My Transport

... in Thailand. Since I'm free for the day while waiting for news at home. Cleaned and washed my car and bikes and took a photo of them.

The Toyota VIOS is the new addition. The black Honda Blade is mine and the Pink Yamaha Fino is my wife's..

Total damage is less than 40k SGD. Funny thing is I dun even have one bike in SG.

So just posting this to Hao Lian(show off) a bit :P

I am a Pet Head!

I am a fan of Pet Shop Boys (thus the term Pet Heads). Ever since in 1988 I heard that bloody Domino Dancing song.. It introduced me to the world of electro pop music. Not sure why though, but I think its the drums and the bloody "All day! All day" chant. hehe

Before all of that, I listened only to classical music or Chinese operas at home. My father is a avid fan of Classical music like Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mozart and etc. Mum is a fan too. They also like Chinese Classics like 梁祝，採云追月...etc etc. I do love them too but you need to spend more time to enjoy them as a piece can go as long as 40 mins.

Naturally, I get to like other artists like Madonna, Belinda Carlise, Eurasure, Depeche Mode and etc etc but I always find them to be a bit special. I think another reason that I was attracted to their act is the way their lyrics go. Neil used to be Smash HiT! magazine editor and he writes very well. The more I read up about them and lyrics makes me even more fascinated by them. Not to mention 2 blokes dresses like some campy clowns singing campy music (and they did it deliberately to taunt the new 90s entertainment industry).

So I am glad after 24 years (they released their first album in 1985), they are still coming out something that I like :)

Head over here to listen to some samples of their latest album, YES.

And here is their 2009 brits award performance


btw... I dun mind at all if you call them Pet Shop Ah Pek (Uncles)... hehe even those die hard fans I knew in Singapore love that term :P

Extreme Sheep LED

Via Geekologie.




Just watch it and be awed.. :D

Gong Hei "Fak" Choi!!!

Just noticed I have not really wish all a CNY greeting for this year. I was going through my old blog in NAAPL and found this entry by me 4 years ago. Its so good, i decided to post a copy here.

Ok.. its late at night and got nothing to do. So just post this for fun....

1. Go to any Mac Outlet.
2. Depending on your preference. If you prefer a sesame bread. Buy a Mac Chicken. If you prefer a softer bread, you shoud buy a Filet-O-Fish. If you want something really tough and chewy, try a Mac Muffin. Another burger on the menu would do. Especially those with melted cheese. (Hamburger is out though)
3. After the purchase, unwrap the packagin to reveal the burger.
4. Take out the top slice of bread of your burger
5. You can eat the meat or egg or whatever in between. Or you can set it aside for later stage.
6. Roll up your shirt sleeves. (If possible, wear a singlet to cut this step)
7. Raise one of your arm. (Either one would do. Preference is the non master hand)
8. Take the bottom half of the burger (one with the melted cheese) and place it over your armpit.
9. Squeeze and Pull as many "Fak Choi" as possible. REPEAT process if not enough "Fak Choi "
10. If still not enough. Switch arms and repear process 9.
11. Put back the burger on the wrapping.
12. Place the meat or egg (the one on stage 5 above) back on. If not skip this step.
13. Place the top of the bun back.
14. Viola.... You have Mac Fak Choi

Thanks for reading and Gong Xi "Fak Choi" to all.
( Monday, 21 February 2005 )

Faces everywhere!!!

I stumbled on this photo blog site called Faces in Placesand its really cool! Basically its a site dedicated to show some face form (eyes, a nose, mouth or ears) we see in our daily lives. Do check it out. I really like some of them which are seen naturally in nature. (those bloody leaves man!!)

Kudos to the blogger who has such keen eyes. Here's a sample of the blog..

I've been Simpsonized!

Found this interesting website that could Simpsonize your photo. Hehe.. tried it out and quite fun. Somre more its free. Not very accurate for the auto mode but you could refine it actually.

Caught in action.

Wify took this while Girl and I were taking a dump... a Classic one :)

The Carnival

Every year in Maesai, there's a big carnival at the Chinese Temple near the main road and it attracts a lot of people (espeically from Burma Thachilek or Keng Tung) to come and play. There are rides, games, live bands, Bingo and food and drinks. The carnival lasts for 2 weeks and we already went there twice. It opens at night and we need to pay 20 bath per pax for the entrance fees.

Girl is older so we allowed her to take on some rides. She did enjoyed herself on the Merry-go-Round and mini-Train ride. But was not too happy on the Ferris Wheel with Mummy. Not sure why but I don't think she's afraid of heights, maybe its a bit boring going round and round... Wife is actually enjoying more from the dart games and Bingo (got prizes leh). There's also a rock concert at the back which you need to pay to get in but we never bothered. But seriously, this year's carnival was better compared to last year. More new rides and games are spotted.

And there is this funny show (more like a display) that we paid 10 baht each pax to see. A kid with his head on the table while we can't see the rest of his body. hehehe. Wife did asked the boy whether he's comfortable and he nodded. Not a bad idea to earn some money from a simple illusion. And they did it quite well too. I was sneaky and took a picture while no one was looking... heheheh

More chopsticks

Took another shot at girl using chopsticks. Previous one is a bit low quality.. This one is clearer... hehehe

Comic

Not sure I have post this before, here's some fun stuff I made :P

Part 1

Part 2

Kidz Club Photography Workshop

I have been busy working on this project since last week. Thus, never found the time to update my blog. I even Pong Tang (AWOL) for RT yesterday. :P Anyway. It was a 2 day simple workshop for the children at Kidz Club. Luckily my master's wife and Shi Di Andrew tagged along to help. Or else jia-lat already.

Think kids in Singapore are damn lucky. Most of their cameras their parent loaned to them are quite powderful one leh. One kid even got a DSLR (Canon 400D) which is a latest model some more. Anyway, anyone who had tried teaching to a bunch of kids from 7 to 12 will know that their attention span is quite short. So have to keep things simple.

The first day (Monday)was a simple lecture on photography. Later in the afternoon we went to the nearby playground to shoot. Havoc liao. hehehe. Lucky they all scared of Ms Teo (teacher in charge). After the shoot, we all returned back to the center to wash up, while we load the photos into our laptop. Then we went through all their photos to point out their mistakes. Most of them make the same mistakes anyway. And that concludes Day 1.

On day 2, we are suppose to go to Botanic Garden in the morning for a competition shoot (got prize leh). But it was raining, so change of plans and we head down to Takashimaya to shoot instead. Took some fountain and the big Christmas tree. Again a lot of havoc. hehehe. Kids running up and down and complaining to you that they are hungry. Some are really hardworking and willing to learn while some just bo-chap. Anyway, we head back to the centre at noon and we picked the 5 best shots for each kid. Now dunno wat happened but some of the kids camera does not contain any pictures at all (or little of them). It seems that they either accidentally deleted all their photos while on their journey back or most probably their memory card is full.

So some of them quite disapointed that they lost their photos (especially those hardworking one). Anyway, we showed their photos and I am personally quite pleased that most of them did improved after their first day.

Quite an interesting experience but a bit shiong leh. Yesterday went back home, eat dinner, bath then sleep liao. Anyway, miss my girl very much, just 5 more days to go!

Burn more money!

Last year Loy Krathong allows me to have some fun with all these toys. Since November this year I will be stuck in Singapore. I thought I will miss the chance to set something off. Luckily mid-autumn festival also allow to play leh... ghahaha mai tu liao!

Bought some new stuff to play, including 2 fireworks you see in the picture. The number you see on the fireworks (round clay objects) are actually the listed price. The smaller one is red in colour which is cheaper. Green translucent paper actually means the firework is white in colour. White is actually more expensive. For the same size, the red one only cost 80baht. There actually has an even bigger sizes for the fireworks. Largest are 280 baht, as tall as the green tea bottle shown in the picture. Those crackers in front of the fireworks are fun too. Especially the tank. It will actually move on the ground and lights will spew from the front barrel.

So later in the evening we gathered the children around the neighbourhood and set the fireworks off. I brought along my camera and tripod to take some pictures. Not very good though as I was too near to the firework and it was really quite bright, making my photos a bit overexposed.

The red one.

The bigger white one, which is actually more pretty and very very bright.

Mid Autumn Festival in Thailand

The typical Chinese family here do celebrate 中秋节 (Mid Autumn Festival) which is on the 15th, 9th 8th month of the Lunar Calendar. Today is the day and I am kind of surprised the number of Chinese family here in Maesai. (Quite a lot actually). At night, they all take out a table and place it outside their house. On the table are offerings like fruits, sweets, cakes and of course, moon cakes.

The moon cake they eat here are black red bean paste type and its more towards the salty side. And the size of the moon cake also quite funny.. Very large.. I'll try to get a photo but I saw one family bought one that is as large as a table (about 80cm in diameter leh). Basically their process very simple. Offer the food and light some candles and joss sticks. Then they proceed to devour the stuff on the table lor (quite typical Chinese Bai Bai) hehe..

Kids here don't carry lantern leh. But they have those that you could light up and set it float into the air (like in Loy Krathong). They also start selling crackers (Yeah!!!) So of course in the evening, we went to the main street and bought some and release them at the rice field near our house. All the kids around us joined us with screaming fun.. hehe..

No pictures as too busy playing with fire crackers hehe.. since I will be missing Loy Krathong this year (sianz)...

Getting Away

Tomorrow we will be boarding a bus at 8.15am to Chiang Mai. Wife's friend is tagging along.. (so much for the romance :P). Anyway, plan to hit my Condo by 2pm. Should not be a problem as it normally should reach by 1pm.

I actually planned to use my PDA phone (HP Ipaq) to journal down my 3 night stay but the bloody 3rd party battery I bought seems to be dead on me... I only get 3% charged everytime and it needs to shutdown. Na mah...

Anyway, we are all packed.. Wify kiasu again, packed like running away from home .. :O
Managed to convince her to bring only the essential stuffs..

So I guess you won't be hearing from me till Sunday evening or night.

Baby Making Som Tham

Som Tham is a Thai papaya or mango salad. Very sour and spicy. Wife loves to eat it and girl girl seems to enjoy seeing people making it....

Ball ball!!!

Just want to update a bit on girl girl... here's a video I took yesterday... hehe

The Real Transformers

The movie is a trash but this clip from youtube is not.  Have to say these jokers are really ONz... hahaha

I like the Starscream and Optimus Prime.  At least this is more entertaining than the movie.

 

Multiple Exposures

I saw this great idea of film exhanging program in clubsnap forum and decided to give a try. I asked my photography friend from SLCC (the school I am teaching in now) to complete a roll of film without telling me the subjects he took. I then reload the film on my camera and shoot again to see what effects we could achieve.

Surprisingly, we could get 6 pretty good shots from the 36 exposures. Pretty fun. hehe.. Click on the album below to take a look.

Multiple Exposures

Birthday!

Girl girl is 1 year old yesterday on 18 May 2007!!!

Here are the photos of the event. (Click on the album below to see)

Xing Hui Birthday

We went to a Mu Yang (Bar-B-Q) restaurant to celebrate. Anyway, I have to keep things short as I am still packing and preparing my journey back to Singapore tommorrow. There is also another MAJOR announcement within this week. I will break the news once its fullfilled. Meanwhile, most probably you will hear from me again on the 21st.

Game completed!

Just finished my Neverwinter Nights 2. Overall quite a good gamin experience. I played a Char Bo (Female) Sorcerer. A bit bad decision as the game is not very friendly to spell casters.

Anyway, here's a screen shot of my main character. You can view the bigger version by clicking on it. The sword I am holding is a powerful artifact. Its a silver sword of Gith.

Now have to go have dinner and rest my eyes. Non stop gaming for 8 hours.. :P Feels like my Poly gaming days again... hahaha