.: ShaolinTiger - Kung-Fu Geekery :.

Now this is something that really irks me...

I first encountered it when I joined some Malaysian photography forums a couple of years back, there was a lot of "Wow nice pics, what camera did you use?!" - usually stated with horrible grammar and spelling.

I was a member of a bunch of more International forums too and noticed that I didn't really see that so much, I got more involved in Flickr then and hardly ever saw it there - perhaps because the EXIF info is more easily available (EXIF show what settings and camera were used).

But then there are plugins for Firefox that can show you EXIF in pictures too (Opanda, FxIF, EXIF Viewer) if you really want to know what was used to take the picture, I think it's more important for people to check the settings rather than the camera used.

But why do they care what lens and camera was used? How does it matter? If it's more expensive, or a top-end camera does that mean I have less skill in taking a nice picture?

You don't meet a published author and say "Hey I read your book, it was really good - what typewriter did you use?"

Wouldn't that be considered a big insult?

It's just a tool that achieves an end result, it's not what makes the picture. Given a better camera makes it EASIER to take pictures in certain situations and certainly makes changing settings and start-up faster..but it doesn't effect the exposure, composition, concept or understanding of light displayed by the photographer.

The sensor in a low end dSLR and a high end is often the same, the difference is the build quality of the body, the external buttons (high end cameras have a LOT more buttons) and the speed of processing/taking pictures (faster processor and bigger buffer).

The image quality (known as IQ) is about the same, the photographer is making the difference.

Lenses make more of a difference, but at web size (500-800) pixels a shot with a low-end kit lens (like the Nikon or Canon 18-55) and a high end f/2.8 lens at mid range aperture (f/5.6-8) are indistinguishable.

So really it doesn't matter either, and that is why it irks me.

It's one of the reasons why I stayed on Flickr more than the local forums, and then got tired of both and started Shutter Asia - we totally avoid any gearheads if possible (people who think buying the latest most expensive gear will give you awesome pictures and ALWAYS ask "Wow nice bokeh, what lens did you use?") and we avoid any hero worshiping of 'senior' or 'sifu' photographers that take crappy pics but have expensive gear.

There's an endemic in the photography scene in Malaysia at the moment, all you need to do to get praised is:

1) Take a picture of a pretty girl (doesn't have to be that pretty)
2) Use a long lens with a wide aperture and get creamy bokeh (85mm f/1.8, 135mm f2/0, 70-200mm f/2.8)

People will worship you like you're a God. You can have a crappy exposure, blown highlights, green whitebalance, bad composition (chopped limbs) but as long as you have the girl and the bokeh you are super kau pro photographer.

All you need to do is browse some of the famous photographers on Flickr and see they are using 3.2 megapixel compact cameras....yeah they can't blow up their pics to 40"x30" prints - but they still are making superb images.

Pick any brand, any compact camera and you'll find superb images.

So please don't insult people by asking what camera or lens they use, just appreciate their pics, give some feedback and constructive criticism if possible. The picture they took is pretty much possible with any camera and lens, it's their skill and vision that made the image - not the camera.

Never forget that.

How stupid (or just plain unfortunate) can people get seriously?

Eighth Place: In Detroit, a 41-year-old man got stuck and drowned in two feet of water after squeezing head first through an 18-inch-wide sewer grate while trying to retrieve his car keys.

Seventh Place: A 49-year-old San Francisco stockbroker -- who often bragged he was 'totally-zoned when he ran' -- accidentally jogged off a 100-foot high cliff on his daily workout.

Sixth Place: While at the beach, Daniel Jones, 21, dug an 8-foot hole for protection from the wind and had been sitting in a beach chair at the bottom when it collapsed, burying him beneath 5 feet of sand. People on the beach used their hands and shovels trying to get him out but could not reach him. It took rescue workers using heavy equipment almost an hour to free him. Jones was pronounced dead at a local hospital.

Fifth Place: Santiago Alvarado, 24, was killed as he fell through the ceiling of a bicycle shop he was burglarizing. Death was caused when the long flashlight he had placed in his mouth to keep his hands free rammed into the base of his skull as he hit the floor.

Fourth Place: Sylvester Briddell, Jr., 26, was killed as he won a bet with friends who said he would not put a revolver loaded with four cartridges into his mouth and pull the trigger.

Third Place: After stepping around a marked police patrol car parked at the front door, a man walked into H & J Leather & Firearms intent on robbing the store. The shop was full of customers and a uniformed officer was standing at the counter. Upon seeing the officer, the would-be robber announced a hold-up, and fired a few wild shots from a target pistol. The officer and a clerk promptly returned fire, and several customers also drew their guns and fired. The robber was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. Crime scene investigators located 47 expended cartridge cases in the shop. The subsequent autopsy revealed 23 gunshot wounds. Ballistics identified rounds from seven different weapons. No one else was hurt.

HONORABLE MENTION: Paul Stiller, 47, and his wife Bonnie were bored just driving around at 2 A.M. so they lit a quarter stick of dynamite to toss out the window to create some excitement. Apparently they failed to notice the window was closed.

RUNNER UP: Kerry Bingham had been drinking with several friends when one of them said they knew a person who had bungee-jumped from a local bridge in the middle of traffic. The conversation grew more heated and at least 10 men trooped along the walkway of the bridge at 4:30 AM. Upon arrival at the midpoint of the bridge, they discovered that no one had brought a bungee rope. Bingham, who had continued drinking, volunteered and pointed out that a coil of lineman's cable lay nearby. They secured one end around Bingham's leg and tied the other to the bridge. His fall lasted 40 feet before the cable tightened and tore his foot off at the ankle. He miraculously survived his fall into the icy water and was rescued by two nearby fishermen. Bingham's foot was never located.

AND THE 2007 WINNER IS...
Zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt (Paderborn , Germany) fed his constipated elephant 22 doses of a animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes, before the plugged-up pachyderm finally got relief.

Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive oil enema when the beast suddenly unloaded. The sheer force of the elephant's unexpected defecation knocked Mr. Riesfeldt to the ground where he struck his head on a rock as the elephant continued to evacuate 200 pounds of dung on top of him. It seems to be just one of those freak accidents that once again proves...'Shit happens!'

Beat that, actually killed by a shower of shit from a constipated elephant!

Source: PerthNow

Note: These are not the REAL Darwin Awards - some are true and some are not, you can read it on Snopes 2006 Darwin Awards. The real Darwin Awards for 2007 have just been released, but aren't so funny. Sloppy journalism by News.au eh?

Ok so to continue my particularly bad week....

My chair breaks, my car gets damaged and then my computer starts playing up....I didn't even have the mood to tidy up the apartment which is starting to resemble some kind of paper recycling plant/rubbish dump.

Anyway, I went over to Plaza Damas to get some pancakes at Paddington's (a little disappointing) and I was on my way out, the machine to validate my parking ticket was broken, so I went to find another, drove around and around, and decided to go up to look.

As I was peering down the various nooks and crannies to attempt to locate the evasive machine...I went up a ramp without looking properly. I didn't realise it was FUCKED and it was going to crush part of my car.

Suffice to say I heard a noise that made me hope it wasn't bad....but accept the fact there was some damage.

Little did I know the front spoiler would be crushed..

Yeah it doesn't look that bad, but trust me...it's just what I REALLY don't need right now.

Hopefully my new chair will arrive, push me into an energetic fit of cleaning, my computer will work fine...after I replace it's new power supply (bought a 650W Coolermaster REAL POWER PRO from Digital Mall at the weekend)...and everything will be hunky dory for the end of the year.

Will post about that later when I get it in.

OMG I'm so bored.

The food is boring, the people are boring, the project is boring, the place is boring, the buildings are boring.

At least it's not so hot here now, winter is coming and it's a very pleasant 20 degrees most of the time.

I can even walk back to the skanky service appartment wearing a jacket and not feel hot.

People here just eat flatbread and homous, or well 5 dishes or cream coloured stuff that all looks and tastes pretty much like homous..

And some grilled bbq shit like kebabs, which don't taste of anything really.

At least there's a croissant shop downstairs which does good chocolate croissants.

Even the indomee here tastes lousy..I had some at the appt last night whilst watching Ronin.

I went through all 213 channels on the cable TV, there is only 5 in English.

This place is ghetto, seriously.

At least I've managed to catch up with some decent movies...I finally got to see Gangs of New York, I bought the DVD about 4 years ago, but never watched it because it was a screener.

Good flick actually.

I'm not even motivated to take pictures of anything because it's such an oppressive place and it's so boring and brown and sandy.

I might take some pictures of the appt just to show how shit it is.

Every car here is beat-up, they drive like nutcases and have some kind of mental issues where they HAVE to make their tyres squeal round every corner.

And they beep immediately when the traffic lights turn green..just in case the person at the front didn't notice.

Plus the restaurants here have two sections, the family section and the single section, which is kinda weird at first.

It took me about 3 days to realise I hadn't actually seen a woman since I'd been here, there is non in the office (which is very strange for me as my office is full of 'em).

Then there's this annoying guy I have to work with who can't shut up, he's the one that has to crack jokes and put puns into every conversation...even though non of the jokes are funny and the puns aren't witty.

Everyone entertained him for a couple of days, but now his lame quips fall on silence, which is kinda akward. I wish he'd get the message and dose himself up a good portion of STFU.

The weekend is totally whacked here too, now is Sunday, but it's Tuesday...I'm in the office and was yesterday aswell, because Thursday was Saturday and Friday was Sunday, so really Saturday is Monday..

Got it?

(sarcasm) Yes I'm really enjoying travelling and soaking up new and interesting cultures. (/sarcasm)

Oh dear...I really wish there were something positive about this, other than the fact it'll be over soon, WHICH IT BETTER BE.

The end.

Cindy finds out the house she lives in is haunted by a little boy and goes on a quest to find out who killed him and why. Also, Alien "Tr-iPods" are invading the world and she has to uncover the secret in order to stop them.

Wacky crazy film, just like the other 3...Scary Movie 2 was a pile of poop though, I have to say that, the others were pretty entertaining.

It's doing ok on IMDB with a 5.2, not bad for this kind of film.

The main spoofs are War of the Worlds, The Village, Saw, Brokeback Mountain and Million Dollar Baby.

I haven't seen The Village, so I couldn't follow those parts so well, but the rest were bang on and Leslie Neilsen as the president of the US was great.

There were also amusing cameos from Dr Phil, Shaquil O'Neil and Chingy.

Anna Faris as Cindy was great in her own bimboish way, she's been in every Scary Movie since the start, so she's an old hand at it now.

Carmen Electra showed up looking amazingly attractive as usual too.

There were plenty of stupid jokes and slaspstick humour as expected, the line of the film for me was:

Tom Ryan: [after hitting Cindy with a baseball] Oh, hey, I'm sorry!
Cindy Campbell: Oh, it's okay. I've taken balls to the face before.

Scary Movie 5 is rumoured for 2008, I guess I'll be watching that one too.

If you like this kind of movie, it's definately worth watching.

I'd give it a lame but funny 6/10.

4 jobs you’ve had in your life: - This is tough...I've had 40-50 jobs
System Administrator - West Midlands, UK
3-tier Database Developer - London, UK
Door to Door Salesmen for Double Glazing - Birmingham, UK
Information Security Professional - KL, Malaysia

4 movies you could watch over and over:
Face Off - Because it's totally best action movie EVAR
Jay and Silent Bob - Because it ALWAYS has me in stitches
Pulp Fiction - Because it's one of the COOLEST movies evar made.
City of God - Because it's beautiful and profound

4 TV shows you love(d) to watch: - I don't really watch TV but..
Band of Brothers
Quantum Leap
Baywatch
Any of the BBC Science series

4 places you’ve lived:
Liverpool, UK
Bangor, UK
London, UK
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

4 places you’ve been on vacation to:
Thailand
Austria
Amsterdam
France

4 places you would rather be: - Quite happy here right now.
Anywhere with Skiiing
Anywhere with SCUBA Diving
Anywhere I can drive supercars super fast
Anywhere I can eat too much and not get fat

4 of your favourite foods: - I could list 400..
English Breakfast
Japanese Food (Sushi and Sashimi)
Ramly Burgers
Almost everything in Penang

4 websites you visit daily: - I'm gonna be self-centered
My Blog
My Other Blog
My Forum
Google Homepage

4 (victims) tagged:
Dabido
spiller
Kuzco
Paul Tan

UPDATE - Please also read :

Xia Xue vs ShaolinTiger - Round 2

Xia Xue vs ShaolinTiger Round 3 - In Reply to the Comments

Today children we will be discussing dumb tourists, judgemental idiots, ignorant buffoons and whinging bitches.

Sounds like a whole bucket of fun eh?

Happy 48th Birthday Malaysia, we love you, even if some photoshopped ugly ho's from Singapore don't.

Fact (or Fiction) 1 - Taxi Drivers

Taxi drivers all over the world are dishonest, if they see you are a tourist (pretty obvious in my case), they will try and con you somehow, if it's Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, they will just skip using the meter and charge you a fixed (inflated) price, which if you don't know better, you won't use.

Especially in Malaysia, they'll even do it to locals, the Taxi's are not regulated very well here so you can expect it. Just make sure they use the meter or don't take the cab, that's common sense, or if it's rush hour, you won't get a metered cab so agree on a decent price before getting in the cab.

In UK or Singapore or other countries that are strict on meter use, they will just drive you round in a couple of huge meters, add on some extra magic surcharges to inflate the price.

Fact (or Fiction) Number 2 - Things in KL are not cheap

That's true, if you go to Starhill or KLCC obviously, duh..

And it depends how you define cheap, you have to know what you are looking for and what the price should be. Proper shopping is found in 1 Utama, Ikano, Mid Valley and my Favourite for all things Sungei Wang (and Low Yat of course for I.T stuff and telecomms) definately NOT at KLCC or BerGAYa Times Square. There are bargains to be had for sure and things are pretty cheap here, I find them much cheaper than Singapore for example, of course not as cheap as somewhere like Vietnam or Thailand..

Fact (or Fiction) Number 3 - Petaling Street Sucks

No shit? I know people from Malaysia, who've lived all their lives in KL who have never been to Petaling Street.

It's a huge tourist trap, I do buy some things from there, but you have to be savvy, you have to know exactly what you want, and how much it should be. The quality of the watches is extremely high if you know which stalls to go to and what you are looking for. You have to be a pro in haggling and have a good eye for quality. Sunglasses are good and cheap, just check the lenses have the correct focus point, sometimes they don't and they'll subsequently give you a headache.

Bags/wallets etc are ok there, some are great quality, but most are following fashion, and they are ugly as sin.

You go to Petaling Street for the experience of Petaling Street, and to eat, some great food can be found in that area, it's not particularly cheap, but it's very good. If you shop there, shop with someone who knows the prices and when you have specific things in mind (I go there for my Oakley's before diving season starts, I don't want to pay RM800 for a real pair, then get it crushed by an air tank).

Fact (or Fiction) Number 4 - KL foodcourts are more expensive than Singapore

This is frankly not at all true, if you eat in some low quality shitty foodcourt in the middle of KL, it will be expensive and bad, that's just common sense.

If you go to a decent place like the foodcourt in SS2 you'll get good food at a normal price (cheaper AND better than the foodcourts I've tried in Singapore).

The only food I find good in Singapore is the expensive stuff, like those hotel buffets and the 'good' resturants, there is some good food in Geylang too, but other than that, the quality of day to day normal food is so-so.

Fact (or Fiction) Number 5 - KL sales suck

This is pretty much true, KL has sales every few months, so they aren't massive, prices are just lower generally. Like I can get things cheaper in UK during sales than anywhere in Asia, because the sales are real sales. Singapore Sales are better than Malaysian fake pseudo-sales.

Not everything is 10% though, you often get 40-60% off during sales, but only on selected lines.

Fact (or Fiction) Number 6 KL Fashion Sucks

Yeah this is true, if you go to Times Square or Sungei Wang to buy clothes, duh...Even Sg Wang has some decent shops, you just have to look, Times Square is just a disaster though.

KLCC has all the normal boring stuff, I suggest heading to 1 Utama, The Curve, Ikano or Mid Valley for better buys.

General

In general, I can judge because I not a Malaysian, I don't have a patriotic requirement to defend my country, because my country is UK not Malaysia. So why?

Because I live here, I know what it's like, I've been to all the tourist places and the non-tourist places, I have been a tourist here and now I am no longer a tourist..

For me Malaysia is much better than Singapore, I don't mind visiting Singapore but the people there are weird, I think it's a matter of in breeding, it's such a small country everyone must be related to everyone else in some way or another. The shopping is better there, but it's freaking expensive, may as well go back to UK during sales, get better quality stuff for cheaper.

The food in Singapore in general is boring and of mediocre quality, unless you fork out a fortune to eat in one of the big hotels for ala carte or buffet, those are GREAT!

The public transport in Singapore is excellent, in Malaysia it's virtually non-existent, but it's improving, I don't have a mile long restriction on owning a vehicle. I feel free in Malaysia, in Singapore I feel like all the citizens are dogs on leashes being pushed around into little boxes by the government. I've spent quite a lot of time in Singapore, staying with locals (Actually a Malaysian lady who married a Singaporean guy and moved there).

On another note I hate people that don't stick to their convictions either, if you have a point stick with it, don't pussy out.

This post is dedicated to Xia Xue and her post:

KL pretty much sucked.

Seems to have lost her balls too:

I tried to hold my tongue but I can't

MALAYSIA BOLEH!

UPDATE - Please also read :

Xia Xue vs ShaolinTiger - Round 2

Xia Xue vs ShaolinTiger Round 3 - In Reply to the Comments