Death and Taxes

Finally filled up my TAX return, borang BE today. Oh No! i still owe my goverment money....



"When I die I want to be cremated and for my ashes to be scattered into the sea. There will be no sign that I ever existed or a ‘monument’ that I had lived. I shall revert to dust from where I had come. This is my last will and testament." Raja Petra



What a day... reading raja petra post today brings me to think of these 2 surety in life,and yes, i do share his view on mortality! When we talked about death, we are actually talking about life. Why are we here? How do we want to live our current life? What is this living and breathing and occupying this space actually means?



Life is short, so why do ppl bothers to fight so much? why are some ppl always so angry? and why do some ppl wants so much?



Questions, questions, questions...

Moody economy, moody ping

Of late, have been more bad tempered than usual. Even my dreams are all quite stressful!Friends around me seem stressed out too... One is worried about VSS, another is worried about no work, another one has too much work, another one is complaining about no money.



At times like this, i just realised that simple things in life can really put the smile/shine back! I have noticed that Penang is getting more and more beautiful with the amazing flowering " Sakura" Check out http://cuttlefishhand.blogspot.com/2009/03/blog-post.html



Food, good food and good company brings laughter. Had been going out to play games and K-session with TT and Botak. We played this new game called MammaMia. It's about Pizzas. TT was the first one to excel in the game where she completed all the orders! Bravo, clap clap... But then Botak boh kam buan! Make us keep playing till he win also. :P Went out for a sunset outing and seafood at Teluk Kumbar with Ivan, YF, PM and Tie. Had a good laugh and some great shots as well. With lots of tips from my sifu as usual. This shot has Mr. Tie in the pic. He always complain that the 3 of us take the same shot. Haha.. i am sure, this one will be unique!





Today was again a Blood Donation Sunday! All the regular volunteers show up, hence i was VSS-ed today. Hence contributed in another way, i donated another pint of blood. Yeah Yeah! Hehe... :) Also donated blood to 10 mossies today! Maybe moody ping has sweet blood! Wei.. smile

Keep playing politics and leave the economy alone!

This is the first aniversary since our political tsunami last year! Well, from the results, it was already expected that there will be endless entertainment for all of us Rakyat. And of course, there's no free lunch, rakyat always pay!

And i am tired of paying.. especially when my pay is cut by 10% already, and am also tired of watching all the clowns (either from BN and PKR).
If they are as good looking as Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, i would complain less.
If i have lots of money, i wouldn't mind so much.

Anyway, what do i expect from the politicians? To be honest, nothing really... So far, i have not seen yet a single move so far that have benefitted the Rakyat. Err. I have no idea where the first 7 billion and recently the 10 Billion Ringgit goes to. Well, maybe some, 70k was found in a suitcase in someone's car :O

Since the politicians will not do anything to help put money in my pocket, they might as well keep acting as clowns, my only request is just make this a low cost and peaceful production! (FYI: A low cost production like Slumdog Millionaire can win the Oscars, if this is any motivation to all the actors/actresses out there!)

How about the economy then, let ???? worry about it. As for normal folks like you and me, we got to depend on ourselves. Emm..On a practical note, maybe i should open a stall by the factories and sell toasted bread and half boil eggs to increase my income.

I am not getting retrenched. FULL STOP

Arrggghhh... i am really tired of the question that require the answer "I am not getting retrenched. FULL STOP"

But then you get some persistent folks that really won't give up, how about 6 months down the road, if the ecomony keeps tumbling down at this rate!"

Arrggghhh.. My answer:"HOW WOULD I KNOW, WHY WOULD I HAVE CARED! FOR ALL YOU MAY KNOW, I MAY BE DEAD BY THEN AND I WOULD NOT HAVE A CARE ABOUT THE ECONOMY OF THIS WORLD BY THEN!"

yeah yeah yeah, these days i am a short fuse and i am impatient... So please stop asking me all these stupid questions. I mean, what is the purpose of you asking me all this? It's not as if you care about me, or are going to give me money or that i am gonna be a parasit to you! So quit aggravating me! You have been warned! SCRAM!

Sunrise at Penang Hill

Took the first train up at 6:30am yesterday morning to go on my first visit up Penang Hill since i think my pcghs days where i used to hike up with the girl guides!

Anyway, I got all my gear ready and Ivan gave me a morning call at 5:30am. We were at the foot of the staion by 6am, bought the tickets and stick on our mozzie patch!

We boarded the first tram up at 6:30am, just the 3 of us in the first car! In the other car was just another pakcik and makcik (carrying their groceries up). All the way till the middle station, Ivan was looking out of the window and giving us running commentary telling at what height we were at! After the middle station, we change into the 2nd tram, which was completely dark! i just stole some time to catch 20 winks, Ivan got bored and keep wanting to drive, as maybe we were getting impatient as the sky starts to lighten up! After this seemingly long 10-15 mins, we finally reach the top. Yeah...

It's was really freezing cold...Very breezy and nice! Haha.. good thing i bought along a hooded jumper! And we happily set up our gear and all ready to shoot!

After snapping to our heart contents, we had breakfast at the hawker stall up there! As we were eating, suddenly Ivan Jumped! A huge dun know what insect landed on Ivan! err.. lots of trouble trying to get it off! Yee Fan helped him. Haha... Luckily it landed on him, if it was on me, i think i would have screamed till the cows come home. After filling up our stomach, we were hunting for more things to shoot. Came across some really gigantic spiders and huge webs! Another finding, insects are huge up there!

All in all, a really good outing!

2 canons vs 1 nikon

A huge spidey - size of my palm

Why we need Rulers?

From RPK: "No, we need the Rulers. I don’t trust politicians, in particular Malay Nationalist politicians like Umno. With the Rulers removed, the Umno politicians will now control the army. And I would hate to be an opposition supporter or non-Malay when that happens. Then Malaysia Boleh would transform into Malaysia Beirut. And I will move back to England where I was born. Good luck to those born in Malaysia and have nowhere to go. You better learn how to shoot."


From Wikipedia " A ruler, or rule, is an instrument used in geometry, technical drawing and engineering/building to measure distances and/or to rule straight lines. Strictly speaking, the ruler is essentially a straightedge used to rule lines and the calibrated instrument used for determining measurement is called a "measure". However, common usage is that a ruler is a calibrated straightedge that can be used for making measurements"



I got a chill down to the spine reading this latest article by RPK! So, what did i do, i went on to read Wikipedia on something totally irrelevant to warm my spine up! Now i doubt whether i have a spine that goes from cold to hot to cold to hot? If you have no idea what am i blabbering about, no worries, i have none either! I am usually not like this, usually i have a clear idea on what i want and how i want to do it. For this week, i feel zombie-like, trying to finish whatever needs to be done on autopilot, getting frus at everything and everyone! If you are one of those at the receiving end, i really appologise for my erratic behaviour. I need to get out of this rut!



As my idol RPK said, you better learn how to shoot! Haha.. i will...since i am always the peace loving one, i will learn how to shoot some Good Sunrise pictures! Had some good tips from Sifu Ivan, which hopefully i can put them to good use.



bah.. humbak...

Can a frog turn into a prince?

The recent spate of events of jumping frogs in Perak reminded me of the fairy tale of the Frog Prince. Of course the only link in the two stories is that frogs are involved! Haha...

And yes, i disgaree with the way the frogs are jumping about and BN taking over.

I also do not agree with the stand Pakatan Rakyat is taking now. Earlier, you have said everything depended on the Sultan. Well, DYMM has decided and you dun like his decision and then you start to cry and wail. Come on, grow up! Think how you can turn this event into a winner for the next election and dun repeat the mistakes made. Yes, i disagree with his decision too. I agree that you need to say your piece. Say it peacefully, Protest peacefully like the Anti- ISA virgils. There, i state my stand!

Not that i hope anything will come out of this. Maybe i have given up on this Bolehland.

9th Day of CNY

The 9th Day of Chinese New Year is a major day for the Hokkiens and we anticipated lots of fireworks in Penang. (Yes, i know, it is banned, but...)

Well, me, Ivan and CC planned a day out to Evian's house. I rushed home after work and got my camera gear ready for a night of photoshooting. There's a nice spot up at the back of the hill at Evian's house. Evian's house is up on a very steep slope where i really dun dare to drive up. Ivan bravely took up the challenge and as he was manuvering a steep corner, we got stuck! As in the bottom of the car hit the ground and we can't move. I was so scared that i screamed my lungs out. My heart already popped out and ran away. Luckily Ivan was calm enough amidst my hysterical scream and managed to manuverve his car up the slope and reach Evian's house safely. All of us had a good laugh after that as ST and Evian was also watching us getting off this tight spot!

Whew, what a relief that i am still alive, i had a rest and calm my nerves and then started a short climb to set up our camera to capture Kek Lok Si at dusk! It was well worth the climb and drive up to enjoy this magnificient view. On top of this was that this place was breezy with no mossies.


The 3 of us getting ready our gear! Evian snapped this shot of us while ST snapped a shot of her snapping us. :)

Ivan was still snapping away as i got abit bored. So i started looking around for some other subjects to shoot. Saw the half Moon, due to the wrong/exposure settings on my camera, i was alarmed to capture a full moon picture! Again, my friends laughed their heads off and used this opportunity to condemm my Canon. Yeah, they are from the Dark Side (Nikon).

After that we proceeded to get our dinner and Botak joined us then. We were chor tai ti-ing our time away as we were waiting for the clock to struck Midnight for the fireworks gala to begin and to begin our 2nd round of shooting. All in all, an amazing night!

Hectic Chinese Niu Year!

Wow.. I didn't expect this CNY to be so busy. Well, as usual, i was banking on a quiet/hibernating CNY hols.

Had more gatherings and parties than i expected! :) Catch up with old and old new friends (well, sort of new again as i have lost touch with them for more than 10 years!) Hmmm... Funny, two of them who i dun even recognised says i look the same. Err... Err...Anyway,here's a pic of my primary school mates.



Today, i went for a walking tour/documentary with the PHT along Beach street under the hot sorching sun. The only reason why i dragged myself there is so that next time i can blabber lots of info to my tourist about our rich rich historical penang! Hmmm... and also i was on my way to the 2009 miao hui anyway. This was indeed interesting and i leant a lot! Well worth the 2 hours spent along this maybe 200m street. I have never walked along this street this slowly before and i am now seeing this street in a completely different light. Learn a new achitecture word "rustication" today, and am able to imagine what Beach Street was like when Francis Light first set foot!

After 2 hours,I think i was too tired baking myself along beach street that i kinda lost interest in taking photos of 槟城《己丑旺牛迎新春。街头庙会大团拜 2009》. My shoulders were aching by the time i reach the Miao Hui Venue. Some pics here from a very tired photograher.

CNY eve

Clean clean clean, dust dust dust and jam jam jam!

Well, finally all done and ready for the "Niu" Year!

Well, had our family reunion dinner at 6pm and i even have to time to go up to Kek Lok Si to snap a few quick shots. Waiting for Ivan they all for the 2nd round then i can really take my time to compose and shoot!
I know all the shots are kinda slanted. I was kinda dizzy.. well, it is caused by my bro's infamous driving and also the heavy dinner.:P

新年快乐！