circle of life

my sister-in-law delivered a baby boy on wednesday. he is the first grandchild in both families and everyone was particularly overjoyed.

his name is Kedric and heard that the chinese name will be 萧恩豪。

this blog entry will enable his name to be searchable in the Internet, heh.

the "walkaround" lens

took the d80 and the 18-200mm lens out for a shoot during the chinese new year at sentosa flower festival. see them here.

think i must improve more on the depth of field and the exposure.

dSLR part 3

new addition: the 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 vibration reduction (VR) lens!

the wide range of focal lengths is touted as flexible enough for anyone to use it for 90% of situations.

dSLR part 2

got myself a new spare battery and an external flash over the weekend.

dSLR

finally got my first dSLR earlier this year, after getting my performance bonus and had extra cash to spend, heh.

i have always found the photos taken with dSLR rather captivating and always had the thought: how nice if i were the one taking those kind of pictures?

i got myself the nikon d80 that came with a 18-135mm lense, a tripod and a camera bag. the set of equipment set me back by almost two thousand dollars. before making the plunge, i was contemplating between the nikon d80 and the nikon d40x. i couldn't decide between the two and went down to one of the retailers wanting to check things out. the decision became apparent as soon as i tried to hold both dSLRs: the d40x was too small for my right hand's grip! since this will be a long term investment, it made sense to me that i should get one that is comfortable to hold and operate.

before buying the camera, had borrowed a few books from national library for reading up and to understand various principles such as aperture, shutter speed, white balance, exposure etc. after getting the camera, i went on to buy this book that was written for d80 owners for them to quickly get started on learning to operate the machine. trust me: operating a dSLR is more complicated than driving a car, if you are planning to fully exploit the dSLR's potential, that is! but if you want to use it as a point-and-shoot camera, it is also possible, but that would defeat the purpose of getting a dSLR in the first place. it is indeed quite overwhelming to have to bear in mind the principles of photography and at the same time get myself familiar with operating the d80, but hey, didn't we all come through that phase just like the driving lessons? :)

fundamentally, i think the reason why pictures taken with dSLRs are better than the point-and-shoot camera is due to the better lens for each type of scene that a photographer could use, as well as the larger image sensors, where all other conditions (eg. exposure, aperture, shuter speed) being equal. shall see what kind of pictures i can manage to capture as compared to my previous casio exilim z30!

please recycle

This morning was at IMM Giant to do some groceries shopping. brought along two of these 环保袋 in the hope of "saving the environment" (wah...)

when it was my turn to pay up, the cashier habitually grabbed some plastic bags and started packing the groceries in. i quickly alerted her that i had brought along the 环保袋 which were placed inside the shopping basket.

while preparing the groceries for dinner in the kitchen just now, a thought struck me: oh no, how am i supposed to pack and discard the left-overs after cooking tonight? i actually missed those plastic bags, and the thought of the plastic bags running out if there are no new ones coming in from the groceries shopping actually left me wondering for a while.

it is still not common to see pple using the 环保袋 and not common for cashiers to be ready and looking out for it. plastic bags had been so common in the lives of Singaporeans that we have forgotten their existence and prevelance. nevertheless saving the environment is at a point of no return for human-kind now. i guess those who take the first steps will be more than willing to accomodate the little inconveniences for a better cause?

maybe in a few years i would be ready for a 环保车 as well, heh.

the next windows server operating system

this was the first bootup after the windows 2008 operating system (release candidate 0) has been installed. i wonder what would happen if i clicked on cancel.

honda civic part 5

finally got a chance to take pictures for it.

changed the front number plate and garnish to an elongated one instead of the original squarish number plate.

upgraded my rims to 17" replica of the OZ ultraleggera. the stock rim was 16".

many says this tail-light looks like the nissan skyline, but i think it is also a matter of how to adapt good things as your own creation.

the chrome twin exhaust pipes.

street singer

was having dinner with my wife at tiong bahru when we saw and heard this gentleman singing with his guitar plugged into an amplifier.

the repertoirs ranged from chinese to hokkien and english songs. solid grips and plucks/strumming on the guitar, though singing is only so-so, but great entertainment throughout dinner though. reminds me of 陈伟联.

the kid

was meeting my sister-in-law's friend a few weeks ago who brought along her cute baby boy LeRoy. this is a picture of him enjoying his drink.
pls don't be mistaken, he was actually the one holding the cap, not me.

my wife took a shot with him too, and the two tomatoes.

and these are pictures of him, without non-essential people around. he looks alot like mum.

honda civic part 4

->keyhole ring light

got the lobang from a brother in the forum http://www.civicfd-sg.com.

it helps when you need to insert the key to crank the engine when the lights in the MSCP are off just after 7am.

the keyhole ring light comes on as soon as the car is unlocked via the remote, then goes off after the engine is started. it comes on again when the engine is off and the key is out of the keyhole, and goes off again when the car is parked and locked. it operates like the cabin roof light since they share the same circuitry.

this piece of engineering is definitely smarter than my previous toyota vios where the cabin roof light operates based on the car doors being opened or shut. usually you still need the light even though the door is shut.

honda civic part 3

->honda civic type r car key

looks fierce with the red honda badge. will be getting that black housing panel to replace mine soon..

chinese car names

the other day the mother-in-law was asking about the new car. she could not remember the english name well and so she asked for the chinese name. for honda it is 本田and civic is 思域(思想的领域). the wife jumped when she thought she heard 私欲(私人的欲望) or whatever it was. had a good laugh, haha.

hmm, then my previous car would have been called 丰田威驰(威风,驰骋). no prize for guessing what it is in english or japanese!

http://www.vios.com.cn/
http://jsp.auto.sohu.com/view/subbrand-sbid-110025.html

honda civic part 2

->honda civic car key and key chain

collected my new honda civic last tuesday (3rd jul 2007). still getting used to it and figuring out what most of the gadgets can do. until i can find the time to take really nice pictures with it, here is a "trailer" -> more exciting than transformers ok!

honda i-vtec

a brief introduction on the 1.8 litre honda i-vtec engine

http://world.honda.com/HDTV/news/2005-4050705a/