HDR

Last weekend I had my first try on High Dynamic Range photography.

Photos were taken over the weekend with Nikon D60 with a 18-55mm f3.5-5.6G lens.

HDR photos were generated using Photomatix Pro 3.2.

This is the first time I’ve ever processed any of my photos though.

Michigan Union

Museum of Art

Street lights in front of Museum of Art

Dusk at Huron River, Nichols Arboretum

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Credits to Liau Liau for guidance and lending his Manfrotto tripod.

I know the photos look fake. But as Billy said, HDRs are supposed to look fake. LOL.

Fire!!!

It was supposed to be another boring Saturday night that would have been devoted to bubble tea-drinking and DotA playing if this had not happened 6 hours ago.

However, today was different as there was a fire at the deserted Campus Pinball buildling (formerly Pinball Pete’s). It would not have concerned me if it was the library or the auditorium, but I was evacuated because Campus Pinball is only located next to where I live. Well, actually I wasn’t. I was being a busybody after Jin Sheng told me about it and we rushed down with my DSLR.

Anyway, others in the building were still evacuated later. 

View of fire engines and ambulance from my room

Whole street filled with a fleet of fire engines. There’re at least 8 of them.

So many busybodies.

And the scene.

The fumes was so thick that we had to walk further away from the scene.

That tall building next to it is University Towers – the sucky place I live in now. Yes, the scene is that close to U Towers.

And finally the firemen in action.

Oh and here goes my Saturday night.

哗，暴力！！！

刚刚游览光华电子新闻看到这则新闻。

掌掴·爆粗·亮刀 童党暴力短片流传

据说是来自 Batu Pahat 的女生暴力片。

新闻的一小段如下：

“片中可见一群为数至少2名少年和5名少女，他们的年龄介于12至16岁间，在一间住家的客厅内向另一名少女“兴师问罪”。其中，4名女生更轮流掌掴事主，满口爆粗，间中还有人亮刀恐吓，有如警匪片中的黑社会份子在审问背叛者的情节。”

根据新闻报导，这个短片本来以“Batu Pahat_Taman Maju_暴力”为名被上载上 Youtube，但由于太过暴力性而被删除了。现在只要在Youtube 搜寻“美燕”就能找到这短片。得空应该看看网友的留言。

我从没想到女生也能这么暴力。

生块叉烧都好过生她们。

Sometimes You Have to Believe in Superstitions

You know some Chinese superstition that says if you comment on something, the opposite will happen? For example, if you praise a newborn baby being cute or chubby, the baby may later fall sick and become ugly or skinny. Just some superstition, I never believed it anyway.

I have two medium-sized fish tanks in my home, both about 3 feet in length. One of the tank contains pearl scale goldfish, just like this one.

It’s rounded body is its nature, it’s not pregnant.

Just to show how round they are.

The number of pearl scale goldfish in the tank varies, 2 or 3 if a lot of them died or more than 10 if I bought more of them. (I think my tank is big enough to accommodate 20)

You know fish die easily. Usually one or two will die in the first or second week you buy them no matter how good you take care of them.

When I came back from Ann Arbor in May, I had no pearl scales left in the tank because my brother did not even bother to care about them. Janice later bought me 6 in early June and they surprisingly survived for more than 2 months, without any dying. I bought another two more two weeks ago, bringing the total to 8.

You know fish actually die easily? Usually, one or two fish die in the first or second week no matter how good you take care of them. But this batch of 8 actually had a survival rate of 100%.

All was well until last night when I told my mother that all 8 of them actually survived for so long, without any casualties. But you know what, I saw two dead fish floating at the edge of my tank this morning. 

I just told my mum about that last night and then two of the fish just kicked the bucket through the night. WTF?

Sometimes you have to believe in superstitions. Damnit.

Penang Public M***********

Today, someone searched for “Penang Public Masturbating” and ended up on this very page you are reading.

I’m very sure the word “masturbating” does not appear in any of my posts. Luckily there’s only 1 view on this search, if not my blog is gonna turn into a porn site.

Wonder who wants to know about “Penang Public Masturbating” and who masturbates in public in penang?

A Step Backwards

I don’t usually comment on government policies or don’t think i’m qualified to comment either, but this is something which I don’t think is a wise decision.

“Math and Science back to Bahasa, mother tongues“

The reason for that decision is “Only 19.2% of secondary teachers and 9.96% of primary teachers were sufficiently proficient in English”, according to our beloved Deputy Prime Minister.

BUT HOW CAN ONLY LESS THAN 20% OF SECONDARY TEACHERS BE PROFICIENT IN ENGLISH?!

AND LESS THAN 10% OF PRIMARY TEACHERS ARE PROFICIENT IN ENGLISH?! I’m so f*cking proud of it.

And what’s the definition of “proficient”? Able to converse in English? Or a “C’ in SPM?

Does that mean that 80.8% and 90.04% of the teachers cannot speak a proper sentence in English? Or can’t even obtain a “C” in SPM? We’re not talking about 1119, just the normal English, which a ”D” or below is very very bad.

THEN HOW DID THEY PASS TO BECOME TEACHERS IN THE FIRST PLACE? 

Now mentioning that so many teachers are not proficient in English, then how did Mathematics and Science in English go on for the past few years? So it wasn’t Math and Science in English all the while, the proper term should be Math and Science in Broken English or Math and Science in Bahasa Pasar, shouldn’t it?

Two words to the remaining 80.8% of Secondary teachers and 90.04% of primary teachers.

“Malu betul.” 

80.8% is a very large portion ok? Not to mention 90.04%.

Of Swine Flu and Conscience

Today, the number of confirmed cases of swine flu in Malaysia is 58.

Early this month, I was watching Buletin Utama on TV3 when it reported about another H1N1 case that day. It was about a boy who returned on holiday from USA. Despite having fever, he went out for lunch with his mother in a mall and hanged out with some friends in Kuala Lumpur. I was left wondering how can that guy roam freely on the streets of Kuala Lumpur knowing very well that he has a fever and just returned from the country with the highest toll of swine flu cases, exposing other civillians to the flu. And how can his mother bring him out for lunch? I bet his mother has no civil conscious more than that of a bitch. (I meant the literal meaning, not the vulgar one)

Just a few days ago, a school was declared closed by the Healthy Ministry because a girl who returned from Melbourne attended school before being diagnosed with the H1N1 virus. Shouldn’t she be quarantining herself after returning from abroad? She’s only a primary student but what about her parents? Now the school has 3 more students down with swine flu. In fact, a few more schools were declared closed for at least a week today.

If the flu was just brought in by foreigners or Malaysians who return from abroad, it is not even worth worrying. But the fact the there are now local transmissions due to self-centered behavior of some fellow Malaysians who do not quarantine themselves should be taken seriously.

This was just posted on The Star Online 3 hours ago.

A(H1N1): Students back from US, UK, Australia, Philippines must stay home for 7 days

However, I bet a number of these grandstanding people will not treat this seriously. They cannot tell which is more important. Enjoying themselves outside or the health of hundreds of people they are in contact with. The toll of swine flu is still going to increase.

I have the right to comment because I did quarantine myself a month ago when I just returned. In fact, many of my friends did.

If you are returning from overseas, do quarantine yourself. You have a fair chance of contracting swine flu, and you want your friends to suffer with you?

Ask your conscience.

Do Research before Giving Names

In order people don’t have weird names like the leading character in “Meet The Parents”, baby names should checked so that they don’t bring any other meaning or has similar pronunciation to other words.

Same case applies for computer softwares, so that you don’t have a software named this.

Like Microsoft Excel for Dummies, in the near future you’ll see “Microsoft Cibai for Dummies” in your nearest bookstore.

Be Grateful for What You Get

There’s always commotion on the issue about the Public Service Department Scholarship. The results were released like three weeks ago but the applicants only knew which countries they will be heading to in the past three days.

I am quite concerned about this year’s result because it’s my brother’s year. In case you are kaypo interested, he got a 4-year pharmacy course in the United Kingdom, after a 2-year A-levels course in INTEC. Anyway, this is not the subject.

The fact that some of my brother’s friends are complaining about the countries that they were assigned to disgusts me.

There was one who was assigned to New Zealand to do medicine but he, being ungrateful, said he would rather take a twinning course in IMU and head to UK. For your information, the New Zealand medicine course is NOT a twinning one. He’ll be spending his full medicine course there, of course if he passes the other requirements.

If you think the New Zealand medicine course is just not good enough, I dare you to reject the scholarship, use your own money (your parent’s money, to be exact), and sign up for a twinning course in IMU. You should be grateful for what you are given. If you are not satisfied with a full medicine course in New Zealand, what about those who got twinning courses? What about those who got local universities? What about those who did not manage to secure a scholarship?

Another friend secured a full pharmacy course in New Zealand and he was complaining because there were limited places for international students in the good universities in New Zealand. Well, we all know that New Zealand does not have as many good universities as the United States, the United Kingdom or Australia, but there are still good ones there.

You are a PSD scholar, of course you are expected to be admitted into good universities. If not what’s the point for the Malaysian government to sponsor your studies? If you think that the admission process to good universities should be so easy that even an Orang Utan from Sepilok can enter university, then should your scholarship be given to an Orang Utan instead?

Studying overseas is not cheap, be it in US, UK, Australia, NZ, India, Russian etc. I’m pretty sure that most PSD scholars would not have the chance to study abroad if the PSD scholarship did not exist, just like my brother and I. Be grateful for being given the chance to experience life abroad as a student.

If you are offered a scholarship, you only have two choices: accept or reject. If you are satisfied with it, accept it; if you are not, reject it. So if you don’t like what you were offered, shut the f*** up stop complaining and just reject it, so that someone else who really needs it or is grateful enough can be given the place.

Don’t take things for granted. Didn’t your parents teach you this?

Trivial Updates

It has been a more than a week since I started my blog. And to my astonishment, despite those “negative” comments, my blog reached its highest hits on its second day, the day i published the post on monkeys. Maybe I should take some shots of stray dogs or cats making out some day.

So I’m released from my self-imposed home confinement. I went for a haircut yesterday, not really satisfying, but still better than that patch of shit that was in its place previously.

Food in Penang is just great. A bowl of any noodles with the price of RM 3.00 or cheaper gives me higher utility than and food offered in restaurants in Ann Arbor, usually over USD 8.00 per bowl. Nope, no photos of char kuey teow, hokkien mee or roti canai because I don’t have the habit of taking photos of my meals.

Ask me out, people. I’m very free these days because Janice is still not back in Penang yet. Ask me out for movies, drinks, shopping, sports or anything.

I’m going for steamboat later!!! I think I am gonna gain weight tremendously in the next few weeks, but who cares.

The next time I update, I’ll be 10 kilograms heavier. Till then.