how i like my women (and maybe get a higher ping.sg rating)

women can be said to be a lost art. i'll let my muse, anna karina speak in my stead..

roller girl


ne dis rien

christmas and the looking back

hello to those of you who still read my blog.

i say so because i see my technorati ranking dropping every time i check this blog, and i know the sporadic bursts of blogging just isn't helping much.

plus the content really is more like a penny for your thoughts than exciting developments in the new media space. but at least i know, i'm not blogging for readership, and i'm not the least bit interesting to the masses, just the ones that count. -)

i don't know if that makes this blog statistically unappetising, and therefore cannot be worth its weight in digital influence, but i guess everything that i've ever done with this blog, are my thoughts straight to you, whoever you may be -) and if you take something away from it, then i'm glad, and hope you can do the same for someone else, one step at a time -)

and so, as a brief glimpse into my current state of being, i think Ryan Adams says it best with this little number

i thought myself how to grow old


Poor little rose, beaten by the rain
In the wind in the gale, thunder and the hail
Sometimes I feel like I'm going insane
Without the numbness or the pain so intense to feel
Especially now it added up through the years
And I, I taught myself how to grow
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
Now I'm crooked on the outside, and the inside's broke

Most of the time I got nothing to say
When I do it's nothing and nobody's there to listen anyway
I know I'm probably better off this way
I just listen to the voices on the TV 'til I'm tired
My eyes grow heavy and I fade away

'Cause I, I taught myself how to grow
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
'Til I was crooked on the outside
I taught myself how to grow
Without any love and there was poison in the rain
I taught myself how to grow
'Til I was crooked on the outside, inside's caved
Crooked on the outside, inside's caved
Crooked on the outside, inside's caved
I taught myself how to grow old

yeah, just feeling a bit old at the end of this year, i've done so much, and i'm thankful for every opportunity, both good and bad things that have come my way. i feel like i've grown so much that somehow, while turning 25 felt old for awhile, 25 feels like such a young age, because i feel as if i've just hit 30. my musical tastes have matured, my responsibilities have grown a lot larger, i've played a number of shows and recorded at least 5 recording sessions. leeson has just been invited to audition for Baybeats'08 and we're starting the year off with Stasis 10 amidst some very respectable peers such as vertical rush, you and whose army? and b quartet, plus i've met a lot of great and wonderful people this year, and it doesn't look like it's gonna let up anytime soon either -) don't get me wrong, i'm very thankful.. and i'm welcoming my break this week.

i think if there's anything i'm looking for next year, it's direction, and where to channel my efforts

i haven't done bible study in awhile

"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?"
- Mark 8:35-37

i was reading a friend's blog entry, and i originally wanted to twitter "i can't seem to write beautifully anymore." and somehow this verse, i somehow remembered. what good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?

perhaps there are things in our lives, that we live in regret with, lacking in various areas, mountains we can't climb, missions we can't accomplish. or for some of us, maybe we've fought and won certain battles, and yet.. you know intrinsically that a part of you isn't there in the celebration.

you may scoff at the first section of the verse as some sort of "new age spiritual bullshite", but i think it's rather true. if you hold on too much to something, you will undoubtedly lose it, only because everything is so transient in this world. even our lives.. we all have to die some day, you can do all you want to prolong your life, but you will ultimately lose.

only when you don't hold on to it so much, does it then free you up to do what you were meant to do as people who are alive. we were meant to live.

At a wedding dinner

Our secondary school classmate Shien got married to her sweetheart, Jason today. I'm wishing them all the best and that such love will continue to grow till the end of the world

Christmas Came Early!

My boss got me this for Christmas! Freakhog awesome!

Is the party over?

No! It aint! We'll see you on the other side people :)

Under the table and dreaming

Live from the American Express LIVE Platinum Urban Flavors party. It's beautiful under the Cannery's canopy. It's a party exclusively for American Express Platinum members and their guests, or unless you happen to be an invited member of the media. Haha, yay.. Just a few of my job perks :)

how embedding a Leeson video evolved my videoblogging experience

i used to be a production student, and so i was trained to shoot video in the highest possible format, and also be technical in the way i approached my cinematography, production, what format to shoot on, what format to export to and all the things that go in between. i shan't say i'm very good, but i guess i wasn't too shabby either.

anyway, fast forward a year, i find myself in the PR industry as opposed to production, and i found myself still holding on to those processes. i'd want to edit with professional software like Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premeire Pro, but getting my hand on the software and hardware was an issue altogether, i just wasn't earning enough to equip myself with a semi-professional studio.

enter: my epiphany that social media has flourished because processes were simpler.

my ethos now, to borrow Masamune Shirow's Appleseed quote: functional simplicity, structural complexity

i want technology that works. at the push of a button, processes are automated, a product of high quality through the automation process, and then perhaps an improvement of a process when customised by the human touch.

anyway, my point is this, after i decided on this, i ditched trying to get my HD camcorder to work with my offline editing programme, and got a video recording of my band's performance through my point-and-shoot digital camera, which records a compressed .avi file. after which, i edited in Windows Movie Maker, exporting to a .wmv format, and then using a video converter, i converted it into a .mp4 format. Which is now ready to be hosted on youtube.


Absolute Beginners

and the good that came out of this, is that my video converter is my new maxim in wonderful ones and zeros. it converts most formats (.flv .avi .mpg) into .mp4 which seems to be the language of ipods, mobile phones, mobile devices, portable media players and video hosting sites such as youtube.

the complexity of social media, powered by a single "convert now!" button on this beautiful piece of software. i now enjoy videos on the go through my ipod, from stuff i've downloaded off the net. next up, figuring out how video podcasting works in syncing with my ipod, and perhaps starting my own vodcast! we'll see..

primrose, the proper tomato

maybe you know the answer to this, why i haven't been updating of late, but i suppose that the correct answer would be that i haven't the time these days.. which is rather astounding, considering the frequency which i used to post in the past few years.

anyway, my mind's a blank, sorry i can't add much value to this post, but if you must know, my busy-ness has not been in naught. you can find the fruits of a recording session here at www.myspace.com/leesonsg. the new leeson song is called "absolute beginners", you'll love it. i know these things.

one point brilliance has also finished recording another song, so maybe that will be available soon as well -)

i've also been getting into the nextmen's latest single: something's got you





and if you haven't gotten your hands on joe henry's latest album, civilians, check his EPK out here with a stellar performance of "time is a lion"