Taking Photos

Recently, I love taking photographs and I don't mean taking pictures of myself in front of the mirror or webcam like many of my retarded peers. I like capturing moments which can define a meaning. Pictures with soul and story

It's a good thing. I can have fun with my (yet another) new found hobby and also learn to improve on my mediocre photography skills. I believe that photography skills cannot be acquired through learning

There is no such thing as to how technically well a photo can be taken. If there's such a thing called imperfection in a picture, then the very basic concept of art will cease to exist.

Professional photographers like to capture countless of images with their cameras. However, they should understand that no matter how nice the end result look like, there can always be improvements somewhere and Photoshop will always be there to embarrass them

Unless you say taking photos is not an art, then you should agree that it is not how nice a picture looks like but how valued is it by the person whom appreciates it

Sit Down

While I was at home yesterday, I sat down on the floor. It was not just an ordinary action where you slowly rest your butt on the ground. It was like a journey, a journey that brought me back to the past

I usually do not sit with my legs crossed. I would position my legs where the calf and the thigh form an upside down V shape. My elbows would rest on the knees and my right hand would clutch onto my left wrist to form a "lock". Sitting in this way makes me feel more comfortable somehow

I had a familiar feeling while sitting in that position. I thought for a while and realized that I used to do it five times a week, every morning, at the parade square, wearing uniform, in my secondary school

Everyone, ok almost everyone sat with their legs crossed. That never crossed my mind, I would sit my favourite position, absorbed in the principal's daily morning speech although I normally forget what she had said two minutes after we left the parade square for lessons

Teachers, who did not had the luxury (or misfortune) to sit down, would be walking about since they had nothing to do except listen to the principal's voice. I would definitely catch their attention if they were near me as I looked out-of-the-class

Actually I think that I am right. Firstly, my ankles won't ache. Secondly, I am will not crumple my uniform so easily. Thirdly, my hands are more relaxed in that position

I can sit in that position because I am wearing pants. That is one of the reasons why being a guy is always better

World Cup Preview 2

This is the second of the four-part special on this year's World Cup. For today, we will be talking about why will the following countries not win the World Cup? Of course, this is just a prediction so please do not take offence if the team you support is listed here

Italy

First of all, the defending champions. The country where Monica Bellucci, Ferrari and Mandarina Duck come from. It is evident that most of the current national team players are past their prime while the younger generation have yet to reach their peak

There will be no Francesco Totti or Alessandro del Piero in this year's competition. Young guns like Giuseppe Rossi and Giorgio Chiellini are now the stars. However, they are still a long way from being world-class

The familiar names are all names which are associated to an age above thirty. Italy have a main problem which is hindering them for a long time. They do not have flair players who can play beautifully on the wings. Gianluca Zambrotta and Mauro Camoranesi are too old and erm, I can't think of any other Italian wing players

Italy's style of play is too predictable. Gennaro Gattuso wins the ball, Andrea Pirlo makes the first pass from deep, Daniele de Rossi gets forward to support the strikers. Stop the central midfield and Italy is immobilized

Even a commoner can point out their weakness, what about the other 31 coaches at the World Cup?

Germany

Knocked out of the semi-finals by Italy in their own country four years ago. The country where Volkswagen, Adolf Hitler and a whole lot of beer brands originated from

Germany have the same problem as Italy, they lack flair players. I don't consider Michael Ballack as one. The closest whom I can think of is Phillip Lahm who unexpectedly scored the first goal in the 2006 competition

Miroslav Klose is no Gerd Muller. The current bunch of goalkeepers are still miles away from Oliver Khan standard. Bernd Schneider has retired, Torsten Frings is not included in the squad. How can Germany even survive the group stages?

Time to ask Franz Beckenbauer, Rudi Voller and Jurgen Klinsmann to return to their playing days, provided if they still have the energy

Netherlands

Unlike their Italian and German counterparts, Netherlands boast a variety of players with different styles. Their defenders can attack, their midfielders can play anywhere and their strikers run around chasing for the ball like defensive players (namely Dirk Kuyt)

The current squad has a balance of creative and holding players. There are at least two good players who can play in one position. Most of the players are at their peak including those over 30

However, the Dutch are not that reliable all the time, in terms of betting your money on them. Remember how Russia had them crashing out of Euro 2008? Their renowned Total Football playing style was jeered by many then

Netherlands are too perfect. Too perfect that having a single little flaw in them will affect them as a whole. It is like Bae Yong Joon. He is so popular and idolized but if he has a pimple on his face, people will start to think twice until the pimple is gone

What if Rafael van der Vaart gets a red card? What if Arjen Robben was injured? What if the defenders attacked too much and exposed the penalty area? Holland will be doomed. They will be, anyway

Argentina

Argentina? Messi lor. Messi? Barcelona lor. Barcelona? All the barca players lor. Messi? Still Barca lah

Argentina is forever equivalent to Lionel Messi but the World Footballer of the Year is only one of the eleven players wearing the blue-white striped jersey

If Argentina were to rely solely on Messi's magic, Diego Maradona can get ready to be thrown with tomatoes when he returns home. Sadly, that seems to be the plan. Javier Mascherano is only there to wear the captain's armband, Carlos Tevez is forever number two, Diego Milito seems to be in fine form lately but it is still too early to tell. Sergio Aguero might be Maradona's son-in-law but Messi is still first choice as long as he is available

Messi is so crucial to the team that Argentina will need to play 4-3-3 in every game if they have to accommodate Messi's playing style. Messi tends to cut in from the right wing with his preferred left foot. As long as the opposing team have a right-footed left back and a holding midfielder dedicated to marking him, Argentina would be paralysed

It is also bizarre that 35 year old Juan Veron gets a call-up when there are so many other younger and better players. The person whose name starts with "M" will decide Argentina's fate and he is not Messi. He was the one who scored a goal with his hand against England

Honduras

If you can name me three Honduras players, then I can consider taking them out of this list. Where the hell is Honduras anyway? Oh, it is in North America. Where? Heck care, they confirm won't get into the second round

New Zealand

This is a football competition, not a rugby one. If it is a rugby competition, New Zealand would have been one of the hot favourites. Unless FIFA allows animals like kangaroos to represent the country, New Zealand can start booking tickets for a flight back home after the group stages

Next week's topic...ok I shall keep it a secret first

Rock Band

Forget about The Eagles, Guns n Roses or Led Zeppelin. This is the latest rock band that will erm, rock the stage upside down!

Presenting the one and only

Meow Meow Band!

Meowwwwwwww, oops I mean Roarrrrrrrr

Pictures

This photo was actually taken in quite a dark place due to the heavy rain. Hey, but with a little technique and luck, it still looks rather bright after all. No flash or any other special features were utilized. Kudos to my smart handphone (it's not a smartphone)

This place is called Pebble Garden. It is a "sacred and forbidden" area in the company I was attached to during the March/April ITP. It is said that hardly any of the employees have been to this place as nobody knows how to walk to there

Just do some thinking plus analysing and I managed to find a way up there. I quickly snapped a picture and went down the stairs in case somebody saw me and wondered who was that intruder there. It was not an easy way to reach it as my whole shirt was drenched in sweat

Pathetic English

I received an email from the leader of my FYP group today. After reading the email, I must say that I felt a bit worried. It is not the content of the email which bothered me, it was the written English

There were quite a number of grammar mistakes. Some were rather unacceptable to the point that even a China man would laugh at. I know I may sound very evil here but this is my style and I'm pointing out a fact

By the way, there was confusion in the email. The sentence in the email and the one stated in the word doc attachment contradict each other resulting in me getting confused

Back to the topic on why I was worried. My group consists of my leader, a local Malay girl, a China man and me lah. Looking at how good my leader constructs his sentences, I don't have high hopes of him writing reports. The Malay girl might still be alright, I don't know. China man no need to say lah, hor?

So, I shamelessly reckon that I will be the public relations manager, corporate communications director, marketing executive, chief presenter and any other language-related position of my group

I used to work with other people where they created powerpoint slides with not-so-impressive English. I edited lots of things so that our presentation would look better and the person was a little pissed off but couldn't do anything

For this FYP, I got a weird sense of déjà vu

World Cup Preview 1

The biggest football event is about to begin this June. Before the World Cup starts in less than a month, this blog will have a weekly four-part special about this year's competition every Friday. For today which is the first post, the topic would be on "How/Why can the following countries win the World Cup?"

Brazil

Of course Brazil will win it. They have all the "Rs" in their team. Players with names that start with "R" never fail to dazzle the crowd at the World Cup. Although there is no more Ronaldo or Rivaldo in 2010, Brazil still have Robinho, Ramires and Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite (which is also Kaka's real name). Even Ronaldhino might get a suprise call up

Every World Cup, there is definitely one "R" player that will be the star of the tournament. With a star star player in your team, it would be unacceptable if you finish as runners-up

In the future, there will be another "R" player called Raymond. He is from Singapore and he will take the international football fraternity by storm and you are reading his blog right now

France

Brazil are the kings but they got knocked out in the quarter-finals four years ago and it was the French who did it. Forget about Zinedine Zidane and his headbutt, that is so "out". The latest trend is to use your hand to control the ball on the pitch like what Thiery Henry did against Ireland in the qualifiers

Imagine if Henry teaches Franck Ribery, Nicolas Anelka and Djibril Cisse to all use their hands to control the ball to win a game. If seven different players make a crucial touch to the ball with their hands in separate matches, France would have won the World Cup

If this really happens, we can conclude three things. First, there is something kelong with the referees. Second, the French players should take up basketball as their careers instead. Third, nobody would eat french fries again

North Korea

You might be shocked to see this Asian country's name. North Korea definitely have a chance to bring home the World Cup and the plan is simple

Kim Jong II just have to tell Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel, Juan Carlos I etc. to have their national teams play "fake ball" to let North Korea win or else he will fire nuclear rockets anywhere on earth

Do not ever underestimate a small team. Their team may be small on the football's international stage but their leader is a big (and demanding) one

It's so simple

South Africa

Omg, South Africa will win it for their people. They are the hosts, they are playing at their home. There is no reason to lose

Let's see, they did no not enter from 1930 to 1962, were banned by FIFA from 1966 to 1990, were not qualified for 1994 and finally made their debut in 1998. 16 years later, there are the hosts of this event and they will be eager to prove their worth

Yes, this means that they have to work hard and gain people's attention. Or else, people will only pay attention at their yellow-green jerseys which look like some African reptile

England

The country which is home to the world's most popular league and some of the most popular footballers. It is a superstar team. See, they have David Beckham, oops he's injured erm, Michael Owen, oops he's also injured plus outdated and David Seaman, oh sorry already retired long ago

Ok, they have Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard. Names that ring a bell in any football fan. If Beckham wasn't injured, England would have a perfect team for this World Cup but even in his absence, many younger players can still fill in his boots

It's the legendary Three Lions that we are talking about here, not the Kallang Roar Singapore Lions (oops). A traditional English 4-4-2 formation would suit this bunch of English players perfectly. Everything is so "perfectly-English" about the squad except for Fabio Capello

But he's a freaking good coach anyway

Spain

Another perfect team and their coach is Spanish too. Deadly strikers like David Villa and Fernando Torres, talented midfielders like Xavi, David Silva, Cesc Fabregas, goalkeepers which include Iker Casillas and Pepe Reina, defenders like...

What else can you ask for?

A World Cup to add to their pretty empty and embarrassing honours record

Portugal

If Portugal were to win the World Cup, there can only be one reason. Cristiano Ronaldo. And he definitely have the ability to take his national team to the finals

Never mind that his dribbling and running may not be effective all the time, he can still use his trademark move-diving. Just dive in the penalty box a couple of times in separate matches and make sure that the one taking the kick gets the ball in and mission accomplished

That's the beauty of the game or the ugly side of it. Who cares? Ronaldo looks so handsome anyway, only the jealous men will hate him

There are many more other teams like Netherlands, Argentina, Italy etc. who also have a good chance of winning the World Cup. However, these teams still lack a little something

Coming up next week, Why will the following countries not win the World Cup? It'll all be explained then

Freedom comes with a price

Today is May 20. Eight years ago today, was the day East Timor's independence was restored by Portugal. It ended 23 years of rule under Indonesia and 3 years under Portugal

Anyway, I am not going to talk about East Timor today. However, it is something related to this Southeast-Asian country. The arrival of freedom

East Timor was freed eight years ago. Looking at the graduation ceremonies of my school for the past three days, I realized that it is something like freedom. But freedom come with a price

Your daily life will not be restricted by the silly timetable you have. You need not waste >>insert time taken to travel to school multiplied by two<< of your of your day to and from school. No need to torture yourself to wake up early

For everything, there is a price to pay. I am not referring to MasterCard here

Without that silly timetable with awkward timings of lectures and breaks, your daily life would be free. But that means you are required to find something to do if you want to lie on bed at night and recall that it was a productive day worth living

Without having to spent your time commuting, you can use that extra period to do something you like but never had a chance to. However, do you exactly know what should you do?

Being able to sleep until you are satisfied is a luxury. But do take note that oversleeping is harmful to your health. Plus, staying up late at night is even worse. Knowing that the only crucial thing which you need to do the next morning is brushing your teeth (which you can also not do), you would think that it's alright to turn in later

A young boy looks at a working adult on the streets. The adult looks back at the boy. Their minds are filled with opposite thoughts. The boy wants freedom like the adult while the adult longs to be a boy as freedom comes with a price

This is what I would like to talk about today. The End

Oh wait, I forgot to buy a birthday cake for East Timor!

The depth of beauty

Once upon a time, there was a child. He lived with his mother in a tiny yet cosy home. His father's wheabouts were unknown. Their home was also home to many others. It was a shared place by different families and some lonely souls

Life was very straightforward and dull for him. All he had to do was wait for food to arrive and eat the food. He had been doing this since birth. He is still in his early childhood days. Of course, his mother was the one providing the food every day

His siblings were all perished in an incident according to his mother. She told him that he was very fortunate to be the only one who survived during that incident. She never mentioned what the incident was whenever her child asked her

One day, the child asked his mother. He was already slightly grown up although he still needs to rely on his parent. "Why are the both of us so good-looking compared to the others around us?"

There was no reply so he asked another question. "You see, we both have near-perfect features and flawless looks, all the rest of them look rather inferior and a couple of them even have marks on their bodies"

His mother sighed and smiled in her heart. There was still no reply. The child didn't bother to continue asking since he realized that no answer was the answer to his question

Two weeks later the child asked his mother another question. "When will we ever move out of this tiny place with all those ugly looking neighbours?" This time, his mother replied him. "We will not be moving, we would have moved long ago if we were supposed to."

Her son was obviously confused with the answer. "What do you mean? I see others moving from one place to another here, some are even gone permanently". "How much longer must we stay here?"

Again, no answer was the perfect answer to her curious son's questions

**The setting of this story is in an aquarium or to be exact, a fish tank which houses the top two premium arowanas of the shop and some pleco, catfish, tetra and other fishes which look umimpressive when placed next to the arowanas

The young arowana did not realize that he and his mother were not for sale hence they were stuck in that fish tank forever for display purposes. His father and siblings, not as good-looking as him, were either sold or placed at some other places

His mother did not want him to miss his family therefore she did not reply his questions. She wanted her son to be proud of himself and only remember the good things

But everyone will turn old one day. By then, are your looks more important or your family?
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Thank you for your time if you read the entire story without skipping. Please give some feedback whether you like this kind of posts by me or still prefer my spicy and sarcastic ones

Poor Advertising

As someone who does not consume beef, I find the recent burger TV commercial by a leading fast food chain rather disturbing. In the commercial, a number of idiots take turns emphasizing on the word "beef" by screaming or shouting for a couple of seconds

The word "beef" is heard at least twelve times in one commercial. It just goes to show how uncreative and shallow the media company in charge of this commercial is. If you repeatedly say the word "pork" to a Muslim, how would he/she feel? The same goes for people like me which includes Buddhists, Hindus etc.

There are so many other ways to show how good the burger is but they decided to do it the direct way. So much so for being called creative directors when their ideas don't differ from a five year old

Anyway, looking at the yellow french fries in its trademark red paper holder, I think that this fast food giant is getting worse and worse and worse and worse worse worse. Worseeeeee. See? I only used seven "worse"

Power Failure

I experienced a power failure in school today, not once but twice in less than an hour. This is not the first time it has happened since I enrolled into this institution located just beside Dover MRT station

Well, I wonder if any apologies would be made by the management on today's matter. I doubt there would be any since it can't be bothered with such "little" things. Utimately, students (and maybe lecturers) would be the ones at the losing end

As the days, weeks and semesters pass by, I realized that something has got to be done to protect the rights of we students and improve the quality of the management. Something like governing a country. Future students will continue to be at a disadvantage if everything remains status quo

Students are just like citizens, the school fees we pay are similar to the taxes that people file annually. We part with our money yearning that other better things will be coming back to us. This has not always been the case and when trust is lost, there will be no turning back

We need opposition. Opposition voices to voice out our opinions and create awareness for the good of the school. All that is desired is one or two people to stand up and make the first move and a whole lot of supporters will follow and rally behind them

I love opposing. I am a very stubborn person by nature. Will that person be me?