Whilst I was searching for a nice DSLR to get, I came across a website by a guy named Ken Rockwell. What is amazing is his reviews on Nikon cameras and lenses. He even has old Nikon equipments that he reviews.

I would take this as just another review site, but there are other goodies that he provides in the website. The website is almost like an encyclopaedia of cameras and lenses!

He has, for example, explanations on the DX format, something which is new for digital SLRs. But the most useful pages I’ve seen must have been the Nikon system compatibility page and the lens compatibility chart, which is almost like a short history lesson on Nikon lenses. Now I know that if I were to get the D5000 I was eyeing for, I won’t be able to autofocus using my current AF lenses. I love his example of pairing a 1969 Nikon F with current 17-35mm AF-S lens.

A 1969 Nikon F with current 17-35mm AF-S lens, from KenRockwell.com

On another note, after looking through a lot of websites, I’m really thinking of getting the Nikon D90 soon. It seems to be getting good reviews, and the fact that I can use my current lenses (I have a 28-80mm f/3.3-5.6 G AF and a 70-300mm f/4-5.6 G AF, both of which apparently have been rated as two of the best cheapest Nikon lenses) is a bonus, although the combination will probably look Frankenstein-ish as the camera body is black and my current lenses are silver.

After some tiring weekends of dealing with people, I planned to have some well-deserved me-time this weekend. The plan was to go to the nearby park and take photos of the Little Guilin, and then have it developed by tomorrow. After reading up on the golden hour, I was itching to apply it in practise.

Bangkok during the golden hour, by Diliff

What happened was that I woke up at 4.30 pm, which was fine, not too late. After quickly washing up and chatting with some friends online, I set off for the park, reaching by 5.30 pm.

Little Guilin, by mailer_diablo

I’ve been using the film Nikon F55 for a couple of years now, and so far it has not given me any problems whatsoever. Today was no different, everything went well, except that the sky wasn’t as nice as I wanted it to be, but well, noone can control the weather, isn’t it?

I had no intention on switching to a DSLR, as the frequency of my taking photos is not high enough so as to warrant the necessity of upgrading. Anyway, there’s a conveniently nearby photo lab that can process my film within 24 hours.

I finished the roll of the Fujifilm 200 by 7 pm, and left for Botak Jones for a medium ribeye steak dinner that I’ve been craving for. I also added the shit mushroom garlic sautéed shiitake mushroom, which was not too bad.

That was the end of the better part of the day. I went to Singapore Colour Centre in West Mall to get my film developed. I’ve been patronizing this shop for more than a year now, and everytime I just need to say “develop, scan to CD” and they’ll reply with “Ok, come back tomorrow afternoon!”.

But today, the reply was “come back in 3 working days”. I was puzzled and asked for clarification. It turned out that they don’t have the processing machine anymore, and have to send the film to their processing centre to get it developed. The thing is that I won’t even be at home on the weekdays, so I would have to practically wait for a full week before seeing my photos. I cancelled the development and instead went out on a search for a photo lab that can still do film development.

What added to the frustration were a couple of things…

First I decided to drop a message on Plurk and Facebook to ask if anyone knows of a decent photo lab in the area. Plurk’s mobile interface has changed a lot and it doesn’t work well on my mobile phone. It was a matter of guesswork to decide whether the link I’m clicking is for mute or view responses. In any case, noone seemed to know one.

I then went to gothere.sg on my mobile phone, and soon realised that the mobile version doesn’t support searching for places around an area. So I went ahead and used my iPod touch to check the full version of gothere.sg. To my horror, it now automatically redirects to sneak.gothere.sg, which doesn’t support the iPod touch’s Safari browser.

I then called and messaged a couple of friends, and they either don’t reply or pick up the call, are outside, are using another unsupported browser, or report an error when using gothere.sg.

I spent a good one hour walking aimlessly around the area, not even finding a photo lab at all. It seems like it’s gonna be the end of film era really soon…

So here I am at the end of the day, having a bunch of photographs locked in the roll of Fujifilm 200. I only hope that some shop somewhere near Jalan Kayu (where I’m based on weekdays) can process the film, otherwise I’m really going to have to wait for a week before seeing my photos.

***

The incident got me thinking though. I’ve been holding off buying a DSLR for a little while now. The reasons are manifold.

First, like I said earlier, I don’t take photos frequently enough to warrant an upgrade to a DSLR. Therefore the break-even point for buying a DSLR is going to be reached only after a pretty long time, which may not be a worthy investment.

Secondly, also related to money, DSLR do not come cheap. With my current monthly income being sub-1k, and rent and food using up the majority share of that income, I only have my meagre one-year-of-work savings to fall back on. In fact, my monthly cash flow since I started in this line has been negative. I would rather save what is left of my savings for rainy days.

Thirdly, so far it has been convenient to develop my film shots, having a photo lab near my house. Obviously, this is not the case from now on.

But what happened today changed a couple of those.

Firstly, I’ll be leaving for Australia soon (within the next 3 months) for flight training, and no doubt there’ll be times when I’ll be travelling around the area. It’ll be nice to have a DSLR that I can use to take some photos with.

Secondly, while I’m not sure of the actual case, my spending in Australia might be lower, with no rent to deal with. That should leave me with a bit more time before my savings are all used up.

Thirdly… Film seems to be dying, with less and less photo labs offering development of film.

All these got me thinking, is it time for me to get a DSLR after all? What’s a good value-for-money DSLR to start with, taking into account that I’ve been shooting using a film SLR for a while now?

Any inputs will be appreciated!

Frustrated,
bcc

The last time I ever ran intensively was 2.5 months ago during Outward Bound before I started in my current company. At that time, I remembered that I was one of the least fit people in the group. Not surprising really, because the others are locals who have to keep fit anyway as a national service requirement.

So when I started running again today, I was pretty pleased that I could complete my run satisfactorily. It’s not great by any standard, but hey, for someone who’s been dormant most of the time for the past half a year (except during Outward Bound), I was quite satisfied with the run!

I hope I can train in time for the 5km run that the school is participating in the middle of November!

It’s funny when I update my friends on what I’m doing at work, some of them immediately respond with “oh hello Captain!” or “so where have you flown? Is it fun to carry passengers?”.

The only thing that bugs me is that we’re not a captain yet, we don’t carry passengers, and we’re only flying around the local airport.

The truth is, it is going to take a very long and arduous journey before we can even carry passengers, let alone become a captain.

So here, let me share with you a little bit about my job…

The programme starts with the basic flying which tests one’s aptitude, and ground school in Singapore. The ground school leads up to a frozen Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL). It is frozen because we wouldn’t have had enough flying hours to get the full ATPL. This phase lasts for about 6 months.

The programme then continues with full-time flying in Australia for about 9 months. Completing this, we will obtain the Commercial Pilot License (CPL), which technically allows us to charge people money to fly with us.

This is then followed by a jet training, also in Australia, which will take up about 4 months.

After this phase, we’ll serve as Second Officers in the company, which will take up another 9 months. This is the stage where we actually carry passengers in real commercial flights.

Only after this will we serve as First Officers, and after a couple years of flying and command training, will we become Captains. I don’t have the numbers for the number of years needed to become a Captain, but it probably takes about 10 years.

So adding up the numbers, it seems like it only takes 18 months to serve our first passengers, right? The thing is that this is the case only in ideal situations. The truth is that some trainings may be delayed or extended, say due to weather, for one batch, and this delay will snowball down to subsequent batches. In reality, the training leading up to the Second Officer stage where we start to carry passengers will take up about 2-2.5 years.

So there you have it. No I’m not a Captain yet, not until at least 10 years later, I’m still flying around the local airport, and no I haven’t carried any passengers yet.

Flyer,
bcc

Note: This entry is dedicated to someone who shall not be named, who keeps on bugging me to blog before I am able to recycle the previous entry on the next Chinese New Year…

What is love?

The first paragraph of the Wikipedia entry says the following:

Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection and attachment. The word love can refer to a variety of different feelings, states, and attitudes, ranging from generic pleasure (“I loved that meal”) to intense interpersonal attraction (“I love my boyfriend”). This diversity of uses and meanings, combined with the complexity of the feelings involved, makes love unusually difficult to consistently define, even compared to other emotional states.

As mentioned in the quote, love is a very difficult thing to describe, and it can mean many different things. But I know a couple of things that I love in my life now.

1. I love aviation and flying. That is why I decided to make the career switch to flying as soon as I was eligible to. I never regretted that decision, although my pay now is less than a third of what I earned in my previous job and the training isn’t exactly easy. At least, I get to learn the things that I’ve always been interested in. And that brings me to the second love, which is…
2. I love my job. Enough said above.
3. I love my family. For their support in what I am doing now, although initially my parents and my grandma have some reservations about my decision to take up flying.
4. I love my friends, especially those close friends who are always there for me when I need them.
5. I love Plurk, Facebook, and Windows Live Messenger. Though I’m not as active as I was before on Plurk, I still check Plurk and Facebook from time to time either to see what the others are doing, or to update others about my life. In the confines of the dormitory for cadet pilots, WLM is the best way to communicate with outside friends.

There you have it, some loves of my life at the moment. What do you love now?

Lovely,
hendri

PS: After months of not blogging, my English is now very rusty and I don’t get that feel that I got when I blog. Heh, I don’t know if this will improve over time, but I’ll try anyway.

PPS: Not sure if I should put the last one in the list. Heh, if you know, you know, if you don’t, then you don’t.

Here’s wishing everyone a Happy Chinese New Year! This year would be my year, since I was born in the year of the cow ox, and 2009 is also the year of the ox.

According to astrology.com, oxen are supposed to have a pretty good year. How about you?

I haven’t been celebrating Chinese New Year for a couple of years ever since I came to Singapore (except that time I was in Indonesia while waiting to enter university, and the two years that I was in a relationship). That’s why to me Chinese New Year is mostly associated with the lack of cheap food in Singapore, since only restaurants and fast food outlets are open. Most food stalls in hawker centres and food courts are closed. Sometimes if you’re lucky, you will find one or two Malay or Indian food stalls open near you.

Are you aware that the Chinese has a set of beliefs that they observe during the new year? Wikipedia has a list of them.

Good luck

• Opening windows and/or doors is considered to bring in the good luck of the new year.
• Switching on the lights for the night is considered good luck to ’scare away’ ghosts and spirits of misfortune that may compromise the luck and fortune of the new year.
• Sweets are eaten to ensure the consumer a “sweet” year.
• It is important to have the house completely clean from top to bottom before New Year’s Day for good luck in the coming year. (however, as explained below, cleaning the house after New Year’s Day is frowned upon)
• Some believe that what happens on the first day of the new year reflects the rest of the year to come. Chinese people will often gamble at the beginning of the year, hoping to get luck and prosperity.
• Wearing a new pair of slippers that is bought before the new year, because it means to step on the people who gossip about you.
• The night before the new year, bathe yourself in pomelo leaves and some say that you will be healthy for the rest of the new year.

Bad luck

• Buying a pair of shoes is considered bad luck amongst some Chinese. The character for “shoe” (鞋) is a homophone for the character 諧/谐, which means “rough” in Cantonese; in Mandarin it is also a homophone for the character for “evil” (邪).
• Getting a hair-cut in the first lunar month puts a curse on maternal uncles. Therefore, people get a hair-cut before the New Year’s Eve.
• Washing your hair is also considered to be washing away one’s own luck (although modern hygienic concerns take precedence over this tradition)
• Sweeping the floor is usually forbidden on the first day, as it will sweep away the good fortune and luck for the new year.
• Saying words like “finished” and “gone” is inauspicious on the New Year, so sometimes people would avoid these words by saying “I have completed eating my meal” rather than say “I have finished my meal.”
• Talking about death is inappropriate for the first few days of Chinese New Year, as it is considered inauspicious.
• Buying books is bad luck because the character for “book” (書/书) is a homonym to the character for “lose” (輸/输).
• Avoid clothes in black and white, as black is a symbol of bad luck, and white is a traditional Chinese funeral colour.
• Foul language is inappropriate during the Chinese New Year.
• Offering anything in fours, as the number four (四), pronounced sì, can sound like “death” (死) in Chinese. See tetraphobia.
• Also you should never buy a clock for someone or for yourself because, a clock in Chinese tradition means your life is limited or “the end” which is also forbidden
• Avoid medicine and medicine related activities (at least on the first day) as it will give a bad fortune on your health and lessen the luck you can obtain from New Years

Got this off a note in Facebook. I thought it is quite funny. You need to know Malay though.

Karangan Terbaik UPSR 2007
Karangan budak darjah 4

Pagi itu pagi minggu. Cuaca cukup sejuk sehingga mencapai takat suhu beku. Sebab itu saya tidak mandi pagi sebab air kolah jadi air batu dan air paip tidak mahu keluar sebab beku di dalam batang paip. Pagi itu saya bersarapan dengan keluarga di dalam unggun api kerana tidak tahan sejuk. Selepas itu emak saya mengajak saya menemaninya ke pasar. Tetapi saya tidak mahu.

Selepas emak menikam perut saya berkali-kali dengan garfu barulah saya bersetuju untuk mengikutnya. Kami berjalan sejauh 120 kilometer kerana pasar itu letaknya 128 kilometer dari rumah. Lagi 8 kilometer nak sampai pasar saya ternampak sebuah lori kontena meluru dengan laju dari arah belakang.

Dia melanggar emak saya. Emak saya tercampak ke dalam gaung. Dia menjerit “Adoi!”. Lepas itu emak saya naik semula dan mengejar lori tersebut. Saya pun turut berlari di belakang emak saya kerana takut emak saya melanggar lori itu pula. Pemandu lori itu nampak kami mengejarnya. Dia pun memecut lebih laju iaitu sama dengan kelajuan cahaya. Kami pula terpaksa mengejar dengan lebih laju iaitu sama dengan dua kali ganda kelajuan cahaya. Emak saya dapat menerajang tayar depan lori itu. Lori itu terbabas dan melanggar pembahagi jalan lalu bertembung dengan sebuah feri. Feri itu terbelah dua.

Penumpang feri itu yang seramai 100 orang semuanya mati. Pemandu feri itu sangat marah. Dia pun bertukar menjadi Ultraman dan memfire pemandu lori. Pemandu lori menekan butang khas di dalam lori dia..lori itu bertukar menjadi robot Transformer. Mereka bergaduh di udara. Emak saya tidak puas hati. Dia pun terus menyewa sebuah helikopter di Genting
Highlands dan terus ke tempat kemalangan. Dia melanggar pemandu feri yang telah bertukar menjadi Ultraman itu.

Pemandu feri itu terkejut dan terus bertukar menjadi pemandu feri semula lalu terhempas ke jalanraya. Pemandu feri itu pecah. Pemandu lori sangat takut melihat kejadian itu. Dia meminta maaf dari emak saya. Dia menghulurkan tangan ingin bersalam. Tetapi emak saya masih marah. Dia menyendengkan helikopternya dan mengerat tangan pemandu lori itu dengan kipas helikopter. Pemandu lori itu menjerit “Adoi..!” dan jatuh ke bumi. Emak say menghantar helikopter itu ke Genting Highlands. Bila dia balik ke tempat kejadian, dia terus memukul pemandu lori itu dengan beg tangannya sambil memarahi pemandu lori itu di dalam bahasa Inggeris.

Pemandu lori itu tidak dapat menjawab sebab emak saya cakap orang putih. Lalu pemandu lori itu mati. Tidak lama kemudian kereta polis pun sampai. Dia membuat lapuran ke ibu pejabatnya tentang kemalangan ngeri itu. Semua anggota polis di pejabat polis itu terperanjat lalu mati. Orang ramai mengerumuni tempat kejadian kerana ingin mengetahui apa yang telah terjadi. Polis yang bertugas cuba menyuraikan orang ramai lalu dia menjerit menggunakan pembesar suara. Orang ramai terperanjat dan semuanya mati.

Selepas itu emak saya mengajak saya ke pasar untuk mengelak lebih ramai lagi yang akan mati. Di pasar, emak saya menceritakan kejadian itu kepada penjual daging. Penjual daging dan peniaga-peniaga berhampiran yang mendengar cerita itu semuanya terkejut dan mati. Saya dan emak saya terus berlari balik ke rumah. Kerana terlalu penat sebaik saja sampai di rumah kami pun mati. Itulah kemalangan yang paling ngeri yang pernah saya lihat sebelum saya mati.

It’s the new year and I’m having a great time at home.

It’s just a one week holiday, but it’s very packed right to the brim with visits to grandma’s place, a volcanic crater, grandpa’s resting place, and cousin’s wedding. Add great home-cooked food. And not to forget the Flight Experience flight that I took just before I went home. Honestly, I don’t even know if I have the time to blog them out at all.

In any case, here’s wishing everyone in Singapore a very happy new year! May 2009 be a wonderful year for everyone.

Technically, it’s not new year yet at my place, since the time here is one hour earlier than Singapore. But heh, since my blog is set on Singapore time, I might as well send my new year greetings according to Singapore’s time zone.

And don’t forget, 2008 was one second longer due to the leap second. Did you send your wishes too early?

Happy New Year
ABBA

No more champagne
And the fireworks are through
Here we are, me and you
Feeling lost and feeling blue

It’s the end of the party
And the morning seems so grey
So unlike yesterday
Now’s the time for us to say…

Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend

Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we don’t we might as well lay down and die
You and I

Sometimes I see
How the brave new world arrives
And I see how it thrives
In the ashes of our lives

Oh yes, man is a fool
And he thinks he’ll be okay
Dragging on, feet of clay
Never knowing he’s astray
Keeps on going anyway…

Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend

Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we dont we might as well lay down and die
You and I

Seems to me now
That the dreams we had before
Are all dead, nothing more
Than confetti on the floor

It’s the end of a decade
In another ten year’s time
Who can say what we’ll find
What lies waiting down the line
In the end of eighty-nine…

Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend

Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have our hopes, our will to try
If we don’t we might as well lay down and die
You and I

Some of you might have known that I am pretty much obsessed with aviation. One of the dreams that I have in the future is to be able to pilot my own airplane.

I am taking one step closer to that dream, and I have booked a 90-minute flight at Flight Experience for this Sunday, 28 December.

Flight Experience brings the commercial airliner pilot experience to normal people like you and me, by providing a fixed-base flight simulator that looks and feels like a Boeing 737-800 cockpit. Supposedly, it is so detailed that even airliners use the facility for training purposes. In Singapore, Flight Experience is located at Singapore Flyer, which is currently having a breakdown.

Here’s how it looks like inside:

Some shots of the overhead panel:

And the Flight Management Computer:

And here are two sample videos of the flights:

I am allowed to bring 2 guests for the flight. One is taken by my brother, while the other is still free.

I would like to invite one of my friends for the flight as a guest.

I intend to make the 90-minute flight a good learning experience. According to the planned itinerary, we will be covering basic flying skills similar to what is taught on a PPL (private pilot license) course, i.e. effects of controls, steep turns, stalls, circuit flying, etc.

As a guest, you won’t be allowed to touch any of the controls. However, you are welcome to listen in and learn a thing or two about the flight simulator experience. Probably, you will also get to understand my obsession with flying. Who knows, you might just be interested in flying yourself!

You don’t have to pay a single cent, the flight cost is on me.

To participate, drop me a message (email, MSN, SMS, comment, Plurk, or in fact any other ways you can reach me) and let me know why you should be chosen. Don’t worry, they don’t even have to be related to flying or aviation. I will contact you by end of day of 4 pm, 27 December if you’re chosen. I know it’s very tight, but I’ve just booked the flight today.

The terms and conditions are simple: you just have to be able to come to Singapore Flyer on time by 9.30 am on 28 December, and bring a photo ID along for identification.

Be aware that the flight is 90-minute long, and some people might experience motion sickness. Also, this is my first time using such a simulator, so don’t expect to get perfect landings on the first few tries.