Friday, December 9, 2011
Intelligence...
... is a state-of being, guided by the desire to achieve goals and ambitions; and fueled the determination and pragmatism to achieve those targets.
ORD lorh!!
When was the last time I did a photo post? Been pretty bad at keeping this blog updated (as I settle into the routines of work life) but my brother's ORD day calls for a post.
Took this with my Nikon camera I bought 2 years ago. The camera is good for large landscape shots during the day but not so good with night settings or motions. But I kinda like this picture, taken at dusk.
Took this with my Nikon camera I bought 2 years ago. The camera is good for large landscape shots during the day but not so good with night settings or motions. But I kinda like this picture, taken at dusk.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Clay
The mind, malleable as clay, is molded by the learning environment.
My four years at Carleton, has been that learning environment. Then, my mind has been stretched to conceptualize abstractions, hardened to give weight to arguments I was making. It also took the form I never imagined it would, when I embarked on the challenge of combing the tools of anthropology and political science for my senior thesis.
Now, three months after graduation, I face yet another challenge of softening the hardened clay once again so it can fit into the mold required for my work at TRP, which requires understanding a lot of country-level data, and statistics. This kind of thinking is no doubt very important, should one aspire to understand the vast political and economic landscape of the region or the world. But I can't help but stop wondering if, in my quest to see this 'bigger picture,' I might loose the small, and fine details (social dynamics, cultures, psychologies) I have worked so hard to focus on at Carleton.
Certainly, depth and breath are not mutually exclusive and one does not have to trade the breadth of knowledge for depth. However, it is possible that skills we don't use regularly will be weathered and dulled eventually; that a clay left to air will loose its malleability.
My challenge now, apart from learning to shift the thinking framework to a broader one, will be to find out ways in which I can (secure) the details of the pictures, to remember the shape of my molded clay at Carleton, so that I can retain the shape of both forms and remain flexible.
My four years at Carleton, has been that learning environment. Then, my mind has been stretched to conceptualize abstractions, hardened to give weight to arguments I was making. It also took the form I never imagined it would, when I embarked on the challenge of combing the tools of anthropology and political science for my senior thesis.
Now, three months after graduation, I face yet another challenge of softening the hardened clay once again so it can fit into the mold required for my work at TRP, which requires understanding a lot of country-level data, and statistics. This kind of thinking is no doubt very important, should one aspire to understand the vast political and economic landscape of the region or the world. But I can't help but stop wondering if, in my quest to see this 'bigger picture,' I might loose the small, and fine details (social dynamics, cultures, psychologies) I have worked so hard to focus on at Carleton.
Certainly, depth and breath are not mutually exclusive and one does not have to trade the breadth of knowledge for depth. However, it is possible that skills we don't use regularly will be weathered and dulled eventually; that a clay left to air will loose its malleability.
My challenge now, apart from learning to shift the thinking framework to a broader one, will be to find out ways in which I can (secure) the details of the pictures, to remember the shape of my molded clay at Carleton, so that I can retain the shape of both forms and remain flexible.
Saturday, July 23, 2011
rambling on changes
People change when they grow up: that's a pretty obvious (duh) statement.
But in riding these currents of change with time, how are we to assess whether this change is good or bad, desirable or not?
Looking back on my last couple of years, I am very thankful for the intellectual growth and experiences that I have had, but I am still left grappling with the cultural relativism ideology I have been conditioned to embrace, from being an cross-cultural studies student and an anthropologist.
In addressing change (in personal life, ideologies, or habits), perhaps the question we should really ask is (not whether these changes are good or bad) whether or not the changes that we have been through are applicable to the present (the current and surrounding environment or institutions, as defined by Ostrom). I say this because often, those who have lived in many different places, who claim to be victims of dislocation, face the problem of applying the adopted practices and habits to root them down to where they presently are. The conflict arises when the past and present-- two seemingly different worlds, categorzsed separately in the victim's mind-- collide. And how the victim analyzes this collision also depends on his/her frame of mind which is also affected by his/her surroundings or atmosphere.
So really, people change all the time, and to say that someone has changed for the better is an imposition of one's own standards (of goodness) onto another person's. But in making this statement, I am also aware that my thinking has shifted sides to the existentialist, relativist mindset, which some would misinterpret to be 'emo.'
So do I switch back to being 'pragmatic' and stop thinking these immaterial questions and fit right in with my atmosphere? Or is there really a venue for these thoughts to be applied to a more meaningful endeavor? Either way, there is no right or wrong answer but just how the answer is analyzed. It will be a happy ending, with lenses of analysis.
But in riding these currents of change with time, how are we to assess whether this change is good or bad, desirable or not?
Looking back on my last couple of years, I am very thankful for the intellectual growth and experiences that I have had, but I am still left grappling with the cultural relativism ideology I have been conditioned to embrace, from being an cross-cultural studies student and an anthropologist.
In addressing change (in personal life, ideologies, or habits), perhaps the question we should really ask is (not whether these changes are good or bad) whether or not the changes that we have been through are applicable to the present (the current and surrounding environment or institutions, as defined by Ostrom). I say this because often, those who have lived in many different places, who claim to be victims of dislocation, face the problem of applying the adopted practices and habits to root them down to where they presently are. The conflict arises when the past and present-- two seemingly different worlds, categorzsed separately in the victim's mind-- collide. And how the victim analyzes this collision also depends on his/her frame of mind which is also affected by his/her surroundings or atmosphere.
So really, people change all the time, and to say that someone has changed for the better is an imposition of one's own standards (of goodness) onto another person's. But in making this statement, I am also aware that my thinking has shifted sides to the existentialist, relativist mindset, which some would misinterpret to be 'emo.'
So do I switch back to being 'pragmatic' and stop thinking these immaterial questions and fit right in with my atmosphere? Or is there really a venue for these thoughts to be applied to a more meaningful endeavor? Either way, there is no right or wrong answer but just how the answer is analyzed. It will be a happy ending, with lenses of analysis.
Monday, July 11, 2011
11.07.11
How could a photographer get by without a proper DSLR?
For four years, I have done just that! The first time I learnt how to use a DSLR was by getting a crash course from my work supervisor (yes, I was hired as a photographer without any skills and knowledge on DSLRs) with a Nikon D100.
I started taking photos for school events as a student photographer. In my second year of college, I took a Digital Photography class with John Schott and learnt how to use Adobe Photoshop. I also took a film photography course with Linda Rossi.
I have been using a Nikon P80 for the past three years, and have been very fortunate to have traveled and shot photographs in about 10 different countries, guided by my international development academic framework. (Some of my work is recorded in the blog, Half a year in Africa. But today, on the eleventh of July, two-thousand and eleven (11.07.11), I got my very own DSLR!
Here it is (:
Now, I have graduated from college and I am going to give myself a breather from direct involvement with international development issues. But I am keen to find out how the two main interests that I pursed at Carleton -- photography and international development-- play an important but peripheral role in my post-Carleton life! (:
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