BERSIH came twice with protests on the streets and garnered a huge publicity. Upheavals in the Middle East brought down governments and don't even get me started on the countless of revolutions which happened over the past hundreds of years. Riots and panic caused a lot of damage and even death to some of the people caught in the stampede. Most of this time, it all takes a bit of spark to set off the mob mentality.

Nowadays, we take that very same mentality to the internet. First we had the case where a video of a guy punishing his poodle and that was publicized on all social media networks from Facebook to Youtube to blogs and even news portals. Then came many more rantings and created that mob mentality online. It all just takes a spark and the whole internet community became enraged.

The problem is that, as much as we say that facts are sometimes turned around on our news and mainstream media, I tend to see the same thing happening on the internet as well.

Take this story about a bartender in the US of A, she waited on a couple one night at the bar and lo and behold, when the couple left and paid for their drinks, they didn't leave a tip. That might seem normal here especially in Malaysia where service charge is already charged into our bills but in the states, it is deemed as rude not to leave a tip.

A normal tip usually ranges from 15-20% and whenever I travelled to the states, I made sure I used an app on my iPhone to help me calculate my bill when eating out (which I do anyway since I was travelling).

The worse part for that bartender was that, the couple also wrote a small note on the receipt.

p.s. You could stand to loose a few pounds

Image source: http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/

By the way, that's "lose" instead of "loose".

Anyway, she became enraged and posted this receipt on her Facebook page and the thing just went viral. She gotten tonnes of support from people and they even started researching for this alleged person who left the note and the no tip and when they found the guy, a whole hate smear campaign onslaught went on.

The problem with the whole entire episode was that the bartender, gotten the wrong guy! I guess with "gwailo" fellas, a first and a last name such as John Smith (just an example, the guy's name wasn't John Smith) would be extremely common.

I can just imagine that one day just waking up and finding out that half the internet community is knocking on your social media door asking for comments or just plain bashing you in.

Of course the news site have then issued apologies here, here and here. But the damage has been done already. So the next time you decide to start an online vigilante campaign, just make sure that you do your own proper research and homework before hitting out on innocent folks out there.

The Ping Pong in Hong Kong! A line from the movie which sort of stayed within the confines of my brain. Why is that? It's because "Real Steel" was a totally awesome show. I have actually heard of the show but because it really didn't garner as much marketing budget versus some other movies where they had the movie posters plastered over billboards across town, Real Steel was really a great movie in hiding. I guess that's why there are so many movie reviews written about this movie right now.



Most movies that have been hyped up usually target a summer launch in order to catch the crowd so by the end of the year, I never did expect a fantastic show such as "Real Steel" to really wow the crowd. I haven't read a single negative review about the movie yet although it garnered a 7.5 score on IMDB but personally, this movie deserves a 9/10 in my books.



Set in the near future, where robot boxing is a top sport, a struggling promoter feels he's found a champion in a discarded robot. During his hopeful rise to the top, he discovers he has an 11-year-old son who wants to know his father.

The story begins with a very washed out Charlie Kenton (played by Hugh Jackman) an ex-boxer who now has lost his livelihood since Robot boxing has taken the arena. As he struggles through life with mountains of debt and robots, him finding out that he has a 11-year old son really changed his life.



We have always known Hugh Jackman as a very tough man especially in his roles as Wolverine, this time, Hugh Jackman played his role very well and turns this movie into both an action packed story line as well as one that tugs on your emotional strings.

What I was thoroughly impressed was the amount of CG graphics (computer generated) used and how it blended in nicely with the story as well as the overall ambiance. It wasn't overly done but executed extremely tastefully. But hey, who doesn't like to watch two robots punching each other in a ring.

Overall, Real Steel is really an underdog movie which definitely is worth watching in the cinema for its awesome CG graphics and even for the story line. It's nice to feel that nice fuzzy warmth at the end of the show. Watch the show, and you will know what I am talking about.

Prior to the launch of this movie as well, a viral site was also launched in accordance with the move. Do check out http://www.wrb.com/

I was invited last weekend by both Edwin Tan and Nicholas Leong over to their new gallery located in Bangsar South. It was a fun event with plenty of other photographers about with food and even a photo booth!



Put photographers in front of the camera and you end up having loads of wacky pictures. Some just too wacky that it has to be censored. Or should I leak one or two up on this site.







 

I know I had way too much cake at the event but am a little sad that I missed the champagne popping session that you guys did after I left. At least I didn't get splashed with champagne ;)

Being part of the WPPM does have its benefits. Though I am a little shy as I haven't posted about photography in a while, this time I managed to join Patrick Low on one of his Photographer's chill out sessions at Autodetailer. In case you may not be familiar, Autodetailer is located at Jaya One and it prides itself as Malaysia's most advanced detailing studio.

I first met Darren when I attended the Nigel Barker's workshop a while back. Am glad that he managed to recognize me when I arrived at his studio.


Took this shot using my iPhone 4 and edited the image using SnapSeed

As I was at another event prior to this, by the time I arrived at the batcave, Darren was already giving the rest of the group a tour of his detailing studio. It is really really impressive and there has been countless of articles on the Star as well as car magazines which featured his studio.


Large turnout at the Photographer's Chill Out session

It was a real pity that my gears were in for service at the time or else I would be happily taking photos of his studio but I was very impressed with his car studio setup as well as his post processing setup. I have never seen a Wacom tablet that is larger than a 24" iMac in my life before!

After going through a tour of the detailing studio, I was utterly amazed! No wonder plenty of people send their cars to Darren to detail as well as restore. It's just amazing to see the amount of detailed work they put into each and every car. I was literally blown away and amazed and I can say that his detailing studio is the only one that has an iMac and a uber large Wacom tablet :P

Here are some of the images taken by Darren and displayed on his Facebook Page.





The last of the 3 images above has me very intrigued lately. Mainly because that is Darren's car and he has been working on his personal project which is to transform his Mito into a unique looking mini car which looks totally awesome. You can find out more about Project Mito at the blog or you can always check out their Facebook Page for latest updates. Do check out this Facebook Album set for a plethora of poisonous images.

I think I should do that as well for my Golf but most of the time, my Golf is pretty much dirty from all the rainy weather we have been having. It definitely needs a good wash!

For more information about WPPM and the monthly Photographer's Chill-Out Sessions, do visit the WPPM Facebook page for updates.