When terrorism strikes home

The success rate of terrorism as it now stands is : Zero.

And yet, these people still try. Are they that desperate? Or are they just another band of brigands and thugs seeking power?

The answer is obviously the latter.

In a desperate situation, it has been proven time and again, the only way to gather sympathy is through sacrafice.

Terrorism has NEVER been looked upon favourably by anyone. It's not a "last resort" measure either. It is for the weak and cowardly to feel a sense of power and dominance.

When one's plight is made known through the act of senseless, thoughtless terrorism, the plight no longer takes front and centre stage. The act of terrorism does.

Terrorism would only make the general public loathe the people who are fighting for the cause more.

When one is oppressed, if the plight is made known, people would sympathise with the oppressed and rise up against the oppressors. However, when innocent bystanders are dragged in to the fight, the cause no longer matters.

Perhaps these people should learn that diplomacy, no matter how long it takes, is still the best viable solution to end their suffering.

I would like to extend my deepest condolences and sympathies to the families and friends of victims of terrorism.

Try to maintain...

It's difficult to do APAD when most of the time is taken up @ work. Just trying to maintain it for now I guess...even so, it's nice to be able to take pictures everyday.

Here's the best of 8 July...

Eco-Friendly Energy

Energy crisis...

High fuel costs...

Greenhouse gas emissions...

Global Warming...

What else is new?

Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow build a digestive system that's able to take in biological items and convert them into energy without emitting too much of those?

I've been pondering over the same thing. Humans create energy through digestion. What if we were able to come up with a "biological" car? Something like a horse, except that it's manufactured.

Alright, before I get people up in arms saying that I'm trying to play GOD, no I don't intend to clone animals. Merely "engineer" them.

What if we could create a part of an organism that's not from any other. For example, we create a digestive system which will break down the "food" and store the energy in batteries of some sort (biological) naturally.

The technology is definitely not there right now but wouldn't it be cool if we could "feed" our cars of the future real food (i.e. edible by humans) and it then converts the food to energy and the only by-product is manure?

I guess the easier way out would be just to go back to basics, horse-drawn carriages and the likes. Although some might still think that's it'll be inhumane or cruel to subject horses (or animals) to labour.

Hence to be morally free, we'll have to create non-sentient beings to do stuff. I guess it's still science fiction but wouldn't it be cool if one day, we could have a headless horse carting us around?

1st Sunset of The month

And it's a beautiful one!

I just got home from work and was eager to test out the 17mm-40mm f/4L after the cleaning service done by Canon Sg.

Well, I was pleasantly surprised by the result.

Then I noticed the sun peeking through the clouds just as it had a few days back @ Punggol beach.

So out came the C90 and within minutes, I was shooting away at the fast disappearing sun...here's my favourite among all of them...

Another new phone...

I got my hands on the C702 yesterday and was pleasently surprised by the design, balance and materials used for the phone.

It's not a lightweight and it's definitely for the outdoorsey, sports person.

Anyway, it's splashproof, dustproof and shock resistant.

Here's a picture taken using it's 3.2MP Camera. It's also another of my APAD shots.

PowerJam 2008 Semis

Well, the semis are over and 5 bands have made it through. It was a good semi-finals and the bands were excellent. There were a couple of bands which should've played other covers.

Timeless classics from bands such as The Eagles, Journey and Chicago have really tough vocals and if not sung right, sounds bad cause we're so used to hearing them they way they're originally sung.

Anyway, I thought this Guitar would be excellent for my A.P.A.D project...so here it is, after some editing with Photoshop.

Riding off to the Sunset

I didn't really have much to do while waiting for Mike to arrive. I also happen to see a couple of photographers taking the sunset @ the usual spot (Punggol Beach).

I was there more for stargazing than anything else but the weather wasn't co-operating at all. It was cloudy throughout and although I did have a sneak peak @ Mars, we didn't manage to catch anything else.

The mosquitos did have a feast tho.




I also came across this couple that asked me to take a photo of them and send it over via email. I guess that's just what I'll do. I respect their privacy so I won't post their photo here.

Morning @ BB

I was walking towards the lift then the scene caught my eye. I've never seen the block from that angle before so I thought it would be pretty refeshing to put that shot in as one of my APAD projects.

Here it is...

Faces

I thought that the foyer at The Cathay was pretty eye-catching.

This is what I saw thru the lens...not one of my better shots but still, it's catchy.

I also got a new cartridge for my turntable. Not that I disliked my original Elektra but I don't think I can find the same stylus anymore...

A Picture a day...

This is something I'm starting. Just to see how I can work photography into my daily routine.

Ah...daily routines...just what the picture is about eh? :D

Yup. My quest for bigger arms and tighter abs (six pack to be exact) still hasn't ended. I can see a little improvement but I do hope that the improvements are coming in bigger steps hah!

Half a year on...

It's been almost half a year since I've posted anything here.

I guess nothing much has been happening in my life. I've been holed up at home pretty much lately as well.

I did, however, get my hands on an EOS 30D at a decent price. Took it out and tried some shooting with it recently. So here are the shots.







These were shot at Punggol Beach. I was trying to capture the last half hour of daylight for today.





These were taken last weekend at Changi Boardwalk...

Dairy of a Red Dress

There's this thing about being up and alone on the 12th floor at 2am. The silence of the night, the backlit keyboard, the darkened room with the monitors as the only sources of light. A cigarette burns in my hand while I tap away at the keyboard posting another entry.

The sound of a car racing by in the distance breaks the silence. The occasional cats fighting, the sky lit by lights from fellow insomniacs. It all sets a mood.

The whirr of fans in the cpu accompanies me.

Just having got back from Conrad after a great but rather short evening out. She was dressed in a red dress. The rest of the world became black and white with only the dress having colour. It reminds me of the opening scene of a movie I recently watched.

There's the sparkle in her eyes and they catch my attention. I look deep into them wondering what kinds of feelings they portray. We have a lot to talk about as always. We don't seem to run out of topics. I feel a certain chemistry there but I'll wait and see if she feels it too.

I image of her in the scarlet dress is burned in my mind and I'll carry it with me always.

Proverbusters

"Lightning never strikes the same place twice" - Proverb

I stand here with fact that lightning does strike the same place twice. Whomever's the idiot that came up with that proverb's obviously not an employee of SR.

Not only does ligtning strike more than once at the same place, it pretty much does the same damage to the equipment as well.

Besides the lightning strike, today was rather uneventful. Although I think A's falling sick big time. She was complaining of gastric pains on saturday evening (which after Timbre I headed straight home), is suffering from a mild fever today.

I think I've become more stoic with age...I don't know why but alot of my passions are gone and I'm beginning to feel more indifferent now.

Who else can I blame but myself right?

Justification

I used to be the easy-going, carefree person but events in the past couple of years has taught me one thing. It's better to be just that little bit anal retentive and make sure you've got yourself covered.

I hated confrontations and hated situations where it would put a strain on friendships or relationships but things have happened in a way where, well, it's become unavoidable.

I suppose after having my easy-going nature taken advantage of one too many times, I was prepared to harden myself. It no longer mattered if whatever I did was diplomatic or not.

I'm beginning to understand why popular politics and leadership never works here. People just take advantage of it.

What a sick world it is that we live in. It's pathetic.

Leadership is earned, not thrust upon

There's a contridiction in terms there. I do believe that respect is earned and not a given but leadership?

Well, I've seen situations whereby a person is thrown into the position of being a leader even when the person is totally inept and incompetent.

Most of the time, a leader is chosen when the highest ranking person is no longer allowed thus the 2 I/C takes over. In my case, it's be thrust upon me but without the benefits.

I figured that it's more of an excuse to make use of the person to the max. Pushing someone to the limit. I'm fine with that except that the reparations aren't there. Oh well...such is the life.