Journal Entry #117

Most interesting news read today was about how roughly 4000 passengers were inconvenienced when 32 year old man jumps on to inbound train at an MRT station.

Saw police last night taking notes and witness statements at void deck. Might have been a fight going on. Irritating family on 8th or 10th floor involved.

Year coming to close. Just 2 days left. Must remember to spend time reflecting events in the past year. Look forward to 2006 but it's just numbers on the wall. Time is there to prevent everything from happening at once.

Own theory of big bang is when time began. Everything happened at the same instant thus causing bang. From then on, becomes irreversable. Perhaps when momentum from original bang runs out, time becomes reversed. Hard to say. If that happens, everyone will live 2 lives (and cats 18).

Have been told off for being full of useless information. Information never useless. Use for it will surface sometime or other. Own theories seldom written down. May face backlash. Might not be a good idea to keep written. Well, at least some may think that way.

Journal Entry #116

Some might argue that blogging is a waste of time. On certain occasions, it would be true. However, it can also be argued that it's better to put the day's events somewhere as a release of frustrations of the day in question.

Humans are inherently stubborn thinking that their ideas are always the best. Have yet to meet anyone who issn't an expert on something after the event has occured.

Dad said that a long time ago. After the event has occured, everyone becomes an expert. However, nobody brings it up before or during the event. Guess that's why there are post mortems of events.

To see where they went wrong and how to avoid it in future.

Detest the idea of being a 'freelance' photographer. Company is there with name but impression of local idiots is still that once you're hired, they own you and can choose whenever to call you down for a post mortem.

Seems that this is occuring more often than not with the two magazines in hand. Probably because of the nature of the relationship between the two parties. No idea how to prevent reoccurence. Must remember to be able to dictate terms in future. Position currently held not good for that. Have to gain foothold before moving.

Will see what tomorrow turns up.

Journal Entry #115

Suffering from gastric pains. Must remember to reduce intake of acidic liquids.

Pain attributed to too much orange juice. Saw quote being hijacked. Grammatical errors in hijacked quote anyway. Not too bothered by it.

Trying out firefox, netscape and mozilla on toshiba. IE still works best and fastest. Too bad Safari is for OS-X. Might be good with PC. Mac/PC argument still ongoing. Get both would be best.

MSN getting problematic. Frequent disconnections. Possibly due to lack of wireless relay in house. Gastric pain becoming unbearable. Still, more bearable than pain suffered in yesterday's 'accident'.

Haven't been doing much this holiday season. Too much work to warrant going out. Getting too tired anyway. Might start to party again after January. Now's a bad time.

Toshiba's working like a charm. One of the few things working well. Keyboard should be illuminated like PowerBook's though. Difficult to find keys in the dark.

List of Bills to pay for next paycheck:

Singtel
SP Services
TV Licence (idiotic bill)

List of items to purchase after next paycheck:

1) Sony Ericsson HBH-300 Headset
2) Saitek Keyboard
3) USB Powered notebook LED light

Total should be no more than $700 on both bills and purchases. Remainder to pay for car installment, road tax, and service.

Melancholy

On porch again. Never will understand family. One minute generous, next, selfish.

Everyone's gone to the Northern Summit. Except me. Feels weird being left alone here.

Perhaps we'll have a Southern Summit next year...who knows?

Quite emotionless now apart from a touch of melancholy. Might have something to do with music currently playing on the laptop. Must admit that there's some pleasure in this feeling though.

Neighbours moved out. House now derelict and sad condition. Have been neighbours for over 35 years. Suddenly seems all quiet. Miss the old days wonder what happened to them.

Had dinner and dance shoot. Turned out pretty good. Found out "illusionist" used cheap props to perform. Can see "illusion" from where I was standing. Not well performed as well. Must remember to be professional and remove obvious support for "self levitation" trick.

Attractive young lady at event today. Somehow looks familiar but can't place her. Must investigate further.

Lifestyle magazine photos turned out well. Limited shots though. Was a rush job so not much choice there. Have worked on some pictures for self reference. Will post once magazine is out which should be in less than a month.

Feels a little strange writing journal again after absence of some time. Must be that it's not worth a read though cause no one's really going through it.

Well, getting tired so will end here. Might write again sometime in the near future. If there's a future that is. You never know...

Marathon

I admire people with determination. And it's never more evident than when a person does a full 42km marathon. The amount of pain you have to endure, the fatigue and perhaps, the agony of defeat.

Win or lose, completing the marathon itself is a task. This year, it was dominated by the African nations. Not like as if it doesn't happen almost every year.

Anyway, that's the pictures I took of the event...I was fortunate enough to find a good spot at the media box near the finishing line.

Ode to Oli, my loyal friend for 10 years.

Ode To Oli
March 1995 - November 7th 2005

Oli Oli,
You were taken from your family and brought to ours
You were so little, frightened and alone
You became our good friend and a member of our family
You are more than our pet, you were our companion

You shall be missed
Your final moments we were there
You looked at us to say goodbye
You shall be missed

You lived a good life
You had good food
You had great care
You loved us as we loved you

Farewell, my dear friend.

AMG Craftsman...

Okay...so today, I found out that there's a Mr Audija working as a craftsman at AMG cause his name was on a plate that was glued to the engine cover.

Proudly does it say "Handcrafted by so and so" (See enlargement). Drool over the engine cover? Yeah...Road Tax for the bugger (a C55) is $7928 per annum which comes to about $21 per day. Yes, you heard right. $21 PER DAY...that's just to keep the bugger registered...

Anyway, besides that, I took the opportunity to take some photos of the engine, closeups etc...thought that the photos came out pretty okay. Well, you guys be the judge okay? :)

Untitled

Seriously, I'm too lazy to even think of a title. Such has my life become that all I do is 1) Procrastinate and 2) Bum around. Looking for the ultimate bum? Look no further; Ya found 'em!

Unless of course you're talking about photography...now that's altogether different although I must say that I've kinda lost focus on the type of shots I wanna take.

The song which they're playing for "Traffic Watch" on Class 95FM is from Thiesto's Album....it's Disc 1 track 11 though I can't remember the title...sad huh.

My mind's a gibberish of sorts now. Probably because of the lack of sleep. I figured that when a person sleeps, it's basically to allow for the thoughts of the day to kinda be organised in the brain. It sorta sorts out the short term memory and moves it into long term memory.

It's like say the computer...information stored in the RAM while the PC's on gets sorted out and stored into the harddrive when you put it in "hibernate" mode. If that didn't happen when you're sleeping, you wake up with amnesia. Alternatively, if you didn't sleep enough, you start having problems focusing and concentrating on the task at hand. That's most likely due to the brain having to sort out info in the fly which it ain't too good at doing due to having to manage the other millions of information at the same time.

Anyway, that's my take on what the brain does, memory and sleep. If you guys think different, feel free to comment.

Just another post...

Well, it seems that I've neglected my blog for almost a week so out of pure guilt, I'm writing this one. Nothing much has happened since the day I went out for a drive with Da Babz. It certainly looks like I'm beginning to settle down.
I noticed that most people blog about what they did and what happened during the time when they woke up and the time that they wrote their entries.
I also realised something else though.
There was this girl (whom I shall not name) that requested I add her to my friendster list. Well, that's exactly what I did and I added her to my yahoo instant messenger as well. Well, guess what, the first time we spoke, she tried to borrow money from me. Not trusting that I'd be genuine, she requested that I do an interbank transfer of funds to her account. Well, to think that some people were thick skinned enough to borrow money from someone they barely knew. I suggested that I pass her cash instead (it was only $30 so it wasn't any big deal) but she insisted that I do a transfer from the ATM instead.
Duh! To think that I'd really be dumb enough to trust someone whom I barely know from the net, never met before and don't even know if she's the genuine article!
She claimed that she knows men and what they want. All of the men that she's spoken to had ulterior motives of wanting to "sleep with her" or so to speak. Erm..I think in this case, she really thought too highly of herself. Besides, she gave me the lamest excuse ever.
Apparently, her brother had left the country without giving her any pocket money and she couldn't affored to take a bus, taxi or whatever mode of transport that was available to her to get to work which happened to be as some hostess in a KTV. I suggested that I give her a ride to work instead and whatever tips she got as being a hostess she use to get back afterwards.
Guess what? She told me that the boss of the KTV kept all the tips for newcomers incase they don't really know how to "treat" their customers. I mean what more utter rubbish and pathetic lameass of an excuse can she come up with? As if that wasn't enough, after she had mentioned that all guys had ulterior motives of wanting to sleep with her, I did mention that I wouldn't fuck a person I've yet to meet and have only been chatting with online for a day. She thought that I was trying to boost my own ego by insinuating that she'd wanna sleep with me. Duh...what makes her think that she's all that desirable anyway? HAHAHA! I can't get over that bit.
Anyway, sufficed to say, she deleted me from her YIM and I returned the favour. Afterall, I really don't need such morons as friends (particularly ones that think of me as the moron as well).
Nick's completed the BoomBox Inc. thingy and the first draft of the completed artwork looks pretty impressive though I had some ideas to chip in as well. He said that it was only a first draft and proceeded to edit and ammend the thing so I'm still waiting for him to send me the second draft.
Oh...my car was hit by a bloody Nissan Sunny again..this is the second time. This time though it was a hit n run that happened at the carpark outside my place. Fortunately, one of the people living across the carpark saw the incident and took down the bugger's number plate. I made a police report so too bad if you get points deducted for "hit n run". You certainly deserve it for messing around with my set of wheels.
Anyhow, I'm about to hit the sack so until the next entry which I hope would be better than this one, adios muchachos!

Eating Air

There's this mystical element that I enjoy when I'm driving slightly above the speed limits of the road, blasting the stereo and singing along to my favorite tunes. It's even better when someone like the BABS tags along. She's got this new girly hairdo that makes her look like some 16 year old high school senior.

Babs mentioned something really hilarious. She saw this guy in a ceebic revving his car but rolling slowly and she said that if she were waiting for him to pick her up, she'd be getting nowhere fast given the way he's revving and coasting. Now that it's put in text, it doesn't sound as funny but you'd have to be there to hear it for yourself.

She got herself the same phone as the one I'm using. SEK750i. She's still learning about it but after complaining that the ear-piece was soft, I suggested she remove the plastic covering so that the sound can actually come out of the speaker. Duh...well, that's the babs for ya.

The SEK750i can shoot in this mode called panorama which is really cool. It's 3 pictures stitched together to make 1 long photo and it's done quite seamlessly and easily...here check it out...



Okay so it's a little small but hey, I've got limited bandwidth budget here at the office. Nevertheless, it was real good seeing her again after such a long hiatus.

Spammers...

It's really interesting that even comments in blogs have spammers. Those idiots will just about try anything and everything to 1) irritate you, 2) make life more complicated and 3) sell their crap.

Come on! GET A LIFE! Spamming only makes people hate you more. It doesn't work! It serves no purpose in this or any universe. Humans are always looking for ways to make a quick buck I suppose.

Speaking of which, there are also some that really lack EQ. Take for example the publisher of a certain magazine. Squeezing every shot for his editorial articles into a 1 day shoot is bad enough. To tell the photographer "Try taking this...we might use it for a future issue" is downright LOW. I mean, how much lower can a person go? As it is, the limbo pole's already almost at the floor.

Obviously, the magazine will not be all that interesting since the same model's used throughout. With the same stylist and the same art director and the same photographer with the same background. It's gonna be a heck of a boring issue I can tell you. Even the clothes the model has on is limited.

I guess being new to the magazine publishing world, he's rather clueless as to the kinds of images that people want. Oh well...his prerogative.

Ice with Wings please...

The six has been re-I.C.E-d and Winged! So chio now! Woohoo! The plus point is that now, I'm getting stares from pedestrians and drivers of other vehicles cause it looks way cool!

Wanna see?

NAH!




One thing that came to my mind when I had it done was "does it look too 'beng'?" Well, to some, like my sisters and mom, it does. First thing they said was "Eeeee! So Beng!!!!" Well, can't be helped cause they prioritise differently and look at beauty in a traditional way.

Yes, some might say the same thing but honestly speaking, I don't spout hokkien profanities all the time, I don't speak loudly in hokkien and I certainly don't have the attitude that makes a beng a BENG so to myself, I'm just a guy that wants to add the aggressive look to my rather stock vehicle. And the Wing has certainly done it!

Anyway, I'm a little too tired for a full post today due to a full day of photography in that sauna of a studio of mine so I'll end it here. Hope all you readers have a pleasent evening.

Bye bye Nokia...

Yes... I collected the Nokia Phone and traded it in almost immediately for the Ericsson K750i. I must say that the Ericsson is sooooo much better in terms of build quality. Rest assured that I'll never EVER get a Nokia again.

Imagine this, a phone with less than 6 months usage, has paintwork on the buttons coming off, been into the service centre twice (alright, first time was idiotic but still...) and has horrible customer support. They need to relook at the way they do things over at Nokia. Sure they're still one of the more popular brands around but with the kinda crap that they're pushing out, I'll be a surprise if they last longer being on top.



Anyway, that's a photo of Jas & Travis (her cousin) taken with the K750i. It's got the 2 Megapixel camera which is quite impressive. Even more impressive is the Auto-Focus and LED "flash". It's freakin' bright!

My car is on the way out. I dropped by Bluwell yesterday to have a look at it. It's pretty impressive. Ah Soon's team really did a bang up job getting it lookin' good again. I also snapped a couple of shots of the car while I was there. Hopefully, I can collect it by today. The piece of junk Nissan Sunny that I got as a loaner is precisely that, a piece of junk. I can hardly begin to understand why it sold so well. Build quality is so-so, noise insulation is CRAP, you can't have a conversation at a normal voice when it's raining, you literally have to shout to hear yourself.



That's the ass end of the car...nice new Aero bumper.



And here's the front end...also Aero bumper but lacking foggies as they haven't arrived at the point in time.

Anyway, I'm toally impressed with the K750i. I love the themes available, I love the outlook of the phone and most of all, I absolutely love its SOLID build quality!

An email to Nokia...

I sent my Nokia 6260 handset in for repair (due to it not being able to past the Nokia Screen) because my phone was unable to boot up. That was on Saturday, 13 August 2005 at 4.23pm.

To date, I have yet to receive an update on the status of the repair.

I called Nokia Care Centre (Wheelock) to check on the status since it has been more than a week since it has been sent in.

The customer service “professional� (as you refer them as) was unable to tell me when my phone can be repaired as she was unable to track the arrival of the necessary spare part. At the same time, I asked to speak with the manager there hoping that he/she would be able to give me a more definitive answer. However, according to the same customer service “professional�, he was not there for the day.

Does that mean that there is no management level staff to help in finding out when the necessary part for my phone will arrive?

Giving up hope with the Nokia Care Centre, I decided to call the head office at Alexandra. I was pleased to be put through to someone named “Jas� who was answering my call on behalf of another person. She PROMISED me that she would return my call on the SAME DAY but till now (7.47pm), I have yet to receive her call. OBVIOSLY, NOKIA does NOT take it’s promises made to customers SERIOUSLY.

I get better customer service from automobile workshops along Ubi Ave 4 than that from NOKIA. Is my phone THAT RARE that you absolutely have NO SPARE PART available for it locally? Do you have to manufacture the said SPARE PART from SCRATCH? Is the SPARE PART coming in from its country of origin by SEA/SURFACE shipping? Is it IMPOSSIBLE just to have my handset replaced with a new one?

Based on this experience, you can count on it that this 6260 will be my ABSOLUTE LAST NOKIA hand phone.

Colorgenics

I got the website from reading Jas' blog and here's my result:

"You are seeking an affectionate relationship, offering fulfillment and happiness. You are capable of powerful emotional enthusiasm. Deep down, you are a kind loving person, always helpful and willing to adapt yourself if necessary to realize the bond of affection that you desire. But you need the same consideration and understanding from others and it is this need that will sometimes hold you back... so let go, trust and you may pleasantly surprised at what happens.

At this time you 'need to be needed' and again you 'need to need'. You have had this feeling for some time now and you are looking for someone who could share a close bond in an atmosphere of shared intimacy. You have the belief that with the right person you could conquer the world.

Circumstances are holding you back, forcing you to back off and to forgo all the pleasures, fun and games for the time being. But this is only a temporary situation and before you even know it the situation could change.

You are presently experiencing excessive stress as a result of self-restraint. You act and think differently from the common herd and you want to be liked and admired for yourself and to associate with people who feel and act as you do. Because of this need to be self-reliant and to break away from mediocrity, you are finding this situation most uncomfortable and you are experiencing considerable anxiety - perhaps even more than you feel the capacity to cope with. You need to find a 'soul mate', someone whose standards are as high as your own - but where? Keep on searching... The situation is uncomfortable and you would like to break away from it, but you refuse to compromise with your opinions. You are unable to resolve the situation because you are continually postponing the making of necessary decisions. You are stubborn but this is no deterrent to a happy life, so why drop your standards. Think positively, everything will work out. It has worked out successfully for you in the past and it will again in the future.

The tensions and stresses that you have experienced of late have been the result of trying to cope with conditions which are really beyond your capabilities. You feel completely inadequate to cope with the situation and you would like nothing better to escape from it all and to be able to relax in a problem and pressure free environment where you can do your thing."

I've also realised something. It's not that the test is accurate but it's so vague that almost everyone can relate to it in one way or another. I read Jas' result and sure, some parts of me feel just like what her result says too. Does it mean anything? It's just different aspects of my life that I'd try to associate with and fit into whatever text the computer churns out. So, to a certain extent, it's accurate but then again, it's just too damn vague.

Absolutely SMASHING

Things were beginning to look up. More meetings coming in, more shoots etc. Jas' agreed to do styling for me on a freelance basis which is good cause she's got experience in the clothing line.

CG's asked me about shooting for the spa she works at and to see if I can provide a pan-asian looking model. Everything's almost fine and dandy.

Have you ever realised that owners of some vehicles tailgate without knowing that the car infront of them can obviously out-brake them? Given the fact that I've got pretty decent front discs plus discs all round, this 40-plus year old guy in a Nissan Sunny (A Sunny for Christ's sake!) still decides to follow that bit just too close behind me. He must've been day-dreaming as well cause when a Cab two cars ahead of me decided to brake, the Altis infront of me couldn't stop in time and hit him. I managed to brake in time without touching the Altis but the Sunny behind me slammed right into the ass of my 6 pushing it forward.

The impact was so hard that even though I was literally standing on my brake padal, the car slid forward (this was about a second AFTER I had come to a complete stop) and tapped the rear end of the Altis. Nothing major to the front of my car. Just a dented licence plate (mine's the metal euro-plate) and a couple of scratches on the Altis' bumper.

Still, looking at my rear end, I was totally pissed off. Here's why:



Upon reflection, I think I was so pissed of (and in such a rush) that even though I had all the photographic gear in my car, I didn't take a single photo. Can you beat that!? Argh!!! I guess it was cause I had to be at TTSH by 7.30am and the accident happened along the PIE at about 7.20am.

Sufficed to say, I was so busy the whole day (it was a whole-day event) that I didn't have time to send the car in for the IDAC assesment. It was only yesterday, after the first meeting with CG on doing the "above-the-line" marketing for her company that I managed to steal some time in to get the thing done.

I'm still supposed to go see a doctor but I absolutely haven't got the time. Whiplash, according to Kenneth takes forever to get well.

Frustrations...

Have you ever stood outside a store, acting like you're not waiting for it to open when you actually are, only to find out that when they do open, they don't have exactly what you wanted (and was waiting for them to open to find out)?

Case in point: I was happily thinking that Spiderman 2 (in Code 3) would be readily available @ Gramophone. Boy was I ever WRONG!. Never mind that the idiot little mind of mine didn't bother to think to call them about their opening hours and was there ½ an hour early. Nevermind that even at 11am (the posted opening time) they were still not open; they didn't have what I wanted!!!

Argh!

So it ended up that I had to walk back to HMV to purchase the damn thing. At least this time, their price was more reasonable but I still didn't bother with their service though the cashier was quite friendly.

Jas called me about the fucked up interview she had. Well honey, it's okay. You've already got 2 in the bag with another one up on friday. I wouldn't worry too much about it if I were you.

Narcolepsy

Could I be suffering from narcolepsy? I fall asleep, wake up in strange places, I've no idea how I got there. Ususally, that's the first sign of schizophrenia.
Obviously there's a difference between that and insomnia which I actually do suffer from.

Been picking a couple of add jobs up here n there. Was down @ Orchard to pick up some DVDs and met Jaslyn along the way. I already knew she was there anyway and I didn't bother to call to let her know. Picked up Dodge Ball(from HMV), Meet the Fockers, White Chicks, Ladder 49 & Elektra (from Gramophone). It's a fair bit cheaper at the latter with some DVDs going for S$29 whereas the former's selling them at up to S$35 for the same titles.

So should you decide to buy a DVD or CD, forget about the big players such as HMV and Tower. They overcharge. Go support the underdogs. They're much more willing to help and are more friendly anyways.

I've gotta work on some of my photography. Improve it a little at a time. I can't be taking the same standard all my life can I? I'm still waiting for Jaslyn to have some free time so that we can do some shots. Probably a fashion, lingerie selection. Firstly I've gotta see how comfortable she is with me as well of course.

The third phone bill arrived yesterday. Now I can't make outgoing calls until I pay up. That's fucking irritating but good at the same time cause it then forces me to only accept incoming calls which are free anyways.

I should have call barring activated on the phone. Resists the temptation hah!.

Another one...

"When I die, bury me upside down so the world can KISS MY ASS!"

Star Sign Matches..interesting...

Your Astrological Compatibility -

Pisces
February 19-March 20 Together Pisces find sexual fulfillment and a partner for deep conversations. However, each wants a strong partner which neither can provide for the other.=20

Aquarius
January 21-February 18 Pisces will find worldly Aquarius inspiring-but will begin to wish for someone closer to home. Aquarius's big plans will leave less time for lonely Pisces.

Aries
March 21-April 20 While these two have complimentary personalities in most areas, matters of the heart, especially the sensitive Pisces's heart, can take its toll on this match.

Cancer
June 21-July 21 Sensual and romantic Pisces finds their match in practical, romantic Cancer. You two fit like halves of a whole. Enjoy the bliss you find in each other.

Capricorn
December 21-January 20 Balanced and calm-Pisces finds a partner in stable Capricorn. Sexually comfortable, this union will outlast other, short passionate pairings.

Gemini
May 21-June 20 Pisces will be frustrated with Gemini's need for more-of everything. Sexually, there's heat, but this fades as Gemini searches for a more dominant partner.

Leo
July 22-August 22 Leo purrs with Pisces adoration, but Pisces can feel self conscious under Leo's domineering glare. The dominant Leo can stifle Pisces need to express themselves.

Libra
September 23-October 22 Art and the love of creativity brings these two signs together, but cannot sustain them. Pisces will be frustrated by Libra's free spirited spending and flirtations.

Sagittarius
November 22-December 20 Sag's tactless behavior causes the Fish in this relationship to feel unloved and unnoticed. Bedroom sparks are all that hold this fickle pairing together.

Scorpio
October 23-November 21 Scorpio provides mystery and excitement for emotional Pisces. This union will be a mix of possessiveness, sensual encounters, and a depth of unspoken emotions.

Taurus
April 21-May 20 Artistic tastes match in this creative pairing. Taurus's bold personality provides an anchor for Pisces emotional explorations. A passionate and sensual match.

Virgo
August 23-September 22 Virgo's exacting demands gives Pisces something to strive for. In return, Virgo manages other aspects of life. The sensitive Pisces can lean on the strong Virgo.

Drinks with old buddies

While Sam and me were comparing brain paths, I noticed that women in Singapore were actually getting more and more attractive. It could just be me though. I do find that women lose out when it comes to the choice of men here. No wonder they're looking abroad. Among people I know, how many guys my lady friends would consider cute are there? Well, to be honest, there's practically none. But here's something, at least they've got a good choice when it comes to nice personalities.

Yeah, that's what's always said when someone's not good looking.

Friend : "Is she pretty?"

Me : "She's got a nice personality"

Friend : "Duh"

So there...when someone's not good looking, they're always said to have a nice personality. Here we are, being a so-called mature society, trying to be politically correct. It's like Darren's school. They call it School for Children with 'Special Needs'. But the fact remains that he is suffering from a form of genetic defect. Doesn't matter how politically correct you call it. It's like calling a blind person "visually impaired" or a deaf person "hearing impaired". So what? Fact of the matter is, that person is still either deaf, or blind. Okay, so I'm being totally mean here but hey, I have a mean streak that runs through me once in a while. Who doesn't?

Anyhow, the CNet bunch of ole timers met up over @ Alley Bar last night. It was supposed to be @ Ice Cold Beer but the place was packed full of ang mohs and SPGs hoping to catch a rich expat, get a quick buck and F.O. So we decided to head down to the Alley instead. It's a nice place albeit a little warm since we were sitting outside trying to see if there was any fresh air.

Larry, Sam, Merv, SF and Ariel (SF's missing from the group photo cause he was sitting behind me)...that's the group. Meng couldn't turn up cause he was taking his family to see the fireworks and Kenneth was running a temperature. Jonny got my SMS and replied with a "I'm sorry who is this?" so I guess he's struck off my list Hahaha! LiPing didn't show up either cause she got some big client that wants work done yesterday (as usual). Nick came along but was first to leave cause of a curfew. I hung around for a while, found out that Merv, Larry and me are now all photographers. Man! Talk about competition. Anyhow, maybe I should go talk to Merv a little more see if he's interested in setting up some business partnerships. Afterall, we worked together in CNet so there's no reason we can't work together no more.

I attribute this gathering (after a 5-year haitus) to Yahoo messenger. It's really weird cause if I hadn't installed it, I wouldn't have caught up with my old pals from the good ole days of GSA and CNet. They had the best but they lost it. Well, their loss, not ours. GSA is so crappy now that I don't even bother looking at it anymore.

So it was nice to meet all the folks again. And I also realised that every guy there is over 30. Ariel's the youngest in the group but I won't reveal her age. After the drinks I went on down to QB Qool too look up someone there. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't there but Tin was so I had a drink with her instead. Went driving around and realised that last night must've been the most expensive night for MHA. Police road blocks were all over (I counted 4) from Stevens Rd all the way home to Bt Batok (it's such a crappy name but a nice suburb nonetheless).

Well, this would most likely be one of my longest posts. Guess if you're still reading it, then my writing's got some juice in it. Give some comments...either good or bad...if it's bad, well, I'll still take a look at it nowhow.

Lights, Breakfast and Team Building

Friday was interesting...

Had breakkie with CG over @ ECM and it has been a while (like 3 - 4 months) since we last met up. She looks the same as the last time I saw her...can't say the same for me. Now that I've got this new dorky haircut, everyone's telling me never to do it again. I might consider that.

In any case, after breakkie, I sped back to Mandai for a quick meeting. Since ALC made me "Creative Manager", I've been tasked to come up with team building concepts. At least I lived up to my title and came up with a smack on suggestion. It's got something to do with water balloons and sand castles. I won't elaborate further cause someone might steal this idea.

After the quick 45 minute brain-storming session, I went on downtown to help LP get a digital camera from Andrea over @ Cathay Photo. I must say, he looked pretty sick and had a pretty bad running nose. She bought the Minolta Z30 (or something like that) and got loads of freebies as well as 2 Canon dye sub prints. 512 SD Card is given away free along with a camera case and 2500mAh Sanyo AA rechargables with charger. It was a pretty good deal I must say. That camera is quite feature packed.

Dang..this look like one of my few "today I did this n that" blogs...I've been consciously trying to avoid doing it but somehow or other, if I don't write it down, my mind will be a blank anyway.

Oh well...Spent most of yesterday (saturday) over at HG getting the StreetGlow lightning and undercar kit done up. The trunk of the car looks absolutely smashing now. Was at YD earlier and almost every car that went past mine slowed down to catch a closer look at the trunk. Might post some pictures up here when I'm not so lazy. Was supposed to shoot at KRGH today but those buggers got the wrong month! It's actually scheduled for 6 Sept! Gawd...the difference between 8 and 9 is 1!!! Get it right!

Well, that's about all that happened. Will probably head on to bed now so wish everyone a pleasent morning/evening/day.

Penis Envy & Buttheads

What do those two have in common? They go hand in hand! Buttheads have a penis envy problem. Yes. That's what makes them buttheads in the first place. In any case, I've been bumping into loads of buttheads on the roads these couple of days...2 of them were Volvos too...geez...Anyway, back to the "Penis Envy" bit - I think they feel the need to make up for something which is sorely lacking in size and that would be their over-whelmingly small penises. That's probably why they become buttheads in the first place right?

I guess the marketers at Volvo have done their jobs cause these two morons were decidedly driving as though their Volvos were really high performance cars. C'mon...Just because you've got a 5 pot engine that's blown (light pressure mind you), doesn't mean that you own the FUCKING ROAD!

Well, glad I got that off my hairless (yes you heard right) chest. Unfortunately, SY never wants to hear any stories I have to tell of my experiences on the road. Somehow or other, she suspects that I'd be susceptible to road rage...well, make a wild guess why.

T's been calling me asking me to head down to QB. I'd love to go but to be honest, the place isn't all that fantastic. It's the company of JT and T that makes it at least palatable. There are certain kinds of men that seem to think that women are cheap. Of course there are some that would do whatever's necessary to attain their material 'wants' but honestly, if they keep thinking that, the only chance of them getting laid is if they paid for it. Oh well...the more clueless they are, the more saintly I seem anyways.

But I ain't no saint...that's a fact :P

Somewhere Over The Rainbow...

D's going to attend Rainbow School for Special kids. It's nice to know that there's support out there and not everything is business business more business.

There's another screening to attend in September but most likely, he'll be in the Jan 06 intake. They've also got prep classes for how to handle kids with special needs for parents and their siblings!

In any case, I volunteered to help out with the photography whenever they have outings that they'd like to put photos up. It's the least I can do...afterall, society's giving out a helping hand, I should give something in retrurn. It's only fair.

Had a quick porta session @ Thumper tonight. By the time I was done, I couldn't wait to get out of there. I needed a drive somewhere...anywhere for a quick fix and mind banging. It helped a fair bit that I met 'Precious' as well. She's exactly what I expected...spunky, lively, cool and chic (passe word but I still like it).

We spoke for a good few hours...she insisting on not having supper to maintaint (or reduce) her figure...I don't see anything wrong with it but then again, I've yet to meet a girl who's perfectly happy with her weight.

So it's the beginning of a new day...my new wristwatch just chimed 4am and my eyelids are beginning to feel heavy. Think I might be coming down with something. What, exactly, I do not know but it sure feels like something.

Apology...

I guess I owe the Babs an apology. I've been kinda strong headed about my relationship lately and she's been putting up with all the crap that I've been chucking out.

She is an idealist. Like I used to be. Somehow, somewhere along the line, I lost faith. I hope that she never does. It's quite shattering when it happens. In any case, I'd hate to loose a good friend like the babs over an issue which I'll have to take responsibility and solve myself. I guess it's just part of growing up.

Babs, if you're reading this, I'm sorry. I was in a disturbed mental state. More likely than not, it's temporary insanity brought about by emotional depression. Hah! Like as if this is the first time...yeah right!

So if you'll find a soft-spot in that warm little heart of yours to forgive me, I'd much appreciate it.

Mental Case...

I've dug myself into an emtional pit and I don't think I'm ever getting out. I've wasted my life away. Not achieving anything.

I'm too impulsive some would say. But yet, after being taken for rides yet again and again, I'm still a sucker for it. Why? I guess I have to realise sooner or later that I gotta start living for me. Not according to what someone else perceives how I should be living.

Emotional detachment. Yeah. That'll be the way to go.

Think I'm also mentally unstable at the moment.

Emotional Bank....

Love has deposits and withdrawals...debits and credits. That's what love is like according to someone whom I once thought would think that love is unconditional.

It's interesting to note that both N and I find that in some instances, the libidos tend to reduce with age. Yeah we had a long talk about it last night...and I always thought that women in their 30s were at their sexual peaks...

Aparently not. It's a biological phenomenon I tell ya.

Yeah, of course there are those who will argue that there are marriage vows to be made. But have you ever thought about it? Marriage vows NEVER EVER have this sentence "Will you take this man/woman to be your one and only mate till death do you part?" no. Instead, it goes, "Do you (blah blah name), take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife, to love and to cherish, in sickness and in health, through good times and bad, till death do you part".

From http://reference.com -

mar·riage
Pronunciation: 'mar-ij
Function: noun
1 : the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a legal, consensual, and contractual relationship recognized and sanctioned by and dissolvable only by law —see also DIVORCE
2 : the ceremony containing certain legal formalities by which a marriage relationship is created

Wow...it's interesting that Marriage is nothing but a "legal, consensual, and contractual relationship recognized and sanctioned by and dissolvable only by law"

Well, for those to believe that marriage is a sanctity of true love, it's just gonna shatter your thoughts that it's only a legal term and yes, it can be either dissolved or nullified. In all fairness, it takes two hands to clap as they always say.

If one doesn't feel the love, one looks elsewhere for it. Where does the blame lie? Both parties. Plain and simple. It's cause and effect and nobody escapes from it. Why do I say that, if love is felt whenever, whereever, then there is no need to look elsewhere for it.

Words of Crapdom

Death is the only certainty in life.

Pain

The pain of boredom is unbearable.

Men cont'd

Men have this infantile, fundamental desire to feel needed, better at everything than anyone else (be it other men or women) and some even feel the need to be popular.

Yeah, I've taken a long hard look in the mirror. Perhaps I'm over-generalizing and stereotyping. Perhaps not. Some would outwardly show their needs and desires while others hide behind a mask.

openness is not a strong point among Asians. We tend to be more private. Imagine a scenario where you meet someone for the first time. If the person is Australian or American (Caucasian or one brought up with "western" values), he/she has a tendency to be much more open with himself/herself.

The internet is a great place for Asians. It gives us the chance to break the ice, be more open and even more daring without really revealing who we are. After all, on the internet, I can be a Superman for all I care and nobody would really know.

The draw back of the internet is that people tend to take chats and things said online too seriously. C'mon...To me, it's just another media and up to the discresion of the reader whether or not to take it seriously. Of course, when it's serious news, such as a bombings in London or an aftermath of a disaster, it's serious news and a great place to gather volunteers in disaster aid.

But then again, there are always those that would abuse the medium. Imagine having a live feed (not live feed as in food but a live broadcast feed) on your website. Basically, you can be the owner of a form of media (something like a television channel). Isn't that powerful? Of course, if your content is crappy, then no one will ever think of coming to view your website.

In any case, men no matter how effeminate they may be are still clueless when it comes to women. Period.

Black n White

2 Cars with the same number plates? A truly unique experience. Today we took delivery of the new 9-5. Specs wise, it's got slightly more push than the previous one. Also, it's got a 5 speed tranny compared to the old 4 speeder.

They've also thrown in more 'freebies' such as auto dimming rear-view mirror, electric folding wind mirrors, cruise control, bluetooth hands-free, HID headlamps etc etc...I guess there's more bang for your buck these days.

Considering the fact that the 9-5 is about 20,000 more than the M6 (at the time I bought the M6), it's got heaps more stuff built into it. The tree outside the house has also been chopped down. Boy it sure is sunny without the shade provided by that 25 year-old tree. But then again, now I won't have to worry about parking my cars by the sidewalk anymore...no more bat pooh and tree sap stained paintwork.

I collected my new V3 today. The black one. It's got 1 additional feature which is the video camera compared to the silver one that has it missing. I guess they didn't really bother to add it in the later series silver phones cause there might be some people who'll complain that they paid premium for it but lacked that feature.

Anyhow, RT's my new guru and he's supposed to give me pep talks ever so often. The guy's been in for 3 months and he's already made a hefty five-figure sum...dang I'm missing out. I just gotta try harder I guess but it ain't easy.

After the Genting trip, I feel so ripped off by NSC. I'll spare the details but sufficed to say, next time I'll have to be more careful when dealing with her. Gosh!

Peanuts! Get your peanuts!!!!

Just out of curiosity, how many Singapore households have an annual income above S$50,000 or $100,000. A ballpark figure would suffice. To say that a S$600,000 per annum income is peanuts given that the person who has been paid this amount brings in to an organization hundreds of millions of dollars is not incorrect. However, to say it in defence of the CEO of a charitable organization whose sole income is through the donations of 2 out of 3 citizens of this country is laughable and only a person who is narrow minded and lacks any feelings of responsiblity towards the donors would say it.

That said, Mrs Goh Cheok Tong, wife of former Singapore Prime Minister Goh Cheok Tong mentioned that in comparison to the hundreds of millions of dollars that he (Mr Durai, CEO of the National Kidney Foundation) has brought in to the foundation through donations, his annual pay package of between $500,000 and $600,000 is peanuts.

In light of what she has said, it seems to me that if a person earning $600,000 is peanuts to her, what is someone earning $25,000 or even $50,000 annually? Trash? If to the wife of our former Prime Minister now Senior Minister, and former leader of the governing political party of Singapore, $600,000 is peanuts, I for one, certainly do not hope that for the rest of the majority of our population that earns under $100,000 per year, are not considered monkeys. Afterall, as the old saying (and I believe most people are familiar with it) goes, "Pay peanuts get monkeys".

If I were her press secretary, I'd resign just about now. The amount of damage control he/she has to do would definitely warrant a drastic pay raise (so that he/she doesn't behave like a monkey). The political ramifications towards that statement will be severe. I'd question our government this.

"Are Singaporeans so affluent that a prominent person who is linked to the government can claim that an annual income of $600,000 is "peanuts"? The complacency and insult that comes with that statement to all of us is simply too harsh to put into words. How can ANYONE let alone the wife of our Senior Minister say such a thing?"

If you're saying that in defence of a person who is known to have openly lied under oath in the court of law, you're making a mockery out of our legal and judicial system and obviously stating the fact that there are people "above the law" in this country.

I believe that an investigation into the misleading and misuse of publicly obtained funds through donations and charity events is in order and that Mr Durai has committed perjury in the highest order. Should I say more or would further floodgates of litigation be opened? Am I considered defaming anyone with this post? I do not have any intention of doing so and it should not be taken as such. However, the public nature of this case, along with the comments that have been made provides me with the conclusion that publicly donated funds have been misused and like most of the other Singaporeans who have donated before to the NKF, would like to see how every single cent is spent in order to decide to contribute in future.

Men & Women

Russell Peters said in one of his stand ups that "Indians(Asian Indians that is) cannot live without a bargain and Chinese cannot give a bargain" well, it might hold true for the two cultures but the point in quoting that is this:

WOMEN CANNOT GET INTO A RELATIONSHIP WITHOUT COMMITMENTS AND MEN CANNOT GIVE COMMITMENTS.

A woman would simply say "how can you call it a relationship if there are no commitments?" - True but it's still what men want. Plain and simple.

From the beginning of time, nature has had it such that women can more or less only have 1 child at a time (with the exception of a few that can plop out twins or more). So what does nature do? Nature allows the male human (homo sapien) to mate with more than one female in order to procreate itself faster. Or so us guys would love to think.

It's not as simple as blaming everything on our basic instinct or Id. Since we've developed into a so-called intelligent species, there's this wonderful (to women that is) thing that psychologists love to call Superego. It's the part of us that give us our moral values. The part that tells us that cheating on our soul-mates is wrong. The part that tells us that taking away the life of another human being is wrong. The part that controls us. The balance between the two is the Ego.

Unfortunately, most of the time, when it comes to sex and relationships, in men, our Id takes over. I've heard & read countless girls mention "I would love to settle down with a man who's got a stable job, good character, faithfulness, is good looking blah blah blah. Well, unfortunately, when someone like that pops up, usually, there's more than one woman eyeing him.

Women hold themselves to higher moral values than men do. Granted that there are naturally some men who hold themselves to these high moral values as well but they're as rare as sighting an aurora borealis at low lattitudes and when you do see one, it's an amazing sight. Even to men (well, we find it more incredible than amazing).

Lets not kid ourselves. Moral values in the last 30 years has taken a dip much like a bear market. Women, with new found confidence and independence are beginning to behave this way as well. To be honest, if the two partys want the same thing (most probably fun between the sheets for a night or so), let it be it. As men, we always realize that even though we might take our soul-mates for granted, a high percentage of the time, we're just out for some gratification and reward for that thing between our legs. If ever someone invented some other form of gratification that feels as good to us, he or she has struck gold.

So, to my female friends reading this, don't be so hard on men. It happens and there's little that you can do about it (unless you take some drastic action like that Bobbit character). Being married and being denied sex after marriage by the spouse is equal, if not worse than chemical castration. Trust me, I know.

Another late night entry

Ever wondered where the turning point in your life is? I've given it some thought and from what I recall, there are two turning points in my life. The first was when I was about 10 or 11. Miss Yip, my scout teacher denied me the chance to lead as a cadet scout just because during the promotion day, I suffered severe diarrhea and had to head home.

I never questioned her but she promoted a junior over me. I wasn't sour at the fact that I wasn't made second six but it disappointed me that I had to forgo leadership due to something that was beyond my control. Somehow, that made me feel to this day that I have little control over my life.

Which brings me to reason why I enjoy driving so much. Why? Simply because I feel that I'm in control. The destination is determined by me, the route is determined by me and the speed and control of the vehicle is determined by me. Mom once asked me why I enjoyed driving so much. Well, I guess now that I've thought about it for more than 15 years, this is the reason.

My second turning point was when I was retrenched from CNetAsia as GameSpotAsia's Webmaster. My life started going downhill from there. Not financially but rather it affected my self esteem and confidence. Somehow or other, now, I seem to lack confidence in whatever I do always apprehensive of the fact that whatever I can do, someone else can do it better. Of course it's a fact but then, I feel the need to prove myself to myself.

It's ironical but especially in photography, I've always felt that I've got a long way to go. There are encouraging times as well but somehow, I've always felt the need to compare myself to others out there. To see if I can even reach their levels and capability. I've always wanted the best yet I feel that I can never do my best. As the ACS motto goes, "The Best is Yet to Be" and this is definitely affecting me.

I guess instead of keeping up at night thinking of death and what it brings, I should contemplate on how I can live and make my life useful. Find the meaning of "Why I am born", "Why am I here" and "What is my purpose in life". It definitely can't just be to procreate. I have a purpose. I just haven't found out what it is yet. I have a place in this universe. In this consciousness. It's mind boggling and downright disheartening to know that I've yet to discover my purpose and what I want after all these years.

I've lived for the moment before. Seized the day in the past. Often, seizing the day means regretting something later. I've learned to live without regret since it's usually a waste of time. So's gloating by the way. Perhaps I should just concentrate on work.

I feel so alone in this world. Like nobody understands. I'm trying to explain to my loved ones what's going on but the words don't seem to be coming out right. I write here looking for solace and welcome any should it come. I just hope that soon, I will discover it for I don't seem to be able to handle it much longer. Am I a chronic silent depressive? I don't know although I hope that I'm not. Am I whining about my life and how pathetic it is contrary to my previous posts? Perhaps I am, perhaps I'm not. I'm self contradictory I suppose. My what I decide to put down on this page solely depends on my thoughts of the moment.

This might serve as a reminder in the future should I find myself and my purpose what I went through to find it.

14 March...but it's not today :P

Your Birthdate: March 14

With a birthday on the 14th of the month (5 energy) you are inclined to work well with people and enjoy them. You are talented and versatile, very good at presenting ideas, and you are also very good at organization and systematizing. You may have a tendency to get itchy feet at times and need change and travel. You tend to be very progressive, imaginative and adaptable. Your mind is quick, clever and analytical. A restlessness in your nature may make you a bit impatient and easily bored with routine, and rebel against it. You have a tendency to shirk responsibility.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

New found friends...

Mainey has a new guy in her life!!!!! I'm completely devastated!!! Not that I ever met up to her standards, expectations and mentality but then again, it's still devastating nonetheless.

Hehehe...I'm just putting this down to irk her anyways. She claims to be smart...I don't doubt it but smarter than me? Dream on girl! Anyway, I've been communicating with a couple of new found friends. It's nice to know that once in a while you have a listening ear especially when you're being ignored elsewhere (i.e. Home).

To be fair, I haven't been all that fantastic myself. Oftentimes I've realized that I can be rather childish. Well, what can I say? Old habits die hard. Anyhow...that's how I look now. Gosh I can do with a massive haircut. Maybe army 4x2 would be good for me...like the other picture.

No idea what to do...lol...except that I don't wanna end up looking like a geek. Which has happened before. I even had a leather pocket protector. Gosh..just like those mission controllers but of course they adamantly deny owning one.

News just occurred to me that SASCA's sound challenge is for SQ (Sound Quality) and not SPL (Sound Pressure Level). If I do go for SQ, that means my setup will have to change completely. Thomas will have to be back in town to check out the system. Hope he comes back soon. I've got my trip up north this thursday. I'm still a little apprehensive about it cause it's going to take me 4 days to do something that's worth only 1 day. Argh...the dilemma!

Cleaning day...

I've finally managed to spare some time to do some cleaning up. Gosh, it's been a while. Managed to get a snapshot of home after doing the cleaning up. Could I life be better? I'd say it could but honestly, I'm not really complaining. Well, once in a while maybe.

I don't know why but I'm still totally unimpressed with the XBox. I guess I'm a tough nut to crack. But I'm totally impressed with the PSP cause wow! In such a small package! The graphics are just mind boggling.

I need a haircut! People are gonna start calling me either Sasquatch or the abominable snowman! Gosh. You know, a good thriller's only as good as the supporting soundtrack and motion picture score. Can you imagine watching a movie where there's only dialogue and no background music? Kinda sucky eh?

Yeah...well...I guess that's what my weekend's filled with. Oh I still love and respect the amount of effort put into the Singapore Science Centre. Even after all these years, it still brings back memories of me when I was about 9, going there with my granddad who's since passed on. I still have that photo we took with the Mercedes 280SE buried somewhere.

Ah...the nostalgia. I'm such a nostalgic guy...

Whiners...

Okay...I've read quite a few blogs and found that many a time, the authors are complaining or whining about their lives and how miserable they are etc etc... It's interesting cause I suppose that could be the best way to generate self pity. It's most effective especially for women.

The usual "I hate my life", "I hate my job", "I hate not having enough money" entries. If you read enough of these, you'd think that it's the same person writing all these entries. C'mon! Obviously we're too pampered and spoiled and selfish. Everyone's concerned about their own little problems, their own little world. I guess the fault lies partially in the lack of social skills that people are getting from being on the internet all the time.

The might have "netiquette" but lack social etiquette. Oh well.

Last night was an event for UE. It started late so I ended leaving late as well. Maritus Mandarin definitely has one of the lamer carparks...it's 1) Narrow, 2) Expensive (Parking there from 5.30pm to about 12.30am was $7.00) and 3) Difficult to get out of.

I must take my hat off to the CEO of UE. They do give back to the community by donating to Metta School and MINDS. They also had some kids from both organizations perform. The MINDS kids were most impressive. All of them suffers from some form of intellectual disability or other. Yet, they were always smiling, happy to perform and ever so excited.

Oh and by the way, for those out there who are whining about their pathetic lives etc, there are many people worse off.

DL & SL

DL needs instruction but learns how to pose quickly. I took pictures of these two cousins today to see what I could come up with. DL was pretty sporting and more adventurous. SL tends to be a little more reserved but knows that she can do more poses on the fly. I guess it kinda reflects the different personalities the two sisters have.

I'll be entering the auto sound challenge in august. Hopefully, everything on the car will work properly. I've just spent half the day in a food shoot for NUSS and the other half @ Hong Guan discussing the sponsorships and my role in the competition. Looks like I'll be going for SPL comps (man I need bigger subs..) A pair of 15's would suffice nicely along with a 2000watt power amp each.

In any case, looks like there'll be more work to do on the set of wheels...

Magazine shoot...

Indonesian food, when prepared right, is absolutely delicious. Beef rendang that "melts in your mouth" and sambal sotong that's seasoned and cooked just right. The advantages of working with food & beverage magazines is that I sometimes get to taste the food as well.

Every restaurant owner is proud of his/her own unique dish. They're also very very protective of their recipes. Well, of course right? Afterall, it's their "ricebowl". While I was photographing for "Halal Food & Beverage" magazine, I also got to taste some Indonesian food during lunch yesterday. It's a pity that I had already eaten just an hour before cause the food spread looked fantastic.

Photo is taken by me and used with the kind permission of Halal Food & Beverage quarterly magazine.

Luck rubs off...

People with 'good luck' particularly in business often have the ability of making their luck rub off onto your own. Don't ask me why. The minute I said that I'd work with EL, I've been getting in more photography jobs as well. It sure looks like it's beginning to come together.

Although I'd much prefer being able to shoot for the sake of art, due to economic reasons, I have little choice but to go commercial as well. To those who are stubbornly fixated on the fact that I'm selling out my principles, it's not happening. I'm just doing what I need to do to survive. Somehow, I will find the time for fine arts as well. But just not now.

It's easier to convince people about fine arts with hand-drawn artwork rather than with photography but it's still a form of art nonetheless. I was thinking to myself, how many photographers in Singapore are actually trained in fine arts? Of course having that piece of academic paper doesn't account for ability but there's still training involved nonetheless.

Among most of my friends and course mates, I believe that I'm the only one that's practicing photography. But then again, there aren't that many people who Majored in Media Studies and Minored in Photomedia anyways. Most of them were Australians. The people that I knew minored in other fields such as Advertising, Marketing and/or PR.

The only problem I'm facing now, is finding models for next to nothing. That's the difficult part. Well, if any of you guys and gals are out there reading this, drop me a note if you don't mind volunteering. Naturally, I'd provide you with a soft copy of the photographs as well. :)

Opinions...

Everyone has their own opinions. Be it a major social issue or something personal, it's still an opinion. Humans are diversified creatures. I can only imagine the time when we will move out of our own home planet Earth on to other worlds, opinions will only differ more.

Even in a culture, there are sub-cultures.

Will it ever end? I guess it only will when it trickles down to the individual. That's why individuality is so important. Imagine humans as a beehive society. We would all feel robotized. Even as it is, living in one country, we're already getting bored, needing to find interesting places to see, things to do etc. I suppose that's why the least sought after jobs are those that are repetitive and provide little avenues of change.

We are constantly building new things, taking photos, trying to look at things from a different angle (literally) just to get a fresh perspective. Why? Because we're bored too easily. Perhaps when the entire human race realizes that, will the time come where one human being will learn to appreciate and accept the opinion of another. Perhaps only then will wars stop and violence in society will come to an end.

That would be utopia where everyone's opinions are accepted. I decided to write on this because of the recent hub-bub on a Singaporean girl who decided to post her nude photos in her blogsite. For those of you who are in Singapore, well, she's already made the news so there's no need to elaborate on that. As it is, she' getting people into heated debates over the issue in many of our local forums and online chats.

It reminds me of the time when Annabel Cheong, the famous locally born and bred pornstar who made it big in USA. The sensation caused was amazing. People were talking about her for weeks after an article about her was published in the local newspapers. But what has happened now? Yes people still know who she is but she's no longer the talk of the town.

I guess I've made my point in that humans will be interested in something for only a short while. After that, it becomes boring. Variety is the spice of life isn't it?

One of the better days...

It's been a productive day. Although I spent most of it in the office over at Mandai, I'd consider this one of my better days. It was only marred slightly by a small disagreement with SY early in the morning but was soon settled (within 10 minutes).

In any case, KL came in today to return some equipment and I felt that we had a good chat regarding the direction our company is taking. I'd say this is one meeting that's been waiting to happen for a while now. At least some things are cleared between us and I think that it's important for us as partners to show support for one another. This way, at least the company has a direction to follow.

Naturally, there will be disagreements but at least upon hearing each other's reasons, they can be ironed out. Nobody said that going into business was easy. Anyway, later in the evening I had no choice but to replace the battery on the 6. It was really going flat and well, it beats being stuck somewhere because the car won't crank up. Worse would be if I have an engagement and the car dies on me. That's actually my ultimate nightmare.

Met NH in the evening and we saw this girl driving a really cool Mini. Apparently, she just purchased it off someone and took delivery today so she was showing it off to her friends which I guess were from SMC (Singapore Mitsubishi Club). Oh...before we met the guys, she parked the car and left without engaging the parking brakes. NH and I were standing next to my car when we suddenly realized that her car was slowly sliding further back into the lot. Good thing the ground was sloping towards the curb and not the other way round. I wouldn't want to be there to watch her reaction should the opposite happen.

Anyway, they were pretty nice people. Who said that Singaporeans weren't a friendly lot? When Singaporeans with a common passion came together, fast friends are made. Even though we didn't get the names of the guys that were viewing her car, we stood there and chit chat with each other; after all, there's no reason not to.

Well, that's about all that's happened today. My only wish is that everyday is a day like today. After all, it's been a pretty good one so far.

X&Y

Coldplay's new album X&Y...just borrowed it off NH. I'll definitely be getting one myself along with their previous two albums. The music's just so melodic! The chorus gives me goose bumps! Trying to figure out if I can link the song somehow.

Spent much of today watching a guy called Ah Ann polish my ride. I must say that he's pretty detailed and took 3 hours with my car. He has already spent 3 hours doing NH's car before that.

I guess today is a day of doing nothing. Not very productive. However, I did realize that I have to reduce the influence of people on me. It's giving me a negative effect and that can't be good.

Strangely, Coldplay and U2 have certain songs that sound similar and have a similar effect on me when I listen to it. An example would be U2's Electrical Storm. Very similar kinds of melodies.

I have to remind myself of two things that I'm supposed to do the coming week.

1) Drop by Gramophone to buy Coldplay's albums and
2) Get a new battery for the car the current one's beginning to show signs of wearing out.

Well. It's close to dinner now. Hope there's something good coming out from the kitchen.

Conversations with NH...

"There are some people that are lucky as well as ruthless; they will also make use of the luck of others for their benefit. AY and AO are such examples. Ed, Jailbird Jon and Angie are examples of people that are always down and out, are perpetually having bad luck and have a knack for either making people around them unlucky or depressed. You on the other hand, are the type that takes steps back wards until you live in the shadows of society."

Am I really that sort? Gosh, I'd never had known if he didn't mention it to me. Upon doing some self-reflection, I think he might have hit the nail right on the head. Put the pickle in the barrel. Perhaps I'd do well and go far in a strict hierarchal organization where the punishment for insubordination is severe. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps. Life is full of perhapses.

To be honest, I'd tried that during National Service and I didn't enjoy it one single bit.

Surprisingly, today, being a saturday has been a relatively productive day. It started out with me heading to HG in the morning with the intention of checking if Sandy's ordered the strobes and lightning SGs. However, upon reaching HG, I completely forgot about it and went on to install the Napolex Temperature sensor and tune one of the sub-woofers in the trunk of the car.

After that, NH called and asked if I was available for a meeting regarding photography for yet another magazine that he was handling. The meeting turned out pretty good and things that were mentioned were as expected. In any case, I had a late lunch with NH @ Holland V before the meeting and I must say, that place is populated by more and more sweet and relatively attractive looking ladies (although for some of them, I'd refer to as girls instead). I also noticed that the hemline of skirts are going higher and higher again. Much like the 60s when micro-miniskirts were the fad of the day.

It's either that minis are making a comeback, or I'm beginning to hallucinate more leg than usual. Who knows. Whatever the reason, it's eye candy for me so I definitely don't mind. NH also managed to convince PD to attend a shoot conducted by me on the coming Sunday @ the studio. How he did it, I have no idea. What I do know is that PD is a little out of proportion. She's kinda lengthy and perhaps a little gangly and her face is on the rather round side. I guess it'll be up to me to figure out her best angles.

I read about a blog written by a Singaporean girl in the Straits Times today. I went to check it out but noticed that the site gets all the hits because it's got saucy details of her a) sex life and b) supposedly nude pictures of her which she removed after her parents objected to it. I still think that Asian society is a little closed to accept that sex is not necessarily a taboo subject and that an object of beauty is to be admired. After all, don't we spend much of our time looking for things that look good in the first place? The human body is an object of beauty and the best part is that no two bodies are the same. It's not to say that I will gawk at pornography but if the photos are well taken in a non-vulgar yet erotic way, I definitely will enjoy it and so will a majority of the people out there.

Anyway, towards the end of the day, I took the Jag out for a spin and ended up meeting Joey, Eric & gang @ Yishun Dam. I must say that the recent fad in automotive under-body lighting has caught me by surprise. A consolation is that none of the numerous vehicles with under-body lights that I saw today have the colour that's on my car. Unfortunately, I did see one at MacDonald's on Marc's birthday though.

Well, I think this is one of the longer entries that I've written. Thanks for taking the time to read it. It'd be great if some people comment on it but honestly, I don't think I get as many hits as the girls do anyway.

That Nostalgic Feeling...

How many guys out there know how to give in? It's rather strange but as a person gets older and perhaps more mature, giving in becomes almost second nature. Not always though cause I think it all depends on who you're giving in to. I could be considered pretty spoilt I suppose. Having a childhood where I got many things that I wanted; particularly toys and destroyed them almost immediately.

I remember the times when I used to enjoy building model kits. Glueing all the little pieces together to form a ship, plane, tank or car. Once completed, one could play with them too. The details on these models were really fine and that could be one of the reasons I enjoyed them so much.

I realised that as I grew older, my toys became more and more expensive to the stage where I start to consider cars as toys. I suppose there's some things that don't change.

It's amazing to what end credit card companies will go to keep your account. After calling one of the banks to terminate my card, they offered me all sorts of bells and whistles just to get me to keep the card. Not that I intend to use it anyway. I finally convinced them that termination was what I wanted. The lady on the other end sounded so sad...almost like she was about to break into tears.

If there's anything that I can't stand is a girl breaking down sobbing to me. I will simply just melt into a puddle of goo and usually give in to whatever demands they have. I guess I'm just not ruthless enough (unlike some other people).

Oh well...just a recap...I dropped by Balaclava for a short while on Wednesday night. The band was as good as always especially when the girl was singing. The bald dude that plays the bass, however, well that's another story altogether. He tried singing U2's One and to me, it was the ultimate disaster. He totally lacks the emotion in the voice to sound convincing. Almost like he was mumbling instead. Oh well, at least the girl sang most of the songs...and the beer was 1 for 1 so it's not all that bad. Hahaha!

Somethings work and some just don't...

Have you ever had an experience where something works, then you fix something else completely unrelated and the original thing stops working?

Well, the old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" sure does make sense now...dammit. What can I say...now, it's going to be one hassle after another. The Streetglow transformer has a habit of burning up...similar to what used to happen to the ballasts of my HID lights. Gawd...if it ain't one electrical item, it's another.

I do suspect, however that the powerjet used @ snow-wash is the guilty one...but then again, it's supposed to be waterproofed! Damn damn damn! There was a huge meetup tonight @ Turf City. Unfortunately, I was there only for a short while...had to head back to the studio to get the gear for tomorrow's shoot in JB prepped. Gawd...if only we could just afford another set for M'sia...that'll save me so much hassle of lugging the gear in. I wonder what can I say should the customs dude stop me. That's been bugging me all day today.

I'm smoking a ridiculous number of cigarettes as well. It comes with living alone. Somehow or other, just to stay awake, I smoke...gawd...Philip Morris is a happy man...I've finally managed to upgrade my laptop harddrive to 80 gigs...at least I don't have to worry about it running out of space in the middle of a porta anymore...for the time being that is.

I haven't heard from Germaine in quite a while...I wonder what she's up to. She still owes me a bumch of DVDs of which X-Men 2 I want back real bad to watch the opening scene again. It's really well done and mighty impressive. Oh well, Germs, if you're reading this, lemme know when I can get it back from you! You don't return my calls anymore!!! :P Hahaha...now it's gone public. Oh well. C'est La Vie as the song goes...

What the fuck is going on...

The steady rhythmic rattling of rain drop hitting the terracotta roofs woke me up this morning. I was in a semi dazed state as I got up and closed the shutters to prevent the rain from coming in. It is 6.45am. A little too early for me to start my day. Unfortunately, once I wake up I can't seem to sleep anymore.

It's a fine rainy morning. The balcony's door's open letting some spray from the rain damp my face. It feels good. I'm still semi-laying in bed while writing this and it's already 10am. I've been surfing the web and checking my emails for the past 3 hours. God...sometimes I wonder where does the time go.

I guess I'll be taking half the day off. I still have to head down to EL to get Andrea's PC online. It should be as simple as plugging in the network cable but then again, I should be there cause she doesn't know what a network port looks like.

I've been going nostalgic again, hence this song on my blog page. Nothing much has happened to me lately to write about. Last night we did a shoot @ Hyatt though. For a wine producer. To bad I can't remember the name of the company. The lady in charge of marketing kept asking us if we wanted a drink but drinking on the job with an empty stomach ain't such a good idea.

Anyway, yesterday's porta must've been one of the least printed portas I've ever done. We'll just have to see how it goes when I head in to JB on saturday...

Work, Play, Sleep, Eat...and of course

This has been a weekend of events I must say...

First thing you might notice is the upbeat, up tempo, cheerful music that's accompanying this site. Well, you can put the blame of that to my cousin Shi-Ian who's in town for the weekend.

Anyway, it started as a normal Saturday morning except that while most people were in bed enjoying their slumbers, I was lugging about 40kilos of photographic/computer equipment up the blasted escalators over at Shaw Centre...

Anyway, it was a pretty uneventful "porta" corner which actually may not really be worth doing (the amount of trouble far outweighed the rewards - monetarily speaking of course). Anyway, after slogging with 3-35 year olds getting them to pose right, smile etc etc...I packed up and lugged the damn equipment back to the car.

After dropping off the equipment @ Mandai, I popped by TransEurokars & Stuttgart Auto to see if any buddies were there. Unfortunately, there was some road trip going on and Bernard was busy as a bee so I decided to head on home.

Later found out that dearest cousin Shi-Ian was in town and decided to pop in to mom's to see what she's up to. I must say that she's bloomed beautifully. Anyway, went to catch Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy @ WestMall and it was a blast of a movie...laffed quite a few times too!

After that just headed home & to BED~~~!!! GLORIOUS BED!!!

Today...well...lunch was at Turf City (dim sum) and as usual, having dim sum means overeating on my part. Anyway, headed over to sis' house @ Chancery and watched Lara "check out my boobs" Croft in the latest Tomb Raider DVD on the plasma tv.

Dinner was great and consisted of authentic home-made creamy mushroom soup (yeap...none of that canned soup crap). Finished up by yakking with Alec for a while, checked out this song which according to Shi-Ian is THE song of the moment due to some dude lip-sync-ing to it on his webcam over the internet. It's called Numa Numa (or something like that) and it's quite funny to watch too.

Episode III

Star Wars Episode 3...nice nice movie. Yes, George Lucas has finally come up with an episode better than 5 - The Empire Strikes Back. Ep 5 was my longtime favourite but 3 tops it off...at least now, I can relate episode 4 - 6 better. The thing is however, that Lucas really has to work on his dialogues...they seem to be written for primary school kids...but the plot is a little too overwhelming for the kiddos...it's a little violent as well with limbs being chopped off. It certainly seems as if Lucas has this thing for chopping things into two...from torsos to arms to hands and legs and finally heads.


Anyway, if you remember in Episode 6, Leia replied to Luke's question of meeting her mother, her "real" mother as "She died when I was very young...she was beautiful, but sad..." So, if Padme died during childbirth, how would Leia remember her mother and Luke, being born first of the twins, not have known her? Afterall, technically, he spent more time outside her than she did...

In any case, the special effects of Ep 3 beat Ep 1 hands down...at least the driods look more realistic this time round. And of course, I was surpised at Anakin Skywalker's simple mind as well...He of all people should know that death is part of life...but I suppose, I'm being overly critical here.

Anyway, the StreetGlows are glowing again after a replacement step-up inverter was provided...and now, I'm finally really happy with the car's looks...thought there's still room for "some" improvement...I'll leave that for another time.

Obviously, I have a tendency towards the "Dark Side" of The Force since my streetglows are Red...LOL

The Raw Power of Mother Nature

Do they look scary or what!? Like the sky's about to fall on the building. Yeap, that's the view I get from my place. Low clouds (probably 500feet or below), lightning flashes and thunder rumbling in the distance.

It hasn't quite started raining yet thought the sky definitely looks threatening enough. The wind is howling through the gaps in my windows, doors etc and boy it sure sounds eerie. The rag and bones man is still blaring his horn though. I admire that. They seem to think that people have used items for sale everyday. I broke my previous record and read 3 Dan Brown books in a week. They were, Digital Fortress, Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code. The last one being a real popular book the past few months or so. The interesting thing about his books are that they cover pretty much everything that happens within a 24 hour period.

Also, with the last book, The Da Vinci Code, he tends to blur the line between fact and fiction. I suppose that's what's making it so enticing. A mixture of fact and fiction.

Anyways, that's about all that I've been up to the past couple of weeks. That and mucking around with "Cold Cathode" lights for my car's interior over the weekend. Now, the car's emitting a blue glow from the inside. Kinda cool. Perhaps when my StreetGlow transformer arrives, on a clear night, I'll take a picture of it.

StreetGlow GLOWS!

Yeap...
New addition to the set of wheels...StreetGlow Undercar Neon Kit. Now my "BengMobile" is almost complete. What's left you ask? Well, to me, it's still a work in progress.
Items that have yet to be done:
1) GT Wing (preferably C-West or Veilside) Carbon Fibre of course
2) Vinyls (2-3 layer custom graphics)
3) Pearlescent paintjob
4) Decals
5) Exhaust
I guess you could say that once I have these 5 items installed or done, the work-in-progress would be complete. For now, I'm just as happy with the amazing streetglow that I've got on. Already I've been asked by several people where I got it done. The amazing thing is that, the neon undercar kit IS confirmed water proof...I just drove over a freaking deep (knee deep) huge puddle of water (and trust me, the streetglows were completely submerged) and they're still glowing strong!
Well...let see what will go in next...

Advocatus Diaboli

The devil's advocate. That's what I've been called. Do I adopt a position that I don't believe in just for the sake of the argument? Perhaps. I'm sure Nick would agree with that one though. Sometimes, I love playing the devil's advocate...just for the fun of it.

If anything though, Nick's archilles' heel in an argument is his short temper. He starts blowing off too soon and that spoils the fun of arguing (I would put it down as debating).

I've been having a bone to pick for the past week. What can I say, I suppose it all stemmed from talking behind people's back. It'd be nice if we could bury the hatchet but I think that some people do hold grudges. I, for one, do not so whenever you're ready to talk, I'm all ears.

Here's one thing though. I believe in cogitationis poenam nemo patitur -nobody should be punished for his/her thoughts. Unless he acts out the thought, then it would be malice aforethought; in which case, can be prosecuted.

In any case, I'm ready to hear when you're ready to speak.

ImageExpo...

Nice piece of software maximizing the use of bluetooth.

The images are the actual screen captures of the screen on my Nokia 6260...pretty cool. Now I know why I love Bluetooth so much!

Only problem is, the software that does it costs about 99 euros!...bloody expensive. I still haven't decided if I'm gonna get it but it's kinda cool.

oh well...

After receiving the $500 voucher from SingTel, I decided to head on down to Hello! SingTel @ OUB to purchase a handset. After much deliberation, I decided on a Nokia 6260.

Pros and Cons of the phone:

1) It's a clamshell (I love clamshells)
2) It's got Symbian OS (allows for PDA like applications to be installed)
3) It's got MMC card support
4) It's got Bluetooth
5) It's quite nice (design-wise)

Cons:

1) It's a Nokia
2) It's a Nokia
3) It's a Nokia
4) Lousy build quality (the flip part is not nice and fitting but can be rocked back n forth)
5) It's $498 - for $100 more, I can get another V3 but I refuse to spend anything beyond the voucher given.
6) The Navigation keys are too far up on the flip
7) It's a Nokia

Sufficed to say, I was pretty happy with the phone. It's a good mobile office tool with applications such as QuickWord and QuickPoint (they allow me to view MS Word and MS Powerpoint documents and presentations respectively).

There's also a head of available software for the Symbian OS, for example, Agile Messenger.

I didn't use the phone until I reached home at about 10.30pm last night. So I followed the instructions and plugged in the phone for it's first charge. Everything was working fine...up till then.

Fast forward to this morning, I went to NUSS for the photo shoot of kids at KRGH. Everything was still fine and dandy and the phone worked, well like a phone should.

I decided then to go down to Wheelock Place to send mom's Nokia 2100 in for repairs (since the "1" key on the keypad was no longer responding). After having to wait from 1.13pm to 2.25pm, I was served (I almost spouted a new goatee during the hour plus long wait).

Sufficed to say, the CSO mentioned that the spare parts for the 2100 were not in stock (this coming from Nokia themselves? REALLY?) and that it would be a 1-2 week wait. Fine...afterall, mom's got the Sony Ericsson to play with so she's content for the moment. So I let them keep the phone.

Meanwhile, I asked about the 6260's bluetooth functionality and whether or not it supports bluetooth internet connectivity through a PC that's on the internet. The CSO said that it shouldn't be a problem so I'll give it a try again when i get back,

However, during the 1 hour plus long wait for the CSO to attend to me, I received a file called Caribe. I dutifully installed it (since I was in the Nokia Service Centre). The CSO took a look at it and mentioned that the phone has to be sent in for re-formatting (that includes the MMC). He says that Caribe's a software that chews up memory AND battery power (in other words, a virus).

I was appalled. After all, I was at the Nokia Service Centre and I barely had the phone for a full 24 hours. What choice did I have? Gawd. The least that Nokia Service Centres could do is to post a warning that anyone receiving files via bluetooth while in their Service Centres (or anywhere else for that matter), should avoid the list of virus like files.

And I thought that really brilliant people worked at Nokia...I guess no I know that anywhere but its main office at Alexandra are manned and managed by idiots. By posting a simple list, they'd save themselves a crap load of unnecessary formatting of phones and memory cards. I guess, it everything worked too well for them, they'd be shaking their legs and obviously, the executives won't want that to happen.

So now, I'm at mom's place, minus the 6260. they said that it'll take 2 hours to reformat and reset the phone + memory card. Hmm...are they still using 9200baud rate RS-232 Serial cables? Does it really need to take 2 hours for a re-format? I've re-formatted my 160GB HDD in under 15 minutes and that's a low-level format too. Geez...anyway, I'll be heading back there in an hour or so.

So that's my experience with Nokia after a 2 year hiatus. Time to seriously boycott the brand.

Motorola V3 still rocks compared to the lemon of a Nokia 6260...and it's only $100 more.

Another shoot

7.40am saw me driving down the PIE today. "This is not how I wanna celebrate my next birthdays", I thought to myself. Waking up at 6am after sleeping at 3am is not the best way to catch me in a good mood in the mornings.

What I found irritating was the fact that people, while driving on an expressway, find that they're required to tap their brakes ever so often. Can't they control their cars properly with the accelerator? Anyway, I was at Raffles Marina before the stipulated time in the morning.

It's interesting how I found out that women (at least alot of them), can't keep things to themselves. They have this inner need to share anything that's been said among friends. It happens irregardless if you're a guy friend of hers or a girl. They just have this inner desire to talk.

Of course, however, everybody talks. It's just that guys usually need lots of either coercing or torture to speak. In any case, if you don't want anything you said to a girl repeated, don't say it. Funny thing is, I already know this but somehow or other, sometimes, I feel the need to share somethings just to take the temperature a little (it's a good gauge).

In any case, I'm enjoying the 3rd and 4th season of The West Wing. I've yet to watch any other television series that's more cerebral than this.