Thursday, August 30, 2007

Malaysia Boleyyyyy!!!


Malaysia Boleyyyyy!!!, originally uploaded by nadi0.

i was trying to find excuses to not finish the things that i'm supposed to do, so friends and me decided to brave the traffic to watch Malaysia play. Awesome stuff, i didn't take too many photos because

1. the game was too interesting
2. i was 100mm short, and from where i was sitting, 200mm was kind of useless.

look at those dudes in the orange shirts...cheh, jeles aku!

Malaysia won 3-1 to Myanmar. Myanmar played rough, and it was bloody annoying. But Malaysia persevered, and we won! Nice 50th Merdeka present for the country yea?

ok aku nak tidok...rasa macam nak demam lak....argh.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

hanim


hanim, originally uploaded by nadi0.

budak lawa.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Perbalahanku dengan pihak berkuasa

Sebok-sebok post gambar, I forgot about my incident with the authorities late afternoon today. I was driving around Sg Buloh trying to hurry to another place when i got stopped by the police, as i got down one of the many ramps there. You know, the road towards Damansara Damai, where all the road constructions are?

Dah la aku nak cepat ni..kena tahan pulak. Sah2 kena saman. but what did i do wrong? After waiting for about 3 minutes in the friggin hot sun, Pihak Berkuasa (PB) finally came to my car. I rolled down the window.

PB: Bagi lesen. Awak tahu apa salah awak?
Me: Tak (and gave my license)
PB: Awak U-turn dekat double line kat atas sana. Double line mana boleh U-turn.
Me: Saya tak nampak pun double line? Papan tanda U-turn ada la, warna oren.
PB: Pegawai saya dekat atas sana nampak kamu U-turn. Mana-mana ada double line mana boleh u-turn, papan tanda tu ada orang letak sendiri lah tu.
Me: Jadi, orang lain letak, saya yang salah? Papan tanda tu warna oren, bukan papan tanda orang suka-suka lukis pakai marker pen!

..and then he went off for another 10 minutes to do i don't know what. I prayed that the destination i was headed to is still open by the time i get there. When he came back, he asked me to sign the offense ticket.

Me: Saya tak nak sign.
PB: (heavy sigh) hish, Kenapa pulak?
Me: Sebab saya tak rasa bersalah. Papan tanda tu macam papan tanda construction. Saya nak encik naik sana pegi tengok kalau tak percaya. Mintak maaf pada encik pun saya tak nak, sebab saya tak bersalah. Encik pegi naik sana sekarang tengok.
PB: hish. tunggu sekejap lah, pegawai saya turun sekejap lagi.

Another long wait in the car, and i spent it shooting angry stares at them PBs having their ciggies and chilling inside their cars. The pegawai finally made it down, and they waved me off. No apologies, no explanation, no nothing. And i don't know how many other drivers before me drove away with undeserved offense tickets in their hands.

RM300 saved, 20 farking minutes wasted.

shine

killing ambient light
killing ambient light, originally uploaded by nadi0.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine as children do.
It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone.
And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

- Timo Cruz's speech, in Coach Carter.

Monday, August 20, 2007

my productive sunday


sundayimage, originally uploaded by nadioblog.

from 9AM to 6.30PM. now i'm tired...

thank god i'm on leave tomorrow.

yeehoo!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Great Eastern sucks

anybody holds a life policy with Great Eastern? Their latest promo is the Premier Accidental Death Benefits Rider policy, which they slip in under the items section of your Premium Notice.

a normal person, like me, who is always in a hurry to pay their bills, looks at the notice, checks the total premium due at the bottom and makes the payment, only to realize an hour later the statement at the end of the notice that says:

"If you do not wish to add on the optional P-ADB, you only need to pay the Premium Due on the Policy (1)."

Upon which you know you will spend the next three weeks trying to claim the money back from them. In my case, the policy i was paying was my brother's, who is working out of the country. So when i called them, there was another hooha of getting the money to be refunded to my name instead of my brother.

For some unknown reason, when I called to get the refund, I was told that the payment had gone in, and I needed to fax a letter in order to get that refund. So I did all of that, and today, I received a call from them saying that they never received the Maybank2u transfer that i claimed to have made. True enough, when i checked my account, I didn't make the payment. All i did was register my brother's insurance account in Maybank.

SO WHAT THE FARK WAS GOING ON WHEN I MADE THE FIRST CALL, AFTER I THOUGHT I PAID FOR SOMETHING I DID NOT WANT?

Menyusahkan orang betul.

Moral of the story:
They should never slip in extra policies like that, which will end up wasting everybody's time.

Why am i so pissed off? Because nobody else can waste my time, other than ME.

Monday, August 13, 2007

what a weekend...

ate too much, drove too much, shot too many, talked too much - to semi strangers. it was fun though, as they usually are.

while i was shooting, i heard some guests whispering my name. felt like a celebrity for a split second, until i turned around, and voila! there sat my neighbors, who turned out to be cousins of the bride. then, towards the end of the day, when i was chatting with the bride's mother, it came to my knowledge that the bride's mother was my mom's college mate, and good friend.

"it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small world after all, it's a small small world...."
hahaha. (damn, i miss disneyland!)

ok...i'm off to bed after that 4-hour drive in the rain.

after this will be shooting hari raya hampers pulak...nervous, kind of, my first product shot assignment. but at least products don't move like children do, kan? i remember the domii clothing shoot, where i kaput for 5 hours straight after the session, and ended up delivering the photos to the client at 1 in the morning. kekeke...parah gila.

nite nite.

Friday, August 10, 2007

hospital update


lens test, originally uploaded by nadi0.

today was my first checkup after the 2nd anniversary of my stem cell transplant.

my blood count is normal, white cells 4.8, hemoglobins 11.8 and platelets 195. my liver function is also improving, though the numbers are still outside of the normal range.

the doc said, "u tak minum air ka?" she caught me there. my kidney function test showed that it's a bit dry. i told her that i am so lazy to drink water that i'd rather sleep than go downstairs for a glass of water. kena sound seround...padan muka.

otherwise things are good. just need plenty of water and regular exercise. and as of today, i'm off all medications.

alhamdulillah.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

ahh what a day...

man, what a tiring day.

it started with a small request that turned into a huge argument. Having let things slip in front of my eyes in the past, that request just hit the wrong buttons, so what ensued was a barrage of "ungkit-mengungkit" because i refused to back down on my point. ungkit-mengungkit dalam omputeh apa ah?

i'm not going to tell the story, because it was tiring enough having to go through it today, so i'll just stop thinking about it altogether.

then tonight, i received a call that left me pleasantly surprised. it didn't have anything to do from what happened in the day, but it made me feel better anyway. :-)

only one more day of work tomorrow. yeehoo! then i'm off for my routine checkup, before i head to JB for the weekend with my friend, for a wedding we have to cover. Apologies to Raz & Riz and Fakhzan for not being able to make it to your parties, this was something i've already committed to since months ago.

i'm off to edit a picture now before i go to bed. (it helps me relax) hahaha

yes, i'm a geek. gnite.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

moon upon a blue sky


moon upon a blue sky, originally uploaded by nadi0.

i found this in my Perhentian Trip pictures folder today.

I was having some keropok lekor at a restaurant near the Kuala Besut Jetty around 6PM while waiting for my bus back, and i saw the moon. Biasa la jakun kan...so i took out my camera and started snapping away.

Makcik Restoran: Mung amik gambo gapo tu?
Me: Tu bulan tu....
Makcik Restoran: Gambar bulan pun nak amik ke?
Me: Eh makcik....bulan macam ni susah nak dapat kat KL tau!!
Makcik Restoran: ooooooooooooo...

and then i showed her the images i just shot. She looked at them in silence, and her first word after that was, "Masya-Allah.."

Masya-Allah indeed.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

My Affair with an EOS 20D


tigers playing, originally uploaded by nadi0.

i borrowed a friend's 20D for the weekend, to test out the wide angle lens i got for my brother. Alang2 tu, i borrowed the friend's sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 sekali...mainly to test my endurance.

so, apa lagi....this calls for a trip to the zoo! my third visit this year, i believe. hahaha. damn the 70-200 lens was bloody heavy. i only walked around for 2 hours, instead of my usual 4. but of course, the pictures came out so much sharper compared to my el-cheapo Nikkor 70-300mm G. look at the tigers here..you can even see the fleas flying around them. pergh!

one day i'll get that lens for myself. but before that, i need to start lifting weights...2 kilos of equipment is just a tad too heavy for me to lug around. hahaha.

Camera, lens and storage card courtesy of Khan. Thanks dude!

Saturday, August 04, 2007

stress domino effect

somebody in my workplace seems to be in stress. the control-freak strikes again, and it's driving me mad.

there have been massive changes in the environment these days. people leaving, people coming, friends moving to greener pastures. now, after almost 7 years, those changes are starting to take a toll on me.

i have been asking this to myself a lot lately. why am i still here?
- because i don't really mind my job, and i like what i'm doing.
- because i don't know if the other companies will pay for my health insurance, with my history.
- because i still have good friends here
- because i'm too lazy to see what lies beyond my two cubicle walls
- because i'm bonded for another 22 months, and my bond amount could buy me 2 D2Xs bodies.

are they real reasons, or do they sound more like excuses?

maybe the time has come.

or maybe not.

Thursday, August 02, 2007

kadangkala

sometimes you sit on cloud nine when people keep telling you how good your work is and how happy they are to have hired you.

then, occasionally, you get the really honest one, who tells you that the shots were good, but they are not happy with a few (important ones).

that brings you down, for a minute, an hour, a day, depending on the type of person you are. but once you snap out of the self-pity, you'll find ways to improve, and from that, you will learn. and you will realize that that is exactly what you need to get better.

gnite!