Some Black & White From The Late 80s

My best pictures were taken probably in the late 80s, that is, of course relatively speaking. Since then, everything has gone downhill.

I think I was shooting like Gary Winogrand, except for the third one from the top which was more like Robert Capa. So my personal style was really a cross between Winogrand and Capa. If you are still reading this I certainly hope you haven't puked yet. Truth be told, my pictures are really a reflection of my artistic impoverishment.

NJ Marriot

I am rocking in NJ now. Let the good time roll.

UPDATE:
Of course, I am exaggerating. There is no "rocking" in New Jersey. If you read my blog long enough, you should know you can't really believe what I write. I am a typical pathological liar.

Yashica Mat 124 G, user report
This is based on my experience with the camera for the past few days. I finished three rolls of Kodak Portra 160.
Loading film is not that bad at all. Perhaps because I am old enough to know how to load 135mm films, so loading the 120 film is not a problem. Did I screw up, yes and no. The 120 film mark is at the bottom on the camera so I didn't see it and I mistook another marking which is closer to the 240 mark as one. But it didn't seem to affect the film advance at all. I found out when I loaded the third roll. Focusing is difficult. Because it's basically a ground glass and it isn't very bright when lighting condition is not optimum, meaning too much light on a sunny day outside or shooting indoor. The small magnifying focusing lens is pretty helpful in that regard. Another thing is that objects appear reverse and often time, it's just hard to align things properly, I think it should be possible but just much harder coming from the 35mm world. During my sojourn in NJ, many of my shots were taken with a flash attached. And all my exposures were based on estimate. So chances are many of them may come out like crap.

NOTE:
For those who miss my vacation pictures, sorry, there won't be any, at least not soon like right now. For those who don't miss my boring vacation pictures, you are in luck, because I shot in film so chances are you won't see any of them like forever.

Craigslist, Again

I am going to indulge myself with yet another post about Craigslist and my latest medium format camera. I am, after all, a very self indulgent person.

I was thinking about eBay or buying second hand from a reputable camera store like keh.com (of course, it's going to be used as the camera has been out of production since 1986). But I have a strong death instinct so I branched out to seek ways that allow me to live dangerously like meeting online stranger face to face. Craigslist strongly cautions any dealings involve checks, money order, wire transfer, basically, anything other than a face to face cash transaction. But I broke all the rules. I sent a personal check to a seller located in Connecticut, a definite no-no. But I did it anyway with full or blind faith that the seller is just as honest as myself and at the same time fully aware that he could have just kept the money without sending me anything at all. Well it turns out that the seller is a good guy just like me. I got the camera in UPS today and everything is as described, and the package is nicely packed. It's as good as new considering the seller actually bought it on March 25, 1978, more than thirty years ago. He told me he probably ran 15 rolls with it in all these 30 years. I already bought 39 rolls.

After I got the camera, I loaded it with a roll of Kodak NC 160, and started shooting already.... It definitely takes some time to get used to, just like looking at things in the rear mirror, except the left is now right on the focusing screen. But I guess I will manage. The battery for the built-in light meter is missing so I have to guess estimate the f-stop and shutter speed combination, like what Cartier Bresson did with his Leica (note: again I am shamelessly comparing myself with some seriously famous dead photographer).

Again, I am not a real photographer, I talk about it more than I actually do it. That needs to change.

NOTE: A lot of my readers think that I am going back to analog. There is no going "back," I always like analog even I shoot digital most of the time. So if you plan to send me all the digital goodies like D3 or D700 or D300, please still do, I love digital, basically, anything that's meticulously crafted, digital or analog.

I Got Sensor Bigger Than Full Frame

While the world is pretty enthralled with Nikon's newly D700, the second full frame digital single lens reflex camera introduced on July 1 by Nikon, I fall in love with the Yashica 124 G twin lens reflex camera. It takes 120 film, and has an image size of 56mm x 56mm, a perfectly square format. Meanwhile, the "full frame" sensor is a mere 24x36mm (or actually for Nikon's FX it's 23.9x36mm) which is equivalent to the 135mm film size as used by 35mm film SLR cameras. I am going to shoot like Diane Arbus (Arbus was really great, she didn't do what I call hit and run photography which most people can do with varying degrees of success, she actually got to know her subjects. I am just flattering myself with no shame).

I don't know if I will ever get the chance to print anything good in the near future. But I am kind of excited. I don't know.

Guantanamo Torture Technique Rip-off From China

Today, the New York Times just confirmed what I long suspected. As far as torture techniques go, China is light years ahead of most western civilizations. And all the Guantanamo torture techniques were indeed based on a 1957 US study on Chinese torture techniques done on American POWs during the Korean War back in 1950s. The article says the techniques yielded mostly false confessions. Now that's just ungrateful, after ripping off someone's works, and saying that they are actually good for nothing.

Nikon D700

First it's the Chinese, then the German then the French, the leaks were all over the place. The French got a video, even. It's July 1, all Nikon's guerrilla marketing came to be end. Now back to official marketing. Finally, straight from the horse's mouth, the Nikon D700 is for real. Well the flash SB-900 too, but when you have noiseless high ISO performance, who cares about the flash anyway, except maybe I don't know, Joe McNally. The trusty dpreview gives us a timely hands-on preview on the D700. Of course, nothing is complete without Mr. Rockwell's opinion.

Rights To Own And Bear Arms

After the Supreme Court's 5 to 4 definitive vote to reaffirm American's Second Amendment Rights, I couldn't wait to help myself a few handguns just so I feel more American. I went to Target and bought the most lethal weapons I could lay my hand on. And these are just for my kids and their friends, in case they come visit, they can play shoot 'em up in the backyard.

Here is my review of these handguns based on extensive hands-on shootings both on static and moving targets with or without living humans involved.

All four are from the same manufacturer, the Super Soaker. The Super Soaker is the weapon of choice for those in the know. You simply can't go wrong with the Super Soaker brand.

The two on the left were bought as a twin pack, different colors same gun: Max D 3000. The gun has separate pumping and shooting actions. It's a pleasure to use. And given the size of the whole thing, it's easy to conceal and easy to shoot. The pump and shoot actions are smooth but the small tank needs refilling often, it's a handgun anyway. So shoot with caution. For what age, from 5 ~ 100, it does take some muscle to pump. Nitpick: The floaty and the string attached to the cap (the orange colored nipple thingy, see picture), to prevent it from losing, might have too much floatation when filled up with water, the string may get caught on the threading while twisting the cap closed, just make sure the cord stays inside the tank and out of the way.

The two on the right is the Bottle Shot model. What distinguishes this from most other Soaker is this has a user changeable tank or bottle but without a real trigger. It takes most soda bottles and the spec says it max out at 2 liter bottles. The bottle neck needs to be sturdy than normal because when filled up and held in an horizontal shooting position the bottle neck may flop, over extensive usage. The pumping and shooting actions happen at the same time, when one pulls the pump back, it shoots too, so it's harder to aim correctly and steadily and takes some time to get used to. So you always have to use both hands both pumping and shooting, unlike the Max D 3000, you can shoot using one hand Matrix style. It's easy to lose the original puny bottle that comes with the gun, see the gun on the right. But you can easily find a replacement given the proliferation of water bottles or bring lots of them as ammo. For the faucet-turning challenged, it may not be all that obvious when it comes to which way to turn to tighten or loosen the lock. And if you want you can bring Evian or Pellegrino waters as your ammos and shoot your money away. For what age: 7~100. Fitting a shooting bottle may be a challenge for some youngsters or not so young people.

Both models shoot pretty good distance and a joy to shoot and got shot at.

For additional reviews go Super Soaker Central.

Update On What's Happening In The Backyard

Rosemary, Lemon Verbena, Thyme

Basil

Sage

Tomato

Craigslist

CThanks to Craigslist, I got myself loads of expired film. Woo hoo. The hookup was arranged online and I trekked to Union Square to close the deal. It wasn't that exciting but it's interesting and pretty efficient.

I was wearing my gray t-shirt, white jeans ... just for the occasion ...

"You must be Mr. Handsome, you look even gooder than I thought .... " My seller informed me. "You look tremendous yourself. Can I see the goods?" "You mean these." She pointed to her boobs which were nice and perky. I told my seller it's the Kodak that I was here for. She was playfully disappointed. Her eyes were big and under the punishing sun had a sheen of blue. I took a quick look inside one of those no-frill environmentally offensive black plastic bags she carried and whipped out 2 $20 dollar bills. "Here." "You don't need to count them, roll by roll?" "No. They look good enough to me." She was happy to get the cash. "You have my number, Handsome, let's hook up some time." I saw her leave, her straight back has certain grace to it. I happily walked back to the subway station. Before I even got back to the cubicle farm, I got a message from my seller ... It wasn't exactly a message, it's just a jpeg of my seller's body part. Very perky.

Reporting Live From Jones Beach

This is a landmark post, I am live blogging from Jones Beach, Long Island. It's kinda humid and cold. Sometimes I wonder why do we like to go to the beach in the first place.

I Love 80s

This is another maudlin love song that ruled the early 80s. For those who were born too late and never got the chance to admire or despise The Culture Club, here is the chance. I present you the Culture Club's Love Is Love. Also the video is from one of the best movies ever made, Electric Dreams (1984) when Virginia Madsen was 23. I shall dedicate this song to all the inordinately literate girls who tend to overthink on love, relationships and online personality tests. Enjoy.

This Week In Review

Losers:
The Dow Industrial Average.

AAPL, the freaking stock keeps going down, I am losing my underwear. It went back up just a dollar or so before the week ended with a thud.

Winners:
Bill Gates. The guy retires at 52. Looks who's laughing now. The man gives us PC, like it or not it's running the world's desktop. Though much hated by a lot of people but at least the guy gives us a platform that others can pile on, to develop around it. In some sense it's an "open" system. You can build your PC because of the open architecture. But I hate him giving us Office more so than Windows, the Excel, the Word, the Access database, the PowerPoint. Plenty of valuable time got sucked away to maintain thsse little applications. Especially Word, people spend extraordinary amount of their time formatting or fixing their formatting instead of writing the content. Maybe in 10 or 15 years, the Windows desktop will become largely irrelevant because you know Steve Ballmer has a way to mess things up. Or the so called "cloud computing" would become so pervasive that the desktop OS becomes so nvisible just like the little ROM program to boot up the machine. Or Microsoft would conquer the next frontier in computing, the handheld devices, the cellphones.

The Second Amendment.

Weekend Video

Catching up with Guardian's Dan Chung.

The original video can be found at Vimeo, in "HD." The following is a clip showing the Olympics torch relay protest in Hong Kong.


Hong Kong torch protest from Dan Chung on Vimeo.


This second video shows dislocated Quake victims from Beichuan running away for fear of possible dam burst. The video is interspersed with still pictures shot by Dan Chung using most likely his Nikon D3.


China quake dam burst fears from Dan Chung on Vimeo.

Supreme Court Came To Senses

It's summer time here, the kids are out, the workplace is deserted. Only the workaholics and the office drones are working five days a week. Any self respecting minor ranking airheads in the office totem would have taken days and days off. Even the Dow is taking a break, what the heck, just let it slide, Uncle Ben and Paulson need their summer breaks too. And before the mercury hits 100, the Supreme Court finally in a 5 to 4 vote, reassures us Americans that we have the right to bare arms. Our Second Amendment rights can't be denied. I encourage the Supreme Court to go at least one step further, right to bare chest, and bottom would be nice too. I know I am asking to much. Woo hoo still.

I Post Because I Can

5555

Breaking: The Dow Tanked

While it wasn't a day for tennis diva, it also wasn't a day for the Dow either, the industrial average nose dived more than 350 points. Now it's time to buy more ... if you want to lose your shirt and underwear. Last time I said Apple is up for a rebound, it freaking went south when the very thin and very gaunt Jobs gave everybody a very thin and very gaunt iPhone 3G. Don't even listen to me.

Now that Sharapova is eliminated, I can concentrate on something else like on Venus Williams, my first love. The crude oil is now at $140 a barrel and very soon $150. I have stopped mowing my lawn already.

Breaking: I am a big time photograhper

If I am not unlucky, then I am going to shoot some analog 120 film soon. Whoo hooo, that's going to make me some big time photographer.

Gates Is Leaving Microsoft

Gates is done with Microsoft and so should you too. No, I am just kidding.

The richest guy on Planet Earth (all right, give or take, the ball park), Gates is retiring and I don't see his departure will in anyway negatively or positively influence Microsoft's business or stock price. The place is like a well-oiled machine. Can you imagine that with Apple? Can you imagine Apple's Steve Jobs retiring tomorrow? And Apple's stock price will stay the same? Actually ever since Jobs' gaunt appearance, the stock has been steadily losing its value. Let's hope Jobs can pull some trick on 7-11, the almost world-wide launch of iPhone 2 or iPhone 3G.

BS Finance News From Yours Truly

Uncle Ben says no more freebie for you. The rate cut is coming to an end for now. After China denounced US monetary policy or actually lack thereof for letting the dollar slide, food price rise, and energy price soar, Uncle Ben further heeds the advice from the overlords in The Forbidden Kingdom. Just so you know China now owns US just like Japan owned the US in the 80s.

Untitled

I am a hopelessly incorrigible dilettante, easy to get impassioned but even easier to get distracted.

Tomato, in case you are wondering. I am growing my vegetable now, just to save a few bucks.

A Day To Remember

The Family

Who let the dog out?

Best Friends Forever

Alex, introducing the PTA Speaker

Pledge of Allegiance

Entering the ceremony

The technical details nobody really cares:
Nikon D70, Nikon 18~70 f3.5~4.5G, Nikon 80~200 f2.8
Processed using Gimp and UFRaw, from NEF to JPEG.
Even I brought my tripod, but most of the shots were taken hand-held using the best technique I know. Alas, shooting at f2.8 and at 200mm focal length and a shutter speed hovering around 1/30 or more is a sure recipe for shaky pictures. But seriously I think I got pretty steady shots still, the 5th one was hand-held at 1/39 sec, f3.5 according to the EXIF data. Since I don't have VR, I got to be steady. The forth one is also hand-held. Gee, I think I take pretty good pictures, I deserve a D700 or D3, or a 5D with all the professional lenses. Or I will buy a Yashica TLR. Actually I brought and used my trusty Nikon FE with MD-12 mounted, and loaded it with some TMAX ISO 400 B/W film. Guess I will have to wait to see what develops. I have no doubt they will turn out to be masterpieces (delusion of grandeur. if i don't like myself who will, eh?).

D700, More Details Leaking

There are now more leaks streaming from some Chinese forum and culled by Nikon Rumors.

The price tag is said to be $2,999. That's $999 more than my comfort level.... I take it back, I am not comfortable spending $2000 on a camera body but.... Realistically speaking, I don't expect Nikon to give away the D700 for free but you always hope or dream for the best. $2,999 is actually about right considering the D3 is a whopping $5,000 and the D300 is $1,649 by one reputable dealer in New Jersey (just price checked).

As to the leaks, I think it's just good marketing. You don't need to spend a sizable chunks of cash and you get your souped up to be released product to your target audience at no cost. I think that's guerrilla marketing at its very best. The Nikon fans are just now going nuts over any putative good leaks. Ashton Kutcher does a good job for D60 but hey a good leak of this nature doesn't hurt either. And I bet it's much cheaper than hiring Mr. Kutcher. What Nikon saved can definitely pour back into its R&D to make more camera and more lenses.

What I Had For Lunch

I had Curry Porkloin Katsu. $11 plus tax and tips ... $14.

When one of my co-workers say, "Let's go to the curry place." I was thinking of Indian. But it was Japanese that he was talking about.

Sushi Tei on 47th Street between Madison and 5th.

I don't remember it was a Sushi Tei, was it ever a Sushi Tei before? I think I am losing it. The place is the same maybe except the name. I haven't come to this place for quite some time, so it's a good choice. The place is not big, at the entrance there are sushi take-outs and I think some udon noodle soups too. I am not sure if they actually serve sushi inside the dining area. When I think of this place, all I can think of is curry chicken katsu or pork katsu.

Nikon D700

As far as rumors go, this one comes pretty close to real. Maybe after all, the naming makes sense. The D70 was a major success for Nikon, ushering it into the consumer DSLR market. It's a success, because even a cheapskate like me, bought one. Now with the Nikon D700, it might break in the consumer FX DSLR market. The burning question is how much is Nikon going to price this puppy? Canon's 3-year old 5D is selling around $1,900, and Nikon's only FX or otherwise known as full frame is D3 which sells for an exorbitant price (for some at least) of $5,000.

Sourced from the rumor mongers at Nikon Rumors.

UPDATE:

Once the D700 was leaked, living web legend Ken Rockwell wasted no time to get his up here. Mr. Rockwell even has a believe-it-or-not D3X prototype here.

Popular Music

My musical taste is laughable. The way I see songs and music is the same exact way I see, oh well, I couldn't think of any parallel. The lame-o meter is going through the roof now.

My first "walkman" like portable player is a Sanyo portable cassette player with silvery paint and silvery plastic leather like jacket. I think back then I actually paid one of our friends to record a medley of songs from his studio like shop in Yaumati. Mostly brands and singers from UK, notably Culture Club, Japan and David Bowie and whatever striked my fancy and looked cool. But I wasn't much of a serious listener, I never had moments like "Oh Shit, this song is so great, it freaking changed my life." No, it never ever happened. No songs ever changed my life. Not U2, much less Cranberries. Surprise, I think it must be the marketing or something, I actually bought a cassette of U2's live performance in the late 80s and early 90s. I think it's called Rattle and something, okay it's called Rattle and Hum. I think I actually liked the album, alas, it's lost during my nomad lifestyle in the early 90s. And then I got the impression that U2 or Bono has become quite important or self-important so that was a turn-off. I really don't know anything about the Cranberries except maybe the song re-sang by our much beloved Wong Faye. Anyway, I think the group is pretty well liked by girls in Hong Kong and semi-pseudo-intellectuals who have a thing for anything that's white, arty farty and girly. So I instantly blacklisted them without hesitation. Of course, I am full of shit.

After years of listening to English songs which is not much to begin with, I actually do an about face. I began listening to Chinese songs lately. Actually it was in parallel in the late the 90s. Back then it's mostly Cantonese pop songs. But as I got older and actually old, I much prefer Mandarin maudlin love songs. They are just that good. For the most part, I have problem understanding the lyrics but that's OKAY.

Firefox 3 Available

So I have heard Firefox 3 available. Big deal I guess. Me using Linux has been crashing Firefox 3 beta since Ubuntu 8.04. Yes, it's Flash fault as it's been pointed out but it really doesn't matter. This whole Flash crashing Firefox thing has greatly diminished the user experience to the point that people are going to say Linux sucks. Right there, I said it. Linux sucks just because Firefox crashes whenever there is Flash.

I really hope that someone can tell me yes, there is a bug fix to this, or you suck, there is a work around that can actually loads Flash without crashing Firefox. Alas, there is none that I am aware of. And the workarounds out there have been either disable Flash, or let Flash crash without bring down the browser. So what gives? I wish I know how to fix it myself.

UPDATE: I didn't yet bother to upgrade my Firefox on Windows. I don't know if any upgrade will break some of the add-ons I have installed because of compatibility problem. I know it happens with FF3 under Ubuntu 8.04, some Add-ons can't be enabled in addition to the Flash crashing feature.

Lunch At Hop Won

I have been a regular at Hop Won since the beginning of time. It's a fast food joint with cook to order dishes as well as the precooked mix and match combination platters. Most of the time, I order from their cook to order menu. Even I am a regular, like at least once or twice a week there. The girl still asks me "Eat in or take away?" I gladly reply, "Eat in." I don't even remember I ordered take-out there, not even once. I am just not very good at making friends in the normal course of daily activities.

Most items priced from $5.35 to $6 give or take. Soda I think is a dollar now.

Belated Father's Day Cards

Harry's card is yellow in color and is shaped like a tie, with whimsical coloring just like Picasso's.
In it, it says

Dear dad
I like
you
when
you
help
me

love Harry

Alex's card is traditional in form but in much darker tone. It's white on black. The drawing on the cover is I can only guess him and Harry playing Wii in front of our TV. Next to the drawing, it says in bold letters, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! with lightnings and thunder bolts around. In it, it says very sparingly.
Dear Dad,

I like you.

From,
Alex

Harry can't help but shares his thoughts "Alex doesn't even know why he likes Dad."

What Harry Had Told Me Recently

Small Moments ...

When I shook my butt in front of him, Harry, "Dad, you are so immature."

When I made up story about his girl friends at school, Harry, "Dad, you lost the privilege to talk."

Existentential Crisis

I am still "wallowing in blog self-pity" and continue to misspell because I just can.

Today's Father's Day, big deal. Harry was up before me and we went downstairs to make breakfast. I assigned him the task of cracking the eggs. Which he did before and enjoyed. Anything that involves smashing up things he enjoys. I beat the eggs up, added some salt and fresh grounded pepper. Then off it went to the 600 lbs cast iron pan. Cast iron pan is my favorite, I have a healthy disdain for anything that's flimsy and marketed as non-stick.

Scrambled eggs is something that's easy to make and easy to make well. Just don't overcook it. To add to the flavor, I usually add a dash of butter in addition to the olive oil. The kids love it. And by the time Harry started eating, Alex was up too, so I gave my portion to him.

Meanwhile, six thousand miles away from NYC in Beijing, people are clubbing in Block 8.

My Blog in Existentential Crisis

My friend, after he turned blind, he thought it's a good idea to take it up another notch, he decided to go toothless. Now he is toothless and blind and he can no longer dish out inane comments anymore. The reason my blog exists is because of comments like his. Now it's over.

Tomato, Eggplant, Basil and Sage

This is some lame video. Good thing it only lasts about 32 seconds. The music is from 易桀齊's 一整片天空 1st track- intro. Of course, my video doesn't do any justice to his music.

This is edited using Cinelerra. Again, the video doesn't do justice to the software, I think. The editing part is not that smooth. Dropping the title and moving it around isn't all that easy.

Week in Review

So iPhone is getting cheaper and zippier. And Apple's stock price is going down south since the new iPhone 3G announcement. My prediction was totally wrong. That shows I can't be a stock analyst, at all. If you believe my prediction and acted on it, you would have lost your shirt and underwear.

My prediction on the iPhone 3G 7.11 launch. All the losers would line up or hire some even bigger losers to line up outside the Apple and at&t stores to get the iPhone 3G. I just hope the stock price would get back to $180 or so. And I do wish Jobs a speedy recovery from his common bug or whatever that ails him, regardless of how my Apple stock holding is doing. It's just man to man, brother to brother, get well soon.

BREAKING: American preeminent newsman Tim Russert is dead at 58.

Random Post

Here's a preview of what's going to hit us next year, Wetlands.

I think I need to read the book.

Random Thoughts

I think the use of zoom lens has greatly contributed to the obesity epidemic that's weighing down Americans. Instead of composing by moving your feet back and forth, people just stand still and zoom the lens to compose.

Breaking: Johansson is an Obama Girl

Hollywood hottie Scarlett Johansson, best known for her role as Molly in Home Alone 3, is an Obama Girl. The actress corresponds with the Democratic nominee Barack Obama via emails and is somewhat surprised that the senator would keep up with these personal exchanges. I would keep up the correspondence too if only I am corresponding with the Scarlett Johansson.

From Politico via The Huffington Post.

Mou Gaan Dou II (2003)

Mou Gaan Dou II or Infernal Affairs II is a prequel to the original Mou Gaan Dou or Infernal Affairs (2002) . Personally, I think this second one is just as good as the first one taken as whole. Which one is better? That's hard to say. What's easy to say is, the third one is the stinker and doesn't measure up to the first two in this trilogy.

This second installment has more of a Godfather looks and feels to it which is actually not a bad thing to say. The story begins with the assassination of the triad boss which sets off a chain reaction of combustible events that deal with power struggle, loyalty and betrayal. And of course, the whole movie can be seen as an allegory to the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to Beijing. Indeed it's the backdrop of the whole story. The two leading men were lessor known actors, that's relatively speaking, and they don't drip themselves with abundant charisma like Andy Lau and Tony Leung, two of the biggest names in Asian and international cinema, in the original IA sometimes do which can be a mixed blessings. On the one hand, Leung and Lau did give out some knock-out performances. On the other hand, sometimes, it's a turn-off. The two young male actors playing the younger roles played by Lau and Leung are Edison Chen and Shawn Yue. I think they are pretty well cast for the parts especially for Edison Chen, he just looks the part. There are some minor character inconsistencies between the first and the second one in my opinion. But overall, it's well written, acted and executed. And if you ignore the original IA, and ignore the character discrepancies, and see this movie on its own term then perhaps it's even a better movie than it already is.

Firefox 3 And Flash Annoyance

Annoyance maybe an understatement. I am running Firefox 3 and before beta on an Ubuntu 8.04 desktop. Firefox will crash without exception if I play a Flash embedded video, like from blogger here or from Youtube. Again, totally anecdotal, no science to back it up.

I have done some Google searching but have yet to find a work around that really works for me much less a solution to the problem. It really is no good considering Flash is almost an integral experience for web browsing nowadays. With Firefox crashing, that's really no good. Using Flash for your page may not be the greatest idea but as it is, this Firefox and Flash really need to be addressed and resolved as soon as possible. But instead it's like languishing in the back burner.

Tomato Salmonella

Even before Summer officially arrives, we have our first food scare already. Last summer was spinach, this summer it is tomato. McDonald's is pulling their tomato off their menu. No tomatoes for you.

The FDA issued a consumer warning for tomato salmonella contamination.

I am glad I have the foresight to plant my own tomatoes in the backyard. Well, not really, just saying.

NYC Is Hot

Global warming is hitting NYC early this year. It's over 90 at home already.

Apple WWDC (iPhone GGG)

Jobs looks gaunt.

I hope it's just the iPhone 3G that's grinding the guy down.

Live from gizmodo.com

iPhone 3G, available July 11, 2008 to an Apple Store or Att Store near you.

Your iPhone just became obsolete.

iPhone 3G is for real and it comes in Black and White (for 16G only). And no iPhone for China and Russia. No video chat, no video function. Same old 2MP camera.

I can't blog better than gizmodo.com, so go there and check it out for yourself. And of course, straight from the source, go to Apple already or check out att.com. Does att.com has 3G coverage where I call? [UPDATE: The answer is an unequivocal yes. Where I live, the map is a sea of blue meaning 3G coverage.]

But Wall Street says, big freaking deal, and hence the stock gave up more than $8. Wall Street doesn't like the gaunt Jobs, it scares Wall Street.

By the way, it's called iPhone 3G, not 3G iPhone for the anal retentive out there.

Random Thoughts

"Life is a series of distractions." - Me.

I aimlessly sleep walk through life as it happens.

Cinelerra

I finally got some success using Cinelerra. And I am glad I don't have to compile from source or buy a new desktop. Previously the video was out of sync, the audio was all right, just that the video was played way slower making editing difficult if not impossible. I tried a a few things but to no avail. It was I think even documented as bug number 482.

Well, it was actually a simple fix. I finally got my act together and got on IRC as suggested by wildhostile. I really have no idea how to use IRC but somehow I managed to get the client to work. And raffa was nice enough to help. All I needed to do was uncheck the Play every frame box. That was it. Now comes the hard part, actually editing some video. I mean to throw together some clips aren't too difficult but to come out something actually good is hard.

Well at least Cinelerra is working and I ran out of excuse not to do anything.

I have to thank wildhostile for his interest and raffa who pointed to me the solution, something seemingly so obvious yet I totally oversaw. Thank you guys.

Roland Garros

Wow, this is live bloging now. Are you excited? I am. I am now watching the live broadcast from NBC.

Nadal's Greenish Hulky ensemble is intimidating Federer big time in Roland Garros red clay.

Greenish, Hulky Nadal is punishing Federer with his two-handed backhands. Federer has no answer yet. On the red clay, Nadals transforms himself to a speedy Hulk, while Federer is reduced to a dodging black dot, trying to return every missile Hulk sends. Nadal's two-handed back hand is now totally and absolutely dominating. It's almost to the point of embarrassing. Federer just lost the last two points by sending the ball to the net. His body language can't be any more negative.

The first set is 1 - 6

UPDATE:
Resistance is futile, Nadal steamrolled Federer in the French Open final. There are still Wimbledon and the US Open, which are more like Federer's playgrounds. Nike turned out to be the winner no matter what.

Coffee Mug

I didn't wash my coffee mug when I left work today. I can't wait to taste that fine layer of flavor when I go back next Monday.

Waiting Game

The title is kind of lame, actually my blog is kind of lame. Actually the fact that I use kind of more than it's necessary is kind of lame already. I am very lame.

Anyway, to continue my dash to insane random postings, I will continue to post whatever I so please. Isn't it pretty much the case all along?

I wonder if Nikon is going to announce its answer to Canon's 5D soon, that is a full frame or what Nikon calls FX format camera that is simply put not as expensive as the D3 but has the same sensor size. If the price point is reasonable enough, I may just go for it. Every now and then, I need to have some new gadgets to give myself a reason to get up in the morning.

The other evening when I was in the PTA fund raising dinner event, I had the fortune of shooting a Canon's point and shoot. In my opinion, I think Canon makes very good point and shoot. But this time, I just found the shutter lag unacceptable. I don't remember the model number but it feels pretty solid and is Made in Japan for me that's something. Perhaps by experience is heavily biased as I shoot DSLR most of the time. So that evening the shutter lag really bothers me, plus the flash just didn't work for me. I know that's pretty unfair as I just picked up the camera and used it. The camera belonged to one of the moms. It's hard to go back to point and shoot sometimes. I do believe it has its use. Just not for me for most of the time.

I am waiting for Nikon's $2000 FX model.

Week In Review

This Dow ended the week with a thud. It went down like a million points because of what else, the economy. Both the oil price and unemployment rate skyrocketed to $300 a barrel and 50% respectively. So we are doomed and over the weekend the price of gas is going to hit $20 a gallon, who knows? We may as well just stay home and stare at our TV or the French Open. That wouldn't be a bad idea actually, or learning Cinelerra or compiling from source ... or watching paint dry.

Bye now.

One more thingy ...
Between June 9 and 13, Apple is going to announce its next generation totally pimped out iPhone 3G. It's like the second second coming of the Christ. So sit tight. With Apple stock down more than 3 dollars on Friday, there is even more potential on the upside when Monday comes next week.

Cinelerra ...

This is not working for me. I tried for a few hours and things weren't getting any better. In fact it got worse. The program got flaky and I had to force quit the thing more than once. I don't like it one bit but I am not giving up yet.

My Friend

My friend just got his LASIK operation. Before he was a bespectacled handsome man, now he is just a handsome (blind) man. Once he got his vision back, barely, he wastes no time. He fires up his MSN right away to have cybersex with all his girl friends, mostly imaginary.

As a friend, I can only be happy for him and I send my best regards,

"The glasses won't get in the way when kissing or doing carpet munching. Good for you.

Please report back your first hand or mouth experience."

My Song Collection

The my part is not exactly correct but... They are what got played on my gum stick iPod. For the most part I don't know what's what. And I understand vaguely what is being sung. Does it matter? Not really.

BS continued

The thing with blog is you can do anything you want. So I am not going to talk about Cinelerra because I really can't do much with at at this point...plus I am not at my dungeon.

I was at a PTA fund raising dinner party last night. 90% of the attendees were women. Being a somewhat responsible father and husband, I somewhat support the PTA not only by saying so but actually participated in their activities like by taking a whole day off so I can go to some trips with the kids and also this dinner party.

The venue was in some country club golf course setting somewhere on Long Island. If you take the LIE, it would be on exit 37. Nice place, very decent. We had raffles, auctions, buffet and dancing. I won two auctions, a basket of tea, and another basket of coffee. I guess it just shows how much I love caffeine. I got this addictive personality which is actually not very good. I was somewhat enjoying the dance too. Just some exercise. I wasn't much of a dancer but who cares, the bottomline to me is since I went I might enjoy myself as well, and who really really gives a flying fuck how good or bad you are dancing anyway. Most of the people there are just having fun. And what fun we all had.

Byrant Park And Other Random Bull Shit From Me

Bryant Park is soon to be overrun by office drones. Let's bring back the drug dealers and crack whores. And Times Square too.

Apple is up more than 3 dollars at 188. The stock is freaking awesome. You got to believe in the Apple brand. People are going to pay a premium just to look like Justin Long. You know even movie mogul Drew Barrymore is attracted to this Mac guy. Apple's propaganda machine is working in full throttle. What can I tell you? The new 3G iPhone's debut is imminent and Jobs can't do no harm. I expect the stock to reach $200 later this year. But if you lose your shirt and underwear don't blame it on me. In the interest of full disclosure, like I even have my pictures somewhere here, I personally own a few shares of Apple stock because I believe people are generally gullible (no, because I like the idea of living dangerously as in owning stocks).

I finally was able to install Cinelerra. This is some piece of software. Looks to me it's some hardcore video editor designed by engineers for engineers. If you have some room temperature IQ that's really not for you. My very first impression is fuck, this shit is overwhelming. Anyway, my initial founding is this is unlike other Linux video editors which are like too easily broken toys, I wasn't able to crash it by randomly selecting a feature. My major problem though was when I load a dv (from my previous capture from Kino), the video and audio aren't playing in synchronization. The video to my aging eyes looked slower. So I have this huge problem right off the bat. I am not even talking about editing, cutting and pasting, or making Star War IX. I mean this shit doesn't play my dv right. I am an humble person, I tend to blame anything on my own shortcomings. And I don't know if I have to configure something to make it right. As in Kino, I didn't have to do shit to capture and play the dv with audio and video in sync. I don't know if there is anything to do with the fact that the dv was captured in Kino but not in Cinelerra, my hunch is it shouldn't matter. But what do I know?

Enough BS, let me grab something to eat first. My dear ghost readers, you just have to wait for me, just don't hold your breath now.

Quick Post

Obama clinches the Democratic Party nomination. Clinton is toast.

The French Open or Roland Garros is a non-event in the US, sadly so. American tennis is just dead now, and more dead when it comes to the red clay in Roland Garros.

I just found out lately that a lot of cable channels are now offering HD, including Foodnetwork TV. But most of time they are just widening the picture so Rachael Ray just looks bloated. And Mario Batali in re-run just a bit obese.

Coffee Mug

At work, I drink my coffee using a Made in China coffee mug. I don't clean my mug obsessively, sometimes I just rinse it and sometimes I leave my mug unwashed overnight. I think whatever residue there just adds another layer of flavor or many layers actually to whatever freshly brewed.

That's how I drink my coffee at work. Pretty disgusting, eh?

Windows Vista Service Pack 1

I have the service pack installed for a few days. So far so good.
The below is totally anecdotal without any scientific backing or even tried to be scientific.

My hp 6910p used to be very sleepy, when it slept it didn't wake up the first time I pressed the power button. So I ended up pressing the button three times which was two times too many. The first one which supposedly wake the computer, but it didn't, so I pressed it again, to turn the computer off which was actually in sleep already, and then press the third time to wake it up.
After SP1, the wake up thing works the way it's supposed to work or what I think it should work.

Before SP1, the Wifi was iffy at best. Every too often, the wifi would just stop working for no good reason. It was just terrible. All browsers I have would just refuse to go out to see the web. Anything I tried to fix the problem was futile until I did a reboot. After SP1 for a few days already, the problem disappeared, hopefully for good.

These are the only two things I've noticed.

Video Editor

So far I am not too happy with Kino in Ubuntu. For sometimes peculiar reason, some the dv clips in the project would just speed up. I remember the last time I used it in Ubuntu 7.10 the same thing happened. And the sound mix doesn't work well at all.

I wonder if I did anything wrong. No, I didn't. Wonder what's out there. The last time I tried another editor, it was so bad, every time I opened a clip and the program just closed, it's as if I quit the program, so basically it's unusable.

Look like I have to download another program other than kino. Hope the learning curve won't be steep. Well, if anything, the slow motion with pan and zoom works pretty well.

I may have to try Cinelerra?

UPDATE 6/3/08
Oh yes. So after all AMD is not Intel, it's better. I just needed to pick the right binary for my AMD processor which is cinelerra-k7gl and now I can run the application OK. Before that I tried some other Linux video apps, except for Kino which isn't all that bad, the rest are just simply unusable, the program just closes by itself. Now comes the hard part, actually using the program to edit video. Gosh, I want to edit some HD, but then I need to buy a HD camcorder, a new workstation and oh well, you got the picture.

Blogger Outage

Millions of my readers were welcomed with a 502 Server Error or whatever Google server spilled out and got turned away. My red hot blogger traffic brought Blogger to its knees, again.

Between 9AM to 10AM Eastern standard time, Blogger was suffering some serious gray out and most people can't reach blogspot.

Seems like things are returning to normal now.

From the horse's mouth

Blogger and Blog*Spot had very high page load times and server errors for about an hour this morning, from 6–7 AM PDT. We’ve fixed the problem. Everything should be operating smoothly now.

Taekwondo

note: with repeat slow motion and zoom in.

(52 second video with audio, if you use Firefox 3 or even 2 under Ubuntu 8.04, it may crash your browser. Notice that it takes two guys to hold the board when Harry strikes, he generates so much force with his pint sized body.)

This is done by Kino. Unfortunately the interface and functionalities leave something to be desired. I was trying to mix a sound track, but alas, it wasn't doing it right. The video was slowing down even I didn't check the speed and the sound became garbled. And when I went back to edit mode, the speed of the whole project went up. So that was weird. I closed the entire project and re-opened and it at least then played normal. So forget about mixing a sound track and do the opening and closing credit, I just rendered the the dv to MPEG. I did the first run IN MPEG1, which gave me a smaller file 8MB but longer rendering. And this MPEG2 took shorter to render but got a much bigger file, 23MB. Enjoy.

My Own Private White Peonies

Pelagos on Bell Blvd

Yesterday the whole gang went to this Pelagos on Bell Boulevard.

We started with some grilled octopus and shrimp. The octopus was nicely charred, not chewy at all, the same was with the shrimps, very nicely done. Then between the appetizers and the main course, we waited at least 15 minutes and the dining room wasn't all that busy at all. That was pretty annoying especially when you have young children who expect the continuous flow of food and won't sit still just enjoying the ambiance. Just like the name would have it, the color scheme of the place is mainly blue and the decor reminds people of the Aegean (I made this part up). At the end of the dining room is the open kitchen with some seafood on display.

When the main course came, the long wait was kind of forgotten and forgiven. We had grilled sardines, some Greek hamburger, chicken kebab, and seafood pasta. Everything was fresh and savory. The pasta was cooked al dente, with ample of seafood, very well seasoned, I say worth the $25 price tag. The hamburger was juicy and the fries were good too. We had the lemon potato and horta for sides. No ice cream for the kids but they did have some sweet dessert on the house and I ordered a cup of Greek coffee to go with the dessert.

Service was decent and the food was very good.

In the end with 18% tips thrown in, the check came to a grand total of about $120. Nowadays, 18% or even 20% is the new 15%.

Pelagos Seafood
38-11 Bell Blvd
Bayside, NY 11361

Weekend Fodder

MUJI is grand opening its store in Times Square on Eighth Avenue today. My source told me that there would be freebies handed out at 12PM when the store opened to the public. And everything turned out to be true. I was there and I got the gift without any hassle or waiting in any spirit crushing long line. I was frankly surprised that at 12.20PM, I was still able to get the giveaway which by the way was a nice paper organizer and a nice pencil.

The most anticipated movie Sex And The City, which comes like four year late finally opens today. Reviews have been negative and the more than 2-hour long movie was universally panned by critics and audience alike. The premiere held a couple of days ago at Radio City Hall was mostly described as a disaster, ticket holders were turned away because there simply weren't enough seats for the long line of people waiting to get in. One woman, surprise, from Singapore was credulous enough to pay $19,000 to be part of the SATC premiere, please.

The Sichuan Earthquake claimed another victim, sort of. Sharon Stone faces the wrath of the Chinese people when she kind of misspoke at the Cannes Film Festival. She name dropped Dalai Lama, Tibetans, Karma and then before she got the chance open her legs or mouth again, she was dropped by Dior, like for good. The Chinese people, the overlord of Dior, who is the overlord of Stone, dropped the actress as spokeperson for the brand and Sharon Stone is probably forever and ever banned in China. Chinese people are pretty fierce now. A force to be reckoned with and not messed with.

UPDATE:

This is the latest from The New York Times. A piece written by Cathy Horyn (released online on 5/30 and on paper 6/1). I had my doubt about Stone's alleged apology released by Dior Shanghai. Dior, with double digit growth in China was quick to appease knowing full well they couldn't afford to make enemy with money or its overlord in China. The NYTimes piece is more in her own words. Apparently and by her own admission, she had misspoken but the later shitstorm created by the press and the blogsphere largely took the first part of her speech without even bothering to mention the second part where she said she was humbled that the Tibetans offered to help Sichuan disaster relief effort so on and so forth. The emphasis was on brotherly love or love your enemy that kind of theme. Alas, what came out was more like karma retribution because of what Ms. Stone thought as the maltreatment of Han Chinese to Tibetans.

UPDATE 2:

It was only after reviewing the video in her home toward the end of the interview that it seemed to dawn on Ms. Stone why her comments had caused such an uproar. “I had absolutely no intention of saying that, which I did say,” she said, “and now, looking at it on the tape, I look like a complete ding-dong.”

Now, I hope fans of Ding Dong or Doraemon won't get offended.



Rachael Ray, the celebrity chef on foodnetwork tv plays terrorist in a Dunkin' Donut ad, that's what some folks were alleging. In a bid to avoid any controversy, Dunkin' Donut pulled the ad. Well that only stoked the controversy. Rachael Ray, the ever happy goes lucky girl next door, mini Martha Stewart home entertainment pint sized mogul and cunning linguist who coined EVOO and Yummo can't be promoting terrorism? But hey, you never know.

The Occassional Gardener

Eggplant

Tomato

Sage

Italian Basil

White Peony

Rants

The only reason I have home delivery of The New York Times is because I don't have electricity at home. No. Just kidding. Because my daily commute is only the time that I can do some reading offline which I happen to enjoy. So it annoys me to no end if the paper comes late after I leave home for work. Anything that comes late is no good, like if your significant other tells you Honey, I am late. You know that's no good. If the paper is late one more time, I am going to unsubscribe it for good. I am going to be an online free loader.

It's Summer Out There

Holy cow, it's hot out there.

The sun is out and the temperature is like in the 70s (the Internet says it's 82, I am way off) I think. I finally relented when I passed the Starbucks downstair. I bought myself a grande iced coffee, for a grand total of $2.60. Now I am sipping it, with guilty pleasure and conscience knowing full well that I just spent way too much on some fancy coffee that I don't need. I reasoned that I have been having free Starbucks coffee for the past few weeks (because I got a free coffee card from the New York Times) so it's just fair that I paid for one now.

Banal Suburban Life Continues

Yesterday we went to the Ikea on Long Island. We haven't been to the store for quite some time and I wanted to get some picture frames to hang some of my enlargements. If I don't like my own pictures who would? But before I could tell you that story I have to tell you this story.

We decided to have an early dinner before we went to Ikea or other stores. We wanted to check out Macaroni Cheese on Long Island again but when we got there the place got a sign put at the door saying the place was closed for business forever. So we walked to the nearby Chili's instead. That was our first Chili's experience. We waited for about 10 minutes before we got seated. Me and Harry were just sitting at one of those benches outside to wait for our turn, shooting the breeze, teasing each other and talking about the nuanced plot points of The Iron Man. He insists that he doesn't like Pepper even she is a good guy. The food wasn't bad but wasn't exceptional (how could that be?). Price wise, I think it was pretty reasonable and definitely cheaper than Outback, though I do think Outback has better food overall. In the end, we paid $60 tax and tips included for the five of us.

After we were done eating, it was around 8PM already, and the nearby mall was closed so we went to Ikea for real as it closes at 10PM every day. We hit the lower check out floor right away instead of just walking aimlessly around, I picked up a few frames for my 8x10 and 11x14 enlargements and a reading lamp along the way. The frames as I later found out were not cheap at all, around $15 each. Oh well. I needed those to hang the pictures. As we proceeded to the check out area, I noticed that they were all self service checkout now. I could be wrong but I didn't see one check out line that was manned by a real person. And now they charge 50 cents for a shopping bag. So I let Mr. Harry use the laser gun to scan the barcodes and of course he was thrilled to use anything that is laser, and ended up paying and grabbing everything myself.

The following day, I went to Home Depot and there were those self servicing checkouts again. Though Home Depot has those for quite some time already.

The cashier kind of job is fast disappearing.

Regular gas price over the weekend was more than $4 a gallon. And crude oil is over $130 a barrel. A lemon costs $0.99 at Walbaums.

A Day In The Life of A Suburban Dad

I have been waiting for Alex to ask me to see Iron Man.  And today he finally asked if we could go see it.  I've heard a lot of good things about the movie so I am a bit excited to see the movie as well.  Harry was a bit hesitant, I think he liked to see it but he was a bit scared by it.  Anyway, with promise of pop corn and Coke, he went along with us.

We went to see the first show at 10.30 in a multiplex in Whitestone which is about 20 minute drive.  The first show was $8.25, I just can't believe it.  And the large soda and pop corn was $10.30.  How was the movie?  Maybe I expected too much so I thought it wasn't as exciting as I would like it to be.  I was thinking in terms of Transformers kind of excitement, alas, it wasn't even close.  The plot was kind of flimsy, the action was all right.  The acting was decent.  The trailers have some of the very best scenes already.  Looking back, I think Transformers was really exceptional as far as robot like fighting is concerned.  Still it wasn't a bad movie at all.  The movie was more than two hours long, I was surprised that Harry was able to sit through it with the help of soda and popcorn.  So I guess it was good enough.

Glaring inconsistency:  Robert Downey Jr, or Tony Stark, in the last scene, preparing for his press conference, was seen having a pocket square, but when he was out at the lectern, the white pocket square was gone.

Movies to see:

Indiana Jones

Batman

Hulk

Kung Fu Panda

Barbeque

Barbeque spareribs with dried rub.

NYPL Eminent Domain Exhibition

I just went to have a quick look after work. I don't think I spent more than 15 minutes there. I have to go back again.

They look like snapshots but taken as a group, they become very meaningful. I like them especially the series taken in Chinatown by Thomas Holton. They are very documentary looking because they are. The project is not overtly poignant, or being condescending or melodramatic about its subject which is a family with young children living in Chinatown.

The online exhibition is here. I don't know if it's a permalink or not. Admission is free and donations are welcome.

Sichuan After Shock in Flushing

Holy cow, Flushing is in the news. Although not exactly like in New York Times as I have come to conclude that basically New York Times don't care about Chinese in New York City.

I have been living under a rock and I really didn't know there had been some altercation which led to councilman John Liu's intervention, and police arrest, happening in downtown Flushing right next to the public library where Kissena Avenue and Main Street intersects. The public library was nearly shut down because of the commotions and the library security officials had to secure the premise for its patrons. Wow, that's good news, because those security guards were finally doing their jobs instead of just shooting the breeze and harassing patrons who falls asleep at the desk or people merely waiting near the foyer so on and so forth. I digressed.

I just found out days later via ESWN that indeed the aftershock in Sichuan is finally hitting downtown Flushing, an immigrant enclave in Queens county that has nothing to do with Sex and the City. Falung Gong was doing its usual sidewalk show, probably with the recent quake in Sichaun thrown in to update their political and human rights agenda and whatnot. Usually most people really don't give a flying hoopla to their sidewalk propaganda show. Until allegedly three or four days ago when some Chinese people took offense and started to take matters in their own hand, arguing that during this particular juncture, that China is ravaged by a category 8 or 7.9 or 7.8 quake, some 50,000 people died and millions are homeless, FLG has the nerve to hold protest s against the Chinese Communist Party. Now, I am no fan of FLG nor CCP. And I have seen FLG's perennial complaints and the slogan "Heaven Destroys CCP" long before the quake. So what the heck is the problem? You can't beat up people just because you don't agree with you? Unless it's your 7 year old kid brother. This is really the last thing I want to see in Flushing or actually anywhere else. Live and let live people.

Go home, go home eat rice.

A Trip To Adorama

Just when I was about to leave work yesterday, I got an email from Adorama telling me that my prints were ready for pickup.

The weather was surly with depressing rain and spring chill. I saved some $5 and probably a few days when I chose to pick up the prints myself on 18th street between 5th and 6th Avenue where the store is located. I placed the order the night before after 10PM, so the turn around was impressive. I had some prior experience with Adorama and they were quite good, I didn't feel like I got ripped off or anything.

The prints came out all right, I picked the metallic paper kind of material and I think they are supposed to be the best, I can't be sure but they do cost more than the regular paper. Prints and JPEGs on monitor are different animals. I like the JPEGs on monitor better especially looking hrough my HP 2207. Oh well. I asked one of the staff if they still process film or slide, the answer was no, not unexpected.

I got the chance to play with some higher end DSLRs when I was there, the D300 with the 18~200 and the Canon 5D with the 24~105. Both are well-built even I always read from forums that the 5D is not professionally built but I say it's still very good, probably better than my Nikon D70. The D300 has the edge in terms of user experience, a large LCD monitor, quick response, bright view finder, snappy focusing and a zillion AF focusing little points. The 5D is not bad but just not as good. But then here is the big "BUT," in terms of absolute out of the camera JPEGs, the 5D really rules, judging from my second hand experience looking through JPEGs comparison between the two. I can argue ad nauseam which one is better, or some people can, but the point is it all depends on what is important to you.

Love And Sympathy And more

And with love and sympathy to the people of China from the people of the United States.
-- Laura Bush

So Laura Bush speaks for me already.

People who have problems with G.W. Bush generally don't have a problem with Laura Bush. The same can't be said about Senator Obama's wife Michelle Obama. Senator Obama warned or pleaded on network TV that "people should lay off my wife." Would-be-first-lady Michelle Obama was criticized for remarking that "For the first time in my adult lifetime, I’m proud of my country" when Obama was doing well in the Democratic party. Another first-lady-wanna-be and ghostly beer lady Cindy McCain, wife of senior citizen John McCain, quickly seized the opportunity and bitch-slapped Michelle Obama by stating that "I am proud of my country. I don’t know about you? If you heard those words earlier, I am very proud of my country." Meanwhile president-wanna-be and ex-first lady, senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is fighting for her Democratic nomination. What impresses me is she flats out states that she would support Obama and hopes her supporters will do the same, should he be the nominee of the party. There is no if's or but's, I think that shows some class.

Untitled

A History of Violence

Shot in the kitchen. Natural lighting. Nikon D70, Nikkor 50mm f1.4 manual focus, manual exposure.

Nikkor 70~200 Review by Rockwell

Ken did his own evaluation on the Nikkor 70~200 f2.8 VR and again his findings are largely in line with what has been concluded by many others: edge sharpness suffers on FX sensor.  However, he proclaims that it really doesn't matter all things considered.  At the end of the day, you really need to make your own decision depending on what matters to you the most.  And to Mr. Rockwell, the edge softness doesn't bother him the least.

Previous post on Nikkor 70~200 f2.8 VR.

CNNHD

Wow, CNN, the bellwether of cable news is finally broadcasting in high definition. I don't know when they started to have it but I just found out moments ago. Is that why Larry King is retiring soon? Is that why more anchors are getting their faces done? I am just making things up. I think not all the contents are in HD yet, in fact, most aren't. I am watching Larry King Live now, it's just not in HD.

UPDATE:
So silver fox Anderson Cooper's AC360 got the HD treatment while the sedentary senile Larry King still got stuck in standard broadcast.

John Edwards is endorsing Obama, so he wants to capitalize on Obama's momentum and to be a vice president.

Untitled

Viewing pictures at 100% sometimes is pretty discouraging. You find all the faults and warts in focusing, and camera shake. Life was better when people are just printing 4x6.

All pictures shot using my aging D70, Nikkon 80~200 f2.8, processed using UFRaw via GIMP under Ubuntu 8.04.

The Crest Finally Hit Me

LET it be noted without contention that the crest of the flow of recent films from the "new wave" of young French directors hit these shores yesterday with the arrival at the Fine Arts Theatre of "The 400 Blows" ("Les Quatre Cents Coups") of Françcois Truffaut.

Bosley Crowther, November 17, 1959, The New York Times

With tax payers money hard at work, I borrowed the DVD from the library and talked myself into watching it. The crest of the "new wave" finally reached my basement, and hit me in full force, 49 years after its debut. This is not some overtly intellectual film reserved for the film critics and cultural elites. I found it enjoyable and satisfying; it has certain ferocity, unadorned earnestness and poignancy that I appreciate and find lacking in contemporary cinema.

Internal Card Reader

SYBA PCI USB 2.0 & FireWire/1394a combo card Model SD-COMBO-02
A 10-pin USB header. Cut the yellow pin, i.e. pin 9, so it can take a 9-pin connection cable. If you screw up, don't blame it on me. You've been warned.
JPEG from Adeltek

This is a continuation of my Crappy PC hardware that works in Ubuntu
[WARNINGS: If you follow any of the instructions on this blog and cause some major or minor screw-up, like, but not limited to, PC blow-up or bodily harm or death, it's not really my problem. You have been warned.]

My latest additions to my ever expanding Ubuntu rig consist some big ticket items. A Koutech IO-RCM620 USB2.0 3.5" card reader and a Kingston 4GB USB drive.

The Koutech thing can read like 1,000 different cards. Actually "card reader" is an understatement. This thing can write between media as well. I tested that at least on two different media types. I was able to copy and paste a 5MB file between a 4GB CF card and a 4GB USB drive, which took no time at all.. The thing comes with a mini CD and no paper documentation whatsoever.

Installation:
Let's get the Kingston 4GB USB drive out of the way. The thing doesn't need any installation. It's just plug and play. It's a FAT32 file system so I guess Linux is just fine with it. I am not that technical.

The Koutech card reader is a bit involved, meaning I have to open my beautiful big ass beige box. To secure it on my empty 3.5" bay and connect the USB cable to my existing USB card.

The reader has a USB cable that needs to plug in some USB header which I know I have but not exactly sure how. My USB card is the legendary SYBA PCI USB 2.0 & FireWire/1394a combo card Model SD-COMBO-02. Turns out the card has a 10-pin USB header. And the reader USB cable is for 9-pin. So I don't know which pin to cut in order to plug the cable into the header. The SYBA site generally lacks those information but they do have some not so active forums and someone is nice enough to post a link that leads to a picture indicating what pin to cut. You know a picture is really worth a thousand words. With that picture, I cut the extra 9th pin. And I plugged in the USB cable onto the card. I plug the USB card back onto the motherboard on a different PCI card slot which is closer to the card reader. Power up the box. And everything just works. Instead of using my D70 as a mass storage device to read my CF card, I can now just remove the CF card and plug that into the reader. The D70 is just USB 1.1 (12Mbps) so I am gaining some serious USB 2.0 (480Mbps) speed too. Plus the reader has the a front USB so that's convenient for some iPod and thumb drive action. My hp w2207 has two USB ports on the left side, access is not very good as I can't really see sideway.

Story Time: A Man Like Him

A Man Like Him by Yiyun Li, is loosely based on or inspired by an online fodder happened in China some time ago: a daughter using her web sites to expose her father's alleged infidelity and seeks justice online. Li's short story, appears on the May 12 New Yorker, centers on a retired elementary school art teacher, Teacher Fei, who unlike most other online netizens, takes the side of the father. Fei eventually meets up with the father and forms some kindred relationship the brief moment they share in a little diner before they part their way to return to their own places where there are actually nothing worth to return to. The protagonist insists "He has nothing to say about this world." Not so for Li. She seems to be just warming up. She has plenty to say about this world, the Chineseness of Chinese people, their past and present in China and in foreign lands.

Iron Man

Iron Man has scored huge over the weekend. It has grossed more than 100 million. It's just an unbelievable box office success. Perhaps this time around, Robert Downey Jr. can really become a box office draw. Condition: he has to be in that iron man suit, just like Johnny Depp in his pirate costume. Robert Downey Jr. from young promising actor to Oscar nominated actor to junkie to box office success.

Yahoo!

Over the weekend, Steve Ballmer came to his senses, which doesn't happen too often, and withdrew his hostile bid on Yahoo!. Jerry Yang has a lot to answer to now, shareholders lawsuits for one.

Untitled

All shot using a Nikkor 80~200 f2.8 lens. Natural lighting.

Nikkor 70~200 Review at dpreview

Dpreview, over the weekend, published its own Nikkor 70~200 review. The result is largely in line with what others had found out. The lens, despite its 35mm design, is really performing at its best under Nikon's own smaller DX sensor. So the next question is not if but when Nikon is going to update this once legendary lens. Of course, some owners still stand by the lens, brushing off or happily oblivious to, all its drawbacks if mounted on a FX camera, the one and only one D3. It is just like before Nikon has full frame and low noise high ISO performance, most Nikon die-hards wrote off full frame and low noise and then right after D3, most did an about face and raved about how good FF and low noise are. I expect the same thing with the Nikkor 70~200 and its successor.

I will never find out first hand how a 70~200 perfoms. I have a 80~200 f2.8, and I am pretty happy with its performance on my D70. Sometimes it's hard to get a sharp image due to its longer focal length. But with proper technique and lighting, it's very much doable.