Kereta Baru…

Land below the ‘Wind’

Sabah is Land below the Wind, indeed!

 

Fallen trees, road sign, advertisement banners all the way to work this morning…

HK Recipe

Every time I bring mom dad to “jalan-jalan” one borneo, I would end up bringing them to this restaurant for lunch.

Simply because dad wants to eat rice,
mom likes noodles…
and I like burgers.

Here, dad can order his ginger beef rice

Mom can order her fish noodle…

and me and my Macau Burger… :p

One happy family!

Mat Oblai

One day, after successfully getting an order from the court, I said “Thank you, Your Honor” to the court… and I get frowned at by a senior lawyer, “Much Obliged, Much Obliged” he said.

So on another day, when I witnessed so many other senior lawyer also “Thank you Your Honor”, I asked a learned friend, what’s wrong with “Thank you, Your Honor” and was told this:

When you “thank” the court, you are saying the court is “doing you a favor” and that is not right because the court does not do anyone any favor, the court gives you an “order” a “direction”, like it or not, you are bound to comply, and that is why you can only “oblige” to the court.

Okay, point taken, and I would “oblige”… but I have one problem… I have problems with pronunciations! The kind of person that would say “Ular Lari Lurus” as “ulah lali luluh”!

In court,

If you ask me to say “Substituted Service”
I’d inevitably utter “Sub-see-shoe-shed Sir-Wit”

If you ask me to say “Much Obliged”?
What will it be?
It will be “Mat Oblai”…

That is why I still prefer to say “Thank you, Your Honor”!

Oh… I so admire those people that could speak English in court with an “accent”…

MANY GIFTS, ONE SPIRIT

Music and lyrics by Allen Pote

Many gifts, one spirit, many songs, one voice
Many reasons, one promise, many questions, one choice.
O, God, we pray for unity, give guidance from above.
In our differences unite us in the circle of your love.
O, God, remind us we are not alone.
Though we move on different pathways,
we are walking to your throne.

Help us learn to love each other, show us ways to understand.
We are members of one family, growing strong by joining hands.
O, God, remind us we are not alone.
Though we move on different pathways,
we are walking to your throne.
Take our many ways of working, blend the colors of each soul
into the beauty of a rainbow.
Give us life, Lord, make us whole.

 

Just love the lyrics of this song so much…
It’s really a great song to “propagate” unity at the church!

And more so, I love the melody and the voice arrangement!
The overlapping “many gifts, many gifts, many gifts…” by the SATB represents all the different voiced… and then when it come to “one spirit” all voice sing in unison… how aptly beautiful!

This, is good church prayer music…
may it be every church’s prayer!

The Genius of Photography

I’m a lazy reader… and prefer books with more images than text,
so what better way to learn everything about photography than watching a 6 episodes documentary?

Behold BBC4’s  The Genius of Photography!

This DVD series is a “must have” for all photography enthusiasts!
It only cost about £23… 

Too bad I’ve only got the chance to watch half way of the first episode on Astro… don’t know why Astro is not repeating the series (but keep repeating the Plane Crash Investigation series… for whatever reason?).

Canon Photomarathon 2009

CY called and asked me to check this upcoming Canon Photo Marathon Malaysia 2009 so I did…

First thing first, I check out the prizes offered… and I find the prizes a bit “tidak masuk akal” (not make sense).

Why give another compact camera to a digital compact user?

Best of Show:
Description	Digital Compact	EOS DSLR
Grand Prize	Japan Trip PowerShot SX120 IS	Japan Trip EOS 500D (18-55mm IS)
2nd Prize	PowerShot SX120 IS	PowerShot SX20 IS
3rd Prize	PowerShot A2100 IS	EFs55-250mm F4-5.6IS
Best of Themes:
Description	Digital Compact	EOS DSLR
Theme 1	PowerShot A1100IS	EFs55-250mm F4-5.6IS
Theme 2	PowerShot A1100IS	EFs55-250mm F4-5.6IS
Theme 3	PowerShot A1100IS	EFs55-250mm F4-5.6IS

As a digital compact owner, I would like to have an DSLR
just as a DSLR owner would like to have a digital compact as a standby camera beside his/her existing DSLR… so the the list of prizes for DSLR make more sense… either get lens or a compact!

Anyway, let’s look INTO the four powershots listed as prizes…

PowerShot SX120 IS

• 36-360mm (35mm equiv)
• f = 6.0 - 60.0 mm
• 10x optical zoom
• F2.8-4.3

PowerShot SX20 IS

• 28- 560 mm equiv
• 20x Optical zoom
• F2.8 - F5.7 (max)
• 13 elements in 11 groups (1 UD and 1 single-sided UA element)
• Ultra Sonic Motor (USM)

PowerShot A2100 IS

• 36 - 216mm (35mm equiv)
• 6x optical zoom
• F3.2-5.9

PowerShot A1100 IS

• 35 - 140mm (35mm equiv)
• 4x optical zoom
• F2.7-5.6

 

… mmm…

Camera Accessories

Here comes the accessories I ordered online…

These are from shashinki.com, I got them within 3 days:
for my LX3 lens – a blow, a lens pen and a bottle of anti-fog spray.

I’m happy with shashinki’s delivery process which provides the poslaju post tracking code… which means I get to find out the whereabouts of my purchase within those anxious delivery period.

 

Below is an LCD protector for LX3 which I bought through ebay which was supposed to be mailed from Hong Kong but I got a parcel with Singapore’s postage… I receive the item after one whole week! But thank God, it was not somehow “lost” within the local post office.

Have to say buying from ebay is a bit worrying… you don’t get a guarantee of when the item will be delivered, you also don’t get a postage code to track the delivery… all you get to do is to WAIT PATIENTLY. And ebay will only entertain your query if the item is not delivered within 30 days! That’s an awful long wait!

Well, if I can get the same item from shashinki, I would not have buy from ebay…

LX3 Accessories

Since I have decided to jilt the Fujifilm EXR…
I thought it would be nice to spend my Christmas bonus (pray hard there will be bonus this year) on upgrading my LX3 with accessories…

But… then I found out that I would have to spend about RM2,000 (cost more than LX3 the digicam itself) to own all those available accessories!

And even before getting the PL filter, ND filter, Wide Conversion Lens, External Optical Viewfinder, I need to get the Lens Adaptor… and this circular none impressive thingy will cost me RM109!

But wait till I tell you the prices of the other accessories to be mounted on to LX3 vide this converter!

 
Wide Conversion Lens RM676
(With its 0.75x magnification, mounting this lens to LX3 enables 18mm wide-angle shooting)

(Err… do I really need 18mm wide angle… since I actually prefer to take Macro photos?)

 

PL Filter RM330
(Increases color saturation and contrast by reducing reflections from non-metallic surfaces and by cutting through haze. Deepens sky color)

 

 

ND Filter RM90
(a "grey" filter to reduce the amount of light that can pass through the lens allowing larger aperture at a certain shutter speed… often used to achieve motion blur effects with slow shutter speeds)

(Err… why a PL Filter cost RM330 while ND Filter only RM90? Mmm… if I shot through my sunglasses, would it have the same effect as ND Filter? Mmm…)

 

External Optical Viewfinder … guess how much this little thing cost
RM699!

(What?!! RM699 for an eye?)

 

And since spending so much already, might as well buy also the MC Protector at RM80!

(a multicoated filter that in Panasonic's own words assure users that it affects neither the colors nor the amount of light, so it can always be used to protect the camera's lens)

(If I could spend RM40 for the LCD protector, spending RM80 to protect the Leica Lens doesn’t seem that much! Right?)

 

Grand Total RM1,984!!!
Well, I think I can do without the viewfinder,
then the Grand Total can be reduced to RM1,285…

Ok lar… not so bad hoh?!

LX3 LCD Protector

I lost the cheapo LCD protector on my LX3 during the trip to Pagalongan,* and can’t seem to be able to find a replacement everywhere… not even on shashinki.com!

Now only I realised LX3’s LCD screen is SO UNIQUELY big!

 

 

*if you were wondering how can one lost a piece of plastic stuck on an LCD screen… you know why I call it CHEAPO, it was a cheapo “free gift” that come with the purchase of my LX3.

Doulos is here again ~ dizzy…

After 5 min on board…. I start to feel seasick… arrrrrrrrrrrgh!

Even the ice-cream didn’t help!

So I had to get off the ship… empty handed!

Should I cry or be thankful

Here’s the latest update of my investment with Public Mutual…

Amnt invested (RM)	Date	Fund	No of units	unit price (RM)	Value @ 30/08/09 (RM)
4,000	16/6/2004	PIADF	22,600.94	0.2104	4,755
2,000	10/12/2007	PCSF	7,586.20	0.1945	1,503
6,000					6,258

Sigh…

I guess people like me are just destined to be poor!

Matthew 25:26 comes into mind again…