3rd day in the house

Hey guys! Before anyone asks (if anyone asks anyway), no I am not confined in the house, it's just that it was Christmas eve and Christmas day, there isn't anywhere I can go that wouldn't have a lot of people and today because of the rain, I didn't go out either though I initially wanted to go to Vivocity to get Naazira, Madinah and Nyiyaz's presents but I guess I might go there after school on Monday since I've got programming and there's a direct bus there.

Anyway, what I did on Christmas day is... Nothing... Yes, really, I just watched TV, eat, watched movies and was on Clubsnap the entire day. More or less the same for today except I researched on soft boxes since I'm doing my portrait series for fun, learn, port folio as well as for my business. I also finally managed to install Google Chrome on my desktop, which is not because I can't solve the problem till now but rather... I'm too lazy to do it till now cause I use Safari. I also took a look at the Google Chrome OS. It seems interesting and I guess it worth keeping tabs on what Google cooks up. In the IT world, companies I keep track are Apple, Microsoft and now Google. In the photography world... Well... Most brands actually since I use Canon, Olympus, and Mamiya but I also keep a look out on other things as my mentor taught me, there is no one system that can do everything. Even computers the same thing, my own PC is mix of different computer parts. Even computers from companies like Dell, Acer, Lenovo etc.

I didn't update yesterday since there was hardly anything to update. Anyway, regarding the softboxes, I did make 1 out of an old shoe box which is seriously unglam. I made a beauty dish which still is alright because I sprayed it black. All the DIY softboxes that I've seen so far are either hard to make because they require drills and really really accurate measurements, seriously ugly (not really the point) or the materials are really hard to find in Singapore. And lo and behold! Today, I had an idea, I don't know if you can call it brilliant though... I have an idea of how to make a fold able softbox and the materials are more or less easier to find. It isn't cheap as cheap as most others but still significantly cheaper than buying from makers like Profoto though I'm not sure if they do make those compatible for hot shoe flashes. Mine is most probably gonna be using foam (learnt from the book of lowbudget shooting), something like a opaque cardboard and quite a lot of velcro. I personally hate velcro cause its really noisy but since most likely it's just gonna be noisy when assembling or disassembling so doesn't really matter. I have to precise of the measurements though, but nothing engineering. Have to make sure its light as well as some flashes like my Olympus FL-36R and FL-50R are not built to be that tough, not so worried about my future to come Metz 45 CL1 though.

Anyway! The new year is about to come... Time sure flies as you grow older. What have I done this year... I don't really remember... What are my goals for next year? Pass my final year exam and finish year 1 and get into multimedia in year 2. Do more freelance photography work and become a better photographer. Do my portrait series. Those are my goals I can think of right now.

I'm really excited about the new year since I will be getting quite a few new stuff. Like:

A Macbook white to replace my dying ASUS A8Je which has served me well for almost 3 years which I run pretty hard on. My Macbook white will be custom which is especially important since I'm an IT student, I need to run Windows OS on it which many people don't so gotta upgrade the HDD, and upgrade the RAM so that it runs better with photoshop as I do photography. I still wonder why people get Macbook just cause it looks cool and don't really care about performance (though performance wise, it is good)



Olympus VA-1 which I will use in my portrait series quite a lot, since I hate using live view which drains a huge amount of power.



Metz 45 CL1 which I'm gonna use as my workhorse for events and hopefully weddings in the coming year



And no pictures for the next 2. Honda Phantom motorbike if I can get my license since my school is moving. Will be good to have a bike. Now still at 2.01 so I wonder when can I get my license. As well as building an entirely new DIY Mac Pro. It will not have the Apple logo but it will run both Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard as well as Windows 7 Ultimate, featuring a Quad core 2.66 GHz processor, 4 HDD, 4GB RAM in a case which I have yet to decide on. It will be approximately 1.7k when done. Might be more, might be less. But still cheaper than the equivalent Mac Pro.

Today's entry is one of the longest I've written in a really long time. I shall end here as I don't think anyone really wants to read so much. Tomorrow going down to art friends to look at materials for my DIY softbox so good night and take care friends!