Man killed by Komodo dragon !

This morning something caught my eye in CNN news, it said Komodo dragons killed a man. That immediate awaken the memories about my visit from a couple of years ago. I recall seeing how komodo dragon were fed with raw chicken meat in the Komodo National Park, we were up close and personal, may be 10 feet away from a batch of 10. When the feeder toss out some raw chickens, these giant gecko move very quickly into position & swallow in a single bite. They ran very fast, forget about out run them! It's sad to read about these fasinating animals mauled a man to death but they are meat eater animal and fast and big and certainly dangerous !

流浮山炸生蠔

Woo-hoo, I figure out how to make 流浮山炸生蠔的脆漿 finally! It was awesome, thin and crunchy. Fry with canola oil. Lovely !

Peace before the storm

As much as I said I am going to pause my underwater activities. I went diving today :-) Well, it's 6+ weeks before CADiver Jr going to show up ... and it's a decent day before the Sunday storm. It was a bit windy but the water was quite flat, little bit surge, that's all. Good visz, 16 ft solid. The kick was I found the monkey face eel again by the wall and this time I really look hard at it for a while. Sadly I don't have a camera, this is the first time I dove without a camera in many years and I found myself 2 pounds positive. It was a bit of work to stay down at 16 ft !! Now I can truly say my Ikelite rig was HEAVY ! 2 pounds negative at least ! I also went check out the SeaTool housing for D300 at Backscatter, love that housing, hope the D90 version going to come out this year, otherwise ....

Nikon D90 Arrival

Got it last week. What a nice little camera, much improved from the D80 and has just about everything I would ever use from a D300 in a compact body and spare $500. I love the 3D tracking AF and fantastic high ISO performance.

Simple picture are much easier to take with better result. Don't know if it's the higher pixel count or more advance algorithm or better sensor or whatever but the picture just seems better.



My cooking/food pictures use to be never shot at higher than ISO400 on the D80 but now I can comfortably shoot at 800, 1000 or even more and skip the tripod. This is ISO 1000, f3.5 1/40.



Can't wait to take the D90 under water but it won't happen anytime soon unfortunately !

裁員滚滚來!!

This appears to be 2009 greeting/blessing carry forward from 2008 and it sunk further & deeper into the pit. I have no clue what's the cure. It also influence my decision to buy a Nikon D90 instead of the D300 ! Cheers ! Stay warm and dry and happy Friday the 13th, be safe, Jason was long gone !

Oops ! Out of diving commision for a couple months !

My friend from Japan was visiting us the last couple of weeks and we basically were totally wasted every other night. Somehow one of those intoxicated evening, I bang my right elbow against one of the door jam in my house so hard that it caused a fracture. So my right arm is basically disabled. Although no cast needed but I can't lift any heavy object, a gallon water bottle is already too heavy. It's going to take a few months to heal and I just have to take it easy, so diving might not happen anytime soon ! But you never know, I might still check out Breakwater in a couple of weeks, I just can't believe Spanish Shawl were spotted in Breakwater !
Check this out.

Decision, Decision, Decision ...

Since I almost sold everything, Nikon D80, Ikelite housing & ports and 1 DS-125 strobe, I am determine to start from scratch again. But here is the problem, D90 or D300 ?!! I am sticking to the DX format for a few more years. D90 is newer, D300 is older, both has the same sensor and mega pixel. D300 is better build but bigger & heavier. D90 is also heavier than D80 but it was the same body. Since one of my previous problem with the D80 was too heavy, I suppose going to D300 is not going to help ! I think I will ended up with a D90 and Nexus housing (SeaTool might not make the D90 even though it's on their website), will see ....