Changing Sky
I realise that I have been writing less and less and posting more and more pictures. Is this good or bad? As much as I wish to mantain a so-called "healthy balance" in the picture-text ratio. At the end of the day, when a picture speaketh a thousand words, then the paragraph describing it beforehand seems to pale by comparison. I'll see how things go. Notably, I have much thoughts, opinions and philosophies to write about else dwell upon and I am currently ignoring it all for the sake of just taking better pictures.
I was thinking hard about the 3 key areas that probably I need to develop in my life. And I realised that it just boiled down to 3 areas - Physical, Emotional and Spiritual or PES for short. So what's my PES status right now? I think its quite bad. Because for starters, ever since I boarded a boat for more than a year, I've been piling on the kilos as well as the bulk. Most people who have not seen me in 1 or 2 years often remark that I've "gained weight" when we meet face to face. The irony is that my figure still isn't too much of a bulging pot belly. Unless of course, I'm at the beach!
Then again, emotionally. Oh my goodness, let's not even venture here. I can't speak well for nuts sake. For the sake of talking crap, yep, that's very easy. But to really hold a decent, emotional level-headed conversation. Wow, that's not easy at all. Then again, there comes the whole slew of emotions and the personal choice to accept or reject the feeling of people "attached" else "detached". Its good to be "detached" during NS, so that all the going-ons do not affect the mind too much and distract oneself. Bad in the sense that there's alot of things that people expect to receive from me emotionally that they don't. Oh, the sadness! Urgh, the lamentations!
And Spiritually. Oh dear. I guess I'm not where I want to be right now. In fact, I'm never where I want to be spiritually! Come to think of it, I guess its not me to go out and be in the key ministries serving the Lord; and my role will probably be just that of a "helper" in the sense. Of course, someone told me that "a helper is also a leader", but then again, how? And in what specific "sense"? Well, alot of thoughts have been running through my mind lately. I don't even sleep well at times. The only times I fall asleep are when I'm really so tired that I just collapse on the bed into a mindless blackness of a shutdown mind. Oh well.... Much food for thought.
Lately too, I've noticed that my memory is going down the drain. In the past few days I have forgotten to bring photographs from the sea sports event last week to base. I have forgotten to bring my leave form down to have it endorsed, I forgot my keys to my locker in the base, I forgot to put my shirt, pants and sandals back into my locker after changing into uniform. I have even forgotten to put my patrol bag back where it belongs after duty. If this is not bad enough, I actually forgot to take my gun after having signed it out. My mind is really rotting away. Wonder how it'll restart in time for university.
Does anyone know any contacts to get a Nikon D1X to be bought on the cheap? I can't believe that Nikon's best camera was released more than 3 years ago and the thing still sells for almost 6500 dollars in Singapore. Nikon is seriously messing everything up from their sensor size all the way to their camera bodies. I can't believe that the top of the line Mark II is just about a thousand dollars more expensive for a 3 year quantum leap in photographic technologies. Nonsense right?
As usual, I grudgingly shoot on with my current camera even as the dream photographic instrument constantly lingers in my mind everytime I press the shutter. Night shift yesterday was a very interesting one. Not that I can say much, at the same time, I realise how easily life can be lost out at sea. One knock to our boat and we're as good as history. Either way if you live or die, its your loss. Getting into a boat accident in coast guard probably guarantees the regulars onboard to hentak-khaki their ranks till doomsday. I've seen sergeants who have not been promoted in 12 years. Miserable to note that new diploma holders that join the force are given the rank of sergeant instantly...
Its always a pleasure to see all the wonderful monuments that describe our city country to the world from the sea. Then again, I often wonder why kind of a false facade impression that we give to massive ships that sail internationally that anchor in our waters for sometime. Do they only see the wonderfully built up portion of our country, never to get a sneek peak into the blackness of darkness behind all the concrete modern day wonders of society? Come to think of it, as a "conservative asian society", would it be better to follow blindly the rigidly of traditions along the theory of "saving face" just that we might all wallow on the international stage in pride and triumph? All such "liberal arts discussions" are indeed some of the things I envy from all the people I know who have left for their studies abroad in the incredibly outspoken west.
Come to think of it, is Singapore society that of a "Neo-Conservative" one? In the sense that outwardly we revel in the traditions of conservatism as well as uphold the practices and norms of the past, ever adhering to them slightly less rigidly with each passing generation on the outside. At the same time, a vast majority of us are pretty much liberal on the inside, unseen, hidden worlds that we keep to outselves? Notably, perhaps that's why we are caught in the crunch of being true to our "asian values" at the same time letting them into compromise for the sake of "earning money by doing business in the west". Will this change as the focus shifts to "doing business in the east"? Politics, Philosophy, Economics, Political Science, International Relations and Defence & Strategic Studies are just so interesting!
Then again, let's not allow ourselves to be carried away with all such opinions that seemingly speak of ideals that are very hard to upkeep. In physics, theory and practical are worlds apart. Likwise in the spheres of the idealistic humanitarian school of thought(s).
While on patrol this morning. It threatened to rain extremely heavily. The morning dawn was blocked by huge swathes of culmino-nimbus clouds. Like giant anvils in the sky, they practically blocked out the entire early sunrise, leaving the very strong hue of blue to pierce the darkness. I've never seen a morning so incredibly dark blue in color so far. Even the black items onboard looked dark blue for an instant of time. It was so dark that even ships making way left their deck lights on.
The wind was very strong too... Somehow, visiblity was not affected and I could see rain pouring down about 10 nautical miles from where our boat was. Its very easy to see where it rains on the sea. The whole mass of rain just appears as one big sponge letting dark blue ink gush onto the surface of the sea. Due to the strong wind, the anvil shaped clouds of doom that are signs of the impending monsoon season floated their way casually over probably the entire visibly coastline of Singapore. Check it out:
The City from the extreme left, all the way to the Bayshore condominium in the east. Totally blanketed by this huge cloud that loomed a constant distance from the surface of the planet. Threatening to save the national environment agency a huge bill in the tab for watering trees and plants nationwide. Of course, the bonus was that the blocking effect the entire cloud had on the sun was lessened, allowing strong orange rays to overcome and glow the morning clouds a strong hue of orange. Eventually a few beam of sunlight managed to find a way through the dense remaining clouds for that classic "light penetration effect". Amazing.
The greatest thing that surprised me this morning? That the crew onboard got to observe one of nature's rarest phenomenas - the vertical rainbow. From the incredibly sad tear jerking song "Someday We'll Know". I guess I actually had a free "ticket to the end of the rainbow". If you look very carefully at the centre of the picture, you'll be able to pick up a faint vertical rainbow. Just a vertical pillar of shimmering colors that greeted us for a while, before fading away. Oh yes, the sea level does not seem so level, because while I shot out of the stern of the boat, it was rocking violently due to the strong wind.
I realise that I have been writing less and less and posting more and more pictures. Is this good or bad? As much as I wish to mantain a so-called "healthy balance" in the picture-text ratio. At the end of the day, when a picture speaketh a thousand words, then the paragraph describing it beforehand seems to pale by comparison. I'll see how things go. Notably, I have much thoughts, opinions and philosophies to write about else dwell upon and I am currently ignoring it all for the sake of just taking better pictures.
I was thinking hard about the 3 key areas that probably I need to develop in my life. And I realised that it just boiled down to 3 areas - Physical, Emotional and Spiritual or PES for short. So what's my PES status right now? I think its quite bad. Because for starters, ever since I boarded a boat for more than a year, I've been piling on the kilos as well as the bulk. Most people who have not seen me in 1 or 2 years often remark that I've "gained weight" when we meet face to face. The irony is that my figure still isn't too much of a bulging pot belly. Unless of course, I'm at the beach!
Then again, emotionally. Oh my goodness, let's not even venture here. I can't speak well for nuts sake. For the sake of talking crap, yep, that's very easy. But to really hold a decent, emotional level-headed conversation. Wow, that's not easy at all. Then again, there comes the whole slew of emotions and the personal choice to accept or reject the feeling of people "attached" else "detached". Its good to be "detached" during NS, so that all the going-ons do not affect the mind too much and distract oneself. Bad in the sense that there's alot of things that people expect to receive from me emotionally that they don't. Oh, the sadness! Urgh, the lamentations!
And Spiritually. Oh dear. I guess I'm not where I want to be right now. In fact, I'm never where I want to be spiritually! Come to think of it, I guess its not me to go out and be in the key ministries serving the Lord; and my role will probably be just that of a "helper" in the sense. Of course, someone told me that "a helper is also a leader", but then again, how? And in what specific "sense"? Well, alot of thoughts have been running through my mind lately. I don't even sleep well at times. The only times I fall asleep are when I'm really so tired that I just collapse on the bed into a mindless blackness of a shutdown mind. Oh well.... Much food for thought.
Lately too, I've noticed that my memory is going down the drain. In the past few days I have forgotten to bring photographs from the sea sports event last week to base. I have forgotten to bring my leave form down to have it endorsed, I forgot my keys to my locker in the base, I forgot to put my shirt, pants and sandals back into my locker after changing into uniform. I have even forgotten to put my patrol bag back where it belongs after duty. If this is not bad enough, I actually forgot to take my gun after having signed it out. My mind is really rotting away. Wonder how it'll restart in time for university.
Does anyone know any contacts to get a Nikon D1X to be bought on the cheap? I can't believe that Nikon's best camera was released more than 3 years ago and the thing still sells for almost 6500 dollars in Singapore. Nikon is seriously messing everything up from their sensor size all the way to their camera bodies. I can't believe that the top of the line Mark II is just about a thousand dollars more expensive for a 3 year quantum leap in photographic technologies. Nonsense right?
As usual, I grudgingly shoot on with my current camera even as the dream photographic instrument constantly lingers in my mind everytime I press the shutter. Night shift yesterday was a very interesting one. Not that I can say much, at the same time, I realise how easily life can be lost out at sea. One knock to our boat and we're as good as history. Either way if you live or die, its your loss. Getting into a boat accident in coast guard probably guarantees the regulars onboard to hentak-khaki their ranks till doomsday. I've seen sergeants who have not been promoted in 12 years. Miserable to note that new diploma holders that join the force are given the rank of sergeant instantly...
Its always a pleasure to see all the wonderful monuments that describe our city country to the world from the sea. Then again, I often wonder why kind of a false facade impression that we give to massive ships that sail internationally that anchor in our waters for sometime. Do they only see the wonderfully built up portion of our country, never to get a sneek peak into the blackness of darkness behind all the concrete modern day wonders of society? Come to think of it, as a "conservative asian society", would it be better to follow blindly the rigidly of traditions along the theory of "saving face" just that we might all wallow on the international stage in pride and triumph? All such "liberal arts discussions" are indeed some of the things I envy from all the people I know who have left for their studies abroad in the incredibly outspoken west.
Come to think of it, is Singapore society that of a "Neo-Conservative" one? In the sense that outwardly we revel in the traditions of conservatism as well as uphold the practices and norms of the past, ever adhering to them slightly less rigidly with each passing generation on the outside. At the same time, a vast majority of us are pretty much liberal on the inside, unseen, hidden worlds that we keep to outselves? Notably, perhaps that's why we are caught in the crunch of being true to our "asian values" at the same time letting them into compromise for the sake of "earning money by doing business in the west". Will this change as the focus shifts to "doing business in the east"? Politics, Philosophy, Economics, Political Science, International Relations and Defence & Strategic Studies are just so interesting!
Then again, let's not allow ourselves to be carried away with all such opinions that seemingly speak of ideals that are very hard to upkeep. In physics, theory and practical are worlds apart. Likwise in the spheres of the idealistic humanitarian school of thought(s).
While on patrol this morning. It threatened to rain extremely heavily. The morning dawn was blocked by huge swathes of culmino-nimbus clouds. Like giant anvils in the sky, they practically blocked out the entire early sunrise, leaving the very strong hue of blue to pierce the darkness. I've never seen a morning so incredibly dark blue in color so far. Even the black items onboard looked dark blue for an instant of time. It was so dark that even ships making way left their deck lights on.
The wind was very strong too... Somehow, visiblity was not affected and I could see rain pouring down about 10 nautical miles from where our boat was. Its very easy to see where it rains on the sea. The whole mass of rain just appears as one big sponge letting dark blue ink gush onto the surface of the sea. Due to the strong wind, the anvil shaped clouds of doom that are signs of the impending monsoon season floated their way casually over probably the entire visibly coastline of Singapore. Check it out:
The City from the extreme left, all the way to the Bayshore condominium in the east. Totally blanketed by this huge cloud that loomed a constant distance from the surface of the planet. Threatening to save the national environment agency a huge bill in the tab for watering trees and plants nationwide. Of course, the bonus was that the blocking effect the entire cloud had on the sun was lessened, allowing strong orange rays to overcome and glow the morning clouds a strong hue of orange. Eventually a few beam of sunlight managed to find a way through the dense remaining clouds for that classic "light penetration effect". Amazing.
The greatest thing that surprised me this morning? That the crew onboard got to observe one of nature's rarest phenomenas - the vertical rainbow. From the incredibly sad tear jerking song "Someday We'll Know". I guess I actually had a free "ticket to the end of the rainbow". If you look very carefully at the centre of the picture, you'll be able to pick up a faint vertical rainbow. Just a vertical pillar of shimmering colors that greeted us for a while, before fading away. Oh yes, the sea level does not seem so level, because while I shot out of the stern of the boat, it was rocking violently due to the strong wind.
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