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And here's a few pics of 'The Monster', which is what I've decided to call the long driveway - the better to aspire to beat it I suppose.

Last pic is the University itself. I used my phone cam so they're not all that great. I'll use Laszlo, my Canon Powershot next time.

Pics were taken around 6:30am today. No I cannot run the whole way yet. I think the only thing that's motivating me to even try is knowledge of the fact that I once could (and way much more so) - which if you think about it is a great reason to start kids early into sports and keeping in shape. If you try to get in shape when you're way older it'd be so much harder not knowing you had that ability once.

Anyway today is the 30th, which is like this last big nothing to do day in between Christmas and New Year. I can hear some neighbor's loud stereo and a bunch of kids walking about the streets. Did I say how peaceful and tranquil it is here? Even some neighbors left for their respective provinces, leaving me and neighbor beside me as the only houses occupied.

I think I'll go to Alabang today, to grocery and hook up with The Jill. Later.

Anyway point is, I've been doing the rounds of events and have started to make plans of my own, all involving the nice - to - have ability to produce good great fantastic images. Laszlo's CMOS or whatever image gathering engine it has (I forgot) is up to the task. The problem is the lenses, or rather, the flexibility I miss if you can't change to macro or wide angle lenses, or even insert filters. I absolutely loooved filters. I was Da Master of filters. I don't think Laszlo's lens can even do basic 35mm stuff the older SLRs could.

But then again, it's size and compactness is great for approximately 75% of the tasks I set it too, which is bring it around and take quick shots of spontaneous situations. Unfortunately, if I wanna do the level of quality that'd appeal to advertorial standards (in other words, stuff clients will pay good money for), we need to bring in the big guns.

The alternative of course, is just to hire a pro. And hey that doesn't sound like a bad idea really.

But still.

Arrgh.

Maybe after I buy a new PC.

Oh wait but I do!

Meet Laszlo:

Named after a character in the book Jill happened to be reading, (and one of my favorite movies) The English Patient. The procurement of which (the camera, not the book) a result of the combination of the falling dollar plus the benevolence and industriousness of U.S. based friends.

You won't believe how cheap the camera, plus two pieces Eneloop Batteries, a charger PLUS a 1gb. SD Sandisk Card turned out to be. It turned out so cheap that I'm not gonna say it here since.. oh i dunno, it seems almost a sin to get it that cheap. A hint: the alternative was to buy a 5mpixel much older cousin, the A460, which at the moment is being sold here in the Philippines for approximately 1k MORE than what I paid for my loot. That's right, that's JUST THE CAMERA, meanwhile I get the batts + charger and 1gb RAM as well.

Funny how you never really expect to get a bargain when you do. I had been saving up and biding my time for so long to get a decent cam and when it finally happened, the feeling is almost strange. I feel happy, but at the same time I knew it was gonna work out because I bided my time. (*bided - is that even a word?)

Anyways, I'm more happy at what having a decent cam means: the chance to get better images for the sites - one of our more prevailing issues. Finally we won't have to rely so much on stock photos and Photoshop, and I can take better pictures of the stuff I sell on the Kikay Shop - one of the bigger thorns on my side and mainly what's keeping me from offering even more stuff there.

Another interesting thing I've recently realized is that an annual Flickr.com account costs only P1,024.00 at our current rate. After having to pay through the nose for hosting costs at the latter part of last year I gotta tell you that is a good deal.

Be prepared to see a whole lot more color on this blog in the coming weeks. Maybe I can change that Ferrari finally at the top. It reminds me way too much of Willie Revillame.