Sony Xperia Active

 The Endomondo is kinda cool but the logo and the name seems to be suited for some cutie zombie game. Kinda cool the interface.. There are strava which is quite cool as well.. but let me start with this first. The sony xperia ICS new update also come with the imapmyFITNESS software as well.

 One of the main reason that got me to get this a bit outdated phone is that it has this map right where you can see it while am riding outdoor.. everything at the finger trip when going for a long ride into the unfamiliar territory.. 

 Here is a simple view .. 

One of the best thing is that it will able to upload all the workout to the endomondo site without the hassle of transferring the data via usb.. get am getting very greedy.. dont have to upload my garmin 305 and read the data.. all in a matter of seconds I can read and analyze it from the website..and pretty cool is I could export the route in gpx format as well.. haha.. I could use this for Taiwan ride with ease.

I was hoping for the Sony Xperia Go to be really a total upgrade version of the Sony Xperia active. Well.. first the let down there is not ANT+.. This 3.5 inches screen could be perfect for outdoor user with the better resolution.. and second the 1230mah super duper under zealous!! which the battery could not be readily to change like other phone.. It is screw down I guess for better waterproofing... however there are friends already express disssatisfaction with the battery life!

Now it leave me no choice but to reconsider this active. I am greedy and who is not.. want everything all in the package!! Now the first very sad sad thing about this active is the 3 inches screen.. damn!! If it is 3.5 inches will be perfect right? I got to really really pay attention to it to get the details.. haha.. anyway the bravia engine does really improve the overall display despite the super low res.. as compare with my CSL mi-300..

Now of course the benefits does weight off the let down. First I almost got everything I want to pack into one device!! I got a phone and sms .. data comm such as whatapps and facebook chat.. facebook.. all that a smartphone meant to be.. though its a single core 1ghz.. but it is more adequate as an outdoor phone.. grrr.. the size of the screen comes in again.. grrrr... Haha..

Now the main stuff about this phone is it got ANT+.. yes.. I could pair my garmin HRM strap and get the reading.. and I can get the garmin cadence sensor at an affordable price..and get all the reading!! with android offering quite handful of software.. everything is so convenient.. I even found and bought a silicone strap that could attach snuggly to my bicycle handlebar for the phone. On top of that I could take it to the pool to record my laps timing.

Yup!! Everything I ever need as smartphone and outdoor device though the screen size is still a huge setback.. Oh.. the standard battery juice out pretty fast.. I guess I need to check out the 1800mah or 2430 mah ..

Lets see how it perform it real life in a month or two..

Oh.. I got this phone from a young chap who sold it for RM400.. current AP set is around RM490.. just found out from the receipt he bought it on 25/8.... and I guess he never really use it as it is so new!! not really a huge saving.. but enough for me to get extra battery and some meals from the extra.. :p

FINIS SWIMP3

* here is what is in the package except for the goggle of course..The unit is made in China and the hard box inside exactly like what you get from most chinese own produce product packaging. Well, not too concern though as I am more concern for the mp3.

Its been my desire to find a real mp3 that is suitable for swimming. It is very boring at the pool watching the mono color tetris like tiles passing by and only accompany by your own bubble sound... especially for an hour or two swim. Nothing keep you entertain except once in awhile some SYT pop by the pool. Anyway, it was just a matter of while to keep you entertain while the paddling start.. all is the same again.

Three years ago got myself Nu dolphin.. is just crappy.. once the water sink in to the ear ..eventually it will.. and fast.. then all is lost.. I had two units wash down just like that.. not to mention the crappy ultra treble is all you can here most of the time..

Not until Jamie Patrick the ultra swimmer that introduces the FINIS swimp3. I was taken aback as how the hell does this technology work.. no earbud into the ear.. its kinda unbelievable at first. just the device attach to the goggle strap and touches the side temple will do.. WOW!! However the unit aim cheap for a country like ours after the conversion. But apparently this one works!!

So I decided that to spend RM300 plus on a swimming mp3 is all worth it as the hours to keep you entertain in the pool.. Have a great bargain deal in ebay and finally got this unit. Well, there is a return policies with it.. :)..

Finally it came two months ago and I took it to the pool.. man this thing work.. it uses the bone conduction technology and comfortably rest on your head and you dont feel any obstacle. However, my unit has a problem with the speaker on the left side.. I had never had any spoilt items that I bought from ebay except for this one. Apparently I think the consistency of product QC is left to be desire as read from other review with other issues as well.

Anyway, the ebay seller is providing excellent service and able to swap a new one directly from FINIS company itself.. So this unit travel back to America again fashionably..

Three days ago I received the replacement.. Viola.. at least this is workable and am delighted.. Took it to Bukit Jalil swimming pool and it is so amazing!!

I had dl couple of Gregorians songs and its so zen like when it is play in the pool. Now I am so looking forward to more swim!

The cleverly simple idea of having the back piece that serve as usb connector is quite a charm to charge and load songs into the unit. Well, hopefully this unit could last for a year at least.

A little Joy

There is a little joy that I found since last week. My leg is getting better!! Yes.. it came as sort of a surprise for me.. I was preparing a decent fund for the ELWT last resort to cure my leg.. yet slowly it is diminishing. I hope it could get better as  I began to lose weight. Then I can really spend the money somewhere else. It is indeed something that I am looking forward to for a long long time.

The other piece of kickstart is the training for TCR. Thought of getting Lam and Alan in the game.. but Lam is too busy with his work at this moment.. So hopefully Alan could stick to the game plan to train together at Putrajaya every Tuesday and Thursday.

I guess I could spend more time in the pool training for my swimming as well.

Hopefully in a few months time my leg will totally heal and get back to some slow run.

Swim in Bukit Jalil again

Its been awhile since I swim consistently already. I am going to make it an everyday affair and looking at improving all area in swimming.

One of the greatest motivation is the hot weather.. A good two hours swim could really prove useful for sleep at night. The cooling effect is there.

I now hydrate myself properly throughout and surprisingly find that I am less fatigue and recover faster!! Damn.. should have know and understand this long time ago.

The good news is I am able to 80% now grab back my swimming technique and manage to slash 5 stroke down to 48 strokes today. A little bit of improvement today..

I am hoping to be able to keep the 48 strokes throughout and increase my lapses more and more and hopefully hitting 60 lapses by end of next week.

Target to slash down to 45 strokes as well..

Tokina 11 - 16 f2.8 first test shot

 Good wide perspective..

 Given the right angle.. it is puncy and deliver.. love every bit of the 2.8 that stand out.

 Tokina possess a certain sharpness at 2.8 which the Tamron does not yield. It depend on your taste. I can say the lens is much more well expose than the tamron lens.. as of this case with Sony mount.

 That seemingly depth of field is well fading away.. love it.

 I wish the bokeh could be a little more creamy at 2.8 but this is quite lovely.

 beautiful contrast and sharpness from this.

 This I think is around 3.5 to 4 I guess..

Was rather busy this few days..and finally able to test a bit of the tokina in the morning. Ironically, this lens was used by the Production company to shoot me for their client.. I was really amazed! haha..

I told them I am getting this lens tomorrow.

Though the unit I got has expired its warranty but the previous two owners took good care of it.. Well, its justifiable to safe RM400 -RM500 from here and secure my lens collection for this year. This is also the most costly lens I had ever bought. Haha...

When I started photography my initial passion is landscape. However, the price of a Sony wide angle and lack of third party lens really put off my dream for awhile. Actually it was quite some years ..since 2006.

All the above have not been PP and come straight out of the camera.

Come to think of it.. luckily I didn't jump for the Sigma 10-20..

CA is visible.. but PP can take care of it and also it was not as obvious as such a distraction anyway.

The vignetting is really well control and love every bit of it.

I hope to be able to shoot some stuff this weekend.

Done lens collection for the year 2012

My schedule this year for lens collection is left with Tokina 11-16 F2.8 UWA. There is once chance that slip away previously.

So it came by two days ago and got to met up with the seller who apparently stayed quite near to my place. Now my anxiety for Taiwan trip is iron out. Haha.. but need to work extra extra hard now.

Well, can't really comment of this Tokina yet... Maybe a trip to the river to shoot this weekend could be fun!!

Bee that kick the bucket

 Found this bee on the floor this morning. I had hardly shoot much macro on insects actually. So a dead "captive" seems reasonably convenient and minus all the panic to capture the moment.. taking all the own sweet time I want.

 Although this ring flash is TTL. There are still limitation to firepower but consider working pretty decent around f4 - f16 for the range of flashing.. just a little minus or plus flash compensation one you get use to understand this flash.. which is quite easy to use for that kind of budget.

 on a decent sleeping position.. I doubt they do that in their lifetime..

 just a test shot with my 1.8 on the propeller of this Spitfire model.

 Now here a f16 I guess.. I think above f16.. suffering from diffraction and softness is quite visible already.

This is around F8 or F11 I guess.. pretty sharp..

test

test

The Brenizer Method

This is my first Brenizer Method pic that I did. Pretty cool stuff and hope to get some nice shoot soon. 


Been overspending the whole month and literally went broke soon.. :p.. touch wood. Anyway, Got myself some cheapo home studio lighting with brolly and softbox.. and also cheapo Filter for outdoor shooting.


To get really kiasu.. I bought another two manual YongNuo 560 flash. Pretty cool seriously. 


Now with just the tokina UWA to add to list this year and complete my 2012 collection. 


So this weekend hope to shoot some good night portraits and these brenizer method or bokeh panorama.. what's the different with focus stacking anyway.. haha.. find out soon..

Uncertainty Point

I am utterly quite please that I actually achieve much earlier my target of two tvc ad this year.. along came with things somehow fall into places.. and of course the road might and might not be as smooth in the future.

Yet sometime things took us by surprise. Today I am able for the first time to see the full scale of my tvc ad in the studio due to the re-recording. I had mixed feeling towards how it turn out to be. Perhaps due to some sloppy part.. such feeling occur lah. But overall I praise the new direction of tvc that is being open up. Hopefully more of such tvc could be seen in the future.. yea!!

Am reading the book Uncertainty by Jonathan Fields now. I think its about time to look into this seriously and make a further hurdle.

Pulau Langkawi @ Maxis TVC

Everything was rush rush for this project. After 3 days casting already talent confirmation and three days after that we set to Langkawi for this shoot. It was a bit tiring as the journey is almost killing and luckily we had one day to rest and rejuvenate.

Somehow I consider myself fortunate as my cast appear in the last scene. Haha... spent one and a half day on standby before my turn.

These are the bunch of talents from Uzbez, Belarus, Nigeria and Iran and of course us Malaysian lah. We had quite a fun time as well as I am the oldest among them :p... More pictures after the release of the tvc.

At least for the first time I set my feet on Tanjung Rhu. Nice beautiful beaches and of course tormenting sunshine.

The most spectacular moment is when the breeze of wind blowing by the seaside and was resting on the lazy chair with satin cloth tent setting.. that was really awesome.. except without ladies feeding me grapes lah.

At least I get to see the other side of Langkawi.. cool!!

Ticket booked!!

Its been already one month since I last updated my blog. I was down with food poisoning during the last two days of my trip to Cambodia/Vietnam and seriously I didn't know that the side effect linger until the past few days. Now only I felt that I am almost heal. This is indeed horrible. Perhaps I shall write on my trip later.. due to the fact that FB is so much convenient as pictures told a thousand words and caption convenient at it.. perhaps it has slow me down in blogging.

I guess Shanghai trip most likely could not be materialize due to the fact that I can't get the cheap fare.. actually Shanghai does hold it priority more than Taiwan. Due to the fact that I was lucky to be able to swarm in across thousands of ppl that is trying attacking airasia website... I was surprise that I was able to get a ticket at a decent price!! Take it as a sign I should do this.. Not sure whether Khoo would want to do this or not as the ticket price has now escalate to 800 plus all in...

I am now taking very close look at how to ride the island is perhaps 10 - 11 days and give me extra 2 days to actually tour around Taipei. Hope it will turn out well. Its 9 months away and I really need to work hard to finance my most expensive ever holiday and the record breaking longest one I guess.

Its still feel a little weird having a 7 inches phone and taking along the ah long bag wherever I go. But the dual core processor really could handle pretty good tasks and faces minimal hiccups. Checking out stuff and just decently for eyes view ... form factor... haha..

Now the date 25 March is closing in.. Gear up and crank up!!

The connecting dot..

There are always a series of thing happen in our life. I am 36 now and how I perceive life is much different each years. A little bit of my civilization or the other side of it has kept evolving.

I believe the greatest commodity that we lost so much is time. It can never come back. Despite much opportunities that we have lost, we could make up to me. So this year I want to be bolder and hoping I will by end of the year jump out of my paradigm and become more of a whole person.

Its not an art of perfection but it striving to create value to self and towards the surrounding and people around me. Everyone of us possess the energy and power to do something different. This great energy will become powerful much with selfless act I believe. That create a greater momentum for the better future of our children and quality life for the people.

I have my setback of lack of physical material or money. But those are just and pre-conceive fear that immobilize us. Lets just get into the dream. The universe will bring it all together to work with us.

As Marianne Williamson said : -

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

Ainol Novo 7 Paladin vs Huawei Mediapad

The version of Huawei that I bought. The new series will boast three different types of color.. but this one the cover is quite cool though and sleek and robust feel as well.
Currently one of the best budget tablet.. running on wifi.. surprisingly strong signal and bang for the bucks.

There is something in my mind that I need to prove for sometime now. I need a tablet.. after keeping my hand on two 10 inches Ipad 2.. I am sold. its one of those thing that you want and like to have and couple with other reasons to own it. That itself is very much self -selling prophecy. However I am greedy and I want all of it in one. I am looking for a phone tablet as well.

A year ago I won't even think at looking as it as I think it is rather stupid to have something so huge to make call. Well, we change over the course of growing up and understanding.

I was looking for something to reward myself for my birthday. Then was reading about the Ainol Novo 7 Paladin which you can get online for USD89 only!! WTF.. so as I check locally the price hover around RM400. So was quite impress with it and the setback gotta be runnning on MIPS chip.. but it really energy efficient. of course it is purely an android tablet running on WIFI with no camera or no gps. for that fraction of a price.. what can we ask more right... then the other features are quite impressive. Thinking to myself.. at such a price.. surely lotsa private developer would want to lay their hand and put down the gauntlets and at the same time crusade their skills and fulfill certain charitable and yet noble private firmware update to benefit all.

s0 i make the guts and go get it from one of the online reseller.. well, don't really like it for my first sight. Damn.. it has that edge slightly cliff off the plastic.. so the handheld feeling already off the grid. The 800x480 was really rubbish!! Well, beggar can't be chooser. It has its selling point. I was busy searching for few updates and try to make work around burning midnight oil..

Luckily the 4.0.3 version came on shore and have it updated.. viola...huge improvement! I guess this is not the complete version but magicode has able it to run quite decently on youtube and the graphic see such a huge improvement!

Well, having the Novo 7 paladin prove that it is not enough for me.. and it also prove that I am comfortable to have this as my mobile phone device. Hook it up with a bluetooth headset and viola I am ready to go.

The search is prone towards Huawei mediapad which offer phone call. Other than that, there are also other cheaper version with older set and resistive screen.. wtf!! So the more popular choice would be the samsung galaxy 7.0 plus which has quite an identical. I mingle a little bit with it which a kiosk was selling at a reasonable price. However the software respond is kinda slow.

The media bad does offer a slightly better resolution and by nature it is not a tablet phone. Some other interface on phone calling you need to play with it. well not be fear, the ICS I believe should work around more phone call friendly. Having playing around with it for few days. I am quite please with the phone call quality and also overall stability. It is really solid and as many label it as a mini ipad with I does agree to a certain point. Robust and state of the art clean and slick feel. That's what I like. Feel like cuddle this baby to sleep that sort of thing. The only downside coming from good old nokia user is the battery life which hope could be longer. Well, still bearable at the moment. Other than that, praises are to be sing for this device. I could work better with it. Happy to read text and graphic from it. Browse site faster, read better, identify pics in great details. One glance for all info and much much more.

Hopefully the new official ICS will promise a better interface and user experience. Perhaps the price could be much lower and this will be a sure wnner!!

Shuffling the priorities

It was a very hard decision to make. Terribly hard to make as to put on hold this beauty first for the sake of priority channeling.. you could say I boh lui.. yea.. but need to spend really wisely this year to see my plan come to fruition. Unless I am able to root another channel of income for photography. Chances are the last few kopek of items will have to take the queue until justifiable. Lets hope I could find some spare time to make this hobby to start funding them. I should need another 13k - 15k to land a big TICK on all the items. Lets see how I could work around to make this a money making hobby which I have not much of an idea at the moment.

Main priority now is to fund for my $$ making venture.. Will give a shot again until end of this year.. certainly it is much better than working for people.. haha.. I need a new name for my company as well. Tough to crack this one.

Other epic events this years will be of :-

1. Finishing all the Epic cycling ride.

It will be an self cycling ride. Treat it like a self actualization ride perhaps. Less than 10 of them .. hope to be able to crush them before mid of the year.

2. Outdoor Events activities

Setting a target of 30 events to accomplish. It very unlikely to score 30 but setting it so that I could score at least half of it I am happy. The rest are just bonus and boasting of my narcissm.. :p

3. Overseas Trip

Initially was planning to put a tick to ASEAN country this year. Well, for the sake of keeping score is not that fun. So this year will be Combodia & Vietnam during CNY, Shanghai in the mid of the year and Taiwan Island tour at the end of the year.

4. Others

Other that this is just improve on photography and also knowledge in other aspect of life.

Lets make it happen!

First Levitation test

This is simply poster like The two flers seems to be not able to catch up with Harry..

Did this Levitation as part of the shooting program last week. It was our first trial however and Mr. Paul seems to be able to deliver some stunning shots.. Mr. Raymond am sure to deliver much better after he shed some pounds and not wrestle with gravity anymore.

Well.. more of shots coming up soon. Hope to get much better.

FinallY I can sleep a little bit better

I wanted to get a dry cabinet this week to do away with the tormenting question whether my current drybox is still working. Was paying a lot of attention to the AIPO dry cabinet. Coincidentally someone is throwing the 2nd hand unit with digital display. Servicing a lens and what not could cost you to get a unit of this already! Therefore prevention is better than cure!

So arrange for meet up and seal the deal today. Now finally It is so call the completion of my first stage intent.

Sent in my A580 to Sony service center as well. Blind me the Sony service centre had actually move to the Curve since November. Hopefully I can get it back before my CNY trip.

Sony DT 1.8/50 SAM

Saw this on one of the forum and could not resist it and finally got it. Those day when I had the 50mm KM 1.7, it really blow my mind away. I was hysterically happy of the sharpness and the bokeh. The KM is such a solid body and such a beauty itself and robust! Yet it was departed when I bought the Sony f1.4.

Two years back I got departed with the f1.4 due so moolah urgently needed. Such a sharp lens which I need to be departed that time.

Finally the chance came today to redeem myself... well, the SAM lens is quick to focus and not as noisy.. but still believe it could be further improve.. yet with that kind of budget. what more can you ask..There is certain characteristic about this lens that is different if compare to KM f1.7. Each each own uniqueness. However, you should be aware of the coating and am still trying to figure out the digital advantage of the KM. 1.8 vs 1.7.. there tend be be some observable difference if you focus at certain degree of depth. I could only recall and feel as much. I hope to shoot something at decent sunlight and see how it behave. At 1.8, C.A. is prominently noticeable.. well, still bearable..we can always dealt this on photoshop though a little bit tedious for the extra works. It should come in really handy in some situation to get some desire sharpness and decent bokeh at the same time for some shots.

My A580 does confirm of the back focus issues once at certain distance apart of wide focusing. Guess I could not keep a blind sight to it and will have to send it to Sony for calibration. Even my A100 work so much better.. haha..

A Slap to the nocturnal me..

ah yes.. this is quite a nice pictures of cheerful people.. like this photo that we were taking on christmas eve in pavilion.
I think i defeat this fler anytime.. hahaha.. being more nocturnal than animals for the past few months i guess... not that bad lah really but quite close.

But to achieve what I set to do this year. This pattern gotta break. Fortunately I done it quite well for the first day. Woke up slightly later than expected but a great leap and bound from what i originally thought it could be.. bravo!!

At least half way reading my first book for 2012. Hope to finish it by tomorrow.

time to continue reading.. quite in kairos for me this book.

The impedance of horoscope

As respond towards Amanda blog on his respond toward my respond which she think it is an respond to her blog ... I shall give a different paradigm to it..

I actually wants to blog about it few weeks back when I was chatting with my fren's Lam on the horoscope on zodiac issues. So the thoughts to write about this is mainly a different sets of attitude towards horoscope.. which to others seems like a recalcitrant towards the grandeur old age of such wise predictions.

I would like to see it from a different level because as we progress in life, which distinct itself from just this soulful desire such as materials gain on this earth and embracing that status or chasing or void of lusting to earn more and I want it all.. there are others things which seend ms of higher deeds which I shall call it the purpose in life.

Once you found it.. like Martin Luther King jr said.. if a man has not find something to die for, he is not fit to life. Now it may sound a bit staunch and radical but there is a great paradigm of colourful contagious into your other parts of ur life .. ur seeds of greatness that is yet to discover it purpose.

That kind of enthusiasm where you beat all obstables and knowing you are going to fulfill that purpose and whatever comes in your way may either assist you or fall by the sideline. Great people who are great who perceive themself as such and other things become minor details.

So even the horoscope may predict a bad omen in the month of February, knowing that he will break his leg-in-a-matter-o-fact, the people with purpose always have a flexible crosswind of attitude to glide themselves thru their destinations which dictate by the purpose. At such horoscope is not under the focus or enlargement of their microscope in life, it is merely just a weather forecast which the riders decide to ride thru the rain despite the bearable thunderstorm.

How cool is that?

How I spend my New Year eve...

isn't that lady in red dress look like Amanda? All are bunch of young family in the small neighbourhood.
Children are never tired with games.
The usual suspect who is expert in BBQing.. leading by taiko CSS.. CSS recently is into smoking weed I guess.. got skinny.. Derrick could consider beard as manhood.. not too bad.

hmmm.. what was I doing on 31st last year. Cant really recall actually. well, this year I got invited to Chung's family neighbourhood for a BBQ night.

Before that, I went to SS2 to pass my bibs number to Foo who will run Newton tomorrow. My leg is getting better and I hope by end of the month after substantial weight lose, I hope it will go away.. then I can channel the money instead of chiropractic into my new challenge lah. Please please body.. make that miracle!!

Well, since I am around with adequate time and much much time left before heading for BBQ, I went to the famous chicken rice that is on the way to PJ oldtown lah.. what was that two shops name again? haha.. usually I will bump into the corner shop one instead of the famous next door. for a try and see how the standard has been these day, I trick myself into trying the famous one. The price certainly is getting more expensive.

Well, there is one man and her cute young daughter was keep on looking at me from the other table. He keep on looking ler and the daughter as well. This gotta do with my old town ad I guess. True enough that guy while on the way to the toilet ask me about it. Well, as I was about to leave, he asked me to take photo with him. Usually ppl take photos with me because of this tv thingy is thru so and so my fren lah.. direct strangers approach is first time lah. His daughter took our photo with his galaxy tab lah. He actually worked in 8tv and ntv7. Well, the whole incident which I think funny or i like to blog about is he said to me " its very hard to bump into tv ad personality".. That I really dunno how to answer him. Maybe can recall those day when I first bump into like jangan ketawa that tall fler pondan or Rambo Chin. wow.. so damn happy for the day man.. too bad those day tadak digital camera yet else will sure camwhore with them. That is unique encounter for the last day of 2011.

The BBQ was something of an odd experience. Used to be joining people of adult singles or non married couple. Now i am joining young families and me and CCS is the only singleton. Furthermore CSS need to cabut early to attend his company event at Bkt Bintang.. then heard he wants to countdown in Genting wor. So happening. Now its very unique because young families momentum since to slow down a lot. The priority is more of raising up their kids and the maturity level has shift. That's life of course.

The wonderful thing is to sit under a huge table and talk cock under a clear blue sky with the weather is just now. I am rather tired especially but able to sit thru the night.

A wonder day to usher to a new year!