Here I am, back at my hometown, where my life in this world began. This house of my mum is almost the same age as me. We moved here when I almost turned 1. Before I went back, I actually ask my sister to arrange installment of Astro at my mum’s house. It’s time already. Been persuading my mum ages, but a typical answer – The unpaid TV is too much already for her to see. Well, I told her that I will pay for the bill, but she said please don’t make the account under her name. She don’t want to answer the call of Astro calling for unpaid bill. LOL. I said OK. Finally, there’s Astro at my mum’s house already. According to my sister, my mum just sit in front of TV all day long. I’m so glad. At least she’s not bored at home anymore.

Even the fruit season long gone, but there are still left over “langsat” at the “langsat” trees around my house. This was planted by my late dad when we first live here. May Allah bless him for the fruits that we gave around the neighbour.

This is this stray cat at my house. My mum said this cat used to be healthy, but after it fallen sick, the owner just dump him. It’s quite an emotional scene. My mind flying back to my cats at KL. Actually, this cat kinda stay at my mums lawn as my mum feeds this cat. So, I bought a pack of cat food, and ask my sister to give it to the cat.

Here’s, I’m at my 2nd brother house (just next to my mum’s). His wife is doing cake business at the back kitchen.

Business seems good. She got more than 100 orders now for Hari Raya, and the usual weddings that will take place after Hari Raya.

Wish to write more of what you can see in my hometown. But I guess I save that for later, when I’m back again. Been busy helping my mum with the Hari Raya preparation.

• 1 Comment

Getting your gadgets complete is like a spending machine. You will buy one thing after another. After getting my Canon 580EX II, I will need another thing to accompany it – that is Stofen Omnibounce. I really want to for my “Hari Raya” photography. But due to I almost going back to my hometown, I still order this, but made the delivery address to my mum’s house.

So here is what I ordered, together with this micro fiber cleaning cloth. Would be handy to wipe dust and oil from my camera, and fingerprints on my other things (PSP, iPod, handphone)

And here’s how the Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce looks like. This to be attached to the head of the flash. Gosh. This plastic thingy costs me RM85.

What this is for actually? This is how it works information that I get from Stofen website.

Flash straight on without the Omni-Bounce causes the light to go forward only and creates a harsh shadow behind the subject.

Flash with the Omni-Bounce installed and tilted to 45 degrees gives a nice soft wrap around of light with a soft shadow behind the subject.

• 0 Comments

Finally, my last minute packing has finished. I’m all ready to “balik kampung” now. Bag for clothes, bag for all of my photography gears and gadgets together with the slim laptop bag that I bought a few weeks ago are packed. Not forgetting, the must “duit raya” for every single time of this festive season.

My “kampung halaman”, here I come.

• 3 Comments

To view the video for this, select Peterpan – Di Balik Awan from the dropdown list of this page.

Artist  :  Peterpan Song  :  Di Balik Awan Album  :  Hari Yang Cerah

Ku tak selalu begini
Terkadang hidup memilukan
Jalan yang ku lalui
Untuk sekedar bercerita

Pegang tanganku ini
Dan rasakan yang ku derita

Apa yang ku berikan
Tak pernah jadi kehidupan
Semua yang ku inginkan
Menjauh dari kehidupan

Tempat ku melihat di balik awan
Aku melihat di balik hujan
Tempat ku terdiam tempat bertahan
Aku terdiam di balik hujan

Pegang tanganku ini
Dan rasakan yang ku derita
Genggam tanganku ini
Genggam perihnya kehidupan

Apa yang ku berikan
Tak pernah jadi kehidupan
Semua yang ku inginkan
Menjauh dari kehidupan

Tempat ku melihat di balik awan
Aku melihat di balik hujan
Tempat ku terdiam tempat bertahan
Aku terdiam di balik hujan

Meta Tag: peterpan, di, balik, dibalik, awan, lyric, lyrics, lirik

• 0 Comments

This is just another thing that makes me feel restless. It happened to me last time when I got my 80GB iPod Video. Not it happened again to my Canon EOS 40D DLSR camera. Feel like I just got this camera, and now the new model of this line is out already – Canon EOS 50D.

Sigh. I can’t sit still knowing that there are newer model of things that I’m using, and I feel this big urge of upgrading. Damn. I’ve been cursed with this feeling since long time ago, where I cannot handle the feeling of outdated when using older model. And the feeling is even worse knowing that I just got my 40D.

Anyway, while ago I did mentioned that iPhone will be my next phone. Well. I guess not yet. It’s so crap that Malaysia can’t persuade Apple to consider Malaysia as one of the country that they will market the iPhone. Even India and Philippines manage to get hold of the new iPhone 3G.

With iPhone is also launched at our neighbour country – Singapore, I believe that Malaysia will be flooded with underwater iPhone pretty soon. But the fact that the phone has been unlocked, and it’s currently not working well on Maxis network, I guess I will just stay away from iPhone for a while until it is officially launched in Malaysia.

I guess the next best thing that I have is Nokia N96. Yes. It just out 2 weeks ago.

It’s been a year already I’m using my current Nokia N95. It is just the time already for me to change phone. Although the review for N96 is not that overwhelming for this ridiculously high priced phone, but there are a few points that attract me:

• I want a new phone ;)
• 16GB internal memory. Wow! I can’t imagine how many softwares I will install
• Live TV – DVB-H based mobile TV with internal antenna. Even though I’m not sure whether there is a service like that or not in Malaysia yet, but the name of it kinda sexy.
• Dual-LED camera flash. This will be a great backup for my Canon EOS 40D camera whenever I want to snap a quick photo.

Selling at RM3338, it will take 3 months or so for me to save enough money for this. And this is the current total earnings that I got from one of the ad referral program. Better not to mention the name as it will violate the T&C.

USD111.88 is approximately RM391.164. Well, at least this will help me reaching that RM3338 target faster ;)

• 3 Comments

Every single tech website / blog is talking about Google Chrome now. Well, people might think, this is just another browser. But I bet after you read this story behind the technology used in Chrome, presented in a very nice way, you will have different look at Chrome.

http://www.google.com/googlebooks/chrome/

I do.

• 7 Comments

Finally, my wish of owning this has come true. Behold Canon 580EX II Speedlite, a new addition to my Canon EOS 40D camera.

Here’s the flash unit out of the box. Sorry, no unboxing process his time ;)

Let’s do a little experiment here. The following Kiwi Kleen all purpose cleaner has been shot 5 times, each time with different kind.

		No flash
		EOS 40D built-in flash
		580EX II flash directly
		580EX II flash head pointing upwards (bounce flash)
		580EX II flash head pointing upwards (bounce flash) with white card extended

So we have a winner here. It looks the best when the flash is bounced.

Fascinated by what I’ve seen at this forum, feeling like doing this too. Here are my humble list of equipment so far. Not much yet, but slowly building ;)

And just check out this guy’s boxes. It shivers my spine.

Ok. It’s time to test the flash on the living creature. My cats are always an easy target. LOL. Here is the photo of Oyen under bounced flash.

I’m really having a very good first impression of this flash after using it. I got this using my crappy kit lens, with camera set at f/6.3. It’s rather imposible to get a sharp image with no flash fired using the kit lens.

Setting up my camera at ISO 200 really help reducing those noise in the photo. Here is 100% crop of Oyen’s face from the same photo.

And here’s another 100% crop of the same photo showing Oyen’s front leg.

I’m a happy user of Canon 580EX II.

• 4 Comments

I’ve been browsing Shashinki’s website for quite sometimes now. This is one of my favourite website when doing a survey of the market price of photography equipments. As a matter of facts, the price that they offered here is quite cheap as well compared to the price that I surveyed at any other photo shops.

One thing that caught my interest is this bag designed for carrying camera and lenses. The price is unbelievably very cheap.

Which makes me wonder. Upon researching on the Internet, Think Tank Photo brand is quite a well established brand for photography equipments. So I guess the above really have a very good bargain. So I made an online order of that, together with other few things as well.

The day that I’ve been waiting for has arrived, where the parcel is finally here. I can’t really wait to open. But the package looks really small for a camera bag. So I guess the bag has a very good ergonomic design where is can be flattened so thin.

But upon unwrapping the package, oh boy I got surprised. It’s not the bag actually, but actually the divider set to be used inside the bag. Oh my. I’m very seldom make a wrong purchase. Not quite sure why I haven’t research enough on the product. I guess the price makes me excited and starts to ignore other fine details about the product.

It’s time do to more research. Well, Think Tank Photo products has a very interesting system. You can buy a bag, and depending on what you get, there are variety of other optional products that you can use. It’s like you can top up more accessories to your bag where you have money. So what I did previously is to buy the accessories.

So I guess it’s time to buy the bag itself. This is actually the bag that the low divider set that I bought previously can be used as optional accessories. The price tag for this is quite high, but I kinda fall in love for Think Tank Photo products already.

Well, since I want to make a new order, I might as well order other accessories. This is the notebook bag, which is very think can can be used on its own. But with the low divider set that I got above, this notebook bag can be placed on top of it. Quite neat. Refer here to know more.

Thursday, 28 August, I received email from Shashinki that my order has been shipped

ShaShinKi.com
——————————————————
Order Number: xxxx
View / Print Invoice:
https://shashinki.com/shop/account_history_info.php?order_id=xxxx
Date Ordered: Friday 22 August, 2008

Thank you for shopping at ShaShinKi.com!

Your order status has been updated to:
——————————————————
Order status: Shipped – Partial
——————————————————
Item(s) ordered has been shipped to you today. You will receive it tomorrow.

Citylink tracking number: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Traceable at (after 24-48 hours):
http://www.citylinkexpress.com/MY/en-US/Default.aspx

Please email us if you have not received the item within 2 business days.

We will send out the Canon RS-80N3 Remote Switch (1Ds 5D 30D 20D 10D D60 D30) once stock received.
——————————————————

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions by replying to this email.

Thank you!

Yours sincerely,
ShaShinKi.com – Malaysia Online Camera Shop!
shop@shashinki.com
http://ShaShinKi.com

You will receive it tomorrow : Wow! I like that. Using courier, I should received it really quick, but the problem is, the parcel is addressed to my house, and cannot to my office for security reason, since my credit card billing address is my house. So in that Friday morning, I started to track my shipment, and request to work from home in the afternoon. Luckily my boss approved.

I’ve waited the whole afternoon, but damn. I wait for nothing. So at night, I started to track my parcel again. It back to the Shah Alam centre. What the hell.

Saturday morning, 29 August, the first thing that I do track the shipment again. Oh yes. I saw my parcel departs from the centre at 9:05am. And do you know what I do today. I just stay at home the whole morning, waiting for that parcel. But at 1:30pm, I saw the parcel is back to the Shah Alam centre. This really gets to my nerves. Calling their helpline is no use, and they close for the day already. And tomorrow is Sunday, and Monday is public holiday. Sigh. I’m so disappointed.

At night, when I check the shipment tracking again, the status is set to “Delivery Info-CLOSE-OFFICE/HOUSE CLOSED”. WTF. I’ve waited at home the whole morning and afternoon today, and I hear no one knocking on my door.

This morning, gave City-Link a call asking when I will receive the parcel? The lady said it will be shipped today. But when I say, I wait the whole damn day at home on Saturday, but why the shipment status is HOUSE CLOSED, the lady just don’t know what to answer. Then I told that I will come to City-Link tonight to collect the parcel myself. I can’t afford to be working from home again today to collect my parcel.

So I went to City-Link Glenmarie Shah Alam after fast breaking today. Have to wait for 1/2 an hour before the officer and the person that does the delivery came out with my parcel. The person said that he went again to my house today and left the yellow card in my mailbox. Well. I don’t see any yellow card in my mail box.

So, here are the summary of the shipment of my parcel. It took 5 days before I got it, compared to what being written in the email above. Jeez. I can’t really stand service like this.

Well. Here is the package that I’m waiting for.

They ask me to check whether this is the correct parcel. Yeap. Looks like this one is mine all-right.

So here are the contents of the parcel. Think Tank Photo Airport International 2.0 Carry On Bag, Think Tank Photo Artificial Intelligence 15 and Hakuba Ultra Strong Anti-Fungus Packs for Camera Lens. Canon RS-80N3 Remote Switch is missing from this shipment, which it will be shipped once the stock is in.

The two bags again, different view.

As always, where there is box, there will be my cats. This is a very rare scene that I got here. Uneng is trying to jump into the box, which usually he is quite shy, and just stay quite far from the rest when they are playing with boxes.

There you go. Oyen jumped out from the box after Uneng jumped in. I guess Oyen just shock, since he is usually the one that monopoly everything.

LOL!

• 2 Comments