A New Year Has Arrived
I know it's kinda late but what the heck, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!!!!
I couldn't get any leave until February 2nd (planned to go Cameron Highlands, staying 2d/1n in a very English boutique resort, The Lakehouse. Envy me, peeps. Envy me! j/k) and didn't get to celebrate much. But working overnight for the festive season hinders me from the hectic day operation. Yippie~
For the past....7(?) years, we, '98 ACS military band committee hold a reunion but somehow, there wasn't any news at all this year. Irene was supposed to hold this year's reunion but she's stucked somewhere in Europe (SIA stewardess, that girl) and no one has contacted me yet. Hey... don't tell me they are secluding me! Damn y'all!
Anyway, yours truly has been pretty busy with work (well... nothing new, this one. *sigh*) but had some time to play with Frank. Took a few pictures (of bad quality). This is picture is the lobby of the resort where I work. Pretty amazing, especially at night. The picture didn't do much justice. The picture revealed how 'good' my photography skill was. -__- Have tendered my resignation. My last day would be somewhere before the Valentine's Day and I've bought my flight ticket. Yes... I'm flying there. It's on February 26th. AirAsia somehow heard my prayers. They are operating flights Ipoh-Johor Baru starting February. Major w00tage! No more freaking 8 hours of crappy bus ride. Also my dad has invested a couple of grands in koi. What is a koi, did I hear you ask?
Koi or Nishikigoi is the national fish of Japan. Through the years and through selective breeding, Japanese breeders have created the over 100 named varieties of Kois that we see today. Kois are available in sizes anywhere from four inches to over three feet long and can be kept in a wide variety of situations, from small aquariums to large outdoor ponds. Today, Kois are bred not only in their place of origin, Niigata, but all over Japan, and are exported all over the world. Kois continue to gain worldwide popularity as the ultimate pond or garden fish. Oh yeah they are also known as Samurai fish. 
Okie dokie, enough of koi 101... my dad bought 7 baby kois (bro, sis & I sponsored one hundred ringgit each. Hahaha. See we are good kids!) and 5 of them are Kohakus (that's red & white). The tri-color koi is called Showa and the gold is kawarigoi. The smallest koi is the most expensive, ironically. It has the brightest & prettiest markings. I grew up keeping kois so I know my koi. Me dad used to have a larger pond (he made it himself. And this new one too, in fact. It is not seasoned enough yet. That's why its bare. When I say bare, it means the pond hasn't got the... algae-thingy. I forgot what's it called, shit. Is it moss?) and we had like 20-25 kois. Ah... maybe I should dig up some old photos and them up. Some of the kois were almost 50cm long. Oh well... we have to wait for another 4-5 years (and a bigger pond) to see these babies grow as big as that.
Coco spying the kois
Rae wrote @ 03:10
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Introducing Frank
Hey peeps, meet Frank, my new best buddy. Mohahaha! Yes! Finally!!! I got my very own digital camera (with help of something called credit card). Frank, the Canon ixus 55, is one super sleek baby with 2.5-inch LCD Monitor. I love him. I love him. I LOVE HIM!!!!!!!!!! Frank is the latest ixus, revolved from ixus 50 and has many awesome functions (that I've yet to learn :P). Pretty pictures to come!
Sleek Design
• Slim and compact
• Sturdy high-grade stainless steel body with a front ring that gives a brilliant sunburst finish
• Genuine optical viewfinder for conventional viewing and composition of images
Superb Image Quality
• 5.0 megapixel CCD for larger and sharper images
• Powered by DIGIC II Imaging Processor for razor sharp image quality, accelerated processing and life-like color reproduction.
• Ultra-high Refractive Index Aspherical (UA) lens capable of 3x optical zoom
Large 2.5-inch LCD Monitor
• Easy viewing of shots and movie clips
• Quick-Bright LCD function increases the brightness of the screen when needed
Point & Shoot Simplicity
• 9-point AiAF (auto-focusing) ensures the subject is sharply focused even if it is not in the centre.
•15 shooting modes including 7 Special Scene modes to enhance photo-taking experience.
-Pre-programmed 7 Special Scene modes (SCN), for specific shooting conditions: Fireworks, Kids & Pets, Indoor, Snow, Foliage, Underwater and Beach.
•User Interface (UI) incorporated for user-friendly usage.
-Animated Display with enlarged and animated icons and names for the currently selected mode
-Vertical/Horizontal Gridline Display for easy photo composition and framing
•Smooth Continuous Shooting capability to shoot continuously at the same speed until the memory card is full(Depends on the type of memory card/no of recording pixels/compression rate settings)
•Self-timer function with Custom Timer, which can set a delay between 0-10secs and number of shots from 1-10.
Movie Creation
• 4 Movie Modes: Fast Frame Rate/My Colors/Compact/Standard
• Digital zooming while shooting of movies (only in Standard mode)
• View the playback of your movies with 5 selectable slow motion playback levels
• Movie editing of unwanted portion at 1-sec increment.
Playback Modes
• With Auto Rotate function, images will be displayed and oriented correctly during playback, regardless when held vertically or horizontally.
• Advancing or reversing through images with transition effects
• Index playback with selected images slightly magnified for easier recognition.
• Special effects are available when viewing slide show of images without a computer
• Easy location and management of images through enhanced Jump function with jump searches
1)Jump 10 images
2)Jump 100 images
3) Jump shot date
4)Jump to movie
5) Jump to folder
My Colors Function
• Freely customize color reproduction of images on the camera.
• Real-time color change on LCD monitor while shooting, hence saving the time and hassle of retouching via computer
• Change a selected color before capturing the pictures.
• My Colors Function modes to express your creativity:
• 1)Positive Film: A combine effect of ‘Vivid Blue’, ‘ Vivid Green’ and ‘Vivid Red’ to shoot with more vivid blues, greens and reds. This allows image to be shot with natural and vivid colors similar to positive file
2)Lighter Skin Tone
3) Darker Skin Tone
4)Vivid Blue
5) Vivid Green
6)Vivid Red
7)Color Accent: Specify a color to remain and turn all other colors into monochrome (with no flash)
8)Color Swap: Specify a color to replace a selected color. Only one target color can be captured (with no flash).
9)Custom Color: Freely set the balance of R (red)/G (green)/B (blue)/skin color.
Shoot and Print/Transfer Direct
• Print photos directly from Canon direct photo printers and any PictBridge compliant printer without PC.
• Easy print and transfer of images with a just a touch of the Print/Share button
More Printing Options
• N-Layout function automatically fits images (eg. 2,4,8,9,16,20 images) in the best layout for printing to each sheet of paper (with any PictBridge printer, compatible with this function)
• ID Photo Print - crop images to passport size for direct printing with Canon CP printers
• Movie Print (Sequence) - print an index of still images from movie footage with Canon CP printers
• Fixed Size Print - print size from 18 print sizes defined by the PictBridge standard (via PictBridge only)
•File Name Print - print file name or the date, which accompanies the image (via PictBridge only)
Enhanced PictBridge Support
• Photos can be printed with the camera name and other shooting data/information such as the shutter speed and f/number (when connected to a Canon inkjet printer)
• Supports 2 new paper sizes* - 8” x 10” (8R) and 10” x 12” (10R). [* Available when printed from selected Canon inkjet printers (PictBridge compatible) which supports this paper size.]
• Image Optimizer automatically adjusts the brightness in situations where the faces appear too dark. [Only available when printed from selected Canon inkjet printers]
Connectivity
• High speed USB 2.0 transfer rate
• Direct connectivity and transfer to both Windows & Mac computers (Mac OS X v10.1.5- v10.3).
Media Storage
• SD/MMC card storage
from canon.com.my
Rae wrote @ 21:14
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New Year, New Priorities
For the past weeks I've been busy with my work and and had little time to get my priorities straight. I've made up some plans for this year and I think they are rather drastic and a bit tad too risky for my liking.
Should everything's goes as planned, I'd be uprooting to Singapore this mid February. No, I haven't got any job yet (that is why I said it's risky). I don't plan to work in hotel industry anymore. It's tiring and my time would be very much constrained, disallowing me to pursue my personal interest. Oh yes, another big thing. I'm planning to pursue a degree in business management. I've been putting it off for a few years already and it's killing me. A sense of regret slowly consumed me for I rejected an offer at Nanyang Poly few years ago. I had kicked myself countless times for doing that but I know it's no use to cry over spilled milk. Argh... whatever.
Anyway... I'm thinking I probably won't be around as much, I assume for this couple of months. I'd be busy with all the preparations to move to Singapore. There are so many things to be done! And the fact that I don't have internet access outside office (must get a new pc already!)... but this doesn't mean I'm no longer going to post, because I'm sure I will, but it will be more along the lines of "a few times a month" rather than "5 times a week".
Wish me luck.
Rae wrote @ 03:42
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Reno the Teletubbie
I don't know if this is good or bad... Shiraz made a Reno out of a tubbie. *Points to the right*
It looked horrid at first glance. But the more I look at it the funnier it is. Hmm... wait. How disturbing. Gag. Anyway, do any of you know the names of each tubbies? I know someone does. Heck, I don't even know how many tubbies are there and I sure don't wanna google to check.
Shiraz's made a few of these odd creatures; one of Shuuhei and one of Urahara. I don't have the pics and I'm too lazy to IM him for them. Will post them up next time. I must say Shuuhei's the best-lookin' thingamajig. Hmm... again, disturbing.
Rae wrote @ 07:15
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Just Another Random Post
I was just minding my own business on the internet; browsing through sites of kendo and I found this picture.
It's pretty cute and horrifying at the same time. It looked like kids trying to take on some masked monsters. Anyway I'm hoping to join a dojo this year. I've been wanting to try it since, oh I don't know, primary school? It may look weird to you seeing two people wearing a drum-like protection (it's called 'do', pronounced as 'dough' FYI) struggling to hit each other's head with a bamboo stick (the stick is called 'shinai') but to me, it's fascinating. Some might say it's better to learn iaido but I just don't like sharp stuff (though posing with a katana would look damn cool).
ps I forgot where I found this pic so... if the rightful owner somehow stumbles across my blog, please let me know.
Rae wrote @ 19:37
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One Heck of a Start
Well... I woke up with a fever yesterday but I went to work anyway. My boss was being erm, as usual, annoying. On the way home, I hit a stray dog. The dog crossed the road but decided to turn back WTF I was driving like 100 kmph (it was a straight road and there weren't many cars that night). Turned around to check the dog but it was gone. Reached home around midnight, checked my car the car plate's broken. One digit was missing.
Woke up this morning and mum told me my car was in a pretty bad shape. WTF my bumper's dented and something was missing, leaving a hole on it.
-___________-
Rae wrote @ 18:19
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