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Freaky FridayMorning: Jalan Kayu prata. Save baby cat, guided to lunch by a bunch of schoolboys who also take me to see koi pens.
Afternoon: Harry Potter. SGD$9.50 still a bargain.
Evening: Zouk. The best thing about going with models is that you get into the VIP section just like (snap) that. Get hit on by a gay guy again, but worth the free flow XO.
Late evening: Attica. Stop a fight. Then to Old Changi Hospital to 'Stay the night in a haunted place alone.' There was a place in the shadows I could not go past. Some really bad shiznit went down there. Hey presto! Group of cute girls appear, take me in, leave me there.
There's more, but I'm freaked out already.
Then remember the date: Friday 13th.
Woooooo. Smart SharpeningAdd detail without the graininess with just a little more effort.
Strange thing is, the preview on Windows Fax and Picture viewer doesn't deal with the extra detail well. Locations: LRT tracks near Jalan Kayu, Singapore River near Raffles' Place. Filter FunBought a polarising filter set for SGD$50 yesterday. Now consider it essential. Like instant photoshop. Pictures of my pad:
Who remembers Space Camp?Trying to adapt the Star Trek Academy project to 'Space Camp'. I didn't like the cute robot plot device in the first movie, nor the unraised stakes in the face of other child space adventure movies like Explorers, Flight of the Navigator, or Last Starfighter.
The seed question is simple: who remembers who went to Space Camp? No one, right? (Except Wikipedia that is.) What if 'they' don't want you to remember?
Right now, It's kind of Breakfast Club meets Heroes with a little Goonies thrown in. Set in 1987 in between the Space Race and the X-Files. Think Challenger.
The character portraits are the angry chubby girl - think Jennifer Grey from 'Ferris Bueller' - and the nerdy black kid (who actually does remember who went to Space Camp.) Plan on 3 others.
I want one theme to be that our personalities - even the parts considered 'weak' - are the source of our strength. July 11 Approximating HDR through bracketed exposure blendingSo how do you achieve HDR - like images without super-expensive cameras and software? I've been playing around with the auto bracketing features on my camera with a neat little exposure-blend script for the Gimp. Here are some rendered shots from my house, contrasted with the mid-exposure shots. HDR: not for everything, but handy if you have problem contrast areas. Except when it's notThe Efficient Market Hypothesis: Information will be integrated into the market as soon as it becomes available. A lot of people heard the news that the Tokyo Stock Exchange bought 4.99% of the Singapore Exchange (SGX). It's now $9.50, propped up by investors who, I'll bet, wanted to share the samurai spirit despite SGX's monstrously high P/E of 56. Yeah, like Lim Ah Beng Pte Ltd is going to achieve economies of scale or horizontal integration with his $20,000 stake. The Tokyo Stock Exchange have strategic reasons for their acquisition that are not shared by the rest of us. Reminder: Corporate investors are not people! They reason beyond the ken of we mortals. Usually in committees. As personal investors become more prominent on the markets I believe we'll see more events corresponding with what I call the 'Deficient Market Hypothesis': "Information will be misinterpreted by the market as soon as it becomes available." My previous theory: "The market is perfectly rational, except when it's not." only earned me a clip on the ear from my master. No pain, no gainMy master is quite clear about his opinion on unit trusts.
Management fees for unit trusts in Singapore hover at 5%. Stock markets average around 12% so even if your unit trust matches the market you will still only get 7%.
To illustrate how pathetic that is: it's on par with the Australian bank interest rate. Theoretically if you toddle down to Shenton Way and open a Foreign Currency account instead, you'd get that AUSTRALIAN rate with SINGAPORE tax.
But wait, there's more. It's a BANK account, so your money is as solid as fat camp.
Master is at a loss as to why his fellow Singaporeans love unit trusts. I couldn't care less, being Aussie. I just want my quarter-acre piece of the property dream.
Hey, one delusion is as good as another. July 09 Scrapes on a PlaneMedium: Ball point pen and 2B pencil on butcher's paper.
Drawn during the in-flight movies on the flight to KL. Ghost Rider was comical. Jim Carrey's elastic mien in 'The Number 23' was fascinating. Watercolours for TravelDid this course when I thought I'd be travelling without a camera. Personally I find watercolours too troublesome but the course really made me think about using more colours in my work. A lens once moreSurprisingly, Singapore sucks for camera shopping. It's still better than Australia, but either way you can't beat the internet. If you're after the little compact point-and-shoots, I guess you're better off here. But if you're looking for something specific then you'll face a barricade of small shopkeepers who avoid serving you, don't bargain, and will try to sell you something you don't want. That's all behind me now that I got my Canon Powershot s3 IS. I dropped it in a storm drain last night and cried like a little girl, but it was all a dream. A very bad dream.
Oh, and may the scumbags who stole my Powershot S2 IS along with my DV cam and my film from my home die a thousand deaths. Preferably ones involving flesh eating diseases. |
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