Gong Xi Fa Cai! 

Woke up this morning with a picture in mind… a picture taken during new year’s eve. The picture was taken during watch night service where John and Jane was wearing their glow-in-the-dark spectacles. Cool stuff in the dark!

2007 been a great year (not that past years are not great) with all the busyness of church, work and other commitments. Sadly, busyness is the first thing that came to mind… I think I had over-committed myself to various things sometimes. Coming to the end of 2007 (Christmas to the New Year) has been a good time of rest and reflection and it isn’t just reflection of how the year 2007 been for me but the past years as well. Manage to catch up with a high school teacher recently and we talked for hours about my journey since left highschool to now, the friends I have (students that she has taught), exchanging thoughts and whole lot more.

Hopefully the year 2008 will be good. Starting the new day at work was good too… to find my car tyre flat when leaving to work. Thank God that it was right in front of my house and not in the middle of some highway that I commute frequent to work. Could have been worse. Imagine if it’s in the middle of some highway like NKVE or perhaps SPRINT!… imagine the traffic disaster that could have caused…

Resolutions for the year…

1. Clean up my room! (As of 6 January 2008, my room is still in the cleaning process. At least my table doesn’t look so messy now)
2. Buy less camera stuff (or any other stuffs!) and not being bonded to it
3. Strengthen my walk with God more and more… to use every time I have every idle time, second, minutes, days, weeks, months and year (This message from Andrew Cowell is still ringing in my head)
4. Take good photographs and edit them creatively
5. Rekindle the creativity that I once had
6. Do not procrastinate in the tasks that I do. Sorry to all if you girls and guys are waiting for something from me or sort. Please accept my thousand apologies.

Ohh yah… one more, that is to find a bed frame… Yea, I have been sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Time to look for a good bed frame. Any suggestions?

May you have a blessed and wonderful Christmas!

Christmas always reminds me of the year 2005 when I decided to return to SJGC after being missing for a number of years. I contacted Weng Fook then to return back there together. It helps when you have someone to accompany to a place where you have been before but still, it seems like a new place with people who are your friends but yet inside yourself, they seem like strangers to you. All these due to being missing in action for such a long time. We (Weng Fook and I) made a deal then to encourage one another to go church every Sunday. It is difficult in both making myself to get up early every morning and also the need to encourage another person… not easy tasks. The return was great!

This year (2007) Christmas is awesome! To just put down everything that makes me busy and to reflect on others… people that I cross path with. Listing them one by one, and just to realize how much each have impacted me. It is surely not a coincidence for each that I have met… just once… occasionally… many times… and those close to me.

Thank you God for this day…

Though the fig tree does not bud
   and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
   and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
   and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will be joyful in God my Savior.

Habakkuk 3:17,18

Been running around lately. Loads of things to do and finish and running out of time.

Been browsing photos I took since last month. Two pretty good one was a shot taken during Inter-Parish 2007 Games which Kar Heng invited some of us as photographers for the event.

This photo abit blur but I love the composition… how these 3 guys were somewhat aligned, competing.

This shot is my favourite!… The clarity in his facial and the motion of him running. What’s more in it is his expression and how the wind blowing through his face from his running.

More Photos here.

To sit down and put time to ponder on things and reflect on them is something I find difficult now.

I miss those time when I walk around the neighbourhood, walking aimlessly…

and those bars that I climbed up to and laid back against it and me looking upward towards the sky…

seeing different clouds as they move.

Less on impulse…. more on patience.

Be still, ponder and reflect.

Together with other YACG and friends, we were there for a picnic!… I believe we brought too many food… over-prepared but hey, at least we know we got more that sufficient of source to chomp on and get some energy!

The picnic area is near a stream and some waterfall, pretty nice view in some corners but sadly at some other corners. These some other corners, other people who had their picnic there and left their dirt - newspapers, plastic bags, more papers and just rubbish!… What a shame!

The stream isn’t that challenging as the Tapah retreat stream TRU went through in March, early of this year and not something much of a wow factor as far as I have explored some early entrance of the stream. However, I found something that’s worthy of the visit there and that I will keep for another post!…

Then we headed for the canopy walk. I was excited about it!… my first canopy walk…. but…… (yes, there’s a but!… sadly) it’s not a wow factor as well. Canopy walk was so so. To have the 30 mins of super tiring hike to the entrance of the canopy walk, it doesn’t really justify (at least for me). I guess I just had high expectation and full of imagination how the place and the view would be.

Nonetheless… it’s an experience! and the company! which I am sure there are other better canopy walks!

More photos here

Additional to that, I am puzzled over some details.

Click on the picture for a larger view.

Updated (6 June 2007):

I’m sure you can identify those priceless details…

Priceless…. Don’t you think so?

Desmond and Shanice were showing the kids on the different weight (the water filled in the bottle) in a bottle influence on how high the bottle rocket could shoot up to. Apparently, this is quite high and far… Didn’t manage to capture the height that reached by this bottle in this shot but it’s somewhat shown in this picture… try spotting the bottle.

Click on the picture for a larger view.

What puzzled me and still puzzling over is the direction of where the kids are looking at. Why aren’t they looking at the same direction as Desmond and Shanice is looking at?

Their expression must be much more worthy to look at than the bottle rocketing up! At least to me… hehe…

and it has been about 4 months since I first got my D80…

I have taken much from just looking through my D80 viewfinder. Other than these 3 of my favourite shots…

taken from the first 2 months of this year….

These 1 post will look at another five of them (some taken by others) for the first five months of 2007…

Capturing of the “right” colours are always tough. Tougher is getting the story… the blend of different and common thoughts from different people… both definitions and questions of their own.

Harmony is always nice. What tells more is the depth… near and far…

We see with lights and shadows… they define the lines… they in low light made what’s seen more difficult but more appreciable.

Theme is always good, they help focus. Narrow it will be, wider if twisted…

Complex thoughts is what I always have and hence what is written here and the choice of 5.

The whole camp started off with grouping all of the children together in the mail hall. Uncle Lew later grouped them according to their age - smaller group in order for each group team leader consisting of mostly college group members and youths to take care of them. The privilege they had being mommy, daddy or perhaps big bro and sis for about 7 hours.

Then each went to their next destination entering the world how God works through the eye of science. From the simplest place like kitchen to lab works and outdoor of smashing actions… each group went through them…

…with fun and jumping about

… and some I believe they had some question marks on their head

… and some were just waiting for something exciting to happen!

It didn’t end there. The Sunday School teachers and helpers planned pretty well. It was a full packed day for them.
… it wasn’t just looking and learning, but having your hands dirtied too!

… it wasn’t all day learning. Some entertainment of magic!

… children learnt about liquid nitrogen and what it can do harmfully (In this show and tell, the liquid nitrogen was used to freeze few grapes and was then hit with a wooden-mixing-spoon) and deliciously (Liquid nitrogen in this case was used to make ice cream!)

… they learnt the different parts of frogs dissected by the “Dissecting team”.

Besides the activities and show and tell… I have learnt couple of things about children. Not that I do not know how children behave as I have been a toddler but it’s how and what Sunday School helpers have shown - taking care of them, teaching them and children crowd control. Not easy!…

In this case, auntie Seow Leng was controlling the crowd with some “Char Kuey Teow” rhyme. I have no idea how it goes but it work pretty well!.. Such simple method to have the children’s attention.

I recall a conversation with my mom on how’s life entering the workforce or just being a young adult. I told her “it’s not easy being a young adult who have just entered working life… there’s bills to pay, so many official letters to open and read and many things to handle“. Then she replied, “Wait till you get married and have family of your own…“. That I shall put aside from my head right now and just focus on being a young adult.

More photos here.