Jack Of All Trades...

I just got back from KL tonight. The flight was pretty much empty. My guess would be about 30 persons at the most. I arrived in KL yesterday evening. It was for my usual business trip. Met some suppliers and also sat and had a chat with my boss. Politics plays a major role in a country's economy. As I have said in my earlier posts Langkawi seems 'unkept' and after today's chat with the boss it becomes clearer. Ever since Kedah changed 'management' so to speak everything has changed... including certain regulations pertaining to land which is why the project is somewhat delayed. Anyway, that's for my boss to settle.

I was looking forward to go back this time as I was eager to pick up my mail which was couriered to my new office in KL two weeks back from the old place. I was anxious to pick up my subscription magazine... Digital Camera Magazine. I have been dabbling with photography for quite a while and decided to pay a bit more attention to it sometime early last year. The magazine has a section with a little competition where it gives you a theme and you shoot according to the theme and submit it and the winner wins a small prize. I submitted some shots last year for the theme 'Food' but I didn't expect anything as they weren't that good anyway and one of it was from my N95.

Two months back the theme was 'Feeling Blue' and I felt I had a couple of shots in my archive which matched the theme well... so I submitted two. I had a pretty good feeling about it hence my anxiousness to get my hands on the magazine. I got my mail... flipped through it and pulled the magazine out first. Ripped the wrapper apart in a jiffy and started flipping through... wow... I suddenly felt my ass start to expand to the size of "Gloria's" ass... there it was... one of my submissions. I didn't win but they normally feature the final 12 and mine was one of them. Oh wow... I just felt that I had to share this with everyone. This is the scan of my submission... at the bottom of the page.

Page 39 of DCM, Issue 52 April 2010. Out There section...

The magazine version and the scanned version really does not do the original any justice... as nice as it looks, the digital version is way, way better... so I dug through my e-mail and found the original version that I submitted to the magazine and here it is... best viewed large so click on the picture to view it large.

This is the view from unit 22-C-4 of Vistana Condo. If you look at my Flickr page there are a few other shots that I took from the same balcony of sunrises and sunsets which are worth looking at.

The following month the theme was Creative Portraits... and I have a shitload of Ayu's portraits so I submitted a few. Let's see if I get lucky again next month.

I am lucky... really... so Frankie and Jeff weren't entirely wrong when they said that my success in my career was a matter of luck.... whatever.... all I am saying is that I am lucky in the sense that I am a Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None... I have been gifted as such... ever since I was a child... whatever I did, I was quite good at it... I learn fast... let's see what I accomplished... I am doing this out of memory so I will skip what I am not sure of... to be sure I would have to go back to my mom's place to see what trophies are still there.

I have bronzes, silvers and golds for 50m and 100m runs in primary school and I even went for MSSS. Hmmm... what else? Gold medal for high jump in secondary school... I think it was Form Four or Five... and I got that medal jumping onto solid ground... no cushions ok? What a joke right? School team for hockey. School team for badminton... now I think I MAY qualify for BED-minton... School team and state selections for volleyball. School team for chess... and I remember losing to this nerd in St. Johns... since I was done and had nothing to do I played a friendly with some dude, and I whacked him in 11... yes... 11 steps. Then there's bowling... I was pretty good too (top score is 232... my max was 4 strikes in a row, 6 in a game) up until I broke my arm... I can still bowl but I guess I need to do some realignment. Hahahahaha....

Then when I started work I joined a bartender's competition... and I actually won... hahaha... I remember borrowing Tom Cruise's Cocktail video and watching it over and over again... I broke some windows in my home and almost broke my ex-GF's head too. I then represented Malaysia the following year in the Asia Pacific bartender's competition. Then I took a liking in pool... British Pool and eventually entered a competition... it was a sudden death competition and I made it to the last 4 for the singles (out of 256) ... I beat my cousin in the last 8 and she was good... yes, SHE... then her BF took revenge on me. Hahaha... In that same competition I took part in the Mixed Doubles for the fun of it. My partner, didn't show... so I had no choice but to replace with one of my part time staff who could not even hold the cue let alone bridge. And we won... what a joke... but we won as there were only two mixed doubles teams. It was funny... really funny. Funny because this reminds me of Lian being reported seen in someone's car 'hiding' when the car passed the staff entrance.

Then now photography... I wonder how far I will go with this. But to say that I am a master of none is not accurate. There are two things that I am a master of... Bullshitting and drinking... those were the days... don't you miss those days? The days of flying Beng-Wiras... one day I shall relate that to all of you.