MIND - FIELDS: careful where you stand

Nikon 90th Anniversary Ad

2009-04-03T16:03:00.001+08:00

Nice song.

Self pursuit

2009-01-08T10:28:00.007+08:00

The passage of time imprisons us not in a cell of brick and mortar, but in one of hopes dashed and tragedies unaverted. How precious then, the chance to go back, only to discover that in facing the past, you must face up to yourself. That exiting the prison of time doesn't free you from the prison of your own character, one from which there is no escape.

- Wells, ep6. season8, X-files

In love of a voice

2008-09-15T05:36:00.004+08:00

Her music was introduced to me by my sister. This Singaporean singer has an alluring and sexy voice; coupled with Bossa-nova and jazz like music style, her music is suitable for those quiet lonely nights. Somewhat reminiscence of Norah Jones.

Total love ♥

Addicted to red

2008-07-05T17:25:00.003+08:00

Is red the color of satan; the devil and all things vile and evil?

To the moon and back

2008-05-22T00:02:00.003+08:00

" There you are, whence my head raised;
    Your beauty echos, though far away you are;
        Alone, yet warmthly you glow;
            I sleep asound, with your presence, with your calm."

- Hajime: Of you

Canon S5 IS CHDK hack step-by-step tutorial

2008-04-26T12:43:00.044+08:00

CHDK for the Canon S5 IS has finally been succesfully ported! Users of the Canon S5 IS can now enjoy the features provided by CHDK namely 'modified' aperture, shutter speed and most importantly, RAW support!

Since I own a Canon S5 IS, naturally I would want CHDK! But alas, the path to CHDK wasn't that easy as I use a 8Gb SDHC card to store my photos. I believe there are S5 users out there who uses 8Gb cards for their S5 too, so I decided to write a step-by-step guide for these users to get CHDK to work on their 8Gb (or larger) SDHC's.

** Take note! Use this tutorial ONLY if you want to use SD/SDHC that are LARGER THAN 2GB! In other words, if your card is smaller than 2GB, you can use the default method highlighted in CHDKwiki. If you're wondering why, then I have a brief explanation below.**

** Although this method works, there are major DRAWBACKS to my method! Please UNDERSTAND THE DRAWBACKS before proceeding. If the mentioned issues does not effect you in anyway, then by all means roll on. **

Why all the fuss?
What I've learned is that CHDK can only be loaded in cards that are formatted in FAT12/FAT16. FAT12/FAT16 cards can only be formatted in a maximum size of 2Gb. In order to format cards in size larger than 2Gb, you will need to use FAT32, and CHDK won't load in FAT32 formatted cards. So, in order for CHDK to load AND use storage larger than 2Gb to store your photos, you need to partition the card into 2, and format these 2 partition with FAT12/FAT16 and FAT32 separately. FAT12/FAT16 for CHDK, and FAT32 for photo storage.

Drawbacks
After you are done with everything, you start up your camera and woot! CHDK baby! So you go along shooting photos.. in RAW. So you come home, plug in the card and you see 2 volumes under 'Hard Disk Drives' in MyComputer. One is the FAT12/FAT16 drive used to loadup CHDK; and another is FAT32 drive where all your photos are stored. After reviewing the photos, you say to yourself "Cool, I'll show these photos to my collegues tomorrow at work!"

Tomorrow comes, and you bring along your SD/SDHC to office, asks everyone to gather aorund your workstation and plug in your card. BUT, to your horror, you can't see the drive where your photos are stored! You can only see the FAT12/FAT16 drive in 'removable storage' under MyComputer. WTF!?

Why is that? Well, Windows can only read 1 partition from removable storage. Since our card has 2 partitions (one FAT12/FAT16, one FAT32), windows only read the first partition which is the DAT12/FAT16 partition. The other partition is left 'untouched'.

You ask:" But I can see it in my computer at home! (which you used to partition the card)" Well, you can see it because there is one step below that installs a custom driver which makes your card/cardreader a fixed drive. So all partitions are shown in Windows.

Bottom line is, use this only if the following applies:

You only transfer files in your own computer (the one where you installed the custom driver).
You can install the custom driver in whichever computer you work in. (e.g. you need to transfer files in office computer, so install the custom driver there).

Well, yeah it's not perfect yet. I think DataGhost or someone from the CHDK forums may come up with a fix for this. =D But until then, those are the only options we have... at least to my knowledge.

Things to do before we begin:
1) Head to CHDK wiki to read up the basic steps and info. If you are a technical person, then head over to the CHDK Card forum to do some read up. Don't worry if you don't understand the technicalities, that is what this tutorial is for ;) So after getting a rough idea, come back here for further instructions.

2) CLEAN UP YOUR SD/SDHC!! You will be needing to partition/format your card, so move out any photos or data that you need. Dun come crying to me when you forgot to backup your daughter's 6th birthday pics. =P

3) Plan your time. The whole process is going to take around 45~60 minutes. With a lot of steps. I will do my best to describe each step as detail as possible, but you might not get certain steps correct at first try. So make sure you are sober and have plenty time.

4) Pay attention to steps that I highlight in red, those are more important steps.

After all the preparation, you can start your journey to CHDK. Here goes!

** Note that I do not take credit for most of the CHDK related stuff. This tutorial is a compilation of works that I found on the internet, and I will provide a link to the original resources, so all credit goes to their respective creaters/owners. **

Here are the major steps that are needed for CHDK to work on your high capacity SDHCs:
Step 1. Ascertain the firmware version of your Canon S5 IS
Step 2. Download the correct CHDK version and Tools
Step 3. Make our card into a 'fixed disk' for partitioning
Step 4. Partition card
Step 5. Make card bootable
Step 6. Voila! CHDK on high capacity SD/SDHCs!
Appendix A: Todo
Appendix B: Credits!

Step 1: Ascertain the firmware version of your Canon S5 IS
There are two different versions of firmware used by Canon S5 IS in the market, and you need the right version of CHDK to work. These two Canon S5 IS versions are:
1) 1.01a
2) 1.01b

So how do you go about finding out the version of your firmware? It's pretty easy, read up how to get firmware version. Below are the steps I took (each step is followed by a picture to illustrate the steps):

1) Open up 'My Computer' and go to Tools>Folder Options

2) Go to the 'View' tab, and find the entry 'Hide extensions for known file types'. Uncheck it.

3) Plug your card into a card reader. After your pc detects the card, it will be assigned with a drive letter.

4) Use 'My Computer' to navigate into your SDHC, right click and select New > Text Document.

5) A 'New Text Document.txt' file is created.

6) Rename the file to 'ver.req' (like how I circled it red in the pic below). A prompt will appear, click on 'yes'.

7) You're done!

8) Now plug in the card into your Canon S5 IS and ** start in 'PLAYBACK MODE' **. After start-up in playback mode, you are presented with the 'no image' screen. (Pardon the blurry pics, took it with my handphone cam)

9) Now, press the SET + DISP. buttons together (press SET first, hold it down, then press DISP). If you did everything right, you will be presented with this screen:

It reads slighty different depending on which version you have:

For 1.01a

Canon PowerShot S5 IS
P-ID:3148 PAL D

Firmware Ver GM1.01A
No error
May 29 2007 18:17:20

For 1.01b

Canon PowerShot S5 IS
P-ID:3148 PAL D

Firmware Ver GM1.01B
No error
June 14 2007 20:11:19

Things that can go wrong here
If you get firmware Ver. 1.0.1.0, you fumbled somewhere! Format your card and start again!

Whew! After all those steps, you finally get to know your Canon S5 IS firmware version! Now we are one step closer!

Step 2: Download the correct CHDK version and Tools
Before begin download these things, I suggest you create a folder to store these files for your own convenient's sake. At least you won't need to search around your cluttered desktop when you need the files. Anyway, I've included a zipped package with all the things that you need. Download it here. Or if you don't trust me ;P, you can download it yourself from each of the respective sites below.

1) Pretty simple step. Just head over to CHDKwiki download page and grab the CHDK version according to your S5 firmware version. And yeah it has to be same, else it won't work.

2) Now go to this CHDK Card tricks forum thread and locate the download link for cardtricks. This nifty little tool written by whim will let you format your card and make it bootable.

3) Read reply #4 from the CHDK S5 forum thread. You will need this file to make your removable disk a 'permanent disk' so you can partition it. (Anyone know any better way to partition SD/SDHC cards? Please let me know as this is the only way I know). Don't worry if it seems confusing, I will illustrate the steps shortly. There is a link there to download this file: http://www.xpefiles.com/viewtopic.php?t=92. The file name is 'xpfildrvr1224_320.zip'.

Alright, now that's all the files you need to get your card to workin'. Again, you can download this file here which I created with everything you need. Onwards!

Step 3: Make our card into a 'fixed disk' for partitioning
Read up CHDK Card forum « Reply #4 on: 16 / January / 2008, 14:42:27 » posted by lukg. That is the step to make your card from a 'removable media' to a 'permanent disk' so that we can partition it.

** Highly dangerous stunt up ahead! If you are unfamiliar with registry editing and windows drivers, please read through this section first. If you find that you can't understand half of what I wrote, cease operation and seek help from your geek/nerd friend. Or if you must continue, DO A SYSTEM RESTORE POINT first. If anything goes terribly wrong, you can go back to the restore point. You have been warned.**

1) Startup registry editor, go to run from the start button, and type 'regedit' and press enter.

2) After the editor loads, navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\USBSTOR\
You will see a couple entries below USBSTOR. These are the removable disk's registry entries.

3) Now locate your card reader. I use a Kingston Data Traveler Reader. Hopefully you will find traces of the card reader name. I poked around the entries and found out that this key refers to my card reader. (In the red squares, click on pic for a larger view).

4) Now copy the name of the key into notepad. For mine, the text that is needed is 'USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Kingston&Prod_Card_Reader&Rev_6000'. Remember to include the 'USBSTOR\' before the key name. Here is an example of mine:

5) Now open up the file 'xpfildrvr1224_320.zip' that you downloaded. It is a zipped file. Extract all the files into a folder. Locate the file 'cfadisk.inf', and open it in notepad.

6) Look at the following screenshot for clarification. Scroll down untill you see the line
%Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install, cfadisk_install,IDE\DiskIBM-DSCM-11000__________________________SC2IC801

Now you need to replace ALL lines "%Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install, blablabla" with the line you copied from your registry. Here is my example:

%Microdrive_devdesc% = cfadisk_install, USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Kingston&Prod_Card_Reader&Rev_6000

Change from:

Replace those line highlighted in yellow in the picture above with the line what you copied in step 4. I replaced those lines with 'USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Kingston&Prod_Card_Reader&Rev_6000' as the following picture shows. ** PAY EXTRA CAREFUL ON WHAT TEXT ARE REPLACED! **

After done, save.

7) ** Plug in your card reader **. Goto Control Panel>System>Device Manager. Under 'Disk Drives', you should see your card reader. Double click your card reader device. A dialog pops up. Go to the 'Dirver' tab, and select 'Update Driver'.

8) When Windows ask to connect to Windows Update to search for software, select 'No, not this time'.
When Windows ask "What do you want the wizard to do?", select 'Install from a list of specific location (Advanced)'.
The 'Hardware Update Wizard' dialog pop up will appear, select 'Don't search. I will choose a driver to install'.

9) Select 'Have Disk', and browse to the modified driver (the file 'cfadisk.inf' that we edit just now.)

10) You will see this dialog. Click 'Next'. Windows will warn you that this driver is not uncertified and gives a whole bunch of warnings. Just continue with the installation.

11) Restart your computer. After you reboot, you will see that your removable drive (card reader) is now a 'Fixed drive'. Yay! Now we can partition and format our card!

Step 4: Partition card
1) Goto Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management, on the side bar. Locate 'Disk Management' and select it. You will be presented with a screen as below. Notice that my 'converted' SDHC is listed (in the red boxes).

2) There should be an existing 8Gb partition there. So delete that by right clicking on the card partition, and selecting 'Delete'. Make sure you are right clicking on the correct partition! Else you risk deleting your harddisk partition which cannot be undone!

3) Your card partition will be showing 'Unallocated'. So now we are going to create the FAT16 partition for booting CHDK. Right click on the empty partition and select 'New partition...'

4) Create a primary partition.

5) Allow 16Mb for that partition. (Theoratically can be any size u wan, but who wants to waste more space for it?)

6) Assign a drive letter, this drive letter will be used when u plug your card reader in.

7) Format it as FAT and allow a quick format.

8) Done! Our FAT16 partition for CHDK! Yeah baby yeah!

9) Now for the other partition. Do these steps:
i) Create new partition.
ii) Create primary partition.
iii) Allocate the maximum size.
vi) Assign a drive letter, used by windows when card is plugged in.
v) Format as FAT32!

10) Partition success!

My Computer view once you succeed:

Step 5: Make card bootable
1) Startup 'cardtricks that you downloaded just now. You will be presented with a 'Browse for folder' dialog. Select 'Cancel'.

2) Now the 'Allow fixed disk' is unchecked by default. Check it.

3) Click on the SD card icon to bring up the 'Browse for folder' dialog. Now remember our FAT16 partition is drive M? So select drive M and hit 'OK'.

4) The 'Make Bootable' button becomes enabled. Click on it!

5) Booyah, the card is now bootable!

6) Whats left is just to copy the CHDK (DISKBOOT.bin) into our bootable drive.

Step 6: Voila! CHDK on high capacity SD/SDHCs!
To enable CHDK, lock the card. The camera will boot CHDK.
To resume 'normal' operation (without CHDK), simply unlock the card. The camera will not boot CHDK.

WTF is this? Tat's CHDK on S5, LOL. Sorry taken with my phone camera...

Appendix A: To do
I read in the forums from DataGhost that if we make the FAT12/FAT16 an extended drive, Windows will ignore it and read the next main partition which will be the FAT32 partition (where all the photos are stored).

Currently I still can't 'change' the FAT12/FAT16 partition to be 'extended'. Doing so in the windows disk management don't seem to work as camera will show disk error. So I'm thinking mayb need to hack the partition table of the FAT12/FAT16... which I'm still figuring how to do.

Well, if it works, I assume that the card can then be used on ANY computer, irregardless of whether the custom driver is installed or not... I think.

Appendix B: Credits
Creators and owners of resources used in this tutorial:
Dataghost from the CHDK forums for porting over CHDK to S5, and a lot of info for booting SDHC.
whim THX for creating the neat tool card tricks.
lukg from the CHDK forums for pointing out the custom driver hack.
All the people who have contributed to the CHDK forum postings, I learned alot!

* Did I miss anyone? Or should someone be included? Let me know, lol.

Baby Hamster + Brocolli = Uber cuteness!!!

2008-04-06T14:41:00.005+08:00

Found this through Yahoo! Video. I don't know about you but this is just too cute!!!! XD I mean look at her! Her head is the same size with her body! Maybe even bigger! LOL!!!

Seems like the baby hamster's name is Mocha. Notice how she eats everything except for the the broccoli stem, mayb her teeth is not developed yet... or she is choosy in her veggies like me - eat the leaves but leave the stem of vegetables. =P

Haha, the 'feet-flipping' really made me LOL + "Awww, so dam cute! Sheet!". All lifeforms in their baby state sure is kawaii ne~

Sony PSP-2000 MG (PlayStation Portable Slim Mint Green) FTW!!!

2008-03-21T00:55:00.006+08:00

Yeah baby! Just bought me self a PSP slim last week. As you can see from the pic, I bought the recently released Mint Green PSP. Sweet ain't it? >o< It has that 'minty' feel to it alright. Makes me wanna bite it like a chewing gum or something, lol.

The 'colour-ed' PSP is part of the aptly named 'BLUME' series introduced by Sony which consist of several soft pastel colour. These colour include 'Felicia Blue', 'Rose Pink', 'Lavender Purple' and also 'Mint Green'. I guess Sony is trying to project a 'flowery' feel to these PSPs coz BLUME somes same to BLOOM. You know, like flower blooming? Okay, nevermind =_=", so now instead of the 'Piano Black', 'Ceramic White' and 'Ice Silver', people have a wider choice. I guess if you have enough money, you can buy all colours and do match-n-mix with your clothes.

Sony's signature console buttons Triangle, Square, Circle and Cross are reincarnated on the PSP. The top L/R buttons are cool transparent!

Here you have your digital movement keys and the analog joystick. Oh, and notice the glittery-sparkly finishing.

Green body, green theme. (But can set to other colour also lah.)

Actually I was poisioned by Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core. It's a PSP game focusing on the prologue of the PS One Final Fantasy VII. But now, I'm playing Monster Hunter Freedom 2 more than FFVII:CC. Here is a pic of a in-game real-time cut scene of MHF2. I have to say, I am dam impressed that a small device like this can churn out real-time 3D graphics like that.

Now I bring this baby wherever I go. In my morning trips on the LRT, I'll be staring at the 480x272 wide screen slashing dinos and collecting ores. Dam, makes me miss checking-out the babes on the LRT, lol.

Gunung Angsi - One day hike

2008-03-21T00:20:00.008+08:00

Well, as I've mentioned in my previous post, I planned to go into the mountains again. This time, me and my buddies are tackling Gunung Angsi, which is located in Negeri Sembilan. This mountain is 825 meters above sea level. Not very tall, but still provides some challenges.

Reaching there is rather simple. Just get into Seremban, then head to Kuala Pilah road. This will lead you to a winding road like Initial-D. Drive along the road and soon you will see Ulu Bendol. Ulu Bendol is one tourist location which consist of rivers and small water falls. I used to camp there when I was in the Scouts, ahh, memories.

Our journey begins from here. There is another route up to the summit though. It is a hidden track 3 to 4 kilometers before the main 'Ulu Bendol' entrance. We only found this out when we met a bunch of climbers at the summit who pointed it out. By the way, if you plan to ascend from Ulu Bendol, don't get duped by the lousy 'staff' at the offices there who claim a certain fee from you. Dam bastards probly used it to drink teh or eat nasi lemak.

Anyway, the climb is suitable for beginners or even intermediates. Since it's not very tall, one can tackle the summit and still have plenty of time to spare. We started our climb around 8 or 9am. And was just about 3 to 4pm when we reached back at the car park.

Expect the normal tropical forest foliage, monkey howls and small streams along the path. I still remembered when I was in the scouts the slopes seemed impossible for me. They are quite bearable now... maybe I've grown stronger, wahaha.

Holy mackerel! Saw these streams of ants along the path. I guess their 'nest' were blown down by the wind and they had to move or something. I had a few shots dam geli one. Macro pics of thse ants... which has big 'butts'. Haha, better not bah. I remember seeing some geli pics on the net... which stuck to my mind till now... curse those people who post those pics... =_="

Yup, I like the shade under the forest canopy. When the weather is good, being in the trees feel just so gud. Warmth from the sun is toned down from cool breeze; fresh air and bird chirps. Need I say moar? (Hah, of course when things go bad in the forest, it goes real bad).

My friend TeeHu saw this lil' critter worming around on the floor. Damn unique caterpillar! Little bugger kept wiggling around, so hard to shoot it. Doesn't it look like a tooth brush? Lol.

Woots, dam likes how the mountains fade away into the horizons. Reminds me of how my father used to teach me how to draw mountains - the colors get lighter as the mountains are further away.

This shot was taken on the summit of Angsi. TeeHu pointed out a red colored tree amongts the greeneries. Had to mess around with the tweaking... ended up with this... bleh...

JK ah... =P On the left is Tiong's wife, who joined us on several occasions on mountain hikes n stuff. Middle is Teehu and right is Tiong.

Shot courtesy of TeeHu. He was going for those 'Depth of Field' shots. Hah, S5 has limited DOF.

I mean it!

Forest + clear skies + forest ambient = win!

Canon S5 Reborned! Canon S5 IS + LAH-DC20 = FTW!!!!

2008-03-13T22:23:00.054+08:00

"I should've bought this wayyy earlier!". That's what I told myself when I plugged in the Canon LA-DC58E lens adapter and Canon LH-DC40 lens hood. I don't know about you but DAM, my S5 IS just grew more fierce! That's Rawrrr for you!!

Why I dint get this baby earlier? That's cause I was waiting for my credit card to order this online: Lensmate METAL adapters. (btw, didn't know S5 had a silver colour...) Yeah, Lensmate adapters are metal while the Canon one is tadaaa - plastic. Ugh... what gadget still uses plastic nowadays?

But luckily it still looks dam yeng and dam cool. Lol. Check out the comparison pics below. Dam, I'm loving my Canon S5 IS even moar. *Hugzzz Canon S5 IS*

And why did I suddenly bought it? Coz I was goin into the mountains again, so wanted protection for the S5 prime lens. The adapter allows a filter to be applied, thus protecting the prime lens.

Oh and btw, I'm taking these shots using my Nokia 6260 VGA cam. =_=" So yeah lots of noise n stuff. LOLx! Unbearable photo quality!

It's all about the looks

Canon S5 IS before and after 'facelift'. Dam, I thought those were two DIFFERENT cameras, lol. Right pic... now that's what I call mean! Notice in the left pic, the prime lens is exposed COMPLETELY! No protection what so ever. But with the adapter, filter and hood, the prime lens is now under some pretty good defense.

Top view and side view. Haha, when I showed it to my friend TeeHu he thought it was a lens at first glance, then only he knew "it's just a piece of glass", Lol.

This is how the baby looks like mounted on a (cheapo) tripod. Quite yeng also.

Feel and function

Well, this is the overall look of the S5 on a tripod. The tripod seems to spoil the canggih-ness of the canon S5 now... let's see how it will look like once I get my hands on the Manfrotto Modo tripod. Hiaks hiaks.

Well, looks aside, the adapter do add quite a lot of 'functionality' to the S5. The first thing I noticed is that the grip is now wayyy better. The elongated nozzle now allows my left hand something to 'hold on' to while shooting. Really helps when I have a big hand.

Then of course there's the versatility of filter lenses to be used. All the UV, ND, Polarizing and what not. For me it's just a plain UV protective lens. May probably go into those other lenses in the future ;).

The S5 has become moar 'durable' and +50 confidence to the user while taking photos. Definitely a must-have for S5 users. ( Why am I writing like I'm doing a review? Wait... am I? ) We'll see how this gadget effects my shooting. Till next time, cheerio!

Hood skrews onto Filter> Filter Skrews onto Adapter> Adapter snaps onto body. Voila!

CNY 2008 in Pahang

2008-02-24T00:18:00.005+08:00

Every chinese new year my family would 'go back' to my grandparents house in Pahang. It's located in Jerkoh, a small idyllic town just further down Raub. We've been going there for CNYs and holiday visits since I was like borned. Lol.

It's your typical Malaysia 'kampung', which I really like. Why? Coz of the trees, the ultra-low density and firendly peeps. All of my cousins and relatives are super friendly and generous lol. Just gotta lov em'.

I brought me trusty S5 for some shots this trip. I was hoping to shoot a lot, considering there is so much 'content' in the place which I was about to visit. But surprisingly, I wasn't able to shoot much! Meaning... I have to work on my ability to visualize a good shot?

Panaroma of my grandparents house, click to enlarge. (They have both passed away though, so now my uncle and aunty lives there. Freakin huge compound, they even have an orchard at the back of the house, sheet, me wants).

Anyway, as usual, here are some of the more, ahem, interesting shots I've taken... imho... =_=" K then, take it away.

Haha, even I wish a bug can stay put in such a nice position. The bugger was already dead, I posed it on the branch for this shot. Lol.

This bugger creeped my cousin sisters out. Lol, he keeps comin into the house and buzzed around. My cousin sisters were running all over the house lolx. Being the cool wolf as I am, I stayed put, along with my cousin bros. Found him dead the next mornin'. Hope he was able to, ahem, do his stuff b4 dying =P.

The mysterious garage was filled with all sorts of 'junk'. Go berserk with B&W again.

When I was a kid, everytime I visit, I always explore the old 'smoke house' with my cousins (I guess they called it 'smoke house' coz it was used to smoke cocoa beans b4, not sure though). That old garage was full of mysteries and fear for me that time. But now, as I grew more fearless, the mysteries seem to have disappeared. Now, it just seemed like an old insignificant bland boring abandon building which is used to keep stuff. Ahh, pity pity.

Argh, wrong focus shot. Was suppose to aim at the head, but ended up focus on the butt. (It was TOO sunny that morning, dun have the patience to adjust =P ) =_=" Argh, just spoil it with some corny captions bah... muahaha

Trying to shoot some dragon flies dancing on the small stream. Dam these things fly fast. Bet its singing 'Can't touch this' from MC Hammer...

Finally the buggers stay put. One of the more satisfactory shots.

Caught this guy hiding under the car window's visor. My friend Chee's dam 'favorite' creepy crawlies, lolx.

Ahh, it's always good to be able to gather with relatives during the festive seasons. We'd all exchange intel' n stories. This year we even had a surprise visit from a cousin sis which we've not seen in so long, lol.

Oh, and nature photography is so f*ckin' addictive. It would be the best thing to do... if minus the damn mosquitoes. =_="

Rawwrrr!

Fisherman

2008-01-12T12:38:00.000+08:00

"Aiyah, no catch today argh..."

Went to Klang with the usual gang and ate seafood there. In my definition, seafood = fish only. I'm allergic to shell-type seafood like prawns and crabs. =(

So_what_怎_麽_樣

2008-01-05T23:11:00.000+08:00

Photo taken by Chee, he wanted to snap the name of the shop. But my head 'pop-in'. Though an 'accidental' shot, I liked it. I like Eason Chan too.

Bukit Tinggi + Genting + Bohling = Win + 150% Tiredness

2007-12-24T02:49:00.000+08:00

This post have excessive Photoshop filter effects, viewer discretion is advised

Yup, it's what the titles says. 2 major locale visits during the day; and 1 major 'workout' at night, all in one single day. It was fun, but exhausting (the fact that I was still recuperating from seasonal influenza didn't help too).

Me, Chee, Jane(Chee's gf), Chua and Beh headed off to Bukit Tinggi in the early mornin. Upon arrival, we visited the French Town. I'll spare you the more generic photos I took there and post some more, ahem, 'interesting' shots. I hope. Here's some (post edited) pic's. My my, I went Photoshop filter crazy this time. Do comments... if you hav any ;).

"No-where"

"Clocks"

"Pine conezzzz"

I call this "Hidden picture". Observe =). Would it be better if I had not added that line-art-guy? I think so.

"In silence we wait" I kinda liked the original composition of this photo. 3 of my friends was seated seperately (You can see the head of the middle chair). I guess the effects kinda messed with the lights (left side too dark). And the shot seemed kinda 'cramped', dam, wish I had a wide angle lens. =_=

Wokeh, so after the French Town, we headed to the nearby Japan Gardens. We walked around and went to a 'jungle walk' which leads to an observation deck near the Japan Gardens. Again, I'll spare you the flora shots I took there and present you with some 'alternatives'.

"Wapanese Garden". Nuff said.

"Crowd"

"Thirst"

The 'end' of the jungle walk. Not one of the 'artsy' shots, just kinda like how the side canopies reveal the far scene.

Well, it was near noon when we left Bukit Tinggi and headed off to Genting.

Leaving Bukit Tinggi

Went to Gotong Jaya (foothills of Genting) to taste some special treats. You guys can go try out next time when you go to Genting.

Heh, my camera stayed inside my bag from there on. Since we are going into the casino, I left my camera in the car. Basically I just 'looked around' in the casino. I don't gamble in there. =P

At night, we went to Mid-Valley to bohling. There I bought my bohling shoes. No more wearing those 'public toilet' shoes, wahaha. Me hav own shuz. Me scorez 150++.

A very fulfilling day-out. Dam, I can do this 24*7*365. If only.

Love!

2007-12-13T00:00:00.000+08:00

Love! <3

YUA Season 3: Full Throttle ep.6

2007-12-11T23:55:00.000+08:00

Okay I'll have to admit, Aoi-chan is win in this episode.

Bohling, Makan, Gundam, MacBook, Makan, Home

2007-12-02T22:30:00.000+08:00

Taken with me Canon S5 on maximum zoom... in a moving car! Image stabilizer rox!!!

I couldn't remember when was the last time I woke up at 7am-so-darn-early... on a cool Sunday mornin. No, not to deliver the morning newspaper. No, not to go jogging. But it's to go bohling! Tada! You wouldn't have guessed it right? Lol. Even my sister laughed at the idea when I told her about it.

Well, if you've been following my blog, you'd know that me and some of my pals go bohling quite frequently. So they found out a place that offers a great deal to go bohling: maximum playitme, minimum payment. The drawback is, the deal's on only on mornings. They've been goin to the session for quite sometime now, and this is the first time I'm joining them on the morning session.

After a hearty breakfast on a traditional kopi-tiam (OMG, it's been so long since I've tasted warmly cooked wantan mee in the morning >.<... it's small moments like these, makes me feel A-LIFE!), we took off to our destination for the mornin bohling sessison.

Yeah, where's me darn TURKEYYYYYY!!!??? XXX

Haha, the pic above is not a paranormal shot. Just after our initial games, the bohling center encountered a power disruption. The whole center went pitch black, and being the enthusiastic bohlers as we are, all the patrons yelled: "Boo... money back!", "Woo, extend time lor!"

In the end, the power came back on. We watched as all the other lanes come to life. And we were staring at our bohling lane's blank monitors. Then a technician walked to our terminal and fixed up some electronics. =_=" Gosh, was it our lane that tripped the power? Yikes.

Anyhow, the bohling went on until around 1 p.m. After that we went to Pudu area to eat some famous char-siew rice. Well I'll be! Those char-siew really taste good. Mayb take some shots if I go next time =). After lunch, its off to the Bandai warehouse sales... GUNDAMS!!!

上了车... means "@%$#&*, I've been god damn duped\suckered liao."

Heh, that is a partial pic of the Bandai warehouse sale at their warehouse in Cheras. Received news of it from my fellow friend/blogger John (too bad you weren't able to come down dude). I guess mayb coz I was at the last day of the sales, there weren't much Gundam models left. The pic may seem like a lot, but there isn't. Or is it just me?

Lots of other toys though. Wonders what's on those empty shelves at the back? のほほん? Dam, I want those!!

The 'warehouse' is actually just one part of the main office and the display room upstairs. There isn't much room. Even the stairs are riddled with toys.

This is what I got. Went to the lowyat area to check the retail price. Whew, I bought it cheaper during the sale. XD My first ever Gundam MG! (I'd wish it was the GP03S though.)

Anyway, after the Bandai warehouse sale, we headed off to the Lowyat area to check out some notebooks. My friend's girl friend wanted to get a MacBook. Wow. After checking out the Asus EEE pc and the MacBook, she went with the MacBook in the end. Haha. Good deal. Should've taken some pics of the MacBook, it's dam sleeeeek!

By the time I got home, it's already 9pm. Dam, I fell asleep during the ride home and was awaken by my friend when he drove over a speed bump. "So that I can wake you up!" , he said. *_*

And now here I am makin a brief blog of today's all-day-hot-weather outing. Miraculously, even as I type, I feel quite energetic. Proves that I'm still dam young, heh. Okay then peeps, until the next post, stay tuned, good night and good luck!

W.I.P - Kotobukiya Armored Core Crest CR-C90U3 Dual Face Ver.

2007-11-29T23:40:00.000+08:00

I was building my model kit one night and I thought - since I haven't blogged in a while; and I never seem to have posted any blog on my wip projects, I'd do a post on it this time. So here, this is a post on one of my mecha model kit wip(work in progress). The star of this post is the Armored Core Crest CR-C90U3 (Dual Face Version).

For the uninitiated, Armored Core is a popular console mecha game where players are allowed to customize virtually every aspect of their lean mean fighting machine. Although I personally have not played this game before, I find the mecha designs to be exquisite. The CR90U3, specifically the dual face version caught my heart the moment I saw it. Luckily XL-Shop carried one last box and I snatched it up, hiaks hiaks.

I'll have to say, when I started building the kit, I am swamped by the amount of parts that this kit offers! There's gotta be like 200? 300 parts? Gosh, imagine when I get to the Gundam PGs... my friend told me there's like 600 parts to those Gundam PGs!

Ok then, without further ado, let the pics speaks for itself.

My work bench is covered by parts from the kit. Those boxes at the right on the floor aren't junk, those are the parts of the kits as well. No room on the table liao!!

Close up look. Awww, ZakuSD, FreedomHead, Patlabor and VF-1S are watching tentatively over the 'production' of CR-903U.

See those small grey bolts, those are separate parts which have to be detached from the runners and snapped into the main part one-by-one!! And they're like 5mm in diameter each!!

That round bolt in front is not part of the bigger piece, it's a separate part!! ZMOG!!

This leg alone probly consists of aorund 30-50 parts. That's a lot to me.

Look at 'em joints! Gosh so much detail put into the design! Haha, you can also see clearly I haven't clean the stubs left by the runners.

Well, I've come to love the feeling of building model kits. Especially in a quiet night. I'd sit in the empty living room, my full concentration on constructing the kits. The world around me totally shut off from my consciousness. Part by part, slowly inching towards completion. >.< I am so glad I found this hobby! And I am deeply thankful, and greatly humbled by the people who brought this hobby to the peoples.

Next up, these lovely 1/144 Macross Valkrie replicas. <3!!

Perfect World (完美世界) Event at TBun Genting Klang

2007-11-04T13:15:00.000+08:00

The popular MMORPG (Massively Multi Player Online Role Playing Game) - Perfect World which is said to stand alongside World of Warcraft is going to get a English translation. (It was originally developed in Chinese). To spread news and hype, the company Cubisoft, which is responsible for the distribution of the game in Malaysia held a tour all around Malaysia.

My collegue Wayne , who is also a PW player took my attention to the event that they are going to organize at a place near to where we live. The event was held at a cyber cafe called TBun and is located in Genting Klang. There are competitions, lucky draws etc. After makan-ing at KFC with my collegue/junior (Wayne also happen to have studied in Inti and took the same course as me so that makes me senpai, muahaha. Right Wayne? =P)

Where ya lookin' at Wayne?

Gosh, those look... heavy! Mmmm, warrior babes... I wonder if...

Right now the English server is still not operational. Well Wayne, guess we'll have to wait. And John, hope your fire won't burn out before the server opens. Dang, I'll stay content with Pangya for now. =_="

World GameMaster Tournament (WGT) Malaysia 2007

2007-11-04T13:14:00.001+08:00

The WGT was held from the 26th to the 28th of October 2007. Held at OneUtama shopping mall, not the most 'accesible' locale(due to the lack of LRT's, which is the bulk of transport most ppl use) compared to other more friendly locations like KL Convention Center or even the MidValley which the WCG 2007 was hosted.

Mmm, all orange. Me likes orange.

This happens to be the first ever WGT in Malaysia, and I'm a part of it... Well, at least the joining part, not the winning part. XD

I joined the competitions for Warcraft 3: Frozen Throne of the torunament. Since the game's release 5 years ago, I've been casually playing it. From the campaign missions, to online play of customa maps, '3 Corridors' back when I was in INTI, to the recent Dota. Never have I really 'seriously' played the melee mode, up until now.

Moar orange

My Warcraft 3 sensei Hofa gave me some comprehensive teachings before the game. Alas, a few days of intensive training can't save this poor student. I was paired up with one of the top playes in Malaysia and was gracefully eliminated during the 32 player elimination round. And I even applied a one day annual leave from work for it! >.<

Well how can an event be without some booth babes eh? Haha, I was anticipating some sorts of booth babe since this is a sponsored event so I went there prepared with my trusty ol' Canon S5. Snaped some pics. Yes yes, I know my camera skillz are still lacking... I'll improve. Maybe.

Camo outfit + babe = win! She said its the first time she's representing a booth. No worries girl, you are stunning, bright future!

Woot, enjoy Intel 'Core 2 Duo'. Hiaks hiaks. I sure wouldn't mind '2 cores' runnin' on my 'pc'. Lol... =_=" Just jk, no offence ya? Ahh, it's good that this male monopolised event has some beauties to grace it's grounds.

Okay, perv jokes aside, all in all, it's been a refreshing experience. It has been quite some time since I've felt adrenalin pumping through my veins; and the chill that runs down my spine facing off with an opponent.

I will definitely want to join more competitions from now on.

Warcraft sensei Hofa. A hundred thanks for your guidance during the training man. We shall forge an alliance in future warfare.

"A Victory today, to be defeated tommorow.
A Lost today, to be redeemed another day.
Fight to live, live to fight."

- Hajime on The Fight

KAIYODO REVOLTECH: Macross VF-1S Roy Folker Movie Ver.

2007-11-04T13:12:00.000+08:00

Yeah yeah, I know, the Jack Sparrow joke and the martial art move names are cheesy. So sue me. =P All in all, had a great time posing and photo-ing those Revos. God bless Katsuhisa Yamaguchi for comin' up with the Revoltechs. Stay tuned for ep 2. Hajime siging off!

Genting Trailblazer 2007

2007-10-23T10:29:00.000+08:00

Received a sms about this from my adventure enthusiast friend when I was going home in the LRT. Before I even visit the website he sent me I already know I'm going to join. Dam I'm such a sucker for these adventure/nature things. >.<

Genting Trailblazer 2007

Race date: Sunday, 11th November 2007

Join in team of 2. The registration fee is a little steep though, 3 packages to choose:

- RM398 per team (RM199 per person) for the breakfast + run + room + dinner package.
- RM198 per team (RM 99 per person) for the breakfast + run package.
and finally a
- RM 48 per person dinner package for the friends and family who went to cheer for you.

I guess most people would be put off by the pricing, seems like the breakfast + run package is the most 'affordable'. But hey there are goody bags and most important of all, the chance to face off with other veterans, and totally p4wn them, muahaha.

Ok, you adventure nuts out there (with some $ to spare) go on and sign up now!

See you at the finishing line!

WCG Malaysia 2007 Coverage part 2

2007-10-09T00:30:00.000+08:00

Okay ladies and gents, as promised a few weeks ago (I know, I've been buzy lately), here is the second part of the WCG Malaysia 2007 coverage - Cosplay chapter!!

Well, this was my first time going around an event to take photos of cosplay gals. So as you can see, some of the pics have 'broken' lighting. I was quite nervous and excited that my hands shoke when I took the photos, I swear! >.<

Okay, enuf talk, let the show begin! (Not that there is much =P) Enjoy!

Cosplayers for the Gameflier booth. I think it's RO cosplay. I kinda 'tumpang' shot here, lolx.

Very elaborate, sexy and kinky Lineage II cosplay. The elven ears look kinda fake. But still cute ne~

Haha, caught them off guard. They had no choice but to let me take their photos.

Another Lineage II cosplay. Black version. The contraption behind her is not the background, it's a decoration stuck to her back! Isn't that heavy??

The Logitech gals!! Two pretties! I made a few rounds before finally collecting enuf guts to ask them for a shot. I was worried they'd decline but fortunately they nodded! My hands were shaking when I took their photos. No kidding!

Lol, ain't no cosplay. There was an Indian wedding exhibition just beside the WCG hall, thought I'd take some boke shots.

Okay, now that's a wrap for the cosplay chapter. Overall I liked the cosplayers in WCG Malaysia 2007. There were some other gals that I hoped to shoot, but you know, shy lah. Lolx.

Hopefully I'll get better in my photographing skills and bring more eye candy in future events. Hajime signing off!

Coldplay: Ballonacy

2007-10-06T03:44:00.000+08:00

How I wish I was there with the one I love: As the audience screaming at the top of our lungs, for our favorite band; Or as the singer, singing for his beloved, and his beloved fans; Or just a kid, who only wants to play with the big yellow baloons.

Machines vs. Cute chix

2007-09-21T00:51:00.000+08:00

During the Merdeka period, XL-Shop had a promotion on its old stocks. Mostly were completed figures of anime gals. The discount was around 40% to 50%. Sakura Shinguji from Sakura Wars, Katase and Glennoth from Stellvia, how can I resist! Negima figumate and the oh-so-kawaii Ana and Matsuoka from Ichigo Mashimaro. I won't go into details on the price I had to pay for these, let's just say it aint cheap! =ω=

Whole bunch of kawaii stuff...

As opposed to a whole lotta metal from my previos purchase... (Okay, Kosmos from Xenosaga dun seem to fit exactly well in this pic but she's a cyborg, which qualifies for mecha, kinda =P). Read from this post.

With this kinda erratic buying behavior, I'm starting to wonder myself, what will be my next bulk purchase?

Rubik's cube: The old; and the new.

2007-09-14T00:09:00.000+08:00

Got this new cube at Toys 'r' us Midvalley while waiting for my friend Hofa in his WC3 tourny during WCG Malaysia 2007.
RM30 in exchange for brain exercise.

WCG Malaysia 2007 Coverage part 1

2007-09-08T21:28:00.001+08:00

The World Cyber Games Malaysia was held in Mid Valley on the 8th and 9th of September. For those of you who haven't heard of the WCG, it is the Olympics for computer games. Just like the Olympics with it's many sporting competition, the WCG feature many games in which players compete with each other for the coveted championship.

Every participating country will hold national competitions to find the best player to be sent for the finals. This year, the finals will be held in Seattle, USA. Imagine, if you become the national champion for the game that you are competing in, you are SPONSORED to go to Seattle, USA!! How cool is that! FOC trip!!

Anyways, this year, my college-mate/friend Hofa joined the Warcraft 3 game competition He came all the way from Johor, so he bunked at my rented place in KL for the duration of the 2 day competition. I tagged along and tried to cover the event as he fought in the cyber arena.

Wayyyy to many PCs! Pull the plug at the mains for the ultimate WCG terrorism.

The schedule of WCG was quite early. When we reached Mid Valley around 9 a.m. the venue was already filled with participants. I never thought gamers wake up so early! (At least not me, always gamin' till the late of night =P ).

Participants waiting for the opening ceremony. They are either discussing strategies...

...or saying this, in a co-ordinated voice. Okay okay, so not all of them are WC3 players.
But seriously WCG Malaysia, no-custom key policy for WC3, what kind of crap is that!?

I'm not sure about the other games, but they have a really dumb-ass shit rule about not allowing Warcraft 3 players to use custom shortcut keys. For now, I'll just say it is nonsense. More on this issue in the coming post.

The performance stage of WCG 2007

Well, after the doors finally opened, everyone went into the exhibition/performance hall. Most people went to the stage area to await the opening ceremony. I was hopin for some hawt action but boy, it was boring. Started out with the typical speeches, which is then followed by some shuffle dance by a dance group called M.A.D. Talk about madness, why'd they even let a three-male-ONE-female group dance in an event where 99% of the participants are GUYS! WCG Malaysia, hot girls dancing in 2008 please. (No offence to the dancers lah =P ) I was quite dis-interested that I din even bother to snap any photos... lolx.

Walking around, mostly are sponsors booths like Samsung, Logitech, Intel, etc. There were LCD's on demo, and more notable the Nintendo Wii for demo play. The most elaborate booth was the Lineage II booth. They even had a rock band corner where various local indie band performed.

Uhh, one of the live band in the Lineage II booth. This indian singer seem like to scream a lot =_="

I grooved to the live music, and took quick constant glimpes at the cosplay/booth girls as I played Lineage II on their demo pc's... gosh, some snacks and better air-conditioning will be better. Lolx. Geek!!!

Did I say cosplay girl? Yes I did, oh yes indeed I did... coming up in part 2? XD

"Don't use me as bait wokeh?"

Wah, Channel [V] leh! WCG Malaysia 2007 is worthy of appearing in a slot of Channel [V]?

Well, all in all, I rather enjoyed the whole event. It surely wasn't as grand as the real WCG, but I kinda got a taste of it. After going through with the event, it made me feel like wanting to join the fight next year. If you are a gamer, never heard of WCG, and want to know more, check out the main WCG site, and our local Malaysia WCG site.

Keke, mayb in the next post? ;)

I need it, yeah.

2007-09-06T00:35:00.000+08:00

They actually work, those words on the little stick up notes. I probably need more.

Negaraku ku ku ku

2007-09-04T23:58:00.000+08:00

Follow up to NameWee's Negarakuku. Lolx. Peoples just can't get tired of this.

KAIYODO REVOLTECH:Patlabor Ingram AV-98-2

2007-09-01T12:41:00.000+08:00

Woohoo! Finally got my first REVOLTECH figure! Ladies and gents, here's REVOLTECH figure no.14 - Patlabor Ingram AV-98-2. For the uninitiated, this mecha is from the anime series "Patlabor" (which is a short form of 'Patrol Labor'). The anime revolves around Noa Izumi with the cast, and the various Patlabors in their daily routine of curbing crimes.

REVOLTECH figure's main attraction is in their renowned ball joints. With the specially designed ball joints, owners can pose the figure in many 'fashionable' ways. When I took the photos of the Patlabor, I had a lot of fun posing the figure in so many ways. Well, check em out!

Box art

Package contents

Watch out yo' I've got me'self a big arse shotgun!

Patlabor:"Dam, I am too cool."

Flying kick.

Wow, so many poses. Me likes!

Now for some fun. =P

Bowling with 'pang yau's at Mid Valley

2007-08-17T23:13:00.000+08:00

The 'leng zai' ball that helped me score 150+ tat day. Yay mom, I did it!

Went bohling with my friends in Mid Valley last weekend. That was my first time entering 'Cosmic Bohl' of Mid Valley, was hoping to see the neon stuff but too bad lah, the day I went it was 'well lit'.

RB26-DETT and Jane. The '<3ly' couple.

Mmm, bohling, what can I say. It require certain amount of skills, and a whole dam lots of practice. You have to be gentle and smooth with the ball, can't hentam the ball. Like before making love... eh eh, I mean making a 'move' on a girl, have to take a deep breath, concentrate, picture the 'swing' in your mind, and when the mind and body meld into one, the moment is right... action! You let go of your 'cannon', and watch as your 'bullet' shoot forward, hopeful that it will hit the right 'spot' and cause an 'explosive strike'!

Quite lots of ppl, no leng lui in sight though, sigh.

Mmm, this bowling alley, not bad, if member, can get the lane first. Wah, feel so HONORED! Previously we go to other bohling alley have to write down name, and wait, and wait untill can sleep only get out turn.

The two 'leaders' of our team (Ah Beh with the orange ball, and JT). Always we 3 ppl againts them both, some time we have to loose to them sommore. Kaka.

Left: our score... not! The right hand side only is our score, lolx. Sipeh geng the fella, after strike last one was screaming of joy there. @#&%$!!

The 'art' of bohling, XD (That's me with the yeng zai ball and yeng poses)

A "Suggested" Jeff Ooi Campaign Video

2007-08-17T16:20:00.000+08:00

Got this from LYN forum. Lol, this is dam funny. I like XD. No, you din't see it from my blog.

Road-kill-to-be

2007-08-15T22:18:00.000+08:00

In the middle of the road!?

Gunung Nuang Part 1

2007-08-01T01:51:00.001+08:00

" Every time I return to you, I am cleansed;
Only to be fouled, by the taint of city lights.
How I wish, to linger in your sanctity, forever and ever. "

- Hajime: Returning to You

Last Sunday (15th July), I was called by my friend TeeHu to tackle 'Gunung Nuang'. Our team was supposed to consist of 5 climbers - me, TeeHu, Tiong and 2 'temporary player' AhMuk and CharGuo. Aigh, dun say already lah, at the day of climbing, only ended up with me and Tiong. All the other 3... went to 'KLIA' =P

Before the day of climbing, my friend TeeHu say got company business need to travel to Johor; then AhMuk sms'ed me at 2 a.m. and say he can't make it to the trip. Wahliu, I straight away tired diao (累掉). Then on the day of climbing, when I driving heading to MRR2, Tiong called me and say CharGuo overslept and won't make it. Kan! at that time I'm ready to U-turn back to my house and 'gaogao-jű' liao, but I thought wtf, just meet up with Tiong in Cheras first.

In the end, me and Tiong decided to go ahead. He got into my trusty ol Saga and we sped off to face-off with Gunung Nuang.

Gunung Naung Facts
Gunung Nuang is located in Hulu Langat and it's 1490 meters above sea level. Now Gunung Tahan is 2187 meters, so that makes Nuang roughly 70% of Tahan's height. Though Nuang is no where close to Tahan when it comes to difficulty level( Compare a 7/8 day trip in the Malaysian jungles of Tahan to the 1/2 day trip of Nuang).

There are actually 3 routes up to the Nuang summit. This time, we took the Kuala Pangsoon route. To reach the Kuala Pangsoon route, take the Cheras Highway heading to Kajang. After exiting the Cheras toll (Anyway, thanks, Samy Velu for raising the toll prices. Now my wallet is so much lighter. ), take the FIRST exit to the left with the sign "Hulu Langat" or something. Keep on driving until you reach the traffic lights (You will see the police station to your right hand side). Turn left at the traffic lights. After this just keep follow the road.

Along the road there are stalls that sell food, so if you forgot to pack, just stop by one of the shops and buy a packet of 'nasi lemak'. Now, keep on going until you reach the 'end' where you will enter a place with some TNB buildings. Find a small path to your left and keep follow the rugged path. You will reach the base soon.

There are plenty of car park there so find a sweet spot for your car. After registering with the warden there ( RM1 per person ) and gearing up, you can start to tackle Gunung Nuang.

Rough map of Nuang (Not to scale).

Gunung Nuang can be divided into a few major sections:
1. Entrance/Parking
2. "The long gruesome walk"
3. Rest point
4. Dam
5. "Lolo" camp
6. "Hut" camp
7. Mid-mountain push
8. Mid-mountain campsite - "Pacat" camp
9. Summit push
10. The "fake summit"
11. "Nuang" summit

Gunung Nuang section details
1. Entrance/Parking
Where you park your car. There are NO stalls here, so buy your foods/drinks early. Gear up, lock up your car, and get ready for the offence. Be mentally prepared for the long gruesome walk.

2. "The long gruesome walk"
For poor guys like me who cannot afford a 4 wheeler, we just gotta walk through this stretch of road. Imho, this section is equally challenging as the actual hike, especially for 'newbies'. In this section, you will encounter muddy roads, rocky roads, grassy roads and all types of roads you can find.

It gets even worse when returning to the parking AFTER the summit hike. Tired legs makes this stretch of road x10 more difficult. It took me and Tiong the same amount of time to walk this road as to reach the summit. Meaning it took us 5 friggin hours just on this road; and our summit push 'only' took 5 hours.

3. Rest point
Ahhh, so dam glad to see the 'pondok' after the gruesome walk. Here, you can take a rest. There is a staircase nearby the pondok that leads to the stream below. After refreshing, time to get into the 'actual' hike!

Follow the path into the forest cross a small stream and follow along the huge pipe.

4. Dam
After sometime trekking, you will climb a fleet of steep stairs to reach the Dam. Cross the stream to continue with the path.

5. "Lolo" camp
After a while, you will reach the Lolo camp site. Since me and Tiong are tackling the summit within the day, we skipped resting here and went straight on.

6. "Hut" camp
After crossing another small stream, you will reach the Hut camps. There were some people camped up there during our trip. Here is the last easily accesible water point before the summit. So fill those empty bottles!

7. Mid-mountain push

After crossing yet another stream, pass the Hut camps, the mountain push begins! This stretch of hike is rather 'mundane' in a sense that it's all up and up. The scenary is so so imho.

8. Mid-mountain campsite - "Pacat" camp

The guy 'asking for fishballs' is my trekking buddy that day - Tiong. The couple who set up tent there are frequent climbers of Gunung Nuang (Just kidding ah, please dun sue me, I takde duit =P).

After pushing yourself physically and mentally (Hehe, many thoughts will race through your mind during these times =p), you will reach a clearing known as Pacat camp. Me and Tiong took our rest here. Due to we have picked up the rhytm, we skipped lunch and just mingle around with the campers and climbers here.

9. Summit push

After 'kepoh-ing' at Pacat camp, we pushed on to the summit trail. There are many sights along this trail, such as fallen trees which block your way, interesting plants and insects. If it ain't coz we are here for one day, I would've stopped every 5 minutes to shoot some photos. Alas, there's not enough time. Trust me, you won't want to find yourself in the jungle during nightfall... alone!

Nearing the summit, the weather starts to gets cold, and you will notice mist around you. It's kind of an eerie feeling but, you will be too occupied by your fatigue and frustrations anyway. =P

10. The "fake summit"
People call this the 'fake' summit because it's a connecting summmit along the way to the Nuang summit. Here, you can walk up to the fake summit for a view. Unfortunately, it was very misty the say we went, so I weren't able to get a good view. =(

11. "Nuang" summit

Yay! After trudging through some muddy (damp) and rocky trail, we finally reached the Nuang summit. Dropped my bag and ploped down on the floor. Fuh! Feels grreeeaaattt to rest my feet!

Staring into the sky, albeit tired but yeah man, this moment is priceless.

There is a small pondok at the summit... made of metal... and a metallic pole sticking on top of it. We were wondering, what happens if lighting strikes. Yikes.

Even at this height, the mist is pretty thick and the weather is cold! Especially when the wind blows. Brrr! I was hopin the mist would clear up so I can take some shots of the mountain view... but the weather not nice. Sigh.

The descent
We rested for around 45 minutes on the summit and met with some other climbers who took another route. After eating the nasi lemak and 'celebrating' our half-succesful climb with 100-Plus, we started the descent. Why I say half-succesful? Tat's because a succesful climb is when you have completed BOTH ascent AND descent. You never know what could happen during the descent! Touch wood, touch wood (Luckily in the jungle all around also wood... =_=").

Well, since the weather is looking gloomy, me and Tiong was like:" dam better not rain, please, at least after we reach car park only rain lah...". But dunno why, it rained anyway. Right after we started out descent. Lol. Shuey ah.

The rain made the descent a lot harder! Slippery and muddy slopes meant that we need to be careful with our steps. I landed on my butt several times, and made a few 'surfing' stance to balance myself from falling.

A good climb
Leeches! Dam, when I was taking my bath at the car park area, found out a few leeches on my body. A particular one is quite near my, ahem, sensitive part... lucky got rid of it fast fast.

It was already 7 p.m. when we finally drove off from Nuang. While driving, I thought to myself: Actually, this morning I was quite reluctant on climbing, since some of my friends weren't able to show up. And I was quite worried of my physical condition as long time no exercise.

But, in the end, I was glad that I did the climb. It felt great! Getting close to nature, the greenary, the natural rivers and mountains. It was rejuvenating. The climb was worth while, and, just like any other climb, I was able to know a little bit more about myself.

( ﾟДﾟ )!

Gunung Nuang Part 2

2007-07-26T22:40:00.001+08:00

Gunung Nuang photos brought to you by the humble Hajime XD

The never-ending muddy path

Caught this guy hiding below some leaves.

Ancient bamboo. That's my climbing buddy - Tiong at the far end.

Giant millipede (Archispirostreptus gigas). Just when I was thinking to myself "Will I see it this time?" After a few steps, there it was!! They never fail to greet climbers in the jungles. Gives me a warm and welcoming feeling. ω_ω"

Me <3 bamboos. Gives off a serene and ancient feel.

A BUGs LIFE: Malaysia version.

Cute flowers.

Misty forest at the summit.

3-(Anime)-some

2007-07-21T23:32:00.000+08:00

It's tough. When one tries to follow 3 different anime at the same time.

I'm just so eager to get to the end of the current episode, so I can watch the other animes. Yet I don't wanna skip or miss any part of the episode that I am watching, so I sit through the whole 30 minutes. It's like waiting for the LRT when you're already late - you can only wait.

It's like a hike into the mountains. Before reaching the summit, you gotta conquer numerous mountain slopes. So you start off with the first slope, and you're dying to reach to the top of the current slope. When you finally conquered the current slope, you look up just to see another higher slope ahead of you. Rinse and repeat.

Oh my, watching anime is suppose to be fun, since when have I put watching anime in par with the hardships of conquering a mountain. At the end of the day, after speed-anime-watching, I can't even remember half of the things that have transpired in the anime. Which will cause me to re-watch the whole series. orz

First anime: Initial D

Me and my first-generation Proton Saga. Just like takumi and his AE86. =P

I was helping my frined 'chai bao' and 'jing mei' to move their room, when I stumbled upon his INITIAL D collection. Awesome, realized how much I've neglected my car. Now where can I learn drifting in Malaysia...

Second anime: Lucky Star

How I wish I'm Konata's oyaji XD

Lucky Star really reminds me of Azumanga Daoih, mainly because of their story telling. It is pretty much slow paced but lol, Lucky Star sure has some crazy moments. Especially when they take reference from Keroro or Haruhi. Literally burst into laughter when Konata a.k.a Legendary Girl A visited her local anime/manga shop. Hmm, won't it be nice if we had a shop like that in Malaysia. =ω=

Third anime: N/A (censored anime title)

Hsk hsk shk... daro.. ne?

Bla bla blahz... yadda yadda yaddaa... Zzzz... hmm, this anime is 13 episode long, and it involves... Lol, I'm not telling anything on the third anime... =P

Mmm, wholesome anime bliss. Good for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Well, luckily though, Lucky Star is a running anime, which means I can only torrent in weekly; I'm nearing completion for the third anime, so now there's just INITIAL D to catch up. Gosh, it's really got me hooked. After watching it I started to pay attention to my clutch-gas pedalling. And looking at all the fast car, makes me wanna modify my Saga. Lol.

Now, let's see what other anime's are worth watching. Hsk hsk hsk.

This is what happens when you watch different anime together. Konata inherits Yui~nesan's mad driving skillz.

Canon PowerShot S5 IS

2007-07-09T22:55:00.000+08:00

Yes! Finally the S5 is in my hands! ^_^ I have to say, for the price that I paid, this sure hell is a wonderful piece of photo shooting tech!

The last camera I used was an analog from my dad. The type that I have to actually buy film and manually load it up. And after the film is finished, I have to manually rewind the film, yes, there's a lever that I used to roll the film back into the film's cylindrical casing. I wonder does the kids nowadays still know what 'film' looks like. Lol

Now, those days are over! After years deprived of my own digicam, today, the power of 8 Mega-pixel, 12X optical zoom, Macro and manual focus is in my hands! and most important of all, the capacity to shoot shoot shoot and shoot more... photos!

Well, the technical specs are all on canon's website, so you can go over to check it out. Basically for now the 8 mega-pixel and macro will suffice for all my photo-shooting of the gundams models and anime figures.

The Buying Process
Well, I bought this at Foto Shangrila in Sungai Wang. The day when I went out to buy the S5, many shops ran out of stock. By the time me and my friends visited the 4th shop and there weren't any new stock, I was giving up hope to get it already. (They only had the demo unit, and they are selling that to me. Like I'm gonna buy the demo unit. =_=") But to my surprise, the Sg. Wang. outlet had a boxed unit. I thought: still wait for what, 5 5 buy liao lah. =D

So here it is, in my room, in my hands. Kyaaaa...!!! Just holding it makes my blood boil! The things I can do with this baby! >.< Ok ok, now that I am adequately equipped, watch this blog as I share (visually) as much as I can on as many things as possible in my life with you!

Get hot

2007-07-06T01:20:00.000+08:00

The preview

2007-06-29T01:44:00.000+08:00

Well, since my birthday just passed 2 days ago, I thought this might be a good time to debut my blog. This post will represent the official 'birth' of my baby blog. XD

Hmm, what to expect from my blog? Well, other than the many typos and grammar erros, you will mostly see blogs about Gundam models, anime, manga, arts, etc. I will probably post up some art works - if I ever get around finishing them. And throw in some personal rants here and there, once in a while. =)

Without further ado, here is a preview of whats to come.

"I just want a room to make models! Uncompleted model kits tell me every night to make them and complete them!"

For the uninitiated, from top left:
- Gundam Fix Figuration #0013 a.k.a 'Deep Striker' (Burnt a HUGE hole in my wallet!)
- Gundam HG Hazel RX121-1 TR-1
- Gundam Fix Figuration #0034 a.k.a 'GP-03 Dendrobium'
- Gundam SD-GENERATION-0 MSA-0011S
- 1/8 scale Kosmos from Xenosaga (Alter)
- Gundam Collection GP-03(Dendrobium) vs. Neue Ziel
- Gundam EX Hildolfr

There's still a Gundam SD Dendrobium and a HG 1/550 Dendrobium hiding under my work desk. By now anyone would've already deduced that I am a Dendrobium freak. But wait, isn't there something missing you say? Yes, I know, how can I claim myself as THE Dendrobium freak when my collection seems to lack THE motherload of all Gundam Dendrobium's. Hehe, for those who know, you might just see it in my blog one day. For those who don't know what I just crapped (wtf is this dendrobium??), stay tuned and you might just find out, and fall for it one day too. ;)

An unfortunate dismembered Gundam SD Freedom lying on the work desk. (Staring at the gundam-bits-n-pieces at the top left corner is a transmetal Transformer Beastwars Optimus Primal belonged to my friend JT, and a Gundam SD Blaze Zaku Phantom)

I'll also post some 'waste-things' just to amuse myself. (Hopefully u find it amusing too lah)

Personally, I think it's about time someone came up with "Gundam VS Transformers: the ultimate Mecha Warz, the movie". Lol, that'll be golden.

Okay, so much for the preview. It's late, and I need sleep. Didn't realize blogging can be so time consuming and rather tiring. Oh well, as long as it's fun.

Well, more to come. So stay tuned, and walk beside me, as I journey through this road called life. =)

Init

2007-06-03T23:28:00.000+08:00

Yo~s, mina-san. O genki desu~ka? Just a temporary placeholder here while I tweak my site.

If you happen to stumble upon this blog, leave a message, anc check back real soon. Since I can't greet you personally, I'll leave this avatar to do so.