Yael Naim – New Soul
I’m sure you’ll find this song familiar by now…It’s supremely catchy…
La fête des Neiges annulée!!
“À Montréal, la fête des neiges, qui devait avoir lieu du 26 janvier au 11 février prochain, est annulée.”
Oh no! I haven’t had the chance to check out the Fête des Neiges since i’ve been to Montreal and it’s been cancelled this year! And it’s all because of some labor dispute (as usual!!). Now i’m starting to appreciate the stability that is present in Singapore. But i guess it’s this little unpredictability that also makes Montreal special.
You never know when the skies might open and dump 40cm of snow upon the city. You never know when the temperatures might dip to a bone-chilling -40 degrees. You never know when the metro and bus workers will go on strike. You never know what student activists have up their sleeves. (Recently, 10+ students invaded and took over the principal’s office at McGill for a day to protest the rising school fees. And that’s just the start of things to come.) You don’t even know if the winter festival you’re planning to go to this year will still be happening (it’s not!).
Oh well, i hope it’ll be back again next year. i feel like i should really explore more of montreal and not just stay around the McGill ‘bubble’. i may feel like i still have lots of time to do that but before i know it, it’ll be my final year and den who knows where i’ll be headed? too bad i’m a full-time student here and my grades are badly in need of some rescuing this semester.
Grey’s Anatomy: Lay Your Hands On Me
george’s mum:
you disappointed yourself, georgie. you should be disappointed in yourself.george:
i am. i don’t recognize myself anymore. this isn’t the guy that i wanted to be.
Random facts about Montreal
Some random facts about Montreal that I learnt while reading the newspapers today:
– During the ice storm of 1998, the whole Montreal island was nearly evacuated due to power outages that had stopped the city’s water pumps from working. Luckily, power was restored to the water pumps in time. This piece of information really struck me as I hadn’t previously realized how serious the ice storm was until I read about this. It’s exactly 10 years ago that the ice storm had happened and it was basically just 5 straight days of freezing rain coming down on the affected regions. It was the biggest ice storm in the history of Canada. Read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998_Ice_Storm
– The city spends $10 million dollars to repair potholes on roads annually. Its not because the quality of roads are poor but the repeated freeze/thaw action caused by water that seep into the roads over winter.
– Montreal is the most trilingual city in Canada. More people can speak 3 languages (Canada’s two official languages: English and French plus a 3rd language) here then in any other city in Canada. A whooping 18.4% of residents can speak 3 languages in Montreal, compared to 10.5% in Toronto and 9.2% in Vancouver. Looks like its time for me to brush up my French so that I can add on to that statistic. 🙂
Arghhhh!
I wanted to blog about my new year’s resolution and a look back at 2007 but after I checked my results from last sem, i’m no longer in the mood to do that…
I got 2 B+, a B and 3 B-!!! My GPA is so screwed up now! Sigh…
I did a quick calculation and in order to keep my entrance scholarship, i basically need to score all As next semester. That’s a bit of an intimidating conclusion. I’ll try my best but the odds are stacked against me…
Sometimes I ask myself why I’m so concerned about my grades. I can’t really find an answer to it. It just upsets me greatly. I have by no means ever performed well academically besides my A lvls and maybe the first few year’s of my primary school. It just seems to make my life so much harder to always expect myself to study consistently and work hard when i’m not a person like that. It just diminishes the joy of learning so much. In the first place, that’s why i picked engineering…it’s not so much about memorising and knowing facts, but going out there and trying out things and new ideas and stuff. But at the end of the day, the only way pple can judge you is based on your results.
I need some time to calm down…I think God wants me to learn a lesson from this disastrous semester…
Buckle up!
Buckle up and hang on for your dear life! The weather is in for quite a roller coaster of a ride this two weeks! Today was the first day of school and i was greeted by -18 degree celcius and snow that had yet to be cleared from the snow storm 2 days back. Its -19 outside as i’m writing this now…
It was so cold that when i left my kitchen window open to let in some air for my kitchen after cooking dinner and i forgot to close it for an hour, my tap froze over!
What’s more, the forecast for next week is +13 degrees!! yes POSITIVE 13!! Oh well, i shouldnt complain seeing that it’s probably the last time in a long while that i’ll have above zero temperatures. Must enjoy the warmth while it lasts… 😀
Family time!
Christmas this year was spent mostly with my family at our new house in Toronto. Too bad it wasn’t a white christmas but i still managed to make my first proper full-size snowman ever!
Me “skiing” in the backyard.
The backyard comes complete with a kids’ playground! The previous owner of the house sure knew how to pamper their kids…
“Skiing” down the slight slope near the end of the backyard.
Striking a triumphant pose after reaching the bottom!! 😀
Couldn’t fit below the bar so some climbing was required.
Hanging on for dear life…
On my way down the slide.
Photo of my family with my mum’s friend and her kids.
My first proper full-size snowman ever! Boy, was it huge (and slightly deformed)! We named it the BFS (big friendly snowman).
Hitching a ride on the back of the snowman.
The rampage of the BFS…Nooooooo! Don’t squish me!!
Roughing it out through the storm…
That’s the height of the snow piled up against my window. A 30cm ruler was included as a reference.
The temperature now is…uhhh……errr……very cold.
Taking apart a Canon PowerShot A75
Barry was kind enough to leave me his broken Canon Powershot A75 and i decided to take it apart and have a look at what is inside a typical point-and-shoot camera. Below is some photographs i took documenting the process, together with some comments and descriptions of the parts pictured.
This is the camera before i started to take it apart.
Just managed to pry it open.
This is how the back of the camera looks without its cover.
The LCD screen is made by Sony. Sony owns most of the camera LCD market…
The capacitor that stores energy to power the flash.
Viewfinder lens and the two LEDs next to it that show camera status.
Shutter button assembly.
The underside…
The front of the camera minus its cover.
The plastic cover. Notice the rubber ring that provides a seal against the lens assembly to keep dust out.
The mode dial for the different modes of the camera.
The underside of the mode dial. It’s surprisingly simple. Only 4 contact points to allow for switching to the whole myraid of modes.
The patterned contact point where the mode dial meets the circuit board on the camera. Each turn of the mode dial provides a unique combination of contacts with it so the camera knows what mode you want it to be in without using some tricky mechanism. Such wonderful simplicity…
Prying deeper into the insides…
The two status light LEDs (red and green).
The Sony LCD screen. All the information required for the LCD to display an image is sent through just that tiny flat piece of plastic with embedded wires.
Flash assembly: Bulb, capacitor and microcontroller. I accidentally shorted out the contacts of the capacitor and created a huge spark. Forgot that there might be remaining charge in the capacitor. Should have discharged it before I touched it…
The main circuit board of the camera, with a protective metal shield over it. Still trying to figure out what they’re shield that bit from (EM interference?). It’s soldered onto the board so i cant remove it yet until actually get the motivation to whip out my soldering iron…haha…
A dark piece of plastic used to shield the sensor of the camera from light leakage.
The dark piece of plastic removed from the camera. Notice how it completely absorbed all the light from my flash. Quite cool eh? I haven’t seen such a thin piece of plastic that’s completely opaque before.
Various bits removed from the main chasis of the camera. Left is the viewfinder + lens assembly. Battery compartment on the right.
Front of the lens assembly with the viewfinder. I couldn’t open the lens assembly. The tiny screws were screwed on so tightly! I guess they didn’t really one anyone peeking in on their secrets…and they wanted to keep dust and dirt out from the inside of the lens assembly.
Battery compartment and flash assembly. The battery is directly linked to the flash assembly.
The lens auto-focus motor. Sticky tape is used here. Not sure why but it goes to prove that sticky tape holds the world together…haha…
Interesting screw-assembly used to turn something (auto-focus?). More sticky tape too.
Viewfinder assembly. It has a bend in the middle so there are probably two mirrors inside to direct the light just like a periscope. Probably done so that the input side is placed directly centered over the lens while still allowing a more natural positioning of our eye on the viewfinder.
Lens assembly with the spring stretched out. I think it’s used to hold the lens cover in place.
A microchip made by NEC.
Microchip made by Sony.
Okay that’s all I have for now…If possible, I’ll try to take apart the lens assembly and look inside in the near future. I really enjoyed taking apart the camera and taking pictures of its insides. Hope you guys enjoyed finding out what the inside of a camera looks like as much as I did. In 2 years’ time, i’ll probably be able to figure out what most of the components do…haha…
Sidenote: If anyone has any broken electronics lying around, I would love to get the opportunity to take it apart and post pictures of it up here. Drop me a note if you’re interested in donating anything. Thanks!
Coming up next: I’ll be taking apart a Discman and checking out how it works inside…
The aftermath of the snowstorm last week…
James McGill still going strong…and holding onto his hat for dear life…
The snow covered streets on campus…