张悬 亲爱的

深深的话要浅浅地说
长长得路要挥霍的走
大大的世界要率真地感受
会痛的伤口要　轻轻的揉

The Satorialist and Garance Dore

Awwwww.......the two fashion photo-journalist-bloggers (The Sartorialist and Garance Dore) that have always been on my blog follow list collaborating on a project for Tiffany.

I started following The Sartorialist after someone sent me the link to the pictures of drool-inducing smart dressing people taken on the streets (and it showed that you don't have to spend a lot of money to have decent dress sense). After some time, Scott Schuman (that's the real name of the Sartorialist) plugged Garance Dore's blog and I was stuck on her zany posts.

Couldn't get enough of the pictures both of them have been taking that seemed to capture the spirit and essence of their subjects.

And not long after that, Garance announced to the world that yes, they are together. Awwwww........

How could they not work on the project like the one for Tiffany? Ok, the commercialised intent behind the whole campaign aside, with eyes for details and essence of the moment, and using only Instagram on an Iphone, I'm sold (sucker!).

Reminded me that compared to my sony ericsson days, I haven't really been utilizing the camera function of my iphone..

(Btw, that's a cool track in the video...)

The Year of the Dragon

Wishing All

Prosperity and Good Fortune

in Abundance! :)

陈奕迅 孤独患者

昨晚在 ktv 忘了歌名的那首。诶，没触景伤情，只是单单忘了歌名，别想多了。

前晚和旧队友吃饭，聊到近日被放上面本书，昔日打球时的照片。俏问道 － 看到照片，有感触没。每个人都感怀深受，那时的奋斗，身体上的疼痛，挫败的失望，伤痛。但都觉得，如果还能再来的话，也不会放弃用血汗换那段精彩的机会。那时候的我们，单纯的多了，一心只有打球，读书，都没太多杂念。

现在的我们，为事业，生活，都忙的团团转。是我们生活变复杂了， 还是我们复杂了生活？

The Secret Place

(Picture Credit: A Secret Place by Matthew Watkins)

There is a secret place

That I'll like to go

Every now and then

and be on my own.

Away from the frazzles

of the everyday

Or the dazzles

that'll always wade away

To just be in the moment

witnessing the birth and death

Of every new minute

and every soulful breath

Never one the same

and why should they be

The only one real minute and breath

is the one now with me

This secret place will be there

Even when I stray

Waiting for me

If I only choose to stay

Fly

It just suddenly dawned on me...

that I'm the one who got away instead.

Still doesn't make it easier to forget the callousness though.

Gone running

What is, is.

No romanticism, no cover stories, no because, no will be.

No nothing.

It just is. With a capital I.

Nothing better than a run to clear the head. The Vibram Five Fingers are really forcing me to change my running stance, otherwise I may never be able to wear heels again on my ..er..heels. Started on a real slow pace on the first day of the year, then again on Sunday (hey...guess what! Left knee didn't hurt anymore!). Decided to go running despite reaching home quite late to vent the angst a bit. Thought I had regained a bit of balance..but I guess I am not quite there yet.

But I guess nothing works better than running at a good pace that forces you to watch your breathes, leaving no room for random and totally unnecessary thoughts.

And to hold that freed up space for that a bit more...and remember, it's nothing else.

It just Is.

Now for that 10 sun salutations challenge (I just love that chime at the start of her every video)....

The Supermarkets and Sharks Fin Story

The supermarkets in Singapore have been having a busy week, and not because of hawkering their Chinese New Year wares.

The recent buzz has been Thern Da's PR boo boo, which went viral and eventually with NTUC stepping out publicly to declare that they will not be selling sharks fins products after the first quarter of this year. Very shortly after, Carrefour came out proactively to say that they will not be replenishing their sharks fins stocks. Sheng Siong is currently under fire as well, with netizens putting pressure on the company that not only stocks shark fin products, but also featuring baby sharks and other exotic food stuff that you would see during many dive trips every now and then (some of which I didn't even know they can be categorised as food..)

The dive enthusiasts and ocean conservationists are having a field day riding on this wave. Many are calling upon the companies' sense and duty of corporate social responsibility, to pull those products off the shelves. Especially since Sheng Siong has not came out with any statement on their stance, many are also calling upon fellow divers in the community to ply the pressure on Sheng Siong for a favourable response.

Which led me to this post.

I dives, and I am totally for the move towards sustainable fishing and balance of the ecosystem so that our next generation still get to see the beautiful ocean creatures that we see now. I am glad that commercial entities such as supermarkets in Singapore are taking a stand moving in that direction as well. But somehow the way things had turned out, it doesn't seem to address the root problem I feel...

which is..

Supermarkets will only carry things that people will buy. And people are still buying sharks fins.

Why are we eating shark fins in the first place?

Sharks fin, being a delicacy in the past, has become ubiquitous that you can find them off the shelves of supermarkets, in good restaurants, and almost every weekend on wedding dinner menus. I am sure shark fins are delicacies due to the rarity of them being brought to the dinner table in ancient times. The word here is rarity. Wealthy Chinese in the past would have been awed to be able to eat fins that were cut off the sharks that didn't exist in their own country (and had to be imported - 外国货）, or simply want to flaunt their vast wealth to be able put the dish on the table (I think it's probably more the latter). And as more Chinese become more affluent, sharks fins become a status of wealth that became more accessible (along with the other ubiquitous symbol of wealth - LV.Eek.).

Demand rose, but it was not as if the sharks were put on a super breeder program that allows them to keep with the demand...of people who want to eat only their fins.

Does that make sense to you?

It still doesn't make sense to me. I know of people to snide when you tell them that you don't want that bowl of sharks fin soup on the wedding dinner table ("They died already! Why waste?") or the rebukes during this recent media frenzy over Thern Da and NTUC ("Eating sharks fins is a Chinese tradition.It should should be a personal choice whether I want to eat sharks fins or not"). I'm sure these are not people with any ill intent, other than viewing sharks fins as a treat based on the cultural conditioning they get as Chinese.

But that brings me to my point. The mindless consumerism (I blogged about this before, just plugging it in again).

Being mindless is easy - you don't see the chicken, you only see them cling-wrapped packed and frozen. Something I saw before on owning the decision on the life you take for the food on your table - it's being aware and conscious that you know, or at least gnawingly feel the need to decide how what kind of consumer you want to be.

I think at the end of the day, it's not whether if Sheng Siong is going to exercise its corporate social responsibility or not. It is for us, the consumers, to re-examine the fundamental basis of why we are choosing to buy certain staff and remembering where they come from - living forms and creatures that share the planet with us.

迷宫

兜兜转转

一出场景

一首歌

一张画面

一句话

又设陷于

另一个死胡同

有待平心静气

再闯出这迷宫来

五月天 诺亚方舟

可恶，两年没来了，尽然偏偏在我出国那晚来新开演唱会！！！

2012 年巡回演唱会 的主题曲。