Saturday, March 03, 2007

Disappearing Act

So it's been a looong time since I've blogged. Wonder if people remember I exist. I was also informed by Lynn that that tourist picture of me is rather daft so I thought I should replace it as the topmost post :D

To make things simple, I've been stuck in lab. Trying to squeeze out every bit of time I can to get some results before my poster presentation and thesis submission. I'm sure everyone else is working very hard too but it seems to have become some kind of obsession for me. Hm... The strange thing is I know I definitely don't like this and I'll get out of it once I graduate.

Anyhow, I'm sure everyone knows but I'll be going back to Alaska this summer. The last time I was there there was hardly any time to do the things I wanted to do. Went with non-outdoorsey people la. And I was pretty much stuck in the city most of the time. This time I'll be going to work just outside Denali National Park, whose primary attraction is Denali, of course. The mountain is actually taller than Everest! From bottom to peak that is. Here's a picture of Denali with Wonder Lake in the foreground.


More amazing pictures of Denali and all the other US National Parks and lots of other places can be found at this website. This guy takes super nice photos~~~

Terra Galleria Photography

Denali Photos

In order to attempt to capture such scenes I want to get a new camera! Here are the options:

1. Canon S3 IS



2. Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H2


3. Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1


The first two have 12x optical zoom but aren't compacts while the Panasonic is a compact with 10x optical zoom! Compare that to most compacts which have only 3x zoom. (My Ixus couldn't capture any of the wildlife at all... they looked like dots -_-") Quality-wise I'm sure the Canon would win but its so ugly :( Sony looks alright but I'm not used to the interface and don't want to invest in memory sticks which would otherwise be useless. Panasonic is of course very portable but reviews say that it produces very noisy images. Sigh~~~ Unfortunately the prices are in the same order with Canon being the most expensive. Thoughts, anyone?

Die la I'm getting carried away with thoughts of Alaska. Whole day thinking of stuff I wanna buy like hiking boots, a day pack, etc. Haha!

Anyway, wanna wish FM a belated happy birthday. Hope you had an enjoyable time with Jas! I'm sure you did... お誕生日おめでとうございます!

On a related note, I'll be working at the Denali Mountain Morning Hostel, a place I stayed at last summer.
Pictures I stole from the website:




The hostel is just beside Carlo Creek and is surrounded by pretty mountains. When I arrive in May I hope there's still snow! Will probably freeze to death. The winds in Alaska are cooooold. I'd say windproof wear is as important as warm stuff.

Everyone/anyone who has the chance, please visit because you will not regret it! (I know the chances of this happening are very remote but I thought I would extend the invitation anyway)




Part II - For Shin

This is what you are supposed to cut and paste if you decide to participate in the tagging game..
Each player of this game starts off by giving 6 weird things about themselves. People who get tagged need to write in a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. After you do that, leave them each a comment letting them know you tagged them and to read your blog.


I'm weird because...

1. ...I like to eat the seeds+jellyish stuff in the middle of chilled cucumbers.

2. ...I tend to sleep even later when I'm tired.

3. ...like Shin, I get itchy hands and clean up messy places. When I get really picky, I start bothering about details like whether stuff is arranged properly. That means parallel/at right angles. Hah!

4. ...even though I'm tired and rather burnt out, people around me keep saying I look damn happy and ask why I'm smiling so much. (This excludes my whining kakis)

5. ...I constantly waver between being a complete hermit, contentedly burying myself in anime,dramas and books and not seeing the Sun, and dying to get out there to go hiking/rafting/paragliding etc!

6. ...I like to wear nice clothes but always end up looking kinda grubby because I value comfort and convenience more. Ok that's not very weird but kind of a sad realisation. Haha.

I shall skip the tagging 6 people part cos I bet everyone is too busy. Sigh. One month left, 加油加油!

2 Comments:

At 2:24 PM, Blogger William said...

I can lend you the Canon S2 IS to try before you decide on the S3. The handling is very similar. You can also borrow my S2 for the trip if you want. I haven't been using it much since I got my D50.

If I were you, I would buy the Lumix DMC-TZ1. I think if wildlife photography is your main purpose in buying the camera, the noise level shouldn't bother you much. We use low ISO for outdoor photography which should produce low noise pixs for all 3 cams.

By the way, TZ3 will be on sale in May 2007. The wider angle (28mm versus the 35mm in TZ1) lens will be even better for landscape.

 
At 4:41 PM, Blogger Noella said...

Just dropped in at your blog, and wish you well in graduating and in your time working at Denali.

Though I am Australian, I have visited Alaska several times and love the place. Last time I went to Wonder Lake in Denali in the Park shuttle bus, and it was a clear, mostly sunny day in September. The mountain was magnificent.

I have replaced my 30+ years old Olympus OM1 (SLR camera) with the Lumix DMC-TZ1 which was a gift from my son. I love photography, and wondered if I'd be disappointed in not having another SLR, but so far I am very pleased with it - I still have lots to learn and to experiment.

All the best in your decision making.

 

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