girl.friend

*Note: This post has been put up especially for Lynn, cos you are the only one whos not in facebook. Another Starbucks from you ya Lynn?

girl.friend

n.
1. A favored female companion or sweetheart
2. Any female friend

Always has been amazed by just how easy and tender girls can bond with girls. They can hold hands while walking, share a piece of cake, shop for hours, giggle so happily while gossiping, talk on the phone for hours, know each other's shoe and dress sizes.....men are not like that. There's always a barrier between men called 'ego' that prevents men to be close to each other like girls do.....well, we are just so different, men and women.

Pictures posted below are pretty much my thoughts towards this admiration of mine towards the bonding between girls. You girls rocks!!!


Girlfriend:
n. 1. A female friend
....whom you can
talk to while holding hands,
giggle with when gossiping about the guy who's after you
pick a dress that suits her that you yourself will never wear,
share a piece of cake together and.....and share the guilt afterward,
and so on and so forth........


'Smile! Smile!'.........
'Child, all of life's secrets are in a smile.
You're so young, don't always pull a straight face,
you must smile, and even better sometimes be playful!'
Saying this, Master waved at me. I bowed deeply.
-Wei Hui, Marrying Buddha


'.....when good girlfriends get together, time seems to stand still.
We start to giggle, our postures growing more relaxed and our bodies soften like warm
toffee......'


'....we stood there for a while, the two of us, laughing and and hugging, touching,
sizing each other up and trading compliments like "You just seem to get more and more beautiful"


.....and yes,
a girlfriend is someone whom you can buy a pair of identical glasses and wear them and take a picture, that's what girlfriends are,
.....I think........
- ahtiow 11/03/2009

smile

smile
n.
1. a facial expression characterized by turning up the corners of the mouth; usually shows pleasure or amusement

When I got up to leave, Master struck his staff forcefully on the ground and said in a voice as if reading the sutras: 'Smile! Smile!'
I held back my tears at leaving and up floated a smile, 'Child, all of life's secrets are in a smile. You're so young; don't always keep a straight face. You must smile, and even better sometimes be playful!' Saying this, Master waved at me. I bowed deeply. - Wei Hui, Marrying Buddha

Was reading this on the train, was more to staring at those words rather than actually reading them, I know just how true those words are, somehow, maybe there's too many things that are running around me that my mind blocked me from absorbing these words. So here goes, for all of you who reads this and who can grasp the meaning, as well as a reminder for me when the time comes for me to be able to grasp the true meaning of it. Wonder how long more I can last in this place.......



a gentle reminder

drained

drained

adj
1. emptied or exhausted

I am so so drained of energy and enthusiasm just being here in this place.....I need to get away from this place soon!

simple

simple

adj.
1. Having little or no ornamentation; not embellished or adorned:
2. Not involved or complicated; easy

conducted another underwater proposal dive today at work. was a simple proposal, the guy went in to the aquarium to dive first, when the girlfriend come in 10 mins later she will be surprised to see the ugly weird looking guy in scuba mask, regulator, loud colorful wetsuit with the word BARE all over the suit and not forgetting a big tank at the back that happened to be her boyfriend diving in the tank with me, another ugly weird looking guy in scuba mask, regulator, loud colorful wetsuit with the word BARE all over the suit and not forgetting a big tank at the back that happened to be me. 2 more mins passed with the guy posing for pictures for his group of hengdais and jimuis outside. Then he signalled to me to pass the proposal letter to him, laminated and safely tucked in my bcd. and that was it, the girl said yes immediately and everybody present was happy for them too. simple and yet full of thoughts, different and memorable, pure and brave, romantic and yet not so...all in all, all these only matters at where and how you look at it. it could probably be not the ideal way one may dreamed her proposal would come, yet it could be the sweetest thing that's ever happened to the girl, the guy may not be able to propose to her future wife with a wedding ring (he told me that he didnt buy a wedding ring caused by the current economic situation), but he may compensate for this by showering her with all the love and care he could ever provide.....

.......ah....love, its such a simple and complicated thing, sweet and endearing as it could be, yet it could rip you apart and leave you miserable, it could be the thing in life that you anticipate with great expectations and dreads at the same time, all in all, love is all encompassing, we go around it and gets surrounded by it, going round and round, again and again....love and be loved.

love
ahtiow


the kaleidoscopy of life: pick your point of view, color your own picture, be happy and take good care of yourself at all time.....

passion vs work

passion

n.
a. Boundless enthusiasm

work

n.
normally rhymes with 'duh......'

went to a photo exhibition this afternoon and attended 2 dialogue sessions during the exhibition. One of the speaker brought up an interesting point of how things have changed for him since he have become a commercial photographer. He is so successful with his business that he now concentrate his time and effort into sharing rather than actual shooting (he is very involved in the Singapore Photographer's group on facebook that he updates his page every few hrs). That got me thinking of how things have been for me for my other passion: scuba diving. I started off my diving when I was in uni as part of the co-curricular course and it was something that I have been eagerly anticipating since the first day of our orientation week when our course coordinator told us that we will be getting our subsidised scuba course in 2nd year. After that, I have never been diving till end of second year when I went to Lankayan island for my thesis project. Done about a hundred dives there and a few dives sporadically helping out my course mates with their field works. Then got offered a job in SWV initially as Management Trainee but end up being a Divemaster. So, thinking back of it all, it seems like I kinda screwed up my passion for diving by starting my diving career before I have really enjoyed diving. Not that I dont like diving anymore, it's just that I would have preferred to pay for diving for sometimes first before I get paid to dive.

And now, since I started photography, the same question occurs again. There have been talks with some frens who are interested to venture in the shutter business with me, but I know that I am not ready for that yet, (I have only started photography for less than a year for goodness' sake!) or at least, I dont want to yet. I still want to learn all I can about photography, see which direction I wanna go into and which genre of photography that I would be comfortable with and hoping that along the way, I would have found my own style. And as for now, I am looking to earn some money to 'feed' my dry box with gears that I would need to take the genres of pictures that I am currently interested in. So till, then, along the way, will keep shooting and posting and learning and thinking and babbling......

Cheers
ahtiow


past favorite

you

you

pron.

1. you being you

...the happy, easy self that you were, is now a lost you. You set off in your search of self discovery and you are head to head with a wall and you can't see clearly the way out of the maze that you are in now. There's not always a way out, it's you who make your way out. There's no specifically which way is the way out, its you who make the way for yourself. Be strong, believe in yourself, take time to rest your mind when you are faced with difficulty rather than be sad and start questioning yourself, know where you are at and what you are doing or should be doing instead of thinking of how easy it was for you back then. Clinging to the past makes you long for things that has passed. Know where you stand now will let you see which ways that you have that's surrounding you. See what you want will set you off in the right direction. Coming out of any path that you chose will still be the person that you are, doesnt matter how hard the journey has been. While you are at it, take good care of yourself, eat healthy, get rest, be happy, be confident, be yourself, and you will come out fine. I know you will.


you. being you.

sleep 2

sleep

n.

1. A natural periodic state of rest for the mind and body, in which the eyes usually close and consciousness is completely or partially lost, so that there is a decrease in bodily movement and responsiveness to external stimuli. During sleep the brain in humans and other mammals undergoes a characteristic cycle of brain-wave activity that includes intervals of dreaming


yes, sleep has come back to me now, as well as my waistline.....=)

cheers
ahtiow