Video: Bali!

Here is a video I made with a collection of random videos & photos I took on my trip to Bali.

Vid is strung to the song by Tokyo Police Club - Be Good (RAC Remix)

Watch out for the smoking monkey! 

*This video is also dedicated to JQKC, our good friend who will be going back to the Phillipines for like 2 years. Have a good one mate!*

hmmm...WTF?

I was recently in Bali and this is one of the most random things that I came across in the little town of Kuta. 

"Can I change my brown one for a black one? This one poops a lot."

SONG: David Choi - Won't Even Start

A lovely song. Could do well with the broken hearted that are on the brink of recovery.

Earth Hour post-mortem

Earth hour. The supposedly 'green' movement that was conjured up to promote the awareness of global warming by uniting people all around the world to shut off their lights for one hour on March 28th. 

Earth hour successfully united the earth's population all over 88 countries to participate in this global event, kicking it off with massive gatherings that glued people together to soak up the pre-lights-out entertainment. Concerts were held with grandeur and extravagance. 

 

Soon after about 3 hours of partying through song and laughter; the time has come to experience the great worldwide phenomenon of darkness. Lights out. One hour. Hello world we are back again. 

Seriously. 

Don't you think this movement kinda defeats itself in the first place? Look at all the entertainment sloshed on the hours before lights-out. How much electricity, food and water would have been wasted there? And do you even think one frickin hour of being in darkness is going to help our planet? Get real.

In my honest and most humble opinion, I think that Earth Hour is just a massive marketing tool for companies to cash in on the 'environmentalist mentality' and 'green movement'; taking advantage of our goodwill and basic human empathy and camaraderie, making us 'think' that we are doing something good collectively, but in fact our cash is just being sucked up by all the merchandising, memorabilia, and ticketing that's being sold. 

If you were to really want to support earth hour. Turn off all your frickin lights AT HOME - AND STAY AT HOME. If you don't want to be home, you could just take a walk out instead of DRIVING. 

Events are well known to create wastage, thrash, and overblown electric consumption. If you really want to save the earth. Do so by doing your part and not contribute to all the waste. 

Think about it. 

Down with all this money sucking crap disguised as 'good intentions'

Have a break, have a Kit Kat

Creativity and passion is like juice. It can and will run out sooner or later. When it is running low and you can’t seem to fathom and recoup the ideas that are swimming in your head, it’s time to take a break. You can start by realising that you do not need to be at your work 24-7. Incorporate sessions to get you recharged, and then take note on how you feel afterwards; both physically and mentally. It is like your favourite foods: 

You may love to eat chicken but if you eat it day and night, week in week out, you will at some point not want to eat it anymore.

When you take the stress away and not remind ourselves of work for awhile, you will be able to get back to it with more excitement; compared to not ever leaving it alone in the first place. Detaching yourself away from everything work related will remind you why you enjoyed the work so much in the first place. You will come back stronger and faster with ideas brimming at the rim. Giving yourself good positive tones will help with the way you feel about work.

Reward ourselves for all the hard work that we have done. Go on a vacation, see your friends, spend time with your family, or go do whatever it is that makes you happy. A change of scenery is something very important. It helps us develop different perspectives, induces creative ideas, and the jumpstarts our willpower to go out there and fight on again.

Video: Carousel

This video is way too good. A must watch!



a short film from Adam Berg and Stink Digital Red carpet roll-out for Cinema 21:9 interactive website Amsterdam

Video: Soul of Drifting, Ebisu

Taken from - Speedhunters.com

This video is mesmerizing for all you drift fans out there. Wish there were more places like that where I live....

Small Wins = Big Business

In business we should always think big. There is small saying which we should take note of – “Aim high. If you get lower, it’s still good. Aim low. If you get lower, it’s really bad”. Don’t belittle yourself or your business. “I’m a small player, I should know my place”, “I can’t possibly beat the big guys out there”, “With the capacity I have, my business will never get a portion of the lion’s share”.

We should always dangle a piece of cheese in front of ourselves to keep us running. It is a psychological means to make us strive forward towards a goal. So we start thinking – “Today I will run my products through my entire contact list, push forward our advertising budget so that people know more about us, make tie-ups to all possible networks, and do all of this within the week! I should be able to see at least a 20% growth in profit by end month!”

Not quite so.

Of course the example given was over-the-top. But in some cases we do make the mistake of setting too large goals in such short periods of time. It is not necessarily a bad thing but it is a form of ‘over-promising’ ourselves. The most ideal scenario that most entrepreneurs would dream about is the “build it up, hit it once, and hit it big”. It is like a one-touch-go thing, similar to a bank robbery. But we all know that it is a far-fetched idea. 

Overnight success is a rare thing. There have not been many business successes that pocketed the world in one night and lived to see the light of the next day. These businesses usually run out of steam – very, very fast. The more ‘realistic’ way of looking at it would be to seek out undersized, but well-delivered profits. Consistency is the key word here. Now these, though small and probably insignificant, will lead you to a more fulfilling win.

Remember that sweep-stakes only last for a short duration. Resilient businesses take a good amount of years to hammer in a strong foothold. Bill Gates did not create his world renowned computer operating system monopoly of Windows in one year. Microsoft only managed to make it big 10 years after they first started. 10 years is a long time. Some businesses can fold up and resurrect themselves 3 times over in that kind of time period.   

Media Consumers anonymous

It has quite occured to me that almost 90% of my waking hours are spent consuming media, then churning it round and round in my head to make some sense out of the barrage. Most of which I derive from my laptop and computer at home, googling (omg it's a verb!) the near and far ends of the Interwebs, surfing through things from the latest political melodrama, entertainment & satire and to the utter randomity. 

At the end of the day i produce my own anecdotes based on all the social and cultural stimuli that I stand at the brink of a mentally conjured cliff ready to spaz out. It doesn't help that almost 70% of my waking hours in a week are devoted to work and the neverending quest to find more money. 

I have realised that this is not unique to myself. There are countless of other people around the world who suffer from the same disease. We suffer from this media-consumer mentality that we need and crave for media stimuli to keep us running. We were brought up in this kind of environment that promotes the usage of subliminal and direct messages, aiming to shape the way we think and how we feel the world. Tell me how many times have you made a reference to something that you first saw in the media? "Hey that tulip looks just like the one in that I saw on a billboard yesterday"

It is like Coca-cola's mission to replace water in conjunction with the word 'thirst'.  It is not plain understanding of media that enriches our lives - it is more so that it propagates the very way we process information, leaving us nothing more than shells filled with jarble.  

Bottomline is we should try to make sense of the world with our own eyes and fingers. Get dirty once in awhile. Leave your sedentary lifestyle and go out there and hug some trees. We should try our best to once in a while stop by and smell the flowers at the side of the road. Not think how a flower smells by what you have read on wikipedia.  

Video: This drift vid + song kills it!

Drift vid of the All Star Bash V by Will Roegge

Song: Passion Pit - Sleepyhead (Wallpaper Dio Remix)

Video: Social networks.....bah

Referring back to my last post, take a look at this video. 

The human disconnect

If you frequent Starbucks alot, the first thing you will notice is that people don't actually go to Starbucks to 'meet up for coffee' anymore. They are there as singular individuals totally devoid of their companions in favour of their snazzy shiny glossy laptops, plugged in and wired to the Internet via wi-fi. Their eyes are glued intensely at their screen, giving the notion of an intent work-in-progress. But in fact - they are just on Facebook. And this is not just a few people, its almost everyone. 

In less than a decade, online social networks have become very much part of our daily habits. To some it is habitual to spend each leisurely moment on the internet checking their Facebook accounts for updates on their networks. I remember very clearly a few years back when the 'Friendster' craze was hot and new. Now it has been taken over by Facebook, which is a much more powerful platform that allows users to interact far more than its predecessors. Besides Facebook, there are many other online social networks like Myspace, Bebo, Hi5, Tagged....the list goes on. All of which make the world a much smaller place. We can connect to anyone across the globe in a matter of seconds, liquidising borders and distance means nothing anymore. But has this really helped people in a way? 

We are becoming less and less connected in a 'human' way. Because of the convenience offered, keeping up with your network would 95% of the time be done looking at a liquid crystal display and frantically pressing plastic keys. What ever happened to the "let's go out and hang out?" What ever happened to "Hi, I'm just calling to check if you are still alive or not." "Of course I am! It's good to hear your voice anyway". 

We have grown to interact on such a faceless and disembodied manner that nothing is 'personal' anymore.  We converse not with real humans anymore, just virtual entities of what we perceive to be human (eventhough they really are actual humans, behind the interwined digital web of anonymity). Our social skills lack, we can only react by sending pixels that form a 'smiley face'. How many people have you met in the last year which can't seem to comprehend an absolutely normal human conversation without giving web references and splutter? 

So we 'think' we are connected. But think further into it. Besides the usual people that we see (collegues because we are stuck at work for the most of our waking hours, immediate family because they are the closest to you and you prbably live with them anyway, and also your very close friends because those are the ones that your have the most in common with), how often do you take the first step to meet up in REALITY?

Yes the world has become a much smaller place,  but it has made us humans very much further away from each other. 

So yea, enough of this ramble. 

Time to collect my coffee now. 

De-evolution?

What's happening now is worst than any C-grade soap on television. 

Video: Mankind Is No Island

Modernity. We live in a arid, emotionally disconnected world where everyone cares less about everyone else. 

'Mankind is no island' by Jason van Genderen

Music Clip: TISM - Everyone else has had more sex than me

Everyone Else Has Had More Sex Than Me from 金宏 on Vimeo.

Funny arse song with a funny video clip. Song is done by TISM, an Australian based band.

Random thought of the day

"Smokers kill each other willingly everyday...with a smile on the face." 

Think of it. 

If you are a smoker, it is quite often that you would offer a cigarette to someone else as a gesture of 'good will', and vice-versa. 

There are also times when someone asks for a lighter, you will notice that all other smokers, including yourself (if you are one too), would be more than happy to pass a lighter to the person.  

Also, there are moments when a hapless fellow smoker runs out of cigarettes, and asks whether anyone can spare a stick; most other smokers within the vicinity would be glad to offer one.

It is a funny culture it is. I guess its some form of camaraderie amongst people who share a common interest.  

Oh well, since we are going to die anyway might as well take a few more with us. 

ho ho ho.

Relationships = Meat market

Relationships. 

It is sometimes equivalent to that of buying meat at a market.

No seriously. Don't take it in a bad light. I actually mean different, here is the explanation:

Choosing a partner is just like choosing a piece of meat at the morning market. Think of it as a metaphorical way of looking at the entire process. Markets are like avenues, places where people gather so you can make your selections. Sort of like looking at different types of meats from different butchers. 

Soon we finally stop at a promising looking 'market', and start sifting through the abundance of meats available at the place. Some are brimming red of freshness, some look good but are not cut well enough or may have imperfections, and some have may have already turned stale and rancid. When posed with such a vast array of options, it is a good idea to pick and choose, not grab the first thing we see (unless of course you are that type of person which just grabs whatever comes). Research my friend. Do research on all these types of meats before making the final decision. What type of meat is this? What kind of dishes can you make with it? What kind of textures does it have? How do you think it would taste in the end? 

After the lengthy selection process, we settle with the type of meat we want.  We bring it home and chill it a little to preserve its 'freshness' while we conduct further research to understand what works best with this type of meat. We research and test what spices work, what makes the meat more tender, what enhances its taste. Just like finding out what your partner likes.

Remember that the 'freshness' can disappear after awhile, turning the meat stale and ready for the bin. Act fast. act quick, but not too quick my friend. Haste makes waste. Do your research first. 

So after the extensive research its time to 'marinate' it. We work the extras into the meat, smelling and tasting to see if all the different enhancements make it better. We also need to test how long do you need to marinate the meat. Sometimes if you over-marinate, the meat gets soft and looses its original taste. If you under-marinate it may not be as tasty. This is the same as testing out what makes your partner tick, what buttons you need to push to start their clockwork. You know what they like and sometimes guess what they like through observations. 

Now cooking time is a challenge in itself too. You need to know how long to you need to cook it. You also need to know how much heat you need to use. Too hot, you scorch and send the meat up in flames. Too little heat, the meat goes undercooked. Sometimes we tend to be too over-enthusiastic in relationships, scaring your potential partner away. Sometimes we are too complacent, resulting in boredom and the eventual abandonment. 

Finally, after all the hardwork and time spent, we get to 'eat' the meat. This I leave it up to your imagination. 

Bon Appetit. 

Brain drain

Knowledge is garnered through experience and the proactive collection of informative material. In the days before computers and the Internet, we sought for knowledge through dusty books in libraries, journals, 4-inch thick encyclopedias, 9 o'clock telly sessions of Discovery and National Geographic, newspapers, magazines, and the grapevine (word of mouth) - to further enhance brain capacities. Information sharing was far slower as we need to be more physical, and manual with our reception of messages. I remember obtaining an Internet line way back in early 1996, running on a 'superbly-quick' 14.4 kbps dial-up modem that made funky beeping noises when it was connecting the lines. This was when everything in the world started to change significantly. 

The way we consume information is entirely different now compared to that of 20 years ago. Now we can look up and learn about something faster than making a cup of instant noodles in a microwave. All it takes is a little curiosity and flicks on plastic keys to know something new. Stroke of keys. Zap. I know more about alien dolphins, and that Aristotle died in 322 BC. 

Kids nowadays however, through my somewhat unbiased observations and non-prejudicial predispositions; have concluded that they are getting dumber (in the sense of general knowledge) than the average kid of the same age, 20 years ago. Tech has been so interwined with our lives that we take for granted its capabilities. For most of them as what I have observed, do not take this new age channels of intellectual material. A lot of things can be learned at much greater speeds compared to what we used to have in the past, but alot of it is wasted on hours and hours of wasted kilobytes of redundant games which bring one nowhere except impaired social skills, less vitamin D, and probably a level 73-sword of 'superbly-awesome-killa-of-digital-monsters'. 

I am not saying that it is essentially bad to use the Internet for gaming use, but excessive durations till one holes themselves in dingy, semi-lit rooms which hundred of other like-minded zombie-ish, bloodshot-eyed individuals is not exactly aligned to the meaning of the word healthy. Use this new method of communication and information to good use. Find out more about the world. Learn things about the past, present and non-existant. Increase your general knowledge. The web is a vast and endless continuity; use it to your advantage. 

Learn something new today, and everyday.   

Reality

"Hey look, the sides are browning already"

Video: Sushi

Ever wondered what its like from the perspective of a sushi on the conveyor belt? This video shows us the delightfully eerie view of what its like to be a sushi; waiting for the moment to be picked up by a customer, and eaten.


lost in a moment from dennis wheatley on Vimeo.