Prague Square
Sunday, December 31, 2006

After a long break from posting pictures from my Europe tour, here's another one:

By the way, it's another 5 months to graduation. Anyone started planning on their graduation trip? How does Australia OR China OR Southeast Asia sound? If you're interested in these locations, maybe we can work out something together.

posted byWilliam at 4:23 PM 0 comments  

Chemistry Party!

Went to Wansi's place for a Chemistry Party. The darn bus 170 was so hard to wait (waited for 40 min and still haven't arrive) that I ended up taking a cab so that the gals would wait so long for me at the bus-stop. It was a booze party: Vodka, Sheridan's Cream liqueur, Hoegaarden, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.

Weather was a little disappointing initially with the drizzle wetting the pit. The fire was a little difficult to setup but no problem for the BBQ gang which got the flame going finally. Weather turned for the best towards 9pm: it was windy and the rain stopped. I thought the atmosphere of the party was very good. There was the usual talking-cock period, the "grilling" session, and the sit-together-and-finish-the-booze ending.

Xiaoling drank a little.

To the "organizing committee": thanks for this party. Aifen (the gal), Jack (the tallest guy) and Suresh (extreme right guy) were the game masters for Xiaoling's party and they played a large role in organizing today's event. Right at the back: Gabriel. Blue provocative T-shirt: Chee Koon.

Chee Koon with a mesh of food.

I think there was too much Vodka and Chee Koon decided to play with Vodka fire. I think a bit wasted.

More pictures...

P.S. We had a discussion on the raw material for Vodka. I remembered Chris (my Swedish corridormate) telling me potatoes and I told the rest. Did a Google... Yup, traditional Russian and Polish Vodkas use potatoes; the modern Vodkas are usually made from grain, especially corn.

posted byWilliam at 1:57 AM 0 comments  

An Essay on Lens
Saturday, December 30, 2006

Photography technical geeks are always on the look-out for the best lens on the market. One of the points to note in selecting a lens is its image quality and it is quite difficult to quantify the quality by a number. The sharpness of a lens is very often talked about and is a quality which is very subjective.

There are two important parameters that we should look at when we are judging the clarity of the image, or the sharpness: the image contrast and the resolution of detail. A lens can give good contrast but poor resolution and alternatively, a lens can give poor contrast but good resolution. The latter will give better sharpness at a normal viewing distance of say, 30cm; while the former will be perceived to be sharper at 2m away. This is because our eyes can no longer see the fine details produced by the higher resolution lens; contrast of the lens becomes the determining factor for image sharpness at long viewing distance.

Lens manufacturers cannot quantify the quality of their lenses based on subjective characteristics. They publish an extensive test report in a graph known as the “modular transfer function” (MTF) information. In this test, the subject is a test chart of grids. A grid consists of pairs of black and white lines. And the number of line pairs per millimeter (lp/mm) is quoted. The larger the lp/mm means that in 1mm we squeeze more B/W pairs (high spatial frequency) into that space; the ability for a lens to resolve the lines means that we have a high resolution lens. Low lp/mm represents a coarse detail or low spatial frequency. Now we have taken care of the resolution part when it comes to determining the sharpness of a lens.

The next term is modulation. This term is a quantification of the change between the black and white lines. A perfect lens would give 100% black and 100% white at the border of a line pair. In a real world, aberrations and diffraction would make the black line fade gradually into the white line (the black becomes less black and the white becomes less white). The original 100% contrast between a black line and white line on the test subject grid becomes graduated when the light from the subject is transferred through the lens. Modulation is therefore always <100%.

What happens if we plot two lenses MTF on the same graph and plotting percentage modulation against a wide range of lp/mm? It doesn't tell us anything about image quality across the image field, but it makes it easy to see how responses worsens as details become finer. The greater the area under the curve, the better the lens. If a lens is good at resolving broad details, it would make a good video camera lens while a lens good at resolving fine details would make it a better photographic camera lens.

Lens should be bought for a specific purpose in mind. We can always fit an extension tube to a telephoto and focus closer but the image quality will not be as good as a macro lens which is specialized for close-up photography. An aerial survey lens will give results for distant subjects. A lens for enlarging or copying will have optics correction for close subjects. A shift lens will have a very large covering power (to achieve this, the lens aperture is not likely to be large), therefore, likely a wide angle (Have we seen a telephoto shift lens?). By right, digital backs camera is giving very high resolution compared to silver halide films. Therefore, digital optimized lenses should have their circle of confusion (the smallest optical spot) no larger than the distance separating pixels on a CCD or CMOS.

And a tip here, do not clean your lens too often. You will cover your lens with scratch marks. This will more seriously affect the quality of your image than a speck of dust.

I haven't post any images here to illustrate how to read a MTF graph. This is to prevent any infringement of copyrights. We can have a chat if you are really interested to learn how to read one.

posted byWilliam at 1:02 PM 0 comments  

Christmas Eve-Eve
Saturday, December 23, 2006

I haven't been on a date with anyone so I took my camera to Bugis Junction trying to capture a bit of the Christmas spirit.

posted byWilliam at 11:36 PM 0 comments  

Party Again!
Friday, December 22, 2006

Here is the link to the group-portrait-photoset on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/69533277@N00/sets/72157594431707823/

posted byWilliam at 1:15 AM 0 comments  

Nano-Outing: 2006 Christmas Edition
Saturday, December 16, 2006

posted byWilliam at 4:45 PM 0 comments  

Surprise Party!

posted byWilliam at 4:43 PM 0 comments  

Went Swimming
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

I went swimming at Jalan Besar Swimming Complex. I was trying out some front crawl techniques but I just can't seem to be able to get my flutter kick right. It's more like a psycho-motor problem. I can get the flutter kick right when I am just kicking; but it develop into a very ugly, energy inefficient movement when I start rowing my upper body during breathing . I have neglected the front crawl for a long time. My breast-stroke, like most of you all, is quite ok: reasonably fast and sustainable for more than 10 laps. But 2 laps of front crawl will leave me panting like a mad-dog. When will I improve?!

The 7-11 slurppy machine turned to a spewing machine on me. The Atomic Green Apple flavor slurppy is so incredibly-hulky that it spat on me. Sux... got my hand all sticky. Thankfully the cashier was very prompt in her service and came over to help me. Oh yah, she was not grouchy. In the end, I strolled to Sim Lim Square with a cup of too-sweat, no-flavor slurppy along Jalan Besar enjoying the sights that I have missed when I travel in a vehicle.

I was looking for Sony rechargeable batteries in Sim Lim Square and it seems almost all the shops are not carrying them. Some carried the less popular AAA when all the AAs are sold out. Is Sony still interested in manufacturing rechargeables? Should I switch to Maha Powerex?

Then I met Wei Qiang, my army friend, whom I have not met for a year. His computer is driving him crazy: 6 repairs in a year! Hopefully after the change of the graphics card and a clean install of the whole system, it will turn out good.

The night was spent familiarizing (even though I have bought it for a year, I haven't unleashed the full power of this photographic tool) myself with the operation of the Sekonic L358 meter and organizing some of my computational results.

posted byWilliam at 12:13 AM 0 comments  

Prof Li's Lab BBQ + Bug Attack
Saturday, December 09, 2006

The day started with the, as usual, Friday lab meeting. Those who were having exams were exempted from presenting this time. I felt especially light today. There wasn't any academic stuff (books, paper or even a pencil) in my bag; the only items were a frisbee, a lighter, some plastic bags and old newspaper for the BBQ.

So after the meeting, Minqi, Yumin, Liling, Peiting and I went to K-lunch. And we wondered why the waitress was speaking so fast. Not just the one serving us but, in general, all the K-box people speak very fast. Yumin suggested that they have been through some speech training and I won't be surprised. Or do they seive out the fast-speakers during interviews? The soy chicken rice was quite nice. Yumin and I both agreed it was some kind of microwave meal but it was tasty. The gals were a little surprised that I recognize quite many songs and I thought it could be due to me listening to FM93.3 almost 24 hours during the reading week. As usual, I 走音like crazy and everyone had a laughing-good time. This time the waiter and waitress super onz about the timing... we kena chased out very punctually at 2pm. We thought we could stay one for quite some time but at around 2.10pm we kena a "time's up" warning again. We, being a nice bunch of people, decided to leave before they come the third time.

BBQ delivery was from 2-4pm. I had to be at the West Coast Park carpark during this period. I called up BBQ Wholesale and was told that the delivery will be made at 2.45 pm. Not much time left... We went to buy some taiwanese sausages, chips and water from NTUC and took a bus to the Park.

The delivery man was late; he came at 3.15pm. The salad and bee hoon were not well-packed and some had spilled out. He was a nice guy: he apologized on the spot and he further called us after the delivery to apologize. West Coast Park is under massive renovation and the seaview was blocked by large pieces of metal sheets. The BBQ area was super buggy: ants, flies and bitting mosquitoes. I didn't get much mosquitoes' bits but the ants liked my legs alot.

Although the BBQ was to start at 4.30pm, the rest only came at 5.30pm. So during the first 2 hours of the BBQ, the party was very exclusive to the five of us. And it's kind of fun with us cam-whoring. I was super dandruffy with the charcoal ashes flying all over me.

We spent the night playing Polar Bear, charades, 007... with Boss! Yup, I enjoyed myself and I think everyone did, even though we were all smoky, sweaty and swollen with bugs' bit.

Thank you Minqi, Yumin, Liling and Peiting for helping me carry all the heavy stuff from the carpark to the BBQ pit!

posted byWilliam at 9:11 PM 0 comments  

With a Coffee and Cake Beside Me...
Thursday, November 23, 2006

Don't you find the mornings' weather during the reading week especially good? I was walking to the PGP canteen a few moments ago and I looked up at the sky... whoa... it's so blue, so cloudless! Perfect weather for a beach-outing. Talking about the beach, I am looking forward to Prof Li's Lab Group chalet from the 8-10 Dec. I hope the weather at that chalet outing will be even better (it's kind of disappointing when it rained so heavily during the afternoons when the mornings were so sunny).

I have been looking at lighting techniques for jewelery photography and fashion photography during study breaks. Of course, I think of Tiffany when I think of "jewelery" and to a lesser extent "fashion". So I began to surf around to find out the price of a diamond engagement ring (yah, I know I don't have a girlfriend, but that doesn't stop me from looking up the prices and, maybe, saving up for them :P). So according to here (which is kind of outdated), the average ring price is USD2600 and the weight is 1-2 carat (Paris Hilton has a 24-carat one :S). USD4000 is about the MINIMUM to have to shop at a luxury jeweler (Cartier, Tiffany...) Ok, better start saving... For photographic equipment, I always buy the best on the market as long as I can afford. I will do the same for the rings, so that we don't regret.

posted byWilliam at 9:31 AM 0 comments  

D50's Minor Operation
Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Phew... I knew I shouldn't be doing this: I cleaned my Nikon D50's focusing screen a few minutes ago. Firstly, I should be studying (or sleeping), not doing something useless. Secondly, I shouldn't be touching or cleaning the focusing screen at all (this is a sure way of voiding the camera's warranty).

Anyway, I am super irritated by the specks of dust in the viewfinder and I knew those pesky dust bunnies were stuck on the unexposed side of the focusing screen. To take out the bunnies, I would have to remove the focusing screen for cleaning. So after doing some research on the Net, I found some instructions on taking the focusing screen out of the camera. And I did it with no injuries to the delicate interior camera parts! Super happy now...

If you're wondering why I don't want to send the camera for professional cleaning... I think Nikon Service Center (NSC) is over-charging for a technically simple but delicate job.

P.S. I also clean the camera's sensor personally. It's ridiculous that NSC charges $20-25 for sensor-cleaning when I bought all the cleaning supplies for that amount. The supplies would last me 100 jobs.

posted byWilliam at 2:08 AM 0 comments  

On the TV
Wednesday, November 15, 2006

I went on a LIVE broadcasting interview session on 早安你好! with Dr Lim and Pan Pan today. It was on my experience as a Nobel Museum tour-guide. My dad recorded the programme, and I shall take some screen shots over the weekends. Shall tell you more on Friday. Another eventful week: TV interview (over!), Trace Analysis test (over!), big presentation (tomorrow), proposal term-paper due (Friday)...

posted byWilliam at 8:05 PM 0 comments  

Last Lab-Demo-Day
Thursday, November 09, 2006

I just completed my last lab demo duty in the morning. The students really made my day by giving me high ratings in their feedback forms.

Quite a few of them said I had been patient. One said, "he could answer the weirdest questions thrown at him". Here's an interesting remark: "looks could be deceiving, he is very friendly and helpful..." Eh... do I look aloof? I was not the best report writer during those days and I don't want my students to make the same mistakes. I offered tips and critical feedbacks for the students' report and these had been greatly welcomed.

This semester has offered many opportunities for me to develop my teaching techniques. In the lab, I had the chance to conduct a post-mortem for one of the experiments. A few of them remarked I had been clear in my explanations. As a Nobel Museum tour guide, I always had to explain some esoteric science and introduce the Nobel Prize history in an entertaining manner to the lay people. I thought I have been doing a good job since I could see their face in amazement compared to a bored or the classic "what-are-you-talking-about?" look. Next week, my biggest challenge yet: to give a 45-min lecture to a class of MSc. and PhD. students on my ISM topic and I hope to dazzle them with style.

Retrospectively, I am glad I have chosen teaching as my career after my A Levels. I hope my passion will sustain in the face of future challenges.

P.S. I hope I will be employed as a CM1131 lab demo next semester.

posted byWilliam at 2:44 PM 0 comments  

Picture of the Day - Pigeons
Sunday, November 05, 2006

This picture was taken at Venice, Italy on St. Marco Square. Pigeon feeds were being sold to tourists for 1 Euro (I think). The flying greedy pigeons were quite scary, I was always wary of whether they might unload on me. Ok, somebird dropped her "bomb" and I was hit.

I took a shot which I had visualized: 1)the joy of a tourist feeding the birds and 2)the birds in motion. I like this picture - moody and dynamic.

posted byWilliam at 4:33 PM 0 comments  

Swedish Embassy Dinner

posted byWilliam at 4:33 PM 0 comments  

Lappy Died Again
Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Lappy had a serious brain damage. The injury was so serious that I had no way of recovering her memory. And, yup, some of my memories which I had placed under her care are gone too. Isn't it fustrating? She went through a brain transplant less than a year ago (just before I went for exchange) and she totally lost it this time. I could at least get some of her memories back the last time. Her insurance no longer supports her after 1st August 2006 and I had to fork out ~$150 to revive her.

Lappy, please don't die or lose your memory again, it's very very stressful for you and me.

posted byWilliam at 6:51 PM 0 comments  

Fast, Very Fast
Monday, October 30, 2006

The Stockholm Nobel Museum is making her world tour and it has arrived in Singapore. It will be my first day of duty at the Nobel Museum later in the morning. I have procrastinated on studying the script until this weekend and hopefully I don't stumble when the visitors ask me some strange questions. Do come and visit the Museum at the new NUS admin building; it's free for NUS students.

Time flies super super fast this semester. It feels even faster than I was on SEP. In about 5 weeks, the semester will be over. The last semester in NUS will start very soon and I predict it will be faster than ever. Blink my eyes and I will graduate next May.

I think this week will be an interesting week. Nobel Museum tour guide duty, a possible test on Wednesday, a journal club discussion on Thursday, Swedish Embassy dinner on Friday. I am looking forward to all of them!

posted byWilliam at 12:14 AM 0 comments  

USP SPAN Get-Together Dinner
Saturday, October 28, 2006

The evening was spent at NUSS Guild House, Suntec with my USP old friends. I knew there is going to be lots of pretty decorations at the dinner and I wasn't disappointed. Click here to access the album. In case you are too lazy to click around in Flickr, I will post some of the better pictures here soon.

Time for bed. Going for a walkathon organized by Junyi and Kaixin in 6 hours.

posted byWilliam at 12:52 AM 0 comments  

Honors Lab Group Outing
Saturday, October 21, 2006

The lab group went for an outing yesterday at Suntec. I thought we enjoyed ourselves much since there was so much boisterous laughter at the dinner table that the 翡翠小厨 waitress had to remind us to lower our volume.

After dinner, the night was spent on the movie, The Prestige. I haven't heard much about the movie before Lijie recommended it to us. In fact, I thought it was quite a boring movie. Man, I was wrong when I read the reviews and I was convinced that it could be the best movie of 2006 after watching it. The movie intrigued me and I could relate to many of the scenes since I was an amatuer magician just a couple of years back. Through my interactions with fellow magicians, I have experienced much of the deceptive nature of magicians, the desire to fool fellow magicians and sometimes the ruthlessness in them.

Here's a short introduction to The Prestige on Yahoo! Movies:

It all begins in rapidly changing, turn-of-the-century London. At a time when magicians are idols and celebrities of the highest order, two young magicians set out to carve their own paths to fame. The flashy, sophisticated Robert Angier is a consummate entertainer, while the rough-edged purist Alfred Borden is a creative genius who lacks the panache to showcase his magical ideas. They start out as admiring friends and partners. But when their biggest trick goes terribly awry, they become enemies for life--each intent on outdoing and upending the other. Trick by trick, show by show, their ferocious competition builds until it knows no bounds, even utilizing the fantastical new powers of electricity and the scientific brilliance of radical inventor Nikola Tesla--while the lives of everyone around them hang in the balance.

Trivial:

• Nikola Tesla (the electricity-freak physicist) and Thomas Edison (the Inventor) appeared in the movie.
• The Chinese magician, Chung Ling Soo, is a real magician back in the Victorian Era. He died while performing the bullet catch.

There are lots of twists in the movie which makes you sit on the edge of the seat and the reveal is VERY surprising. The movie is magic at one of its finest and will leave you thinking of the details (just like a good trick will leave you thinking about the secret). I voted 10/10 for this movie on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). Yes, it's that good. In fact, I am contemplating of watching it the second time to understand some of the finer points which I have missed. Or should I buy the DVD and keep it?

posted byWilliam at 12:38 PM 0 comments  

Picture of the Day - Drag Queen
Monday, October 16, 2006

After visiting the Rhine Valley, I took a 2h train to Cologne. You have seen the Kölner Dom in one of my previous post. Let me show you some German street scenes, people I met and food tasted in the upcoming blog entries.

I took this picture at one of the many events of Cologne Gay Pride; I think the most famous event is the Gay Pride parade. This event, which I witnessed, was not so big in scale; it's more like a carnival. There are more provocative images...

posted byWilliam at 12:11 AM 0 comments  

Wine and Coffee from Rudesheim
Sunday, October 15, 2006

Spreading across the whole valley, grapevines abound in the Rhine Valley. Not surprisingly, this region produces fine grape wine. Rudesheim coffee can be thought of as Bailey's but not so creamy - coffee with a hint of Brandy.

posted byWilliam at 11:48 PM 3 comments  

Flickr Pro

I just splurged ~SGD40 on a Flickr Pro account.

I have always wanted to upgrade this photo sharing account but have been "psychoing" myself not to waste money on this kind of stuff. However, being a part-time official photographer for USC kind of forces me into upgrading. It's quite taxing for me with like so many people clicking on me asking me for the pictures taken during an event (I experienced it during the recent MAF). I also feel quite bad if I don't distribute the pictures timely. I know how disappointing it can be when a photographer promised to send a picture to me but in the end he/she didn't; well, people are busy and this kind of trivial stuff is easy to forget.

The nice thing about this Flickr account is 2GB of monthly upload limit (freaking large amount ~ 500 6MP high quality JPEG), unlimited photo-sets and the permanent archiving of the quality images uploaded (they don't resize and degrade the files like when I had my free account).

Ok, now that you know my account exists... check it out if you have asked me to take your picture or you know I have taken a picture of you. I will upload higher quality than before pictures so that you can download them off from Flickr and keep or print them. Frankly, I dislike those tiny weeny images that are optimized for web.

So next time, if you find a picture that is 1800x1200 in a photo-set under my Flickr account, it would most probably be optimized for 4R printing. Tell the photo lab "NO CORRECTION" and the print should turn out quite good.

posted byWilliam at 1:44 PM 0 comments  

Picture of the Day - USP MAF
Wednesday, October 11, 2006

Here is a picture taken from yesterday's USP Mid-Autum Festival (MAF) belated celebration. Aren't they cute?

posted byWilliam at 10:52 PM 0 comments  

Deliver Us From Evil
Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Have you seen the trailer for Deliver Us From Evil? This is a fierce and powerful movie that has just won "Best Documentary Feature" at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

I can't say much here. The content is too sensitive. I might just be invited for a coffee by gahmen. Watch it.

posted byWilliam at 11:31 PM 0 comments  

Picture of the Day - Rhine Valley
Sunday, October 08, 2006

In a previous post, I mentioned that my hostel in Rudesheim was at the top of the valley overlooking the Rhine River. Here is the view that you will get from the top. The neat rows of plant are grapevines; the water body is the Rhine River.

posted byWilliam at 1:31 PM 0 comments  

Fantastic Photography Seminar
Saturday, October 07, 2006

Jiatong (Thanks bro!) invited me to a fantastic photography seminar organized by the SMU Photographic Society yesterday night.

Here is a short recap of the contents of the seminar:

Tay Kay Chin talked about his personal work on a pictorial of Singapore which he has just published. He brought me on a Singapore journey through his emotionally provocative works; he brought me to sites and sights which I have never seen. These provocative works have brought him some trouble. Apparently, he depicted a man sleeping on the street and this picture was sensored in his book: Panoramic Singapore. The reason given by the authority: there isn't any homeless people in Singapore. Lesson learnt from K. C. Tay and Richard Avedon: All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth (quoted from Richard Avedon).

Darren Soh, a commercial and editorial photographer commissioned to produce pictures in a gift-pictorial for IMF-World Bank Seminar VIPs, talked about balancing work and photography.

Samuel Seow, a lawyer, gave a super entertaining presentation on copyrights.

Wong Maye-E and Terence Tan were supposed to give a presentation together. Terence was absent due to last-minute work duty. Maye-E (Associated Press) and Terence (Straits Times) are both photojournalist and married to each other. It was very interesting to know that the couple actually keep ground breaking news from each other to maintain a certain degree of exclusive coverage. JT and I were thrilled to see the high-quality version of photos of photojournalists; newspaper prints don't give justice to the captured quality.

Ken Seet, a commercial photographer, described his transition from film black and white to digital. I thought he was the most practical speaker of all when he gave a live demo on digital black and white conversion. In the Vineyard was converted from RAW and post-processed based on tips given by Ken. A very, very entertaining speaker; I especially like his quiet B&W landscape.

I asked the question of whether a formal education in photography is important to a professional. The unanimous answer was no, except if you want to teach photography in an institution. To learn on the job, observe the masters, never stop learning, and keep taking pictures were the advices given to me by the panel.

posted byWilliam at 8:36 PM 0 comments  

Picture of the Day - In the Vineyard

This picture was taken in the Rudesheim, Rhine Valley. I remember it being my first day in the Valley and I took a freaking long walk from the train station to the tourist office with a 18kg backpack of food, toiletry, clothes, and equipment. Well, maybe, it wasn't so far but the load on my back definitely made the distance feel long.

I ended up booking a taxi with the assistance of the tourist officer and taking the vehicle up to the hostel. At the moment when I made the hostel booking, I never knew the phrase "overlooking the Rhine Valley" would be the curse of the location. The thought of having an overview of the Rhine Valley was just too great a photographic temptation. I had forgotten about how I am going to get up there with my barang barang. Nevertheless, I met three gal backpackers who took up the challenge; this happened when I was taking the picture above. There is a short-cut down the vineyard from the hostel to the town center. I saw the backlighted leaves of the grapevine and thought it would be an interesting picture of the details of the veins.

posted byWilliam at 7:59 PM 0 comments  

Friends
Thursday, October 05, 2006

Anita
Grace
Valerie
BK
Jiatong
KC
Xiaoling
Ying Kit

posted byWilliam at 10:53 PM 0 comments  

Article Archive

Welcome to the attic of my mind.

Here is where you can find an archive of my thoughts loosely categorized so that they are not so random. If you want everything, you can crawl through the long-ago archive where you can find everything in reverse chronological order.

Sam Honours Connect

Blog

4th Sino-Singapore Exchange 2007

Hangzhou
Xiamen
Guangzhou
Yunnan
Team-Blog

Sweden SEP

Willy in Sweden

Europe Tour 2006

Hofbräuhaus In-House Performer
Backpacking Outfit, Luggage and Equipment
White-washed Church with Blue Dome-Roof (Santorini)
Santorini Overview
Prague Bellmaker
Prague Square
Cologne - Drag Queen @ Gay Pride
Rudesheim - Wine and Coffee
Rudesheim - View of the Rhine River
Rudesheim - Vineyard
Jungfraujoch
Montreux Cruise
Rhine Falls
Berlin - Graffiti Art
Burano - Window
Santorini - Sunset
Prague - For Beer
Vienna - Silhouette Sunset
Cologne - Kölner Dom
Krakow - Birkenau Death Camp

Relationship Rattles

Issue of Attraction Continues
Issue of Attraction
More of Falling in Love
Proximity as a Hidden Matchmaker

posted byWilliam at 4:34 PM 0 comments  

Picture of the Day - Jungfraujoch
Thursday, September 28, 2006

After enjoying the Jazz Festival at Montreux, we went to Interlaken to see the Jungfraujoch. We were lucky to have a clear day during the ascent. We didn't climb up the Jungfrau, of course; we took a train, a train that stopped at the Jungfraujoch railway station. Yes, right at the door step of the mountain. There is an ice palace in the Jungfraujoch but it didn't interest me much since I had been to the Ice Hotel while I was in Kiruna, Sweden.

I want illustrate the scale of the mountain in this picture. Look at how small Man looks.

posted byWilliam at 2:08 PM 0 comments  

Starlight Cinema - American Dreamz
Wednesday, September 27, 2006

The evening was spent at the Padang watching American Dreamz under starlight with Junyi, Kaixin and Janice. Well, not much stars actually; the haze was bad.

We arrived at the Padang at 1900 and the show, which was scheduled to start at 2000, commenced 20 minutes late. From the second picture, you can see that the field wasn't very crowded at 1900 but it gradually filled up.

posted byWilliam at 11:17 PM 0 comments  

Photo Essay - Montreux Cruise
Saturday, September 23, 2006

posted byWilliam at 9:14 PM 0 comments  

Picture of the Day - Rhine Falls
Thursday, September 21, 2006

I took this picture on a walking trail from the Rhine Falls, that leads along the Rhine River, to the Town of Schaffhausen.

Rhine Falls is located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. I think this town is more German than Swiss since it is surrounded at three sides by German territories and the US thought the same as me. During World War II, this neutral Swiss town was mistakenly bombed by the US.

We stayed in a hostel located in Schloss Laufen Castle. The view from the hostel is not super fantastic; but I will always remember the roaring waters that accompanied me through the cool night in the hostel dorm. Hmmm... I think I will show more pictures of the surroundings since this picture doesn't give justice to the largest water fall in Europe.

posted byWilliam at 11:40 PM 0 comments  

Tribute Entry
Monday, September 18, 2006

Here is a tribute to all my friends who have attained great academic and leadership acheivements recently. All news are extracted from USP eBulletin. Issue 38. Sep 2006.

1. Yingkit won the Impromptu Speech Competition in Taipei some time back this year. I got to know the news from this latest USP newsletter. A late congrats to you, pal.
2. Also, congrats to Danwei, who is awarded Joanna Wong Gold Medal Award for being the best graduating scholar. Of course, he is a super nice and intelligent guy. Click here to read about USP Commencement 2006.
3. Reuben, who displays all the traits of a brilliant psychologist although he is an undergraduate. Read about his recent happenings here.
4. Junyang, who is now a Physics PhD candidate in Penn State U. Nope, he's not nerdy at all; in fact, he's quite a happening guy. Hope to do pull-ups with you again!
5. Fumin, who is the newly elected President for the 6th University Scholars Club (USC) Management Committee. Will support you always!

posted byWilliam at 7:49 PM 0 comments  

Lucky 7
Sunday, September 17, 2006

I have been tagged by Shiqian to write 7 facts about myself in some categories, any categories. I thought it is a good time to reflect and consolidate what I know about myself.

7 random facts
1. I have a short attention span for novels. I have read less than 10 novels in my life.
2. I'm a self-help junkie (tagged on me by Grace).
3. I have had different interests and hobbies over the past 10 years. Secondary school days: neuro-linguistic programming; JC: bodybuilding, middle distance running; Army days: magic, middle distance running (gave up being a hard-core gym rat); Uni days: leadership, photography.
4. I have learnt almost all my interests and hobbies skills from books.
5. I never had good skills with ball games.
6. I never liked to play musical instruments. I memorized how to position my hands during the recorder test in primary school.
7. I used to be able to swim 1.5km and was a basic life-saver.

7 Likes
1. Helping people even when, sometimes, it is at the expense of my own interests. My mum said I was plain silly.
2. Spending the whole Saturday afternoon with coffee and books (not novels though!).
3. Doing clean-ups. Dishes, rooms, floors...
4. Culinary stuff.
5. The feeling of being breathless after running (kind of crazy...).
6. Portrait and travel photography.
7. Sleeping: I take naps whenever possible.

posted byWilliam at 6:11 PM 0 comments  

Picture of the Day - Graffiti Art
Wednesday, September 13, 2006

The East Side Gallery (ESG) is a famous landmark in Berlin, Germany. I think ESG is overrated and almost all the graffiti art pieces are defaced. A local told me about an amazing place where artists still hang out. This wonderful piece of art is found in this recommended underground graffiti gallery not far away from my hostel. It depicts the desire of the artist with regards to the 2006 World Cup finalists: Germany versus Brazil. I think the Brazilian player is Ronaldinho Gaucho. Not too sure about the German player. Can anyone identify him from the picture?

Thank you for the comments in my previous posts. They have helped me sort out my random rattles and trespassing thoughts.

posted byWilliam at 10:49 PM 0 comments  

Picture of the Day - Window
Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Burano has lots of photographic sights. One of Nikon Master Classes brings photographers to this island which has lots of colorful houses, white roofs and eventful small streets. I had time to walk around the backyards and discovered this sight. Very nice red flowers on a blue wall. I would love to return and spend more time shooting. The 1.5 hours spent in Burano was just too little.

posted byWilliam at 11:19 PM 1 comments  

The Issue of Attraction (cont.)

Like an anonymous reader mentions in the previous post, the "appearance" element of attraction that is important when we first meet someone will not be as important as the information we find out later. Of couse, I would admit that the first thing I think about - but the last thing I ask - about gals I would like to meet is how do they look? I don't want to appear carnal, shallow, or immature, but this is really the first thought that comes to mind. I'm still growing in this area, but I do understand that, though attraction is important, the features that initially attract me to a gal are the least important in qualifying her for spending my life with her.

As I reflect on very good persons in my life, they may not be overly attractive, but I still think fondly of them. It dawned on me that when I have known a person for a long time, I don't really see his/her appearance as much as I see the real person.

At the end of the day, I think all of us should be with someone who is a good person inwardly and AT LEAST not repels you outwardly. We should be attracted to the person we be with eventually.

We may trust a sincere person, but does he have the character to keep his word?

posted byWilliam at 8:01 PM 2 comments  

Badly Taken Pixs
Monday, September 11, 2006

My alarm was set at 0830 but the messiness of my shelves bugged me through the night. I woke up at 0730 to pack the room. I chanced upon a pretty dusty box at the top of my book shelf. Time has erased this box from my memory. Ironically, this box revive memories. It contains a collection of badly taken pictures from my JC to NUS-USP freshman orientation camp. I never displayed them since many were out-of-focus, underexposed, have unclear subjects, chopped head and limps... I immediately took out an empty album and filed them. I can't bear to see them grow mouldy in the dusty box.

There are some badly taken pictures that mean more than well-taken pictures. It's the memories, no matter how trivial and a bit out-of-focus, that matter in this box.

posted byWilliam at 9:11 AM 0 comments  

The Issue of Attraction
Sunday, September 10, 2006

I heard a story. A story about attraction.

She and her first love broke up ages before, and both got attached to other people. They haven't seen each other for years, yet she fondly remembered their relationship and attributed its failure to her own immaturity at the time.

She received a call from him. He has been trying to find her for a long time. Both were single again and had been years. They were married last year. She said, "He is not the perfect man by any means, but he loves me the way I've always wanted to be loved."

The depth of her words went to my core. Have we sacrificed the love she described due to what might have been superficial considerations? After all, ladies want someone finer, richer, stronger, taller, funnier... men want someone prettier, slimmer, more demure... Shall I go on? The fact of the matter, there will always be someone finer, richer, stronger, taller, funnier, prettier, slimmer, more demure... whatever. But the question is will they want you? Will they have the capacity to love you the way you want to be loved?

I think I have been emphasized and promoted traits that are good and necessary for stability and security. Character traits, I should say. Being dutiful, honest and having integrity are desirable qualities - but they aren't exciting. Maybe all women want these characteristics in a mate, but these are not what initially attract a woman to a man. We will never hear a group of women comment on a man who has just entered the room with "Check him out! He's so faithful, so full of integrity, so honest..." (To be continued..)

posted byWilliam at 11:08 PM 4 comments  

Picture of the Day - Sunset

I was at the hawker center near my flat yesterday. The BBQ seafood hawker was frying massive amount of chilli and the pungent fragrance choked many people. It brought back memories when I was preparing curry in Lund. My corridor mates were always choked by the pungent spices as I fried them over low heat. To make matter worse, there was very little ventilation to let in/out air since it was so cold outside.

Pure visual experiences yesterday at the Central National Library: I went to the Yim Chee Peng's photography exhibition with a theme on Singapore landscape (Level 10) and the World Press Photo 90 Exhibition (Level 7 & 8). The late afternoon was spent at Esplanade Library where I attended a talk organized by NUStudios on assembling a team of cast for short films.

Thanks for all the interests in my convocation portrait project. At this preliminary stage, keep a lookout for locations that you would like to have your portraits taken.

Above. A cloudless sunset at Santorini, Greece. Specifically, the village, Oia, was where I witnessed the sunset. It was crowded! It was as if the entire island's population was waiting for the sunset. The whole sky is a furnace. I can only imagine that with a few wisps of cloud, the sky would look as if it's on flame. A couple sworn their wedding declarations and it was so romantic!

posted byWilliam at 2:37 PM 0 comments  

Sports Day
Thursday, September 07, 2006

I was reluctant to play at sports day when I was allocated to play basketball (BBall) since I never had good ball sense; I'm just afraid of losing face. Surprisingly, I enjoyed myself at the sports day. I had no complains although I was allocated to play BBall when I signed up for Captain's ball. New friends made and new bonds formed at the court.

Yu3 Zhen4, if I don't remember the name wrongly, is an experienced player and he gave us lots of guidance on the court. In first 15-min half, I just ran up and down the court chasing the ball; so did most of the other players. There was no strategy. In the second half, Yu3 Zhen4 strategized a man-marking scheme and we managed to regain 6 points in a row during the first 5 min. Even though we lost to the staff team, I really enjoyed the feeling of panting badly and sweating profusely in the 100% humidity 30 degrees Celcius weather. I think the rest of the 44 fellow course-mates must have enjoyed themselves too. Many had the chance to know that-unknown-gal/guy who has been in the same course for three years. At least I had!

Ah, another interesting new friend is an Indian who speaks super fluent Chinese; he is Leonard, who is a full-time teaching assistant. I met him during my CM1101 TA duty today and he tried to speak to me in Chinese. I think I must be hearing things and I continued to speak to him in English in the lab. (If you know me, I WILL speak Chinese if the other person initiates a conversation in Chinese.) It's only in the staff club that I overheard him speaking Chinese then I know he spoke to me in Chinese. Gosh! He has been learning and speaking for over 30 years! No wonder, he is this good.

There was a lucky draw and as always, no exceptions for the past 23-years: I didn't win. The staff teams beat us in every game. They are good. Prof Sam Li, who is my supervisor, is quite fit. I saw him running up and down the soccer pitch while many took a slower pace. Prof Andy Hor announced at the end of the event that there will be re-matches; I'm looking forward to them.

Sports photography is not easy. I have heard tips on putting the camera on burst mode and seive out the junks at the end. I was wondering about the focusing of the scene. If the players are running about so rapidly, wouldn't it be difficult to accurately focus on the subject on burst mode? Afterall, this is my first attempt at sports photography. I shouldn't be too critical. Shall improve in the future.

I didn't take my wide-angle lens to school. I'm stuck with 50mm and 70-200mm which are far too narrow for group portraits. Darn, going to bring the 12-24mm to school next week. Just in case I need it sometimes.

Talking about portraits. I talked to Junie about convocation portraits since she had hers taken after she got her Bachelor. I'm trying to find out more about these portraits since I have plans to take pictures for my friends after Commencement. Gotta research on the contemporary styles, the locations (since I don't have access to a studio), lighting techniques, posing (the toughest of all)... Well, I have got 10 months to do it, should be enough time.

In any case, if you are keen to join in this outdoor convocation portrait project of mine, feel free to contact me. I will gladly work out your best album within my ability. Or if you want to spend $300+ on that album, do speak to a professional photographer. Mine is free, just be my model and pay for all the printings.

posted byWilliam at 11:34 PM 4 comments