Trip to the Summit

The next time someone tells you Mt. Kinabalu is a trip through Hell. Believe them. Except this hell is a freezing Hell.

So I've actually been back from my Mt. Kinabalu Trip for quite some time now. It's just that I was too tired and uninspired to blog anything about it yet.

As Sabahan's, I bet nearly everyone of you have been asked the question "Have you climbed Mt. Kinabalu before?" at least once. And from now onwards, I'm proud that I can actually say "YES!"


So what's so special about this Mt. Kinabalu, for those who HAVEN'T climbed, you might ask. Well, first of all, the peak is 4095.2 meters high; the journey to the peak and back down would take you 2 days and 1 night; it cost me a bloody RM550++ (price as of 2009); and lastly, if you ain't from some country that snows.... lemme just say you could keep your fruits and veggies perfectly fresh all the way up to the peak if you brought any.


My trip however was a 3 days 2 nights one. That very morning on the 21st before I left my house... I looked out my window, and saw

and I looked back at my 12-kg packed backpack and double checked my jackets....... and I said... "nah... It can't be that bad"... ... ... I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

The first night was a stay at the renowned Kampung Mesilau!! Where we spent most of afternoon time having a foot-massage in the blisteringly cold river....

which made your toes feel like they were missing, and your feet feel like... cold penguin feet....

But of course... us little children couldn't care less about having our feet frozen and kicked off our shoes to the side.

Owners at Play

Just to take pictures...

Well... after about an hour and a half of getting our feet numb, we trotted back for a cold shower 0.0 ... .... Cold + Cold = Hot ^^ just like negative + negative = positive ^^ ... ... ... okay... nevermind me...

The cold shower after a cold leg dip was seriously a WRONG idea. Having a 10 degrees celcius shower would practically make girls scream and guy's balls shrink into nothingness.


Having paid more than 500 bucks to freeze our asses in some wet river though... there IS... of course... something good that comes out of that. And that is buffet meals~! We had a filling steamboat dinner that night, and an even more stuffing breakfast the next morning. I have to say that the most enjoyable thing about this trip I had...... is that I did not have to worry about FOOD!!

Even the squirrels had to take the chance to have breakfast with us.


At 9:00 am of the 2nd day.... locked and loaded, we headed off

The first day's walk is an 8km walk uphill.... I have to admit that the road climbing up is actually very EASY.... especially for a person like me, who only did serious training 1~2 week prior to the climb.... and who usually sits at home only playing COD and O2Jam.... all it takes is 1.5 litres of water, 1 bar of chocolate, 1 lunch pack, and LOTS and LOTS of REST along the way... ... You'll feel as if your brain was going to explode and your heart would stop any minute... and if it rains, bravo~, you just got yourself some natural air-con that's pre-set to 12 degrees C and cannot be turned down.

But don't sweat it =) because there's always a resting hut within an hour's walk from where you are. And if you EVER happen to run out of water along the way.... and you're like in the middle of the whole journey and nearly half dead from thirst, and you expect to re-fill your bottle on the road... there's always this:

It really does make soOooo much sense when you're in the middle of nowhere and somewhere... with no water left... to be informed that you should've brought more water doesn't it? Thank you for your Understanding... Oh sure... I DO understand... ~.~


Anyway... it's a good thing I didn't run out of water myself. But pity the other people who thought they could get some water along the way... uh-uh.... too bad for them.


Honestly though. If anybody were to ask me where was the Best place in Sabah to have a photoshoot. In all honestly, my suggestion would be: Mt. Kinabalu.

Besides the challenging surroundings and backgrounds to take photographs with, there're still much insanely beautiful scenery to take pictures of. If you're not so interested in the scenery, you could even try some of this.... ....

Looks like some kind of album cover page if you ask me ^^

Of course... for serious photographers.... carrying your full set equipment, tripod, and lighting could break your back in 101 places. You'll need so many lenses from wide angle to telephoto to macro to cover the whole heavenly sky to the tiny squirrels and spiderlings which made Spiderman spiderman.

Cutting off from photography talk... we arrived at mid-mountain... or so-called Laban Rata in the evening.... 8 hours of climb, rest, eat, talk, photo-shoot..... I guess we did fine ^^ But the worst was yet to come....

That night. None of us bathed. We stayed in Gunting Lagadan, which didn't have a heater... so the water was like... ... 5 degrees?? But it seemed that Laban Rata wasn't doing much better =)

We continued our climb at about 2:30 am midnight. Climbing in pitch-black darkness. The darkness was one thing... the steepness of the mountain is another!! and the COLD WIND is the worst part~!

Unfortunately, since my camera flash is out of order, I don't have any pictures of the climb T.T

To cut the long story short... we climbed 3 hours in the Cold Night... walking on without a clue where we were going (of course the only clue was.... the peak)... all we did was walk along a the white rope which our whole journey depended on. In the middle of the night, 50 Meters LOOKED like a 100 meters!! But FELT like 500~!!!

Your Life Line

It was more of a test of Mentality that physical fitness I'll tell you:

"Your Body is about to collapse... your lips are nearly frozen... you are 2 kilometers more to the peak. You can choose to walk 500 meters downhill back to your warm room... or you could walk uphill till your eyes froze for another 2 kilometers... Which do you choose...."


Somehow... I managed to make it in to the peak in time for sunrise ^^ But I was already too tired to be taking photographs... so I just watched... while my face was blown dry by the icy wind.

To sum it all up... I'm pretty satisfied and proud of myself for actually reaching the peak... because it wasn't only once, that the idea of turning back and just giving it all up came to mind.... but I thought that if so many others could've made it, I can too, and I pushed on...

**I'll give a hint to those intending on climbing and haven't climbed before.. Looking at the photo on top.... and all other photos taken by people at Mt. K's peak... it seems small doesn't it?? I'll tell you that... from the place I was standing when I took that photo, to the tiny person walking there.... is about 100 ~ 150 meters of downhill walk.... which would take you about.... 4~5 minutes to walk... ^^


If you asked me if I'd want to climb again.... my answer:

I'd love to. But with better camera equipment, a flash... and a tripod.
When? Not anytime within a year's time, haha.
And this time I'm gonna train harder and further so that I won't have to be bothered with being tired while making my way up...
Oh.... and if I didn't have to worry about the price =.=.... RM600 a year.... no thanks... that's gonna blow my pocket.

The Climb's Eve

Actually I had a few things to update and talk about. But lately have been a little more busy for me since we were busy 1. Preparing for Mt. Kinabalu, 2. Yam cha and yam cha, 3. Left 4 Dead 2.

So right now it's after my midnight shower, sitting in front of the computer, with a cup of warm honey drink, and taking a rest after packing my backpack for tomorrow's Mt. Kinabalu climb =)


Considering that I've been in Scouts for 6 years and gone through all the journeys necessary to actually become a 'King Scout' (though I didn't actually manage to become one due to time limitations T_T), I'll consider myself quite experienced with packing for hiking and going on journeys. Except THIS time, it's going UP.

Of course this isn't everything...

And as I was packing.... I had a dilemma choosing between this....

and this

Well, I was thinking that the Desa's Finest milk could help fill my stomach.... while Mr. Walker could help keep me warm.


But in the end, I brought neither =.=

2 weeks into December

So... it's 7:30 in the morning... and why am I awake?? Because I got "put aeroplane" for my morning training for Mt. Kinabalu session. And I'm pissed!... ... Okay... maybe I'm not, thanks to years of training from my classmates where half of them are good "pilots". And I wouldn't wanna go back to sleep after trying so hard to wake up at 6:00 in the morning would I??

**put aeroplane, translated literally from 放飞机 in chinese, which in chinese... is used when someone decides to say "Hey! Sorry, I can't make it, you guys will have to do without me~ =)" sort of thing.


It's past week 2 for December.... and slowly, things are picking up it's pace.... And life have been starting to get 'meaningful' (whatever meaningful means to you, hehe).

They're 2 simple things that make life fun and meaningful for me.
One, Games... with friends of course.
Two, Friends... with food and drinks =)



So I've been trying out the new game Left 4 Dead 2 a couple of times with my friends~!! And find it just as good/bad... as its prequel.

Gameplay is overall the same if you've played Left 4 Dead.... What this part 2 gives you is a couple of fine new weapons and zombies ^^ Zombies look much cooler in part 2, with much more variety of clothing and funny faces, haha, yea... I like to pay attention to the funny detail. The Computer controlled zombies are much more cleverer this time too~~

So I wasn't planning to write a full review on it. You wanna know what this new game is like? Let's meet at Cyber X and we'll show you how it's like, haha.


On to the 2nd fun and meaningful things in life, I've been hanging out with friends lately... in the morning... for jogging, always followed up by a nice and filling yam cha somewhere nearby. I won't be posting photos of this yet, since I decided to upload them all up along AFTER I finished my Mt. Kinabalu trip.

Yesterday though, we had a casual outing and my first attempt at a photoshooting session T.T

To be honest, I learned it ain't easy having a shoot with people as subjects, haha. Especially the setting, make-up, poses, design and stuff. I'm more into... shooting natural stuff without having to set-up or pose or choose a spot especially for the photo. But anyway~~~ For my first photoshoot, I'm somewhat satisfied with the results ^^ although there's many places I realised I could've done better when post-producing the photos.

Lot's of OOF (Out of Focus) and undefined subjects... busy background and stuff. But hey.... it's okay I guess.... considering it's not even a year I've started photography yet, hehe. My camera isn't even a year old yet ^^

There weren't many pictures that managed to pass through my 'filtering process', but to view all the pics anyway... they're in my Facebook Album.




My favourite photo for the day:

Sorry Jo. I seriously like this one. Haha~

Small Talk

So, when do you remember the last time someone started small talk with you? Well, actually small talk happens so often sometimes that I don't even realise it IS small talk. But today, I'm gonna be talking about the LAME Small Talk.


Ever sat at the canteen, quietly eating lunch with a couple of friends, and have a classmate or coursemate walk past and say "Hey there, having lunch?"..... "No? I'm examining the food?!?" .... Gosh... I don't know what it's like in other countries... but I get these questions ever so often that sometimes when I come to think of it, I realise how stupid they sound.

Okay, maybe that example wasn't as bad as it sounded. But there were actually times when I had someone I know come up to me while I'm having my meal in a restaurant... and going like "Hi! What are you doing here?" And of course... I'll politely answer him the obvious... "Ehehe, nothing much, just grabbin a meal~". Or, I actually at least once... or maybe more than a few times... while coming out of class from uni, bumped into a couple of friends... and they go "Hey~ Just finished class?" =.=" .... .... ....

Well, I appreciate it if they're trying to start up a conversation... or... if they ask something more 'informative' like... "How was class?" or... "What are you eating?" or... "So how did you do in your exam?"... But stuff like "Shopping?", "Going to the movies?".... c'mon, gimme a break... you know the answer already.

As for myself, I really only do ask such question when I REALLY don't know what you're doing... or mostly I'd ask them just to confirm. Most of the time I don't say anything at all. Usually just a "Hey there" or "Ui~" is more like me.


The Award winning small talk so far though.... was something I heard a couple of days ago when I was jogging around Tun Fuad Stephens park as training for our upcoming Mt. Kinabalu trip.

"Hey Bert~ What brings you here? Jogging?"

(Duh~ I live here?~)

It's December~~!!

A year has once again passed, and December is back~! Ah... December December, the month to Remember. December always comes with memorable joys and all kinds of events going on all month. So is this year's. Seems to me that this December is gonna be a busy month (I hope ^^).



It's been 5 days into December, and so far... okay.... I haven't been doing much... yet. But there's plenty of plans up ahead, such as training my ass off.... for what? for conquering my hometown's 'peak', Mt. Kinabalu... getting wasted at parties (if there are any...) And of course looking forward to see what will come out of this year's New Year's Celebration!!


Well, as I said, I haven't really done anything so far for this month, but for starters.... I got myself a new Lens for my camera ^^ Namely the Nikkor AF-S 35mm F1.8 DX.

That's the sucker. Looks small? Think again. It cost me a whooping RM800!! But what can I say... I sure have an expensive hobby eh... it took me more than 6 months to save up the money for it. Sigh.

Anyway, in case you're wondering what's so goody about it. I'll give a short explanation. The F1.8 means it's capable of a larger maximum aperture (hole) size, compared to my previous kit lens. Meaning I'm gonna be able to shoot at faster shutter speeds, and also have a better "blur" effect. ... .... .... .... Okay =.= maybe I'm just talking to the wall. But anyway, just put it simply, I won't buy something that won't benefit me.

This is my actual lens. Taken using the new 35mm F1.8 Nikkor. Look any different? ~.~ okay... maybe it doesn't look so different here. (Well, but if you really wanna compare, compare the 'blur' of my laptop with in the 2 pics, notice that the first pic has more detail, 2nd pic is blurer). I guess you'll just have to wait and see the difference from my new photos from now on.


The Lens turned out to be pretty interesting so far. Fast and silent auto-focusing, nice 'bokeh', small and lightweight.... and I'm satisfied with all but ONE.

I just wish Nikon could've been a bit less 'cheap' and stuck to creating their products in Japan or countries that had better reputation in their manufacturing quality.... ~.~

Do People Change?

To give you the answer straight up. I, personally, Yes, I do believe people change. As to why? I don't know, and I don't think I'll ever know. For the Better, for the Worse, who knows?


Anyway, this question popped into my mind today as I met a friend today.


A friend whom I didn't meet for 7 years. I knew him in my first year of Secondary School. I didn't actually know him well, and to be honest, my impression of him wasn't good. As far as I know, he was a big talker, and not many of the people I knew liked him. I didn't talk to him much, I never really wanted to either, since I already didn't have a good impression of him.

Yet, as time went on, and each of us walked our own lives. People forget. All these previous 'impressions' I had of him, someone, or anyone, slowly start fading. And given enough time, I think it could fade to a point where everything starts from zero. (There are, I believe however.... 'exceptions'.... you could call them)

After years of not meeting, years of not hearing any news about him, today, by chance, I met him on the street.

Oddly though, throughout the many years we did not meet or talk, we recognized each other, and what was even weirder was that we talked as if we once were good friends. As I talked to him, even though it was just for that 3 minutes, I felt that, he might be a different person, maybe, just maybe... changed from the one I knew before... I didn't have time to chat for long, and neither did he, so we just caught up a little with each other and moved on with our lives. But still, just that few seconds, made me wonder... had he changed or what?

Of Love and Attraction (continued)

This post is a continuation of my previous post with the same title. If you haven't read that one, read it first, coz I'll be using vocabulary terms from that post. Hehe.


Ok, so we talked about my very own Birdie's Law of Attraction. Continuing from that, I'll tell you briefly what relationships are built on which attractions.

Most of the time, friends would start out based on Mental Attraction. If the Mental Attraction is strong enough, Emotional Attraction might come into play, and with both of them present, these are the friends that you usually become "good friends" with or even "best friends".

For having a relationship (partner type relationship), for a GOOD relationship, all 3 should be present. If you have Emotional Attraction and Physical Attraction but have no Mental Attraction whatsoever, this arises the situation whereby the 2 of them will end up quarreling over whether they should use Tomato sauce or Mayonnaise to go with some simple... say... potato wedges.

Though if the 2 lovers are considerate for each other, usually having more of a certain type of attraction could balance out the lack of another to keep everything in check.


Moving onto the 3 types of Love. Whether you realise it or not, the L.o.v.e surrounding us in our everyday lives, can actually be divided into 3 types of Love.


First of all, is Love for "the One"
This is our most commonly seen everyday, where a guy and girl couple are seen holding hands walking down the street, marriages taking place every week, love songs and love stories are all about this kind of Love. At the same time, this is the love that makes you blind, and teaches you stuff like.... although loving someone doesn't mean he is flawless, but it does mean that you'll still love him despite his flaws.

The answer when asked "Why?" for this kind of Love, is usually the most romantic: "Because I Love you". But I guess I need not say anything else about this.
______

2ndly, is Love among Friends.
Love for our friends is one of the more neglected type of love. Though we may not know it, but it's actually all around us. We all need friends, whether we realise it or not, of course there are some who seek 'solitude' (seek to be alone), but that's a different story. Love for friends, like I mentioned before, is based around Mental and Emotional Attraction, though Emotional usually only comes AFTER.

"Best friends are like the toughest stains on your clothes. While other dirts and dusts come and go, what remains are the toughest stains that can't be washed off."
______

Lastly, is the kind of Love most taken for granted, most unconditional love of all. The "Mother's Love"
Of course, this doesn't only refer to our mom's love. This love includes all family members and anyone related by blood, your siblings, your father, your little brother, or anyone 'family'. This is the love that starts off from nothing, it doesn't have any "pre-requisites" nor "post-requisites". Well, if you want, you could say it's based off Emotional Attraction but Emotional Attraction ONLY. Nothing else.

Up until now, I still don't quite understand this kind of love, but it's so far still the simplest Love I've come to understand.

Just like all the reason a mother needs to save her child, is the reason "because you're my son"; or the reason that a brother would help out his sibling with a saying "because I'm your brother".

So the next time one of your family member expresses their love for you, remember not to take it for granted.
_______



Hmm... the post turned out longer than I expected, lol. So I guess that's all for now. Till I come up with more ideas on Love.


So long.

Of Love and Attraction

Okay... what now... I changed jobs? First Photograhy... then Time Traveling.... now I'm a Love Guru? Whatever. But I just somehow decided that I'll post something that's unlike me once in a while. It's still "me" duh~ but just from the darker side of my brain which rarely sees the light.

Today, I'll bring you a brief introduction to Love. While some people seem to say they know e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g about it, there are those who are unaware what or why the heck even until they're married.

Well, obviously there's no direct 'definition' to l.o.v.e itself, but I just wanted to try and explain love from My own 'bird's-eye' point of view.


Okay. First, there's Attraction, and attraction can be easily divided into 3 forms:


Birdie's Law of Attraction (sounds kinda physics to me, but... meh...):

1. Mental Attraction
This form of attraction is the basic attraction for most people. Simply put, it's the intersection point of interests, discussion topics, hobbies, likes and dislikes. In other words, attraction occurs when people of the same mentality mix together. It's brought about by having common views, and having someone to share what doing what someone enjoys together with him or her.


2. Emotional Attraction
Emotional attraction is the type of attraction that isn't acquired in a day, or a week... This usually happens over time when time is spent with a certain person, say... going to class together, playing together, watching movies together, and the such. This attraction grows with time... and is something related to 'habit'. As time passes, you're "habitually" attracted to that person you spend time with. This attraction isn't dependent on having Mental Attraction, but of course it's usually a result of Mental Attraction (Uh... duh... would you wanna be sitting beside someone who says everything you do isn't right in class?).

Emotional attraction is the one that makes your hand feel heavy when waving a goodbye to someone at the airport, it's the attraction that makes you call someone to see how they're doing, and also the same attraction that makes people break down and cry when losing a loved one.


3. Physical Attraction
This... in a more crude and direct way of saying this... ... is Lust... .... okay, that's maybe a bit too crude, but Lust is one of the kinds of physical attraction. It's the attraction that makes the guys eye some girl's butt, or the boobies... or whatever they wanna eye on. Of course, let's not make it sound so dirty, cause it doesn't necessarily have to involve butts and boobs. It may be because of the way someone talks, or the way she laughs, or the way he just stands, or just because a certain someone looks cute. This attraction sometimes doesn't just happen overnight, sometimes it takes time for people to realise why they find a certain individual interesting.



After talking about the 3 forms of Attraction, I'll now brief you on the 3 types of Love.


But seeing that it's 2:30 in the morning. I'd better get some sleep. I'll post the continuation later, hehe.

Stay tuned.

John Titor & Time Travel

**UPDATE (14th Nov 2010): It seems the links to photos/images to this post have mostly been taken down or the site gone inactive. Sorry about that, if anybody still reads this post. If I have the time and mood, which I rarely do =( I'll try to re-up or find backup images for it. If not, just too bad then.


I guess you guys have watched Time Travel movies since you were kids right? You go like "Whoa~! That is SOoo KEewl man... To be able to go back in time and save the world." Or think of stuff like "Wouldn't it be nice if I could see my future/past self, or even shake hands with him/her/myself?" It seems, that these things may not be very far from reality actually.


Just a month or two ago though, I actually thought about this question. "Is Time Travel possible?" And after some serious considerations, analysis, and theories I thought about, I concluded that it wasn't. However, it seems I only considered a "Serial Timeline" Theory, and overlooked the possibility of another method of Existence for our world.

Okay, I found this information a few days ago whilst having exams, thanks to a prompt from a friend while chatting over lunch.... and instead of studying, I spent my day learning about this guy John Titor and about Time Travelling. Anyway, I'm gonna present my summary of 5 hours research on him here.


Before I start, I'll give a word of Warning:

********** ~Very Long and Confusing Post ahead~

**********

Content below might contain heavy 'nonsensical' discussion on Time Travelling and multiple hard to imagine concepts also. You might want to consider to NOT continue reading if you do not wish to boggle your mind with weird concepts and stuff, or if you just do not have any interest in Time Travel whatsoever.

**********

If you're still with me. Then, prepare to be mystified.

So, the story goes that there is this guy named John Titor, who made his appearance in year 2000 ~ 2001 and claims to be a Time Traveler (I'll use TT-er from now on) from the year 2036. John appears to be a military personnel, on a mission, to go back to the year 1975, and retrieve an IBM computer UNIX 5100. This was one of the first portable computers created by IBM, and this model, unlike the rest, contained a simple but unique feature in it. However, the feature during that time did not seem to have much use, and so IBM dropped the feature in their newer computer models, leaving all of today's computer without that feature.

But in year 2036, scientists realised that the feature in that IBM computer would be the only thing that could prevent a worldwide freeze of their computers in the year 2038, which would happen due to technical issues I'll not mention here. (much like the our year 2000 Y2K problem).

He appeared in 1975 with a Time Machine loaded on a Chevvy. It is said that the Chevvy would be less obvious at that time. After his mission though, he stopped by the year 1999~2001 for personal reasons and lived with his "family" (His real self was only 2~3 years old at that time). He managed to convince his family that it was his future self, and stayed with them. And during that time, he actually made an appearance on the internet, firstly nicknamed "TimeTravel_0" on multiple chat logs. And later laid claim to the name "John Titor".

He later returned to his year 2036 sometime around End of March or early April 2001, but this time in a 1987 4-wheeled-

Of course, there were few people who believed him. The skeptics tried to expose his hoax, and the gullible took it all for real and listened to his stories.
As for me... ... am for now still unsure whether this can be true of false.

However, even if he was a hoax. He actually left behind many theories and concepts for time travel that no one else actually thought about. He explained, to a limit, how his time machine worked, and even posted parts of the operation manual (don't ask me "What for?").


All this while, MY concept of Time Travel, was travelling along a "Serial Timeline". A serial timeline means..... only a single timeline exists. And for the next event to occur, the event before that HAS to have happened.... or so to say... something like this picture.

This is what a Serial Timeline would look like. And after a couple of days and hours considering how traversing through a serial timeline would be possible, I came to the conclusion that: It was Impossible.

John Titor however, IF he were a real TT-er, stated that even though it's called Time Travelling, it still obeys the final rules of 'Time'. That is, "Time and Tide waits for No Man".

**Assuming John was a REAL TT-er**

John explained Time Travel as traveling across Multiple "Parallel Worlds", each world having it's own "Worldline". Meaning to say. There are INFINITE versions of the world today, all 'running' at the same time. He also stated that "Every possible outcome, event and possibility is happening and will happen". Meaning to say... in each of those Infinite Worlds, there is a 'Me', a 'You' and 'Everybody else' in that universe, doing nearly the same or perfectly different things.

"Parallel Worldlines" Concept
This isn't talking about TimeTravel though, it's just an example.

In the other worlds, as he said, every possible outcome will happen, maybe, in this world, you chose to drink Coffee this morning; in the other world your other 'you' chose to drink Tea instead. Another more accurate example: The 'You' in this world decided to punch your friend for stealing from you; whereas in the other world 'you' decided to forgive him instead. These list of possibilities though, are all tied down by one thing only. And that is the each and every person's personality and choices.

In that manner, it is frustrating to know that you are capable of and acting on all of the thoughts and ideas you have regardless of what the “you” HERE in this worldine is doing. How good or evil do you think you can be?

He even said that there's a specific study with supportive physics evidence that the our Dreams, deja vu phenomenons, memories, intuitions, subconsciousness are all part of the other 'you's trying to communicate with each other. Now THAT would be cool wouldn't it 0.0


But the "Parallel Worldlines" concept also meant that each world is a separate entity from each other. So even if a TT-er travels 'back' in time, and kills his younger self, it will only affect the worldline of his younger self's, and not the worldline he is from. This is also because of the universal law of Time. That is.... Time doesn't go back. So we still can't change history with a Time Machine.


And this is how the intertwining worldlines would look like in God's Eyes.

I guess that's how you could say the world looks like if you could see every single dimension as a thin line.


**Seems like my post is getting a bit long, so I won't go explanation of how he mentioned his time machine works, since it's got to do with Quantum Gravitational Physics and Micro-singularities, black holes and space-man stuff.... I won't know what I'm talking about by then either.


Anyway.... the point of my post wasn't to argue whether John Titor was a fake or not, or whether we could time travel or not, or even whether his explained theory of time travel was correct or not (but if he WAS a real TT-er, it must've been correct lol). Even though the so-called Time Traveler John Titor had 'gone back' to his year 2036 in the year 2001, till today, people still ask about him, research about him, and intelligence agencies still remain hunting for traces of him. Whether he's a fake or not... I'm not really concerned actually.

But after this guy's appearance, researches are actually now being carried out on his 'rumoured' theories relevant to time travel (it's called the String Theory btw, in case any of you nutcases are wondering what theory it is). This theory didn't exist until AFTER he mentioned it in year 2001, and is still an ongoing research until today.

And my point is, whether time travel is real or not... this guy actually managed to bring Hope into the world. Living in a world where time is never enough, where people bustle about only minding their own business, this person brought about a Plan, a Concept, an Idea, and that is the possibility of Time Travel.


Whereas he might have been a hoax that was an 18 year old teen who sat behind a 17" Plasma LCD monitor all day to think up of such nonsense; or some prison break criminal hiding in a cyber cafe... he still brought about a change in our world. And whether you know it or not, it certainly made a change in our worldline.


Oh, and the final thing I learnt through this is
Time never flows back. Not even a Time Machine can save you.

It's all just a Paper-thin line apart

Yes and No. In and Out. Here and There. To Be or Not to Be. Right and Wrong. Truth and Falsity. Life and Death. What separates each from the other, is all just a paper-thin line.


I knew this all along, but not until Yesterday, did it actually dawn upon me that everything actually followed this 1 or 0 rule.


All along in my exams in Uni so far. I've never failed a subject. Nor do I plan to ~.~ (who does, well, maybe some do). But yesterday. I came across a subject so hard, *okay, it wasn't actually THAT hard, but the fact that I NEVER listened to lectures or studied it AT ALL before this made it so*, that I was almost willing to give it up. Yet, my conscience and ego took over, and I forced myself to study through the midnight before the exam.

So after I finished my paper yesterday. Though I don't think I did well, but I think that I somewhat managed to scrape through and pass. But since the results aren't out, I can't say for sure.


However, soon, I got word from a friend taking the same subject. And the person told me, that all she hopes for right now is for a Supplementary Exam. At that moment, I felt regret, and guilt, for not asking her to study more, for not telling her to stop playing around. I always thought that it would be fine, that it should be fine. I was wrong.

Pass or Fail. Only then did I realise, failure was just an inch away from passing. Even though we might not realise it, but it's always lingering around the corners, waiting for us to make a wrong move, waiting us to fall into the wrong temptation. I never knew it was so close by.... and I never had the thought of it actually happening, to me, or to my friends.

I'm lucky that I pushed myself to study even though it really felt like hell during those hours.... .... in the middle of the night, with no food, not enough sleep (due to a 3 day combo of exams, this was the 3rd). I felt like a living zombie at 6 in the morning. While some who fell into the trap and didn't manage to fight back, lost themselves, and ended up on the other side of that paper-thin margin.


But from now on, I guess I'll be more aware of that paper-thin margin. That separates one from the other.
And that the choice, is Ours to make.

Some, however... are less fortunate to make that choice. But that's a whole new topic to talk about when the time comes.

Ways to study before Exam

So what's been going on lately?? Well, I think all of you are clever enough to realise nearly EVERYONE is having exams lately. And that includes me.

Well, I'm gonna be straightforward and tell you guys this. The Worst Enemy for Exams today, is Facebook. Haha, obvious? duh~ I guess it isn't rocket science. I've been hearing so many versions of those so-called "effective ways to study" lectures ever since I stepped into Uni, and the FIRST thing on everybody's version is "NO FACEBOOK".

Unfortunately for me, I seemed to got addicted to it at the wrong time of the year T.T Whilst having an exam the very next day.... I was surfing stalking people's blogs, spaces, and FB photo albums "re-living" my Senior Secondary years =.=

I had 3 days of straight of my life's worsts subjects I've encountered so far.... and my schedule was...


Midnight 1, 4:30AM in the morning:

Stalking FB profiles.... photo albums....

And....

Doing 90 Degree Head Tilt exercises while browsing Madame May Ting's MSN Spaces photo albums (Seriously.... you could've rotated them before uploading them lol).


Day 2, whole night:
Commenting and laughing my ass off at comments in our newly Updated photo album of long lost photos ^^ It's just so nostalgic looking at those funny pictures of our kiddy looks.

And browsing more photo albums such as the one below:
http://cid-fd8ea43a9c64c842.skydrive.live.com/albums.aspx


And finally, Midnight 3, which is tonight:
What am I doing? Blogging at 6AM in the morning.... why am I awake so early in the morning you might ask? Coz I didn't sleep *_* (Well, this time I studied..... a little....)



I seriously wonder whether I can pass my units this sem...

Though I'm really worried for it. But I really can't help but laze around.

Exams... are so close...

I really wonder how I studied for exams all my life. Throughout my life, I've sat through dozens and maybe hundreds of exams. Never once did I fail too badly, but never once do I know how I managed to scrub through it either.

Exam for this semester is coming up once again. But this time.... I really really really really do NOT, feel like studying... why? I don't know.... I wonder how I studied for exam last semester, but I can't seem to recall how =.=

At the same time, our oh-so-kind lecturer decided to give us some ADVICE! I was overjoyed when I saw the link "must read ADVICE". So I quickly clicked it, and waited for my 'snailnet' to load the page..... ..... .... .... ... ... ... .. .. .. .. . . . . After an agonizing 3 MINUTES.

Doesn't "May you find the force WITHIN you" sound like some Yoda talk from Star Wars!??? Or is there some hidden meaning in the 'within' word since it was highlighted in RED?? Seriously ~.~... the advice couldn't be any worse...


So instead of studying... I eventually decided to take photos instead ^^ and try out my new 'semi-studio' setup for shooting small items (which.... hopefully... with some time and money... would expand into being able to shoot human subjects)

And... well, the results turned out pretty nice, hehe.

My ZIPPO Lighter

My poor battered up phone.
But to me it looks almost like new here, haha


And last, somehow, simple but my favourite so far.


A present from a friend of mine.
(Though I never use it....)

Any comments?? hehe


Shucks.... photoshooting instead of studying.... I'm really doomed.... maybe I should change my course after all, lol.

That's all for now. Gonna give studying a try.

钱不够用 II (2008)

Well, I once did a movie review for The Love of Siam. And I think I mentioned before that I rarely do movie reviews unless I really find it GOOD.

This will be my second movie review. It's another good movie I'd recommend everybody to watch, but this review is gonna be a short one though. Mainly because it'll be better for you to watch it for yourself, secondly because I don't really like everything about the movie, and lastly, I'm supposed to have exam tomorrow.... Okay, less chit chat, I'll get on with the review.

****************

My thoughts and comments:

Before watching this movie, I actually didn't have high expectations for it. This might be an additional factor that made the movie stand out to me though, maybe... hehe

Anyway, contrary to the title "Money No Enough", the movie actually has a few turn-points which make it ever so interesting, but I'm not gonna say what it's about here ^^

I personally have never really liked Singapore movies. Reasons? Because, 1, they look cheap. 2, the actors are cheap. 3, their English is cheap. 4, their Chinese sound cheap too. (Sorry if there's any Singaporeans reading. But I'm just talking about the movies, not the people) And so was this movie. I didn't actually like anything about it. EXCEPT..... it's plot, and how the director put things together.

Well, I can understand that Singaporean language is sort of the same as us KK-zai language, all rojak language. But this is a movie, going international~!! But then again, who am I to criticize.

So, a dear friend, Steam, introduced this movie to me. I seriously kept this movie under all my other junk for a couple of months now, never had I thought of actually watching it. Until yesterday.

I seriously was about to change my mind and watch another movie after 15 minutes, but since someone said it's really nice, I thought I'd just stick and see what was so nice about it.

Title: Money No Enough II, 钱不够用II

Director: Jack Neo

Movie Origin: Singapore


Introduction and Review:

Basically, what I liked about the movie is it's resemblance to our everyday lives. How they portrayed the lives of a normal businessman, how they showed the lives of a family. As the title states, it's simply a story of a family that has to deal with money issues, and how each and every family member deals with it with their own way and how it all went.

The plot itself, was very simple. And even from the start, you can actually know how the story would go (seriously). In fact, as I watched the movie, I saw it all coming, but even when I saw it coming, it still hit me hard when it actually came. The simpleness and daily stuff that we take for granted each day, the decisions that everyone come across once in a lifetime..... this movie just.... depicted it all so clearly.

Even though the plot is a simple one, (I seem to like simple plots ~.~ same goes for my other top favourite movies), it successfully passes the message of "Life" and "Love" on to the audience.

I'm not all over this movie. But I definitely recommend it to everyone, the young, the old, your friends, and most of all, your family ^^


I'd give a 10 for the storyline if it wasn't a bit too overboard.... but I have to say I can only give 9 due to it's slight over exaggerations. Unfortunately, besides the storyline, I have nothing to say about the acting, soundtracks, and the rest of the movie.

******************

A Taste of Halloween

**Blog seeming dull lately? Yea... well, sorry guys. I haven't really had the inspiration to blog lately. I've been busy reading up on photography ~.~ and also sleeping... hmm... my apologies

Never have I known what Halloween was like since I was a child. I'm asian, so what did I expect? Halloween isn't celebrated much in Asian countries, so... yea....

Anyway, on 30th October 2009, the Curtin Arts and Dance Society (not sure whether I got the name right... but whatever...) held a "Halloween Night Festival", and having nothing to do, and friends who were just as 'sakai' as me, we decided to take a peek at what Halloween was all about.

I went with hope of taking some pictures as a keepsake, and brought my camera along. Unfortunately for me, my on-board camera flash was out of order. Which left me with a useless black piece of paperweight dangling from the bright yellow 'nikon' worded strap on my shoulders. So I didn't really manage to take many photos.

However, with some skill and brains, I managed to come up with the idea of "borrowing" other people's flash to get some pictures. And the results were.... some 'graffiti' like photographs ^^

So, as you can see above, that night turned out a BIT more interesting than I expected.

There were people who came in nurse costumes, some looked like some character from Scary Movie... all the way to the "Devil Wears Prada" look walking around in the midst of the crowd.

Before anything else, in case you were wondering what I wore... haha, sorry to say that I just wore plain clothes.

Well, with everyone looking so weird and awful, I have to say that it was quite fun to look straight into someone you see every single day in canteen.... yet wonder "Who the hell is this guy?". Some wore masks; some made their face white 0.0; some looked like they just finish having dinner with the poor T-virus infected zombies; and one even painted his face green like Frankenstein!! (+ the two screws in the head)


Anyway, besides all the horrifying looks in everyone's faces. There was dinner! and performances ^^ Hmm... I guess RM10 for the ticket wasn't too bad after all.

Though most of the performances weren't THAT amazing.... (maybe due to the darkish atmosphere and a sort of..... bad choice of venue for such an event. But in case of liability issues, I won't complain here, hehe....) but overall, there were a few that managed to keep me amazed.

Even though I have NO IDEA whatsoever HOW Halloween is related to Cheerleading.... they managed to put on quite a show (despite me being unable to see anything thanks to the crowd... and the dark atmosphere once again). Reminds me of TTSS cheerleading btw....

Then other than cheerleading... there were a couple of dance performances and also music by some live band. Even our dear Pheobe performed Cha-Cha at such a break-necking pace....... that I didn't manage to take any pictures T.T sob..... sorry Pheobe.

Nevertheless.... besides listening to some heavy metal music that almost made me deaf, the rest of the night was pretty interesting. And the BEST performance of the night of course..... went to this girl below.

Looking at the picture above... you might think she's in for a Singing performance... don't you?

But the fact is, she's a Beat-boxer, this girl above managed to Beat-Box a nearly 10 minute long playlist of one-woman-mouth-band-including-DJ music. I seriously could NOT imagine so much sound coming out from that SINGLE mouth of hers. I even had to stand up and look around in case they hid a full band behind one of the walls.... but I can tell you for certain, the full range of drums, guitar, vocals, vocal effects, and even dj-ed records came purely from that one woman standing in front of everyone.

I've heard and seen Beat-Boxers on TV and talent shows like American Idol. But never LIVE.... And she really blew me away that night.

Before the night ended. Of course, they had to give out their "Best Costume Award" to someone. And above are the top 10 nominees. From right to left, we have...... a Statue of Liberty =.-....; a Fairy; an Angel; Zombie 1; some random Cowboy 0.o (I wonder how he got up there); our friendly neighbourhood Sweeney Tod; some undead Zombie nurse....; Zombie 2; and lastly Luna the Moonbunny ^^

**I forgot who won. So....

Well, and that's about all that happened on 30th October besides me sleeping. It's a bit late for it now but anyway....

~ !!~Happy Halloween~!! ~

頭にが。。。。ぐちゃぐちゃだ。

最近、問題が徐々に、俺が気づかなかった時に、どんどん重ねいた。答えが遠く問題。。。答えが見つからない問題。。。。答えで無い問題。。。何と答え探しても。。。。解からない、全然解かんない。

ある人が言った： "ある問題が時間だけを掛かれば、答えはある日、必ず出られます。"　だが俺自分は、もう我慢でいないんだ。毎日、起きるから寝るまで、この問題たちが頭を塞がる。

ぺルフへ行けか。家を越すか。今のコースを変更するか。お金をどう得るか。二年後で勉強を続くのか、仕事を始めるか。。。。これだけじゃない。まだ多久さんな。。。考えられない問題がいる。一人で、この道で歩く、やっぱりできないんだもん。

これからどうやってればいいかな。多分、この全てを忘れる筈だし、ずっと前へ、できることをやるしかないか。

タク。。。俺何やてんだよ。最大きいな声で叫びたい感じ。。。

Photography: DSLRs, a quick reflection, and a quick introduction

I first had interest in Photography since I was around 18. Before that, I didn't quite find it interesting, maybe I was young, maybe I was immature, but I had more interest in Video-graphy and films.

Even now, I still strongly wish I could dive into the Film & TV production line, yet, I'm still stuck where I am for the meantime.

Anyway, I had my first camera at the end of year 2008. Since then, my passion for photography has grown, deeper and stronger. And today, I find myself checking and learning about photo-related stuff at least once a day.


But that's not my topic for this post. In this post, I'm gonna nag about how photography became from a nearly insignificant or severely unappreciated skill, into something so cool today that you even see 13 year old Danny boy holding a DSLR walking the market.

DSLR's have became a 1 in a 500 sight, to 1 in 20. Meaning that for every 20 people, at least 1 person has a DSLR today. The reason for this?? I'll go straight to the point, DSLRs used to cost a FORTUNE to buy during our grandad's days, and they only came in film formats, would you buy a 10k black colored box, which you couldn't see the result of what you're shooting until it came out of the very dark-room and you said "Aiyak! I missed the head!".

The cheapest DSLRs today costs only around 2k to own. Ranging from the Nikon D60, Canon's Rebel Series, and all the way to the less known but 'satisfaction guaranteed' brands such as Olympus. A very good point and shoot (P&S) digicam would cost 1.5k, and a bombshell DSLR at 2k, but the quality?? **whistles** Not up to debate ^.^


However, this drop in pricing lead to a quite an overpopulation (if you ask me) in DSLRs for the typical consumers. It seems that nowadays, nearly every John Doe you meet has a DSLR at home which he/she would gladly showoff to everyone so that they think he/she's a professional photographer. And the problem, is... that they just don't bloody know how to actually USE a DSLR. 90% of them just spin the mode dial into Auto, and shoot away with full-auto!!

Just let me say.... that a DSLR wasn't built for such use. They are SPECIFIC. People (real Photographers) buy DSLRs for a purpose, and that is to have full control of the camera's functions. Photography is a constituent of many many elements put together to make that photo WORTH the price.

Technical stuff like Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO Sensitivity is one..... but then, there are Technique-cal stuff again, like angles, lighting, focal length...... not to mention the most important things about photography, which are NOT any of those just mentioned, but instead is 'the Right moment, and the Right time'. Only with all these put together, the product.... is an art, and it's called photography.


So for those of you who were planning on buying a DSLR just to go auto and let the camera do everything? I'd recommend you just get the 1.5k(or less) one which would do just exactly fine. Unless you're into Serious photography, getting a DSLR will be just for show...

I'm no pro in photography or something, but at least I'm trying, and am still learning. If you're interested and need any help, I'd gladly help too.

**Btw, to those interested in DSLRs, D = Digital, SLR = Single Lens Reflect, which actually got it's name from the use of a Single Lens body only each time we're shooting. The MAIN purpose of a DSLR, is for it's interchangable wide range of lenses. So IF you're planning on getting an SLR, and NOT planning on upgrading your Lenses..... you're basically buying a One Kilogram paperweight.



That's all.


~Sorry if the content seemed a bit offensive. I just thought I'd update my blog and I came up with this. Anyway, it might serve as a wake up call to any of you who's still shooting Auto with your SLR/DSLR. It's 3am btw, so pardon if it sounds a bit harsh.... I'm sleepy and my mood isn't so good ^^

Curtin Prom Night 09'

It's been nearly 2 weeks since my last update.... Sorry if I kept anyone waiting, but I was pretty busy lately, with studies, assignments, and also a sudden change in a couple of plans...

And so..... I was busy all week last week, up to the very 3AM on Sunday. To cut the long story short, I had 3 assignments due last friday, and after finally struggling my way out of that, next came 2 events back to back. "Prom Night", and the our beloved "Mooncake Festival" ^^


First things first. Prom Night.

Since secondary school, I heard the term "Prom Night".... from movies, dramas, highschool musicals.... and all kinds of funky teenage movies. I always wondered what they did in prom night besides get to know each other, eat eat, dance dance, drink drink, and so on.... .... so THIS year, I attended the ever-so-mysterious-to-me "Prom Night"

This year's theme for prom night was "Stars of Romance". (whatever that means...) The ticket itself cost a freakin RM50, which I would rather pour into my investment of another camera lens, stacked on top of the fact that my whole ring of friends weren't going.... so, Oh Well.... I decided not to go.


However, opportunities present themselves in the weirdest way. Within the next few days, I received the opportunity to attend the prom night, for FREE!! ^^ But of course.... there was a catch...... I went..... as a photographer..... 'no food, just shoot'. Well, anyway, I've been doing these kind of 'backstage' work ever since I learnt how to do them, so I accepted, just for the fun of it.


Prom Night is the time when all the girls and guys make an extra effort to make themselves.... "Stand out of the Crowd", or, to some extent.... "Electrify others".

For the guys, all the blazers and coats suddenly fly in, the dusty leather shoes get polished, and the tangled neckties get ironed, and all the 4 lettered words are nowhere to be heard.... the girls, come in dresses, wear sparkles, earrings, their bling-bling, make up, Do their HairDo, Talk the Talk, and Walk the Walk.


Some even come with a pre-planned Colour theme.

For a formal dinner like this.... I guess it's nothing less to be expected, haha. After the arrivals of all our ladies and gentlemen. The next thing, of course, is to proceed to dinner =)


35 tables, 10 persons per table, 350 in total.

With everyone seated at their place... and hearing each other's growling stomachs, Dinner is Served!!

Oops.... but before that.... of course, there was the common "Opening Ceremony" and Speech from the Dean. So they'll just have to wait patiently for the food to cook.

We had 4 photographers that day.... and here's my pal. No, that's not me. I don't own a flash unit yet.

Being a paparazzi on scene isn't something simple.... It's like holding a gun, that doesn't kill.... yet everybody's scared of you (why!?? coz I can shoot you!?), and then, to make things more complicated.... our dear Waiters and Waitresses have to bustle around the place at full throttle, and literally whispering 'excuse me' behind your back thinking you have some kind of subsonic ears or phsycic sense to realise their presence when we're trying to aim for that 'Once-in-a-lifetime' moment.

There was a musical violin orchestra playing as people ate their dinner, a performance from the "Curtin Idol" group of 3 girls, and other stuff that I couldn't remember.

Soon after dinner though.... everybody's compact digicams suddenly popped out of their tiny wallets and all the camwhoring started. Then I realised there was no need for us photographers anymore = (


I was wondering whether the night was gonna end soon. Until all of the sudden, the lights dimmed, and the curtains opened...... revealing...


The Dance Floor.

(Unfortunately I didn't upload any pictures of it)


Firstly, was the good old ballroom dancing for the couples. However, that one didn't last long. Not more than 15 minutes after the curtains fell, the music changed, the spotlights changed, and the initally romantic setting turned into a Full Blown Clubbing Scene!

People crowded around, the ladies took of their high heels, the men took of their coats, and the dance party began!

Some people whom looked like they studied the dictionary in campus, literally danced their feet off that night.

It was one wild night for most people.... and it was definitely a fun scene to see.


Sometimes though.... I can all but say 'Love is In the Air':

Later that night.... I guess I found out why they named it "Stars of Romance"

*** E N D ***