No, not me. I have a friend, and colleague who is going to get his head shaved in support of the Children’s Cancer Foundation. It’s an initiative called Hair for Hope (HFH for short). It’s a wonderfully worthy cause and I like to spread the word around. Do drop by the site to support anyone of your choice, either to donate some money or just to drop the volunteers some encouraging messages.
http://ccf.org.sg/hfh/webApp/shaveeBIO.php?shaveeId=884
Great stuff! I’m looking forward to seeing his shaved head come Monday morning.
I went out on a spending spree and finally got myself a much-needed tripod. Alan Photo did not give me any good advice on a choice of tripods, and the sales guy actually told me once to go back after doing more research on the Internet! I went to Cathay Photo at Peninsula Plaza, knowing that their staff are highly knowledgeable and they have a wide range of tripods on display.
When I reached the shop, I looked around and told a friendly sales person that I am not sure which tripod to get. He patiently asked about the current gear that I use, and if I intend to use longer telephotos in the future. He showed me two tripods, one from Manfrotto and a second from SLIK, and explained to me the pros and cons of each. He honestly told me he skipped Giottos because the price may shock me (which was probably an educated guess based on my gear).
In the end I chose the SLIK PRO 714CF II Tripod with a KangRinpoche ballhead. It is light-weight due to the carbon fibre material used, it is relatively shorter than some of the pro tripods I have seen, and the legs extend easily by twisting the catches.
Lovely tripod. As you can see from my previous post on light trails, a tripod is a must-have under low light situations.
Light is the most important element of photography. While the basics of lighting may be simple to some, mastering it is a different story.
After flipping through some back issues of my photography magazines, I was inspired to try some abstract shots in my “home studio”.
The setup is surprisingly easy. All I needed was a tripod, a small torch light, dark room and I am set.
I merged a couple of the images together in Photoshop Elements 7 amd got the different colours of the light trails.
A while back, I had a hand in the early termination of a contract staff, who had decided that he was not interested in the work anymore. I am not proud of the fact that I saved the main contractor company some money because the guy did not qualify for the contract completion bonus, and neither am I happy that I had to be a bit high-handed in my dealings with the people working under me. The series of unfortunate events got me thinking though.
Everyone, especially the newer generation of today, have a lower threshold for pain, and for what they believe they want in their work place. The hardships and strife of the older generations seem a foreign concept, and the values of hard work, diligence, responsibilities, taking ownership and accountability take a back seat to “instant gratification”. The younger generation expect immediate rewards for everything they do, and they expect to be “paid back” for additional effort that they put in beyond the regular expectations of them.
Sometimes, the younger generation worries me. Yet I cannot help but reflect upon my “old” ideas, if they are obsolete.
It was a typical setting. We went into a meeting to discuss one some issues, came up with some solutions or suggestions, as well as some action points. One of the young analyst was then tasked to track progress of the action items, and the meeting came to a close.
The next day, the analyst sent out the tracksheet, nicely categorized with the various person-in-charge of each task, with planned start and end dates. It was all fine, until I looked at the status column which indicated some items had been flagged as “Closed”. I was curious, as I knew for a fact that the tasks were still outstanding, and thus approached my young colleague to find out.
He duly informed me that he had set the items as “Closed” because he had discussed and brought the attention of the person-in-charge to the matter at hand. He explained that it makes no sense to leave the status as open, and we have to trust the person to do his job. I smiled at that remark, and replied, “Ok I just wanted to know the logic behind.”.
The following week, this same young colleague took a couple of days leave, and I happened to be in the position to take over some of his tasks. The same tracksheet had not been updated since, and I quickly set all the statuses back to “Open”, then went about the unenviable task of chasing down people to complete each and every task. After he came back from his leave, some of the items were still pending closure.
I hope the young chap learnt that in a perfect world, the ideal situation he described was possible. But not in our practical world of humans. There is always something else getting in the way – a more urgent task, a new initiative, the car needs to be brought to the workshop, the dog needs to be walked, the house needs to be cleaned, there is a new drama series on TV… people lose their focus and sometimes all it requires is a nudge in the right direction to get them moving in the right direction.
I have been up to my old pattern of slogging extremely long hours again. It is now back to the same old shite – grab a cup of coffee from Kopitiam, drag myself into office, watch my colleagues saunter into office. Then it is the mad rush of fire-fighting throughout the entire day, well into the night.
Worse still, in order to meet the tight schedule of the project, I had to play the role of the devil, and enforced strict working hours for the entire team. Which basically feels like a self-imposed imprisonment. In a project environment like mine, it just will not cut it that the lead who imposed the working hours gets exemption from the rules, does it? Who respects, much less follows the instructions, of a man who does not walk the talk?
In a recent interview session that I attended, the interviewer was rather surprised that I kept long hours just to ensure that my team members do their jobs accordingly. Perhaps it is a different work culture, but from what the interviewer told me, they seem to have trouble keeping the schedule. I can make a guess or two why.
Is it really an old habit, and the leopard does not change its spot? I doubt it. If anything, I prefer very much to be home by 6pm, have dinner with Warden, catch a drama series on cable and play my favorite MMORPG. But as long as I am paid to do what I have been hired for, I will need to hang in there and deliver the goods. That’s life.
Woohoo! Another awesome show in the works! The new trailer for the upcoming Terminator Salvation is here!
I am of the generation that saw the rise of the first Terminator movie, quickly followed by the awesome Terminator II, made popular by Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s governor. Who can ever forget the hulk of the man, rising stark naked from a cocoon position, after being teleported to the past from the future? It was one scary and spellbinding scene. Why can’t our government officials be like that?
Anyhow, the movie looks set for a good run at the box office. Christian Bale as John Connor, Moon Bloodgood adding an interesting (and sexy) female character, and some voice-acting by Arnold Schwarzenegger for the T-800 Model – what more can you ask for? Popcorns?
I has been a while since I last went for a real BBQ – those that require someone to actually start the fire and stand over the food to make sure they are not burnt. The more memorable ones tend to be those I had with old friends in my secondary school days or junior college days. I still remember we used to spend the entire night at the East Coast Park, chatting, telling ghost stories, having a hell of a time.
This time round, my current project team decided that it was about time to have a get-together, to relax and have a valid excuse to get out of the office for once. So one of the expats who is staying at Dover Rise was volunteered to book a pit at the condo where she puts up.
So many years on, the method of cooking is about the same. Difference is you may now buy ready-packed and marinated food, and I do not need to get my hands dirty! I was the designated photographer too, since I brought my camera.
The company I work with tends to keep a tradition alive over the years. Whether it was intentional, I do not know. But it can either be a pain or delight depending the point of view. The tradition is such that whenever there is an event, where there is a pool nearby, someone will almost always end up in the pool.
Just before I was about to leave, one guy started saying, “Dude, I have been thinking about this fact – that since your good friend has gotten into the pool, it will only be right that you join him too. And the only reason why you have not gotten wet is because of your camera, so why don’t you hand it over to…”. At this point I decided that I had heard enough and ran off as fast as my old legs could carry me 
Today marks the third year since Warden and I tied the knot and sealed my fate. So we decided to treat ourselves to some good food – Togi Korean Restaurant comes highly recommended as one of the best authentic Korean restaurant you can find in Singapore.
The side dishes that comes with the meal reminds me of exact same side dishes we had on our Korean trip.
I ordered the assorted Bi Bim Bab, and the waiter actually helped me add in the chilly sauce and mixed it up for me! Served in a traditional solid bowl, fans of this Korean dish will find it hard to resist.
Although we did not order this, the family BBQ is probably the most popular choice in this restaurant. Almost every table around us ordered this, and it really made my mouth water thinking of the black boar BBQ we had back in Korea.
Located at Mosque Street, Chinatown, it is easily located. Try to be early before 7pm on a weekday, as the seats fill up pretty fast. They do have another branch in Marine Parade, I think, but I have not been there.
