The Birthday Bash...

Alright, so I haven't updated in a week or so. I had to leave Daughtry up there cause he was giving me more hits!!! HAHAHA!

In any case, we had a ball of a time at Go India restaurant. It was an FM club outing. We also celebrated 2 birthdays. And a first at SAFRA Radio! Boi turns 21!!! Talk about young! He's like the 'baby' of the company although he hates being called that.

Well, that's because us old farts hate being old...that's why we're all young at heart! hahaha!

Well, all the best for the birthday boy and girl! :D

Here's the BD boi...



And the birthday girl girl...isn't she just sooooo sweet!?

DAUGHTRY!

Chris Daughtry and Brian Craddock!!! Woohoooo!!!
They were the in-studio guests on Harry's Double Expresso.

Sony-BMG brought them in and man...the groupies in us turned out at full force.

Okay, so they're not as tall as I expected but they're both way cool dudes.

Was great and we had a helluva time taking pictures with them ahaha!

Anyway, since they had a pretty long day ahead, they didn't stay here for too long.

In any case, it was pretty fun meeting them.

A Clear Night

It's such a beautiful sight. After a cloudy weekend (it's M's fault. He left for China today) it's CLEAR!!!!

I instantly whipped out my C90, mounted the camera onto it prime focus and voila! A nice shot of the moon.

Yes, it was sharpened a little because the original shot had the moon slightly soft. That's probably because of the 7 year old optics which to be honest, weren't maintained very well.

Still, it was a sight to see. Pity I didn't have the time to do shots of Jupiter as well because through the eyepieces, tonight gave a good showing of the planet along with its 4 biggest moons. Callisto, Io, Europa and Ganymede.



Well, I think the shot of the moon alone was well worth the trouble of packing and unpacking the gear. Heh.

And yes, the images are shot by me in Singapore and they're my copyright HAHAHA!

42 minutes past Midnight

This was what it was like at Seletar Reservoir 42 minutes past midnight. It was on the 16th September 2007.

A rather still night with no wind. Clouds hung overhead giving the surroundings a surrealistic glow from the reflection of streetlights.

A couple finds solitude for themselves and escape from the daily grind of city life.

Sick...

My mouth is dry, my head's spinning and my hands are clammy. This to top off with the fact that I'm running a temperature. Damn I hate having a fever.

Backyard astronomy's a good way of feeding mosquitos. We covered more mileage than I'd care to remember driving from Seletar to Tuas to Sungei Buloh and finally to Pasir Ris...all in that sequence!

At the end, I blame M for bringing the rainclouds where ever he goes HAHAHA!

Oh well, I have to be optimistic about this coming weekend though. Might even do some sky tracking in order to get some nice wide shots.

Lets hope I get well by then.

Face Booked

Man...since I got an account on facebook.com, I've been swamped by pokes, beer and God knows what else.

There's been very little happening these couple of days apart from the excitement of horizontal lightning, telescopes and earthquakes...

Okay, so it was a pretty big deal that we felt the tremors here as well but frankly speaking, it wasn't quite what I expected. After all, I've experienced tremors along the west coast of North America before and those were quite something else.

In any case, I won't be living anywhere close to a fault line anytime soon.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for clear skies tonight. Hopefully then I can photograph some nice Messier objects such as M31 or M42.

Polar alignment's still a headache for me though and I believe that M's big ass Celestron's gonna be hogged by his 350D. Still, one can always try.

One wonders what of the local trees that people have spotted with growths on the trunk that look like The Monkey God and the Elephant God. It's probably just a coincidence but since when should we start worshipping trees? It's a strange world that we live in I guess.

Shake it shake it baby!

Yup, some of us here at D-E-P-O-T R-D felt the tremors.

Apparently, our local tremors were caused by a 7.8 (according to USGS as of 8:47am) / 7.9 (according to NEA.gov.sg as of 8:47am) earthquake that happened at 7:49:01am local time in SOUTHERN SUMATERA, approximately 550km SW of Singapore and 90km SW of Sungai Penuh, Sumatra, Indonesia.

The 883Jia DJs felt it while they were still on-air and announced it as it happened. Quite drama yah?

Anyway, I didn't really feel anything much but it could be because of my rather central (in the building) location. They were closer to the edges of the building so they might have felt it more.

Oh well...

If you want more updates, check out NEA's Earthquake Monitoring webpage
or
the USGS Worldwide Earthquake info centre

Maybe they should stop doing the "jogek" for a while there...

Okay okay...not nice to make fun of disaster but have to make light of it lor...otherwise everyone so sad. :P

In The News...

Got a call today...was kinda half asleep when I answered...

"Yo Boz! I saw your photo in the papers!" - Older Sis
"Is it?" - Me
"Yar! You're the Vincent Wang that shot the lightning right?" - Older Sis
"Guess so...not that many Vincent Wangs living on the 12th floor in Bt Batok" - Me
"Niiiiiiiice!" - Older Sis
"Thanks!" -Me
"You got newspapers or not?" - Older Sis
"No lei" - Me
"Okay I cut out for you to frame up." - Older Sis
"Thanks!" - Me
"Click"

So I got up still a little stoned to check out the Stomp! site...

hmm...1200+ views...not bad..get good exposure in Stomp! lei...

So later on when I came into the office I check out the papers...Yup...there it is. The cover photo for Stomp! on today's paper.

Looks like recently I've been involved a lot more in the Media...lending my voice for commercials and spots in Power98, photos posted in the newspapers and on the online portal etc...I kinda enjoy it.

Okay okay...it's attention seeking but then again, it's also fun. Heh :)

STOMPed...

Well, if you guys happen to be visiting the STOMP website, you can see the pictures that I've taken previously of the cloud formation and lightning.

They've been posted here

Now I feel like a typical local "Kaypo" but I do feel that sights such as these should be shared.

It's Showing its Age...

Yup...the 10D is 4½ years old now...and it's showing its age.

Just two days ago, I tried taking a long exposure photo of the lightning (see previous post) storm and the number of hot pixels that popped up are definitely more than when I first bought the camera.



I guess it's kinda protesting against the abuse that it's gone through. I suppose once I save enough for the new 40D. At least it's got "Liveview" which should help in getting a more accurate focus while shooting either prime focus or through eyepiece projection.



Orion's 120mm ST OTA is a 600mm f/5 and is going for under 1K at Astro, but after reading about it, I'm beginning to wonder if a shorter but faster 600mm is a good alternative to my current 1000mm f/11 mirror...

Or should I get a NexStar??? The Orion accepts 2" eyepieces which is a BIG bonus cause I wear eyeglasses...

The difference between the new generation C90 (M's Scope) compared to my old C90 is quite obvious. The new C90 is a 1200mm f/13.3 which appears very dark even though the magnification is better...

Maybe I should continue with the C90 first because it's a pretty decent all-rounder and M's already got the monster NexStar 8SE...

Argh...decisions decisions...

Big Ass Scope

M collected his big ass Telescope yesterday...and today he flew off to Manila.





At least he loaned me his C90 to mess around with along with the NexImage CCD. Haven't had a chance to try them out yet though.



Compare that with my own very old C90 side by side and you'd notice some differences; such as...

1) on mine, the darn focusing ring is on the tube itself...so whenever I try to focus, the whole scope would move...a big no-no if you're trying to spot Jupiter or Saturn...

2) I don't have the 90° dual-view thingy. which means that I have to rely on a star dianganol.

3) Mine's an 1000mm f/11 as compared to his 1200mm f/13 so it's a little bit brighter.

Anyway, he's coming back on the 14th so we're gonna go hang out somewhere n do some stargazing.

Storm on a Starry Night...

The raw power of nature...The picture above was taken at about 6.40pm and you can see the storm clouds brewing. Equally impressive is the super long shadow cast by the clouds from the setting sun. It was just a beautiful sight.



An aeroplane passing by the storm. Obviously the storm's quite a distance away. Probably hitting Johor Bahru and further north to perhaps Senai. In any case, the plane still looks puny!



Horizontal lightning was spotted from my front door and I decided to capture some images. This is what the storm front looks like when lit by the lightning from within...you can also see stars in the sky which made it an even more interesting experience.



This is a 100% crop of the above image...no resizing was done.

Truely a magnificent sight.

Mistaken

People often mistake acts of concern or goodwill (especially from the opposite sex) as a sign of affection (so I've said before).

However, having said that, it's only fair that the party not be kept in the dark about it or be led on. J recently had made this mistake with his ex and when she ignored him, he was utterly depressed.

It's no surprise that he feels that way since he still does have strong feelings towards her. I guess sometimes, women enjoy the attention for a while and then once that initial buzz of it wears off, it becomes tedious.

Guys just have to know when to quit.

Of course, there are times when persistence pays off but it seldom happens if ever at all. Persistence can sometimes become an irritant actually.

It's happened to me in the distant past so I guess you could say that I've got a certain amount of experience with this.

Besides, it doesn't pay to have a crush on someone who's self-centered and in need of temporary attention. You'll just end up being ignored when the person finds a new playmate or interest.

I guess there are people out there whom don't know how to put in a nice way that they want some time to themselves but rather choose to ignore as the easier way out. Humans are always looking for the easy way out. Otherwise, John F. Kennedy wouldn't have had to say, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard... because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and others too." at the Rice University Address on September 12, 1962 (full transcript here).

Escapism

There are some people that I know that would make Houdini look like an amateur.

Of course they would have their reasons for it. However, it's the fact that it occurs without knowing when it'll happen that gets a little on the nerves.

Otherwise it wouldn't be called disappearing I suppose.

How effective is the Internet in searching someone up? Not very if the person suffers from technophobia I'm afraid. There are quite a few people I know of that are certifiable technophobes. It's a little strange though because first of all, they're my age and secondly, how can anyone truly survive in this country being a technophobe?

It is good to know though that there are senior citizens out there that try to embrace technology with open arms. Even though oftentimes it's a pain to teach them about it, one just has to be patient of the fact that:

A) Because they think they're old, they automatically have bad memories...(but they can remember what you did wrong two months ago)

B) Because they think they're old, they say that it's more difficult for them to learn new things (well, lets just put it down to experience-induced stubbornness).

Imagine that we have this so-called aging population (that's according to a government census), think of the sheer numbers of hair-tearing moments that will occur when our population reaches the average age of 50...dang, we'd have a whole bunch of bald-spotted 20-somethings then wouldn't we?

Oh well...

The World will miss a Great Tenor

Luciano Pavarotti...

One of the greatest tenors of our time and an opera legend has died. He was 71 years old. BBC News has more.

If ever a movie were to be made of his later life (say past 40s), I think the perfect actor to portray him would be actor John Rhys-Davies don't you agree?

They both bear a striking resemblance to each other.

Don't you agree?

And another...

Yup...another ticket at 4:41pm. This AFTER I went to the Branch Office to change back the valid season ticket for my own car.

What can I say? Are they INEFFICIENT or what?

I sometimes wonder what's the use of implementing all that technology if none of it is put to good use? That's so weird.

An Addendum

And I got a ticket about 2 hours after parking at my own house!!!

Hellooooo!

CISCO/HDB Car parks section needs to WAKE UP THEIR FRIGGIN IDEA!!!

I temporarily transferred my season parking ticket to the "loaner" which was from 30 Aug - 10 Sep (being kiasu). I collected my car and by the time I got home, it was roughly 6.30pm (which is obviously after government offices end their business day).

So I didn't have a chance to transfer my season parking back to my own car.

And they gave me a ticket.

Car parks division, being armed with all that technology obviously doesn't make life for me any easier.

I went down to the branch office today to transfer back the season ticket and also to try to get the parking offence notice voided. Lo and behold, the counters that settle ALL season parking matters do not have the authority to void 1 idiotic parking offense notice in a situation is as clear cut as god knows what. So I was informed to get a queue number and join ANOTHER queue to get that done.

Obviously, I opted to do it over the Internet and at the same time, write a long-winded letter on why I be penalised for their or their systems' shortcomings.

Lets see how things go from there...it could be interesting.

Obviously, bureaucratic mentality is STILL the only constant in the universe...and is probably the glue that's holding the entire civil service (of any country for that matter) together.

iPod, iPhone, iPay

According to Dailytech.com, an iPhone customer has filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple.

I guess the iPhone customer must have been asleep or been living in a cave/under a rock before he purchased it because according to the lawsuit, it claims that Apple did not disclose the fact that the iPhone did not have a user-replaceable battery.

Well, all of Apple's portable products with the exception of their laptops don't have user replaceable batteries.

The ironic fact is that even though Apple's batteries for their portable products cost a bomb to replace, people are still snapping them up without much hesitation. Such is the power of marketing and the urge of blending in with the crowd.

People may have bought the iPod perhaps for the fact that they wanted to display their individuality/creativity by buying an Apple product (Apple products gave the impression that the person using their products are "artsy" since many designers have adopted their MacIntosh computers for that purpose).

Well, of course the beautifully designed iPods attracted attention as well..duh!

But lets be honest, non-user replaceable batteries? It'd be such an inconvenience if say you were listening to your iPod one day and it (the battery) just died and can't be charged anymore. You'd have to go through the hassle of sending the thing in to have the battery (which, lets be honest, is a pretty simple replaceable item) changed. That kinda sucks.

Imagine that happening to your phone...major inconvenience.

I don't doubt though that Apple's iPhone will still sell like hotcakes since we're such a bunch of consumers here. To me, it's profiteering from poor product design (or just plain profiteering because they can). Imagine this, in the States, you gotta pay $79 for the battery plus $6.95 for shipping which puts you out of reach for about a week cause you gotta send the phone in to have the battery replaced. To top it off, they even have the cheek to charge you $29 to rent another iPhone...what about your contacts, smses and other stuff that's in the phone with the dead battery???

I definitely wouldn't wanna buy the phone for that and that reason alone.

Oh and by the way, I GOT MY CAR BACK! Wooooooooooohoooooooooo!!!!!

Maintenance

Coffee to me, is the liquid life saver.

Now, I'm no coffee connoisseur but I do enjoy a good cuppa ever so often.

There are 2 known types of women in this world, as coined by Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron; they are the "Low maintenance" woman and the "High maintenance" woman. Lets shed some light on the definitions of "low/high maintenance".

No, it's not the Dictionary.com definition. Instead, the "high maintenance" here would equate to a more picky, more demanding person whom insists on having things done her way.

"Low maintenance" would then describe a more nonchalant, unconcerned or indifferent person in terms of personal requirements.

The worse kind of woman, would be the type that is high maintenance but think that they're low maintenance because they don't realise that they are in fact, rather demanding.

On another note, I've realised that when a woman shows concern towards me, I'm pretty appreciative of it. When I find the person attractive and she shows concern towards me, I may have the misconception that she actually likes me enough to perhaps have a date with. Do all guys think that way? I don't know but lets hope it's unique to me. Otherwise, the world would be in chaos over such misconceptions.

An untitled entry

Yup...I've run out of creative juice and so this is the title of the post.

While everyone (including me at times) is guilty of posting blogs about their love lives, there have been times when I think out loud, "Enough Already!".

Oh...need a crap break...

Back to the post...

But then again, what is this 4 letter word that can sometimes be vulgar?

It's nature at work of course. Because we've evolved into intelligent (at least for some of us) sentient beings with a sense of morality driven into us, we look upon procreation as first having a sense of belonging followed by a sense of responsility towards one another. Jealousy would take over because if the belonging were to be taken by someone else, we'd feel the loss.

Many times, after the institution of marriage has been applied and women have borne offspring, the men have a need to sow seeds further. This is nature's way of ensuring that only the best offspring are born. After all, diversity is the key method of ensuring difference.

Some offspring may be weak physically but strong mentally, others the opposite way round. It's only natural that a parent (be it father or mother) look upon another mate to ensure the diversity of their offspring.

However, this would be contrary to our modern-day standards of morality which condemns so-called adultry. When that happens, one of the parties in the marriage will obviously be hurt but sometimes, the natural instinct is so strong that it overrides the sense of morality and we give in to temptation.

For the sake of sounding sensitive and politically correct though, we would always say that we're married to the person of our dreams. Be honest though, we'll always have a roving eye when disagreements arise.

I may be wrong, I may be right but so far, this is what I've observed. Perhaps my observations are biased by my own upbringing and experiences (yes, they're getting a divorce after 40 years of marriage) and I'm a little sour about that.

On other topic, I'M GETTING MY CAR BACK AT 5!!!!! Wooohooooo!!!! I can at last rid myself of this abomination on the road with a rubber-band engine and transmission although I must say that I haven't laughed so hard while driving because of a car before. It's so bad, it's funny!

Interesting quote of the day (after I wrote this entry) : Many a man who falls in love with a dimple make the mistake of marrying the whole girl.
- Evan Esar

Word of the day : Perambulate

The "Loaner"

Okay, for those out there driving the 1.6litre Mitsubishi Lancer CV-T, I have nothing but pity for you.

THE CAR SUCKS! OMG!!!!

Here's the scenario...I step on the gas...the car crawls forward and the engine revs a little...

I floor the gas pedal, the car crawls forward (albeit a little faster), the engine revs to REDLINE and makes a freakin' helluva lot of noise.

For a moment there, I thought I'd busted up the dang CV-T (Continuously Variable Transmission) cause the speedo wasn't climbing...just the tacho.

Oddly though, I managed to dodge an Accord 2.0 (Euro version) non-Euro-R along CA6 last evening. The moron actually decided to tailgate me while I was passing another CMI Lancer on the right lane at the bend which leads from the PIE to Clementi Ave 6.

Obviously, being very familiar with that particular bend, I took it at about 70km/h and was still accelerating (at a snail's pace) when this idiot in a White Accord decided to come right up to my ass.

Having a Honda Civic recently kiss my own car's ass didn't make me feel any better with this moron sitting behind the loaner car's ass so I floored the pedal and managed a decent slingshot acceleration around the bend.

I guess it kinda took him by surprise cause it was a while before I heard his engine revving trying to catch up. By then I'd already pulled quite a distance from him and was overtaking another car and getting stuck behind a matrix.

Well, sufficed to say, this moron was lucky that I wasn't driving my own car (it's still in the workshop undergoing repairs to the rear-end which was damaged by the Civic) otherwise I would've blow-offed his ass to high heaven and probably given him a layer of soot to wipe off his piss ant faggoty white accord.

It's been a pretty boring day with little or nothing much happening to me. I have the night shift so it's the daytime that's boring. B's got this problem though. He's been around for a fair bit and obviously knows the place inside out and exactly what to do when something happens (or doesn't). What he fails to realize is that the rest of us are pretty darn new to this and honestly, don't really know what's the norm and what ain't. In any case, either way, it's gonna be sad to see him leave but we've gotta make sure that everything's handed over right before he goes. Otherwise, all hell would break loose here.

It's interesting to note that Porcupine a.k.a KXXZ a.k.a SLK seems to not think of anyone besides herself. I don't mean that she doesn't think but rather, if you like someone enough, you'd spend sometime thinking of that person wouldn't you? Obviously I feature very low on the likable scale since she admitted today that she doesn't think of me at all. That kinda sucks.

I can't wait till Wednesday to get my car back! I'm dying here with this piece of junk that they've loaned to me. Yes, yes, some might say that I at least have a loaner. Well, DUH! If I didn't have one, I wouldn't even think of going there to get my car fixed now would I??? Of course I'd want something that at least on the same trim level as the car I'm sending in. After all, fair is fair. I didn't hit the bugger, he hit me!