embark on the next journey of our lives, we will. I wish you all the best. It has been my pleasure to serve with you.

After all, the culture is strong…

Ramblings

Deep in my heart I'm concealing
Things that I'm longing to say

Tissue

I have never approved of using a packet of tissue as an ad-hoc "Reserved" sign. Seems that this lady doesn't too.

Just leave one person behind to watch the table. Wouldn't that be so much easier and more considerate.

Paradox

"This page is intentionally left blank"

Not very blank now is it?

Poken

Came across this recently and was rather impressed with it. Haven't had the time to look into how it works and the interface and stuff like that, but I can foresee one major problem with this.

Not many people will have it.

Hell

Hell knows no bounds.

It unleashes all its fury.

It uses us and then throws us to its hell hounds as chew toys.

By the end, we are all just chewed meat.

What glorious shit has been thrown into our faces.

What huge-ass arrows have come our way.

Asshats.

But I don't care. I am going to ORD.

Frozen

"Friendships freeze up, then dethaw..."

The word 'dethaw' was a little off...but the message came through loud and clear. Its been something on my mind for the past few days. As usual, questions but no solutions....

Thank you for being a sounding board. Means a lot to me :)

Actually to all you peeps who have lent me their ears, thank you!

Sucker

Why do we always end up being the suckers?

P.T Barnum once said

"There is a sucker born every minute"

How true...

Fight for it! Possible? Hope so...

Powershot

Canon has released an update to the G10. The G11 looks good in the press release.

At least there is some form of RAW support unlike the Panasonic LX3.

Why fix something that ain't broken. The G9 was awesome, the G10 slightly less so. Lets hope the G11 bucks the trend and improves.

Ape

Stupidity

Rare that I post twice in a day, but I came across something here that I really must talk about.

This lady (I shall try to be nice here) wants to ban all NSF's and NS men from taking public transport. She claims that she was on a bus when a group of "army boys" boarded. And they were sweaty and smelled.

I think that she has some serious issues.

Disturbing to know that there are people in Singapore who feel that they are not being well protected by the military force, but choosing not to migrate away. If she really feels that our servicemen are not doing a good enough job defending the nation, move! Get your lazy, rich, gigantic ass out of the nation.

What does she have against servicemen? She expects us to take a cab with what allowance we receive from the government. If she has such high standards, why doesn't she take a cab herself?

Retard in every bloody sense of the word. It is Singaporeans like that which disgust me...

Crushed

CS4

I have been looking at Adobe Photoshop CS4 and I must say, I am really impressed by what I see. It is a huge huge upgrade over CS3. I will talk about some features that really interests me.

Firstly, it is reported to be much faster than CS3. That alone is immensely important. The loading time for CS3 is really crappy. Coupled with the time taken to open files and save documents.

Secondly, there is this feature called "Content-aware Scaling". This feature allows the user to scale the background, without affecting the main subject much. For example, I have a picture of a cactus in a desert. I can scale the desert to any ratio without making it look weird. I cannot, on the other hand, do the same with the cactus. In the past, I would have to cut the cactus onto another layer and do the scaling. Now, Photoshop does it for me.

Thirdly, the panoramic stitching and tone mapping features are much better.

Lastly, is a feature listed as "Extended Depth-of-Field". This is the feature that I am most excited about. It allows one to create a single shot, from a series of shots that are focused on different point in the frame. This allows the creation of an image that is sharp front-to-back without stopping down the lens, losing sharpness in the process...

Pity my computer is unable to support it at the moment.

Nifty

I have been wondering why Olympus hasn't updated the pancake lens in a while. I'm sure many wouldn't mind sacrificing a little size to get a wider maximum aperture. Maybe something like a f/1.8 or even better, an f/1.4....imagine that...

Cloud

I have been thinking about backing up my data on the cloud. Just look at the benefits. Small monthly payment, secure backups, backups in a different location, automated backup process. Backblaze seems to fit my requirements fairly well. I probably should do a bit more research before I jump in though.

Detained

Having read in recent months about the unjust "imprisonment" of Aung San Suu Kyi, there are some thought that I feel I need to express.

For the uninformed, Ms. Suu Kyi is currently being detained by the Burmese Junta for infringing on the (ridiculous) terms of her house arrest. Sometime in mid-May 2009, an American by the name of John William Yettaw swam across the moat surrounding her place of residence. He was allowed to stay two days before he swam back.

Her trial is obviously unfair towards her. How can the prosecution be allowed 14 witnesses and her only allowed one (and this after two witnesses were rejected by the court).

She has been under house arrest in 13 of the past 19 years. My guess is that she will be under it for a lot longer as the Junta attempts to hold power. Power which does not rightfully belong to them. Ms. Suu Kyi actually won the 1990 general elections and should have rightfully claimed the title of Prime Minister, but the Junta refused to hand over power and placed her under house arrest.

How will this trial play out, I do not know. Fairly I hope...

Iraheta

Woots! Allison Iraheta is releasing an album under the same label as Allen and Lambert. It would be interesting to find out if it will play out like the Clay-Ruben saga in which the runner-up becomes more successful than the winner.

3.0

iPhone 3.0. The long awaited update to the iPhone. It looks good. Better security, improved camera. Longer battery life. There even is a feature to prevent your iPhone from getting stolen, or worse, let your data get into the wrong hands.

Coming to Singapore in July '09. Look for it.

Interesting that the iPhone update came near the release of the Palm Pre. Looks like a war for the smartphone market is coming up. And that only means one thing, better phones at cheaper prices.

Allen

Haha. Kris won...Woots

Lambert

Adam Lambert will win American Idol. I am not saying this from a fan boy perspective. In fact, I do not like his singing and very much would prefer Kris Allen to win. His singing really tugs more at one's heartstrings. But back to the point, this is why Adam will win.

Humans are selfish and loyal. If fact, they are loyally selfish and selfishly loyal. When ones favourite is knocked out of the competition, there is a natural tendency to stop voting. So if you divide the rest of America into 4 main groups, it is obvious who will win.

Dividing into "Straight Men", "Gay Men", "Straight Women" and "Gay Women", you can almost assign who will vote for whom. The homosexual group will vote for Adam because there are reports that he is gay, the straight women will vote for Adam because he is hot. And the Straight Men will vote for Kris because he is the only other one left.

Of course, this goes by the assumption that America votes primarily on race, gender and religous loyalties rather than by vocal ability. And that is an assumption that one can readily make looking at the history of American Idol. Look at it, Taylor Hicks, Jordin Sparks, Ruben Studdard winning while Clay Aiken, Chris Daughtry, Blake Lewis, Katherine McPhee coming in short.

I really hope that I am wrong here though. This is one time where I would love to be proven wrong.

Windows

They say that eyes are the windows to the soul. But are they? True, they may shed some light on what deep, inner thoughts lie within the individual, but at the same time, such hidden emotions may remain as such, hidden. Beneath a bright, jovial, positive could lie a sea of self-doubt and sadness. Eyes may be the windows to the soul. But just as curtains and blinds distort what others see, do not judge a person by his outer self.

Random ramblings.....thought-provoking, but random. And here is the photo that sparked this train of thought off.

Idol

I have been watching the American Idol finals with some sort of a renewed vigour this season. Some of the contestants that I liked didn't make it from the Top 36 into the Top 13. I shall share some of my thought about the contestants this year as I feel that this is the strongest group that I have seen. Never really got into feeling Jasmine, Alexis, Anoop and Jorge. Couldn't connect with them. Especially Anoop. Really hate his performaces. Can't understand why the judges like him. But well, its their opinion. Adam Lambert...Great vocals but crappy stage presence. His swagger is really irritating at times. But his "Black Or White" was somewhat amazing if you close your eyes and focus solely on the vocals. Michael was an average singer at best, but was really let down by some song choices. Allison is really great. She manages to put a rock twist on all her songs. Really calm and composed for a 16 year old. She is just 16 but woah....Excellent vocals. Scott is really getting to me. Some people (Liju...and Liju...and Liju) don't like his voice or his performance. But he is really sincere about what he does and I can feel that he is trying to connect with the audience. Matt is great. Period. Danny is good. But couldn't connect with him till this week. Much like Lil' and Kris. Only recently have I opened up to them. I really liked Megan. She had this unique quality to her voice that I found endearing and really nice. Pity she is out though. Bad song choices in the last couple of weeks. Eagerly awaiting the finals. Should be a tough call to make given the strength of the talent pool this year. Will be fun to watch.

Return

In about 24 hours I shall return to a location that I will call home for the next 6 months.

Fallen

No, not me. But sounds like a good caption.



Stand tall.

Noise

I need a camera with much better low light performance. The amount of noise created is sick.

Honestly sick.

There is so much noise that detail is being taken out.

And I wish Olympus would release an update to their 25mm (EFL 50mm) f2.8 pancake lens.

Hopefully a 25mm f1.4 or f1.8 lens.

Now that would be good...The bokeh would be beautiful.

Innovation

One look at the new iPod Shuffle and it is evident that it is an Apple product.

The clean lines...

The curves...

The elegant design...

But there seems to be something missing. No, I do not mean buttons.

I mean Mr. Jobs.

Its just different. I cannot understand why they would move the buttons onto the earphones. That would mean that third party earphones will not work without an adapter.

The difference here is that Steve Jobs would be able to convince you that having the button on the earphones is a major improvement. He would be able to sell this "imperfection" (for lack of a better word).

Without Steve Jobs, there would be no Apple today.

Without Steve Jobs, will there be an Apple tomorrow?

Climb

C'mon....keep climbing.....Don't stop....

Touchdown

Back.

Bankrupt

It is reported here that Ritz Camera is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

For those who do not know, Ritz Camera is the largest camera reseller in the United States of America. They owe Canon and Nikon a total sum of USD$40m, broken down into USD$26m to Canon and the rest to Nikon.

The only conceivable reason that such a huge retailer will fall is that customers are moving towards buying their purchases online. The only reason that I would buy something from a reseller, is the value-added services that they provide. There is no way that they would be able to match Amazon in price.

Perhaps this is the only way to survive in such a cut-throat business world. You have to provide excellent service.

On another note, Annie Leibovitz, one of the most celebrated portrait photographers has put up the rights to all her photos as collateral in exchange for a 15.5 million dollar loan.

Woah....

I mean, Annie Leibovitz is one of the most successful photographers, possibly ranking along side people like Ansel Adams. For her to be facing such a financial catastrophe is unthinkable. She must be damn bloody cock-sure that she will pay off her debts though.

Interesting......

Slow

I can't take it anymore

No more shit

I'm starting to get desperate.

My laptop is running too slow....Reformat......

Yes! Reformat.

Norm

Why are people so afraid of change? The comfort of the present?

If it ain't broke, should we fix it?

Even technology conforms to the norm. A camera sensor would see the world to be 18% grey, depressing as that sounds.

Change? Change is the only constant.

Thoughts

I have been in a strangely pensive mood recently.

Thinking about things that are far beyond my control. Even for things that are within my control, I have been thinking way too deeply. Some nights I am exhausted, but I just can't seem to fall into a peaceful slumber. Its like my body wants to shut down, but my brain just keeps working. If only I could study while I was asleep, that would be cool.

Talking about studying while I was asleep, a few nights ago, I dreamt that I was calculating ionic character. Interesting, considering that I read through the formula about a week back, but can't recall it.

Questions

Many questions, no answers.

Somebody help me.

Megapixel

Was listening to a podcast when a debate over the megapixel war began.

I think not many people will agree with me, but the number of megapixels are really unimportant. When you go to any consumer-orientated electronic store and ask about a specific camera model, the salesperson will almost definitely say "This camera has xx.x megapixels".

So what? Does the number of megapixels really determine how great your photo is? In order to fit the same number of megapixels on a sensor of equal size, the manufacturers essentially increase the number of individual sensor pixels while at the same time, shrinking them. This leads the less light being captured, forcing the camera to increase the voltage to the sensor.

At the end, all you have is a noisy photo.

Why do people think that resolution and picture quality are the same thing? And honestly, you will only need high resolution images if you want to print them. Even if you were printing images, a 3MP camera would produce beautiful A4 sized prints.

I would buy a point-and-shoot with a 3-4MP sensor, RAW capture, a hotshoe mount and ISO up to 3200, maybe even 6400. Just so that I can get beautiful, noise free images in the day, and usable pictures taken in the dark.

Stop the megapixel war and focus on other things that matter more like reducing noise at high ISO and improving the optics of consumer cameras.