Happy new year to my family, beloved wife and friends all over the world! Love you all! Life
Now I can post without having to login in browser and click through numerous links! Thanks to Live Writer, and sure there are other offline writer/editor out there. Keep finger cross that this will help to up the frequency of blogging! 
Yesterday I came across a small clip of Nick Vujicic. He was born without limbs, all 4 of them and yet he is a motivational/inspirational speaker today! To think he can overcome all difficulties throughout his life and can even start giving advice to everyone out there, our problems and worries seem like a speck of dust in the ocean. How grateful we should be that we are born complete, and grateful that we do have a good life. There is family, there are friends, you have a job, and don’t have to starve. Yet, we always like to complain or get worked up over tiny weenie things in life. I really feel ashamed of myself after watching it. How often we like to whine about how the work sucks, how your life sucks, how rich is your neighbour, how pretty/handsome is your best friend. Ask yourself, how often you tell yourself or anyone that your life is actually good and you are contented?
His determination to live like a normal human is priceless. Everyone should learn this amazing spirit of his. Not afraid to try and no fear for failure. If you hit a wall, get up and do something. Walk around it or whack a hole through it. Quote from his video, it matters more on how you finish. Don’t hide yourself up in the hole and live with it. You certainly don’t want to carry regrets into your coffin.
I have bookmarked this video and love to watch it from time to time. Short yet big on inspiration.
Red Cherry Shrimps
After so many years of breeding them, I finally managed to get a good picture of them! Woohoo!
Small things around you
I changed the theme. Sick of the old one and hope this will motivate me to write more *finger crossed*
Bought a reverse adapter for macro from eBay. It is cheap, don't bother check with your local dealer. Grab an eBay and PayPal account, and off you go. The result? More than satisfying! Paired it with a 50mm f/1.8 and you will have fun snapping those finer details around you. The few samples below speak for themselves and rest of the album here
Top 10 memories of 2009
48 hours to a new year, so it is time to recall what has happened in 2009!
10. Got a new handphone for birthday, and wife has exactly the same one
9. Purchased external camera flash after 3 years into the hobby
8. I passed the long awaited first .NET paper towards professional certification
7. I finished my personal best cum perfect 10KM marathon in KL
6. I painted my own place, every single ceiling and wall
5. I finished my first half marathon in Singapore, though not a perfect one
4. I struggled and survived out of debt-filled (not mine) life 
3. I got my own place (with wife)! Small it is but none can beat the comfy of it
2. I did the lifetime proposal to my 2 years together girlfriend (now wife) on the summit of Mount Kinabalu, 26th April
1. My wife and I registered for our marriage on the auspicious date of 9th September (09092009)
Update time!
So sad to see this blog get put aside for so long. I guess I am not the blog type of person, but let's try to have a go at it for another year Some updates for past 6 months.
June
I joined KL Standard Chartered 10KM marathon and managed to beat my personal best from last run I even ran all the way without stopping, and that's very satisfying
July
I did another 11.5KM night run at Putrajaya. It was not a fun route and the humidity at night made it worst. Anyhow, I love the goodies bag!
September
Bier and I registered for our marriage The Chinese ceremony will be held next June so we are gonna be busy preparing along the months!
December
Went for Singapore Standard Chartered 21KM (half) marathon and I actually managed to finish under personal target of 3 hours! Woohoo! The run wasn't perfect as I couldn't finish the last few KM properly. So the next target is to run non-stop and hopefully can do within 2:15 Plenty of training required!
Still alive and kicking
WTH, last post at end of last year!? Guess can't really kick this procastinating habit out of my life huh!
Just to let anyone-who-cares knows that I am still on planet Earth!
Which group(s) am I in?
If you are working in an Active Directory environment and you do utilize it for authentication in your project, this snippet might come handy. It lists the group(s) that current authenticated user belongs to, so you can expand on this to do whatever you need to.
using System.Security.Principal; //do this to save time in typing foreach (IdentityReference ref in WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent().Groups) //get current user group(s) Console.WriteLine(ref.Translate(typeof(NTAccount)).ToString()); //translate it to meaningful value
Sense of achievement
It was 11 years ago when I first ran in a marathon (I never like running!), and last weekend I completed the second marathon in my life to date! I didn't finish with a braggable time, but 1 hour 20 minutes is the result that I am personally proud of 
Somehow i feel that i achieved something in my life. It did give a great feeling for the day, and the whole event was actually fun. The first 6KM was bearable, and the rest of the run was simply killing. I ran non-stop until my legs almost gave way and I just half-run-half-walk for the remaining distance. I did intend to push it over the limit but I gave up the idea on the thought that i have to walk to work the next day!
I still have that sense of achievement with me today, and it is my legs which are still feeling it! Muscle is sore at both thighs and knees don't feel great too Now the target is to do 25KM next, but i better make sure there is ongoing training and I can have next few days off. 10KM already did these to me, and I can't imagine what's it like after 25KM!
New November
Yeah i hope too that I have a new gadget to write about, but nah, it is my new job. Actually i started on it at the end of Oct after a nice vacation at Bali. I do mean it when I say nice. The vacation was relaxing, and everything was just right. I certainly don't mind going back there for second time!
Anyway, about this new job. I am now attached to Asia Media Monitor which is located right in the centre of KL city. So my mode of transport now is by train and 15 minutes walk. I can drive too, but I rather not to. Walking is good exercise and driving in the jam gives me more stress. And hey, I do my tiny part in saving the earth too The job scope is similar to what i previously did, so I will skip that. Overall the environment is good, be it the people or office itself. The better thing is that we all have our own laptop as well as 2 19" LCD! This is certainly very new as I never work with 2 desktops before and i am liking it!
That's all. I just want to brag about the laptop and LCD
Victory 3080 Tripod – Personal View
Finally I landed my hand on a sturdier professional tripod with ballhead. Well, maybe you won't class it under 'Professional' because it is actually an entry level one. But to me, it is good enough. I bought it at cheaper-than-retail price through a photography network. My first impression of it was 'Wow, it looks sturdy... and heavy!' Yeah at 2.5kg, it is not something you like to bring with when you are climbing Mt. KK.
It is a Victory 3080. By looking at the sticker, you can already guess it is China made
It is actually a close mimick of Manfrotto 190XProb (a real professional tripod that costs about 4-5 times the price of this). The price i paid for come with a ballhead which can handle up to 4KG. Not really a big factor for me now as the longest lens I have is only 90-300mm.
Quick release plate is a norm for such ballhead
This is how it looks like at folded length
Where's the center column??
Here it is... dismantled??
One superb point about this tripod is how low it can go. Most of them can go until ~15-20cm low, but this out-do them by able to go as low as this!
Of course, i haven't thought of any useful application at such height. Maybe when you are laying low in a bush to capture some unusual macro shot.
This is how high it can go. I'll say around 157cm.
Conlusion, I like it! I have brought it out twice and the ballhead really speed up the orientation process. My friend mentioned that one bad about ballhead is that straight might not be straight, and now I get his point. Apart from the weight, I have nothing to complain about. You might argue that it is wiser to spend more on a better tripod, but not everyone can afford that and not every cheaper stuff is bad. Until today, it still have my vote and recommendation for budget user.
