ChanKelwin.com

(A post full of no life jokes with some information not to be taken seriously — you have been warned)

UPDATE: I notice some people did not get some of the jokes in this article. Therefore, I am “labeling” them carefully.

If you haven’t read about it, Nuffnang was featured in The Star (InTech) yesterday. A few bloggers that was mentioned include Chan Lilian, Gareth Davies and Jeff Ooi. <JOKE>Somehow, I felt that they left out one “key” blogger in this article — ME.</JOKE> I know I don’t have a place beside any of these big names but I’m sure a few posts that I wrote about Nuffnang might be interesting. If that is not enough, why not have some desert?

Anyway, I noticed some information in the article is inaccurate has changed. I don’t blame them because at the rate things are changing “over there”, any information could be stale in another week.

On an unrelated note, Kenny Sia has been made “Nuffnang Featured Blogger for the month of June”. If you haven’t heard of the guy (highly unlikely), head over to the above link to get a “summary” of who he is and what he has been blogging about. I was surprised that he mentioned about the “FIFA World Cup football tutorial”. The last time I read, there was some controversy about it. Not exactly sure about the whole story though.

<JOKE>Lastly, a highly reliable inside source told me who “Nuffnang Featured Blogger for the month of July” could be.

Maybe not.</JOKE>

Nuffnang posted up some photos of the gathering the other day. Just when I thought I left the event without a single decent photo of myself among the crowd, I was surprised to see myself in 2 photos that they posted. One of them was taken in the cinema hall itself. Therefore, everyone looked so small. However, I am quite recognizable in the photo below.

If anyone of you plan to do some guessing, I suggest picking one of the “good looking” ones. You don’t want me to remove your comment, do you? (just kidding) *dodges flying objects*

A while back, I posted 2 pictures of my first attempt on macro shot photos. Looking back at the photos, somehow they look dull and slightly blurred. I have seen photos taken by some others that looked almost “alive”. I know that practice makes perfect. Also, I do not want to be like the idiom, “bad workman blames his tools”. However, I am sure that the camera used must have some impact on the quality of the photos as well.

Check out these great photos of a “sky goddess” taken by ShaolinTiger. They looked so real and alive that I wished she was in front of me as if she was in front of me. The amount of details and the richness of the colors are just magnificent. If those photos were taken with my camera by me, they may look like a portrait colored with crayons.

I also found some photos taken by kahwoon — colourful food. The mango and tomato looks ready to be eaten. I especially admire his courage to whip out his camera in a supermarket or grocery store to take those photos. At least I think that is where he took those photos. Where else can he find so many fruits and vegetables?

There are so many function to control in the camera such as shutter speed, aperture, focal length, exposure and ISO. I normally set all possible settings to automatic in my camera. That is because I don’t even know what some of the functions do. I admit that I am just plain lazy to go figure out and experiment. Anyone out there willing to give me a crash course?

The photos below show one of the reason why I chose the Panasonic DMC-FZ3 over the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX7.

1X optical zoom (no zoom)

3X optical zoom

12X optical zoom

Gone are the days of binoculars

So I was at the biggest blogger gathering in Malaysia organized by Nuffnang last night. I reached quite early at around 8pm. I immediately searched for the Nuffnang booth and found 2 lovely ladies sitting behind the counter. I recognized Wen-Qi (from Timothy’s blog), so I went over and passed my IC to her. I asked if the girl beside her was Samantha and she said “No”. Only then did I know that Samantha=Wen-Qi … Wen-Qi=Samantha. My apologies.

Around 10 minutes later, I met up with Timothy. Finally, I get to meet one of the brains behind Nuffnang. We chatted for a few minutes before he returned to serve the other guests and VIPs. Below is part of our conversation …

Timothy: *staring at me*

Kelwin: What?

Timothy: Oh, nothing. It’s just that you look different from what I thought you would look like.

Kelwin: Errr…what do you mean?

Timothy: Well, since you are a Tech blogger, I thought you would look like … you know …
*uses thumb and index finger to make a circle on both hands and putting them around his eyes indicating spectacles — geek*

Kelwin: *laughs*

Anyway, the movie was great. However, I did get lost here and there throughout the movie (spare me the rod, I haven’t watched Dead Man’s Chest). A big thank you to Exabytes for sponsoring a set of popcorn and soft drink.

Bloggers that I saw (and could recognize) are Earl-Ku, Zeo, Wingz, Jeff Ooi, Timothy, Shireen, Jayelle, Suanie and ShaolinTiger. However, bloggers that I approached and had a conversation with are only Timothy, Shireen and Jeff Ooi (reason below). In the cinema, I sat on the right maybe 1/3 from the back. Shireen was sitting in front of me. On my left was a guy who said he has a blog at Anakdatuk.com (if I’m not mistaken).

All in all, everything was great. So why did I say it was a disappointment? I took a 3 and a half hours bus to join the gathering hoping to chat with at least a dozen people (bloggers), shake at least a dozen hands and take at least a dozen photographs. In the end, I spoke to 3 people, shook 3 hands and took 2 photographs. To rub it in, those 2 photographs were self shots of my gf and I.

Yeah yeah, I know — my fault. For the whole night, my gf was like, “Why don’t you just go up to them and socialize a bit instead of sitting here in a corner?” I was like, “Errrr…shy mah”. She gave me that bored stare and gave up persuading me. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not anti-social or anything. It’s just that, it takes some time for me to “warm up” with new faces. Once everything is nicely warmed up, that is when the “hell” in me breaks loose.

I wonder if I would still be that lucky to get a place for the next round of gathering. Or am I just a “waste of space”? I still feel a little disappointed up to now. Arrggghh…whatever. My fault. *goes back to room and stares at the wall*

Crimes do happen (almost) on a daily basis in Malaysia. Let it be snatch thief, rape, robbery, murder etc. The thing that I find displeasing sometimes isn’t the person who committed the crime but the group of people who caught the perpetrator in the act.

If my memory doesn’t fail me, I’ve read articles and seen some videos that showed the snatch thief was beaten up badly by those who caught him. I’ve seen videos where the perpetrator was kicked in the face and beaten up repeatedly on the legs with a wood. (I saw that video on a blog but couldn’t find it anymore. If any of you have seen that video and knows where it is, please inform me. Thanks!)

Now, I’m not protecting these perpetrators who have caused great harm to the victims. I understand that some of the victims who suffered from such crimes ended up hurt, paralyzed or even dead. However, that doesn’t justify the actions taken by those who caught them. There are laws in this country. Beating up an individual (even though he is a criminal) is punishable by law (I think — I don’t study law). Call the police and let the law take its course.

A report by The Star yesterday (22 May 2007) reads:

KLANG: A 42-year-old unemployed man was beaten to death by a group of people after he allegedly tried to grab a waist pouch from a trader in the Jalan Meru wet market here.

I think it is quite common people take things into their own hands when they catch someone committing a crime. Often, anger and frustration takes over logical thinking. It definitely doesn’t take a few blows to kill a man. I imagine the deceased must have received dozens of blows to his upper body to end up dead. The report states that he died on the spot and the case has been classified as murder.

The question now is, who (if any) will end up with the murder charge? The person who gave the “deadly blow”? To me, all those who landed a fist, a boot, a stick or whatever instrument used to caused injury to the deceased must be charged. There are laws in this country. A crime is still a crime even though it was done to “punish” another crime.

I’ll share with you a video I got from youtube on an alleged thief (student) caught by the other students in one of our local universities. The video may be a little disturbing, so proceed with caution.