Cleaning the garden

As in, this blog.

Phew, wild grasses are growing all over this blog because I was all hooked up with work, all month long. Merdeka day seems like Chinese New Year to me. Just gotten back from Penang (stuck in the NSE for hours!).

Few things:

First, officially confirmed at the studio. Getting a little bragging rights at last. Hehe.

Second, found a bit of direction in my career.

Then, there's always the issue with expenses and whats left after that.

Ah, hopefully September gives a bit of leeway in the working schedule so I can devote more time to anything else.

A Qwik-blog before cruising to work

Wanted to add something fast just to keep the blog flowing.

Blogging is a bit of a chore these days, thanks to faster ways of getting shorter thoughts around (read TWITTER). By the way, my default wake-up time has been 7AM these days, and by 8.45AM I'll be cruising off to my workplace. No need to rush, because its not really far. Except if the aunties of the entire KL came out on the road. I'll usually arrive within 7 minutes. That's one thing good about it. But on the other hand, its not exactly economical to drive short distances. For example, my mileage on a full tank driving to work only lasts a third compared to a full drive from Penang to KL. The fuel simply doesn't get enough time to burn and maximize efficiency.

Later.

Like I'm doing?

I wanted to crap a lot about my new work, but there's reasons not to do so.

Firstly, my work is shrouded in secrecy. I work for an advertising production company, specializing in the creation of still photographs. Whatever we shoot are as important as Pentagon. It might be an upcoming car, a box of cereals, a lovely artist, a bug, some buggers. You name it. Whatever it is, its off limits to the public, until the public is notified. It is no interest to you unless until our clients -the agencies, say so. So we literally do not call the shots;)

Secondly, its not a lot to crap about. Doing this is not fun. But its important to both the company (they make money) and self (we learn things that made money).

Interesting?

Ish....

Lost a 8 gig CF card. Could have bumped out of the pouch. Damn pissed. But, its comforting to know that the card served me well during the travels in China.

Oh, hi all. I guess I'm back to blogging.

April, and a fool

It's been an incredibly long month since I last posted on this blog. Grass is growing all around here.

I don't really know exactly, but I don't have the impetus to blog that often anymore. Life is just plain dull. Someone said about crossroads, and yeah, I'm on a crossroad in my life. I wish I had 4 sets of brain and hands. So life is draggy lately.

Happy April anyway. Stop being a fool;)

Going Home, and Being Political for Awhile

It's been an unbelievable 30 days in China.

By this time tomorrow, I'll be touching down at KLIA. While not being the best of vacations, this trip has really opened my eyes and mind to the hidden potentials of one of the fastest growing economy in the world. In times where everyone is talking about recession and losing their job (and heads), China is growing like it has been doing for the past 50 years. This is not the Communist China you've read in history books, this is not the country full of touristy places you've heard from family and friends; this is the world's biggest superpower (and single-party government).

There might be some who've experienced China before who would tell you that you're not seeing the real picture of China: unemployment, polution, petty crimes, persecution of ideology and religion, the list goes on. What I can say is that what I see is as real as China gets. This is the picture of a country in transition, where certain things must go in the road to development. Ultimately, this is Yin and Yang in motion. Nothing is inheritantly good or bad. It is a balancing act that any country must learn to harness.

In retrospect, I like every part of the "new" China. Large and effective networks of public tranportation; apparent waste management; a blooming television industry; good hospitality (if you can speak Chinese); environmental friendly measures (Yay! No plastic bags). Of course, I'm also aware of the "other side" of the dragon, but it is unfair to say that people from rural areas are being neglected or treated unjustly. It all depends on their mindsets and determination: if this guy in downtown Shanghai can own a car, there's nothing to stop the farmer in faraway Kunming doing so. Everyone has to try; no government can feed all of its citizens (something most people wants).

Love the weather too!

Smelling the pages

Probably the best thing in Shanghai (and the rest of China) is that they are great when it comes to books and knowledge. Those of you who still think Communism is bad might just be missing your point or living somewhere down the drain.

Forget censorship! The Chinese appreciate art. That means hooray for nude art and stuff like that. Most importantly, these people know and (seemingly) appreciate the borders of political ideology and creative ideas. Unlike the snobs in my poor old country. Heck, seven floor bookshops are common around here while back in Bolehland, bookstores are trimming down to cut costs.

It's sad that a country that boasts its technological and cultural advancements is probably the one with the most people that doesn't read. Kids in China are fed with thousands of years of history. Our kids might not even recall the sequence of former prime ministers.

You think that three metro lines in Kay Ell is a milestone? Well, there are 8 operational lines here in Shanghai alone. They are going to complete another 10 by next year. We folks of Bolehland had to wait until 2012 before the third line gets running, and that line only benefits the capital city. We folks not living in KL still has to sit on crummy busses and cabs operated by renegades who are seemingly out to suck every inch of your soul.

Well, Bolehland is democratic at least. But you know that's crap! We are living in a place no different than everyone is. In the age of globalisation, it's the system of operating a country that matters, not the ideology. Politics is long dead. The key is to organize chaos, and that is what I see going on here in China. They are not perfect, but at least some of them are happy.

Shame on you, Bolehland!

Waiting Pt. 1

It's boring sitting at a KFC table blogging about absolutely nothing. Anyways, I'm officially on my journey to China. But first, we had to wait and wait and wait. Hoping time flies, or else.

Bon année!

I've finally moved 6 years worth of assets from KL back to BM. Will be here for at least a couple of months, and officially unemployed. Though I'm looking at the prospect of freelance graphic design. So if anybody out there needs designs for logos, trademarks, banners, name cards, greeting cards, or simply wants to do corrections/restorations for photos, I'm here at your service.

Anyways, happy new year 2009 to all of you who happens to read this. Whether it's incidental or accidental, thanks for viewing!

*Selamat Hari Krismas*

Selamat hari krismas buat kawan-kawanku di mana jua anda berada! Diharap tahun depan baik baik belaka. Maaf zahir dan batin.

P/S: Google translate this if you don't read Malay.

Bye bye lor...

We've gloriously terminated the phone lines so I would not be able to regularly go online for the rest of the week. I'm returning to Penang by the end of the week. If there's anything, just call me or drop me a sms.

If you see this, sing it as well!

I'm taking this opportunity at the day before my last exam, and therefore technically the last day in university, to fark one of my housemate.

Why don't I confront her? Nope, I'm just using her default way of "non-confrontation". I "sing" it to everybody (or at least my readers).

_____

Dear Farking Housemate,

You're my misery for the past 3 years. I've heard endless complaints about you coming in and out of my ears non-stop and that deteriorates my listening.

You yell, shriek, laugh, blabber like a 12 year old bitch. Yes, like a bitch.

You talk like the whole house belongs to you yet you're only interested in cleaning the places you used most. I know, I don't clean the toilet. So what? That's farking intentional of me.

You regard that parking lot as yours just because you happened to own (or use) a blardy big car from a company that chickened out of Formula 1, and has a farking parking sticker.

You awaken people in the middle of the night and early in the morning just because your blardy four wheels wanna go in.

"Please remove your car." does that sound familiar? Fark you lah!

You walk like you're a descendant of big foot or you have rocks tied to your feet.

You close doors like your hands are paralyzed.

You knock people out of toilet because you're out of time. So what? Everybody is.

You complained TNB charges so much when you used equally that much amount of electricity.

You have hundreds of ways to calculate things but can't make a bloody decision.

You hog the connection to download some farking drama. I hope one day this either:
i. got yourself in trouble with intellectual laws
ii. fry your hard disk and mobo (wait, that happened before right?)
iii. choke yourself to death

You complained when the connection gets bad, but you don't know the connection got worse when you download like a bitch.

You ask stupid questions that I can google for it easily.

You can bodek anybody, but we know that lah bitch!

You wanna sue me for defamation after this? No problem, come lah.

You suck.

Thank you.

______

Oh, that's not all lah, but I think one minute is deducted from my life with every line. So that's generally it.

Boringness in the midst of exam (or sort of)

One exam down, two to go.

It's starting to get really boring and aimless. 3 years of study is ready for the toilet bowl.

I often ask myself what have I learned that can be practically used in the real world. There's no easy answers though. Some things seemed to work while others are a pile of rubbish, or at least, papers awaiting to be recycled.

So I still haven't found that direction I was pretty much hoping to find this day three years earlier.

The thing that made me decide it was Mass Comm in Broadcasting was that jib arm operator. The thing that made me think "holy bunch of crap!" was the endless communication theories and stories about dead people. The thing that made me think further than being a jib arm operator?

No easy answers. The school does not direct us, it just gave us easy tips to exams. We never tried past the paper.

Holy bunch of crap!

Happy December!

Whoop! It's the time of the year again. The time when the blues come to play; the time when you are busy contemplating about the entire year's misses and minuses.

But hold it there! Go out, go out! Time for excitement, relax, and reset. Get yourself together, give yourself a pat, give your wife/husband or girlfriend/boyfriend a hug and some kiss, give your kids a present, give your parents your love; because you've deserved another December because you've tried and tested for the rest of the year.

Be thankful!

The coming, came, and gone

It's been a busy final few weeks of school and there's technically two more weeks to go before I wrap off another chapter in my life. So far, it's boring! So here's some of the major stuff I did for the past couple of weeks.


UTAR's Consumer Rights Campaign


Being brown for McDs (just monkeying!)


Shooting for PuiLeng's (course) ad project. More on this later.


Completing the shoot for our news programe

And that's about it for the excruciating weeks before. I still need to break my head for the Tamiya ad as well as getting fired up for next week's shooting and presentation.

UTAR sucks when there's no fun ;p

Be at peace with yourself and you'll see further

Mr. Jimin Lai answers questions from the participants.

I've just returned from a very encouraging photography talk by Mr. Jimin Lai. Here he shares some of his experiences and pictures taken during his decades long career as a photojournalist.

Apart from that, he also shares some insights that makes a great picture. Suffice to say that everything depends on the one doing the click (although he did shower praises for the full frame Nikon D700, which I totally agree). He also reaffirmed something that I have in mind (and tries to remember doing it often) lately: making the shot that feels something to you.

The truth is, I shot a lot of crappy stuff. Sometimes I don't know what makes my picture when I fire off, so most of my pictures don't mean anything to me when I look at them again. That had me wondering, why the heck I'm shooting at all. I'll go nowhere like this. The technique is there but there's no bite to the images because my direction is all over the place!

Jimin also gave one final advice, one that I'm really lacking in currently: being at peace with oneself. It shows in your photos (and whatever that you're doing) when there's lots of things in your mind that you couldn't let go. Having a clear mind devoid of any aprehensions lets you see things that you previously don't realize, and that's part of a good picture, and a good life.

P/S: Mr. Jimin Lai will be having a one-day photojournalism workshop on December 6th (Sat). The fee is RM350. Check his blog or Click! magazine's website for updates.

Call that Malaysia

It was puke-inducing...

Yeah, I was watching this opening of the FEI World Endurance Championship (an equestrian cross country sort of stuff) live on TV and I can't help but laugh and ponder about the "world class-ism" of our country's sporting organizers. Honestly, it felt no difference from a local event. Whoever the hell was behind the opening, he or she was sure "smart". Okay, maybe we have standards that says: "hey ini bukan olempik la, just use the usual stuff we do everytime for every event for every year". The opening cultural dance was especially awkward; it's well fusioned, old fashion, sloppy stuff that looks more like spillover than appetizer. I can't understand the Malayness, Chineseness, Indianess, and lain-lainess of what they are trying to do. In the end, it's all western beats like every cuti-cuti Malaysia songs you hear on air. There's no subtlely, no enchantment. As if they are only trying to fill up air time. Heck, this is a world class event; the stadium was filled to the brim, and all we have is a few dozen dancers wagling on the ground. Heck, the North Koreans are better; they know how to get attention. Us? We get the honor of holding an international event and being complacent. Then just throw out a little bit of salt and an uglier than life mascot. Is this Malaysia?

When you had something in mind, think again!

Custom painted Hotshot Jr. from Tamiya's Mini 4WD Pro series

Us humans get used to preconditioning pretty much. Our senses are actually distorted forms of reality. But who knows what is real?

When it comes to ideas, we are pretty sure of having something nailed on our heads. But what we rarely does is going one or more steps ahead of what's already there. The first things that comes to our minds usually are the stuff that any Joe is thinking. So if we end there on our first thought, we really missing an awful lot of creative branches that leads to even better ideas.

The lesson: always challenge your original idea and the next original idea and the next, until it comes to be that the flower at the end of the twig is the most beautiful.

P/S: The car on the pic wasn't the brightest idea. It just happens to be that I'm working on an ad assignment now for the brand.

My mind exists eslewhere

I get butterflies in my belly these days. I guess I know what are they trying to tell me; something to do with my unwillingness to face the challenge. It's unfinished business allright...

How long do I want to live in this shell? Law of attraction says its up to me. Hell, if the law of attraction works in the first place I wouldn't need to be in this situation. Wait, or did I asked for it in the first place? I don't know. As far as I'm concerned, I think the butterflies are having sex down there.

Recession

I realize there's really not much to blog about these days. I hated to talk when all I could muster are a few sighs. The new semester are seven weeks that I don't feel like looking forward to, especially after close to three years of faux dreams that the shitty university promises to deliver. Okay, maybe I'm not working hard enough to fit in. But wait, "fit in"? I don't even need to try. So yeah, methinks the system is all wrong. I have been bred in this system that values values for the purpose of answering the right answers. I thought universities are different, but it turns out to be that same mindset and status quo of "education excellence". There goes three years of youth and an American Dream. It's almost certain I'm dead stuck on whatever road this system is leading me towards. It ain't rosy, and I'm past prime to continue student life on my terms. I'm desperately waiting for the next phase in life. This seven weeks will be hit and miss.

On a lighter note, I feel the urge to explore again. Maybe cruising on the highway for 4 hours had a sublime impact on me. But seriously, I realized how big this country really is, and for something half of the state of New York, that means the world is humongous! Maybe all these while technology stole all the fun of physical travel (New York is just nine keystrokes away). It makes me wanna travel. If you feel the same wavelength as I am, do drop me a line. Recession be damned, I wanna jalan jalan!