529 views in a day!!

After I posted a few photos of my wife's belly on Flikr, it generated 529 views the next day!

A creative shot

This is one of the most interesting photo I've taken so far.

I wanted to maintain enough lighting and sharpness for the background, while maintaining a sense of motion for the flowing water. This typically calls for a long exposure shot, but the tricky part is making sure the Merlion wasn't overexposed. Basically this calls for some creativity.

I set the camera at F6.3 with a shutter speed of 6 seconds, tripod mounted. ISO is at 100 to minimize noise. While adjusting for the perfect view, I literally place my index finger over the lens, making sure it covered just the Merlion. When I fire the shot, I maintained my index finger at the position for about 4 seconds before moving my finger away.

The background was fully exposed for 6 seconds, while the Merlion was only exposed for about 2 seconds. The result? An almost perfect exposure, with the texture on the Merlion still visible.

Strawberries marinated in balsamic vinegar

Absolutely fabulous!

It's been a while..

It's been almost two years since my last entry (721 days to be exact). Busy with work, busy with life. Totally forgot I was once a blogger.

Bummer..

Anyway, I got married, then got laid, wife is expecting a baby soon.

Ahhh..... all in a day's work.

Tandoori burger!!

Meals are expensive in Dubai. A typical McValue meal cost about AED14. Nasi campur cost about AED22! A plate of Phad Thai cost almost AED20.

But of course, not all are expensive. The best meal I had so far in Dubai... A Tandoori burger which cost only AED6.50.

No VOIP in UAE

Apparently in UAE, VOIP is illegal. On my first day here in Dubai, I was contemplating to use SkypeOut to make calls back home to KL. After countless days of trying to access skype.com, I finally found out that the site has been banned by the UAE Government.
Many believe that the move is intended to protect Etisalat, the country’s only fixed line and mobile operator. (FYI, even Maxis 120 doesn’t work here either.)
Although Skype.com is blocked, those who have preinstalled skype on their machines are still able to use it to call skype-enabled machines and landlines. Only problem is accessing the site to buy additional credits. So, for those who intend to use any VOIP in the UAE, it is advisable to top up their credits before arriving.

Certain sites on the internet are banned by the government. Although it is understandable that, being a Muslim country, pornography and violence probably won’t make it here. But Flikr too?! I’ve got the following nasty message when I try to access my Flikr account.

The Process of Simplification

According to a recent NST (16th February 2006) news report, scientist have been urged to simplify their findings so information are useful to policy-makers. In other words, scientists who spent 10 years researching on nuclear physics or biomedicine are suppose to summarize everything into one page?!

It never fails to amaze me that politicians and policy makers, who yields great responsibility often make decision with just one piece of paper. That probably explains why landslides happen on our highway, because the Public Work Minister missed out the "Risk assessment' part on the three volume reports by the civil engineer. But then again, politicians always have a tendency to place themselves above God. Blame God if they have too!

"It's an act of God!"

Next stop, the moon!

Finally, the country is heading towards the space age! Unlike NASA who spent billions of dollars sending a monkey to space before Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon, we as typical Malaysian BOUGHT our way to space! Well, there’s no point re-inventing the wheel, isn’t it. If the Russians are on their way to space, we’ll just hitch a ride with them. After all, Dennis Tito bought himself a ticket to space too.

With our seemingly limitless ambition and “Malaysia boleh” attitude, it’s only normal for us to have such ambitious dream. Having already built the world’s second tallest building (Damn those Taiwanese!!), scaled our way to the highest peak, swam across the English Channel, having more sex in a year compare to our neighbour (Malaysia:83, Singapore: 73, Japanese:45), what else is there that we can’t achieve?!

When the Science and Technology Minister announced that the country will put a Malaysian on the moon by 2020, a sudden sense of pride overwhelms me! With a walloping $25 million price tag, who cares about the homeless in this country! Who cares about the need for better medical facilities! Who cares about funding for deplorable schools! Planting our “Jalur Gemilang” next to the American flag on the moon is national interest! Since every Malaysian taxpayer is contributing $25 million for the Space Programme, I think we deserve to give our two-cents worth of opinion.

I’ve often wondered what’s in store for the Malaysian Space Programme. From what I read through the news, it sounds pretty interesting. For a start, only 12 out of 31 of the overly-ambitious-astronaut-wannabe manage to complete the preliminary physical test. Apparently, we’re just to darn fat! So for those who intend to go to the moon one day, Nasi Lemak is a definite NO NO! Nevertheless, we’re much closer in achieving our dream! Only eight are left in the space race, and in April the PM will announce the names of the two successful candidates.

There’re plenty of issues that needs to be sort out before we hit orbit. For a start, if a Muslim were selected, how is he going to perform his prayers? With zero gravity, he’ll probably be floating around unable to perform his Godly duty in peace. As a matter of fact, which direction is east?! With a speed of 8000 m/s in orbit, will he be able to maintain his direction during prayers? Also, with the majority of our countrymen having their pee-pee circumcised, will there be any permanent damage to their penis at zero gravity? Has NASA conducted any research on “the effects of zero gravity on circumcised penis”?

There’s also the question of correct terminology for a Malaysian spacemen. The Americans have their astronaut, the Russians have their cosmonauts and recently with China emerging as a space explorer country, there’re Taiko-naut now. So what about us? Are we going to merely use the term “Angkasawan”? Or is it going to be “Angkasa-naut?”

As part of the Space Programme, the country announced a project to put Malaysia’s favourite foods into space. A team was sent to Houston to find out the viability of having teh tarik, roti canai and nasi lemak in space. Verdict: all were considered too fatty for spacefood! And Roti canai, due to its flakiness may even break up and cause damage to the space ship. Well, I see our tax payers’ money was well spent! Talk about food here, what about durians then? Has it been approved to be space worthy? Then again, the pong may create a false gas leak alarm. Not to mention the fear it may create among the Russian cosmonauts when they see a thorny fruit floating around their cockpit, dangerously closing in on their fragile space suits.

Russian Cosmonaut: “Na huy...? Otyebis ot menya!” (Why the fuck...? Get the fuck away from me! – www.insultmonger.com)

Probably the local film industry could make a movie about space adventures! Now that would be cool, isn’t it! Imagine having Amber Chia piloting an X-Wing fighter, or M. Nasir brandishing a keris-saber, and Patrick Teoh with his superb voice, can be Darth Vader! Maybe instead of a movie, why not have something like a Star Trek series? We could have a localised opening monologue:


“Angkasa, sempadan terakhir. Inilah kisah perjalanan kapal angkasa Rajawali. Misi lima tahunnya: Mengkaji dunia baru. Mencari makhluk baru and budaya baru. Berani menjelajah ke tempat yang belum ditemui!”**


Now that would put Hollywood to shame, man!

**(Original from Star Trek)

(Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Her five year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before.)

Unnecessary pressure for kids in Chinese schools

I've posted a letter to The Star paper recently. Hmmmm... Expecting tons of backlashing after this!! Here's the letter:


I DISAGREE with L.C. Teh, “Pressure prepares pupils to face real challenges in life” (The Star, Jan 17).

I am a product of a Chinese-medium school, and I certainly will not put my children through the sort of unnecessary stress and pressure I went through.

I remember the time when I was sitting for my UPSR in 1989. I had always been weak in Chinese, but I scored an A in my Chinese essay.

The only reason I managed to do so was the dozens of essays I was “forced” to memorise throughout the whole year! Never mind if I did not understand what I was writing, as long as I got an A; that was what mattered.

Every day without fail, there were extra classes after school. We were also not supposed to participate in any sports or co-curricular activities as this was deemed “a waste of time”.

Every day was filled with homework and more homework. Drilling children in scoring A’s only makes them workers, not thinkers and never leaders.

Furthermore with their emphasis on the mother tongue, Chinese-medium schools certainly do not prepare their students for the future challenges where English is still the dominant language.

I have been working in the engineering field for quite some time, and I have seen countless Chinese-educated graduates struggling to stay afloat in the working community.

Renovation in Progress

It's a Wednesday afternoon, where most working adults are struggling to get through their lazy afternoon. Here I am, sipping my cuppa Brazilian coffee at Starbucks, devouring a plate of strawberry cake ... AAhhhh...... Life just can't get any better man!! Don't get me wrong, I AM working :) It so happens that our office is under renovation, I am "forced" to set up my temporary working place at Starbucks, thanks to free Wi-Fi here!!

The best thing about working in my company is, I don't report to anyone here in the KL office. My immediate boss happens to be based in Singapore, so as long as I'm online and my Skype is green, I'm considered working. Oh, I'm getting paid full time as well (including blogging)!!