My First Lomo Adventure

My first adventure with a Lomo supersampler had been thrilling. Very unusual not to look at the viewfinder, as there isn't one for you to look through anyway; very fearful while I was shooting with all rules broken. Using a roll of Agfa Vista New color film with an ISO of 200, whose expiry date is July 2005 (Yes, it is 2005, not a typo), under a cloudy, rainy condition, I had no clue what would actually come out. Now the results are out. Most of them, as expected, are under-exposed. Ok, no picture no talk, just see for yourself and make your judgement.

Personally I like the beach volleyball shots. Too bad, the weather yesterday was all doom & gloomy, hardly there was any sunshine, hence the dull colors. Nevertheless, it shows the advantage of the supersampler, which is good for action shots. I am quite happy with the actions captured, although it is a bit too small to see clearly. More interesting angles may be explored. Some old habits just can't be changed instantly, eg. always keeping my hands steady while taking photos. For Lomo, some 'motion' may be more desirable.

From this first experiment, I also got to know with ISO200 film, it doesn't work in any indoor environment or in a rainy day.

Next weekend, if the weather is good, I will go back to Novena square Velocity to take some more beach volleyball shots. Anyone keen to join me? :D

Film development is $3.50, scanning to CD is $5.00, done at Choa Chu Kang Lot 1 Fujifilm lab.

Squid Ink & Food

The first time I heard of people eating squid ink was a number of years ago on a TV travel program. That program brought TV audience to Hokkaido in northern Japan. A famous local delicacy is the squid ink ice cream. It was kind of disgusting to see the TV host's mouth & teeth turned black as he was enjoying the ice cream. First reaction: yucks! I will never try it.

Then two years ago, back in Milan, a plate of rice simmering in some black liquid was put on my dinner table. As I was scratching my head what that was, my Italian colleagues told me that was a local delicacy - rice with Squid Ink! It looks very much like a pile of rice dipped into that black liquid for Chinese calligraphy. However, the scent from that black pile was way too attracting to resist the temptation to give it a try. Once I tried it, then I couldn't stop. Never knew squid ink would have that appetising fragrance. I guess I must looked very ugly that night, with a black mouth & black teeth :)

Last week, CK bought for me from Milan two packs of squid ink pasta. Expensive stuff, the 500g pack of spaghetti cost 2.70 euros, while the 250g pasta cost 4.70 euros. Expensive they are, the good taste is worth the money. How good are they? You can eat them on their own :D

Teo Ming, Dave 兵变

Teo Ming, Dave is the most talkabout person in Singapore the past few days. A 20-year old full-time NS man stationed at the Mandai Hill Camp, on Monday evening, he disappeared from his guard duty together with his SAR-21 assault rifle and ammunition! The police and the Singapore Armed Forced started an island wide manhunt and finally tracked him down through his handphone signal. 20 hours after his disapperance, Dave Teo was arrested on the 3rd floor toilet of Cathay Cineleisure at Orchard Road, with his SAR-21 assault rifle & ammunition.

It was very lucky nobody was hurt in the incident. Just imagine he opens fire at Cathay Cineleisure, how many lives will be lost! (Ok, he did not have that many bullets, thank God)

This incident also shows how fast news can spread in this information age. Shortly after Dave's arrest, news already came out in one of the online forums - hardwarezone.com. Then later, it appeared in asiaone.com as well as many other online forums in Singapore. People went to friendster, flickr to look for his photos. That is not the end yet. As people are curious about his intentions, some mananged to find out his ex-girlfriend's blog. Voila! Another shock.

It appeared that Dave Teo broke up with his girlfriend of 3 years 5 months ago. To make things worse, his ex-girlfriend soon found her new love, a new love of a SHE.

The whole event became even more complicated when the police charged a 2nd person - Ong Boon Jun, 21. Ong is said to spend some time with Dave in a Geylang hotel on Monday morning. What the heck were two young men doing with a rifle in a red-light district hotel room?

There are many questions unanswered in this incident.

1. How did he sneak out his army camp with his SAR-21? Don't they have guards?
2. What happened to his guard duty partner? Was he the one who raised the alarm?
3. How did he go from Mandai Hill Camp, which is near Woodlands, to Geylang, and then Orchard Road with a BIG piece of weapon unnoticed? (Well, probably everybody thinks it was a toy rifle)
4. Why did it take a full 20 hours for the police and SAF joint forces to track him down and arrest him?

If it is true that he deserted his duty just for his ex-girlfriend, then it is really a stupid & rush act of the young chap. Considering he is going to leave the army in a month's time. Instead of leaving the army with honour, he now has to face a 5-10 years jail term, and maybe 12 strokes of caning.

The Straits Times report is available here: http://www.straitstimes.com/Free/Story/STIStory_154880.html

The online New Paper report is available here:
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4136,140919,00.html


Background Information:

All Singapore males reaching the age of 18 have to serve national service, and many of them start to have problems with their girl-friends. Some end up with a broken-heart after their 2-year national service.


For people who have never seen a SAR-21 assault rifle before, here is how it looks:

Cambodia Part I - Landmine Museum in Siem Reap

I have written about Yunnan, Vietnam and Italy. Looking back, I think I did it a bit too hastely, didn't give more in-depth information. Hence I decided from this Cambodia entry, I will go the slow way, one at a time, to give more information about the places I had visited. I am never an expert, but just want to share with you what I see, what I feel, what my impression is.

Cambodia is another war-torn country. It suffered even more than Vietnam. All the wars lasted well into the 1990s. It is also one of the most densely populated places in the world of LANDMINES! Many people, in particular children, are still easy victims of landmines.

The Landmine Museum in Siem Reap was started by Aki Ra. He was formerly a Khmer Rouge soldier who LAID landmines. In 1994, he joined the UN Transitional Authority of Cambodia to REMOVE landmines! This Landmine Museum is a direct consequence of his de-mining activities. You can find more information about the museum from its official website: http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/history.html.

Visiting this museum proved to be a big culture shock to me. The 1st shock was the way leading to the museum. When we told our driver we wanted to go to the landmine museum, he was not actually very sure where it is. As he found out the way, the road was a winding, small alley. Road surface was as if it had just been bombed last night. Big holes everywhere. Our driver carefully negotiated the holes, yet it was still an acid test to the poor car's anti-shake system (or the anti-shock system?).

The 2nd shock was the museum itself. What do you imagine a museum would look like? A building or a proper house built with bricks or stones? This museum? Neither. The museum is nothing more than a few shacks. The de-commissioned landmines are piling around the yard.

The exhibition shack itself is like a UN security council. Landmines from USA, UK, France, China & Russia were aplenty. To your/my surprise, Singapore also has a hand in the landmine business, but probably they got into it too late, no Made in Singapore landmines was on display.

The Exhibition Shack of Landmine Museum

The 3rd shock was the presence of war orphans, landmine victims. Most of them are kids or teenagers, some of them had lost a limb or two. A few smaller shacks beside the main exhibition shack are where they call home. Those shacks are no bigger than a few squared meters, barely enough to have small bed. They help out in the running of the museum. Their appalling living conditions made me feel very sick.

A teenager acting as a guide at Landmine Museum

Wars, whatever the cause maybe, are cruel. They shatter hopes, cut lives short, break hearts, destroy civilisations. Nobody should ever take a war lightly.

Humour

Life is hard, sometimes some life antidotes are needed. Let's share some jokes :)

警察與路人

有一天路人準備去買東西　
剛剛好看到警察
路人匆匆忙忙的跑掉
警察開著警車追那個路人
警察問路人說：你為什麼要跑！
路人說：因為．．．．
警察：說啊！
路人：因為我沒帶駕照！！
警察：（昏倒）


Bra & Hat

What did the bra say to the hat?
"You go on ahead, while I give these two a lift."

2007 Fall/Winter Fashion

This entry is specially dedicated to Ms J. Li, a loyal reader of this blog :), and of course, all the lady readers.

Season is changing, now it is fashion time for the fall & winter, let's take a look at what the designers have come up with :)

2007 New York Fashion Week


Best of Milan - Fall/Winter 2007/08


Best of Paris - Fall/Winter 2007/08

More lomography stuff

More lomography stuff. The first video is about the Holga camera, another toy camera for lomography, but it is using 120mm film. The second video is for people who don't want to own a lomo camera, but want to have the lomo effect with their digital photos. Stanley, this video is for you :)

1. Holga


2. Photoshop Lomo Effects

The Bull Hunter

Just finished reading The Bull Hunter - Tracking Today's Hottest Investment by Dan Denning, published in 2005. I kind of wanting to kick myself while I was reading it. What the hell was I doing in 2005? If I had read this book then, now I would have plenty of cash ammunition in my pocket :D

The author shares with the readers a thousand-year old investment doctrine: Always use money to buy STUFF, stuff that can generate MORE money. In investment terms, those are things that you need for the economy to develop, natural resources such as oil, whose price has been soaring sky high in recent years.

Then he pointed out to the fall of America. Reason being Americans spend more than what they earn, coupled with the mismanagement of the country's finances by President George W. Bush, plunged the whole country into a debt-ridden nation.

This book successfully in 2005, predicted exactly what is happening now in 2007. Soaring commodity prices, the woes of the subprime mortgage market, they are in the book.