kelvin quee

My Dear Readers,

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Kelvin Quee

I caught the Flickr bug. I have been posting photos online incessantly.

Partly, Flickr is to blame. They made photo sharing so simple and fun. That’s not a terribly difficult thing to do, but I don’t see many companies doing that either. I used to host my own photo gallery, now I just use Flickr – that says a lot.

Next, my Sony Ericsson K750i is guilty. While the 2-megapixel camera is not anything to gush about, it’s sufficient for most purposes. To add on to that, the nondescript form factor makes taking photos easy without attracting too much attention, especially from your subjects. I can take my time to frame my subjects right before committing. Of course, there were many times I wished for higher resolutions, manual apertures or shutter speed, but I’m more than glad that I can now point and shoot to capture the moment.

Take it from me. I bought a Canon Powershot S3 IS thinking that it will be my dream camera due to the overwhelmingly positive reviews everywhere. It is still a good camera, but the size of it makes phototaking a chore and the AUTO function always does ambitiously low shutter speeds, making most of my low light photos look fuzzy. Disappointed, I sold the camera after 3 days.

Try reflecting the above in a user forum and you will be bombed with harsh comments like “Go get a tripod” or “Get a new pair of steadier hands”, but who carries a tripod everywhere?

Photography should be about capturing images as close as possible to what the eyes see in the shortest time possible.

What’s a camera’s auto function worth if it gets settings (aperture size, shutter speed, white balance etc) wrong half the time?

Enough of the whine. See my proud captures at Flickr. Photography is just starting to get fun!

I know this topic must have been over-discussed by an uncomfortabley huge number of people in your life (most of which are in university) but I still maintain I’ve to write something about it.

Because the writer here is suffering from a chronic version of it.

It’s amazing how much excuses he can cook out just to avoid doing his Financial Management questions. Simply fascinating.

By the way, he is also offering file recovery services for those of you who have accidentally/intentationally deleted a file and later wished you hadn’t.

A new collaborative blog, Red Ghost, has been setup. My best friend, Jack, and myself will be vandalising it digitally. It’s hoped that it’ll draw a crowd with our very unique (read: skewed and perversed) view of the world, Singapore in particular.

No no, you won’t see Singlish misused there.

In the other news, Kelvin Quee has been noted to shameless plug himself on Tomorrow.sg in an attempt to achieve instant stardom.

Well, I just can’t help not being nasty.

It’s my fourth week in Nanyang Technological University and life there isn’t as pink as I thought it would be.

I’m not afraid of work, piles of work. I’m not afraid that studies are difficult.

It’s just that I don’t think I’m getting what I’m paying for.

I get lecturers who rip off powerpoint slides straight out of the text book. Lecturers who explain things in a fashion worst than the textbook. Lecturers who don’t know their course content well, give erronous and misleading examples, give poor examples…

That makes me depress.

Kinda miss my previous teachers who will come with nothing prepared, whip out transparencies and pens and scribbled on them, talking as they go.

That was nice. At least we see how your teachers think. That’s important, isn’t it?

It’s the thinking process that counts. Nowadays, who cares about content when everything is a ‘google’ away?

At least my tutors were good. That’s a saving grace. Well… so much for a world class university.

Suzuki Wagon R for SALE

Good condition, designer Suzuki Wagon R for Sale. Small engine, 660cc, economic (22km/litre), light steering, suitable for ladies, spacious, airy. Immediate transfer. No agent please.

Asking for just $8950.

Click picture for more detailed photographs.

Call 9177 3635 to discuss.

Update: Vehicle is NO LONGER AVAILABLE AS OF JUNE 2006

I went for a haircut today and I changed my hairstyle from a typical side-parting, to the short, no-parting and normal/common/like-everyone-else hairstyle.

And suddenly, I feel like a new man. The haircut was almost ceremonious.

I don’t know why. So much has happened to me these days. So much. I don’t understand them all but I think they happened for a reason.

Right now I’m entering a new phase of life. No, nothing to do with me entering a university. More like what I’m doing and going to do.

Watch out for the new me.

I hate to be a geek but no matter how hard I try to avoid it, computers always get me. Tweaking my computer is just so fun.

It’s just a relentless pursuit to match my Acer laptop to an Apple OSX machine using (Ubuntu) Linux.

It’s a shameful waste of time. I do pick up a few skills along the way, but God knows when my skills will help me. Considering that I’m actually doing, *yawns*, accountancy in University.

People will always ask me, “Hey Kelvin, since you are so interested in computers, why don’t you take up a computing course instead?”

Well, I would love to.

But somewhere in the logical processing unit of my brain, a voice says that, well, no. Do a course that will feed you comfortabley first.

It’s Rice Bowl* first, then interest.

I’m still a *yawns* Geek.

*Rice Bowl: A Chinese expression equivalent to the Western secondary meaning of Bread in the expression breadwinner.

I haven’t been blogging since I started work. Not that it makes a difference in your life anyway.

I haven’t stopped writing though. I found myself with too much time on long train rides to Redhill that I have to do something, that is, if I do get a seat.

I’ve been indulging in writing about grandiose business plans on my million dollar projects. Trump will be proud of me.

And writing about the work that I’m doing now, but I can’t post them here. My employer might be reading this now.

I need more exercise too. I can’t let work affect my health. And it’s not like I earn a million bucks every month too.

For the rest of the world and some Singaporeans, ORD is the acronym for Operationally Ready Date. It marks the end of 2 years (shortened from 2.5 years) of compulsory, full-time military service to the nation. It’s the holy date for all those in service, marked out millions of times on countless calendars, planners and, unfortunately, on camp walls, military cupboards and vehicles too by our soldiers.

Mine falls on 21 March 2005.

It was a surprisingly uneventful day, even though I’ve been lusting for the day ever since I was enlisted two years ago.

There aren’t many people who I can bade goodbye too. Most have already left. Those still around are leaving. And there aren’t many people who shared the same memories as myself of the place, except a privileged few.

I’ve seen changes in my workplace in 2 years that many wouldn’t have in twice the time. It was an enriching experience, considering the amount of mistakes made. I’ve had my direct superiors changed twice and attached to another unit which restructured thrice in the same year and had new instructions every now and then. In some ways I’m lucky, as they say - while it’s good to learn from your mistakes, it’s better to learn from others’. Mostly, it wasn’t a very pleasant experience. Change can be disorientating and aggravating.

Equally unnerving were the changes this period had on me, I was undergoing the most intensive and introspective phase of my life. I’ve made so many decisions, reversed on them, flipped it around again, dropped it, went on to do the same to something else and came back upon the former again. I apologise to all my friends who had to be dragged into my little mind of pendulum.

It’s hard to put 2 years into words but here’s how it would be if I had to, without going through the details.

The essence of which is, I hate National Service. Yet as much as I do, I’m thankful it taught me so many nasty lessons I wouldn’t learn elsewhere, or would have to at a much later time.

On a lighter note, thank you to all those who, unfortunately, had to know me and taught me something. You know who you are. Thanks. Stay in touch, you have my number. :)