Emptiness

Amidst of million of things entering and exiting your mind, your emotion responds to each one of them. You could genuinely be happy with a stick of an overpriced ice cream Magnum. Adrenalin flourish and joy overflow when you reach 1 million score in the temple run game. You escape from the monotonous hours of your rest day when you see Elena and Damon kiss in the latest episode of the Vampire Diaries. There are quite a bundle of activities that you could do to deceive your heart. At the spur of the moment, you could ignore the persistent feeling of emptiness that continously knock at your front door. The mind is very powerful that it could hide the key so that the bad zephyr will not be able to pass through. But at the end of the day, something is missing. You still feel the need to be complete.

Hope is frail. Happiness seems to be limited. The chirping birds in the morning is annoying. Every entity produces a pessismistic idea in your mind. You can't help it. You feel it sometimes. You feel it maybe most of the time. It's hard to answer the question "what's wrong?" when nothing seems to be right. Am I a gunless soldier in this battle? Why it's me, that appears to be the only casualty? Seek the higher being. Find comfort and security in prayers, trust in him with all of you heart. Then you will again, lock your door for a while.

Then the cycle continues.

You can be Phoenix. You need to be Phoenix. Rise and regenerate from your own ashes. Start anew and do not be afraid to seek for help. For you are at your strongest if you admit you're weak and emptiness can only be filled in, by accepting that you're lacking.

photo credit: http://bellestarr22.blogspot.com/2011/07/emptiness-in-your-soul-can-be-filled.html

I wanna be a Photographer!

One of the most memorable photo shoot that I've experienced here in Singapore (or probably the only valid) is with the very hot Mr. Manhunt International 2010 and Mister Slovak Republic 2009, Peter Menky. Peter was very nice and friendly to all of us besides from the fact that we are group of newbies. Accompanied by his girlfriend Monica, we rented a small studio in the Clarke Quay area and play with our lenses.

How we have come across these 2 beautiful god-like people? The story started when my ex-colleague Danny invited me to cover the Calvin Klein fashion show held at the Paragon Plaza in Orchard. This was my first time to watch an actual fashion show and I am very honored that the brand is known worldwide. CK is one of the industry leader. While waiting for the show to start, we saw a very beautiful and tall Caucasian lady and approached her to have chit chat. Holding our bulky cameras, Monica was very friendly and there was no sign that she is a superstar in Slovak. Monica is also a model and became one of the sexiest in Slovakia published in Maxim magazine. She informed us that her boyfriend was part of the show, and there you go! We booked Peter for a shoot and the most overwhelming part is, it's FREE!

I would want to share my unpublished shots since "I wanna be a photographer someday!" I am dreaming that when I am old and retired, I will travel around the world and take millions of portraits and landscapes.

With the brilliant Jazz who did the make-up, Peter looked very astonishing. Photos of Monica on a separate shoot (without me) were published in Jazz's website. You may want to check out her brilliant face paintings as she offers variety of services for all occasions.

This is our group doing a wacky shot after the shoot. The preparation took 2 hours and the actual shoot happened in only less than 60 minutes. LOL It is somehow tiring to wait and set-up and practice shooting but the results are all worth it. My friend Danny have created a production video to discuss all that have happened during this event.

Bloggers still, after almost a year

"The first EB of this group in IKEA Tampines is almost, if not... a year ago!"

Yes, you heard it right! It has been a year since we saw the faces behind the worded, cascaded and album-ed web pages. Needless to say, time here in Singapore flies very very fast. It's like the villain Ida from the epic Japanese action series Shaider had declared a time space warp zone in this country's soil.  And since, I am back from the comfort of our mother land, I get to see old and new faces with slightly different waist diameters and arms circumference. Some have religiously dieted and like me, others have found refuge in their kitchen. And of course, this is the plot of the untold chapters of our lives. No one is spared and everybody was asked, "How is your eating habit?"

 I arrived in Plaza Singapura, around 9PM on a Holy Thursday with some of the erudite essayists, eating Japanese food. After eating, 2 more pundits have arrived then we went to the second nearest coffee shop to bond. The first nearest coffee shop by the way is full already mah! We took pictures. Some went home early. Another 3 have arrived. After a long coffee and talk session, our stomachs have agogly invited us to the nearest known eatery which happens to be in Little India. I guess eating a huge chicken burger at 3AM in the morning on a Good Friday is not a bad idea at all.

 

In summary, everybody was happy :)

Blessings

Life is boring when you are. I wholeheartedly admit that I am working on things with myself so from time to time, I bore me. (?) Well, there are lots of things that I've learned only for these past few months. One of them is voicing out. I am indeed a talkative human being but there are still 900 words UN-uttered out of the 100 that I said. I am mostly engaged in a non sense conversation with lots of non sense good friends, that's why. :) I also miss my camera. I am dissatisfied with my camera phone so lately, I don't capture a lot of moments. Yes, I am like "maarte" but I don't wanna sound so conio, so tatapusin ko na itong paragraph na ito.

I wanna make this entry a  worthy one so I will list down all my blessings in life recently. Let us all make counting blessings a hobby, a task or a routine. Whatever you may want to call it, as long as you do it regularly, our focus will be diverted to all the optimistic matters. Acknowledge the negatives but do not let it linger. So here's my list.

1. Got a new job back here in Singapore. I am delighted that I am back on the support floor. New colleagues and a brand new role for me which I find very challenging. I haven't had any issues with my applications and legal labor processes so it's a big fat blessing from the Lord. THANKS!

2. I am blessed with old and new friends. Old friends who lent me a helping hand along my journey of regaining back my status here in Singapore as a foreign worker. You know who you are. Thanks a lot! If I publish a million thanks here in my post, it will just waste my time however, you know deep in my heart, it's more than a million thanks for you guys. I truly appreciate it. To my new friends, thank you as well! I hope we could spend more time to be a blessing to each other.

3. I am blessed with a supportive and understanding family. To my mother who stood for us, didn't hinder any of my plans and my dreams. I just wanna thank and love them until the end. Thank you Lord.

4. I am blessed with tons of encouragement from random people. There was an interviewer who wished me luck that he almost cried when we're talking. There are people who are bonded by common faith who pamper me with the words that I needed to hear. There are friends who donated unsolicited words of encouragement that lifted me up.

5. I am blessed with people who threatened my confidence and underestimated my character. I was proud of how I responded to them. I know that they are not happy because I proved them wrong and they will continue to be the enemy, but without them, I wouldn't be as strong as I am now.

6. I am blessed with trials that it made me closer to the Lord and understand his wisdom. Again, it all boils down to "character."

Such a short list. A summary of mixed events or things that has happened in me just recently. You guys should try creating a short list regularly. A blessing in disguise is also a blessing. Everything has brought me something to really keep in mind and in my heart.

Have a blessed lenten season everyone.