three Instagram accounts i like

Remember the days when some random person would come up with a "30 Day Photography Challenge", and you had to take a photo a day according to the given theme? Eg., Day 1 - My face, Day 2 - My Favourite Food, etc. Those were the days when people tried to coax their inner photographer to shine bright by producing noteworthy images, and even then, some would struggle to find a photo to take a day for 30 consecutive days!

Today, you don't need coaxing to get people to come up with 30 photos in 30 days. They will shove their Instagram accounts into your face. Everyone is taking 50 photos a day, and at least half of it goes to Instagram*. This has led to a glut of photos on the platform, making it difficult to find the really excellent and inspirational poster-worthy shots from the mundane #selfies and #beastmodes.

Today, I want to talk about three of my friends who are using Instagram right.

1. @janleejj

If I had to describe her stream in one word, it would be CAFE. Jan knows what she likes and she knows her subject matter well, resulting in properly composed pictures that tell a story and evoke an emotion when you see it. You'll enjoy following her because each photo has a certain quality and feel to it, all poetic in manner.

2. @darrenarvid

Darren's feed is a mix of teen and photography enthusiast - pieces of daily life and milestones entwined with macro shots of nature and trees. What I really like is that when you see a photo, you can tell that much thought has been put into it from snap to filter to upload. And he appreciates the beauty of each subject matter, treating each with respect as being God's creations. Two thumbs up.


3. @roomeen

This girl, she just joined Instagram a few months ago, but she's already working it like a pro. From her images, she very clearly knows what works and what doesn't, leading to a photostream that has more commercial value than not! So very tumblr ready!





*my own sources

guzzling gas

I nearly drained my Smart Tag of its value today, beeping through more tolls than I would have if I were to drive down to Port Dickson. The amount of petrol I burned also burned another small hole in the atmosphere, and added one size to my carbon footprint. Above it all, I felt strangely calm. On any other day, I would have been screaming and tearing my hair apart for wasting money and petrol and damaging the environment, but not today - today, I came to terms and embraced the flow of the traffic; I accepted my fate that I am a Klangite wasting half my life driving down to KL for work every weekday.

Maybe one day I will have some bars of gold, quit my job and do the whole "travel the world and discover myself" program that's so popular with the 20s nowadays.

Never mind that we're not content in the first place with where we are and what our journey is, just go and travel, you're gonna find contentment in that foreign land!

No thanks. You gotta learn to find contentment in your daily life, or you'll be finding yourself looking for it everywhere. Know what I mean?

I do love a good discovery, though. 

This week on Gen Y

This week saw a lot of articles floating around my circle of Facebook friends, and these two in particular stood out for being shared countless times.

The first, Marriage Isn't For You. A selfless sort of article with plenty of valid points brought forward, only to be trumped by this Huffington Post article (only shared by one friend).

The second, Why Men Aren't Really Men Anymore from Elite Daily. This article is so full of it, I was glad to see some brain cells in the comments section.
Actually you know what, I don't even know why I bother sharing anything related to Elite Daily here. I just want to let all my friends know that whatever the site says cannot be taken in its entirety, and you have to look to other sites for better food for thought. ED is a tabloid site built on traffic, gained by airing sensational opinion pieces with more fluff and less logic than the Kardashians.

How are you feeling?

Not bad. I just updated my LinkedIn profile and saw that "Social Media Executives" like me are a dime a dozen. It gets very depressing when I spot some who, though have worked at their agency for lesser time than I've been with mine, are already at a senior position.

Sigh. It's never good to compare your path with other people. You'll always end up wanting to slit your wrists.

But I do love what I do. I've asked a senior in the agency once, why are you still here, and they said, it's all for the clientele. And I have come to realize the truth in that statement. Pouring out your dedication to your clients will result in no bad thing, only good. It's like unrequited love. Is anyone understanding what I'm saying?

"your beliefs don't make you a better person, your behavior does"

"omg aisha is a christian? no wonder lah, from her behavior and all!"

isn't it weird that the sentence above can be seen in two different ways?

1. i do good stuff, so people are not surprised to find out i am a christian - i live my beliefs.
2. i do bad stuff, so people are not surprised to find out i'm a christian - i am a hypocrite like the rest.

i think it's important, as christians, to measure yourself periodically by how other people see you. sure sure, you're the salt and light, children of God, etc etc, what other people say about you shouldn't matter, etc. but, if your behavior doesn't reflect the light of what you believe in, what's the use of your identity?

sorry. i know i suck as a person sometimes. but i'm trying. first step: to admit your faults. there. what's the next step?

.

grief is a very subjective thing and it's different to each person who experiences it. as a regular writer, i know some of you expect to read about my father's death or how i am coping with it, but i really am in no mood to write about it. i am in the mood to tell you to stop smoking though, that shit is bad for you.

we cope. we do the best we can to cope. 

distractions help for a while.

love you and miss you lots, pi.