edmund wee

I went back to Chengdu, this time on a holiday with my family. I brought along a film camera – Nikon FE and came back with these pictures. Enjoy!

All photos at a glance

Finally AOH is over. I had been covering the army open house for the past few weeks. Nice experience to have, although weekends are burnt. and I missed a few episodes of “溏心风暴.” I learnt quite a few things.

I managed to get first-hand observation of how things are done and put into place – meaning the preparation, work flow and all, small things being put together to form a bigger picture.

External contractors and NSFs work together to organise, set-up tents and booths, banners and so on. But controlling a big group of soldiers is a difficult task at hand. And to persuade them to work willingly to achieve a common goal is not easy. It is like asking “Sai Gang Warriors” – (soldiers who are tasked to do things that nobody wants to do) to work willingly with a smile on their face.

My duty was to cover their safety while they were loading the stores and equipment, which means most of the time, I will be at the water point using “eye-power”, being alert and staying in standby-mode, looking at people working.

Observing how people work has its own merits (not being sarcastic, seriously) because I learn a few lessons.

First thing I noticed is the importance of briefing.

Briefing gives the soldiers a vague idea of how things is going to be carried out. Briefing is commonly done but usually they are too long-winded and “flat”(as in “say already equals to never say at all”). Ideally, it should be short and sweet and highly- motivating. So that it gives a morale boost. Otherwise, it will affect the whole day of work. So a good motivating brief will be like a cup of strong coffee for the soldiers.

Second thing is planning, meaning who is going to do what. Be honest about it. Everyone is going to work hard together.

Third is flexibility, not meaning by left or by right. Up to individual to decide as long as it does not go against values and ethnics or create trouble for others. Sometimes things don’t always work out as what is planned. Don’t stick to one idea religiously.

Fourth is timing with estimation, not rigid timing. Don’t have to be very, very early. Just on time is good enough, because you are still not late. This is a skill that is not easy to learn. From young we were always told to keep to time. In schools, if we are late, we would serve detention after school. Yes, keeping to time is important, simple and straightforward, but there is no need to be kiasu about it and rushes things.

If flag-raising in school starts at 7.45am. Reaching school between 7-7.30am is just nice.

Unluckily, if you are late, don’t panic.(Army context only. This does not apply for school children) Else, your soldiers start panicking and things will turn out worse. And most importantly, if you don’t work last minute, chances are you would still have sufficient time to make changes. What I am trying to say is, just nice is enough.

If you are really, really, really afraid of being late, then do things in advance. My father once told me during his army days, one of his friend wore smart-four uniform to bed. So the next morning, all he had to do is just wear his boots and off he goes to report to the commanders. Most of the time, we laugh at this type of odd behaviour, including myself. Amid the laughters, my father explained. His friend knowing himself is slow, did that so that the whole platoon would be spared of punishment, for being late due to his slowness. Respectable man indeed. Laughing should stop by now

Fifth lesson is “shit happens.” During my SIT-TEST in BMT, I learnt from a reservist commander that there’s something called Murphy’s Law. It says literally “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” As a medic, I will always keep this phase in my head. Things can go wrong, so if anything goes wrong, don’t panic.

Because of this law, all the above lessons make sense.

In design, singapore idol or any other field, we often overplan, oversell or overdo things. Sometimes, just nice is enough.

The Church

Husband and Wife 2

Old Rooftops

Modern Buildings

Hungry Statues

Laughing Buddha

Fake MJ

For the past 2 weeks, I have been browsing online camera forums and ebay in camp. I am thinking of buying a 2nd-hand film camera. Thinking of learning film SLR, total control, shutter speed and aperture and totally manual.

Payday was on Friday, so on Saturday noon, I was at Peninsula Plaza scouting around. Went to a few camera shops, do window-shopping. Then came across this Nikon FM which was on displayed. Quite well-maintained and looks like new. So I asked the uncle for the price. Price quoted was good, within my budget. Then I requested him to include a 2nd hand 50mm f1.8 lens and sell me as a whole package with body, so that at least I could bargain the price.

Unfortunately, there is no stock for this 2nd lens. I went over to other camera shops and ask around but to no avail. Another option is to buy the new lens, which will be more expensive. Still considering about it, I think I should also try other places next week!

Film: Fujifilm Velvia 50
Camera: Holga 120N

Here are the shots. Developed this roll at Peninsula Plaza. This time round, I request to scan the film to a CD instead of printing them out, cause its cheaper. But disappointing shots in the end. Very blue, dark and underexposed. Is the problem with the scanner, my camera or the ISO of the film?

And by the way, today the facebook vanity url created such a big wave, so many usernames were registered within the first few minutes it launched. And I just changed mine to “/edmundweeyuxin”. Of course I would prefer ending with “/edmundwee” but no choice, it’s already taken. But I am intriqued by this phenomenon, this rush for online identity.

Something interesting to share : 15 Silliest Facebook Vanity URLs

Back from Pulau Ubin with a painful butt, caused by long hours of cycling. Nice island, nice seafood, nice cycling terrain suitable for adventure seekers. Nice trip organised by Jason and Sihui, and the participants includes mindy, becca, leongwei and his gf-geraldine.Photos will be developed soon(should be next week if i give the shop tml)

Glad to have finished my roll of film today. Hope it turns out well eventually.

And also my camp is having block leave tml and Tuesday-finally a rest, after the busy past few weeks, outfield and AHM training.

Today in camp, quite a number of hard-core Manchester United fans took either leave or off to book out, I was no exception. I had applied for a day’s leave so that I could at least sleep in the morning before booking in at night. Currently waiting for the match to start at 2.45am, so I shall make a match prediction.

Although dubbed as the “Ronaldo and Messi show”, I don’t think Ronaldo or Messi will live up to expectations for this match. Maybe Park would be the key factor, cause he can be quite unpredictable. Or Tevez may come off the bench to score his last goal for United. And United will win at the end of the “show.”

I guess “Man Utd 2-0 Barca.”

I was in camp reading a copy of The Straits Times, when I came across an article about this Japanese bicycle traveller who cycled across 124 countries. It took him 11 years and he is still on the go.

I went over to his site to have a look at his travel stories and it made me inspired to write about my own trip to Chengdu 2 years ago. I will write based on my memory, photos and videos, and I hope it also serve as an informative guide as well. First post is already up in the “Chengdu” category.

By the way, here’s the Japanese traveller’s site, if interested to read:
www.daisukebike.be

Turned 21 years old on the 10th, after which 11th april was the departure to Chengdu 2 years ago. I still miss the place as always. The spicy food, the slower-paced society, the beautiful scenery and the interesting streets. Lots of things to explore and learn. A nice city to stay in. If opportunity arises, I hope to return one day.

21 years old…I think it’s about time I start working towards my dream.

Yesterday was 清明节 (which means tomb-sweeping day). On this day, thousands of Chinese will flocked to either temples or cemeteries to pay respect to their love ones. They would bring along food, fruits, incense paper, paper money and other traditional offerings like paper houses, cars and clothes. These items will be offered through fire.

On this day, I accompanied my parents to 光明山 temple to pay respect to my late grandfather and uncle.

While waiting for our relatives to arrive, I saw a young family of 4 which consist of the father, the mother, a daughter and a son. An ordinary family, nothing to create a hoo-ha about.

But in the arms of this young boy was a black paper car( it’s a 6-8 seater sports utility vehicle! ). Immediately it reminds me of an interesting news article and I discussed with my father.

This news article is saying that, nowadays the traditional offerings are getting more creative. In the past, the usual offerings are paper money, houses, cars and clothes. But nowadays, some offerings are really out of the box! Imagine having paper PS3, paper ipods, paper Wii and even paper machine guns! And I mean paper replica of real machine guns not toy guns!

I really wondered why “they” need machine guns! I thought it’s already all peaceful up there!

My father added: “Why not they create a paper Visa card then it will replace all the huge stacks of incense money?”. Since Visa’s slogan is “All it takes.” I laughed, of course.

Now back to the young boy with the paper car. With no disrespect to the boy, my mind asked internally: ” Did he bring along a piece of paper car license as well?”

Just some interesting thoughts to share with friends, with no due disrespect to the traditional festival, as I believed traditional customs also evolves through times, likewise is the same for art.