Mongaup Camp

French Open - The (Almost) Emancipation of the Venus Two

Venus Williams got more than tennis balls to take care of on Roland Garros.  Her boobies (click at your own risk) are at any time going to burst out of her lingerie.  At least it looks that way through out the entire match.  She spends a better part of her court time trying to put them back in their place, plenty of tucking and pulling between plays.  The broadcast is reluctant to show any slow mo of her play out of respect to viewers because not all the viewers have the stomach for this constant booby attack.  Santonja of Spain lost the match largely because of Williams' bouncing booby attack and bare-bottom like flesh color undergarment distraction.  I wonder what the English would do should Williams choose to wear this this whorish outfit in Wimbledon.

Can I Retweet my own Tweets

My tweets are so good I am thinking about retweeting my own tweets.

I Love my Blog

I love all the garbage posts I have here, which is like all of them.  Yes.  I rule.

I Want My Skanky Trinity Back

Picture: Elizabeth Lippman for The New York Times.

Longer monochromatic silhouette for newly widowed and grandma

Every summer, I suffer the indignity of sun, heat and all the unpleasantries associated with sweaty limbs of myself and strangers.  The only consolation?  I am amply rewarded by sights of mini-skirts and halter tops as worn by city girls.  But no more.  The New York Times reported today the impending death of the mini and the coming back of the maxi, as in skirt not the pad.  I think the longer monochromatic silhouette always has a market:  the newly widowed and the Grandma.  If what the New York Times says is true, this summer is going to be very very difficult for a lot of people.  I want my Paris, Lindsay, Britney--the skanky trinity, back.

The English Shall Ban Your Stupid Half-Truth Ad

The English on the whole are truthful and honest and above all smarter than you give them credit for.  They have had enough of the French, best exemplified by their Louis Vuitton (note if it's too difficult for some people to comprehend, it's LV) bullshit print ads which show some lily white folks handmaking their merchandise.  The English would have none of it because they just know these are deceitful ads.  Their handbags are just made by machines, think Foxconn without the suicides, instead of by some white hot craft lady as depicted in the ad.  Now the ads are banned.  Truth wins and the English rule.

Picture savaged from Huffington Post, used for illustration.  Copyrights belong to its rightful owner.

French Open

Despite Germany's Andrea Petkovic incessant heartwrenching pleas for Oprah's help, she was beaten by Svetlana Kuznetsova after failing to convert four match points against the Russian on the second set.  Petkovic was heard squeaking "Oprah" through out the entire match.  Alas, Oprah was no where to be seen and even if she was there, I couldn't imagine she could be of any help to the 22-year old once Kuznetsova saved the second set and began to strong-arm the third.

French Open

It looks like both Nadal and Sharpova are back to form.  I don't see Nadal bothered by his knees or his stomach during his first round straight set victory against Frenchman Mina.  As for Sharapova, her outfit is definitely not as haute couture as Venus' but overall it's much easy on the eye.  Anyway back to tennis.  Her serve is in full swing instead of the abbreviated motion she resorted last year.  A sign that her shoulder is relatively healthy.  She has a new coach whom I think should be indefinitely better than her own grumpy old dad cum coach.  On another rather unpleasant turn of event, Safina got beaten on the first round by 39-year-old Krumm from Japan.  Well it's shocking but not totally unexpected as Safina really has a talent in self implosion at the majors.  It's hard to watch her play and unravel before your eye.

Thoughts on Roland Garros

It's not like the French haven't seen any well paved tennis courts before.  The English have well manicured lawn tennis courts (though by the end of the fortnight tournament, all the grass would turn into hay or the courts simply develop large bald spots like some middle aged men), and the American and Australian,always rational and practical, have well cemented hard courts  And what do the Frenchmen do to their tennis courts?  Nothing.  It's basically courts filled with dirt.  Players, some actually millionaires in shorts and skirts, have to suffer the indignity of getting their tennis shoes and socks all caked up with mud for all the world to see.  It just goes to show how ridiculous the Frenchmen can sometimes be.

Still Yet Another Unsolved Mystery at Foxconn

Another day, another suicide at Foxconn.  Nobody knows what's happening inside the factory and those in the know aren't talking--I know this construct is getting long in the tooth.  Well at least somebody was going deep undercover to do some investigative reporting.  Together with the kiddie killing sprees, these Foxconn suicides got to be one of the most mind numbing things happening in China.  Amid all the spectacular growths, there is something disturbingly and depressingly wrong.

PERSONAL UPDATE:
I remember how depressing it was (not exactly, looking back it was almost fun ... the young and cute immigrant girls) when I worked in a factory back in the days when I was at high school.  But luckily when summer was over so was my dead end job there.  It was a small sweatshop making small electrical appliances like battery powered radio in the shape of a cheese burger with questionable or no reliability to speak of for export to the US.  I think I sometimes over tightened the screw so much so that the cover cracked or I just soaked the circuit board for too long, or I cut the legs of those electrical components like resisters and god-know-what too close I even cut the circuit board on purpose.  In short, I just felt like to sabotage the operation whenever I could in my own pathetic ways.  The older foreman in charge of us sucked and that was half expected.  Most members of the crew were like me, teenagers, young men and women but unlike me they were toiling there sort of permanently while I knew I was there just for the summer despite what I told them I was there for forever.  At the end of the summer when I left that god forsaken place for good, I rather cowardly removed the company directory at the lobby when nobody was around and threw it away in the garbage.

Yet Still Another Unsolved Mystery at Home

I set my DVR to record the French Open but it didn't record anything yesterday.  Weird.  I want to see more of Venus' tennis cum lingerie outfit though I don't think she was scheduled to play yesterday, but just saying.  I sort of caught up with the action from the newspapers on my commute to work.

One Mystery Solved ...
After paying some $300 dollars to change the valve that regulates water inflow to the boiler, we were finally able to stop the boiler from overflowing.  So mystery solved.

Yet Another Unsolved Hong Kong Mystery

Gordon Brown was caught calling someone that "bigoted woman," probably because of her remark and rhetoric question on immigration: "All these Eastern Europeans that are coming here. Where are they flocking from?"  And for whatever reason, "bigoted woman" was translated by some of the Hong Kong news outlets as "老虔婆."  That I guess I will never understand why.  I just don't find any sense of the word bigoted from the Chinese translation but as usual I could be wrong--I am covering my hiney here.

Lost

The only surprising thing about the Lost finale is it is actually stupider than I thought.

Tennis, France and Lingerie

Venus Williams loves her lingerie so much so that she just wears it to the first round of Roland Garros.  What's more spectacular than Venus' tennis is her tennis outfit which never fails to shock and awe the spectators.  Her only competition in that department?  Her little sister, Serena Williams.

Photo Laurent Rebours - AP via Washington Post

Peony

Guess estimated the exposure.  Hand held manual focus.  Though no macro, but the 50mm does allow me to focus kind of close enough.

Swing

Shot using Nikon D70, and manual Nikkor 50mm f1.4.  My ancient Nikon D70 is still doing its job.  And my even ancient-er lens is functioning like the first day I bought it.

Eating Habits

I eat food left in the refrigerator for years.  The food is fine because it is full of preservatives.

Zany Bands

Zany Bands are taking over New York City.  Watch out.

Handball Court

This appears a bit too grainy for a 125 film. Possible reasons:

1. This is the way it is
2. Wrong exposure when taking the picture
3. Wrong developing, HC-110 working solution, develop time, agitation and temperature are off.
4. Scanning problem, sharpening added
5. All of the above

I suspect it's number 3. I mix HC-110 concentrate at 1:49 for 500ml to develop two rolls of 135 in a steel tank, for a total of 8 minutes. The temperature is more like 70F instead of 68F. So I don't know if I have developed it for too long. The Kodak 125PX seems to have this "problem." Whereas the Fuji Acros 100 seems finer even I believe I developed it in the same routine. I am pretty bad at controlling the variables.

UPDATE:
5/20/10
Looks like the comment is screwed up, and I shall totally blame it on wp2007.

Thoughts on This Minor Shitstorm That is Called By-election

Another email I intercepted and savaged from the Internet gutter.  Unlike me, whoever penned this knows what he is talking about.

I really like the idea that young people are getting involved. If she (zhou cheng) was in my district, I would have voted for her. Second, in parliamentary politics, the name of the game is to get elected, and then  get re-elected and get even. To sabotage the system, you have to be in the parliament, as said by Lenin long time ago. So the right move now is to accept the government's proposal and fight for the extra ten seats. Long live Lenin! But if you guys are (1) frolicking with an ex-student in a sofa bought by your wife, (2) hiding under a hotel bed of your ex-lover, instead of voting this past Sunday, then I am mightily disappointed.

I really have nothing to add to it.  OKAY, I do.  I remember something I read some time ago, it goes something like illusion is a powerful half-truth, it affects how people act and hence the character of a society.  Nobody thinks that there was ever or is democracy in Hong Kong, past or present, and yet people want to believe in it.

iPhone Leak Latest Devlopment

The iPhone prototype will get you into a whole lot of trouble.  Based on court unsealed documents, Apple did play an active role in the police investigation of the lost and found iPhone prototype.  Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, called Brain Lam, editor of Gizmodo for the safe return of the prototype but was declined unless Gizmodo received written confirmation from Apple that the prototype was indeed Apple's property.  In the unsealed document Brain Lam sent Jobs an email which was supposedly off the record--is there even such a thing, off the record, claiming that Apple PR has been cold to Gizmodo and affects his ability to do his job and prefacing that they have nothing to lose.  And in closing he says he wants to work closer with Apple.  Wow, does it sound like a thinly veiled threat to Jobs and Apple?  I am not sure but it certainly doesn't sound too friendly and all.

Well, too bad.  Apple and Jobs can't be bullied to work with anybody.

I think this case comes down to Is there a theft?  Does Gizmodo purchase stolen property?  Does Gizmodo divulge trade secret?  And Gizmodo's First Amendment Right?  Or something.

via Cnet

Nexus One, Fail?

Even Google itself is not selling the Nexus One, so it does say something about the phone itself or the marketing of it by Google.  If you are an avid Internet surfer, then you perhaps have noticed that according to some early adopters of Nexus One, the phone is plagued with 3G and touch issues that Google has failed to address or has been ignoring. And Google even suggests people to get HTC's none too humble Incredible Android phone.  So what's in the future for Nexus One?  Nobody really knows for sure but my guess is it can't be too rosy.

Tennis

The paid develop and scan was poorly executed.  See the dripping watermark on the left?  I don't know what happened.

On Alex:  American Optical original pilot sunglasses with bayonet arms.

UPDATE:
Guys, click the label "taxi driver" below for more American Optical and Randolph Engineering information.

Adobe Loves Apple

In a move that can only be characterized as awkwardly stupid, Adobe takes out a full page print ad, on B9 in The New York Times, proclaiming its love for APPLE.  What a pussy!  After getting slammed by Apple's CEO, don't they have any shame at all?  Why can't they act more like HTC, just sue Apple already or at least shows some backbone.  The fawningly submissive ad title is just repulsive and no amount of counterattack in the last sentence can savage the lameness of this ad.

Oil Spill and Stock Market Crash

What do oil spill and the stock market crash have in common?  Nothing except nobody really knows what happened.

HTC Sues Apple

HTC can't be bullied.  HTC is suing Apple for patent infringement and asks for a ban on Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod products.  It seems like everybody who is somebody is suing anything that moves.  Apple sued HTC in March.

A Moment in Time

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/03/blogs/a-moment-in-time.html

Hong Kong directly ...
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/05/03/blogs/a-moment-in-time.html?hp#/4bde3a9fe55ae50c670003f4

If they don't work, figure it out yourself.  If you can't figure it out yourself, then forget it.

Brown Out in England

Gordon Brown did the right thing and let the country move on.

Stock Market Explosive Diarrhea

The near 1,000 point drop remains another unsolved American mystery.  Nobody knows what happened and those in the know of course aren't talking.  Rumors have it that some trader at Citigroup might have inadvertently punched in billion instead of the intended million.  Now I ain't part of Wall Street so I don't know if this scenario is plausible or not.  Or we can just blame it on the Greeks or the British election.  In any event, maybe somebody somewhere has made tons of money out of this abrupt explosive stock diarrhea.

UK Wakes up to a Well Hung Parliament.

UK wakes up to a, well, hung Parliament.
Just as predicted by the exit polls and various pundits before and during the election, Gordon Brown is leading his Labour Party to defeat.  Not so as predicted is Nick Clegg isn't doing as well as people thought he and his Liberal Democrat party might be.  It's still very much a two-party world across the pond and the Conservatives are winning in this election.

Stupid Bigoted Judge Makes a Fool out of Herself

China's answer to Taiwan's Lin Yu Chun, sort of.

This is almost agonizing to watch.  I give credit to the kid who remains courteous and humble through this very public shaming--call for human flesh search and gender testing.  In the end, it is the judge who really makes a fool out of herself.  She handily shows the world how ignorant, arrogant and prejudiced she is.  She has absolutely no respect for the contestant, the other two judges, the producer, the audience and probably humanity in general.

British Election 2010

BBC live stream, found via The New York Times.

General Tsai's Chicken

Errr, I think it's more like General Tso's Chicken, at least according to Wiki which is like authoritative enough for me.

Shanghai Thick Noodle

Scallion Pancakes

Soup Dumplings

Just Another Morning

The Reader