World, here I come

Do we need a theme for a new year? Well I don't think so.

In fact, I don't really believe in the stuff we call 'New Year's Resolution'.. But as we're approaching to the end of year 2007, my life approaches to some endings in various perspectives -- I'm checking out Impiana Hotel tomorrow, checking out my 4-month 'expatriate lifestyle' tomorrow; I finished my thesis and hence officially ending my student life towards end of the year 2007 -- the whole situation affects me both mentally and maybe emotionally, and it made me somehow think that 2008 will be a whole new kick-start for me, and hence I'm thinking of a theme for it.

And hey guess what I managed to grab something out of my almost-invalid student identity and it opened up opportunities for me to explore the world in the year ahead by using all the privileges of being a 'student' -- Yeap, as you can see in the picture, that's my UNIESCO-endorsed International Student Identity Card (ISIC), read up the link and you'll know what are the 'opportunities' about.

My point is rather straightforward here. See how the circle works? We're getting to the end of something, and at the same time we're beginning a lot of new ventures --

Yes I'm checking out from those luxurious hotels but I'm so much looking forward to stay into a little apartment that I'm going to share with 2 buddies of mine;

Yes I'm no more a student and no more having those conveniences of quiting office hours sesuka hati, but I think I'm ready to be back to my position in the industry.. (and yet, by having ISIC, I still can enjoy the privileges of being a student, worldwide) ;

Yes year 2007 is finishing (Gosh another 23 hours to go..), but 2008 is coming, with new friendships, new families, new outdoor plans (Fariz my dearest big brother, this is for you and me!), new travel destinations, new diving trips, new hobbies (a photography studio, maybe.. *smirk*) and old pals coming back...... 2008 is so much anticipated with ALL the new buzz!

So have I thought a theme for 2008 and for myself?

Goodbye, 2007. Welcome, 2008. World, here I come. HAPPY NEW YEAR to all!!

A rendezvous

"Hey you are so much thinier than I thought..."
"... and you're not as tall as I imagined..."

Ok, obvious enough. They met for the very first time, face to face, after knowing each other virtually for more than a year -- Yeah Jannah, you dropped by my blog and left your first comment in the post entitled "Love is in the air", dated 2nd September, 2006.

Still remember those old days where we made jokes about the half-blind date meeting up our pen pal whom we never knew how he/she look like or even the gender? Yeah obviously this kind of joke is extinct in the era of ..erm.. internet.. But that does not mean that the 'half-blind' date is not anymore exist.

The dinosaur is still here, it just switched into another form of appearance. Well what I'm trying to say here is, yeah you don't have to worry about 'is a she or he or he-she that I'm going to meet' or 'will I eventually fall in love at first sight' yada yada.. but there are still something bothering about meeting someone whom you were virtually in contact with.

"Do I walk too fast for you? Let me know if you find hard to keep up the pace..."
"Is that your normal behavior to talk in English?"
"Do you always laugh like crying?"
"I like that blue. Do you like that blue?"
"Do you really like green?"
"You don't really go for fast food, do you?"

---- Yeah things like these. We asked weird questions, like kids meeting their favorite cartoon characters in real life -- so familiar yet so uncertain.

Nevertheless, the date went naturally smooth. Only a few occasionally shocking moments that made me rejudged the sanity of the girl. For example, erm.. for example.. hmmm.. hey how could you consider a girl as a complete sane creature when she suddenly burst into loud laugh when an emotionally intensive scene was rolling on the big screen and everybody in the cinema was almost in tears?

"If we have a bigger blogger gathering it would be cool, kan?" "Yeah, we should ask Sayuti, Flo-C and even Red Ruby out next time, ULAM panels reunion..."
"Hah.. what happened to ULAM?"
"..........."

The dinner was cool, not about the food, but the atmosphere, and the live band. Personally I thought I shouldn't go out with a girl until night time, but her 'Cinderella Time' was in fact up to the last LRT train. "Huh?!! You actually allocate one whole day time for this date?" I once asked her with all the innocence that you could think of from a Kampong boy, and I forgot what was her response. I hope she did not think that I AM SUCH A NERD or what ever equals to that.

..Nevertheless, I got to admit that I think she's a DRAMA QUEEN to me.. bubbly, adorable, but still a DRAMA QUEEN. Just look at the way she posed to the big face of Josh Holloway of Davidoff billboard or James 'Sawyer' Ford of Lost, well.. hmm.. as if he could realy feel her..

Owh whatever, maybe the whole day for both of us, was truly a day where people we only in touch through a screen, came alive.

ps.. what this Drama Queen says about the date and me? Here.

The reason to get wet..

Yes I know, my hometown in Kelantan is very flooded. I could imagine my house over there is like an island appears in the middle of ocean, and I miss the flood in my hometown -- I know I know the death toll is climbing -- but the fact said it true, flooding season is like carnival in Kelantan.

And here's a Kelantanese lad who used to spend all his childhood anticipating flooding season to complete his year-end school holiday, now trapped in KL, far far away from his childhood playground.

Miserable? Yes if he did not find a way to get out of the blue. So, a white water rafting trip in Slim River, Perak sounded perfect enough for him.

With a group of cool wet-getters, sunk and dunk in the rocky stream of Slim River, huff and puff along the white water current, thrilled by capsizing moment, laugh out loud while getting REAL wet...

Reasons to get wet? New friendship, back to nature, for fun, escapism, back to childhood days.............. WAIT, do we really need any reason for that?

"Rafters, hold your rope, sit in, LET'S GET WET!!"

A world that fits..

Out of a very sudden he felt like he's just like a piece of puzzle, the piece of jigsaw puzzle who is still looking for the right place to fit himself into the world.

Life could be simpler, but he chose the complicated one. It's complicated with controversy. While he has no any strong life philosophy to back him up, sometime the 'puzzled' feeling dragged him down, emotionally and spiritually.

A recent picture-hunt outing chilled his mind out and reminded him about a world that fits.

"You gotta raise your camera and aim through the viewfinder in order to snap a picture. People might look at you curiously and they might even shout at you when they feel uncomfortable to be aimed at -- and this is definitely normal, " his gut feeling tells him this.

".. you just need to be in a world that fits your behavior. A world where people don't mind to be aimed at, don't mind smiling to you when you're trying to snap their portrait ---

-- A world that fits your behavior, your act, your intention and your passion."

He went to Central Market. A place where people can sing and dance and showcase their passion on the street without getting any people feel annoyed. This is the world that fits for these artists.

..but how many worlds that can actually fit them in except Central Market? How many worlds that can fit his philosophy, his passion, and his behavior in this mama-said-everything-need-to-be-accordingly-in-place world?

This is a piece of puzzle, this is your maverick.

...of being eventful and packed..

Literary, I called it "EVENTFUL".

But do note that the word 'EVENTFUL' here comes together with huff and puff and rush, plus a lot of fun and fun and fun.

.. and seriously, I can't do the thinking now, regarding how should I put the whole stuff into this post.. let's just.. hmm --

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This was the most recent one. It was the annual Hari Raya Celebration of our own department. OK I'll try to put this to be sounded as humble as possible: I know the seniors just love to have this event organized by us, the young ones -- for whatever reasons you could think of, but 'having MORE FUN' is definitely one of it.

I happened to be pulled into this fun pool of organizing the event without realizing exactly when and how.. (.. but I sort of knowing the reason, will explain later.. ) Regardless of all the huff and puff which happened along the process of putting-up the show, being able to meet a bunch of new cool friends is one of most precious thing I got out of the fun pool, and realizing that these new cool friends are actually living under the same roof in the company, it hypes me up and up again.

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This happened on last Sunday. I had a date with Mr Terry Fox, I mean, the late Mr Terry Fox. PETRONAS sponsors a team for the charity run. The run is to fund-raise for The Terry Fox Foundation. Click HERE if you want to know more about the foundation.

I was carrying my DSLR 'Nicka' while running -- I thought it wouldn't be a problem; I thought having a 14 hours of sleep (NOTE: 14 hours of sleep to compensate my last 34 hours of staying awake. Gonna explain later...) was more than enough for my to get freshly kick-started for the run; I thought I have had practiced enough for the run; I thought merely 6.5km was still within my endurance level --

-- but things turned into something else when I felt my DSLR was getting heavier and heavier; my breath just couldn't got synchronized with my pace as I was running in a forestry area which forced me to puff a lot; and another dramatic surprise was, I ran into extended route which, seriously I did not know how long had I ran until I saw the finishing line.

It was not an easy run for me to be very frank, as I couldn't concentrate enough on the run. But I did a lot of reflections during the run when I compared my tiny effort to of the Late Mr Terry Fox. There was a marshal whom I encountered in the middle of the route, showing a short-cut to some participants while saying out loud this:

"Nobody's judging you... but Terry Fox wouldn't take a short cut for sure..."

Well, whether or not you think that was sarcasms, for me, that was painful enough to hear especially when you're about to turn into the shortcut like I almost did.


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This was the reason why I stayed awake for 34 hours on last Friday to Saturday. And this was also the probably the main reason why I was in the fun pool of organizing committee of Hari Raya Celebration. ...and for those who wondered about my 'very weird' question posted on Yahoo Messenger few weeks ago regarding the acronym 'MSK', well this is all about it.

Yup, to you all, and especially to Claire, this is our project about -- A filming of an Aidilfitri short video, to be showed during our annual Hari Raya Celebration of our department. And yup, Claire, as you can see from the pictures, we proceeded with 'green screen' or 'Chroma Key' technique, because we needed to create a non-existed MAKTAB SUKAN KEDAH, which brings to the acronym: 'M-S-K' (Tada~~!!)

The shooting of the video started last week with a super duper tight shooting schedule. Well, to be frank this wasn't my FIRST experience of doing filming but this definitely was my VERY FIRST TIME holding a camera and yielded 'CAMERA ROLL!' or 'ACTION!' or 'CUT!' or whatever command I needed to give, in order to put the whole things jived as close as possible to what Azlan and I imagined during the script-writing and screen-playing phase.

This time round I did not have my old team of filming which I used to work with (Fariz, Azlan Ali and Azrul; read more here if you want), but I was so grateful to have Azlan a.k.a. King Kong to be my partner as I strongly believe that both of us have the same mechanism of generating ideas, and almost the same view on the imagination of the outcome.

Not to forget the whole team of committee who settle all the logistic issues almost at the snap of fingers. And the talented actor Nik and actress Pedot.

And to you Claire again, no I'm not going to show you the video here. Sorry for that, but I what I can tell here is, Alhamdullilah, we have not received any negative feedback regarding the video yet. I really hope everybody will love it.

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.. yes I know, YES I KNOW ---- I'm STILL working on my MSc. thesis. I do not abandoned or gave it up *yet*, even though all the activities I have been participating in were much much much more interesting than the boring thesis.

..but.., c'mon. I'd rather die if you ask me to sit still in front of my desk and do nothing except my thesis. I was the bad and stupid student who skipped classes and went for mountain hiking and made myself darn tired, twice, remember?

Docking of a dream..

Watching the live telecast of Astro from International Space Station (ISS) answered one of my trillion questions regarding living in outer-space -- YES, we can take pictures in outer-space!!!

About 9 minutes before I saw crew in ISS snapping pictures using their compact digital camera and also digital SLRs while waiting for the hatch to be opened, and let their 3 new crew members walk into ISS from Soyuz TMA-11.

One of the new members who newly departed from planet Earth, is Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Al Masrie.

Soyuz TMA-11 and ISS docked just now, and now I believe the hatch now is the only door separated Dr Sheikh from fulfilling the dream, after blasted-off on 10.10.2007 on 21:21 hours, of living in outer-space.

(00:13hrs Malaysian time. Equalization of pressure between ISS and Soyuz TMA-11 is still going on. Hatch not yet opened.)

Back to the question regarding taking pictures under zero gravity circumstance, I believe digital camera helps. Not sure whether a camera with film can operate properly -- WHY BOTHER? you might have thought so. Just like some of my friends who don't bother to care enough of the programme, and so of them even complaint about this hundred-million-dollar project is actually a waste of money.

But -- --

(0021hrs Malaysian time. I heard a crew saying "WELCOME ON BOARD" -- the hatch has opened!)

-- --but, sorry to say, I was so hyped up on the day of blasting off, and I could feel my heart throbbing when the moment the rocket launched and blasted off from the Earth. I don't care the debate about the rationality of the Angkasawan program, I strongly believe most of us are excited about the program as I am, just because of one reason -- there's still a little kid living inside us.

What else could I say about sending a Malaysian Angkasawan to the outer-space? When I was asked about my ambition when I was 6, I drew a picture of an astronaut and pasted it on the wall in the living hall -- THIS is what I could say about sending a Malaysian Angkasawan to the outer-space.

It's about a dream of every boys, no matter how old he is, the boy is still inside his body, the "flying to the outer space" is still inside his dream.

(0033hrs. The hatch is fully opened. Dr Sheikh entered ISS.)

So to Sue and my baby sister Cheer, I don't blame you all for being cold-eyed to the program, because after all, except for Peggy Whitson and others women astronauts in history, wearing a bulky astronaut suit is something rather far away from being fashionable.

0041hrs.. "Selamat Hari Raya" from Dr Sheikh's father from Roscosmos to ISS....

See it with fresh eye..

No idea. I have no idea what you're talking about.

I mean there's a mechanism, a mechanism that affects human being's eyesight....erm.. it runs, for example, when they are on the mode which they called 'On Vacation'..

Hmm.. and then?

When they're running the mechanism, they can see things differently, I mean, things become beautiful.

You mean when they have this mechanism run, they see beautiful things?

Erm.. low precision to say that they 'SEE BEAUTIFUL THINGS', sir. It's more like, things they see will become beautiful.

...it's complicated.

Indeed sir. It's complicated for us to understand. I wish I would have more detailed study on it.

What's about the mechanism -- to see ordinary things as extra-ordinary?

Almost a 'Yes', sir. The mechanism is about curiosity, about being enthusiastic, about seeing things with fresh eye..

Tell me more.

I believe curiosity is the most important quality that will lead to the release of hormones like Serotonin, Adrenaline and Endorphin in human's body. These hormones will affect the behavior of one human individual -- they'd become excited, passionate, and creative, and eventually affect the way they see and perceive things around.

...and the 'fresh eye', is that some kind of new lens or what? Oh yeah by the way I just got myself a new lens, 50mm f/1.8.

Good to you sir. But the so-called 'fresh eye' is not a lens. It's a mental state that human being possess. 'Seeing things with fresh eye' is actually a born ability. They are good at it when they are in the 'baby' and 'kids' phase but the 'fresh eye' will be blinded when they grow up.

So what's all these supposed to do with your case study?

I think he has regained his 'fresh eye' after an escapade recently.

Yeah you once told me that he fell into a demoralizing phase after leaving a place called Tronoh to a metropolis. What's up with him recently?

He left K.L., the metropolis, and went sailing in the middle of ocean, where a lot of reflection and rejuvenating took place. And now he's back to the big city, with his 'fresh eye' unfolded, the mechanism's fueling, I believe.

Seeing ordinary things as extra-ordinary? Do you consider the factor of their fasting phase? The human brain activity peaks when they fast. The mental state would affect human being's behavior as well -- is that another point that triggers the mechanism as well?

Maybe, sir. I've never thought of it. Perhaps I should see it as a non-typical case.

You should see it with fresh eye, R-226i.

When Moon River meets Li-Bai...

Li-Bai was a famous Chinese poet of Tang Dynasty who was known as Poet Immortal in China's literary history. Ask any Chinese-educated school kid to recite one of the poem from 'The Collection of 300 Poems of Tang Dynasty', they'll probably give you the ever famous 'Jing Ye Si', or 'The Thought of Silent Night', or 'Thinking in Silent Night' which was written by Li-Bai.

The meaning behind and the tranquility of the poem made it one of the favourite poem to be recited or sung during Mid-Autumn Festival, or better known as Mooncake festival or Lantern Festival, on 15th of August of Chinese calendar.

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I was editing the pictures of the moonlit-last night while listening to a collection of movies original soundtracks.The moon was so bright last night, and it created a strong backlight for all the objects on helideck and made their silhouette stood out strongly.

There's a photo of Affendi looking up to the moon and I finely captured his silhouette against the bright monlight. Some familiar phrases swiftly flashed in my mind sudenly but I couldn't catch them, and almost at the same time, my iTune finished up the soundtrack of A.I. 'Where Dreams Are Born', and continuing the feel of serenity, slowly, seapingly, Breakfast At Tiffany's instrumental 'Moon River' started to play through my earphone.

Moon River is always my favourite track, but I've never heard of a instrumental version of it, and I've never knew that the feeling of the song can turn into such an enhancement when the orchestra created the different layers of depth while the guitar and the flute smoothen the flow just like silk.

I switched to the next photo to edit while sinking deeper and deeper into the Moon River. It was another silhouetter of Affendi. I captured the moment he looked down and sunk in deep thought. All of the sudden, I got the phrase that was flashing in my head just now...

It was a poem. I used to sing it in differet modified versions when I was 7, just because I was so familiar with it..

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Affendi and I were having a relaxing chit-chat under the big bright moon and at the same time taking pictures of the moment. It kind of reminded me a tradition of Chinese community which called 'Shang-yue' (Appreciating the moon), which Chinese would do on the night of Mid-Autumn Festival.

It's actually not any special ceremony but 'Shang-yue' is a session where everybody of a family or friends gathers under the big bright moon, sipping Chinese tea, having some light snacks and moncake, and sharing the moment of being together. And..erm, yerp, that was exactly what both of us were doing, except the mooncake and Chinese tea, Affendi and I were 'Shang-ing Yue', appreciating the moon, which I never realized by that time.

I did not realize as well, for real, that that night was actualy the night of Mid-Autumn Festival.

It was like, I just knew what should I do and ask Affendi out when I saw the beautiful moonlit night upon helideck.

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Li-Bai's 'Jing Ye Si':

Chuang qian mingyue guang, (Before my bed, there's bright-lit moonlight,)

Yi shi di shang shuang; (So that it seems, like frost on the ground.)

Jv tou wang mingyue, (Looking up, I see the bright moon;)

Di tou si guxiang. (Looking down, I dream that I'm home.)

(I can't type Chinese characters using my Fujitsu, which is still an ironic fact for me.. Whatever it is, there's a translation I found it from http://www.sacu.org/poetry.html, and I did some alteration.)

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I decided to not edit the pictures anymore due to the fact that it was the feeling I wanted to capture, not a technically well-composed pictures which have perfect aperture, ISO value, shutter speed, sharpness and so on and so on.

I replayed Breakfast At Tiffany's 'Moon River' and looking at one of the picture, and in my heart, I recited Li-Bai's 'Jing Ye Si', a poem that flashing in my head with all the childhood memory associated.

All of these, the moonlight, the moonlit helideck, the 'Shang-yue' session with a friend, Li-Bai's poem, Moon River, and the Mid-Autumn Festival, all of these, they came together to me in such an instinctive way.

What if Li-Bai was standing at the bank of the Moon River when he composed 'Jing Ye Si', how would the poem turn into? Something else?

I don't think so.

Because the moon is always the same, from Tang Dynasty, to the era of Andy Williams (singer of Moon River) and the movie Breakfast At Tiffany, and to last night when I took all the pictures from a vessel in the middle of South China Sea -- the beauty of the moon never changes.

It's one thing that remain pure and commonly-shared in nowadays life. No any attempts of diffrentiation can ruin it.

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"Is mooncake halal?" Affendi asked, "is it gummy like dol-dol?"

I sighed, and told Affnedi, "there are halal mooncake in the market, don't worry about that, and it doesn't at all taste like dol-dol, you should try one."

See why did I sigh? Talking about attempts of differentiation. I hate when my friends are forced to be insecure about the outcome of these attempts, I hate when I sometimes unconciously fall into the trap of these attempts. I hate when someone tell me "only Muslims fast".

This world, is getting more and more opened, but it's also getting more and more compartmentalized.

Moon River meets Li-Bai? If you feel something wrong about it, please leave.

"Ikke noe problem!!"

It's always good to have hobby, I mean, hobbies.

This time on board, I basically have all my hobbies along: Book, I brought Keith Donohue's "The Stolen Child" and a clip-on-the-page reading light; music, I have the original soundtrack of "Ratatouille" plus a few rock numbers; writing, I brought my diary and a quick note handbook and of course my Fujitsu for blogging; movie, we got a very advanced DVD library on board, plus a 42 inches Plasma in front of an Ogawa massage chair in recreational room, or I just can choose to sit on the couch in my own office to enjoy some privacy while watching "Babel"; working out, we have a fairly equipped gym at deck 3, or we can choose some outdoor activities like deck-soccer or a 21m diameter helideck to stroll on;

... and taking pictures -- owh what else can I say? -- Nick'a Devil is always by my side, and I have the whole vessel as my subject and the crew of the vessel, would be my model.

Yup you bet, I snapped like I've never snapped pictures before on Atlantic Guardian, and the more I click my shutter, the more I feel that I'm going through a reflection process. I started to appreciate spontaneity, disregard all the technical issue behind my lens.

This post is to reintroduce you my Tabblo and my started-to-be-picking up Flickr. And yes, click the Tabblo below to see some pictures of mine on board. Obviously, Tabblo and Flickr, have become my new hobbies now.

Well, it's good to have hobby, I mean hobbies, lots of it. They are just like friends who enlighten up your day. And this time round, me on Atlantic Guardian, I have bunch of new Norwegian , Britain and Scottish friends to hang out with, AND I have my old familiar 'friends' to stay accompanied -- SO, did somebody mention about the fact that being 'ON BOARD' is actually 'ON BORED'? Let me answer it in this way:

"Hei, ikke noe problem!"

See the full Tabblo

As if no options.

Affendi and I missed sahur today.

The Imsak for our time zone here is around 4:51am and It was 5:06am when I jumped out of my warm blanket. A wake-up call to Affendi's cabin did not mean anything but to wake him up for his prayer at dawn.

Blearily sitting at the edge of my bed, I was struggling amongst some options: to sleep on or to wake up, and also, to eat or not to eat.

YES, I knew I've just missed the valid time for sahur, but not the breakfast time on vessel.

The breakfast is served at 5:30am to 6:30am daily, and it's a typical western breakfast, with crispy hash browns and sunny-side-up, my favourite.

All of a sudden I had another options: To fast, or not to fast. I mean I was worrying about my day on board without any meal to kick start with, so I could choose not to fast *JUST* on this particular day ----

---- I guess I was bleary and dopey and sleepy back then, because I almost made a decision that could ruin all my effort.

YES, maybe you're right. Being a non-Muslim, fasting in Ramadhan is always optional for me. BUT what's the point if you've decided putting a 100% effort to something you believe but you still have this reservation that saying "you maybe don't have to insist too much" on the so called belief?

It's just like we've embarked on a journey, and it's definitely not my way to turn back before the journey ends. Definitely not, not even a thought.

I felt painful somewhere in my head when I suddenly realized I was so close to fall into the muddy trap of my cupidity, my senseless desire. I left my bed and took a shower. I was hungry -- my last 'meal' was peach yogurt after gym last night; the fast-breaking meal before gym was probably burned out during work-out -- but I still had an operation to monitor, I needed to see my surveyor and geophysicist to discuss about the winch failure happened last night.

I still needed to work, and THAT was not optional for me, even though with an empty stomach. Life, as well, does not possess too much options most of the time. Sometime we just need to bear with the situation that we're in, even though the situation is harsh and cruel.

I'm grateful enough to be in a situation where I have LOTS of options, but the option I eventually chose, despite the flexibility that we should have all the times, would be 'as if no option'. What would you do if there's no any other options for you? Yes, we just face it with big heart and great determination, and full patience.

To all my friends who fast during Ramadhan, happy embracing the spirit of being patience and staying focus.

Ps.. Yet, there's a little option I got to choose: I swore to put my handset few steps away from my bed next time -- because it proved, again and again, that most of the time the alarm only woke my fingers up, not myself.

I am the captain of my dream.

"CPA stands for 'Closest Point of Approaching'," explained Captain Nils, "and this tugboat's CPA is only 0.7 nautical miles away from us. Starboard side, see that?"

My eye sight followed the direction where Capt. Nils pointed to. I saw a tiny point rocking in the rough sea, behind the tiny point was a bigger object. I could only saw them as a tugboat and a barge towed behind only by using a high power binocular. "Velvet II, I saw her name." I put down the binocular and responded to Capt. Nils.

My little assignment from Capt. Nils was to warn the tugboat to stay away from Atlantic Guardian, the vessel we're on, as he believed that the tugboat crew might not understand his warning in English after a few attempts.

"Tell them, In Malay, to stay away at least 1.0 nautical miles of CPA away from us, and let them know we're now having an operation and will sail toward their position soon... Do you know how to use a radio?" Capt. Nils handed me a phone -like radio, "press this one to talk and release it for the other side to respond." He instructed in his strong Norwegian accent.

I took the phone from him, nodded, looked at the monitor in front of me -- it showed that the 'identified target' was 0.6 nautical miles of CPA from us, and the time to closest point of approaching (TCPA) was 10.5 min. I composed my sentence in my mind, looking far to the rocking tiny point on the horizon, and pressed the release on the phone, "Velvet dua, Velvet dua, sini dari Atlantic Guardian......"

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No, I do NOT make this up. It really happened TODAY, my 5th day on board of Atlantic Guardian. Even though we ended up got no response from Velvet II and we chose to avoid her eventually, but I could tell you that was one of the COOOLEST experience I had on board!!

Well I don't expect myself to repeat again what is 'my little sailing dream' about, I think I've put it in one of my post in this blog. This time round, the ship is certainly larger and also my vision to the other dream of myself. I mean, HOW ON EARTH I COULD IMAGINE MYSELF DOING WHAT A CAPTAIN DOES? Another thing is, this vessel is waaaaay too sophisticated compared to the dive boat I was on. Note the terminologies that I use here: I compare a VESSEL to a BOAT, period.

So, anything clinking your mind? There's a saying that I heard once upon a time from someone and I remember it well until today:

"Don't look for shortcuts to get what you dream for. Work your way step by step, live your life the fullest, and you'd never realize that your dreams is already on their way to look for you."

OK, I made the quote up.

Less inspiring OR quite inspiring? (To sleep or not to sleep..)

OK.. it's completely fair if you think I'm kinda pretentious or campy. I DO understand that if someone left his blog not-updated for a month of time while he had all the luxurious to go online and take his own sweet time to try to blog, and suddenly TRYING to put an update from an air-port and claiming that he has been busy before and WILL be busy after ---- that kind of person, besides pretentious or campy, another word I'll use to apply on him, might be.. erm.. dramatic.

So here you go. A drama king trying to explain his case. I know this is going to be a pretty much lame and meaningless post, but allow me to do something herein order to keep myself awaken -- before I miss the flight to K.K. on 4am.

Yes I had been back to KL since 30th of July, and in the process of trying to settle down and switching my lifestyle from a very peaceful Perak to a very hectic KL, I found myself lost in transition. "KL lifestyle isn't that inspiring." This is my answer to the questions that asking why I do not update my blog for such a long time, and it is not any excuses to cover my laziness or so-called 'over-luxurious' KL lifestyle.

---- Or, put it in another way of explaining it, maybe IT IS actually my 'over-luxurious' KL lifestyle that dooms my inspiration and passion to life. Plus the less inspiring progress of my MSc project, life so far, really transformed me into a worm.

However things change recently. I should have realized that my phase of life had changed when we finished our MSc classroom lectures and came back to KL. There are new things I should have immediately jumped into and switched into. Talking bout getting out of the comfort zone.

Things could be pretty much inspiring. Meeting new friends who have same passion and same belief to life hypes things up. I think I'm regaining my enthusiasm recently, thanks to the reassurance from some old good friends, and injection of one whole bunch of new cool friends, and another thing, go and grab Ratatouille's OST. The soundtrack reminds me of how I used to appreciate wonderful music and simplicity.

I think I would most probably eventually fail to keep myself awaken, but let's hope this post doesn't fail me to bring back my passion to life, and also to blogging. At another post, ULAM July has a review now. Go check it out.

The time now is 0059 hours. Nite. Hopefully I won't overslept and miss my 4 am flight.