Our parents were out for the night, so my sis and I ‘turned off the lights‘ and tried to do our little bit, having our dinner in the semi-dark dining area (the world out there was still quite brightly-lit) and away from our compts. Having no candles in the house, we used torches when necessary while in the living room. Banjo looked on curiously, and I had the idea of doing some light painting. Jane joined in, and so did Dofu who was quite clueless as to what was happening, really.

I’m not sure where my mom got that idea from, but it was a welcomed move. Last Sunday, she carted the family off towards PSA along Alexandra Rd where she heard there was a new butterfly farm or something. I was asking friends before that, about a ‘new butt place in town’ but they were as clueless as I was. Turns out that it was a new horticultural park, managed by NParks, linked by park connectors to Telok Blangah Hill Park and Kent Ridge Park. Manicured grass, neat plots of land showcasing themed gardens, playgrounds for the kiddies, and high-tech greenhouses at the back. A nice Thai restaurant and function rooms at the visitor centre, its architecture reminiscent of the Zen aura we felt whilst at The Lalu Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan. It’s still very new, and aside from a couple of Changeable lizards that we saw, not much of the fauna has mmm… moved in yet.

Haute Nature

First park in Asia to blend recreation and retail with research and technology

There is now another alluring option in the Garden City if you want to relax amid lush foliage. HortPark is a 23-hectare recreational and technological park developed by Singapore’s National Parks Board at a cost of SGD 13.1 million. The first park in Asia to house recreational, educational, research and retail activities related to gardening in one location, it also aims to become a knowledge hub for training and value-added services… …

~ Singapore abuzz, Mar-Apr 2008 edition, Singapore Tourism Board

Photos :: HortPark

Three weeks ago, I received a few suspicious messages from one of my friends in Sydney. They go:

“hey whats up? check this out !!!
http://cool.smy9.info
brb…”

And then I started getting these from a number of my Aussie friends. Looks like a bot would send a message from their account just before they went offline, and since I couldn’t get my warnings through when they were still online, I’ve had no choice but to block them off my list for the time being. The link would vary, but it’ll be something like:

http://just.cool.03phg.info
http://-username-.pics.skaq.info
http://-username-.images.05b7b.info
http://www.kfytsj.info/
http://www.rhqwcp.info/
http://www.cfkxrn.info/
http://www.mxbpkr.info/
… … and more of such nonsense

This Aussie-based page says that some of the links would ask for your MSN email and password to gain access to view some photos that the sender has supposedly uploaded. Although this site claims the spyware originates from email spam, I believe it can be spread via MSN as well, whether or not you actually click on the link. This morning, I received another such message from one of my friends in Singapore, and a few hours later a friend notified me that he received from me a similar message, advising me to check my computer. I carry out an anti-virus and anti-spyware scan every night, and so for this evening I ran one earlier than usual. So far it’s found a Trojan (’Generic 10.CRH’) and I’ve gotten rid of it. I’m not sure how it came through, since I’m using Trillian and not an actual MSN client, so I’m hypothesising that it’s linked to my Windows Live account. I’ve since changed my account password as well.

There were crowds at Pulau Ubin last Friday. Crowds! We actually had to queue to get on a bumboat, the bicycle rental shops were packed and the restaurants were full even when lunch hour had long passed. Don’t know if it’s a good thing or bad. Most weren’t locals though. Mainly bunches of gweilos and mainlanders (or PRCs, as they call them here).

Much has changed since I last went to Ubin, which, according to my records was in December 2004. For one, Chek Jawa was still relatively untouched. Now it’s got that boardwalk… and House No. 1 has been turned into a visitor/heritage centre. There’s that Ubin Green House, SEC/GVN’s eco-house, and the newish Ubin Volunteer Hub. The potent mozzies still wouldn’t leave me alone, though. Among the four of us to have gone there that day, I suffered the most bites. Others came through unscathed. Sigh, the unfairness of it all.

Saw the hornbill there at long last, and caught it in flight, too! Pekan Quarry is a lovely place to relax and lie in wait for passing birds. It might become my favourite spot there yet.

Not sure why I’m feeling so lazy to type right now. It’s one of those periods when I’m dry of words. Budak has written up entries on it - this and the preceding six posts.

Robber fly with damselfly prey

Digger wasp, Bembix sp. (Sphecidae)

Glossy starling

Oriental pied hornbill

Pekan Quarry

Mutt

Full moon

When you’re beyond calling a bird a ‘bird’, you call it a ‘Pink-necked Green Pigeon’ or a ‘Pacific Swallow’ or whatever its species is.

When you have pets, you tend to call an individual of that same certain species by the name you give your pet, even when that individual isn’t your pet.

I was looking out of my window when I saw this grey flying blob approaching. It was coloured like rock pigeon, but it didn’t fly like one. When it came nearer, I saw its bright red tail. When it flew past, my mind registered it: “A Banjo!”

I stood there for a full minute, replaying the sequence in my mind. I was sure it was an African Grey Parrot, on the loose… very likely an escapee. I told my sis, and she chided me for not yelling out for her earlier. She’d have scrambled over to look. We went to tell our parents, and they asked, “Why didn’t you save it?” -_-

If experiences with past alien escapees were anything to go by, there’s a probability that it might fall victim to the crows.

I went out into the living room and looked at Banjo. “There’s one of your cousins out there… why don’t you do your stuff and get him here?”

With his eyes glinting as if he understood, he flapped and nodded and did his dance. Silly Banjo.

An interesting article from BBC, published in 2003 but recently gaining popularity as one of their ‘Most Emailed’ selections, on the Church’s divided view on homosexuality:

BBC :: What does the Bible actually say about being gay?

It presents quotations from the Bible and discusses both the pro- and anti- stances.

Part of the reason the views diverge so much is because Christians think of the Bible differently. Some see it as literally the word of God, divine inspiration which humans should not question. Others see it rather as a book which is a witness to God’s message, but one which was written by humans and thus has flaws.

I suppose this was a lead-on from another more recent, but slightly-biased (the research is based in the UK) article:

BBC :: How ‘gay’ became children’s insult of choice

The word “gay” is now the most frequently used term of abuse in schools, says a report. How did it get to be so prevalent and why do children use homophobic insults to get at each other?

Perhaps more than just so that I can improve on the quality of my pictures and not be limited by adverse lighting conditions all the time, the drive to get a f/2.8 mid-range zoom lens - which costs almost as much as my D200 body - was spurred in part by a need to protect my reputation, or however much of it that does exist.

I was simply unhappy with the results I was delivering with the 18-200mm lens, the lens which is almost permanently on my camera body. Its zoom range makes for a handy walkabout and travel lens when the added weight of additional lenses isn’t welcome and swapping lenses may prove to be an inconvenience. But its sharpness, colour and clarity, although acceptable, leaves much to be desired when shooting at a quasi-professional level. I’d be shooting on the scene, reviewing my pictures, and knowing that they’re crappy shots. In fact I’d know them to be crappy even before I started shooting. I’d be dragging my feet when the time came for me to hand in my shots. It is not a pleasant feeling.

People wouldn’t know (they don’t really care) if the other photographers on site or the one they engaged on previous or future occasions have better equipment, or is a dedicated PR or events photographer. If you use a big-ass dSLR, you take good photos. If your photos don’t look good, you’re a poor photographer. So many things can go wrong on a shoot, and so much of it lies in whatever equipment (or lack thereof) is at your disposal. Add on to that the possibilities of camera or lens malfunction, memory card corruption, battery exhaustion (always carry spares!), speedlights not synching, people getting in your way, horrible lighting on site, the need to be omnipresent on scene to capture everything and thus sometimes missing an important second or two, people blinking, people smiling lopsidedly, people with mouths wide open when it would have been better if they weren’t. Some things you can control, but some things you can’t. The less suited your kit, the more things you can’t.

The saying goes that ‘a photographer is only as good as his last shoot’. It is true. I want every last shoot to be a good shoot. I need to deliver. And hence the greed and the need.

Perhaps it is correct to assume that nature and street photography suit me best. Thankless genres, but such photography is motivated by a passion for the subject. All I need to please is myself and nobody else. I shoot to enjoy, not to impress.

The quality of the photo shops here is horrible. I think I’ll need to take my images to a professional photolab to get printed, or do it myself.

These are samples of photos printed by three different shops… using the same files. I took care to ensure that the white balance was accurate when I photographed (’scanned’) copies of the prints, so that WYSIWIG: