Monday, December 21, 2009

Friendship

Heh as expected of myself. I barely visit my own blog during the breaks when i have almost nothing to rant about. So i'll just write down what pops into my mind right now.

The Kai-ism definition of Friendship.

Friendship is only a thing of circumstances. Because i need to meet you often, i have to get along with you only for my own benefits, and vice versa. Out of sight, out of mind.

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Best friends exists only because there is something you want off each other. For example similar interests bonds a pair of best friends together. What both of them are looking for is close companionship whereby anything can be discussed openly, again for one's own benefit of killing boredom or just having an outlet for rants.

So what happens when both of them ceases to meet up that often because of the paths they chose?

The gap widens and they get drifted apart further and further away. Things of the past will just be for memory's sake and life goes on. Meeting again in the future will somehow be different. The bond shared will not be as close as it used to be, but using the lame excuse of "for old times sake" it will try to be revived.

Personally, friendship is a temporary thing to me. I used to treasure it so much that i never thought of losing the best friends i used to have. But as i grew up the harsh realities of life made me realize that 'friendship' is over-rated. I keep seeing stuff like 'Friends Forever' and the likes, which are all very fake and superficial to me. I won't disagree with you if you believe in it but to me it just rubs me the wrong way. The camaraderie-hood only lasts as long as the time we spend together.

I'll never do anything so pointless as to sacrifice myself for a best friend's sake. Everything i do, i have a reason to think about how it would be beneficial to me in the long run. If you speak about brotherhood and stuff like that i don't even believe in it. Your not even blood-related to me. I might only do it for an actual person related to me. You can tell me about how close we used to be, but that is that. Now is now. If there is any reason to help you it is in my own interests. Arms length.

How about old acquaintances i meet accidentally on the streets? Well, i still need to don on the cloak of "friendship" to keep things rolling. So i'll just wave and maybe do some small talk. Who knows i might need to deal with them again later in life, be it at a new workplace or environment.

So, that is the general idea of how i perceive friendship. Sad you might think, about this poor fool named kai which has such a bleak outlook of life as to condemn the notion friendship. No fool i am, just a realistic person very down to earth and tries not to be governed by emotions. Strong emotions do nothing for you but tie you down to attachments of worldly affairs.

Of course, things of theories are always idealistic. That is what i believe in, yet there are always exceptions to it because i am still a human and not a mechanical device. I am happy living as a one man island. But the world now is such that i would need to forge temporary friendships in order to survive. At some point i would still need your help, and you, mine.

More bluntly, i need to use you and you need to use me too.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Capturing Valueless Moments

warning: image heavy post

These are the assignments i had to do for photography, according to theme.


TEXTURE




LIGHT & SHADOW





LINES




REFLECTION




COLORS




MALACCA

Jonker Street

red buildings

free piece

temple


FINAL

frosted glass: back

frosted glass: front

self composition


Any AD students ending up in this blog might laugh his/her ass off over the lowly nature of skillz IL students have for photography. Not that i really care since i'm not specializing in it.

Now begone this subject! and hopefully i wont have to see you again so often in the near future.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

It's early Christmas!

T.T my old 7-8 years CRT monitor recently gave me trouble till i could no longer work my cgs on it. So my ever resourceful bro ordered an awesome LCD monitor, the 22'' Dell 2209WA which was low in cost and quite accurate in color reproduction. Thanx mucho libre bro!

Value for money i would say. Only qualms now is that LCD monitors are quite bright compared to my CRT last time. On '0' brightness the LCD monitor is brighter than when my CRT was at 100. Gonna burn my eyes faster now when i use it for health studies . My eyes gonna take some time getting used to it and hopefully i won't have to wear specs because of it in the near future. And also things look so much sharper now that i have some getting used to.

me and my wive's workspace now with the new LCD monitor.


It's time to let you have a peek at the shrine i built for my wife. It's not really up to date yet since i'm still waiting for the other stuff to arrive. Been collecting since the first figurine of my wife was made available.


something doesn't belong here...


Lately again, tutor SS told me my stuff still very manga-ish xD


well...i wanted to try out on more detailed clothes shading.


"why is it i see same characters from you" ~SS
o shi...i shall stop...


o shi...another failed attempt to realisticize my simplified figures orzlll

i think i took to heart what Kin Sun mentioned about us focusing on drawing asian features more than westerners. Why so? because we were born asian. To westerners they draw their own features like breathing the air. But for us we need to dig up research and waste time mastering and getting used to something we don't see everyday. So he advised us to concentrate on refining the asian looks instead. (since it's like breathing to us)

But then again, asians have pretty flat and smooth features except for those that are extremely bony, those on drugs or the occasional cheekbones, etc. And that is where the problem starts...drawing asian features tend to skew the drawing towards manga style, well, since manga style IS actually asian style. And here we have the westerners trying to go for manga style now...

So, bottom line is i suck at trying to draw western features. It's not that i really can't but i don't feel motivated to do it. It's funny that when i draw scene drawings instead, i would automatically switch to western features without a problem. But when it comes to imagination simplified figures, i would rather almost all the time go for the asian look. Partly because i'm doing it on the night before submission tomorrow. So i gotta really push and motivate myself to work last minute, hence the results.

"i really want to see you try a non-manga style for imagination. It's not that it is'nt nice, but..." ~SS

i'm sorry SS ;_;
i will try harder next sem if i get you as tutor again.