I was talking with a few of my MMU Photography Club juniors earlier on (namely Fabian, Daniel Yee and JiunKei). Turns out that there are a lotta changes since graduation.

Fabian is still sticking with Pentax, and with the help of his "sponsor"-cum-aunt, he already upgraded his *ist DS to K10D. Good for him!

Daniel however is a bit of a surprise to me. 3 years ago, he quit photography for the sake of his then-gf. He sold off his 300D, EOS 30 and a series of F4L lenses and concentrate on Pak-Tor-logy. But now that he's already working and dump/ed his then-gf, he started all over again with the Pentax brand. With K100D, K10D, DA12-24, Tamron 28-75 F2.8, 75-300 and a flashgun 540FGZ. That's much more gears than I've bought after working for 2 years!!!

JiunKei also shocked me. He used to approach us (MMU Photography Club) to help with his MovieMaking hobby. Turns out he's now a proud owner of 400D and some lenses. Through his contacts, he got quite a good access to the F1 as well as MotorGP races. Looking forward to more photos from this video-turn-photog.

As for me, I'll prefer to safe up the money and let the gears pay for itself. Now that my Toastmasters contest journey comes to a pause, I should start to look for ways to fund for my expensive hobby.

Labels: Friends, Photography

While enjoying my Saturday morning going through my Google Reader, I received call from XiaoSian. He called up to inform me that DingWen has passed away. Most of our friends will meet up in Kuantan to arrange for his funeral. That time, I was alone...with no one to confirm the validity of the statement. I texted SueYee, JenMeng, Joleen, talked to Josh, IM M@rimo. If it is meant to be an Xmas joke, that's way too much.


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I made a few phone calls and Joleen and BM agreed to car pooled down there to pay our last respect. I'm thankful that Irene comes along as she switches with me every 2 hours along this expedition. The 6 hours drive down is really nerve killing but luckily we managed to reach the funeral parlor just on time to pay our last respect. Unlike Penang, the crematory in Kuantan is hidden deep inside a Oil Palm Estate. We havta drive for 30km from FP to the crematory with an empty tank!

But the whole trip was quite well planned out. All of us have to work on Monday, hence we make a 1-day trip down East Coast. I've been driving a lot on the NSE, but this is the craziest trip I've done to my car. Recorded over 1000km of millage with 2 full tanks dried up right when I reach Juru Interchange. After the 16 hours trip, we are all exhausted.


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After the whole ceremony, the group of us catch up with some old times in Kopi Street somewhere near Kuantan Prima, Gambang. We have a few drinks and get updates from each other. Glad to know that not much changes on all of them after one whole year. We're still in our t-shirts and shorts and the way we speak is still the same.


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Ding Wen was really a friend. I couldn't have graduated if not for him. Whenever there's a dateline for assignment, when the project is about to due, or as exams are near, he'll be there. Handing me a copy of the solution and reminding me to submit on time. Without those, I'll still be a student wasting time in lecture classes. Besides, when I'm bored, he'll certainly be there to accompany me for supper at one of the mamak stalls. He's really my savior.


Click Me

Labels: Friends, Travel

I've always get it from friends saying that working at Dell is Hell. This evening was the first time I visited DELL's factory. Managed to find my way there thanks to the guidance from my collegue. I was 20 minutes late because I my nap turns into an hour long sleep. As I'm approaching it's compound, I can see the Blueish logo just light up which matches the color of the sky. The security lets me in despite Christopher missed out my name from the list. After taking my name and identification, he showed me the way to the conference room.

At the same time, I bump into Prema from the Corporate Comms which I get to know from my internship in Seagate. She greeted me right on the gate, but I think it was too spontaneous for me to response. Anyway, she stoped her car by the side and came down to offer me a lift to the conference area. We had some catching up in her car before she showed me thier office, which is much dynamic and friendly working environment than all the offices I've been working in. She showed me her desk before showing me the way to the particular room where I'm supposed to meet the other toastmasters. My first impression in Dell was so good, I wonder how people are complaining that it's in hell? All I can assume is that we always think that the grass is greener on the other side.

The organizing committee has already started, but they welcome me in with a great smile. Unlike the meetings we have in our club, Dell has coffee and tea served in their rooms, projectors and power points all nicely placed. It was our post mortem meeting, and we started to criticize the food, congratulate everyone for the success, suggesting ways of improvement and balancing up the spreadsheet. All in all, everyone is having real fun while solving real-time problem. I get to know more about the toastmasters, amoung that Chris is 6 years my senior (he looks so young!), and Nenek used to be a nurse by profession. That's the kind of working environment I wish to be working on day-in day-out.

While chatting with my friends working there, I found out that Dell Penang has not yet made any plans to support Ubuntu in Malaysia. I've left my name with them and hopefully they will get back to me once they receive good news from their parent company. But unless there's no internal leakage, I'll most probably get to know about the news before them. Thanks a lot to Engadget and Gizmodo's feeds that I get from my Google Reader.

During the JID (joint installation dinner), Christopher lost his PDA phone while playing some game session. The girls took him out for a walk while the rest of us put some money into an envelope. Before calling it a day, Nenek told us how she found out he's born in rabbit year and Joanne managed to make one cardboard foldup that looks like a rabbit for him. Inside the "rabbit" we put our "contribution" as well as signing our names on the rabbit's tongue. That's the spirit of fellowship in toastmasters, when we see someone is in trouble, we'll help up if it's within our reach.

After the meeting, I have a breif chat with Prema over the net. We usually see each other online but hardly talk to each other. Found out a few more facts from her and got to know about the news of other trainees that has already been working in various places. There are only a few people which I can start freely express myself linguistically without worrying they think that I came from Mars. Among those are Prema, Ming Zheng and Irene. It's good to have a nice fellowship like this after spending most of my time alone working in front of my computer.

Side note: I've agreed to help Mr Heah up as the secretary for Area S4, I'm sure there are more chance for me to meet new faces and get to know people who looks towards the same goal.

Labels: Friends, Toastmasters

This is like the 3rd or 4th among my friends who have get married after graduation. Wonder how these people have the guts to propose and get married at such an early age before stabilized in their career. Have to work harder to gain some savings for my wedding fun now.

Drove all the way up to Alor Setar (1 hour 30 minutes approx). Location quite easy to find. The groom still remembers me by name (despite knowing him for a mere few months 6 whole years ago!). Met back a few other frens namely Zaai Yuan and Franson who I knew living in Emerald Park. Good to meet back these faces... live goes on, but it's happy to know that my friends are successful in their own way.

Talk a bit about this couple lah, if not u ppl oso blur2. I met SyinNi back in my foundation year. She was living opposite my apartment, and I used to have this BB gun which I always shoot across the girls apartment. She's the kindest of them all... always keeping the bullets and giving it back to me, forcing me to promise not to shoot again (which I tend to forget) :P . That's about as simple as our friendship were. Last time there were intercom sessions, and the main communication is still ICQ that was like so ancient. Don't even talk to me about mIRC...which I still uses to ask my Open Source questions. That's about as brief as I can get.

Leonard and Syinni has been together for 6 years, and I wish them many more happy years to come. Best wishes from us in Penang.



OT: Managed to overcome my fear of losing precious images today. Will be attempting Picasa's web albums and blogger's own picture server. Hopefully it doesn't dissapoint me like the services I subscribe to 3 years back.

Labels: Friends

I've been travelling a lot lately, but u must be wondering - what happen to all the photos? Erm, some are in my harddisc while others are still kept in the camera bag.

Instead of putting millions of words into this blog, I'll keep it short. Josh/Joleen invited us to have a dual date outing to Lumut as they exchanged an apartment with their membership with some hotels. The journey is rather long as we need to travel quite some distance off the highway. Luckily the roads are well tarred, just that there are a lot of heavy vehicles slowing us down.

The apartment is like all other - simple and nice; overlooking the golf-course and have a hint of the sea and mountains. After checking in, we took drove to the jetty to get over to Pangkor. We are not sure what they have in there other than seafood. But to our surprise we are being blocked by a swarm of car rental and taxi drivers. Without further delay, we took a proton after discounted price.

The beaches are full of people as it's a weekend, and we spent some time visiting the famous temples and scenic. By the time we come back, it's already time for dinner. Had a disapointing meal at a chinese outlet, but not much to complain also lah, since the place is almost dead at night.

The following day, we dip ourselves into the hotel's swimming pool. I tried to get Irene to swim, but being a mischevious me...I shocked her into tears before she can even get confortable in the water. Naturally, we have to take a nice bath back in the room before we check out.

In the afternoon, we spent some time in Ipoh on a few of our favourite hang out. Too bad by the time we reach there the lunch time already over. The bean sprout chicken and the salt steam chicken are closing. The only shop open is a corner lot with very rude and unfrenly staffs. No choice but to fill ourselves up as we are getting really hungry. Bring J&J to the caves, buy pomelo and some of their local biscuits. I hope we ain't that bad as a tour guide in this trip.

Thanks to Joleen for treating us dinner at JiuJiu Xiang as promised. Haha...nice food, great chat. Listen to some music at Halo, Juru before driving back to Penang Island. Thanks to Irene, Josh and Joleen for tolerating with me over the weekend. Love to have such short trips again.

Labels: Friends, Travel

(1) Happy Graduation Ms Koid



(2) Me and my girls



(3) More Girls :P



Note: No pain was incured during the process of taking these images.

Labels: Friends

Friends, Irene and I.

Which translate loosely to a toast for having some money left from last year’s harvest. Never know about such culture other than Dong Zhi where the Chinese celebrated for a prosperous year. Not like I earn a lot for the past year, but at least I managed to get a decent job and enough to pay for my hobbies.

So...what excites me most is Buffet, yay~!

Me likes: Friendly people, eventhough I hardly speek with them before, we managed to get through the night with some junk talk. nice environment in the busy famous dine in - the place is totally booked up! Sufficient refills - all a buffeter can ask for.

I had 2 plates of prawns, a plate of small corn and a plate of mixed mushrooms. Finished the night up with some fish balls and 12 sticks of various ice sticks.

Complains… no one knows how to handle a camera properly, I’m prohibited from taking too much prawns and this group of people are not fit for buffet. People should train up if they want to eat buffet, if not it’ll be meaningless.

More photos: [Image 1] [Image 2] [Image 3] [Image 4] [Image 5] [Image 6]

Labels: Friends

My effort pays off when I received a call from Canon Marketing Malaysia (Penang) that I won the 3rd price in the Photography Contest held in E&O Hotel back in September 2006.

It's the first time I won anything on a photography competition. I did have my pictures published on magazines, but never won anything till now. It's a Canon Selphy CP710 compact printer which worths RM450 in the market. Not planning to keep it, so if anyone interested can leave me a message. I plan to sell for around RM350~RM400.

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So, here's on smth else.

Met up with Ming Zheng last weekend in Pacific. It's a coincidence that we were there shopping. Got the pillows from her and also a cute box of sweets that she got for me and Irene from Singapore. I believed it's her 1st time down there, muz be smth new to her.

Thanks for the present mui. Still "she bu de" open and eat such a cute lil package.

Labels: Friends, Photography

Using "Markers" instead of "Guns", using "pallets" instead of "bullets". That is how paintball has being commercialized to become a game from marking cows and trees back in those days when farmers are too preoccupied to have fun.

My collegues organized a Paintball game just so that everyone has a feeling of how this "new" game is like. All of us are new to the game, but the Marshall is quite friendly and explains the rules to us in a very pleasant and humorous way. One game takes only about 5 minutes before members from either side is killed. But it is very very tiring if no constant exercise or training.

I got 2 shots on my legs - one on my knee which causes it to bleed, while the other pallet hit in between my legs 5 inches from my precious (lucky). The pain isn't that severe, but yet from hear say the mark will last for weeks to come. I deserved the injury as I only wear a thin piece of shorts for the game while the other seniors wear a full army suit to thick jackets. Despite getting hit, I killed 1 face shot, and another person on the vest. I think I killed a total of 3 people, but can't remember how I kill the other guy.

The excitement is intense. Will surely join again if they are organizing. The company charged us RM500 for 2000 pallets. For a normal amateur game, that will last for 8~10 rounds for a 5 on 5 game, a rough estimation of 2 hours. Since we collected extra money, we spent it on dim sum after the game. Seniors are shocked everytime they have meals with me outside. I will start to get wild in the dining table until some kind gentleman offered to drive me down to Ipoh's Tanjung Rambutan Mental Hospital. Tired, injured, excitement and experience...there's a lot I learnt from the game today.

Last Note: I don't understand why there are guys who'll chicken out once they got hit once. Is the pain so bad or issit worrying that your parents might be laughing at you? For all I know, Paintball is classified as a safer game than golf.

Labels: Friends, Work

Happy New Year everyone. Do hope all my readers did spend your New Year's eve happily. As for me, it's a 5 hour drive down south to Melaka. Thanks to Irene, I get to read "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" while she's cruising along the North-South Expressway. Right after reaching, we had our Yong Tau Foo at the regular shop we used to dine at. But seems like this conventional business has changed hands, and the meals tastes different.

After lunch, we burn some time in Pahlawan Square, which surprisingly looks very high class for the suburbs. I was down in signus again, and yet i can't find any Sirus in the "high tech" shopping mall. Irene get to meet her x-classmate for a while before we move on to visit the shops. The only thing we bought are the local delicacies from "san shu kong".

After that we walked to Jonker for dinner in a place called Harpers Restaurent. We went into a corner shop overlooking the Melacca Straits.(Address: 2, Jalan Hang Jebat) The nicest tables are booked up, but they are kind enough to give us the table (as long as we leave before 8.30pm). No problem though, as we have other plans for the evening.

On the other table, this group of english are laughing away while enjoying beer. The start talking about us when I bring out my camera and happily snapping away. One of them came over and asked me how much the camera costs, and how nice pictures it can take. After exchanging some greetings, we went back to our seats. Irene reminds me that those people might be the top managements coming to launch the Giant Supermarket tomorrow in Melacca. Then only did i notice all of them are in their Giant uniforms and regret some of the courtesy a gentleman should have. If not for that, he would have consider me to help him grow his money. Aih` fate...opportunities...

Jonker is still the same place we know, just that they sell more varieties now. Found some "Voodoo Dolls" just like those I bought from Ray, but their handywork ain't as good as those I bought, the price is also much cheaper. We try not to add any "expenses" into our balance sheet by window shopping. It started raining when we were on our way back to the car, met Choo Chee Wee having dinner at one of the stalls, have a small chat with him but ran off after he shows no sign of interest in continuing the conversation.

Our countdown is in Xuan Cafe with Josh and Joleen. The singers are still that good, never regret visiting that place instead of crowding ourselves in Pure Bar or whatever bar for that matter of fact. The same jokes still works for these people, 6 months apart never make any difference to our friendships. Received greetings from YeeJen as well as a senior from work. Dad greeted us from Harpin through SMS, they never forget me eventhough I'm never able to make it there with them.

Slept over at my previous house, but these young people really need a lesson on hygenie and cleanliness, the grass grows for at least a meter, while the floors has never been swept since I moved out. Their toilet stains has been dark and ugly while some never tidy their bed. Thanks to Soon Yet for giving us the room for the night, had a great rest after an exhausting day. Happy New Year everyone.

Labels: Friends, Myself

The sun is melting my car tyres, but the christmas spirit is strong around me. After being getting "promotion", I received a BELATED Birthday gift from Mint Mui yesterday. In it, is a book rest with a message that writes

To a guy with a handsome full of general knowledge,
and full of wonderful jokes!
Take Care!

Hugz
~icymint~

While in it, she reminds me againg that "Sometimes you have to dream", which i seriously have no idea what she wants to convey. At the same time, she also pass me a gift from my 3 "Charlie's Angles" - Marimo, Corn and Bun. It's something close to heart, and reminds me to keep in touch with the Machi Gang always. Machi, do let me know if there's any reunion I'll make it a point to join.

What surprises me today at work is a christian supervisor of mine gave most of us a "KFC snack voucher" as a token of appreciation that writes

Thank you FOR ALL the support
Merry X'Mas & Happy New Year

I've created more trouble to him than helping him clear. But since I'm transfered to another line, I will only be seeing him during break times I guess, no more will I be creating any problems for him (except those that his techincians owe me).

Labels: Friends, Work