#1

My housemate and I went cycling one evening and came back wet because it rained. I saw drops of water on our spectacles, and I immediately had an idea to take the pictures of our spectacles. I forgot either we went out for just riding or doing grocery. It was 5 years ago… … when I was in Australia.

#2

Do you think that these pictures of spectacles look like an advertisement? I used my old FujiFilm FinePix 2300 digital camera to take these pictures. This camera did not allow me to control anything such as shutter speed, aperture and so on, but the only thing I can do was to switch to the close-up mode so that I can get closer to the spectacles, the bottle of eye drops and the lamp. I supposed to use tripod but I did not have it at that moment, luckily the subjects were just right under the light of the lamp, so I still managed to get the picture sharp.

#3

#4

#5

Another Memory… …

I recalled another session when I helped a friend to take the pictures of stationeries to make catalog, it was about 200 types of different stationeries. It took me few days to finish taking those photos. From there I learned that arrangement of subjects, composition and lighting are 3 most important skills in commercial photography. Hmm… … It was 7 years ago while I was still using my old DSLR SLR Canon EOS 500 - a film camera. My friend bought the films for me to take the photos, he sent the films to develop and printed out the photo on his own, but he did not pay me as he promised. However I am happy with it because I had got a chance to practice advertising photography.

It was not his mistake not to pay me because at that time I was about to go to Australia to continue my study, I did not collect from him, and we both had forgotten about it. But today I recalled it… … may be I am now really poor and need $$$.

He was also interested in photography, before I went to Australia I passed him the whole set of my SLR, a fish eye wide angle converter, remote shutter control, a tripod, and a camera bag. It was early 2002, when I started to feel that a SLR is bulky and inconvenient for me to travel around, and I was aiming for my first compact digital camera, that was why I did not want to bring my SLR to Australia. Another reason was the cost to develop and print out the film is high which make me stop using my SLR until now. I think I had only contacted him few times while I was in Australia.

When I came back to Malaysia, and I got my camera bag from him, I discovered that the fish eye wide angle converter, remote shutter control, and the tripod connector were missing. He also stopped playing with camera because of the high cost of printing film. What I heard from him was he lent my camera to another person. He returned my tripod but without the connector to screw the camera so that the camera can sit on the tripod, so the tripod was useless. I could not find the replacement for the connector. Finally he gave me his big bulky tripod which cost him about RM500 as a compensation for the tripod and other missing items.

That is why I am now using a bulky tripod although my camera is small. :p It seem not balanced and funny. And I am looking for a smaller, thinner, lighter tripod.

He is still my good friend, and we never mention about this matter anymore. I think he had forgotten that he once bumped himself into photography. His bulky, heavy and expansive tripod is still with me, and I prepare to returned him anytime once he remember that many years ago he did interested in photography.

I have learned not to be calculative, I learned to forgive and forget (:p although I still remember, but I did not keep it in mind), I learned to handle others things carefully, I learned that lending other’s thing to another person without the owner permission is not good, I also learned that there is no right or wrong for some matter.

:p He does not read my blog. :p

#1

Chinese are always good in naming things especially naming for plants and flower for example “turning Your Luck“, “Flower of Prosperity” etc.  Here I show you different type of Flower of Prosperity, or known as “Fu4Kui4Hua1″ in Chinese.  I have shown you the seeds of this plant quite some time ago, now I have collected different varieties of this flower.

#2

Let me give some facts about this plant:-
   English name:  Desert Rose
   Scientific name:  Adenium obesum
   Chinese name:  Fu4Kui4Hua1
   Origin:  Tropical, Subtropical Eastern and Southern Africa and Arabia
   Propagation:  Seed and Stem Cutting
   Soil and watering:  Same as Cactus
   Sunlight requirement:  High
   Flower diameter:  2-8 cm
   Number of petals:  5
   Poisonous:  Yes
   Common usage:  Plant as Bonsai, coat arrow-tips for hunting

#3

#4

In Chinese, “Fu4″ means Rich, “Kui4″ means honour, “Fu4Kui4″ put together means prosperity, and “Hua1″ means flower.

If you want to make this plant into a Bonsai, it’s better to plant it from seed, because the root will become swollen caudex which is excellent for a Bonsai.  I have a pot of Flower of Prosperity with swollen caudex root.  I will show it after its leaves have grown properly.

The plant exudes a highly toxic sap which is used by some peoples, such as the Akie in Tanzania, to coat arrow-tips for hunting.

#5

Tell me which colour you like.

Have you ever thought about how many days have you been staying on this world since you were born? I have found a quick way to calculate it using Microsoft Excel.

As the example above, if you were born on 8/8/2008, You are 74 days old today, and on Chrismas day of the year 2035, you will be 10000 days old.

Here is the trick:-
0.  Open a new excel files.
1. Enter your birth date (in cell B1).
2. Enter today date (in cell B2).
3. The answer for the number of days until today since you were born is =B2-B1.
4. The answer for the date of your 10000th day birthday is =B1+10000.
5. [for B3] After doing the plus and minus operation on date, excel may display number in date format because the answer is not formatted properly. Therefore, the next step would be formatting the cell B3. Change the cell format from date to number.

It is very simple and easy if you have the basic skill on Microsoft Excel.

I have a feeling when I look at my age in the unit of days. I have only been living in this world for 10700+ days. If I have a long life and can reach 100 years old, it would be only 36500+ days. I feel that life is short.

I should not waste anymore time, and should work harder to pursuit my happyness.

The lamp has been switched off when the sun rises. Do you think it is the beginning of the day for the lamp or it is the time for the lamp to start sleeping?

I seldom wake up so early in the morning. Thanks to our friends from Penang, we bought them to visit a temple very early in the morning and I have had a chance to take this picture at the temple. It was about a month ago… …

Today I wake up very early again… … Actually I like to wake up early in the morning but most of the time it is not easy because of the tiredness carried forward from the previous day. I asked myself why I like to wake up very early in the morning where staying on the bed may feel more comfortable. My answers are I like to enjoy the morning breeze, I like to enjoy the cool air, I want to listen to the bird songs, I want to watch the sunrise, and I want to see the sky turn its colour from black to dark blue, then orange (sometimes) then light blue, and finally totally bright. I also like to see the quiet street start getting busy by the increasing number of cars passing by. I like to see the changes.

Sometimes an important event may overcome the tiredness to make me wake up early, such as an early morning flight, or an appointment at 8am or earlier. Willingness is another issue. I like to wake up early does not mean that I am willing to wake up early. If you ask me which one I prefer, the comfortable bed or the nice bird song and beautiful sunrise, my answer would definitely the second option. But most of the time tiredness and the comfortable bed win the battle. I believe that if I have stronger will, I would be able to wake up early everyday.

Well, what is your answer for the question on the first paragraph above? My answer is that the lamps never sleep and wake up, each lamp take turns to give us brightness… Because… we should not forget that the sun is the brightest lamp in the morning.

The word “happiness” is purposely spelt wrongly, first reason because the movie emphasis on the topic of happiness and second, in the story, Chris Gardner (starring by Will Smith) sent his son to a day care where he found there was a word “happyness” spelt wrongly on the wall.  He complained to a Chinese guy but that guy did not know what Chris said.

This is a true story and Chris Gardner is now a multi millionaire.  His son in the film is the real son of Will Smith.

I have never come across this film, never knew about Chris Gardner until our last journey from Ipoh back to Kuching where we watched it on an express bus from Ipoh to LCCT.  Thanks to the bus driver that introduced us a good film.  Unlike what I normally do, I might have snapped and awaked, snapped and awaked again and again most of the time in the 3.5 hours journey, this time, I stucked my eyes on the TV… …  Last night I watched this movie again on DVD even it was very late in the midnight at 2am.  I wanted to learn again carefully what happiness is and how to pursuit it.

My heart was touched by Chris Gardner.  No matter how difficult his life was, he never gave up.  He put even more effort to pursuit his “happiness”.  He needed to sell 2 bone scanners monthly to different doctors in order to cover his monthly expenses, but he had not even sold one for quite some time…

Here comes a few scenes that inspired me on how to pursuit happiness:-

1. He told his son, “Don’t ever let somebody tell you you can’t do something. You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can’t do something themselves, they wanna tell you you can’t do it. If you want something go get it.”

2. He attended an internship program where he received no salary for the first six month.  He need to be selected out of the 19 other candidates to get the job as a stock broker.  He put more effort than the others.  He need to make lots of calls in a day, and he said that without hanging up the phone but just use fingers to quickly cut the line between calls can save 8 minutes a day.

3. While he needed to read a thick book for the exam, he also needed to take care of his son alone (his wife left him) and he brought his son with him every evening rushing to queue up for a public shelter while he was broke.  There was a time he was behind the queue and failed to get the public shelter.  There was a time too where he and his son stay overnight in a train station washroom, and he locked the washroom.  He dropped his tear.

4. He was always running from one place to the other place in the film.

After struggling for months, he finally got his job and here comes the end of an almost 2-hours movie. 

I felt that I am luckier.  You can gain back your confidence after you watch this film.  He was broke, homeless and have to take care of his son, and he can overcome all the problems.  What else can’t you do?  What else can’t I achieve?

I suddenly thought of a blogger called homelessGuy, he did not update his blog for quite some time, I wonder how his life is now.  This guy was also homeless and stayed in his car for months.  Now do you think that you are lucky?  Go and get what you want and pursuit your happiness.

We need to protect our dreams.