boon's log 1306.04: Billow Clouds

We were fortunate enough to be able to observe this rare shape of clouds, known as billow clouds, as a result of what is known as shearing instability (or the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability). These clouds, looked like waves on top of the ocean, formed above the Sierra Mountains.


The Kelvin-Helmholtz waves

Google it and you may find some explanations like this...
"Billow clouds are created in the upward branch of each of the eddies if the air within this branch has a high enough relative humidity that, upon lifting, the air parcel reaches saturation. Individual billow clouds generally have life times of a few minutes. The presence of billow clouds provides a visible signal to aviation interests of potentially dangerous turbulence."

boon out...

boon's log 1306.02: California Air Show '06

Another delayed entry. A few of us went for the California Capital Air Show 2006 last weekend (actually, 2 weekends ago). It's was a hot and fast moving weekend. the weather was nice, a few of us got a nice tan - i had a semi-tan on my face because of the cap (yeah, did not bring any sunblock - did not expect it to be so sunny). It was a nice weekend, don't think they had that much static displays this year as compared to the one we went up in Oregon a few years ago. As with most air shows, the "*stars*" of the show are the Navy Blue Angels.

I really have to give it to them, The Blue Angels, they are really good. The rest of the performers were relatively good as well, with most of them are retirees. Hoards of people flooded the local airport for the Airshow. So much so that one of the major 5-lane freeway was jammed-up for miles. The gates open at 10AM and we literally had to arrive at the airport at 8-ish, and queue outside the gates in our cars. And we faced similar problems when exiting the carpark after the show. took us about 1.5 hours just to get out of the carpark and back on the freeway - reminds me a lot of the traffic back in Penang Bridge... :)

Here are some of the photos from the airshow...


Chuck Lisher in his F-260, N941TA


Julie Clark on her Mopar T-34


One of the many other static display


T-38 Talon





The Navy Blue Angels in action


Fairchild Republic A-10A Warthog with some pyrotechnics display


Lockheed's B-5 Galaxy


A F-18 on static display

You can get more photos here.

boon out...

boon's log 1306.01: PS2 feeding time

Fed another game to the ol' ps2 last weekend - Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. Yeah, I know it is kind of an old game (2003), but that's how you get cheap stuffs, right? Anyway, I am not really much of a fanatic gamer such that I would pay twenty-over-thirty-something dollars just to get the latest games. I just need to get the ps2 going-and-going, so that it would not be a white elephant. It's been quite a white elephant already sitting in my parent's condo in Batu Ferringhi for some years. I think IL's brother played with it more than I did... unlike, one of my colleagues, EYT, who actually locked himself in his home and played Medal of Honor for hours and hours! And then he complained being dizzy the next day - hmm... and i believe he not only did it once, but a couple of times... :P

Anyways, got the new-old-game on yesterday. Was pretty fascinated with it. Its pretty addictive once you get the hang of it - I kinda know why EYT can just sit infront of the tele on MOH.

TC-SC received pretty good reviews before. There are a few newer instalments - Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow (2004) and Splinter Cell Chaos Theory (2005). I'll finish up with this one first, and may consider getting the second and third instalments - hopefully the price will drop further by then. Pretty cool stealth gaming. Graphics are pretty good too. Only thing about the 1st Splinter Cell is that it does not support multiplay. The other two does.





Also, I heard that there are plans for a Splinter Cell movie, but not sure how true it is and whether it is still going to happen... perhaps i'll google it sometime soon.

10-4

boon out...

boon's log 1206.06: Stroll in the park

Took a stroll in the park last weekend - one of those on-the-spot, impromptu, sudden health decisions that makes you wanna go hiking (yeah, take a hike! ahem...). It was one of those days with exceoptionally nice weather, amidst the grey and cloudy weather the whole week. Even the flowers are confused. One day, temperatures goes up to the mid-teens, with the radio officially announcing the arrival of spring, and then before you know it it dips to 5deg region.

it was truly a nice day to take a walk. half way through the trail, there was even a couple taking their wedding photos along the river. Don't mind doing it again this weekend, if the weather permits...

and yeah, it does make you feel better (a little... pretty sure I made a little dent to my weight, and the belly too... not much, just a little dent).





click images for bigger image...

boon out...

P/S: O by the way, one of my macro shots got published by Megapixel.net in their galleries. Click here to check it out and other interesting macro shots - believe the order of the shots are on a rolling basis.


This image was actually featured in boon's log 3305.03

boon's log 1006.06: Happy Birthday, IL

It's IL's birthday earlier this week. I surprised her (kind of) with a special birthday present - we celebrated her birthday in Disneyland, Anaheim, CA. Thought that I did something special this year, since we are kinda near Anaheim. We also took this opportunity to visit Disneyland's California Adventure - the one that was not opened when we at Disneyland the last time. It was an approximately 6hr drive from where we are. It was a much needed, nice, enjoyable two day get-a-way short break for the both of us. We've been very busy with work for the past few weeks, trying to meet datelines and commits - especially for me. And, yeah, that pile of work was still there waiting for us on our table and smiling at us when we got back from Disneyland...

We had her birthday dinner over at Tony Roma's, just opposite Disneyland's main gate, nothing grand, but it is one of IL's favourite restaurants. The waiters/waitresses did the usual birthday bash for her with an ice cream cake...

Back to the theme park, we went up on the newly improved, re-opened Space Mountain, it's truly much better than before. Some of the other rides were really great, so much so that we went on them twice, like the Space Mountain, California Screamin' and the Hollywood Tower of Terror.

Though we were there on a weekday, and not being a major holiday, the park was surprisingly busy and at certain times, packed. We had to queue for up to 45minutes for some of the rides.

Here are some pictures.


Disneyland, Anaheim, CA


California Screamin', The Ride. A real blast, from 0 to 55mph in less than 5 seconds.


A view of California Screamin' from the top of Sun Wheel


Aladdin, the musical spectacular at the Hyperion Theatre. A ~1hr musical, not to be missed. Really spectacular and entertaining. We really enjoyed the entire choreography.


The Hollywood Tower of Terror, one terrifying ride...


Special mosaic images. Look closely, and you will see that the bigger poster is made out of smaller images of the many happy faces that visited Disneyland... (click on picture for bigger image)


Sully, Boo and a few others from Monster Inc. at the the Block Party Bash


And it all began with a mouse...



Happy Birthday, IL...

boon out...

boon's log 0906.07: An American... Wedding

IL and I were invited a wedding down in Menlo Park, San Jose. It's about a 2hr drive, a little bit shorter with my trusty Whistler detector. RM used to be IL's host manager when she was here a couple of years back. Through the years, he's been more like a close friend to us. He's invited over to his place a couple of times for dinner and he even came all the way to Penang for our wedding.

So, anyways, we were honored to have been invited to witness their wedding - RM and RT. It was a small-do, only close relatives and friends. It was a church wedding at Mission Santa Clara in the afternoon and then followed by a evening reception at Stanford Park Hotel. It was an American-Chinese-Filipino wedding.






The wedding of RM and RT.

We took the opportunity to pay a visit to my cousin in Stanford University - MLC - whom I believe until last CNY, was still called "baby" i.e. her family "pet" name we used to call her since she was a baby... :P. We did a little touring of the university around the Memorial Court and got ourselves a little souvenir and took our leave. It was a rather quick visit, as we were in a little rush for time to get back. The weather wasn't that encouraging for photographs - cloudy and slight showers at times - but did manage to snap a few. It was a rainy-drive all the way back home, too...





Stanford University, CA.

The last photo is known as a water clock. Real cool stuff... More about water clocks can be found here and here.


boon out...

boon's log 0906.03: 40 days to Easter

March 1st, marks the 1st of 40 days to Easter. Yeah, wow. It feels just like yesterday when we celebrated the New Year, or Chinese New Year, and we're talking about Easter already? Yeah, it's like throwing the clock out the window.

Lakeside is embarking on a 40-Day Fast and Pray for the City, the surrounding community, and the rest of the world - starting from the furthest point from Jerusalem... the Americas.


Lakeside issued out "PRAY" wrist bands and also a 40-day prayer calendar. Looks like the wrist bands are the current cool thing - they have wrist bands for Breast Cancer, AIDS... even McDonald's have a couple of them. I guess it can be a conversation item during lunch or tea breaks.



Incidently, I was told that we are about the time of MardiGras as well... hmmm... :P anyone got any beads? or anyone gave any beads?

Anyways, it's a good time to reflect and prepare ourselves as we approach Palm Sunday... besides prep-ping the eggs for the Annual Egg Hunt, that is.

boon out...