DP | @ekhoophotography - Life

Mark Three

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:10:00 -0500

The third year of the Tiger has arrived. At least, from my perspective. Looking back, Tiger Mark II was a lot different from Mark III. What a difference a dozen make. Times have indeed changed a lot. Many turns. Many unexpected dead-ends, detours and u-turns. Many surprising things. Surprised myself a lot too. Guess I also surprised a lot of other people.

Change, again is the only constant. Some people say that I'm quite lucky to be where I am. Well, it's a lot of blood, sweat and tears and a million mistakes along the way. Some say I'm blessed financially. Well, I'll say again that I'm blessed because of the people around me - friends and family. At this milestone, Mark III, I'll also say that I'll never be where I am today without the one person that makes up the world to me, my darling, the one my heart loves. The most amazing sight to wake up to and the most beautiful bliss to fall asleep too. More importantly, sharing the years of Mark III and beyond with her. Of course, the other important people are my family. I can't say much here because again, they are what makes me what I am, they are also all I am. Mom, Dad, Alan.

And now, on a lighter note, if anyone would like to drop a gift wrapped box at the house, I know I'll welcome one of these : ~~Panasonic GF1 kit~~, a couple of extra RadioPoppers, a ThinkTank Roller or a Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 lens.

Coffee Beans. Fremantle Market, Fremantle, Western Australia. Kodak T-MAX 400. November 2002.

A diamond cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials - Chinese proverb

Fire in the hole!

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:56:00 -0500

This Chinese New Year, we had the fireworks event right in our new old home after dinner. Boy, have the prices shot thru the roof?! I remember buying a pack containing a dozen "moon traveler" rockets (lil inexpensive gunpowder rockets on a stick with a small bang after reaching a height) for less than a ringgit. Today, it's like ten bucks for a dozen. Large rockets we like a couple of ringgit each.

Hmm, the escalating costs of "wars". Back in the good old days when one was a teenager, we used to have lots of firework wars with our neighbors in Ipoh and Penang. Rather belligerent bunch of people we were indeed. Hawks thru and thru. Any misfire by any neighboring kids that landed into my uncle's compound in Ipoh drew immediate retaliation. We were also a well funded super-power -- many uncles had supplies us with more ammo than the neighbors plus we had superior technology (string guided rockets and a bazooka launcher). We also had time to experiment that a moon traveler dropped three feet for every fifty it flew. I remember my brother and I spending countless afternoons performing "weapons research." My goodness how fun were those days. Maybe that's why we're all intact together, nary a missing finger or blinded eye. Research and proper safety. I remember having water, foam, and aluminum foil and styrofoam padded protection! Do not try these at home

The only shot that worked but while my 580EXs were recyling fast enough to keep up with my burst sequence, the 430EX II lagged, hence I lost my sidelight.

Bazooka Mark II in "ground mode" -- didn't want to be a bad influence on my nephew by hand holding it. Anyways, the extraction pipe and laser sights weren't fitted yet

The ones that don't come back are more important!

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:15:00 -0500

During World War II, Allied bomber losses were high, so the powers that be demanded a fix. The engineers set out to eyeball every bomber they could, gathering great statistics for each bullet hole. After a long study they decided to add more armor plating to the areas that had the highest concentrations of holes. A bit after these improved planes were deployed, they received some startling news: more planes were going down than before. At this point I thought, "Did they make them too heavy?"

Then the light bulb went on for someone: they had measured every bullet hole in every plane at their disposal, but they'd failed to realize it was the ones that they did not have access to that mattered. It was the ones that did not return that needed to be scrutinized. They needed to improve the armor in the places that the returning planes had no bullet holes.

Sounds like it might generally relate to product marketing, and user studies: go investigate the customers that don't return for seconds, i.e. upgrade. After all, if I don't return to buy another product from you or upgrade say my first generation product to your newer product, you gotta find out why. Let's see how many organizations actually to do this!

Palate Palette Wall

2009 - The year on Don't Panik!

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 20:13:00 -0500

2009 was my quietest blogging year with only 65 entries compared to 117 in 2008! I guess things got a bit crazy, especially with work after the big house move. I guess also a lot of things happened as well.

Well, here goes 2009 in review on DP...

January

February

March - Before the big house move...

April - No time to blog... moving house

Truck load #1

May - Settling in...

New Home switches!

June

July

August

September - Realized I shoot more of others' families than my own...

October

Awesome experience with Jerry Ghionis!

November - A blacked-out month after life's greatest lesson about living - dying.

December - Miracles do happen... more over here.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:54:41 -0500

Merry Christmas 2009 Everyone!

Here's my little video of us setting up our Christmas tree in our humble little home. For those a bit technical, it was shot on a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with a 24mm f/2.8 lens. The little bit of video at the end was with my makeshift glidetrack, EOS-5D Mark II and 50mm f/1.8 lens. The assembled video was Graded with MagicBullet Looks and Colorista.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Sunday construction!

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 09:29:33 -0500

Had a three-day working weekend -- taking the dog to the vet, proposals, videos, photos, weddings, house-painting, mowing the lawn and more! I also had the chance to put my RadioPoppers to work in various distances and ranges around the house. Sunday evening was spent working on write-ups and excel spreadsheets while it rained but once the rain stopped, we went ahead to put in a new addition to our home farm -- four-angle beans, cucumbers, peanuts, basil and more. The former two plants are creepers or vines so good thing we had a supply of freshly cut bamboo to construct our new trellis.

Behold!

Have tested round the corners of the house plus from the dining to the living room (approx 25 feet) and still have full e-TTL2. I'll try them this weekend at our Orang Asli Christmas charity event -- full outdoors! The bamboo trellis above was shot with three Canon 580EX II flash units, two RadioPopper PX receivers - first unit sitting 8 feet left of me, second unit right-side around the corner of the house, approx 12 feet away. I'll be adding more Poppers next March!

A day in brands...

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:48:10 -0400

You know people write blogs to communicate their daily occurrences and other events. Many also share what they do, what they eat, what they like and more. I decided to do an average day in Brands. Heh, I did a second major in marketing! Anyway, brands are more than logos but for brevity, I'm using their logos (or icons) here. Do note that this is just averaging out the weekdays (no weekends) and this is definitely not listing down every single brand I use on a daily basis -- I mean, that will be way to long considering this list is already long. Just thought this was a good idea after seeing this. How about the rest of you?

Packing, Moving and Bacardi

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:30:00 -0400

The anatomy of a house move. Not many photos but I guess some will suffice. And here's a freebie I cooked up last Monday. I didn't have any photos since I was experimenting.

Bacardi Chicken
- Chicken breast, approximately 300gm.
- Bacardi rum obviously
- Herbs: oregano, marjoram, black pepper, garlic salt, paprika
- 3 tablespoons finely chopped garlic and one medium size onion, coarsely chopped.
- 2 tablespoons corn flour

Cut chicken into small pieces and marinade with 1/4 cup Bacardi, and herbs. Add 1 table spoon olive oil.
Heat pan on medium heat, add olive oil to coat, add garlic and onions. Saute lightly.
Toss in chicken only (no marinade). Brown chicken with high heat, let rum catch fire if possible.
Mix 1/2 cup Bacardi, 1/4 cup water, corn flour mixture. Pour into hot pan, stirring till sauce thickens.
Serve with rice or potatoes

New Home switches!

Thurs 5:30PM
Rushed back in heavy traffic to condo to get essential cleaning stuff.
Contractor workers came to touch up paint job, adjust wrong dimension kitchen stove top hole.
TNB connected electrical supply at 3pm so went to test all lights.
8:00PM
Cleaned up after the workers left.
9:00PM
Had quick dinner, went to in-laws place to borrow more samsonite bags for clothes
10PM
Packed a bit and then collapse into bed.

Good Fri 8:30AM
Go to house to meet contractor to fix leak in roof and finish touching up grills, etc Begin cleaning outside Massive whole house cleaning begins.
10:30am
Water filter guy arrives, can't reposition water mains right away so shift to 3pm.
Clean up grills, windows, doors, bathrooms.
Autogate installation begins.
Wipe down kitchen.
2:00PM
Fried rice for lunch
Moved several non-essential boxes from condo 3:00PM Water filter guy arrives, starts work.
5:00pm
ML goes to pick up friend from Melbourne to the house.
House cleaning continues.
5:30pm
Water filter done, flush water system.
Sort keys, wax timber flooring
8:00pm
Go for dinner with friend without showering 10:00pm Back at condo, shower and see photos for a bit.
11:00pm
Drop friend back to Bangsar
Begin packing like mad
I dismantle sofa set, two beds, wrap spare mattress, dining table in bubble wrap.
Move mattress to living room.

Saturday, April 11
1:00AM:
Continue packing stuff,put clothes into bag, dismantle Ikea Effektiv/Aneboda/etc
2:30AM:
Collapse into bed
7:00AM:
Duck quacking (alarm clock), wrap mattress in plastic wrap, finish packing essential boxes.
8:00AM:
Bread breakfast & coffee while packing kitchen stuff.
8:30AM:
Mover arrives along with AK & JV (bro-in-law) Park truck in lobby with two SUVs and a one-tonne lorry Mover begins to move things down to lobby including single bed, fridge, washer
10:00AM:
Mover loads up lorry, truck and two SUVs.
10:30AM:
Me and AK depart in two vehicles to house.
Lorry and ML & bro-in-law depart condo 10 minutes later and meet dad at house.
11:00am:
Movers begin to unload. Labeled boxes go to specific rooms.
Big furniture gets dumped into dining/living Auto-gate guy arrives to touch up paint job on gate.
11:20am:
Mover goes for drinks, four vehicles head back to Condo.
11:45AM:
AK brings 7-11 big gulp. Need sugar badly. Continue packing and moving boxes down to lobby
12:00pm:
Mover arrives at Condo again. Begin moving closets, queen bed and effektiv storage down to lobby. More kitchen stuff moved down along with 300kg of books.
12:45PM:
Movers load up lorry for the second trip. CRV is full of hanging clothes (too lazy to iron again), boxes go into truck bed, glassware into AK's X-trail. Pillows and bedding go into JV's car
1:30PM:
Arrive back at house. Dad leaves for home. Unload begins
2:00PM:
Unload finishes, movers depart after being paid. Clean-up and a bit of stuff moved to correct place. AK and us go for lunch.
3:00PM:
Most important thing: assemble the bed and change sheets Sweep and mop the dusty house. Put back closet, chest drawers, etc.
4:00PM:
Inspector #1 arrives: Mom & Dad.
Sit for the first time all day and rest. Just plain water for drinks. Unwrap dining table and chairs in the process since they need to sit somewhere.
Restart fridge, move things from icebox to fridge.
5:00PM:
Take a quick cold shower (no water heater yet). Go back to Condo to get more stuff like hangers, electrical stuff and appliances. Mops, detergent, pails and toiletries. Make 4 trips down to car. Rain pours with unabated fury.
7:00PM
Arrive back home, unload.
7:45PM
AK arrives with SC & JT (Inspector #2) 8:00PM Hokkien mee dinner with ikan bakar, and more lard laden food.
10:00PM
Finish dinner, go home.
Continue unpacking, clean up cups, and unwrap essentials 10:30pm KW arrives with ladder (inspector #3) 11:00pm collapse into bed again

Easter Sunday
7:00AM:
Wake up, boil water for shower
Continue to unpack kitchen.
8:40AM: No coffee, no breakfast, go to church
10:40AM:
Coffee at last!
Go to ACE to pick up new locks, new mop, some light bulbs, etc.
11:40AM:
Go to in-laws place for lunch. Get bamboo poles for laundry line 1:00PM Rush back due to heavy rain.
Do Laundry, mop house again, unpack clothes and put into closet 3:00PM Put in external light bulbs, set-up master bed room, Clean-up kitchen, put in food stuff and arrange back glassware 5:00PM Back to Condo to get more things, collect laundry from condo clothesline, microwave, water filter, mirror and laptop, shoes, etc.
6:00PM
Back to house, unpack
7:00PM
Go to Mom's place for dinner, get puppy home 9:00PM Arrive home, prepare place for puppy. Put up bedsheets for curtains!
Unpack more stuff.
11:30PM
Fall unconscious into bed!

Last minute packing!

Next morning, everything looks much cleaner!

Finally arriving at destination!

But this is just the beginning -- the unpacking has to start!

Hot-water finally after 4 weeks!

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:19:29 -0400

Finally -- I think I've also gotten used to cold water! And the weather's bloody hot too boot with! Anyways, everything is pretty great except our usual Malaysian installer-worker attitude. I wonder what's wrong with them. Anyways, they're like your ceiling is so low, your water pump outlet is too far, call your own plumber. Damn. Just set the damn thing up. What's wrong with additional installation fees? Business too good? Never mind them though because I do have a super-duper plumber and he's up there making right what these guys didn't do in the first place.

A note of sorts

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 22:15:00 -0400

There's been a dearth of new postings and photos on this blog for a while now. I guess it's comes down to time. You know, before the move, the move and after the move and all that sort of stuff. There's been a lot of work as well lately plus there's the little odd and ends that I need to do in due time. It was a big difference moving in 2007 when we took over a month of weekends to do things slowly and then later, a month to move things in slowly. Plus of course, the furniture was all newly shipped in and the place has been rented out before so it was already partially equipped.

Anyways, I'm still at a loss at why TM's Streamyx broadband (narrow band more like it) is slow at my parents place compared to mine. I wonder if there's something up with the modem, line, or router. Kinda odd considering that not much else is using the bandwidth. Anyways, I'll need to get a new wireless router soon for my new place (I'm soldiering on with a Belkin right now) so perhaps moving the belkin over might do the trick. Or possibly a change in wiring?

I'm thinking of using P1's Wimax service. Anyone has experience with it so far would like to share?

Tax time is also coming. Sigh, I really need to calculate out and figure out how not pay more tax. There's a difference between tax mitigation and evasion. Anyways, looks like I really need to get my PC desk and printers all setup in time for this weekend to do my taxes!

Federal Highway snarl

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 10:52:27 -0400

For some reason, the last two days, traffic is terrible on the Federal highway. I know it rained this morning and that makes for a long commute. Still unpacking and tired from the move. Probably takes a couple of weeks to recover!

An interesting poser...

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 09:36:37 -0400

Would you use SMS to make a flight reservation?
No, it does not include payment so you will not need to SMS your credit card number or bank account number.
You will need to go to the nearest ticketing counter, Maybank ATM or Maybank2U to pay for your flight ticket within 24-hours of your SMS reservation otherwise the booking is canceled.

Would you? I wouldn't but let's see who would?

Notes on a tiring Monday

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:15:42 -0400

Aren't Mondays' always terrible? Probably because most end up having so much to do over the weekend with so little time! Anyways, just a few things to share on this post.

First up is customer service. Most Malaysian companies aren't noted for good customer service. This also extends to foreign companies with local staff. I mean, generally there's no focus on putting the customer first and no matter how much training and customer first exercises a company does, the people just don't seem to care. For example, if you've been to Starbucks in San Francisco or Lake Forest, take note of the customer service. I know customer service in the Malaysian Starbucks is already good (I get fast & prompt service, unlimited refills when I work on my notebook there, free donuts at times, extra shots when I really look like I need it badly, etc), it still doesn't hold up to a store in California. Just like Think Tank Photo bags. When I just mentioned that my Pro Speed belt clip is a little loose and the webbing is beginning to fray, guess what happened? They sent me an entire replacement speed belt in 14 days. I know I'll need a roller bag in the future. You know who's getting my business?

So, imagine my surprise when I got superb customer service from a Malaysian company. First off, they made purchasing and payment easy. Free delivery to boot. Then as usual, we did change our mind on one or two items. Despite the All Sales are Final policy, they allowed the return despite opened and damaged packaging. When we needed more items way after the sales period was over, the same discount level was extended. Better yet, they anticipated our need, stocked up their local PJ warehouse ahead of time so that when we actually placed our additional orders, stock was on hand. Invoices, pickup sheets all prepared ahead of time. And when the order was too small for credit card and I didn't have enough cash, they waived the requirement. Recently, better still, they issued the delivery authorization and allowed pickup of items before even payment. In the CRM world, there's a measure called Net Promoter Score (NPS). It's basically the answer to one question: Will you recommend this company's products or services to a relative or friend on a scale of 0 (for never) to 10 (for definitely). You know what, they earn a 10 from me. That company is Niro Granite. And when I need more tiles in the future, they'll have my business.

I know their broadband should be called narrowband and their Streamyx customer service is absolutely terrible but imagine my surprise when I made a complaint about a telephone pole obstructing the front of my house. Within a week, couple of guys came and moved the pole. I just wish they can fix their Streamyx problems this quickly!

Our electrical utility on the other hand, first assigned workers who are on vacation to perform the three-phase power upgrade of my new house. I called the technician assigned and get Saya Cuti (I'm on vacation) and gives me another technician who also was on leave. Two week later, their contractor comes and digs the road to lay the cables. Two days later, a second contractor comes and tars the road. A week later, right now, I'm still waiting for their vacationing technician to connect the main cable to the power supply. Earth hour last Saturday, hah, power was out at my house 24x7 thanks to TNB.

Anyways, spent the last weekend cleaning up and dust and all the debris of the renovation works. Maybe that's why I need a double shot to get my system started. But you know, I'm still getting the low battery alert

Been busy

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:18:24 -0400

I've been rather busy lately... packing to move house is one thing but there's also a lot of other things to do at work and outside work. Haven't really had time to take many photos personally. Many weddings are at year end but also right now, I'm in no condition to take any bookings for this month.

Anyway, I need to send in my EF-16-35mm lens for service soon as it's starting to back focus slightly. Anyways, I hope to post a few more updates soon.

Birthday Feasting and more

nospam@example.com (Eugene Khoo) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:22:52 -0500

Well, if you're reading this then you're on my new server