First Attempt At Shooting Fireworks

First attempt as in really purposely go down to shoot fireworks. The previous times are just to watch and anyhow shoot. This time I brought a tripod along and chose a "good" spot to shoot the VivoCity 2nd anniversary fireworks. Actually I met up with Wing Kin and Jiahao yesterday at Vivo for dinner first. Then I happened to see Li Teng at the Food Republic food court. Just nice he wanted to shoot fireworks too. And he suggested going to the HarbourFront 7th floor carpark to get a great view. Therefore we went there as suggested. Really not too bad a place, because we can see the whole of the VivoCity Christmas tree. However once the fireworks started, we realized that it would have been a better choice to stay near VivoCity because the firing point is on a ship in the middle of the sea! Our place was a bit obscured by the HarbourFront building itself. Perhaps 1/4 of the whole view couldn't be seen. But nonetheless still managed to capture a few so-so shots. And I was wondering why VivoCity is so rich to hold such an event every year since its launch. Must be making lots of money. Li Teng joined us at the carpark to take pix with his Canon DSLR. He's quite an enthusiastic photographer, as seen from his Picassa albums.

One of my better shots. Need some cropping though hahaha.

This shot was exposed for 15 seconds, therefore too many fireworks overlapped.

So after the fireworks ended, we went to meet up Edwin at Dhoby Ghaut, while Li Teng went on to Orchard Road to do more shooting. The 4 of us wanted to check out Timbre @ Old School. However it seems to be quite a boring place, therefore we went down to Timbre @ The Substation instead. The super long queue made us drop the idea of going in, and so we went to check out Clarke Quay. Edwin suggested Pump Room, but the super long queue told us to get lost. So finally we settled for Brewerkz. ZZZzzz... But nvm cos at least it's a comfy place with good ambience.

Stylo Edwin. Haha!

After Brewerkz, we decided to head back to Timbre @ The Substation. Somehow Edwin die die must enjoy a night of live band. Therefore we headed back there. It was less than two hours to go there, but ok lah, can enjoy good live music. Went home at 2am. o_O

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Butt Pain

Yeah that's what I'm feeling now. Haven't done such a tiring activity since NEXT Challenge few months back. In fact I think I created something more tiring than the NEXT Challenge. This nite cycling activity was meant for those MKG people but somehow ALL of them couldn't make it. *faint* Luckily I still managed to carry out the activity with a group of 6 people including myself. I must say it really was quite a shiok and refreshing experience. The last time I did actual self-organized nite cycling was back in JC with my biking gang. Where is everyone now? Sadz. Maybe one day can get everyone back to do a nite cycling once again. Ben, Yang, Wes, XW, Clif.

15th November 2008, Saturday

Went to Yongkang and Hwee Suan's wedding dinner at The Concorde. At first I thought sianz liao cos all those closer buddies like Hongsheng, Hongming, Wenqiang, Barry are not attending the wedding. However the moment I reached the reception and met up with all of my JC classmates since 1998, it was like going back in time. Like going back to class and seeing all of my classmates. Quite a lot of them attended the wedding dinner actually. YK and HS sort of invited most of the class. Most of their other halves were invited too. Therefore our class had two tables allocated for us. Hongwei suddenly appeared halfway throughout the dinner. He had came over from another wedding dinner lol. So before and after the dinner we were like back to the prom night, taking loads of pictures with one another. I didn't want to bring my digicam cos it would be too mafan. That's why no chance to take pix, therefore had to borrow Esther's and Aisha's cameras. And until now STILL haven't got the pix from them. Therefore I just kop-ed one of our "class photos" from Esther's Facebook albums. I didn't want to get all the pix there because I want original quality pix. And I went through my collection of prom night pictures to find a class photo that can be compared to the latest one we took. Spot the difference time!

YEAR 2008
Top: Hanwen's wife, Hanwen, Huimei's bf, Wenhan, Wenhan's gf, ME

Middle: Shiqi, Aisha, Esther, Huimei, Suhaimi, Hongwei, Soo Chyi
Bottom: Hwee Suan and Yongkang

YEAR 1999
Top: Hilmy, Hedirman, Aisha, Diana, Lishi, Esther, Huimei, Hwee Suan, Huishan, Shiqi
Bottom: Barry, Hongming, Suhaimi, Hongwei, Yongkang, Hongsheng, Wenqiang, ME

So we saw the video that one of YK's friends made for them. It was the history of how their romance blossomed. It's like a Flash video going back in time for the two of them. Very cute sia. YK actually proposed to HS in such a romantic way. Arranged a whole bed of roses in the shape of a heart with their names in it. Din know YK so romantic sia hahaha. I actually saw Michael, who is now married to Xinyang, both AHS class/schoolmates of mine. He was the photographer of the night, doing full-time now. Woo. Met quite a lot of other familiar faces at the wedding, one of which is Youyi, my primary 2 classmate, who was also a classmate of HS's. Overall it's more of a reunion event lol. But of course feel happy for these two classmates of mine who finally tied the knot after almost 10 yrs together.

After the wedding, Hongwei was kind enough to drive me to Zouk. There I met up with Charles, Zhongming, Huiwen, Jason and Wilson. We had initially planned to meet up for some drinks. However because of the wedding, which ended quite late, I could only join them much later. Then Charles, Zhongming, Wilson and I went to FashionBar at Clarke Quay for another round of drinks. Wilson had a bottle of Chivas left so we helped him finish it up. Super loud music inside. Had to shout to talk to each other. Therefore most of the time we were playing silly games on my iPhone. ZM and I played 猜拳 and therefore we finished up most of the liquor lol. Met Zhiwei at the toilet in Clarke Quay lol so zhunz. So the 4 of us hung around until 3am or so before going home.

Wilson is becoming slimmer and more yandao!

21st November 2008, Friday

Went to meet up Claire for a while cos she was hanging around PS. Since I was meeting Charles and gang at Centrepoint anyway, so I went to PS where I chatted with Claire for a while. She bought a necklace/chain for her cat Silver. Silver super kawaii sia, even though she's handicapped in one front leg. The pix of her were all so cute. Cute fluffy little kitten hahaha.

So it's another one of those random outings. I suggested coffee this time cos we always have beer at Paulaners anyway. Time for a change, I thought. So Yat Ting, Lilin, Charles and I went to the TCC at Centrepoint for a some drinks. Tok cok for two hours or so before we went home. It's been always a year since I last saw Yat Ting, so we took a picture together. Everyone is busy working now. Where's my job!? AAHH!!

Do we look like a couple? HAHAHA!

22nd November 2008, Saturday

Went to the Anime Festival Asia 2008 held at Suntec. So I met up with Zhongming, Shenggui and Steven at the exhibition hall. Woah it's really quite a big event with plenty of people attending it, despite there being a $5 entrance fee. Most of the people who went were of course youngsters from 10-20 yrs old. Of course there were many other adults who went too. I first spotted a human-size Gundam, in all of its full armour! The eyes could even glow. Awesome! Must be very hard work for the guy inside the costume. He had to hold his blade high up once in a while, which should be quite heavy, even though it's cardboard. I snapped quite a lot of pictures of it, while plenty of other people were also surrounding it to take a picture of the magnificent armour.

The whole event space consisted of several exhibitors, mostly from those toy/figurine shops. Really an anime fan's playground. The highlights of the event would have to be the horde of cosplayers. They don't mind to pose for anyone who wants to take a picture of them. Some were really very good.

My favourite would have to be the Naruto gang because you can really see that they put effort into their costumes and makeup. Some more they had a complete Team Kakashi, with a school version of Kakashi, Orochimaru-style Sasuke, Shippuuden-style Naruto and Sakura. Really amazing how these youngsters are with their passion.
And Zhongming was mentioning none of us in the block would dare to do cosplaying. Guess what? I sort of did some cosplaying back in China, because we had all the props available. Somehow this seems rather silly when I look at it again. But hey it's fun! Wahahha!
I met Tat Yeong and Wing Kin there. Also met Jonathan, as well as Barry there. Looks like many of my guy friends also pretty onz about such stuff lol. After walking around and taking pictures like mad, we left for kopi before going back.

Then it started to rain cats and dogs for the evening. Something which I dreaded but it still happened. It almost looks as if I have to cancel the nite cycling once again. However we decided to still go on with it, although with a bit of delay. Therefore I cycled down to the meeting point to meet up with Alan and Kim, who brought along three other friends.

Together we visited many beautiful places around southern and south-western Singapore. We stopped at the place next to Nicoll Highway and took some pictures. Had a bit of snacks at a coffeeshop near PSA. Then there was a change of plan and we decided to go to Keppel Bay instead. Great recommendation by Klenn. Never knew about the existence of Keppel Bay. Really a beautiful place with good ambience. Good place to paktor lol.

View at the end of the jetty at Keppel Bay.

We also went to Alexandra Arch, but a bit too late, because the lights were off. However all of us were ready to scale the heights of Forest Walk, in the dark! I had only a lousy bike torchlight to guide our way through the darkness. It's really like nightwalk during orientation. We managed to complete Forest Walk in the dark though. Quite eerie but exciting at the same time. So we rested for a while before we continued to Henderson Waves. Then it was a thrilling downhill ride from the top of Mount Faber. Simply exhilarating.

Next was a much-awaited supper at Lau Pa Sat. Hungry and tired from all the mountain-climbing and the journey so far, we indulged in noodles and desserts. Shiokz. Then we nua-ed for a long time right outside Raffles Place MRT station. Angela came up with several IQ questions to prevent us from falling asleep. We had quite a fun/funny time there.

A stoned Kim looks at Klenn and Wayne, both taking a short break.

View of the sky right outside Raffles Place MRT station.

Then we slowly made our way back to ECP, where we waited for sunrise to come. Klenn took several pix with his pro Nikon DSLR. Then we ate breakfast at Mac before they all returned their bikes at 8am in the morning. I had to cycle my way back home. TIRED! 10am concuss until 6:30pm wahhaha!

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A Softer Beat

Song No. 24: Wherever You Are
Artiste: Laava

Comments: Softer beats and instuments, in the form of a harp. I always loved the sound of harps. Gives a soothing feeling, no matter which song is played. And given the tune of this song, with such a beautiful voice, the arrangement and everything, the final product is an awesome tune. There are even tutorials on YouTube teaching people how to play the song on the piano. Nice!

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Late No. 23

Song No. 23: Crazy Baby
Artiste: Fantasy Project

Comments: Techno awesome-ness. Catchy and upbeat tune for the party animal. The video is done by some guy out there, but the song is the main focus. All other videos on YouTube are quite crappy, therefore I posted this one instead.

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Ambigram Version 2

I actually made several versions of my ambigram before I came up with the previous one. However those designs are quite difficult to reproduce on Photoshop. Nevertheless here's an attempt to reproduce one of it.

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Ambigrammargibma

Nah.. no such word. However I once again got interested in ambigrams after surfing around the net. If you had read Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, you would surely be amazed at the fascinating world of ambigrams. When I read that book years ago, I thought of doing an ambigram of my own, however I couldn't come up with anything. And now, my second attempt at it produces the resulting image you see below. Comments are welcome. =)

Credits go to John Langdon, the American graphic artist, most famous for his works in ambigrams, especially in Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. I got inspired by his works and his tips on how to create ambigrams.

Also not forgetting the tools I used to make the above rotational ambigram of my nick Nafimuya:
Adobe Photoshop and Myspace Animated GIF Generator

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我是病猫

Very sick cat some more. Haven't been so sick since I stopped working. Hahaha! Must be the interviews that caused me to kena the flu and sore throat I'm having now. I went for two interviews on two consecutive days. Must be someone somewhere passed the germs to me. Or could be the weeks of crabs and seafood I ate. (Not likely). Perhaps it's the weather. Perhaps it's just time to get sick, before I start working. (Provided I get a job soon. Hahaha!) Would have been out these few days if not for being so sick. KNS! Oh well I stayed home to watch lotsa movies and animes. And of course slept more than usual. ZZZzzz... Argh head spinning as well. Must be the St. James session too. Had a drink too much I guess. ZZZzzz

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Introducing NaFiMuYa's Travel Adventures Blog!

It's just a separate blog of mine to specially include posts of my travels. Looks like I shall go reverse chronological order, starting from the most recent trip to Taiwan. Stay tuned for updates.

NaFiMuYa's Travel Adventures

The link to the blog is also included in my list of links at the sidebar.

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Qn: What Happens When You Have Too Much Time On Your Hands?

Ans: You do anything you can possibly think of!

As evident from what I did this morning. Got woken up by Mummy about something interesting happening at the carpark. Saw a patch of "something" burning, causing clouds of black smoke ascending into the air. At first I thought it was some pile of newspapers or joss paper burning, but after waking up from my daze, the "something" which I later figured out, and confirmed, is a motorbike. It's like the whole of the bike was blazing into a mass of yellow fire, which was why it was hard to determine what it was at first. It was at 6a.m. in the morning when we saw it, and just one or two minutes later, some firemen arrived, together with a fire engine. One of the firemen quickly used a shotgun-type water pistol, dunno what you call it, to quickly put out the fire. Before they arrived, small explosions could be heard and some parts were flying out of the bike. Within seconds, the fire was put out and policemen as well as residents around the area also congregated around the scene. There was a blue Suzuki Swift parked just next to the bike and it was seriously damaged by the fire. The owner of the Swift, a girl around her 20s, whom Mummy said who bought this new Swift quite recently, quickly went down to check out the situation with her father. Time for insurance claims. And some 4D. ^^

And so I snapped some pictures, as well as videos of the whole process of putting out the fire. Somehow the idea of putting the video and pix on Stomp struck me, and therefore you all can now see it at the Stomp website. Yeah I called myself earlybird because I woke up at 6a.m. in the morning to record all this, and also because I didn't want to use my original nick hahaha.

And here are some updates into my "retirement" period, as what Keng Yew said of the situation I am in now lol. Have you ever thought that whenever you lose something, you gain something in return? Hahah this line is not original, because I got it from the Japanese drama "Crying Out Love, In the Center of the World (世界の中心で、愛をさけぶ, Sekai no Chūshin de, Ai o Sakebu). Cos I had too much time, I went to dig out my Japanese dramas which I had copied from dunno-who, since uni days. So I watched this drama, which is kinda draggy. Now still at episode 8 of 11. And so the lead actress explained that everything in this world is balanced in that when you lose something, you will gain something in return. Well it's up to you and I to believe that. But somehow there's a bit of truth in it, I guess.

With regards to my job, I didn't lose it, but merely stopped working. But if you look at it in the way of me "losing" a job, that means I will be "gaining" a job soon right? 废话! Therefore it really doesn't matter how bad the economy is, cos I was all prepared for this since I threw the letter. The only ones being affected by my being jobless are my parents, relatives and my close friends. They don't see the way I see things. And so in a way things shouldn't be like this. However it's my life and therefore I choose what I want. It's also through this period of inactivity (in terms of working) that I can seriously choose what I want to do, whether now or in the future. So it's all not that bad after all, personally. And throughout this period, I appreciate and thank all the friends and non-friends who helped me look for job opportunities, money-making opportunities, girl-introducing opportunities(LOL?) and what not. Also I found time to meet up with long-lost friends, did all the things which I wanted to but never tried. Woohoo it all rocks yeah? It's quite hard to see a post by me talking about such things rite? Hehehehe... Got plenty of things I wanna share, but maybe next time wahhaha.

31st October 2008, Friday

It's Halloween's! And it's the first time ever I really "celebrate" Halloween's. Met up with Edwin, Jiahao and Wing Kin at Vivo to look for suitable masks which we could use for Halloween's. The only masks we could find at Vivo was at Toys'r'us, which was Optimus Prime and Bubblebee Transformers masks. WAHAHA! $2.90 some more! But of course we rejected that idea because it would look super silly. There were stormtrooper and Incredible Hulk masks too, but way too expensive for our budget. Then we decided to buy some beer from the 7-11 in Vivo first. Only WK didn't drink beer, but 奶茶. Diao...

Therefore we just turned up at St. James with our natural masks. First time at St. James! AT LAST! Always wanted to visit the place but never got the chance to do so. So we bought our tix at Movida and checked out several outlets. Pretty cool. Would have been better if we actually dressed up for Halloween's. There weren't much people in full costumes, but for those who did, they really put in effort for their costumes. Over at Movida, it was more of an international crowd, with plenty of Europeans. We even saw the ex-TCS artiste, Hong Zhaorong, dancing away in the midst of the crowd. Still as chio as ever lol. We also visited Powerhouse, which we found plenty of younger crowd all dressed up as ghouls and ghosts for the night. Dragonfly outlet was pretty nice too, since I understand Cantonese, therefore the Cantopop there didn't turn me off. The performers on stage were awesome too. It was at Dragonfly that I got pretty high already because of the Long Island we had at Powerhouse. Haven't felt the world floating around me for a long time since uni days chionging at Zouk. Well of course I still could feel everything around me, but we still had some drinks coupons to be redeemed at Movida! So we went back there to get our drinks, which ended up untouched because I think the other three of them didn't want to drink anymore lol. Oh I also saw Huiwen at St. James and she said Jason had left much earlier. Hmm... Looks like they still go chionging eh. We ended the night with some supper at McDonald's, then we took cab home.

1st November 2008, Saturday

Well it was supposed to be nite cycling event organized by yours truly. However a quick check on the weather forecast on several websites prompted a swift decision to postpone the event. Damn... postponed twice already! And the worse thing is, it didn't rain a single drop of water until Sunday afternoon! Never trust weather forecasts again! And so I joined my parents and 婆婆 and 大姨 to the memorial service at The Garden of Remembrance columbarium. It's a bi-annual event whereby relatives were invited to a special service to remember their loved ones. We went to 公公's slot as usual and Mummy placed fresh flowers at the side. We hung around for a while before we joined the rest of the people for the service at the hall area. Prayers were chanted and hymns were sung before we get to have some reception high tea. Eric and 三姨 and 三姨丈 were there after the service was over though. Then we chatted over the food before we left the place.

And so since we were so near Granduncle's tomb, I suggested taking a look too, since 婆婆 was around. So Father made a short trip over to the Christian cemetery where Granduncle was buried just weeks ago. It was actually quite a beautiful sight. The scenery was good with lush greenery and bright clear skies above. We found the place quite easily, since it was at the top of the hill. There were plenty of families gathering around the graves of their loved ones. There was even one family with kids sitting all around the grave, with some candles and singing prayers and stuff. What a heartwarming sight, even though it's a place of taboo for some superstitious people. We merely stayed for a while before one of Granduncle's son and daughter-in-law arrived. And they were equally as surprised as us to see one another. So the aunties and uncles chatted around for a while before we left for IMM. Mummy and Father wanted to look at kitchen sinks. Boring... So we went home after that.

2nd October 2008, Sunday

We decided to have dinner buffet at Swissotel Merchant Court's Ellenborough Market Cafe to celebrate Father's birthday. He's 59 this year! Next year big 60! Let's hope I earn bigger bucks by next year to organize a big birthday celebration for his big 60 hehehe. Wanted to book a table but all the indoor tables were fully booked, therefore we had to settle for the outdoor ones. So many people visits this dinner buffet sia. The queues were all quite long, with plenty of hungry beasts waiting to finish up all the goodies. It was my second time having the buffet dinner at that place. Previously it was with the guys of Blk 22. Still I didn't really feel that it was worth the money for the buffet. The variety wasn't wide enough. The only thing that keeps the crowd coming is definitely the durian paste. Other than that, nothing much to boast about. So we enjoyed the dinner, I guess, until we were all full to the brim. And we took a short walk around Clarke Quay before we headed for home.

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Song 22

Song No. 22: Mornings
Artiste: Web

Comments: I couldn't find much information on the Web about this song. Be it the artiste itself or the song. However I still managed to find this song posted on YouTube. This Web song "Mornings" caught my attention with its vocal trance style, but ultimately is because of the faster tempo vocal-less chorus. Highly recommended together with some booze to lift your spirits to higher ground.

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