Random photoshopping

Contrary to what I had imagined, having my own camera did not send me on a photoshopping spree. I am rather limited by my knowledge and the wails and cries of Sir Dalton while running photohshop (Dalton is the name of my esteemed PC in case you didn't know, full name: Sir William Horace Dalton III). Nevertheless, below are some simple and random photoshopped shots.The view behind King's buildings

Skye

Loch Laggan

A loch in the Isle of Skye

*After publishing the post, the pictures don't seem
half as good as they do offline, but...meh

Dove Evolution

Thinking about people who are not gifted with divine hair reminded me of this video I stumbled upon sometime back.

Dreams

Last night I had a very vivid dream. I wouldn't like to go into too much details, but it involved a laptop with a dodgy disc, a form-changing security guard whose baton could penetrate through plastic, and a demon in the form of a human (whose teeth were glow-in-the-dark i might add). This however was not that unusual, considering it's only a dream, but something interesting happened when I woke up. For starters, I woke up in the middle of the night, without any reason to, and it wasn't that the morbidness of my dream woke me up. I couldn't figure out why I woke up. However, when I did wake up I found a phrase embedded in my conscience and I couldn't get it out of my head.......the figurative bobsleigh jumper. It had nothing to do with my dream, and it just popped into my mind out of nowhere, and I was left wondering what it could mean. It is a nonsensical phrase of course. Why would there be a bobsleigh jumper? Shouldn't it rather be a ski jumper, and even if by some fantastical flaw in nature, such an event did occur, why would it be figurative?
I have been fascinated by dreams and the subconscious ever since being introduced to glorious works of William Blake last year (and to some extent Dali). It is hard for me to understand the significance of the phrase. Though the more I think about it, the juxtaposition of three ordinary words has created a beautiful phrase...the figurative bobsleigh jumper, the beauty is hard not to appreciate. Like ''cellar door'' which fascinated Tolkein, the figurative bobsleigh jumper is pristine in its completeness and robustness.



Death on a Pale Horse by William Blake. The magnificence of the painting is hard to describe in words.

Today, probably for the first time since early January, I attended all the classes I had in the day (yes, all 3 of them!), and Alvin, I don't want you to tell me later that I missed an examples class or a tutorial; they do not exist to me! Let me bask in the glory of my own :D

Mac and Cheese

Tikka

Help

"What is the greatest paradox in life?"
"When you need help desperately, but no one can help you. You can not ask for help, but you are waiting for help, even the smallest of advices or such would make your day, but they are not to be. You are left in you own misery waiting for the darkness to subside while you know very well that it gets darker as each day passes, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. Every you are pounded by the sheer helplessness of the situation as soon as you wake up, and you spend the rest of the day just trying to ease the pain, but no one or no thing for that matter, can ease your pain, and you are left to nurse your wounds by yourself and these wounds are invisible to all that see, seeing the happy, perfect you, unaware of how you are crumbling slowly, waiting for someone, something, to come along and give that ounce of hope, but nothing happens and you keep waiting seeing your wounds grow deeper as the days pass."

Nile

From Wikipedia:

The northern section of the river flows almost entirely through desert, from Sudan into Egypt, a country whose civilization has depended on the river since ancient times. Most of the population of Egypt and all of its cities, with the exception of those near the coast, lie along those parts of the Nile valley north of Aswan; and nearly all the cultural and historical sites of Ancient Egypt are found along the banks of the river.

Passion

"I feel like I am not getting anything from you. Tell me about yourself."
"Don't you think that is a rather broad question. What exactly do you want to know?"
"I want to know you....What are your passions?"
"Ah, Passions! I have never been a passionate person. Passion is alien to me"
"But surely there must be something. There must be something for which you care about more than anything else"
"As I said, passion is an alien concept."
"You are the first person to say that, I am intrigued. Tell me, how would you describe life in word?"
"Ethereal"
"Well put. but if you aren't passionate it must be because you don't show any passion. There must be passion inside you. Why do you think that is?"
"I shall keep playing the game as long as it lasts"
"I see, tell me, are you a virgin?"

Skye

Seven people, one convertible, and more than 400 miles...all combined together to deliver one of the best weekends. Skye was quite a divine experience (there, i said it)....it reminds me of how one Indian journalist described Lahore (my hometown) : It is a place "so sentimentalised that it sometimes seemed to curl up and rest in the air like an eternal sigh." There's just too much to write about in detail, so I'll let the photos do the taking (rest of which I will upload soon on my facebook account). I have to mention though the hospitality of a very charming old lady we met in a village in Skye. When we stopped in front of her house to use the toilet, she invited us to tea and entertained us with her great life experiences in the 2-3 hours that followed. Suffice to say, delightful experience in every sense of the word.

You can hardly see The Man, but a very nice shot nonetheless, considering especially the fact that I stay in the air for a few nanoseconds when I do jump one every leap year









It takes ages to upload photos, so these are all I'm uploading here.€

Monk

"Excuse me friend, how are you?"
"Fine"
"You are a nice guy are you not?"
"I would like to think so"
"Are you Italian?"
"No"
"Are you from Argentina then?"
"No"
"Venezuela?"
"No"
"Portuguese?"
"No"
"Spain?"
"No"
"Mexico?"
"No"
"Puerto Rico?"
"No...I am from Singapore"
"Oh, so you must be a nice guy then. You see, I am a monk."
"I can see that from your outlook"
"So would you like to help a monk? It would make people very happy"
"No thanks, I am from Pakistan"
"Oh! a small amount then?"
"No thanks"

The unexpressed

"Had a good night sir?"
"Aye lad, a night of excessive debauchery to ease the pain and please the soul."
"Debauchery sir? You heart must be full of joy!"
"It be true! It be as full as an Irish pub on Saint Paddy's day. One step hither, two steps thither, let you life take its course lad. Life my lad is like a raindrop, that is created in the skies in events of pristine purity, but after that it is just hurled down to the ground, it be lonely when it start, it sail through the dark, it fall through the cloud, but in the end, it reach the people, it appreciate the lights, the buildings, the people, it appreciate life...but alas, lad, by that time it be too late, it just fall to ground and the glory of life vanish unto the old earth."
"Such wise words this world hath not heard ere today o jolliest of all people. I thank ye with the bottom of my heart"
"Lad, I like thee, Do thou liketh me?"


*I'm getting so awful at writing these things,sigh*

Kiwi

In case there are still some people in the world who haven't seen this beautiful piece:

Free Hugs Singapore

The Free Hugs movement started out last year (i think) by a guy in Australia, and has now spread to all over the world, courtesy of youtube where he uploaded the video. The idea is exactly what it sounds like, the free-hugs people take a "free hugs" sign in a public place and wait for people to come and hug them. I saw one guy in PGP last semester, though I wasn't aware of this movement before and I was therefore very surprised to see such behavior because I thought anyone in their right minds in Singapore would not attempt to acquire Cannabis under any circumstances, but there was proof of that right in front of me. Anyway, some Singaporeans did it now and made a video for it. pretty nice:

Chronicles

This is what a daal(masoor) is supposed to look like:


This is what happened when I tried making it the first time:








....and the second time...



As you can see, I'm getting good at this \m/(O_O)\m/

Chocolate icecream and Onions

Yesterday, the Samba came to Scotland. Well actually, it was a Glasgow group doing the Samba (do you do the samba? or play the samba?), so it was pretty Scottish to begin with. However, for many like me this was the first time they had seen Samba, and it was pretty good! I tried editing the videos I took to make one video out of all, but the software I have seems to be as good and fast as doing it as I am at translating from Mandarin to Malay. So you'll have to bear with me. The videos are pretty long and the sound quality is not that good, but you do get a basic idea.

The Samba:


After that it was the turn of some weird Martial Arts groups to display their act. Their performance left many with open mouths, but that was because they couldn't figure what exactly they were trying to do.

The "Highest" form of Martial Arts:


Though thankfully, the weed wore off eventually and they ended up doing some pretty cool things.

After that it was the turn to put one of the burning questions of life at rest. What does rap done to Samba sound like? I'm not kidding. Though the audio is not too good, and the guy rapped in a Scottish accent(of course), you can still get a basic idea. Honestly, it was much better than I expected.

The Samba Rap:


Since this night was turning out to be such an insightful one, it was time to answer another one of life's burning questions: What does the castle look like at midnight? You see, SEP is a true learning experience:P. Why we went there I don't know, it just happened, but it looked quite nice, and after a few attempts at photography it was time to head back home.

50 things for college life

I came upon this post when a friend sent the link with the usual "MUST READ" descriptions attached. Well actually, for all the college students, i do think this is a must read. Though he talks about undergraduate life at MIT, this could equally apply to any university in the world, and it is SO true! Ok, less talking...the link
50 Things

Edinburgh Castle

Finally I have my own camera! So I can start blogging now...actually I could've started before but meh, I'm too lazy for that. (And you can see by the swiftness of my posting with the event how quickly I do things)
I came to Edinburgh late one night and the thing that immediately caught my eye was the castle. The sheer grandeur of the building illuminating so beautifully in the night was just stunning. It is after all supposedly the most visited place in Scotland. Though it does cost a lot to get inside, I can honestly say it's definitely worth it. The view from the castle itself of the city is quite breathtaking, though I wish I had gone on a day when the wind wasn't blowing so brutally into my face, but having spent almost two weeks here now, I know those days are just the stuff of legend.
The greatest thing about the castle is that there is tons of stuff to do inside. There are plenty of museums and each is quite fascinating, it takes you a good deal of time to see the entire castle. Oh and by the way, if anyone is going there anytime soon, they shoot the cannon at 1PM everyday, so you might wanna catch that.
One thing I have to talk about is the Scottish crown jewels. They're kept in quite an unassuming building, but the tour inside is quite breathtaking with meticulous recreations of the historical events. The Scottish kings and queens used to be take off from Holyrood Palace, ride down the royal mile and crowned at the castle...kinda intimidates you when you walk the royal mile after this.

After the evening, there was an excellent bagpipe player playing at the royal mile. The video:



I showed this to a friend, and although I can not reproduce his exact response, but he called it a cacophony, but then again he'd probably say the same about Nirvana, so I can't really trust his opinion. I loved it though, though I couldn't make a longer vid. because there was only so much time I could stand there without sparing some change.

Change

It's funny how at every point in my life I have thought about how much more sense the world has made to me, how much I have ''matured'' over the year. Each time I think that I finally get the picture, it makes perfect sense. Alas, that perception breaks down again and again as time passes. Even now I think that I didn't know what the heck was going on a year ago, and I am sure a year from now I'll look back and think "what was I thinking." I don't know how long this constant 'nurturing' of mind will take place, how much mor the world would make sense to me. It feels that it would last forever, the pieces ever-so-slowly falling into place. I look back at past events now with a different perspective; what brings this I am not sure, experience perhaps. Every day it seems that salvation for the mind is near, yet only later am I to realize that it was as far from the truth as it could be. Till that time that I fear will never happen, I am forced to go through life, trying to untangle the web that surrounds me.

Great Things

Recently I met a guy who I felt was unjustly deprived of something he deserved. Favoritism or whatever he deserved the thing that someone else got and I was sad and agry for him. Sad for obvious reasons. But his response made me a bit angry...
He said that he would not protest, but is instead happy because "God will have something good in store for me. He always has great things for me."
What I feel is that it isn't the thing that God gives that makes it so great, it's the belief that it will be great that makes it so great. Now, I'm sure that no matter what happens, even if he God forbids loses a leg or something as a result of this, he will still consider it great; he will be happy with whatever he gets. It may be enviable, but is it really that God always have great things in store for you? Isn't it so that you believe that you did not get something you deserved because God will repay you with great kindness and give something really 'great' in return for this. Isn't it the belief that makes it so great. No matter what happens, the events that unfold will affirm that belief. This maybe an enviable form of optimism, but I feel he should have fought for what was rightly his, because even if he did fight for it, I'm sure he would have gotten something great in return.