"Don't follow the rules and don't shoot for anybody other than yourself..."

I am not a good photographer.
At least, I don't think I am.
A lot of people seem to think I am.
But personally I don't feel that way.

At best, I consider myself an "average" photographer who understands the limitations of his equipment and own skills quite well and has learnt through a lot of experience gained through trial and error (And advice from friends and other photographers) how to be creative within those limitations.

Y U SO SRS?? (AKA: Why the sudden mood whiplash?)

Some may be confused about the recent more serious tone of my first post in a while and wondered why I made it. Well, aside from that certain Overwatch cosplay incident, a discussion between friends that sadly lead to disagreement between them prompted me to try to articulate some of the incidents of racism that I've had to deal with throughout my life. There isn't any particular political view I was trying to push in this instance though. Just thought it might be useful to try to give people an idea of things are like for those of us who are non-white.

Often a lot of the attention regarding ethnic minorities is focused on Asians (In the British sense of the word rather than the American sense i.e. South Asians such as Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis rather than other Asians like Chinese, Koreans and Japanese) or on Black people. There has always been, anecdotally, this feeling in the Chinese community that reporting incidents to the police or other authorities is pointless as either nothing will be done or things will get worse. Also the Chinese have always been less visible in the UK, even as more and more Mainland Chinese appear overseas to study or fill in gaps in industries which have not been able to fill vacancies with local talent. In some ways this is a good thing as it means some of the heat is taken off us compared to other ethnic minorities but when things happen to us, it does get a lot of coverage.

Anyway, I am going to ramble about another topic. Relationships...

The R Word from my Perspective

It's been a while, to put it mildly.

Most of the time I prefer to type my thoughts in rapid fire on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Maybe not be best places to vent or state strong opinions especially recently, as these sites have become more and more polarised and problematic. Contrary to what people like to think, you are not entitled to your own opinion any more and anything that deviates from the echo chamber will result in a lot of anger, resentment and harassment heading your way.

Today, I thought I might take some time to post about a bit of a problematic subject. One that probably is pretty relevant given the world may be taking a few steps back in social progress and equality. Some may accuse me of taking the "Social Justice Warriors" path in posting about this, but I thought it might be interesting to recount my own experiences when it came to racial discrimination.

The Madness of Photography

"No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness." -Aristotle

I have to admit I am not a creative person when it comes to words. I am not a particularly eloquent writer when it comes to words. Nor am I particularly witty when it comes to speaking. I tend to stumble a lot over my words when speaking to other people. I tend to repeat myself and get nervous easily. Even typing something longer form like this blog posting takes a lot of effort for me to think of what I would like to put down in words. I suppose this is why I ended up taking a more visual approach to creative hobbies. Why I use photography as my outlet for my imagination and find it somewhat simpler than trying to convey those same emotions using text. It is easier for me to create using photographs than it is for me to type about something hence why I have Thesarus.com open in another browser window to help me put into words my feelings here.

Independence Referendums, Politics and the Great Unifying Theory of Internet Hysteria and Paranoia.

For a while, I have decided not to mention the Scottish Independence Referendum, from here on referred to in this blog post as the "indyref", much even though I normally like to rant and rave about politics. Now, before I go any further, I will admit I am not the best person to talk about this. I didn't formally study politics at any point in my life. And I don't claim to be an expert either. What I am about to say here is my opinion and mine only. If you don't like to read my misinformed, cynical and possibly angry rantings, I suggest you stop here and find something else to read. Or do what I do to clam myself down and watch videos of cats on the world wide web. Or just sell your computer and smartphones and never use the internet again, ever, because the internet is full of misinformed, cynical and possibly angry rantings that are much more offensive than what I say. Mostly... :-P

With that out of the way, are you sitting comfortably? Then we shall begin...

Google Plus. Friend or Foe?

So, I have spent a while using Google Plus. Along side my uses of Facebook and Twitter.

Ultimately, I didn't like it.

There wasn't anything in particular it did wrong. But it didn't do enough to keep me engaged either.

I have to admit all I used it for was to crosspost stuff from Facebook and Twitter onto it instead. Some of the technology podcasts I listen to liked to talk about who it was somehow better or at least where more of their types of people hang out on the internet.

Land of my Forefathers

A few weeks ago, from the time of me starting this blog post, I finally set off on a holiday I had set my eyes on for some time. For two weeks from mid-April I set off for Hong Kong. A place where a large number of my relatives still reside and a place I have not been back to since 2011. I went there expecting to get some relaxation and have some fun. What I did not expect to do was to come back with a renewed sense of my ethnic background, a moment of self-discovery and a better understanding of the kind of sacrifices my grandparents and parents generation made to give me and possibly countless many others of the diaspora I'm part of, the opportunities my grandparents and parents never had.

In the Shadow of Ayacon...

About two weekends ago from the time I started writing this entry, I went to my first Kitacon, a relatively small convention that has been running for some time in the spring of every year for a while, from what I could gather. Although it was nice to be away on a holiday for once, I will have to admit something right here, right now, while everyone else lavishes praise on Kitacon 2014.

Meh.

Literally that is all I have to say on the convention.

OK I will elaborate. It was fun but not spectacular. As much as I enjoy being at these sorts of events, this Kitacon turned out to be a bit of a damp squib for me. There are various reasons for this. Some directly related to the convention. Some not. Some personal. I will go into a long and possibly rambling posting here on some of those reasons.