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Monday, October 31, 2005

Happy Deepavali/Diwali and Selamat Hari Raya

If there's anybody reading this blog right now who celebrates one of these two festivals, I hope you have a joyous and satisfying time. See, I have no skills to make it as a Hallmark card message writer. I don't write stuff that make people go, "Awww..." as they wipe away a careless tear from their eye.

Anyways, I've been having a little Quantum Leap marathon. Season Three. 1990-1991. I never saw any episodes in that season. And I was a diehard fan then. I remember one time, after a tiring 8-hour journey back from Kluang after the Chinese New Year break, I burst into the house to turn on the TV. Just to catch the last 20mins of the episode. I think Sam was a woman in that episode.

How could I have missed an entire season? Tuition classes!! Those classes were in preparation for my SPM exams. I took Additional Math, Physics, Chemistry. Sacrificed a season of Quantum Leap and I failed my Add. Math, got a C6 for Physics and a C4 for Chemistry. And look at me now. No use for Add. Math, Physics or Chemistry in my life.

Anyways, I can understand why I had such a crush on Scott Bakula. He was 36 - 37 then and he sang, he danced, he acted his way into my heart. *swoon* He was goofy in an endearing way. I haven't seen a full episode of Enterprise, even though I know he's the Captain. I did a little research and he's Capt. Jonathan Archer in there. I IMDB-ed him (think this word will follow the footsteps of Google and be turned into a verb?) and found out that he's been active in the theater and musicals. Both his parents are musical. His little patch of white hair appeared when he was four. At the time, he was also at a neighbour's house that was undergoing painting and his mother thought the patch of white was a result of the paint. Hope she didn't try to turpentine the white out of his hair. *g*

I had forgotten the close rapport the character he plays (Dr. Sam Beckett) had with Al. The writing is just superb: witty, intelligent and thought-provoking. What makes this series so much better than Tru Calling and Sliders is that he gets to be somebody entirely different (yet still be him) every week, and there's always that hope that he finally gets to leap home in the end. And then there are times when he gives ideas to people who eventually end up being famous. He told a guy in one episode that he saw/heard that someone had used slabs of beef as punching bags when that guy told the priest ("Leap of Faith") that he couldn't make it to boxing practice. The guy closes his locker and the name on the locker was 'S. Stallone'. Brilliant! I love this show.

Met my super today. She tells me that my presentation will be sooner than later. And that I'll be presenting with the juniors. I told my mum this and she said I must be embarrassed. I told her I shouldn't be ashamed, because the mess I am in is not my fault. I wasn't the one who changed my title 6 weeks before the final presentation. Okay, I admit, I am feeling a little nervous about the thought of presenting. But I'm usually nervous presenting in front of people. Anyways, I've done this three times before (but in front of my coursemates) and all I did was focus on my lecturers. I ignored everybody else. I spoke English (everybody else in my course spoke in Malay) and that does intimidate some of the lecturers and the ones who usually bombard the others with questions are strangely silent. I shouldn't assume thing will be the same way this year though. Hope for the best and be prepared for the worst.

That's it from me then. Kinda missing someone I know. By the time he gets back home, I'll have to prepare my proposal and powerpoint presentations. Arrghhh...

I wish I could leap like Sam into the future and end up being in KT Nov 29th, watching and experiencing the Monsoon Cup '05. Datuk Michelle Yeoh, her fiance Jean Todt (Ferrari racing team boss), Michael Schumacher, Jackie Chan and a host of others are expected to be here too. Now I wish I was back to working at the hotel. It's so easy to talk to VIP guests like that. I remember Sheila Majid was the best. I sent her a note and she came down to the lobby with a poster and asked for a marker pen. She handed the poster to me personally. How humble is that? She's the greatest. As for Ning Baizura... errr, no comment. ;-)

Take care!

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Snap-happy at the beach


My sis decided to drag me to the beach a few days ago to keep an eye on the kids, but I found out soon enough that my Dad and sis' maid were tagging along too. Anyways, I needed some fresh salty air after being cooped indoors for ... ages, and I brought along my trusty camera. The Chip Online Malaysia forum had recently opened their Photo Gallery and I needed some fresh shots of anything.

Dad drove to the usual spot behind the religious school
(near the old government quarters) and there was hardly anyone around. Then again, it was after 5:30pm, during Ramadhan. There was a group of boys crowding around three other boys on ponies. As the beach had recently been reclaimed (much farther to walk towards the beach), I told my sis that perhaps it would be a better idea to rent the ponies to get to the edge of the water. It was tough walking on uneven sand. Halfway there, one of the ponies got free. Trotted towards freedom, with one boy running after it. He managed to catch the pony soon enough.



The kids got down to business and started making sand castles. So did Dad. I admired a big cloud in the sky (the bit where the sun's rays shone through created a spectrum of colours). As Nephew #1 was building his tower of sand ...


Can you detect some evil intent in that little fellow's brain? No? Well, guess what happens after this shot?


Funnily enough, he didn't crush that tower of sand. Instead, he threw the spade somewhere else. And his attention was taken elsewhere. And so was mine.

Looking towards my left, I spotted a blue plastic basket and a frondless coconut leaf. Nothing of note on the basket (a lightbulb and three seashells). So I took pix of the frondless palm leaf. I don't know how photographers do it. Do they wait for the waves to come close or just snap away? I think I took more than 5 shots.


Further away, I noticed a makeshift shelter made out of bamboo poles and coconut palm fronds. As I walked towards it, I noticed an adult and child further away in the center of this makeshift shelter. I tried to be arty, but my camera is only 5MP and has no powerful telephoto lens. I gave up that idea.

Took several shots of the shelter.

Then I noticed the ships.


And then I realized that I could use the makeshift shelter as the frame! Refer to first photo. Well, I was happily snapping away.

As it was getting dark, I started walking back towards the others. I saw the horses' tracks in the sand and I took pix of those too. I told you I was snap-happy! We heard the fireworks go off, indicating the breaking of fast. We walked back towards the car. Fast-forward the other bits and we got home by 7pm. It's less than 10 mins drive to home. The advantages of living in a small town, everywhere is considered 'close'.

I must apologize to the dial-up users (if any) who realized too late that this post was image-laden. Well, at least be happy I haven't used another shot of a raindrop-encrusted anona leaf.

Bye!

** Thanks go to Simon W for providing the thought-bubbles. ;-)

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Which Lost Character am I?

While checking out Doubleout.com's site, I found the link to a Lost Quiz. The spelling of 'mysterious' became 'mysteries', so beware of that. The last question was a decoy. I wanted to be Kate, but I got:

Take the quiz: "Which LOST character are you?"

Jack
You are Jack. You are fighting your inner demons, but deep down inside you know you're doing what you think is right.

Oh well, better Jack than Claire or Locke.

My sister's family will be driving up tomorrow. They will be around til Sunday (sis, hubby and the maid), and then the kids will be staying til mid-Nov. Mum lamented that the church was organizing a trip to northwest Malaysia (Perak, Kedah...) during Raya; five days, RM200, all food and lodging provided for. Arrghhh...I wish I could go! But I need to finish my final year project and writing my thesis. Grrr...

That James Blunt tune keeps ringing in my head, especially that last line, "But it's time to face the truth, I will never be with you." The story of my life. People I like, I can't be with due to:
  1. Age/Religious differences
  2. Distance
To be realistic though, I like the first guy as a friend. I know I can't give anything more. So it's not really about him, is it? Okay, maybe it's about guys in general. Am I in denial? Nooo, I can't be. ;-)

Wonder how Plan_B is doing in the Philippines. He'll be there for two weeks. 6 + 14...hmm, he should be back by the 21st. Maybe he got enthralled by the experience, a new country, finally being with his lady-love and using the Tagalog he learnt from a ex-co-worker.

Why do some people have to be so sensitive?


This happened to me yesterday. I was chatting with this guy I had played online Pool with and he had the impression that I no longer wanted to chat with him. If I didn't, would I have said 'Hi' to him while I was invisible?

Perhaps I made the mistake of telling him that I had been chatting with another online Pool partner the night before, because he started asking me to explain myself. I'm thinking, "I played a handful of games with him and he's asking me to explain why I didn't send him messages?" Huh? I don't know why I actually tried to explain to him that I did reply to his messages, but he wanted me to send him messages first. He was usually idle and I would rather send him a message if he was online, but that didn't pacify him. He seemed convinced that I wasn't planning on chatting with him any more and he asked if he could delete me from his contact list. After all the explaining I had to do, I agreed. I think my answer surprised him a little. Maybe he expected me to apologize profusely or something. But as I saw it, I don't have to explain anything to anybody, much less someone I only knew for a few days.

I closed the window and thought he would delete me, but later I still saw his handle there. So I did him a favour and deleted him. If he was so set on deleting me, why didn't he do it immediately?

Am I wrong in wanting friends on YM I can just say 'Hi' to? Or perhaps vent to once in a while? I don't expect people to message me all the time (okay, so I'm invisible and they wouldn't know I am online, but that's besides the point) and I don't message my friends that often. Why? I figure they're busy. I'm invisible because sometimes I have a lot of things to handle and having an IM chat would be frustrating to somebody who has to wait for my replies. When I do have a decent IM chat, I get antsy. I need to do something else besides chat. It developed during my dial-up per-minute charges stage. I feel guilty spending time chatting.

I saw the guy I wrote about in my previous post (the one who used his grandfather's name) online on YM. I made myself visible and there was no response. So I deleted him too. It these kinds of situations, I'm not the one who goes running to people who say they don't want to chat with me anymore.

I decided to update today because I realized (from the counter) that there is more than one person reading this. All this while, I thought the counter was logging my own presence. I'm sure there are no repeat visitors though. It would help if you left a comment and I know there are repeat visitors such as yourself.

*yawn* I should sleep. Good night/day wherever you may be.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

It rains


It's been raining after 10pm these few nights. Thunder and lightning. Don't like the lightning much because when I sleep, I like everything to be dark and quiet. Oh yeah...I could always use those eye covers they give out in the airplanes.

Was a little snap happy this afternoon. Took a shot of the wasp/insect on a leaf, that you see in this post. It was quite by accident that I saw that little fellow buzzing around the leaf. For a few seconds, it was under the leaf. I waited (thank goodness there were no mosquitoes biting) and soon caught this pic before it decided that the leaf had nothing to offer.

Plan_B is off to the Philippines to meet his *cough* friend for two weeks. Maybe after this he'll have something to write about in this blog.

Off to sleep, it's past 2am and I have to see my super tomorrow about my final year project. I have to present next month, on the 20-21st of Nov. *sniff* I want to be done with this once and for all!

Take care, reader of this blog.