self reflecting

Current Mood : at peace
Currently listening To: When a Child is Born

Its peaceful and tranquil here in the farthest room of the Computer Lab. The bright lightings only succeeds in reflecting the lack of human presence within the room. All alone in this room, its not that bad at all. Not that bad at all. There's a couple of international students in the next room acting up while progressing on their individual assignments as well.

Nash walks in and says hello.

I smile.

I look around, noticing the many technological equipments that lay around. Computers, flat screen monitors, powerful speakers, projectors, the overhead projector, cellphones I spy through the glass wall.

I sigh in awe and amazement.

How the human race managed to come so far so fast. Just less than a decade ago such tinkers of wonders were of rarity and costs a fortune. Back when I was still a tiny totter personal computers barely existed, when I was a pre-teen I didn't even quite comprehend what e-mail was. Having a cellphone at all was beyond imagination.

Now I see how modernization and advancement has taken a fast lead. Prices of hardwares and softwares rise and plummet faster than the speed of light. What's new is old in a blink of an eye. How does one pull through to catch up with such rapid change?

The cellphone I hold in my hand was all the rage just little more than a year ago. Today it is considered a cheap, not worth a second glance property of miserable features as compared to other hi-tech cellphones equipped with the latest technologies. This giant Dell monitor I am facing has been discriminated as old and uncool as compared to the flat screen plasma monitors of the neighboring class. These chunky monitors cannot possibly be more than 5 years old.

Sitting back, I recall the antics of my little sister. Just 12 going on 13, she is living a life I could never relate to when I was at her age. As a child playtime was spent outdoors by the park, or cycling with the dog, a round of basketball with the older boys. Her playtime consist of staring at the idiot box, playing online games, chatting up with friends from school. In my time, communicating meant leaving our thoughts today to be shared tomorrow, a short phone call, or a snail mail to a faraway place. My sister solves everything via sms, emails and chat messengers.

All this within the age gap of 7 years.

A smile sneaks up on me. This is so cool, I let my lips slip.

I glance around the room once more, preparing to leave the coldness of this place. I wonder... what else is there for us to expect in the next decade? Is there no end to the technological advancements and it's impacts in our lives?

Father daughter songs

Current Mood : touched
Currently listening To: Cinderella - Steven Curtis Chapman

Before I start this post, allow me to just exclaim that Cinderella by Steven Curtis Chapman is the most beautiful song I have heard in such a long time. Ahh.. I love Youtube.

The father-daughter themed tells the tale about the daughter who is like Cinderella to him. He practices dancing with her for the dance party, prom and then finally for her wedding. Its such a beautifully touching song, it made me weep like a little baby again. T___T

I remember back when I was a kid, my dad played for me my first, and favorite father-daughter song Butterfly, by Bob Carlisle. Personally I love it more than Cinderella, maybe because I felt I could relate more to it. Mostly because it was my dad who first introduced and played it for me. =) I remember I used to cry buckets whenever I heard the song, and even till now I fight to hold back the sniffles whenever I hear it.

Because I am such a sucker for heart-warming songs..

I was thinking, is it possible to make a music video based on Butterfly? I mean, of course nothing is impossible, but the task seems daunting. Its just a thought that I've been playing with really, my doubts are more in the lines of I really don't want to screw up my favorite song. Plus I don't think it's highly intelligent to drag my dad into the production of my music video. Or anyone else's dad for that matter DDD8



Cinderella - Steven Curtis Chapman


Butterfly Kisses - Bob Carlisle

If there's any nice father-daughter songs out there that you think I ought to listen to, please do drop me a line =)

I love you dad. *hugs*

Critical thinking skills Level Up!

Current Mood : Awed
Currently listening To: Junrenka - Shounen no Kaze

This habit of triple posting on Sundays has got to stop. Providing excuses for myself and allowing for procrastination to happen time and again seems to be a very particular trait of mine, a polished skill.

Not a good thing, I'm afraid =/

Nonetheless, this is far from the right place to be ranting about my private self to begin with. What I really wanted to express about was the latest assignment we had for TGJ4M, which was the 20second music clip making project. Well I suppose one could call it a project.

From the making to the preview date, from the editing to the viewing of other works, I felt that it has been a highly rewarding experience. With intimidation spilling all over.

Pairing up with Marshall for this particular work was a unique one. I wouldn't say we were the most compatible pair out there, but I think we worked things out pretty well. For the shootings we somehow got together with Alex and Maggie in the last minute, backing each other up with technical things etc.

So there we were, the four of us at the SYUC free parking lot just opposite the campus in the dead of the night filming. Armed with one camera and lights courtesy of Alex's car, we made do with what we could. A police patrol even took the effort to turn into the parking lot, surviving the long bumpy road that had maimed many a vehicles to date just because they thought we were in the midst of what looked like suspicious activities. =D

My favorite part of this entire assignment was, believe it or not, the preview of all the works. Yes, even though I felt tremendously awkward and embarrassed when it was my turn. But it was such an eye opener, to be able to watch and listen to the feedback on what makes a music video works! I began to understand, and learn of things in aspects that I have never even tried to think about.

Like how the music's feel in terms of tempo should work with the video. How the lyrics should match the feel of the video. How lighting, timing, and editing makes so much difference in creating an effective music video. Or how with one song, many varying perceptions and themes can be made.

Awesome

So I like the critical thinking part in knowing what makes it work effectively. I could probably try my hands at being a critic, you know, like pour in some suggestions and comments, or something cause I totally dislike the production line now. =)

I realized this when a friend showed me his self-made anime music video yesterday. Instead of just enjoying the video (it was done based on my favorite anime show) and swaying with the music, which I tend to do I actually found myself analyzing the video. I gave in my two cents to said friend afterwards, an amatuer's comments yes, but I had this compelation to do it. =) By the end of that night, watching t.v never felt the same again either.