“Oh man, my head”. That was a pretty wild party. Tiesto, open air, hot chicks. It couldn’t have been more perfect. Then there was that girl Syazi introduced to me. What was her name again? Man she was cute.
Just trying to remember her name makes my head hurt. I sit up and swing my legs over the side of the bed, feeling the rush of blood to my head. Cradling my head in my hand, I stare at the floor between my feet.
As I focus my eyes on the parquet, the top corner of a hardbound green book under the bed catches my eye. “What the heck is that?” I think out loud while my hand reaches to pick it up. I examine the cover;
GENERIC UNIVERSITY of FURTHER STUDIES
2000 - 2001
Yearbook
“My college yearbook! I haven’t had a look at this in years. Let’s see…” Flipping over the pages brings forth a gush of memories. Like someone opened a floodgate at the back of my mind.
I chuckle as I look at the geeky pictures of my housemates during college, remembering the many stupid things we’d done in our misspent youth. I’m almost in tears laughing my ass off when suddenly I see her picture. Aiza. Noraiza Rahman. I had the biggest crush on her then. If only I’d had the courage to ask her out when I had the chance.
“Hmm, why don’t I just ask her out now?”
The only snag is that I don’t know how to contact her. Fact is, I’m not even sure if anyone I’ve kept in touch with has heard from her since graduation. If I’m lucky, she’s still single and hot as she was in college. Maybe I’ll just scan her picture and keep it on my hard disk. Maybe I’ll be able to find her on the Internet. Funny how the male brain seems to discard all semblance of rationality when it comes to matters concerning the opposite sex.
I park myself on my computer chair and move the mouse. 1 gig of RAM and it still boots up slower than molasses. That’s why I never shut it down. The screen flickers and I’m greeted by my cluttered desktop. I place the yearbook open at Aiza’s page on the scanner and in a matter seconds, I’ve got a perfect digital copy of her picture on my computer.
“Oh, snap! It’s almost 1.” Syam asked me to be the photographer at his wedding reception in about an hour. A quick shower later, I’m dressed and ready to go. I pack my Mini SLR digital camera into my backpack and head out.
In college I was an IT major, but since I got the Mini SLR for my birthday last year I’ve been quite active in my new hobby; photography. I’ve done some wedding gigs and photo shoots for local magazines. I don’t exactly get paid tons of cash for my pictures, but I’ve got a steady day job. Photography is just a passion.
“Man, Syam’s gonna whoop me if I’m late.” Fortunately there’s a bus already at the bus stop when I get there. I barely manage to hop on board as it starts moving. After paying the driver, I shuffle to the back of the bus where I see an empty seat. I don’t usually like taking the bus, but my car won’t be out of the workshop until tomorrow.
It would take a good 20 minutes to get to Syam’s house, so I figured I might as well configure some photo settings while I wait. The bus stops. Syam’s place isn’t for another 2 stops, but I look up from my fiddling anyway.
There’s an old lady who’s taking forever to get on. But right behind her, I spot the cutest chick I’ve seen all day. She’s fumbling through her purse for exact change, and I can’t help but view her through my lens. What can I say, I love taking pictures of beautiful things. This was one vision of beauty that I just had to capture and treasure. I manage to snap a couple of pictures, and one when she smiled to the conductor for her change. Sweet. I wish I could have taken more pictures of her, but she sat somewhere in front where I couldn’t get a good view.
Two stops later, and I’m at Syam’s. Already there’s a throng of people there. I just hope Syam’s groom procession hasn’t arrived. I ask around and they tell me he’s stuck in a jam somewhere, so he might be a bit late. Relief.
I stick around and snap pictures until the last guest leaves. Now I just have to filter the pics for any bad shots. I’m sure Syam will love them. I go inside and congratulate the newly wed couple before I left. I slept on the bus ride home.
Later that night I download the images from my camera onto my computer. My God that girl on the bus was hot.
“I wonder if there’s a way I can find out who she is.” Maybe I could search on the internet? I guess it’s worth a try. I fire up Firefox 1.5 and go to Google. I’m looking at Google, and I draw a blank. What do I search for? “You have 1 unread e-mail.” Who could that be, I wonder.
It's from Syazi. She attached some pics she took last night at the party. The girl! She must be in one of those pictures. Now I REALLY need a way to find out who she is. So I start searching on the web. Nothing. I think I'll ask Jimmy. He should know if it can be done.
*Ring ring*
"You got me at Hello."
"You're so corny Jimmy. Anyway, I got a quick question for you."
"Yeah, what up? Make it snappy, I've gots me some orcish hordes asking for a whuppin'."
"Heh, you and your Warcraft. You know of any sites where I can find someone if I have their pic?"
"Err...I don't think so dude. I just read about an online image comparison thinggy on Slashdot, but that's more for finding images with similar colors, themes, that sort of thing. Not exactly what you're looking for I think."
"Aww man, I guess that's that then..."
"You know what, maybe I can cook up some quick PHP magic and set up a simple site for you to upload the pic, and get other people to tell you who she is. Heh, maybe we can add other stuff later on. Screw these orcs, why don't you come over and we discuss this."
"Really? You think it's feasible? I don't know. Maybe. I'm heading to your place right now. See you in ten."
And that my friends, is how it all started.
