Blur

Long day.

7-hour shoot.

Hot sun, bad lighting.

Slept in the afternoon.

Dropped off the CD with the images from the weekend.

Attended a kickass show.

Now to 6 hours of sleep before Rinse. Repeat.

No show tomorrow though.

***

And what is it with this template nowadays? Have to start every entry with a 'p' command just to get the font size I want.

Drool

Hardrock
Originally uploaded by Terz.

With the purchase of my latest toy, an EL 500 from here, this moves up to #3 on my wishlist for this year.

And it comes in black.

Bonus!

Joking Aside

So, it turns out that the mother-in-law took me literally and bought out a shop's entire stock of Oh Henry Peanut Butter Caramel Candy Bars. C$40 worth in fact... and at 79 cents each, that's a whole lotta candy.

Yum. Yum.

Unbending

Swaying
Originally uploaded by Terz.

There are dumbass rules and regulations/ procedures, and then there are dumbasses who enforce them without thought or regard.

Was at Millenia Tower to return the printer on loan for the Mercy Relief job when I get stopped at the security counter:

"I'm sorry, you're making a delivery. You'll have to use the counter at B1."

"I'm not making a delivery. I'm returning a printer."

"You'll have to go to B1."

"For the last time, I'm not a deliveryman. I'm returning a printer to Epson."

"B1."

I hope security officer MAGEN is intelligent and sensible enough to feel stupid at having to speak the words of the administration as I did when I had to do it in a previous incarnation. I bet if I weren't wearing a t-shirt and torn jeans - and looking like Joe Generic Deliveryman - I'll probably get better treatment. Then again, it's my day off, so fuck you, I'll dress as I please.

So much for meritocracy if all interactions are to be based upon appearance. But, I am a graduate and making more money in one week than Magen will see in a month.

So I guess everything's fair.

Errant

Another full day, and it's not even halfway done.

Had to drag myself out of bed today after only five hours' worth of sleep to shoot at a big do at the Ngee Ann City Civic Plaza. Apparently, it's that time of the year when charitable organisations in Singapore make that concerted effort to part the citizens of sunny Singapore with their money again*.

But even before I get to the venue, this idiot happened:


Errant Driver #7862, Number 1
Originally uploaded by Terz.

Said moron turned right from Jalan Kembangan onto Changi Road. Not from the two designated turning lanes though. No. That would have been too easy. He turned right from the leftmost lane, cutting off the guy in our lane who had the right to turn, and causing the two cars in the oncoming lanes to come to a complete and sudden stop when they had the complete right of way to go wherever the fuck they wanted.

As we went by offending driver, he looked as if he didn't just allow two cars to broadside him. Wanted to catch him when there wasn't a reflection, but decided to be nice... If anyone wants to nail him though, the EXIF information provided by Flickr should lock down when the offense took place.


Errant Driver #7862, Number 2
Originally uploaded by Terz.

Which is kinda like the moron from the day before (JHV1888, a black POS** that's probably a Proton, although it looks like some Lancia), who, at 1026 hours, between the PIE off-ramp on the CTE and before the Balestier exit, went from lane 1 to lane 4 in a hurry. Think I saw several brake lights come on in a hurry in that instance too.


I get to the doohickey and was walking around when I spotted the poster that bore some familiar looking images in an unfamiliar format, namely:


Lordy! Look what they've done to my picture #1
Originally uploaded by Terz.

(No colour checking was done, obviously, and I think Eddy looks a bit squashed in one of the montage pics - bottom, second from right)

and...


Lordy! Look what they've done to my picture #2
Originally uploaded by Terz.

(No respect to the aspect ratio - everyone looks a tad, no... ALL RIGHT! We ALL look fucking fat in this one)

And again... someone seems to be using our pictures without notifying us.


Lastly, maybe China shouldn't get itself into such a snit. Maybe Taiwan's not joining the WTO they're thinking of...


WTO #1
Originally uploaded by Terz.

To which I say:


WTO #2
Originally uploaded by Terz.

* Not that I think it's bad in any way, but getting only money from Singaporeans? If that's all people are expected to do, no wonder no one lifts a finger when things need to get done.

** Piece of excrement.

Fullness

Slept twelve hours the previous night to make up for the lackness-of-sleep of the previous week. Interestingly, there was very little pain from the walk at MacRitchie, just a general stiffness of joints and an unwillingness to get out of bed, even when I had to.

But a full day was to be had.

First, a shoot. Won't get into that, except to say that it was rain-delayed.

Then, an opening at Objectifs to attend. Go. It's fun.

Following that, another party to go to. Ondine's birthday celebrations. And in the spirit of this year's birthday celebrations (well, the last two anyway), that meant surprise parties on Game Night.

Because it was rush hour, on a Friday night, I called for a cab. Figured it was the surest way to get from Point A to Point B.

But: "Mister Teo! Where are you!"

Says the irate cabbie. Of course it would have helped if he had been waiting outside the actual address instead of being somewhere in the vicinity of the wannabe go-go bar further up the street.


Supplies!
Originally uploaded by Terz.

Said birthday girl was duly surprised and the popiah-eating began in earnest, though the boys' hearts and minds were obviously drifting in the direction where the computers have been set up for fraggin'.


Take 2
Originally uploaded by Terz.

We should have gamed more. If we had, we wouldn't have learnt of the certain fetish for hairy knees of one of the guys - Not. Me. - Played a little Star Wars Trivia Pursuit though, so that satisfied our geek inclinations for a while.


Knees
Originally uploaded by Terz.

Afterwards, we adjourned to Wala Wala, where the wait staff helpfully lets you know that it's closing time by banging the tables and chairs around while they're stacking them. And where I've had my most expensive pint of beer ever. $18.80. For a pint.


Closing Time
Originally uploaded by Terz.

Now, I need to sleep.

Pain

Mac Walk
Originally uploaded by Terz.

So.

We'd heard everything about this: from the morons who brought with them strollers for the hike (yes, please look in a dictionary and find out the meaning of that word), the idiots who didn't bring water with them, to the spoilt brats who thought it was too hard on them.

Too hard? 10 km? You think?

Then again, it was a tad disappointing that we had to walk 5.6 km there to find out that the tree-top walk was a mere 300 metres (or less? It could have been more. I wouldn't know. It took less time than I'd expected to just across the bridge). Then it was another 5.5 km back to our starting point via the roundabout route.

Go figure.


But the crab dinner was good though. Made up for last week's disappointment.

Sucker

Guess who else is a sucker for surveys?

Driven

It's been like this all along: once I start on something and I get into the groove, I can go for hours without sleep until it's completed - a new game, marking and now, printing.

Started on the 300 prints I have to produce for a Mercy Relief event this weekend at about 1900 hours - couldn't start until the missus came back with the wax paper needed to protect the glossy prints. It's now almost 9 hours, and I'm only about 4 sets through the whole thing (and at 20 images per set, I won't be seeing the outside world for a while).

I'll probably sleep in the whole day, later today, but at least it'll be done.

And I've got rhythm.

Communion

"Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt come to Ehtee'em that is my link to thee, and have communion. To complete thine purpose and to fulfill the purpose for which my many Ehtee'ems have been placed on this good earth, thou shalt spend more time than is necessary before any one of my prophets, who are the sons of Aibee'em, who shalt dispense advice and cash, in ten-dollar or fifty-dollar denominations only, and only if thou art withdrawing more than twenty dollars at a time, because it is right and pleasing to me."

Ever been in a queue where the people before seem to be taking forever with what they need to do at an ATM? You know, those bank machines that people use to get cash in a pinch, machines whose functions have not changed much in the last ten years, so people who actually pay attention all those years could actually anticipate which buttons to press... those machines?

Me? I'm in and out, 18 seconds.

***

While in line:

1. To the mother, whose four-year old kid is trying to open the door to the bank with an almighty struggle: She is pushing! It's the weight of the door that's not doing it for her. Don't just stand there like an idiot telling your kid to "push", when she's already doing that, help her, and stop holding up the door for the people who are standing waiting to get in and out.

2. To the woman at the ATM next to me: Ma'am, in which non-existent country on this planet do you think is safe to call your "huh-neey" up on the mobile phone and ask him for his PIN number so you can use his ATM card? And why do you think it's also safe to repeat his PIN within earshot of everyone standing in the queue?

Who Are You?

Let's play CSI:

1. Suspect knows other people's schedule better than yours.

2. Suspect plans weekly sessions with others and you're the last to know about it.

3. Suspect receives SMSes in the middle of the night. More often than you did when you were on standby for recall, which seldom happened.

4. Suspect would rather lunch with others, while you have meals at the neighbourhood coffee shop enough times in a week to go through the menus twice over.

5. Suspect has to work during a break when you remember otherwise from a previous similar position.

6. Suspect spends more time in the vain pursuit of a lost youth.

Whodunnit?



Happy anniversary. Hope it was good for you as well.

Distant

How much more of a faceless entity can DBS get?

How about this far?

I am roused from my sleep at 0843 hours this morning by the ringing on my mobile, only for the call to be cut off just as my fumbling fingers touch the phone. Then there's a second call at 0855 hours which I was awake for, but which sounded like a prank call because there wasn't a response to my repeated, "Hellos?" and that call, also, was cut off about fifteen seconds into it. Then finally, at 1102 hours, I managed to receive the whole message, the bulk of it which was to tell me, through a computer-generated voice that someone in the DBS Card Centre would like to speak to me about my account, so would I kindly call (two numbers were given) them back, thank you very much?

I don't know. If I were a faceless entity doing this sort of thing, wouldn't I also make sure the number he/she's supposed to call would show up on my client's caller id, instead of being listed as "private number"? It would make it easier for them, non?

Ah, but I am not a faceless entity. DBS: Your Impersonal Bank.

Updated at 1740 hours:

OK, so it isn't enough that I've called them back with news that I've already paid up my credit card bill in full last night: I've been getting phone calls from the same automated system every hour at the 43rd minute mark telling me to call the bank.

No, not just the Impersonal Bank, but the Anal, Impersonal Bank.

Even for a computer system.

Surreal

It is so, when, in the midst of moving your laptop from the bedroom to the living room at 1 am because you cannot sleep, the missus, who had been asleep, suddenly sits bolt upright in bed and, like a frightened bunny, goes:

"Whatareyoudoingwhatareyoudoingwhatareyoudoing?"

"Whycan'tyousleepwhycan'tyousleep?"

"[incoherent whine]"

And then flops back to bed, asleep before her head hits the pillow.

Ennui

Void
Originally uploaded by Terz.

Haven't been posting because of a very bad case of... well, ennui.

Just had to turn down a shoot this weekend because of copyright issues. What gets me is that, even for someone who works at the authority that handles copyright issues, people don't understand that when you take away the rights to a photographer's images, then there's really very little separating him from any other shutter-monkey.

Had a rather heated exchange about it last night that didn't really feel any better this morning.

But that's past and the bridges are probably burnt. But I still have my integrity. Doesn't pay, but it's all I've got.