Ramblings of a Dreamer

[doll talk] Angelic Aurora

2012-02-15T14:39:00.000+08:00

Recently, I met up with Jamie to help her dress up her beautiful girl, Aurora (also known as Amphibel) for an upcoming dollmeet that we'll be attending. Since Aurora has no proper outfits yet and sewing is NOT an option for the time being, I volunteered to help out dressing this angel up - basic style.

Meet the serene angel, Aurora

Of course, before settling down somewhere, we had to get the materials for the outfit. So we head over to a cloth shop, Nagoya, and purchased some cheap stretchy cloth. We also went to several other shops to purchase things like safety pins and ribbons to further decorate the outfit.

Remember, no sewing was involved whatsoever!

In her full glory: Stretchy cloth, white ribbon, safety pins.

She has a pair of lovely sculpted hands :D

3/4 profile view

Also there on that day were Lacey and Luna. As Lacey did not have an outfit either we did a quick tube-dress wraparound for her :)

Luna loves cuddling up to everyone, and Lacey is not an exception!

The three girls together :)

I really, truly like Soom's sculpts. Talk about elegance! And in case you're wondering, Aurora is a Soom sculpt ^_^

Apologies for the odd set of photoeditings; I was experimenting with several styles on this batch of photos hahaha

Mealoaf Mania!

2012-02-03T19:00:00.000+08:00

Beef meatloaf freshly baked from the microwave!

A few weeks back, I helped my friend with a couple of stuff at her place and in return, she offered to cook me dinner. We both agreed on meatloaf for several reasons:

1. It's superbly easy to prepare and cook
2. I've NEVER had a proper meatloaf before
3. We love meat, and onions, and MEAT! =P

So just before we get started on our work, the meatloaf was being made. And boy, was it yummy! Top this with a slice of Rustical Bread and we were having the time of our lives. All this for less than RM20 between the two of us!

When we were discussing about the different meatloaf recipes out there, I decided to say hello to Uncle Google and check out what is a meatloaf and the ingredients used for it. I ended up in one of my favorite recipe websites: All Recipes - Easy Meatloaf.

So okay, I got the idea as to HOW it was done, the next one was to figure out if we want to follow it as per detail or come up with something on our own?

We ended up throwing in foodstuff that we liked into our meatloaf! Hahahaha. So what did we squish into the meatloaf recipe? Here's our (rather short) list of ingredients:

Minced beef meat (Ramly processed minced beef was used for this)
1 egg
1/2 stick of carrot
1 big onion
Capsicum
Breadcrumbs (we toasted two slices of bread and ran it through the grater)
Butter
Salt (for taste)
Sugar (for taste)

The idea is to mix all of those ingredients together, place it in a microwaveable container, and dump it into the microwave for about 15 minutes (it depends on your microwave setting) and voila! Your meatloaf is done!

A thing to note about using beef: the meatloaf SHRINKS while getting cooked. So be prepared to see a slightly shrunken meatloaf in your container when it's done hahaha XD

Have a break, have a cat!

2012-02-03T14:00:00.000+08:00

Wot'cher want?

I'm running dry on what to blog about lately, so right now the straws are being grasped just to keep this blog updated (for the sake of keeping it updated and nothing else hahaha).

Here's a cute photo of Oliver, who belongs to a friend of mine. He's not only an adorable kitten, but the quirky personality of this tabby really warms the heart of everyone who knows him.

Of course, none of us enjoys it too much when he decides to go on a "I-wanna-bit-you" mode!

Good food, good company, excellent Family Reunion

2012-01-30T13:00:00.000+08:00

How was your CNY reunion dinner? :)

[Mini Review] Little Pantry

2011-11-14T13:00:00.000+08:00

Last Saturday, I attended a makeup course with Swing, Neko, Aiko, Cappy and Narukids at Innocrest Puchong that we had purchased online fron I Love Discounts. It was okay, and the Mary Kay body scrub worked wonders on my skin! Too bad I was not exactly fond of the eyeshadow choice of color the consultant had given us hahaha.

Anyway, this blog post is not about that. Rather, it's about the place we (Cappy, Kids, Aiko and me) had for dinner after the course was done: Little Pantry.

Truth be told, I was intrigued by this place for a very long time since I saw it for the very first time in IOI Mall, Puchong. Their maid costumes may be a wee bit garish (fluorescent pink with white frills) but hey, service isn't too bad! I'll admit the price is a tad steep for me, but overall, pretty worth it :)

Note: All photo credits to Aiko; thanks for allowing me to use the photos you have taken! :)

Weekday deals for you, during Tea Time! The cakes looked pretty awesome by the way, and I was so intrigued by them (though we didn't have any in the end hahaha)

Food on display outside to tempt potential customers? This is from their Seafood set if I'm not wrong :)

White interior, with a dash of pink! Taken from where we were seated.

We're not exactly sure whose buffet line is this for, but heck, the food looked really good! And the background setting? Simply Victorian-ish to me! :D

Their basic color theme is white and pink, with more of the former than the latter. I find it perfectly pleasant, though I wonder if men dining in here might feel a wee bit intimidated by the obviously feminine feel to this place XD

Pink roses to brighten up the table :)

The menu booklet. Wish we managed to snap photos of the details inside this menu :(

The best part? There is actually a private room catered for your private functions! I smell a potential photoshoot place right here actually!

Anyway, when we were there, we managed to snag the Buy 1 Free 1 Pasta deal somehow (valid Monday - Friday, 5-7pm) as the waitress informed us that the deal was valid on that day (we were there at about 6.40pm. Lucky!)

So after perusing through the selection of pasta, we finally decided on two types:

Spaghetti Beef Bolognaise, priced at RM15.90. Both Narukids and Aiko selected this dish

It was indeed delicious! The rich, tangy tomato topped with a hint of cheddar and minced beef made this an appetizing dish to have indeed.

While the two of them dined on red, Cappy and I dined on White instead.

The Al-Funghi Fettuccine, priced at RM14.90.

This pasta isn't too bad either. The 'shrooms used were pretty fresh and the cream was delicious! My only peeve about this dish is that it was a tad too dry cause the gravy was too little :(

No drinks, cause we decided to dine on Pasta and Water hahahahaha. Overall, I find the settings here pretty good.

Little Pantry, you can expect me to dine here in future, and have private functions in your room one day! I'm horribly tempted to have a Rozen Maiden photoshoot here for the heck of it too! Just cause I find the settings waaaay better than Fullhouse hahahaha.

You can locate this quaint little cafe right here:

Little Pantry

G02 & G18 Ground Floor,

IOI Mall Puchong,

Bandar Puchong,

Batu 9 Jalan Puchong,

47100 Puchong

That Creepy Lady [ Dreams]

2011-11-13T23:14:00.001+08:00

I'm a blinking lazy blogger and I know it hahahaha. But to revive this blog a wee bit, allow me to re-post this particular post I had updated on my Tumblr here. Just 'cause I find it interesting enough to share with everyone.

Who knows, it could inspire you Nano-ers out there to write a cool story out of my silly dream? :)

My dreams are weird, and when I have nightmares…well I simply have nightmares.Anyway penning down several weird dreams I’ve been having lately that’s making me go insane each time I wake up.

***********************************************************

I was about to step into the bathroom when I heard a loud and angry shout from outside. I paused momentarily, wondering what was going on out there. It sounded like my neighbour got into a fight again with his son. Though I have never seen them before, their voices can often be heard right up to my room. And just to explain how loud their shrill shrieks can carry along with the wind, my room is located next to the backyard whereas they tend to scream around the porch/garden area. THAT is how loud they can be.
Out of the blue I heard a loud rattling noise from my sister’s room, located opposite of mine. Startled, I panicked and wondered if it was a thief. Grabbing a baseball bat (now how did that get in there?) from the corner of my room, I sneaked towards my sister’s room barely clad in a piece of white towel. As I peeked into the room over a gap by the door, my heart thumped madly when I noticed the french window was gaping wide open. Or to be more exact, one partition was left hanging ajar because the lock is missing. My eyes darted left and right as I hurriedly dashed into the room to close the windows. As I closed the windows, I noticed that the man who was shouting earlier sneaked past the rooftop in front of me. I wondered what happened and why the heck is he acting like a thief. Just as I was about to pull in the second partition (the one that had a broken lock), a wrinkly lady with a terrible grin suddenly appeared very close to my face. Now downright spooked, I screamed and grabbed the french window and hastily pulled it towards me with all my might. At the same time, the lady tried to block my actions and we had a short tussle between the french window.
I heard her mumbling something like, “It’s too late dearie, give it up” as I screamed and tugged the window even more with all of my might. My neighbour must have heard my scream cause he came bounding up on the roof (well, the room is on the second floor after all) and shouted something unintelligible as he pointed at the old lady. The wrinkled hag merely grinned and waved goodbye, before giving me the evil eye. That gave me goosebumps right down to my spine. It was a creepy “I’ll get you for this definitely” look, and it was not a happy one.
The hag bounded off in such an agile manner, I began wondering what the heck was she in the first place. The man came over and knocked against the window, causing me to scream in shock once more. Well, I was scared, so what did you expect(duh)? He told me not to worry, though he did notice the hag stalking my house for a while now. Well, that topped off the creep-o-meter chart for me. Seriously, old hag interested in my house? What is up with that?
My neighbour (sorry, never knew his name, it IS a dream after all) took his phone and was about to call the cops (I think) when his son appeared. He looked rather disheveled somehow, as though he had just escaped from a hard fight. As I looked at him, I suddenly remembered why that old hag had looked rather familiar. I had seen her approaching him before this. Or rather, lurking in the shadows watching him. I shuddered and told the guy what I knew….

**************************************************************

…and I woke up feeling all creeped out. I think the worst deal is that I’m currently home alone and I get really paranoid when I’m alone. This was the second dream I had in less than 4 hours sleeping downstairs. I wonder if I’ll ever remember to type out my first dream (or if I happen to remember it once more).One thing’s for sure, this is a pretty good Nanowrimo material lol

Have you seen the new Facebook Layout?

2011-08-19T17:05:00.000+08:00

Here's a sneak peek if you haven't. I'm currently messing around to adapt to this new layout style brought to you by none other than Facebook:

***

The overall FB News Feed layout. Notice that there isn't Top News, Most Recent, nor the Filter options anymore.

Be careful of what you say, for it will be seen by others. This has been implemented for awhile now, I think, but the Ticker system makes it easier for me to scan through. One thing to note about Ticker is that each time any of your friends leave a comment on a FB Page post/photo/video, that comment will be seen on Ticker. You can also reply to a comment from the Ticker column

I need to figure out how does Highlight works. Anyone, any ideas on this?

So now when you have uploaded new photos (more than one), this is how it will be displayed on your friend's (and yours) news feed. Not bad really, Personally like this better!

If it's a single image, this is how it will look like. Again, not bad! :D

***

So overall, what do you think? New Facebook Layout a Yay or a Nay from you? :)

Birthday Wishlist 2011

2011-08-08T23:17:00.000+08:00

As requested by Naoko, here's my Birthday wishlist lol. Yes I know it's a rather rushed wishlist to be updated. Never thought of posting one up this year but ah well ~~

This is a very quick one, something that I can think right off my head as of right now, so yes, the list is superbly 'short' =P

Normal Wishlist:

Books (Mercedes Lackey)
Magic's Pawn
Magic's Promise
Owlflight
The Fairy Godmother
One Good Knight
Fortune's Fool
The Snow Queen
The Sleeping Beauty
Beauty and the Werewolf

Dresses
Two tone working dress
Bandeau Jumpsuit
Colored tights in Black, Purple, Nude
(If you can guess what sort of dresses I'd like to wear and/or would wear, virtual cookies for you!)

Cosmetics
Brush guards
Eco Brush (Set A & B)
Cosmetic bag/train
DAYLA Designing Pencil Eyeliner in Coffee, Black
P2 Intensive Eyeliner in "Powerful Kenya, Stylish Great Britain"

Impossible Wishlist
BJD
Iplehouse Yur
Iplehouse Luna
Iplehouse Akando
Iplehouse Asa

Ain't I still BJD-oriented? Hahaha

It's not Wonderful anymore, Wondermilk

2011-08-01T23:57:00.000+08:00

When I was younger, my sister would show me lovely photos of cupcakes designed by Wondermilk. I would stare at the delightful delicacies in awe, and kept hoping to sample one of them at least once.

Well that was then. Now, I no longer have faith towards the PR and customer service of this brand. All this began spiraling down onto the day they were rude to my sister.

Here's my sister's explanation on the scenario:

Last Tuesday (26th July 2011), I went to their Citta Mall outlet to get cupcakes. It was my second visit to that particular outlet. My first visit was just the week before that for lunch with some colleagues. But as we were choosing the cupcakes, saw some "friends" hanging out in the cupcakes rack. There were not many, like maybe one or two where I saw them, so I did not say anything then. I decided to grab some yummy cupcakes for dessert. When I was queuing up next to the cupcake rack, I now saw that the "friends" I met has bravely "invited" more friends to hang out. This time, as it was obviously more than five, I just had to say something to the staff there. But to my amazement, not only that the staff did not apologise or explain anything, they merely pulled out the tray I pointed, "looked" at the array of cupcakes on that tray, and shoved the tray back to its place. But well, as I still wanted to have cupcakes that night, I went ahead and bought half dozen of them to take home.

Admittedly, hands-on service is quite bad. Then again, these things happen. So my sister proceeded to post her feedback on their Facebook page to point out about the incident, which roughly sounded like this:

Dear Wondermilk. Been to your outlet @ Citta Mall twice and both time I saw insects flying around inside the cupcakes rack. When I mention this to your staff on duty at that time, no one could give me answer.
(I hope that this post will not be deleted @lolachin)

They deleted her feedback.

And sent her a private message to let her know that "its unfair to embarass us with your snide remarks on our public wall when you could have easily contacted us directly via email or phone". They proceeded to request for the details of the incident, which my sis gave to them.

An excerpt of my sister's reply to them:

I believe, by having a public facebook wall, you should be open to both positive and negative comments from your 'fans'. It's the way you respond to these comments that will make the difference.

They responded fairly quick too, according to my sister. No details will be left out here, for there are a couple of things I would like to highlight out. My comments are in red:

Wondermilk Dan Cuppacakes

We are definitely aware of the insect problem and the situation is being remedied since your last visit. Citta mall has the highest most unusual insect infestation we have encountered, no matter how many high powered insect lights we installed (we have 3 in citta alone) and pest control treatments done, the insects keep coming. Other neighboring shops are experiencing the same problems as well. Rest assured the situation is being controlled and efforts with such pest problems usually take time. (...now why can't you have replied ON the feedback posted on your Facebook Page with this explanation? Saves trouble, AND you receive brand affinity from the customer for it)

On another note, we are very very open to negative comments as we appreciate each and every feedback so we can improve better but we do not appreciate ones that aim to spread bad vibes, embarrass & ridicule us and/or bring us down. (Oh really? Your words are highly contradicting here. First you admit being open to criticisms, and then you shoot yourself right at the foot with your next phrase) We realise that facebook wall is an avenue for friends to exchange unbiased views, but please bear in mind that we are a company and as professionals, matters should be dealt with professionally. Thats why we chose to contact you here privately. Theres no need for public negativity as neither party will benefit from its outcome. (In other words, do not say anything harmful to your brand, for it will not do you any good. Yes?)

How would you feel if one of your customers at your company publicly write a negative complaint about you for all to see, when the right and most ethical approach as an adult, is by informing you and dealing with you directly. (Who are you to assume that she does not know how to deal with negative criticisms? And for someone who is IN Social Media, you should be aware that a disgruntled customer would turn to Social Media to complain, and expect something that will be done) Mind you, we are no longer in high school. Try putting yourself in our shoes before you make any judgements. Something for you to think about. (Oooooh, bad move there....are you telling off your customer? Don't be so high-handed. How do you know she doesn't have any experience in PR and Social Media?)

In the future we would appreciate if you or your friends have something good or bad to say, please direct your comments and suggestions directly to our official email or call us directly. We welcome all feedback with open arms.

We truly appreciate your support.
Thank you and have a nice day.

Wondermilk (M) Sdn Bhd

When I saw this reply from them, I was pissed off. And yet, at the same time I was amused. Why? Wondermilk assumed that my sister is clueless about Business, Marketing, and Social Media. I'm here to tell you that she knows what she is doing. For you, as a brand, to assume that she had done nothing in her life, and proceeded to 'defame' you with 'snide remarks'...well, you need to re-organize your thoughts once more.

Congratulations, Wondermilk. You have lost yourself two loyal fans. No longer will I smile and excitedly want to purchase cupcakes from your brand. Not after this fiasco.

Final word from me before I end this post. I helped my sister draft out a reply to Wondermilk (apparently a bonus that I am working in Social Media lol) and so, here is the latest reply to them. Whether they reply it on their side...ah well.

Dear Wondermilk,

Thanks for the clarification. However, I'd like to point out that rather than deleting my comment on your page, you should have simply replied my feedback with your explanation as per your last message to me. Not only will it serve as a good PR practice to you, but it will also alleviate relief towards your other fans/customers who have been to that place. Plus, you will show good Social Media practice by responding to each and every feedback/complaint without deleting them.

Also, your condescending tone in your messages is distasteful. However wrong a customer may be, you should not have mentioned the following:

"Mind you, we are no longer in high school. Try putting yourself in our shoes before you make any judgements. Something for you to think about."

Bad move. As a brand, you should apply more tact with your words. Why are you assuming that I do not know what PR and social media is all about, especially for brands and companies? If you must know, part of my job is to monitor and deal with online social media feedback. The key is to NOT delete any feedback (unless it's vulgar and offensive to others) but to respond accordingly to assure the commenter that the issue is well taken care of.

Besides that, your words very much contradicted each other. You stated that you are highly open to negative comments as feedback, and yet you have deleted mine. Please define your terms of bad vibes, embarrassment or ridiculing posts towards your brand. How was it that my wall post falls into that category? (Looks like we may not know as the post is there no more.) I'm very much aware that I did NOT use any vulgarity or obscenities in my feedback, and neither am I harshly judging your brand unreasonably without any solid grounds. The intention was all to seek for a solution to my query, which was on the flying insects.

And since you have asked me to "think about it", allow me to provide you some pointers to think about as well:

Deal with Negative Feedback

Here's one that should interest you greatly. I have even extracted a pointer for you:

Negative Brand Sentiment

"Never make it personal. If and when conflict escalates, never make it personal. Never attack the person, even if he or she attacks you personally. Keep the conversation focused on the issues."

My final question is this: If you are unable to accept all types of feedback (minus vulgarity, obscenity, racism, and defamation) why do you have a Facebook fan page in the first place? Or in the very least, do not open your page for fans to post comments. Keep it to yourself for updates and posts. Once you make it public, always be prepared to respond to ANY queries and criticism posted there.

Well, I've said what I needed to say. With this episode, you have somehow successfully made me think less of your brand. No matter how much I love your cupcakes and your cafe, unless something has changed for the better, it's no longer my cafe choice with family or friends.

Best regards

Apparently they replied to this one heck of a long message shortly after that:

Thank you for your reply and pointers. Much appreciated.
Again we would like to apologize for your recent experience with us. We thank you for your understanding and hope you will consider us again in the future.

Best regards,
Wondermilk (M) Sdn Bhd

Who's right and who's wrong? You'll be the judge of it :)

Original post can be found here, if you want to read the full story without any of my colorful interruptions

Memories of the Childhood - The Great Pretender

2011-07-27T13:47:00.000+08:00

Hands up if this song is hauntingly familiar to you.

As a kid, most of the songs that I am aware of would be the oldies. Why? I was pretty much a tomboy back then, and all those latest music sensations never struck a chord in my life. Oldies, however, left a lasting mark in my life; mainly because my father used to hook up the karaoke system and began singing through those classics.

I suppose that, in a sense, was my very first exposure to songs that are not Nursery Rhymes we sang at kindergarten. And even until now, these songs would lift my gloom and allow my mind to soar above the skies a.k.a. to dreamland.

One song that reminds me the most of my father is this: The Great Pretender by The Platters.

Why, you ask?

As a kid, I loved being carried by my father at night to bed. There was when I was half-asleep and refused to wake up, my father picked me up and carried me off to bed. Being the lazy ol' me, I loved that feeling! And after that, I would do my best to pretend to be asleep just so that he would carry me to bed. Ain't I a naughty kid? =P

Of course, my father got wiser in the end. But he still lifted me up and tucked me in once in a while, and jokingly told me, "You great pretender!" knowing full well I could hear what he was saying; and I would grin about it.

After that, this song was kind of "my song" as dedicated by my father. Kind of hard to forget, and pretty much true.

What's your childhood memory song? :)

The Doll Affair 2011 @ Singapore Conference Hall

2011-07-26T14:00:00.010+08:00

This took me a month to pen down, but I'm determined to write it somehow all the same!

Last month, I went down to Singapore for a quick trip to visit my relatives and to attend The Doll Affair happening at the Singapore Conference hall at the same time. Met up with Akane and well, we had fun at TDA even if we were there for a short while!

Image taken from their Facebook Page

Hall was quite small, to my surprise. But it gave that homey and friendly atmosphere so I suppose it doesn't matter. It wasn't all too crowded either, and all you had to do was to watch you step in case there are any BJDs posing on the floow hahaha.

Admittedly not everything was as cheap as I had expected (it's worse for me since the RM was not too strong at that time, so that means I couldn't spend a lot!) but it was indeed an awesome sight to be seen! Imagine digging through pre-loved bins for that piece of outfit just for your boy or girl, and discover joyfully that the price is still within your budget!

I saw a lot of handmade items up for sale too, and though I couldn't get a lot of things that I had wanted to get, it's good to know that if I ever do want to get something, I can always head back to Singapore another time. Well, that and also cause Akane can help me, yes? *pika eyes*

Ok, no more ramblings from me. Enjoy the photos (not many, I admit) I snapped in the hall!

This was the first BJD exhibition that I saw when I stepped in

One day, just one day, I shall get myself a SD female doll too!

Oh when the Saints~come marching in~~

When I was~
A young boy~~
My father~
Took me into the City~~
To see the marching band~~~

Yep there were Dollfie Dreams as well. I want that camera!!!

A Yo-SD and a Puki (I forgot what mold is she though)

One of my fave! She reminded me of Calypso somehow hahahaha

And so, she deserves another shot! XD

Another booth, by Echelon. Awww look at that cutie trying to reach up for something ^_^

Bunnies! :D

Look who has an APPLE!!! Damn, I'm jealous now =P

The March Hare - as a woman? She looks good, real good.

I like this photo somehow; friends hanging out while chattering the day away? You decide =P

Overall I'd say, not bad! I know there are those who told me it doesn't matter if I don't attend TDA this year, but I'm really glad I did! Can't wait to attend next year's TDA as well x3

How Geeky Am I? -Be Twitterized!-

2011-07-21T15:22:00.000+08:00

So I've been seeing this going somewhat viral on Twitter today, and decided to give it a shot as well. To my amusement, I'm labeled as a gamer, and most of my tweet topics involve my friends' Twitter handle. Pretty interesting infographic of me, especially since I'm not exactly a hardcore Twitter lately.

So it seems I am neither interesting nor enthusiastic enough. Looking at the topics, I really do like to use emotes a lot, yes? Hahaha

So what's your Twitterized personality? Click here to get your own Twitter Infographic too! Twitterize Yourself!

Posh! Nail Spa Launch [10 July 2011] @ TTDI

2011-07-19T02:04:00.002+08:00

It's been a while since I last blogged (now how many times did I use this phrase?) but here's one that I've been meaning to blog about when I'm free. Beware, I'm using more images than text today!

I was invited to this launch by Sereen and Larry sometime last month I think, and many thanks to the two of you for inviting me to the launch. I think I will definitely be a little lost lamb if it was not for the incredible gadget called GPS. Hahahahaha. Well, that and my sister was with me lol.

We arrived just in time for the launching ceremony, and wow, the whole place was decked with pink, purple and white! =D

Mr. Larry Yeong, giving an opening speech. The two ladies on his left is Sereen and Sharon (correct me if I'm wrong on the names please, thanks!). This event was emcee-ed by a very chirpy Jay Menon :)

Attendees were greeted with a smile as they register themselves to receive a complimentary goodie bag

Look who's here to get their nails done? :D Hey, men who get their nails all buffed up are awesome too! Express manicure is complimentary to guests who attended the launch.

Fun Fact: Did you know that Posh! Nail Spa has the second largest amount of nail polish color variety?

Fun Fact continued: The largest nail polish color variety belongs to Color Couture at Pavillion!

OPI Nail Polish. I love these collection somehow! I just wish there are more shades of other colors apart from red hahaha

Check out the spa stuffs! :D

Nail art anyone?

Complimentary vouchers. To add a plus side to this, each voucher has a lucky draw number. Guess who won the first lucky draw? 8D

Jeng jeng jenggggg~~~I won myself a complimentary set of manipedi hahahahaha (now I need to figure out a day to come here...)
Photo is taken from Sereen

Goodie bag! On one side, the bag is printed HRH Studio....

And on another side, it's definitely Posh! Nail Spa =D

I'm too lazy to snap photos of the insides of the goodie bag hahaha sorry about that! =P

Posh! Nail Spa offers a wide variety of services including various manicure & pedicure services, nail extensions and enhancements, as well as waxing and eyelash extensions. One interesting (and something I find positively attracting) is that this nail parlor offers reservation for private social gathering venue. This means you can have birthdays, bachelorette parties, mini gatherings with friends with just a reservation. Pretty cool, isn't it? I can't wait to organize a private party of my own there one day! =D

For those interested in setting an appointment at Posh! Nail Spa, you can give them a call here: 03 - 7724 1890 or 016 - 606 2848 or email them here: nailspa.posh@gmail.com

Find them here:

Posh! Nail Spa

31, Lorong Dato Sulaiman 7,

Taman Tun Dr Ismail,

60000 Kuala Lumpur,

Malaysia

Now for a quick side advertisement! Teaffani High Tea was also there at the launch, and I had the opportunity to view the fine tea set and selections they have to offer for catering.

Need a name card?

Mini pamphlets that were given out to explain about Teaffani Tea Party!

Ain't this a doll? Yes, I can most definitely imagine myself in a photoshoot with this tea set! :D

I have tried the scones. Yummy! The one at the bottom are oatmeal cookies.

Among the services Teaffani offers are:

- Private functions (Hens, Bridal Showers, Kitchen Teas, Birthdays, Baby Showers, etc)

- Corporate functions (Fashion Shows, Social Events, Product Launches, etc)

So fellow cosplayers and potential lolita planned outings, perhaps this is a good deal for you? :)

Join their Facebook fan page for more information of Teaffani High Tea or email them here for enquiries: teaffani@gmail.com

Oh, one more thing..

Guess who got her (short) nails done? =D

Support Local Artists! #1

2011-06-21T18:30:00.001+08:00

I'll be updating my blog less frequently now. Either way, I have given a lot of thought on what I plan to write next in here. One of the random thoughts that popped out of my head was to feature a local artist from Deviant Art every now and then; mainly cause hey, why not give them some credit for all those great works they have come up with so far, yes? Sadly, I don't know that many unknown local artists (which is why they remained unknown to me until someone points them out!) so I had to ask some of my friends if they DO know of anyone. Either way! Here's the featured artist number one:

DeviantArt ID: BornSecond

Featured DeviantArt:

A Work-In-Progress it may be, but the bold, somewhat rough strokes of striking colors used create a strong and vibrant piece of artwork. This has got to be one of my favorite works from his deviant page! :)

BornSecond's work consists mainly of sketches and detailed inking works, with a mixture of digital and traditional art works. There aren't many deviant submissions from this artist so far, but judging from the constant progress he's been making, I would love to see more of his works in future!

Here are some other works of his:

Sketchy, but just the way I like it. It may perhaps be a draft (?) but heck, the roughness of the sketch just made it greater! Dual gunner ftw! :D

First thing that caught my eye: WHOA great anatomy and perspective!

It's works like these that truly put mine to shame somehow hahaha. Yes, I am, as usual, out of words to describe this further. Then again, artworks speak a thousand words, eh?

This particular DeviantArt submission has been featured in three groups: #the-OC-maniac, #OC-Maddnes and #Ocart

A Guilty Gear (game) character, Sol. Done digitally, I love the silhouette-style shadings done to create this shaded character. No, I'm not familiar with the game, but hey, I still recognize the character (cosplay events tend to do that to me at times) all the same!

This particular DeviantArt submission has been featured in two groups: #FightGameFreaks and #Game-Fanart

Intrigued yet? Don't forget to follow him here if you're on Deviantart too! BornSecond

Gone on Hiatus

2011-05-30T01:07:00.000+08:00

Silvy will be on this mode until further notice:

Therefore she is very:

What she has to say for herself:

"I'll be back once I get my priorities straight, I promise"

^_^

[Review] Nail Pia @ Bandar Sunway

2011-05-02T00:44:00.000+08:00

Back in March, my sis bought vouchers from GroupsMore for a manipedi session at Nail Pia. The session consists of Classic Manicure + Spa Pedicure + 50% off Gelish soak-off Gel Polish (chip-free up to three weeks). Since both of us work far apart we decided to book our appointments at separate times. She went for the session first, and was happy with her manicure in particular (she took the Gelish soak-off gel polish, French manicure style) and I looked forward for a pampering session myself a few days later.

Long story short, my appointment was scheduled for 6pm but it was then pushed to 8pm due to unforeseen circumstances. It took me 20 grouchy minutes to locate the place and I was charged RM6 for apparently parking at a Valet parking section (I refused to move my car cause it was late and I didn't want to walk too far...isolated area is NOT fun) and then stood like a silly dummy waiting for the grille door to be beeped open (I had to ring the bell twice).

Anyways, enough of my rambles (I don't even know if that made sense!) so onwards to photos and description next! =]

I was greeted nicely when I arrived, and snapped this photo as I sat by the lounge while waiting for my turn. Nice ambiance :)

This....is actually a photo framed on the wall behind me where I was sitting down at. I found the art photography interesting enough to snap a photo of it! Plus really awesome miniature goods make me drool xD

"Snowflakes in the Sky"
Photo snapped from where I was sitting down while waiting for my turn. Hey, I like their lanterns! =P

In the vouchers, the name of the shop was NAIL HARMONY, which caused the confusion of many about this place. Please note that it's known as Nail Pia now

Finally sitting down waiting for my turn, I decided to snap another photo. See that TV in front there? I was hooked watching that movie until it ends *laughs* No idea what's the title of the movie but I did recognized on of the actor: Adam Sandler. The movie is about two firemen pretending to be gay to get money...or something. I was watching the movie halfway from the time I reached the place.

Person in charge, KaKa, finally arrived and made sure I was sitting comfortably. She recommended me the gel soak for my feet for RM5 and I took up the offer. There were 5 different scents to choose from; I only remembered 3 though - Peppermint, Rose, Lavender. I took Peppermint =]

After 10 minutes or so, the gel started to be more obvious (It was powdered when the guy dumped the contents into the water). The purpose of this gel soak is to soften the dead skin cells of the feet to make it easier to scrub them all off away later on.

I couldn't resist my glee as I played around in that puddle of gel. Seriously, it was fun!

Finally, it's my turn! Feet were buffed and it's time to trim those horrid nails and apply the cuticle softener on all toenails

The whole session took roughly 3 hours, and since I started mine at about 8.30pm (yes my appointment was delayed again) everything ended at about 11.30pm. Everyone's friendly in there and one of them kept on plying me with hot tea! Not a good idea especially when I was cold in my shorts and the air con was quite cold *laughs* The tea was good though, it was some sort of fruity tea sweetened with sugar.

Anyway! Here's the results of my mani+pedi session:

Manicure. My nails are not awesomely long so I chose not to take the Gelish soak-off. So yes, the color chipped off after a week or so haha. Nail polish is in dark brown with red glitter infused with it. Not bad for something subtle =]

Pedicure. I opted for OPI Kate Perry's "The One That Got Away" with "Black Shatter" on top. It's an extra RM10 for this but I find it so worth it!

For those wondering, here's the Kate Perry OPI Collection. From left to right: Last Friday Night, Not Like the Movies, The One That Got Away, Teenage Dream and Black Shatter

Photo taken from All Lacquered Up

Overall, I like this place. I don't mind heading back here another day for a trip of pampering session with my girls. For those interested to find this place, here's the address:

Nail Pia (Bandar Sunway)
A-1-1, Block A, No.1, Jalan PJS 8/15, Dataran Mentari,
Bandar Sunway, 46150 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Phone: 012-497 8318 (Kaka)

Happy Birthday Sky!

2011-05-01T02:40:00.000+08:00

Though I knew of this party for over a month back, I never gave it much of a thought cause I was 'not invited' (or rather, I was not officially invited lol) so I just smiled and said, "Hey, it's all right. I'm not sore or mad about it." Which is actually true; there are so many other ways to meet up with friends even if I was not in the party :) and yes, that includes the birthday girl as well LOL.

Anyway, I had to gate-crash the party anyway cause I needed to meet several people attending the party to deliver some goods to them. Plus, I had a gift made for Sky that I wanted to give her :)

Imagine my surprise (and amusement, cause you know, I tend to be amused pretty easily) when Sky hugged me and thanked me for attending; and then looked surprised and shocked when I told her I came uninvited in reality LOL. It was an amusing moment for me, but yeah, no hard feelings Sky =] I'm happy to be there all the same, party-crasher and all! Hahahahahaha.

Beaded ring using craft wire (cause that is my favorite material to use so far!) specially for Sky. I thought it looked like a green spider, and my sis said it looks like a butterfly. What do you see?

Met up with so many friends I have not seen in ages (for most of them, the last I met up with was back in December 2010 for Comic Fiesta) so it was a happy moment for me. Thanks for the memories, and thanks for the catching-ups. It was good gossiping/ranting/chatting idly with the people I've known for years =]

So I told myself, "Hey, I should have photos of me with my friends at least! Who knows when will I meet up with them next?". (Yes, I'm not much of a social go-er hahahaha) Therefore presenting My Friends and I. Individual camwhore shots, and random group shots =P

My friends and I

Peeps on the LEFT: Gypsy, Sky, Ikki, Cappy, Jun Jun, Gahleon, Gems, Evilmatter

Peeps on the RIGHT: Hisa, Izzu, Narukids, Usagi, Will, Sean, Dai, Reno

Damn I miss you guys so much. All the same, yay for meet ups! That definitely put a smile on my face for sure =]

When there's a camera, everyone wants to be in the photo!

Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows - Part 2

2011-04-28T15:04:00.000+08:00

The trailer is out, and I'm pretty much intrigued now. Only thing that irked me throughout this trailer is You-Know-Who's scream. Once was fine, but after that it just made me go.....bleh.

Either way, watching this movie is a definite must for me! Re-reading the book for the umpteenth time is also a requirement (well, for me anyway) before the movie.

Any friends out there to gang up and storm the cinema together for this? HP cosplayers, shall we make this the grand finale? I promise I'll do my best to complete Fleur's hat this time =P

[Event] Puma Social Night Club

2011-04-26T00:04:00.001+08:00

Indeed they do

Two weeks ago, I received a late invitation to the Puma Social Night a couple of days before the day itself. Since it had been a while since I last attended any invited events, I eagerly accepted the invite. Besides, the whole event sounds fun!

Met up with Cheebs for dinner before the event, at a nearby mamak place. Earlier on that day, I bought six macaroons from Nathalie's Gourmet during lunch. And both me and Cheebs had fun sampling them together! I bought six different flavors - rose lychee, blackcurrant, pistachio, citron, orange, and raspberry.

The wonderfully colourful assortment of macaroons from Nathalie's Gourmet. Photo credits to Cheebs

My favorite was still the Orange macaroon; it was rich in flavor that does NOT taste like it came out from a cordial bottle! To quote Cheebs, "It's like I just bit into a real orange!" which was true! Cheebs find the Pistachio macaroon lovely, which I find just as good too (though my preference is still loyal to Orange!!) ^_^

Anyway, onwards to the event itself before I ramble further elsewhere hahaha.

Here's a little history to share about the PUMA Social Club Tour :

"The PUMA Social Club Tour, simply entitled “Here’s to the After-Hours Athlete”, was first rolled out in Los Angeles, London, Australia, Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong, before making its way to Malaysia and Singapore (to be launched the same time as Malaysia); and it advocates “after-hour” social activities and games that one play off the field with friends when the sun goes down.
The kick-off party took place on 11 March 2011 at Palete Pallete, Kuala Lumpur, featuring rip-roaring performances by James Baum, Ze!, DJs Anowl and Hackeem Elektrischer, not to mention PUMA’s ”pimped-up“ interpretation of Social Sports; where lucky winners can expect to take home with them PUMA apparel from the latest Social range.
The PUMA Social Club Tour then made its way to Monkey Bar, Penang on 1 April 2011, and Roost Bistro, Johor Bahru on 8 April 2011, before heading back to Kuala Lumpur on 15 April 2011 for the grand finale at Black Box, Map @ Publika, Solaris Dutamas."

Such an empty place...not!! Both Cheebs and I arrived early, that's why! Photo credit to Cheebs ^_^

Honestly, I still find Dutamas such a maze! It took us several wrong turns and stalking a guy (literally!) to find the place. And we were early! Hahahaha. So we went in and registered ourselves and took the press kits that were provided for us bloggers. Since we were early, we couldn't enter the hall yet (they were still setting up) so we settled ourselves outside and started chatting.

Oh yes, one interesting feature I really should highlight on is the PUMA Social Card. It functions as a stamp collection card, in which the objective of the card is to collect as many stamps as possible by competing with other social-goers on the games and/or sports available during the night. The number of stamps earned depend on game winnings as well as your competitors (competing with PUMA celebs will earn you more stamps!). The person whom collected the most stamps and crowned the winner of the night wins a "One-Minute-All-You-Can-Grab" worth of Puma Merchandises. Imagine the awesome amount of goods you can grab with that one heavenly minute given to you! There were two type of ball-games available during this event that I saw - the Foosball and the Table Tennis.

The interesting bit? There are several table sizes for both sports, and for the table tennis there were different paddle sizes too! Both Cheebs and I tried the smaller version of Table Tennis and had fun with it. Granted, we both stink in that game (imagine the number of times we made the balls fly amok away from the table!) but it was awesome nonetheless! Not to mention challenging trying to keep the ball bouncing on the table instead of on our body hahahaha.

See how cute these tables are! We had to slump somewhat to adjust to the table's height. Photo credit to Cheebs

As time flew by the place began to crowd....rather TOO crowded to my liking, so we grabbed our drinks (free flow Heineken yay!) and threaded our way out towards the exit. There we sat chatting away and observed the interesting fashion parading in and out of the entrance. It's actually a good practice for me, since I'm often on the look out for fashion inspirations to design for my dolls.

Met up with Louise and her boyfriend shortly after that (I suppose it was a good thing that we went out then, yes? It was getting really crowded inside by then!) and stayed outside chatting about everything we can think of.

During that period when we were outside, Ben and Phat Fabes whom are DJ's of the FlyFM Pagi Show began having interactive games on the stage with the audiences. There was a game where participants had to "scream like he/she has an orgasm" and one particular scream could be heard even from outside! I should know, I heard that when I was not in the hall! Well, that got me curious enough to check out what's happening inside so we made our way back in again...and were greeted by an interesting sight: Four male contestants were on stage and they were asked to parade an object that was given to them like a female supermodel. Needless to say some were more creative than others!

The event lasted until the wee hours of Saturday morning, but since Cheebs had to leave early (she was heading to Raub the next day) we left the scene by midnight.

Even though we did not stay to enjoy the games and compete to win exciting prizes, we did have our own batch of fun during the night. Thanks once again for the opportunity to experience this social night! =)

Beauty & Fashion Workshop [Day Two]

2011-04-24T02:27:00.000+08:00

One month hiatus, my apologies. Let me continue with my event review for the Beauty & Fashion workshop that I was kindly invited to as a blogger by Maxis :)

Due to the sad incident I had with my memory card reader, all of my photos that I have had taken on Day Two went kaput when my memory card was corrupted. So for these few photos I have here, all credits goes to LouiseXin whom I had requested if I could use her photos for this post :)

[Day Two]

Unlike the day before, I find the activities held today to be more...tame. Our first session is with a professional hair stylist, Shawn Loong. He got the ball rolling by asking us questions about our hair,giving us simple tips to keep our hair healthy, and how hair management differs from one individual to another. Quite interesting really, now he had gotten me wanting to go to his hair salon to give my hair some pamperings *laughs*

After a quick break (we went off for some energy boosts in our own ways) we moved on with a talk on Love & Relationship Challenges by Teresa Chew. It was a good talk, though I admit that I did not gain anything from there. I suppose it's cause I have not been in a proper relationship for 4 years now *laughs* but either way, the talk was okay :)

LUNCH! Once again, I did my best not to pig out during our buffet lunch interval....which was hard. Food was really good and my eyes sparkled over the dessert section once more! Though I did not take a lot of that since I was never a sweet tooth person in the first place anyway...

After lunch, our workshop continued with Kee Hua Chee and his talk on How to make yourself NEWSWORTHY. It was a pretty interesting talk, where he gave us ideas on how to find those unique angles in our lives that may prove to be interesting enough for people to talk about. I wonder if Cosplay and BJD works for me...hahahahaha.

Photo credits to LouiseXin

This is ONE photo that I know I want to share with everyone! Cause I really love it too haha. It's Kee Hua Chee's awesome get-up! Check out his rings, they're awesome! His theme? Golden Dragon from head to toe! His shoes are pretty cool though, but sadly no photos on my side ;w;

After his talk it was time to have a mini forum session with the three beauty queens, namely Dato' Anna Lim (Miss Malaysia/Universe 1990 & Mrs Malaysia/World 2004/05), Nadine Ann Thomas (Miss Universe Malaysia 2010) and Chantelle Chuah (Miss Malaysia Model of the World 2007). The main topic revolving around this forum is about the life and experiences earned by a beauty queen. It was a cool time, though most of us were pretty quiet during the forum (me included!). Some of the questions directed to them were about their lives before joining in the pageant and the challenges and hardships received from the whole deal.

NEXT.

A Lingerie Talk by Evelyn Foo from Triumph. Holy cows bells I really want those lingerie after seeing them being paraded in the workshop!! Like, seriously, damn cool! I usually spare Triumph lingerie momentary glances before heading off for those RM10 bras you can get from Jusco (yes I am a cheapo I know!) but this talk made me change my mind now. It's interesting to know that Triumph do have different Maximizer bras meant for plunging necklines, good support, extra push ups, and so on. I so want this for my next cosplay!

Oh guys? Don't drool now =P

Photo credits to LouiseXin

Lingerie galore~!!!! I want that corset! *w*

Our final session is with Bill Lewis, who taught us what stress is about and Stress Management. Really bad. Good session, though I doubt I can actually tell myself NOT to be stressed out by everything hahaha . One good habit is to laugh a lot, or find something to laugh about. Bill gave us each a cute little egg-shaped maracas thingy and instructed us to throw it in the air at an indicated level and catch it repeatedly. It was a good deal of fun I can tell you, most of us couldn't stop grinning or giggling as we did this exercise. Maybe I should have this in my office for stress control *laughs*

That was the end of the workshop, and we had a nice finale when we received our certificates and had a group photo session with everyone. Thanks once more Maxis for inviting me to this lovely workshop :)

Beauty & Fashion Workshop [Day One]

2011-03-06T00:10:00.008+08:00

This post is long overdue, I know. My apologies for this, cause recently I've lost my mood to blog (among other activities). Anyway, last month on the 26th and 27th of February, I had attended a Beauty & Fashion Studio workshop organized by Maxis as a guest blogger. Now when I was asked if I could attend this workshop, my first dismayed thought was, "Whoa, TWO days on weekend?" cause well, it's a weekend! Hahahaha so I felt like I was back to work, 7 days on a row or something. Got to admit though, in the end I find it quite worth it =)

The poster that greets us the moment we stepped out of the elevator; Amber Chia and Dato' Anna Lim poses to say Hi? Hmmm.....

Yep, a folder to fill up with our scribbled notes that we'll doodle/jot down as the seminar goes on...and on.....and on.....

Daphne Iking! I think this is my second time meeting her (I can't remember what happened during the first time though, I'm not too familiar with local celebs in the first place so I can be pretty blur in general! Hahahaha).

Her presentation was all about how to speak better in public; or to be more precise, the arts of Public Speaking. Not bad, she knows how to keep the audience captivated (even though she rambles, which she keeps on smacking herself for doing so!) and her points were quite noteworthy too. Unfortunately what she had presented to us, I have already learnt from my former lecturer in college, who was an excellent teacher in the arts of Public Speaking (kudos Dr. Steven, you sure made me learn how to speak properly!) but it was still entertaining and a walk down memory lane recalling those tips and pointers about how to speak in front of an audience!

All about Fashion...and Trends. Our charming presenter for this particular session is none other than Keith Kee. He taught us how to distinguish the cool, warm and earth colors in our fashion, and how to mix and match appropriately without looking too 'far-out'. Some lucky audience also got to get up there on stage and learn how to pick the best accessory/jacket/piece of apparel to change their look from Day to Night. Was an interesting talk, that's for sure.

We also had a talk with Ben Ibrahim about impromptitude speaking - in other words, how to speak spontaneously. In the entertainment industry, one often needs to act out or speak impromptu when there's last minute changes and no script at hand. So he taught us some basics about it (though he stressed a lot on the fact that it's always best to be prepared beforehand). Let's say we're given a topic to speak on at the very last minute, take some minutes off and quickly Prepare your speech, Plan what you need to convey to the audience, and finally, how to Engage with them without leaving them in tears of boredom.

How to walk like a model.

Err yes, I think I pretty much failed at this. The key to it, according to Benjamin Toong and Amber Chia, is to walk straight and confident without looking too robotic. Suffice to say, we were taught the 'hard' way on how to walk confidently. Here's what we did:

1. Find a wall and stand straight against it. Make sure your shoulders and heels touch the wall.

2. Remain in that position, and walk forward; imagine you're walking on a tightrope (basically walk in a straight line)

3. Your elbows should be slightly bent inwards and swing them gracefully to match your steps.

Sounds easy? Nah, not as simple as it sounds. It took us roughly 5 rounds to get the basics of it....somewhat. It was fun though!

Oh yeah, Benjamin's awesome platforms that made us go OOoooooh and me going OMG I WANT THAT SHOES!!!! 8-inch platforms with GORGEOUS details on the platforms

Wine tasting! I had fun tasting both white and red wine. Oh before this awesome session, we had two more sessions about Social Skills (body language, eye contact, tone of speech, etc) and Dining Etiquette (what's the correct order in dining, and what cutlery is meant for which meal, etc).

The awesome white wine that we sampled. It tasted slightly citrusy and tangy, with a sweet taste of grapes to it. This is one wine that I really do like!

The red wine with white. I was not too fond of the red wine; the sharp taste of spices and heavy oak was a bit too much for me at first sip. Nevertheless, it grew to me as I continued sipping this glass of rich red wine.

Thomas Guildimann, the speaker that presented the wine tasting session, told us about the process of wine-making, and the insane calories we used to down each time we take a glass of beer, whisky, or even Coca-Cola! He too, taught us how to match our wine with our food, especially Asian food (since well, English food's eash; red wine to red meat and white wine to white meat, bla bla bla).

That was the end of Day One; tiring but inspiring. Hey, I could say proudly that I have actually learn quite a number of things in one day, particularly in learning how to pose and walk (hahaha I sound like an airhead now). Coming up next: What happened on Day Two :)

How App'd to have Apps

2011-02-24T11:47:00.009+08:00

Okay that was me attempting to be quirky and funny. I guess I failed *ducks* Can anyone guess what my blog post will be about? No? Yes? Don't know? Staring at my post with that d'oh! face?

Well, let's face it, you'd probably choose that last option. When one says apps, two things pops in mind: Facebook apps and mobile apps (or at least it does to me). In this case, I'll be talking about mobile apps. Well, only two to be more specific.

Personally, I find these two apps to be both useful and entertaining. The good and the bad. National and international. Cool and...errr....okay I'm running away from the point again *smacks self* ANYWAY. Here's the two apps that I've come across that I find pretty cool to have on my phone.

FINDER301

This is a pretty cool app brought to you by Maxis. The main point to this app is simple: Find and share great places you can think of in one place. Finder301 acts like an extensive directory that helps you to figure out where's the nearest facility or dining experience from where you are right now.

For example, say I am feeling rather hungry and am craving for some old school nasi lemak. Here's what I do:

I type in "Nasi Lemak" and send it to 301 (via SMS)

Oh look, results received!

You're even given a map just in case the address alone can't help you find the place (or a person who's basically road-blind...like me!)

Imagine that extensive list of dining experience you can find with just one text message! Pretty cool, considering we have a LOT of makan places in Klang Valley itself, yes? Oh, by the way, you can also do your part by contributing information of places that you find awesome and really really good too! Sharing is caring, yes? :3

So there you go, the basics of how it works. If you want to know more of these awesome stuff, head over to Finder301 and check it out today! Note: You gotta be a Maxis/Hotlink subscriber to use this.

Moving on, let's take a break from food and look into news. No, I don't mean dry news (you know, the ones that we read on newsprint or online about economy and so on) but news about the world of entertainment worldwide. What am I talking about? Why, it is....

E! Online

For those of you who are unaware of what E! stands for, it's basically a news portal for entertainment news, photos and videos. What caught my attention is how much these news tend to show off the latest styles celebs are wearing, especially during awards ceremony! A good way to "Steal That Look" eh? Well, I think so anyway.

Oh look, Justin Bieber's on the screen. And on video too! =P There's also a caption below asking readers to Vote for the best dressed at Grammys, so you know what that means....moar clothes!! :D

News aside, you can also check out the shows that are on E! using this app as well. Hey, fave shows in one app. I like that! Wonder if I can find Giuliana & Bill series; now THAT is one fun watch (plus Life with Kimora too!)

Sounds fab? To me it is! Well, the me that rarely updates on entertainment and fashion, this is one app I won't give a miss to get my daily perk-ups. Fashion police can be quite a meanie, but OMG it shows that even celebs do it wrong from time to time! Confidence boost + 80 for that for me! *laughs*

So bottomline, apps are fun. Apps can be helpful. It just balls down to how much do you need your app for :)

Red Rabbit comes to play

2011-02-14T00:46:00.001+08:00

Late, but hey, Happy Chinese New Year to those celebrating :)

I know I've been missing in action for the past three weeks or so from my blog. Sorry about that; Chinese New Year was actually hectic for me this year (this coming from a girl who did practically nothing but staring at walls on the day itself...lol) and I didn't even log in online until I was back at work (I did, however, use my mobile once in awhile to check on Twitter and Facebook...but apart from that, na-da) and even then, work decide to swamp me.

It started out okay...then out of the blue a couple of extras decided to pay me a visit. So I was basically up to my eyeballs trying to clear the pile. Some may scoff and say, hey, your workpile can't even compare to the one I have; but I'm still trying to familiarize myself with so many jargons and new concepts that I just find myself...helpless at times. Still, I am trying...and so far I think everything is okay. I just hope I don't screw up too much. I have the tendency to let that happen before I rectify it. Some may say that's the way life works; one needs to make mistake to learn from it. But I seriously do not want to make too many mistakes. It may be fatal to my job, yes?

*sighs* typing out a blog post when feeling demotivated is probably not the best idea lol.

It's Valentine's Day today, what are you lovebirds doing? :)

Uncontrolled train (of thoughts)

2011-01-26T22:33:00.001+08:00

And the cat goes, "Whaddya want?"

Recently, I’ve come to realize that when it comes to sitting down to type out something for my blog, I immediately face the legendary wall of blankness. Yeah, I get writer’s block. First of all, I constantly wonder what should I write up on; should I ramble on and on about my daily boring life? Or perhaps chatter incessantly about what’s going on around me, no matter how dull and droll it may be. I wonder…

Then I realized this: how many people are actually reading my blog in the first place? Granted, when I first revived this blog, it was used as a platform for me to spazz non-stop about my dolls and the meetups we have had for the past few years. Then I started writing other stuffs too, though I still keep it pretty general and easy-going. Why do I do this anyway?

Well for starters, I try not to involve too complicated rants that could affect people. It happened before and I did not like how it went downhill from there. For another, I am still uncomfortable about exposing my deep, dark secrets publicly. Kind of like airing my own dirty laundry for everyone to read up on I guess. But none of that. I’d prefer to have my blog about the meaningless ramblings at each passing thought that flits through my mind; especially when they turn out to be somewhat intriguing and thought-challenging. Yes well, it happens.

For example, when I lie down on my bed to take a nap (or sleep) I somehow end up thinking and/or daydreaming about so many different incidences of what could have been and what had been gone through in life. Mostly imaginative, but still interesting to dissect further to imagine the different branches of what-could-have-been. Say, for example, I started remembering those good old days in school where I was this meek prefect who hated her duties of taking care of classes when the teachers are out for a meeting. I was constantly teased (cause I was this young prefect taking care of a bunch of older kids in a class) to the point that I simply wanted to walk out of the class. Thinking back, I started daydreaming of what-might-have-been if I had been more strict or perhaps, more approachable. Will those methods work out better? True, these are all solutions that are purely theoretical but that is what makes this whole thing fun. I get to imagine stuff.

Mmhmm…and now I’m a bit blur at what am I currently saying. Hey my train of thoughts just decided to take me to a detour elsewhere! So I guess this blog post is me proving a point as to how I tend to just end up rambling meaninglessly in my blog without a proper plot or context hahahaha.

Not to worry, I won’t do this all the time….much. I’ll be posting up some reviews and advertorial blog posts after this of the stuffs that I like for the heck of it. Not to mention cosmetics reviews since I miss getting those done too! :D

Giving up

2011-01-24T17:31:00.000+08:00

In the end, I think I gave up on my Project 365 once again haha. I guess my commitment level to deliver a post a day is rather fickle, especially since I’ve stopped in less than a month. Photo-365 is, in a way, easier I guess, since I was able to cheat for a little while on my days. Blog posting daily on the other hand, is more difficult (even though yes, I know there is such a thing as scheduled blog posting) cause I need to actually sit down and think and type as I go.

Anyways for the time being, work is taking up most of my life (so what else is new, eh?) though I am still enjoying what I am doing right now :) Yes even after 7 weeks I am still happy…that is a good sign, yes? Hahaha. At the moment I’m trying to slot in some time to get some reviews done cause I know I owe a couple of people some reviews…for the past year lol. Will try harder yosh!

For now, I’m going to end this blogpost (cause I have no idea what to ramble on next for now) and roll back to Facebook and Twitter (well duh, my work revolves around those two in the first place!)

See you on my next blogpost! ^^/

Project 365-20: The Handmade Movement

2011-01-20T22:54:00.003+08:00

Are you ready for this? :D

Helping out a friend here, cause I myself am one of the interested...people (though I doubt if I'll ever join...I'm too lazy to create anything new with the little time tha I have! Hahaha) who's contemplating on going there and snag all of those awesome goodies that I can find!

Basically in this bazaar, vendors will be displaying craft supplies for sale to the public. Now frankly, I have never seen this being done before, and this time around the bazaar is organized by a very talented craftsmaker that I am glad to have made an aquaintance with! You can check out her awesome tales of Jasper (whom, by the way, is her adorable baby boy) and the list of things she had made up for sale! She also posts tutorials from time to time that are relatively easy to follow :)

So if that small paragraph of her has triggered your interest by now, check out LvBeii's Blog now!

As for you guys whom are interested to join in as one of the supply vendor, do check out The Handmade Movement for more information! :)

Project 365-19: Facebooked!

2011-01-19T23:56:00.003+08:00

So how addicted are you to Facebook?

I combined the facebook badge with one of my favorite game of all time: Ragnarok Online :) The pink, orange and green blobs on the left side of the badge are poring, drops and poporing! My favorite of all time is still a poring, though I don't mind a poporing (it's easier to keep a poporing as a pet in game since it feeds on green herbs which is relatively easy to get!)

That's it for today, cause I spent my time drawing this badge on my tablet LOL!

Project 365-18: Let's get souped!

2011-01-18T18:03:00.000+08:00

Have you ever tried this: sit down in a quiet room, empty your mind from all those thoughts crowding your worried head, and start penning down the first issue that pops into your mind after that. Try it, and see what fills up your page (traditionally or digitally)

So here's what I'll be doing for today. I'll be taking several deep calming breaths, close my eyes, and type out the first the first thing that enters my mind.

....

........

................

Okay nothing goes into my mind hahaha. Hard is it? Try narrowing down your thoughts just a little bit. For me, I am now thinking about food. Why? It's almost dinner time and my stomach's complaining at me, crying aloud to be fed (tummy rumbles can be a real embarassing issue at times). So why not, let's just talk about food here.

I've always loved to eat since young. Being the adventurous sort, I would sample out odd dishes my parents would dish out to me. One dish I had refused to actually sample even until today, however, is the infamous bittergourd. Odd as it may seem, I can tolerate other types of bitterness, but I can never bring myself to enjoy the supposed goodness of the bittergourd.

Being a Chinese, our meals (especially dinner time) are normally accompanied with a pot of soup. Whether it is double-boiled or not, there must always be a pot of soup on the table. Of course, it wasn't practiced in my family since I was young. I remember when I was a kid I used to follow one of my friend home to his place. His mum would then invite me over for dinner (there was once I had created a huge panic among my family members when I had gotten 'missing'...but that's for another story) and I would notice that there will always be a huge pot of soup during dinner time. I found out later on that this is normal.

Well of course, that made me wonder why didnt' we have soup to accompany our meals. Not that I voiced that out much, but I suppose this could also be due to the fact that both my parents work daily and my mother was a tuition teacher then. So yes, I'll be assuming that there simply isn't enough time to boil a pot of soup(that all of us would enjoy...my dad can be rather picky) so I'll leave it to that. Of course that doesn't mean I never had a bowl of soup during dinner time at all. No, when our family goes out for dinner, we would then order a bowl of soup and enjoy it together. So I surmised my initial assumption was somewhat true anyway.

Soup has always been a great part in my life. Tasted quite a few Chinese soup and I'll admit it: my favorite is still lotus root double boiled soup and mixed vegetables soup (or as we all know it better as ABC soup). Of course, groundnut with chicken feet soup and old cucumber soup are also two flavours that are high up on my list as well.

When it comes to international soup, cream of mushroom is on the top of my list, followed by minestrone soup and cream of chicken soup. Of course, I'm still perfectly willing to try other types of soup (I've tried cream of asparagus, cream of tomato, cream of potato, and even cream of leek once...which was actually not bad) as long as I don't find it looking horribly weird or scary.

What's your favorite soup? :)

Project365-17: Monday Blues

2011-01-17T23:45:00.001+08:00

It's a Monday! Work resumes as per usual. Mondays are always the busiest day of the week and frankly, I find it fun too. At least I got work to do. On the bad side, my eyes were so blurred with sleepiness that I couldn't concentrate at all! Hopefully all goes well tomorrow :x

Project 365-16: Coffee mania

2011-01-17T23:44:00.001+08:00

Anyone here having a bad case of coffee addiction? I think I almost did today, with the amount of coffee I've been consuming. Sadly I just wish I could have taken more cocktails before I leave Club Med. Unfortunately my allergies decided to kick in just then, causing me to prevent myself from consuming anymore alcohol or else I would end up throwing up at any given moment *sighs*

That aside, I'm now wondering this:

Am I a Starbucks addict or a Coffee Bean addict?

Hmmmm......

Project 365-15: Ooh-la-la Company Trip

2011-01-17T23:43:00.002+08:00

My apologies, I know I missed two days of blogpost but since I did not have any means of getting online at Cherating (there wasn't any telco line service there for me either lol) I didn't have the chance of posting earlier ^^;

Day one of Club Med was impressive (Friday I mean). We had a nice warm welcome by the Gentil Officers (GO) there and a brief welcome to introduce us to the facilities in Club Med. I've got to say, impressive! Spent my first day jungle trekking, which in the end I regretted hahahaha. I'd rather hang out by the pool instead I suppose...but I was conned into going for the jungle walk! So ah heck haha. It was fun, and I had battle scars too! A long branch of thorns decided to attack me when I attempted going down the slope using the rope. Hahaha and that is how my day one passed by.

On the bright side, I attempted to sample two different types of cocktails on Friday night. And damn it all, I loved them! Now I wish I had more hahahaha. Oh did I mention alcohol was on free flow from 9am-1am daily? ;)

Saturday was not bad. Telematch was fun (it was compulsory for us all) and I guess we had a real nice bonding time too. Guess what? I am now 80% all charged up in my memory...cause I roughly know almost all of my colleague's names by now! Hahahahahaha yes that is how lame I can sadly be; bad memory.

I spent my day at the beach kayaking and simply lounging in the sea and by the sea...with a glass of Planteau's Punch cocktail drink. Was kind of sad I didn't manage to go for the trapeze or sailing or bungee jump, but by then my body was feeling way too exhausted and funny so I decided to forgo it. It didn't help matters that both trapeze and bungee jump was only available for two hours; and sailing was fully booked )':

Every night the GO will organize performances specially for the GMs (Gentil Members, which are us) for about an hour after dinner, and I really gotta wonder this: Where the heck do they find the time and strength to practice daily just to perform for us? Won't talk mucha bout it for now, I'll upload the photos some other time and let them do the talking ;)

Project 365-14: Off for a holiday

2011-01-14T07:02:00.003+08:00

I doubt if I can actually post anything up for the next two days (unless I decide to sneak into the IT room! Hahaha) because I'll be away for the weekend. For those of you wondering I'll be heading off to Club Med Cherating for a company trip this three days. Shall do my best to have fun and melt away all of my...stress (?) away =P

Project 365-13: The Simplicity of a Ramli Burger

2011-01-13T20:29:00.004+08:00

Forgive me for the lack of photo, I can't seem to find one that I like off Google haha (yes I never snapped any of my own).

Anyway today as I was driving back home, I had a sudden urge to eat Burger Benjo, or Egg Burger in English. So I decided to stop by the burger stall located by the side of the row of shopping lots in my neighbourhood to buy one before heading home.

Now I have only started buying burger from these lovely couple who worked behind the stall about 3 weeks ago; and continued buying from them from time to time cause, well, I love Burger Ramly in the first place! Somehow no McDonalds or Wendys or even Carls Jr can defeat this simple burger! Hahaha ;)

Back to the story; Now the couple running the stall are really friendly, and they love to chat. So I ended up chatting with them every now and then. Mostly I just got amused over them. Approximately 3-4 days back, I went back there (after two weeks, cause hey, I have a life too!) to buy some burgers for me and my sister. The lady greeted me warmly and then she said, "Lama tak nampak! Cuti ke?" (In translation, she said "Haven't seen you in awhile now. Were you on a break?" and it tickled me that she thought so. I told her no, I was just busy with work and all, hence why I never went there to buy her burgers then. So we chatted and chatted while the burger was sizzling on the hot grille. She told me that they decided not to open on weekends cause business had been slow on this two days (after one month trial, they surmised so) so she told me to come and find them only on weekdays if I want to buy their burgers. Felt kind of sad about it, but then again, hey, how often do I eat burgers? Hahaha.

Earlier on today I went to buy myself the egg burger, and guess what did she say to greet me? "Lama tak jumpa!" ("Haven't seen you for a long while now!") and that made me laugh out loud. Here's how our conversation went on back then:

Her: Hey amoi, lama tak jumpa! Buat apa sekarang?

Me: (LOL!) Mana lama? I baru beli burger minggu lepas, kan?

Her: Tapi tu...3 hari lalu! Lama la tu!

Me: (LOOOOOOOOL) Oh err...ya ka... ^^;

Her: Semalam ada amoi beli burger kat sini, kiterang ingatkan tu awak. Nampak pun hampir serupa!

Me: O_O errrr iyaka....hahaha semalam I pun balik lambat, takde masa nak beli burger ^^;

*continues prattling about the supposed lady who supposedly looked like me*

Within a couple of minutes, I have learned that there is a lady who looks like me driving a white car, one of their friends(?) is also from Perak (Kuala Kangsar), and the lady loves the peanut cookies from Chinese New Year.

I can't help it, I'll admit that I find them really really friendly. It's these type of people that will drive me to buy from them frequently! Hell I don't mind eating burger every alternate day just to boost their sales...and fill my tummy. I like their service :)

So that's it for my funny story for today ^_^v I need to start packing now! My company trip begins tomorrow and I'm faily excited about it! Should I attend their Trapeze lessons? :D

Project 365-12: The Path of Life

2011-01-12T23:06:00.008+08:00

Malaysian Lolita Outing back in 2010, my first gathering :)

Days have passed, time has flown. I sat back reminiscing those good old days when life was less complicated and a whole lot more...fun. As I sat in front of my laptop thinking back of the times me and my friends had a lot of fun, I started to smile. Granted, not every single memory is as sweet as sugar, but they'll do. I've had bumps and hiccups along the way, especially in rediscovering who I am, and who I can trust. Ironically the ones that I trust the least are usually the males. Once bitten, twice shy. So yes, that's why :)

Back to my Form Six years; I was one of the few among my friends who were brave enough to venture into the intense world of STPM.

Sometimes along the way, I felt as though I was caught in a riptide that I could not escape from; and sometimes I just like drifting off alongside the waves...why fight it when you can ride it, yes? I suppose it depends at times.

I remember the days when we would fight over some trivial matter that seemed so terribly important back then, and laugh about now when we think about it. Imagine fighting with your best friend over a guy when we were both only eight! And that guy is clueless about it all even when we blatantly fought for his attention right in front of him! Hahahaha...those were the days man; both me and her, we're tomboys. So we can be really outspoken and abrupt in that manner. We would scream and yell at each other, especially when we wanted to prove a point.

How we have grown up so much from then :)

Give yourself a smile, and laugh the days away :) Photo was taken approximately 6 years ago (I think) when my best friend was still in Malaysia

Back in those days, I have a pretty low self-estemm; mainly due to the fact as to how the males tend to either kick and abuse my self-esteem in so many ways; or just assume that it is fine for them to make full use of me to get closer to any of my friends (-50 self-esteem if I happen to like the guy) so yes, I have very little faith in men back then hahaha. Imagine this: A guy you like asked you if you could set up a date with your friend. You agreed, though you're not happy about it, but at the very least, he'll be happy (yes, with your friend). THEN he started asking you to be their chaperone (when they were in a relationship) and demanded that you should take good care of her when he's not around etc etc. How do you survive such a blow of your ego and self-esteem? *sighs*

Thankfully it's sorted out in the end. Mainly between me and my friend; cause I'd rather lose a loser than to lose my friend :) Such a cute mini story from me today hahaha.

Say RED! It was from my 21st Birthday :) I love you guys for being there for me when I need you :)

Project 365-11: Looking through the Looking Glass

2011-01-11T23:25:00.003+08:00

Looking through the looking glass~
Photo credits to Lina :)

Three more days to my company trip, I can't wait! For now, I'll just let you enjoy the photo I've uploaded of Alex approximately 1 1/2 years ago. Photo was taken by my friend, Lina, who was kind enough to babysit Alex back then to sew a dress for her :) Glad she had fun with Honey there though I got amused at the photostory Lina had done about Elan trying to hit on her! For those who doesn't know, Elan is Honey's supposed boyfriend...and she is clueless of his playboy attitude hahahaha.

Work begins in 10 hours time. Cheers~

Project 365-10: Work work work

2011-01-10T23:29:00.003+08:00

Short post this time. I'm tired after three consecutive posts!! Hahahahahaa

Work today was interesting; I actually had work to do throughout the day which means I did not have much free time! Which is good too, cause my time is occupied and my mine is actually working instead of snoozing! hahahahaha not sure if I'll ever end up as a workaholic but at the moment, I do enjoy it :)

Wokeh, 27 minutes more before midnight. I shall need to sleep soon or else I'll end up waking up late again the next day *sighs*

Project 365-9: Distasteful services

2011-01-10T22:39:00.001+08:00

So it's my final day of my stay at Traders Hotel Penang. I must say, I am not terribly pleased with the quality of service I've been observing and receiving from this hotel. I must, as well, emphasize that this hotel is rated FIVE STAR. So obviously, I expect excellent services, yes?

Wrong.

There were a lot of peeves I noticed about this hotel, but I'll mainly point out the ones that happened last night at the wedding reception.

First peeve that happened to us: severe lack of paper bags or any means of packaging in the hotel. Okay so as how Chinese wedding (or any weddings for that matter I suppose) goes, guests tend to give red packets to the lucky newlyweds as a wedding gift during the reception itself. Obviously there will be more than one family/couple/person so the amount of red packets or tokens will be a LOT. It's not wise to carry around these many packets of cash in public, yes? So my sister went and ask the hotel supervisor (who was there in charge then) for a paper bag, or at least, a plastic bag, to store the red packets. Guess what he said? "Sorry miss, we don't have any (paperbags/plastic bags etc) cause it's a Saturday and the storage room is locked." or something along that line anyway. My sis told me about this later with a very irritated WTF look on her face...and the same expression was then transferred to me.

So. No bags cause the storage room is locked and it's a Saturday so there's no way you can get the keys? HMMMMMMMMM wow what a nice hotel service there.

Second peeve: poor dinner service. People oh people of the industry, you are catering for a wedding. Ensure at the very least, that the trainees you have hired know what to do. I saw many of them stumbling along the food presentation (though it's a minor setback, but still) and rather sloppy food service as well. The used plates were not changed effectively enough (in most Chines weddings that I have attended, plates were changed at least three times, whereas in this case, it was exactly three at very irregular timings). Food being served was also pretty sloppy, especially when the waiter/waitress had to dish out the soup for us. Tsk tsk

Of course this was just on the restaurant service itself. The hotel on its own, well, that's a whole different story. I was actually bored in the room, because the TV channel selection was...pathetic. I ended up trying to read my story book cause I didn't know what else to do. Complimentary high speed broadband? Apparently not. I tried updating my blog last Saturday using my sister's laptop and I was disconnected every minute or so that I just gave up in frustration in the end. I never bothered trying after that.

Concierge does not know how to piece their words properly, and may cause upset and anger among customers. I believe smile is a good way to greet a hotel guest? :)

Ah well, that's over with. I don't want to stay there again that's for sure. For a higher price, I'd rather go back to Berjaya Times Square hotel or Parkroyal Hotel, KL again instead lol

Project 364-8: A Wedding, and life goes on

2011-01-10T22:15:00.001+08:00

Okay so apparently the nice post I had typed out when I was at Traders Hotel, Penang, has been swallowed up by the Internet.

Anyways.

Saturday was an...interesting day. I was greeted in the morning by several things: two phone calls from my uncle to my sister, a text message from Raz...and finally a phone call from the same uncle earlier asking me if I can emcee the wedding dinner tonight.

Now imagine me, being such a blur idiot who was awakened by this phone call. I went O_O!!!! all at once hahaha. But all the same, I accepted it. Apparently the actual emcee was hospitalized (no idea why, I never asked) so they were short of emcee. I was amused at my uncle's reasoning though - that I should be able to do it cause I was cause I am a Mass Comm major student. So studying MassComm automatically makes me an awesome babe being able to talk spontaneously on stage? xD Nevertheless, I'm flattered to be asked and yes, I did it!

It was a simple emcee quest so with the help from my sister, the both of us drafted out the basic script for the evening and off we go~

Overall, the experience of emcee-ing a simple wedding was...interesting. Not that I want to do that again hahahaha. I don't want to blather too much for now, so check out my next incoming post about my displeasure over the hotel services (yes I am displeased for a supposed FIVE star hotel have such bad services)

Project 365-7: A new account

2011-01-07T12:35:00.001+08:00

A quick post update for today (no photos, sorry!), since I will be heading off to Penang later to attend my cousin’s wedding tomorrow (I suspect this means I might need to update my blog tomorrow another day, eep!).

Finally, I now have a Maybank account. For those of you wondering, I never had one and I knew I had to have this account when I started work for my salary to be banked in promptly. So today right after I had gotten a reference letter, I went straight to the bank (after settling my tasks beforehand first of course) and applied for a new account. Took me almost an hour to get it done but now it’s done! I am now a proud owner of a new debit card hahahahahaa (and I’m broke too cause I had to deposit an amount of cash to activate it lol! It’s not much, but enough to kill off my cash in hand right now) though I still have got to settle a lot of ATM issues for now. I need to activate my online account via the machine etc and yeah, I haven’t done it yet. Long story short, I got blur. Hahahahaha

Hey Jen, heard you’re at Maybank now, yes? How about helping me if say I’ll end up in trouble with my account some day? *laughs* Only kidding; most of the services are now internet based so I suppose that lessens the whole manpower issue thing so yeah, cheers to it 

That’s it for today’s post. See you tomorrow! (or Sunday if I don’t manage to get it up tomorrow) :D

Project 365-6 : Growing up with Life

2011-01-06T23:21:00.001+08:00

Hey pals, we've graduated!! :)

I still remember when I was young, say about 8-9 years old, I couldn't wait to grow up. I wanted to be a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer. Dreams were fantastical and I couldn't wait to fulfill them. Looking back, I suppose I had it easy academically. I never had difficulty in my studies (perhaps except for Bahasa Malaysia, cause my composition was quite bad then) and I *mostly* enjoyed my subjects. My favorite subjects were English and Maths back then.

Growing up to 13, I had my share of friendship pains - one that took friendship trial to a greater heights when my best friend decided to sever all ties with me...for two years anyway before we mended our bridges -and somewhat a culture shock in school. I steadily realized I am not an awesome student as I thought my quick brain could help me. I dropped steadily in my grades and my mood fluctuated throughout the year. Oddly enough, I was not dismayed when I discovered I was sent back from the top class to the third class for the next year. Then again, the supposed quota for the minorities was already filled up so yes, I got kicked behind.

Of course it was not all that bad; I've had my share of friends, growing interest in certain subjects such as Biology and Maths....and well, there's also the bad side of growing up, such as realizing with dawning horror and relief that I can never take up Pharmacy or Psychiatry cause of my dismal grasp of knowledge in Chemistry. Hahahaha...well the list goes on and on.

College life was...interesting. It became even more so when my batch mates and I were told almost immediately to organize a mini workshop for college students regarding self-presentation and self-grooming for work...on my first day of class! Thus, that was the first among many, many workshops and events I was thrown in to organize throughout my three years in college. Of course I was not the only one; all students in my faculty are thrown into this too! One good thing came out of this though - we all learned the hardships of organizing events in a big scale rather than having one small scale event within college.

And so now, I work. A fresh grad struggling to figure out the ropes in her company, I'm learning to have fun while working (though I tend to have bad times when I struggle to comprehend something, mostly I am fine). And that, ladies and gentlemen, is another story altogether :)

Project 365-5: I doll you

2011-01-05T23:17:00.001+08:00

A lovey moment between Sebastian and Alexandra :)

Let's talk on doll for today. It won't be a short post, and yet, it won't be a long one either. I know some of you do not know still what dolls do I mean. No, I don't mean Barbie Dolls. Nor do I mean any ragdolls that we used to huggles at night to bed :) The dolls that I meant are Ball-Jointed Dolls.

So what's a Ball-Jointed Doll? Well, it is pretty much self-explanatory I suppose. They're resin-made dolls that have more mobility than a normal plastic doll. One interesting thing to note about these would most probably be the versality to modify them as you please; and that they are pretty much realistic in terms of physical appearance. More than once even I have been fooled as I viewed photos.

These dolls allow the possibility of interchangeable parts such as hands (the latest one would most probably be the jointed hands for the bigger dolls...I suppose) and body, interchangeable eyes (you gotta buy them separately though!), wigs (so many colors, shapes, materials..designs), and so many more! In other words, you have a little model in your home!

In my case, my girls allow me to be creative with them by prototyping props, accessories, and even clothes for them! You'll be surprised as to how much fun it can get just to accept the challenge of downsizing everyday items that we never tend to notice just for them. This whole challenge and concept helps us to improve our crafting (and sewing!) skills...plus it helps us save up more rather than to spend them online on the same items found in shops! Hey, if we could level up our skills, why not venture forth and sell them online as well? :) So yes, the possibility is endless haha.

Some may find us crazy for liking these dolls, but I say, they're ours and we like them. I understand if you find them creepy; hey I do too at times when I find the dolls disturbing! But please try to understand as well that words carry barbs. Without care, you could easily hurt us with them.

Project 365-4: What's your flavour?

2011-01-04T23:59:00.001+08:00

Taken from www.ilovecoffeebook.com

One minute before midnight! So technically it counts as post for day four does it? Hahahahahahaha....

Let's talk about drinks today (just cause I'm sipping on Starbucks' Peppermint Mocha latte while getting this post done hahaha) shall we? :D Here's my list of my top ten favorite drinks that I can think off spontaneously off my mind!

1. Iced water

2. Green tea

3. Roibos tea

4. Dark mocha frappucino (Starbucks)

5. Coke Zero

6. Pepsi Light

7. Iced Lemon Tea

8. Fresh Green Apple Juice

9. Green Apple Black Tea with Honey

10. Strawberry Tea with Honey

As you can see, I'm pretty much a tea person (even though yes, I know I drink a lot of coffee!) so I have a lot of favorites when it comes to teas! Whether Darjeeling, English Breakfast, Earl Grey, or even Peppermint tea...I love them all! ...well most of them anyway hahaha. I do know of some which does not totally suit my taste buds =P

Coffee-wise, when it comes to cheap-o coffee, I like our local coffee with a dash (or a generous helping!) of condensed milk and evaporated milk the best! It's cheap and yummy! Alternatively, I'd opt for Nescafe with milk...or white coffee. These two are my next best options! :D Nothing beats an awesome breakfast with a cuppa coffee or tea. Those days back in college, I used to get an extra helping of coffee when I can. It helped revive me in classes and hey, it's made fresh right in front of my eyes! Dang I miss those days hahahaha....nowadays the drinks are getting more and more expensive =/ why can't our salaries increase just as well? *sighs*

That's only on Coffee and Tea (hey, no wonder I like both mascots of Comic Fiesta!! Hahahaha) in this post. So what's your flavour? :D

Project 365-3: Self-pampering

2011-01-03T22:39:00.001+08:00

Have a drink, have a mocktail! :)

Going to Summit today was pretty eventful for me I suppose. Gotten a hair scalp treatment that my hair desperately need (that I know for sure...was constantly badgered by numerous hairstylists to plump up my hair with moisture cause it was sooooooooo dry) and later on, a hydrating facial treatment. So now my hair feels less dry (I think) and my face looks like it's been bitten by 20 mosquitoes!! Hahahahaha but that's only temporary. Beautician actually managed to scrape off a lot of my black- and whiteheads to the point that my skin is actually smooth to touch! A big plus to her when she did NOT poke and press my growing pimple (I know most beauticians do that...or well, the ones that I had been to before anyway) and instead told me to let it ripen and go off on its own. Thumbs up for that!

I suppose now I'll be ready for tomorrow...? Hahahahaha cheers to me, work starts again in less than 12 hours lol

Project 365-2: Dollmeet

2011-01-02T23:22:00.001+08:00

I just love snapping photos of Alex; cause she loves me doing so! :)

So yesterday was my first day blogging for the year; therefore this will be my second post for the second day :) What is for today? Dollmeet I suppose.

I met up with a couple of my friends earlier today at The Curve while having a mini dollmeet at the same time. It's amazing how we were so close to each other during Comic Fiesta last year...and yet so far. I did not manage to talk to so many people during the event and I realized that further today. Seriously. I wanted to splurge and indulge on getting new outfits and commissions for my kids...but sadly the ill-managed traffic control prevented me for that *sighs*

Ah well, I had a nice bitc--i mean, friendly chatting session with my mates about everything in general, and it was nice to keep up to date as well :)

Some wonder, why do we have dollmeets in the first place? I suppose for me (I know there are a lot of reasons, but these are why I feel sums up our dollmeets anyway) it is cause:

1) Friendly meetups - getting to know new people as well as meeting up with old ones
2) Tips, techniques, advices - as one of the 'green' mates of the community, I know I still have yet a lot to learn; and this is a good way to do so. Dolls aside, issues like faceups, commissioned/handmade clothes, eyes, etc carries issues of importance as well!
3) Cash-on-delivery - when else can we meet up to pass items that we have bought in a group order? This is an excellent time to collect your long-awaited goods!!
4) HAVE FUN!!!! This is the main reason of having a dollmeet. We want to have fun! With other doll owners, as well as with our dolls :)

So yes, our hobbies might be deemed as odd or strange to you, but hey, it is our hobby and our interest. It's something we all enjoy and therefore, we meet up occassionally to sit down and gossip the day away. It's just another way of meeting up at the mamak and have a bitching session for the day haha.

Project 365-1: Happy New Year 2011!

2011-01-01T15:47:00.001+08:00

Even Alex wants to join the fun haha

Well, this will be the first post of the year for me I suppose. Happy New Year everyone, how did you spend your last moments of 2010 last night? With friends? With family? With your online gaming pals?

Haha well for me, I spent it with my two dogs and my ever so faithful laptop all the way. Having fun gaming in AION Online helped too! Why didn't I go out? Many reasons really, but I suppose my main reason would be that I didn't want to face the insane traffic last night. Roadblocks everywhere, standstill traffic and certain accidents here and there...no thanks haha.

Every year the celebration gets hyped up and every year, the whole traffic problems just get worse. So why stress over it? Just stay at home! \^o^/

So once again, Happy New Year to everyone; may you have a prosperous BUNNY year this year!!

Resolutions? Oh I don't know...I won't post mine up here that's for sure!! Oh? You want to know? Hmm okay maybe just one resolution then! I resolve to commence Project 365 all way through this year! Only instead of using photos, I'll be blogging every day, no matter how short the post it, I shall blog at least once per day! Hopefully I'll improve my English and my muses will come back to me when I'm through with this hahaha!

Updates of my life....somewhat

2010-12-30T11:26:00.000+08:00

It’s been awhile since I have updated my blog, huh? Well a lot of things happened (and I got lazy hahahaha) so yeah…

Anyways to classically break down what’s been going on with me into several separate categories:

Graduation
Yep ladies and gentlemen, this blur girl has finally graduated from her degree! I can hear echoes of relief as they say, “Finally!”. Hahahahaa took me such a long while to graduate, eh? *smirks* sorry about that. It was a pretty interesting ceremony, though I felt it could have been better. Met up with college mates that I have not met in ages, et cetera et cetera. Ceremony was okay, though the time schedule went messy (let’s face it, our events time schedule tend to skewer out of hand most of the time anyway). And lunch provided was a letdown. I mean, we have to eat while standing? No chairs were provided; and the tables given were basically those cocktail tables you can find outside a ballroom for guests to mingle with their champagne glasses. Oh wow, such a nice thing. Apparently the surge of last minute guests went up the roof, and this means that that tiny ballroom allocated only for food cannot bear all of them at once. Hence the lack of chairs. And tables. BUT I say, let there be chairs! Especially for the senior citizens. It’s really unfair to let everyone stand while eating. Didn’t our parents and teachers teach us NOT to eat while standing? And here they are doing that very thing D: No wonder I saw a lot of upset and/or dissatisfied faces leaving the hall (I was there late cause I went off to settle my robes then). So that’s the story of my graduation…somewhat. I’m still waiting for photos from my sister mwahahahahaha

Work
I got a job! Started working 13th December onwards and so far, I’m enjoying myself. Workload-wise is quite lax at the moment since it’s the year end and the office is relatively a ghost town daily haha. I suppose the insanity will begin only next month. For now, I’m taking my time learning the ropes :)

Comic Fiesta
This was just last week by the way. The insane pressure to get it all done by then was…insane. Basically I had to rush a LOT of things for sale, and I was not even cosplaying! Had a lot of issues and dramas no thanks to a couple of idiots in my life (and in some ways, have lost my respect over them by now). I couldn’t even get my last minute costume attempt done cause of the shit I had been facing at home. No, it has nothing whatsoever to do with my sister :) Anyway that’s another story altogether (one that I won’t be talking about much publicly) so let’s head back to the story of Comic Fiesta, shall we? I headed there directly from work, and met up with Nao and Raz. Went for dinner at Wendys (I took the kiddys meal cause it was the cheapest! LOL) and met up with Liq there. After dinner I headed to I-Socks to get pantyhose for the event (I may not be cosplaying but I still planned to dress up!) and stumbled across other CF-ers along the way!! First we saw Wen, Vivian, and the rest of the gang (Sorry if I don’t know a lot of you; I don’t mingle much in the first place lol). Then we saw evil!!!! OMG EVIL YOU FREAKED THE HELLUVA ME WHEN YOU SUDDENLY BROKE INTO A RUN TOWARDS ME LOL! But it was fun anyway!! Only in CF, we do these crazy shit. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha….

Day one was fine, in a way. Crowd was insane and more than once, none of my group members could relieve me cause the insane amount of crowd literally blocked off the pathway for them to get to our booth. AND because there are four of us and only two booth tags, they cannot enter through the back. Horrible, I say. That really did upset me a lot, cause it was hard to even call anyone in the first place in the noisiness. Oh and apparently the doors were not opened at 8am as promised for the booth owners to set up their merchandises. Not sure if this is true cause I went there at about 9.30am. What made me upset, though, was the insensitivity of the emcee of that morning then. He kept asking us whether we’re ready cause the crowd outside was getting impatient etc etc. Uhh hello? There were only like, 10 booths at that time and everyone was still doing their best to set up as fast as they can. You did not help by trying to rush us okay? Forget the crowd, think how we feel too. It was mentioned the doors will open for public at 10.30am-11am; you rushed us at 10am. Seriously, what? I say let them wait! Jeez. Other doujin booth owners looked at me with amusement when I kept yelling to shut up and hold on each time he asked that godforsaken stupid question. Seriously, wtf dude. That really did not make my day.
Day two was, in retrospective, slightly better. For once, I was not the one there to set up the booth. I had to head back upstairs to rush off completing more felt badges for sale so I was only at the hall at about 3-4pm. And even then, the insane crowd was definitely insane. Felt rather sad cause I did not meet up with a lot of people that I had wanted to meet up then. And I know that I won’t be seeing them for another couple of months of maybe even a year; until another event pops up where we will all be there *sighs* I did not enjoy myself this year, which is pretty much a sad thing. The tiredness killed me badly this time around; I literally dropped out from the world as soon as my head touched the sofa back in the hotel room…I am such a bad hostess I’m so so very sorry! >_<

I suppose that’s all I’ll blog about for now. Don’t want to bore anyone with any sordid details hahahaha

Shopping Spree away from Home

2010-11-30T00:47:00.000+08:00

Considering the fact that I know I owe a lot of blog posts by now, let me just start with my trip to Bangkok back in November with my sister and her friend :)

Basically our purpose for this trip is to wholesale a LOT of different items back home; in my case, I was looking for materials mainly for cosplay and my beading stuffs (which is truly like a heaven there). On our first night, we headed off to Siam Paragon (a shopping mall) and walked around for food and...well, window shop :P

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The array of cookies for sale, in these really lovely Disney cookie tins!!

A closeup on Stitch (and the price tag hahahaha)

Thais love Stitch? I see him everywhere!! Hahahaha. This cake is from the same shop as the cookies xD

Coke Zero. Me liiikkeeeeeeeeeee *w*b

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Okay so my dinner for the first night was...Tom Yum Goong, which means Tom Yum Seafood. Not bad, and a whole lot of ingredients in the soup!!

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Snapped this photo for the heck of it hahaha. This was my breakfast in the service apartment then. Unlike your typical buffet counter, this cafe gives you a menu to choose from several different sets (mainly the eggs style) and that is your heavy meal. Other food served off the buffet table are light snacks such as bread and all. Oh and of course, coffee and fruit drinks are free flow :D

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Headed to Cha Tu Chak Market, and this was our lunch!! The tomyam here is...weird :x didn't really enjoy it T_T

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I...forgot what this dish was called. Kerabu mango I guess? It was not bad :D

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My sister's favorite stall!! Hahahahahahaa. This is also in Cha Tu Chak market, at one of the main roads (I like calling it the main road cause the pathway is waaaaaaaay wider than the ones within the categorized stalls)

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This is a close up as to what you should really try. Tom Sabb!! It's really nice too *w* but if you don't like spicy food, it's not recommended hahaha

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So later that night, we headed back to Siam Square for dinner, when I noticed a LOT of people holding these tumblers like they had just came out from the cinema. So we decided to investigate; and we saw these sets!!!

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which is so OMFG right?? Popcorn containers!!! With matching tumblers!!!! I wish we have these here as well ;w;

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Yes da hur hur...we bought them!! Couldn't resist in the end hahaha. The cauldron is so adorable, don'cha think *w*

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CHEESE POPCORN!!!! OMFG WHY CAN'T THEY HAVE CHEESE POPCORN BACK HERE?! IT WAS SO SO SO SO VERY VERY VERY AWESOME *melts*

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Snapped this photo for the lulz of it. Ohai females used as advertising gimmick 8D

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You know how we couldn't resist interesting food...hahaha this is actually fried quail eggs on a bed of cabbage, but hey, the novelty's there!! The yolk was soft and runny too x3

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Oh yeah, remember the Tom Sabb from earlier? Same stall, only I got the mango pulut. I love this dish so much now hahahahaha

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Oh yeah, I actually saw this fried potato online in one of the websites, and got supremely tempted to try it...so I did!!! *w* it was yummeh! Hahahaaha though I wish my fried potato was not that cold ;A;

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And so, after hours of going through stall by stall, category by category....This was our haul:

Day One. Hey this section is only MINE. Hahahaha. Nice penguin hat, yes? 8D

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Day One: My sister's friend's haul!!! Now that is a lot of clothes! LOL

Day Two: My haul! Yes, it's mainly felts and furs and beading kits hahahahahahahaha

Overall I had fun. Don't mind going back there again to get more items to bring back here. Goodness knows they actually have more materials available there than they have here anyway *sighs*

Lame post I know, sorry hahaha. I'll just let the photos do most of the talking *smirks*

Beauty Makeover Session - Girl Bonding Time!

2010-11-24T00:43:00.000+08:00

Had a small meetup with a couple of my friends to have a mini makeover session with them, whereby they become my lab rats for makeup styles, and I get to experiment different colors and techniques on them ^^ Thanks so much for attending girls! Photo credits are to Lina, whom was kind enough to pass me photos of the day :)

My 88 eyeshadow palette that caused awe on that day lol. You can view the rest of my cosmetics in one of my older posts xD I'm too lazy to link it for now hahahaha

Aaaaaand here are my models! :D

Model number one: Izzu

Themed color: Pink/Red

Model Number Two: Tibbar

Themed Color: Pink/Purple

Model Number Three: Swing

Themed Color: Blue

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Ready? Let the challenge begin!!!

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My first model was Izzu, and since I wanted the makeover to match her outfit on that day, I decided on pink with a hint of red to compliment her red top. Since it's her first time getting a makeover done I decided to make it a slightly girly style, with a hint of matureness (that she managed to pull it off!). I'm quite happy with the results ^^

After applying concealer and pressed powder on her face, I moved on to applying eyeshadow base on her eyelids. The base is quite sheer yet slightly shimmery, so it helps to blend the rest of the colors well on her eyelids. I use ELF Eye Transformer in pale pink on her eyes.

Using a darker shade of pink, I applied it all over her eyelids to accentuate it more, gradiating it from the bottom to below

Eyeliner is then applied to 'pop' the eyes further

My favorite style is the winged liner, whereby I apply eyeliner in a swallowtail style on the eyelid. It gives that fuller lashes look when her eyes are opened :)

Model one is done! Onwards to the next model... (oh don't worry, you'll see the final result at the end of this page) ^^

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Our next model is the lovely Tibbar, who is also a first timer in my makeover session (well, I don't have that many in the first place hahaha). Her theme was Pink and Purple, so that her style is different from Izzu, and it rather matches her pink t-shirt as well. A flirty girl look for her!

Concealer and powder applied on as usual, I applied ELF Eye Transformer in Light Pink on her eyelids as base. This is followed by a sweet pink eyeshadow all over the lid, followed by a darker pink on the outer corner of her eye. Silver eyeshadow is brushed to highlight her browbone just a bit. I then use Coastal Scents gel eyeliner in Plum to line her eyes further. This gives her that casual look if compared to using black which can sometimes be too harsh on the whole look.

False eyelashes were then applied, followed by a coating of mascara.

How it looked like with her eye closed :)

Model number two done! Now it's the third one, Swing! Her theme was Blue; no particular reason for this theme really, cause she was wearing black and practically any color could suit her by then hahaha. So we decided on blue ^^

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As usual, concealer and powder :) Concealer is used under her eyes, the sides of her nose (redness) as well as any other redness on her skin.

As usual (again), ELF Eye Transformer in Light Blue all over her eyelids :) Sorry, I am using my fingers on this one hahahahaha

Yes that is me lawls

Light blue eyeshadow on her eyes, followed a darker blue on her outer eyes.

First phase: completed!

At that point, her eyeshadow bled quite a lot on her bottom eye, so i decided to use a blending brush and smudge it slightly to complete the look. Makes her eyes look bigger too lol

Applying liquid eyeliner on her eyes before attaching false lashes and a coat of mascara.

First attempt on lashes failed, so I had to do it twice haha. Another coat of eyeliner to even out the eyes, as well as to hide the harsh line the false lashes could create on the eyes.

Model Three done! All three models were blushed lightly in the end, though lipcolor are by the models themselves xD

Ready? Here's the three models AFTER the makeover session:

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Izzu

Tibbar

Swing

Many thanks once again to you three, and to Lina, who attended this session. Hope to see you guys again soon! :)

Viva Las Vegas!

2010-10-08T14:54:00.000+08:00

Viva Las Vegas was a blast, in my opinion. Sean and I arrived 'fashionably late', as one might say, and it caused me a great deal of amusement and stress at the same time. You see, we were supposed to be there by 7pm in order to collect our table reservation; unfortunately I was not able to arrive there in time (heck, Sean only arrived at my place at 7pm!) so you could imagine the amount of calls and texts I got from my friends wondering if any of us are there yet to pick up the table reservation (we were all stuck in a massive traffic jam! Well, it WAS a Friday evening after all) then. Hahahaha. Needless to say, it was all well and good, and we arrived there just before the whole event had begun.

I had a bit of trouble collecting my tickets initially though; there were some mishaps and errors, but it all went well in the end. To those of you who were anticipating me in a cabaret outfit, my deepest apologies. I too wanted to arrive to that prom with my initial outfit plan, but sad to say, it was not done in time. So desperately, I ransacked my wardrobe and pulled out my old typical formal occassion outfit - my LBD. Needless to say it's a classic I've been pulling off since two years back (the first time I wore this dress was at my cousin's wedding in Singapore) with a couple of added extra features. Add a wig (cause being me, I was just too darned lazy to style my hair properly) and a pair of elbow-length black gloves, and voila! Instant Black Lady.

My friends and I. From left: Bong, Yvie, me, Nabila, Shannon, Tereessa and Iylia

Ambience was good, lighting effects was AWESOME. Seriously, I'm in awe with the latest laser LED lighting effects! The emcee actually had a moment where the lighting style had a chance to show off its awesome skills that made us go "ooooooh" and "aaaaaaah" a lot! xD Performance-wise, seriously awesome. Dennis, I'm in love with your dancing hahahahaha. Then again, I rarely do watch dance shows/competitions, do I? I think the first time I actually saw a dance competition seriously was BattleGround on Astro and that was cause my mum pulled me into it to sit down with her and watch the show LOL. I think that was back in 2008 hahaha. Aside from that, I liked Love Gun's performance too, as well as the final act(I think it was called Wandering Symphony).

Tereessa and me. I insisted on getting at least a photo with her hahaha =]

We basically spent our time trying to chit chat (hell the performance was LOUD and the hall was DARK...so we chatted when we could?) while enjoying our food and watching the performance. I got terribly amused over Iylia (sorry girl, but seriously! xD ) cause she was terrified of hitting my wrist by accident (my broken, currently recovering off-cast). But I understand all the same =] thank you for being considerate, though I did insist I was not utterly and invalid ^^; but hey, I got a good advantage; I had my friends serving me dinner! Yay me xD

I also met up with Susan, Clary and Chris of the MooVe Crew, which yes, they were the first three I met when I stepped foot into the hall! Yay me!! It was so nice to meet them back again after so long hahaha. Snapped a photo with Sean onstage (which reminds me, I gotta head to college some time next week to collect that photo) but sadly, no nice photo of the both of us for now *sighs*

Apparently, Lesley was also looking for me but omg oi! I didn't even know you were going to come!! Hahahahhaa. She came up right behind me and smacked me on my back. Her seat was right behind me LOL. And she barely recognized me, which is...good? Hahahaha. Yes I know I looked different; obviously I will LOOK different from work lmao. I would never wear that much makeup for work like I did for prom okay? Hahahahahaha. She was there as a camerawoman to record the MooVe Crew's performance (among the rest of the performance) and so, yes, she was there hahahaha.

Yvie and me ^^v

Halfway along the night I suggested we head out and start snapping photos like we did last year (camwhore to the max haha) especially with Wern Sern. To those who didn't know, Sern wanted to snap a couple of photos with us girls. Rather like a mini-harem for him hahaha. So we agreed. This year, we dragged him to pose with us. Heh heh heh. Here's the photo comparison of last year and this year:

2009 (A Midsummer Night's Dream; Level 14 Manhattan Ballroom, Berjaya Times Square Hotel)

Snapped this photo using my camera phone lol sorry for the bad photo. The original photo is a hardcopy and I don't have a soft copy of this one :) From left: Shannon, Tereessa, Sern, me, Yvie

2010 (Viva Las Vegas; Tropicana Golf and Country Resort clubhouse)

This time, Iylia is in the picture! Yay her! Girls from left: Tereessa, me, Iylia, Shannon, Yvie.

I think that photo is my favorite among the rest of the silly shots we took together hahaha. Well, it's all for fun anyway xD and yes, it was indeed great fun getting that mini shoot session done =P come to think of it, dammit I should have called Sean out to snap photos with me too *sighs* Now all I gotta do is wait for Lesley to upload the photo of me and him on facebook! Hahahahaha.

And since there are a few of you guys who asked me questions like, "So how long did it take for you to style/set/perm your hair that way?" or "How much did it cost for you to style/set/perm your hair for this prom ya?", well, it cost me RM65....without the hassle of heading off to any salon whatsoever! IT IS A WIG! Hahahahaha...the perks of being a cosplayer =P though sadly, it wasn't the initial wig I wanted to use lmao. Thought of going as a silver-haired babe but....hahahaha dangit plans changed so yeah. I had a lot of change of plans the day before prom. Goes to show how badly my indecisiveness is displayed lol.

So all in all, I truly had fun at prom this year. This might be my last prom in this college after all, and I'm really glad it ended with a bang. Kudos to the prom committee who made this prom a rousing success; you made it and you know you succeeded tremendously! It was nice seeing back all those faces I haven't seen for a long while now. So once again, Glitz&Glamour Ball committee, a huge thanks to you :)

Themed layout: Simple and smart; not too overdressed yet it brings out the themed look very well

Activities: Though I wasn't there earlier, I heard it was a blast! Pity I wasn't there in time for that

Performances: A.W.E.S.O.M.E. need I say more? =D

Emcee: Kudos to Justin for being a great emcee. Not bad, really, considering the crowd isn't quite so much of a communicative bunch (sorry, even me too hahahahaha)

Food: Hey, I don't care what others say, I LOVED THE FOOD. There was butter prawns, spaghetti, fried noodles, tender succulent beef, chicken, etc *swoons* hey there was even coffee and tea!

Service: O.M.G. I seriously loved the service I had gotten there! Can you believe it, one of the waiters actually gave me a nice glass of iced water halfway during a performance just when my throat was about to die from screaming and shouting so much (hey, I can't clap so I cheer out loud to give my support!) and I didn't even ask for it! Many thanks, kind sir! Even Sean was surprised and laughed about it xD Thoughtful waiter, you have my thanks!

Committee: Helpful all the way! Even those whom I do not recognize hahaha. Thanks for the help whenever I got so blur and lost about what is going on. You guys did a great job!

I tried on Yvie's hat by the end of the day, and loved the effect!

One more photo for the heck of it =P

By the way, credits to these lovely photos are to the respective photographers, Ivan Kong, Yvie, and Tereessa =]

Kittehs can be funneh too!

2010-09-30T02:55:00.000+08:00

Photo taken during an International Cat Show @ Empire Shopping Gallery

Oh hiya there, I haven't been updating for awhile now. Mostly due to laziness, but then again, I'm also trying to recover my wrist :) My cast was finally sawed off (literally!) last Saturday, and boy oh boy, was I ever so happy! The downside? I need one month more to fully recover =( so that means, according to the doc, I cannot start work anytime soon *sighs* and I really need the cash too.

Here's a funny story from me: roughly two months back when I was browsing through Jobstreet.com I came across a job ad and applied for it. I went for an interview roughly two weeks later (with a couple of miscommunications with my interviewer on settling the interview date...) and never heard from them again. According to my interviewer, she hinted that I might not get the job since it's more marketing-oriented, in which I am not a marketing student in the first place (lol). So...I never gave much hope in that. Two months later (roughly a week ago), to my utter surprise, I received a phonecall from that company! HE (yes , the caller was a male) did not give his name (tsk tsk) but asked me why did I apply for that job initially; whether it was for the sake of a part-time job or whether I was really interested in the industry - of course this was asked after several polite conversation fillers. I replied honestly that both reasonings were true for me. He then asked me if I'm currently working/studying, which obviously, I am still tied down to JuiceWorks, which I explained to him anyway. He then said if I'm still interested I could always apply again...and hung up shortly after that without mentioning his name LOL. He wasn't rude or anything, but OMG no name? xD I think he was in a rush or he just plain forgot. Halla, I wasn't even in my right mind when I answered that phonecall! So moral of the story: be prepared for anything LOL.

I'm still planning to check them out once I can drive myself around properly though. I really am interested in this field of industry, better than F&B hahaha. I just hope I can still secure a job there if it's possible :) At the moment I'll still be working at JuiceWorks; I don't really want to quit as of next month cause the station's going to be very very understaffed . Two colleagues of mine will be quitting and the other will be heading off for her well-deserved break. So it's just me...and my boss? Oh wow. Please you people out there, apply for a job at Juice Works, Empire Shopping Gallery!!! Hahahahahaha.

Prom is in two days time, and Misaki...isn't confirming when she'll be mailing the outfit oWo I wonder if she'll mail it today...*crosses fingers* am hoping for the best for this year's prom! I will have my share of fun no matter what, regardless of all those negativities I've been experiencing from so many miscommunications and last minute-ness! Yes *nods* I.will.enjoy.myself.

Photo taken during an International Cat Show @ Empire Shopping Gallery

Rather apt, I feel; that particular statement of that grumpy kitteh! Hahahahahahaha so here's cheers to me, and hope for the best~I have roughly 50 badges to sew, excluding 30 pouches, 20 BJD accessories, several BJD outfits and props, and two commission works to complete. All that in less than 90 days. With an injured wrist. Oh yay me!

Countdowns

2010-09-23T00:54:00.000+08:00

Poster taken from the official blog :)

I'm counting down to the days of my prom this year. Why? Well, I did not enjoy myself last year (come to think of it, it was the only prom I didn't enjoy hahahaha) partly because I was in the committee, but most because there wasn't much interaction among ourselves and our lecturers (we tend to be rather close-knit with our lecturers, but for some reason, last year this was not applied to prom *sighs*). Without bitching too much about it, let's just say well, there's a lot that could've been improved, myself included :)

I'm still awaiting anxiously for my dress to be done (if not, I need a backup plan! Heh) and hey, good company too to accompany me for prom this year! Hence why I'm pretty much excited this year. Location wise, it sounds interesting and posh. Not to mention the theme of this prom, which is Viva Las Vegas. You can imagine how many actually suggested me dressing up as a playboy girl bunny when I moaned about what to wear for this themed prom! Hahahahaha. No, I won't be wearing a black swimsuit with bunny ears and tail. I'll leave my intended outfit as a secret for now *smirks*

So aside from my prom, I have another countdown too~! And this countdown is shorter, which is in four days time. Can't guess? It's when my cast will finally be removed!!! *dances happily* Granted, my arm is going to look superbly ugly, not to mention my wrist will feel like it's made of lead...but hey, the cast will be off! Phew! Hahahaha. So that's two countdowns to anticipate ;)

Next week, will be a rather busy week. I won't be back for work just yet; I'm planning to go back to work on the 5th...as I still need to rehabilitate my poor wrist on my own hahaha. Not to mention, well, I need to pack the house! (I'm horribly lazy...yeah) Whee me~~~

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

2010-09-17T00:09:00.000+08:00

It's been awhile since I last blogged. Then again, was rather lazy haha. While my arm has been recasted for the second time after two weeks, I'm slowly trying to mobilize it as I move about. When my cast was taken off on the third week in the hospital and went for X-ray to check the progress, my wrist felt dead and heavy...and I saw two pins sticking out from my wrist :x kinda stared at it in a rather detached way. When the doc sawed off the cast, it HURT. He was like, "Nothing wan la!" and my mind went, "Well duh, you're not the one feeling the pain!" especially when my cast got stuck to the pin and when he tried pulling it off my wrist sort of jerked along with it. Ugh. My wrist was literally a deadweight after that. Imagine sitting down for so long until you can't feel your leg after a long while, and add that feeling to the point that your leg is numbed and is like a deadweight. THAT is how it feels haha.

So last Thursday me and sis left for Raya celebrations at my aunt's place in Perak. I was staring at my dogs who...well, amuse me from time to time. So I decided to snap a few photos of them from time to time! :P

My two sleeping dogs - Friskii Ho and Bobbie Ho :3 Friskii is true to her name; she cannot sit still for long (I managed to snap this photo during a quiet period) and loves disturbing the older dog when she can. Bobbie on the other hand, is a lazy one who loves nothing more than to sleep his days off.

The curious puppy

Who looks at me wondering what is it I'm holding (the camera)

Bobbie's awake! He spied something outside but was too lazy to...get up. LOL

This is Friskii trying to imitate Bobbie's behavior. The wire netting has been destroyed by a rather destructive brown dog who's terrified of fireworks and thunderstorms. You have no idea how irritating he can be =-=;;

So after that, I decided to snap some photos of my cast, which has scribbles now after Raya!

Initially my cast was right up till past my elbow, but now, I can at least move my arm about ^^

My eager older cousin who wanted to sign my cast lul. He pressed against my thumb when he was writing that last two words/symbol which was rather...painful ._.

yeah that's my sister for you hahahahahaha

My cousin. LOL. Yes lar I know I'm clumsy!

Funny how these people comment so much about my clumsy fall. Dude, we fall every now and then due to carelessness or not seeing where we are going. But it's just your luck that when you fall, something decides to break along with it. I endured Raya listening to nags lol. Which is why I didn't really want to go back in the first place *sighs*

10 days more to go before the cast is removed!!!

In Which Books Are Very Much Approved

2010-09-07T06:39:00.000+08:00

I spent a lot of time reading e-books lately, since it's difficult to read with one hand (I've tried, countless of times...it's actually rather bothersome and tiring) so I downloaded a couple of new ebooks off the Internet. Ever since I started re-reading Howl's Moving Castle, I had the insane urge to watch the movie...and read the related books; namely Castle In The Air and House of Many Ways.

First, I downloaded the movie, which took awhile to complete downloading. Watched it...and discovered at last why some of my friends gripe about the differences between the book and the movie. Everything changed, rather. If someone were to ask me which do I prefer better, the book or the movie, I'd honestly say the book. But the movie has some good qualities to it too; it's just that well, I prefer the plot details in the book ^_^; I spent my night watching it though, and rather liked the soundtrack *time to hunt down the album soon!*

After that I searched for the remaining two e-books, and found them! These took awhile to download though, but it was finally completed! I read both books within two days hahahaha. I first read Castle in the Air, and was pretty much amused over the book. I heard Studio Ghibli made a movie out if that book too, so now I'm looking for it! :D

This time around, I'm far too lazy to type a long post hahaha. Initially wanted to write a rather emo post on friendships and life, but I don't have the motivation for now. Ah well *shrugs* till next time! :D

A Belated Birthday Post :)

2010-08-29T04:56:00.000+08:00

No, my arm is still on cast, but hey, I just felt like typing slowly anyway. I'm getting sick and bored of constantly reading up on meetups and gatherings that I can't attend (even with my cast off, I doubt if I'd join too so yes, I have a strong possibility of being a social inept in future. Ironic too, considering I'm partaking a Communications Degree)so I might as well get something done anyway.

Enough chatter on my gripes, I'm here today to talk more about my lovely day on my birthday, in which I got to spend some girl time with my sis, and with my colleagues too! (The latter was actually a surprise for me, but I'll explain later)

So, we started our outing by heading to Empire first (because I sorta promised both Lesley and Susan so, since me and Susan were pulling a trick on Lesley...somewhat lol) and after saying hi to Nick and Susan (notti people, hiding when they saw me coming!!!) me and sis headed to Colour Couture for a mani/pedi session (we tried Nail Parlour but it was expensive and didn't have what we wanted ;___;). I opted for a pedicure session since there isn't much point in getting my nails done...it'll just end up getting destroyed while I'm at work anyway! Sis took the manicure session instead. So we spent 45 minutes luxuriating while our fingers/toes got pampered ^_^

Since the both of us were planning to watch a movie in MidValley and we had left home rather late in the afternoon, sis didn't want to waste too much time in Empire...so I called Lesley up and told her sorry, but I couldn't meetup with her. She went, "Whaaaaat~!! Noooo come here (Juice Works) now! You must comeee~!" or something like that. Fortunately my sis consented so we went back up (lol). I was quite amused at this point, cause I was wondering why Lesley wanted to meetup with me so badly. To my utter shock and surprise, they presented me with a birthday cake and chirped merrily, "Happy Birthday!". I was surprised...speechless so to speak. Never did I expect something like this at all! I felt really touched by my colleagues who chipped in to get this cake for me. Just the day before Susan was asking me about cake flavours suggestions for her sister and well, me being dense started rattling out different flavours and told her each person has different tastes in them - which I told her later on my fave was durian (actually this happened cause I was craving for the durian cake up at Re:Lex lol). Sneaky Susan then told Lesley, who bought the cake the next day, with Jack and Syarif chipping in (when I get to see them in Pyramid, I definitely will want to thank them!)

My birthday cake; it's a durian cake from Secret Recipe! Many thanks to Jack, Syarif and Lesley for this!! I got amused over the whole Mel-Mel part, since it reads out Mei-Mei (or was that meant to be that way LOL). Look closely, you'll see an error on this cake! All of us howled with laughter cause of that xD

Cake cutting ceremony! Hahahahaha...with my colleagues; Nick, Susan and Lesley. Sis snapped this photo for me ^_^ we ate part of the cake on the spot, in which I forced Susan and Lesley to eat them whether they like it or not! (Nyahahahahaha).

After several countless minutes later we took our leave and went to MidValley, in which the first thing we did was to get two tickets to watch The Sorcerer's Apprentice at night. We had a few hours to kill in between so we (window)shopped to kill some time. Typically, we headed to Jusco to try on some clothes xD I was in need of black pants for work anyway. Sadly I couldn't find anything to my interest =/ It's hard to find a pair that would suit me *sighs*

My simplistic makeup on that day ^_^v snapped this in *duh* a changing room hahahahahaha.

Tried on this dress, loved it too! But didn't feel like getting it in the end, even though it was 50% off! Dx

One hour before the movie, we headed off for dinner at Tony Romas. For the first time ever, I actually got to eat beef ribs!! *o*b it was really awesome, and I truly enjoyed my meal (it helped that I was starving by then too hahahahaha). Sis snapped a pic of me with the meal but it's in my handphone and I'm too lazy to transfer it to my lappie lol. So our final stop was the cinema for the movie before heading home. Not going to do a write-up on the movie itself cause I'm too lazy and tired to do so nyah ha ha. Just use your imagination, or go watch that movie for yourself to review it! :P

Hey, guess what? I got really nice gifts this year, and truly appreciate them! Sis gave me a bottle of Body Shop's White Musk that I wanted, a Charles and Keith bag that I liked (honestly, am I really THAT easy to be manipulated in telling people what I like? swts), a pedicure session (and the rest of the stuff we journeyed together that day), and a box of fairy figurines. Nao and Raz got for me the 1TB external harddisk that I really needed (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! *HUGGLEGLOMPS*), and Cheryl gave me a really cute Sylvanian Family kitten figurine (in which Luna is hugging now hahaha) last week when she helped me with my garden. I may not get everything that I wanted but I was happy all the same :) I think the best part of the day was still getting that lovely surprise from my colleagues. It truly touched me cause well, I was there barely a month and they threw this for me! *sniffs*

So that's it from me for the day. Shoulder's already aching cause of my sling supporting my arm. Bleh. Time for me to roll off for now. Doctor's visit in a week's time! I'm really hoping I can take off my cast by then =/

The day I had a bad accident

2010-08-22T23:29:00.000+08:00

Alexandra, the little diva in the family

While waiting for my laptop to be scanned for viruses (an unfortunate incident, I got Trojan-ed after visiting CustomHouse's site *sighs*) I decided to take my own sweet time typing out a blog post with one hand.

So why the one hand issue I've been going on and on, especially on Facebook? The answer is simple-I broke my wrist. Happened two days right after my birthday (talk about irony lol) It's a stupid and silly accident really, mostly my fault; but it could happen to anyone. Kind of like that just-my-luck accident that happens at a one-to-a-million-chances sort of thing. Anyway the culprit of this accident? A slippery floor in the bathroom...and a sharp mini doorstep by my bedroom. Slipped, flailed, and my wrist connected to the sharp doorstep. Odd thing is, I never did hear anything. Landed on my butt...so that took most of my attention away lol.

Imagine staring at your broken wrist dazedly for several moments, wondering bemusedly why your wrist is at an odd angle...and comparing it to your other wrist. All this without feeling any pain, yet. That was how I was. It took me awhile to finally realize that something was wrong, so I quickly got up and walked downstairs, trying very hard not to faint (I was already seeing black as I walked down the stairs). The moment I reached downstairs I hurriedly took my mobile and called my sister, urging her to rush back home to me. Right after that I called my boss to tell him I can't go to work cause I suspect my wrist is broken (I think he wasn't sure what I was trying to say then though, but fortunately he got the gist of it. By then I was near tears cause the pain was kicking in.

Unfortunately, sis was at KL so it took some time for her to return home. Equally unfortunately I was at a state of undress cause I just finished showering (was getting ready to go to work) so I couldn't open the door or unlock the gate for any anxious volunteers to send me to the hospital even if I wanted to. To try and block my pain, I tried distracting myself with other stuffs. Switched on tv to distract me, but it failed. Went online and immediately talked to Cheryl telling her that I need to cancel my party cause of my injury...followed by plurking saying, "I think I broke my wrist..." which invoked a very concerned admonition by Raz asking why am I not in the hospital. Sorry Raz ^_^;;

I waited in agony for about 40 minutes at home for my sis, sometimes screaming and whimpering to myself in pain. Couldn't help it, it was THAT painful. Finally sis got back home, changed and dressed, took all necessary documents, and rushed to the hospital. All the while I wished I had fainted to escape the pain. Buuuuut I didn't hehehe. Reached ER, and the nurse brought me to the waiting room, where I laid down on the bed. Roughly....1-2 hours later, a nurse FINALLY gave me a jab of painkillers to alleviate the pain, I went for X-ray shortly after that. Then it was back to the waiting room for me cause the doctors were too busy. Dimmie saw me while I was in pain too, and I actually cried while talking to her. How embarassing!

So many hours later (I think it was 5 hours later) I finally got a room. Insurance paperwork is...annoying, eh? The moment I got my room, went in, immediately changed into the hospital gown. And rushed to the operating theater. Got a jab of general anaestatic (I know my spelling is off lol) and dozed off while my wrist was being set. Later that night noticed my phone had misscalls and messages, but I was too tired to do anything by then. Called up my colleague though to update her, and update my boss at the same time.

My only visitors were my cousin, and Nao, Phil and Deru for two days. Dimmie popped by the next morning to see how I was before heading off to work too. Thanks for the visit everyone :) On the weekend, I followed my sis and her friend to Port Dickson and rested in the room, since I obviously can't be home alone lol. Was fun, though hell, everything in that resort is stupendously overpriced, even for a resort D: imagine paying RM70 for ONE HOUR of karaoke!

So for now, I'm recuperating at home trying to get work done with one hand. It's frustrating and time-consuming, but I'm slowly getting used to it. Doc says that I need to be on cast for six weeks, and my next appointment with him will be in two weeks time. I hope to heal soon, prom's in October!! Plus I have a lot of work to complete once my wrist heals hahahahaha *hangs self in impending work*

Meaningless Rambles

2010-08-04T01:08:00.000+08:00

The late Kan Cheong, may you rest in peace =/

The very last and latest photo of Guki's cat in which I had snapped a nice photo of her (staring at me apprehensively) before she passed away. According to my friend she was tortured to death, and did not die a natural death. I curse those people who were cruel enough to torment this poor kitten for so long now. Such an adorable and responsive kitten among the three of them, she'll definitely be missed =/

So how's my work life lately? Everyone seems to be asking me that haha. For those who still haven't a clue as to where I'm working at, I'm with Juice Works as a part time crew for the time being. I'm quite happy with my working environment with my colleagues and all, but I don't like the fact that the management in general exploits their employees that's working in the franchises. Maybe my drama isn't unique but something rather common in the working life, but no one wants to be constantly overworked and underpaid, no? :) Plus, part timers and full timers get the same hourly wages, and part timers do NOT get overtime wages. Not to mention the sad fact that although we are part timers, we are currently working the basic hours for a full timer, and not getting any of their benefits. Kinda stinks when one starts to think about it. I'm tempted to leave but I love my working environment (it's not perfect but hey, the company counts!). As it is I have already been asked to leave my job to work with others but I'm still debating for now. One month part time? Wow! Hahahahahaa. Still....

Life is pretty hectic lately, been going to work and crashing onto bed as soon as I get back home. Did I mention I have been overworked? Nyahahahahahahahahaha. I'm planning to scout around for now and ask for better details for the other jobs that I have had offers from. I might just end up quitting this part time job if things get worse. I'm not getting much benefits which is pretty sad lol. Like I said, management is exploiting us :) At times like this, I really really wish I could have taken up the job offer at IKEA as a cashier. Sadly location and pay does not comply to the initial cost I will have to fork out to commute *sighs*

I wonder when will my next blog post be hmmm....Work is a headache for now hehehehe. Ah well, time to sleep :) Work begins in 8 hours :P

Food Review: Whisk, Espresso Bar/Cake Shop @ Empire Shopping Gallery

2010-08-01T00:04:00.000+08:00

Finally! I've been wanting to review this cafe once more but time always eluded me heh heh heh. Here's a look at the place once more :)

A nice welcome inside :)
Most of their items on the shelves are on sale too!

Oh look, prices! I've tried their Bagel with Cream Cheese before but unfortunately, I had forgotten to snap a photo of it! It's quite big and the cream cheese slathered on the bagel was generous indeed...

More prices! I find them quite reasonable...

CAKES!!! Seriously, they really do tempt me. I have tried the Red Velvet Cake (photo of it you can scroll down later) and have yet to try their chocolate cake, marble cake, and hummingbird cake...

They have pastries too! On the left are the beef cottage pie (photo of it below later), chicken pasta pie, lamb/chicken and mushroom puffs, and on the far right, blondies! Yep blondies. They are apparently brownies without chocolate, hence their pale appearance xD

They have sweets too! I forgot to ask what kind though hahahaha. One day, I plan to try their LOCK, CHOC and BARREL chocolate drink *smirks*

Macarons. Sadly, not too many selection on that day =/ Look at that hand grabbing the last yellow macaron off the counter! I think that was Lemon Meringue Strawberry Macaron lol

And now, let's move on to some food reviews....

Here's a drink I was curious enough to try: Mochacinno con la Nutella. It is basically a mocha drink that is NOT sweet (which is good, I find overly-sweet mocha...hard to swallow after awhile) that has a cup slathered liberally with Nutella all around it. All I had to do was to scrape off the Nutella from the edges and stir it into the creamy mochacinno and voila! Instant moderate sweetness! It's my own preference really, but they do have raw sugar and white sugar at hand if you need additional sweetening to your drink...

Jeng Jeng Jeng...it's the Red Velvet Cake! Now this, I really did enjoy. The icing was rather too sweet for me but if eaten with the cake it was just nice. The cake itself isn't altogether that sweet (which is good for me, as I don't like sweet cakes) and the texture is really soft. Rather like melting in your mouth I suppose *grins*

Oh hey look, it's macarons again! I can't seem to get enough of these...Clockwise from top left: Blueberry, Mango, and Peanut Butter. My favorite is definitely mango. It's light and sweetened just nice for a bite. The meringue filling has a strong mango taste though it's not totally overpowering and the macaron itself is not too sweet to overpower the meringue filling. Blueberry was okay, it's just the same as the mango. For the peanut butter, well, what else can I say? If you like peanut butter, then this macaron is definitely for you!...

This quirky drink is called Cafe Con Leche. Basically it's similar to Cafe Latte, but I somehow like this better. I find that there is a rather distinctive taste of hazelnuts (or is it vanilla? I'm not too sure) that I don't even need to add in any sugar to the drink.

And I had the Beef Cottage Pie to accompany my drink! Yum!

I find this meal really really satisfying. It's basically minced beef, cubed potatoes and carrots in a rich gravy; topped with creamy mashed potato and baked in a pan(?). Plus, it's all homemade from the cafe itself! Now that is indeed a great plus!

All in all, I find this cafe a really nice place to sit down with a couple of friends and relax. They might not serve any heavy meals meant for lunch or dinner, but it's nice to have tea with them anyday. Service is efficient and friendly, and they really do know how to make you feel right at home in their homely cafe :)

Wishing Upon a Star (August)

2010-07-31T10:47:00.000+08:00

Eh it's that time of the year again! It's time for me to list up my birthday wishlist....among other wishlists like my impossible wishlists!! xDDD

This is basically a ritual I have done yearly for the heck of it and see how many have I had gotten each year (or how many have I earned enough to get them myself!). Basically, it's just a list of things that I want and some that I need hahaha.

Birthday Wishlist:

- Mercedes Lackey's novels (I still have a LOT I plan to collect, buzz me on the titles that I already have!)

- Body Shop Merely Musk perfume (not oil-based)

- A personalized photo frame with a picture of memories between you and me (or us if there's a group)

- Handmade charms/accessories

- Wigs! (lol)

- Casual dresses in blue or red

- Black pants! (My pants...they are two years old? LOL)

- A day in a spa (mmmmmm.......)

- Massage at a massage parlour

- Dark Mocha Frappucino at Starbucks (gawds I miss this drink)

- ZA Compact Foundation

- Coastal Scents gel eyeliner

- P2 Intensive Eyeliner in dramatic Japan and powerful Kenya (link)

- NYX Eyebrow Cake Powder in Taupe/Ash (link)

- NYX Concealer Jar in Fair, Light, Lavender and/or Gree (link)

- NYX Bronzer Powder in Medium (link)

- Purple Glitz 3-TIERS PROFESSIONAL MAKEUP CASE (Look under SHOP: CASE)

- Eyeshadow, blush, fan, taupe, eyeliner, and concealer brushes that are price worthy (in quality and price)

- Full coverage concealer (I still can't find a good one for myself)

- Simply Naturale Mineral Foundation

- Simply Naturale Finishing Veil

- Simply Naturale Bronzer

- Face Masks (hahahahahaha)

- A proper dollfie bag (heh)

- Two piece bikini in black or red (plain or slightly floral)

- SHOES!!! Hahahahahahahahahahahaahhahahahaha

- Accessories in bronze, antique, or silver (handmade is nice too)

Impossible Wishlist:

- My resin family to be with me lmao (to name a few, Iplehouse Silvia, Dream of Doll Tender Too and Bee-A, Honey Delf Muffin, Puki Lily as Black Maid Mary)

- 1TB external harddisk (OMG RAZ AND NAOKO THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!)

- A mini laptop handy enough to carry around getting some paperwork done

- Someone to be my own personal tailor (hu hu hu)

- Lolita dresses (in maroon, baby blue, or black)

- Corset

- PSP

- Blackberry phone (I blame my sister for this lol)

Thats all I can remember for now LOL! Happy viewing my selfish needs! :P

My life as a crew

2010-07-26T15:24:00.000+08:00

*say cheeeeeese*

Yes I haven't been updating my blog for almost two weeks now hahaha. Been rather busy with my new worklife honestly.

I'm steadily getting used to working as a part-time crew at JuiceWorks now. And learning how to make those drinks (curse my bad memory and those many drinks to remember! 35 drinks recipe lol). My colleagues are a friendly lot and I really do have a nice rapport with them, not to mention awesome teamwork. Sure, now and then one of us will show up with a terrible mood (that happened to me yesterday) but still, nobody's life is perfect :]

Sadly though, even if my work is awesome, I only have one gripe over my working life. And that gripe is...my manager. Oddly enough, I find myself being pretty much against him after several days working at my post. Mind you, I only saw him several times when I first started working, and never worked WITH him until the second week. And yet I find myself disliking him.

So what made me dislike him so bad? For starters, I don't find his aura of personality appealing...or helping to facilitate rapport and teamwork spirit at all. Unlike my supervisor, Jack, he (the manager) only knows how to criticize but never teach. And he expects me to know what the hell is he talking about...and to do it perfectly. Okay sure, most of you would probably say, "Hey, this is working life for you. Deal with it." and yes, I agree to that. Doesn't make my life easier though. After all, what's working life without any bumps along the way, eh?

Apparently, this manager might have the hots for Guki. Like, really. I noticed the special attention being paid towards her as well. It kinda freaked me out a little even if it wasn't directed to me. You can guess how Guki feels about this anyway. But yes, he's...scary.

Within one week working at JuiceWorks, I came to realize that most of my colleagues do not like our manager either. It took me awhile to understand more about it but yes, we all find him rather irresponsible and...dumb at times. Here's an example:

Our work schedule is drawn up weekly, and posted on the notice board in our workplace. In order to not confuse my work schedule, I'd jot it down on my organizer and snap a photo of my work schedule for my reference. So one day while having my break, we were griping over our work schedule when Guki suddenly told me that I'll be starting work at 12pm on Friday (last week). I didn't quite get her then but after awhile I realized....wasn't I supposed to start at 2pm? I had planned to run to college to submit my assignment then and I know if I start at 12pm, I'd be rushing around like a crazed kitten. So I checked the timetable again.

Lo and behold, yes, I start at 12pm. The smartass manager apparently had changed my work schedule WITHOUT INFORMING ME. Honestly, if Guki did not mention it, I wouldn't have noticed. This was on a Wednesday, two days before the actual day. So when he appears later on the day, I asked him about it. Guess what his reply was?

"Oh I cannot remember what I write already. Too many things to remember."

So...what kind of a manager would CHANGE an employee's schedule WITHOUT informing the employee? Sure, you can change it without consulting me, but dammit, NOT informing ME about it?! That's superbly unprofessional. So what happens if I were to NOT notice about my change of schedule and go ahead and enter work TWO HOURS LATE?! Geez.

Tomorrow, my work shifts are all at closing time. His lame excuse? I gotta learn how to close the shop. My reaction? =_______= lame excuse. Jack has already taught me how to close the shop WAAAY BEFORE YOU EVEN CARED TO TEACH US. Yes, that's right. He was efficient, and smart enough to know that one should not bombard EVERYTHING in one day to learn least we'll end up muddling everything. But nooooo.....last week you decided to leave EVERYTHING to me and then condenscendingly tell me not to take too long to close the finance report cause he will not pay me overtime. Like, what the eff? Jeez. I do not like his methods.

So now, each time I'm in the same shift as he him, I developed this bland facial expression and studiously ignore him unless necessary. It works well for me anyway.

And for those of you who wondered what happened to me yesterday about my injury...my thumb was caught jammed up at the cash register (stupid thing was too deep in) causing a really really deep cut on my thumb. That incident triggered my bad mood for several hours (not to mention I was rather hungry then) and I was pissed off cause I was stuck at the cashier job when I didn't want to be near the cash register for some time after my thumb injury. So I did the next best thing and ranted. Hahaha...Sorry for those who got irritated with my lame brattiness. Couldn't help it, my irrational anger.

Anyway about two hours before closing time, Susan started setting out large containers filled with soapy water to soak the equipments to be washed tomorrow. She placed one big transparent container right in between the ice box cooler and the trashbin, causing the lane to be rather clogged up. So when we were all joking and laughing about, I walked really fast and went SMACK over the container, causing the water to slosh rather heavily...and me cursing quite loudly cause the crash was really loud and painful. I ended up injuring my right leg, in which everyone winced when they saw my wound. It was partially my fault anyway, for not looking where I was going. Sad to say my leg still hurts like hell even today (it's my day off thankfully) and I can't walk properly yet. Poor me *tsk*

So that's the end of my rather long rant of my workplace...and I'm too lazy to type anymore hehehehe.

A new change

2010-07-16T10:33:00.000+08:00

Her Little Royal Highness

Haven't been updating my blog lately, been busy. Heh. Anyways I have a new job now as a part time crew at Juice Works. It's a fun job, and well, my colleagues are a fun bunch. Though I gotta admit working at a dead place during weekdays is...tiring. But still..I get to explore around!

My first day of work was...interesting. There wasn't much to do (well not many customers hahaha)but Jack, my manager basically gave us (there were two new part timers, me and EJ) a short tour of the equipments and what is there to be done in the kiosk. Then he taught us how to get SOME drinks done. Well, he gave us the laminated recipe, which I kept on staring and wondering how will I be able to remember the formulas hahahaha. Thank goodness he's patient enough, and the customers are not the superbly impatient and bitchy type (...yet). Then again, not many people.

Met Eric, the guy who interviewed us as well. He was okay, though he disappears a lot lol. Apparently we're also providing delivery service to tenants in this place. Hahaha. I haven't delivered anything yet though.

Day two was okay. Met up with another full timer, Nick. Found out later on from EJ that Nick knows what cosplay is, and his girlfriend plans to cosplay too! Hahahahaha. We had fun chatting after several hours of awkwardness (he's a pretty quiet guy) about anime and stuffs. And me sending him Shugo Chara pictures lmao. It was a slightly busier day than the day before, and I got to learn how to make new drinks *though still can't fully remember it*

Today marks my third day in my workplace, and today I'll be there till closing time. Wheeeee gonna learn how to close up ngek ngek. Note to self: eat lunch before leaving, figure out what to eat for dinner during break time. I think I'll go with a Kiwi Dream later hmmmm....

Oh and on a side note, I have one research paper to hand in next week. Damn lol

Jom Makan @ Empire Subang Gallery

2010-07-11T23:46:00.000+08:00

It was pretty much a last minute thing but I met up with Naoko for dinner just a few hours back on an impulse (OMG I forgot to go to Jaya Grocer!!!) and when we met up, we decided to try the cafe on the second floor (for the second time, I forgot the name of that cafe jeez, it was De:Lux or something I think...or was it Re:Lex. Can't remember).

So onwards to photos!

Naosis took a bowl of mushroom soup, which was really thick and creamy...and full of mushroom-y delight! It was served with a slice of garlic bread ^^ (RM5.90)

Naosis trying to grab my dinner! Hahahahahaha

Which was Spaghetti with Beef Balls in Tomato Sauce (RM10.80)

Naosis's dinner, lamb chop (mint sauce) with mashed potatoes (RM15.90) which is not bad cause it's worth the money :D

My verdict?
The lamb chop was delicious, grilled to perfection. Did not try the mashed potato though (Nao gave me some bits of the lamb hence how I knew it tasted so good haha)

Mushroom soup was really good, but not more than one bowl cause it was seriously thick and creamy...which means consuming more will just make you go sick over it.

Spaghetti bolognaise with beefballs wasn't too bad either. I experienced an odd tomyam aftertaste for some reason when I tasted the sauce but I think it was just me. The beefballs were fantastic! There were three beefballs in one serving and they're quite big too ^^

Oh and sky juice is FOC so that's what I took 8D

AND THEN!

WE DECIDED TO HAVE MACARONS FOR DESSERT!!! And I snapped a photo of the cafe so that you know which one I meant! He he he he

It's called Whisk, and I find the ambience really really nice!
This cafe is located right next to GNC near Jaya Grocer by the way, on Ground Floor.

A closer look at the signboard.

A quick snap from where me and Nao were sitting. Hey, I like the antiquity! 8D The signboards were literally everywhere stating the prices of the cakes, foods, and all!

YES IT IS MACARONS!!! 8D
The brown ones are chocolate (obviously), solitary pink one is rose (my favorite), the two green ones at the bottom are pistachio, and the final two green ones on the top right are pandan (cashier told me it was kiwi LOL). It is RM2 each, RM18 for 10

Naosis *noms* on chocolate macaron hehehehe

My verdict?
The chocolate was the best among the lot, coming from a girl who doesn't enjoy chocolates much. It was rich and nutty (macadamia nuts I think, crushed to bits) and rather filling. The rose was easily my favorite because it isn't THAT sweet and when I bit into it, I was engulfed with the natural rose flavour which was mild and light. Yummy!
The pandan was the scariest for me, but it's mostly cause it was rather sweet and had an odd aftertaste. The pistachio wasn't too bad; it was soft and mild as well, with a very pleasant aftertaste once you start chewing on it.

One down, Three more to go...

2010-07-11T10:44:00.000+08:00

An artwork I did a few days back? :3

Life is not at its best for me right now, though it's steadily getting better. Two days back I went to Empire Subang Gallery with Guki and her mum (cause her mum had to renew her driver's license lol) to meet up with Cheryl for a couple of minutes. Well before that we headed to Carrefour Subang Jaya since there's a post office there that you can renew your license there..and had lunch at KFC there too. Guess what? I discovered the post office has shifted! If we hadn't gone to eat at KFC I wouldn't have known hahahaha. It's now located right next to KFC in Carrefour, ground floor :3

So after that, we headed off to Empire Gallery Subang to hang out while waiting for Cheryl (it was about 3pm then, we were supposed to meet Cheryl at 7pm lol). Chilled out at Starbucks and left Guki's mum to rest there while me and Guki started walking around (umm well yeah, I'd rather her mum sit down too than to endure our insane walks ^^). We trolled Tangs where Guki went ga-ga over the red headphones (OMFG I WANT IT TOO!!!) which was *gasp* RM400 to say the least. Damn nuts but OMG very very nice T_T Oh Nao and Phil called too, apparently they were at Empire as well, though we never met in the end hahahahaha.

Then I spotted Juice Works cause that was where I was planning to work at...and OMG THEY ARE HIRING!!! Me and Guki discussed for several minutes and decided to walk around first before trying out for the walk-in interview.

*skips the boring walk part*

Finally we gathered our courage to inquire (the boy was sweet trying to promote the VIP card which I'm interested in, but sadly I wanted to apply for a job oTL) for the job and the team leader (or supervisor?) was busy so we filled in the application form and waited for him to be free. It was about 15-20 minutes before Guki was called (well I more or less pushed her to go first hahahahahaha). Roughly 20 minutes later, it was my turn.

Was an interesting experience, this interview. I'm proud to say it didn't take less than 10 minutes to get this done with! Hahahaaha....the guy was nice enough, even asked me about my internship hu hu hu. But he admitted he's not that well-versed with English; Chinese is better. Thankfully I know Cantonese though it's not excellent...though for now I'd prefer to converse in English 8D

I had to actually raise my voice several times while chatting with my interviewer due to a VERY noisy trio behind me (we were interviewed on the spot, so yes, it was where customers would sit) and ended up Guki able to hear what I was saying occasionally x.X;; She was sitting about 2 meters away from me so you can see what's I'm trying to say here oTL

Oh did I mentioned I did not sleep at all since the night before? So I was surviving on pure adrenaline there hahaha.

The whole scenario took about 1 hour to complete, so then we headed back to Guki's mum (it was about...5pm then?) and relaxed at Starbucks till 6pm (we were hungry, so had to go look for dinner). To our utmost surprise (or mine initially) I had a phone call at 5.50pm...it was from the interviewer telling me I got the job. And Guki too LOL. Guki didn't hear her phone ringing so in the end I had to pass my phone to her hahahahahaha.

Initially it was me starting job on the 19th and Guki this coming Wednesday...but then she realized she won't be getting her license till Thursday so she was in a dilemma. After dinner (which was pretty yummy) we headed back to Juice Works for her to explain her dilemma. Noticing their hand gestures I had a feeling I'll end up starting work on Wednesday. Whoop-de-loop, I was right. Honestly, I don't know if I should feel annoyed or amused. Annoyed cause well, I wanted to start on Monday (19th) cause I have work on my college assignment AND I wanted to go to Bon Odori. Hurr....

Ah well, this is work so I can't complain...much. For now.

*sighs* Mixed feelings indeed.

That sense of feeling

2010-07-08T16:32:00.000+08:00

Ever get lonely when you're living by yourself?

That's how I feel most of the time, being stuck at home, procrastinating badly on all my chores and work. It's not a healthy thing, but being alone without any sense of motivation actually pushes me back to a higher level of laziness that I never knew I had it in me.

Suddenly, I finally realize why my late mum doesn't like being home alone, and why I don't like leaving her home alone most of the time. It can kill your mind and drain your soul.

*sighs* Time to fight off this bouts of depression and sadness and loneliness

Urban Decay Eyeshadow Potion Primer review

2010-07-07T19:01:00.000+08:00

**Please note that this photo was taken off the Internet, so credits to where this photo originally belong**

Yes, after so long, I've finally decided to write a short review for this miracle wand I've been using for the past six months on and off! *_* Go me!! Hahahaaha

Well first of all, don't let that photo size deceive you. It's exactly the same as I have with me right now and it's the XL pot, which is roughly 10ml in that pot. Sounds little, I know, but it really goes a long way (unless you use it wastefully, I'd say it'll last for quite some time).

So how do you use this little wand of wonder? In the beginning, I was rather wasteful and dabbed the wand right on my eyelid, which was far too much for my liking (and not to mention using up more primer than necessary). Then I found a little trick of dabbing some on the back of my hand and carefully dab the primer from there to my eyelids. With just that one dab on the back of my hand, both my eyelids are primed! A fun tip: wait about a minute for the primer to set in properly before applying on your favorite eyeshadow over it!

Now for the fun part: effects of the primer.

UDP's texture is smooth and rather satin-like (unless you used too much) and once blended in well onto your skin, it leaves a smooth finish without much of that oily feeling. Of course, being the primer, you should apply a base eyeshadow onto your eyelid a few minutes after.

I like keeping things simple when I attend to normal shopping outings or when meeting up with relatives, so I would use ELF Eye Transformer (the beige palette color) as a base eyeshadow followed by FASIO's liquid eyeliner to pop my eyes out a bit (Asian eyes, so no goldfish eyes for me!). Mascara is applied on too but that's another matter alltogether.

True to its word, I find UDP actually allows my eye makeup to last longer without fading or melting off. This proved to be exceptionally good during my cosplaying periods when I tend to run around aimlessly a lot. Not to mention the fact that the weather in this country is mostly hot and humid, causing most of my carefully applied makeup to melt eventually in time. Interestingly, while my foundation would end up caking (when I wear glasses, darned nose ridge support part tends to go all cakey on me) my eye makeup will still remain the same. Even when I apply pencil eyeliner (which tends to bleed in time, given that my eyes are those slit type) they would last far longer that I'd expected. Sure, that won't last the whole day (I blink my eyes a lot haha) but it's better than without the magic of UDP!

I don't have photos of me with the primer, but hey, it's meant to be as a base coat for your eyelids before dabbing on your eyeshadow, so it won't be obvious! What I plan to do, though, is to snap a photo of me before I leave home (primed with UDP of course!) and one after I've reached home later on the day. That way, the difference will be more obvious, yes? :)

This will be on my Christmas list for sure!

What a day!

2010-07-06T15:03:00.000+08:00

My art when rushed is...interesting lmao

SO.

I had an interview at 11am today at Solaris Mont Kiara. It would be my first time driving out THAT far without any knowledge of that place, so I tried google-mapping it up...and didn't even understand the direction routes given!! Hahahahaaha

So, waking up at 8.17am (first my sis called me up then Nao called me up hahahaha yay for double-calls!) and left home at about 9.10am. Filled up my car with petrol and began my nervous journey to Mont Kiara.

Since I didn't know the way, I ended up taking Penchala Link highway via Damansara (roads were surprisingly clear) and from there, it'll be all trial and error.

I was in midst of swearing and cursing at those impatient drivers who thinks expensive cars deserve to be reckless and dangerous on road....when I spotted "MONT KIARA" signboard and turned left into that slip road. *stares at surroundings*

Uhh.....where am I?

*looks around* OH. I am at Hartamas...apparently. *goes further up*

Is this...Mont Kiara already? *rounds around, making some stupid wrong turns...stares around* ZOMG I AM STILL AT HARTAMAS WTF?!

*continues going straight, stressed out cause there are NO road signs whatsoever to Solaris*

*drives on...and on....and on....and on....*

OH WAIT! I see a COLD STORAGE @ Solaris Mont Kiara signboard!!! *goes straight on*

....OMG did I miss a turning? I don't see that Cold Storage anywhere!! D:

*passes by Mont Kiara International School* EHHHHHH THIS WAS IN THE MAP GIVEN!!!! *goes straight on*

It was a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong road after that...I continued to go on straight all the way.

OH YES! I SEE WENDY'S ON MY LEFT!!! *continues following road*

After driving for several minutes more, I FINALLY FOUND SOLARIS MONT KIARA!!!!! oTL looked pretty deserted during the day, but yeah. Went round the place twice via car just to check it out before parking at the basement.

When I went up the car park lift, to my amusement, I was directly below the company's office! Haahahahaha. But since I was 30 minutes early (yes I was early...and stoning like hell) I decided to grab some breakfast if I can find it. Since I spotted Cold Storage, went there..and freaked out at the emptiness of the place. lol. Took a can of BOSS coffee, paid, and left. Halfway back to my car (had thought of drinking coffee in the car while waiting for time to pass by) I spotted Coffee Bean in front of the office door. Like, durrrrrrrrr.

Went to Coffee Bean instead and took the Bagel+Cream cheese set. I had roughly 15 minutes to finish my food...which I didn't in the end hahahaha. Bagel is in my bag, along with my BOSS coffee.

10.55am, I went up to the office. It took me a minute to figure out where the office is since there weren't any signages outside the office hall that mentions the company lol. Once in, I dithered nervously cause no one came to ask who I was looking for. Finally a guy who coincidentally walked in front of me and I asked for the interviewer (thank goodness I have a referral name to inquire for) and he told me to have a seat and fill in the application form.

I was left on my own for 30 minutes lmao. Filled up my form within 10 minutes? Spent the rest of my time doodling in my organizer still feeling stoned hahahaha.

When the interviewer finally arrived, we chatted for like, what, 10 minutes? It was the basic stuffs of why, where, how much, what position, etc...and it was over. 10 minutes. 10 MINUTES. LoL! I don't even know if that's a bad thing, or a good thing.

I was somewhat stoning when I left that place. Now to wonder if I'll get this job or not

Bound Books for BJD - Your opinion? :)

2010-07-06T14:22:00.000+08:00

Hies!

As some of you might have already known, my friend has taken an interest in crafting stuffs for BJD up for sale ^^ She's currently in midst of getting some prototypes done so for now, most items are MSD or yo-SD scaled size.

For now, here's some MSD and Yo-SD sized bound books. They are plain bound books so you can use them as journals and/or scribble your own works in there.

Naughty Lunabelle decides to take a sneak peek into Alex's 'empty' journal LOL

Alex's book reminds me of a recipe book hahahahaha

It took me so many fiddlings to get her to pose properly with the book lol. I am not good at this *sighs*

Luna seems to really love this book oWo

How the book looks like when being held by a MSD :3 Alex thinks it looks like a recipe book hahahaha

This journal would suit Luna better due to its size...but if it's held by MSD or SD, probably a mini note/pocket book? :3

Price range estimation are as follows:

Yo-SD sized: RM15-20
MSD sized: RM20-25
SD sized: RM20-30

Pricing depends on complexity and details...as well as materials used ^^

All materials used above are paper and cloth (for binding the spine) :)

If anyone is interested, give me a buzz on MSN about it? I'm usually online most of the time (even if you don't see me online, just buzz me. I tend to appear offline to avoid conversations lol)

Here are some details to consider when wanting a commission work:

- Book size (SD, MSD, Yo-SD)
- Pages (white, yellowed white)
- Front cover detail (blank, picture - if yes, what sort etc)
- Book binding (what color?)
- Front cover pattern (plain black, victorian, etc)
- Additional details? (bookmark thong, elastic bookmarker, etc)

That's all for now...I guess? ^^

One shot down, one reluctantly relinquished

2010-07-04T21:46:00.000+08:00

Some of you may have heard about it, but I was (and still am) looking for a job since last week. So I managed to secure two job interviews last week; one as a beauty consultant and the other, a part-time cashier.

Some weird karma screwed everything up, and I ended up mistaking my beauty consultant job interview for another day (it was actually on a Wednesday but I kept thinking it was on a Thursday) and therefore, bye bye job interview. It was my fault really, but then again, thinking back, she didn't specify what date exactly either (I mentioned Wednesday but no date, and she never replied). Trying to get another interview but from the looks of it, probably won't get it anymore *sighs*

My second interview was rather successful, even though I won't be taking up that job offer. My interviewer was a really pleasant lady who knew how to put us at ease (there were three of us taking up the interview at the same time). First thing she mentioned when the other two were present was that we are required to converse in ENGLISH at all times. Then she went on about our basic duties, what sort of difficulties we may experience, the emphasis on punctuality and work ethics, the harsh actions taken upon those who try to steal or smuggles items out from the company, and so on.

Would you believe it, this interview took three hours to complete!! Hahahahahahahaha...then again, after the other two left, I sat there with my interviewer discussing further about the job...and she eventually advised me against this job offer. Her reasons were valid, and the echoed my own doubts as well. The problems of transportation (it roughly takes me 45 minutes to reach there; 30 if I pay extra for tol) and late night shifts (I'm a girl, work may drag till midnight. Go figure) would end up killing me or leading me to danger at most. So yes, I had a lot of fun talking to my interviewer, but sadly, I won't be taking this job up. Might perhaps, instead, apply for other job positions available in that company. Perhaps. Somehow the work atmosphere there strongly reminded me of my very own college faculty in back in those days. *sighs*

So now I am back to square one. Looking for a part time job. I would like to have a fulltime job....but it's not easy without a proper degree cert so for now, part time job will do. FML

To cosplay, or not to cosplay

2010-06-26T08:19:00.000+08:00

I've seen so many new faces, all excited to venture forth into this new hobby called cosplaying. And yet, they have no idea who they should cosplay, or how to start their project. In many cases, I've seen those who were ignorant enough to venture forth asking who they should cosplay as; even some who demanded for ready-made costumes without appropriate research beforehand!

Let's make things simple for everyone: Cosplay is a hobby and passion; it is not a job or done to earn extra cash. There are many reasons why a person ends up joining the realm of cosplaying; some good and some...not-so-good.

Based on my observation, some of the reasons why one ends up cosplaying are:

1. To make new friends
2. To develop better communication skills with the public (when one cosplays, be sure to be approached by many; other cosplayers and the public alike)
3. To develop new skills or enhance previous skills (sewing, crafting, planning)
4. To cosplay a character that one looks up to by trying to be just like him/her
5. To motivate and challenge oneself to make the cosplay project a success
6. To enjoy and have fun, just like other cosplayers :)

Sadly, there are also the reasons that are considered to be judged badly by the public. They are, perhaps in reality, not wrong; however with these reasonings alone, one could end up looking terribly ignorant to the public. Here's some badly-used reasons as to why one cosplays:

1. To gain popularity
2. To gain attention from the public
3. To impress the opposite sex
4. To jump into the bandwagon; not wanting to be left out

I've noticed that more often than not, when these reasons are indirectly implied, the cosplayer tends to be ignorant and would rush into things without any proper research beforehand. This causes the wrath of veteran cosplayers, in which the former would demand or whine for help; thinking that the latter would simply hand everything out to them in a silver platter with a silver spoon. Not a good approach - you'll end up scorned for taking the simple route rather than to work for it.

Interestingly, this applies to real life as well. Work hard for what you want to accomplish, and you'll feel satisfaction with the results. Whine and complain for what you want, and you'll be looked down by everyone; deemed as a spoiled brat who knows not of hard work and diligence. Sure, you might not know where to start from, but one could always take a leaf out of a veteran's book and start getting busy looking up for tutorials, advises; and while you're at it make some new friends too! Always be humble and never be too pessimistic over the tips and advises you receive from other cosplayers (or from the public for that matter, sometimes even the most innocent remark could help you improve yourself!). Never leap blindly before you look is also a good advise. Don't take things for granted thinking that everyone will be at your beck and call, giving you what you want. Keep those in mind when you plan to start cosplaying.

I can still remember when I first cosplayed, it took be approximately one year of researching and questionings before I finally dared to cosplay. It was, sad to say, not a success on my part; but I realized I had also learned from the very first project of mine. I'm glad to say that there were other cosplayers whom eventually became some of my closest friends, were not too judgemental and gave me appropriate advices on how to improve better.

So why did it take me one year before I finally dared to cosplay? For starters, I had to plan and budget my cosplay plan beforehand to roughly sum up how much will I be spending on this little project of mine. I was still a student then, and I am a student now; and being a student means that I was financially supported by my mother and sister rather than me having my own financial income. To organize and plan gives me a basic idea as to how much I should save up for, while trying to cut down the cost to the very minimum without being overly cheap about it.

That was my first mistake, by the way. By being too cheap, I ended up getting low grade quality cloths for tailoring (which was expensive) hence I ended up with a costume that was not great. My mum, who by then had known of my little venture (I finally told her about my projects...a few months after I cosplayed) took a look at my costume and told me that it was poorly done (mum was a tailor herself, but she couldn't sew anymore due to athritis). It was a mistake I had learned the expensive way (cheap cloth+expensive tailoring = not lasting costume) but at least I had learned from it all the same.

My second mistake was to choose a character that was not easy to pull off as a first project. The wig itself was a mess that I was at a loss on how to style it. I had to buy two wigs in order to style it, but since I failed (tutorials did not help me at that point of time) I ended up passing it to someone I knew to style it...for a price. Sad to say it was not what I had expect it to be; thus failing badly at that point. So choosing a simple project to start of with is a good beginning.

So how do I execute a cosplay project? Here are the following steps I use:

1. Decide on the character I want to cosplay
2. Get some research done on the character (details of costume, accessories, props, etc)
3. Draw up a rough budget for the plan (cloth, wig, accessories, shoes, misc) and a timeplan for them all
4. Approach your tailor with your project to estimate tailoring cost
5. Scout for cloth materials - it's wiser to ask someone who has an eye for cloth materials to be with you; or alternatively, ask your tailor for what sort of materials you should look out for (This may take awhile, depending on whether you managed to find what you want)
6. Modify my budgeting plan (tailoring cost, and materials that I may have already bought)
7. Scout for the perfect wig for the project (some wigs are sold pre-styled; I usually aim for this unless I don't like the prestyled wig whatsoever) and note down the cost of the wig+shipping (if any)
8. If there are any accessories/props necessary, research in detail on them by drafting them out (if necessary) and/or enlarging those necessary patterns for a better look
9. Source out the necessary materials for the props/accessories
10. Source out tutorials if necessary to complete the props/accessories (Google is your friend)
11. Referring back to picture references, scout around for shoes if necessary
12. Refresh budget list if necessary

Those are some of the basic steps anyway. I tend to refer back to my budget list and check each that is done because I'm a forgetful person and I know I'm bound to forget something if I don't list everything down extensively *laughs*

My basic budgeting list is as follows, if any of you are interested in knowing (Please note that the pricings are just an example...i don't have my plans with me right now haha):

EXAMPLE COSPLAY PLAN:

Suigin Tou from Rozen Maiden

Estimated budgeting:
1. Materials - RM150
2. Tailoring - RM200
3. Wig - RM150
4. Contact lens - RM50
5. Misc - RM20

Revised budgeting plan:

1. Materials cost
- Blue Velvet - RM48
- White cloth - RM24
- White netting - RM20
- Purple ribbons (for rose pins) - RM15.50

2. Tailoring - RM180 (Sent to tailor - ???)

3. Wig - RM120 (seller found, to be paid soon)

4. Shoes & Socks - own pair

5. Contact lens - RM50 (found, need to save up for)

The plan is revised from time to time, based on my own self-updates. As you can see, I tend to budget each item slightly higher than necessary. Mostly it's due to the unknown fact of how much it will cost in the end, but it's also based on my own examination over the character itself (Suigin Tou has a rather extensive detailed costume though it looks relatively simple, which will cause the tailor to tear her hair out in frustration if not planned properly and thoroughly. Hence, tailoring work will be more complicated = extra cost).

Hope this article helps! Most of the contents here are written based on my own experience as a cosplayer and an observer. If I happen to offend anyone with my words, my apologies in advance. I, too, have yet a lot to learn from other veteran cosplayers out there :)

Lemonades? Try Sour Plums

2010-06-23T19:11:00.000+08:00

Even Love deserts me happily, she glooms

Being solitary at home most of the time can indeed be trying. I'm pretty grateful for the access of Internet just cause of that. Granted, I'm not trying to be a hermit or anything, as close as I am to being one. I just have...difficulties at the moment.

So how have I been? I have chatted with Alicia after so long (Thanks for the phone call Als, appreciate it! Next time, we do Skype kays?) and finally managed to sit down for a chat online with my cousin Taha (imagine me trying to chat with him for so many months now!) though it wasn't for long. Ah well, better something than nothing.

These days, I've noticed a lot of people finally stopped asking me that one annoying question: Why don't you have a boyfriend?

Thanks for not asking, so I have no need to repeat myself. Yes, I do get lonely. Yes, I do have 'requirements' in a guy. But no, I'm not going all out looking for one. Sorry, not that desperate. Besides, I'd rather first be friends before moving on. At least by then I'll be at a comfortable level with the guy as a friend, rather than to experience awkwardness in different stages in a relationship. Happened to me before, don't want it to happen again. So yes, to that one person whom had asked me what I seek out for in a guy, that is my most important criteria. A person I can be comfortable with rather than staring awkwardly elsewhere and always at a loss of words. Not a fun thing to be.

Relationships aside, how have my friends been? It's been a while since I last saw a LOT of people...and frankly, I'm wondering if they miss me as much as I miss hanging out with them. Sure, Facebook connects people; and I have a lot of friends on my list. But I can bet to you that the amount of people whom are really and truly my friends...are not even half of that amount. Sad? True. I miss those good old days when I can hang out with them almost anytime, anywhere. Now, I have too many things to think about. And the fact that they themselves are busy with their own lives. *sighs* I hate this aspect of growing up.

I think I'm slowly turning into a soulless human steadily fattening up at home due to poorly managed schedule and bad internal clock timing. I can't even sum up the energy to do anything lately, which is bad.

One thing's for sure for now, I'm in deep shit cause my car grant had decided to play hide-and-seek with me and I can't renew my insurance nor my already-expired road tax which means I'm pretty much stranded at home staring at the four walls.

Thank goodness for the kids being with me. At least I have something to stare at.

*sighs* at a slum in my life now

When dreams become Nightmares

2010-06-22T15:33:00.000+08:00

Random sketch is done by me (a very hasty work) heh.

Dreams are indeed weird. For the past two days, I've been having the weirdest dream ever. Not that I haven't had my share of weird dreams for the past few months...

Yesterday, my dream had revolved around my family and a dead cockroach. Yeah, even I went eeeeeeew over the latter. In my dream, mum, sis and I were feeling rather worried because dad wasn't back yet from work (it was apparently at night in my dream). Then we found out he went out with his colleague after work to someplace (no idea where) only to be involved in a car accident. The colleague was badly injured but we didn't hear any news about my dad. Of course we were worried by then; so mum decided to call up the hospital and demand to know what's going on. The next thing I know, mum and sis left me alone in an empty building as they went to check out dad's news.

After awhile, I got rather blur and can't remember the details. But it continued with me staring at dad, who looked at me rather bemusedly. I asked how was he, if he was injured in the accident. He wasn't, but mum and sis were still missing. So I sat down waiting for them to come back. Dad, meanwhile, was watching TV. Then I caught a dead cockroach with...some sort of bug with it. I'm not sure what I was doing with it but somehow I felt it was deeply important that I get that bug. I kept on washing and washing the dead cockroach until it was 'clean' and stared at it. And then...I ate it. Yes, I ate it. I woke up feeling utterly disgusted and wonder why the hell did I eat it in my dream. Ugh.

Oh and for those of you who doesn't know, I have lost my dad over pancreatic cancer four years back, and my mum over lung cancer last year. So yes, this dream...perhaps has its significance. Ironic coincidence is that sis and I (in reality) have just visited my parents and grandfather in the temple the day before.

Today...

Well logically, I rather expected to have a weird dream anyway. Had little sleep. But still...

There was no head nor tail in this dream. I was rather abruptly dumped into the dream with a call from Naoko, asking me questions about how to purchase a BJD online. Apparently she wanted to buy one for Marina as a gift. I was surprised but advised her against getting the 60cm Bobobie which she wanted to get; telling her that the poseability of that doll wasn't that good. She frowned and insisted in getting that purely because someone in the forum was selling it cheaply (cookies if you guess which forum it is lol) and even told me to check it up. Which I did. Turns out there were TWO threads by the same seller, selling the SAME item at a different price. I was feeling suspicious by then.

But just as sudden as it started, I was dumped into yet another scenario. This time, it seems as though I'm viewing the seller's situation as a third party. Turns out that seller was on the run from some vicious mobs, hence why he's selling the doll(s?) cheaply. So basically, run-run-run-evade-run-run-run-caught. Then I woke up.

Why was this dream weird? Well firstly, in my dream, Naoko made Marina her pet sister (even on Facebook lol). Not that it couldn't happen, but still. Secondly, Naoko...interested in getting BJD for someone? Hmmmmmmmmm.....And thirdly, lol at the scenario painted on the BJD seller. Kinda dramatic, don't you think?

Maybe this is how I get my muses...they haunt me in my sleep