Hey folks!

MUCH apologies for my extended absence on this blog, and my only excuse is... I have been posting it all on Facebook, and didn't have the spare energy (nor motivation) to split all the resources and post here too. And also, I'm not sure who's still reading this...

But rest assured, I'm still well, alive and kicking in Singapore (for now anyways)...

Here's a very brief summary of what transpired after I'd left for South Africa...

I was there to shoot a US mini tv series called "The Philanthropist", and in it, I played two minor roles: a Burmese citizen as well as a Burmese soldier. I had the time of my life there, and enjoyed the shoot very much. We were all treated like stars and were given great care throughout the shoot, and we got to go on 2 safaris...

And then of course, I had to get my bag stolen right under my nose. Lost my wallet and phone (as well as another production phone), but glad my passport was found with the empty bag in a nearby trash can. Who goes to South Africa to visit the police station? Me!

Anyway, after I came back, life went back to normal, with my usual illustrations and graphic design gigs and the occasional voiceover recordings and film jobs, and pretty much nothing new to report...

Until now!

Perhaps inspired by having played Burmese characters in the above shoot (I learned to scold people in Burmese!), and when another two friends said they are planning a trip to Myanmar (Burma) this year, I jumped at the chance to tag along!

So, right now I'm packing my bags as I type this, and getting ready to hop onto the flight to Yangon (Rangoon) the next morning (Saturday 7.30+am flight) with Darren and Michelle!

But firstly, I wanna thank Eusri for kindly volunteering to bring us all three from the west to the airport, and to Patrick for lending me his Lonely Planet guide...

I'll be in Burma from 5th to 12th September 2009, and will be offline and uncontactable in the meantime...

And this time, I've made sure I got travel insurance! :)

Photos of the trip will be posted on my Facebook and Flickr albums when I'm back (and I promise I'll blog regularly or more often again!), but I've already taken some in preparation of the trip. So here they are:



And please, leave no political jokes or comments whatsoever here, ok? :-)

Last week I went for a last minute casting for a minor role in a new foreign TV series, and the good news is...

I got the part!!!

Well, I can't say much about it as yet, as you know how such stuff tends to be pretty hush-hush...

But I can say this...

The shoot will be done at...

And so, in an hour's time, I'll be making my way over to Changi Airport, and will meet up with a few other local actors, before flying over together to Cape Town...

To say it's a dream come true is an understatement, but this particular opportunity couldn't have arrived at a better time...

I shall be back home next Saturday (2nd May) morning...

In the meantime, I probably will be offline for the whole trip...

I've still got an hour to pack, but my spirit is already on its way there!

Wish me luck!!!

:-)

Once again, I have not been spending enough time on this blog and other similar sites. Facebook have now become my main means of keeping in touch with friends and for posting regular updates. But I am still rather reluctant to let go of this blog, for it has a good several years of my life in it, and it doesn't matter if anyone's reading it or not, it was still a big part of my life then...

I shall go with the flow and see how it goes... but please first accept my apologies if I have been very late in responding to your comments...

In the meantime, I finally have something worth blogging about...

Several weeks ago, my ex-classmate from secondary school roped me in to sign up for an elementary level Japanese course at Bunka Language School...

And today, well technically yesterday, was the first lesson!

The last time I'd learned Japanese was during my teens, and although I was pretty good at it while it lasted, I had given back all that stuff years ago. But it's all coming back to me now!

The class was taught by Takahashi Sensei, and there were 14 students altogether...

Out of this, only my friend, Chia Zyn, and myself, were guys. Aren't other guys interested in learning languages? What happened?

Anyway, the course was rather fast paced, as could be expected from this new system that's been touted as one of the fastest way to learn the language, and we were given many exercises and homework to do, covering conversations, writing and reading...

I love learning new languages, and I hope by the time I visit Japan again next year, I would be fluent and conversant enough to venture on my own without the help of any English! :-)

Last but not least, of course, here are the photos of my class:

Do you love your loved ones because they are perfect?

Or because they are perfectly imperfect?

Check out Yasmin Ahmad's latest advert for MCYS...

Phew! Several weeks had passed already since I last blogged an entry here, but the truth is, it's not like I've been busy with much. Just the usual illustrating and voiceover jobs...

I am kinda enjoying the lull, although it is slightly verging on slothfulness...

But things are about to change, for in order to counteract my inertia, I have decided to get my act together and start learning again!

So today, together with my former schoolmate Jiajun, I signed up at Bunka Language Pte School for their Elementary Japanese Course (EL1)!

The first and last time I took classes in Japanese was with my siblings back in the late 80s, at the nearby community centre, but although that was a rather good thing at that time, we didn't actually get to use what we'd learned...

I'd always wanted to pursue that further, and what better time than now?

The 8 x 3hr sessions of the EL1 course commence only in mid April, and I intend to carry on with EL2 etc and take it as far as I could muster and afford, to prepare for my Japan trip next April...

I think there should be enough time, and fun to last a while! ;-)



Ganbatte ne!!!

There's this thing being passed around on Facebook where everyone's starting to share 25 little tidbits about themselves and getting to know each other better.

I won't tag anyone here since I'd already done it over at my Facebook notes, but do feel free to write 25 random stuff about yourself in your own blog too!

I didn't expect to get so longwinded in my entry, but it ended up looking like a summary of my life story... oh well! LOL

So anyway, for anyone who's interested in such things, here's...


01] Some people still call me "Eddie", or "Ed" for short, and it's the name my Mum gave me when I was born.

02] I became "Edric" after secondary school, as I didn't like my old timid self before that, and I wanted to have a "different" future. ("Edric" apparently means "a rich king" in Olde English).

03] I was a talkative baby, so to shut me up during mealtimes, my late Granny would feed me little spoonfuls of her brandy.

04] I've always been fair, but as a kid, I also had brown eyes, fine brown hair and lots of freckles, and my neighbours would call me the "Angmoh Kia" ("Caucasian kid").

05] I had my first kiss and puppy love in primary school, with a pretty talented girl from my class. We were too shy to do anything. Zzz...

06] I almost died in a high fever when I was about four, after being bitten by a huge red ant while taking photos at the Haw Par Villa (I was posing on top of a statue of a giant red ant, go figure). After that I started "seeing things"...

07] People thought I used to behave weirdly and talk to myself a lot as a kid, but I was actually having conversations with "spirits". I didn't even know they were "spirits" until later.

08] So yeah, I "could see dead people". Thankfully, not anymore. But I could still feel their presence sometimes.

09] It might also have something to do with my eyes, for after the fever incident, I started to develop these weird divergent eyes (also called the "lazy eye syndrome"), and had to undergo three separate surgeries to correct this. If not I would eventually go blind.

10] But because of my divergent eyes, I could see a wider peripheral vision than normal kids, giving me a huge advantage when playing hide-and-seek, or other such events. That's how I could see the weird spirit stuff that goes on from the corner of my eyes.

11] During one of my eye surgeries (I think I was in Sec 1), I actually slipped at the hospital's shower and hit my nose on the tap. As a result, I had a deviated nasal septum and a higher nose bridge!

12] I chose to "celebrate" my 21st birthday in hospital to correct the above-mentioned deviated nasal septum, so that I could breathe easier, and also to take a break from my army training.

13] All through my teenage years, I harboured thoughts of killing myself in different ways, but I'm still alive because I just couldn't decide on the best method. I think it's something to do with my being a Scorpio.

14] I was a terribly shy kid, but the only time I wasn't shy, was when I sing. So I joined school choirs, competed in and won various singing competitions as a way to get rid of my stage fright.

15] I also started working part-time, not only to earn extra cash for my studies, but to boost my own self confidence and courage. My first job was at Burger King, and I helped set up the outlet at the then new OUB Centre in 1986. I remember memorizing my schoolwork while packing burgers. My counter sales was excellent; my school results not so much...

16] I had a very wide vocal range during my school days, and I could sing all the parts from bass to second soprano.

17] But after all that shouting of commands during my Basic Military Training (BMT), I became a baritone-tenor. I could still do a mean falsetto though.

18] During BMT, I also encountered another horrific incident with the supernatural world, and it gave me my second high fever and I had to be sent to the hospital via the army medical centre's mini-bus.

19] On the way to the hospital, the above mini-bus broke down while collecting blood samples at the Central Manpower Base (CMPB), and I was asked to wait an hour while the driver repaired the punctured tyre. During that hour, I bumped into Babes Conde, who's the musical director of the SAF Music & Drama Company (MDC), and she asked me to audition for her there and then.

20] Despite my high fever, I passed the audition by singing "Memory" from "Cats", although I was actually singing the Chyi Yu version. LOL

21] I only got posted into the MDC as a full time artiste a year later, after learning how to drive a three-tonner truck at the transport camp, and spending half a year as a service medic.

22] At the transport camp and medical centre, and even in MDC, I was asked to help design posters and create comic strips and illustrations for them. Those were generally well received, and it became my other passion. It's funny how Fate works, but that's how I "trained" to be doing what I'm doing right now.

23] After the army, I worked a couple of years at the Housing Development Board of Singapore as a draftsman, and singing at gigs on the side, and eventually saved up enough to get myself into Queensland University of Technology, in Brisbane, Australia. It was the best time of my life, and definitely a life-changing experience, and that's also when I got bitten by the travel bug.

24] For a decade, I'd paid my dues working day jobs in Architecture, and later on, an IT firm, all the while acting, singing and dancing in the nights and during weekends.

25] I wish to retire early, either in Australia, or in one of the lovely islands of Greece, such as Corfu.

:-)

Recently, my friend Ernest introduced this awesomely hilarious Australian comedy to us, and it's called "Summer Heights High"...

We watched the first four episodes out of eight in the first season's specially-imported DVD, and already can't wait to get our hands on future seasons!

Written, produced, directed and starring the amazingly talented, award-winning, Chris Lilley, this show pokes a lot of fun at life in a fictional Aussie public school...

The main characters include a limp-wristed drama (queen) teacher Mr. G, a 12-year-old Polynesian troublemaking boy Jonah Takalua, and a 16-year-old popular private school girl Ja'mie King, who just got "downgraded" into this public school... who all just "happened" to look alike! ;-)

And after reading disjecta's entry on this show, I felt I should do my part as well, and share these videos available on Youtube to those who are not so um, privileged...

Just kidding! :P

Check these out...


Warning:

Don't watch if you're easily offended, close-minded, or too young for such stuff...

:-P

梦

我爱做梦

在我的梦境里
我也许是老鹰
无忧无虑，飞扬在天边云间
我也许是骏马
无拘无束，奔驰在辽阔原野
我也许是海豚
自由自在，游乐于浩瀚海底

我爱幻想

在我的想像中
我可以当歌手
弹着吉它，以歌声扣人心弦
我可以当画家
天马行空，绘画出心中所愿
或是旅游作家
相机与笔，陪伴到海角天涯

在我所有的梦境里
我都是一个独行侠
从来不曾有人相伴

可是我从不觉孤单
也不怕独自游走
只求有朝一日
能脱离尘土
找到自己
梦中的
天堂

26th January 2009 was a special day indeed, not just because it was the first day of the Chinese New Year, but also my sister Alain's birthday...

On top of that, we witnessed the partial solar eclipse that occured during the late afternoon!

Although this certainly wasn't the first solar eclipse in our lifetime, it was the first time we were able to see something...

I wasn't able to capture any photos of the actual eclipsed sun directly with just my usual camera equipment, but I had learned that by using the "Pinhole" projection method - using a piece of paper with a hole in it to "project" the image of the eclipse onto another piece of paper, we could view the eclipse safely without injuring our eyes in the process...

And here are the photos I took of my nieces, Sheryl and Shermaine, trying out this method, while my brother Eric held the "Pinholes"...

The above photos were taken around 4.45pm to 4.50pm (Singapore time), which was a whole hour before the supposed full effect of the eclipse, by which time the sun was not only 72% covered by the moon, the whole thing was obscured by thick clouds...

Still, it was a lot of fun!

Will post more about the food we ate for the Chinese New Year in the upcoming posts, so do stay tuned... :-)

Finally, the Happy Ox has arrived!!!





I wish everyone reading this will enjoy...

After having fun taking photos with the two Jelly Lenses I bought off the web, and having known that Action City is selling it too (cheaper!), I decided to add a couple more Jelly Lenses to my collection...

So when squido was out shopping for these cool little gadgets the other day, I asked him to help me buy too...

Here's what I got...

Above are shots taken with the 3 Image Mirage and Starburst Jelly Lenses, at the Church of Sacred Heart...

My verdict:

These ones bought from Action City seemed to be less "sticky" than the ones I got from grannysnaps. But still great for providing more fun options in photo-taking. Pretty cool effects despite the strong tunnel-like vignetting caused by the lenses' translucent plastic bodies... which could be cropped off or eliminated by zooming...

I like!!!

To add on to my current crave for some slightly off-beat photography, and to my collection of plastic toy cameras, I have recently gotten hold of a couple of interesting lenses from grannysnaps to give my random snaps a quirky twist and some special effects...

These are called "Jelly Lenses", and they look like cute mobile phone accessories. But when you peel off the back cover from the sticky "jelly" adhesive pads, you could stick them onto the lenses of your mobile phones and digital compact cameras...

The special effects for the different lenses include: Wide Angle, Spark, Stretch, Mirage, Heart (with colour filter), Star (with colour filter), Starburst, etc...

For now, I have the Wide Angle and Spark lenses, and they look like this...

And here are the effects of both the Wide Angle and the Spark Jelly Lenses (see if you could tell them apart), taken over the past few days at various locations (image intensive)...


The quality of images after applying the Jelly Lens might not be the best, but nonetheless, it's a lot of fun!

And for S$6-15 each, depending on where you get it from, it's very affordable!

I love being in front of the camera, after all it's part of my job!

But I also enjoy being behind the lens...

I have always been an avid fan of photography, and as with many other things in my life, my motto is to keep things simple, basic, carefree and at a low-budget...

Although digital cameras will always remain as my priority tool, at the moment I am completely fascinated with cameras that are a bit left of centre...

Also, I absolutely love the Lomo style of photo-taking, with no rules, and with the simplest of equipment. The photos don't even need to be clear or sharp!

From a heavy vintage camera from the 50s, to a plastic action sampler, to my camera phone, basically anything goes to capture that fleeting fond memory...

So, I'd made a sort of inventory of the active cameras I have at hand, and in no particular order, here's...

Clockwise from Top Left:

1) Samoca 35 III - a 3rd hand Japanese camera from the 1950s, it's my latest acquisition from Weidong. S$50.

2) Polaroid Amigo 610 - this 2nd hand camera (70s?) obtained from a flea market in Brisbane was a Christmas gift by Eusri.

3) Praktica Sport - found this 80s Panorama camera at my neighbourhood film processing shop. S$20.

4) Holga 135 BC - this plastic toy camera was my birthday present, also from Eusri, who'd included the Holga 12 MFC flash unit.  

5) Quad Cam Galaxy (35mm 4 Lens Action Camera) - a Korean plastic toy camera that I'd bought from Granny Snaps!. S$35.

6) Split-Cam Image Fusion - yet another plastic toy camera, from China, with image manipulation capabilities, also from Granny Snaps!. S$39.

7) Fujifilm F40FD - my trusty one-and-a-half year old 8.3 megapixel digital camera that I never leave home without. S$447.

8) Nokia N78 - my 3.2 megapixel mobile phone camera, which takes pretty good photos despite its limitations. S$298.

I have yet to play with the Quad Cam Galaxy, the Split-Cam, the Polaroid (which is already destined to be a display unit), or the Samoca, but I'll come around to them soon enough when I get the chance...

I did, however, bring the Praktica Sport and my Holga 135 BC out for a walk just the other day, and will be posting the pics I took with them soon after this...

In the meantime, anyone here who liked the results of my photography and wishes to contribute to my hobby in any way, or have already done so, will be greatly appreciated! :-)

Phew!

Finally, a year of mixed emotions, uncertainties, and crazy work schedules has come to an end, and a fresh new start awaits right around the corner, a couple of hours away...

I had more or less cut down on a lot of excesses, be it in clubbing, food, shopping or other unnecessary expenditures, and I hardly go out much these days, but it hasn't been an easy year for me, that's for sure...

Well, as they say, it can only make me stronger and a better person...

So before we go on to an exciting 2009, here's a quick glance back at some note-worthy events of in...

* Travelled to Phuket (January), Hokkaido and Tokyo (February) and Bangkok for Songkran (April)...

* Acted in Channel U's "Perfect Cut" and Mediacorp's all-new "Red Thread" drama series, Kid's Central's (or was that Okto?) supernatural-themed "Moon Face II" series, as well as in the "Behind Closed Doors" documentary drama series. Another series that I appeared in is "The Ring", for the Singapore Prison Services...

* Acted in my first stage production after two years, "Das Experiment: Black Box"...

* Appeared in the trailer ad for "A Nation In Concert", as well as a TVC for "The Bank of New York Mellon" (shown overseas), and KFC's "Chinese New Year 2009" ad, and Land Transport Authority's "Mr. Buckle Up" ads for 2009...

* One of my stock images was selected for the poster of a huge bank chain in Taipei, the Taiwan Shin Kong Commercial Bank...

* I recorded voiceovers for "Snow City Singapore" and "Magic - The Science of Illusion Show" for Science Centre Singapore commercials, as well as sung the rap jingle for the "Mr Buckle Up" ad which will be shown to school children in 2009...

* I have been providing weekly illustrations for Bryan's "I-Weekly" articles on Health and Beauty, and finally developing a comfy drawing style of my own...

* I designed concert posters, flyers and programme booklets for DynamicWorkz, for their "Cello & Piano Duo Recital by Joshuan Roman & Benjamin Loh" and "Beethoven Complete Piano Sonatas" concerts...

* I'd met up with long-lost school mates from my River Valley High School days, as well as from Queensland University of Technology where I studied...

* I'd brought friends from Taipei from the popular Indie band, Sodagreen, all around Singapore, as shown in my "Local Sights Through Foreign Eyes" series, and in return, they treated me to the "Sodagreen - Sing With Me Tour" concert at the Max Pavilion...

* I experimented in photo shoots of my own, ranging from "The Dark Side", "Light Sketches", to my "Pseudo Lomo", "Emo Nemo" and "Merman" series...

* To create a higher profile for myself in the acting and commercial industry, I signed up for an Official Artist Profile on AliveNotDead.com, an international website that caters to all performers and their supporters...

* I have been considerably less active on Livejournal, and more on Facebook. In fact, you can almost always find me on the latter site..

* I have lost many "supposed" friends (but well, that's no real loss anyway) through their own self-expose, but I have also made some really nice new ones. I am truly grateful to those of you who have gifted me with your unconditional friendship! 

* I have had numerous computer trouble, but thanks to squido and stingerx, as well as my old friend Bryan Gan, I am now able to type out this entry smoothly and without problems. Touch wood!

* I am spending a lot more time on my own, which is really very nice, and also with my family, which can never be replaced...

I have probably a lot more I could add, but for now, this will suffice...

That's already plenty of activity and events for a year that I was supposed to "do nothing"! :-)

I am looking forward to a wonderfully fresh and exciting new year in a few moments, so for now, I want to wish everyone reading this...

Firstly, let me wish everyone here a Merry Christmas and may everyone have a Wonderful New Year ahead!!!

I'd been neglecting my Emo Nemo series for a while (since September actually), but besides the usual busy schedule excuse, it's also mostly because film photography on a simplistic Holga toy camera requires good natural lighting... something that's not really happening in our "tropical winter" rainy seasons...

Anyway, my friend Bryan requested a photo shoot at the gardens for him and some of his products (mostly on his own camera) to post on his Omhealth website and blog, so I took that opportunity to bring along my Emo Nemo...

And here are the results:


Hope you like these!

You can also visit my other Lomo-style pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/myemonemo/

Constructive comments and feedback only please! :-)

Wow, can't imagine how time flew by these past few weeks. I'd thought after "Das Experiment", I would be out of work for a bit, and could stretch my legs and spread my wings... so to speak... and just enjoy a good year-end break...

But apparently, Fate had other more exciting plans for me!

Besides my usual illustration gigs, I also got jobs for recording voiceovers for TV and cinema ads for the Science Centre Singapore as well as Snow City, and also got cast in a music video ad to teach school children about certain aspects of road safety! I even landed my first (minor) "recurring" role in a new English local drama series, "Red Thread"!

More about that in upcoming posts!

I'd also found time to catch a few movies, and would highly recommend everyone go watch the Malaysian film, "Muallaf", and the Taiwanese surprise hit movie, "Cape No. 7"!

I'd long wanted to visit Taiwan, especially after watch "Cape No. 7", but I had never yet found the opportunity to set foot there...

So imagine my surprise and amusement when my Taiwanese friend, Frank, called me the other day and asked me if I had been to Taipei recently...

Apparently, he saw my face on a bank billboard advertisement in Taipei!

Anyway, he took a few photos of that ad and emailed me, and here they are...


Well! To think that my photo visited Taiwan even before I did! LOL

Haha, it turned out the image that the bank had chosen for their ad was from one of my earlier stock images photo shoots with Asia Images studio, and taken by the photographer Cedric Lim...

Although the stock images shoot was fun and a rather good source of income, of course, I'd much rather have been cast for that ad and have it shot in Taiwan (and get due payment for that!)...

Anyway, I'll be back here posting more stuff and especially my back-log of tons of photos, so be warned!! :)