Season's Greetings

It's been an unforgettable year for many reasons and we'll cherish the good ones and learn from the bad. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2012!

An Altercation

Something interesting happened this morning. I was with a customer and suddenly there were these voices (a young man and an uncle) shouting at each other. I didn't see the incident before that but apparently a child was playing around while his parents were paying at the cashier and didn't see the uncle pushing a trolley in the adjacent lane and got his head knocked. A very minor incident, not even a bruise... but not for the father. His fists were raised and ready to strike the much older man down.

The younger man ironically shouted that the uncle had no manners and didn't even apologize, and the uncle said back to him in this frame 'as if you should be talking about manners'

To the uncle's credit, he tried to calm the younger man down saying that he didn't see the child running or turning, and the parents should have been more mindful of their child. The younger man got so pissed that it could have been his fault and started shouting at the uncle, that he should be more careful when there are children around.

The 'triumphant' father who has defended his family's honor...or has he?

The whole thing is silly really, it's really no one's fault and accidents happen all the time. So has the young man really won? It would appear so. But then again, what the father is saying indirectly to his child is

1) It doesn't matter if it's your fault, I will bring you their severed testicles on a plate for lunch.
2) It's ok to be rude.
3) It's ok to be disrespectful to strangers, especially the weak and elderly.

Great parenting dad! Watch out for the little one during his rebellious teenage years... you won't be spared.

Bugs and Beeps

2 bugs and 2 dragon beeps (soft shutter release)

Yes I'm preparing for the X10... heheh

Modified Nutella Cake In 90 seconds (+++)

It definitely took way more than 90 seconds to make this. I actually got this recipe from here which linked to here, who got the recipe from here (... thank goodness for rebloggers I guess?). It looked simple enough so I had a go.

I didn't have any cocoa powder at home, so I used the next best thing - Milo Fuze 3-in-1. This also eliminated the need to add any sugar, the instant pack milo is sweet enough.

Ingredients
1) 1 tablespoon (and a bit more) of Nutella
2) 1 heaping tablespoon of flour
3) half teaspoon baking powder
4) 1 packet Milo Fuze 3-in-1
5) 1egg (beaten)

Mix everything together and put the mixture into a microwaveable bowl or container. Set the microwave to 70% and set the timer for 40-60 seconds. I initially set 30 seconds but nothing happened. So I set another 20 seconds and saw the thing 'rise'. It's mostly trial and error, watch it closely to see it still retains that moistness.

Ta-da! Yes, it's as delicious as it looks. Seriously! Will add a scoop of ice cream next time I make this.

Wishlist

Fujifilm X10, I can't remember the last time I've been this tempted by a digital camera...

X10

Well to be fair, I was a bit tempted when it's elder brother, the X100, was launched but the price was a turn off. This one may be a stripped down version of the X100, but there are some things I like about it - Full HD video mode and zoom lens.

Image from Guido ... I want that black and white ladybird on the X100 shutter button too!

It seems I may have to clear out my dry cabinet to make a space for this fella...

How Come I Didn't Notice This Before?

A customer was returning some strips of blood pressure medications he had bought from me earlier because there wasn't a need for it anymore. He's one of the very few people who has managed to control his BP and come off the medications.

So I was checking to see if the medications have already expired and I noticed something...

Top to bottom : Spade, Heart, Square, Asterisk, Pentagon

See those symbols next to the batch number? Has it always been there? Why didn't I notice this before? There are 2 sets of each symbol in a box of 10 strips. This is the first time I've seen something like this and I think it's quite cute. Anyone else noticed this?

Some people handle situations...

...some situations handle people.

Recently my staff had a huge personal problem and took a few days off to settle it. Normally my stance towards issues like this is that work and personal issues are two separate entities and should never mix, but in real life that's not always possible. Days turned to weeks and to say that we weren't affected at all would be a lie. Yes, we were short-handed at the office, but more importantly concerned for her. We've all worked together for so long that we know each other quite well. To cut a long story short, she initially decided to 'settle' her problem by avoiding it and thought it will go away by itself, but we know that this can sometimes make it worse and it did. Thankfully she came to her senses much later on, put her foot down and with a couple of police reports lodged, things are heading in the right direction.

You know what they say, that challenges can either make or break you, and I'm glad that it was not the latter. I got to talk to her after that and I can sense the determination and courage in her, qualities that were lacking before. A couple of things I learn from this -

1) Never whine about what a deep mess you're in. Focus your energy instead of solving that mess. I won't go so far to say be thankful for challenges, but you'll definitely be better off one way or another after having gone through it.
2) If something calls for urgent action, ignoring it won't do you any favors. You will still have to face it later on, together with all the additional problems caused by your inaction.
3) It's important to have people you can count on for help and support. No man is a pulau.

I hope I'll remember all this when I'm going through a rough patch.

Hate Broccoli?

I know I used to. These days I've made peace with it, eating it for its benefits rather than for its taste. But there's way to get around that bitterness and what you do is overcook the damn thing.

There's this article that I enjoyed reading and I must admit I wouldn't have a clue what it was going on about if I'd read it 4 months earlier. After my son's delivery, the confinement lady (CL) prepared all our meals. We purposely went and bought a rice cooker (yes we didn't have one before that) that allowed for steaming. CL would cook the rice and to save time, (and tend to the baby and other chores) she set the rice to cook with the vegetables in the above compartment to steam. Many things have been said about not overcooking vegetables and the decreasing nutrient contents with prolonged cooking, but I guess that was the last thing on CL's mind.

The results were surprising. The vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, snow peas) became soft, sweet and pleasantly disintegrated without much chewing. Broccoli? Sweet? You'd better believe it. So what happened here?

"It's true that when vegetables, especially cruciferous vegetables, are cooked, the damage to the plant's tissue brings about reactions between compounds that are usually kept separate," he said—hence the sulfuric aroma. But, he emphasized, if you continue to cook these foods, "at a certain point the aroma will dissipate, and you'll end up with the flavor compounds left in the plant, including its sugars—especially if it's cooked and served in a way that the sugars aren't poured out with the cooking water."                                                     -from 'The Soft Approach' article

So here's a tip when cooking for picky eaters who hate greens, overcook it! It is a fact that the anti-cancer properties of broccoli is highest when raw (yucks!) or lightly cooked, but I think it's a better compromise this way, eating diminished nutrients vs none at all.

Nyan

I would have preferred a propaganda sticker with a dog instead, but come on, Chairman Meow? Genius!

Peek-a-boo!

Somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd month of life, Cyrus started blabbering and using his voice to express a wide range of emotions. His first word wasn't mama or papa but Earl (highly disputed by my wife who claims he was saying uggh instead. I beg to differ...). The one event that made us drop everything and stare at him was when we realized he was laughing. Oh yes he'd smile before this, and try to laugh, but always without the accompanying audio.

Why are babies amused by peek-a-boo? And we tried peek-a-boo-ing with two people hiding behind the blanket instead but he wasn't amused at all. Then we returned to just one peek-a-boo-er and he resumed laughing like normal. Remind me to check the rules regarding multiple peek-a-boo-ers/peek-a-boo-ees.

NATO Straps

I must admit that I'm not a very careful person sometimes and because of this I seldom wear a watch with a metal bracelet anymore.

That's 14 years of wear and tear, I remember wearing it to play football too

Recent watch purchases have seen me opting for leather or rubber straps instead. The above mentioned watch hasn't featured in my watch rotation for a couple of years now, making that odd appearance only for special occasions. It was a gift from my father and a watch which I like very much. I feel it's a bit of a waste if it just sits in my drawer. Then some random links led me to a forum where they were discussing the origins of the NATO strap and I knew I had to get one...or maybe two.

Ok maybe more than two

What I like about the straps is that they can be changed according to what my outfit for the day is. And there's always a plain black NATO or leather for more formal occasions. The only thing I had to learn to do is remove the spring bar and the old strap, then it's plain sailing after that. I ordered both the NATO and the ZULU straps (with the rounder rings) but after trying out both, I still prefer the NATO ones. 

One of my favorite combo at the moment, Seiko 5 Military Sports

I like the straps so much that I'm thinking of getting some more!

A Milestone

Baby Cyrus has turned 2 months last weekend! He's grown at such a rapid pace that I use him for weight training now.

There was a bit of a worry when Cyrus produced this weird black pepper like stools 2 days after his 2 month vaccination. He didn't have any fever and was looking and acting his normal self. We were stumped, but decided to wait and see since it was a Sunday and the clinic was closed. We found out that the vaccination can cause diarrhea but it mentioned nothing of this. Thankfully it got less and less and disappeared totally the next evening.

As you can see from the pattern, I caught the explosion 'mid-spray'

I've not been able to do a lot of thing that I used to do (Develop film? Catch a movie? Get enough sleep? Forget about it!)  All these have taken a back seat for the time being. This goes without saying, but having a baby changes everything.

I'm not complaining though. When he rewards us with such a smile, everything is worth it. In fact my wife was saying that he's growing so fast that she regrets that we can't spend more time with him because of work. That makes every second we spend with him that much more precious, even if it's watching him sleep.

East vs West

So how do you spot an East Malaysian at the KL LCCT Airport? Easy, go to the LCCT Emporium and check out the Gardenia buns section. He/she will most likely have a shopping basket full of buns.

Ok, maybe that was an over-generalization. That person could've been buying for an East Malaysian friend he/she was visiting. The first time I became aware that Gardenia don't sell their buns here was when my wife asked me to get her some Gardenia Ikan Bilis buns when I went over to KL. I also found out that the best place to get the freshest stocks is at LCCT, having spent quite some time looking around in various locations. The LCCT Emporium knows that they are catering to the East Malaysian market and makes quite a lot from this. Gardenia sells their plain bread here, but why not the others (I don't know if it's the same for Sarawak) ?  Oddly enough, I've never had the ikan bilis bun till I moved over to Sabah from PJ so maybe Gardenia knows what they are doing...

There's another thing I've missed since moving here. The KFC stores in Sabah don't offer Thai Chili Sauce (TCS) to their customers, relying instead on ketchup and normal chili.

The first few times eating KFC without TCS was terrible. I considered buying one bottle from the supermarket and bringing it with me everytime I go to KFC, but common sense told me to suck it up and deal with it. 4 years later, I can't remember how fried chicken tastes with TCS anymore... *making a mental note to eat KFC next time I go back to the peninsula*

And McD's...huh! No free refills! The first time I asked the cashier for a free refill was also my last time. I might as well have asked if her mom had a hairy chest because she would have given me the same look.

After 4 years here in Kota Kinabalu, I'm not so bothered by these minor differences in products and services offered by the big chain companies like I used to be. But hello KFC, I really really hope you will listen to what I'm saying. Ahem.

Hacking The DX Coding On The Film Canisters

Mom: So is there anything you'd like me to bring over when I visit?
Me: Hmm, ya. Whatever happened to my old film camera?

So she searched around the house and found this.

My old Olympus Mju-II. This camera accompanied me through my college and uni years and to many places in Europe. It's a reliable old friend. There was one problem with it though, it automatically sets the ISO based on the DX coding on the film canister. That may be alright for normal photography but a massive inconvenience when shooting with redscale or black and white films.

So how to get around this?

Changing from 400 to 1600

Fool the camera by changing the DX coding. The film at the bottom is at normal 400 speed and the film at the top has had its paint scratched so the camera reads it as a 1600 film instead. Probably the best thing about this is that the Olympus is such an easy camera to handle that I can be in the pictures more often.

With available window light and spot metering on the Mju-II

Darkroom Fun

Following up from my last post, I tried my hand at developing my own black and white film. The very first time, I had a few issues to iron out, like getting all the chemicals at the right temperature (20 deg c) before starting. I tried putting ice in a basin but it wasn't getting anywhere near that figure, so I just stuck them all in a freezer till it dropped. Thanks to the timer from the Massive Dev Chart App on the iPhone, once everything starts, it's pretty easy. I took a shot of my setup and here it is.

I've done 3 rolls so far with 2 different type of films and the results vary quite a bit. I think I may have been a bit overenthusiastic in agitating the chemicals in one of the sessions but I'll know more after many more trials and errors.

He's wearing a 'I love mum' shirt... -.-

This last film with Delta 3200 - oh the grain!

Thankfully there are many things to shoot these days. Cyrus is growing really fast and looks different everyday.

Now there have been people who have been saying that Cyrus looks more like his mom and yes, if you look at the shots above, you can see the similarities with the nose and the chin. But if you look at him from another angle, you will see that he looks EXACTLY like me.

Huhuh! Thanks for such great hair dad!

What I've Been Doing Last Weekend

My black and white film developing kit has arrived recently and I've been practicing what I initially thought is the hardest step in the whole process - taking the film out and loading it into the tank in the dark.

All the various parts

Going into the changing bag

Magic happens... kinda like solving a rubik's cube up a cow's backside

Tadaa!

Checking to see if everything is done correctly

It's easier than I thought it would be. Now the next step will be making the toilet into a darkroom then it's on to the chemicals! I've got a couple of black and white films bought 5 years ago that can finally be put to use.

A New Family Member

... and one that doesn't need to be stored in the dry cabinet too! We welcomed the arrival of our baby boy, Cyrus, last week with much joy and relief. It's been a long journey for my wife and I, one in which we've faithfully recorded daily in a journal.

One day I will hand it over to him so he will know the ups and downs we've been through together and the many sacrifices made by his mother, but until then, I've got some words for you Cyrus. Think of it as an instruction manual for inheriting your new set of genes, though I can only speak for my part... So let's start off with the not so good news first.

1) Acne/Pimples

Yup, truly sorry about this. I wish I didn't have to pass this on to you. If you wonder why you don't see any of daddy's pics on the day you were born, it's partially due to the fact that I was the one behind the camera. I had a bad outbreak prior to your birth and didn't want that to be immortalized.

I know what you're thinking and hoping desperately for, 'Mom has such flawless skin! So maybe my skin takes after her!' Don't get your hopes up too high, it's a dominant gene. How do I know this? My mom (your grandma) has flawless skin too and she told me she's never had a single pimple, but not my dad (your grandpa). Unfortunately my sisters and I had none of the 'flawlessness' our mom had and had to go through our teenage years 'dermatologically challenged'. So you have around 13 years or so to enjoy baby smooth skin, but hey, thank God you've got pharmacists as parents eh?

2) Facial Hair (or lack of)

Nothing I can do to help you out here... I've looked at the male relatives from your mom's side and the prospects aren't that fantastic either. Clean-shaven all the way then... I don't know if it works but you may want to try finding a hairy wife? Looking at the bright side you'll save a lot of time from all the shaving that you don't need to do.

3) White Hair

Late 20's ... but it doesn't really bother me one bit.

Despite all the flaws, you'll be inheriting my wit, charm and sense of humor. That will be more than enough to see you through whatever life may throw at you. Welcome to the family son!

How To Make White Sauce

I was thinking of making a fish and broccoli dish yesterday but I needed a sauce to tie up the ingredients together.

Normally we buy those ready made sauce mix but I was feeling a bit adventurous and decided to make my own sauce. How hard can it be? I found that the basic recipe for most white sauce is


1) 2 tablespoons butter
2) 2 tablespoons flour
3) 1 cup milk
4) Whatever else you want that sauce to taste like

So first melt the butter and add in the flour...

Then the milk...

Stir till it doesn't look lumpy and add whatever you want. I added black pepper, salt, cheese and some Italian herb mix.

And the result...

Tastes better than the ready made mixes but hey, I'm biased. A few things to add, I didn't measure the ingredients exactly and just threw whatever amount that I felt right. It took only a few minutes to make and wasn't that hard at all. It's interesting and I'll probably experiment more in the future.

So Why Can't I Resist From Buying That...

... gadget? shoes? dress? or camera? Usually the last one for me. I recently read about this concept of 'ego depletion' and it may explain a bit. What it means is that willpower (or any conscious effort that require self control) is a limited resource, like the amount of petrol in a car. So the more we use our willpower, the more liable we are to giving in to our splurges at a later stage. There are 2 experiments that demonstrate that it exists (and if you're not interested just skip the colored text below).

Experiment 1

- A bowl of radish and a stack of chocolate chip cookies were placed on the table

- Subjects were asked to skip one meal to induce hunger and then split to 3 groups - control (who didn't eat either the radish or cookies), radish and chocolate.

- The radish group were placed in the room with both foods and asked to eat only the radish while avoiding the chocolate, and vice-versa for the chocolate group.

- All participants asked to solve an unsolvable geometric puzzle (which was unknown to them).

Results: The radish eating group gave up earlier than both control and chocolate group, which both had similar times.The radish eating group also felt more 'tired' after the puzzle.

Interpretation: The radish eating group had to use more willpower to avoid the chocolate and have used up some sort of psychic energy.

Experiment 2

-The problem with the first experiment was that the task was unsolvable and it can be argued that the radish eating group was 'smarter' in realizing this and therefore gave up earlier. 

- The participants were asked to watch videos, some being humorous and some sad. 

- They were split into 2 groups, one was asked to suppress all emotion when watching and the other had no restrictions. 

- The subjects were given anagram letter sets.

Results: The emotion suppressed group had far fewer anagrams than the other group.

Interpretation: This proved further evidence that some resource was depleted after an act of self control.

Hang on a minute? Isn't life a series of choices?

Sleeping in vs hitting the gym

Reading up on recent developments vs Facebook-ing

Healthy lunch vs not so healthy

Getting the camera vs saving for that vacation

So back to the question... why can't we resist? Simple. Its because we've been working too hard and making too much of the right choices lately. *GRINS* Go have that fried chicken. It's better for you on the long run.

Seeing In Squares

Medium format photography is something that has been on my mind for quite a long time. The digital ones are ridiculously expensive but thank God I'm into film!

It's a bit of a challenge to frame my photos differently, with the looking at the camera like 'checking if my fly is open stance' instead of bringing the camera up to my eye, but I enjoy the experience.

One for the family album

The only downside is that it's really heavy but hey, I'm thinking of it as practice for carrying a new family member.