Italian Marvel

The Pisa Baptistry & Cathedral and yes, of course, that's the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Pisa, Tuscany, Italy.


You're the Nile,

You're the Tower of Pisa,
You're the smile

On the Mona Lisa.

- Cole Porter, American Composer and Lyricist, 1893-1964.

Lyrics to the song - You're The Top.


Taken with a Nikon CoolPix 2100

Focal length: 4.7mm

Exposure Mode: Programmed Auto

Exposure: 0.004 sec (10/2549)

Aperture: f/5.2

Towering

The Campanile San Marco, Venice, Italy.
Legend has it that the Ranieri brothers who built this 97 metre high structure (originally a lighthouse) had their eyes removed so they would not be able to repeat this wonder.


If you read a lot, nothing is as great as you've imagined.
Venice is... Venice is better.

- Fran Lebowitz, American Writer and Humorist.


Taken with a Nikon CoolPix 2100

Focal Length: 4.7mm

Exposure Mode: Programmed Auto

Exposure: 0.002 sec (5/2516)

Aperture: f/2.6

Highland Coo

"Moo", go the Highland Coo.

Inverness, Scotland.



The ideals which have always shone before me and filled me with the joy of living are goodness, beauty, and truth.

To make a goal of comfort or happiness has never appealed to me; a system of ethics built on this basis would be sufficient only for a herd of cattle.

- Albert Einstein, German born American Physicist, Nobel Prize Winner in Physics (1921), 1879-1955.



Taken with a Nikon CoolPix 2100

Exposure Mode: Programmed Auto

Exposure: 0.005 sec (5/918)

Aperture: f/3.4

Focal Length: 8.1 mm

Expanse

The Schloss Schönbrunn, Vienna, Austria.


Clear the air!
Clean the sky!
Wash the wind!
Take stone from stone and wash them.

- T.S. Eliot, American born English Playwright, Poet and Critic, 1888-1965.


Taken with a Nikon CoolPix 2100

Focal Length: 4.7mm

Exposure Mode: Programmed Auto

Exposure: 0.004 sec (5/1144)

Aperture: f/5.2

Yellow vs. White

Blurred ~ Yellow Flower Closeup.


Earth laughs in flowers.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist & philosopher.


Taken with a Nikon CoolPix 2100

Exposure Mode: Programmed Auto

Focal length: 4.7mm

Exposure: 0.028 sec (10/359)

Aperture: f/2.6



Now... compare the above photo with this previous one I posted:






Taken with a Nikon CoolPix 2100

Focal length: 4.7mm

Exposure: 0.016 sec (5/317)

Aperture: f/2.6

Scene Mode: Close-up



Notice anything different?
Yes, the yellow flower picture's foreground is in a blur while the background is more focused. Whilst, the daisy photo shows a foreground that is focused and a background that's in a blur.

Chocolate Tree

Centrepiece in the shop window of a famous Austrian confectioner & baker, Demel in Vienna.
The tree is made entirely of chocolate and other types of sweets - decadent!


Everyone who enjoys thinks that the principal thing to the tree is the fruit,
but in point of fact the principal thing to it is the seed.
Herein lies the difference between them that create and them that enjoy.

- Friedrich Nietzsche, German classical Scholar, Philosopher, 1844-1900.


Taken with a Nikon CoolPix 2100

Exposure Mode: Programmed Auto

Focal length: 4.7mm

Exposure: 0.041 sec (10/243)

Aperture: f/2.6

Slug

Just a Slug ~ Sluggin' it along in the dewy grasslands of Glenfinnan, Scotland.


He would pore by the hour, o'er a weed or a flower,

Or the slugs that come crawling out after a shower.

- Rev. R. H. Barham, English Poet & Dramatist, 1788-1845.



I was inspired by Alkam's post on snails to post this up. Snails & slugs - what a sight!



Taken with a Nikon CoolPix 2100

Focal Length: 4.7 mm

Scene Mode: Close Up

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern 1/14.9 sec - f/2.6

Women are like apples on trees, the best ones are on the top of the
tree. The men don't want to reach for the good ones because they are
afraid of falling and don't want to get hurt. Instead, they just get
the rotten apples from the ground that aren't so good but easy. So,
the apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in
reality they are amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to
come along, the one who's brave enough to climb all the way to the top
because they value quality.

- Anonymous.


Something I found browsing through on the Internet.

Gothic Blur

Stephansplatz ~ St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Vienna, Austria.



The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable.

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, English Poet & Philosopher, 1772-1834.



Taken with a Nikon CoolPix 2100

Focal Length: 4.7mm

Scene Mode: Night Landscape

Metering Mode: Multi-Pattern 1/2.9sec - f/2.6

Light

Karlskirche ~ St. Charles Church

Vienna, Austria.



God be prais'd, that to believing souls,

Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair.

- William Shakespeare, English Dramatist, Playwright & Poet, 1564-1616.


Taken with a Nikon CoolPix 2100

Focal Length: 4.7mm

Scene Mode: Night Landscape

The Palm House

The Schloss Schönbrunn Green House ~ The Palm House.

Vienna, Austria.


O DWELLERS OF MY PARADISE!

With the hands of loving-kindness I have planted in the holy garden of paradise the young tree of your love and friendship, and have watered it with the goodly showers of My tender grace; now that the hour of its fruiting is come, strive that it may be protected, and be not consumed with the flame of desire and passion.

- Baha'u'llah (The Persian Hidden Words)


Taken with a Nikon CoolPix 2100

Focal Length: 4.7mm

Exposure Mode: Programmed Auto

Tea Time at the Loch Ness

Tea time at the Loch Ness ~ Hot Chocolate & Apple Pie.

God comes to the hungry in the form of food.

- Mahatma Gandhi, Indian Philosopher, 1869 - 1948.


Taken with a Nikon CoolPix 2100

Focal length: 4.7mm

Exposure Mode: Programmed Auto

Daisy

Tread lightly, she is near

Under the snow,

Speak gently, she can hear

The daisies grow.

- Oscar Wilde, Irish Poet & Novelist



Taken with a Nikon CoolPix 2100

Focal length: 4.7mm

Scene Mode: Close-up

Types of Indians in Malaysia

Statistics have been compiled, research has been
conducted, relatives have been consulted, the
gossip aunties (their big hips clad in colourful
and bright golden sarees) have actually, for ONCE
agreed.



We present to you the characteristics that
classify the THREE major Indian groups (or
perhaps, castes?) that exist in Malaysia. The
REGULARs, HIP-HOPPERs & MACHAs.
Statistics have been compiled, research has been
conducted, relatives have been consulted, the
gossip aunties (their big hips clad in colourful
and bright golden sarees) have actually, for ONCE
agreed.



We present to you the characteristics that
classify the THREE major Indian groups (or
perhaps, castes?) that exist in Malaysia. The
REGULARs, HIP-HOPPERs & MACHAs



I s'pose only Malaysians will find this 'un funny. :/ I found it hitting a lot closer to the truth. And I'm a regular, who's a IPWTTANI. Though, I assure you, I will take less than 6 years to finish my medical course!




1) REGULAR


Definition: Comprises a mere 7-10 % of the total
population of Indians in Malaysia. Found in
well-developed parts of the cities spread
throughout the peninsular. (None have been found
in Sabah & Sarawak as yet)


Characteristics include:



1. Speaks English as their 1st language.


2. Do not know how to (or just dont) speak
their mother tongue.


3. Prefer to identify themselves by
sub-group rather than the plain


Indian (ie-Malayalee, Ceylonese, Telugu,
Sikh, North Indian etc)


4. Uses the internet more than the other 2
groups combined.


5. Swears off, criticises and ridicule those
who watch Tamil/ Hindi Movies and/or dramas.
Instead, watches the OC, MTV and other American
sitcoms.


6. Thinks that the REGULAR group is way
larger than it actually is and constantly makes
fun of the other groups, in particular the MACHA
group. Why? Because it's fun.


7. Aspires to be a doctor. Those who do
medicine will eventually do so at UK/Australia,
but will normally end up taking more than the
required six years to complete the degree due to
excessive failure.


8. Recent studies have shown that there is
a growing splinter group within the REGULARs
known as the IPWTTANI (Indian People Who Think They
Are Not Indians). This growing sub-group is considered
the elitist by some and is found to make the
occasional statements like "I wish I were in the
UK" and/or "This never happened when I was
studying in Australia".


9. They often speak in unidentifiable
accents. The women/men of this group also prefer
to date white men/women from foreign countries
with the excuse that local men/women "just don't
understand me". Some of them will only go out and
fornicate with their so-called 'cousin' who's
studying in Australia/UK, who's visiting on their
semester breaks. Many secretly desire to be taken
away to live in a Bollywood film with a
happily-ever-after ending.


10. Despises Samy Vellu



2) THE HIP-HOPPERS



Definition: The 2nd major group of Indians, the
HIP-HOPPERS comprises about 20-30% of the
population of Indians. Normally living in urban
areas of cities, the HIP-HOPPERS, as their name
suggests, can never be found where they actually
come from, but rather in clubs, bars, pubs etc.
Many secretly desire to be like the REGULARS but
just don't make the cut.



The characteristics of the HIP-HOPPERS are:



1. TRY to speak English as their 1st language.


2. Their actual 1st language is Tamil.


3. Openly desire to be blacks (waddap dawg?)


4. Hair not in original colour


5. Have unknown hand movements and slangs
that are supposedly cool that supposedly go well
together with their normal attire of FUBU jerseys
and baggy jeans (that are more often than not
bought in Petaling Street/Chow Kit)


6. Are famously known to shorten their names
to suit their lifestyles (ie. Sam, for Muthusamy
and Amber for Ambikadevy)


7. Large quantities (almost all) found in
Jalan Telawi of Bangsar (though, to be fair, many
REGULAR groups are found here too)


8. Parents want them to be doctors. Many end
up studying medicine in Russia/Ukraine (CSMU)
because they refuse to go to India and cannot
afford UK/Australia. Those who go to India may
eventually switch camps to the MACHA group.


9. Despises Samy Vellu.




The HIP-HOPPERS major claim to fame is driving
out all the REGULARs (Malay, Chinese & Indian)
and the white expatriates from Bangsar by large
quantities, so much so that they can now call
Bangsar "home".



3) THE MACHAS



The last and largest group of Indians in the
country comes from the MACHA group. Probably
the most famous group, it is so well known that most
Malaysians think ALL Indians are from the MACHA
group. Comprising nearly 70% of the Indian
population in Malaysia, the MACHAS can be found
in urban parts of the cities, and also in estates.


Their characteristics include:



1. Speaks Tamil as their 1st language


2. Sees Tamil Nadu/Madras (India) as the
place to be.


3. Astro at home is hardwired to Astro Vaanavil.


4. Worship Bollywood films. The men openly
desire to be like Rajnikanth or their favourite
Indian star.


5. A night-out will have to include a stop at
any Indian shop in Brickfields. The shopping haven
will have to be Jalan Masjid India.


6. Know all the Tamil songs by heart and has
never heard of Hitz.FM.


7. For men, outfit is never complete without
a gold chain. Women prefer to spend their
life-savings on gold jewellery and gaudy sarees.


8. Half of them aspire to be doctors, the
other half; their parents want them to be doctors.
The bright ones become the pride of all Indians in
the country when they enter UM for medicine, the
less fortunate go to AIMST. Many more attain
paradise and have their dreams come true when
allowed to go off to India (most of the time
Manipal) to do medicine. Most just drop-out of
school and contribute to social-problem areas in
the country.


9. Despises Samy Vellu.