Climbing Huangshan.

Did you know that Huangshan (黄山) is one of the five most beautiful mountains in China?

I didn't. When Felicia and gang decided that Huangshan was a must go destination, I went along. Unlike the other tourists who took the cable car up, the four of us who hadn't exercised in months decided to climb up that mountain.

There was heavy panting, muscle aching and loads of steps.

Loads and loads of steps.

Climbing up the mountain is climbing up a million of steps. It's scary, it's terrifying, and even rained midway. We were soaked. Looked up and saw water gushing down from boulders, heard the winds bellowing and felt them thrashing at our ponchos.

It was just us and Mother nature in its full glory.

We reached a ledge somewhere, and Joyce went up to see the view. She beckoned us to go up as well and we did. What I saw there and then took my breath away.

Clouds rolled past like curtains opening to reveal a show, showing us a majestic sight of nothing but mountains and mountains in the distance. Wow. It was a Chinese painting come to life.

Before we could appreciate it further, the skies opened up again and rain pelted down, so we scurried down from the ledge to continue our climb. And there were steep steps, narrow walkways, glimpses of heavens, crooked steps to suicidal peaks, clouds that fly past our very eyes, and finally, after 2 hours and 40 minutes of braving the elements, we reached the hotel at the top of the mountain.

I can't believe I stood above the clouds and saw such beautiful things.















Joyce: Wah very tired ah. Very tired.
Soon: Eh don't drink all leh.



And I'm very very glad to have climbed this mountain with people I love a lot.

My Mood Likes to Sit on Swings.

It was a tough week. For me, for us, for everyone.

It was a strange week, full of emotions and feelings. Sometimes, it wasn't pleasant. Sometimes, I just felt that I could burst.

It was weird. It wasn't fun. It wasn't fun to drag the others down at all.

But I couldn't help it.

It was horrible.

Okay.

However, I am thankful for the housemates in the house.

I will attempt to pry my mood outta the swings and put them on a tamer, more straightforward ride.

Note To Self: It's okay not to be talented. Just be bloody hardworking.

Shanghai Shenanigans Part 14-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Joyce broke down the number of days left for internship. 1 month minus weekends minus fridays = 18 days.

18 more days!!

Which means that our time here in China is ending soon. After the 18 days of work/torture, it's time to wear that backpack and go traveling- sleeper buses, domestic flights, long haul train rides, youth hostels here we come!

Pretty soon, it'll be time to look back and reflect on the entire trip. That'll be "Shanghai Shenanigans Last Part", which I am looking forward to writing about, maybe on the plane back to Singapore.

For now, it's crazy planning for the huge travelling trip at the end of the internship, kinda like the gold at the end of the rainbow (hello Leprechaun). And appreciating the teeny makeshift editing studio I have with my Mac, a borrowed videocam, a $328+Express Mail Service software, and kickass headphones.

Oh, on the side, who wanna buy reflectors and clapboards from taobao.com?

Em Dash

"Courage is the way we face up to everything
All the world's nothing but a tale, an empty story
I try to hold you but I'm pushed away by the heavy breeze
I'm like a broken dream."

- Song made for a project waaay back, and it's still stuck in my head.

Tenth June Two Thousand and Twelve, That's a Pledge to Myself.

June 10th 2012.
June 10th 2012.

June 10th 2012.


One week ago, while driving in the middle of Stress-ville, we went out with Joyce's colleague (Singaporean), Felicia's two friends who'd came for a vacation (Singaporeans) and Yan Jing (Shanghainese), along with Wing (Shanghainese) and 6-7 other friends (1 Hongkonger, the rest all Shanghainese).

It was a weird combination.

As the night wore on, our Shanghainese friends left, and there was an even weirder combination. Three 22 year old girls and three 30 year old men (Joyce's colleague + Felicia's two friends), all Singaporeans, in a gathering, discussing about singlehood and relationships. Jackson, Joyce's colleague and coincidentally our senior from WKWSCI, said, "you wait till you're thirty, like me, then chum ah... wah lan eh."

I was just amazed that we could all mingle very well when the age gap was, well, lets just say there's supposed to be an age gap.

Fun night, nevertheless.

One Application At A Time, Please.

In case you didn't notice/ I didn't tell you, I got my hands on a spanking new MacBook Pro five months ago. Yes, you can smell from miles away this post is a "show-off" post, but hey, I can't help it.

Ever since I had this baby, I've been dumping applications and applications into the hard drive. Most are for work, and some are just for pure entertainment. I found myself very alarmed at the fact that I am only left with 28Gig of hard drive space, especially when I had 250Gig to begin with. (But I get to delete some files after internship- probably 20Gig of space- so yay!)

It feels like a super computer, and let me tell you why. Here, installed in this tiny 15" laptop, are
1. Adobe Creative Suite for Web
- has Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Dreamweaver
2. Handbrake and MPEG Streamclip
- the essential, and may I mention FREE, programmes to convert video files from one format to another
3. Countless Dashboard Widgets
- my Mac tells time, date, weather, has a currency converter and tells me the temperature of the computer
4. A super duper video editing program
- there used to be Adobe Premier, which lasted 30 days. Now a new one is coming along.
5. Cyberduck
- another free program. This is for uploading content onto the web.

Gosh, my computer is a mini production house, and I'm loving it.

Shanghai Shenanigans 13-When the going get stressed, the stressed go (kinda) berserk.

So it's come to this. It was a whirlwind work week, and I tolled like a soldier from Sunday to Friday, and at 1pm this Sunday, I'll be walking down that same road I always walk, into the dreaded office.

While the past few months have been good, this month's internship is rising to a new level of intensity-mostly because we're producing a video and guess who's in charge? Yes, the company's one and only producer/camera-person/director/editor, your truly.

I never thought it would take a huge toll on me, until I discovered yesterday I got really high for no reason after day 1 of principal photography. I met up with Joyce, Felicia, and a few other GIP students, as well as Felicia's friends who'd came for a holiday for simple drinks at a chill-out place called Luna. It was there, amidst the loud music, people who scream to try and hold a proper conversation, for just 1 minute, that I was very aware I was under tremendous stress. I felt I could just snap like a twig and break apart.

It was a scary feeling, perhaps generated under the influence of extra loud music ringing in the ears and dark place. A lot of questions went through my mind, and I was constantly asking myself why I was right there, in Luna, in Shanghai, in China. Suddenly I was fascinated by the fact that I am here. This internship has tested me on my independence, my ability to co-exist with others, displayed my flaws and vulnerabilities, and now is playing with my mental psyche.

For the first time, I'm handling a job with so much at stake, I know deep down I better not screw* it up.

I know in my heart, this shrapnel of a ticking time bomb will only stop when I'm done with the work I have to do. But then, I truly hate the position I'm in right now- the person who provides all with her super duper MacBook Pro. I just hate that sickening feeling at the back of my mind, mocking me with all the "what if you can't finish it? What if you fail? What if you do a damn lousy job and people think you arn't that good?".

Ah crapshit la.

Told you I'm becoming a bit berserk. The black face and mood swings appear far too many times that I'm alarmed at myself. I find sometimes I give off negative vibes to my housemates, and it's really a horrible thing to do, and I have to try and swing my mood the positive way, which takes quite a bit of time. Argh.

Currently, I'm still holding on, hoping to complete the work as soon as possible, and then just rest on the laurels until I'm done with internship. No doubt this has been a bloody good experience, but the stress that came with it has been more than I bargained for.

14 weeks down, and 6 uber intensive more to go. Let's just call this a fitting climax.




*Screw is a much milder word than what I had in mind.
**Something irrelevant but worth mentioning-I saw a hailstorm on Friday midway through shooting. Tiny blocks of ice poured from the sky.

Make Your Ideas Happen

During an online conversation with a friend in which he has laid out his plans for his entire future, he asked a simple "How about you?"

I then proceeded head-first into an answer, without thinking much. Long term plan is to hopefully own a production house, mid-term is to make a lot a lot of movies and send them to festivals, and now I want to learn flash and dreamweaver, so I can create my own interactive website and make my MacBook Pro into a money-making machine.

Having a plan is one thing, but executing it is as good as trying to travel to the moon. First, you have discussions, then you decide if it's feasible. You draw out plenty of maps to find the fastest route to the moon, then source for equipment. You then learn how to use the controls for the space shuttle, and prepare yourself physically.

But, you don't know when you'll ever be ready. It takes real guts to print out your own "Space-ready" license and paste it on your shoulders, press the launch button, panic everytime the shuttle goes off-course and finally, after much slogging, get to the damn moon.

Then again, having an idea beats nothing. Having 1 idea beats having 0 ideas. Even though the moon looks far, and probably is very far, every teeny weeny step counts. Sometimes, instead of getting to the moon, people land on stars and other planets instead, which I think is perfectly fine if they're happy playing in the Milky Way.

And also, being an intern in faraway China is a likely factor towards the formation of this plan. So many resources suddenly available from all corners of this country. Whatever you want, you can get as long as you have the money and the determination. Everything can be found here, pelican cases, reflectors, cameras, headphones. I am no longer conformed to tiny Singapore, where resources are expensive and few. I am no longer chained to my own dogma, which states that I'm never going to be good enough.

Therefore, today, I'm taking my first official step towards the moon. I have a plan, which I have to iron out (maybe after I read a highly recommended book with an open mind), a goal, and a space shuttle to build. In fact, I'm all set.

Today, I'm starting on making my idea happen.