Cult Cameras

Fuji V10 - on the left is the Fisheye 2, on the right is the pinhole camera, excuse the hideous pink background but that was least cluttered background I had at that point in time. =)

Hi guys, before I go to bed, I thought I just write a quick entry and put up a photo of the latest addition to my collection of cameras. =)

As you may very well have noticed by now, I have an interest in cult cameras and alternative photography. I have experimented with cross-processing and love its effect and have used the Holga and various cheap plastic cameras in the past. Earlier this year, I also added a Lomo to my collection.

My latest addition is the Fisheye2 and a built-it-yourself pinhole camera from the Gakken Otona no Kagaku magazine. I've used the Fisheye2 and will try and put up more photos in the next day or two. I've yet to use the pinhole but must say it was loads of fun putting it together. One of my friends also bought this magazine and when I help her put it together, I'll try and take more photos of the process itself. It's actually not that hard to put together even though the instructions are all in Japanese. If you've put Gundam kits together before, you shouldn't have any problems.

Okay, that's it from me. Am tired and tomorrow will be a very long day at work. Have two jobs and will most likely only be home in the wee hours of the morning so will need to get some shut-eye now.

Good night. =)

Mushroom Park

SE k750i - mushroom hotpot

I love mushrooms. I don't just love them because they make Mario big and strong (you'll have to know your video games to get this one =) ) but also because I like the taste of mushrooms. My favourite varieties of mushrooms are the Shitake mushrooms, the Monkeyhead Mushrooms (especially the ones preped with Wasabi sauce the way they do it at Jiang Nan Chun at the Four Seasons Hotel) and dried black Chinese mushrooms.

My first taste of a Mushroom Hotpot meal was actually in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. It was during my trip to Jiuzhaigou earlier this year and it was one of the optional things that was offered and accepted by the tour group. This meal was also my favourite meal during my trip to Sichuan. I think in the end, if you want good food in China, you really must be willing to pay more because the standard of their regular fare is simply sub-par. And oh yes, I do know that I was ridiculously behind in putting up my entries on Guizhou, Sichuan and Vietnam. =P

So when my mum suggested going to Mushroom Park in Serangoon Gardens, I was more than willing to go. So last night we went to Mushroom Park and I must say it was quite delicious.

At Mushroom Park, each person must select a set which includes a variety of mushrooms, two types of meat, an assortment of leafy vegetables, rice or mantous, a desert, an appetizer and rose tea. The rose buds in the rose tea that they serve is of a high quality and the tea is light and fragrant and is, in my opinion, a good tea to go with a mushroom meal in light broth.

When the pot of soup is first brought over and placed on the small stove in the middle of the table, the waitress will first pour each person a half bowl of soup to let you taste the goodness and purity of the stock first. The stock is sweet and full of flavour without being overwhelming and no MSG is used. After that, the waitress will introduce each variety of mushroom before scooping it into the pot to let it cook for seven minutes. At small time, a small appetizer made up of cold succulent mushrooms served with a dipping sauce made of wasabi and soy sauce is provided to keep you somewhat occupied while waiting for the mushrooms to cook.


SE k750i - mushroom rice

After the little timer announces that the seven minutes are up, the waitress will bring by their special mushroom steam rice to go with your mushroom hotpot. Now this rice is really awesome. I don't normally eat that much rice but I asked and we paid for a second bowl for my dad and I. Now I don't know what kind of rice they used but I believe it's a variety of brown rice mixed with mushrooms and steamed till each grain is plumb and fluffy... perfection.

The kinds of mushrooms one gets depends on how expensive your set is and their more expensive sets boast of many varieties that I've either not tasted before, seen before or heard about before. Some were light brown, others darker brown and one variety was even red. They all tasted different. Some of them have a rather earthy taste and others have a natural sweetness. All of them were very tasty.

At the end of the meal, you've got a choice of green tea jelly or milk pudding and I thoroughly recommend the green tea jelly, especially if you like green tea. This one taste home-made and the flavour of green tea is strong and fragrant. It's not one of those too sweet, green tea syruup flavoured things. This green tea jelly is the real deal.

If you guys like mushrooms as much as I do and if you don't mind spending a bit of money on good food, I say check out this restaurant in Serangoon Gardens. It's near the Standard Chartered Bank and if you have been to Tip Top Restaurant when they were still around, then you should have no trouble finding Mushroom Park because it is located in the very unit vacated by Tip Top Restaurant.

enjoy =)

The Creative Zen

image courtesy of Creative Technology

Not too long ago, maybe about a month or two ago, Creative Technology released a new mp3 player called the Zen. This little player is about the size of a credit card and is light and quite sleek looking. When I first set my eyes on it, I already loved the look and so I did some research on the specs and read as many reviews as I could get my hands on and when my mum got one, I played with it extensively and really liked it tons. The audio on the Zen is also really good even on the average earphones that come bundled with the player.

Sadly, some of the reviews by reputable gadget websites were obviously Apple biased. One or two of them actually said the Zen's GUI was confusing which is definitely nonsense. My mum is in her 60s and not the most technology savvy person in the world and she had no problem making sense of the GUI. I didn't even need to help her with it and she was zipping though it like Woody Wood Pecker.


SE k750i - Dohby Ghaut MRT Station, 2007, Creative Zen Ad Banner

Okay, rant over. =) Let's get to the player. The reason why I'm talking about the player now is because while clearing out the photos on my SE k750i phone, I came across a photo I took sometime back and I thought I'll put it up in the blog because I think Creative fans might enjoy seeing it if they should chance upon it and also because I hope to get my hands on an 8gig Zen by the end of this week.


SE k750i - my banged up Creative Zen Neeon

My current player is a really banged up Creative Neeon. It's banged up only because it's been through tons of heavy duty usage... heh heh... I'm not always that careful with my gadgets. =) My Neeon is a 5gig player and I don't have it filled so an 8gig Zen would be more than sufficient for my needs. While my Neeon is still chugging along, I've come to the conclusion that I would like an upgrade because my Neeon is a hard drive player and would sometimes crash when I shake it too much while chasing after the bus or the train. The Zen, however, is a flash drive player and so chances of it crashing while I chase after buses. trains or bees in the bonnet aren't really that likely. =)

Moreover, a bonus is that the screen on this beautiful gadget is 16 million colours and video playback looks quite awesome. It is not likely that I'll be carrying too much video around on it though because I also own a Zen Vision 30gig and a Zen Vision W 60gig. As to why I own both... it's a long story and not that interesting anyway. =) But on the off-chance that I would like to carry some video, I could always put it on a SD card and pop it into the build-in SD card slot in the Zen. Yup, the Zen comes with a SD card slot, hence, unlimited expandability in a sense. You're only limited by the size of the SD cards that are available or that you're willing to buy.

Creative's latest warehouse sale is from the 16th-18th Nov which is the end of this week. I'm quite tempted to go even though I'm quite adverse to crowds, especially crowds of bargain hunters, but there are several Creative products I kind of like and if I get lucky, I could get a 16gig Zen at a very good price... well, will see. =)

Bats and Zelda.

Bats and Zelda. Hi all. I've been kind of busy lately. Have picked up two new projects which will keep me pretty busy till middle of dec. Still, i've found the time to play zelda phantom hourglass on my Nintendo DS. So when i saw this tiny bat taking a midday snooze in broad daylight, i had to shoot a pix of it cuz it really complements my zelda obsession right now. For those who have played anyone of the zelda titles before, you'll know that bats are a mainstay in the games. Usually they're annoying little buggers in the game but this little fellow on the ceiling has a very cute face and isn't one bit scary at all. Ok. Gotta go. Was killing time but now have to dash. Later. :-)

- This blog was updated through my M1 mobile phone.

Fisheye photography

Fisheye2 - Marina Centre

Hi hi... just a short entry to let you guys know what I'm up to. Aside from being busy at work and playing Zelda on my NDS =D , I also got myself two new cameras. One is a fisheye camera and the other is a pinhole camera. I've shot a roll of film on the fisheye but haven't had time to use the pinhole camera yet. Will post up photos of my new cameras when I have the time.

Meanwhile, the above photo is just to give you a taste of how fun the fisheye camera can be.

Till next time... cheers =)