have you ever received one of these appeals for help that come with free pens (so you can fill in the form straight away) or coins (so it catches your attention)? there was even one that came with one piece of a pair of chopsticks! i can't remember what it signifies anymore...



i sometimes wonder if the money isn't better spent helping the people instead of stuck onto these letters? umm...

don't feel like talking about today cos in summary, it was all about the sporadic bouts of agony and misery i suffered throughout the day... so shall talk about yesterday instead...

yesterday was a really odd and busy off-day for me. Woke up to a dark and gloomy sky, dashing my morning swimming plans. Decided to put off swimming and running to the evening and ended up spending most of the morning practicing juggling (yes, I can juggle, but not very well..) and eating fruits. Then watched Japanese manga movie Ghost In The Shell for the very first time and sat around reading philosophy books and newspapers. Thought of whipping up a gourmet salad for lunch but ended up fixing a quick meal of instant noodles instead. Dropped by at Alliance Francaise for the Facets exhibition of photographic works by Gilles Massot, Ken Seet, Sha Ying and Jean-Christopher Ballot and was thoroughly inspired by Gilles Massot to print photographs on “Epson Canvas” and then artistically touch them up with oil paints, by Ken Seet to take pictures of ageing housing estates in b&w, by Sha Ying to take candid b&w shots of people at work and play, and (sort of) by Jean-Christopher to take pictures of Singapore and blow them up to astronomical sizes.

Swung by office for about 2 hours to finish up some work, went by SIM to pick up textbooks for next semester (school is starting on 2 July :)) and then went for a nice 5km (10 Oakley dollars) run around the estate. As if that wasn’t enough for the day, I ended the long day with a bunch of great people clubbing @ Newsroom Bar and was thoroughly astounded to find out that this really popular club (it was actually really packed, compared to some of the others which were actually empty) was still playing the very same 80s retro stuff they were playing some 2 years ago when I was still clubbing fairly regularly! :O it was as if the music had just merely followed the crowd all these years.. with their unchanging taste…very bizarre… finally ate a really late supper of boon tong kee chicken rice (with yummy melt-in-the-mouth tofu and raw fish) before calling it a night… phew…

maybe that's why today was such a bad day.. all my energy sapped away by activities of yesterday.. umm...no longer young...

for all drivers especially, see Yes and No, a dyseducational road movie... supposedly educates drivers on the right and wrong way to go about your driving, complete with a chipper soundtrack... it really had me in stitches!! :D hahaha.... maybe the "No"s is really how we have to drive in Singapore??

see cute picture taken at Heeren (courtesy of alb)..

In Japan, they've replaced the impersonal and unhelpful Microsoft Error messages with Haiku poetry messages. Haiku poetry has strict construction rules. Each poem has only 3 lines and a total of 17 syllables:five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, five in the third. Haikus are used to communicate a timeless message, often achieving a wistful, yearning and powerful insight through extreme brevity -- the essence of Zen.

> You step in the stream,
> But the water has moved on.
> This page is not here.
> ---------------------------------
> Your file was big.
> It might be very useful.
> But now it is gone.
> -------------------------------
> The Web site you seek
> Cannot be located, but
> Countless more exist.
> ------------------------------
> Chaos reigns within.
> Reflect, repent, and reboot.
> ! Order shall return.
> -----------------------------
> Program aborting:
> Close all that you have worked on.
> You ask far too much.
> ------------------------------
> Windows has crashed.
> I am the Blue Screen of Death.
> No one hears your screams.
> ------------------------------
> Yesterday it worked.
> Today it is not working.
> Windows is like that.
> -----------------------------
> First snow, then silence.
> This thousand dollar screen dies
> So beautifully
> -----------------------------
> With searching comes loss
> And the presence of absence:
> "My Novel" not found.
> -----------------------------
> The Tao that is seen
> Is not the true Tao-until
> You bring fresh toner.
> -----------------------------
> Stay the patient course.
> Of little worth is your ire.
> The network is down.
> -------! ----------------------
> A crash reduces
> Your expensive computer
> To a simple stone.
> ----------------------------
> Three things are certain:
> Death, taxes and lost data.
> Guess which has occurred.
> ----------------------------
> Out of memory.
> We wish to hold the whole sky,
> But we never will.
> ----------------------------
> Having been erased,
> The document you're seeking
> Must now be retyped.
> ----------------------------
> Serious error.
> All shortcuts have disappeared.
> Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

had a really busy but fun day @ work today and got quite a lot done and most importantly, enjoyed myself while doing it :)... we did a major reorganisation of the store, including moving lots of furniture around, shifting things from one store to the other, checking through all the new supplies (from a bunch of new art and stationery suppliers) that came into the store, setting up new school appointments to do painting and craft demos, planning new strategies for the shop, etc etc.. really felt excited about how things are changing as we grow wiser and pick up more experience in how to run a business.. (ahem.. business acumen... :p)

realised for me how important it is to actually enjoy what i do, even if the money and making a living is still the main reason why i'm are doing it.. if it is just purely for money, working will probably become just a pastime that i get paid for, that takes care of my basic needs like eating, drinking, sleeping- and spending money. but then again, i know i can't imaging getting up in the morning to do something for 8 hours (a third of a day) that i don't feel anything about nor feel i am contributing in... sometimes, i really do get a little tired of people complaining about how they have lost interest in what they are doing or how boring work is or the like but they don't seem to want to do anything about it.... makes me want to rebutt them with something like "Why don't you try finding something you enjoy doing??" admittedly, work isn't always fun but surely, complaining isn't going to help, eh?

maybe this article on "How to work better, how to enjoy your work more, how to get into your work and make it a flow experience" puts everything into a new perspective?

alb gave me a thick copy of Travel Manual - Malaysia (it has more than 200 pages filled with beautiful photographs and information!) that he picked up from Bugis Junction just now and i'm now totally taken with the idea of visiting Sabah! i think it might just be the ideal holiday..

Imagine climbing Mount Kinabalu (4093m SE Asia's highest mountain) at the start of the trip, then trekking through Kinabalu National Park and visiting swiftlet-infested caves and maybe visiting a village or two; and finally diving Layang-Layang or Sipadan at the end of the whole trip! :D wouldn't that be amazing??

i just love holidays that combine travelling, diving, trekking and lots and lots of photography!!

any takers for this trip? :) ... don't know when i'll be going though... umm... :p

response to my online donation drive has been absolutely dismal...so far, only Kai has come forward and she is contributing a miserable $0.01 for every kilometre i run.. which translates to a grand total of $1.00 (!) if i run 100km - my target distance.. sigh...

either no one believes i can actually run that distance or no one loves animals.. :(

what the heck, i'll do it just for Oakley dollars then.... hmph... (note the bitterness in my tone...)

didn't mention that my precious pair of Oakleys zeros was snitched during tioman dive trip..:(... left it carelessly in my dive bag in dive centre and came back to realise it had been taken.. case and all..very sad 'cos was one of the major expenses over the last three months.. :( .... in my moment of grief, i declared to myself that i must replace it with a similar pair or be forever grieving..... but then i came back to singapore, sat around and thought about it more, and came up with something else altogether ...

instead of just going out and spending another huge amount on another one, i decided to use a reward system to get it.. i have decided to start a virtual "piggy bank" where i will deposit $2 for every kilometre i run.. and i will not get my Oakleys until i get enough in this piggy bank.. which means i have to run... more than 100 kilometres! :O ...what the heck, i reckon it's time i push myself to make my running more regular anyway ..

and to give it a charity twist, i have decided to get "supporters" for this event who are willing to contribute any amount for every kilometre i run.. and i will give the money collected to my favourite charity -SPCA! :) oh well, just giving it a shot.. if you think you want to contribute, just email (hwee@asia.com) me.. :) i will keep you informed periodically of how far i have run...

oh well, so much for today's blabberings..

back from trip to tioman:


beautiful sunset on the way to dive shop


woman selling the famous Ramly burger


taking boat from murky Mersing Jetty to the island


tioman island finally...


at the end of a day of great diving... :)

YAY!! :D leaving for diving trip @ pulau tioman tomorrow night! can't wait to dip into clear green (tioman waters are not exactly "blue") waters and come close to the corals, fishes, turtles (hopefully) and more! looking forward to sunbathing and reading by the soft clean beach and sleeping to the sound of the softly swishing waves... mmm... :)

check out where i'll be staying...

just chanced upon this page featuring a Battery Operated Tongue Vibrator ... urgh... frankly speaking, i can't stand any form of body piercing - ears, nose, cheeks (yes, even during the Thaipusam festival), tongue, nipple, belly button, etc etc... as a matter of fact, i can't even stand injections! :p i remember the only time i closed my eyes when i was watching Alien 3 (with Sigourney Weaver) many years ago was when there was a scene of someone getting a regular injection.. haha.. i didn't even squirm when i saw the actual "alien" later on... durrhh?? :D

learnt about syn-es-the-sia n. Physiol. Sensation produced at a point other than or remote from the point of stimulation, as of a color from hearing a certain sound (fr. Gk, syn = together + aisthesis = to perceive). umm.... fascinating...

People who taste colors....see fragrances...smell sounds...Synesthesia is an involuntary joining in which the real information of one sense is accompanied by a perception in another sense. In addition to being involuntary, this additional perception is regarded by the synesthete as real, often outside the body, instead of imagined in the mind's eye. It also has some other interesting features that clearly separate it from artistic fancy or purple prose. Its reality and vividness are what make synesthesia so interesting in its violation of conventional perception. Synesthesia is also fascinating because logically it should not be a product of the human brain, where the evolutionary trend has been for increasing separation of function anatomically.

in a desperate attempt to de-stress today, Kai and I decided to give names to some of the fixed assets in our store.. our computers are now called Sky and Night, our fax machine is called Sandy, our CCTV is called Kelvin, and our ink cartridges are Sally and John (we have actually stuck labels on them with the names just in case we forget... hahahha.. :D)

not sure why business has slowed down so much... is it just because of the World Cup?? or is it also because of the weak US economy and the weak yen? or is it just that people are generally feeling anxious and market sentiments are negative? don't know.. i believe that we as retailers are worst hit 'cos even before companies actually start retrenching workers and all that, people normally already start tightening their belts in anticipation of hard times and the effects are felt first and foremost by us... after all, guess the typical individual still tends to view art as some kind of luxury as opposed to food and other needs.. trying to work out new strategies and new products for the survival and growth of the shop over the past two weeks have definitely steepened our learning curves tremendously and taught us invaluable negotiation and business analytical skills....

guess there's always a positive side to everything....err... oh well...

syn·chro·nic·i·ty Pronunciation Key (sngkr-ns-t, sn-)
n. pl. syn·chro·nic·i·ties

1. The state or fact of being synchronous or simultaneous; synchronism.
2. Coincidence of events that seem to be meaningfully related, conceived in Jungian theory as an explanatory principle on the same order as causality.

this whole concept of synchronicity is intriguing... how some things just sometimes all fall into place mysteriously and coincidentally without logical explanation.. but actually i don't find it all too hard to explain if you do believe in your "guardian angel", which i do... :) .. i'm not really into the New Age thing lah so don't tell me about aliens from outer space, magic and wizards... .blahhh...

captured a buttercup moment on my way home:

caught a stunning dance performance "Le Jardin io io ito ito" by Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu at the Kallang Theatre just now and have to admit that the "rather expensive" tickets fourth row from the front were actually well-worth it... contemporary dance but nothing quite like what i expected - for an hour and a half, we were treated to a non-stop dreamy surreal blend of head-spinning breakdance, graceful ballet, flamenco, african tribal beats, a "smurf-like" clown, and even cirucus contortionist movements... in the musical background were sounds of sweetly singing voices, whistling, chants, shouts, raggae (??), classical, hiphop and goodness-knows-what... we were transported to another realm.. of fantasy meets dreams, of traditional meets ultra-modern...

and did i mention the actors/dancers on stage interacting with the ever-changing backdrop of projected images of human-headed (centaur-like) creatures, animal-headed people, characters in all sorts of amazing costumes with human heads and cat or griffin or even fish bodies. These creatures often emerged from the dancers' bodies, tiny at first and then spiraling larger. And they would often exit on the dancers' backs, shuffling along them as the dancers shuffled off.

it's hard to walk out not feeling the lightness in your head (and also in your feet).. great performance i must say.. :)

Warning

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick the flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

....by Jenny Joseph

Do really sappy, insipid, "always and forever" love poems make you want to puke? (and that goes for Bon Jovi lyrics too!)

Do you find typical "Women's Magazines" to be either stomach turning or pathetically laughable?

Are you tired of the walking wounded moping around expecting that the world owes them something because they are victims?

Do you find the likes of Michael Bolton and Kenny G. revolting?

Does the sight of an incredibly handsome man (i.e. "himbo") turn you off, cause so many of them have room-temperature IQ's, and obnoxious or non-existent personalities?

.. then maybe you belong in the category of women who are labelled as "Heartless Bitches"...?? :p

i really don't like myself today.. i lived today mindlessly and ended up causing some bad feelings and damaged egos.. i didn't stand up for someone when i should have and passed along information from one to another like a mailbox without considering how it might hurt others...

i could of course just make excuses like i was really tired.. or distracted.. or busy or whatever.. but still, i guess it all boils down to the fact that i have indeed become quite self-centred and "unthinking" this recent past.. for e.g. i was helping someone i know to look for an artist who could draw a portrait of her month-old son. i got this former art student i know to do so and it ended up that the person who wanted it done wasn't totally pleased with the completed work even though everyone else thought it was a pretty good piece of work. more importantly, the artist was proud of it and signed it. Instead of fully standing up for the artist who drew it and telling the one who wanted the drawing done to "just take it or leave it", i acceded to the latter's request to find out from the artist what drawing materials were used to draw it so "she could find someone else to modify it further" and even worse, agreed with the artist's sentiments that her name be removed from the drawing if it really was to be changed since it was no longer "totally done by her".... totally mindless...

it was only later, after a bit more thought that it fully dawned on me how insulting the whole incident had been for the artist and how i should have just stood up for her and taken the work back.. after all, if the work wasn't fully appreciated and was going to be changed, wouldn't it be better to just take it back and keep it as part of the artist's portfolio? i guess the money wasn't all that important after all...

fortunately, i got everything sorted out properly in the end and will be taking the piece of work back to the artist rather than let the insult continue.. but apologies had to be made all around... i really handled everything so badly... sigh... i hope they forgive me...

learnt two things today:

a. Surinam is a country in South America even though it has an African-sounding name

b. Slovenia has a population of only 2 million, yet they have managed to get a team into the World Cup! Shows that Singapore has hope after all! :)

facts and sights of the world never fail to fascinate me...

having not followed the World Cup much this whole time, i had however the opportunity to witness some really good stuff while sipping teh ping (milk tea with ice) at the cheese prata place near NUS just now ...

SLOVENIA 1 : 3 PARAGUAY

very exciting match with the Paraguayans coming from one goal down in the first half to finishing dramatically with the score above.. we witnessed a change of tide as the Slovenians, who were the ones mainly doing the attacking in the first half, gradually slowing down and finding themselves at the mercy of a suddenly revitalised Paraguay team.. a lot of running around here and there, lots of emotions (from the cheering fans and players) and lots of action..

so here you go, a commentary from a girl on a soccer match :p ... actually, realised girls don't just notice the action on the field when they watch a soccer match.. they are likely to also notice how "good looking this guy is", or "how muscular South Americans are" or how nice their uniform is", etc etc.. girls are very thorough indeed in watching the match details.... :) ... or should i say.. distracted?? :D

a friend of mine just introduced me to famous Nobel Laureate and Chilean poet, diplomat and Marxist Pablo Neruda (once described as the world's greatest poet).. he has written, among many other "Elementary Odes" (including Ode To the Tomato and Ode To a Large Tuna in the Market), my favourate one known as Ode To Life.. too long to paste it in my blog.. please go and read it, it's lovely..

Pablo Neruda was featured prominently in the charming Italian film as the poet who helps the postman to win his girl in The Postman (Il Postino) (1995).. remember?

a colleague of mine suspected she had fishbone stuck in her throat early this afternoon but refused to go and check at the doctor's.. preferring to "go home for dinner later and stuff rice down throat to see whether can push it down (old wives' advice)"... coupled with the recent stories of young pretty girls dying of liver disease after taking slimming tablets and yesterday's story of the girl who didn't know she had heart problems and just dieted herself to death (eating fruits and vege 90% of the time, overexercising and letting her weight drop some 10 to 12kg) even though her weight was initially already perfectly fine.. i really sat up and thought about how some of us are abusing our bodies...

In "If Life is a Game, These are the Rules:Ten Rules for Being Human" by Chérie Carter-Scott, Ph.D.,

RULE 1: YOU WILL RECEIVE A BODY
You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration of your life on Earth.

..some of us go through life abusing our bodies, either obviously, by what you read in the incidents above, or smoking or drinking excessively or more subliminally by eating the wrong foods and letting our bodies grow fat, sluggish, and lacking exercise, or keeping late nights.. or having appalling eating habits (of which i am among the very guilty..), or many many other ways... we continually behave as if we will have a chance to replace our bodies with a new one should it suddenly fail or something..

i always think.. do we really need to wait till something serious happens before we take note of how we are treating our bodies? :( or should we start respecting our bodies from this very moment on....? Respecting by treating our bodies with the same care we would give any other valuable and irreplaceable object..

the Hello Kitty PopUp Toaster is so cute!!! It toasts Hello Kitty's face on every slice!

and check out the step-by-step guide to making a PHKL - Pink Hello Kitty Laptop... and its cousin - the YZPL - Yellow Zippered Pokemon Laptop...very bizarre...

attack of the clones...



i provide artwork cloning services, just in case you ever need that :p

i hope that india and pakistan don't go into war....

"I discovered that people are not really afraid of dying; they're afraid
of not ever having lived, not ever having deeply considered their life's
higher purpose, and not ever having stepped into that purpose and
at least tried to make a difference in the world."

- Joseph Jaworski

maybe a realisation of this will persuade more people to go out and chase their dreams?

urls:

- this guy changed the boring view out of his window to resemble that of the Manhattan skyline...amazing...

- copies of Spider-Man 2 already pirated on the web before the movie is actually filmed.. this is quite funny..

- the Pi-Pi-to-Phone is a dangerously cute new Japanese kids' cellphone that is preprogrammed to only dial three numbers - damn, it's really cute!

- and control Anthony for 2 weeks through the Remote Control Challenge... very bizarre...

i met the oddest and most diverse bunch of people today.

just in case you are now thinking i have the illusion that i am myself not odd at all, let me assure you otherwise. i know i am odd, but nowhere quite as odd as the people here who stumbled into my shop today.

there is firstly this big woman who struts in looking like she owns the world - proud, big-haired, and with her chin pointing up, she looked at everything around her with a certain disdain and then started questioning me on my materials and telling me about who else she buys her things from. anyway, she was quite informative albeit the somewhat annoying arrogance.

then i had these two young girls bouncing into the store wondering what materials they need to paint on candles. they are thinking of setting up a stall (or even a company!) at Stadium Cove selling candles in colourful bright abstract designs that they come up with. they are quite convinced the wrong use of paint for the candles will cause their customers to be poisoned. quite entrepreneural anyway.

then i had this man who came in with his two daughters and went around the shop looking and touching all our paper products like mounting boards, corrugated paper etc and finally looked up and asked "Do you sell namecard holders?" huh?

and then there was this guy who came in and went into this monologue where he spoke about his painting which was spoilt by the wrong use of paint and then (did i miss something?) started to talk about himself, about his joblessness, about his telling his friends to "F**k Off" if he is unhappy with them, about Tibetan sayings, his loss in the stock market.. anyway, i lost him after a while...

that's a day in the life of an art shop..

THE DICTIONARY DEFINES PERSONAL SPACE AS:
"THE PHYSICAL SPACE IMMEDIAT-
ELY SURROUNDING SOMEONE, IN-
TO WHICH ANY ENCROACHMENT
FEELS THREATENING TO OR UN-
COMFORTABLE FOR THEM".
"SPACE DESIGNED FOR THE USE
OF AN INDIVIDUAL WITHIN A LAR-
GE COMMUNAL AREA SUCH AS AN
OFFICE. TIME IN WHICH SOMEONE
IS UNDISTURBED AND FREE TO
CONCENTRATE ON THEIR OWN
THOUGHTS AND NEEDS."

another fantastic work by Chalkmaster Dave

the creation of these so-called "bald chickens" disturbs me greatly... how much more will humans alter nature to suit themselves? is there no more respect for what we are eating anymore??

this slaughterman kidded around with a pig's ears and nose after a hard day's killing:



it's times like this that i wonder if i should become vegetarian...

so i ran.

running.
one of the best things i discovered in life.

i run when i am sad.
i run when i am happy.
i run when i am stressed.
i run when i am relaxed.
i run when i am tired.
i run when i feel strong.
i run when i feel fat.
i run when i feel slim.

there are 1000001 reasons to run.

there are days like this where my heart is so burdened with worries and uncertainties - about work, about family, about friends, about the future... about almost everything that a person can conceivably worry about... i find myself sighing almost unconsciously and my mind wandering off, interrupted only by yet more thoughts... i don't think i am depressed... just worried...

it is times like this that i realised why i am such an optimistic person by nature and why i sometimes have the weirdest things happening to me... maybe it is to help me to handle difficult and troubling situations when they actually happen ...

a dose of wisdom (dispensed by the police in the form of a rolled up cigarette butt-sized nugget when i went to report stolen laptop two weeks ago):

the Powerpuff Girls: The Movie is starting next week!!

sis suggested i bring Buttercup down to the cinema for the premier and then started getting carried away, going on to say i should bring down also my bag with the small Buttercup keychain, wear the Buttercup watch and hairclip and finally said i should also dress in green, wear a black belt, wear long white japanese style socks and my Oakleys to make my eyes bigger...

errr...

Talks On Photojournalism

today will no doubt be remembered (by me) for marking a new milestone in my whole attitude towards photography.

first speaker Marie-Laure de Decker (France) brought a whole new dimension to my view of photojournalism being a mostly male-dominated domain with her gutsy-ness (her philosophy: "if they don't want you to take the picture, all the more you should!" and "if you die, you die. if you don't, at least you have your picture"), her view on the power of photojournalism in steering public sentiments (e.g. during Vietnam war) and strong principles on what images she will capture and what she will not (no blood, no naked women).

i was also thoroughly inspired by Singapore-based photographer Tay Kay Chin - who in his short talk (heavily laden with sentimentality) captured the exact sentiments i have about what it is and means to be Singaporean. He spoke of a "love-hate" relationship, the feeling that he will never fully understand this place and yet being fully convicted that this is ultimately still "home" - the thought that if he was ever not to be able to return to this country for whatever reason - totally unbearable.. from his words, pictures (he actually uses the Hasselblad XPan dual-format camera - a cool rangefinder) and body language, i could tell that this was someone who felt the same affection i have for Singapore, for the food, the off-the-beaten track spots, the quirkiness of Singaporeans etc etc.. even though he had been all around the world, spending time working and experiencing life overseas.. i was thoroughly moved that he had decided to spend the next couple of years just taking pictures of people and places in Singapore so he can remember them and record them in some way..

about photojournalism, he had these words: don't go into war just so you can capture nice pictures. go into war only if you think your pictures will make a difference. it is already messy enough in there without reporters getting into trouble.. so true..

i really love this pic that alb took!!

thoroughly inspiring talks @ art museum today:

Japanese Master photographer Keiichi Tahara (Art Photography) showcased a series of his photographic works centred around the theme of light, shadows, reflection - reminding us that photography is ultimately about light - observing the movement of light, painting with light and capturing of moments.. he seems to have a fetish for taking photographs of windows.. had a whole series of them but was definitely fascinating - mostly in black and white.. a medium i haven't really gone into yet..he also used his knowledge of light to do this really cool "installation" project to illuminate Canal Saint Martin in Paris with rainbows of light.. must have been amazing to see it...

Second talk was by wacky Master photographer Horst Wackerbarth from Germany (Fashion Photography) - the presentation of his ongoing work Gallery Of Mankind (otherwise known as the "Red Couch Projects") was fascinating, thought-provoking and at the same time one cannot help but smile looking at the small sampling (out of some 400 pictures) of amazing pictures of "people from all walks of life - rich and poor, famous and unknown, old and young, regardless of race and religions" sitting or resting on the famous "universal Red Couch" - see some of great works here. Even his fashion photography works were not just wonderfully taken, but also carried with them symbolisms of meaning - the search for identity, role playing, awareness of life...

good session.. looking forward to tomorrow.. :)

see also some wonderful installation works by thai photographer and installation artist Jakraphun Thanateeranon - whose portfolio was on display.. some people are really creative...

more pictures of myself ...click on <1> <2> <3>... submitted to The Mirror Project

pics from my lca:





month of June is the Month of Photography!! going for free talks at Singapore Art Museum tmrw morning organised as part of Asia-Europe Workshop For Young Photographers, with sharing on different aspects of photography by some gurus from Japan, Germany, France and Singapore... what a great time to get some solid inspiration :)

a friend of mine was tickled pink recently reading Notes From An Even Smaller Island - a book by an ang moh capturing his feelings, views and observations about Singaporean life from his time here on our little island ..i'm sure this guy was really funny, judging from how my friend couldn't stop laughing and prodding me to read the book too... there were bits about kiasuism, government policies and also daily local life in the book. ..

yet, on the other hand, i felt a little annoyed...and the reason why this was the case was because this friend of mine is Malaysian and a more than occasional critic of Singapore-related stuff. I'm not saying that all Malaysians are Singapore-bashers (though that might appear to be the case of late - judging from what is written in the press).. yet, much as my views on Singaporeans (and especially on govt polices) may not always be positive, i know that i do love this country. in fact, i can even imagine myself willing to die for Singapore if the need ever arises.. so one thing that never fails to get to me are how foreigners (even Malaysians) poke fun or laugh at, criticise and slam this country even if they don't know enough about this place and who have obviously no deep vested interest in the country to hope it will flourish (other than so they can work here!) - i mean, who are they to speak as if they know better? they could just walk away when things go bad - no loyalty whatsoever even if they have been here a while, studying, working or living... we all know that Singapore is imperfect in many ways, but unless they have a genuine interest in making this place better, all this talk is fruitless and empty.. for this reason, i am a 100% supporter of local forums such as Sintercom, ThinkCenter and Singapore Window where Singaporeans themselves take an interest in and discuss local issues openly..

i guess much of how i feel stems from the fact that i know how blessed i am to have been born in this country - knowing that given enough hard work and smartness, my opportunities and choices in life are relatively unlimited... having lived overseas for a while and travelled fairly extensively in the region these recent years, i know the life and career, travel etc. opportunities we have here are but an impossible dream for many born in poverty and hardship in most of the countries surrounding us.. a friend of mine told me Singapore was described recently by some politician in Singapore as a super efficient sports car that is viewed (puzzledly) by Singaporeans as just an ordinary car... makes you wonder why... maybe Singaporeans are just afraid they will be accused of being "blind PAP followers" if they do openly show appreciation for the so-called "good life".. but how did they get so confused..?

Senegal's unexpected upset of World Cup holders France by 1:0 proves that just about anything is possible.. (see news).. umm... suddenly realised that even as i rack my brains real hard, i don't seem to know anything about this African country other than that it is in Africa... as a matter of fact, I don't even know which part of Africa it is in! but wouldn't it be cool to visit Senegal...? :)

managed to finish stocktaking early and dropped into Festival Village @ Fort Canning for an enjoyable evening of World Music stuff.. everything from Argentinian contemporary tango from La Chicana (really nice!), classical South Indian music by Mangala Vadyam (from Singapore) - orchestra of indian wind and percussion instruments - and hiphopping funky jazz by Eval Manigat & Tchaka (Haiti/Canada) to some rather odd masked dance and drama thing (good triumphs over evil) from West Bengal (India)'s Purulia Chhau Group - doing the all-time favourite Ramayana - and an unexpectedly enjoyable Balinese-style Gambuh Macbeth by Indonesian group Arti Foundation (this is really really cool...). All this for only $13! (plus they give you two bottles of Perrier per ticket!) it's a good deal.. try not to miss it if you can.. great international stuff doesn't come around to Singapore all that often, especially at this price..