Scattered Seeds

Meng Chwen: OK. What are we going to do next?
Amos: I don’t know. So what are we going to do next?
Nee On: Erm… Irau? But I just wanna take pictures.

Taken at the peak of Gunung Datuk. Image by Amir Rashid.

On 1 April 2005, I wrote in my old blog:

I trekked up Gunung Datuk last Saturday (March 26). I proclaimed that that would be the last time I went up there–at least for the next few years. And on this trip, I was to guide at least three car loads of human beings; but only four persons came– Chee Kin, Stephanie, Cindy and Rachel.

But who cares about them? It’s the panorama we all want to see…

Unfortunately, I took the worst set of photos for a panorama ever. Panorama Maker couldn’t stitch it properly. And I had trouble stitching the pics manually–I was left with an overtly curved and distorted panorama. HOW I WISH THE WORLD WAS FLAT!

I suppose God had other plans. One of which must be to irritate me with curved panoramas…

Anyway, here’s the BEST crop possible

Gunung Datuk in 2005

I know. It doesn’t even show half of the 360 degree view from the peak of Gunung Datuk. I know. It’s a boring image. I admit it. But I was trying to hide the ugly graffiti whichever IDIOTS did on the rocks at the peak.

And I know I said I would never go back there again anytime soon.

But I DON’T HAVE A CHOICE if I didn’t get a panoramic image I love. I’m still trying to fix the stitch, but I don’t like the results I’m getting. I’m just not satisfied with it.

So. Despite what I declared to the world earlier on, I may be going up Gunung Datuk again sometime soon. Even the ugly graffiti won’t deter me. Plus, the little exploring into the “caves” under the gigantic rocks has stirred my curiosity. Going to the peak again now offers some little “adventures” into places I’ve been before.

Until then, all of us have to live with this panorama.

It would seem that sometime soon has turned into some 20 months after. On January 26, 2007, I went up the mountain with 17 others–the veterans Nee On, and Amos, the freshly seasoned Amir, Nisita, Kourosh, Judith and Farah, and the new recruits Nancy, Stefhani, Nini, Aloysia, Arie, Dicky, Ikhwan, Edi, Naseem and Joanna–with the intention of erasing the graffiti and cleaning up the mountain. I was not sure how much 5 liters of thinner, 20 gloves, and 60 garbage bags could do before I got up, but I hoped the place will be a much cleaner place.

Graffiti Removal. Images by Amir Rashid

We’ve only managed to make the place a wee bit cleaner–there was just too much garbage for so few of us to collect in the limited time we were there. Still, it was a great effort that we collected as much as we did. The area the peak is quite clean now–we brought down some 26 bags of garbage; and erased some graffiti–but a lot of garbage is still scattered near the camping site. It’s really unbelievable how some campers can be. Among the treasures we found: used soft drink and mineral bottles, wine bottles, potato chips tubes, rusted sardine tin cans, a ring with a diamond/crystal, sports shoe soles, one side of a slipper, gardening glove, cigarette butts, forks and spoons of metal and plastic makes, two buckets, one sports bag, caps, and a lot of wrappers of all kinds big and small for sweets, chocolates, chewing gum, bread, nuts, cigarettes and the sort. There are many more items to be listed here.

The Garbage We Brought Down. Image by Amir Rashid

I was so intent of cleaning up the place, I decided not to bring my camera. That was a good and bad de

It has been some quiet two to three years when I took only a handful of students on a very few trekking trips. And it was only in the last few months that I started picking up speed again–that is until I was sidelined for over a month by dengue.It’s a new year. With 2007 already in it’s third week, it is time to hit the trails of Malaysian jungles, to step on the many peaks and dip in the waters of Malaysian rivers.

As usual, I didn’t want to head into the wild alone. I wanted to share that joy with as many people as possible. So I made a CIMP Trekking Club recruitment sideshow/video. I actually went through the thousands of photos I have collected fromthe many trekking trips I have been on. It was a wonderful walk down memory lane as I browsed through all the trekking photos from the last seven years. There were so many photos I wanted to put in the slideshow–like it was a “CIMP Trekking Club Through the Years” kinda thing. But I couldn’t do it.

I wasn’t able to put in many photos from the early days. For one, I was in almost all the photos I have. Then even when I could use a photo, I didn’t have a scanner to make a digital image. Those images that were in digital format already are too low-res by today’s standard. In the end, I resorted to using many photos from the last one year or so. After all, I had to put in familiar faces of current students and lecturers to attract even more students.

If I am still trekking in the next few years, perhaps I will make a Trekking Jubilee Video of my Trekking Career. And when that happens. I’ll make sure I get those photos scanned in. Until then, this will be the only recruitment video.

You can download either of the following:

CIMP Trekking Club Recruitment QUICKTIME (80mb)
CIMP Trekking Club Recruitment .mpg (77mb)

Last Saturday, my family attended the wedding of Eveline, one of our friends from our university days. We met a few other friends there, too, and very naturally got into the whole “catching-up-with-what-you’ve-been-up-to” conversations when we were having refreshments. After a while, I saw Mary-Ann talking to Shieh Jeanne. It wasn’t right for me to eavesdrop, so I was told this story.

Apparently Shieh Jeanne was scratching her arm and feet away when Mary Ann asked her what happened. Shieh Jeanne told her that she was bitten by a mosquito. Not once, but twice. Mary Ann heard the tale with shock and delight. She went on to say that she was Ms Mosquito. Whenever she was in a company of people, and if there was a mosquito around, she would be the one who would be bitten.

Then she told Shieh, “Now that I’m with you, mosquitoes prefer to bite you. So I think you must be Ms Mosquito.”

“Ya. I think I am,” Shieh Jeanne said. “You know why? I am four years old. Mosquitoes like me because my skin is softer and smoother than yours. That’s whylah.”

Would you rather be four years old or Ms Mosquito?

After a hiatus of a few months, I pick up my “pencil” and write again.

When I accidentally deleted the blog the first time sometime in September/Ocotber 2006, I retained all my files on the server. When I decided to do some housekeeping and streamline my webhost account two weeks back, I totally forgot to ask the support team to transfer all my files. Simply put, I lost about 2 months worth of posts as I did not make any back-up copies (which I thought I did, but obviously didn’t).

And so I start afresh…

Gone is the use of blogger.com. In it’s place I now use pixelpost for my photoblog and wordpress for the webblog.

pixelpost screenshot

I’m here to stay. If you’re reading this, I hope you’ll stay on for the ride, too.