Santa Claus is Coming... So FAST?!
Sunday, November 25, 2007

Time flies by when I am busy: it's coming to the end of Nov! It's incredible that it's exactly 1 month to Christmas. Life has been so eventful. I am taking up the total responsibility of the photographic duties in camp and recently I took some pictures for Andy and Arie's ROM + some outdoor shots at Clark Quay. Time is against me (argh! i feel like doing so many things); I need to settle down to design an album for the newly wedded.

Recently, my tagboard was spammed by some online dating bots. So please do not get the wrong idea if you chance upon those comments on my tagboard. I.P. of the bots has been blocked so hopefully no more of such nonsense.

Friends often comment that my ORD in March is still far away but I am already visualizing things-to-be-done or -could-be-done. The future looks, sounds, and feels so near.

Bookout weekends are short and precious. And blogging is the least of my concern now; pardon for the lack of updates. I will try to slip in some pictures or rattle off some trespassing thoughts.

posted byWilliam at 9:02 PM 0 comments  

Surreal
Tuesday, November 13, 2007

The long weekend ended with an overnight chalet with my army colleagues. Food was terrifically good. I think I had one of the best chalet-BBQ food of my life. We had a movie marathon:

1. Just Follow Law (I was late and saw only the last ~30min)
2. Apocalypto (super gory; curbed my appetite for the BBQ)
   
3. Silent Hill (hard to follow plot; was often left in a quandary about was happening)
4. Mr. and Mrs. Smith (watched for ~15min; slept...)

Guan Zhong drove down the long long highway to send a few of us back home. The feeling of wanting to travel infinitely and the end of this break is surreal.

posted byWilliam at 11:33 AM 0 comments  

Facebook
Saturday, November 10, 2007

I am addicted to the self-advertising on Facebook. [more to follow...]

posted byWilliam at 10:40 AM 0 comments  

Super Long Weekend in S1 Branch Cohesion Outing

Having a super long weekend this week: all the way from Deepavali, Fri, Sat, Sun till Mon.

S1 Branch had a cohesion outing at Sentosa in the morning, followed by a stomach-bursting buffet lunch at Rice Table @ International Building. I will give the Indonesian food a 4* rating: highly recommended.

Pictures here.

posted byWilliam at 10:33 AM 0 comments  

Wakeboarding!
Friday, October 12, 2007

This week has been absolutely fun-filled. I spent half a day in the office on Mon after which I cleared 2.5 days of leave till Wed. Yesterday, Thursday, was the my unit's 38th anniversary celebration. In the morning, we had games and in the evening, we had buffet dinner at Chevrons.

Wednesday... Joy, Cherylene and I arrived at Punggol Sea Sports Club, nested deeply within Marina Country Club, at around 11am. The weather was sunny and the gals didn't apply sunblock. I gladly offered my sis's SPF50 Bananaboat which I "kopped" from my sis's cupboard. And we were all thinking the weather would remain all sunny and scorching hot, perfect for a nice tan and, perhaps, a little burn for me. The upholstery of the speed-boat seats were hot after being in the sun all in the morning. It was a little uncomfortable for our butts but our enthusiasm for riding on wakes numbed our sensation after a short while.

Our boatman was Fido and he took us for a 10 min ride to an island just off the Punggol shoreline. The view was typical as what you might see canoeing around Singapore: small little islets over-grown with trees with rather thin trunks and not-very-green leaves. I think I saw a land reclamation project cause there were many excavators and big sand trucks.

We arrived at the water which was quite a popular area for wakeboarders; there were at least three other groups of wake-boarders in the vicinity. So as the only guy in the group, I stepped out of the rear of the boat and onto a small wooden platform. The wakeboard is slightly less than a metre and the left boot was especially difficult for me to slide in. And that signaled that I was going to have not-a-so-smooth time...

I floated on my life-vest on my back as the underside of the wakeboard faced the rear of the boat. And my leg was curled at 90 degrees. So basically, the steps to stand on water: tuck your chest close to your leg, arms straighten, feel the tension in the cable and come to a squat. Almost immediately after you've gained some balance squatting, proceed to stand up. Always maintain straight arms, a slight bent in the knees to act as suspension on water. Can't bend too much though because there won't be enough weight acting on the water to catch the wake. All about balance.

My legs were so straight during the initial few tries that Fido nicknamed me "Chopstick Boy". Haha... Sometimes, I would forget to straighten my arms, lose my balance and fall. There was always a tendency for me to want to exert strength and pull on the cable. Big NO NO! Like Joy said, "Don't be insecure! Just let the cable pull you." And after almost 10 tries, or maybe more, I finally got the hang of riding on wakes and travelled, for the first time, about 200m on water on a board! The feeling was amazing.

Joy and Cherylene were really relaxed and had little trouble standing and wakeboarding after less than 3-4 tries. Girl power! And just as we were having so much fun, it started to drizzle. Not much of a problem until the sky poured onto us. The rain drops hurled at us into our eyes as the boat travelled through the rain at high speed to the jetty. We were cold, tired and felt kind of miserable. Cherylene said we experienced all of Singapore's weather in that short 2 hours: sunny, cloudy, windy, drizzle, and downpour.

The hot shower was really comfortable after exerting much energy through the riding and enduring the cold wind and rain. And I think the rain is really a mini-storm. The strong wind and rain overthrew a few deck chairs and wrecked a potted plant on the jetty.

Lunch was at Cherylene's place. We cooked linguine and cream of mushroom. The chihuahua, Kiko, was super cute. She made herself comfortable and rested sweetly in the warmth of my lap.

P.S. Thank you, Joy, for introducing wakeboarding to me.

P.P.S. Edited with assistance from Joy :) 13/10/2007 0816

posted byWilliam at 8:56 AM 0 comments  

Battalion Photographer
Sunday, September 16, 2007

I volunteered to be the official photographer of my army battalion unit, 40SAR. I have covered the Victory Challenge (7 Sep, Fri), the 24km route march (10 Sep, Mon) and the BMT passing out parade (15 Sep, Sat). The responses to my pictures have been very positive and I feel valued. It brings me great pride to serve with my interest and passion. National service is alot more colorful now.

Due to security reason, I can only post pictures from the passing out parade which is a public event. The pictures from Victory Challenge and 24km route march might be classified.

posted byWilliam at 10:05 PM 0 comments  

Lilian's Baptism
Sunday, August 26, 2007

Army half-marathon was in the morning and my knees are hurting alot now. I have taken aspirin and I wonder if they, the knees, might feel worse without the drug. I was eating bananas and drinking 100-plus regularly during the last 3km of the run. Well, I was walking quite a bit too, just too tired to keep the jogging pace. Completed the 21km in about 2.5h. Decent.

Afternoon. Went for Lilian's baptism at Jurong West church. The weather was nice, the people were nice, everything was nice. Quite many DSLR-photographers, about 6. Luckily I was still able to get a good vantage point for taking pictures.

Heard about the new Nikon cameras: D3 and D300? Heart is itching for the D300 which is about $2700 (converted from USD). Perhaps after my ORD when I have some savings, or should I wait till my first pay-check during NIE? I would prefer the latter.

Congrats, Lilian! :)

posted byWilliam at 8:10 PM 0 comments  

National Day Squeeze
Thursday, August 09, 2007

I was silly enough to think that Joy and I could get a quiet place around Esplanade. We had lunch at Shimbashi Soba @ Paragon; then acted as bookworms crawling around the shelves in Kino [ Store was having a 20% national day discount and I bought The C. S. Lewis Signature Classics].

After Kino... Me:"Let's go to Fullerton Starbucks. We can see the fireworks from there." Joy was hesitant thinking that the crowd could be really bad. I pushed ahead anyway.

Fast forward travelling on 16...The whole Padang, Esplanade Bridge was super, super packed. It was (almost) impossible, to get to Fullerton Starbucks using the Bridge. We decided to walk from Fullerton Hotel and take the underpass. Wishful thinking. The whole area was either barricaded or plain choked with people. No through passage. Sianz.

Finally found a quiet Billy Bombers in The Central (shopping mall directly above Clarke Quay MRT) where we enjoyed our quiet time.

posted byWilliam at 10:30 PM 0 comments  

A backpost on NUS Pharmacy Convocation Dinner

So this post should have been up last week and all these pictures were taken 3 weeks back. Well, shows how lazy I am. Anyway, the Pharmacy department in NUS is very much like the Chemistry department. As in the student demographic breakdown is very similar: more gals than guys. That explains why most of my photos are mainly...gals.

posted byWilliam at 9:39 AM 1 comments  

Updates...
Sunday, July 29, 2007

Really sorry for the lack of updates. Life back in the army is Internet-free. Saturdays are reserved for Joy and Sundays for church service. Energy level at nights are so low that I just want to sleep.

By the way, I am posted to S1, manpower, branch in my old unit, 40SAR, as a project specialist. I feel blessed for the mostly administrative jobs. I got a silver for my IPPT last week and I am disappointed. The next retest will be 2 weeks later, and I promise myself that I will get a gold. The problem is that I got so use to running long distance that my strides are so short. To get a good timing for the 2.4km run, one needs to open up his strides. Army half marathon (AHM) is on 26 Aug. Training hard for it... Next Tues, I am going to run 14km as part of the progressive training towards 21km. Aiming for under 2h.

The living condition in the camp is not bad. Other than the lack of the Internet and TV, I have nothing to complain. The room is spacious and the bed is quite comfortable.

I took some pictures for the pharmacy convocation dinner two weeks back. Hopefully I can find some time and energy in the coming Saturday morning and post them onto this blog. I need to do some house cleaning; cob-webs building up.

It's back to camp in a few hours; sianz. Till next weekend...

posted byWilliam at 8:18 PM 0 comments  

Commencement (2)
Saturday, July 07, 2007

A little lazy to post the pictures here. So please click here to access the album. I will reenlisted in the army from 9th July, so updates would only be done on weekends. ORD date is around March 2008.

posted byWilliam at 8:20 AM 2 comments  

Commencement (1)
Thursday, July 05, 2007

I attended the convocation for Chemistry Department yesterday. The atrium of UCC was crazily packed. I think all of us had fun taking pictures together. We were grabbing one another for shots.

posted byWilliam at 11:48 AM 0 comments  

What I have been Busy with?
Monday, July 02, 2007

1. Housework and Laundry; since Dad and Sis are both not around so I need to clean up the place. This work is never ending.
   
2. Sifting my old notes and books; packing the unwanted ones into recycling bags or selling them to the second-hand book store.
   
3. Getting ready for NS by pulling out and cleaning my equipment from under the bed.
4. Meeting friends during this last week of freedom.
5. Get ready for Commencement.
   
6. Read...
   

posted byWilliam at 2:47 PM 1 comments  

Life after Sino-Sing
Thursday, June 28, 2007

If you don't realize, I have been so so lazy these couple of weeks in updating this blog. You might be wondering why there are some blank posts. That's because I decided to pre-publish the posts for my Sino-Sing trip. And I have yet to distribute the photos to all my friends! Argh... super procrastinator, a perfectionist procrastinator.

Why is perfection a building block for procrastination? I am always thinking of post-processing my pictures perfectly before posting them. It takes up so much of my time then I am put off by the effort. High volume editing is boring; but I really enjoy small volume, high quality editing. My mentality is changing: post the pictures first and if there are any major improvements after editing, delete & replace the previous uploaded one; if one looks more or less the same before and after, leave it. Perhaps it's the same for everything we do? Like my 40SAR S2 officer said to me a long time ago:"Do a rough-and-dirty job first and edit it continuously later." I never quite believe it till now.

I have also been reading up on religion, relationship and, as usual, photography. Life has been so eventful and changing...

posted byWilliam at 11:58 AM 0 comments  

Travelling in Hong Kong

posted byWilliam at 11:56 AM 0 comments  

Travelling in China

posted byWilliam at 11:55 AM 0 comments  

Sino-Singapore @ Hangzhou

posted byWilliam at 11:51 AM 0 comments  

Sino-Singapore @ Xiamen

posted byWilliam at 11:50 AM 0 comments  

Sino-Singapore @ Guangzhou

posted byWilliam at 11:50 AM 0 comments  

Sino-Singapore @ Kunming
Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The first warning for Yunnan: it's going to be cold. Yes, and I was always checking the weather forecast on Yahoo! and Weatherunderground a few days prior departure and deciding very hard on whether to pack my fleece jacket into the little 21" trolley luggage. My always-cautious dad was perpetually psychoing me to bring that bulky, furry fleece while I struggle hard to pack as little as possible (I have had a bad experience backpacking in Europe). It doesn't really matter if I freeze a little, afterall, I have stayed endured the sub-zero temperature of Kiruna, Sweden overnight and outdoor. Ok, my dad won in the end... The weather in Kunming was really a little sucky, perhaps the suckiest of all the cities I visited. The temperature was really cool, maybe like a little over-powered air-conditioning ~13 degrees Celcius. But it was the rain, sometimes downpour and always drizzle, that made the weather really cold. Brrr... not to forget the wind that is blowing.

At the airport... it was really heart-warming to see my Chinese friends come and pick us up. It was during their exam period and I know it's a difficult struggle deciding between mugging a bit more and being hospitable; they were both important. They were so sweet: they gave us each a rose. Unfortunately, there was an urchin that went around stealing, snatching and smashing the beautiful flowers on the floor; he was very much like the manifestation of a destroyer.

The hotel in Kunming was the best among the 4 official visit-cities. The beds were huge, king-size single, and the room was large. I was happy to see a wedding couple receiving their guests at the lobby. It is one of the ways which allowed me to peer in one aspect of modern Chinese culture. Just want to share one interesting observation: the couple was holding a tray filled with candies, peanuts and cigarettes and offering the items to guests. I think the first two items are auspicious and the last is not quite getting anywhere when it comes to blessing the couple. I suppose it was just for the pleasure of the smoker-guests.

Prior the KTV session, I had the chance to walk the streets, small and shopping, of Kunming. We passed by this food court, which you can see from the picture above, where they had one of the most aggressive promoters I met on trip. It's quite easy to understand, we were travelling in a huge group of ~10 and if any stall successful sat us down, they could easily rip a huge bill off us. We didn't eat in the food court, obviously put off by the "extra" attention. We chose, in the end, to eat some roadside grilled food from a Muslim stall.

I had the wildest partities in Kunming. For this first-night party, I think Yefeng ordered close to 4 dozens of Budweiser beer for the KTV. You can see the number of empty bottles on the table, which is just the tip of the iceberg literally. The bulk of the empty bottles were at the bottom of the sea of chaos. One thing I found out about myself after all these parties: I will never mumble gibberish while drunk; I will maintain consciousness and recover from the violent head-throbs. Terrible feeling.

posted byWilliam at 8:28 AM 0 comments  

Back Home!
Thursday, June 14, 2007

I'm finally back in the comfort of my room after a month of traveling. I will be posting some stories and pictures later in the week. As usual, I am busily processing some pictures for printing (nothing beats a well-printed photo!)and sending out the presents to my relatives.

I will be meeting the Sino-Sing people this Sat, so hopefully, I can get as many photos printed out as possible.

posted byWilliam at 12:31 PM 0 comments  

Away
Monday, May 14, 2007

Will be away in China from tomorrow till 12 June. Will update as much as possible when I have Internet access while traveling.

posted byWilliam at 11:49 PM 0 comments  

Fantasising the Ideal
Friday, May 04, 2007

I think it would be rare for a man not to have, at some point in his life, dreamed of the perfect woman: her height, her shape, the length, color of her hair... I also sense that the imagination of young women (and maybe sometimes the older ones, too) can drift in similar directions. Gals, can you assure this :P?

Few of our loves of our lives would match our fantasies. The precious few. We can fall in love with anyone and be as happy (or unhappy), regardless of how well they fit our conceptions of 'perfection'. Perhaps, the idea of perfection is meaningless then. Afterall, I fall in love with a person, not an idea. Of course, there are may individual characteristics I avoid or seek out. But overall, it's a unique blend of emotional, mental and physical attributes that captivates me, repels me or leaves me, just, indifferent.

Perhaps, it's just like using a camera. I learn to use my trusty basic D50, just as I will learn to love. Working around the quirks, the unexpected felicities, the limitations, the new possibilities - all these things change me , whether I am talking about relationship or cameras. I suppose they (the troubles) can change me for the worse, leading to quarrels in the one case or selling away the camera in the other. Or they can change me for the better, leading to life-long happiness in the one case and better pictures in the other. Well, at least I am happily married to my D50 :)

Maybe I should only have ONE camera and stop thinking about redesigning it. For it will be foolish to redesign it to suit my ideas of what is 'perfect'. Perhaps no one is likely to find perfection anywhere unless he/she starts looking for it in his/her ability to adapt and to learn.

posted byWilliam at 11:02 AM 0 comments  

Food Poisoning
Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Terrible night. Was experiencing vomiting, cramping abdominal pains, headache and impaired consciousness; all the classic symptoms of food poisoning. Didn't sleep well at all. Thinking back, it might have been the sushi from Cold Storage on Mon since food poisoning symptoms might be delayed as long as a day.

It never beats to have a chinese physician Dad; feel so much better now after Dad's medicine and massage.

posted byWilliam at 6:30 PM 0 comments  

Birthday Celebration

Labour Day. The day was spent at Party World Orchard with my MOE friends. The place was kind of sleazy, with the entire place smelling of stale cigarette smoke. The vent hole at the room's ceiling was blackened with residue. Valerie caught her eyes on a xiao qiang even.

Anyway, the KTV session was thoroughly enjoyable though I was feeling a bit unwell then. When Val and I were singing 屋顶, the lights went out and screen played "Happy Birthday". It was so unexpected; a pleasant surprise. Never knew Party World could centralize-control all the TVs. Gals, Thank you so much!

P.S. Special thanks to Zhaoyue for giving me the "9 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers". Will digest the book thoroughly.

posted byWilliam at 6:09 PM 0 comments  

Vivocity Outing
Saturday, April 28, 2007

Thank you all for celebrating my birthday :)

posted byWilliam at 12:51 AM 0 comments  

Special Project by Min Qi
Thursday, April 19, 2007

Min Qi conceptualized and produced this photo slide-show for Sam Honours Connect. A sentimental conglomerate of photos and messages... Enjoy.

posted byWilliam at 7:37 PM 1 comments  

Visa Application at China Embassy
Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Left home early to process my visa application at Embassy of China in the morning. Though the office opens at 0900, I reckon that there will be quite a queue before the opening hour. And I was right, I arrived at 0830 and there was about ~30 people in front of me. When the gate opened, everyone just rushed forward and it was quite haphazardous. So much for the queue...

The queue line wasn't that defined during the initial formation. When a young lady standing beside me tried to get into the line, she was told off by another lady behind the queue saying that the latter was trying to cut queue. I really don't know whether she was trying to cut queue since everyone was cramped into a lump at that moment. In fact, I could have been the one that is being wrongly accused of cutting queue since I was standing slightly out of the line.

Anyway, the entire process was quite fast. The visa-application queue number starts from 300 and I was 319; there's a separate queue for passport collection. Left the Embassy at 0930.

Just to make the story complete, I need a visa since I will be in China for more than 14 days. I will be away for Sino-Singapore Exchange Programme from 14-29 May; following that I will be traveling with Cheryl and Nikki till 12 June. During the Exchange, I will be going to Kunming, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Hangzhou. And for the independent traveling leg, I will be going to Huangshan, Suzhou, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

posted byWilliam at 10:40 AM 0 comments  

Outdoor Holiday Portraits
Tuesday, April 17, 2007

When I was on exchange in Sweden, and later on the Europe tour, I had a photographic project in mind but I was limited by my gear and knowledge. That project is to come up with portraits of my friends that exceed snap-shot quality. The continuation of this project will be from May-June in China. In preparation, I have been brushing up my skills and techniques. This is a post that I have set as a tutorial question for myself. I hope it will be useful for most of my friends since many will go on holiday this summer.

To me, I rate most of my holiday portraits snap-shot quality. That is to say (this description will be very familiar to most of us), you and your friend(s) stand at a point and another friend/helpful stranger will take a picture. And, hopefully, the photo will contain a relatively large area of the very scenic background with less emphasis on the character(s) in the photo. Boring. I have been doing outdoor portrait research for the past year and I want to share some tips and techniques I gathered from the standpoint of outdoor/studio setup wedding portraits and celebrity portfolios. In particualar, I will be discussing photos in Asian context.

I think most of my gal friends wouldn't want to spend time with photos of Taiwanese female singers, especially those who supposedly "act-cute" like Jolin (蔡依林) and Cyndi (王心凌). To me their photos represent the trend of commercial photography and serve as creative sources. Why do I discuss portraits in Asian context? Because I find it easier to utilize the photographic techniques in Asian-idol portfolios than Western celebrity portfolios. In addition, I like Asian photographic style more than the Western one.

Let us reverse engineer a photo of 王心凌 and learn some techniques.This picture was taken in Tokyo and distributed as photo post-card in the album Cyndi With U.

1. This is a nightshot portrait with flash, so turn to this mode on your camera. If you desire the effect of this photo, do not shoot with the flash only. You need the long exposure to capture the ambient light or the background will be dark.
   
2. Stay still for a while longer after the flash. The long exposure requires you to be stationary or there will be streaking.
   
3. A point about nightshots is try to take them when there's still some light in the sky. This is the period that lasts up to 60 min after sunset. Now, look at the sky in the picture above. There is still a tinge of blue in the sky and this is more interesting than a totally dark sky.
4. The standard rule of the third. Cyndi divides the photo ~1/3 right of the frame.
   
5. Choose a dramatic background. The tram in the background is a trivial subject but the extended exposure made it show as a slight blur; nice!
6. The tilt of the frame is another element that makes this picture work.
   
7. Posing tips. Gals, do not face the camera straight on. Turn your body away from the camera like what Cyndi is doing. It's more flattering since most of us appear slimmer in our side profile.
8. Lighting-wise. Most probably a on-camera flash with light modifier by the absence of shadow on the face. Side lighting would have created very prominent shadow near the nose area.

posted byWilliam at 8:35 PM 0 comments  

Last Stabs at the Exam Beasts

I'm such a sucker for technology... Went to Sim Lim and bought a Digimate III with a 80GB (~8500 6MP RAW+JPEG photos) Seagate 2.5" harddisk for the 1 month China trip. Upon plugging in your SD/Compact Flash card into Digimate, the gadget will transfer the files from the SD/CF onto the harddisk. I have decided not to lug my bulky laptop around like what I did in Europe. Also upgraded lappy's RAM memory to 1GB due to the heavy Photoshop/Lightroom usage for RAW conversion, lappy is running quite a bit faster now.

Talk about preparing for exams... I think most of my honours-year friends are preparing for the exams halfheartedly. A browse through blogs and I reckon that some of my chemistry friends were lost in freedom on Saturday (one day after honours symposium). There's this sense of "what-to-do" feeling when I woke up on Sat too. I know I need to study for the three exams, but there is this growing hack-care attitude (I don't know if this is the correct term to use but you get what I mean...).

Anyway, not very hard-working on my side; have been spending the days watching webcasts. I skipped all Reason and Persuasion lectures after the mid-semester break and I got lots to catch up...

posted byWilliam at 11:28 AM 0 comments  

Sam Honours Connect
Monday, April 16, 2007

Lijie setup a blog for the hons pple in Sam's lab. Click here for content. This address will reside in Links > Article Archive permanently.

posted byWilliam at 11:48 AM 0 comments  

Labels: blog, honours, lab, sam

Chemistry Honours Symposium
Saturday, April 14, 2007

Click here for the full album.

posted byWilliam at 1:44 AM 0 comments  

Labels: honours, symposium

Science, Politics and Journalism
Wednesday, April 11, 2007

In my previous post, an anonymous reader directed me a page on BBC. It says on the page "Billions face climate change risk." It seems like a stark reminder telling me to face the fact.

"Hello! Global warming is definitely an environmental issue. No questions about that."

Perhaps I should rephrase my thesis.

There is no argument about how a warmer global climate is going to affect lives around the world. However, the question is whether human activities have been made a scapegoat for global warming by politicians. Of course, there is no denial that human activities affect the climate. But is it significant enough to cause global climate changes? Or are there other reasons for the global warming we are experiencing.

Let me point you to a very simple alternative possibility about why we are experiencing warmer climate. Look up the sky. Do you see that glowing spot about 150 million km away? How about me telling you that the sun is responsible for our warmer climate? It makes absolute sense. The weather is cooler at night when the sun is out and the weather is freaking hot in a sunny day. If solar activity increases, I think that is going to be a strong reason for global warming. And it has been proven, there has been increased solar activity over the last 1000 years judging from the increased number of sun spots. Here's a page to our favorite BBC that reports this.

Not convinced? A report announced by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory provided further evidence. In short, a group of NASA and university scientists have turned to historical Egyptian records of the annual water level of Earth's longest river - the Nile for research. Together with historical aurora records in the Northern Hemisphere, which is a reflection of the strength of solar activity, they found a correlation between water level and solar activity. And the conclusion is simple and intuitive: "When solar activity is high, conditions are drier, and when it is low, conditions are wetter."

The whole issue made me reflect on journalism. It's simple. Secretive power will hate journalists who do their job: who push back the screens, look behind the facades and turn-over rocks. However, I think genuine journalism is under threat today. In these days of corporate "multimedia" being run by a powerful few and fueled by greed for profit, many journalists are part of a propaganda apparatus without even consciously realizing it. Together with a censorship in free societies, like Animal Farm author, Orwell says: "unpopular ideas can be silenced and inconvenient facts kept dark, without any need for an official ban." The situation might exactly be the same like in The Great Global Warming Swindle.

At the back of the book Tell Me No Lies - Investigative Journalism that Changed the World by John Pilger, there is a quotation by American journalist T. D. Allman. This quotation is one of my favourites.

"Genuinely objective journalism not only gets the facts right, it gets the meaning of events right. It is compelling not only today, but stands the test of time. It is validated not only by reliable sources, but by the unfolding of history. It is journalism that ten, twenty, fifty years after the fact still holds up a true and intelligent mirror to events."

posted byWilliam at 10:00 PM 2 comments  

Rattles
Tuesday, April 10, 2007

There's this perpetual lag during MSN conversations and I can't accept file transfers when I'm using the LAN connection in my PGP room. Pardon me if you see me going on and off MSN and popping up in that silly little window alert.

Here's a super sweet quote I got from a mass-mail, enjoy:

For the ladies –

• Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot.


• Who calls you back when you hang up on him.


• Who will stay awake just to watch you sleep.


• Wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in your sweats.


• Who holds your hand in front of his friends.


• Who thinks you're just as pretty without make-up on.


• Wait for the one who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares about you and how lucky he is to have you.


• Wait for the one who turns to his friends and says, "...that's her."

For the guys –

• Find a girl who calls you baby faced instead of hot or sexy.


• Who can't stand it when you hang up on her and calls right back.


• Who would sit there for hours looking into your eyes.


• Who doesn't care what you look like, but what's inside counts the most.


• Who looks at you with the twinkle in her eyes and kisses you on the cheek instead of the lips.


• Who wants to be with you in public, even if you wear those old grass stained and ripped pants with the bleached jersey like always.


• Wait for the girl who is a constant reminder of your happiness and joy, who makes you smile just by knowing she loves you back.


• Wait for the girl who you give piggy back rides to in public and she still is in view of her friends, while she gets off and you hear her go: "you're the one for me, for always".

posted byWilliam at 12:18 PM 0 comments  

Countdown...
Monday, April 09, 2007

Yippee! One of the heaviest (most probably THE heaviest) burdens in my Uni life is off my shoulders: the thesis.

Spent the Good Friday planning the China itinerary with Cheryl and Nikki. It was pretty fast; since the plan was based largely on a Chan's Brothers itinerary which caught Nik's eyes. The planning déjà vu from the last Europe trip was overwhelming... I can never estimate the huge amount of time spent on the constant visits to travel forums, official travel destination websites, train schedules sites, domestic flight schedules, hotels, reviews, recommendations... Lots of clicking, traveler's anxiety, excitement and anticipation :D Had a talk with Sean, a travel executive with Pricebreaker in the evening; he helped us much with his travel tips. Night: Sino-Singapore outing at Timbre. The live band was great.

Explored the Nikon Capture NX software during the weekends. The noise reduction algorithm and RAW conversion engine are just fantastic (very good reasons for me just to try the software). The greatest weakness of Capture NX is its demand on system resources. I am running the software on a Pentium 4 M 2.0GHz with 768 MB RAM and the rendering of JPEG preview is so, so, so slow. Painfully slow. The upgrade from .NET 1.0 to .NET 2.0 speeds things up quite a bit though. Lots to explore: the optimization (fellow chemists, it brings back memories, right? ;P) of sharpening and noise reduction values, the U-point technology... However, it shouldn't take long for me to become proficient in the software, the user-interface is very friendly. I feel more and more like a technical geek rather than a photographer...

Anyway, two portrait shots from the Sino-Singapore farewell dinner. A little back-dated, I know. All processed from Nikon .nef RAW format to JPEG via Capture NX 1.10.

Nikon D50 @ ISO1600
with Tamron 17-50 f2.8
Noise reduction with Capture NX

posted byWilliam at 12:11 AM 0 comments  

Science and Politics
Monday, April 02, 2007

Is global warming an environmental movement or political propaganda? Has the whole issue been cleverly used by political activists to cloak agendas that has more to do with, say, anti-capitalism or anti-globalization than ecological science?

In the movie, "An Incovenient Truth", Al Gore defends the underlying science of global warming and the movie gives him a strong platform on the environmental issue, much stronger than his position as vice president of his presidency candidacy. Having been brain-washed by the years of environmental education, I was pretty upset about how we humans have set the Earth on a course of heat destruction. Or should I?

Here's another movie for consideration: Apocalypto. In the movie, a Mayan high priest uses an eclipse to scare the masses and manipulate their minds. Do you see the parallel? How you ever considered that Al Gore is manipulating our minds just the same as the Mayan high priest? The slight increase (bear my words, the increase is slight) in temperature is being used by Al Gore or maybe the whole politics of environmentalism to scare the masses and manipulate our minds. Just like the intelligence experts that reported stock piles and building of weapons of mass destruction that were never found, the whole global warming issue might be just liberal nonsense.

If you have time, please watch The Great Global Warming Swindle. This documentary, which was broadcast on Channel 4 (UK), is better than expected.

posted byWilliam at 9:32 AM 1 comments  

Teaching Perspectives
Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Here's a "personality" test for my teacher-to-be friends:
http://www.teachingperspectives.com

My dominant teaching style is "nuturing". And according to Junie, most teachers in MOE fall into this category.

Effective teaching assumes that long-term, hard, persistent effort to achieve comes from the heart, not the head.
People become motivated and productive learners when they are working on issues or problems without fear of failure. Learners are nurtured in knowing that (a) they can succeed at learning if they give it a good try; (b) their achievement is a product of their own effort and ability, rather than the benevolence of a teacher; and (c) their learning efforts will be supported by both teacher and peers. Good teachers care about their students and understand that some have histories of failure resulting in lowered self-confidence. However they make no excuses for learners. Rather, they encourage their efforts while challenging students to do their very best by promoting a climate of caring and trust, helping people set challenging but achievable goals, and supporting effort as well as achievement. Good teachers provide encouragement and support, along with clear expectations and reasonable goals for all learners but do not sacrifice self-efficacy or self-esteem for achievement. Their assessments of learning consider individual growth as well as absolute achievement.

posted byWilliam at 6:43 PM 0 comments  

USC Production
Monday, March 26, 2007

USC Production gala night was great and I really enjoyed Chun's dance choreography. As usual: a picture to share with you.

I updated my previous entry on the Sino-Singapore farewell dinner. Some pictures have been replaced with album-like pages. Yup, I plan to come up with an album for the Sino-Singapore Exchange (Singapore), with a focus on Group 6. Each page will be printed super-8R size (12"x8") and I will search for a leather bound album to slot in the prints.

posted byWilliam at 12:34 AM 0 comments  

Glowing Q Dots
Saturday, March 24, 2007

If you are puzzled about how quantum dots look like... I think they are cool liquids that glow under black light, nothing really matters.

posted byWilliam at 10:25 PM 1 comments  

Farewell Dinner : (
Friday, March 23, 2007

Yesternite marked the last official event of the Singapore leg of the Sino-Singapore Student Exchange Program. I thought the dinner was quite melancholic. Many of us write autographs for one another and, of course, took many portrait momento pixs. As a semi-official photographer and also as a student participant, I was especially emotionally involved in documenting the event.

The photos were collated and burned onto CDs overnight and distributed to the returning-home students this morning. I had very little sleep and was constantly worrying about the MSN transfer from Charmaine.

The mood at the airport was kind of somber. I had to put on a smile even though I was sad to see my Chinese friends leave for home. I still remember Ye Feng took a picture of us and he said:"你们好象没什么状况", which means something like our faces were very neutral. Perhaps it's because our sadness deep inside us and our smile on our faces have neutralized each other...

As I am typing this, my mouth is ever so slightly sour...

posted byWilliam at 12:35 PM 0 comments