SELF PORTRAIT

Had to apply for a visa to enter the US... (story coming up next post)

Needed to send in one picture with very specific measurements...

The size of the head, the position, the background... the distance of the eyes from the bottom of the picture...

Face must not be looking sideways, ears must be exposed... etc...

Took my own portrait in my office, using makeshift material like the whiteboard for background...

After a few shots of the plain, look-straight-into-the-lens pictures, I began to break all the rules...

Pic was taken with natural light... on auto release...



Which brings me to a pic of another 'self-portrait' (heh heh) I took at Roach Reefs...

This friendly Harlequin sweetlips was just hovering over a coral head...

And refusing to go away even as I clicked on and on...

Model size was about 50 centimeters...

Distance between model and photographer was about one meter...

The time of that dive was early evening, and I think the guy was trying to settle down for the night...

Wooh... am itching all over now... need to drop myself into the water soon...

LIVING NEXT DOOR TO ALICE

Blog-reader Alice gave me a nudge on my ribs, reminding me that I had promised to write about Alice, an unfortunate target of my puppy love days...

What to do... I was about 17 or 18... and tell me, what interests boys of this age except, g.i.r.l.s.?

That goondoo of a boy would be standing in front of the mirror for like, hours... twiddling and fiddling his hair, making sure that every single strand and every other filament is in its 'proper' place... as if the girls would take notice... blah, those days...

Now, the sad thing is, nothing much really happened with this Alice girl...

Regardless, the 'height' of this non-event was the time when we climbed Kedah Peak in a group...

Was thrilled sky-high, literally... and was always trying to find excuses to walk alongside her... what a goondoo puppy-pest I must have been...

After that, visited her on several occasions in the evenings and yakked away the hours, fighting off the never-say-die mosquitoes...

She was petite, yes, and small-sized... with long flowing hair, pretty of course, and she looked terrific in jeans... as my friends like to remind me, 'my type'...

But it was not to be... those sticky-sticky mosquitoes were always in the way...

I climbed Kedah Peak a second time shortly after... and foolishly decided to pick some wild grass flowers to bring back for sweet Alice...

The streams were slippery and I could have slipped and knocked the brains off my skull... or am I exaggerating?

Thing is, was Alice happy to receive those miserable yellow grass flowers, wilted by the time I handed them to her?

Silly me...

Now, more than twenty-four years have passed us by, and all that remains is that song about living next door (actually, a few streets away) to her in Alor Star...

I have not heard much about her except that she once asked about me through a common friend...

Now Alice... if you are reading this... naw... can't be... can't be...

I close my case...

GLOBAL NAJIB AGAIN

Once in a while, I cannot help but to feel 'geram' (as in grrrrr...) on the way things are being reported in Malaysia...

Of course, this sort of things happen everywhere, but in Malaysia, the press is so subservient to the government to the extent that makes readers wonder if the reporters are again, apple-polishing the politicians...

Which makes yours truly deciding to shoot a letter to the editor...

‘Glocal’ not Najib’s wordDr Lrong LimApr 9, 07 4:07pm

I refer to the Star report Be glocal in your work, diplomats told.

The first paragraph said, 'Malaysian diplomats have to be ‘glocal’ in the way they carry out their diplomatic missions, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak said, referring to the term he coined last year'.

When Najib blurted out the term 'glocal' some time ago, there was almost a furor in the blogging community, with bloggers rejecting the idea that Najib coined the term.

Just to set the record straight once and for all...

I am an academician plying my trade in a Japanese university.

In 1998, I had the honour of meeting Dr Asma Abdullah at Kyoto, whereby she presented me a gift in the form of a personally signed book called Going Glocal: Cultural Dimensions in Malaysian Management.

That book was published by the Malaysian Institute of Management in 1996.

I urge The Star reporter to not take my (or bloggers') word for it and that he/she should personally go to the library in the said institute to check out the book for him or herself

Meanwhile, I would like to know from The Star whether Najib in fact did say he coined the term.

Better still, I would be delighted if Najib himself comes out and declares so.

HUMBLED, ONCE AGAIN...

Did anyone of you read Fong Po Kuan's blog entry on her friend becoming an American?

Such stories... pretty sad I'd say, come in truckloads as far as (non-Malay?) Malaysians are concerned... (Non-Malaysian friends may be scratching their heads, wondering why...)

Like Po Kuan's friend, I am no straight A student...

I obtained only two A2s for my G.C.E. exam... my grades were not solid like hers... and I was not particularly fond of studying... urrrggghh...

Of course, there was no place for a yellow man like me in the local universities in Malaysia...

While she had a relative to sponsor her to university, my saving grace was Singapore Airlines...

Go ahead, call me unpatriotic... and yes, I remain proud and forever thankful to Singapore Airlines for putting me on track that eventually leads to where I am now...

Today, 30th March 2007... 6 months after my promotion to professor... the Vice President of my university announced that the President is appointing me as Director of International Student Center, effective 1st April 2007, for a period of two years...

Frankly, I am just fine with being a plain, low profile professor... a workhorse toiling in the field, mingling with students, dirtying my hands with chalk, and sweating along with my colleagues...

I am just turning 49 this July and I think the university should appoint someone in the late fifties... I should be about ready in ten years' time...

Furthermore, the prospects of meetings upon meetings do not titillate my senses...

Still, it is too much of an honor for me...

I recall reading an article in an in-flight magazine on the way back from Melbourne...

A Japanese cook based in Sydney was just conferred some kind of medal by the Australian government...

Rather that considering it as another feather on his cap, he says something to the effect that he is humbled by the award... and that he owes it to the Australian people and government for giving him the opportunity to push the limits of his potential as a professional cook...

While I am nowhere compared to him (no medals for me...), my feelings concur with his...

Japan has, and continues to give me opportunities that I can only dream of if I were to remain in my beloved homeland, Malaysia...

Don't get me wrong here... you can call me a runaway if you like, but you can never take away the Malaysian in me...

Anyway, when the April rains come, I shall be wearing a new hat... and a darn heavy one too, I'd expect...

So my dear friends... wish me 'strength' as I would need lots of it...

DIVING AT ROACH REEF RESORT

Dived at Roach Reef Resort some time ago...

Originally just a sandbar, RRR was transformed into a man-made island with about 10 chalets...

Some months before we went, high tides destroyed some of the chalets...

We flew to Tawau, transfered to a small fishing village, and from there, about 30 minutes by speed boat...

Food was pretty good... but fresh water was scarce...

Diving was mainly boat diving...



Picture shows RRR from diving boat... looks good eh?



Underwater... the scene was just as good, if not better...

Frequented the house reef several times just to see this octopus fellow...

The first time I dived past this bugger, I thought it was a rock...

Funny because I had thought that octopus is a nocturnal animal...

But this one was out there in full daylight...

Japanese folks love to chew on octopus meat... I do too...

But I have yet to see octopus being sold in Malaysian fish markets... have you?