2010 New Year Resolutions - Kao Tim!

Earlier this year I set two goals to focus on for 2010.

1) Get six packs.
2) Blog at least 50 times this year.

The six packs are there (though they show up on a part time basis. They're also a bit shy and may require some flexing and adept positioning of lights to see clearly - but its there trust me!) and this is my 51st blog post for this year. So I think I've achieved terms to declare victory for the first time. Ever!

Hang on Ted, I thought you were going to learn to read Chinese as well?

Err... yes. I did mention that as a goal, but if you read carefully I did not mention that it has to be achieved this year *evil grin*. I did however spent the earlier months of 2010 going through some of the lessons but the habit died off somewhere in April. So its...

So what do I do with the rest of this year? The slacker in me tells me that I can pretty much stop blogging this year and eat fried chicken every other day. Fortunately, I do enjoy blogging and keeping fit so his vote is vetoed. I'll work on offering my part time six packs a full time contract before he does a Wayne Rooney.

As for next year, I'll need to plan my resolutions more carefully and specifically - with the focus on leaving as little leeway for loopholes and procrastination as possible. Oh and maybe I can have a 2 month head start on learning to read Chinese. Maybe...

Defy Aging?

There was a very interesting article that ran in Nat Geo last month.

Remember Einstein's theory of relativity? Well it has been proven on earth that time is affected by gravitational pull. Researchers used two very accurate atomic clocks and placed them at different heights, one about a foot higher than the other. This will expose the lower clock to a slightly higher gravitational pull and sure enough, the lower clock ticked slower than the elevated one.

Now if you're staying in a high rise condominium and going 'Oh crap!' after reading this, you don't need to worry. The difference is so minute that over a 79 year lifetime the variation is only 90 billionths of a second.

It may not make a difference on earth but you know when space travel is available(when and not if) to the masses and enables people to shuttle to different planets with differing gravitational forces, it leads one to wonder if that will have any effect then. Variations may probably not be significant too but tell a woman that she will age more slowly living on another planet and see if there won't be an exodus. Some beauty products don't do much significantly too other than boosting morale and hope and users swear it makes them 10 years younger. Who knows, human colonies in Jupiter (Surface gravity 24.79 m/s²) may be renowned for their youthfulness while their Martian counterparts (Surface gravity 3.71 m/s²) are probably overrun by old hags.

Oh by the way, Mr PM... buat apa you guna saya punya duit bikin itu 100 tingkat tiang!? I see your wife is very concerned about her looks and I don't want her to be affected by the ...er... gravitational forces at such giddy heights. Why don't you use the money to built a rocket (or buy one cheap from China) and send her off to Jupiter where she'll be forever younger? Just a suggestion...

Olympus Trip 35 : A Review

Again, yes I have to admit, another impulse buy and from the same seller that I bought my FED5C as well. I've since ignored all his posts on his blog and facebook page. I think nothing but a mint condition and reasonably priced Leica can tempt me any further than the collection I have now... I hope.

The Olympus Trip 35 also has a selenium light meter (around the lens) but that is where the similarities with the FED ends. The FED is a rangefinder, this is a compact point and shoot. The FED can break your skull while this one will probably only give your skin a bruise. The FED is a bit complicated to use while the Oly can be drawn from your bag, shot and returned in under 5 seconds without your subject even aware of what you have done. The soft click of the shutter helps as well (take note all you stalkers...).

I got this camera before I left for Australia and I quickly shot a roll of Velvia using it. I got mixed results. That made me quite hesitant in bringing this camera for the trip. Thankfully I decided to ditch the FM2 and bring this one along due to its lightness. 

All in all this was a very fun camera to use. Composing was easy enough and since it is practically a point and shoot all you have to do is click the shutter. I especially love the color and contrast of the images thanks to its Zuiko lens. 

After analyzing the shots from the first test roll, the failed ones were mostly the ones that were shot in very dim light while the outdoor shots were perfect. So I kept this in mind while I was in Australia and used it exclusively for the outdoors. However I've been following a Flickr group  for quite some time now and I always marvel at their ability to coax some great images from their Trips in very low light conditions. I don't believe my Trip is not capable of this. I'll need to go and try again. 

If you're thinking of buying this camera, go ahead! There is one thing that you have to be wary about. This camera is essentially a point and shoot and therefore the selenium light cell is key to its functioning properly. Do make sure you confirm that this is in working order before buying. Even if you end up with a non working meter, they're so cheap that you can just get a new one or if you choose, replace the meter. Olympus sold 10 million of these cameras over the years so you don't really have to worry about parts. Hey, maybe I'll get another one for myself too...

Posts with Oly Trip 35 - Beach Outing

Left Behind

The things that people leave behind at the pharmacy counter... whether on purpose or accidentally.

This is quite common. There are some who loathe carrying small change. 

This one is more of absent-mindedness but happens a lot as well. Paying for medicines and forgetting to take it.

Discarding receipts. Also very common. This is why we only issue receipts if specifically requested. 

Hmm, now this one is a first. I didn't exactly see the customer leaving these behind. What's even weirder is that they were left by two separate customers on two different nights. The garlic came first and then followed by the onion few nights later. I'm wondering if the customer saw something that I should be aware of. Vampires? 

Phillip Island Penguin Parade

There are a lot of animals that are unique to Australia - kangaroos, wombats, koalas are among a few of them. A lesser known one is the Gippsland earthworm found in the state of Victoria. These giants can grow up to a length of 3m. Of all the animals we saw down under, the one that I will remember the most are the fairy penguins.

(Image from Wikipedia)

These penguins are not as famous as their more well known cousins the Emperor Penguins. They weren't even  among the 3 different species of penguins featured in the animated movie 'Happy Feet'. They are naturally very small in comparison to other types of penguins with the average adult measuring under 50cm therefore earning them their name (Fairy Penguins, Little Penguins, Little Blue Penguins).

You can see these penguins in a zoo (we saw some of them in Sydney and the Gold Coast) but I do advise you to see them in their natural habitat, Phillip Island. It makes the experience that much more special. There are many day tours that operate from Melbourne that will take you to Phillip Island.

The penguins normally go out fishing as a group at dawn and return to their burrows just right after sunset. This is a safety precaution. Though they are master swimmers and divers in the water, they are not very good at walking. They feet looks disproportionate and not capable of sustaining their own weight on land. If you see them up close, it almost looks like its struggling to walk - almost always stopping and panting after a few steps. Imagine sticking two 20 sen at the bottom of the iPhone and try making it walk. Very wobbly and unstable. It is this handicap that makes them easy targets when they go out and come back from fishing. 

They're not always on time you know

It is also this handicap that makes viewing this awesome penguin parade possible for us. There are stands and walkways built all around the beach where the penguins come home. At the appropriate time, we will be ushered out to fill the seats and await the penguins' return. Once the first group of penguins come ashore, the main spotlights will be switched off within an hour. So normally what  everyone will be advised to do is adjourn to the walkways where we can get a more intimate view of the penguins. Touching is definitely a no no and so is photography. There are many park rangers scouring the vicinity so its better to keep the cameras in your bags. 

An amazing fact is that penguins are generally monogamous. When they find a mate, its really 'till death do us part'. Literally! Penguins will only find another mate once their current ones are deceased. Also, have you ever wondered why penguins have black/blue backs but white bellies? Its another safety design. When penguins are in the water, airborne predators will have a hard time differentiating the penguins from the air thanks to their black/blue coats. The same goes for seaborne predators who look up and see the white bellies that are similar to the rays of light shining in from the sky.  

After many of the tour buses have left, our tour guide asked us to follow him to a corner of the car park where we found a couple of penguins in a dark corner. There weren't any rangers around so I quickly snapped a shot in bulb mode. Can't risk using the flash because that will be like throwing flashbangs in front of them. 

If you're ever in Melbourne, I do urge you to consider going for this. Looking at our itinerary in Melbourne, I thought the highlight of the whole trip will be the 12 Apostles and the Great Ocean Road. I wasn't expecting much from the Phillip Island day trip but I was proven wrong. This was a lot more memorable to me than looking at huge rocks and winding roads!

We couldn't pet them but we did bring one home

Old Is Good

Barely a month after getting my car back from the workshop, another problem appeared. The car boot was always wet during a rainy day and the wooden board that was there had turned into sludge-like material. So it wasn't any good just replacing the board, it had to be certified water tight so this does not happen again. 

There weren't many workshops around that are willing to test for leaks and repair them but I did find one eventually. That was the first time I've been there so I looked around at how their other customers repairs were going along. Interestingly I was the only one at the shop for repairs, all the others were there to upgrade. A burly chinese man was installing new lights and door handles to his Ninja King (Land Cruiser), a JPJ officer was lowering his car and changing the rims and another fella was haggling over a new sport suspension kit but decided in the end to just change the bodykit on his Dmax. 

This got me thinking too... my car is currently about 13 years old and there will definitely be an increased cost of maintenance due to its age, so why not just get a new car? As I was entertaining this thought, I noticed something.

I had the whole car repainted while it was at the workshop and so fast there's a major scratch! Most of the time my car's exposed to a lot of things when I'm at work. Its an open air and a high traffic car park at a hypermarket and who knows someone might have knocked a shopping trolley into it accidentally or parked too close and swung his door open carelessly.

These things are unavoidable in such an environment. I don't know who did it, but I do know that I'm not going to get a new car now. The heartbreak will be a lot more intense! I'll probably drive this one till its wheels fall off or situations or am in a situation that makes it necessary for me to get a bigger/new car.