David Tran's Spider Lair

Black Ice
posted by dtra on 5th-Sep-2010

So I'm trying to save money at the moment, but I have this tendency to splurge on something every now and then. I just got a new bike, a Giant TCR Composite 2, it's not all carbon, it doesn't even have full carbon anything, it's part of the Giant composite range, which is a material composed (see what I did there?) of carbon and aluminium. Anyway, it has Shimano 105 components, and is mostly black, including magnificently sexy black cranks. I guess there is really nothing wrong with the Red Rcoket, but I thought I better spend this money now while I am not in debt....

Updated at 8:09 5th-Sep-2010

New lens: Pentax DA55-300 F/4-5.8
posted by dtra on 12th-Aug-2010

So after my trip to India I decided that the DFA100 wasn't going to cut it any more as my primary telephoto lens. After a bit (and I do emphasise "a bit" of research, I decided not to fork out for the DA*60-250, and go with the cheaper, longer, slower option of the 55-300. I've never had a lens longer than 200mm, so it'll be interesting to see how the 300mm works, I've noticed the necessity for a high shutter speed already. It's also the biggest lens I've ever owned (considering the DA* is a lot bigger again maybe it was a good decision), and doesn't fit into my holster properly, fits in my other bags fine....

Asus VW222U green screen issue
posted by dtra on 30th-Jul-2010

It's funny, I got this monitor back when I got my Macbook, but I never did a review on it, which is probably good, because it was going well for a year and a half, and then started getting spotty green pixels all over the screen. At first, it wasn't a big issue, the green pixels would be very random and only show up very occasionally, but then, the whole screen would be affected, and become this annoying green blotchy mess, with a bit of pink thrown in for good measure. It could stay like that for hours, intermittently returning to normal for a few seconds before going green again. Finally I decided to look it up, and it turned out to be a known issue with the VW222U model, something to do with a loose DVI input in the monitor itself....

Updated at 9:52 30th-Jul-2010

The Red Rocket (Mach 2)
posted by dtra on 25th-Jul-2010

Yes, that's right, the Red Rocket has gotten some upgrades, and just in time for the special 10 000km ceremony. I was going to wait until after the computer had reached 10 000km to post this, but as with the upgrades, I couldn't resist. Last weekend, I put red (actually more of a dark pink) bottle cages onto my bike, and also changed the original black seat to a new red Selle Italia seat during the week. This weekend, the plan was to replace the original black grips with some new red grips, but I decided to put my new Michelin Speedium 2 tyres on as well....

India: Not my cup of chai
posted by dtra on 22nd-Jul-2010

Chai being the (name of) tea drank in the region, well, I actually had this whole post typed out on my iPhone, but have at the last minute decided to go in a different direction. I mean, it was obvious what I was going to talk about, it's all in previous two posts, the dodginess, the annoying-ness, the foreign-ness of the Indian people, the pollution, and the lack of regard for the environment, but since I've said it all already, I decided just to complain about this one piece of shit souvenir that I bought, because I'm not sure that I can complain to the vendor in question at this point, afterwards. After some contemplation, I decided that the frustrations of dealing with the Indian people were probably made more irritating by the fact that I was travelling alone, not helped by the poor choice of tour package I chose at the start. All these things, they have probably happened before, but without someone to share the annoyances with, without someone to talk me out of making stupid decisions, they became bad mistakes, and too much effort to deal with....

Updated at 12:52 22nd-Jul-2010

Thank Ganesh for Leh, Ladakh
posted by dtra on 14th-Jul-2010

Or should that be Buddha? Seems a bit more appropriate. Anyway, to say Ladakh is a part of India is very much like saying that Tibet is a part of China, we all know it's in name only (I think it's an apt comparison because the Ladakhis are heavily influenced by Tibetan culture). I certainly see them s worlds apart, the people just seem so much nicer and more honest....

Updated at 6:15 18th-Jul-2010