Category: My Abstract Life

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Reflection

In Search for Styles – Of Photography, Oil Painting, Music Creation, and Writing

Nikon SB900 on Stand

What’s wrong with this picture?  I will tell you in a moment. 

Recently, I have become serious on photography.  As I put a pause on the sound of the shutter (too many photos to be processed), I reflect upon my different channels in expressing art.  Amazed by the similarities and differences, I have been working on this (series of) article(s) for a while for sharing.  Let’s see if this self reflection is inspiring or just a crazy man’s thought.

You would have thought if an artist has a certain style on one form of art, it would be consistent to other forms of art of his.  Yes?  Not quite so for me.  In fact, quite far off.

The music I create is dark.  Those find it hard to relate the feeling within find my songs depressing.  Those who connect would dive with me into this pool of abstract emotion.  However, when I write (since early teens), now blog, I tend to be positive and enthusiastic on what I observe.  And these two mature decades long hobbies of mine have been stabilised into a certain comfortable style.  The journey of exploration is overtaken by the journey of art mastery.

Oil Painting, on the other hand, is a new hobby of mine.  Unlike photography that the ‘machine’ captures the color of each pixel through the lens, to paint is to observe and replicate each pixel through naked eyes, pay attention to how light from different objects affect each other, and to put the colors onto the canvas.  It is a long process to create one picture.  Both hobbies require an artist to compose the picture, the mode of color replication triggers a discussion on tools versus techniques.

Photography is an odd hobby.  I could hypothetically pass my camera to a novice, tell him or her on what to shoot in what setting, and then here comes a reasonably beautiful picture.  If you spend a weekend reading the manual, you can probably start to operate on your new camera quite immediately.

You can’t do the same for a guitar, or a piano.  Learn to play a simple song takes weeks if not months.  It would literally take years for me to play Moonlight Sonata.  Not to state the obvious, I am sure you can extrapolate this theory to oil painting and writing.

I love taking picture on happy moments, beautiful scenery.  And if I was to apply my music style to photography, I would probably capture the moment of pain, lost, and despair.  I would probably head to Israel right now.

It is the same me.  But the style can be so different on different channels.  Why?

Maybe deep inside we are all multi-facet, having layers of personalities, and rings of memory like a tree trunk.  I think we humans enjoy to express ourselves, with the words we say and the things we do.  Who knows what kind of photographer or painter I would become?  What I know though is that it is such a joy to express art in different forms, different styles.  There can be synergy amongst different art channels.  You will see.

Answer to the question at the top: I have managed to find a way to mount my Nikon SB-900 flash gun onto a music mic stand and triggered that remotely through my Nikon D700 mounted on tripod.  I doubt if it is at all a common practice.  It is really cool because (1) I don’t need to spend money to buy another tripod for my flash gun (that is the usual way) and (2) I can hang my flash gun way above my head, way above where the maximum height as provided by the tripod with virtually any degree of freedom.

Categories
Memorable Events Reflection

What a Fruitful Year that Ends with a Bang: My Sister’s Wedding

My Happy Face at my Sister's Tea Ceremony

Out of over 7,000 photos taken with my barely 2 months old camera, if I could pick one picture as my Nikon moment, this is it.  Friends of mine perhaps rarely see this look of mine that is ecstatically happy.  And indeed I was and more, overwhelmed with emotion.  I passed my camera to my dad during the Tea Ceremony – a Chinese tradition to formally accept the wedding couple into the family – and after Cynthia and I have drank the long awaited, most expensive cups of tea offered by Lora and Benny, I was pointing at our wedding gift that I just put onto Lora’s wrist and asked the crowd if the diamond filled bracelet was beautiful.  Together with my mom and dad’s wedding gifts and more – each of them gave my sister a one carat diamond ring – an interesting comment was that our bride wore more diamond than gold on her wedding day.  If there is one thing Lora and I are in common, that would be our quest for quality and perfection.  You can imagine the unspoken minimum requirement of the color of the diamonds.  Note: From right to left: Benny, Lora, my mom, me, and the bridesmaid.

Uh-huh.  But Lora looked lovely on her wedding with the blink-blink.  That’s all that matters.

I am happy that my beloved little sister has found a good man, although by saying that I have found her a good man – as I know Benny before Lora does and partially because of me, they met – is not entirely untrue.  Either way, as a big brother, I am happy that my sister’s future is well taken care of, 24×7.  That is just lovely and I couldn’t be happier.

A Fruitful Year – A Reflection

It started with a small revelation of mine that I have shared with a few friends of mine.  I look back 10 years ago when I was younger and full of energy, how I wish I could have done much more.  Hence, I have decided that I don’t want to look back to where I am today, 10 years from now, and say the same thing.  I am a true believer of New Year Resolutions though I brand it more positively and call it a New Theme for the New Year.  The theme for year 2008 is “Do It” and not only have I not shy away from new opportunities, I have also proactively sourced for new things to do.

My band has finally performed live at The Hereen.  Having my music played in public is a dream came true, enough of talking about it for years.  My passion for writing has been elevated to a higher ground, with the advent of the Internet era that transforms my old hobby into something called blogging.  This year, I have reviewed a few books for McGraw-Hill, attended a few events from my favorite brands such as Nokia, HBO, and Intel, and I have participated the first ever blogger challenge by BRANDS (and Singapore team has won!).  Even without all these memorable blogger events and blessed opportunities, I would have continued to write the way I have always been.  Simply because writing has been my passion since young.

I have picked up a few new passions as well.  I reckon hobbies take 12 years to mature so I better start now.  I have picked up Spanish and with luck, I shall pass the exam and move onto level 3 next year.  And I have become serious on photography after pointing and shooting for decades.

I don’t usually talk about work here because it is simply, work.  Blogging is my hobby and these two seldom mix.  Personally satisfied with my career in the year of 2008, I look forward to season 2 of the game of survivor.  I have counted: more than 10,000 email messages I have received and sent in 2008.  My role as an electronic postman has surpassed my role as a coffee boy.  That much I can share.  And God knows how many emails will be in my mailbox when I am back from my 3 weeks compliance leave.

My Sister’s Wedding

So I was the direct wedding family member, Benny’s backup Best Man, and the backup wedding photographer.  One moment I was playing the role of a big brother at the Tea Ceremony, another moment I was chasing behind the bride on every step she took taking photographs; one moment I was the ring bearer and accompanied Benny to crash the gate, another moment I walked into the Church right behind Benny and as the service drew to an end, I quickly grabbed my camera from my Uncle and resumed my photographer’s hat.

The official wedding photographer took over 600 pictures that evening, I took close to 500, and we both took different things.  He used a Nikon D3 and since we both are Nikonians, we have immediately become good friends swapping cameras.  He shared some of the valuable tips and I put them to use immediately.  These tips, they work wonder.  And surprise, surprise, the videographer is from the old film days and my dad as an awarding winning photographer 4 decades ago, both of them conversed in names that I could only imagine as legends.  Maybe my dad was a legend too, I wouldn’t have known.  He seldom talks about the past.

I have not seen my dad in suit and tie and black shoes in my entire life before my sister’s wedding; I have seldom seen my parents so proud and happy as they mingled from tables to tables during the wedding dinner.  Now I truly believe that wedding dinner is indeed for the parents.  It has been a long time since I am moved to tears, as I did so at the Church.  My eyes went watery when I saw my sister in white wedding gown with my dad by her side.  Both sides of the parents broke into tears inside the Church including the wedding couple.  I could only deduce that when love is so strong, it moves those who connect.

What a joyful wedding, what a lovely way to end year 2008 with a bang.

A Happy New Year to my readers and thank you for your support over the years.  I will strive to write better in the year 2009 to come.  May your dreams come true too.

Related Entry: Captured Moments of My Sister’s Wedding in Hong Kong (2008.12.28)

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Fragments of My Dreams

Fragments Of My Dreams Episode 5 – Demoleculerization

Fragment of my dream

I should have known that my girlfriend would leave me one day (who?!).  And she has, leaving me with an empty apartment in this University campus.  I open the door and the apartment looks grim. There is a note on the wall saying: keep those paintings of yours and the curtains too.  I take down the curtains and stare at those paintings I drew for her.  Those paintings … sigh.  She does not want to keep.  Not even for memory’s sake.

I take those paintings of mine one after another and I take down the curtains too.  There are still random belongings of hers scattered inside the apartment and I wish to keep them all.

I look out of the window, feeling melancholy.  The street is dark outside.  From a distance, I see a vehicle emitting enough fumes to cover the sky!  I rush down and chase after that vehicle (but why?).  I see a street full of cars of the 50’s and before I know it …

… I am “demoleculerized” … being decomposed into molecules and resembled back somewhere far far away.  And I see my mother, my father, and my sister …

We are walking in a somewhat fast pace.  My mother says to me: I want to travel via demoleculerization too!

Good Lord … what a way to travel.

I love being at my home town.  And I am in an intimate relationship with a girl with fair skin.  I took her with my motorbike and with our digital giggles, we are racing in between the high-rise housings that look like buildings from a video game.  The streets are deserted and I am lost.  We sit at a bench looking at the darkness around us wondering where our motel is.

I ask her to take a seat at the bench while I drive around to see if I can find our destination.  When I return, I see a guy standing right beside this girl of mine and she looks unhappy, with me.  Fine, she is yours.  Just take her with you.  The girl looks at me in disdain and returns the shopping bags to me (who is this dude?!).

After they are long gone, I look into my shopping bags in horror: Where are my keys?

I head back to my apartment thinking of calling a locksmith to open the gate and the door.  Silly me, they now have access to my apartment.  I need to change the locks!

Call the locksmith I should.  Change the locks I should.  I am running out of time.  I need another dose of demoleculerization, like now.

~ May, 2008, A Dream

Categories
Whacky Thoughts

A Series of Interviews – Of Blogging and Journalism (So I Have a Digital Badge)

I don’t know which is more mentally challenging, the competition or the interviews thereafter.  Fortunately, my mind was very much heightened with the essence of at least two chickens I took in the morning.  One reporter pulled me outside for an interview.  Well, I had no clue that when she asked me the first question, it was meant to be a warm up.  So after I poured my heart and soul in answering that first question, she pulled out her camera and said, “Let’s do the video recording now.”

Ah ha …

One reporter traveled from Malaysia and I have to be nice!  Besides, it is still my dream to have my band playing gigs in Kuala Lumpur.  Ha ha ha.

But seriously, all my answers are from the bottom of my heart.  Journalists are the smart, hardworking, and observant ones.  You really can’t trick them.

Many friends after sending in the congratulations (thank you!), they would ask what kind of questions I was being asked.  I won’t repeat what I have already covered in my previous post.  Will I blog about the event?  Sure.  And I told them that I had two versions in mind: Yes We Made It and No We Didn’t.  Will there be another blogger competition like this?  BRANDS should absolutely continue this effort.  I would if I was the CEO or MD of BRANDS.  BRANDS could easily own the mental competition branding as the pioneer of the event.

Why wouldn’t they?  No brainer really.

What do you get the most from this event?  It has to be the great opportunity of meeting the bloggers in person, both in Singapore and Malaysia.  Is it that big a deal to meet the bloggers?  Sure.  There is only that much you can know about someone from what you read.  The texture of the personality tends to be one dimensional.  Yes, face-to-face is still the best way to bond.

Blogging versus Journalism

Of all the questions thrown at me after that intensive mental experiment competition, the questions of when and why did I start blogging and my view of blogging versus journalism – new media versus traditional media of newspaper, magazine, radio, and television – are the most challenging ones.

If you take away the obvious, going back to the basic, these outcomes from different media channels are all stemmed from the passion to write, are they not?  The desire to observe and to share is imbued in all of us.  Some choose the path to transform thoughts and observations into words; some take pictures that speak to people’s heart; some paint; music is written because of this desire; and others choose to converse.

I consider myself a writer before a blogger.  Blogosphere is one of the by products of the big bang of the Internet era.  Technology changes the way we connect, the way we get our hands onto information.  Sharing information is king while keeping information may not in many instances.  In this era of virtual connectivity, suddenly all those who write and share online become bloggers.  But peeling away the label and going back to basic, both journalist and blogger have a passion to observe, to write, and to share.

It would be naïve to imagine that the landscape of journalism will be the same with the ever evolving, ever expanding blogosphere.  Many consumers these days are more knowledgeable than the salesmen inside the stores who may not even use the products they sell (trust me, that’s the very first question I ask).  Many travelers these days bypass the travel agencies, plan and book their own tour routes and means.  There will be more readers out there taping onto the Internet to look for what they wish to read, blurring the line of censorship and control.  Maybe the most up-to-the-second information, maybe independent views, maybe keeping constant touch with a personality admired is more intimate than reading the celebrity news.  I personally have stopped reading product reviews from the traditional media long time ago.  Whatever the reasons are to be, we only have 24 hours a day.  An hour spent touring the blogosphere is an hour less to do something else.

Future journalists will have to be a lot smarter, revealing insights that awe the audience.  The future of the blogosphere is bright and promising, as we are marching towards affordable mobile broadband access and the convergence of how small a computer can get and how rich in functionality a hand held device can be; and as we the bloggers gain enough critical mass to make a difference, to compliment the traditional media.

“Bonus” Materials

Enough of deep thoughts.  Here are extra photos taken during the event.  Big thanks again to my new friends at Burson-Marsteller – Selena, Genevieve, Matthew, and Ingmar.  Also, don’t miss a lovely article written by Deborah Choo at Youth.sg.  Those pictures crack me up big time!  Thanks Deborah.  And BRANDS has posted an article too!

Related Entry: Team Singapore Won BRANDS Blogger Challenge, And I Was There

Categories
Memorable Events

Team Singapore Won BRANDS Blogger Challenge, And I Was There

In the morning of the blogger challenge I woke up feeling fresh, popped one bottle of BRANDS, opened up the training kits provided, and started looking at the exercises while I was ironing my shirt.  Sheylara has worked through all these exercises and more for the past 2 weeks.  I flipped through the sheets of exercises in between my starching and ironing, staring at one rather high-end Sudoku I said to myself … Uh-oh.

Five of us for the ”˜Team Singapore’ met at the Coffee Bean that I happen to visit every morning and the friendly lady from Burson-Marsteller was explaining to us what the competition would be like in between my cup of caramel latte and warm scone and my fiddling with my new toy (camera).  I must have got her quite stressed up due to my lack of concentration.  Sorry!

And while I was distracted by my own camera, the rest of the Singapore bloggers unanimously appointed me as the team captain.  Huh?!

But with a team of such talent – EastCoastLife, Mr. Endoh, Aaron Ng, and Sheylara – my job was easy.

The Malaysian bloggers actually flew into Singapore the day before for this challenge!  Wow, I thought it was going to be hosted over the Internet via a webcam.  And it was with great pleasure to have met these very popular bloggers here in Singapore.  I have a lot of respect for them.  Did the Malaysia government recently jail a blogger or something like that?  How brave they are to blog in such an environment.

Of all the questions the press has asked me after the competition, my favorite would be: What came into your mind when the Singapore team was lagging behind? 

Singapore Table Tennis Team at the Olympic (if you know how much I love my country, I was more referring to their fighting spirit than anything else)? Hmmm.

Round 1 – a game of arranging random alphabets into a word – our team was having one point lead against Team Malaysia.  Round 2 – a set of mathematics puzzles – was a draw.  Round 3 required us to watch a BRANDS commercial and memorized the key frames.  And we lost a gazillion number of points to the Malaysians on that one game.  Oh no!

Round 4 was yet another one-on-one challenge to guess the missing words in one sentence (like ‘the 12 S of the Z’ … what are the S and Z?).  I did a mental calculation that we needed five straight wins from the five of us in order to marginally reverse the trend.  I tried to steady our team; we did our best in that round but that didn’t happen; we were still behind.

Onto round 5 of 7 and things were not looking good to the Singapore team.  It was yet another group challenge and if we were to lose this round, we would have little chance to win the competition.  Immediately, I practiced what I preached when the host asked about our strategy: I popped another BRANDS Chicken Essence on the spot.

In round 5,  We had to form as many words as possible with the letters given (believe it or not I actually formed the word “porn” and someone asked if there was such a word … they must be shocked).  We gave it all that we have, filled the entire board with as many words as we could humanly think.  I have to give it to the Malaysians that some of their words formed are pretty original.  The judge summed up the words and we had more!

Hooray!

Round 6 was bizarre.  It was some sort of computer game that we have to focus on the movements on the screen.  We won some, we lost some, and onto the final round, Team Singapore had the lead but anything could happen.

Another video was played, questions were asked, before we arrived at the final question, we knew we did just enough to clinch onto the title.  Nevertheless, Sheylara took the last question, which I thought was kind of very tough (a faint banner in the video background with the words “Robot Soccer Club” or something like that). She did observe the details and got that right.

Gosh!  You go girl!

Maybe it was the Chicken Essence we took, maybe it was the home ground advantage, maybe because all of us were having fun (EastCoastLife and I constantly jumped off our chairs whenever we gained points), I am happy to take home the grand cash price + more BRANDS products as well as a T-shirt I wore with that little Singapore flag stitched onto the sleeve.  I love that shirt!  It’s the flag more than anything else!

Thank you for reading.  And thank you BRANDS and Burson-Marsteller for the invitation – a very well-run and fun event, EastCoastLife for the nomination and her hubby to help up with the photography, great meeting the Malaysian bloggers Red Mummy, Sultan Mufazzar, KY, Suanie, and Capt’n Hook who was standing in for Babe in the City – KL.  Yes, we shall meet the next time I drive up!  And thanks for all the warm wishes from my friends and families too.

Above all, congratulations to my teammates, you have done us proud!

Categories
Memorable Events Music Journal My Favorite

Our Band Photos of Music for Hope 2008 Are Out!

Our band photographer Mark Lim has just broadcast the photos taken during our band No Eye Candy’s 30 minutes live performance at Hereen last evening.  It was his first concert shot and you have got to agree with me that these are great shots capturing the essence of our gig as well as the audience.  Good job Mark!  No Eye Candy loves you!  You have secured yourself a 5 years contract with the band with payment in the form of free access to our concerts and behind-the-scene shots!  What saying you?!

For those who wish to read our journey of this Music for Hope gig, feel free to follow the link to this tag.  It is one helluva journey and who knows what 2009 will bring?  And if you like the band photos, please drop by Mark’s website and give him a pat on his shoulder.  Thank you.

Click here for the photos taken during our little celebration after the gig.

Categories
Memorable Events Music Journal

The Hereen After – A Thank You Note

Yes!  Our band finally did it at The Hereen, a 30 minutes slot playing our own original music.  I have practically put all my other plans on hold for this Nov 29 event.  Being introduced as a local Singaporean band means a lot to me, though Jason the guitarist joked that my accent is not very Singaporean.  Ha!  (Note: The PJ Harvey shirt was a gift from Jason during one of his Australia trips as he knows that PJ Harvey has been a great influence to my music and I have been waiting for an appropriate occasion to wear it!) 

Click here for the photos shot during the performance.

Time now is close to two in the morning and I have no idea how long this post will be.  My intent is to write a simple thank you note, to take you through some of the behind-the-scene thoughts, and to share with you some of the pictures taken during the ‘celebration’ party.  Life as an artist as such.  One moment I was jumping up and down at the stage as a musician; another moment I was moving around the crowd with my rather gigantic camera.  But I am not complaining.  I enjoy art more than anything in the world.

Thank You Note

In no particular order, here we go.

  • I would like to give thanks to the Lord who give us humans the ability to create something so beautiful called music, and to give us the ability to appreciate music that transcends all barriers.
  • Thank you B Well for organizing “Music for Hope”.  I hope you do meet your fund raising target.
  • A big, huge, gigantic, enormous THANK YOU to all of you who took time out and be there.  You have no idea what it means to me (and us) to see familiar faces.  And your engagement is fantastic!  You guys have kept me going especially in the rather uncertain situation (see behind-the-scene).
  • To my friends who send in text messages / blog comments / Facebook comments / emails right before our gig, thank you for your warm wishes.  Not to worry if you were unable to turn up, I am sure No Eye Candy will play again.  Another place, another gig.
  • To the new faces of the crowd, thank you for being there.  I hope to see you again.  And I would like to hear from you too!  Do write to us or catch us for a face-to-face next time we meet.
  • To Tong Kiat, our band crew, Mark Lim, our band photographer, and Jason Seet my vocal coach, thank you for helping out.  You guys are the best!
  • I would like to thank my band – Cynthia, Jason, Selrol, and Wieke – in making my dream comes true, in making our dream comes true.  Nothing is more humbling than finally hatching this 14 years of songwriting hobby into a public performance.  I love you all!
  • Finally, I thank the Lord for the music talent bestowed onto me, the music talents of those surrounding me, and the lovely friends and families I have.  What more could I have asked for … perhaps good health, long life, and more gigs?

Behind-the-Scene Thoughts

1. On New Year Resolutions

Some people believe in New Year resolutions, some don’t.  In 2007, I have set a personal scorecard aimed to do a few things and one of which was to perform live.  In retrospect, it wasn’t such a silly idea after all.  Maybe my targets were a bit too high.  One third of what I set to do, I achieved in the same year.  Some of which, I have achieved in 2008 instead.  The learning point for me is that I may not have control over the timeline of when what I set to do will come true.  But if I set my heart to it, it will happen when opportunity meets preparation.

That brings forth the second point.  In 2008, I set a theme of “Do It”.  And it works wonder.  I think year 2008 must have been the busiest year as far as I can remember.  I hate to look back ten years later and say to myself: how I wish I could have done more.

2. On Beyond Practice

We have practiced hard for this gig.  At times I wonder if my band would ever get bored playing the same set of songs over and over again week after week.  Personally, I miss playing other songs of ours, with the drums.

We didn’t have high expectation on the sound system.  First, it is a charity event.  And second, we don’t have our own amplifiers like other bands do.  So we have to rely on what was available.

Turns out that although we have given our precise requirement months ago, Jason and I have to share the same guitar amplifier and that makes our guitars sounded pretty harsh and noisy.  And there were supposed to be two monitor speakers on stage that project our music back to the performers on stage – those didn’t work.  So I have to rely on that rather echo-ish faraway sound of my voice in attempting to hold the key.  Nothing beats a supportive crowd in a situation like this.

Overall I think we did OK.  Not stellar, but OK.  And certainly we will be back on stage one day, with better sound quality and delivery.  Stay tuned!

After Gig Celebration

Ahead of the pictures taken during our performance by Mark our band photographer that I will link to later, here are some of the pictures I took after our gig.

PS. That pretty necklace Cynthia wore for the gig was from Brüttal – don’t miss an upcoming entry on our Brüttal shopping experience when we last visited PJ Malaysia!

Categories
Reflection

Recalling My First Photography Lesson from My Dad

Two interesting observations when I am overseas: people think that I am a musician when they see me carrying my guitar in a hard case and a photographer when they see my rather gigantic camera that is hard to go unnoticed.  Fortunately, I do have a band and I do have  passion in photography.  And I must say, it is much easier to strike a friendly conversation as an artist than as what I do from 9 to 5.

One common observation my friends made these days – which by the way, I am sure it meant well – is that: So you have picked up photography as your new hobby?

OK, here is where the confusion sets in.  Am I instantly become a photographer when I own one of those state-of-art imaging products?  Or have I been a photographer so far for so passionately taking pictures wherever, whenever I can, and to share them online all these while?

My dad is a great photographer.  His black and white large prints developed with his own hands inside his tiny dark room have won awards before I was born.  Sometimes I wonder what I could be had I inherited his art talents on top of his genes.  Then here came the babies and there went the dark room because my mom was concerned over putting the dark room chemical with our baby food inside the same refrigerator.  I am telling you, babies are bad for hobbies.

Fast forward to my early teen when my dad gave me my first photography lesson.  Even at that young age, I felt a tremendous pressure to be a disciple of such a great master who turns out to be my own dad.  My dad set up his SLR camera on a tripod pointing it to a miniature model of a concert stage (yes, he has other talents too) and asked me to adjust the focus of the lens.  Back then, there was no auto-focus and you had to turn the lens manually to obtain the right focus.

How easy that lesson one would have been but I just couldn’t set the focus.  I had so many attempts that I saw my dad’s face dropped lower and lower and thinking back, what would have gone through his mind?  God gives him such a great gift but his son was a complete retard in photography?

If not for that first lesson in photography, we would not have discovered that I am quite badly short-sighted.  I think my mom must have attempted to resolve this deadlock between the photography master and his disciple by having my eyes examined.  It is good to have a rational mind in the house.  Thank you mom.

Since then, my dad and I have left things as they were.  I did not go beyond lesson one and he did not talk about photography except when he brought up his war stories of how he was chased by the villagers in Hong Kong while he was going after his award winning shots.  How I envy my dad.  To have such great talent and execution.

My first digital camera was bought in the year of 2004.  8,000 shots are made from that day.  I have bought my first dSLR camera less than 2 weeks ago.  And the shutter has clicked more than 2,000 times.  I think in a way, my passion in photography has been around for years.  Now, I have found a better tool to articulate what I wish to capture.

So, what makes me a photographer?  Is it the tool or the passion?  I have no clue.

Categories
Fragments of My Dreams

Fragments Of My Dreams Episode 11 – Radio Station News

Fragment of my dream

It has been raining heavily for days, somewhere in the future.  It has to be somewhere in the future because I don’t recognize some of the locations.  I do however recognize one location, the usual walk to the bus station that reminds me of my school days back in Hong Kong.  This time is for work.

It is an early morning but yet the overcast is so overwhelming that the rain has removed most of the colors around us, leaving scenes of black and white.  I was running to the bus stop.  But why?  I don’t know.  Since young I have been running to that bus stop almost every day.

Along comes Francis, my old friend.  And he is walking while I was running (but how?).  We exchange a smile and he asks, “Which bus are you taking?”  “23B.  You?” I reply.  The freshness of the cool air fills my lung as I speak.  “Me too,” he said.  There is something about his smile that seems to radiate in yet another rainy morning.  “But why 23B?” I ask (apparently, even in my dream I remember there are bus 23 and bus 23A too).  Before Francis can answer, one bus zooms pass us and we run (or at least I run).  The bus driver at the last moment sees us approaching the bus stop and he brakes hard.  No, it is 23A.  His look of haggardness I manage to get a glimpse of and the bus jerks forward as the driver steps onto the gas pedal.

“It is raining so I prefer a shorter ride,” Francis replies.  That’s true.  23, 23A, and 23B with a similar set of destinations all take a slight different route.

*     *     *     *     *

I work in a radio station, apparently.  By the time I arrive, my colleague has already been on air talking about the unsung heroes behind the fire inspection work within our city.  Shelves and shelves of archived materials packaged in DVD casing, you wouldn’t expect a radio station that looks like this, would you?  “Too many news on the financial world these days.  It is gloomy, just like our rain,” my colleague once said to me.  I agree with her.  How often do we report on what and who sustains our city?  On how this city works?  How few of us are there to inspect the buildings one after another, day after day, month after month?  And when we reach the end, the cycle begins again?

I am curious on when the fire inspector will next visit my home in Singapore and as I search through the entire digital database of inspection schedule, I hear my colleague continues on air, “Due to the heavy rain this morning, the bus companies are dispatching buses from the terminals in a shorter interval.  The rain however seems to have stopped.  Have a nice day.”

*     *     *     *     *

2008.10.26 – My dream ended with I fighting a flying cockroach triple its usual size with a can of insecticide much smaller than what you see on the street.  And I do not know how to link that ending to my entire dream.

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Experience Sharing My Favorite

Recession and You Think You See the Axe Coming … So What? Practical Ways to Stay Happy

Lovely picture isn’t it?  When I retire, I want to live somewhere that I can see this view every end of day.  But between then and now, I reckon I still need to make just enough money to get there.  And I reckon I will probably see a few rounds of bull and bear runs between now and then.

These days, increasingly I have friends at my workplace, outside of my workplace who share with me their concerns about losing their jobs during this downturn.  I know that feeling of anxiety.  I have been there, seen that, during my more than a decade hanging onto the corporate ladder, like many of you.  This blog entry is my wish to share my humble thoughts on how to stay happy based on my very own experience.  And I am happy to hear yours too!

My strategy here is simple.  It is not about how to survive not being axed.  That is hard because of so many moving parts that are beyond your control and influence.  But rather how to excel in your workplace amidst all the uncertainties that affect everyone around you, but you.  And it comes down to one word: Preparation.  A happier you makes you perform better at work.

1. Your Mentality Towards Work

Look around you and you can easily see those who are so committed to work and you wonder: do they have a life at all?  To some, work is more than an entity.  Take the job away from them and they will collapse, don’t know what to do.

Sure, most of us need to earn a living.  I love one quote from my ex-colleague: Day job is to pay my bills, what I do at night feeds my ego.  So true.  When I started my career, I worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week.  One day, I read somewhere that I shall begin with an end in mind (back to that image) and I asked myself: Do I want to leave this world being remembered as a good employee who has contributed this much top line sales or bottom line savings to this organization?  Or do I want to be remembered as …

And it struck me there and then: work is just an entity.  That memo I wrote today at work, or that conference call I participated, sure they are important.  But are they that important to me?

At work, I have a role to play, to be responsible for a certain set of items that are important to the organization.  To me, there are more important things in life.  I want to excel while I am at work.  And I want to excel after I step out of my office at sane hours as well.

Take a moment to reflect what is important to you.  Are you sacrificing too much for your career?  What if you let go of your job today?

2. Build Your (Genuine) Network (Early)

Genuine network takes time to build.  You can’t build one right now when you suddenly realize that how nice if you have one.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am not here to ask you to befriend only those who are of value to you.  Quite the opposite.  I believe in give and take, give before take, give without thinking of what to take in the future.  That is genuine network.  I enjoy reaching out to friends because I genuinely want to get in touch with them.  If they need my help, I am more than happy to lend a pair of helping hands if I can.  And I don’t hesitate to ask for help if I need one.  Most people prefer not to bother others.  To me, it is give and take.  You give others the opportunity to help you hoping that one day, others will ask the same from you.

Unless you don’t want the latter case to happen.  

When you step out of your job for good, it is good to know that you have support out there and you are not alone.  Don’t you think?

3. How Long Can You Hold?

When time is good, it is easy not to think about affordability on your spendings.  Different people have different philosophy in life when it comes to managing personal finance.  I respect that.  I am a simple person.  My main objective in terms of personal finance is to keep the loan commitment low.  In fact, I often joke with Cynthia that she manages assets while I manage liabilities.  I enjoy reducing the principle sum of my mortgage whenever I have a lump sum of money.  When I bought my first car, I took minimum amount of loan.  When I bought my second car, I paid by cash.  I reckon if I save hard enough, I shall be able to repay the entire mortgage in 3 to 5 years’ time.  By then, I will be debt free.

The question remains: how long can you hold when you stop working right now?  Hence to me – since I am a simple guy – I love to hold cash (and let Cynthia manage investments).  I am not saying that mine is the best strategy for you.  Quite the opposite, I think my friends who are into investment have been doing really well.  But since I suck at that, I prefer to save hard and know that if I am, touch wood, to live without my monthly pay check, I can vegetate for a couple of years while looking for something else to earn a living.

Do you know your average monthly expenses?  Good.  Now, do you know your average monthly expenses should you trim down your lifestyle if the worst is to come?  Divide your total cash savings with that and that is the number of months you can last without the constant flow of pay checks.  Every dollar you now save will lengthen that period that you can afford to take a career break.  Think about that.  Once you build a comfortable buffer, taking a long career break is no longer such a scary concept, is it?

Axe?  So what?  What’s there to be fear of?

4. What’s the Worst That Can Happen?  (What’s Next?)

At times I don’t know which is a better situation.  Struggle to survive in an environment that is collapsing with people around you losing their jobs or to head out and look for better opportunities out there.  Imagine you are one of the penguins out there trying so hard to hunt for fish that is diminishing by day due to overfishing, global warming.  Should you starve with your mates and hope that you will outlast them?  Or shall you go somewhere else like a Singapore Zoo and get fed every day?

I saw the axe coming before and looking back, I agree with the butcher.  That was the best day of my life.  What’s next turns out to be way better than where I was.  In fact, it is good to give ourselves time to self-reflect, to re-evaluate our key strengths, and to look for an environment that we can perform well.  Both external and internal environments change all the time.  That is an universal rule.  Go ride with that.

5. The Ingredients for Longevity

Thank you for reading such a long post and I hope your career is as wonderful as it can be within the boundary of work life balance that you define.  If I could leave you with one last thing to ponder, you can only work well and live well with a health body, mind, and soul.  I have a glass of orange juice each morning, stay out of excess stress, and I rarely visit the doctor or take medical leave for quite a number of years.  I am blessed to have great friends and lovely family.  And I believe in doing the right things in work and life will get me far.

In Summary

You too can stay happy during recession by getting prepared.  You may not become instantly happy today after reading this post but I am confident that in time to come, you will.  Life is really not only about work, is it?  A lovely quote to share.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

PS. Picture taken at East Coast Park using my Nokia N95 phone.