Apparently something is brewing over the horizon in April. My last post mentioned that I had a busy April coming about but I have this nagging feeling that something fishy and familiar is looming. What could it just be?



That mask looks so familiar to me, I wonder who used to wear it. Perhaps if I asked this guy if he knew what was going on.



Or maybe this guy might know something.



Wingman? Whose wingman is he? How can you go about picking girls up with that hairy suit? Well I guess with that, it does start a pretty interesting conversation. With that feeling in my head, I guess it would be best to take the bus to work in April. Why do you ask? This is why.


Image source: Gizmodo

Thats right, in case of emergencies, please break glass and arm yourself with a lightsaber. Still not convinced? Perhaps this would change your mind somewhat.


Image source: AmNY

Now I better run and hide from them Siths.

For more info, visit this site.

March is soon coming to an end but I am really looking forward to an exciting month of April. Why is April so exciting for me? Well, that is because I have three upcoming workshops in April, which I anticipate that I will learn a lot from it as well as make full use of it to propel me forward in both my passion and my career (sad to say sometimes that my career may not be my passion).

First up would be the "From Ordinary to Extraordinary" workshop from the 11-13th ofApril held at the Pixel Media centre in the new DAP state of Penang. I will be flying off to Penang over the weekend via AirAsia in hope of learning from the awesome Louis Pang. I definitely have to thank my mum for being able to arrange for me my accomodation in Penang. Because of that, I feel a little more at ease about acommodation


Note: There is also another session in June held in KL. Do visit this site for more information

Right after that workshop, I will arrive in KL on the 14th of March and the next day I will be off to Bandar Utama for another workshop from the 15th till the 18th of March. This time it is an SAP workshop held at IBM. Also interesting as I will be considered rather fresh in that topic in regards to DB2 usage but I am always eager to learn more.

At the end of April, I would be attending the annual Charge Up conference which I attended last year. Really looking forward again for this year's conference where Louis Pang will be conducting the Photography stream for 4 days! This format is slightly different as compared to last year where it was held from Friday night and over the weekend where I actually missed the ending of the conference. This time, I am making sure that I am available through all 4 days.

Photography

Louis Pang
1st place winner of the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) 2007 8×10 print competition, Louis is a highly sought after photographer & educator in Asia. Louis travels to Australia, Hong Kong, India, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and all over Malaysia for wedding assignments. He was also appointed an Epson Stylus Pro, an elite fraternity of top professionals who are selected for their artistry excellence and technical know-how in digital imaging.

April is definitely a month that I am really looking forward to. I must polish up my skills and my knowledge to be a better photographer in both the artistic and technical sense. I wonder if I will be able to get my laptop by then, who knows?

Early today, someone came up to me and wished me, "Happy Easter". I for one am not particularly used to being wished that. Then it hit me that how far I might have been from the whole truth about the resurrection of Jesus on this day some 2000 years ago. Why has it not been that significant in my life right now, these very thoughts came about me and I sat down and realised that I have been filled with too many things other than God. Career mindedness has crept into my inner most thoughts as well as photography and the mixture of life and where is mine moving towards.

Most of today was spent in church, shooting the dedication service where we finally dedicated the Dream Centre as well as shooting the dedication dinner as well. There were plenty of people and a huge crowd. The sheer number of tables available were far more than that I have seen at any wedding so it was a huge thing. It really didn't start well when I arrived at church as the clouds were turning black and thunder was echoing about but God was in definite control. I said to Ps. Mike when I walked into the church compound, "Looks like rain, huh?" and his reply hit me back, "Don't believe what you see". He was absolutely right, God was in total control. Not only did it not rain, there was a slight hint of a drizzle during dinner and when a group started praying, even the small drizzle stopped. God is totally awesome.

After dinner, I had the wonderful pleasure of getting teased at because Liverpool was down by a goal against Man Utd and by the time I finished watching the entire match at my cell member's condo, it was absolutely horrid. Liverpool lost by 3 goals to nothing and all I could do was sulk in a corner. Well, I didn't really sulk that much but I guess it was what I expected from a 10-men Liverpool team.

As I drove home, rain started pouring down like there was no tomorrow. This is what is expected from a God who is almighty, everything is in accordance to His timing. I sit down now in front of my computer, while I write this, all I can think is that God sent us his one and only son, Jesus to this earth who died on Good Friday and rose again 3 days later on Easter Sunday. It is not about chocolate eggs or the easter bunny but how God has sent His son to save mankind. This is what needs to be in my head and everything else will definitely make more sens.

Its going to be a busy week, plenty of work to complete and meetings to catch up. Doubt I might have time to take a couple of swings at some golf balls at the driving range though but hopefully I can find the time to exercise as the KL International Marathon is next week! And no, I haven't been training at all.

The title says it all but what it doesn't say is that Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, has teamed up with IDEO to come up with the ULTIMATE cubicle, for Dilbert, that is. Anyway I thought it was rather cool, I looked at my own cubicle at work and wished it was this funky.



Image source: http://www.ideo.com/dilbert/index.htm

Personally I have sat in 3 different types of cubicles in my career. The first one was based off an open office concept where by I wasn't surrounded by any partitions but the amount of electronic reading equipments (oscilloscopes, spectrum meter, etc.) ended up being the partition instead. The 2nd one I sat in was the best, Herman Miller chairs were available and a never-ending supply of wonderful coffee and an incredible view to boot.

My current cubicle is the largest of the 3, a not so comfortable chair and plenty of space for me to make a mess. Although the only problem is that the central air-conditioning system doesn't seem to reach my area of the office so I am rather warm most of the time.

Head over to this site and check out it's cool features.

I had the priviledge of travelling to Phuket, Thailand, over the weekend for an assignment and it was equally taxing and enjoyable as well. The last time I was in Phuket was over 15 years ago and much has changed since then. The most noticeable change was that you can hardly see the aftermath of the tsunami which struck the area back in 2004. Much of the things have been rebuilt and resorts are springing back up everywhere.

The number of tourists were incredible as well and I always wondered to myself, "Why can't any place in Malaysia can be this popular?". Langkawi? Redang? Penang? Pangkor? Who knows, are we not that attractive enough to offer the tourists the same things?

Anyway at the same time, I managed to snap a couple of pics while I was on assignment there.


Sunset at Surin Beach


Ice melting by the beach - Think seafood being chilled on ice before barbequeing it and then these are the leftover ice


Bright sunlight from Surin Beach again


Senget shot of a senget horizon - Note, riding this without insurance is scary!

I have a couple more photos sitting in my hard disk but in total there are about 14Gb of data to go through. I definitely need to delete some of them as I am really running out of available space now in my PC!

In one of my previous post in January, I said that I was poisoned but the more and more I read about it, the more the cost justified the equipment. No, I am not going to go out and buy one but after playing with one over the weekend, this time I knew that what I read online were not lies. Yes, the Nikon D3 is as amazing as everyone claims to be.


Image source: Dpreview.com

This amazing feat of engineering is what I always wanted since it was announced by Nikon and still I get some laughs from Andrew saying that after a few sessions with him that I don't need to drool over this machine. It was at one of his sessions that I managed to try out the Nikon D3.

I took out my 85mm f/1.8 lens and quickly turned up the ISO to 6400 and shot straight from the camera onto my CF card. Here are the amazing results.

Shot taken @ 85mm f/2.2 ISO 6400 1/1000sec

Of course since this photo is resized and is rather small, you might not be able to see the fine details of how good the D3 is at 100% crop.


Now isn't this just awesome? Man do I wish I had two of these babies with loads of f/2.8 lenses with me. Then I guess Andrew might just try to poison me to go full on CLS.

If I wonder how many side jobs I can take with only 24 hours a day....

Yesterday I did what all citizens of Malaysia was tasked to do, which was to exercise our right to vote. Then of course I spent the entire night watching channels 501, 101, 103 and 109 on Astro waiting to see the results.

The results are in.

Glad I performed my national duty and glad that our votes counted.

Aiks, I am late for my meeting now!

Update:

As of 6.37pm KL Time, this site is 42 visitors short of reaching the 10,000 mark. Yippee!

Are you already bored with the same old cakes you used to get from Secret recipe? Its been so many years that you have actually tried all of their cakes? Well from now on, you don't have to look any further. What you need is a change, a change for better and the change for quality! This is not some BN, DAP, PKR, PAS propoganda.

No, this comes straight from my stomach (not heart!) and the one thing in unison right now is that both my brains and stomach agree that cakes from Su's are way better than any other cake shop I have been to (if you see my size you would know that I go to a lot of cake shops).



What are you waiting for? Click on the image above and start drooling over those cakes. I would recommend their range of cheesecakes and especially if you are a durian lover, please order the durian cake! Absolutely delicious!

Durian Cheese Cake: A rapture of bold aromas – the distinctive cheese whiff augmented by the sharp pungent durian. Your imagination will be inspired by this truly exotic combination of aroma, taste and texture – smooth & creamy cheese filling blended with luscious bites of real durian flesh giving your taste buds that unique “kick”. Our renowned signature creation.

Now this is the ultimate cake to try!

With the elections coming pretty close (this Saturday), a few interesting things popped up today. Firstly, Malaysiakini, a news website, where users have to pay a fee to read has declared that their site is now free from the 4th of March till the 10th of March. Want to know why?

"We hope that voters will be able to access independent news so that they can make an informed decision on polling day," said Malaysiakini CEO Premesh Chandran in announcing the decision.

Now that is interesting and it really did give me some sort of hope until this bit of news appeared. Just 4 days before voting begins and this change suddenly comes in? What is going on here? I wonder if they will provide us with the transparent ballot boxes as they have promised us here.

With so many people shouting and tussling at various "ceramahs", I pray that Malaysians will make an informed decision when it comes to casting their votes. It is not about being anti who or anti anyone but our own future including our children's future would ultimately depend on the people who lead this country.

Anyway, enough ranting on and on. My D200 is with Nikon Malaysia at the moment together with my Nikkor 50mm f/1.4. I sent it in this afternoon for servicing. Hopefully after calibrating the focusing motor, I wouldn't face too much front focus problems.

Read more related news over here:

•  http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/79162


• http://www.malaysiakini.com/news/79147

My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE...
"If you're going kill each other, do it outside - I just finished cleaning!"

My mother taught me RELIGION...
"You better pray that will come out of the carpet."

My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL...
"If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!"

My mother taught me LOGIC...
"Because I said so, that's why."

My mother taught me LOGIC... #2
"If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me."

My mother taught me FORESIGHT...
"Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident."

My mother taught me IRONY...
"Keep crying and I'll give you something to cry about."

My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS...
"Shut your mouth and eat your supper!"

My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM...
"Will you "LOOK" at the dirt on the back of your neck!"

My mother taught me about STAMINA...
"You'll sit there 'till all that spinach is finished."

My mother taught me about WEATHER...
"It looks as if a tornado swept through your room."

My mother taught me how to solve PHYSICS PROBLEMS...
"If I yelled because I saw a meteor coming toward you, would you listen THEN?"

My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY...
"If I've told you once, I've told you a million times: Don't exaggerate!"

My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION...
"Stop acting like your father!"

My mother taught me about ENVY...
"There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do!"

My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION...
"Just wait until we get home."

My mother taught me about RECEIVING...
"You are going to get it when we get home!"

My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE...
"If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way."

My mother taught me to THINK AHEAD...
"If you don't pass your spelling test, you'll never get a good job."

My mother taught me ESP...
"Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you're cold?"

My mother taught me HUMOR...
"When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me."

My mother taught me how to BECOME AN ADULT...
"If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up."

My mother taught me about SEX...
"How do you think you got here?"

My mother taught me about GENETICS...
"You're just like your father."

My mother taught me about my ROOTS...
"Do you think you were born in a barn?"

My mother taught me about WISDOM OF AGE...
"When you get to be my age, you will understand."
"One day you'll have kids ...and I hope they turn out just like you!"

Something is coming over the horizon. Are you prepared for it?





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