The Unwritten Rules of Pictionary

#1: Increase your hearing and seeing sensitivity like a hawk or a cat. Chances are, your opponent will cheat at every chance they get.

#2: During All-Play, appoint a judge for each team. Without one, both teams will cheat.

#3: Appoint time-keeper from the opposing team. Coz the playing team will cheat at time keeping too.

#4: No mirror, even TV nearby. The reflective surfaces will be used for... yup, cheating.

#5: Snap a picture to record your position on the board. Chances are, your marker might be moved by the opponent without you knowing. For some ODD reasons, sometimes to an advanced position too.

#6: Ensure your todlers are wearing diapers. They will be ignored for the next 5-8hours.

#7: Make pre-arrangement to purchase or rent a house in another area or district. Just in case your house is torched down by angry neighbors.

#8: Have a team name. Do not use acronym. It could be misleading eg. L is chose for 'Leader'. The opposing team will, for some ODD reasons, think that its for 'Loser'.

#9: When your team member catch the other team cheating, just play along and support your team member. Even though you're not sure. After all, teamwork is key.

10#: Don't upload your Pictionary drawings in Facebook for it might be humiliating. On second thought, that's exactly the point! Load it! And don't forget to tag!

Sent via BlackBerry

You Know You're Addicted to Pictionary When...

FIVE: You'd quickly grab ALL the pencils and memo pads you see during your meetings at the hotel.

FOUR: You start to think about how to draw every 6th word you hear e.g. the ball was out of court... COURT!

THREE: You called you mom to ask for cooking recipes so that you can invite your friends over and force them to play.

TWO: Ikea pencils look very tempting.

ONE: School night? What school night?

BlackBerry vs. iPhone, why is it an argument in the first place?

These are 2 very different animals.

BB is a communicator. It connects you via push e-mail, IMs, Facebook, Twitter and everything that connects. And BB is not so much about the phone unit itself. It's MORE about the BlackBerry service. Each unit is 'served' by a BB server that pushes information. As for now, there is NO competition for BlackBerry.

iPhone, is... a phone with lots of features. That's it. It's a great multimedia and gaming tool. And it oozes with superb user-interface . But its no 'communicator' like a BB. It does not have a server working for it.

So, the real argument is actually iPhone vs Nokia something2 or.. vs Sony Ericson something2. Never a BB.

A person who NEEDS a communicator, just grab a BlackBerry.

A person who needs a device to play games, watch videos etc, would consider iPhone.

It's clear cut that these 2 are very different. But, as profit making organizations, Apple would LOVE to have iPhone with BlackBerry capability. And RIM would LOVE to have iPhone's user-interface and features in its BlackBerry.

As email and social-networking becoming more popular, convergence is inevitable. It's just a matter of time.

Ask me anytime, perfection is having BOTH iPhone and a BB. If only Apple strikes a deal with RIM to have BB connectivity in its iPhone...

Why BlackBerry?

Here we go again, in a round-about adventure, the Coffee Table syle.

With BB, you're connected. You're logged in. You're IN the network.

With any other phone, you need to log-in to get connected.

At that juncture, BB is definitely the better option. But the problem is, it comes with a price. So, the question now: is it worth paying for BlackBerry service for such minor difference?

But on the other hand, if you use a normal phone and always 'log-in', you WILL be charged for data usage. And if you SMS like Instant Messaging and a big MMS user, at the end of the month, the amount could be MORE than paying for BB service.

Of course, if you live in Starbucks, there's no argument. The accumulation of money for BB services spent in a year is quite ridicioulous when you have WiFi and can be connected for free.

But from economics standpoint, someone IS paying for the WiFi. Be it in a form of coffee, fuel and time to drive to a WiFi point or monthly subscription. So, let's put the WiFi argument to the side and wait for the day when we can have WiFi signal emitting from our wrist-watch. So, in today's reality, to stay connected most of the time, we HAVE to use GPRS.

So, I guess, the cost of BB service is justifiable. But another question: Do we 'NEED' to be always 'connected'?

Tricky question. Mainly coz it's bounded by social norm. Still remember saying, "Bah, I don't need a cellphone, there's public phone all over."

So, to say we don't need to be "always connected" is a bit short-sighted. One day, we might have to swallow back our words. At the end of the day, human need and behavior are always bounded by social norm and economic power.

The social norm (or 'trend') in Malaysia is that the convenience of IM and e-mail in everyday life is slowly overtaking the limitations of SMS and MMS. VoIP too is catching on. All of these uses data network.

In the name of connectivity, people are already ditching their desktop for laptops to netbooks. The only logical trend is toward your cellphone. And that's where BB is already giving the solution.

But the wave will catch on only when the difference between 'stay connected' vs. 'need to log-in to be connected' will be of significance.

In a world where people don't give a crap, you must always keep it interesting.

How To Take A Great Photograph?

2 words: Compose It.

Yup, the only way to make a beautiful image is; to stage it. Something like studio work. You visualize an image and try to replicate it. If your visualized image is OMG. Then chances are, you photo will be OMG too.

If you notice, we don't even talk about the camera. Because, in reality, the camera can’t compose a image. Yes, it’s true, even the most Nikon of camera can’t do it. It’s just a tool. It’s not a magic wand. Only YOU can create an image and compose it via photography. The Operator.

Before photography was invented, an image had to be drawn by hand. These artists would have a subject to draw and paint. And they were quite pissed when Kodak came up with a tool that captures an image in a blink of an eye. But my point is, historically, an image - drawn or photographed – are usually either physically or imaginatively staged, be it weeks of preparation or a matter of seconds.

The only problem with staged image is, some are too fictitious. But if you browse Flickr, imaginative images are better accepted. Mainly because, people respond better to beautiful images, even if it's staged. It's art creation.

But if you're type who feels that studio work is a big fat bluff. That it's not 'real' and does not capture the 'emotion', yada yada. Then you're not being fair to these artist.

Images that represents 'truth', 'timeliness', 'accuracy' and 'realism' is actually not photography. That's photojournalism; capturing emotions and the 'right moments'.

Parents will bring their camera to their child's concert or a travel. That's not something that you can 'stage'. You snap based on how the event unfolds. And in the end, you'd view the pictures as how you saw and experience it. That's photojournalism.

Having said that, I guess most of us are are basically photojournalist, not photographers. So, the next question is: how to be a great photojournalist?

2 most important ingredients: the 2 Fs --- FAST shutter speed and FAT aperture. A photojournalist needs a fast tool. A studio photographer does not need these as much. They have studio lights and stationary subjects. But a photojournalist has subjects that runs around and not entirely within their control. Sounds familiar!

Photographer or photojournalist, just like any artist, you still need some form of pre-work. Before any photo is taken, you’ll need to decide the speed, aperture, the angle of the view, the focal length, the subject placement, the foreground and background. If you just pick up the camera and snap, you’re not an artist. You're just a picture taker.

Good night.