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JustStuff by Juaini
People, Places, Images and Words
By: Juaini Shamsul
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| Monday, 27-Nov-2006 05:19 |
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Merdeka
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Aahhh... after almost a month, my finals are over. But damn, I need to go back to campus to check out from my room. When I got back from my Marketing paper yesterday the office was already closed and my mom was on the way. I need to go back today. *sigh*
Armed with my trusty little Canon S410, I step out the front door and step into a beautiful day outside. I look up at the sky
 
and I see a clear, crisp blue canvas with white cotton candy clouds rolling lazily across. The sun breaks through and I set off for the train station.
The train station is only a five minute walk away. On the way down the road I light up a Salem (not my particular fave) and proceed to do my bit at spoiling this wonderfully sunny day. It wanders through my mind that although I always claim to be a nocturnal creature, perhaps blue might be my favorite color, just for today. I can feel the sun burning through my hair to my scalp, and I self-consciously pat my hair, wondering if I should have had a bit of care and put on sunscreen.
On the day I celebrate my freedom, I notice that all around me it's business as usual.
 
I cross the overhead bridge and wonder if my days of feeling this free are numbered... I'll be graduating in about a year's time and then I'll have to start working!! I don't really want to think about that yet... I stub out my cigarette and head down to the turnstile where I discover my brother has left me with less than five bucks on my stored value ticket.
I get off at Universiti where El said she would pick me up. That girl needs to find herself a sense of direction! She's been to my house more than half a dozen times and she still doesn't remember the way. As I wait by the bus stop I look up (again) and I see a crane on top of a building swinging a large block of concrete... gulp! That's pretty cool, I thought. I was about to take my camera out and snap a picture, but I was distracted by two guys in a car trying to catch my attention... I got a bit self-conscious (who, ME??!) and I was considering between lobbing those guys with my camera or snapping a pic of them to put in my blog and hope they'll see and die of embarrassment. With a sigh I put my camera away and head to the other end of the bus stop, rummaging in my bag for another cigarette. Another photo opp lost. Damnit.
Lo and behold, there was El, waiting in a silver Wira, parked behind the bus, just where I couldn't see her. We headed towards Shah Alam, and I thought about cleaning up the apartment on an empty stomach. Not fun. We arrived at Puncak Perdana. El went to the library to avoid paying MYR117 for songlap-ing a chick lit book. I stayed behind at our apartment cleaning up the rest of my mess that I was supposed to do yesterday.
 
Done! It had begun to drizzle outside, but I was eager to leave so I walked down the block covering my head with my Nine West bag (argh!), only to find that the office was still closed for lunch. ^&$*(*&#! When they finally opened back up, I put in my polite request first thing, and the office guy said he'd be there in 15 minutes. Then I walked back to my apartment, through the rain, my Nine West handbag catching the rain. Sigh.
I sat back down at my desk to wait for him, and I filled in and signed all the forms first. Wondering what to do now, I started reading one of the forms we had been required to fill out when we checked in. One thing caught my eye...
 
I had always thought that under the Universities Act, students were not allowed to join in any political activities whatsoever, not merely banned from joining the Opposition. My university condoning illegal pro-government political activity among their students? Now that's a laugh. But the thought that's more disturbing is how blatantly they violate the inviolable human right to freedoms of choice, association and peaceful assembly. And another thought: am I, the UiTM student who just finished her finals yesterday, really merdeka?
am i a bit crazy for writing that? perhaps. my problem is the fact that i'm rather outspoken and i strongly believe in the freedom of expression (as well as other freedoms). my other problem is the fact that i am sometimes reckless with my words. God help me. for once i think it's a good thing that nobody really reads the stuff i write in my blog.
Not that I'm asking for more trouble, but I calm myself down by remembering that my university is the land of empty threats. All the rules exist, but most aren't enforced. They appear to keep you under lock and key, and the lock is certainly there, but for appearances' sake. Look closer...
 
I'd rather not think about it anymore. El and I leave and head for lunch. I couldn't resist snapping the pic of the A4 due to the uncanny coincidence of the plate number. I like to think that maybe it bodes well for me; would I perhaps drive a car of similar pedigree in the future? Heh heh.
I love sandwiches!!
 
So does El. But obviously not as much as I do! And what better way to end a relaxed lunch with a good friend...
 
Look at the bokeh on this little Canon's lens. Not half bad, yeah?
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| Saturday, 18-Nov-2006 19:19 |
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Because art is subjective, dammit.
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narcissism Pronunciation[nahr-suh-siz-em]
–noun
1. inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity.
2. Psychoanalysis. erotic gratification derived from admiration of one's own physical or mental attributes, being a normal condition at the infantile level of personality development.
I think it would make a great book cover. Now, to write a sufficiently egotistical autobiography.
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| Thursday, 2-Nov-2006 19:38 |
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Home, sweet home; part I.
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v1.0
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v2.0
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Or, what I was doing today instead of studying for my final exams.
Over the past couple of years, 21 (which is what we like to call our house) has been undergoing some pretty extensive changes. I've lived in this house for as long as I can remember; I've never called any other house "home". That makes my house about 23 years old (we moved in when I was about one, I think). That's pretty old, for a house in PJ, you know? So you can imagine the roof leaking, all the wiring shorting out, the plumbing clogged up, the cabinets disintegrating on its hinges... everything's kind of falling apart. 21 was a mess. I loved 21, of course, it was home! But it was truly beginning to show its age.
Late 2004, we embarked on a "restoration project". My sister was getting engaged in September, and then was marrying in May the following year, so we decided to start fixing all those things that made this house feel old, like the roof, the wiring, the plumbing. We repainted the house, inside and out. We threw out a sofa set that was as old as the house itself. I finally bought a new bed to replace the 20-year-old bed that my sister and I shared. So many things, I can't bother to list them all.
As of Nov 2006, the project is still on going. We don't ever seem to have enough throw cushions. Everything is new and different. I feel as though my home has a new personality after the makeover. And I like its new personality. For the first time in my life, I looked around in my house and I saw things pretty enough that I wanted to show it to people.
I don't know what the name of this flower is, but it's blooming right here in 21. It's not even the only pretty thing I see in my house. Stay tuned. More coming soon.
Technical notes: Nikon D70s with 70-210mm f/4-5.6 AF at 210 mm, f/5.6 and 1/20 sec. -0.7 EV. Tripod? Yes. Flash? No. Very large windows? Yes. Number of shots to get it right? 207. Finals? What finals?
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| Monday, 30-Oct-2006 06:56 |
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Eid Mubarak, indeed.
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I wish I had a more meriah pic for my Raya entry. I also wish that I could say I don't have one because I'm busy studying for my finals, which start this Friday. Unfortunately I have to admit that although I had tons of ideas in my head for a nice Raya pic for my entry, I've been lazy and I didn't do any of them. Instead I'm busy already planning for what I want to do after I finish finals. Supposedly, they will entail the following scenes, which I shot for my Advertising final project, which was to create and plan an ad campaign for Flyingman Matches. Yes, it was hard. The shoots were very rushed because, in true Melayu fashion, we did our work at the very last moment. I thought the pics did look like it was rushed, but we got pretty positive comments from our classmates and lecturer...
As usual, I've got El as my model, but this time I've also got Wani, another roommate. The barbecue scene was at my house in Petaling Jaya. During Ramadan. In broad daylight. Pardon the burger patties burnt beyond recognition.
So this is my Raya entry? Why not? Is this just the way budak-budak KL menyambut raya? Dah tak sedar diri Melayu? Hey, Aidilfitri isn't about ketupat dan rendang (yum), it's about merapatkan ikatan silaturahim (aww). Nothing bridges the gap between two Malaysians like food, and nobody said the food has to be wrapped in coconut leaves or drenched in coconut milk.
And then, this week I shall prepare for my finals. In its usual tradition of utter ridiculousness, UiTM will pause for convocation a week after finals start. I'm only concerned because it only serves to delay this (shot at Aimi's nice big house in Shah Alam):
Sigh. Eid Mubarak, indeed. Hope you guys have a better Syawal than I will.
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| Wednesday, 11-Oct-2006 12:00 |
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Eliana, Part II
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El on a bus
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| Saturday, 7-Oct-2006 14:11 |
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Give me the night, Part I
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Whenever dark has fallen
You know the spirit of the party starts to come alive.
Last Saturday I had dinner at KLCC. I brought my little Canon Elph (yet another hand-me-down) to record our foolish moments at the dinner table. After dinner, my boyfriend and I sat on the terrace of the park, and I saw a postcard-perfect scene:
Pish-tosh! I don't even like postcards. Then we went to Kinokuniya. Then we went back to the park. We sat at a different spot, and I got this:
... which, personally I like better. I like the ghosts walking into the frame on the left and right. Is that weird? I don't really like fountains anyway. But here's my favorite part of the evening:
He was definitely my favorite part of the evening 
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| Monday, 2-Oct-2006 20:16 |
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If I were a painter, and could paint a memory...
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I was browsing through my recent drift shoot tonight and this image caught my eye:
The car had crashed into something and had headed off-course. I never even heard the MC tell the "UiTM students" not to photograph the crash (my friends and I were actually there on assignment). I had already headed across the circuit towards the crash site. The second click of my camera's shutter caught this image.
I like how it's blurred and unsharp, as if it had been drawn with blunt brush strokes. I don't think of myself as being artistic (I can't draw to save my own life), and I think of my photography as being primarily documentary, so this kind of image isn't typical of me. I don't care, I like it anyway. Call me jakun but this is all new and cool to me because I don't play with those "paintbrush" filters in Photoshop.
Here I was this whole time, complaining that digital was so clean and so sharp and so sterile and so... digital, and then along comes this image that looks to me like the perfect antithesis of digital: a painting. No sensors, no discrete pixels, no RGB channels running through microprocessors and Bayer interpolations what-not. Instead, mixing and smushing colors together, slapping it on a canvas, brush strokes running into one another, bristles spreading this way and that. Utter chaos, compared to the sheer structuredness of digital imaging. And finally, the product: a picture that is not just a picture, but a multisensory experience with texture, smell, even taste, if you wanted to...
Thinking about it makes me wish I was a painter. But I'm not. I'm just another photographer with another digital camera. And even my wildest dream is just another digital photograph.
approximately 1000 ISO on my D70s, at 18mm, no flash. No digital manipulation except adjusting exposure. Not even any sharpening, it brings out the details in the men's faces.
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| Saturday, 23-Sep-2006 07:36 |
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...how they live in Kuala Lumpur
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You know you have to go.
Take all the elements that made life difficult at my FAM football shoot: dark surroundings, bad lighting and a slow lens to catch fast action. Multiply that by a factor of fifty.
Welcome to KL Drift.
Speedway PLUS Karting Circuit, formerly Mofaz Speedzone Elite track.
Subang USJ
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| Thursday, 21-Sep-2006 20:11 |
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Friends and Foes
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Today I went to see a friendly football match. We were covering it as an assignment for our Sports Journalism class. Late on a cloudy day, after the rain, with a slow zoom lens, it was not the ideal situation for some bad-ass action photography. Still, I came away with what I consider some not-so-half-assed shots (if I do say so myself, hehe).
Personally, I like 'em. What do you think?
National Olympic under-21 squad vs MyTeam
FAM, Kelana Jaya
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| Saturday, 19-Aug-2006 09:37 |
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smells like teen spirit
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Here we are now, entertain us...
Induction Aug '06, UiTM Melaka, Alor Gajah.
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).. and then afterwards we can go to mapley to drinkey and hisrok togeder-geder... occay??
I love what you have written here.
