Categories
Memorable Events Other People's Lives

Featured in My Paper – Behind the Scene

My Paper

This must be the first time I see my Chinese name printed on a local newspaper.  I think my parents in Hong Kong would be happy if they read that.  The first time I saw my English name printed on newspaper was back in the Project Eyeball era.  How I miss Project Eyeball.  The good old days.  Had it been published free of charge like My Paper and TODAY and let the advertisement funds the operation, I think it would survive.  I still believe that the 80-cent Project Eyeball was ahead of its time.

After numerous long email exchange, MSN exchange, and short message exchange with the friendly My Paper journalist Koh Soo May (who has a lovely Chinese name that unfortunately I don’t know how to type it out here) over the weekend, I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into my favorite Coffee Bean at the Republic Plaza looking at the pile of My Paper at the counter.  You know what it is like when you interact with a journalist.  There is this element of uncertainty on what he or she is ultimately going to write, whether you will be in a positive or a not so positive light.

I tried to keep my cool but couldn’t contain my excitement.  I flipped opened the bilingual paper.  Front page (the Chinese side), I saw my site.  Gosh!  And on the third page as well.  I am much impressed by the level of details on the coverage of the topic: Bloggers – Power to the Commercial World (something like that in English).  Journalist Soo May has managed to interview the Companies, the PR firms, and the bloggers covering the areas of social media, product and service reviews and endorsement, and the trend within and outside Singapore.  Bravo!

Good read it is, I was so excited and delighted that I told one of the staff in Coffee Bean quietly behind the counter that I was on My Paper.  That was, by the way, after she asked me for a career advise if she should study Medical Science or Nursing (I love the staff of Coffee Bean at the Republic Plaza, very friendly people always with a smile).  She too was so excited that she grabbed one of the papers.  And then I realized that she cannot read Chinese, and I realized that quite a number of my good friends cannot either.

Oh well, for those who can read Chinese, click here to view the first page and here to view the subsequent one.

I guess most of us read the paper or any publication without really given much thoughts on what’s behind the scene.  After briefly worked with Soo May observing how much time she put into the articles in the middle of the night and over the weekend while busy reaching out to the network, I think I now read the newspaper with a better appreciation.  I always thought that my few hours spent per blog entry is hard work.  I certainly wouldn’t wish to write for a newspaper agency for now.

And so, this blog entry is dedicated to all the hard working journalists who face all sorts of challenges to deliver us stories, stories that don’t usually have a long lifetime and before they are even published, these journalists need to work on the next topic, and the next.

External Site: MyPaper.sg

PS. There is this one person from TEXT100 I would like to thank for all the wonderful opportunities and you know who you are.  Thank you!

Categories
Announcement

Association of Bloggers (Singapore) – This Is Your Secretary Speaking

Association of Bloggers (Singapore) - First Group Photo

Here is one secret of mine that no one knows except my mother.  When I was young, I dreamed of being a bus driver.  I would pace around my home in Hong Kong for hours imagining that I was shuttling my passengers around.  Little did I know that instead, I would become a secretary one day.

Maybe I could look cute in skirt.  That’s why our president EastCoastLife has appointed me as the association’s secretary.  When the prominent local blogger EastCoastLife – whom we have been dropping comments at each other’s sites for years – invited me to meet with other Singapore bloggers in person, I was curiously excited.  A series of events since the days of the Singapore F1 that lead to our association formally registered in Singapore – first of its kind.

Hooray!

Blogging is my passion.  And I am excited to be part of this association.  As a first generation immigrant of a country that I love (since 98), I am honored to take part in building something tangible here.  This is my sole motivation.  And as for the key stakeholders – in my personal view – they are (1) Singapore, (2) the public, and (3) the members.  My personal vision of success in mid term is to contribute in building a strong and sustainable blogging community in Singapore as the frontier of the New Media.  Some of you know that I have been a Management Consultant for more than a decade before moving into the industry and now helping to drive global initiatives.  I aim to bring along my experience of working with the leaders of the organizations – both profit and non-profit – into this new association.

Back to this secretary role, I hope it is just about taking minutes, co-signing cheques, answering phone calls, buying takeaway, babysitting bosses’ toddlers, taking pictures, and screaming at everybody but the bosses.  I mean, that is the job description of a secretary right?

Above are some of the pictures taken during one of our meetings (note: written consent required by the association before used).  Below are the links to the websites of our founding members.  They are really fun people to be with, so much talents from a diverse background.  I can’t say too much on the upcoming events now and we shall hear it from our media team later (hmmm … where have I put my media team hat).  Stay tuned!  This is a beginning of many great things to come ~ to quote EastCoastLife.

PS. Association of Bloggers (Singapore) is covered by Today’s TODAY newspaper, the morning edition.

Association of Bloggers (Singapore) – Committee Members

Categories
Linguistic

Passing Our Spanish Beginner 2 Exam at Las Lilas with Flying Colors!

Our Spanish Certificates

Hard earned, certainly, from that rather challenging Spanish test we had – at least from my point of view.  That one scene of 1-on-1 oral test with a Spanish teacher whom was not from our class still haunts me today.  But I scored a 86% while Cynthia managed to score 95%.  95%?!  How did she do that?  To me, it was pure hard work as my talent in linguistic is limited.  I even brought along the Spanish textbooks and practiced Spanish during our holiday trip to Bandung.  Our buddy TK can write a testimony on that.

I am happy with a score of 86% from a Spanish test that covers oral, listening, and writing.  Personally, although I dread exams, I welcome the discipline of little checkpoints along the journey.  Not to be too philosophical on a Saturday, we ought to – or rather I ought to – look for opportunities to put ourselves to various tests.  Maybe I shall enter a photography competition, maybe our band should record a demo album and distribute, maybe I shall …

… cook a 10 course dinner to a party of 12 … (and see who call the Pizza Hut takeaway first!)

Back to Spanish lessons, our next level should be “Elementary 1”.  And we are still waiting for some of our classmates to pass the exam.  A little thank you note to all whom have sent us the warm wishes of “You Can So Do It” online and offline, consciously and subconsciously.  Many ask why Spanish?  Honestly I haven’t given much thought as I just follow Cynthia’s passion.  Learning Spanish seems to have opened a new dimension of my awareness.  One time, inside a bookstore in Hong Kong, a kid spoke to his parents in Spanish and I could understand some bits and pieces.  Another time, while I was photo-shooting at the Singapore Night Safari, one lady screamed “Mire” (means “Look” in English), I looked at where she was pointing and snapped a picture of a flying squirrel.  Now when I watch a Spanish movie and I can pick up parts of the conversation.

So why Spanish?  It could well be any language.  There’s no right or wrong answer I guess.  Just ‘do it’, and then ‘follow it through’.

Categories
Memorable Events Photography

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

A Sample from My Personal Collection of My Sister's Wedding

Fortunately I was not the main wedding photographer.  What hard work it was!  With no control over light quality, background, and where everybody stands, I did the best I could.  And I did the best I could with my first dSLR camera that was less than 2 months old and my non-existing knowledge of Photoshop.  At times I am amused by the faith my little sister has in me.  I love my little sis.  I have been practicing hard, for this very moment.

Can’t wait to see the result?  Click here but please do come back.

I have been resisting to ‘photoshop’ my pictures for a long time until now.  Simply because I’d like to show the world what I can possibly do with my camera and my camera only.  Here is an analogy for you.  Showing you what could have done with my camera (to the point of no cropping) is like performing my music live to you.  The artwork is not perfect, it has its flaws, but (I hope) it has its charm, a sense of genuineness.

Most professionals do some forms of post production work on their photos.  Competitions allow that too.  Hence to me, admiring a moderately or heavily ‘photoshopped’ picture is like listening to a music album.  Perfectly finished and generally accepted.  Some cross the line and they have become more like a digital art to me.  No disrespect to those who are skilled in post production work, I personally enjoy playing my music live.  I.e. my photos as they are being shot (or could have been shot).  Having said that, after ‘photoshopped’ this little photo collection of mine, I do enjoy admiring the end result of this twenty odd pictures, out of 500.

It is surreal to think that my little sister is now married.  It seems like yesterday when I changed her diapers, when I was 4.  Now, here are the rest of my photo collection.

Related Link: Personal Photo Collection of My Sister’s Wedding (HK), What a Fruitful Year that Ends with a Bang: My Sister’s Wedding

Categories
Reflection

A New Theme for the New Year – Follow It Through!

A Volcano in Bandung, Straight from my Nikon D700

Following my annual tradition in determining a new theme for a new year – pretty much like how a Pope is chosen – a few ideas have been going round my head for days and I have been waiting for an answer [from above].  As though I saw fumata bianca raising up from my ears, one day I woke up with such clarity of this-is-it.  Avid readers have witnessed how such a simple concept called theme has shaped my life in a sustained manner over the years.  I welcome my friends’ questions such as “Does it really work?” and “How does it work?” and I would like to briefly share my thoughts with you.

One, unlike New Year Resolution that often revolves around things that I should not do and things that I set out to do, a theme captures the essence and the internal driving force and reasoning on what I aspire to achieve, which gives me a much stronger willpower in battling with the daily little decisions.  And two, annual themes are aggregative in nature.  A theme is supposed to make me a better person and after one long year of practice, it should become my way of life.  Sure, there are occasions when I need to take out an old theme from the closet, blow off the dust, and give it a new look.  Every year, I have dreamed of a new theme since 1996.  Some themes are public, some are not.

This year, I pick the theme “Follow It Through!”.  Last year’s theme “Do It!” has done wonder.  It prompted me to start doing so many different things and has kept my life very exciting albeit chaotic.  But it has its shortcomings.  Quick wins and low hanging fruits are favored over longer term activities that require sustained effort and resources and interest.

Sustained interest is hard.

So what kind of ”˜projects’ fall under the umbrella of “Follow It Through!”?  Quite a lot as it turns out to be.  I want to continue to head towards a healthier lifestyle.  Already abstained from alcohol for close to one full year, I want to substantially reduce the intake of meat (especially red meat) and unhealthy ingredients.  And I want to resume my regular exercise ritual.  I want to look healthy, feel healthy, and be healthy.  Why stop at body health?  This year, I have resumed my spiritual ritual and have started to attend Mass regularly.  Weekly close encounter with God seems like something mandatorily non-negotiable.  Besides, I begin to derive new meanings to my reinvigorated faith.

My friends ask what our band will do next.  Good question.  We finally played a live gig.  That is “Do It!”.  Now, we need a series of next steps.  That is hard work.  Cynthia and I have passed our level 2 Spanish test with ”˜flying colors’ as informed by the school (more update to come!) and we intend to continue to level 3 and 4 in the year 2009.  That too is hard work.  Our home is long overdue for stage 2 of renovation.  I think Cynthia would jump in tears of joy when she reads this.  It is high time we execute what we have been talking for years, what I have been sitting on for years.  That is very hard work.

Many ideas have been floating in the air for far too long.  I see fumata bianca.  It is less sexy than “Do It”.  But it is time to “Follow It Through!”.

PS. A picture taken during my trip to Bandung at one of the volcanoes.  It is straight from my camera as I prefer to do without post production if possible.  Strangely, the color looks a lot more vibrant before I convert the image into JPG that is what you see here.

Categories
Drama Movie Reviews

Rachel Getting Married – Intense Family Drama

Rachel Getting Married

Cynthia raised a good point.  Had the character Kym not played by Anne Hathaway, would we feel annoyed by how self-centered the character is?  It is hard not to love Anne, even in her state of depression with cigarettes after cigarettes in her hand and bruises on her face.  A Global Globe award nominee for best actress and more, I am much impressed by the sheer number of actors and actress on screen giving us the audience a convincing performance of them having known each other for years and in Rachel’s wedding, they meet and have a good time.

A very good time indeed.  Jokes are made, live music is performed, songs are sung, poems are read – it is watched like a real wedding, with friends taking photos and videos, with the wedding couple and the helpers busy attending to the crowd.  Camera angles at times are switched to the lower quality hand held camcorders taken from the wedding guests.  The conversation seems spontaneous; the responses seems genuine; friends finishing each other’s sentences. How did they do that?!  We are not talking about a few actors exchanging lines with one another.  We are talking about a long table full of people.  We are talking a tent full of people.  Such realism, such joy to watch.

In parallel with the happy scenes is the intense family drama between Kym and her sister Rachel (who are getting married) and their divorced parents.  Character development?  Checked.  Genuine emotion?  Checked (Cynthia teared).  I think most of us have our own share of untold family drama behind closed doors.  Hence, we shall be able to relate, one way or another.

“Rachel Getting Married” has the great music, great script, and great acting performance to go for, something to ponder after the film.  TK felt nausea in the initial part of the 2 hours show because the camera moves too much.  He joked that both Cynthia and I are seasoned computer gamers so we didn’t feel a thing.  All I can say is … the Spanish horror movie [●REC] is ten times worse in terms of camera shake.  I personally feel that the mild hand held simulated effect used in “Rachel Getting Married” has it own charm in bring out the theme of it-is-what-it-is.

How in the world do we get to watch Anne Hathaway in “Passengers (2007)”, “Rachel Getting Married (2008)”, and “Bride Wars (2009”) here in Singapore almost at the same time?  The Movie Review Squad is giving “Passengers” a miss.  But we are keen to check out “Bride Wars”.  The pairing of Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway is too good to be missed.

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.

Categories
Book Reviews Non-Fiction

LES50NS – Doing Business Globally – An Inspiring Read from the World’s Top Business Leaders

Lessons Learned - Straight Talk from the World's Top Business Leaders - Doing Business Globally

For most of us, being able to listen to the wisdom of the world’s top business leaders – however concise it is – is a rare opportunity.  While many business books today may quote and extract what some of these successful people have to say and expand the ideas within the scope of the titles, it is less common to read books focused on business leaders revealing their personal lessons learned to the readers.  I did not expect myself to finish this little booklet in one setting but I did.  I simply could not put down “Doing Business Globally” (96 pages) and was drawn to what each of the 14 world leaders has to say.

All 14 lessons derived from Fifty Lesson‘s video library of interviews are full of impact and are memorable.  It is because they are personal and the real life stories drawn from doing business in China, India, Afghanistan, Australia, Malaysia, Africa, and etc. have much to learn from all of us.  Some of the lessons have left a deeper impression to me and to name a few, I enjoy reading the materials provided by:

  • Jimmy Wales – Founder, Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation
  • Michael Dell – Founder, CEO, and Chairman, Dell
  • Bryan Sanderson – Former Chairman, Standard Chartered
  • Neville Isdell – Chairman, Board of Directors, and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company

Each lesson is about 500 to just over 1,000 word count, which in my opinion is the right length in today’s popular digital media world.  The topics covered in “Doing Business Globally” include branding and time to market in a globalized local environment, integrating a global organization with varied cultural background, doing business in countries that value relationship more than contractual obligation, fostering a global online community, and more.

This book is an admirable effort by the Fifty Lessons team.  Check out their website address at the end of this post.  “Doing Business Globally” is one of their 11-book series.  And it is one book that deserves to be read multiple times.  These are valuable lessons learned by world’s successful business leaders.  It is worth the effort to internalize them and put them to work in your curent or your future roles.

External Website: Fifty Lessons

Categories
J Pop Music Reviews

Mika Nakashima – I Don’t Know, I Don’t Know, I *Know* “Voice” is My Favorite of Hers So Far

Voice by Mika Nakashima

Having followed Mika’s music career since her debut album “True” – and I just realize that I have all 6 of her albums! – “Voice” has got to be the most appealing, most infectious of all.  To be honest, I was surprised because although from time to time there are great music albums in the market that delight, rarely are there albums that I would put on repeat for a relatively long period of time (yes, if there is no time factor, I often hold back my opinion until the initial excitement subsides).

I wonder what Mika Nakashima fans like about her.  Maybe her look or her voice (both I am OK with, not too excited about).  Her music style is mostly pop, recently into rock with “The End”.  What I in particularly like about Mika is her ability to sing some uniquely out of the world kind of music scale, kind of timing, that is so unheard of.  The beginning of the 8th track “It’s Too Late” is a good example.  Is this style called club jazz?  Maybe.  It doesn’t appear often.  But when it does, it tickles in a good way.

To tell the truth, I can hardly remember what her first 3 albums sound like.  Except, they are pleasant to listen to, with unique style.  Her venture into rock genre collaborated with other Japanese musicians in her 4th album “The End”, to me, is refreshingly new.  Although I like it a lot, the chart didn’t agree with me.  Came the 5th one “Yes” that is back to her old style.  I am OK with that, and the chart wasn’t that happy with it neither.  Her only two albums that did not manage to reach #1.

“Voice” is back to #1 and I can understand why.  It has a health dose of pop and synthetic rock.  There is one track mostly with just her and the piano (final track) and another one with the acoustic guitar (middle track).  It also has a health dose of rock music that unlike “The End”, the music does not overpower her voice.  In nearly all the tracks, there are tunes that are mind sticking, making the album sounds interesting.  True to her nature as shown in her previous albums, “Voice” is fun to listen to.  My favorite track?  The all English number “I Don’t Know” (hence the title of this review).

My CD comes with a DVD too and it has 6 music videos.  More like 5 and a half as the last song is like a short promotional track.  It has a mellow version of “SAKURA ～花霞～” instead of the Daishi Dance version in the album.  If you are a Mika fan, you really ought to get this one.

Categories
My Hobbies Photography

Testing My New Tripod System in Wee Hours, One Friendly Police Officer Stopped Me and She Asked …

Raffle Statue at Night

“I see that you are taking pictures of A LOT OF buildings, what are you shooting exactly?” a young female police officer stopped me at two in the morning, right next to the Parliament House.

Good question.  What was I doing by the Singapore River in the wee hours of the Boxing Day.

I needed to test out my new tripod system before heading to Hong Kong later in the late afternoon.  The answer is as simple as that.  And I have always been wanted to shoot the beautiful night scene of the Singapore River.  So I chose the wee hours, after attended the evening Christmas Mass. 

Bizarre things do happen in the wee hours of 12 to 3.  A band was playing in one of the pubs and as the party has ended, the crowd started to disperse.  One group – 3 Indian men 2 Chinese ladies – walked passed me, looked at my camera, and one of them asked, “It’s so dark, what do you see?”  Like magic (due to 30 seconds long exposure), first was the sound of the shutter, then came the image.  And they looked at the picture and gasped.  All of a sudden, all the guys were very animated.  One guy told me that he has the D90.  Yes, it is a good camera, I assured him.  He pointed at mine and said, “Yours is much better!”  And I reassured him that a D90 is a good camera.  We chatted and chatted and how a group of 5 managed to squeeze inside a BMW Convertible, I have no clue.  But they waved at me like good old friends do, breath of the alcohol still lingered in the air, and with a touch of the gas petal, the sport car vanished into the dark.

And that was the closest I get next to a BMW Convertible that opened its roof just moment ago.

How I love to be a – quote unquote – photographer.  People are super friendly with me.  Even though … I am a …

I don’t even know what I am anymore.

Note: All pictures shown here are mostly straight from the camera, with some very minor touch-ups – including the 7 dust spots I have discovered on my image sensor.  Thanks to Nikon Service Centre, they are now gone.

As I walked along the river, admiring the beautiful serenity dotted with couples having their own romantic moments, I heard someone said, “Adíos!”.  Spanish?!  Filipino perhaps.  From the band I reckon.

Someone was sleeping on the street with his bicycle next to him.  He must have woken up by the shutter sound of my camera.  He paced around waiting for me to go away.  I stuck around waiting for him to go away.  Reluctantly, he cycled off and that was when I was stopped by two police officers.  I reassured her that I was not taking any picture of the government buildings (common security measure even in the US of A).

Moving away from the quietness of Boat Quay, I was drawn by the light and the sound of Clark Quay.  3am in the morning, people were still doing reverse bungee.  I could hear their screaming across the river.  Some time ago someone raised a concern over such entertainment in Clark Quay.  Too much noise in the wee hours.

I climbed up an overhead bridge and took some pictures of the traffic on the street.  One white lady screamed just another flights of stairs behind me saying something like she wanted to die.  I turned around, saw her in the middle section of the bridge with one leg over the railing.  Her lover (I supposed) pleaded her to stop killing herself.  I saw the hesitant in her so I did not want to get involved.  They went on and on over I love you I love you not with drinks in their hands while I went on and on shooting for that one perfect traffic shot.  There were cars that braked hard right before my eyes (people who think that I was the traffic police with a speed camera?).  There were cars that shot past me with such ferocity.  Yes, that grey Nissan GT-R.  I nearly got your number plate.

I love my new tripod system.  Unlike cameras and lenses that the heavier the gears are, the higher the quality, but rather like the bicycles for the professionals, losing the weight without compromising the performance cost a lot, a lot of money.  I have previously carried a tripod for my entire trip to Italy in 2000.  Anything heavy I just wouldn’t use (unless it is the case of heavy weight that implies good quality).  That much I know about myself.

Night time photography can be a lonely activity.  Each shoot took a minute or more to complete – mount the camera, adjust the tripod head, compose the picture, determine the settings, close the viewfinder blind, use a 10 seconds timer release, wait for 15-30 seconds or more for the picture to be properly exposed, and if the result can be improved, restart the whole process again.  If that is not tedious enough, at times I have to wait for the people to move away, pray that people will not move into the picture (anything can happen during the 30 seconds exposure plus 10 seconds timer release).  I have to observe the wind speed over the river, and the movement of the cloud.

It is all about patience and perseverance.  And this is my passion.  Above all, I love taking pictures in this beautiful country that I call home.

~ Dec 26, 2008

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