Coffee

After resettling in my hometown, I get to know my distant nephew whom I recently met. Well..  I might have met him in the past, but just forgot. The fact is, I've been away from here for the past seven years, and so did he. Alright, that sounds as a valid excuse :)
Anyway, I'm just five years older than him. Now, my nephew is into coffee, drinking, roasting, grinding, the whole nine yards. Me, I just drink it. I couldn't tell the difference between a good coffee and a superb one, just like with wine. For me, what makes the difference is the whole experience of drinking it. You got to have a good reading material, and nice bread/pastries to go with it. I wouldn't mind music or radio in the background (my current favorite is BBC London).

Roasted coffee beans

Grinder

Slightly coarse grind

I've been looking for a decent (read: inexpensive) French press. I'm not going to pay more than 30 bucks for a French press. My excuse is.. so I can get a decent tasting coffee without burning a hole in my wallet. My standard does not include the regular freeze dried (instant) coffee from Nescafe. It just tastes sucks.

Premium brands taste better, but they costs a lot, compared to ground coffee. 

What I don't like about ground coffee is the coffee residue. That is why I need a French press. The other method is to use coffee drip, but its hard to find the filter here. So I settled with the press for the moment.

Update : Finally.. got it. And thank God the resulting brew is good.

Freedom press in action

(*okay that's a bit lame)

Memories

I always wonder how people write their own memoirs or biography. I seem to have a short term memory. I already forgot past distant travels. I'm not sure if this is common, or that I'm the only one with this shortcoming. Some people seems to be able to recall old memories vividly, just like it was yesterday.
I envy them. Maybe this is partly why I became a photographer, and writing this blog. To record fleeting moments.

Well, after idling for some time, I did something useful today. I got an acceptance for my offer for IT consultancy. Albeit the low rate, at least its a start. Which prompt me to fix my laptop due to its slowness. After five years, I was wondering whether its time for a replacement. Usually I don't like working on a laptop, since at a comparable cost, its performance is far from a desktop. But if I need to travel, there is no other option.
So I began to Google the web and try to find what causing its slowness. It turns out that the IDE transfer mode is set to PIO instead of UDMA, for some puzzling reason (maybe a crash). So after a few restarts, it was fixed. It seems I still get to keep my notebook for at least another year.

Utopia

So this blog survived the apocalypse. Boo the Mayans!

But we're approaching the end of another year. In the midst of more (economic) uncertainty, I hope 2013 will be a better year for all of us.

The world is pretty much border-less already. At least for money anyway. Goods are still subject to few restrictions and duties, but you can get pretty much anything from anywhere nowadays. Unless you are importing bombs or some radioactive materials.
As the world become borderless, so is the government control over its subject. One who does not like one's government's rules and regulations can simply go somewhere else. Just like FBs Saverin, and a few other billionaires who moved to Singapore, or the French who move to London because of Hollande's tax policy.
The same can be said in economic and monetary sector, the world is so closely connected and linked today that every individual government's policy will eventually affect the other nation, whether they like it or not.

Beneficial policy (at least for the taxpayer) like low tax rates in Ireland and Singapore, attracts talents and corporation. Countries who wants advance their ranks therefore have to compete by issuing even better policy. And this is a good thing for the global citizen.
On the flip side, this global competition have side effects, for instance, with the Fed pumping money into the economy, they have effectively exporting inflation to other countries. Some analyst worried that this will spark currency wars.

I will end my ramblings for now. Two posts in a day is a bit too much, and on Saturday even!

New Year List

I have a few list for 2013. I think the first is my wish list
- a Kindle paper white perhaps
- the legendary Nikkor 70-200 VRII
- a travel trip to Japan / Europe / New Zealand / America
and lastly.. maybe a steady stream of income, or a job.. without which all of the above would be unaffordable (browser spell checker suggest that the word is non-existent.. seriously?!).
But I have learnt that I have been very privileged to live in this life. We have to put our self in perspective, looking at those who is less fortunate, and learn from the history.

I just bought free books (is there such paradox?) from Amazon Kindle store for new year's reading (although I suspect some of the books can go as far as the next new year)

     

Its quite odd that some of the books have actually changed price during this writing, which is just an hour afterwards, so be warned, and grab the free or bargain books while you can (not necessarily the above).

Another list I which passed my mind is of course, the usual goal and resolutions..
but I'm not putting myself on burden this time.. well.. at least not today. I do have TWO days left.

Change

The only constant is change

- Heraclitus, 500 B.C.

People always resist change and try to cling to what feels familiar to them. Reading about European painters in the 19th century, a lot of them were inspired by those changes. The industrial revolution and Franco-Prussian war that took place around that time was causing uneasyness to everyone, including the artists.
The truth is, everything changes all the time, even now, maybe even more so. This century witnessed man on the moon, the advent of the internet, computers, airplanes. People need the familiar, something that they can hang on to. But the reality is that things change faster nowadays, with the inventions and technology around us. Those who don't keep up will be left in the dust.

Actually I wanted to write something else, but never did. And just yesterday I attended a seminar about Christian youth at my church. It was talking about how they are radically different from the previous generation. And this is partly caused by the pace of change around them. A very insightful revelation. The seminar is largely influenced by the latest David Kinnaman's book, titled You Lost Me, which I'm reading right now.

PS: this post is written on Blogger app on iPad, which is long overdue..finally ;)

Immortality

Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later they all will be gone
Why don't they stay young
It's so hard to get old without a cause
I don't want to perish like a fading horse
Youth is like diamonds in the sun
And diamonds are forever
So many adventures couldn't happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams are swinging out of the blue
We let them come true

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever

Forever Young - Alphaville

There are so many things a person can do, and could never do in their lifetime. I always wonder why people run out of things to do. I personally need more than 24 hours in a day. There are so much to learn, to read, to do, places to visit. The thought that you can learn about everything in this world is both ridiculous and arrogant.


Meanwhile, I want to share a good testimony from the late dr. Richard Teo

Five years is long enough to call a place home.. sometimes I just miss it.