Temporal Paralysis

Having attended Street Festival, Youth Parade, Cosfest IX and some private cosplay photoshoots, I was enthusiasted about editing my photos.

It turns out that some of the pictures are blurry or out-of-focus. Looks like “OH NOES CAMERA CALIBRATION TIME KAR CHING!” I dreaded having to spend money recalibrating my DSLR, an evil necessary.

I am also demotivated when I looked at other pictures of other photographers. I wonder if my frame of mind constantly spent on street photography – with no emphasis on pin-sharp outlines and even lighting – is a wrong approach. I made some classic booboos by raising the ISO, slowing down the shutter and not focusing properly (part of it is the problem mentioned above).

Raising this post to declare my non-mortis status. This is also a motivational post for me to “BUCK UP AND HURRY UP THE PICTURES!”

Perhaps it was coincidence that I quit at a time when there was a call for a massive boycott for Facebook by way of deletion of accounts. It was perhaps providence that I managed to kill off my Facebook account before May 31. My senses tell me that any further attempts in deleting off your account from Facebook will be more difficult to implement from then on.

Regardless of the motive and the level of difficulty in doing so, I am finally relieved of a constant need for information updates from my so-called “friends.” While there are legitimate number of friends I kept in touch on Facebook, an increasing number of so-called “friends” request to add me onto their network because I am a friend of their friends. I have no problems with that, until they started posting more than necessary. In such instances, my posts gets inundated and buried by their spams, and information that I want to read gets bogged down by inane ramblings about life. For that, I am pissed off.

It is also telling that some time last year, Facebook began implementing casual games into their interface, thus amplifying the problems I faced. It was only went complaints began to surface publicly that Facebook implemented several measures to improve the user interface and provide some level of filtering for their end-users. But by then, majority of my friends whom I knew — also pissed off by both the “spam” problem and the difficulty in deleting their accounts — became inactive, so effectively I had overstayed my welcome. My account was deleted on Wednesday, 26 May, 2010.

Untitled by Anonymous

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After mucking around on Twitter and Facebook for almost a year, I decided to call it quits.

Sorry, it was mutual, but we can never be together again.

I have already deleted my Facebook account, now awaiting the stupendous 14-day waiting period which Facebook calls a “grace period” in order to convince you back. I have checked back to see if my account has really been deleted since, and I am happy to report that I can no longer access to it. They have killed my account. Still, they do keep my data in their servers, with their obscure TOS giving them rights to my information. No matter; I have no more need to access the darn service, anyway.

Still, I have to make some adjustments with my Twitter account, but I will notify the individuals who are worthy of being my friends, so I will ask them to contact me through some other means.
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This is the most frank, and troubling post, I’ve ever written. I wished that I can do something about myself.

My reservist stint was more lenient than I expected. In short, I got back home last Monday, and ever since I had an office-hour duty at some place where my organization wants me to place at. Office hours equals free weekend! (I wanted a free weekend of my own, especially after a week spent staying in a fire station bunk.)

I asked around if I can find an opening for a photoshoot; Hexlord has graciously invited me to attend a photoshoot last Saturday, where there was a cosplay photoshoot featuring Kaito of the Vocaloid series.

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By the time you guys read this, I will already be heading down to Civil Defence 4th Division/Bukit Batok Fire Station, after being briefed about my reservist period almost 6 months back.

The Mitsubishi Fuso Super Great Super-Ambulance. (Link: {link:http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=1456345}きりしま（スランプ再発） {/link})

With the new management inside the Civil Defence Force in Singapore, I am not sure if I had to continuously stay in camp for 18 days straight, or am able to return on weekends (book out on Friday evening, return back on Sunday night). For me, I could not be arsed to care, but I am sure that I will meet back a few fellows I got to enjoy company with the last time, and work with a few other “characters” that I’m sure will piss the heck out of me. But hey, working life prepares you for this no?

I will see you guys in 18 days’ time. Or the weekends, whichever they decide to release me to the wild.

A dash of moé Futami sisters wouldn't hurt. (Link: {link:http://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=4371761}とｍ{/link})

Three words to describe myself now. The sands of time has conspired me to forget about pursuing further advancements into my hobby, or for that matter, anything else now.

It’s been four years since I graduated from my polytechnic. The job prospects in the industry I’m specialized in, sucked big time. Expect long hours and little pay, and a potential to burn out before I turn 30.

My personal life has never been this low. After a slow and painful realization process, I wished I was blissfully ignorant about life, but alas! Once known, twice shy.

Because of this, I don’t have anything constructive… wait, I do.

Cosplay photography

As I looked at the various galleries of various photographers I spotted on both Clubsnap and SGCafe, I realized that some of them have a very healthy income to fall back on. I mean, c’mon, I don’t expect to see a good quality image on a low-end camera–

I cut myself out on that part, realizing I just fell into the same category as MrMayat’s GWC people. That means I sucked at being a good photographer.

That’s probably me, because I think too much when it comes to things.

Personal Life

To be honest, I am quite screwed up with my personal life: no savings, no money, no nothing. I have spoken with a few that within a short period of time, I will be moving out of my home country, and that sucks, because I have to change all the things I got accustomed to.

I just don’t know if I had to stay in Singapore, or move out along with family. Here’s my line of thinking:

1. Move out of Singapore, be beholden in debt to my family, which means forget about pursuing your passions: feed the family first, then you can enjoy your passion.

2. Stay in Singapore, and be sucky for the rest of my life.

I don’t know. My language has degenerated into a 14-year-old kid who rants on Blogger. I’m just putting this out, because I simply sucked.

Sucked, sucked, sucked.

I need a motivation to do the things I wanted to do, and not hold back because of religious commitments or placating my parents or whatsoever. I’m having a Shinji Ikari moment here; sucks to be a Singaporean working adult, and a product of the mass-manufactured human labour factory that the managers (a.k.a. the Government) realized have been producing the wrong kind of crap for a totally-changed world.

Followers of the anime fan community have already heard of the Otaku Elimination Game, and Danny Choo’s upcoming Otacool 2 book launch. I’ve been following the two entities since they came into my consciousness, and while I believed this topic has been done and sealed by many, I find the enmity too powerful to be left un-commented.

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While in Malaysia, I got the opportunity to watch several anime shows dubbed in Bahasa Malaysia. Not many people appreciate this, but I find the voice actresses in some of the characters very much likeable, not unlike the monotonous – and sometimes very similar – English voice actresses I heard on Animax. Clearly 77 Star Pte. Ltd. has groomed these voice actors/actresses well to ensure their liveability in a Malay language-majority market.

However, the intention of this post is not about the quality of voice actors and actresses in the region. My intent of this post is to highlight the rise and fall of anime franchises.

Not all anime franchises met a peaceful death.

It was through no surprise that I watched Mahou Sensei Negima and School Rumble on ntv7. As I watched the two series, the question arose in my consciousness: “Will anyone really remember both series long after the brouhaha died?”

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As I boarded the AirAsia flight to the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), little did I know of the adventure that I was about to embark myself. Sometime in the future, I will be experiencing adventures of my own, and I shall look upon this trip as the beginning of many stories to tell my children (or interested readers out there).

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