My quick update
Since I really haven’t been blogging, I thought I’d do a quick update to let family and friends know how the pregnancy is going. But before I even start, I get stuck. Coz I can’t figure which week I am in.
When we first found out, we asked a friend for a recommendation to a gynae. She asked me, “how many weeks are you?”. Since I don’t have a super regular monthly schedule, I go, “er….I dunno.”
So I go for my first visit with the gynae and after the initial check, I promptly ask the gynae, “so how many weeks am I?” She happily tells me, “you are 10 weeks pregnant. The baby is 8 weeks old.” Ok, so I lock onto these 2 numbers. But the next time someone asks me, “how far along is the pregnancy?” I wonder, hmm…which number do I give?
So just so you know, I am now 15 weeks pregnant and the baby is 13 weeks old. The baby is doing well and it’s totally cool to see the baby move and hear the heartbeat go thumping fast and my own like an old factory churning in the background. The last ultrasound we did, we heard the heartbeat, did the measurements but the whole time, the baby didn’t move a single bit. So the doctor doing the scan shook my tummy vigorously with the transducer. No movement. So he did it again. No movement. We all started getting worried. He gave it another shake and then the baby suddenly stretches his/her arms and legs as if waking up.
Kar Wai says, “wa…the baby like you sia. Earthquake also cannot wake up.”
Other than that, I don’t think I’d be posting baby scans or my pregnant belly on the blog. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s really cool to be able to do that and I can completely understand the excitement. It really is amazing to have something growing in you. Our first sight of the baby led Kar Wai and I to exclaim, “Wa…”, leaving the doctor absolutely amused. The realisation that it’s actually real and moving is something totally awesome. So it’s just me. I’m more inclined to fit those stuff in a scrapbook for my kids than on our blog. Shy, la. =)
Jodie
We’re having a baby. =)
In the last 4 weeks:
1. Jodie got morning sickness real bad.
2. She had food cravings.
3. I learned to cook, I can make char bee hoon now.
4. I had to run around to get food craving ingredients.
5. One of the food craving item was kiam chye duck, and found the ingredients in Chinatown.
6. Val O visited.
7. Abby visited and had to help out with the cooking.
8. We found out what kind of food Jodie/baby doesn’t like.
9. Jodie still gets bloated at night.
10. We just did the scan today. Baby’s good and healthy. 10 weeks old.
11. We are exploring the options of coming back to Spore for 6mths to have baby or staying here.
We are really really happy, been waiting a long time for this. =)
Will be MIA blogging for a while. =(
Wes
Things to avoid after 5pm - Yet another new item
Stuff we cannot take after 5pm:
1. Coffee/Tea
2. Instant noodles
3. McDonalds
4. KFC
5. Oyster Sauce
6. Japanese seaweed flakes for rice.
and another new one we found at 4am this morning.
7. Miso soup.
3 nights.
Things to avoid after 5pm - Another new item
Stuff we cannot take after 5pm:
1. Coffee/Tea
2. Instant noodles
3. McDonalds
4. KFC
5. Oyster Sauce
and another new one we found at 4am this morning.
6. Japanese seaweed flakes for rice.
Two nights in a row. Facepalm.
Things to avoid after 5pm - New item
Stuff we cannot take after 5pm:
1. Coffee/Tea
2. Instant noodles
3. McDonalds
4. KFC
and new one we found this morning at 5am.
5. Oyster Sauce (!!)
Or Lu Lu style: Full Circle
Kyra. 2008
The last 3 years has been amazing journey. One of the things is that I have learned more about myself and what kind of mood I feel intrinsically for the images I want to make. I know now my eye naturally sees in black & white and my mood is more sombre and quiet. The exhibition we did in July this year was a big milestone for me. For the 1st time in my life, I showed the world my heart and my feelings. Honestly, I was very uncertain about public reception. I was very happy to find that on the whole, more people connected to the images than people who didn’t. I had expected less people to be enthused. Even so, deep down I knew the images came from my heart, so I had to embrace them as ‘me’ regardless, even if they were ‘or lu lu’ (means ‘very dark’. It’s how my elders would describe them in the Fujian tongue).
Then, a friend came over to Paris and he asked me over MSN if I could do family shoot for him here. At first, it was a nice surprise but I was a little worried after that coz he’s a also professional photographer (a very good wedding photographer btw, he’s Kelvin Koh from LightedPixels.com) and his eye was different from mine. I thought about it for a few days and finally discussed with him about my concerns. It was a tough one for me, to obey my natural eye or my professional training where it was best to stick to the norm with color and happy images? Which family in their right mind would want quiet b&w images for the primary shots? In the end, the image above was one of the key shots from the photo session. The child is held captive in the image and she seems to be floating. She is locked in an eternal moment of a memory.
In that process where i was editing the shots and doing post production, I began to realize that this viewpoint wasn’t something new. I was shooting some of my stuff like that way back. From Jodie’s stay at the hospital to the wedding stuff where I took complete artistic direction and experimented with b&w.
I discussed the b&w thing with Kelvin and we came to the conclusion that it’s a very niche area where I am going. I will have to learn new business stuff in this area. It will probably be an interesting ride. Again.
Kat keeping virgil at Jodie's bedside. 2000
Pat getting ready. 2002
Waiting for the bride. 2003
What game trailers are like nowadays…
They are just like movie trailers. Makes me want to watch Return of the King all over again. ha!
4core vs 2core CPUs - Surprising results
Tomshardware just had a real world comparison between 4core and 2core CPUs. Results are surprising, the 4core only excelled when it was running programs written for 4core CPUs. To cut a long story short, only media encoding and some games excelled, other than that the 2cores won, *even* with Photoshop filters.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/G45-780G-Efficiency,1999.html
What does it mean? It means that if I was going for an upgrade right now, I’ll probably root for a duo core with the highest gigahertz (Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 3.33ghz) and dump the rest of the cash in to a ATI 4870. I can always dream right? :p
Surprisingly busier in the last 3 weeks
Jo and I have been busier the last 3 weeks. Jo’s:
1. Been learning printer (commercial) liaison nuances for a logo collateral project that she’s been tasked. Like printing Pantone silver is a big pain. Work’s finished, thanks to a great deal of help rendered by Yuki-san and internet design forums.
2. Trying out new dishes with food sites ideas she’s been looking.
3. Found out that she de-stresses by cooking.
4. Testing new work style with the interim pastor. So far so good.
Wes’s:
1. Been learning more about B&W archival inkjet printing. For example, printing is best done in a sealed dust free space, like the plants where they manufacture microchips. We don’t have that, so we have to print in the middle of the night.
2. Been eating Jo’s new dishes.
3. Knows he de-stresses by eating.
4. Beta testing Warhammer Online. Not too bad.
Running Parallel
Jo and I have been busier the last 3 weeks. Jo’s:
1. Been learning printer (commercial) liaison nuances for a logo collateral project that she’s been tasked. Like printing Pantone silver is a big pain. Work’s finished, thanks to a great deal of help rendered by Yuki-san and internet design forums.
2. Trying out new dishes with food sites ideas she’s been looking.
3. Found out that she de-stresses by cooking.
4. Testing new work style with the interim pastor. So far so good.
Wes’s:
1. Been learning even more about B&W archival inkjet printing. For example, printing is best done in a sealed dust free space, like the plants where they manufacture microchips. We don’t have that, so we have to print in the middle of the night. Devil is in the details.
2. Been eating Jo’s new dishes.
3. Knows he de-stresses by eating.
4. Beta testing Warhammer Online. Not too bad.
Something original: WE LIVE IN SINGAPURA the MTV
Hossan Leong did this adaptation at Talking Cock in Parliament. MTV is not perfect, but it’s funny, entertaining and original.
Monsoon in Paris
It rained early this morning at 530am, it was a downpour and water got into the house. Just a few days ago, Jodie and I were talking about the monsoon rain. Back in AMK, I didn’t like heavy rain coz mildew would grow in the dampness. The rain here was so heavy that our plants got their roots exposed, that’s how heavy it was. The pitter patter of heavy rain drops, we have heard that in about 3 years. Anyway, when it was raining, Jo went to check the windows, she said the rain sounded odd. And she was right, the gutter overflowed and rain was coming in. She went back to sleep about 7am soon after. As I am writing this at 130am Paris time, it’s starting to rain again. I can’t complain, I always told my mom that I was born in the wrong country, my body is more agreeable to temps
Couple of updates:
1. The exhibition is over! I sat at Genesis for the whole month, it was kinda fun, met a few Sporeans who visited the show. And we sold enough to cover the printing and framing cost. woohoo! Thank God. =)
2. We got our visas extended for another year till April 2009. The visa lady said we can do it online next year. Apparently it’s a big thing, the administration used to require folks to call in for appointment and the list of requirements varied from prefecture to prefecture. Sarkozy’s government was making it more efficient for businesses to function. The online thing is only for the Paris prefecture though. heh.
3. Went wifi-ing at a couple of public locations in Paris, eg the Bastille Opera, parks, etc. There’s a whole lot more internet coverage vs 3 years back. Feels like Paris is opening up.
4. Playing Diablo2 for old times sake, but I don’t have the expansion pack. Anybody with the LoD cd? :D
5. Saw ‘Ah Long Pte Ltd’ on crunchyroll a few nights ago. It was bad, at least ‘Just Follow Law’ had some semblance of a coherent story. ‘Ah Long’ not only had a bad storyline it also copied ‘My Wife is a Gangster’ and ‘Shaolin Soccer’. Also chanced on the Dawn Yang plagiarism apology. Might be a bit far fetched to link them up to the National Day video, but I think it’s not a coincidence. I quote Dawn Yang, “It didn’t cross my mind that I was doing something wrong”. Maybe the creators of the film and video didn’t think they were doing something wrong too. This is terribly disturbing.
Wes
Shame on you NDP 2008 music video
I read Mr Brown’s post on the National Day Parade 2008 music video today.
It’s a new low. This one pwnz the MDA MTV.
It’s also a total shame. This is one of the most blatant rip offs I have ever seen. Angle for angle. Color tone for color tone. And best, it’s on a national level. For the day we declared independence from the British. It’s pure irony, to celebrate our independence, we kowtow to a foreign TV ad.
There was a case of a NAFA student(s) that was expelled for plagiarism some time ago. Maybe the same rules should apply. Whoever came up with this idea should be expelled. If they want to save face now, they should reshoot. This video will probably make us the laughing stock of the entire world.
Interestingly, this video puts us in the same boat with the folks who produce fake milk powder. It’s also a bizarre twist of the Suzhou project where the Chinese the copied entire industrial city built by the Singaporean government. So, the next time I hear a Singaporean pronouncing judgment on our Chinese cousins up north for making fake stuff, I will point out that we are not much more different. They copy stuff, we copy ideas.
Mr Brown states that in our pragmatic ideology based society, the end justifies the the means. Mark this year of 2008, this video indicates a whole new level of the pragmatic ideal. The creators of this video knew that the original ad was successful, so by copying it wholesale, success was guaranteed. We as a nation, state that “In art, original ideas don’t matter as long as the results are worth it.”
The next few questions I am asking myself is “Is this just an ideology thing or does culture and society play a part?”. Why can’t we come up with our own stuff, are we ashamed of our own creative ideas?
Echoing a comment left on the his blog, it’s super sia suay man.
Bastille Day 2008 at the Eiffel
Paris had a free concert this year at Champs de Mars for Bastille Day. Our friends chope-ed our lot from 5pm and we reached the location at 8pm.
This was the scene at 8pm. Apparently 1/2 million people turned up. The singers at the concert were mostly french except for…
James Blunt!! Woohoo. One of Jo and me fav singers. Made the hustling and bustling completely worthwhile. He sang ‘Simona’ and another song. Then we waited till 11pm for the fireworks.
Rousing fireworks synchronized to opera music. Made us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It was so good that it made some of us want to sign up for French citizenship. Just for that 5min. :p
After that we walked home.
L’Etranger - Ze Images
Hey all, I just updated the www.memphiswest.com website with the images from the photo installation. They took pretty long coz it was really tricky getting it just right for the web due to the black tones in the images.
I had an interesting comment from a french person, he said “…you like the time between the dog and the wolf”. i found out that it means “the hour or time(?) before sunrise”. Talk about idioms.
Things have been going pretty well so far, I am très content. It’s really my 1st personal work shown and it’s gotten a lot of responses. Most people who walk in do get a feel what the series is, and I get the feeling they either choose to connect to it or not. It feels good to be understood.
L’Etranger - Exhibition shots
Our friend Triston Yeo, came by the exhibition coz he was in town for a job. It was super cool of him to shoot the setup (it’s a very old cellar) and make it look like a million bucks. Here are some of the petite exhibition.
This is the underground cellar where it’s held. It’s dead quiet. Jodie designed the photo layout.
Jodie not only designed the layout but also constructed a soundtrack to enhance mood of the installation.
That’s it for the time being. We’ve been tied up finalizing some details. I’ll be posting up the exhibition images our site soon. We were thinking of using 20+ shots but ended up with approx 50+ images so I have to do them up. =)
Vista: Et tu Intel?
Apparently Intel is holding off Vista even after SP1. Doesn’t bode well for MS, sad.
Anyhoo, anybody got any new software (besides games) to share? =)
JK Rowling at Harvard: About Failure
Karen sent me this link about JK Rowling’s Commencement Speech at Harvard. Very comforting words, especially on the part about failure.
How to check corp account balance via DBS IDEAL
Since the last episode with DBS IDEAL, I haven’t used it in a long while. Last night, I had no choice as I needed to check the account balance urgently. Here’s what happened:
3am to 3:25am Singapore time:
1. Used Firefox 3 to open https://newideal.dbs.com/, keyed in Org ID, User ID, PIN.
2. Pop up page appears, takes approx 10sec to load, keyed in code from security device.
3. Error page pops up, takes me back to Point 1. I tried it 3 times. Maybe it’s got problems with FF3.
4. I tried Safari 3, and pop up page says it’s ‘Loading……’. Waited 5mins. Doesn’t go beyond that.
5. 20min has passed, tried Firefox 3 again and site says it’s under maintenance.
3pm to 3:20pm Singapore time:
1. Used Firefox 3 to open https://newideal.dbs.com/, keyed in Org ID, User ID, PIN.
2. Pop up page appears, takes approx 10sec to load, keyed in code from security device.
3. Huzzah, I finally get into the accounts page. Clicked “Account Balance”, and it says “Loading….” for 5min. Doesn’t work.
4. I tried “Remittance” for fun and page says “No Remittance”. Ok, so it’s working.
5. Tried “Account Report”, and it says “Loading….” for 5min. Doesn’t work.
5pm to 5:01pm Singapore time:
1. I called +65 6222 2200 on our VOIP phone.
2. Keyed in 8digit code.
3. Keyed in 7digit PIN.
4. Selected balance enquiry 01 and got the account balance.
Thank you DBS for wasting 45min of my life that I can never get back.
L’Etranger - Photo Installation, Paris.
Hey guys, if you are in Paris next week 27th June, please come for the opening of our very very very 1st photo installation in Paris. It’s held in the cellar complete with stone walls, etc. It’s not an exhibition so there are other elements that come into play besides the images. The installation will be there for the whole month of July so if you are in town, drop by and we can go for kopi or something after closing time. Here’s the invite for the opening. =)
Details:
30 June - 31 July. Mondays to Saturdays. 14h30 - 18h30
Genesis. 15, rue des Lavandières-Ste Opportune. Paris 75001
PS: If you guys will not be able to make it, it’s ok, some of the images will be posted on our website on 28th June.
June 29 update: Haven’t got the images up on the site yet, xiong-ed out for the last 2 days. sorriee.
July 13 update: They are finally up!! http://www.memphiswest.com