fly me high, high up.

Not sure what got over me recently. Something triggered a lot of thoughts within me over the span of one week. These are not brand new thoughts. These are thoughts that have long existed in my head, but I never got around to consolidate and translate them into something meaningful.

It just feels like my life makes sense all of a sudden. Or maybe, I have made sense of what life’s about. The dormant part of me is erupting. Hur hur.

Like an epiphany.

Like my last 26 years was spent hibernating, relentlessly working for the sake of livelihood and mundanely taking everything around me for granted.

Does anyone feel that way overnight? To have a realisation of how or what your life should be.

It’s weird, but it’s true. I have woken up and have a new direction now. Such a cliche, hoho. How many of us plan our lives, career paths, finances etc? And how much of what we want to happen, happen? Do most of us lead lives randomly, or do many live with a purpose(s)?

For the past 1.5 years ever since I gave up flying (quite hastily), I’ve been wanderlusting everyday. Every Single Day. But I know I can’t/won’t go back. So it Sucks. Big. Time. Seeing your close friends still travelling around the world and saving 4-5 times more than what I have, I admit I have many a times, succumbed to the thought of (maybe, perhaps, possibly) going back to that kind of lifestyle job.

But slowly, that thought vanished as the day goes by. And right now, I think I can safely say I have gotten over that. My new realisation has made me value other things even more, and not hold back onto the old and unnecessary history.

This blog is also part of that epiphany.

So, in gist, I hope all of these new feelings I have are gonna lead me in the right direction

How small can a digital camera go?

True to being a real COMPACT camera.

Via likecool.

Ever since I bought my first lomo 120film Diana+ from Urban Outfitters 3 yrs back in San Francisco, I have fallen in love with analogue photography. Sadly, I can’t indulge as much as I’d love to, due to the high costs of buying films, developing negatives and sometimes printing too.

And speaking of films, 120 film is still rather common. Polaroid 600 films are like extinct..! The regular photolab I used to go to (for instant prints occasionally)  at TBP  has run out of stock!!! It was sadness until recently, The Impossible Project manages to revive the spirit of Polaroids! Have yet to make my way to 8storeytree to purchase the PX100 Silver Shade Instant Film. Will do so when I feel rich. I mean, richer.

Anyways, the point of this post is to feature the work of talented design student, Linna Xu. She re-designed the packing for Ilford 120 film in the form of a Twins Lens Reflex (TLR) Camera – one of the earliest cameras in history to use 120 films! What’s more apt than this right!

Furthermore, the packing doubles up as a pinhole camera. It provides full assembly instructions for people who simply love DIY. K, an ex-designer-colleague of mine, is one of those who is into hands-on assembly for cameras etc. Last I heard, he did up the Gakkenflex. Not bad I must say, I can’t even ‘gao dim’ the modification of my Konica Wai Wai. Loserish me.

Anyhows and anyways, check out the re-designed TLR packaging for Ilford 120:

Via thedieline.

..documents creative individuals’ lifestyles in the most original manner.

Really a visual pleasure here.

I first got to know this from J on FB. All the way from Melbourne  :p

Also, the project has manifested itself in the form of a book. Inspiring

How clever is this? Some real brain effort behind design work.

“Spanish designer Oscar Diaz has designed a calendar that uses the capillary action of ink spreading across paper to display the date.”

Via dezeen.

…especially in this age of virtual interaction with practically everything you can think of.

“Expose yourself to art, and you’ll come to appreciate it and aspire to make it.

Expose yourself to anonymous scathing critics and you will begin to believe them (or flinch in anticipation of their next appearance.)

Expose yourself to get-rich-quick stories and you’ll want to become one.

Expose yourself to fast food ads and you’ll crave french fries.

Expose yourself to angry mobs of uninformed, easily manipulated protesters and you’ll want to join a mob.

Expose yourself to metrics about your brand or business or performance and you’ll work to improve them.

Expose yourself to anger and you might get angry too.

Expose yourself to people making smart decisions and you’ll probably learn how to do it as well.

Expose yourself to eager long-term investors (of every kind) and you’ll likely to start making what they want to support.

It’s a choice if you want it to be.”

Via sethgodinblog.

A research done by Vitrue found that a page with ONE million fans = at least $3.6 million worth of media value.

“That means a marketer posting twice a day can expect about 60 million impressions per month through the news feed,” Brandweek reports.

It was also revealed that brands that made an effort to connect and engage with friends perform best; highlighting the key element that differentiates social from traditional media. Brands that genuinely connect with its fans attract 3.6 impressions per fan, compared to a “corporate style” fanpage, which generates only 0.44 impressions.

Via penn-olsen.

Moral of the story – engage because you want to engage. Do not simply humanize your brand for the sake of wanting to ride on the social media wave. It will only backfire. I have done a tad too many campaigns like that in the past when the agency itself is not even capable in this aspect but yet, succumb to business pressure by promising the client the moon, stars and meteor, only to realise the lack of expertise thereafter.

It’s coming!

14 April 2010!

Am I gonna be watching with A and S – the girlies, again??

Marvelous! With care and concern to Mother Earth too.

“the “clever little bag” combines the two packaging components of any shoe sale—the bag and the box—with high-tech ingenuity.

The bag tightly wraps an interior cardboard scaffolding—giving it shape and reducing cardboard use by 65%. Moreover, without that shiny box exterior, there’s no laminated cardboard (which interferes with recycling). There’s no tissue paper inside. And there’s no throw-away plastic bag. The bag itself is made of recycled PET, and it’s non-woven—woven fibers increase density and materials use—and stitched with heat, so that it’s less manufacturing intensive.”

Via gizmodo.

Check out the schedule!

The last film fest I went was in 2006! OMG. It was a beautiful film about group suicides in Japan. Dark story but it was beautifully done.

And thereafter, every year, I have been dying to watch another film of equal, if not better, calibre. But I have no such luck.

Will I get to watch something this year??

Opening Film – Mao’s Last Dancer

Some films that I’m very keen in watching:

His and Hers

Phobidilia

Sex Volunteer

9:06

Menteur

And of cos not forgetting one of my favourite genres – DANCE.

A Year with Take Dance

So many films, so little time.