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Day 71

March 13th, 2010

A walk down the old times. A change that happened to be an impetus of me. Whom shaped me to who I am.

My Ko, the book Who Moved My Cheese? and the loss.

 Day 71

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Diversifying Dilemma Again

March 12th, 2010

“The grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Yet, we still need to mow the grass to keep it nice and neat.”

CouponBox1 300x211 Diversifying Dilemma Again

Letters

The once in a blue moon event about to take place soon. ‘Good Planning Is Halfway to Success’. With 3 full moon away, everything can be put forth and getting in time. In spite of these, I was left with 2 sunsets to get it done. It was an instruction from above by the one whom keeping the trolls away.

I raised my concerns over this matters yet I was thrown back with a consequences of it. What happened when there were no show? That response were pretty bad? Hence does it means we did not do our jobs? There will be more yet to come. I was being told.

Sediakan payung sebelum hujan

To prepare for the worse, I need to wrap things first before the tee went off.

tee off 300x225 Diversifying Dilemma Again

Tee Off

It is the matter of who so fucktup only.

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Thoughts, Rants and Musings ,

Google Personalized Search

March 12th, 2010

Google has proven itself again. I was surprised to see that the amount of data they have mined and putting into useful information. I was talking to Wingz about his SEO and how easy to search for his content.

Bangkok Google Search 1268333120735 300x194 Google Personalized Search

Social Circle - recommended search result by Google

It was not until I realized that Google are working on this feature that will and be very scary about. If you have account with Google, your profile by itself will not be eligible to be featured in Google search results. Unless you put enough information then any keywords or specific matters will link back to you.

Social circle and content Google 1268333244459 300x97 Google Personalized Search

Definition - Social Circle and Content

It will be something like Facebook, with the exception it’s going to be quasi-public. There will be borderline privacy as it will be hard to differentiate it. In the interest of all, I realized Google will also recommend those links that originally in your social networks. From Buzz, Gtalk and even Gmail contacts? Interesting.

Dale Tan Google Profile 1268333692260 300x129 Google Personalized Search

Sample - My Profile

So once you have created and updated your profile in Google with sufficient input, then you can set whether these information will be available on the Internet. If it is, anyone can Google for Dale Tan. With the profile information that one provided, it is available depending on the settings. Something like this. Below.

Sample Profile

Sample Profile

In summary, the largest ever Yellow / White Pages.

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When Everything Fails ,

Watching The Confucius

March 12th, 2010

Chow Yun-fat, the cast by himself is worthy the ticket for the silver screen. Who doesn’t like Chow Yun-fat? He is charming, and charismatic. Playing the lead role as Confucius, who lived the Dynasty Zhou in China. The film is sort of a biography about him and how his teachings have deeply influenced life in most of Asia.

confucius movie poster 212x300 Watching The Confucius

Confucius

Back then in the 6th century BC China was still composed of the feudal monarchy and government official, competing with each other for supremacy. Kong Qiu or Confucius “Chow Yun-Fat” was appointed to ministerial office of the kingdom of Lu, where the court’s power had devolved to the three most powerful local clans – the three noble families. Given the off-the-record authority by the ruler of Lu he begin to reduce the power of the three clans whom appear to control the entire kingdom of Lu.

At the beginning, Confucius efforts to curb the ambitions of the powerful clans appeared to succeed, but the ruler of the kingdom of Qi used bribes to turn the ruler of Lu against him. It was after the rebellion that his plan turn back against him. Perhaps his idealism about the governance were just too utopia? Even in todays world, that a government cannot be freed from certain elites whom had control over due to their wealth and power.

Hence, Confucius was stripped of his office and sent into exile. And He travelled from kingdom to kingdom, and finally he met the seductive Nanzi “Zhou Xun”, kingdom of Wei ruler’s concubine. It seems to me that during this period, the entire story sounds similar to the 40-years exile / Exodus. >.< with the exception this is just a little over 10-13 years?

zhou xun confucius costume 200x300 Watching The Confucius

Zhou Xun in Confucius

In the end of the film, the only things I asked myself was what is the movie all about? I wanted to ask from what perspective the film is trying to achieve? Cinematographic, business profits, entertainment value or purely a form of artistic?

My ratings for the film: 4/10

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Movies, Films, Musics and Books

Day 70

March 12th, 2010

Federal Highway KM33.1

Got stuck there at the rush hour.

 Day 70

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People and Places, Project 365

Day 69

March 11th, 2010

Curry Mee at Pak Hainan.

 Day 69

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Project 365, The Love of Food

Hayden and Bubbles

March 11th, 2010

Last Saturday, Hayden was around during the photo shoot session. Since everyone was busy shooting, I took Hayden out to play the bubbles as he insisted to play.

DSC 0878 300x200 Hayden and Bubbles

On the walkway, he quickly start to play with the bubbles. An innocent 2 years old.

DSC 0874 200x300 Hayden and Bubbles

DSC 0873 200x300 Hayden and Bubbles

DSC 0872 300x200 Hayden and Bubbles

DSC 0826 200x300 Hayden and Bubbles

So cute :P
Does it makes you feel like making one?

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People and Places ,

Day 68

March 10th, 2010

The three colours.

 Day 68

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Project 365

New Prescription Glass

March 10th, 2010

After Andy left the optical stores, I have no other place to turn to. In between getting a designer label frames and a good lens, I procrastinate. Mainly it was due to lack of funding and secondly, I still can survive with the current spectacles I am wearing.

18679 293118136298 505411298 3647128 2601617 n 300x199 New Prescription Glass

Carl Zeiss (from http://rojaks.blogspot.com)

As time goes by, the coating wears off and eventually it was a pain to drive at night. The glare caused irritations on my right eyes. Finally after 3 years or so, I decided to source for a new place to get my glasses done. In between recommendation, I went to the few optical stores. It is kind of weird in Malaysia that most of the optical stores doesn’t have an optometrist to get the readings.

After I get my prescriptions from a few, I settled down with one I am comfortable with. Instead of looking at the frames, the first thing I was looking at were the lens. Compared to my knowledge many years back, the were huge range of different branded spectacle lenses. Not just Hoya. There are also Essilor, AO, Norville, Nikon, Pentax, Rodenstock, Sola and Zeiss and much more. I was told that Hoya no longer having the most market share. Which I used to be told of every time I asked my friend, Tony what lens should I look out for.

DSC 0976 300x200 New Prescription Glass

Nikon Lite SEECOAT

Wingz got his new prescription glasses earlier this year with Zeis. He added that it comes along with 1 year warranty. Proof of warranty? The warranty card. Even my Nikon SeeCoat comes with a warranty card. Guess it means nothing because according to the few sites I visited, it was said that the lifespan of a glasses is between 12-18 months. Trying to source about the warranty and how it applies, I realized that the Nikon prescription lens in Malaysia are under Essilor Malaysia. This blog author highly recommended Essilor lens 2 years back.

Essilor has many brands for various needs. For example:

* Airwear which provides light, thin and high impact-resistance lenses
* Transitions which provides photochromic lenses (clear indoors and at night but darken outdoors)
* Varilux which provides progressive lenses (I still don’t need it yet :p)
* Crizal, a type of coating innovated by Essilor, which provides no-glare, scratch-resistance and dirt-resistance properties. Crizal is generally available on Airwear, Transitions and Varilux lenses.

Personally, I have satisfying experiences with Airwear and Transitions lenses. As mentioned, these lenses are applied with Crizal coating too.

Essilor Airwear

Essilor AirwearWhen I was wearing Nike Flexon rimless prescription frame, I needed a pair of lenses which must be lightweight, thin and durable. Airwear meets all the requirements, and at the same time the polycarbonate material provides impressive impact-resistance properties.

I was given a piece of Essilor Airwear lens, and a piece of brand X polycarbonate lens, together with a hammer (yes, it was a real hammer). With just an easy smash, the brand X polycarbonate lens was broken. However, to my surprise, I couldn’t break the Airwear lens at all, yes, not at all. After a few smashes, there were scratches on the Airwear lens, but it didn’t break!

Because of the Crizal coating, Airwear lenses are very easy to clean too. Even with smudges, the smooth lens surface makes it extremely easy for cleaning. After years, the lens surface is still as smooth as it was.

Essilor Transitions

Essilor TransitionsThe disadvantage of wearing prescription frame is that those cool sunglasses are always practically unreachable by me, unless I wear contact lenses. Besides, I don’t like the design of prescription frame with clip-on sunglasses too.

So, the best choice for me is a pair of prescription lenses which is transparent in indoors or at night, and darkens its tint when exposed to UV. And yes, I’m also a happy user of the Transitions photochromic lenses.

These are the advantages of Transitions that have won my loyalty for 2 pairs of Transitions:

* very sensitive, and fast in reacting to even a small change in sunlight condition
* doesn’t turn yellowish over time; still remains as true clear transparent at indoor even after 2 years of usage

Sensitivity to light is a very important evaluation factor for photochromic lenses. I’ve seen friends paying the same price (comparing to Transitions) for other brands of photochromic lenses, and yet not as sensitive to UV density.

So now, regardless of the lighting situation, I don’t even need to bother about it, as the variable tint of my Transitions works very well. I no longer strain my eyes when posing for outdoor photos too!

I’ve introduced Transitions to 3 friends (including blogger Jason Lioh), and all are very satisfied with it.

I guess what’s different back then and today is most of the expensive lens comes with warranty. Even Carl Zeiss have their own websites to keep track of the prescribed lens they made here. Anyone with the warranty card can register here. I told Wingz and he kind of boastful about it.

I found one website which is very useful to get more understanding about the lens available in the market. In the end I find it too technical and they don’t have complete lens inside. I can’t even find Zeis Clarity 1.6 AS Lotutec. Guess there are too much types of lens available in the market.

Once decided the lens, it is time to choose the frame. I opt for the cheap frames. To me, I find it about the same. There’s not much different between a designer label frame with the good one without designer label. It just a name stick on the frame. That’s all. The optician recommended me a frame similar to the Tag Heuer Reflex. He said that the frames came from Korea and have the same features what Tag Heuer is having. I tried both and it is almost identical, which is very hard to differentiate. The good thing about the Korea-made was it cost only 40% of what the price tag shown on Tag Heuer.

I save the frame for the next time. Opt for something conventional. :D

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Thoughts, Rants and Musings, When Everything Fails , , , ,

Day 67

March 9th, 2010

Finally got my glasses after 3 years. Old one the coating wears off. Turned yellow too.

New glasses cost RM540. Excluding the frame.

 Day 67

Related Posts with Thumbnails

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Project 365 , ,