Unusual Wednesday

Just went back from Ridzuan collecting my laundry and from college after several hours completing CRR assignments there. And sheezz! Should have open up my bag for my camera to "be a journalist" when we go back. 

Anyway, what is so UNUSUAL about today? 


3 things. 

1. Never did I expected a rain at 8 am. And guess what? I woke up at 7.40 a.m. and I have to walk the WHOLE way to college. No taxis around, no buses are around. Just me, my stamina, and my legs to endure the 10 minutes walk to college. Never in my 14 months stay in Kuala Lumpur I have to walk to college under a heavy rain. 


Yet, thank God I reached the Computer Lab earlier than Mr. Winston, keke....


2. During the time hustle, I entered the lift with an African with Lil' Wayne's style. As the lift went down, he praised my hairstyle :) Weird, I mean this is the first time a stranger praise my hair, but still, I felt weird. 


Nice hairstyle also useless! My hair got spoilt by the rain. Lost the hair gel effect edi. Dang!


3. EARTHQUAKE? 


1700 hours in the college library, when Thomas, Cynthia, Bong, Huey Ling, Jennifer and I stayed for the CRR Critique Assignment, suddenly during a casual chat, Thomas redirected our topic to another agenda. 


I can't remember everything we said, I just type out the main point. 


Thomas: Hey, guys, do you feel something?


Us: Feel what? Nothing one...


Thomas: You guys look at the lamp up there. 


He's really an observant guy :) 


We were staring at the lights above the library ceiling. And gosh, everything shakes! 


Several minutes later, a library assistant came into our discussion room and told us to leave, as the Fire Patrol was scheduled to arrive that time. 


It arrived moments later. 


I don't know if it's really an earthquake or not. Maybe the building structure wasn't firm enough? We don't know. When I just returned, people from Facebook kept talking about that event. Weird....


Aih! 9 pm edi. Time to do the finishing touches of the essay....


Busy week. 


UPDATED: That is an EARTHQUAKE!!!! The shakings are actually from a 7.9 magnitude earthquake from Sumatra! 

Last Random Shootings Of The Holidays || Life Purpose

Well, the holidays are finally over. Once again I'd screwed up my assignment times. It's going to be one rough week. I have to submit CRR's critique for this Thursday, and now I'm just picking my articles? xD

Anyway, 2 days ago, I went to visit a friend in Setapak. He had already moved to another condo, and sadly there's no good sceneries to shoot there. At least I got these:


By excalade89

Evening shot of the Petronas Twin Towers from his kitchen (slightly edited). And I can tell you, it's hard to position your cam over the iron grills. Plus, you need steady hands to control a DSLR cam with NO vibration reduction features.


By excalade89

If you want me to zoom closer, sorry larr. My cam can only do a 11X zoom only. Find someone with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28 for a better zoom, haha....


By excalade89

Night scenery :) Still I prefer the condominium photo in the previous post. (ISO: 640) 

END OF PART 1
__________________________________________________________________________________
PART 2: LIFE PURPOSE


I recently read of a blog post about destiny. He totally said that destiny is nonsense as we choose what we want to be. There is a point there. Though I agreed with what he said, I look at destiny from a slightly different angle.


Though we are what we choose to be and what we do, there are still things that we can't control. Let's just say, you choose to work in a company, but you can't choose your work environment and colleagues. We're always being bounded with norms in every situation we are in, like it or not. 


More examples of things that we cannot choose? 


I can choose my closest friends
I can choose my college
I can choose the course I want to study
I can choose my future career
I can choose my future girlfriend and wife.


BUT


I cannot choose my name
I cannot choose my biological parents
I cannot choose my hometown
I cannot choose my financial status
I cannot choose how my life goes within the path that I chose


See? We are what we choose, but there are still things we cannot manipulate. 


Anyway, in the choices that we make, we sometimes question ourselves: Why are we taking this path? 


It's because we are seeking for our life purpose. 


Group 2 CRR coursemates. I hope you still remember about my statement that life begins at 18. Upon graduation, we leave our comfort zone and try to choose our own path. We can actually work full-time after high school graduation. 


Everyone, including us are finding our own identities. We are finding a foundation for ourselves to in order to reach our respective goals. 


As for me, I need to do something within this 3 years of study. I want to reassure myself on which path I want to take. I want to find an identity of my own. I had went through a lot of choices, some I rejected (I gave in Science stream courses) and some I accepted. 


In this tertiary level, it's important for us not to think like a student. A typical student only thinks about studying and aiming the best grades, but thinks not about his/her future. At the end of the day, he/she only be book smart and NOT street smart. 


So, what is your life purpose? Living a purpose driven life is ambitious and adventurous, but it takes faith and determination to archive the goal. 

As I'd Promised :)

This photo is based on the idea of my coursemate, Qi Kit, in his >tutorial post< on how to make a lomograph. I did promised the 4 girls earlier to edit their reunion photo into a lomograph during the 3rd gathering with them.

And here it is :)

By excalade89

UPDATED: Qi Kit, I know you're reading this (I know it through the Nuffnang thingy :) Sorry if the way I edited it doesn't seem to be parrallel to your satisfaction level. You know what? The last step is very difficult. I had to redo the light area TWICE to ensure the UV light effect compromises all of the 4 faces here. 


To the girls, I need your comments. Fang Yee said that it's a fine piece of lomograph. I need your feedbacks should I have to redo it again. But I did tried out my best to edit the original picture. 

Goodnight, World!

Goodnight, people =)  

By excalade89

Shutter speed: 1 second (as expected) 
Aperture: f/4.5 
ISO: 800 (and it's still noisy? #*&$%^@$!!!!!) 


Speaking of that night scenery, remember this >post< ? Yeah, if you're clicking on that post, scroll down the page and you'll see a familiar picture like the one above. Huge improvement, isn't it? :) But there are some flaws going around, especially the colours and the little bits of picture noise. 


Aite, off to bed. Planning on how to do the CRR First Critique assignment later. 

Leisure Commercial Square (LCS) Campus

I hope you guys are satisfied with the finishing touches of the photos. I'd filtered out many scenery shots already. I wish I have a bipolar filter for a better blue sky effect.... :(


Anyway, this is where I study :) Too bad, next year we will be shifting to somewhere around the Puchong toll. 


P.S - I don't really edit them heavily. I'm sorry if these don't inspire you much. 

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Who on Earth is standing in that scenery? =.= 


Anyway, these photos were taken this afternoon while I was awaiting for my friend's car in college. I felt so sien after having lunch and returning the PR1 reference books in the library. Hope you guys like them :) Do comment so that I can improve more CONSTRUCTIVELY, kay? 

Hibernating Mode

By excalade89
Courtesy of Fang Yee's guitar :)

Just as I'd expected, I begin hibernating. I slept at 12 am and woke up at 11 at the next morning. How cool is that? :) 


Gave up installing Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended. CS3 version still rocks! 


P.S - Today was my first time visiting Berjaya Times Square. Food there is really nice! xD 


Anyway, visit this >blog post<. This is Roy Chiew's photoblog post on Tawau. I really really want to do something like that when I'm back at Tawau this November. Are you guys home that time? Please, I need people to accompany me to do the same. Janji you guys bring your camera together, regardless Digi cam or DSLR. The more the merrier :) 

Vic, for the love of God, PLEASSSSEEEEEE begin your CRR 2nd assignment! ~.~

The Boredom Begins.

I'm really angry of the fact that my laptop won't allow me to install the Adobe Photoshop CS4 Extended software. Crap, it took me the whole afternoon and it's still not WORKING. WTH man...


Anyway, are your holidays a blast yet? People who celebrate Hari Raya this holiday surely will enjoy the best of this holidays as they go around open houses and engage themselves with sweet reunion, just as we usually do in Chinese New Year. 


It was like my first mid-term sem break here. Gosh! As if I have no friends to talk to. All the housemates left for their breaks, while one of them shifted to Penang for internship training. Well, male housemates don't really interact as intimate as females do. As I observe, girls usually interact more with people than boys do. Don't believe me? Try this experiment: Get a group of girls together randomly into a spot. They will first do some ice-breaking and you'll establish a new group of friends. Boys? They'll tend not to talk. Our nature lah, of course =.=


I'm talking nonsense again. But it's empirically true, most of the time, haha....


What am I anticipating from this mid term break is:


1. Waiting for Alvan and Fadhlan to come to Sunway Pyramid. I wanna play pool with both of them. 


2. Meeting with my cousin in IMU and my aunt in 2 days' time. I wish we can go KLCC for some snapshots there. Minh, are you near there? 


3. Complete my CRR 2nd assignment so that I can let Miss Natasha get a pre-submission evaluation? 


Speaking of KLCC, I remembered a photo which I'd took last year. I want you to guess what camera I was using that time. 





By excalade89


This is not taken with a DSLR, neither using a point-and-shoot digital camera. It's taken using my Sony Ericsson W700i xD !!! Surprised? I missed my old phone. It's only 2.0 megapixels yet it's capable of capturing an image as clear as this :) 

Dinner With Jessie @ KLIA McDonalds + Friends

By excalade89

It's been a while I'd never seen her. The last information I heard from her was she went to United Kingdom to pursue her tertiary studies. She will be leaving in around 10 hours time from now. The last time I physically saw her was during the last days of SPM, 10 December 2006, when we were discussing before the Biology paper began. 


Jessie Lo is her name. A great friend whom I'd knew since Form 3. 


I recently met her with a group of friends, Silviana, Colbert, Lucas, and Chin Ket Chun. However, Lucas and I decided to went back to our hostels, while Silviana, Chin and Colbert stayed with Jessie in her Concorde Inn room until the next morning. Jess will be leaving for Heathrow International Airport at 10 am. 


I did took a close-up photo in her room. :) P.S - I respect privacy. 
  

By excalade89

Overall, the room is just average. Concorde Inn is expensive just because it is located 5 minutes from the airport itself. Even Mariner Hotel of Labuan had better rooms than this one. 


You want to see how's the room in the hotel? Go find out by yourself. :) If I post the room's photos, I would face 2 things. I might get sued, or my friends will kutuk me. 

By excalade89

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Anyway, this event taught me a new way on traveling to the airport the CHEAP way. How? Well, from Suriamas, you take the KTM from Setia Jaya station to KL Sentral. It's just a friggin' RM 1.30. And next, take a RM 10 Airport Coach bus fare to KLIA. Total cost: RM 11.30 only to KLIA, instead of the RM 70 taxi fare. Cool! 


But be warned, you only use this style IF and ONLY IF you're not in a hurry. 


And since it's 1 am now as I'm kinda sleepy, let the rest of my assorted photos  describe our day in McDonalds :) Chin Ket Chun was camera shy, now that explains why he isn't in my cam. He did posed in Colbert's, though =.=


The good thing is, by the way, is I'd tried posting some nice, unedited photos :) Many advised me not to Photoshop my photos for corrections. Yeah, but I prefer post production photos. 



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Actually, we didn't take much photos as Lucas and I were anxious of going back to our own respective rooms, while Colbert, Silviana and Ket Chun stayed for the night with Jessie. 


Thanks Silviana for the invitation and good luck Jessie for the first class honours that you're aiming for, I hope I can see you next year again :) 


P.S - Colbert did taught me some camera tips at the same time. Thanks :)

Malaysian Formula One Team?

Today is one sien day, of course. Just a 2 hour CCS class. And nothing else....


When I decided to head home, I went into BaliMart for some food. The radio, Hitz. FM reported something that is catchy to my ears. 


"Well, Malaysia is going to have its own Formula One team. This is going to be interesting, and I wonder who will be the drivers for the team? Would it be Alex Yoong?..."

Lol! I felt 1Malaysia is too ambitious. We already have 10 billion units of investing plans and now they are using this brand to form an F1 team? Our PM may say that the sky's the limit, but I believe there are a lot more things to solve within the country financially before putting the brand into a world class motorsports arena, which is unnecessary for the time being. (We already got Petronas in BMW Sauber, not enough ahh??) Recession's not over yet and the economy isn't firm. It's hard to tell when the next crisis will happen. 


It would take hundreds of millions of dollars to invest in the FIA licenses, the technology and researches, the capitals, the drivers and even car itself to survive throughout the first season of Formula One. And when I say "Dollar" I meant it. 


Forget about sponsors and money from Proton, Lotus, AirAsia or whatsoever, the stakes are very high. Well, Lotus can engineer an F1 car, but it doesn't mean they are able to outperform McLaren, Renault and Ferrari. 


But imagine if it happens...


I might have to watch every Formula One race in next year's season. Haha... Hmmmm, if Mika Hakkinen wants to return to Formula One, then the 1Malaysia team may give him a comeback. Like this, my eyes will be focusing on 2 teams: My favourite team, BMW Sauber and the 1Malaysia team. Just don't get the last place in the constructor's championship and I'm happy enough to see a Made-in-Malaysia team in action. 


But, seriously, the govt. should know the limits and the stakes everytime they plan for something ambitious.


UPDATED: This is what Patrick Teoh, a social-political blogger and ex radio DJ has to say about the 1Malaysia Formula One proposal. 

"Actually, our prime ministers all seem to have some grandoise ideas. At least 1 during their reign...I mean term. Mahathir did the Twin Towers, Putrajaya, Multi-media Super Corridor etc. Badawi had his Angkasawan space tourist so now Najib gets a quick start off the block with the Malaysian F1 Team."

Like it or not, Malaysia is evolving! Let's hope Vision 2020 be fulfilled. 11 years more....

In Between Academic's Version of Heaven and Hell

By excalade89
Laptop and book courtesy of Minh. 

This is Week 6 of my first UNISA Bachelor of Arts (Journalism) semester. It's been a while, eh? Many things had happened and the first assignments are currently being evaluated. I'd been going through the ups and downs of this period, accepting and trying to adapt to the things today. 


It's been such a great journey to be endeavoured with surprises from new and old friends alike, really :) 


Speaking of assignments, I'm kinda delighted to acknowledge the fact I earned my first Distinction graded performance in my Principles of Journalism (POJ)'s 1st essay. Somehow, it's still pre-moderated. Hopefully, I am able to retain my grades. 


That's heaven to me. Great performance, though it's for the first touch of degree level education. 


However, hell came after an instance. I am now currently under "post-traumatic" emotions. 


BB7 is now like a judgement day medium to us. There's an updated list on who should resubmit their assignments by the end of this week. Yesterday, there were 10. Today, there were 19. And Mr. Ben haven't mark everyone's paper yet. 


Guess what? Amirul, Minh, Teoh and I were asked to resubmit. 


Mr. Ben said that I had the points, but instead of commenting the 2 articles in the Public Relations' viewpoint, I am "reporting" using the viewpoint of a journalist. 


To those who were asked to redo, here is a clue for you guys:


I was told to restructure everything by adding the term "stakeholder" there. Hope you guys understand what I meant here. 


Though I know where I'm wrong, I'm still being intimidated by the failure. Yeah, I love Formula One (F1). But getting an F1 sucks you know, because it means that you've failed. 

Imagine The World Living Without The Monetary System

I'd been wanting to type this out while attempting to put all the words right in this post. Sometimes, when it comes to discussing about our world and the environment we're living in, people usually felt hard to express themselves, as we see the world with a large diversity of perspectives, regardless the affiliations of our family, religious, and societal institutions around us. By the way, this is not an ACADEMIC WRITING. Long post, but it's worth reading. :)

2 weeks ago, I went to an economic function in the MCA Building. And a speaker by the name of Nigel Foo, a senior analyst of Malaysian economics presented a brief view of the global financial crisis. IT ISN'T OVER YET. Even things in California today don't work out well. Recession is still a terrible catastrophe and it even cut out the jobs for government workers and teachers.

Editor's Note: This is only my opinion of the world's economy. Viewers' discretion are advised. You may share your opinions here, but please do so with a sound mind. 

EMPLOYMENT PERCEPTION

I'd been actually thinking about the word, "money" all the time. At first, during my teenage times, I always wonder, why an average human is born being fed, and later being sent to school, graduate, and being forced to work for the sake of money. During your works, comes office politics and unnecessary conflicts. And people who work usually don't have the chance to live their own lives well. They just serve the top pyramid's self-interests, not their own. 

I heard from many of my "Aristotles", my teachers, of course, saying that there are too many people having degrees nowadays. To successfully get a job, you need a Master degree.

If you disagree with what I'm saying now, then ask yourself. Why employees stay as static as they are and the employers soar higher? Even so, the employers face even more stresses as they compete with other organizations. 

To add more terror, job security is an issue nowadays. So, you just imagine that you're just invest your 3 years and RM 60K in universities and suddenly you are not able to get a job. Even if you get one, you're still worrying if you suddenly got fired.

I tell you a testimonial of a man I knew. During his working days in a company, he had a good job performance that impressed his boss. Despite of having a good friendship with his boss, he suddenly got fired one fine day. It's such a betrayal to him. Thank God today he's an IBO - Independent Business Owner. 

See the world today? Well, I'm just talking about the perspective view on the world of employment. This financial crisis has made billions of people unemployed worldwide. I remembered a newspaper article entitled "25,000 to lose jobs after CNY" during this February. It's really eerie. 

FAMILY PERCEPTION

"Surely children weren't made for the streets

And Fathers were not made to leave

Surely this isn't how it should be"

- Lincoln Brewster's "The Power of Your Name" 

Though this is an excerpt from a Christian song, do you feel that money has weaken family values? 

Stress from work, the need for security and financial freedom for the family has made Mum and Dad to abandon their homes for money. I'm not saying that making money is wrong, but like it or not, all have to do so. Even the CEO has to be busy in his office, because of the competition of profits in business, where there's no price for the second place. And children left abandoned at home, being blinded by materialistic stuffs, getting all the wrong values by the wrong friends they mixed with, etc. 

And worse, if you are still under a rat race in your 40s, you have no choice but to send your parents to the old folks home. And many people had done this. It's not correct from the eye, but they really have no choice but to do it. 

From here, you are seeing a sick society. 

"It's no measure of health to be adjusted to a profoundly sick society" 

- J. Khrisnamurti (Philosopher) 

THE ECONOMIC PERCEPTION ITSELF

I'm not an economist. But I know this. The US Dollar keeps on devaluating day by day. Because it's been used internationally, it also affects the world's currencies. And now, you'd been hearing recessions, crisis on oil and food, inflation, etc. 

And there's 1 thing that makes me feel senseless about. 

Tamiflu is an urgent cure against today's H1N1 and yet it's EXPENSIVE. 

And worse, surgeries and other hospital treatments for life-threatening diseases cost RM 10K+. C'mon! This is a life and death issue and hospitals are making money out of it. Corrupt minded. Swt. 

I wish I could have type more. But now let me go straight to my main concluding point in this post. 

I know everywhere I go, there will be the same patterns of people. They dream big, they have hopes. Yet, we all hate going to work. We hate cooperating with random people. We hate being yelled and manipulated. We hate dealing with stingy bosses. We even hate it when we face scarcities everyday. We hate it when someone has a Porsche when you have a Proton. 

Like it or not, they have to do it, because of money. 

And the weird thing is, they know they hate facing all of these stuffs, and they are aware, that everything is because of money. Why don't we all reject the monetary system? We'd been seeing a great collapse in economics.

If we continue to support the monetary system and allow the system to manipulate the way we live, things are going to get nastier. 

DSLR Blues

Weird, I felt the people around me begin endeavour themselves into the DSLR frenzy, just like me =) Many of my old and current friends begin searching new cams. 


Let's see, who has already own DSLRs in my friends and relatives' list - 


1. Colbert Chia and Kim Loong - The first 2 persons who first inspired me to get one. Both have Sony Alphas and I really admire their pictures a lot. 1 in his blog, while another one in Facebook :)


But the time when I was finding a DSLR during March, I was only thinking of my future degree course (which is Journalism- now) in case I really need it. Apparently, Taylor's course is more to writing, and not photojournalism. Nevertheless, I like writing. Nevermind. 


2. Uncle Winston Tai - He owns a lot of cameras since young and Mum even told me that he used to have a film studio in his old house. Today, he is one veteran photographer and he makes his leisure hobby into one of his passive incomes. 


3. Jade Lin - I think she owns a Panasonic DSLR. She has great pictures as well. 


4. Roy Chiew - I'd been admiring his landscape photos a lot. He's not more into post productions, yet he's good in photography. 


5. Dad - Since when I was in Form 4, he began his interest with cameras. I remembered, he started to place his interest in digital cameras by purchasing a Sony Cybershot, which only lasts for a year. Later, I saw him with a Nikon Coolpix and a Panasonic Lumix. Well, I was given a good phone, a good laptop and a good DSLR cam, but he got a better phone (Nokia N76 vs SE W700i), and a better laptop (Acer Travelmate 6592G vs Acer Aspire 4920G). 


I bet he will be buying a better DSLR camera than mine. For sure, it's a Nikon. Let me guess, the Nikon D90 or a D300? Never mind. The D80 is good enough for me :) Thanks to God and to my parents. 


6. Cheong Xiao Tim - Surprisingly he has a Nikon D60. Did went through his Facebook pictures, and it's impressive. He would be getting himself a new DSLR soon. I guess he will get an Olympus soon. 


Sooner or later, other friends will own a DSLR. Good la! We can share our own experiences with our DSLRs and learn from each other. There are many more actually. 


By the way, with my 2 months of DSLR experience (I only touched it during March, July and August), I can say this is the best photo so far.  


By excalade89

I am, and will be improving day by day. This is Stivi, my coursemate by the way. Maybe I will come out with something better. 


P.S - I am going to think of a better watermark label for my future photos. 

As Time Passes By

By excalade89

Thank you and congrats to Ben and Mary for the invitation and wedding. I will make sure I'll reschedule my time for the coming assignments for this event. 


Let me share to you something - the transitions of life after leaving high school. 

17-18 years old: 

You'll begin to know that some of your friends have driving licenses. 

18 years old: 

You'll begin knowing your friend's plans, either to work or to pursue their studies to college/uni.  

20 years old: 

You'll begin seeing friends being graduated and by this moment, maybe you'd been invited to a wedding PERSONALLY :) Yeah, not by your parents' name, your own name. 

In the future, you will see: 

Your friends graduated with a degree cert

Your friends got married and you'd been invited. 

Most of your peers begin to work full time.

And later on:

You'll be invited to your friends' house opening

Your friends' have full-moon celebration of their firstborn child.

I just wonder, when will be my turn to get married? Hmmmm.....

By the way, that is the second wedding invitation that I'd received this year. The first one was a Malay wedding between my FICM coursemate Nur Izrein and Shaiful Nizam (I hope I spell your name right). I think both are currently pursuing their studies in Australia. Good luck. 

I'll Promise Never Again I Will Procrastinate As Late As This

And the last of the first series of deadlines are done! I'd submitted my CCS Journal 1 at 4 pm (Adelaide time), and heck I managed to complete them all. 


Somehow the adrenaline rush was terrifying enough to keep me awake for this whole morning and afternoon. The last time I experienced that was during the 3rd FICM semester's rush for the English Research paper submission. 


I hope all my first assignments are fine. 


Anyway, to Aaron and Amirul, thanks for the CC invitation. Had lots of fun playing with you guys + Imran, Zac, and Wai Yik, especially the DotA game. I'd officially "retired" from DotA by the way. That 3 vs 3 game rocks! But somehow, I won't continue my interest with the game anymore. I'm gradually becoming a part time gamer, just that I can't wait for Diablo 3. 


Have fun in Genting, you people! :) 


Now, I'm going off to bed for a pit stop. 


Next event - Looking forward to Jessie Lo's farewell in Concorde Hotel :) 

I Have Self-Discipline Issues

CRR class has been cancelled for the second time. Sigh! Miss Natasha's class is my most favourite class in this semester. It's not only fun, it's also the most interesting subject to me when compared to CCS, Journalism and PR1. Like Social Psychology, I wanna learn what it takes to be a scholar, because my life goal is to be a lecturer or a professor. 

Back to the topic. I really have self-discipline issues, and I hope it will not be another downfall of me. I'd been starting assignments lately. I even had a close call on submitting the first Principles of Journalism essay, where I submitted 1 hour before the deadline. Today, being caught in the middle between my mental fatigue and deadline adrenaline, I am currently rushing against time to submit my CCS journals. 


But thank God, I always submit all my assignments in time :)


I'd been hearing some comforts throughout this semester, like "It's okay, don't compare yourself to me," or "I'm even worse larr, I'm slower than you still". Thanks for your concern, but I really have to change myself. 


I know, in 2007, putting up an attitude of giving up and skipping class due to that attitude was a very bad self-discipline when I was way back studying in Labuan. I chose the wrong course, yes, but putting the wrong attitude to endure the choice? NO. 


Today, I'm enrolling in a more suitable course under my choice once again. It's better, but the right attitude MUST be there. 


Self-discipline is very important in tertiary studies. Once you have a lack of it, you'll screw up, just like me now. Everyone is like that, I know, all we have to do is to endure it. 


Parents had invested RM 30K (course fees, accommodation, expenses, flight tickets) so far on my current 3 years of tertiary education,  I know that figure will be growing after the next 2 years. I have a responsibility, and it's a very HUGE one. :( 

Nikon D80 vs Nikon D90

Disclaimer: Viewer's discretion is advised.


Last Sunday, I had an opportunity to shoot photographs using the Nikon D90, the successor of the Nikon D80 (which is my DSLR camera). The sad thing about my D80 is the product had been discontinued from manufacturing. It was first launched in 2006 and was being replaced by the D90 2 years later.


The Nikon D90, so far that I knew, is a 12.3 megapixels DX type mid range DSLR camera that is capable of shooting videos as well. The price of the D90 is RM 4000+, according to the Nikon site. But I believe it is cheaper, depending on the kit lens you choose with the body. 


Now, let's compare. 


Note: Both cameras were on Programmed Auto mode, with the same ISO, and the same white balance. Colour of the pictures were NEVER edited. 


Lens: 


Nikon D80 - Nikkor DX AF-S 18-135mm kit lens
Nikon D90 - Nikkor DX AF-S 18-105mm VR 


Editor's note: I'm kinda envy with the D90's owner. He has a VR lens, very important key of a lens to me, as I don't have a tripod yet. 






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See the difference between the 2? One had more colour than the other. Well, these are fresh from their respective memory cards, as I just joint both of them up for a comparison.


Meanwhile, if you want to know more about these 2 fantastic DSLR cameras, check this Youtube clip:




By the way, back to the colours, maybe there are some inner settings made by the owner that I forgot to change. I myself was flabbergasted with the comparison.


Anyway, if you own a DSLR, it doesn't matter how many megapixels your camera have, as long as you master the camera and edit your pictures well, you might even be able to produce something beyond your DSLR camera's limit.

This Blog's Layout Is Still Currently 50% Done

First and foremost, I would like to say, I'm very impressed with the FCC picture xD


I'll be planning to do the same thing again when I'm back to Tawau. So, St. Patrick's Church and House of Prayer, be prepared to be facelifted xD lol....


Right, I'd finally figured out how to post larger pictures to my blog through Imageshack. Next, is to focus on how to transform this page into a better looking photoblog. 


which means I must post and edit better photos...


Anyway, back to my assignments. 


Meanwhile, have a safe journey back to Tawau, Yen Ching. Feel and appreciate the taste of home before you return here for your very new and challenging semester in KBU.  

Coming Back To The Heart of Worship (Picture Title)

By excalade89

Just trying out the ImageShack thingy.

Anyway, enjoy this photo. An insight from Faith Christian Centre (FCC) - my second house of prayer in KL. :)

Life: What Is It About?

Just by looking at this picture, you'll see people sitting down resting, and you'll see people walking by, heading to their destination. 


The people are the crucial element that makes this photo look more interesting, but sadly they are not united. I did not pay them to pose in the picture either. They are all just doing their own businesses. 


And this is the world right now. People are getting individualistic all the time. It's all about the "me's me" in the society.


As I'm approaching my adulthood, I begin to notice the world in a differently manner. I see things more differently as the environment around me changes. 


Miss Natasha's recent lecture made me think a lot on a topic which I always question myself, "What is actually this world we are living in?"


"Love or money during the last days we live?" 


A simple question, with many perspective. I heard jokes, normal personal opinions from 2 sides (materialism vs spirituality/ emotional support), and even religious based opinions throughout the feedback session. It then silenced me for a while, as I turned to my own self and discuss about life. 


To make this question more interesting, my mind began to review on a recent religion-atheism debate that happened with my friends and the facts of life stated in Peter Joseph's Zeitgeist: Addendum, as well as some of other Ms. Natasha's sharing alone about criticism, adult life and the world culture. 


2 months ago, I encountered a similar question from Bishop Yong Chen Fah during a cell leaders' seminar in St. Patrick's Church. I was just accompanying my mum at that time. 


He asked us this question in Chinese Hakka, "You wanted to seek God's Word and to reject the worldly things. But is earning money important?"


Life is getting more complicating than what we know. To me, things have gone differently ever since you leave high school. It's one whole wide world out there, and it's strange. 


And different people have their own intepretations of the world we are living in, depending on the family, religion, and societal institutions they are in. 


Consider these questions about life:


Why we are in this monetary system? Why are some of us suffering? Why are there rich and poor people? Why we need vocational education? Why we have to work? Why there's religion in this world? Is there truly a God? 


Most importantly - WHY ARE WE HERE RIGHT NOW? 


When we are in the student ages, all we think about is to graduate and to find a job. Now, some of us are already working. And most of the times, people begin to talk about money, thinking about living a prosperous life in the future.  Sooner or later, all of us will be following updates on hard news - when the market price will go down again, when the recession will end, etc. 


Face this fact that our lives are like that, and it's getting more and more complicating. When it comes to life philosophies, nobody knows who is right, and who is wrong. There is a vast uncertainty regarding life itself. We can only argue our own philosophies, or just to agree with an ideology that has a shared meaning with us. 


Still the question remains: What is life?

Ex-Classmate Gathering With Michelle, Yen Ching and Yee Kiun @ Sunway Pyramid.

I thought the ice skating with the 4 "Aunties" of 5 Berlian 2006 and Tony was the final gathering of the year as everyone will be moving along their path of destinies. Who knows I found them once again. 


This time I would be meeting 3 old friends...

Left-Above: Liew Yee Kiun. Currently on a journey to be a lawyer in KDU. Don't play play ah xD
Left-Below: Michelle Dieh. Will be returning to United Kingdom.
Right: Cayenne@ Yen Ching. She's with me in most of the old friend's gathering this year :) Interior Architecture student in KBU. 


That picture was a true success of me using my flash's diffuser for the first time in Sunway Pyramid's Marrakesh section. xD


Most of the time we did there were used for camwhoring. Yeah, we'd been shooting a lot of pictures that night, through the lens of 4 cameras: 2 Canon Powershots, a Canon IXUS and my Nikon D80. 


But eventually, we went for a snooker match around 11pm. It was a mixed doubles match: Me- Michelle Dieh vs. Yee Kiun- Yen Ching. We won! xD 


Here are some final (may need to be improved again) versions done on them. I'm sorry that I had to filter out many photos I took from my camera that day. I made several mistakes on angles and colours that night. Anyway, do enjoy these portraits, kay? :) 

Editor's Comment: I know what's your reaction when you see this. It's blur right? I just make out the best of it, though. 

I might be adding a Part 2 for this post. Sorry, I wasn't able to edit the whole lot of photos taken on that fateful night. And by the way, please don't salah tafsir on the fact that I posted Yen Ching's portraits a lot more when compared to the other 2 girls. I haven't edit the other pictures of Yee Kiun and Michelle yet, including the one with Michelle's favourite "French Fries Man"....hahaa......


Haiz... I wish I have a DX 18-200mm VR lens. Anti shake is really a vital thing, especially if you don't have a tripod and a real steady pair of hands.