Tag Archives: year’s end

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2017 Wrap up: Significant Times and Gratitude

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2017 has been an interesting one. Even though I spent most of it in Washington DC for eight months all up, it was fortunate enough for me to be there with friends elsewhere for their significant life events. And I am so grateful for that. In chronological order, there were cancer, marriage, death, and monkhood.

In December 2016 when in Bangkok, one of my best friends got a breast cancer and had an operation just before New Year. She was released from the hospital on New Year’s Eve. We gathered at her place to support her. How melancholy to start the year! Fortunately, she’s got a strong will. And eventually, she beat it.

February to June, I was in DC and needed to hop out of the country within 90 days. Another good timing in April when a friend, whom I worked with closely during the years in Bangkok, was getting married in UK. It was a perfect occasion for me to be her wedding guest. Actually, it was my very first time to attend a Christian ceremony. Also, it gave me some snippets of London after that too.

Got a break Bangkok in July and August. The last two weeks of that break was a real blow. My best friend suddenly got a stroke and passed away. His death got me think a lot about life. I always think about life but that reminded how to live your life worthwhile.

Back to work in DC in September to November. And I took a detour to visit a long lost cousin in Los Angeles before another break in Bangkok in December and January. Good news, another close friend was getting ordained to become a monk for three weeks. In Thai culture, this counts as one of the most honourable merits for a son to do for his parents. That was actually a pleasant way to end the year.

Wearing saffron rope #buddhist #Bangkok #temple

A post shared by ‘Pong (@apostrophepong) on


These events overshadowed what I original planned and thought about 2017. Since the bold decision to work in DC in 2015 (which got me the hindsight about the journeys that made me), I have been embracing my life to be back and forth in DC and Bangkok in 2016. The plan for 2017 was to get back on track on other aspects, especially on the hypertension issue.

I’d like to do something about my drinking habits. I’d say alcohol control has been better than the previous years in DC. However, Bangkok is still a challenge to be disciplined. But, at least, I could pinpoint where the temptations are. On top of that, I’m back on meds that was deliberately ignored when I first moved to DC and keeping monitoring blood pressure.

Workwise, here were some notable ones:

While back-and-forth life of mind sounds exciting to able to change the scenes constantly throughout the year, I just can’t help thinking about settling in one place in the future. In the end, we have to do it at some point but I guess I would keep pushing it while I could.

2017 was full of significant times of my close friends. It was mixed with sickness, joy, loss, and gratitude. Yes, gratitude, that I should be feeling about it. It also made me prepare for the years to come.

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Personal

2016 Wrap up: Life as a Migrant Bird

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Sunrise in Abu Dhabi
Watching the sunrise at Abu Dhabi International Airport in the transit to Washington DC

Looking back in 2016, I have spent time around six months each in Washington DC and Bangkok, going back and forth. Things I have learnt from it were life as a migrant bird seemed to be the pattern now and these physical traveling weren’t as intense as the inner journey I’ve had.

January-March

Continuing from August 2015, I was in DC until March. Those eight months shook my mental state into identity crisis and self-doubts. The biggest one would be why I keep running into an uncertainty like that again and again. That created a quest for me to try to comprehend it.

At the same time, work-wise, I was pleased to see the last video I produced at the last job in Bangkok in 2015 was finally published. It was another video I pushed through, using live action to convey messages of a report on Thailand’s education system.

Continue reading 2016 Wrap up: Life as a Migrant Bird →

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Photography

Out to Space Year Twelve: the Beyond

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pong_12_years_out-to-space

April 2015 – March 2016

This is the final post of the series. Out to Space has come to year twelve. And most posts of the year are what I’ve been looking back in those years of the blog. Why am I doing this? Not only because it reveals to me why I blog but also gives some directions where it could go next.

It started from a photoblog as the platform that I discovered my passion. The following year laid down the foundation of photography. It got some decent exposures in year three (2006/2007) and led to the explosions of the photography works in the year after, which I started to get on videos. Then, there was the transformation to video when I got into College of Fine Arts and the intensity of to finish the school. After that, I was mentally and physically worn out. And the blog became hollow. It got worse in the four years I lived in Bangkok. It was almost void.

Changing the scene to Washington DC helps reviving it. Actually, this is my New Year resolution for 2016—to go through the blog and see how far it has gone. I finally got a chance to clean up broken photo posts in the early years when it was in Moveable Type. Continue reading Out to Space Year Twelve: the Beyond →

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Personal

Out to Space Year Eight-Eleven: the Void

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April 2011 – March 2015

Instagram selfie
Instagram selfie with a rainy view at Thailand Creative and Design Center, August 2014

The previous year of Out to Space was pretty much hollow in its content, I found. But there was at least something in it. The following four years when I lived in Bangkok, the blog was almost void.

There were 141 blog posts from year eight to eleven (April 2011 – March 2015) including automated tweet posts. Whereas year four, when it was most active, there were 176 posts. To break them down:

Year Eight (2011 – 2012)

73 posts in that 53 was automated from weekly tweets. There was one series on Luang Phrabang travel in January 2012.

Continue reading Out to Space Year Eight-Eleven: the Void →

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Personal

Out to Space Year Seven: the Hollow

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April 2010 – March 2011

Self-portrait in the pixelated darkness, May 2010
Self-portrait in the pixelated darkness, May 2010

By April 2010, I had been actively blogging on this space for six years. It mostly reflected on the passion about the work I did so far in photography and videos. But after I finishing the school at College of Fine Arts, the big question was what next! My life became vague and the blog became hollow.

Well, I was supposed to make a living as a media artist/producer, wasn’t I? But the harsh reality was that it wasn’t easy. Even though I got a regular casual job as a video editor to live by, my career needed to be more sustainable.

Street photography or multiculturalism didn’t flare up to me anymore. There was a revisit to the urban bird and back yard theme but that wasn’t it. In fact, I hardly picked up the DSLR at all. No concrete new idea for photography.

There was one trivial series on morning toilet paper I drew on it while taking a crap and took a picture of them everyday. (What I did with them after that would be a bit gross to elaborate.) Strangely, it was somehow a part of my dealing with depression.

One moment I was in the zone was chasing shadows of people on the streets and capturing on video. That became my first entry to Kino Sydney. It was well received by the audience and I was pleased. That was it, to make another short film.

That would be about anxiety, yes, and another mental issue. I put my project up for crowd funding. Unfortunately, my heart problem emerged and it was terminated before the campaign due. I had enough. My focus shifted from it to getting back to Bangkok.

So, life in Australia came to an end in December 2010 after nine and half year. While I was flying back to Thailand, I watch the Wizard of Oz on the plane. It was like Dorothy waking up from her dream. I tapped ruby slippers and chanted, “There’s no place like home”. Back then, it seemed bitter when I left but I would not trade the experience there with anything. And this blog was a big part of it.

Luckily, the day before I left, I got phone call to offer me a job in Bangkok. It was an online producer for World Bank in Bangkok Office I applied for six months earlier. The long process of recruitment made me give up this prospect. But it turned out to be such a perfect timing. The question I had for the whole year was answered. I finally had a sustainable job, a decent one.

In the other hand, that affected my time for the blog as well. It would have been filled with posts about the resettlement in Bangkok and my reflection on the native country. However, I could only do it in January 2011. Once the job started, the blog was almost completely ignored and empty.

So, I would this year seven of Out to Space was the beginning of the hollow of the blog, sadly.

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