canon powershot d10!

disclaimer: i am not a gadget geek. this is not a gadget review. technical specifications in this post may not be accurate.

i got the olympus 8 megapixel (miu) 850 sw shock + waterproof camera for my birthday two years ago, courtesy of my dad and it served me incredibly well. it was the perfect photo companion on my trip to bali last june. in between, it's been dropped, drowned in crashing waves at the beach and even exposed to hours in chlorinated pool conditions. in fact, most of the photos in the 90 plus photo albums on my facebook were taken with this sturdy camera. and it's still in absolute perfect working condition!

picture quality wasn't really the most important aspect for a point and shoot camera as far as i was concerned. i needed something that could capture all the important events in almost every condition possible. not to mention, i'm extremely careless most times and i rarely take genuine care of my belongings so without question, the camera had to be hardy.

enter the olympus underwater camera range.

personally, i felt it was good enough for me but the quality of the photos largely depended on external settings, such as lighting and mobility of the object. still, it took many beautiful photos for me. however when the canon d10 was launched, i knew i had to get my hands on it eventually.

to begin with (and most people have agreed with me, including my friend Christine... hello x!) canon has been known to produce better quality pictures. i was further enticed by the 10 meter underwater depth capability and the 12 megapixel image sensor as compared to my initial 3 meter and 8 megapixel camera.

so finally, about a year and a half since the d10 was launched, i decided to go ahead and buy it. i was really waiting for canon to come up with an updated underwater model or at least for the price to drop considerably but it never did.

i collected my loot after work last night and came home to charge the camera batteries so i only got to play around with it this morning. the verdict? i don't really know much (if anything) about digital photography but i really do think this canon trumps my old olympus by far. apart from the big difference in megapixels, i really love canon's auto shooting mode because it just saves a lot of headache with programming settings for macro / flash etc.

i snapped some photos with my old olympus one last time, just to judge the differences in the photos taken on both cameras. no digital enhancements were made on any of the following photos. can you tell the difference?

taken on auto mode on the olympus (above)

taken on auto mode on the canon (below)

taken on auto mode on the olympus (above)

taken on auto mode on the canon (below)

i loved that the canon could take brilliant photos in natural lighting whereas the olympus usually forces the flash on. natural light photos on the olympus are usually extremely grainy. i also loved that the colours on the canon are more contrasting as compared to the olympus. you can easily tell the difference by looking at clouds in both photos.

on top of the camera, i also decided to buy a compact photo printer. okay, i can't actually say i decided; it really was more the doing of the sales assistant's impressionable sales pitch. to be honest, i don't know why i'd be printing photos but i guess it would be nice to keep some photos in a physical hard cover album, right?

i'm sure i'll find use for the photo printer. maybe so i can print photos for my friends to frame and keep. yes, of me. haha! but really i think it'd be fun to bring it to birthday parties... like Drayden's, which is coming up real soon.

i have to say though, the photo printer is pretty cool. it prints just as good as processed photos and mine even comes in the snazziest shade of pink / red. (it really looks more pink in person but it turns out red in photos.)

they even threw in a bluetooth adapter so i did my printing wireless from my mac straight to the photo printer!

i can't wait to take my brand new digicam out to play tonight at the timbre rock & roots festival! i didn't make it to day 1 with Buddy Guy and Gypsy Kings but i'll be there tonight to catch Opshop, Jools Holland and The Fray!

i hope i'll have some awesome photos to show for, check back next week to find out! have a fantastic weekend everybody!

iLove: Pomplamoose

i could spend hours and hours on youtube going through hundreds of video covers by budding musicians all over the world. so with Lady Gaga rocking up a storm with her latest talked-about video Telephone, i thought it would be most appropriate for me to introduce my latest favourite youtube discovery, Pomplamoose.



Pomplamoose is a collaboration between Nataly Dawn and Jack Conte from corte madera, california. they started making music together since the summer of 2008. their unique take on many popular songs such as Aerosmith's I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing, Michael Jackson's Beat It, Beyonce's Single Ladies and Earth, Wind & Fire's September have received millions of views.

if you like them as much as i do, all their music (including 8 original songs) is available for download on iTunes.

let me leave you with a song i fell in love with after watching Juex d'enfants (Love Me If You Dare) starring Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet. it's undeniably the most famous french tune ever, originally sung by Edith Piaf. i was absolutely thrilled to have found this version by Pomplamoose. it has officially become my favourite rendition ever. enjoy!

saturday fudge brownies.

this cool, chilly saturday afternoon is quite the rarity in sunny singapore and so is my baking. i'm not the least bit shy to say that i am quite an awesome cook but i'm quite rubbish at baking while most of my female friends are the exact opposite.

i envy women who can bake up a storm. everything from cakes to cookies and all the complicated confectionary in between.

in fact, after my decade old convection oven finally gave way last christmas and my dad replaced it with a spanking brand new one, this is the first time i have a proper oven. well okay it's still a convection oven but at least this one comes with an instruction manual so at least this one i'll know how to configure.

since we got the new oven we never used it for convection purposes so i thought i'd give it a go today. i had a box of betty crocker's fudge brownie premix in the pantry, left over since my last woeful attempt at baking. and what better treat on a cold rainy weekend than warm freshly baked brownies!

i believe this officially counts as brownies for dummies.

the 3 simple wet ingredients being half a cup of water, two-thirds a cup of vegetable oil and two eggs. it's that simple!

yummy rich batter!

ever the busybody, billy fusses about on the coutertop.

and 38 minutes later... voila! left it to cool before cutting and serving!

i think i'll take some to work later this evening. i'll need to get out of the house if i intend on getting any studying done for the impending exams. my bed is far too inviting and coupled with the weather, i may never make it out alive (or awake).

have a fantastic weekend everyone!

iWant: Zoku Quick Pop Maker

while it's only just beginning to pour in singapore, february 2010 was still the driest month in decades. and it was then when i came across this popsicle maker! it makes popsicles in minutes. yes, you read that right! what would have taken you hours in the freezer, takes mere minutes on the Zoku.

i can only begin to imagine all the amazing, quirky flavours i can come up with. one of them even has to do with maple syrup! slurp.

iLove: Cure Natural Aqua Gel

disclaimer: this is not a paid advertorial.

the bestfriend recently discovered a new exfoliation product from japan and was raving about it for a good week.

i couldn't stop hearing about it everytime we're within a hundred metres of a Watsons.

so finally, i went out and bought myself a bottle. i thought it was rather silly considering it isn't exactly very cheap. a bottle costs $42 and in hindsight i should've just sampled it before purchase but i'm incredibly trusting of the best friend and her opinions so that was enough to get me to go out and buy one for myself.

she was right, it works great!

fresh from the bottle, the aqua gel is a milky, watery texture and is easily applied onto the face - almost like water. no fragrance added, it doesn't even smell of vaguely of chemicals.

so after i gently apply it, i leave it in for a good 5 seconds before gently rubbing my face in circular motions.

slowly, pieces of dead skin begin to form in clumps. once i was satisfied that i'd gotten most of them out, i simply rinsed with water.

there was no stinging sensation at all; it didn't feel abrasive. however, after rinsing with water i could feel a bit of raw heat, the kind you feel if you peel off the topmost layer of skin.

i finished off this process by applying moisturizer and found that it was easier absorbed into the face, exactly as stated on the back of the bottle.

i'm not sure if doing this often is actually bad for your skin. i mean, too much of a good thing is always a bad thing but as advised on the bottle, i use it twice a week, even on other areas like the knees, feet, elbows, shoulders and neck. so if you think about it, the $42 product would last you at least 3 months. and that's quite a good investment if you ask me.

snip snip!

i think i can speak for most women out there when i say that women get easily bored with our hair. now, i'm not highly experimental but i do like a bit of a change every now and then.

i remember it was barely over two months ago when i had the itch to do something drastic to my hair. i decided i wouldn't cut it because i slaved for a year to wait for it to grow back from my last impulsive trip to the hair dresser's. i recruited a couple girlfriends on payday to get our hair done. honest to god, i walked in with the sole intention of having my locks layered. as i sat on the black leather chair, waiting for my stylist to gather his tools, i picked up a hair magazine and started flipping.

and that's all it took. i went from wanting to get a $35 haircut to agreeing to pay $239 (plus 3 and a half hours) for a digital perm. it turned out pretty well; it was drastic enough a change that some people liked it and others had reservations about it.

i loved it, i loved the volume and the spunk that it added to my outfits.

until two days ago.

i'd gotten quite tired of the curls. although they were loosening up into nice waves, i was still high maintenance and required a lot of product application. (i used 3 different kinds!)

i'd initially struck a deal with myself that i'd get it straightened sometime in september, just before my birthday but i found myself thinking about it so hard that i decided to screw it and have it done anyway.

just the day before, i got my bangs trimmed at a nearby salon and casually enquired how much it would cost to have my hair rebonded. they quoted me about $180. i felt an ache in my chest. yes, it wasn't as much as the perm but all in the span of less than three months! that was a lot of money.

so at work the next day i started googling for reasonably priced neighbourhood salons and eventually came across a couple reviews for Snip Avenue.

they're a local chain of beauty salons with several outlets around the island. what i liked about it was that they even had their own website!

i found the number to the salon nearest to the office and gave them a call to enquire on their charges. the number i first heard shocked me. $38 for a rebonding session. now i've had some bad experiences with rebonding at Far East Plaza before, where they used cheap rubbish chemicals and i almost cried when i left the parlour, and even then it wasn't this cheap.
so just to be sure i enquired further and found out that they also offer shiseido and l'oreal rebonding packages. perfect! i probably should mention, just about a month ago i bought a bottle of liese bubble colour and DIYed my hair a medium brown. so with all the chemically damaging rituals, i knew i was risking it all by rebonding my hair yet again but i trusted shiseido, having done it umpteen times before. to my surprise, their shiseido offer was still extremely attractive - $88! ($119 with moisture treatment)
so i made my appointment and left work half an hour early.

Blk 201E Tampines Street 23 #01-116 Tel: 67850406

now, this being your avergae neighbourhood salon, don't expect royalty treatment. they won't offer you a drink and there's lousy music on a radio but at least the stylists were polite. i didn't get my stylist's name but he was nice enough to go through the different packages with me after inspecting the condition of my hair. as it turns out, he wasn't a very gentle handler. there were many instances when he tugged on a tangled lock and he even managed to accidentally splash a couple droplets of water on my face while he was rinsing out my hair.
BUT

i had to give it him. he didn't rush through the process at all. i'm sure some of you are well aware that a procedure like this can take up to 4 hours. the salon closes at 8.30pm and my appointment was made for 6pm. and yet, he was meticulous enough to ensure every strand of hair was coated with cream and then took his time with the flat iron, straightening out every section until he was satisfied with it.

by the time he began to apply the last cream, the salon was already empty and the other stylists were cleaning up. i even had to pay the bill at this point so that they could tally the cash register. and still, the man took his time and completed the job without any help from his colleagues. so he didn't exactly have the flair handling long hair. in fact, he looked rather awkward at it. but he was a true perfectionist. he even managed to salvage my ends, they don't look all that fried at all! and all for $88. (i didn't manage to do treatment because i understand they were pressed for time.)

now, i didn't have the chance to sample their cutting and colouring skills but if a rebonding job is what you're after, i say Snip Avenue is definitely value for money. they even offer hair treatments at a promotional price of $15 at the moment. personally, i wouldn't dare go near the $38 procedure. and i still think it's dodgy for any salon to be using cheap rubbish chemicals but anybody who is smart enough to go for shiseido or l'oreal ($98, $129 with treatment) will be saving a lot of money.

so, how does my hair look now? you're just going to have to keep reading to find out.