Pentaprism Group - Ejun Low Portraits (My Experience)

Ejun Low Portraits

Ejun Low Photography is a subsidiary of Pentaprism group (correct me if I'm wrong) which specialises in portrait photography for both commercial and personal uses.

I’ve actually stumbled upon Ejun from his website, http://www.ejunlow.com/ and I must say that I really like and appreciate the work that he’s done.

I’ve gotten in touch with them and did my booking with Ejun via Rhys, a photographer there as well and also the one in charge of the bookings. He was really friendly and helpful with regards to any questions that I had. Kudos to him for that!

According to them, Ejun was fully booked for the month of July (they claim to only host 2 people per week). Arranged for the photo shoot to be done in August instead (better time for me still anyway).

Never exactly been in a studio solo before, hopefully I’ll be cool on the actual day itself. :S

Day at the Studio (12/8/15)

Arrived at the place 15mins earlier and was greeted by Ejun shortly after. He was a super warm, kind and friendly guy. I initially thought that it may be a little intimidating as he was the principal photographer of the whole damn place, but in reality, it was the total opposite!

He showed me in and offered me a drink. We had a nice talk for awhile before he asked to see my suit and told me to change into it.

After which, he proceeded on to give me a very informative session on the intricacies of lighting and shadows for portrait photography. It was quite insightful and I really do appreciate him educating me, instead of simply taking my photo and being done with me. Super good service!

I really appreciate his sense of style as he directed me through various poses and even some 'model' -ish looking shots. This guy had no problems making literally anyone look splendid! (Or their very best at least)

An example is as such:
He sits you down in a certain angle, gets you to tilt your head in certain ways and look at a certain direction, making sure that the direction that your looking at is in line with where your nose is facing, so that everything is in 'sync'.

Took about a total of 150-200 shots across a few different backgrounds. The first 40 were what he called 'warm up' shots. I really like the idea of this as people tend to be stiff and nervous maybe(?) for the first few pictures (this may not be too available somewhere else). He just kept taking pictures of you, altering your poses simply to make you feel comfortable initially. After which, when you start to look more natural, the gold starts surfacing!

I've gotta choose 2 pictures out of the whole lot that he got for me and according to him, the total number of photos taken isn't even a lot, it was good that there were quite a number of photos that he was happy with. In the end, I decided on the following 2:

Photos after editing (Click on Images for Hi-Res):

Black Background

White & Grey Background

Overall, I'm satisfied with how he constantly strives to produce high quality photo products and at the same time creating a warm and cozy ambience around.

If you ever do need a portrait photo taken, this is definitely the guy you should check out.

2XU Compresssion Run 2015

I must say, the marketing done by this company is splendid. It has gone through my skepticism of paying for over-priced shit but I did it anyway because I really liked it.

Damage for the run was about 60 bucks, I also opted to get the 'Elite MCS' compression short tights which cost me another 100+. I was actually advised to go for the full legging tights as it was my calf that's usually the one that cramps in these endurance runs, but it's just so damn ugly :( so nope lol.

Race Pack Collection

Headed down to Velocity @ Novena at around lunch time on Friday (13/3/15) and I tell you, the place was packed like fuck! I did not expect so many people at a non-peak hour time but surprise surprise, the queue actually lasted all the way out of the mall and to the next building and it was still going.

 The Long Queue

Checked the website on my phone and apparently this race was fully SOLD OUT. I'm probably attributing this to the nicer design of the singlet + the 2XU shoe bag's that they were giving out as a part of the race pack.

The race pack itself included the running singlet, your number tag, pins, and some brochures packed in the shoe bag. Tbh, I really like the design of the shoe bag and would probably be using in the future.

2XU Race Apparels

Race Day - 21.1km

The original race day itself was supposed to be held on 29/3/15. However, due to the passing of our founding father LKY, it was postponed to 2/8/15.

Trained only about 3 weeks prior to the actual race day itself.

Arrived 1 hour prior to the flag-off time. The race-site looked quite make-shift with a couple of tent-ages being set up across a wide grass field. Sat around and waited for them to start directing people into the start pen. As usual, it was quite a clusterfuck.

They were pretty punctual with the gun time. The race started at almost 4:30am. A lot of people were chionging at the start again, as usual (The poser ones usually die out pretty quickly). I just kept my own comfortable pace.

I was pretty happy with myself throughout the whole run as I did not really stop to walk at all. The only times I did were at water points to usually sip the 2 cups of water that I oftenly took as I would kind of choke on it if I tried to drink while running.

The groups that I was with throughout seemed to be those that managed to run all the way as well, which made me feel like I've made some progress and I'm actually getting better at running longer distances.

Crossed the finish line at 2:43, according to my watch at least.

 Official Result

Post-run photo

The finisher-tee was quite nice. Quite liked the black design with the golden coloured strips on it.

Took the shuttle bus to the floating platform and walked to city-hall to get some food. Had Nasi Lemak to replenish those carbs that I've lost.

Took the mrt, then bus home from there. I thought of taking a cab, but I'm a broke little phaggot right now and couldn't afford it.

Overall, I was satisfied with my performance this time. I managed to clock a timing of <3hours (which was my initial goal to begin with) and I did not really walk at all throughout the whole thing.

Will I be running long distance runs again? Probably not anytime soon. This shit's a sadistic sport if your gunning for better timings. We'll see though, cheers.

Jumbo Seafood at East Coast Park

It's been awhile since I've last visited Jumbo Seafood (Maybe in Pri/Sec schl?). I was reminded about it when I ran past it during the 2015 Sundown Marathon lol.

There are a couple of branches all over Singapore. I insisted on going to the East Coast Park one though as it had not just a nice sea-view opposite, but was the original branch as well.

Jumbo Seafood @ East Coast Park

When we arrived, there was actually a really long queue to the place. There was even a queue for those (including us) who made reservations. No matter, we were shown to our seats quite promptly still.

Here's what we had:

Salted Egg Golden Prawn

This was the first dish that was served and it was delicious! I understand that they are coating the prawns in flour & egg yolk, but what I don't get is how did they make it so fukin crisp and tasteful.

Scalloped wrapped in Yam Ring

This was served with sweet sauce. Individually, the scallop was soft and the yam ring was flaky and was a pleasure to chew on. However, it was quite hard to bite both at once as the scallop kept falling out lol.

Mee Goreng

Apparently, Jumbo's Mee Goreng is famous. It's a little spicy and the seafood toppings were not as much as I'd hoped for. Still, it was filling, seeing that the previous dishes were all just to 吃爽 and not to 吃饱 - this one served that purpose.

Donut with Seafood Paste

Initially I did not really thought that this dish was anything special as it looked rather plain. In reality, it was really different from what I was expecting - the insides sure as hell wasn't plain. I grabbed quite a few more of these as it was such a yummy treat!

Jumbo Seafood's famous Chilli Crab

Very well known throughout Singapore that Jumbo Seafood's award-winning Chilli Crab is a definite must try for anyone that goes there. The sauce was thick, sweet and not too spicy (despite the name) and the crab itself was fresh and delightful to eat (troublesome though, and messy - cause I noob at eating crab lol). We had the crab with some mantous which we dipped into the Chilli Crab sauce and ate.

Overall, it was quite a nostalgic and nice experience eating at Jumbo again as this place has been around since I was like 10.

Price wise, it can be a little pricey (or at least for low-class me), but still if you are coming once in a while, it's definitely worth the occasional treat!

Sundown Marathon 2015

 Started training for this about 2 months prior to the actual event itself, progressively increasing the duration and mileage of my runs.

Stopped lifting entirely during this period as well as it would be counterproductive, trying to build mass and yet go through so much endurance training at the same time was simply a 1 way ticket to achieving results nowhere.

Did lose some size and muscle as a result, but no matter as such is the process of marathon training.

Not really gonna race anyone or rush for some kind of 'timing', my only aim is to complete it without getting DQ-ed (<8hours I believe). It's more for personal satisfaction. Experience at the previous SCM was pretty painful, hopefully this time I will fare a lot better as I've been training substantially more for this run.

There was also an element of 'unfinished business' as I did not run the full marathon back during the SCMS 2014. Hence, completing this marathon would prove to be a significant milestone for me.

Race Pack Collection (26/6/15)

Entrance

The collection was done at Suntec Convention Hall, it was the usual walk-in, register, collect race-tag and running singlet with bag + miscellaneous.

 Registration & Race Pack Collection Area

Surprisingly, there wasn't really a crowd when I was there, good for me I guess. 

You had to do a mandatory walk through a whole bunch of mobile shops/booths after. They were selling all kinds of stuff such as compression tights, shoes, socks, gels, energy bars etc. 

The prices for some of the stuff kinda felt like a rip-off. Regardless, I went ahead to buy 2 gels ($2.50 each) and 2 packets of jelly blocks ($5/pack) and a new running belt ($28) as the previous one that I was using didn't seem big enough to accommodate all the stuff that I was gonna bring.

Loot

Above are the main things that I got for the day. I'd probably bring along the stuff that I've displayed above to the actual run itself (minus the bag of course). Hopefully I did not under-stock on the 'carbs'.

Only thing to do now is to get into the mood for the actual day itself and make sure to get the right amount of rest, diet and sleep the few days before the big day.

Full Marathon Day (4/7/15)

Pre-run:

Arrived at the race site an hour earlier, this was about 12am (Actual flag off was around 1am)

Scouted the area a little before heading to the cluster-fucked start line to get my things ready and warmup. During the huge gathering, I somehow ended up in front and around the 5:30 pacers. I didn't think too much of it then as I simply wanted to be closer to the front.

After the flag off, people were apparently all chionging at the start (not surprised). Not sure if they're really fit, but I'd think that they are just over-hyped and are forgetting that it's a 42+km run. Those 'action' ones die off at ~5km lol.

0-15km: 

Didn't think that it'd affect me, but I was really pulled along by the 5:30 pack around the pacers, making me speed up my frequency a little, which kinda worried me but I simply did not want to slow-down too much that early as I did not want to be swallowed up by the pack behind.

Respect to those that can keep up with these people all the way though, I fell off from them at around the 15km mark.

15-21km:

The reason I dropped off at the 15km mark from the 5:30 pack was cause my calf was tightening. I could keep pushing, but from experience it is not a road that I'd like to go down as if I did so, I would not even be able to walk for the remaining parts of the run, which is still quite a distance.

No choice, had to start walking. I was walking fast though, deliberately making sure that I kept my strides wide and the frequency of my steps high as well. This eased up the tension on my calves by a lot.

I'd also like to add that this 'fast walking' was a really good thing that I've discovered. I was able to keep up with those people who are jogging at tortoise pace and overtook a lot of the people who have already started walking during this segment.

21-30km:

At 21km, I remember that my timing was exactly 3hours. I was still doing my 'fast walk' for this leg of the race.

I tell you, the long stretches of roads at east coast park where you can't see the end is really mind-fuckingly sian (You even do a U-turn and walk the same way back on these roads/paths).

I was pretty happy with my speed for this section as everything seemed to be going as planned. The timings for my intervals per km here was really on track at 10min/km. This really set me up for a 6hour+ timing finish which I could definitely live with, if I kept this pace up. Not to mention, I was walking still and I had the potential to be quicker if I ran after.

I also started to ration my 2 Gels and 8 Jelly blocks after around the 1:30 point, consuming 1 every 45 minutes till the end of the race to keep the carbs in my body up so that I don't actually 'hit the wall'. The amount I had was just nice for my whole run.

 30-38km:

This is really where you've got to start digging deep.

Luckily my calves were rested enough and I could start running again.

30km onwards, it's really a zombie march. 80% of the people around me were quietly walking. To be honest, I don't really have too much recollection of this interval as I tried to block out the pain by just keeping my mind blank and going full zombie mode lol.

38-42.195km:

This is the supreme hell hole for most of the runners. Your close to the finish line, but you'd most likely be out of gas at this point. Any attempts people made to run only lasted for a couple of minutes, before they started to walk again.

For some reason though, I was able to run this part and the pain wasn't so bad here. Maybe this is what they call 'second wind'? Idk. It was still taking a lot of effort to take mini running steps though and I looked rather retarded doing it but at this point, you really wouldn't care.

When the finish line was in sight, I was so happy I remembered smiling to myself. :) Crossing it felt very good, gave a 'nice' victory cheer too lol!

 Dat constipated face

Post Run:

After crossing the finish line, I collected my medal, finisher tee, some food and drinks.

 Finisher-Tee

Did a couple of warm-down stretches afterwards, but not like it was really going to be of much help anyway as my whole body was already so heavy and hurting.

Here's some of the damage done to me:

• Blisters under both of my feet
• Abrasions on my butt & armpit area
• Very sore calves
• Heavy thighs

Still proud of myself that I did not stop at all for the whole race, as I had this feeling that if I did, I would not be able to move at all already.

Clocked a timing of 6:33 according to my watch. This was a timing that I could definitely accept.

The official race timing put me at 6:32 anyway

Really though, whoever who runs marathons for 'fun' must be some kind of masochist imo. Especially those clocking <5 or <6 hour times. (Jk)

This run was organised a lot better than the 2014 Stan Chart one (which provided no food at all). They had hydration points with water, 100plus, bananas and some of them even gave out Gels & Coke!

Also, I'd really want to give a huge shout-out to all the volunteers. You guys are simply amazing, in terms of giving the runners encouragement and nourishment. Lots of appreciation goes out to all of you.

Despite the pain, it was a good personal experience and achievement. Definitely an event that would mark itself as one of the mile-stones in my life. :)

Making my very first Bespoke Suit

It has always been on my mind to get myself a suit. I've contemplated getting those from G2k or anywhere off the rack from shopping center shops as it'd be a lot cheaper and a lot more convenient. In the end, I thought that if your gonna be spending the money anyway, you might as well get it tailored.

I've asked and looked around and there were many different types of tailoring places offering bespoke suit services across a wide range of prices. In the end, I came across this shop that people were highly recommending online.

Dickson's Menswear

The whole tailoring process would involve a few meetings. The first getting the material, style, type of suit and general measurements down before making any necessary alterations in the subsequent meetings when your suit is made.

The First Meet (20/5/15)

This was actually a very humble shop located on the first floor in Bras Basah complex. 

First impressions were that making suits in this area could never compare to those fancy swanky shops in down town areas with those bald semi-gay acting pinoy 'designers' measuring you up.

However, this was really untrue after getting to meet the owner, Mr Wong who was the only person manning the small shop.

Mr Wong in his humble shop

This shop works by an appointment only basis. Meaning you have to make an appointment with him before he will attend to you as the business here is apparently quite good.

When I arrived, Mr Wong, whom I felt was a really friendly old uncle greeted me kindly and talked to me about my expectations in the suit I wanted.

You could tell that this uncle was really experienced and very educational as well. We chatted up and he actually introduced me into the history of his time making suits for people and how the trends have changed from the past till now. He even had some kind of old tradition looking 'association of master tailors' certificate in a old frame he chucked on top of a pile of suits lol.

He showed me the many different kinds of materials available and their respective prices. He also made certain recommendations for me based on how often I would be wearing it, where I would be wearing it, the color's versatility and it's general lifespan.

He then took my measurements. He actually complemented that my body structure was pretty solid LOL. THIS MADE ME SO DAMN HAPPY YOU HAVE NO IDEA HAHAHAHA. 

Then I asked him how much curvature and shape can I squeeze out of the suit so that it looks nicer and his response was quite funny lol. He says 'a lot of young one like you ah, like everything tight tight, but when you do this, you ruin the integrity of the suit and it looks damn punkish. When you wear a suit, you have to look professional'

He also explained to me the aspects of a suit from the pockets, the right lengths, to the back tails and how you should wear them on different occasions. Apparently, in a super formal occation, you have to pull your suit pockets out instead of tucking them in; a mistake a lot of Singaporeans make he says who just simply follow trends.

The whole process of  the introduction was really good. No wonder he got so many good review from loads of satisfied customers online.

Price wise, I feel that it is reasonable. I got a package deal from him which was a total of $550 for the following:

(All Tailored)

1x Suit Jacket

1x Pants

1x White Shirt

1x Vest

For the suit jacket, vest and pants, I opted for the wool cashmere blend material which costs $450. His package allowed me to include a Vest (u.p. $150 for the material I chose) and a shirt for just an extra $100. Reason I chose to opt for the exra vest and tailored shirt was so that the whole set would become a lot more versatile and I can wear loads of different combinations. (No suit + vest + shirt, no vest + suit + shirt, suit + vest + shirt, etc)

Yeah yeah, I know you can get them for cheaper at some other place, but it's the whole experience and service that sold it for me.

2nd Meet - Fitting (4/6/15)

Met Mr Wong again to try on my readied suit, shirt and pants. There were still a couple of minor adjustments needed to be made regarding the length of my pants & the allowance on my left wrist area as my watch was pretty bulky.

Took measurements for my vest today from some prototypes. The actual one + all the minor adjustment to the other pieces should be ready for me next week.

Still, the experience after changing into my pants and shirt was simply shiok as hell. I looked really good imo. On top of that, when he told me to relax my arms out backwards and placed the suit on me, I felt so boss-like.

After, he explained to me that every time when one puts on a suit, you need to tug the lapels before you button the 1st button. When I was doing this motion, I felt so fuckin' alpha, I couldn't help it but chuckled a little to myself and he did too. :P

He also mentioned to me that if you want to unbutton your suit button, don't throw the suit flaps out after, which is what I did initially (and apparently a lot of people are guilty of as well); just leave it as it is after unbuttoning and continue doing whatever you were. Interesting that there are actually so many small things to note about donning a suit.

He then continued to enlighten me on how I should never take my suit out and hang them on chairs at formal events, never knew that tbh and it's something that I'd totally see myself doing actually. =/

Thus far, I am really quite satisfied. I felt that my requests were all addressed, be it in explanations on why some things cannot be done without spoiling the image, or to make minor adjustments to areas based on his recommendations and my liking. More importantly, I learned so much about how to behave in a a suit from this guy.


3rd Meet - Final Fitting (17/6/15)

The final fitting was pretty quick. When I arrived, there were a couple of people there and I simply waited for my turn.

After trying on everything, it all seemed ok. Settled the payment promptly with him and we both wished each other well before I left.

The final pieces felt really high quality despite my initial impressions of the humble looking shop and I am overall very satisfied with the service he provided and the products that I've gotten!


For those who are interested, here is his name card:

I'm finally an owner of my very own bespoke suit. Feels great!

Hearthstone - Heroic Blackrock Mountain completed!

Last wing of the Black-rock mountain was released today and managed to clear the heroic wings rather smoothly (thankfully).

Heroic BRM Card-back earned

Heroic BRM Cleared

Overall, the bosses that gave me real problems were heroic Chromaggus and heroic Lord Victor Nefarius(from week 4). Those took hours to clear even with the appropriate decks.

I kind of felt that the last boss, Nefarian(again) had the portential to be really hard deal to the really gay hero ability and you had to go through 3 phases.

Thankfully, I managed to get him on my 1st try using a control warrior deck. I played all the way till my fatigue turn where I managed to beat him. It kinda felt like a scrape though as he could've just stack his minions with his hero ability towards the end even when he ran out of cards in his hand, I just happened to have some board control then and managed to finish him.

Anyway, the expansion was a rather pleasant experience to play through and am certainly looking forward to the release of the next one!

App: 9GAG Redhead Redemption

I for one hardly download new games as I do not really want my phone to be filled with apps that I've got to spend time sieving through if I'm actually looking for something.

However, as an avid reader of 9gag (lol), I've actually decided to download one of their apps and give it a shot. This is after looking through the reviews and the feedback was rather positive.

The game's really simple and straightforward. Yet, it's really not too bad. Basically, your a red-head carrying a baby on a quest to rescue your possessed parents from zombies. The story line was super straight forward as well.

The game's pretty beginner friendly to clear, however if your aiming for 3-stars on ever single mission, it could take a few retries, especially on some of the boss levels.

The main attraction of the game for me was that it's art was really cute, and parts of the loading/pre-loading screens had references to 9gag memes which was pretty fun to see as well.

All in all, it is a really good time-killer and I'd recommend that you give it a go.