after a long absence, suddenly i find myself blogging again….  and when i read some of my past entries.. it is like dejavu! it is strange yet familiar. i do not even recognize or taken by surprise what i said or wrote. it is almost like talking to another stranger.

well,… much have changed since my last entry. life is still a journey and there has been a lot of surprising turns. many too private to openly say out in a public blog like this one. yet, there is a strange desire to share. this i guess is part of the nature of humans - no man is an island as the saying goes..

still sharing or hinting it in a cryptic form is enough to provide relief. it’s been a long day and this will do for now… till the next sharing session. to keep my mind occupied, i will return to my few passions in life… AV and photography =)

.. . .. .. .. .

trailing dots,.. there is just something mysterious abt them. i do not know how to explain it. it leads the imagination to wander and wonder. simply putting one dot after another… makes it more personal, make it more interesting, makes it more exciting…

haiz.. i rly must be gg crazy. talking to myself this way.

After selling off the Marantz SR4500 the intent was to jump onto the HD audio bandwagon. While searching, the trusty Pioneer Elite from EJ was put back on active duty for the processing function. Alas, I did not anticipated that it was a 5.1 - thus rendering the other 2 Revel surround redundant.

I now realised that the earlier decision was a prematured one. It would seemed after much deliberation that it is an unwise decision from a cost perspective.

The entry ticket to HD surround is too high considering that at present I do not have any HD player to speak of. It is also unclear what time frame is the adoption. Therefore, it became painfully obvious that I will need to live with the older 7.1 technology for some time.

Enter the SR7500 - lucky! Couple days back, I came across the ad on a SR7500 on the used market. It’s about double what I sold my SR4500 for, however this model is 2 levels up and has THX Select to boot. There is a significant boost in pwr as well. This would also meant that I now have an opportunity to get rid of the Rotel RMB1066 6ch amp.

It appears that there is a lot of eq movement this year.

The unit was installed last night - looks real pretty and purposeful. The initial audio test is ok - nothing fantastic nor anything negative. BUT it does not match well with the ML432. Must be the balance-unbalance thingy… each time I switch the surr mode, there will be a thump emitted from the front speakers. Not good. I wonder if I can ever get rid of this annoying error. Help, anyone?

Surprisingly, it took this long before I step foot in the US-A. With all the american/hollywood influence you’d think that I’ll be there the moment I got enuff dough.

My maiden flight to the state would be complimentary of uncle Wyeth on a business class SIA bird no less. Obviously I do look forward to it somewhat with another lifetime 1st in the form of whitewater rafting in West Virginia.

The trip is not without its drama, having almost not made it due to visa issue. Who’d thought a so-call global travel company to not mandate the citizenship information in their database. I knew about the trip like 2 months back and when the itinenary came, it states that I need no visa though I’m M’sian. It seems odd to me at the time and even requested for re-confirmation. However, the response came back the same. Thankfully, I realized the mistake when speaking to KC, thus immediately scrambled to get it done.

The experience at the American Embassy was another eye opener… those guys really take a over zealous approach to security. Good or bad is debatable depending on who you speak to. However, do not expect friendly customer service, that’s for sure. From that experience alone, I should expect a super long wait at the JFK airport trying to get past security.

Hopefully I get the time to put more in the blogs while I’m there… I wonder how much mileage I’ll get from the new canon EF20-200mm F2.8L IS lens that I just bought few weeks back??

Surprisingly, though being in the IT line, I’m rather behind in terms of the latest gadget and developments… This I discovered at the recent PC Show 2007 held in Suntec.
Got myself a SanDisk U3 portable storage… technology finally caught up to one of my wishlist. A stored application on the go! The exponential growth in storage has reached a scale where it is big enough to start putting little standalone apps into it. There this sync app that you can configure to backup your files, email and etc… neat! So you need not worry about not being able to open some of the files that you are backing up…

Another thing, a 4Gb drive is now less than SGD $60 - I still remember forking out $200++ for a bloody 1GB CF!!! Today you can get a 8GB CF for a little over $200. There’s also a huge range of blue tooth devices and media players… not to mention all those wireless and network attached devices… especially NAS types.

GPS system prices are also coming down fast… You can get one for less than 1k,… sign of old age I suppose.

Fixing up the long neglected photo album… update the gallery software to version 2.2.1 - realised that there’s been some broken links and correcting them is turning out to be a real challenge!!

Managed to put in place the watermark… can still be improve no doubt and good enough for now.
Restarted the scanning of old negatives, especially the 20+ rolls from vacation in the UK and Paris. Wonder how long the drive to finish can be maintained… since I’m putting in this much effort, might as well do a good job in the photo touch up in Photoshop.

It’s a quiet celebration this year.. went cruising in my new wheels;

Stopped by West Coast Park - lots of younger folks, many BBQ and gather to usher in the new year. A time for reflection nevertheless. The year that has just passed and the year unfolding ahead. Career wise, it has taken a pleasant twist; waiting in anticipation for Feb 2007. Social, the inclusion of my own sets of wheels spells new level of mobility which is clearly evidence - within a span of less than a week, it had travelled over 500km!! Need to start watching the $$.

No fireworks this time round.. think I’ve outgrown watching and photographing them… Also learnt some sad news concerning an old buddy from PFS… life is full of the unexpected. And the impact that brings along only makes you cherish what you have and focus on what really matters.

Some year this has been ….

:: Q1 ::

Started with a forced change in career; moving out from a quiet and routine job with HP,.. reluctantly though. It was a semi-retirement stint which I would not have mind doing for a couple more years. Guess it was not meant to be.

The birth of WUF-C; my new DIY center speaker. A notable addition to my HT setup. Was a real challenge in the making, ambition got into my head saw me gunning for curve cabinetry, top of the line components costing well over 2k! All in all, it was worth it. There were some major boo boo, but it turned out well at the end. See the details here: http://av.rslweb.com/WUFC/

:: Q2 ::

Not surprising, in my financially challenged state travelling plans were put on hold. That gives lots of free time to progress with my diy project. Invested further in more professional hand tools. I sure can spent when it comes to things that I’m passionate about. The estimated time to completion then was abt Sep 2006….

Went down to Genting for a 2nd time; will be hitting the casino and looking forward to joyrides in the theme park… alas, the rides were nothing to shout abt since I’ve been to Disney Paris and Lotte World Seoul. The casino was a new experience - in fact it was a 1st. The last time I was there, I did not bother to enter… played the roullete most of the time, busted RM200; small change by most standards. The downside is the air - smoking is allowed!

On a job hunt: took me a much longer time to find a replacement than was previously . As the saying goes; good things comes to those who are patient. In my case, it was Wyeth. Scheduled to start work on 1st June.

:: Q3 ::

Back in the rat race in the form of a challenging and exciting post with Wyeth… this one proves to be another 1st, securing a full fledge managerial responsibilities (with the added perks ) Surprisingly I managed to maintain a balance btw work and personal time. It even allowed enough free time for me to complete WUF-C. But things are begining to ramp up as I assimilate into my new role.
Other development on the AV front, sold off the Krell and disconnect the rear speakers. Tweak the front xo futher to get a fuller mid-bass. This is a never ending pursuit,.. one that is getting taxing; am thinking of replacing these with the actual Sonus Faber Cremona - target 2007-2008;
:: Q4 ::

Lifestyle upgrade in the form of a Camry 24G, 2006/2007 model. Christmas comes early

Also, verbal confirmation in terms of my future with Wyeth; YES!! An offer that is almost impossible to refuse. Even if I do strike the Toto tommorrow, I’d probably stick around just for the experience. Then again, knowing my tendencies, maybe not. I’d probably dump a large % in the STI. ;D

*sigh* another two days before the black beau arrives…

I wonder how much live would be changed due to this?

Had some time to reflect on life in general… at these time and age, it  gets easier to get lost in the pursuit of life’s dreams as generally accepted by the masses we forget that this life is our own. To achieve happiness is to live it on OUR own terms and not on basis set by expectations of others. This can be from people who are total strangers, so-called experts or even family and friends.

There’s a need to get back to basics, to reflect back on what was once our desires or dreams and compare that to what we have achieved today. Have we changed, if yes, was it ourselves or was it some external influences. Does the change now reflect our true selves or a forced adjustment to fit-in to society’s whims and fancies.

yep, suddenly feeling philosophical today.