A Day In The City

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Year In Review

I have lived yet another year.(Just don't jinx it.)

IF YOU DISAGREE THAT JUST MEANS YOU ARE WRONG AGAIN.

Man Of The Year. Me.

Metal Of The Year. Lead. It's everywhere you don't want it to be.

Song Of The Year. 聽說愛情回來過 - 彭佳慧

Movie Of The Year. Se Jie.

Book Of The Year. Captain Underpants series and any book by Pilkey.

Operating System Of The Year. Ubuntu 7.10. Free is good. And finally you don't have to know jack to get something done in Linux.

Camera Of The Year. Nikon F5, since its introduction in 1996.

One Saturday Afternoon

Happy Birthday Mr. vl1982

Happy Birthday. It's the end of the year, and like any year, GS likes to remind the rest of us how puny we are making. The news is out: GS is handing out $18 billion in bonus, averaging $600K per employee. No wonder the real estate market is still booming in the tri-state area.

Dan Fogelberg, Aug 13, 1951 - Dec 16, 2007

Singer-song writer Dan Fogelberg died Dec 16, 2007 after battling with prostate cancer for years. He is survived by his wife, Jean. He was 56.

His unapologetic soft rocks live on YouTube. Growing up in Hong Kong, I remember the radio loved Dan's corny tunes, "Longer" and "Same Old Lang Syne" got plenty of airplays. Back then some kids still enjoyed English pop songs and Canto pops had not been as prominently overwhelming as now. I especially remember Longer for some idiosyncratic reason. I think some DJ might have jokingly or actually pronounced the song as \ˈlȯŋ-jer\. You know that was before we have Siu sir to correct our English mis-pronunciations. I guess I was too young to appreciate Dan's movie like unfolding lyrics.

I didn't know he was such a "rebel" until I read this part of "Same Old Lang Syne"

We bought a six-pack at a liquor store. And we drank it in her car. ... The beer was empty and our tongues were tired ... And I watched her drive away.

So we have alcohol consumption, activities that make the tongues tired, driving intoxicated probably in snowy or raining weather ....

If only I knew what he was singing I might have given him more accolades.

Apple Store on W14 Street

The lowdown is it doesn't have a bathroom, nor does it have an auditorium for presentation. The Soho store has both. When nature calls, one has to trek one block north to the Chelsea Market, where there are three unmarked bathrooms for the public.

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Season's Greetings

Merry Christmas

Because of the subprime induced economic downturn, we downsized our Christmas tree this year, from a whopping 5~6 feet to a mere 4 feet one. It's a balsam if I am not mistaken, not that it means a lot or anything anyway.

New York Times Can't Print Color

The New York Times should just give up on printing their papers in color. They can never ever print their color right, I am not saying bad colors. I am talking about ghosting. I haven't seen anything this consistently bad for so long. It's a disservice to the photographers especially those who risk their lives to take pictures in the world's most dangerous areas.

No Country For Old Men

Photo culled from rottentomatoes.com. Copyright Miramax Films.

A serial killer who wears a parted bowl cut and has the biggest head. That's all I got from the movie.

Ken Just Said It

There, Ken just said it.

Good news for D300 users is that the D3 isn't any sharper in JPG. Scuttlebutt is that people may need to shoot NEF to get optimum sharpness from the D3; too bad if true, because other cameras like the 5D give perfect sharpness direct in JPG.

Perhaps it's not too hard to believe.

His website is still whimsically in a pre blog format, so the link has better chance of not working in the future.

Happy Birthday

Sid, Happy Birthday, whenever that is. I know it's around or may have passed.

Jobs Spawned In Meat Packing District

Today is the grand opening of the 3rd Apple Store in New York City. Free gifts and all. When you are on the vertigo inducing 3-story spiral glass staircase, get ready to loosen your wallet to pay over priced mp3 players and all.... I may even go there. I want to look cool and hip too.

Kimura Takuya and D300

The once almost effeminate long hair boyly man dude Kimura Takuya is hawking the Nikon D300 camera in Japan. The kissing is really disturbing. It degrades or elevates Nikon as an object of desire rather than a tool for the professionals. Maybe it can be both. But first and foremost, it has to be a professional tool first then an object of desire second. Never the other way round. We aspire to be the professional, the real McCoy just like celebrities pretend to be professional singers or actors. I can see celebrities endorsing consumer goods like Kate Moss for Coolpix or Maria Sharapova for PowerShot, but for professional equipments, I don't really think so. Perhaps the D300 is catered for some rich celeb lounging in some bar shooting candles and dead animals.

D3 Review By Michael Weber

Here is pro shooter, Michael Weber, who almost exclusively shoots JPEG for his assignments, has this to say about the Nikon D3:

The 3" VGA is a stunner, tack sharp, with vivid colours.

Full article here.

ghorse, this is it. A D3 with a VGA lcd monitor is just what you want.

Report From A Cheapskate

If you are a Starbucks regular, then you knew this already.

I got a couple of Starbucks giftcards for free yesterday, so today I decided to enjoy some gourmet fancy coffee. I ordered a Tall vanilla latte, and the price was a whopping $3.50 plus 0.29 sales tax to a great grand total of $3.79. Holy Moly. Thank goodness that was on the house.

How to Refuel a Plane

The Japanese way and the Chinese way.

The author James Fallows says, and I quote

The emphasis on the right way of doing things is re-surprising on each encounter with Japan. And the determination to do things in China, no matter what, commands respect, despite the obvious complications and problems it creates.

Read the whole article here.

This is sourced from Greenspun's blog post.

One commenter Mark remarks on philg's post:

Phil,
My money’s on China.
I’ll take can-do over anal-retentive any day.
Regards,
Mark