sur3wyn.com

Finding a job in Australia

2011-07-20T13:43:00.000+08:00

In my personal experience, I did send out a fair amount of job applications and have had the pleasure to meet professionals whom were interested with my qualifications or whom asked to interview me. However, some have found better candidates and have even said [quote] I was over-qualified for the job [unquote].

Of course there were a ton of employers out there who didn't even bother replying/calling/show any interest to move forward. Not surprisingly this was on the news last night:

A SUDANESE man who has applied unsuccessfully for more than 1000 jobs has resorted to using a fake Anglo name on his resume in a desperate attempt to get work.

Former refugee Agnok Lueth, 23, who fled war-torn Sudan for Melbourne in 2004, created the resume alias "Daniel McClean" because he believed Australian employers were unwilling to give him a fair go under his real name.

Mr Lueth sent out hundreds of resumes for jobs he was qualified for, but only received callbacks on applications with the fake names.

Of the six applications with the fake name, he got five callbacks.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/business-smarts/little-white-lies-agnok-lueth-adopts-daniel-mcclean-on-his-cv-to-try-to-get-a-fair-go/story-e6frfm9r-1226097072346#ixzz1ScZn7uLc

So maybe there is a fair amount of discrimination going on? Fortunately for me, I did not have to change my name (or fake my CV) to get any interviews =)

Crime rate - Australia vs Malaysia

2011-07-07T11:59:00.000+08:00

I'm so happy this blog is helping some people out there... My second 'fan mail' =D

The question:

Hi Sherwyn,

Good to know you. You have one nice useful blog here.I'm planning to apply for a PR and move to Perth from Malaysia (yeah I know, everyone is running out of this country now). I was about to submit my application for WA sponsorship and stumbled upon some articles/websites says the crime rate in WA is quite high compared to other OZ cities and also other part of the world. Some claimed OZ has one of the highest crime rate in the world :-( . Do you have any thoughts on this? I know we have to be careful where ever we are but looks like from what I read the situation is worse than Malaysia. Hope to get you view/opinion on this....

I'm also moving without a job, I'm in IT line. Do you think I can find an IT job easily with a PR and without any OZ experience? I searched through some job portals i.e Seek and saw quite a number of vacancies. But since you are already there, hunting for jobs, sending out resumes, attending interviews, etc etc I'm sure you can explain more based on your experience.

Hope to hear from you soon before I put in my application. Yes, everything is on hold now until I can convince myself....sigh

Take care....

My reply:

thanks for your compliments.

Crime is everywhere and its really unfortunate that we can't escape it. However in comparison of Perth and KL; I really don't feel it as bad here than in KL. I mean I've lived in KL 80% of my life and I have never felt comfortable going into the city or even walking out to the streets outside my house! In Perth, I have no problems, no sinking feeling to be super cautious of every suspicious looking person.

From my experiences here in Perth, the main problems are drunk violence; so I avoid going into the City or don't even bother going out at night... I mean.. it is Perth.. there is really nothing much to do outside after 6pm. Knowing KL, these things happen back home too.. and how much of the actual crime does get reported in KL? I've never trusted any statistics provided as I know a lot of people (Malaysian culture/attitude) that can't be bothered to make police reports - "It's just too much hassle la.." or "Report so what? You think it will make a difference?" and even "Report just waste money only la.. Kopi here. Kopi There."

Quite honestly.. Can you tell me that you are not afraid of the Police in Malaysia? Some say they are the biggest triad in Malaysia...

In Australia; you speed, you get a summon with a nice picture of your car. Sure you have to pay an expensive fine and get some points deducted, but it sure as hell beats being threatened for a Kopi-O. Note here you don't get threatened and the cops are out there doing what they are supposed to be doing (catching bad guys), and that is more than enough for me. I don't know what or how the whole 'Bersih' thing is or will work out, but from what I'm seeing - they are putting up roadblocks to stop what is right than working out what is wrong.

As I know from the local Perth news, a lot of the robberies involve pharmacies (for drugs), brothels (cash ma), and mainly commercial outlets (food, money, etc). However I have friends that experienced a knife point robbery, but that was in Sydney. It could be probable that Sydneys crime rate is higher than Perth or even KL, but please don't quote me on that as I have no experience in any other city in Australia. Heck... I've only been in Perth!!!

I have seen a lot of vacancies for IT (and IS) on Seek and the local newspapers, but I really can't comment much as I'm not applying for IT jobs, I do not know how many years experienced you are, or what the companies are actually looking for. However, I can tell you that Job hunting here is not as easy as in KL. I don't know if its because I do not have Australian work experience or because I do not have a degree that i'm not qualified or because I have a name not everyone knows how to pronounce or I'm not as handsome/pretty as the successful candidate, but I have friends that are IT graduates and they work as McDonalds Supervisors, Casino Dealers, Bank Tellers, etc. So expect to lower the bar a bit as it is really tough to live on a saving divided by 3.2X..

By all means, if you can secure a job for yourself before the big migration, do it. I would also advice that there are higher chances of getting a job in the Eastern states, as they are more commercial based. Also make sure you have everything planned/in order before submitting your application - the application fees are expensive!!

I hope the above is more informative than it looks. Glad to help and thanks for stopping by my blog and taking the time to email me =)

All the best with your application and don't hesitate to email me should you require more assistance.

Best regards,
Sherwyn

It really does seem a lot of Malaysian eyes are starting to open and the migration bandwagon is quite a lifesaver for a few of you... Oh well.. it's either Malaysians WAKE UP or time to WAKE UP Malaysia!!!

Is migrating to Perth a good idea?

2011-07-01T10:09:00.000+08:00

I got my first 'fan mail'.. and a very constructive one as well so I'd like to share it with you other curious peeps out there. =)

The question:

Hi Sherwyn,
I saw your blog on the expat aussie site. I read your blog and found out u r M'sian located in Perth. I am a housewife with 2 girls, n my hub, we are applying for migrating to Perth.
Can I know more about the standard of living, the best suburbs or place to rent a hse/apartment, schools for primary n preschool since my daughter is 6yrs and 3yrs old now. My hub is working as Construction Project Manager in Malaysia. We are taking the risk to migrate there w/o any job. Do u think is easy to find a job for a PR like us?
I hope you can advise me and give me more details about OZ:)
Thanks:)

The answer:

Hi,
I recently moved over here and been job hunting for about a month, but no luck yet. According to my friend it is because now is the end financial year and a lot of companies still do not know the new years budget for hiring new staff. If so then it will be easier to secure a job after July, hopefully...

The standard of living is very high, especially food. Perth is actually one of the highest and most expensive places to live in the world. There are many suburbs around and I'm not too familiar with all, but from what I've understood, don't always go for the cheap or low cost living areas but then you'll have the problem of paying more money for the houses in higher-end areas. The same applies to the schools, the 'better' schools are located in the 'better' suburbs. I would suggest you to invest in a good home. After all it will be a place you would want to call home. Invest time in it as well, as you will want to find out the surroundings, train stations, bus stops, schools, etc.

anyhow, regards to your hubby's job, construction in Malaysia and in Australia is totally different but then again I wouldn't know much about your hubby's experience in the industry. You may try to look for some jobs while you are in Malaysia and start giving it a go. www.seek.com.au is the largest recruitment site, much like Jobstreet.com.my - if you do not mind your hubby being away from home every 2 weeks, there is some serious money working in the mines. He should have good chances to work there assuming he has an engineering degree.

Just a highlight of the standard of living;
- petrol is around AUD$1.30-1.50/ltr
- a new camry/accord is around AUD$40k
- apartments/houses range from AUD$400k to millions
- a regular McDonalds meal is about AUD$8.00

If you look at the above, it is pretty intimidating for a Malaysian (everything x 3.2).. But if you look as an Australian income earner (1:1) cars and petrol is a lot cheaper than earning RM living in Msia (RM1.95/ltr and camry ~ RM150k). Houses and a McDonalds meal is about the same, but don't forget that fast food here is the cheapest choice of an outside meal compared to the mamaks/kopitiams in Malaysia.

As a PR myself, I didn't want to lose out on the benefits that came along with it, especially for my 3+month son... Plus the current political situation in Malaysia is going very unstable, so it is very worrying for the future of my family. Furthermore, it is getting more difficult to maintain/obtain a PR with the increasing number of immigrants in Australia.

I hope I've provided you with enough information and I will encourage a fellow Malaysian to come over seeing that the situation in Malaysia is getting worse on a daily basis. Of course this information is all from my perspective in Perth. If you are not fully committed to Perth, you can choose the other wonderful cities in Australia. I would think Melbourne or Sydney will have higher employment opportunities but I've never been to any of those cities so i'm sorry that i cant help you there.

Sincerely,
Sherwyn

Hope the above helped a little with your curiosity, if not please leave a comment below and i'll add it in =)

I can stalk you

2011-06-16T18:09:00.000+08:00

An interesting video popped up on my facebook and felt the need to share it with all...

So how to setup your smartphone to be stalk free?
Following info from http://icanstalku.com/how.php - all credits go to them :)

How do I disable this?

The easiest way to stop posting this information for all to see it to disable geotagging on your smartphone.

Disabling on your phone

There are many phones out there on the market that geo tag their pictures and as we get more information, we will update the instructions to list more models, however, lets start with two phones: the Apple iPhone and the Palm Pre

iPhone (iOS 4.x)

(Via Charles)

Apple greatly simplified the way to turn off location services on a per-application basis. To see your settings, go to Settings, General, then Location Services. From there you can set which applications can access your GPS coordinates or disable it entirely.

iPhone (iOS 3.x)

With the iOS 3.x there are two ways to disable Geotagging of photos. The first involves disabling of all location based services. To disable this feature, Go to Settings, General then set Location Services to off.

Be warned: This will turn off ALL location based services for ALLapplications. Of course we may actually have need to use location based services for other applications (such as maps and driving directions, or getting robbed via Foursquare), but just not for our pictures.

There is no easy way to disable location based servces for just one application. However, we can make the iPhone prompt us at first use for each application. Once reset, the first time we enter the application we can enable or disable location based services for the application. To do so we need to go to Settings, General, Reset.

Be careful here! We want to select Reset Location Warnings, and then Reset Warnings. This restores all of our Location based warnings for each application to the default, which in most cases is "Ask on first use".

From here, once we enter into the default Camera app on the iPhone, we can select Don't Allow. This will prevent the Camera app from geotagging our photos.

Palm WebOS

Palm has made it fairly easy to disable applications from accessing the GPS without your explicit permission. If you bring up the "Location Services" configuration screen, there should be three options: Auto Locate, Geotag Photos, and Background Data Collection. Ideally, all three should be turned off.

To disable geotagging photos, simply turn the "Geotag Photos" option off. If "Auto Locate" is off, the "Geotag Photos" option will not be displayed as the Pre will not geotag photos with "Auto Locate" off. Once the "Geotag Photos" is turned off, the camera appplication will no longer geo tag photos. As a side note, if "Auto Locate" is off, the Pre will prompt you anytime an application requests your location from the GPS. This allows you to know who's asking to find out where you are.

Google Android (Verizon Droid Phones, this is you! :))

Like the iPhone, there are two ways to turn off geotagging. To completely disable GPS location finding for all applications, we will need to do the following:

Press the Menu Key and then Settings

Then press Location and security

By default, GPS is on. Uncheck it to turn it off

Like disabling the GPS in the iPhone, this will break location based information for all applications, including legitimate uses.

In order to disable for just the camera application, start the Camera app to make sure that you are not saving your location. This is the menu on the left side of the camera application; it slides out from left to right.

Select "Store Location" and make sure it is set to off.

Once this is disabled, the camera app will no longer add geotags to your images.

BlackBerry Devices

There are multiple ways to disable the geo-tags on Blackberry. We details three ways here:

(Via Bug_Bear)

Select Options, Advanced Options, GPS, press Menu key, Select Disable GPS and select Yes to confirm. This will disable all GPS capabilities on the phone.

(Via Bug_Bear)

Select Options, Security, Applications Permissions, menu select Edit on the application (default is Prompt for BB Core), Expand Connections, Change Location (GPS) to "Deny", or you can disable within the application. Most apps i.e. Google Maps, Ubertwitter, etc... will just default everything to "allow" for app perms regardless of app settings chosen during setup.

(Via an anonymous contributor... Thanks!)

Go into picture-taking mode (via HomeScreen, click icon "Camera"), press the Menu button and choose "Options". Set the "Geotagging" setting to be "Disabled". Finally, save the updated settings.

Motivated by disappointment

2011-06-16T00:10:00.000+08:00

The past few ~~days~~ weeks has been quite disappointing. To be constantly reminded of disappointments and digging for that feeling of good hope is very demotivating.

To put words into a picture would be something like this:

Dark, hazy, and a long way to the light. Well, this picture is a more beautiful interpretation of what I'm feeling but nonetheless; I think you get what I'm trying to say.

I try to drive my disappointments and channel it through some form of motivation to get my ball rolling again, and thus i am now motivated by disappointment.

Is it a nice feeling? of course not... but i have to just keep my head up and keep at it...

If you're wondering what i'm disappointed about? there are just so many to list it's disappointing.

Park for Kings - The Largest Inner City Park in the World

2011-06-05T16:07:00.003+08:00

Perth. One of the quietest cities of the world. A great tourist attraction in Perth is Kings Park. Quiet and peaceful, locals enjoy leisurely strolls and/or including their jogging regimes here. For me, I like the view :)

And what else to enjoy the view and capture memories than snapping away :D

For more photos, please click 'Photoblog' page above or add me on flickr :)

Here's the wiki for those interested but lazy to google it :

Kings Park, Western Australia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kings Park
Kings Park is a 4.06-square-kilometre (1,003-acre) park located on the western edge of Perth, Western Australia central business district. The park is a mixture of grassed parkland, botanical gardens and natural bushland on Mount Eliza with two thirds of the grounds conserved as native bushland. With panoramic views of the Swan River and Darling Range, it is home to over 300 native plant varieties and 80 bird species. It overlooks the city as well as Perth Water and Melville Water on the Swan River.

In 1872 it became the first park to be designated for public use in Australia. It is the largest inner city park in the world[1] and the most popular visitor destination in Western Australia, being visited by over five million people each year.[2] The park is larger than New York's Central Park which is 3.41 km².

Besides tourist facilities Kings Park contains the State War Memorial, the Royal Kings Park Tennis club and a reservoir. The streets are tree lined with individual plaques dedicated by family members to Western Australian service men and women who died in World War I and World War II.

During September of each year Kings Park hosts Australia's largest wildflower show and exhibition - the Kings Park Festival.

Twin babies having a conversation

2011-05-31T22:09:00.000+08:00

Twins are really amazing, check this out:

Now check out the translated version:

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH

The Beatles Unplugged @ Rootz

2011-05-14T18:01:00.001+08:00

It's happening tonight!!! Tonight!!!

Project FLiP (For Love in People) is hosting The Beatles Unplugged tonight (Sat 14/5/2011) at Rootz KL!

Project FLiP is an organisation dedicated to raising charity for natural disasters by bring the people together - and what better way than to have a battle of the bands type rock concert :)

The event will comprise of local Malaysian bands performing their renditions of Beatles songs as well as playing their best hits. Headliners for the night Bittersweet and Rezza Salleh as well as recent ‘Talent Experiment’ winners Mama Sons, formerly known as Project Lol-e, Ask me Again, Darren Ashley Band and Decimal will be gracing this event.

Tickets will be RM 20 per entry and RM 250 per table.

All proceeds and profit made from this event will be donated to the Japanese Relief Fund through Red Crescent Malaysia.

To ensure complete transparency, the budget and overall profit will be placed on the blog at http://www.forloveinpeople.blogspot.com Information about previous events can also be found there.

In the end the love you take is equal to the love you make and we get by with a little help from our friends. So come along down to Rootz KL, support a good cause and join us for a night that promises to be full of good music, great performances and excellent entertainment.

Tickets and table bookings will be available by contacting Ashleigh Ow at 016 – 272 – 6313 or Ernest Khaw – 010 – 226 - 1616.

Alternatively, you can visit http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=109562172461678 for more information and updates.

How to delete all hidden files on Mac OSX

2011-04-29T16:33:00.001+08:00

If you own a Mac, you'll probably know (or not) that it leaves all these hidden files all over your hard disk.

mostly named ._filename or .DS_Store or .Trashes

It's not so much of a bother on the Mac, but if you have an external HDD occasionally visiting both your Mac and your Windows (and your 'Show hidden files/folders' option is checked) - you'll most likely see all these hidden files which are duplicates of your filenames!

It can be a real bother selecting and deleting these files in every folder... but check this out... on a Winmachine, you can create a 'bat' file to automatically delete all these AUTOMATICALLY!!!

By the way, this method is totally FREE... there are apps selling for USD13.95 upto USD550/-, but of course there is a catch... This free method can only be done on a Windows machine.. Not sure whether it'll work on a virtual Winmachine though.. (if anyone succeeds please let me know :))

Disclaimer: I did not write this script. All credits go to http://www.ardamis.com/2010/08/10/clean-up-those-mac-osx-hidden-files/ :)

How? (Important: this can only be done via Windows.)

Copy the below, paste it into a notepad, save as whatevernameyoulike.bat, put into the HDD's drive (ie E:\ or whateverletter your drive is), double click and watch it clean the mess!!!

del /s /a:h ._*
:: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_fork
del /s /a:h .DS_Store
:: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.DS_Store
del /s /a:h .Trashes
:: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycle_bin_(computing)
@pause

Is it safe to delete these files?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer:

What is ._whateverfilename? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_fork

What is .DS_Store? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.DS_Store

What is .Trashes? - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recycle_bin_(computing)

I managed to recover about 1-2GB of space on my HDD by doing this... You're most welcome :D

My 25th Birthday

2011-04-15T05:01:00.000+08:00

My birthday was a ~~few weeks back~~ month plus, and this is way overdue. But oh well, this is about me... so it's probably not that interesting anyway =P

I recently turned twenty five. I didn't think much of it other than it's just another birthday, another year passing, another year older... but after finding out from one of my best buds that he'd actually set a whole to-do list to be checked off when he's 25, it's cause it marks 1/4 of a century (or 25/100 years old)!!!

Anywho-how... I had a very nice chillaxing time with my loved ones. Accompanied with bodacious-delicious food and fine alcohol; it was indeed an enjoyable night.

Now the bombard of photos:

Thanks to everyone who made my day that extra special by spending it with me and putting an effort to give me a tweet or a fb wall post. :D

Am I a blogger?

2011-04-14T01:02:00.000+08:00

This site is undergoing revampation. Ok. It's done.

Well, not entirely. Part of the 'revampation' is gonna be the stuff I blog about too. I think it's about time I started to act a little bit more as a blogger, and actually blog.

Since my blog is fairly new and has already lost its fair share of 'glory days', I think I'm starting to understand what blogging is about. One of the most important and key things that i've learnt about blogging in the past few months of just starting a blog:

Lesson 1 - Who cares if I don't get as many readers cause their just not interested in the stuff I blog about. It's MY blog. :)

So am I a blogger?

Most likely. I do have a blog after all.

Are we alone?

2011-04-12T15:12:00.001+08:00

Don't know if this video will still be around soon or whether my blog will shut down and you'll probably never hear of me again... but it's just all worth sharing it.. Watch till the ending about an escapee from 'Area51' - He'll explain what Aliens are...

uBuy, iBuy, WeBuy!

2011-04-11T00:59:00.001+08:00

Like how viral videos and tsunami news gets so quickly around my Facebook, I will also see how many of my friends liking Facebook ‘Pages’. There was one in particular that got my attention seeing a mass of my friends ‘liking’; it was like I was missing out on a party!

Upon clicking the page, I thought to myself, ‘oh great. Another one of those online shopping sites.’ Further inspection led me to discover how wrong I was... which is rather rare.

This was a unique online shopping site. One of a kind. Why? Because when you shop there, you’re not shopping alone. When you buy there, you’re not buying alone. It’s a community shopping center! The more of your friends join (strangers work too), the more benefits go to YOU THE SHOPPER! What’s more is that they are giving out RM203,000.00!!!

How can you be a part of it?
Start by liking this page >>>> https://www.facebook.com/webuynow
Liking the page will give you immediate updates on your Facebook of awesome deals that you’ll regret missing out on. For example, I missed out on getting a 16GB iPad for RM0.00. F.R.E.E. FREE!!! FREE!!!!! =(

What else have I (and you) missed out on? Here’s a whole list to feel really bad so you don’t have to think twice about liking their FBPage and Following them on Twitter: http://www.webuy.com.my/V1/past_deals.php

Ready to register and join the community? Click here and help me earn RM5 on WeBuy! http://www.webuy.com.my/V1/register.php?memberid=3353

Be a winner and grab part of the RM203,000.00!!! How? Simple, just click above to register and click BUY (doesn't cost you a thing) and once the deal reaches 500 BUYs, the deal will be activated and everyone gets RM3. If the deal hits the next 500, the prize will be upgraded to RM5 for everyone. The more WEBUYers, the higher the prize money!

This campaign has reached the first target of 500 BUYs (They have 861 BUY now) Lets all make sure that it reaches the ultimate goal which is 10k buys so that everyone gets their share of RM20.

WeBUY also has 2 side deals running concurrently with their Community Sharing BUY. Both are really nice food places called Ah Tuan Ee and Cubes.

So lets not wait any longer, head to their site to check it out and not miss out on the deals! http://www.webuy.com.my/V1/register.php?memberid=3353

Free Photography Software

2011-04-05T13:28:00.001+08:00

Couple of months ago I wrote a post on blueMarine, turns out it was just a waste of time.

While still searching around for freewares capable of doing some light photo-editing work on my windows laptop led me to a few good softwares.

In particular, Photoscape and FastStone. They both load fast and actually pack quite a punch in terms of processing performance. I really enjoy the small package they come in; Photoscape (17MB) and FastStone (6MB) - Installation is snappy too =)

Both are capable of viewing and editing RAW files in batch =)

Photoscape

FastStone

I'm not very sure which I prefer for now, as they both have their own unique user-interface.

For example, Photoscape allows me to view the selected photo whilst the editing toolbar is just under the photo. The editing toolbar consists of 'buttons' with a 3-choice menu (High, Medium, Low). This doesn't really portray the full control you get of editing a photo; but the 'auto' functions are pretty good.

FastStone has a very friendly thumbnail selector, but a itty bitty preview screen on the bottom left - however, double clicking the thumbnail gives you a full-screen editing page. I really enjoy having the full-screen editing page and the scrolling adjuster, which gives you a lil more control editing the details in the photo.

Having said all that, I would say that Photoscape is a lazy-persons program with a decent Auto-Adjusting feature and FastStone is when you really want to make the best out of every snap.

Registering your newborn baby

2011-03-29T17:00:00.000+08:00

Just thought I would like to share some information in regards to registering your newborn baby (since I am in the midst of it) :D

Assuming that you've already given birth at the hospital, the nurses would most likely have discharged you and your newborn baby with a couple of documents - In my case, I was given 2 forms; both containing the doctors signature and his chop/stamp.

One of the forms was issued by the hospital and the other a 'Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara Malaysia' (JPN) form.

The latter looked more official, but we were warned that both are equally important. If I were to misplace or loose it, I would require to make a police report before obtaining another copy from the hospital. Basically: DO NOT LOOSE IT.

Other than that, you would need:

To register your child within 14days of birth at the Birth and Death Registration office.
Bring along both parents' identity cards (I/C) [originals and photocopies].
Marriage certificate [original and photocopy].
Antenatal appointment card [original and photocopy].
*Foreigners only - passports [original and photocopies].

The JPN offices are open Monday to Friday 0800 to 1700. It is closed during weekends, public holidays, and lunch hours (1215 - 1445).

Additional note: Good news to the new mothers - You need not be present nor your child (stay in confinement), the man of the household would be more than sufficient to endure this task alone =)

*The above procedures are only applicable in Malaysia and many thanks to Sunway Medical Centre for the helpful information of registration procedures =)

Here are a list of JPN Birth Registration offices:

Superman is Indian

2011-03-24T14:52:00.000+08:00

ROFL!!!!

He does make some good points!! hahahahah...

Strolling Desa Parkcity

2011-03-14T12:50:00.000+08:00

Imagine being stuck in an office all day ~~filled stress~~ (or even on a boring work day). Breathing all that air-conditioned 'fake oxygen', sitting on your butt feeling all tired out. It has been scientifically proven that taking a 30-minute walk has health benefits in the long term =)

Just looking at it makes me tired.

That's right... you don't have to go marathon jogging/running and fill your shirt with sweat, looking like you just came out of a swimming pool... just take a nice 30 minute walk!

Once in a while wifey and I take a leisurely night stroll around Desa Parkcity's park (or lake). It's safe, clean, and its strangely satisfying as during our stroll we get an unknown scent of FRESH AIR!!!

We enjoy the scenic walk, as we see happy children climbing around like monkeys in the playground, lots of green grass, calm trees, the lake with its many fishes and turtles, couples dating slurping ice-cream cones, dogs enjoying their walk, joggers, bicyclists, and the list just goes on and on...

The breeding pond... for fishes only.

Desa Parkcity Lake

On our strolls, we usually bring some bread for fish feeding. It makes it feel like this lake is my koi pond I've always wanted =P

Although it's very dark, we can see a variety of fishes. Sometimes we will even get to see arowanas!!!

The fishes are very hungry and they gobble up the food really fast, so its more enjoyable to feed them!

Feeding Spot

Beemers favorite part of the walk

Beemer is also very fond of coming along on our strolls. He enjoys the walk as much as we do! He gets to meet and sniff other dogs butts during our walks as this is one popular dog friendly parks! :D

If you do bring your pet, please clean up after them as i'm sure everyone would like this place to remain dog friendly =)

So if you ever feel like coming over for a nightly stroll, just remember - don't come during the weekends! unless you enjoy crowded walkways and such =)

Extreme Super Moon & Tsunami

2011-03-11T19:35:00.000+08:00

As if you haven't already known about today's biggest news - The Japanese earthquake causing a Tsunami destroying most of Japans coastlines, and soon other countries.

So what is the meaning of all of this? Global warming? Stop cutting trees down? Stop littering? Recycle more?

Well of course we should keep all the above in mind and do our part to reduce global warming, as it could be a part in all of this disasters.

Well, trying to understand more about the Tsunami on YouTube - I actually came across some other videos explaining about the "Extreme Super moon". Videos posted 3 days ago (08/3/2011), stating that this extreme super moon on the 19/3/2011 will be causing earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, etc...

What exactly is a "Super Moon"?
The term refers to the unusually large new (or full) moon that earthlings see when the moon travels almost as close as it can to Earth. An "extreme Super Moon" occurs when the moon reaches its absolute closest point. On March 19, the moon will be only 221,556 miles away — the first extreme Super Moon in nearly 20 years.

Basically: A HUGE MOON!!!

So is this all abit too coincidental? Conspiracy theories? Maybe.

But if you read this article; studies has shown a co-relation to the extreme super moon and extreme weather conditions:

Wednesday, March 9, 2011 10:20 PM
Truth About 'Supermoon': Will Quakes, Extreme Weather Hit Earth On March 19?
By IB Times Staff Reporter
Will there be chaos, a flurry of natural disasters and extreme weather on March 19 when the moon will come close to Earth? The full moon at lunar perigee, the closest approach during its orbit, can wreak havoc on Earth, according to astrologers. But the scientific community doesn't see reason for hiding under the table and stocking up supplies though it doesn’t rubbish the impact of the phenomenon altogether.
There are reports that the instances of perigee moon, termed by one astrologer as 'super moon', has triggered natural disasters before. Though there is no way to predict the course of events on March 19, what you will see for certain is a bigger moon on that day, which will light up the night sky from just 221,567 miles away.
Astrologer Richard Nolle says disasters like huge storms, earthquakes and volcanoes could strike earth on March 19 as a closer moon will exert more gravitational pull on earth.
Will there be greater seismic and volcanic activity on March 19, when the full moon will be very close to Earth?
"The question is not actually so crazy. In fact scientists have studied related scenarios for decades. Even under normal conditions, the moon is close enough to Earth to make its weighty presence felt: It causes the ebb and flow of the ocean tides," Space.com said in an article.
But the article quotes scientists as saying the impact of the lunar perigee will not assume disastrous proportions. "A lot of studies have been done on this kind of thing by USGS scientists
and others... They haven't found anything significant at all," John Bellini, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey, told the site.
But several websites are saying that historical evidence shows there is the likelihood of untoward weather events allied with the lunar perigee.
"Get ready for what could be moderate to severe weather patterns, increased seismic activity, tsunamis and more volcanic eruptions than normal," says website psychiccosmos.com.
This site also says extreme weather conditions have occurred during past instances of the supermoon phenomenon. According to it Hurricane Katrina, which happened in 2005, was the result of the supermoon phenomenon. The super moon occurred in 1955, 1974 and 1992, accompanied by extreme weather conditions.
Also, the earthquake in Indonesia which had a magnitude of 9.0 happened due to the super moon, the report says.
"This March may prove to be one of the worst months for severe weather and seismic activity yet this year," according to the site.
However, there is also the argument that every perigee moon in history hasn't caused natural disasters.
"The bottom line is, the upcoming supermoon won't cause a preponderance of earthquakes, although the idea isn't a crazy one," according to space.com.

Sourced: http://www.ibtimes.com/art/services/print.php?articleid=120915

What do you think? Should we hide indoors in fear of crazy weather or embrace the phenomenon and enjoy the biggest moon you'll ever see for the next 20years?

Kuala Lumpur Bird Park - Worlds Largest Free Flight Walk-In Aviary

2011-02-19T01:11:00.000+08:00

Did you know that the KL Bird Park is the Largest Free Flight Walk-In Aviary in the World!!! NO, that doesn't mean it's free... as queried the ticket booth. XD [It's RM20/pax with a Malaysian 'MyKad']

It was one of those days where randomness just happens. Even it was a day before Valentines Day, it was 100% random. It turned out to be a very fun outing with the missus. =]

Before I go on posting some photos of the trip, here are some tips i'd like to share (should you plan to visit):

Bring a hat/cap/umbrella - You wouldn't want to have 'post-processed' papaya/apple/fruits/seeds dropping on your head. However, I've also heard a Chinese saying that it's good luck to get bird droppings on your head; kinda like, "what are the odds of you striking a lottery and the difference of getting pooped on the head?" But hey, it's your risk... you've been warned !!!
Bring lots of water - Being it such a random trip, we weren't prepared. It was a nice sunny day; thus it was hot. No surprise there, being in Malaysia. Therefore we had to find out the hard way, that a bottle of 500ml H2o cost's RM4.00/- (USD$1.33). Absolutely RIDICULOUS !!!
Go early - We missed out on ~~most~~ all of the bird feeding schedules because we went in around 3pm. The good times start as early as 10.30am and you'll get to watch them feed a different species of bird every hour till 2.30pm.

OK!!! Picture time!!!

Baby Love Birds. They like to stick together :D

Baby Toucan was roaming around cageless! :D

Chicks!!! Real Chicks!!! =P

Flamin-Go!

Stork-king, not stalking.

We were lucky to see 'Opened' Peacocks, yet alone get a nice shot of it :D

Mr. Peacock posing for the camera ;)

Polly wants a cracker... or a piece of the cage...

This bird's enjoying the view.

The biggest love birds :D

There are a bunch more photos that you can check out on my FB album.

Have you been to the KL Bird Park?

What is a CPL Filter?

2011-02-19T00:15:00.000+08:00

This video really helped me understand more about the Circular Polarizer (CPL) Lens Filter for my DLSR. I finally understand why I can turn the filter round and round and round and round and rou...

Watch it:

Hoped that helped you as much as it helped me =]

Canon 600D (Rebel T3i)

2011-02-08T11:44:00.000+08:00

Not too long ago when I was ~~camera~~ DLSR hunting... Almost every camera shop that I entered has, at least 3-5 customers, asking for 'best price' for the Canon 550D...

I did ended up not buying a Canon DSLR, but you can read more about it here.

So for those who have just bought the Canon 550D for 'best price', I really do feel your pain. It's become something like a Mitsubishi Evo - Every year there's a new one!!! =P

Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you the Canon 600D:

What's new?

New Kit Lens: It's still a 18 - 55mm... I don't really know whats so 'new' about it... =\

And the major big change I see many will be whiny about...

Articulated Screen

Well.. I'm sure there are lots more changes.. To read more in detail check out the full Hands On Preview (by dpreview.com)

I want my money now, b*tch

2011-01-28T13:13:00.001+08:00

LOL

blueMarine - Free Pro Photography Software

2011-01-20T12:30:00.003+08:00

Since I've taken a few photos from my newly acquired D90, it's about time to upload onto the PC, do some lite editing, then posting it up on my Facebook.

I've heard many photographers using either Apples APERTURE or Adobes LIGHTROOM. But as a noob photographer, or even just a hobbyist that enjoys taking photos - would you spend USD$79.99 or USD$299, respectively?

Furthermore, Aperture is only MAC friendly. So if you have a Windows, you're only limited to Lightroom. If you're on Linux, then I guess you are with nothing =P

I found a possible best solution - a FREE opensource program that runs on all platforms! Some reviews have claimed this to be as powerful as the professional Aperture & Lightroom, but some of course has said that you shouldn't complain much since it is free...

It's called blueMarine and can be found at http://bluemarine.tidalwave.it/

I'm currently downloading it and going to test it out. You should give it a try too and leave your comments here =)

UPDATE: There is a reason why nobody uses blueMarine. It didn't work for me. I ended up getting the Lightroom for my Mac *wink wink*.

Update >> Click here for my review on some other photography freeware << Update

Like OMG Baby

2011-01-14T20:12:00.002+08:00

If you remember this post: Don't Stop The Pop

I personally think the 2009 was way much better than the 2010 mash up. But then I watched this and this is more worthy of a 2010 title, IMHO =]

This is LIKE OMG BABY!!! hehe... What say you?

#tanyanajib answers

2011-01-14T15:30:00.001+08:00

Here are the questions: #tanyanajib

And here are the answers by the man himself...