The Internet Drain Bamaged me!

Tying the knot and paying the bill

2011-07-19T13:49:00.002+01:00

What is it with life that everything seems to be greased with money? Sitting in a punjabi wedding last saturday, i could not help thinking OMG, how much this wedding would have cost the couple. How long ago would they have started saving? and now to only blow it all off one day? Really? did our ancestors come up with the idea of a wedding just to make us poorer? Many crazy things wondered in my head as i could no longer tolerate the depth of the boredom i was drowning in.

I m not against marriage, No i m definitely not, i would like a simple wedding, a decent reception and of cos i definitely need an awesome photographer to capture the moments. So anyway, why does it have to go the extent of one has to take a loan to throw such a bash? I wonder are people falling for the kind of marriages u see in a movie? Its scary to see how the marriage institution has driven to the stop called expense and is only digging itself way deeper into it.

Not being a hypocrite or anything, i still enjoy looking people's wedding photos on Facebook, what i m trying to say is to try doing it to what u can afford, why spend £35 per head for a wedding lunch, when u cant afford a £5 lunch on a normal weekday...

I leave this atrocity for now, but i wanted to get back into writting, and i will try to write a little more often than 6 months once.

An Artist in me

2011-01-23T21:35:00.004Z

My age would have been 7, when my parents thought it would be good to send me for art class. To those who dont know what an art class in Malaysia is, it is basically a class where they expect u to draw some sophisticated picture. My drawings normally turned out into blobs as human figures and green for landscape and blue smudge for sky and water. So u can see, to any normal person, i m not exactly a talented artist, unless i pass of as some modern day Picasso, actually to think about it, i dont think i m one, LOL.

So moving on, appa and amma thought, rite lets send this son of ours for music lesson. That did not last for long neither, i sucked at music theory and worse at listening skills. When I say sucking at listening skills, i dont mean i am deaf or have any sort of physical damage to my hearing but, i could not identify the note that my teacher played. So once again, i revealed that I lacked any sense of art.

Keeping my interest for poem and literature aside, one could pretty much conclude that I am not going to have a bright carrier in art. This idea grew and did me no good for a loooooooong time, so long it lasted, i was soon 19 and was in UK. It was when I started taking photos......

I realised there might be an artist in me. Really? You might be wondering what am i getting at? Well, i took photos, i started thinking, hmmmm, maybe i can edit this photo in a way, i can tell a story or what happens if i change the colour scheme of a photo? what if i arrange these photos in an order to make it tell a story, or maybe even make some one laugh. Soon, i was cropping photos in a different ways, making collages, basically a whole lot of things in photoshop (BTW, i m no Pro in photoshop, i merely know the basics.)

Having relatives and frens who can paint, quite often i hear people ask them; WOW, did u paint/draw that? Then came this day, people asked me; WOW, u took that photo? WOW, u edited that photo? Such is this picture below, it was one of my experiment of shaving my head off for Halloween and then, figured i should take a mugshot of myself. And that thought process gave birth to the composition belowSo what do u think, is this cool or what? Maybe this picture does not reach out to u, i dont care, not everyone likes Picasso and its not like donkey knows the smell of camphor (that's a tamil phrase) So, if not for my accidental discovery of photography, i would not have found the artist in me. If you were like me and sucked at art class when u were small, think again, it might not be the end for u, there might still be an Michael Angelo somewhere in you, waiting to step out....

p.s maybe i should write about how i ended up with a Mr.T hair cut, LOL...

Getting back in business

2010-12-05T15:15:00.002Z

Its been too long, is there anyone out there to even read what I am ranting anymore? Well I guess its just my fault, maybe, I should have got myself to write more. In the begining I did tell myself, I will not be one of those bloggers, who leave their blog collecting dust and only been visited by someone only because they wrongly googled something.

Anyway this is me trying to reconnect.

SO whats new with me? Lets see this chronologically
It was an amazing summer in Edinburgh, filled with hikes, kayaking, outdoor activities
A breakthrough achievement, when my photo made it to BBC Scotland.
I passed my 1st year viva and now into the 2nd year of my Ph.D. SCARYYYY!!!
Went back to Malaysia for a month long holiday.
Rekindled an old relationship ; )
Did more crazy photography
Got more busy with work, now that I am in 2nd year of Ph.D
Asked my high school ex out, yes I am back in the game, oh yeahhh
It started snowing in Edinburgh, and only made things more miserable to commute to work
Experienced driving in the snow, only to realise summer tyres r not suitable.

And not to forget
Got back into blogging.....

Where have ? been!

2010-05-27T11:34:00.004+01:00

It was all suddenly quiet, opening up the webpage everyday hoping to see something...something new...but it was just the usual disappointment...why this sudden behaviour of "Missing in Action"... why u may ask....I dunno, i guess i was busy? i had other things to do; Working, Studying, Eating, Sleeping, Travelling, Away from the computer, Procrastinating or busy in Love????

Fear not, I will be back, u will see and hear me more..
Fear not, I have not ran out the funny juice...
Fear not, I still have the itch to bitch......

I GOOGLEd you!

2010-04-09T10:28:00.004+01:00

So, I am assuming everyone uses google these days, but then again, its ok if u r using Yahoo, Ask jeeves, Bing or Alta vista. When i mean its ok, what i mean is, it's ok there is still some ~~retards~~ special people among us. Anyway, if u r using google, have you tried googling yourself? If you have, what did it come up with? Well for me, alot of my infamous videos on youtube came up, my Facebook profile and also the website that I write articles for came up as well. To a certain extent, i felt like, damn i m famous, i am actually bigger than a speck of dust in the world. Then as I got used with my pethatic fame, a new fear rose in me; Oh Fudge, everything about me is just out there? Anybody can see/ read/ laugh at the things about me (I dont think I should be complaining, i have made things worse by starting a Blog, rather rhetorical, innit?)

Paralysed by Paradox

2010-04-06T22:15:00.011+01:00

Back in my undergraduate years (Yes, I am edukated), i saw this door poster that said, "When the whole world is in a mess, I am not gonna care bout my room's mess". The world is in a mess though, WAR, POVERTY, DISCRIMINATION and many many more. Confusion and misunderstandings seems to be the root to many of the worldly issues. Talking bout confusions, i thought I would write Paradoxes. Paradoxes makes me really think out of the box, sometimes even out of the world. Hahaha. There is another reason though, sometimes its absolutely hilarious to see the confused face in people and normally followed by the expression, WHAT THE FISH/FUDGE are talking you about!!! i know i do have a weird sense of humour.

So below are some of the famous paradoxes that I have come across, see if u can crack them.
What is better - eternal bliss or a simple bread?
What is better than eternal bliss? Nothing. But a slice of bread is better than nothing. So a slice of bread is better than eternal bliss.

Is it possible to give what we don't have?
Sophist: "Yes, greedy man gives his cash with sorrow. However, he doesn't have the cash with sorrow, so he gives what he doesn't have."

Shorter and Punchier ones...
Nobody goes to that restaurant; it's too crowded.
Don't go near the water 'til you have learned how to swim.
The man who wrote such a stupid sentence can not write at all.
If you get this message, call me, and if you don't get it, don't call.

So what did u think? I hope I have not mentally retarded anyone? Perhaps I should have wrote a disclaimer at the beginning, naahhh, its too late for that now....

Big Boys Toys

2010-04-02T15:28:00.011+01:00

Yeah, i have got a BIG TOY...sorry, the ~~pervy~~ cheeky side of me told me to write that. You would have probably heard the line, what is it about; Man and Gadgets? Is that the reason why I wrote about my passion for cars and about cameras? As time pass by and I started looking into me, and I realise it now and I admit it, I am a GADGET FREAK. Too bad there isnt a Gadgetoholic Anonymous that I can attend.
I guess man (including woman) do not actually grow out of the childhood behaviour of always wanting something newer, flashier, bigger, faster, cooler than the thing they already have. Think bout it rite, woman are always wanting nicer dresses and more expansive shoes, man on the other hand, are always wanting bigger n faster cars and hotter galfriends, (hahahah, sorry guys, i let our secret out). Its like satisfaction is merely a temporary thing....rite i don wanna change this entry into a presedential speech about how you should be happy with what u have....also becos i m the last person who would know how to give that speech...hahaha

anyway, before i go on any further i would like to say that I am not showing off here, but merely elaborating my addiction :P

So lets see how many gadgets have I owned/own; cameras, laptops,pc, mobile phones, analog wrist watches, digital wrist watches, mp3 players, projector, plasma TV, HD tv receiver, analog radios, digital radios, surround speakers, microphones, cars, cycles, electric keyboard, walky talkies, bluetooth headsets, voice modulators, noise cancelling headphones, cordless phones, egg timers, electric shaver, electric toothbrush, alarm clocks, binocular blender, powerdrill, screw driver sets, torchlights, laser pointers and the list goes on........

these are just the toys i use at home, i don even want to start of the things i use at work....hahah.. i do admit that i could have led a perfectly normal life without a lot of gadgets stated above, but thats not the point isnt it, the correct economical term for such expenses is doodads. Doodads are the reason and the way we live our daily lives.

jus a thought before i end: DAMN, if i had saved the money from buying those gadgets, i would have a big balance. And with that money i could have bought all the toys i want........wait a minute...toys again???

Poetically in Love

2010-04-01T18:10:00.010+01:00

From my previous post, you might remember me saying bout a fren who recently started going out with this gal( if u dont, then later go read this link). Anyway, the new love birds are flying high in cloud nine. Jus more than a week, she has declared to her flatmates, that she is trully utterly in luv with my fren, and HIM...hahaha, i came to know he has dedicated a poem to her.....yes a poem..one not written by him but one written by Shakespeare... Ok ok, i don wanna slag them off anymore, on my way back from work one day, it hit me, its not only him, i was in his shoes once too...in fact i went to the extent of writting my own poem (normal people just nick someone else's work)... to think bout it now, what is this??? why is it that when one falls in love, he/she becomes a poet? i guess its just the simple nature of one trying their best to express all the love they have, in all forms and shapes.... ok u may be already wonderin what is it that I wrote.... I have put a lot of thought into this (whether to let the whole world know bout it or not), before I change my mind, I am gonna post it.....

Whats Luv

Darling,
Whatz luv all bout
Teased my little brain
In n out
Giving me a million doubt
Till I realized dat 4 love
I will even do a big rout.

Epigram is what I wanted to send
But, with a pen in my hand
I couldn't stop nor stand
Writing bout U made
my mind go twist n bend.

Ecstasy, wuz wat
I felt in me
Loving n caring for u
made my mind go crazy
Coz I know
Both of us r meant to be.

Parting away from u
going abroad to study in a U
might bring a sorrow in u
but darling, don't worry
All my thoughts r only for U.

A little word dat u might say
Can bring me into
A whole new bay,
Darling,It was a bliss
to make u give me a kiss

Yes, i wrote this poem and it was bout 7 years ago. But to read it a week ago, i had mixed feelings, for a moment, it blew me away, was I actually such a lover boy once, then i thought, LOL, this is cheesy sh*t, the i thought, was she the one, the one that slipped away. Anyway I don wanna judge the past me, I leave it to you, hahahaha. Oh also, if u look properly, the name of the sweetheart i wrote this for, is there too (seriously, its no rocket science).

Will i ever write another one? Will she (whoever that is) inspire me? Wait, where the heck is she?

Making the move

2010-03-25T13:03:00.008Z

Before I "actually" start ranting, let me tell you the background to this entry...what prompted me? Recently a friend of mine asked a gal out and it was only the first time they had met, 3 days later they were seen going on a movie date...knowing this friend's character and also knowing a little bit about the gal's psychotic behaviour, i instantly laughed...my friend just came across as a desperate guy who wanted to pounce on the next single female he saw and she?...well she looked like any gal who enjoyed the attention of a guy...

But after much digestion of this indigestible drama, I asked myself was he desperate or was he just pro-active? I was once pro-active, saw a gal i liked, told my guy frens i was gonna try for her, and 30 days later, i was in a relationship...yes, this was for real.....but i m no longer like that..i like to think this is due to experience --> maturity-->too many ideals. I feel like an english teacher who suddenly forgot to spell APPLE... people, i was good at this once, if i liked someone, they were gonna know my feelings...but something changed somewhere, is this for good or for bad, i dunno.

~~During my stroll along the park,~~ During my random wonder on the world wide web, i came across this interesting survey on the types of "first move" and what reaction can a guy expect from the ladies.To tell you the truth, I have tried many of these, n yes they work. I think my problem is not HOW, its more like WHEN and to WHO. Lets keep my problem aside, i think I can still live without a galfren, hahahah. The thing is I rather a few good frens then having "one" exclusive relationship (for now), but ladies, don let this put u off ok, u call me when eva u want...

what bout this online dating thing, huh? shall i experiment on that next? Its ok, its enough having parents who r mental about arranged marriage/arranged dating... i dont need a computer to do it for me as well....

The Art of Gluttony

2010-03-25T08:24:00.007Z

I dunno, issit becos of the Indian gene in me or issit because I hail from a country that is just big platter of amazing cuisines... food has always been a big part, when i mean big i mean the portion and also the its role in my daily life...hahaha...

After being fed well at home for 18 years, it was destiny that landed in me Subang Jaya. It was suddenly like throwing a small time looter into a cave of gold. I savoured all delicacies over there. I could eat a different dish everyday and 2 weeks will go by without me going back to the dishes i have already had, that was the amount of choices i had.

For some reason, the word: gluttony only reminds me of buffets..LOL..its true most of the people go for buffets just to fill their plate with food, even what they will not eat? I have heard in Singapore if you waste food, u have to pay a fine based on the weight of the food that u waste. I dont think i have to worry about that, as I was brought up with such discipline that I never wasted food, hence the size i m now, hahahah.
In the name of Gluttony, I have tried food from all over the place and all kinds of "things" called. To think about the cuisines I have had, well, there is the Indian, Chinese, Malay, Thai, Vietnamese, Khemr, Indonesian, Philipino, Japanese, Turkish, Italian, French, Scandinavian and the list goes on and on and on. To tell you the meat, i have had the usuals to the unsual to the extraterrestrial, LOL, no i have not any of those, but yes I definitely have tried: Chicken, Duck, Goose, Turkey, Lamb, Mutton, Beef, Buffalo, Kangaroo, Venison, Crocodile, Snake, Rabbit and many many more exotic seafood.

Wait is that judging i smell, are you trying to pin me down calling me a pig?? (oh wait, i eat pork too). I am not, I am no close to those American who eat burgers as big as their face and drink drinks bigger than their stomachs can hold. I purely enjoy food, value every bit of it. Over the years, as my taste for good food improved more and more, i took the next natural step cooking... yessss, some of the things that come of out of my kitchen, blows me away, let alone others. Maybe I will write about my cooking next.........

p.s dear loving galfren, i know u will be reading this, and I know what will be going on in ur mind; this guy will never change, he will always be a fatso who talks alot, eats alot and talks about eating alot. Sorry dear, i will head to the gym ok.... :P

What comes before Part B?

2010-03-21T22:18:00.009Z

A wikipedia definition
"A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, and recreation. A party will typically feature food and beverages, and often music and dancing as well"

If u r still lost, i seriously think u need some help and u r lacking the absolute basic need of every human; NO i m not talking of water, food and shelter, I am talking about what u do with those three; in this case, water can be replaced with alcohol or juice for those light headed that dont drink (SAD PEOPLE)...this will be an entry bout house parties and the hilarities behind them.Now lets see why are house parties fun..

There is no cover fee.
U know people there (party crashers do not apply here)
Less likely u will be thrown out
Free food and drinks (esp if u r cheapo, who does not bring anything to the party)
Its ok, if u r too drunk n cant go home, u can sleep there, u cant do this in a club.
Less filthy toilet, though the cleanliness drops during the course of the nite ; )
Get to show the ladies that u have a cool crib n its an awesome place to hang out.
You have a control on the music, imagine a sucky club, u might end up listening to the DJs high school mix tapes.
Make sure your guest bring something with them, most often u will be left with a lot of booze and snacks, sometimes enough for another party ; )
You get invited to more house parties, this is how people thank your hospitality. (WARNING: THIS MIGHT LEAD TO AN INFINITE LOOP OF RECIPROCATING PARTIES)

Now you see why I am always up for house parties...BUT like every great thing, house parties have their down fall too, what i forgot to mention earlier is the amount of work u have to put in when the party is over, put some thought into this as well before u plan a party...yet they r great, so if u r throwing one, get in touch, drop me a line, n let me tell u how to pull it off ; )

p.s if u r still wondering about the title of this post, the answer is Part Ayyy

WTF!!!...What the Facebook

2010-03-18T18:30:00.004Z

Long time ago, someone told me I spend too much time on Facebook, then she continued, she reckoned I check my facebook every morning even before i see my own face...suddenly, it was like a scene from the movies when one realises something, and the pieces of the puzzle come together...there was a lot of truth in what she said, but no, I aint an Addict (i suddenly sound like those anorexic women, who deny their problem, LOL) becos I dont do Farmville, Mafiawars, sending pets to people n many other stupid things like that.

I purely use FB to keep in touch with my circle of friends. And based on my understanding, keeping in touch is done by sending messages, writing on walls, posting photos of my current happenings (this is highly filtered) and witting things on my status message...and NO, making up quizzes about how well u know me, does not count. not everyone knows everything about me, n i dont what that too.

It is a hilarious place though, the amount of comedy that happens there, cracks the hell out of me...some people just dont realise what they say to the world, i dont think a lot of people want to know if u r getting laid tonite. Also the pics that you put up? seriously if u think u look like a horrible bear or a furless cat, then do yourself and the world a favour, please dont put them up..also please put in some thought into who might actually be seeing those hilarities of yours...in my case me, my mum's on FB as well (I have to live with this), so you will never see a picture of me been tied to a street light with random paintings on my face, not that it ever happenened in the first place :P

Despite what I have said above, I still love FB...rite, i m off to change my status msg n superpoke all the 1 million frens i have ;)

Check out this video on Facebook manners

The egg and the chicken story....which came first?

2010-03-15T15:59:00.018Z

this is a quote by Victor Stenger

What bout the time when Einstein said Science without Religion is Lame and Religion without Science is Blind... It always cracks me up to see how there are lots of dumb asses that do not understand religion properly n do ridiculous things.. n what bout the fools who differentiate creation and evolution...i believe, trying to argue about these things is like trying to argue about chicken and egg, yeah...which came first??? To me the idea is simple, God made the first living being (whatever that is), then thru simple evolution, nature took care of the rest. Then from time to time..God resets the path or smoothens the corners with the occasional natural disasters, LOL...perhaps I should not laugh about natural disasters, there are people dying out there..

Being grown as a boy of spirituality and now growing as a man of science, I feel its important to have some amount of faith that there is Something much more powerful and to live life with that little fear that Someone's watching. Oh crap, did i just start another topic: Spirituality? Man, trying to write about religion is twisted and bended enough...don worry, i will spare your sanity and time for now...

Between this and that....

2010-03-15T13:47:00.004Z

Not too long ago, I came across this image, for a start it made me smile. Its made me realise, man (also woman) often get trapped in life, but to only dissect further into this, you suddenly realise, its just the choices that we r trapped in, let alone committing and acting upon those choices....

Link to the picture above

Capturing the moment...click click click

2010-03-11T13:42:00.004Z

That moment...yes that one..yeah the one when she smiles, or the one with his eye brows raised when he got that present...or the scene of a man in a park stroking his dog...u get the flow, u see what i m talking about...
there's something about taking photos n me...it drives me nuts....its becos i have an eye for detail n always seeing things in a different way.....somehow rather these things have landed me to take photos...perhaps then, people will see what i see...LOL...no i m no stalker, no paparazzi...just some one who loves the odd candid shots...yes thats the word, candid shots...

Its not like i dreamt of becoming a photographer in the deep forests of Amazon or in the icy cold north sea...NOOO...to think about it, it was only like a few years ago i got into photography, i guess at this stage i should thank some of my frens...yeah...those were the folks who lent me their uber expensive cameras to capture the mind blowing scenaries of the Scottish Highlands...that was when i too got my high :P

With the invention of cameras on mobiles, every Tom, Dick, Harry, Appu, Ah Beng, Ahmed, Jose, Juan, Emanuel, Michael, Smith, Yoshi can talk about taking photos. There's nothing special in that. ~~What I am really into is gals, LOL~~. What I am really into is taking angle shots...ok those perverts whom r thinkin i m taking angle shots of girls skirts...get lost..go get ur fix from a porn site...not here...anyway,talking about angle shots...i find them as the best of photography becos they tend to bring the best of human facial expression and behaviours...not only that, even the view on a object from a different angle, gives the object a whole new look. If you dont get what i mean, don worry, u r not a retard, just try doing this. Lie down on the floor n see the room u r in??? u will start noticing how the light on the ceiling shines out, or how the box on that cupboard makes a weird shadow, also u might find that socks u have been looking for, but thats besides the point....

so that is how a star was born, hahah NO. But who knows, isnt it? I never had a camera of my own till (this is gonna be shocking) 2008, but I have a well categorized collection of photos from 2003..strange isnt it...well i was mostly poor and it did not help I had expensive taste and worse when u have frens who have spare cameras, who needs one of their own :P Go on, call me a CHEAPO. Anyway, the first camera I owned (actually borrowed on a long term basis) was a Canon Powershot G2. That was the camera that grew me into the art of angle shots. The G2 comes with a flip out screen, which was rather cool. Suddenly all those impossible shots became a breeze.

Now i own a Canon powershot SX10, thats a baby.Its grown me into a new level, I have already used this to take photos for weddings...n if u were wondering, i was the official photographer...its great, perhaps when i more accustom with blogging n syncing my flickr account, u will get to see my work. What I really wish to have is a dSLR with a flip out screen...hmm, i can soo picture the fun with that

Ok, this is already turning into a much longer rant than i thought, i dont want u guys to get the wrong picture...i purely intend to write shortish punchy entries n not looooooong boring emo ones, at least that what i think now. Are you trigger happy like me?

p.s I am sorry for calling you guys a retard, actually I am the bigger retard...hope that settles it.

Mechanical Love

2010-03-09T17:13:00.001Z

They say love knows no colour, no race, an act of discretion. I guess then love knows no difference between whats alive and not alive ... wait a minute, i am not talking bout necrophilia ... sickos... i m talking bout mechanical love...

why is it that Man have such an obsession for mechanical things? and how did I fall for this obsession? i guess i m way pass the stage of analysing the cause of this behaviour...its a chronic case of carophilia ..can this be in the genes? issit nurture or nature? or issit both?

I call her The French Lady, yes its a she and for obvious reasons of Peugeot being French, she's known as the French Lady..but she is not the first, I have driven many makes and models, from german classics to japanese plastics...yeah i do have my favourites but that does not stop me, i will drive (at least try) anything that has four wheels and a steering...to the fools who say, u r single n u dont have anyone else to show your love...well fools, i have always loved cars whether i m single or not, as a matter of fact, having a set of wheels does lure the ladies...phew phweeeet :P

To think about it now, it was ludacris... I spent hours with my partner in crime, commando in chief, blood brother aka SK, talking about bikin (pimping out) cars...we can sit for hours inside my brothers 1980 Honda Civic talking about how to bikin the dashboard or how we should paint the car with matt black as skirting...we knew all the pimp mobils from our humble town.

Its funny to recall, i was only 16, and left home for a weekend to watch the Bugfest in JB, which is a 7hr bus ride from where i live..dunno bout u guys, among my frens back in the days, for me to go that far, was an act of bravery and pointless to witness 300 odd german classic's convention.. i dunno...it made all the sense to me... such is my craze... yes i do own a beetle myself, unfortunately now its only in spirit with me ... my dad's using it now back in Msia. And I lead a complicated love hate relationship life withmy French Lady...its not cheating, or issit???

So yeah, i too've started blogging...

2010-03-08T19:27:00.001Z

Hobbies are something someone picks up when well.... when one has nothin else to do and does not want to die from boredom. I guess thats the reason i've started blogging? Really? Am I kidding myself? The truth is my life is busy enough, if I can find sometime alone without frens, something's wrong, LOL, such is my life most of the time.

But being called a Word Warrior (ages ago) and one who does not drain out of wit, i thought should I write things too...When every Tom, Harry, Dick, Appu, Ah Beng, Ahmed, Jose, Juan, Emanuel, Michael, Smith, Yoshi can blog why shouldn't I? Lets see, I am always full of ideas and always seeing things in a different way, though some call me weird for that, i dont care, only the tree with most fruits gets stoned

I guess I have realised the need to express my feelings too....will my creative juices favour the thirst of many readers? or will it be more like a shot of absinth, which u only wanna have one n it gets right to your head....