All our secrets they are tailored trouble

...is my latest obsession. I swear the Swedish diet of meatballs have something to do with their awesome music.

Anyway, will be off to the scarlett hotel tomorrow with the gang. Having a staycation there, will post pictures when I get back. Looking forward to crash the pubs there.

Lately I've been considering to get myself a video camera so I can shoot things I want, and maybe even work out a couple of short films. But then I didn't like the idea of plonking down cash on something that i can't switch lens unlike a pro level camera; i'd rather rent one.

Until I stumbled on a short film that was shot entirely on a 5d mk2 that suddenly made me realized the possibility of killing 2 birds with 1 expensive stone. My 10d after all, was dying. The shutter's been giving me problems here and there and I've been considering to upgrade it for the longest time ever.

If I got myself a 5d mk2, then I'll be able to do both my photography as well as videography. What more can I ask for? Money of course. $3.8k is no small sum for me; my bank account is bleeding. Unless I chiong for platoon sergeant..

The next cheaper alternative is the 500d. $1.3k. Not as bad, but the sensor size is much smaller and the lack of an external mike socket is a major bummer.

Here's some example of the 5d mk2 video quality. Alot of them have very minimal grading and the colors achieved is way better than the XLH1 cams we used in school.

This one is shot entirely a Nikon mount Zeiss ZF 50mm f1.4 lens. Fucking amazing.



Shot with 50mm EF-lens, f1,2:



Shot with a 50 f1.4, 70-200 f2.8, 135 f2, and 45mm Tilt shift:



You probably already figured out that I want the 5d mk2.. but I can't save 4k. zettai muri daiyo!

After shuffling my feet around for more than a year, I decided to post my short film online. Honestly, it's not that good. It was rushed during post production and is slightly unpolished. Wished I had more time. The gist is there, and there's quite a bit of nuances to take note of. Enjoy.



FRAGMENTS tells the story of a boy and a girl in love with each other, but both afraid to take a step further, in fear of losing the other. Yet the more they try to protect each other from getting hurt, the deeper the misunderstanding grows and ultimately destroys their relationship.

A 2008 lasalle graduating diploma short film written and directed by nicholas lim. Starring lez ann chong, dominic ng and stephanie ong.

I was put on spot today, when someone revealed something I did not expect.

That totally threw everything off tangent. It didn't help when that person was particular persistent on bringing that very said revelation.

God, it's been a while, hisashiburi da ne?

Oh and I made hashbrowns today. They didn't turn out too well..

Been wanting to do this for ages, and I finally got my ass on it. Rasterbated a picture of the lovely Maki-chan. Will be continuing to add more touches to my room. It's about time I start personalizing my room a little, least I be accused of treating my room like a hotel. Lol.

+++

Anyway, I shelved my plans to get an ipod touch to replace my defunct cheapo mp3 player. Instead I bought a 8GB memory card for my PSP and voila, I have a mp3 player that has a larger screen than an itouch. Okay, so I realized it isn't exactly an itouch, but oh what the hell.

Today, during my 6km run with the other commanders, a really awesome line hit me and before I could run back to write it, I completely forgot the line. Fuck up. I always carry my notepad with me for moments like this and it had to hit me while I'm running.

I can't seem to get the exact phrase, the choice of words was just purely acid gold.


edit:
I REMEMBERED!!

...being hated by the very existence that defines you, is painful.

This is in reference to self criticism. There's more to this line, I can't pen down the whole train of thought, but this line pretty much strings what I wanted to say into place. It's okay if it doesn't make sense to anyone. It's more a "me" kind of thing.

I want to watch Miao Miao. It's like totally my type of film (even though it's taiwanese). Haven watched something like thing since Strawberry Shortcakes. Who can resist a good yuri arthouse film? Plus it's very japanese-ish. Can't seem to get a good torrent on it though, so the other option is to buy it from yesasia. Should I or not?

Finally got my ass up into putting up the montage in my room. For ages i've been working on revamping my room and the procrastinator owns me. But today i decide to conduct a stay by bed and i cleaned the fuck out of my room + got the montage up.

And man, it looks good. Pictures are from the Lasalle fine arts grad show, I totally loved what they have done there and now I have the privilege of having the show in my room. Hur hur.

Photoshop CS3 is up and running on my komputa, so it's time to brush up on mah ps skillzorz.





My 10D is struggling to keep up with me. The shutter is screwing up every now and then. I'm not sure whether I want to get it fixed or just simply buy a 50D instead. Even so, now's still not the right time. Gah.

if i had all the influence in the world, i'd put the following people's works in my debut film:


photography- alvelyn
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alvelyn
because her photos are so sensitive and tonal, it blows my mind all the time. photos in films has always been symbolic to me. thus the birth of my previous short film, fragments.

music- ling kai
http://www.lingkaimusic.com/
because local indie music should be like this. watched her since her released of larkin step on youtube and i'll glad that she's getting somewhere with her music. now if only she does electronic, i'd die in music heaven.

art- stephanie seet
i need to buy all her graduation work. so hauntingly powerful. she's like the audrey kawasaki of singapore. srsly. okay la, still not there yet but i bet she will be.

comic- troy chin
http://www.drearyweary.com/
i totally love his autobiography comic the resident tourist. it's available online for all to read and i highly recommend (i have the hardcopy of the 3 books!). dispora themes and the total sense of displacement are the type of stories i love.

and yes, they are all local. there are talented people here in singapore, we just don't know where to find them.

Okay, I honestly hate it the part where you start to fall in love. The period of uncertainty, the time where you start getting flushed up for no reason and the unnecessary self questioning you put yourself through.

Then you tell yourself, ah well that hell. Let's just shove those feelings down and out. You've already stayed single for 4, almost 5 years. What difference does it make to add another year to that.

Working on my script again, and that's probably the dialogue I want to put it. I realized the themes in my head have always been the same, the sense of feeling incomplete, and the refusal to be part of a whole.

Never really found time to talk about my new posting, possible because I'm quite tired about talking about my army life. Just for the record, I'm posted to BMTC Tekong to take care of recruits. Because I came back from an exercise in Thailand, as part as a medical directive I'm not allowed to stay on the island at night, so I currently hold a 8-5 job there till the end of this month. Being 8-5 is not as awesome as it sounds, trust me, because the traveling time (2 fucking hours) is a bitch. ATM there isn't any intake for my coy, so we are having lull period which means I travel back and forth, FOR NOTHING. Yup.

I need to get a grip somewhere because my mind has become very self critical of late to the point it's affecting me. This voice in my head needs to learn to shut the fuck up.

Haven posted a picture of myself in awhile, so here's a recent outing at Ann Siang Rd with my friends. We're also planning to stay at Scarlet Hotel (for mah upcoming birthday), a boutique hotel there. Damn hard to find the right day because of either a)army b)work c)school. But nevertheless it's going to be fun.

Eh, fuck lah. They are coming tomorrow, playing at zirca and I have to book back in ON THE NIGHT OF THEIR PERFORMANCE. Bloody hell. The original plan was for us to book back on wednesday morning. There goes my only chance to see them live.

...is my latest obsession. Okay, so Yes Man was liek out for so long ago, but i never got to watch in until the moment i was on the plane flying towards bangkok. so pardon me.

and thus the start of my fascination with girls who are completely random and off the hook. a Zooey Deschanel is fine. and to make it even more endearing, she's engaged to THE BEN GIBBARD. You know, death cab for cutie's lead singer?

Online Beatboxing Champion @ Yahoo! Video

Holy fucking shit. The first female beat boxer that i've ever come across. And a damn good one to boot.

electronica indie bands with female singers are so fucking hot. they are very very desirable.

anyway, i've passed out of aslc at last and i'm on my way to sergeant-hood in tekong. army life is reaching a crawl now and i have more time to write my stuff. currently working on a new script! liek finally after so long!

but the more i work on it, the more i want to force in a female lead who sings in an electronica indie band. very yum. BUT WHERE TO FIND IN SINGAPORE?!

from thailand, and back on the internet once again.

3 weeks of burning hell in thailand. shagged but fun. would want to break it down in detail, but am too tired now.

just bought a brand new computer with a nice 22" wide monitor. need to do a lot of fiddling. sucks when you lost everything and you have to start from scratch. especially your bookmarks! and music! and games! and fucking everything.

so yeah, will talk about it soon.

best part of it all: i'm gonna don the 3 stripes soon. sergeant-hood here i come!

Foooooooooooooyo.

Gramophone at The Cathy has a major clearance sale on its blurays, dvds and cds. Filmrats, hurry there and score some cheap dvds.

Went there just now with zq and the brother. Wanted to pick up a few, but after nagging from them I decided not to get any because I figured out I wouldn't have much time to watch em anyway. Sadly. GIMME BACK MAH FREE TIME!!!111111

Was randomly fighting people online. sf4 of course. got whiped pretty bad. but i think i'm decent for someone who's playing this game for the 2nd time only. hur.

Managed to grab a couple of new albums and tracks. Then I realized I won't have time to listen to it anyway. Fucking field camp next week.

I like how people like to correct your OPINION on the internet.

potato spread wing haha work it
totally burn weekend gone as usual
soc hell just want so music
chill at butter factory

The weeks are getting longer, and the weekends shorter.
Thailand trip draws nearer, and the field camps are coming.
In desperate need to update mah music.
So wanted to go butter factory last night but...
I kenna RT. Burnt my friday night because of SOC.

My 10d is dying from the shutter error of death.
My wallet weeps from buying Street Fighter 4 + 2 joystick.

I still need a new computer.
Bleagh.

Am back home, excused from camp for 2 days because of my food poisoning. I must thank the dumplings my mother got for me. While they have caused me nothing but extreme pain and nausea, being at home is always good. Hur.

Slept through the whole afternoon, on the advice of the doc (surprise surprise, I'm actually listening to one) and drank plenty of water.

Was surfing through my friends blogs and their facebook accounts and I found myself a little sad. Sad that everyone else is advancing in their respective art while I'm stuck here in NS, unable to do much- Well other than mope and feel pitiful for myself of course.

There's so much I want to experiment.. and while I'm very willing, the way my mind works no longer seems to think like the way before. It's like it's becoming... way too logical. Too straightforward.

And that's disgusting.

Even today when my family was talking about the upcoming election, I already noticed a shift in my support for respective parties. National Education has grinded a halt to my "OVERTHROW TEH GAHMEN" mindset I had one election ago. I shudder to think what has become of me when I lent a voice to the pappies despite being a fervent wp supporter.

Dad's first words when he heard what I said was, "Wow, National Education must have done you good."

And fuck, that's a big insult to what I've stood for all these while. This plague in me needs to get out.