Author: Andrew

Okay… Time to brush the cobwebs off this blog. I didn’t realize 2 months have passed since I last updated. Time flies and I’ve been quite the busy at work. But since I got requests to update this blog of mine, I shall acquiesce.

The first three months of this year have just flown by. And there were some firsts for me. Somewhere in January, I was involved on the video end of two concert productions. Not the kind that they’ll put to DVDs, but it was for the purpose of live projection. Nothing new for me taking part in these concerts, but it’s a first for me because I directed at the productions. First one was S.H.E. (a Taiwanese trio) and the other was Sally Yeh. A pretty unnerving experience for the S.H.E. concert. Expectations were high and I’m brand new at this job. But the second outing was much better, perhaps due to the fact that I had three cameras covering ONE person. But it was a good experience and I pray that more of these chances will come by. It is definitely a different experience when compared to directing a live production in church. Expectations and standards are different and you have to work with those standards. And some requests come in during the show itself and there you are, trying to talk to 3 different people on the cameras and the show’s producer is trying to get you to do something. Not easy… Definitely a good way to expand out of the box that we might have placed ourselves in serving in the ministry.

Work-wise is good too. I’ve been blessed with what amounted to 2 months worth of bonus pay, and plus all the freelance jobs I have done and are still getting, God has been really good to me after the building fund (sidetrack: completed paying the BF! PTL!) and I pray this doesn’t let up. Gets pretty busy when the freelance jobs come in, but I guess there has to be some sacrifice made. We do have to put ourselves in a position to be blessed. And this position is not sitting at home and bumming around doing nothing. It means that we have to work for it!! Haha…

For those of you who knows that I’m serving in the TV ministry in church, I’ve also been transferred to the Saturday team. The past few weeks have been a period of adjustment for me. It has been a total culture shock for me. Why? Because of the way the Saturday team operates and the constraints that we face. When I was in the Sunday team, everybody could report early to setup and be there for briefing. We even had time to conduct trainings before service started on Sunday. Maybe this is because Sunday service is the first thing on everybody’s Sunday calendar and everyone can be there. Not so in the Saturday team. You’ll have Children’s Church going on before main service. Coupled with the fact that a lot of the team members have cell group, work, etc., don’t be surprised if you find yourself with only 5 to 6 persons doing the entire setup. And don’t be surprised either when you only see half to three-quarters of your camera crew present. Now I can see that the Sunday team operates with less stress and I’ve been taking that for granted. I just have to get myself used to it! Don’t look back! Look forward! Hehehe….

I guess that’s about all. I promise to try to blog and update more frequently. Until then, God bless and cheers…. :Þ

A thought recently struck my mind. What is creativity? What does it mean to different people? Why is it that creativity is only associated to people who’re in the creative industry? Why, for that matter, is it called a creative industry?

Here’s a different take on the idea of creativity: everybody is creative in his or her own way. A person doesn’t need to be in the creative industry to be a creative person. I don’t have to be, for example, a musician, to be considered a creative person. Why can’t a person working in a sales line be considered a creative person? He can be resourceful and full of ideas on how to make a sale. Can’t that be considered creativity? Or why can’t a manager who’s very good at managing projects and is always finishing projects ahead of time be considered creative?

The definition of creative is the ability to create. Doesn’t that mean that if a person can create something instead of imitating others, shouldn’t that person be considered creative? A lot of things a person does daily, like the way we solve problems at work can be considered creative. Often times, we are faced with situations that forces us to think out of the box, to come up with ways to counter the situations. Can’t that be attributed to the person’s creativity?

True that I’m looking at an alternative definition of the word “creativity”. But going strictly by the definition, we are all creative persons, albeit in our own way. Just my two cents….

For the first time in ages, I stayed out late on a weeknight. And right now, I’m suffering the after effects. Sleepy, eyes can’t open, tired out. But we had a good time.

Went to watch Deja Vu yesternight at The Cathay. First up, the cinema was freakishly cold and I was actually shivering and trying to make myself warm. And I had to miss a part of the show to go to the loo *grumbles*. But that aside, the show was good. With good visual effects and pace, the show will keep you on the edge of your seats for the most of it. And it’s definitely better than Eragon (watched it last week. Kinda sucked).

After that, we were off to Gluttons Bay at Esplanade. Ordered a tonne of food and discovered that a friend of ours is a rather big eater. He basically polished off the rest of the food after all of us were stuffed. And I think he had room for more. Sat around at Esplanade after that chatting and taking pictures and what not. Had a good time. Not much crowd, since it was almost midnight on a weeknight.

Reached home and made a mistake of putting The OC on. Watched a couple of episodes before going to bed and by that time, it was 2.30am. So… Here I am today, with bleary eyes and a rather bad throat to go along with it…..

Cheers….. Þ

Christmas comes early for me this year. Right now, I’m sitting in front of a spanking new monitor and typing out this entry. Got a Dell 2007FPW 20″ widescreen LCD monitor as a Christmas present from my dad! Awesome, isn’t he…

So now I have a pretty interesting setup in my room, as you can see from the picture on the right. And I have reclaimed tonnes of desk space. Previously, my keyboard was pretty near the edge of the table and the monitor was off to one side of the table. Now the monitor is directly in front of me and is more comfortable this way. The old CRT is used for TV watching if needed. If not, the monitor remains off most of the time. So far, I’m enjoying the monitor. Nice and bright colours. Simply love it…

Just wanted to share my joy… Until the next time, cheers…. :Þ

I’ve learned my lesson, and learned it well. My stomach is just not cut out for ma la huo guo. To simply translate it to English, it means numbingly spicy steamboat. It actually numbs your tongue. Yes, it’s nice to eat, but wreaks havoc on my stomach. Barely after leaving the restaurant, the stomachache came and it was raging by the time I got home. It wasn’t until this morning that it finally settled down some. Still a bit of ache, but nothing unbearable.

Ate at this place along Geylang Road, near to Kallang MRT station. The food there wasn’t bad. Some of the cell group and a few others gathered to celebrate a cell group member’s (Jiahao’s) end of exams. And we ate and ate and ate. Quite a bit of leftovers (quite common in this case) and we were all stuffed by the time we walked away.

Just wanted to complain a bit about my stomachache. Until the next time, cheers…. :Þ

It has been an interesting and busy two weeks. Finally went back to Jakarta last week after a hiatus of a few years. I say a few because I have lost count of how many. But nothing has changed there, with the exception of traffic getting worse. Managed to eat what I missed most from Indonesia, namely the Nasi Padang and the kuring-kuring cuisine. Was there for a short two days to finalize the sale of my house in Indonesia. Pretty much enjoyed the break away from work as well.

On top of that, I accepted a job to create a couple of videos for a friend’s friend. So on top of my regular 9am-6pm job, I have to go home at night to edit and composite effects, sometimes only ending at around 2am. But thank God that I manage to get through it. My client is very satisfied with the videos that I’ve come up with. Sounded simple enough when I accepted it. A compilation of interviews. But when you get down to it, and considering all the details, it was pretty intensive. Especially with the effects compositing. But when all is done, I’m pretty satisfied myself with my work. Another video to go into my portfolio. A quick testimony insert here: my client gave me 50% on top of my fee as a bonus. Praise the Lord!!

So yeah, all in all, a fun-packed, albeit a bit tiring, fortnight. Enjoyed doing the editing and effects after not touching it for a while. But quite stressful considering that I can only work at night. And it affects social life too. Oh well, I have to position myself for a blessing if I’m expecting a blessing. If that means a bit of hard work, so be it.

Gotta stop here first and get back to work. Had to take a break from programming. Until the next update, cheers… :Þ

Yup, it has been a month since I blogged. Seems to have become commonplace that I take a month’s break between posts. Well, it has been a busy month and haven’t had much time to blog even though I have had random thoughts that are worth posting. Unfortunately, the random thoughts are randomly gone…

I still owe you the panorama stitch of the Taipei skyline as taken from Taipei 101. That I haven’t forgotten. Speaking about pictures, I’ve been uploading to my Flickr account pretty often lately. You can check out my pics at http://www.flickr.com/photos/otnaicus/. Not so much artistic pictures but random pictures that were taken during our frequent Sunday outings with a few friends from the TV Ministry. Hope you guys have a good laugh from it…

I’m off to Jakarta on Thursday for a couple of days. Gosh, it’s been ages since I have been back there. Wonder what has changed? I hope I can get in a bit of shopping in the two days and cram in some good food that I miss. See if I can get a pair of jeans or two from there. Aside from being stuck in the traffic jams, I should think it would be quite a good time.

A friend is getting married this Sunday and I’m on “uncle” duty. To the uninitiated, “uncle” is a colloquial term for being part of the groom’s entourage. Think it’ll be quite fun. Second time for me. But Sunday will be a bit of a mad rush around as I have to rush back home in the afternoon to wait for my parents, who’re flying in from Jakarta. Then after that, it’s off to the wedding dinner in the evening. And on Monday, it’s back to work.

Guess that’s all the updates for now. Until the next time I update (hopefully, with the pictures I’ve promised), cheers…. :Þ

I’m back in Singapore. Since last Friday actually. And it has been busy busy since I got back. But good busy.

Saturday and Sunday was occupied by church. It was great to be back in church, to praise and worship and to take in the sermon. Even though it’s only one week, but it still feels great to be back. Served on Sunday. For the first time in a very long while, I was on iris. Man, was I rusty. Kept on over-exposing a particular camera. On top of that, my sleepy mood wasn’t helping. Kept falling asleep and as a result, I wasn’t as attentive and sharp with iris as I wanted to be. Good to take the dust off a skill so basic and rudimentary that all TV crew started off doing. After Sunday service, a few of us went to Changi Beach to talk, nap, swing in swings, climb trees and see airplanes on their final approach to Changi Airport. Fun. Then went to Siglap for drinks.

On Monday, came back into office. Was handed a task to perform and complete. Felt a bit sour about it because I was expecting a bit of free time to myself since it’s supposed to be my down period. But nevertheless, I had to complete it so I just put that wrong attitude aside and started doing what needs to be done. Finally figured out how to achieve the results I wanted this morning and the thing is half done. PTL! Had steamboat with some of my cell group on Monday evening as well. Fun, but have no pictures of that to share.

Speaking of pictures, I still owe you guys the panorama of Taipei’s skyline as shot from the observation deck of Taipei 101. Will get it stitched up and share it as soon as possible.

Guess that’s all for now. Just wanted to drop a line before you guys think I’ve disappeared again. Until the next time, cheers…. :Þ

Yup, my first post with photos. And you might notice the font size difference because since migrating my blog to Blogger Beta, the fonts decreased in size. So from this post onwards, font size increased.

So it’s my fourth night here in Taipei. Just wanted to share some pics of the hotel room I stayed in for the first 3 nights. It has been a while since I slept in such a large hotel room. And it came with a huge bathroom too, complete with a walk-in wardrobe. Anyway, enough talk and time for some pics…

Haha… Yes, I’m back in Taipei again. Went back to Singapore on 31 August for one week and then flew back here just yesterday night. This time round, to complete the project. Target date of heading back to Singapore is 20 September. Colleague said that chances of extending quite high, but I pray that I can go home first. Why? I’ll tell you later…

Updated the look of the sidebar a bit. Now there’s a flickr badge. And I’ve finally gotten around to changing the tag board back to the TagBoard. Much better as the previous one fails to load most of the time. So I do hope to see more activitiy in this blog and the tag. Hopefully, the pictures in the flickr badge will change more often as well.

Now, as to why I hope to be able to go back by 20 September. Cuz on 21 September, it’s my dear’s birthday! Haha. So I wouldn’t want to miss it if possible. Wanna be back home to celebrate with her and to wish her happy birthday in person rather than over the phone or MSN or Skype. But just in case, I’ve got a backup plan ready. Not gonna reveal it here because she also reads this blog. Will tell you more about it after it happens…

Anyhow, I gotta get back to work. Not too sure what to do as my colleague is away in a meeting and he didn’t say what I need to do. So I’ll just catch up on some backlog of stuff that’s related to another project that I’m supporting. Until the next time, cheers…. :Þ

Quick Edit
Migrated the blog over to Blogger Beta. So the look and feel has changed yet again.