Nikon to Manufacture in Malaysia?

Due to the tragic incident in Japan, one Nikon employee was dead and several missing. One of the manufacturing plants was badly damaged. Rumour has it that Nikon may move part of their lens manufacturing facility to here in Malaysia. A camera barrel parts supplier called Notion VTEC Bhd. appears to be a strong candidate.

via nikonians.org.

Sleepy Cat II

Snapped at the Machap R&R, Johor along the North-South Highway.

Previous Sleepy Cat here.

Blue Blue Silhouette

Did I spell silhouette correctly? Love this photo taken with my HTC Desire. Somehow, it appeared nicer on the phone. The AMOLED screen may be nice but it sure is faking the colours - making photos pop out but when you transfer it to a laptop and look at it on the LCD... errr... it becomes less exciting.

Anyways, this is now my Android's wallpaper and it looks great being one.

My blog posts have been getting lesser and lesser over the years. Maybe I'm getting older and older. Hence less crap. Also, work-life balance has been tilting the wrong way... so, anti-IonBuck Blog readers REJOICE!

Malaysian Economic Growth to Drop Slightly in 2012

The World Bank has issued a projection that the total world trade will drop from 12% in 2010 to 7.1% and 6.8% in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Following this, our country has issued a projection of 5.2% growth in 2012 compared to 5.3% this year. The construction and agriculture industry is expected to spearhead Malaysia's economic growth this year.

via The Star Online.

Super Bowl 8

Has everyone already seen the Super 8 teaser from last year? If you had not, then you will find a crazy driver driving on to a railroad, going against a train head on, causing a huge train crash and what appears to be something huge and scary trying to get out of one of the carriages. The teaser can be found here: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/paramount/super8/

Recently, there was an update to that teaser - a super bowl trailer - and someone had put it up on Youtube:

Doesn't look as thrilling as the teaser, though, but at least it doesn't look like the camera is shaking the whole length of the film!

The Amazing Spider-Man!

Just as the whole world had seen this amazing photo of the new Spider-Man reboot (targeted release in 3 July 2012), I received the so-called "exclusive" e-mail from Sony Pictures' Spider-Man Movie Network:

One of my bud had already shared the Google Reader item from some entertainment website since yesterday afternoon. For those who are more outdated than Sony Pictures' e-mail, the title of this new reboot is called The Amazing Spider-Man.

From the looks of the picture, this Spider-Man doesn't seem to have natural web coming out of his wrists like the trilogy directed by Sam Raimi. More like the normal comics we were used to where web fluids is involved. But of course, this is just my speculation.

By the way, here is the official website... which is nothing much at the moment: http://www.theamazingspiderman.com/

I have had zombies as pets but they went invisible on me...

Sorry folks, looks like you are stuck with my Plants vs. Zombies obsession. I've got a whole aquarium full of snorkeling zombies complete with life vests (hmmm... but they still don't float which I suspect could be due to their brains diet). Meanwhile, I still have to keep my Stinky snail awake so, if I feed my pet zombies a little slow, they will turn green, flip over and die.

These dead zombies will eventually come back to haunt me as invisible apparitions, I guess. Thankfully, I have quite an arsenal of intelligent plants in my lawn as defence.

I wonder when will... or ever will there be Plants vs. Zombies merchandising... such as zombie soft toys?! Or cute cabbage catapult plush? Now that will be amazing having a collection of them and having them mingle with my still yet to be found Android.

The Zombies Ate My Brains

And so that's why my blog posts get lesser and lesser over the years. I have evidence to proof that there are zombies and that they ate my brains...

By the way, I have a pet snail called Stinky who sleeps most of the time instead of collecting coins and diamonds for me unless I feed it chocolate bars.

Screenshots taken from the "amazingly addictive yet cute while at the same time, violent because of the brains eating theme" game Plants vs. Zombies. Try out the free web version here. I'm still addicted after almost owning the game for over 2 months!

Why Do People Still Spam?

That's the question I've been asking for quite some time, now. Spam filters are really great these days - all my online accounts Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail are doing a great job! I'm just so darn bored of frequently visiting the Spam or Junk folders to click on the buttons to empty these folders. Initially, I do still browse through the e-mails in these folders to confirm if they were all spam but these days, I would just go on in and quickly empty the folders. I'm assuming the majority of the population would do this... or just leave these folders unattended so that they will be automatically emptied every 7 days or so.

So you crazy spammers, give it up! Oh, and don't bother to spam through SMSes either. I delete them as fast as they appear.

Pete Eckert Blind Photographer

Diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, Pete Eckert was working as a carpenter but eventually picked up photography after he lost his sight. He pictured the scene in his mind through his other senses and also does double exposures.

| Artists Wanted | In Focus : Pete Eckert (Lo-Speed) from Artists Wanted on Vimeo.

We hear miracles now and then and here's one. Life goes on for Pete and his wife, Amy and guide dog Clancy.

via LivingDesign thru Photojojo.

Realistic 3D Goes Deeper Than Skin

3D software has evolved one step further! Even after you digitally slice a fruit or whatever objects, the cross-section will appear realistically real!

via New Scientist.

2011 Chinese New Year Movie Rankings

Just my own list of movies that I've watched during this festive season here in Malaysia:

Funny factor:
1. I Love Hong Kong - contains the most funny scenes among all.
2. Mr. and Mrs. Incredible - sustainable funnies.
3. Yogi Bear - bumbling Yogi.
4. All's Well Ends Well 2011 - it's a dragggggg... with some rare funny scenes.
5. Shaolin - cute little wushu monks. Update!

Crazy cute factor:
1. Yogi Bear - Yogi Bear and Boo Boo, of course!
2. Mr. and Mrs. Incredible - mmm... that cute and lovely hero couple!
3. I Love Hong Kong - Tony Leung and Sandra Ng are more funny than cute.
4. Shaolin - cute wushu proficient little monks. Update!
5. (4) All's Well Ends Well 2011 - errr... Louis Koo exploring his feminine side.

Storyline factor:
1. Shaolin - some serious stuff here when the bad guys see the bright light side. Update!
2. (1) I Love Hong Kong - with such a big cast, I was surprised it wasn't mumbo jumbo and there's a touch of humanity!
3. (2) Yogi Bear - the usual save the 'world' and a touch of romance kind of fare.
4. (3) Mr. and Mrs. Incredible - expected retired heroes missing their heroic days.
5. (4) All's Well Ends Well 2011 - terrible continuity.

Action factor:
1. Shaolin - the name "Shaolin" says it all. Update!
2. (1) Mr. and Mrs. Incredible - what do you expect? We're talking about a hero couple here!
3. (2) Yogi Bear - Yogi's bumbling ideas at play!
4. (3) All's Well Ends Well 2011 - make-up whiplash.
5. (4) I Love Hong Kong - Anita Yuen's amazing acupuncture skills!

Horny factor:
1. I Love Hong Kong - the Tony Leung-Anita Yuen acupuncture scene!
2. Mr. and Mrs. Incredible - the hero couple trying to have a baby scenes.
3. Shaolin - yucky Nicholas Tse licking Fan Bing Bing. Update!
4. (3) All's Well Ends Well 2011 - Louis Koo exploring his masculine side.
5. (4) Yogi Bear - Tom Cavanagh talking about his lonely condo.

Angry! Very Angry! More Angry Birds Coming!

More Angry Birds coming in March and this time, based on the trailer below, it might not involve green pigs... This time, the birds got angry because a lot of other birds are caged in... probably endangered birds. Looks like it's a battle of the birds! Bad birds and angry birds!

And this new Angry Birds game is called Angry Birds Rio which brings them to Rio de Janeiro and is based on their upcoming movie in April.

Now I'm a little confused. Will there be a movie AND also an animated series? Or was this movie the animated thing that we were all talking about?

via MobileBurn.com

ps... I was already obsessed with the Angry Birds theme and now this new trailer features a more upbeat remix of the theme. Woohoo!!!

Rain, Rain, Cool Day on Earth

It's been continuously raining at about the same rate (slightly heavier than a drizzle, but not quite cats and dogs... watcha call it?) most of the day. Enough to get you soaked if you stand outside for a couple of minutes. Weather's been obviously cool... According to my phone's weather app, it's 25ºC out there. The kind of temperature I set the air-conditioner to on a hot day.

Is it going to be a cool Chinese New Year? Is the Rabbit going to bring the cool to cover off years of fire? While we are enjoying a sleepy and cooling Sunday, I hope this rain is not causing any flooding elsewhere.

Angry Birds TV?

I'm actually reading up a Nikon D3100 review in our local Lowyat.NET forum but got sidetrack a little when I came across a tweet from @CNNshowbiz reporting that Angry Birds are not only stopping at being a PC game (its latest platform after iPhone, Maemo, Android, iPad and whatever other mobile platforms). It is going to be a very angry animated series, too! As much as I like the game (I'm stuck at Level 3-5, by the way), I couldn't imagine it being a full 30-minute cartoon (including plenty of angry commercials), though. Maybe as shorts like those Pixar ones before their feature film but 30 minutes every week? Hmmm...

On a side note, I'm surprised that the Angry Birds plush toys appear to be more popular than the very cute Android plush toy that I love but could not find. Hmph!