Updates: Jet lag, District 9, Inglourious Basterds, Snow Leopard

It has been a few days since I got back from Taiwan so I've been trying to work off the jet lag while editing over a thousand pictures taken during my time there. I'll make more updates to my blog soon enough with things on Taiwan once I finish editing and uploading the pictures I want on Flickr.

This week has gone by pretty quickly so I'm just going to share some thoughts I had this week. While I was in Taiwan I could not find a showing of District 9, Peter Jackson's new movie about aliens from space trapped in camps on Earth. Therefore when I got back one of the first things that I did was go watch District 9 with some friends. From watching the trailer, my first impressions was that it was going to be a movie about humans going to war with the aliens taking residence in South Africa. Another B-rated action flick perhaps? But by the time I exited the movie theatre I was quite blown away by the movie. At first it started off slow, kind of like Cloverfield, with the camera interviewing a bunch of people, except the main character was really annoying and reminded me of Steve Carrell from The Office. But as the movie progressed, the more human aspects of the film began to show and the need to survive really changed the character to someone different. Anyways I would highly recommend the movie for anyone to watch. There is a decent amount of gore though (just a heads up).

Another movie I watched this week was Inglourious Basterds. This movie was unique in it's own way. If you are going to expect a WWII action/shooter movie (like Saving Private Ryan), then you will be sorely disappointed. Granted there are scenes of action, but most of the movie's guts are in the dialogue. The dialogue is funny and witty, though long at times. Brad Pitt puts up a hilarious yet terrible accent while Christoph Waltz plays probably the most interesting Nazi I have seen in a movie (in a good way). Anyways it is also another recommended movie, though if I had one choice between District 9 or Inglourious, it'd probably lean more towards District 9.

So yesterday I picked up a copy of OSX Snow Leopard for my computer and just wanted to comment on the new refinements to an already impressive operating system. The installation took no more than an hour and I get some hard drive space back as advertised. I think the installation freed up about 10 GB of hard drive space.

After installation, I noticed that overall the operating system looks the same. Most of the refinements such as Grand Central Dispatch (which helps improve the performance of multi-core CPUs), OpenCL (utilizing GPU to help improve performance), and native 64-bit OS are invisible to daily use at the moment, though I suspect that once program developers tap into the potential in the future, applications will run much faster. One of the programs I use the most is Adobe Lightroom, which runs at the same speed. I have not tested other programs like Photoshop or Final Cut, but I'm fairly certain most things will run the same since they were not optimized yet to take advantage of the new technologies.

Safari 4, the built-in web browser, runs dramatically faster than on Leopard. Things like the Top Sites tab, Java loading, and loading websites just seem snappier overall. Sites like Gmail load at least 2x faster than with Safari 4 on Leopard. Quicktime player also got an overhaul and the refinements look sweet. The player automatically hides the borders and controls once you move your mouse away from the movie when it is playing. This helps to clean up the look of the player and is a nice subtle way to improve overall experience. The new Expose is also pretty cool and arranges things in a more clean outline than before.

Overall the refinements are worth the $29 price tag. I'm really hoping that developers tap into the new technologies such as OpenCL to improve performance in the future.

First Impression: Fuji Finepix F70EXR

Besides having fun in Taiwan, I was also looking to purchase a point and shoot digital camera to replace my aging Canon Powershot S50. My SLR with it's variety of lenses tends to be too heavy sometimes to be carrying all day, especially if I'm just hanging out with friends and have no need to take crazy pictures. While my Powershot has done the job for the past 5 years or so, it is clearly dated.

Fortunately my cousin was able to let me test out the Fuji Finepix F70EXR for a brief moment. I actually did not know the tech specs but here are some of the more notable ones from what I have researched:

- 1/2" CCD sensor

- 10 MP resolution

- 10x optical zoom

- wide angle to telephoto: 27-270mm (35mm equivalent)

- 2.7" LCD screen

- ISO up to 12800

- VGA video recording (640x480)

From what I could tell, the build quality was quite excellent. I believe it has a metal frame construction with some kind of thick paint or lacquer or something so the build was quite solid and would hold up to some mild abuse. The camera itself was also thin and small enough to fit inside your pockets (unlike my S50 brick).

For myself, image quality comes first and from what I could see there are certainly interesting features on this camera that help to improve image quality. Surely any P&S can easily do ISO 100 - 400 with minimal effort, however, with companies pushing higher MP count on smaller sensors, noise becomes pretty evident on anything higher than ISO 400 for most P&S. While 1/2" CCD sensor size certainly isn't the biggest I've heard of on a P&S it is still quite large compared to most P&S cameras out there, which definitely helps with the noise.

With that said, I think the low noise performance on the F70EXR was quite acceptable up to ISO 1600. I would definitely not use anything past ISO 1600 even though it claims to hit ISO 12800. Though certainly not glamorous at ISO 1600, the picture is still great and if only used for web applications (blogs, flickr, etc) then it is certainly more than acceptable when scaled down from 10 MP. I think that this might be the first P&S camera that I've handled that performs decent in low light situations.

The F70EXR also has some unique shooting functions called "PRO SHOT" and "PRO LOW LIGHT" I believe. PRO SHOT is a function where when the camera is focused on a certain object, say a cup of coffee in a coffee shop, it will add more "blur" to the background. Given that the maximum aperture is f/3.3 on the widest focal length, I guess this function helps to add to the "brokeh" that so many people love. I have not seen a blown up image to see how well the blur is, but the camera certainly does it in hardware since it does it on the spot. Another unique function I found out was the PRO LOW LIGHT, which I thought was more or less a HDR function on the camera. Basically it snaps a few pictures of the current scene and blends them together in hardware, similar to what photogs would be doing on their computers in Photoshop to create a HDR image. I have to say that it does indeed bring out more details and contrast in pictures, but I'll let a more dedicated reviewer with the images on hand do a more detailed examination.

Overall, the camera seems pretty solid after only brief moment of testing. It has good low light performance (relative to other P&S) and offers unique functions to make pictures more glamorous. For me 10MP is way more than enough and the 10x optical zoom is a plus. My only negative would be the lack of HD video recording that is found on basically all recent P&S cameras from other makes like Canon and Panasonic. Also I'm pretty sure that the image stabilization on the camera is imaged based rather than optical, which might be a concern as well.

Anyways, I will be looking forward to P&S camera shopping in Taiwan and hopefully I'll be able to pick something up to replace my aging and painfully slow Canon Powershot S50. The Fuji Finepix F70EXR is definitely on the list of possible buys, though I certainly want to look for something like the Canon SD780IS or possibly a Panasonic DMC-LX3 / ZS3, etc.

Taiwan Typhoon Morakot, Sushi Express, Wu Lai, Bing Lang, Mister Donut, Vieshow Cinemas / G.I. Joe - Day 2 of Taiwan Trip

The second day I'm in Taiwan and Typhoon Morakot hits. Since I am staying in Taipei, the typhoon did not affect me as much, though I have to say that it was still pretty intense. The southern part of Taiwan got hit the hardest and most of the things people see on the news comes from the south, however, Taipei did get some strong gusts and heavy rains. At least the heavy rains helped against the hot and humid weather. Though still humid, at least it feels slightly cooler.

One of the first stops of the day was at Sushi Express for lunch with some friends. Sushi Express is a franchise that serves sushi on a moving belt. I have to say that I am really impressed with the quality of food that you can get and the variety of sushi available. Everything in the store is NT$30, which makes each plate that you eat slightly less than $1 USD.

After that we hit up the mountainous regions near Wu Lai. I am not too familiar with the area of culture but it was still a beautiful place to be. Supposedly it was also near a place where the Taiwan aborigines are. There was a beautiful waterfall as well as some crazy landscape to look at. Definitely a lot of green :).

On the way there, we also picked up some 'bin lang' which is commonly known as betel nut. There was no bin lang princess aka the girls that wear skimpy outfits to attract your attention near Wu Lai because there aren't as many commercial trucks around the area to merit a princess. The way that the betel nuts (aka areca nuts) are prepared is that the areca nut itself is surrounded by betel leaves. The leaves are there to add to the flavor while chewing. Trying to chew the betel nut for the first time was difficult because my body just wanted to spit it out after around 5 seconds. After chewing, I felt a numbing sensation in the areas where the juices were in my mouth. Supposedly bin lang is a form of natural stimulant, similar to drinking caffeine.

For the night, we went to the Vieshow cinemas near Taipei 101 to watch G.I. Joe which just came out. On the way to the cinemas we stopped at Mister Donut, which is another popular franchise found in Taiwan. They basically sell donuts of different flavors. I got the mini 5 donut sampler that had a miniaturized donut of their popular flavors: original (w/o anything), chocolate, strawberry, sesame, and caramel (I think). The donuts were quite chewy compared to American donuts and had a unique flavor. Definitely recommended if you are in the area. We also hit up the food court around the area and got some dinner. I got hainan chicken rice, which only cost me NT$130 I believe. It was surprisingly delicious and much better tasting than the stuff back in the states. I'm still stunned by how cheap and great tasting the food is in Taiwan.

I noticed that American films tend to be quite popular in Taiwan since there are not as many big budget movies that originate from Taiwan. Though definitely a lot of smaller movies, I do not see nearly as much advertising for them as compared to the American movies. G.I. Joe was a decent movie. It was definitely fast paced and sometimes the CGI graphics in the movie were not as polished during some scenes. The movie felt as if it was setting up the plot for a chain of G.I. Joe movies to come, since the movie tried to focus on the backgrounds of all the main characters in the movie quite a bit.

My G.I. Joe rating: 6/10

Taiwan: Slower Updates, Buying Taiwan SIM Card, Taxi Rates

I guess my daily updates will be infrequent while I'm in Taiwan since the internet that I have is quite slow. Uploading pictures takes forever and I haven't had the time to be able to edit pictures when I get back from a full day. Usually I'm pretty tired by the time I get home and just knock out after a good shower.

A thought from yesterday: apparently the SIM card that I bought from 7-11 for my phone charges at a pretty high rate. I thought the initial NT$300 phone charge was going to last me awhile, but I ran out of minutes yesterday when I needed to call my friend to meet up at the MRT station. After closer examination I found out that the SIM card charges at a rate of NT$0.71/6 seconds. That makes it NT$7.1 per minute, which comes out to roughly 40 mins from a NT$300 charge card. I have to use the phone more sparingly or else I'm going to be eating up those minutes. As always, a 7-11 was nearby and I walked in and purchased a NT$300 more minutes for my phone.

Also for those interested in purchasing a SIM card while traveling in Taiwan, make sure that you have a GSM phone or else your phone will not work. Also, in Taiwan has apparently gotten more strict about purchasing temporary SIM cards and a local phone shop told me that they do not even sell them anymore. I know 7-11 sells them and since they are literally every block in Taipei, it is easy to find a place to purchase them. In order to buy a SIM card in Taiwan, you need 2 forms of identification and other tiny bits of information such as a local address that you are staying at. Luckily the employee at 7-11 was nice enough to help guide me through the application form since it was a rough 50/50 mix of English and Mandarin (which I cannot read). After the forms were filled, it was faxed to some agency in Taiwan that performs a background check and it took roughly 3 or 4 hours before my SIM card was activated.

Another thing I noticed yesterday when I took the taxi home from my friends house at midnight local time was that taxis apparently charge an extra NT$20 on top of your final fee for any rides between 11 PM until 6 AM. At first I thought the taxi driver was jacking up the prices, but apparently after asking my aunt it was a fact. The taxi driver that I talked to told me that he purposely that most taxi drivers work a 12 hour shift and that he in particular wanted the night shift to make the extra NT$20 per ride. The way the taxis work is that they normally start off with a NT$70 flat rate for the first 1.5km travel distance and then NT$5 for every 300m traveled.

Taiwanese Food, Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, Shida Night Market - Day 1 of Taiwan Trip

My first full day in Taipei, Taiwan was quite eventful. After minimal sleep on a 13 hour flight I managed to wake up around 6:30 in the morning to join my grandma for breakfast. She took me out to a 'do jiang' place around her place.

Do jiang, for those who do not know, is a traditional Taiwanese breakfast. My breakfast in particular consisted of soy milk, sao bing (a crispy flatbread), and fan tuan (rice burrito). While I cannot say that it is a staple breakfast for everyone, it is considered to be a form of comfort food for people. The combination of warm soy milk (which can be ordered sweetened or non-sweetened) and sao bing is quite delicious. The fan tuan (which can ordered sweet or salty), or rice burrito, consists of a sticky rice that surrounds a crunchy, sweetened interior. Generally the sweet fan tuans I eat back home consist of a 'you tiao' and sugar, but I could not figure out what it was this time.

One of my first cultural experiences came after breakfast when my grandma took me to the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. At the time I could not understand what it was all about because everything there was written in Mandarin, however, after doing some research I found out that the memorial was constructed to remember the Dr. Sun Yat-sen, aka the Republic of China's National Father. The building was finished in 1972 I believe and houses a monument, library, and museum. Outside I noticed that there were random festivities going on so apparently this is like a cultural center for people to do things. When I first went in I noticed a group of Honor Guards performing a march and salute at the memorial. Apparently they do this throughout the day to pay respect.

For lunch, my grandma treated my friend and I to Ding Tai Fung. For those who do not know what Ding Tai Fung is, it is a very popular chain dumpling house. Many people I know back home love Ding Tai Fung. One store back home is located near me in Arcadia CA. The prices, from what I remember, is a little cheaper than what it is back home. We ordered wonton soup, beef noodle soup, pork dumplings, vegetarian dumplings, and a taro dumpling for dessert. The grand total came out to be like 946 NT after gratuity (for dining in).

After lunch, I went with my friend to the airport to pick up another school friend who was joining us from Hong Kong. After we picked her up and got back home, we planned our trip to the Shida night market for the night. We took the MRT to the Guting station and walked to Shida road where the night market was.

This was the first night market that I've been to in Taiwan. I have to say that it was quite interesting. There were many small shops and street vendors that sold everything. We were were definitely more interested in the foods that they had. They had everything there from meals to drinks to desserts of all types. Naturally there are a lot of exotic foods as well that are generally not found outside of Asian places back home.

Overall a pretty satisfying first day in Taiwan. Hopefully I'll be able to hit up more interesting areas in the future.

Vacationing in Taipei, Taiwan

Ahhh so yesterday (August 5th local time) I arrive in Taipei, Taiwan. The last time I have been here was when I was 5 years old and I vaguely remember anything about Taiwan. I'll be here for almost 3 weeks so I'll try to find some interesting things to talk about. I have a few school friends here so we are going to try to hit up as much as possible before we part.

On the other hand, some things I have noted since my arrival...

1.) Really humid -_-. As a native Californian I already started sweating the minute I exited the airport with all my luggage. It isn't necessarily hot (82 degrees F currently), but the humidity smothers you like no other. Apparently people also blast the AC 24/7 here so it is quite nice indoors.

2.) I arrived just in time for the typhoon season, so when I woke up this morning to heavy rains it was a bit welcoming. Hopefully it will help fight the humid weather I experienced yesterday.

3.) Big trucks and buses have blistering LED lights on the rear that blind me when I was getting a ride from the airport.

4.) Everyone seems to be riding scooters, I think I should rent one too :)

5.) I probably should have continued learning Mandarin, now I feel lost when it comes to reading signs.

Hopefully I'll get some good pictures today though. We'll see.

Moving towards Blogs

Since the end of my undergrad college days, my interest in posting new content on Facebook has fallen greatly. I have always wanted to do a journal, but I have never found the time to get one started. I guess it is better late than never :).

Anyways I will be using this space to digitize some of the memories that come across my daily life. I have interests in many things from computers, games, photography, cars, etc and they will find their way onto this blog at one point or another. I'll also drop some posts reminiscing the good times I had in college.

Lets get things started...