Temporal Paralysis

Hailing from my alma mater, I’m kicking myself in the butt for not attending last year’s SOY 2008. (That’s because NS stints are… well, stink.) So, in not missing the anticipation of attending the first cosplay event in the year 2009, I’m preparing myself for it.

Unfortunately, contract positions have the undesired ability to kill off your employment terms, so I had no chance in investing in a better flash unit. I’m considering bringing in my 18-55mm kit lens, because what the heck am I shooting long-range for?

This is my preparatory post, so yes, I’m expected to be there soon. A couple of famous figures may also be there. If you are looking for me, I’ll be wearing the infamous HDMW’s NS=Sinkies T-shirt. (Many thanks to winsonkoh.)

In my time lurking around in the IRC, some idiot will post a link which either is made out of lulz or AWESUM.

This one is AWESUM.

Picture copyright of Gamu-Toys.

Freaking awesome! Barack Obama has his own figurine already! And he’s fighting against the dark side, to add on!

Picture copyright of Gamu-Toys.

Most of my shots were taken up North, where nature are less disturbed and less developed than in Singapore. If you’re wondering what kind of citizenship I hold, leave that thought somewhere. (Picture-intensive, so non-broadband users, please beware of slow loading times.)

In the land of the coconut palms, there are lots of villages and suburban towns scattered in Malaysia where coconut palm plantation is rife. This produce is the main source for all the cooking oils and some of the industrial-scale ingredients. It was also one of the fuels for bio-diesel. (Unfortunately, the economic downturn has also watered down demand for coconut palms.)

Bio-diversity in Malaysia is naturally far larger than Singapore, because of the large swathes of forested regions. However, the push for biodiesel as well as industrialization of agriculture has pushed the balance between a sustainable natural ecosystem, and development of the nation.

That is not to say that farmers must be denied access to modern living. But mindsets need to be cemented early on, to understand the fragile landscape of the Malay Peninsula forest (or what’s left of it) and temper it with a right mix of tolerance of wildlife, and clever use of farming methods (such as the use of predators to snare crop-snatching pests).

Sometimes, we often forget that we came to Earth out of nothing (but from a drop of semen), and we can take out nothing from the Earth (except our deeds and legacies). Hence we must ponder on our purpose in order to understand the complex nature of our planet.

I’m sorry, did I just bore you with my spiders?

Some of the shots I take are used with the 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS lenses, because some shots are not possible with the kit lens provided (such as the bird above). As a result, my shots feels more “naturist” than what I have intended to do in mind (that is, events photography). I tried my best to not use a higher ISO, so the maximum ISO I set for my images are 400 (on a Rebel XSi/450D).

It’s a hard take to shoot bees, because of their constant movement. It’s also hampered by the fact that the jungle floor lighting is poor (the forest canopy blocks sunlight sometimes). At best, some of the shots look good on small prints, but otherwise blurry on larger prints.

Some of the images here (or rather, most of them) have been post-processed using free and open-source software. RAW treatment is done via Raw Therapee (ISO 400 images have noises in them), and some image manipulation is done on The Gimp and Paint.NET. I’ve not taken to task in buying/”acquiring” the latest Adobe Photoshop CS4, nor am interested in Adobe Lightroom 2.0 (both are essential tools for photographers dabbling in digital darkroom software, and I recommended them to all other users).

Well, that wraps up my “naturist” post. I hope you enjoyed the photos I’ve posted up.

Speaking of up North, I spoke with some fellows I met up with, and they’re very keen to just go North in search of that… fabulous fast food item that starts with ‘R’. I’ll be more than happy to follow-up on such a gathering (JB is a whole new different ball-game than if you were travelling in the countryside, which was how I spent most of my weekends now). I’ll post up when I can finally safely say that you guys can come up North for some fun.

Most of the articles I chose to publicise came from Torrentfreak, because, well, let’s face it: we’re all perpetually criminals in the eyes of both the law and content owners.

This article features a pilot project by a Californian-based “entrepreneur” who has build a project based on… prisons. He wants all Internet users to actually “book” a cell, to anticipate a future where thought-crime is commonplace, and things such as fair dealing and P2P sharing are all but outlawed.

That’s right, gentlemen: all your anime downloading, streaming of anime shows and Jdramas, your music downloading, your game rips, your software cracks, are essentially “illegal”: time to book a comfortable cell now. The content owners — especially the RIAA and the MPAA — have been contacted to provide funding for this prison project.

(Note: Please refer to this page to know the real status of the project. I know about it already.)

Onto the second article:

Once upon 2009, there is a couple. Both love games, and they would like to create games for people who love games. They also love iPhone. So they decided to market their game on IPhone Apps Store. They hoped to make some money out of their enterprise.

They were elated to hear that people are downloading their games. So to provide empirical evidence, they compared the number of users that downloaded their game on Apps Store, to the actual number of people that had the game on their iPhones.

To their surprise, the numbers on Apps Stores’ were less than the actual figures.

They figured that somebody out there must have cracked their software to provide a free access to their game. So by sea and air, they managed to find the cracker-pirate.

Turns out both the creator and the pirate exchanged mutual conversations.

This is a story of how content owners should not be forced into idiocy such as suing of dead people and computer-less guys for ripped content. It is also a highlight of how when people don’t give a damn about listening to consumers’ plights, they will resort to piracy. I applaud Mr. and Mrs. James Bossert’s efforts in understanding the situation.

So there you have it. My 2 cent’s worth of thought.

I’m posting this, to inform you guys that I have purchased a hosting solution; in a couple of weeks I’ll be setting up my WordPress blog and several other doodads in that platform. In the meantime, I’ll still be doing that nature post-up that I promised almost a week back, so don’t fret.

As a consolation, here’s a picture of Megurine Luka, the latest Vocaloid character to be introduced.

I was never a fan of figurines due to religious obligations (or rather, a personal hesitance towards “staring eyes”), so whenever discussions about figurines and mecha kits arose on IRC, I usually shy away from them: I don’t have much knowledge about them, and there is a certain… downward slope that I may take if I go and buy a figurine.

So when people heralded what would seem an ultimate Figma figurine (Figma figurines are, IMO, more fun to play with because of their transposable limbs and faces), I was naturally curious to find out what was the commotion all about.

I stumbled upon a screenshot of it.

Oh, blimey! That’s one fine figurine. Unfortunately it’s available in limited orders, and it’s only found if you buy the PS2 game it’s going to be shipped with: Fate/Unlimited Codes. Pre-orders have been made available by Play-Asia, so for those who are interested in it, go and get it.

As for me… where can I make reservations with?

(Sources courtesy of Sankaku Complex and Alafista. Picture was taken from GPara.com.)

Here’s a happy new year to all girlfriend-depraved/2D-con people on the Internet. XD

I don’t need to elaborate so much, but for all those that still follow the solar calendar, a happy new year to you guys. I hope you have a great time in planning great ambitions ahead.

Speaking of which, I listened to my heart, and did not watched the fireworks at the Esplanade. That’s because 1.) public transport is horrendous on New Year’s Day, and 2.) I was busy catching up on past 3 season shows.

I’ll post up that nature-oriented post some time after the festivities has gone down. And probably post a new year’s resolution.