Semi-hiatus

Uhm. Yeah. So. Sorry for not really posting lately. I am reaaally busy. Quizzes, labwork, lessons, CCAs, teaching.. etc. Now I really do hope that I can finish my labwork fast, so I'll have more time to do everything, to rethink everything, to plan for everything, to study everything I can study (yeeaaa, Asian, I am! =D), to check my photographs..

And how everytime I've planned something, other things will ruin it for me. Good. God, be on my side won't You? ;p

So yep, it's my final year as an undergraduate student now, so I must do my best with the labwork and modules left. Won't post a lot at this moment, but I'll return. I've had some posts in mind, and some posts in the draft waiting to be finalized, and I'll take care of them once I have free time and free mind =)

And my tumblr is ofc still quite active and besides I post a bunch of semi-emoticons there, so if you need to know what I'm currently doing or if I'm still alive.. Just check on it. Or just check if something changes on the right-bar here.

See you, then!

The reward of patience and perseverance!

It's been a long time for me not to post anything here. I was busy the whole summer with my labworks and report (I slept at dawn for a few days at the last weeks). But then, good things happen to those who wait. And my reward (beside 12 hours hibernation after poster presentation of my summer research work) was...



Yep, I've got a lomo. Supersampler, to be exact.

But why do I suddenly have it? Am I going back to the stone age of taking photos with film (in this case is the 35mm one)?

One friend was giving away a few stuffs because he was going to moving to another country.. The supersampler is really old, he had this when he was still in school in Indonesia. He doesn't use it anymore now, so he decided to give it to this girl, a junior of his, who was quite into taking photos, for FREE =D It's a multi-lens camera, so the result may be really unpredictable because I haven't found any information on how it exactly works. I'll only see how they turn out to be after the 36th exposure and taking them to a developer, which may happen sometime between 3 to 6 months later (I won't take photos so often with it, only on special occasions or if I find nice objects) so we'll see =)

IMHO, even though digital photography is of course much less costly and easier (e.g. people can erase the bad shoots and enhance the acceptable shoots), film photography is irreplaceable with its certain effects (to be exact: its unknown, sometimes-unexpected turnout) and the mindset of to shoot correctly, every-shoot-counts feature. The latter is what I am trying to do with my digital camera as well: to take photos correctly everytime so all my shots are acceptable and free from significant enhancements afterwards.

I'm still on training to do film (35mm) photography, though, because the last time I took photos with PnS, 35mm film cameras was about 10 years ago before finally my family moved on to digital cameras because of the cost.. So I still need to re-train my hand and my head to prevent those shaky, blurry, useless images as well as to load/unload/rewind/advance films and shoot correctly, get a nice object with good exposures etc.

"Think before you speak, act, and shoot." - Me.

Anyway, these are the complete squad of this thing:


I have two films. Below is the one that the past owner gave me:


Expired film!
Yeah, welcome to the world of weird colors. Don't know what I'll get =D
The other one was a new film I bought recently due to some accident and youtube advices.. Good thing is that the advice was true and do-able, otherwise my S$5.50 would have been gone useless. I wanted to buy the provia film instead but the seller didn't have it.

Next target? SLR camera. I hope the ones at my home in Indo still work =) And maybe some darkroom skills, at least to see if the synthetic lab training (and soon-to-be-teaching) has any use for this.

Anyway, once I found out that the old supersampler could work and after reported it to the past owner, I called my dad, who is into photography as well (is interest inherited by genetics?). I told him that his little girl had just gotten herself a 35mm film camera.

His initial response? "HUH?" in a surprised, worried-about-the-cost way.

I typed 'fox' in google search, and then...

That keyword is really ambigous. It is a name of an animal, a broadcasting company that airs some of my favorite series and a clothing shop. It is also the last word in one of a renowned manga reader site's name.

And which one appeared first in google in this attempt of searching?


The clothing shop. Surprisingly, not wikipedia. And thankfully, not a FACEBOOK link.

Alright. Thanks for reminding that I've already shopped a lot (after a few extra cash coming and foresee-ably coming lately).

Uh anyway.. Thank God for several opportunities for extra cash and a bunch of extra new experiences!~

MILO?

The Italian girl who is residing in Germany and is undergoing exchange programme to my lab did not know what MILO is.

I thought the brand was known worldwide? Especially it's from Nestle, which originated from the Switzerland, which is a member of European Union as Germany is?

Oh. If MILO isn't sold there, then you've missed a really nice drink which makes you fat if you regularly drink it everyday.

A quote that describes my feelings right now

"This thing doesn't work. It started out alright, but now it's.... *shaking head*"
-Wendell Bray, Bones 06x23

Late night series

The more I watch Bones, the more I find the resemblance between their lab and mine. And even those techniques and machines I know exist in the division I am studying at. Micropipettes, GC-MS, and today, I saw the plastic petri dish. Which, I am definitely using. Oh well. Luckily Jack Hodgins is that funny and different from those people in my lab (which are.. equally funny in other ways. And LOUD). If he is similar to any person in my lab.. I might be going to puke. It's like seeing them for 7 days a week for non-stop.. Well, no offence, I like those people in my lab, but I need my life aside of lab-bing and stuff. I guess everyone does.

Anyway lately I find that several people have weird preferences for TV series. Like, guys watching Gossip Girl and Desperate Housewives.....?

current mood: pathetic

Ok. I'll promise. If my experiments until FYP is finished work well, I'll pay more respect to Italian national football team. At least I won't say any curse words or bad opinions or whenever they are playing, especially plays against Germany. Let whatever happens, happens. This is for the sake of my super-patient and genius Italian mentor.

Anyway, by this, doesn't mean that I don't support German national football team wholeheartedly anymore. I love die Mannschaft with all my heart. Really.

Sweets with toothpaste taste

My friend gave it to me. This is the package.


There are two openings, one is for sharing and the other one is not for sharing.

So, when I opened the one for sharing, a small opening was revealed:


And when I opened the one not for sharing (aka for myself)...


I don't really know what's the logic behind this arrangement, whether it is a wrong placement of label, or it is meant to avoid contamination of the content from a lot of hands by placing the large opening for share, or it is just being stingy. But yeah, pretty tricky isn't it?

SVC is here!

so these are my staple reading materials from now on...

(and start tightening my belt from now.)

Dear problems.

cr: weheartit

Seems like self-assurance. But yeah, that's what I need for now.

http://designshack.co.uk/articles/graphics/55-t-shirts-made-just-for-designers

I was LOL-ing at the one with "You are here, but I can fix that in Photoshop"

Photoshop is really ftw. LOL.

Anyway I want these :p









oh well, I'm not a web designer, but who cares about the first two :p
and yeah, I'm not a graphic designer either. if it's so, my course would have been ADM, not chemistry But well...

iluma stall is surprisingly not crowded today. due to high temperature outside?

eat, koi, #sgelections study.
yeah.

A friend brought me the koi. Of course it's not free, but it was a very nice of him to offer me nice drinks when outside temperature is 36 degrees Celcius and inside temperature is more than 100 degrees (oh, I'm quite stable, aren't I? I haven't decomposed yet. LOL). Thank you, brother!


Anyway,
Have been playing with the program used when in a hurry or in a deep midst of laziness to give more effort in photoshop Photoscape lately *exams!*. The more I see the 'film effect' filter, the more I miss the time of film/analog photography. Yes, the current digital era makes photography cheaper and more accessible to everyone (my friends know that this contains a bit of cynical criticism) but well, some era never dies. Especially with certain special films and cameras you can buy or modify yourselves..

Last convocation, my senior brought her (or her dad's?) SLR (don't confuse this with DSLR). I was like all "...." and thankfully I was allowed to use it when she asked me to help taking photos of her and her friends. Creepily happy! Especially because the last time I took photos with film camera was around 10 years ago. Not a long time ago I met a senior who was also bringing his film camera to school and said that he needed to finish his film soon. Nice!! Request sent to dad =p

Quoting this lady:

About once a year, I acquire a new camera. I’ve missed shooting with film. Although I do shoot film with my lomo cameras, it’s different. So, this is the solution I found, especially after marveling over the photos my friend took with her FM2. This new camera will be joining in the ranks of my G11, Panasonic LX3, Diana F+, Polaroid, and Holga. I may have a problem.

Just a thought. If you want to have a decent program for photo-editing, Photoscape is a freeware. It is quite handy, a lot of things can still be done (well, I haven't found the brush tools and all stuffs, but for enhancing photos this is nice-and-easy, you can still modify a lot and you can still use the curves..) and it'll give you nice results afterwards. If you consider yourself a pro so you "die-die" want to use Adobe Photoshop instead, just buy the original one, don't use the piracy version. I know it's expensive if you can't access the student version, but it's a good investment if you're really into it. Intellectual properties need appreciation, too ;) Just saying.

Honoring Lady Di's Birthday

from shumbodynamedharry (Harry Shum, Jr.'s tumblr blog)

I was like.. "huh? Lady Di?" And even thought that was Lady Diana Spencer aka Diana the Princess of Wales' photo (post Royal Wedding effect, yea).. Then I realized that THAT Diana's birthday is (or was?) in July.. So?

Oh well.

Lady Di here means miss Dianna Agron. Funny how I notice that Lea Michele calls her "lady" on her tweets. Now I know another reason why (apart from the fact that she is really a lady!). (ex-)Roommates' secret =p

Anywaay. Happy belated birthday, miss Agron! Keep smiling, keep acting, keep writing and taking photos. Go Fabray! Lucy Caboosey FTW.

And hmm. Jenna and Kevin are there too, sitting side-by-side!

A slight sign of OCD?

In class. This module has no posted notes, so the students need to copy whatever written in class.

Coursemate: He talks very fast! Does he expect us to write and listen to what he's explaining at the same time?
Me: He expects us to be able to multitask and his accent is not good at all. I don't understand what he has been teaching this far.
Coursemate: Yes. He changes his paper very fast! What is he thinking...
Me: Agreed. And I don't like it when my notes are not neatly written.
Coursemate: Neither do I.

Then what am I doing now? Rewriting notes that were not neatly written.

an old video.

NTU-ISCF camp is not complete without mass-singing and guitar in the bus. Well, a quite effective way to build and strengthen your fellowship. During our journey to the campsite, I decided to record them singing one song.. Here it is, who knows years later these people are famous with their own bands. Enjoy =)

Miles to go to sleep.

Tomorrow I'll attend Easter service at dawn. I really feel sleepy now but I can't relax if my reports and quiz prep haven't finished yet.. So, I am still here, stuck in front of my computer...


cr: tumblr

Anyway, happy Easter, people! A sermon at my church on Good Friday reminded us on how a lot of people greet "Merry Christmas" but only a few people greet "Happy Easter", although both celebrate God's greatest love to the world where He sent His Son to redeem the world. Well, in Christmas, Jesus was born, so it is a really festive and joyful day. But, on Easter, Jesus, who had died on the cross, beat the death and gained victory. So be happy and be grateful for the Lamb that has been slained, for He has been crucified for our sins.

Of David.

I stumbled upon this verse today, this really cooled my heart in the midst of heat and tears. Kiasu-ism, selfishness, unfairness, envy and scheme plotting to block the internet access from NTU students are everywhere.

Be still before the LORD
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
(Psalm 37:7)

Apparently the whole passage is a good reminder, too!

Praise the LORD, stay faithful, and be blessed to be a blessing to others!

Traffic congestion on Sunday morning?

phone camera is still phone camera, even though this one has better resolution than the previous one. I wish I brought my beloved semi.

Anyone knows what happened at Jalan Bahar this morning to afternoon?

The jam started at 8 am (I am more than certain that today is SUNDAY!) and when I went back at around 11.30 am, the traffic was still pretty much the same. I stucked inside 199 bus for 1 hour (the journey from Boonlay interchange to my hall only takes around 20 mins). Anyway I heard that one person had been waiting for any 199 bus in NTU hall for 40 minutes plus.. Well...

I even thought that if I walked from the beginning of the traffic jam until my hall, I would have reached NTU much faster (even though it'd be REALLY tiring). Boonlay to NTU only takes approximately 30 minutes by foot (try only if you want to dare yourself or you have no other options of transport..). If they could be more flexible, gave one-off exceptional case and allowed the affected passengers to alight not on the bus stop and walked from there (199 bus stops are not so many, the stops along Jalan Bahar are quite far from one another), I wonder how many people would have alighted back then. I didn't ask for that anyway, I had known the answer right away: NO SUCH THING EXISTS.

I was thankful for my phone, music, phone camera and reading materials that I always bring with me to church to keep me company. I used to live in Jakarta which is famous for its long long traffic jam for 18 years and had battled inside public buses for 6 years =P My experience as a lonely wanderer really prepares me for the better and the worse

179 bus service was not better. No 179 buses came to pick up passangers in the interchange even after 10 minutes of its scheduled departure. I couldn't find any news regarding this at STOMP, Straits Times, yahoo.sg, even the so-called almighty google.. So?

(edited at 8.29 pm) So apparently there was this annual event. Usually I never passed through that area on this date since 2nd week of April is usually Easter day and my church holds the Easter service before dawn (according to the story in the Bible when Mary Magdalene went to Jesus' tomb).. So.. yah, should have planned my journey better.

A late evening melancholy

cr: Mere Musings

If only there's a coffeeshop like this nearby, I'd really love to go there and stay for a whole day to study or simply reading books, just like what they do in movies and TV series.. I have never found any place like this near the place where I am staying at. The height of the table is just right and the ambience is just nice. Yea. Students here seem to gather in junk food stalls and I don't really like the smell of it.. And besides, to be able to stay, at least you must buy a drink and I don't fancy those common soft drinks.. The nearest starbucks is too noisy and their tables are too short for me to write, do calculations and stuffs. Studying at my room makes me either sleepy, dizzy, losing my concentration, or remembering people or behavior I don't like in that particular class. Sad.

I was listening to Wicked's Defying Gravity when suddenly I took a look at the youtube video and saw that they are putting this very ad on the video. Super anticlimax.

How do they even know that the person who was listening to this is doing chemistry for her future life? I even have never watched (err ok, maybe once in a million times) chemistry video in there..