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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.