Clean & Clear Competition

I rarely ever ask for anything from my readers.

In fact, I believe the last time I've ever had to garner support from my blog was FHM Girl Next Door eons ago!

But it would mean so much to me if you could take 2 minutes of your time to vote for my friend Christine Ng and I for the Clean & Clear Singapore Best Friends Model Competition.

You can read more about Christine on her blog here. Her entries are fun and quirky, loaded with visuals!

The funny thing about Christine and I tag-teaming for this shindig is that we started out as individual competitors for a Ralph Lauren fragrance a really long time ago. I was fresh out of secondary school and I believe she was a sophomore in Polytechnic, taking a diploma in Mass Communications.

As it turns out, she won and I came in second place. No hard feelings though, she completely deserved it and weeks later I contacted her about buying one of the prizes off her! Hence began a beautiful 6 year (and counting) friendship.

It was her grand idea to submit us as a duo for the competition and we're both really excited about it.

So please, if you could visit this link and vote for us, we'd be most grateful!

If we win the USD5000, you can be rest assured... drinks on us! (;

Timbre Rock & Roots!

i know this is a couple weeks overdue but i've been so absolutely caught up with work and planning a mega-birthday weekend. (more on that in the next post!)

i spent a saturday two weeks ago at the marina promenade for the second night of the Timbre Rock & Roots festival, where i nearly lost my voice screaming for New Zealand's Opshop, Jools Holland and his (26 piece) rhythm and blues orchestra and the title act for the night, The Fray (of How To Save A Life & Never Say Never fame).

what i loved the most about it, apart from the performances, was the location!

the stage glowed in lights with the majestic Singapore Flyer sparkling in the background. when i arrived, the sun was setting ever so gently, etching the grand outline of the business district in the sky line.

what had to have made the most difference was the fact that we were right by the bay and this invited the most refreshing breeze! definitely something you won't experience at fort canning! not to mention, the festival offered a myriad of food options! everything from corned beef sandwiches to chunky chips to curry puffs - the most tantalizing smells wafted through the entire promenade and made me hungry even though i'd just came from dinner!

you could really tell it was a Timbre event, from the top notch acts (not necessarily mainstream) who performed to the wide array of delectable food to the warm service at the beer and spirits bars.

it was pretty unfortunate that i had to give up my tickets for the first night because i had to work late that friday. i was really excited to watch Gypsy Kings and Buddy Guy... just my luck!

i'm already waiting with bated breath to see who they'll announce to perform at next year's Rock & Roots!

p/s: on a completely separate note, i just wish to express my deepest frustration that the Jamie Cullum tickets are completely sold out! argh!

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!