the ATELIER

despite my horrendous schedule, i'd been surprisingly caught up in a new type of obsession lately -- korean dramas. i don't know how long this will last -- given my unpredictable workload, fleeting attention span and countless eclectic interests -- but for now i'm enjoying myself hugely.

if there's one catalyst that pointed me in this direction, i would have to ascribe it to javabeans of Dramabeans fame. i was researching about something else entirely when i stumbled into her site, and promptly got lost in her interesting posts and informative (complete with high-quality pictures, updates, scoops) articles about korean dramas and celebrities. i'd been a constant visitor to her site ever since, and will probably visit again in the next few months or so. her witty, highly legible insights provide an irresistible personal touch that make her subjects more interesting.

not that i'm completely sold out to this fad mind you. i'd seen a few series but i can't say i liked them all. still there are a couple of stand-outs that should be mentioned: Coffee Prince, which actually more interesting than i had expected; and then, there's the Korean version Boys Before Flowers or Kkotboda Namja (Hana Yori Dango in Japanese). it's still ongoing but you can see a few clips of it in Youtube. but for a better explanation, it's always better to check out javabeans' site. you won't regret it folks. i know i didn't (and won't).

comment: i must say though the korean F4 guys actually even look better than the taiwanese version. that'll probably raise some hackles but those guys sure look pretty hehheh. i wish they'd made jandi (makino) a bit more appealing though. she looks just a tad older than jun-pyo (doumyuji) and occasionally tries too hard to look cute. of all 3 versions (for makino), i think i prefer the japanese variant.

as i watch the street lights flicker on and off in the distance, the phrase "i'm watching my life going down the drain, and i feel powerless to do anything about it" keep screeching through my mind like a stale commercial.

sorry. i guess i'm in one of those 'weird' moods again, probably an odd offshoot of having gone sleepless for more than 48 hours. and no, it's not because of some emotional breakdown or life-altering emergency. *knocks on wood*

it's just this super-difficult and problematic file -- which should have been finished earlier this week -- that has been wrecking my life and sanity lately. i've handled my share of difficult articles, but this one really takes the cake. it's a major pain-in-the-you-know-what and it's assignments like this that makes me wish i had a different job.

not that i was slacking off mind you... in fact, one of the reasons why i had been ignoring a lot of christmas/new year activities this year was because i was too preoccupied to notice anything beyond the four corners of my work area. and the funny thing is that i had been blocking off a lot of emotions lately so i could concentrate on this technical article (authored by a russian engineer) that i was tasked to edit -- but i digress...

after transmitting the last 3 chapters an hour ago, i found myself suddenly besieged by so many conflicting emotions -- relief, resentment, regret, guilt, anxiety, not to mention utter mental and physical exhaustion -- that i practically had to sit down to contain myself. i suppose i had been living the life of an apathetic automaton too much these past few weeks that i was fairly staggered by these waves of emotions that i have kept at bay for so long. normally, my first reaction in times like this would be relief (mostly), a sense of gratification, and a feeling of rejuvenation and renewal. but not this time...

the root of my despondence lies in the fact that despite all my efforts (heaven knows i've bent backwards and literally been pulled through a wringer for this assignment), i still missed my deadline and disappointed a few people. *cue for the mournful sound of tolling bells* and what makes it even worse is the fact that i had given up a lot of my time and the company of some of my loved ones (even during the holidays, too!) for this. yes, i guess that's where it hurts most. i know i had no choice, but right now i'm regretting all the things i've missed. i feel like giving myself a good kick.

this probably makes me sound like an overly pessimistic grouch. oh well, i guess i'll be wallowing here in the dumps for a while. if you're in the mood for a bawl, leave a message and we'll swap gloomy tales.

After months of saving and dithering, buying that Sony DSC-W50 camera was a milestone for me in many ways.

Up until then, I had been mostly using my mobile phone (which had a 3.15Mpx camera) to snap pictures and although it was handy and basically functional, I knew I needed a proper camera that could offer more: bigger memory, better resolution, better set of controls, and a more complex set of functions to accommodate various situations. After considering my options, I decided on this sleek 6.0Mpx Cyber-shot W50 model because it was light, compact and had a 2.5-inch LCD screen.


I also had other, more compelling, reasons to buy a good camera. You see, my sister and i had booked a weekend trip to Shanghai last year, and that trip wouldn't have been complete without my Sony camera. It had been more than a year (and even longer for my sister) since I had a real vacation so we were both excited about the trip.

We started snapping pictures even before boarding our plane, and after touching down at Shanghai's international airport, i promptly whipped out my camera and started clicking again.

The weather in Shanghai was unbelievably cold (it was 5 degrees Celsius), especially towards evening. Still, it didn't stop us from gawking and exclaiming over the enormous changes that a few years had brought to the sprawling city. Tall skyscrapers and soaring structures stood side by side with old colonial buildings (see some snaps below). And the food! Local dishes were relatively cheap and delicious -- quite an excellent deal for tourists who are perennially on a lookout for a good bargain.



The funny thing was I didn't tell my office mates that I would be going to China. I purposely withheld that information because I wanted to surprise them -- by blogging about my current location. And what better way for me to convince them I wasn't kidding than to post some of the pictures we've snapped -- sort of like "kilroy was here" deal -- in my blog? Their reaction? Well, let's just say, it was exactly what i had hoped for, and more.



My Sony camera definitely gave significance in my life just like Sony's the World's First Noise Canceling Notebook Computer: VAIO T Series, which will help me concentrate on my work without being distracted by the noise around me.