Daisy's photo exercise

I have to admit, my sister is a better photographer than I am. Yellow rose is my mother's favorite flower. She enjoys gardening very much. I guess it brings you satisfaction when you see your plants grow and blossom.

A Typical Chinese License Plate

Have you seen something like this before? Yeah, it's a typical chinese (well, I should say Hong Kong or cantonese) license plate. The number "8" sounds like "rich" in cantonese and so it's the favorite number to many cantonese people. While some people consider license plate like this is just a lucky charm, I personally think that it's shallow. It only tells others that you're a man of materialism. 

BBC NEWS | Europe | Bosnia to unveil Bruce Lee statue

So after all these years Bruce Lee not only didn't fake away but actually have fans in eastern Europe. It's just crazy.

Another Cell Phone Photography Exercise

Took this picture one afternoon. Do you know this place? It's by the Tamashiro Market in Palama. I loved playing on one of these playgrounds when I was young. The bigger the better. I kinda like the use of lights and shadows in this particular picture. I'm pretty satisfied with this one. It started raining right after I took the picture. Too bad my camera couldn't capture the rain drops falling. 

The Addictive Game Called Triple Triad

I'm playing Final Fantasy VIII again. This time I'm concentrating on the side game called Triple Triad. It's a very addictive card game and you can win rare cards that can prove helpful in your quest.

I've got all the rare cards already. Thanks to the wonderful guide found in gamefaq.com , I was able to do away with the obnoxious Random and Plus playing rules. It did take me a few hours to that though. What? Do I wanna play you? You bet! So long, folks, I've got myself a great opponent...

Home network fixed...finally

It's been a week since my sister complained about her PC not being able to go online. It's just strange. I know my wireless router is too far away from her PC, so I purchased a wireless AP and put it upstairs. It worked for a week or so. When I check her computer's wireless connection I can see that it's actually connected to the wireless AP but its IP address is not in the same range with my home network. I couldn't figure out why. Perhaps I should set the wireless AP as a bridge? Anyway, I was gonna run an extra long cable from the router to her room and take out my $99.95 wireless AP. Then I got an idea. Why not move the router upstairs? In less than 30 minutes her PC and get on again! I hope this is the end of the story. :(

Yeah, my teams are qualified!!!

My two beloved national soccer teams, Holland and Italia are qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2006 in Germany. Yeah!

You can go to the official website at fifaworldcup.yahoo.com to find out more.

I like the great offensive style of Holland and the great defensive style of Italia. Contradictrary? I guess so, but who cares.

It's been a busy month for me. Keeping my blog up is not as easy as I thought. Some times I just don't know what to write about. This blogging business reminds of the video game Final Fantasy VIII. In the game you can see Selphie's diary at Balamb Garden. I also love Triple Triad, the card game inside the game. I can play hours and hours of card games with different characters at different locations. What? You've never heard of Final Fantasy? You must be living under a rock for the past 10 years!

As I was going home from work, I saw this tree of the side of the road. Since I was just sitting in front of the traffic lights, I thought to myself: "Why not practice my cellphone photography?" It came out quite nice, I'm pleasantly surprised. 

"Hell Bank Note" anyone? So you're gonna need money in the afterlife right? This is the chinese currency of the dead. They even got "Yu Huang Da Di", who is like Zeus in chinese mythology, to be the President of Hell Bank. "Yan Wang", ruler of the underworld, is the General Manager. You can't find a better team anywhere. :-O Besides money, the chinese people also make miniature houses, cars, servants, maids, and other luxury items out of paper and send them to their dead loves ones by burning these items at the grave site. My grandpa got a nice mansion, a Ferrari, a couple of servants, a Rolex, and a top of the line cell phone this year. I'm a little worry, however, because we didn't send him any instruction manual... 

Sugarcane

It's been years since the last time I chew on a sugarcane. Mom brought some home from work today. It turns out that her boss planted some in her backyard. Boy, it really brought back some memories. I can still recall chewing 0n sugarcane in movies back in Hong Kong. No wonder the movies theaters had sticky floor, yuck! Mom and dad had fun re-living their dating days by bitting on them. I had even more fun to see them complaining their teeth and jaws hurt. :-)

Accident in front of my eyes

I wonder how many people had seen accidents happened in front of their very eyes. Must be alot. Today, while I was driving home, I saw a black VW Jetta crash into the back of a dark blue Volvo. It was quite an impact. The back bumper of the Volvo was left dingling. Okay, maybe it's not that bad, but I think the lady driving that Volvo must be shaken up quite badly. I once totaled a rental car in New Zealand. I have no one but myself to blame, however. I wasn't looking, or I should say I wasn't looking at the right way. I felt bad for the other guy. I don't think his car was salvageable. I remember that after the impact my mind went blank for a second or two. I just couldn't believe that I got hit by another car. I wonder how other people feel at the very moment when they hit someone or when they were hit by someone. For me, I just make sure that I don't make the same mistake twice because I may not be able to walk away with just a few bruises next time.

Birdie Ousted :-(

It's unfortunate that after two weeks we have to "let the bird go". It kinda became protective and its behavior for the last week or so had made mom irritated enough to kick the birdie family out.

One day when I return home and when I took out my keys to open the door, the bird mother flew right pass my neck! It scared the life out of me. Later dad and mom told me that they had received the same treatment from the bird. I think since our door is only three feet away from its nest, it thinks our presence is a threat to its eggs and it needed to give us a warning. It's the bird's way of saying "don't come any closer to my eggs, or else!" What a loving mother! Too bad it is a warning we can't heed. I mean, what are we supposed to do? Getting in and out using the back door? Mom was probably insulted and took her version of protective actions by cutting the roses that block the scourging afternoon sun light to the nest. The chinese say that you can't have two tigers residing in one mountain. I guess it is true. Since mom is the stronger, bigger "tiger", she showed the bird who's the boss around the house. Little birdie fled with its 3 eggs and I haven't seen them after. Dad was a little sad. I hope little birdie learn her lesson and find a true suitable spot to build her next nest.

The Onion | Vehement Anti-Cell-Phone Guy Finally Caves

This is a funny fake news stoy on theonion.com

Take a look, it's just hillarious. It reminds me of how some people acts. Sometimes we forget that there're place we should put our cell phones in silent mode or turned off.

Irfanview

Often times people ask me if I can install Photoshop for them so that they can edit their pictures taken at a picnic the week before. I mean, Photoshop is indeed a very powerful program, but do you really need such a professional tool? Or should I say: "Do you really know how to use it?" For doing quick, common tasks on a picture I always recommend Irfanview, a nice little image editing program. Fergus told me about it years ago and I just love it. It's so small that a floppy disk can hold it, and yet it's got a lot of functions that can satisfy most ordinary people's needs. Best of all, it's free. Not just "Download free", it's a freeware, which means you don't have to pay a license fee for it. It also supports lots of image formats, including Photoshop files. So don't bother installing the program that came with your scanner/digital camera/whatever, give Irfanview a try. Oh, where can you find it? I don't know, try google it. I usually go to download.com or tucows.com .

Bird nest outside the door

Found a bird nest a few days ago right outside our front door. It's built on the roses. Strange place to build a nest if you asked me. Dad was acting like kid since he found it. Always spying on that bird. He even went to pick up one of its eggs and make the birdie all mad. Mom also acted like a little rascal by shaking the roses before going to work just to "say hello". I mean, leave the poor bird alone! The chinese always welcome such "rangers" because they think it brings you good luck. Okay, so they don't like crows. This bird is kinda quiet, too. It's alright with me since it doesn't make too much noise. That's gonna change when the little ones hatch. See what happen then. Oh, what kind of bird is it? I don't know. It's black with a red patch at the head. Not exactly cute. It's more like Darth Vader. COOL!

Google Earth rocks!

Well, I'm sure many people had already tried it, but, man, you can't imagine how great a program it is until you've tried it. It's just so cool that I must write about it in my blog. I used it to look at my home town (Tuen Mun, Hong Kong) and looking at the apartment buildings I grew up with brought me back so much childhood memory that I wanted to cry. Yeah, looking it up in a map is different from looking at it from above. If your computer meets the recommanded hardware and software requirements, please install Google Earth on it. You won't regret it. Oh, what did you say? Where can you download the program? Where else? Google.com . Just click on the "more" link and scroll down to the Google Tools section and you' ll find it. Enjoy yourself!

YesAsia

Well, I learn how to change the links on my blog today. Yesasia is a pretty good online store. It's not exactly the asian version of Amazon or ebay. The prices are a little high and their navigation system could be confusing sometimes but their services are great. They have a large selection of chinese, japanese, and korean videos and music and books and what-nots. All in all I enjoy shopping at Yesasia.com . If you're into chinese, japanese, or korean entertainment, I think you won't be disappointed to visit this site.

While we're on the subject of online shopping, I've reading the book "ebay for dummies". Yeah, I know, buying stuff on ebay is super easy but it's interesting how many people overlook some useful features offered by the good people at ebay. Although I enjoy reading this book, I can't say that I'm really into online auction. I know some people who keep themselves logged on all day and set ebay as their browser's home page. Now, if you're selling something, I understand that it's important to keep monitoring your item, but ebay all day? IMHO it's just too much.

Auckland in August 2004

These are some of the brothers I (daisy) met at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses after the Public Talk & Watchtower study. The two brothers in the center are two Japanese brothers visiting New Zealand. The brother on the far right is the brother responsible for the care of the literature department. (Sorry, forgot their names :p)

Auckland, New Zealand

A photo taken during the Public Talk at the Auckland Chinese Congregation.
daisy wong

A brand new day

So finally I'd decided that I should give blogging a try. It sounds pretty easy and since I've been playing with my digital camera a lot lately, I figured that I should have plenty to post on my blog. Well, let's see how long I can keep up with this new hobby. Aloha!