Day 3

Not being able to hear her voice or even a text telling me she's okay.
That is torture for me.
I'm going slightly insane with worry.
But I hold on to the last vestiges of my sanity.
I have to be strong. Mentally stronger than anyone else now.
I have to stop imagining things.
Pull myself together in this emotional maelstrom.
Keep it together.
She'll be out soon.
Then she'll know and appreciate.

WTF Happened?

11 Jan 2018

S left a few messages and made me feel that she was gonna turn her life around. I sent a few in reply as well. Little did I know that last night till this morning just past midnight would be the last time I'd see her in a while.
Somehow, she got arrested and taken into custody. I already had a bad feeling when her last seen on Tele went past 6 hours but I didn't know that it was because of this.

Wasnt until about 2335hrs that I heard the news. My heart sank. Where was she now? She must feel so alone and so scared. On top of that, she had binged in the morning. I felt helpless. Unable to do anything and even not knowing anything.

It drives one crazy. Not knowing.

Slowly, information came in. She was first held at rtc. And now that it's the 12th, I heard from her mom that she is now held in DRC.

I will wait. That's a promise. I will wait and I will have the chance to make her life better. Turn her life around. I don't care what it takes. I will do it. It's because I care about her and also because I love her.

I just hope she realises that no matter what, I will be there for her and support her and comfort her. I will never abandon her.

Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram & Twitter

Yup, it's all but taken over the traditional blog site. Now, blogging = influencer, product promotion etc. Everything has a dollar value to it and everyone monetizes everythjng.

Not me. I still feel that there is value in putting thoughts into words and hopefully, without a character limit.

I've been absent from this site for some time now. Just like a fad but I do feel the urge to pen down my thoughts once in a while.

I've moved into a new home since I last posted and am still getting used to it. Have changed a few cars and even more phones since I last posted here.

Ah... To be honest, life is good to me at the moment but I'm just dreading the time when this bliss ends.

But as I've said before, All Good Things...

It's been a while....yet again 2014

So I've not updated my blog for a while.

I have no idea why; perhaps it's a little passé to keep a written record of one's life online.

Whatever the reason (probably due to pure laziness), I've stopped penning my thoughts.
Been on training since Monday. It's Thursday today. There are so many changes on the Internet. This company merging with that, this social networking company closing down, that one springing up, etc.

Last year, 2013 was a year of travel. In January, I went to Vietnam with my buddy, JT, then it was Shenzhen a couple of times to hang out with Iggy & HY. Also met up with Daniel from EMC GSAP. Interesting to know that he's now an ASR. Looks like I'm one of the last few from 2010 GSAP team to move on to the ASE role.

Like I said, changes.

I'm trying to keep up really. For a guy like me that kinda likes things to stay as they are, changes are hard for me to accept. I may adapt readily but do I really accept the changes? Well, deep inside, I do wish that things remain the same.

I guess that's why I like photography so much as well. It allows me to see things in static. Images that are captured don't change even through the passage of time.

Well, my thoughts for now.

That Birthday Calculator Again.

14 March 1971

Your date of conception was on or about 21 June 1970 which was a Sunday.
You were born on a Sunday
under the astrological sign Pisces.
Your Life path number is 8.

Your fortune cookie reads:
Something you lost will soon turn up.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 4, 8, 11 & 22.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path number 6.
You may or may not get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 1 & 5.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 3, 7 & 9.
The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2441024.5.
The golden number for 1971 is 15.
The epact number for 1971 is 3.
The year 1971 was not a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 1/27/1971 and ending 2/14/1972.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Pig.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Wolf; your plant is Plantain.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Pachons, the first month of the season of Shomu (Harvest).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 17 AdarI 5731.
Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 18 AdarI 5731.
The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.17.17.11.0 which is
12 baktun 17 katun 17 tun 11 uinal 0 kin
The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Sunday, 16 Muharram 1391 (1391-1-16).
The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 11 April 1971.
The date of Orthodox Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 18 April 1971.
The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on your birth year was Wednesday 24 February 1971.
The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of your birth was Sunday 30 May 1971.
The date of Whisuntide in the year of your birth was Sunday 6 June 1971.
The date of Rosh Hashanah in the year of your birth was Tuesday, 21 September 1971.
The date of Passover in the year of your birth was Sunday, 11 April 1971.
The date of Mardi Gras on your birth year was Tuesday 23 February 1971.

As of 1/2/2014 5:28:15 AM EST
You are 42 years old.
You are 514 months old.
You are 2,233 weeks old.
You are 15,635 days old.
You are 375,245 hours old.
You are 22,514,728 minutes old.
You are 1,350,883,695 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:

Taylor Hanson (1983)	Kirby Puckett (1961)	Billy Crystal (1947)
Michael Caine (1933)	Quincy Jones (1933)	Frank Borman (1928)
Hank Ketcham (1920)	Les Brown (1912)	Albert Einstein (1879)

Top songs of 1971

Joy to the World by Three Dog Night	Maggie May by Rod Stewart
It's Too Late by Carole King	One Bad Apple by Osmonds
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart by Bee Gees	Knock Three Times by Dawn
Brand New Key by Melanie	Go Away Little Girl by Donny Osmond
Family Affair by Sly & the Family Stone	Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves by Cher

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 6.11937377690802 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)

Your lucky day is Thursday.
Your lucky number is 3 & 7.
Your ruling planet(s) is Jupiter & Neptune.
Your lucky dates are 1st, 10th, 19th, 28th.
Your opposition sign is Virgo.
Your opposition number(s) is 5.Today is not one of your lucky days!
There are 71 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 43 candles.

Those 43 candles produce 43 BTUs,
or 10,836 calories of heat (that's only 10.8360 food Calories!) .
You can boil 4.91 US ounces of water with that many candles.  

In 1971 there were approximately 3.7 million births in the US.
In 1971 the US population was approximately 203,302,031 people, 57.4 persons per square mile.
In 1971 in the US there were approximately 2,158,802 marriages (10.6%) and 708,000 divorces (3.5%)
In 1971 in the US there were approximately 1,921,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000)
In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds.
In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.

In 1971 the population of Australia was approximately 13,198,380.
In 1971 there were approximately 276,361 births in Australia.
In 1971 in Australia there were approximately 117,637 marriages and 12,947 divorces.
In 1971 in Australia there were approximately 110,650 deaths.

Your birth flower is DAFFODIL

Your birthstone is Aquamarine

The Mystical properties of Aquamarine

Aquamarine is often used to experience love and mercy. It is said to help ease depression and grief.

Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)

Jade, Rock Crystal, Bloodstone

Your birth tree is

Lime Tree, the Doubt Accepts what life dishes out in a composed way, hates fighting, stress and labour, tends to laziness and idleness, soft and relenting, makes sacrifices for friends, many talents but not tenacious enough to make them blossom, often wailing and complaining, very jealous, loyal.

There are 357 days till Christmas 2014!
There are 5 days till Orthodox Christmas!

The moon's phase on the day you were
born was waning gibbous.

It's been a while...yet again

Sometimes I do wonder if anybody reads my blog. It's been a while since I've posted anything here and yet nobody's complaining about the lack of new content.

Anyway, right after having that lucid dream in my last post, the Japan Earthquake struck. Boy was it scary watching live as the massive wall of water rolled inland, unstoppable. Mankind has yet to conquer nature and I believe we never will. Nature will always win in the end.

What have I been up to lately? Well, apart from being buried in work, I've been taking lots of pictures lately. I did a shoot with Trina and also spent some time before my shift started and shot The Clubster.

Here are some of the shots...both of Trina & of The Clubster.

A Lucid Dream

Weird dream today. Mom wanted me to renew passport and mine was left in cabrio but was driving Octy. While driving home route was semi-familiar but full of industrial obstacles; gas pipelines and viaducts being constructed.  Also, road was full of morons running red lights and light trucks racing me. Car felt very sluggish and on one instance forgot to release parking brakes. Very stressful dream which led to me waking up with palpitations. Realized also that I do dream in living colour. What kind of time constraint and rat race am I supposedly feeling the pressure from to have a dream such as this?

Bragging Rights...

Yeap, I think I've earned it this time round.

The penultimate geek in me still takes the helm of my rather oblique lifestyle of trying to mold myself into something I'm so not. So here goes the tech-speak...or so to speak.

Laptop...
Dell Studio
17-Inch wide LED Backlit
Processor Intel i7 - Q720
RAM : 4GB
Display Adapter : ATi Radeon Mobility w 1GB VRAM dedicated
Built-in Blu-ray/DVD-RW drive
Built-in 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi
Built-in HSDPA GSM/3G Broadband Modem
Built-in Bluetooth
O/S Drive - Plextor 64GB SSD (Yeap. Solid State)
Data Drive - 500GB 7200rpm Seagate
JBL Speakers with Built-in Subwoofer

This would be for me, the ultimate desktop replacement rig. Only thing I've ordered and still on the way now is the Backlit keyboard.

Oh and the iPad rocks!

Exclusivity?

Fact of Life : Men want women to see them exclusively but do not want to be exclusive to the women themselves.

Some claim to be afraid of commitment. That's utter rubbish. If someone came along and he thinks she's the right one, he'd jump into the commitment wagon instantly. The problem isn't with committing, the problem is ruling out other commitments.

We're committed only when things are reasonable. Once something unreasonable comes, the commitment goes right out the window.

I have the same problem with my cars. On one hand, I love the way the Octy drives, the comfort, and it's power. On the other hand, it doesn't grab anyone's attention and I love attention; so I get myself a convertible. It drives crappy, doesn't have any power and well, is not particularly comfortable.

So now, I'm torn between 2 girls...the reliable wife who's always there, and the supermodel who's not particularly bright and follows whatever she fancies.

Life is just so that you can't have the cake and eat it...at least for most of us.

Get used to it.

Once again...that birthday calculator...

Your date of conception was on or about 21 June 1970 which was a Sunday.

You were born on a Sunday
under the astrological sign Pisces.
Your Life path number is 8.

Your fortune cookie reads:
You will inherit some money or a small piece of land.

Life Path Compatibility:
You are most compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 2, 4, 8, 11 & 22.
You should get along well with those with the Life Path number 6.
You may or may not get along well with those with the Life Path numbers 1 & 5.
You are least compatible with those with the Life Path numbers 3, 7 & 9.

The Julian calendar date of your birth is 2441024.5.
The golden number for 1971 is 15.
The epact number for 1971 is 3.
The year 1971 was not a leap year.

Your birthday falls into the Chinese year beginning 1/27/1971 and ending 2/14/1972.
You were born in the Chinese year of the Pig.

Your Native American Zodiac sign is Wolf; your plant is Plantain.

You were born in the Egyptian month of Pachons, the first month of the season of Shomu (Harvest).

Your date of birth on the Hebrew calendar is 17 AdarI 5731.
Or if you were born after sundown then the date is 18 AdarI 5731.

The Mayan Calendar long count date of your birthday is 12.17.17.11.0 which is
12 baktun 17 katun 17 tun 11 uinal 0 kin

The Hijra (Islamic Calendar) date of your birth is Sunday, 16 Muharram 1391 (1391-1-16).

The date of Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 11 April 1971.
The date of Orthodox Easter on your birth year was Sunday, 18 April 1971.
The date of Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) on your birth year was Wednesday 24 February 1971.
The date of Whitsun (Pentecost Sunday) in the year of your birth was Sunday 30 May 1971.
The date of Whisuntide in the year of your birth was Sunday 6 June 1971.
The date of Rosh Hashanah in the year of your birth was Tuesday, 21 September 1971.
The date of Passover in the year of your birth was Sunday, 11 April 1971.
The date of Mardi Gras on your birth year was Tuesday 23 February 1971.

As of 10/24/2010 10:47:05 AM EDT
You are 39 years old.
You are 475 months old.
You are 2,067 weeks old.
You are 14,469 days old.
You are 347,266 hours old.
You are 20,836,007 minutes old.
You are 1,250,160,425 seconds old.

Celebrities who share your birthday:
Taylor Hanson (1983) Kirby Puckett (1961) Billy Crystal (1947)
Michael Caine (1933) Quincy Jones (1933) Frank Borman (1928)
Hank Ketcham (1920) Les Brown (1912) Albert Einstein (1879)

Top songs of 1971
Joy to the World by Three Dog Night Maggie May by Rod Stewart
It's Too Late by Carole King One Bad Apple by Osmonds
How Can You Mend a Broken Heart by Bee Gees Knock Three Times by Dawn
Brand New Key by Melanie Go Away Little Girl by Donny Osmond
Family Affair by Sly & the Family Stone Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves by Cher

Your age is the equivalent of a dog that is 5.66301369863014 years old. (You're still chasing cats!)

Your lucky day is Thursday.
Your lucky number is 3 & 7.
Your ruling planet(s) is Jupiter & Neptune.
Your lucky dates are 1st, 10th, 19th, 28th.
Your opposition sign is Virgo.
Your opposition number(s) is 5.

Today is not one of your lucky days!

There are 141 days till your next birthday
on which your cake will have 40 candles.

Those 40 candles produce 40 BTUs,
or 10,080 calories of heat (that's only 10.0800 food Calories!) .
You can boil 4.57 US ounces of water with that many candles.

In 1971 there were approximately 3.7 million births in the US.
In 1971 the US population was approximately 203,302,031 people, 57.4 persons per square mile.
In 1971 in the US there were approximately 2,158,802 marriages (10.6%) and 708,000 divorces (3.5%)
In 1971 in the US there were approximately 1,921,000 deaths (9.5 per 1000)
In the US a new person is born approximately every 8 seconds.
In the US one person dies approximately every 12 seconds.

In 1971 the population of Australia was approximately 13,198,380.
In 1971 there were approximately 276,361 births in Australia.
In 1971 in Australia there were approximately 117,637 marriages and 12,947 divorces.
In 1971 in Australia there were approximately 110,650 deaths.

Your birth flower is DAFFODIL

Your birthstone is Aquamarine

The Mystical properties of Aquamarine

Aquamarine is often used to experience love and mercy. It is said to help ease depression and grief.

Some lists consider these stones to be your birthstone. (Birthstone lists come from Jewelers, Tibet, Ayurvedic Indian medicine, and other sources)

Jade, Rock Crystal, Bloodstone


Your birth tree is

Lime Tree, the Doubt

Accepts what life dishes out in a composed way, hates fighting, stress and labour, tends to laziness and idleness, soft and relenting, makes sacrifices for friends, many talents but not tenacious enough to make them blossom, often wailing and complaining, very jealous, loyal.


There are 62 days till Christmas 2010!
There are 75 days till Orthodox Christmas!

The moon's phase on the day you were
born was waning gibbous.

Canon EOS 60D - 2010 Škoda Octavia

A re-edit following some suggestions.

Playing with Video

So yeah...by now, everyone knows that I got my hands on a Canon EOS 60D...

Here's the first "serious" production I did with it.

A new chapter...

A new chapter begins.
Two carcasses of cockcroaches lay strawn on the floor at the void deck and I wonder, when insects die, why do their legs bend back into their bodies.
I realize that I am no longer in the City that Never Sleeps. This city does sleep and it's dozing off right now. It's a humid night. You can almost feel the water surrounding you and every breath is heavy and damp. Perfect for growing moulds and fungi.
Everyone around has a certain stench. It doesn't matter how many times you shower or how much perfume you spray on. It just reeks at the end of the day.
Midnight tomorrow is when I take over the shift. At least I have reliable and helpful people to fall back on. I'm not entirely aware of the things I'm going to have to do but I'll have to give it my best.
It looks like it'll be a clear day. Might be able to make the most of the weather and shoot something good. Camera's stored in the dry cabinet. It's the only place that I can keep it to prevent things from growing inside it. Sounds almost grotesque...like a tumor.

Would I consider it?

Living in New York for good? Perhaps not but I would definitely not feel odd or out of place in this city. As the lyrics go,

"Concrete jungle where dreams are made of,
There's nothing you can’t do,
Now you're in New York!!!
These streets will make you feel brand new,
the lights will inspire you"

It is rather inspiring. Because there's the old coupled with the new. Compare that with Singapore...our MRT stations look fabulous because they're new; but they also lack character which comes with age. Why do you think those lines on your face are called character lines?

If I did move in to New York to live, however, I would have to be single and I would work as a photographer. Well, I suppose it would ring true for London & Paris as well but that's the beauty of these cities.

Besides, these cities are in countries that have way more to offer in terms of places to go and sights to see. I think I'd like to make every holiday trip I have thereafter one to either of these cities. I would never grow sick of them.

Some pictures to show you what I mean...

Money, the motivator

In a company where performance is measured by monetary profits, it would only make sense that its staffers are motivated by their paychecks.

It would be rather strange if staff weren't motivated that way. After all, passion can't be measured...or can it?

It takes all sorts of characters to make up the world we live in. That's what makes our world as interesting as it is. People invent new things, technology progresses, service levels improve, all for that ever elusive goal of earning more.

If the world did not have an economy or if humans weren't by nature always wanting more, then what would be the point of progress? We'd still be living in the stone age and the wheel would never have been invented.

All it takes is for 1 incredibly intelligent and ambitious person to be greedy and voila! we'd have progress...or at least a new invention. These days, there are less and less inventions, more innovations. To invent something requires genius at a different level. One has to be both a genius in terms of creativity as well as ingenuity and that is a rare thing.

How many Da Vinci's, Galleileos, Newtons or Einsteins are out there? Perhaps one per generation or less. In terms of inventions, it's getting more and more stagnant. After the invention on Radio, Television and the light bulb, the rest are pretty much innovations...improvements, upgrades and downsizing has taken over the inventive mind.

Oh well. Lets hope that the next one is about to come. Maybe the person would be able to invent cold fusion and rid the world of the huge disparity between the rich and the poor.

Cheers to HOPE!

A New Ride

They pulled through! Harvest Auto that is...

I'm now the happy owner of a Skoda Octavia 1.4 TSi DSG!
It's strange though that people think that just because the car is new that I'll be the overly concerned driver who's worried about getting scratches on the bodywork.

Too bad for them that they encountered me cause I treat all cars alike, old or new.

Just that I'm a little more happy with the Value-for-money that this car gets me.

Well, read about this car in three years' time and we'll see if I'm still as happy hahaha!

The Energizer Bunny

If I chuck her into a bunny suit, she's either look like a Playboy® magazine playmate or she'll bounce around like the Energizer® Bunny.

This is who I'm talking about...



These were shot when I needed test out the camera and lights...

And I'm still trying to figure out why I'm having problems high-speed synching with the 180s but not with the 630..hmm...maybe duration's longer.

Well, back to the drawing board I suppose.

Shooting on film

Quite a bit has happened since I last posted an article here...

I bought my first item from eBay (29 June 09)for US$149.99...



Yes it's a Nikon F3 HP film camera and it works really well.

Here are some shots taken using the camera:


Model is Winnie L.
Film used was ILFORD XP2 ISO 400 Process C-41.
It was pull processed for ISO 50 exposures to give better contrast and finer grain.
Lens used was a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 Series E purchased from Jeremy T for S$50 haha...Thanks Jeremy!

Here's a comparison between the Canon EOS 30D DSLR with Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens and the Nikon F3 HP with Kodak Gold 200 film and Nikon 50mm f/1.8 Series E lens.



Model: Eileen.
Strobes: Jinbei Delicacy 180 Kit.
Wardrobe: PopCherryCrush
Accessories: Model's own.

In any case, I'm now complementing my photography with film for non-commercial shoots. It's really great so I'm having tons of enjoyment with both cameras.

Next up would be my bidding for a medium format film camera...hopefully I can buy it cheap. Wish me luck! =)

Winnie...

I met with with Winnie for an outdoor photoshoot yesterday..

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the result (probably cause she's good at posing) although the weather was freakish...

Halfway through the shoot, it decided to rain...WTH!!!

Anyway, the results of some of the photos...









I did have to do a little photoshop editing as usual =)

The sweetest thing...

This girl is soooooooo sweet (both sweet looking and personality) that I wanna adopt her as my little sis liao...

Hahaha...cannot tahan lei. Sunny disposition, no temper, super modest and unassuming.

Who am I talking about? Eileen.

I did a photoshoot with her yesterday. One of the sweetest models I've worked with.

Here's a few shots.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)