Wednesday, December 24, 2008

A snippet on Penang

When we travel to another country, we somewhat dress like how they dress. For example, you go to Stockholm. It's cold there. Everyone wears winter clothing. So, you wear those too. Or if you go to Africa, you'd wear those khakis.

Yet somehow, when it comes to Penang, most people got it wrong. It must be that somehow, it's embedded to them that Penang people goes around in parios or bermudas (only). If it's the Europeans thinking that way, that's 1 thing. But funny thing is, Malaysians, e.g. from KL, seem to think that way too!

But I guess, it shows just how open and unique Penang is. Penangites just could not care less if you walked in a 7E shirtless. Or goes about the night market in parios. Now... try doing THAT in KL!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Hobbies.... & Children

The thing about hobby is that, it changes. You can say that it follows the wind. But if there's anything that'll break the wind, it's your kids. Yes, those pesky little beings that walk all over you, slap you for no good reason and shout at you for thinking they said 'tummy' when what they said was actually 'gummy' even though they pronounced it 'tummy'.

So, a question to the humans who feed these little human-looking tornadoes, can you actually 'make' time for your hobby?

For an average working family guy, weekend is the best time to work on a hobby. Heck, I look forward to it every working day. But the thing about these tired-less merciless machines are, they talk.. and very loud too. Just as you take the first breath of weekend, they say, "Space Chimps!!!!"... right at you ear.

Well, basically this explains the dusty guitar, bass, ukelele collection that I have. Not to mention rusty radio controlled gears. And a stamp collection book (sshhh!).

Hobby-bearing future daddys, until your kid is about 10 or old enough to join your hobby, I heard those zipper bags can keep your gears free from fungus.

But the funny thing is, the missus's hobby seems to be unaffected. Maybe it's God's way of repaying their painful labor ordeal. Either that or those little tazs are not really into handbag collecting...

Friday, December 12, 2008

Dec's Blog! 11/12 hit rate! Not bad!!

As usual, during worktime, I browse pictures in Flickr.

But before I start on my routine monthly head-banging dunnowat2write tasteless blogging, let's be clear on 1 thing: I am NOT a 'pro' photographer. I'm just one of those guys who loves viewing things from idiotic angles but does not have enough RAM in the brain to store the image longer than 20seconds. Hence, me + camera.

Anyway, here's my thought on photography. I know you don't care. But, so do I.

I think, the real essence of photography is capturing the moment. Not just an image. It does not have to be sharp. Or with perfect color rendition. It's about re-living the split-second moment every time you view it. Not many pictures have this 'mojo'. It has to be effective. It has to 'move' you.

I tagged a few photos from flickr as my favs. And when i view those again, it moved me again and again. And these pictures are not over the world sharp or with spot-on colors. My measuring stick on an image has always been the same when I view images from NatGeo mags. The good ones are those that gives out that magical feeling that made me go "Wow! How the heck did this guy do it??!!".

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tjasha/3095086459/