« April 2005 | Main | June 2005 »
Slightly ominous events occurring at work these days hence the lack of posts. Been preoccupied. Also working on getting my Hawaii pictures up finally. Anyway, hope things'll clear up soon. Almost afraid to take that 2 weeks vacation to Taiwan that I have scheduled at the end of this month. Argh.
My results, after the break...
So I'm probably the only person you know of that actively grooms my Amazon.com Recommendations list by rating stuff. It's a relatively easy and brainless thing to do while watching tv and surfing the web concurrently. ;-p Anyway, I was a bit bemused when this book somehow found its way on my list of recommendations. Clicking on the "Why was I recommended this?" link revealed the following...
Picked up a Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 lens the other day as a daily walk-around and vacation lens so need to run it through its paces to see if it's worth keeping. Not _entirely_ sure yet if this particular copy is worth it or not... Seems to be a bit fuzzier than I like but need to test some more.
Few more test pics after the break...
So Erin's back in Taiwan for the next two weeks and I'll be joining her during the Memorial Day weekend for another two weeks. Until then, I'm revisiting my good ol' bachelor days. ;-p Not that there's that much of a difference between my bachelor days and my married days. =p But it's somewhat liberating to be alone again, even for a little while. Note I said "alone" and not "single." I find I use my time much more efficiently when she's not around. =)
from the Sigma 18-200 lens. I think I'll keep it. It does seem to work pretty well although may be a bit soft when wide open during wide angle.
Actual pictures came out rather overcast for some reason even though it was sunny in places. I guess it was cloudy right over where I was so messed things up a bit. Anyway, good thing I shoot in RAW. Easier to tweak the results.
one of the seven deadly sins right? Exactly how much meat do you really have to eat in one sitting? A lot less than this...
is my guess.
Forgot to mention earlier that Last Exile is one heck of an anime series. Wasn't expecting too much from it at first but that was before I started watching it. Quite engaging and very well animated. And the whole concept of airships fighting using old-style naval warfare tactics is pretty sweet if not almost absurd at times. Catch it if you get the chance.
Caught Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith yesterday and I pretty much agree with Hsin's take on it. The romantic scenes were really bleeping corny. But it was nice to see the emergence of Darth Vader. Critical lesson from the movie: no matter how powerful you think you are, you're always gonna lose if you don't have the high ground. ;-p
I wonder if this could really break me of my 4-finger hunt and peck method?
So ever since we decided to head out to Taiwan later this month I'd been thinking of getting a new bag that I could use to carry my laptop and camera equipment on the plane. Decided against another messenger-type bag since I already have 2 (well 3 if you count the small one too) and since I'm usually carrying a TON of stuff on flights, a messenger-type bag would just kill my shoulder. I needed something that would distribute the weight more evenly around. So backpack it was. Unfortunately there's a dearth of laptop/camera backpacks out there and the ones that do exist for the most part are laid out the same way. After looking at bags from Lowepro, Crumpler, and even Boblbee, I decided on getting a Crumpler.
Unfortunately, around the time of that decision, Crumpler was just about to release a new line of bags so I decided to wait to see what the new stuff was like. Took them about 2 weeks and they finally came in last Friday. Stopped by the store after work that day to find them in the midst of cataloguing, pricing, and organizing the new arrivals. Good thing I came in when I did cause after I started asking questions, a trio tried to come in but the young lady helping me told them to come back tomorrow cause they were too busy organizing the new stuff and were closed. Anyhoo, I wound up picking up one of the new Sinking Barges. It came down to either this one or The Whickey and Cox. The W&C has much more space for camera stuff but I wound up not getting it cause I didn't like the two front pockets that it had; much too slim. For awhile I really wanted the Schrinkle because it had the W&C's larger camera space and layout but the front pocket layout of the Sinking Barge. Unfortunately, the Schrinkle was an older style that no longer was available and upon further reflection, I decided that I didn't have THAT much camera equipment anyway and the camera pocket location of the Sinking Barge was more ideal for easy access.
Finally have the photo galleries for the first 8 days of our Hawaii trip up here. Hope to have our Big Island pics up when we get back from Taiwan.
So here I am with about an hour to kill before boarding & I somehow managed to resist the impulse to fork over $7 to use the wireless network here in the Newark Airport concourse. This slow as snails not-quite-GPRS T-Mobile connection on my Treo will have to do. Better than nothing I guess. =) Hm... there's not an insignificant amount of people here waiting for this flight which does not bode well for my personal comfort later on the plane. I've come ill-prepared for a long flight: I've got my Powerbook + extra battery, the PSP, 2 mags (1 which I've already read), and a science fiction compilation book that I just picked up at the crappy airport store. That should maybe last me barely half of this flight. In-flight entertainment better be damn good. Hmm, ok maybe I'm not THAT ill-prepared but something still feels... lacking.
Anyhoo hope everyone has (had) a great Memorial Day weekend!
Only about 5 hours have passed and I'm currently sitting at Seattle-Tacoma at 3 in the morning. Hour layover and then a packed flight over the Pacific. Next time I think I'll pay the extra $300 for the Evergreen Deluxe class. Economy is just so draining. Or maybe I'll just request an exit row. Did manage to nap a bit at least but gotta try to stay awake until it's bedtime in Taiwan. Argh...
Fell asleep after I reboarded the plane. Woke up an hour and a half later and we're still on the freakin' ground! "Mechanical problem" is the reason given. Bleepin' hell I guess I'm not making my connecting flight to Kaohsiung. I just ain't having any luck with airplanes this year.
[UPDATE]: Apparently one of the 17 fuel pumps on the plane had a problem which they fixed in 25 minutes. BUT, it took them another hour and a half to file the necessary paperwork and get permission to take off again. @#@#$!%!@#$!@#$ bureaucracy!
Well that was quick. Not even half a day after I touched down in Kaohsiung we went to visit Erin's mom & dad at her dad's place. The very first meeting ever between the parents went pretty well I thought. Her dad's got the entire roof of the building they're in covered with flowers. Quite impressive.
Then we had dinner at a seafood place (Under Ocean Skies) which was pretty good.
My folk's apartment here in Kaohsiung has a great view of the "Love River" across the street and every morning they have dragon boat practice. Even 32 floors up we can hear the uniform tweets of the whistle as the boats cruise by.
Every day, in this hot & humid weather. That's dedication.
Pity the poor fool who pays the listed price for anything in Taiwan. A bargaining mentality is a must to have a successful shopping experience here, something those of us from the States have practically no experience with. Pretty much the only thing you don't bargain for here is food; everything else is fair game, even in department stores. If you're not getting a significant discount AND free sample items, then you've been ripped off apparently. For bargain hunters, this may be a paradise but it makes me wonder really how much of a "bargain" one is really getting? I mean if everyone knows that you need to bargain to complete a purchase, wouldn't sellers mark up their prices to account for that? And isn't it just an unnecessary hassle to have to do so much haggling? Although it does make for more attentive, helpful, and hands-on salespeople which can be pretty nice but also somewhat disconcerting for those of us used to browsing in relative peace.
To illustrate, Erin took me shopping for a new pair of glasses yesterday. After going through like two dozen frames, she finally picked out a Cartier frame for me. Apparently I have no fashion sense and she has expensive tastes. =p And after much haggling (which I find quite amusing) that included her labeling all salespeople as liars (it pays to have a sense of humor when you're a salesperson or store manager here), she got us a 30% discount along with 2 free sets of contact lenses and clip-on sunglasses. Afterwards she still thought she hadn't gotten a great deal on it but I thought it was a pretty decent chunk o' change.
I guess compounding the problem I have with haggling is that I'm not quite used to thinking in NT dollars yet. (US$1 = ~NT$31) So a savings of say NT$400 seems like a big deal to me even though it's really only a US$13 difference. And then I also feel bad when the salesperson caves when we're about to leave the store cause they wouldn't give us the item for the amount Erin was asking for. (This happens at the night market places, not department stores.) I know it's probably the furthest from the truth but I keep feeling like we're taking advantage of these poor folk who're just trying to make a decent living and have to deal with hordes of cheapskates every day.
Ah well, I guess it's good that I have Erin to do all the dirty work for me. ;-)
This page contains all entries posted to Absurd Singularity in May 2005. They are listed from oldest to newest.
April 2005 is the previous archive.
June 2005 is the next archive.
Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.
