Ricoh GR Digital / GX100!

GR digital review

Date: July 17th, 2007

Two years ago, as a camera with 8MP/fixed 28mm lens/1600 ISO/F-2.4/GR lens, everyone was astonished. The GR digital was the newest addition to the famous GR family and the first digital of its kind. With full on simple manual controls with two control dials for the shutter and aperture on manual mode the user can get desired lighting results simply. The fixed 28mm wide angle lens give a the photographer a very wide view perfect for natural shots. A 1cm macro mode gives amazing close shots which can create amazing blurred background results.

I think it a year ago when I first encountered this camera wondering why it was so expensive (HKD 5000) but did not put too much attention to this. But during one late night going back to Shenzhen from Hong Kong, I bought a magazine and saw the article for GR series and introducing the GX100. I was in love with Ricoh... I did a bit more research online to check what all this was about and found that there was a small group of people addicted to this camera. I had more looks at some reviews and the best comment i saw was "average performance, but you will never have more fun with a camera than this". I think I was more addicted to all the marketing that they have done on this. I had to have this!

After struggling for around a month in deciding, first, to buy a Ricoh or not and, second, either to get the GR digital or the new GX100. Compared with GX100, the GR digital does not have zoom, but the, supposingly, much nicer fixed length, lower ISO - 64. As a sucker for nice pictures, I had to buy it. So, I set out for the treasure hunt.

To be continued....

Broken foot

It happened on July 18th, around 8:00pm. After saying farewell to Stephan for his China trip, I went to play basketball with Prad and Leo. I actually just sprained the foot myself and did not think to be too big a deal. But after a long hour rest, I thought it might start to become something big.

The next day, I went to a hospital in China (since i have to do this to claim insurance..) to check on the leg. Thanks to Niki taking care of me all the time there or else I really wouldn't have been able to do all these things at that damn f*cking hospital. Well as usual, there were many people just standing outside the door waiting for it to be opened and rush in without any certain kind of lining up. But finally after a little while, we did get to go in, when the first thing the damn doctor did (without looking into too much detail) was to tell me to take a x-ray. So I thought what the hell, maybe he'll have a better look later. Anyhow, went to take the X, had to wait an hour for it... finally got the x ray with a piece of paper saying that I have a cracked bone from the x ray guys... went back to the doctor thinking that he might have a closer look at it. But then when we got back, there were even more people inside the damn fucking doctor's room which pissed me fucking off, firstly, then after taking a look at the X ray and the paper, he just told me to get a cast... I thought - "vut!". Oh well, I thought it was for the best so I went to get a cast... and headed home...

Getting a cast is damn horrible! First, you lose the most enjoying thing that can possibly happen in the morning - nice hot shower. It even makes a simple task like playing a dvd, to become a quite difficult task. Plus having to leave this thing on for around a month is quite depressing. So, by proving to myself that I am still a useful person, I come to work, go out a little, try to go around as much as possible... but still I feel this depression... I keep on thinking to myself that one month will be really quick.. but it already feels like I had this on for so long. Everynight I sleep I could feel that bugger twitching on my leg...Just the idea to crack it open and feel free again is tempting my nerves..

Anyhow, I must go to a Hong Kong doctor these days to confirm the results from China doctor. Maybe take a few more X rays and get a new cast, but that's fine. It's not going to take long... I just need to be patient then I will be free again...

Big Update!

So its been a really long time since I wrote anything on this blog. In this whole months time a lot of things has happened. One reason for not writing on the blog is for some reason I have not been able to get on it at home... maybe i wrote something offending the chinese government.. but i don't think i have... anyhow, it's been really busy both for work and personally. For one, Prad's leaving the company by the end of this month and someone else is coming to replace his place. I'm sure his replacement will find the enjoyment in the job as Prad and I do although there are always problems in companies, but we will find ways to overcome all of these issues that we have. Anyhow, I will miss Prad being here cos for sure we really have fun together both in work and personally. Maybe one day he will come back, who knows!

Finally Dan and Connie has been married following the really fun bachelor party (sorry no details - too pissed drunk to remember). The wedding dinner was also great although I didn't have much chance to eat much due to all the drinking going on around. At the end of the day I slept drunk at home around 10:30 and Dan was totally drunk around that time too so it was all good. Too bad we didn't have chance to play any wedding dinner games, but it was well enough.

Then another wedding Eric and Jenny. Too bad this wedding was after Dan's so I did not feel like drinking that much since i woke up at 7:30am the day after Dan's wedding... weird... I was a beautiful wedding also and saw some old friends from Calgary so it was all good.

Work work work work work... I really need to start making sure everything is going as it should or everything will just blow up in my face... It's been two years and 3 months in this company and it seems we need more people.. or is it just me not being able to keep with everything. Ah, anyways, I will try to take care of everything that comes into our path and find solutions. As Andrew taught "道天地将法" - works with everything. Currently, there's me and Sandy taking care of hmm... 4 ongoing projects + 3 new projects (well the new projects are always changing everyweek if not everyday). Well atleast i have a clear path to make all marketing department's jobs clearer for everybody and provide updates in a manner where information is passed on clearly to those related.

Ah, finally I have bought that damn camera I always wanted - Ricoh GR digital. I'm actually really happy with the pictures that come out of that camera. The manual controls are amazingly simple and that wide angle shot is just perfect. Actually I wanted to get the

"regular" version but since they were out of stock I had to buy the limited edition - number 0876/1000 - with the weird disposable camera look for a very good price. After a while, actually the camera doesn't look that bad. You will get used to it after a little while. I don't give a shit what other people say about it, haha - I still love it for the functions. After buying this and using it for a little while, I tried again the GX100, and found the endless encoder on the GR for the shutter speed to be a lot smoother than the non endless one for GX100. I'm sure a lot of people do not agree with my thoughts on this camera, but I love it.. good pictures and great manual controls although the auto white balance does not seem to be too accurate at a lot of times so I have to tweek it myself. 1 cm macro just works perfectly and the F/2.4 is big but not big enough for me... that I will really need a SLR. Then maybe I will need to start playing with flashes... a part of photography that I have been neglecting. Oh, I also need a camera stand!

Stephan, Matt, Leo, and me went to macau on the last week of June where Cathy kindly took us around to show everything there was in macau which was perfect. We spent the whole time there and had a lot of fun - also gambling a little... i lost 1k! But Leo won 4k!... anyways, we will go back there someday since it was very fun! Next time I will bring more money! haha.

Since then I have been meeting a little more with Cathy and I really enjoy the time with her. She's a really fun girl and I really enjoy the time with her, but I guess that's it. We had long relationship before, but now, we can just be friends and i'm glad we can keep it this way. I have to admit, I did change when I was with her. If it wasn't for that relationship, I would not be who I am now. 4 years is a long time! Thanks Cathy for the birthday present. You know I like it and for sure I will remember you always as a friend!

So today I'm still really tired from the weddings the past weekend. It's going to be my birthday this Sunday and on saturday we are going to water world in Guangzhou!! Yeah!!~~~~~ Its sad that water world had to close in Hong kong so I haven't been in a really long time and this one is supposed to be really fun! Too bad some of the guys cannot go... its going to be fun for sure and I'm sure we will all be really pissed at night for drinks!

Workout Day #1

Finally Prad and I decided that we will go work out! The place is around 10 minutes walk from our place so its just perfect after dinner we can have a little walk to calm down and begin to work out.

So here is what we done today,

1. 3 sets 10 x chest
2. 30 minutes cardio
3. 2 sets 20 x situps
4. 2 sets 12 x lower back
5. 2 sets 12 x biceps

Not too much but tiring for sure! Our trainer said that we will need to do the above for around 2 weeks. Hmm... although it is pretty different from what I pictured to do (first build up then do Cardio to burn fat) but I will give it a try, haha! I will not be fat jak anymore.. I hope... Anyhow, I will keep this up... its for my own good!

Precila's Bday - Food and Drinks @ Yuen Long!

Yesterday was Pre's birthday so I had to go to have a little drink with her. I went out in the afternoon to buy her a present. Well I knew that she liked making food for her boy so I went to Hua Qiang Bei to look for some second hand books, but they were really second hand and not too much selection so I still ended up checking out the Shenzhen Book City near the office. I did found two books both for making desserts since that was what she liked to make for him.

So, I arrived around 8:45 in Yuen Long and before I got there I was too stupid and since first time going there I didn't know what bus to take.. haha.. Oh well, I finally got there the we went to meet with her friends and had a good dinner! Weird enough, it seems that I have seen her friends somewhere before. They really look familiar to me. Maybe I had a dream with them inside it... hmm.. not sure.. I couldn't eat too much meat so I didn't have too much food... but the food looked really good and smelt really good. It is hard for a non voluntary vegetarian to stand this! haha, but for my health I held on. Then we went on the a local bar to have a few drinks. I did start out with just drinking coke, but after a while, I couldn't stand everyone having drinks and just me drinking the $35 coke, so I had a few drinks. The time started out pretty normal, but after a few drinks and more and more people coming it started to become more and more fun. Her friends were amazingly witty and funny and real! Pre cut the cake and Globi comes. She was a really nice girl in all ways. Too bad she has a boyfriend! haha...Anyhow, I never actually thought Yuen Long could have such a local bar scene! But it turned out there are lots of people out there!

So everyone got damn drunk and especially Ah Shing, the guy with a car. So, I volunteered to drive their car to their company parking lot... I was a little drunk yes, but I still managed to drive that standard mini van with a shaking feet! Luckily, we got there safe and sound then everyone left home. Stupid me leave to give the gift to Precila as she said her bag didn't have enough space and ask me to leave it with first...

Anyways, have a look at the photos of Pre, Globi, the cake, and me!

Movie Recommendation: 2001 Space Odyssey

Seth has told me to watch this movie for a long time, but I didn't get access to this movie until previously since.. hmm.. lets say there have been problems with the pirate DVD retailing these few weeks. So, finally I got this movie and had relaxed look.

I had to say I was very amused by this movie. The cinematography was amazing. Although the story was rather simple, and actually the whole movie could have been told in half an hour. But It was done in such a wonderful way in plot/character/setup/effects/..., you couldn't stop watching until the end. From the special effects and all, you couldn't believe that it was made in the 1968!

Great movie! Show's Stanley Kubrik's contribution to the history of movies~

Facebook!

So I have heard of this facebook thing for a little while already through April, Dini, Seth,... I didn't really have a good look at it until today. I was looking up old friends that I haven't seen in a long long long long time and I've absolutely lost contact with them. Through this facebook thing I found them! Well its pretty much like friendster, but it does work a little better giving people a little bit more freedom... Hmm.. maybe I'll stick with this a little longer than friendster...

If you guys want to have or want to make a facebook add me! I'm my email is jackyng722@gmail.com.

http://www.facebook.com

Photos! + Picasa

I just uploaded the Japan trip photos when Leo, Prad, and I went to Tokyo after the NAMM show. We had some pretty OK food and had a little shopping around but for sure we did not have enough time to see enough of Japan or actually even Tokyo. So, I'm going to upload more and more photos from time to time. Have a check when you guys have time,

http://picasaweb.google.com.tw/JackyNg722

Oh by the way, Picasa by Google is a pretty nice software to upload photos and just view ALL the pictures on your hard disk. Its simple to use and it's by google, so it has to be good! Good job Google! Too bad my computer's too fuc*ed up to use Google desktop or I would be impressed more by you Google guys!

Working out - Finally!

So, Prad and I have finally decided that we will go on to join this gym 5 mintes from our place. It is a really nice place with some personal trainers and all. Also, we can join some Yoga classes for free! Maybe in the Yoga classes we can meet some people! haha... It's RMB1000 for half a year, so its pretty good price. I will probably go 2/3/4 times a week coz i really do want to get a little more fit and hopefully jump a little higher for basketball. So now, we can do some exercise even if it rains here!

Dinner with Old Friends

Today, I had dinner with some really old friends that I haven't seen in a long time. It was really cool just seeing how much everyone changed in these few years. How we both Software Engineers, by education, are now doing absolutely different things than we studied. Is it possible to go back to where we were before? Probably not. But one thing is for certain - we will be friends forever and that's what important. We have our own lives, own friends, families, lifestyles, hobbies,... but when we meet up, we could still have all the fun and laughs we used to have. Its really nice to also see that everyone is working hard for our future!

So anyways, we went to a buffet today and well I couldn't eat any meat...but I still enjoyed the salad bar, the mushrooms, and everything else vegetarian. It was a nice meal!

Oh also, the cake we had was very cool. It was a cake of a carton guy and girl in the bed with a blanket over. It was possible to flip the blanket over to see what was inside. Well obviously nothing much.

All in all it was a fun night!

Movie Recommendation #2: Memento

Memento is amazing! Just to give you a little idea of the movie: its about a guy that cannot have short memory. Every hour or two, his memory restarts! This is caused by an accident so he does remember everything up to the point of the accident. So he is totally lost in time. The movie is made in a way so that you get really into the protagonist. You really feel pity for the man! I did not turn on my computer since I was so hooked for the whole 2 hours. Actually this should have been a very popular movie so maybe a lot of you guys have watched it.

Busy Busy Busy!

Its been a long day! Meetings and more meetings. My Skin itching like crazy! I am dead tired since waking up at 7:30 (sleeping at 2:30) to pick up a Japanese customer at 9:30. I absolutely did not had enough time to do other work so I had to stay until 9 to finish a small fraction of the work. Still lots of stuff to do. List below,

- Problem with A*DJ AL case *important must take care today!*

- Quantity mismatch with ATM quantities (K*RE + R*2)

- Meeting with Irvin to take care of K*RE2

- Oliver's visa for china visit

- Rig Kontrol 3 information from NI

- A*hton order status

- M*X112 capacitor problem

- E-S*itch return PO from Jane

- M*X115 labels needed for production

- L&* customer followup about P*40

- AL case missing for K*RE2 at ATM

- K*RE2 schedule update

- R*3 schedule update

- Ipod solution update from vendor

- Matt update about the purposed Ipod dock

- Delivered cables quantity issue, need to discuss with ATm

- Update shipment date for 500 pcs A*DJ to NI

- Meeting minutes for L&*

- Status for Ivan M*sic POS from TJ

- KORE2 updated PCBA status from Xiaohong

- New models for A*hton?

- Lots of invoices...

- la la la la laaaaaa~~~~~~... (the list goes on and on and on and on...)

Let's finish some of the stuff that I can do... Tomorrow's another good day! Oh, today's not a good day to die!

Come back soon..

I really never thought that I wil miss you this much
Without you I have a hard time eating lunch
Thinking about all the things that I do with you
All the memory you have stored up I can't live without
Is now inside you oh what can I do
Now I have to end up with a temperary desktop
come back soon!

Question of the Day!

Ok guys, here's the question of the day for those guys who share an apartment with friends.

One morning you wake up after a long drinking night. Your roomate is out for whatever and you find that he/she has taken a big shit and haven't flushed and the whole washroom stinks. What would you do?

Come on guys, give me your best answer. I'll give mine tomorrow.

Movie recommendation 1: Night Listener

I do watch a lot of movies when I get bored so I might as well write a little recommendation for a pretty good movie I watched this morning. The name of the movie is "Night Listener" starring Robin Williams - as a gay night radio story telling show host. I don't want to ruin the movie for the guys/gals who want to watch it so I won't go into too much details. Just have to say this was a great suspense movie which keeps you really guessing. So if you like suspense, this is a movie to watch. The only issue about this movie was that it was lacking a much anticipated climax. It just does not get up there all the way (no *ouch*). All in all, it was time well spent on a late Sunday morning!

Stick with my good old camera Canon S400 + my photography life...

In terms of cameras, I, after talking with a bunch of people about the expensive compact cameras, Ricoh GR D and GX100, have decided that I will stick with my old canon S400. I will wait for the new GR-D to come out before I think about ANY other cameras. It is expected by everyone that it will come out by the end of this year *fingers crossed*. Hope the price will be around the same as the current GR-D. So, I will have to stick with the 1.5 inch LCD and the amazingly slow focus, but it still works and I'll have to be fine with it.

In my photographic life, I hae had the following cameras,

1. Canon S400 (Digital)
.. Yes, this is my first camera that has stuck to me until now

2. Lomo Holga 120 (120 film)
.. It was actually a fault to buy this camera since it uses 120 film and its much too dummy to use, expensive film, and expensive to process the film

3. Lomo SuperSampler (35mm film)
.. This was just fun camera to play with. It was easy to use and made really fun pictures with 4 shot (in 1/2 sec intervals) on the same frame

4. Lomo LC-A (35mm film) + color splash flash
.. You have to admit it was a simple to use camera. But just snapping everything was real fun! Taking snap shots is just so fun. Not having to tweak the shuttle/aperture for every shot, you can just snap and hope for good results. The light sensor on this camera was just perfect and there were nearly no shots under exposed (of course there is the possibility of the hand shake blurred picture from log shutter time). All in all, one of my all time favourites.

5. Canon F-1 (35mm film) + 50mm 1.8 canon lens
.. This is my first leap to experience full on manual control on a camera. I have to say that I love Canon cameras. I just believe their brand to give me good photos with good lens/build/quality and it does! I'm sure this camera will last for another 20 years! Like with all 35mm cameras I had, I burnt film snapping everything and trying everything that I can with these camers to test out. I still have 20 finished rolls of film that is not yet processed. Hope some day when I have the money and time I can take these and see whatever was in those rolls.

6. My next camera WILL BE a RICOH GR-D 2!
.. Hope it comes out soon... maybe before my brother's wedding!? Comeon Ricoh guys, I know you are producing these in China and Japanese guys are known to have slow project cycles. But you have to speed this project up!

7. Camera after GR-D will be a digital SLR
.. I'm just amazed at the quality of digital SLRs and I've always loved to take pictures. So this will be my birthday present when I'm 30. It's a few more years away. Until then, I will snap on with the GR-D 2 that I WILL get. The reason I WILL NOT get a DSLR before the GR-D is because I know I will enjoy the GR-D more on a daily basis. Taking these DSLR's around is not that convenient. I love the GR-D...

*note to self* you don't love the GR-D yet...

Shenzhen Shopping 1: Hua Qiang Bei

I was walking through hua qiang bei today and around through the area 阿建 recommended. It took a little while to walk around the whole place to find something nice since most of the places were selling fake printed tees and shoes which is fine, but they are just all the same, makes me boring. But after a while of searching I did find a shop with nice clothes that were not like the other shops. I had a look around and found a lot of the clothes inside were right for me. But remembering that I need to save up some money, I passed on some nice clothes. But I did find a really nice pair of shorts for RMB 30. There were labelled quicksilver which I am not sure if its real! Anyhow, they had all the nice details and very good material! It actually would even be better if it was not branded. Anyhow, it was great experience in the place and I'm sure I will be there again. Maybe some pictures later on...

Matilda

For some reason I remember that I read this book called "Matilda" when I was a little boy in Vancouver. I have absolutely no memory of what the book was about, but I do remember this name. Actually, I have already decided that IF I have a baby girl, her name will be Matilda. Yes, it is a unusual name and people may make fun of her name, but I like it. If it turns out she doesn't like it then I will just call her Mattie.

Of course I did look back online about this book and it turns out that her character had parents that treated her bad, but she had a smart mind and "special" powers. She moral of the story is about not giving up and anyone can achieve anything if they put their mind to it.

Weird name, yes, but hey, its me - 吴鉴奇!

Song when showering

*是这样*

是这样无奈
要这样放开
是这样无奈让你离开

埋藏于心底一生永久不说话
话别....话别你爱上他......

生活如痲
心事满不雅
想起她...想起她...

The above text just came out of nowhere. I was just taking a shower and started singing. Now I have the few verses above.

Makes me remember something else that just came out when we were practicing for the Chinese New Year's performance. Its with some swears so...I guess i have to *bleep* a lot of it. , I guess a lot of you guys would not undestand this... it's kind of a cantonese rap verse...have a good guess...But for those who understand sorry, I absolutely mean no offense towards any people/objects/cell/electron/particle/solids/liquids/... it was just fun.

我chum yut fan gun uk kei geen dou gor hak guai
Or wa "damn you *bleep*ing naggers"
kui wa "*bleep* 你个 *bleep*"

Let's make some damn music...

OK.... time to save up!

Plan!
Save up for one year
- no dates... yes... a must to save some money... Dini... I will NOT lose the bet!
- no toys... well maybe just the camera..
- no travelling... well just I have to go back to Canada...
- Go less to Hong Kong... ok guys/gals... you have to come up to visit me from now on... its at most going to be a biweekly thing from now on...
- no expensive food... time to explore the cheap and good food in Shenzhen... hopes there's vegetarian... yes i have finally decided I will stick with this!
- Work Hard... show that I am worthy to the company and ... I need a raise!
- no entertainment... well well well well... yeah... oh well... its all in the mind... it can be controlled
- read more books... time well spent!
- work out at home... healthy body... to look good after a year...
- Cut down on my only bad habit... yeah yeah.. i will...
- playing my bass more... well I might as well since I already bought it.. oh... i need my Hartke VXL200 amp back!
- eat more apples... Kuva... I will listen to you...
- Zamatu... comeon guys... we have to get this started...
- Just looking forward to that BIG break... one/two years is not that faraway... i think...
- many many many more....

Hayz Music

When you have time, have a look to the link below,

http://wwwcn.myspace.cn/hayzmusichk

It's a song written by a long time friend from Calgary who is now back in Hong Kong. Just have to say he has a very nice voice! Good job!

Weird Dreams...

Maybe its coz i haven't been having too much sleep these two weeks, I had some weird dreams that I can remember,

1. I wake up with my teeth being very loose. I grind my teeth and most of my teeth fall off. I look into the mirror and see that new teeth are coming out.

2. I look into my left ear through the mirror and find that there is this HUGE ear wax inside. I use my hand to pluck it out. DAMN it's huge like an egg ball! Then I do the same thing with my right ear.

Weird... Can anybody explain this!? Maybe too much airconditioning?

I'm still hooked with the damn camera (GX100)

Yes, I know its the marketing gag. Yes, I am not professional enough to say that the lens on this camera is so good that it can produce "amazing" images. For me, its a portable camera with professional controls. You can control shutter and aperature easily with two dials. The images that this camera can produce is amazing. And all in this small camera! With this camera, I can take a lot of pictures at my brother's wedding and that's very important. For sure I will treasure this baby...

I just want that camera so bad! I think I'm not going to withstand the temptation and buy it. Lets see what happens this weekend.

Dear Mom...

Dear Mom,

Happy mother's day! I know that I haven't been the most caring soon in these years and I cannot provide you with the best, but you know that I love you. I know its important to show it to you, but for some reason I am just not that kind of person. I love you dearly with all my heart! There have been problems in the family and no one is to blame. I just hope that you are happy. I am sorry that I have made you sad. I will show to you that I am your good son.



With Love,
Jacky & on Stephen's behalf....

Letter to IBM

11:00am May 14th. Alice asked me to write an email to I*Beep*M about unsatisfied customer service. So here's my mail,

Dear I*Beep*M customer service,

Please note that I am very unsatisfied with the bad service provided by a "world class" company as IBM.

In 2000, I bought an I*Beep*M computer (*model*) in Hong Kong thinking I*Beep*M - as one of the biggest computer companies - can provide premium service and quality products to us, consumers. In these few years times, I have been happy with the product and did recommend I*Beep*M products to many friends as there were no problems with the machine.

Last week, I have found that the transformer in the computer becomes very hot in a short time of operation. As a worried consumer that heat from the computer might cause a danger to my home, I called IBM service to help me. I did know that the warantee for the machine has been expired (3 years warantee - ending 2003), but I was just hoping that IBM service can provide me a solution to solve this issue (maybe a replacement transformer that I can buy from I*Beep*M). But when questioned about any possible replacement parts, IBM service noted that this computer system has been discontinued and I*Beep*M cannot provide any service parts for me. I was not satisfied with this reply as I was willing to pay for a new transformer and I bought I*Beep*M thinking service would be much better than other companies atleast in replacements parts.

It has also come to my attention that I*Beep*M actually found that there were heat issues with this transformer model and machines were needed to be returned to IBM for replacements in 2002, during my warantee period. But as a normal consumer that does not look into the I*Beep*M website to check for updates everyday, I did not know this at the time. To think back, I would think that I*Beep*M could have sent me a mail to note this problem as my address/phone number was noted in the warantee during the purchase. If I*Beep*M did send me a mail at that moment. The current situation will not happen.

I really do not know what to do now, writing this complaint to I*Beep*M. My mother does operate the computer normally for her daily entertainment and now she cannot use it anymore. I do tell her not to use the computer anymore but I am very worried that accidents might happen.

All I want is I*Beep*M's help in providing me a transformer that I can use for replacement to prevent any accidents. Pls help!

Yours Truly,

Alice Wu

I guess even big cooperations do not have WORLD CLASS service ... So, we as a small company have to do this right?

So, at the end Alice did get the transformer but she did need to pay for it. Maybe I wasn't strong enough in the email to persuade them to give one for free. Maybe next time...

WORK

In around two months time, I'm going to be 25. Everyday is with crazy ups and downs, Bosses being Bosses and workers beging workers... I begin to think about my current situation in life. How are other people when they're 25... same as me no absolute direction? These two years have been amazingly fast. I'm really glad I'm working here in Shenzhen with some great people and some not so great of course. Some good customers and some not so good customer. I have to say I really enjoy life here. But there are times I'm thinking what the fuck am I doing here. I guess its just those times in the month when all things come together and just crumbles. But then when something works out at the end, its just an incredible feeling.

The more stupid the customer is... the smarter we need to be! We have to make it happen... we are working for a long lasting relationship... we are not your slave! Right?Give me your best shot V*co!

Good Worker vs Good Manager

I got this through a discussion with someone...

In the short run:

Good Worker: If you leave the company, the company will go insane. It will take a little time for the operation to get back to normal
Good Manager: If you leave the company, the working process will remain and everything will still be normal.

What do you guys think, who's the more important guy to the company?

Dates... or whatever

So its been around 3 months since I have broke up with Annie. In these 3 months time, I've really have had much time for myself. Its basically been work, work, and more work (and a little hanging out with the guys). Now since the KO*E2 project is already on hold for the meanwhile, and I have around 1 and half months till the next pilot run for G-Rig 3 and KO*E2, I need to have some dates to balance my life. I did meet this girl in a club via a weird experience (her friend came up to meet me... probably coz she wanted to meet Indian friend), the we met. We had some good conversations on the phone for a few times and everything felt cool. So we came out to have some dinner and everything was fine until her phone rang. She was talking extensively on the phone and I am on msn chatting with friends then suddenly her face changes. She keeps on asking the guy "why you want to know who I'm with?", "you don't know him", "we're just friends", blah blah blah. Then she cuts him off. I obviously ask her what's wrong. So it turns out that this is a foreign guy that's chasing her. She's mad because he jealous she's with a "GUY" <- me! Then her phone rings again... Obviously its the same guy. She asks him to come if he doesn't believe. The she passes the phone to me to tell him that I have nothing to do with her. Oh well, then we left. She took a taxi and I took another taxi. Date end! Fun... hmm...

Vegetarian

So its finally had to come to this. I cannot eat anymore meat. No that I want to, of course, but just because my Chinese doctor, whom I still trust now more than my Hong Kong "Professional" doc, told me to. It has been a week and 2 days going without meat. For sure I really want to eat it, this skin thing is really getting on my nerves. I want a healthy body since this has been bothering me for half a year already, since Germany trip. I mean my skin's really got better after stop eating meat. But I am still eating Chinese fast food since they do have a wide variety of Chinese fast food. I know its not healthy, but what else can I eat? I'm just too lazy to make my own food. And I cannot live on bread alone. Hope this thing leaves me soon...

Beijing and Shanghai!

These are two of the places that I actually wanted to go since I've been in Shenzhen (which has been already two years a month today). Thanks to Daniel, Tim, and Oliver, I finally had the chance to go there. Just have to say without these crazy German guys with me over there I would not have enjoyed it that much! Although we did not see tooooo much of the morning life in Shanghai, we for sure experienced most of the nightlife in these two places. For sure, I will be going to back Shanghai and Beijing in the coming year. Hopefully you German guys can here again then we can visit other places in China! But we will probably have to wait till next year.

By the way here are the must go night places in Shanghai and Beijing

Beijing
Kai Club (in Sanlitan)
It's definitely not a posh club that everyone will enjoy, but with nice cheap drinks, really fucked up people, great music, its a must go place for us ordinary guys.

Shanghai
People 7
What else to say, perfect interior design, nice chill out place for having a little drink.

87th floor bar on the highest building in Shanghai
Does not have a perfect view since there it's surrounded by all that metal structs, but also a nice place to visit once in a lifetime.

Me and my headphones

Its been around 2 months since I bought my shure SE210 ear phones. Although I did pay a really high price for these, I DO NOT want to say how much, I think they are worth the price. Although the bass is not enough the mids and highs are great. They just match perfectly with my ipod shuffle and the music I listen to. The best thing about these headphones are they block out ALL the noise when some music is turned up. I was walking through Dong Men few days ago and it was much more relaxing and I think you guys would understand what I mean (DVD~~~, Massage~~,...). Well there are these certain times, when walking on the street with bicycles FLYING around in Shenzhen city, when I'm really scared they will just crash into me from behind. Anyhow, so far so good with these ear phones!

Zamatu!

Zamatu is going to be our (Seth, Rick, Ken, and me) start towards a new life. I am not going to leak any details at the current moment, but we will take the Chinese market by storm!

Oh by the way guys, you have to love that USB plug! lol

Ricoh GR Digital

Its been 3 days since I first had my first eye on my dream camera. The Ricoh GR-D and GX100 are just amazing cameras. If you guys are interested, have a look at the following link,

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Ricoh/ricoh_grdigital.asp

I want one really bad! But since now my finances are all messed up and I have to go back to Canada late September for my brother's wedding, I really have to hold out on this for a while. I did do some research around on Chinese auctioning sites and found that these cameras are cheaper in Shenzhen than they are in Hong Kong. But of course without the great 12 month installments that I can get in Hong Kong...

Let's see in the coming month if I can save up some money for this camera. For now, I still have my F-1 and S400...