Category Archives: Pictures

Third Stone From Jalan Ipoh

I live in a housing area in Segambut, near Kepong.

I use public transportation.

I am a guinea pig to the new RapidKL buses, that rolled out in North KL (Kepong, Sentul, Gombak etc.) I could say I was thrilled to be the first.

How does the new system work?

Take a bus from any one of the central stops (Maluri, Titiwangsa, KLCC, Medan Pasar (behind Central Market) or KL Sentral) to another central stop. In my case, Titiwangsa. I then hop on an intermediate shuttle bus that brings me to Metro Prima. Metro Prima is thus the bus hub for Kepong and Manjalara. From there, I take a bus to my housing area.

The buses that route the central stops are 5-10 minutes each. The intermediate shuttles come every 10-15 minutes, and the home-coming bus comes every 15-30 minutes. These are my observations, not something read from their leaflets.

On the downside, it is initially confusing, and you can’t sleep on the bus. I used to take one bus from Medan Pasar all the way to my housing area. I knew its exact times; it always left Medan Pasar at the 15th and 45th minute of every hour, except during peak times. I also knew that the last bus left at 11:15pm.

On the upside, it makes a whole lot of sense. Segmenting the bus routes will segment jams, too; a bus that used to go from A to B to C might get a jam at B. Now, jams delay only the B buses. People actually travel short distance, within a point in A to another point in A, so the jam in B doesn’t affect them. Shorter routes also let the buses be more frequent.

Oh, and the last bus is now 12:30am! Eat that, taxi drivers who charge midnight charge between 11pm and 12 midnight, instead of after midnight! (Oh, and midnight charge is 50% extra, not twice the amount on the meter, kids!)

Anyway, I got on the 2T3 bus from Titiwangsa to Batu Tiga, Jalan Ipoh, where I was waiting for the bus to my place. It was 9:55pm and I was not in any rush, and asked the conductor when the bus would leave. 10:20pm, he said. I took that chance to eat dinner at some roadside stalls nearby.

A chicken burger for RM1.80! Where else can you get that price? Decent sloppy burger.

Super old-school parking meters.

A busker stood in the mainly Chinese crowd and started playing. I went over, dropped a note and asked if he knew Bob Dylan. How many roads must a man walk down before you can call him a man?

As I ate slowly, I saw THREE buses that were headed to my place, pass by. Not bad, not bad.

Inspired, I slung out my guitar. Notice that thing on my hair?

Yes that’s right – a guitar capo! I was shopping around for the spring-loaded one, but couldn’t find one cheap enough that I could afford to lose. Yeah, I tend to lose anything tying my hair, except plain rubberbands.

And this is for those who wonder what my sideburns look like after the 500th-day-haircut.

Anyway, if you don’t like using public transport, then go save up for your own car. Or convince your parents that you’re not traumatized by that road accident anymore. Or get a license. Or walk.

If you don’t have the money, come take the bus with me and I shall impart upon you my virtues of patience.

Homecoming, Bloghopping

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So Asian Hottest Blogger nominee, Agent Ching and I went to KL Performing Arts Centre one Sunday to watch The Homecoming, a twisted play about a man who brings his wife to meet his dysfunctional family. There’s real actual kissing on stage, so if you’ve never seen it in a play, this would be the chance. Plus, Loo Jia-Wei is hot.

We then adjourned to the swings in Sentul Park for some camwhoring but uploading that, I leave for later. We found out too late that Kenny Sia was in the vicinity too! By then, he was already in The Curve, so out of lack of dinner plans we decided to steal his. Dinner plans I mean, not dinner.

We also knew that he was with Jasiminne, so we rushed over to see how hot she was. Neither of us had commented on her blog nor linked to her, so we could still pretend to not know who she is.

But the truth is, we bloggers are also professional ~~stalkers~~ researchers. I recently discovered that non-bloggers are getting just as skilled in research, so HELLO THERE! Here’s a cookie for you!

Upon meeting them amidst borders made of bookshelves in Borders, Kenny said, “Hello Cheesie!” and they hugged. He then said, “Hello Albert.” While it may be presumptuous to assume that nobody reads my blog, I did feel a pang of pride being… recognized by a big man with big coconuts.

Then, Jasiminne said “Hello Cheesie!” and they hugged. She then turned to me and said “Hello peacock!” Damn shy I tell you. She’d only know that nickname if she researched, and she said she preferred the original color, when it was freshly metallic blue, which would mean further research into my archives. *gasp*

I know my statistics! Most of you don’t read my archives, and don’t bother clicking when I link to older posts!

However, to reveal such technical tracerouting is monologuing of sorts already, and I shall attempt to stop revealing my methods, lest bloggers around assume that I have done my research when I haven’t. Being acknowledged by a famous blogger gives you a sense of accomplishment, because it means you have become famous in your own right. And damn, I’ve become old and grandfatherly. I’ve already started telling people how I met Minishorts before she even had a domain, or how Paul Tan and I used to ~~sleep~~ stay overnight at the office singing Californication.

I also know six CLEO Bachelors this year, of which I have two phone numbers.

I think I’ve been reading too much Lainie (who is now linked), hence the jumpy paragraphing style.

Anyway, how do I jump back to the original intended mood of my post, which was based on these pictures?

“I should win the Asian Hottest Blogger award!”
“But you’re not even in it!”

Me with that rare pimp smile.

Troubadours International Womens’ Day

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Yes, people will berate me for this, but at least I posted this in the same month. Here comes pictures from the Troubadours International Women’s Day gig, on the 5th of March 2006 at La Bodega KL.

Again, I was lazy, so I’ll chuck them all in one picture (to save bandwidth) and list them, left to right, top to bottom:

Ida Lisa Zahran, or whatever you call this acoustic singer-songwriter.
Jasemaine Gan sounding confident in this cosy setup, with a small crowd.
Rhapsody, bestest ever undiscovered jazzy duo.
Zalila Lee and Jerral Khor (yes he is male, and he did a fantastic cover of Dave Matthews Band – Ants Marching. Plus he sounds like him.)
Khai Lee (also male) explaining what Project Bazooka is about.
Jaclyn Kee reading a story about a little red riding… clitoris. Gotta dig her shirt though, it says, “I like my boobs“. She was also at the last Paul’s Place Press Conference about the raid.
Melina of Tempered Mental on acoustic. A must-see! She plays all the memorable riffs from her progressive rock band while singing effortlessly! Her voice is confident, clear and defined when distorted guitar and drums have been cut away. The only other band I can think of that sounds just as great on just acoustic guitar is Duan of Seven Collar T-Shirt.
Finally, Jaz reads us some moving poetry.

There are also videos at Lainie‘s and pictures at Cheneille‘s blog.

Of Pictures And Text

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Why don’t I add text to pictures?

Quite simple.

I don’t have a lot of fonts, so Photoshop loads faster, and if I typed “Pink Honda Jazz” in the picture, instead of typing it out in text, I would not be able to do a text search on it.

I don’t like watermarking my pictures either, not that I’m encouraging that people steal, but often I see great pictures plastered with alpha-transparency text, obstructing the beauty of the picture. If your girlfriend was a model, you wouldn’t tattoo your name on her cheeks would you?

That said, I don’t hate watermarking people, just the bad watermarking. A logo in a corner is better.

There are also different levels of Photoshopping.
1) Resize
2) Resize and auto-levels
3) Resize, color balance adjustment, contrast (at this stage all adjustments are done on the entire image, not specific parts of the image)
4) Resize, color balance adjustment, contrast, sharpening
5) Resize, color balance adjustment, contrast, sharpening and retouching (actual color adjustment, surgical enhancements)

I usually do 1) when the picture is perfect, 2) for normal shots, 3) for darker shots and shots where I want to put emphasis on a certain object, or isolate by mildly desaturating the background, and 4) for when it’s blur. I take pride in the fact that my pictures look plausible, given the right settings. At most, I am merely covering for exposure/color mistakes done when taking the picture.

I’m relatively good at retouching, but I abhor it. I respect the purity of the image as it was captured, and step 4) is just to adjust the picture to what your eyes would see, or your brain would see, like a white paper in a yellow-lighted room. Also notice that the human eye has very big aperture (I did an experiment) and it is hard to focus on two objects far from each other at the same time. When you want to look at the other object, you have to refocus on the other object.

If taking a picture back then meant stealing your soul, then I can see why we like to steal souls. Guys with cameras, I know, want to take a hot chick’s picture with their own camera. Sure, they can probably stalk her on Friendster and download and save pictures, but it’s not the same. You take her picture, it’s like you snapped a bit of her soul. You feel proud. A conquest. A capture, even if the methods were sneaky. All the more to be proud if you are in that same picture, so you can show off to friends. “Look I’m in the same picture with her!“, you beam.

Okay, now that you’ve braved my text, I shall reward you (sic) with pictures.

Left: A man is hard at work pumping. Argh motion blur! Right: I flash him, and he flashes me back.

One morning I didn’t sleep through the night, so I took my tripod out to the porch at 6:20am and took this stitched shot. (Picture has been turned to monochrome for clarity.)

Deja Voodoo Spells album launch, 26th January 2006: This is where I tried to sneak a shot in The Actors’ Studio Bangsar. The band played, with hot dancers in between each song. Whoa. First of its kind.

Here’s a customary shot of the KLCC Twin Towers. But it is just so pretty.

Left to right, top to bottom: Davina is truly a space cowgirl; sticky melted honey sweets stick to your teeth; lobsters in the lower ground floor of Starhill sing, “I Want To Break Free“; Starhill toilets feature a complex, nifty old-school mechanism to activate the tap, more Starhill ornaments.

Left to right, top to bottom: I can play without even touching the grand piano at J.W. Mariott; more Starhill ornaments; interesting lights arranged in a pattern; interesting bricks arranged in a pattern; I couldn’t believe my eyes, she looked so real from afar; trees project a shadow on the fog.

Left to right, top to bottom: The rope and the hole that broke Kevin‘s arm; the secret passageway underneath; the by-invite-only special screening of Khai‘s full-length movie, Ciplak; Khai the man giving a speech.

Ciplak features about everybody close to him in the scene, including the otai putih Peter Hassan Brown in a juicy role. There were elements of British humor, and while the introduction does try to slowly educate you on piracy, it quickly picks up into a very fun, accessible chase movie, with Khai the hero trying to get pirated DVDs to save his life, while spewing his trademark wit.

The only complaints I had were technical issues, like the camera going in and out of focus in the darker scenes, greenish white balance and horrible digital noise from an expensive camera. I’d say, better with fake lighting then, than to have a okay-lit but noisy scene. As for the greenish tint, it wasn’t in the trailer, so I blame the projector, or Paul’s Place’s lighting. 😛 But hey Khai, if you could sort those niggles out, it would make a subconsciously better quality film to watch in GSC International Theatres. If the quality could be fixed, it would be a heck more fun to watch than Sepet. The story doesn’t indulge in indie-film style, so the only thing indie is the film quality.

Left to right, top to bottom: Waterfall, duh; the rich versus the poor (okay, okay, so Astro dishes need to face one direction, I know); freaky green-lighted bus stop; caused by a pedestrian traffic light.

And now, for some obscenely big infrared pictures of me and my pupils.

I hope nobody steals this for Friendster.

Shortpod

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I bought a short tripod today, for macro photography. Two of three legs can swivel. The head is mounted via a ball socket, and is tightened by a knob to its side. Of course, for only RM19 at a camera shop in KL Sentral, it couldn’t fully tighten, but it was tight enough to hold the weight of the camera in place. (This picture was a long exposure, with a lamp moved around the subject. Future macro shots may feature this move-lamp-and-kill-shadow technique.)

All three legs can be extended, for creative control over the tripod’s angle and elevation.

This is its specialty – it can be used to hold filters in place. Featured is my old Canon Powershot A400, with a circular polarizer held in place with the tripod’s legs. It is easier to position, the nearer the tripod mount is to the lens. If the upcoming Fujifilm F30 still doesn’t have a lens adapter, I might have to resort to this. If I get it, that is.

Lookalike, I Like

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So I was paying at the mamak, when the mamak dude says:

“You look like John Michael.”

His face was relatively near mine, but I couldn’t hear what he said.

“Huh?”

“You look like John Michael. You know, the wrestler.”

The way he said it, it was as if he was going to challenge me for my trophy belt right there.

Does anybody know this wrestler, since I don’t watch wrestling?

My hair was tied back, so I guess I looked more aggressive.

Edit: He probably meant Shawn Michaels.

I have a common face, or a face to link them all. I’ve been likened to the Alien Workshop logo in secondary school, Neo (Keanu Reeves) when I wear sunglasses, David Spade of Just Shoot Me, Topher Grace (who plays Eric Forman in That ’70s Show), Gavin Yap (the local thespian), some dude in APIIT Damansara Heights, some Malay dude who worked in Nando’s Midvalley, a handsome lecturer in Lim Kok Wing, a guitar-playing maestro who also plays chess, among other people. And maybe a peacock, too.

Pardon the crude, crude Photoshopping. These are the four best impressions of the famous actors I can look like.

And hey, I secretly enjoy being told that I look like somebody, especially if that someone is famous and good-looking.

So, I myself find delight in spotting people who do look like someone else. I swear, when I say, “hey you look like my friend“, it is not a pickup line. It gives me great joy to spot lookalikes, great joy to tell them, and hopefully, the person will be overjoyed as I am, too, secretly. Well, if I freaked you out then I am sorry. 😛

Edit: Check out Jenifer’s celebrity lookalike.

Jumping About Pictures

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Jason, Cherrie, Rames and I went to KFC for lunch. We did not talk about what we wanted to eat, but we all ended up ordering the exact same thing! We all paid exactly RM8.61, for a two-piece chicken value meal with Pepsi. All Original Recipe flavored. A working-class meal.

Three of Rames’ colleagues then bumped into us at KFC, and they sat at the table beside us. They ordered a two-piece chicken meal too, except they all chose Hot & Spicy flavor! The same happened for another bunch of distant colleagues from the IT department; they had Hot & Spicy.

And now, for some random photographically-techie pictures.

Okay, so I didn’t have time to prime the shot, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Jason, Jenifur and I were out of pictures to take at Fathima’s (behind Bangsar LRT station) so I meddled with spoons. Somehow, the artistic intended individualism did not carry through, but I reckon I could use this idea again.

This was between Bangsar LRT and Fathima’s. Again, there could be better composition but I couldn’t figure it out. Yeah, go ahead, steal my idea and make it better.

Closing time, One Utama.

Fill-in flash is what happens when you choose shutter priority or manual exposure mode, and turn on the flash. It flashes, then exposes for a while, leaving the background to expose.

This is another example of fill-in flash; this time, I jumped with the camera. How did I get that distance? By hooking it on a tripod, and holding the tripod by its legs!

I tried doing those jump shots as popularized by Jason, but ended up like this. I also like this picture because it makes me look fat.

Troubadours Open Doors and KLPAC Attack

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So I headed down to Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, Sentul, on the 26th of February 2006, for Troubadours Open Doors. Fazri and I photographically geeked out in the park after that, but that’s another blog entry yet to come.

But first, I wanted to take a picture of the taps with flash, like Cheneille did, where flashing it would turn on all the taps at once, but alas! They changed the taps (note the platforms below the taps.) It was back to traditional methods. Oh yeah? I could still take a picture with all the taps on.

KLPAC is a major beauty, and the show was at Pentas 2. Note how a double bass rests.

Kevin of Broken Scar likes the view.

I loved the lights. Superbly bright spot lighting allowed for comfortable ISO200 shots at 1/20 second exposures.

The floor is his stage, and it is big.

And so we invite Alda, who finally has an excuse to bring out his double bass, to play for Broken Scar.

I am training myself to be ambidextrous; here, Kevin’s camera is used to record a video.

Next up is Ian Chow. No wait, that’s his percussionist.

Yup, this is the man. The man with a voice so powerful he doesn’t need a mike. He also organized the gig, so look for him if you want a spot.

Azmyl Yunor, you know, is a folk legend. He busked in Australia and lectured in Malaysia. He sings folk tales with a Dylanesque drawl. And you know, only Bob Dylan gets the -esque postfix.

Hey that’s Kevin’s guitar! Yeah, noticed the loose G string in the previous picture? It snapped.

Da Praise Project played next. Good comtemporary Christian music.

Cut to bored crowd. Nah, kidding. This shot was taken earlier.

“Hey man, when are we gonna cut to the atmospheric ambient song?”

“Yeah bro, I want to solo.”

“I can’t wait for the funky technoish song.”

Tony Leo, vocalist, obliges to all their requests. After the praise and worship songs, that is.

And in the true spirit of praise and worship songs, we go, “ONE MORE TIME!”

Except, of course, I don’t play more songs. I put more pictures.

From left to right, then top to bottom: Loose cannon; retired cartoon characters; funky-painted stone benches; old meets new; a bush maze; I reached the center and touched the tree of life; those buggers didn’t fill the pond; old stones have peeling moss, gross.

From left to right, then top to bottom: Sad to see old dilapidated stone benches; a twin tower between twin towers; a ~~cow~~ koi fish swims; in the Sentul Park Koi Centre; a metal swan; a stone pond.

From left to right: The metal swan reflects infrared; the trees say, “ain’t nobody gonna hold me down“; a pathway to the Japanese restaurant there.

And now, we head back to Sentul Park for some good ol’ reflections.

“Look ma, no floor!”

I like how the trees bring a new sense of orientation.

More infrared, baby.

Synchronizing swings (man these are big!) and then choosing the smallest aperture (in my camera’s case, F8) will give a slower shutter speed needed for this.

That’s all folks. Go home and spread the word!

Ring, Oh?

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So I told a heavily-plugged sadako-lookalike that I have never seen a Korean horror movie.

Her sweet, innocent, pretty smile with windswept hair (I swear my left hand wasn’t holding it up, or anything else for that matter) quickly changed to one of disbelief.

“Ouch! Something got in my eye!” (Note the weird finger contortion and extending fingernails.)

I felt something get in my eye too, and when I stopped rubbing my eyes, I looked up and shrieked to this.

Needless to say, Underworld 2: Evolution was relatively unviolent and ungory in comparison to my encounter with a real sadako. Now I don’t even dare to hold her hand during the scary bits!

Edit: Hmmm. I should’ve told her that I have not watched a single Tomb Raider movie.

Metal flows in my veins, and I tried to be gothic.

P.S. You must watch the first Underworld or you might not understand who is who and what is going on (e.g. about evil mystery wolves) and who is whose father and creator etc. I know I didn’t.

Star Wars Was, Is. Has. Transformers!

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So I bought the brand new Star Wars Transformers. (I got it a while back; just got Luke Skywalker to complete the first set.)

For its price, which was 75% of a Transformer Alternator, it was amazingly detailed. It took after the Star Wars series, with a penchant for detail and quality.

Featuring the cowardly robot.

The one who would teach them all.

The heavy-breath-taking father.

The eager son.

Note the paintjob on the helmet! Superb craftsmanship.

I might as well take time to squeeze in a little photography lesson; when taking macro shots, switch to Aperture Priority if you have such an option, and change the aperture to say F5.6 to get more of the picture in focus. F2.8 (on the left) means that less of the picture would be in focus. Below is a missile from Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing; note the ball-release mechanism. I loved it compared to the spring-loaded missile launchers because it was less likely to jump out during transformation.

Yes, that’s right kids; the mini-me figurine can fit in their vehicles! Major props for the innovative design. Also, all except General Grevious’ Wheel Bike have smart ways of storing their lightsabers when in vehicle mode (and no, it doesn’t turn off and retract.)

And I wonder too; if Obi’s mini-me is in scale to his Jedi Starfighter, and his droid is in scale to it too, and Luke is in scale with R2D2 and X-Wing, why is Obi’s droid so big?

Anyway, action figures were meant to be posed, as much as their articulation would allow, and boy are these Transformers articulate. Sure, they have the chunky old-school look, but I love it. In a way, it was like the transforming ship in Spaceballs.