.an hour of darkness

Earth Hour Celebration.

And so that was how it felt like before electricity came along... :O

.heehee

My "Unofficial" business cards.

"I love chocolates. And chocolates love me back by making me hyper. ;)~ " - _pdra.

And I'm so lazy to blog right now.. I'm sleepy. But I just want y'all to know that I'm doing casual freelance work at the moment.

;)

And I think it's nearly time for me to print a new set of Moo mini cards. I'll try to add in a bit of vector art work of my own this time, not just photography.

Okay I'm leaving. Thanks for reading. Tah.

.click here for some mouthwatering butter cookies!

Butter biscuits.

So it was around 11.35pm last night when I gleefully announced to SF that I was going bake butter biscuits.

Me: "I wanna make butter cookies!" XD
SF: "NOW!?"
Me: "Yes! The cleaners are coming by tomorrow anyways, so might as well bake now and save cleaning time."
SF: "Okok, if you want. *mumbles: 'so free...*"


The cleaners were really coming by this morning anyways.. But I guess they are lucky that the only mess on the kitchen counter top was a small amount of caster sugar.

The butter cookies are soooooo easy to make that I spent just a little over an hour on the preparing/baking. Yes, it's that simple! :)

And I'd like to thank Karen Cheng for the recipe. Click here if you would like to try the recipe too!

.how to stand out in the crowd 101

Standing out from the Crowd.

Do:

> Wear colors like bright pink or red.
> Pose like a celebrity (see above image).
> Put on make up to make yourself beautiful.
> Be cute (this applies to kids only).
> Face the cameras around you and don't look directly at them.


Do NOT:

> Smile. No smiling. It makes you look cool and more celebrity-like.
> Put on your casual clothing (e.g. t-shirts).
> Behave similarly to those around you. Be different!
> Be normal.
> Wear pale color clothings (e.g. white, beige).


--

Umm.. Yeah. That's all. And I hope that helps.

.mtv boys

MTV boys II.
Models: the "S" brothers.

It looks as if they were filming a music video or something!

.mickey is...

Mickey.

- the first cartoon character I've met.
- my childhood favorite.
- has a girlfriend named Minnie.
- and my mom bought me a huge (I was only 2 or 3 years old so it was considered BIG) Minnie plush for me the day she came home after being away for a while.


...And I love Disney Land - particularly the one in Tokyo! :)

.irene

I. Wang.

One of my cousins from the maternal side of the family whom I grew up with.

.my cinema

Private Cinema.

And this is like, 98% of the population's ultimate dream!

But no, this is not actually my own cinema - it's my apartment's. And I'm free to use it for 2.5 hours weekly!

Ah.. Life's good. :) Today's actually the first time I've seen and been in the cinema.. And it's AWESOME! AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME!!!!!

------------

Anyways, here's why we booked the cinema today -

The agent decided to drop by this morning for a routine inspection. SF and I did not want to be in the apartment while they are here and hence, we decided to book the cinema for the morning.

We could only spend a maximum of 2.5 hours in there unfortunately... And did not finish the movie at all.

Oh, in case you were wondering about the movie that we watched, it's Red Cliff I - a movie that features one of the famous battles in the Three Kingdoms. :)

.interesting shots from moomba 09 part I

Remember last week when I woke up early, like, at 10am, just to attend the Moomba parade? Here's some more photographs that I think are interesting and would like to share with y'all. Enjoy. :)

Father and daughter waiting for the parade to begin.

It is impossible for anyone to hide a camera like the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. A few teenagers thought I was a reporter from some newspaper companies and posed for the camera. I think they want their photos up in the news or something, which is not likely to happen.. So the best I can do is to put their photos wherever I can, like on Flickr groups, blogs or even facebook.

My attempt to take photos of this boy without his mom discovering was pretty successful - all I did was pretend to take photos of the people in the parade. :D Anyways, do you think point-and-shoots (those regular digital cameras) will make good antiques next time? Just like how traditional Leica cameras are today?

Children - just what is it that makes them so annoying yet adorable (or adorable yet annoying) at the same time? I hope that there will be more opportunities to take portraits, especially candid shots, of kids in the near future. :)

That's it for now people! I'll upload more of these soon!

.that saturday afternoon

Carlton & Beyond VII (High Dynamic Range Imaging).

SF and I woke up to a rainy and wet Saturday morning.. It was such a great day for sleep in but we had important stuff to attend to. And so we got up.

Despite the fact that it was raining badly, Aryen and I decided to go ahead and get some stuff at the Queen Victoria Market and were half drenched in the end. I'm not sure if this has got anything to do with the heavy rain but I think I'm coming down with another wave of dry cough. Noooooooo......!

Anyways, back to the topic.

So it started to rain.. Not water, but ice. It was RAINING ICE in Melbourne! I don't know about you guys but this is actually the first time I've seen little tiny pieces of ice dropping down from the sky. And it's not even winter - we're at the end of summer and heading towards fall.

And then, refer to the above picture - taken right before the "mini-ice-cube-rain". I'd like to thank SF for asking me to take a HDR shot of the scene, because we wouldn't be seeing this photo right now if it wasn't for him.

:D


P/S Happy birthday Priscilla!

.making faces

:D + >:(

I was browsing through photos that I took during the Lunar New Year back in Malaysia and found a number of good portraits that I have yet to share on Flickr.. I'll post them up shortly.

Here's a photo of Cousin Irene and Cousin Jackking (siblings) exchanging a variety of expressions with each other. I guess this is just their way of having fun sometimes.. Heh.

.b-z

Mother Nature's Work of Art.

There's just so much in my mind right now. My PR application isn't even halfway towards completion. And my postgraduate things are due in 2 weeks time.

So much to do, yet so little time.

For those of you who are waiting for my replies or simply to hear from me, please bear with me for a bit.

In addition to all these, I'm really wanting to get things going with Klash Productions. Klash Productions is a group consisting 3 of my good friends from uni and myself, and it was created when we got together for our second semester final project (Interactive Digital Media Project B a.k.a. IDMP B) last year. Although one of us is no longer living in Melbourne, the remaining three (Kula, Lily and myself) are wanting to keep it going and create great things in years to come!

Despite having so much to do in such a short period of time, I'm glad that I'm doing something about my life.. I know I want to work in the digital arts/graphics design field for the rest of my life and now is definitely the time to start planning for the future - aint got much time left. I'm turning 23 this year so it's time for me to grow up and start being serious.

Alright. I'm outta here. Later.

.when 4 became 2

Two Remaining.

It is unusually quiet tonight.

You guys probably don't realize this.. But everything in this house is not the same without y'all. It's too quiet.

I used to like the fact that this house was quiet and "sanctuary-like".. And then I gradually grow to enjoy the fact that there are more than just the two of us in this house.

Dinner is just not the same anymore. I don't even remember how much rice to prepare for two! I also miss the after-dinner-UNO-or-daidee-sessions.

I know that SF and I will get used to being by ourselves in a couple of days... But I hope y'all will visit soon enough, so that we can continue those game and drink tea.

Thanks for the great time.

Aryen - we're going to be spending quite a bit of AWESOME time together this year. :D Do come by and cook some of those AWESOME sweet sour/spicy fried pork! And some AWESOME UNO sessions too. :D AWESOME!!!!!!

Gin - thanks for accompanying me on photo walks and trips to Myer sometime! I'll never forget what you said to me the other day - "I cannot swim but if you fall into the water I'll still jump down and try to save you."

SY - thanks for bringing joy and laughter to the house, and also for fixing up the Macintosh PC for me! And umm.. Later! :D

Most importantly, SF.

My dear monster, thank you for spending all these precious time trying to get the Mac stuff working on my newly acquired PC. I know it is tough, and I feel really bad for not being able to help out.. :( I know I've been really insensitive over the past month... And I'm sorry for that. I'll work hard. I'll try. It's gonna be tough, but I will try harder. I heart you. :)


Alright that's it. Get back to your work guys.

.children I

The Macedonian Kids @ Moomba Parade.

Such innocent looking children... :)

.train platforms are fun!

Caulfield Station.

You know... I have a thing for train platforms and tracks. I feel that there are lots of photography compositional opportunities in a train station...

Or maybe I have a thing for vanishing points, not train tracks. I don't know. :\

I've taken quite a few photos from train platforms, with my personal favorite being the one I took in Berwick last year.

Berwick Station.

Just what is it that makes train platforms so interesting for a photographer? I can't seem to find a good explanation for this question...

I'll try and find the answer when (if) I attend graduate school at Monash Uni (Caulfield) this coming July, since I will be taking the train to uni occasionally.

.does reading and sketching really help?

Planning, Reading, and Sketching.

Alright, sketching does help. But I'm not too sure about reading.

Reading CLEO's advice guide doesn't make me a better person - it is only I, who can improve myself.

Postgraduate courses are not responsible for teaching one to become better in terms of personality.

-----

Just got back from washing dishes and I don't know what else to type anymore... I think I'm going to take a walk (without my camera) later.

.la trobe street

My impression of La Trobe Street.

La Trobe Street.. It's quite a happening street actually, especially along the blocks between Elizabeth and Exhibition Streets.

This was where I first and last met Queen Elizabeth when she was here for the XVIII Commonwealth Game in 2006.

And this was the street that leads up to Gin's old place. I've had loads of good memories there.

--

.2-dollars chocolate cake

$2 chocolate cake.

While shopping for groceries and dinner stuff at Coles this afternoon, Aryen saw this chocolate cake mix from the baking section and decided that she wants to bake tonight.

And so I decided to join in the baking session. I reckon she did most of the work while all I did was mix a little bit and added Nutella and sugar in addition to the pre-mix.

The mix spent close to an hour in the oven... And it turned out really good!!! Next, I got SF to apply chocolate mixing (also from the packet) onto the cake.

Everyone liked it. I think the cake got Aryen and myself a little too excited that we decided that we are going to bake cheese cake next week. Oh, and curry puffs this Sunday. Loads to do! :)

.mini me in docklands

Mini Me in Docklands.

I feel bad for neglecting my good ol' 350D for quite a bit ever since the 5D Mark II joined the family...

In order to make things up to my first ever DSLR, I decided to take it on a photo walk in Docklands. And this time, I decided to leave my EF 24-105mm f/4L at home and take the bodykit (18-55mm) and 50mm f/1.8 II prime lens along. Simple.

But I don't think I can handle photo walks without the 24-105mm.. I really have to agree with the fact that once you go L, you can never go backwards again.

Oh by the way, can you spot a Mini Me in the photo above? :D