It's another SHOOT!

...this seems a little familiar, something that is happening in Malaysia too...

Date: 30th October 2010

Call Time: 6.30am

Location: Hospital

It's the 1st day of a film shoot; my first film shoot and it was no doubt a long stressful 2 months prepping since the first draft of script came out until today. Finally, it's now in production and it's time to be stress on set with early call times, food and beverages to cater to the team, dealing with locations and issues on set, blablabla...

Day 1 of shoot, hmm...ironically, in one of the quite haunted hospital in KL. It wasn't really my choice to want to have the shoot there, but looking at the logistics and the convenience of shooting in an abandoned hospital, I proposed and yes, we are shooting in it for the first 2 days. It was a pretty good first day with little mistakes here and there but as the time passes, and more things to amend, the shoot will go smoother *fingers crossed*

No more writing.

I'm heading off to bed now!

Really tired!

Stressing over...

I thought this project will be rather smooth sailing than the previous ones but then again, I was wrong...

It's a week before shoot and many things are still pending and many things are not available to ease our work. There were shoutings here and there, confrontations but yet, nothing seemed to be sorted out later. Haih~

*fingers crossed* I do not want it to be HELL! NO!

Job Interview...on Skype!

Had my very first job interview on Skype today. I now appreciate the creation of Skype as I do not need to head down to Singapore for this job interview...how convenient! Just with a pair of earphones and the laptop with good internet connection, there you have it, a job interview!

Hmm...still considering whether or not to take the job offered. Though the salary ain't that high (for Singapore's standard of living), but the benefits and working hours are way better than what I'm getting now. But...but... HAIH~

Thinking through at the moment.

What are Human Rights?

How many of us know what are our rights as a human living in this Earth?

Here is the list of 30 articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 1.

• All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

• Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

• Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

• No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

• No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.

• Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

• All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.

• Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.

• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.

• Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

• (1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
• (2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.

• No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.

• (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
• (2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.

• (1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
• (2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.

• (1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
• (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.

• (1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
• (2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
• (3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.

• (1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
• (2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.

• Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.

• Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.

• (1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
• (2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.

• (1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
• (2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
• (3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.

• Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23.

• (1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
• (2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
• (3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
• (4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.

• Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

• (1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
• (2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.

• (1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
• (2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
• (3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

^ Top

Article 27.

• (1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
• (2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.

• Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.

• (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
• (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
• (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.

• Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS!

Highway Adventure

...a view of my highway adventure...

Date was 14th October 2010, a Thursday morning. I had a meeting scheduled at 10am at the highway's office. Since I had no transport, I called for a cab at 9am to send me to the office and thank goodness I wanted to go way earlier. I first arrived at office A of highway and paid the cab and went into the office to meet the person but to my horrific surprise, I was in the wrong office. I had to go to office B for the meeting! Mind you, office B is quite a distance from where I was standing. I manage to speak to the person whom I was meeting and told him that I will be calling a cab to bring me over but will probably be running a little late.

I went outside the office and started making calls but none of the cab driver wants to come by to pick me up. So I called office for help and a big thanks to Lee Lian that I managed to get more radio cab's number. I called each and everyone of them but none wanted to come my way! *WTF* So I stood there, looking at every cab that passed by; they are occupied with passengers. It was almost 10am that the highway patrol car stopped next to me gave me a ride. Thank goodness!

And so, I made it to my meeting at 10am sharp! *amazing kan* Good thing was the person I was meeting was a very nice and kind fellow that actually laughed at my situation that morning. We had a good talk and shared his information for the shoot and answered my questions as well. It was quite a long meeting with him and a fruitful one.

'How are you going back?' he asked. I looked at him with an innocent smile and said, 'I'll call a cab, if not I'll walk out the nearest exit in the highway.' He laughed. 'Let me call the highway patrol to send you to the nearest LRT station.' *relief*

So I waited for quite a while before the patrol came. The patrol officers will be the ones who will be escorting us for our shoot too. It's good to make friends with them before our shoot starts *smiles* I hopped into the patrol car and off I go but... as we were exiting the highway, there was a stalled car by the highway. The officers told me to wait in the car while they went down to see what was going on and to help out. It was an experience to see highway patrol officers work *amazed* After the incident, they finally dropped me off at Setiawangsa LRT station. It was almost 12pm then.

I learnt my lesson; never take a cab for recce or for meeting! NEVER!!!

It was a day of adventure in the highway. Something to look back and laugh at myself and also something to look back to know that there are kind people out there who lend their hands to those in need of them.

Thank you Highway Patrol officers!

Canon G12

For the past few months, I've been eyeing on getting myself a Canon Powershot G11, since G9 and G10 were discontinued. Reasons for getting this little semi-pro camera is so that I can send my Nikon D40 for a good service (this camera of mine has been with me for 3 years and never undergo services) and to equip myself with a semi-pro camera for my underwater photography and videography. I first used Canon G10 for my underwater photography and videography back in Redang Island and was so amazed with the picture quality from this tiny camera. I do wish one day I can have my own Underwater DSLR but that will have to wait...

I stopped by at the Canon shop in Sunway Pyramid yesterday and found out that Canon G12 is out in the market and the price is RM1899! Damn...I wish I had the cash at that time to just close my eyes and purchase this camera...but nah~ And so I asked more about this camera and its function and yes! I am now saving movey to get this camera with its casing and strobes next year!

Click here to find out more about this camera

Though the underwater casing is not yet in the market but I'm now saving every cent to purchase this camera first. Once the casing is out, it's time to save up for the casing and later the strobes.................

Calculation:

RM1899 for camera + RM700 for casing + RM2000 for a pair of Sea&Sea Strobe

Wah! Banyaknyer!

Never mind. For the sake of owning this camera with its casing and strobe...GAMBATEH!

My Sunday Meal

This was somewhat the first time I work on weekends for this movie project...and yes! I do not want to work on weekends because it's the only time I can get as much rest as possible to charge over the weekdays. And so again, I'm at home, working for the project. I finished the script breakdown on Saturday night, just before midnight and woke up at 11am to start the location breakdown before sending it off to all the production team members. By then, it was lunch time and I was somehow hungry.

Alex and Choulyee went out for lunch and bought me a pack of mix rice and the fried drumstick made my day~ I had a good lunch while watching Ice Age 3 on DVD. And then, after lunch, it was back to work again, planning my way around Pandan Mewah, Pandan Indah and Pandan Jaya for my afternoon recce to find a flat for the shoot.

...my very nice mix rice...

It was quite a disappointing recce but I was glad the lady at the Pandan Jaya flat called me back after I left a note at the door. *cross fingers* hopefully, they are interested to let me see the house and it is appropriate for the shoot. After the long recce, I came home, rested for 30 minutes and went for a good 10 laps swim in the pool. And it was dinner time.

...the nice pineapple fried rice...

It was both a good meal for my working Sunday. It's the end of the weekend and back to office tomorrow. 2 more Sundays before shoot!

The most 'Breakdown' Weekend ever!

Counting down... (yes, my countdowns are starting again)

This time, I'm counting down the weekends before the start of the movie shoot end of this month. So it's 3 more weekends to go and this week, I spent my whole Saturday afternoon until midnight in my little corner in my bedroom doing script breakdown for the Final Draft script. Hmm...it is freakingly tiring doing the same thing over and over again. Does this happens in all shoots, I wonder?

...so this is how my 1st partition of my laptop screen looks like...

...and my 2nd partition...

...and my 3rd partition...

I'm glad my laptop has many partitions and it doesn't hang at all! That smoothens my job a lot. Blasting music, checking up Facebook once in an hour, plays Cafe World once in couple of hours, and reading and breaking down the scripts for 8 hours.

It's close to 12am now and it's time to SLEEP!

Damn I hate working on weekends...especially when I'm working and others are not!

Chilling with the Beer

...the Jaz Beer @ MOE Kota Damansara...

Finished a total of 1.5litre out of 2.0litre beer that night while enjoying nice Korean pub feel with stories to tell. Will go for another round of beer before shoot - to destress the stress that are coming my way

Once More Muhibah! ...the Essay

This was my winning idea for the Shell-YQ Essay Writing Competition 2003.

Can you imagine a neighbourhood which produces its own newsletters? These newsletters will inform all those in the area about the goings on and latest development that is happening in a district. Teens can be involved in producing this newsletter.

Then they will inform the neighbourhood about the latest happenings --of activities security, people stories and other things or issues that neighbours want to talk about or share, workshop, etc.

For instance, in sports, the newsletter can help with the announcement that the area needs a football or hockey team of its own to compete with the other neighbourhood team.

Then those who are interested could join. As we know, sports is an effective activity that cuts across culture and race.

If there is a person who's good at cooking in the area, you could 'discover' her via the newsletter. Then a cooking class could be held, that could bring women of all races together. A tools or do-it-yourself workshop ala the Home Improvement programme, could get the men together. While all this interaction --mingling and socialising -- is taking place, people will naturally get to know each other better, the different cultures, etc.

Everyone -- children, teens and adults -- will have a good time, irrespective of race. And new friendship will be forged.

The newsletter could also highlight some cultural events or special days which the different races celebrate and what they mean to them.

Besides that, this newsletter can also publish some articles of the different cultures of the community. All the neighbourhood programmes will be listed so that people will have information about the coming events.

To kick things off, the idea could be initiated in schools where publishing of newsletters could be a co-curriculum activity. Then you could get a team of writers, sub-editors and editor from your neighbourhood to help put together the newsletter.

Once More, Muhibah!...A story 7 years ago.

I remembered something that meant so much to me when I was 17. I got a call from a schoolmate one afternoon while I was studying for my SPM trial exams asking for my full name. She said, 'You won the essay writing competition!'. I was at first unsure of what she said because I only recalled my English teacher asking the whole class to write 3 essays a couple of months back. She kept saying that I won and after putting down the phone, I jumped around the house and screamed my heads off in joy. At that time, my elder brother was at home and he said, 'Crazy ah you!' So I called my dad and asked him to buy NST and checked for it. He brought home the paper and yes! my full name was on it! and I won!

First thing I did was, I flung my Maths paper the next day. I met up with Geraldine who was also one of the 20 winners from the whole of Malaysia and started discussing about our 'all-expense-paid-trip-to-meet-DPM-and-get-our-RM2000-cheque-dinner'.

A big thanks to my mum who helped us planned for the trip as my school didn't even bother to help us with that. So, dad followed me to KL for the event. My air ticket was paid by the organizer and we boarded MAS (at that time, MAS was a luxurious flight) and stayed at Istana Hotel. The next day, we (all 20 winners) were brought to meet Pak Lah, whom at that time was still a Deputy Prime Minister. That night, we had our prize giving ceremony where we became so famous for one night, having photographers snapping our photos for 10 minutes. It was a night to remember!

That winning gave me an eye opener. I never expected to win with the essays I wrote.

7 years ago, 20 teenagers wrote remarkable ideas to create Muhibah in our country. But, not a single one of our ideas are put to use in today's 1Malaysia concept. Sad though. But, somewhere deep in our country, there are ideas that bring everyone from all races together. Just waiting for the day that these ideas are put to use...

Once More Muhibah! ...the 1Malaysia concept 7 years ago.

Mode of Transportation

my mode of transportation to work everyday

Sometimes I do wish I could stay 5 minutes away from office, but looking at the condition of moving once in a couple of months, I've finally decided to stay put in one house - my brother's house in Cheras. But, day in day out, I will have to travel for about 1 hour 15 minutes to reach the office at Kelana Jaya. It is damn tiring but what can I say...that's they way of living in KL.