CS4 + Windows 7

Miu Miu with split lighting. I resized this using Photoshop CS4 on Windows 7. Yes, finally made the switch. Attended a really good talk last night, by conservation photographers Jürgen and Stella Freund, at the Botany Centre, Singapore Botanic Gardens - a photographic kaleidoscope depicting their 18-month WWF Coral Triangle photojournalistic expedition as they investigate the connectivity between the wildlife, people and the marine environment of the Coral Triangle.

Those who missed out can visit their blog at this address - http://blogs.panda.org/coral_triangle/

Windows 7

This week I have stocked up on new software, Windows 7($184) and Adobe Creative Suite 4($99). MOE is paying for me as I still have my LDS grant of $400 dollars largely unused. This is the last post before I format my computer. Goodbye XP.

The loophole in memory.

After sending Yasa off last night, I bought dinner for Jaime. Because it was so late and my brother was unwilling to drive over, I spent the night at her place. Coming home this morning, I decided to convert a couple of old photos into digital images.

It was my birthday I think. What a pretty smurf cake. The frightening thing is, I can't recall a thing from that day. Did it really happen then?

Do not seek praise.Seek criticism.

For X'mas last year, I got Jaime a book - Whatever You Think, Think The Opposite by advertising guru Paul Arden (late) . 2 weeks ago I got his second book - It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be for myself.

The first lesson I learnt(I am typing it all out because I want it to stick) :

Do not seek praise.Seek criticism

It is quite easy to get approval if we ask enough people, or if we ask those who are likely to tell us what we want to hear.

The likelihood is that they will say nice things rather than be too critical. Also, we tend to edit out the bad so that we hear only what we want to hear.

So if you have produced a pleasantly acceptable piece of work, you will have proved to yourself that it’s good simply because others have said so.

It is probably ok. But then it’s probably not great either.

If, instead of seeking approval, you ask, ‘What’s wrong with it? How can I make it better?’, you are more likely to get a truthful, critical answer.

You may even get an improvement on your idea.

And you are still in a position to reject the criticism if you think it is wrong.

Can you find fault with this?

Last night, we shared a waffle with 2 scoops of ice cream~ Simply chocolate, and Mango, from our favorite ice cream parlor at Sunset Way. Yummy! And after that, to end off the evening, we paid the Lus and their Wii a visit in Toa Payoh. A simple, but enjoyable evening. I think this is happiness.

Go green with less beef.

Producing a kilo of beef takes up seven times more farmland than chicken and 15 times the area needed for pork.

Scientists estimate that on average, a cow produces 180 kilos of methane gas a year, which traps 25 times more heat than carbon dioxide.

Time for a change of diet?

Mid-life Dyslexia.

Am i suffering from mid life dyslexia? These days, I am finding the act of prose harder and harder. Where in the past, lines and lines flowed so easily, now I find I keep getting stuck at my choice of words. So many good thoughts, so many good ideas, and so many valuable reflections are lost because I fail to write them down. And once again, I am stuck, not knowing how else to continue.

I am excited about the latest module in my NAFA photography course - Product Photography. In the next 3 weeks, besides the photographing the products , we are also supposed to come up with the accompanying advertising concepts, to sell the product; to make the ad 'stick'. I have asked Lulu if he will lend me his Bearbrick collection to photograph.

We went through the work of the full time students, and some of the stuff on display was real high quality, stuff you see in magazines. It will be challeging but it will also be fun. I need to get my creative juices flowing.


Weiquan sprained his ankle yesterday at the Inter JC Teachers' Soccer Tournament. He limped off 5 minutes into his first game, after scoring a goal. A pity as I had been hoping to play against him. We came in 3rd after VJC and RJC.

And Miu2 seems to be putting on weight.

whiskas

Fairprice is having a sale. 6 Whiskas packs for $3.95. Enough to last a week. Can you picture Miu Miu is liking his lips?

Last Places on Earth.

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up Eric Meola's from the national library. It was borrowed with Jaime's card as I was unwilling to pay the $7.80 fine.

"Photographer Eric Meola masterfully blends portraits and landscapes in this exploration of the disappearing beauty of various cultures, customs, ceremonies, and wildlife in remote areas of the world. An abstract look at the surviving remains of unique physical and spiritual beauty, this book features photographs taken in countries such as Burma, New Guinea, Africa, India, the Galápagos Islands, Mongolia, India, and Tibet."

I agree wholeheartedly with the book description. The photos were truly amazing. I look at them and then I look through photos I have taken so far and I feel so inadequate. 9 out of 10 of them now appear amateurish in comparison and I almost feel like trashing them away. Meola's photos are an inspiration to me. I must continue to learn and improve. Staying humble, one day I will take photos like these.

I also enjoyed Eric Meola's introduction.

Theisiger talks about this contradiction in Arabian Sand. " I wondered if he(an old man)....sensed the threat which my presence implied, the approaching disintegration of his society and the destruction of his beliefs. Here especially it seemed that the evil that comes with sudden change would far outweigh the good. While I was with the Arabs I wished only to live as they lived and, now I have left them, I would gladly think that nothing in their lives was altered by my coming. Regretfully, however, I realize that....I.....helped others, with more material aims, to visit and corrupt a people whose spirit once lit the desert like a flame."

In February of 1995, while on a personal trip, I photographed a young boy in Rangoon named Lwin Aung as he kneeled befroe a monk and had his head shaved. In this ceremony know as "Shin Bu" that marked his initiation as a monk, he"became Buddha". At that moment of his transformation, as a witness to this most sacred and intimate even, I felt that I, too had crossed into another place and found the key to these other worlds I had imagined. I was no longer an outsider. I had been to one of my last places on Earth, and it was as much a spiritual journey as it was a physical one.

I should think, reflect and write more on the subjects I photograph. On a sidenote, I bought Jaime a crumpler laptop bag today, she was happy and so I am :)

Gay Parrot goes into the Army.

My cousin Qingyang was conscripted into the Army yesterday. Tekong the island we have never missed, will be his home for the next 3 months.

Land in sight.

Two scripts more. After that a final run-through(all 74 of them!), the marker's report and then I can have a mini celebration.

That's Pinatubo's crater lake from early this year. How time has flown!

A New Day Lets Be Happy

Taiwanese English sort of title, but that is only to be expected after 61 scripts. A new day, and I have put the unhappiness of last night away. Let's be happy! Getting off to an early start (it's only 9 am), I marked a script, fed the cat, cleaned her litter box and now I am starting on my 2nd script :)

.

I don't expect you to make it easier. Please don't make it harder.

Marking. Damn you Singtel.

34 more scripts to go. Monday's the deadline. A can of coke for the caffeine. Damn. Singtel won the BPL rights for 2010. Competition's supposed to benefit the consumer. Why is it in our case, it feels like we are being extorted. I want football but I also want BBC and CNN. The best option's probably Hello Mio, Goodbye Starhub, but just envision this - 2010's a World Cup year . What if Starhub wins the World Cup rights?