a little bokeh trick.

This is what you'll see when you stand at the balcony in my home.

This is what you'll see if you look through my camera's viewfinder (lens focus ring turned to *nearly* the shortest focal length)


I got this idea from some photography blog I found a long time ago. Get some black/dark coloured paper (to minimise internal reflections), and make something like this. Kinda like a cylinder which fits over your lens.

Make sure that the little fancy hole you cut into the black paper is smaller than the aperture of your lens. And I think this trick only works with lenses with apertures of f 1.8 and larger. (yes Jael, you can use your 50mm f1.8 portrait lens for this! :D )

Slide this over your lens, and you're good to go!

Aim your viewfinder at some distant lights,

and let the fun commence!

For the picture above, I actually pointed the camera at the same direction as seen in the first 2 pictures of this post. Fascinating, huh. :D

Swimming pool lights!

Enough of program mode. Decreasing the shutter speed and setting the aperture to f 1.4 in manual mode... The background magically darkens off.

I was so amused by this that I spent over half an hour at the balcony shooting. Nope, none of these pictures were photoshopped. And nope, I haven't grown up yet. :D

serendipity

Reaching for Sunlight.

This photo was taken in a rush as I was trying to catch up with my parents in the streets of Tokyo. We passed by a shop which was selling LOTS of beautiful plants. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to take a properly composed photo. The irony here is that looking at this photo makes me feel calm, even though it was taken hastily.

I wish I had set the camera to focus on the flowers in the centre... and I wish I had the chance to take the photo from a different angle. Or just include a full flower in the foreground. Sigh. Never mind.

Here's a cute picture I found while looking at the pictures in my external hard drive.

Two orange-coloured tulips in the middle of nowhere. :)

In case you're wondering... I'm posting this at 4.42am because I had a really long nap today from 4pm to 8.30pm. :P Right. I'm going back to sleep! :)

Why Smart People Do Stupid Things

Even the humblest in the league of mentally superior beings can't help but accidentally admit that they're intelligent when they reminisce about stupid things they've done.

Although I feel like I tend to be overly talkative on msn, (especially on days like today, when my mind is blank. hehe) it felt good letting it all out to a good listener. And it was interesting to hear you share your experiences too.

A really important question you asked was, why do smart people do dumb things?

This article tells us why!
http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/feature/why-people-are-irrational-kurt-kleiner/

This Kurt Kleiner guy says that intelligence and rationalism are not just different, they're separate entities. That's why many of us may have done stupid things in the name of love. Hehe.

According to him, a highly intelligent person can be irrational. But a very rational person may not have an above-average level of intelligence.

Do you think you're rational? Try this quiz to find out!

http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/summer-2009/rationality-quiz/

This quiz made me realise that taking the scientific approach to things helps us to remain rational. Interestingly, I think I'm more rational than I really am. wow. Sadly, the scientific approach can't be applied to everything.

Forwards and Backwards - They mean something different.

Reading a quote on this guy's blog (http://lohandbehold.wordpress.com/) intrigued me a little with the idea of changing the meaning of something when you reverse it. Allow me to digress a little...It's because I've been accidentally wearing my shorts the wrong way round for the past few days. I wonder why.

Maybe the quotes below might give you an idea of what I was trying to convey in the badly written paragraph above...

For starters...
There is nothing right in the left brain, and nothing left in the right brain.

An interlude...
The absence of evidence does not indicate the evidence of absence.

And the grand finale:
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. – Theodor Seuss Geisel (this quote is from that guy's blog.)

Playing with words is pretty fun. :D

are we running a losing race?

11.45pm.

There are still 4 people shown to be online on my company email account.

That's pretty much because the edutrust assessor sent us an email at 5.30pm today. It contained a really long list of stuff we have to show him by 9.30am tomorrow. Attaining the certification may be of paramount importance, but sacrificing your health isn't worth it. At all.

I feel bad for not staying back to help. The list of stuff mentioned above doesn't contain anything within my scope of work, but still...

Sigh.

Then again, my common sense is nagging at me. This honestly feels like a last-ditch attempt. No matter how much it's going to hurt my colleagues to hear it... I'm saying it anyway since my close friends are pretty much the only ones who know of my blog - I don't think we can attain the provisional edutrust certification-the highest possible edutrust status the assessors claim to be able to award us with.

Well-written policies alone won't get us through. We've got to put them to use.

And we've got to open several new positions with decent benefits and remuneration; that'll probably start to attract more experienced and talented staff to our company. We don't have to do this because our current management team is inadequately skilled; we have to do this because there's an inadequate number of staff in our team.

We have our merciless verbal assailants to thank today, for we have probably never received a torrential rainfall of constructive criticism before.

There may seem to be a dead end ahead if we don't attain this certification. But we could retrace our steps. Did we go wrong somewhere back there?

We may come back wiser than before, and become capable enough to tread upon terrain where no man has ventured.

Hehe. I think I went overboard with that metaphor. Back to reality. This is an 18 (coming to 19) year-old, inexperienced, and temporary staff member typing on the keyboard right now. Who is going to take my rants seriously? :P Tomorrow, I shall still try my best to help out.
We've gotta finish the races we initiate.

yippee!

Passed the driving final theory test in 10mins, because I didn't want to keep my mum waiting. :P (she couldn't find a place to park the car.) Now I have to practice driving like crazy until I don't make any more wide turns at high speeds... :D

I later found out that she parked the car in the Honda showroom nearby. She was talking to the salesman about the Honda Jazz, asking about the price... etc.

Biggest shock of my life, hahaha.

But then it occurred to me that she was only talking to him so that she could park her car at the Honda showroom. Hehe. :D

Lines and Limits

You're on your way home from work, and you're doing it in style. You're decked out in the latest, trendiest clothes and accessories. A chic black top, skinny jeans, black sandals with a pretty floral embellishment, and the latest Marc Jacobs bag. You're youthful-looking, you have the lithe physique of a model, and you're over 1.8 metres tall.

You take a furtive glance at your watch.
6.40pm.
It's the rush hour.

You manage to carefully step into the crowded MRT carriage, making sure you don't bump into anyone. You stand facing the doors, and they quickly slid close with merciless precision, separating you from the disappointed commuters who didn't manage to enter the train. The train moves off, and you're left alone in the mind-numbing crowd, staring at your reflection in the dark reflective glass panel of the window.

Wait. Was that a dirty look from that guy standing behind you?
You quickly avoid his glance by looking away from the window.
But curiosity got the better of you. You look at the window again. Nearly everyone in the train is staring at you. Some of those faces were teeming with curiosity; they wanted to get a better view of you. Some faces were simply expressing their outright disgust at your appearance.

"This is normal,", you tell yourself. "I'm alright. I'm okay.".
----------------------------

The above was a scene I experienced on my way home from work today, while I was drowsy from the super strong antibiotics the doctor prescribed to me to cure my tonsillitis. (swallowing hurts like mad, but talking hurts less.)

Were you wondering why the girl went through such an unpleasant experience?
I'm sure she has to go through situations like that every single day, wherever she goes.
For some reason, I felt proud for her. She's really brave; she's got the guts and determination to live her life the way she wants to.







And that's not easy, because she's a transsexual.

I guess transsexuals like her pretty much live their lives like the most of us. The initial expression of curiosity at the masculine remnants of her facial features is understandable. But incessant staring, nudging, and commenting is unnecessary and plain rude. Sigh. I feel bad for her. More people could become more understanding of them if they just tried to imagine themselves as that girl.



I've made my point. Now it's time for some little problems of my own.

--------------------------------
"Mind over matter is the way to go, but it's difficult not to believe in emotions."
--------------------------------
How am I supposed to know if I've crossed the line?

For now, I know that you're a great person. Others-centred. Definitely more talented and hardworking than me. And 16cm taller, assuming I haven't grown any taller/undergone shrinking. :P

You're my friend. And vice versa. Not exactly a close friend, for now.

At least that's what my brain is telling me.

Why is the mastermind becoming a matchmaker?

I'm usually not strongly influenced by the opinions of others, but the mastermind is making me confused this time.

Maybe it's because I casually said that it has to be mutual for it to work out. If that quote which says that the truth only emerges past midnight holds true, then I think that we have a problem here. :P
With that message, did I just imply what my brain didn't mean to imply?
With that message, did I just imply what my emotions meant to imply?

A classic situation of "the brain says no, but the heart says yes". All thanks to the mastermind.
Maybe the mastermind just picked up little squeaks of emotions from me a long time ago. I didn't even know they existed; maybe I was hiding them from myself with facts. Now, he could simply be amplifying and broadcasting those little squeaks to you. Who knows what he'll be up to next? To avoid an awkward situation, I'll believe in logic for now. There is a mutual, unspoken agreement that this is strictly friendship.

It's confusing and distracting, as with all conundrums. With our absolute lack of expertise in this..... field, I don't think it's likely to work out in that way. After all, you do expect to lose contact with me once my contract ends, don't you? I'm expecting that too. Oh well. Let's allow fate to take over and ignore this issue.

And I'm only posting this here because I *think* you don't read blogs, do you? :p



Sigh. My throat hurts even when I laugh/yawn...

escalator

At least we have Sundays.

In Prison:
You spend your time in an 8 x 10 cell
At Work:
You spend your time in an 6 x 8 cubicle

In Prison:
You get three free meals a day
At Work:
You get one break for a meal you pay for

In Prison:
A guard locks and unlocks all doors for you
At Work:
You carry a security card, you unlock the doors

In Prison:
You get to watch TV and play games
At Work:
You get fired for watching TV and playing games

In Prison:
You get your own toilet
At Work:
You have to share

In Prison:
Family and friends are allowed to visit
At Work:
You're not allowed to speak to family or friends
(not true in my office. how about yours?)

In Prison:
Expenses are paid by taxpayers and work is not required
At Work:
You pay to go to work and you get to deduct expenses on your taxes to pay for prisoners

In Prison:
You look through the bars, hoping to get out
At Work:
You want to get out so you can go inside the bars

In Prison:
The wardens who are often called sadistic
At Work:
The wardens are called managers

Damn, I can't wait to enter NUS.

what does MLIA mean?

http://mylifeisaverage.com/

Last night I was at a school sporting event where the ref made a terrible call. Amid all the boos and jeers i heard someone yell "May the fleas of a thousand camels infest the crotch of you, and may your arms be to short to scratch!" MLIA

Yesterday, I read a bumper sticker that said "buckle up; it makes it harder for the aliens to abduct you from your car". Needless to say this sticker will single handedly make the roads much safer. MLIA\

Today in my middle school while me and a friend were walking to class, a boy with a red shirt and blue overalls passed by us with his I Touch, which had a Super Mario Bros. soundboard app on it, walking to the theme song while making jump noises. We then proceeded to follow him straight to his homeroom, which he played the victory theme while cheering. I must make friends with this boy. MLIA

the new emergency number!

Have you ever thought that 999 was too difficult to remember?
Well try this!

Watch the YouTube video!

It's from the British comedy, The IT Crowd.
Absolutely hilarious!
A pity that video embedding was disabled by the uploader.

I've lost count of how many times I've watched this, this jingle is curiously addictive.






0118 999 88199 9119 725.... 3...

That's...

oh one one eight
nine nine nine
eight eight one nine nine
nine one one nine
seven two five...
three...

Brit humour aside,
Thank you, Shi Jia, for the great dinner we had tonight! :D

the science of fashion.

http://news.cnet.com/Geek-designer-wears-tech-well/2100-1041_3-6030370.html

Hitler rants about the Nikon D3X

A video from 2008 that I just found. Late, yes, but still very entertaining. :D

Sometimes, geniuses feel embarassed too.

I like this guy's style of writing! (and Stephen Hawking's honesty, too.)

Stephen Hawking: Time Travel Will Happen

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20003949-71.html