Every year on the 31st of August, Malaysians come together as one to celebrate our nation's independence day but this year seems a little more of a solemn affair for me. Maybe its the tiring weekend I had and with all of the frustrations I went through, perhaps the joy of the day has become another passing holiday. Maybe its due to the extremely sorry state of our nation that we constantly read in the papers, read online and watch on television.

Youtube has been a great source of information but everytime I watch our politicians in the Dewan Rakyat, I have nothing more but more concern. As leaders of our nation, instead of focusing on the key points, getting us out from a bad economy and continue to build this nation into a developed one, we have those who tend to like to take every opportunity to gain some limelight and make an arse of him/herself.

Oh well, that is what happens when you just simply elect a representative without knowing their true capabilities.

So instead of out celebrating, I am a little more inclined to read these bit of news instead.

• The ultimate Malaysian debate: Malaysia or Malaysaja?


• Freedom Freedom Freedom


• Door to any house of worship open


• The Struggle for Merdeka: What the Malaysian History books do not tell us

Happy Independence Day everyone.

After mentioning about the Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk VI in my older post here and the new upcoming Volkswagen Golf 1.4 TSI here, I managed to find some interesting videos on YouTube about the Volkswagen Golf 1.4.


Thought the advert above was very interesting.


Some reviews of the Golf VI on Fifth Gear


This video shows the acceleration speed of the Golf 1.4 TSI with a 160hp. Only difference is that it is fitted with 19" rims instead of it's stock 16" rims.


The Golf VI 1.4 in action, tornado red. I like that colour a lot.


And a video reviewing the Golf but in a different language! Anyone can translate this for me?

Yes, I have finally gotten around to sorting through some of the images from my photo archives and yes, I have uploaded them to my Portfolio page. Here are some of the images which I have uploaded.



Capture the shot above while shooting Siva & Sumitha's wedding together with the Stories team.



This shot was taken during Eric & Debbie's wedding, also together with the Stories' team.



Took the shot of Mun Tzin quite recently :)

Head over to my portfolio page to view more!

I have known Nick for quite some time now ever since the Lowyat photography days and when he asked me to shoot his pre-wedding, I couldn't say "no" to him. Here are some of the photos from the session. Boy, did I really have so much fun shooting the couple. Both Nick and Sharon were very sporting and they were a really funny couple to photograph. A huge thanks to Mun Tzin as well for helping me out.



I really love capturing the bouquet especially when they are so nicely decorated such as the one above.



The head piece was from Pretty in White! I really love birdcage veils.



We started the shoot from inside the room which was themed after a middle eastern design.













After shooting for a while, we decided to try and capture the sunset. I really love sunset shots and I really love the warm colour tone!









All the best Nick and Sharon. Can't wait to shoot your wedding next month! Gosh, time really flies!

Way back in January, I wrote this post about my obsession with the Golf GTI. Frankly, that obsession is still here. But then Volkswagen announced the Golf 1.4 TSI and that got me a little bit excited as well.



Why is that? Well, the Golf 1.4 TSI, as it's name states, comes with a 1.4 Twin charged engine (both turbo and supercharged) and it produces about 158bhp and 240NM of torque. Pricing for this bad boy starts from RM148,888 onwards and from what they mentioned in their packages, the first batch would include the "Light & Sound" package and push the price to RM155,888.

Light & Sound Package (optional additional features)

• Bi-xenon headlights for high and low beam with integrated turn signal indicator
• Cornering light system: static and dynamic bending
• Dynamic headlight-range adjustment
• Front fog lights
• Headlight cleaning system
• MEDIA-IN USB/iPod media interface

This is somewhat cheaper than the Golf GTI which is currently priced at RM211,063 (on the road price) and I would see a lot of people running to book this car (the Golf 1.4). A check with some of the local dealers, FA Wagen (Jln 222), Cergas (TTDI) and Wearnes (Bangsar) states that you would need to put a RM5,000 booking fee to be able to get yourself a batch of the first 70 cars (unconfirmed number) that will be brought in here late September.

Frankly, yes I might seem excited about this car but still its no GTI. The torque is insane but overall there are a number of differences which makes both these models different. Here are some of the differences.

• Engine displacement - 2.0L vs 1.4L (The 1.4 would have a cheaper road tax and be less painful on your wallet at the petrol station)


• Power - Of course the GTI has more power, duh! But the Golf 1.4 is no weakling with a rated power of 160PS and APR having an ECU remap mod which brings it to 190bhp.


• Torque - The Golf GTI produces 280Nm of torque from 1700RPM onwards and the Golf 1.4 produces 240Nm of torque but from 1500RPM onwards


• Leather seats - Our variant of the Golf 1.4 doesn't come with leather seats unlike our friendly neighbours down south who gets more accessories and model variants there (they have the 140PS Golf variant there)


• Gearbox - The GTI comes with a 6-speed DSG versus the Golf 1.4 which comes with a 7-speed DSG gearbox


• Weight - The GTI is about 30KG's heavier compared to the Golf 1.4 in terms of it's gross total weight


• Suspension - The GTI comes with Adaptive chassis control DCC (sets your suspension settings to either auto, sports or comfort) but the Golf 1.4 we are getting doesn't have this feature. I guess this is one of the few things removed to get the prices down.


• Rims - The GTI comes with 17" rims whilst the Golf 1.4 comes with 16" rims

You have a choice of 8 different colours (1 solid, 5 metallic and 2 pearl effect choices) to choose from. I am guessing the Candy White would be the most popular colour but I am leaning towards the Amaryllis Red or the United Grey. Here I go again, getting ahead of myself as if I am buying the car :P

Some additional points about the Golf 1.4 is that it won the 2009 World Car of the Year award and the 1.4 engine won the Green Engine of the Year Award in 2009.

At the moment, the cars aren't available for test drive yet. I have left my contacts with the 3 dealers and hope that they would follow up the moment the car is available for a test drive. Can't wait to test drive this new car and see if it can really get me off the hook with my obsession with the GTI. Quite a number of people have already booked the car and I guess the two awards I mentioned above seems to sell the car. Plus, the Golf is indeed a beautiful looking car.

Ok, I better stop drooling here. Anyway on top of the news as well is the recent MoU signed by our Malaysian government with VW on getting 3 variants to be locally assembled. Rumours states that it could be either of the following combinations (VW Jetta, Passat and a MPV, Polo, Golf & Passat). Note these are just rumours and no official confirmation on the models have been released.

Welcome back again to Wednesday Clicks, I took a "break" last week thanks to a fever which I was battling with. Thank God that I am healed now and back to work! So take a break, check out some of the interesting links below.

• It took only one guy to make this application and I think its a great one at that!


• Microsoft Surface, the future of board gaming? I would think so especially with this version of Settlers of Catan being played on it.


• Microsoft has a new device that they are teasing with. Check it out here.


• Want some new and free Twitter icons on your webpage? You can get them over here.


• Fancy some Starcraft 2 tips and tricks? Check out this site, plenty of guides and videos on fine tuning your SC2 gameplay.

Have a great week ahead guys!

About a couple of months ago, Nick asked me if the RedNinja group would want to host a photography vodcast where it will cover local photography news, interviews, tips and just cocking about (okay, the cocking about bit was my idea into the whole mix). It took a small idea which formed in Nick's head and after a couple of months of really cocking about (that means not doing anything), we finally sat down, discussed some ideas and voila, episode #0 of the Ninja Report is now out and available.

Check it out below.


In this episode, me and Nick introduce what the Ninja Report is about and we also included in an interview with the core team of WPPM. Note that the double chin was added into the video purposely and that it does not represent the true me! :P

Apparently some guy said to blame it on the lighting but since I was the one who set up the light, I guess I can only blame myself, haha!

I would like to thank the folks over at Satoo.tv for hosting this videos as well as the other episodes to come! Satoo.tv is a great place for us Malaysians to share some of our local content on local servers so that we view it super blazingly fast!

If you want to know more about what RedNinja is about, head over here or just join us in our Facebook Fan Page here.

It's Wednesday, that means there can either be two things, one, you only have 2 more days before completing your work. Two, the weekend is almost at hand. When it is a Wednesday, this means it is time for a Wednesday Clicks!

• I always suspected that a car wash business is actually good. Check out this one, he can charge up to $11,000 for a car wash!


• You just got to love the chinese for doing what they can really do, copying off Apple's product. Check out their website here and see it for yourself!


• So after so many years in operations, Proton has decided to go back to the old drawing board and used Mitsubishi car designs for their next Waja replacement models. Are they not the least bit innovative or have they wasted so much money on useless R&D that sky rockets their costs up?


• How do you use the iPad as a photographer's helper? Check it out here.


• I have always been trying to get my colleagues to head over to Lot 10 all the way from Cyberjaya to try their food. Although the journey is long, but I feel that it is worth it. Check out some of the delicious food here.


• Don't forget to vote for me and Mun Tzin here at the PJ Hilton competition! http://bit.ly/vote4mark

Have a great week ahead folks!

Final Update

At the end of the session, everyone just stayed back and chit chatted about various areas as well as catch up with one another. Tune in to RedNinja.tv to find out more about upcoming events!

Update #3

After the sharing session, the panel then went through various business cards that were submitted earlier for critique and there were plenty of learnings that I personally gained through this session. A lot of them have to do with a sense of purpose why a design is in the card and even the fonts used and the spacing between the fonts would then make sense. Definitely a real eye-opener to me, especially one who has zero design background.

Update #2

Jon and Grace are sharing about how they have recently undergone a rebranding with their own personal businesses lately. Both of them went through a big change in terms of how they branded their own personal businesses and also how they started off with a single focus and focused on that starting with their business cards and websites.

Update #1

I am blogging live now from Integricity's office at Centerpoint, Bandar Utama on the RedNinja.tv's event called "First Impressions: The Art of Business Card Design". At the moment we have Shirley and her husband together with Kris Wong from "That Special Occasion" and "Weddings Malaysia" as well as designer Mike Lian from Integricity sitting at the panel sharing about business card designs.



There is a big group of photographers and none photographers here at the event.