Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Blogging reflections

Was driving earlier today, and started thinking about my blog... I started it back in 2008 because I was bored. I didn't intentionally decide to focus so much on food & travel, although I think probably 80% of the posts have turned out to be such. (Naturally I wasn't going to not blog about them, since it gives me a "valid" excuse to i) eat a lot and ii) travel a lot.)

Anyway the point is... as time passed, my "snippets" posts became less and less frequent. Now that I think about it, the main cause is probably because I have spent less time driving. Yes, I mean driving. Non food/travel posts require thinking and inspiration, unlike food / travel posts where I can usually rely on pretty pictures to carry the story. And also, I decided long ago not to blog specifically about work despite all the interesting fodder material it often tempted me with.

Ideas used come to me while I was driving and I would mentally draft my posts because my brain had nothing else to do. (Ok, start the lecture on safety later...) So since I seem to drive less now, there are fewer such posts.

Something I hope to change.

Friday, June 25, 2010

World Cup: Favorite Moments (Part 2)

It's taken me a bit longer to blog Part 2 because honestly, the matches have been pretty boring. I even stayed up for the England vs Algeria last week, but was so horribly bored by it that I feel asleep.

No Fewer videos this time because it seems Youtube has clamped down on them. Ah well.

6. North Korea's goal against Argentina. Sure they lost 4:1, but still they managed to get a nice one in...

7. The whole 2nd half of USA vs Slovenia. Almost wrote off USA after they were down 2:0 at half time, but they fought back after that to a respectable 2:2. Add on lots of body contact between players and a few yellow cards!



8. Switzerland vs Chile. A good well-fought match (especially since it was after North Korea's sad 7-nil defeat at the feet of Portugal) with lots of excitement.. 10 cards in total!

9. England's goal against Slovenia. No special reason, except that I support them and that sole goal brought them to the round of 16.

10.The last 15 minutes of the Slovakia - Italy game where i) Slovakia scored making it 2-0, ii) Italy scored (2-1), iii) the goalkeeper got a yellow card, iv) Slovakia scored (3-1), v) Italy scored (3-2). Even the commentator who had given up on Italy after Slovakia's second goal was terribly excited when they scored their first goal.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

The Travel Bug: Sichuan, Jiu Zhai Gou (Part 2: Waterfalls)

I'm afraid I've put off doing this second part for way too long, and have now lost interest in typing out a long story about it. So I won't! Suffice to say that since Jiu Zhai Gou is know for its water, water + mountains = waterfalls!

You can get really close to the rapids and water (spy the staircase on the rhs?), but I don't recommend putting any body part in. It would be such a shame to dirty the crystal clear waters, and this is a nature reserve after all.

We must have been to about 4 waterfall areas, each one gorgeous in its own right.

Some required a little walking to get too, but nothing more strenuous than a relaxing 20min stroll.

I tried to play with the shutter speed...

... but with no tripod (and even if I had one on me, the hoards of tourists nudging me along the narrow path would have made it difficult to use it) it was not so easy to hold the camera steady.

If you look on the left of the photo below, can you see a face with the mouth wide open? Freaky!

Another attempt at playing with the shutter speed...

Slightly more successful this time!

All in all, I was very glad that I signed up for the trip. Would definately recommend anyone going to Chengdu to make a side trip there, especially if the season is right!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

World Cup: England made it!

England is through to the next round!!! Yay!!!

Congrats too to USA who scored a goal in the 91min to bring themselves through as well. (That's a really ugly green though...)

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Go Watch! #1: Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 is good! Especially in 3D.

The plot was predictable but not boring, sweet but not over-cloying or unrealistic. The quirky hilarious moments in the show which had me doubled over in stitches (which is rare for me).

I don't know if its because I was watching it in a different cinema (Cathay) from my usual one (Great World GV) or what, but I found the 3D graphics less headache inducing and contributed to the overall experience in natural subtle ways rather than the "in your face"-ness of Avatar and even (at some points) Up!. *Shinta also found the 3D glasses at Cathay a much more comfortable fit over spectacles.
Go watch x 3!

Monday, June 21, 2010

World Cup: Match Recap, North Korea vs Portugal

0 min: Kick-off
Raining heavily. Poor players

29 min: Goal by Portugal's Miereles!
Nice shot there by Miereles! Loud cheering from Portugal spectators.

46 min: Half time
Don't mind North Korea! 1-nil still got chance...

47 min: Second half kick-off

53 min: Goal by Portugal's Simao!!
Oh dear.. 2-nil is difficult to overcome. But US managed to do it against Slovenia.

56 min: Goal by Portugal's Almeida!!!
3-nil in favor of Portugal. I think they're assured of a win. And 2 goals so close in succession too.

60 min: Goal by Portugal's Tiago!!!!
Oh dear. 3 goals scored in 7 minutes. Maybe North Korea can salvage some pride by making it at least 4 to something other than "nil"?

81 min: Goal by Portugal!!?!!
Who cares by who already! The poor North Korea supporters in the stands look really miserable at the 5-nil score.

87 min: Goal by Portugal!!??!!
Even the Portugal fans are looking a bit sheepish at the 6-nil thrashing. Why is Portugal still attacking? Give them a bit of face... please?

89 min: Goal by Portugal!!???!!
7-nil!!! *faint* *speechless*

92 min: Whistle blows
Finally the pain is over.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

World Cup: Legofussball!

You've probably see this already, but just in case you haven't, here's the Lego version of the goals scored in the Netherlands - Denmark game (the one with the own goal).



It's so cute and adorable, and strangely not too far from the real thing!
Compared it with the real one!

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