#ExpoNegaraku Part 1

After catching an early lunch during my weekend break, I decided to walk around town a bit. There was no real plan. And I didn't even know about the ExpoNegaraku until I stumbled across it at Dataran Merdeka.

After turning around the corner I realised that there were plenty of people walking along. The road towards Jalan Raja was cordoned off. I then saw a row of food trucks. Something must be happening. When I turned towards Dataran Merdeka I soon learned that there were a few domes which housed the expo.

Time to go in.

It was hosted by Kementerian Penerangan and it showcased the urban developments going on around KL. The exhibits as I mentioned were houses in domes erected for the occasion right in the middle of the Dataran. There were 5 domes all together, each with a theme. The first Dome had a long queue heading, so I naturally gave that a miss.

Continued in part 2 ...

The iPhone X Camera

I take my phone everywhere and being an avid photographer, the most accessible phone I had most often were my mobile phone. Over the years I had been carrying many phones and the decision on which phone I chose to buy had how good the camera was being one of the top point of consideration.

The original iPhone did not have a good camera. Back then, the best camera phone I had used was the Nokia N73. Despite only having a 3.2MP camera, the Zeiss optics it carried made for some really great photographs. That sort of crystallised on me the idea that a camera phone may be enough for everyday snapping.

Then came the iPhone 4. For the iOS platform, it showed that Apple was taking photography seriously. A few Android phones then entered the picture with the HTC One being one of my early favourites. In early 2015, I discovered the Nokia 930. It had on it the best camera I had ever seen. And till this day, I could argue that it was still a capable shooter despite being almost 4 years old.

Now, my second phone was the Huawei P10 Plus. With its Leica optics, the photos especially the monochrome were just amazing. I still took it around during weekends as I shot around town. But now, I have a new contender for the best camera phone. The iPhone X.

Right off the bat, there was something natural about the photos. There were some element of over processing from the camera but they weren't as obvious as the Samsung. The photos did not over saturated and at low ISO, they appeared realistic. The focusing was
snappy and there were plenty of third-party apps for post-production of our snaps.

Last weekend, I took the phone out for a spin around Bukit Bintang to capture the Xmas decorations. I was practically blown away. The photos were much better than I expected. Coupled with its capability to capture 4K videos at 60fps, the camera feature is a winner.

In terms of monochrome snaps, it still lacked behind the Huawei. But for sheer overall joy, Apple clearly had the right formula here. Just for the camera alone, it was definitely an upgrade from my iPhone 7 Plus, although I do understand that the iPhone 8 use the same camera module as the X although with a narrower telephoto second sensor.

I'm definitely looking forward to more snaps from the phone...

Gone Horny

Yes, it was a long time coming. I had been planning to get the new phone since it was announced, skipping the iPhone 8. To my surprise, Anita wasn't keen to upgrade, sticking to her 7 Plus for the time being.

The couple of departures from the iPhone of the past were obvious right of the bat. The first being the disappearance of the home button. This created space for bazel-less display. Rather than having a fingerprint reader at the back of the unit similar to the Nexus 6P, Apple went with Face ID, using the front-facing camera to deal with unlocking of the phone. And it worked perfectly even on the first few hours if using the phone.

Next was wireless charging - and for this I used the charger from Samsung. It worked a treat.

The bonus would be the camera. I had a different entry specifically on the camera. Excellent snapper and it could handle 4K at 60 fps. I had to use iMovie on my Mac for post-processing since Final Cut Pro can't handle the new file system yet to process the movies.

The main downside was using the Face ID while mounted to dashboard. You had to look at the phone when you unlock ...

So far, I had no major complains. The battery life was also excellent. 256 Gb is an awfully large storage to fill. The phone was blazingly fast.

Re-admission

Abah was doing very well. So much so that we drove him to Kuala Selangor last Sunday for lunch. And he ate a lot.

However, this morning he developed a temperature and he looked quite when he woke up. We quickly bundled him into the car and brought him to Casualty. He had fever alright. And it looked like he was carrying a urine infection.

He looked very tired when he settled into his hospital bed. He had seen sleeping since taking a light lunch. Fever was better and he was now receiving antibiotics.

Hopefully he would be back to his usual self in a couple of days.

Welcomed Days Off

Every once in a while, I could do with a day off, or three. And that was what I had in store this weekend although due to family circumstances, the plan had changed somewhat.

The boys were still at school but with Friday being a public holiday, we were thinking of spending a long weekend in PD. Now, we decided to chill at home. We also had an event to attend on Saturday evening, so best just to stay put. Maybe we would drive somewhere on the Sunday.

Unfortunately as it was often the case, the weather tended to be horrible when I had a day off. The curse returned again to Day to haunt me. The weather had been horrible. I don't if it rained. Instead it stayed dull all day.

Typical weather when I am on leaveAfter my morning rounds, I decided to join Anita for breakfast. Then came a quick drive for some shopping with my camera in hand. Alas, the lights were bad. I was already home for lunch, catching up on an episode of Sherlock while waiting for the boys to return from school.

I might catch a movie or two on Netflix tonight. Difficult to wind down if you couldn't do what you wanted to do ...