An Assortment of Thoughts

Been back home a couple of days fixing odd bits and ends. No specific issue or topic I’ve been inclined to write about. Something always pops up in my mind but it ends up being too complicated (brain’s been jelly like of late) to be written about. Here in no particular order whatsoever are the list of candidates that could have been made out to be a full blown blog entry.

The Durian – Wanted to write a review of my D70 and in many ways, it’s much superior to my Coolpix 5400. Autofocus, metering, white balance, writing to memory, all of it works smooth as a charm (if only I could get my hands on a D2X and play with that for a couple of hours). All the reviews you’ve read about the D70 are true, this thing rocks! Especially with the external flash unit, you can take pictures indoors at higher shutter speeds and better colour saturation. Only need to figure out exposure as images are a tad underexposed at times, depending on subject and distance. Heh, more experimentation on my part.

Life at Home – Home brings back memories of everything you want to remember and things you’d like buried in your past. Melbourne is a totally different experience, with a more recent past. At an older age, maybe we act a little more mature and map out our lives slightly differently. Choices there are different to choices at home as you can choose what you want to do and who you want to mix with. Home is everybody you have known, friends and family alike. Semi in depth into thinking about these things, but would like to leave it as such.

Reading Manga – The last manga set I read was Dragonball Z, all 42 volumes of it. That series tracked the life of a certain Sun Gouku, a character borrowed from the Chinese story Journey to the West. It only ended cause the author unfortunately died in an earthquake that hit Kobe a long while ago. The manga was good, a little on the exaggerated spectrum of things towards the end.

I was never keen on following stuff week by week, and would only watch a series if I knew I had access to all of it. Waiting is such a chore. So the only exception I have now is with Naruto, which has been going on for the last 2 years or so.

I was happily waiting for the weekly release of the anime, until my friend conveniently gave me the translated copies of the manga done by fans. It’s not exactly a replacement for all the voices and sound effects in the film, but you do get by the story more speedily. The anime suffers from constant flashbacks by the characters, which drags on the storyline a bit. So back to the manga, I just couldn’t wait and at least now I have the satisfaction of having found out the ending to one part of the story arc.

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Heh, one last pointless side note. Coffee is a cure for everything!

Starting February

My last chance at internet access was at Changi Airport in Singapore. Heh, in Malaysia, I wasn’t even keen to boot up my laptop to dial up to TM Net. 33.6kbps is not a wonderful experience after being pampered with a 24/7 512k ADSL connection in Melbourne.

Each time I come home to KL, there is something new I learn about this place I’ve called home for the past 20+ years. You don’t hear the birds in Melbourne. Like this morning, I could hear a kingfisher somewhere from among the trees.

I’ve made it a point to not miss food from either Melbourne or KL where ever I am. Only just realised how much food there is at home that you can’t find in Melbourne. All the not-so-big names in food

This month will be spent fixing up job applications and sending them out. These are such brain drainers and they give new definition to the word procrastination.

Will also be spending time learning the inner workings of my new ‘durian’. Just recently acquired the whole system that is the Nikon D70, the 18-70mm kit lens and the SB-600 Speedlight. Heh, was at this shop near where I live, and one the salesmen was kind enough to offer me a Canon 20D to play with. That had a battery pack on it with some uber large lens system on it. It felt really solid, but the guy who has to lug it around on any wedding assignment will get a backache at the end of the day. Even the D70 with lens and speedlight attached feels like a behemoth. Side by side with my Coolpix 5400, it really is a giant!

Spending time with family and friends I will sure miss when I go back to Melbourne. Have sort of a plan mapped out for the 20 days I’m home. Let’s see if I can get it to work.

Posts will be far and wide this month, only due to crappy internet connections.