Mission: Piggify & Chubbify

Mission to piggify and chubbify myself started yesterday, basically sleep and eat, and sleep some more throughout the Chinese New Year holiday. I am taking a long leave. ^_^

Well, didn't go off to a good start (but I am not really complaining).

First a d'oh moment when the alarm clock woke me up at 07:00 hours yesterday because I set it wrongly, supposed to set it to 09:00 hours. Yea, d'oh!

Then despite being on leave, I attended and presented my findings in the 09:00 hours task force meeting. At least the chairperson was appreciative and commented on my dedication. (slacker point -1, feel good +1)

Off to have my car serviced after the meeting, only it's a tad late by the time I left home. Never one who likes to be late, I changed plan and headed straight to the lunch meet location first. Got the cheque banked in and the letter posted and still was early for the lunch, fantastic!

Lunch with 13 colleagues, some of them friends by now, was an enjoyable event. Not only did I took a positive step in chubbifying myself, also recruited a new member to the photography group. I am also going to chalk this up as socialising +1. =)

After goodbyes I went to pick up a book in the mall and headed to service my car. Started reading the book while waiting for the mechanic to do his stuff, only paused to check when fresh engine oil was added to make sure he gave me the real fully synthetic oil.

Pretty much done with what I set out to do after the car service so I headed home, thinking to give the car another wash. The car wash didn't happen, I went and soaked myself in the pool instead.

With the kids, a not-too-happy-in-the-pool niece, brother, and sister-in-law, that is. ^_^

Then chubbified myself at dinner and settled the kid to bed. Made brother and sister-in-law played board game with me after that, hehe. =P (geek +1)

A happening and satisfying day really, just didn't do very well on the piggifying myself front. =P

信则有不信则无

昨晚网上才读到立春不一定是阳历二月四日，也可能会落在二月三或五日，什么二十四节气第一個节气，什么太阳到达黄经315度的。 -_-

还有就是有个网站说生肖在立春开始，是命理学传开的，那网站说生肖应该是根据阴历正月初一（既是农历新年）开始。

去年那五分钟热度读了些八字书籍后我以为立春总是阳历二月四日。还有就是生肖在立春换，也是那些八字书籍里读到的。

（唔，我应该继续研究完那些八字书籍…）

昨晚因为犯太岁这东西和老婆仔吵了个小架。因为我们是很少吵架的，所以在立春那晚，命理学说蛇年开始我犯太岁那晚我就和老婆仔吵架，我觉得好邪哦！

朋友劝说不要太迷信，信则有不信则无。（不要担心啦，我和老婆仔妥协没事了，恩爱非常。 ^_^）

看到那「信则有不信则无」我就忍不住要作怪，呵呵！

信则有，真的？

我相信我是很有钱的！

我相信我是高大威猛，英俊潇洒的！

我相信我是超级万人迷！

信则有？有昧？

欺骗我的感情… =P

Gotta slack more

Another happening weekend, this is seriously damaging my slacker extraordinaire reputation!

=P

Woke up tired yesterday but went out for lunch to celebrate mom's birthday. Returned home for the song and cake, it's already late afternoon by the time we tidied up.

Then, genuine attempt at trying to capture a particular portrait I have in mind, but I gave up in frustration eventually as we had already missed the ideal lighting time, and couldn't achieve the effect I was trying for anyway. Model getting sleepy and the little monsters bugging all the while didn't help.

Pfft.

Switched gear and went to do some panning shots. "Some" ended up more like 200 shots, not too happy with the results but the sun has set and it's dinner time.

Tried to set up for a rear curtain sync shot after dinner but found that, of all things, I was lacking a piece of black paper.

Saturday didn't go too well for my photography attempts, though the home baked cheese cake was a success according to wifey. I wouldn't know as I am lactose intolerance.

Today turned out to be more fruitful. Didn't wake up tired, that's always a good start! =)

Lunch with colleagues from The States in Straits Quay, my goodness, I am socialising! That's just... abnormal. 0_o

A leisurely lunch followed by a visit to Borders and then Chocolate Passion. Neither of the shop owners were in, so couldn't tell them about the sea salt chocolate the colleagues are so into.

Parted ways with wifey and kids after Straits Quay and brought the colleagues to Tesco and then to Prangin Mall, looking for umbrellas of all things! Here's a public service, forget supermarket or shops in a mall, go to the pharmacy if you want to get umbrella, sheesh!

It's already evening by the time I dropped them off at their hotel and got home. Mrs Chan called and said she will come over to pick up the camera after dinner. So I quickly set up using the Tesco bought black paper and fired away, after 59 shots I think I have bagged the rear curtain sync shot.

February theme for the photography group is 'Speed', hence the panning and the rear curtain sync attempts. ^_^

Well, I have just returned the DSLR, so one of either the panning or the rear curtain sync shots will have to do.

Anyway, way too happening these few weekends, if I am not careful I am gonna lose my slacker extraordinaire status. Gotta slack more!

So, after a month...

How's your new year resolutions holding up?

- be a better father -

LEGO session every weekend, so far the boys are still interested, the elder more than the younger, but at least Young will still join in until he exhausted his attention span.

We did robot, tank, fighter jet, and combat helicopter so far. ^_^ The kids picked the theme.

- be a better husband -

This one is destined to fail, wifey never did give me any feedback, the only ones she gave were jokes: like to eat cake more, earn more money.

At least I hope they are just jokes. 0_o

- socialise more -

I am not really giving much thought to this one, I am just no longer a social person.

Actually, I am not sure if I ever was.

Wifey agrees that I would not be myself anymore if I change, so that settles it, I am just going to let this drop and happily be my antisocial self.

- read more novels than 2012 -

Three books so far, if I can keep the pace, I would have read 36 books by year end and this would be a success.

However it's slower going for the current 4th novel compared to the three I have finished, the writing style is just... not as easy to read.

- get back to photography -

Surprisingly I put in a lot of effort on this one, this is a good month in terms of progress on photography front.

Actually took some serious photographs instead of casual snapshots, did my first ever wedding photography and in the process taught myself about using flashgun.

Imagine that! People photography and flash photography, the two things I avoided throughout my previous photography period.

Still, I haven't got myself a DSLR, so...

- write a story -

I am thinking of finishing that short story I started two years ago as April Fools prank, the story is pretty much fully formed in my mind after all.

But I am slacker extraordinaire, so I am leaving this to fate.

随想

五天假期就这样过去了，好快。

和孩子做 LEGO，学用闪光灯，跑医院，拍婚宴，整理照片，其实还过得蛮充实的。

太充实了点，我是想要睡觉，看书和玩电脑游戏的嘞。

一向来喜欢用自然光拍照的我这次认真研究怎样使用闪光灯后才发现这也是一门学问。要在阴暗的室内用闪光灯把人的皮肤拍得像是自然光，而不是硬生生不自然闪光灯的效果还不简单哦！

用对了出来的效果真的好好看，现在我反而很难想象以后在室内拍人时不用闪光灯。

那是，如果我买部数码摄影机的话啦…

明天又要做工了，好显哦！

I'll be back

One of my resolutions this year is to get back to photography. My plan in realising this resolution is to get a group of like-minded friends, have a monthly theme kind of thing where we go take our best shot, share, and provide honest feedbacks to others.

Group motivation, something like that.

Anyway, January's theme is Still Life, and submission period started today. It's not a big group, and many are so eager they submitted earlier. Wah lau peer pressure so I ended up selecting one of my shots last week and submitted instead of trying a few more this weekend as initiailly planned.

I am lucky this month in the sense that I have a borrowed DSLR to take the shots. Next month onwards I will rely on my PowerShot S2 or my IXUS 800, until I get myself a DLSR, which have to wait until I sell my kidney or something. =P

 the beauty of digital photography: try as much as you like!

Capitalising on the near instant review and the near zero running cost, I bracketed my exposures and played with different apertures to get different depth of field. So fast and cheap compared to good old film. ^_^

Shared here are the more presentable photos.

I like these cups, and tried to compose the scene so it has meaning

Green bunny chasing pink bunny, how to convey that in a nice pictorial form?

that's me girl, so near yet so far

I have difficulty finding a tidy background, so I opted for shooting down towards the horizontal surface. I changed to a mirror to add intrigue.

Wine glass and its reflection

Not the first time I use this technique really, I like it because it's neat and tidy.

a glass half full, or half empty?

Reflection details alone may not be enough as focal point, so I added the liquid. Wanted to include my own reflection within the glass reflection, but I couldn't achieve that on the day. Supposed to try it again this weekend in another location where I have more room to position myself.

with foreground interest and hopefully lead-in

Then I added the drops, hoping to add some foreground interest, and possibly lead-in. But might have ended up as a distraction, less is more in this case? I submitted this last image as my entry, let's see what the feedbacks are. ^_^

This is just the first month for the group, so I'm not sure if it will keep going or just dissolves when the initial interest wears out.

I can't honestly say that I am back to photography yet, so I will just say I'll be back, without a specific timeline. =P

Random Thoughts

Truely random thoughts of the moment.

- good grief, January has been hurtful to the wallet

- temporary reprieve waiting for parts, feel so weird to have a day not doing stuff in the lab or floor

- parents are needing more care and help, how can I do more?

- not sure whether to laugh, feel disgusted, or horrified by that kind of relationship attitude

- have a feeling the photography group is going to dissolve pretty soon

- sorry, that's probably a one time deal, can't stand the jibes more than anything

- Hsiang is getting difficult *sigh*

- genuine attempts on most of my resolutions this year, truely it's not for the lack of trying if I don't achieve. Except socialising, wifey also agrees that's just not me

- this is a short week, work wise ^_^

- it's about time for a karaoke session

- go away, bloody cough!

- quote to remember: "our quality of life depends on our relationship with the people around us."