Vision In Life

Notice or not Alex Ferguson’s vision. He sees a marketable player, he gets him. Why? He may obtain the player at a certain price but look at how much the player will be under his guidance. Take Cristiano Ronaldo for example, he managed to get the player when he was young and now Real Madrid is willing to break the transfer market for his services.

The question now is what makes a certain young player special? Reading what Ronaldo said in the papers recently about the need to practice, practice and practice is the answer. I remember a certain player by the name of Beckham staying back after the practice session to practice on his free kicks. The same thing done by Ronaldo. The potential players are players who are not complacent and always have the desire to improve himself. These are the qualities that a coach should look for in a player.

A player should also be allowed to experiment on the pitch. By experimenting he is gaining new experience and later on makes a difficult skill look easy. “He will score goals for fun” as the football pundits call it. To achieve this level of ‘fun’ requires a lot of sweat, sweat and sweat.

As in life, there is no short cut to success. So work hard, strategies, and impliment hopefully something good will come out of it!

My first light painting experiment

Planning for a Photo Project

I just thought of this. I actually am planning to have a photo shoot. The theme is LIGHT.light painting and light graffiti. I have read from books, learned something about it from my friend and I am excited by the thought of it. This is not the forte that I would like to venture on but I just wanted to experiment. Next week, I would probably try it. All I need are the pre-requisites like: tripod, torch light, remote (wireless or cable?) and a good place to do it (home). We'll see...

Kings of Europe!!!

The Reds were overjoyed after claiming a Champions League final victory over Chelsea in dramatic fashion in Moscow on Wednesday night.

Edwin van der Sar's penalty shoot-out save from Nicolas Anelka handed United only their third ever European Cup and ensured the Reds finished the season as double winners.

Here's what the lads had to say to ManUtd.com afterwards...

Cristiano Ronaldo
We showed this season that we are the best team in Europe and in England and it’s a great feeling. Next season we will try to do the same. I feel very proud. It means everything to me - it is the happiest day of my life.

Nemanja Vidic
The game against Manchester City [which marked the 50th anniversary of the Munich air crash] was very disappointing and we still remember that. But I think we made up for it in Moscow and by winning the league and gave the fans what they wanted.

Edwin van der Sar
Of course, nights like this are what you dream of. It’s been 13 years – a long time – since I last won the competition and it feels fantastic, especially in the way we won it. It was the last penalty – saving it - I don't have any words for it. What can I say? It's great.

Rio Ferdinand
I said before the game that you’re only really considered a great player at this club when you win the Champions League. There have been a lot of top players to play for the club, but to be revered by the fans and everyone associated with United by becoming a European champion sets you apart from others.

Wayne Rooney
I hope we can win it again. Doing it this year has given us a taste for it and we want to do well again next season. We’ve got some great young players in the squad mixed with experience, so hopefully we can do well again.

Michael Carrick
When you take a penalty you’ve got to have the belief in yourself that you’re going to score and obviously hope for the best! You know there is always someone who’s going to have to miss and you pray it’s not you.

Carlos Tevez
It has been a long time since I felt like this - it's a huge emotion in my heart. When I was a child, I never thought I would be now lifting the cup, but dreams usually come true and I am very, very happy."

Faris Mansor
I don't know what to say..fantastic season. The win made a double for us, first by winning the Barclay's Premier League trophy a week ago,and now, the UEFA Champions League trophy. I watched the game at Wellesley Apartment, and i think 75% of the crowd ere are the blues supporters (damn all those mat salehs and arabs!!).great feelings when we won..huhu..go to hell to chelsea the blues yahudi..

My Friendster

It surprised me when I view my Friendster today. A lot had changed. I used to be someone who would know right away if there were slight changes in Friendster. But now, wow, there are too many changes. I must have been busy or successfully pretended to be busy.

I had been really lousy at responding to my friends' messages. I looked at the lists of my friends. Because most of you do not use the name your father had given you, I had a hard time figuring out whom the hell person is (sorry for using that word but it is the right word to express it). I understand, maybe you do not like the name your father had given you or maybe it is just an expression. So I clicked at the link and again, many of you upload other people's picture, not to mention those who upload something not someone. But then again, it is an expression of one's self, why should I bother?? Well I am bothered actually. If you plan to put a picture of someone or something else, do not make it your primary picture.

I had 370 first-degree friends but I had a number of friends I do not know at all. Well, it is not nice to say no to someone who wants to be friends with you (or someone who wants to increase the number of friends they have in Friendster so that they can boast about it to friends at school), so I just clicked yes whenever Friendster ask "Is bla...bla... your friend??". But I remember once I did a clean up where I delete my friends who I do not have the slightest idea who they are. In reality, once he or she is a friend of yours, you cannot simply delete it. You are still friends, but that the beauty of Friendster; you can delete your friends.

So I went browsing at my friends' page, one by one, trying to catch up what I had been missing. Some of you already have a girlfriend. Some of you went back being single. Someone is getting married. Some had started working. But I quit after page two realizing that I do not have the time and patience to browse another 300 pages. But I will someday, but I cannot promise. Nowadays I have been quite good at breaking promises – it depends actually. The important one always comes first.

Among other feature of Friendster is you can know who visited your page - if the person does not change the original setting about this. Well, I do not change it. I would certainly make it clear that I had visited a person's page. That is why I tried to open everybody's profile; at least my friends know that I remember them. But that does not mean that I do not remember those I did not view their page.

By the way, I want to start work on my assignments but ended up chatting and updating my blog. shoot..

Procastinating

I havent started a single assignment.. sucks!

Photography Lesson

Learnings:

· The smaller the aperture is, the wider the depth of field. The larger the aperture is, the shallower the depth of field.

· The longer the focal length is, the narrower the angle. The shorter the focal length is, the wider the angle.

· TTL stands for Through The Lens.

· Fish Eye Lenses are also known as superwide angle lenses. (I want to have one!)

· The infrared film is the most inconvenient type of film to use.

· Fuji is the best brand of film to use.

Photography Lesson

I am currently doing a self-study on digital photography and I am very proud that I have learned a lot so far.

The basics of digital photography are not really basic at all. They are somewhat complicated but what's good about them is that they guarantee good captures when they are applied in shooting.

Lighting is very important. It can either make or break your shot. You can shoot the same thing on the same angle for several times but the drama may vary just by shooting in different light conditions. I personally don't like to use the flash as much as possible because it totally destroys the reality that I want to capture. The photo once uploaded on the PC or printed, looks artificial with the flash. Try capturing bright subjects amidst the darkness without the flash and you'll get amazing shots, (see photo), etc.

It's also a no-no to position your subject against the light. Your subject must be facing the light so you can capture the intricate details. There are times that it is acceptable to position your subject against the light and it is only when you want to emphasize the background more than the foreground because the latter would just appear as shadows for sure, (eg: my profile photo),etc.

The angle is very important. With a baby crawling on the floor as the subject, his head would appear bigger than the rest of his body if you'll shoot him from the top. For human subjects, the best angle is always eye-level or a li'l bit lower than the eye-level then close-up. The emotion expressed by the face through the eyes and the lips is the most significant event above anything else (see photo).

Good focusing also makes a picture better. You gotta learn to position your subject in such a way that the background would not appear distracting. I am beginning to love macro shots, where the subject is up close then the rest of the picture is just a blur. Subjects need not to be at the center of the viewfinder at all times. Apply rule of thirds. Imagine three rows and three columns on your viewfinder and then make sure that your subject falls at any of the intersections of these rows and columns.

(ps: most of the pictures were taken when i went to rotorua,nz and pasifica festival early this year)

One last thing, a good tip from my friend, Azri: "The question is not what to shoot, it is when to shoot." For me, never stopped looking for reasons to shoot if you love photography. You can capture a group of ants anytime and result would just be like nothing. A shot of a group of ants carrying dried leaves as they march IS something.

I know I still have so many things about to learn, but at least I know now the basics. It is important for everyone to know how to use the camera, not just to know what the perfect camera is and then purchase it.

After all, it's not the bow and the arrows that matter; it's Robinhood.

State Of Mind

“The most interesting thing about heart transplants is that one completely loses his own heart, be replaced with someone else’s, and still has the feelings for the same person he loves. This proves that love works in the minds of people and not in their hearts.

The bottomline is: love is a state of mind.

- Dr. Burke, Grey’s Anatomy