Digital Analogue - book shops

사랑이란게 소나기 같은 건가봐
잠시 왔다 가슴만 적시고 가
추억이란게 이토록 질긴 건가봐
베어낼수록 자꾸 더 자라나
처음부터 조금만 덜 사랑할걸 그랬어
뒤돌아 잊을 수 있을 만큼만

Wish I could hop on a Tokyu-toyoko-sen train from Yokohama to Shibuya and then walk along Cat Street to Harajuku right about now. 

本当に恋しくなったね、日本。


A few blogs that make me want to buy a one-way ticket back to Japan:


- Kaeru no uta
- Kinyoubi
- Bamsesayaka flickr

And of course, Muji interiors!

Four days of work + three assignments due this week = I am officially attached to another object by an inclined plane wrapped helically around an axis!

A.k.a I am officially screwed!


I wish February 2012 would hurry and arrive already!

Lesser photographer

It's nice to know there are people out there with the same view when it comes to 'photography'.

A Lesser Photographer is a great concept which I totally agree with! You can have the latest gear, equipment and post-processing technique but it doesn't mean it will guarantee the best image nor does it immediately classify you as a 'professional photographer'.

It's simple. It's about the photo, not the camera.
Some of my favourite images on this blog are from my trusty Panasonic point-and-shoot camera (here, here and here).

I was contemplating on whether I should spend 2k on a Nikon d7000 or use it on my trip to London, but after reading this from the Lesser Photographer, I have decided to save it for the 'diversity of my image library' and make the most out of the cameras I have now ;)

$1200 could buy you the latest prosumer DSLR body or a plane ticket to place you’ve never been, with change to spare for a guide. Which would add more to your life experience and to the diversity of your image library? There are plenty of very fashionable photographers with little in their images to showfor it.

Regrets and mistakes,

             they're memories made...

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost - poem

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

By Robert Frost

You know you're getting older when you now no longer order a mocha caramelatte and, instead, a latte with no sugar becomes your morning fix; you prefer tea without milk or sugar; you crave a '2&5' Vit A fruit juice instead of your usual 'strawberry squeeze' smoothie at Boost Juice; and when a cup of green tea before bed becomes a daily ritual...
Hello mid-twenties.

Woah.

I don't think I have been this BUSY before. It's a "good" busy though. Apart from being constantly tired, there's a positive energy to everything that I'm doing. It's fun!
The downside is that I don't have much time to take photos. I'm thinking of taking my camera everywhere to capture the everyday things around me.

Also thinking of going overseas at the end of this year. Figuring out dates and finances at the moment but hopefully I can book that ticket before November!

The Alchemist

I just finished 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho and there could not have been a better time to have read it. The simple yet profound message on following one's heart, on tackling the fear of failure when pursuing one's dream and to live and appreciate life in the present was so enchanting in the allegorical narrative of Santiago's adventures. Wow, the memories of my heart filling up with possibilities and inspiration as I immersed myself in the book to and fro from work on the train will leave a great impression on me for a some time.

Here are some of my favourite quotes from the book:

- "My heart is a traitor," the boy said to the alchemist, when they had paused to rest the horses. "It doesn't want me to go on."

"That makes sense," the alchemist answered. "Naturally it's afraid that, in pursuing your dream, you might lose everything you've won." 

"Well, then, why should I listen to my heart?"

"Because you will never again be able to keep it quiet. Even if you pretend not to have heard what it tells you, it will always be there inside you, repeating to you what you're thinking about life and about the world."

"You mean I should listen, even if it's treasonous?

"Treason is a blow that comes unexpectedly. If you know your heart well, it will never be able to do that to you. Because you'll know its dreams and wishes, and will know how to deal with them. You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it's better to listen to what it has to say. That way, you'll never have to fear an unanticipated blow." 

- "My heart is afraid that it will have to suffer," the boy told the alchemist one night as they looked up at the moonless sky.

"Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity"  

- "When I have been truly searching for my treasure, every day has been luminous, because I've known that every hour was a part of the dream I would find it. When I have been truly searching for my treasure, I've discovered things along the way that I never would have seen had I not had the courage to try things that seemed impossible for a shepherd to achieve."
  

- "Because I don't live in either my past or my future. I'm interested only in the present. If you can concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man. You'll see that there is life in the desert, that there are stars in the heavens, and that tribesmen fight because they are part of the human race. Life will be a party for you, a grand festival, because life is the moment we're living right now."  

- "There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure"