Monthly Archives: July 2007

Here’s Johnny!

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Ever since I posted a certain entry about a certain interesting specimen, everyone has been demanding a blog entry for their birthday. Actually, I think that’s easier than getting something for somebody, especially when I don’t know what to get. Or when I’m broke. So yeah, Happy Birthday Awesome Possum! (I think it’s obvious that I did not come up with such a nickname.)


Red-haired rebel.


We went for Carl’s Jr. in One Utama. Such fast food joy! Heinz sauce makes a smile. Crispy, crunchy bacon. Unlimited refillable soft drinks… and iced lemon tea!


We found out that we have practically the same tongue. We went to Bestari, Desa Sri Hartamas, ordered double Indomee, and I poked my egg yolk to dribble it on the mee and mix it with the sauce… to look and find that she was doing the same thing! Surreal. Like seeing oneself eat in the mirror. We also collide on tastes in Mamee snack noodle and Nando’s. I can’t remember what else though.


Circular sofas! I love sofas, especially circular ones! The place wasn’t that crowded so we could hog that table.

Blame It On The Rain

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A quick update.

I spent my last working day at the All-Asia Broadcast Center facility last Friday, 27th July 2007, where I spent 2412 days. The big heads upstairs relocated the technological workforce to a building somewhat nearby.

It was this Monday morning that I was looking forward to. I’d get on the company bus to the same old building, then take a sunny morning walk through Technology Park, soaking in the smell of trees and the sound of birds chirping.

Of course, the grand rule of Monday dictated that I was to have no such grand entry; instead, it had to rain on my parade.

And so, I blog this, sitting at my old Xfresh office, nicknamed The Fishtank, from another workstation, with no pictures. My workstation, ah! It lies beyond, when the rain is over. The promise of a faster Internet connection, without sharing a 2 megabit line with over a thousand users, might be enough to summon such foolhardy walking in the rain.

If I sneeze profusely the next time I see you, you’ll know why.

Stare This Way

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Hooray it’s filler!


You gotta climb some stairs before getting on this escalator. Hooray!


I don’t quite understand why Sg. Wang has an external stairway.


Sultan Ismail STAR LRT. Hooray to those who bring cameras around everywhere!

Crossed Back Here

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28th June 2007 was Crossborders at Laundry Bar! After more than two months of not going there for gigs, I returned… to find about nobody familiar other than the people who work there.


First up was alt-rocking Hujan.


Ho yeah!


They seem to be working the screens above much more, now.


As always, I am trying different post-processing looks.


Jeffrey Little of Prana, on percussion for Pure Vibracion.


“Ooo, isn’t that someone’s brother?”


Everybody reggae!


Put your dreads in the air…


…and wave them red yellow greens!


This is how you ska. As always, every reggae outfit must play a Bob Marley song. Which makes me wonder if he was the only relevant reggae artiste.


Next up: Inspirational Joni. Dancy dancy!


This Indonesian band brought a massive crowd… and at least 8 cases of crowd-surfing to Laundry Bar. Amazing!


Shout, stomp, rock to the anthem. They had a healthy dose of electro and punk. Most reminiscent of The Clash and Republica, perhaps.


…and where were hot Indonesian chicks like these when I went to Bandung? I love her swept hair. Very CFM-ish.


Not just one, two surfers! The singer was thanking the crowd for totally rocking out. (I’m guessing you can’t do that in Indonesia… but then, the way no safety gates are built there around construction, I’d think they wouldn’t care.)


I’ve got a fever and the cure is more cowbell! Sexiness multiplied.


That guy with red pants must’ve been up at least 5 times.

The Part Cheer

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And now, for the finale of the Bandung company trip; we had to stop by Jakarta while waiting for our flight because we had to check out of the hotel.


But first, a final breakfast buffet.


The Vivitar Series 1 28-105mm F2.8-3.8 lens is blistering sharp at 105mm F8. The bokeh gets better then, too.


A possible gig venue.


Bronze men pump your water.


A&W in Jakarta is weird; their root beer float ice-cream does not float! Very wrongly done.


I tried to make a long exposure on the travelator. While bending down and holding the camera, the travelator stopped! I think it had an optical sensor at a certain height.


My ex-boss, JFK, the guy I owe a lot to. He has exposed me to so many things and continues to pimp me to oppurtunities.


Relaxing in the executive lounge of Jakarta Airport.


Pimpin’. Thanks JFK for getting us in!


Lobby.


Shaz steals my camwhoring moment on the plane.


Spot the air stewardess!


Richard having a quiet read.


50mm F1.4 ISO400 at a whopping 1.3 seconds. Hooray for my Sony Alpha 100’s SuperSteadyShot!


Customs crushed my new Vivitar Series 1 28-105mm F2.8-3.8 lens box. Thank goodness they didn’t take the receipt, and that the lens was with me. No biggie, since I was intending to keep the lens anyway.

Part 4: Bisa Kamera
Part 3: Whirled Canoe
Part 2: Ban Dung
Part 1: On A Plane

Bisa Kamera

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In Bandung, Indonesia, food courts are surprisingly clean and have unsticky floors, despite how dinky the shopping mall is!


McDonalds serves meals with rice instead of fries by default. Their cups are also plastic, which is much better for takeaway as it avoids the paper base from melting.


A guitar shop in the shopping mall next to Hyatt Regency Bandung. Spot the Zakk Wylde Epiphone Les Paul! They also had tiny ukelele-sized steel-string acoustic guitars. I wanted to buy one, if only I had a hard luggage bag to bring it back with. 🙁


Soap Bubble Man.


Jonas Photo, in Riau Street. Half the shop was selling photo frames! It seems that the Indonesians are big on photo frames. Every other photo shop was occupied half by picture frames!


The other half had interesting gadgets, like the Lensbaby and Lensbaby 2.0. However, the price was much higher than what you could get online. They had them in Pentax, Canon and Nikon mounts, though an A-mount one for my Sony Alpha 100 could be gotten online.


I held the lens in front of my camera to try it anyway. I didn’t feel like it was that easy to get a strong effect despite tilting the camera up and tilting the lens towards the subject.

Lens prices were somewhat cheaper, but the warranty might be local; hence, it would be more worth getting second-hand old lenses that are sturdier with less internal components (in-lens stabilization, silent focus motors, electronic aperture diaphragms, which are all prone to breaking down.)


Railway blues. The tracks are not covered; it seems that the Indonesians are lightfooted and are able to evade death swiftly.


Catnapping.


A man carrying his huge stash home.

Classic Rock Cafe. I wish I went on the 2:30am bus from Embassy Club to this instead; this was my kinda thing! I only found it the next morning while in Braga Street to visit…


Kamal Photo. They have such old gems! The Canon 50mm F1.2 FD mount (manual focus.)


I found a Tamron 20-40mm F2.8-3.5 for Minolta/Sony A-mount, which surprisingly worked with my fussy Tamron 1.4x teleconverter. It was new but its rubber grip was peeling from ages of being kept, I suppose.


I zoomed the Vivitar Series 1 28-105mm F2.8-3.8 lens all the way to 110mm at 1/10s (to test 4 stops of SuperSteadyShot) and got this crispy goodness. This was at F5.0.


I knew then, that I had to have this lens! This is not even a 100% crop yet.


I liked the gala night, as I could take pictures with random chicks, and dance with them too! The haze on top is some smudge I accidentally got on my kit lens.


Most other pictures will be omitted due to their incriminatory nature. I’m sure this guy doesn’t mind as he has already posted such pictures on his blog. 😀

(And yes, this was shot with my wonderful new 28-105mm F2.8-3.8.)

Part 3: Whirled Canoe
Part 2: Ban Dung
Part 1: On A Plane

Don’t Ask For Title, Persistent Usurpers Necessitates Kills

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No thanks to this cube-faced creature here, I have now been infected with a real-life Bananaphone – Daft Punk’s Discovery album!

Had I heard the album any other time, I might not have liked it, since One More Time annoyed the heck out of me; but thanks to recent exposure to Depeche Mode, The Cure, New Order, Jamiroquai and Nine Inch Nails, I found this a lot more palatable.

Daft Hands – Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger on Youtube!

If you thought it was just some silly hand jig, think again. Must watch, for the lyrics!

Carleton Singing Knights did an a cappella of Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger on Youtube!

Also, check out DRSMOOV‘s videos on Youtube. He makes Transformers mashups and dubs them himself! My favorite one is Heavy Metal Fight. Click!

Yes, it also explains why I was so proud of Optimus Prime in the action movie, for not being such a benefit-of-the-doubting wuss like he was in the cartoon.

Finally, speaking of transforming objects, and getting back to music at that, check out Mikey Guitars for a transforming guitar. Just by pushing a slide, the guitar fretboard changes from fretted to fretless! (It then sounds like slide guitar.) It is also available in bass guitar, for some fretless bass action!

Forever 21

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Today’s blog entry stars the birthday girl, often referred to in popular blogs as the interesting specimen. So, what do you want for your birthday?


“Hmmm…”


“How about candles? *wink wink nudge nudge*”


And so I told her, she could camwhore and I could shoot. This was a renegade shoot in Midvalley, after they had closed, and we made use of the lighting.


“Ah, finally! We have escaped the city!”


“Where water is blue and not transparent!”


Sentul Park.


She grabbed the camera from me and grabbed this.


“Check out my grills.”


Shoe ad.


I wanted her to get in. That would have made for an interesting wardrobe alteration.


“Check out my bling, yo!”


“Whatchuuu looking at, boy?”

I love the lighting in this place. It only comes from the left and right (note her legs.)


Reverse gravity is fun.


Random bird hopping nearby. Anyone who’s tried to shoot an uncaged bird will know how hard this is without a long zoom lens.

Speaking of lenses, I think it’s obvious which ones are from the Minolta 70-210mm F4 beercan lens. 😀

Whirled Canoe

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Infrared shot outside my hotel window in Hyatt Regency Bandung. This place is hot and sunny, yes it is.


This is how you fly a kite.


Shady business.


No, not Tanjung Bungah…


I forgot to include this in the last set. There are buskers everywhere, and they come to cars waiting in traffic to play them songs. Except that these dudes actually alighted our bus.

They played Peter Pan – Mungkin Nanti. Good effort… if they didn’t forget the lyrics halfway through the song!

Another part of the itinerary was Tangkuban Perahu, a dormant volcano. We took a bus up halfway, and got on open-air lorries for the second half. If you thought Genting cabbies and buses were skilled, wait till you see these! In addition to the turns, they have stalls adorning the roads too.


Going up the turns.


Climb for a better view. Being a volcano, you’d think it would be pretty hot; that was not the case. In fact, it was chilly, because of the high altitude.


The village.


I overheard a tourist say, “Is that Linda Onn?”

Yes it’s true, Ayu, you did look like her.


Hungry?


Our neighbors are pyromaniacs.


Yes, he was actually trying to sell dart guns!


Straight from the horse’s mouth.


Eruptions make for rocks.


Rock makes for an Eruption. (The pun would be cooler if there was a Eddie Van Halen Peavey Wolfgang somewhere there.)


Like a chocolate cone.


Infrared with my Canon Powershot A520!


The biggest crater of Tangkuban Perahu.


All that was left was some sulphur deposits. The gases kept rising and fouling the air, though.


Fisheye me and a really cheap jacket I bought in the shopping mall next to the hotel I stayed in.


smashpOp and the volcano. And maybe some sulphur release, too.

Part 2: Ban Dung
Part 1: On A Plane