Catfight!

The video's uber cool :P Final Fantasy (FF) meets Dead or Alive (DoA).

Quite an 'all-star' line-up they have there!

Finding Meaning in Meaningless

Boredom arises not for a lack of things to do, but the inability to latch onto any specific activity. Without stimulus or focus, a person is confronted with nothingness and the meaninglessness of existence. How True.

Trying to find new things to learn has become more of a chore ("I have to") instead of a given ("I need to"). In order to fill up our 6-weekly reports of at least 5 pages, we have to come up with probably 3000 words (or so) for the entire article, with Times New Roman 12 pts with 1.5 lines spacing. And to put what we learnt (or supposedly, learnt) into words is a lot more easier if we had something to learn in the first place!

If the experience that you are getting is mundane/boring/revolving around the same dot, how is it that you are able to crapportray a good image of the entire stint? Probably not, since you will be:
1) Lying to yourself for having experiences when you do not have;
2) Lying to the company for having done a good job in taking you in as an intern when they obviously did nothing to do so;
3) Lying to your mentor that all is fine and dandy and you are learning a hell lot of stuff, but that's because our dear mentors are simply too caught up with work and do not have time to simply strut down to the company to just have a look at how things are going (NTU is much better in this aspect than NUS).

Admist the lies, you find some truths in why internships are still being sought-after by students. Because of the belief that internships may allow them to have a future career in the company. Because of the belief that other companies might look at their CVs/Resumes and say, "wow this person worked at XXX coy".

How many times have we taken a step back and see if the internship companies really offer what they have 'promised'? Maybe not, but I do know of some companies who really give great internship opportunities to students. These companies are the sought-after companies, but in NUS, only those with high CAP will get a chance to work in these companies. So it leaves the rest to us.

To err is human, but I guess, if you're not even given a chance to do anything (which would thereby lead to erring in a decision or something like that), you will probably not learn much.

And well, while I might be complaining about how bad this internship actually turned out to be, I am pretty thankful that I could explore other projects on a 'part-time' basis. While that might not be useful to me, I think that it's a good opportunity.

Current Mood: In Thought

Emerge 2008

First time being a photographer for an indoor event...really lucky that I could take some pictures and test run my D60!! Emerge is an annual production organised by VOICES, which is a sub-club of CAC. This time round, VOICES decided to break the old traditions of holding in 'serious' venues, and opted for a softer, more modern feel...right in the heart of town, in MOS, Clarke Quay.

Anyway, I've posted the pics from Emerge on my FB Photos website. The direct link is as follows: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1055969&l=f2a7a&id=536176012.

Some pics are posted here...well, reduced quality, as always.

Fellow front bench warmer, Ethan. (With his trusty D40-SB600 combo)


投入


Star


One lady takes it all. The stage, I mean


Kimono girls.


I personally loved their duet.


Anqi!


Models.


Post-Emerge Photo

A lot of the pictures were seriously overexposed...think my metering had some issues. Gotta learn and adjust more. The initial shots tend to be more overexposed as compared to the latter ones. Therefore, the shots done later are much better. haha.

But overall, it was a good experience to do indoor shoots with a DSLR. Very wonderful feeling indeed!

Current Mood: Arty-Farty Mood

Mika rolls into town!

Anticipation


The familiar sight


Backstreet Boys



More Pics to come...

Current Music: Taylor Swift - Teardrops on My Guitar

Loving Trengganu...

Spent my Good Friday holidays with 3 other friends, Andreas, Stephan and his gf Evelyn, up north in the state of Trengganu. The main objective was the wonderful and thrilling Cemerong Waterfalls, which kinda reminds one of the Stong waterfalls (Stong's in Kelantan btw).

On top of that, we were (or rather, Stephan was) looking forward to seeing the leatherback turtles along the beach at Dungun. And the long sandy beaches...the sunrise, etc...

Well, it was kinda hard to organise, given that all 4 of us were working people, and had little lead time to meet and prepare, so most of the information and communication went via email and phone calls and SMSes. Not an efficient way to get information across, IMO. This made me wonder if sitting down and discussing with the possible trek/travel group is more easy and efficient than using other non-contact forms of communications...

(Frankly, since I did trips before, I feel that it's more easy to deal with ppt one-on-one and in a contact setting rather than emailing. Cos u dun DECIDE who reads your email...or whether they open it or not! )

Besides, I wanted to see if Cemerong Waterfalls was as beautiful as described by SAC forumers. And indeed, the waterfall was amazing! Although we were late to move off from Tanah Merah (who the HELL meets at Tanah Merah?!?! It's god-damned FAR and ISOLATED and ULU!) and held up for another 2.5 hours at the customs, we managed to make our way into Malaysia, and it was another 8 hours on the van before we finally reached our stop for breakfast, near Paka River Camp.

On the way to PRC


Breakfast!


Cat and Duck living together?


Not really otah...forgot the name =X


The kampung lifestyle - Hammocks


U even find donuts in kampungs!!! Wow!


Misty day.


An old van


Small cat :P


Meeting bulldozers on the road is normal...


Bridge collapse -_-" Luckily, we're not on it.


Cemerong Waterfalls from afar...kinda reminds me of Stong


The 'resort-like' area!


Me, Andreas, Evelyn, Stephan


Chalet-like facilities - Maybe that's the reason why it swung over to BN and stayed there for another term. haha.


Reminiscent of Ophir?


The waterfall after a short trek!



Clear...nice...


Stephan: "Wha-ta!!!!"


Close-up of the waterfall


Me and A-Bang at the waterfall

And of course, after the breakfast, we took our barang, sat on e van for an hour plus to this secluded national park, where it holds one of Malaysia's tallest waterfalls - Cemerong Waterfalls.

And it's really AMAZING (as you can see from the pics above).

Well, the trek reminded me of several places - Ophir (in the beginning), Stong (waterfalls), Datuk (the ever ascending slope), Taman Negara (leeches) and Berkelah (wonderful clear rivers and small falls above the main waterfall!)

All in all, it was a good trek (save for the leeches), and it was really a refreshing trek. The trail was easy to follow, but it would be better to have a guide bring you up to the campsite (there are 2 above the waterfall after a looonnnnggg climb), and if you have more time to spare, try to ascend Berembun mountain too! Heard it's another adventure by itself.



Andreas climbing over the fallen tree trunk


Moving across the river as fast as possible...


The rapids


Dinner time!

After the trek, we had (of course) some RnR at the nearby town! A great weekend, good food, and sunrise on a tranquil Sunday morning!!!

Presenting once again...the team:

Stephan the 'Survivor' camper


Evelyn the 'I-wanna-sit-in-tent' camper


Andreas the 'all-prepared-to-trek-with-my-books' camper

After the camping part of the Good Friday weekend, we decided to stay for a night in a resort along the beach, to be able to catch the sunrise (hopefully!)


The peace...


Ok...fallen branch LOG


Cat and...cat game?


Satay 'factory' at a pasar malam


Super cheap satay!


Sunrise


Sunrise


Picking seashells along the seashore


Shiyao and Co.


The resort we stayed in


Simply...beautiful.


The old steps lead up...

All in all, it was a wonderful journey up north. Really enjoyed the company of friends and the state of Trengganu left a great impression on me...maybe I should just return there another day for a trip? Anyone?? :)

Current Music: Westlife - Us Against The World