Monday, February 19, 2007

Year of the Pig!


CNY door decor
Originally uploaded by monster-ru.


this is my first ever year that i didn't get to have a traditional Reunion Dinner.

oh well. we tried to get into the festive mood. I even went into chinatown twice last week, hoping to find some goodies to get, even though we dont really eat them. and on the eve, NAB and i braved the chinatown crowd, and bought this thing - really, the only thing that we have to "celebrate" the new year with. No mandarin oranges, no ang paos to give or receive...

i'm wondering if i'm supposed to feel homesick, or really glad that i don't even have to find an excuse to not do the usual CNY things that we used to try to avoid. But honestly, i think what i miss most is the gambling, and playing poker with my friends till the early morning...

in any case, chinatown was really boring. there were hardly any stalls, just lots and lots of people... guess the parade and all is there mainly for the tourists...


p.s. oh, and you know your dog is getting old when he is falling asleep sitting upright next to you...

Saturday, February 17, 2007

"Rain slowly dying away tonight"


"Rain slowly dying away tonight"
Originally uploaded by monster-ru.


i thought this pretty poetic for a weather page.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

a bit of snow


snow-stitch of King George's Park
Originally uploaded by monster-ru.


took a few quick shots to make this panorama, before i caught up with NAB and the dogs. This is where the dogs start their daily morning walk.

Belle acts as if the snow is not there at all, and Finn, he's just gets really whiney...

Monday, February 05, 2007

a bit of rambling...

i wanted to post some photos when it snowed about 2 wks ago, and about the funny buskers on the train home on saturday evening. And also about our usually OK upstairs neighbours, who had a party on saturday night, and put on loud music only after midnight, with their guests singing (shouting actually) and stamping their feet to the rhythm the whole time, until i woke NAB up at 1.30am to go and ask them to please stop it. (KNNBCCB, i could have killed them because even the dogs could not sleep...)

So, i got lazy, but this post is really about how many "the photos do not do justice to this beautiful/gorgeous/fabulous-looking (insert whatever item of clothing up for bidding)" statements that i've recently seen on ebay (yes, for those of you who have not heard, i've been getting some maternity wear off ebay!). Anyway, the said photos were usually blur or "faded" and it got me thinking about what could have made this possible:

a. the auto-focus function on the camera was faulty
b. the photo-taker must not have steady hands (like me previously when i was drinking too much)
c. the photo-taker must have been tickled and jumped, or was drunk (also like me sometimes, when i get drunk and try to take a shot)
d. it was a very heavy camera and could not be held steady (like that time when i first tried a digital SLR, Terz's 10D when he first got it actually, with some big fuck-off lens with image stabiliser or something)
e. there is no auto WB (White Balance) setting on the camera/wrong WB was set
f. there was a fan in the room where the item of clothing was shot, and it was turned on at high speed and aimed at this piece of clothing.

It is really easy to screw up a shot. but i guess i just kind of assumed that if you are truly keen about selling your "really gorgeous" item, you'll try your best to show it as such in the photo. And i mean, in this day and age, even a phonecam can do a pretty good job of getting a decent shot of something that is not moving. And it's not like if you fuck up the first shot, you can't try again, not like some things in life...

But really, why do they feel the need to say this? Do they expect us to be forgiving and ignore the less-than-perfect photo and try to picture a perfect garment? I mean, if the photo does not give us a better idea of what the item looks like, then why bother posting such a photo anyway??