Transition

So it was about 3 years ago that I transitioned from Xanga (Shudders) to Blogspot in search of a more mature and professional way of blogging. At the time it was a massive change with many trial and errors to be had along the way. Now it is time I put my blogspot into archive and let my new venture to a proper website start.

For the last few days you may have noticed my usual domain timbo400.com was not working. Well that's because I was going through changes under the hood (on the interwebs) and things didn't go exactly to plan.

I've had plans to change over to WordPress for months and months and with the recent shift of several players to the game and many colleagues at Uni I've felt the pressure to move on. My new website is also a new focus and love in my life, one that's always been there but never really the main goal. I will pursue my major and new venture into the realm of the 'Art world'

I hope you all enjoyed reading my blog even though going through archives it's very embarrassing and cringe-worthy. www.timbo400.com will contain mainly art content but also the same rambles and everyday life.

Note: If you're seeing a weird old website of mine that's part of the problem that I'm trying to fix. That is not the final content!

See you there! Thanks for the great 3 years!

/timbo400

Shameful Plug, Win Keith Haring!

I was having a conversation with my mate David Lee about blogs and photography, finding out how to improve in both fields. It struck me how much readers and followers matter to me to keep up this blog, without you reading I wouldn't be writing. I tend to OCD over my website stats watching how many hits I get since I'm not any more special than your average internet user but I envy talented bloggers whose sites get so many hits (Well they are talented! And talent needs recognition) and it makes me wish I was a prodigy at something even if it's something weird cause I know that there's a niche crowd on the internet. So I'm trying to pump out more work and write more as some would notice from the influx of posts from my neglected blog.

So this post? It's not just a ramble about how I crave attention from you readers, it's more of a shameful plug for my eBay account and all the things I'm selling. Yes, today I cleaned my room and emptied all the unnecessary objects and these happen to be worth some money (Especially since I just spent all my money on camera gear and need to bring back up my funds)

Aside from promoting my eBay wares, I've decided to give away something that has sentimental reason to me. From one person to another I'd like to give away 2 of my 3 Keith Haring badges from the Tate Modern in England when I visited in 2009. Sure it's not much but you can't really complain if it's free right?



Edit: Another prize is in the pool! I found this on my shelf! Get posting!



So all you have to do is comment on this post, just a quick survey who actually reads it! Attach your email to the post and I'll randomly pick and email the winner in 3 days.

Oh and Mafia, I'll give you the other one regardless of you posting or not ha! I remember I was suppose to give you them back in the day.

PS. Last plug, I swear. My bike is for sale. Check eBay! Ha!

Harry Hot Dogs

Video will be a new medium that I'll incorporate into this blog. After spending an hour conversing with JM and Steven, we had the usual conversations about work, uni and life in general. CREAM if you know what I mean. Just testing out the video and low-light capabilities as we wind down and catch up.

Photographic Accessories

Note: the following post contains a lot of photographic jargon, you may not want to read on, if so, enjoy the photos.

So I have some new toys that I recently bought, they're all slowly trickling through my mailbox to me. Each day a new parcel comes and it's like a lottery I know that I'm going to win except I don't know the prize. One by one the couriers bring them to me, starting first with the parts I need least followed by the parts I need most at the end (SD cards, how can I shoot without a SD card?)

So enough with the slow torture, here's what was awaiting usage.




After gathering what I could today I was left with the dreaded fate of no SD card to test out my new toy. So I had to borrow my mums hidden SD card. With minimal shots available from the measly 2GB I mucked around with the camera.

My fish vapor died 2 weeks ago, he was my first fighting fish in a long time, I owned him for about 5 or so months. He was my favorite fish until I got the big tank. RIP Vapor.
Shot using the D7000 with 60mm 2.8 Micro with a SB-700 to light. He's dried like that.

Got Sauce Plz?

I am a confessed sauce fiend. For the type also known as condiments that are found ontop of your meat pie or alongside your steak and fries or sprayed into your bowl of Pho (Not the one you're searching for after you type 'G0t Sauce?!' in some seedy back alley of the internet). I'm often seen putting too much tomato ketchup* on my food at home and since I've got 'ETA's Original BBQ Sauce' (Seen here) I've been using and pouring it on my meals like it was holy water. Blessing each and every meal with the beautiful wonders of the said sauce like I was the Pope blessing the pilgrims before I eat them.

I, like most people move on from my sauces after long abuse, from a young age I remember drizzling sweet chilli sauce to mayo to tomato sauce but all of those are long gone now that I've 'matured'. I'll still have my Tabasco and soy sauces but my new love that may dethrone a lot of other sauces would be 'Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce' found hidden in many Asian conveinience stores scattered across Sydney and also found in the City on Crown St in Amasia (A clothing store funnily enough which sells Uniqlo and other staple brands)

This Asian chili sauce is often found in Vietnamese joints and added to meals such as the famed Pho (Beef Noodle Soup for all you non-knowers) After being finally reunited, nostalgia similar to that of ETA's BBQ Sauce, this sauce is definitely a must for any person that likes spicy flavour. If you have not tasted this and also like chili then you're sleeping!

Although I do love my other staple condiments, being from a Vietnamese family I cannot blog about a sauce and not mention Nuoc Mam (While sometimes a dressing or dip, this shit is more flexible than the word fuck in the food world), the staple of ALL Vietnamese meals, it's the only sauce I can make blindfolded. I pride myself in making godly Nuoc Mam. I drink at least a cup of that stuff a week! (Note: I'm referring to Nuoc Mam Cham, not the unmixed Fish Sauce)

So while I don't have a camera to take a picture of the Sauce bottle, I did my best to show a rough image of it. Continuing on from the theme of scanned images, I present to you the Sriracha Sauce Scan and model.

*Yes, I know, Heinz Ketchup & everything else from the supermarket labelled as tomato sauce for all you Australian readers




Scanned using Canon MP490 and skinned using Photoshop CS5's 3D tool.
Keep the condiment-ing game strong!

Day in day out

A quick sketch of a scan of myself last night. Reminds me of when paparazzi take your photo. Trying to consciously choose to draw more :)

Scanning for all Lifeforms

I don't currently have a camera since I sold my D700 but I do have a few other alternatives. I wanted to show off my freshly shaved chin but the Apple built in camera is so overused.




D700 sold, Nikon D7000 coming in along with a SB-700, 85mm 1.8, 120GB SSD, 8GB RAM for the iMac and a HDD Dock. Also got my 60mm Micro today. I have a lot of expensive camera paperweights :(

Blue 210

When was the last time you saw me post a drawing? Yeah, that's right you can't even recall it.

I got a new little book and a new blue artline. They both fit in my pockets. Will do a lot of sketching.

These scans are straight off the press!

TOKiMONSTA & Nosaj Thing

Crazy wet night. Would do it again. Only if I had my camera.. :( yes you heard right, my baby is gone but a lot of kids have joined the party. New lens lineup: 17-35 2.8, 35 f/2, 50 f/1.4, 60 Micro and 85 1.8.

William took great shots, shit Jennifer even signed a drawing by Crez. Nosaj's set was beast, Toki was pretty good, got the crowd moving but I pre-empted most of it :(

Photo Credit: William 'Humga' Suen

Review: iPad App Blogsy

So after a long time of having several productivity apps on my iPad to encourage me to blog more often and in more places on the iPad I've spent pretty much next to none on such activities which is a waste considering that I've spent a large amount of money on Apps collectively. I gave up on using my iPad as a portable computer after I got my IPhone since my iPad was a non 3G, aka WIFI only iPad, so I was pretty much limited only to my WIFI access at home to blog which is pretty much useless since there is my iMac there and if I were to blog elsewhere it'd be highly antisocial or plain weird (Imagining myself being one of those douchebag bloggers that would hit up the Apple Store to do said things)

This all changed once I allowed WiFi tethering from my Jail-broken iPhone. Wireless freedom once again and with my new plethora of tote bags (Thanks to Grace and my Sister *Who's setting up a new food blog, so I think the IPad would be a great addition to her travelings*) I can once again actively blog on the go.

Hit the link to read more.

Marly Hotel

Shot a 21st for Natalie. Was a nice crazy hair night, although I did step in vomit...

I love this photo of Ayesha :)

/timbo400

Passionate Purchases

I'm not really one that buys CD albums or books (I do like buying books since physically having one is really satisfying) but when it comes to music, I find that I can try out and listen for free, if the artist offers a donation then I may donate (general I don't) but a few weeks ago I found myself buying FunkyDL's Jazzstrumentals only to find that he tweeted @timbo400. This type of artist/consumer interaction makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside, kind of like a thanks, 'I guarantee that my album is good and I know you'll enjoy it' instead of the 'Sucker, you got my album that only has 1 or 2 good songs on it! Sucked in!' Obviously that's not the intent of any artists but sometimes I feel so cheated even after downloading an album only to find that it predominately sucks... you wasted my bandwidth! But this logic went down the drain when I was at JB-HiFi Hornsby on Saturday. I was inside the Hip-Hop/Urban section and trawled for a few albums that I really wanted... after sifting through several rows I found this by Guru and impulsed it. Jazzzmatazz double CD, I remember that MC Solaar was on it so I thought I'd give it a try. Driving home the first CD was trash and I was pretty much convinced I had thrown away $15 on the first disc (The double disc was 29.99) but that's when disc 2 came in and I was grooving all the way home. I'm really feeling Jazz at the moment and I'm finding myself vibing with it really well.



Another thing of the list of purchases is 'Growing Bonsai; A Practical Encyclopedia' After many untrained attempts of trying to grow shoots I decided to slowly learn how to grow a Bonsai and practice my patience. I'd like to say I can wait for my Bonsai to grow... but I'm not that patient!


I guess it's time to chill and read to some nice relaxing Jazz-Hop and read some books.

/timbo400

Obesely Full

Woke up and made this.

Demolished it.

Had a nap then made and ate this:

Cannot eat anymore *dies*

/timbo400

Free Gifts? Impossible!

Well, not all are gifts. They're from very generous people either way!

Thanks to Melvin for lending me his SB-900 and the old man on Adderton Rd for leaving his lamp outside his house (I didn't steal it! he was throwing it out!) I've always wanted an old library lamp like this and even considered purchasing one from a thrift store to get my fix but obviously it was an unnecessary want. Going to enjoy using this SB-900 while I have it in my hands!

PS. Tickets to Nosaj Thing and Tokimonsta are sold out! If you slept... you slept! and I feel bad for you.

/timbo400

Quick Reminder: Nosaj/TokiMonsta

Here's a quick reminder to everyone in Sydney who enjoys Hip-Hop beats, instrumentals or just good music in general. The famed Nosaj Thing and Tokimonsta will be playing in Sydney on the 22nd of July 2011! Which is just under a month away, I advise you to get tickets ASAP! I'll be ranting about it for the next few weeks until the days count down.

Tokimonsta is pretty sick live already! And with Nosaj that's like an L.A. Korean double damage!

Don't know Nosaj Thing or Tokimonsta?

And the famed KEXP live set by Nosaj Thing (Watch it in HD if you can!)

The intro samples OutKast's 'ATLiens' and creates this deep atmosphere... I'm pretty sure this would be one of the best sets to witness in my life.

Tickets: http://www.moshtix.com.au/event.aspx?id=48100
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111543788935000

/timbo400

Charisoul

So I've been a little lazy over the last few weeks in terms of producing artworks. I'm thinking of a few new ideas but my physical state of being fat is making me somehow not feeling in the mood... but every so often someone pushes me to produce something..

Charis Lee, I was suppose to make her a 70s style cartoon version of her but after doing several sketches and playing around in Ai, I found out that I wasn't feeling the way her face was coming out using my technique. Since the geometrical shapes didn't get her lovely face-shape (Something that makes the image personal for the portrait) I decided to watercolor/gouache her up from a drawing I did of her when she was a wee young girl :)

When I think of Charis, I think of her and her sweet foods! So I decided to make her a Jelly bean (It's more of a capsule shape, but whateves!)

So what did she look like as a kid? A cute girl wandering through the fields 

(And not much has changed! :P)

/timbo400

Review: SoundMAGIC PL50

I'm not an audiophile but for some reason I keep fiending to get the best Hi-Fi equipment. So since I'm not really earning C.R.E.A.M., I went for a cheaper option for IEMs, making sure that quality (both durability and SQ) were the basis on my purchase and after researching for several months I decided to get the SoundMagic PL50s.

I've owned a few pair of canalphones in my time, my first pair back in highschool that was stock with a W800i, then moving onto the Sennheiser CX300-II before moving to AKG K321s. The problem with canalphones is finding the right tips, my ears are quite small and only ever had the CX300-II fit the best. The AKGs lasted me about 1 month since the jack cover is straight out and is not angled like most headphones, this was a major problem since the line would get damaged since my iPod/iPhone was in my pocket and the lead would get crushed. Also the banana shape of the earpiece made it difficult for the earphone to stay in my ear for longer than 10 minutes without fiddling with my ears pushing it in. Definitely a no-no. I'll stick to AKG's Hi-Fi range next time (Oh I do dream of owning a pair of K701/2s)



So why SoundMagic? The reviews said they were neutral, they're accurate and most of all cheap. So I thought why not? For $70AUD shipped in 10 days I thought why not. I'm more of a bass lover since I'm more rooted to Hip-Hop but I didn't mind that since I'm planning for a Fiio E7 for some EQ loving.

As soon as I got the box today, it wasn't really greatly presented, SoundMagic are known for quality earphones, not well-designed packaging. Inside were the IEMs, plenty of rubber tips and foam tips, a pleather bag, ear-clips and apparently a cord-clip... which was missing but I don't mind. So the first thing to do was to try it out and normally the stock-tip never fits me... but I was pleasantly surprised, the tip fit me perfectly. Snuggly fitting and it definitely lived up to it's claimed -20DB noise isolation, this is a must for when I'm travelling or commuting.



So I put them on into my iPhone + Fiio E1 and played my usual. Daft Punk's 'One More Time' and 'Aerodynamic' then Nosaj Thing's Drift album. The mids and highs are very crisp, bassline is so neutral it's kind of like distilled water, no more no less. I would like it a bit more bassy but then I'd be asking so much with short arms and deep pockets.

After this, I thought why not venture out and give them a slight drive-test. I put on the ear-clips (Something that needs to be tested by you to make sure the length of the cable fed into the ear-clips are correct so they clip on your ears well and also so slip out) and went for a run around the block for 30 minutes. I put the iPhone on shuffle and started running, not a single car was heard and only my panting was heard. The sound isolation is great and doesn't rape the ear canal like an Etym would (Those triple flanges look hella scary O_O)

I'm yet to really burn into these PL50s since I've only listened to them for about 3 hours, I don't have much to reference them to since I'm new to this whole thing, but these are definitely going to give my ears a good harmonic vacation after being deprived of sonic-gold for so long. Timbo recommends these if you're looking for a pair of Sub-$100 IEMs. 4/5

/timbo400

Only In Cabramatta..

Only in Cabramatta do you see old Asian men rocking Wu-Wear

Starter caps with spiked bats and hockey masks.

Cabramatta has changed so much within the last 10-15 years. I always tell people the stories of what I remembered when I was young, being a 8 or 10 years old, the fresh bullet holes in the police station's windows, the drug dealers that roamed freely and the delicious food that still gets served today. A lot has changed but the culture and traditions are still the same, it's a great place to eat and relax even though in some of the arcades there seems to be a riot of people just trying to get their fix of food, most Westerners would think of it as a day before the apocalypse yet it's the everyday 'hustle' for the locals; although it's very alike with Paddies market or Flemington, so those that have experienced that aren't in for much more. Whilst the people may be a spectacle, I'm only really interested in the food and drinks.

I don't know about you but I am inlove with chicken feet and pork belly. The restaurant that I eat the salad at is Bao something 8 or something. Anyway that's so vague but I think anyone that visits Cabramatta cannot eat and NOT get a drink of some sort. My personal favourite is Jack Fruit Sinh-to (Which is a Vietnamese smoothie) this shit is the bomb and if you're not going to get your Sugar Cane Drank (Nouc Mia) either than I suggest Avocado Sinh-to or the drinks you can choose 3-5 toppings. They're the gangster ones!

I'm not hella Viet, but I know enough to enjoy my roots and to curse a little or talk behind someone's back to another Vietnamese friend. After watch 'Go Back To Wear You Came From' on SBS, it reminds me of the struggles my Mum went through and how good it is that I still have some tradition in me.

Glad that I'm Vietnamese and proud. Co-incidentally while I was typing this up my friend Cynthia posted this on her twitter:

It's so 'groovy' and rocking! Ha!

Next few posts will be me reviewing a few movies and new headphones.

/timbo400

Snap Snap Pop Pop!

Waited at home all day for these babies :)

Audio Technica ATH-AD700, they're so comfortable and the soundstage, highs and mids are completely amazing. Cannot wait for a Fiio E7 to power these babies a little more :)
Nosaj Thing, Debussy, GZA and a few other picks have made my ears melt on this cold winter's day. Burning these in will be one of the best things ever!



The weekend was pretty fun, I finally met my other Mother Diane and I spent the evening at Sneakerology enjoying Katalyst on the decks and omnomnoming on mini burgers. Met some old faces and saw some new, also talked to a girl from 'That Store' for a job opportunity in the city (Something I have needed in so long)

Got really drunk and passed out at the Gaelic. Thanks to Claudia for letting me lean on her :P

Fresh New Talent - Nagakin

/timbo400

A little More... Life Like?

So a few of you might be wondering what the photos from the N8000 look like... well after developing them on Tuesday and then scanning them on Wednesday I've finally edited them for online usage. Editing the raw scans at home I just cut out the outer images from each 4-frame photo to create a stereoscopic image to be viewed using cross-eyed technique. (They are best viewed in fullscreen)

I also created a couple of animated 3D images which are pretty cool too :)

And then if anyone's wondering my personal side? It's been great, yesterday I found out I got market research next week eating chocolate at Parramatta and getting paid, then also bought some monitors and IEM and a Fiio E1. I really cannot wait to try all of them out, as many friends have noticed, I really like buying headphones. This year alone I have bought 5 pairs and last year, 3.

Bought? Audio Technica ATH-AD700, Soundmagic PL50
To Buy? Fiio E7+E9 and AiAiAi TMA-1s and Alessandro MS-1s

/timbo400