Swordie Bloggie

Last week, 24 to 28 November 2008, I continued with my Journey Around Sabah… to Tuaran, Kota Belud, Kota Marudu, Pitas & Kudat. They are at the northern side of Sabah and Borneo. Kudat is where Tips of Borneo, Simpang Mangayau, located.

We stayed at Kudat Golf & Marina Resort for 3 nights. The room is RM158 per night with Sea View. If you are member of Kudat Golf Club, you can get voucher from the club and it will cost you RM115 per night only although both of them are not with the same management… they have some kind of internal arrangement.

The room is great… I’m satisfied with it. It has mini bar too. The bathroom has most of the standard bathroom fixtures minus the bath tub. TV is not very clear… it has the two terrestrial channels and four Astro (cable) channels.

WiFi is not available but only at the lobby and restaurant. My Celcom broadband is only able to receive WCDMA in the hotel. But according to a friend, he can get 3G… probably my receiver is lousy… I need to change it to a better one next time.

Travelling from KK is not bad. Only a few places with broken road… but there are parts where the roads are very bouncy… a lot of road depression. Petronas should give more money for infrastructure development here… you have been digging our oil for so long.

It’s so horrible to receive the news… the bad news. Yea, I went for the Canon sensor cleaning session at 1Borneo during lunch time today.

The registration counter is next to the Canon booth which is a bit dark… in my opinion the location is not very suitable since there is not enough light although it is right next to the stage. I registered my 40D and it seems that I’m number 7 or something like that.

I asked the guy who is doing the registration how long will it take? He said about 30 minutes… oh, ok, that is not too long. Later I found out he is Mr. Steven from Canon KL, the one who is doing the cleaning.

While waiting for my camera, I went to meet Flenagen at his 999 Portraits Project booth. He also submitted his camera for cleaning. I ‘volunteered’ myself for the 999 Portraits Project… so I did keep my promise to do it 😆 I asked my colleague to participate, but ‘malu malu kucing’ also…

Then I went to check the Canon booth. Nothing special… they selling the EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM for RM4,750.00. I asked if that is a special price… the man from Canon KK said not very special… so I said, I buy it next time… actually I can’t afford it 😆 Then found out the booth is run by Investline… the shop I bought my 40D early this year…

I was about to leave to McDonald when Mr. Steven called me. Cool… finish already. Then he slaps me with the BAD NEWS!!! He said my sensor is dirty… haiyooo… not one year yet dirty already… Then he shows me here and there with his special magnifying tools… he even draw a diagram so that I can see where the dirt is. I don’t see any dirt… maybe I don’t want to see it… I asked if it can be clean, he said can but has to do it in KL… haiya… KL again… How long? How much?… 2 to 4 weeks… if can clean about RM200 – RM300, if cannot still need to pay RM85… Haiyoo… if like this I have to take camera’s insurance… something like the Colorado auto insurance.

But since the dirt doesn’t appear on the photos I took with the camera, he said it is up to me if I want to send it or not. He said I can send it anytime for cleaning or servicing. Since it is almost New Year, maybe I’ll do it next year.

I think it is time for me to learn how to properly take care my gears…

If you own Canon DSLR camera, today is your only chance to have a free cleaning service for your Canon camera… Canon is providing a free cleaning service at 1Borneo today. I got this info from Flanagen blog.

I plan to go there at lunch time today… because my 40D got some dot at the view finder… I’m sure it is not on the sensor because the dot doesn’t appear in the picture but only visible in the view finder… unless my eyes can’t see the dot on the photos, which I hope not.

And my 17-85mm lens also has some dust inside it… I have no idea how the heck it entered there. Maybe the way I’m storing my gears… I’m a lazy bump bah… just dump my gear inside the bag… never take care properly one… same goes with my golf gears…

I hope the dusts can be removed without any trouble… in a short period… because I don’t want to wait there the whole day and I need to finish my scrapbook… yea, I’m learning scrapbooking… you know the new kid of photo album. We don’t use plain photo album anymore… today people are making ‘magazine’ photo album. There are many ways and tools to do scrapbook if you are interested.

But I think if the turnout for the Canon DSLR Cleaning session is good, probably I have to queue up to service my DSLR…

And don’t forget to participate in the 999 Portrait Project just next to the Canon booth. They are trying to snap 999 portraits in a week… and turn it into scrapbook I guess…

Today is Quality Day for our department. This is the day where awards are given to those who deserve it. The recipients are chosen base on their contribution which is something extra or more than the usual in their work or extraordinary… but sometimes it is hard to tell… very subjective.

Included is competition for best office. The best organized office will definitely win. But for me, this is very subjective too. How do you compare between offices which is doing clerical works with office which is doing maintenance. Like my office, we are doing maintenance of ICT stuff… and there are loads of them to maintain. So our office will always be filled with ICT stuff needing maintenance in a not very big space… our office will never be empty or clean.

Anyway, we still participated in the competition. And one item which is very unique amongst the metals is some jars with plants and some balls inside it. My colleague, the ladies, put it as one of the decoration on the counter. The little orange balls look like ball bearings… but they are actually gels… orange ball bearings gel. They act as the water supply for the plants… so we don’t have to water the plant all the time… and it also replaces the soil, hence the planting is cleaner 😀

Today, went to attend Digital Photography Talk at Pan Pacific Sutera in conjunction with the Federation Asian of Photography Association (FAPA) convention. It started around 10.30am. The FAPA convention is held at 1Borneo… about 15km from here.

Me and a friend was the first few registering at the Level 1 of Pan Pacific Sutera… we arrived just after 10am… we are the non member of the FAPA convention registering I guess… coz most of them are busy with photography session outside the hotel near the swimming pool.

Then when it started, it is in Chinese… OMG… how lah?… ayoyo… never mind lah… just listen lah…

Lucky, the speaker is talking about how to enhance photos with Photoshop… so can guest what he is doing… ‘agak agak saja lah’… but even his Windows is in Chinese character… odoiiii dogo…

The talk end at around 12pm. Since nothing to do, we decided to have lunch at 1Borneo, where the FAPA thingy and Photo Exhibition held.

After lunch, we walk to the South Atrium of 1Borneo where the photography exhibition is held. The photographs displayed are great… Then I noticed someone familiar… at the corner of the stage. They are doing some photography thingy. I went there and ask if he is Flanagen… aahh… correct lah. Then there is another familiar face… Edgar… I never met them before in real life… only in their blog… 😀 Another ‘famous’ photographer is with them… but forgot lah the name/blog… hope Flanagen and Edgar can enlighten me here… I can add him in my blogroll.

They are doing a ‘noble project’… 999 Portrait Project… to capture 999 portraits to put into Canon magazine… I think lah… you can read at Flanagen’s “We want you for 999 Portrait Project!!” and Edgar’s “999 Portrait in 1 Week Project and We Want YOU!”

But I did not know what they are really doing at that time… although they did ask me to participate… I think I was still ‘pening-pening’ after attending the talk in Chinese. Feel bad did not participate… I only know more about it after reading their blog after I went back… but hopefully I will go there again on Saturday or Sunday… to see the Canon booth… I want to see their gears… hopefully they will showcase their super duper gears… just like what they did in KL… but I doubt it… and hopefully they will be still there doing the noble project… OK, to those of you who want to participate in the 999 Portrait Project, go to 1Borneo… I think they are doing it for 1 week… not sure when it going to end… hope they can tell… 😀