School holiday = trouble time

Want to share some "art" work on my fence with all of you. Haven't these idiots got better things to do?

Six months later - another new car :)

Ok Ok...we are now officially broke but we are happy :) Introduce the new car for Jin, a Ford Focus 2.0 with all the bells and whistles such as alloy wheels, cruise control, trip computer, semi-automatic transmission, electric everything and leather-clad steering wheel. We traded in her aging Holden Barina which we bought about 2 years ago from the City Holden. That Barina was a total nightmare in the last 6 months and had gone through one repair after another, costing us in excess of $2k in total. Saying that, we did not just buy a cheap second off the street, it was a $11k car we bought from a reputable Holden dealer and for that price, you would expect to get at least a few more years out of it right? WRONG! In fact, way wrong! In the end, it's just another lemon from Holden (anything new?).

Anyway, gone is the trouble :) Jin is overjoyed with her new car and with 107kw of power at her disposure, it's a far cry from a useless and gutless 1.4 thrash in the Barina. The car is smooth to drive and the 4 speed semi-automatic works flawlessly in peak hour city traffic as well as on the freeway. We got the car from John Hughes Park Ford in Victoria Park and was delivered this morning. The staff at the dealer are really friendly and helpful and purchasing the Focus from them was a delightful experience. So there you go, if you are looking to upgrade to a new Ford, head down to Park Ford and you will know what I mean.

Gudget of the Month!

From my previous post, I explained about my new upgraded desktop computer. But do you ever think about what are you going to do with all those old obsolete parts each time you upgrade your PC? In my case, they are still perfectly working and reasonably capable E6400 Intel chip and mobo. Well, I have built myself a fully function HTPC in our bedroom :)) It's main function is not really for movie watching but more like for listening to music while surfing the net in my doona on Sunday morning hehe! A typical remote control for a media PC will not even come close to what a keyboard and mouse combo is capable of.

This is when my gudget of the month comes in! A diNovo Mini by Logitech.

This little keyboard remote control is an truely amazing piece of technology! The diNovo Mini 's sleek construction, functional design and ease of use is extraordinary. And because it uses Bluetooth technology, it also has an amazing working range of more than 9m!

The whole keypad is no bigger than the size of my palm but it has a fully functional keyboard and a touchpad built in! And this is more than enough to control a fully fletched PC from the comfort of your sofa or in my case, my bed :)

It comes with a rechargable battery much like your mobile phone. Once fully charged, it will last for a least a month or so, or at least what they claim to last. So...if you are tired of your gigantic keyboard and mouse combo with limited range, then it's time to get yourself one of these little babies, you will not be dissappointed!

A brief look back

Sorry about the lack of updates lately, life goes on as usual (and sucks at time)... I have not been taking photos for a while now and hence, sort of "retired" from the Flickr at the moment. I am still toying with the ideas purchasing a second camera body and the Canon 50mm f1.4 prime lens though. However, at the moment, we have to start saving up money for another new car for Jin as her Holden Barina is a little long in tooth.... c'mon Sat Lotto!!!

I have upgraded my old computer E6400 to a better budget quadcore photoshop/gaming rig :)

Q9450@3.0Ghz (fsb375,vcore1.23) + P5kpro + Zalman CNPS7700
Corsair XMS2 6400C4 @1000mhz 4-4-4-12 (4x1Gb)
ATI HD3870 512MbDDR4(820/1230)

Although far from the "extreme" version for those deep pocket nerds, this Q9450 really pack a punch and everything seems to work a whole lot faster and smoother.

Completed Crysis on the above system, although the framerate with all settings maxed out are barely playable still! Crysis is the only game I have purchased since Neverwinter Nights 2 earlier last year and I must say, it is one of the best looking game I have ever seen and played! So there you go, if you only buy one game per year, this is the one to get if you haven't already done so....but you will have to make sure your gaming rig can handle it :)

Seen Iron Man at the movie last Tuesday...well, it's not as good as I would hope for but may be my expectation was too high after reading all the raving reviews on the net. However, I truely enjoyed watching the Iron Man character portrayed by the alter ego and ultra sarcastic Downey jr. The casts were excellent! However, Transformer is still my favourite :)

Last but not least, cought a nasty cold couple days ago and I am still as sick as a dog right now....

New Ikea Super Store!

Really, before I begin, this is not about any IKEA promotion so please don't worry LOL! A good buddy of mine, Waynus mentioned once in his blog that one of his friend is afraid of mimes and apparently there was one in the new IKEA store. So we decided to check it out yesterday morning, which was indeed a beautiful morning until we got there at the store.

Getting there was a breeze from the Mitchell Freeway, you won't miss the imposing sign of IKEA on the Cedric Street exit. This gargantuan superstore don't get the title as the biggest store in the southern hemisphere for nothing, it is huge indeed...but again...to get that sort of title in the southern hemisphere is not entirely that hard anyway :)

To find a parking spot in a sea of cars was a daunting experience, so I decided to park on the giant uncovered parking field next to the store, which was covered with soft yellow sands. Even then, the makeshift parking was pretty much full! So, as you have probably guessed, my poor Toyota was bogged down before we even started our "adventure". After I tried digging the front wheels out with my four paws to no avail, we decided to beg for help from the ever so helpful IKEA staffs.

After running up and down, one of the IKEA staff said to us: "that parking area is NOT an IKEA's property, so it is not our responsibility that your car is bogged down there". Inside of me, I was fuming but I managed to ignore what he said because, after all, I was the one buried in deep shit and in need of help at the time. What are we? I thought we are loyal IKEA's customers and they are supposed to look after their patrons? After all, nearly 15-20% of our bits and pieces at home sport the IKEA tags!

Luckily one of the more helpful staff agreed to sacrifice a few minutes of his time and give us a hand. However, after a few trials, the nose of my car was officially resting on the dirt as the front wheels frantically scratched for traction (traction control I heard?) I phoned RAC (Royal Automobile Club) of which I was a member for the past 15 years I was driving but they doubted their mechanics were going get me out of this sticky situation, so they suggested I call a tow truck. Luckily, while we were their, another guy rocked up in his great Holden Ute and his rear shinny allow wheels were seriously bogged behind us as well. Tell you what?! It's nice to have a "mate" in the same sticky situation LOL!

As our hope and patience were running thin, he flagged down a guy in his Toyota landcruiser who, thanks heaven, was able to give us a much needed pulling hand! I should have asked for your name but if you ever come across my blog, you have my sincere thank you and I will forever remember you as our saviour!! ....and long live Toyota landcruiser!!

To IKEA!! Your reputation is merely saved by one of your more helpful staff! Perhaps you should erect a sign near the entrance of that parking area "for 4WD only or enter at your own peril"! Perhaps you should build the biggest proper carpark in the southern hemisphere. Perhaps you should train their staffs to be more reasonable and helpful.

Perhaps...we should have gone to FREEDOM instead! One thing for sure, we won't be going back to the store in a hurry!

Happy Chinese New Year!!

This is my first post in 2008 and what?? it's already February for crying out loud! Time just flew by and I felt like I am still living in 2007 for some reason :) Tomorrow is Lunar Chinese New Year and if I were in Malaysia, I would still be with my family and counting down to midnight firecrackers madness instead of sitting here updating my blog.

The first 3 weeks of January were pretty hectic because my parents-in-law came to visit us from Korea. I drove them around to show them country WA and done nearly 3000km on the odometer. We had a really great time together actually and I have plenty of great photos to share with you all on my flickr page in the next few months. I haven't been updating my Flickr page for a good 2 months now but one thing for sure, I have never stopped clicking my trusty Canon :)

I have got myself a great present in this new year!! Guess what?? ...well...not a Canon 40D, 5D or 1D...although I would love to get my hand on all of them...nah...it's way better than those!!

Well, the photos would have already given away the clue. It's a new Toyota Aurion and it drives like a dream; and it's easily twice the car the Camry Altise I used to drive! Quiet ride, smooth and effortless power from a 200kw V6, combined with modern gadgets like auto headlight, ABS with BA, VSC, traction control, 6-speed sequential semi-automatic, 6 airbags and heaps more...I am totally thrilled with the purchase! We drove it to Scarborough beach for a photo session the day we picked up our baby :) It's dressed in metallic Caribbean blue.

This Toyota is also sold as Camry in other parts of the world although with slightly different configurations and smaller engines. In Australia, the new Camry has a slightly different design to differentiate it from the Aurion.

Super Macro

Since I bought my Canon 100mm f2.8 lens, it totally changed to way I look at things around us. All the time, I thought Macro lens is simply a "magnifying glass" for SLR camera but I was totally wrong. If you visit my Flickr photostream, you will know what I mean. Not only does it make things bigger, it allows me to "play" with light and compose shots from different perspectives. Insects, flowers and leaves have never looked this good to me before! I have reviewed a fair bit about the lens in my previous post, so I won't dwell too much in this area today.

What I wanted to share with you today was a technique which I have come to love in macro photography. That's to shoot "super macro" combining the 100mm with a reversed medium telephoto lens, such as a 50mm prime lens, a cheapo Canon 50mm f1.8 will be a fantastic prime to experiment with. The trick is to focus both lens to infinity and held together tightly, in my case, by hand :) In this set up, I can get even closer to action and a much higher magnification value without spending anything substantial. The downside is of course, you would not be able to use the AF function of the lens and so the only way to focus is to move the whole thing back and forth. A word of warning though, I am not sure if there is any other easier way but if you do the way I explained above, it's definitely not for the faint-hearted :)) Working with extremely narrow DOF or smaller aperture with limited ambience light is always going to be a challenge in macro photography, well, for me anyway. Persistance and patience will help you a long way!! :))

P/S Thank you Arturo for showing me the secret!!

Christmas comes early :)

Introducing the newest addition to our family : Betty :))

Betty is a budgie, a small Australian parakeets given to us as a Christmas present by KC, one of the pharmacy assistant at work.

Because she is only a baby right now, we are trying hard to train her as much as possible so she will not be afraid of handling by human. Apparent like certain species of parrot, budgie can learn how to talk as well!

Today, we got her a brand new home and a hanging stand!! When she has become more domesticated, I will bring her out to shoot more photos and post them on my flickr page. But at the moment, Betty is pretty much confined to her cage :)

Josh Groban AWAKE Tour (Perth)

Josh Groban burst on to the international music scene in 2001 with the release of his self-titled debut album featuring the hit single, "To Where You Are." His follow up CD "Closer" with the smash hit "You Raise Me Up" brought enormous success to the young singing sensation. "Awake" was his third studio album which was release late in 2006.

Perth was his last stop of the Awake Tour around Australia. The concert was held at Challenge Stadium on 14/10, which lasted about 90mins. There is only one word to describe his concert : SENSATIONAL!! He performed brilliantly throughout the concert and has proved that he is a musician of many talents! What I meant was, he can sing (did I mention he CAN sing?), cracking jokes every so often, a brilliant pianist and as a drummer, he rocks! Well, how do you know a concert is good?....easy, it is when you get goose-bumps during the concert hehe!

He performed most of the songs from his lastest alhum AWAKE, which includes my favs, You are loved (don't give up), February Song, So She Dances and Un Giorno Per Noi. He also threw in quite a few of my favourite old numbers from his previous albums which include my all time favourites, Remember When It Rained and You Raise Me Up.

If you still haven't heard of Josh Groban, you haven't heard a music at all!!!

The only complaint I have about this concert was those ass-killer seats! Yes, it was cheapo hard plastic seat which was not the most comfortable on earth....but in the end, it was well worth the effort :))

Is incompetence a "norm" in pharmacy service nowadays?

Sorry for the lack of updates to my blog recently. I have been spending literally too much time on Flickr and I think I might take a break from it soon =P It is kind of addictive, I mean in a good way because I have learnt so much by surfing through hundreds of photos everyday and I have met some brilliant photographers and great friends.

I feel compelled to complain something today to get it off my chest! We just updated our Point of Sale (POS) system in the pharmacy in hope that it will provide us with better inventory control and sales reports. And what did we get? A system that totally stuffed up our inventory during the conversion process, stocks level is out by miles and most of our sales figures are totally out of whack! According to our system, we have actually sold 350 boxes of Panadeine tablets (48) last month...what are we? A Chemist Warehouse? When we run into problems, the software company generally takes 2 - 3 days to response, and most of our queries/problems are tagged urgent response needed! I am not going to name and shame here just in case they get angry at us, then we might get no service at all in the future :)

Another thing that upsets me is the level of service offered by one of our pharmaceutical wholesaler, Sigma. They have appalling customer service and is getting worse by the day! On a typical phone call to their customer service, the average waiting time will be around 5-10 minutes and that's on a good day! "Your phone calls are important to us, please hold and our next available...." do I need to continue? :) Now they want us to pay $12 per month for the Pharmax ordering service that we don't use at all! We made numerous phone calls to query about the charge and to cancel it, we were directed back and forth at least 4 times between Perth and Melbourne customer services and no one seems to know what's going on. Then one of them said to us, that $12 is not the charge for the ordering service, it's the standard charge for using their customer service!! Pay while you wait for service...that's something new you don't hear everyday :) No wonder they are going broke, for your info, their share prices have plummeted more than 50% in the last 6 months! I wonder why.