Reading is Good (March 2010, part II)

Finished another novel between the writing of part I and this part II. Just thought I should clarify in case people think I cannot count. =)

Part I and part II together has a total of 22 reviews now instead of the 21 stated previously.

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A Twist in the Tale by Jeffrey Archer is a collection of entertaining short stories.


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Easy read and the usual great writing from Archer. I particularly like "Just Good Friends" which completely caught me by surprise and "Christina Rosenthal", which deeply moved me: 7.5/10

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Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton, probably better known as The 13th Warrior, happened to be a novel that I read after I have watched the movie version starring Antonio Banderas.


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It's about an Arab adventuring with the vikings. This is probably not the best of Crichton's, I find it less believable than his other novels. That said, it's still an engaging read, it's just me having high expectation from Crichton: 6.5/10

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A Matter of Honour by Jeffrey Archer has got the honour spelled right, the British English shall remain the "real English" for me. I reject the emigrant's version of "no 'u' only me", no thank you.


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Story involves the Russian, the American, the British, the Swiss, and the French. It revolves around an icon with a secret, a deal signed 99 years ago nearing it's expiry date. Agents from various countries killed to either get hold of the icon, or prevent the others from getting it: 7.5/10

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The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown probably doesn't need any introduction for avid readers, think even those who don't read heard of it.


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Without wax is back! =) (go read Digital Fortress)

The story revolves around Masonic secrets and a mad person, the plots and twists gave me deja vu, it's like reading Da Vinci Code all over again, but with different object of desire and different group of people. Instead of trying to obtain and break the Da Vinci Code, it's now trying to obtain and decipher the lost symbol's concealed meaning.

The novel reads like a movie, probably wrote with that in mind. The revelation of the Lost Word is... meh, I am disappointed by the ending, perhaps because I am not a religious person. Total Liquid Ventilation (TLV) is cool, but the feeling of same old same old plus a weak ending puts it at: 6.5/10

Quotes from The Lost Symbol:

"Knowledge is a tool, and like all tools, its impact is in the hands of the user."

"Great minds are always feared by lesser minds."

Masonic luminary Albert Pike: "what we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal."

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If it wasn't left behind by my brother, I probably wouldn't have read Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie, and good grief, I wish he hadn't left it behind! I thought I am long-winded, rest assured I am properly humbled after struggling through this novel.


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The storyline, well, the core of it anyway, is about a clown turned assassin because his wife ran away, so he went bonkers and went about killing everyone involved.

The author has a very different writing style, and it's not one that I like. Long sentences talking about ten things at once, branching out whenever a new thing is mentioned as if the author has to explain everything there and then in the same sentence. And seriously, why the heck are those things mentioned anyway? Paragraph spanned pages that suffocates the reader, definitely not an easy read.

I reckon the story could be told in 30% of the volume, ditching all those rubbish fillers that served only to bring you to Holland and back with no added value. After all the long-windedness, the story has an abrupt ending, jeez... 3/10

Quote from Shalimar the Clown:

"I like it that you're clumsy with compliments," she consoled him... "I never trusted men who were too smooth with words."

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The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is a motivational book.


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It's about the story of a shepherd going after his dream (Personal Legend). A lot of goodness packed in a small and short book. Elegent and insightful: 6.5/10

Quote from The Alchemist:

"The sercet of life, though, is to fall seven times and to get up eight times."

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Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling... Seriously, do I have to introduce this book?


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I reread this because I watched the Harry Potter movies 1 to 6 during the Chinese New Year holidays.

While I know the general storyline and ending, I have totally forgotten so much of it it felt like reading a new novel, thank you goldfish memory! =P Second time through it and it's still immensely enjoyable, and such an easy read I finished in three days (nights).

I won't talk about the storyline, I probably don't have to anyway. =) Suffice to say that this is the final book for the Harry Potter series. Rowling deserved to be an author made millionaire, if only I could write like her (and be as rich as she is): 9/10

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The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga is another book I had the misfortune to find lying around.


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The truth is, I started reading this book, then I watched the Harry Potter movies, then I went ahead and read the Harry Potter book before I returned to this book. Says something about how gripping this novel is huh? Not.

It's a long-winded story of a murder, not sure if the author was trying to justify murder? I am starting to see a trend with Indian writers, in fact I can relate that to my co... nevermind. There is "ooh, tell me more, tell me more" and there is "bloody hell, just get on with it!" It's the later for this book: 3.5/10

Quote from The White Tiger:

"I don't keep a mobile phone, for obvious reasons - they corrode a man's brains, shrink his balls, and dry up his semen..."

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It's refreshing to read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon after the previous novel.


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221 pages of short but captivating story of a child with behaviour disorder (autistic) solving a dog murder case. Touching and reminds me of how lucky we are being normal: 6/10

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The Associate by John Grisham is about a fresh lawyer, surprised? =P


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Story started with a video from a drunken party in the past, involving sex and possibly rape charge, which forced Kyle to play along an information theft scheme from his blackmailers.

About half way through the novel, an episode in the story put my imagination to overdrive and I thought "aha, this must be the other spy" and spun for myself the plot of the story and how it would end, much like what I did for other mystery or detective stories, which I was often right.

But I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was wrong, the plot didn't go as I imagined. The ending, well, it's more like there isn't a real ending, no closure, similar to real life. Gripping story, nice read: 7/10

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Buried Fire by Jonathan Stroud is a so so novel.


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It's about how a selected few who possessed dragon given powers trying to free the dragon when the seal that held it underground broke, and how this whole thing was thwarted.

Not terribly boring yet not very interesting: 5/10

Male versus Female Perspective

Gentle reminder: Earth Hour tomorrow 20:30 to 21:30 hours, remember to turn off all non-essential lights and electrical appliances. =)



Instant messaging a few days ago...

Eh, are you okay? Haven't seen you for a while liao

Okay ah, still alive. You?

Busy, and fat liao, how ah?

Come play badminton with us lor

Er... wah so hot today, I go take shower, bye!

...



Met up with the friend the day after...



Fat? What fat? Exactly the same as before.

Eat more lar!

随言随语

就知道没有那么简单，凡事还是靠自己稳重点。 -_-

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小瓜越来越皮，真叫人头疼。 >_<

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晚上九点我的 Live Messenger 竟然只有四人 online，破纪录！ o_0

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有人的“肥了”和在她还没有“肥了”之前是一模一样的。 *汗*

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王八蛋！竟然抢了我们一贯打羽球的时间。 *气*

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小瓜有时真的很像小时的大瓜。 ^_^

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LabVIEW 还是没有进展，真是的，时间不够用！ =(

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大瓜要和爷爷奶奶去古晋。 *无奈*

M.I.A. no more

Back from three days two nights business trip to Singapore.

The business part of the trip was fruitful, the two things in my mind are: more challenges ahead and good grief we are running out of time!

I hope I am wrong.

Not much to say about the trip since work is work and it's not to be shared on a personal blog. =)

While I brought along my compact camera, I only managed to take photos of the food I had for dinners, since you know, that's the non-work time of the trip.



Japanese food for the first day dinner at Kamado in one of the many shopping complexes along Orchard Road. Had an unagi set with ice lemon tea.



Yea, I started eating before I thought of taking a photo. =P

Had Thai for dinner on the second night at Siam Kitchen in one of the shopping complexes around City Hall.



We ordered a few a la carte dishes and I had an ice blended mango for drink, which is nothing to write home about. For a tasty ice blended mango drink, I recommend Xuan Xin Restaurant (炫升) in Gurney Plaza, Penang.



Besides eating, I went about to find out the prices for DSLR and gaming mouse from several shops in several locations.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II body only is selling for SGD3200 (RM7680 with 2.4 exchange rate), that's the lowest quoted price from all the shops I asked, perhaps bargaining would bring it down. I am not sure since I didn't bargain, not that I am any good at bargaining anyway.

Lowest listed Logitech MX518 Optical Gaming Mouse I managed to find is SGD48, that's more expensive than the cheapest listed price I managed to find in Penang, assuming 2.4 exchange rate. I checked the prices for a few other Logitech gaming mouse (G5, G500, G9X) as well but thanks to my goldfish memory, I cannot remember them liao. =P

Another thing worth mentioning is the irony of the autogate system at the Penang Airport immigration, manual processing of the passport by immigration officer was faster than the autogate by a significant amount. That's just sad.

Well, not that anyone care, but I am home and resumed blogging. =)

Depression

Without apparent reason or trigger, it struck me.

Was perfectly fine the moment before, chatting, surfing the net, reading various fora.

Then it reared its ugly head, grasped me with its horrid claws, and dragged me down to that foul, gloomy hellhole.

Just like that, I am a goner before I could even do anything.

I hate this.

I bloody hate this.

Reading is Good (March 2010, part I)

There should be no dispute about my slacker extraordinaire status, my last supposedly monthly book review was in August last year, hehe. =P

To date, read 21 novels since last review, and as usual, I have forgotten most of them. ^_^

Decided to use a scoring system, out of ten, for the novels I read so people can judge for themselves whether of not a certain novel is worth their time. But of course, as with all reviews, it's purely subjective so unless you happen to have same taste as I do, take these scores with a pinch of salt.

On second thought, make that a tablespoonful of salt. =P

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The Adromeda Strain by Michael Crichton told a story about organism brought back from outer space that wiped out the population of an entire town. The only survivors, an old man and a baby, were put in maximum contamination control centre that has automated atomic self-destruction mechanism should leakage happened.


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The story unfolds how the experts studied the toxic extraterrestrial agent in order to find a way to control and destroy it.

Very entertaining and gripping: 8.5/10

Quotes from The Adromeda Strain:

"Like many intelligent men, Stone took a rather suspicious attitude toward his own brain, which he saw as a precise and skilled but temperamental machine. He was never surprised when the machine failed to perform, though he feared those moments, and hated them."

"Scientific research was much like prospecting: you went out and you hunted, armed with your maps and your instruments, but in the end your preperations did not matter, or even your intuition. You needed your luck, and whatever benefits accured to the diligent, through sheer, grinding hard work."

Sir Winston Churchill once said that "true genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazaedous, and conflicting information."

Montaigne's acerbic comment: "Men under stress are fools, and fool themselves."

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By my own reckoning, The War of Souls trilogy is the third trilogy for Dragonlance New Age, and I reread them because I wanted to read the new novel I bought, the last book in the fourth New Age trilogy.

Two of my all time favorite authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman wrote the trilogy, which consists of Dragons of a Fallen Sun, Dragons of a Lost Star and Dragons of a Vanished Moon.


image sources: vol. 1, vol. 2, and vol. 3

The trilogy described the New Age of Krynn under the rule of the dragon overlords, as well as the coming of Mina and the One God. This trilogy concluded the lives of all remaining Heroes of the Lance, as well as the demises of many famous characters in Dragonlance. New characters were introduced, for example Sir Gerard, Marshal Medan, Odila, The Lioness, Gilthas, Silvanoshei, et cetera, and not all of them survived by the end of the trilogy.

There were love, betrayal, war, magic, dragons, which were woven into a captivating storyline. The fall of the elven nations, the return and then the final demise of Tas, the deaths of Caramon, Laurana, Goldmoon. The true identity of the One God, the return of the Gods and even the demise of God! My favorite character Raistlin made a brief return as well.

This is the must read trilogy for Dragonlance New Age. Actually, it's a must read for all Dragonlance fans: 8.5/10

Quotes from Dragons of a Fallen Sun:

"Silvanoshei was young, and the young know they will live forever."

"A promise isn't something you make with your mouth. You make a promise with your heart. Every time you break a promise, your heart breaks a little until pretty soon you have cracks running all through it."


Quotes from Dragons of a Lost Star:

"It is a sad truism that the misfortunes of others, no matter how terrible, always pale in comparison to our own."

"This notion was completely irrational, but when one is in love, all things are possible."

"For the dreams and secrets of our heart may be spoken, but words are poor handmaidens. Words can never fully say what we want them to say, for they fumble, stammer, and break the best porcelain. The best one can hope is to find along the way someone to share the path, content to walk in silence, for the heart communes best when it does not try to speak."

"Death is inevitable, a part of life. We defeat death by living, by doing something with our lives that will last beyond the grave."

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The Dark Disciple, written by Margaret Weis, is a trilogy about the enigmatic Mina introduced in The War of Souls trilogy. The Dark Disciple consists of Amber and Ashes, Amber and Iron and Amber and Blood.


image sources: vol. 1, vol. 2, and vol. 3

With the return of Gods and magic to Krynn, and in the wake of the monumental event that occurred in The War of Souls, the Gods were vying for supremacy and Mina became the disciple of choice for the Gods.

Mina sided with the God of Death, Chemosh, which led to the rise of undeads. A monk of the God Mejere named Rhys, along with his faithful dog Atta and the kender Nightshade who could communicate with the dead, set out to stop Chemosh followers. The story told of the plots and schemes of the various Gods and the lives of the mortals trapped between Gods' battle.

In the centre of everything was Mina and the rediscovering of herself. "Mina is a what?!?!!" was my reaction when it was revealed at the end of volumn 2, and thanks to my goldfish memory, it was my reaction again when I reread that volumn.

While not as good as the other Dragonlance stories by Margaret, it's a good one nevertheless: 7/10

Quote from Amber and Ashes:

"Patience. That was the key. Haste makes waste."


Quotes from Amber and Iron:

"...promises made under duress or from fear of punishment are empty of meaning."

"What we believe is not important." "That we believe is."

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The Great Train Robbery by Michael Crichton is just that, a story of a great train robbery.


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The planning and execution of the train robbery was described, with many criminal jargons and slangs so it was heavy reading at times unless you understand all those criminal talks. Nevertheless, the story reads like a movie, it's another page-turner from Crichton: 8/10

Quotes from The Great Train Robbery:

"The peoples of London may despise some eyesore until it is demolished, whereupon by magick the replacement is deemed inferior to the former edifice, now eulogized in high and glowing reference."

"There is often, in the course of this wayward and bewildered life, exterior opposition, and sincere and even violent condemnation, between persons and bodies who are nevertheless profoundly associated by ties and relations that they know not of."

"...did you never feel, at any time, some sense of impropriety, some recognition of misconduct, some comprehension of unlawful behavings, some moral misgivings, in the performance of these various criminal acts?"

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First Among Equals by Jeffrey Archer talks about politics, urgh!


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It's about the story of four politicians going after the prime minister post, since it's politics (urgh!), there are naturally only evil and lesser evil.

Archer is a skillful author so I didn't burn the novel straight away when I found out it's about politics, it's not a bad read but since it's about politics (urgh!), it gets 6.5/10

Quotes from First Among Equals:

"Women are for vearing children and ensuring a continuation of the male line."

"Struggle on but never sacrifice your integrity."

"Perhaps he's going to be a politician after all," concluded Louise, staring down at her son.
"What has changed your mind?" asked Andrew.
"He never stops shouting at everyone, he's totally preoccupied with himself and he falls asleep as soon as someone else offers an opinion," she replied.

"You're the best thing that's happened to me in my whole life."

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Without Fail by Lee Child is an entertaining read.


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Story is about an ex-military police, Jack Reacher, being asked to test the protection of American's vice president. A typical American super hero who cannot die and always right kind of story. Could easily visualise into a movie, the storyline is gripping and fast-pased: 7/10

Quotes from Without Fail:

"A problem shared is a problem halved."

"Cowards are bullies, bullies are cowards."

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The Interpretation of Murder by Jed Rubenfeld is a tad confusing for my simple mind.


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The story involves the murder of a young pretty girl and the investigation of said murder with plots like missing body, framing, sex, and betrayal. Psychoanalysis, or psychology, is the meat of the book but I find the logic confusing: 6/10

Quote from The Interpretation of Murder:

"We are not responsible for our feelings; therefore no feeling can cause us shame."

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Slackerdom kicked in, so I will just split this into two parts. =P

It's all Psychology!

In our badminton sessions, there are usually some trash-talks and psychological warfare like calling someone in a funny tone, violent smashing action before the opponent serves, trying to intimidate the opponent by poising in the serve stance for a long time, making menacing sound, snide remarks like "enough handicap given?" i.e. let water or put hand in Hokkien, et cetera.

All in good nature, of course. Well, at least I think so. =P

In yesterday's session, those present were introduced to a new one. Just before my teammate served, she made eye contact with her opponent, a guy, and said:

"Don't you love me anymore?"

It was said in Mandarin that's slightly off but the meaning was loud and clear, proven by the effect it caused...

...total silence and inactivity, it stunned not just the opponents but teammate alike, plus the players on the other court!

Then the "wah lau!" and laughters erupted.

Don't think I have managed to capture the full impact of the moment with my words, one gotta be there to experience it first hand. =)

I love my badminton sessions, truely I do. =D

International Women's Day

Shamefully I didn't know that today's the International Women's Day until I saw the card thingy my company put on our desks.

The card says "International Women's Day - Stop Violence Against Women", plus some small prints.

Now I know, 8th of March every year is the International Women's Day. Let's all wear wigs and skirts and shout "girl power!"

Okay, maybe that's not the idea. =P

Stop violence against women? Hell yea!

Personally, my believe is that a REAL man does not beat the ladies. Only bully does that, and bullies are cowards, they only pick on people weaker than they are. Shame shame SHAME!

Too bad I am physically small and weak, so if I stood up to a bully, I would probably end up in the hospital, or worse. Like ended up six feet under. =\

It's time like this I wish I was Superman, then I could go be a hero and rescue ladies from bullies and said: "why don't you pick on someone your own size!"

But then hor, really don't want to wear underwear outside leh, red colour one tim! >_<

I think technology and gadget based hero better, like Ironman. Ooh, I would love to be Ironman!

Okay okay, enough geeky day-dreaming.

Here's my suggestion to the ladies, if a scumbag was beating you, just grab a solid hard object like the leg of a stool, a baseball bat, or better yet a spiked club (preferably with rusty nails), and smashed the balls of that scumbag with all your might, he doesn't deserve them anyway. Don't worry, it's called self-defense and you are doing the society good.

Sorry sorry, I don't really believe in solving violence with violence. Just the thought of those scumbags made my blood boils. =(

Anyway, on a related note, is there an International Men's Day ah?

Gender equality leh, we men also victims of violence from the ladies.

Or is it just me? I get bullied by my female friends and colleagues one, probably because I am too weak nice. Not just that, my female colleagues even bully my office plant! Poor innocent plant!

We men need loves too!

Oh, and our plants also. =P

On a totally unrelated note:

Heard from MyFM today that since 26th of February, British government no longer provide their excellent social benefits and care to foreigners. Guess UK is no longer as appealing a country to live in as it used to be, for foreigners. I loved the social benefits, public transport, and so much more when I was living there. I pity the students studying there now, they have to fork out a medical insurance now then?

Earth Hour 2010

Since 2007, every year on the last Saturday of March, those who care about the climate change that's affecting our Mother Earth will observe the Earth Hour.

It doesn't cost you anything. In fact, it will save you a bit of electricity. But that's not the point, the point is to raise awareness on the climate change, and that we all need to do something about it.

If you would like to participate, it's very simple, just turn off all non-essential lights and electrical appliances for an hour, that's all.

This year, the designated hour is from 20:30 to 21:30 hours (8:30 to 9:30 pm), local time, and last Saturday of March 2010 falls on the 27th.


it's supposed to be the teeth of a person in pitch black, but my drawing failed =P

Since I know Pandora is just Cameron's creation and am not delusional enough to become depressed and suicidal because of living on Earth, and I know that Earth is our one home, you bet I am going to participate this year, just like I did last year.

I urge you to participate as well, and for those afraid of the dark, don't worry, bogeyman will be away watching the stars. =P

Immigration Office Efficiency

Going to do some work related travelling in the near future so I went to extend my passport today.

Well, basically getting a new one but keeping my current one since I still have valid visa in it. Current passport will expire in May and generally we will need to have at least 6 months till expiry date to travel.

After dropping off mom at the market, I arrived at the Immigration Office at 09:30 hours. I intended to track the efficiency so I kept note of the time.

Queued up to get form, filled in the form (and helped translate for an aunty), queued up to get photo taken, queued up to get number took 40 minutes.

So, 10:10 hours, I got number 1133, and the number being served at that moment was 1076.

56 people before me, hmm...

I lingered in the Immigration Office for a while to get a feel of the time it takes to proceed in the queue and soon concluded two things:

1. I won't be served until at least an hour later

2. I would need to top up my parking meter, the 2 hours I paid for would not be sufficient

Alrighty, breakfast then. =)

On my way to a nearby kopitiam, an Indian/Malay/mixed race lady driver in a dark brown Proton Iswara refused to stop at the pedestrian crossing even though it's already red light for her, good thing I noticed the idiot before she could run me down while I was crossing the road.

10:36 hours, back to the Immigration Office after breakfast, number being served then was 1092.

Alrighty, I went to top up the parking meter. I parked at the far side of Fort Cornwallis since the car park next to the Immigration Office refused to let me in. For season pass holder only, they said.

Back to Immigration Office at 10:52 hours, number being served then was 1107.

There's nothing else to do but to wait. I passed the time by observing the people around me.

There were two ladies with the "I am good looking, look at me!" attitude, whom I purposely ignored and there was this lady who is good looking and trying not to draw attention, whom my eyes rest on every so often after roaming through the room. =P There was a kid who ran around the room laughing, he got my attention everytime he passed in front of me.

11:27 hours, my number was called. 5 minutes to go through my documents, two scans of my right thumbprint, a scan of my left thumbprint, and a good old hardcopy of my right thumbprint.

Sat down to wait some more with a slightly blackened right thumb, no amount of rubbing with the provided tissue could get the ink out completely, need some water and probably soap.

11:42 hours, called to settle the payment and was given a receipt to collect my passport after 13:45 hours. I decided to collect tomorrow and went to work instead.

Alrighty, let's see...

- 2 hours 12 minutes for the whole process (not including production of new passport and collection of new passport)

- processing the application with three counters serving took on average 77 / 56 = 1.4 minutes (note: there were people who took the number but left, so actual application processed is less than 56)

- so the average time to process an application per counter = 3 x 1.4 = 4.2 minutes, I think this efficiency is fair

- processing application for me took 5 minutes, this is probably closer to the real average time to process a single application, which is still alright

The lengthy overall time it took me to get this done was due to the large number of people applying, to reduce the wait time for everybody, Immigration Office would have to reduce time to process an application or increase the number of counters processing the application, or both.

Chance of that happening? Heh...

Note to self: get to the Immigration Office early tomorrow for the passport collection as tomorrow is Friday, the day Muslims go to the mosque to communicate with their Higher Being (I am not using the "A word" else I might get into trouble *snigger*), so working hours would be shorter in government institutes. Plus some people believed that when they communicate with the Higher Being, they are above the law, illegal parking becomes legal for them, and riding a motorcycle without helmet becomes legal as well, so the traffic would be bad near to the communication hour.

=(

I love photography, but I don't own a DSLR.

Being the sole bread winner for a family of four, non-essential expenses like tool for a hobby has to be justifiable.

And truthfully, I cannot justify spending so much money for a DSLR when I know I don't have the time to fully utilise it since I doubt I will have much time for photography. Also I know that I will want to spend even more for some good quality lenses because after some comprehensive testings I know my existing lenses are just not up to the standard I like.

There is no shame being poor and I can openly acknowledge that with my current income this hobby is just not viable. Even if my imcome increased dramatically, I would also hope to try for a daughter first instead of getting a camera. If wife's willing, of course. =) Sadly as much as I love to have a daughter, current income just cannot afford a third child.

Past experience has taught me to get the right camera the first time round instead of getting one that doesn't meet my requirements albeit cheaper and upgrade later, it will end up more expensive in the long run.

Since I am not new to photography I know exactly what I am looking for in a DSLR body:

- manufacturer: Canon, I am already sold on Canon a long time ago

- sensor resolution: I want something between 16 to 20 megapixel (or better) since that is equivalent to 35mm film scanned and I can get 300ppi (photo quality) prints at 12R size. Plenty enough for my usual need of 4R or 8R size print so I can take photo with cropping in mind

- full frame sensor: I want my wide angle to be wide angle, thank you very much. Extention tube for telephoto is much cheaper than getting the real wide angle lenses. Fisheye lens with only 1.6x the widest angle? No thank you!

- handling: something similar to EOS5, as I am used to that and it's comfortable for me

- functions: manual, shutter priority, aperture priority, focus lock, exposure compensation, bulb and 1/2000 seconds is plenty enough for me, FPS is not critical since I don't take much fast action photo, ISO 50 to 800 is sufficient for my need

- build quality: no plastic body, need to be metal alloy or some sturdy composite for good wear and tear as well as good sealing for the environment. Shutter life at least in the 100k cycle range

Back in September 2008 I already know what DSLR to get, if I ever get one. Been following the releases of new models from Canon but none of the new bodies tickled my fancy.

Anyway, I am writing this as a long-winded way to rant because an old friend of mine refused to discuss camera and photography with me because I do not own a DSLR.

Given that I was discussing camera and photography with a bunch of strangers while waiting for Accom to put my QuadCore together last week, my old friend's stance is like a slap to the face.

Me sad. =(