Public Service Announcement...

If your camera is experiencing CCD problems, like having lines on pictures (like those I took), and also blurry, shifty images... Like this one: (I took this with my camera...)


"Initial service advisories by Sony, Canon, Fujifilm and Konica Minolta were soon followed by announcements by Nikon, Ricoh, and Olympus."

For more information on this, and the complete list of affected cameras, check out the following link:
http://www.imaging-resource.com/badccds.html

And, fortunately (or unfortunately?), my camera is among those having this problem. But, well enough, Canon, being the good company, is:

"Canon's Response:
Effective immediately, and regardless of warranty status, Canon will repair, free of charge, the products listed above exhibiting the above-mentioned malfunction if Canon determines that the malfunction is caused by the CCD image sensor. Canon will also cover the cost of shipping and handling in connection with this repair."

So, most probably, my buying of a new camera will need to be postponed...

Dublin, Ireland revisited...

Hey, so this post is all about my last day at Dublin, Ireland - 28th Feb - Tuesday.

So, as stated in the previous post on Dublin, Ireland, I couldn't sleep, or you can say that I woke up early.

I hopped onto the hop-on, hop-off city bus tour. I took a bunch of pictures or cathedrals, churches, old architectures, and all. After about 30 minutes of bus ride, I arrived at the most visited tourist spot in Dublin, Ireland. The St. James's Gate Brewery, home to the world famous GUINNESS(R).St. Patrick's Cathedral
Trinity College
Some random shots.

The St. James's Gate Brewery
Water is an important ingredient... And I look 'funny' in this picture.
Testing the taste at the taste-testing lab.
I was also "selected" to launch a batch of brew. Not really selected, I waited.
Me filling in some personal information. So, brew 4083 is MINE. Well, I wished, it's launched by me.
Launching the brew!
There we go, it's in the Mash-Vessel. The very first stage.
Malaysia is the home of one of Guinness breweries in the world.
Me leaving a note at the brewery. Click on it, and you should be able to read the entire note.
Enjoying my Guinness at the Gravity bar. Great 360 degrees view of Dublin.
The complimentary pint, the perfect PINT. Look at the head! Also, the BEFORE pic.
The AFTER pic.
Also, this is the admission ticket for the tour. It's a paper-weight, and it contains one drop of Guinness.

That concludes the Guinness Tour.

On the way back from the tour, the 2 chimneys, that's the Guinness brewery.
Just thought that it's interesting. I think it's the millennium bridge or something. Sorry for the blurry spots, it was raining.

O'Connell street.
Me, in front of Barnacles. the hostel.
in front of THE Temple Bar
In front of the convenience store that we got food at 3.00+am after our first night out.
Sorry for the lines. Me, over River Liffey. That's the temple bar side behind me. It was really windy. And, damn, I looked like a bunny.
Told you it was windy, look at the straps of my backpack.
More bunny look.

That's about it, I had an OK Italian lunch, before catching the bus to the airport, where I will later fly to Manchester.

Check back soon for more.

Sleep deprived...

How important is sleep to you? Well, that's a pretty dumb question as sleep is essential to all.

How many hours do you sleep a day on average? Well, that's more like it. Mine depends. Depends on the mood, depends on how much work is pending, depends on how many episodes of series waiting... So, that being said, I get about 5-6 hours on average. Naps included (not much of a difference even if I were to include them because, my naps are never intended. More like accidentally kinda thing.

How do you know that you are sleep deprived? When you need more than 2 alarm clocks, and your alarm is loud.

How do you know you had enough sleep? When I start to have dreams.

I tried to sleep as much as possible on my free days, but, my body is just not taking it. Once I've hit 6 hours of sleep, I'll wake up automatically, even if i were to force myself to bed, I'll just toss and turn, or wake up again after 15 minutes. And with the weather getting warmer and warmer, I'll definitely have a harder time falling asleep.

Yar, so, for the past 4 days, I'd been sleeping 4 hours a night. And that's starting to have an effect on me. I'm feeling like crap, and walking around like a zombie. But, hell, it's better to be a walking zombie, and a stiff corpse right?

So, this week went by rather uneventfully, other than the SAM election, there weren't anything else. Yesterday night, I went to play IM volleyball with the SAM, our team 'Run Perpetually' won 3 - 0. That's a BIG win. Not only it was our first win, we were playing like we were on steroid or something, making huge shots, incredible saves, nice set-ups, long rallies... It's just soo much fun. Following that, we played 3 on 3 basketball, which was all fun too.

Since I hadn't been running for a long time now, so much for new year resolutions right? I felt so out of shape yesterday. On my way down to Intramural Sports Building (IMSB), as i walked out of my dorm, the bus just zoomed past me. Not wanting to be late, I ran to CCLittle to catch the same bus. And, after a few jumps and all in volleyball, both my calves were sorta aching. I played through it, but still, I think I REALLY need to dust my running shoes, and hit the threadmills, or just run outdoor again.

And, I need a hair cut badly. I've been putting off getting a hair cut for close to a month now, and it's covering and itching m eyes.

A weekend wasted or a wasted weekend?

As last Saturday was St. Patrick's Day, initially, I planned to get wasted, but somehow, maybe because of a previously unmentioned encounter that enlightened me, I was able to control my drinking, and was as sober as a judge for the entire me. Pats on my back from myself. I'm kinda proud of myself for doing that actually.

But, it was still a really fun day. On Friday, bunch of us went to TK Wu for dinner, for my birthday. Thanks guys! Thanks for the birthday card too. I love it. And the Coldstone coffee ice-cream cake, oooh... delicious.

After that, I went to Mitch's and had a 'quiet' drinking with Ethan, had 1 pitcher each. It wasn't really quiet as it was karaoke night at Mitch's. Gosh, it was bad. Nevertheless, it was still great to catch-up with Ethan after a long while, last day of exams last semester.

So, I went back to my room at about midnight and tried to bank up some sleep as I would need it for St. Patrick's Day.

Next morning, I woke up at 5am, and went to Ashley's at 5.40am. Damn, the line outside Ashley's was insane. The line must had been 200 ppl strong. Seeing that, I walked to Buffalo Wild Wings aka Bdubs instead. I was like the 10th person in line at about 6am. I gave Quang multiple wake-up calls. He came at about 6.30am. My toes were numb by then. It was below freezing point by maybe a 4-5 degrees.

So, I was at Bdubs until 10am. Had 3 green beers, and green wings, and some onion rings with green ranch. As Quang refused to eat anything that wasn't green, we requested Bdubs to dye the ranch green. Genius!

As Quang was in a bad shape, kinda drunk/hungover from last night, we decided to split and get some sleep, and meet up later, and see how things go. I got few more hours of sleep, and even spent an hour on writing my econ paper. Then, I went to Alex's place and just watched March Madness there. From like 6pm til 11pm. Had few more Guinness Draught while watching the matches. Nothing much. At about midnight, I went to grab some food. Ended up at Pancheros, and dang, there dyed their tortillas green. So, I actually had a green burrito.

So, it was quite a safe but still fun St. Patrick's for me.

That was Saturday. On Sunday, I woke up at 9ish, and started working on my paper at 10am. At about 1pm, I kinda got stuck, writer's block i guess, even though I'm no writer. So, I decided to check out the Honors Convocation. It was a really grand event.

The speeches were great and inspiring. Hope I'll get the link of the transcript of the speech and put it up here. One of the more sticky lines is about whether you challenge your classmates and impress your professor, or you impress your classmates and challenge your professor.

So, after the Honors Convocation, which was only 1 hr and 15 minutes short, and compact. I got back to my room, rested awhile, and after dinner, I continued to battle with my paper. And, before I knew it, it was 2am when I finally gave up. Left with 1 paragraph. As I still need to read a paper for tomorrow's discussion, I slept at about 3am. Woke up at 7am, and re-read the paper.

Went to the discussion, and got back at about 10am, and started the final battle with my first draft. At about 12.15pm, I finally got sicked of the paper, and decided that I did enough for a first draft of the paper and submitted it.

Still not feeling so well, I called in sick for my work in the afternoon. So, that's pretty much it. I still have several posts about my trip to Europe. So, do check back soon. Really soon!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

hey guys, I know I promised to post another post about my trip in Dublin, Ireland, but I don't have to time and mood to do a good post, so, here's one for St. Patrick's Day, and another for Guinness.
Greetings from St. James's Gate Brewery, Dublin, Ireland.
The photo says it all.. And, today's March 17th. Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!!
Have a fun and safe St. Patrick's Day. I'm kinda buzzed right now, after sharing 2 pitchers with Ethan at Mitch's. Thanks Ethan for being a great friend!
The PERFECT pint of GUINNESS!
Me taking a sip from the perfect pint!

Check back soon! :)

Again, have a good and safe St. Patrick's Day!

I'm in the 22 Club...

So, today's my birthday. 22nd birthday. Happy birthday to me. I'm not gonna write what do i think about being 22.

Instead, I'll be going to Real Seafood Company on Main St for good food for dinner. Not sure what's after that. But, well, that's about it.

http://arborwiki.org/city/Birthday_Deals

Just want to share this with all. By the way, it's great to google.

Dublin, Ireland...

After taking a week off updating my blog, here I am again.

This will be a continuation of post on my trip to Europe over the break.
2nd stop: Dublin, Ireland.

So, it was a really short flight from London, England to Dublin, Ireland. About an hour long. I reached the Dublin International Airport at about 6.00pm, and got my luggage and immigration at 6.30pm, caught a bus that took me straight to downtown, the BusAras (the main bus station), a ride of about 20-25 minutes. From there, I walked approximately 15 minutes to the hostel that I'll be spending 2 nights in.The airline bus I took.

It was really nice to walk in about 10 degree Celcius weather, and Dublin is rather beautiful at night. I walked along the River Liffey to find the right bridge to cross, and also the archway to get to Temple Bar (the neighborhood where the hostel I'll be staying in, also the most touristy night life place in Dublin.) So, as I was being dumb and forgot about the name of the hostel, I overshot it and got to the wrong lane, before I smarten up to dig out the papers of my reservations to look for the name of the hostel. Barnacle's, yup, that's it. I actually recalled walking passed it a couple minutes before, hence, I tracked back and got there.

The location of Barnacles is amazing. It is on THE Temple Bar. If you were to click on the Temple Bar link (to wikipedia), it's the red bar, The Temple Bar. So, I checked into my 10-people mixed suite room, where I met a several people from difference places (France, Australia, Michigan(it's a small world), Italy.) The room was actually pretty clean and nice. The en-suite bathroom was good. For 15 euros a night, it's a steal. I had been to other hostels where it was communal bathroom and at a more expensive deal. So, I was really happy for choosing Barnacles, and will definitely recommend it to others.

So, as it was already kinda late, I figured that most of them had their dinner already, so, I went out to grab a quick bite before coming back to mingle with them. As I was getting lost while looking for the hostel earlier, I stumbled upon a Malaysian restaurant. So, without second thought, I headed there for a quick fix of nasi lemak. It cost me 9 Euro dollars, and it wasn't that good. It was just alright.

So, after that, I went back to the hostel, for a quick shower. And after that, started chatting with others (well, they were chatting, I was more like jump in once in awhile). So, I met Sophie(from France, traveling alone), Quang (from Australia), Gregory and Damien (from France), Emily and John (from Michigan). Really nice people and really fortunate to meet them. Later that night, we went down to The Temple Bar, and had a really good time. Guinness is amazing. After drinking it in Ireland, it's just so different. I mean, it's much smoother. I'm not sure if that's a psychological effect or what, but, it tastes different. Since leaving Dublin, I had Guinness at Southampton, England, and also at Ashley's, Ann Arbor. It's just not the same. Yar, so, one thing I like about Irish bar is that it has a good feeling with it. The music they play, (a lot of U2 and some Westlife), a good mix of classic oldies and some newer stuff. So, we were there from about 10pm til 1am. We had such a great time and did some sing-along to the live band. And here's a video Emily took:


At the bar, we met two Californian kids, Mike and John from the same hostel. As The Temple Bar closes at 1am, we left there, and went to another bar, Q-Bar, more like a club, and continued our drinking there. We a little bit more dancing and drinking there, and it was there that I saw where the term "thrown out of a bar" comes from. A guy was drunk and kinda causing trouble (i guess), and he was picked up by the bouncer, and thrown out of the bar (literally). He was just lifted up by the bouncer and dropped outside the bar. It was so fun, with all the light chatting in between. We left the place at about 3am. It was drizzling outside when we were on our way back to our hostel. Also, on our way back, we went into this 24-hours mart, and fun stuff happened there. Some of us bought chicken pot pie, and others were just goofing around. Some drunk Irish guys started singing too. We got back to our hostel at about 4am. Fortunately, I drank quite some water before dropping dead.

Somehow, I couldn't really sleep well. Woke up at about 8am, and knowing that I had barely slept, I forced myself to stay in bed, until 10am, where I gave up, and went out for a walk. I walked for a long time. At first, I went to Trinity College, then, to the Stephen's Green Park, and then, I just decided to walk blindly, without a map, and just wandering around. Lost, I still got pretty far, to the St. Patrick's Cathedral. I was so lost that I needed to take a reverse route to find my way back. And it was about 1.00pm when I got back.
Trinity college.
The Stephen-Green Park.Random photos of kegs I took while walking around lost.
St. Patrick's Cathedral.

After I got back from the walk, I met Quang, Emily and John at the common room, and they were planning to go on a city-tour on bus after lunch. Cool. After lunch, at Eliza Blue restaurant, in Temple Bar area, where the menu for food is limited, while the wine list was really extensive. But, well, still feeling a little bit from yesterday's night out, I opted for a breakfast set. It was good.

The city-tour on bus was really fun and comprehensive. It covered 21 locations, which is basically everything in downtown Dublin.
Looking down from the balcony of my room. Look at the cobble-stones road. The roads of the entire Temple Bar area is like that. So, girls on heels, take the side walk. See the red 'awning', that's the Temple Bar.
Temple Bar...
One of the bridges over River Liffey.

So, below are some of the photos I took while on the bus tour around the city of Dublin.
The Wellington Monument at The Phoenix Park
The residence of the President of Ireland(Áras an Uachtaráin) is located in the park. If you click on the photo, to enlarge it, you might be able to see that there's a lighted candle between the first and the 2nd high pillar from your left. It's always lit, to have light to guide the people home or something like that.
So, if you haven't notice, I like bridge. This one, not so much, but I like the picture.
On O'connell St. I just want to point out that where the Q-bar(the 2nd bar we went to yesterday night) is, the blue lighted place
The Millennium Spire.
Nice building eh? The is the GPO. General Post Office. The Bank of Ireland is also really nice, but I don't think I have a picture of it.
And what the heck is this. OK, so I was having dinner (the 2nd night in Dublin) at Burger King, at about 7.30pm. I went to bought some gifts before that. And this guy came in completely shit face, aka, drunk. And I wasn't paying much attention at first as I thought he should be able to order his food and leave. But, he was causing some kinda trouble. And the manager went to call for a security, and this guy came and tackled him, and locking him and pushing him on the floor, while waiting for another security guard to come. Not sure what happened in the end. But, just thought that it was interesting.
Dublin at night. Beside the River Liffey. Beautiful!

We went to The Oliver St John Gogarty Pub in Temple Bar. It was a really nice bar. We caught the Manchester United match for the 2nd half, and Man U won!!!

The Guinness word is carved to the table. Well, if Malaysia were to brew such good beer, I would be that proud either.
So, all of us at the bar. From left, Me, Gregory, Quang, Emily, John and Damien.
The Oliver St John Gogarty Pub.

We only had light drinking tonight, as Gregory and Damien will be leaving for home early tomorrow, while I'll be leaving for Manchester later in the afternoon. And, John, Emily and Quang will be going for a hike somewhere. (Dublin has insanely nice mountains and sea views, I wish I had more time to view the majestic coasts and do some outdoor stuffs).

So, we called it a night at about 11ish. It was still really fun. I packed my stuffs up as I need to check out by 10.30am the next day. But, again, I couldn't really sleep at night. Woke up at 3+ am, not sure why, and it was not fun. And the snoring from others wasn't helping. But heck. I was rolling around for the next 3-4 hours. After a light breakfast, I checked out from my room, left my luggage at the desk (amazing service for minimal fee). I went to Trinity college to snap some photos. And also, I left for the Guinness Brewery, which itself is worth another post.

So, check back soon. :)