Self-dissatisfaction

Went along on a model-shoot trip to Malacca on Saturday, and returned with largely disappointing results.

About the food: lunch was spicy (nyonya food), which means I didn't have a lot to eat; the dinner place, unfortunately, allowed smoking - three smokers at the table effectively killed off most of my appetite.

Photography-wise.. I don't know. I had some really badly-focused/soft shots when using the 85mm f/1.8 at larger apertures (~f/2.2ish), and I'm sure it's all about my lousy technique, since focusing was spot-on in controlled testing. It didn't have anything to do with the dirty sensor, either.

(Geh-kiang me attempted to clean the camera's sensor the night before the trip, succeeding only in making it dirtier, consequently resulting in over an hour of frantic re-wiping/brushing/swabbing to restore it to a somewhat similar-to-begin-with state of filth. I sent the camera back to the Canon this morning to get it cleaned professionally, for 21 bucks and peace of mind.)

But what's worse was that nagging suspicion, as the photos marched across my screen, that I'm getting nowhere fast. Ignoring the out-of-focus, shaky-hand and otherwise technically faulty shots, when I looked over the photos I'd taken, I saw a whole lot of nothing special.

That's not where I want to be. And that's frustrating.

Over the past week
It's been mostly work, struggling between two projects that both require heavy international support and cursing the timezone and priority conflicts along the way.

Over on the food front, we tried this place called Family's Wok at North Bridge Road, courtesy of umami's food blog. Great food, hearty portions with reasonable pricing, definitely a go-again place. Unfortunately, that same night my parents' car was involved in a collision while looking for parking, which dampened the mood quite severely.

J and I had dinner at mezza9 the other night (she likes the fried rice), which proved to me once again that I simply don't know what to order there. After minutes of agonizing indecision I picked the lamb cutlets, which actually turned out to be quite nicely done. Pricey place. In retrospect, Pete's Place just downstairs might have been a better option, but done is done.

What else? I've been trying to get some people I know to try out Yahoo! 360, Y!'s new social-network-blog-photo-integration beta service. Will it be compelling enough? Will it go the way of Orkut? (Er.. whassat? Exactly!) Is it a question of too little too late? Even Friendster has been trying to get on the bandwagon, adding blogs and photo albums to their service.

Ping me if I know you and you want to give 360 a shot.