Hiatus?

I realized I haven't had the mood to blog for awhile now. Maybe I lost the interest, I don't know.

Nonetheless, I'm follow-a-ble on Instagram.

Will try and write more stuff soon. =)

SaturDate (Caching, Running, Climbing and Eating)

Talk about a Saturday well spent!

Mornings was spent back at Punggol again, this time with Colin, Al, and Hannee, heading to Coney Island once more, but exploring caches along the way.

We had 3 points to cover but only 2 had caches available, one seem to be lost by the time we got there.

Caching also meant heading to parts of the island I didn't get to go the last time round I went running, taking the more scenic beach route along the way.

I think one of the coolest caches was a spider which we came across, that took FOREVER to find. We were almost about to give up until Al gave a suggestion which got us to the spot necessary to locate the item, thank goodness!

Caching was then followed by rock climbing in the afternoon, Al and I crashed a climb session with Colin, M & S at Climb Central. 

I'm still afraid of heights as I've come to realised, but managed to persist on and did a few climbs, much to my relief!

The day ended with dinner at Sacha and Sons, an american style deli serving up some really awesome sandwiches and sides.

Talk about being well fed, phew!

All in all an awesome Saturday spent, was so tired by the end of the day but looking back, it was worth it. =)

Band Night & Getting Locked Out

So on Boxing Day, the Tier met up for Star Wars TFA again, this time with Alron joining us and finally getting to catch the movie.

The day ended off with game night at Saint Games.

Fun as it was, we ended pretty late, around 2+, and by the time I got to the car, I realised Park Mall apparently closes their carpark at 2am!

Stranded, I found myself at Starbuck at Plaza Singapura, joining a few sleepless Singaporeans chilling with drinks and my laptop. Later on went to try my hand at Geocaching nearby but had no luck, did managed a nice panorama photo of the amphitheater at Dhoby Ghaut Green though.

Ended off the day with prata at Mr and Mrs Mohgan's in the east which was recommended by Colin, honestly one of the best I've had, shiok!

So Boxing Day turned out fruitful. =)

Ebisu Drift Circuit - Tokyo Japan

Something to put on my list if I'm really gonna head there. Hope it's not too expensive!

EDIT: Half a day school is approx $690-700...hahaha...er...

14km @ MacRitchie

To say I miss trail running is an understatement. Was glad to finally go back into MacRitchie again during Deepavali to check out the greens and finally whip our the New Balance MT10v3 for a spin.

Awesome weather that morning. Tough but worth the run.

10km with RD

Run done this evening with the Running Department thanks to clearer skies after the heavy rain this morning.

Got to test out the Sony Smart B-Trainer Walkman which included a HRM and GPS on top of it's usual walkman capabilities.

Apart from catching GPS slightly later, most of the details is pretty spot on.

Handball in B&W

Joined Eve, Raymond and Kevin a few Saturdays back to see Ray and Kev in action at a Handball match. 

Managed to snap a few photos but cause of the lighting, I decided to switch to B&W instead.

Not an easy game it turns out, really exciting to watch and I was glad to have caught them in action. =)

10 Day Hiatus

I'm stuck in reservist! Hardly have time to blog, will try to once more time permits!

Microsoft Surface Book Keynote - Panos Panay

When I first watched Panos Panay back in 2012 introducing the first Surface, I had no idea who the heck he was, but I liked his presentation, mainly cause he carried a full duschbag "I don't care" attitude on stage, kind of like a Tony Stark persona but in real life.

The thing is the presenter can really elevate the thing he or she is presenting, and I think Panay did a good job introducing the first Surface to the world.

I finally got to catch the full 20+ minute keynote presentation on the Surface Book, and while the laptop really impresses, I think it's really him who carries it across to the audience fluidly as to what the Surface Book can do. This will give MS fanboys something to gloat about when they look at Apple fanboys, and rightfully so, for once, Microsoft made hardware that's a head turner.

If that thing ran OSX I'd definitely get it. =P

Microsoft Windows 10 Hardware Event - Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book (The Verge)

I've never thought I'd find Microsoft in any way appealing until the first Surface Tablet came out back in 2012 (Entry).

The biggest excitement then? That Microsoft was finally taking the Apple route and creating their own hardware to show off the best their software can do. Of course, "best" is subjective to everyone but the concept is the same which is that of Steve Jobs when he decided to make Apple products only available on Apple devices, so that they work the way they were intended to, to provide the best user experience possible.

The Surface Pro is now into its 4th iteration and since its launch in 2012, it's been growing and becoming more and more a success to its own competitors in the market, that really says a lot if you ask me, that Microsoft is finally showing the manufacturers who use their software, how to do hardware right.

The next exciting product announced is the Surface Book, Microsoft's first attempt at a laptop. And yes, it sounds like a play on Apple's MacBook. Finally a laptop made by Microsoft that is void of bloatware unlike other devices, and the design, though not the most elegant, is original, and still some what nice in its own way. Sure some may argue it has design cues following that of a MacBook, the similarities I see is that it uses the same style of metal finishing, and a logo at the back similar to that of Apple's signature logo, that's it. Microsoft is touting it as the most powerful 13 inch laptop in the world, twice as fast as Apple's MacBook Pro. You have to agree considering it's using the latest processor (2 generations ahead of Apple) and other internals, but of course, it's not like Apple isn't going to put the same specs in their laptops, so I don't think that status is gonna last very long.

Oh and yes, the Surface Book detaches from is extra battery and graphics card base to become an i5 or i7 full Windows tablet too.

Microsoft also made 2 new phones, I'm not gonna touch on those, I still don't really see them as strong competitors to Apple's and Android's finest, but the laptops on the other hand are something impressive if you ask me.

No I'm not changing camps any time soon, having been tortured by bad experiences with Windows, my heart is still with Apple, though I will admit I still strongly feel my most favorite experience was Snow Leopard...fast, smooth, fluid...something I haven't seen in awhile with their other versions of OSX.

Bottom line, I am enjoying the "new Microsoft", which seems to be more innovative and bold than just being a software company that's dull and bland. While I don't see myself jumping back fully to the Microsoft ecosystem any time soon, I admire the strides they are finally taking to be more "visible" in the industry.

If you want to catch the 9 minute summary of Microsoft's event, check out the video here:

Running Department 2nd Anni Appreciation Dinner

So Terence had been planning this for a really long time now and finally everyone settled on the best date possible for the event.

Dinner was at The Sail @ Marina Bay and he had a function room booked thanks to Uncle Abe who has an apartment there.

I got to say, the effort put into making this a reality is fantastic! Really appreciate what Terence had done in order to ensure the runners are happy and enjoying themselves.

Thanks to Colin, I managed to borrow his backdrop for the event, and since I only had a one flash setup, I used this time as an excuse to buy another! So now I ahve two Yongnuos (Ver 3 and 4) and a Yongnuo 560-TX transmitter which is seriously life changing.

The shots were rather no brainer compared to difficult light setups though, I simply had to ensure both flashes emit the same amount of light, which would have been tougher to execute if I had one olympus and one yongnuo flash.

The results? Below are some that I really like.

The last group photo was simply pulling both umbrellas back and increasing the strength of the light. It didn't manage to spread all the way to the back but overall the result was still rather pleasant!

Overall a great event, really happy to have been part of the journey with the RD crew. =)