A rectangular table with 1 leg

For a large rectangular table to function, it requires enough legs.

It could still somewhat function with 3.

But, some people do not understand the importance of having enough legs yet, fancy tables they are always asking for! O_o

Alas, it is a table miraculously balanced on one leg, but with the most beautifully embellished tablecloth. When is it going to topple, well, I dont know.

Destructive Us

It is hard to stomach how Earth is so beautiful but my very existence (to enjoy her beauty) poses an imminent destruction to her.

Encouraging competition can be healthy

Being competitive allows us to know our weaknesses.

How do you encourage one to improve if they do not know or question their own weaknesses?

The will of the people

The progress of the country can only go as far as the will strength of the people.

Great nations are built on the strong-willed and hardworking.

Concluding thoughts after first semester

Our education system does not have mechanisms to shape us into fast, independent and creative thinkers and thus, learners.

Understanding of truth

Our understanding of the truth is conditioned - Ai Weiwei

parasite by *AlMaNeGrA

I stumbled on a blog entry on surrealism art pieces. All are most intriguing. I particularly like this piece entitled "Parasite" by AlMaNeGrA. Last I saw surrealism art was in London in Salvadore Dali's gallery, which brings me to mind of a dear artist friend, who is multi-talented and an ardent admirer of Salvadore's work.

Home stay in Thailand: Rose Garden Riverside Thai cultural centre

I stayed with Romy (JPY08) during my homestay in Thailand. We stayed outside the city in a beautiful house. We shared secrets together like little girls and goofed around a lot in the room, LOL! Romy called our room the "hotel room".

Right after our home stay matching ceremony, we joined Nan(MyPY) and Shimmy(JPY) at the Rose Garden Riverside Thai cultural centre outside Bangkok, in the Nakhon Pathom Province. Here, we got to experience Thai culture through the elephant shows, the Thai Village Cultural Show, exhibitions on Thai medicine, vegetable carving, extracting of silk from the silk worms and so forth.

The cocoons from the silkworms are boiled and threads of silk are gathered using this contraption here.


Thai herbs and medicine


Some sort of chart or inscriptions on Thai medicine


Vegetable carving


Traditional Thai dance


The dance of harvest


Thai Kickboxing


Other Thai martial arts


Thai wedding ceremony


More Thai dances








After we came out of the presentation hall, there was this man sitting in the boat and I'm not sure if he's supposed to be sitting there all day for people to take pictures of him.


We sat by the pool to watch the elephant show.

His Gift of a Rainbow

I was bustling about to ready my day and as usual, I sat by the balcony to have my daily dose. Yeah, that didn't get far. Sigh. So, there I was sitting when a perfect rainbow appeared right in front of me. It was one of those strange signs I usually notice out of the blue. I was practically right in the middle of the parabola as though it appeared just for me! When I hurried to get my camera and was soon in perfect composition, it started to fade! :(

Just the night before, I had a long talk with Jo. I had called her up because I had missed her so much and us having spent so little time lately prompted me to do so. I guess God must have decided to send me a little gift as I braced myself to a new day since I was feeling so bitter then.

And, on that very night, I had this dream of a particular someone and it was a nice dream. Maybe Jo's inclination towards dreaming had somewhat infected me! Well, the dream and this beautiful, perfect rainbow just left me hanging as though I am not hanging enough already! Tsk tsk tsk.

Meanwhile, the day had been going well. I got some errands half way done. I seemed to have stabilised where lectures are concerned. I hope I won't induce another episode of erratic behaviour, which I think I tend to do. Sigh. I've been looking at several universities for the next big step and looking at one particular one, my first choice, was getting me all excited and jumpy all morning. As usual, I sang and hummed in my cubicle with all of my sounds polluting the entire staffroom. My colleagues seemed to be immuned to my craziness. We talked about this university that I so want to be in and all shared the same excitement talking about it. So, it's time for me to reach new heights and fly... hopefully.

Don't Cry, JPYs!!

I feel strange when I am in a room full of crying people. It was the exact same feeling all over me when the second floor lounge was full of sniffles and sobs on the 11th December 2008. There were several PYs whom I was not close to that came and eventually landed on my shoulders for a few more sobs. Romy, Jannah and I shared the same sentiments about the whole crying thing. When we saw each other, we commanded each other not to cry. "Don't cry, Daph!", said Jannah with her big, widening eyes.

Yet, crying is like an infectious disease. When sobbing Nii Nii came over and gave me his last hug for a long, long time, tears just started pouring and there was nothing I could do but laughed at the fact that I finally did cry.

Maw was adorable. She saw everyone crying and at one point announced, "There! I've got a drop! Yes! It's a drop!"

Brunei was the last contingent to leave while Japan stayed back to bid their farewells. And thus, I have a picture of crying, smiling and cheering JPYs.

Just as how unbelievable the programme started and the fact that I was on it, it was also unbelievable that it already ended.

But hey, guess what? I'm gonna see Romy and the SPYs tomorrow! If crossing oceans is what I have to do to meet you guys, so be it then! :)

Nippon Maru, a home to me

This was taken on one of the last few days on board. I figured that I should at least try get up to see the sun rise before we reached the shores of Japan, which you can see by the horizon. It was cloudy that day, so we didn't catch a proper sun rise.

Thinking back now, I thought how amazing this ship is. Home to more than 300 of us and for two very good months, I'd always feel so excited whenever I see her as I reach the port after a home stay programme. "There she is! Nippon Maru!" I'd squeal.

This below is my very first picture of Nippon Maru at Yokohama Port as each PY was goiong through immigration checks before boarding.

This was the night view of port area of Yokohoma. This very picture or similar versions would occupy a very dear memory space of many of our digital cameras for a long time to come.

When I got into my cabin, Cabin 310 on the 3rd floor and located at the front of the ship, I took the following pictures. We've never watched DVDs despite having a player in our room but I caught a couple of Japanese shows and a travel show on Brunei before we reached Brunei! Before we parted, the counter space at the back of the tv was filled with snacks and instant noodles which none of us could finish eating. Notice the little knob at the bottom left of this picture?

If you pull it down, out comes a hob! This thing is so handy. I've made much instant noodles, many cups of hot chocolate and some cuppas on this!

And, here comes a photo of our beds. Violet (Singapore PY) took the B bed at the bottom of the bunk bed while Jik (Thailand PY) took the C bed. My bed was the A one, which is the single on the left. This room got more comfy on each passing day as all three of us would be back in our cabins obediently by 11.30pm (curfew's supposed to be at 11) and we'd be chatting into the late night before we hurried to sleep for the eeky morning assemblies. Between the times of 11.30pm to about 1.30am, we'd come to learn so much more about each other (including the guys or people that we liked on board, hehehe) and of the place we come from.

I love my bed! Sometimes, I think I sleep better when the ship rocks really bad. In fact, I thought sleeping was the best thing to do when the sea got really rough with the ship. When I closed my eyes, everything became fluid. My mind felt fluid. It was a strange feeling for it felt like a dream though I haven't yet fallen asleep. I guess the only thing I wish better about my bed was that if it was a little higher, I wouldn't have to lift it up with all my might to drag out my luggage each time when I had to.

This is our bathroom where fresh face and bath towels are replaced weekly. This is one of the worst place to be when the ship rocks really bad. On several occasions, I had to take showers when that happened. If I don't, I'll end up really stinky. So, I had to hang on to the handle with one hand and the shower head with the other while making sure I don't slip and fall into the dirty bath water that's flowing to every corner of the bathroom to the bobbing of the waves. On other days, the shower room is extremely therapeutic to any long, tiring day. I love how the steamy, hot water pours out with such gusto, it just relinquishes me from the wears of the day.

The life onboard the Nippon Maru had been like a dream. It had its own rules and they are mostly simple. And, there's a certain sense of freedom and abandonment which I really like. Yet, you can surround yourself with wonderful people from exotic places at the same time. I miss Nippon Maru! I miss the ice creams which they serve every lunch (My favourites are Cookies & Cream, Green Tea & Yam). I miss the announcements that typically goes like this, "This is an announcement from the Administration. To all National Leaders and PYs, please assemble at the Dolphin Hall at 9.15. I repeat, to all National Leaders and PYs, please assemble at the Dolphin Hall at 9.15. Those of you who are unable to attend due to sick or sea sickness, please contact the Administration counter." And, I miss the adorable tune which is played to tell everyone that it's meal time. Apparently, someone plays the tune on a xylophone sort of instrument. I miss the smiles of everyone onboard. I miss Cabin 310 whining about our A1 whenever we were putting it on for flag hoisting. I miss watching ASEAN movies with Rezal in the theatre, only to fall asleep! (Sepi was good!) LOLI miss SGS with Nan, Acai and Justin. The MaPY's SGS gang always had something funny to say! (I am quitting this year... hopefully) I miss popping into third floor's guy corridor to find Nub, Phanha and Nat playing their guitars! And, they'd keep on playing though Admin was telling us to be quiet when our curfew got extended to 12am. Jannah, Cecilia, Ano and I would be singing our hearts out! Michelle would be singing too but I couldn't hear her voice. :P Oh man!

On a wall in Antipolo City, Philippines

I know the EXACT sentiments of this man!

Project Revival

We recently conducted our Project Revival: Changing the world with our hearts at the Game Village. It was our third community service project with the collection of funds for the orphans and the participation in the D'Other Office's Charity Sale as the first two.

This project was named as the BPYs are trying to help youth who faced trouble to pick themselves up and encourage them to be strong within our society, befitting not just in the revival of these youths but, also in the revival of the original mentoring project by JAPEM that has come to halt due to insufficient volunteers. During our first meet, our objective was to establish a good relationship with these youths. The picture below is showing a girl painting a raw egg which she will have to carry around throughout the duration of the session.

More details and photos of Project Revival is found here.

What joy, what luxury!

Indeed, what luxury it is to have a day off practice. The BPY08 have been practising every single night for our cultural performance to be held at the end of the month. It's an awesome and liberating feeling to be free from the long-hour practices.

For the first time in many weeks, I was having dinner at the most enjoyable pace. Mum made tonic soup and I had a humongous bowl of it. My sister was busy pointing out how sweet her "kampong" chicken made the soup. Apparently, someone gave her a slaughtered "kampong" chicken with the insides still intact. Mum had the domestic helper cleaned the chicken before making it for soup.

Besides an essay plus some editing work, I could practically idle though I most often use what little free time I have to edit photos obsessively.

Sultan's 62nd Birthday Lantern Procession (Marches & Floats)

The following pictures are a series of marches and floats, some marchers were in traditional indigenous attires.




























Some floats had strong messages to send out.




Here's our winning float of the year; Brunei Shell Petroleum.

Personal Notes:
Use of direct flash seems to do the trick on the floats from a distance
On human subjects, cheeks tend to be scorched. In worse cases, entire face is overexposed.
Need to play around with aperture size, shutterspeed or watch the distance, otherwise adjust flash intensity.
Need to reread Planet Neil's Flash Photography notes.
Found Flash Photography on EOS systems and Flash Photography Made Simple.