Olympus Launches Micro Four Thirds Camera

Now we're talkin'.
I wasn't sure when a compact micro four-thirds camera would be on the market, so I bought my Panasonic LX-3 earlier in the year. I don't regret that decision as the LX-3 produces some great photos. But this is certainly exciting news, and my next camera may be a micro four-thirds since I'm turned off by DSLRs' sizes. But I'll wait until they've worked out the kinks.

Article: Olympus Launches Micro Four Thirds Camera

Her Morning Elegance

My sister shared this Oren Lavie video (Her Morning Elegance) with me today. It's one of the more entertaining things I've seen this week (which in itself was a boring week following an eventful vacation).

I’m sitting at a Starbucks right now, typing my Singapore trip blog material. And a guy sitting at a table 2m away from me just let out a terribly loud fart that made my chair rumble. Do you know what it takes to make a fart vibrate through one chair to another?

Wanna Meet?

Alright, I'm back from vacation. But I've been stuck in meetings this entire week with virtually no breaks. So I'll try to get some posting about my trip with some photos (which I'm not done going through) this weekend. Busy!

Here Kiti Kiti Kiti

Last week, my sister found this Valentine's Day card.

It was from me, addressed to my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Kitagawa. I know she seemed like she was 100 years old at the time, but apparently age was never an issue for us.

Dirty Money

I had an interestingly bizarre though yesterday as I was flushing the toilet. If you accidentally dropped some change into the toilet at home (where no one else would see) after a #2, how much would it have to be for you to stick your hand in to get it? A quarter? A loonie? A toonie?

Obviously, the easy way of doing it would be to get something long to extract the coin(s). But let's assume for the moment you don't have anything but your bare hands, which you're permitted to wash afterwards.

Traveling Much? (Hotels)

AC and I are planning a trip for the Chinese New Year. Without revealing too many details of the trip yet, here are just a few things I'd like to share that might be useful if you're planning your own trip. Got your own tips? Post a comment.

Hotel Bookings: In the past, I have used HotelTravel.com and have been pleased with their prices and reliability thus far. However, for this trip, I found another site Agoda.com, which is providing even better rates and a rewards program. The prices are better than those I've found for the same hotels on HotelTravel.com. I've also looked at Orbitz.com, but I think the Agoda prices are still better. The rewards are credit (monetary value) towards your next booking. The credit is applied to your account 30 days after you check out from a hotel (and expire after 1 year OR at the end of the calendar year, I'm not sure). So, if you're a repeat traveler, the credit can save you more. Since I don't really travel more than once outside of Taiwan each year, I won't consider the rewards - but the listed hotel prices are already cheaper than a lot of other online sites I've used.

And just on hotel bookings, I found this list informative.

1. Special requests. At check-in, ask for a room with a window that can be opened. Cooped up all night with air conditioning or constant heat can be quite confining, and having fresh outside air can often make your stay (except maybe in Beijing). Sometimes a maintenance worker has to be called to open it but the receptionist usually knows which rooms already have adjustable windows.
   
   
2. Location. Don’t get a room by the elevator or ice machine. You will feel the vibrations all night long. It may not be apparent at first, but, believe me, when the lights are out, it will be. One more thing, if the hotel has a disco, make sure you get a room at least two floors away. I can’t tell you how many nights in South America I tried to sleep to the beat.
   
   
3. Stop the free show. First thing, go to your window and close the curtains, especially after dark, because the number of unwitting strip shows that I have been privy to and likely that I have provided myself through the years, is plentiful.
   
   
4. Pass on the cashier. The poorest place to exchange money is at the hotel. Not only will they give you the worst exchange rate possible, they might even charge a commission. Go to the nearest ATM for the rate of the day.
   
   
5. Do not disturb sign. If your room does not have one, call the concierge or make one out of the hotel stationery paper. Without it, the housekeeping crew will drive you bananas in the morning. I have lost count of amount of times a maid has caught me in a naked stumble for the bathroom.
   
   
6. Say Hi to hygiene. Take off your bedspread — the hotels probably clean them as much as the airlines clean their seat covers, which is once annually, if at all. Use a sani-wipe or at least a hand towel and wipe off the TV remote control. I shudder to think what the last occupant might have been doing with it. And I am sure most everyone has heard about the special media report on the scant attention the maid service gives to the room’s glassware. Be sure to clean any kitchen item before using, especially glasses.
   
   
7. Acclimatize the air. Set the air temperature right away, so you can get a feel for it and adjust it accordingly before you call it a night. If you only get to it before you sleep, you could wake to a frosty room or find yourself in a tropical sweat. Either way, your sleep will suffer.
   
   
8. Check the plumbing. Turn on the shower and flush the toilet. If there is a noticeable change in water temperature, keep your guard up, because hot spikes are probable. The number of times that I have been burned in the hotel shower is shocking, or I should say, scalding
   
   
9. Avoid room service. It’s expensive, anti-social, anti-cultural and should be reserved for a special occasion or in desperate times, such as romantic interludes, sickness, sunburn or utter exhaustion.
   
   
10. Television timer. If there is a timer function on the remote control, set it, no matter how alert you feel now. Waking up to a horror or war movie on high volume is a scary experience.
    
    
11. Double take. When leaving, look around the room for things you might have left behind. Put your towels in the bath-tub and your garbage in the trash bin. Not only does it help the maid but you may re-discover that thingamajig you almost left behind.
    
    
12. Concierge caution. By all means ask the concierge for directions and recommendations on dining and entertainment, but be aware that many higher priced places offer bribes in exchange for their suggestions. If they tell you to mention their name to the owner, give it a miss.
    
    
13. Relax. Make some time for yourself. Lie in bed for an extra hour, take an extra long shower, lounge around in your robe. You may miss your family, but I bet you could use a time-out. If you take a break from the daily drama, you will be well rested for your return.
    
    
14. Take but don’t steal. We all know the things in hotel rooms that are considered okay for taking home, like pens and stationery, but other items like remote control batteries, toilet paper, light bulbs and towels are in fact stealing and can be charged directly to your credit card.
    
    
15. Earplugs. Yes, my top in-flight tip is also one of my top hotel tips. It’s very important that you get used to wearing them. Put them by the bedside table. Bring a back-up pair, just in case.
    

Add to this list:

• Water Pressure. Ask for a floor with a water pump. For older buildings, the higher floors might have weaker water pressure.
  
  
• Street Noise. Ask for a room that's on a higher floor to avoid hearing street noise from your window. Kind of goes against the previous tip, but if a higher floor has a water pump, perfect.

New Era

Dec 22nd. It's been a while since my last posting - the longest I've been away from the blogosphere. But as of today, I'm in my 30's, and it's time to usher in a new era. Well, the new era isn't all that different from the old.

It's been an up and down year. I stayed away from writing during the loss of my mother - although anyone who's kept up with my siblings' blogs would have gotten some updates on that. I spent a couple of months back in Vancouver, working from home and helping where I could with whatever needed to be done. My brother got married.

Anyway, I don't want to try to summarize the last 9-10 months here. Just wanted to say that I'm back (online).

The last few days have been enjoyable, having celebrated Christmas and my birthday with girlfriend, relatives, friends, and coworkers.

Minor significant changes include moving into a larger bachelor suite with a kitchen, working now as a Technical Marketer at the same company, and buying a new digital camera (Panasonic LX3). Doesn't sound like much, I know.

2009's going to be a tough year, but there's no doubt we will find little ways to make us smile. So, let's keep smiling, shall we?

Absent what?

I just put on a sock, and then I was looking left, right, and around me for the other sock. Then I found it... on my other foot.

I haven't blogged in a while, have been busy. I hope everyone's doing well out there. I'll try to blog a little more when I find the time.

Blacktooth

I like simplifying my life. I don't need fancy gadgets because they usually involve unnecessary complexity. Things like music libraries (iTunes, etc), PDAs, Bluetooth this and that, etc.

Alright, so I came around to thinking about Bluetooth. I normally wouldn't think I'd need something like that, until I'd thought of a good use for it. And finally, I did. Instead of plugging my Creative computer speakers into my 3.5mm headphone jack (which gets in the way because the jack sits at the front of my Asus F3Jp laptop), I could lose the cables by getting a Bluetooth USB dongle for my computer and a Bluetooth receiver on the other end which my existing speakers can plug into. AirLive makes such a little doohickey like that, which is shown in the photo.

So I looked online for a USB dongle - something that would Bluetooth-enable my notebook. Checked out some prices. And went to the computer district in Taipei to snoop about. I was pretty much settled on an Asus Bluetooth USB dongle, but decided to wait until I could find a Bluetooth receiver first, since I would have no use for a Bluetooth dongle otherwise. I couldn't find any AirLive resellers. AirLive even replied to my email, but told me they don't sell in Taiwan - or that the minimum order is $3000 (presumably USD). So my idea was dying.

...Time passes...

While using my laptop over the weekend, I noticed the a stickers near the keyboard was starting to peel at its corner. You know, one of those stickers introducing features included in your electronic product that you NEVER peel off - just like for camcorders, VCRs, etc. I digress. Anyway the peeling sticker was starting to annoy me, so I decided to take a couple of them off. As I peeled away at the first one, I read: Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR. Oh yeah! My laptop, which is only 6 months old, already supports Bluetooth! But as I've never used it, I just plain forgot.

"Well THERE'S your problem." - Adam Savage, Mythbusters

Naughty to Nice

I've been reading a few Marketing books recently, and I'm pretty sure this online commercial for Axe Vice is a good example of unnecessary spending of marketing dollars.

But it's a funny ad, and I might be inclined to try Axe Vice body spray or Axe Vice deodorant or Axe Vice shower gel.



In case the embedded link doesn't work, you can go directly to their site: The Axe Vice Naughty to Nice Program

Cough. Burp. Who is that?

Do you think you can tell who a person is by the sound of his/her cough or burp?

For example, if you're sitting on the john at work and someone walks in, and without seeing the person or hearing him/her speak, can you tell who it is if s/he cough, burps, or sneezes?

yawn.

Last night, a rerun of MythBusters tested whether or not yawning is contagious. Without watching the show, my gut feeling is that it is. But I think it's even more than just yawning because you see someone else yawn. From my experience, yawning can be caused simply by thinking about yawning.

For example, maybe while reading this blog, you yawned. Maybe if someone talks about yawning, you yawn. Maybe if, you thought about a yawn in the back of your mind, and... you yawned! This is just my observation.

What do you think?

$500K

I'm listening to Team 1040 right now, and they're talking about how once-BC Lion quarterback Casey Printers signed with the Ti-Cats.

"Printers signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on September 6, 2007 for a reported $500,000 a season, making him the highest paid player in the CFL."

$500K per season is the highest pay in the CFL? Seems rather low, or does it? I guess in the CFL, they only play 9 games each season over 3 months or so. Just ramble.

Not New, but Improved

Finally I've made a few changes to my blog layout, and it now uses Page Elements. And finally, I've added titles to my postings as well. I'm not sure if I'd go back and add titles to my past posts, but I may just do that on one windy typhoon day if I run out of things to do.

Another late night, and it's time for bed.

Finally, the cut I had at the side of my mouth is healing. There are few minor cuts worse than having a cut right at the edge of the mouth; because every time I open my mouth again to eat, brush my teeth, or yawn, it splits open again. Not very fun.

I had a canker sore on my frenum (the web under the tongue) not too long ago. That's not much fun either.

So, ummm... my advice to you all would be to avoid getting cuts at the side of your mouth, and don't get canker sores on your frenum.

Last night, in the 1+km scooter home in the rain, I saw the results of 2 car accidents.

One I couldn't really tell what happened. Two cars were stopped in the middle of an intersection parallel to each other - but I saw no apparent damage. The police were there doing there post-accident checks.

The other accident looked like it involved just one car. Again, I couldn't really tell from the aftermath what happened. This car was also in an intersection, with its front right wheel and half the axle torn off and sitting about 5 meters away.

Geez. What are these people doing?

I took this picture a couple weeks ago. It caught my eye last summer when I was scootering around my neighbourhood on a weekend around noon. Only around lunch does the shadow of the overhanging electrical wires cast down upon the splattering of bird poop on the street below. Fun, huh.

Most of us only got a first look at multi-touch computing through Apple's recent iPhone release. But there are already quite a few different applications using it. This Popular Mechanics video shows just how far its come in some (almost) ready-to-sell products. Kinda fancy.

And for more information, How Stuff Works explains the multi-touch system in the iPhone.

Green roofs. Heard of? Not a new concept, but new to me.

I know, I know, I'm way behind the rest of the game. But keep in mind that I'm not in North America. Green roofing involves putting soil and vegetation onto a building's roof. While significantly more costly than regular shingles or roofing methods, green roofs can help reduce running costs of electricity, keep air both milder and cleaner, and possibly provide a roof-top garden as well. Being at the age where plenty of people are buying new homes, this is definitely something I would consider with my housing purchase (or at least with future renovations)... if it can be covered by insurance.

Here are some resources:
Green Roofs For Healthy Cities
greenroofs.com
wikipedia's page on green roofs
treehugger.com: Green Vancouver Convention and Exhibition Centre
Hydrotech: Green Vancouver Main Library
Canada.com story: B.C. insurers refuse to cover green roofs
Canada.com story: Insurers put the brakes on green roofs

"Liang Qichao (梁啟超) was a Chinese scholar, journalist, philosopher and reformist during the Qing Dynasty, who inspired Chinese scholars with his writings and reform movements." Here's his profile on Wikipedia.

AC says this particular photo of Liang looks like a larger-eyed version of my brother, BK. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being "exactly like him", what do you think?