Parked or chained?

I sorted out the parking, dear, originally uploaded by faz k.

Friend: Hey, you took this photo?
Me: Yeh.
Friend: It figures.
Me: What do you mean?
Friend: That boat on the water is like you. You’re single, you’re meeting people, you’re ready to go places.
Me: er - I’m a boat?
Friend: That padlock there is like you too, kinda – maybe your heart – you got those chains around your heart somehow. People might not see it at first cos the chain’s so darn long. In fact, even YOU don’t see them chains. You’re wondering why you’re not moving forward, why you’re alone. How can you when your heart’s all closed? Unlock it! Open up! Sure, you gave your heart away to someone special to you and things didn’t turn out ‘happy every after’. You can be free – it’s up to you. Like this boat too – let it move with the river flow, y’know?
Me: I’m a boat?
Friend: *smacks her hand on her forehead*

******

That was close - I thought she'd manage to finally nail me with that sharp observation. She's not too far off the point, though...

picture details: Taken with James, with 1/20sec, f/3.5, 18mm focal length on my 18-55mm kit lens, ISO 400, handheld.

#1 Seeing the picture that I want to see

Click on the picture for a bigger view.

Sometimes, I want to see more in a black & white image. This photo gave me an opportunity to use Canon Digital Photo Professional (DPP) application to help me see the picture that I want within the photograph that I have.

The journey for this picture was from the top; full colour, uncropped. I wanted to focus on the decaying structure, so I cropped tighter, taking the garbage bag out. I then turned the picture monochrome, pushed up the sliders for sharpness and shadow up to the middle of their respective bars, and arrived at the darker image in the middle. Somehow this doesn't capture fully what I had felt when I saw this house/shed. I had been curious about who had lived in it before, what it was used for. What I had in mind was this thought: everything has its history. Things are not in black and white all the time. That prompted me to move the saturation and sharpness sliders all the way down and up, respectively. Then I tweaked the individual sliders in Red, Green & Blue until I saw a hint of greyish green & red. I wanted to show how the building is pushed way back, as if it has retreated into its fate of decaying quietly, even as the greenery around it continues to live and grow.

Death, is only the beginning, said Imhotep in The Mummy (1999) and I saw those words when I first looked at this structure in Taiping, early this year.

Continue experimenting - you never know what you'll see until you look. The final picture is available here on my flickr stream.

Take care.

When does getting up close become getting too close?

Do these come from a real peacock?, originally uploaded by faz k.

It took me a while to digest the 'get too close to the trees and you can't see the forest' saying. While acknowledging the idea in that saying, I am aware that I do need to get close to something to see it clearer. Like in photography, for instance - Robert Capa said, 'if your photos are not good enough, you're not close enough' - or something close to that.

I think we just need to recognize the point where getting up close equals getting too close. Because, even in making pictures, we need to fill the frame. However, if we keep on zooming in, there's a point where we can't see anything but a blur. That's when we zoom out a little, and then we'd see the picture that we need to make. Or the action we need to take in order to get the best result.

Photography. Very much like creating solutions for issues in other aspects of life too, no?

Picture taken with my Canon PowerShot SX100 IS, 1/8 sec, f/3.5, focal length 14.4mm, ISO 80.

Sweet dreams are made of these

_MG_3779, originally uploaded by Faz K PSPJ.

The sampan was made by hand and transported from Pulau Duyung, Terengganu, the announcer said.

Putrajaya was bursting with colors during Floria 2009. I took this shot on late Saturday afternoon. It was still very hot and bright, even though the long shadows showed me that it was close to sunset. I was at the foot of the Millenium Monument and turned around towards the lake. The whispering leaves of the trees welcomed me. I immediately sat down on the lush green grass and felt calmer, cooler. I wanted to capture the dreamy feeling I had, so I decided to use the tree branches to frame the small boat. It took me 12-13 frames to make sure that I got the boat where I wanted it to be. And now, I can look at this photo and transport myself back to that moment on a late Saturday afternoon where I was in my own little world, right there in the shade of the trees by the Putrajaya lake.

Photo details: taken with the EOS 500D on AV mode, 1/500sec, f/4.5, 25mm focal length, ISO 100, +2 EV

A design thinker's personality profile. Do you have one?

I was reading Tim Brown's Blog when I came across the article he had written for HBR. In the article, titled 'Design Thinking', are his views on what constitute design thinking. In it, he wrote that many outside professional design have the natural aptitude for design thinking - black turtlenecks not being a requirement.

What caught my interest as I skimmed through the article was Brown's idea of the design thinker's personality profile. He lists down empathy, integrative thinking, optimism, experimentalism and collaboration as characteristics to look for in design thinkers. Design thinkers, based on this list, are people who can see the situation from multiple points of stakeholder views: from the client's, the developer's, the end users', the supplier's - and this helps to design a solution that is more desirable and relevant. Design thinkers also believe that no matter how challenging the situation is, there is a set of solutions that is better than the current alternatives. They also keep on experimenting, in order to continuously improve the proposed solutions. Finally, they go beyond working alongside multiple disciplines; they themselves have experience in more than one.

You can read the article here.

Ya, sure he's describing the IDEO designers, who come from all walks of life and represents the perspectives of sociology, psychology, physics, and more. What I like about this list is that it's true - one does not need to be formally-trained in design school to have a design approach in one's thinking. The design approach helps in many aspects of getting work done.

I'm beginning to feel weary, though. I feel that I am one of the few ones that keep on asking questions, experimenting, pushing for awareness of multiple perspectives, exploring possibilities and eliminating unusable options, that I'm just tired. I'm not saying I'm so bloody great at it. What I'm saying is that if more of us learn to think this way, collaboration would be fun and brainstorming would actually yield cool ideas. I think my unconscious mind is listening to my words and is programming my body to react thus. I've been fighting a severe ear infection and horrendous headaches for 3 weeks now - a possibility that my body is experiencing some sort of dis-ease. I'm frustrated and angry and I need to suppress those feelings because it doesn't do anyone any good if I lose it and just shout "just think, people - think!" and bring the team's morale up. I don't care anymore. I don't even care if the work gets done or not. I just don't care.

There. Finally I've admitted that to myself. What do I do next?

How to successfully organize a social networking event for ’single, busy professionals’

um…er…how to (un)successfully organize the above, rather. Here are 5 ways.

ONE

Announce and market the event to the correct target group i.e. single, busy, professionals, get their payment, and then do nothing to whet their interest after they pay. Don’t find out what they’d like to see in a social networking get-together. Don’t even think of calling them for a nice chat to find out if they’d be shy or hesitant to join any particular activity or ‘party games’ and get their ideas on what kind of fun activities they’d feel happy about. God forbid if you’re thinking of asking them about their experience with similar socials, especially if it’s getting them to tell you about their experience in one or two that they may have thought of as lovely, or executed nicely. What do these people know about social networking anyway? You’re the experts, aren’t you?

TWO

Once the people arrive at the event you organize, make sure you get their business cards and other contact information, point them to the bar to get their complimentary watered-down beer, and then LEAVE THEM TO MINGLE ABOUT BY THEMSELVES. Don’t introduce people to each other, don’t offer small facts that may be interesting e.g. “I’d like to introduce you to so-and-so, who’s also in the sports apparel industry,”. Don’t walk around among those sorry lot for ‘how-do-you-dos’; other people might think you’re one of them. Oh and for goodness’ sake don’t help them – especially the ones who really look like they’re painfully shy and just stands there by the corner, by himself or herself. Focus instead on sitting together with your fellow organizers, continue looking great and MAKE SURE you introduce your team as experts in organizing social networking events for single, busy professionals. They all know that they are losers anyway, these poor sods, that they’d even pay you GOOD money to meet other single, busy, professionals in a social setting.

THREE

If you have latecomers, especially people who arrive about one hour late than the planned time, because they were too busy to plan their work properly and leave the office earlier in order to meet your stipulated time, implement step TWO and be very pointed about them being late to YOUR event. MAKE SURE that you don’t have anyone on stand by at the front door or the restaurant entrance so that when these sorry sods arrive, they’d feel so embarrassed standing alone at the door, not sure where to go, that they’d learn their lesson and never be late again for YOUR SOCIAL NETWORKING event THAT THEY HAD PAID FOR EARLIER. The key here is to make them feel so unwelcome so that they’d remember to be on time next time.

FOUR

Halfway into the event, just as they begin to look rather comfortable (or less shy) with each other, intrrupt them to officially introduce yourself and your team, emphasizing again on your collective experience of running these shindigs. Then you hand out pencils and pieces of paper containing some senseless questions, incomplete sentences or empty boxes. Tell those sods that they need to go on a manic rush to get all answers or matches within a stipulated time (the shorter, the better. Try 45 seconds and cut it from there). Once this mad frenzy is finished, announce the ‘fastest’ and ’slowest’ networkers, applaud the one with the most completed answers and punish the slowest sod with some humilitating command. Get them to sing, say out a poem, gyrate their hips or something like that. The more embarrassing the task is, the better. It shows how much of an expert you are, because single, busy professionals are always the best group to embarrass, because they don’t have partners like the rest of us NORMAL people.

FIVE

Never ever ask for feedback. You never need to improve on perfection, do you? Besides, what would those busy, single, busy professionals know about meeting other people in a social setting anyway? YOU are the experts in this area, aren’t you?

Mixed feelings about yoga? WHAT mixed feelings?

Mixed feelings on yoga

- by Lester Kong

PETALING JAYA: Not only Muslims have reservations on practising yoga, some Christian groups also have mixed feelings about it due to its ties to Hinduism. While some Christian groups say it was wrong to practise yoga as it belonged to a different religion, others say they saw nothing wrong as long as the participants do not deviate from their beliefs.The Malaysian Council of Churches general secretary, Rev Dr Herman Shastri, said different churches hold different opinions on the practice of yoga.

“In modern society, many young people are interested in health and well-being of mind and body.“Some churches said it belonged to a different religion so Christians should not do it,” he said, adding that many churches held spiritual retreats that were opened to non-believers, featuring meditation to alleviate stress and help people seek spiritual comfort.Another source said the issue was problematic as the council did not have a uniform stance on it.He said other church groups consider yoga to be a healthy exercise if done only for physical reasons.“But generally, for Christians, if they do not offer prayers to other Gods while practising yoga, I think it should be fine,” he said.

Malaysia Hindu Sangam president Datuk A. Vaithilingam said yoga had long been an accepted form of exercise in many countries regardless of religion and culture.“Yoga practitioners can just leave out the religion and do the exercise. It‘s entirely up to the individual,” he said, adding that there were no restrictions that yoga practitioners had to be Hindus.

The Malaysian Muslim Solidarity Movement also said there was nothing wrong with Muslims practising yoga as an exercise.“It is just an exercise for health and brings peace of mind. Nothing more than that. It has never been averse to the Islamic faith,” said its president Datuk Zulkifli Mohamad, adding that there were no objections on yoga by ulamas around the world.“This new fatwa is not healthy and yoga is a very subjective and debatable issue,” Zulkifli added.

Yoga is a form of exercise called Asana and was one of the most ancient physical and mental disciplines originating from India some 5,000 years ago. The Islamic Development Department had said on Wednesday that the National Fatwa Council is expected to make a ruling to ban Muslims from practising yoga.

Read the article from The Star Online http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/10/31/nation/2418579&sec=nation

***********

Well, I never.

The benefits of yoga and pilates are many. Just check out abc-of-yoga article here for a simple list. Physiological benefits include improvements in dexterity skills, sleep, muscle tone, balance and posture. I also feel good after a good yoga class. It can help to imrove one's mood, increase one's awareness of self and surroundings. When you're feeling at peace with yourself and the world, it's a bit tough to walk around with a scowl on your face and anger in your belly. Trust me.

So what do we have now? A potential ban for muslims to practice yoga? WTF. Are our guideline committees so free and have nothing major or more impactful to look into that they're resorting to touching everything?

I'm feeling rather rattled by this news, not so much of the announcement per se, but by the potential direction this vehicle is going. Am I looking at a picture of the tail wagging the dog here? What are they trying to distract us from?

In the meantime, it's still a free country, and I will still go to my yoga class. Maybe the council members should look into their own faith in the holistic view of THEIR own organized religion first instead of going around like headless turkeys, gobbling away. Is their own faith so flimsy that a simple yoga class will make them 'walk to the dark side'?

Hm.

Oh Charlie!

I was feeling dreary. It's so sunny outside I had to bite my own fist to stop myself from getting into the car and running AWOL to enjoy a bit of lie-down by the condo pool. Then a good friend, Johnny, suggested I go read some Charlie Brooker.

"Thank God for dishonesty. I can't have been the only Briton to shift awkwardly in their seat throughout the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic games the other week. The Chinese mounted an unprecedented spectacle. Thousands of synchronised drummers, acrobats, fireworks, impossible floating rings made of electric dust (surely alien technology, that), dancers, prancers, singers and flingers. Maybe not flingers. I just threw that in to complete the rhyme. But you get the picture. It was amazing. It cost around £50m and was probably rehearsed at the shooty end of a machine gun. Dance, beloved populace! Miss three steps and we take out your kneecaps. Miss five and we go for the head. Dance till your homeland is the envy of the world! Stop weeping and dance!"

Read the full article here: Thanks to China, we have a blueprint for 2012 - virtual athletes and exciting made-up CGI sports.

I am now both enlightened AND entertained. Thanks Jay!

Do judge a bookstore by its services

Today marks the 3rd month anniversary of the special order that I made for Coelho's Eleven Minutes, from a certain bookstore that boasts its extensive collection, store size and its quality, with plans 'to take the book industry to greater heights.'

Hmph. Greater heights, konon.

Funny there is no mention about any commitment to offering help to customers. The only time the word 'service' appeared was in the franchiser company name.

That probably should have been my warning flag. A bookseller who appears to pay no attention to customer service sounds like an owner of an orchard who boasts about how large the land is and how the fertilizers he uses will take fruit orchards to the next level and fails to mention that he has no fruit trees planted there.

OK maybe I exaggerate. And digress.

Living next to the said bookstore provided me with the ample opportunity to make frequent visits there. In one of my visits 2 weeks ago I found out that my book has left the ship and arrived at the warehouse (somewhere is Port Klang I reckon, and not in Poughkeepsie, NY). Last week I asked the people in charge of special orders about the status of my book. Here's the reply:

"I don't know, miss. I have to check with the Ingram (as I heard it, and I found out later this entity is their warehouse) on the status of your book. I don't know about this because this was from the person before me" (who has quit already, apparently - maybe went to join the ingram)

I received a call from this person a day later. Here's what she told me:

"I checked with the Ingram, and they don't know what happened to your book. They lost it. All the other orders on the same day also gone."

Now that's interesting. It sounds to me like someone carried a bunch of books tied up in string from a ship down into the warehouse and told someone in the building, "hey, dude - I'm just gonna put this bunch of stuff here on the floor OK?" and left, walked off into the smoggy afternoon. The blinking 'Ingram' didn't know what happened to my book and the other books from the May 16 order batch.

I asked: "Did the book arrive or not?"
Answer: "I don't know Miss"
I asked: "What happened to the manifest? Someone signed for the cargo when it arrived, right?"
Answer: "I don't know, Miss. That's not our responsibility"

MISTAKE NUMBER ONE. IT IS YOUR BLEEDIN' RESPONSIBILITY. LIVE WITH IT.

I asked: "What do I do now? I want my book. What options do you have for me?"
Answer: "Do you want your money back, Miss?"

MISTAKE NUMBER TWO. This may seem like a logical answer to give; however, take note that this particular customer kept on dropping by regularly at the Information counter to ask for the status of her special order since the 5th week of placing it. Would that be the act of a customer who doesn't care whether her order arrives? I reckon not, Bubba. IDEAL ANSWER: I'm sorry to see you upset, Miss. I understand how sad it is when something you're waiting for doesn't arrive on time. I can place a re-order right now, and I'm sure my supervisor will be able to help out with something to compensate you with.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED -
I asked: Can you put in a re-order?
Answer: Yes.
I asked. Can you re-order right away?
Answer: I have to check with my supervisor first, Miss, cos right now he's busy with the sale at the concourse.
I asked: So you can't help me with this right away.
Answer: I can record if you want your money back.

I can't help it. I exploded.

"Do I look like someone who wants her money back or do I look like someone who wants her book and wants it NOW???"

Grrr grrr.

It's not about the bad news, Bubba. It's about HOW it was delivered. Let's go back to shooting the messenger. Maybe then we'll all care about how we deliver the news we need to deliver.

-Maybe King Leonidas had the right idea there, Bubba.

Image courtesy of '300' promotional photos

What the.....?

Did my eyes trick me? I had to read and re-read the whole story to be sure.

Cops vs cops in Gemas station - Sarban Singh (The Star, Fri 11 July 2008)

GEMAS: A policeman has lodged a report against all his colleagues including his superiors allegedly over dissatisfaction on how the monthly bribes from those operating illegal activities was being distributed.

In retaliation, one of his superiors, a sergeant, lodged another police report against the policeman, a lance corporal, for allegedly selling station property to scrap dealers.

A source said the lance corporal, in his 40s, was dissatisfied with his superiors for allegedly taking the lion’s share of the bribes while the rank and file received very little.

“In fact, the complainant claimed that he did not get a sen,” the source said.

The report was lodged earlier this week.

The sergeant, in an apparent tit-for-tat, lodged another report against the lance corporal alleging that he had sold some old wooden and iron furniture from the police station to a dealer.

“His colleagues even know where the dealer is operating from,” the source said.

Read more here

I'm not sure which one is the more worrying thing - the fact that the cops are still taking bribes or that taking bribes is so embedded in the their culture that they use the system to lodge a report on the unfairness of how the monthly bribes were being distributed!

What will be reported next? Dissatisfaction of how "territories are being allocated" and how this "impacts the incoming flow of income from protection fees?"

Oh my goodness.

Do judge a bookshelf by the covers...

Just put in my special order for Coelho's 'Eleven Minutes'. Had time to spare so I browsed leisurely. Looked through the shelves, including the Borders' recommended fiction and non-fiction volumes. Walking back to my table in Starbucks with my browsing copy of Toyota Way, the realization hit me. Recently, I see many paperback fiction covers are designed with the fonts, images and color schemes that are reminiscent of Coelho's books (esp By the River Piedra I Sat and Wept, Like the Flowing River and the Zahir). And, many non-fiction books, especially business / management / marketing / communications ones, have covers of similar color schemes with Jim Collins' Good to Great.

Is there some literary agent machination out there that did consumer interviews and found some sort of preferred color combination that just compel people to pick up a hitherto unknown book, associate it with the more successful books from Collins or Coelho or Picoult or Welch, and have a light bulb go off in their heads and straight away head to the cashier to ring the purchase?

What wonders, one wonders.

I think I have my own thought about this issue

I was watching the PRU 12 results program on TV last night and one academician, when asked by the moderator, "What do you do think about this?" He responded, "I think I have my own thought about this issue..."

As opposed to what? Having someone else's thoughts, perhaps?

I understand the stress of thinking and talking at the same time. The demands of being articulate at all time - aiyoh. So, I may be a bit mean or petty for having a bit of fun here, but please forgive me - I just will not resist the lure, this time.

So here's what I say.

I think I have my own thoughts about things too.

I think someone should take down the posters, now that the election is over.
I think the politicians who have now been forced down should take their families for vacation.
I think the warriors who lost the fight (and lucky enough to keep their heads) should sit down and write (handwritten, not berking computer-printout-ed) thank you letters to their teams who helped them on their campaigns.
I think these books are worth revisiting, even if just for shits and giggles - Jeffrey Archer's The Prodigal Daughter and First Among Equals.
I think the new-elects should grab copies of BBC's Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister DVDs and watch them. Turn the subtitles on to immediately increase your vocabulary.
I think scoring high marks in Sim City should be mandatory for town planners and town council officials. For aspiring castle-building city councillors, their practical exam should be the board game Notre Dame or the RPG Civilizations / Command and Conquer.
I think 4 years would be a good time to start doing some soul-searching.

I think it's time for me to get me an ashtray.
I think it's a good time to change to Marlboro Lights.
Oh, yeah.

Sentimentality overload

Any perceived mushiness in any personal relationships aside -

Is it just me, or has there been a lot of sentimental advertisements on TV nowadays? It came on full force during the Merdeka month, if I remember correctly. I got used to and expected material from the usual suspects like the national petroleum company, the second national car producer and one or two telco companies; what surprised me was suddenly there was an onslaught of mushy advertisements from several finance services / insurance companies capturing images of senior and youthful citizens going around on foot or on by bus, smiling wistfully at the sky and elevated highways and helping old ladies cross the road while shielding them with their umbrellas. I remember being moved by the deep message that I got when watching these sentimental advertisements years ago. This year, however, I just dont get it. What I want to know is if the sentimental bandwagon is a big one - it'd be good to know how long will this sentimentality overload last. I long for fun and funny advertisements to return! Bungee-jump to get packets of Twisties or something - anything!