Just dug out some old photos I’d like to share. It was August 2007, we were looking for a place to celebrate my birthday. Yan Yan was 13 months old.

Lemon Garden Cafe

The place was Lemon Garden Cafe, in Shangri-la Hotel. I have just got my battery grip from a guy in Seri Hartamas. The BG-E3 came without the AA battery adapter. I would later returned the battery grip because of that reason.

Anyway the grip with the BG-E3 on my 350D is excellent. It now looks and feel like a professional DSLR camera. All throughout my dinner I had on the 50 mm lens. Else I wouldn’t have been able to take such clear photos in such a dark place.

Yan Yan was a very noisy girl, in fact the noisiest around!

Enough talk. Head on over to the entire album.

Popularity: 1% [?]

I’ve been busy. There’s just too many photos to process, and too little time. I have had a few family trips, company trips, and two wedding jobs, all of which involves huge efforts in processing them photos.

As I process them, I will show the pictures to you. So excuse me for being so quiet these few weeks. As an appetizer, here are some previously unpublished pictures from my previous trip to Singapore:

Clarke Quay, the river front

Head on to my photo album to view more.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Ever heard one of those catchy tunes that got stuck in your head for no apparent reason? I don’t know about you, but a lot of these songs that got stuck in my head are three-beat songs. What are three-beat songs? They are songs with, well, 3 beats in them!

So what’s so different about a 3-beat song? You know waltz? It’s something like that. I don’t know what’s the fuss about a 3-beat song, but I read somewhere that they are supposed to have soothing qualities. That’s because our own body rhythm are 3-beat. Our heart is beating at a 3-beat. So you will sleep better listening to them. I don’t know if there is a scientific truth in them, but I sure think that these songs are cool.

Most old songs has this peculiar arrangement, for reasons unknown. This is most noticeable in nursery rhymes, children songs and festival songs. Think of the famous Christmas song that goes “We wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, we wish you a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year”. Yeap, that song. Some of the older songs that I can think of are:

• Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)
• Rock-a-bye baby
• Happy Birthday to you
• (How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?
• My Bonnie

more…

Popularity: 4% [?]

There has been talks that racial unity in Malaysia is deteriorating. The Malays are pitting against the Chinese and the Indians and the condition in Malaysia is on the verge of exploding sky-high from the racial tension here. But to be honest, I do not really feel the hear where I am standing. I’m in Seri Kembangan, less than 15 minutes from Putrajaya, the administrative capital of Malaysia, and 40 minutes to KL using the new KL-Putrajaya highway. Is that close to the core enough? So when the media brazenly laid claim that racial relationship is breaking down, to that I say, “What racial issues?”

more…

Popularity: 5% [?]

Why was I so ignorant not to use it before! Had I used this earlier, I wouldn’t have had so many headaches everytime I upgrade to the next version of Wordpress!

I have used Wordpress Automatic Upgrade (WAU) for my upgrade from version 2.6 to 2.6.2, the latest version as of today. And boy was I impressed! The entire step is guided step-by-step, including the option to backup the original files or the database. I have always wanted to install this plugin anyway since Wordpress 2.5.1.

The first thing you’ll notice is the two warnings. One is the generic notice saying that the version of Wordpress that I am using is outdated. The second is the notice from WAU to upgrade automatically:

Just click to upgrade!

more…

Popularity: 5% [?]

I’m bored. Melaka is a place that I go to almost every time I go back to Sagil. Photographically speaking, I have also taken almost everything there is to be taken in Melaka. So I have decided to do something really drastic.

High Dynamic Range imaging, or HDR as it is commonly known, is a very exciting process where you can expect to see images with a very wide range of exposure information, commonly from direct sunlit areas of the cloud to the shadowy areas under the tree, in one picture. Imagine this scenario. You are taking a picture of a building. Unfortunately the sun is directly behind the building. Chances are, your picture is likely to get either over or under-exposed, depending on where you are pointing your camera at that time.

Shot taken in RAW and tweaked to bring out the details in the cathedral in Singapore. If taken under JPEG, I doubt this image will turn out well.

If you have a camera that is capable of storing the images in RAW (not necessarily a DSLR, and there are plenty from Panasonic and Fuji), you may even push the range a little higher by processing in the computer. But nothing beats a proper multiple-exposure HDR.

more…

Popularity: 6% [?]

Went back to Sagil for the Mooncake Festival. We were already planning for a Melaka trip long time ago and this Mooncake celebration was a bonus for us. We were surprised that my parents agreed to tag along with us. Normally my mum will complain that it’s too far or too tiring.

It was also the second time that I used the Wira NGV to drive back to Sagil. It’s damn cheap, but the car itself is not holding itself. Half-way through the journey, the left headlights fell off without a warning!

The darn Wira is falling apart!

more…

Popularity: 6% [?]

Melaka is not only famous for its centuries-old buildings and historical city. It also has one of the most famous food haven in Malaysia. There are a lot of things that you can try in Melaka. Here I present to you, in chronological order.

Nyonya food

Place: Any nyonya restaurant will do. The exact place that I went to was a place called Ole Sayang in Melaka Raya.

Restoran Ole Sayang, Melaka Raya

more…

Popularity: 6% [?]

Can you guess, what can this weird looking box is?

What can this be? A pen holder? A stationary set?

more…

Popularity: 11% [?]

…… is that Malaysia’s fuel price is not dependant on the price of oil in the world, but rather, on how much the people hates the government!

Of late, oil prices in the world has actually increased instead of decreasing as what Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Shahrir Samad has wanted us to believe. So why the decrease? I can only think of it as a way to mellow down the sentiment of the rakyat against BN nowadays. So when the BN gets lesser and lesser popular, prices of fuel actually goes down!

That’s Malaysia for you folks!

Popularity: 5% [?]