I Joined Qatar Airways Photo Contest

Qatar Airways is organizing a photo contest called Qatar Airways Reflections Photo Contest that will end on 30 June 2012. There are 4 categories to choose and submit, namely Magnificent Cities, Vibrant Culture, Breathtaking Nature and Exciting Journey. Frankly, I do not know how to gauge what the organizer is looking for.

Below are my submissions for the contest. Since it is a global voting contest, and it is open also to professional photographers, I think my chance is close to nil. Anyway, it's good to try and see if miracles can happen how many times in a person.

The first picture was submitted under the Vibrant Culture theme. This picture is to show on the Chinese Northern China lion dance, which is different from the Southern China lion dance, especially in the appearance and movement.

               

                                                                               

               

                                                                                    Embed               

               

The 2nd picture was posted under the Magnificent Cities theme. I noticed that I was the first to post a picture of Stockholm, Sweden, and I thought this picture is suitable because of the overall nice view of a part of the Old Town, known locally as Gamla Stan. Since Qatar Airways flies to Stockholm daily, it fits to put this beautiful picture to attract more people to see how pretty this city is, especially Malaysian who are very unfamiliar with the Scandinavian countries.
 

               

                                                                               

               

                                                                                    Embed               

               

They Have Summer, We Have Haze

It's the time of the year for many Europeans, because Summer break is coming real soon. Nowadays, they are rushing to complete everything in hand so that they don't get calls from their suppliers or superior in the middle of sailing, fishing, hiking or sun tanning next month.

As for Malaysian, we are always like to joke about our whole year long Summer. They actually thought we are a blessed nation because we do not have to encounter dark and gloomy days and cold and chilly nights for at least 4~6 months of the year.

However, little did they know that we also have another season that started almost 10 years back, and beginning to intensify 5~8 years ago. That is the Haze season. This season is now more predictable than the monsoon season. This year, it has started since last month (May). The weather is extremely hot, dusty air outside the house, smelly air inside the house and shielded sun rays.

So far, it has not been reported in the media intensively, and we don't see the Minister or DG of Environment appearing on TV announcing the Air Pollution Index (API). Based on my experience, the air is in the unhealthy stage, and this is very clear during the day.

This is the morning view at 7.15am.

Learning Entrepreneurship From Internet: Part 1

I'm grateful to have some spare time lately, and I started to think again about the things I'm doing and want to do. It has been awhile that I have discussed this with a close pal, and what we want to do is to own a business. There is no concrete plans in place, but some sketches in our mind. I have always stressed that money is not the problem, it is the thing inside our mind and heart is the stumbling block to do this. The golden word is Discipline.

While browsing through the internet for inspiration and motivation, I saw this website with an interesting name: My wife quit her job; Building wealth and entrepreneurship when your spouse wants to quit. I think he has given us a good starting point to our journey on being the own boss. I would like to do this for my wife too, and this is definitely not a sacrifice but a small gratitude.

He has written many interesting and useful articles, and some of the advices can be used to unblock our minds to move towards our aim. I will try my best to read up all his articles, and capture some of them in this post as a constant reminder for me.

Pointers:

> When it comes to my definition of success, I consider there to be four key considerations:

1. Am I earning more than my outgoings?
2. Are my earnings on an upwards trend?
3. Am I happy with my future prospects?
4. Am I happy with my day-to-day living?

> Simply having a good product isn’t enough. How effectively you put that product in front of the right people will define the success of your business.
 

> Almost all of my friends who started very successful companies all had this uncanny knack for staying focused and not getting sidetracked by minute details.

> Most of time, you don’t really need to know very many things in true depth unless it is one of the core competencies of your business. 

> What and how much they spent so start their business:

• Webhost by bluehost.com for $7/mth
• Shopping cart software for free
• Digital camera for $200
• Shipping material for free
• 2nd hand computer for $100
• Inventory for $322.90

> Building wealth requires planning, budgeting and an awareness of how money can work for itself. The sooner you can amass even a small amount of money, the easier it is to accumulate wealth in the long run. It all starts with the proper frame of mind.

This is just the first part of the content that I have read. Hopefully I don't waste this opportunity to be out of the treadmill, and earn something for myself based on my own effort. I can no longer afford to stay on as a NATO (No Action, Think Only) member.

Just before checking out, a humble thanks to the author of mywifequitherjob.com for the well written advices.

Euro 2012 Opening Day

The UEFA Euro 2012 will start at midnight (MY time), and the first match will pitch Poland, as co-host against Greece at 6pm Polish time. They are in Group A together with Russia and Czech Republic. I think the selection of date and time was cleverly done, so that people around most part of the world, especially on the Eastern side of the globe will be able to watch it on Friday. For Malaysian, it is an opportunity for some to sleep late without fearing of the work blues the next day (those in the city where working on Saturday is unheard of), and for some to sleep early so that they can wake up at midnight to watch, then continue sleeping after the match.

Poland is the lowest ranked team of all the competing teams at no 65 in FIFA ranking, while Greece is at no 14, Russia at no 11 and Czech at no 26. But these teams are still many many tiers above our Harimau team, which is lying at no 154. Anyway, as usual we will be happy because our neighbour, Singapore is 4 steps below us.

I have nothing much to say to comment on those team. Usually these kind of group will be seen as a boring group because there is no traditionally famous teams such as England, Germany, France or Spain. Anyway, you will never know that they may spring a surprise by winning difficult matches or score in huge margin. This happened in 2004 when Greece beat the fancied Portugal in Portugal to lift the Cup.

Checking on the net (about.com, thomsonsport.com, football365.com) for players to watch in Euro 2012, I only saw 2 players from Group A, namely Alan Dzagoev (Russia) and Robert Lewandowski (Poland). They are selected by all of these predictors, and we should take note of this info and track their performance.

The first match will be played at National Stadium Warsaw at the Polish capital city, Warsaw. This old town of Warsaw is listed in the Unesco World Heritage site. The other match will be played in Wroclaw, a northern city in Poland.

Poland is leading 1-0 now, from a goal scored by Robert Lewandowski at the 13th minute.

 

 

Today's 1Joke : 8 June 2012

I think our country is fast becoming the laughing aim for many people around the world. Yesterday, we saw the government is supporting the action of the PTPTN to freeze loans to student as a way to punish the Selangor state government's stand on abolishing PTPTN loan.

I think this is really an immature and absurd action. Furthermore, this action was taken not by the opposition but the government. What is the advantage of doing this? Please do not blame us after the election, and ruin our children's education.

Today's 1Joke : 29 May 2012

I saw this news about the findings made by the American Chamber (Amcham) in Malaysia that there was no loss of investment from Bersih's rally. This was totally opposite of what the government is trumpeting, even by the Prime Minister. I think there will be some clown ministers who will come out and claim that the conclusion of the Chamber doesn't represent anything.

The funny part is that they are accusing just 1 rally for the root cause for the loss of FDI or fear of disturbance by the investors, but they chose to keep their eyes shut to the robbery, kidnapping, and biased policies that is happening rampantly everyday.

They just thought that we are dumb.

Barcelona's La Sagrada Familia Current Look

I have visited Sagrada Familia twice (2002 and 2008), and both times I saw many scaffolding and crane working on its construction. According to the information displayed, Sagrada Familia is supposed to be completed by 2026, which is 14 years from now.

Just wonder how it looks like today, after it has undergone construction for such a long time. They started building it in 1883, and some of the parts are already 129 year old now.

Below are some of the comparison pictures back in 2008 and latest ones from www.sagradafamilia.cat.

2008

 

2012

Don't forget to look out for the inverted tree structure, and try to understand how Gaudi came up with this method of calculation for his design. You will see what he imagined when you look at the mirror below this structure.

2012: Year of Underdogs and Unpredictable

I think this year, 2012 can be known as the year of underdogs and unpredictable. In sports, we saw one yesterday, and a week back. In politics, we also saw two countries whose ruling party losing in the election.

Yesterday, Chelsea captured the Champions League by beating Bayern Munich in penalties by 4-3 after finishing in extra time by 1-1. What made the result looked brilliant was the fact that Chelsea played at his opponent's home ground, the Allianz Arena Stadium. Besides, they played without six regulars, was scored against in the last 10 minutes of the game, and they missed out the first penalty kick. Chelsea is also famous for utilizing the most of their little chances. They did it against Bayern, when the goal scored by Didier Drogba in the 87 minutes came from their first corner kick. They also did it against Barcelona in the semis when the scored the only goal from the only attacking chance.

A week ago, we saw how Manchester City came back from trailing 1-2 to Queens Park Rangers, and fought back in injury time to score another 2 goals to finish the game by 3-2. This was unbelievable, when everyone was seeing them struggling to score until the 92nd minutes. Though they were not the underdog before the start of the game, they were made one by QPR especially until the 90th minutes when it was known that Manchester United was leading 1-0 and on the verge of winning the Premier League. If the results did not change, Man Utd would have won the Barclays Premier League. However, with positive attitude and strong self believe, Man City got the last goal at the last minute with the last kick by Sergio Aguero.

Two weeks ago, we saw the lost of France President Nicolas Sarkozy in the presidential election, and a week ago, we saw Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats party lost in a state election. It seems like there is a trend going on in Europe that the head of government will be kicked out if the economic crises was not handled correctly, as seen in Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Netherlands.

Well, these interesting development that happened so far in the first half of the year is really pointing to the fact that more surprises will come. This is also a sign to show to our government if the General Election should be held this year. Are we going to see the same surprises as in France??

Besides, we are also hoping that our badminton Datuk is able to beat the odds and overcome Lin Dan to be the undisputed and rightful world number one. He will surely start as the underdog if he meets Lin Dan in the final.