Quote Today

    If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn't. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.
    - Oscar Wilde

    Monday, August 31, 2009

    Benci? Tak, aku marah je... Share

     
    Kawan malaysia ku tanya, "Knapa diorang benci sgt kat you?"

    Aku jawab, "Ntah ah..barangkali pasal aku kritik diorang tym atu."
    "Durang nda dpt nerima kli, wlupun durng ckp durang welkom kritikan."
    "Tau tau, durng marah, trus benci lah."
    "MUNGKIN lah."

    Kawan ku kata, "Habis, you dlu kena kritik apamacam benda, you tak marah?"
    "Tak benci?"

    Aku kata, "Memang aku marah, sapa nda marah."
    "Tapi aku nda benci. Durang tetap kawan-kawanku."
    "Sukati dia lah kn kritik - barangkali dh stail nya catu."

    Kawan ku tanya,"Cemana you tau?" You reti nak nilai org ke?"

    Aku jawab,"Aku bukan org seni, bkn jugak pakar sociologist."
    "Tapi aku pandai jua menilai. Sapa2 ja pun pandai."
    "Dh jadi lumrah sifat manusia - menilai orang nda dpt lari dri sifat sendiri."
    "MUNGKIN lah."

    Kawan ku kata,"You nak kritik, you bagi nasihat lh jugak."

    Aku kata,"Klau aku kritik, aku kritik sja."
    "Ikut expectation aku lh."
    "Klau kn nasihat kan, bukan aku reti sangat psl hal atu."
    "Nanti orang ucap CAKAP TAK SERUPA BIKIN."

    Aku tambah lagi,"Lgipun, durng bkn jenis mau ndengar nasihat orang lain."
    "Yang salah, durng nda ngakun. Yang betul, durng heboh kn tlebih."
    "Klau aku nasihat, dok pintu telinga di kepit."
    "Durng kata, AKU NI APA TAU."
    "MUNGKIN lah."

    Kawan malaysia ku jawab, "Oooohhhh..."

    Aku jawab, "MUNGKIN lah. AKU NI APA TAU."

    (bersambung)

    Wednesday, August 26, 2009

    Proud to be a Photoshop-Freak Share

    I've been getting questions why I like Photoshop so much. The reactions were mixed - many liked what I did and then there's a handful who thinks Photoshop are for people who can't produce beautiful pictures with a shutter-click.

    It's either that, or they're just Photoshop-dumb to begin with.

    A Greek architecture in one of London's museum - I darkened the surroundings and gave the colors on the structure a feel of Roman mystique and glow. Without editing, the picture couldn't (I believe) be dramatic as it should be.


    It's ignorant of a person to say, I feel, that just because I like to edit pictures to give the colors a little " pop" here and there, that I'm not creative, that I haven't got an eye for a good picture or that I can't appreciate the real beauty in an un-edited picture. I simply feel sometimes I need to do justice to potentially beautiful pictures that otherwise would remain dull and shoved under the "Bad Stock Images" folder, never to be looked at again.

    But please don't get me wrong with this - I'm not here to justify why we should or should not edit our pictures in Photoshop. That's up to each individual's preferences.

    I played with highlight and shadow settings with this picture. I like how it turned out, especially since if gone without editing, this mosque would have look particularly dull.

    Photoshop or not, editing a picture is still editing. So you claim that the only editing you would do is to adjust color, contrast or level so you would say you're not a Photoshop-freak. Oh yeah, sure I do that,too - but I do that with Photoshop. I mean I could have just use the automated button on ACDSee - but I think that's for people who are lazy and dare I say it - uncreative with creativeness. I would feel like I'm limiting the possibilities, that's all.

    Spin it any other way you like, the bottom line is you EDIT. Just not with Photoshop.

    With that said, I can live without editing my pictures whether it's in Photoshop or any other application software. I can leave a picture that already has wonderful colors or composition, completely untouched. And yes, I do have the ability to agree with others who advocate the simplicity and the originality of pictures as being the more impressive element of a picture when compared to an edited one. But you must learn as well to agree with some of us who thinks sometimes a little editing here and there can still emulate the same "impressive" factor, all the same.

    This sunset scene I took a few weeks ago on the beach is one amongst many pictures that I have left untouched because of its sheer beauty naturally.

    I understand, nevertheless, not all will be open towards my muse. And there's no forcing it, either. My boyfriend has his mixed reactions towards my editing - sometimes he really likes it and sometime he'd say ,"Beb, that's a little too much".

    Most of the time, I'd ignore him. =p

    So call me a Photoshop-freak, whatever. Editing is still editing, even by any other name.


    Monday, August 24, 2009

    Smattering On About Nothing Important Share

    Oh you don't say?


    Why didn't you say so in the first place? We could have saved a millenium-old age of international disputes and blatant disrespect that have inflicted the human race.

    Oh wait...

    That's right - we're only humans. We're incapable of such control over such desires and temptations.

    I'm sorry...I can't nominate you for the Nobel Peace Prize. I don't know if I should - ever.

    p/s: Obviously, I'm an Obama...

    Photo from Funworld Magazine.

    I Am Lemon - Feature Blog Share

    I'm feeling a little generous today. I'd like to share my space here to feature a blog that I frequently read, sometimes to get a sort of a jolt, for us people who think we're ALL THAT, needs once in a while.

    Farid Azlan Ghani's blog I Am Lemon is an outlet of life's anecdotes, particularly his, through the experiences of the realities in life. Perhaps, if he had one thing to say what his posts were all about, it would be the fact that we're humans and we're all hypocrites because we're all here for the very same reasons. But this, I only assume.. =D

    Here, I would like to post an entry from Farid's blog that I feel captures the bits of truth of human's selfishness and arrogance that inflict not just us, but by you, as well. Enjoy.

    Suara Yang Tak Mau Kau Dengar

    Ooooi orang tingkat atas

    Kalau melihat kebawah jangan setakat memandang dari sana

    Turun dan pijak bumi sini

    Supaya kau ingat dan rasa semula

    Angin semput dilaluan kecil ini

    Di sini ..ya disinilah titik mula panjat tangga mu keatas

    Dah lupa???? Baik kau ingat balik sebelum….

    Kami orang bawah tidak lagi mahu memandang mu dengan mendongak keatas

    Waktu itu nanti kau akan goyang dan jatuh

    Jatuh seperti orang yang terjun tiruk

    Terlalu laju melintasi bola mata kami

    Hingga tiada perasaan di hati kami untuk ambil tahu pun

    Sehinggalah kedebub!!! Bunyi jatuh yang melintasi telinga kami

    Terdengar jauh orang mengaduh parah

    Dan kami tercari-cari

    semangat untuk mencari

    Itupun kalau kami peduli.
    Touche, my friend, touche...

    Saturday, August 22, 2009

    A Face-Lift or A Face-Down? Share

    You might have noticed a change in design. You might not.

    I spent about a week picking out a suitable theme and tweaking the HTMLs and CSS here & there (with many a great painstaking hours) and battled in arguments with gadgets developers about their gadgets failing to initialize in my blog.

    Basically it's a face-lift, or a face-down, depending on how you see it. It consists of the fewest possible widgets to still have a functioning theme.

    The best part about it is that it loads the page so much faster than before. Yes, I definitely like that.

    That's all for now. I'll post something new soon. If you're lucky, maybe I'll get something on tonight.

    Monday, August 10, 2009

    On Becoming Silent on Things That DOESN"T Matter Share


    "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
    - Martin Luther King, Jr.


    I had only one thing in mind when I started blogging - to voice out things that matter to me. That my flair for writing would only be reserved for things that I believe makes an impact in my life and perhaps unto others who would spare a moment of their time to read it. And that my blog would only represent it as only words that decorate the meanings of what mattered to me.

    But 55 posts and dozens CSS changes later, my blog is the epitome of classic human insatisfaction and above all, trivial-ness.

    I must insist, though, that some posts have been writings of the heart and of the intellect mind that I once in a while put to good use. But for the most part, I wrote and posted because I had to. And it even had to do with the fact that I had to "compete" - this I must confess.

    Recalling when I first lost sight of what I wanted to represent, I am never sure of this. Maybe it was the lure of trying to have a blog that is very Web 2.0-ey; maybe it was the thrill in seeing how many subscribers and readers that made their ways onto my blog; maybe it was the sort of validation that my blog has better content than yours could that I was seeking, that drove me to a blind state.

    Whilst on my many hunts for ideas to write about just recently, it dawned on me that I haven't been true to myself and to the hope of what I'd like to represent through this medium. On an episode of mini-epiphany, I realized that I didn't have to write about something just because it was on every other blogs; that I didn't have to have a spectrum of colors on my blog just to show how "lovely with colors" it is; that I didn't have to constantly join online community groups to show for ; that I didn't need to tell the world that just because I know terms like DOF and HDR, I rightfully own the right to call myself a photographer or a digital art designer(in fact, that's a very lousy excuse). The truth is as it is - I'm not most things I claim to be.

    It just didn't matter, as I found out. Not to you, not to me.

    So, with this posting, I marked it the end of all the "clutters" and "trivial-ness" of what this blog was, and the next time I write a new post, it'll be on a new, fuddle-muddle-mare's-nest-of-a-hotchpotch-free blog that will only be of things that matter to me. I'm saying goodbye to unnecessary widgets and links, and making my farewells to the bird that tweets and the art that deviates.

    With that, I sincerely apologize for the flow of verbosity that may have been deemed offending and unnecessary. I offer no justification for my vile actions and even thoughts because they were simply, stoically the fruit of my selfishness and disrespect. And with this, I will try, with the original vision I had with this blog, become silent on things that doesn't matter, things that fringes on acts of selfishness and disrespect.

    And of course, as of my policy, don't expect any honey-i-love-you's and today-i-fought-with-my-boyfriend dramas - my private life has to remain, even if it is turbulent, private as it is.

    Not Following You Share

    Do you see me trying to emulate you?

    No?

    Good.

    End of Story.

    Thursday, August 6, 2009

    Freed American Journalists - A Source of Happiness Share

    CNN's breaking news last night at around 9PM moved me to tears as Laura Ling and Euna Lee reunites with their families in a full-news-coverage, tear-filled airport reunion that was "a source of happiness" (Obama, as cited by Klustout via Twitter) for the nation and perhaps, even the world.


    As the two American journalists, who were working for Al-Gore's Current TV channel, fell into the embraces of their loved ones, the harsh possibilities that they might have to work in North Korea's labor camp for 12 years finally dissipated. This remarkable feat of freeing the inhuman imprisonment of the two journalists on March 17th and who were later charged with illegal crossing into North Korea at the China-North Korean border; and suspicions of spying on June 8th, was made possible by a rescue-mission dispatched by the Obama camp and led by former President Bill Clinton. The negotiation between Clinton and North Korea's "Dear Leader" Kim Jong II apparently lasted for 20 hours, as reported by media sources, after Clinton landed in Pyongyang on August 4th for a "surprise visit".

    I have not followed this story in detail, but I have heard of its development over the months. It was probably ignorant on my part, back then, to think and question why wasn't the US government doing anything to free them. Now, knowing Clinton and camp were amongst those on the forefront of the release efforts, it only strengthens my reasons why I still idolizes Clinton and Al Gore.


    Some have speculated that the two journalists were never in real danger in the hands of North Korea's tyrant leader. That they (the journalists) were merely "bargaining chips" in a "high stakes poker game" (source: Meek, NY Daily News) in Kim's attempt to seek political pardon and diplomatic solution, following North Korea's much opposed nuclear weapons implementation.

    In whatsoever the real issue behind the imprisonment was, nothing would have compared in horror to the ordeal through which Laura and Euna endured during their 5-month captivity. Now, safely back at home and reunited with their families, nothing is more important than that, and whatever Clinton bargained with Kim in Pyongyang just a few days ago, I just hope it doesn't come at the expense of other people and matters.

    I don't think the US needs to sit down at another table of
    "high-stakes poker game" with the North Koreans and gambles another human life or two, be it Americans or Koreans, as "bargaining chips".

    News sources and photos courtesy of the NYDailyNews.com
    © 2009 Daily News, and Kristie Lu Stout's twitter.


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