I had been using Canon EOS-400D for over 4 years. It had been serving me faithfully. Unfortunately, recently, the built-in flash was not functioning properly and it was too expensive to get it repair. As such, I need to get a new camera to replace it.

I was looking at Canon EOS-60D, a semi-professional camera and EOS-600D, an entry level camera. Having been using an entry level camera for so many years, it would be fairly logical for me to upgrade to a semi-professional camera, rather than getting another entry level camera.

I did a comparison between the 2 cameras.

There are a number of technical similarities, which are 18MByte effective picture pixels, 3″ fully articulated LCD screen, up to 12800 ISO and many more.

Being a semi-professional camera, EOS-60D has the advantages of faster shutter speed of 1/8000 second (which I hardly used), shoulder LCD screen, environmentally sealed body and at least double the battery life.

All these benefits are more than enough to lure me to pay slightly more to get the EOS-60D.

Amazingly, the final reason which made me go towards the entry level EOS-600D camera was physical instead of technical.

I reflected my experience of going around with my camera and other stuffs. I prefer using a sling camera bag instead of a backpack camera bag due to the ease of taking out the camera. Soon, I found that I was having shoulder ache because of carrying so much heavy stuff.

The EOS-60D is a much heavier and bigger camera than the EOS-600D. Considering the weight factor, I finally decided to purchase the EOS-600D instead of upgrading.

Maybe someday in the future, I may get a semi-professional camera. But there is the future.

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Purchasing a Blu-Ray Player was not really an easy task for me. There were many inexpensive Blu-Ray Players out there on the market. But I had other thoughts.

My current set-up was a 5.1 channels DVD home theatre system. There was no HDMI input/output on the home theatre system. My LCD TV set has only one HDMI input and it was utilized. Neither the TV set nor the home theatre system has S/PDIF connection.

Because of these limitations, I did not want to just get any Blu-Ray player. On top of the video quality, another reason to get Blu-Ray was the sound quality. I want to enjoy the surround sounds from the video as well. My current setup simply could not satisfy my requirements with just a Blu-Ray player.

I decided to replace my current DVD Home Theatre System with a Blu-Ray Home Theatre System.

I also put other factors into consideration. One was if the system has HDMI inputs. Since my TV set had only one HDMI input and it was utilized, I would want my new system to have HDMI input for my existing devices. I did not wish to change my TV set yet.

The other factor was that, if it could be used to watch YouTube video. Watching YouTube video was sort of the trend now, especially most of the newer models of Blu-Ray Home Theatre system had this function.

After a search, I decided on the Sony BDVE380 5.1-Channel High-Definition Blu-ray Disc Player/DVD Disc Home theater System. It is a 5.1 Channel Blu-Ray Player with 2 HDMI inputs and allows me to watch YouTube videos directly. Somehow, it just fitted into my requirements.

Now, I can enjoy Star Wars Blu-Ray, my existing devices and YouTube Video on this system.

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He carried on, “I am unlikely to watch these discs anytime soon. I had watched these movies countless time already. But getting this set is a fan thing… A must have.”

I understand what he meant. I did not have a Blu-Ray player yet, but I already bought the Blue-Ray set. Getting the Star Wars Blue-Ray set was a must have to a fan.

I had the original Star Wars Episode IV to VI Video CD and DVDs set. Frankly speaking, I had not really sat down to watch these videos discs. But I simply could not resist the Force to get them.

Star Wars Video Collection - VCD, DVD and Blu-Ray

I had not bought any of the Episodes I to III videos, because I knew one day, the complete saga set would be released. And this Star Wars Complete Saga Blu-Ray set was exactly what I had been waiting for.

This Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray] had also given me the prefect excuse to get a Blu-Ray player. Although I do not know if I would really sit down and watch from start to end.

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There are many small signages along the way which hardly attract the attention of passers-by. These signs were small ones held by people there. I did not take the pictures of these sign, but I recorded the wordings.

Very Hungry and Thirsty. Any Amount will help.

Need to Support Pregnant Girlfriend. Can’t find Job. Any Amount will help.

Very lie? Need Money for Cold Beer

Need Money to Pay Rent. Jobless

There are many more of such signs along the strip.

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Bumblebee from Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Robot Mode)

Last evening, my friends asked me to join them to watch this movie Transformers: Dark of the Moon 3D. I did not watch the first 2 movies. But I had heard that the review was good and I grew up with Transformers. So, I quickly agreed.

The movie was quite long, about 2 hours. But there was not a moment to be bored. I found that it has an interesting story line, about loyalty, true to the belief and betrayal. The supposing good Autobot turned out to be the bad one. The Autobots had to fight to protect Earth from this past leader and the Decepticons.

After the movie, I couldn’t help but to go to the nearest Toy Shop and look for the toy lines from the Movie.

After looking through the line, I bought the MechTech Deluxe – Bumblebee.

Bumblebee from Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Car Mode)

I found some of the parts a bit to move, especially the back part. Whenever I want to transform the Bumblebee, I have to be careful not to break a part.

Anyway, with this toy around, I am now considering should I get the DVD of the previous two Transformers Movies: Transformers and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Single-Disc Edition).

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Lightning occurs very fast. Before we can react to snap, the lightning is over. To me, taking photo of lightning bolt was like a gamble. We have to snap before the lightning strike.

I had attempted to take photos of the lightning before on a stormy night, but without any success. I remembered very clearly, that evening, I saw a lot of lightning flash. But I could not tell the actual direction where the lightning was occurring.

I could only point my camera in a general direction which I believe was the lightning storm. It was a fruitless attempt.

Few evening ago, it was another thunder storm. This time, I could see the lightning bolt with my naked eyes. I quickly set up my tripod and camera with my quick release control.

I was not sure what setting to use. I used Tv mode to check the aperture to use. From there, I switched to full manual mode, using the setting previously found with a -2 Ev. I also set the camera to continuously shooting. I used the quick release to lock the shooting. That means that I would continuously shooting photos.

It was quite fortunate that the lightning was quite often that evening. This allowed me to change my setting along the way. I found the exposure of 4 sec, aperture of f/9.0 and ISO 400 gave me the best effect. Or maybe, it was because I was not so lucky when I was trying other settings.

Anyway, out of over 130 photos, I managed to get some nice photos. I am wondering, how people take photos of lightning in the days of using film.

These are the better ones of the lightning photos.

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The Samsung Galaxy Tab had a 3 Megapixel camera with a LED flash. I had not used the Galaxy Tab before, so I was not sure how the camera performed in this low light situation.

I was definitely sure, at the moment, it was the camera with the biggest LCD screen, at least to the man using it to the photos.

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First we had the Seafood soup noodles. The noodle was a white color type. There are a generous serving of seafood. There were prawns, squids and vegetables in the soup.

When the fried rice was served, it looked like just a simple plate of fried rice. However, upon further look, we found the gems were all buried in the rice. There were again prawns and squids hidden.

Just like the fried rice, the omelet looked like an egg bun, so originally looking. There was a knife provided. We used the knife to cut open the omelet. The gems were in there. Inside the omelet, there was a generous chili crab.

This was another delicious meal I had in Phuket. And I know I will definitely miss the food there.

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According to Sony Ericsson’s website, the benefits of updating to Android 2.1 are as follows:

1. Send files via Bluetooth
2. New additional applications will be available in Market
3. New Back up and restore application
4. Multiple Google accounts
5. Improved screen lock

There was a note that after the upgrade to Android 2.1, it would not be possible to go back to Android 1.6. Anyway, I wanted to update.

There was a page on the Sony Ericssion webpage telling us the steps on how to update.

According to the recommendation, I would need to backup my data. The original backup application in the phone was not working as expected. It kept telling me to insert flash memory.

An update to the backup software was available. I had to install the new backup software twice, because I did not disable the feature to disallow non-Android Market applications.

After I had done my back-up, I connected my X-10 Mini Pro to my PC. According to the instructions, the PC Companion would automatically detect and provide instructions on how to proceed. However, the PC Companion indicated that my phone software was the latest. Finally, I clicked on the update phone option in the “Support Zone”. From there, I selected “Repair”. At this point onwards, I just followed the instructions. This process took me about an hour.

After the updates, I did a restore. The phone would re-download all my new applications. This took a while to complete the process.

So how was the new Android 2.1?

The look was a bit different. I needed a little time to get used to it. Despite the Back-up and restore, I still need to manually re-keying the settings, like my Wi-Fi connection details. And all my saved data in the game “Angry Birds” was gone. I needed to re-play the game.

So far, I do like the new Facebook application. It provided more functions and features as compared to the previous version.

I am still in the mist of getting used to the Android 2.1. I believe soon I would be using some of the new features.

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That was the suggestion from the person who fetch us from the Airport to the hotel in Phuket. Since we had made no plans for our stay in Phuket, we took up the Phi Phi Cruise package.

There were two types of Phi Phi Cruise package provided by the Phi Phi Cruiser, the normal one at 1,500 Baht per person and the VIP one at 1,800 Baht per person. The VIP one included “Under Sea Aquarium at Coral Bay”. We took up the VIP ones.


The following morning at 7.00am, while we were finishing our breakfast, the transport reached our hotel to pick us up. The journey to the jetty took about 40 minutes. They did not inform us that the VIP package included reserved seats in the air-conditioned cabin at the upper deck. Of course, we were delighted by it. And once we sat down, we were served with a croissant, some biscuit and a coffee.

When we embarked the ship, it was drizzling. Fortunately, soon after the ship slipped off, the rain stopped. This allow us to go round the decks and did some exploring, taking pictures of the sun, the sea and the islands. This was the time when some of the passengers took off the shirt, and enjoyed the sun tan. And this was the time when we realized that we forgot to get sun block lotion. We bought a bottle of lotion at the shop on broad.

The scenery just got better as we approached the Phi Phi Islands. The beauty was beyond my vocabulary of description.

The ship first stopped at Ko Phi Phi Don to allow the over stayers to disembarked. After a brief wait, the ship moved on. It first circled Ko Phi Phi Leh. We were enjoying the view from the sun deck. There were loud speakers announcements to introduce to us the spots along the route.

Viking Cave - Ko Phi Phi Len

After the sight seeing around Ko Phi Phi Leh, we headed back to Ko Phi Phi Don. We stopped at a distance from the island where we transferred to a smaller ship. This ship took us to Coral Bay. At there, it was the venue for the snorkeling. The snorkeling gear was provided for us.

As part of the VIP package, we were transferred to another ship. This was the Under Sea Aquarium ship. We put our things at the upper deck, and undress to our swimming wear. The guide led us to the undersea aquarium. Now we are inside a giant fish tank. The guide provided us bread to feed the fishes in the tank. The fishes were about the size of my palm. This was an interesting experience to have so many fishes to swim around me.

Under Sea Aquarium

Soon, we got dressed to head for Ko Phi Phi Don. We just slipped our shorts and T-shirts. We had a wet butt situation.

This was a requirement to pay 20 Baht to enter Ko Phi Phi Don and it was a separate charge. As part of the VIP package, we only paid to the guide and she would purchase the tickets for us. While the rest were busy queuing to buy the ticket, the guide led us straight to Phi Phi Hotel, where we had our lunch.

The lunch was great. There were tom yam soup, stream rice, fish, chicken, vegetables and others. We did not worry about not enough food. Along the course, the waitress would top up the food. Now we could forget about finishing the food. There was free flow of drinks available as well.

After lunch, we had about slight more than an hour of free time. We headed first to the beach. We just had a short walk at the beach, then we walked around the village, looking at the shops.

Before, we knew it, it was time for us to get back to the ship for our journey back.

I was wondering, was it because it was raining or was it because we had a tiring day. We slept our journey back.

We did not plan anything, and did not expect anything, but this trip was a surprising trip for us. At such a price, we had a cruise to the Phi Phi Islands. I would say, it was almost an all-inclusive package, including the transport to and fro the hotel, snacks and lunch. The only addition cost would be the 20 Baht into Ko Phi Phi Don and our shopping items.

The additional 300 baht to get the VIP package was well spent as well. We had more spacious seats and personalized service. During the snorkeling, the guide was there to help us take pictures.

It would be better if we were given more time at Ko Phi Phi Don. We had managed our time, so that we can explore more both the beach and village shops.

If I do go to Phuket again, I may arrange to spend an evening a Ko Phi Phi Don.

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