As the Taj Mahal hotel burns, Mumbai weeps, a Singaporean husband is devastated. Satellite phone traces point to Karachi. I struggle to comprehend how young men, not yet 20, can be persuaded to destroy lives, and give up their own lives. Did Ali Jinnah foresee this, when he called for Direct Action, when he fought for "Two Nations". Separate them, keep them apart, if they can't get along. Half a century later, it doesn't seem to have worked.

"It's 30 days to Christmas." Glenn Ong exclaimed, on the Morning Show yesterday, which means it's less than a month away. Time for Steve Tyrell's Christmas album to make its way into the car hi-fi. I need to start thinking about presents for my girlfriend and maybe, just maybe(haha) all my good friends. Chinese New Year's around the corner too, it's an early one in 2009 and looking around the estate, people are already starting their spring-cleaning.

Save Your Life

I am 13 years away from middle age. That was Jamie's retort yesterday, to me saying "we are young adults", reminding me once again, how fast the years have gone. Catching us mostly unaware, so much time has slipped by. I guess this is one of the reasons why I am so passionate about photography. Photographs allow us to treasure things. The photographer Nan Goldin points out, "With photography, you don't lose anything again'. A photograph captures, albeit imperfectly, a single transient moment, that would otherwise be gone forever.

We live our lives through photographs. They mark our rites of passage – birth, birthdays, graduation, marriage, even death; they record our loves, encounters and travels – all our arrivals and departures. The camera is omnipresent. Photography parallels the way we remember things. We recall an event or a person by seeing an image in our mind’s eye. Our museums of personal memories are largely photographic.

Photographers bear witness to events for us; they inform and educate us through their eyes. From our parents' old wedding photos, we learn a bit more about the people we owe our lives to, we see that they were once just like us, young lovers starting out on a journey; "young adults 13 years away from middle age" with the same dreams, same ambitions, the same fears, as us now. Working almost like a time machine, the camera preserves things that are now past, allowing us to see things that would otherwise not be possible.

It is no use making photographs and then losing the photos. The advent of the digital camera has made it much easier to make and after that, to store photographs on a computer as virtual memory. Hard-disk failure however is always a danger. That is why I have spent the whole of Sunday morning backing up my photographs on my new 500GB maxtor harddisk. You should too. Start now or start soon. Save your life.

Blue skies, the reappearance of the sun (at least for the morning), good weather, a lovely, healthy morning cycling by the sea, and after that cooling off in Starbucks; Refreshing drink air-con plush chair comfort . I hope we make this a habit.

COE has plunged to $2. Maybe it's time for a new car to go with my new posting?
Got a taste of Jamie's pms mood swings today. I am thinking I'd better avoid her for the rest of the week.

出頭天 Breakthrough Day

詞曲：阿信 Music and Lyrics by Ashin

In the sky overhead, are there people who can see, See that I'm not willing to live this way In my lifetime, I want to believe Every flower has its own spring In the sky overhead, a heavy rain falls steadily, But it can't change my aspirations Forever waiting for that day, when we can have our breakthrough I’m not afraid of difficulties, I’m only afraid of having no ambition That day when we can break through, The days I long for, they'll be here soon In the sky overhead, is there a God that cares about me, How is it that I’m so battered and bloody Once blood dries it clots, failure doesn’t mean hopelessness, Success is believing in yourself The floating days, waiting for opportunities, I don't believe fate is this unkind Forever waiting for that day, when we can have our breakthrough, I’m not afraid of difficulties, I’m only afraid of having no ambition That day when we can break through The days I long for, they'll be here soon

在 我的天頂 甘有人會看見 看到我不甘願這樣過一生 在我的一生 我甘願來相信 每一朵花都有自己的春天 在我的天頂 大雨落不停 也不能改變到我的固執 永遠等待 那一日 咱可以出頭天 人生不怕風浪 只怕自己沒志氣 那一日 咱可以出頭天 我盼望的日子 會真快 來到我身邊 在我的天頂 甘有人在保佑 怎樣我常常摔的頭殼流血 血乾會結痂 失敗也不失志 成功是咱自己看自己得起 飄浪的日子 等待著時機 我不信命運會這麼無情 永遠等待 那一日 咱可以出頭天 人生不怕風浪 只怕自己沒志氣 那一日 咱可以出頭天 我盼望的日子 會真快 來到我身邊

As I am writing this, my brother is singing some christian hymn with his earphones on, irritating the hell out of me, he is oblivious to my "Do you mind?" protestation. Ok, I am just being mean, it really isn't that irritating but I would much prefer the silence. So I turn on itunes, something from Snow Patrol's new album, to drown him out.

In case some of you haven't heard, I have been posted to teach GP at a JC, which is kinda exciting but also a bit daunting. I am now on holidays for 2 weeks, if some of you are wondering why I am online till the wee hours of the morning, probably my last holiday as a student, well pseudo-student, since I am getting paid. 2 whole weeks off,free to do anything I want, a real luxury, Jamie's jealous as hell.

I am not proud to say, I spent the whole of last week playing computer games - Dota, Romance of the Three Kingdoms 11. Koei has finally wised up to release an English Version for the PC and I must say it's been an addiction trying to recreate ancient chinesee history.

Today, I finally broke out of the spell. I took a walk to the neighbourhood tailor to get my work pants made. 3 pairs for a $100. Very reasonable. Lately I have found that I would rather give my money to the smaller shops around my place rather than to some big department store or chain in town. I brought a camera out too, the Nikon D50 I got for my dad recently so the walk was longer than it would have been if it was just a trip to the tailor's.





13, 14 years ago, seems almost like yesterday, during those long carefree holiday days filled with adventure, filled with laughter, everything still looked fresh and novel, we were never bored; I was just like them, a "cowboy", on horseback, on my bike (Haro Shredder), or rollerblading (and then Simian, wheeling round to avoid an overzealous competitor goat, fell , and cracked a hole with his teeth on the cement floor of block 121) , around the wild west of the neighbourhood with my gang.

No the Tree didn't eat up my Kite.


I finally managed to convince my girlfriend to go fly kite flying with me; something I long wanted to do, ever since June, when I bought the kite back from Bangkok. Alas the weather wasn't helpful; evil looking dark clouds bringing with them pyrotechnics of thunder and flashing lightning, ending Charlie Brown brief flirtation with kite flying and we settled for Yami Yoghurt, Mango and Peach at Novena instead.

All grown up (but still a child inside?), we all have jobs and paychecks, some of us are married and looking to start a family, some are looking at houses. We are trading in our two wheels for four wheels(but we are still playing DOTA). Our days of being wild and carefree are fast fading; dreams give way to practicality. How many of us sometimes feel just like this?
　　　　　　　　

五月天 - 生存以上 生活以下

作詞：阿信
作曲：阿信

連刷牙也照著節奏
沖了馬桶洗了臉上的疲倦泡沫
沒有夢昨夜沒有夢
鏡子裡的陌生人已經不再做夢
上課鐘變成打卡鐘
單行道般的人生流失在車陣中
進行曲規律的平庸
活的像是一句標語押韻而服從

午餐是隨便還是都好還是跟你一樣的任何一種
奇怪呢很久以前我是很有想法主見心跳很執著
傷心再也不吹風
現在只害怕傷風
耽誤了誰和誰的要求

一天一天看日昇日落
看月圓月缺年復一年的經過
看誰把我變成現在的我
怕潮起潮落怕患得患失錯了又錯的疼痛
終於我的生命只剩生存
活著只會呼吸吃飯喝水的生活

小時候只要看天空
枕著白雲就覺得全世界都擁有
長大了擁有的更多
為何感覺到越來越匱乏越貧窮
那一年只追逐自由
現在只能追逐著漲不停的石油
是不是地殼又震動
要從家裡震落才悔恨這樣生活

生活的反面會是死去還是這般生存不再有衝動
閉上眼就能感覺生命正在一分一秒飛奔遠離我
還不如一只昆蟲
至少能破繭展翅飛向那被奪走的天空

一天一天看日昇日落
看月圓月缺年復一年的經過
看誰把我變成現在的我
怕潮起潮落怕患得患失錯了又錯的疼痛
終於我的生命只剩生存
活著只會呼吸吃飯喝水的生活

一年有三百六十五個日子五十二萬五千多分鐘
一生有三十四億五千六百七十八萬九千下脈搏
為愛而生之後
生命要怎麼揮霍直到我化成煙的時候


一天一天看日昇日落
看月圓月缺年復一年的經過
看誰把我變成現在的我
怕潮起潮落怕患得患失錯了又錯的疼痛
終於我的生命只剩生存
活著只會呼吸吃飯喝水

一天一天看日昇日落
看月圓月缺年復一年的經過
曾經我也那麼獨一無二
怕潮起潮落怕患得患失錯了又錯的疼痛
終於我的生命只剩生存
活著只會呼吸吃飯喝水的生活

連刷牙也照著節奏
然後設定了明天六點半的鬧鐘

In Saigon, from one of the many art galleries which can be found all around the city (especially around my hotel); for 27 usd, I commissioned 3 paintings - reproductions but pretty good ones, I must say, at least to the untrained eye which is me. The one in the centre, a Roy Lichtenstein reproduction is for Jaime, although a part of me feels like keeping all 3.

United failed to beat Celtic at Parkhead this morning, needing a Ryan Giggs goal late on to level things. But that's alright, because we got the win that really mattered yesterday.

I am off to Vietnam today for a short photo holiday, with my last nie assignment 70% done. There will be some fire-fighting to be done on Sunday night when I get back.

I Believe.

8:05am Local time. I have only had 4 hrs of sleep. McCain is ahead with 8 electoral votes to Obama's 5; they have one state apiece. McCain plans to drill for oil in Alaska. I think I am gonna cry if Obama doesn't win.

There are some thoughts in me that are just screaming out to be written down, but due to their serious nature I have put it off time and again; it's nothing banal, it's not about the gf (that's going fine and dandy), neither is it about photography or music, its more like how in recent weeks, I have been really happy and satisfied with my life, and yet I have come to realize how my current lifestyle, well my family's lifestyle, the lifestyle of my peers and their families, its all built upon the inequality. What a bloody fucking unequal world, and we are blessed because it is so ( Thank Lee Kuan Yew, thank Goh Keng Swee, thank the PAP). Unequal terms of trade. Give me some specifics you say, show me exactly how that is so, well I have got that all thought out through but somehow its not something I want to put down, now that's a contradiction, you say, what a contradictory fella he is, after all I did mention that it's screaming out to be written down. It's too difficult to write down, I haven't the stamina for it, but think about it this way, a rice farmer in Myanmar will have to work for 2 years working the fields to accumulate what I earn in a month. Last Saturday, I spent $17.60 on a CF card and $24 on a drybox for my dad's Dslr and as I walked out of Sim Lim square, at the traffic light, an old man was pushing a pile of cardboard boxes set on a rickety trolley, slowly, sweating and breathing in the toxic fumes of the traffic whizzing past, and in my heart, I felt a deep sense of guilt, for my $17.60 CF card and the $24 drybox and for my inability to alleviate his plight.

Portrait Photography

Taken off http://portraitphoto-micartttt.blogspot.com

When people have a camera in their face it usually makes them nervous and they will try to put on a face that does not portray who they really are. The real skill to portrait photography is trying to capture photos when the subjects are comfortable and not worried about a camera.
Many professional photographers try to capture their subject’s true essence by using tricks. One example of this is counting to three so the subject prepares and then while they are relaxing after taking a planned photo the photographer will snap a few more unplanned photos. In most cases the subject won’t even know that more than one photo was taken but it’s usually the photos that the subject wasn’t expecting that capture their true essence.
Another more common strategy professionals use is to tell funny jokes that make their subjects genuinely laugh or smile. I’m sure that you have probably experienced something like this yourself.