Anyway, I had lunch with my mom at Sushi King (a Japanese restaurant) yesterday, and I am so grateful that they’ve plugged this song in! my first reaction was, OMG, are they serious? Since the song is heavily related to anime, I initially thought that they won’t possibly be playing this song. And they did! No bull!

Title: Beautiful Word (in the album Beautiful World / Kiss & Cry)
Artist: Utada Hikaru (宇多田 ヒカル)

The lyrics to the song is available here (alongside with its English translation), but you’ll need to scroll down a little to the bottom of the page. Here are a few of my favourite lines:

言いたいことなんか無い
iitai koto nanka nai
I really have nothing I want to say to you,

ただもう一度会いたい
tada mou ichido aitai
But I still want to see you one more time.

言いたいこと言えない
iitai koto ienai
The things that I want to say – I cannot say.

根性無しかもしれない
konjou nashi ka mo shirenai
Perhaps I am a coward,

それでいいけど
sore de ii kedo
But it’s alright.

Back to the post, the reason why Beautiful World is selected as the title is not only because I’ve got a lovely song to plug, but also because I’ve got a couple of random photos to share, all depicting that we’re actually living in a beautiful world - you just need to be a little more adventurous, observant and appreciative to realise that.

Photos are shot using my faithful ol’ P&S, consumer-grade Pentax Optio S55 digital camera. Photos are modified for colour balance, saturation, contrast and exposure (with a certain degree of artificially widened dynamic range) using Photoshop CS2. Click on the images to view the larger ones in a lightbox. Photos in this post comes with their respective metadata as well as geolocation information (geographical coordinates are found using this neat webpage, and geotagging is part of my experiment with microformats).

Cityscape Silhouette
Taken on: 2^nd of May 2008, 7:07pm

I rode to an adjacent neighbourhood one evening and discovered that there’s a huge lake tucked behind three colossus condiminium blocks. I’ve never found it even though I’ve been living a mere 3km away for 17 years!

The evening sun is directly behind the office blocks and so the camera is shielded from sun’s glare (to make sure that the sky is properly exposed). I’ve positioned the horizon exaclty at the dead middle because I was lazy to do cropping during post-shooting modifications.

EXIF data:

• Focal lengh: 6mm
• F-number: F/4.3
• Exposure time: 1/500 sec
• ISO speed: ISO-50
• Metering Mode: Pattern
• Geolocation: 3.079259, 101.601198

Bridge Silhouette
Taken on: 1^st of May 2008, 5:56pm

On Labour’s Day, we went shopping to kill time and then headed home for dinner. As dad drove along the Federal Highway, a toll-free expressway that connects the suburb we live in with the downtown area, I noticed the late afternoon sun hidden behind a layer of clouds, thus creating the God’s rays (a.k.a. Crepuscular rays) in the sky. The bridge (it’s more like a viaduct because it’s parallel to the flyover underneath it) is special because it is on the third level above the highway.

EXIF data:

• Focal lengh: 6mm
• F-number: F/4.3
• Exposure time: 1/1500 sec
• ISO speed: ISO-50
• Metering Mode: Pattern
• Geolocation: 3.08410, 101.61407

Floating Water Lettuces
Taken on: 12^th March 2008, 2:32pm

A macro shot of the water lettuce in my Aunt’s House garden. Sometimes it takes a little initiative on your behalf to get a nicer photo - I’ve dipped my hands into the mold-green water (of course I did wash my hands thoroughly after that) to sprinkle some water onto the waxy leaves to create a more dramatic effect.

I did a little cropping though - it was initially shot at landscape mode but the original photo had too much distracting details (flower pots, grass, bricks etc.) so I cropped away the left side.

EXIF data:

• Focal lengh: 10mm
• F-number: F/3.5
• Exposure time: 1/100 sec
• ISO speed: ISO-50
• Metering Mode: Pattern
• Geolocation: 3.03114, 101.57347

Tree-lined Avenue
Taken on: 5^th of March 2007, 4:33pm

This photo is taken along the path that brings me from the bus stop to my boarding school in Singapore. The avenue where this photo is taken is called Namlee Avenue, and it isn’t really surprising to find a thousand more roads in Singapore with exactly the same scene - trees with thick canopy overhanging the road. Singapore emphasizes a lot on environmental protection, preservation and rehabilitation.

I love the way how light from the late afternoon sun bounched off the road and into my camera. Isn’t that lovely?

EXIF data:

• Focal lengh: 6mm
• F-number: F/2.6
• Exposure time: 1/50 sec
• ISO speed: ISO-100
• Metering Mode: Pattern
• Geolocation: 1.32889, 103.80172

Tree
Taken on: 3^rd of March 2008, 10:32am

I went to a national forest reserve adjacent to the town I live in. I could still remember that we cycled quite a long way from the rental shop, and to find ourselves at the border of the forest reserve - what laid in front of us is a new housing scheme under construction, how sad. I was dying under the hot morning sun and the melting tarmac, and the only place for refuge is underneath the thin canopy of this tree. When I caught my breath and look up, I saw what is in this photo - a magnificent canopy against the blue morning sky!

EXIF data:

• Focal lengh: 6mm
• F-number: F/4.3
• Exposure time: 1/640 sec
• ISO speed: ISO-50
• Metering Mode: Pattern
• Geolocation: 3.10110, 101.49476

A few weeks ago, the sky was completely inundated with fierce thunderstorm clouds - a perfect remedy for lightnings! I grabbed my point-and-shoot consumer-grade camera (it’s a Pentax Optio S55 camera, a pretty ancient model by current standards), rushed to mom’s bedroom and poised myself to get ready for a thunderstorm photoshoot. I took exactly 100 photos in total, all of them taken with burst mode (a.k.a. continuous shooting mode):

If you’ve spotted the unique one out of the hundred photos, you’re sharp!

The lightning was almost out of the frame, that’s why I was talking about the Lady Luck thing. If I’d aimed slightly towards the right, the lightning wouldn’t have been captured! So here’s the larger version (in case you have not located the photo, it’s the second photo from the right, on the third row):

I’m starting to wonder how could I get amazing lighting shots like these (well, compared to those, mine is bollocks), found on Flickr. Perhaps the desire to get those is pushing me towards a new camera (most probably, a dSLR!). Here are some, randomly selected from the search result:

Note: Photos are copyrighted by their respective owners, click on the thumbnails to access the photo’s Flickr page.

Birthday Wishes

Chankeet (29^th April) - Happy belated birthday! I actually wanted to dedicate a section for you in the previous post but it was too long, and no body will probably read it. Haha!

Yuting (3^rd May) - Happy birthday! Today is your day when I get back to Singapore next time, I’ll haunt you!

Yintung (4^th May) - Happy early birthday! I hope you’re coping well with life and remember, have fun!!!

Tag Replies

Sorry I’ve been very, very lazy lately!

@ahbing: Thank you! NGE is a really nice anime - if you appreciate those with darker themes (but not so much violence), and extensive character development and analysis, it’s definitely your cup of tea.

@Artix: Woah I never knew you watch NGE too! You can torrent it, or google for a direct download.

@Eric: The last time I checked, it’s running fine. I think it’s because your Blogger RSS feed takes time to update so my CommentLuv didn’t manage to capture your latest post. CommentLuv relies on RSS feed and not the actual blog, by the way.

@Levine: Nothing much, just that I’ve been running out of ideas for photography lately. Not another creativity drought!

@Guest: Whoever you are… NGE is for everyone who knows how to appreciate it, regardless of gender.

@Melle: The tagboard wasn’t visible at first, but I guess many visitors didn’t figure out that clicking on the Tagboard text will bring it out, so I’ve decided to display it by default! Haha. You’re so generous with your compliments, I’m so darn flattered, really!

@LogicYuan: Thanks for reminding! I’m running a little dry on creativity lately, sorry!

@Tungz: Yeap, it’s one of the best ones around! Oh and I’ve never seen the videos before, so thanks for sharing so I know that such talented kids really do exist, haha! I think it takes a lot of effort and sacrification for them to reach where they are today *applause*

@Eric: Take your time, it won’t disappear, haha!

@Guest: Thanks…?

@kenny4eva: Okay roger sir. Will check out asap!

@ck: Ahhh you’ve revealed my close-friends-only nick to the world! Anyway, you’re welcome! You’re asking something that I should be asking - I’m wondering how you’re coping with NS, bud! I hope you’re fine! Take care.

That’s all for this post!

Cheer up! It’s another Photoshop tutorial to keep you entertained and your mind sharp with creativity. When I release my new personalised Wordpress theme, teddY-risatioN™ Delta, it came with a header image that contains a 3D looking icon / logo. The one on the left is slightly different as compared to the original one (the background is not centere in the original favicon for design purposes).

The original concept of this favicon (that uses a gradient as the background instead of a dull, boring, solid color) comes from Id’s favicon for her blog Notbrainwashersafe.com. Thank you Id for the inspiration!

Hendra asked me a few weeks ago (sorry, it took me so long to write this!) as of how to create a 3D looking icon, so here it is - a step-by-step, idiot-proof Photoshop tutorial to teach you how to create a Web2.0 3D icon from scratch. I wrote another one, Glossy Logo Tutorial a few months ago, and if you’re interested, you can check it out as well.

A sample .TIFF file is included at the end of the tutorial (it’s highly recommended that you read through the steps first because it’s the process and methodology that is important, NOT the final product! So what are you waiting for? Grab some coffee (it’s long, with 20 screenshots in total!) and let’s get it started!

Step 1 - Open Canvas

Since I want to make sure that the icon I’m creating is as detailed as possible, I’ll be using a huge canvas size (250*250 for this tutorial) and then shrink the icon to 36*36 pixels when I want to convert it to a favicon. Alternatively, you can use the icon for your blog header (like what I’ve done!) or other purposes. 250*250 pixels is a pretty safe size, since most blog icons won’t exceed the width or height of 150px.

It doesn’t matter if you have a transparent background or a solid white background (as shown in the screenshot). Anyway, if you’re interested, the background can be configured when you create a new canvas - you’ll have three choices, under Background Content, of White, Background Colour or Transparent.

Step 2 - The All-mighty Gradient Tool

Head over to the toolbar (by default, it’s to your left), and select the Gradient Tool. In case you couldn’t find it, look for the Paintbucket tool, since both tools share the same position in the toolbar and you can change it by clicking the black triangle at the bottom-right corner of the tool’s icon.

Now select the type of gradient - I’ve used Angel Gradient to design my icon, but you can always experiment with other types! Click on a mockup display of the gradient at the top to edit it. A dialog box will appear as shown below:

I’ve used a particular configuration for my icon:

• *Note: Opacity at 100% for all colours
• Color: #282e65, Location: 0%
• Color: #2c6893, Location: 25%
• Color: #7da6c3, Location: 50%
• Color: #405671, LocatioN: 75%
• Color: #282e65, Location: 100%

Step 3 - Draw Gradient

Create a new layer and rename it as ‘Background Gradient’. You can now draw the gradient on the new layer. If you want to center it perfectly in the middle of the canvas, simply turn on the grids by pressing [Ctrl] + [']. If the default grid settings does not subdivide your canvas properly, you can access its settings via Edit > Preferences > Guides, Grids & Slices. Adjust the pixel spacing and number of subdivisions to your liking. Since I’m using a 250*250 canvas, I will divide the canvas every 50 pixels with 2 subdivisions. If you follow my settings, this is what you’ll get:

And now position your cursor at the center of the image, click and start dragging the gradient towards the side of the canvas. Since you have turned on the grids, the cursor will automatically snap to the nearest dividing line. Neat, isn’t it? Saves you from all the trouble from trying in vain to achieve pixel precision.

Step 4 - Typography

Now start entering anything you like into the canvas. I have used a slightly blue colour for my text (#a6c7f3) to give it a blue tinge. You can use any colour you wish, it’s all about trial and error! Since I wanted something striking and unique, I’ve settled for ‘tr™’ which stands for teddY-risatioN™.

After you’ve entered your text, it’s time to give your text a more three-dimensional effect. Double click on the layer to bring up the Layer Style dialog box. I’ve applied the following settings:

For Blending Options (check screenshot?):

• Blend Mode: Overlay

For Drop Shadow (check screenshot?):

• Blend Mode: Multiply
• Opactiy: 25%
• Angle: 120° WITH global lighting (check the global lighting option)
• Distance: 3px
• Spread: 10%
• Size: 3px

For Inner Glow (check screenshot?):

• Blend Mode: Screen
• Opacity: 25%

*Note: if you have mutiple layers of text, remember to copy the layer style of one layer and paste it to the others. There’s no need to repeat all the tedious steps above for the remaining layers. Hurray!

Here is a simple visual comparison of the before and after the tweaking of Layer Style.

Step 5 - Create a curvy shape

In order to have a convincing glossy effect, you don’t just create a simple shape and reduce it’s opacity to a low percentage. You’ll actually have to create a custom shape by hand. But no worries, it’s actually quite simple with the Pen tool!

Click on the Pen tool icon in the toolbar, and then proceed to the top to configure that nifty little sweetie. Remember that you wanted to create SHAPES and not PATHS, so remember to click on Shape Layers, and then click on Pen Tool - you wouldn’t want a freeform pen tool, unless you have a sturdy hand and a Wacom (or whatever) tablet in hand. Remember to turn on the grids again, by presisng [Ctrl] + ['].

In order to create a curvy shape, you’ll need to know a little bit how the Pen tool works. It actually draws you a Bézeir Curve when you play with the handles. Now to continue, click on the center left side of the canvas. Since the grid is on, it will automatically snap to the grid, so no worries (and that’s what grids are for!). Now click at the dead center of the canvas, and drag the horizontal, tangential handle until it looks something like in the screenshot below:

It’s all up to your experimentation - you can create very curvy or straighter shapes, mine is just for your referrence. Feel free to experiment with it! Photosohp is all about APPLICATION and not DEAD, ROUTE-LEARNING keep that in mind!

Now click on the center left corner of the canvas. You don’t need to tweak the handles this time, and an almost perfectly symmetrical curve will appear, as seen below:

After you’re done with the curvy part, breeze through the rest - by just clickin on the top right and then the top left corners of the canvas, and CLOSE THE PATH (important!) by clicking on the starting point again. Now you’ve got a nice, neat shape!

*Note: Don’t be bothered by the black background, we’ll deal with it later, very soon!

Step 6 - Glossy effect using layer stlyes

Since the black background is really irritating (and we don’t need it as well), head over to the Layers container and set the Fill to 0%. The black filling disappears!

Now double click on the curvy shape layer to bring up the Layer Styles dialog box, and follow the instructions below:

For Drop Shadow (check screenshot?):

• Blend Mode: Multiply
• Opactiy: 5%
• Angle: 90° WITHOUT global lighting (uncheck the global lighting options)
• Distance: 5px
• Spread: 10%
• Size: 5px

For Gradient Overlay (check screenshot?):

• Blend Mode: Overlay
• Opacity: 10%
• Gradient (white fades from left to right):
  • Color: #ffffff, Location: 0%, Opacity: 100%
  • Color: #ffffff, Location: 100%, Opacity: 0%
• Style: Linear
• Angle: 90°

After applying these styles to the layer, remember to drag the layer to the top so that it is above all layers:

Step 7 - Create rounded corners

This is when we’ll make use of Photoshop’s Quickmask function. Select the Background Gradient layer. In order to mask it, press [Q] or click on the Quickmask icon. Then select the Rectangle tool and at the top toolbar, configure it to the Rounded Rectangle Tool with 50px radius. For the radius, it’s all up to you - 50px is just my personal preferrence.

Open the grid again by pressing [Ctrl] + [']. Now draw a rounded rectangle from the top left corner towards the bottom right corner. It will automatically snap to the gridlines, so don’t worry too much. When you’ve done, a red and slightly transparent rounded rectangle will appear over the area you’ve masked. This means that the part of the image on the Background Gradient layer will not be edited in any way when you exit Quickmask:

To exit Quickmask, click on the other icon below the foreground/background palette or press [Q]. Now you’ll have ‘marching ants’ around the four corners of the layer. With Background Gradient layer still selected, press [Delete] to remove the corners of the layer. Now you have rounded corners!

But you’re not quite done yet - the Shape Layer is still rectangular at the top. Do not deselect your selectiong (in order words, make sure that the ‘marching ants’ are still there). Select the Shape 1 layer (this is the layer’s name by default), and then press [Delete] again.

Step 8 - You’re basically done!

You’re basically done with the icon. To drag the icon to another image (like your blog header), just select all layers (besides the locked Background layer, if there is any) and drag them to another image. To create a transparent background, delete the locked Background layer, if there is any.

Here is the final product!

Download Sample!

You can also download the sample for the icon here. Please note that the file is for personal usage only and do not distribute it commercially. If you would want to share this file on your blog or website, feel free to do so but please provide a link back to this tutorial.

Icon Tutorial Sample | 24 hits | 496.71 KB

*Note: The .TIFF file will appear just like a .JPEG image when you open it with the default Windows Picture and Fax viewer, but if you open it up in Photoshop, you’ll see different editable layers. Oh, and the .TIFF format I’ve used is a lossless compression format, so everything you see is exactly what I’ve done, down to every single pixel

Request a Tutorial

Yes, I do accept requests - and probably the best thing to it is that I write Photoshop tutorials for free! I would consider myself semi-amateur (more towards the expert side, heh) along the novice-expert scale, so I’m terribly sorry if I couldn’t write one that I think it’s beyond my capabilities. However, I’m willing to read up of new techniques, so most probably I won’t reject 90% of the requests. You can post a request as a comment, or you can directly contact me.

Aisyah’s new theme!

Aisyah, whose blog is one of my greatest source of inspiraiton for design and layout, has released her new theme, My Scrapbook, on Sunday! Her themes are always a refreshing and very, very artistic, looking as if they’re drawn in real life and later scanned into Photoshop

Her previous theme (here’s a screenshot!) is already a big hit with me, and this time, her new theme packs a bigger punch! It comes with a cleaner sidebar and more cheerful colours at the header.

Aisyah also never forget to include those nifty CSS hover effects in her layout, such as the navigation links in the header and the sidebar, as well as in the footer section.

I couldn’t help but keep thinking of her next theme! Brilliant job, Aisyah! Keep it up, heheh.

Digital Art

Recently I’ve picked up a few cool digital art tutorials on various Photoshop magazines and I realised that there is so much more than just simple digital darkroom tweaking that Photoshop allows you to do! Here’s are two samples I’ve done so far - they’re equivalent to doodling, just more on the digital side. For this time, I’ve used the Calvin and Hobbes font for the photo captions

Flower Against the Setting Sun - The discovery of buried photos in my photo archives got me exciting and so I started experimenting with various brushes. I’ve used two separate brushes to do the framing, but I found the edges rather jaggy and so I’ve applied Gaussian Blur to smooth out the edges. Now it looks better right? The key to an authentic looking frame is RANDOMNESS - don’t drag your cursor along the edges, but rather make short pauses in between and draw at different angles.

Mr Potato! - Creating the pseudo-painting effect was a big pain in the butt, but after an hour I’ve got it done! I’ve experimented with different blending options coupled with a photoshop filter called Glowing Edges (thus the high contrast of the edges in this photo). Finally I’ve used Diffused Glow to create a comfy and dreamy effect, and finished off with a little more tweaking with the saturation and contrast.

[Edit] I’ve reorganised the before and after comparison between identical scenes found in the original anime and the first film into their respective episodes. I hope this will make things a little clearer! This post will be continuously updated if I have extra before and after stillshots to compare [/Edit]

The latest count puts the number of screenshots in this post at 37. I may have more to add in the future!

Introduction: Neon Genesis Evangelion

*Skip this part if you’re tired of wordy posts, and proceed directly to the ‘Read More’ link happily browse through the pages! There’s so much information that I have to abandon the Read More link and use pagination instead.

I first learnt about Neon Genesis Evangelion (NGE from now on) from my ex-roommate, Pow. I immediately fell in love with it because of the unique mix of psychological experience and mecha-anime, which is previously unheard of. Shame on me, because I’ve been very out of touch of the anime world that before being introduced to NGE - the only animes I have in mind is Naruto. I don’t particularly adore other animes because they aren’t really quite my cup of tea (seriously, I get bored with these stereotypical male hero, female warrior, boy-girl-relationship, adventure themes…)

Produced and directed by Hideaki Anno, NGE offers a whole new perspective to anime. It’s an old anime, I would call it, since it was aired about 13 years ago and it surprises me of the producer’s ability to portray a futuristic Tokyo-3 in a very realistic manner. It deviates from the normal anime by resurrecting the mecha theme (big giant robots) in Japanese anime culture. It stuck to the old methods of mecha anime, but it has added something deadly inside to make it such an addictive mix - psychological turmoils of each character, making them either horribly introvert or notoriously extrovert. Almost every character have to deal with their inner demons and their struggle with existence.

NGE was such a huge hit partially because it leverages heavily on religious icons of Christianity. Such incorporation is largely based on the producer’s observation that Christianity was not a well-known and understood religion in Japan, and thus will give NGE-viewers a cutting-edge experience. He was even quoted that if he knew NGE was to be aired in overseas, he would have abandoned the incorporation of Christianity themes (but if he really did, NGE will be a total disaster, I think).

Basically the storyline of NGE surrounds the three protagonist - (from left, as seen in the image above) Asuka, Shinji and Rei, who are child pilots to the three respective Evangelion units and are responsible of defending Tokyo-3 from attacking Angels (huge monster figures that either approach Tokyo-3 by land, by air or appear directly above it). The series got progressively (but I think it’s more towards exponentially) darker as it progresses, partially influenced by the producer’s prior experiences with depression. The end of the anime was very apocalyptic, for the sake of those who are yet to watch it, I’m not going to reveal the exact details, but it is generally an end-of-the-world scenario. No spoilers!

There are before and after comparisons of the new film to the original anime (19 screenshots in total) after the jump! Keep reading

Here is a menu of the following pages, just in case you get lost:

1. Introduction: Neon Genesis Evangelion » You’re here!
2. The Remake: Rebuild of Evangelion 1.0
3. Comparisons: Episode 01
4. Comparisons: Episode 02
5. Comparisons: Episode 03
6. Comparisons: Episode 04
7. Comparisons: Episode 05
8. Comparisons: Episode 06

I got inspired after watching so many iPod commercials! This is one of my favourite:

The trick behind creating this Apple-esque poster is just using Photoshop’s handy Quickmask function! Here’s a short tutorial (sorry, no screenshots!).

1. Open the image - Either drag the image into the workspace or go to File > Open…
2. Enter quickmask mode - Press [Q] or find the button just below the foreground / background colour swatches.
3. Painting time - Remeber to set the foreground and background colours to the default ones by just pressing [D]. Paint over the areas of the image you want to turn black (painted areas will appear red in quickmask mode, so don’t worry!).
4. Exit quickmask mode - Press [Q] to exit. Now you’ll find the marching ants (those moving black dashed lines at the border of the selected area).
5. Invert selection - Since you’ve painted over the selected areas of the image, you’re actually MASKING them (eg, preventing them from being modified). So you’ll have to invert your selection. Just right-click on any place on the canvas, and click Select Inverse on the menu that appears.
6. Create new layer - Press [Ctrl] + [Shirt] + [N], select a huge brush (and make sure that the foreground colour is black, #000000), and start painting within the selected area. You don’t want to pain over the original image, so that’s why you will need a new layer!
7. Repeat step 2 to 5 - Now select the part of the image you want to paint white (e.g. mp3 players, headphones, shoes or any objects)
8. Create another new layer - Do not paint on the first new layer! You want to maintain editability, remember? Make sure that the foreground colour is white, #ffffff, before proceeding.
9. And you’re done!

Do tell me if you want a more detailed tutorial I’ll be more than happy to share!

Comic © Bill Amend, published on 6th of January, 2008. Did I mention that Foxtrot is one of my favourite comic strip? Haha I dig its sarcasm (plus the nerdy Jason and the rather stupid Paige)! Anyway Foxtrot has ceased dailies a few years back, but Bill Amend is nice enough to bring it to us on weekends!

Random Facts Meme

Vivacious, cute, lovely, artistic but evil Ivy tagged me for it because she wants revenge for the five vices meme that I’ve tagged her for. Okay, as you wish, here it is!

Once you’ve been tagged you have to write a blog with 10 weird, random facts, habits, or goals about yourself — at the end choose 5 people to be tagged. Don’t forget to leave them a comment saying “You’re It!” and to go read your blog. You cannot tag the person that tagged you.

So here we go.

1. I have a toy that is older than me - it’s Mr Potato! And HELL NO it’s not the Mr Potato Head you find in the stores or in Toy Story, nor is it the mascot of some random potato chip manufactuer. It’s authentically mine. My mom bought it to add it to her collection one year before I was born - this makes my dear Mr Potato 20 years old! It has been a good listener and comforter i during my childhood years. When I was five, a male flight attendant saw me carrying it around and joked that “Oh my why do I see still young boys carrying dolls?” which inflicted an angry stare from me. I remembered bringing it to my middle school dorm by hiding it in my closet (I don’t want anyone to know I keep a doll), but one day one of the nastier friend got hold of it and tore it’s legs apart. I cried for a week after that, and finally mom got her friend to stitch it up for me - she’s so nice that she did not only repaired his legs but also gladly donated an old pair of denim jeans for the new shirt he’s wearing! Since then I kept it safely in my closet away from curious hands and prying eyes, and I’ve brought it out today to have it photographed for you
2. I am afraid of mannequins - I find that rather spooky! Being extremely similar to humans, the plastic bearing humanoid shapes and curvatures simply evokes a strong sense of revulsion within me. I find the sight of people dismantling mannequins into smaller parts (limbs, head, torse and etc.) very unsettling. My reaction towards mannequins made me to somewhat believe in the Uncanny Valley theory - when robots and other facsimiles of humans look and act almost, but not entirely, like actual humans, it causes a response of revulsion among human observers.
3. My BEST dreams always end at the BEST part - this theory stands true since the day I told it to my mom when I was seven. It was a Sunday morning when I suddenly woke up from a dream of having my parents bring me to a huge waterpark. I was about to splash down the longest ever water slide on earth… and realising that I’ve just wet my bed. And then a few weeks ago when I was angry when my mom woke me up because I dreamt about being invited to a friends’ wedding where they’re a lot of good food (the last time I checked, I remembered dreaming about drumsticks, Korean barbeque, Japanese udon, pizza, breezers, sandwiches and etc). When I was about to dig in she woke me up. DANG!
4. I am short and light - At 160cm I’m one of the shortest 19-year-olds you can ever find on the street. I’m reluctant to reveal my weight because if I ever, ever do that, you’ll probably report my parents to the child protection services for fear of them abusing me. I eat a lot, swim a lot and cycle a lot, I just can’t figure out why I can’t get some extra height and put on some extra fat (or muscle, I don’t care, I just need more MASS). And I have narrow shoulders, a very un-masculine trait and people will probably see me as infertile (well, scientific study says that females prefer guys who have wider shoulders. I’m doomed!)
5. I can pull my hand through a ring formed using your palm, thumb and middle finger - I’ve tried it on many friends and my hands can gracefully squeeze through almost all of them (except for a few who have stubby and ‘obese’ fingers). That’s one unqiue trick that I can pull but you can’t!
6. I have a creative and a scientific mind - a very weird combination. That’s my diagnosis when I sat for not one but several career tests. I scored very high in artistic / creativity and logic / analysis, and the person who conducted the test had a hard time finding a list of suitable jobs for me. And at last he settled for Environmental Engineering, Urban Planning and Architecture. I went against all the choices and opted to get into Life Sciences in university.
7. I don’t watch horror flicks - my uncle said it right - why waste money on something that will scare you, make you sleepless for nights and make you think that it’s better to wet your bed rather than to go to the toilet at midnight? After watching my first horror flick, Darkness Falls (which gave everyone a lousy scare as it was one of the worst movies ever made, but I was genuinely scared!), I vowed never ever to watch anything that has to do with ghosts.
8. I bought my one and only HTML bible at 13 - and it punches a big hole in my piggy bank. It costs around MYR180+ (I know, I know, it’s a rip off because I could’ve just learn HTML myself online), and I finished reading that 500+ pages thick book in a week!
9. I could speak Javascript… back then - after purchasing my first HTML bible (see above!), I got interested in webdesign and layout - I surfed the web for countless Javascript tutorials and finally, I mastered the language and was able to speak Javascript as if it’s my second language. BUT after 5 years of disuse, I can only call for the document.write and alert function using Javascript - nothing more than that. How sad.
10. teddY-risatioN is going to be my first and final blog - when this blog turned three last July, I told myself that I shold never let anything stop me from blogging since then. And I swear not to change my blog title (and URL, if I can restraint myself, since teddy-o-ted.com sounds like kids stuff) until the day I stop blogging.

And the sky falls on…

1. Han - for tagging me to do the evil Five Vices Meme! Remember, revenge!
2. Aisyah - for being a great designer and a wonderful blogger!
3. Brandy - for introducing me Naked CSS Day (thanks!) and I heard you love doing memes!
4. Nel - for getting her new contacts!
5. Cherngyo - for being one of my greatest friends!

For the people who have the sky falling on their heads, do inform me if you don’t do memes - I’ll get another innocent victim to replace you and if you’re in a dire need to do meme, feel free to tag yourself AND inform me, I’ll be linking you as well.

Here you go, Ken Lee!

In case you’re craving for background information, the lady who sang Ken Lee (who insisted that she sang in English and the song is Ken Lee instead of Without You by Mariah Carey) is Valentina Hasan (Bulgarian: Валентина Хасан), a contestant auditioning for the Bulgarian show Music Idol in February 2008. The simple reason for the funny way she sang it:

Hasan explained to the Bulgarian media that she actually used to listen to the song “when she was 15,” using a cassette recorder, and “sang it the way she felt it.”

I’m not being rude, but I really had a good laugh.

Nanyate.com by Ivy
Ivy’s busy schedule didn’t keep her away from designing a Yukata-inspired Wordpress theme for her blog. I must say that she had a excellent grasp of colour theory - she mixes pink and blue, the two unseemingly cooperative colours, so well in her new theme. She uses PNG alpha transparency to give her content and sidebar containers a unique transluscent texture over the dark background - and I love it! Although it doesn’t work well for people using IE6 or below, I believe she’s made the right choice. You should really just dump IE6 for something more performative like Firefox or Safari. Wake up!

I salute Ivy’s bid to make all her designs blind-friendly, XHTML and CSS 2.1 valid. Kudos for going that extra mile, Ivy!

My FIRST Driving Lesson!

Well, I can say that it’s a total nightmare! The driving instructor, a very nice lady, called up yesterday to say that she’ll coach me for two hours today. Just arrived at 3pm, picked me up from home and took me to a rather busy industrial area and taught me the basics of driving. This is probably when I start to hate manual cars - in the past, I only know that what sets manual and automatic cars apart is that one requires you to chnage gear when stepping on the clutch while the other does it for you automatically (well isn’t that obvious from it’s name).

Driving a manual car requires a long attention span, a whole lot more patience and a sturdy feet. You’ll need to step on the clutch real hard to change gear - the car I was being coached in was in a dire condition and I’ll need to step on the clutch real hard to change gear. Thus the car stalled twice when I didn’t muster enough strength for my weakly left foot. When you are about to start, you’ll have to step on the clutch (Step on it hard!!! I kept reminding myself), switch from whatever gear to the first, tap the accelerator slightly (for that cranky car the accelerator was out of it’s mind and upon the slightest touch the car was revving up like crazy), release clutch very very slowly (or the car will stall) and there you go.

The instructor kept her foot on my left foot because she said I’m not stepping hard enough. Well I should be more gentle with your car I thought. I screwed up the sequence at the first left turn and the car stalled again - I stepped on the brake too hard and when I was about to start again, I forgot to step on the clutch to switch back to gear one. Grrr. She told me the sequence and I repeated it to myself, doing it every single time I make a turn.

And then since it’s 4pm already, the nearby school has it’s classes all over and those short little primary school kids are running across the road like, what mom describes, monkeys on the loose. My hands immediately broke out in cold sweat for fear of running over an innocent, roaming seven-year-old even before completing my first ever driving lesson. And when I braked too hard, the car will stall again (because of the damn clutch!) and I’ll have to repeat the sequence to myself like a madman.

The lady instructor, albeit being a very patient and helpful lady, insisted that I should go try the expressway (I was like, WHAT?! It isn’t even 30 minutes into my FIRST time driving something that moves - besides my bicycle, that is). I couldn’t say no. I was so nervous to forgot to apply the brakes even when we approach those irritating, rough, and badly-placed road humps (the local town council gained notoriety for building too many road humps back then) and the car felt as if it’s going to freaking fall apart. Luckily it didn’t.

On the expressway, the cars behind me were either tailgating me dangerously (I wish I could brake, have them smash into the car and get them to pay my instructor to get a better car that has more foot-friendly clutch) or overtaking me and then staring back me at like I’m in a zoo exhibition container. Whatever. And when the instructor told me to change gear (because I was going over 40kmph at the third gear), she pusher her finger against my cheeck and said, Don’t look down, try changing gear without looking at it. I was so mentally-unprepared! Luckily she guided my hand with hers and the transition went on smoothly… until when we started to climb up this flyover when the engine starting coughing and the whole car started to jerk.

After the flyover she asked me to pullover at the road shoulder and found a loose wire in the engine. She fixed it but offered to drive me back, saying that it’s enough training already… and I was only an hour into the two hour course. Okay so before dropping me off at my gate she told me that the next lesson will be at 7.30am next Wednesday and I was like WHAT?! 7.30am?!

One good thing that came out of it - I’ve learnt to drive, a little

Note to self: I still owe Hendra a Photoshop tutorial! I’m sorry for being so late, but I’m busy lately. Give me a little more time yea?

Here’s music plug before I start!
Title: Take Me Home, Country Road (album: Poems, Prayers and Promises)
By: John Denver

I first listened to this song during my first music lesson in secondary school. My music teacher brought this John Denver CD to the class and started playing this song. I find this song rather sad, and I can relate to the lyrics pretty well because it was my first month in a foreign country and I having a great deal of homesickness. After the lesson, I ran after her and manage to borrow her CD for this song. It’ve been sitting in my laptop for 6 years! I particularly adore this line:

Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye.

Okay time to move on to the post. For this time, I’ve included something special - a marked Google map (made possible with this awesome Inline Google Map wordpress plugin) so that you’ll have a rough idea where the photos are taken - each marker represents the exact location where the particular photo is taken have fun!

Google Map that tracks my trip

*It might take a little while for the map to load, don’t worry! If you’re bored, start listening to the song I’ve plugged earlier.

Center of map

map

I live somewhere here
*My approximate location, so don’t use this to find me! You’ll most probably get to the wrong house.

map

Photo #1 - Sun’s Rays!
I was cycling down a small alley when a huge cloud blocked out the sun and I’ve got a fantastic view of sun’s rays filtering through it.
Locate photo in post »

map

Photo #2 - Pylons, the Towers of Power.
My neighbourhood is surrounded by a couple of electric pylons. When I took this photo, I was actually crossing a bridge than spans the huge monsoon drain! Of course there’s a sturdy railing separating me and the fall to eternity, don’t worry.
Locate photo in post »

map

Photo #3 - Huge Mansion
After crossing the monsoon drain, I took a right turn into a rather posh neigbhbourhood with an avenue lined with bungalows!
Locate photo in post »

map

Photo #4 - Graded Intersection
After cycling through a rather torturous uphill journey across the neighbourhood, I arrive at this awesome graded intersection at a traffic circle. It is now having the 4^th level being added that brings motorist across the congested traffic circle.
Locate photo in post »

map

Photo #5 - Further up the road
Further up the road (I was cycling northwards), I turned around and took a photo of the viaduct. Instead of merging with the road one level below, the town council has decided to extend the viaduct to the federal highway further north.
Locate photo in post »

map

Photo #6 - Life Savers
This is the local hospital called the Subang Jaya Medical Centre (SJMC). It has saved countless of lives since it opened in 1988 (well that’s two solid decades ago!). I was a hard kid to deal with - I had so many injuries and been through so many illness when I was young. SJMC was once my second home.
Locate photo in post »

map

Photo #7 - Sheraton Hotel
This hotel has been part of the township for at least 8 years. Being 15 stories high, it’s one of the notable landmarks in my low-density township. I can even see it from my mom’s bedroom
Locate photo in post »

map

Photo #8 - Designer Home, perhaps…
The neigbourhood adjacent to the hospital is never lacking of gorgoues-looking designer homes, since the land there can be quite big and if you spent too much money eating junk food at home, you can always head for the hospital for a checkup whenever you like. Just joking. Anyway, shortly after taking this photo the two German shepards in the compound started barking wildly at me. Gee, time to run!
Locate photo in post »

map

Photo #9 - Skyscrapers in my township
Riding along a street in the neighbourhood, I’ve spotted this amazing sight of the skyscrapers in my township! Since I’m on top of a gentle slope, I’ve managed to get this magnificent view.
Locate photo in post »

map

Photo #10 - Tomoe, a Japanese Restaurant
About 4 years back, this unknown corner unit of a row of bland-looking shophouses got a total facelift, and I love the way they’ve used tainted glasses as part of their facade. Very beautiful, isn’t it? I find the facade to complement very well with the lush green natural surrounding.
Locate photo in post »

map

Photo #11 - Underneath the Viaduct
If you would turn 180 degrees after taking the previous photo, you’ll see the road that’s nested beneath the viaduct. They’ve recently got the road resurfaced, thus the very dark grey colour of the fresh tarmac.
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map

Photo #12 - My heart cringes everytime I see it
The sign reads: CANCER & RADIOSURGERY CENTRE. My heart cringes everytime I see this building - to many patients whose cancer is in its terminal stages, it means the deathbed. Or it can mean a lot of pain and suffering to those who’re undergoing chemotherapy.
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map

Photo #13 - Under Construction
On my way back home, I’ve decided to go nearer to the flyover that is currently still under construction look at how grand it looks, with all the big machines and safety nets.
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map

Photo #14 - Expressway
I cycled along the expressway on my way back. Known as the New Pantai Expressway (which roughly translates to New Beach Expressway - that’s weird, my township is at least 20km away from the nearest shore), this expressway was originally just a mud road that ends right in front of my neighbourhood.
Locate photo in post »

map

Photo #15 - Turning into my neighbourhood
The mud road which the expressway was once used to be a decade ago ends here. Things have surely changed a lot over the years! Anyway in case you’re wondering, the pedestrian bridge ahead is the place where I’ve done the Evening Photography set.
Locate photo in post »

map

Photo #16 - Huge Advertisement
They’ve built this huge advertisement board a few years back, and it elicited an extremely negative response from my neighbourhood residents, especially those who live almost directly underneath it. Currently they have a Digi (one of the few Malaysian telcom companies) advertisement slapped on it.
Locate photo in post »

Let’s start with my biking trip!

You can always refer to the Google map if you need. Oh, and you can click on the thumbnails to view the original photo in the Lightbox!

Photo #1 - Sun’s Rays! | Map »
My journey started with me cycling through the quiant neighbourhood I live in. With my camera hanging precariosuly to my right palm and using my left arm to steer my bicycle, I’m off the go for my first biking trip. I wanted to start somewhere close and familiar, not too far and devoid of the busy Saturday traffic (you know, at 10am in the morning not every driver is wide awake!). So I’ve decided to explore a little more of the township I live in. Currently having a population of approximate 1.1 million, it is one of the busiest township in the state. This is my first photo for my trip - the cloud caught my eye when it partially covered a sun, producing the so-called God’s rays, which are streaks of light filtering through the cloud.

Photo #2 - Pylons, the Towers of Power | Map »
My neighbourhood is surrounded by a couple of electric pylons. Boy they’re surely tall! In Malaysia these pylons are doom-bringers - people see them as highly undesirable and believe that the strong electromagnetic radiation they give out is extremely detrimental to nearby residents. But I seem to find some beauty in them - when I was a kid I used to see them as kind giants who bring electricity to the people. Yea I know, I was very imaginative back then. Reminds me of the film Bridge to Terabithia. When I took this photo, I was actually crossing a bridge than spans the huge monsoon drain! Of course there’s a sturdy railing separating me and the fall to eternity, don’t worry.

Photo #3 - Huge Mansion | Map »
After crossing the monsoon drain, I took a right turn into a rather posh neigbhbourhood with an avenue lined with bungalows! Here is my favourite one with a really European-like arch over the entrace and having green plants in a neat lawn. How much I wish this mansion is mine! Sorry about the rather white-washed sky - I was more concerned of the guard chasing a curious photographer away than anything else.

Photo #4 - Graded Intersection | Map »
After cycling through a rather torturous uphill journey across the neighbourhood, I arrive at this awesome graded intersection at a traffic circle. It is now having the 4^th level being added that brings motorist across the congested traffic circle. The traffic circle was constructed more than a decade back, designated just to handle small amount of traffic in the new township. Then as more new neighbourhoods are added to the township, the traffic volume increases exponentially without any corresponding improvement in the transportation system. So everyday you’ll get stuck in a nasty traffic jam when you go to and back from work. The town council relented when everyone was writing to the press about their lousy handling method, and they’ve got two new flyovers being built. And now they’re adding the third it’s getting very tall!

Photo #5 - Further up the road | Map »
Further up the road (I was cycling northwards), I turned around and took a photo of the viaduct. Instead of merging with the road one level below, the town council has decided to extend the viaduct to the federal highway further north. Maybe because there’s a horrible lack of space in this overdeveloped township, they’re forced to build a very long viaduct. I sympathise those who live very close to the viaduct - they’ll be literally eating dust and listening to noise if they continue to stay there. The roud shoulder is still under construction - I was planning to trespass into the area and get a good photo of the viaduct but the yellow mud put me off.

Photo #6 - Life Savers | Map »
This is the local hospital called the Subang Jaya Medical Centre (SJMC). It has saved countless of lives since it opened in 1988 (well that’s two solid decades ago!). I went there countless of times - after a broken right hand, a stuck Lego piece in my nose, for a minor operation because of bacterial infection, constipation (don’t laugh!), brain concussion and etc. I was a hard kid to deal with - I had so many injuries and been through so many illness when I was young. SJMC was once my second home. And it brings back sweet memories as well - there’s this particularly sweet nurse who the kids call Aunt Shirley, she’s a veyr caring and compassionate person and yes she’s still working there!

Photo #7 - Sheraton Hotel | Map »
This hotel has been part of the township for at least 8 years. Being 15 stories high, it’s one of the notable landmarks in my low-density township. I can even see it from my mom’s bedroom the most memorable experience with this hotel is when my uncle’s family from Penang came to Kuala Lumpur for a night before heading off to Genting Highlands. I stayed over at their suite for the night, and my cousins and I fooled around in the huge but deserted swimming pool until the lifeguard chased us out at 10pm because the pool was closing. Hell yea it was fun!

Photo #8 - Designer Home, perhaps… | Map »
The neigbourhood adjacent to the hospital is never lacking of gorgoues-looking designer homes, since the land there can be quite big and if you spent too much money eating junk food at home, you can always head for the hospital for a checkup whenever you like. Just joking. The bungalows here are pretty nice, I like their exterior facade which is very modern and minimalistic. Too bad they’ve got high walls and gates to fend off prying eyes like mine - I couldn’t get a good glimpse of the neatly-kept lawn inside. Anyway, shortly after taking this photo the two German shepards in the compound started barking wildly at me. Gee, time to run!

Photo #9 - Skyscrapers in my township | Map »
Riding along a street in the neighbourhood, I’ve spotted this amazing sight of the skyscrapers in my township! Since I’m on top of a gentle slope, I’ve managed to get this magnificent view. As you can see, the storm clouds are starting to roll in, so I think it’s time for me to head home (but of course, grab a few more photos along my way back!). I love the way back because it’s a downhill journey so I didn’t really need to pedal a lot… that’s the good thing that came out of what you get for peddling rather insanely earlier on.

Photo #10 - Tomoe, a Japanese Restaurant | Map »
About 4 years back, this unknown corner unit of a row of bland-looking shophouses got a total facelift, and I love the way they’ve used tainted glasses as part of their facade. Very beautiful, isn’t it? I find the facade to complement very well with the lush green natural surrounding. Oh, and I like it how they’ve used a fake 5^th level to cover up the ugly looking water tanks. But what really strikes a cord with me is the name of the restaurant - Tomoe. If you’ve read the book Totto-chan, the little girl by the window, Tomoe is the name of the kindergarten where she grew up from a mischevious, talkative and irritating little girl to a caring and loving girl. I don’t know if the owner had this in mind when he was naming this restaurant though.

Photo #11 - Underneath the Viaduct | Map »
If you would turn 180 degrees after taking the previous photo, you’ll see the road that’s nested beneath the viaduct. They’ve recently got the road resurfaced, thus the very dark grey colour of the fresh tarmac. Although the viaduct will bring untold misery to the owners of the properties adjacent to it, there’s something good that came out of it - motorists will get shielded from elements of the harsh tropical weather, be it the scorching afternoon sun or the raging thunderstorm. My dad’s boss once had a semi-detached house nearby, and the moment he heard the news regarding the construction of the viaduct, he immediately sold his $2.2m properly. I heard recently that the prices have slipped to about $1.5m… oh mans, I feel so sorry for the new owner.

Photo #12 - My heart cringes everytime I see it | Map »
The sign reads: CANCER & RADIOSURGERY CENTRE. My heart cringes everytime I see this building - to many patients whose cancer is in its terminal stages, it means the deathbed. Or it can mean a lot of pain and suffering to those who’re undergoing chemotherapy. Personally, I’ve lost 2 close relative and friend to cancer - one being my cousin (he died at a tender age of 15) and the other being my parents’ best friend. The latter’s battle with breast, bone and lung cancer etched deeply in my memory - she was moaning in great pain when we visited her, and her husband refused to let us meet her after the first few rounds of chemo. It was really heart-breaking that she have to go through all that pain, travelling between home and the hospital wards, being force-fed with numerous pills after every meal. When she left us, we were relieved that she’s finally being released from mortal suffering and pain. I can imagine her playing with the angels, enjoying herself somewhere in heaven, a calm, peaceful, quiant, and picturesque place where all kind souls go.

Photo #13 - Under Construction | Map »
On my way back home, I’ve decided to go nearer to the flyover that is currently still under construction look at how grand it looks, with all the big machines and safety nets. I was initially reluctant to take this photo because that means I’ll have to trespass into a construction plot, plus having at least a dozen of construction workers passing off as curious onlookers. I’m sorry that the sky appears a little too white, I was too embarrassed at that time to find people staring at me and so I quickly pressed the shutter and cycled away.

Photo #14 - Expressway | Map »
I cycled along the expressway on my way back. Known as the New Pantai Expressway (which roughly translates to New Beach Expressway - that’s weird, my township is at least 20km away from the nearest shore), this expressway was originally just a mud road that ends right in front of my neighbourhood, but after so many years of development it has gradually changed into a main throughfare and finally being upgraded into an 8-lane wide expressway in 1998. It is actually a turnpike in foreign terms, because drivers are charged when they use this expressway.

Photo #15 - Turning into my neighbourhood | Map »
The mud road which the expressway was once used to be a decade ago ends here. Things have surely changed a lot over the years! Anyway in case you’re wondering, the pedestrian bridge ahead is the place where I’ve done the Evening Photography set. I rested my camera above the green direction sign to stablilise it for longer exposure shots. If I do take a bus back from Kuala Lumpur after a day of outing in the city centre, I will alight at the busstop on the opposite side of the highway and cross this bridge to get home. One day I’ll just sneak out at night, get on the bridge and snap the magnificent night view! Just wait.

Photo #16 - Huge Advertisement | Map »
They’ve built this huge advertisement board a few years back, and it elicited an extremely negative response from my neighbourhood residents, especially those who live almost directly underneath it. The property owners have problem selling their homes nearby there because the strong light that is emitted from the advertisement board will bounce off the board and get reflected on the homes underneath it. You’ll need a heavy curtain in the bedroom to block the lights out. Lucky I live 3 streets away from it, and so we don’t get affected a lot. Currently they have a Digi (one of the few Malaysian telcom companies) advertisement slapped on it. If you scrutinise carefully, the word LUAS is printed on it, which literally means WIDE in English.

The end!

I hope you like this post! so that’s all for my Saturday biking trip.