Recent obsessions: Photography

Welcome to another exciting segment of RECENT OBSESSIONS! This time I will be talking about my love of photography.

I have loved photography for awhile and recently begun to appreciate it more because of traveling.  Traveling has been an amazing outlet to practice taking better photos.  Traveling has also forced me to become a better photo editor as well.  I have been using Adobe Lightroom to edit my photos and learning this software has been fun and exciting!

You can see what I have been working on, on my Flikr Photostream.

A true inspiration of photography is the winner of the TED talk... prize.... I forget what he won.  But just watch the video and you will be truely inspired to use your old film cameras too!  I use my Dad's old Pentex K1000 and it is so much fun!  If I had access to a dark room, it would be so much fun!  Enjoy the video below:

Not only do I like taking photos, I also like being in them.  You can check out all my jump photos and hands in the air photos. But a friend a mine who is an amazing photographer, James Prevette.  He has taken some photos of me and they are awesome!  We actually did a shoot together not too long ago and the crane photo below was one of the products of it! 

At the Chingay parade.

Crane Shoot

I hope you enjoyed this segment of RECENT OBSESSIONS!  Until next time.......

Recent obsessions: Lissie

This Recent Obsession is finally a girl: Lissie. 

A friend of mine (Jenn Slingshot Brisson) posted on her Facebook page, this video: 

After one listen: I was hooked. 

Even the non-acoustic version of this song is amazing:

I have been listening to both her albums (EP and debut) non stop for over a week now.  I have memerized almost every lyric and can't her amazing songs out of my head. 

If you like to listen to girls who play on guitars, she definitely for you.  Check her out at Lissie and you will not be disappointed. 

Remember......

Remember that song that we all wanted?  Well the artist who sang just came out with.....

Penang

Flowers at the Penang Botnaical Gardens

The first day was definitely a rough start to what I was hoping to be the calm before the storm (the new job).  However, homophobic guys and monkeys prevented me from enjoying my first day.  Just some guys I met in the airport were a little mean to me.  Then the monkeys chased while I was alone the forest of the Botanical Gardens.  It was the greatest start to a trip, but it got much better after that first day.  

Shop house along the street.  Shop houses cover the streets all throughout Georgetown.

I stayed in two places in Penang, in Georgetown in the city centre and in Batu Ferrinngi on the beach.  It was nice to move a little on the trip to get a different sense of the whole island.  I loved the city, it had so many of those shop houses, and they were gorgeous!  Bright colours, paint chipping away and such a rustic old town feel.  It was amazing.  Georgetown was nice because it was a city, so you got all the conveniences of a city but it’s not nearly as busy as Singapore or Kuala Lumpur.  There was also a lot of little tourist things to see.  I had a blast walking around the city for a couple days and taking it all in. 

The beach at Batu Ferrinngi

When I got to Batu Ferrinngi, it was to sit and relax on the beach.  I spent one day walking around and checking out the area, and also going to the Toy Museum.  The second day, I spent the whole day on the beach.   It was nice to just sit out there and enjoy my books, music and the sun.  

Sunset at batu Ferrinngi

This trip was super nice too because I met a few interesting people along the way.  I met a girl, Christine, from Germany who was on a German cruise.  But she was just walking around because she didn’t want to do the tours that were offered.  We were kind of following each other because we both lost.  We got to talking and she sounded super cool, we exchanged emails and she was off on her cruise.  I also met a cool local, Abus, has traveled around and he works in the health department for government.  I don’t know what he does exactly, but it involves driving around.  He was super cool and we hung out a few nights. 

Spider-Man at the Toy Museum.  This is the biggest Toy Museum in the world.

Buddhist temple in Penang.  Biggest Buddhist temple in Malaysia.

Penang is a wonderful, quiet, quaint, and rustic place. It is a small island so getting around is super easy and the food is amazing!  I love the food!  If you ever find yourself in West Malaysia, head to Penang you will not regret it! 

Recent obsessions: Monster Factory

Hello Boys and Girls!  It is time for another wonderful segement of RECENT OBSESSIONS! 

This time on RECENT OBSESSIONS we will be featuring Monster Factory!

Monster Factory is a wonderful place where monsters are made!  I love those little monsters!

The reason that these guys have become a recent obsession however, was their Buddy Contest.  This contest was participants send in their address' and then there was going to be a bunch of people around the world selected to house Buddy for a week or two.  Jenn and I both entered, she of course won.  

Buddy!  He likes to travel!

Losing didn't bring me down!  I am so excited to have Buddy with us soon!  Jenn is seventh on the list of people who Buddy will be staying with.  He is going to be well traveled once he reaches Singapore. 

After entering the Buddy Contest I continued to visit the Monster Facotry website almost daily and everytime I found something new.  Like for instance, one of the Colin monsters is featured wearing a hoodie by the Clothing Experiment Brand and when I went to that their website, who was modeling some of their sweatshirts?  Well I think it was Andrew from Songs to Wear Pants to!  

There are also cool videos and awesome monsters to see at the amazing Monster Factory!

I love those guys!  Thanks for being a RECENT OBSESSION!!!!!

Colin!  He wears a hoodie!

 

Recent obsessions: Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook

Time Magazine - Person of the Year 2010 - Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg, as we all know is the creator of Facebook.  Facebook is that wonderful website that we all visit at least twenty times a day.  Who isn't addicted?

Facebook has changed how interact with each other and how we interact on the internet.  I believe that Facebook has changed the world.  The creator, Mark Zuckerberg, was honoured with Person of the Year 2010, by People Magazine (see picture above).

Yeah Facebook!

I became fascinated with Zuckerberg when I saw the movie: Social Network.  I think it is crazy that a few guys (very computer-tech-savy guys) came up with the most viewed website in the world, in a dorm room!  It is absolutely amazing!  Regardless of drama that revolves around the creation of Facebook, it is amazing how much of it has changed 500 million people's lives.

I remember when I was in university (as if it was so long ago), when I first heard about Facebook.  I signed up and it was great!  I even remember getting mad when I heard that they were going to allow high school students to be on Facebook.  That is how recent all of this was!  Amazing!

Mark Zuckerberg - Facebook Icons

I think Zuckerberg made a good decision in not selling Facebook and staying on as CEO.  He got to take control of Facebook and make it into what it is today. 


 Thanks Zuckerberg for being a recent obsession!