All I want for Christmas is my two cents worth

The quiet and empty streets where Solace and Tranquility is evident.

The long awaited term break is finally here and quite honestly, never a better time. As much as I enjoy the daily pressures of school work and assignments, the break will serve as an ideal period to rest the tired bones.

In retrospect, the term was filled with a rich variation of activities; assignments, school work, late nights and other commitments.

To sum it up in a nutshell, it was a real difference as compared to previous semesters. A myriad of assignments and expectations supplemented the time during the term, making it a real challenge as well as an ideal learning process within.

However, I would like to talk about one particular assignment which I thoroughly enjoyed, and one of my favorites to date in terms of the process and final product.

Disturbing, ain't it?

I'm pretty sure that, to many of you out there, lugging through town at the wee hours of the morning isn't exactly a norm for an assignment. But that was exactly what we did.

Basically, the assignment circled around nation building targeted at the youths of the nation and what we were expected to do was a simple photo montage of various pictures which depicted the group's interpretation of the theme.

Sounds juicy doesn't it?

Our group decided to do something a little different and thus had to go around in search of "empty" shots. The only way to do it? The wee hours of the morning.

So where are You?

Sure it was tiring but the end product was, to me personally, well worth the effort as we got the shots we wanted, which conveyed the effect and atmosphere that we intended to portray.

An abstract 4/6 of the Drool Bits Team.

Take a look at our final product for this assignment and feel free to give me your feedback and comments. The members of Drool Bits Productions look forward to these responses.



Moving away from that now.

Christmas is around the corner, but with a difference. The global financial crisis has indeed affected the bulk of consumers, both in physical spending power as well as psychological security.

Take a quick walk down down and you'll see that companies are doing their best to entice the wary consumers this festive season. From vivid decorations to "too-good-to-be-true" promotions, manufacturers and companies are going all out to get the sales they project for the period.

Marketers are truly put to the test.

I was in town recently and quite honestly, didn't understand the severity of the crisis until I began to observe what was actually happening.

The moment I stepped onto the cobbled sidewalks of the infamous shopping belt of Singapore, Christmas songs sung by a choir, filled the air with joy, hope and happiness; a typical Christmas scene, in short.

Little did I realize at that time that the source of the music wasn't from an actual Christmas choir but from multiple speakers planted onto the Christmas decorations which dotted the shopping belt.

I've also noticed the abundance of salvation army stands set up at regular intervals along the belt, with distinct bells to attract the public's graze and hopefully, with a few dollars to spare.

Few donated, partly due to the financial crisis but also partly due to the controversial charity fraud incident which happened a while back; trust amongst the people have yet to be earned.

Consumers are more wary about their spending ability due to the financial situation.

Certainly, the current crisis has put a drape on the festive atmosphere and rightly so. With higher demands of living, it isn't exactly easy to get by these days.

And on to more lighthearted content.

I've noticed quite a number of "Christmas Lists" springing up amongst the other blogs and pages which I visited and thought it would be interesting to do a personal list for myself.

So Here goes;

Christmas List 101

(non-material items)
1. Happiness
2. Emotional Stability
3. Health
4. An end to suffering everywhere
5. To build and bond with friends and family
6. A clearer mind in preparation for the new year ahead
7. People around me to be satisfied with their lives
8. Freedom

Cliche as it may seem, I feel very strongly about the above aspects as that is what really matters to us as human beings in essence.

However, here's the more material list, for good measure;

(material)
1. Nikon D60 (or something along those lines)
2. A decent Drum kit (but not really due to space constrains)
3. I can't really think of anything else
4. Oh yea here's one, Cowbells (for my Welcome to the Jungle drum cover)

Just for the record, number 1 on the material list is already in acquisition as I'm currently saving up/working and also, striking a compromise with my Dad (who is mildly interested in the product himself) for a decent entry grade DSLR.

I'm still open for comments as to which model I should get so feel free to supplement me with advice and feedback.

As for number 2 and 4, I'm sure Santa would have his work cut out lugging around a 5 piece drum kit on board his little reindeer cart thing, so I'll work towards a solution to purchase it myself, a long term thing though.

I have hopes for Christmas as with everyone else. A season for giving, as they call it but most importantly, a season to be jolly.

The family's Christmas tree still lies packed in the storage room since last year and quite honestly, I'm not too sure myself if it's gonna be out this time.

Be sure to check back for updates this festive season. Everyone might be on holiday, but here at metallic-stains, we work while on holiday.

So buckle up your coats, ready your wellingtons and dig up those ear muffs as Christmas is upon us.

Let us smile for all that's worth.

Happy Christmas! (in advance)

Cya'll later.

*All the images, pictures and video as seen in this post here on metallic-stains is the result of an affiliation between Drool Bits Productions and the management team of metallic-stains.blogspot.com. Usage of material or content from this post without the knowledge of either Drool Bits Productions or the metallic-stains management team is at the user's risk and legal action may be taken depending on the consequence. The people at Drool Bits Productions and metallic-stains.blogspot.com wishes everyone a safe and happy holiday.

"Your Crazy Kitten Smile"
----------------
Song of the Post


Now playing: Radiohead - True Love Waits
via FoxyTunes

Analysis of Semester One.

I've decided to do a little recap on the semester as it draws to a close. Though it may be impossible to fully articulate my entire experience in this one post, I guess it'll be good to at least mention a few issues and assignments that I took on during the term.

So here goes...

Analysis of Semester One, Media Studies and Management



This picture you see above belongs to Creativity and Thinking skills, ICA3, where each and everyone of us in the class were expected to do up a weekly journal for a period of around 2 months and present it in a creative fashion.

Aside from that, a set of ethics were also expected in the journal itself.

I decided to fashion and design my journal into a stack of NYP (the institution where I studied at) notes. My code of ethics was designed as an "ICA brief", something which tells you what you have to do for a particular ICA and what not.



The picture above was simply hilarious to me personally. It was part of a storyboard project which I had to complete for my Scriptwriting module, ICA4.



We had to come up with an advertisement for the new FE-320 (All rights and model names belongs to Olympus Cameras) and thus had to fabricate a storyboard to fully and effectively articulate our advertisement ideas.

The two figures in the frames were supposed to be newly wedded couples, pardon my drawing abilities and craftsmenship.

Aside from these assignments, there were alot of others, including numerous (not really) formal reports and a couple of pitches here and there for certain modules.

Mock media companies were set up too, in light of various projects.

1) Frequency, a music magazine company
where a pitch and formal report had to be submitted.

2) Uptempo Recording, (Keep Up the Tempo, Record your Future.)
where a pitch and a sub formal report had to be submitted.

Both instigated and expressed my interest in the media as well as in their respective modules.

It was really a good experience into the real-life professional media circuit and I'm sure my counterparts would readily agree (remember the late nights and lack of sleep, my fellow media-practitioners-to-be?).

Though the workload was overbearing at times, it consolidated and refined our abilities to work, be it individually or as a group.

School wouldn't be termed as such without friends, and certainly, the semester saw the bond of many amongst the class.

No, I'm talking about friendships made en route during the semester.

We bonded well as a class and I'm sure everyone has at least got a taste of working with one another, be it having positive results or negative experiences.

Take these experiences in stride and learn from them, and we'll always strive for the best.

I daresay that the people I've been seeing almost daily (not counting weekends) are really awesome, period. The kind of friends that one can find in their course of life that you'll want to keep.

You guys are awesome and I'm really looking forward to the spending rest of tertiary education with all of you, MS0801.

Though we may have our tough times (ie. insane project deadlines), we've managed to pull through and survived.

MS0801, work hard and play hard! And remember, we're united as one!

-End of Analysis-

That's that, hope you guys enjoyed this little update.

Remember to check back for articles, one of which will be posted shortly.

I'm really satisfied with semester one but naturally from a personal viewpoint, strive to do better in semester two as well as the rest of my educational studies.

It is all in the mind, but controlling it is another thing altogether, something I hope to further enhance my ability to do and master.

Life gets more and more interesting so stay tuned and remember to check back.

Cya'll later