mH3nG's random rambling

Samsung Galaxy SII

2012-02-06T11:08:00.003+08:00

The old workhorse finally kicked the bucket due to a broken ribbon which is a common problem for the Nokia N95. After being fed up with repairing the phone so many times, the broken ribbon was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Ironically, several days before I was reading reviews on the Samsung Galaxy SII. Its funny how things work out.

The new phone is miles ahead of the old one but the only problem is its terrible battery life. Medium usage will see the battery empty itself slightly over 12 hours. Of course, light usage will get me through a whole day and then some but then again, hardly anyone with a smartphone will use the phone just to tell the time. The only workaround was to buy chargers and make sure the phone remains charged throughout the whole day.

Canon 270 EX II

2012-01-03T23:05:00.005+08:00

A new toy dropped into my lap the other day courtesy of Canon Malaysia (Thanks Canon!). :D

Took it for for a quick spin around the house and from the initial impression is pretty good. The flash output is probably one stop less as compared to the 430 EX II but it loses out in terms of the flexibility in rotating the head.

Another gripe is that the settings cannot be adjusted on the flash itself but must be controlled via the camera's in built menu. On the plus side, it offers ETTL or manual control on the power but again, one mus go through the menu to set it although I've read that the newer bodies (ie. 60D & 7D) can control the flash remotely.

Also, the AF assist isn't the red grid, it's the retina searing flash burst (great way to annoy those who you don't really like because you can blame the camera for it :P). Not very discreet and definitely not subject friendly unless your subject is impervious to flashing bright lights in which case, they'd ought to be seeing a optician.

As for now, I'll probably use it off camera rather than having it sit on my camera as the 430 EX II allows me more flexibility even though the 270 EX II is lighter.

Welcome 2012

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+08:00

Entering 2012 with an attitude.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year

2011-12-29T20:17:00.001+08:00

Merry Christmas to all and Happy 2012.

TBF Gathering

2011-09-17T22:03:00.003+08:00

Its always nice to sit down and catch up with your old mates from college. The reunion was small but no less interesting. So much has changed over the years but one thing still remains, our friendship still remains as strong as the good old days.

Also had a chance to take Anthony's 60D out for a spin. The camera was definitely an upgrade from my current body and is similar to the D7000 I tested earlier although I must say that the swivel screen came in pretty handy at times.

BBQ Nite

2011-07-26T20:56:00.003+08:00

Had an amazing BBQ at Vincent's place last week. Rang up the usual suspects as well as some friends whom we haven't seen in a while. Everyone was very polite and mild manner during the evening but all hell broke out as the night progressed. Throw some beer into the fray and watch the party come to life. :)

Usually the bane of BBQ's are the lack of food but not this one. Food was aplenty with no less than 100 chicken wings in a bucket and ready to be grilled by our sous chef; Richard. I myself had a good time by getting into everyone's faces and taking their mugshots. :D

The main course.

Our sous chef.

David getting 'high'.

Our 'Bersih 2.0' couple.

Candid shot.

Billy and Jojo's ROM @ 26/6/11

2011-07-03T21:56:00.002+08:00

A tiring day out and my first photoshoot outdoors.
Its funny how we like to plan how the day's events would turn out only for it to completely go absolutely haywire later on.

In the midst of all the chaos, I was preoccupied with getting the settings right and missed out on the little details such as the exchanging of rings. At one point, I totally forgot about the flash sync speed which left me scratching my head on why only one quarter of the picture was lit. Fortunately I figured it out but the strong sun wasn't helping my cause. Thankfully, the clouds rolled in and gave me some wiggle room. Next time around though, I'm going to work with the sun and get myself a reflector instead of trying to overpower it with a strobe.

The D7000 was a joy to use especially its autofocus mode which was very advanced compared to the prehistoric dinosaur which is employed by my Canon. The large viewfinder was a joy to use too. Switching from the Nikon to my Canon was like trying to compose a picture through a blinkers. Unfortunately I didn't manage to use the 70-300mm much which was regrettable as the bokeh was pretty nice although at 300mm, I was so far away from the couple that I had to resort to using hand signals to communicate.

In any case, congrats to both Billy and Jojo and thanks for putting up with my test shots throughout the session which was probably took up about 20% of the shots taken. :D

Some of the better pictures that day:

Poor man's stabiliser

2011-06-08T21:18:00.005+08:00

Did some testing the other day to see if the DIY stabiliser worked.
What's the best part about the stabiliser?
Its totally free!
Check out the video to see how it fared.

Portraits @ work

2011-04-29T20:59:00.003+08:00

Did some impromptu shots around my workplace as my colleague wanted a new FB profile picture. The lighting was tough as I could only work with one on-shoe flash which meant getting creative in finding ways to soften the light. Of course having an umbrella available would have been nice but I left it at home. Plus this short photo shoot wasn't planned so I had to make do with the available equipment.

Despite the lack of equipment, I'm pretty pleased with the results. :)

Reaching in.

The best portrait of the lot.

Xbox 360

2011-04-18T23:23:00.003+08:00

It was a toss-up between the PS3 and Xbox but I ended up with the Xbox because the PS Move was pretty expensive in the long run.

The Xbox package came with the Kinect and a free kinect game; Kinect Adventures which was good but not brilliant. Thankfully I bought the Kinect Sport which was more engaging than the Kinect Adventures. However, it has to be said that a motion sensor can only be so accurate. Certain moves like smashing the ball does not really translate well into your avatar's actions. Nevertheless, it was still great fun as you don't need the controller to play.

All you have to do is to jump around and wave you arms like a mad man. :)

Wedding

2011-04-18T23:09:00.001+08:00

Another year, another wedding and another chance to practice. Besides, the 17-55mm f/2.8 needed breaking in so it was the perfect opportunity.

Needless to say, my keeper rates were pretty low but at least I managed to get some pretty decent shots from the wedding.

D7 @ Sentul East

2011-03-19T00:41:00.005+08:00

D7 @ Sentul East is indeed a work of art especially when its bathed with a soft purple spotlight at night. However, for security purposes I never really went and photographed it. But since I had my cousin tagging along this time, I decided to take a stab at it. At least when I'm busy shooting, I'll have someone to cover my behind in case some mat rempit decided to pull a fast one on us.

The shooting went without a hitch. Even the guard who came over out of curiosity didn't stop up so we carried on for a few more minutes before calling it an night.

Family Gathering

2011-03-18T23:38:00.003+08:00

A few days back we were having a family gathering at my place and as usual, I was the un-official family photographer. Not that that minded though because I could finally test out my new gears (an umbrella and light stand) on my family members. (Cue the evil laughter).

Teenagers are pretty easy to work with as they don't really mind having their pictures taken. Some of them even relish having their pictures taken. The older generation were adamant of not having their photos as they were worried about their wrinkles and crow eyes showing up in the photo. The only consolation they had was that the pictures were digital so if they didn't like it, they had to liberty to delete it.

Working with off camera lighting was rather challenging especially when you are using two strobes. Gravity nearly killed my 430EXII as the silly umbrella was too busy being seduced by the light breeze to care about the poor speedlite. Thankfully, my cousin managed to grab the light stand in the nick of time. Otherwise, I'd be looking at a pretty hefty repair bill.

Since I only had one light stand, grabbed another cousin to hold the other strobe while pointing in the general direction of the subject. So with one cousin taking care of the light stand while the other was holding the strobe, I set about increasing my shutter count.

On hindsight I should have bought the lens hood as flare was appearing everywhere in my photos. But then again, the lens flare was the least of my problems as the camera was an absolute pig at focusing in near darkness. In fairness, I wasn't terribly great at manual focus but having the lens hunting for focus was driving me up the wall. So I had to shift the subject to somewhere brighter.

A new body might solve the problem but then again, I'll probably get a Canon ST-E2 to solve the issue. The other alternative would be to pack an portable light source to light the subject so that the camera can focus accurately.

Random Portrait

2011-02-18T19:39:00.002+08:00

It was a run of the mill department lunch and as usual I lugged my gears along. Got several shots of my colleague and then I tried to mimic Dave Hill's post processing which didn't go too well since I only had one flash to do the heavy lifting rather than a gazillion lights going off at once. After all, imitation is the highest form of flattery no?

Double the power

2011-01-25T22:31:00.004+08:00

So the inevitable happened when my battery decided to die on me after 19 shots.
Popped by my local photography store to buy some third party batteries but ended up with two original Canon batteries. :S

The Strobist Collection

2010-12-28T21:43:00.002+08:00

I finally bit the bullet and got myself some correction gels for my strobe.
All I have to do now is figure out when to use which gel... =S

Splash

2010-12-14T21:48:00.004+08:00

My lil' cousins paid me a visit over the weekend and went about emptying the pool in my house! Fished out my camera and got my uncle (who is also a shutter bug) to become my VAL (Voice Activated Lighstand). Shot over 160 frames, whittled it down to 60 and selected three of them to be posted here.

Although the hit rate is low, but I deem it as a success as the kids were too fast to adjust the strobe. Rules such as angle, power and distance gets thrown out of the window the minute they start to hit the water. Half the challenge is getting close and while staying dry!

Cupcakes

2010-12-14T21:44:00.003+08:00

Nothing much to blog about. Just some cupcakes which were too pretty to eat. These were for charity and all the proceeds from the sales would go to them.

Lightning pt.II

2010-09-12T23:21:00.002+08:00

So there I was sitting at home figuring out what to do when suddenly I saw flashes of light outside of my window. Grabbed my tripod which was leaning against the wall and threw the camera in bulb mode. Went crazy with the shutter and I managed to get some pretty decent shots without waiting for too long.

Assembling the pictures were a pain as it wasn't the typical 'round 'em up and shove them into photoshop' technique. I wanted something that was both panoramic but also showed that it was composed of several different photos. An hour or so later I managed to get the pseudo panoramic shot I wanted. It wasn't perfect as you can't really see all 7 images which made up the picture but its as close as it gets with my current set of skills. :)

Not too bad right?

Broga Hills

2010-09-11T18:36:00.006+08:00

I've always wanted to capture the sunrise on top of a hill with the mist rolling down the valley and the sun just peaking from the clouds. So I tagged along a bunch of friends who wanted to climb Broga on the first day of Hari Raya.

The early bird catches the worm or so they say. Unfortunately they didn't say how difficult it is to get up early. Since the hills were quite far from my place, I had to get up at 3 in the morning. I'd bet not even the most industrious worm was wriggling about in the soil. Anyway, with bleary eyes and a half-awake conscious, I roused myself from slumber and got going.

The drive there was about an hour or so while the climbing took another 45 minutes. Hiking is easy; only if its with visible light. Trying to climb a 45 degree slope with a small torch whilst lugging a tripod and your dslr, is no small feat. But its probably isn't so bad if you compare it to caving because at least you can't bump your head on the ceiling as you're out in the open.

So we reached the first peak after 45 minutes of hiking and there was a sense of accomplishment being able to reach there as I was the most 'unfit' person of the group. I could have yelled 'I'm the king of the world' if it was not for the crowd that had already gathered before we reached. Until it started to rain.

Ever packed something in your bag in case there was an emergency like extra batteries or an extra shirt? You know the odds of using it are a million to one but you just stow it away just for fun even though it adds extra weight to your bag.

So yeah, out came the umbrella and with the rain, went my morale. Now I was cold, wet and miserable. Nobody gets up in the wee hours of the morning to get stuck in the rain several hundred metres above sea level. And if I got lucky, I'd be taken out of my misery with a lightning bolt from above.

Fortunately the rain did let up but because of the rain, we couldn't see the sun which was obscured by the clouds. Damn. That earthworm must be laughing to itself in its tunnel. But wanting to make the best of things, I fished out the camera and made some exposures. Although they aren't much but it beats not having anything to show after coming all this way.

iShoot flash trigger

2010-08-25T21:58:00.002+08:00

Been lurking about for a flash trigger ever since I bought my flash. After going through so many types of triggers, from bargain bin types (optical) to the golden standard (pocketwizzards), I finally settled on the PT-04 CNII triggers. They're the second iteration of the PT-04 triggers which were fine but received a lot of flak for having an upright receiver which causes the flash to be prone to falling over. Since the reviews were promising and they were less than RM100 (inlcluding shipping!), it wouldn't break the bank if it disappoints.

Build quality is what you'd expect for the amount you're paying for so no surprises there. After several shots with the triggers, there have been no misfires so far although one minor niggle is that the receivers won't take rechargeable AAA batteries due to their low voltage compared to alkaline batteries.

The only thing I've yet to test is the range. So far everything triggers within a 5m range. I've got to find me a large open space to see how far out I can go...

Jack Daniel's

2010-07-12T21:03:00.004+08:00

Had Billy's Nissin Di622 over for the few days so I decided to mess with its optical trigger. Unfortunately the optical trigger would only respond to my inbuilt camera flash. So in the end I ended up doing some light painting instead.

Clouds

2010-06-26T13:53:00.002+08:00

Taken by my trusty A570IS from the cabin.

Zap!

2010-06-13T21:07:00.004+08:00

Saw some flashes of light outside my windows and instinctively grabbed the camera.
Admittedly its not the best I've seen but its the first I've managed to capture so far. :)

DIY Bounce Card

2010-06-13T00:54:00.004+08:00

Not much of a DIY person but since my flash didn't come up with a pull out bounce card, I thought I'd make my own. It's relatively cheap to make.
All you need are foam sheets, some double sided tape, a rubber band and a cutter.
Just cut them out to whatever shape you want, stick them together and 30 mins later and voila!

A bounce card!

If double sided tape doesn't work for you, get a spray on adhesive. I kept the cost down and sewed the sides instead.

If you rather have a more polished one, check out A better bounce card!

A i r

2010-06-09T00:06:00.003+08:00

One of my favourite photos.
Alvin trying to perform a dunk in a nearby park.
Shot with my trusty lil' PnS and converted it into B&W to accentuate the shadows.

Laila & Syahrul

2010-06-06T21:42:00.003+08:00

Selamat pengantin baru to Laila & Syahrul who recently tied the knot. :)

The Street Cafe

2010-05-01T22:32:00.008+08:00

Was wondering about SS15 again today. Since we've already memorised Uncle Seng's menu like the back of our hands we decided to try something thing different. Bob suggested we try out korean food instead instead of the usual local fare. So we popped by a nondescript shop called The Street Cafe which was sandwiched along a row of shophouses.

Can't remembered what I ordered but I dare say the food had exceeded my initial impression of the shop. Apart from the overplayed Nobody but You song (who can fault them, its a shop serving korean food), the food was great.

The salad was crisp, the chicken was well seasoned and tender while the rice was just nice and fluffy. Washed it down with a glass of dragon fruit juice. Total damage to bank was only about RM15.

Who said you can't get anything cheep and cheerful these days? :D
I'm definitely heading there next time if I get tired of the usual eating spots.
Btw, there's also another branch in Sunway Pyramid.

Earth Hour BBQ

2010-04-04T21:10:00.003+08:00

So David had a bright spark of organising a BBQ cum get together at his place on Saturday which coincidently fell on Earth Hour day. Ironically, instead of doing our part by switching off the lights for an hour, we went and did opposite by leaving the lights on and contributed towards air pollution. lol

Starting up the fire

Raiding the drinks cabinet

Lethal combination; mei with skewered chicken operating a tripod

Chris going bonkers with the tripod

Plan B at Putrajaya

2010-03-24T22:28:00.005+08:00

So a few months back, I was surfing the net and I came across pictures taken from the Putrajaya International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta and I thought, "Man, I wished I had that big snazzy camera to capture those fantastic looking pictures" and then I left it at that. Few months down the line, I became the lucky owner of one.

It was around a month ago when the idea came back to me. This time was different as I had everything I needed;
DSLR - check
own transport - check
free time to snap pics - check!
research on the location, itinerary etc - check!
friends to drag bring along for company - check!

Perfect! Everything's in order. All I needed to do now was to mark my calender.

So at 3p.m., I reconfirmed everything and made sure all preparations were complete.

After planning the outing for months, how's a slight drizzle at 5p.m. going to affect the outcome right? Boy was I wrong! That drizzle turned out to be a torrential rain... for a full 30 minutes. With the sun peeking out of the clouds, I headed to pick up my friends and head for the venue.

On the way there, we missed a turning and ended up heading to Holland. Thankfully we took the nearest exit but got stuck in a bumper to bumper crawl somewhere in PJ. When we finally got to Putrajaya, it was already night and the hot air balloons were long gone. What rotten luck huh? 3 months of planning went up in smoke.

It didn't help that there was a slight drizzle by the time we got there which persisted throughout pretty much of the night.

Even so, we were determined to make the best of it and immediately went looking for the scenic spots in Putrajaya. Looking for the Seri Wawasan bridge wasn't difficult. Finding a good location to capture the bridge was.

Initial spot.

So being adventurous, we continued exploring Putrajaya despite the rain although on hindsight it would've been better to have worn slippers that night as it was so dark, we were basically stepping into every puddle of water on the ground.

The Seri Wawasan Bridge taken from another vantage point.

Putra Mosque.

Although we had intended to travel around Putrajaya further, our plans were cut short due to the sudden heavy rain. Since it was getting late, we decided to head back to KL for dinner.

Dinner was at Murni's in SS2. Determined to have their signature XXL curry puff for dinner, I ordered their Dragon Pizza (its a misnomer if you ask me) which took 30 mins to arrive. :( But the wait was well worth it as I've been longing to order/eat it.

Dragon Pizza

The XXL curry puff wasn't too bad although it was a tad salty. It was stuffed with meat and scrambled eggs topped with some pasta sauce. Be warned that the XXL curry puff is larger than it looks and can easily substitute your dinner especially when you've downed half a glass of their laichee special beforehand while waiting for the food to arrive. :D

Laichee Special

Prisms II

2010-03-13T22:51:00.001+08:00

More prisms!

Leaning tower of Pisa.

Coliseum.

Pizzas!

2010-03-10T20:55:00.004+08:00

Pizza Hut's online delivery system works like a charm. There's no need to ring them up either. All you need is a pc and a credit card/ maybank2u and 30 minutes later, your pizza is served right at your doorstep. Talk about convenience!

Ordered the perennial favourite, the Super supreme; hardly ever fails to deliver and when it does, you know never to visit that outlet again. :P

Hawaiian chicken on the so called thin crust. Wasn't too my liking as it felt like eating brittle bread. :/

Your daily beverage will never be the same again

2010-03-06T23:24:00.007+08:00

For all those Canon enthusiast out there, I present to you THE MUG to rule them all:

Apparently you can get them here

And if 24-105mm lacks oomph, how about 70-200mm?

The 70-200mm picture is from here

Your morning coffee will never be the same again!

Rain

2010-02-28T17:50:00.003+08:00

Bah, I hate the rain. More so since its raining almost every evening. The rain just makes everything dark, dull, dreary and not to mention wet. =(

On the 9th day of CNY...

2010-02-22T22:50:00.006+08:00

According to a folklore, many moons ago, hokkiens in Fujian province sought refuge in a sugar cane plantation when they were attacked during the Sung Dynasty. They emerged unharmed nine days later and offered sugar cane to the Jade Emperor God as thanksgiving. (Source: The Star) Further information can be found from Wikipedia .

As for me, I took it as an opportunity to practice capturing fireworks. They're notoriously difficult to capture; requiring both patience, timing and a little bit of luck. My first try was a failed attempt. This time however, I had a slightly more preparation and lady luck was on my side.

Determined capture that magical shot, I feverishly jabbed my pointy fingers at the remote release cable which on hindsight wasn't the smartest thing to do. All I did was increase the shutter count further. By how much? Lets say I went berserk and took over 100 photos in the span of 30 minutes. Fast and furious eh?

The keeper rate was a measly ~15% which serves me right. In my haste in capturing the moment, I forgot rule no 1; compose before you expose. Still the haul that night didn't turn out too bad if I might say so myself. :D

Went mad in photoshop with these two...

Radioactive green.

Red frenzy.

And the fireworks sans photoshop:

Ipoh Yong Too Foo

2010-02-20T00:24:00.003+08:00

Lunch today was at a restaurant named Ipoh Yong Too Foo which is situated along Jalan Ipoh. I've always patronised the place but this is the first time I've actually brought my DSLR along with me. As usual, the food was superb; the tofu was firm while retaining its melt in your mouth texture, the lady fingers were young and soft while the 'sui kow' was just right as it was crispy on the outside while retaining its moisture on the inside. Add a dollop of chilli sauce and a dab of plum sauce for that extra 'kick' and we're all set. :D

Have I whetted your appetite yet? ;P

CNY 2010

2010-02-18T22:48:00.005+08:00

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous new year ahead!

The obligatory yee sang.

Calculating the odds.

Subway

2010-02-16T23:58:00.004+08:00

Dinner at Subway + camera in hand = an increase in shutter count! =P

Sub of the day: Tuna (something... the name escapes me)

D5000 in action!

Rojak

2010-02-07T20:59:00.002+08:00

Had rojak for tea today. Since I had my camera in hand, I decided to snap some photos. :D

Harith & Alyana

2010-02-06T23:32:00.004+08:00

First off, congrats to both of them as they recently tied the knot.

Everything was amazing from the food to the traditional performance. The only letdown was probably the photos. The exposures were thrown off most of the time and if it wasn't for shooting in RAW, my bacon would have been toast. Composition was nowhere near as good as it could be as everything happened very fast and I didn't have much time to prepare for the shot nor position myself. Blame it on not scouting the area first. =S

Overall I made a complete hash of my first wedding outing but at least I wasn't the official photographer for that event. *phew* It also felt pretty embarrassing to be known as 'the photographer from the wedding' by some of the guests whom I bumped into after the wedding especially when the pictures were half baked. Its probably my ego working overtime lol.

Something decent that came out that day.

On an unrelated note, I've went past the 10k shutter count. Yipee! =P

The Doumo in Milan

2010-01-30T21:30:00.004+08:00

Got bored so I rummaged through my stuff and found this:

One of the many prisms in my collection...

Opus Bistro

2010-01-19T21:38:00.004+08:00

Recently met up with Frena whom we haven't seen for a long time and her cute daughter, Ashley. :D

Opus

Frena

Ashley

Everyone else lol

Tilt Shift

2010-01-09T23:08:00.007+08:00

Tried my hands on making a picture with tilt shift effect and this came out. More info on tilt shift can be found on Wikipedia

2010

2010-01-09T21:14:00.005+08:00

And so, another year has just whizzed past by. 2009 was a year in itself. The subprime fallout spilled over into 2009, the stock market collapsed, credit froze and everyone was a naysayer. Comparisons with the 1920's were inevitable and the man on the street were lamenting about the onset of the next depression.

March brought the bulls along and kicked the bears squarely in the nuts. Markets all over the world rebounded from their lows and those who were brave enough to invest were rewarded handsomely. We don't know if its a secular bull run or not but then again, that's a different post all together.

With so much happening in the span of 1 year, what better way than to see see the year off with a bang right? Since there are fireworks every year, I decided to catch the fireworks from the comforts of my home. No need to push and shove other revellers just to get a better view of the fireworks.

Then came the planning. A quick search on Google revealed that fireworks are difficult to capture owing to the long exposures needed. Thus, a tripod and a shutter release cable are necessary to eliminate camera shake. Shopping for a tripod wasn't easy. There were so many things to decide on, what type of head, which material to go for etc. In the end I just reused my trusty old Jessops tripod. :P
The remote shutter was pretty straightforward. Either get Canon's remote release (RM60) or a third party remote release (RM30).

With my pocket RM30 lighter, I set about scouting for the perfect spot. Admittedly when I got there there was a small crowd but finding a place high enough to place my tiny tripod proved to be a challenge. After searching for several minutes, I found an arch where I could place my camera on. Took a shot and was pretty pleased with myself for getting a pretty good spot.

The skyline from my 'vantage' point.

So with bated breath, I waited for the fireworks. With the crowd noisily counting down, I readied the remote release wondering if I would manage to capture any decent shots. The moment the count down hit zero, I stabbed at the shutter. Several seconds later there were faint explosions coming from the horizon but no fireworks! Everyone went WTF?! Another few more fireworks confirmed my worst nightmare, the spot I/we choose was rubbish. How rubbish? Check out the pictures below.

I knew that there would be buildings blocking the view but I really didn't expect the fireworks to explode just below the bridge. So yeah, all the preparation went down the drain. At least I didn't buy the tripod.

Seeing as there was no way the fireworks would go any higher, I packed up and left along with the crowd. The next half an hour was spent transferring the pictures over to my pc and then suddenly I heard another firework going off. Dropped everything I was doing and immediately grabbed my camera. Since I knew that these fireworks wouldn't last for long, I didn't bother setting up my tripod and snapped from my window.

As you can see, the results turned out to be pretty terrible due to the camera shake. But I suppose some is better than none. Oh well, better luck next year. =/

Christmas is here

2009-12-25T12:44:00.001+08:00

Camera Bag

2009-12-16T17:04:00.014+08:00

Ever since I got my camera, I've been searching for a camera bag to put all of my equipment in. What's wrong with the free camera bag that came with the kit you might say. Well, for one, I prefer something that's discreet that doesn't go "THIS GUY HAS A DSLR SLUNG ONTO HIS SHOULDER!!" with neon lights lighting it up. Ever notice when someone carries around a suspiciously boxy bag with a Canon or Nikon imprinted on the front? Now you know what's in them. Catch the attention of the wrong person and you'll find yourself a few thousand Ringgit lighter, figuratively and literally. :/

So what kind of bag is discreet? Third party camera bags such as Kata, Lowepro, Crumpler etc thats what! Unfortunately, these bags cost a small fortune and for a camera enthusiast on a budget, they're pretty much out of the picture. That leaves the question of what to purchase if all the bags are so darned expensive.

The answer lies in slightly less known brands who also manufacture camera bags ie Bagman, Winer etc although Bagman seems to be a pretty decent knock off of the Crumpler 7 million dollar home.

Image from shlow1819.

Initially I had wanted to get a Bagman. The size was decent, price was reasonable and the reviews weren't too shabby. Unfortunately one inherent problem with sling bags was that they tend to get in the way whenever you're trying to reposition yourself for a better angle. That's when I spotted a lowepro slingbag look alike. It had all the main features of real one such as side access to the camera, customisable compartments and a rain cover for when it rains! Pricing wise, its the same as the Bagman but no reviews were forthcoming so I took the plunge and got one anyway.

*Edit, I just found out that the bag's called Buffalo Montana 284 Fastpack

Build quality is decent with a few stray threads here and there and the padding seems to be sufficient to absorb a few knocks here and there. Since I don't have the real Lowepro with me I can't say with authority that this bag is as good as the real deal but its definitely able enough as a camera bag. Besides, its less than half of the real one so what more do you want? :D

DSLR shopping spree

2009-12-15T21:40:00.005+08:00

Just the other day I was tagging along when Billy and Chris decided to go for their 'little' DSLR shopping spree along with David. After all, its not everyday that you find two guys buying Nikon DSLRs at the same time.

Since they were busy testing out their Nikons, my wandering eyes landed on something that I've been eyeing for a long time... the Canon 50mm 1.8 II. With a bit of luck and their 'bulk' purchase, I managed to get the Canon 50mm 1.8 II on the low with a no name filter thrown in for free. With that said, Foto Selangor's prices are pretty competitive closely matching prices quoted by online retailers. Haggling is a must as their display prices are sometimes 10%-20% higher than the final prices.

p.s. Foto Selangor can be found at Pertama Complex which is besides Sogo. Google the shop's name and you'll find that I'm not the only one raving about their prices. :D

50mm

Billy and his new toy

Chris' payment for his camera. Cash no less

And some random pictures taken with the 50mm while we were in the shop:

Cobwebs

2009-12-12T17:43:00.009+08:00

Here I am cleaning the proverbial cobwebs. Its been ages since I last posted anything mostly because there wasn't anything meaningful to post but mostly because I got lazy. What's new then? I finally got myself a new camera, the 1000d which is a step up from my old one the powershot. Hand on heart, the images coming out from the new camera is fantastic to say the least. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to hone my skills further. :)

Old.

New :D

Some pictures from the kit lens:
p.s. the fish head curry was pretty good, its somewhere along Jalan Ipoh, can't remember the shop's name though...

Cammie's birthday

2008-12-20T20:27:00.007+08:00

Happy belated birthday to Cammie who celebrated her 2x birthday this month!

Week 8

2008-12-13T16:33:00.004+08:00

As of now, the classroom training is now officially over but to me it has never truly ended. Although we are now split up and placed into various departments, we still retain the chemistry and cohesiveness that was created during the first few weeks of the classroom training and I am proud to announce that at TCB 9, we do everything "together-gether" from computer glitches to birthday celebrations. You name it, we've done it together! Throughout these 8 weeks, we were constantly battered down and shed an occasional tear or two but at the end of the day, we dusted ourselves off the ground and continued marching forward.

All in all, it was an amazing experience along with the peaks and troughs along with countless sleepless nights but despite all that, we can now stand up tall and say, 'We did it our way'.

Vincent and his favourite colour!

Is it a Guy or a Girl?

Valuing Neoh's intangible asset.

How to pose like a model...

Brain food.

Short update

2008-12-06T20:33:00.003+08:00

Currently swamped with work. Will update in a weeks time... I hope...

Week 5

2008-11-01T23:35:00.005+08:00

Today marks my 5th week in the classroom training and so far its been a hell of a ride. Its been an eye opening, mind boggling, physically and mentally tiring experience. The best word to sum up the classroom training so far is intense. If you thought cramming 1 week before exams were intense, try having cram for four weeks in a row. That's how I would describe it for those who are not in the programme. However the classroom training is far from over as I have another month to go before I start my rotations. Only time will tell if I survive it...

ps: the are some of the pics which I took so far. More to come so watch out for that discreet canon camera which might be pointing at your direction... =p

I can has cheezburger?

2008-10-06T22:20:00.003+08:00

I was trawling the net the other day and I found this gem of a site. Here are some of the better ones from the site.

When you start working...

2008-09-27T21:04:00.004+08:00

Just thought I'd share this interesting mail from my inbox.

New Employee:

You are listening to Stevie Wonder. (It''s your first day at work and all is fine and great)

After 3 monts:

You are listening to HOUSE music. (Because you are so busy that you're not sure if you're coming or going)

After 6 months:

You are listening to HEAVY METAL. (Your days start at 0800 hours and ends at 2000 hours)

After 9 months:

You are listening to HIP HOP. (You become fat due to stress and now you suffer from constipation)

After a year:

You are listening to GANGSTA RAP. (Your eyes start to twitch, you forget what a good hair day feels like and you fall out of bed and live on caffeine!)

And finally after a second year:

You are listening to TECHNO and have gone a bit... well... crazy!

Gosh, I sure don't want to be like that poor kitty after my second year of working...

Happy b'day!

2008-09-10T22:07:00.002+08:00

Happy birthday to Ping Yee for turning xx years old. (Can't reveal a girl's age can I?) Many happy returns for the day and hopefully the wish you made on that brownie will come true...

Work, work and more work...

2008-09-05T20:45:00.011+08:00

Finally a real update on my blog instead of just quick posts consisting of just pictures. I've been wanting to do some rambling for some time but I just couldn't find anything substantial to rant about. Right, onto my rambling...

The title itself is a giveaway of what I'll be blogging about this time around so its no surprise that I'm going to be talking about my current workplace. If you hadn't already known, I've recently started working but if you don't already know, don't worry because I don't believe the whole world needs to know that I've joined the local workforce. That's why I'm not bothered to tell anyone about it and I don't appreciate others bitching behind my back about being mum about it since you couldn't be bothered to ask me directly.

Anyway, on the first day of work, I turned up at early and eager to kick start my first day at work. I reached there expecting a classroom training on site but in the next 15 minutes, everything was turned in a state of disarray. Soon I found myself clucthing a a diary with the company's logo emblazoned on it with a post-it note with an address scribbled on it while beeing shown the exit into a waiting cab on the driveway of the premise. Thankfully I wasn't the only one in a bind as I was sent off along with another bloke who also didn't seem to have the vaguest clue from the get-go. We got off at the given address on the post-it without an inkling of where we were, what we were supposed to do and how to get back home especially since I had parked my car at another place... With nowhere to go but straight ahead, we trudged along to our respective department where I met another soul who was also in a similar circurmstance. The only difference was that she was knew what she was in store for while I wasn't. I finally found out from her that the classroom training was only scheduled to start next month and we were here to do our compulsory rotation across the various departments in the company.

I got assigned to a department called special asset management. From the namesake, it sounded as if it would be about managing 'special' assets such as intangible assets such as goodwill, patents and the likes. No such luck. A debriefing from the department head finally sheded some light on what the department actually did. It bascially handles the company's non performing loans and turning them around by recovering part of the loan a.k.a. debt collection. Holy crap! I'm now going to be a debt collector albeit a legal one rather than those illegal money lenders mushrooming about who more of then than not regain their loans through underhand tactics such as spalshing your house with red paint, harrasing your family members and so forth. Images of yelling down the telephone line demanding to either be paid up or have their pants sued off them raced through my mind. It didn't help that I heard someone hollering on the phone down the hallway about needing something done pronto. Yikes...

We were dismissed later on and I started running various scenarios through my mind on how best to extort (for the lack of a better word) money from defaulters without using any invectives. There were so many "what if's" until my head started to ache from all that thinking so I just gave up and just settled on beating the defaulters into a pulp with words of course. Physcal harm won't do the company's image any good although I do admit that one would need to apply a certain amount of intimidation to get some results...

My current cubicle.

A brief chat with one of my colleagues soon allayed most of my fears. According to them, they usually try to restructure or negotiate with the defaulter before taking any legal actions are getting them to pay up through legal means is more tedious and costly. However I wouldn't be chatting up with any defaulters anytime soon since I haven't got any experience. Unfortunately, because of that, I had to start reading up on the procedures and previous cases to get a rough gist of the workflow in that department. The size of the files would scare most mortals but having worked as an intern before, I was hardly intimidated by it because in comparison, I have handled files that were double or even quadraple those files. But the moment I flipped open the files, I was suddenly thrown out of my comfort zone. Jargons and acronyms started to leap out at me and to make matters worse, I had to go through a stack of legal documents as well. If you ask me what would be the best nightcap, I'd say lay off on the booze and grab a copy of the S&P agreement instead. ( S&P stands for Sale & Purchase; see what I mean about the abbreviations jumping out?)

The trip home was courtesy of a white van which appread to be operating illegally since
it didn't have any proper permit to pick up and drop off people. Given the situation, I didn't have much of a choice and decided to huddle along with a bunch unknown people. Ironically, a few minutes before I hopped onto that van, I actually waiting for a standing at a taxi stand which taxi's didn't want to stop to pick passengers up. Pretty soon I found myself hurtling down the road with the van driver deftly weaving in and out through the dense KL traffic at break neck speeds. Fortunately I got to my destination unscatched although I must say that I was amazed at how fast I got through that gridlock and also at how cheap the fare was compared to taking a cab back. I would've given it two thumbs up if not for the fact that getting caught by the authorities could get one into serious trouble...

The rest of the week went without much hiccups as I slowly got round to deciphering those acronyms and getting a foothold in between all those paperwork. Only time will tell what other surprises that department has in store for me... Now if you don't mind, I'm going to hit the sack. It's been one hell of rollercoaster ride for me all rolled up into one week and that's more than enough to throw my life out of sync.

HDR [Food]

2008-08-26T10:55:00.008+08:00

I doubt anyone would use hdr to capture dynamic range found in their food but then again I don't see why not apart from wasting almost half an hour post processing the photo. Talk about too much free time...

Dinner time!

Down but not out...

2008-08-22T22:11:00.002+08:00

A day in a life of a cat

2008-08-09T10:43:00.007+08:00

One fine day I was walking along when suddenly I caught a whiff of sizzling chicken wings and hotdogs out in the open. Thanks to my keen and trusty nose, I managed to sniff out the location and I knew I hit the jackpot when I saw a barbeque pit in the midst. Lady luck must have been smiling over me as when I got there I saw a charred hotdog on the floor which I then snarfed it down since I hadn't eaten for days.

Food! Glorious food!

While busy foraging for food on the ground, suddenly I felt as if I was floating on air. A quick twich of my head confirmed my worst nightmare; I was caught red handed by a human!

Maybe if I pretend to be a stuffed animal he'll put me down...

Unfortunately for me, that didn't happen and soon I was enduring the worst moments of my life so cruel that I couldn't bear to put them into words (so I'll put them in the form of pictures instead =p).

Lemme go!!!

Gimme a break...

*Whimper*

After some time my captors got tired and I made a break for it. Thankfully I managed to escape without them noticing and truth be told, I think I lost 8 of my 9 lives during that 1 hour ordeal...

And so they say; 'Curiosity (nearly) killed the cat'.

V for victory?

2008-07-31T12:19:00.009+08:00

It's funny how in the v sign often pops up in various pictures. In the olden days, a simple smile while usually accompanied by the overused catchphras; 'Say cheese!' was suffice to bring out the 'Kodak' moment in any picture. This could probably be due to the influence of the 'kawaii' pose from the land of the rising sun but who knows... But then again, the v sign is a lifesaver when you don't want to be caught dead without a pose. I daresay the v sign pose comes first, smiling is optional.

Derek takes the top spot for 'camwhoring' and 'camhoging'. =p

Venice

2008-07-27T10:51:00.002+08:00

A collage of all the places we've been while we were there.

Dogs

2008-07-25T23:52:00.006+08:00

Today's theme is dogs; alive or stuffed.

Ariel's full moon

2008-07-09T23:57:00.004+08:00

First and foremost, a heartfelt congratulation to Francis and Ai Vea on the birth of their lively and beautiful daughter; Ariel Ng. It took me by surprise that the baby was due so soon after their marriage (que the risque jokes on plastic bags =p) but all's well that ends well. If this keeps up, who knows? We might even see an football team of Ng's in the near future...

I love dad.

No wait, I think I love mom more.

Snap!

Camera shy.

The two doting parents.

Life is like a game of poker. You start off with a pair and end up with a full house.

Clouds

2008-07-08T13:14:00.002+08:00

Shutter happy...

Destination: Italy; Venice

2008-07-07T18:08:00.005+08:00

Midway through June we decided to head on east to Italy for a short vacation. Along the way we thoroughly enjoyed it while pandering ourselves silly with late night Italian tv shows. Not much to comment on as the trip was quite a while back so I'll just let the pictures do the blogging. =D

A little girl feeding the pidgeons.

Just look at the size of those chocolates!

Fer Lynn demonstrating the art of 'camwhoring'.

Random photo.

More pidgeons.

Another random one.

Woof!

Chokotto Hime

2008-06-23T03:19:00.007+08:00

Over the past few weeks, I had the opportunity to edit an interesting manga. On first impression, the manga was an overdose of loli; something which I wouldn't touch. However, on reading the script, it turned out to be an enjoyable read. The manga revolves around a kitten and its owner. Its loosely based on the kitten's everyday interactions along with its zany but adorable antics thrown in for good measure. It makes for an interesting read as it plays out the idiosyncrasies of life from the perspective of a kitten. The manga itself reminds me of Yotsubato and Azumanga Daioh due to its layout which is only 3 panels long. Succinct and straight to the point if you ask me. The full chapter can be found here. Meanwhile, here are some pages taken from the first chapter to give you a taste of what's in store.

Cover.

*Bite!*

Enlarged so that the words are legible.

Turning back the clock

2008-06-22T06:26:00.004+08:00

With my flight back to Malaysia looming, my trusty old laptop decided to give the song Graduation by Vitamin C some airplay and it struck me how fast time has slipped away since I first got here. I vaguely remembered my first day in London fresh and bug eyed from Kuala Lumpur. It felt as if I had landed in totally different planet altogether as there was so many exciting and new things to see. I marveled at everything except the kitchen sink as there were just so many things that wasn't present in Malaysia such as water vending machines and internet kiosks where you can make international calls. As far as I was concerned, this would mark a beginning of a new chapter in my life. Even the whether didn't fail to surprise me. It was a blustery afternoon on the day I arrived at Heathrow Airport. The air felt cool and invigourating; a refreshing break from the sweltering heat which I was used to in Kuala Lumpur. It felt like someone an extended break to the highlands in Kuala Lumpur. En-route to my term accommodation, we passed by the University of the West of England (UWE) which I would be studying in. On first impression, its expansive grounds and various faculties struck me with awe as its sheer size trumps Taylor's campus size. To put it into analogical terms, if Taylor's was a basketball court, UWE was a football field. I did get lost in the corridors of UWE with each wrong turn bringing me deeper and deeper into the labyrinth. Admittedly, even now I still have not explored fully the manifold corridors in UWE and I do occasionally get lost every now and then if I don't look where I'm going...

This analogy works just as well.

Dinner that night was courtesy of Jomay. It went well except for the small fact that the pasta was half cooked. I almost baulked at eating it but I was thankful I wasn't in charge of cooking as my cooking skills at that time was nothing to shout about much less getting a Michelin star. Needless to say, I wolfed down my share as there wasn't anything else to go by that night and grocery shopping was in order the next morning. My first grocery shopping in Bristol was another matter altogether. Everything seemed so expensive due to the currency conversion from RM to pounds which was at 7 to 1. Therefore I went with whatever that was the best bang for the buck based on recommendations to those who were here before me while ignoring the incessant voice in the back of my head telling me to buy only the cheapest items on the shelves.

Autumn soon rolled in and while some of them were still strolling about in t-shirt and shorts with thongs, I had to bundle myself in a jacket although it wasn't half as bad as when winter came along. The nights were long and cold and it didn't help as my room heater seemed to have a mind of its own and would only come on during the daytime or not come on at all. Thankfully I had my duvet and sweater handy so I was able to keep warm and snug despite the finicky heater.

Spring was a welcome break from the cold and harsh winter weather especially when I'm not built to weather such weathers. (I love puns!) There was occasional light snow but other than that spring isn't much to write home about. Summer was fantastic as the temperature suited me the best while others found the temperature a tad too warm for their liking. Outside the temperature hovered around the 20 degrees celcius mark but the dreaded heater from hell decided to come back with a vengeance while attempting to roast me in my room. Feeling toasty in the winter is one thing but having a heater working overtime in the summer is another thing altogether. Lashing out at the heater was a bad idea as it retaliated by giving me a minor burn on my foot so I 'literally killed' it by pulling the plug (technically I just switched it off since there wasn't any plug to pull in the first place).

Sweet revenge for all that inconvenience!

On another note, this was supposed to be a post on friendship but somehow it turned into something else altogether. I suppose this is what happens when you don't draft out what you want to write.

Procrastination

2008-06-12T09:16:00.003+08:00

Spurred by Jomay's comment to blog more often, I will kindly oblige by putting up one extra post on the blog just to give the illusion that I'll be frequently updating my blog. =p

However, being the sloth that I am, I usually put off doing anything to the extent that it turns from something that can be done during my leisure time to something that is extremely urgent. Which brings me on to another point, procrastination. For me, being lazy is part and parcel of procrastination. One does not exist without the other. Just to make sure I'm not firing off some dubious statements, I did a quick cross check with wikipedia and what I read didn't bode too well. As it turns out, "Procrastination can be a persistent and debilitating disorder in some people, causing significant psychological disability and dysfunction. These individuals may actually be suffering from an underlying mental health problem such as depression or ADHD" (wikipedia). This is indeed worrisome for someone like me but then again, half of the information on wikipedia is rubbish since anyone can have a go at altering the data there and since I'm too bothered to dig deeper into the psychological causes/impacts of procrastination, I'll just throw the whole notion that putting things off until the last minute is detrimental to one's health into the back burner and be done with it. Talk about procrastination in action! I just hope that this doesn't come back to haunt me someday or else you'll be seeing a rabid young adult desperately vying for attention running amok on the street...

A sloth doing what it does best; sleep!

Oddly enough, at this point I feel compelled to continue writing about this. What started out as a quick 10 minutes post may go on to become a full blown muse/rant/ramble/reflection which most people may/may not read to its entirety.

Anyhow, I suppose the reason why I feel compelled to write on can be attributed to motivation or to some extent, passion. But what kind of person is abetted to write about dragging one's foot unless their next residence is in a mental institute? Well for one, there's always the person who delays decisions until the 11th hour which which I am constantly guilty of. There's always a sense of foreboding whenever you need to make certain important decisions; the fear of the unknown. There's always the "What if's" you get before doing anything but once its done, it's usually "That was a lot easier than I had anticipated. I'm surprised I didn't get that done earlier" or worse still, a second round of "What if's" comes back to haunt you such as the proverbial "What if I had studied paid more attention in class? Maybe then I could have got better grades". Unfortunately, there's no point in harping about things that are in the past so all we can do is move on while bearing in mind not to repeat the same mistake. Mulling over it for a short period of time is reasonable enough but there are others who tend to dwell in the past thinking that they can do something about the outcome if they brood over it long enough. If you ask me, it's all a waste of time and unless the dead can be reanimated, then maybe there's a way to salvage the outcome.

Yeah right!

So I've reached the end of the post. I'm leaving out the passion part because I think it could be another post by itself assuming I do get round to writing it...

Bath and Clifton's Suspension Bridge pt. 2

2008-06-08T01:25:00.005+08:00

Here's the rest of the bits I left out the in the first post. We hopped on the X39 bus heading for Bath and when we got there our stomach was rumbling signaling us that it was time for brunch! So we decide to eat at the nearest place available and surprise surprise! Just around the corner was the ubitiqous Mc Donald so we popped in for a quick bite before heading out for the Roman Bath.

Off with his head!

The roman bath up close.

The bridge which was inspired by the Ponte Vecchio in Italy.

Next up was the Stonehenge but it was rather difficult to get there by public transport so we decided to take a package rolled a trip to Lacock, a small village in Bath and Stonehenge into one. One interesting fact pointed out by the tour guide was that money alone can't buy you a house in Lacock. Priority is given to those with a family history there and some families can trace their roots 500 years back some even further. On another note, the houses there cost half a million upwards and Lacock is also home to various films by the BBC.

A house with a thatched roof.

A few hours later, the main reason why we were in Bath; Stonehenge! After the initial euphoria wore off at being able to see the Stonhenge up close, I realised that Stonehenge was just a bunch of stones strategically placed with one on top of the other in the middle of nowhere. So much for hype about it being one of the 7 natural wonders of the world although there are various theories regarding how those massive stones were put into place.

Have a nice day!

Trying to block out Stonehenge.

Panoramic view of Stonehenge.

Another panoramic view of Stonehenge.

After Stonehenge we headed back to Bristol where we had a quick bite and after that it was Clifton's Suspension Bridge. While I was busy snapping photos of the bridge, it started pouring with rain. I hadn't expected it to rain especially when it had already been raining or drizzling the whole day I was in Bath. No wonder they say that Britain is almost always wet and gloomy... However the rain was a blessing in disguise as there was a light fog when the rain finally subsided which gave the subsequent pictures an ethereal feel to it.

Clifton's Suspension Bridge before it started to rain.

Bath and Clifton's Suspension Bridge pt. 1

2008-06-03T10:29:00.004+08:00

Was out the whole day visiting Bath and one of Isambard Kingdom Brunel's engineering feat; the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol. The picture is a perfect example of what happens when you mix too much free time with a photo editing program. Just to clarify a few things though, the fog in the picture is real, no lighting gimmicks here as I took the shot while it was raining and I got soaked to the bone (besides, I haven't got the foggiest clue on how to add it in). The only bits that were actually edited were the picture borders.

Of course that wasn't the only picture I took the whole day and the rest will be up 'soon' enough but don't hold your breath for it. xD

In retrospect

2008-05-21T07:25:00.005+08:00

With my final exams over, I'm unofficially a graduate and an unemployed one to boot. The cumulative formal learning since my enrollment into a nursery school has culminated into a degree in accounting and finance. In retrospect, studying was a full time job with all the perks and none of the drawbacks. The only thing a student needs to do is to bury their nose into a textbook and churn out good grades while everything their basic needs are tended to everyday by their parents. But on the other hand, students yearn for freedom from the dusty and yellowing with age paperbacks and to some extent, wished that they were working instead of studying.

Being a student myself, I concur with the general consensus that studying was a chore but I daresay that some of the best things in life happened when we were still students. When was the last time you tried to pull a fast one pulled on your friend only to have it backfire you which resulted in both parties laughing it off? As we get older, we seldom tolerate a well meaning prank and most people take it the wrong way which results in a lot of bad blood and gnashing of teeth. Gone were the days acts of mischief were taken in stride so long as no one was hurt and the motto of forgive and forget has twisted itself into hatred and revenge.

But lets not dwell in anger and hatred for now as this is not a post for such negative sentiments. Back to the studying part, as it turns out, life as a student isn't all about studying. Whenever things get too heavy or repetitive, we could just chuck the books aside for the moment (both figuratively and literally) and just chill out. Try doing that when you're employed, you'd probably be sleeping in the next morning.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that by being a student we are cocooned and insulated from the world; not in the sense of missing out on life's various opportunities but by some of life's greatest nuisance. And what do I mean by that? Well to put it simply, its power play. I hate the fact that certain individuals are so pretentious to the extent that their 'reassuring' smile could put the models in toothpaste advertisements out of commission. They always have something behind their backs and more often than not its a poisoned dagger waiting to be planted in your back the moment you drop your guard. But then again that's not the worst I've been through. Being incessantly pestered to death by insanely self indulgent and conceited people blows power play off the charts. If I'm likened to lackadaisical person, I'd call them over competitive soul with no life and is best characterised in one word: "kiasu". Information is like what drugs are to junkies. The minute the "kiasu's" sniff out any information, they horde over it while hanging on to it as if their life depends on it. Better yet, they treat friends as commodities and in some case, as stepping stones to get to their goal of coming out on top of everyone else.

As a student, you don't seem to see much of this but out in the working environment, its so commonplace that it's hard to tell who's being sincere and who's sucking up on you. Its a dog eat dog world out there and no doubt if you find it hard to deal with this ass kissers, it'll be harder to deal with the rest out there. My advice? Stick it to them and let them know who's boss. Show them that you're not to be trifled with.

Back to the topic, politics and world issues hardly meant anything to us. President George W. Bush and Osama was just another risque joke while NATO doesn't stand for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, its the acronym for 'no action, talk only'; manglish for someone who doesn't dare to put their money on where their mouth is.

Ignorance is bliss and students sure are a blissful lot.

Darn, I wished I still was a student...

The folly of man

2008-04-23T22:56:00.016+08:00

An episode of Doctor Who got me thinking about RMS Titanic and its tragic fate. For those who aren't in the know, the RMS Titanic was an ocean liner built for transatlantic passenger and mail service. At that time she was the largest vessel in her class. It was thought to be unsinkable due to the advanced technology used to build it.

The HMS Titanic before her maiden voyage.

On April 10th 1912 the Titanic set sail from Southampton with 2,200 passengers and crew, four days later the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank. 1500 people died and 700 survived. Who would have thought that a nondescript and insignificant piece of ice floating on the sea would sink the mighty RMS Titanic with its state of the art seafaring technology.

That's something you don't see everyday.

But then again, because of the density of ice, only 1/10th of the volume of an iceberg is seen above water. So then, moving through a "small" piece of ice that's floating around in the vast ocean just because its in the path of the ship would be a cinch eh (unless its an icebreaker but that's a different story)? Or so you would be led to believe until you start sinking like the RMS Titanic.

Don't judge a book by its cover? I digress. A book can only do so much and besides, what harm can a book do? Having it thrown at you? That adage is nothing compared to knowing that you're only looking at the tip of the iceberg and what lies beneath is capable of sinking even the previously thought to be the unsinkable RMS Titanic...

CNY Dinner [Panoramic]

2008-04-21T09:21:00.005+08:00

I finally got round to merging the photos into a panoramic view of the dinner that night. The picture quality isn't particularly great since I had to use ISO 800 (which causes the photos to turn out grainy and 'noisy', ISO 200 would cause the picture to look like a blurry mess of moving bodies) to capture the moment and and was forced to turn of the flash because some of the attendees insisted on a no camera flash policy (which in time I've learnt to ignore since I don't have steady hands to frame night shots and between a noisy/blurred picture and a turning a deaf ear, I'd go for the latter, I'm only human after all and no snide remarks about the shaky hands please...). If you need the full resolution of the photo, just click on it.

Updates

2008-04-16T06:22:00.003+08:00

Just a quick update. My right arm has regained its mobility aside from a few creaks here and there which in time will disappear (I hope). Exams are fast approaching which means less time to sit and blog so there will a period of inactivity for the next coming weeks.

Ouch...

2008-03-28T20:23:00.002+08:00

Recently in a game of basketball I accidentally fell over onto my shoulder while trying to retrieve a ball. At first I dismissed it since it felt like a light sore on my shoulder but a few hours later, it came back with a vengeance. Every time I try to move my shoulder, a sharp pain would emanate from my shoulder which restricts the movements of my right arm. The pain itself is a totally different story and no words can describe the excruciating pain whenever I attempt to move my arm or shoulder. Hopefully it's not a serious injury because I've read horror stories from medical journals on what happens when someone falls onto an outstretched hand or on their shoulders...

Random pictures

2008-02-29T23:02:00.005+08:00

Meow!

Paintball

2008-02-25T08:58:00.002+08:00

I finally got round to posting the pictures on my 1st paintball experience which was in Bristol. If my vague memory serves me correct, it was at Delta Force which was located a rather desolated and remote place from which you can tell with the pictures. The only thing I remembered clearly was the adrenaline rush which I got from shooting *cough* and getting shot *cough* with the other faction. Overall it was a highly enjoyable outing though we did come back with some bruises courtesy of the paintball bullets.

Fish and chips!

2008-02-25T07:31:00.005+08:00

This is how the quintessential English fish and chips are made with zero knowledge.

Malaysia's general elections satire

2008-02-25T00:56:00.005+08:00

Here's a rather amusing satire based on Malaysia's upcoming general election.

CNY Dinner at Bristol pt.2

2008-02-17T01:38:00.003+08:00

Adding few more photos to the existing collection from other sources (thanks to Shanna and Billy)...

Group photo.

As white and pure as angels. xD

Tzon Cher's Birthday

2008-02-16T05:04:00.002+08:00

On the 14th of February, we decided to go out and celebrate Tzon Cher's birthday at a japanese restaurant. Unfortunately it was not to be due to a breakdown in communication when the reservations were placed which left us with the option of either forking out a minimum of £20 per head or going somewhere else which we then choose the latter.

After wandering through the city centre in search of a restaurant that would accommodate our bunch, we finally decided to go with Mayflower. It's another chinese restaurant in Bristol which is rather secluded and nondescript.

Before long the dinner started and everyone was contented with their dinner. After the dinner, Jomay presented her specially home baked cake for Tzon Cher. After that we gave the birthday boy the customary aluba and we parted ways for the night.

The food:

HK Diner revisited

2008-02-15T08:38:00.004+08:00

The next night (7th of Feb), we decided to head out to the HK Diner for another dinner albeit with a smaller group of people. This was the second time I was there, the first being a horrible experience as the food was crap and the service was poor.

Being wiser from our previous run in with HK Diner, we decided to play it safe by ordering a rice based dish with came with a few side dishes. Thankfully this time around, the food turned out to be pretty good (well I wasn't expecting much in the first place...). The best part was we had a free dessert on the house thanks to the festive mood of the restaurant which made everyone rather generous that day.

As they say, the best things in life are free and the dessert was rather memorable as it was the best food in there by a mile. I could be pedantic by saying the gula melaka didn't quite taste like the ones found in Malaysia but then again, it's free! Too bad I couldn't remember what the name was although I did have a picture of it.

'Char siew' with duck.

CNY Dinner at Bristol, UK

2008-02-12T01:26:00.004+08:00

I'm hard pressed for time to blog right now so in the meantime, do take the liberty to browse through the pictures on facebook.

On the 6th of February, we organised a small chinese new year dinner amongst ourselves at Dynasty. A total of 40-ish people were expected to arrive on that night. We reached Dynasty at 7pm to set up the place in time for the dinner at 7.30pm which meant having a go at the antique karaoke machine while it was still empty!

The guests started streaming in at 7.30pm and the dinner was at full swing by 8pm. Tory Tan opened the dinner with a slew of CNY congs solo. Dinner was then served and after that the gathering started to liven up even more because it was now time for the fun and games! Hidden in a few angpow packets were 'lucky' cards which meant the receiver had to sing a song which was either a blessing or a curse depending on how you look at it. =)

Once that was through and done with, everyone jostling for the mike to sing/scream/holler/croak (take your pick) along to the music. Overall the gathering was a memorable event as it was the first CNY dinner away from my family.

Dynasty.

The ang pow.

I only got one (cashless) angpow... ='(

Surrounded by angpows.

The venue before the start of the dinner.

Caught Vincent red handed snacking on the fish crackers.

Tory kicking off the dinner with his solos.

Food!!

Camera hoggers.

More pictures.

Even more pictures.

The shortest Coke bottle!

The rest of the pictures were some of the dishes which was served:

Gesundheit!

2008-02-03T04:18:00.000+08:00

This video will definitely tickle your funny bone. The best sneeze ever!

Macro shots

2008-02-02T01:14:00.001+08:00

Here are some random macro shots taken with the canon powershot a570.

Ipod; front.

Ipod; back.

The Natwest 'calculator'.

An Energizer battery.

A shot glass which I bought in Rome.

A glass prism of the Doumo in Milan.

Malaysian food in Bristol

2008-01-29T06:00:00.000+08:00

Today or rather a few hours ago, me and a group of friend eagerly went down to Filton for dinner. Our mission should we choose to accept it; was to infiltrate the premise and pass our verdict on how the 'Malaysian' food there fared in comparison with the ones at home.

The moment we got hold of the menu, we ordered the first thing that came to our minds; 'roti canai'! The only drawback was it costs £2 a pop which is a fry cry from a piffling 80 cents back in Malaysia! The 'roti canai' came replete with a steaming saucer of curry which we wasted no time in digging in and for that reason there wasn't any pictures of it. As for how it tasted, I'll leave that until the end of the post just to tease you guys.

After the 'roti canai' we decided to order a few more typical 'Malaysian' dishes mainly the ubiquitous 'nasi lemak', 'char kuey tiau', 'wat tan ho' and fried rice with a plate of fried water spinach/'kangkung' to along with the other dishes.

'Char kuey tiau'

Fried 'kangkung'

Fried rice

'Nasi lemak'

'Wat tan ho'

Me and Vincent in high spirits before eating...

Finally, the part that you've been waiting for, the verdict on the food. We unanimously decided that the food there was utter crap even when given the fact that food which have been exported over to another country usually isn't on par with those served back at home. Although the 'roti canai' had the right taste to the dough, we had a sinking feeling that it was frozen food and it had been reheated before being served to us. Its only redemption was the curry that accompanied it but then again, the curry wasn't anything to write home about.
The 'char kuey tiau' was so so at best since it hardly had any taste in it, Vincent's fried rice was soggy, lumpy and too top it off, didn't even taste like fried rice. The 'wat tan ho' was edible at best and wei chi hardly touched the 'nasi lemak' while the fried 'kangkung' lacked the kick/oomph found in those prepared back in Malaysia.

Our conclusion? If you want good tasty Malaysian food, either:
a) buy the frozen version and save a few quids in the process or
b) cook it yourself or
c) screw it and assimilate yourself with the food here

p.s. The service wasn't that great and the waitress even got ticked off by a customer for being too mindful of other people's business as the waitress watching was constantly looking at her direction throughout her entire meal and we sat just opposite that customer and we could felt the waitress' constant gaze bearing on our backs. Uncomfortable to say the least...

Extra footage!

Vincent pushing himself to finish up the plate of fried rice which he gave up on eventually.

Tinkering with blogger again

2008-01-23T03:51:00.000+08:00

I did some changes under the hood so hopefully now it'll load up faster since I've been getting a lot of flak on how a snail can move faster than my blog can load. *ouch* =)

*Changelog v1*

-Removed the random quotes from Confucious
-Reduced the posts to a maximum of 3 per page
-Removed the read more feature

*End of log*

*Changelog v2*
-Replaced with shoutbox with cbox

*End of log*

Past and present

2008-01-19T04:22:00.001+08:00

History does repeat itself after all... Just when I thought that I wouldn't see my old theme on my old but beloved 6630, PiZero came along and designs a theme that resembles the my old one. Thanks to him, I'm even happier to own a s60v3 phone.

The new version; "New Style"

The old version.

The life of a college student...

2008-01-16T06:34:00.001+08:00

The life of a college student as depicted by a set of emoticons. A light-hearted approach at college life.

At the beginning of a new semester:

During the first week:

During the second week:

Before the mid-term test:

During the mid-term test:

After the mid-term test:

Before the final exams:

Once the exam schedule is released:

7 days before the final exam:

6 days before the final exam:

5 days before the final exam:

4 days before the final exam:

3 days before the final exam:

2 days before the final exam:

1 day before the final exam:

The night before the final exam:

1 hour before the final exam:

During the final exam:

Once out of the exam hall:

After the exams, during the semester break:

And the cycle restarts itself...

Water droplets

2008-01-16T06:09:00.000+08:00

A picture taken at my window in the evening.

Cropped and scaled to 100% to show the image in the bubble.

Random Shots in Italy

2008-01-10T08:34:00.001+08:00

Attempting to get run over by a train.

Since the first picture was obviously a fake, I decided to do the next best thing, taking a nap in the middle of the railway track!.

Posing on the steps of a church.

How short can a traffic light be? Apparently very short!

A shop lot named in honour of Vincent; Vincenti!

Nice to see,
nice to hold,
once broken,
considered sold.
How much? A whopping 2,750 euros!

In and around Italy

2008-01-09T22:30:00.000+08:00

We set off for Rome, Italy on the 26th of December but we had to stop at Milan for a night as it was cheaper than flying direct from Bristol to Rome and the best part is that the flight from Bristol to Milan was only 1p! We reached Milan in the evening and dinner was at a small restaurant which we gleefully ordered 4 pizzas. The pizzas were an absolute delight to the taste buds as the base was thin and crunchy. Although the toppings were rather sparse, the pizzas were definitely better than the ones sold in Pizza Hut or Dominoes. The next morning we stopped by a few places namely the Doumo; the second largest cathedral in the world as well as a few other churches. Our hopes of catching a glimpse of the Last Supper painting in Santa Maria delle Grazie were dashed as we were told that to view thepaintings we had to book in advanced.

At the airport in Milan.

In front of the Doumo.

A shopping gallery near the Doumo.

Somewhere in Milan...

In the evening we flew out to Rome where we were greeted by Anthony. He kindly offered to accommodate us at his place as well as to give us a guide around Rome. (Side note: Thanks for putting up with us throughout our entire stay there Anthony, gratzie) Feeling fresh the next morning we started on our tour around Rome. Although I forgot most of the names but we visited the Coliseum, Independence Square and a few churches in between.

Pictures will be uploaded as soon as I grab hold of Vincent's elusive camera... =)

The next morning we headed off to Florence in a 3 hours train ride to visit the Doumo and the Ponte Vecchio. We went up to the top of Doumo's tower for a birds eye view of Florence and we were not dissapointed. After the visit, we splitted up into two groups with one group heading for the Leaning Tower of Pisa while the rest us including yours truly remained in Florence. Lunch was steak which according to Anthony is a must try when visiting Florence as steak originated from there. The steaks there even has it own name; bistecca alla fioretina (literally translated as steak ala florence style), something like Penang's Char Kuey Tiau or Ipoh's White Coffee. After the heavy but satisfying lunch, we went about walking around Florence. We were walking by a row of shops when something caught our eyes, a table with chess sets on it. The best thing about it is that the table was the chess board and the whole set came at a cool 4 figures. Now that's a chess set that costs an arm and leg to buy! Dinner was at McD since by the time we reached home we'd be too tired to cook. The interesting part was that condiments such as tomato sauce is not provided f.o.c. but instead one has to pay 0.10 euros for a packet of ketchup. Apparently the Italians hate ketchup as it tastes artificial and the only reason why they have ketchup packets are to for foreigners.

The Ponte Vecchio is behind us.

Inside the Doumo.

Stopping to pose for photos on the way up. Btw, there were over 400 steps to the top!

The view from the top of the Doumo.

Back on ground zero.

What's green with three wheels and has a motorcycle engine and handlebars instead of a driving wheel? Don't know? Me neither!

The next day started early as we had to line up to get into the Vatican city. We got there at 7.20am which by then the queue was about 200m long. If waiting in line in the wee hours of the morning wasn't bad enough, we were standing out there in the cold without much sunlight. Even a steaming cup of hot chocolate wasn't good enough to keep us from freezing but the wait was well worth it once we reached the Sistine Chapel. The walls and the ceiling were hand painted by Michelangelo's paintings and they were truly a sight to behold. How one man managed to paint all of it is anyone's guess. By the time we came out of the vatican city, the queue had grew very much longer and I'd estimate it to be at least 2km. As they say, the early bird gets the worm. ;) Dinner was at a pizza restaurant recommended by Anthony which is one of the few pizza diners that uses charcoal to bake its pizza. The moment I sank my teeth into the pizza, every other pizza I've tasted in my entire life faded away. Even the pizza in Milan was no match against what I was eating. The dough was soft and pliant while being firm and crunchy at the same time. The topping was bursting with flavours and the balance between the base and the topping was perfect. If I had to rate the pizza on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd gladly give it 11! We wrapped up the night by going to some of the scenic places at night such as the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps.

Dig in!

Inside the Vatican museum.

The day's itinerary included visiting the Partheneon and various parts of Rome (I forgot some/most of the names) Taking a short break from walking, we were brought to two ice-cream shops, one after the other in the span of 1.5 hours. To put it simply, Italian ice-cream never tasted to good! The smoothness and texture was comparable to the likes of Hagen Dazs. The most popular flavour is chocolate and rightly so as the chocolate ice-cream was full bodied. None of that 'chocolate' flavoured ice-cream which they sell in supermarkets. Even Hagen Dazs' "Belgium chocolate" could not match the full bodied taste of the dark/semi-sweet chocolate ice-cream. The chocolate in it was so pronounced, eating it felt as if I was biting into a bar of dark chocolate except that it was in the form of an ice-cream. In the evening we decided to a bit of cycling before heading home so all five of us rented a bike. With four guys at the pedals and a gal managing the camera, it wasn't long before we started our crazy antics with the bicycle which nearly tipped over at one point and almost hitting the curb at another. At first we were peddling leisurely around the park but as soon as we saw a road bump, we started peddling furiously towards it and boy did we go over that hump with a bump! The onlookers could only look on and shake their head in amazement and disbelief at our boundless energy and our cycling frenzy. Anthony went slightly bonkers from the beginning by honking the horn at anyone he thought was in the way. His honking seemed to have annoyed a mutt as it tried to take a bite out of him while we were passing by. Dinner was courtey of chef Anthony who whipped up fried rice balls with mozzarella in it and a japanese dish which looked like fried eggs.

At Piazza Poppolo.

Indulging in ice-cream at Giollitii's Ice-Cream Parlor.

In front of Fendi's on the designer's street.

The calm before the storm.

The ride of terror!

San Angelo's Castle.

Dinner in Italy!

On the last day, our first stop was the Vatican post office where we dropped off our respective postcards. Then we went we went around town shopping for memorabilia and souvenirs. Anthony stocked up his fridge for the tonight's full course dinner; for starters it was an Italian dish which consisted of chopped tomatoes on a slice of toasted bread with a liberal dressing of olive oil on the top. The first main course of the night was Anthony's specialty, lasagna and the second dish was grilled sausages with smoked cheese. A bowl of salad wrapped up the entire meal and the dessert was fruits. Before the stroke of midnight we went up to the rooftop and popped a bottle of champagne to commemorate the new year. Fireworks lit up the Rome's sky and the air was filled with festive laughter and merriment.

Dropping by St. Peter's Square again for some pictures.

Sending off postcards back to Malaysia!

Parting was the hard part since it had been so much fun while we were in Italy and I'll definitely miss the pasta, pizza and ice-cream and Anthony’s cooking after I'm gone. Overall, it was an enjoyable experience being able to visit Italy. Given the opportunity I'd gladly jump on the next plane to Rome for a second trip around Italy. :P

Coming soon...

2008-01-05T20:15:00.000+08:00

Pictures from my Italy trip will be uploaded soon after my financial management test. Somehow loading my own blog using firefox causes the RAM to jump from about 400MB to a whooping 1GB! The funny thing is that IE doesn't suck that much RAM as compared to firefox so something is definately not right here...
Oh well, I'll muck around blogger when I have the time and if you do have any suggestions do feel free to post your comments.

Niki's birthday bash!

2007-12-24T07:13:00.000+08:00

On the 21st of December we celebrated Niki's birthday with a bang! It all started out rather dull and slow when I reached Frenchay as everyone there were in the midst of cooking and preparing for dinner. The momentum started when someone came up with the idea of throwing flour and water at the birthday boy after dinner. The idea was to get him blindfolded outside the house and while he was unsuspecting it, we would douse him with flour and water.

It all went well in the beginning when we managed to blindfold him. While some of us were creeping up to him to dunk him, Niki suspected that something was amiss and quickly darted away like a rat. Fortunately some of us were able to get to him in time and then all hell broke loose!

Everyone was scampering and hollering about as everyone was trying to get at Niki while avoiding the flour and the water at the same time. Some of us bolted back to the house and barricade the door from Niki who was rampaging about looking for victims with a fistful of flour.

After the melee, Niki was presented with his cake and gift; a formal shirt in a wine gift box.

Jon doing the Matrix...

A more subdued Jon.

Blindfolding Niki for the main event.

Niki met the tree the hard way.

The birthday boy going on a rampage.

The aftermath of flour and water.

Worn out.

Chocolate indulgence

2007-12-21T07:34:00.000+08:00

It's probably not much of an indulgence but then again, its not everyday that you get to delight your taste buds with some premium chocolates. :P

Not all of them were bought by me though. The Thornton's Classics were my birthday gift and boy were they good... The chocolate was smooth and velvety which is definitely much better than the common cadbury chocolate bars that overpopulate the store shelves. Once you have tasted a premium chocolate, you'd never want to go back to eating chocolates which are made mostly with sugar and hardly any cocoa in it.

Terry's All Gold is another premium chocolate which has a slightly difference nuance and taste compared to Thornton. Comparisons between both of them are inevitable but in all fairness, both of them are a collection of various different types from their respective assortments. However, I find that the Thornto's seem to have more body and flavour compared to the Terry's.

The rest of the chocolates; After Eight, Kit Kat and Toblerone are for me to indulge on whenever I feel like satisfying my crave for chocolates. Four 400g of Toblerones goes a long way...

Terry's Chocolate. Couldn't show you what's under the bubble wrap since they're already in my stomach.

A closeup of the Thornton's chocolate. Tempting isn't it? :p

Rowan Akitson: Invisible drum kit

2007-12-09T10:49:00.000+08:00

Here's Rowan Akitson in one of his skits before he became a household name in Mr. Bean. I find this skit to be the best among his other skits due to the comic timing of the drumming and the creativity in using invisible props.

Dear Boys Act II

2007-12-08T23:04:00.007+08:00

Due to increased efforts to stop scanlation sites, direct links to Dear Boys Act II will no longer be available. Its unfortunate but life for the manga enthusiast has become duller.

A hidden jewel unearthed

2007-12-08T05:16:00.001+08:00

Most people may know the n95 as a big fat brick which can't hold a candle against the iphone in terms of chicness and design. While I submit that the iphone is a better looking phone than the n95, in terms of design, the iphone can take a back seat. Unknown to most n95 users (up until now), Nokia had embedded a chip called an accelerator. What it does is to provide the OS with information regarding the orientation of the phone which then enable the user to take pictures that are always upright. If you thought rotating the iphone/k850i rotates the picture from portrait to landscape was cool, the n95 will definitely make your jaw drop.

Now, with a 3rd party application called Rotateme, the n95 can essentially be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise and cause the pictures to rotate in the same manner. Better yet, the Series 60 v3 platform that the n95 is based upon supports landscape mode in all of its inbuilt application such as messaging, themes and so on. This means that rotating the display from portrait to landscape and vice versa is not limited to the gallery and web browser only unlike the iphone/k850i. If you haven't got a clue to what I was rambling on about, have no fear for there's a video on youtube demonstrating rotateme.

Kudos to the person who made this all happened: samir

Rotateme in use:

The best has yet to come as Nokmote is still in the pipeworks. (I can't wait for it to be released yet) Watching it in action is a lot easier than describing it you so I'll leave you to the devices of YouTube.

Nokmote in action:

Happy 20th Birthday Vincent!

2007-12-08T03:15:00.001+08:00

The surprise party that we had planned for him went down the drain since he anticipated it since the beggining. Our plan was to ignore him throughout the day and pretend to forget about his birthday but apparently growing older by a year had made him wiser somewhat. =(

All was not lost as he couldn't phantom what we had installed for him to mark his 20th birthday. Gleefully, John poured half a glass of vodka which the birthday boy sportingly downed in one big gulp. Next up was the customary aluba and after that the cake was cut and distributed to everyone present. The party had to be cut short since an assignment draft was due the next afternoon. But then again, no one said that we couldn't organise a belated birthday bash... :3

The birthday cake before Vincent had got to it... (Note the position of the rubber band)

Vincent cutting/(posing with) the birthday cake. (As before, note the position of the rubber band)

SHOO!! Pushing away a stray rubber band which wanted a piece of the birthday cake as well! xD

Congratulations to Francis and Aivea @ Mr. & Mrs. Ng

2007-12-08T02:02:00.000+08:00

Congratulations on the marriage and may both of you live happily in each other's companionship until the end of time. Unfortunately I couldn't be there, because I'm stuck in Bristol (well I would have flown back to attend the wedding but then again, money doesn't grow on trees :p) but nevertheless, I'm glad that both of you are finally together after 2 years of courtship (or was it 3?) but anyway, congratulations again on this joyous news.

PS: pictures will be uploaded shortly as soon as I manage to lay my grubby hands on them...

One big happy family.