Daily Jots @ d2zone.netMy jots and almost everything else under the sun

Bowling has been my true passion. I’ve been in the game since I was 10 years old and absorbed into the Malaysian National Youth Squad by the time I was 13. From then on I knew that my whole entire life will revolves around bowling. I represented Malaysia for various international tournaments for 10 years and by the time I reached 23, I “retired” from the team. My last major tournament was the Malaysian Open back in 2003. And I haven’t been bowling ever since.

So now I realised that my whole life doesn’t revolve around bowling anymore…physically. But mentally I am always prepared to get back on the lanes and kick some serious arse. Although I left bowling for more than 4 years now, but bowling never left me. I think about the game every single day, 24/7, 365 days a year. An old coach of mine once told me, “Once a bowler, always a bowler.” I guess he knows what I’m feeling now.

Last weekend was the grand finals of the Malaysian Open 2007. I didn’t know about it till I saw the live telecast on Saturday afternoon. Watching my old team mates, Daniel Lim and Alex Liew in the step ladder finals brought me back in time when I was among them bowling in the finals. They didn’t win, but they bowled their heart out for the love of the game. When the telecast is over, they made an announcement that there will be another live telecast on Sunday for a special match between Malaysia and “The Rest of the World”. This time, I won’t watch it on TV. I will be there at the bowling alley to support them instead.

I haven’t been to Sunway Pyramid for quite sometime now. Even when I did, I never step a foot in the bowling center. As I stepped in the bowling center, I was greeted with the same feeling I had a few years back. I felt like I’m a bowler once again. I saw the Malaysian team warming up so I decide to watch them. Alex saw me with a shock expression on his face. Why not? I made an apprearence after 4 years missing from the game. Almost everyone in the team greeted me, except for the new young ones who don’t really know me. They were still alot younger when I was a national bowler then. I wished Alex all the best, and to Zulmazran and Daniel too.

I also met up with some of my old bowling friends, Gerald Samuel and Zulmazlan (elder brother of Zulmazran). Of course, we did alot of catching up too. But Gerald have to leave at that moment, so I guess I’ll catch up with him some other time. I also met Sheqal, my apprentice. I used to be a ball drilling specialist and I thought Sheqal everything I knew. He still drills bowling balls at the proshop, perhaps now it’s my turn to learn from him.

The Malaysian Team were getting ready for the live telecast, so I took my seat at the grandstand area for a good view of the game.

Although I went to the alley to support the national team, but I really want to watch Jason Belmonte of Australia. He is a one of a kind bowler who bowls with both his hands. Usually we would day a right handed bowler or a left handed bowler. But for Jason? Probably the two-handed bowler. I heard of his name in international tournaments and been doing quite well. I finally get to see him in action.

Well, the Malaysian Team didn’t win. But they put up one hell of a fight till the end. Final score, Malaysia 2 – Rest of the World 3. They were playing the point format, just like badminton. 5 bowlers from each team battling one on one to see who wins the match. They bowled 5 games, and Malaysia won 2 of them. The Malaysian representatives were Daniel Lim, Zandra Aziela (the newly crowned Malaysian Open Ladies Champion), Alex Liew, Siti Safiyah (my distant relative which I didn’t think she knew) and Zulmazran Zulkifli.

Then I met up with the singles gold medalist for the Doha Asian Games, Esther Cheah, after the match. She was shocked to see me as well. It went something like this.

Esther: Wah, long time no see. How have you been?

Me: I’ve been good. Work work and more work. You been doing good too I see.

Esther: No lah. Ok only lah. How come you didn’t bowl this time?

Me: I don’t even know about this tournament until I saw the game on TV yesterday. I thought it was next week.

Esther: No wonder la. But have you been bowling?

Me: Nope.

Esther: Really ah?

Me: Almost 4 years already. See me hands, where got like last time. All soft already. And my arm, both same size already.

Esther: And you’re complaining? I wish my hands are like that ler. So, ever think of bowling again?

Me: Yeah. I want to bowl again. But I don’t know when. When will be the next open tournament? I don’t think it’s as much as they used to have right?

Esther: Yalor. Last time got many tournaments for open bowlers. Now not many. Next will be the Penang Pesta and then the National Closed. That’s all la. You should have bowled in this one ler. USD25,000 for first prize wor.

Me: I know. That’s alot of money. But how can I play when I don’t even know it’s on. Hmm…only 2 more tournaments for open ah? Susah la like that. Not many also.

Esther: Why not bowl in the graded category? They have alot of graded tournaments out there. Can make easy money. By the way, you still open or graded already?

Me: Now? I think I’m in the graded already. But if possible, I don’t wanna play in graded.

Esther: Wah. Standard still high hor?

Me: No ler. Ok la. Maybe physically I’m now a graded bowler la. But up here, mentally, I’m still an open bowler. Still high standard.

Esther: Very good la like that. I hope to see you in the next tournament. But you need practice.

Me: Hmmm…since now on record says that I’m a graded bowler. I think I’ll bowl the graded tournament for a year and take it as a practice. Then next Malaysian Open I’ll come and compete in the open division.

Esther: Yes. I think that’s a good idea. I would like to see you back in action.

Me: I think now I need to find my bowling ball la. Or perhaps buy new ones.

Esther: Hahaha. Ok la like that.

By this time, she was swarmed by her fans for a photograph. Seeing her being busy, I told her that I’d catch up with her again some other time. Probably in the next tournament.

I always enjoyed Star Wars movies. Especially during lightsaber fight scenes. Ever think of recreating that scene? These people did.

There are more of these type of lightsaber duel videos out there. You can find one of them here.

If there is a real lightsaber out there, I would love to have one.

Crashed! That’s what happened to my hard disk drive. 3 years worth of data, gone just like that. It’s not my personal files that I’m talking about. I’m talking about the work documents, photos, graphic designs…everything that has to do with work. Okay, perhaps some personal data got effected as well such as MP3s, MTVs and downloaded TV series like Lost and Heroes. But to lose all that without warning, is such a pain.

These things happened to me before. But at least I get to salvage my critical items by taking the HDD out and place it in another PC as a slave drive, that if the HDD is still able to read and write datas. But what happened to mine this time was a total loss. The damn HDD went out like a light. At first it made the weird sound with the inside pin which sounded like a loud tapping. That itself hung up my system and put it to a complete halt, after which my PC restarted by itself. Then that’s when the nightmare happened. First the tapping sound got real loud, then, nothing. Complete nothing. Silence as if it was switched off.

Dammit!

That was the first word that came out of my mouth when my HDD failed on me. And I repeated that word over and over again that I can’t remember how many times I said it. That’s how bad it was. And that’s how bad I felt. Even a worse feeling that I had when my PC was stolen a few years back at this very same office, and almost the similar type of datas. My buddy Ron have had the same problems too. That’s plural. Meaning it happened to him many times  before. Now I really know how he felt when his HDD crashed and made all his data do a disappearing act.

Now I have to redo all the templates, HR documents, memorandums, reports and databases. Thank god some of the datas are stored in the document server. But those that were kept in my PC were equally important. Well, time to install a RAID controller now.

Aaarrrggghhhh!!!

Last night we celebrated Morris’ birthday at home with a nice coffee flavoured cake. Laura bought the cake from King’s I think. It was nice and creamy. Damn, and I’m supposed to be on a diet. Can’t get anything for Morris yet, perhaps having dinner at the Seoul Bulgogi Korean BBQ when Geena is back in town next week would be nice. Meantime, check out the photos.

The cake! Yummy!

Singing the birthday song.

Potong cepat!!! Dah lapor ni.

A Guy goes into a bar with his pet octopus and says :
“I bet $500 that no one here has a musical instrument that this octopus can’t play”.

The people in the bar look around and someone fetches out an old guitar.

The octopus has a look, picks it up, tunes up the strings and starts playing the guitar. The octopus’s owner pockets the 500 bucks.

Next guy comes up with a trumpet, octopus takes the horn, loosens up the keys, licks its lips and starts playing a jazz solo.

The guy hands over another 500 bucks to the octopus’s owner.

The bar owner has been watching all this and disappears out back, coming back a few
moments later with a set of bagpipes under his arm. He puts them on the bar and say’s to the guy and his octopus :
“now if your octopus can play that I’ll give you a 1000 dollars”.

The octopus takes a look at the bagpipes, lifts it up, turns it over, has another look from another angle. Puzzled, the octopus’s owner comes up and says :
“What are you pissing around for? Hurry up and play the damn thing !”
The octopus says “Play it? If I can work out how to get it’s pyjama’s off i’m gonna ‘’sleep” with it!!”

After a whole day of running errants for the office, I finally have some free time to rest and relax in my office room. 

I got the idea of manipulating images using Photoshop one day after stumbling upon a website from one of Firefox’s extension, StumbleUpon. I can’t remember the name of that website. I knew I should have bookmarked it. That particular website gives a few good Photoshop tutorials on how to manipulate and bring graphic images to life, like 3D.

After a quick look at the tutorials, I got an idea on how to go about creating that 3D effect on any photos taken with a digital camera.

Here’s the original photo that I have of my cats. It looks simple and plain. But after manipulating the photo using Photoshop and following some of the tips given by the tutorials, I manage create a quite good looking 3D like graphics.

Tadaa! Now I managed to get the photo to look like this. The 3D effect comes to life. But it is still abit dull and boring. What to do next? I know…add some background graphics and words to it.

Now this is what I’m talking about. The final “product”. After adding a background patern and a simple wordings in the background, the photo really comes to life.

Playing with Photoshop is really not that hard. I have been using Photoshop for almost 8 years now. But since I’ve started working in my current company, I have lost my touch with graphics and web designs. This is kinda like my own exercise to keep myself close to what I love most, designing.

Anyway, the image manipulation like above is not something new. I’ve seen many similar graphics done by Photoshop geeks out there. I’ve even seen some Malaysian bloggers managed to create their own versions of 3D like graphics like I did. Nevertheless, it’s fun when you can play with Photoshop.

So…like what I did with the photo above? Maybe one day I can create my own tutorials on how to play with Photoshop.