About 3 months ago I updated the photoblog from Ipoh. And today I am updating, again from Ipoh. Months without internet, can you imagine that? It was like you restrained half of yourself from being you, or “abstinence” may defines it better.

There are a lot of things that happened throughout the 3 months. I don’t want to write it up here.

What I can conclude from 2 months living there: -

1. Nicer people compared to other places that I have visited. Respectful, friendly (indeed too friendly).
2. A lot of foods, only it was too sweet to my taste.
3. 1Malaysia : best described by the community there, not anywhere else, especially not KL (please don’t politicize this statement).
4. Poor drainage system, ergo the spike in dengue cases lately.
5. Poor driving ethics.
6. Fanatic towards their own football team. (You can barely see people wear EPL’s jersey).

It is my personal point of view, and I believe Malaysians are known to be respectful towards personal opinions.

This is a set of pictures taken about 3 months ago during so called Pre- Graduation Dinner.

Enjoy.

At home again.

I hate journey, even if the destination promise me enjoyable experiences. What defines ‘hate’ more precisely compared to journey to a definitely not enjoyable destination, most probably will cause you to be in anguish state? Yes, it is an exaggeration, it is not anguish.

En.Fauzi, a warden during my time at SEMESTI once yelled to a friend of mine, ” TAK TAU JANGAN CAKAP!” . That happened when he asked my friend whether he knows who played hockey in the dormitory and made so much noises (and disturbed his sleep).

Cats are cute. My cat is cute. But grumpy. Not grumpy.  Always cautious. “Cengeng” bak kata orang sini.

To Em.Es.Yu. Tak tau jangan cakap!

Cumi is the name of the cat. She is a “she”. She is a very typical house cat, but with a fur so thick which make her look fatter than she actually is. I googled about her characteristics and I found out that she is “tabby mackerel’ cat, with a “M” on her head. She is very fussy about her food, and she like to have people around when she is eating. However, she is so fierce (which I think normal for a female who do not marry).

Smile. For smile will make you smile.

Enjoy responsibly

”        When you say to this friend, “This is just between us,” he nods his head but unfortunately that promise will last only as long as it takes him to get to his phone or e-mail. Although there should be an assumption of confidentiality and trust between friends, this friend can’t help herself. Telling this person a secret makes him feel vulnerable and uncomfortable. Like the game “hot potato,” he has to pass the hot secret along to someone else in order to relieve the anxiety knowing the secret made him feel.        ”

Copied and pasted. I don’t care. Plagiarism? Fuck off.

Confidentiality and a fucking trust, ultimately too hard to gain.

Don’t enjoy.

I just changed my guitar strings yesterday, means that I will be in good mood to play guitar for a while before the strings become rusty. I have to change my guitar strings at least every 1 month (usually it will be much earlier) as I have hyperhidrosis.

“Hyperhidrosis is a medical condition in which a person sweats excessively and unpredictably. People with hyperhidrosis may sweat even when the temperature is cool or when they are at rest.” (definition from MedlinePlus). Google it yourself to find out more.

Sweaty palms cause the guitar strings to become rusty faster than usual, and the string bright sound diminished earlier than it should be. It is very very frustating, not only when I play guitar, but also in several other conditions such as shaking hands,playing badminton and even when writing during the exams. I still remember that I use a handkerchief to prevent my OMR paper from soaking in sweat from my palms during PMR and SPM. Luckily, examinations in MSU is carried out in rooms with aircond (if unlucky, I have to do the exam in hot rooms and experience the same situation).

I went to Laman Seri Business Park this evening with Aziq to shoot some photos. Yesterday Aziq saw some photos of Laman Seri Business Park at Lim Zifan’s facebook, and he asked me whether I want to shoot it too. So, here it is ,the photos from Laman Seri Business Park together with Aziq as shooting partner (merangkap model sambilan ).

Shoot with Aperture Priority mode with Aperture set variably from f/1.8 to f/16. I forgot to reset my camera ISO setting so some photos were shooted with a higher ISO than needed. ISO 200 was used most of the time. 50mm f/1.8 and 12-24mm f/4 were mounted on camera with no flash. White balance used was Kelvin, set at 5300. Adobe Photoshop CS3 used for post-processing (reverted back to CS3, CS4 is freaking heavy, with annoying interface)

Enjoy.

Supposedly I should have a class this morning, which was cancelled right after I manage to prepare myself (rushing of of course).

Played the guitar throughout the morning, which suddenly I was interested in Naruto’s anime soundtrack composed by Toshiro Masuda entitled ‘The Raising Fighting Spirit”. I have heard the song since about 4 years ago, but never made an attempt to study the song, but this morning when I browse through my MP3 folder, I played the MP3 and played along with it. The reason why this song was interesting is the composition is comprised of several Japanese traditional musical instrument, notably shamisen and a kind of flute( I can’t remember the name) mixed up with modern instruments. What makes it more interesting is the shamisen was played with a modern pentatonic scale (I am not sure if some of Japanese traditional musical scale is identical to pentatonic scale, I am sorry if I made the statement wrong).  The riff is pretty simple, and the melody is catchy. Maybe I will make a guitar cover soon.

Cats never failed to fascinate me. [anis] with her cat Loba posed and I was there to capture some of the moments. The lighting was not very good, at about 6p.m. the sky was cloudy. [anis] always muttering about missing her cats (she has 3 cats at the moment), and I couldn’t say much because the cats are super-cute and adorable. Loba even made an attempt to touch his nose to front of my lens during the shooting :p

I miss [anis] too.

Photo’s EXIF data…malas…

Enjoy.

Being busy for a while. Plus there was nothing to shoot. Playing guitar on all free times.

Went back to Ipoh a few days back, Chinese New Year holiday. The journey back to Ipoh was smooth, but on my way back to Shah Alam, the highway packed with cars heading back to KL. Usually it takes about 3 hours at most to travel from Ipoh to Shah Alam , but this time, it took 5 1/2 hours to reach Section 17, Shah Alam. The most annoying thing that happened on that bus was that I realized Malaysian peoples tend to slow down their car whenever there is something at the side of the road, just to watch what had happened, which most of the time, was just a car breakdown. Consequently, the highway jammed, for nothing, as cars slowing down caused the slow traffic. Plus, selfish driver that use the emergency lane made it worst.

I went to Kuala Kangsar, to my grandmother’s house at Sauk, near Jenalek. That was the place where I lived during my early childhood time. Back then, when I say ‘Sauk”, peoples like to ,” Sauk, where? Tempat jin mesyuarat?” (humans are the only creature that love to quarrels with each other), but after the Al-Maunah incident, Sauk became a little bit popular among Malaysians, at least to peoples that read/watch news. There is a lake just behind the house, Tasik Chenderoh, where I like to go during my childhood for a dip. But humans are destructive and ignorant creature, the lake polluted with all kinds of non biodegradable materials, made me doesn’t realize now that there was a beautiful lake there, back then of course.

So, the only option now is going to a reserve area of Lata Kekabu, about 10 minutes drive from Opah’s house. I was delighted when my uncle ask whether we want to join him to Lata Kekabu, as I haven’t shoot anything for a while. We went there, parking was a mess (a lot of peoples are there, Malaysian kind of holiday, multiracial). Luckily, I managed to get some decent photos (at least they are decent to me). Frankly, I never know that Lata Kekabu has a very nice waterfall, as before this, I never go as far. I enjoyed the short trip.

For the camera setting, ISO 400-1600 (I just don’t prefer to use flash). Aperture priority at most of the time except for the waterfall photos. Aperture set variably, as the natural lighting was not consistent. ….. (it is boring to write about the camera setting…and I am lazy)

Enjoy. Think. Do.

2010. A new year. No feeling towards it though. It’s just the starting of the first month out of twelve months in Gregorian calendar. By the way, 1431 Hijrah had been around almost three weeks at the moment.

I am 23 this year? Gilaaa… Still, there is a lot to accomplish. Huge things around the corner. Responsibilities are on my shoulder.

Photos were taken at Sungai Congkak, Hulu Langat. I’ve faced a huge risk of  dropping my camera into the water, but the results from the shooting were awesome. I really love it.

The camera setting was almost the same each time. 50mm f/1.8 mounted on camera, at max aperture with ISO around 100-400. Aperture Priority mode was used and Exposure Compensation was adjusted from -1.0 to +0.3 to suits the lighting condition. No flash was used, the lighting is all from The Almighty. For photo no.2, I bracketed 3 different exposure with bracketing increment of +/-1.0, and blend it using Photomatix (I am not a fan of excessive HDR though). Photos of myself were taken by Rizuan Ali, with my camera.

Enjoy!

Wasted time, boring, guitar, on the phone, back to guitar, games, guitar again, wasting another hour, guitaraaaaaa, on the phone, eat, on the phone, guitareeeeeee, jog, eat, guitar, on the phone, guitarrooooooooo, sleep.

Am I the only one who are suffering from this kind of boredom?

Photos are from Selangor Ria Carnival at Shah Alam Stadium compound. Nothing special. Cute animals are the only thing that interest me.

EXIF data? Sorry la Macha.. Seriously lazy.

I have finished presenting my case.

There was a flood in the college compound, again. Do flood ever occur in your study place after raining about 3 hours? Yes, my college do. That’s why my university is sooo special.

The three last photos was captured at my home, after Eid’ Adha. Nothing significant or special about the last 3 photos and initially I was a bit reluctant to publish it here. But what can I do, I just love the photos without reason.

Am I spamming my own photoblog? Two post in one date. Fuiyooooh!!!

Enjoy.

Eid’d Adha. A meaningful term and symbolize the great sacrifice. No need for further explaination.

Spending extra hours on the road because ‘highway’ jam is also a great sacrifice.

And this is a set of photos that I have captured. There is a lot of photos, but if I load them up here, it will slows down the website.

I’ve pushed the ISO even to 1600,some of the photos are very ‘noisy’. I don’t want to use the speedlight,  to make sure the shot was unnoticed, and the expression will be as natural as possible.

Enjoy. And let’s sacrifice.