Exhaustion and a twitch in my arm during the last sets of my barbell press made me feel like James Franco.

Well sort of..

Fai

Beijing, China.

2:38 p.m.

Of course a quick glance at previous posts will tell you that Batman jammed the brakes on his revolutionary crusade as soon as he announced his return. He ran so fast he didn’t even need a smokescreen. Went missing straight into hiding for a whole year.

The little person in me and the prick’s nagging whispers has pierced my +5 Cloak of Oblivious. I must make my comeback! I must ignore the temptress on the dark side! I must keep writing!

I took a curious peek into the great Kennysia.com and it seems that he too – with his persistence, determination to stay afloat, and infinite free time that could have been used to do something better – has slowed down with the posts. Can’t blame the guy really. Life happened. It happened to all of us.

We all have our futures to worry about. I need to get another cert, I need to study more, I need to get a job, I need to get married soon, I need to get that report done up for ‘the client’, I need to party and blow off some steam, I need to catch up on my sleep. While we were all busy with “life”, 2 things happened – 1) life sped on and 2) tummies became bellies, double chins became triple chins.

Sure, the only thing ‘the client’ cares about is how hard he’s making you work, not whether you’d be able to run a 2 mile stretch in under 15 minutes or whether you’re spending enough time with the people you care about. Well I’ll put forth the following – would ‘the client’ kneel beside your deathbed and say “I shouldn’t have made you work so hard,”?

I bet my ass your boss wouldn’t give a rat’s fucking ass about that lump that looks suspiciously like a tumor. While you were screaming like a little girl getting kidney stones removed, your client was thinking of ways to make you work harder. I’m sure of that. But hey, that’s life right? Don’t hate the player, hate the game. Like it or not, we’re gonna have to cope. Failure is not an option.

From this day onwards, we’re gonna have to fend for ourselves, defend our turfs.

Life, here we are. Do your worst, bitch.

Fai

Beijing, China.

6: 09 a.m.

曾经在某件事情上表现得过火了，越过了那条看不见，象征和平共处且保护着你我他每一方的线，结果犯了众憎，受人唾弃。自那次之后，我寻思，自己是否乖离 了“中庸” 之道?

古人说：“中者，天下之正道；庸者，天 下之定理。” 中庸之道是几乎涵盖我们生活上每一个部分，甚至可说是整个生命。就好像吃饭，一个人有他自己的饭量，多吃了，势必肚子胀致痛苦；少吃了，就会 饿肚子同样不好受。同样的，话不能说得过头，有必要保留个空间给大家，“凡事留一线，日后好相见”，若得寸进尺得势不饶人，最后输的只有自己，输了情谊，输了尊严。孔子说：“欲而不贪，泰而不骄，威而不猛”，前人已经告诉了我们，保持“中庸”的态度就是做人处世的道理。它不难被理解，却也令人难以真正领悟其中的道理，不然这个世界定是和平安宁的啊！

吃了那一记重挫之后，我向一位前辈寻求帮助，而他送了一句足以使我牢记一辈子的话给我：“在你人生的社会交往中,人必要彼此尊重，在比自己强的人面前，不要畏缩；在比自己弱的人面前，不要骄纵，学问有深浅，地位有高低，但所有的人，人格都是平等的。”当时我发觉，原来自己的确一度抱持当真惹人厌恶的态度待人处事，当局者迷，当时以为并没什么问题，事后看来，真的连自己也看不过眼！

人总是从跌倒中学习，痛定思痛后的我以后做每一件事都要尽量追求平衡、恰到好处、精确到位，不然的话我怕从此走到哪都不受欢迎！

P.S: This is a draft saved from a long looooong time ago. Just didn’t publish it. I shall use this to reboot my blogging career. Comeback! Comeback!

Fai

Beijing, China.

1: 20 a.m.

Drogba and Ivory Coast – Didn’t survive the group stage

Cannavaro and Italy – Didn’t survive the group stage (even New Zealand got more points, mind you)

Rooney and England – Lost 4-1 to Germany

Ribery and France – Didn’t survive the group stage (Boohoo what a shocker)

Ronaldinho and Brazil – Lost 2-1 to Netherlands (Ronaldinho wasn’t even in the team)

Ronaldo and Portugal – Lost 1-0 to Spain (Aww poor pussy..I mean baby don’t cry)

Interestingly, the two teams that were depicted to be frustrated, Spain (in reaction to England’s triumph) and Netherlands (in unfavorable position against Portugal), are both doing very well.

Well they got one thing (or rather person) right – Kobe Bryant did win the NBA championship with the Lakers this year.

Tiger Woods and his ”flip-flops” must feel rather vindicated.

P.S.: Going back to KL in a few days. See you guys then!

Fai

Beijing, China.

6: 26 p.m.

Downloaded the beta and clicked around.

2 words – PURE AWESOMENESS

It’s very different as compared to what Warcraft represents but my personal preference makes Warcraft 3 look so inept.

Fai

Beijing, China.

2: 43 a.m.

I broke my favorite mug.

I broke my favorite mug.

I broke my favorite mug.

I’m so sad I broke my favorite mug.

In remembrance of how great a mug you were, I shall mourn your untimely demise for as long as it takes.

I love you mug and I will never forget you.

Mug, may you now rest in peace.

Fai

Beijing, China.

8:51 p.m.

So I attended this show about 2 or 3 weeks ago. Calvin, with his seemingly bottomless pit of contacts, managed to get me a D90  plus entrance to the show as a photo-reporter (we not only got ringside seats, we could go wherever we wanted as long as we’re taking pictures).

Here are some of the better pictures. Enjoy.

A little disclaimer here, my taste in girls should not be the topic of discussion here, the focus here are the pictures.

Again, enjoy!

Fai

Beijing, China.

2:33 a.m.

But what I just came back from has to be one of the lamest, most poorly orchestrated talent shows I’ve ever seen.

So bad that I had a perfectly good Nikon D90 in my hands and I did NOT wanna use it.

Fai

Beijing, China.

9.59 p.m.

Anyway,  here are some amatuer-ish pictures of sceneries around Tsinghua. And I’m happy to say that I took all these pictures =D Well it’s mainly because Calvin didn’t give me his pictures. Haha.  

This is one of the many, many gardens inside Tsinghua.

It’s so tranquil and serene around here, had you built a house and lived in the midst of this, you’ll probably outlive your grandfather.

Did I mention that Tsinghua is so big that it has old folks’ homes and primary schools within its compound?

Well maybe all these is the reason why. I wouldn’t mind growing old here.

Every evening you see old people, usually with kids roaming these gardens.

This is the famous 水木清华. Well, only famous within the Chinese community.

Its fame is due to the fact that there was once a prominent Chinese poet called 朱自清 and he wrote a poem entitled <荷塘月色>. This exact place was purportedly his inspiration for said poem. If you look carefully, you’ll see a stone statue of him.

This is the result of perseverance and still hands. Calvin taught me how to create that water effect.

The school of journalism and communication. The place where I attend classes.

The ivy-crawling-all-over-the-building sight is pretty common here in Tsinghua. Pretty sight, really.

————————————————————————————————————————————–

A group of us paid the Beijing Botanical Garden a visit. Nothing special really but then again, we had a model.

Most pictures here onwards are taken by Calvin. It’s not a very lovely picture of the man but pictures of the cameraman are usually not, simply because he couldn’t have been the one to take it.

Was quite a hot day and I was the only dumbass who wore jeans. I know. Fuck.

Wendy, whose Cantonese has apparently improved by leaps and bounds because she gets to practice with Calvin and I. She’s a Chinese American with roots in Hong Kong.

According to Calvin, he’s an uber-skilled photo journalist who works with China’s Xinhua Agency. He also sells potatos outside the Beijing Botanical Garden during his free time. I kid I kid… 小居 helped us with lighting that day.

That’s Susan U.K. Susan U.S. left early cos she had to teach English.

Steve & Stacie were there too.

And then there was this cat…

小马 was our model of the day. She was the one who ffk-ed the last time.

Stay tuned for more Chinese conquests.

Fai

Beijing, China.

8.10 p.m.

There weren’t too many things to take pictures of cos let’s face it, there were too many people and we’ve been there quite a number of times already but yea Jun was new here so we wanted to bring him around.

Most of these pictures were taken by Calvin; only 1 or 2 by me cos again, I still suck pretty bad.

So yea, here are some pictures from that day that we all declared a good one.

This was my best picture of the day. Which really doesn’t say much of my skills.

Then we toyed a little with Calvin’s super wide angle lense. That be Susan.

That be Jun.

o.O

That be Susan.

That be Calvin.

Still playing with the wide angle.

O.-

Hamsap spotted.

Then we decided to use this rather peculiar wall as background…

…for jumping shots!!!1!!!11!!1!!1

Failed impression of Ip Man.

Dhalsim vs. E. Honda

Nike – Run on air.

And there’s always the obligatory super-most-handsomemest-guy-on-earth pose =D

Up next, sceneries around Tsinghua and Beijing’s botanical garden.

Stay tuned.

Fai

Beijing, China.

1:03 p.m.

Smelly tofu.

It smelled so bad I almost threw up on the table. Serious.

I’ve been meaning to give it a try to see what the fuss was about.

And FUCK IT WAS GOOD!!!

Only problem was that my breath then turned foul.

———————————————————————————————————————————

The weather is gradually becoming Malaysian-friendly now so we decided to go take some pictures.

We were at Tsinghua’s School of Arts.

As usual, I borrowed Calvin’s Nikon D80 and he borrowed a friend’s Canon 5D MarkII.

Steve had his Canon 550D but in the end succumbed to the pure awesomeness of (our model’s) Nikon D700.

Here are some of the better pictures.

This is Calvin falling prey to Canon’s marketing strategy.

Steve with his 550D before observing some stark shortcomings in Stacie (he named it Stacie) when compared to D700. Apples and oranges Steve…

Red frames.

The giant egg in the middle of nowhere.

The head that had grass growing out of.

FLARWEEEEEEERRRRRR…

She was our model of the day – Rong En.

Our other Chinese mode ffk-ed cos… well… cos she ffk lo!

3/4 Korean and 1/4 Japanese and the proud owner of a certain D700.

The pictures of her are really average if not bad cos I admit – I suck.

Simple as ding dong.

Still, looking forward to learn and improve.

Our next destination: 植物园 (direct translation: “plants garden”)

Apparently now with the sun finally out from hibernation mode  it’s gonna be very pretty.

We’ve already secured the modelling services of Rong En + the ffk-ed Chinese girl so hopefully things turn out fine.

Fai

Beijing, China.

1:16 a.m.