9 things for 2009
1. Learnt the keyboard. Can you believe it? I’ve been wanting to learn for quite some time but hadn’t really the passion for it until…Well something happened. Lets just say that I no longer know what I can do. And I started learning the song because it has all my feelings in it. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting Alan’s first simplified song. River flows in you by Yiruma.
It was late one September night when I was having insomnia because of the problems I was facing that I heard this song. I remember how it calms me. And how it gives me resolve in holding on even till today. And I knew I just had to learn it. And one month, a keyboard and a lot of hard practice later, I finally got it. My dear problem, this shall always be our song.
2. Trips. I’ve had a number of trips lately. Genting, Kelantan, Limbang, Brunei, Ipoh, KK and ultimately Taiwan. I hadn’t been to Genting for a long long time. I can’t even remember my last trip there. It should be when I was still a baby :p. The same goes for Brunei. I hadn’t been there since I left 12 years ago. I was studying there until Primary 4. Now when I went back for a day trip, I can hardly remember the places there. First time trips will be to Kelantan (where I attended my first conference and stayed alone in a 2 beds five class hotel), Ipoh (visited here with Shirley and gang early this year) and Taiwan (visit this link for full trip details).
KK-Harbor side
Limbang harborside
Labuan harborside
I’ve not been back to KK for around 5 years. Last I remember being back there was when I met up with Stephanie and gang whom I met while studying A levels back during Matriculation. A lot of things had changed there. I have-ot been back to my hometown as well for the last 2 years. A lot have changed most notably the cousins look so grown up now. All handsome guys and pretty girls. I had to try to resist falling in love with them (the girls I mean) Ha ha. Looking forward to more trips next year.
3. Project progress. Now I’ll sum this up in a graph. My progress this year:
Frankly speaking, I’m having loads of troubles this year that it seem to make of think twice about whether I should quit or not. Sigh. I think its always cause I’m not hardworking enough.
4. Accidents accidents. Since I started driving in KL, I had been involved in 2 minor accidents with both happening in the span of 2 weeks. First off, a miscalculation on turning angle on my side caused my to dent the right side of my car. And a few days later, a mistake by both parties caused both car’s buttocks to become blue black. But I am thankful though that none are serious incidents. And I pray that my driving will continue to be safe throughout 2010. In addition to that, there’s that time when my car rear glass got smashed (Most probably by those cutting the grass). Pain to look at it you know. But lucky everything is okay now (I hope).
5. I’ve gotten a new girlfriend. Say hello to Esme. She’s very high-class and also made me have a huge hole in my wallet. What to do. I fell in love with her. Haha. Here’s a picture of me caressing her.
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I do love her, really.
6. I’ve went to my first out of KL conference and it was at Kelantan. Stayed in a 5 star hotel with 2 queen size bed to sleep on. Slept in different bed every night some more. Ah… The life… Hahaha… And just paid RM50 per night for the 2 beds. Really a blissful life 
Alan was here… on both beds.
7. Suffered emotional breakdowns a few times this year. It was from bad to worst I guess. Sometimes it makes me wonder if what I’m doing is correct. Can’t a kind person treat another person kindly without hidden intentions. If it’s possible then why are there conflict among us?
8. Enjoyed photography and ventured into the world of HDR. Gives off the best in photos but then haven’t really do very well in it. But nevertheless still loving it. Hope to be able to venture into portraits soon. With real pretty models this time. Hahaha
Genting cable car (HDR)
Faculty at Sunset (HDR)
Sampan in KK (HDR)
Labuan Sea Sports complex at night (HDR)
I’m loving HDR.
9. Broke the 20k visits barrier earlier this year. Thanks to you all for visiting. I know I hadn’t been updating much lately. But still really thank you for tuning in.
I know that this year really hasn’t been an interesting year for me. But I do look forward to a more fruitful 2010. With a lot of hopes of things that may happen.
Taiwan Trip (Day 1 and 2)
Day 1:
Beautiful sunset taken from the plane.
We arrived at Kaoshiung at around 7pm at night. Our tour group of over 20 persons are made of mostly of kids (Thanks to my aunt, Lol) and 2 tour guides (one from Malaysia and one local to Taiwan). Straight off the plane, we boarded a bus to the first destination of the night which is Kaoshiung night market. My camera was still sound asleep in my backpack so there wasn’t any notable photos of this place. Another problem which I faced was the language barrier. Being a banana, I wasn’t able to read anything written on the stall boards and ended up wondering what those things were. One particular funny moment was during dinner when my parents ordered something from the selection on displayed. I thought it looked like silkworms and told everyone about it. Noone knew what it was and in the end that dish was the less eaten dish of the night. It wasn’t until when we left that I ask the waitress what it was. Turns out it was one of my favorite dish, crab meat. Lol. ROTFLMAO. We checked in into on nice hotel somewhere in Kaoshiung city. Everyone was tired after the plane flight and slept quite early as we had an early morning bus the next day.
Day 2:
We had one of the best vegetarian breakfast ever in the hotel restaurant. I fell in love with the egg buns. It was just so tasty till I took almost 5 in one go. Anyway, the other food was good as well. We then boarded the bus and headed off to Kenting. Kenting is found in the southern most part of Taiwan. And it was freaking hot.
The first destination is Kenting Marine Museum. I had a great time knowing that the Great white whales are actually land animals before this, which given the harsh environment of living, went into the sea and gradually evolve into the Whales. Amazing right. Perhaps human were also like that once. Perhaps we were once birds which gave away their wings for hands and became the monkeys and eventually learned to stand up and become humans.
Family photo in front of the museum.
How the land animals become sea animals
Taking photos of fishes through the glass was quite challenging, first time use of a polarizer.
I love watching the penguins in action here.
The marlin fish in front of the museum (Someone said it looked so real as if it just jumped out of the water)
View outside the museum
After the museum, we had lunch and later on went to the southern-most tip of Taiwan, called cat-whiskers cause it looks like the whiskers of the cat. A scenic location just perfect for photography and I just snapped my heart out.
The scenic view from cliffs
The cat’s whiskers
My favorite photo for that day, the photo of a fisherman fishing. Look at the clear water below. I’m quite sure the polarizer help out as well.
We then made a trip to the local bird observatory which unfortunately was closed for renovations. –.-‘’’ After that we visited this building which was used in the filming of one series I think.
The ancient looking building. It was said that in the older days people tried to climb this building from the poles and those who succeeded will gain fame and prosperity or something of that sort.
After that we visited a place where fire seem to come out from the ground, literally. It was amusing cause tourist come to look at stuff like this. The tour guide even bought a pack of popcorn for us to cook.
My cousin popping the popcorn.
What’s more amusing is that some locals actually set up stalls on the site to sell baked potatoes.
The lady is running her own business here.
My sister with the sign of the site
After that we managed to check into the hotel and I managed to take a few shots of the sunset from the hotel corridor.
Amazing sunset.
At night, after dinner, we didn’t really have much activity beside visiting the local night market. Again bought quite a number of local delicacies. I started to wonder how much weight I would gain by the time the trip is over.
Ten things for 2010
A list of ten things I hope will happen in 2010.
1. Top of the list will be to learn more songs for the keyboard. I hope that I’d be able to do some of the songs I really wanted to do for a long time. I hope to get better at playing it and I want to be looked upon while playing. Perhaps next year I’d be able to do True Light from the OST of DNAngel.
2. Progress in project. As I’ve stated before this. My progress for 2009 is as follows:
I want to be able to improve that by a long run and hopefully by the end of next year I’d be somewhere as follows.
3. I want to win a prize in a photography contest. I’ve had some nice photos IMO which I want to submit to certain contest to try my luck. At the same time, I’d like to have the chance to get better in certain photography areas such as taking portraits of people. And I hope to find a photo buddy who loves to model for my photos. Lol. The only problem with that now is that I don’t have good confidence to be able to take good portraits shots and I fear that the model who’s in my photo will think of it as a waste of time. But still, can’t let the fear of that grip me for good right. Go Alan!!!
Hopefully I don’t have secretly take photos of my cousin anymore (That sounded so wrong btw). Hahaha
4. I want some things to get better again, especially my relationships with certain people. I have people scared of me due to my unorthodox methods in caring and getting close with others. But still I do hope that things will be good once more. It’s just so troubling to go through with life face with that problem. I want to be happy once more.
5. I want to travel more. Haha. This year I managed to go to Taiwan. Where’s next you ask? Lets go Australia. After all Tina is there and hopefully by the time I’m travelling there, she will be prepared and ready to take us around and about. Although honestly, the place which I really want to travel to is New Zealand. I can already imagine myself with a DSLR, up in the mountains of NZ, looking down on the green plains below, snapping my heart away. Or I can also imagine myself in a green cloak, carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows, portraying Legolas as he was in LOTR. Lol. Anyone want to tag along?
KK harbor-side 2009
6. I want to save more money. Lol. How am I suppose to do this with #5 listed above, I wonder. Haha. I’ve been doing a lot of major spending these few years. Starting off with a PSP back in 2006, then a camera in 2007, a new lappie in 2008 cause my old one got stolen and this year I’ve gotten a new phone after my old one died and a DSLR. Really must save more.
7. I want to be fit. This will most probably seem to be the most unlikely thing to happen due to my lack of exercise and my great taste for good food. Anyway, I was hoping to put a notch up into exercising (This year, the most exercise I had was around 5 visits to the badminton court during Oct-Nov.) I was thinking to take more frequent jogs in the park in SS. Perhaps can ask Anne along to join me on these morning jogs. Of course I will also like to lead a better normal lifestyle. I want to sleep early and wake up early. Another hard thing to do for a night ghost like me. Anyway. I plan to have a weight of 65kg by the end of the year. Unlikely but not impossible!! Go Alan!!!
Goodbye my salmon friend. I’m going to miss you.
8. I want to be a better Christian. I feel that I’ve been drifting away this year. I was no longer the person who cried during that one Holy Thursday mass in chapel. I want to get back that feeling of anguish and that resolve to live a happy Christian life. I’ve been losing out on prayers. I haven’t been praying much lately. I feel dead, not alive. I don’t feel the peace in my heart. I just feel so far away from God at times. I hope to be able to pray more and find my way back to Him.
Is my heart as empty as a chapel on a normal day?
9. I want to learn to appreciate things around me more. I know I keep saying that people take things for granted most of the time and I realize that I’m just the same. I’ve taken a lot of things for granted this year. And when those things are gone, I’ve started to regret why I haven’t been treasuring it at all in the first place. I don’t know how to take care of my things nor do I know how to take care of other people feelings. And I want to learn how to do this.
10. I want 2010 to be a fruitful year. Honestly looking back at 2009, I couldn’t really take note of what I’ve done. Its as if nothing have happened to me this one year. I really do hope that things could change in 2010. For the better.
I finished this post first even though it should be the last of the next few post I was going to update about so uploaded this up first.
A break…
I’ll be back to Labuan for around 3 weeks. This will be a long needed break for me I guess. Will be taking some photos back on the island and later be off to KK and then Taiwan… I want to be let loose to do my photography at these places. Hope I have the chance to let loose… And also to relax myself. I need to rest.
Now waiting at LCCT Starbucks. Been waiting since 10.30pm. Its now 2.00am. My flight’s at 7.30am. Not bad so far. Drank one medium size coffee and will get another one soon. Amazingly I managed to finish my grant proposal in the few hours I’m here. Only thing to complain about now is that their air-conditioning is broken. So I’m sweating here. Haha. Guess I’ll hang around for a few more hours. Then go McD to get breakfast and then check-in for my flight. Hope no delay 
Ampang Lookout Point (HDR photo)
Annie and Mei Sin came back and we had a little bit of gathering at the Ampang Lookout Point overlooking KL cityscape. It was a cloudless night and upon reaching I was mesmerized by what I see… Couldn’t resist trying a HDR shot, though a normal photo would have been nice. But I really love the HDR I made.
Here’s the photo.
Click on photo for bigger size.
Hiatus again!!!
I promise to be back after 7th December… Going for a long holiday for 3 weeks starting 7th. So now rushing on things so that I won’t feel too bad taking such a long holiday. Anyway.. Will blog again after 7th.
I miss…
I’ve been updating a lot of I miss statuses up on Facebook…
That’s cause I have something which I wanna say but I can’t say publicly…
Sien…
Lets just say I really miss…. you…~
Of baby bat and broken wind shields
A lot has happened lately… A bit tied up with certain stuff and a bit lacking in motivation for blogging so I’d been slow on updates recently.
Now… A few of the things that happen was…
We found a baby bat a few weeks back
Found it outside the lab…
Tried to feed it with some milk but it didn’t seem to want any of it.
Anyway… We left it one night in the lab and in the morning it was hanging upside down in the box we kept it in…
We sent it to the Vet Uni hospital but in the end they said that they will be euthanizing it cause the bat might most probably be unable to survive… Oh well… Goodbye tiny bat of ours…
Secondly… My car’s rear windshield got broken…
And I don’t even know the cause of it… Sien… Cost me RM400 to fix it..
Hmmm…
Just unlucky recently I guess…
Tremors in Selangor and some parts of Malaysia
30th September 2009 at around 6.20pm… The floor was moving… Actually my table and I was moving along with it… I felt the tremors… It lasted for around a minute or so… I wonder if things are ok…
Pray for everyone everywhere then I guess… After what happen in Samoa, perhaps it might be safe to say that the Earth seems to be in trouble… Or rather more trouble that it usually is in…
Anyone else felt it?
So far friends from Singapore and Johor seemed to have felt it too…
