Done!

I started this project without much expectations, with only the desire to observe the limits of photography with a dSLR. I was brimming with excitement with my new dSLR camera then — though I wasn’t new to photography – but what better way to do that than to dive head-first into this project?

Fast forward a year later, as I hit the upload button on my final shot; hitting the red ‘X’ on Photoshop and then closing my Project 365 folder, I felt a rush of joy that accompanies the sense of liberation. An immense weight dragged off my back. Nothing was more gratifying than seeing the auto-generated completion counter on my photoblog showing a proud, ‘100% done!’ I blinked, for a moment, this is it?

Then the sadness sets in. The shoot-process-upload routine has become a ritual I perform every day to please the 365 gods I’ve devoted myself to for a whole year. Project 365 has become a part of my life. I wake up worrying about what to shoot; space out in lectures thinking of a setup and go to bed relieved that I have the day’s shot done and uploaded. Now a mere click puts all that behind in a blink of an eye.

This is going to take some getting used to, I thought.

Day 183/365: Reaching the halfway point.

Emoness aside, the project is by far, the lengthiest self-motivated long-term endeavour I’ve ever successfully completed in my life. That’s why it’s gonna deserve a good, hard look back on how I did it and the obstacles that plagued it’s entire duration.

Getting that shot

Taking my camera everywhere I go

When I started Project 365, I knew I had to bring my camera everywhere I go. Tugging my camera around during outings are okay, the real obstacle was when I had to inevitably bring it to campus — daily. The last thing I wanted was being labelled a show-off who just can’t help showing off his shiny new dSLR every single day. And let’s face it – a dSLR, even the tiny 1000D – isn’t as unobtrusive. The moment you yank it out, a good number of people within eyeshot would definitely look your way. There are times you’d wish to have a big banner above your ahead bearing the words, ‘I’m on Project 365! Suemeifyoucanttakeit.’

DSLRs are way more obtrusive compared to compacts.

So yes, I brought my camera with me to campus every single day for the past year. It spends most of the day tumbling around in my backpack, only seeing daylight when I’m with my close friends – who’re fully aware of my project – when I see a shot or feel comfortable enough to whip my camera out.

The creative spark

Maintaining a Project 365 stream requires a daily dose of creativity I didn’t have. While there are days chock full of activities and events that ends up in a post-processing nightmare, more often than not there were those boring and uninspiring days that beg of you to give up.

The first thing I’d do when the clock strikes – literally – at the eleventh-hour, is to quickly browse through Flickr’s Explore photos. Granted, not all Explore photos are great ones. Computer algorithms can only do so much to compile a collection of ‘good’ photos every day from the Flickr archive, but there are quite a few legitimately good shots out there daily that might give just that spark.

Then there’s the 100-steps challenge. The idea is to drag yourself and your camera outdoors, walk a hundred steps and start taking photos of anything at the end of your path. I don’t follow the hundred-steps rule that strictly, but I often find myself taking strolls in the garden snapping high and low so I can be done with the day’s photo. There are also days after classes where I take a detour somewhere for a short solo photowalk that can be very rewarding at times.

Danbo saves the day!

Somewhere in the 200’s into the project, I decided to get myself Danbo, an action figure from the manga, Yotsub&! I don’t think I’ve formally introduced Danbo yet, so here goes. In the manga, Danbo is actually a robot costume made of cardboard and was donned by Miura to entertain a curious Yotsuba. Despite appearing only very briefly (a single chapter, to be exact), the robot with geometrical features stole the hearts of many.

Day 334/365: Danbo getting cold feet.

There’s a reason why I thought Danbo would be helpful to my Project. I was intrigued by how expressive — or the lack thereof — Danbo can be. Tilt his head up, he can express anything from being dreamy to excitement. Swing his head back down, he’ll appear downright sad or just simply, afraid. And that sort of flexibility is especially useful when you have to shoot something daily. =)

The Workflow

A typical 365 shot you see posted takes an arm and a leg to produce. Taking the shot itself is just the beginning — the real headache starts in the digital darkroom. The photos go through rigorous polishing work in Lightroom, of which the best of the best are subjected to a stringent selection process before the last photo standing is delivered to you.

Seriously though, there are generally two types of shots I do in my 365 — snapshots and set-ups. Snapshots are usually quick takes of life as it flies by, like that quick moment as a child hands out titbits to a monkey; or candid photos of my friends in the labs. Set-ups are exactly what it means, ideas and subjects that are set-up in advance allowing me to explore different angles and variations in the process.

I use Lightroom for cataloguing and post-processing of my photos. Photos would normally go through adjustments such as white-balance, exposure correction, split toning and curves to name a few. Candidates for posting are then exported in full size and thrown into Photoshop, where sharpening, brushing and any other pixel-level editing are necessary.

The final shot for the day is then exported from Photoshop and uploaded to Flickr via the very useful Flickr Uploadr. While I throw the photo into Uploadr, I’ll do the write-up for the Photoblog post and grab the photo URL from Flickr as it finishes uploading. The moment I hit Publish, the photo would be up fresh on both Flickr and my photoblog.

Number Crunching

I love statistics. Numbers tell a story when presented. And a 365 report wouldn’t be complete without some solid numbers to show off.

I could’ve plotted the following graph off the back of my head:

It shows the time the day’s shot was taken and when it was uploaded. This graph could’ve roughly been my internet-surfing habits for the past year (especially the Postings plot).

While pretty self-explanatory, I like how the graph reflects my love of shooting during the golden hour. Seriously, who could resist taking photos when everything is cast in a shade of gold? The graph also shows evidence of a few (28 days, to be exact) shots that were taken after the day technically ended at midnight (0000-0200hrs). When life got too hectic, I gave myself a little leeway to end the day only when I retire to the sheets, not after the clock hits 12 midnight. If I’d spend a day and gone to bed without a shot, then only it’ll be a missed day.

Another interesting graph to look at is the comments-per-shot plot. I’d take the opportunity to explain why I cross-post my photos to Flickr and my Photoblog. Flickr is a massive photographic community that’s bound to bring recognition to your photos if they’re worthy of it. But not wanting to leave my friends / non-Flickr readers out of the fun, I created the photoblog.

So photos posted to both sites have distinctive sets of audiences. I’ve also found out that the volume of Flickr comments are understandably based mostly on the quality of the images; whereas Photoblog comments can be influenced by my write-up if I occasionally share some thoughts and updates, if not based on how good the photo is. The graph clearly shows how Flickr comments can in-proportionally spike due to Explores but with Photoblog comments hovering about the same average all throughout. Interesting.

I’m actually surprised to find out the type of shots I’ve been taking for the past year are rather healthily spread-out. I thought Nature and Campus would’ve snatched a good chunk of the pie. Of my arsenal of lenses (of two), I clearly show huge bias towards the nifty fifty. One reason that might even remotely affect this was that my kit lens was sentenced to a 61-day stint in the Canon ICU back in May.

The Last Words

I’ve said it on my final 365 post and I’ll say it again. What started out as a project with low-expectations became a fulfilling experience thanks to all of you — readers of my Photoblog, awesome Flickr contacts, fellow coursemates and fellow photographers that made Project 365 a blast. You guys are the catalysts to the completion of this project, no less.

I opened the door committing myself to this project last year without much certainty, it is without doubt that I emerged from the other end of the path a different person today. It’s amazing what a year of photography can do.

A project of a lifetime.

I’m now enjoying life after 365. So much so that I haven’t been shooting for the past week! Haha. While I’ve said that I won’t be continuing on another project 365, I figured that I should give it another round in the (distant) future. It was really tough at times, but it was well worth it and definitely deserves another try. =)

With that, I officially sign off this ultra-lengthy post of an equally lengthy project of a lifetime.

As of writing, Pictory only has six humble but hugely inspirational features and I’m already sold as a huge fan. Photos and their accompanied stories are presented in a way that beg you to sit down, grab a cup of coffee and savour each entry in its entirety.

My favourites thus far are, San Fransisco and the latest, One Who Got Away which features a thought on the very thing humanity desperately seeks day in and out:

That’s the thing about happiness; you never can tell when you’ve reached a peak. You can only compare where you are to where you’ve been.

- Zander Coomes

Watching the bokeh-works.

Happy Lunar New Year to all of you celebrating! For the rest of the world, Happy V-Day!

Rawr!

2010 — Even Danbo couldn’t believe it.

Anyway, first post of 2010!

Five years and five days ago, like a boy who had discovered how awesome cotton candy can be (for the record though, cotton candy was never my thing), I stumbled upon WordPress —  which was, at the time, a shiny new blogging engine still in its infancy. But that didn’t matter, for I deleted my HTML-hardcoded blog whose code I shamelessly copied and modified from some random blog — and never looked back.

My host then, Stafa, graciously installed my first copy of WordPress (version 1.2.1) via Fantastico — magically sprouting a Hello World entry telling me it’s my first post and that I could edit it and start blogging. My website just talked to me, I marveled.

Back then, WordPress’s default theme was bland, full-width’ed and a dull-green that shouted for a change. Then I found Kubrick. Yes — if Kubrick looks familiar to you, that’s because it is the very look you see every time you install a fresh copy of WordPress. From version 1.5 on, Kubrick became bundled along with WordPress as the default theme we all know now — in 2010, that might also shout at you - change me!

But five years ago, Kubrick was a game-changer.

One of my first mods of the Kubrick theme circa 2005

Rounded corners, appealing minimalism, subtle footer gradients, and with an easily customisable header image to boot, it wasn’t hard to see why Kubrick took the blogging world by storm then. Once I got Kubrick running on my shiny new WordPress installation, I started, with however limited knowledge I had of CSS, modifying it so that I had the most unique Kubrick theme on the net.

Fast-forward five years later, I’m on my own domain sporting a self-made theme I designed and coded from scratch — what you’re looking at right now. Thus it goes without saying that Kubrick was largely instrumental in sparking my personal endeavor in web-design. Even the tehCpeng.net version two theme I’m running now is based on the Kubrick framework — a last-minute design decision as I wanted the new theme to differ as much as possible from my previous works off the Hemingway framework.

Later on this year, WordPress will be retiring Kubrick as its default theme — the first time in five years. Needless to say, Kubrick is now relatively dated among a largely design-centric blogosphere it helped stir about in the first place.  Tina Daunt of The Huffington Post has a great piece on how Kubrick, a single blog theme revolutionised the blog design arena. I couldn’t agree more on Kubrick’s contribution on changing the face of the blogosphere into one that not only focuses on content, but also on design and aesthetics.

Reaching my fifth year in blogging on WordPress, I can’t help but to look back on the humble beginnings. As Kubrick retires as the default theme for WordPress, it will most likely be forgotten among the new generation of WordPress users with access to sleek and shiny modern themes widely available today. But blog designers around the world would never forget Kubrick’s former glory and how we were once inspired by this humble theme to make the web a much more beautiful place as it is today.

And doesn’t get as clichéd as this — Avatar was indeed a spectacular masterpiece. I walked out of the theaters completely blown away by the painstakingly CGI-ed planet of Pandora down to every lively leaf, twig, blade and feather of that breathtakingly picturesque landscape of a tropical planet.

The breathtaking floating islands of Pandora

When I initially saw the trailers, Avatar gave me the impression of yet another CGI-overloaded sci-fi filled with blue alien creatures in war with humans. But boy was I wrong. Avatar’s Pandora wasn’t a world that was created overnight, rather, every insect, creature, plant and Na’vi syllable felt as real as it could fictionally be.

Granted, Avatar’s storyline might not be as original — the younger of us might be reminded of a handful of white-turned-native-leader movies such as Disney’s Pocahontas and even the Tom Cruise-starring The Last Samurai. But Avatar excels at taking such a story to a whole new immersive experience. Which also explains why Avatar absolutely has to be watched in 3D.

Perhaps it was the lackluster CGI (and weak storyline) we’ve conditioned ourselves to in 2012 that made Avatar so much more appealing. Or not. Maybe theater is all about the experience. Throw us a familiar story (although to Cameron’s credit — greatly refined and scifi-ed) portrayed on a visually stunning canvas like no other, everyone’s bound to enjoy it.

Nonetheless, Avatar succeeds as a technically impressive, breathtaking and emotionally overwhelming movie that does a good job at closing the decade’s movie industry in a high note. Coupled with James Horner’s epic score that impeccably compliments the whole Pandorean experience, Avatar will be remembered along with The Dark Knight, as one of finest movies of the 2000’s.

I’ve been wanting to have such mini-posts in between my major posts for quite awhile, for the simple reason that I tend to get rather ambitious that every time I churn out a new post on tehCpeng.net, it has to be full-featured, carefully worded and pictorially complete. More often than not, such posts lead into a growing pile of dormant drafts in my Wordpress posts manager.

Posting shorties allows me to put out more casual postings in between, while at the same time not drawing too much attention away from the main postings. That said, look out for short, sweet and cheerful doses of shorties as I sort things out before 2009 draws to an end. Between you and me, I honestly can’t wait to post my next shortie. =p

Happy Holidays!

Let not the lack of updates to this poor blog deceive you though, for you bet, the semester was so jam-packed that I promptly shied away from the Add New Post button. But this blog wasn’t left idle for nothing.

We pulled through preparing a case study report and presenting it later..

Kheng Shin talking on the Da Vinci Surgical Robot

We spent hours on end building, programming, testing and programming, and programming, aaand programming a Lego robot for the Robotic Competition..

Troubleshooting robot problems while Kheng Shin snapped us

..which exceeded our wildest expectations when it secured a shiny 3rd place.

Victory

We got a taste of industrial machining when we grinded and milled a nut and bolt out of bare steel cylinders.

Forming a bolt on a lathe machine

We’d never look at music boxes in gift shops the same way again after cracking our heads implementing one in Embedded Microcontrollers.

Music Boxes are a pain to program I tell you

We celebrated our achievements in the scholarships presentation ceremony..

Scholars of joy

In a few hours time, we’d head into halls. Where the air-cond chill and endless rows of isolated tables arranged in a perfect grid overwhelms your surroundings, as if designed specifically to thwart your confidence. As we approach our designated desks, although in sweaty palms and short, cold breaths, we sit down in dignity.

Danbo studies

For it is with dignity we make 4-months of hardship — worthwhile.

Good luck!

I never liked farewells.

Returning to KL used to be a yearly affair, it was only when I flew here 10 days ago I realised how long I haven’t returned to this place — an easy one and a half years.

My attachment to the capital city of Malaysia is a unique one. I was born in Perak and although every single one of my relatives are scattered across the Peninsula, I’ve never actually lived there. I practically grew up in East Malaysia, where my parents have been attached to. There is always a conflict of interest with regards to my sense of belonging, often do I lay torn between the two land masses — one bearing memories of my whole childhood, friends, my life; but the other, filled with family and relatives — cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents. Earlier that afternoon, I bid farewell to my uncle and aunt who dropped me off at KL Sentral.

The Coffee Bean @ KLIA LCCT

I’m carefully sipping through a cup of Ice Blended Caramel Coffee as I type this on a Wi-Fi connection that dropped 2 minutes ago. An European couple is sitting next to my table. The husband taps away on his iPhone while the wife slowly flips through a stack of fashion magazines. Neither uttered a single word since I sat beside them.

The World in your Palms

The Coffee Bean is surprisingly packed — the crowd here noticeably different from the crowd in say, McDs. There is little interaction — save for a few businessmen in that corner — everyone’s immersed in technology, be it laptops, iPhones or Blackberries.

Sending my sister off.

Just two weeks ago, we sent off my sister who is now doing A-Levels at Kolej Yayasan UEM en-route to the UK under a MOE scholarship. It’s a 2+3+1-year course that would end up with her graduating as a teacher. Unlike me, she already has a definite path laid right before her. A promised future.

As we were on our journey back to KL after a whole gang of relatives, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents alike saw her off, my uncle told us that we’d probably won’t see her very often from now on. I pondered about it for moment, and thought, ain’t that the truth.

Sister over breakfast

I guess I haven’t really sank into the whole leaving-home-study-abroad-graduate-and-work thing yet. Never could I fathom the reality of my sister leaving the family, void of seeing her everyday, one less voice echoing off the walls of our family home, although much less competition in the ever-present battlefield of sibling rivalry, yet I must admit, I didn’t see this coming.

So many things do we take for granted in life. Like the company of siblings, our parents, the family. Blinded we are by the fact that we won’t live together as a family forever, under the same roof, dinner on the same table. It’s all a fact of life where one day we’ll all leave the family we grew up with; the home we once played, quarrelled and fought in.

Welp. Guess it’s just life isn’t it?

The deafening crescendo of mechanical rumble disrupted my train of thought as the plane lurched forward in reaction to the tens of thousands pounds of pure thrust spitting out from a pair of jet engines at full throttle. I grasped the armrests of my seat as the plane rumbled down the runway; lights dancing around the windows against the night sky. Then the sinking feeling sets in — my body’s sense of balance telling me that the plane had left firm ground.

Take-off

My heart sank. I never liked farewells.

Nonetheless, this time I went with a whole different company of friends — Natalius and Ms. Chong planned a day trip as soon as the Saturday of the week of our last paper itself. Six of us went in two cars that morning.

Kayaks on Beach

Despite spending retreats to permai every semester break of my life, I’ve never driven there myself. There’s always someone else to be the driver. Not this time though.

The road to Damai is pretty straightforward, but there’s one patch I never seem to remember — the roundabouts in Petra Jaya. I get them mixed up all the time and I wasn’t spared a wrong turn this time either. And I had to make wrong turns both going and returning. I’m not usually bad with directions but I somehow managed to proved so during this trip, heh.

Rocky Beach Bokeh

Siong Huo was jokingly skeptical if I was on the right road all the way but I proved him dead wrong when we reached the sandy shores of the Damai beach.

Waterball

We wasted no time jumping into the water with our newly-purchased ball. But because the sun was so blazingly hot and we didn’t want to get baked on the nicely-heated sand, we jumped into a stream in cool tree shade instead.

Natalius’s mighty kick failed to launch the ball

Kicking around in the tiny stream bored us pretty quickly. It was only a matter of time before we charged towards the wide open sea, hot or no hot.

We soon found out though, that it was rather tricky to actually launch a stationary ball on water into the air. Further observation would show that the density of water dampens our swing towards the ball. If that wasn’t enough, the displaced water effectively pushes the floating ball forward, causing us to miss the ball completely more often than not.

Ball Flip Fail

But when it comes to having fun, the rules of Physics doesn’t apply anymore. Hell, screw Physics anyway — the finals are long history already. =P

So we kicked and splashed around like we’ve never been to a beach with a ball.

Ninja Beach Kick

Then suddenly Heng Hong surprised us with a mighty ninja-kick sending the ball flying towards Singaporean shores. Okay it barely made it over Siong Huo’s head but it was the kick of the day.

Natalius flips the ball

Natalius wasn’t so happy with Heng Hong’s sudden fame so he sabotaged the ball and headed to drier sand and started to show some skillz. Suddenly he felt like an 80 million British-pound player.

Anyway, we were soon bored with the ball and decided to conquer the rocks instead.

Siong Huo and Natalius heading for the rocks

We dared ourselves to scale the largest monolith we could find in the area.

The brave Mt. Rock Permai three

So we camwhored a bit and savored the sea breeze from atop the rock. Chee Min and Heng Hong joined us later but we soon scrambled down the rock as it got too baking-hot for us to sit on.

Sea of Bokeh

Because we fried our butts while sitting on the rock, we retired to sea to get wet again — this time we tried kayaking. We were supposed to head out in three two-person kayaks but only one was available for another hour. So Heng Hong and Chee Min went out first while we helped them out.

Push

While both of them were out paddling around the Damai bay, we waited for the other kayaks to return so we could head out together and have a kayak-flipping war. But the Permai beach management suddenly decided to halt the kayaking rental service before we had any chance to hop on.

Out to the sea

Long story short, we couldn’t join them. But with the kayak rental service hut left unmanned and thus, no one to supervise the returning of kayaks, we swam out and as Chee Min and Heng Hong paddled near us, we flipped them off their kayak and sabotaged it for ourselves.

Chee Min and Heng Hong were tired of paddling around anyway so Siong Huo and I took over captainship of the kayak — free of charge. =D

The Bokeh Monster

The last time I paddled a kayak was during NS, way back in 2007. What mattered back then was speed in order to win the water games. But now we spent every ounce of energy left on a slow paddle along the coast when we passed another beachfront of the Permai camp where a few couples were embracing in the water.

That sight led to Siong Huo and I talking about relationships and stuff while we drifted back to the beach.

By then, we were all tired, exhausted and hungry. We unanimously decided to have a late lunch at Hartz Chicken Buffet back in Kuching. In no time we were invading the doors of Hartz like hungry zombies smelling like the beach. Luckily we had to whole outlet to ourselves or else we could’ve scared everyone else off. =D

Hermit crab digs

I was so occupied in gobbling down chicken wings and mashed potatoes I didn’t take any pictures when we were in Hartz. Go figure. But yeah, we called it day after lunch, all stuffed, drained and wearing a layer of tan that is still peeling off as I type this, but nonetheless we had great fun.

So it’s the semester break again. I’ll certainly miss the company of friends back in campus as boring as semester breaks can get. I’ll be flying off to KL tomorrow with my family to send off my sister furthering her studies to the West, but that’s a post for another day.

Until then, Happy Holidays everyone.

So — *slaps on a 3-foot-thick face* — during the mid-term break five uh, weeks ago, the family tagged along Dad to Sibu where he had official duty. We spent the night at Betong before continuing on the journey along the Trans-Borneo highway to the third largest city of Sarawak.

The famous Sibu Express Boat Wharf — 3 exposure HDR

Almost six whole hours on the road later, we found ourselves in the midst of the bustling town of Sibu. Dad took us straight to the famous express boat wharf  — a nostalgic sight I haven’t seen in some good 10 years. And boy had this laid-back town changed over the years, most prominently with the addition of Sarawak’s tallest building — the Wisma Sanyan.

Wisma Sanyan: The tallest building in Sarawak is not in Kuching, mind you.

Incidentally, our hotel was right next to this towering monolith and the country’s largest town square it looks upon. We sighed a breath of relief when Dad pulled up onto the lobby of RH Hotel, which was thankfully a universe away from the bare-boned one we spent the night in back in Betong.

The room — and my workstation throughout the stay

So this was where we spent the next 5 days.

Hanging out in the corridors

Camwhoring

Coffee?

My Sis and I was also lucky enough to find access to the executive floors one bored morning. We literally explored every corner of that 14-storey building. Funny thing was, the lift blocked access to the executive floors the next time when we tried to bring Mom and Dad up.

RH Hotel’s Executive Suites

Because the rooms came with complimentary breakfast at the hotel restaurant for two, we took turns to head down every morning for a scrumptious buffet breakfast.

Breakfast was never this good

When not eating in the hotel, we’d head out. I must say though, RH Hotel has the most strategic location. It was just a stone’s throw away from the Wisma Sanyan mall and the humongous Sibu Town Square. Not to mention, only a walking distance from countless eateries of Sibu’s CBD. Seriously, you have to be really lazy to stay hungry there.

Throughout our stay, the rain gods were kind enough to spare their lightning spears and water hoses. For it didn’t rain even a single drop in the five days we were in Sibu. The clear skies all day long eventually led into beautiful sunsets over the Rejang River. Ones that scream for you to get out and shoot.

Sister and dusk at the Sibu Town Square — 3-exposure HDR

Which was exactly what I did.

Mom and Sis at the Sibu waterfront park

We also walked over to the  really well-kept Sibu waterfront park for an even better view of sunsets.

On the last day, we had lunch at the Sibu Central Market. Dad recalled of how they display livestock for sale in the market — all wrapped up in newspaper tubes with only their heads bobbing up and down. It was a must-see.

Live chickens in the Sibu Central Market

It didn’t take long for us to find the live chickens. While initially amused at how they were left with their heads excitedly bobbing, some of these poor birds just hung their heads low — as if in hopeless despair. I felt a tinge of sympathy as I shot them through my viewfinder. Don’t get me wrong though, I’m not turning vegetarian anytime soon. Chickens are..well, chickens. It is their fate, however unfortunate.

Nonetheless, we headed up to the 1st floor of the market to savour some authentic Sibu food for the last time. Not missing, of course, the oh-so-overrated kompiah — dry and hard oven-baked lumps of flour sprinkled with sesame seeds. I never understood how could people eat them as-is. Other than its bland taste, its dry and rock-hard texture could seriously break some teeth.

Sibu kompiah stuffed with minced meat

But, when you slice a kompiah in half, stuff some juicy minced meat into it and deep-fry it into some golden-brown goodness — you’ve got the best delicacy 60 cents can buy you (prices may vary). It was the first stuff we ordered as soon as we sat down.

Knowing all so well one cannot leave Sibu without a large bag of kompiahs, we headed to the old Sibu Market after lunch to get ourselves some of them freshly-baked from authentic kompiah bakeries. If you’ve never seen how kompiahs are baked, here you go:

Fresh batches of kompiah in a traditional Chinese oven

The bakery workers wasn’t all that happy about me pointing my camera into the kitchen as he swiftly moved into the frame to completely block my view. As if I’m planning to copy and patent their space-age tech to mass-produce kompiahs in my mega kompiah factory. Although that isn’t such a bad idea. =)

So armed with a huge bag of steaming hot kompiahs we embarked on the journey back home with only Dad to thank for bringing us along for this trip while he worked is ass off. This is my Dad for you. Thanks pops!