Alone

For me, those bad days of my life were the days I feel that I am alone. There was no one besides me, not even anyone on the road, especially at the night. I think this happened to most of us. No matter how many friends do we have, at some times, we can feel that the loneliness is killing us. Or I don't know, is it only the problem of being single? haha..

Stress!!

Bad day..well... Has anyone of you thought the same with me? For me, bad day(s) come at exam time... Those are the days when you can't really go out, stay at home, stressing out like crazy...

But maybe what Joshua said is true. There is no real 'bad day' in our life. It's just our mind. During exam period, stress is uncontrollable. It's just there. The more you think to control it, the more you feel it. It's like you say it to yourself, 'Don't stress, don't stress...' But the thing is, you get more stress. I think, probably, it is because you do not believe yourself. I myself, always think, how if the questions are hard, how if I fail, how if I can't do it, how if I fell asleep in the exam....... Well... How if..... Those 'how ifs' just never ends..

So, how to handle it?? I don't know...!! If I know, I will not stress out during exam time anymore. It is easy to say that you just have to believe in yourself but it is hard to do it in practice. But, sometimes, when I have bad days, I share it, and I find it really helps. And I always remember the passage in the bible, it says do not be afraid about tomorrow. And I believe somehow, God will always lead us to something beautiful at the end. So, if you have bad day(s), it's alright, you will get over it. And remember, pressure makes diamonds eyy?

Week 6 Theme : Bad Day

I found an interesting article a couple of days ago and thought that it would be great to share y'all. It's about the science of having a bad day. Well, in a nutshell, there are some of those days when we wake up and in a matter of hours or so, we just know it's going to be our bad day. But the science tells the complete opposite. There is apparently no such thing as a bad day. It's all just in our heads and we are the ones to be blamed for creating our own bad day. Experiencing the world with negative expectations is like viewing reality through a muddy waterglass. Your view will be distorted and you won't like what you see.

But anyway, BAD DAY will be your theme for next week. Tell us what you think would make up your bad day. I know I know these past weeks has been sooo suffocating for most of us (yeah, the beauty (read:pain) of being a student) with shitloads of final assignments to do and not to mention the upcoming exam pressure. Let's just try our ultimate best to keep this blog running throught the semester!


xx
Josh

Orange

I am sooo sorry for being so late for 'fave colour' assignment. It was a very busy week. And actually I was still hoping that some of you would post for last week assignment.

Anyway, orange is my favourite colour. I love how the colour is never boring, exciting, funny. I think this colour describes me well. Also, orange is a mixture of red and yellow, two colours that I also love.

Childhood Memory

Photo Credit to Connie Cao

I remember when I was a kid; about 7 years old, and my mom would color code us three (me and my 2 older sisters). My eldest sister would be marked blue, 2nd older sister pink and me yellow. The reason my mom did this is because she said that we tend to choose those colors over anything. 

So I wonder what yellow means.

"Yellow is the color of sunshine. It's associated with joy, happiness, intellect and energy"

I don't know whether I've lived up to this expectations but it brings me to the day when a friend of mine suddenly told me, out of nowhere; 

"Yoh, thanks for bringing me happiness, cus whenever I see you down the hallway you always give a big smile that even when I'm down it cheers me up!"

xoxo

Cheers,

Yohan

PINK!!!!!

I guess the picture speaks itself.... :p

Week 5 Theme

Hello everyone, I really want to thank you for your posts :) I know it is not an easy thing to cook + capture a photo + write something in our blog, that's why I appreciate all your work. Turns out that you guys are not only good in photography and writing but also cooking! Those of you who didn't have the time to post something, that's fine as well. I'm waiting for your next week post.

Soo, week 5 theme is your favourite colour.

You can capture anything you want with 1 dominant colour; your favourite colour.

Your photo will be able to tell us directly what colour is that. Whether it is black, blue, yellow, pink, anything you want :)

Thank you.

Cheers,
xx

Steak with Mushroom Sauce

It's been awhile since I cooked proper meal, but here I am, Proudly present my home made steak with mushroom sauce! <3
It took a lot of effort and time to cooked it. I spent approximately 2,5 hour just for this dish.I know it seems a pretty long time but there are a lot side dishes that consume more time to prepared! The veggies,  mash potatoes (Yes, I made it by myself, Not an instant one) AND  cauliflower cheese croquettes. Yeey!

btw, sorry for the bad quality image. :p

British Toast

I'm fully aware that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Majority of people give assortments of reasons of not having breakfast, with the most common one is can't get up early enough and thus, no time. Skipping breakfast is also a common strategy for people to loose weight. MYTH .... DEBUNKED !!! As a matter of fact, there is a saying

 'Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, 
and dinner like a pauper'
Having breakfast is proven to be very intrumental, even for dieters. It will provide you with energy that burns off faster as you have the whole day ahead of you. And as a British, this is the typical breakfast that I regularly have. Toasted wholemeal sandwhich with wholesome butter in the middle, served warm and let the butter melts as you bite. Sprinkle some sugar or any preferred toppings you like!

food

Taa-daa!! Spicy minced beef with peas :D
Well, I didn't intend to cook this last night, but I could only find minced beef and peas at the supermarket close to my house :P But yeah, it was pretty delicious I would say :) and it was really easy to cook. It only took 10 minutes preparation, and 20 minutes cook.
So, I suggest, if you guys want to cook something healthy, quick, easy, and yumm! this could be your option :)

Rice paper roll

Do you guys like vietnamese food? I like it so much! For me, it is fresh, healthy, simple, but delicious as well. My favourite vietnamese food is  the prawn spring roll!

However, I hate deep-frying. It needs a lot of oil and I also hate to clean the oily pan. That's why, it is better for me to do the rice paper roll that doesn't need to deal with frying. In fact, because we don't need to fry it, it is also very healthy and good for people who are in diet ;)

So, here is the recipe :
1 sachet of rice paper roll
250 g of prawns
200 g of crabstick
5 eggs
1 sachet of rice noodle
1/2 cabbage
1 bottle of sweet chili sauce

It is very simple dish to make! You can make 20 rolls from the recipe above, which is great because you can share it with your family and friends :)
Another great thing about it is you can customize the filling. So, if you hate seafood, you can always change the prawn and crabstick to chicken.

So, what you need to do first is basically cook the raw ingredients : pan fried the egg, boil the rice noodle, prawn, and crabstick.

After that, dip the rice paper roll into a bowl of warm water for approximately 30 seconds, quickly put the ingredients on the top of the roll, roll it, and finishh!

Serve it with lots of sweet chili sauce! nom nom

How the filling looks like, it's a little bit messy though

Happy cooking! Share your love with this dish!

cooking~~

wow, cooking. I'm not very much the type of cooking fantastic type of food but i love to bake and make dessert. Dessert has always been the best food for me!

Now, i'm making tiramisuuuuuuu... <3 the easiest and delightful dessert.


And here how it turns out:

yes, there's the smiley face. I think that makes it looks more interesting.it might not be the best picture to show the tiramisu but um i had fun making it and the smiley face! haha. Anyway,  trust me, it's easy than what you guys thought. you don't even need a whisk to do it. All you need is warm water, spatula and a big bowl. That's all folks! =]

Have fun exploring on making dessert! ^_^

Samgyetang recipe!

Hi everyone, Today I am going to post a recipe which is samgyetang.
Samgyetang is a ginseng chicken soup that comes from korea. I decided to cooked it yesterday because of the very cold weather in melbourne and just wanted to enjoy something hot such as soup.
Okay soo, the recipe for samgyetang:

• Whole chicken
• Dry ginseng (you can find it at korean grocery store)
• Red jujube
• Sweet rice
• green onion
• salt and pepper

I actually having a hard time to handle the chicken because for this recipe, small chicken is more recommended but I can't find any so I am using a pretty big chicken which was bigger than my face :P.

enough of the chicken joke.. let's get back to the recipe :D

1. so first, chicken needs to be clean so wash wash~~~ 
2. soak the sweet rice in cold water for about one hour and,
3. soak the dry ginseng as well just before cooking
4. after one hour, chicken is ready to be stuff. stuff the chicken with sweet rice, red jujube, and ginseng.
5. place it into the pot, pour water and boil it for about 20-30 minutes. 
6. while boiling, skim any foam and fats that appears on the surface.
7. pour more water and boil it for one hour.
8. add salt and pepper to taste
9. and lastly, sprinkle some green onion.

I'm using a big pan because the chicken can't fit into my pot and I like to enjoy my samgyetang with kimchi so hope you guys find it interesting :)

When Foods are not just about 'Foods'

What does cross your minds when you heard 'foods'? Hungry? Salivating? Yummy? or maybe disgusting? Yuck!!!! Well, that's the constant reaction. But when you dig deeper, those imagination about foods will lead to people surrounds you, how you cook together, how you eat together, how you all cannot get up because your tummy is too full. What's amazing about food is not the taste, not about the technique, not about the presentation, it's the memory.

Those photos were taken times ago, when I cooked at my house, my homestay and my cooking lesson. When looking at those photos, I remember the ups and downs of my cooking experiences. When my cakes got burnt and sunk, when I put too much soy sauce in the salmon teriyaki, when I got flour all over my clothes, when 'Mbak Yanti' was angry at me because I 'burnt' the kitchen down, but also the moment when my cakes are fluffy and yummy and I got it spot on for my steamed fish. And I do remember how my parents like the fish, how my brothers hate the cakes and how my maid looked at my stir fried cabbage and disgusted with the amount of chilies that I put in. All of those memories will never fade.

I guess foods are more than just about 'foods'. It makes you remember.....

This post is dedicated to 'Mbak Yanti', who has inspired me a lot in cooking.. I always miss her anchovies fried rice.....

Week 4 theme

Hello guys, this week theme is related to food; something I hope you guys love :) To be specific, it is about homemade cooking. So, in this week, creativity is required not only in the way you take your photos, but also how you make your food to make it interesting. I know some of you love cooking but some others do not. Don't worry, you can just make it simple, no need to make complicated dishes. After all, this is not a cooking competition :p

As usual, to make it more interesting, I think it's a good idea for you to take some 'behind the scenes' photos from the food you make, and maybe the recipe to make you own creation in case some people curious about your food.

Happy shooting! Happy cooking! Can't wait to see your posts!

Ps : For those of you who haven't known yet, the due date of each week theme is Sunday, 23.59 pm.

Thank you

Alter ego

                    Taken by myself the pic on the left and credit to Jessica Junus for the picture on the right.


Alter ego

This week topic makes me realise more about myself, Does that occurs to you guys? 

I'm pretty sure everyone of you starts to think about what you are and who you are. and it makes me realise that I DO have different personalities even without realising it. A lot of people who just met me for the first time will just that I'm tough, independent and strong. Besides what people think of, I'm actually  very vulnerable on the inside. Since young I was overseas and I have to learn to be independent but at times, you just want someone to support and count on. As time goes by, I adapt to be tough but still fragile.

 Also, when I happy I love to dress up but when i'm gloomy i'm more of tomboyish type of fashion. Maybe that because of what I am. Being who I want to be without having in mind what type of personality I should have. 

Alter Ego

How me and others reflect myself

How myself could be ;p

Understanding yourself sometimes can be tough and defining your alter ego is even harder. People perceives you as what you show them daily. When you laugh often, they see you as a cheerful one. When you talk to much, they will see you as a talkative one. It's like a stigma, leads to a behavior you act on and what people perceives as your original personality. Then here it comes your second ego, without you realizing it. Alter the "normal" to the other side of yourself. It  is the same feeling when you see how Clark Kent in his office suit and glasses transforms into superhero with masculine image. I think it is quite good illustration to show you what alter ego is. So, alter ego can bring you a more positive personality or adversely.

For me, it kinda hard to describe myself and so does my alter ego. I try to presents it in those pictures. My silly faces and poses, my glasses that never leave my face and also my unready expression are my primary personality (that's what i think). What others rarely see is that I could be another person when I put down my glasses, make up on my face, and have a pose in front of my camera (without anyone in the room). I can be completely different and I can say it as a little bit wild.


Ps: Forgive me for my random writing and the grammatical error. Wrote this in the middle of a bunch of assignments ;)

"He was my perfect alter ego. He was in control, and I never was. He was cool, and I was truly a nerd. I just played him out of affection" - Henry Winkler

Alter Ego

This week's theme, Alter Ego, is quite challenging and interesting (kudos for the blog's administrator for coming up with the theme). The first thing that came to my mind when I heard the term was "superheroes" (as in Clark Kent for Superman, Peter Parker for Spiderman, etc). However, upon further research, I realized that alter ego can be more than just superheroes, it can be deeper than that. So, here are my takes on this week's theme:

PS: Special thanks to Nicolas Dicky and Steven Salim for supplying the ideas and modelling for the pictures. You guys rock

The Man in the Mirror
People have different opinions on you. You might be a nerd, a cool guy, a drama queen, a pervert, a playboy, or whatever you're known as out there. Some people might find you funny, some might find you offensive. Some might find you friendly, some might find you intrusive.
Among these different yous, the most important is the you you see in yourself. The you you know the most. (Now that's a lot of yous) 

Mask
People wear masks. Some people wear it everyday, some people don't. Some people expect others to wear it, some people don't. Usually, those masks are smiling-face masks. Behind those masks, there are faces, faces that are kept from the rest of the world.

Alter Ego

Credits to Gloria Nathania for taking this awesome picture of  me and Amelia Intan for letting me  wore her gorgeous dress!

Confidence. I would say my alter ego is to be confident. The photo explains itself, doesn't it? I looked like very confident in the photo, while I am actually not at all! In my normal life, I would rather to be quite to strangers and new people, and that is why I always feel awkward talking to strangers. But well, as I am getting along with my friends, I feel pretty confident with myself :) So, heaps thanks to all my friends for letting me show my confident-me! :)

PS: I don't actually think that it is my alter ego, but I guess that's the best that I can write. So yeah, if you have any comments, I will be more than happy to hear (or read) it :)

Poker Face

Okay, to be clear, I am not now nor I have been, a fan of Lady Gaga.

In this world full of nameless faces, there's no one truth but only pieces. Honesty might not the best policy and wearing mask of deception could sometimes be the best strategy. I might look about as cheerful as ever, but don't get fooled. Nobody will ever know if it's a sincere expression of happiness or a mere irony.

Shy

Everyone has a different side of themselves, whether they realized it or not. In my case, although I looked like a very confident, cool, outgoing, active, self-centered person, sometimes arrogant and emotional (at least that's what I think my friends think about me), I am a very shy person! In some situations, especially when I'm surrounded with new people, I feel that my hands are getting cold, my heart beats so loudly, I cannot talk!! In some cases, I even feel that my cheek is turning red, it's burning! A friend of mine told me that it is not good, how could I find a boyfriend if I am very shy. But, I just can't help it! But the good thing is, once I feel comfortable with people around me, I eventually become casual with them and forget this shy side of mine. :)

Week 3 theme

Hi everyone! Looks like our blog has grown up a little bit with some new members :D welcome, can't wait to read your posts!

This week theme is focused on yourself; alter ego. We all know how self-esteem is important. But the thing is, sometimes you have a different version of yourself hidden inside of you. It may not be good, but it is a part of you, and you need to respect it. For example : a person who seems to be cheerful, but deep inside feels lonely.

According to Wikipedia, alter ego means the different I. It is a second self, which is believed to be distinct from a person's normal or original personality. The person with alter ego is said to lead a double life.

Thus, in this week theme, I hope you guys can find the different side of you and capture it.

Note : you will need to capture yourself, not others for this week (self-portrait). You can use tripod, self timer, or even ask somebody else to take your photo.

I know most of you are narcissist, so I hope all of you will contribute to this week theme.

Thank you!

Street Musician

Street musician. The only thing that perhaps comes to our mind is : sing to make money. Well, is that so? That might be one of the reasons, but there could be other reasons as well. As I saw this guy in the street, not so many people gave him some spare coins into his guitar case. But yeah, he kept singing with his, I will say beautiful voice. He did not seem to care about the money, and the crowds surrounding him. He kept singing with his only guitar and his talented amazing voice. :) And by the way, I would say he is somewhat cute as well. :D

Street Musician: unchained passion and beyond dreams

Street musician. I think about people, unchaining their passion, let it flow freely in the middle of crowded street and let others enjoy their music. Through their voice and their ability to play the instrument, they express their feelings and deliver their love. It is the way they speak and say to the world that they are worth to be appreciated. It is also the way they make their self and other happy. Our smiley face and clapping hand is the price that they praise more than the coins we put in their boxes. Even, for some of them, it is the way they pursue thing that they call dreams.

"If opportunity does not knock, build a door. Whatever your dream is, make it comes true"

Street Musician

If you ever stopped by and listened to a street musician devotedly, then you deserve a round of applause, cause I'm not. Most of the time, I don't give a shit: never pay attention, give them spare change and wonder about their story. 

This was in fact my first time snapping a picture of them. And as I capture image by image, I realize street performances foster public display of emotion, highlighting social constraints that exist in a multicultural melting pot like Australia. They may be brilliant musicians just like the ones you normally see on TV, but separated with a thin yet firm line: notoriety. 

Street Musician

This man catches my attention as he is not only play with one music instrument, but two, which are a guitar and a flute. He plays it together and creates a beautiful music which is perfect for people who wants to enjoy their Sunday morning. Even more, he uses a unique costume that complements his music. He tried to sell some of his CDs and I believe he made some great sales. I think he is a perfect street musician which matches the theme. What do you guys think?

Week 2 theme

Hello guys, how are you? It's week 2 already. This week theme is street musician. Street musician attracts me a lot as they have the will to fight for their future using their ability. A lot of them are actually very talented but they don't have the chance to be appreciated by the public.

You can take any photo of street musician, street artists, street dancers, single or in a group.

Note: it is important that you can emphasize their effort, how hard they work, how committed they are to their job.

It impresses me a lot that in week 1 assignment, a lot of you guys put a real effort with your heart in your photos and even your writing. You can see that when you write something about your picture, it touches people heart more and make your photos more interesting. I know that there are still some of you who wants to post your photos for your assignment but do not have enough time to do that. So, feel free to post it anytime you want.

And one more thing that you guys may forget, please take a look at your friends work and make some comments. They can improve their photos to a better one and if their photos are already good, they will have more confidence in what they've done and able to get even better photos.


I'm looking forward to seeing your posts. Meanwhile, happy Easter and enjoy your holiday :)

The feeling when you say 'he must be the one!'

This guy is my crush, yes he really is. I fall into him so deeply that I can't even understand why. When he is around, my heart skips a bit, I get butterflies on my stomach, and the indescribable happiness surrounding me. Well, everybody has their own love story. And this is one of mine. I hope you guys could find a crush that is really worth it to fight for :)
PS: I took the back of him, because I think a guy's back is the sexiest part of his body :P

crush

My apologies everyone! i didn't read the theme properly, I thought it can be anything u like, silly me!
well, allow me for this second chance to write about this best guy friend of mine. He is not only my best friend, he understand me super duper well. I used to have little crush on him when we know each other but due to certain circumstances, i have to deplete all my feelings. But now, with this hard moment I'm in, he is constantly supporting me and understand me very well. I wish i can find someone like him that I'll fall in love with <3

Thank's for being in my life! It meant a lot for me to have a best friend like you.

taken last year in Singapore. 

I know this picture is not as picturistic as what you guys have but i treasure this picture a lot as we hardly meet each other.

Crush

His feet

his eyes 

Don't get me wrong, I don't have a crush with this man. But he's one of my best boy friends which is why I think I found some interesting things about him that I would like to capture. It is funny I think that friendship is similar to love/crush at some points. The more we get to know each other, the stronger our relationship grows. And both friendship and love bring happiness to our life. It requires some efforts too to keep it lasts or else it would die eventually. I think this week assignment is harder than I thought because most of us feels shy/scared to reveal our secret feelings to someone special. It shows that photography has the ability to capture and present our feelings in photograph.

Among three photographs that I had chosen, I think eyes are the most interesting part of human body especially to reflect love. Yes, I could not seen anything in the photo above as we are only friends. However, people who feel deeply in love will truly reflect it in his eyes. I hope I can take a photo of a person who falls deeply in love one day.

 I love roses, i love lavender, i love sunflower!  just recently, i went to flower garden melbourne festival and i fell deeply with flowers!
not that i didn't like flowers, but i used to think that it's pretty pointless to buy flowers as they will die eventually. nonetheless, my point of view changes! it gives you the responsibility to take care of them and depending on how you care about them will reflect their growth. apparently, my friend and I bought a bouquet of roses each and surprisingly hers wilted and mine is still blooming. I'm really really happy about it. =]

I just wanna share with all of you for the beautiful things that i just recently fell in love with. Not that it's pretty already when u first see it, but it gets prettier when you know how to take care of them. It sounds like love right? it's really nice when you found love but it's even more pretty when you fell in love deeper after you found each other.

after i bought them

after a few weeks they blooms <3

love the colour 

Crush

"Falling in love" is mainly a Western term used to describe the process of moving from a feeling of neutrality towards a person to one of love. The use of the term "fall" implies that the process is in some way inevitable, uncontrollable, risky, irreversible, or that it puts the person in a state of vulnerability, in the same way the word "fall" is used in the phrase "to fall ill" or "to fall into a trap".


Although a crush is usually portrayed as something less serious, young people stuff; it still does have some things in common with "falling in love". Well, having a crush IS a form of falling in love. Every time I hear the word "crush", what comes to my mind is the word "stupid". People tend to do stupid things when they have a crush, and the level of stupidity varies among people. So, feel blessed my friends, while we are young and still can love stupidly. Cause being stupidly in love is sometimes the best way of falling in love. Cheers :D


PS: I copied the "falling in love" part from wikipedia :P

Week 1 theme

Hello everyone, how are you going? It has been a week since this blog was created. Thank you for your contribution, I am so happy. Today I am going to give you the theme of the first week out of our 52 weeks. You have 1 whole week to take some photos that match the theme. And the number is up to you. However, to make it looks neat, please upload all your photos in one post. And please write the labels as 'crush'. That way our photos will be very organized.

So, the first theme is your crush! Your crush means someone you are interested in. It could be someone that makes your heart beats faster or someone who simply makes you happy. It basically someone you like (who knows, maybe you'll get the chance to know this person better and be his/her lover after this week :p). However, to make it more interesting, you can only take the photo of a little part of your crush like feet, arms, back, eyes, face, etc. And if you don't have any crush or he/she is faraway or you feel shy to take your crush photo, you can just take a photo of random person in this street that you think is interesting or matches your description of your crush

So, happy capturing !! Make your photo(s) as pretty, artistic, cool as you can. You can do photoshop or whatever to make your photo looks even better. And remember, it is better to write a little bit about what are you trying to capture, why do you like it, and how that photo matches the theme. And the last thing, if you have time, take a look of your fellow photographers photos and try to give them some comments or love their photos so together we can grow better as a photographer.

Kiss

A kiss means a thousand words. But what if it is not a real kiss? Haha.. Anyway, I think this photo is really cute. It shows me the real love between 2 person :p Hope this photo brings a smile to your dayy! <3

Six Tiny Creatures

It was hailed as the photo that made a million heart melt. This photo was circulated around the internet and became an instant hit just after Oprah called them in for her talkshow program.
I found the photo can speaks for itself, about as calming as any baby photos could be and invariably makes everyone can't help but smile. What do you guys have in mind?

Victoria Beckham

I know this doesn't sound right, posting a celebrity photo and sharing some craps on a page that supposedly filled up with artistic photograph.
OK, I like reading in general and just a couple of days ago I came across this photo of Victoria Beckham (at least I'm still talking about photo)
To be honest with you, I'm an avid fan of her. She's gorgeous and a real diva in real life. This photo is the perfect potrayal of her, and it was apparently taken during her interview with Vogue. So, please welcome, the one and only VICTORIA BECKHAM.........

Tulips

The Fisherman

SMILEEE :D

Not much to say, just keep smiling everyone.. :D

The Ghost of You

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