.Move On.

When shit hits the fan, what else can you do but walk away with an umbrella and a smile on your face? I'm sick on having my tear taps run every night over stupid things and crying myself to sleep. I've been through that before with one stupid guy and I refuse to be placed in that situation again. So instead: I think I'm just going to walk on forward with a smile on my face. Objective: no matter crappy you're feeling, pick up, dress up and walk out the door smiling!

Girl in the rain by Pickerel @ DeviantArt

I reactivated my facebook.... after 1 day of deactivation! lol. Yeah, I know that some people may find it quite pointless to deactivate it for just one day - but I was just trying out a small experiment on myself. Mr. Rockband had commented earlier this week that I was too much into facebook, to the point where it would be one of the first few things I'd check up on as soon as I wake up from sleep. So it got my thinking: what happens if I decided to deactivate my facebook for one day? How would i feel? Am I addicted to it?

It's safe to say (and I'm happy to have found out) that facebook is not a necessity for me. Throughout my whole day yesterday, not once had I experienced the urge to go online and check up on the latest "happenings" and I'm very glad of it. I think it's more of a "want" than a "need"... I want facebook because it can help fill up the times when I'm bored. I don't need it because I don't think it's necessary to declare to the whole world of my daily movements or scoop up on other people. MSN... on the other hand is surely a different story. lol.

Sometimes I think it's just a way feed our narcassism that lie subconciously in our minds, just another tool to make ourselves feel "wanted" like social-celebrities through friends and family through show of popularity. That being said, there are benefits to being part of facebook, namely increased networking and ability to keep in contact with friends we hardly meet. So I guess the only question everyone should ask themselves is: Why do you have facebook?

.This Can't Be Healthy.

Came across this photo the other day, which I found amusing for some reason. I think I came across this as I was surfing through the internet checking out the latest fad/invention in gadgetry. It's amazing to see what ingenious contraptions people come up with....

I remember when I was a kid, I had once an ambition to be an inventor - mainly because I was inpsired by those japanese anime cartoons like Little Nemo: The Adventure in Slumberland. But maybe, I'll talk about that some other time.... This was the photo I came across...

Caption: A Balanced Breakfast

Yes, I know... Stormtroopers..... lol. However, that wasn't the only reason why I loved the photo. It's not your typical stormtrooper photo, which I find to be quite refreshing. As I said before, I found it the concept of the photo amusing. I love the colour saturation for this photo - it has sort of the pop-vintage feel of it, kind of like blending modern and old together.

Caption: "It's not my fault!"

So I did a little research to find more on the photograph and the photographer himself, possibly view his other works. Unfortunately there wasn't much to dig around, except that these marvelous works have been created by a graphic designer called powerpig who hails from Canada.

.The Photographer + The Toy.
Caption: "You're never too old..."

He shoots other things besides star wars action figures as well. One of his projects that I really like was one called Texturescape where he explores different surface textures - something I found to be quite interesting. To view all his work, you can view it at Powerpig@Flickr.

.Some of his works on texturescapes.

Weekend Bootcamp

Scenes from yesterday's activites - which really, for some reason, wore me out - despite not havin' to suffer through boot camp like my other friends (much to their dismay). Hehehe, sorry to disappoint you guys! I was using the drill sergant's photo request as an excuse to skip the bootcamp drill and take photos of my friends in agony. This boot camp event was part of the BssMelb's weekly student activities, which just recently has been incorporated into the Saturday Weekly Runs in Carlton Gardens.

.Stretching in the Gardens. by Mr. Rockband himself.
I love this photo because of its strong autumn colours. Oh me so proud! ^_^

The morning activity started at 10am and extended well after 1pm - causing us to miss our pre-planned afternoon session of badminton. But it's ok, although I hadn't join in the excrutiating torture, I still managed to join in the football session which took place right after it.

More people showed up in the later part of the event to join in the football - mostly the family men who had nothing better to do in the city but join us whilst their wives went on their shopping spree.

Secretly I have to admit I was quite envious watching my friends go through bootcamp, - not because I have a morbid desire for excrutiating pain and suffering but more because I personally welcome the challenge and want to measure myself. Actually, throughout the whole session I was contemplating on joining in the fun but decided against it... I wanted to "scope" and see what this boot camp was about, since this is only the second time it's run.

.Scenes from the boot camp session.
Note: Drill sergant with the yellow whistle!

The drill sergant for the activity is actually a volunteer by one of the Melbruneian In-Service students who happens to be a military academic. So yeah... we pretty much had a small tiny peephole glimpse of what life would be like in the army.

Among the things the group had to do: Leg-ups, jumping-jacks, various forms of ab crunches, push ups and there was also the much-dreaded burpie (basically, you go down to a push up and then jump back up, kick yourself into the air and strech backwards, forming an inverted image of the letter "C"). One of the participants, who also happens to be a military academic studying in Melbourne, was so fit and used to this routine, that when he did the burpie, he jumped SO HIGH! Going through the photos, it looks as though everyone had fun... but it also looks painful.

.The High-Jump Burpie. by Mr. Rockband
Actually, this photo perfectly depicts the different stages of the burpie.

For the cool-down session, they organised a quick game of wrestling: the traditional arm-wrestling and back-on-back wrestling (where you sit back to back with a mate, link your arms to one another and wait till someone says: "left" or "right"... and try to wrestle your partner to the ground).

.Cooling down: Arm-wrestle mania.

I decided to shoot this relaxing session in black and white because I wanted to convey a "relaxing, chilled yet having-fun" vibe to it... not quite sure if this mood successfully translates in the photo. Do let me know what you think, would definately welcome some constructive feedback.

.Bliss after the torture.
Note all the smiley faces now :)
For more photos: Photobucket or Facebook

.Key to a Good Life: Chapter 3.

"I'd like to be the sort of friend that you have been to me, I'd like to be the help that you've always glad to be; I'd like to mean as much to you each minute of the day, as you have meant old friend of mine, to me along the way"

- Anonymous.

This I dedicate to my friends whom I have gratefully come to know in great depth throughout my life.

Came across this quote whilst blog hopping and decided to share it with you guys. I liked it because it had portrayed how I ideally would like my friendship relations to be. That being said, I'm fully aware that it doesn't always transpire that way... but like I said, this is how I would like relations with my friends to be.

Today I found myself going through photos of Saturday night's farewell dinner with the In-Service crowd - a dinner was hosted to bid farewell to two of the Melbruneians who have been studying in Melbourne for the past year. A smiles and bashful laughter. Watching everyone interact got me thinking about the concept of friends and how they play an important role in our lives.

In part, friends help us define who we are as individual persons - partly and indirectly shaping our characters which eventually will define us as unique persons. Second to our family, friends are our strengthening pillars of life and at the same time, can dangerously be our mortal adversary. Friends are both our angels and our demons.

Some friends we have come and go out of our lives in the blink of an eye, then there are those who stay in our lives without end.

Being away from home, I regard my close friends as my family. Sure there maybe times when we all don't see eye to eye with one another, but that's what makes and developes our social skills into making us aware to be better persons, right? Besides, even family members fight with each other once in a while.

.Visual Stimulus.

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore."

- 1947, Andre Gide ,
Nobel Prize winner for Literature.

Sometimes I wish that I was naturally born with the keen eye, open mind and creativity flair for photography. But hey, I'm slowly learning... you gotta start somewhere, right?

Today's entry features a series of work by this awesomely-talented bloke, Mike S., who hails from the land called United Kingdom. In some areas of the triple w he's also known as Balakov, notably in flickr and deviantart. A self-professed light & macro nerd who also happens to be a Lego-aficionado, the works he's created has been one of the best and creative that I've seen, EVER!

The first time I came across his work was when I was surfing through one of my regulars, the BBC news website. Occasionally I would surf around the website, particularly under the photography section to see any interesting photos of their regular readers, and it was here that I found his work.

Recognise this one?
The Raising of the Flag in Iwo Jiwa

I think I found it last year... and ever since then I've been searching for his work online, disappointingly I couldn't recall his name so the search was quite hard. To my eager delight, today I coincidentally came across his work again!! Yay!!

Lunch Atop of the Skyscraper

I was so excited and happy about this rediscovery that I literally bugged my boyfriend and housemates with his photo... like a little child who had just discovered how awesome the colour green is... Yeah, I know... crazy, much? lol

What I found fascinating about his work was the brilliance of his creativity and the development of such as simple concept: the idea of taking some of history's most memorable moments in photography and re-enacting them with Lego toys (who would've thought, right?).

Anti-Vietnam War Protest

However, it wasn't until I discovered his "Star Wars" Lego assembly that I was like... WHOA!! In my personal opinion, I think the idea is purely awesome... partly because this Star-Wars enthusiasm is fuelled by my newly-borne obession of the Stormtroopers (much to the dismay of my housemates and friends, lol)!!

Captions and concepts of the stormtrooper collection, I found, are quite clever with a healthy dose of humour.

"Can you ever have too many pancakes?"


"Am I the the droid you're looking for?"


"Good Christ it's cold outside. Probably not so bad if you're dressed for it."


"I have you now"

Masquerade

'Twas a ball, one could say, if one were asked how the birthday party went the night before. Ladies and gents dressed to the nineties. Fashioned in styles of their own accord, frolicking about in masks, veils and capes. It was an ambiance of flashing diamonds, dazzling white smiles, shrilly laughters and blurred figures stirring around the room.

The birthday party was quite awesome, seeing there were quite a few good sports who didn't mind looking silly by dressing up (hey, it's not like you get to do this often in Brunei, right?) so you could imagine the non-stop camera flashes. I think everyone was camera-whoring the whole night. The best part of the night, I would have to say is seeing the three lovely Melbrunians grace us with their presence... the whole room came alive. And you can see why later on...

Speaking of birthday... a birthday greeting goes out to our lovely sweet girl of twenty-two: Stephanie! Happy birthday, sweet girl. I really hoped you enjoyed your birthday party and had a good time watching your friends dress up silly.. hahaha I sure had a blast dressing up as Edward Scissorhands lol (bonus point: I got to freak people in the public streets of Melbourne - woo hoo!!).

In the beginning I was quite cluessless as to how I would dress up as Edward Scissorhands... furthermore I was even more bewildered with how I was going to make his scissor-hands! Lucikly in the end, I did manage to it all... with tons and tons of aluminium foil, might I add!

For more photos, you can check them out on photo bucket.

The worst has yet to come, and despite that...
I think deep down inside I have already given up hope....
Not that anyone cares...
But what do you do when the last person on earth has stopped believing in you?
I don't know...

I guess it's chapter over...