China 2010 – Going Broke – 18.05.10

Today’s weather was pretty bad… Annoyingly humid, and… foggy? It’s like when it’s supposed to rain, but the rain evaporates before the it reaches the going? It was only 23 degrees celcius I think, but wow…

And, I bought my DSLR today. Phew… I’m pretty much broke now… I haven’t had a real chance to play around with it yet, but once we go World Expo-ing…

Continue reading China 2010 – Going Broke – 18.05.10

China 2010 – Getting Acquainted – 16-17.05.10

Only just managed to gain access to the internet. For some reason, my laptop doesn’t like Chinese Ethernet Cables? And so… I’m using my uncle’s computer.

Days One and Two of my 2010 trip to China, the first day, essentially just the flight to. Planes are so boring…

Continue reading China 2010 – Getting Acquainted – 16-17.05.10

My Plans in Shanghai

Okay, so, I realised that I hadn’t completed a list of what I had planned on doing in China, but one thing’s for sure, I’m going to be broke by the end of May. =( (So much for saving money) In my head, there seems to be so much I plan on doing, but once it’s written down, I expect that it may not be so much at all… If it’s anything like the goals I plan on completing during the holidays, very few of these plans will get ticked off. (I am also aware that this list is pretty late)

Where my money will go
At least I have relatives in China eh? Saves me (and us) a ton of money on accommodation and food. But that just means I/we will just spend that money we ‘saved’ elsewhere… Like I plan to:
> A DSLR (Canon EOS 550D paired with a 18-135mm lens I believe)
> A whole lot of SD Cards
> A new keyboard/mouse set? (A Logitech DiNovo and MX Revolution?)
> A pair of in-ear earphones or a bluetooth headset? (Since my current EBs are under going a warranty fix, I’m travelling without high-quality audio. And that depresses me…)
> China is an mp3 player wodnerland! There are all sorts of cheap and half-working mp3 players, I wouldn’t be suprised if I bought one home with me.
> Anime Merch that I really want. (But I’ve been informed by Atashi that there really aren’t any good places to buy Anime merch in Shanghai. Which is depressing…)

Where I plan on visiting
> Expo 2010 – Pretty much the main reason I’m going to Shanghai, as well as one of the reasons I bought this laptop, and the reason why I’m buying a DSLR. Basically, if it weren’t for this trip, I’d still have money.
> Shanghai World Financial Centre – Currently the 3rd tallest building in the world. I’ve been up the Oriental Pearl Tower, and the Jin Mao (8th tallest I believe?) The SWFC is new, and I haven’t been up before.
> The Bund – A relatively famous stip of land along the Huangpu River, opposite the side where the SWFC is on. Of all the times I’ve been to Shanghai, I’ve only been there once. And I don’t even remember that…
> Xujiahui – Shanghai’s geeks and tech-ies wonderland. The hub of all gadgets and gizmos. (Where I plan on buying my camera)
> Nanjing Road – Also relatively famous, it’s a long road/plaza known for it’s shopping and lights…

> Nanjing – A neighbouring city of Shanghai, also very big, and, as with the rest of China, is growing rapidly.
> Nanjing Greenland Building (or whatever it’s called). I’m not even sure if it’s completed, but all I know is that it’s nice big tall skyscraper, that looks pretty as far as I can remember from some of the renders I’ve seen…
> Huangzhou – Also another neighbouring city, smaller, but still interesting. I don’t know too much about the city, nor do I know if we have enough time to visit it… We shall see…

Any other random stuffs
> I heard that the world’s largest store for Barbie Dolls is on Huhai Road =P
> If there are any markets around… You know… some pirated dvds, and what not… I don’t actually think there’s anything I want in particular… And, many of the times, they are rather low quality too…

What I will miss
My friends. (Awww… I know right?)
Good Coffee
REAL fruit juice
Real Milk, Cheese and other dairy
Sydney Water
The clean air
The super slow trains of Sydney
A fair bit of school work…

Oh, and… Facebook doesn’t work here.

Daily Life – 09.05 – 15-05.10

Desk shot from the 15th of May. My sister was using my computer at the time, and as we’re changing ISPs, we have no internet at the moment. Also, not sure if you can tell, but the sub-woofer for my speakers is now a big black box on the very end of my desk.

Continue reading Daily Life – 09.05 – 15-05.10

Food Tech II – 13.05.2010

So, first part of my Food Tech Assignment, was to decorate a Roulade. (My result is above) If you continue reading, you can see pictures of me making a small mess of the kitchen when I practiced the recipe at home. The Ice Cream began to melt upon presentation… and it was too tall… Stupid… “Bulla Creamy Classics”… Why do you taste so good?

Continue reading Food Tech II – 13.05.2010

Locked out and procrastinating…

Yeah, so… I’m writing this as I am locked out of my home with thanks to my new laptop… So, forgot to grab my keys on the way out and since no-one’s home right now… I’m outside using our wi-fi… (=D I guess…? At least I have something…) Either way, if I were home, I’d be procrastinating, and not doing the work I’m supposed to be doing. I’ve got a lot of maths to catch-up on, as well as having to do an Essay in Food Tech tomorrow… And a bit of physics homework….

Argh… So much yelling the past three days… For our wonderful “Sleek Geek” video entry… I have no dignity anymore… Though, at least it’s finished, and quite a few people seem to like what we’ve made, so I’m quite happy about that. My main concern is the amount of “actual science” we had in our video, but at this point in time, I guess Leon and I can only wait for the results to be announced… Special thanks to Martin, Michael and Ethan for helping us out with acting and effects and videoing and crap. Thanks to for all those who volunteered (sorta) for being background help. Appreciate it! If we win, we’ll give you something worth your while. =D

Hmmm… people are looking at me wierd… Sitting on a brick ledge in school uniform with earphones in and typing on a laptop in a somewhat awkward position. Isn’t it great? I don’t feel wierd at all…

Yay… Just got invited to my neighbour’s place… I don’t expect my parents to be too much longer till they get home…

Meanwhile…

Ah yes, my laptop… I wasn’t going for anything pro, or uber-expensive… I just wanted one that works, and has just enough processing power to run Sony Vegas with relative smoothness… And relatively cheap too… (Under $700) and my result is an Acer Extensa 5635Z (Win7, C2Duo @2.1Ghz, 15.6″, 4gb RAM, 320gb HDD). Though, being a 15″+ laptop, it wasn’t really what I wanted, but it was the only “powerful” enough computer for me, under $600.

Anyway… Parents home now… I’ll end this post now… You all have fun!

Getting ready for some big plans!

Okay, so, I haven’t really been keeping my blog updated as often as I’d have liked to have it updated. (Leon’s being super ambitious by posting everyday over on his blog… as well as using some of my photos without credit. =P)
But things have been super-incredibly busy for me lately, with many things going on, all my plans are falling behind, and so… I’m a little worried that this’ll backlog any other future plans I have… Considering that this time next week, I’m supposed to be in Shanghai… Which doesn’t help me that with my plans that much…

Here are my plans that I want done before the 15th of May (6 days from now)

Complete Sleek Geek Video – Mmmm… Well, we’re really cutting it close here. I’m afraid that we don’t have enough science content for it, but we shall see… Leon and I are trying to get Micheal to help us out with some of our slightly ambitious special effects stuff that we don’t know how to do… We also have to re-shoot some of the dialogue stuff because lighting was incredibly poor. (Don’t film outside just after the sun has set. You can’t see anything…)

If it weren’t for me earning money at work, and Leon having all his music stuffs and what-not… we may have been able to create something better than what we have now… Anyway, needs to be done by Thursday. Tomorrow we need to film the last classroom scene. Then Tuesday, I’m hoping we can get the voice-0vers, and have the special effects complete, as well as the re-shoot of the last scene. And by Wednesday, an intial draft must be completed.

Gochisou-deshita.net – I hope that I can have my homepage and at least my about page up and running by the 15th, in preparation for my Shanghai trip. Dreamweaver has been a confusing me for a while. I need to learn how to use it properly and crap, cos right now, I’m a little lost, and am kind of winging-it. I also hope to have my blog cleaned up and my Photolog ready for launch. I hope to take lots of photos when I’m in Shanghai, especially the World Expo!

School related work – I am wwaaaaayyyyy behind in Maths (to the point of failure), apparently not having a good understanding of Physics, rather average at Economics, and doing the same as always in English, lost in Engineering (my teacher doesn’t help that much), and hoping I’ll be semi-pro at a cooking assessment for Food Tech on Tuesday. There is a lot of school work that I need to do, that hasn’t been done, and missing out on two weeks really pushes things back a lot. My grades are going down… Really, really down. I need to concentrate and really getting in to doing my work after Shanghai.

I think I did more work in Year 9 than what I’m doing now…

Buy a laptop – Once again, something my Shanghai trip has really initiated for me. Considering I really want to be blogging quite a bit in Shanghai, I’ll be wanting my own computer, with my files, so that I know, what I’m doing. Though I’ll be staying with my Uncle, who has two computers, an apparently fast internet connection, and an audio set-up that I am apparently going to be highly envious of, it’ll most likely be in chinese, and I’ll be unfamiliar with what they have and gunk. Hence, I need a laptop.

Ramble warning:
In my searches for a laptop, that I can buy from a seller that I trust, and have hardware that I want, at a price that’s within my budget, IS IMPOSSIBLE HERE IN AUSTRALIA!!! My checklist is: Screen size NO LARGER than 15″, Powerful/fast enough to run Photoshop, look pretty, and under $700. Shouldn’t be too hard right? WELL NO! IT’S NOT! Turns out, it has been nothing but utter frustration for me! It’s freaking stupid! Originally I planned on just getting a netbook, but I don’t think they’re powerful en0ugh to meet my needs. (run Photoshop, and possibly Vegas) So, I look at larger laptops, of which, most are 15+ inches. I can get a decent Acer, 15.6″ Core2Duo 2. somethingGhz running Win7 for under $600. But it’s larger than 15″, so I don’t consider it. When I look for anything between 12 and 15″ THEY’RE ALL MORE EXPENSIVE THAN $700 AND MANY OF THEM ARE RUNNING SLOWER PROCESSORS! GAHHH!!!

I’m going to quickly take a trip to the Capitol Theatre Computer stores after school tomorrow, and pick me up a laptop of some-sort. It looks like I’m going to have to settle for that Acer one just cos it fits my budgets and processor requirements… But it doesn’t look pretty, and it’s larger than 15″ which I don’t want… Ah well… We shall see tomorrow…

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So yeah, those are my plans that I hope to have done by the 15th. Which is a tight schedule for me, having to run around a lot over the next few days… It’s gonna be bad… And stressful…

I hate everything…

Daily Life – 29.04 – 07-05.10

A quick shot of my desk on the 29th of April. My desk is a mess with maths work, while I browse AmiAmi on my Archos…

Continue reading Daily Life – 29.04 – 07-05.10

Leon’s Place II – 28.04.2010

Once again, a trip to my good friend Leon’s place for some amateur home video-ing.

His, guitar. He talked to me about… a stange… “want”… about singing…

Tea. The drink of real men.

THE FORCE…

??

A day with an Apple. (And Condensed Milk…) – 27.04.2010

Dead tired… I barely got that much sleep the night before… So, Martin gave me an Apple to try and wake me up…

I ended up taking photos of it as we were walking down from our maths rooms. And Nick ended up eating it…

Then Shannon brought a tube of Condensed Milk… Which she and a few others proceeded to add to stuff…

Yeah, not suitable for infants… Be aware of that…