Death by Decepticon

The post-meltdown General Motors looks to divest some of its lines, including Pontiac. The last striking image I saw of the Pontiac was that of Autobot Jazz, a Pontiac Solstice coupe, being ripped apart by Megatron in the final scenes of the Transformers movie.

Before his demise, Jazz was putting up a weak fight against Megatron, firing puny little lasers that barely appeared to even tickle the evil leader. He was screaming "You want a piece of me? You want a piece of me?" [Pew pew pew!] And Megatron booms "No, I want TWO!" and then tears Jazz up accordingly into two flailing hunks of scrap metal.

That sums up the fate of Pontiac. GM was a big partner in the Transformers movie. Almost every automobile was one of their brands. Now that GM has been brought to its knees, the long foreshadowed fate of Pontiac is clear for all to see. If Lamborghini or Ferrari featured a vehicle in the Transformers movie, they would never have let their robot be abused by another. GM was asking for it, haha!

Good bye, Pontiac! Your Aztec model was such an ugly bugger too!

Err 99

After producing many quality images the DSLR is dying! I have been getting this message about shooting not being possible. Went on to Canon forums to check out this Error 99 message. Seems like plenty of users all over have met with such a problem at some point. Lots of people believe this to be a quality control issue at Canon's production facilities.

Been cleaning the camera body and lens contacts. Sometimes the problem goes away, sometimes it doesn't. I'm feeling unhappy because this is the DSLR failing me at a crucial time like this.

But in better times, these are some of the pictures it has been instrumental in producing.

And now, this is getting to be a drag. It can still take pictures, just that this randomly occurs and the only way to resolve it is to reboot the whole camera.

Si, si, si!

Antonio tells me he finds the neighbours noisy. Sometimes I think so too, like when I try to sleep in on days when I don't have class in the morning. I ask him what he hears. He says on some nights, "sex." I ask how he's sure it's sex. He says, a lady goes "si, si, si!"

In Italian, si = yes.

Business Ideas to bring back to Singapore

1) Doner Kebabs (Kebab sandwiches)
2) Aperitivo (Cocktail session; buy a drink and get a free buffet)
3) H & M (Swedish department store)
4) C & A (Another cheap department store)
5) Crap flea markets (So cheap, so perfect for Singaporeans)
6) Museum of Ham (Cheap ham sandwich chain)

Wow if I didn't already know, I'd have guessed Singaporeans are just a cheap lot!

Photo Frenzy

Wading through the gigabytes of photographs now. Man! The price of the perfect shot is paid after all the fun and joy has been had.

I'm alive, I'm alive

Sitting in an internet cafe in downtown Cologne, Germany, where the Friday night/Saturday dawn droves of drunkards make it unsafe for lone Asians to wander the streets. Trips have been marvelous. It has been the most amazing Easter ever. None of that useless one day off Good Friday nonsense we rejoice over in Singapore, that complete perfunctory scrap of soul-less holiday that the Europeans consider blasphemous not to have three weeks of celebration for.

Cologne is a small city, but so gorgeous at that. At ground level beneath the imposing cathedral the city spans out, littered with churches and churches and ramparts of old fortifications. The Rhine River divides Cologne; a huge, yawning, watery divide that is so wide you could stuff all of Cologne within its depths.

Porsches and Merc'es and BMWs and Audis and Volkswagens strut the streets, a loyal and patriotic show of German pride. Bratwursts pop and crackle on grills, and the clinks of beer bottles tell even the blind that this is Germany.

Nice to be back in Deutscheland.

Barcelona Baller

[Title of this post derived from Zhaobin's new word]

Just got home from Barcelona. Gorgeous place. So full of out-of-this-worldness. Take for example this disgustingly huge landmark known as the Sagrada Familia temple. It looks like a monument drizzled with tons of molten wax, and adorned with sculptures enacting tales of the Sacred Family, as well as a dude made out of gold who sits on a beam, lording over all the tourists that gawk skyward at him. The most amazing thing about this temple is neither its scale nor its imposing facade, but the fact that it has been under construction for nearly a century, and yet still looks to be that way for another half a century more. Forever a construction in process account.


There's also Park Guell, which is almost paradise on Earth. In it there's the famous little Gaudi dragon, a mosaic-covered water-spewing reptile that is never left alone because tourists are all over it for photographs. It's cute, but slightly overrated. I thought it would be huge and gaudy, but it's just little and gaudy. Years of intense sunlight have also faded out some of its resplendence.


Another of Gaudi's works is this. The Casa Batllo (in Spanish and Catalonian a double L is read with a Y sound). A marine-inspired apartment building that happens to be shoulder to shoulder with a booby Guess model. Guess was smart then, to place such a conspicuous advertisement next to a building as curious-looking as this. Plenty of people flock to take photographs of this architectural masterpiece. When they review their pictures, they probably go 'Oh the not-so-subliminal messages! I am going out to buy Guess products now!'


Of course apart from the amazing history and architecture of this colourful city, Barcelona is also notorious for its thieving little pickpocket scum population. The deftest and most feather-fingered professionals trawl the streets and public transportation systems looking for easy targets. Apparently they considered Melissa one of them (in fact I did too; just the night before we left for Spain I told her I wasn't going to stand near her because she looked like she was definitely going to get something stolen from her) and made off with her purse within two hours of us landing in Spain. Such a spain in the neck when you have no credit cards or money left.

It was marvellous though, that pickpockets come in all shapes and sizes, much like faeces does. The one that got her wallet was probably some batty old fart (the bus we were on was crowded out with frail folks with curly white hair and bent-over spines). Shame on them. So here's what not to do, if you're going to Spain, or most parts of Europe for that matter, where the artful dodgers live.

1) Put your back against the wall at all times when you're stationary. That way you can see those buggers approaching.
2) Quit yapping so much with your friend, because then you lose focus. Pickpockets love distracted targets.
3) Same thing with taking pictures; just don't be so absorbed. Unless you're intending to photograph your suspect.
4) Hands in your pockets at all times (it makes you look cooler too lol). This also draws attention away from the inside of your jacket, where your wallet really is.
5) Diversify. Applies to investments too. Financial markets are pickpockets too, if you haven't realised how many fortunes have been lost.
6) Conjure up a nasty disposition so thieves keep away. Nothing does a better job than a facial expression that promises a retribution worse than death.
7) Keep 'F*** you' notes in your pockets so thieves get a piece of your mind. That way even if they're successful, you get back at 'em. In a way.
8) Inflate your loss amount so your insurance reimbursement compensates everything, including your inconveniences.

What I really liked about Spain was also the whole concept of a siesta. You can get away with napping every afternoon and not have to worry about being labelled a sloth, because, like all great practices, it's simply explanable as culture.

And, because I just got back from Spain and am still adjusting back to my Italian lifestyle, I am going to have a siesta right now. Good night. Madrid update tomorrow.

Spagna

Leaving home for Barcelona in less than an hour. I'll have updates for you in a week. And then, Char, Guowei, Daniel, Peter and Willy come over to Milan.

I'm really looking forward to Barcelona; I hear architecture there is amazing. Look up 'Gaudi'. In an alternate universe I believe I could be an architect. I've realised how much I love looking at buildings in this tour of Europe. Of course I wish I could study the buildings from more angles, especially from elevated positions.

Madrid will follow, and it's going to be fantastic. Temperature's going to be so good too, high teens to twenties. How comfortable is that!

One other thing, in Italian, 'gn' is pronounced as 'ni'; 'gl' is pronounced as 'li'. Silent G's. So, don't go saying things like Bo-log-na, it is Bo-lo-nia. And Ferrari's Scaglietti is not how you would pronounced it in English. Silent G, remember!

A Trader's Diet

What I read and what I eat. I thought the commodities on my plate were funny. Catch ya later. Cooking time.

This is Art

EUR/JPY, 1m, Today

This, my friends, is art. Things are nice and calm the whole day, and all of a sudden, the currency pair whipsaws all over the place like a maniac. In the ensuing insanity I got stopped out of a trade. When I checked to see if it was a good time to enter again, the bid-ask spread had ballooned to a yawning 27 pips. Usually, it's 4. 27 pips means you need your trade to make 27 pips before breaking even. On a good day I make 60-80 pips. 27? You gotta be kidding. At least I walked out of this one with 2. Damn whipsaws. At least it's still a profit. I can't imagine how many people got screwed over in those few minutes.

One thing I've learned in my short trading career is this. Be patient. You don't win big in the blink of an eye. And, have the courage to wait things out, even if the situation looks like the biggest FML moment in your life. More lessons some other time when I'm feeling all worldly and wise and in a mood to dispense crap to you.

Pisa in a day, 15 Mar 2009

I was really bored so I knew I had to get out and do something. Originally, I purchased tickets to Rome for April when Char and the boys come over, but then Daniel managed to find cheap tickets for Rome on Easyjet, so we decided we'll all fly instead of taking a 6-hour train ride down south. Which left me with two tickets to Rome at hand. I went to see if I could change them to Pisa tickets, and yes it was possible! So I swapped out my Rome tickets at Centrale Stazione for a Pisa round trip ticket. Even got a cash refund for the balance!

Almost missed the train like a certain apartment mate of mine. The thing was, my ticket said Milan -> Pisa, so I was looking at the train schedules at the station for a Destination Pisa. There weren't any, so I figured I was early (which I really was), and would check again closer to my boarding time. Right up to 3 minutes before departure there still wasn't any Destination Pisa. I started to check the schedules more clearly, and only realised Pisa was one of the along-the-way stations to an ultimate destination that was far from Pisa.

Got on the train just fine. Kept falling asleep and getting up over and over again for 4 hours. When I arrived at Pisa, I was struck by how much it felt more like a village than a city. The town was so small I could walk from the south of the map (where the train station was), to the north (where the Leaning Tower of Pisa stood) in less than half an hour.

Walked into the Piazza dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles) and took in this sight that is a famous landmark all over the world.

Of course, at its base were thousands of tourists posing for lame photos about supporting the tower. Haha not that I have anything against tourists, of course. They paid good money to travel the world, and what they want to do is none of our business. Except they look silly to everyone else who isn't lined up right to see the picture that they will be filing away in their album when they get home.

I would just like to put a word in for the other buildings in the Piazza dei Miracoli. The Leaning Tower of Pisa doesn't just stand there by itself!! There are 3 other buildings worth our time and attention too. Just because the tower leans due to a defect, the other structurally sound and equally beautiful monuments get forgotten? No! So here is the Piazza dei Miracoli, with the Leaning Tower as far back as I could put it.


I spent a good 6 hours here. It was a very peaceful day. My trip back to Milan was rather problematic. First, I got to the train station 20 minutes early, and saw the train at my designated platform boarding. So I hopped on, and just as I did, the train doors closed and the train chugged along. It was leaving 20 minutes early! So I thought maybe it was lucky I was already here and not dawdling away somewhere behind, still thinking the train was gonna wait for me.

Then I realised maybe this wasn't my train. And so I asked another passenger and he said it wasn't going to Milan, it was going to Genova!

"Today, I got on my train back home 20 minutes early. Turns out it was going to Genova. FML."

I bought a cute pair of boxers because it was impossibly stupid.

I'll definitely be back to Pisa another time! I'd do anything for a night photograph in that place.

FRATELLO METALLO

Meet Friar Cesare Bonizzi, 62, frontman of Italian heavy metal band Fratello Metallo (Brother Metal). The cowboy hat is cool and everything, but I suppose it's obvious which one is the friar and I don't have to point it out to you explicitly by saying he's the one decked out in those funky monk garbs?

He is a real Capuchin monk from a place near Milan. He loves metal. He says metal is the music that has the most life and energy. He sings about tobacco and alcohol and drugs and sex. But not in the normal metal fashion. He says things like 'man needs sex and sex is good but you must do it the right way' (except in poetic Italian.) His reason for going into metal? Metallica and Megadeth. He attended a Metallica concert 15 years ago and he found enlightenment.

His other bandmates are much younger, but Bonizzi steals the whole show everytime. Who wants to cheer for killer guitar solos and bass grooves when the vocalist is this fat and bearded grampa growling throaty lyrics into the microphone? You just can't help but laugh and rock out along with his band.

I'm going out to an Italian music store one of these days to look for his CD, this is one I have to own. Can't go wrong with a Metallica-Megadeth inspired man of God, right?

Woohoo Monster Spurt

EUR/CHF, THIS JUST IN

Hot from the oven, fresh profit potential!!!! EUR/CHF has gone ballistic (something like 400 pips in 15 minutes!) and is out of the park! It has even broken through resistance set in Jan and Feb. However this is just too fast too furious; when RSI crosses its upper bound mark back down in its regression to the mean, short sell!!!!!!

After that, see what the signs are, probably long it for a bit.

I'm going to Switzerland next month, bye bye Swiss Francs! Yay for cheaper chocolate and watches!

Mark F-kerberg

Him and his stupid new Facebook layouts. Just as we were all beginning to get used to the new (and now rendered 'not so new') layout, his team goes and changes it even further to something more distant from and less recognisable than the original. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

On another note, they removed my INSTEP Feb 2009 video on Facebook because it was infringing on third party music copyrights. You know what FML is? FML is this awesome website. Go to www.fmylife.com for your daily dose of humour. Really, you won't regret. I'll make a fan out of you.

Modelli Finanziari class got cancelled today. I'm gonna tour the city. Beautiful weather! There's a pig still sleeping in the room though.

Italian Colours Yay

Ciao Bella!

One of these days I'm going to the Duomo (again...!) to take a picture of it at sunrise. Sunrise and sunset, those precious fleeting instances, the highly coveted 'magic moments'. It should be gorgeous.