LiF3 ThR0uGh mY L3nS

I'm Moving!!

2009-07-19T01:05:00.002+09:00

ive been using this site for 4-5 yrs but i think its time for a change. Im moving to www.clem.myshuttr.com It's a site my fren and i started, very photoblog-centric. so mostly pics, big huge ass ones unlike the ones here, so drop by there! will post mostly new photos but will try to repost old ones when im free

fighter planes n ships n fireworks

2009-06-14T00:04:00.003+09:00

was in yokohama 2 weeks ago with chin leong. they had a few events in conjunction with their 125yr anniversary of their port opening. air show, sail boats and fireworks. pics are self explainatory :)

Cotton Buds V2

2009-06-07T14:24:00.000+09:00

tic tac toea cube

Birthday 2009

2009-05-27T14:49:00.005+09:00

My 23rd birthday was a joint celebration with Loke Eng and all of us went to this prison-hospital themed bar/restaurant called Alcatraz-Er in Shibuya. I wasnt quite sure what to expect but it was quite an experience.

The place was decorated nicely, with prison bars everywhere and private rooms were just like prisons. They even attached a metal rod to the bars and all u just have to do was hit the rod on the bars to call the waiters/waitresses. The toilet was unique too(just the guys), there were no lights, everything was glow in the dark. The had hourly shows and it was quite interesting. Of course, being in the country of cos-players, waiters were dressed up as surgeons, waitresses as nurses.
Loke Eng.
Honestly, I thought the food and drinks weren't really that special in terms of taste but they really made up for it in terms of presentation, especially the cocktails.Below is a drink called ひとり遊び,or loosely translated as a person's play thing? the drink basically came with a vibrating dildo and the nurse will ask u to stir your drink with it!
some beef thingy
frozen banana penises. i actually thought it was kinda urm, innovative. the actually froze the banana with the skin. and generally the skin with turn brown. then they'll cut off most of the skin, and that's the head.
james, gay?
drinks inside baby bottles! further behind, u can see testubes as well. Other drinks were cocktails with fake dentures in it. they even give this pill sorta like thingy and when u put it in, it all goes bubbly, just like how dentures are actually cleaned. their pitcher of beer is filled in urine trays. and got some drink inside a fake head or sth like tht.
kara-age chicken.
the performances were fairly interesting. the second one, the actually took a customer and sorta tortured him. i think the guy was quite freaked out.

me n the nurse with the big ass syringe. she actually tried to stick it into the guy's(above) ass.
all in all, it was quite an interesting experience and certainly one of the more interesting birthdays.

One Month

2009-05-11T00:23:00.004+09:00

It's not to say i was very busy over this past month but more like i was just too lazy to post anything. I havent been really taking photos as well(i should start soon). anyways, few events over the last few weeks.

my 2nd/official housewarming

nomikai with the photography society
golden week ppktj chinese gathering. photo n min ley n mayc..lovely pic
sempai'S batch. i cant seem to find the pic of my batch....it was so rare that most of us actually gathered. I think it was the first time so many of us were at the same place in our 3 years here.

out with photography society to shinjuku/ebisu. some wanted to buy cams. i wanted a cheap 2nd hand fm2 but they din seem to have one. we went to ebisu for an exhibition and it was quite intriguing.

ebisu area.

and shinjuku

Big Bobbies

2009-04-11T12:28:00.004+09:00

was in akiba a few weeks back and saw this two performers(korean twins to be exact) and one of them had boobs so big( could be plastic and definitely pushed up so damn high) that i thought it was just gonna fall out!

Sakura 2009

2009-04-07T21:40:00.002+09:00

Maid performer

2009-04-05T20:32:00.000+09:00

Photo Imaging Expo 2009

2009-03-28T20:23:00.007+09:00

I havent been going out to take pictures lately, i.e the past few months! but this event has been on my calender for quite some time. PIE 2009, or Photo Imaging Expo 2009 is being held at Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo. Though i think the design is abit weird, 2 upside down pyramids? but it was so huge that its presence could be felt from afar.

PIE 2009. Was rather disappointed with the lack of new products but i shouldnt have expected much in the first place with the worsening economic climate and all. I thought the crowd was kinda small but that's because my only other comparison of expos here is Tokyo Motor Show and that is just massive!
The booths.

There wasnt much the see, except for photos from contests and so on. some i really really liked. and i listened to a talk by the photo editor and photographer of Numero Tokyo(fashion mag). was quite an insight to see how the ran stuff.

The rest of the time was spent on snapping booth girls and shows. The Canon models.
From Fujifilm.

Panasonic.

Pentax
Tamron
Epson

Hakuba(maker of photographic accessories and also distibutor of lowepro stuff)
kick boxer model for casio's high speed exilim line. she's a real kickboxer and there was a demonstration goin on but i couldnt get good shots.
panasonic again.
kodak

casio

hopefull ill spend more time on photography from now on :)

Road Trip to Shikoku

2009-03-21T13:08:00.006+09:00

Shikoku is one of the 4 main islands in japan and keita, hironori and i decided to go there as our last trip. shikoku is famous for its 88temples and pilgrims often visit everyone of them(apparently sth good will happen if u do) ure supposed to do it on foot but lately ppl have been using cars too. we hardly visited any temples actually. our aim was to go hot springs and eat udon! we rented a prius which is damn fuel efficient and so quiet!
crossing from honshu to shikoku. this is the seto bridge. its a connection of bridges and its so long tht they even have an interchange in the middle of it! by the time we reached our hotel on the first day, it was already 8 or so. so we just headed to the hotspring and slept.
next day, we walked around that area and this is yojima jinja i think.
keita snapping photos.

view from the hotel. this is takamatsu city.

keita's fighting pose :P
our lunch, sannuki udon! damn good.
some light tower at takamatsu port, we were waiting for a ferry to go megijima.

coke promotion.
its hard to see but this is hotel clement takamatsu! a hotel after my name! how cool is that?
a ferry, the ferry we used was crppier.
takamastu city.
on the ferry to megijima. for those who know japanese, guess how the kanji is like. even my 2 frens got it wrong.
some cave in megijima. apparently its man made. its so huge that we were wondering who had that much time to dig such a big hole.

keita stuck!
whats tht statue doing here?
megijima island.
2nd hot spring spot. it has an open area with quite a good view of the ocean. after tht, we immediately drove to another hotspring with an even better view :P
the hand towel i stole from hotel clement tokushima, our 2nd night resting place. there's even a plaza clement :P
view from the hotel.
not much on the 3rd day except driving back but this is a view of biwako, japan's biggest lake.

3 months late - a day walking around namba

2009-03-07T10:30:00.005+09:00

i know i havent been posting at all lately.in fact i havent touched my cam in 3 months! was pretty busy but now im quite free i dunno what to do with my free time. i shud start shooting again :P anyways, enjoy the pics

Absence

2009-02-24T22:57:00.000+09:00

been busy lately tht im not in the mood to blog. i do have pictures to post but just been too tired to do so. maybe next week!

Waiting

2009-01-08T18:11:00.002+09:00

took this pic in osaka, at the station nearest to where my uncle stays. something simple yet i like it.

no ordinary ramen

2009-01-05T17:13:00.002+09:00

it might look like normal tonkotsu(pork broth) ramen but its not, not at all! i went all the way to akashi to try Caramel Tonkotsu Ramen! the pork meat has been dipped in caramel sauce while the broth has been mixed with peanut butter. sounds weird and horribly disgusting eh? but it's not bad actually. the peanut butter doesnt overwhelm the taste so its not actually sweet, maybe a little. i pretty much though it was okay and wouldnt mind ordering it again. the shop that i went too actually serves all sorts of weird ramen like tonyu(soy milk) tonkotsu ramen or avacado tonkotsu ramen. i did try the soy milk one and honestly i couldnt tell the difference from a normal tonkotsu ramen...
it was a cool experience though, i can now brag ive eaten weird ramen! hehe

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T23:04:00.003+09:00

This post is kinda late, it's been 23 hours into the 2009. but i've been busy and tired(from taking pics) and sleep. well, i spent most of yst capturing the sunset sunrise from umeda sky building (pic). i went there like 2.5 years ago but it was during the day, the night view is definitely something.the coolest elevator ever, period.
the sunset, i actually din get to see the sun set, partly cos i was slightly late and secondly cause it was kinda cloudy. view of osaka's WTC and tempozan park(where the aquarium is)
HDR-ed imaged of osaka
more views.
changing your white balance can get an entirely different effect.

the moon in the pic!
this was the sunrise pic, but there wasnt much to see, too cloudy, haiz. i left early instead to go...
here, yodobashi umeda, their flagship store.people like started queueing up at like 3am and by 7, queue was quite ridiculous. i still managed to get my breakfast at McD before joining the crazy bunch. i wanted a new lens but they din have fukubukuro(literally lucky bags, think ang pau or sth), so i got the compact digicam pack. before i continue, a fukubukuro is usually sold during new years(most places sell out on the 1st). it's a bag of goodies, usually slightly old stock but at a very highly discounted price. on of the fukubukuro being advertised at one clothing shop was priced at 10,500yen but if u were to buy everything at retail separately, it would be 40,000-50,000yen, a whooping 70+% off. the only downside is that u cant really pick what u get. so this was my first time buying a fukubukuro. i wasnt sure what to expect..honestly, i was thinking i would get some old old cam cause it was only 10,000yen. after queuing(and dozing off) i paid for my box and when i opened it, it was a fuji z20fd! too bad it wasnt a f100fd but nontheless, it's pretty good and fairly new(april 2008). furthermore, the cheapest they're selling at kakaku(online) is 14,500yen which is like 30% cheaper. but they included a 2gb normal sandisk card(1000yen) , an instant portable photo printer(think polaroid) which is maybe 4,000yen, an infrared adapter(3000yen?) (cos the printer caan only be connected by IR, dumb huh), strap,face towel, 10 free prints, booklet and a bottle cap tripod i think. the cost of everything separately would prolly be around 25,000yen, which is pretty damn cheap! oh, the only downside, the camera was pink ^__________^ but i can live with that :P i spend another 5k yen on clothes, got me a down jacket,one outer wear thingy, one long sleeve shirt, muffler and 2 pairs of socks :D
i'm going back tomorrow,i have quite abit of pics actually throughout my trip here. will post them in due time!

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-25T12:04:00.002+09:00

Merry Christmas everyone!This is the illumination in nagoya station. pretty and all but doesnt really have the christmas spirit. this was taken on my way back from my ski trip.

kamarul,kien n me
leslie,my christmas present for u. japanese high school girls . they asked my help to take a picture of them with their cellphones. took a quick one with my cam after tht :)
anyways, happy holidays peeps!

Ski Trip: Day 3

2008-12-24T08:18:00.007+09:00

Day 3 was a free day for skiing. i love skiing but the chance to take skiing photos was just too hard to resist.

tuvshee prepping his gear.aina. she's one damn good skier
ah soon and irfan
it was actually snowing in the morning and it made it foggy.
the fogg
soon teaching nok to ski(that girl ran away from yst's aft session)
hadhi the indonesian boy falling
one of the better scenic pics

my kohai, shazril getting the grips of skiing
saikhanna, she even smiles while skiing!
lee, he's pretty good too. parallel skiing, i so wanna be able to do tht :(

skiing
and falling
irfan. i kinda like this pic cos there's distance by having the guy behind there.
some lil kid posing for me!
mongol dude with the peace sign
yamada-san , a worker at the students affair department. he's jumping!
dashing!
some people who came snowboarded as well
one of my fav pics. the kid just looks so happy

pro instructor
nok resting, just after 2 rounds!it's possible to do 2 rounds in 15 mins :P
her n i. since she din wanna ski anymore and i din really wanna walk another time down the course, we rested.
her pretending that she had a fun time skiing
the lift
shot from the lift

group pic!
nok and saikhanna
group photo
this was down at takayama city. they had this foot onsen outside the omiyage(souveniour) shop. it was so damn good !

the end! heading to osaka later!

Tokai Kosen Foreign Students Ski Trip 2008:Day 1 and 2

2008-12-23T02:34:00.004+09:00

It's my last year in Gifu, so i decided to go to this year's ski trip(having missed the last as i went to Europe last year) and it was pretty fun! The destination was the same again, at Norikura, Takayama. The first 2 pics are aint our destination but was a view from one of the bus service centres. Snow is quite little as you can see and it's mostly artificial anyways.
again, we went to the now-very-boring museum.

lee,soon,nok,aina,khalid and irfan
the karakuri (mechanical dolls)playing on the world's biggest taiko(japanese drums)
nok and i, she sure has changed from 2 years ago(backtrack to 2 years ago if u wanna find her pic then)
we then reached norikura, and after the usual boring briefings, we had a little free time and i went to catch the sunset. not too bad but nothing impressive that day.

the 2nd day. this was taken in the early morning after breakfast. we then went skiing. i obviously didn't bring my camera along with me then but i saw 2 teachers skiing and video camming which was just so damn cool. since there aren't any pics, u wont get to see me fall, quite a few times but i pretty much enjoyed it. it actually started raining that afternoon(telling u just how warm it was) and the slope was getting a little slippery. but we still managed to play and finish our afternoon 2 hour session.

meals!the girl on the left from suzuka kosen is damn hyper i tell you.
on the 3rd and final day, i didn't bother to ski. i just couldnt ignore the photography possibilities. i do have some nice pics and i'll post it up tomorrow or sometime soon :P

Osaka,Kobe,Luminarie

2008-12-17T21:36:00.004+09:00

Last weekend, i went on a trip to Osaka and Kobe with the other 2 5th yr foreign students and a accompanying teacher. it was pretty fun, and a much needed break. it was my suggestion to head to kansai as the timing coincided with Kobe's Luminarie festival. For all of you that don't know, sometime in January 1995, a massive earthquake struck the hanshin area, mainly devastating Kobe. about 5000 people were killed. ever since december that year, the city has been holding a vigil kinda thingy, illuminating the city centre with some awesome designs. It's been 13 years since then but the crowd gets bigger(though i think more are interested in the lights than the history behind it)shot from the train. my first time using kintetsu's urban liner.
shirin,odo and shimamura sensei in front of the famous glico man.
me in the picture.
we spent that afternoon visiting osaka's aquarium. its my second time there but still fairly interesting.
some fishes
and jellyfish.after the aquarium, we headed to the hotel to check in, then to kobe which was 30 mins from osaka. the moment we got down the station, we realized just how crazy the crowd is!
look at the line! and it goes all the way for another 2km. its worse than disneyland or universal studios!normally, it would take 10 mins to walk to the venue. took us 2 hours!
i even got bored and took a picture of the daimaru departmental store.
but all the exhaustion died when i reached the venue. the lights are just amazing! its so well designed and the colors are just great. kudos to the people who designed it.

playing with zooming motion.
the main building, which was huge!

honestly, this is just too much!photographers having a model shoot there!i understand the place is pretty and all but i think its just abit too much and considering the crowd abit inconsiderate to others.i dont see how they can get good pics in such a crowd anyways.

that was the end of my first day. my 2nd day was actually free, so i visited kim and had lunch.

there was some sort of dancing festival at the harbour.

end of my trip :)

Photobook

2008-11-29T20:20:00.001+09:00

On the left, at the sidebar there's this photobook widget. it's a book that i made. CD size. waiting for the print copy to reach me next week or so. i do hope the print quality will be good though. feel free to look at it.

Autumn in Kyoto :Part 3

2008-11-27T10:50:00.003+09:00

after a pretty heavy breakfast at sukiya at about 530am, i was on my way to toufuku ji. i came here 2 years ago and i liked the place. i was the first to reach, just before the sun came up. but photographers were soon coming minutes later. the sunrise was somewhat disappointing, this was what i salvaged with photoshop and filters.
the leaves were great though. it was only about 730am but i was pretty tired by then. and the queue going into toufuku was starting to build already. since ive been here before, i decided to skip it.
my next destination was a 10min ride to to-ji. i liked the place for one reason and one reason only. it was quiet and peaceful. it was probably cause the leaves werent that great but its nice to get away from the crowd.

the garden while not the best , was still pretty okay. thats the famous pagoda at the temple grounds.
reflections.

it was 9 sth by the time i finished. i was exhausted and my muscles started to hurt. my foot was sore. i wanted to go kiyomizu actually but decided to skip and head back instead. that's the end of my trip and probably the last time i see kyoto. thats unless it snows at the end of december. then i might just wanna capture the temples in white, it's something ive always wanted to do but unlike sakuras and autumn leaves, its so unpredictable making it hard to plan.

Autumn trip to Kyoto Part 2

2008-11-24T21:54:00.003+09:00

i then headed to nison-in. finally a place that allows tripod!to be fair, there was ample space to walk about. a 3 sec exposure to capture the crowd.

the sun was shinning from behind giving it a nice glow.

a 10 minute exposure! i wanted everyone gone but some guy was just in the frame for too long, sigh. kinda looks like a wandering spirit though :P

a multiple exposure shot. thought i tried something with the post processing this time. i used the water color filter to get this effect.
another shot of it.
the famous bamboo gardens at arashiyama. i've been here twice before and it usually wasn't that crowded. but it was so blardy packed this time round. it was like people were queueing up for a concert or something.

after that i took a few more pictures , then i decided to go to the city centre. the trains were ff-ing packed again! by the time i reached karawamachi, i was tired as hell. so i decided to call it a day and rest in a cyber cafe. i took a 4 hr package deal which was until 11+ cos i wanted to watch the arsenal match. but when i settled down in the cc, i felt so tired, so i went to ask if i could change it to a 10 hr package but the guy said no!wtf!blah. so i slept about an hour or so,and did this and that and was out by 11. i went to an irish pub where they were showing footie. at first it was the chelsea match cause the bartender said there were quite a few of its supporters that night. the match was dull n boring...by 2nd half alot of people went back, so i asked whether he could change it, which he did. the moment he did it, i regretted my decision, 2-0 down! #@$@!$
our season is over man... the match ended, and i decided to go back to the cc but to my dismay it was full! and so was another one not too far away. i gave up on finding one and decided to go to mcD!bought a cup of coffee,sat down while playing with my ds. i then noticed that alot of people were sleepin!! i finally gave in too and decided to do so before being woken up by the waiter. unsurprisingly he only woke the guys without waking the girls :P and that was how i spent my night in kyoto! more pics for the following day up on the next post.

Autumn trip to Kyoto Part 1

2008-11-23T23:08:00.004+09:00

My last year here in this area and this is probably my last visit to kyoto. this year's foilage has been great, the best in my 3 years here. and kyoto was no disappointment (in that aspect) as well. i was expecting a crowd, since virtually every hostel was booked out(will tell u how i got through the night later on/next post) here's a pic of my bike and my bag and tripod. i think i overdid it. bike was like 10kgs but my bag must have felt like 15kgs. i seriously don't know why it felt that heavy. it was just the normal gear. 1body,4lenses,flash,tripod, filters,etc.. the only difference from other trips was the card reader,charger and abit of snacks(how heavy can chocs be right?) i took an early train(655) so the crowd wasn't bad at all.However, when i reached kyoto, it was crazy! Especially with my first destination which was to Arashiyama. sardine packed train like those in tokyo. i had to wait for the next one cause of my gear.
this would be the gardens at tenryuji. ive been here twice but never actually went inside( no one was willing to pay then). the gardens are quite nice. i didn't go to the main building.. hard to take pictures as well :P this pic sure looked like there wasn't anyone around but there were, trust me!
the crowd at the far end.
blazing in red.
RGB-red green blue!
the gardens.
this monk was outside tenryuji.. i think i took pictures of these before when i came here with kelly and her family.
this was at some garden/temple deeper inside. the wonders of cycling. i could never have walked that far. cycling is great in kyoto, the crowd aside at this time of year. anyways, this garden was small and obscure but yet there was quite a number of people there! and like tenryuji (and many other places) tripods aren't allowed. autumn in kyoto is very photography unfriendly. most temples don't allow tripods, some wouldnt even allow monopods. the worst was this small temple here in arashiyama. no tripods/monopods/large and medium format cameras. taking photos for photographic purposes is not allowed. only snapshots!WTF. the tripod banning is quite understandable with the crowd but it really makes photography much harder.
fallen leaves on fern.

i'm pretty tired, from all the editing and lack of sleep. will post more soon!

Hot Deal!!!!

2008-11-16T22:31:00.002+09:00

For those thts staying in japan and looking for an mp3 player, amazon has an amazing deal for the Toshiba 401 4gb player. 6000yen for a 4gb player is pretty damn cheap ! available in black or white.

link is here

as ive mentioned early in the year, this is one sweet sounding player. its easy to use and its a great alternative to the overpopulated ipod.

long exposure at tanigumi

2008-11-16T20:36:00.003+09:00

highly photoshopped pictures.
some pictures went up to abt 4-5 minutes.

Gujo Hachiman

2008-11-14T23:01:00.004+09:00

Went with the photography club. nothing much to say, typical tourist place and nothing much of interest. gujo hachiman is famous for its plastic food, literally. they make alot of plastic food for displays ( all of u living in japan should know what i mean, the plastic food outside the shop for display purposes) its quite amazing how they make it, especially tempura, they have this bater like thing and just pour it into water and thats it! so simple! hehei like this picture... guess whats so different about it?

old houses

gujo hachiman castle, too sick of castles d, so i didnt enter.

the river
and the river

A Sweet Sweet week

2008-11-13T09:12:00.002+09:00

Arsenal's performance of late has been quite bad but they've really put on a show this week. winning 2-1 against Manure was amazing. For once, luck was on our side, maybe cause we took half-assed chances. We should be doing more of this in the future! Our defence is still horrible nonetheless.

The young guns then thumped Wigan 3-0! A team with an average age of 19 years! Wilshere, Vela, Ramsay, Simpson were all amazing. While Wilshere gets MOM, the Vela goal was just sublime. Why is Wenger not starting him?! Having played in La Liga, I would expect him to able to play at the highest level. At current form, he should be ahead of Bentdner as well. I can just imagine him, Walcott and Nasri wrecking havoc opening spaces with Fabregas pulling the strings from the middle. Wenger oh Wenger, please start him this weekend!

And for dessert, Chelsea lost! wahahahahaha.. it became even sweeter when their idiotic assistant coach criticised us for playing youngsters and disrecpecting the Carling Cup. Chelsea fielded a pretty strong team with Drogba,Deco , all definitely 1st team players and then lost to lowly Burnley(no disrecpect here) I bet they're going to say that the Carling Cup was never on top of their list anyways, not that's disrecpect!

It's always nice to brag, especially in a season with so many lows but i think we should keep our heads down. Winning the league remains difficult. Our time has changed the tide but it remains to be seen whether they can ride and sustain it.

my friend's works

2008-11-07T23:36:00.001+09:00

my friend from the art club and some of his works using dry plasticine

Part 3

2008-11-01T21:29:00.003+09:00

nothing much to say, just enjoy the pictures

dances

unhook the bra contest, surprisingly, out of 3 guys and 1 girl, the girl was the last.

brass band

college fest- live peformances

2008-10-29T07:42:00.006+09:00

live performances this year was really great, at least from the 4 tht i watched.leading off is niko-niko(i think) band. cute lead singer and they really mix everything from quitars to sax and other blowing instruments. pretty cool.the lead, sorta. more like a guest appearance.
such a natural smile.
trumpet
and sax
now on the 2nd day, i went to see 3 other performances. this first one was unique. can u tell? i mean besides the fact that they're dressing as girls(the characters are from some anime anyways.)

bassist
lead singer
getting heated up
now, i want u to pay close attention to this guy. doesn't he seem similar? that's cause he's the sax guy from the previous day and so was everyone else. they're sorta like a band with mpd, 2 names,etc...
while waiting for another performance, i managed to see 4D's 3 person band's performance. it had slow tunes which was a nice change and they do do it really well.

the band 'Gold Blend'.Initially i think they wanted to call it Jack Daniels after their favourite drink but i think it never passed regulations :P Minuora(classmate and researchmate ) and Mikata (research) were in this. i must say i was impressed. the only band(that i've watched) to sand English songs. Yes, their English aren't that good but singing is a whole different ball game and it's more like screaming with songs from Avenged Sevenfold.But they did perform Mr Big's 'to be with you' really well.

this has got to be my favourite pic.
mikata, u don't see tht many left handed guitarists. notice how it's turned upside down?
the bassist, satou.him,mikata and the drummer were exceptional.
drums
minoura,lead singer. i think most of his frens couldnt believe tht he was actually the lead.

the end of the performances.

College Festival Day 1

2008-10-26T22:24:00.007+09:00

My last year to take part in the college festival. It has always been sorta a tradition for the 5th yr mech's to make a udon restaurant and did it again. but we had another stall outside continuing our own 味通屋 tradition selling Lamune (japanese pop soda drink) and fried stuff.the restaurant itself,pretty simple but the udon was pretty good
kitchen
dish washers
hall members/waiters
the outside stall selling fried stuff. the deep fried tako yaki in my opinion was amazing.
the 4th year's display show. this is the mechanical group. the concentrated on robots this year. while tech wise is so so, the did a good job of presenting it(better than my year anyways)
more robots
and robots
the controls group. their main theme was sound but half the time i didn't really get what they were trying to present. this photo is a small band tht moves when music is played
E&E side. definitely my favourite. the concentrated and how the living home and how electronics could improve it from sensored windows n doors for extra security to automatic lights n handphone to house command(send a mail to your comp at home and it'll do sth like say send out the clothes to dry). what i really liked was the lcd screen fridge. concept was simple but to be able to input what goes in and from there calculates what you can make from a selection of recipes. it even tells you how many persons u can make it for.
environmental/civil. the usual detailed presentation, this time about pollution but nothing special.
live performances in the hall. i really liked the ones this year.
Gal performer, she has a really cute smile, will post more pics of her later. and more of this band of course. this band is somewhat weird and has multiple personality disorders.
the outside stage where variety shows happen
quizzes
two teachers helping the event run smoothly!

more to come when i finish updating.

Eli Stone

2008-10-24T20:16:00.003+09:00

This drama which is on its 2nd season has really gotten me to like it. unlike most other shows which promotes violence,sex or greed, this one promotes faith, belief and all the goody good things. story is about Eli,a lawyer who has anuerysm which is something in his head that might blow up and kill him at any moment. As a side effect, he sees visions, visions of George Michael singing and so on. But these visions are also messages from a higher power(God if you believe there's one) and sends him to take own pro-bono cases.the fact that this is a somewhat law drama makes it even more interesting cause law dictates rationale and faith should have no place in it. i would reccommend this to anyone! it makes your heart all warm and fuzzy and maybe to think that the world just ain't so bad...

Pic of d day: Hoppers!

2008-10-24T20:11:00.001+09:00

took this just now around the college compound.worked with limited light, mainly just my flash. im surprised it turned out this well considering it was on ISO1600. not alot of noise but its abit noticeable at the flower.

Suzuka Hot Air Balloon Competition 2008

2008-10-13T16:43:00.013+09:00

One of my very last minute trips. had a 3 day weekend this week and decided to go somewhere. at first i wanted to see gifu's ukai(comomarant ? fishing) but then i found this! lots n lots of hot air balloons!(HAB) it was in suzuka though and the event started pretty early ( 620am) i decided to take the last train there and find an internet/manga cafe to bump around for the night. i checked google maps for one and they said there was one pretty near...how wrong they were... i couldnt even find it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! walked like aimlessly for an hour and a half. then i decided to give up. at first i thought of sleeping at one of the many benches at bus stops but they were patrol cars coming now n then(unlike malaysia) and i wouldn't want to talk to them, they're slightly discriminatory against foreigners i reckon..once i was stopped to verify whether the bicycle i was riding on was mine and i took them ages ago ( my japanese friend said they don't do that to japanese....) deciding i would rather spare myself to long conversation i would have with them if i slept there i decided to head for the venue itself, which was by the river. it was abt 1.30/2am when i got there and pretty quiet. there were quiet abit of stars too, and since i had time i decided to experiment a lil on long exposure photography(will post it up if i have time) i dozed off for abt 30 mins before it got reallyreally ff*ing cold! luckily i brought a thin jacket but it wasn't enough and i din have gloves!i just couldnt sleep anymore, so i packed up and headed for a convenient store 5 mins away(they're really godsent, 24 hours with incredible service) bought a cup noodle and some kara age (fried chicken). it was almost as nice as the hot coffee i had on top of mount fuji :P then read some mangas they had there and by then it was almost 5. went back to the venue, played a lil DS, then by 530, ppl starting coming!people prepping up their balloons!
the queue was for free breakfast, it was only bt 6 but already they were a couple hundred of people! this event has been one of the better ones..not many events have free stuff :P

being inflated

Asimo,Honda's flagship robot says Hi!
2 balloons are up!
Asimo takes flight
other balloons on the horizon. they were alot of balloons and they all couldnt launch from the same place..in fact only 2 were launched from my place.. in fact my place was used as some sort of checkpoint.
asimo does the superman pose
one of my fav pics, burning fuel!
a diagonal line?
a crude traingle?

an empty carriage?
big circle,small circle, kind looks like gears!
more balloons launching from afar
balloons up in the air!there were quite a few more behind me
2 balloons
honda's other balloon ( honda has a very big presence here just as how toyota is based in toyota)
blue balloon drops of checkpoint marker
flying really low!
looks like sth from a wallpaper eh
spectators enjoying the view
photographers capturing the moment
wannabe red hot chilli peppers band...
tv crew on board.. these were test flights for the public.. the queue started at 6am and the announcer said by 8, the queue was a couple hundred long

flying tako(octopus)!!!it really looks cool when it's being inflated, the tentacles seems to move, just like an octopus!
4 balloons for public use
kelly,kamarull,3rd yr junior and kelly's friend, Rie from suzuka kousen joined me at about 9 am. they're posing with the SDF ground forces, who are looking for recruits!
Armored up!they even did this for free, how cool is that!
group pic!

i then headed with them to Rie's town(nearby) as there was some celebration going on. will post pics if i feel like it.

hopefully,there will be more photos like this from now on. current schedule is

a. college fest
b.gujo hachimon(one of gifu's top tourist spots) with the photography club
c.kobe luminarie
d.winter hols (ski and most likely osaka/amanohasidate)

would love to squeeze abit in for autumn photos.

till then!

this has been one damn long post eh :P

Preview:Suzuka Hot Air Balloon Competition 2008

2008-10-12T22:38:00.002+09:00

here's some pics from the competition. will post more with more details soon. very tired n sleepy... lack of sleep from being out in the cold for a night :P

A walk around my area

2008-10-02T22:26:00.005+09:00

decided to take a walk around my campus with my macro lens equipped :D it has been a while since i did random photography. i kinda like the butterfly pic.. the butterfly was so still!! all the shots are handheld so it isn't that sharp. hopefully will have more pics in the future(i.e hopefully i won't be so busy..sigh..)

Random Image

2008-09-21T22:53:00.001+09:00

Sorry for not updating in awhile. random pic of my sis' harp. took it with my dad's 135mm DC lens to give this soft like dreamy feeling.

my country has gone down the drain...

2008-09-13T22:47:00.002+09:00

Last night, i read on the web that rpk was detained under ISA. Well, it wasn't that surprising and i can't say that i was pretty pissed about it. that dude has been blabbering about alot of things which just seems unbelievable to me. It's not that i approve of ISA, the dude should be charged in court but this morning i got a shock to find out a Sin Chew Daily journalist as well as Teresa Kok(DAP MP) have also been detained under ISA. WTF?!?!?!i have no idea what the dap politician did but according to The Star Online, the journalist was charged for inciting racism with her article on Ahmad and the 'pedatang' incident.this is the first time that the gov has ever detained a journalist doing her job and i must say, abdullah, you're really losing it.i thought justice was served when Ahmad was suspended from 3 years from UMNO but now it just seems that UMNO is somewhat approving of his actions. the dude has been unrepentant about his remarks and even his supporters has torn pictures of Koh Tsu Koon which is just utterly disrespectful disregarding race. Freeier media my ass.

Who have we signed on the transfer deadline?

2008-09-02T19:51:00.002+09:00

NO ONE!i would have at least expected one no name guy but none. sigh. i must admit im quite worried. unlike last season, where i predicted that we'll win the title, this year i dont. i could be wrong as with my prediction last yr( but too much shit happened..we were tht close)

that said, arsenal could still mount a title challenge. a defensive midfielder is clear wanted and denilson doesnt seem to be the answer, too small and doesnt tackle enough. obvious choices are diaby or song and hopefully one of them can step up.However, to say that arsenal's midfield is thin is just wrong. cesc,nasri, eboue,denilson,diaby,rosicky,vela and song can play there too, even walcott, etc...

vela would be the man to look out for. he was great against newcastle even though for only about 30 mins. i have high hopes for the boy. he's more seasoned than people think, having played for osasuna in the la liga.

all the best gooners!

p.s: if u think malaysian politics is fucked up, fukuda has just resigned, the 2nd prime minister to do so in 2-3 years after the koizumi era.

i'm back!!!

2008-08-26T22:52:00.003+09:00

back in japan but currently suffering from post hols hangover. i guess i just had too much fun.picture of penang bridge under expansion works in the early morning. taken from my bro's apartment and edited with capture nx. very powerful software but i prefer cs3's versatility and features. lost quite abit of pics as com had a big virus attack and had to be reformatted.

Avril's concert cancelled? LOLs

2008-08-21T13:20:00.001+09:00

Source from CNN

Malaysia's Islamic opposition party has urged the government to cancel a concert by Avril Lavigne, saying the Canadian singer's on-stage moves are "too sexy," an official said Monday.

If Avril is sexy, then what isnt?

Why guys should think twice before doing engineering!

2008-08-16T18:16:00.000+09:00

MIA

2008-08-07T13:31:00.002+09:00

sorry that i've been missing for a while. internet connection sucks in kuching, just real bad. i'm in kl now. was in penang. going back kch again tomorrow. practically all i've been doing is consuming. if i'm not eating laksa,kueh chap, pg char kuey teow, malay road side food or mamak, i'm drinking. hols will be hols... :D

Holidays, Singapore, Sp's Birthday at Marche

2008-07-18T11:12:00.003+09:00

I'm on hols and in Singapore at the moment. Had tiring journey from my old kampung of gifu to narita, hehe, some pics. i like the observation deck, so near the planes!NWA and American Airlines, 2 u.s carriers that are suffering from the fuel price and other things
Yesterday, we celebrated Siewping's (click here) at Marche. The 22 year old girl's birthday was on the 16th actually but Ben and i only reached Sg yesterday.Her 22 candles
Taking each of the 22 candles with her mouth, tradition :) but she cheated though!

Food at Marche, I liked the pork knuckles, crispy! i thought the sirloin steak was overpriced but the brownie was good though
strwberry crepe, sweet
Dina
chieh ping

it's nice to see old faces again. havent seen di in like 2 years. and seeing ben was nice, all the gossip and humor!

i'll be in singapore till sunday then will be heading to Kuching!

Lego Mania

2008-07-14T20:20:00.000+09:00

My Lego Tank.. it moves so slow but it'll probably move through anything!

How to Measure your Otaku-ness Level

2008-07-12T15:03:00.003+09:00

the otaku animes of animes! Lucky Star!From this picture, it just looks like any other 美少女(bi-shou-jyo)(pretty young girl?) anime but it's slightly more than that. For one, it has no plot! It's just the lives of this high school girls and as a twist, Konnata Izumi, the shortest girl with blue hair is an otaku who plays online games everyday, plays adult dating-sims and goes to comic-fests! the unbelievable amount of puns and parodies made at other manga/anime is just hilarious and one has to be abit of an otaku to understand it. A cousin who drives like Takumi from Initial D or the fact that Konnata can remember every single Pokemon! jokes about Gundam,etc...

But it's a seriously good anime especially for its humor. its not just about making fun of other animes but they like the question the norm of japanese culture . I like the added touch that in the 1st season where the ending themes were sang in karaokes by the 4 main characters and alot of anime songs will come out.. famous songs from dragonball or FMP comes to mind.

All in all, it feels something the producers cooked up for fans but the executed it so well that it has been quite a cult. Kudos to Kyoto productions for another good show after the likes of Suzumiya Haruhi, Full Metal Panic and so on.

and the lyrics to the song playing now :

Original / Romaji Lyrics	English Translation
aimai san-SENCHI sorya puni tte koto kai? cho! RAPPINGU ga seifuku... daaa furi tte kotanai puu. ganbaccha yacchacha sonto KYAACCHI & Release gyo ase (Fuu) ase (Fuu) no tanima ni Darlin' Darlin' FREEZE!!	A vague 3cm, ain't that a flexible rule? cho! (1) For rapping, a sailor uniform... it isn't a disadvantage, bu. Gotta do our best! Gotta do it! That's when we catch and release, gyo Darlin' darling FREEZE in the channel of my sweat, my sweat!!
nanka daru nanka deru aishiteru are ikko ga chigatterunruu nayminbou koutetsubou oishinbou ii kagen ni shinasai	A bit tired-- something's coming-- I love you-- huh, just one letter's different (2) You wimp-- gymnastic high bar-- gourmet-- enough already!
tondetta aitsu no hoteru karada tte iwayuru futsu no onya no ko odoroita atashi dake? tonkotsu harigane okawari da-da-da	The blazing body of that gal who flew off-- is she what we call a normal girl? Am I the only one who's surprised? A second helping of that tender Tonkotsu (3)
-	(chatter: Where are my glasses? ...)
BON-BON ouendan Let's get! CHERII PAI RAN-RAN kangeikai Look up! SENSEISHON Hai! sonzaikan ten-ten shouwakusei butsukatte tokemashita bouzen ooi ni utatte SHIRENJAA	BON-BON cheer squad Let's get! Cherry pie RAN-RAN welcome party Look up! Sensation Yea! Feels like something's there.. an asteroid bumped into me and crumbled away, whoa! Sing out, squadron ranger
motte ike! saigo ni waracchau no wa atashi no hazu SEIRAA fuku da kara desu ��ketsuron getsuyoubi na no ni! kigen warui no dou suru yo? natsu fuku ga ii no desu ��kyawaii	Take it! I'm supposed to be the one who laughs last Because of my sailor uniform �� That's the conclusion (4) I'm in a bad mood, what to do? Even though it's Monday! Summer clothes'll fix it �� Cuuute! ^^v (5)
sekkin san-PIKUTO suru made tte chuucho da yan ganbatte harikitte My Darilin' darlin' PLEASE!!	Gettin' close to 3 pics, don't know what to do until you see 'em yan�� (6) Do your best, be enthusiastic, my darlin' darlin' PLEASE!!
moriagari morisagari koi shitari mada naisho ni shitoite rinri amaenbou youjinbou tsuushinbo choushi koite GYUKUSAI	Risin' up-- fallin' down-- lovin' and such-- still keep your morals secret-- Spoiled brat-- bodyguard-- melancholic-- get carried away and it'll be an honorable defeat
fundetta aitsu ni koyubi itai tte oogesa chiraari kuro NIIHAI zettai jan ryouiki jan? namashi TSURUPIKA onedari da-da-da	The guy I stepped on says "OW my pinky" all exaggeratedly A glimpse of black knee highs Ain't it certain? Ain't it our territory? Beggin' for smooth, bare legs
MON-MON mousouten Let's go! PARU shinden YAI-YAI souranbushi What's up? TENPUUTEISHON oi! soushitsukan ten-ten ARUBAITO sagashitara mitsukatte touzen jinsei marutto kenen naashi	MON-MON Legend of the blind monk (7) Let's go to the parthenon! YAI-YAI Soran folk songs (8) What's up? Temptation Hey! Feels like I'm losing.. money money If I look for a part time job I'll find one of course, and then I'll have no worries in my life at all!
yatte mina! shinki ni neracchau no wa atashi no chousen SEIRAA fuku kikaete mo = atashi shuumatsu wa dou yo? chiramise nante arikitari! seifuku wa kantanyo = rakuchin	Try it! What I'm aiming at now is my challenge Even if I change out of my sailor uniform, it still = me How 'bout the weekend? Showin' off like always With a sailor uniform it's so simple = easy life
fuusoku san-MEITORU dakitsuite gaman da gyu�� mune dokkin koshi zukkin I'm Sugar sugar SWEET!!	A wind speed of 3 meters - hold on and bear it gyu�� My heart beatin' fast, you holdin' tight on my waist, I'm sugar sugar SWEET!!
-	(chatter: A new... Do you wanna skip class? It is okay if... Huh? ...)
BON-BON MON-MON Day Let's get! Uh Uh Ah! RAN-RAN chop chop kick Look up! Fu Fu Ho! Hi! Education!! Love is ABC undakadaa undakadaa unyuunya harette horette hirenraa	BON-BON MON-MON Day Let's get! Uh Uh Ah! RAN-RAN chop chop kick Look up! Fu Fu Ho! HI! Education!! Love is ABC undagadaa undagadaa unyuunya (9) It gets sunny, I fall in love, but it never comes to fruition la�E
motte ike! saigo ni waracchau no wa atashi no hazu SEIRAA fuku da kara desu ��ketsuron getsuyoubi na no ni! kigen warui no dou suru yo? natsu fuku ga ii no desu ��kyawaii	Take it! I'm supposed to be the one who laughs last Because of my sailor uniform �� That's the conclusion I'm in a bad mood, what to do? Even though it's Monday! Summer clothes'll fix it �� Cuuute! ^^v
yappari ne saigo ni waracchau no wa atashi no hazu SEIRAA fuku da kara desu ��ketsuron	Of course I'm supposed to be the one who laughs last Because of my sailor uniform �� That's the conclusion
aimai san-SENCHI sorya puni tte koto kai? wao! RAPPINGU ga seifuku... yooshi furi tte kotanai bo. ganbaccha yachaccha anto KYAAPPU & JAASHI de ha ase (Fuu) ase (Fuu) de suketara Darlin' darling AMUSE!!	A vague 3cm, ain't that a flexible rule? whoa! For rapping, a sailor uniform... right! it isn't a disadvantage, bo. Gotta do our best! Gotta do it! That's when we wear our cap and jersey, ha If you can see our sweat through 'em darlin' darling be AMUSED!!

if anybody can keep up with it, i'll be amazed.

Football

2008-07-06T23:46:00.004+09:00

College football/soccer. my college is quite bad :P im just making them look good in the pics

Euro Champions 2008, Spain!

2008-06-30T05:39:00.002+09:00

Personally even though I'd say they would win, I had my doubts. One of the most prominent under achievers ( this would only be their 2nd euro championship and after 44 years) , so many quarter final exits and Italy stood in their way as well. Spain faced everything thrown at them from the Russian flair, Italy's mightily boring football and Germany's direct approach and came out on top. It's nice to see aesthetic football triumphing for once ( after Greece's shocking win last tournament which was probably a mistake anyway).

This Spanish team has the team spirit that has been lacking in the past. All credit should be given to the coach, Aragones. Leaving Raul behind was a masterpiece ( with Torres,Villa and Guiza available, who needs him?) and he has fostered a belief within the team. His faith in players has also been rewarded. Sticking with almost the same players for every match even when players like Iniesta wasn't at his best proved somewhat decisive. Having wonderful subs like Fabregas, Xabi Alonso, Guiza and so on on the bench helped. Players were kept fresh and with team spirit, they really didn't mind being substituted all that much. Germany on the other hand kept tinkering and it seems they have yet to find their rhythm even after the finals. Loew did an impressive but somewhat lucky job of getting them there.

Players of the tournament would include Casillas, Villa, Shwiestienger(however you spell it) and Senna. Fabregas and Van persie made the most impact from the bench. Players like Asharvin would be noted and probably move to a bigger club.

That said, this has been one of the better tournaments and somewhat changed my views on international football. Drama( France knocked out so pathetically , Dutch's shocked defeat against Russia ) , dramatic stoppage time wins by Turkey and Germany and so on. Hopefully World Cup 2010 would be as great!

Numbers

2008-06-28T14:20:00.002+09:00

6 hours i spent cleaning and figuring out my com got infected with a flashy virus i btought back from school...

2820yen was how much i paid for an anti-virus to fix it

16gb is the space of my new cowon iaudio 7

600 ringgit was how much i paid for it!(cheap!)

A380 is the plane i'm gonna ride on on my way back to japan on august 23.

40 ringgit is air asia's fuel surcharge

16 july is when i'm flying to singapore

20 july i'll be in kuching

31 july penang

3/4 august kl

65,000 yen is my credit card's bill next month

:(

Bon Odori 2008

2008-06-22T02:49:00.002+09:00

my college bon odori. it rained an hour before but stopped in time for it to continue. hehe. not many pics that i liked, didn't get the desired setup i wanted.

my fav pic.if only it was a lil sharper.
cross processed ver.

The Thoughts of a Perverted Mechanical Engineer

2008-06-19T18:07:00.003+09:00

Very highly offensive material and if you think u're going to feel offended , you shouldn't continue reading.

Mechanical engineers like to see things in forces and so on. When my teacher gave us an assignment on 2 mode vibrations, this was what one of my seniors did.(I did this illustration by myself but it's almost the same as what he did )When in this position, he calculated the vibrations of the girl's breasts. And apparently, from his conclusion, at resonance, the vibrations are quite strong!

He apparently got pretty high marks for it.

Only in an all-male mechanical class....

球技大会２００８

2008-06-14T14:44:00.006+09:00

College sports meet again, was pretty fun, my class won :D

the principal taking part by pitching over head in a softball game... my 材力teacher
classmates
and more classmates
he's pretty good
another classmate.. too bad we got kicked out on the 1st round in table tennis
Mass skipping, it's something japanese play since young. my class managed 50+ times while the top i think made it over 100. not bad when u have 15+ppl jumping together

bball!that tall guy is my classmate, one of the best centres i've played with.without him a 2nd finish would have been impossible

softball

soccer
the slacker cum cheerleader. seriously this guy can pull off any outfit

sorry for not updating, been busy with exams and such. have a bit of free time now, so hopefully more updates in the future.

Hands

2008-05-28T21:39:00.000+09:00

Playing with photoshop.

bees and flowers

2008-05-25T16:51:00.000+09:00

Wasps

2008-05-23T02:00:00.000+09:00

寮祭演芸会2008

2008-05-15T20:23:00.004+09:00

The annual dorm festivals was last week and it started off with an 'engei kai' by they 1st yr students. engei basically means a performance of somewhat. This was my first time attending it as it isn't compulsory. i wasn't expecting much but they did put on quite a show.

students trying to mimic mario from mario kart.fighting over a soft toy...
highlights will always be the girl's performance. they did so so but i could tell that they were really nervous.
a skit about a murder, very japanese comedy style.
why else would there be a horse crime solving detective
notice that he took his clothes?
the culprit. u cant tell from the picture, but he's a pokemon trainer! japanese humour..

while it's a must for 1st yr students to perform, the 2nd yr girls did a short dance.the girl in the middle was trying to mimic haruhi suzumiya, an anime character. it's a good anime that everyone should watch.

there's even foreign criminals.
and the winners go to a parody of power rangers. i didn't have a good shot but their ultimate power is splitting the yellow guy/girl's leg wide open and shooting something out.lols

Metal Scraps

2008-05-11T16:55:00.000+09:00

junk..rust..

Simplicity

2008-05-07T20:11:00.000+09:00

Moving on

2008-05-06T09:18:00.002+09:00

the season is coming to a close and we'll be empty handed again this season. i think wenger has a big task ahead of him, mainly in his summer recruiting. he needs at least 3-4players just to add depth to the squad and i dont mind very young raw talents but young players on the verge of greatness type(think hleb,eduardo,etc..)

most immediate position to fill would be a defensive midfielder. since that #$@#!$% flamini is gone. i'm not mad at him that he left but i think he's a bloody @#%$ idiot for doing so. he had so much potential in him but i can only see his career going downwards from now on.

i think we need more wingers! right now we have none! rosicky's always injured and i think i prefer hleb having a free role as a supporting striker.we have been lacking goals from midfield. early on in the season, fab,rosicky and even sometimes hleb were scoring but it dried up towards the end and i think thats the main reason we lost. fatigue and injuries could be the culprits, hence my desire for more wingers.

a striker,perhaps. i think ade is great but i wouldnt mind if wenger bought villa for 25million pounds. hell, i wouldnt mind if he was the only player wenger buys.

i wouldnt touch too much on the defence. alot of ppl are shouting for gallas' demotion but i think that would be just wrong. it'll disturb the balance. and senderos will be alright as a back up. he did better than what anyone thinks.

eboue is a problem for me, unless he makes strides in his passing,crossing and shooting next season, i think he's better off as a back up right back.

song,walcott are next season's hopefuls and they must perform more. song has improved alot and i'm sorry i used to diss him quite abit but at the rate he's going he could be a regular soon enough.

talents to watch would be vela and merida.

i hope next season would just be as enjoyable

2008-05-05T02:43:00.000+09:00

new header, what do u think about it??

2008-05-02T22:47:00.000+09:00

a single dandelion...

last of the tulips

2008-04-29T13:10:00.001+09:00

3 parts only but enjoy!

tulips part 2

2008-04-27T18:14:00.001+09:00

2nd part. i think i'll have another 2 parts.hope u'll enjoy it :)

i needa study!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

tulips part 1

2008-04-25T12:38:00.000+09:00

part 1 of my tulips series. i think i did better this year than last :P

heading to nara tonight till tomorrow.

Cheesecake anyone?

2008-04-19T01:27:00.001+09:00

p.s:i've made a better version but i didn't have a chance to take pictures of it before it was all eaten up

Hanami 2008

2008-04-13T16:05:00.004+09:00

Hanami in English would mean looking at flowers , but to the Japanese, it would mean sakura or cherry blossoms. Every year during the last week of march till the first week of April(most parts of Japan), people rush out to parks to enjoy looking at the flowers, have picnics, drink sake or bring their karaoke machines.

This is at Banpaku Park in Osaka. i think the visitors were well into the tens of thousands.We Malaysians have our hanami as well, minus the sake or the karaoke. there is however Malaysian goodies and local delicacies. I think we must have been the biggest group there, at least 50 and i wouldn't be surprised if it was near 100.

some funny tower at the park, what the hell is an antenna doing at the top?!
people posing under it, msg me for the picture!and oh btw, don't be surprised if your face looks elongated, cause it is!
this was at gifu park with students from gifu university. we had nasi lemak :P

some close ups.

spring means flowers, so expect more to come! tulips up next.

I'm proud of you

2008-04-09T05:44:00.002+09:00

is it just me or is there a conspiracy theory against Arsenal??? Critics and pundits wrote them off at the start of the season, Arsenal defied them for long periods, staying on top of the league for quite a while. Then injuries after injuries happened. Referees been making bad decisions. Kuyt's challenge on Helb last weekend was more blatant than the one just now by Toure against Babel.Hell, Toure barely touched him!yes, I know we shot ourselves in the foot this season, mainly due to the lack of depth but 3 long term injuries(Eduardo,rosicky and Van persie) really took abit of firepower.i'm not gonna blame the ref solely for our lost today but i can't just help it that someone up day just ain't an Arsenal fan.

p.s:It's been a good season, better than the last few. No matter what the media is going to say, Gooners should hold their heads high up because our players did everything they could and played with passion, joy and flair. I'll always be by your side.

3 images

2008-04-08T19:45:00.003+09:00

same picture, 3 different styles, pick one.

Pasta

2008-04-06T14:34:00.004+09:00

deep fried bacon and garlic with dried chili and spinach.salt and pasta sauce for taste. i really need to work on my presentation :P

school's starting, sigh..............................

Final Farewell

2008-04-03T20:12:00.004+09:00

as i held her for the final time, she somehow seemed different. i knew where everything was but as i was cleaning her up, the buttons seemed small, the screen seemed small and it seems that we've drifted apart, maybe it's all for the best. i hope the new owner will like it :)

flowers part 2.

Flowers v1

2008-03-29T16:47:00.003+09:00

after a week of going out alot, it's nice to have a little normalcy again :)

Tiramisu

2008-03-26T15:44:00.003+09:00

3rd time making tiramisu, decided to take photos of it now, it's abit messy though cause i sprinkled too much cocoa powder but it still somewhat kick ass

It's like falling in love all over again.

2008-03-23T18:49:00.005+09:00

Over the pass 2 weeks, i've gotten to know my d300 a bit better. How to use her better, which buttons to press, customization. somehow, she's so similar yet she has this depth that my d70s didn't have. she's definitely faster, more robust, features that i've come to like about her. her body is just right in proportion, the buttons mostly placed at the correct places.yet, she's not without her flaws, with some things that i wished was customizable or the fact that the flash button is abit hard to reach. i guess as with all relationships, we have to take what's good and live with what's not. i know it's going to be a rough ride ahead but i also know it's gonna be filled with joy and fun experiences...

enough of that crap and on to a few updates, dinner at one of the malay guys place at gifu university, sad that he and his family is leaving, they have 3 wonderful and playful kids :P

the odd picture of me...

the eldest sibling
the 2nd
and the youngest.a slight fever but she was still so active!

p.s: it's super sunday! and i really feel this week is going to define arsenal's league outcome. beat chelsea and they'll be on course to win the league. a lose would be bad, a draw and man u beating liverpool wouldn't be good either.

先輩の卒業式

2008-03-21T15:15:00.006+09:00

my senior's graduation day. i didn't hesitate at all to use ISO1600 this time :P

that's my p.e teacher who'll be leaving. he's one funny dude.

Carlsberg

2008-03-21T00:09:00.004+09:00

one of the best places i visited in denmark was the carlsberg factory,and i must say, denmark truly makes fine beer, even better than japan.carlsberg owns many brands from tuborg to becks and their micro brewery, jacobsens is truly a gem :)

panorama view from a tower in the city

this ends my europe trip, finally.................

Ume Part II

2008-03-18T23:54:00.002+09:00

The tale of 2 wives

2008-03-16T12:24:00.004+09:00

The moment I laid my eyes on her, I knew she would be the one. When i touched her, the curves were just right and it's like i've known her my whole life. Younger, more abled and definitely more tech savvy than my 1st wife, how could i resist? Papers were drawn up and we're kind of separated now. I still love my 1st wife, without her i wouldn't be where i am now, she's been with me through the good and bad times but i think the time is right to go our own ways now.

Goodbye my d70s, i'm sure your new owner will be just as nice and will be able to push you to your limits. Welcome d300 and may we create many beautiful shots in the years ahead. 1st impression shots are as below. even though u've emptied my bank, my pockets, i still think u're worth every single yen.

playin vikings and a tasmanian devil

2008-03-15T01:00:00.003+09:00

this was at a viking museum. my sis and gill were playing :P
copenhagen zoo! the only zoo outside aus to have a tasmnia devil!!

Kronburg Castle

2008-03-12T20:08:00.003+09:00

Easily Denmark's best castle.

that is Sweden!

My first japanese bottle of wine

2008-03-08T23:02:00.002+09:00

bought this on my one day trip to nagano, had a sip and pretty much enjoyed. only about 1200yen , so it's not expensive at all. still yet to open the bottle but soon i guess :)my simple studio set up :D

a bit of an update

2008-03-07T11:53:00.004+09:00

i'm on hols now but i still needa study, turn up for research meets and so on. hopefully i have time to shoot more pictures too and i do wanna finish ssbb.. get all the trophies, if possible! and i'm seriously considering upgrading, the price of a d300 is just quite ridiculous now..5100 in japan and stock readily available.it's nearly 6k back home!

i've been watching 30 rock alot lately and i find tina fey so so funny and sexy( though she's 37) and alec baldwin is just amazing. i've never seen this side of him and it actually gives me hope when he plays the dad in my sister's keeper.

a few more pictures.going to kronburg castle. playing cards inside the train and i must the trains are sweet sweet sweeeeeeetttttttt. seats are so so nice , there's an earphone jack for radio and tables! my sis says its normal for intercity trains in europe but in japan, u'd hafta be in a tokyu densha for this kinda service ^___^
the early sun of 1st jan :P

UP YOURS!

2008-03-05T08:29:00.002+09:00

When Arsenal drew with Aston Villa last weekend, the attacks were coming in. Media hounded the team, claiming there was dissent in the club, the pressure was creeping in on a young inexperienced team and cesc & co responded to the world with a masterclass display against the old champions!

youth vs experience was the theme and youth triumphed! Arsenal are now the first English side to beat Milan at San Siro. i must admit that i had my doubts and that i couldn't get a decent live feed only added to my fears. the referee was pretty biased ( hleb shouldn't haven't been booked for diving) and there was a few miss chances against a superb Milan backline. but but but, cesc came of age today, stepped up and broke the deadlock in the late 80s.cesc and flamini ran the show in the midfield, and special praise for flamini as he kept kaka out of his game. flamini shut him out so bad that he got frustrated and got rightly booked for unsporting behaviour. our back 4 did their job and ade harrased milan's aging defence. ade caused problems from the left flank to the centre and helped out defensively as well. wenger did the right move for once for bringing in walcott for eboue. walcott's pace was decisive in the build up to the 2nd goal.

so, up yours to everyone who say's Arsenal's cracking. They deserve credit. i'm not getting into my head over this result and this weekend's match will be as important and tough. and hopefully people wouldn't have thought me crazy when i thought Arsenal would win the EPL from day 1 :D

Skating is free in Denmark!

2008-03-03T08:17:00.002+09:00

Denmark part 2

2008-02-29T12:48:00.003+09:00

more pics, my sisthe guards
some church
gillian,charlene,kelly
and the little mermaid

just a quickie, needa run to see a presentation.

and oh, i'm happy falling slowly won the oscar.

Denmark part 1

2008-02-25T10:50:00.003+09:00

i figured i post sth less vulgar than my previous post, i'm still not really happy though. denmark is a nice place, home of Lego and Carlsberg. it's one expensive country though with the currency being on par with the british pound.

after getting lost finding our hostel, we headed off to the city centre. this is city hall. not exactly spectacular but still pretty decent.i took this picture in europe's longest mall street, or was it denmark or something like that. i really do like this picture, the sense of movement and the crowd and so on.
colored ,motionless one.
the one thing i didn't like about denmark was that it had factories in the east and west, spoiling such a nice view of the city. i intended on the muddy yellow color to make it have more of a polluted feel.
my dad has the almost exact same pic when he was here!!! hehe, his picture is better though :P

needa to study , laters

2008-02-24T08:10:00.002+09:00

eduardo, get well soon. i just didn't know the seriousness of the challenge till i saw the pictures. fuck taylor for the challenge, fuck the 2 commentators who said that taylor was unlucky to be sent off and fuck mcleish to say that taylor was distraught after the challenge. the bastard basically tore of dudu's foot! get well soon dudu, and hopefully we'll win the trophy for you come season's end.

the goonerforum 'blog' has the pictures here.

S.o.S

2008-02-23T23:54:00.003+09:00

i know there's been alot of football posts likely and it's about to continue i guess as the season heads into the climax. i was just about to write about how pleased that arsenal came away with a 2-1 away victory after a walcot brace but clichy's latest blunder made it 2-2.

the game started off brightly but after just 2 minutes, eduardo had hit by a rough challenge by taylor who was red carded. reports confirmed eduardo broke his ankle after the game was stopped for 8 minutes to carry him off and is likely to miss the season. another injury..

thinks got worse as arsenal fail to capitalize on birmingham's 10 man and mcfadden got an early goal through a free kick and it continued on like that for the rest of the first half. i was worried cause arsenal just looked so jaded but arsenal came back brightly in the 2nd half and soon after walcot scored his premiership goal off an adebayor challenge. arsenal were hitting form and hleb was running the show and actually taking a couple of shots. a few moments later, walcot ran through the defence to get his brace.

arsenal tried and should have gotten a third but adebayor was selfish on his run up and should have passed to bentdner who was free instead of shooting. hleb should have shot so near to the goal instead of trying to find a pass. but we got through till 92 minutes when a lapse of concentration by clichy made him foul panarby in the penalty box. ref said penalty, i said other wise. he got the ball first and the penalty claim was really really harsh in my opinion. mcfadden stepped up on banged it passed alumnia. gallas was furious at the 2 points lost and was actually crying on the pitch. i feel for him. we shouldnt be losing the points now. and hopefully this won't come back to haunt us.

now, we're in deep deep shit. with eduardo injured and probably missing the rest of the season, we're lacking players. the injury list is now toure,van persie,rosicky,eduardo,diaby and adebayor, senderos and a few others don't look 100% fit. we're really lacking options of strikers at the moment. out n out strikers are only ade and bentdner at the moment and i don't like pairing them up as both offer much of the same thing. walcot could step up but we're lacking people on the wings as the idiot eboue got himself suspended. it's time that we need rvp to come back and step up. i've been waiting 5 months for you and you better come back soon. this is an sos from me and probably from almost any other gooner for u to return!

i'll try to do my denmark postings, here's a pic of tivolli, denmark's themepark. too bad it was closed when we were there.

Crunch Time

2008-02-18T22:25:00.003+09:00

the man u match last saturday was not the match that will determine our season. this week's against milan will. win and i'm confident we'll have at least a trophy come season's end. the birmingham match this sat is just as important i reckon. crunch time for arsenal and crunch time for me too.

Our unsung heroes.

2008-02-17T03:44:00.004+09:00

it's already the 70th minute and we're still 3-0 down and eboue got a red card. i can only say that we deserved it. we weren't playing well and in the end rooney just ripped us apart. we weren't controlling the game, the defence was shaky, lehman was crap, and don't get me started on gilberto. i'm seriously wondering why he's even the captain for the brazilian team. he's slow, he's passing has been off and we can't even make a decent tackle anymore. talk about how professional he is but he's heart is just now there anymore. at least while diarra complained and moaned, he played well once called.

the one thing this game made clear though is arsenal's unsung heroes. they are our 2 full backs, clichy and sagna. i know i've been singing their praises all along this season but this game has really made it clear. both or solid in defence and while their understudies, traore and hoyte are okay in that department, they lack the prowness going forward. the forward runs, the pinpoint crosses is arsenal's best weapon.they have been sorely missed in this game and clicy in the 5-1 drubbing at totenham. when they get forward, arsenal have 6-7 men on the attack and provides the width to let our wingers drift infield.

i do have to stress that we went into this match with clichy,van persie,rosicky,denilson,diaby, alumnia injured. sagna's away for personal reasons. senderos,adebayor,flamini are half fit. i suspect fabregas isn't too well as well. manUre on the other hand have almost a perfectly fine squad.

and as i finish this article, it's now 4-0. i just hope as with the totenham game, arsenal will bounce back in the milan match midweek and against birmingham next week.

REd rED ReD : Toshiba MET401 digital audio player review

2008-02-14T22:00:00.004+09:00

i know it's valentine's day and while everyone is out there saying i love you and this and that, i'm gonna write about my new love(my cam is still my wife, my ds my mistress, wii is my playmate)
my sony mp3 broke down on my trip to uk, just the display only (unlike my earphone *sobs*) but i decided to get a new, considering new players are pretty cheap and i just couldn't stand sony's connect stage software. it crashes half the time and the transfer rate is so slowww and while the sound quality was good, the hissing sound was pretty annoying.

so after searching around, it was between my love and an iriver clix. i initially wanted the clix but it was more expensive and after reading the comments on www.anythingbutipod.com , i dived in.

the red 4gb ver is only 12,600yen (rm 380) at amazon while other colors are a lil pricier. it's been over a month now since i bought it and i must say that my love has been impressing me by the day. the sound quality is amazing, yes better than my sony's without the hiss and without a doubt better than must junk(like the ipod) out there. online comments find the player comparable to cowon players and while i've never tried any, i don't think they're lying. sound is crisp and clear, bass is abit one the weaker side but detailed and lovely and the treble is just wonderful. it's at its best at the default setting, without none of the preset equalizers. i recommend at least a 320kbps file or even better lossless to take full advantage of the sound. i'm only using a denon ah-c551 but it just sounds wonderful. i never really liked lossless or a 320kbps bitrate due to the large size (30mb and 10mb) but it does make a difference! i bought utada's first love album recently and ripped a few songs out at lossless and songs like movin on without you and give me a reason are just amazing. eagles' hotel california at 320 was also great. the instruments were detailed and warm and had 'feel'. the only drawback is that 4gb would only get you roughly 100 lossless songs (though toshiba has just released a 8gb version)

other notable features are video playback. it doesn't support avi, only wmv only, so converting is abit of a pain but the screen is bright and nice.

interface is great and controls are good. buttons, simple and easy to use!

the only drawback is battery life at a miserable 16 hours!even an ipod now has 22+ hours... it's abit disappointing and takes time to get used to fomr my 50hr sony player but sound quality trumps battery life any dayy.

it makes me wonder why i'm building a portable amp this hols considering i don't think the sound can get any better with my current ear pieces.

edit: i forgot to include this but apparently during this year's CES(consumer electronics show) in vegas, toshiba were looking for premium earphones to pair it with their players and found SHURE. people at shure loved the player so much that they traded a few of their SE530s, their flagship earphones. one pair of those retails at around 55,000yen (rm1650) i can only dream to own it. but it does show how awesome this player really is

Parliment House & Wesminster abbey

2008-02-13T01:05:00.001+09:00

not much to say here.. :P

i think this is the last of my london series! next up denmark, lols

2008-02-11T17:44:00.001+09:00

while people are out protesting against the iraq war, my brain's protesting against exams..

2008-02-08T08:34:00.000+09:00

sometimes the simplest things in life can make such a huge difference.

6 months..half a year..

2008-02-04T16:23:00.000+09:00

i never took so long editing photos. actually it didn't take me 6 months but over the course of time, i tried to edit it and couldn't come up with something that i reasonably like.everytime i went through the bunch of pictures, i just couldn't think of how to process the pictures. i actually gave up hope,hehe until last week at least. well, i admit i've never been good at portraits and i still am not. my one aim this year is to try to improve on it :P

black and white conversion. sharp eyes :)i retained the color on this but lowered the contrast here, i think it suits the mood, especially when she's smiling.
again black and white. added abit of noise too but it's not too visible as the picture is kinda small.
this has gotta be my favourite. i actually had to crop it, something i dont do that often.b&w conversion, abit of noise here and there and upped the contrast.the mood, the movement, the expression was just nice i think.

any comments?

Changing of the Guards

2008-02-03T13:13:00.001+09:00

on sunday, we went to buckingham palace to catch the changing of the guards. i just wasn't prepared for what i was about to see. when i was told that there would be a crowd, i thought it was like going to 100-200 people or so but i was so so wrong..i easily reached into the thousands.. maybe 2-3k?one would have thought the queen herself would be making an appearance...

i took this later in d day after the event when it wasn't as crowded. climbing up for a picture..
on patrol.. they had to keep the crowd in control.. it was just messy..
lotsa n lotsa people
and moreee
and moree
the few glimpses i caught of the guards.
here's another one.. this one ain't too bad.
could arsenal losing to totenham be a blessing in disguise? we've not been affected by it so far and even ade's and bendter's spat has become a non-issue so far. because of the win, totenham has gained confidence and the scums has been brimming in confidence and it finally paid off when they almost snatched a win from ManUre..but got a draw instead. this could be the turning point of the season and i wanna say this, thank you :)

London eye

2008-02-01T22:55:00.000+09:00

the london eye, which i think is an overpriced 15 pounds 25minute ferris wheel....i carriage could fit well to about 20 ppl and yea, it's air conditioned but that was about it :P

with all the money i paid, they could have at least fixed the lights so that i can get a perfect circle!
zooming in and out
big ben and the parliament.

all my shots from inside the ferris wheel was either blur or had reflections.sucked :(

Hiatus

2008-01-31T22:26:00.000+09:00

i needa play my wii, smash bro.s just rock. if u don't believe me, read the following article and the madness surrounding japan

Japanese Queues up for SSBB

i hafta thank my fren for queuing twice and skipping the 1st period to get a copy for me :D

If I'm lazy...

2008-01-29T21:15:00.001+09:00

i think i'm a lazy person, i seriously do but sometimes other people's actions make think otherwise. he asked me to help him with a question he can't solve because he has to resit for a paper tomorrow. i don't mind helping him but while doing the question in his in room, i can't help but notice that 80% of the time he's in front of the pc playing an online game and when he's not, he's reading some manga. i would have thought that he would have studied harder, i mean if he fails again it would mean the dreaded 留年 or in english, to re-sit the whole year again. and when i finally solved it and passed it to him, he said'thanks,i'll look at it when i'm done finishing playing.' i left the room shaking my head...

it's not that i like to judge but i can't really help it on this one..

picture of the day: capturing the moment

2008-01-29T00:14:00.001+09:00

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Piqoult

2008-01-27T14:11:00.000+09:00

Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate, can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow match for Kate - a life and a role that she has never questioned… until now. Like most teenagers, Anna is beginning to question who she truly is. But unlike most teenagers, she has always been defined in terms of her sister - and so Anna makes a decision that for most would be unthinkable… a decision that will tear her family apart and have perhaps fatal consequences for the sister she loves. My Sister's Keeper examines what it means to be a good parent, a good sister, a good person. Is it morally correct to do whatever it takes to save a child's life… even if that means infringing upon the rights of another? Is it worth trying to discover who you really are, if that quest makes you like yourself less?

i just finished reading this book and i must say it has got to be one of the most touching,thought provoking book i've read in awhile.Jodi Piqout is a genius when it comes to expressing human emotions and telling both sides of the story. How she switches from one character to another every chapter dwelling in their thoughts while continuing the flow of the story was brilliant. that there there wasn't a clear cut antagonist in the story only wrenches your heart even more when one of the characters has to make a choice he/she doesnt really want to.that said, it's not all sadness and fighting, wit and abit of humour is added into the tonnes of emotions you go through with the introduction of campbell,Anna's lawyer.i'm not gonna write whats going to happen at the end but i could feel my eyes a little watery at the end of it and i'm inhuman if i didn't.

I would definitely want all of you to read it but for the lazy ones, a movie is coming out somewhere this year i think.and i'm being pretty mixed about it going to the big screen after reading it. While i'm very very happy that Dakota and Elle Fanning will be casted as the sisters, Cameron Diaz as Sara, the mother is a little unconvincing. i just can't see her as the strong, caring mother type of role(hope she proves me wrong). even worse is that alec baldwin is rumoured to be casted as the father. he just seems to stiff for me for that role. and this is a pretty dense story with alot of sub-plots and flashbacks and i just hope that they don't chop up the story.but in the end, dakota and elle should be a love to watch. and the thought of dakota and cameron going bald would be pretty interesting.i hope they don't cut out that part of the story!

definitely a 5/5 for books i've read.