First ever Recognition from Photography Comunity

Thanks to my good friend, Frank

He shows me the opportunity to participate in a photo shooting outing few weeks ago. With given theme of

9/11 after 10 years, how it impact Malaysia.

We were tasked to shoot something relevant to it around Bukit Bintang area. Get to met a professional photo-journalism Mr. John Ishi who will be mentoring us and giving us some kick-start before hence.

I'm glad that I could learn quite a number of things from him as he telling his exciting adventure of his photo-shooting career. How he sees thing and how he could blend a good story in every picture he took.

Basically, to take a good photo there are 3 important aspect to take care. Sharpness, Composition and Stories.

Well, I might quite okay in producing sharpness but putting a story in a picture... I'm suck at it.

So, Junyen and I tagged along to hunt for places that possibly could get us idea of 9/11. We went to National Mosque and KLCC.

Out of all the photos I took, only one have the impact and feel in it.

After 10 years passed and counting, Malaysia whose claimed to be a Muslim country but having a strong relationship with United States, are we really safe from being targeted ?

And 2 weeks later, this photo won me a Canon Camera Bag. Mr. John said that this picture will be great if there was people element in there walking by, preferably Arabic. So I take note.

Needless to say, I am happy to get this bag. There were a lot of great photos but quite a number of participant failed to attend the Talk-Time session held yesterday. If all of them had been here, I think I will not get this prize though. Hahaha

Anyhow, I get a new camera bag to replace my current lousy bag.

With large compartment and two extra side pocket it means more accessories can be fitted in. Not to mention the thick span inside the bad which will provide extra protection to even professional gear =)



Could I said that my photo shooting is somehow a little being recognized by photography community ? Ha ha ha... Maybe is not, but what harm to make myself happy a bit by believing it.

Operation Uniform Prank

*Alarm ringing* 
*Some voice shouting heard in dark*

"GET UP ! SUIT UP !!  And Go to School Already !!! "


But hey, I am a University student already. Suppose I could wear whatever I want. Torn up jean, black metal wannabe t-shirt and slacky slippers were good enough.

LOL, but being a final year student with only one semester left. We get boring with all these repeated culture and routine.

Talking of doing crazy stuffs in University, everyone talked about that. And it was still remain a talking....

So, the few of us plan to walk the talk. By wearing our long seen secondary uniform to attend lecture.



It was humiliating of course hahaha. With everyone eye-ing on us in the class or outside we might get a little discomfort at first. But,

it mean something special deep inside us. They might think we are crazy and childish. But this was what cowards always do, talk about other while they do not have the gut to do it.

By ignoring the odds, we did it our way =)

And more to come,



We added spice on that by tweak the theme a little. This time we doing school uniform and society outfit theme. So some of us having taekwondo uniform and Red Cresent Uniform.

And we entered the big lecture hall like a Boss !!




I was afraid and about to back down at first, but then I realized that I care too much on public perception instead of my own desire.

I really want to try doing something crazy in university. So here am I, doing it in my own way without taking a shit from what public will think.

We are so going to take along this sweet and silly memory with us to future !


Proud of you guys !!!

And we let the momentum rolling. I changed back to my secondary uniform and with a bunch of crazy friends, we camouflaged our self as secondary student taking a stroll in shopping complex despite of our old looking face. HAHAHA

 

It was so fun to feel young again. I do not know if other noticed the decoy, but we really have a good time doing this.

So what is next in my list ? Any suggestion guys ? = )

Every little cents, do matter Now

Am I sound a little desperate for money ? Well, I have been sitting in house for 3 months during holidays, been to several trips with friends to everywhere and had add some collection to my camera gears.. So, I am a little desperate now.

A little sad because my blog was looking messy with all this Google advertisement and Nuffnang adv. Well, this was one of my cheapskate and lazy way to earn some penny.

I do not know if allowing Google and Nuffnang to advertise on my blog will earn me some significant Ringgits, but I guess I will give it a try.

But I ain't broke la. Still have reserves in my piggy bank, but considering next year graduation trip to infamous Hong Kong where foods and accomodation will be expensive, I guess I need to start worrying.

My Ptptn financial support had came to an end last sem. So, this sem I can't open my palm and ask some lunch from Bank Islam already ! HAHA

Well, since I had decided to live at Kepong instead of college and my credit hours were around 14 or less this sem, I guess the tuition fees will be okay.

Heck! RM 1,400++  was charged !!



Tuition fees alone was only RM 680.40, and with all the god-know extra charging it had amounted to
RM 1,412.40

Oh man, this was too much. Though we are still a lot cheaper than those study in private university.

Now only I seriously realize the importance of Ptptn. All the while Ptptn had paid off the fees for me, so I never ask a single penny from my parent for it. Now, I am all by myself. Well, I intend not to ask from them as they had spent a lot lately for my younger bro who just enrolled in University at Kedah.

My reserves are enough to clear my fees. But after that, I need to start worrying. Hence, one of the solution is to

Extend Ptptn support 



I do not know about how it work in other university or colleges, but I do know how it work in UM. Very simple in fact you can settle the procedure in one day if you got all they need.

I just done it.

If you are in shit-hole like me too, and you need further assistance from Ptptn, here is what you should do.

1) Get the blue form from Hep. It is still located at KPS third floor. Use the stairs that was between the building that have citra office and building that have Digi, photostat shop and Barber !

2) Make a copy of your exam result slip every semester. I don't think the exam result from Umisisweb can do the job. Photocopy the actual exam result slip to play safe. If you lost some of it, you can ask from SKR
at Exam Building. And get it verified(cop and signed) by either HEP / SKR.

3) Apply for a letter of support from your respective faculty to support your application of extension. Might need 3 working days to get it. Depend on your faculty's management.

4) The University offer letter ( Surat Tawaran Kemasukan University ). Hohoho, don't tell me you lose that cause I do not know where to find a substitute of it. And make a copy of it and get verified either by HEP/SKR.

That all folks.. ring the table bell in HEP and have it submitted.

All left to do is waiting. I not sure if it will get approved because our government seem got big problem with their piggy bank already. So lets cross our finger together and hope it will arrived in time to save our asses.

GodSpeed !!!

So what now ?

I talked a lot about my personal issues, I talked a lot about my hobbies, I talked a lot about politics,
so, what is the something missing inside this blog ?

If you noticed, I rarely mentioned about my result. I always talk about how I will fight from tooth to toe in exam hall, submerged myself in nescafe's pool just to stay awake for one week to save my last-minute ass for exam sake and etc.

But aftermath, you will never heard from me.

lulz, one need not a rocket scientist to guess right ?

All the while I am really serious and almost-like Kamikaze style in doing prepartion (though most of them were last-minute hugging buddha leg type). My younger bro always said I am really determined and mentally strong in doing my revision.. so my effort can be rated A. However my result shows the otherwise....

Anyway, not that bad la on average. I scored averagely 3.20 +- each sem. So, my hope to getting First Honor was pretty well flushed down to drain.

Until some turning point happened, last sem...



How I did this ? lolz... I have no idea. First time throughout my University life, this was the first time I scored straight in pointer.

To my surprise I was actually getting an A for my thesis 1. Did I mentioned I was toasted and pawned  by 2 iron-fist examiner when I was presenting my thesis 1 ?

Damn, miracle do happened. Last time I was still thinking I was stupid to try out new thing like Android instead of playing safe by building the ever boring website. Hmm, but now might be a different story.

Anyhow, because I have been playing around since my first year, having a full pointer can't save my ass much you see. My CGPA only increased by 0.87 this sem.

My first honor was pretty much.... Nucleared

Even by getting the final 4.00 this sem, it wont do any good either.. still stayed in second honor. Well... I guess reality is something I have to accept. So now, should I work damn hard to get the next 4.00 but knowing that I will still stay in Second Honor , or relax..... cukup cukup makan okay la..

Hahaha... well, will decide that later.. anyhow, it sound quite cool to be in dean list



But I never figured out what is that mean ? The Dean will baby sit you ? If you broke / hungry or something.. you can find them ? lol whatever it mean.

Hangout @ Singapore

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This was another Ma-lat-lou (Bunch of dudes without GF) trip. How pity. Hope I could find dates for trip next time.

Hope it do not sound that sad, because it was fun actually to hang out with the usual good friends.

This trip was planned last minutes when it all started by just normal chatting in Facebook. Our passport still valid, we get a green-light to crash into Ming Tat apartment at Tiong Bharu, and Bus ticket can be purchased online.

So, why not ? a few clicks and we were good to go to Singapore.

Thanks to Jun Yen research (gosh, why he is so hardworking !) he recommended us to buy Konsortium Express online. With only MYR 35.10 We can straightaway cruise from KL to Singapore.

It took about 5 hours to reach Singapore, and 30 minutes+ of it was wasted on Malaysia custom. Of course, a long jam we encountered.

My first sight on Singapore was building with flags hanging on them. Lots of them ! This was something rather rare in Malaysia. Singaporean do really appreciate their independence ?

As this was my first time landing myself in Singapore, it really open my eyes and overwrite my previous thought on it. For what I think of Singapore was:

1) It have the worst traffic jam ever. Because it was a small country with high population.

2) A stone-forest. Where no greens will be preserved. Heck, their land was as valuable as gold, how can it be spared for gardens and forest ?

But I was wrong....




The roads in the city were not jam and they have a lot of greenery everywhere ! And to my surprise...

They have river too ! Not sure if it was a big drain, but it look pretty clean and clear to me. Now tell me, where could I find a clean river in our city ?

I do realize that it was Raya Holiday week that time, so without doubt the hotels and motel will make a killing on us. But we got a solution for that which is why we visited Singapore.

We got to stay for free ! And I am not talking about 3-4 people cramped in a small room. We will be living in a decent service department which was fully furnished.

An apartment with fully-equip air-cond.

3 equal size bed rooms for us.

And a fully working kitchens for us to play fire, literally lol. Really, it did save us a lot of money by cooking. Do not underestimate Ma-Lat-Lou capability to cook. If we starve, we can come out with something nice too.

By the way, who is so rich and kind enough to let us crush in this apartment ? Credit was belong to my friend Edmund. He and his friends was doing their intern in Singapore during holiday. Their intern came to an end but theirs rental agreement did not. They move back to Malaysia anyway and leaving this apartment free for us to crash in. That mean we could actually rot in there for 1-2 weeks till the contract end. Cool isn't ?

Since we have so much time to kill, what were we doing in Singapore anyway ?


We went to Sentosa for sight-viewing and of course, crash in their casino for free drinks.



Watched some free shows at Lake of Dreams.

Not that cool compared to Marina Bay. And that was how we spent our first day. Before we hit the sack, we got ourselves a supper at Singapore Mamak.



Speaking of Kiasuness, I believe it was what we always heard about Singaporean. But I must see and experience with our own eyes. So here I was, in a local Mamak cafe flipping through their menu. I am looking for the cheapest foods available as I do not plan to waste my limited SGD on this crap. So when I am decided to order the roti kosong, Heck ! it stated minimum 2 pieces per order.

Lol, in Malaysia you can order one air-kosong and sit in any mamak to enjoy a football match. But here, in order to enjoy their air-cond, they impose some rules to not lose-out.

Do you know only in Malaysia, you could re-fill your coke / coffee in MCD but you can't do that in Singapore ? Sorry man if I offended any Singaporean reader here. Just stating what I saw.

But I am very impress with their culture and road ethic.

Singapore is a place where road priority is on pedestrian first and everything come second. They have almost pedestrian crossing lane and red-light traffic for pedestrian on every possible junctions. Unlike Malaysia, you cross on your own risk.. expect some respect from rude driver ? they rather run you down first and then blame you for that !

I love their public transport system the most. Especially the Mass Rapid Transit.



It was mind blowing to experience myself their high level of efficiency of handling their system. We were not afraid going out from house during peak hours. No matter how many people were there, we surely could get on board on the first train we see. Less than 5 minutes for every transit ? That was so damn cool. It really defy the law of logic when the more peak the hour was, the more frequent the train came.

Unlike Malaysia, speaking of that bloody bastard KTM, on non-peak hour  = 20 minutes per transit, and when the peak hour came.. hohoho, my favorite... minimum 35minutes per transit and there was no maximum time on it. You could be waiting for 2 hours for that !

My friends told me Singaporean love looking down. I not mean the are looking down on people in this case (but I do agree some of them are looking down on Malaysian) In transit, everyone have an incredible phone, and they love playing it all the time. Maybe this is how they kill the time when boarding the transit. If it was not that data plan and the phone itself was so expensive in Malaysia, I would love to be like them too.

Actually we are not that cheapskate by having all the meal in house. We do ate outside some time.

Such as this nice bowl of porridge with frog-legs.  It was my first time eating a frog. Well, it do taste like crab meat for me. Nothing to be shout about, quite nice I would say.

And Wanton-Mee at Tiong Plaza food court. The portion was small and taste was slightly below average. SGD 4 for this. Damn, I always have to remind myself not to convert to MYR whenever I spend the money. Damn the currency ! MYR 10 for this !! argh ! Otherwise, it was pretty reasonable.

Being a student myself, I am quite curious of University in Singapore, particularly NUS. How would it look like for a top 30 University in the world ranking ?

Because of that curiosity, we paid a visit to that infamous university.

Went by MRT to Clementi Station and then change transport to bus No. 95. It was near. To my surprise, they do not have gates, it look like it was an open-ended university with many possible accessible route. A sign of good security in Singapore.

So we tour around the University and visit their library. We actually given permission to visit the library without going through any paperwork procedure. Just a polite chat with working librarian over there and they allowed us in. Wow, that really make UM suck real bad. I heard that outsider need to pay MYR 20 to access our library.

There were few things that I really love this NUS. First was, it has a MCD inside !



How I wish UM would consider having a MCD inside. Hmm, but on second thought, the reason we like MCD was because it got free refill. MCD in singapore no free refill wor... what a mood killer.

Second, I am in mad with their no-restriction on dress ethic regulation. Everyone could wear whatever they like. Even in library and everywhere else. It was truly a superb eyes-washing moment throughout the university. Girls there were simply amazing, they were up-to-trend in fashion, know good makeup and excellent in preserving their body figure. I am not lying, hardly I could spot any average Jane over there. With this, I do believe there was no ugly girl in world, just lazy girl.

Third, was their foods !



I not mean that their foods were good. Malaysia foods are still far superior. I meant the average of their food price. I am not sure if either their University / government were subsidizing their foods, because their food was so cheap !



Average bowl / plate of foods cost only SGD 1.80 - 2.00. And the portion was reasonable. Of course, looking from Malaysian perspective, the price was almost the same after conversion. But speaking of Singaporean perspective, if you earn as Singaporean and spend it here. It was a great deal of value.

This inflect the seriousness of inflation in Malaysia. Food price was hiked to average MYR 4-5  per bowl / plate of foods. Damn !

Back to the myth about Singaporean was Kiasu, I found something which might favor the myth.

I found their parking rate was funny. Who in the earth would rate it till 4 decimal places of cent ?

and there was this one day when we decided to pay a visit to their IT fair held at Suntec City Mall. Except for the real good deals of electronic items and serious competition between the seller, it was no fun to walk at all.

I am a photographer, when talking about PC fair, Car Exhibition or sort of event like that... we are really looking forward for doll-up model. So I am kinda looking forward for it with my 50 mm + flash gun ready. To hell with it, it was no show at all. Sales man / girl were plain ordinary and some do not even bother to tidy up themselves.

My shooting mode was so dead until I saw something worth to snap. A line of promoter giving flyers. So I put on my flash and fire-up. To hell...

I thought my shutter was fast enough until it was beaten by them ! They could close their face faster than the speed of 1/60 per second of my shutter. Lol !

So I walked away and I heard one of them saying... 5 dollar please ! They have made my day... by confirming the myth.

Speaking of being a techie in Singapore. It was okay to do that. Because of their strong currency, their items were a lot cheaper and affordable for them. Of course, provided that you earn as Singaporean and spend it there. For  Malaysian like me, Neh... it was the same old costly price.. just that they offer more valuable goodies.

After exploring all the six floor of IT exhibition, we decided to go out and went somewhere else. We saw the giant Ferris Wheel afar. And we traveled there by foot.

Well, we did not waste any dollar on it. Just a sight-seeing as it was so expensive ! SGD30 per ride. Or you can booked entire gondola and have your dinner served on sky with just SGD3000+ lol




Perhaps one day, I will fly my dates over here for a hanging dinner.

Overall, Singapore was a good place to leisure. Their weather would not be hot with most of the time cloudy (maybe because it near sea) and their superb public transportation especially MRT enable us to go anywhere with ease.

The last few days for us MaLatLou was very unproductive. Not that we ran out of money. We still have bucks on us, but we were so lazy and so attracted to the house. The comfy sofa, the tv with a lot of great channels and air-condition on for 24/7.... make us caving in the house for 2 days.

This was where we start clearing out the fridge. Eating everything that was edible

Previous house-mate were leaving a lot left-over in the fridge like eggs, rice, oranges, bread, tuna and etc. So we swept it all into our tummy. Most of the time we ate noodles and bread.

Eating at home did save a lot for us. Averagely we spent SGD3-5 for foods per day if we do not leave the house. Foods were cheap in supermarket if you are not after the branded goods. Big loaf of white bread only cost SGD 1 , Tuna Can SGD 2 , 5pack on Instant noodle only SGD 1.40 and etc.

Thank god and of course Edmund that we were spare from forking out dollars for accommodation. Int total I spent MYR 63 for bus ticket , and SGD 50 for overall expenditure in Singapore for 5days 4 nights. Cheap yo ?

Speaking of bus ticket, thanks to YC research, we save up a lot by traveling to Larkin-Johor and from there we buy long distance bus ticket back to KL. It only cost us MYR 28 for that instead of SGD30 if we decided to buy the ticket in Singapore. But of course, saving money won't be sweet when we have to rush like mad to head to Larkin.

Singapore journey was great. There were still some place I yet to visit like Universal Studio and their Zoo. But because of budget limitation, we skipped all that. Maybe next time when either Malaysia currency become stronger ( I doubt it) or I make a nice income in future.

So what is my opinion about working at Singapore ? Hmm, maybe I will leave that in my next post. This was quite a lengthy post. Thanks for reading it till this point yo. Appreciate it =)

Leisure TimeOut @ Port Dickson

I have to admit that all the good thing only start pouring at the end. My 4 months holiday has been a boring one until the last few weeks. I have been out station for vocation for so frequent that I am so good in packing my luggage.

After the recent Penang trip, I went to Port Dickson this time with family for 2 days and a night vocation.

Recalling the last time I went to Port Dickson, it was the memorable Freshy Camp ! However, I still remember the dirtiness of the beach and sea.

To my surprise, it was looking better now.

It seem there were people who taking up the responsibility to take care of the beach. Well, I still hold my trust on the sea though. Beach is ok haha.

Though the beach was much cleaner now, but our 2 days and 1 night trip would not spend much time on beaches. Cause we will spend most of it in our hotel !

I knew, when one on trip, they should spend most of their time exploring out there instead of spending their time in the hotel.

But for my case, it was totally a different case when each unit of the hotel we stayed, cost MYR 500+

This resort called, Great Lexis or formerly known as The Legend International Water Home.

With the money we paid we expect good facilities that could serve us good and proper. And it kinda interesting when there was private pool in each unit !

we rented 3 units to fit all of us. So we got 3 private pools to play with. I even like the private pool on the upper unit.

An open-air private pool with a good view on the outside. Luckily, we got the unit that faced the public pool. It was so fun and relaxing submerging your body in the water while viewing peoples having fun on the public pool. Some time if you lucky, there will be bikini hottie around. HAHAHA

While the in-door private pool is good for pool party and it was cold all the time, the upper pool was superb for night swim. Because it was so freaking nice !

Yea, you can swim or sit in it for all the night you want.

Not to mention the cozy room big room with a big 32 inch tv as well.

As well as a mini kitchen for us to do a minor cooking.

With everything you need under one roof, who want to go near the dirty beach out there ? It was a total leisure to hangout around the resort. It was big and mean to be explored. So my younger brother rent one of these for MYR 20 / hour

With these lazy bike, we take turn to explore this resort to see what it can offer. I discovered this place where the much higher price for chalet located.

The chalet that built on water. But, I not really fancy on this. Well, the water underneath seems so dirty and I bet it smell too. Not really worthy for the higher price you got to pay. But if you are saying Borneo in this case. Then hell yesh ! Recalling my previous Borneo trip to Semporna island, I stayed on a chalet which built on top of crystal clear sea.

Besides sight-seeing, there were sports too. One of em which I had tried out was the archery.

Not bad for the price. MYR 10 = 12 arrows , MYR 16 = 24 arrows. And I forget the rest. And yes, the more arrows you bought at once, more discount you will get. And so my younger bro and I took the MYR 16 each.

One of my favorite was the pool. No, I not talking about the private pool. I am talking about the pool with balls, cue and table. With just MYR 3 per round, it was even cheaper than KL and PJ.

How about the foods ? We went outside to search for seafood as dinner. After some fast search on internet, we found out that there were few local famous. So we settle for Weng Hin Seafood restaurant. Hmm, and I think it was so-so. not worth to mention its food anyway.

Our Hotel breakfast buffet was kinda good in fact.

It offer quite a variety of breakfast. I love the wedges and prawn popiah. The eggs was a bonus too cause it was nicely fried.

Remember the new ef 50mm f/1.8 lens that I recently bought ? If you get a chance to shoot portrait. Use it !

It could produce nice bokeh and good sharpness which were utterly important in portrait shooting.

She was my cousin sis daughter. Cute, playful and photogenic.

 And that was about all I have to say for this trip. Since I was in PD and going to pass by Seremban when going back KL, I decided to brought my sibling to eat the famous Tow Kee Hakka Mee at Seremban.

Try to Google 'Tow Kee Hakka Mee' and you will get a complete review about it as well as its location. It was really good and I had came back for second this time after the first time I ate year ago. Courtesy to my good friend Joey.

Coming up next. Trip to Singapore. As a matter of fact, I just back from Singapore this morning and going to Bukit Kayu Hitam tomorrow morning. Seriously, All the good things save till the end. LOL