of an owl and a cat and me...

Dear readers, these are actually the main reason I have to step up to DSLR. The owl sitting high on a durian tree in front of my kampung house seem taunting me every morning. Initially I used my old FZ28 to capture the image, but the result was not good. What do you expect from a bridge camera.

And finally I decided, this is it, DSLR is the tool that I need.

The above photo was taken with Sony Alpha A33 with SAL kit lense 55-200mm, Aperture priority.

Sony Alfa...

Dan akhirnya aku beralih jugak ke DSLR setelah bertahun2 menahan kemahuan dan mempertahan kedegilan menggunakan Compact dan Bridge camera. Mungkin ramai kawan dan lawan akan bertanya, kenapa kau tak beli Nikon atau Canon? sepertimana dipakai oleh pengguna lain....

Well, lain padang lain belalang, lain manusia lain kehendak, dan lain isi poket, lainla kemampuan. Hajat hati nak peluk gunung, apa kan daya nak panjat gunung pun dah tak larat.

Aku punya spec mudah saja

• Kamera ni mesti entry level DSLR. Faktor kos mempengaruhi nafsu aku.
• Kamera ini mesti mempunyai kelajuan yg tinggi, kalau boleh 10 fps dgn resolusi tinggi. Ini penting sebab aku dah start berminat nak tangkap foto action dan pergerakan laju. Aku dah mula bosan tangkap foto pemandangan dan macro. Kamera Lumix LX3 aku dah cukup bagus kalau nak tangkap foto makro atau pemandangan. Kecik tapi padu.
• Dan kalau boleh, kamera ni bolehlah tangkap Full HD video. Tak payahla aku beli handycam.
• Satu lagi, aku nak yg LCD screen kat belakang tu boleh swivel atau dipusing2kan ikut posisi yg kita nak. Dulu aku rasa tak penting, tapi bila aku nak ambil foto pelumba basikal di LTDL yg diadakan di KL, aku kena hampir baring sebab nak dapatkan sudut rendah.

Maka aku pun mulalah surf net, baca review, tengok youtube dan mula2nya yg tersenarai adalah 550D dan D3100 yg agak baru. Antara dua tu aku dah terpikat dgn D31000 sebab faktor harga, dan ia adalah produk baru dgn teknologi yg terkini. Sony ni tak masuk list aku pun pada mula2nya walaupun apa yg aku nak, ada pada produk ni.

So berjalan la aku ke Low Yat, Pertama survey harga. Aku dah boleh terima si D3100 walaupun dia takde ciri yg aku nak...janji kualiti dia bagus.

Kemudian aku balik kampung sebab Iddul Adha, ronda2 sikit bandar Muar sambil nak pekena mee bandung + air batu bandung + rojak petis + apam balik. Aku pun singgahla kedai yg dulu aku beli Fz28 aku dulu, tanya2 pasal kamera. Kat kedai tu ada jual D3100, 550D, D90, 60D dan macam2 la..... adalah kat hujung tu Alpha, yang langsung tak menarik perhatian aku.

Tanya tokay tu, apakah kamera DSLR yg sesuai dengan bajet sebegini.. dia syorkan 1000D, D3100 dan A33. Dan dia cakap A33 ni hot item la... banyak terjual. Aku tanya, dia ada ke ciri2 yg aku nak?.... aku rasa tak payah tulis sini, aku balik rumah,... 2 hari surf net cari review, comparison dll.

Dan akhirnya aku beli SLT Alpha A33 sebab ciri2 di atas yg aku nak. Dr segi harga, dia sebanding D3100 tapi murah dr 550D. Nak cari flash third party dia agak susah, sbb dia punya hot shoe agak pelik, kena pakai adapter. Buat masa ni aku pakai internal aje la.

Dia tak ada OVF, cuma ada EVF.. so kalau sesiapa suka OVF, kamera ini tak sesuai utk anda.

Ciri tambahan yg dia ada

• Kamera ni ada autoHDR. Biasanya kita kalau nak buat HDR akan ambil continuous shot biasanya 3 kali dgn exposure berbeza, underexpose, normal dan overexpose. Hasilnya kita akan gabung di software PC. Dgn kamera ni, dia dah ada built in AutoHDR dan dia akan create HDR automatik.
• Kamera ni ada Twilight shot. Biasanya kalau kita nak ambil shot dlm keadaan cahaya rendah, kita akan pakai tripod atau tangan kita mantap mcm Transformer. Dgn feature ini, kamera ni akan ambil multiple shot... 6 imej kut... kemudian dia akan superimpose masing2 utk hasilkan imej dgn noise yg rendah.
• Ada panorama... ini pun biasanya kita pakai software utk efek ini. Kamera ni, kita just select panorama, tekan button, dia akan ambil multiple shot sambil kita gerakkan kamera ikut arah seperti dlm LCD. Bila siap, dia akan proses dan hasilnya, panorama foto.

Sebenarnya ada satu sebab utama kenapa aku kene bertukar ke DSLR.... sebab tu duduk kat pokok durian depan rumah aku....akan ku tulis dlm blog seterusnya...

...of half empty glass...

Is the glass half empty or half full? I think this is a most common and popular rhetoric expression to point out how a person perceived a situation, being optimist or pessimist. I won’t go to the details as I believe all of you know which portion of the glass referred to.

During my younger day, when I first came across this idiom, I was astounded to the simplicity and exactness of the philosophical question. Usually they used it in motivational talk or workshop in order to motivate and gather positive energy in achieving the goal. Simple as it is, whoever seeing the half full regarded as optimist and considered as having positive attitude. While whoever seeing the half empty regarded the opposite,…being pessimist and blocker.

Then as I get older, I realized that thing is not always easy to be classified as half full or empty. We are taught and conditioned since early age that, seeing half full glass is good, positive, optimist and so on. We were told story how successful inventor such as Thomas Edison succeed in inventing light bulb due to tireless effort and persistent determination, which attribute to half-full glass comparison. We also told on how successful entrepreneur or billionaires make fortune by taking risk in business ventures, which is not yet, explore by other people.

Yes, success story is nice to be told and heard, especially to naive young audience. But have we heard the other side of the coin, stories of failure, disappointment or even disaster that due to the optimist half-full thinking. Up to only few months ago, thanks to Discovery Channel, I get to know of "War of Currents" era (sometimes, "War of the Currents" or "Battle of Currents") in the late 1880s, George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison became adversaries due to Edison's promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution over alternating current (AC) advocated by Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla.

As we know, Westinghouse won or otherwise we’ll have DC power socket at our house. It’s good to have persistence and perseverance attitude, but when all the evidence shown in front you to stand down and accept a better solution… and we continue to be persistent, for me this is arrogantly stubborn.

This way of thinking, probably lead to a recent oil spill in Gulf of Mexico. Even after all the evidence and study show the real high-risk of deep-sea drilling, some people who’re having the optimist idea, go on with the project. For them the huge profits outweigh the hidden risk. And the environment, local fisherman, fauna and flora pay the “half full glass” approach.

If we are given opportunity with risk attached, it’s wise to asses the risk rather than go straight ahead into the unknown.

Being pessimist or optimist when the gain versus the loss is almost equal is not a wrong standing. Neither is wrong nor right.

But being optimist when we see the drawback is more than the gain is definitely not a right way of perceiving a situation.

Blessing in disguise...taking back and giving more..

A friend of mine recently was lay off from the company he’s been working for about three years. The decision was quick, swift but unexpected by him. I can saw him totally felt less motivated and can’t focus on continuing the remaining working period.

He mentioned to me afterward, that he did feel somehow humiliated and unappreciated by the employer, for all the work and effort that he has thrown in. Perhaps if the quantum is substantial, he won’t mind. Like my other colleague whose keep on smiling everyday, even after getting bashed by customer in meeting. I heard that this other guy receiving substantial amount of cash.

My advise to him, be patient and relax. Do not feel stress and take this thing easy, otherwise you’ll feel more pressure. He’s still young and can afford making mistake and hurdles in life. There’s time for him to make choices and yet mistake, and there’s enough time for him to recover and undo the mistake. Mourn your unhappiness for day or two, but get back to your feet and start strategizing your future.

Life is about making choices, eventually the right choices after you stumble with the wrong options. I am saying this because, if life is only making the right choices every time, then there’s no hope or alternative for people who have made less right choices. They are condemned without the chance of repent or better themselves. I am not proud to say that I am one of them, with countless of wrong choices I’ve made.

Recently I heard that he’s contemplating in making choices which offer he going to take. He received two offers with even better pay.

I said to him, “God take back from you less, but He gave back to you more”. Be grateful my friend.

And suddenly I remember Surah Ar-Rahman (The Most Gracious) verses as below which struck my ungrateful me…

"Then which of the Blessings of your Lord will you both (jinns and men) deny?"

Dan dia datang lagi......

Foto burung helang laut yg aku tangkap dengan multiple shot.. resolusi imej jatuh ke 3 Mgp je

Rasanya lebar sayap 2m ni..

Baru pagi tadi, seperti rutin biasa kalau aku pulang ke kampung, aku akan ke Pantai Leka, Parit Jawa di awal pagi. Sebelum aku memilih dan membeli ikan segar di pasar, atau sebelum sarapan pagi nasi panas dengan ikan asam rebus , aku akan bersantai di tepian Pantai Leka.

Kadang2 aku terleka melihat burung botak, burung bangau, burung2 kecik yg aku tak tahu spesis apa dan ikan belacak. Dan pagi ini, ada tetamu yg menarik, garang dan pantas turun dari langit, dgn kuku tajam mencari mangsa...si helang laut.

Susah betul nak memfokus dan mengambil foto si helang dgn FZ28 aku. Aku cuba gunakan multiple shot, tapi resolusi jatuh dari 9.5 Mgp ke 3 Mgp. Imej tak cukup jelas dan tajam. Aku perlukan kamera yg boleh multiple shot dan maintain resolusi.

Dan Fz100 telah datang dengan ciri2 yg aku mahukan:

• Multiple shot 11 fps dgn resolusi 14 Mgp, 5 Fps kalau dengan AF. Ciri ni penting untuk mengambil foto seperti burung terbang, aksi yg pantas seperti sukan dll.
• Superzoom sampai 24 kali optikal. Ini semua orang tahu, dengan ciri zoom yg tinggi, objek yg jauh boleh kita tangkap.
• Swivel LCD skrin. Ini penting kalau nak tangkap imej dari sudut yg janggal. Contohnya nak menangkap imej dari sudut yg tinggi atau rendah. Aku pernah nak tangkap imej pelumba basikal masa Le Tour de Langkawi dari sudut rendah, terpaksa berbaring sikit.
• Horse shoe untuk external flash. Kita boleh pakai third party punya flash. Internal flash dia tak cukup power. Bolehla pakai flash dgn diffuser utk dapatkan imej yg tak terlalu cerah,
• Full HD video recording. Tak payah beli handycam.

Semua ciri2 di atas memang aku cari. Dan yang pentingnya, aku maseh nak menggunakan kamera Digital Superzoom bukan DSLR. Aku rasa belum masanya aku nak bertukar ke DSLR memandangkan kos dan juga agak susah nak menukar lensa dari macro dan wide angle ke superzoom. Aku perlukan kamera yg kecil, ringan, kos yg berpatutan dan tak memerlukan menukar2 lensa. Memanglah ia tak setanding DSLR dari segi kualiti imej, bak kata org putih "Good at everything, but an expert at nothing". Tapi tak apalah, aku boleh menerima kekurangannya dan mempergunakan sebaiknya kelebihannya.

Nampaknya, Fz28 aku kene masuk Mudah.com kut.....

Blog tentang Excel Spreadsheet...

Aku ada terfikir, kalau aku boleh berkongsi dengan sesiapa sahaja yang membaca blog aku, tentang Excel spreadsheet. Bukan niat aku nak menunjuk aku bijak atau bagus. Tapi kerna mungkin kerja aku ni yang hampir tiap hari bergelumang dgn Excel spreadsheet, mungkin adalah satu atau dua yg berguna untuk dikongsikan bersama.

Aku maseh ingat, betapa susahnya aku nak mendapatkan spreadsheet2 yg tertentu. Buat rumus2 sampai mata pun jadi kotak2 mcm cell dlm Excel. Bila search dlm Google, rupa2nya ada orang yg telah membuat rumus tersebut, dan lebih baik dan mudah pula. Cuma aku perlu customize beberapa tempat utk menepati kehendak aku. Bila cerita search dlm Google pun, bukannya senang nak mencari rumus2 tersebut.

Tapi niat aku ni mungkin tak jadi kut... tak boleh buat attachmnet file di sini. Macamana aku nak letak sample2 spreadsheet.

Lama tak memblog...

..Dah berapa lama agaknya aku tak "memblog". Sejak bulai Mei rasanya, kalau dilihat dari blog terakhir aku. Aku bukannya tiada idea atau cerita nak dicoretkan... cuma aku M A L A S. Itulah jawapan yg tepat, nak disalahkan tak punya masa, aku ada banyak masa, takde layan Internet, ada Broadband 3G walaupun kekadang perkhidmatannya agak mendukacitakan.

Aku sudah jadi malas, itu yg aku boleh katakan. Banyak benda yg nak aku coretkan dalam tempoh tersebut, kalau aku tuliskan sekarang.. akan jadi cerita basi dan hilang kehangatannya. Dan susah jugak nak menulis kembali, sebab emosi, perasaan, dan "bau" cerita tersebut dan lenyap.

Pengajarannya, kalau anda sedang bersemangat dan berselera utk menulis, tulis segera, jangan tangguh2... nanti hilang kehangatannya. Macam orang bercinta jugak kut, kalau sedang hangat bercinta, luahkanlah perasaan walaupun hanya perasan... kerna nanti bila kehangatan dah berlalu, feel utk menyatakan sesuatu sudah sejuk.

Up in the Air....

I nearly missed the flight that morning. Perhaps due to staying late, packing all the stuff and leaving behind anything less useful...Want to travel light. That morning, when I woke up late at 10:30, the panic attack struck me... just frozen don't know what to do first. I want to do everything as fast as possible, ended up nothing done. My heart beating fast and I running around here and there... Luckily, I have packed most of thing earlier. My experience told me, if you ever been hit by panic attack, just relaxed, take deep breath, Istighfar and cool shower...You'll gradually get hold of yourself. And when you don't feel sure you have packed everything and felt something missing... you did leave something. My tiny mobile simcard become Athens permanent resident....Parakalo

I was relieved, I had plenty of time when I reached Eleftherios Venizelos, Athens International Airport. Bought some last minute inexpensive souvenir....

The flight would take about three hours to Doha then another 12 hour to KLIA. Killing the time in between, I open the entertainment display and started playing Sudoku... till I reached level that I couldn't complete... and the touch display was quite irritating...too many people playing with Sudoku probably...

Went through the movie list that was not so latest.... I try "Up in the Air" probably because it's played by George Clooney...Most of you I guessed have watched this movie before and know the story all about... For me, it's the right choice of movie during that moment, even though the headphone does not work very well and jet engine sound most of the time, just overwhelmed the dialog..

A story about Ryan, a professional living his life in suitcase and laptop, flying across US and spend most of his time on air....his job with a resource consultancy company is basically to fire people out of job and deliver the separation package... this movies most likely portraying the current economic situation and job uncertainty in US... You can be working for 10-20 years, hardworking, loyal, productive during your productive age, never commit any misconduct,.. but when the management decide to lay off due low turnover of whatever reason... they will do it, with the shortest notice and hiring consultancy company to convey the execution decree, with professional way of course...

Ryan job in dealing with the peoples the company gonna lay off require him to be calm, professional, in control, empathetic and compassionate... And the two last skills, he need to do it skillfully false...Basically he's interest is only his jet-setter lifestyle, single, non-commitment and air travel mileage prize...And when a young executive try introducing on-line video conferencing method in doing the job, Ryan felt his lifestyle will be threatened...no more air travel mileage and luxury hotel life....So he decide to coach and train the young executive, Natalie, on how things was done in real world.. I don't want to elaborate further.. you can catch up on wiki or just watch the movie...

When we do thing or say thing with false compassion and fake empathetic..... then wait when then will come a time, for retribution to teach you a lesson....

And sadly for Ryan, he has to compassion himself when he found out that the lady he's meeting all this while, is someone not too far different from himself, in term of falsify the perception of others feeling....what goes around will come around...

and after that, Ryan becoming a better man,..less selfish, give thing he want the most to people who really deserved, write good recommendation for his colleague... and still up in the air, but probably with different perspective...

As said earlier, this movies is about the current job uncertainty in US..... and probably want to shed some positive light and enlighten the spectator, so we can better understand and show genuine empathy to anyone who has been unfortunately taken back from their livelihood....

I really don't like the dialog "I am sorry to inform you that your current position is no longer available in this company..."

I prefer (taken from wiki)

"Tonight most people will be welcomed home by jumping dogs & squealing kids. Their spouses will ask about their day. Tonight they'll sleep. The stars will wield forth from their daytime hiding places, and one of those lights, slightly brighter than the rest, will be my wingtip passing over."

Mogok umum sistem pengangkutan esok ...27/4/10

Hari aku pulang lewat sikit sebab ada banyak yang perlu diselesaikan. Setiba di hotel, masuk pintu yg berpusing2, Mr security say hello. Waktu di dalam lif yg kecil, rasanya muat orang sebesar aku cuma 3 orang, terpampang nota bertulis "Mogok umum sistem pengangkutan di Athens pada hari Selasa 27/4, bermula jam 11 dan berakhir jam 17". Gawat ni, sebelum ni ada jugak mogok, tetapi hanya melibatkan pemandu taksi. Aku tak naik sangat taksi, sebab tambangnya agak mahal... kalau naik hari2.. boleh bankrap aku.

Sewaktu pulang dari Carrefour yg tak jauh dr Hotel, aku bertanya dengan pekerja Hotel, mogok ni akan melibatkan sistem Metro tak (mcm LRT dan Komuter la)? Dia menjawab, mogok ini akan melibatkan semua sistem pengangkutan. Aduh, kacau.... setiap hari aku harus menaiki 3 metro untuk sampai ke ibupejabat pelanggan... Omonia ke Monastiraki... kemudian tukar ke Metro line 2, Monastiraki ke Dukissis Plankentisis... dari situ tukar naik urban railway (yang seperti KLIA rail) ke Kiffisias... dan seterusnya berjalan dlm 200m ke opis customer. Perjalanan mengambil masa 45 minit hingga ke 1 jam. Nampak gaya, aku kene turun awal esok... jam 7 lebih dah kena keluar rasanya. Dan waktu pulang, pasti padat macam sardin.

Minggu lepas waktu aku ke Syntagma (salah satu stesen Metro yg terbesar) ada kesan2 demo dan pendemo yg berkhemah di situ... berhadapan bangunan parlimen. Ekonomi negara ini semakin parah. Dan dengar khabar, pemerintah minta bantuan IMF... dan seperti biasa, IMF akan kenakan pelbagai syarat yg menyusahkan rakyat.....menaikkan kadar cukai, kerja lebih masa, pengurangan perbelanjaan, pemotongan subsidi dan bantuan tertentu.... Rakyat di sini marah kerana pemerintah yg terdahulu berbelanja terlampau boros dan banyak berlaku korupsi, terutama sewaktu projek Olimpik Athens. Wang pinjaman digunakan sewenang2nya dan akhirnya akibat kerajaan yg tak cekap dan amanah, rakyat yg terpaksa menderita. Hutang belanja olimpik sampai sekarang belum selesai.

Jurang antara yg kaya dan miskin keterlaluan... sikaya minum di cafe2 mewah, naik kereta mewah, .. si miskin meminta sedekah di sana sini. Penagih dadah dan org yg tiada rumah ramai... tidur di pinggir2 jalan, di kaki lima bangunan... di malam yg sangat sejuk dan berangin begini. Agaknya kalau Aristotle atau Socrates boleh melihat ini semua, pasti mereka akan sedih.....

Bila aku berbicara dgn org tempatan di sini , mereka sudah cukup muak dan tak ambil kisah lagi tentang siapa nak mentadbir negara......sistem pendidikan mereka merosot, graduan yg keluar tidak mendapat kerja....

Dan esok sistem pengangkutan awam akan mogok... mungkin kerana membantah kenaikan cukai atau pemotongan faedah. Baru2 ini di ibupejabat pelanggan, mereka mengedarkan flyer dr kesatuan... diberi aku ambil, walaupun sepatah haram aku tak faham tulisan berformula matematik. Ada taklimat dari kesatuan, aku dok situ buat2 macam faham, sebab dah tak ada tempat lain. Isikandungannya, majikan akan memotong bonus sebulan sempena Krismas dan sebulan lagi untuk Easter. Lazimnya mereka akan mendapat 12+2 bulan gaji setahun.

Bila memikirkan ini, aku risau... pabila telaga minyak di tanahair kering nanti....

...Foto diperbesarkan dr posting sebelum ini...

Foto ini aku perbesarkan dr posting sebelum ini, nampak jelas anjing putih tu duduk atas tangga, seperti ada kecurigaan terhadap 2 orang asing ni...

Anjing penjaga batu

Salam semua, ... sudah terlalu lama aku tak mencoretkan apa2 di dalam ruangan ini. Seakan2 sudah mati, hilang punca dan kering idea. Sebenarnya, waktu aku ke Vietnam kali kedua tempohari, aku berniat nak menulis.. tapi hangat2 tahi ayam... atau mungkin tanggungjawab tugasan lebih menuntut tumpuan...

Aku sekarang berada di bumi Yunani, kira2 sudah 3 minggu. InsyaAllah hujung bulan ini, aku pulang. Orang kata menarik di sini, memang benar kalau untuk maksima 2 minggu pertama... dan kalau datang untuk hanya melancung atau untuk seronok2. Datang kerana untuk melaksanakan tugasan... ada pahit dan manisnya. Sementara aku kat sini, baik juga guna peluang hari minggu untuk melihat2 bumi yg terkenal hebat dengan mitos dan dongeng dewa-dewa, dan sejarah awal tamaddun manusia.

Hari Sabtu lepas, teman sekerja aku dr UK, mengajak aku untuk jalan2 ke pantai Voula A'. Aku pun tak tahu buat apa kalau hari minggu, asyik jalan ke Plaka je, bosan.. penuh pelancung. Kami pun bertemu jam 10.30 am di stesyen Syntagma.. dari situ kami menaiki tram ke perhentian terakhir... dan harus berjalan kaki lagi sekitar 10 minit utk sampai ke pantai tersebut. Komen aku tentang pengankutan tram ni... ia suatu pengangkutan awam yg sangat bagus, mungkin kurang cepat dari keretapi bawah tanah, tapi cekap dan mampu membawa muatan yg banyak. Kenapa Malaysia tak perkenalkan sistem tram ni? tak perlu buat rel terowong bawah tanah, tak perlu buat rel atas jejambat mcm LRT... tapi menggunakan rel di sebelah jalan biasa. Aku rasa belanja untuk bina sistem tram ni lebih murah dari sistem macam LRT.

Pantainya berbatu2, tak banyak berpasir macam pantai kat tempat kita.... airnya jerneh sekali. Kalau bukan kerana cuaca dingin dan berangin, nak jugak aku mandi sekejap. Ada jugak orang tempatan yg mandi, tapi tak ramai. Mungkin musim panas nanti, ramai la ikan duyung kut.

Masa aku nak turun tangga ke arah satu pantai di mana kawan aku berada, ada seekor anjing putih besar... menaiki tangga dr arah pantai. Aku bagi laluan kat dia, manalah tahu nanti dia nak gesel2 kat kaki aku, kes naya. Aku tengok di mulutnya, ada sebiji batu agak besar. Anjing ni rupanya menggonggong sebijik batu, dan dibawa ke atas. Aku turun bawah, berjumpa kawan aku... dan dia tengah sibuk mencari2 batu yg menarik. Katanya dia nak bawa balik ke UK.

Dia minta aku mengambil fotonya... sementara di duduk di tangga, aku keluarkan kamera dan terus tangkap gambar berlatarkan pemandangan yg cantek....dan ada seekor anjing putih di belakang, merenung kami. Aku rasa anjing tu syak kawan aku curi batu kat pantai tu. Kami beredar menuju ke arah lain. Dan dari jauh, aku lihat anjing putih tadi mencari2 sesuatu di dalam air... dia cari batu yg kawan aku ambil mungkin.