Causeway Exchange - George Town Festival

Not forgetting to mention that one of my picture has been picked to be showcased in an exhibition at George Town Penang, felt so awesomely proud. Heard it's coming to be showcased in Singapore, too! Uber excited!! Well, there are many others better, more expert, but I guess I am just lucky to be at the right place and the right time? Really so proud to see my name up in the photographer list. Awwhhh... Anyway, recently a few mothers actually messaged me and asked me what is my rate to take pictures for their child's birthday. Probably due to the not bad pictures taken of my niece, Sherina, but that is because she is already a good model and will pose and stay still. I have no confidence to take a paid job, really, what if I ruined some child's precious birthday pictures? I can't rewind that!!!

Spot my photo here! Picture shared from Shifu's Flicker http://www.flickr.com/photos/wilzworkz/9136168250/

Hmm... Is this the right way to credit him? Is he gonna kill me if he find this blog? 

Happy Anniversary CanCan Baby

July 2011, Christmas came wayyy early and I was given my first DSLR Canon 450D by my dear dear cousin, Arman Priadi. He knew I have always loved photography, but I have never taken myself seriously for it. His picture of MONAS (National Monument) that he hung in his room created from 10 or more parts pasted together, stayed etched in my mind. It was at least a decade ago that I first saw it and photography has not reached today's digital era yet.

It took me a long long while to actually figure out what the freak those buttons can do. Heck, I didn't even know how to focus. I spent days mulling over this alien machine and all the thousand pictures I took were either black, blur or both. Seriously in such a short days, I was on the verge of giving up. Then, seeing my agony, Sis bought me a Groupon class. Or rather I MADE her buy with all the whining.

Thank God for it, I found my Shifu Wilson Wong US, catch his website here http://www.wilzworkz.com/. It has been 2 years! I remembered the first question I asked him was, "Why my shutter just wouldn't click?". I am probably one of the laziest student he ever had, but he has always encouraged me with all the SPIN posts (do join us there), never failing to share his expertise with his own quirky ways. One photography walk after another, I find myself deleting one picture after another as I see them not up to my standard, definitely not up to Shifu's standard. Yet, I learned to never give up, keep on practicing, learn to respect my own work and learned that one does not need to have the best machine to produce a great work. Super thankful and grateful to find a mentor like him. Appreciate all the hard work he put in to guide us newbies and I have always said he is like an energizer bunny who never stopped to rest, he really is.

I have come a long way, but there is definitely a longer way to go to improve myself. I have been lucky as I have most-of-the-time willing models to practice on, such as my nephew and niece and of course my little photogenic baby girl, April. Also has been lucky to have great photography friends (you know who you are) who never stinged on sharing their knowledge with me, answering my stupid questions and some who always asked me to buy buy buy  !!!

P.S. Before I get hate PMs (seriously I don't know why, but I always get it, especially on Facebook).
Take note that pictures below are some of my favorites, definitely ain't the best for some of you experts, but I love them and it's all that matters. See how I have improved, yay!

Siblings fight?

My parents run a restaurant back home and recently my Mom was asked by a very disturbed customer, a father, about his own kids. He said his kids are always fighting, about who gets to drive the better car down to who buys a better phone. Like us, they are 3 siblings. He said if one of them coincidentally got better stuff than the other, they would fight. Literally fight due to the unfairness. Mom was surprised they are at their 20s. This father was worried when he died, the siblings would break out in fight of his inheritance. I have a strong feeling they might, they just might.
Mom asked me if I ever got this jealousy feeling with my sister and brother. It got me recalled back to our childhood.
Our family had not much money to spare back then. Well, I am the luckiest as being the youngest, I was born into a family that was getting better. I didnt remember the difficult life for the most parts.
I remembered though how Mom bought things for us but she never did buy for all of us at once. Most of the times only one of us get new thing at one time. I get passed down handphones, clothes, watches from my sister. Nope, I honestly never thought it's unfair. Mom taught us never to be envious of others. She would patiently talked to us, reminding us of the life values that we should fight for and not these artificial values. 
Till today, we siblings give the best to each other. They are the closest people in my life. Why wouldnt they have the best from me? Who would have the heart to see their siblings fell downer anf felt happy? That's just utterly sick and selfish.
I remembered still a few years ago, me being me, asked Dad for an iPhone. I had just started work back then. I told Dad, you see everybody at work has it. Everybody got a new iphone and I dont. Dad shot me a look and he said simply in Hokkien, "No money then dont try to show off". Brought me back to earth that word did.

PawGlam Collar Episode

Those who know me will know that I am a very reasonable person when I buy things. I have always been willing to compromise as I believe in this word; Karma, strongly. My parents are in the service business, I don't want my Karma goes to them being treated badly instead. Thus, it takes a lot and I mean a lot, for my patience to run dry. I felt so disappointed and cheated by this purchase of PawGlam Collar. Bought two from them previously and I know what quality I expected from them. It's not easy to irk me, yet when it does, it does me bad. 

Summary: Item bought and worn twice, when the lace frayed, Pawglam refused to fix it. Well, not refused, but agreed to fix at $20. When the new piece was bought at $32.90. Worse, a friend who bought the same piece experienced the same faulty lace too. Yeah well, Pawglam blatantly refused to take responsibility, saying it isn't their fault the lace is not a better quality. At the end, they gave a pathetic 15% discount for next purchase. 

UPDATE LATER THAT NIGHT: Pawglam after much pestering from my friend, who of course, more stubborn than me said that they will do a one to one exchange. That, too after a very much pestering that they insincerely proposed the idea. Probably after they checked their faulty lace. Anyway, I refused the offer and will continue to hate them. FYI, they didn't call up or message me to offer the exchange/ fixing, but asked through my friend. Sincere? Very!

UPDATE LATER LATER NEXT WEEK: Pawglam didn't do a one to one exchange to my friend. They replaced the lace part to something uglier. Sigh...

Full encounter below:

Bought this pretty piece from them $32.90. Bought I think Mid May or whatever I don't remember, but I took it out on 24th May to visit Daddy at MBS. Worn first time. It was a pretty light outing, a little walk here and there.

Second time worn just yesterday for an outing at a friend's place, well April did not play and stayed in my lap the whole bloody night. When I got home, I took out her collar to find a  badly frayed corner. I thought April might have scratched it, so I tested to pull a little on its rim to test its strength. Yea, no strength needed, just a tug and it's all gone to pieces. Sucks to the max! If it were strong and I know April might have accidentally scratched it, I WILL pay the fixing fee, and my message would be honestly this, "Hi, April has accidentally scratched this, can you help me fix it, I don't mind topping some $$." With a quality like this, no way...

So, the message goes as attached below, word for word.

 

Uh.. so what if it was a gift, although it wasn't, but it's not nice to put things that way. Felt a little offended, but maybe I shouldn't be too sensitive, I thought. So I let it go.

Not a person to end things on a bad note, I ended it nicely, albeit sarcastically. Don't know if she is trying to match my sarcasm with the reply below. Can't she tell I'm ending my business with them here?

Upset, I took things onto my own hands, I cut the bottom part off, in tears, mind you.

I love my things and I have feelings for them =(

Thought gonna just shut up and let it go when my friend Lydia bought the same piece as me and got the same problem, too. Same problem, same answer!!!! Obviously something is wrong with your craftmanshipppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DO a recall on this design, omg...

Allright, some also say that I am cheapo, yeah whatever, would I cheat a $20. Me lehhhh... meeee.....!!!

I sent her this on March and I understand that wearing off is a norm, didn't kick a fuss when she said she doesn't recondition. I understand... Even when the collar compared to the one I bought years go from Bangkok and worn to beach and rough plays hasn't worn off yet, still questionably awful. Yet, I understand and bought another one from her. 

Now, you tell me, what kind of service is this? Am I being demanding and unreasonable here?

Helpless

Felt really helpless when a dear dear friend is so stubbornly err... stubborn. Nothing, that means nothing would ever change their mind. It's as if she had everything under control, when it's clear that she doesn't.  Sometimes I thought I would just walk away. I have done it before to friends who just can't be helped, and I would do it again. It's better to watch from afar the breaking down process than to see it under my nose, you see. Picking up the pieces ain't a pretty sight, you know? I have tried to be nicely honest, even brutally honest, yet they just don't work.
The way she asked for opinions wasn't even asking. She was just wanting to hear what she wanted to hear. When the answer isn't what she liked, she brushed it aside. Without even considering whether it's the truth. As much as  would like to be there for her, my patience has its limit. Maybe it's just time to walk away....

It's really not you...

As much as I thought that this blog is half dead or maybe entirely dead, there are alive readers. Some avid ones at that, really thankful for taking some interests in my current boring life. Well, some are upset at my posts, I wonder why. I have always been articulately diligent in not mentioning names, location or worse the person itself. I shied away from controversial topics of Religions, Race, Sexualism. I really don't appreciate getting screenshot and going viral. Really, I am not that much of that type of attention lover.

When you are looking at my posts, if you think I was writing about you, I am probably not. Though if you feel offended, there's nothing I can do about it. Take all my posts with a pinch of salt, if you want clarification, come ask me. There's probably nothing I wouldn't say. If I can say it out behind your back, you have probably heard it before anyway...

Chiao~ Remember, salt!

Seriously, people....

I had the most annoying conversation with somebody a few days back. I was talking to some friends about pets, the demise of pets, so on and so forth. How it is going to be so painful when the time comes to say goodbye. Then this bitch pulled a chair in and sat by my side, with just a sentence, "It's just a dog, get over it!". The time seemed to freeze at that moment she said that, I can still remember hearing her slurping her finished Coke from the cup noisily, a small gust of wind as the rest of my friends leaned back unconsciously to their seats. I can remember feeling that nerve tick on my head and I gritted my teeth before I said, "You know, saying it's just a dog who died to me is the same as saying it's just your daughter who died, get over it!", she stunned with her eyes wide open and I continued, "So why can't you just give birth to another daughter and rename her the same name as your current one?". Tell me if I am over sensitive, nobody has the right to say whose whom is just a whom, don't be so cocky to think that only your people is important.

Anyway, I think she got what I meant when she actually apologized and acknowledged that she has blurted things out before thinking. This post is meant to all of you who think a pet is just a pet. My pets mean the same thing to me as my family. A part of me will be lost, too if I lost them. Get it?