General

General

Oakley Unknown

By on Wednesday, February 21, 2007

The Oakley Unknown is one high-speed, low-drag (HSLD) piece of gear. It is has a sleek wraparound frame design that provides a wide field of vision. The frame is made of plastic (“O MATTER” in Oakley marketing parlance) which makes it very light so it doesn’t get burdensome while worn. Rubber (“Unobtainium”) earsocks keep a good grip and keep everything in place during rough activity.

The polycarbonate lenses (“Plutonite”) are very effective at blocking the sun but are extremely clear (“High-Definition Optics”) sometimes I think they’re not even there. The lenses supposedly exceeds ANSI Z87.1 Industrial Standards for impact protection. This means it can withstand a shotgun pellet from 30 ft but personally, I don’t want to find out if this works.

But what I like best is that it’s got that famous Oakley “mad science” look without being overly loud like some of their other designs.

Rating: 5/5

2
General

About

By on Monday, February 19, 2007

by Shades Apart

Watch the night sky at my window
While the world is fast asleep
I stare into the unknown
I will have no fear as long as you’re with me

I will catch your fall- I’ll keep the world away
Chasing after daydreams- I am unafraid
Catch me if I fall- in your arms I’m safe
Chasing after daydreams

World gone mad outside my window
Try to buy a higher life
I won’t need another thing
I will go on dreaming if you stay with me

I will catch your fall- I’ll keep the world away
Chasing after daydreams- I am unafraid
Catch me if I fall- in your arms I’m safe
Chasing after daydreams

Let them tell secrets about us
Jaded words don’t mean a thing
We are just beginning
There’s no limit we will go on chasing dreams

I will catch your fall- I’ll keep the world away
Chasing after daydreams- I am unafraid
Catch me if I fall- in your arms I’m safe
Chasing after daydreams

0
General

Hotel Rwanda

By on Sunday, February 18, 2007

Hotel Rwanda is the Schindler’s List for Africa. A lot has happened and is happening in that continent that the rest of the world don’t know or don’t even care about. One of those is the massacre of Tutsis by Hutus extremists in 1994. In the middle of this madness, a reluctant hotel manager was thrust into a situation where he can do what is right. He chose to do so. He opened the hotel he was managing to as many refugees as he can accomodate and used his contacts and influence to feed and protect them.

The sad thing is that while one man did what he can, the rest of the world, especially the US, didn’t do anything at all. It was left up to the Tutsis themselves to rid Rwanda of the Hutu extremists who carried out “acts of genocide” as the U.N. calls the mass murder of almost a million.

Today, “acts of genocide” are being carried out in the Darfur region of Sudan. And probably elsewhere too. But has the world learned its lesson and do something? So far it doesn’t seem that way.

Rating: 4/5

1
General

Pentax Optio WPi

By on Sunday, February 18, 2007

The Pentax Optio WPi is a camera you can bring almost anywhere, almost anytime. It is small, compact, and waterproof! (up to 5 ft for 30 minutes). Wrap it in the optional silicone rubber skin and it’s also reasonably rugged, too. It’s got good camera specs too: 6 megapixels, 3x optical zoom, and 2″ LCD monitor. The picture quality is pretty good. At the default setting, pictures are on the soft side but this can be adjusted easily. Quite good enough for snap shooting use.

This is the second of the “h2o cameras”. The first being the WP. The W10 was already available when I got this camera then but decided to get the WPi because of its slightly more compact size and lower price. As of this writing, the WP and the WPi have been discontinued and the W20 is out.

One gripe I have with the WPi is that it doesn’t have an autofocus assist lamp and thus does poorly at focusing under low-light conditions. Good thing there’s a manual focus feature. Another is that water drops sometimes sticks onto the lens, causing smudged pictures. But that’s what you get for using a camera in wet conditions. You just have to wipe the lens before taking shots.

Rating: 4/5

1
General

Apocalypto

By on Monday, February 12, 2007

In Apocalypto, Mel Gibson brought to life the Mayan civilization and used it as his setting. Novel enough in itself. Like The Passion of The Christ, he uses an archaic language. In this case, Mayan. Like the previous movie there are English subtitles. And that’s where the similarities end. Make no mistake: This is purely an action movie. And you get loads of gripping, adrenaline-pumping action especially during the long, extended climax where the escaped protagonist was being hunted by his former captors as he makes his way back to his village to rescue his family. Good enough for an action fix.

Rating: 3/5

1