The Wheel of Brisbane V

At long last, I have done it - a ride on the Wheel of Brisbane! Here's a video of my experience.

The Gorillapod

I've had my eye on this for a while now, and just this week, I spotted it at Harvey Norman for $34.95. The gorillapod! What a beauty.

So what is it? Basically, it's an extremely versatile tripod. It's made of about 30 fully articulating ball and socket joints, with soft rubber rings around each one and rubber feet. This means that it can be mounted onto basically any surface, or from any thing that it can cling on! The original version was made for light-weight digital cameras, but there are heavy-duty ones for SLRs too.

The main things I'm gonna be using the gorillapod for is for taking timer photos from almost anywhere without having to ask a stranger to take the shot, and possibly for more timelapse videography from cool positions. Here are some pictures (taken by my phone) of my gorillapod in action:

And here are some of the results:

Check out its website for more details. I highly recommend it!

A late September 08 update

Whew, quite a bit has happened recently.

I finished my 7-week teaching prac at St Laurence's College just last week. It was a good experience. Ended in a pretty fun way - I joined a bunch of grade 10 boys on an extra-curricular enrichment activity which lasted a week - Rich Tasks, it was called. The activity I joined was 3D Game Design. Pretty cool huh. We basically had a few talks on 3D animation and game design, and all got to design our own computer games using a program called gamemaker. I was gonna make a pinball game based on n-gage's mile high pinball, then I switched to a game based on popcap's mummymaze, and eventually created a game in the style of the classic tank game. Because it's a program I created, I'm completely free to distribute it for others to download and play. Might clean it up a little and showcase it on this blog some time perhaps. Here's a picture of a few kids playing my game.

This prac also saw me exhausting almost my entire repertoire of magic tricks - I showed the other prac teachers one magic trick each day as lunchtime entertainment. It kept them going, and it kept me going, really. Not sure if this link works, but I recorded my trick on the very last day: link.

I'm currently on holidays. Classes resume next week (I think) and go for a couple of months more, and then I'll be finished with my teaching degree! Quick hey. I only just started it 8 months ago. One big project I've given myself to complete over this week long holiday is the building of several video camera rigs. Namely a dolly, a camera stabiliser (like the steadicam), and a rig for doing low/ground shots. I'm using a book which I borrowed from my video buddy Andrew Gentle - Killer Camera Rigs That You Can Build. It's going well so far. I'll take some sample footage when I'm done and post it here.

Oh, I've also finally taken a ride on the Wheel of Brisbane!!! But I'll talk about that in its own post ;)

Followers

Just added a new gadget in my sidebar -- followers. Basically informs both me and you who's following this blog. I have a feeling it's only for other blogger users though. You may notice too that is has replaced my tagboard (not in function, but in position :p). We'll see what happens.

The Wheel of Brisbane IV

Last night, Claire and I were on a date at South Bank, and guess what we saw?!

The great Brisbane Wheel in all its glory. It was looking magnificent and brilliantly lit, and best of all, it was in operation!!

A 12-15 minute (giving 3-4 rotations) fully air-conditioned ride costs $15 for adults ($10 for kids), and $95 for a private gondola. Already, the queues were long.

So how did I find it? Well, Claire didn't let me go we decided to go another time (it was late) and perhaps in the day when we would be able to see much more of Brisbane. It would make for cooler shots too when we're in the gondola. So...stay tuned!! :p

In the meantime, here's a video of the wheel in action.

http://www.ourbrisbane.com/see-and-do/things-to-do/wheel-brisbane
http://www.worldtouristattractions.co.uk/wta_wheel_brisbane.php

Nokia N82 still the best camera phone

Both of those photos were taken with my Nokia N82 phone, boasting a 5.0mp camera with Carl Zeiss lens and a xenon flash.

You may say I'm biased, but I'm still convinced that the N82 has the best camera of any mobile phone by far. For one thing, 5.0 megapixels is currently still as high as it gets on camera phones. (altho Sony and Samsung have announced 8.0mp camera phones soonish.) Secondly, it has a xenon flash! That means I can take photos in complete darkness and you wouldn't even know. Most other camera phones have an LED flash, if at all. They're not too bad, but they produce slightly unnatural looking photos and don't do well at all in the dark. Check these links out to see what I mean.

At the moment, I can count on one hand the number of mobile phones there are which have a xenon flash. The Nokia N82, Nokia 6220 classic (new) and the Samsung G800! Please correct me if I've missed out any, but I'm pretty sure that's it. The LG Viewty has a strobe flash, which still falls short. What really boggles me is why we're not seeing the xenon flash on more phones. It's obviously obviously what every camera needs! ALL of Nokia's upcoming high-end models (N96, N85 etc.) have 5.0mp cameras with LED flashes. WHY?!

Oh well, that just means my N82 gets to be reigning camera phone for longer. It's weird that this phone didn't made it big here in Australia. It's so incredibly good! Wi-fi, a-GPS, 2.4" screen, 3.5mm headphone jack, s60 OS, the N-Gage platform... sigh.

Ok I'm done.

Batman Snacks

I saw this in Woolworths (a supermarket) last week. Personally, it's going a bit too far. Although admittedly, I really wanted to try it. Only thing was that I'd be paying $8 to buy these oddly shaped things that probably don't have any space for real chicken inside.

You really wonder how people get these ideas. Hmm...the Dark Knight is doing well...let's capitalise on that by producing chicken nuggets in the shape of Batman! Of course! We'll be rich!

You're quite a religious person, aren't you?

Oh, if I had a dollar for every time someone said this to me...

I'd probably only have about $5. But that's often enough to make me wonder what spurs this question and what response I should give.

I personally find it a very hard question to answer. I can't quite say no, because that would be giving a wrong impression. Yet I'm so hesitant to say yes, because of what that would be implying as well. The word religious is such a hairy one; what is it really describing? Are you religious if you pray at least 3 times a day? Are you religious if you go to church or a temple service weekly? Are you religious if you read your holy book regularly?

Imagine if I told someone outright "I am a very religious person". Think about all the implications and connotations that immediately conjures. I may as well have said "I am a bigot". Or "I am holier than thou". "I am a fundamentalist who will never budge from my beliefs". Well, that's what I'd think anyway.

But then again...some people describe themselves as religious in with the intention of distancing themselves from organised religion (another phrase that I dislike). "No, I don't believe in any particular religion, but I am religious." Religious, in that sense, is synonymous with spiritual. Or at least, spiritual as we know it today. So is that what I'm implying if I agree that I'm a religious person?

How am I meant to answer that question, if religious can mean both fundamentalist and vague spiritualist? Am I religious? Well, what does that question even mean?

I love Jesus, and I am not ashamed to say that. I am completely convinced by overwhelming evidence that there is a God, who has revealed Himself through His word and His Son. I am convinced too that Jesus is the only way to salvation, and that if you believe otherwise, you are wrong.

FUNDAMENTALIST!

Well, if the above fits your definition of a fundamentalist, then I must admit that that's what I am. And indeed, I do believe in the fundamental tenets of my religion.

But I am not immune to argument. If you can convince me with solid evidence that my beliefs are wrong, I will choose to believe in truth. I believe in God not because I have to (or I inherited my religion) but because I choose to.

And I do not think I am holier than anyone. I will be the first to admit that I am sinful. I don't think that believing in God makes me better than anyone. It just means I have been forgiven.

But you believe that your beliefs are right and that everyone else's beliefs are wrong!

What's wrong with that?

As in literally, what is wrong with that belief? If you don't believe in an objective right or wrong, how can you even say that that belief is wrong?

There is nothing wrong with believing that your beliefs are right. But there's something wrong if you believe that no beliefs are wrong.

Think about it - who doesn't have a belief about God/god and our purpose? Everyone believes something, whether it's that God is there or not there or good or bad or a he or she or distant or one essense with us; or whether life is about just being happy or minimising suffering or obeying a divine will or obeying your own will. Human beings aren't just occasionally religious; we're incurably religious! We can't help being religious!

I just happen to have a set of beliefs that fits the current narrow definition of religious - I believe in God and try to let my faith affect my life.

So you are religious.

If you're really just asking whether I'm a non-atheist (and I suspect that that's what most people mean), then the answer is yes, I am religious.

But if you want to be pedantic, so are you ;)