Celebrations

The erm... "2nd album release" earlier this month is a big deal to me.

Really big deal. The next one will probably be a long time away, if ever.

I believe in sharing, especially happiness. I am mightily happy with the "album release" so it calls for a celebration!

The funny thing is, I ended up with several celebrations. Well, actually it's not funny, it's rather sad.

The first thing I did to give myself a pat on the back was to buy an expensive pack of crisps from Tesco. Potato chips and chilled Coke while reading a novel, aaa... bliss!

Wifey didn't like it, so I ended up finishing the whole pack myself. Okay, it wasn't all that tasty really, but it's freaking expensive so I ate every piece.

I guess that counted as the first celebration, somewhat.

The second celebration was to have a nice family dinner, eating out. But the plan fell apart on the day, I didn't even have a say in it. No body bothered to inform me as well.

When I finally found out nearing the time we were supposed to go out, I was definitely not a happy bunny. I went out for a long walk. A really really long walk.

And I ended up having the supposingly celebratory dinner alone, and instead of some fancy restaurant, I had a meal deal in Burger King.

So happy, not.

The third celebration was probably the real celebration, all considered. It's the karaoke session where colleagues (of which most are friends) gave face and turned up. Thank you, sincerely.

Too bad I was sick and couldn't really sing. -_-

Probably no body believed me (why ler? I honest one...) when I said I didn't bear the full cost for that karaoke session. But thank you "record company", for footing half the bill.

The second attempt at family dinner out was the last celebration. Last because I gave up after that.

Of all the nice restaurants to choose from, wifey let the kids decide and His Royal Highness Boy King Hsiang wanted KFC. -_-

Let's just say that after the dinner wifey said to never go eat at KFC again since both she and His Royal Highness Boy King Young don't like it.

What a cheery celebration, not.

I'll be back (4)

In this series: |part 1| |part 2| |part 3|

All photos in this series are presented as photographed, unless otherwise specified, the only image manipulations done were resize, crop and adding watermark.

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April's theme for The Light Room is 'Happiness'. A theme that leaves much to interpretation and space for creativity.

High-key lighting technique popped up in my mind as soon as I saw the theme. It's something that I have always wanted to try but never did get to, and I think the technique suits the theme.

how to show that reading while eating junk food and sipping chilled Coke is a happy thing for me?

tweak: contrast +5%

Ideas for subject that popped up include reading, writing, sleeping, chocolate, board game, card game, smiling face, kids with balloons, clasped hands with the wedding bands showing, clasped hands as foreground focus framing kids playing as out of focus background, toes of parents as foreground focus with kids playing as out of focus background at the seaside. All these with high key lighting.

 

my joy in writing, sharing, and a philosophical take on the theme

tweak: software change to black & white

I know I know, some of the things may not be happiness to others but hey, this is my photo! =P

The theme also reminded me of an entry I posted a few years back, for a hand made birthday present.

 

tried a few versions, not really happy with all the attempts though. Probably should have highlighted that sentence or printed in red or some other colour

tweak: software change to black & white

Took photos of board game, of my kids playing board game, of my kids smiling faces as well. But didn't like any of those.

I need a proper DSLR, a fast lens and a dedicated flash for the people's shot to get the effect I want. Since I don't have any of those, I settled for inanimated objects.

Deefer! My stuffed toy dog with a huge smile

Those clasped hands, toes at seaside, kid with balloons images would probably be real nice if I could pull them off. For now, they will remain in my mind in their perfect form. =P

 

this is the photo I submitted, I like the tilted head Deefer more ^_^

All original work on this site is copyright C.K. Goh and may not be copied or reprinted without my express written approval.

Happy bunny

Today was a lot less productive compared to other days, work wise.

Oh well, gotta maintain the slacker extraordinaire reputation from time to time. =P

But today was a bloody good day, very satisfying day. For my soul and tummy.

^_^

Thank you so much my dear dependable karaoke kaki, so fantastic to have a reliable group of buddies for my singing fix.

Felt so... liberated after shouting my head off. =)

Dinner was nice and joyous. Farewell speeches from the two retiring colleagues were humourous and inspirational.

Remember, don't bring the work home. Make friends, not enemies. Love what you do. And most importantly, beg for janitor's room for a chance to stay in presidential suite!

Fare thee well my retiring colleagues, best wishes.

有感而发：低落

二零一三年四月六日。

今天心情怪怪的。

有点低落。

还算是睡得比较好的一晚，但起身时仍是累。

是因为还没复原吧？

星期四病了没去上班，昨天好了点但去到公司时开始头昏脑胀，徒劳无功的一天后回到家有点死尸的感觉。

今天起身后吐出了浓浓绿色的痰，好像更严重了，唉…

不想讲话的一天。

也无妨，反正家人都没有要和我讲话的习惯。是有点悲，但事实。

感觉不是很好，很纳闷，有点烦躁，我想会容易发脾气，所以我都尽量将自己关在房里。

但老婆仔去做脸的那几个小时我得照顾那两个小瓜。

和他们组装我设计的 LEGO 机器人。欣慰他们都蛮有兴趣的，至少我的努力不是白费。最近有好多徒劳无功的经验，真的够了。

过后大瓜掉碎了他的机器人，我帮他组装回后发现少了一块，我便叫他去找回来。

我收拾东西完后发现两个瓜在玩闹着，问大瓜他找到遗失的那块 LEGO 了没他才做状很敷衍的找了一下说找不到，然后就跑去和弟弟继续闹。

我顿时有点气，怎么这么没有责任感的？

我叫住两个瓜，告诉他们找到遗失的那块 LEGO 前他们什么都不能做。两人又做状很敷衍的找，我真的生气了，告诉他们若我先找到就用藤条打他们，他们终于才认真的找。

但竟然是找些不可能会找到的地方。天啊！在客厅的地上掉碎怎么可能会掉到饭厅里呢？怎么可能会飞上架子呢？怎么可能会在关着的容器里呢？我的孩子怎么会这么笨？

我气到讲不出话，在大瓜告诉我他弄掉的地方去找，马上就找到了。就在那地方他们乱丢在地上的书的两页之间。

我没有打他们，生气之余是失望和那失败的感觉。孩子没有责任感，和没有逻辑思想，是父母教育的失败。

给他们吃过点心后我让他们看电视，独自在一旁生闷气。好烂的心情。

老婆仔回来后我再次把自己关在房里。有点无聊，又坐立不安。

心情很差。很显。累，也不知道是身躯还是心灵的累。

夜间老婆仔终于有空给我抓着讲话时我告诉她我的心情，请她给我一点关爱。她耸了耸肩膀，说她也不知道应该做什么，然后就走了。

我…好失落…

有感而发 |系列|


 

An aeroplane a day, part four

Copyright:

LEGO is trademark or registered trademark of The LEGO Group in Denmark and/or other countries.

All original work on this site is copyright C.K. Goh and may not be copied or reprinted without my express written approval.

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In this series: |part 1| |part 2| |part 3|

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After the fighter jets and tanks got destroyed by the two little monsters, I created robots in September of 2012.

Since wifey and I had seperated the LEGO pieces by colour, the challenge I gave myself was to create a robot out of each colour.

Alrighty, no wordy wordy. Behold! The robots!

I tried to have as many moving parts as possible, usually it's the arms, head, and waist. Only managed to make a robot with movable legs.

 

All of the robots have jetpack! ^_^

 

The orange robot was the smallest of all with a pathetic looking jetpack. I did my best with the limited number of orange LEGO piece I have, okay?

The red robot has crab-like pincers. I didn't really like it.

The dark grey robot was my favourite, it has the most mobile parts. It's the only one with movable legs. =)

 

If I had to choose a second favourite, it's either the white or yellow robot. My kids though, would always choose whichever was the latest that I built.

 

There you go, all eight robots, which is your favourite? ^_^

I simply wasn't able to create a green robot out of the few green LEGO pieces we have.

Since I wasn't too happy with the red robot, I took it apart and created another.

 

It became the second robot to have movable legs. Well, kind of. =P

Teaser for next in the series: big robot!

Bombed

It still feels unreal. I am probably still experiencing the aftershock of that "bomb".

Throughout the years I had plenty of parachuted works, those last minute super urgent needed by yesterday works. And recent years my workload is such that it no longer feels any different whether I am in a task force or not.

But today, instead of a parachute, a bomb dropped.

And not just any bomb, it felt like an atomic bomb when it hit.

Stunned. Dazed. Shocked. That's how I felt, and I am not truely sure if it has sunk in yet.

Thermal engineer, that's how I have been describing my job all these years. And that's what I do, all things thermal related. You know, temperature, heat transfer, cooling and heating solution, those kind of stuff.

Heck! I was hired because of that specific field I specialised in.

I thought I have been doing a decent job as a thermal engineer. I thought I have found my clique.

Maybe not.

Today, I was told I am to be a thermal engineer no more, and to take on a job that I haven't a clue of. Well, it's supposedly a choice, but not really if you know what I mean. Won't elaborate on that.

Don't get me wrong, I have no objection on challenges and I welcome the opportunity to expand my skillset. I just thought that I will always be working on something which revolves around thermal, where my strength is.

I am not being modest when I said I haven't a clue on what I am suppose to do in that new job scope, I am literally going to start from scratch.

Talk about getting out of our comfort zone!

So much for wanting a simple life.

天马行空：多么痛的领悟！

此冷笑话纯属不要脸的幻想虚构，如有雷同，纯属巧合。

那天签唱会里唱过那令全场感动掉泪的一首「领悟」后有位嘉宾这样问我，

“怎么会用「领悟」做新专辑的主打歌啊？”

我抹掉眼角的泪，让心情恢复后回答，

“最近对这首歌有很深的共鸣。”

“难怪你唱得这么有感觉。”

“谢谢。我都是融入感情去唱每首歌的，不只是「领悟」而已。”

唱片公司有教过要怎么回答类似的问题的。

“为什么这首歌会让你这么感触？是不是它令你想起曾经的感情事故？”

“唔？感情事故啊…不是啦…其实只是歌词里的一句很贴切我的心境。”

“哦？是哪一句啊？唱来听听。”

我深呼吸，进入情绪后唱那仿佛是写给我的一句，

“我以为我会暴富，但是我没有…”

天马行空 |系列|

Mood indicator

Who would have thought that a tiny card with hand drawn smiley would end up being part of something bigger?

It started off some time last July or August, as an alternative to graffiti on an overcrowded white board saying "I was here!". It was something I drew on the spur of the moment, just to keep in touch with a friend.

But that lazy bugger never seem to clean her whiteboard, so I drew another smiley on another tiny card on the next visit. That process repeated a few times and the friend started pinning the cards on her wall, saying it's her 'mood indicator'.

When there were five smileys representing five different moods, greedy friend asked for different level of a mood, e.g. happy, happier.

-_-

So, eventually, some time around February this year (we are both busy people *ehem*), this 'mood indicator' is finally done.

Says me anyway since greedy friend was asking for yet another level which I turn temporary deaf whenever she says that...

So behold! The 'mood indicator'!

Please check the 'mood indicator' before you approach this person. Beware of sharp tongue and scratching nails. =P

有感而发：缘

二零一三年三月十八日。

今天是很烂的一个工作天，花了一整天还是没有做到要做的，有那徒劳无功的感觉。

又，发觉年头开始的那摄影小组，看来只有我和另一位朋友是真的有兴趣和认真对待每月的题目，其他的都好敷衍了事。有那失败灰心的感觉。

所以当终于升白旗放弃工作，迟了差不多一个小时才去到羽球场时，我是蛮「度烂」的。但打球流了一身汗后心情好多了。

也不知怎么的，在驾车回程中，脑里无端端涌出人与人之间缘分这思维，一路反复思索着。

或许是，我最近又开始觉得人际关系这东西好累人，又有那想要把自己的心房关起来不去理会或在乎别人的原因吧？

我想，人与人在这世上的相遇是一份机缘，相遇了是否会成为朋友也是缘分。

茫茫人海中，就学生涯时期能够同班的同学们，如今工作生涯里碰到的同事们，是咱们有缘。

同学群中，同事群中，碰面后，认识后能够成为朋友的，是另一份因缘。

无缘就不会相遇，相识。

让我想起那句话：「有缘千里来相会，无缘对面不相逢」。

而那些朋友群中，如今还仍有联系，还仍是朋友的，是缘分未尽吧？那些不知道现在身在何处，连样貌名字都记不起了的，是缘分已尽了吧？

把一切都归缘，又抱着一切随缘的心态，很多东西放得下，心里好过很多。但这是不是一种逃避的心态呢？

看过这样一种说法：有些人，只是出现在我们生活的某个季节里。在哪季节里，他们对我们的生活有很关键性的影响，占很重要的地位。季节过了，那些人就会离去，可能再也不会出现在我们的生活里，但我们却永远记得他们留下的足迹。

那季节就有如缘分？

我真的由衷希望，无论我们是否相识，或现在是否还是朋友，我也曾在一些我曾伸出援手，关爱和帮助过的人的心中留下美丽的脚印。

有感而发 |系列|

 

I'll be back (3)

In this series: |part 1| |part 2|

All photos in this series are presented as photographed, unless otherwise specified, the only image manipulations done were resize, crop and adding watermark.

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Let me first state that most of this month's photos actually had their brightness and contrast tweaked using image manipulation software. Tweaked in the way as if I had used a graduated filter, that is, darken the sky and in some cases brighten the foreground. Contrast adjustment, if done, was to retain the original after the brightness change.

the very first photo I took, and my favourite of the lot. Contrast was increased 2%

I used Paint Shop Pro 7 for image manipulation, its brightness adjustment function doesn't have a unit, while contrast is in percentage. Most of the brightness changes I made were in the -5 to -10 range on the sky, the few changes on the foreground/land were in the +5 to +10 range. Contrast adjustment was between 2% to 5%.

sun breaking the horizon

tweak: sky brightness was reduced by 5, contrast increased by 2%

March theme for The Light Room was Landscape (Sunrise or Sunset). Yup, landscape specifically at sunrise or sunset hours.

less than 2 minutes after the above shot

tweak: sky brightness reduced by 10, contrast increased by 5%

So after two months of photographing things I set up in the comfort of the house, this month I finally got my lazy arse out and about, all in the name of photography. =P

sun was still rather high in the sky for a sunset shot

I didn't have a DSLR this month so it's back to my ancient Canon PowerShot S2. It has aperture and shutter priority functions, it allows me to manual focus (rather cumbersomely), it even has exposure compensation to help so I was good to go!

the huge brightness difference between sky and sea/land made me wish I had my graduated filter, manually holding it in front of the lens

tweak: sky brightness reduced by 5

No filter adapter though, so I had to live with the huge contrast between sky and sea/land and resorted to post-capture image manipulation, oh well.

if only the sun's reflection was also in the foreground water...

tweak: sky brightness reduced by 10, contrast increased by 5%

Made three attempts on this month's theme, two sunrises and one sunset. Can't say I didn't put in the effort. =)

that 'lump' on the beach is a dog =P

tweak: sky brightness reduced by 5, contrast increased by 5%. Sea brightness increased by 5, contrast increased by 3%

I like my twilight shots more, but since the theme specifically says sunrise or sunset, I ended up choosing one with the sun still visible.

this is the image I posted to the group

tweak: sky brightness reduced by 5, contrast increased by 5%

It was really a shame that the cloud formation was either non-existing or not really all that nice on my three attempts.

I kind of like the wave breaking on the beach

tweak: sky brightness reduced by 5. Sea/land brightness increased by 10. Overall contrast increased by 5%

Wifey snapped a beautiful sunrise photo using her mobile phone in between the days of my attempts, it has fantastic cloud formation. Life's so unfair. -_-

doggie was enjoying the sunset ^_^

tweak: sky brightness reduced by 10, contrast increased by 5%

Anyway, it's good to be passionate about photography again. It's a nice feeling.

this is a crop to make panorama

tweak: sky brightness reduced by 10, contrast increased by 5%

If only more of the group is as passionate, and take the monthly 'assignment' more seriously.

this is the photo from which the above was cropped from ^_^

tweak: sky brightness reduced by 10, contrast increased by 5%

I was hoping the group will provide me with the motivation to get back to, and stay motivated in photography.

found this log after the sun has gone down, it makes good foreground interest

tweak: sky brightness decreased by 20, contrast increased by 10%. Foreground brightness increased by 10, contrast increased by 5%

So here's hoping interest will pick up, cause it can be rather discouraging when the others don't put in the effort. It's supposed to be a group thing.

second sunrise attempt, after the end of my night shift

tweak: sky brightness reduced by 30, contrast increased by 15%

Anyway, hope you like the photographs. Feedbacks and comments appreciated! =)

exposed for the sky for the colour, but the foreground was underexposed too much for my liking

tweak: sky brightness reduced by 10, contrast increased by 5%. Foreground brightness increased by 30, contrast increased by 15%

All original work on this site is copyright C.K. Goh and may not be copied or reprinted without my express written approval.