Moving Away

I’ve taken a step to move to Blogspot.

Here I am … http://obatterista.blogspot.com/

A Couple of Hours in 1U

My journey to 1U started at around 11.30am. I say it’s a journey because it takes almost 20 minutes to get to that place even though it seems so close.

First stop, lunch at Burger King.

Next stop, movie at GSC, then I spotted this.

Can or cannot?

Some people know me for my geekiness which includes an extreme interest in sci-fi like Star Wars. For years I’ve been following the two sets of trilogies & trying to find out stuff in the movies which some people might not notice or remember more lines(just an assumption). So what’s next to showing your passion for the movies? Be part of it, or at least try to. Those days in secondary school we used to go for basketball in the morning and then head to the cyber cafe’ to play Jedi Knight 2.

For me, I got myself a Master Replica lightsaber. It’s Luke’s one from ep IV.

The detail and feel on this thing is incredible. It’s not like those cheapo Hasbro lighsabers (not trying to ketuk them) where there are only 2 preset whacking noises & the power up-power down sounds. This one has many digital recordings which emulate that of the movies.

By the way, I have a complaint to make.

Thanks to that piece of concrete there, the front bumper of my car sticks out a bit too uncomfortable much into the drive path.

Xmas Bells

So a bunch of guys were just hanging around & maybe consuming some alcohol. They were discussing about their xmas plans.

Dude 1 : Hey so what’re you all going to be doing for xmas?

They each had their say & when it came to a particular individual:

Dude 2 : No girlfriend this xmas la! How sad is that? Single bells, single bells, single all the way…

End of story.

I’ve been telling some of my friends that a small bunch of us are organising this event where a few orphans would perform with some local musicians next year. We call them The Rhythm Rascals. Exact date & venue are still yet to be confirmed. Kinda hard to teach kids who are fresh to music difficult melodic pieces right? So we teach them how to play the djembe, triangle, tambourine, and other simple percussive instruments. Who are the ones teaching them?

Check them out, The Diplomats of Drums.

Time for bed.

Lucky Shots

This is a pic of Akash (the bass player in my new band) with accidental flash while we were setting up before jamming. Which reminds me, I still get asked about what “O’Batterista” means. It means “the drummer” in Portuguese. I wanted to use it as a reminder of my heritage.

This pic was edited a bit in Photoshop; adjusted the levels to make Akash a bit more prominent.

Here’s Xinch with her new Canon Powershot S5 IS.

You think Canon would approach me to buy this pic?

Xmas Shooting

With a new lens in my arsenal, I managed to get a bunch of shots which I’m rather proud of. An outing with Xinch & May helped me put it to good use.

Here’s a lucky shot I got of the snowman at The Curve.

Raining lights at The Curve.

May & Xinch robbing the house at The Curve (with some assistance)

Candy canes

Don’t these white lights remind you of the white trees in FFVII: Advent Children?

Megamall 1

Megamall 2

May & Xinch at Megamall

A kid at Megamall

Yay! Xmas is coming soon!

Lei Hou Mou? Lei Hou Mou?Lei Homo Mou?

Greetings all!

Ya I’ve been listening to people & discussing about this issue. Your sexuality & religion.

So it’s like this, if you’re a homo/trans/both, you go to hell. But what about the things Jesus said? “Whatever you did to my brothers, you did onto me.” So that means no matter how good you are on Earth; give to the poor, be nice to people, help an old lady across the street, go to church/temple/mosque/synagogue, practice your religion, you’re still going to hell if you’re a homo/trans. Even if it’s by choice or subconsciously,being trans/homo means you can’t be saved (says some people).

NIA MA FU LAT

You put the mental in fundaMENTAL

I really think that homosexuality is mostly caused by your genes though it can sometimes be a result of choice. It’s likely that your parents have it but it didn’t pass down since it might be a recessive gene. So if you have kids & you happen to have it, it’s possible that your kids might be homo. Recessive? Dominant? I like science.

Then what’ll happen if you’ve got kids not like most of society? Aha… Let’s hide them away from the crowd.

Sure it’s weird at first especially in Malaysian society. However, I dare say I’ve got one trans friend & another who’s bi. Some of my friends freaked when I told them that but that’s only because it’s not very normal to know people like them.

So how now? Apa kita nak buat?

New Toy!!

I went to this camera stock clearence thingy today somewhere near Jalan 222 PJ. The stuff they had on sale had such incredible prices. A brand new Nikon D40x going for RM 1.9k with kit lens, 2gb SD card, bag & tripod. Hellova deal.

So anyway, I managed to get myself a brand new toy.

Yea man… Nikkor f/1.8 50mm for RM 380. Still cheaper than most places.

Check out the depth of field.
Here’s a shot of my 17 18-55mm kit lens & Santa in the background. (Thanks to Albert for noticing my mistake)
Now here’s Santa with my 17 18-55mm kit lens in the foreground.

And a pic of my bottle with my hand used to bounce the flash off my built-in one.

Now here’s a pic of me with the new baby. Check out the clarity on it. It might be a lil’ out of focus since it’s only manual focus on my D40x.

Now I’m off for portraits! Woohoo!

Making History

Now that you have your story, what’s better than that? Obviously making history!

Religion?

Wazaa… Time for something to think about.

I’ve been a Roman Catholic throughout my 20 years on this tiny speck in the universe & practicing it consistently (I think). This would include going to church & being good. Thanks to global warming, attending mass at SIC (St Ignatius Church, Petaling Jaya) has become a very sweaty & salty experience. So it’s time to install air-conditioning! Yay! A few other churches already have it & a good number in Singapore too.

I have heard criticisms about installing these cold-air machines in a Roman Catholic church. “Don’t install them because it’s not traditional. The cold environment will distract us from concentrating while we pray.”

Hmm… I think being sticky & salty in a warm environment would be more distracting. As compared to having the consistent humming noise, let’s choose not to be sweaty while we pray.

NIA MA FU LAT

These people put the ‘mental’ in ‘fundaMENTAL’

Times have changed & it’s because of change the Roman Catholic church stands as it is today. Let’s start from the beginning.
When Jesus was on earth, he wasn’t christian. He was a Jew. So a few obvious points which we know about Judaism; no pork, prayers at least 3 times a day (very similar to Islam, no?), & compulsory circumcision among the dudes.

Now over to the gentiles (non-Jews).

To spread Christianity, it had to change so that more people from different communities with different practices can absorb the religion. In Acts 15: 1-11, a debate rose because “under the law of Moses, you cannot be saved unless you circumcise”. The Peter (yup the Disciple Peter) stood up to say that they are challenging that practice since those before Moses didn’t practice circumcision. Moreover, God would know the hearts of those who did good & there was no need to differentiate the 2 distinct practices.

What can we see from this? Big big change since the Mosaic law was such a big deal those days. No change, no progress.

A Walk Around Town

There’re so many things one can see while just walking around. As compared to driving, you get to take your time to pay attention to a certain scene (duh).

Sure we see this everyday but I think this is extreme. Ignoring the “No Entry” sign & going against one-way one-lane traffic. Malaysia Boleh!

Wow… the world famous arches are everywhere.

I also found out that Optimus has a cousin. More than meets the eye

Now closer to home. 1Utama to be exact.

This was just a test to see whether my Flikr account works. Hope this was somewhat entertaining.