Új obiteszt a photozonetól ezúttal Pentaxosoknak: Pentax SMC DA* 55mm f/1.4 SDM.

Külsőre imádták a Pentax SMC DA* 55mm f/1.4 SDM-t, az SMD motor megfelelően gyors, a torzítása minimális, a vignettálás nagyon jól ki lett küszöbölve, a kromatikus aberrációról nem is beszélve.

A bokeh is tetszett nekik, azonban a bokeh fringe probléma itt is felüti a fejét. 6 mintakép és egy hosszabb értékelés vár még rátok itt, akinek pedig elég a gyors összegzés az ugorjon egy sorral lejjebb.

Optikai minőség:
Mechanikai minőség:
Ár/érték arány:

Spirit Telecom, a technology company focused on business communication, is playing social media Santa this holiday season to one lucky professional and lots of children in need.

The company is inviting locals to voice their business Christmas wish – what one communication tool would make their work life easier - via the Spirit Telecom No Static blog and Twitter account. In exchange, the company will donate funds to Toys for Tots, a program run by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve.

To participate, business professionals in Columbia should visit the No Static blog at www.spirittelecom.com/nostatic and post a comment, answering: “What business communication tool would make your work life easier and why?” For each wish posted, Spirit Telecom will donate $10 to Toys for Tots, an organization that distributes Christmas gifts to children who would otherwise go without.

Spirit Santa will choose his favorite wish and grant it up to a $250 value. The contest begins Nov. 16 to Dec. 18. The winner will be announced Dec. 21.

Additionally, Twitterers can follow the company’s @NoStaticST Twitter account and tweet their holiday spirit. For every tweet using @NoStaticST and the hashtag #spiritsanta within the tweet, the company will donate $1 to Toys for Tots up to a maximum blog and Twitter donation of $1,000.

“We recently launched a social media campaign and we thought what better way to get it rolling than to get into the holiday spirit by helping our community through a fun contest,” says Terry Metze Jr., executive vice presidentbusiness development and strategy. “We hope Columbians really get into the idea of Spirit Santa and share their most longed for wishes, all for a great cause.”

For more information about the contest, visit the company’s No Static blog, @NoStaticST Twitter account or theNoStaticST YouTube Channel.

About Spirit Telecom
Spirit Telecom is a privately-owned South Carolina company with corporate headquarters based in Columbia, S.C. The company is owned by 13 independent and cooperative telecommunications companies all with headquarters in South Carolina. Since 1993, it has been providing local voice, long-distance, Internet and data transmissions to business and government agencies in the Southeast and has been operating its own secure and private network since 1994. For more information about the company and their technology solutions, visit www.spirittelecom.com or call 1-800-686-7671.

Yay it’s Friday! That’s it – Yay it’s Friday!

Thursday is lottery ticket day. I go buy my tickets for the week. The girl at the place knows me. She very sweet. Always asks me how my son’s doing. Sometimes I bring pictures.

I always said I wasn’t going to be one of those mothers that bore people with stories of their kids. I was so so wrong. He’s all I want to talk about. I got really lucky with him. He’s such a good baby. He doesn’t cry excessively, only when hungry or gassy. I don’t blame him, I’m like that too.

He doesn’t sleep through the night yet but I don’t care. He wimpers to wake me up, then looks at me with his beautiful smile and I melt. I get up, get him and we play for a bit. I love every minute of it.

With the hell of infertility I went through to have him, a little sleep deprivation is nothing compared to having him next to me.

MATI – MATICHON PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
新聞社大手マティチョン取締役会は、印刷工場建屋、輪転機、土地をピカネート氏より1億バーツで買収を決定。

SAMART – SAMART CORPORATION PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
タイと、カンボジアの接続航空管制管理についてCanbodia Air traffic Services社(CATS)から、一時移管を受ける。

CNS – CAPITAL NOMURA SECURITIES PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
マーケティング要員30名を新規採用へ。現在の100名体制のマーケティングチームの自然減の補充。新体制を構築へ。

CGS – COUNTRY GROUP SECURITIES PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
香港のブローカー買収交渉は終結。支払いは本年度末頃と見込まれる。

TRT – TIRATHAI PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
2010年度の売り上げ目標は本年と同様な25億バーツで、当初予想利益は27.5%程度。

CPN – CENTRAL PATTANA PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
ルンピニ・ナイトバザールの土地使用委託契約は、無期限延期へ。また2010年度中盤には中国への投資を計画。

QLT – QUALITECH PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
本年度の売上、利益ともに15%の成長。来年度は10-15%の成長を計画。

SMC – SMC MOTORS PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
ビジネスラインを、現在の不動産業よりあと2~3増やして多角化する調査を開始。

CPF – CHAROEN POKPHAND FOODS PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
タイの格付け会社トリスレーティング社は、CPFの新規発行社債84億バーツについてA+、安定の評価。

STAR – STAR SANITARYWARE PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
昨年よりも本年のほうが好調。2010年は新商品4-5品目を追加へ。

BCP – THE BANGCHAK PETROLEUM PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
本年度末は中国からの需要に押されて、原油価格はバーレル当たり85ドルと予想。来年も利益が続伸と予想。

KIAT – KIATTANA TRANSPORT PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
2009年第4四半期も成長を継続。利益は4億8千万バーツで昨年度を超えた。

CI – CHARN ISSARA DEVELOPMENT PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
本年Q4、及び通年でも利益は伸びる。2010年度の通期成長は10%を見込み、来年度初頭には不動産ファンドからのエキジットを計画。

AI – ASIAN INSULATORS PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
本年度は利益は昨年と同程度であったが売り上げは昨年より落ちた。来年度は利益30億バーツ越えを目指す。

GRAMMY – GMM GRAMMY PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED
本年2009年度は純利益は20%の減益であると認める。が、来年度は経済の回復と、広告によって売り上げは伸びると予測。（Info Quest 11月19日配信）

にほんブログ村

Our computers are down at work. Thankfully I have my crackberry phone. I’m not really into having the latest gadgets and toys but I love this phone. And its pink!

Dzisiaj mnie naszła jakaś wena podczas robienia mapki, żeby zrobić mini-tutek. Dostępny jest na SMC pod nazwą “Drzwi zablokowane deskami”. Jak ktoś go zaakceptuje to będzie dostępny pod tym linkiem: (Kliknij “Więcej”)

So I get into work today and it’s a co-workers birthday tomorrow. She’s one of the few I can bear. My big complaint about her is that everything is a drama. Like OMG WE’RE RUNNING LOW ON PAPERCLIPS. I PUT THE ORDER IN BUT THEY WON’T BE HERE UNTIL TOMORROW. I KNOW I’M GOING TO GET FIRED FOR THIS. She’s basically harmless but really annoying.

Anyway I’m given the birthday card to sign and the outside says “we’re giving you the winning lottery numbers for your birthday.” Inside it has a grid of all numbers 1 to 60 and it says “you have to put the combination together” it was cute BUT the important thing was that it was a lottery reference. It may not have been my winning ticket but I’ve put it out to the universe that I will win the lottery and the first sign was given to me. How cool!!!! And we’re having cake tomorrow so I’m really excited.

I checked my lottery tixs and I didn’t win today so I’m stuck here for another day.

My boss just came into my office. She’s in a good mood today. She must of had sex with her married boyfriend last night. She makes me sick. She looks like the Grimace from Mc Donalds – remember him???

Back to work!

Day 55 – Social Solihull: Today was the first Solihull Social Media Cafe, and I went along to represent Solihull MBC.  Soon I’m going to be taking control of the council’s twitter page and other social media, so it was great to spend a couple of hours bouncing ideas around and seeing what people want.  We had 15 turn up in total and hopefully next month’s will be evn better!

sorry my last few posts have been so terse … but this one will follow suit.

This last week or so, my approach at first was still scatter-shot data gathering — I worked through The Giver (a nice, short ‘adolescent’ novel which struck me as providing a ‘politically correct’ or ‘wonderfully liberal’ utopia which drained our souls out) and looked through some of the Dune novels (I didn’t read any entirely, as I have read them previously, but thought i’d look at some ideals of the ‘ecotopia’).

Then I got some ideas for refining my investigation…and have thought about that a bit.  Those ideas will get a blog entry when its ready.

~Alex

No ile można czekać, aż Navarion wkońcu ruszy tyłek i zrobi ten konkurs, no cóż z pomocą przyszedł kto? Cssghost

Two explosions rocked the main office of San Miguel Corporation (SMC) in Mandaluyong City and the Puregold supermarket in Quezon City. Both the blasts came in a span of two hours from each other early Monday morning (local time). No one was injured or killed in the blasts.

The first blast took place at about 3am in front of the SMC building at the corner of Julia Vargas and San Miguel avenues in Mandaluyong City which damaged the company’s metal emblem embedded on a marble wall and formed a small crater on the ground just below the signage. Explosives and Ordnance Disposal personnel recovered a plastic container. The components recovered do not show signs to suggest that the bomb was homemade. The police meanwhile have denied any signs of a terror attack. The blasts used explosives that had minimal impact and contained no shrapnel.

The second explosion was reported at about 5:15 a.m. at the main entrance of Puregold Supermarket at the corner of Luzon and Commonwealth avenues in Quezon City. No death or injury was reported from this site too though the explosive used was an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). In a similar incident on October 30 this year, two explosions took place in Quezon City and in the Pasig side of the Ortigas business district. In the earlier incident too there were no casualties and minimal property damage was reported.

The management of the Puregold has denied any labor trouble which was also seen as a reason behind the blasts. Metro police chief Director Roberto Rosales also rejected any such leads in preliminary findings.

The police authorities are meanwhile also trying to figure out any links between the two blasts which seem to have used different explosives. They are also investigating linkage with the October 30 blasts. While the police have no witness in the SMC explosion, a witness had seen a suspect lobbing a package which emitted white smoke before exploding. October 30 blasts also involved similar explosives which emitted white smoke prior to blasts.

Senior Superintendent Carlos de Sagun, Mandaluyong police chief, has meanwhile ordered increased police visibility in the area especially “from sunset to sunrise.” He said that he has also ordered the SMC security officer to station guards near the area where blast happened.

Rosales meanwhile appealed to the local residents to be vigilant and report any suspicious individuals or activity.

Video here.

NowPublic

Kind, astute, cunning.

These adjectives separately, and collectively, describe Eduardo ‘Danding’ Cojuangco, the former ambassador, failed presidential candidate, and ‘Boss’ of the nation’s biggest business conglomerate.

Danding is also chairman emeritus of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, opposition party-cum-bedfellow of the ruling modern-day Kilusang Bagong Lipunan, the Lakas-Kampi-CMD combine.

Mr. Cojuangco’s business acumen and generosity towards his employees is legend.
And so are his potent political dominance instincts.

So while he failed in his own bid in 1992 for the land’s highest office, Mr. Cojuangco is acknowledged still as king maker.

It also is true that critics consider him the brains behind the continued failure of Filipino coconut farmers to gain their fair share of proceeds from the Marcos era coconut levy funds.

Most recently Mr. Cojuangco’s name surfaced anew when the Supreme Court, in lightning fashion, gave its judicial imprimatur to the Presidential Commission on Good Government’s approval of  the conversion of coco levy San Miguel Corporation common shares (which have voting rights) into preferred shares, premised on the fact that such action would funnel some 57-B in earning from the conversion.

The action covered 753,848,312 Class “A” and “B” common shares of SMC registered in the name of the Coconut Industry Investment Fund (CIIF) Holding Companies representing around 24% of the total SMC voting shares.

The subject block of shares is sufficient to elect four of the 15 members of the SMC Board of Directors.

Sources inside the PCGG told this writer the path for the deal to be smoothed out was done in confidential meetings held in Davao by to lieutenant of Mr. Cojuangco between September 2, the day the PCGG Resolution was approved, and September 17, the day the high court okayed the action whose legality was questioned by citizens led by former Senate President Jovito Salonga.

The wheels of justice do move expeditiously.

http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2009/september2009/177857-58.htm

The political point is how the reticent Mr. Cojuangco finally did speak up over the weekend about the ongoing shuffling of political cards ahead of the elections now just 6 months away.

Why did he issue the denial?

Well that’s because the latest political trial balloon had thee Little President, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita saying the administration combine is angling to get NPC’s beauteous vice presidential standard bearer to pair up with Defense Secretary Gilbert Gibo Teodoro.

The statements:

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, interim president of the Lakas-Kampi-CMD:

You can see [Defense Secretary Gilbert] Teodoro and the party leadership might just succeed in enticing or talking successfully with the NPC to join up with the majority party.

200 leaders of Tarlac took their oath [of membership to Lakas-Kampi-CMD]. Most of the people are from the NPC ranks in Tarlac.

The “exodus” of political leaders joining the Lakas-Kampi-CMD happened after Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero resigned from NPC and failed its members’ expectations of running as their president in 2010.

The party is wooing Sen. Loren Legarda, NPC’s vice-presidential candidate, to run in tandem with Teodoro for the 2010 elections.

I believe Legarda might also be contemplating on accepting the offer of running as Teodoro’s partner as she maybe fully aware of the talks happening between the two parties. It is in the consciousness or Sen. Loren Legarda that those talks are going on. She will be properly guided.

Business tycoon and NPC chairman emeritus Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr. :

Hindi ko alam (talks with other political parties for the 2010 national elections). Sila na ang bahala. Hindi na ako nakikialam (I don’t know anything about that. It’s up to the party leaders).

Cojuangco said he has also stopped meddling into the NPC’s selection process for candidates. He declined to reveal the reason behind Sen. Chiz Escudero’s recent surprise resignation from his party.

So you’d have Mr. Cojuangco finally surfacing to support his nephew who ‘bolted’ the NPC just before thwarting Bayani Fernando’s bid to get his party’s nod as standard bearer

It all becomes clear now.

The result: the planned November 19 declaration of a Nacionalista Party tactical marriage with with the NPC feature a Manny Villar-Loren Legarda ticket suddenly goes kaput.

http://atmidfield.com/2009/11/02/nps-manny-villar-teams-up-with-npcs-loren-legarda/

So is the popular Sen. Loren going to the highest political bidder?

Photographed by dsevilla

View Large&On Black

Pentax 67 + SMC 55mmf/3.5 at minimum focusing distance @f/3.5. Fuji Provia 100F slide film.

– License

That’s right!  One more thing…I have recently (and literally) stumbled upon Oscar Wilde’s ‘The Soul of Man Under Socialism’ — which I am going to finish shortly (it’s not that long, 30-40ish pages).  I think it will be wonderful, considering the turn utopias took away (in part) from socialism in the first half of the century.  Wilde, being pre-20th Century, barely, will help give a sense of the inheritance given the 20th C.  I also look forward to comparing him to Wells, right now, specifically in regards Wells’s characterization of industrial society and its “natural end” in the distant future.  This may throw me back into looking at some of Well’s more explicitly utopian work (a la A Modern Utopia), but we’ll see.

So, Wilde is soon/now…then all that stuff I just wrote in the previous post.

~Alex

Still chugging along…
finishing up H.G. Wells, and will move to Le Corbusier soon — with Don Delillo (White Noise) on deck (also, I think I could do ‘The Giver’ quickly, which will be a nice ‘latter half’ data point — and I think I will look at some of the Dune novels for ecotopia visions.  These might come before the Le Corbusier…I’m not sure yet.)  This will be interspersed with more (non-fiction) reading from the Utopias book, as well as some new acquisitions: a Science, Technology, and Society book, as well as a book on Space Settlements, and a design manifesto sort of thing I found for the recently formed Venus Project (it is called ‘Designing the Future’ by Jacque Fresco).

Speaking of films and such — I’m still working on a ‘classics’ list, but the Zeitgeist films that came out not too long ago will be great for my ‘ideals’ analysis.

And — that is all for now.  Hopefully this mid-week blog didn’t throw anyone off.

~Alex

Egy kis felüdülés obiteszt formában.

Egy Pentax “dinoszaurusz”, az SMC-A* 85mm f/1.4 csapott össze az újabb Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 L II-vel. Erre lehet nézelődni, amíg meg betölt az oldal, lehet tippelgetni.

Sell what’s in your head!

Whether you’re a computer geek, a gardening geek, a whole-foods geek or a fishing geek – social media now lets you build a following online where you can share (and sell) the stuff that’s in your head. Through social media, you can connect directly with your audience – no agents, publishers, editors or gatekeepers – and gain immediate feedback. With low start-up costs, you can affordably create your own little knowledge factory online.

Join Social Media Club Columbia and speaker Dick Carlson for an interactive workshop-style meeting all about how you can take what you know and sell it using social media.

Part I of this month’s meeting will include demos of:

• A woman who sells advice on how to grow and eat only raw foods
• The guy who kept track of the best seat on each kind of airplane and sold that info for money
• A group of writers who teach writers how to write and make money on their writing (they’re always sold out)
• A fisherman who now has an entire YouTube channel where he just visits with other fisherman in Miami

In Part II, we’ll brainstorm together on how actual attendees can “Sell What’s In Their Head.”

Whether you’re looking to sell what’s in your head for money or to build your “brand” online; whether you want to boost your existing business or build a hobby into a profession, Dick Carlson’s interactive workshop can help.

About Dick Carlson

Dick Carlson is an Instructional Designer and e-learning geek. Without thinking it through completely, he moved to South Carolina because his wife found a new job there, and it was sunny. He now sweats a lot more than he did in Seattle. He’s developed software documentation, computer training labs, webinars for shy coders, and taught geeks how to speak in front of huge audiences. Some of this was done for the Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington before he escaped in 2007. After multiple surgeries, all of the mods have been removed and he’s nearly completely functional again.

I got the official word from the clinic today which just confirmed what I already knew. This cycle is over.

What plays most on my mind is that for a number of reasons I can only do 1 more cycle. Knowing that next cycle is my last is worrying. I have to pick myself up and get ready to go again. Will be commencing OCP as soon as AF arrives and hopefully start injections of Puregon and Luveris from 13 November. I am trying not to think too far ahead. Not ready to face what might be if this doesn’t work.

I will put in some photos of my beautiful girl. It is obvious (to me) looking at these why I want another one:

By Chocolate Moose Fernandez and Lollipop de los Reyes

Manila, Philippines-Leftwing militants belonging to Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) on Sunday said the ganging up of erstwhile Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) presidential candidate Sen. Francis Escudero by his party mates led by Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco and son Rep. Mark Cojuangco was lucid testimony that Danding and sons operate the political party like a Mafia.

“The NPC is being run by the Danding Cojuangco mafia, and those who will oppose the sinister agenda and cruel intentions of the ruling syndicate shall be expelled from the party. The case of Senator Francis Escudero is highly evident here. After bolting out from the Cojuangco party, the senator is now being persecuted by the rabid lapdogs of the NPC,” said Pamalakaya national chair Fernando Hicap.

Yesterday, Danding’s son Rep. Mark Cojuangco admitted that radical positions taken up by Sen. Escudero on several issues that support the call of Filipino workers for P 125 across the board wage increase and the immediate scrapping of billions of debts incurred by farmers under the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) caused the split between the senator and the NPC founded by Danding in 1992 as his vehicle when the chair of San Miguel Corporation ran as President.

The young Cojuangco said the position of Escudero in favor of legislated wage increase might cause the collapse of the business ,while the proposal to condone billions of pesos in debt incurred by farmer beneficiaries under CARP should have wait for the inventory of the debts before the NPC takes an official stand.

“What is wrong in calling for the legislative approval of P 125 across the board daily wage hike for Filipino workers? What is wrong with the proposal to condone debts incurred by farmers under the bogus CARP? There’s nothing wrong about these advocacies,” added Hicap.

On the other hand, Pamalakaya said what was immoral and patently despicable was the annoucement of Liberal Party presidential standard bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino on national TV that he was seeking a dialogue and reconciliation with Danding, while on the other hand remains elusive and non-committal to demands of Hacienda Luisita agricultural and farm workers for the free distribution of land, which he asserted, was acquired by the Cojuangcos through unjust, immoral, coercive and unlawful means.

Pamalakaya asserted that it is public knowledge that Danding wants a considerable portion of Hacienda Luisita for the expansion of San Miguel Corporation, and a Noynoy presidency will make the Pacman’s dream to come true.

On December 18, 2008, the Hacienda Luisita Management signed by Hernan M. Gregorio, Jr. — assistant Estate Manager of HLI imposed a deadline to farm workers that they only have up to October 30, 2009 to harvest and finish all land cultivation activities inside the hacienda.

In response to the Oct. 30 deadline, some 50 supporters of Hacienda Luisita farm workers staged a mass demonstration outside the Cojuangco business building in Makati City this morning, and issued their own cease and desist order against the Luisita management.

In their two-page cease and desist order, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) and Unyon ng Mga Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA) declared the Hacienda Luisita Oct.30 deadline null and void, immoral, unlawful and fatally flawed.

Hacienda Luisita has been under stock distribution scheme since the implementation of CARP in 1991 during the Aquino administration, which the groups said superficially, classified the farmer-beneficiaries as “stock-holders. KMP and UMA said the SDO commenced with the massive land use conversion (LUCs) that left only about 3,200 hectares of agricultural lands from the original 7,500 hectares in 1958.#

The Sancta Maria 2009 Leaver’s Jerseys have arrived. So, I thought I’d let you see a photo of mine. The back of mine, that is. Here ya go.

Leaver's Jersey 09