Marsha Loves To Draw

Inspiration from Sungai Kuala Kangsar.

Even during camping (during '08 CNY), she finds some time to draw.

PDA pun jadilah. As long as can draw.

While waiting for food.

In a shopping mall's fitting room???

While waiting at the hospital.

On a blackboard...

... that's easily transported anywhere in the house.

Snow White movie is SCARY!

Who could not have loved Snow White? She’s da babe. And Marsha is nuts about her. But interestingly, she could not bring herself to watch SW’s movie. After about ~8mins of watching, she’d switched off (without pressing ‘stop’, as usual) the DVD player and walked away. I asked her why and her reply was “it’s too scary”.

Now, think about it. We’ve all watched SW, right? (Don’t tell me I’m the only guy watching it). But why is this 3.5yr old kid said it’s ‘scary’? Iffil Mia gets down and dirty and investigates…

1) Her name.
Nothing wrong with ‘Snow’ and ‘White’. But her name was inspired from the blood that spilled on the snow under a very dark night. And this happened when her mum pricked herself with a hellava big needle, where she said (upon seeing the blood), “I wish upon a daughter whose lips are as red as the blood and hair as dark as the night”. Darn. This alone sent a shiver throughout my guts. This is dark voodoo stuff. Luckily she did not get a son.

2) Her mother DIED mysteriously.
And she got herself a wicked stepmother, who incidentally became a dark voodoo Queen. Correct me if this is wrong as I was not particularly paying attention, but if it’s true, this is downright disturbing.

3) The freaking mirror talks!
It’s not the cutie-mutie kind like Mrs. Pot or Lumiere of Beauty & the Beast. This is a scary looking dark-voodoo magic mirror, with smoke and all, that talks back to you. Is this an appropriate sight for kids? SW should be tagged as 18PL.

4) The Queen hired a killer.
I mean, specifically she said, “I want you to kill her!” And not just that, she even said, “I want you to bring back her heart!” And the reason: coz SW is ‘fairer’ than her. How sickening is that? For a kid to be watching this, this is downright brutal! Is should be tagged 18SG as well.

Well, I stopped investigating there and then. Snow White is bad for kids. She’s da babe no doubt and Marsha still adore her, but her tale should be altered, like 100%.

Happy (Pls Fill in the Blank)!

2 beautiful occasions to blog here.

1 is: 9th May was our 10th Anniversary. Yes, TENTH! It's amazing that 10yrs have flown by so quickly. To think that I've been procrastinating about putting on braces. Had I put it on many years ago, I'll be blogging at this moment with perfect teeth. Anyway, 10 yrs passed by with lots of life's ups-and-downs and a whole lotta rounds-and-rounds. And I'm so blessed with having Sara by my side for the ride. It's funny, after 10years; I've grown to love her so much more than before. The analogy is simple: First I loved her as a friend. Then as a friend and a wife. Then as a friend, wife and a mother to my kids. She's perfect in my every sense. *mushy mushy* Oh, which reminds me, I've not made a kenduri or a gathering to celebrate this milestone yet. Will do it soon.

2nd 'happy' is: Today is Mother's Day! Even though this is just another day created by florist all over the world, as I age, I've began to appreciate these type of 'days'. So, on behalf of Marsha, I took Sara for a Seafood dinner. Then I tapau the leftovers for my mum, who's staying with me, while bibik (Kak Hindun) is on sabbatical. Hmm. The 'tapau' part doesn't sound right. But, then again, my mum is not the 'happy mothers day' kinda person. But, she knows how much I love her... right, mum? :-)

Click! Snap! Ting! Sap! Blitz!

Whatever sound it makes, the objective is very simple: capturing the moment. I love cameras and taking pictures. And when it went digital, it became much easier and affordable.

I jumped into the digital bandwagon back in ’03 with a Minolta Dimage Xi. It’s got 3.2MP (wah!), telescopic lens (uuhhh!) and 3X zoom (drooool!). It was ahead of time back in ’03. And it was a whopping RM1700 with a 256Mb card (gulp!). Since then, I changed camera every year. Last week, I made a huge leap. I jumped into the SLR bandwagon. I’m still unsure if I made a right choice or not, but let’s see how it goes for the next few months.

So, this particular blog is mainly a tribute to all the cameras I’ve owned and to the world of ‘point-and-shoots’ that I will look down from now onwards *hehe*.

’03 Minolta Dimage Xi
Thank you for the beautiful moments. You’ve taken lots of Mariam’s picture, and for that, I’m keeping you forever. I just wish I can get a replacement battery for you.

’04 Panasonic FZ2
You’ve introduced me to Image Stabilizer and Aperture F2.8. And with your 12x optical zoom, you’ve also introduced me to voyeurism. You’re an amazing camera.

‘05 Panasonic FX7
Your design is a classic. But unfortunately, you were just a bridge to the next generation of LCD, wider lens and better battery technology.

’06 Panasonic FX9
You’re basically an FX7 Mark II. Yet you’re so flawless. But I had to let you go to satisfy my hunger for wide-angle lens. Sorry.

’07 Panasonic TZ3
10x optical zoom in a compact shell --- ahh, the world of voyeurism just a snap away (kidding!). Thank you for your priceless wide-angle views. But, you’re just too noisy at ISO100 and I can’t bear that at all. But, anyhow – you’ll remain as the best all-rounder I’ve ever gotten.

’08 Sony Alpha DSLR-A350
An entry level DSLR no doubt, but beggars can’t be choosers. I love you for your live-view features and the lovely quality pictures you take. Plus I can now shoot at ultra high shutter speed and in low light conditions. I just wish I have better artistic taste when taking one.

*update on June'08
I bought a Fujifilm F100fd. Yup, another point and shoot. And guess what, it's once heck of a camera. I sold it just a month after that, mainly coz I found that I hardly used it. And I wanted to buy another lens for my SLR. But anyhow, I'd really recommend this camera.

*update on May'09

Guess what, I bought another compact: Panasonic FT1. I realized that I needed a compact since I always seem to leave my DSLR at home. I bought this because I was getting ready for a trip to Perhentian Island. This camera is waterproof and shockproof. Noise level is tolerable up to ISO200. But for its durability, highly recommended!

*update on May'10

Hours before my travel to Beijing for a vacation, I bought myself an Olympus EP2. It was an expensive unit, bundled with a 17mm f/2.8 lens + filter, an EVF, extra battery and an 8Gb SD card. Noise level was OK all the way to ISO1600. This camera is WICKED!

A reminder of things to come...

June '07 (2yrs 7mths)

Mac, PC, Leopard, Vista, Lust, Hype and Love (the illustrated version)

Picture taken right after assembly. Yes, I tried so hard to hide the hideous bundled speakers. Btw, have since changed to Logitech's cordless keyboard and mice, which happens to bring along a story. See, at only ~RM80+, it seemed like a good choice. But lepas pasang, cuba taip sikit, dammit, there's NO place to rest the palms. What's more, there's no ON/OFF button for the mouse, which basically means, you can play lifesaber using the mice anytime.

These texts are meant to just summarized the picture, but turned up to be a blog entry. I'll keep it discreet. Another new addition, I bought a PC camera. Also Logitech. Now, on top of my glossy piano black wide screen, I have a ping pong ball looking at me. It made sense while I was at PC Depot, selling at RM88 in comparison to Microsoft's Rm268. But, times like this make me wish I would've bought the iMac instead.

Mac, PC, Leopard, Vista, Lust, Hype and Love

It was a long struggle. I was undecided between a Mac and a PC. This was probably somewhere back in Aug'07, when I realized that Sara has not been reading any of my emails.

Just about a little more than a year before that, I sold off my desktop PC. We were all relying on my 'free but restricted' corporate laptop. It was given free to me to use, but highly restricted. I don't even have Yahoo! Messenger on it. And it even ran a 'Corporate' licensed Skype version, which was deprived of cool emoticons.

Anyway, other than Sara's illiteracy on the concept of Instant Messaging, it was clear that I needed to buy a computer for the house. My instant choice was a Mac. Superb design. Practically virus-free. All made more amusing with its Mac-PC internet ads. I wanted it. But the forum buzz was that the new all-alu Mac and Leopard OS will be out somewhere in Oct'07. Goodie, I had 2 months for further research.

I started to play buddy with Apple's software. I downloaded the Windows version of Safari and iTunes. I started to fiddle with my sister's MacBook and spent more time adventuring my brother's Mac. I struggled.

See, back in '04, I had a Palm T3 PDA. At its time, it was THE PDA. It was ahead of time. Windows Pocket PC was a rookie. Or so I thought. Until a friend got a Toshiba PPC. It blew my head off to know that the bloody PPC could actually multi task! And what's more, there was so much more adjustability that I could play around with. Yes, Palm was uber-friendly, but it was just not me. In short, I sold off the Palm within 2 weeks and got myself an IPAQ 4150, which is still functioning well today and is of necessity to Marsha's boredom.

I know there's a lot of Apple fan out there, in fact, I'm one of them too. Just a fan. When iPod was the craze, my simplistic logic got the worse of me and I failed at running iTunes software. So, I never bought an iPod. And bought a Windows friendly 30Gb Creative instead.

When the new Leopard Mac was released, I was first to stick my butt in an Apple store. It was lovely. Mac 20" was selling at RM5.6K with protection plan. I immediately sold some of my stocks, ready to fund it. I returned to the shop a few times to play with it. Damn. It was a struggle each time. Though my friends were mighty impressed when I played some video stuff on the demo machine, courtesy from my time with my siblings' Tiger OS, I was actually sweating my brains out to comprehend Apple's interface. Damn Windows, you've brain-washed me to the last noodle.

Vista was out around that time too. Windows were not too shy to show once again that, what they lack in Apple's innovation, they thrived in creative-duplication. They wanted to be a Leopard. They wanted to be a Mac. And just like the Palm and PocketPC dilemma; Vista was a much familiar sight to me. And it's much cheaper too.

So, the headaches ended by end '07 when I decided that I was not ready for a Mac yet. I finally bought a Vista PC in Jan'08. It was an Core 2 Duo Acer Mac Mini wannabe in iPod piano black. It's got 1Gb RAM - which, I'd like to stress here - is not enough to run a Home Vista. I soon upgraded it to 3Gb, and it's just lovely now.

In my denial state of mind, I dressed up my PC like a Mac. I bought a Samsung Crystal-Brite 22 incher and Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse. I even reduced the Microsoft factor by using Firefox, instead of IE. 3 months on, I'm beginning to love this machine.

Just now, I dropped by Apple store again, to check out the 32Gb iPod Touch and Macbook Air. And when I shouldered over to check out a 20" Mac; the love was gone. There was not a minute of lust on it anymore. My Vista turned up to be the best choice for me and my hommies. And I even managed to keep RM1K in balance too.

Man, this is probably the longest blog I've written in a long while. And, I know, you skipped almost everything and is reading this line. So, I'll save you the time and state my point here: If you're running Vista, 1Gb RAM is NOT enough.