Another unexpected email

Arley House, Cheshire, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

It looks like Lady Luck is upon me lately when it comes to my photos. I received an email - a flickrmail rather - from an editor just now enquiring about this particular photo. She is from Schmap Guide, an online city guide. They are drawing out their next edition in the next few weeks and have shortlisted my photo above to be included. Although there will be no monetary payment involved, they have made it clear that I will be credited with the image and there will be a link to my page in flickr, which can only be good. The guide itself is free. In fact you can have a look at the previous editions on http://www.schmap.com.

Since my photos were published in the Malay Mail, a few of my friends from KLickr - KL flickr group - warned me to make sure that I was not taken advantage of. Apparently in Malaysia, it is standard practice for the newspaper to request to use photos, did so, with no acknowledgment of the source. Should you insist on credit - we are not talking about money here, just credit - they will say thank you very much and go for another photo. Since I don't earn my living from photography, I don't really mind my photo being used, but the professionals do. I can clearly see their point of view, and I respect that. That is not saying if in the future should somebody politely ask me to use my photo, I will refuse. Far from it. What I am saying is, it would be much better if credit is given to the photographer rather than not.

As for me, I have literally thousands of photos I took during my UK days, but since most of them were rather in negatives or slides, it is rather tedious for me to share them online.

Would Somebody Like Roger be a Success if he is Malaysian?

In half an hour or so, everyone in my household will be glued to the TV to watch Mr Federer (Roger to his friends) will take on the A Rod in the Winbledon Men's Singles Final. That got me thinking. Should Malaysia for some reason were to be blessed with similar talents, will we be able to polish it into a gem?

As far as I can see, there are a few hurdles, both traditional and current. We have, especially amongst Malays this mindset that sports are only for those academically challenged. Those that are talented would have been institutionally discourage from pursuing sports for fear of not doing well in their exams. I am proud to say that I went to MRSM Terendak during my formative years and benefited greatly. I am not going to pretend that sports are my forte, but the school management were so unhelpful when it come to us excelling in sports it was untrue. We were told off when we asked to take our monthly tests early because it clashed with our football games. The answer straight out of the bat was, "Did you come here to study or to play football?". Mind you, that was for state Finals! And yes, we won.

How sad to see some of our promising youngsters in sports such as gymnastics and bowling came to a head having to decide between going to University or pursuing their Sports? The problem is just not mindset, it is infrastructure as well. Our University were just not able to accommodate talented sportmans, and should they be pushed to decide between sports and education in the Universities, the same age old question will crop up again. "Did you come to University to play sports or to get a degree?". No wonder our graduates did not fare well in the job market. Mind you, I am a University Lecturer!

God knows how many world class sportmen and women Malaysia has missed out on, just down to this mindset and infrastructure.

Idlan's Concert

Idlan's Concert 1 - The Preparation, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Yesterday, I sneaked home early to attend Idlan's piano recital. Since the beginning of the year, Idlan has been attending a nearby Yamaha Music School. He has been making progress, and with his piano that he got for his birthday he has been knocking them away almost everyday.

Idlan delivering his piecePresent from teacherThere were a few other children in his group. They sang a couple of tunes at the beginning. After that each of them introduced themselves and play a couple of pieces solo. Idlan did fine. After that, we had some snacks. All the parents brought something along. Anita got some cupcakes from the The Curve earlier in the day and it was gone in double quick time!

Another afternoon of the Waiting Game

I spent the afternoon with my sister. She was not feeling well last night but we thought that it was just a simple virus. Her husband was due to leave for Kota Kinabalu this morning to attend a conference. Everything was OK when he left.

By mid-day however, my sister developed some tummy ache and a slight fever. She went to see a GP. She was having pain on right side of her abdomen by now and it was getting worst. Whe was still able to walk. My Dad called me, and I arranged for her to come and meet me at the Casualty.

She looked tired and weak, but was still able to walk around. Doctors came and examine her and at the everyone thought that she may have appendicitis. Everyone was however doubly nice to us, but I am sure it is something to do with me being a staff there.

It's late afternoon now and we are still waiting for the senior surgeon to come. His junior has decided to admit my sister anyhow. Therefore we are just waiting to see what happen.

Appendicitis, although sounds trivial can be tricky to diagnose even by a senior doctor. Some patient comes in with pain worst than giving birth, but only yurn out to be nothing, while others came in with very minor symptoms that turned out to be an abscess.

I hope that she will be OK after a period of observation. Her husband is rather anxious to find out if he needs to travel back to KL. But at the moment, all we can do it wait.

I Got it Published!

090627 Urbanscapes 5 - The KLPAC foyer, originally uploaded by Haris Abdul Rahman.

Well, usually if a university lecturer says that it means that one of his academically sound, well-researched article has been accepted by one of the journals. That is one of the ways how we get promoted you see. But this one is slightly different, but just as thrilling!

Since putting my Urbanscapes online in the last couple of days, my flickr feed has gone bonkers. We are talking 500+ hits here. Yesterday, I received an email from a reporter from the Malay Mail asking if she can use some of my photos from the flickr feed for a piece she was doing. No probs. Today, it is in the paper. The online version got only one of them put up, but in the paper version, there were two of them.

The featured article in Malay Mail, click on image for link.The other photo featured in the article, but in colour instead.So, I am walking on a high today, and rest assured with the knowledge that you don't really need a big wonking DSLR with you when you have the LX3. I still wouldn't mind the EOS 5D Mark II though! Got to handle one of them during the weekend belonging to one of my fellow KLickr. Got to get ready for badminton later!