Category: My Good Life

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Diary Linguistic

The Art Of Conjugation (Be Back After Our Spanish Exam!)

The art of Spanish conjugation

How time flies.  Just about a year ago we have started learning a new language.  That was before I have started my photography hobby.  And it seems that I have been taking photos for ages.  Getting things into rhythm does have its merits.  Before I knew it, I have clocked in 80 hours of Spanish lessons; before I knew it, I have taken 15,038 photos using my dSLR camera.  Who knows what I would become 12 years from the day I have got these things in rhythm?  (I have this theory that all good hobbies take 12 years to mature into something decent.)

Onto what I termed as “Season 2” of our Spanish class, it gets a lot harder than the previous “season”.  First, is the conjugation of verbs.  The picture above illustrates the two verbs – to want and to come – in three tenses (present, past, and present perfect) for different persons (I, you, he, and etc.).  The variation is mind blowing.  The extensive irregularity across common verbs makes it harder for me to perform pattern memorization.

Besides conjugation of verbs, for this “season”, we have a whole bunch of nouns to memorize (and we have to be able to tell which one is masculine and which one is feminine), a whole bunch of adjectives to memorize (in both masculine and feminine forms), and on top of that, forming sentences and dialogues.  At times, it seems like brutal memorization is the only feasible way to go, for me that is.

Over dinner, I have had some sharing of experience with Cynthia and her mother from Indonesia on how we learned Chinese in Hong Kong, during my time.  There was much brutal memorization on Chinese characters, poems and ancient documents, idioms, and etc.  I remember during examinations, we had to reproduce the entire poems and ancient documents accurately and strictly from our memories.  Looking back, how did we do that?  That was a lot of Chinese writings to memorize, word-by-word.  But we did it just fine back then, most of us.  And as a hobby, believe it or not, I chose to memorize extra pieces of poems that were not in scope.  There is so much wisdom and value compass embedded inside these ancient works.  It is hard to extract them if we don’t internalize them the hard way.

Back to our Spanish examination, it will be this coming Saturday.  Wish us luck!  I have just completed one round of revision and we have tomorrow evening and Saturday morning to do the round 2 and 3.  If all go well, “Season 3” will begin next Tuesday.  I suspect that the difficulty level will ramp up quite a bit.  However, since the entire class is determined to move onto the next level, I guess I just have to see how far I can get.

¡Hasta luego!

Categories
Photography Travel Blog

On The 7th Day, We Toured The Toledo

Cynthia, and the Street of Madrid

I would never forget the exhilarating experience of driving in the narrow sloppy streets of Toledo with a left-hand manual car.  Some of which I could not quite figure out the one-way road direction.  Another time, we drove into a dead end only to reverse all the way out to the road junction as the street was way too narrow to U-turn.  Overall, it was an interesting experience.  We just have to do it the hard way.

On the seventh day, we toured the Toledo.  And on the seventh day, we drove into the heart of Spain, Madrid.  Below are the options you may wish to read more about our road trip.

To read the rest of the travel blog entries, please follow this tag.

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For the Geeks I See I Write

21 Nokia Applications Reviewed, Just For You

Nokia Applications

Over the last few weeks, I have been busy experiencing the different applications on my Nokia N97 wireless phone.  Most are free, some require purchase that settled via the phone bill.  Of more than 40 applications I have downloaded and tried, I have singled out 21 applications to share my thoughts with y’all here in my website.  Of which, 10 are my top favorite ones.

Maybe you are curious on what our world is like, maybe you are trying to decide if Nokia Application is your cup of tea.  Either way, I invite you to take a look at the review by clicking onto the link below.  Some applications are pretty interesting.  If you already have a Nokia phone, I hope this review will help you in deciding which are the good applications out there for you.

So, are you ready?

Related Article: Experiencing Nokia N97

Categories
Diary Reflection Whacky Thoughts

32 Weeks Have Passed And I Now Have My To-do List

Recently, I read an entry from one of my friend’s private blog.  It is kind of private because I promise her long time ago that I wouldn’t make a link into her site.  She said, six months have passed and she still doesn’t know what she wants to do.  And she has another six months to figure that out.

That inspires me to think: August is here, what have I done so far?  My friends ask me what happens to my band and I go … erm.  They ask if I still write songs and I go … erm.  What happen to that association?  Do you still paint?  I haven’t seen you for ages, what have you been doing?

Erm.

I update my Facebook status often.  Often on what I plan to do.  I reckon if I write something in public – like in here or in any social networking site – I am committed to something.  And there is a higher chance that something gets done, which is better than always thinking of doing something that never get done.

So from now till December 31, I am committed to do the followings.  All of the followings.  Items one, to seven.

1. Do up my MySpace page and put a song or two inside (est. effort: 40 hrs)

I love my band.  If it was up to me, I would set up a practice or recording session every weekend.  Maybe we shall have a summer break and a Christmas break.  But other than that, we should meet up regularly and jam.  Because I believe that any serious hobby warrants a once a week practice.  Like my Spanish lessons.  The reality is, we meet only once in two months, three months.

And if it was up to me, I would like to do some decent recording and share with the public.  But my [lower] standard is not the same as some of my band mates.  I am a blogger.  I produce contents on a near daily basis.  I am happy to share the demo musical works with my readers regularly.  Keep the engagement going.  To hear some feedback, and to grow.  Especially when that CD quality band recording seems so impossible to attain given our pace.  Time to do some solo works.  More like an incubator of for the band, at my personal turbo pace (everything in life is relative).

2. Finish digitalizing my CD collection (est. effort: 24 hrs)

As of today, I have already digitalized 11,127 music tracks.  Just keep going!  Don’t stop!

3. Clear the photo back log (est. effort: 75 hrs)

I would love to visit the Singapore Zoo and take some pictures but I don’t feel like doing so.  Because I have such a huge back log to clear.  The good news is that I have established some kind of Sunday rhythm to spend some time with the photo processing and categorization work.

4. Properly tag my 1,100+ blog entries (est. effort: 24 hrs)

Tagging is a new concept for me.  I put my entries into fixed categories, year after year.  Recently, I discover that there is something called tagging, alongside with categories.  I may be messy in real life.  But I love structures.  So I will have to go through each entry one by one and tag them nicely.

5. Spanish!  Onto Lower Intermediate and read a Spanish book (est. effort: 24 hrs + ?? hrs)

After 20 lessons of Beginner level, 20 lessons of Elementary level, Cynthia and I are heading to the Lower Intermediate class.  The date is set: August 25th.  But there is a catch.  We have to pass the examination on August 22nd.  That is hard!  Super hard!  I am really not good at the language department.  But I will try.

About that Spanish book … we shall see.

6. Quick recording of all my 158 songs (est. effort: 158 hrs)

Year 1994, I wrote my first song.  I reckon I still remember most if not all my 158 songs.  However, I know one day my memory may fade.  And some of those songs may be lost forever.  Now, that’s sad.  In view of this rather probable rather depressing reality, I have always wanted to record all my work.  It’s not as easy as it sounds.  I tend to spend time rewriting the parts that didn’t work, readjusting the key of the song, and on top of that, being a perfectionist, I wanted to do some decent recording.  That project didn’t last.

So now, I have reset my goal.  I need some quick and dirty recording.  Get it over and done with.  Some sort of documentation.  And then, I can pick ones that I like and do a better job.  Have them posted to MySpace (see point #1) for public sharing.

7. Seek direction on that blogger association I am associated with

I have to find an answer to that question: Where are we heading?  I am looking forward to seeing a new team.  Either way, my 1 year tenure will be up, after this year end.  A toast to all-good-things.

*     *     *     *     *

Wow, a total of 344 hours span over the remaining 20 weeks.  Now you know why I need a more balanced working life.  And unlike some of you, I am not inspired to work that extra hours for the big bucks plus promotion (otherwise, why would you trade more time with the same amount of reward?).  If I can complete all of the above before 2009 ends, I can start 2010 with a much lighter load.

On a separate note, one day I was really excited setting up my N97 as a web server – a future looking solution from Nokia Beta Labs.  What is more interesting is how people react to this ‘concept solution’.  One friend listened with interest and immediately, you can see his mind was working fast and he nodded: this could be useful.  One friend cracked some jokes on the potential applications, kind of similar to my initial dramatic thought that involves a striking long legged spy and her N97 (you can activate the phone’s camera remotely via Internet anywhere in the world amongst other bizarre things you can do).  Another friend, a Nokia non-supporter said: It is kind of pointless eh?

Life is full of pointless little things, I think.  At times I wonder what is the point in spending time with those social networking sites.  Recently, I looked into the periodic table via a free application called “Elements” from the Nokia OVI Store.  Did you know that there is an element called Einsteinium (Es)?  Its existence, from what I read, is pretty pointless.  Named after you-know-who.  To artificially create Einsteinium, first you need to irradiate plutonium-239 inside a nuclear reactor for couple of years.  Then mix the resulting plutonium-242 isotope with aluminum and further irradiate this mixture inside a nuclear reactor for another year or so.  The result is a mixture of Californium and Einsteinium that can be separated.

So, what’s the use of Einsteinium?  It could be pointless to some.  Or as an intermediate step in advancing scientific research to others.  I wonder if it would be safe to drink from a mug made in Einsteinium.

Einsteinium on Nokia app Elements

Categories
Photography Travel Blog

Jellyfish Is Called Medusa In Spanish, Out Of Valencia And Into Toledo

Inside a Marine Center in Valencia

This post is dedicated to the loyal followers of this Spain holiday series and to those few of you who constantly ask me if the photos are coming out any time soon and drop some comments here.  It is your anticipation that keeps me going.  Thank you.  At the end of this series, we may have a 15,000 words journal completed with 600 photos.  All because of you!

Day 6, we have approached the midway point of our journal.  Of all the episodes, I look forward to the photo album of this one the most.  It is because the subjects are so different from the rest of what we have.  The structures in the “City of Art and Science” are so futuristic, so unexpected of.  I wish I had more time to tour this part of Valencia.

As usual, below are the options you may wish to read more about our road trip.

  • A photo collection for day 6 of our trip to Spain (39 photos with captions)
  • A journal written in details on what we did and more (approx 1,800 words)
  • A highlight of the photos below (8 photos – and for Facebook readers, please view the original post)

To read the rest of the travel blog entries, please follow this tag.

Categories
Diary

It All Happened So Fast, Fireworks Over My Head (Working Title: Happy Birthday Singapore)

“You shouldn’t push yourself too hard.  You are still recovering,” said TK over MSN.  That particular week, I was resting and working from home most of the time.  That particular Saturday, my friend Mark has invited me to accompany him for a photo shooting session.  By the seaside overlooking the floating platform, where the rehearsal of the National Day Parade took place.  I’ve made a promise that as soon as he gets hold of the right gears, we would go for a night shooting.  Mark chose fireworks; and fireworks it was then.

I seldom shot fireworks and I certainly cannot measure myself up to Mark’s enthusiasm.  That day, he reserved a spot for us along the Nicoll Highway 2 to 3 hours before the fireworks took place.  I, on the other hand, turned up half an hour before the fireworks began.  Nearly missed the shot had the traffic jam was any worse.

According to Scott Kelby, I should bring my zoom lens for some tight shots.  If I was shooting fireworks at the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, it probably would have worked better.  In Singapore, we are pretty close to the action.  So, a zoom lens seems to be a bit too long.  Mark has done a much better job.  Check out his.  I really suck at shooting fireworks.  Like I said to Mark (and he disagrees), each photographer works within a certain set of genres.  I have a lot more patience shooting animals in the dark.  Or even the moon.  And I have better connection with nature’s creations or monuments that stand or will likely to stand the test of time.  My analogy is that I can comfortably write a piece of music in the Alternative Rock genre.  But I don’t think I can ever write a Jazz or Country song.

Below are some of the shots taken on July 25th (Facebook readers please view original post at my website).  It all happened so fast!  3 or 4 minutes was all it took for the 2 settings.  Each setting I reckon was a 1 minute of fireworks display.  When it was all over, Mark asked if I wanted to do it again for the next rehearsal.

Hmmm.  Maybe not.  And for the fireworks lovers, do drop by Hong Kong during the New Year period (Jan 2nd I think), July 1 National Day, or Chinese New Year.  Hong Kong has the mother of all fireworks I have seen so far.

* * * * *

Ahead of my country mates’ entries, which I am sure you will see hundreds and thousands starting in the next 1 or 2 hours’ time, happy birthday Singapore!  I know my accent often confuses people.  And believe it or not, some friends of mine despite this “open secret” of I being a Singaporean still think that I hold a blue IC.  No.  I am pink.  I am very pink.  As pink as my IC can be.

For this National Day, I am thinking of doing something slightly different.  Having lived in Singapore for 14 years and have become a Citizen since 1998, below are the frequently asked questions when I told people that I hold a pink IC.

What happen to your Hong Kong Citizenship?  Do you need to give it away?

First, Hong Kong is not a country.  For those who are born in Hong Kong after WWII and before 1997, we are born as a British Subject.  What it means is that we had the right to reside in the then-British colony called Hong Kong.  That’s about it.  In short, we – or at least how I see it – are born with no country, and no religion.  Was I happy to toss the British Subject status away?  I was indifferent.

Were you running away from 1997?  The return of Hong Kong to China?

Not really.  I didn’t think that with such a strong economic establishment, China would want to tear it apart.  The Basic Law was enacted way before 1997.  While I wasn’t entirely bought into China’s promise on “50 years of life remains as it is (in Hong Kong)”, I saw this return to motherland part of a bigger plan to unify Macau and maybe eventually Taiwan.  So, was I running away from anything?  No.  In retrospect, I think China has done a pretty good job to Hong Kong and Macau so far.  It helps when China is rising, a trend as predicted a decade or two ago.

Ain’t you glad that you don’t need to do National Service?

It’s hard to say.  If I was born and grew up in Singapore, I would just do it like the rest.  But as a first generation immigrant who has passed the age of enlistment, I am not sure if I would be thrilled to do NS (however if I could bring my camera and blog about what I experience …).

But I guess we all do nation building one way or another.  And I always joke to my friends that those 2 years and more of working with the MINDEF as an external consultant shuttling between the military camps is my very own way of doing NS.  Sir, yes sir!

Why Singapore?

I chose this region because I love its diverse cultures.  I chose Singapore as my home because there is no other place I’d rather be living in for long term.  I haven’t lived in Africa or South America yet.  So my view may change.  But for now, I am still happy with that decision I made 11 years ago.

Would you return to Hong Kong or migrate to another country?

Probably not Hong Kong because Cynthia can’t speak Chinese.  And my sister has married my buddy in Singapore, most of my friends are from Singapore, I am pretty much rooted here.

I guess my question is: How long can I afford to live in Singapore?  The other day, I was asking my Singaporean friend how much I need to survive in Singapore.  She tossed me some six-figure numbers judging at my current lifestyle (because I said I want to retire now … ha ha ha) and it was kind of depressing.  Jokes aside, the government’s message is clear: We shall remain as productive for as long as we can.  I read those news of sixty odd seventy odd years old people still happily working.  For me, I don’t think I want to work for money till that age.  I reckon I will have many ways to keep myself productive.  Will I have enough money to live in Singapore looking at the rising cost of living or will I have a much better quality of life elsewhere with the finite amount of savings I have?  I have no clue.  I need to do some serious calculation first.

*     *     *     *     *

It all happens so fast.  Time to celebrate Singapore National Day again.

PS. Because of this National Day entry, my usual Spanish holiday photo entry will possibly be postponed by 1 day (Aug 10).  Thank you for your understanding.

Categories
Photography Travel Blog

Taking The Driver Seat For Our Valencia City Tour

Jesus on a Cross, inside the Cathedral of Valencia

I wonder if by now you may think that I am converting my personal website into some kind travel blog site.  Well, I am not.  Just a phase I am in.  I am still a raro (weirdo in English) and those out-of-the-world posts will return, I promise.  In fact, this weekend, I have been very much distracted by my songwriting activity.  I planned to squeeze in some time to do some home recording before Cynthia & Co. return from Hong Kong.  That didn’t happen.  I need a longer weekend.  A much longer weekend.

As you may have read my travel  journal, insofar I had been taking a back seat on this holiday to Spain in June.  Men are hopelessly lazy in nature.  That’s why we need our significant halves.  On day 5, my action oriented nature kicked in.  And so I took a more proactive approach to decide where we should go.  Taking the driver seat so as to speak – both figuratively and literally.

Speaking of driver seat, when I was in Valencia, I thought driving inside the city was crazy.  And in our next destination, it went even crazier.  But I am ahead of time here.  As usual, below are the options you may wish to read more about our road trip.

  • A photo collection for day 5 of our trip to Spain (63 photos with captions)
  • A journal written in details on what we did and more (approx 2,000 words)
  • A highlight of the photos below (10 photos – and for Facebook readers, please view the original post)

To read the rest of the travel blog entries, please follow this tag.

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Photography Travel Blog

A Road Trip To Valencia

The Beautiful Peñíscola

“You always like to do it the hard way” – I get that a lot from the people around me.  I have no idea how the hard way always find its way to me.  But I think, rewards are earned, not being handed over.

For the record, I don’t seek out the hard way.  I would prefer to take a train from one city to another, and then take an excursion trip like what we did in Montserrat.  But Cynthia wanted to experience what a road trip would be like in Spain.  And so, we rented a car in Barcelona, passing the beautiful coastal towns of Tarragona and Peñíscola, before reaching Valencia.

As usual, below are the options you may wish to read more about our road trip.

  • A photo collection for day 4 of our trip to Spain (38 photos with captions)
  • A journal written in details on what we did and more (approx 2,000 words)
  • A highlight of the photos below (8 photos – and for Facebook readers, please view the original post)

Talking about the hard way, I have not eaten since I woke up.  Eight hours I have spent on this entry.  Time to have a real good meal before watching the F1 broadcast at eight!

To read the rest of the travel blog entries, please follow this tag.

Categories
Diary

I Found It, I Found It! – One Man’s Persistence To Find That One Song

I think Cynthia would be quite proud of me when she reads this entry.

I don’t know how you remember your overseas trips.  Or moments of your life.  Maybe you write journals, maybe you take pictures.  On top of the words and images and the memory living in those who share the moments with you and will one day remind you that ‘you were there’, I remember trips or moments by the music I repeatedly listened to when I was there.  Vividly I can recall where I was when I heard the song “Nobody Knows” or “U Were Meant For Me”.  I have old school mates till today still tease me of the song “Superwoman”.  That song I was used to blast out loud from my room while I was inside the shower room down the corridor.  Every morning.

In Spain, we rented a car.  And inside the car, we listened to the local radio.  You know what radio stations are like.  Some songs you get to hear every day, even a couple of times a day.  And there was this one song that Cynthia and I both like but could not catch who the artist was.  In Spain, we walked.  And one time, that one song was playing on the ground floor, from an old building made of stone, music coming out from an open window.  I was tempted to knock at the window and ask who sings that song.

For the last few weeks, after we returned to Singapore, every now and then I tried to Google the artist.  It was fruitless for I only know one or two words from the song and it’s a common Spanish word.  I tried to listen to the Internet Radio and catch who the artist is.  But my Spanish is very minimal.

So I painstakingly combed through the Spanish chart online.  Combing through all the popular songs that are now playing on air all the way to the beginning of this year.  I play each song from YouTube and memorize who is who.  After a while, I begin to recognize patterns – the pattern of multiple releases by the same artist and the pattern of how songs are moving up and down the chart across the time horizon.  I know the texture of the voice that sings that one song.  And I know that the song I am looking for is still playing in the air so it should be originating from the chart.  Or maybe the artist has recently died and this riddle would be quite hard for me to solve.

And like all good things in life, once you found that something, it seems so easy.  The song is called “El Aleph” by Nena Daconte.  Click here for music and lyrics from YouTube.  Or here for the official video.  I am pretty sure I will buy their album for memory’s sake.

Nena Daconte

External Link: Official Site of Nena Daconte

Categories
Photography Travel Blog

Into the Mountain Montserrat

Montserrat

If you open the Sunday edition of our local paper The Strait Times, you shall see a write up on Spain with a picture on a location exactly the same as my entry last week.  What a coincidence.

Ever since I have started writing this Sunday series on our trip to Spain, there are two questions often asked.  (1) Why takes so long to process the photos?  (2) How come you are not inside the album?

To be honest, selecting the photos and processing them is easy.  They are more or less as they are except the few artistic spins to make them unique.  It is looking through my handwritten notes and the materials we have collected in order to (a) write a journal of the day, (b) put in a proper caption for each photo (and try to make the story gels), and (c) write a blog entry – that takes time.  I also try not to repeat the contents for these different channels because there may be readers who read (a), (b), and (c).  But I enjoy doing that.  As in why I am not inside the album.  Well, Cynthia has been taking my pictures as we toured.  And I may share them towards the end of this series.  Also, towards the end of the trip, I suddenly remember I have brought along a tripod.  So you will see more of ‘our’ photos later.

As usual, below are the options you may wish to read more about our day 3 journey – a visit to a monastery in Montserrat and more.

  • A photo collection for day 3 of our trip to Spain (35 photos with captions)
  • A journal written in details on what we did and more (approx 1,000 words)
  • A highlight of the photos below (8 photos – and for Facebook readers, please view the original post)

Enjoy!

To read the rest of the travel blog entries, please follow this tag.