Forgotten year

We will be ushering in a new year in less than two days from now. My girlfriend asked me earlier what has been the best moments from the start of this year to today. I didn't have much time to reflect so as to give a satisfying answer. We have had a lot of trips together this year and that was my answer to her, adding that I was happier to have traveled to many places together.

There are ups and downs and even the pits in every relationship, I have not been spared of the latter either. However, the roller-coaster rides in our relationship have only brought us together ever more closer and this was also something I would consider as one of the best moments in this year.

Then I had a further thought, that working at Bagel Nash and having met people and made friends from there are perhaps truly the best moments. I hope for long lasting friendships.

For some unknown or rather bizarre reasons I still think I am 26 years old. Years went by quickly, in fact, too quickly that I didn't realize I am actually a year older than I thought! Jeepers!

Christmas Eve trip

We are all going to Prague today and will be back on Dec 27th.

A great leap

It has been a difficult 6 months since HF commenced work in Manchester as she's been commuting back and forth to Leeds. It was quite okay initially but as time passes her job became something more of a frustration and upsetting. The successful work permit application was expensive and was funded personally. However, she's been on the lookout for new opportunities yet at the same time risking yet another hefty payment to the Home Office for another application if she accepts another job offer. Being happy at the job is more important and is the only thing that will keep a person doing what s/he is doing efficiently.

A company offered her a position and we were all happy to hear. However, there were a couple of documents not forwarded to HF that were required for another permit application. She was in her pits. But news came in later saying that they (the new company) will foot all relevant bills and will take all matters pertaining to her successful employment at the company in hand. That made not only her day, but all of us including my mother who has just been in town. It is indeed a cause for celebration, and if at all, would be HF's best Christmas gift!

I am deeply moved because I know she did all these for me. If I were not her reason, she would have given up on the job. Indebted...

Special guest

My mother's in town. Just arrived Leeds at about 14:30 by train from Manchester Airport and she'll be staying with us for about a month of so.

AlexChiu.com Eternal life??

I don't quite remember how I ran into this Asian (hereforth as 'azn') guy's website claiming to know the secrets to eternal life using conventional methods -- magnets! You should really take a look at his site at http://www.alexchiu.com/, a website that even Google blocks because of what Alex is claiming.

Considering the fact that he "...is afraid of death" (quoted), his method or way to eternal life is quite bizarre because it looks like it is his quest to stop human from reproducing. Of course, if you think on extreme sides, when everyone else dies and you're the only living one (maybe along with others who have used his methods), wouldn't that feeling of being in eternity naturally falls in place?

Reproduction and/or sexual reproduction is the very basic instinct of all organic creatures and living things. It is natural. And to stop that process is blatantly an act of defying mother nature, thus unnatural.

On the other hand, maybe he is a genius!? A way to making him rich? I mean, how long can one person put up with magnets on one's both fingers and feet? Definitely not for the rest of one's remaining life! So, eternal life here on earth? Gimme a break!

Day 1: Milan & Verona

Milan
At the Central FS station waiting for our subway train to our next attraction in Milan.

Milan
Piazza del Duomo or otherwise known as Milan's cathedral. It is Italy's largest gothic style cathedral. Unfortunately, it was chilly and foggy that day.

Milan
HF, in front of the piazza's grand arcade entrance with lots of cafeterias, designer's outlets, and more designer's outlets.

Milan
Pigeons everywhere and there's an indian man who'd be willing to take a picture of you with the birds for a small fee. He feeds them. The pigeons calls him Mommy!

Milan
Inside the arcade. Here, posing with a mosaic floor tile of the official seal of Rome. S.P.Q.R means Senatus PopulusQue Romanus, which means The Senate and The People of Rome. I have no idea why the seal illustrates humans being fed from the cow's udder.

Milan
Onwards to Milan's last standing castle, Castello Sforzesco, which is a very popular historical building that was built in the second half of 14th century during the time of Galeazzo II Visconti. I can't even begin to pronounce its name at first sight. The castle was named after Francesco Sforza.

Milan
At the castle of Sforza (Google Earth it, 45°28'11.94"N, 9°10'46.50"E). There's a deep stretch of trench, about 5-8m high, around the entire castle that I believe that one would need a let-down bridge to access into the castle. It's like we're living in the legends of knights and dragons!

Milan
Up and against the walls of the Sforza castle. When HF and 'the wall' are one, something special happens.

Milan
My own macho mug shot just outside of the castle. There's a nice huge fountain on the causeway to the entrance but it annoyed us so that is why there's no picture with the fountain here.

Milan
Ice cream! They all say that the best ice cream on earth is in Italy. We've been on the look-out for ice cream parlor since we landed and this La Voglio Ice Cream shop was where we had our first Italian ice cream!
It wasn't that bad. However, HF said that she still preferred Ben & Jerry's simply because, I think, we did not know what we're eating. The flavors were all in Italian!

Milan
Making our way back to the train station for Verona when we discovered we still have time to probably queue up to see the Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper. We did go and were at the residence of The Last Supper, which is in a church, but we have no ticket reservation(s) and tickets were sold out.
We had to book tickets 14 days in advance in order to get a glimpse of the world famous painting. We didn't know; but consoled ourselves that we've seen it in The Da Vinci Code (Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou)

Verona
The Walls of Verona! On the scribe: "There is no world without Verona walls. But purgatory, torture, hell itself. Hence banished is banish from the world, and the world's exile is death...", an excerpt of Shakespear's Romeo and Juliet Act 3, Scene 3.

Verona
The performer bends down when we deposited a coin for him as if saying to HF, "Would you please let me give you a kiss?" And he looks straight back at me each time and bends down again for 3 times. Hilarious!

Verona
Arrived at the home of Juliet -- Casa di Giulietta. I initially doubted and was expecting to arrive at a great mansion with golden gates but to my surprise I arrived to a shabby tunnel, which leads to the famous balcony scene in Romeo & Juliet. Ah! I was enlightned!

Verona
The walls of the tunnel was scribbled with graffities of those who have been here declaring their love and heart to the person s/he loves.
You can see it everywhere from the most bottom of the wall to the ceiling! There was nothing to climb on, though!

Verona
"Danniee, I want to write one up there!", she told me as she pointed to the ceiling! "Can you write on for me there?" I was like... "Umm, uhh..... omg! Great! *Speechless!*"

Verona
A true believer of romance. Tears began to trinkle down her cheeks when she saw millions of people left a note on the wall of the tunnel expressing their eternal love for each other.

Verona
It was said that whosoever touch (but I grabbed) the right side of Juliet's breast will have a blessing in the person's romance. I hope I have grabbed an eternal blessing in my romantic relationship, 'cos I need more than a touch of blessing!

Verona
On Juliet's balcony. HF was here before, it was my turn to go up there. I pretended to be Juliet when a group of Japanese tourists arrived at the bottom and started giggling and laughing. It was a short-lived romantic moment turned into embarrassment.

Verona
Inside the home of Juliet, posing nearby her balcony.

Verona
Juliet still lives in the hearts of many, and there's only one way to get to her -- email her! I wonder if Juliet has get to reading the email I sent to her yet.

Verona
We always send postcards back to ourselves as a little souvenir packed with memories.

FORP December 2006 Newsletter

With reference to the following entry -- http://braindumpster.blogspot.com/2006/11/welcoming-surprise.html -- I am happy to announce that the intended newsletter was published electronically, and soon to be on FORP website, with the two photos I shot on the night of Bond Fire on Roundhay Park, Leeds. My friends, HF, and I were present that night.

The electronic document of the newsletter can be found here OR at the FORP's website and if I may bring your attention to page #5 you will see the purpose of this message. My comments after reading the one page dedicated to me was that of an overstatement of fact but... I like it.

Wish me luck & best!

The other side of me and HF

It was our last night in Rome, strolling along streets after streets, plaza's after plaza's, and finally got back to the famous oblong Piazza Nouvana. We observed an artist just finishing off his caricature artwork of a boy and it was quite funny.

I asked HF if she have had any caricatures or portraits of herself upon which she said no. Neither did I. I insisted that we should have one for ourselves but she hesitated. It would cost €20 for the both of us (€10 each) but the artist wanted us to have a good time so he decided to do one for us for €15.

He began drawing the "Beauty" first and when he's done, he said, "OKAY! Now the monster! Smile.... smile! Hokay, look there, not at me... Do you smoke? Because I want to put big cigar here", pointing his pencil to my lips on his art paper.

The "Monster" has my nose and made a pair of very Asiatic eyes to which I do not think I have. It's funny because my "Beauty" has become my perfect match in the outcome of the caricature. I look more like a mob boss!

Gimme a break

HF just said to me, "Dan, I still can't believe that this is coming true. Still feel like I'm living in a dream..."

"It is true and we're going to see it happen in the next 6 hours, even before sunrise", I interrupted.

She smiled with contend.


We've been waiting for this day since last year. A few minutes back she asked me, "Dann, do you know where will we be at this time tomorrow?"

"Milan!"
"No. We'll be in the home of Juliet and Robert"
I frowned in suspicion. "You mean Romeo and Juliet?"
She burst out in laughter and her face quickly turned red in embarrassment and gave me the look as if asking for forgiveness.

Anyway, the places we will be visiting are listed in this post. We will leave from Leeds Bradford Airport at 07:05 and expected to land in Milan 2 hours later. I plan to voice record my journey and publish them here later. There will be no videos but will be tonnes of photos.

Give me a break from this city. I will, tomorrow will be that break! A 10 days break. I hope all goes well and ends well. I hope and pray for good weather. Safe journey to us! Will be back after 10 days.

Adobe Photoshop knows

In an attempt to record, among other things, a memorable point such as photographing the hundreds of Euro bank notes in which I have just purchased for the first time, Adobe Photoshop CS2 seemed to have an edge in recognizing what sort of image is being loaded into its cache and/or memory.

As soon as I dragged the front and back files of a 50€ bill into Photoshop CS2, a pop-up appeared with a message before the image did prompting for my action. I found it rather amusing and was perplexed over the fact that "Omg! It knoowwwsssss............!!"

I was stunned for a couple of minutes before putting myself together again. Coincident? Clicked on the "Information" button and it took me to this website. You should check it out! I got more afraid. Got the feeling that I am being "watched"!! Invasion of privacy! etc. I couldn't type or do anything for crap but stared at my screen flabbergasted. I was like, "WTF?! How the frack did it know?!"

There could be many explanations for this but the one I came up with was the possibility that Photoshop CS2 would scan, examine, evaluate, and analyse patterns of all [digital] images and compare it (binary sequences) against some database that will trigger such a pop-up message if found to be a very likely possibility of a bank note.
... which all seems to be beyond the grains of my brains.

Wait a minute. If Photoshop CS2 knows, that would mean somewhere in the application's database there must exists all necessary information/data on bank notes. It has Euro's for sure! Somebody just needs to decipher and decrypt all those security barriers that I believe is in placed. If that is broken, hmm... imagine the possibilities. I'll first purchase some properties.

Bank notes with such message and an accurate information? I wonder if that's the only thing it will be flagged for. What will ACTUALLY happen if you load an ariel (as well as details of all sides) image of a military aircraft of, say, F-22 Lighting? Or a passenger carrier 747 Jumbo jet? Will a pop-up appear with the message:
"Adobe Photoshop:
This application does not support the acts of terror, and/or any activities related to terrorisms!

You can continue to open and edit this image but the FBI, CIA, and Home Security Office have been notified of your activities. For more information, select the Information button below for Internet-based information on Axis of Evil, Terrorism Act 2002, Anti-terrorism."?

Maybe one day... one fine day it will all come true. Intelligent, huh?

A welcoming surprise

I received an email message on November 7 asking permission to use my photos in which I took on the night of Roundhay Park's Bond Fire Night November 5 2006. The sender of the message is one of the joint editors of Friends of Roundhay Park newsletter. His message is as follows:

Danny

I am joint editor of the Friends of Roundhay Park Newsletter and have seen your photos taken on 3rd November at the park in a blog. My wife and I missed the firework display this year as we were otherwise engaged.

Could you kindly give permission for us to use one of your photos in the Newsletter? It would necessarily be quite small, just black/white, but your name would appear as the photographer of the original. However, as a voluntary organisation and Registered Charity we would not offer any payment for the use of the photo. How would you feel about that?

If you wanted to submit a short item about the display itself and what it meant to you as a 'visitor' to Leeds, we would gladly consider publishing that as well.

Sincerely

Alan Jackson

I felt privileged and overwhelmed by the fact that my photos are getting noticed. While trying not to get too ahead of myself over this matter, at the very least it was a very good opportunity and I hope the two photos, DSC04038.jpg and DSC04048.jpg, that Alan has selected will serve the interests of the newsletter best. We will wait and see if the newsletter gets published. Looks like there has been a long delay.

The number of people with digital cameras these days are rapidly growing by the minute. This will only make it tougher to getting paid for good pictures as the competition is just too massive with low demand and excessive supply. Charitable works may be a way to start before getting recognized as a photographer. But that's a long, long way for me. I'm only doing this half of a part-timer.

Telemarketer's nightmare

I wish I could be the person doing this as I received hundreds of telemarketer calls per week! Lol! Absolutely hilarious! Check this out...

http://howtoprankatelemarketer.ytmnd.com/

Must watch comedy

Here is an entertaining lecturer from Nanyang Technology University, Singapore, awaiting feedback from students and later entertain them. Vvery funny!

Bond Fire Night

Remember, remember, the 5th of November; The gunpowder and treason plot; I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot
Fireworks displays all over England and the view from our balcony was one hell of a beautiful sight that lasted well over 5 hours! I bet that the Air Pollution Index (API) peaked on this night.

Fireworks at Roundhay Park, Leeds. The show lasted 45 minutes.

HF & I, with Asa, among thousands of people observing the Bond Fire Night on Roundhay Park. The air smelt of gunpowder and was thick with smoke. It was cold, about 3 degrees centigrade (my nose knows).

Here with Asa who's from Sweden agreed with HF that a roast turkey (or any meat) would be perfectly ideal that moment. I only smirked.

Painting with lights using fireworks as subjects always creates satisfying and beautiful effects, only when it's done properly.

Ecstatic moment.

Painting with light #2.

Painting with light #3. At this time it was almost towards the end of the show -- the pyrotechnics' moment of excitements!

Painting with light #4: The grand finalè -- did not reach climax. It wasn't all that fantastic to be fracking honest. All there was was this huge boom with a large fountain effect. I rate it 6/10. Could have been much better. I guess they burnt all the 'good stuffs' in the past 44 minutes.

A little girl in her wonderland with a stick of crackling fireworks, which I had asked for when I noticed a group of people behind us had packets of them. I offered to buy one and was refused at first but was then given one, I think, out of sympathy. At least, it works!

We've got just one stick of firework that gave us a good 5 minutes of thrill. We took turns to take pictures like this and it almost ran out on me. Good times.
Barricades were in placed at least 50m from the bond fire as the heat from the fire was so intense that people would stretch out to warm their hands.