Masakini . blog of a slightly used brain

Photos to Brazos Bend State Park

2008-02-21T00:16:00.002-06:00

Posted some photographs from a trip to Brazos Bend State Park, Texas.
Please click here to see.

Shatner, Canon, Cloverfield...

2008-01-16T09:55:00.000-06:00

A few thoughts, that I though I should share…

1. The most overused lyrics combo ever, could be, “… through the night…”, followed by “…in your eyes…” and/or the other way round.

2. One of the worst/best interpretation of “Rocketman” by Elton John is the one by Mr. William Shatner. You can see it in YouTube… but please finish watching it because, final third’s the best!!
On the other hand, Shatner is the COOLEST HUMANOID IN THE UNIVERSE!!

3. Watched American Idol (past 40 years of age version) last night… Romney and Clinton, won the Michigan Primary. Though… Simon Cowell, Paula and Randy Jackson did not show up to judge.

4. I am angry at Canon. I found print images with noticeable dust spots from the EOS 40D that I bought 33 days ago. This is ridicules, because I almost exclusive use the 17-40L on this camera. Meaning that the dust could be “factory missed” or break-in period goof. Any reason is not justifiable for a USD1300 equipment!
Over the last 2 days, I have tested 4 Canon cameras and they all have the same problem. The specs become very visible at f11 and small apertures.
Anyone of you have the same problem? Nikon folks?

5. Got to go watch Cloverfield.

Again, please visit www.flickr.com/slyworks

Beautiful peple

2007-12-06T19:03:00.000-06:00

Today I set up 4 pictures to my Flickr site.

The set I set up is called Beautiful People. It contains photographs that celebrate the beautiful side of life, of what people do everyday and enjoying them. This set contains activities that we see everyday but take for granted that it will always be there. And it's a photograph set of beautiful people who doesn't realized that they are beautiful.

Supergirl Designing

Do I still make sense? I am not sure either. It's out there :)

Started my Flickr page

2007-12-06T00:32:00.000-06:00

Well, I finally got to do it... posting my photographs on Flickr.com. Please visit my photo page and hopefully you will like what you see. So far there's only 2 small sets of photographs.

The Beautiful World set will be mostly landscapes photographs that I like. 4 pictures so far, as a test.Crystal Bridge, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

Chinatown, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

The second set is called: Snakes and Lizards... well, it's just as the name imply, reptile in close up.

I will try to get the set to have at least a dozen pictures, while working on 3 other sets in mind. Wish me luck!

Comet Holmes 4Nov2007

2007-11-05T00:46:00.000-06:00

This is the picture of tail-less Comet Holmes from my backyard.
It is now around 3rd magnitude.
Please go here to get the full skinny about the history of this interesting comet.

I will try to make frequent update on what I can see with my camera.
A picture location of the comet can be found here.
At the time this picture is taken the coordinates and data is as below.

Date	Coordinates (J2000.0)		Distance (AU)
Date	R.A. (h m)	Dec. (°)	to Earth	to Sun
04.11.2007	03 42.82	+50 36.8	1.621	2.478

Camera used: Canon XTi with 100mm f2. Shot at 4 sec. @ f2.
Other useful links:
wikipedia
skyandtelescope

My Review of Lowel EGO Digital Imaging, Tabletop Fluorescent Light Unit

2007-05-08T18:10:00.001-05:00

Originally submitted at Adorama

Lowel EGO Digital Imaging, Tabletop Fluorescent Light Unit

Lowel Ego table top lights with sweep

By Sly from Houston, TX on 5/8/2007

Pros: It works well, Good Color Value

Cons: Flimsy, Looks cheap

Best Uses: Desktop studio, Indoors

Describe Yourself: Freelance Photographer

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

I use them mostly to shoot food and products. They work well. The diffused light and the sweep work well with object(s) not larger than 1'x1'x1'.

The construction looks really cheap, so it's not a set-up that you want to have around when a client comes visit.

It is not useful for anything wet.

Portwine and Glass

Tags: Made with Product

(legalese)

Why do I love soccer so much?

2007-03-05T18:42:00.000-06:00

The answer to that is solidified when I found this link to the 50 best goals scored.
Soccer ... ok... football, the beautiful game!!!

Nintendo Wii and the TV set

2006-12-21T09:07:00.000-06:00

Nintendo Wii is having an unbelievable run.

I am not talking about the polls and the out of stock notice. Definately, not from the predictable "No, Sir. We are out", every time I have asked if they had a Wii in stock (for 2 weeks now), but from those people that do not play video games, i.e. my 3 tennis partners and an engineering consultant that I hired. There's no chance to ever thing that these guys would ever sit in front of the TV playing games on a console, they are outdoor folks... so am I... and I am going to get one.

OK, I will not queue up at 4am for one (done that in college, now I am too old for that), but I will certainly get the first available stock at the counter.

After doing a little research on the Wii, I conclude that:
1. TV sales will skyrocket (thanks to multiple broken set),
2. Not just because the controller has a tendency to fly out, but because these guys realized that it would be the PERFECT EXCUSE to get a new plasma or LCD flatscreen TV.
3. Nintendo will create a little plug-in piece, just like the flatscreen TV, to output HD quality images,
4. All my friends will get a Wii, and
5. I will get one BEFORE them.

But this new year, thanks to Wii, we will ALL have a NEW TV set.

Interestingly, before the Wii men has always been destroying the TV set. They mostly occurred right after a football game, a soccer game and a horse race. They always happens just after a shout of profanity, throwing a stash of unknown papers in the air and then a flying projectile would go straight at the TV screen... most times the projectile would be a remote control.

This one is from the stone age.Probably from a remote controlAn oops during a moving expedition.Could very well be drop then smashed with a baseball bat.
A soccer ball? No really?This one... I don't know. That's a plastic screen. It would take something sharper and extremely strong. Could be a sledgehammer but wow, look at the force! It broke the other side of the screen with sheer vibration and dropped the speaker cover as well.
Baseball.A drop or may be before that a flying frying pan.A high heel shoe.
and finally a bowling ball? Genius!! The right weight, the right power and it smashed the whole screen away!!

Christmas Joy: Laughing

2006-12-19T17:45:00.000-06:00

Just the thought of celebrating the coming Christmas.
Expression of celebration, joy, happiness... I guess it would be laughing.
Here's some.. laughters from the world wide web... animal laughters to be exact.
Men's best friend,
Really happy Men's best friend,Happy pussy cat,
Happy pets,Birds laugh too... only when there's no bird flu,Happy stallion,And finally, ho! ho! ho!

Cheers!

Kristin Kreuk for Christmas

2006-12-15T14:38:00.000-06:00

Some of the most beautiful images of the most beautiful girl in the world. She looks great in movies, glamour shots, but I think she is most attractive casual.

Here's a few picture to share, from around the web.
Again, another casual vibrant smile... now you know why God made people.
Her autographed photos are actually on sale in the internet, click here. Now guys this might be the best bargain on the internet!!!
This Original Pencil sketch of Kristin Kreuk is on auction for $99.00, right now!!! Interestingly, there's NO BIDDER!!!! WHY? BECAUSE whoever is selling it, listed her roll as LANA LANE. Well, there's no LANA LANE. It's LANA LANG!! (the other girl is Lois Lane).

11x17 pencil sketch original. I think the auction ends at on the 28 DEC 2006. So good luck and Merry Christmas guys.You can go to the auction site by clicking, here.

(I have NOTHING to do with the auction and I am NOT going to bid on it... good luck, actually I can do sketches like this myself...)

Unique Christmas Card

2006-12-14T15:00:00.000-06:00

I was given the task to design a unique Christmas for our company.
The following is the final product, currently being printed at a local specialty printing firm.
Front page
Inside page

Design concepts:

Firstly of all, the art need to be "sketchy". Architecurally sketchy. Quick lines and assertive.

and,

Secondly, The idea is to promote our firm, a small firm at that, to be a company believes in close relationship with our clients. Therefore producing better products to the needs of our clients. I used the catchy phrase from the TV series "Cheers", from a song called "Your Name" written by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo.

Part of the catchy tune read like this:

Sometimes you want to go Where everybody knows your name,
And they're always glad you came.
You wanna be where you can see,
Our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows Your name.

Chick HERE for the tune.

In the inside page, show the portraits of all 8 of us in the firm doing the things we normally do... Some of us drink coffee and have a mug everywhere we go, some of us hunt duck for a hobby, some of us are on the phone ALL the time... the largest person standing next to the most petite girl... and everyone of us wishing Merry Christmas to the card holder in the first name.
Signed at our feet.

Notice, the fonts vary with everyone. Some of us more sophisticated then others, and some of us loves to shout.

Happy Holiday and hope you like the Christmas card.

Humor Friday

2006-11-17T18:13:00.000-06:00

Friday finally. It's time for this week's “Not My Job” award for this week goes to this road painter guy. (Unfortunately, I know a guy in the office that does his daily work like this, we call him 2 percent-er)Congratulation!!

Weekend is here so why not go for a quick cruise over the Caribbean? Or play golf… heck, why not BOTH!! Introducing GOLF CRUISE!!

Then you can stop by China and watch KISS in concert. They are still a big hit in the east, especially if you like panda.This is Supergirl. Seriously, super!! If I do that… you will have to carry me in that position directly to the ER.And if you want to lock yourself in a position like Supergirl… then make sure you lock your door before hand. You know, so a croc won't be bothering you, while you are locked up that way!

Have a great weekend.

All orange text are clickable links

Cosplay: Transformers

2006-11-16T14:53:00.000-06:00

Transformers Movie is coming out on 7. 4. 7. See a clip here.

Coincidently, the electrical transformer in our office building fried(burnt, kaput, mati), yesterday (they have to replace it with a new one tonight). So I took sometime and surf the web for some information on the Transformers Movie directed by Michael Bay. I am so excited to be able to finally see my favourite cartoon show coming to life.

One of the fascinating world that always capture the imagination if the Costume-Play or simply known as Cosplay. That's when a fan dress up like their favourite Sci-Fi or Anime characters in real life. Popular with Star Wars (again), Star Trek and Japanes Anime fans. The following are the results from my search over the great omni-world wide web. Sorry guys, I could not find one of Kristin Kreuk in cosplay.

One note of advice before the Cosplay pictures... don't wear Transformers Costume to a Star Wars Convention... ever!!

Unless, Darth Maul is your roomate...

This one is increadible, it actually is transform-able from a car!! Great job!!

A girl transformer...

Some with props like guns...

But most are finely crafted costume with sweat and blood... The colorful ones with Red, White and Blue...

The blue ones...

And finally, errr... a Red one.

Salute: Beautiful Fans

2006-11-15T14:12:00.000-06:00

The shiny Alan I. Rothenberg Trophy, went on parade at downtown Houston yesterday.

The celebration will not end here because new group of loyal fan base is starting to root. The Houston Dynamo’s legacy is being built with on solid ground… in this multi-lingual city.

Here’s two of the largest and most active fan club of the Houston Dynamo.

The Texian Army (English Speaking)
Click the name to go to their site.

And the El Batallon (Spanish Speaking)
Click the name to go to their site.

Oh and not forgetting, possibly the prettiest Houston Dynamo fan in the world, Ms. Lisa Foronda of CBS’s KHOU Channel 11 here in town.Thank you Mr. Oliver Luck for bringing the Dynamo to Houston.

And please click here to the latest news on the Houston Dynamo.

Click here to Mr. Brian “Cha” Ching’s football Blog.

Jubilee: Houston Dynamo

2006-11-14T19:35:00.000-06:00

The Houston Dynamo has won the MLS CUP 2006 last Sunday!

The New England Revolution had great forwards in Twellman, Dempsey and playmaker Shalrie Joseph that makes frequent runs at the Dynamo, but Houston’s decision of dropping 11 players back proves to be a very tough wall to break. Houston Dynamo’s counter-attack was rendered ineffective most of the regular game and the first overtime.

There were always two players on Brian Ching and Paul Dalglish (son of the great King Kenny Dalglish) was marked to the teeth. Playing the 3-5-2 formation also takes away the regular flank play that Houston Dynamo was known for, but it was necessary because star center midfielder Ricardo Clark was held out because of accumulative yellow cards.

In the second overtime both team was getting tired and larger holes started to show up. That’s when Taylor Twellman shoot a screamer to the far left pole for New England to take a 1-0 lead!!! It was 7 minutes to the final whistle. The half the crowd erupted, while the orange colored fans sat in dismay. Twellman and a his buddies sprinted from one side of the field to the other celebrating.Then the kick off for Houston. Brian Mullan took the ball and ran it down the right flank (New England midfielder let him probably out of breath from the celebration sprint), dribble pass a defender and made a high deflected cross to the center. Brian Ching fought through the two sandwich defenders, adjusted for the deflection and headed the ball pass the goalie to the lower right post for the 1-1 tie!!! That was only 71 seconds later. Houston equalized.
The fans in orange went into a second of disbelief and then erupted with the biggest celebration “in history”. (The radio commentator was still describing the Twellman goal and suddenly he was screaming “GOAL”… did not have time to describe how the goal built up)

The second overtime ended with a 1-1 tie. My ice-blooded Houston Dynamo then won it with a superb save by Pat Onstad in the PK!!! Yeah!!Other League achievements:

Click for the recap of the game, here.

Brian Ching’s 25 yards Bicycle Kick Winner, won the Goal of the Year award!!
Click to see a clip, here .

Second place? Dwayne De Rosario’s answer to David Beckham’s half field goal!!
Click to see a clip, here.

D wayne De Rosario, Canadian international player was the runner up to the Most Valuable Player award. His lone first-timer goal, was also the goal the beat Chelsea in the MLS All-Star game. First team Chelsea no less. Personally, I think he is the best player in the MLS to date.

Oh! ya, we are the other Canadian National Team.

J-boy's second birthday

2006-11-10T14:29:00.000-06:00

It was my little boy’s birthday last Sunday. J-boy is now two years old. He looks like your normal charmingly happy little boy. We bought him a little cake and invited a handful of immediate family to a small neighborhood restaurant. After eating dinner, the waitress brought out the little cake to the table, and you could tell how happy the little boy was with sparkling eyes and a smile that rival the rainbow. The cake was filled with his favorite fruits, mango, kiwi and strawberry. We lighted up two candles and started to sing happy birthday to him.

He can’t wait, and he blew out the candles three times before we can finish singing the birthday song… and even after that he was still reaching for the lighter, can’t wait to blow another candle.

There was a certain calmness in me watching him that night. To see him so active and happy. To see him laugh and play with his older brother.

To think that just a few months ago, he was down with a strange illness. (I did not post anything during that period) One Saturday afternoon, after lunch, he took his usual afternoon nap and that day he did not wake up normally. He eyes was open and he breath normally but he could not moved anything other part of his body. Everything neck down was paralyzed.

I took him to the ER and they hooked him up with every tube possible. The whole crew in the ER was in the room trying to save him that night… imagine a little room, a little boy lying on the white giant bed with a couple dozen tubes from the ceiling and surrounded by about 15 nervous medical folks in scrubs and gown. My wife was holding my older son outside of the circle, while I was at the head of the bed stroking his forehead trying to keep him calm… and that I was with him. He did not move at all, or talk, or acknowledge me in anyway other than looking at me while I whisper to him. The boy could not even cry.

The ER did know what to do with him. They did not know what had happened to him, so they did all the test, blood test, chem. Test, urine test, x-ray, CATscan… everything. They then call an ambulance and send us to the Children’s Hospital…

He did gain feeling and start crying after doing the spinal-tap… (what a relieve to hear him cry that night)

A later EEG test showed no sign of problem in his brain.

I have been running about without rest for the last few months, getting him tested and evaluated. Begging and finding any expert to help finding out what had happened to him. We finally found someone who seems to know… he thinks that an immediate EMG test when a future episode occurs with finally shade the truth. For all of you in medical field, I think you know what he meant.

So Sunday night’s birthday party for J-boy is really special for our family. To see his smile under the candle lights, his laugh that’s so contagious to everyone around him… just to see him alive… is really special for me.

A little moment at lunch...

2006-11-09T13:09:00.000-06:00

I was minding my own business, taking my lunch in the conference room today, the newspaper in my hands, listening to light music, a classic number from Simon and Garfunkel...

Sunddenly, a police car raced by in the highway, interrupting the song. I think ths song's name was the Song of Siren.

Reading the Houston Chronicle to the excitement of the Democrats taking over the House for the first tie in 12 years... leading me to believe that they might be the Bacon of Hope that our life might be better in the next 4 years.

Emmm... good BLT by the way... Next up on the CD... The Boxer...

Longing for a little time

2006-07-07T17:09:00.000-05:00

Just got out from work. Driving ever so slowly with the air on, lights on, wipers on and music off. I feel like listening to the rain hitting the windshield today and yes, it’s like music to my ear right now. It’s been a long day.

I zipped my car about and turned into Bellaire Blvd. to Chinatown. I decided to go to this tiny restaurant, simply called the 88. I parked my car in front of the place, skipped and ran a little through the rain, got into the restaurant shake myself dry and find a seat by the corner window.

88 is a Chinese noodle place here in Houston that has a distinguish reputation of being authentic to the region of Borneo and Sumatra islands. They make their own noodle and the atmosphere is as casual as can be. Most of the people in the restaurant are people like me, eager to find a forgotten piece of themselves. They usually come here in group, and they speak their own language. They talk loudly and one group even brought a set of traditional Catur Cina warring at it.
I sat at the corner, enjoying watching people with umbrellas strolling by. Some people seem to be afraid of the rain more than others… in fact they looked like they are in a panic attack upon the contact with water.

I ordered a Koay Teow and sat quietly watching and listening to all these strangers. The different groups spoke a few different languages. Malay, Indonesian, Hokian, Cantonese and occasionally English, when someone did not know how to describe them in their native tongue anymore.
My Koay Teow arrived. Steaming, smelled and looked just the way it should be. In both space and time,… but mostly time. Suddenly, I am an 8 years old again, sitting low at the table, my eyes barely at the level of the top of the plate, my left hand reaching for the bottle of Greenspot that I would love to have a sip again here in America. My parents were young… yes, they were young and they were happy. I like that.

I closed my eyes and savored this little forgotten moment a little… partly to hold back my tears… a little.

Yes, that’s why I came here alone.

Vehicle Fire on I-10

2006-06-29T14:33:00.000-05:00

A vehicle fire, happening right at this moment seeing outside of my office window.
Sure hope that eveyone is ok in those car.

My fever: Fifa World Cup 2006

2006-06-20T18:13:00.000-05:00

I have not miss a single game during this World Cup, thanks to the DVR system.
This is my thoughts about the latest World Cup so far.

Argentina, wow! That’s a team with 6 strikers, 8 midfielders and 7 defenders!! They play as a unit, passes the ball as well as Holland and everyone of the youngsters can put the ball in the net with flare… but most importantly, they look like they are enjoying themselves. The 20+ passes' super goal was just classic.

Brazil is playing with only 10 men. Ronaldo is still back in the hotel somewhere. They are so very gifted. The soccer gods have blessed them with talents that no other nations have enjoyed. They played with fun and passion (borderline showing off) but they are not playing serious football yet. I do see Brazil switch into another gear in the next round.Iberia. Portugal and Spain. They are as fun to watch as Argentina. Silky smooth passing and skillful finishes seems to sprang from these two teams that are better known for hype and disappointment. Granted they have both played lesser opponents but Portugal with Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo and Spain with well, the whole 11 of them plays with unstoppable momentum. Spain had a wake up call yesterday. They did however pick up their slack and cruise to a win in the end of the game, showing that they are for real… when they are serious.Holland plays among the most fluid game in the World Cup so far. With the speedster Robben opening up the wing and Van Nistelrooy (warming up) combo. This could take Holland a long way.
England,... they can't really beat anyone... well, not until Mr. Rooney get fired up and ready to go with one foot. The good thing is that no one can beat them either thanks to Mr. Superman Terry!!

I am a fan of Manchester United and a fan of the Three Lions since I learnt how to watch TV. Since the day of crosses and header to the so call "creative game" of recent years. I still have great faith in them, simply because, still... no one can pass Superman Terry to beat them.
France... Henry and Ribery seems to be the only two players that actually running around. The others are just trying to keep up, with a 2 minutes lag.
Italy vs. US. What a game!! You have blood, you have toy soldiers that falls if ever you touch them and you have a referee that will give you a red card if you sneeze!! What a #@#%! is that referee not getting a red card himself for being an idiot is beyond me.

Italy was the better talent but the US was the better team that day.

The US players is also the only team that always spring up on their feet after tumbling down. No rolling around and cry like a baby to draw sympathy or a whistle from the referee.

This is how the US games are played as well. Hit by a 90mph baseball on the hand. Shake it off and lets’ go again.

American Football, broken hand with a cast… he would still run the ball, getting hit for the next 3.6 yards.

Basketball, Smack! Fouled by the 200 pound Center… Dwyane Wade would get up, dust himself of and go to the free throw line.Brian McBride… put some tape on and you know what? Let’s go again!

By the way... if you want to read real football news... there's no better place than the BBC.

FIFA World Cup Player's Blogs

2006-06-08T15:41:00.000-05:00

The FIFA World Cup 2006 games will start tomorrow.

Are you wondering what’s on the mind of the famed football players, while the biggest games approaching?

Well, why don’t you read their personal blogs?

United State
Brian Ching
http://blogs.chron.com/brianching/

Brazil
Ronaldinho
http://spaces.msn.com/worldcup-br-uk/

England
Michael Owen
http://spaces.msn.com/worldcup-uk/

Holland
Edgar Davis
http://spaces.msn.com/worldcup-nl-uk/

France
Claude Makelele
http://spaces.msn.com/worldcup-fr-uk/

Spain
Xabi Alonso
http://spaces.msn.com/worldcup-es-uk/

US FIFA World Cup Soccer Team 2006

2006-06-06T11:34:00.000-05:00

First of all. I want to declare my legion to the US World Cup Soccer Team.

I think they are a really great group of players, including my favourite player, Brian “The Big Chingy” Ching (Houston Dynamo) who will come off the bench as a sub. He is an aerial specialist who scored 7 goals in 6 games to lead the league before getting the call from Coach Arena.
I think that Bobby Convey (Reading, England) is one of the best left wing midfielder there is, helped his club Reading to earn a promotion to the Premier League last season.

Eddie Johnson (Kansas City Wizards) should open some eyes in this World Cup. Watching him in Club play really convinced me that he is one of the most dangerous strikers around. Every time he got the ball against the Houston Dynamo, I was holding my breath.

However, to prove a point, the following is my starting lineup for the US 2006 FIFA World Cup Team.

1. Randy Moss ( Goal Keeper)
2. LaDainian Tomlinson (Left Back)
3. Shaq O’Neal (Center Back)4. Shau Alexander (Right Back)
5. Ken Griffey Jr. (Right Center Defensive Midfielder)
6. LeBron James (Left Center Defensive Midfielder)7. Steve Smith (Right Winger Midfielder)8. Dwayne Wade (Attacking Midfielder)
9. Scott Podsednik (Left Winger Midfielder)
10. Mike Vick (Striker)
11. Tracy McGrady (Striker)

Subs

Brian Ching (Sub Striker) and Kobe Bryant (Sub any position)

Unfortunately in our country, the best of the best plays Football, Basketball, Baseball, Hockey, Lacrosse, Golf, Beach ball, Dodge ball and then Soccer... in that order.

X-Men, mutation and secret to live forever

2006-06-01T23:44:00.000-05:00

Hurricane

This is the first day of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. The prediction suggest that there will be about 5 hurricane that will reach catagory 4 or higher. Remember Rita and Katrina last year?
Well, I got some can food, health bar, torch light, batteries and first aid kid ready.
X-Men

Any how, let get to the X-Men-The Last Stand.
Got to watched it on Sunday.
I must say, I have mixed feeling from this one. You see I am a big Uncanny X-Men and the X-Men series fan. To see all the comics characters on the same screen is a thrill but to see them die like flies... not so cool. It is the end of a trilogy.

Movie critics complained about the absent of emotional in the movie... the first and second movies of the series are about the introduction of the characters... this my dear, is the resolution. It's a nice movie, good action sequences. Big idea and absolute solution.

The story is a continuation of X2, as human became afraid of the mutants, they decided to find a "cure" and did so... Well, don't worry, that fact was established in the first 10 minutes... I will not go on with the movie but with another story that came to my mind a few years back.
Mutation and cure?

Every single day, we are facing with the problem of mutation and we are fighting them with every ways possible, including chemotherapy, surgery and radiation. Yes, it's call Cancer, a mutated group of cells in our human body.

If Darwin was right about evolution of living species (natural selection), Cairns was right about Directed mutation (we choose which mutations to produce in the face of environmental stress), then won't curing Cancer a hindrance to the betterment of the human species? Are we in the way of evolution? Species that do not evolve... tend to... emmm... how should I put it,... Dodo... extinct!
Everlasting Life?

We grow and life because of cell division. The cells in human body copy themselves and multiply, that's how we grow bigger. The computer in our body also decides when to stop such activity and then decides when to cell quiencence (cell death). That's how we grow old.

Cell division... they sort of copy themselves like a photocopier machine does, and like the machines they do make mistakes, and when that happends a process called apoptosis occured. The error cells commit suicide.

Now here's the strange part. If the cell "refuses" to commit suicide, it become a mutated cell, a cancer, if it's malignant. It will multiply and conduct cell division with the same error cloned. In another words, Cancer cells are a group of cells that have refuses to die... ironically, by refusing to die and trying to spread (this idea) to the rest of the human body, they will also kill the whole.

If only one day, we can live will all cells being cancer cell, then we would live forever... wouldn't we? But then again, I am no doctor... just another lower middleclass Joe.

Dolphin, Whale and Traditional

2006-05-26T23:28:00.000-05:00

Japan has lunches new whale hunt. No... not commercial fishermen, but the government. According to an AFP news article (click here), 5 government ships left for northwestern Pacific to kill 260 whales.

Get this, we measure human population by the unit billion. On contrast, we measure whale population by the unit thousand and at times hundred. And Norway is going to kill 1052 whales while Japan will kill 260 whales this year... on international water... our water. They claim that slaughtering whales is part of their tradition.
Well, wearing kimono without underwear that's traditional, eating with chopsticks, that's traditional. ( since you are not hurting animal andpeople with the kimono traditional and chopsticks..., knock your self out) But more times than not, the word "traditional" had been used as an excuse to do thing without the need to justify it, simply because the parents did it or the great grandparents did it.
And come to think about it, there are different groups of people who had the traditional of headhunting, human sacrifice and cannibalism... I don't see that they are going back to their way by justifying it with the word "traditionally..."
Whale sashimi (raw fish, sushi on the other hand is raw fish with rice), emmm... looks delicious, only problem is that, Whale is not really a fish. It's mammal... so it's more like eating a piece of raw pork... or rat... nice...

If you are interested to check out more information about Whale hunting in modern days, check out this site, Blue Voice.

Also, check out this insightful show (NATURE channel, PBS and DVD) by Hardy Jones.

Another group that work with action is the Virtual March, organized by Greenpeace.

At WDCS (the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society) you will find solid fact, picture and even video clips... example are listed below.
Dolphin hunt report in PDF.
Clip of dolphin hunt.

If you are able, adopt a whale.

Cat, mouse and The Simpsons

2006-05-22T14:14:00.000-05:00

Random thoughts.

It is interesting that the tool that most architects use in the world is by a company called AutoDesk… the program is called the AutoCAD and it’s function is controlled by a mouse.

Kolaches in true essence is actually half a hotdog wrapped in a bun.Not so random thought.

Philosopher Julian Baggini said this, in one of his article called, “The Simpsons As Philosophy”. “… what if we’ve picked the wrong religion? Every week we’re just making God madder and madder…”

His reflection about The Simpsons cartoon series is this,

“A rich philosophical worldview is in this sense like a pointillist picture – one of those pieces of art in which a big image is made up of thousands of tiny dots (see image by Seurat). Its building blocks are no more than simple dots, but the overall picture which builds up from this is much more complicated.Yet we need reminding that the dots are just dots, and that errors are made more often not by those who fail to examine the dots carefully enough, but those who become fixated by the brilliance or defects of one or two and who fail to see how they fit into the big picture.”
You got to check out this article… GO HERE.

Other thought.

Hingis, won her first title after 3 years of injury absence… remarkable. Salute!

Experincing a movie: Goal! The Dream Begins

2006-05-15T18:08:00.000-05:00

Goal! The Dream Begins is a movie that opened selectively last Friday.

I am not going to waste your time nor mine, to “professional” “critic the movie. If you are interested in the “professional” opinion, go here.

Here however, I will describe to you what our (my 4 year old son and I) experience was watching a relatively unknown movie.
First of all, I went to this particular movie because I wanted to take my son to a movie that will not include scenes with the glorification of lead bullets penetrating people, slow-motion of people blowing up, the great human reproduction processes and imaginary monsters that try to stop your heart with loud noises… Boo!

So I chose Goal! The Dream Begins. I expect it to be another movie about sports. A kid with a dream. Facing impossible obstacles, worked hard and make it against expectations and transformed into a hero in the end… in another words, another good family flick.

I was right, everything I expected to see was on the silver screen. But what I did not expected was how nice the movie was! The characters are wonderfully portrayed. Very human and care-able, loveable. And soccer never look so fun since childhood.
Granted, I am not a Magpie by any stretch. I AM a Manchester United fan since I learned how to watch TV with my dad in my diaper. And I bet most of the people that was in the theater with us in the cinema in the middle of Texas, aren’t much of soccer fans either.

But let me tell you how much fun we all had… how do I describe this…

Let’s just say that every time Newcastle United scored a goal, the whole theater cheer, holding up our hands with joy! All of us, yes, all of us were Magpies for that 2 hours.If you want to enjoy yourself in a movie that will entertain you and brings smile to your face, this is a movie for you. You will cry a little, laugh a lot, pray a little (trust me) and scream goooaaal!

Watch the trailer click here.

Amazing Art Cars of Houston

2006-05-11T17:50:00.000-05:00

The Houston Art Car Parade will occur this saturday. So as a little tribute the the contestants last year, these are their incredible creativeness... all for the fun and laughter.

This is Jabba The Truck. As a Star Wars fan... I got to post this one first. I must say that Jabba looks a little sad but then again, what else can you do, if you were the bad-dest ganster in the Universe but you just can't seems to fit into a nice little Cadillac.
Don't forget to click to enlarge and check out Jabba's tounge.
Oh! I love the dog that held on to the license plate in front... men's best friend.
This one is awesome! Mirror Image. Click on the image (to see larger picture) and you will see their children in the emmm... upside down car... above. They were sharing the space with a couple of clothed (thank goodness!) inflatables.
Are you feeling the pain lately? With gas (petroleum, oil, gasoline) price sky rocket? If you are driving an SUV, you must be feeling it...Then you MUST join Flight Of Feathers... I would fly with her... anytime... feather or not!
Good night.

Prince O3 White and the nOn-symmetry

2006-04-27T17:58:00.000-05:00

I have been using the Prince O3 White for 2 weeks now.
Just a couple days ago, I hit 3 aces, 4 down-the-line passing shot on the right side winners and two inside-out cross court winners during a couple of intense doubles sets.

I usually get about 1 ace per two sets against the same opponents. So hitting that 3 aces in two sets really got me pumped up about the O3 White. (We have played together for years, so they know my serves very well)

The down-the-line passing shots and inside-out cross court, were not something uncommon for me using the Yonex MP-5i HS, but it has not been consistence since I switch to this new racket. So, to be able to do that again with the new racket, pin-point to my intentions, was really refreshing to me. I realized that I am at one with the racket now, after only 2 weeks.
Prince O3 White vs. Yonex MP-5i HS
Prince O3 White is definitely a little stiffer than the Yonex.
Slightly lighter, well very slight, 0.1 oz. lighter. The Yonex is 11.4 oz. while O3 White is 11.3oz. However, it feels a lot lighter during play so it means that the swing speed is better.
Slightly shorter, since the HS is the extended version.
O3 White is a little more powerful… I had to increase the speed of my top-spin a little to fix that problem. I also string the racket with 17 gauge string to improve the top-spin and feel as well.
Stability (against torque)… equally great on both rackets.

So the verdict is that, the O3 White is better for my game is two major factors.
Firstly, the slightly more powerful stick help with my play as far as less exhausting on defensive plays and a little more put away power.
Second, the head speed is a lot better. This changes everything, more energy can be transfer to the ball.
Interesting Fact:
The Prince O3 systems use the large “O ports” to free up the string.

They system claim to create more movement/adjustment to create a larger sweet spot (should be sweet zone, because scientifically, the sweet spot has to be a point). So the system only work when the strings have significant movement. Meaning, it’s just another regular racket, unless you hit the ball hard.

Thanks to the “O-port” system, the racket is NOT symmetrical! The string have to alternate in both direction in order to string a racket… so to make that happened, the “O-ports” had to shift one slot, to receive the returning strings.

Aerodynamically, it should have an effect to the swing. It should have a weight balancing issue as well.

However, I have been using the racket without noticeable trouble… well, I have not heard of any complain from Sharapova or Coria (despite his tour results).

US Men's Clay Court Pics

2006-04-17T18:42:00.000-05:00

It was a marvelous night at the Westside Tennis Club in Houston, Texas.

The weather was perfect. Mid 70 degrees, slight breeze and cloudless for the most part. The showdown was between the gun slinger, Texas born, hometown favourite Andy Roddick vs. the currently 5th ranked player in the world, Tommy Haas from Germany.

Andy Roddick put some muscle into good use, using his power serve to set the pace early in the game. Controling his serve but unable to break Tommy Haas' wonderful defence.

Andy Roddick's serve topped 140 mph at times, putting a lot of pressure on Tommy Haas. And took the first set 7-6 after cruising in the Tie-Break thanks largely to the serve.
But Tommy Haas is not ranked 5th in the world for nothing. He has a very well rounded game and it almost seems that he does not possessed a weakness. He served at about 115mph but with great location and unpredictibility. Going in the game, he seems to have a very good game plan. Attacking both corners at will and put a cross court drop to the forehand side of Roddick 10 times!! And won 9 out of 10 times he did his drop shots.

The the second set, he manage to break Andy Roddick's game and hold serve to won the set 6-4. Then in the third set, Andy Roddick looked out of gas (maybe he serve too hard) and his mediocre backhand top spin was the favourite target of Tommy Haas. Then when Tommy Haas was up 5-3... Haas delibrately took a rest to give Roddick a game by love. Conserving his energy for his serve at 5-4, and closing out the game with ease.

It was a great game to watch because both players played so hard and with quite a different style. Andy Roddick is a power serve, power forehand banger. Tommy Haas on the other hand is a ball placer, who make his opponent work hard and run like a rabbit all around the court.

Roddick could have use a better backhand to his overall game. His powerful serve would work well for him to be a serve and volleyer... but he is not. Tommy Hass does have a better defence, and better consistency. He does not have a killer finishing shot, but he does have a superior game plan (10 identical drops winning 9, was impressive).

***

Update on the new tennis racquet:
The O3 White is great to play with. I am still adjusting to the more powerful stick (my older tennis racquet are of the softer sorts), quite a few of over shot (constantly 6" or so), but the direction is right where I wanted it. I have to learn to put a little more spin on the ball or at times take a little off my swing.

Happy Holiday Melissa Theutiau

2006-04-14T16:07:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday.

Here's 3 picture of the wonderful gift from France... the holiday weekend.

Melissa Theutiau

These pictures are from a wonderful dedicated site... here.

US Men's Clay Court and Tennis racquets

2006-04-14T10:52:00.000-05:00

Tonight should be fun.

A few of the my tennis sparing regulars and I are going to watch Andy Roddick playing Tommy Haas tonight at the US Men’s Clay Court Championship. A late game feature Blake and Fish will also be amazing to witness. I will post some pictures next Monday to share with you.

I bought a new racquet this week.
The reason is to realize that I am not a teenager anymore. Well, I have been playing tennis competitively since I was 15. I was never the strongest player, but since I have traditional long swings to both sides of my shots, I can always create shots that can penetrate the better defense. To help with the lack of true power, the compensation comes from precision and placement of the ball… leading to finishing them off at the net.

I was using a Yonex MP-5i for a long time… and before that a Dunlop Revelation Tour. Strung at 2 lbs. under maximum tension. If you get the drift, they are both softer, low power frame with great precision. I love these racquets because I can put the ball almost where ever I want and they have really good feel to play with. Yonex always have good feel. Problem is that my opponents, especially my sparing partners are both stronger people, using power sticks. EC uses the Wilson Sledgehammer 2.0, MT uses the Wilson Sledgehammer 3.8 and KS uses the Prince Shark. MT plays with both precision AND power, while EC and KS are bangers.

I am fine with the score against them but as I am aging, the effort that I need to beat these guys was becoming greater. I have to swing the heavy, softer frame a lot harder lately. And subsequencely, my wrist and my elbow are feeling the pain of such effort. My wrist had been in constant pain lately… I might have to see a doctor soon.

Finally, I told myself, enough is enough. I am now playing recreational tennis with target to play the area double tournament. With emphasis to beat my sparing partners and gain the bragging right every week. So I decided to step away from my comfort zone of soft, precision racquet frame to the more sophisticated, newer frame… to compensate to my inevitable ageing process.

I went to get a bunch of demo sticks at a local pro shop. They include:
Yonex RDS 001, Yonex RDS 003, Prince O3 Hornet, Prince O3 Tour, Prince Shark and Wilson nSix-One Tour.

The following is my personal opinion.
Yonex RDS 001
Good Precision, low power… less power than my current racquet Yonex MP-5i. Hewitt's new racquet.
Yonex RDS 003
Good Precision, low power… feels just like my current racquet Yonex MP-5i.
Prince O3 Hornet Hybrid
Good Precision, medium power… feels great. Love the lighter weight and the power that I get from my long swing. The structural design is beautiful but it has an aweful paint job. Still I have decided to get this one.
Prince O3 Tour
Great Precision with a lot of pace, if you hit it with all out effort. Low power and unstable if you hit it lightly.
Prince Shartk
Good racquet, heavy frame but not too agile at the net.
Wilson nSix-One Tour
Beautiful and Roger Federer is using it to win Grand Slams. This racquet is like the Prince O3 Tour, with slightly smaller sweet spot. It needs a lot of effort to use this racquet. But if you hit it right, you care rewarded with pin point precision and power.
Unfortunately, I am not Federer… neither is everyone else.

So after 5 days of testing them and pick out the Prince O3 Hornet Hybrid, I went back to the store and I bought the Prince O3 White… ( Yes, the O3 White Sarapova's current racquet. The stats are about the same, but with a little more power, a little bigger sweetspot… but boy… what a beautiful stick!! The structure and paint job are almost perfect (architectural speaking). Architects never like symmetrical design and let me tell you, the pure O3s are NOT symmetrical. The O-ports are design to situate slightly OFF from one side to another.

I took the leap of faith and thankfully I love the racquet. It fits well with my game. The Prince O3 racquets actually become more stable if you hit harder. Sounds fictional? Well, the O-ports only work when the string bends at higher angle (hitting it hard). As you hit it hard, the string bed bends to create a larger sweet spot. So if you are a soft hitter or a beginner… forget about the O3… you are just throwing your money away.

I will probably get another one next month. And did I mention that it looks Oh! So pretty?

Excited about the World Cup and Miss. Melissa Theutiau

2006-03-30T16:48:00.000-06:00

Excited! Four years of waiting... is almost over!

I am finally going to get cable or satelite TV for the first time (I only watch about 3 to 5 hours of TV a Week), just for this... FIFA World Cup Football!!

Need more info to keep up with the biggest addiction the world around?

Check out:

1. FIFA : On national teams and registered club news.
2. BBC FIFA World Cup 2006 coverage: One of the most up to date, rabid coverage in the internet. The British are really passionate about their football.
3. ESPN World Cup 2006 Good commercial sourse... sometime calling Football, as Football, but other times calling them Soccer...
and finally,
4. Official World Cup 2006 site. The source... not as fast when updating their news but they do have an official Countdown Clock up to the seconds, on the site. As I am typing it is 70days 23hrs 54 mins 03secs... to kick off!!

And one of the best reason to follow the World Cup this year... especially if you are French... is Melissa Theutiau. For, she will be reporting about the World Cup in France... in French... may be I should learn to speak French in... 69 days.

I envy all the of France and all the French speakers of the world...

The greatest marketing gig ever pulled

2006-03-29T17:53:00.000-06:00

It’s a rainy day here in Houston. So the traffic was bad. Going to and back from a 1 hour meeting took 3 hours… driving at about 4 miles an hour (that’s how fast human walk). While in the snail paste traffic, and the sun weaving in and out of the dark clouds, I learnt a new American saying, “When it is raining and the sun shine at the same time, the devil is beating his wife”.

Another cool saying I learnt today that I will surely use often is, “His only taste is on his mouth”. Isn’t it cool? To describe someone tasteless?

If you are tasteless and want to get on TV… Click here.

Another thought in my slightly used brain. Sales, marketing.

Microsoft is the biggest software company in the world not because they have the best software out there… but as Bill Gates told us that, it’s because they have the best marketing department. They certainly pull very impressive and successful marketing strategies to become No.1 in the world.

However, to me the best marketing gig that anyone or any group have achieved got to be the introduction of chopsticks. I mean think about it… Chinese had tool to eat with since the beginning of time. Spoons, forks… and who knows what else.

But one day… some guy came along and told every one… “Dude!” he said, “Look at this!”, and in his hand he held out two sticks. Everyone looked at him suspiciously and then at the two little sticks.

“I call these chopsticks… it’s for eating and stuffs…”

Ever since that day, half the Asia continent decided that they need to spend months to learn how to use chopsticks… and the next few years to perfect the skill… in order to eat.

Tell me guys… if that’s not the best marketing gig ever pulled?

Well, I am a chopsticks user here in America... and I bet you are too.

Happy St. Patrick's day

2006-03-17T16:50:00.000-06:00

Two amazing photographs. Above is the scene of the St. Patrick's Day celebration in Chicago when the Chicago River is dyed green (see how they dye the river here). Every year the Green Chicago River took my breath away... I do not know why. I would love to drink some green beer and green egg and ham right about... now.
and
Beannachtam na Femle Padraig!!

This image is not as cool as the Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day... and it's not from Star Wars.
This is Encelados, one of Saturn's many moons. NASA found water there... may be it should be dyed Green as well.
Want to know more about the Cassini program click here.

Oh yeah! This Saturn is not bad either... Saturn Sky!

Window to the soul and animals at war

2006-03-15T17:25:00.000-06:00

Click the red letters for pictures.

Yesterday, I was celebreting Pie Day... 3.14? Okay it's not that funny... but well, I am not a comedian.

And yes, Cherl the girl in school was you... Hey can I take a picture of your eye next time I see you? (emmm... no particular reason)

Anyway, here's another soul...

This is a collegue of mine. The color is so interesting, there's a shade of every color other than blue and purple in there, and if you look closely, you can see some random artifacts inbed in the rim of the eye.

If you get head over hills over this soul you better be liking dude. He is about 30 and he is a South American. He think he is a funny guy.

Well, now to something serious that I read today. Read the article here.

The article is about animals and insects being use as alternative weapons... Human is such wonderful creature. We are equiped with both brains and hands so we can do more things than all other creatures. We are good at herding, we are good at making stuffs out of the things that we made... we are also the only creature that made sex a fun thing to do. All other living things do it when their biological clock sounded an alarm... or that they are going to die... i.e. Salmon to spiders.

But the one thing that we human do best is... finding a way... a reason to hate one another. First of all, we hate people that look at our wifes differently. Then we create terms like Kingdom and Country, so we can hate the OTHER Kingdoms and Countries. And we see color, we hate people with different color... then we create religion, no... that won't do... people with different religion just won't do. How about their sexual preference? How about creating something call politics and hate people with different ideology... Hate people with different IDEAS? How about Coke vs. Pepsi?

We are so good at finding reason to hate people that we have learned to create the best weapon to kill one another too. We are the only creature that uses tools to kill other creature. We go so good at it that at this moment, we can destroy all of us on earth, a few times over... with all the thermo war heads that we have.

I hate people who hate. (see... I have found a reason to hate too)

By the way, why do we have to dislike other people? What so bad about living. Who cares who they make love to... I like Coke but not Pepsi... but did I really offended anyone (other than Pepsi Co.) If I were to bow and meditate to my God and you decided to bow to a tree, or a direction... why should that affect me... or you?

Now, back to the article. Why can't we keep our animals out of our war?

Things that humans have done to try to get our animals to fight for us... discounting horses that carries knights to war, or that donkey with Don Quixote.

Animals in Warfare
WWII
Attach a bomb to a cat and drop it from a dive-bomber on to Nazi ships. The cat, hating water, will "wrangle" itself on to enemy ship's deck. In tests cats became unconscious in mid-air.

WWII
Attach incendiaries to bats. Induce hibernation and drop them from planes. They wake up, fly into factories etc and blow up. Failed to wake from hibernation and fell to death.

Vietnam War
Dolphins trained to tear off diving gear of Vietcong divers and drag them to interrogation. Later syringes placed on dolphin flippers to inject carbon dioxide into divers, who explode. About 40 divers thought to have been killed.

Hmmm... I wonder what ever happended to these dolphines... are they still in lingering in our vast ocean looking for the next divers?

Any how... here's a tribute to our arm forces. The army of the future!!

Lieutenant Puss the Sniper Cat

Captain MiawMiaw of the 199th "Flee Platoon"

Corporal Percy... still missing in action (MIA)

Seriously. I hope you laugh a little reading this... and I hope you will smile a little more... and hate a little less.

Window to the soul and a random thoughts... hatcher

2006-03-10T17:45:00.000-06:00

It's friday and I think I will share another soul with you. J is one of the most understanding people on earth. She is an interior designer but could have easily being a psychologist. And yes, you can drool over her beautiful blue eye and she is 23 years of age.

This is a picture I took while doing a site visit. Yeah! another shameless self portrait.

Anyway... random thoughts, word Teri Hatcher and word Superman!

Ever Wonder?

2006-03-08T11:14:00.000-06:00

Received this (from my boss) in the e-mail this morning, so I guess I’ll share.

Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?

Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?

Why don't you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?

Why is "abbreviated" such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?

Why is it that to stop Windows, you have to click on "Start"?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquidis made with ! real lemons?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?When dog food is new and improved tasting, who tests it?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes?Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?

Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite ofprogress?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Rosario Dawson and the soul

2006-02-28T17:57:00.000-06:00

The human eyes are the windows to the soul. Well, I love that notion. So instead of taking photographs of my friends' portrait... I capture their souls' portraits. Yes, in a sense, I am a soul collector :)

This one here is the left eye of a REAL American. She is 1/3 Irish, Polish and German. Can you see them in her eyes?

She is a co-worker at the office, a great cook, blend her own coffee (that I really enjoy) and she is hoping for a grandson soon.

Another girl who has magnetic eyes... not colorful but magnetic eyes is Rosaria Dawson. Here are 3 pictures of her highness. I won't say she is extremely pretty, or extremely sexy and she is not ordinary,... I guess the only word worthy of describing her is, beautiful. Ya... she is beautiful.

Great shoes, Anne and the mirror mask

2006-02-22T17:34:00.000-06:00

This is one of the greatest design on shoes ever. Especially for you who have more than one boyfriend at different sizes... vertically.

These shoes are part of the Kei Kagami contributions at the fashion show in Milan.

But if you are Anne Hathaway... well, it doesn't matter what shoes or t-shirt you wear... Fedup or not you rock my world!

Over the weekend, I finally got a replacement for my power-surged Onkyo receiver. It's another Onkyo... rewired all the stuffs and now got my game system on thunderous surround, and everything else hook up.

Played a really cool game till my left thumb blistered and watched a really cool movie, the Mirrormask. It's writtern by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. If you do not know who Neil Gaiman yet, you should click here. Check out sandman. This is a beautiful movie that will throw you off your daily reality from the get go... I mean from the title page!

It's not a Hollywood gig so, please do not expect to find car exploding after being kick at the bumper, or scantily claded girls, or who's that idiot... Tom... Tom Cruise here in this movie.

The movie is simple in plot and somewhat predictable. You go through a dream journey with this girl, into an imazingly beautiful world. Actually, I like the drawings on the wall the best. I actually rewatch it and pause it and take picture from the TV screen to take a closer look at it.

It's a nice movie that definately worth a look at, but remember that it's not mainstream.

If you want to be an architect...

2006-02-13T13:46:00.000-06:00

If you want to be an architect… please reconsider… at least think about the followings:

Do you like sleeping?
If you do, well…then be an accountant or a librarian, architecture is not for you. I average about 5hrs of sleep a day… with a pen and a sketchbook on the night stand, in case I dreamt up (literally) a cool idea during the night (seriously).

Can you tolerate smoke filled fire escape?
When you are building models and draw on the computer around the clock, you tend to adopt a habit to smoke with your comrades, just so to break the painful monotonousness. (Personally I do not smoke, but I am a frequent second hand smoker in the fire escape, with my smoker friends)

How well do you take negative criticism?
Do you need to hear praises about your ideas all the time? Well, if you do, be a rich man or be that rich man’s wife. Architecture school is no place for you.
In architecture school, every praises and respects have to be earned. To earn that respect, you have to proof everything in your drawings, not just your mouth. Nothing personal you know, your great ideas might not be that great in the minds of others… good thing that after the critic sessions, everyone would go to O’Connell’s for a pint of beer and chill about it.

Are you pretty?
If you are, then for the sake of all mankind, be a TV anchor, a lawyer, a supermodel… hack even a nurse. In my years in architecture school, I have spotted about 30 pretty people in the architecture college. But by the end of the 5 years (yes, it’s a 5 year program), there’s only 2 pretty girls left. An Asian girl from New Mexico and a Caucasian girl from Oregon.
The Asian girl and I got pretty close but she married someone else. The Caucasian girl became my frequent project partner/best friend and we always win awards together… and yes, she married someone else as well… hmmm something is not right with these pictures.
The other 28 pretty girls looked tired and spent, after 5 years of sleeping about 5 hrs a day. Guys seem to age better in this field, I guess a few wrinkles makes you look more mature… great for architecture marketing.

Graduation rate and the bright side of it.
The architecture college I went to admitted about 140 freshmen every year. After 5 years of weeding them out through various techniques… 30 of us graduated as architects. Yes, all the other students move on to other disciplines.

Life after graduation.
Do you like a comfortable life?
Well, after you graduated as one of the 30 people that made it through the so call “boot camp”. You WILL land a job as an intern (much like doctors do. Doctors kill one person at a time when they screw up, but when one of our design failed, hundreds of people would die at the same time) and you will get a salary that’s consider lowest in any professional degrees. You will still sleep about 5 hrs a day and your work will still be criticized for your thoughts.
As for your “inferior” classmate (the other 110 “drop outs”) in architecture school, they will graduate in other fields. They became politician, entrepreneurs, lawyers, supermodels and nurses. In due time, they are the people that can afford to hire your boss’s firm to design their houses and offices. Can you live with that?

Other items not mentioned above are:

Do you like your body parts? (fingers are known to be lost in model shops)
Do you like your 20/20 eye sight? (you will be wearing glasses by the end of 5 years, I am the one exception)
And lastly,
Do you want to have a life in college? (in which we actually do. Architecture students actually really do know how to party, well, just below Frats and Liberal Arts)

Will I trade this life as an architect to be something else?
After all that… no, not a million years. There’s no better high than looking at your brainchild, singular, unique, in solid concrete and steel… knowing that it will be there even after I am gone. Yea, I am a nut… I sleep with a notebook next to me remember?

From World Press Photo Awards 2005

2006-02-10T17:54:00.000-06:00

These are the most incredible image that captured the spirit of our struggle against nature and sadly… ourselves. World Press Photo of the Year Award.

Please click at the links to look at the reason behing the photographs. Famine in Niger, Sierra Leone and it's diamonds, the War on Terror and it's casulties... and closer Katrina + Rita that visited me not a few months back!! Click on the thumnail to see bigger version.

Canadian photographer Finbarr O'Reilly is the winner of the World Press Photo of the Year Award. His picture of a child's hand pressed against his mother's at an emergency feeding centre in Niger was described as having "beauty, horror and despair".

American photographer Todd Heisler's image shows the honouring of fallen US Marines as 2nd Lt. James Cathey's body arrives at Reno Airport.

Yannis Kontos, a Greek photographer working for Polaris Images took this picture of a boy helping his father to dress in Sierra Leone.

Other finalists included American photographer Michael Appleton, New York Daily News, who covered the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

To see all the photographs that won awards in the World Press Photo Awards 2005 please click here.

A camera can capture some wonderfully beautiful stuffs... unfortunately, we are living in a "pretty" ugly world.

Singular Canopy part II

2006-02-08T17:04:00.000-06:00

This is the sketch I made this morning of the Canopy project I mention in the past posting (click on the picture to see a bigger one). It's a birdeyes view of the project, intended to show the relationship of the canopy to the rest of the surroundings.

This project is situated in one of the only two green park left in the Houston's Medical Center. I am hoping that the structure will hold it's ground and enchances the one little green space that people can relax and "enjoy" their stressful days.

I called it the seedling design. It is based on the metaphor of life and growth (well, it's at one of the entrance of a hospital).

The shape of the canopy, ties in the design of the existing landscape to the existing building. At the same time, it's symmetry, suggest formality. The canopy works as both a functional structure and as a sculpture in the garden.

Inspired.

Four Signs and the Steelers

2006-02-07T17:43:00.000-06:00

Congratulation Steelers!
This is a shot from downtown Pittsburgh this morning during the Super Bowl Parade. Wow!

Well, now... enough serious stuffs... here's four signs that I really grateful to have the previledge to see today.

First of all... great signs. It's good to focus on what's important.

As always, signs tell us important thing that should not be taken lightly.

It's nice to have rock solid information on the Weather.

And finally... deep... very deep.

The Sky Court

2006-02-06T18:17:00.000-06:00

As promised, these are some of the pictures of the MH Sky Court at the Toyota Center, the home of the Houston Rockets.

This project was a fun one. It's a project that I was given the chance to throw out everything that I have learned in Architecture school and do it the other way. I teamed up with a really exciting retail designer, R. A. Sorry I can't mention his name here because he is actually quite a private person... but I can give you some hints. He is the brain child behind all the Sprint stores, Pottery Barn stores, the NBA store... well, the list goes on and on. Working with him was a blast. We also hired a firm from N. Carolina to do some graphics work.

Oh! And another thing. A project is only as good as your client. Well, the two project coordinators that I have to work with were not only exceptionally smart, they always keep an open mind to new ideas... did I mention that they are both really pretty as well? (ya, sound like fiction... I know... but it's true)

Okay... our design is based on an imagined giant child playing with wood blocks. What would he do if he was to build a little playground for little NBA players. Well, click on the pictures below to get a better look.

The view from the hallway in relation to the real basketball court below (at the right). In the arena, the Sky Court glow like jewelry in contrast to the relative darkness of the space.

A space where Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady await your challenge. This is where you can match your physical attributes to Tracy's height and Yao's wing span. Don't ask me why it's not Tracy's wing span and Yao's height... you don't want to know. Trust me.

Now the last picture is... let me introduce you, Mr. Clutch the Rockets' Bear. He is on a mission to whack all the teams in the Western Conference in the NBA and guess what, he needs your help. Whack the West... it's great to vent, for children and adult alike.

Thanks Enzo.

Architecture Design: Singular Canopy

2006-02-05T12:50:00.000-06:00

On sacred Super bowl Sunday Feb 5, 2006, here in Texas the football state, there’s only one person in this four stories office building. It’s yours truly. Ya, empty streets and all...

What can I do? As much as I love football (NFL), I have a deadline tomorrow to present a canopy proposal to a client. And since I was sick on Friday, I had to finish it up today and miss out on the “unofficial national holiday” in America.

Hopefully I will be able to finish the three 3D presentation boards today… not likely. But what the hack… the following is one of the renderings that will be part of the board.It is a canopy in a form remote from the existing hospital entrance. The entrance, which marked with a very nice informal garden, is now emphasized with the canopy as both a functional and sculptural piece.

People usually go to the hospital, when they are in bad shape and down, so I design a metaphoric seedling to imply growth and life. What do you think? Oh! From the top, it’s a mirror of two spade shapes.

Your thoughts about the design (positive or negative) are very welcome.

Camera 5: Canon G3 Digital Camera

2006-02-02T17:16:00.000-06:00

I had a number in my mind, of when I would put my 35mm SLR in the display cabinet, and switch to digital camera. The number was 22 mega pixels. That’s the number of the average “pixels” per frame in a regular 35mm film.

Well, I keep up with the latest news and I waited and waited, and wait some more. But the pixel count of the digital camera was staying put at about 2 and 3.2 and then 4 after a few years. And my oldest kid is now growing up so quickly that if I waited, he would be 18 before I make the leap.

I finally bite hard on the lip the moment it reaches 4 mega pixels. At 4 mega pixels, photo quality 5x7 enlargements is possible, so I decided to acquire the “best” non digital SLR of the time. It was between the choice of Nikon Coolpix, Canon G3 and Sony (due to my fascination on infra-red landscape). Sony was quite far behind Nikon and Canon at the time, despite making most of the CCD chips for the major digital camera brands in the world. Nikon Coolpix was good but it did not look very nice (unlike their SLRs that look heavenly). And then there’s Canon G3, an “upgrade” to the acclaimed G2.

After extensive research, I decided to get the Canon G3… (even though I always secretly wanted to buy a Nikon… just like I do not know why, I have never bought a pair of Nike despite wanted a pair ever since… forever)

The idea was making the G3 a snapshot camera for everyday life and a backup for my Canon Elan 7… well, after using it for a few weeks. The Canon Elan 7 is getting more and more shelve time. After a couple months, the Elan 7 has it’s permanent place in the glass cabinet.

The Canon G3 was an amazing gem. It has a good lens with nice range (though I would prefer a better wide angle), very stable shutter that I constantly slowed the shutter down to 1/20sec, the bugger has a Neutral Density filter BUILT IN!, second curtain sync flash, remote control and a very useable video recorder.

I used it to shoot landscape, sports, portraits, black and whit e, details of the eyes, and even bought an adapter to mount it onto my Meade ETX telescope to shoot pictures of the planets (I will post some of those some day). It was a little camera that wants to go everywhere and ready at all time. With two 256 MB CF cards in the bag and I was confident of every situation that life can throw at me.

Well, that’s the story of my first digital Camera.

Kristin Kreuk of Smallville

2006-01-31T21:18:00.000-06:00

Lana Lang from WB's hit TV series Smallville, a.k.a. Kristin Kreuk. These are my favourite pictures of her in public domain.
Interesting, character in Smallville, Kansas seems to love the initial LL. Let's see Lana Lang (childhood girlfriend), Lex Luther (nemesis), Lionel Luthor (Lex's father), Lilian Luthor (Lex's mother), Lena Luthor (Lex's sister), Lara Lor-Van (mother in Krypton), Lois Lane (wife), Lori Lemaris (mermaid from Tritonis), Lenora Lemaris (mermaid Lori's sister), Linda Lee (Supergirl), Letitia Lerner (Clark Kent's babysitter), Lyla Lerrol (Superman's girlfriend in Krypton), Liesel Largo, Lucy Lane, Liri Lee, Linda Lewis... I mean the LL connection goes on and on... Just checkout some of the character at the list here.
Again, simple parting words... I wish I was Clark Joseph Kent.

Cheers!

What does love mean?

2006-01-31T09:36:00.000-06:00

A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, "What does love mean?" The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. See what you think:

"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love." Rebecca- age 8

"When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth." Billy - age 4

"Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other." Karl - age 5

"Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs." Chrissy - age 6

"Love is what makes you smile when you're tired." Terri - age 4

"Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK." Danny - age 7

"Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. My Mommy and Daddy are like that. They look gross when they kiss" Emily - age 8

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." Bobby - age 7 (Wow!)

"If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate," Nikka - age 6 (we need a few million more Nikka's on this planet) "Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday." Noelle - age 7

"Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well." Tommy - age 6

"During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn't scared anymore." Cindy - age 8

"My mommy loves me more than anybody . You don't see anyone else kissing me to sleep at night." Clare - age 6

"Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken." Elaine-age 5

"Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Brad Pitt " Chris - age 7

"Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day." Mary Ann - age 4

"I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones." Lauren - age 4

"When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you." (what an image) Karen - age 7

"You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget." Jessica - age 8

And the final one -- Author and lecturer Leo Buscaglia once talked about a contest he was asked to judge. The purpose of the contest was to find the most caring child. The winner was a four year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry, the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard, climbed onto his lap, and just sat there. When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor, the little boy said, "Nothing, I just helped him cry"

Please post and share your thoughts, thanks.

Chinese New Year

2006-01-30T17:18:00.000-06:00

Chinese New Year is upon us. This is the year of the Dog. If you are born in the year 1970, 1982, 1994… this is your year. If you are older than 36 years of age then please minus 1970 by 12 increments to see if you are born in the year of the Dog.

Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days in total, with food, color and noise.
A few interesting thing about the traditional thing to do and not to do during these 15 days:

1. You must pin up red papers and fire up red firecrackers during these period. The reason is to chase away a spirit call “Nian”(direct translation would be “Year”), or else you will suffer during the next 365 days.
2. You must eat fish! Fish rhythms with “savings”. It is the traditional believe that if you eat fish during the celebration, you will have plenty of savings thus prosperity during the year.
3. Do not sweep the floor during these 15 days. All the earnings that you have would be lost if you do so.

There are other fun stuffs to remember and do… in essence, the 15 days of celebration mirror the next 365 days of your life. If you do nice things, pay attention to details and being courteous to your guests, you will be rewarded for the full of year.

The Chinese New Year is a time to be home. To spend time with your family. To reflect and be thankful to your parents.

I have not being home during Chinese New Year for 16 years now. There’s no special celebration here in Houston, therefore, I have not observe the Lunar New Year since that time.

It is a fact, that this is the time that I miss the most since childhood, and sadden a little every time this festival comes around. It usually means that I am spending a lot of time in Chinatown, hoping to experience what I am missing. Desperately hoping I would stumble upon food that resembles my mom’s cooking. (for the record, I have never found them in 16 years)

Every time I close my eyes, I can remember the color of my home with red decorations, with poems in calligraphy, fresh flowers, smiles on my parents’ faces, laughter, money in red packets… the weather always seems to be cool and nice, and one of the most vivid of all is the occasional noise of firecrackers close and far (I would ran to the window eager to see if my friends are firing them up, and so I can join them)… and the smell… emmm… There’s nothing like the smell of firecrackers.

How I would love to go back there, at a time when I was completely happy…

Gift To A New Citizen, Kristin Kreuk And A Basketball Court In The Sky

2006-01-27T17:12:00.000-06:00

Today, out of the blue, I received a gift from the Houston Rockets, celebrating my new Citizenship. It's very cool. I might have to re-apply for the citizenship just to get more cookies.

Other than that gift, I have also received a used full metal jacket from a 40 s&W (bullet) with a mini American Flag, FedEx-ed from Nashville, TN. My friend C said that, since I am in Texas, I will need to equip myself like every other Texans.

***

WB TV channel is going off air soon. The one most important thing that I will miss about WB, is Kristin Kreuk who plays Lana Lang... Superman's girlfriend, in TV series Smallville. All I am saying is that, it's nice to be Superman, despite of Kryptonite.

***

This is a picture of one of my recently completed projects. It's the MH Sky Court at the Toyota Center. This picture was taken from the Fan Rotunda, with Clutch the Houston Rockets' mascot greeting young fans.

The MH Sky Court is a world of interactive fun for children of all ages. And you know what's the best thing about the Sky Court? It has an exact replica of the actual Rocket's basketball court but with the hoops at 7'-0", so kids can dunk on them! It's way up in the Sky surrounded by the Houston skyline, thus "Sky Court"... and yes, it's always free.

Canon's 5 System

2006-01-25T12:55:00.000-06:00

Introducing one of the greatest designer in the world, Luigi Colani. The following are pictures of a project called "5 Systems" that Mr. Colani did for Canon Corporation.

(The following picture and notes are taken from the Canon Camera Museum, check them out, it's a must-see for all designers)

SUPER C. BIO
An SLR Camera based on the T70, the 35-70mm zoom lens power operated, and it has a dedicated Electric flash built to the side.

LADY
A half-size camera for the novice which fits snuggly into the right hand.

HY-PRO
A system SLR camera for the professional. The viewfinder is a LCD display, and the hand fits different combinations of bumps and hollows according to whether it is being used at eye level or waist level.

FROG
A compact underwater camera. It can take up to 150 frames continuously for extended underwater sessions. Flash tubes are fitted on the left and right sides of the lens.

HOMIC (HOrizontal Memorychip Integral storobo Camera)
A still video camera. It uses solid-state memory. It is characterized by the objective lens and viewfinder being on the same axis. The flash unit fires through the objective lens.

I hope you like them and ask, "Well, where can I buy them?"

Now, here's the cool part... you can't! The "5 Systems" was the brainchild of Luigi Colani as a part of design reserach done in 1983!! Yes, 1983...

American Citizen

2006-01-24T18:20:00.000-06:00

Today a new chapter of my life has began. I am now an American Citizen.

A long ceremony with about 2,700 immigrants and 18,000 of their relatives. Got to the auditorium at 7:30am and the ceremony finished at 11:00am. My only beef is that, they did not give away the traditional flag during the ceremony. What a bummer.

Sadness. They took, cut and dumped my green card. It was one of the most beautiful card in the world.

I have gain the right to vote. And by George I am going to vote!

I do not know what to think yet, hasn't really sank in...

Camera 4: Canon Elan 7

2006-01-23T11:13:00.000-06:00

After 10 years as a faithful companion through the woods and hush weather (that’s when you get the best photographs), the Canon 10s finally had a little problem. There’s a little pin that need replacing at the shutter mechanism.

So I took her with me to a million places that fix cameras. My friend Sam also took me to some places that didn’t even have a business sign on. In the end, I had to call Canon Inc., because no one had the parts! I sent her to Canon after a week of investigating. They called me and gave me a quote (they did not have the parts either, they have to take apart a stock Canon 10s and replaces the pin from that)… and the price, well, let’s just say if I add another 50 bucks to it, I will get a new camera.

So that’s what I did. I did some research and bought the camera that are in the same line with the discontinued Canon 10s. Her successor was the Canon Elan 7.

The Canon Elan 7 was in a sense a newer version of Canon 10s, with a smaller focusing lapse without the barcode reader. She is a nice camera that can do anything that I needed to do (no, she still doesn’t make coffee). She’s one of the first cameras to feature the quick control dial.

She has a 7-point wide area autofocus, a top shutter speed of 1/4000 sec and 4 frame per second film advance (6 seconds to finish a roll of 24 frame), all in a compact and durable body with a simple control layout. Canon's Whisper Drive technology to ensure a nearly silent photographic experience (great for taking pictures of baby sleeping), but one of my favorite feature was and is the dedicated depth-of-field preview button.

The Canon Elan 7 is now about 5 years old. The 35mm SLR is part of a beautiful history, thanks to the digital age. She’s sitting now sitting in my glass display cabinet with a 24mm lens attached to it (next to the Canon 10s with a 35-135mm lens on). She also has a roll of half exposed film in her belly, maybe never to be finished.

Four-Leaf Clover

2006-01-22T15:44:00.000-06:00

Found a four-leaf clover today. May be it's my luck changing... then again, if you read my resolution for the year 2006, you would know that I do not believe in luck.

I placed the clover in the middle of a novel (Blood Rites by Jim Butcher) that I am reading right now, hopefully it will retain color and shape. Well, emm I guess... wish me good luck!

Camera 3: Canon 10s

2006-01-20T11:12:00.000-06:00

The next camera to buy was a tough decision, because photography was and is very important to me. I was drooling over the Leica cameras (anyone of the Leica actually) at the time, but I also know that I could not afford one.

I was weighting the options between Nikon, Minolta, Olympus and Canon… in that order (thanks to the Rebel Original experience). Researching on camera in the early 90s was not at easy as today. Cnet.com, Photo.net and Dpreview.com were not even born yet. I actually had to go to the library to flip through monthly issues of Popular Photography to get some insight of these monsters.

In the end, Nikon FM2 and Canon 10s (despite my experience with the Rebel) were head to head with inches to spare. The Nikon FM2 was the historical facts proven camera that went to the edge of the world and back. While the Canon 10s was hail as the best “sports and action SLR camera of the future” that complimented the famed Canon EOS 1!

Finally, two things helped me made that decision.

My uncle Peter, who introduced me the joy of photography, uses an EOS 650.

Canon has a lens called 135mm f2.8 Softfocus, that supposed to be the mother of all portrait lenses.

So I call in a mail order and got the Canon 10s.

It proved to be the right decision. Alright, it does not run without batteries, but it could do almost anything else. (No, it did not make coffee… I meant everything in photography)

The Canon 10s walked with me around the world (literally), from the fortress of Signal Hill, to the swarming wind of the Great Lakes, from the blistering dunes of White Sand to the endless prairie of Oklahoma. Of course, we crossed the Pacific Ocean a few times to the Rainforest and back as well.

I did not have a problem for 10 years of extensive use. (During that time, it has a sidekick in the form of Canon Elph 2) By extensive use, I mean rolling off a rocky hill for 20 ft at Signal Hill, Newfoundland, shooting frozen berries out in the snow and tons of dink and dang of everyday use. I mean after 10 years… it looks 10 years old, kind of extensive use. (You are right, if I was ever to own an SUV, it would not look polish and squeaky clean… it would look like a real SUV)

The Canon 10s was precise. It had the right weight. The metering was perfect. It has mirror lock up, remote control, 2nd shutter sync flash, a bar code reader and everything else that we take for granted nowadays. And I did not have to worry about it not up to the challenge at any weather, season, night or day.

Then one day… but that’s another story.

Camera 2: Canon Rebel Original

2006-01-19T16:25:00.000-06:00

The camera I replaced the Konica TC-X with was the Canon Rebel “Original” (a.k.a. Canon 1000). The 35mm original Canon Rebel, was the answer from Canon to the low-end SLR market.

And Boy! Was it low-end. The camera was built flimsy, the handle squeaked and the shutter shock so hard that the picture came out blurry. The kit lens was a piece of crap; it was not sharp, contrasty and prone to flare. I am sorry Canon. I really have nothing good to say about the original Canon Rebel.

I bought the camera because on TV, Andre Agassi with his then long hair looked so cool with the Rebel. Well, I traded it away in 3 months after I got it.

Comparing it to the Konica TC-X, I must say that I miss the little Konica very much. When I was in Newfoundland, it was so cold that at times the batteries would not work, but still the TC-X clicked away happily.

The truth is, even at this day and age, while I shoot away with digital cameras, I am still hoping and looking for a good TC-X on eBay. I guess I am trying to buy a little of the joyous experience of the past back.

Camera 1: Konica TC-X

2006-01-18T15:06:00.000-06:00

If I was not an architect, I would have been a photographer.

The hobby was infused in me by my uncle Peter, loves to take pictures and teach.The Konica TC-X was the first step of my life long hobby.

At 14 years of age, my dad brought me to a local photolab to try to get the camera that I have saved my lunch money for. It was a Yashica (called Kyocera nowadays) of some type. Trouble is that I can't afford it. All I had was RM$187 in my pocket and so the store owner showed me this camera instead. It was listed to be RM$210, but after bargaining for half an hour, I got it for exactly RM$187.

The camera came with a 50mm f1.8 standard lens. It was completely manual, center weight metering, extremely loud aluminum shutter... and it was the first ever SLR camera with plastic parts!! (Camera before that are all made of metal) Oh yes, this little bugger runs without batteries if it comes to that!

A year later I added a Sigma 80-200mm, a 2x teleconverter and a speedlite to my "system". I also became the sports photographer for my school magazine through out high school until I graduated.

I gave the system away to my host parents at Newfoundland in 1992 (I did not have anything else valuable that could return their kindness). I miss it so much.

A Case On Family

2006-01-16T08:39:00.000-06:00

Family is such an interesting concept. I have always been a “homeboy”. (well, I had my rebellion years too, but it was done secretly) My family, as noisy as it is and as poor as we were, we are always close and loving. No, we do not peck at each other’s cheek or bear hug each other when I was growing up… we are more of a caring and loving with your heart and action type.

As an immigrant, I left home (more like my parents sent me away) to the other side of the globe when I was 18, half my life I lived without being at the proximity of the place I was born. I miss my home very much, especially the closeness with my parents, the food my mom cook, mingling and solving problems with my siblings.

Figuring out why I love my family, home and my hometown so much, was not an easy task. I never could understand it until recently.

Now in my early 30s, I have a little family of my own. (A wonderful wife, two remarkable children and a little home in Texas) Everything is great, and my (now) 4 years old is going to school and starts to learn to make friends with kids his age. Things are nice… don’t get me wrong… but one trip back to my hometown with my whole family make me see things a little differently now.

My son have never see any of our relatives other than granddad and grandma who visited every other year or so. So going home in Winter’s relative cold to a “foreign” country at the equator’s summer heat was a big concern for me. Never seen any of his cousins, uncles and aunties is the close second.

However, things unwrapped very pleasantly the moment they met each other. All they asked was, “Are you my cousin?” and with a reply of, “yes”… and they were off to loud happy fun all day long. My cousin’s sons became my son’s best friend even though they have never met and they do not communicate in the exact same language!

Later that evening on the first encounter, my son said to me, “Dad, I have so many Hon relatives!” “There are so many Hon!” “I am so happy…” And he was, completely happy, and completely loved.

That got me thinking about family, and this is what I’ve learnt:
Family accepts you first before judging you with merits. Making friend with people we do not know is the opposite. You first need to prove yourself useful, or worthy, or indifferent before there’s an acceptance.

Now back in Texas, I miss my family everyday… my son misses his cousins and grandparents every time he slows down. We talk about our relatives every night after bedtime storys.

Here’s the lyric to a song by Bon Jovi that become one of my favorite driving music of late.

Who Says You Can't Go Home
I spent twenty years trying to get out of this place
I was looking for something I couldn't replace
I was running away from the only thing I've ever known

Like a blind dog without a bone
I was a gypsy lost in the twilight zone
I hijacked a rainbow and crashed into a pot of gold

I been there, done that
But I ain't looking back on the seeds I've sown
Saving dimes spending too much time on the telephone
Who says you can't go home

(Chorus)
Who says you can't go home
There's only one place they call me one of their own
Just a hometown boy born a rolling stone
Who says you can't go home
Who says you can't go back
I been all around the world and as a matter of fact
There's only one place left I want to go
Who says you can't go home
It's alright, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright

I went as far as I could, I tried to find a new face
There isn't one of these lines that I would erase
I lived a million miles of memories on that road

With every step I take I know that I'm not alone
You take the home from the boy
But not the boy from his home
These are my streets, the only life I've ever known
Who says you can't go home

(Repeat Chorus)

It doesn't matter where you are,
It doesn't matter where you go
If it's a million miles away or just ten miles up the road
Take it in , Take it with you when you go
Who says you can't go home?

Enjoying Vanilla Coke

2006-01-10T09:50:00.000-06:00

What’s wrong with me?

I was trying to enjoy my Christmas gift, the twelve pack of Vanilla Coke by myself. Trying to drink it with the respect and honor that they deserved. Of course, by myself… I mean my wife rates Vanilla Coke as high as 7up and my sons can't differentiate them from Grape Juice, so sharing with them would be such a tragedy to a great invention, right?

Well, not exactly… You see, I did not enjoy the Vanilla Coke that I was addicted to! I could not enjoy it by myself! I did not understand why. But I tried to find a solution. The obvious solution is to share with my wife and kids right? Well, it works!

I don’t get it. That goes with tennis too. I play tennis about 3 times a week. Whacking the ball pass an opponent that tried hard to return the ball but can’t reach it, gives me an incredible rush. Well, I don’t enjoy it as much anymore. I am considering playing once a week… soon.

I would rather spend the time playing with my kids or even watch Monster Inc. for the 352th times.

I still don’t get it. May be there’s a pill out there that can help me over come this defection. But then again, I think I can live with this problem fine.

For my fellow Vanilla Coke addicts out there. I recently found a bunch of these good stuffs at Academy Sports Store. I was there to get my brother a good pair of working glasses and when was trying to pay for them, there they are in the fridge… the Holy Grail shinning in their own way, just above the price tag. So if you live here in the Southwest region, you are in luck.

Oh yes! Almost forgot, you can also get these "Precious" from Ebay.

New Year 2006

2006-01-03T17:04:00.000-06:00

It’s J. R. R. Tolkien’s birthday… marking another year passed, another just begun.

Looking back at last year, if there are three things I felt deeply, I must say that firstly, is of the blessing of a visit from an angel. Unfortunately, it’s just a visit… well, I would not have asked for her to stay.

Secondly, watching my kids growing up a little more, B is one good boy, he has the maturity of an older boy… due to the circumstances… and I am sorry for that. He is extreme resourceful and has a natural knack to solve problems… and I am proud of that. J is now one year old. He is the energizer bunny that never stops and has unbeliever curiosity. They are the reason I work hard and leave a smile on my face, in this unremarkable world.

Third, would be the trip my family and I had a month ago. To go home and see all my families and old friends… as well as some new friends. As an immigrant in a foreign land, it is nice to remember that I am not alone in this… hmmm… unremarkable world.

This year has started with a painful pull on my left chest muscle. Hopefully it’s not an omen to 2006.

Fortunately, I do not believe in destiny. I do not believe in luck. Luck is the sum of wise planning, hard work and resourcefulness.

So if I have to make some resolution for the year… let’s say three.

The first one will be to register for Architecture IDP and start taking exam to get my architecture license. It’s time to stop feeling sorry about my situation and stop using them as my lame excuse to procrastinate. I am too young to regret and too old to start over. But I can take control of my destiny. I have thought about richness and making million. Well, I am too stubborn to change and too in love with architecture to ever… yes, ever change my career or start a business. So that settled it. That is what I will do this year. (Oh! By the way, I did exchange for 1 million Rupiah a month ago, so technically, I do have my million now)

Second, will be to make a change for the better. To be a better father, better husband, better chess player, better tennis player, better architect… better over all. Better!

Thirdly, to volunteer in one organization and help others who are in need… making a difference, not just reading the news and shake my head. And if I could I would vote… yes, I WILL.

That’s what in this slightly used mind during the New Year holiday.

Wishing all of you a Happy New Year and hopefully your head is not as mess up as mine.

Great Christmas gift, the V

2005-12-27T18:01:00.000-06:00

This year, I received one of the best Christmas gift ever.
Yup! Best $3.00 gift ever… it wasn’t even wrapped up properly for goodness sake, but man… I am going to enjoy that gift preciously, for the next 12 months.

JS gave me a 12 pack of Vanilla Coke! If you know me well enough, you would know that I drink about 5 to 7 cups of Coca-cola in the office every day. (Keeps the engine going, ya know). We have a fountain machine in house at the office, and stocked with Coca-cola Classic, Diet Coke and Sprite… but my main passion is Vanilla Coke, baby!

Out of the office, my regular drink is the V.

Now trouble is that Vanilla Coke is gone! In America, Canada and the UK, Vanilla Coke will no longer be supplied. Since hearing that news, back in November, I have been hitting every supermarket get enough stock to last a while… well, not long enough. My stock of Vanilla Coke ran out before I visited Kuchin g. Since then I can’t find them anywhere.

Well, JS found 3 packs at a local HEB near his neighborhood. He is saving 2 while gave me 1 pack as Christmas present. Blessed man he is.

I am going to drink 1 can per month. I am going to keep it high and safe. No hurricanes nor children are going to find them. (Kids just don’t understand to cherish the last 12 cans of greatness of the V)

And JS, thank you, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart (or liver in Malaysia).

Merry Christmas

2005-12-23T11:48:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas
and Happy New Year!!

North Pole

Taste of old

2005-12-21T16:51:00.000-06:00

At Kuching last week, I tried Shandy again... emmph! Have not tasted it for 15 years!!

Wow! Still wonderful... close my eyes, letting the color of wonders and the smell of burnt fire crackers of past Chinese New Years rush into my memory... I have not been home for a Chinese New Year celebration for as least that long as well.

I am going to look for Chinese food tonight.

Priceless Gift

2005-12-21T15:10:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas and here’s a little article that I have read and would like to share with you…

A priceless gift? Your life story (from USA TODAY)

By Alcestis "Cooky" Oberg Wed Dec 21, 6:45 AM ET

While we're out buying our kids electronic gadgets that will be obsolete by next Christmas, my godfather, Nick Conteas, is giving his grandson something important that will endure many years: the gift of his life story.

He wrote his memoirs - not out of vanity or self-aggrandizement - but out of a sense of duty, to teach his grandson how to be a good man in the real world. In his long life, my godfather has been a poor kid of immigrant parents, a champion athlete in both baseball and football, a college graduate with many friends, a military intelligence officer whose work spanned the globe during World War II, and a pioneering entrepreneur.

Through it all, he demonstrated the virtues of responsibility, hard work, devotion to family and duty to country. His grandson is unlikely to get such a role model from his school or the media these days.

And that's what makes the gift so special. Our kids need to know real things about life besides the lame fantasies they get on television: the life we lived, the good and bad choices we made, the lessons we learned, what we'd do if we had it to do over again. In short, whether role model or cautionary tale, the real story of our lives is the best thing we can give kids because it's true, and they'll learn from it.

Batting back the bullies
Take my godfather's childhood. When little Nick was jeered by other kids for being a weakling, he didn't whine about it or sue the school district. He went down to his basement and practiced hitting a ball on a rope with a bat until he became a champion hitter. He became such a good baseball player, he not only became a valued teammate in a tough neighborhood but also was invited as a teenager to play for the Chicago White Sox.
Schools today teach whining and excuse-making - not empowerment through challenge, hard work and determination.

His grandson is not going to find on television the tale of becoming the man of the family at 16 years old either, as my godfather did. He financially supported his mother and sister after his father died during the Depression, while putting himself through Northwestern University on athletic scholarships and odd jobs. He kept 50 cents in his pocket for emergencies and sent everything else home. Self-sacrifice and responsibility for others are not part of the manly role model that is taught in movie chase scenes and shoot-'em-ups, or by celebrity misbehavers and cheaters.

During our current wartime when public officials mostly point fingers and lay blame, my godfather's story of hard-charging patriotism and duty to country would be lost, too. Though he had a deferment, he wanted to protect the United States. A talented investigator, he first worked Naval counterintelligence in the States, then foreign intelligence in the Middle East, and finally battlefield intelligence in the Pacific. He observed how our allies were often more intent on postwar political and economic positioning than fighting an enemy.
In the Pacific, he saw not only the heroism of ordinary men but sometimes also the hand of God, too. For instance, in the Philippines, his PT boat's engines stopped suddenly as the crew were fleeing enemy fire - but the enemy kept firing beyond them, at the spots they would have been if the engines had kept running.

After the war, he married and went into business, where honesty and forthrightness with customers and partners were his trademarks - not a popular theme on The Apprentice. Living a modest lifestyle helped his family ride the ups and downs of business more easily - rather than "living large," which we are all encouraged to do in our culture.

On a personal level, he stresses to his grandson that it's a sin to cheat on one's wife: Love is not just a feeling but a way of life, an adamantine commitment - something demonstrated every day in the form of teamwork, patience and devotion.
Where in Hollywood are you going to hear that?

Life lessons
Life posed a question to Nick Conteas: What kind of man are you? In four notebooks, he answered it with a lifetime of principled and courageous actions - in many circumstances, in many places in the world, in the shifting times of nearly nine decades. Sometimes his honesty and stubborn rectitude got him into trouble, and he suffered professionally and financially for it. But in the end, he didn't lose who he was. He didn't compromise his morals and ethics to the pressures, temptations, frustrations and demands that were thrown in his path through his long and complicated life. He was - and ever will be - a good man.

And that's just what kids need to hear this Christmas, every Christmas. Whether housewife or doctor, truck driver or engineer, lawyer or lineman, we all have stories to tell - great stories. Perhaps we could write, record, or videotape these stories for our youngsters in installments over the years - something for them to look forward to during the holidays. They hardly know us or know what's important in life anymore, amid today's noise and clutter.

In my eyes, my godfather is a quiet hero, one of millions who form the bedrock of our nation. He's come a long way from that kid with 50 cents in his pocket through hard work, honesty, and decency.

And it's not surprising that he would take up the lance of truth in old age for the sake of his grandson, and charge full tilt against the greatest evil of our times - the absence of teaching virtue and morality to our young people.

Alcestis "Cooky" Oberg lives in Houston and is a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.

Boy from the prairie

2005-12-20T16:56:00.000-06:00

Just came back to the States, after a very eventful two weeks in Kuching, Sarawak.

This is one of the little events.

Upon our arrival at Kuching, our family went out together as much as we could. I noticed that my 3 year old seems to be lost at the landscape out of the car windows with great frequency. His face puzzled… I did not force to ask him about it, thinking that he will talk to me about it very soon.

Then two days later, he suddenly asked me, “Dad, what is that thing?” I look out the window but could not pinpoint his question. He pointed at the hills and mountain at the horizon. Upon understanding his question I told him that they are called mountains. He was so fascinated with that. So I explained to him about these oversized rocks that ringed the city.

For the two weeks of staying, he would always scream with great excitement, “Look dad, another mountain!!”, “There’s another one dad”, “Wow, there are so many mountains!”

You see, my son, who was born in of Houston, Texas, the land of bayous and prairies. Now almost 4 years old, has never seen a real-life mountain in his life. His excitement was so genuine and innocent that I guess, I learnt from his point of view how to experience the majestic mountain again.

He helped me remembered that I have always love mountains. So I brought him to a wall climbing facility that day. A few days later I brought him to climb the Gading Mountain at the Gunung Gading National… but that’s another story.

9697 miles from where I was born

2005-12-01T08:16:00.000-06:00

This afternoon, I will be traveling 9697 miles(on a straight line, but airports are not on a straight of course) away from Houston to 1"34'N 110"25'E on the other side of the earth... yes, 1 degree from the equator... sun at 12 o'clock is really at 12 o'clock... really.

My little brother(actually taller than me by about 6") is finally going to tie the knot with a girl. So I am going to do what a loving brother should,... to ring a wine glass and tell stories that will completely embarrass him in front of all his friends.

I will post some pictures in two weeks. Ta ta.

Mortality and landslide

2005-11-23T14:46:00.000-06:00

That previous thoughts bring me to a song that swims through my life quite a bit since forever. May be it’s the holiday season that makes you slow down and think a little. And I do think a lot about my mortality of late.

All the bad things that had happened in my life for the last few years… feelings and emotions was the last to go, but an angel brought them back. But you know, spirit and man are never meant to be together.

Two smaller version of me running the house, laughing, smiling, bring the sunshine into my dim little shire… playing, testing, learning, doing all the things that I have done before… Oh! Not forgetting hurting themselves as well. As a parent, all I can do is to patch them up and let them do what ever that they are doing again.

Fleetwood Mac, Dixie Chicks, Smashing Pumpkins have all done a version of this song… I still like the original the most… so here enjoy.

Landslide

I took my love, I took it down
Climbed a mountain and I turned around
I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills
’till the landslide brought me down

Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love
Can the child within my heart rise above
Can I sail thru the changing ocean tides
Can I handle the seasons of my life

Well, I’ve been afraid of changing
’cause I’ve built my life around you
But time makes you bolder
Children get older
I’m getting older too

Oh, take my love, take it down
Climb a mountain and turn around
If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well the landslide will bring it down

If you see my reflection in the snow covered hills
Well maybe the landslide will bring it down

A largemouth, 3 spotteds, 2 bluegills and a pumpkinseed

2005-11-23T13:59:00.000-06:00

I had a chance to drive out to the country, at Plantersville, TX, a few days ago. The weather was chilly but tolerable. Weather was dry and the sun came out once in a while when the puffy clouds were not watching.

The cabin was cozy and about 20 feet away is a nice little pond where we could fish. Half an hour after arriving there, we got the grill ready, got a little campfire up next to the pond, some marshmallow on sticks; let my wife and the baby enjoy the melted marshmallow.

At the mean time my 3 year old and I have a different plan. We pull out our fishing rod, string them up, set the bubbles, some bullet lead, fixed some bread balls on the hooks and cast in. We waited, and waited, recasted but for about half an hour without a bite.

Time to improvise. We caught some frogs, but they are just too cute to be used as bait. So we romped around and caught some very active grasshoppers and decided to try them to lure the fish.

It works. In the next hour, my son and I caught 7 fishes. 1 largemouth bass, 3 spotted basses, 2 bluegills and a pumpkinseed. The first fish I caught was a bluegill. My son was so excited that I decided to let him reel the fish in again. He end up “reel it in” 3 times. Poor fish. I did help the bluegill to get water through its gill before fully released it though.

My 3 year old son did “catch” two more fish, but unfortunately he did not know how to “set the hook”. So he reeled them in and lost both of them at the surface. It’s fun nonetheless.

I have not fish in 3 years... yes, my son is 3 years old... and that's the direct relation to that. And to bring him fishing and caught fishes and seeing his eyes lite up, was one of the greatest feeling in life.

Coldfront and tennis

2005-11-15T17:41:00.000-06:00

At this present moment, I am looking at the cold front coming in from the North, bringing rain, thunderstorm and chill to the windows of my office.

Yesterday, the weather report said that Nov 14, 2005 should be the last day of “summer” because the Canadian cold front will reach Houston by tonight Nov 15, 2005.

So last night, after work, I called up the 3 regular tennis sparing partners of mine, in order celebrate the coming of winter, and also lamenting the last day of playing tennis with shorts and T-shirts this year.

At the gas pumps

2005-11-10T10:34:00.000-06:00

At the gas pumps.

I got some gas yesterday after holding out as long as I could. I got it for $2.12 per gallon. Wow! That was actually cheap comparing to last couple week. Then again, I was buying gas at $0.89 exactly 12 month ago!!

Now folks. Most of us are actually paying for an amount of gas but do not collect all that we’ve paid for.

For example. You pay with credit card. Pull the pump handler out of the machine. The pump flap drop. You put the pump in the car, press the button that select the grade. And then pump away. After the automatic gas pump handler jumped. You put the handler back and drive away.

Well, you are not getting all that you are paying for. What you should do after the automatic gas pump handler jumped is to manually push the flap. That turns off the machine. So what remains in the pump handler and the tube is still yours. And now pump the handler. It will give you your share of gas that you’ve already paid for. It won’t be much but then again, it’s yours.

It’s like buying a bacon cheese hamburger. Would you leave the bacon behind? No. You’ve paid for them.

Happy gassing and drive safe.

By the way if you live in SW Houston click HERE. It tells you the locations of lowest priced gas in town.

For all other people in the US and Canada, please check Gas Buddy before you go to fill up your car in the future.

Greatest design half the world would see

2005-11-04T18:12:00.000-06:00

When I saw this picture, I was crushed. I wish I was the first one be brave enough to come up with this design. Unfortunately, this project will only be enjoyed by the lesser race of human kind...

By the way ladies... which one are you?

Oh yes... they are in 3D... put on your 3-D glass and see them pop!

Toilet fixtures. If you really like that sort of things, this are the ones that you rarely see, unless you are an architect or... a convict... not that's anything wrong with that.

In the sun

2005-11-01T10:34:00.000-06:00

This is one of those songs that you will cherish forever... when the emotion is right.
A song about looking back or look into the sky and pause for a while.
The song is about memories, regrets, move forward and wishing nothing but love and well...

In the sun
by Joseph Arthur
performed by Peter Gabriel 1997 and Joseph Authur 2000

I picture you in the sun wondering what went wrong
And falling down on your knees asking for sympathy
And being caught in between all you wish for and all you seen
And trying to find anything you can feel that you can believe in

May God’s love be with you
Always
May God’s love be with you

I know I would apologize if I could see your eyes
’Cause when you showed me myself I became someone else
But I was caught in between all you wish for and all you need
I picture you fast asleep
A nightmare comes
You can’t keep awake

May God’s love be with you
Always
May God’s love be with you

’Cause if I find
If I find my own way
How much will I find
If I find
If I find my own way
How much will I find
You

I don’t know anymore
What it’s for
I’m not even sure
If there is anyone who is in the sun
Will you help me to understand
’Cause I been caught in between all I wish for and all I need
Maybe you’re not even sure what it’s for
Any more than me

May God’s love be with you
Always
May God’s love be with you