We got ourselves a Fuji FinePix S5700. It’s a high-end compact camera with a bit of dslr functions to play with. It’s lightweight & easy to use. And I must say that it can deliver some amazing shots.
I’m still learning the basic technique for its slr-like functions such as using the aperture priority mode, setting the right exposure level and just getting used to this camera. In my opinion, the greatest strength of this camera is the ability to get really amazing macro shots. Either in macro mode or zooming in from a few feet away, the shots are pretty impressive to me. But unfortunately it doesn’t have any image stabilizer. So what I did is either set a bigger aperture or a higher shutter speed to not get that camera shake effect. And it doesn’t save in raw as well. But overall its a pretty good camera and it’s starting to grow on me.
Enough talk, here are a few shots taken from it (All 4 are unedited).
When I was in primary school, I didn’t know the existent of vernacular schools. For me, it was just school. A place to learn, meet friends, play & do all sort of stuff that you normally do at school. It was fun and it was enjoyable. Now I wouldn’t lie to you that we can’t tell the difference of different races. But that sort of stuff just doesn’t matter when everyone speaks the same language to each other.
When I was in secondary school, I witness first hand the people who came from vernacular schools. They had to go into ‘kelas peralihan’ where they will learn to read, write & converse in Bahasa Malaysia. I heard nowadays, student with good UPSR results don’t have to go to these transition classes. I saw many of them that can read, converse and articulate themselves really well in BM but I also saw many of them that can’t. I remembered some can’t even form a sentence even when they reach Form 3.
To those that can’t fit in into their new school, interactions with other people becomes very limited. And if you can’t understand or even speak the same language, it becomes much more difficult. I won’t sugar coat you with anything, I saw groups of racially divided amongst them. Among us. And a sudden low-level of racism instilled, institutionalize & eventually normalize in our head. That it was happening, it’s normal and we should accept it. We try to find a place to fit it.
Every school has it’s own school brawl. This happens. Teenagers with raging hormones. Go figure. But when it happens because of racism, then you’ll see very ugly fights. I remembered that it once got so bad, that the police had to be called to my school. Round up the at the assembly in front of school for hours. I don’t remember if anyone was hauled up into the police truck or not. My memory is a bit murky here because I always try to avoid fights and I am less than interested to know who were fighting among who.
In university, we sort of drifted and socialize in our own comfort zone. It wasn’t because we didn’t want to mix with others or we find ourselves different. It just happened unintentionally. I guess everyone saw pass the charade and just want to be themselves.
So if you ask me whether a single stream school could eliminate all of this? Then I will say I don’t know but it’s a good start. But I don’t expect it to see immediate results. Because the parents of these children of the future is us. Education starts from home. If we fail to instill the right set of values and set an example for our kids, then no matter what the government do, it will not change us as a society.
“In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.” – Alex Haley
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The above was typed in by Amir. 9 months , 1 week old.
Since my childhood, I always thought that the reason that 2 of my toes on my left foot are joined together is because according to my mom, I was born early 20 days than expected. So my layman mind thought that it was a very perfect logical reason. That probably my toes didn’t had enough time to properly form. How little did I know then (and probably a bit naive 
)
But that change since I met Ayu because every now and then she performs some medical examination on me. I discovered that I infact have syndactyly. But it’s an incomplete syndactyly, the skin is only joined part of the distance to the tip of the toe.
Not only that, I’d discovered that I also have Pes Planus. Flat feet. For the longest of time, until now I didn’t even know that it was a medical condition. No wonder that I always feel pain when I’m walking especially around the arch of my feet. So the next thing is I’m going to get myself a special insole that can support my arch. Hopefully this could at least lessen the pain that I feel every time I go out for a walk (or the occasional jog).
The government recently announce that 15 or more year old cars must be inspected at Puspakom before renewing their road tax starting next year. While I applaud this step to ensure that old and unsafe cars are scrapped from the public road however I can’t say the same for the inspection process.
This is because of Puspakom. It’s the sole agency that operates the inspection.
I remembered the last time I went to Puspakom for an inspection at Padang Jawa. The one besides the JPJ office. There was a very long queue that took hours to go through. This was not a normal queue where people line up to the counter. This was a queue of cars. Right from the entrance of Puspakom to the outer parameters of it’s borders. It was so long that it turn into a L-shaped queue.
The inspection itself didn’t took very long. I could say that it took only about 20 minutes. That’s it. The waiting took all day. People had to take their holiday just to go for an inspection themselves. Though I’ve heard that you could pay somebody for RM200 to do it.
That’s if you could trust leaving somebody else driving your car.
Semalam tengok filem Histeria dengan Ayu. 10 minit pertama cerita bermula dengan agak menarik. Tetapi makin lama movie ni macam tengok Alien Vs Predator + Jeepers Creepers.
Entahlah, unsur seram berakhir bagi aku bila aku dah nampak rupa hantu/raksasa. Sebenarnya, melihat sesuatu yang tiada bentuk dan rupa bagi aku lebih menyeramkan. Kelibat agak seram. Tapi raksasa bertaring tajam yang nampak macam Venom dalam cerita Spiderman campuran Predator tak menyeramkan langsung. Selain Liyana Jasmay (dari episod Tv/movie Kembali), kesemua lakonan watak utama agak kaku dan tampak kekok.
Namun begitu, jalan cerita boleh dikatakan agak menarik dan jika anda sukakan filem yang banyak menjerit dan darah terpercik sana-sini. Mungkin ini cerita untuk anda.
This is the first of many (probably) series of business or problem solving ideas using existing technology. From time to time I like to throw out some ideas and see whether somebody has done it before or if they have done it, how they implemented it? I love to understand how things work and if it doesn’t, I wonder about it too.
I believe an idea or a concept is just a untested hypothesis. It’s not implemented and I believe that I won’t be the first one to think of it. Or probably the first asking it. The world needs inventors. And inventors needs ideas. And ideas needs discussing & nurturing up to the point of implementation.
So here’s the first idea. I would love to call this application ”Where I Left It?”
The problem is sometimes I find that I always misplaced my keys and my handphone or both at the same time. The idea is to use a RFID chip embedded inside these items. Whenever you’ve sure you’d misplaced an item, you’ll try to find it with a second device I dubbed thee the scanner. This scanner will beep louder & faster when you’re closed to the said item. Much like the game ‘hot & cold’ that you’d probably played when you were little.
I’d always have to called my own handphone with another handphone to find it in my own house. And every time I’ll find it that way. So probably a scanner beeper could do the trick for some other items (that you can’t call using your handphone).
Amir babbles a lot nowadays. From “Bablaba” to “dadada” to “tatata”. But today he said this:
“Dad-dy.”
Who knew one word could make me so happy.
Distraction!
That’s much about it.
I distract him with playing a childrens dvd on my laptop. While he’s watching I just feed him with a spoon. If he doesn’t want to open his mouth, one way I know that works is gently poking the spoon on his chin and he’ll open up his m0uth wide. We started giving him a little bit of chicken meat as well. Blended of course with rice and veggies. He seems to love veggies. And mandarin oranges too.
Anyway, Amir no longer takes the bottle so I have to feed his formula using a cup. It’s always messy but I’m glad that he finally takes his formula. He’s been rejecting to drink it since I started him on formula weeks ago.
Now I wonder how to train babies to feed themselves? It’s gotta be real messy the first time right?
I have quit smoking for 2 years now.
Here’s for many years to come.
