Phew!

Finally, a year of mixed emotions, uncertainties, and crazy work schedules has come to an end, and a fresh new start awaits right around the corner, a couple of hours away...

I had more or less cut down on a lot of excesses, be it in clubbing, food, shopping or other unnecessary expenditures, and I hardly go out much these days, but it hasn't been an easy year for me, that's for sure...

Well, as they say, it can only make me stronger and a better person...

So before we go on to an exciting 2009, here's a quick glance back at some note-worthy events of in...

* Travelled to Phuket (January), Hokkaido and Tokyo (February) and Bangkok for Songkran (April)...

* Acted in Channel U's "Perfect Cut" and Mediacorp's all-new "Red Thread" drama series, Kid's Central's (or was that Okto?) supernatural-themed "Moon Face II" series, as well as in the "Behind Closed Doors" documentary drama series. Another series that I appeared in is "The Ring", for the Singapore Prison Services...

* Acted in my first stage production after two years, "Das Experiment: Black Box"...

* Appeared in the trailer ad for "A Nation In Concert", as well as a TVC for "The Bank of New York Mellon" (shown overseas), and KFC's "Chinese New Year 2009" ad, and Land Transport Authority's "Mr. Buckle Up" ads for 2009...

* One of my stock images was selected for the poster of a huge bank chain in Taipei, the Taiwan Shin Kong Commercial Bank...

* I recorded voiceovers for "Snow City Singapore" and "Magic - The Science of Illusion Show" for Science Centre Singapore commercials, as well as sung the rap jingle for the "Mr Buckle Up" ad which will be shown to school children in 2009...

* I have been providing weekly illustrations for Bryan's "I-Weekly" articles on Health and Beauty, and finally developing a comfy drawing style of my own...

* I designed concert posters, flyers and programme booklets for DynamicWorkz, for their "Cello & Piano Duo Recital by Joshuan Roman & Benjamin Loh" and "Beethoven Complete Piano Sonatas" concerts...

* I'd met up with long-lost school mates from my River Valley High School days, as well as from Queensland University of Technology where I studied...

* I'd brought friends from Taipei from the popular Indie band, Sodagreen, all around Singapore, as shown in my "Local Sights Through Foreign Eyes" series, and in return, they treated me to the "Sodagreen - Sing With Me Tour" concert at the Max Pavilion...

* I experimented in photo shoots of my own, ranging from "The Dark Side", "Light Sketches", to my "Pseudo Lomo", "Emo Nemo" and "Merman" series...

* To create a higher profile for myself in the acting and commercial industry, I signed up for an Official Artist Profile on AliveNotDead.com, an international website that caters to all performers and their supporters...

* I have been considerably less active on Livejournal, and more on Facebook. In fact, you can almost always find me on the latter site..

* I have lost many "supposed" friends (but well, that's no real loss anyway) through their own self-expose, but I have also made some really nice new ones. I am truly grateful to those of you who have gifted me with your unconditional friendship! 

* I have had numerous computer trouble, but thanks to squido and stingerx, as well as my old friend Bryan Gan, I am now able to type out this entry smoothly and without problems. Touch wood!

* I am spending a lot more time on my own, which is really very nice, and also with my family, which can never be replaced...

I have probably a lot more I could add, but for now, this will suffice...

That's already plenty of activity and events for a year that I was supposed to "do nothing"! :-)

I am looking forward to a wonderfully fresh and exciting new year in a few moments, so for now, I want to wish everyone reading this...

Firstly, let me wish everyone here a Merry Christmas and may everyone have a Wonderful New Year ahead!!!

I'd been neglecting my Emo Nemo series for a while (since September actually), but besides the usual busy schedule excuse, it's also mostly because film photography on a simplistic Holga toy camera requires good natural lighting... something that's not really happening in our "tropical winter" rainy seasons...

Anyway, my friend Bryan requested a photo shoot at the gardens for him and some of his products (mostly on his own camera) to post on his Omhealth website and blog, so I took that opportunity to bring along my Emo Nemo...

And here are the results:


Hope you like these!

You can also visit my other Lomo-style pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/myemonemo/

Constructive comments and feedback only please! :-)

Wow, can't imagine how time flew by these past few weeks. I'd thought after "Das Experiment", I would be out of work for a bit, and could stretch my legs and spread my wings... so to speak... and just enjoy a good year-end break...

But apparently, Fate had other more exciting plans for me!

Besides my usual illustration gigs, I also got jobs for recording voiceovers for TV and cinema ads for the Science Centre Singapore as well as Snow City, and also got cast in a music video ad to teach school children about certain aspects of road safety! I even landed my first (minor) "recurring" role in a new English local drama series, "Red Thread"!

More about that in upcoming posts!

I'd also found time to catch a few movies, and would highly recommend everyone go watch the Malaysian film, "Muallaf", and the Taiwanese surprise hit movie, "Cape No. 7"!

I'd long wanted to visit Taiwan, especially after watch "Cape No. 7", but I had never yet found the opportunity to set foot there...

So imagine my surprise and amusement when my Taiwanese friend, Frank, called me the other day and asked me if I had been to Taipei recently...

Apparently, he saw my face on a bank billboard advertisement in Taipei!

Anyway, he took a few photos of that ad and emailed me, and here they are...


Well! To think that my photo visited Taiwan even before I did! LOL

Haha, it turned out the image that the bank had chosen for their ad was from one of my earlier stock images photo shoots with Asia Images studio, and taken by the photographer Cedric Lim...

Although the stock images shoot was fun and a rather good source of income, of course, I'd much rather have been cast for that ad and have it shot in Taiwan (and get due payment for that!)...

Anyway, I'll be back here posting more stuff and especially my back-log of tons of photos, so be warned!! :)

In addition to the set of underwater photos in my previous entry, I also got my friend Stan to take a video footage of me swimming...

Being immersed fully in a body of water gives me the greatest pleasure and peace, and I have always wanted a little something to represent that feeling... 

So, out of the blue (so to speak), I've decided to create the following video clip with all the resources from yesterday's shoot and my very first attempt at using Windows Movie Maker...

Hope you will enjoy it...

Your constructive comments and feedback are most welcome!