Day 366 : Cherishing Every Moment

I can’t believe I’ve reached the final photo of the one-pic-a-day project! If you’ve been following the postings, thanks for joining me on this visual journey.

The personal photography project is titled FUNicating 2012 because it is a slant on ‘fornicating’, to capture the scenic, emotional and psychological orgasm of each day in 2012. When I first started, it was fun. But as it progressed, it got harder and harder as there wasn’t always something interesting to photograph everyday and trying to think of creative captions for the shots began to feel draining.

Then I started to post the pictures on this blog a couple of weeks into the project and pen in a words to spell out the thoughts or circumstances behind the pictures. The FUNicating project became very time consuming and no fun at all. I wanted to stop the project a couple of times but thanks to the encouragements from Siow Har and Juliana, I pressed on.

I’m glad the project is over and I won’t ever want to put myself through it again although I did enjoy myself in the process. The daily assignment got me to explore a lot more angles of looking at a subject matter and pushed me to go down paths that I otherwise wouldn’t if I’m not hunting for shots.

Preparing the photos for posting was also a meditative procedure that had me thinking hard about what a shot meant or represented for me. What are the different layers I see in it? How can I be creative with telling its story?

For the last photo in the series, I fought with a couple of ideas for a hopefully spectacular visual finale but I decided on a simple family portrait to wrap up the project. They are the subject matter that matters most to me.

With this closing shot, I wish you a blessed 2013 filled with great joy, health, strength and fun!

Day 365 : Sexpressionists

I almost didn’t recognise them with their clothes on. LOL. It was surreal to chance upon Alvin and Vivian in front of Lot 10, Kuala Lumpur. The infamous famous Malaysian couple was interviewing people on the street about sex for an upcoming documentary on Alvivi Youtube channel.

Having gone through the whole media frenzy about their now defunct sex blog, Sumptuous Erotica, it’s great to see that they treat the debacle and critics as water off a fduck’s bareback. Then again, if one dares to post personal nude photos, genitalia close-ups and love-making videos in a public blog for all to see, especially in this conservative part of the world, what else is there that one could not stand up to? This couple has balls!

Losing his prestigious ASEAN scholarship to read law at the National University of Singapore (NUS), Alvin and Vivian are now back in Kuala Lumpur and living together. They tried to pitch a reality show about sex in Asia but of course, no studios dared to take them on and wanted them to steer away from the whole sex thing if collaborations are to be considered. Kinda like telling McDonald’s to not sell hamburgers because they are not health food. But Alvivi decided not to receive media castration and armed with their own camera and tripod, set up an interview point at the busiest shopping district in Kuala Lumpur, and got people thinking about their views about sex.

They asked if I would like to be interviewed but I was in a hurry to collect my lugguage from the hotel before heading to the airport. Besides, I won’t have much to say about sex for I hardly have any! My cobwebs are legendary amongst friends.

In the States, Sex and the City is a huge hit, in Asia, it got the couple into big shit. Meeting them was a sexciting surprise as I felt like I know them already from their nude photos and headlining news stories. Alvivi came across as sincere and personable in our brief chat and I think their self-confidence and guts are uber sexy!

Whatever the future holds for Alvin and Vivian, I wish them well and may they have a rewarding life together. Lights, camera, mirror, shoot and shoot!

Day 364 : Last Trip of 2012

A last minute decision to accompany a friend who badly needed a break brought me back to Kuala Lumpur a second time after I’d sworn it out of my travel destination in June this year. I’m so used to the place by now that I actually fell asleep instead of heading out to the clubs on a Saturday night. The roar has left this party animal.

Day 363 : Hounding Concentration

Looks like this dog is deep in thoughts. Making new year resolutions perhaps? I’ve given up on making resolutions, I never seem to able to keep them and then feel shitty because I failed to realise them. So I decided not to build myself that mental jail and free myself from disappointments.

Day 362 : Colours of New and Old

For the sake of snapping a shot for today, I walked down a lane on my way home which I’ve never taken before. My wandering along the heritage street brought me to a modern building with colourful glass panels on the side reflecting  parts of a restored old shophouse opposite it.

With 2013 just a few days away, the scene coloured my year-end nostalgia to reflect on the old while moving in to the new days ahead. The past is like paint, and the brush our future.

Day 361 : Happy Boxing Day

I used to think Boxing Day is a western tradition to hold boxing matches the day after Christmas. That’s until a few years ago when I realised it meant opening presents, unboxing the Christmas gifts we received. Feel so silly thinking it’s a day of fighting now that I know what it means. Haha.

Hope everyone is enjoying the warm afterglow of Christmas with thoughtful gifts received this year

Day 360 : John 3:16

Although I am blasphemous and a terrible backslider in faith who constantly denouces the existence of God as much as I affirm the pressence of Him, I am grateful for the Word and lessons in grace, compassion, love, forgiveness, humility and courage.

Merry Christmas to you and I pray for health, peace and a bountiful of the most beautiful things in life to happen to you, your family, friends, and all who can be linked to you

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Day 359 : Christmas Eve

This Christmas was about to become another non-event if not for a friend’s house party to celebrate the yuletide and heading down to my friends’ pub to get infected with the season’s cheer. I was prepared for a silent night, and much prefer it nowadays actually, just staying home and chilling with a movie or a good read over wine, but decided to stop being conquered by melancholy and pushed myself out of the house. My current battle with a bad neck notwithstanding.

So in the company of new friends made and old friends’ gaiety, this Christmas eve had spice although I was too drunk to remember much the next day. This photo is of friends who I’ve known for a long time (except the guy next to me at the back who’s someone’s friend and joined in the shot), some for more than a decade. Not everyone in the group is in the photo, I wish they are, but we’ve all been through some pretty wild times and really tough times… abuses, incarcerations, illnesses, fights, financial woes, death of love ones, etc. They are people I feel comfortable with anytime instantly without trying.

So when Cecilia called out for a photo to be taken of old friends, I felt the touch of Christmas. I may not see them as much, we may not have gatherings and outings like we used to years ago, but the joy and comfort of seeing them struck a chord of kinship that made getting older worth the while.

Enduring friendship is the great gift of many, many Christmas!

Day 358 : Rustic Backwaters of Batam

Explored a little around the coastal backwaters of the hotel we stayed in (Pacific Palace Hotel) and found the shore to be littered with floatsam and jetsam. Whiffs of rancid stink waved past my nose, breathing became something of a Fear Factor challenge. The poverty of infrastructure choking to keep up with commercialisation is apparent.

Day 357 : A Batam Hopover

Popped over to Batam for the weekend and the first thing that friends said when they heard I’m going is that I must be a sex tourist. This unflattering image is the result of many middle-aged taxi uncles keeping mistresses on the neighbouring Indonesian island just a 45-minute boat ride away. I used to hear stories like that in the past but I’m not sure if it is still true now that internet porn is widespread.

The last time I was in Batam was more than 2 years ago and although that place has little places of interest to offer, in my opinion, it’s a nice weekend getaway for a change of scenery. Took this photo of a boy playing in a muddy pool during one of our stops. When he saw me pointing my Casio EX-ZR1000 at him, he immediately smiled and did a James Bond pose.

And just like that, Batam became interesting for me. I’m glad I haven’t lost the ability to delight in simple joys

Day 356 : Time Carries On

The world didn’t end. Is it bad that I felt a tinge of disappointment because a part of me wished it did? I’ve lived my life such that my soul is ready for release any time. The less pain the better; the swifter it comes, the more preferred.

Pictured here is the Hindu goddess, Kali. I think. The dark mother of Hinduism is typically portrayed with her tongue sticking out, with a necklace of human skulls, and with one foot stepping on Krishna. This fearsome statue I saw at the Sri Vadapathira Kaliamman Temple lacks the hallmarks of Kali but I don’t know any other goddess as frightening as this. Then again, there are thousands of gods and goddesses in the Indian faith.

In Hindu mythology, Kali is a ferocious destroyer and her pressence is an allegory for time as time is a indiscriminate destroyer of all things. She is constantly mistaken for being evil by appearance but Hindus revered her as the destroyer of ignorance. Time can nurture wisdom while it erodes memories.

Our time is not up yet so Kali still has more time to make curry of the world!

Day 355 : Any Last Words?

The Mayan astronomical long-count calendar that charts the days of a 5,126-year cycle ends tomorrow. That led some early archaeologists and theologians of antiquiry to declare 21.12.2012 as the end of the world!

If Gaia really does get torn apart tomorrow, I wonder what my last word or words will be…

Day 354 : Department Christmas Lunch

Our department had an early Christmas celebration this year to catch everyone before some of us go on leave. Just for fun, we decided on coming to work in red and green today. I wanted to suggest bling as the theme but most of my colleagues, although we are in the creative department, favour functional understatement instead of over-the-top dresscode so two-thirds of a traffic it is.

The year end feasting begins!

Day 353 : Corridor of Shadows

Life is like walking down a HDB corridor at night,

sometimes there is shadow, sometimes there’s light.

My memory is also like this alternating path of shadow and light,

some things I remember, some parts merged with the black, black night.

Day 352 : Dead-End Job?

Another new week to plough through. Is it me or does December feel like it should be an anti-work month? The new year is 2 weeks away and that depressing feeling of under-achievement is coming back from the dead to haunt me again.