Category: Diary

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Diary

Working Title: Make-Up

My drawing called "Make-Up"

The working title of this drawing of mine is “Make-Up”, inspired by what you will see in just a bit.  This drawing does not have the complexity in terms of meaning like that big turtle drawing.  So, please don’t think too hard on this one.  If you have the bandwidth, try to decipher that puzzle of mine instead.  No one has figured the answer yet!  Shocking.  I may give out more hints in like … a month down the road.

In this drawing, you see a woman staring into an eye – can you see the eyebrow above the eye? – and there are three make-up brushes used for the girl in the mirror (the bigger face).  So I suppose when a girl looks into a mirror, the reflection on her eyes is the girl herself?  Anyway, the three brushes are eye shadow brush, blending brush, and powder brush.  This may sound Greek to you if you are a guy.  If you are a lady, these are your daily, essential tools, I suppose.

Out of nowhere, Cynthia has this renaissance ignited interest in make-up.  Partially my fault in pointing her to the direction of YouTube.  These days, she is glued to not only TV, but only YouTube.  Oh my.  I have a daily passive dose of make-up jargon and techniques by hearing the video.  The positive side of this is I too get to stare at those very pretty girls behind the video.  I mean, these are really good looking people showing their fans on how to apply make-up and more.  Gulp!

At times I look into the statistics of these popular YouTube contributors.  Each video can easily be viewed in the region of a million times, commented and rated in excess of ten thousands.  Woah!  A scene quite rarely seen in the blogging world (at least the world I know of).  Making videos seem to enjoy the highest number of comments per minute of attention.  And if you want the highest number of comments per characters you type, I would say Facebook or Twitter.  Humbling speaking.  Some comments can even be longer than the status update or tweet itself.  Now, why continue to blog?  Hmmm.

Back to this drawing of mine, I hope you enjoy staring at it.  I often stick my most recent drawing onto the wall for temporary display.  This morning Cynthia got a shock when she woke up to this drawing.  So did I.  Pretty scary piece of drawing the more I look at it.  Oh well, I hope I am improving and heading somewhere.

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Diary

See If You Can Solve This Puzzle … Kekeke

A puzzle, created by me, for you!

If you read Dan Brown, especially his latest work, this puzzle of mine should be cake.  Your job is to replace the question marks with letters.  Once you solve this, it would be great if you could drop a “I got it” comment here without sharing the answer.  And I would love to hear what do you think of the puzzle.  Too simple?  Too hard?  Something can be improved?  Etc.  How would you know if you got the answer?  When you get it, you get it.  Trust me.  It is that obvious.

After I have created this drawing, I tested it out on Cynthia.  OK.  It wasn’t that cake for Cynthia and I made some minor adjustment to the drawing.  Time to take out your pen and paper and work this one out!  Have fun.

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Composition Of “A God That Sleeps”

This one is for you, Alex.  The only person I know who is curious about the composition of my drawing “A God That Sleeps”.  For those of you who have no clue on what I am talking about, please refer to my previous entry first.

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An elephant, a whale, a turtle, and a volcano

The driver for the theme of a sleeping God is natural disaster, represented by the volcano in the center of the drawing.  Behind the volcano is an elephant.  You may not see its ears – though I did struggle to fit those into the picture and have decided against it – you should however see the trunk, the tusks, and the back (and the tail too!).  Upside down is a whale.  Elephant is the largest land animal now living; whale is the largest mammal living in sea.  Together they represent the land and the sea; the legacy of our world.  Initially, I wanted to draw the sky and the sea but have chosen the animals instead.

I am much affected by the recent news on the environmental impact due to climate change.  And that is the disaster I am trying to depict.  Later, I have added a sea turtle (the head is on the right with the eyes that have the same style as the elephant) that largely encompasses the entire drawing, for a few reasons.  First, it fits the theme of the animals and the volcano.  Second, turtle lives in both land and sea so the engulfment of the other two animals seem appropriate.  Third, I remember seeing ancient drawings that depict our ‘flat’ world as a turtle (I could be wrong!).

Man and God

Within the perimeter of the volcano is a sleeping God and a man.  Only the face of God is shown, with eyes closed.  When I compose this, I have Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” in mind (on the ceiling of Sistine Chapel).  Instead of God creates man in his own image, I deliberate choose a contradiction that the two do not resemble one another, that man looks nothing like God (and God looks awfully like us!).  Also, I have recent read the latest fiction written by Piers Anthony from the Immortality series.  That reminds me of the storyline of how the Incarnations collaborate and overthrow the Office of Good – a.k.a. God – for God no longer responses to us.  Hence this composition of man attempting to awaken the sleeping God.

Another point of interest to note is that when I compose this face of God together with the elephant and the whale, I had in mind the stretching arms of God (depicted by the elephant’s trunk and the whale’s tail) as though God puts his arms behind his head, sleeping.

A woman

How can a drawing with a man and without a woman?  I love balance.  And I have deliberately space out the heads onto each one-third section of the drawing.  On the left, the turtle and the whale; in the middle, the man and God; and on the right, the woman and the elephant.

In the old days, mankind invented many ways to interact with God, to please God, and to tame God’s wrath.  And I have in mind the sacrifice of the virgin into a volcano for this purpose.  I have also decided on the 7 strands of hair.  According to the Bible, the number 7 signifies completeness, perfection.  She is not just any virgin, but a perfect one.

Can God be awaken in time before the volcano destroys the world?  No one knows.  Every entity in this drawing are waiting.

Buttons

Like Alex has rightfully pointed out, buttons and zips have become a ‘trademark’ of mine.  I am obsessed with putting this ‘kinetic’ interaction into my drawings, urging the viewers to unlock the mystery within.

I have resisted writing how I compose this drawing because it may read silly (and long!).  Some may think that I am a lunatic.  But for the few curious ones, well, the composition is not at all random.  Now that I have probably said all that I should, I better … zip!  Thanks for your interest.

I love this zip!

Related Blog Entry: Making Of “A God That Sleeps” (And The 9 Years Of Togetherness) – for the original drawing.

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Diary

Making Of “A God That Sleeps” (And The 9 Years Of Togetherness)

Another doodle of mine

I wish I could draw or make music for a living.  But reality is not as such.  My recent passion is to doodle.  Simple composition, when I first started.  Now, the drawing is getting more and more complicated.  I wonder why.

Just when I was done with taking photos of this drawing, past midnight, Cynthia returned from her business functions, planted a kiss onto my lips, and said, “Happy anniversary!”.  9 years.  And she continues to put up with my bizarre new passions spawning out from nowhere.  I too wonder why.

Ever since I have started or rediscovered doodling, some readers have inquired how I create these drawings.  Many have the impression that a lot of digital touch ups are done at the computer.  In fact, a lot of time is spent thinking about the composition.  I would stare into space, intensively, as I envision the different ways to articulate my thoughts.  One time, I was in the zone while brushing my teeth.  All of a sudden, Cynthia appeared from nowhere wanting to tell me something.  I screamed, got shocked out of my socks.  She in turn was shocked at my shock.  Such intensity I have when I think about the composition, that can take days, or weeks.

A lot of time, too, is spent on drafting the drawing on pieces of paper.  Until I am confident, I draw it for real, using whiteboard marker.  Unlike oil painting, I can’t make any mistake.  Pretty breathtaking towards the end of the drawing.

The working title of this drawing is “A God That Sleeps”.  Below are the photos taken during the drawing stages of (1) shaping, (2) detailing, and (3) decoration.  As you can see, computer touch ups are minimal.  By the way, if I was to remember that by the time this post is published, it is our anniversary, I would have drawn something more appropriate for the occasion.  Oh well, I will have to think of something else then.

Related Blog Entry: For those of you who are interest in what the composition means, please click here.

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The Vegetarian

The Vegetarian

The title of this doodle is “The Vegetarian”.  Yes.  One day I may look like that.

Recently, I have become a social meat eater.  But why?  Nothing as dramatic as quiting alcohol since January 2008.  Of which, I still owe you a why.  And I will.  Meanwhile, why give up on meat?

A simple answer would be: romancing with a different lifestyle.  To be frank, I have little feeling towards another chicken dies because I want one of its legs for my lunch.  Though now that my dietary doesn’t necessarily require the killing of say a chicken, it seems like a good thing to do.  I am more intrigued by the studies that say meat takes much longer time to digest compares to vegetables.  Or in one of the talks, the exact words used was “meat rots longer inside our stomachs”.  Gross, I know.  But maybe there is an ounce of truth in it.  Maybe we don’t need to eat meat to live.

I do eat vegetarian meals from time to time.  Catholics abstain from eating meat on the Fridays of Lent.  Or to follow the older tradition, the entire 40 days of Lent.  My Chinese heritage encourages me to abstain from eating meat during key occasions, such as the first meal of the Chinese New Year.  Even when I am outside Hong Kong, I still follow that tradition till today.  It was hard, especially when I was studying overseas.  No one around me seemed to understand.  But I know if I do follow, my parents would be happy.  Even when I am thousands of miles away from them.

What on earth is a “social meat eater”?  If I am on my own, I would stick to vegetarian diet, provided that I can find it.  If I am with my friend, I would order vegetarian dishes if it is not too much of a trouble.  Otherwise, my next choice would be seafood.  I probably wouldn’t feel bad eating meat with my friends.  Because this decision of mine is neither based on religion nor on the basis of health.  It is a lifestyle choice.

Now, how do I feel eating vegetarian dishes most of the time?  Initially, I felt unfulfilled, to be honest.  I got hungry very often.  Normally I would get depressed.  Like during the days when I have to stick to non-meat dishes (such as Lent).  This time round, unknown to me, I do feel happy not eating meat.  More than one week has passed and I think my body begins to adapt to the lack of meat diet.  I eat fruits when I feel hungry at night.  I choose brown rice when it is available.  Back to how I feel.  In fact, I feel great, happy.  Seems more agile.  Less lethargic.  Maybe because my body doesn’t need to work so hard to digest the food, I don’t know.  All of a sudden, I feel like doing more exercise.  What a transformation!

The next thing I wish to do is to work out a nutrition table.  If I am going to be a serious vegetarian, or social meat eater, I need to make sure that all my daily nutrition intake is taken care of.

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Working Title: The Beautiful Alice

The Beautiful Alice

I don’t have balls like our Sunday Times columnist Sumiko Tan who once publicly declared that she will never use Facebook for social networking, on a Sunday paper.  I am on the verge of saying the same to Twitter but ‘never’ is a strong commitment.  In fact, Facebook and I have gone through the stages of ‘huh, what are these people doing poking each other playing stupid games’ to ‘oh my, these games are really fun’, and lately, I use Facebook primary to keep in touch with my real friends online.  New friendships are developed, old friendships are rekindled, and through at times mundane status updates of routine life, at times sudden outbursts of random philosophic observations, there seems to be an invisible bonding between friends who are bought into a two-way communication.  The word two-way is important because it is really scary to know that you have been reading everything about me and what I think while I know nothing of you and what you think.

Alice is one of my sister’s best friend and we met during my sister’s wedding in Hong Kong.  We kept in touch through Facebook and I am finding it such a joy to have a glimpse of her life.  Photos that she shares with her as a teacher and her students in Hong Kong in what appears as a fun environment, amongst other items that she writes.  Her life is surely more colorful than my nine-to-five!

So how does this drawing come into the picture?  One day I noticed that Alice has posted a drawing of her done by a friend of hers in Facebook.  I commented that I also want a drawing of mine and she drew me one.  In gratitude, I drew one for Alice too.  Now those of you who know Alice will likely, most definitely comment that she looks much prettier than that in real life.  Consider how I drew myself in oil back in 2007, you would agree that this drawing of Alice is not-that-bad as my talent is sort-of-limited.

Would you like me to draw a picture of you?  Simply use your wildest imagination, draw a picture of me (it is the effort that counts!), and post it at my Facebook wall or tag it via this post.  I will draw one for you in return.  I enjoy drawing either sexes and if your cats and dogs can draw a picture of me, I am happy to draw a picture of your pets too!

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My Little Sister Is Pregnant – And Photos From The Botanic Gardens

Being a photographer for my sister and Benny at the Singapore Botanic Gardens

In fact, as you can see in the photo above, she is very pregnant.  So, why am I keeping mum about this significant news for so long?  I don’t know, can’t really pinpoint.  I mean, she is my little sister and the thought that she is carrying a baby seems so out of my wildest imagination.  On the record, I am very happy for her and my good buddy who is responsible in this whole thing.  And too on the record, I have been persistently telling this happy couple  that the little one will call me “big brother”, instead of that forbidden U-word.  They protest of course saying that this is so against the tradition.  I highlight of course that whenever the little one calls me “big brother”, I will give the little one a gift.  One U-word from the little one and there will be no gift.

My parents and my little sister would testify that on the surface, I am not the warmest person on earth.  I am not brought up from a family that often hug each other, or to say I-love-you to one another.  I am not even someone who would get himself involved in his family’s day to day life.  Having confessed that, I do tend to drop everything I do if my family calls-for-action.

But all these have to change, somehow.  I have been trying to get more involved with my sister’s pregnancy.  One day out of the blue, she asked if Cynthia and I could join them for a weekend lunch and help them to take some photos.  I am more than happy to play a part in recording this significant timeline of theirs, especially having gone through some of the old photos that my dad has taken for us.

We love the Botanic Gardens.  My sister, my mother, and I could spend hours photographing everything under the sun, literally speaking.  Just March this year, I took my parents from Hong Kong to visit the Botanic Gardens.  And just March this year, my sister and her hubby got married in Singapore!  How time flies.

It was a very warm day, under the noon sun in the Botanic Gardens.  Benny was the golf umbrella carrier, to shield my little sister from the hot sun.  It has been a long time since I last went for a photo trip.  My back hurt a bit, my hands hurt a bit, but it was worth it.  I love the results of some of the shots.  Before the session, my sister hinted that I often take too long to process the photos.  I hinted that if we are to look for quality over quantity – especially if we are only looking for that one photo for the wall – it should be fast.  She then hinted that she would want to have all the photos in RAW format so that Benny can process then.  Uh-oh.  No way!

Below are some of the highlights.  May God bless this happy couple and the little one with good health.  And if it is not too much of a trouble, bless me with some extra energy to follow their journey like a paparazzi please.

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$50 No Show Fine

If you don't show up at your desk, you will be fined!

Avid readers may recall my morning ritual of desk booking at work.  3 months have passed and the ritual stays more or less the same.  Except more and more of our colleagues are moving into our building.  Seats become a scarce resource.  Good seats in especially.  And scarce resource always drive bizarre human behaviors, much like what our history tells us.  Bosses ask the subordinates to book the desks for the entire team (we can only book our desks online up to one week in advance).  Some occupy the seats establishing the first-come-first-take rule.  Some bring the company laptops home and book the seats in early morning, in wee hours.  Wow!  It’s just a seat you know!

Colleagues often ask me why I choose to sit in different seats almost every day.  Well, given a choice, I would love to be stationary somewhere.  But since it has never come across my mind that I have to work hard to book “my favorite seat”, I don’t bother.

Previously, there is a S$5 fine if we don’t show up at the desk that we book (note: no one cares if we show up at work but rather at the desk).  That doesn’t seem to work.  On paper, every day is a full house.  In reality, it is hardly so.  Hence recently, the fine is increased to S$50.  That raises some eyebrows of course.

If there is one thing history tells us, we human beings are creative in finding ways to get around the system.  Increasingly, we are seeing seats being released in the very morning.  But for those who have already booked a crappy seat one week ago or have decided to work from home because there is no seat available, how does it matter?

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Uff! Massive Jam!

A doodle inspired by traffic jam

I remember vividly the first time I saw the words “Massive Jam” lit up on the highway signboard.  I was driving on the northbound CTE (in Singapore), on a rainy evening, quite a number of years ago.  One tree fell onto the highway that forced all the vehicles to exit at Ang Mo Kio.  Imagine four or five lanes of traffic squeezed into one exit.  Not pretty.  And since then, no jam felt as massive as that mother of all massive jam.  At times I try my luck, enter the highway despite seeing the “Massive Jam” warning sign and it turns out to be just another heavy traffic condition.  Nothing massive.  At times, it is like yesterday morning, when I have to spend more than an hour covering perhaps 10 km on the CTE highway.

2 incidents in 2 different segments of the highway.  I suppose it must be pretty major judging at the amount of debris on the road (no pool of blood, thank God).  One time, I was inside a lift and one foreigner said to another foreigner after showing him a – I suppose – gruesome image of an accident using his phone, “I wonder why such a small island can have so many road accidents.”

I too wonder why.

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When Size Falls Grossly Under Expectation …

My Tiny Baked Spaghetti

Out of the blue, I wanted to shop for a  TV.  We drove to Katong Mall, paid Mega Discount Store a visit.  We have always wanted to try out the “Hong Kong Tea House” restaurant next to the mall.  The food is indeed ‘pretty’ authentic, as what we’ve been told.  But my plate of cheese baked spaghetti with meat was so much tinier than I thought, like one-third of what I would have expected.  2 main dishes, 2 cups of herbal tea, 3 portions of dessert, total cost was close to S$40.  Sort of expensive for “tea house” food eh?