I was single for more than a week. My girlfriend flew home for vacation. Yes! I would be able to live a (geek)single’s life again. Read till I drop, watch all my unwatched series and surf till my eyes grew sore.

But like all good plans that I have, I was not able to execute. I was awash with a lot of activities. I covered our party and needed to process those pictures(which came out good BTW), I needed to setup some financial accounts here and there,  jog, prepare for a trip and research if getting an FA31mm is worth it.

2009 was like that. All my grand plans came to naught because either I was too optimistic of my schedule or I don’t have discipline and easily gets distracted.

For 2010 my main theme would be focus and discipline. I have enough things to do and I have the plan. I just need to execute them well and not get distracted. Getting distracted has been a problem of mine since I was a kid. I have two books when I review for an exam, the textbook and the pocketbook that I want to finish. Imagine what will happen if I have three exams for a day. Last time I have that I quit my job.

For the short term(first half of 2010) I want to take my IMC exam. I was supposed to review this week but alas, I was only able to review a little. I also need to update myself just in case I was made redundant. Our company was bought and layoff might not be far.

For the long term I want to think of something that could really earn me money. I earn enough but I don’t want to be an employee forever. I want to invest my money on something. For 2010 I will do my research.

Gadgets must have for 2010? I want another prime lens(something on the cheap side). I really wanted to complete my FA Limited collection but those are out of budget for the meantime. Maybe I will scour the second hand market for a good prime lenses. I also like to increase my post-processing skills.

Modest goals for the year 2010. I hope to execute them.

Merry Christmas!

I promised myself no big photography expenses this year. No expensive lens and no new body. I bought two cheap and used lenses that cost a hundred(SGD) to satisfy my LBA(lens buying addiction) and to tide me over until I have enough money to buy something. But then I saw an ad in one of the forums I frequent. The guy wants to buy a K10D(my current camera). I was able to sell it at a good price and buy myself a Pentax K-x.

I really wanted to have a K-7. But it was 800SGD more. The K-x is a bit quirky. It uses 4 AA batteries and it does not have AF point indicator. You can still choose the focus point but you can not see it on the screen which makes it a bit painful to use if you are the type who uses the other AF points a lot. I already missed it when I was shooting yesterday in a party. But its no big deal breaker.

I don’t like using AA batteries that much. The camera draws a lot of power and sometimes I feel that AA might not be up to the task. Sometimes the battery meter turns red. I just rest it a bit and it turns to yellow again. Not that much convenient if you forget to charge the battery every time you use it.

I was not satisfied with the K10Ds focus capability. It hunts at low light. Its a bit annoying if you are taking group pics. You need to have your subject pose for a long time.  High-iso shooting is also way better. While high ISO is not that much important to me, its important for casual snaps during events.

What I really missed was the K10Ds ergonomics. Sure the K-x is light and the grip is not that bad. The K10D is a joy to hold. It does not feel cheap. My pockets are though.

In regards to IQ. I feel that the K10D is better in low ISO shots. I don’t if its the lens or some other settings. But I like the output of K10D better at low ISO. Maybe I am just used to it.

The only thing I really hated about this lens was, I now wanted to buy an FA 31mm.

Sometimes the best things in the world is free(or cheap). I’ve been looking at telephoto lenses for the past few weeks. I’m thinking of buying the DA* 50-135 f2.8(IQ is excellent but heavy and expensive) or should I settle for a DA 55-300(light and IQ is good for the money). I’m also considering the FA 77 Ltd(IQ is great, light but not flexible).

The last Wednesday night I saw a second-hand Pentax SMC 75-150mm f4 on the Clubsnap’s buy and sell forum. I got the lens for SGD 110 after bargaining. The lens is small but heavy. The zoom creeps a little when I put it on 75mm. I need to hold it when I shoot at that focal length. It is fully manual. I don’t mind though. At least I can work on my manual focusing skills.

For now my lust to buy new lenses is satiated.

Note:

IQ = Image Quality

This is old news but I still shook my head when I stumbled on it again.

Snippets from the Inquirer. This is a proposal made by Chiz Escudero.

Subjects like trigonometry, calculus, geometry, and algebra, should be taught only in college or as high school electives since these are not relevant to the everyday life of Filipinos, he said.

“If by any chance they are able to reduce the curriculum by half, we would effectively double the number of classrooms in a day and overnight, because we can now use the classroom twice over instead of simply being used once, given the overburden curriculum that our children have,” he said.

Sheesh!

I’ve been thinking of buying a telephoto lens. While my lenses are fine(12-24mm and a 43mm), they are a bit intrusive when covering events since you need to get closer to get portraits. The dilemma? Teles are Pentax’s weak point. We don’t have an equivalent to Canon’s 70-200mm, cheap(relatively) but excellent. We have a 60-250 f4 but its heavier(1.2kg vs .7kg) and more expensive(1.9SGD).

Anyway I don’t think I could afford it and the weight just sucks. I think I will just settle for the Pentax DA 55-300. Its not a constant zoom but for the price and the quality, its spot on.

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I’ve been wanting to stream my audio to my AV40s using Airport Express. Right now, only AirTunes support that and it can only be used by iTunes. The problem is you need to synch the video with the audio.

Enter Rouge Amoeba’s Airfoil. It has a video player that does just that.

Now I can watch movies while in bed and have excellent audio from my speakers.

I finally got to install Snow Leopard last week. Not much changes. Arbalest(my MBP) seems a bit snappier. Quicktime looks better with the black trimmings. Screen looks different because of the default gamma (1.8 to 2.2). But you can change this into Leopard. Most of the changes are internal(Grand Central Dispatch etc).

I did a clean install. I just like things clean.

The upgrade cost me 48SGD. Not cheap. But not that expensive either. I looked around the price of Windows XP Pro OEM. Its around 129 SGD.

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Its been two weeks since our project was cancelled. Im bored now. Im supposed to be reviewing for a financial certification but the reviewer is too boring. I was lucky if I was able to read a chapter in a day.

One good thing though is that I was able to read again on computer hardware. I’m a hardware enthusiast before. Monitoring how Intel and AMD has been slugging it out during the Pentium 4 vs Athlon era, reading graphic card review and knowing the prices of pc hardware on Gilmore stores. When I came to Singapore I lost my appetite for assembling PC hardware. I don’t have a house here. Collecting a  lot of stuff is a pain when you transfer house or when you go back to the Philippines.

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Finally I bought a pair of M-Audio AV40. My cheapie Altec Lansing 2.1 I bought two years ago is not that bad, but the quality is below my Altec 621 back at home. I’m not really an audiophile( and I don’t know if this is just self-justification) but this speakers are good. The vocals are much much clearer. Its only a 2.0 setup(no subwoofer) but I’m not really into gaming nowadays.

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I was putting-off buying these speakers until June. Stress though has a strange way of overriding my Scrooge persona. Even though I have a dinner to attend, I made a trip to the store to buy these sweet pair of speakers.

After running the JPMorgan Run (5.6km) I almost had my knees busted again. Its not really painful. It could have been if I did not walk the last 500m(or more).  My time is not so decent. I ran it for 40 minutes. I was gunning for at least 35 minutes. I did run the 10km for 1hr and 9 minutes. 

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One thing that I like about long distance running is that you don’t have to compete that much with other people. You compete with yourself. You train your mind to reach a goal. To run without stopping is psychological( assuming you are physically fit of course). 

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You can cheat on running. But it will always come back for you.

I like this tagline by New Balance. Saw this on the MRT some months ago.

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I bought an Apple Airport Express. Now I can play my MP3s wirelessly. The easiest solution would be to use quality earphones. But I don’t like airphones that much. Creative has those wireless solutions. But you need to have a PCMCIA slot. 

It’s currently hooked to a cheapie 2.1 Altec Lansing setup. Once I get some funds I will hook it to something better.

My boss got annoyed using my teammates keyboard(the so called recession keyboards.. the cheapest you can buy) that he replaced two of my teammates keyboard with an Apple keyboard. He did not replace mine.  I’m already using a Microsoft natural keyboard. 

I tried the Apple keyboard. Can’t use it. Too small for me. 

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For the nth time our project plan changed. Tasks were reassigned here and there. Some of the design tasks are moved later in the project timeline. I was already done with them though. Talk about cowboy project management.

After reading those economics and behavioral economics books, I ventured into a sales book, Hope is not a Strategy. Its my first time reading sales book. This book is less than 200 pages so I was not expecting to learn the science of sales. I was just curious when I saw this book in the bookstore. My previous manager likes to say “Hope is not a strategy” whenever we start our replies during standup with “I hope( I can finish this task by blah blah)”.

I am less than halfway through this book. I already learned that there different kinds of salesman. There is teller type(level 0). This type of salesman will go through with you the whole product line in their catalogue but does not know anything other than what is written there. 

There is also the farmer. The farmer is in-charge of repeat sales. Those who stays within the account for repeat business. Opposite of the farmer is the hunter. The hunter is the special forces of the sales world. They are like challenges, think fast and their sole purpose is too win accounts. 

Business developers on the other hand develops demand rather than responds to demand. They create opportunities by creating the needs.  

The last type is the Industry Network Consultant. These type of salesmen work on only one industry sometimes on only one account, regardless of their employer. People in that industry know them. They have the connections already. They may change who they work for. But they will still sell on the same industry or organization.

This will not be in my list of favorite books. But this is a good read especially if you want to know some interesting things about sales.