IHSAN KHAIRIR

United Buddy Bears - The American Bear

2012-01-29T15:58:00.000+08:00

The American Bear is quite straightforward - the bear was painted and designed to look like the Statue of Liberty.

The artist that worked on the American bear was Bill C. Ray, an Alaskan painter who is based in his own studio in Berlin, Germany.

It's quite easy to associate the bear with the Statue of Liberty because the artist did such a good job at making sure the important elements are there.

The bear has irisless eyes and wears a diadem just like the Statue of Liberty, with spokes emanating out to represent rays of light. The difference is that the spokes are more rounded to make the bear look less menacing (in my opinion), and also there are six spokes instead of the seven on the Statue of Liberty. I have no idea why there is a missing spoke, it was probably an oversight by the artist, or maybe it was intentionally done. I am not quite sure.

The bear also holds a torch on its right hand, but since its left hand is also raised, it does not hold a tabula ansata (tablet) like the original Statue of Liberty.

United Buddy Bears exhibition will continue until the middle of February at Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, so be sure to check these bears out if you haven't. Next post I will feature another bear representing another country so stay tuned!

For the first post in the United Buddy Bears series, go here: United Buddy Bears - The Malaysian Bear

2012 Birthday Wishlist

2012-01-25T21:46:00.000+08:00

January is almost leaving us and February looms. The upcoming Valentine's Day starts to pick people's pockets as couples set aside some finances for surprising and delighting their beloved significant others. For the singles or foreveralones, Singles Awareness Day (SAD) will be a chance for them to get together with other single people to celebrate and cherish their freedom (singledom).

February is also the month of my oft-forgotten birthday, because it falls in the middle of February, it is always overshadowed by VD or SAD, and so people usually don't realize I've grown a year older. Hence I usually receive VD treats more than birthday treats over the years, except from my family, who never forgets my birthday of course, and who always would treat me to a cake and birthday presents.

Anyways, I was told to make a birthday wish list, and so here it is, my birthday wish list for 2012, my final year as a twenty-something guy. Included with the list are related pictures and approximated costs should you actually want to save up or pool some money to get me the stuff...

1. Circular polarizer filter (CPL) 52mm (200-400 bucks)

photo from fadbus.com

photo from photography.ca

2. Square filters and holder with adapter rings (about 100-150 bucks for the set)

photo from shotaddict.com

3. Tamron SP AF 90mm Di for Nikon (about 1000 bucks secondhand, 2000 bucks new)

photo from dpreview.com

4. 1 TB external hard drive (about 350-450 bucks)

photo from hhgregg.com

5. Nikon Speedlight SB-700 (about 750 bucks secondhand, 1000 bucks new)

photo from dpreview.com

6. Portable folding reflectors - white and silver (about 100 - 300 bucks depending on quality and brand)

photo from supremefactory.com

7. 8 GB or larger SD card for DSLR (100 bucks and beyond, depending on size and speed)

photo from ist-emanics.org

8. DEMB flash diffuser (150 - 200 bucks, depending on size)

photo from laymansreviews.com

9. Malaysian national team football jersey (Yellow-black, price depends whether original or ciplak)

photo from various-jersey-wholesale.com

10. A basketball jersey (dark blue, purple, black or yellow with no.2 and my name IHSAN, price depends)

photo from mden.com

But seriously, I don't mind not getting many presents --- your sincere good thoughts and wishes are always enough to make my any day (birthday or not) brighter and better.

But I don't mind presents though. No, really.

Now start saving up your munny. You have three weeks.

United Buddy Bears in Kuala Lumpur

2012-01-19T18:22:00.001+08:00

Last December I took the opportunity of the month-long break I had from work to do some bit of photography. A Sri KDU student, Zoey informed me that "the buddy bears are at the Pavilion" so I headed over there in the heart of Kuala Lumpur to see what sort of thing the buddy bears are.

So I drove my car and parked at one of those shady unofficial parking spots a few blocks away from the Pavilion, since parking at the Pavilion and any of the surrounding areas in Bukit Bintang is either almost impossible or expensive. Walked my way to Pavilion whilst praising myself for the parking decision I made earlier, the traffic jam going to and leaving from Pavilion was a total nightmare. As I neared the place, I immediately saw them --- the Buddy Bears.

More than a hundred of these colorful bears were lined up on the pedestrian sidewalks and the plaza in front of Pavilion. The bears are part of an exhibition called the United Buddy Bears and they'll be staying in Kuala Lumpur for about two months or so.

For most of the exhibition, the bears are meant to represent a country and each of the bear was painted and decorated by an artist from the country it represents. The motifs and decorations on the bear tell you a bit about the country and the culture it represents. I naturally looked around for the Malaysian buddy bear and thankfully the organizers had arranged the bears in alphabetical order according to the official UN listing of the name of country, so finding the Malaysian bear wasn't as hard as performing an ant swarm optimization algorithm to pinpoint the location of the said bear.

Anyways, I took lots of photos of the bears representing many countries, but for the purpose of this post, let's start with the Malaysian bear.

The Malaysian Bear was painted by Mr. Abdul Rahim Muda, the Malaysian artist most commonly known as Imuda. He was famous for his comic strips in Malaysian newspapers since the 1980's until now and for some time acted in some popular Malay comedy sitcoms in the 1990's.

I took the chance to explore the details of Imuda's way of expressing Malaysia through his artwork on the Malaysian bear. And of course, front and center, the image of Malaysia being multicultural is prominently displayed on the belly of the bear.

Cultures / Race represented: Sikh, Sarawakian (represented by the hornbill), Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Sabahan (represented by the orangutan)

Each major race is shown wearing their respective traditional attire, and the bear itself is wearing a Baju Melayu --- either to express that the Malays are the main race of the country, or that because Imuda the artist that worked on the bear is Malay. Either way, it is not immediately evident because that particular detail is not as prominently presented as other ideas in the artwork.

On the left elbow of the bear is a Malaysian traditional kite, the Wau Bulan. This particular type of kite is meant to represent the traditional pastime of the Malays, especially those from the East Coast where the weather can be particularly windy. The Wau Bulan is one of the iconic representatives of Malaysia and is used extensively in many things, such as currency (the Malaysian 50 sen coin and RM 1 banknote) and corporate logos (Malaysia Airlines).

Closer to the um, crotch of the bear is the rafflesia flower, known as the largest single flower on the planet. It is commonly found in East Malaysia, especially Sabah. East Malaysia, situated on north of Borneo island, though separated from most of the mainland states by the South China Sea, is a very important part of the Malaysian multicultural identity, and is famous for numerous tourist and ecotourism attractions.

The underarm (armpit, really) of the bear shows the Malaysian national flower - the Bunga Raya or hibiscus. It is shown here as a motif on a batik cloth, a traditional type of cloth and art motif common to the Southeast Asian region, used extensively in modern and traditional clothes.

The face of the bear is in my opinion a way to show the identity of the artist, as he normally draws his cartoon characters with big round shiny eyes, glowing cheeks and a big smile.

The United Buddy Bears will continue to be in Kuala Lumpur until 15 February, so if you haven't seen them yet, do take the time to check them out. There are more than just country bears, some bears have special dedications on them and some have great messages as well. Don't miss this opportunity to learn more about the world and about the message of tolerance across different cultures and faiths! Check out www.ubb-kualalumpur.org for more details about the exhibition.

Next I shall feature another bear representing another country, so be sure to stay tuned!

Al-Fatihah : Allahyarham Atok Yah

2012-01-12T19:46:00.000+08:00

A few days ago, my beloved grandmother passed away after a long battle with numerous age-related diseases.

The last photo I took of her, about a week before her death

My mom told me that when I was a baby, I was taken care of by my grandmother for a few months because mom was still a university student in Australia and she needed to focus on her studies and final exams. My dad was just starting to work as an engineer in Seremban, so I was sent to Muar to live with my grandparents for a few months until mom graduates and returns to Malaysia.

I was told that I was not an easy baby to take care of and that I cried all the time. Plus my grandma had to take care of my aunt who was a 2 year-old toddler at that time so she had her hands full not just for my aunt but for my constant needs as well.

When I heard that she was admitted to the ICU, I raced to the hospital immediately after work but by the time I got there, she was almost gone. I was too late. She would never regain consciousness after that.

I wish I had the courage to say what I wanted to say to her then. But I didn't and I couldn't. So let me do it here instead.

Dear Atok Yah,

I would like to thank you for all the love, care and guidance you have given me over the years while I was a baby, a toddler, a kid, a teenager, and a grown up. I have not been the best grandson to you and I'm sure that in the crowd of almost 60 grandchildren you have, I have not been one to have given much to you. I'm sorry for all the trouble, grief and sorrow I may have caused you from the day I was born till the day you left us.

The night you went away, I stood next to your hospital bed and saw you lying there unconscious. I could see that your breathing were artificially induced by the life support machine. I held your hand and it was totally cold. Your fingers were blue. At that point I whispered to your ear, trying to tell you that I was there, but I wasn't sure you were able to hear me.

Kim said you were medically gone, that there was no way you can be revived anymore, and what was little evidence of life left in you were caused by the life support system you were hooked into. At that point, I knew that there is no chance I could ever hear you say my name again, which was the last thing I heard you say when you were alive a little more than 10 days ago.

They had to pull out the plug and you half an hour later left us forever. You left in the company of your children, they silently watched as you went peacefully and the ECG pulse slowly dampened to a flatline.

I remember helping to carry the coffin that bears you, it was so light to the point I felt guilty for not suffering the weight of helping to lift you to the vehicle that was to carry you to the cemetery.

I remember the gravediggers opening your coffin so that everyone can see your face for one last time before they lower you into the ground.

I remember seeing how peaceful you looked, that your face looked like it was smiling in that coffin, and I immediately turned away so that memory of the last time I saw you will forever be immortalized. So that in the end, the smiling face of my beloved grandmother who had been through so much would be my last visual memory I have of you.

Goodbye Atok Yah. May Allah bless you in the hereafter. Till we meet again, inshaAllah.

Your grandson,
-Ihsan-
12 January 2011

I would like to thank everyone for your kind thoughts, well-wishes and prayers when my grandmother was ill and after she passed away.

2012 Aspirations

2012-01-01T00:22:00.000+08:00

To explore greater opportunities for self development and a fulfilling career.

To continue pursuing my master's degree in applied mathematics or any other relevant field.

To experience new things, meet new people, make new connections.

To be more physically active and to eat healthier.

To end my single life.

To be a better person to people I care most.

To do more photographic exploration and expand and develop my creative side.

To relearn Japanese.

To be more honest to myself and others.

To be more appreciative of others.

To have more courage in facing confrontations rather than just avoid them entirely like I always have done.

To have a wonderful 2012.

May you all have a blessed year ahead. Happy New Year!

Sincere Farewell Embrace [Wordless Wednesday]

2011-12-28T12:15:00.000+08:00

Two highschool prefects having a farewell hug at the end of a farewell dinner for leaving highschool seniors.

Long Jump [Mellow Yellow Monday]

2011-12-26T10:52:00.000+08:00

One of my students doing the long jump during my school's Pre-Sports Day events. This guy, Vincent, is a basketballer, so he naturally gets a lot of airtime in his jumps. Some of my other students who saw this picture joked that Vincent cheated by riding on an invisible magic flying chair to make the distance. *Laughs*

For more Mellow Yellow Mondays, or to participate, click here.

[Eat-Out] Smoked Salmon Sub with Salad and Fries

2011-12-23T14:49:00.000+08:00

I almost always order the smoked salmon sub whenever I eat out at Fullhouse Giza.

Or the smoked salmon salad.

Basically anything with salmon in it would whet my appetite like Slimer with a mountain of burgers.

Oh, and if you know who Slimer is, high five! You were an 80's kid like me :)

[Photo] Arsenal for Shooting Greyson Chance

2011-12-23T11:10:00.000+08:00

Part of the set of cameras we used last month to shoot Greyson Chance.

Photo above taken on my smartphone Samsung Galaxy Mini and edited using Adobe Photoshop Express.

[Mellow Yellow Monday] Feeding Monkeys

2011-12-19T13:21:00.000+08:00

I remember taking the picture above as my dad fed the swamp macaques with groundnuts bought from a roadside stalls.

The macaques of Tanjung Ketapang live in the trees of the mangrove swamp forests, but they regularly get their food from either visitors (who feed them with fruit and/or nuts) or raiding nearby food stalls at night.

Click here for more Mellow Yellow Monday or to participate.

[Wordless Wednesday] Insects In Sex

2011-12-14T13:58:00.000+08:00

For this week's Wordless Wednesday, I'm sharing with you some of my photos of insects copulating.

All photos captured by me, ihsankhairir.

[Blog Stats] This is why my blog has to be in English

2011-12-12T11:55:00.002+08:00

The following pie chart and table shows the percentages of visitors to this blog for the last 30 days according to country.

You can see that more that two-thirds of the visitors are from English-speaking countries, so it's only rational that I keep writing and updating in English and not in my mother tongue, Malay.

But sometimes I do feel like I need to start writing in Malay too. I guess I need to create a separate blog, where the posts will be in Malay, for that. What do you think?

[Shared] Complex Relationship, or Imaginary?

2011-12-09T18:20:00.000+08:00

via 9gag

Discovered the above picture on 9gag and I just have to say something here.

Actually, it should be 'imaginary' instead of 'complex'. For it to be 'complex', there must be both the real part and the imaginary part, expressed in conjugate pairs. Regarding the above picture, squarerooting negative one will result in i, the imaginary number, which by itself is not yet a complex quantity.

[Eat-out] The Steamboat Ketam Village

2011-12-02T17:37:00.000+08:00

Last night my cousin Liza treated my sisters and I to a steamboat dinner at The Steamboat Ketam Village in IPC Mutiara Damansara.

I ordered the sliced fish set with tom yam soup and iced carrot milk as my drink.

Since I had been eating so much earlier that day, I decided to just have veggies and seafood for the night. I even let my sister have the noodles so I could skimp on the carbs.

Gosh, I can't remember what fish these are, but they're really good. The first few slices were just dumped into the boiling tom yam broth and eaten well-cooked. My sister suggested I have them shabushabu style where I let each slice be lightly simmered in the boiling soup. The end result is a well-cooked outside and a fresh sashimi-like texture inside, which was a more delightful taste. I will definitely be having my fish slices this way for my next steamboat dinner.

As an a la carte add-on I had the Pacific clams which costs an additional 14 bucks. These were really tasty, although they're a bit chewy and tough despite having been boiled in the broth for more than 15 minutes. I didn't mind the chewy texture though.

Overall the service was quick and food was great. The tom yam broth is quite spicy so if you can't stand spiciness I suggest you just order the plain broth. Each table is set for 4 people so it is advisable that you go in fours so that everyone gets to use their own hotplate.

Around dinnertime the place is quite packed despite even during weeknights so you should either come early or make booking arrangements to avoid the long wait.

To my generous cousin Liza, a thousand thanks for treating us to such an awesome dinner! I will return the favor if I get my bonus next month. A big capital IF! :)

[Wordless Wednesday] Double Piggyback Ride

2011-11-30T18:20:00.000+08:00

Cast members of the high school musical 'Alyss from Wonderland' having a bit of fun during rehearsal break

[Photo] Jungle Cockroach

2011-11-29T15:27:00.002+08:00

A few weeks ago I joined about 60 or so pre-college students for a hike up a mountain, which presented me with ample opportunity to capture images of wild jungle insects.

One of which, is a jungle cockroach.

EXIF: 1/200s, f/22, 35mm with a macro converter, ISO 800, on camera flash with wide diffuser

I hope anyone with expert taxonomical and entomological knowledge can help me identify what species this is so I can properly label and tag the photo.

From the basic anatomy of the bug I can definitely say it is some kind of a cockroach, with different color markings and shades as compared to the urban counterpart.

Like the common cockroach it also has long antennae but somewhere along the antennae there's a band of white marking, as you can see in the photo above. The legs are spiky / thorny like the cockroaches we commonly see.

I shall share other jungle shots I managed to capture in my future posts.

[Shared] XKCD: Set Theory

2011-11-26T13:15:00.001+08:00

I have a confession. I do this sometimes, in my math classes.

source: xkcd

I sometimes tend to explain simple mathematical concepts using math jargons that most students don't really understand.

When in reality they can all be explained using simple layman terms.

I sometimes wonder, why do I do this?

Probably to impress. Or probably to prove my credentials as a math teacher.

But I do hope I don't come across as snobbish or anything. Especially to my students.

My dear students, I sincerely apologize.

Greyson Chance in Sri KDU

2011-11-25T10:00:00.004+08:00

Greyson Chance, originally uploaded by ihsankhairir.

One of the many opportunities I had while working at a premium private school is the chance to shoot celebrities, some local, some international.

The latest one being Greyson Chance, the 14-year old international superstar whose list of fans currently consist of mostly teenage girls and moms.

More pictures when you click 'read more' below.

I was so glad to be given the chance to really come up close to the celebrity, taking photos that few other members of the school could.

Greyson Chance signing a fan merchandise in the function room

Greyson strikes me as a friendly and personable fella, always willing to accomodate fans whenever they ask him to sign something or take a picture with them. The problem is that he is always under a very tight schedule, and his local PR had to refuse quite a number of requests, to the disappointment of everyone including Greyson. I felt bad for him for all the times he had to apologize to everyone for not being able to attend to fan requests under the insistence of the local PR (picture above).

Greyson Chance and his mom (need confirmation)

As much as he his an international superstar (at least to moms and teenage girls), he is still a pre-pubescent 14-year old with a cute face. His mom (I assume so from the picture I took above, fangirls correct me if I'm wrong) treats him as any mom with a cute kid would, pinching cheeks and all.

I did my job as best I could, even though I have not much experience photographing celebrities and live concerts and the like. So fangirls and fanmoms, I hope you enjoy the photos I took of the international singer Greyson Chance. If you would like to have hi-res versions of any of the photos here, please drop a request in the comments below and I will email you the the files.

Greyson Chance as he arrives in Sri KDU

Greyson Chance signing a memorabilia

Greyson Chance being fitted with headphones before the live concert

Greyson Chance having a drink as he walks to the multipurpose hall

Greyson Chance signing the huge fan poster

Greyson Chance taking the photo of Sri KDU students that he later posted on his twitter

I actually have quite a lot more photos of Greyson Chance so do tell if you want to see more.

Comeback

2011-11-24T08:51:00.000+08:00

Greetings all.

After a long hiatus, I shall make a comeback to blogging and bloghopping.

More updates soon. Till then, cheers!

[Wordless Wednesday] Putra Mosque at Night

2011-08-31T08:55:00.000+08:00

EID MUBARAK EVERYONE!

[Math Stuff] Derivative Solver

2011-08-24T22:49:00.000+08:00

Ok I added another WolframAlpha widget to the right of this blog. This new widget is called the derivative solver. It can differentiate any single variable differentiable function up to the 4th order.

You can see the derivative solver as the third Math widget to the right of the page, beneath the inverse function calculator.

I hope the widget can help you check your working and answers when you are doing your calculus exercises.

Good luck and happy studying, Math students!

Image via Wikipedia

[Wordless Wednesday] Knotted Single Strand of Hair

2011-08-24T18:45:00.000+08:00

Happy Wordless Wednesday everyone!

My Japanese Has Gotten So Rusty

2011-08-23T02:02:00.000+08:00

私は日本語でブログに試してみたい。どう思いますか？

Should I Blog in a Different Language?

2011-08-23T00:48:00.000+08:00

Here's the breakdown of where people who visited this blog this past month came from:

MALAYSIA	35.58%
UNITED STATES	35%
UNITED KINGDOM	5.1%
QATAR	4.81%
AUSTRALIA	4.71%
SINGAPORE	3.27%
INDIA	3.27%
PHILIPPINES	2.98%
CANADA	2.88%
Unknown	2.4%

It is apparent that most of the people who read this blog are Americans and Malaysians, and the rest of the countries are mostly English-speaking nations.

I have been tempted to blog in Malay (my native language), since my English has deteriorated so much to the point where it has become so often that I take so long a time to compose even one well-constructed, grammar error-free sentence. But there are more non-speakers of Malay that visit this blog than there are Malay speakers, so I guess it's a better idea to keep writing in English so that I won't end up losing a big chunk of readership.

But still, I feel like I should occasionally blog in other languages. Like in Malay or Japanese. Maybe that would help me reach out to another whole new readership. What do you think? Should I or should I not blog in a different language in addition to English?

[xkcd] Depth Perception

2011-08-22T14:51:00.000+08:00

via xkcd: Depth Perception

IHSAN KHAIRIR

United Buddy Bears - The American Bear

2012 Birthday Wishlist

United Buddy Bears in Kuala Lumpur

Al-Fatihah : Allahyarham Atok Yah

2012 Aspirations

Sincere Farewell Embrace [Wordless Wednesday]

Long Jump [Mellow Yellow Monday]

[Eat-Out] Smoked Salmon Sub with Salad and Fries

[Photo] Arsenal for Shooting Greyson Chance

Related articles

[Mellow Yellow Monday] Feeding Monkeys

[Wordless Wednesday] Insects In Sex

[Blog Stats] This is why my blog has to be in English

Related articles

[Shared] Complex Relationship, or Imaginary?

[Eat-out] The Steamboat Ketam Village

[Wordless Wednesday] Double Piggyback Ride

[Photo] Jungle Cockroach

[Shared] XKCD: Set Theory

Related articles

Greyson Chance in Sri KDU

Related articles

Comeback

[Wordless Wednesday] Putra Mosque at Night

[Math Stuff] Derivative Solver

[Wordless Wednesday] Knotted Single Strand of Hair

My Japanese Has Gotten So Rusty

Should I Blog in a Different Language?

[xkcd] Depth Perception