Photog Entry: Palm Springs by Night

With nothing much to do after work, I decided to take my D70 on a stroll around my condo. The architecture is nothing to shout about but the atmosphere there is pretty cosy and cooling at night. It is also surprisingly very breezy.

D70: 18mm, F/8, 1.5s

Palm Springs has 6 Blocks and 2180 units!! To date, only 400 units have been occupied :(

D70: 18mm, F/8, 4s

The Clubhouse on the left of the picture houses the gym, sauna, badminton courts as well as the main swimming pool...

D70: 18mm, F/8, 6s

One of the 7 swimming pools in Palm Springs... to cater to the 2180 units in this high-density residential area.

D70: 18mm, F/3.5, 1.5s

This is the pool at Block B - my block. The pool water is over exposed.. :(

Plan Your Trip with ITIS

As I was writing the earlier post about Google Map, I remember seeing signboards along some roads in KL mentioning something about ITIS. I guessed it must have something to do with the traffic but I didn't know what. So, a moment ago, I went to check out their website. ITIS stands for "Integrated Transport Information System" and it is developed by City Hall KL as a tool for city drivers to plan their route and to avoid jam whenever possible.


You can basically zoom in and pan to check out the routes to see the condition of the traffic in colour form. The map is surprisingly quite detail with all the main landmarks in place.

While, what you should be looking for is traffic situation, you can also use this as a map. I think this is a good effort by the city council but I think this project should be spread to other states such as Penang and Johore which is also famous for their bad traffic condition during peak hours.

If you are interested, do drop by at http://www.itis.com.my

Google Map is AMAZING!

Okay... I admit it. Lately, I haven't been in tune with the latest technology online. I knew the existence of Google Map but I didn't really bother to try it out - till a few minutes ago. The satellite imagery is sharp and clear although for some region (including Malaysia), there's a limit to the zoom level. Honestly, I wouldn't know what I'd do with the map... It's not like I could zoom in, say to my office and see myself walking out of it, but the coolness factor alone, literally, blows me away...! I'm BLOWN away! Way to go Google! =D


Malezia as how they say it in Polish...


This is one of the maps available for the US. You can basically locate hotels, pizza stores and basically anything you want using Google Map. How cool is that? They even include the directions in the form of red arrows. I wonder how long will it take before we can have something like this locally.

For those of you who have heard of Google Map but have yet to see it, go try it out at http://maps.google.com

My Home

Alas... everything is pretty much in place now... Although still lacking of furnitures, I can finally call my house, HOME!! =D


The Aircond is still not fixed up yet... but it isn't necessary as it is already quite cooling at night

It's a Sony...

I have always been a gadget freak... (until I took a home loan for my new house =D) Well, I am still a gadget freak although it's now not quite possible for me, financially, to indulge in any more new purchases. I am, however, still very satisfied with the one gadget I carry with me everywhere. It's my Sony Clie TH55. Prior to this, I had a Sony NX70v.


It has a beautiful 3.7" TFT touch screen. The screen is not very bright but the beautiful part about this, is that the brightness can go extremely low, it'd be comfortable for the eyes even in darkness.


This is the back of the device. It has an integrated 0.3Megapixel CMOS camera. It fits comfortably in my hand.


See how beautiful it is? It is truly an amazing device. With Integrated WLAN, I can surf the internet where wireless hostpots are available. Too bad, Sony has decided not to continue the Clie line of products outside of Japan...

What is your POINT?!!

See the lady below? She is the new advisor for AIESEC in UPM. I heard "great" stories about her and when I finally hear her speech, I realized why we are so disgusted by this new advisor. She came for AIESEC Nite to give a speech... and this "special" lady should feel proud I dedicate a post entirely for her. I don't usually do this but I am appalled with her attidude that night. She did not give any respect to the AIESECers there. NONE! I have prepared to blast her in my speech. Too bad she left right after her speech...


Please don't come and lecture us... unless you know what we are really doing...

First of all, this night is a night to introduce new members to AIESEC in UPM. However, this cik/puan/lady here decided to use her speech for her own agenda by lecturing us.

She started by saying that we should have more Malay members and not make AIESEC look like a Chinese society. For god's sake, that is what our HR goals have been for the past god-knows how many years. Look at one of our hard-core AIESEC members, Raja, who is a Malay. The reason why so few Malay members stay on is perhaps because we converse mainly in English, we dance a lot, we crap a lot and we do crazy stuff that may not appeal to the them. I don't really know what the real reasons are but please, don't make this a racist issue. It has never been. In fact, I don't even care if 100% of our members are Chinese. It doesn't matter. I'm not going to make other races stay just to maintain the racial balance. AIESEC is non-political, non-governmental, non-racist, does not discriminate gender, religion and colour. We would be more than glad if other race decides to join in... So, Cik "Whatever", do your homework...

And then she goes again saying that we bring back international culture into our culture. She gave an example on our cheer. We say "Hey AIESEC"... and the crowd will respond "Whatzzup!!" She said that it will appeal more to other people if we create our own "Malaysian" cheer. First of all, Cik Puan "Berilmu", this is indeed an international culture but more importantly, it's an AIESEC culture. You can go to any of the 90 over AIESEC member countries and do this cheer, people would have recognized it instantly. It's universal. I don't think we should change that! Besides, we always create our local Cheer, Square Dance and even Roll Call when we go abroad. I even sing "Negaraku" for crying out loud! It's not because I feel I am obliged to. I do it because I love my country!

Then, she goes on lecturing us on the huge number of projects that we do and the way we should do it. It's not a crime that we are active, right?!!!

Look, Cik Puan. No offense but your role is of an advisor, not a Grandma... Go back, read up on AIESEC and please try to understand why we are important to UPM, to the society, to the country and to the world. Finally, stop your racist statements! PLEASE! I have Malay, Chinese, Indian, French, Polish, German, British, Indon, Thai, Czech and many more friends of different races and different nationalities. So, before you start preaching, start looking and listening. Perhaps you can learn a few things or two from AIESEC.

Photog Entry: Graduation Day!!

Sadly, not mine! =D I missed my convocation (Graduation) Day 2 years ago as I was having my traineeship in Poland back then. So, believe me - I do not have any graduating photos, no studio photos.. nothing! I also have not collected my Degree certificate yet, as apparently, I still owe the University some money for the extra semester I took.

And now I wonder what I'm gonna tell my grand children in the future... "Grandpa graduate... (*cough *cough) ... I didn't bluff. I don't have any pictures to proof... and also... (*cough *cough)err.. no certificate... but I really graduated!!!!"

Anyway, I am so excited that my girl has finally graduated! She went to rent her "dress" at the University. For that, she has to pay RM75!! What a rip off! I pestered her to shoot some preliminary photos first before the real convocation day so that she would have some photos without any "human beings" in it! =D

D70: 50mm, f/3.3, 1/1500s

Cheh wah! So pratriotic!

D70: 50mm, f/3.3, 1/750s

Nice leh... You can hire me if you want but it won't be cheap... alternatively, you can pay me 0% interest instalment for up to 356 months. Yes... you heard it right... 356 months! *Terms and conditions apply.

D70: 50mm, f/2.4, 1/2000s

I like to take unusual shots like this. The day was fairly bright and therefore, I had to lose details of the sky.

D70: 50mm, f/2.8, 1/1000s

Up close and Personal

AIESEC Nite '05 UPM

AIESEC Nite is the night we introduce AIESEC to undergraduates for the new intake into university.


Some of the AIESECers are preparing for the AIESEC Nite - from left, Seanz, Chuan Yee and Stephanie.


Here are the students queueing up to register for the event!


Some of the students are waiting patiently for the event to start


MC for the night - Jamie... who is also the Vice President for Human Resource, AIESEC in UPM


Jason scouting for young girls in the crowd while Nicole sets up the presentation


The students are listening attentively...


Ren Chang telling members about AIESEC Learning Networks... I just feel that it is too complicated for 1st year University students to understand. Can we give Ren Chang something more interesting to talk about? =D Seriously... kesianla that fella. Everytime he's given something boring to talk about.


Mac is a big AIESEC fan! He is always there at any AIESEC events... His convocation will be this coming 1st of August. If you have the time, please go there and support this nice chap!


San San relates her traineeship experience in Romania... Among some of the things she has learnt from her traineeship would be indepence and confidence! See how confident she is on stage? =D


And then Anusha from AIESEC Malaysia spoke on International Conferences... she's asking questions from the crowd and every correct answer wins you a ..... "POSTCARD!!!" Yeah! I want one too... but I'm so shy to answer... hehee...


Fulamak! Now who is this guy? Action betul... ;D hehehee.... That's me la! I was talking on "Self Development Opportunities in AIESEC". Noticing that at least half of the hall has left, I decided to unleash my weapon... the "Shout and Jump and Shout like a crazy man" weapon! It worked!!!


Finally, Raja gave a talk on Leadership... on how he manages a low CGPA in University... hahaha... and still manage to be quite successful today! Bravo! Bravo!