It’s the last day of the working week again! To anyone who’s reading this during office hours, get back to work and appreciate the gleefulness in you of knowing that a weekend is ahead – given that you don’t have to work overtime again. For the ‘dreadful’ part, I will describe it in rather vivid detail later in the post. Let’s focus on my promise to you first:
Fonty Friday
For this week, we have the font Sketch Rockwell (free) / Sketch Block (paid) by Artill. It’s a really nice font, simple, neat and nice in one.
In case you haven’t notice, this is also the font used by Embr for his header design of his lovely WordPress theme.
Infrared photography works
I’ve been doing some infrared photography from time to time, and this week was a fantastic week. I wonder why good weather always, always has to coincide with exam periods where people are grounded in their rooms for revisions. When I decided to have a break last Saturday, I walked under the searing heat to get some really nice shots. All photos are taken with RAW + Jpeg (but I processed the Jpegs instead, I was too lazy), with a Hoya R72 50mm infrared filter and the standard Sony Alpha kit lens.
Click on the photos to reveal a larger version of it. The larger photos are around 300kb, so you might want to wait a little while for them to load.
It all goes downhill from here.
Taken further up the road near the Graduate Hall, looking down the hill that leads to my hall.
Tree trimming
It was a really warm afternoon. It was so warm that the row of tiles leading to the canteen actually cracked open from the heat. The tree cutters were working since morning to trim the tree branches along the road so that they will not snip any tall vehicles – we have double-deck buses traveling around campus, so they have to keep the stray branches away.
Just another scene outside my hall.
Another common scene I see everyday as I step out of my room to catch a bus – sans the traffic, that is. Nanyang Cresent, the name of this tree-lined avenue, is usually packed with traffic all the time – it all starts at 5.30am when the first bus plough the streets, and ends around 2am when people stop driving around at that hour.
Royally dreadful week
<rant length="long" type="moody" profanity="some" rating="M16">
Sat for and survived another three papers this week – Basic Cell Biology, Principals of Genetics and Business Finance. The first one I did fairly well, but I epically bombed the last two, especially the latter. We only had two hours to sift through a handful of complicatedly-phrased questions, and I had only 30 minutes left when I realized that I haven’t touched a single question on the multiple choice section. As the papers were collected, I looked around and everyone had that dreadful look on their face – half relieved that the paper was over, half dying inside that the paper was a killer one. Principals of Genetics didn’t fall far behind on the heartache it gave me – being a multiple answer multiple choice paper (meaning that each question can have more than one choice), I fumbled pretty badly. I hurriedly stole a quick glance at my notes after the paper at the bus stop, and it felt like driving an ice pick driving through my sternum. Painfulness2.
I was a little disoriented and depressed for the rest of Wednesday, walked around aimlessly on the campus ground for the entire afternoon and evening, hopping on and off bus stops. I should have brought my camera along – who might know that photography therapy works. I remembered staring into the campus swimming complex near the evening, the sun was gorgeous. I checked my bag and realized I conveniently packaged my swimming gears, but was too self-conscious and afraid to trot half naked around the poolside. In the end, I headed out for McDonalds for McTherapy instead.
For the entire day, I only listened to one song on my music player, looping over and over again – Komm, süßer Tod, which means ‘come sweet death’ in German. Music therapy works as well (although not as effective as McTherapy). I woke up on Thursday morning and the first thing that ran through my mind was my royally f#$@ed up papers. What a great start. It immediately zapped my motivation to study for my last paper next Tuesday, I rolled on the bed for around 10 minutes, slipped back into lalaland and woke up at 2pm, totally missing lunch. I headed out for dinner again, settled for something more expensive today to make myself feel a little better (it’s something like retail therapy, except that it’s the ‘foodie’ version).
And then came Tuesday night… or was it Wednesday night? I couldn’t remember. Headed out for dinner with Jyno, met Jackson along the way. I was pacing around the dizzying array of stalls when this person from my Business Finance module showed up. I had no hard feelings against him, just a little irritated at the first impression he left me – he wants to be ahead of everyone. I totally didn’t see it coming when he asked me a whole lot of details of the exams – how did I feel about the paper, how did my friends think about the paper; then moving on to how many questions did I not do, how many questions did my friends not do; then bragging about how many questions he did (to quote, ‘I think I’ll get 70 and above’).
And then he dropped the bomb – I don’t want to get a meazly A-. I want to get an A or A+. I want to minor in business. Disgruntled, I told him that he doesn’t need a freaking A to get a minor – even a C will suffice. Unwilling to torture myself with his wacko answer and self-centeredness, I ran off as abruptly as how he started the conversation. If it weren’t for the crowd and for my sanity, I would have shoved my feet into his face.
I headed back to the table, rambled the whole baloney that idiot gave me at the stall and Jyno laughed. It feels good that someone actually understands what I’m talking about, and more importantly, emphatizes with me. So, my best guess is, it’s not a ‘myself’ thing against that person, but more of him being an anal-retentive jerk.
Ah, I rambled too much this week. I hope I will be fine for the last paper.
</rant>
It feels a lot better now. I shall leave it behind me – what has happened, has already happened. I couldn’t care more about the past anymore – a painful reminder, yes. A lesson learned, yes. A thing to dwell on, no. Time for me to move on, and more importantly, salivate over the prospects of spending two months at home this summer (and perhaps, some impromptu vacation!).
p/s: Oh, and I took an hour or so designing an error/gotcha page for a directory that hosts my demo pages – tell me if you like it or not.
guess we’ll just learn fr our mistakes. And I’m really positive u’d do much better than you think.
OH ya. regarding the fonts, do we have to download them for MS words or what? I like this sketchy one.
Very hard to say… well, one thing for sure is that this is one of the few instances when I lost confidence in myself. My heart kind of skipped a beat everytime I think of the papers, hah. At least I can learn from it, it’s never too late.
Regarding the fonts, I’ve checked that it’s a .ttf file – of course, you’ll have to download the .zip file, unpackage it and extract the real font file inside. To install, just double click on the font file and a preview will appear. Simply click the “Install Font” at the bottom will do – voila, you’re done!
Cheer up k tedddy mon!! (: well i think i screwed my linear algebra up as well but you know, it’s all in God’s hands! sooooooooooooooo dont fret over the past, move on to your next paper! *pat pat, imagine me patting your skinny body while you cry! AHAH*
i promise i will buy u bubblegum after your braces are removed :P
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i have that font too! hehe. nice one!
p.s: just arrived from a 7 days field trip, as in Geology Field Trip. Haha. I’m officially burnt.
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nice font!
Teddy, you never fail to amaze me with your camera tricks. You rock!
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I’m sorry to hear about your bad week. Learn from the lessons and we will get better right? :) But I think I’m one that simply don’t learn my lessons. At least you don’t procrastinate on your studies. I think that’s the only reason I am in a lousy mood during my examinations period.
Gambatte! I wish you all the best for your last paper. May your lucky stars shine. :D
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I love the error/gotchya page and my wife would too. She doesn’t have a funny bone in her body but for some reason if Bobby Lee is on TV, she’ll drop everything to watch him parade around in his underwear or whatever he’s doing. And BTW, me and my oldest go around all day just saying “HOT DOG” so it’s a double win. (#):)
BTW, sorry to hear that school is killing you. Had no idea you were dealing with those kinds of science classes. Wifey was a biology major so I can feel your pain sort of. For me, a lab science is the last course I STILL need to take!!!
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Same here! I always love MADtv, not to mention Bobby Lee. Some people say he perpetuates the Asian stereotype, but well, it’s comedy. Too funny! I really love this particular ’24′ spoof – I laughed so hard!
Your son sounds so cute! I can’t imagine having a toddler going around repeating ‘HOT DAWG’ everyday. A little Bobby Lee impersonator you have over there, heh.
Everything academic gets disgusting during the exams, that’s for sure. Now I just can’t wait to get it done with – I still have one final paper left, and after that, it’s summer break! Woots! Owww, lab science sounds pretty insane – it seems like you’ll have to know all the equipments at the back of your hand, some theories and many experiments. Ooof.
Love the error page ;)
Bleh, Business Finance guy seems like a totally kiasu person, no offense. He really reminds me of Mr. Kiasu from my Physics class (who I really detest for being so competitive in every single thing)
Good luck with the last paper! After the last paper everything would be fine… until results come out >_<
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Yes, he is one kiasu person. I’ve tried to avoid using that term because some might not understand it, hah. I remember there’s a psychological term for it but I couldn’t remember. Being competitive isn’t a bad thing, but when it gets in the way of being socially normal and gets really irritating, it ticks me off.
Thanks for your best wishes! I remembered when I was waiting for my first semester’s result (last year, since our academic year actually span two years – from July of a year to April of the next), I nearly had a heart attack hah. The results are released online so what I did was just to refresh the page wildly – and later, downloaded this Firefox plugin that automatically reloads the page, lol!
At first I thought you were posting pictures of snow. I was a bit confused at first! hehe, lovely photos though! You have so many gorgeous trees in your area, I love them.
So terribly sorry about your dreadful week. You shouldn’t beat yourself up about it though. You seem like such a hard worker and I’m sure you done your best. It didn’t help that you clearly didn’t have enough time to complete the paper–that’s just wrong on your teacher’s part, imo. Just take it as a learning experience. And try and do better next time. *hug!*
mmm.. McTherapy, I believe I have done the same on a few occasions, hehe. I also enjoy donut-therapy. Chocolate covered donuts, of course.
Don’t let it all get to you.. you still have a wonderful weekend to enjoy! So go and have fun.. and take more photos! Btw, I love your html rant tag. At first I thought it was a mess up until I read it, hehe. Too clever!
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How much I wish it’s actually snowing here! The weather is getting increasingly dry and searing hot by the day, and the situation is expected to last up to a few months before the monsoon season kicks in. In Singapore it isn’t a huge problem, but since I’m spending most of my summer break in my home country where water shortages do occur during horribly dry weather, I’m starting to get a little worried.
The photos are actually taken in the infrared wavelengths of life. The filter I use blocks out all the visible light from reaching the camera, so what you see is what our eyes can’t – infrared. It doesn’t represent the full range of infrared though (the camera’s sensor is IR sensitive but the sensitivity doesn’t cover the whole IR range), so it’s not actually a heat map too. I hope this clears up some of your doubts.
This year’s paper is definitely a killer paper – after discussing with my friends we all arrive at the conclusion that the lecturer should have given us more time to complete the paper or at least, make it easier :P compared to past year papers, it’s too challenging. I hope there’s some moderation going on now as they go through our papers *crosses fingers*
McTherapy indeed work for me, heheh! The golden fries and burger really made my day. It’s always one of my best comfort food. I didn’t manage to get any brownies this time though, heh.
Thanks for all the encouragement, I feel a lot better now. I will spend the weekend studying for me last paper, but I’m taking it easy this time. I find that there’s still so much to life than just sitting for papers. The rant tag is totally random, out-of-the-blue kind. Looks like it gotcha!
Oh wow. I’m no longer going to complain about the weather here, I can’t imagine the climate where you live! That’s horrible. Hopefully there won’t be much of a water shortage. That term.. has rarely been used to describe where I live. I should be thankful, I suppose! It’s amazing how different the weather and climate are depending on where you are.. Earth is totally cool. Hopefully it’ll be more kind to you!
As for the infrared pictures – wow! Sounds pretty technical. I didn’t know you had to have a certain type of filter for that effect, but I guess that makes sense. I can’t wait until I can afford to get me some accessories for my camera!
Great to hear that you are feeling better and have plans to enjoy your weekend! Studying all day/night can really burn one out!
Mmm.. all this talk about McDonald’s is making me so hungry. I usually get their double cheeseburger, what about you? I absolutely love their fries. They’re the best! ..Omg, you bring up brownies? You’re killing me here! (I’m trying to lose a few pounds before the summer so all this talk about yummy food is.. not fair! lol)
Oh, btw. I liked your error page very much! Bobby Lee is quite hilarious.
One more thing. hehe How come my gravatar doesn’t show up on here? That’s odd. It’s G rated and all.
Here’s to a great weekend!
Check out Latrina’s latest blog post » Time for a change.
Yea, it’s almost hot all year round. It’s either we get too much sun or too much rain. But that’s what make the tropical climate lovely for island getaways, heh!
Actually, infrared photography is pretty easy to pick up. The only technical stuff you will need is to get a decent IR filter (I’d recommend Hoya R72, which costs around USD50 I think) and also know the basic techniques of post-processing an IR photo. The photos I’ve posted are not what they look like out of the camera – they’ve been post-processed to quite some extent (more than what I do with my regular shots).
I’ve been convering 4 chapters a day but I’m going to slow down this weekend for a two-day breather. Phew, the saturation is really damaging to my brain, hah! I can’t wait to get the last paper done with. And I have the whole summer ahead of me!
It has been quite some time since I last had brownies! I’m more hooked to McDonalds likely – for some reason, I tend to eat too much McDonalds during exams. The coke keeps me going, and the burger keeps me happy. Speaking of food, I’m envious that Chris actually makes such lovely hamburgers! Awww!
p/s: Regarding the Gravatar issue, I can’t figure it out to. The code is correct, but I’ll do some troubleshooting over the next week to see if I’ve left out anything. Thanks for telling me.
yo coussie….zzzz…nice infra shot
u know wat..i bought my new camera alreadi..and its not a dslr…gotten the panasonic lumix lx3 instead hehehehe…eaiser to use…maybe it will be a dslr the next round ;)..when i have the time and patience to tinker with it
Wow, congratulations! Whether is it a dSLR or not doesn’t matter – and I have quite a few friends who have the same model as you, and they’re totally loving it. Here’s a Flickr group for the camera, you can browse through it for some inspiration. Happy playing around with your new tech toy!
@Chongx: I couldn’t be bothered with the result anymore. When the exam started, I was concerned of my performance but now, I just can’t wait to get it done with, heh. Enjoy your weekend in Malaysia anyway. Oh, and the bubblegum thing, you’ll have to wait for another year or so. Hold your horses!
@abdusfauzi: Yea, lovely font. Took my awhile to find it though. Looks like you had a lot of fun from the Geology field trip – I always love fieldtrips back in secondary school. When I took geography back then, we’d visit farms to learn about agricultural techniques, visit geological landmarks, study soil sample etc. It’s just too fun! I hope your sunburn isn’t too bad, take care.
@NoktahHitam: Hello brother! Thanks for the compliments… and I know that you’re very busy lately (and just returned from a hiatus), so thanks for taking some time to leave a comment.
@Dayna: You shouldn’t feel so bad during exams – just give it your best shot and get it done with. I believe you can do it, Dayna! Anyway, I’m saving all my good luck for my final paper – I will try not to do something unauspicious for the next few days…
nice infrared there. a very different rendition of the always-beautiful-and-fascinating Nanyang Crescent.
NTU really has a lot talented people. Your blog is a very good one, design and content-wise!
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Wow, how do you know it’s Nanyang Cresent? Thanks for the compliments, heh! I wouldn’t say that I’m one of the talented people in NTU (afterall, ADM is jam-packed with truckloads of them)… I’m more of a person pursuing photography out of personal interest, heh. There are so many professionals out there (including you – your gears are… awesome) and I’m still learning to be one.
Have a great weekend!
HELLOOO TEDDY!! I’m so EXCITED to be back and I’m really sorry for not visiting your blog lately =( Anyways the infrared pics of the trees, feels like as though when you took the picture, it’s actually snowing! =D
Oh and i like Sketch Rockwell as well! =D
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Teddy, those are some spectacular pictures. Like Trina, at first, I thought everything was snowing–took me as kind of a shock for a second since you were talking about how lovely and hot the weather was. It’s very interesting, though. I have seen a few infrared photos, but nothing quite like that.
I slightly understand where you’re coming from with your exams. Hopefully you’ve been able to recuperate with lots of McDonald’s, brownies, and any other kind of comfortable goodies that keep you going. Lord knows you need it during exam time.
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Thanks for the praises Chris! Yea, infrared photos can be confusing – they really do look like it’s taken during winter. Trees reflect IR light strongly, that’s why they appear white in the IR range.
My exams are finally over, and I’m too glad that I’ve finally got it done with. McDonalds over here do sell brownies (via their McCafe outlets, where things are horribly overpriced), but I usually get them from a grocery shop one floor below my school. They’re imported from Canada and are affordable and extremely tasty. I bet Trina makes better brownies though!
When you make that sandwich/burger thing again, don’t forget to Fedex one serving over to me :)
Sketch Rockwell! I was wondering when you’d feature this lovely font on one of your Fonty Fridays. =D
And I seriously love that rant tag you have there! Had me in fits. =D Glad your exams are finally over. I’m so envious now that you can spend your holidays back home, heh. Dont worry about your tests, Teddy. I have the tendency to do that too until I realised I should be enjoying my holidays in bliss instead of mourning over the results! I’m sure you’ll do fine, my friend. =)
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Sorry for the super late reply – my reply came four months after you’ve posted this comment! My bad. I overlooked it until a new commenter left a comment and I realized I am yet to reply to yours as well.
Sketch Rockwell must be one of the fonts you adored the most because you used it for your blog header, heh! Four months after my exams and a month after my summer break ended, I have to say that I’m happy I cherish the summer break well :) your comment reminds me so much of the pain we had to go through before the exams.
Thanks for your best wishes! My results turned out to be pretty well! :)
oh woah i was just going through some old entries of yours and chance upon this one. MAN. what GORGEOUS pictures!!! keep taking them pics terry!
Wow, I’m honoured Chervalier – that you’re reading my old entries. I read yours too but didn’t have time to comment *bangs head against wall*… sorry about that.
Thanks for the compliments! But I have to warn you that as you work your way backwards in my archive, the photos will never improve but look worse by each post :P then you’ll arrive at the post when I just started digital photography haha.
If you wrote an article about life we’d all reach enligthneenmt.