Snow Day

I should have overexposed it by at least one stop to make it white. Or should have done it in GIMP. But I goofed. And so be it.

Worker Bees

For those worker bees who brave the snowstorm and prop up the ailing US economy.  I salute you.  You know who you are.

Snowmageddon In NYC

Tomorrow's news today:  no school tomorrow.  Mayor Bloomberg preemptively closes NYC public schools.  Kids shall stay home and so will I.

The only thing I care about:  Can the Fashion Week in Bryant Park still open on Thursday?  Can the emaciated human specimens brave the surly weather and walk the walk?  Is Fashion Week still even in Bryant Park?  I am confused.

Me The Poet

Can you believe that?  I know I can't.  But here are the two "poems" I have ever written in my entire life.

So Winter Is Here
Snow Is Pelting On My Roof
Snowdrops Brags Haiku
[The last line is corrected by the exceedingly literate Snowdrops]


Winter Games Up North
Cruel Capricious Trails Break Bones
Safer Watch At Home

Since somebody is closing the shop early, I have to single-handedly provide entertainment for the entire Blogosphere.  It's a tall order but somebody has to do it.

The above is purposefully haiku, whether it's really haiku I don't really know for sure.

Nikon New Lenses

A Nikkor AF-S 24mm f1.4G.  For a mere $2,199.95.  More the reason for me to use old film stuff.  It just doesn't work for me.  I just use whatever I have already or from eBay.

Carousel

Best Subway Line In The World

The Price Is Right

Friendly Vendor

New Yorkers are incredibly friendly.  I feel enormously thankful to strangers.
Canon RF 35mm f2.8

Sometimes, I wonder I can probably put a coke glass in front of the camera and it's still be acceptably good.  Just kidding. I used to be very very anal about how clean the lens is.  I mean I still do.  But ever since shooting these two lenses from the 1950s I guess some scratches really don't mean anything.  Bottom line is the picture.  While scanning, I notice sometimes Dust Removal is just too smart for its own good.  Sometimes, some facial features are considered as dust and the result can be strangely appalling.  I can't do this to the nice people in my pictures.

Empire State Building

Neopan 400 shot as rated. Kodak HC-110 1:63 10 minutes at 68F.

Won't You Hate It

Won't you just hate it if Brangelina tells you beauty and wealth don't mean a thing?  I know I will.

Random Rant

I always thought I can count on the Japanese to crank out reliable consumer durables at a reasonable price.  Now even they messed it up.  It's all Toyota's fault.

Something About Myself

My tastes are simpler:  I am easily satisfied with roast pork over rice.
    ---laichungleung

Me And My P

Me and my P. Canon RF 35mm f2.8 with 35mm optical viewfinder. The optical viewfinder is nifty. It has a focusing scale to compensate the optical discrepancy between the lens and the viewfinder. I honestly don't think it's called parallax correction. Anyway, the distance adjustment tilts the viewfinder down if focus is close and flat focus to infinity. I know some other Canon rangefinders, there's a pin on the cold shoe connected to the focusing mechanism to do just that--moving the shoe mounted optical viewfinder up and down. I mean how cool is that?

When accurate framing is not critical. When accurate focusing is replaced by hyperfocusing. Rangefinder is the way to go. I talk like as if I know what I am doing, I don't really. I just enjoy what I am doing.

Mom, Look, There Is No Lens Cap

The lens has scratches and marks and it doesn't come with a lens cap. So it's naked. The upside is I never miss a picture because I forgot to take the lens cap off.

One good thing about the P is you can easily leave the film leader out without much guessing. Once the little red eye stop spinning when you are rewinding, you know the film is out of the take up spool on the right and not yet back in the cassette cartridge. Of course, if you want to micro adjust the the length of the lead sticking out, like getting 39 or 40 exposures out of a 36 roll, then you need to be more careful. But it's really great if you process your 135 roll film. I never needed to use a can opener because I always leave the film lead out.

Frozen Kissena Lake

Kung Fu In Kissena Park

Kodak 125PX @125, HC-110 1:49 for 8 minutes at 68F.  A lady practicing Kung Fu in the park.

+++++++

Once again, I was able to shoot thirteen frames using my C12 back.  So that's a bonus.  Though it's a little bit of a pain to file the orphan 13th frame.  Plus the 13th frame is just too close to the end that got clipped to the reel when developing.  The frame may very well get crinkled.

Last night I dumped my Kodak HC-110 after the above development.  It got kind of reddish.  The negative looked fine to me.

As an aside.  I don't know what's going on with the expired film market.  A year or two ago I was getting just expired 120 Portra for $1 a roll.  Now people are asking 120 color negative film expired in 2006 for $2 a roll.  I say no, thank you.

++++++

The 150mm CF is one of the two Hasselblad lenses I own. I like the out of focus rendition, it's pretty smooth. The 80mm CF is good, not crazy expensive and it's actually versatile but people tend to overlook just like the 50mm lens in the 135mm world. Then there is the 50mm CF which goes from $500 to $800 I think without the floating elements. The 50mm CF would be a nice addition to my Hasselblad.

I Can Cry Like Roger It's Just a Shame I Can't Play Like Him

A defeated, deflated and disappointed Murray never loses his sense of humor. He chokes up right away when he says "sorry I couldn't do it for you tonight," apologizing to his fellow country men back home for not winning the Open Championship. Then he goes on to say "I can cry like Roger. It's just a shame I can't play like him." It wasn't entirely true. He didn't go all tears like Roger did. He says "I'm done, sorry" and immediately leaves the spot to Federer after he thanks his team. I hope Murray can win some the rest of the year.

Federer keeps beating up youngsters. He just collected his 16th single titles in down under, a record. A new decade, same result for old Federer. If the beginning of the year is any indication, dude still has plenty left in his tank. Plus his archrival Nadal is in bad shape. None of the other players are consistent enough to beat Federer at this point.

(NOTE: I can't wait to see what some newspapers in HK has to say about Murray's it's a shame comment. More shame ...)

Australian Open Update

I love to say that I told you so.

When Serena Williams wasn't busy threatening line judge by shoving tennis balls down her throat, she could definitely play magnificent tennis and she did.

In the final, Williams was able to control her nerve and got the job done. In so many ways, I think, gee was Williams playing just like Henin? Except she was bigger and louder. Both players were playing aggressive tennis, and it was even truer for Henin; nobody wanted to do any long rally. Now looking back, I think Henin should have just stayed with Williams longer on each point when all of a sudden her serve and backhand weren't working for her in the third set. I would give the edge to Henin if a point was ever played longer. But ever since her comeback, she played much more aggressive tennis. And who's better at aggressive tennis? Serena of course. In the end, Henin played more like Serena and wasn't able to beat Serena in Serena's game.

Australian Open Update

Just as predicted Roger Federer is going to the men's final. What most people didn't foresee was perhaps the totally one sided performance. Tsonga just couldn't muster any offense or defense against the great Roger Federer. There wasn't much of a fight. Federer played like great Swiss clockwork, faultlessly and reliably precise on every set. Federer is going to face Murray who has an excellent baseline game but I don't know how consistent and reliable he is. So far he hasn't won any grand slam yet. And if he doesn't have any break through I doubt if he can have any going forward. Federer surprisingly is still at the top of his game and nobody plays as consistent as he does. Murray is going to face a very formidable opponent in the final.

You Won't Buy The iPad, Of Course You Won't

I came across more than a dozen posts proclaiming that "I Won't Buy The iPad."  Of course you won't because maxi-pads are just so much better.  They come with wings too.  Don't believe me?  Watch this.

Now I Am Shocked

Mingpao doesn't even get the joke right.  But all the better, I can now laugh at mingpao in addition to Apple.  Unintentionally funny.

以Pad為名 被嘲「衛生棉」


【明 報專訊】蘋果將平板電腦命名iPad，而Pad在美國口語中的意思之一是衛生棉，惹來輿論調侃。Brew傳媒公關公司創始人哈默靈（Brooke Hammerling）質疑蘋果如此給產品改名，是否在乎女性市場，「和我談話的每個女性聽到這個詞的第一反應，幾乎都以為是衛生棉，看來蘋果之前根本沒 做多少市場調查。」有男性公關專家亦調侃道﹕「我等覑蘋果iPad第二代有護翼版趕快問世。


紐約時報

If your girlfriend asks for a pad and you give her a tampon,  is it the same thing?  I don't think so.

Kids, if you don't study hard you may end up not having a girl friend, not knowing what period is, not knowing the difference between a tampon and a pad but lucky enough to be hired by mingpao and translate crap like the above.

Previously ....

update 7PM:
Apparently ( or not so apparently to me ),  the translation is right.  When I type in the Chinese that's what I see.  So I guess it's right.  Kids study hard or you end up like me.

Australian Open Update

Andy Murray kind of lives up to the great expectation, but the true test is going to be on the final.  Can he beat the seemingly rejuvenated Roger Federer (assuming R Fed is going to beat the talented but sometimes erratic Tsonga)?  I saw Federer play and he moves extremely well.  I mean what else is new?  I haven't seen Murray play in this Open so I don't know.

On the men's side, it's a pity to see Nadal retire during the match.  I am afraid this may be it for him.  It could be the end of the road for him.  The guy is renowned for his quickness and now with his perennial troubling knees I don't think if he would ever play the level he ever played a year ago.  It's just bad.  Andy Roddick and Fernando Gonzalez both can hit big and do hit big all the time.  But it just goes to show hitting big is just not enough.  When they play you really feel like, man, they really work to earn their money.  The grunts, the poundings are just unbearable to watch, sometimes.

On the women side, it's always good to see a comeback.  In this Open, the come back kid or woman is Justin Henin.  The woman just retired, prematurely.  And now she is back with a vengeance or whatever.  She seems to have a even better forehand now.  The woman can explode massive power from her 5 foot 6 frame both from her forehand and backhand.  Super diva, on and off court, Serena Williams needs no introduction.  If she is not too busy threatening a line judge by shoving down a tennis ball down her throat, she can actually play impressive tennis.  Did she ever regret that ugly episode in her career, in tennis?  Probably not at all.  Less than a year from her "passionate" outburst on the court, she was ranting and complaining about the amount of fine $82,000 or $92,000 or $175,000 being excessive.  I mean, c'mon.  She should have been suspended but I guess the tennis world needs her, her level of play to draw in the crowd, the TV ratings, and that's the reality.

Grey Lady Weighed In Protest and Democracy in Hong Kong, Finally

The New York Times' Keith Bradsher is calling Hong Kong's protest culture lame, essentially.  That's until our Goddess of Liberty Christina Chan changed everything.

Until recently, Hong Kong had a tradition of orderly political protests that were uncommonly polite by international standards[editor's note: read lame]. When 500,000 people took to the streets in 2003 to oppose successfully the introduction of stringent internal security regulations, the police did not make a single arrest.

Here our Goddess of Liberty speaks:

 “We’re just sick of going to rallies that political parties organize, and we hold our banners and don’t accomplish anything,” said Christina Chan, a 22-year-old graduate student in philosophy who was arrested at her home[editor's note: outside of a radio station, RTHK] this month on suspicion of assaulting police officers at two rallies. Released on bail of 500 Hong Kong dollars, or $65, she has not yet been formally charged and has denied any wrongdoing.

Though the part that says she "was arrested at her home" seems wrong but overall, the account of the event as a whole was accurate.

Read the original piece here.

UPDATE 1/29/2010:
I wrote to Mr. Bradsher regarding his Times article and expressed my doubt on the place of arrest.  He checked with Ms Chan and confirmed that the arrest was made not at her home but outside a radio station.

Li Na Digs Deep

Super diva Serena Williams is having trouble putting Li Na away for good.  So far Li has saved four match points.  Serena is going to earn the spot, Li is not just going to give it away like free.  The match goes on.

update:  In the end, Williams prevailed.

酒囊飯袋

Cop got bitch-slapped and collapsed like a sack of potatoes.  Unintentionally funny.

What good is he as a cop?  Can he serve and protect?  I doubt that very much.  He can't even protect himself from a not-too-surprise attack from a seemingly drunk and mildly deranged well-heeled female dog with no weapon but her bare fists.  If the stun-yelp-collapse is just an act in front of the camera to strengthen the case of assaulting a police officer then there is this ugly element of framing the suspect by exaggerating the injury and stretching the truth so much so that it may amount to obstruction of justice.  Either way makes him unfit for law enforcement.

FEATURED COMMENT

If you study English hard enough, then you can slap a cop in the face when you grow up. The other trick is: you have to drive a Lexus, BMW or a Mercedes and the whole thing has to happen in the Mid-levels. No luck if u are an English-speaking Pakistani living in ShumShuiPo.

路人甲

iPad It Is

Oh brother.  It's really called iPad, of all names that Apple can infringe and use.  It's a tribute to female hygiene I guess.  iPad available with or without wings, okay only without wings.


via live blog from gizmodo.

Only Reason to Get Up This Morning and Stay Up

No, it wasn't Obama's poor state of the union address at 9PM E.T.  Who really cares anyway?  Wall Street wins and little people continue to toil or collecting unemployment if you are that lucky.

It's Apple's 1 PM E.T. media event:  the announcement of the much anticipated tablet computer that promises to change everything, I mean everything.  The latest being it's a 10" touch screen iPhone on steroid with a built-in HDTV tuner, 2 cameras for video conferencing, a solar pad for recharging among other goodies you don't need and most likely can't afford because you are either unemployed or underemployed.  But since it's from Apple you are going to buy it anyway, plus iPhone seems so pedestrian now that even your grandma has one.

Free Content Is Over Soon

The days of reading contents free online are numbered.  By contents I mean valuable contents like the ones here.

Apple's tablet is going to make payments so simple and so much fun that you actually feel like you owe it to yourself to pay via Apple's tablet.  Think Apple's iPhone apps.  Each app is either free or mostly under $10 and people are paying them like as if they are free when in fact they add up quickly.  Before month end, iTunes is sending you a $100 statement.  Surprise.

People are so used to getting quality contents free on the Web and print media have been caught much like the music industry but unlike the music industry, they actually put their contents on the web and charge nothing hoping that the advertising model, like network TV, would sustain or even turn a profit for the business.  Alas, nobody from the old print media has any success in raking in the dough.  Print is either dead or on life support.  Now comes Jobs, the guy who can do no wrong.  If the Web puts print on life support, the tablet is the life line.

What does Google fit into this picture?  Google should be afraid, very afraid.  Just like the iPhone apps, it has the potential to totally bypass search, the bread and butter of Google's ad driven business model, that's why Google needs to get into the smartphone business to control how content is delivered.  While Apple is on iPhone 3GS, the second iteration of its game changing device, and ready to roll out the tablet, Google just belatedly shipped its Nexus One.  With the tablet, the computing battle field is pushed one step further into the handheld and away from the desktop.  Google doesn't have the so-called first mover advantage but it never had even with search.  It would be interesting to see how Google, print and other businesses are going to adopt and exploit the potential of this device.

Pedestrians

Merry-Go-Round

Canon P Rangefinder.  Canon RF 50mm f1.8.  HC-110 diluted at 1:49 for 8 minutes.

Epson V500 = POS

What a let down.

I was trying to scan a frame or two in the morning. But that POS just wouldn't co-operate. To get the 135mm negative onto the mount is in itself a chore already. But I guess I can live with. The holder for mounted 135mm slides can never give me a sharp scan. I mean never. The 120 film mount is close to impossible to mount. Now the software, today I just couldn't get to select Film as my medium. I re-started it a handful of times and re-positioned the negative holder, still no go. So this is the latest problem, a supposedly photo scanner that can't even scan film. Well your experience might differ.

UPDATE: The cable between the lib and the body came loose, so that was an easy fix. It didn't change my opinion on my experience in general with this scanner.

First Roll of Black and White from P Almost Ready

My first roll coming from the P is processed and is hung up in the bathroom to air dry. I shall scan once the negative is ready. I think this time I beat my record in loading up the steel reel, it took me probably 2 minutes to load the film. I did it in one go and there was no crinkles, a very clean load. The exposure doesn't look bad either considering I was just guestimating the exposures as I shot along. The accessory meter doesn't work.

That was the good news.

Here comes the not so great news. Well it wasn't exactly bad. I found out I left the FE film advance lever open and the battery was duly drained. This had never ever happened to me in the 20 plus years that I own the camera. The battery has been in the chamber forever and it had been good for years. I remember I only changed it once all these years. And I thought it has auto power off even if I leave the lever in the open position. Oh well, you live and learn. Without battery the FE only operates at M90 and B unless I use it with my MD-12 motor drive.

Well I can always shoot my Hasselblad 500C/M and my Canon P sans battery and sans meter.

I Got My P

Canon P, probably manufactured in 1959 and the lens in 1951, finally I found some camera gears that are even older than me. Woo hoo.

Snowboarding, Skiing and Shaving

They are all about the edges. And they demand your full attention or else you pay a very steep price for it. I like the brutality of them.

People ask me what is easier, skiing or snowboarding. I am not the best person to answer a question like that but my opinion is this: Skiing should be a bit easier to pick up. While learning to ski you can get away with not riding on the edge by doing the "pizza." You can survive a beginner slope by doing the "pizza" all the way down. For snowboarding, you have to find your edge pretty early on, during the process, you are going to catch your toe side or heel side, and it's not going to be pleasant or pretty. And there is no "pizza" to make to get you down, you have to edge your way down early on. My opinion is snowboard is harder to pick up. You experience might differ.

Times Square

Little Skiers

The Bra Tree

Girls feel the need to take off their bras (or some kids call booby patch) on the way up the mountain.

Oldest boarder

PA-145N

I-78

Google Has Had Enough

Google has had enough of bullshit from the China government, like nothing happened on June 4, 1989 in Tiananmen Square kind of fantasy history for one. In all likelihood Google is going to pull out of China, voluntarily or not, if it insists not to censor its search results, in the wake of a security breach found in its Gmail server. The breach, allegedly originated from China targets Chinese activists' Gmail accounts. Google has 29% of China's search market, oh well, might as well quit. At long last, Google is practicing what it preaches: "don't be evil."

More to read here.

Lost in Translation

QUOTE
雖然 Monique知衰，不過 o靚模 Jessica C.昨在柴灣出席電單車活動時，卻為 Monique藏 K仔一事感到羞恥， Jessica C.說：「我的感覺是，這是一件羞恥的事，也很可悲（ it's a shame you know, its sad.），因為她還很年輕。」
UNQUOTE

Apparently Jessica C is expressing her disappointment and sympathy towards this Monique girl. But the semi literate press sees "shame" and immediately just goes for 一件羞恥的事 which is anything but this Jessica is saying.

QUOTE
這項活動由一個名為「到處都改善」（Improv Everywhere）的組織舉辦，這個組織表示，此舉目的是要「在公共場所製造混亂的場面與大眾的歡樂」。
UNQUOTE

Improv <> Improve, Improv == Improvisation

If you don't study hard you may end up translating crap like the above translators or worse write about it like yours truly here. Remember kids, stay in school and study hard.

Grand Central

Developed for 8 minutes using HC-110 diluted at 1:49 at 68F. I am not too anal about the numbers even supposedly I should be. The temperature is probably off and the time probably off a bit.

The Epson V500 is basically a disappointment. The software and the film mounts are just atrocious. I cut my 6x6 in 3-frame strip and it's very cumbersome to load that onto the mount, a 4-frame strip maybe a bit easier but my protective sleeve is for 3-frame film. In any event the frames on both ends of the strip would definitely be difficult to mount no matter it's a 3 or 4 frame strip. That said, I believe you can get decent scans from the machine, if you can get the negative properly mounted, and you can get rid of the dust. Good luck wrestling those.

Sometimes, I am pleasantly surprised by my Yashica. It's just a little camera that can. Many of the pictures I like are from this TLR. I can't change the lens so there is no chance I could be using the wrong lens, like my Nikon and Hasselblad. And the pictures are sharp though I don't have any empirical proof it's sharper than my Carl Zeiss but it really doesn't matter much. The shooting experience is great. With no meter, I got most of the exposures all right, of course, film latitude helps a great deal.

Grand Central

No Pants Subway Ride

No I didn't join the No Pants 2009.

They should have it 24x7 at the airports around the nation.  That way everybody is safer.

More hairy legs and cutie butts here.

3D TV

Just when you thought you bought the latest and greatest 1080p LCD HD set, they come up with this 3D TV, like now.  What am I going to do with my 1080p LCD TV?  Oh, I forgot I don't have one.  Woo Hoo.

Hasselblad C12 Back 13 Frames

I developed my 13th frame from a C12 back.  Notice that I only read the term C12 online from sources other than anything official.  It's just an older back with a peep hole and I really not sure it's officially known as a C12 back or people just retroactively call it a C12 back since the newer one is called A12.  I shot 13 frames and was able to see the image on the negative all right, though the 13th frame is a too close to the end where it meets the reel's clip but it's definitely doable albeit some crinkles on the edge due to the clip.

Now I wonder if I can squeeze in the 14th frame by shooting before I see the pair of 1s.  I think I can find that out too.

Yashica Mat-124 G and Hasselblad 500C/M

Both use 120 film, but I took a measurement of the image size on the negative and the Yashica is a 56x56mm square while the Hasselblad with my C12 back produces an image size of 55x55mm.  The images from the Yashica almost always stray too close to the film edges.  When I load the film I have to make sure the top take up spool mechanism is flushed all the way in and during shooting (it has some play), otherwise the image may really go too close to one side of the edge overlapping the film code there.

UPDATE:  YOU'VE COME A LONG WAY, CLICK THE LABELS BELOW TO SEE MORE.

Romantic Terrorist Arrested

OKAY, he is romantic but he is hardly any terrorist. Perhaps the nation should just thank him for exposing how lame our airport security is even just days after the crotch bomber was subdued and arrested. Romantic 28-year-old Rutgers grad student Haisong Jiang from China just wanted to have one more kiss with his girl friend before she departed to California. The minor inconvenience was she was already in the restricted area for flying passengers only and Jiang wasn't supposed to be there. But that wouldn't stop Jiang. Mind you he isn't a ninja or a trained terrorist, but all he needed to do was wait till the security personnel stepped away he just ducked under the security tape and that was pretty much it. Now some NJ senator is trying to rewrite the law to punish Jiang for embarrassing New Jersey and inconveniencing thousands of travelers. I think, yes, his act was pretty moronic for a 28-year-old grad student but you can't just make up laws to punish somebody because you think some law is not harsh enough, the guy is Chinese but New Jersey is not China. So don't just bend the law to suit your taste.

Goddess of Liberty Arrested

Christina Chan, political activist (some calls opportunist), celebrity, and my Goddess of Liberty of Free Tibet fame is gaining more street cred, thanks to the Hong Kong police.  The pint-sized fameball was arrested by the Hong Kong police for, get this, allegedly assaulting police officers during two protests in November last year and this New Year.  The police did not file any formal charges against Chan, she was questioned for hours and greatly inconvenienced if not deprived of her rights in the custody of the police--not freely receive and make phone calls and using the bathroom in her privacy. She was let go after posting HKD500 bail.

If this is not politically motivated I don't know what it is.  She was arrested and yet no charges were filed--because there simply wasn't evidence for the alleged crime, so the arrest was just harassment simple as that.

And no, you don't even need to like Chan to feel outraged.

Canon P Rangefinder

I want my P.  Got to have it camera.

Cut an Orange

Morning Commute

Notice how perpendicular the steel column is? If this is not a great picture, then I don't know what is. The track next to the platform also doubles as a giant trash receptacle. Commuters generally favor to carry their household garbage to the station and dispose them onto the track even a ridiculous large number of garbage bins are dotted along the platform.  If rodent is your kind of delicacy you are in luck, cat-sized rats can be found along the track in the open and in the tunnel.  Wherever there are trash there are rats, a whole ecosystem of small urban animals exists in the New York subway system.

Brain Teaser

If you know the answer right away, congratulations, you may laugh at me.  If you don't know the answer, that's OKAY too.

In a room there are ten people, and there is a basket with ten apples. How do you distribute the ten apples so in the end everyone gets an apple and there is still an apple left in the basket?

NOTE: Alex asked me this and I think I gave him a good answer right away. I felt pretty smug about it.  Feel free to leave your answer in the comment section in white so nobody can read your wrong answer.  I don't know the "correct" answer yet.

NOTE 2:  I guess the true brain teaser is how to change the comment text to white ... I guess it can't be done given the status of my template and Blogger.  Sorry guys.

Test Post

Haw haw haw

So Google email account actually works.  I guess it's Yahoo that sucks? Well they all suck when things don't work the way I want it and I need to figure out some work around to circumvent the stupidity of one or more vendors. But I guess that's life. Somebody, somewhere, sometimes, or worse, all the time, is stupid.

Test Post

iPhone just sucks ass. I can't get it to do the email posting to Blogger. If anybody knows the workaround please let me know. Blogger is not helpful here. It sucks ass too, just like the iPhone. I suspect it's because how iPhone do the attachment, that's inline. Anyway. Blogger doesn't know how to rip the picture from the html mail I think. And I don't like to use another app to do this blogging business. I like just email blogging. Or maybe it's done via Yahoo. I don't know. Maybe if I do it via Google, Blogger's parent, maybe it would be different .... I shall find out.

42nd n 5th

Lunch

Chicken kasudon $5.45 .48 total $5.93.

Google NO phone

Google, being arguably the biggest offender of copyright infringements, much to the benefit of the average consumer and the chagrin of content providers, is now at it again. Google's NO (as in Nexus One, you heard it here first) phone and the open platform operating system that it runs on, "Android," are all lifted from Philip K Dick's seminal sci-fi novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep." It's all fine and dandy except Google doesn't give Dick any credit, monetary or otherwise. So Dick's estate is not happy and when people are not happy they want monetary compensation and and when people want money they become litigious. Google probably would most likely settle should the Dick's estate sue. I think the same thing happened to Apple's iPhone too. You tried to get away with it and when you can't you just pay up. Simple.

As reported by WSJ.

Free Lunch

Chirashi for Lunch.

Free lunch, not exactly. I forgot to bring my wallet so my friend paid for me. I am sure by tomorrow the next thing I know I am going to forget to pay back my friend. Well now I wrote it down, I can't say I forgot.

HOLY COW. This is the best Blackberry picture I've ever taken.

NYPL

Shot using a Blackberry 9630. But since it's not shot by an iPhone so nobody is really that interested. Blackberry go go go. I know I am ridiculous.

Nexus One Don't Care About Chinese

It's official. Straight from the horse's mouth.

There is no language keyboard support for Chinese input.  Booo!  Booo!  Meanwhile iPhone has keyboard support for both traditional and simplified Chinese.

Nexus One

Nexus One, Google's conduit to yet deliver more ads, mobile ones, straight to you without anybody getting in the way, especially Apple's iPhone, is to be formally introduced today.

Google is poised to announce its own Google phone today, and yet there isn't much excitement anymore because specs and images of the said phone has been leaked purposely since last year. Nexus One really has to deliver in order to impress because the hype has been subsiding like three weeks ago. OKAY, maybe there is still some otherwise I won't be writing it at all (like as if I am so important to decree what's important). Anyway, like it or not, Apple's iPhone pretty much has the smartphone market all by itself unchallenged.

With the arrival of iPhone and now Nexus One, the much touted pervasive computing has finally come to fruition.

Morning Train

Live from New York.

2010

The new decade begins with confusion and chaos because nobody in the English speaking world can agree on how to pronounce the year 2010.

Go Naked At Airports

Since the shoe bomber, everybody has to take off his shoes during security check, so the next logical solution is, ladies and gentlemen, we most likely have to go butt naked when going through security check points.  Courtesy of the stupid ass crotch bomber.  Forget about those 3D X-ray screening, just go naked, that ought to save millions.

Hong Kong 2003

Fuji 400 color negative.  Scanned using Epson V500

2010

My Decade in Review

Some people have photographic memories but I am not one of them.  Sometimes it's good but most of the time it's bad.

1990 - What did I do?  I don't have a clue
1991 - see 1990
1992 - see 1991
1993 - see 1992
1994 - see 1993
1995 - Got married.  Hooray.  I was out of the market.  A lot of girls were disappointed.  But I was not Jacky Chan so nobody died.  I wasn't even Andy Lau, so I never had the need to keep it a secret from my anybody.
1996 - Happily married.
1997 - My Dad passed away.
1998 - see 1996
1999 - Alex was born.  From husband to husband slash Dad.  It wasn't easy.  People tend to glorify and happitize the arrival of newborns.  Yes it's true, it brings joys but at the same time it's stressful and life altering.
2000 - Getting used to be a Dad.
2001 - Harry was born.  I am a Dad again.
2002 -  see 2000
2003 -  see 2002
2004 - see 2003
2005 - see 2004
2006 - Bad year.
2007 - Awfully bad year.
2008 - see 2005
2009 - see 2005

PS:  1990 - 2009, that's twenty years, two decades, isn't it?  I couldn't even count right the first time.

New Year's Resolutions

I am not going to do it.  Even if I were going to do it I am not going to tell anybody.  Because New Year's resolutions are just something to set myself up for failure.  Since I don't want to fail so I don't want no resolutions anymore.  My resolution is to have no resolution.

Hooray.

PS:  I think I really suck.

iPhone on Steroid

On Jan 26, Apple is going to announce whatever i product that is going to rule the mobile space.  It's most likely a much rumored and anticipated tablet device or essentially an iPhone on steroid that's going to eat Amazon's Kindle for lunch.  If you need reading glasses like a lot of 40ish folks, iPhone may not be such a great ebook platform, but this thing will be.

Apple's stock closed at $211.64.  The stock is going to hit $250 by mid 2010.  You heard it here first.

Disclaimer:  If you lose your underwear by buying Apple stock AAPL, you can't blame it on me.  I own Apple stock and its products.

Yashica Mat-124 G

The re-birth.  I sent it for a quick fix and now it's back.  I have an easier time focusing with it than the Hasselblad.  I think it's a nice camera for medium format.

Summer 2007

Another 35mm Scan

The film is Kodak 400-2TMY, not developed by me.  Scanned using Epson V500, 2400dpi, 16-bit grayscale, USM at medium, Dust Removal medium.  I don't know if that's the optimum especially USM.  I probably should have turned it off all together and just use dust removal.

Ice Skating In The Frozen Pond

Skiing

Serial Number

If the product never ever needs support, then perhaps the serial number is not needed or it can be printed in the back of the product with a font size that needs an enlarging lens to read. Please for Pete's sake, don't ask the serial number or if you do, then put it in the front and have it printed big because not every one can read that 15 alpha numeric characters in minuscule font size.

A Tree On 42nd Street

Scanning film (on the Epson V500) is an exercise in frustration. Somehow I think scanning at 2400dpi and with all adjustments off except dust removal set at medium gives me the best look for black and white.

I can never really save any settings. Even I turned off the Unsharp Mask, it would creep back in automatically. So that's weird and buggy. You can't really name your setting it's automatically named like setting 1, 2 and 3 and so on. But it doesn't work anyway. After Preview, I have to uncheck the adjustment that automatically added by itself but I have to select all before doing that, otherwise, it would only apply on the selected image instead of what I really want which is all the images. I found the software buggy and annoying.

Yashica Mat 124-G

Here's what a graduated neutral density filter would help to give the sky a darker shade of blue.

update: 7/8/2010
GUYS:  Click on the related labels below for more Yashica Mat 124-G.  You have come a long way.

Film Scan

Scanned using an Epson V500, set a 16-bit gray scale and at 2400 dpi.  One thing about scanning is you have to deal with dust and scratch like forever.  Many years ago I scanned using an HP Photo scanner.

UPDATE:
I think the film holders of the V500 are pretty atrocious.  I mean they work but it's just not something you expect from a photo scanner.  For $160 or so is it the best they can do?  I mean people buy this for scanning film right?  It's supposed to be good not like an after thought because after all it's marketed as a photo scanner.  If you have 6x6 negative that got cut into 3 frames per strip, I am telling you, the contraption isn't all that great at all, you would have a difficult time putting into the 3-frame strip.  But again it can be done.   The 35mm strip holder is slightly better.  You got to scan two strips of 6-frame at the same time.  You will never get the film flat especially the medium format, but I am not really complaining if I can fit the negative just a bit more efficiently and easily.  On the other hand if you have uncut 120 negative I think it should be a bit easier, I have yet to try that.  If the mechanics of the V700 or the V750 is about the same as that of the V500, then I am glad I didn't go for the pricey ones.  I read some time ago there is some third party film holder I guess I will have to look for them.  OMG, I just checked the price is close to $80 and to pay by PayPal, extra as if the convenience on both sides of the transaction doesn't mean anything.  It probably worths every cent of the $80 but I will hold off for the time being.  The film holder is one half of the price of the scanner.  Does it make sense?  I guess it probably does.

The Fuji Acros 100 seems to be a winner, especially compared against the Kodak 125 PX.

Traffic

On I-87.  Slow moving traffic.

Christmas Breakfast

Robots Xmas

Go St. John's

Santa x 2

Developed Fuji Acros 100

This was the first 135mm black and white I ever developed in more than twenty years.  Everything went well.  I was afraid the roll might have bunched up so I unspooled once before accepting the second load.  I thought my finger could feel the edge but I guess it's just the way the reel was designed, a bit tighter than the 120 reel.  The film came out good.  I used the same formula I used for developing the 120 format PX125 film.

I think I really need a scanner now, probably a new souped up desktop as well.

Field Tested My Nikon FE

I brought my Nikon FE loaded with Fuji Acros 100 for a spin in Kissena Park under the bleak weather that was the first snow storm of the season.  While I almost froze under the punishing sub-zero temperature, my Nikon FE and the MD-12 motor drive were functioning properly.  I bought the camera circa 1984.

The List Shall Go On

The Best Blogs Ever.  Don't just believe any blog recommendations you find online.  They are all bull.  Except the ones here.

If next year you are going to visit one blog and one blog only here is the one
http://laichungleung.blogspot.com

And this one if you think you deserve something crazy, stupid, asinine, unbecoming, then his blogs are for you.  They are pretty revolting, the pictures mostly, so they may or may not be work safe.  You have been warned.

If you want something carefully and meticulously composed, try this one here, the last post was in 2007.

Merry Christmas

This is the handsomest, kindest, nicest Santa I've ever seen in my entire life.

From A..Z

It's this time of the year, Santa is not the only one that's making a list, almost everybody is making a list.

Here are the web sites, from a to z, that pop up at Firefox's smart location bar whenever the letter is pressed.  Admittedly I am not the only one using this Firefox on this notebook.

http://www.aq.com/
http://blog.age.com.hk/
http://c9aimeili.wordpress.com/
[redacted]
[redacted]
http://www.facebook.com/
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
http://newyork.craigslist.org/
http://kenrockwell.com/
http://laichungleung.blogspot.com/
[redacted]
http://www.olegnovikov.com/index.shtml
http://www.olegnovikov.com/index.shtml
[redacted]
http://www.queenslibrary.org/
http://kenrockwell.com/
[redacted]
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/
http://www.usopen.org/en_US/index.html
[redacted]
[redacted]
[redacted]
http://www.youtube.com/
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/weblog.htm

The redacted ones are too obscene, combustive, and embarrassing to be listed here.

Kindle Is Actually Hot

Could Steve Jobs be wrong?  According to some news somewhere online, Amazon's Kindle is doing just great in this holiday season despite what Jobs proclaimed how wrong Kindle was.  But you know what, you can't believe what the guy said at all.  No iPhone, bam, he gave you the iPhone; no video on iPod, bam, video, even with FM radio thrown in.  So when he said Kindle's conception was flawed at the top what he actually meant was gee we didn't think about that, but heck we might not be much of an inventor but we are a great technology aggregator, we sure know how to put all the parts together and make the whole more important than the sum of its parts and market the living day light out of it.  When that day comes and sure it will albeit a bit late, we will rule, just like the iPhone we put together.  We didn't invent the cell phone but we sure know how to put everything together in a nice little package that has somehow become the most coveted phone ever or at least in 2007 when it was first introduced.

Blaceberry Misadventure ...

It's kind of hard to read any article from The New Yorker on a Blackberry Tour 9630.  The three-column layout doesn't sit well with the 2.6" 480x360 screen and yet I don't find any reasonable work around like RSS to just read the damn thing without scrolling left and right every second like crazy.  And I have yet successfully installed Google App on the device.  The device just hangs whenever I go to Allow Application Permissions.  It then requires a nasty reboot which takes much longer than the previous Blackberry I had.

How do I judge the device?  If it can't install Google Mobile App then it's inferior.  Searching online doesn't get much help either.

NOTE:  Gee I can't even spell right, wtf is Blaceberry?  I don't even know.

UPDATE:
I think Google Voice is probably the culprit.  The installation was "alright" in the end.  I don't know exactly what happened, like usual, but the apps seemed to have to be installed one by one or so.  But every time when voice is involved like search by voice, a dialog prompting to Allow or Deny would totally lock up the device.  I have to remove the battery in order to reset the thing.  I don't know any other way.  Again, a search online doesn't get much help either.  Meaning the solution to Allow permissions doesn't help because not all permissions are "allowable" maybe that's where lies the problem.

So Sweet

Do you get fucking tired of reading comments like this, So Sweet then followed by half a dozen exclamation points.  I got fucking tired of that.  Just so you know.

Unmanly Listening Behavior Unveiled

The New York Times just confirmed what I have long suspected: many men, are secretly loving Celine Dion and cartoons more than they are willing to admit; proclaiming their love to classical and jazz while they are actually in love with soft rock like tunes from Air Supply.  We are a nation of big grown pussies listening to effusive love songs and watching cartoons even we are no longer seven year olds--think this week's box office record smashing, crowd pleasing Avatar (but grown men draw the line on puppet show movies, nobody went to see Wes Anderson's fantastic Fantastic Mr. Fox, sad).  And worse, some men actually are blaming their wives for their unmanly radio listening behavior.

The New York Times has the full article on this sad unmanly behavior.

Negative

I shall continue to post crap.

This is a negative scan from my super duper all in one photo-copy-printer-scanner.  If you want to buy me an Epson V750, please let me know.  The above is just a negative scan with color inverted done in GIMP.  The quality is astoundingly bad.  I hope it's just the scan and not the negative itself because that would be bad, really bad.

Straight Razor Shave Experience Update

WARNING:  YET ANOTHER BORING POST

I have been keeping the scales dry and clean.  The Maas cream was able to remove 99% of the patina formed on the blade, it now still has a tiny microscopic dot there which doesn't seem to get any worse.  I am anal retentive but not to the extent that it bothers me (OKAY, just a tiny little bit).  I usually shave at night as I don't have time to fuss in the morning.  I am the last one to take the shower so I have no problem leaving the razor sort of to dry in the bathroom as there won't be any additional steam from any more shower.  The following day, I store the razor away from the bathroom to avoid moisture from showers.

The soaps I got from eBay were bad despite good service and allegedly made from all natural stuff.  I could never got a nice lather out of them, at least the two that I tried and they left my skin uncomfortable.  The one I got from another vendor seems far better.  I am able to whip some nice lather out of it and it doesn't irritate.  Before I never know what real lather feels like.  I had equated lather with suds.  How wrong was I?  With the good soap I don't really need after shave lotion or balm though I am sure I can use some but it doesn't bother me even if I don't.

Stropping is not all that difficult even with a 2-inch wide stop.  Naturally I am making an x motion pulling and pushing the blade on the strop.  It's no biggie, at least that's what I thought.  I did make a few nicks on the strop initially.  I should have slowed down a bit in the beginning.  I was not in a race why bothered to act like proficient while I was just starting out.

I used to just shave with the grain or across the grain, but I am doing the against the grain more so now.  But still the underside area between the chin and the jaw on both sides of the face are like the most difficult parts for against the grain shave.

I am able to use my non dominant hand to shave, that is my left hand shaves my left face without cutting up my face.  But still most of the time I use my right hand for against the grain shave.

Black And White From Yashica Mat-124 G

WARNING:  ANOTHER VERY BORING POST

I redeemed myself.  I shot a roll of 125PX earlier and I developed it when I got home.  I am now washing the film in the washbasin, once it hit 30 minutes, I will give a one-minute photo-flo bath and hang it up to dry.  I just peeked at the first few frames and they looked good, at least I didn't introduce any kinks while I loaded the film onto the steel reel.

Okay, I just finished everything.  I hung up the roll and I noticed something.  The square image, unfortunately, shifted just a tiny little bit to the left with emulsion side facing away and the first frame at the bottom.  What it means is the bump on the bottom of the camera caused a shift of the back ever so slightly that the image no longer stays on the dead center of the roll.  As the image is actually upside down when in the camera, so I think the back has shifted a bit to the left pulling the film with it.  The problem is more pronounced in the middle of the roll as the edge of the image ever so slightly touches the Kodak code on the edge.  I don't know if it merits a trip to the repairman, the last time I got a quote from a well known repairman I didn't do it.  It was expensive though I am quite sure it's gonna be worth it.  I may want to check earlier negative see if it has the problem, because honestly I don't know for sure if this is a pre-existing condition or not.

Another thing I notice, though not really related to the Yashica, but it's more a general 120 roll film thing.  So far I have been leaving the tape that tapes the film and the backing paper on the film when developing, I just ripped the backing paper from it and taped it back on the glossy side of the film.  On second thought after having developed four rolls, I think it might not be such a good idea to leave it there, especially the practice of taping it back on the film.  It tends to retain the chemicals, the next time I better rip the tape off, if not the whole tape at least the part left after the backing paper is off.  It's not a major problem but I can see it can be a potential problem.  I saw bluish liquid dripping down from the tape area, even the thirty-minute wash didn't remove those chemicals trapped in the taped area.  The film should be free from chemicals after the wash.  Next time I should rip the tape off completely.

Just shot another roll of 125PX

 Yet another boring post.

Just shot a roll of Kodak 125PX.  I am keeping my finger crossed as I am not sure how light tight my Yashica
Mat-124G is anymore since I discovered a small bump at the tripod socket months ago.  I shot with the case on thinking that it should protect the camera better.  My hunch is it's still tight but I will have to develop the film to find out.  This time around I will be careful in loading onto the reel to avoid any kinks.

While I am at it, I might as well tell you my experience with the Yashica Mat 124G as compared to my Hasselblad 500C/M.  For the viewfinder, I think both my Hasselblad and Yashica are kind of difficult to focus comparing to my Nikon eye level viewfinders.  If you are young, healthy and have good eye sight and don't need reading glasses then you will do just fine looking through the waist level viewfinder.  I am actually OKAY with the laterally reversed image.  While I find the Yashica's magnifying lens helpful when focusing, the same can't be said about my Hasselblad's.  Well's it's just my experience.  I bought a battery for the Yashica once, but it went dead very fast I think after a roll of film or so.  I don't know for sure if the meter went bad or the battery actually went out.  In any event, I am using the sunny 16 rule and totally forget about the meter.  The same with the Hasselblad though sometimes I carry my FE for metering purpose.