So I hold some grudges

Some people say, let bygones be bygones. Some people say that everyone should move on, let go, and forget the unhappy past. For the most part, I can do that. Except certain cases. There are incidents which I think I’ll be bringing to the grave and beyond.

For example, there was this teacher back in primary school who taught my class 人文与环境 (something like Science before primary school had actual Science subject). One fine day in the library, she taught us about human anatomy. She asked the class, “有膀胱的人请举手！”(translate: Anyone who has bladder please raise your hand) Having learned basic human anatomy at home since young, I raised my hand, along with all the boys in my class. Everyone burst out laughing, including the teacher. Not knowing what’s so funny about having a bladder, I just stared at her. Apparently, she (and the entire class thanks to her reaction) thought that the bladder was the penis! I was horrified, and felt so wronged. That day, I went to my mom and told her about this incident. My mom, who’s a teacher at the same school, went to the teacher the next day and patiently explained to her what a bladder is. That day, the teacher grudgingly mumbled to our class an apology and explained what a bladder is. Can you believe this? A full-grown adult, a teacher, no less…not knowing what the bladder was! I will never forget this teacher, and will never stop hating her.  Sixteen years later, I still refer to her as “the teacher who doesn’t have a bladder”.

Another case is this guy who was interested in me back in high school. You’d think that guys would heap praises to woo the girls they like, or at the very least, not insult them, right? WRONG! This guy wrote in my high school autograph book that I’m like a chocolate muffin, “unattractive on the outside, but yummy on the inside”. Uhh, while I appreciate that he thinks I have great personality, and I don’t expect to be compared to Angelina Jolie any time soon, being compared to a lump of chocolate cake did not sit well with me!

Then there was this other guy…who was one of my first boyfriends when I was young and naive. I wasn’t happy in the relationship and broke up with him. His reaction? “Are you sure? What if nobody ever wants you in the future?” Narciccist much? I promptly replied with “I’d rather be single forever than be with you.” Who knows, perhaps he holds a grudge against me for saying this too! And I couldn’t care less.

But don’t worry, I don’t hold grudges easily.

Avatarize me!

This afternoon my brother sent me a link to a photo of his Avatarized self. I could not stop laughing for a good 2-3 minutes at the sight of it. It was so funny, so him! So of course I had to try it myself.

Go on, laugh! You don’t have to hold it in… I burst out laughing when I saw this picture, and I’m still chuckling now. It’s fun!

Avatarize yourself at http://www.avatarizeyourself.com/!

新年快乐！

Although the actual day still two whole weeks away, it’s that time of the year again: sending Chinese New Year cards to family and friends! Since I came to the US, I’ve sent handmade cards home pretty much every Chinese New Year. I think the only time I didn’t was last year because I was home for Chinese New Year.

Besides being the only time of the year that USPS gets so much business from me in a single day, it’s also the only time of the year that I bring out my Chinese calligraphy brush and ink.

Here’s a photo of some of the cards I made this year:

Here’s wishing everyone a healthy, prosperous, and happy year of the Tiger! Cheers!

Byakuya and Renji Plurk Theme

I tend to get a little caught up in things once I start, so since I’ve started with an Ulquiorra Plurk theme, I might as well make more. Yesterday I shared a Hisagi and Kira theme. Today, I’m sharing a Byakuya and Renji Plurk theme. Once more it’s a theme that uses a portrait that I drew a few months ago based on Kubo Tite’s All Color But The Black art book. Here it is…

To install this Plurk theme, just click http://www.plurk.com/installDesign/56-7459c06741. Enjoy!

Hisagi and Kira Plurk Theme

Tonight I made another new (well, sort of new) Bleach Plurk theme. This time this theme is about Hisagi Shuhei and Kira Izuru; using the portrait of them that I drew a few months ago.

To install these Plurk theme, please click http://www.plurk.com/installDesign/56-ae92b0f4ef. Enjoy!

Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce

When I bought my 430EX II, I also read up about flash diffusers. From what I understand, diffusers can help reduce harsh shadows sometimes cast by the flash and are supposed to make photos more natural. I pondered my options: a lightsphere or a simple plastic cap-like diffuser like the Sto-Fen Omni-Bounce. The lightsphere is supposed to be better at diffusing light and will make photos more natural, while something like the Sto-Fen is more compact and travel-friendly. Being wary of looking overly-professional (while in reality I’m far from that) and attracting too much unwanted attention, I went for the Sto-Fen.

It is quite literally a small plastic cap that is designed to fit over the flash with about an inch-wide gap in between. Because of that tiny a gap, people say that it doesn’t diffuse light very well.

Of course I had to test it out with my favorite subject. For these photos, I tilted the flash quite a bit, such that the light bounces from the wall in front of me. I’m not sure what’s the angle exactly, but the flash looks like this:

First, here are photos of Renji ranging from without flash (top left), with flash and no diffuser (top right), to with flash and diffuser (bottom).

In this case, I prefer the one with flash without diffuser, because the diffuser actually made Renji’s face a tad too bright, and the shadow cast behind Renji was too dark.

Next, I tilted my flash a little closer towards the ceiling, like this:

This time I shall compare just two photos, one with flash only (left), and one with flash and diffuser (right).

Again, I prefer the one without the diffuser because the photo shows more depth and the brightness is pretty balanced overall. The one with the diffuser made Renji too bright (there are no shadows all right!) and made the background too dark.

Lastly, I adjusted my flash to point directly at the ceiling.

Again, we’ll look at two photos, one with just the flash (left) and one with flash and diffuser (right).

This time you can clearly see that the photo taken without the diffuser has too much shadow, and has a slight reddish tint (although still much better than the one taken without flash). With my limited knowledge, I think it’s because the light was directed at the ceiling so not much light reached Renji; and even when it did, it was like having a lightbulb directly above Renji’s head, hence the shadows. The one taken with the diffuser definitely shows that light was reaching Renji from more directions.

While I read that when using this type of diffuser, the flash needs to be at a 45 degree angle, I noticed in this experiment that the further I tilted the flash away from the ceiling (i.e. closer to 45 degrees), the less I like how the photos turned out. Perhaps in this case it’s simply because the subject was too close or it could be that I’m in a small space so I’m too near to the walls and the ceiling.

To be honest, after this experiment, I’m not sure at all when I should use the diffuser and when I shouldn’t. I find the color of the photos taken with the diffuser a tad too washed out and has less depth than I like. Given the very limited setup in this experiment, I’m sure there are situations (larger room maybe?) when the diffuser would produce nicer photos, I just have to practice more and learn through trial and error.

Ulquiorra Plurk Theme

Some time last week an enthusiastic fellow Bleach fan contacted me through Plurk and asked me if I could make an Ulquiorra plurk theme. Well, being an enthusiastic Bleach fan myself, I couldn’t decline.

I didn’t have the extra time to customize everything like I did for my own Renji theme, but I did change the background and dashboard images. Here it is:

To install this Plurk theme, click http://www.plurk.com/installDesign/56-cdd0cfa12d. Enjoy!

Sakurabito

As I mentioned in a previous post, I like SunSet Swish’s songs quite a bit thanks to the Bleach anime. Their first song featured as a Bleach theme was My Pace, and their second, Sakurabito, is currently the ending theme for the anime (the zanpakutou filler arc). Even though the ending theme started being used months ago, the full version of the song didn’t get released till this month.

And here it is:

Finally!

Since I’ve been enjoying Sherlock Holmes so much lately, I’m feeling kind of bummed that I’m nearing the end of the Sherlock Holmes adventures. So I went on my favorite store (ahem, Amazon of course) and ordered Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World. I’ve read that it’s something like Jurassic Park and Journey to the Center of the Earth, both of which I had enjoyed immensely. After placing the order, I waited patiently.

So yesterday I happened to go on Amazon to track my package. To my surprise the status shows “Delivered” on January 15th, which was last Friday. Alarmed, I immediately went to the shipping department at my office–I usually have things shipped to my office because I’m never at home during delivery times. The shipping guys were kind enough to search for my package, but to my dismay, couldn’t locate it. They told me that perhaps “Delivered” meant that it was delivered to the post office and still needed to be distributed out, and since yesterday was MLK day and USPS was closed, it would have to wait for an extra day. I was puzzled that reaching the post office would be considered “Delivered”, but there was nothing I could do, so I waited.

Today I went to the office and was again disappointed to see no sign of my package. I called up USPS customer service in an attempt to get more details on the tracking information, which, of course I wasn’t able to get. So a report was made, and I was to receive a phone call within 2 business days as a follow-up. Not half an hour after I hung up the phone, I received a phone call from the shipping department guy…my package has arrived. *doh*

So here it is…

I can’t wait to sink my teeth into that book! The wonderful new book smell! The crisp sound of the pages turning, the lovely words dancing across the pages…they’re calling out to me! Okay I may be a little dramatic there. I’m one who will never trade books with an electronic book reader like Kindle. I love to hold my books and be able to turn the pages, no amount of bling in those electronic book readers can lure me away!

And of course I couldn’t just order one book at a time. Along with this I also ordered…

Patient Zero. Supposedly a book about zombies and terrorism. I haven’t read any books by Jonathan Maberry–never even heard of him, but I’ll give him a shot. How can anyone mess up a topic about zombies, right?

Recently, I saw…

*~Avatar~*

Okay, so this wasn’t that recent. I saw this with my parents, my grand-uncle, and my grand-uncle’s friend Uncle Neal when I was in Malaysia last December. It was the first time my parents saw a movie in 3D, and it was the first time my grand-uncle and his friend saw a movie in a theater in 17 years. *gasp*

I really enjoyed the movie, although I must admit that watching it in 3D was distracting. The 3D-ness of the movie kind of prevented me from paying attention to the background when I wanted to, and the fact that the glasses were heavy and uncomfortable didn’t help. I loved the graphics and colors in the movie, the storyline was engaging, and the ending beautiful. So I was really disappointed when I read that James Cameron is going to make Avatar a trilogy. I really hope it won’t be The Matrix all over again. Sometimes a good movie should be left a good movie.

*~Sherlock Holmes~*

I briefly mentioned this in one of my previous posts, that I thought that Guy Ritchie’s presentation of Sherlock Holmes (and Watson) is more faithful to the original books than I had expected. At first I found it hard to picture Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes because I kept seeing Iron Man in him, but after a while it sank in. I loved the little bits of Holmes they retained, like his messiness, his “thinking pose”, how he plays the violin when he tries to think through a problem, his boxing skills, sarcasm etc. I also like that Dr. Watson was portrayed as a capable doctor and loyal friend. I was so afraid that they would make Dr. Watson a fumbling idiot and make him the comic relief of the movie. Jude Law made a very good Watson.

The movie was funny, witty (I loved Holme’s subtle humor in his dialogues), and kept me entertained the entire time. Of course I am in the middle of reading the original Holmes stories so I’m kind of obsessed with Sherlock Holmes right now, so maybe I’m a little biased. ^.^ I found it slightly annoying that they hinted in the movie that Holmes likes Irene Adler, because personally I think the only reason Holmes remembers Adler was because she outwitted him. Holmes is too high and mighty for romance!

Unlike Avatar, I’m looking forward to the sequel.

*~Man On Fire~*

This movie actually came out in 2004. I don’t know why I didn’t pay attention to it back then, but graduating from my Bachelor’s degree may have something to do with it. Anyhow, I saw it this Saturday and enjoyed it. Denzel Washington always plays the tough guy hero, and he shines in the role. It was a very moving story with lots of action (it wasn’t rated R for nothing). For anyone who’s a fan of Denzel Washington, this is one of his must-sees. Watching this reminded me of The Bone Collector for some reason, so I’m going to re-watch that soon.

*~Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs~*

Very cute animation with over the top cuteness, I enjoyed the movie but am glad that I didn’t spend the money to see it in a theater. It was enjoyable, but not Wall-E type enjoyable. I wouldn’t call it a must-see, but if you have some free time…

*~The Treasure Hunter~*

Now, THIS, is what I call a complete waste of time. As in, “why-the-fuck-did-I-finish-this-movie” type waste of time. Sure, we all know that Jay Chou is a better singer than he is an actor, but Eric Tsang? Half the time I couldn’t understand what he was saying with his oddball Cantonese-Mandarin-English gibberish! Every scene in this movie was artistically shot, I loved the scenery, but it felt like they shot a series of nice shots and didn’t know how to connect them together. So in the end you have this terrible mush of Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, and The Mummy. I don’t know how anyone can mess up an interesting topic as this, but mess up they did.

The worst part of this movie was that there were too many things left unexplained. For example, who the heck is that mummy-like guy who fought Jay Chou for the treasure map? And who’s that dude made of sand who fought Jay Chou in the beginning of the movie? How did the 20 treasure hunters die in the desert many years ago? Who’s the dead guy in the tomb? What are those spirits? The questions go on and on.

My advice? DO NOT watch this movie if you value your time.