Nexus One

After a day of hesitation, we gave in and bought a Nexus One. Yep, we are now proud owners of the Google phone. YAY!

We ordered last Wednesday, tracked like crazy, arrived in Singapore yesterday. Seeing that the delivery address was the husband’s office, I called up DHL and asked if we can just self-collect it in their warehouse. They agreed and off we went. We had to pay an additional 7% GST though. But yeah, I just wanted to get my hands on the phone so I gladly paid the tax. Haha. For those wondering, we paid USD 577.31 (~SGD 805.117). This included a country-specific AC adapter plus shipping and handling by DHL.

Anyway, initial impressions:

• I am totally in love with the screen! The colors are just so vivid and just… amazing. It came with a black slipcase with the Droid mascot printed on it but I wish it also came with (or as an optional accessory) a screen protector so I wouldn’t be too paranoid with scratching it.
• I don’t have much use for the trackball.
• The active desktop screensaver is useless, pretty and fun.
• A bit annoyed that it doesn’t allow manually selecting and adding recipients when composing a new SMS. User needs to type to invoke matches in the contact list.
• The Dolphin Browser app supports multi-touch but the Maps doesn’t. The old school zooming in and out (+/- keys) isn’t a deal breaker for me.
• The current Plurk applications available on the Android Market are not good enough for me. Might experiment and try to make one. We’ll see.
• It’s not as intuitive as the iPhone and takes a bit of tinkering a bit before you get the hang of the controls.
• The camera is way better than the iPhone’s. It performs well and doesn’t appear too grainy in low-light. This is a big plus for me.

That’s it for now. Maybe I’ll post a more comprehensive review after I used it more. So far, I’m really liking it.

The Day Before The Day Before Christmas

While most people are busy doing some last-minute shopping for gifts, me and my husband were busy looking for Christmas decors! Our visit to Ikea last night proved to be a failure since there weren’t a lot of the Christmas stuff left. We thought of getting a small, albeit real tree but I decided not to go through with it. We didn’t see anything we liked at the Raffles City Mall so we went to Marina Square, where we got a nice 3 feet tree and some trimmings to go with it. We haven’t put it up yet though…

…Because I’m too busy tinkering with my brand spankin’ new Nikkor 50mm f/1.8D lens! Can you say, impulse? The husband offered to buy it for me when we dropped by Cathay Photo. I hesitated for about a minute before saying yes. Heh. The husband wanted better pictures of his baby (aka Cody, the Very Expensive PC) so I recommended that we buy this prime. So yeah, test shots:

Today I learned how to attach and detach a lens! Yay me! I panicked a bit when trying out the lens earlier since the auto focus did not work. Turns out that the lens wasn’t “clicked in place” yet. Doh.

My impressions: the depth of field is amazing, as expected but the sound when the auto-focus is activated is quite disconcerting.

Planning to bring this tomorrow to see if my night shots improve. Hrhrhr. And just maybe this is what I need to jump start my recent lack of interest in bringing my camera outside.

My Very Own Tarot Deck

Ever since my then-boyps moved to Singapore, I had this thing that I do whenever I saw something that I wanted: I would call him up and describe the item, the cost and I would ask him if I should buy it. Sometimes, I would send him a picture (via MMS) and wait for his reply before deciding what to do.

I remember seeing the Vertigo Tarot Deck set in Fully Booked in Greenbelt 5, called the then-boyps and he convinced me that I didn’t need it plus it’s expensive. Right. Somewhat disappointed, I left the store and put it out of my mind.

It wasn’t until yesterday that I remembered that occurrence. I was idly window shopping in Absolute Comics in Bugis Junction when I saw it again (placed strategically at the counter!). I immediately called the now-husband and ask if I can buy it. He says yes! (In retrospect, I think he allowed the purchase because earlier that day, he bought a new router and three fans for his new PC case. A kind of an offering perhaps? Heh.)

The set includes 78 cards, a black velvet bag for the cards and a Tarot book by Rachel Pollack (introduction written by Neil Gaiman). The cards were painted by the awesome Dave McKean. The Major Arcana of the set features some Vertigo characters like John Constantine, Morpheus and Swamp Thing. The general feel of the deck is a bit dark in my opinion. Having said that, the illustrations are dreamy and interesting at the same time. The cards are a bit big for my hands which will make shuffling a bit weird. But I don’t think this is going to pose any major problems since readings don’t really require fancy shuffling techniques as with card games.

All that is left to do now is learn how to do readings. Maybe the next time we meet, I’ll ask you to pick a card. Any card.

The Red Cups Are Back

The red cups signal the start of the Christmas season for Starbucks. This means merchandise, pastries, beans and other products especially made for the holiday season are displayed in stores. For aficionados, the three most-awaited Christmas drinks (Peppermint Mocha, Toffee Nut Latte and Dark Cherry Mocha) are also being brewed again by your friendly baristas.

For my friends in Manila, this also means that the annual quest for the highly in demand Starbucks planner has begun. No such promotion here in Singapore and I doubt it would be as big a hit as it is in the Philippines should it be done here anyway. Heh.

I love the hot Peppermint Mocha drink which is why when I passed by the Starbucks in ION Orchard yesterday and saw that they were already serving it, I got myself a cup. And being a Christmas junkie, I was enthralled by the new mugs and tumblers. The baristas kept approaching me while I was inspecting the goods and were  telling me that every purchase of a tumbler entitles me to a free drink. As if I need another excuse to buy Christmas items.

So anyway, not being able to resist a bit of retail therapy, I’ve decided to get a mug and a tumbler. The mug is a smaller version of my red “seatmate” mug bought last year. So cute.

And the tumbler has a small bunny underneath! I think there’s another version but with a penguin instead of a bunny. I shall look for that the next time I see a Starbucks branch.

Along with the coupon for my free drink, I was also handed a Wish card wherein I can wish for a mug, a tumbler or a Starbucks passport (a discount card of sorts) or I can pick one from the choices and pass on the cheer to Gracehaven which is a beneficiary of The Salvation Army.

Let the Christmas season begin!

Want

Limited edition “Oceanic” print scarf from the new Christian Siriano online store. <3