.showing off my creativity I

Lines and Reflections.

Ta-ta!

.i left on a jet plane II

Above the Clouds

I believe that's one part of the coast line of Australia.

I'm taking off again for Sapporo, Japan in a few hours time. Here's one of my last posts before my holiday.

Alright, gotta go. Happy New Year in advance if you don't hear from me in the next few days. Let's all hope that 2009 will be a better year!


Cheers,
_pdra - your everyday photographer.

.S

"S"

I looooooove Krisflyer!!!!! With Krisflyer, you accumulate points (miles) whenever you travel on Singapore Airlines, or other Star Alliance airlines. And you get to use these points for upgrade sometimes!

Sooooo my parents, who have been traveling heaps ever since I left home for Melbourne 4 years ago, had given me an awesome Christmas present, that is, a business class upgrade - all thanks to their mileages! Woo hoo!!! And it was awesome - at least I didn't had to face the possibility of sitting beside crying babies/toddlers who puked at random intervals/stupid annoying random people/etc - no one sat beside me so I had all the privacy I needed.

I was served a full 3 course meal - not all together, but at separate times whenever you're ready.

Life's soooooo good in business class.. I need to work hard to earn enough money so I can travel on business class often in future. :P

More photos can be seen here.

.i left on a jet plane I

After take off.

I left Melbourne at 1700 yesterday and arrived at Singapore Changi Airport at around 2120 that night. Hence, I won't be around for another 7 weeks.

Well, my brain reckons it's 1720 right now when it's only 1420 over here.. I'm a little jetlagged at the moment and will write a proper update as soon as I'm well-rested.

I'll be going away on a family vacation to Sapporo, Japan tomorrow and will be gone for a further 5 days. The Eee PC is going with me so I hope I can do some blogging while I'm there, as well as to keep up with the 2008YIP project on Flickr.

Alright, talk to you later.

.a spider's work of art

Creativity.

Fragile yet beautiful. We could use a little more creativity from architects to come up with an apartment building that resembles a spider web. :P

.towards the end

Towards the End

There's only 1 week left before we start a brand new year. This year has been particularly different in many good and bad ways..

I'm not sure if I want to talk about it, because I'm currently feeling emotional at the moment, despite the fact that Christmas is tomorrow.

Let's hope 2009 will be a positive year. :)

Have a great Christmas everyone! I hope that I'll get to have a little Christmas party at home next year!

.congratulations!

Gin L. C. Ng

2008 has came and gone. It has been fun having her as a travel buddy throughout the year.

Congratulations Gin! Good luck for the future!!! And thanks for letting me be your photographer on your graduation day! :P

.nibbler

An affectionate toddler.

I met this really sweet toddler while on a road trip to Grampians yesterday. There were 4 of us on the trip, but she'd only came right up to me.

This little girl pointed at my wrist bands, grabbed my hand and started nibbling on the bands for a few seconds. Perhaps she thought that the accessories were lollies.. :P

I reckon she'll grow up to be very popular, sociable and well-liked by people. What do you think?

.religious

Sunset by the Cathedral.

.marking a new stage of life

The Graduates of B. Arts (Games Graphics Design).
Left to Right: Kula Leung, Howard Hii, and _pdra.

This is it. No more graduation to attend, until I enter and finish graduate school (again, depending on circumstances).

I'd like to congratulate everyone around me who have recently finished their degrees at university too -

- OMMI (IDMP A) and Klash Productions™ (IDMP B): Howard, Kula and Lily.
- Games and Digital Art People of RMIT University - you know who you are! :)
- Monash friends: Gin, Noelle, Queenie and Sam.

Sorry if I missed anyone out.. Good luck everyone!

In the meanwhile, let me know if you need to hire someone to design a personal website for you, as well as an event photographer (birthday parties/graduations) - price negotiable! I'm officially a self-employed freelancer as of today!

.coffee break I

Flat white.

Everyone loves coffee breaks.. Except me, because umm, I like hot chocolate breaks. :D

.feet

the feet.

I hereby dedicate this entry to I. Pang, the giggly sister.

.the rain forest

The Misty Forest by _pdra.

Went up to Mt. Dandenong for a drive with SF earlier at around 6pm.. And that brought back memories of our first Mt. Dandenong visit back in 2005.. :)

.a gloomy evening

Summer's Contrast by _pdra.

I'm about 90% recovered right now and was looking forward to getting out of the house for some fresh air today.. But the weather decided not to be cooperative and hence, decided that a downpour will do us all good..

I guess it's good for Victoria, since the government has imposed water restriction stage 3A on us (Stage 4 in the country side).. Hmmm...

:(

_____
Rain, rain, go away
Come again some other day
We want to go outside and play
Come again some other day

.i didn't disappear, okay?

the pink potion.

This is the reason why I haven't showed up here for the past couple of days. Last week or the week before, I felt that it has been a while since I had a cold..

And here we go - on Sunday, I had this really weird, dried up feeling in my throat.. Until Tuesday night, when I came down with a flu AND a cough.

Great, I got my wish.. :) <-- no, I'm not being sarcastic here.. I guess this is really the right time for me to fall sick, with nothing important on until next week.

So there you go - this explains why my photos have been pretty boring for the past few days.

Alright, back to work. I'm trying to fully recover by tomorrow night.. Do come back for stories that are about to be unfolded in the next couple of weeks...!

Cya!

.bokeh madness I

Green, Yellow, Red.

the Transformation of a Sunset.

I've been playing around with my EF 50mm f/1.8 II prime lens lately, especially right before bed time, when I'm half-conscious.

Hmmm.. You probably do remember one of my earlier bokeh shots, titled .dawn is the new beginning, which comes with a photo that I took subconsciously a little before sunrise.

I'd highly recommend getting one of these lenses - it's a little under A$100 (look around for good bargains). It's great for bokeh, a lot of other crazy stuff, and for some of you who might be interested, portraiture photography. :)

Check out my 50mm f/1.8 set on Flickr!

.pick one I

Morning Glory.

Less contrast, or more contrast? You decide.

.slide film

Fujichrome PROVIA 100F - color slide film.

So this is how slide film rolls look like after developing... Interesting! :)

.the velvia's are comin' with me

Fujichrome Velvia 100F - 120mm color positive film.

I'm definitely taking the Holga 120N along to Japan with me end of this month. And as for film, I've decided to stick to just one type - that is, the Fujichrome Velvia 100F.

:D

Or should I take the slightly cheaper Provia 100F's (slide film) instead? :\

.never judge a book by its cover

Outskirts of Melbourne.

We don't get clear, cloudless skies in Melbourne every single day of the summer. In fact, this is how 1/4 of the summer days look like over here. Looks kinda like winter doesn't it?

I've been a little too lethargic to do anything for the past couple of days.. I don't know why, I'm just not in the mood for anything. Yes yes, I am supposed to be half way done with my portfolio right now but so far, there isn't any progress.. Gawd.. What am I gonna do? Should I go hang out in some libraries, make use of their a/c and quiet-ness and start working on stuff?

Sigh.. Just leave me alone.. I'll figure out what I want sooner or later anyway..

.the count down

"Magenta for Bachelor of Arts! :\" - _pdra

The fact that graduation is in 2 weeks didn't come across my mind until this afternoon, when I dropped by Storey Hall at RMIT Uni to pick up my graduation stuff. I was so happy and all, having almost figured out what I want in life and all of a sudden, things fell apart again.

I am never going to be in uni ever again - not unless I make it into AIM Center (a.k.a. the prestigious School of Animations & Interactive media cum Masters of Creative Media @ RMIT Uni), which is quite impossible since my portfolio isn't up to scratch.

Hmm.. Sigh.. I guess I need some time alone to reflect.

On the other hand, I hope SF is okay... I'm worried about him not getting enough sleep.. :\ CFA is a MASS murderer!!!

.let's go out and play

There's a Canon Among Us by _pdra.

Because it's summer!

.a fuzzy vision

@ Cardigan Street, Carlton.

My vision for the future is blurred.. Oh well.. Let's hope I'll figure out what I want really soon...

.dawn is the new beginning

Subconsciously taken by me at five-thirty in the morning.

I woke up at 10.41am, oblivious to the fact that report cards were officially released at eight-a-m this morning. It was only after I got out of the bathroom that I realize the first thing I should have done was turn on the computer, log onto Enrolment Online to check my grades for the semester.

Oops! So I rushed into my bedroom anxiously, picked up my Eee PC, went over to the study room and said to SF, "Oh gawdddd! Report card's due today!! Ahhh!" He looked at me, expressionless, and said, "You won't fail." Click click click click click click......................click.. And there it is - report card for Semester 2, 2008.

Hmm.. I've decided not to reveal my grades here, and all I can tell you is that I can graduate. :) My grades are not all that bad, but I feel that it could be better.

Anyways, enough ranting. I guess it's time to start mapping out my future for real. And that means intensive sketching on my visual diary!

.nothing is betta than a cuppa tea

Dilmah Ceylon tea + condense milk.

_pdra says, "nothing is betta than a cuppa tea on a blue day."

Don't y'all agree? :)

.introducing the ASUS Eee PC 1000H

Asus Eee PC 1000H

It was a tough decision to make - there are quite a few reasons behind me getting this sub notebook. And this is the main reason - Some of you may have heard that I will be taking a family vacation to Japan at the very end of this year.. And I'll be spending the New Years in Japan. And I'm dedicated to this Flickr group called 2008: A Year in Pictures, in which I am required to post a photo a day. I want to keep up with it while on the go. My parents will definitely nag at me if I were to lug my 15.4" MacBook Pro around the whole trip so I decided I need something small - not just for this trip, but for future trips too.

I'll do a review of this sub notebook shortly, after I get the hang of using Windows XP. Oh and I've quite a few big plans for this new mini gadget -

1. I plan to install Mac OS X Leopard!!!
2. Get a 2GB RAM.
3. Softwares wanted: Adobe Photoshop CS3 or Cs4, Picasa, and maybe Sims 2? :D

So there you go.

.i suck when it comes to Commitment

Bolte Bridge @ Docklands, Victoria, Australia.

Nooo, not the relationship kind of commitment, dumb ass.

I can never keep a blog running for more than 2 years - Don't ask why, I don't know the answer too..

I bet this one wouldn't last as long as a couple months.. But we will see.


Dohhhhhh. I don't wanna start every fucking single sentence with "I". Argh!

...

Okok, here is a "proper" blog post to start with.



I'm in the middle of life transition right now. Things have started falling apart since that Friday afternoon of Week 12, when I submitted my very last assignment of the semester.. I was like, "Gawd.. What am I gonna do now?" Everything seem so.. Empty from then onwards...

Things are gradually getting better now, since I'm about 1/4 done with my own reflection - by that, I mean, planning for my own future. I shall not disclose the details until I'm sure everything falls into place.. You know.. I just don't wanna jinx what I've got in mind...

Alright.. In the meantime, I will try to update with photos.. Not sure if anyone reads this anyway.. But if you do, I'd really appreciate it if you leave a comment (even if it's just one single alphabet) - just to let me know someone's reading this.. :)

Tah.

- _pdra