This is going to be an eccentric post, so please bear with me.

This year’s Chinese New Year falls on the same day as Valentine’s Day (February 14) Do I give a hoot about the former? No. The latter? Yes Anyways, I’ll be working the whole weekend…I prefer it that way. The only nice thing about Chinese New Year is that I get to take a break from my teaching, so that’s definitely a plus point (this is one of our major Malaysian holidays, Miss Miller, and yes I do work)

It was very nice of my music school administrator to give me this New Year hamper (or basket, for my American friends) There’s a variety of stuff inside, including edibles and dunno what else, LOL. And yes, I’ll open it later. The picture was taken as usual with my Canon PowerShot SX120 IS; I just love this camera, the colors are so vibrant.

I’ve written two new posts for My Musical Life, my other blog. Please have a look.

I’ve watched Avatar twice…once by myself and once with my Mom. Since the tickets only cost $1.80 per adult, why not? I thought Mom would doze off halfway thru the movie but my word, she was glued to the screen! She said it was a good flick. Rumors are flying about the Internet that James Cameron will make a sequel. Of course I’m not going to hold my breath (it took him 7 years before Terminator 2 hit the screens)

Unlike all the other citizens here, I am not a fan of Chinese movies. In fact I absolutely despise them with a vengeance, especially the Cantonese soaps and serials—yuck! Give me NCIS, Fringe, CSI, Criminal Minds, and Bones any time—these are my favorite TV shows.

Music? My current fave is Katherine Jenkins, the Welsh singer. Beautiful voice, and her latest album Believe is pure magic. My favorite songs there are Bob Marley’s No Woman No Cry, Richard Marx’ Fear of Falling, and Queen’s Who wants to live forever. Buy this album, it’s superb.

Unfortunately I’ve had to cut down on my swimming—the doc said I was overdoing it, can you imagine that? So I now swim maybe about 3 or 4 times a week, 16 laps maximum. And I’m supposed to eat more protein, so all you chickens had better watch out. My glucose levels have actually decreased, which is good since my Mom’s diabetic. My cholesterol level has dropped from 5.8 (2 years ago) to 5.4 now. I’ll be guzzling the oatmeal for sometime yet!

I still give thanks to God for everything that I have, especially my health and my eyes—it’s been months since my cataract operation last year and I still can’t get over the fact that I wake up each morning and can see clearly when I open my eyes!

I’ve been having ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, besides oatmeal and peanut butter sandwiches. Bananas are my favorite fruit because they’re good for…oh well never mind (don’t blech, Miss M) And Tudor Gold dark chocolate is simply wonderful, full of antioxidants and it does elevate my happiness levels.

There are challenges coming up for me this year—I don’t like them, but I have to face them. Might as well get them over with.

Penang’s weather is awful at this time of the year. Hot, with very little rain, and pollutants make my nose itchy and sore—ugh!

For you lovebirds out there, yes Love does make the world go round. My favorite quote for now is this one: “You don’t love a woman because she is beautiful. She is beautiful because you love her.” Happy Valentine’s Day.

Told you this would be a quirky post.

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Just did this on a whim, I was feeling happy with myself. And yes, the Canon PowerShot SX120IS is a fantastic camera!

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In contrast to my blogging episode at Starbucks a few weeks ago (the latte was watered down, Internet connectivity was poor, and lots of children were running around) I decided tonight to cross over to the Coffee Bean for some web surfing away from home. And what a difference! I ordered a nice Ice Blended Hazelnut coffee with cream (very nice aroma and thick), I was alone in the air-conditioned section and the wireless connectivity’s excellent. And LOL, they’re already playing Christmas tunes in the background.

Speaking of Christmas, I can hardly believe that 2009 will be drawing to a close in a month or so. I’ll be accompanying the E & O Nightingales when they sing Christmas carols for the lighting of the Christmas Tree in the hotel lobby on December 1. This will be my 5th time doing it—I still get an adrenaline rush on the actual day…will post some pictures if I can remember.

Awww, Bing Crosby’s singing “White Christmas” as I’m typing this—that song always gets to me when I hear him sing it (yeah I’m such a softie) No more Christmas presents for me, since I’ve already acquired my Dell Studio 15 laptop and my Canon PowerShot SX120IS digital camera. And dang someone’s singing “The Christmas Song” over the speakers—I like these tunes when they’re done in a mellow style.

Right now a close friend of mine is celebrating her birthday, while another friend should be expecting her baby daughter anytime now (edit: she has given birth to a healthy baby girl). It’s so nice to have Windows Live Messenger to keep in touch with my close friends—I feel as if the miles don’t matter any more. I’m sitting back and chuckling at how difficult it was to keep in touch with my parents, for example, when I was studying in Arizona in the early ‘80’s. Snail mail (aka air mail) used to take roughly 10 days, and the only other forms of communication were the Western Union telegram and/or calling them on IDD. If only we had email and instant messaging then!

Okies, time to pack it up and head back home. And if you’re a Starbucks fan, I apologize…each to his/her own tastes, right?

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A: Arizona, America

I had originally intended to continue my music studies in the UK but as life would have it, circumstances changed and I found myself in this new continent (see this post) I remember those years fondly, 1981-1984. A new country, a new environment, new friends…if I could relive it I’d do it all over again (perhaps with a few changes here and there, *wink!*) Notwithstanding the countless nights I spent studying away at the library till 2 a.m. in the morning just to maintain my GPA, days of toil in the practice rooms with crappy pianos…and working at one of the staff restaurants in the Student Union—these experiences remain as priceless treasures in my memories.

Arizona is probably one of the sunniest places on Earth. Couple that with blue and smog-free skies, good native folks, and good food (burp!) it’s probably one of the nicest places to be in. Well perhaps not in the summertime though, lol.

B: Books, Birthdays, Blessings

I’ve loved books since I was young. Thanks to my parents, I had a steady stream of books flowing my way. There were comics, fairy tales, educational books, story books, encyclopedias, etc. I devoured them all. Later on it was Reader’s Digest, TIME, Newsweek, novels, etc. And when I became a computer geek with the launch of Windows 95 the flow of books became a torrent—especially with the For Dummies range of books—I loved those, they were so engrossing to read. I must have at least two dozen of them sitting in my bookshelves and cupboards.

The books I’ve read lately include:

• The Rules of Love by Richard Templar. 100 rules, each only two pages long, but what a wealth of information on this elusive and fickle subject!
• Got What It Takes? by Bill Boggs. “Successful people reveal how they made it to the top.” A very, very inspiring book to read—now let me find Donald Trump or Sir Richard Branson’s email address and telephone numbers.
• Reader’s Digest Select Editions 4 best selling books combined into one, at an unbeatable price.
• You: The Owner’s Manual by Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz. I must thank Joi Sigers for pointing me to this fascinating book in her wonderful blog. I was at a bookstore last night, and what do you know, this book was on sale—I couldn’t believe it, it was going for only $10! You: The Owner’s Manual and I quote: “challenges  your preconceived notions about how the human body works and ages, then takes you on a tour through all of the highways, back roads, and landmarks inside of you.”
• Oops, confession time. I haven’t read this one in a while, so I really have to get back to it. Yes, I’m talking about the Bible, the greatest book ever written—period.

I love birthdays, especially my own This year’s was great—read all about it in my earlier posts:

• BBQ Bonanza
• Canon PowerShot SX120IS
• A wonderful weekend escapade

I don’t bat an eyelid about the growing old routine. In fact I just completed a comprehensive quiz at realage and found that I am actually 5 years younger than my calendar age—woot! So let me have another slice of my birthday cake, preferably blueberry cheese.

I have a funny ritual that I do every every morning I wake up: I flex all my ten fingers and toes, and I thank God for another day ahead, and that I have all my five senses fired up and ready to go. When I hit the sack at night, I thank the Lord again for another blessed day, and drift off to sleep. Want happiness in your life? Always count your blessings. 

C: Coffee, Chocolate, Computers

My three vices and they both happen to begin with the letter C. Yes I am a coffee addict, but a very well-controlled one (or a very predictable one, take your pick) I need a mug of caffeine in the morning (very important, or else I’d end up with a splitting headache) and then another in the afternoon. I used to drink coffee with sugar way back in the 80’s (I know it’s disgusting, Miss Miller, do bear with me) but these days I take just a pinch of sugar in my java. Honestly if I didn’t have at least a cup of coffee a day, I’d go weak in the knees and dissolve into a pile of filthy-stained denims. What’s more—unlike some people that I envy, I can’t consume any java after 7 pm or so. Unless I want to remain awake the whole night.

Chocolate makes me happy. I like it in any form, whether it’s the usual dark chocolate bar (my favorite), chocolate ice cream, chocolate cake (the E & O Hotel always has nice black forest cake, yummy), etc. And baloney about chocolate giving you acne and all that rubbish—I just make sure I drink plenty of water after I finish this heavenly snack. Moreover, dark chocolate contains flavonoids (an antioxidant), which…

…can help maintain a healthy heart and good circulation, and reduce blood clotting that could lead to heart attack and stroke. Flavonoids help the body by neutralizing potentially cell-damaging substances known as oxygen-free radicals, which are a normal by-product of metabolism (taken from this heart disease website)

The same website also states that every 100g of dark chocolate contains approximately 500 calories. There’s a possibility of gaining weight here if one goes overboard on the chocolate ship, but since I never seem to gain much weight, I can  brush that one aside—muahaha!

The first computer I ever bought was an Apple IIe clone way back in 1986. Then there was this humongous desktop beast, a 486DX with 4MB of RAM running Windows 3.1. I went through a succession of computers after that, “graduating” with each introduction of a new OS. I used to have a friend who would bail me out whenever my computers went on the fritz…I’d be calling him practically every week (the operating systems at that time were unstable, you know) That is, until one fateful day when he blurted out to me very plainly, “You can’t expect me to come straightaway every time you’ve got computer troubles…” or something to that effect. I was taken aback at first, maybe a little hurt. Then something inside me figured that it might be high time to learn the ins and outs of the PC, which is what I did. I bought books and computer magazines, and learned the ropes…and the rest is history (such a modest guy am I)

I’ve been servicing, repairing, and building Intel-based computers for years now and needless to say I’m pretty good at it (Miss Modesty has gone off again). I’m waiting eagerly for the release of Windows 7 just round the corner…this may prove to be another excuse to upgrade that small 80GB hard disk of mine. We shall see!

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September was a glorious month for me. Here are the highlights:

• Bought my birthday present (the Canon PowerShot SX120 IS) way ahead of schedule. Yes, I was naughty, so what?
• The Piano Idol finals at the Copthorne Orchid Hotel—it was the second time I was asked to judge, and I was very pleased with the overall standards. Will there be a third time for me? Dunno.
• The BBQ gathering at the Pau’s residence was awesome. Lots of food and drink and nice company.
• My 49th birthday of course, on September 26. And the crème de la crème was spending a night at the E & O Hotel, coupled with an unforgettable buffet breakfast the next morning. What a blast! Er…Mike, if you’re reading this–can I do it again, soon?

Now here comes October (or what’s left of it, almost halfway through) and—blech, nada, nothing much happening. There are peaks and there are valleys, I suppose. Here are some “exciting” things (yes, I’m being sarcastic here, hee hee) that I’ve been doing to keep myself preoccupied:

• Relearning some classical pieces from the past. See this post.
• I’m still contemplating about giving my website a total makeover. It’s beginning to fill with cyber cobwebs and someone said it’s high time I gave it a good spring-cleaning.
• I’m trying to get my blog-writing juices running again. Hopefully this post is a sign of more stuff to come.
• Bought Avira’s Antivir Premium antivirus locally. Pretty decent price ($13 USD) for a 13-month license. I’ve also downloaded and installed Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) which is a neat antispyware program. It’s free and except for a strange quirk (which I’ll explain in a later post) I like it.
• Christmas rehearsals for the lighting of the Christmas Tree at the hotel are due to start this Friday October 16th. Time flies.
• Catching up with some of the current movies. I prefer to watch them on DVD because I despise the censorship in the cinema halls. Some movies I’ve watched and enjoyed include: State of Play, Obsessed, 12 Rounds, The Taking of Pelham 123, Terminator Salvation, and Star Trek. The last one is simply amazing—I’ve been a Trekkie all my life and J.J. Abrams did an excellent job with the retelling. Looking forward to the sequels!

So there you have it. Aside from eating my oats, doing my laundry, having leftovers for lunch, paying the monthly bills (ugh), teaching students, I lead a pretty exciting life huh. Until the next post, this is Philip, signing off.

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Note: Seeing as this is a personal review, I will only cover the features of the Canon PowerShot SX120IS that I’ve tried and used.

So I’m at the local Canon store and the guy hands me the Canon PowerShot SX120IS. His eyes display a genuine amazement at this camera—10 mega pixels, 3” LCD screen, 10x optical zoom, Digic 4, Face detection…all for around $250USD. I confess trying out its bigger brother too, the PowerShot SX20IS. However, I would have to cough up another $200 for it—no way. The SX120IS is good enough for me.

This camera is a joy to hold, because it’s not too slim and at the same time not so large as a DSLR. Moreover, the coarser black finish prevents fingerprints from showing up, a plus in my book. Loading the memory card and the batteries is a snap; the battery compartment cover is pretty tight though, so it does take some effort to close it. The SX120IS powers up very quickly, there is a startup sound which can be turned off if desired. The startup sound can also be adjusted between 5 different volume levels. This applies too to the operational buttons, self-timer, and shutter sounds.

The 3” LCD screen is just glorious; its brightness can be customized. You can choose how much information you want displayed. Its only failing is when you try to view it outdoors in bright sunlight—not easy, and without a built-in viewfinder you’ll have to shield the monitor screen with one hand while taking pictures. I’ve noticed that more and more digital cameras nowadays are doing away with the viewfinder as LCD screens become larger. Oh well.

I tend to use Auto mode most of the time while shooting, since it’s the easiest to use—why don’t I use Easy mode? (pun intended) Ah, here we come to another quirk of the SX120IS. I don’t like using Easy mode because it doesn’t allow you to print the date and/or time, period. I like to have the date printed on my pictures as a record, but I’m sure there will be people who prefer not to; in that case Easy mode will do just that, without one having to access the Menu options to turn the date/time imprinting off.

Program mode is basically the same as Auto mode, except that you have the option of making the flash fire every time you shoot. You can also have the flash on auto (the camera will decide whether the picture needs flash or not) There is also a slow synchro flash option in Program mode, though you’d need a tripod for doing this.

Scene mode comes in handy when you’re taking pictures like foliage, kids, snow, and even an aquarium, believe it or not. Here’s a comparison of the same scene, taken with different modes. I used Scene mode > Foliage for the first shot and Auto mode for the second. Both pictures are unedited. You can see that Scene mode > Foliage enhances the color of the greenery.

I’ve also discovered that the flash can get very confused when confronted with difficult lighting. For instance, the flash just had a hiccup when I tried taking some pictures during the Piano Idol finale…then again other friends reported the same problem with their cameras, because the lighting tended to be tungsten and changed dramatically from one moment to the next. So it wasn’t entirely the SX120IS’s fault.

Movie mode is another feature I’ve been experimenting with. The SX120IS captures movies using the avi format, and audio is encoded as mono wave files. It doesn’t have HD though. All the videos featured in my blog from My First Video post were taken with the camera perched on a tripod, with the exception of Anthea’s video which was hand-held. An 8GB memory card allows about an hour’s worth of video.

The self-timer (as I’ve discovered) is another bright feature of the SX120IS. There are many options available:

• 10-second self-timer
• 2-second self-timer
• Custom timer
• Face self-timer

The first two are self-explanatory. The custom timer as its name implies, allows you to set the time delay (from 0 to 30 seconds) and the number of shots (1 to 10). There is a beeping sound and a blinking light (both become faster just before the camera takes the picture). The Face self-timer is pretty ingenious. Select this option, compose the shot, and press the shutter button fully. Join your friends in the picture and once the camera detects a new face (yours) the lamp and beep will speed up and two seconds later the shutter is released. Not only that, the camera will take another further two shots (great for those candid moments) Again you can change this if you wish. Another nifty thing about the self-timer is that you can even use it in Movie mode (yes I’ve done that) so for instance I can engage the self-timer and then seat myself ready at the piano.

Thus far pictures taken with the SX120IS have turned out to be sharp and vibrant. Just be aware that flash shots tend to be more subtle and natural; if you want bright paparazzi-style shots, this is not the camera for you, unless you use Program and/or Manual modes where the flash intensity can be regulated by the user.

I’ll keep experimenting with this camera and may post further about any new features that I try. In conclusion I will say that I have no regrets buying the SX120IS—this camera gives a lot of bang for the buck.

LIKES

• Takes sharp, vibrant pictures
• 10x optical zoom
• Bright 3” LCD screen
• A wide range of shooting modes
• Inclusion of Manual mode (something not found in many of the Digital Ixus/Elph models)
• Controls are easy to use
• Camera feels very sturdy, not plasticky
• Uses 2 AA batteries
• Instruction manual is easy to read and understand
• Battery life is good

DISLIKES

• Flash has to be manually activated and deactivated
• Flash effect is subtle compared to other cameras
• The zoom control is too fast, not good for on the spot candids
• No viewfinder
• Easy mode does not allow date/time imprinting
• No HD movie recording
• A choice of finish other than black would be appreciated 

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Note: all the pictures featured in my blog from My Morning Walk post onwards were taken with the Canon PowerShot SX120IS.

Here’s what you’ll find when you open the SX120IS box:

• The SX120IS
• 2 AA-size alkaline batteries
• A 128MB SD memory card
• A camera to PC interface cable
• A camera to TV AV cable
• Wrist strap
• Getting Started Guide
• Digital Camera solutions CD
• Warranty card

The folks at the local Canon store here were kind enough to give me an 8GB SDHC memory card, which has enough storage for close to 3,000 pictures and an hour of video, plus a Canon soft pouch for storing the camera. The icing on the cake was a free extended 2-year warranty from Canon, which means that now my SX120IS has a warranty lasting 3 years! Beat that.

The detailed instruction manual is in Adobe PDF format on the CD (Canon is being environment-friendly here) so you’ll have to view it on your computer or print out a hard copy yourself. Canon’s Zoom Browser software is also included, but I didn’t feel the need to install it as I’ve already got my own picture viewing/editing software installed. Needless to say the camera is instantly detected on connection to your computer if you’re using Windows XP or Vista.

You can get about 100 shots using alkaline batteries, and over 300 using NiMH rechargeables. The camera doesn’t have a viewfinder, so all viewing has to be done with the 3” LCD monitor screen, which is bright and sharp. However, trying to view this in bright sunlight outdoors is difficult, so in a sense I do miss having a viewfinder. The SX120IS starts up in less than 2 seconds, ready to take pictures immediately.

A plethora of shooting modes are available to the user:

• Manual
• Aperture priority
• Shutter priority
• Program
• Auto
• Easy
• Portrait
• Landscape
• Night snapshot
• Kids and Pets
• Indoor
• Scene Mode (which has sub-modes)
• Movie

My preferred mode is Auto, because all you do is point the camera, zoom, and shoot. Press the shutter button halfway to focus, and all the way to shoot. The camera will beep twice and the back indicator will light green. If the indicator lights orange and “Raise the flash” appears on the LCD, you’ll have to raise the flash yourself. That’s right, this is one of the few quirks of the SX120IS—the flash unit does not automatically pop up (is Canon trying to go retro here?) I can live with this, but some people might find this a wee bit annoying. And it goes without saying that you’ve got to lower the flash yourself after you’re done with it. Another thing I’ve noticed in Auto mode is that you can’t use the flash for fill-in or force it to fire if the camera deems it unnecessary. If you want to force the flash to fire or fill-in you’ll have to use Program mode.

While on the subject of flash, I’ve noticed that compared to my A510 PowerShot, the flash on the SX120IS has a more subtle effect. In other words, flash shots tend to be more natural, in stark contrast to the A510 which tends to give a full burst of flash resulting in shots where every spot and blemish on faces can be easily seen. You can adjust the flash exposure compensation in Program mode, and the flash output can be adjusted in Manual mode. Personally I just leave it to the camera and it comes out with good results most of the time.

Controls on the camera are well-placed—the On/Off button, mode dial, shutter release and zoom buttons are on top and have a solid feel to them. I like the fact that the Auto mode position is colored green and Easy mode is red. Makes it very easy for me to see which mode I’ve set without putting on my reading glasses. There’s also a mono microphone, a speaker, and a lamp for the self-timer, AF assist beam, and red-eye reduction.

On the back from the top we have the Playback button, buttons for face detection and single erase/exposure compensation, the rotary control dial with ISO, Flash, Macro/Manual Focus and Self-Timer, finishing up with the Display and Menu buttons at the bottom. The rotary dial is a breeze to use and while it doesn’t have any clicks, picture icons appear on the LCD screen when you’re using it.

Using the camera will be covered in Part 3.

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