Photos from Taiwan Trip

Sorry that i have taken so long but here's my photos taken during the trip in Oct last year. I had some problems in uploading the photos to my Friendster Blog and apparently no support is given as the blog service is provided by a third party. If i wanted technical support, i will have to upgrade and start paying monthly subscription fees.

In any case, here are the photos and i hope you will find them to your liking. =)

My First Prime Lens =)

Just gotten my first set of prime lens, Sony 50mm/f1.4 yesterday from MS Colors at Ang Mo Kio for my camera. Tried a couple of shots with it and that f1.4 lens is really fast at its widest aperture, producing very good bokeh.

Can't wait to get out to the streets the next weekend to try out the new lens. No doubt it's a fixed lens and i will probably miss the freedom of zoom that comes with my 18-200mm/f3.5-6.3 lens but it will be a new experience for me. Learning to move around with the cam than to shift the zoom for the shots i like.

Every set of cameras and lens has its pros and cons, its really about how well we know and make use of our equipment's strengths and downplaying its limits that matters.

Haha, not that i'm a very good photographer but its always been a joy for me to stroll the streets for shots. Yup, even way back then more than 3 years ago when i only had a pocket sized compact 3.2meg camera to stroll with.

Heehee, so anyone interested in joining me for a little photogaphic stroll?

Where's the Sunshine?

As an old Tibetan saying goes, "Seeking happiness outside ourselves is like waiting for sunshine in a cave facing north."

How often have we forgotten that our happiness do not lie outside of us but rather it has always been within ourselves. Just like how the saying remind us ~ look in the wrong direction and happiness like sunshine will continue to elude us.

More than often, we will find things less than satisfactory to us and there might even be times that things people do seem to be in total contra to what we believe is dear and important to us.

These are external, material and above all, our own perceptions. It is important that we recognise that and learn to let go of such perceptions and try to look at the whole picture. Only when we do that, we will realise what truly deserves our attention, our own inner happiness.

How can we be innerly happy? Learning to realise the nature of impermanence. Once we do so, we will naturally know what is important to us and they are things like our spiritual, physical and mental health and our loved ones who showered true love on us and definitely not material things like our jobs, houses and monetary success (not that they are not important but how important do they compare to our health and loved ones? You decide for yourself).

Once we know what deserves our immediate attention and with a mindset to better our lives, we will naturally prioritise and do what is best to make the lives of our loved ones and ourselves happier.

Shall we come out of our cave that is facing north and face the sunrise or sunset that has long awaited us? May happiness always be with you, my loved ones. =)

Rumour Has It - Be Present

Watched the DVD starring Jennifer Aniston and Kevin Costner about a week ago. Nice enough DVD with its little funny and touching moments. What i remembered most vividly from the film was a qoute from Kevin Costner.

In the show, he mentioned that the most powerful two words that someone had mentioned to him and transformed his life are "BE PRESENT". By being present, are we only able to cherish what we have at the very moment itself. What we have at the moment is all displayed in front of us. It is not some far-off dream destination that we have, or a dream partner that may never materialise but the very people that surround us on the very piece of ground we stand on in this very moment.

Maybe that the reason sometimes when sitting beside people who are close (like my family, qin, ling, mark and more..) to me, i'm always able to look inwards for a quiet moment and feel truly blessed.

Let's all BE PRESENT! =)

Hammie's Gone...

Hammie passed on last nite. During dinner time tonight, i turned around as usual to look but the tank's no longer there. Somewhat a little sad to see her go after staying with our family for the last 1 year 4 months.

She's an abandoned hamster (prob 2 - 3 mths old back then) that my bro saved from the viod deck before a cat managed to pry open the cage and have her for dinner. Bro always had a soft spot for little animals, its a point i admired him for. =)

As a dwarf campbell hamster, their lifespan is usually ard 1.5 to 2 years. So she's considered to be in her old age by hamster standards as she's already past 1.5 years old. Got a very bad infection in the stomach and did not recover from it despite the antibiotics that Bro gotten from the Vet.

She had a ruff life so i hope she's in a better place now. Hammie, may u always be well and happy from this point on. =)

Lighthouse?

Recalling some comments made by my closest friends about me, it really sets me thinking. Some of these comments are way back in time but most of it are quite recent, as recent as last afternoon.

The comments are not bad ones, most of them are compliments but these compliments are the parts that i felt i'm very undeserving and ashamed of. The general comments are i'm too nice to people and don't really look out for myself, i'm also too serious about life and trying too hard to do what's best. But I'm really not that good a person that i being made out to be - trust me, my little sis can vouch for it; i'm never a good brother (at most a medicore one) especially in the past.

Some of them even went as far as to call me a lighthouse; lighting up for others but forgetting to light up the very own ground its standing on. Haha, and my parents call me a "cha tao kia" in teochew which translate roughly to blockhead becos i usually don't know how to say no.

But am i that seflless? i often beg to differ. I'm not a holy man, i'm just a guy who tries to better his life and the lives of the people around as much as possible. I do look out for myself but it's just that i choose to do it in a very mild manner, maybe that's the reason people think i'm not assertive enough. A couple of them have been telling me off on this.

I also have conflicting moments within myself, some parts of me thinking for myself while the other parts thinking for others, ending up sometimes with a less than desired action. A good example of such conflicting thoughts is when i knew that C might be going abroad for 3 years for work.

C is one of those people that i really enjoying being around with and knowing this i do somewhat a tug within myself. But of course, i will not and do not say such things like "i'm sure you can find an equal or better opp in S'pore, there's no need to go overseas"; as saying such things will not be in C's best interest. I believe if we really care for someone, we do what is best for the other person; in this case, just talk about it without influencing. I'm sure C knows and will decide and do what is best for herself. =)

Circle of Our Beings

Came across an article about the circles in our lives in yesterday's papers. In the article, the columnist wrote about his reflections and views on some reading materials revolving our social circles.

One of his reading material that stood out from the rest > CHASING DAYLIGHT: How My Forthcoming Death Transformed My Life by Eugene O'Kelly (former CEO of KPMG, one of the biggest accounting firms in the world, aka one of the big 4). Guess it stood out from the rest and caught my eye as i too, am part of the accounting world.

Here's a link to a brief description of what it is.

KPMG Chief Executive's Last 100 Days

From my eyes, i see many people, including some of my colleagues around me, mirroring the life of Eugene O'Kelly. Working their life away without realising their priorities in life, putting in super long working hours day after day. Yes, like O'Kelly, most of us will justify that we are doing these long hours for our family and for our future easy retirement life with our loved ones.

But look at what happened to O'Kelly and it only proved one thing. The future is uncertain. He spent so much time with his outer circle of his life (made up by his acquaintances and business associates) that he neglected his inner circle (made up by his immediate family members). So much so that he missed all the major school events of his 14 year old daughter.

He did not sink into depression but he chose to use his remaining days wisely. He quit his job and set about managing his death, living his life anew. With his deathbed chronicles, he seemed to be probing the reader to re-think about his or her life and if we had struck the right balance without neglecting our core circle.

So have we strike the right balance? Only we know the answers. We can only wish that the answers do not fly into our face when we are facing our very last moments and that we realise it much earlier in our everyday living. =)

i

The word "i" in the normal english context refers to the speaker himself or herself. In the case when we mentioned the word "i", it simply refers to ourselves. How does "i" apply in our daily lives? A question i often asked myself and the people around me.

Maybe just let me put down my views on this word in writing which had been shared so many times over with my friends conversationally. The meaning and the application for the word "i" differs from person to person and it reflects the growth of a person emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

For a narrow view, "i" simply means nothing more than me and myself only. Constantly holding such a view in our mind restricts one from considering and factoring others into our daily decisions. Such a view may not be healthy and beneficial in the long run for ourselves and the people around us.

From a Zen perspective, all conditioned beings and matter are non-self. They do not have an independent self but rather all conditioned beings and matter are inter-dependent. There cannot be "i" without "you" and we cannot know "long" unless we know "short". Keeping this in mind, we understand that our actions affect not only us but everyone in this world.

Of course, we may argue that it does not. Afterall, how can an action made in the far eastern part of the world have an impact on the far west? Let me illustrate with an example. Imagine we are in the middle of a big lake and we drop a small stone (akin to a small action) into the middle of the lake. What happens?

Waves of ripples appear starting from where the stone is dropped. The waves are small and it will appear to the naked eye that it disappeared as it spreads out. Probably no more than a few feet. From a scientific view point, we know that waves continued much further than what our naked eye can see.

Likewise, our actions spread far and wide even though we may not see it. Liken to the ripples, the ones affected by our actions are the ones most immediate to us. More than often, they are our families and friends. Just like a bigger stone, the bigger our actions are, the further our waves of influence spread.

With such knowledge that our every little actions affect more than just ourselves, i implore the people around me to expand their cirlce of "i' to include their loved ones such as their family members and friends. Doing so, we will be more mindful of our actions and it will less likely to cause hurt to these people we hold so dear in our hearts. Let's make our "i" a bigger "i". =)