Plus two

Paid a cab fare with my Visa card for the first time ever on Tuesday (had to, the MRT station was closed so I didn't have access to the ATM in the station; and honestly, Raffles Hotel was a bit too far to walk to at that time of the night and after a whole day's work, or non-work as it was).

It's amazing I haven't tried it before, especially since, in the world of cabbies, a $50 note isn't legal tender. Would have saved having to stand at the ATM and withdrawing two batches of $40 so that I would have ten-dollar notes for them.

Anyway, it was rather painless. And fast too.

One more option to consider.

***

Back to the Mickey-D's.

I was wondering if the manufacturers of the current batch of stuffed toys for the Happy Meals ever watched 'The Incredibles' in the first place. I mean, have you seen the bod on Mr Incredible?

The stuffed toy had the abs worthy of an aforementioned local celebrity.

Jeez.

We'd do anything for merchandising.

Four

So, it would appear that there are still some people, in this day and age, who have never stepped into a McDonald's in their lives.

Man took the longest time to order food for his family. Enough time that four other people got served at the till that was opened simply because, well, said man took the longest time.

Then again, I wouldn't like having the same man in any place that requires people to be civic-minded: one of the two children with him, a toddler, had picked up two straws from the floor. Dirty habit (wouldn't recommend it), but hey, don't tell the kid to take new straws from the dispenser so that she could play with them, and then, taking the soiled straws from the hands of the toddler, toss them back onto the floor.

When he was within reach of a trash bin.

No wonder you don't know how to order from a Mickey-Ds. Your parents don't let you out that often, do they. For good reason.

***

Paper didn't come in again today. Despite the six phone calls made to supplier since Monday (and each time, the promise that the paper was on its way was made in return).

So, you know, we may be a small customer, buying up, at most, two or three rolls each time, but we do talk to big customers from time to time. How much longer do you think your business will last if you're known to be selective and unreliable?

Yeah, I said 'unreliable'. What else would you call lying to a customer about the status of a delivery?

***

What a difference.

Spent the entire day at a shoot today (incidentally, I would highly recommend Chestnuts). Really good. Still laughed through tonight's performance despite sitting through the full-dress in the afternoon.

Cast grade: A.

Crew grade: A.

None of that fourth uncle thrice removed bullshit. Felt completely at ease throughout the day. I wanted to stay to take more photos.

Hear that [to whom it may concern]? That's the difference.

Now I'm really looking forward to the show on Saturday for which I actually have tickets for.

***

Hmm.

Wayne: "In some countries, Garth, marriage is punishment for shoplifting."

Well, for a certain local celebrity, marriage (and taking care of a squalling kid while your celebrity wife has dinner in a fancy place with her folks) is punishment for choosing not to wear protection.

Be warned all ye horny men with great abs.

Sigh

Man, there's nothing like watching reruns of 'Magnum PI' at ten on weekdays on Starworld to make me realise that when the series was first aired, it was twenty years ago, and I was in secondary school then.

***

It's beginning to look like it'll be a very long week: a couple of shoots at Raffles Hotel tonight and tomorrow, printing (19 more at last count), a fashion workshop to take me through the weekend, a show back at the Raffles on Saturday, and who knows what else that'll come up between now and Sunday?

Yeesh.

Ew

Damn!

Cabbie returned me my change. Immediately after he'd picked his nose! And there was contact!

And there I was, almost pleased with his driving, his choice of routes and even took umbrage at some other moron in a Nissan March who cut into his path. So pleased, in fact, I neglected to take down his license plate number before I alighted.

Damn!

I need to wash my hands.

Lagging

I am lagged halfway to fuck and back.

Went in to work today; a short day wherein I meet a client, show him the different treatments for his print, then go home with an idea how he wants the prints to be done. All this, in preparation for Monday's print run. Then I figure, in the meantime, while waiting for said client, I'd just send one other print through to the printer today so I wouldn't have to do that one on Monday. The backlog's long enough as it is.

Usually for something 36" x 36", it takes about two hours on the Epson 9600. My print today was 36" x 20" and it took a total of 3.5 hours. Not by any fault of mine, nor the machines'. No sirree.

What happened was, after the image had been sent to the print queue, I went for lunch with the missus (a quick one, I might add). When I got back to the workplace, someone had started up "Final Cut Express" on the computer I had been using. I'm thinking, WTF? This is the only computer in the digital lab that's linked to the printer and someone's potonged it? But since there wasn't anyone else in the room, I thought nothing of it. Someone checking the availability of the programme, perhaps.

Not so.

Turns out that Dick (just noun, not the Proper Noun) who used the computer had only just stepped out. And back he comes, takes over the computer (again, I say, the only computer that's linked to the printer), and proceeds to edit some movie he shot.

Edits.

Movie.

On a computer whose RAM is already pushed to the limit. Appropriately, computer and printer responds by lagging.

What I want to know is: fuckin' computer is on. There's an open window showing 'printing in progress'. There are eleven other machines in the lab, all with Final Cut Express, and not in use, but not on. And you choose to use the one I'm working on, the one that had my stuff all over the computer table, my laptop set up next to it, my chair arranged in a manner that allows me to work on both computers at the same time? How fuckin' clueless are you?

"Uh, I'm using that..."

"Oh, but the printing is already sent right? You won't need this computer anymore..."

Wrong, asswipe. Number one, I work here. Number two, prints are going out to a PAYING customer. Number three, genius boy, RAM doesn't care if I've sent the shit over, RAM only knows that the shit is still running around in its bowels. You, on the other hand, are a freeloader, using the lab at no cost. To edit a home movie. Sucking up RAM. AND not paying me for the additional hour and a half I'm sitting around waiting for something that should already be done. For which job do you think I will give a fuck about?

Moron.

Third, Again

... naturally?

OK, so there was no need for a tie-breaker round, no eager puppies to contend with (except for the one that woke me this morning - it sounds abandoned, though; I'm going to try and look for it when I go down to work later), but we really need to read the newspapers before the quiz because we're getting creamed on the Current Events round. Did a lot better on the Entertainment and Sports round (even though we should have gone with the obvious answers and not think that every question was a trick) and aced the Geography/ History round.

The reward?

Six free drinks when next we go to Sods. Yum.

Odds & Ends

Can someone please tell Chen Shui-Bian that the microphones are there in front of him so he doesn't have to shout himself hoarse every time he makes a speech? Saw him on the news again today, and once again, his voice broke at several points in his speech.

Cringe-worthy much.

***

In today's ST Forum (login required - never thought I'd see the day):

Nov 16, 2004
This & that

COMMUTERS TUMBLE DOWN ESCALATOR
ON THE morning of Nov 11, an escalator in Bugis Station that was moving upwards reversed its direction suddenly. Many commuters, caught off guard, fell and hurt themselves.

A few of the injured had to go to hospital by themselves, after which they were expected to call SMRT's corporate communications department to make a claim for the medical expenses incurred. No apology was extended. My mum was one of those injured. Thank goodness, she suffered only some abrasions.

According to SMRT staff, such an incident had happened before. What if the accident had occurred during peak hours, when the escalator was fully loaded with commuters?

Carlson Chong Kah Sen

Uh, right.

"What if it occurred during peak hours?"

Then perhaps morons will read the signs and hold onto the escalator rails instead of being gungho, standing in the middle, and posing.

PLEASE FLY FLAGS CORRECTLY
I APPRECIATE that Geography and History do not feature too highly in Singapore's school curriculum, but if we really want to demonstrate to the world that we are serious about getting friendly and doing business, then the very least we can do is to display flags of other nations properly.

Many times, I see the British flag, the 'Union Jack', displayed upside down, back to front and, in a quarter-page ad in The Straits Times last week, in a totally new design.

The NTUC FairPrice supermarket in Bedok recently had a Japanese food section. What I did not understand was why it featured imperialistic Japan's 'rising sun' flag. I would have thought that if anybody should know the meaning of that outdated flag, it should be Singaporeans.

On the other hand, we also see very many instances of the Singapore flag flying upside down or back to front in the run-up to National Day, so I guess one should not be surprised at the displaying of other nations' flags incorrectly.

Robert Frederick Burch

Um, how is it possible for the Union Jack to be upside down? From this diagram, it would be impossible to have it upside down at all (believe me, I tried it on Photoshop):


Union Jack
Originally uploaded by Terz.

Top: the flag, right side up. Bottom: the same image, rotated 180°.


Union Jack - Upside Down?
Originally uploaded by Terz.

Spot the difference? This flag is as perfect a design as a flag can get. There's no way it can be upside down.

Help me out here... Neil? Anyone?

***

On a more frustrating note: contractor who promised me new shelves, is screening phone calls from me. I'm keeping a calling log.

After the tenth call, I'm calling CASE instead.

When I choose to go regional...

My Japanese name is 長谷川 Hasegawa (long valley river) 雄大 Masahiro (big hero).
Take your real Japanese name generator! today!
Created with Rum and Monkey's Name Generator Generator.

Guilty as charged...

The missus has already blogged about my latest obsession, so I won't do it again, except maybe to say, I'm sorry I didn't get into it sooner.

I had the Spearhead Demo on my desktop in school for about two years (I swear, it came with the eMac) but didn't have any use for it in all that time. Now, three years after, I suddenly find myself scouring the 'net for scripts/mods to create bots on my FFA/DM/Obj games (a difficult task considering the platform I'm on - last I heard, the manufacturers were only going to release the editing kit for Mac at retail. RETAIL! The bastards...) so that we, the guilty, weren't limited to just killing one another.

It's been so addictive so far that we're considering making it more regular. Especially with the wireless network I've got set up at home, we can take up to eight players, all in the same room (four on wireless - here's where the built-in Airports for Macs come in handy - and four linked to the modem on ethernet cables). How's that for making it more accessible to all?

We just need everyone to have the original game set up and we're good-to-go.

But. Enough about that.

***

Saw The Incredibles this long weekend.

Wow.

PIXAR still ranks as my fave animation studio. Shark Tale? Pppffft! I think the ship for ocean-based animation features sailed last year.

***

Had a better steak last night too. Dinner and beer was at Brewerkz before the movie.

What's it with restaurants now though? Even here, there were kids running loose in the place. At least, this weekend, sitting outside, breathing in the second-hand smoke had its advantages. The missus thought it had to do with the holiday and all. I'm thinking, what the hell? Take your kids someplace else.

Good steak. Good beer. And if we added the aforementioned movie to the equation, and the score from the midnight game, a very good night indeed.

***

Nothing like an extra long weekend to make me feel supremely unproductive. But, normal services resume tomorrow (today), and I should have four more prints done by the time I leave for the RDA Quiz at Sods.

***

Two (one) more days to TAR6! Woohoo!

***

First Chivas Regal. Now Remy Martin. I guess cognac companies are reaching out to a different demographic.

But, just for the record, Remy Martin people? "It's" means "it is"; "its" is the word you're looking for on your TV ads. Fire whoever you paid to produce the ad because whatever class you wanted just went out with the leftovers and pizza boxes.



Oh!

Forgot to mention. All the kinks in the business website have been ironed out (and yes, Neil, I think I can forgo the business from people who don't have the Flash plug-ins on their work machines - yeesh, if they don't have that, they're not going to have the savviness to deal with me) and it's up and running. As close to what I'd wanted as possible, that is.

So, it's as complete as it'll ever get. The next update will probably be in three months.

Just so it's not all about cabbies...

It's about asshole Merc drivers too.

Today, at the U-turn along Eunos Link to get to the PIE, we were in the line to take the turn when said asshole starting using his horn. For what? To get the line moving?

Not likely to happen dude. The road we're turning in to has three lanes, one of which was occupied by a tow truck dragging along a bendy TIBS bus. Uh, can we say, not going anywhere? And the tow truck wasn't any way in the wrong because only the nearest two lanes had the yellow box.

And the car at the head of the line? It would have been perfectly fine if the driver chose to stay where she (yes, it was a woman driver) was, but unfortunately, asshole's horning pressured her into making the turn into the two available lanes which, for a car with a long wheelbase, is not going to happen.

So there we were, stuck in traffic, tow truck with loooong bus in one lane, car with long wheelbase not going anywhere, and an asshole behind us.

So, thank you, EC 7007 K, that kinda made my day sucky. At noon.

More bad

It was only during dinner this evening, on the floor of G's newly renovated place, that Wahj commented that I seem to be having really arsed luck with cabbies recently.

Well. While the missus and I weren't sure if the cabbie who drove us to HV this evening was dozing off at the wheel, I was pretty fuckin' sure that the cabbie driving us back from the same place was. In fact, he dozed off completely at one point.

On the PIE.

Near the Toa Payoh exit.

The cab slowed down from about 90 km/h to about 35 km/h before I realised what was happening. Then, to my horror, I saw his eyes in the rear view mirror and they were closed.

Closed!

I helpfully kicked him in the kidneys through his seat and woke him. And after that, he was drifting in and out of consciousness. It was pretty darn amazing that we got out of the cab in one piece. I was half expecting some other moron to hit us while we're stalled on the expressway, our cabbie asleep at the wheel.

Then we get to the Eunos exit and hmm, "Eh, sorry lah. Forgot to start the meter."

You know what, it's ok. Just get us back home and I'll be generous [read: so fuckin' grateful] and pay you the usual fare with the midnight surcharge.

I'd, in fact, keyed his license plate number on my mobile so I could write about his crappy driving (the usual, excessive braking combined with the jamming on the accelerator) before the whole sleeping thing.

Just as well then. So, driver of SHB 6018 E, please get more coffee before you take your next night shift. I'd hate to be the passenger who'd have to deal with you next.

So, I've made the switch...

My first post as a Firefox user:

After several weeks of web design (over and over again - I think I must have had gone through at least thirteen different versions of the website), emails and coding for Flash, my business website is about one week from being ready.

Loads of thanks to tbe brother-in-law for his patience. I know I'm not the easiest guy to deal with, especially when it comes to things I'm anal about.

In the meantime, I learnt that my website will look different on different web browsers because those be the limitations of the Internet.

Short of forcing potential clients to, depending on the connection speed of their modems and computers, wait for the all-Flash website to load (ten seconds on my laptop; nine minutes the longest on someone else's), I'm now content to let the website look however the hell it wants to look on different browsers and systems. All I'll say is: best viewed on Firefox 1.0, at 1024 x 768 resolution.

With the long weekend coming up, I guess it'll be safe to say that the website will finally be ready by Monday (and hopefully, by then, there won't be any more bugs to weed out).

Eagle Eyes

Should be the name of the resident who noticed that the lift certificate in my block is expired. That's right, EXPIRED. For the last month and a half, we've been travelling in lifts which may not be safe for human consumption.

Someone from the Aljunied Town Council must be having his head removed from his arse right now if this has happened.

So, thank you, Eagle Eyes, for circling the expiry date on the certificate.

You must have been really bored.

***

No matter how posh your condominium may be, no matter how poncy its name, the great leveller of all things building-related in Singapore are the guys who come round every once in a while to conduct fogging.

***

All right, cabbie of SH 9946 U, you didn't have to lose your temper just because I wasn't willing to pay the additional $2-3 for you to take the route you really wanted.

OK, maybe I'm a bit too sensitive; you didn't lose your temper - you're just a really bad driver.

In all of the twenty-minute journey, you used the turn signals a grand total of [drum roll] two times. And I don't think I've ever hit 90 km/h before while not on the expressway, nor maintain an average speed of 75 km/h. I think your cab needs to be serviced too; what, with all the problems you seem to be having with your brakes and your engine (your engine brake seems to come on too often for comfort). And the weaving? We could have had a Persian rug by the time I got to my destination, so furiously weaving you were.

I also felt embarrassed for you and yours for that really delayed reaction to that minivan cutting across your path, causing you to have to jam on your unreliable brakes. I mean, horning long after the minivan had left your line of sight? You must have been red-faced.

Bomp! Bomp! Bomp!

It's back!

Only six weeks after the previous season and one month after someone at AXN fucked up and advertised that it would be starting on 8 October 2004.

Withdrawal symptoms. Diminishing.

Woohoo!

Some thoughts before this Race begins:

1. Hmmm. Another couple who's looking to the Race being able to take them to "the next level!" Pre-marital sex's not enough any more! Apparently!

2. Wrestlers! Utahans! Mormons!

3. Star Wars references!

4. African-Americans named for Greek goddesses! Kim's just about the only normally-monikered one so far!

***

Clearly, when the ST pulls news articles off foreign agencies, they don't bother to check the copy:

Nov 10, 2004
United ready to blood Rossi, 19

London - ARSENAL may treat the League Cup as a minor competition, fielding a weakened side especially when facing unfancied opponents.

But, for Manchester United, it could prove to be the perfect place to regain the confidence they need to salvage their Premiership title challenge.

The Red Devils face fellow-Premiership outfit Crystal Palace in their League Cup fourth-round match today.

If United can establish an early advantage, Ferguson could well introduce teenager Giuseppe Rossi into the game, reported the United official website.

The Italian, who was born in the United States but plays for the Italy Under-19 side, was given a squad number only yesterday.

Signed in July, the 17-year-old striker has been giving a good account of himself in United Reserves.

Ferguson had previously used the League Cup to blood youngsters Gerard Pique and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake in the last round against Crewe. -- AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Figured it out yet?

On Cars

Call it irrational, but I can't help feeling irritated whenever I see a Mitsubishi Space Wagon (it's also quite sad when you do a web search for "Mitsubishi Space Wagon" and the Mistubishi home page appears on the third page) on the roads. I don't know what it is; perhaps it's because, from the rear, in its own aesthetically displeasing way, it's always at least three colours - colour of car itself, the [large,] gaudy band of red and yellow and the grey bumper (well, three, if the car's also grey or silver, but usually four).

Kinda obiang in a vehicular kind of way.

***

While on the subject of cars... which idiot Honda engineer thought it would be a good idea to have the dashboards on new Hondas to be brightly lit at all times? I'm seeing more idiot drivers who drive without their headlights because, glancing down, oh look! Dashboard bright. Lights must be on.

Why are other idiot drivers flashing their lights at me?

***

Next month, on Playboy magazine: Nekkid at the Airport!

Nov 9, 2004
Airport's 'naked' scans raise concern

London - AN X-RAY machine that sees through air passengers' clothes has been deployed by security staff at London's Heathrow airport for the first time, raising concerns about privacy.

The device at Terminal 4 produces a 'naked' image of passengers by bouncing X-rays off their skin, enabling staff to spot instantly any hidden weapons or explosives, the Sunday Times reported.

But the graphic nature of the black and white images it generates - including revealing outlines of men and women - has raised concerns about privacy both among travellers and aviation authorities.

In the United States, transport officials are refusing to deploy the device until it can be refined to protect passengers' modesty.

The Terminal 4 trial - being conducted jointly by the British Airports Authority and the Department for Transport - became fully operational last month and is intended to run until the end of the year.

If the new body scanner is able to cope with large volumes of passengers, improves detection rates and, crucially, receives public acceptance, it is likely to be rolled out across all Britain's airports.

The scanner, which resembles a tall, grey filing cabinet, operates in a curtained area and passengers are asked to stand in front of it for their image to be registered.

Once checked, the images are immediately erased.

Security officials quoted by the newspaper claim that it is a far more effective way of countering potential terrorists because it detects the outline of any solid object - such as plastic explosives or ceramic knives - which conventional metal detectors would miss.

Visitation

Paid the old stomping grounds a visit this morning before coming to work. Nothing much had changed: the staff room is still only half-full on account of teachers being out on invigilation duties and/or attending the usual end-of-year nonsense like the staff dialogue sessions (where someone will again have the opportunity to rehash the points from dialogue sessions of years before); most tables are still the mess of post-end-of-year exam marking; the dead cat is still stapled to someone's head (and starting to look decidedly ratty, if I may add); and Glorious Leader is still nowhere to be found.

You know you're back in a school staff room when:

1. Ex-colleagues volunteer their kids to be models for your next project;

2. Ex-colleagues can't stop telling you how you've put on weight;

3. Ex-colleagues talk to you in acronyms;

4. Ex-colleagues ask if you'd be interested in doing some relief teaching; and

5. Ex-colleagues asking for quotations for services offered by your fledgling business.

It's like I never left.

Outsourcing

I guess this is what happens when the same production house produces movie trailers.

Shades of "Immortality, take it! It's yours!*" anyone?


* Or is that "Immortality, it's yours! Take it!" I could never get it right...

Al Forno, East Coast Road

We have to register guns and get licences to drive cars, but we allow the most fuckin' inept people to become parents.

Was having a nice (hah!), quiet, dinner with the missus at our ex-favourite sit-down, Italian restaurant in the East, then realised that it's no longer our favourite restaurant.

I guess the writing was on the wall when we stepped in and they were playing a boy band album over the sound system. But, the most telling piece of evidence? The restaurant has since, our last visit, split the dining area into two parts: one for serious diners and the other, for family dining.

They even had baby chairs for noisy, bratty kids.

(Look, before someone jumps on my back for writing this, one of said bratty princesses barely missed me with a spoon when she threw it in a fit of pique because yuppie-looking parents decided to pay more attention to baby sister than to her.)

My take on this? If you have kids, you should be banned to places where they actually have paper/plastic cups for everyone and you'd only be allowed back into adult restaurants when your kids won't piss the shit out of the other diners in the place because they're being noisy/irritating/murderous. Especially. Especially, if you can't fucking control your own kids.

Until that happens, I'm sorry, but I'm taking Al Forno off my list.

I have never left a restaurant in such a hurry as I had done tonight.

Dubious Parenting

I'll never understand parents who bring their socially-awkward three-year olds (as opposed to the more general kind of the socially-awkward 20-40 year olds) out to restaurants that have food going around the place on conveyor belts, and then leave them alone while they play with the 'colourful bits of food going round and round...'

And I mean "play".

I'm just glad that, by the time it gets to the kid and her uninterested parents, it's already gone by our table and we don't have to deal with whatever bits of food which might have been 'drummed' onto the plate from the kid's chopsticks.

***

CY flew to Dhaka this evening, his head swimming with horror stories from someone who had gone and spent 7 weeks there earlier this year.

No tears were shed.

Lunchtime Insanity

So, I had another encounter with the strange man who came by KL's and my table at Delifrance at Bugis Junction all those months ago. While lunching with KC and CY at the coffee shop round the corner from Objectifs, the guy came by and, grabbing KC's arm, proceeds with his spiel, pressing the slip of paper with the 4D number into KC's hand.

He didn't go on on his knees this time. But he did piss KC off with his persistence and clammy hands.

No one budged this time. So he left, heading in the direction of Kim's, walking normally, and then bugging some other hapless couple. He did get down on his knees for them.

And here I was, not more than a couple of days ago talking about the sales tactics (or lack thereof) of the ice cream kids. This, this is just unbelievably... what's the word? Effective. Pressure people into giving you money for 4D numbers they don't want by embarrassing the hell out of them or making them so uncomfortable that they can't wait to give you money so you'd leave them alone. And anticipating that people will not yell because you're supposed to be 'slow'?

Wow. That's some brilliant shit.

I should've taken a picture of him. Would have been interesting to see his reaction.

Next time then.

How lazy/disgusting can you get?

Well, it depends: which unit did you come from?

On my way down to work today, some mother was cleaning up her daughter who was squatting by the little (very little) drainage run-off in the corridor. My first thought was: what the hell? Is the kid crapping out in the corridor?

Then, the mother wiped the mouth of the child and the smell of bile reached me.

Ah. A puking thing. Not so bad.

Which brings me to my question(s): it's the 9th floor of a block of flats where there are only three units on the common corridor. Each unit is about fifteen metres across. And the closest unit was barely two metres from where the mom and daughter. So, why, pray tell, couldn't the mother bring the daughter back into the flat, which is anywhere from two to twenty metres away for the kid to do what she needs to do, instead of letting her spew within four metres of a lift landing? Also, not to mention the mess that the cleaners will have to deal with.

What the hell's on your mind, woman?

***

You know it's the school holidays when the kids selling ice cream come a'calling door-to-door. Nothing's changed since the last time I encountered them (or rather, others like them): still as bloody rude as before. And obviously no one's taught them the proper way to use the door bell still.

With an attitude and behaviour like that?

No sale.

All Apologies

Well, I haven't been updating as regularly as I'd like because I've been working (imagine that!).

And it was only today that I found out - quite by accident - that I could get wireless internet connection at my workplace. So, in-between digital processing and printing, I expect to be online most of the time.

What I learnt in the meantime:

1. Even ants won't touch the Filet-O-Fish.

Had a meal delivered to my place on Saturday night because I was too lazy to cook and too naked to go out and I had a shoot in the studio on Sunday and the leftover food was meant to be breakfast/lunch/tea/dinner (whichever is most appropriate for when I first get a break). There were two FOFs and one Big n' Tasty. The ants were attacking the BnT, which was at the bottom of the bag, voraciously. The FOFs were completely untouched.

There's something to think about.

2.
MInME Family 00
Originally uploaded by Terz.

That when photographers get together for a studio shoot, strangeness can happen.

This is even before I mention photographers wearing the pyjamas of someone's parents, attempting to squeeze into a over-small cheongsam and cross-dressing. Did I mention the cross-dressing?

Note: I'm not posting the rest of the series on the blog, but you can see them on my Flog instead. The series starts on 1 November 2004.

3. That I'm not bloody likely to give way to someone on a pedestrian walkway, especially after I see the other person 'lock-on' target and then start inexplicitly 'drifting' into my path. And yeah, I'm so not sorry that you bumped into the hardest part of my tripod. I hope you bruise easily.

4. Speaking of bruises. I just realised today, after my right thumb snapped back - and then loose - while I was attempting to push a electrical plug into the socket, that I've had injuries in almost every part of my body:

Head: concussions x 2, gashed forehead x 3 and lost tooth
Torso: scalding (back-stabbing from colleagues, just kidding)
Upper Arms: right shoulder dislocation x 2
Lower Arms: slashed left wrist (from chiselling accident)
Hands: dislocated thumb, stubbed fingers, broken finger nails
Upper Legs: strained hamstring, dislocated right knee (or is this the lower leg?), CMP
Lower Legs: 6 stud pattern on right shin
Feet: gashed left ankle x 2, stubbed toes (in rusty nails)

Now you know why I don't want to grow old... not going to be a lot of fun on cold nights.

5. That I actually enjoy using the Mamiya 645AFD. Maybe that'll be my next purchase instead.