Why Keen?

For more than two years now, I’ve been in a creative line, and I must say, the stress level has never gone down. I always feel this fear that my “creative juice” would run dry, so to speak.

So, while idling surfing for some TV to watch (I don’t watch anything on the real TV nowadays), I found this interesting video by Elizabeth Gilbert on nurturing creativity, and it struck a chord.

She mentioned about the origins of the word Genius, very interesting. Genius is like a spirit guide, or a deity, and it is believed that there every human being has a Genius attached to him/her. Here’s what I found about the word Genius on Wikipedia :-

—
Genius in Roman mythology is the individual instance of a general divine nature that is present in every individual person, place or thing
…
Every nameable mythological figure was a genius of some sort; but further, the rational powers and abilitiies of each and every human being were attributed to his soul, which was a genius. (Source : Wikipedia)
—

So Elizabeth Gilbert proposes that all artists try to put their burdens as well as their ego on this disembodied entity, their genius, and let it take claim or credit for the magnificence or failure of their work. Aha…

By the way, I’ve tried. Though it was a little silly, I actually spoke out loud and said, “It’s now up to you”, especially since I was under a very tight editing schedule for my last wedding shoot, and you know what? It was one of my better works. So maybe it works, huh?

Here are some of my shots from a wedding my genius helped at:-

Here are some of the reasons why I am keen on staying strong, living my life to the fullest,

he’s so tiny, and cute.

she makes bland food look good, and giving birth a breeze.

and she made everything possible.

Fresh like a clear day, our little baby boy was born on the 3rd of June.

I’ve posted mini shoutouts all over the Internet, because that’s all I can manage at the moment, because I would be rushing back to hospital to accompany Hwei Min, but he is so beautiful! Having someone so dependent on you land in your arms really changes your perspective, no matter how much you feel you are “prepared” for the moment.

I promise you will be seeing more of him soon, so hang tight!

Not quiet anymore! The baby’s coming!

From TWeaK Me

It’s been a while since I’ve updated, but at least now, it’s not so quiet any more!
We’ve announced about a month back, when at the end of the first trimester, we
went for a scan, and the baby is healthy!

Also we’ve completed the Oscar test, OSCAR stands for “One-Stop Clinic for
Assessment of Risk”, and this is a 90% accurate test for evidence of Down Syndrome,
and came out negative too.

As we are fairly young parents, the risk of having a child with Down Syndrome is
pretty low, but it helps to be prepared anyhow.

We have asked ourselves seriously… IF our child really had Down Syndrome, what
would we do?

We both agreed that it would not be right to give up on our child even if he/she had
down syndrome, as it is not a condition where the child has to suffer after birth.
The child would need a little more time to learn, that’s all. The gift of life is still a gift
of life.

In discussing this, and realizing our common stand, it affirms our relationship even
more. I suppose we both have very different ways of explaining why we decide
this way, she would mention about God, and I would mention about the Wheel of Life,
but our respect for life is there, and something we hold in common.

I’ve been working non stop for the past week, and now feeling under the weather *.
Had a very clogged nose and bad cough for days. Surprisingly, I’ve got through two full
day weddings with morning trailer trailer editings, and in fact felt slightly better through
it all! I guess the positive energy from weddings and the adrenaline helps.

Actually, I couldn’t have survived as a full time wedding videographer without my dear
Hwei Min, drowning me with “Liang Cha” (Herbal Cooling Tea), and helping me man the
computer while I’m converting tapes, which allows me a half an hour nap. But most of
all, by being my first audience for every single wedding video I complete!

Anyway, I went to find the origins of the phrase “under the weather” and this was what
I found. Google is wonderful! Total time to find answer? 1 minute…

* Under the weather.
To feel ill. Originally it meant to feel seasick or to be adversely affected by bad weather.
The term is correctly ‘under the weather bow’ which is a gloomy prospect; the weather
bow is the side upon which all the rotten weather is blowing.

- from Salty Dog Talk: The Nautical Origins of Everyday Expressions
by Bill Beavis and Richard G. McCloskey (Sheridan House,
Dobbs Ferry, N.Y., 1995. First published in Great Britain, 1983).