[For My Students] Answers to the Additional Mathematics Assignment on Composite Functions

Dear students,

You can view the answers to the assignment in Google Docs format by going here.

Hope that helps!

-ihsankhairir-

Would You Feed a Hungry Beggar?

A few years ago, while lunching at a roadside stall, I saw this female tabby-cat.

It was a stray cat. And from the longing face it showed me, it looked hungry.

It jumped on a chair and started eyeing the food on the table. But, being a nice beggar-cat, it didn't pounce on the food.

Instead, it looked at me with those sad kitty eyes. I didn't have to be a genius to understand what this cat was trying to communicate to me.

The cat kept its eye contact with me for a while. Look at those eyes, they scream 'have mercy, please feed me!'

If you were me, would you feed this hungry stray beggar cat?

Also guess: did I end up feeding this cat with leftover food on the table?

I Heart Photography #3 - The Random, Unexpectedly Wonderful Shot

Part of the wonders of dabbling one's dry feet in the cold waters of creative photography is that you sometimes don't know when or how you suddenly fall in and make a big splash. Most of the time, you just see transient ripples on the surface that fade away and disappear as quickly as they come. The only way to keep the water moving and active is to keep making many and frequent ripples. Sooner or later, or at least once in a while, that big splash will come.

This is more or less true for me. As an amateur self-taught photography hobbyist, I depend on experience and criticism to improve my technical skills and creative eye in preserving images. For the longest time, I had my camera with me at all times like a shark's remora, ready to pounce on that suddent moment of opportunistic feeding. In my case, my camera is there so that whenever I see something that is worth remembering and sharing with everyone I know, I have something ready to capture that moment and preserve it so that other people can see what I saw and maybe share the same feeling I had.

My used-to-be frequent random shots and sharing of photos on Flickr, Facebook and this blog has often created those transient ripples, but one shot in particular created my big splash for me. Though the nature of the splash is still transient, the impact was much much bigger, which is why this shot, though random and partially unplanned, remains one of my personal favorites and my most popular shot on Flickr.

Catch the Sun, by ihsankhairir

This shot was captured while I was waiting for a taxicab in Singapore, sometime May of 2009. I was struggling to find the correct exposure settings to capture both the sky and the silhouette of my hand when I suddenly had the inspiration to try to shoot the sun through the peephole in my hand. Because I tried to not overexpose the sky by using a smaller aperture in combination with the correct gap size and distance of the focal plane from my hand, I managed to create a sparkle with sufficiently many spokes. As I mentioned before, this was partially unplanned because I did not perform any prior calculations nor was I privy to such technical knowledge prior to this shot. It was a random and unexpectedly wonderful shot, one that I almost immediately dedicated to a special someone (that someone remained anonymous in the dedication).

Creating random and unexpectedly wonderful shots like the one above is one of the many reasons why I heart photography :)

How about you? Have you had any random, unplanned shots that become your big splash?

---

Other articles in the I Heart Photography series:
I Heart Photography #1
I Heart Photography #2 - My History of Photography

[Egyptian Crisis] Updates on Malaysians in Egypt

Just providing several links to the latest updates on our family and friends who are in Egypt during this crisis.

http://krisismesirnasibrakyatkita.blogspot.com/
A blog set up by volunteers who are helping with communications between Malaysian students in Egypt and Malaysians at home. Frequently updated.

http://www.facebook.com/notes/anis-afikah-ismail/maklumat-pelajar-malaysia-di-mansurah-mesir-daripada-ahmad-azizi-md-jusoh-penger/185228911497850
A Facebook note regarding the latest news about Malaysian students in Mansoura University in Egypt

Facebook page for everyone concerned about the situation with our students in Egypt. Like the page if you want.

Bernama news. Government plans to bring students to Saudi Arabia using our own navy ship, then have them flown home from there.

Tweets from @tonyfernandes mentions that Air Asia X will try to bring home students from Egypt via Turkey or Iran.

If anyone has any more links to updates on the current situation of our fellow Malaysians in Egypt, please do share.

Please also help spread the links around. Thank you.

May our friends and family over there be in the blessing and protection of the Almighty. Ameen.