Category: Reflection

Categories
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.

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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)

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
Reflection

That Sweet Eb Chord Is Years In The Making

The 4 guitar chords that string nicely

This is probably one silly insignificant blog entry but hopefully you may be able to relate to some of the take home messages I found.

When was the last time you hear someone or even yourself saying “no, I can’t dance”, “I can’t play any instruments”, “I can’t paint”, “I can’t sing”, “the only thing I can cook is instant noodle”, and etc.  Maybe some of you have already taken the first step in any of the above-mentioned activities and are convinced that no way in life you can do any of those.  The irony in life is that it may take much lesser time than you think in order to get over the initial hurdle.

The Eb guitar chord has been a nightmare to me for close to two decades (the 3rd picture from the left). I simply couldn’t play it.  I was so scared of it so much so that I would avoid the Eb chord at all cost – even if I have to transpose (change the key) the entire song.  I’ve tried many times and didn’t have the determination to persist.  Of course I can still play the Eb chord on the 6th fret (bar chord).  But it just doesn’t go along with the rest of the chords that predominately play on the first few frets (the higher the fret number is, the higher pitch the chord becomes).  The good thing though is that I am trained to transpose songs in my head as I play. Not many friends whom I know would go through that mental hassle.  They would rather transpose the song on paper first or use a clip for the stepping up of the keys.

The main draw back is, as I transpose the song in my head, some chords that were previously not Eb may now become an Eb.  And then I will need to transpose to yet a different key (another step up or step down) to avoid the Eb chord.  This at times poses a challenge of my vocal range as the song may be too straining to sing.

Last night, there was one particular song that I really like and I felt that the key was a bit too high for me.  So I attempted to transpose the song to two keys lower.  And I hit the Eb chord.  I was frustrated.  If only I could master that one single chord!  Since the new theme of this year is “do it”, which by the way has already motivated me to do quite a few things in just one month, I have decided to … do it.

After one hour worth of playing a four-chord set continuously that amounted to about 570 repetitions (see the 4 chords in the picture above), need not to say, my fingers were pain like hell because I was (and still am) not used to the positioning of the Eb chord pattern.  But I am happy that I can actually play that chord.  I will still need a lot of practice to perfect it, I am sure, and you have no idea what it means to me as I have finally got rid of that one blind spot.

One year ago, none of us in the band believed that memorizing our band’s songs can be a reality.  Neither was I.  We were even planning to have the music scores projected during our live performance.  Our years long common belief was, “no, this can’t be done because the songs are way too complex”.  I started to give it a try and managed to memorize 10 songs – chords and lyrics – in a rather reasonable time frame.  As I have predicted (and promised) and with my help in articulating how the chords progress, it took our bassist Cynthia less than 3 hours to memorize the chords of 5 songs that are chosen for our first gig.  Seeing how we did it, our lead guitarist Jason also gave it a conscious effort in memorizing the songs during our jamming sessions.

Bottom line is, yes you can do it.  And the initial hurdle may take much lesser time than you anticipate.  You may take years to discover that you can actually do it.  Or you can start doing it now.

Categories
Experience Sharing Reflection

A New Theme For Year 2008

One mountain at Lantau Island, Hong Kong

I am still learning this process of self-reflecting of the past and goal setting for the new year. Here, I am going to share with you what seems to work over the years, what doesn’t, and what my plan for 2008 is going to be. Let me tell you upfront what does not work: not planning for the new year at all. To borrow a Chinese idiom “一年之計在於春,一日之計在於晨” (loosely translates to “a year’s plan lies in spring [i.e. the beginning of the year], a day’s plan lies in the morning”), now is a good time to plan ahead. For those years that I did not plan, I have no recollection of what I have achieved.

I remember when I was in my twenties, I used to have this one-worded theme for each year. Such a theme is easy to remember, relevant, and if chosen right, it seems to stick into my mind throughout the year, in everything I do. Let me give you an example. One year, I reflected upon my 16 to 20 working hours a day, 7 days a year and I said to myself: enough is enough. I could earn all those overtime paid and achieve all the career progression I wanted but I was missing all that life has to offer. So, I picked a theme “Balance”. Mind you, it was not easy to seek a work life balance back then. When I did come home while the sun was still up, I became uneasy not knowing what to do or where to do. I ended up having the feeling that I have wasted an evening not working. Miraculously, with that theme “Balance”, I seemed to have every single and small decision made based upon that word “Balance”. It worked way too well. I rejected overtime requests or did all that I could to prevent myself and my team going down that path of long hours and no life. It went so well that it me took a couple of years to find the balance. These days, I work and do my best to make sure that the people in my network work the most effective way during the office hours and in most cases, we all go home on time. Picking the right theme can be powerful. And this can work for you too!

Last year was interesting not just because I only worked for the later half of the year, I did my planning in a scorecard style. As you may notice, I stop posting the monthly result after the first three months. You may wish to know that I did track my progress till the middle of the year but I found it quite boring to publish the results in my site every beginning of the month. I thought I did pretty badly over the year on this rather ambitious scorecard but it is not quite the case. OK, I think I only achieve a 40% which to be fair, under my “wonderful” color coding system, it is a yellow that means “a mix of ups and downs”. And it is because of this scorecard, I did climb the Mount Kinabalu and started my oil painting hobby that count as two extraordinary projects. Also, I did take the initiative to plan the visit to Melbourne, my surprise visit to Jakarta, and my visit to Hong Kong/Macau. By now, I think I have hit the travel budget target over and above. I seriously have cut down my computer gaming hours a lot (my big, big problem in year 2005/6). The target set somehow worked as the “Balance” theme to me. I have this cautious warning in my head of not hitting the said target every time I played. Lastly, hitting the career fulfillment index is a bit of a luck factor. But then again, I did put effort in finding what I want.  Based on just these four tiny achievements, I can say 2007 has been fruitful to me.

So, what’s my plan for year 2008? I want to go back to my theme driven way of life. After much consideration with candidates such as “Take Risk, Be Bold” or “Be Bold, Take Risk” (both are different by the way) or others, I have decided on …

“Do It”.

Yes, parking ideas of things that I want to do at the back my my head or at the bottom of my to-do list is not good. I need to … “do it”. If I need to be bold, so be it. If I need to take calculated risk, so be it too. The most important thing is, I have to action on what I have set to do, or rather what my heart has set to do. I shall count the number of achievements – however small or big – over the year as an indication of success. Hopefully, this theme will do wonders to me, the same way as “Balance” did to me years ago.

As for the personal scorecard way of life, I am not ready to ditch it completely as yet. Over this few days I am going to revisit the measurements and targets and to rethink how it can be aligned to my new theme. I have learned that this way of monitoring progress has two main challenges: the constant stress to meet target and the day-to-day chore of taking down the actual measurements. I have to find ways to make this monitoring progress a fun process (perhaps tie the increment progress to small rewards) and I have to find ways to record the measurements in the most convenient way (such as a calendar by the rice cooker to tick off days that I have home cooked meals). Scorecard way of life, I believe, is still a good way to discipline my rather undisciplined life. Stay tuned.

So, what are your thoughts? Do you think this is going to work for me? And what is your plan going ahead?

Categories
Reflection

How Rocky Inspires Me

Few friends of mine know that I am a huge fan of the Rocky movie series. Some whom I have talked to discount Rocky movies as bad acting or what-so-interesting-about-boxing. Rocky is written by Sylvester Stallone himself that mirrors his own struggle to stardom and is a celebration of his entire acting career (including the recent sixth installment “Rocky Balboa”). The first Rocky movie was made in 1976 with a budget of a little over $1 million and a box office result of over $100 million. Rocky was nominated for all 10 categories in the Academy Award and took home three.

I am inspired by the Rocky movies because of the invariant themes: always fight with your heart, training is the key to success, friends around you are your best support, and endorsement from your loved ones is all that matter. Whenever I feel down or wanting to give up, the scene of Rocky taking in 5 raw eggs in one go before his training has always been my inspiration.

I wanted to watch all the five movies before catching his latest “Rocky Balboa”. Initially I wanted to do it with my own Movie Review Squad. Sad to say I have made the wrong assumption that what I adore maybe what others adore and somehow they are not that keen in this marathon exercise. In the end, Tong Kiat was knocked out in round 3 (the third installment) after two visits at my home and Cynthia has painstakingly followed through the journey though in the end, she admitted that she has grown to like the series. Unfortunately, by the time we completed the movie marathon, “Rocky Balboa” is no longer showing in local cinemas. Guess I will have to watch it on DVD.

Categories
Experience Sharing Reflection

My Personal Scorecard for 2007

I have been toying with the idea of publishing a book on Personal Scorecard with my ex-colleagues when I was providing professional service to the military units and formations in crafting out the Balanced Scorecards. Personal Scorecard is not easy as we may or may not know our purpose in life. Without knowing our purpose in life, whatever we do today may or may not take us to where we want to be – that is if we want to be somewhere in first place. Personal aspiration is subjective and each of us have different character trails so much so that to standardise on an approach to develop a Personal Scorecard is indeed challenging. Besides, who do we, for lack of a better word, be accountable in life to besides ourselves? Of course, some may bring in religion, social constructs, and traditions as our “higher orders” whereby some may found it less acceptable to live their lives by others’ standards.

While I am still in search with the existence of such a Personal Scorecard, I think basing on New Year resolution is a good start. A New Year’s resolution is a commitment that one makes to a project or a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous. Though we may not know our purpose in life, I trust that we should be able to see what is good from bad and to recognise things that we can do to make our lives better. In a way, the concept of Balanced Scorecard still hold, the approach is entirely different.

First thing on my mind was my lack of enthusiasm to Cynthia’s desire to see the world. To me, a trip down to Botanical Garden or Sentosa or even a road trip to Malaysia is good enough. But Cynthia wants to see places that she has not seen before. There are many measurements that can address this as long as they satisfy the S.M.A.R.T. (simple, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely) rule. I can go with number of days overseas but then I will have to separate the long haul and short haul trips for the difference in impact. How about the places that we have not seen and the place that we have? In the end, I have chosen Traveling Budget Utilised as my measurement. It is a good proxy while giving us the flexibility to mix the different types of trips.

Shall I measure everything that I do? Of course not. So measurements like number of songs written, amount of content posted in my website, number of times I meet up with my friends per month, and etc. are important but are not things that I wish to track constantly. I know I will do reasonably well regardlessly. So I limit the number of measurements to what I most want to track. The magic number is ten.

I am not doing well in leading a healthy lifestyle so I think setting a target of 8 hours of exercise per month should be doable. That works out to be 2 hours a week. Half of the time having home cooked dinner should be achievable too. At present, Exercise Hours is zero and Percentage of Home Cooked Dinner is close to zero. So, any improvement is going to be good.

I have been lazing in managing my own money. I have seen how even with such a little effort Cynthia has put in, she has made some good return. So this New Year, I am going to start investing my money to beat the low interest rate.

On the other end of the money spectrum – a money making career – I need some sense of measurement as well. I have no idea what Career Fulfillment Survey is going to be. But the sooner I have this worked out, the clearer I know what I expect from my career.

After putting off the idea of turning my hobbies into something more serious for such a long time, I guess I should take this opportunity to see how far I can go with them. To the least, in the year 2007, I would have put in my best. So I am going to see how many live performance I can make and if I can publish a book or two on any topic.

I guess drinking in moderation at times is not that bad so long as I don’t have a hangover that affect my next day. I thought of having other measurements such as the unit of alcohol consumed but it is hard to quantify with the different type of alcohol.

My another habit to moderate is my time spent on gaming. My current benchmark is about 130 hours per month so having it down to 40 hours I think is a determined effort to make a change.

As I looked at these nine measurements, I pondered upon things that I should do to make my life more memorable. Things that I have no idea yet and hence, I classified them under Extraordinary Projects that have significant impact.

I don’t know how long I can sustain this process. Judging at this merely ten items, I think I have lots to do tomorrow. Wish me luck!

A recap of my measurements for Year 2007 by clicking here.

Categories
Reflection

New Year Resolution in a Scorecard Style

For years I have my New Year resolutions written at the beginning of the year only to look at them again at the end of the year when I need to do a self-reflection. So this year I wanted to do away with such a pointless exercise. On the way back from the countdown celebration at the church that did not appear to be such a good idea to me initially for there were thousand and one alternative places to do the countdown had Cynthia not wanting to start the year in a holy way, something struck my mind. New Year resolution does not work for me because while I put all my heart and passion into formulating what bad habits to get rid of and what cool things to do, I lack the discipline to see things through. Then the New Year Eve sermon suddenly rang a bell – don’t see things that happened as failures but as feedback instead. That is very much like what I have been preaching to the military units and formations over these 2 years before I left my job – continuous feedback is important learning points, strategy execution is as important, if not more so, then strategy formulation, and a balanced scorecard can be used as a tool to enhance performance.

So, day one of year 2007, based on my New Year resolution, instead of a list of abstract things to do or not to do, I have come out with ten measurements.  Detail explanation can be found in here.

Category Measurement Frequency Target Stretched Target
Life Traveling Budget Utilised Half-yearly S$3,000 S$5,000
Life No. of Extraordinary Projects Quarterly 1 2
Health Exercise Hours Monthly 8 10
Health Percentage of Home Cooked Dinner Monthly 50% 60%
Money Return of Total Savings Quarterly 5% p.a. 8% p.a.
Money Career Fulfillment Survey Half-yearly 60% 80%
Hobby No. of Public Performance Quarterly 1 2
Hobby No. of Books Published Yearly 1 2
Habit No. of Hangover Monthly 2 0
Habit No. of Gaming Hours Monthly 40 30
Categories
Reflection

Reflecting Year 2004

I know this is long overdued. January is almost over and I am looking back in year 2004? Well, believe it or not, I have written all these down on a piece of paper back during the new year period. Hopefully it is not the age that is catching up on me. Kind of felt that I am behind time all the time. Perhaps, it’s just that I have got more and more wild ideas and things-to-do as I get wiser.

Note: Photo taken in Malacca, Malaysia on Jun 5, 2004. A kite flying high up at the sky has always been what I wanted for the photo of my 2004 reflection.

Highlights of 2004

Let’s begin my reflection with my highlights. First and foremost has to be the forming of my new band No Eye Candy. It is like a dream comes true for me ever since I started working in 1995. I still remember my then-manager WN asked me if I should form a band with my colleague back in 95/96 at the bowling alley near the Stadium. Having Jason as the guitarist is a gift from heaven. And with my wife as the bassist and part-time vocalist? What more can I say? All thanks to Jeremy who started the very first jamming session. Oh, did I say that my song output for the year 2004 was fantastic? More than 20 songs were written in that year.

Next and not the lesser is my friend Mark who hosts the website for me. Having WilfridWong.com up and running is, again, like a dream comes true to me. I couldn’t have done it without Mark’s help – someone whom has patiently led me through my learning period with the site. Do visit his business site here and his personal site as well.

And my colleagues at work are fantastic. Never thought that I could have added so many friends into my friend-list in one year. I am pretty new to Singapore and more friends are always welcome. The drink sessions and the parties and all the cool things we have done … man …

  • My Band
  • My Website
  • My New Friends

Exciting Trips I Have Made

Bangkok trip at the end of April and beginning of May was fun. First time stepping into the Grand Palace and first time trying out my new camcorder and digital camera.

As for my wife’s birthday, we have decided to drive up to Malacca. It was during June 6 and we did have some great photos.

The most fun of all I have got to say was the road trip to the Highlands. First we went to Fraser Hill and stayed at the Smoke House. Beautiful hotel and beautiful scenaries (and the dinner was first class – very English tradition). Wish I could just rent one of the house and use it for jamming and recording for our new album. Second, we went to Genting. My friend SW told me that Genting is great. My honest opinion? It’s okay. And we didn’t go to Cameron Highland – supposed to be our third highland destination – as I was quite tired driving all the time. Next time round, I shall consider visiting Fraser Hill and Cameron Highland instead.

  • Bangkok
  • Malacca
  • Malaysia Highlands

Family-wise …

I have visited Hong Kong (my family) during the Chinese New Year in the beginning of the year and have visited Bandung, Indonesia (my wife’s family) during Christmas. I just love both occasions. I have got to see the dog that my family is so fond of and I have got to see my future sister-in-law-in-law (my brother-in-law’s fiance). What more can I say?

  • Hong Kong
  • Bandung

Something To Ponder

Many business ideas have crossed my mind during year 2004 but unfortunately, none of them has come through. Perhaps timing wasn’t right yet.

Not going to church regularly is bad. Wife not around (business trips) and need to eat out all the time (compares to cooking at home) is also bad.

Common room desperately needs some addition of cabinets and still as empty as ever is bad. Having a growing number of backlogs in books is equally bad (because all these new books just ended up in the common room).

  • Business Ideas
  • Church
  • Dietry
  • Common Room
  • Books

My Frustrations

This stupid PC tops the list of my frustration of year 2004. Ever since my PC has come to my place, I have reinstalled the operating system (OS) so many times that I have totally lost track of time. The OS just got corrupted so easily that I have been wondering why Microsoft let this happen at all. Mr. Gate?! Help here please?!

Of course, second to the list is my voice. Both Cynthia and Jason are vey gifted in the voice department while I have just got to go through the hard way. I have almost practice everyday with the scales and all but still, can’t be as good. My voice is definitely one of my frustrations.

And last by not the least is my 12-string guitar. I really need lots of practice to bring out the best from the guitar.

  • Personal Computer
  • My Voice
  • 12-String Guitar

My New Year Resolutions?

And my new year resolutions? Plenty. In no particular order I have listed them all out.

  • Read more books
  • Record an album or two
  • Do something crazy
  • Do up my common bedroom and store room
  • Perform an open-mic in Singapore and KL
  • Embark a healthy lifestyle
  • Learn PhotoShop
  • Take more cool photos
  • Meet new friends
  • Devote more time to families
  • Go to church
Categories
From the Attic Reflection

Looking Back 1998

Year 1998 has been a very interesting year for me.  These are the events which were pretty significant in my ordinary life.

  1. I have spent the new year day alone.  Well not exactly.  My driver of that time, Edi, took me to Pelabunhan Ratu, South of Java.
  2. My second love affair had gone to drain some time in Jan/Feb.  Exact moment has been long forgotten.  Who wants to remember that date anyway?
  3. Ever since then, I spent a lot of time with Robert, cooking and playing golf together.
  4. Riot was brewing in the heart of Jakarta.  Been there, seen the army and luckily, got off the project before the so-called massacre.
  5. Promoted to be a consultant on the 1st of March.
  6. Happy moment is of course, the system went live at the beginning of March.
  7. Rolled off from Jakarta in the middle of March and stayed put in KO’s place.
  8. Got into the new VTF project immediately and started working in the prototyping team.
  9. My mother visited me some time in March and got her a long term social visit pass.
  10. Relocated to KL AC office in the middle of April.
  11. Converted to be a Singaporean and the ceremony was at the beginning of August.
  12. Started out with Cynthia on August 15 with the sunset of Malacca.  From then on, we have traveled a lot and have been to Penang, Cameron Highlands and Singapore many times.
  13. Quite smoking and have been to the church from time to time.
  14. Cynthia’s mum came over during Christmas and we went to Singapore to visit her relatives.
  15. Cynthia with me during the New Year Eve.

Of course, out of 365 days a year, we do have some cool events in which we opt not to forget.  Then again, each little events marks the end of one period and the beginning of a new period.  Why not take this opportunity to examine each period closely?

Period of Loneliness and Sadness
(Jan to March)

In fact, this period of loneliness has lasted for a very long time and casually speaking, it was till August.  But to follow the flow of the history, let us just be contented and say that this period ended when I left Jakarta.

Being involved in a meaningless relationship was properly one of the silliest thing I have ever done to my life.  But then again, when I looked back, if not for this total disaster, I would not have learnt so much and treasure my current love relationship so much.

My 2nd love partner delivered several of the most painful feeling to me and I received the blow defenselessly.  There was no counter reaction there and I was in a total losing ground.  Because I gave everything when I am in love.  One of which was like: I am going to stay with another guy this weekend and he is coming to fetch me, anything to say before I leave tonight?

All dignity, all hopes and all “self” – shattered.

Then underwent those bitter moments of moving out and back to my old apartment.  The very first apartment I stayed with Shamsul, and later on, Mark.

Not to say I have lost everything during that period of time.  I composed some very good pieces of music.  I was pretty close to Robert whom is someone I respect and glad to know as a friend.  I picked up golf and had a lot of good food.  I learn some very good lessons for I am closer to know what I really want from a love relationship.

Still remember those moments when I roller-blade with Robert within the Tennis Court of Mitra Oasis while I was listening to Metallica (Reload).  And all those electronic goods shopping.

But all these are just part of my journey of life.  It is supposed to make me stronger.

Period of Career Development and Reorganization of Personal Life
(March to August)

After that traumatic experience in Jakarta, a change of environment is always welcome.  And there I was, back in Singapore.  And somehow, I see things a little bit differently.  Seems to me that the future was something which I could not even touch.

And then, my journey of life has arrived at a “roundabout”.  I was thinking of (a) take all my saving and pursue my PHD study in UK, (b) forgo my Singapore PR status and return to HK together with all the CPF contributions; or (c) continue to head for the uncertainty.

Just branch off from here, sometime symbolic happened here.  I was talking about my so-called choices with Annie on the phone just in front of Borders and somehow, Cynthia, totally unexpectedly, appeared right in front of me.

Anyway, back to my “roundabout”, I have decided to continue heading to the uncertainty.  As far as my career is concerned, it has gone pretty OK.  I have been promoted to the consultant level and have some sort of decent role in the new project.

And because of this project, I have made a lot of new friends and met a couple of old friends.  Surprisingly, when I met my ex, I can simply treat her as a new stranger with no attachment to the history.  I guess, I can safely say that I have totally got over her (and ready for a new beginning?)

And not to forget to mention that one of the most significant event in the Year 1998 is my becoming of a Singaporean.  At that very moment before I took up the citizenship, I felt as though it was like a marriage decision.  Equal importance I would suppose.  It is because it is where my base is, my family and my generations.

But I made that decision – just like that!

Again, something gain, something lost.  In this period of time, I tried so hard to glue my own family together and even tried so hard to work on this personal aspect.  Well, I was event to the idea of having some sort of family holiday once a year.  Just the family together go somewhere and have a relaxing time, catching up with each other. But it never work out so far.  Year 1999 perhaps?

Period of Love
(August to Now)

In order for Cynthia to be in KL, she has to come with VTF experience.  In order for her to come with that experience, she has to work in BUN with the VTF team.  And for that, she needs to join AC Jakarta.  And to join AC, she needs a decent degree in a decent university like Bandung.  So on and so on.

In order for me to be in KL, I too have to come with VTF experience.  In order for me to know Cynthia beforehand, I have to be in the BUN project.  And at that time, I had quite a number of choices but I somehow chose to be in Indonesia for I wanted to know the culture there.  And I was in Paris. For me to be in Paris, I must join AC Singapore.  And that, I need to be brought into Singapore to start with, thanks to my ex-lover back in the university.  And to meet her, I need to study in Oxford, UK.  And to make it there, no way I could have done it from HK and therefore, thanks to the scholarship which enabled me to study the A-Level in UK.

And one last comment to this what I called as “divine plan” is that if I were to start out with Cynthia back in Jakarta, I do not think that we would have worked out.  Simply because I was not ready for any relationship then as I was still trying very hard to get over my ex-lover back in Singapore.  Hence, my ex-love back in Jakarta came into the picture.

Ever since I went out with Cynthia, I am in so much joy.  We travelled many places.  We share similar hobbies, like reading and music.  She makes me feel so much like a man and I make her feel so much like a woman.  We talked about marriage. We make plan to visit our parents together.  I quite smoking and often, I go to the Catholic Church.

So, there is indeed something like: Made for each other?

Vision
(Now to Dec 99)

The word of the year will be “balance”.

To seek a balance between career and love, a balance between individual life and a life with my family; and a balance between luxury and necessity.

This year, I really wish that my wishes which have been accumulated for years will slowly come true and I am ready to fight for it.

  • Set up the root in Singapore
  • Have a fruitful relationship

May God be with me and everyone of my brothers and sisters too.