Much can be done in 15 seconds. All pictures were made with one shot, long exposure, meaning no Photoshop was used to combine pictures. No color adjustments were made either.
I searched in my soul in order and fought myself.
Now all I need is a green suit.
Are my eyes open or closed?
I placed the portable flourescent light under a pillow to give minimal lighting.
Yes, I’ve never blogged with pictures showing anything below my neck. Or so I remember.
I have a new toy, oh boy, oh boy! The Canon Powershot A520, one of the smallest, cheapest cameras with full manual control, meaning shutter priority mode (for freeze frame and slowmo effects), aperture priority mode (for focusing and blurring everything else) and manual focus. I found out about the new manual-controllable Casio Exilims a bit too late. 🙁
I can now use a small aperture to get the same effect in horror movies, where the victim is in focus, while the murderer looms behind. The camera then focuses on the murderer (and his weapon) with the victim out of focus.
Flash with long exposure makes for a very trippy Bobby enjoying the famed Hartamas Square “nine inches of love” Texan hot dog.
Smoke comes out from this temple. Guess what this is!
Guess where this was taken!
Sure you can take a picture of a moving fan with flash, but what about without flash?
This was done with 1/100 second shutter speed, aperture of F2.6, ISO200 and most importantly, a fan speed of 1. 😛
There was a fly. It was perched outside my window, watching every single thing I was doing.
I flashed it.
It didn’t move.
I used manual focus to blur out the light, and macro flash to flash only the fly and not the ceiling. Interestingly, the ceiling is actually white!
P.S. This is better than smashpOp‘s attempt; when he zoomed 12x with his Panasonic FZ-5, the camera couldn’t focus on the fly… and it went off focus until it disappeared completely from the view! Since he didn’t have manual focus he couldn’t get a clear shot of it. 😛
Finally, the coolest:
Fazri was in white so he was the perfect subject (I was wearing black). This was a 10 second exposure, with Fazri shifting positions every 3 seconds. To get this effect, you should shoot in a place with a dark background, with a bright light on the subject. You may just catch us reenacting The Matrix in KLCC Park on his blog.
So I’ve bought quite a few things that some people might consider a waste of money, but I need it to preserve my geek sanity.
I got The Book Of Bunny Suicides and its sequel! There are, of course, many strips not shown in the online version, plus I got it for the novelty factor.
Then there’s the Su Doku For Dummies puzzle book; I chose this book because it had 240 puzzles, more than any other book of the same price. I reckon that if I had time to make a possibility-eliminating program I could make a solver.
There’s also Rock The World V the Video CD, to reminisce on the biggest Rock The World in Malaysia.
Oh and Queen – Greatest Hits I, II & III Platinum Collection, for some falsetto-inducing rocking.
The four Rubik’s Cubes on top have been featured here before, but wait, what’s that in the bottom-left corner?
Yes Kamigoroshi, eat your heart out. The 5x5x5 Professor’s Cube. (Yes I know there’s a Kinokuniya bag in the background; that’s not where I got it though. It provided better camouflage than a transparent plastic bag on the train.)
These beauties don’t come cheap (RM185, sucka) so please don’t tear any of the stickers when I’m not looking. I ordered it from a helpful toy shop in Endah Parade, who imported this, and it was the last stock. I didn’t expect the aunty to get the 5x5x5; (she asked big or small, I said both!) She didn’t manage to get the original 3x3x3 but hey! I’m not complaining of this pleasant surprise after waiting many months.
Yes, I will be excessively violent if you tear/smudge/break this cube. Heck, the same goes for my 3x3x3 cubes. It’s already hard enough to find a good imitation 3x3x3 that is smooth and not too loose.
Doing the first three layers are easy; the fourth layer edges were tricky, but I didn’t use any new moves. In theory, the old techniques could work to complete the cube (albeit very tediously), if you imagined 5 layers as 3, in groups of 1, 3, 1 or 2, 1, 2.
And you thought geeks only stare at computers and do trigonometry to make solar death rays.
Minishorts says that her hair was the same as mine (before she dyed and blowdried it).
How did I meet this The Star-gracing lady? Read them details. (Well I’ve been in every major English publication before, once as an Albert Lim, but who cares about that?)
Maybe it’s good karma to give away your Malaysian Idol finale tickets at Genting Arena Of Stars.
Yes, this picture was Photoshopped.
I gave both away, and lo and behold! I saw them perform at Sunway Pyramid the same day. Yeah I was like this close, as compared to up in Genting, where I’d be this far.
It was also the first time I’d ever see the second Malaysian Idol performers sing. Yes I’m never home on Friday nights when it shows. Nita was good, while Daniel had a very obvious Chinese pronunciation to everything (and didn’t sing as flashily or perfectly). Farah however was HOT. She did the vocal gymnastics on Celine Dion’s All By Myself perfectly!
Of course, some idiot kids had to ruin it by voting the most for Daniel. After seeing his performance, all I thought was that he was a cuter Vick who didn’t sing as well, and should have gotten third place just like Vick did. Now Farah is out of the game; there is no reason for me to go anymore, even if I had tickets, accomodation and could go.
Quick quiz:
Given A and B, what is D (degree) and R (radius)?
Did you know you can now pay for your parking on the third floor of Midvalley?
You even get a free palm reading while you’re at it!
While I’m on a sarcastic run, I never got any presents back in school. In fact, I was so unpopular, all my classmates… no wait, my whole school all skipped classes on that day!
Music-loving dudes should get MSN 7.5. Yeah. It kicks ass. Not only can you set it to show what’s playing on Winamp (and Windows Media Player), you can also stream whatever’s playing through Voice Clips.
To start, you need to route your Recording Device to whatever’s playing; double-click your Volume Control, and click the Options menu then click Properties. The Properties window should pop up; choose to Adjust volume for Recording. Look for Stereo Mix, Wave Out Mix or What-U-Hear, tick that and press OK. Then, click on the Select checkbox under the Stereo Mix, Wave Out Mix or What-U-Hear. Your microphone will now “hear” every sound that plays on your computer!
Now for the fun part – guess that song! Play a song, then find a music fan, hold down the F2 key (or click Voice Clip) and it will record up to 15 seconds of low-quality audio, and then sends it to your chat buddy. It’s quite impractical for guitar unless your foot presses the mouse button or F2 key. 🙁
The best part of it is, you can replay it (hmmm what is that song?) and save it! Sure, we could just use it for voice, but who is unabashed enough to use MSN as a walkie talkie when people are around? It might be better than Audio Chat because you don’t need to wait for a connection to be established.
See I’m all fun and games on MSN. Guess which song my nickname came from! Beat me at MSN Games’ Solitaire Showdown or Minesweeper Flags! Guess that song snippet!
Or, if you’re not on MSN, guess where these lyrics came from:
Nothing really mattered to me
Nothing really matters to me
Nothing else matters
Nothing matters no one else
Nothing matters now
Here’s to August 2005. Yeah. Tales with pictures. Obscene amounts of them.
4th August 2005
I headed to Hartamas Square for the first ever We Are One gig, held every Thursday. The grand openers were Soft Touch, who wasn’t soft or acoustic enough for what was presumed to be an acoustic set.
This picture was taken moments before all electricity in Hartamas Square was gone.
Soft Touch, I realized, was the missing half of a fully produced rock band – they were the falsetto, the organ, the light rhythm guitar in the background. Take three raw rockers to collaborate, and you have a full-sounding album.
An hour later, power was restored, and Broken Scar played his last gig before going on a month-long hiatus.
Flatline had some interesting effects added to their melodic rock mix – the guitar synth (far left) was one of them.
Quizzicals, an up and coming vocal harmony band, sounded good. They had good originals and very good stage presence, but for some reason, I lost a bit of respect when they decided to cover their mentor’s song to the dot (V.E. – Pop Ye Ye).
6th August 2005
I headed to UiTM to be a guest judge at the “At 19 Records & Xfresh presents Battle It Out“. I even wrote a review with my rants on emo bands. But hey, check out the 27 fret Samick electric guitar I was drooling over at Do Re Mi Music. Sure, you can’t really have any precision up there, and there’s only space for two pickups, but there’s a coil tap switch so you have more options.
I wandered around town aimlessly after that, landing in KLCC Convention Centre for the PIKOM PC Fair 2005. I bumped into Loco, who was emceeing at the Samsung booth.
“The Samsung booth? Damn, that’s the one with the most chicks!”
“Eh yeah! When I came in the morning, I was thinking they were like normal only, but I walked around, and thus concluded that yes, my Samsung booth had the most chicks.”
We then went to Avenue K (next to KLCC), and checked out the haze. He sat down outside Avenue K and lit a cigarette when a security guard came up to him. “No sitting here.” Uh, right… we were outside his turf, yo.
7th August 2005
Everybody recognizes and blogs about Friendster Cafe. What about the Zouk reflexology center nearby?
I went for the Spirit Of Independence gig. (Alright, you’ve seen enough pictures of these bands plus there will be nicer shots later in this entry.) Anyway, who played?
Y2K, Tempered Mental, Dragon Red, Az Samad (in Paul’s New Place for the very first time!), Cosmic Funk Express…
Okay so my excuse is that I forgot to bring extra extra batteries. My extras were already flat!
So anyway, there was Jasemaine Gan, Nao (the Chinese version of seminal rojak-core band LYME. DAMN CHUN!) Then came Soft Touch, Furniture and X-cited Screamers.
So yes, I did take some pictures; Nao is in top-left; X-cited Screamers top-right, and Soft Touch with a kickass bassist with ALL the energy and the lower rock vocals (the raw half I was talking about!), with Jack of 360DHR on guitar!
12th August 2005
See? I told you that there would be good pictures. Zack rips out a classical piece.
Alda elbows his bass.
That night at the Sunrise Mont Kiara Jazz Fest, it was Cosmic Funk Express and an outrageous(ly) bad Outrageous (better pub bands should be playing!)
18th August 2005
I went to the Lost Generation Space for the Not That Balai art exhibition.
Creepy indeed was the refurbished house atop Robson Heights, near Seputeh.
Creepy indeed was the art, too. Yes the computer on the right actually works.
From left, Photoshopped badly: Wolf of Spungy Funggy, Lissa, James of Fallen Leaves, and Izuan Shah of Auburn.
From left to right, top to bottom:
And to think, I was merely there to share the joy of the premiere of the Fallen Leaves – Drown With Me video that had Joy in it.
23rd August 2005
My siblings half-adopted my cousin’s birthday presents – two hamsters; one of which produced a chip out of thin air her stomach.
IMG_3780.JPG – hamster spits out thing and chews it. Also only still picture of it
Happy times. It was very hard to get a picture of them standing (without using camera flash)! Those were the good days before these females starting trying to kill each other. Apparently a male and female hamster will get along, and two males will get along too. Male (hamsters) for peace!
25th August 2005
I headed to the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac) in Jalan Ipoh to catch Romi And Joolee Dan Lain-lain, a hilarious Malaysianized take on Shakespeare.
Sentul East – HOME.
I took a scenic 15-minute walk. A bush maze! Have you seen that in Malaysia?
A tractor that looks like something out of Smallville! Have you seen that in Malaysia?
A rusting old factory in the middle of nowhere! Have you seen that in Malaysia?
THE KLPac. It looks like a factory from a European country. Have you seen that in Malaysia?
A lake and some poles without flags on them! Have you seen that in Malaysia?
Okay this is just cool. I bet you’ve seen it before.
The lobby was easily four storeys tall!
Outside, I waited for the show to start.
How much is that doggy in the window?
I was disappointed when a source revealed that Malaysia didn’t actually have such a budget to build a magnificent building out of thin air. It was a recycled showhouse. Still, it was very cool architecture.
Oh right. What about the play? Gavin Yap played many roles excellently; the guys did an excellent rendition of The Beatles – Yesterday (with Rashid Salleh’s solo lines sung in a hilarious Malay voice.) I didn’t have to care about knowing Shakespeare references to laugh at their jokes; a very good thing indeed.
26th August 2005
A day of misfortune, indeed.
I met up Davina, to head to Hartamas, where a minor guilt drama ensued when her friend offered to pick us up from KL Sentral, but his vehicle broke down just as he left Hartamas!
We took a cab to Hartamas JamAsia for the Fretboard Menace gig, supposed to be featuring Deja Voodoo, Az Samad and Cosmic Funk Express. However, Deja Voodoo pulled out and was replaced by Alcentric, a metal band (left in picture). Elliot of Cosmic Funk Express couldn’t make it either and was replaced by Stephanie, an equally energetic and cute drummer. Manshaan of Dragon Red and Izwin also guest-starred-rocked with them.
The promised highlight was the G3-style guitar trio show. They improvised on Miles Davis – So What, and upon calls for encore, wowed the crowd with blues in the key of G.
I then wandered around, bumping into Iris with the saddest expression ever. She had just lost her 3G-capable Nokia 6680 phone!
30th August 2005
After meeting a friend I ended up in Hartamas Square for the Merdeka Eve celebration, with Frequency Cannon, Vespertine, some rappers, Dragon Red, Edge Of Fire, Estranged (with the vocalist on guitar) and then some, but the smell of spraycans was getting to my head and so I left.
2nd September 2005
Guess where these rapids are.
Malaysia’s longest Lego millipede at Ikano.
It had a tail that extended outside. Technically, since there was no record before this, anyone could have made a 10-meter long Lego millipede and called the Malaysian Book Of Records. So that’s the trick!
A tired Lego builder looks upon a long roti tisu.
We left it at this. You’d need maybe 4 hungry people (and lots of drinks) to finish this condensed-milk-laden treat. I stopped because my kidneys started hurting. Serious!
Maybe I should call the Malaysian Book Of Records, to be the first to declare that my site will take over 1MB to download, from all these pictures. Yeah.
Selamat tinggal Bungaku
Ku doakan kau bahagia
Jumpa kita di neraka
So wrote a muse in a tunnel in Midvalley Megamall. A wise, profound, and yet disturbing poem. Translated loosely, it says:
Goodbye, my flower
I wish on you happiness
Meet us up in hell
Yes, I even turned it into haiku format. 😀 At first glance, it sounds like a girl did him wrong. (Would a girl call a guy her flower, and if so, would she write it on a white wall with a ballpoint pen?) He however still thinks fondly of her, and wishes her the best with her new love. The twist is in “meet us“; us is probably him and whoever he fooled around with.
Oh and I finally watched The Island. Why did he have to die? He wasn’t a typical evil. But then agnates die so I guess it was fair in a way. Yes I hope I’m not spoiling it for you. I may just have faith in Michael Bay to direct the new Transformers live action movie.
Oh check out what the haze brought in:
The Hungry Ghost Festival, also one of the freakiest full moons ever. This picture, and the next, were color-adjusted.
Earlier that day, this was what I saw walking out of ASTRO…
All pictures were merely sharpened and resized; no color adjustment was done except on the third and fourth picture.