Category: Photography

Categories
Photography

[631] Of if internet is down, then go to a wet market

My life almost ended a few days ago. My internet connection died out on me and caused me to live in agony for three days. Three freaking days. Do you know how it felt like?

Terrible! It was as if I had lost a cause to live!

But at least it gave me a reason to pay a nearby wet market a visit. I brought my camera with me too.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved

The first is my first visit in more than almost five years. Fun. It wasn’t too smelly as I had imagined it before. Well, I’m not being truthful about the fun part. I mean, it’s fun seeing economics at work.

In one case, there were two traders and each was selling the same good – noodle packs. However, price was dissimilar and I saw most people went for the cheaper ones. It’s cool seeing competition at work and knowing that rudimentary economics work. It’s weird however that the undercut trader never really reduced her price.

And somehow, price ceilings enforced by the government were never observed because the market prices seemed lower. I don’t know. Maybe I’m wrong.

Anyway, in the picture, the guy is selling coconut milk. Behind him a huge stock of coconuts.

And alright. I lied. The photo was taken a few days earlier before my connection went kaput. Instead, I spent the whole three days trying to figure out what was wrong. I disabled the network card, re-enabled it, uninstalled it, re-installed it, power cycled it, hammer’d it, unscrewed and re-unscrewed it and then finally calling for tech support. And damn, tech support was damn stubborn. At least, he was polite.

I told him the possible source and he wouldn’t listen! He kept suggesting steps that I should take that I had taken! Bah!

Categories
Photography

[630] Of a sparkling vase

For some reason, I decided to get a little bit creative when I saw my mom’s vase. I’m not sure whether it’s crystal or glass but I know almost dropped it.

Mohd Hafiz Noor Shams. Some rights reserved.

It took me 15 shots to get it right. It was simply hard for me to get the right kind of lighting to produce the picture. This photo is the final shot. It’s less than perfect due to the camera’s flash but what the hell.

Categories
Photography Travels

[622] Of Singapore waterfront

I’m mildly unhappy at the moment. So I thought, a picture would probably lighten me up.

This is part of Singapore City’s waterfront at night. I’m delighted to see finally see it with my own eyes. However, I was surprised to find out that this section of the city is so far inland. What was more surprising is the extent of Singapore’s land reclamation projects. No wonder the Malaysian government was nervous when Singapore started to reclaim land near the Malaysian Johor – Singaporean line. If it had continued unchecked, there would probably be nothing selat about Tebrau Straits anymore.

This is an edited version since the original was too dark to be appreciated. This one is the original.

I added some contrast and a little bit of adaptive light. Not sure how adaptive light works but it sure makes the picture presentable. To me, presenting an edited photo is almost surmountable to cheating. Alas, most of my Singapore photos suck badly; I have no choice. I have to commit a sin!

Talking about sin, let’s see if this Ramadan witnesses a decrease in terrorism perpetrated by Muslims. I skeptical though. I’ve always held that Ramadan is the month with the most hypocrites around.

p/s – ah, no wonder there is still no update on PPS. It’s down. Looks like DoS attack.

Categories
Environment Liberty Photography Travels

[619] Of Singaporean old building

I love a lot of things. Two of them are history and architecture. So, it shouldn’t be too astounding if I’m attracted to old buildings.

This one was taken in Chinatown, Singapore. It’s a shophouse, typical kind of building in towns and cities throughout what was once known as Malaya; Singapore included. I don’t know about Sabah and Sarawak though.

I have a picture with a row of shophouses from the same place in a previous entry of mine if you are interested.

Sometimes, I can’t help but feel amazed at how two countries have so much in common but simultaneously so different from each other. Sometimes, it’s shocking to see how two countries may have shared history or even dependent on each other but the air in between them is so full of distrust.

Human nature I suppose.

Kill all Singaporeans! LOL!

p/s – Judith Miller is freed. According to NYT (reg. req.):

Ms. Miller was freed after spending more than 12 weeks in jail, during which she refused to cooperate with the inquiry. Her decision to testify was made after she had obtained what she described as a waiver offered “voluntarily and personally” by a source who said she was no longer bound by any pledge of confidentiality she had made to him. Ms. Miller said the source had made clear that he genuinely wanted her to testify.

That source was I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, according to people who have been officially briefed on the case. Ms. Miller met with Mr. Libby on July 8, 2003, and talked with him by telephone later that week, they said.

If there is justice in this world, Cheney will be in trouble soon. I believe there’s justice somewhere underneath a dusty table. Hey, Tom DeLay finally got indicted. That should be of some proof that this world is not too unfair.

pp/s- Primate Noise posted an entry about SPCA’s effort to persuade the Malaysian government to amend Animal Ordinance 1953 into a tougher piece of legislation. Do your part by expressing your support for SPCA.

Categories
Economics Photography

[618] Of budget day, competitiveness ranking and cats in washing machine!

Malaysian 2006 national bajet budget is fast approaching. One of few things that I wish is that the government won’t run populist policies, like preventing fuel prices hike for instance. In fact, I do hope, however unlikely it might be, an introduction of floating fuel prices regime in the end future. Gradually, of course.

Worry about inflation? Let the government worry about fiscal-side and let the central bank worry about monetary policies. It’s time we differentiate the two institutions clearly. By differentiate, I do mean an independent central bank. There are proofs that countries with independent central bank have significantly lower inflation.

Worry about unemployment due to lower inflation? Ah, that’s another problem. Rest assured however that in the long run, both inflation and unemployment don’t matter!

While some of us are nervously wondering what awaits us in that Pandora’s box, we must realize that there is more than one way to skin a cat or cats. One way is to wash them rigorously in a washing machine.

Another wish is total elimination of income tax and introduction of consumption tax. (wait, we’ll have both income tax and consumption tax in 2007! Somebody is cheating us!) In short, full cost accounting. Heh, a green’s wet dream.

A not-so-bad news in the eve of budget day is the recently released World Economic Forum’s competitiveness ranking. Malaysia’s ranked 24th out of 117, up seven rungs from last year.

And, erm, no cat was harmed in any whatsoever way.

Inconvenienced? Well, the mother cat was pretty mad. Very.

p/s – cool stuff! KoRn with World of Warcraft!

pp/s – added Primate Noise to my blogroll.

ppp/s – Santa is real! Be afraid. Be very afraid because the Danish Air Force learned about Santa the hard way.